TRENDS IN COMMUNIST MEDIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86T00608R000200160025-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 19, 1999
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: December 5, 1975
• Content Type: REPORT

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FBIS
FOREIGN BROADCAST
INFORMATION SERi/ICE
Tr~r~ds in ~m~nmunist Media
S U P P L E ~~ E N T
AGITPROP PERSONNEL SHIFT COINCIDED WITH 7AROIY~V ARTICLE
SUSLOV SUPERVISES ELEC",ION OF NEW ACADEMY OF SCIENCES LEADERSHIP
5 DECEMBER 1975
VOL. XXVI, NO. 4~)
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This report Is based e~tclusively on foreign media
materials and Is published by FBIS without coordination
with other US. Go~rernment components.
NATIONAL SHCURITV INFORMATION
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5 DrcLMli>Ju 1975
AGITPROP PERSOIVIVEL SHIFT COIIuCIDCD WITI~ ZARODOV ARTIhL.E
Approve
Evidence of a personnel shift last sL,nmer in the ~PSii Central
Committee's top ideological organ, Agitprop, at the same time as
Moscow's stand on international communisC strategy appeared to
he hardening, suggests that there :;,~y have been same connection
between she two developments.
The mast conspicuous benchmark fo r the ideological hardening
was the appearance in PRAVDA on 6 august of an drticla by PROllLLNIS
4F PEACI; AND SOCIALISM Cliief Editor Konstantin Zarodov, advocating
a militant strategy by comtnunist parties in the Wes;.--a position
clearly at odds with Moscow's earlier proclaimed policy of
encouraging broad alliances with moderate parties for limited
"democratic" goals. At approximately the same time G.L. Smirnov,
first deputy head of Agitprop (and, in effect, its iirting chief)
was apparently removed, judging by the cessation of rpfer~n~ac to
him in the Soviet press from mid-summer. Moreover, t::e inference
that same shakeup was occurring was given credence by the
identification in PRAVDA on 27 November of a new deputy head of
Agitprop--longtime Chelyabinsk ob last ideology secretary
M.F. Nenasl-.ev.
In the absence of any explanation from the regime, the reasons
for Smirnov's apparent removal can only be surmised. His activities
over the past year, however, clearly earned him the enmity of
powerful conservative figures in the regime, and it seems a food
guess that he fell victim to some retaliation on their part. If
so, this would suggest that conservative forces have gained
increased influence in the zegime--a hypothesis which would help
to account for the apparent hardening of Soviet policy on
ideological issues as well.
Smirnov was appointed a deputy head of Agitprop in late 1969 and
promoted to first deputy head in mid-1974.* This promotion
coincided with the beginning of a nationwide ideological campaign
based on a June 1974 Central Committee decree on Moscow's Bauman
Institute and an August 1974 decree on Belorussian ideological
work. Smirnov appeared to play a key role in tais campaign. He
headed the spring 1974 investigation of ideological work in
Belorussia that led to the decree rebuking Belorussia for
* Smirnov's promotion to first deputy meant he was acting chief
of Agitprop. The post of chief has been vacant since V.I. Stepakov
was fired iii mid-1970. First deputy head A.N. Yakovlev had been
acting chief until his removal in early 1973.
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5 llECEMBER 1975
ideological. shortcomings. He a1:.~~o attended the 1 July 1974
Moscow City Party Committee plenum which discussed short-cominl;s
pointed ouL- by the Bauman decree. Within days he was promoted
to first depui-y liead.~ Ilis prominence in helping to embarrass
the Belorussian and Moscow city party organizations may have
earned him the enmity of such leading hardliners as Belorussian
First Secretory P.M. Masherov, Mosco:a city First Secretary
V.V. Grisltin, and Moscow city ideology* Secretary V.N. Yagodkin.
During the 1974 campaign Smirnov's i~~nmediate bass, ideology
Secretary Demichev, was demoted to culture minister and dropped
from the Central Committee Secretariat in late 1974, presumably
because of laxness on. idc~olc+g~ca1 issues.
