188019

JPRS-UPS-87-036

14.MAY 1987

USSR Report

POLITICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL AFFAIRS

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JPRS-UPS-87-036

lH MAY 1987

USSR REPORT

POLITICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL AFFAIRS

CONTENTS

PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS

PRAVDA Reports Leningrad Obkom Plenum Debate

(V. Gerasimov; PRAVDA, 31 Mar 87) 1

Georgian CP CC Urges Active Participation in April Plenum

(ZARYA VOSTOKA, 26 Mar 87) -

6

Georgian Capital Construction Officials Sternly Rebuked

(ZARYA VOSTOKA, 6 Mar 87) ..

8

Sanctions Levied, Georgian Officials Sacked for Corruption

(ZARYA VOSTOKA, 26 Mar 87) ......

13

Pugo Addresses LaSSR Central Committee Plenum

(CINA, 24 Mar 87) •••

27

Kolbin Discusses Housing Problems With Citizens

(KAZAKHSTANSKAYA PRAVDA, 27 Feb 87) 36

Party Organizations Criticized for 'Apathy'

(KOMMUNIST, 15 Feb 87) 38

Baku Gorkom Finds Corruption in Trade, Services

(KOMMUNIST, 10 Feb 87) .......... ." 38

Obsession With Paperwork, Meetings Criticized

CD. Jamalova; KOMMUNIST, 21 Jan 87) ...,*.. • 38

Kazakh Editorial Encourages Internationalism)

(SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN, 10 Feb 87) ..... 39

- a -
MEDIA AND PROPOGANDA

Ministry Press Centers Release 'Distorted' Information

(Yu. Makhrin; PRAVDA, 27 Feb 87) . .................. 40

Ministries Unresponsive to Newspaper Criticism

(KOMMUNIST, 21 Feb 87) 45

Party Organizations Blamed for Journalistic Shortcomings

(ADABIYYAT VA INJASANAT, 20 Feb 87) 45

Azeri Journalist Stresses Importance of 'Openness'

(Nuraddin Babayev; KOMMUNIST, 13 Feb 87) ............... 45

Ideology Seminar Emphasized Counterpropaganda

(KOMMUNIST, 13 Feb 87) 46

Journalistic Shortcomings Exposed at Azerbaijan Congress

(KOMMUNIST, 14 Feb 87) 46

Azeri 'Progressives' Fall Victim to 'Black Friday' in Iran

(Rovshan Valiyev, A. Mammadrza; ADABIYYAT VA INJASANAT,

20 Feb 87) 47

HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY

Historical Novel About Soviet Intelligence Officers Reviewed

(A. Gevorgyan; SOVETAKAN AYASTAN, 16 Sep 86) 48

History Education Inadequate in Georgian Schools, VUZ's

(A. Surguladze; KOMUNISTI, 22 Jan 87) 49

RELIGION

Unregistered Baptist Activities Discussed

(V. Arestov; RABOCHAYA GAZETA, 27 Jan 87) .......... 51

Azerbaijan Georgians' Religious, Ethnic Revival Sketched

(KOMUNISTI, 6 Dec 86) ,... •••

56

Better Atheist Work Needed in Uzbekistan

(PRAVDA VOSTOKA, 10 Dec 86) 57

CULTURE

Controversial Latvian Film on Youth Problems Reviewed

(Victor Avotinsh; LITERATURA UN MAKSLA, 30 Jan 87) ..... 63

Ibrahimov National Liberation Novel Reissued in Moscow

(Amirkhan Khalilbv; KOMMUNIST, 9 Jan 87) 70

Two New Iranian Azeri Stories Printed

(ADABIYYAT VA INJASANAT, 16 Jan 87) .. 70

- b -
AZSSR: New Controls Placed Over Translations

70

State of Azeri Lexicography Criticized

(Hasrat Hasanov; ADABIYYAT VA INJASANAT, 20 Feb 87) 71

;-.

Play 'Sheykh Khiyabani' Receives Rave Reviews

71

Modern Azeri Art To Be Shown in Paris

71

'Peoples Friendship Universities' in Georgian Border Areas

73

Azerbaijan's Georgians Complain of Cultural Neglect

73

Ethnic Georgians in Azerbaijan Receive Cultural Help

74

Bureaucrats, Apathy Block Georgian Cultural Restructuring

(Davit Mchedluri; LITERATURULI SAKARTVELO, No 5, 30 Jan 87) 74

SOCIAL ISSUES

MOSKOVSKIYE NOVOSTI Reprints Letter From Emigre Dissidents

76

PRAVDA Hits Defectors 'Libelous' Writings

78

«*

LITERATURNAYA GAZETA Opens »Hot Line' for Youth Groups

81

* •'.

Graduates Abandon School-Taught Trades

82

Shortage of Azeri-LangUage Social Science Aids

(T. Ismayylova, N. Mikayylov; KOMMUNIST, 17 Jan 87) 82

;-*

Soviet Women Weep for 'Sisters in Iran'

(Khalida Khasilova; ADABIYYAT VA INJASANAT, 20 Feb 87) .. 82 ''

Highland Svans Resettling in Georgian Lowlands

84

-;

Svan Communi :" Symbolizes Hope for Georgian Demography

84

Factors in Georgian Narcotics Rise Examined

(Dzhemal Dzhanashia; AKHALGAZRDA KOMUNISTI, 4 Dec 86) ... 85

,f - c -
Georgians in Russian VUZ's 'Besmirch' Their People's Good Name

(Vakhtang Nanava; AKHALGAZRDA KOMUNISTI, No 149, 13 Dec 86) 86

Georgian Transport Militia's Antidrug Efforts Described

(V. Yaralov; KOMUNISTI, 21 Dec 86) 87

ReproductoLogy Clinics, First in USSR, Opened in Georgia

(L. Mamaladze; KOMUNISTI, 3 Jan 87) 88

Misdiagnosis Hampers Georgian Antidrug Efforts

(D. Gegeshidze; KOMUNISTI, 16 Jan 87) 88

Kazakh Editorial Looks at Rural Schools

(QAZAQSTAN MEKTEBI, No 12, Dec 86) 90

Promised Kazakh Schools Becoming Russian Schools

(Marat Toqashbayev; BILIM ZHANE ENGBEK, No 9, Sep 86) 90

REGIONAL ISSUES

RSFSR Environmental Protection Problems Discussed

(I. Kuleshov; SOVETSKAYA ROSSIYA, 20 Feb 87) 92

Leningrad Hosts Discussion on Neva, Ladoga Pollution

(A. Yezhelev; IZVESTIYA, 22 Feb 87) 95

Dredging Causes Drop in Major RSFSR River Water Levels

(Ye. Chekalovskiy; SOTSIALISTICHESKAYA INDUSTRIYA,

14 Jan 87) 97

Positive, Negative Aspects of Native Language Status in Armenia

(Various sources, various dates) 100

Official Concern With Development, by HoVh. Baghdasaryan 100

Teaching Aids, Methods Outdated, by Lyudvig Karapetyan 100

Agriculture Institute Attacked for Poor Research

(E. Iskandarov; KOMMUNIST, 4 Jan 87) 102

Successes Announced in Housing Construction

(KOMMUNIST, 13 Feb 87) 102

Adjarian Rayon Ranks First in Georgian Population Growth

(LITERATURULI SAKARTVELO, No 49, 5 Dec 86) 103

Svans Debate Resettlement After Avalanche Disaster

(Manana Kartozia; AKHALGAZRDA KOMUNISTI, 24 Jan 87) 103

Overloaded Printing Plants Delay Georgian Dictionaries

(AKHALGAZRDA KOMUNISTI, No 12, 29 Jan 87) 104

Kazakh Food Supply Problems Discussed

(A. Zholdasbekov, et al.; SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN,

24 Jan 87) 106

- d
Great Disparity in Kazakh Telephone Development

(S. Bayzhanov; SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN, 6 Feb 87.) 106

Kazakh, Soviet Urban Growth Traced

(Marash Toqashbayev; BILIM ZHANE ENGBEK, No 1, Jan 87) .. 107

/7310

- e -
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS

PRAVDA REPORTS LENINGRAD OBKOM PLENUM DEBATE

PM011517 Moscow PRAVDA in Russian 31 Mar 87 First Edition p 2

[Correspondent V. Gerasimov report: "Taking an Exacting Look. The CPSU Central Committee January Plenum Decisions on the Agenda"]

[Text] Leningrad—While discussing the Leningrad party organization's tasks

in fulfilling the CPSU Central Committee January (1987) Plenum decisions, the

participants in the obkom plenum strove to compile a general picture of the

Present state of the oblast. The report by Tu. F. Solovyev, candidate member

of the CPSU Central Committee Politburo and first secretary of the party obkom,

and the other speeches pursued the idea that communists must resolutely overcome conservative attitudes, inertia, and leniency toward shortcomings and

must be more active in improving the style and methods of work.

Out of the Rut

Facts like the following were cited at the plenum. A certain distortion in

investment policy brought about expansion of production with simultaneous

obsolescence of fixed capital. The return on capital declined. Imbalances

developed in the production and social spheres. Succumbing to departmental

pressure, some economic managers failed to keep the situation under control.

Irregularities and inconsistencies in the choice of solutions at 'Leningradskiy

Metallicheskiy Zavod," for example, resulted in major economic losses in the

construction of the new "Turboatomgaz" enterprise. It was under construction

for more than 10 years, while only one-half of the modern capacities were being

utilized. The firm's General Director A. Ogurtsov had no alternative but to

admit his helplessness and to ask to be relieved of his duties.

Some economic and party officials, having gained certain dividends from progressive ideas, often rest satisfied with the initial results. This applies

particularly to production concentration and specialization. The associations

now comprise 355 enterprises producing almost 65 percent of all output. The

associations have produced an indisputable effect. While expanding horizontally, however, the process ceased to affect the deeper strata of the economy

and the collectives are not driven by a desire to take responsibility for the

end results of the common efforts. At "Krasnyy Vyborzhets, Sputnik,

"Lenbytkhim," "Krasnyy Treugolnik," and a number of other enterprises plans are

not fulfilled, production is being renewed slowly, and quality is not improving.
Shortcomings in the implementation of the "Intensification-90" Program were

talked about from the plenum rostrum. The program ensured success for Leningraders during the last 5-ryear plan period. But it is by no means everywhere

that collectives, specialists, and innovators are involved in the fulfillment of planned measures. Quite often production equipment is not working at

full capacity. Such a phenomenon is impermissible, especially under the conditions of industry's transfer to a multishift work system. The personnel

employed on the second shift had increased by 25 percent by January. The

machine tool pool was reduced by 16,000 units. Projects costing a total of

R130 million have been deleted from the new construction program. It is

planned to channel four-fifths of these funds into the development of the social, cultural, and consumer services sphere.

The steps taken are correct, but the results are far from what had been expected. Machine tools with digital program control-operate only for 1.5

shifts, with flexible production systems and "processing centers" operating

for slightly longer. Many enterprises and organizations have adopted a

formal attitude to the two-shift work system: People work in the evenings,

while their work positions are deserted during the day.

Contract commitments were breached by 161 enterprises last year. In this

context, sharp criticism was leveled against General Directors N. Baranov of

the Kozitskiy Association, A. Belyanin of the K. Marx Association, N. Kozyrev

of the "Sevkabel"Association,"P. Mozgovoy of "Prodmash," 0. Tychkin of the

"Petradyortsövyy ChasovoyZavod" Association, and Ye. Repnev of the

"Abrazivnyy Zavod" Association.

There are occasions when leaders' efforts are channeled not into improving

performance but into the search for roundabout ways and pretexts to justify

defects. Economic managers frequently succeed in "converting" party officials

who, instead of being exacting, show leniency toward people without initiative. An insufficiently principled stance was taken, in particular, by the

first secretaries of Kingisepp, Vyborg,.and SlantsyCPSU Gorkoms~N. Lenets,

V. Shlyakhtov, and V. Nazaroy, respectively.

The burden of old-fashioned views and unsuitable habits fetters the development of the construction industry. It is there that the effects of authoritarian methods of management and the ensuing flaws—revision of plans, disorganization, time wasting, and economic mismanagement—are particularly palpable.

Addressing the state of affairs in the agroindustrial complex, the speakers

noted that a certain proportion of its leaders and specialists have not abandoned parasitical attitudes, want to take from the state as much as possible,

and show no particular concern for utilizing the potential existing in the

countryside and in the processing sectors.

Acting According to the Plan

The conversation at the party obkom plenum showed that numerous defects in

the economy and the social sphere are attributable to the inadequate scientific
substantiation of plan decisions. The staff of the Leningrad Gorispolkom

Planning Commission and of rayon planning commissions has increased 2-2.6

times/Ld the salaries of their officials have been raised. But this has not

improved the quality of planning work. Narrow departmental and parochial

SSSsts generate Imbalances. The methodology followed by Leningrad GorispolkomPlanning Commission, where K. Labetskiy is i^charge, is not keeping

±1 stepwXh life. The proposals are superficial and mere statements of fact.

Seoblilpolkom planning commission can be faulted for exactly the same shortcomings. <

Tustified criticism was leveled against V. Khodyrev and N.Popov, chairmen

of Leningrad Gorispolkom and Oblispolkom, respectively. It is time the plenum

said! to halt the practice of just patching the holes, and there must be a

change of attitude to the improvement of trade and consumer^ervices, the

organizationof people's leisure, and the production of goods for the populaSfn OnlTwhe/ea^h and every one experiences the effect of Positive Ranges

will there be success in rendering these changes irreversible. Quite a few

promises have been made to Leningraders on this account but £*£%*£%-

sions are not always fulfilled. The citizens can judge this by the^state or

the streets and open spaces and the work of the public transport. The medical

services sphere is in a state of neglect.

