SOVIET EFFORTS TO PREVENT US COLLECTION OF OVERT INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-01617A000900090001-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 23, 2013
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 13, 1950
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/23 : CIA-RDP78-01617A000900090001-2
?
CENTRAL rikiTELLIGENCE AGENCY
? INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM NO. 278
SU jECT: Soviet efforts to prevent US collec o
information
ii
13 March 195p
a overt intelligence
Statement of the Problem:
To estimate to what degree the Soviet Union and the Satellites may
have intensified dur the last six months their Worts to prevent US
collection of overt intelligence information, wit particuiar reference
to published material.
Discussion:
S ce 1947, there has en an increas /y definite trend.toward
restricting the q Any and quality of Soviet and tellite books and
periodicals furnished to this country (and, apparently, to other West-
ern countries). Publications thus restricted have usually been technical,
.econo-e cr and military. The trend has gro consider 4y during the
past. six ned ths. In January 1949, the Soviet publications authority ter-
minated 12 of US Embassy Moscoees subscriptions to riodicals. In
the pasto moths, 29 more US Embassy subscriptions were torrid-
Wad, e akin a tote cf 41 publications cut off in the 13-Month period.
University libraries and research centers in the US have also been
stringently cut in the amount of published material they are receiving
from the Soviet orbit. earvard University Library and the Russian
Research Center re,..rt t they are curre Ally denied 22 periodicals
tainable last year. Fulfillment of Library of Congress orders
(arranged inf 4, 1v6) has also become lucre ingly erratic.
It
Note: This memorandum has not been coordinatzed with the intelligence
? organizations
Departments of State, Army, Navy, the
Air Force.
Dbcument No. ?C)t)
NO CHANGE in Class.
Ic%aDECLASSIFIED
s. CHANCED TO: TS S C
DDA Memo, 4 Apr 77
uth: DD REG. 77/1763
Date: Ar (Ififit By:
47
A
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/23: CIA-RDP78-01617A000900090001-2 u
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/23: CIA-RDP78-01617A000900090001-2
? There has been a greater restriction of publications no eh provide
information on the iron and steel, railro ? $A chemical, petroleum, and
production equipment industries. There hkat also been a marked dimu-
non of financial foreign trade statis cs since July 1949. Fewer
figures on crop acre es and yields are no being published. In gener-
al, there is a definite trend away from material covering the nationals
as opposed to purely local, aspects of e Soviet economy. For instances
In contr t to previous practice, no reports were polelisked by the Cen-
tral Statistical Administration at the end ro e fourth quarter .1e49
on the failures of Soviet dustry to fulfill yr oductio plans specific
Items. The publications which are still available to the West usually
contain less factual technical material than here?A; ore. They devote
raore space to general matters and less to industrial statistics and
data. Satellite publications are adopting the established Soviet practice
describing alleged produ.ctio increases i percw.tage figures.
The progressive restriction ce publications to the US is in come
ance wi eis the following developme ts in Soviet orbit: (a) the adop on
of broad security decrees; (b) the prosecution off nationals and foreign-
ers for alleged espionage and sabotage; (e) a reatriction on move...ent
and activities of accredited US diplomatic personnel;* and (d) a more
? militant tone of 'anti-US and anti-Wester propaganda.
CIA regards this tende. cy toward restricthe action as part of the
general Soviet drive toward greater security by restricting the US to
publicatio4o whose propaganda value to the Soviet Union outweighs their
intelligv,.ce value to e US. CIA believes at ule rapid increase in the
tempo of this end points a coordinated Moscow -directed drive to
deny virtually all overt informatio 44 substantial intelligence value
the US. ??
et,
The reav iction on travel has been most stringent in e USSR and
e Balkans and let stringent in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and ifunrarys
although the trend toward intro p ed restrictions is evident in x. e latter
countries.
"ISPiraitiNaGeo?
- Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/23: CIA-RDP78-01617A000900090001-2