S-nirnov appeared in public regularly during the first .half of
1975, but his name disappeared from the preys after Ju?.y. llis
last identification as first deputy head of Agitprop Baas in the
28 June 1975 IZVESTIYA, and t11F? last known appearance of :pis name
in the press ways a.s author cf. an arti..cle on ideological work in
*.hr July QUESTIONS OF CPSU HISTORY.
''~ See the Supplementary Article, "New Moscow Ideological Drive
Appears to Undercut Detente Foes," in the 13 November 1974 TP.ENDS.
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5 DECEMBER 1975
SUSLOV SUPERVISES ELECTION DF NEW ACADEMY 01~ SCIENCES LEADEfISHIP
In a !~latant show of party authorit;~ over the quasi-autonomous
USSR Academy of Sciencea, C;.'SU Politburo member Mikhail Suslov
apnezred before a meeting of: the Academy on 25 November and
announced the party's choice of a new president. According to
the 26 November PRAV1)A, Suslov declared that the Central
C,ommit~.tee had carefully ~~tudied the candidates for president
and, "relyl.ng on the advise of scholars we came to the
co~mnon opinion" i:hat Central Committee member. A.P. Aleksandrov
wa~~ld be a "worthy" candidate. TIZis was the s.~cond open party
intervention in the affairs ICE the Academy t-i~is year, the first
being Suslov's appearance before the Academy on 19 May 1975 to
anncunce the resignation of ailing President M.V. Keldysh and
the postponement of the th?n scheduled elections until layer in
the year.
Despite the party's intervention, the l.ersonne1 changes resulting
from the election do not appear to have changed noticeably the
political complexion of the presidium. Nor was L-here any sign
of a move to expel dissident scientist Andrey Sakharov from
the academy, or to retaliate against academy leaders who had
failed to sigr- the recent letter condemning Sakharov. Elderly
physicist Aleksandrov, director of the Kurchatov P.tomic Energy
Institute, was probably acceptable to other scientists as *.aell :,~
to the party leadership. He is one of only four academicians who
are both full Central Committee mer.'~ers and physical scientists:
the others are 62-year-old Deputy Premier V.A. Kirillin, 57-year-
old Ukrainian Academy of Sciences President B. Ye. Paton, and
Aleksanc(rov's predecessor, 64-year-old M.V. Keldysh, who retired
because of X11 health last I?iay.
Aleksandrov's orthodoxy was demonstrated w;:an he signed the recent
letter condemning fellow academician Sakharov, although he had
not signed the 1973 letter attacking Sakharov. Aleksandrov, at
72, is one of the oldest academy leaders--only six of the other
42 presidium members are older--and his selection avoids ~~. choice
among younger candidates who might stay in office for several
four-yoar terms. In contrast, former P~esidert Keldysh was only
SO years old when elected presiden~~ in 1.961, and he served 14 years.
The new academy presidium elected two days later included two new
vice presidents--Geology Min:tster and Central Committee candidate
member A.V. Sidorenko, and Siberian computer specialist G.I. Marchuk--
and nine other new members. There was no discrimination shoran
against those who failed to sign the recent letter against Sakharov.
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CONFIDI';JTIAL I~BI5 SUI'I'LEML'NT
5 DECEMBER 1975
Among them were Yu. A. Ovchinnilcov, who was reelected vice pre-
sident, L.M. Brelchovslcilch and M.A. Styrilcovich, who were reelected
presidium members and academic secretaries of their departments,
a.~d the stubbornly unorthodox, 81-year-old I'.L. Kapilsa, who was
reelected a member of the presidium.
There was no apparent attempt to pack the academy's leadership
with conservatives or party representatives. Liberal economist
A.M. Rumyantsev was dropped, but this was balanced by removal
of t:he 74-year-old neo-Sta.;.inist philosopher r.V. Konstantinov
as I~residium member and academic secretary of the department
of p't-ilosophy and law. Moderate philosopher A.G. Yegorov,
director of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, replaced Konstantinov
as supervisor of the fie:.d of philosophy and law, while moderate
ecun~mist TJ.N. Inozemtsev, director of the Institute of World
Economics and International Relations, replaced Rumyantsev.
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