These and many other current problems fall within t»e sphere^of competence of

local Soviets! It is imperative for them to improve ^

ei^st

^tf^°f'^

is intolerable when citizens' applications and suggestions seem^to fal^into a

bureaucratic trap in many soviet institutions, passing through the-hands of

cöuSlesf»executive officers» and ending up either in empty promises or as

part of a collection of useless data.

Or take the consumer services sphere, for example. *or ä ^J^^***

been working under the.new economic management conditions. Its leaders^Yu.

Filatov, G. Zhavoronkov, and S.Molodtsov sparedi no

assufnC">'" ^ut rte forth the consumer services enterprises would start working better. But the

results are less than modest. Only 3 percent of consumer^services^ersonnel

in the city work on collective contracts or other contract bases, and the

proportion is even smaller in the oblast.

It is necessary to take broad public opinion into account and make use of

Luties' questions and voters« instructions at the stage of the elaboration,

approval, and especially implementation of decisions. It is Important, the

speakers noted, to boost the initiative and responsibility of deputies, create

a more democratic atmoshpere, and abandon ostentation.

in the opinion of obkom plenum participants, a

s

P

ecif*c

,

act^I°f^f0^ts

be drawn up to eliminate existing imbalances and organize accurate work on its

implementation.
It Is Up to People

Deeper democratization and consolidation of the foundations of self-management

in collectives make greater demands on cadres. Openness helps to minimize

mistakes, strengthens conscious discipline, helps to affirm new relations within collectives, and exposes those who, whether deliberately or through inertia,

counteract the positive processes. The task of party committees is to persistently learn to consistently implement a principles cadres policy with due

consideration for broad public opinion. At the same time, it is impossible

not to learn lessons from instances in which leaders make a biased choice of

"suitable" people.

Something else can also be noted: The practice of embellishing reality has

still not been overcome. Last year 28 leaders were expelled from the party for

breaches of state discipline, false reporting, and abuses of official position.

Some times guilty officials have been switched from one office.to another.

For example, former trust managers V. Yermakov and G. Zheleznov and chief

engineer V. Smotrov were transferred to the apparatus of the Main Administration for Construction in Western Regions thanks to protection from the former

main administration chief.

The sociopolitical certification of leaders with participation by the collective and the review of their records by party committees help to avoid

similar distortions. The practice of electing team leaders, mid-level chiefs,

and enterprise directors has expanded.

The plenum participants voiced concern that work with the cadre reserve is a

particularly acute issue today. Almost one-^third of new leaders in the

oblast and more than one-half of new leaders in the city's Vyborgskiy Rayon

and in Krasnoselskiy and Volosovskiy Rayons are not from the cadre pool.

The promotion of young people to leadership positions in the national economy

is a topical task. Certification and the objective and public evaluation of

professional and moral qualities are meant to help in bringing capable organizers to light.

Any project depends on people, it was said at the plenum. The party organizations must make use of the principles of openness and broad publicity of plans

and proposals. Any manifestations ofsocial demagoguery or the time-serving

mentality must be countered by constructive criticism.

Beginning With One's Own Self '

The problems of the economy and work with cadres were analyzed at the plenum

through the prism of the style of activity employed by the CPSU obkom, its

sectorial sections, and the party gorkoms and raykoms.

The solution of a number of important tasks is progressing with great difficulty. No positive changes can be perceived in the local Soviets' work to

improve the activities of spheres in the city's economy, the main speaker

said. The obkoin bureau must take some blame for these defects. We have
still not managed to achieve correspondence between words and deeds and to

organize efficient performance monitoring.

Last year the obkom sections refused to deal with 20,000 official documents

and letters falling within the competence of soviet, trade union, and economic

organs. Party apparatus staffers thus gained an opportunity to escape from

the captivity of paperwork and.engage in lively organizational work. But

such "outings" to the collectives.are quite often just public relations exercises. The "administration-observation" style overshadows modern approaches

in obkom, gorkom, and raykom sections. Last year, for example, the initiative

of obkom sections resulted in a proposal to stop monitoring the resolution on

improving educational work in hostels. Should they have been in such a hurry,

bearing in mind that there was a 14-percent increase in the number of breaches

of the law in hostels? The Science and Scientific Establishments Section

displays lack of exactingness and totally unjustified liberalism toward unconscientious health care workers. The Agriculture and Food Industry and the

Trade and Consumer Services Sections give insufficient attention to the implementation of planned measures. The time limit for the implementation of 22

obkom resolutions has been extended because of poor results.

It was proposed in this context to step up the role of obkom members in

monitoring the execution of decisions, including monitoring by party obkom

sections.

The plenum participants approved the CPSU Central Committee January Plenum

decisions. A specific program for their fulfillment was drawn up.

76662

CSO: 1800/527
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS

GEORGIAN CP CC URGES ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN APRIL PLENUM

Tbilisi ZARYA VOSTOKA in Russian 26 Mar 87 P 1

[Georgian Communist Party Central Committee report: M0n the upcoming Georgian

Communist Party Central Committee Plenum"]

[Text] At the end of April 1987 the Georgian Communist Party Central

Committee plans to review at its next regular plenum the tasks for the

republic party organization in accelerating socioeconomic development,

deepening the restructuring process, and further improving cadre work in light

of the decisions of the CPSÜ Central Committee January (1987) Plenum. In this

connection the Georgian Communist Party Central Committee appeals to

communists and all workers in the republic to participate actively in the

preparations for the plenum and to communicate their wishes, proposals and

observations and available experience.

The CPSU Central Committee January Plenum indicated new, creative and

comprehensively considered approaches to the present problems in the life of

the country. In sum these make up a clear-cut program for action that makes

it possible to eliminate shortcomings and past mistakes and raise work to a

qualitatively new level. In light of present party demands it is essential to

make a maximum effort to overcome stagnation phenomena and eradicate all that

is outdated and ossified.

Substantial shortcomings exist in restructuring the economy and in introducing

new management methods, democratizing production management and developing the

social thrust in the activity of leaders. Individual leaders and workers have

still not determined once and for all their own attitude to restructuring and

to the tasks of accelerating socioeconomic development. Some of them are

unable, and some unwilling, to change the situation for the better, and cling

to the old ways, permit a gap between word and deed and allow mismanagement,

irresponsibility and deviation from the norms of the socialist way of life.

The work done by party, soviet, trade union, Komsomol and economic organs in

the selection, placement and indoctrination of cadres is not fully in line

with the demands that have been made. Effective control is not always

exercised over their activity or strict demands made concerning the state of

affairs on the sectors assigned to them. The subjective approach is sometimes

permitted in cadre selection and formalism has not been eliminated in work
with the reserve and in the certification of workers. It is necessary to

expand in every possible way the practice of making leaders accountable at

various levels and to define the conditions under which the competitive system

is to be used to provide replacements for leading posts.

It is essential to achieve the expansion and deepening of socialist democracy,

determine on the basis of available experience the ways to revitalize the work

of party, trade union and Komsomol meetings, plenums and conferences, the

sessions of the Soviets, and the meetings of ispolkoms and standing

commissions, and perfect the mechanism by which elective organs are formed and

invigorate their activity in every possible way. Further development of

criticism and self-criticism is required, and the struggle against bureaucracy

must be waged more persistently. In some collectives no atmosphere of free

and open discussion of questions has been created in which people may freely

express themselves. Some people perceive criticism incorrectly and suppress

it.

We expect from you concrete ideas and constructive proposals on questions of

how to effect restructuring, how to activate the human factor, and how to

improve cadre work. We ask you to pass on your advice, observations and

wishes on this score to the Georgian Communist Party Central Committee before

10 April.

The Georgian Communist Party Central Committee expresses the firm conviction

that the communists and workers in the republic will take part in a most

active and interested way in the preparations for the upcoming plenum. This

will make it possible to make full use of the collective experience, find

better solutions to outstanding problems, initiate work with cadres, and find

new and effective ways of implementing the decisions of the 27th CPSÜ Congress

and the CPSU Central Committee January (1987) Plenum.

The Georgian Communist Party Central Committee.

96H2

CSO: 1830/423
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS

GEORGIAN CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION OFFICIALS STERNLY REBUKED

Tbilisi ZARYA VOSTOKA in Russian 6 Mar 87 PP 1,3

[GRÜZINFORM report: "Capital Construction: Make an End to Fraud and

Deception"• first paragraph is source introduction]

[Text] The Georgian Communist Party Central Committee has considered the

question of serious violations of party and state discipline in capital

construction in the republic and cases of fraud and deception in the

commissioning of housing and cultural and consumer projects.

A resolution adopted notes that, because of an irresponsible attitude toward

the matter on the part of certain party, soviet and economic leaders in the

republic and its regions, an extremely unsatisfactory situation has come about

in capital construction. The widespread practice of deception and fraud and

of illegal acceptance of uncompleted social projects is a cause for particular

alarm. Under the conditions of restructuring such cases discredit the party's

efforts to solve the housing problem, develop the social infrastructure and

improve the well-being of the people.

The resolution states that it must be recognized that liberalism in assessing

the cases of deception and fraud that have been revealed, and the attempts to

play down the situation and avoid facing the question in a principled manner

are intolerable and fly in the face of the demands made by directive organs to

enhance the responsibility of leaders for the condition of state discipline.

In this connection the measures envisaged by the 19 January 1987 resolution of

the Georgian Communist Party Central Committee Büro on facts brought to light

during a check by the USSR Stroybank on the results of acceptance of projects

for 1986 must be regarded as inadequate. Decisions made by the party

committees in the cities of Tbilisi, Rustavi, Batumi, Sukhumi and Gagra

regarding officials who had set out on the path of deceiving the state are

also liberal and not in accordance with the spirit of the times. -

This kind of attitude has been rightly criticized by the newspaper PRAVDA. A

more principled assessment is needed of the violations and actions that have

been permitted by all the leaders involved so as to prevent any attempts at

machination and deception in the future.
The Georgian Communist Party Central Committee considers that cases of fraud

in capital construction result primarily from lack of proper exactingness and

control by the party organs and the attitude of noninterference that they have

assumed, and sometimes from the connivance and desire of some soviet and

economic leaders to fulfill plans at any cost even if this involves direct

fraud. The party committees have failed to achieve an increase in the role

and responsibility of the primary party organizations in eradicating criminal

acts against the state by isolated officials.

The Georgian Communist Party Central Committee Construction and Municipal

Services Department had no knowledge of the true state of affairs and was not

on top of the situation in capital construction, and it did not oppose—on the

basis of party positions—the incorrect narrow departmental approach of the

construction organizations and clients in the matter of transferring illegal

projects.

The Tbilisi Party Gorkom and party raykoms in the city failed to display the

necessary principled attitude in preventing fraud and deception and did not

deal strictly with all leaders and others involved in the grossest violations

of state discipline. As a result of this attitude and the atmosphere of

connivance that was created, cases of distortion of accounting figures were

again permitted for January results this year. In particular, a check

conducted by the republic people's control committee showed that the chairman

of the Tbilisi Gorispolkom Z.Sh.Meskhishvili and his deputy, I.I. Arobelidze,

in charge of capital construction, committed unlawful acts by confirming the

commissioning certificates for several houses that had major unfinished work

and defects.

An incorrect style of leadership in capital construction has taken hold in

Rustavi city. The party gorkom diverted considerable efforts and resources of

the construction organizations to build unplanned projects, to the detriment

of priority construction sites, and this created conditions that prompted

various machinations and deception. The gorispolkom allows the illegal

compilation and confirmation of certificates of acceptance for the

commissioning of projects, and is still doing it this year.

The Batumi, Sukhumi and Gagra gorispolkoms are coping poorly with the

functions entrusted to them in the sphere of capital construction. For their

part they are failing to display the necessary intolerance of shortcomings and

are permitting serious violations of procedure for acceptance of projects for

commissioning. The corresponding party gorkoms have failed to insure the

necessary intensity in the struggle for discipline and to prevent fraud and

deception of the state.

The unsatisfactory situation in capital construction is largely the result of

a lack of organization and discipline among leaders in the construction

organizations, first and foremost in the republic Ministry of Construction.

They have failed to draw the proper conclusions from the instructions of

principle on restructuring work and bringing state order to the sector.

First deputy minister G.G. Kartvelishvili has been unable to abandon faulty

methods of leadership, the adoption of superficial, unconsidered decisions,
and the dispensation of unfounded assurances and promises unsupported by

concrete deeds. In January of this year he again presented for transfer

uncompleted housing not ready for occupation.

Deputy minister R.I. Tateishvili has not taken energetic steps to bring order

to the activity of the economic and financial services, raise exactingness

toward their workers and make full use of all available levers in order to

improve the financial situation and overcome parasitical attitudes in this.

Deputy minister T.G. Zhordäniya has not restructured his attitudes in the

spirit of the party demands to pay more attention to questions of accelerating

scientific and technical progress, and to Introduce advanced technology into

production. Because of the lack of proper principled behavior and interest on

his part, many technical solutions and innovations, even those that do not

require significant capital outlays, have remained virtually unrealized.

Control and verification-and-preVention work In the Georgian republic office

of the USSR Stroybank and its local organs, and in the Georgian SSR

Gosstroy—which have essentially stood apart from the struggle against

accounts-fraud and deception in construction and have recorded only a few

isolated cases of violations—are totally unsatisfactory.

In general, many unresolved problems have accumulated in capital construction

in the republic, and within the sector, the level of organization and

personnel discipline and responsibility is low; and this can be seen

specifically in the cases of deception and fraud of the state that have been

permitted.

The Georgian Communist Party Central Committee has assessed these cases as

antistate, criminal actions incompatible with the demands of restructuring and

discrediting the work done to strengthen discipline and instill order, and

inflicting serious harm on the authority of the Georgian party organization.

It is noted that such shameful manifestations became possible because the

republic party and soviet organizations failed to draw timely and principled

conclusions from CPSÜ Central Committee decrees on this question and permitted

serious omissions in indoctrinating cadres in an uncompromising spirit toward

shortcomings, instances of deception and accounts-fraud, and embellishment of

the true situation in production and in the labor collectives.

As amendments and additions to the resolution (published in the press), the

Georgian Communist Party Central Committee has issued the following decisions.

As he permitted accounts-fraud and deception in the acceptance of housing and

social and cultural projects it has been deemed inexpedient in the future for

G.A. Andronikashvili to remain in his posts of Central Committee Secretary and

Chief of the Georgian Communist Party Central Committee Construction and

Municipal Services Department.

For serious shortcomings in work, CPSU member and Deputy Chairman of the

Georgian SSR Council of Ministers Yu.I. Kedishvili has been severely censured

and his party card so marked, and he has been removed from his post.

10
The Georgian Communist Party Central Committee has drawn the attention of the

leadership in the Tbilisi and Kutaisi party gorkoms to the need to take

effective steps to prevent fraud and deception, and the impermissibility of

allowing even the smallest deviations from the procedure established for

acceptance of housing for commissioning, and the obligatory nature of the

timely fulfillment of the entire complex of work insuring normal living

conditions and the availability of commercial and consumer services for new

settlers.

CPSÜ member and chairman of the Tbilisi City Soviet of People's Deputies

Ispolkom, Z.Sh. Meskhishvili, has been severely censured and his party card

endorsed for failing to insure in subordinate organizations the proper level

of state discipline or to take steps to cut short violations and distortionsstill going on today—by individual figures for capital construction.

CPSU member and deputy chairman of the Tbilisi City Soviet of People's

Deputies Ispolkom, I.I. Arobelidze, has been severely censured and his party

card marked for the illegal compilation in January 1987 of documents of

acceptance for uncompleted construction of housing and lack of principle in

assessing violations that had been committed.

A session of the city soviet is to consider the question of the advisability

of allowing Z.Sh. Meskhishvili and I.I. Arobelidze to remain in their posts.

The first secretaries of the Batumi, Sukhumi and Gagra party gorkoms, O.N.

Margalitadze, G.K. Nachkebiya and V.D. Piliya, have been severely censured for

poor party control over activity of soviet organs and construction

organizations involving gross violations in the acceptance of projects for

commissioning, accounts-fraud and deception.

First secretary of the Rustavi Party Gorkom Zh.K. Shartava has been severely

censured for serious shortcomings in leadership in capital construction and

the diversion of construction organizations for unplanned work, which promoted

various kinds of negative phenomena. It is noted that for these and other

violations he has been transferred to less responsible work.

CPSU member and chairman of the Rustavi City Soviet of People's Deputies

Ispolkom K.Sh. Bakradze has been severely censured and his party card marked

for lack of principle shown in questions relating to the acceptance for

commissioning of uncompleted housing and violation of the procedure for

drawing up and confirming the corresponding certification. He has been warned

that any repetition of this behavior will result in more severe censure and

dismissal from his post.

CPSU member and chairman of the Sukhumi Gorispolkom K.T. Bigvava has been

censured and his party card marked for poor leadership and failure to insure

proper fulfillment by the soviet of people's deputies of the functions

entrusted to it in the sphere of capital construction, which led to violations

of state discipline and fraud and deception.

11
CPSU member and chairman of the Gagra Gorispolkom D.M. Dogonadze has been

severely censured and his party card marked for fraud and deception permitted

in construction and gross violations of the procedure for acceptance of

construction projects for commissioning.

The Adzhar Party Obkom has been assigned to review the question of liability

on the part of the chairman of the Batumi Gorispolkom R.Kh. Dolidze following

his return from a business trip.

First deputy minister in the Georgian SSR Ministry of Construction G.G.

Kartvelishvili has been dismissed from his post for failure to comply with

Georgian Communist Party Central Committee instructions on strict observance

of the procedure established for the preparation and handover of projects for

commissioning and for repeat presentation of uncompleted housing construction

to state commissions in January and February of this year. A 19 January 1987

decision of the Georgian Communist Party Central Committee severely censuring

him with a notation on his party card was taken into consideration.

Republic deputy ministers of construction R.I. Tateishvili and T.G. Zhordaniya

have been dismissed from their posts for poor leadership in their assigned

spheres, leading to an unsatisfactory financial and technical state of affairs

in the construction organizations, promoting fraud and deception.

The Georgian Communist Party Central Committee has noted the extremely

inadequate work of the republic office of the USSR Stroybank (manager Z.G.

Gendzekhadze), the Georgian SSR State Architectural and Construction Control

and Gosstroy State Construction Inspection (chairman G.Z. Mirianashvili) in

preventing and cutting short in good time cases of handover for commissioning

of uncompleted construction projects, and their lack of principled and

effective influence on the state of affairs in capital construction.

Party obkoms, gorkoms and raykoms have been assigned the task of carefully

investigating cases of gross violations in construction, reviewing—in light

of the requirements of the present resolution—steps taken earlier with

respect to leaders who have permitted fraud and deception in the handover of

projects for commissioning, and dealing severely with all officials involved

in cases of deception of the state.

Tasks concerning the strengthening of state discipline and instilling in

cadres a sense of intolerance toward shortcomings and cases of deception and

fraud and embellishment of the true state of affairs must be discussed in all

primary party organizations in labor collectives associated with capital

construction. Proceeding from the demands of the CPSU Central Committee

January (1987) Plenum, it is essential to organize accountability reports from

leaders in construction organizations for the collectives and the public, and

to take the steps necessary to strengthen cadres in those organizations.

The Georgian Communist Party Central Committee has also outlined other

specific measures to assert party and state discipline in capital construction

in the republic and eradicate fraud and deception in light of CPSU Central

Committee demands.

9642

CSO: 1830/423

12
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS

SANCTIONS LEVIED, GEORGIAN OFFICIALS SACKED FOR CORRUPTION

Tbilisi ZARYA VOSTOKA in Russian 26 Mar 87 PP 1-2

[GRUZINFORM report: "To Strengthen State Discipline and Eradicate AccountingFraud and Deception. A Meeting of the Republic Party and Economic Aktiv";

first paragraph is source introduction]

[Text] Under the conditions of restructuring taking place everywhere special

urgency and significance are attached to questions of strengthening party and

state discipline. A daily discipline is needed which is strict, and

aggressive when all prerequisites are created for asserting an atmosphere of

intolerance against ostentation and show and embellishment of the actual state

of affairs. This thought was central at the 20 March meeting of the Georgian

party and economic aktiV whose participants discussed the question of tasks in

further strengthening state discipline and eradicating cases of accountingfraud and deception in the republic's national economy in light of CPSU

Central Committee demands.

The aktiv meeting was opened by O.Ye. Cherkeziya, chairman of the Georgian SSR

Council of Ministers.

D.I. Patiashvili, first secretary of the Georgian Communist Party Central

Committee, presented the report.

The following took part in the discussions: secretary of the Georgian

Communist Party Tbilisi Gorkom A.Yu. Pavshentsev; First Secretary of the

Georgian Communist Party Sukhumi Gorkom G.K. Nachkebiya; Second Secretary of

the Georgian Communist Party Adzhar Obkom N.O. Nadariya; a weaver from the

Kutaisi Silk Production Association imeni 60-letiye Velikogo Oktyabrya, K.K.

Bakuradze; Chairman of the Georgian SSR People's Control Committee N.R.

Sadzhaya; Chairman of the Rustavi City Soviet of People's Deputies Ispolkom

K.Sh. Bakradze; comprehensive brigade leader at the Tbilgorstroy No 18 Housing

Construction Combine and secretary of the Georgian public Trade Union Council,

A.D. Dikhtyar; Chairman of the Georgian SSR State Committee for Construction

Affairs G.Z. Mirianashvili; Georgian SSR minister of light industry B.Z.

Makashvili; lathe operator from the Tbilisi Machine Building Plant imeni

Ordzhonikidze R.S. Davtyan; Procurator of the Georgian SSR V.A. Razmadze;

Georgian SSR Minister of Construction D.V. Mandzhgaladze; brigade leader from

the Tbilgorstroy No 5 Housing Construction Combine V.l. Chelidze; Chairman of

13
the Union of Consumer Cooperatives Board K.N. Shavishvili; and Chief of the

Georgian SSR Council of Ministers Main Administration for Capital Construction

B.A. Zatuashvili.

V.A. Sidorov, sector chief in the CPSU Central Committee Construction

Department, spoke at the meeting.

In Accordance with the Strictest Accounting.

Accounting-fraud and deception and direct fraud of the state and of society

under the pretext of concern for the authority of the republic, the sector and

the labor collective constitute a very dangerous sickness and are an unstable

and incorrect path that leads to moral degradation. The 27th CPSU Congress

emphasized that we cannot advance a single step if we do not learn to work in

a new way and gain the ability to overcome stagnation and conservatism in any

of their manifestations, or if we lack the courage soberly to evaluate the

situation and see it as it really is. And the times confirm that herein lies

one of the most important conditions for restructuring thinking, without which

it is quite inappropriate to talk about either the professional competence or

the moral and political maturity of the leader.

But the times have also shown something else: up to now many of the leading

cadres in the republic have failed to clarify the essential nature of the new

requirements and are restructuring themselves only slowly, or not at all, in

the channels indicated by the 27th CPSU Congress and the CPSU Central

Committee April (1985) and January (1987) plenums. And this is happening

because of a lack of exactingness and control on the part of the party

organizations, which have still failed to exert the proper party influence in

all fields of activity and in all sectors.

The certain advances achieved in recent years have evidently given rise to

complacency and even overconfidence in some party, soviet and economic

leaders. Restructuring has caught them unawares, and this has been seen

particularly graphically in the gross violations of party and state discipline

in capital construction in the republic. During 1986 some 20 percent of

housing and 26 percent of public health projects out of the total annual

volume, and a number of children's establishments were investigated.

These shameful occurrences, it was underscored at the meeting, became possible

because the Georgian Communist Party Central Committee and the republic

Council of Ministers failed to draw timely and principled conclusions from the

CPSU Central Committee instructions on eradicating deception and accountingfraud, failed to conduct an in-depth analysis of the true state of affairs in

capital construction, and did not succeed in enhancing the role and

responsibility of party organizations in eradicating criminal dealings at the

expense of the state by indi

exercise

This is not the first year that the situation in the field of capital

construction has been a cause for concern in the Georgian Communist Party

Central Committee and the republic Council of Ministers, and it has been

repeatedly noted at their plenums and aktivs and working meetings. Specific

alarming symptoms have also been seen. Thus, during 1985 the republic organs

14
removed from accountability housing with a total floor space of more than

70,000 square meters. The annual plan for the commissioning of housing was

disrupted. The work of the collegiums of the Ministry of Construction and the

Main Administration for Capital Construction, and of some party gorkoms and

raykoms, was deemed unsatisfactory, and party penalties were imposed on a

number of leaders.

Orienting the party organizations and sector leaders on task fulfillment,

throughout the whole of last year the Central Committee Büro and Secretariat

focused attention constantly on the need to improve the quality of projects

being commissioned. It was precisely this that served as one of the reasons

for strengthening the leadership in the Ministry of Construction. The

republic procurator's office moved in several criminal cases, including a case

in which a fraud of R2 million was made in the cost of construction-andassembly work in one of the administrations of the Tbilpromstroy No 3 Trust.

Recognizing the complexity of the affair, the Georgian Communist Party Central

Committee recommended that all state acceptance commissions should include

representatives from the labor collectives and deputies of the Soviets; and

when the results of economic activity during the first 11 months of the year

were summed up, the Council of Ministers was entrusted with the task of

organizing a special check on the readiness of projects for new tenants,

paying special attention to the quality of the construction-and-assembly work

done.

However, not everyone showed the proper interest and responsibility. Even

worse, some officials concealed the true state of affairs from the leadership

of the Central Committee and Council of Ministers, misinformed them, and

construed incorrectly the fundamental requirements of the restructuring.

The USSR Stroybank Board, whose commission had found many shortcomings in the

activity of the republic Ministry of Construction and the organizations

subordinate to it, pointed to serious omissions in the activity of

construction organizations and clients. As a result of dishonesty on the part

of the construction people and with the connivance of clients and party,

soviet, planning, statistics, banking and other organs, during the fourth

quarter one-third of housing and social, cultural and consumer projects was

removed from the accountability returns because of inadequate construction

readiness. This included 37 residential projects with a total floor area of

177,000 square meters, including 18 in Tbilisi city. It included a general

education school with places for 1,176 students, two kindergartens with 355

places, also in Tbilisi, three polyclinics with a total patient capacity of

1,930 and two hospitals with a total of 378 beds. And some of these projects

were accepted for commissioning even though there had been illegal work in

assembling roof structures, main utility services and so forth.

Because of obvious deception, fulfillment of last year's plan for the

commissioning of housing, for example, was shown to be 103-5 percent instead

of the actual 89.6 percent. Large-scale account-frauds were permitted the

cities of Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Rustavi, Gagra, Gudauta, Batumi, Sukhumi and

Tkvarcheli. And it was not happenstance that the leading newspaper PRAVDA

severely criticized the party and soviet organs in the republic.

15
In January 1987 the Georgian Communist Party Central Committee Büro discussed

the results of the USSR Stroybank check and punished a number of leaders. The

matter was also discussed by the Abkhaz and Adzhar obkoms and the Tbilisi,

Kutaisi, Rustavi, Batumi, Sukhumi, Gagra and Tkvarcheli gorkoms and

gorispolkoms and the primary party organizations. A total of 13 leaders were

dismissed from their posts and party penalties were imposed on 135 communists

and one expelled from the party ranks.

Despite this, however, it was stated at the meeting, not all the decisions

were right on target. The full extent of responsibility on the part of a

number of leaders, some of whom had failed to draw the proper conclusions and

learn the proper lesson, was not totally clarified. The January results

showed write-ups in the accountability reports, and deception. This shows how

deeply the negative phenomena and trends have become enrooted and how great

the force of shameful inertia and complacency has become.

It was therefore quite proper that the CPSU Central Committee drew the

attention of the leadership in the Georgian Communist Party Central Committee

and the Georgian SSR Council of Ministers to the lack of control shown in

insuring state discipline in capital construction, in fulfilling social

development plans, and in waging an uncompromising struggle against the

antistate practice of distorting accountability, and for a lack of principled

behavior in evaluating the violations that had been permitted. The party

obkoms, gorkoms and raykoms and the primary party organizations must

decisively overcome the negative phenomena in the republic's national economy

and instill in cadres a sense of irreconcilability toward shortcomings and

cases of deception and write-up and embellishment of the true situation in

production and the labor collectives.

The Georgian Communist Party Central Committee has again carefully

investigated cases of gross violations in construction and imposed severe

party penalties on guilty individuals. Returning again to these matters, the

Central Committee Büro deemed the earlier steps taken inadequate. The

decisions of the party committees in the cities of Tbilisi, Rustavi, Batumi,

Sukhumi and Gagra with regard to officials who set out on the criminal path of

deceiving the state were also deemed liberal and not in line with the spirit

of the times.

It was considered inappropriate for G.A. Andronikashvili to remain further in

his posts as Georgian Communist Party Central Committee secretary and chief of

the Central Committee Construction and Municipal Services Department. A

plenum of the Central Committee that was convened supported this decision.

CPSU member and deputy chairman of the Georgian SSR Council of Ministers Yu.I.

Kedishvili has been severely censured and his party card marked for serious

shortcomings in his work, and he has been dismissed from his post.

The chairman of the Tbilisi Gorispolkom Z.Sh. Meskhishvili, and his deputy,

I.I. Arobelidze, have been severely censured and their party cards marked. A

session of the city soviet of people's deputies dismissed them from their

posts. The republic deputy ministers of construction G.G. Kartvelishvili,

R.I. Tateishvili and T.G. Zhordaniya have been dismissed from their posts; in

16
addition to earlier decisions, the chairmen of the Rustavi, Batumi, Sukhumi

and Gagra gorispolkoms have been punished, and orders have been given to the

first secretaries of the corresponding party committees. The work of the

republic offices of the USSR Stroybank, the State Architectural and

Construction Control and the republic Gosstroy State Construction Inspection

has been deemed unsatisfactory.

No earlier services can place a communist outside the zone of criticism and

appropriate assessments. This applies not only to people in construction. It

is proper and topical for each person, and therefore what is required from

every communist is vigilance, principledness and a sense of responsibility,

and objectivity and truth, and the conscientious execution of his

professional, service and political duty.

From the tribune of the meeting, sharp and candid criticism was directed

toward the actions of many leaders in the party gorkoms and raykoms and the

ispolkoms of city and rayon Soviets, kolkhoz chairmen, sovkhoz directors and

the directors of procurement organizations, and officials in the ministries

and departments and in enterprises and associations who have engaged in all

kinds of manipulations and juggling with the facts, and have failed, or

rather, been unwilling, to eradicate from their activity the shameful practice

of deceiving the state.

Connivance Gives Rise to Irresponsibility

The meeting again recalled the broad scales that have been assumed in the

republic by the grossest violations in the procurement and processing of

sweetbrier and other wild fruits. More than R6 million of state assets have

been plundered. Punishment was meted out to the leaders in 18 regions and

more than 150 kolkhoz chairmen and directors of sovkhozes and procurement

organizations and processing enterprises, and officials in ministries and

departments and associations. More than 80 workers on the central committee

schedule alone were dismissed in connection with the production of adulterated

juices and 30 expelled from the ranks of the CPSÜ. These were people who

brazenly filled their own pockets while simulating busy activity to fulfill

the plan.

Accounting-fraud in grape procurement in Akhmetskiy rayon acquired a quite

unprecedented nature; here, write-ups were directly and openly sanctioned by

the former first secretary of the party raykom, Manizhashvili. On closer

examination serious violations were revealed in many spheres of life in the

rayon, and the write-ups were the direct consequence of the shameful style of

work by the first secretary and some members of the party raykom buro.

Manizhashvili was expelled from the ranks of the CPSÜ.

Accounting-fraud and deception are usually typical of those regions, sectors

and organizations where irresponsibility and stagnation reign and where the

political and economic leadership is weak, those at the meeting said. Serious

criticism had been repeatedly addressed to the leaders of the Gruzugol

Association, particularly the coal mines in the Tkibuli basin. But instead of

correcting the situation they resorted to fraud and deception. The director

of the Mine imeni Lenin was dismissed from his post, but literally 2 months

17
later the same kind of violation Occurred at the Zapadnaya Mine right next

door. The collegium of the USSR Ministry of the Coal Industry severely

punished the mine director, Darsavelidze, and the general director of the

Gruzugol Association, Sanikidze.

Analysis shows that the economic and social roots of this dangerous phenomenon

sometimes run deep and are connected with private-ownership tendencies,

utilitarian attitudes and machination. And this means that the party, soviet

and economic organs are not displaying adequate maturity and combativeness,

and sometimes are led by the nose by dishonest people.

The fictitious handover of scrap metal to the Vtorchermet Association led to

major abuses. The departmental instructions there are imperfect, manipulation

of the plan is permitted, receipts are not being recorded for the handover of

scrap metal, the kind of scrap is not indicated, and the registers journal is

not being properly kept.

Accounting-fraud has become particularly widespread at enterprises of the

republic Ministry of Light Industry. In connection with a case that occurred

in the Kutaisi Silk Production Association the former minister for light

industry Gamtsemlidze, association director Balanchivadze, and chief of the

ministry control and auditing administration Bagaturiya were expelled from the

party. The Second Secretary of the Kutaisi Gorkom and the First Secretary of

the Leninskiy raykom (in Kutaisi city), D.D. Melkadze and M.N. Pachuashvili,

and a number of ministry officials were subjected to severe party censure.

Workers involved in write-ups at the Gori Cotton Combine and the Tbilisi Silk

Production Associations were severely censured. Similar cases have also been

found at other light industry enterprises.

Last year alone the total volume of accounting-fraud and distortions found in

accounting figures at light industry enterprises was about R13 million. What

lies behind this? At the Borzhomi Rayon Industrial Combine the chief

bookkeeper was perfectly suited for a certain Togonidze, who had a criminal

record for gangsterism. Entering into a criminal liaison with the deputy

director of the Akhaldaba Furniture Factory, Kakheli, using fabricated

documents he transferred money for wood-particle board supposedly sent there.

At the Kvareli Rayon Industrial Combine silk shop foremen Chikhradze and

Solomnishvili engaged in noncommercial operations, misappropriating materials

worth tens of thousands of rubles. At the Sachkhere Rayon Industrial Combine

supply worker Kemertelidze in collusion with shop chief Nozadze and economist

Mishvelidze and with the cooperation of management wrote up and

misappropriated materials worth R136,000 as fictitious output included in the

March 1986 accounts.

Lack of control, irresponsibility and neglect in primary accounting lay at the

basis of major thefts in the Ministry of Local Industry Kutaisi Production

Association and at the Kazbegi Rayon Industrial Combine. It was not therefore

surprising that by selecting for plan fulfillment the path of fraud and making

a profit thereby, some workers are hampering the restructuring in every

possible way. It was stated at the meeting that what is surprising, however,

18
was how the local party and soviet organs and the chiefs of the Ministry of

Light Industry and Ministry of Local Industry, B.Z. Makashvili and O.N.

Suladze, could reconcile themselves to it.

This practice has also become enrooted in many transport enterprises,

particularly motor transport. Justified criticism was heard against Minister

T.N. Davitashvili—the leader in a sector where because of semblance in

fulfillment of the transport plan an enormous quantity of fuel and spare parts

and tires is being written up and money being paid for work not done, that is,

unearned income is being encouraged, and the collectives are becoming corrupt.

For example, at the Sukhumi No 1 Freight Transportation Enterprise, by

artificially increasing the average amount of freight carried by vehicles,

during the first quarter of last year the volume of freight carried was raised

23 percent, while freight turnover as raised 15 percent. In the No 2654 Motor

Transport Column, eight drivers alone wrote up more than 1.5 million

kilometer-tons, and as a result clients were charged an excess of R94,000 and

wages of R39,000 were paid, while gasoline worth R17,000 was written up.

Such deviations can be overcome only on a solid organizational basis, with

radical changes of attitude toward all management-and-economic and technical

policy, it was emphasized at the meeting. It is difficult to deal with fraud

and violations in the sphere of trade and personal services without becoming

involved in vigorous actions to strengthen economic work. Thus, above-norm

stocks, which in the Union of Consumer Cooperatives have reached R120 million,

in the Ministry of Trade R55 million and the Ministry of Consumer Services

about R9 million, creates fertile ground for all kinds of violations.

In March 1986, after discussing the question of abuses in the Union of

Consumer Cooperatives' procurement system, the Georgian Communist Party

Central Committee censured the administration chairman K.N. Shavishvili and

marked his party card. However, literally 5 months later, by drawing up

fictitious documents procurement workers in Rustavi misappropriated hundreds

of thousands of rubles. And one of the people involved in the machinations

was a certain Ivanishvili who was under investigation for a shady transaction

involving pomegranates. A comprehensive check was recently initiated at the

Gori Rayon Consumer Cooperative where cases of serious violations have been

found in fruit procurement.

Things are no better in the Ministry of Consumer Services, where year after

year the volumes of services carried out for enterprises and organizations on

a noncash basis is growing, opening up extensive opportunities for various

kinds of machinations. The mass production and sale of output without initial

orders create conditions for importing raw materials that are unaccounted for,

and for theft. This question was addressed directly to the minister, K.T.

Saliya: who gains from these frauds? For the public is. only losing by paying

for fictitious services.

Many violations are occurring in the Ministry of Trade. A recent

accountability report presented by the minister A.O. Movsesyan in the Central

Committee Büro showed that within the sector there are many shortcomings in

management of the economy and in the state of accounting and financial

discipline.

19
Write-ups in agriculture are particularly damaging to< the vital interests of

the workers. Last year alone the auditing service of the republic State

Committee for Agricultural Production uncovered cases of illegal expenditures,

pilfering and theft involving more than R13 million. The meeting stated that

many local party, soviet and agricultural organs are not paying attention to

these matters. Examples were cited. For instance, because of poor work by

the Kvareli Party Raykom and rayon agro-industrial association, at one farm

alone—the Gremskiy Grape Sovkhoz—over the past 3 years thefts totaling

R108,900 have been permitted. And in the village of Chikaani in the same

rayon a document was drawn up showing that more than 14,000 tons of potatoes

had been harvested and dispatched while according to the transport invoices

only 131 tons had been carried. Over the past 2 years, at poultry farms

belonging to the republic Gruzptitseprom Association (V.l. Gvardzhaladze)

incomplete figures on above-norm losses of poultry and young chicks did harm

worth more than R8 million. An alarming situation has been created in sheeprearing, where things have been so neglected that there is no way even to make

an optimal decision to bring proper order and institute strict accounting.

Incomprehensible processes are taking place in subsidiary production in the

agro-industrial complex. For example, in July 1985, without any calculations

or agreements the Kazbegi Rayispolkom set up experimental shops in the fodder

association to process medicinal berries. Naturally, nothing of the kind was

being processed, but last year, from raw materials imported they produced 240

kilograms of jam... to feed the cattle?! As a result, R70,000 have been

tossed to the wind. And, of course, the possibility cannot be excluded that

someone was living well on this.

The struggle against accounting-fraud, machinations and noncommercial

operations is also being waged only poorly in the fruit and vegetable trade

and at enterprises in the food processing industry. Cases of noncommercial

operations have been uncovered in a number of stores in the Rustavi Fruit and

Vegetable Trade Office, which have been receiving cash instead of cherries

from procurement workers in Bolnisi Rayon.

Fraud and deception are also taking place in rural construction. In 1986 the

Georgian Agricultural Construction Administration auditing service alone

uncovered distortions in the fulfillment of plans for commercial construction

amounting to more than R6 million. But even this does not fully reflect the

picture of violations. And the chairman of the Georgian Agricultural

Construction Administration I.A. Kharatishvili must know about it.

Accounting-fraud and other distortions of accounting figures have been found

by the organs of state statistics at almost every other industrial and

agricultural enterprise in three out of every four facilities checked in

transport, communications and consumer services. In this connection this also

says something in particular about the moral level that tolerates deception,

and, it was emphasized, the fact that many workers and entire collectives are

involved in fraud while the apologies for leaders offer incitement to direct

fraud against the state.

20
It was also stated that a radical review is needed of the forms and methods of

preventive work. At the meeting serious claims were made against the

departmental auditing services. Last year, of the 70 ministries, departments

and organizations presenting reports on auditing work to the Ministry of

Finance, 45 failed to offer even one case of fraud or other violations in

accounting. The auditing apparatus of the republic Ministry of Construction

is also operating unsatisfactorily. According to figures from this ministry,

in the Tbilgorstroy Association alone R15 million have been spent to complete

housing shown in the accountability reports for 1985 as having been

commissioned.

Other examples were also cited. Last year the procurator in Keda Rayon

instituted criminal proceeding against the the chairman of the interkolkhoz

organization, Bolkvadze, and other officials who in order to cover up thefts

of kolkhoz assets wrote-up the volume of work completed by more than R800,000.

And during this same period, the inspector from the former Ministry of

Agriculture, Bezhanishvili, who conducted an inspection of documents, Mdid not

notice" these frauds. Accounting is being systematically distorted in the

Gegechkori Association of Tea Factories. During the period 1981-1985 some R20

million of write-ups took place there. However, the departmental auditing

audits conducted by the former State Committee of Tea Industry uncovered not

one single instance of accounting-fraud.

The meeting demanded that the Ministry of Finance (D.N. Dvalishvili), the

Central Statistical Administration (R.V. Basariya), and the republic office of

the USSR Gosbank (V.A. Pateishvili), and of the USSR Stroybank (Z.G.

Gendzekhadze) become more exacting toward their own subordinates and take a

more principled stance. However it was stated at the meeting that

unfortunately many deviations are occurring with the participation of workers

in those systems, which are designed to stand guard over the state interests.

Some workers in law enforcement and other control organs are also not always

taking a correct stance in such matters. The following example was cited.

Last year the organization of the No 6 Trust under the Ministry of

Construction was checked 360 times, and the No 13 Trust 133 times. All these

checks were without result, but probably not for those doing the checking.

Precision in Work from Every Element.

Defining the main directions for intensifying the struggle against fraud and

deception in the republic's national economy, the meeting stated that the main

thing here is to improve all management and economic activity in the

ministries and departments and enterprises and further strengthen labor,

production, technological and financial discipline.

On this plane, in capital construction the most serious concern is caused by

the fact that in recent years improvements in the sector and in its structure

and management have obviously failed to keep pace with the rapid increase in

work volumes. As a result capital investments have systematically not been

assimilated and last year the plan for the commissioning of fixed capital was

fulfilled only 85.6 percent. Particular concern is felt in the shortfall in

the assimilation of capital investment limits in sectors in the social

21
infrastructure to whose development the party attaches priority importance.

Programs for the reconstruction and retooling of existing enterprises have not

been fulfilled. For a number of years the material-technical base of the

republic Ministry of Construction has been expanding much more slowly than the

volumes of construction-and-assembly work. Inadequate funds are being

allocated for the renewal, repair and upkeep of the housing combines, and this

is leading to incomplete assimilation of their capacities and hampering the

introduction of modern technology.

In general, both the republic Ministry of Construction and many of the

construction organizations are typified by a low level of standards in

production, discipline and worker skills, and a very serious financial

situation, which is also largely instrumental in promoting the shameful

practice of handing over projects with defects.

The following examples were cited at the meeting. As long ago as December

1984 leaders in the Telavi Rayispolkom together with the construction workers

reported the handover of a 9-story cooperative residential building. However,

the building was commissioned without a single outside service hooked up.

Because of the lack of water, heating, gas, electricity and sewage facilities

it was not occupied for 2 years. But even after it was occupied not all the

defects had been corrected; construction workers from the central boiler-house

department completed it only this year.

In November 1983, the No 1 Housing Construction Combine in the Tbilgorstroy

Association issued together with the Gldanskiy Rayispolkom a certificate of

acceptance for housing complex No 3 in the Mukhiani housing development but

continued construction of the complex for another one-and-a-half years. The

amount of work done during that time amounted to R920,000, or 44 percent of

the total cost. And in May 1985 the No 4 Housing Construction Combine handed

over for commissioning a housing complex on Prospect Tsereteli and a housing

complex in the Plateau Nutsubidze housing development on which over the next

10 months R415,000 and R320,000 respectively were spent to correct the

defects.

At the meeting serious claims were also made against clients who do not pay in

good time for work done by the construction workers. Thus, last year alone

construction workers did not receive R86 million owed them for projects handed

over. The position is no better today. The first quarter is over but 29 allunion and republic clients have still not settled their accounts with the

construction people. Over the past 2 months completed work worth R65 million

was not paid for. Thus, new debts are being added to the old ones and no end

is in sight to this disgraceful state of affairs, those at the meeting stated

with alarm.

The meeting sharply criticized the activity of the Transcaucasian Railroad and

the ministries of transport and the construction materials industry. The

well-known brigade leader, Hero of Socialist Labor V.l. Chelidze expressed the

opinion of all construction workers that the main reason for the untimely and

poor-quality handover of projects is poor-quality output and in many cases

obvious rejects that come from the enterprises of the Ministry of the

Construction Materials Industry to the construction sites. The transport

22
workers are also letting us down. Construction materials are being delivered

irregularly and the breakdowns resulting from violations of the freight

regulations are major. All this causes first stoppages and then rush work,

and it exerts an adverse effect on the moral and material condition of the

construction workers.

The meeting demanded that the chief of the Transcaucasian Railroad, Z.D.

Papava, and the minister of the construction materials industry, N.G.

Vashadze, explain the reasons for this disgraceful state of affairs and report

on what they intend to do to correct it. However, the answers heard from the

meeting tribune failed to satisfy those present. It was emphasized that the

continued poor quality of construction materials and the careless and

sometimes irresponsible attitude of the transport workers toward their direct

duties can no longer be tolerated.

In the work to improve quality, strengthen discipline and accelerate

scientific and technical progress the republic Gosstroy is assuming a passive

position. Much is being done unsystematically, without appropriate scientific

work. The meeting demanded that the Gosstroy chairman, G.Z. Mirianashvili,

radically change the style of his work and the work of Gosstroy in general.

The republic Gosplan is also responsible for the situation that has been

created. Unrealistic targets are sometimes set for the construction

subdivisions. The practice of including in plans projects that are in

violation of the normed time periods for construction has not been eradicated.

A large proportion of the capacities commissioned are allocated for the fourth

quarter. It was emphasized at the meeting that it is high time to bring the

capital construction plan fully into line with the what is feasible for the

contract organizations, cast aside conjunctural motivations, and eliminate

incompetent interference in these matters.

The shortages of skilled personnel are also making themselves felt. There are

many shortcomings in the training and allocation of specialists in the VUZ's

and tekhnikums and the vocational and technical schools. No properly

organized system has been set up to retrain and improve the skills of workers

in the sector. In some construction organizations virtually no stable

collectives have been set up and they operate with casual workers who do not

have appropriate training or skills. Without resolving the social problems,

leaders in the sector are resorting to doubtful methods to keep their workers,

and they close their eyes to wage violations, thus encouraging privateownership ways and unearned incomes. Who can be surprised if in many

construction organizations people are working for whom the concept of

professional pride and honor is a meaningless sound?

The meeting determined that the collegium of the Ministry of Construction and

the minister, D.V. Mandzhgaladze, must make a basic effort to bring proper

order in the social sphere, which in the past has been totally neglected.

23
The Democratic Spirit Does Not Permit Willfulness.

In order successfully to develop the struggle against accounting-fraud and

deception it is essential to normalize the moral-political climate in the

labor collectives, it was noted at the meeting. And this is associated

directly with raising exactingness and responsibility and strengthening the

role of the primary party organizations and the communists, particularly in

capital construction. They must be headed by true leaders capable of uniting

people and carrying them along with them, and who are aware of the worth of

the far from easy labor of the construction worker.

Honesty, probity and interest: these are the qualities that must be affirmed

in each party organization and in each labor collective. unfortunately, not

all communists, including those occupying responsible positions, have mastered

these requirements. Deception occurs to some extent because of the

inadequately principled position that they assume. Antistate and illegal

actions by individual leaders are not assessed as they should be by the party

committees and economic organs.

Fraud is most often the direct consequence of indulgence, complacency and the

narrow departmental approach. Moreover, departmental workers often expend

considerable efforts to hide it or play it down. For example, the collegium

and former leadership of the Ministry of Construction at one time failed to

support a proposal from the auditing department to pass on to the organs of

investigation materials on fraud in the Rustavi Housing Construction Combine.

THey took a similar position with regard to major accounting-fraud uncovered

in 1985 in the Batumi Housing Construction Combine No 9 Trust.

There are frequent cases in which a liberal attitude is shown toward leaders

who set out on the path of deceiving the state and they succeed in remaining

in the cosy armchair of their posts. Criminal cases were brought against the

director of the Sukhumi Silk Factory, Papaskiri, and the chief accountant,

Kartskhiya, for fraud involving about R250,000. However, the case was halted

and they are again working in leading positions: Papaskiri is the director of

the Sukhumi Experimental Club House while Kartskhiya is the chief of a

footwear rubber sole shop in Sukhumi city. The meeting demanded that the

Abkhaz Obkom investigate thoroughly what lies behind these transfers.

In the struggle against accounting-fraud it is necessary to enhance the role

of the law-enforcement organs and of the procuracy's inspectorate, and to

improve legal practices. The party organs must show greater exactingness

toward cadres. It is totally incomprehensible,- for example, hoto communist

Khvichiya, who has been censured several times by the party, has for many

years been chief of the Batumi Housing Construction Combine. It was stated at

the meeting that the Adzhar Obkom must explain what nevertheless has dictated

this ••irreplaceability."

Write-ups and deception have nothing in common with enhanced exactingness with

respect to plan fulfillment. The plan is law. And in the future the demand

to fulfill it will be most strict and principled'. And there should be no

cover-ups of the shameful practice of deceiving the state using the pretexts

of incompetenece and lack of ability. There are reserves for this in all

24
sectors. Another matter is that, unfortunately, losses from mismanagement,

lack of discipline and irresponsibility are still great and every effort must

be made to overcome them.

Those speaking at the meeting emphasized that the party committees must head

the struggle against the enemies of restructuring, pursue an active cadre

policy, and purge the economy of unworthy people. And for this they

themselves must observe state order and prevent deviations and exceptions and

avoid cheap publicity.

The meeting sharply criticized the shameful practice of building unplanned

projects. Last year 78 of the construction organizations in the republic in

38 cities and rayons carried out unplanned work. About 130 of these projects

have been discovered. In this connection the following question was rightly

asked: how, for example, can the housing construction in Rustavi be fulfilled

if enormous resources and funds are diverted to build a railroad for children?

The expenditures for this, totaling R1.5 million, were drawn mainly from

planned projects. Moreover, on the direct instructions of the party gorkom

the board of directors at the metallurgical plant allocated rails, which are

in short supply, to the detriment of the enterprise, and acquired a diesel

locomotive and a steam locomotive and cars. At the willful decision of the

former first secretary of the party gorkom, Zh.K. Shartava, a dummy tunnel was

made from ferroconcrete structures for this same children's railroad. And

these structures were taken away from housing construction, and a result the

construction of four, houses was disrupted. At the site where the general plan

provided for the erection of several high-rise buildings, tennis courts were

built. unfortunately, the public in the city knew nothing about this and was

unable to make an appropriate assessment of the actions of the former first

secretary.

It was noted at the meeting that development of the social sphere is, of

course, an important matter. But if there is a plan there are calculations

and priority needs, and no one has the right to forget this. It is a question

of state discipline. The semblance of well-being and the desire to create for

oneself a cheap authority lead to no good. Displays of this kind must be

severely condemned by communists.

Wherever party analysis of the true situation is replaced with talk about

successes, all party activity is deformed: M.S. Gorbachev cautioned about this

in his political report to the 27th CPSU Congress. Developing independence

and strengthening the democratic foundations of management assume an enhanced

sense of responsibility, strengthened discipline, and reinforced control. It

is precisely the absence of this that explains how while overfulfilling the

plan for commercial output, collectives fail to meet their contractual

obligations. Or take the example of Gori, where a dairy combine was built

that for a year already has been unable to go into operation because of the

lack of raw material.

The democratic spirit is incompatible with willfulness and arbitrariness. And

therefore, extending the rights of the labor collectives, introducing cost

accounting and switching to self-supporting production [samookupayemost] are

accompanied by increased centralized leadership in the economy, as, for

25
example, in the introduction of state approval for output. Those speaking

emphasized that similar measures are also necessary in capital construction,

where it is essential to set up a system of control that makes it possible to

cover all stages in the construction process and monitor quality at all

stages.

In the struggle against negative phenomena it is essential to activate public

opinion and enhance the effectiveness of the mass media. Neither should

propaganda of leading experience be forgotten, or better awareness of the

beginnings of its progressive and proper dissemination.

» * * * «

The aktiv adopted a resolution on the matter discussed. The resolution

defined the clear task for the party, soviet and economic organs, the public

organizations and all workers in the republic, namely, to create in each

collective a healthy moral and psychological climate, eradicate fraud and

deception, and insure success in pursuing the strategic course of the party in

restructuring and acceleration.

The following comrades took part in the work of the meeting: V.l. Alavidze,

G.A. Anchabadze, O.G. Vardzelashvili, A.N. Inauri, K.A. Kochetov, G.D.

Mgeladze, G.A. Metonidze, B.V. Nikolskiy, N.A. Chitanava, Z.A. Chkheidze, B.V.

Adleyba, G.G. Gumbaridze* ■■> T.V. Lordkipanidze, D.V. Margvelidze, F.S.

Sanakoyev, B.M. Siradze and G.Kh. Emiridze, and V.A. Skripnikov, republic

administration chief for the Transcaucasus in the USSR Gosstroy Main

Administration for Construction in the Union Republics.

9642

CSO: 1830/423

' ' .! I l (I

26
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS

PUGO ADDRESSES LaSSR CENTRAL COMMITTEE PLENUM

Riga CINA in Latvian 24 Mar 87 pp 1-3

[Excerpts] Plenum of the CP of Latvia Central Committee.. To Go Firmly Along

the Road of Restructuring and Democracy. Report was delivered by the First

Secretary of the CP of Latvia Central Committee, B. Pugo.

What alarms us the most'in the economy? First of all, the fact that our national economy has not yet assumed the necessary tempo and has not attained

stability is alarming. In connection with interruptions in the work of enterprises, which are connected with nön-rhythmicality and unfulfillment of delivery agreement commitments, the 2 months' plan in industry has not been

fulfilled and the task has been carried out only to the extent of.97.6 percent. Various products for almost R32,000,000 have not been delivered to the

state.

Every fifth enterprise has not fulfilled its agreement commitments. The

greatest lagging-behind has been permitted by enterprises of Union subordination. Among them such "whales" of our industry as the associations "Komutators"

(managing director A. Gubenko and VEF (0. LeneV). Almost half of the entire

shortfall in goods production output is on their account.

On the whole, indices are low at the Ministry of Timber Processing and Paper

Industry (Minister V. Birkenfelds), at the Ministry of Construction Materials

Industry (J. Jura), at the Ministry of Light Industry (V. Nizhnik), at the

Ministry of Local Industry (R. Misans), at the Latvian fish industry production

association (V. Koreyev), at the lighting equipment production association

(J. Matusevics), at the "Alfa" production association (A.Baklanov), at the

Rezekne milking equipment works (G. Kolesnikov), at the Riga diesel works

(A. Krasovskiy), at the Jelgava agricultural machinery works (R. Vitolins),

and at several other enterprises.

What are the causes of the permitted failures?

The cause is in ourselves, the slowness, lack of initiative and laziness of

many economic heads; their prolonged self-satisfaction and taking delight in

the rather good economic indices of last year is to blame. Also the passive

stand of party organizations and committees, the fact that the human factor,

27
processes of democratization and self-administration in production have not

been made more active to the necessary extent, are to blame.

This had been clearly shown also by the sociological research on the role of

party primary organizations of industry in the development of productive selfadministration and democracy, conducted by the Institute of Party History of

the CP of Latvia Central Committee at 32 enterprises of Riga, Daugavpils and

Ventspils. Is it then normal that, according to research data, in 1986 more

than half of the communists did not in fact participate in the adoption of

any resolutions as important as the team self-administration question, staffing of teams, planning of their work, payment for work, its stimulation,

election of the team council, the work within the council, and the review of

the breaches of production discipline permitted by team members?

The unsatisfactory work results of the past 2 months require that town and

rayon committees of the party, the Council of Ministers and departments of

the Central Committee would carry out without delay concrete, I repeat, concrete undertakings which would guarantee elimination of lagging behind and a

stable rhythm of the production plan under any circumstances and without any

hindering factors.

The output of the highest quality category products has considerably shrunk

this year at the Minsitry of Timber Processing and Paper Industry, the Ministry

of Construction Materials Industry, the Ministry of Construction, the "Straume"

association, the lighting equipment production association, the lacquer and

paint works, the Ventspils ventilator works, the electric building tools works,

the Riga chemical industry machine building works, and at several other enterprises.

As an example, the tramcars of the wagon works can be mentioned. In comparison

with foreign analogues, they lag behind in comfortableness, traveling speed

and capacity, and they have an increased vibration. All of this causes complaints by passengers. A new type of modernized tramcar has been on the drawing boards already for 20 years.

Immediate assistance of party, state,.and public organizations is necessary

also to the RAF works, whose collective did not fulfill its promise to modernize the passenger bus.

It is necessary to create a barrier to the output of products not being demanded and to observe the state of the market. This applies first of all to

the Ministry of Trade (R. Salputra).

The Baltic region, M. Gorbachev emphasized, is an important food production

area. In the last 15 years the provision of assets of collective and state

farms has increased 3.1 times, but the gross agricultural production only

by one-and-a-half times.

There is a very poor grain production dynamic in our republic. With regard

to grain-crop productivity we have been, in fact, standing on the same spot

28
for many years. Thus, in the last 5 years the productivity has not risen

even once about 27 quintals. As a result of this, the state is compelled

to bring into the republic increasingly more grain. This tendency is, without

doubt, abnormal, and it has to be overcome already in the next few years.

Last year the milk yield per cow was less by 560 kg than in Estonia and by

104 kg less than in Lithuania.

The construction plans of several areas of the social sphere are not being

fulfilled, reserves for expanding.housing construction are being sought

lazily, many enterprises still have not laid down who, when, and how the

approved programs will be implemented.

All this is connected with the disorganized manner in which the builders,

ministries, departments, and enterprises are permitted to build social, cultural, and everyday-life objects through their own economic resources, with a

weakness in the construction material base, with.insufficient attention and

control by the State Planning Committee(G. Ukhov),' soviet organs, party committees, and the branch departments of the Central Committee—the department

of construction and municipal economy(H. Bagnovecs), the department of industry (V..Blokhin), the department of light industry and consumer goods

(N. Kakstova), the department of agriculture and food industry (L. Abel).

What kind of attention and control can one talk about, if all the enterprises

of Union subordination combined expanded housing construction, in comparison

to last year, only by 10,000 sq. m., and the Union-Republic ministries even

reduced it? Analogous absurdities also take place with the construction of

kindergartens.

How long shall we talk, for example, about an acceleration of the construction

of the production base of the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry.of

Construction Materials Industry? In this connection specific tasks have been

given, special resolutions have been adopted, and the necessary means have

been allocated. But there are almost not practical results. Last year 84

percent and 58 percent of the planned basic assets were put into use at these

ministries. What kind of an acceleration is that?

The time has come at last for the Council of Ministers (N. Denisenko), the

State Planning Committee (G. Ukhov), the Ministry of Construction (N. Kaftailov),

the Ministry of Construction Materials Industry (J. Jura) and the party organizations of the mentioned departments to begin to tackle responsibly the

tasks set and to introduce the necessary order in the fulfillment area.

Recently we were in Moscow with J. Rubenis, 0. Misurkin, and M. Ramans and

were received by Politburo members. We met leading workers of the Council of

Ministers, the State Planning Committee, the State Committee for Material/

Technical Supply and of several ministries, who supported our proposals.

Comrades, recently M. Gorbachev telephoned. He was interested in the course

of restructuring and the implementation of plans, once more expressed

29
satisfaction about meeting and talking with the republic's working people and

our activ, supported our endeavor to renew all spheres of life, and expressed

a conviction that the republic will recover what has been delayed and will

fulfill successfully all the tasks laid down. In accordance with that, we also

have to develop our entire practical work.

All forms of democratization are important to us, but it is especially important to consolidate democracy in production and to introduce consistently selfadministration into the life of labor collectives.

The competition system of electing leaders, which has become widespread in the

republic, opens great opportunities here. The foundations for this were laid

by the experience of the collective of the "Komutators" association. Now,

middle-section leaders, chief engineers, directors and their deputies, administrators of trusts, rectors of higher education establishments, and other

top leaders are being elected. The director of the RAF minibus works, as we

know, was elected by way of an all-Union competition. After the January plenum

of the CPSU Central Committee, at four rayon agro-industrial associations on

the basis of competitions the chairmen of the rayon agro-industrial association

councils were elected from the most competent heads of farms. Recently, with

the competition of several candidates, by a secret ballot, the first secretary

of the Gulbene rayon committee of the party.was elected. Already more than

5,000 leaders of various levels, in all, have been elected.

You all, of course, know the benefit provided by electing leaders. I shall

emphasize what is the most important: elections actually consolidate one-man

management, considerably increase the authority and responsibility of the

leader, create an atmosphere of mutual exactingness and—this is especially

important—combine the personal interests with the public ones.

Practice shows that.election of leaders sharply.changes the attitude of both

the leaders themselves and their labor collectives toward mutual relations in

production.. The rights of a master are added to a consciousness of a master.

A qualitatively new situation comes about. A conclusion arises from this:

people have to be prepared for this new form of democratization, it has to be

explained to them that elections are not a game but a means of improving the

situation, that democracy manifests itself not in effects but in effectivity.

The collective's welfare, material stimulation and tackling of all social

questions depend in their entirety on the final results. The collective and

every worker must understand that, by electing a leader, they assume a part

of the leader's responsibility, therefore, they have a duty of controlling

the leader's activity, to think jointly what and how to do it, so that the common work would move forward more rapidly.

Occupying leading positions by way of competitions increases the political

influence of party committees and organizations in the course of restructuring

and movement of cadres and in practice ensures a real openness.

30
Some party organizations have not yet determined their place in the process

of elections. The Central Committee buro thinks that they have to guide this

work, to guide, of course, by political means, and to study public opinion,

because spontaneity in the question of cadres is just as dangerous as getting

it arranged.

It appears that surely one must not wait until some vacancy becomes available

for elections. Reports by economic workers of various levels to their collectives must periodically be listened to, and following that voting has to

be organized: do the collectives entrust them or do not entrust them with

the rights to continue to lead? Let us think about this vote of confidence!

Perfecting of the election system is a principled, steadfast direction in

democratization. Party organizations must thoroughly prepare themselves for

the forthcoming elections of local Soviets and people's judges and people s

assessors. In organizing them, the orientations laid down at the January

plenum of the CPSU Central Committee have to be implemented in practxce.

The main task is to give the electors an opportunity to express their attitude

toward a bigger number of candidatures and to free the election campaign and

the voting procedure from elements of formalism. One must prepare well for

the experiment in the elections to local-Soviets, the election campaign must

be utilized to improve the situation in economic, social, communal, and legal

spheres and to draw up collectively proposals for a deepening of the democratization of our life and for an acceleration of restructuring.

Comrades! I do not have to prove to you how important it is to continue the

struggle with an aggressive spirit for cleansing the republic's ethical

atmosphere, for the eradication of drunkenness, drug addiction, prostitution,

plundering, bribe-taking, transgressions of official position, and protectionism. Without a consolidation of the society's moral health we shall not manage

to solve the tasks of restructuring.

The topical urgency of these questions can but cause-alarm. In 1986 alone in

our republic 15 communists/leaders were called to answer criminal charges,

including the former chairman of the People's Court of Ludza Rayon,

N Khmelnitska. The attack against alcoholism and drunkenness is being developed with variable success. Last year the sales of spirits and liquor were

reduced by 23.1 percent. This year they will be sold by 36.3 percent less.

The number of instances when alcoholic beverages have been consumed in production has diminished. At several collectives, nevertheless, the^drinkers

still have a good life; efforts to influence them are being carried out formally It will suffice for me to say that this year at medical sobering-up

establishments there have already been several leaders: head of the shop of

the hydrometeorological apparatuses works, A. Dubovskiy, captain-director ot

the ocean fishing fleet's Liepaja base, Y.Novikov, deputy head of the Rexga

shop of electric bulb works, A. Mazitov, deputy director of the No 2 secondary

school of Tukums, P. Dzerkalis, and others.

31
Alcoholics and rowdies who have been forced out from production continue a

dissolute life at home. Now at flats and hostels, because of drunkenness

and drug addiction, more than 70 percent of all the instances of murder and

rape are being committed, as well as 88 percent of the instances of bodily

harm. Both law protection organs and the society, and labour collectives work

very poorly. Comrades, one must think very seriously about this and, most

importantly, all the necessary undertakings have to be carried out.

Life itself demands sharply to strengthen the struggle against drunkenness,

especially at home. It is necessary to develop it without compromises and in

an attacking spirit, literally on the entire front, to create everywhere a

general atmosphere of condemnation against the transgressors against antialcohol legislation, to advance greater demands to the voluntary society of

promoting abstinence and to offer it all kinds of assistance. Also in the

press. From such a viewpoint it is doubtful whether one can regard as useful the satirical article "A Tick for Everybody" published in S0VETSKÄYA

LATVIYA in which all the work of the promoting abstinence of society has been

thoughtlessly condemned.

We have the right to set higher demands also to those who, in accordance

with official duties, are directly responsible for public order. In this

connection the question of political and professional preparation of new cadres

is important. The length of service of almost a third of the workers of procuracy, the courts and the militia is, after all, less than 3 years.

The Central Committee's Party Control Commission (S. Palora) must not lower the

standard of principledness in the improvement of moral and ethical atmosphere,

in the struggle for purity and authority of the leading cadres. The best

school of political education and self-education is openness, criticism and

self-criticism.

The essence of restructuring is the truth. But the truth is not only the

detection of mistakes and expounding of shortcomings alone. The most important thing is to search for an actual way out from them. Under the circumstances of restructuring and democratization in all sphers of life, criticism

must always be adherent to party principles and be based on justice. It must

not become a form of settling scores, and develop into gossiping, denunciations and anonymous complaints.

It is no secret that not everybody understands the necessity to support a

critical mood and a self-critical work analysis in the collective. There are

still instances when the reaction to criticism is wrong. This is shown by

both the materials of the press and also the letters received by the Central

Committee.

Let us take the topically urgent problems of working people's patriotic and

internationalist education. Here the appearance of an external well-being

did not correspond to the real situation, let us say, in the sphere of political culture of internationality contiguity. A part of the cadres of the

32
nartv soviets, trade unions and Komsomol, of workers of culture, public

education, higher education establishments, mass information and propaganda

media did not pay sufficient attention to studying thoroughly the MarxistLeninist theory of nationality relations, to a continuous improvement of

patriotic and internationalist education of inhabitants, especially of.young

Lople, to the struggle against manifestations of nationalism and chauvinism.

in some publications a distorted, non-class-conscious interpretation of some

of the aspects of the development of nationality relations existing in the

republic was given, national language questions were artificially emphasized.

Having examined the question »On the undertakings to be carried^out in-order

to strengthen further the patriotic and internationalist education of the

republic's inhabitants", the Central Committee burb gave a prxncxpled^assessment to the abovementioned phenomena and outlined a concrete program forja

radical improvement of work in this important sector of ideological activityAll party committees, soviet and economic organs, mass information media, and

the entire party activ must actively participate in its implementations.

The departments of propaganda and agitation, culture, science,.and educational

establishments of the party Central Committee (L.Freibergs, A. Goris^aud

2. Gruduls), rayon and town committees of the party must inflexibly strengthen

the Marxist-Leninist tempering and ideological/political education of working

people, leading cadres, ideological workers, creative intelligentsia, party

and Komsomol activ, must give them the skills to.form a favorable moral/

psychological climate in the Internationality environment. Our cadres.must

day after day be engaged to make sure that a principled struggle is developed

from internationalist positions against manifestations of nationalism and _

chauvinism, in whatever form they might appear. The work in the^consoRation

of the fraternal friendship of the Soviet peoples must be perfected to a maximum.

Practice shows that the main barrier to be overcome, first of all, by ideological cadres is the educational approach, the distancing from life, observable

in the sphere of propaganda and agitation, formalism and a poor development of

forms of individual education. Forthe time being we are agitating abstainers

not to drink, unbelievers not to believe, very often we make use of formal

slogans.

We must correct the present situation in the sphere of spiritual culture.

Last year 410 proposals, which were expressed at plenums to town and rayon

committees of the party and at party meetings, were sent to the republic s

ministries and departments. Almost a fifth of them have beeu examined formally, but more than a third have remained without any reply at all. The-greatest

bureaucratism has been shown here by the Ministry of Forestry and Timber

industry and the Ministry of Construction Materials.Industry. Also the State

Planning Committee has not been at the necessary level.

Deputy chairman of the construction association of the Latvian SSR State AgroIndustrial Committee I. Niedols promised that construction components of this

33
kind (simple ferroconcrete construction components made in Belorussia,

mentioned to the speaker by Liepaja Rayon collective farm members during his

meeting with them in the first half of 1986) will be operatively manufactured

and supplied to "Durbe" and "Lenina Cels" collective farms for the building

of animal husbandry farm.sections. Many months have passed since that time,

but I. Niedols has not even started.to fulfill his commitment. Heads of Central Committee departments H. Bagnovecs and L. Abel have forgotten control and

fulfillment inspection.

Recently the Central Committee buro listened to reviews on the struggle against

bureaucratism by V. Markots, minister of Municipal Economy, and E. Taurins,

party buro secretary of the ministry. But it was not possible to see any

kind of a struggle—workers of the apparatus waste a considerable part of

working time in order to correspond with subordinate organizations, to draw

up regulations, instructions, and proposals unnecessary to anybody.

In accordance with the great number of proposals the Central Committee has

adopted a resolution: for 2 days a week—on Monday, and Friday—any kind of

meetings are prohibited, it is prohibited to call out persons to republican

party, state, and public organs. This resolution must be fulfilled.

We have the right to ask J. Bonats, and also other first secretaries of rayon

committees—J. Abölina, A. Vrublevskiy, I. Khokhlenko, F. Korneliuss, and

I. Krastins—why restructuring at many party organizations of their rayons

takes place at the pace of a tortoise?

It has to be endeavored to achieve that the composition of the leading cadres

would reflect to a maximum fully the republic's nationality structure. Care

has to be taken in observing this demand also in the training of specialists

at our higher and secondary education establishments. This has to be taken

into consideration especially at the Latvian Agricultural Academy, the

Conservatoire and the Academy of Art, where for the time being there are few

students who do not belong to the main nationality.

I regard it necessary to today's plenum, at a very important plenum, to say that

I see many imperfections of my work: I have not shown a sufficient perseverance and exactingness in respect to Central Committee secretaries, heads of

departments and the apparatus. Because of that, it has not yet been possible

to achieve a complete implementation of the important resolutions adopted in

the cardinal questions of the republic's economic development and to create a

firm system in the work with cadres. In order to eliminate these and other

shortcomings, henceforth both the first secretary and also other members of the

buro will have to work even harder.

More initiative, a new approach and purposefulhess in the tackling of the tasks

of accelerating the republic's socioeconomic development, improvement of

ideological work and selection of cadres has to be shown by the Central Committee secretaries V. Sobolev, A. Brils, A. Borbunov, and J. Oherins.

34
The buro expects a greater activity and perseverance from the department of

party organizational work (G. Loskutbv).' The work of the department of economics (R. Praude) has to be seriously reorganized.

Care for the development of the party's internal democracy puts us under an

obligation to make essential corrections in the mutual relationships between

the elected organs and the apparatus.. A situation must not be permitted

where the apparatus places itself above the elected organ and dictates its

will to the members of the Central Committee, town, and rayon committees of

the party.

Today's plenum, the sociological research of work style and methods of burb

members, and heads of departments of the Central Committee will help not

only them but also other leaders to assess their work more self-critically, and

to outline ways for its improvement.

The Supreme Soviet Presidium, on which ä great responsibility lies for reorganizing the work of local Soviets of people's deputies has to think about this

seirously. In its acceleration J. Vagris and his deputies have to act more

energetically. The times demand that also the heads of the republic's government—chairman J. Rubenis, his deputies; R. Praude, K. Spogis, L. Bartkevics,

N. Denisenko, 0 Misurkin, and M. Ramans would work more intensively.

Restructuring is a really revolutionary process. Figuratively speaking, it

is the continuation of the revolution.

The process of restructuring has not only adherents, but also has adversaries.

They will not relinquish their positions without a battle.

76662

CSO: 1808/29

35
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS

KOLBIN DISCUSSES HOUSING PROBLEMS WITH CITIZENS

Alma-Alta KAZAKHSTANSKAYA PRAVDA in Russian 27 Feb 87

[KazTAG report: "To Maintain Social Justice"]

[Text] On February 25 G. V. Kolbin, first secretary of the Kazakhstan CP

Central Committee held a reception for a group of the republic's residents

who made personal requests regarding their housing.

During the reception G. V. Kolbin noted that the party's 27th Congress and

the January 1987 Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee sharply raised

questions dealing with the energetic elimination of negative phenomena from

society. Consistent confirmation of the principles of social justice is

now at the center of attention for the republic's party and soviet organs.

V. G. Kudryavtsev, a pensioner from Alma-Alta: "Gennadiy Vasilevich, the

situation with cheating and violations in the allocation of housing is

especially intolerable. For example, I know of people who had private

homes and still received separate apartments."

G. V. Kolbin: "Actually, the Kazakhstan CP Central Committee's selective

inspection in the republic's capital revealed hundreds of apartments which

were authorized through the crudest violations of housing law. Many of the

leading workers received housing not only for themselves, but also for

their relatives. As a result, although many apartments were put to use, the

number of people waiting to receive them has not decreased and has even

grown. We are conducting an uncompromising struggle against these abuses.

Apartments received through influence-peddling will be confiscated. The

workers of the Kazakhstan CP Central Committee, party gorkom, and city

soviet who permitted these violations have already been punished and some of

them have been relieved of their posts.

"In spite of such an edifying lesson, we still have people who live

beautifully at others' expense. Having comfortable apartments, they keep

trying by hook or by crook to get additional living space, although they

understand quite well that by satisfying their ambition they are pushing

those who are rightfully next in line still farther away. We will not allow

this: we are already giving and we will continue to give such self-seekers

a decisive rebuff, and we do. not intend to stop half-way. We are counting

36
in this matter on the serious and active help of the public, of all of the

city's residents. We will direct your claim, Comrade Kudryavtsev, to

competent agencies for verification and immediate action."

A. Zh. Nesebeldinova, housewife from Karaganda: "My husband worked for

many years as a miner at the 'Karagandaugol' association. We raised four

sons who followed in their father's footsteps and became miners. Their

children are already growing up and we are all still huddled, as before,

in an apartment of twenty-five square meters. Is this really as it should

be?"

G. V. Kolbin: "Of course not. As you know, the 'Housing-91' program is

being implemented in the republic. Its goal is to provide everyone waiting

in line as of January 1 of the current year with comfortable apartments by

the end of 1991. Additional funds, materials, designs and technology are

being sought to realize this. We regard the sluggishness in realizing this

program as a discredit to the party line, as a conscious slowing-down of

the process of restructuring. Many enterprises, among them, the 'Karagandaugol'

association, have a real possibility of erecting a large amount of houses

through their own resources.

"The responsibility for the progress of construction has been personally

pinned on the first leaders of the enterprises and organizations who should

monthly render an account to the labor collectives. Go ask the directors of

the mines where your sons work. We will support your demands, and I am sure

in this way, through joint efforts, we will succeed in satisfying the needs

both of you and of other Karaganda residents."

N. V. Igonina, an office worker from Alma-Alta: "Our house is not really

that old, but it is already falling into decay. The roof leaks. Was it

really so impossible to reapir it properly at least once over the last

thirteen years?"

G. V. Kolbin: "It is necessary not only to build new houses quickly and

qualitatively, but also to treat carefully that which has already been made.

It is wasteful to tear down housing which, if repaired, could be used for

many more years. And for now there are still many housing administrations

and tenants who are negligent about keeping up the apartments. Houses

belonging to ministries and departments are especially badly repaired. As

the party dictates, we will hold their leaders who have remained deaf to

the needs and worries of their collectives strictly responsible."

Later in the talk G. V. Kolbin noted that it is necessary to encourage

in every way possible the initiative of the workers for accelerating the tempo

of housing construction, to offer effective help to individual private

builders, and to make it the responsibility of base enterprises to provide

teachers and doctors with apartments. Drawing in still wider circles of

the public and labor collectives into construction should become an effective

factor in the successful solution of the housing problem and in maintaining

the norms of social justice and lawfulness in the distribution of

apartments.

It was explained at the meeting that all concrete questions connected with

housing should be addressed to the trade union organizations of the labor

collectives and to local soviet organs.

13174/7687 37

CSO: 1830/364
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS

PARTY ORGANIZATIONS CRITICIZED FOR 'APATHY'

[Editorial Report] Baku KOMMUNIST in Azeri on 15 February 1987 carries on

page 1 a 1000-word lead editorial headlined "Mutual Demand" on duties placed

before party organizations during restructuring. It points out that "it is a

pity that a very Important experience such as hearing the reports of

communists is not used to the necessary extent at a number of party

organizations. As a result, these organizations have weakened mutual

demandingness, communists' feelings of responsibility have diminished, and a

backsliding mentality has been created." It is added that "unsatisfactory

principles such as outmoded apathy are definitely inappropriate to the party's

demand for reconstruction."

BAKU GORKOM FINDS CORRUPTION IN TRADE, SERVICES

[Editorial Report] Baku KOMMUNIST in Azeri on 10 February 1987 carries on

page 3 a 700-word Azerinform report on a Baku Gorkom plenum held to discuss

problems connected with the fight against unearned income; the report is

headlined "Decisiveness and Openness in the Struggle Against Unearned Income."

At the plenum it was pointed out that "no basic turning point has been reached

in the struggle against negative situations in the trade and population

services sectors. Primary party organizations at a number of service sector

institutions have merely closed their eyes to shortcomings, and also are

exerting only a weak influence over the selection, placement and training of

cadres; as a result of this, people who have previously been sentenced [for

criminal activities] often find their way into positions demanding material

responsibility. There are still instances of the misappropriation of funds

and bribery in housing organs, communal services, and the health system."

OBSESSION WITH PAPERWORK, MEETINGS CRITICIZED

[Editorial Report] Baku KOMMUNIST in Azeri on 21 January 1987 carries on page

2 a 1700-word article by D. Jamalova, first secretary of the Lankaran Gorkom,

decrying "some party organizations' obsession with meetings and paperwork";

the article is headlined "Being Systematic and Consistent." She points out

that "sometimes you come across the following situation: when the issuance of

a decree is in the process of being discussed, the party organization's work

is stirred up, materials are collected, urgent research takes place, and a

commission is formed to generalize results and submit proposals. Finally, the

decree is passed and...everything comes to a halt. We ask: why was so much

time lost and so many people taken away from their real work if a decree is

passed so that it could be placed in a file?!"

/12913

CSO: 1830/433 Jö
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS

KAZAKH EDITORIAL ENCOURAGES INTERNATIONALISM

[Editorial Report] Alma-Ata SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN in Kazakh on 10 February

1987 carries on page 1 an 800-word boldface editorial entitled "Let Internationalist Education Be a Matter of Constant Concern." The editorial

restates the achievements of Soviet internationalism as they relate to the

Kazakhs in particular. It goes on to acknowledge that "problems still exist,"

but encourages continued education in internationalist values at all levels of

republic society to promote the common purpose and ideological unity of the

Soviet peoples.

/9738

CSO: 1830/443

39
MEDIA AND PROPAGANDA

MINISTRY PRESS CENTERS RELEASE 'DISTORTED' INFORMATION

Moscow PRAVDA in Russian 27 Feb 87 P 3

[Article by Yu. Makhrin: "Conveyers for Show: How Great is the Benefit of

Press Centers Attached to Ministries and Departments?"; first five paragraphs

are PRAVDA introduction]

[Text] Moscow—The telephone rang.

"How do you do? This is the ministry's press center..."

An ordinary television "picture"—the building of the press center of the USSR

Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Zubovskiy Boulevard—flashed in my memory.

Soviet and foreign correspondents are often invited here for meetings with

heads of states and governments, prominent party and economic managers,

diplomats, and scientists.

However, something different and unusual was heard in the telephone receiver:

"From the press center... of the Ministry of Tractor and Agricultural Machine

Building."

So, perhaps the managers of this department have decided to meet with the

journalistic corps? Indeed, many acute problems concerning machinery, which

has often evoked righteous indignation among the country's breadwinners—

machine operators—have accumulated at this department. It has occurred to me

that, finally, openness is also beginning to force its way into the sector's

headquarters, which are removed from the concerns of the USSR Ministry of

Foreign Affairs. Consequently, here too people are ready to reject the

notorious thesis: This is not for the press. It follows that here too people

have realized that everything that disturbs and interests people is for the

press and for publicity.

It turns out that no, they did not telephone for this, but for a totally

different reason:

"Our ministry's press center is at your disposal. An editorial is needed.

Please, be so kind..."

40
The ministry's press center. What a strange kind of "means of mass

information« not mentioned in any defining dictionary of the mother tongue is

this? A colleague, who worked abroad for a long time, reasoned:

«There the press center is an ordinary matter: Every ministry and every large

firm have it."

"In what are these centers engaged?"

"In advertising products."

And what are the press centers of our ministries and departments called upon

to do? "The maximum utilization of central and local mass information organs

for an extensive illumination of the sector's advanced experience and

achievements is the basic task." This is stated in documents published by

directors of the Ministry of Instrument Making, Automation Equipment and

Control Systems, the Ministry of the Motor Vehicle Industry, and

Rosagropromstroy.

"Wait a minute," a worker at the headquarters of a specific sector will say.

"Why, even without this we have someone that can popularize advanced

experience—there are special administrations, departments, technical centers,

scientific research institutions, laboratories, scientific and technical

information bureaus, and so forth. Experienced specialists, who can separate

grain from weeds, work in them. They study and test an innovation and give it

a start in life. Under the Conditions of expansion of openness they should

learn to act as an efficient press information system. Moreover, managers of

sectorial headquarters are called upon to be open and accessible to

journalists."

We would also like to mention that there is a vast network of sectorial

newspapers and journals called upon to contribute to the introduction of

everything that meets the requirements of scientific and technical progress.

The central party press also has departments, whose task, as stated at the

January Plenum of the Central Committee, is to see the positive and the

constructive, to make them available to the entire nation, and to utilize the

germs of new approaches under restructuring conditions. The best forces of

the country's publicists are concentrated here. They specialize in economic

problems, know the economy profoundly, and are called upon to analyze the

state of affairs objectively with a genuine adherence to party principles and

to consider facts and phenomena in their dialectic interconnection, not only

under the floodlight of publicity.

The following question inevitably arises: Why then do press centers still

exist? Let us read the announcements, beneath which there is the following

signature: "correspondent of the press center of the Ministry of the Motor

Vehicle Industry." '

Here they are collected together. They "sing" of motor vehicles "in a

northern modification," of giant tank trucks, of the RAF microbus, and of

closed motor vehicle vans. Transported with delight, they glorify the ZAZ41
1102: "The new minicar meets exacting consumer requirements—it is steady,

maneuverable, and reliable. The car's weight has been lowered and its cabin

has expanded—it has become a comfortable, two-volume, and three-door car.

The new model also represents a new production level. Robotization and

automation will change the plant's appearance fundamentally."

"Oka is an exceptionally efficient, superior-roadability motor vehicle of the

well-known old Zaporozhets category. Oka has a modern, three-door universal

body and a two-cylinder engine."

"Moskvich (AZLK-2141) will raise its rating. Its road qualities, comfort, and

equipment with instruments bring it close to Volga."

"Takhion—an undiscovered speed particle." This is about a racing bicycle.

unrestrained glorification. Advertisement, advertisement, advertisement.

Works with the label "made at the ministry" flow like a stream into

newspapers, journals, television, and radio. Boastful, rose-colored, and

cheerful reports. Losing the sense of objectivity and measure, the "sector's

chroniclers" zealously beat parade kettledrums here and there. Narrowdepartmental "blinkers" blind their eyes and prevent them from seeing real

life with its difficulties, contradictions, and shortcomings.

Things have gotten to the point that central newspapers are forced to refute

published report articles by press center workers.

The talk at the conference held at the press center of the USSR Ministry of

Ferrous Metallurgy is remarkable. Addressing contributors to, as well as

editors of, large-circulation newspapers, the chairman literally said the

following:

"Unfortunately, our own ministry appears mostly in dark tones in the central

press. Yes, we do not deny that the criticism is valid. But let us, workers

at the Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy, show the sector's work from the bright

side, in bright colors. Let us manifest persistence and find approaches to

the editorial departments of the central press!"

It is said that the board of the Ministry of Tractor and Agricultural Machine

Building has told off press center workers as follows:

"Last year PRAVDA correspondents criticized our sector twice. Why didn't you

force your way into the pages of the CPSU Central Committee organ with

positive experience?! Report to us, who did persistently knock at PRAVDA's

door?"

Apparently, that is why workers at this ministry's press center have suddenly

begun to attack our editorial department with telephone calls!

Workers at press centers of ministries catch it:

42
"You should forestall critical statements by the central press with an

abundance of positive articles on our sector's achievements. Forestall! And

if you don't manage to do so, you should provide several positive

announcements for a critical one."

Press center workers complain that they are forced to popularize dubious

innovations and poor-quality machinery. They are pressured and oppressed and

demands are placed on them. "Ideological support"—this is how departments

cynically refer to the publication in the capital press of articles cleverly

advertising an unmarketable and even useless commodity.

For the sake of fairness we note that not everyone yields to such pressure.

Hence the criterion for the selection of press center workers: The ability to

get complimentary articles published, not creative talent, is regarded as of

paramount importance. Not without reason the statute on the duties of

correspondents at many press centers notes black on white: "Ensuring the

movement of materials throughout the editorial cycle up to the publication or

broadcast of an article."

Thus, as we see, the first commandment of press centers is to stubbornly and

persistently sing the praises of those who pay.

The second duty is the "control and methodological guidance of multicirculation newspapers." As a rule, however, information centers work on this

poorly, which is quite logical: Enterprise newspapers—organs of party

committees of enterprises—are called upon to ensure party guidance of

newspapers.

"But they do not ensure this," says the Ministry of Tractor and Agricultural

Machine Building. "Newspapers receive our help with great gratitude. Here,

read the letters from editors!"

Here we must stop. Yes, not all party committees actively guide the

"infantry" of journalism—enterprise newspapers. Therefore, "gaps" are formed

here and there. They are filled by press centers of ministries, which are

sometimes very far removed from "infantrymen" (for example, take the Far

East), whereas party committees, raykoms, gorkoms, obkoms,and kraykoms should

carry out party guidance.

"Ownerless" enterprise newspapers... Such a situation forces party committees

to clearly determine their position: Are newspapers of labor collectives,

which, indeed, are in the forefront of restructuring, needed now or not? If

they are needed, then they must be strengthened, organized, and involved in an

active fight for changes and acceleration.

Finally, press centers make surveys of announcements in the central press on

the work of the sector's headquarters for its managers and prepare (for them)

reports and speeches, although we would like to note that there are special

workers for this on the staff.

Press centers have greatly multiplied in capital departments—there is

literally no end of them. It is impossible to count them, because the

43
"industry of glorification" is entrusted to so-called snowdrops considered

scientific associates, engineers, and so forth—graduates of the Literary

Institute and of faculties of journalism. Moreover, smart representatives of

these centers are now accredited in republics, krays, and oblasts. Thus, in

Tyumen conveyers for show operate at almost all main administrations (there

are 10 here) and at many all-Union production associations. Contributors to

rayon and multi-circulation newspapers, where there is such a shortage of

journalists, have been enticed with high salaries to come here.

Moreover, even in Moscow there is an outflow of them from editorial

departments to the notorious press centers, whose staff often has as many as

20 people. Pushers in the service of managers. After all, the press—it is

said not without reason—is a party affair.

This is the face of the centers called upon to glorify the actions of

ministries. Conveyers for show operate and pressure.

Now is the time of strict evaluations and of an impartial and truthful

analysis of the state of affairs. Therefore, it seems that it is reasonable

to finally stop the conveyers for show, on whose servicing people's sizable

funds are spent. This is squandering justified by nothing!

11439

CSO: 1800/392

44
MEDIA AND PROPAGANDA

MINISTRIES UNRESPONSIVE TO NEWSPAPER CRITICISM

[Editorial Report] Baku KOMMUNIST in Azeri on 21 February 1987 carries on

page 4 a 500-word report by the Letter Department of KOMMUNIST headlined "An

Ironic Declaration" on the failure of ministries and leading organizations to

respond to criticism voiced in the columns of newspapers such as KOMMUNIST and

others. Noting the AzSSR Ministry of Construction had promised a response to

a criticism directed at the ministry's work and that the newspaper had, in

fact, received this promise in the name of the minister, the newspaper claims

that "those who signed the letter in his name have, if we may say so, deceived

him" and points out that the ministry does not even subscribe to KOMMUNIST and

"has no intention of doing so." Similar rejections of newspaper criticism are

addressed to the Ministries of Light Industry, Communal Housing, Consumer

Services, and others. KOMMUNIST maintains to the ministries concerned that

"the newspaper's word is the word of the people, the party word. Your answer

is your kind of accountability to those who have faith in you in this and

other questions."

PARTY ORGANIZATIONS BLAMED FOR JOURNALISTIC SHORTCOMINGS

[Editorial Report] Baku ADABIYYAT VA INJASANAT in Azeri on 20 February 1987

carries on page 4 a 4900-word Azerinform report on proceedings of the Seventh

Congress of the Azerbaijan Journalists Union headlined "We Must Become

Propagandists of the Innovative Ideas of the Party." It was claimed that

"shortcomings in the work of party committees in their leadership over

journalist collectives are the basic reason behind their low level of

influence." It was added that "if the party committee would restructure its

work, then the press would also rebuild its own because strong and weak sides

of the party committee's work are reflected in the newspaper which is its

organ. It is a pity that some leading workers have still not eliminated such

earlier diseases like the fear of openness and criticism."

AZERI JOURNALIST STRESSES IMPORTANCE OF 'OPENNESS'

[Editorial Report] Baku KOMMUNIST in Azeri on 13 February 1987 carries on

page 4 a 1700-word article by Nuraddin Babayev, journalism professor at the

S.M. Korov Azerbaijan State University, in which he discusses the importance

of "openness" in journalism; the article is headlined "Why Didn't We Write

About It?" Noting that in the time before "openness" "we spoke about faults

in our society in whispers," he adds that these "whispers" were detrimental in

themselves because they "were often grist for thee mill of enemy propaganda

45
and created the conditions for the spread of ungrounded insinuations, rumors,

and scandals about our mistakes." He claims that "only by strengthening

openness can its hidden and overt opponents be overcome. This is a difficult

and complex problem. Strengthening openness and turning it into an effective

channel of socialist democracy are the primary duties of journalists."

IDEOLOGY SEMINAR EMPHASIZES COUNTERPROPAGANDA

[Editorial Report] Baku KOMMUNIST in Azeri on 13 February 1987 carries on

page 3 an 800-word Azerinform report on a republic seminar for ideological

workers at the Baku Higher Party School on the subject of reconstruction; the

report is headlined "Ideological Work at the Level of Modern Demands." It was

pointed out that "one must eliminate the years-old slogans, cliches,

embroideries, and 'beautifications' of facts and events in ideological work

and learn to talk with people straightforwardly and openly about problems and

difficulties surfacing during restructuring. At this time one cannot sidestep

up-to-date, important problems that disturb the people, or avoid answers to

pointed questions." Meeting participants concluded, however, that "this is

only the beginning. The mass media are not paying enough attention to

operational effectiveness, analysis and discussion, and the quality of

materials is poor."

JOURNALISTIC SHORTCOMINGS EXPOSED AT AZERBAIJAN CONGRESS

[Editorial Report] Baku KOMMUNIST in Azeri on 14 February 1987 carries on

page 1 a 1200-word Azerinform report on the opening of the Seventh Congress of

the Azerbaijan Journalists Union headlined "We Must Be More Active in

Restructuring the Work of Journalist Collectives." Speakers pointed out that

"there are still many shortcomings in the activity of editorial collectives.

Some of them are not operational enough and do not conduct creative

journalistic investigations; they are not making an effort. In articles in

republic newspapers and radio and television programs there is often a

tendency to pass over pressing questions, to sidestep existing shortcomings,

to take the easy path. For example, year after year journalists have turned

to the same heroes at the same addresses, have described them and have not

seen the flaws behind the 'external beauty.1" Cited as representative of this

is the praise heaped upon Glavneftmash despite the poor quality of the

equipment it produces.

/12913

CSO: 1830/434

46
MEDIA AND PROPAGANDA

AZERI 'PROGRESSIVES' FALL VICTIM TO 'BLACK FRIDAY' IN IRAN

[Editorial Report] Baku ADABIYYAT VA INJASANAT in Azeri on 20 February 1987

carries on page 8 a 1500-word article by Rovshan Valiyev with an introduction

by A. Mammadrza on actions of the Islamic Republic of Iran directed at Iranian

Azeri 'progressives' headlined "Don't Interrogate the Blacksmith." Noting

that "the first achievements of the revolution were blocked by the strengthening

of the right w^ng of the government, the elevation.of reactionary and

chauvinist forces, and the wild attacks by ignoramuses and fanatics," the

article describes the events of "Black Friday" when books by Azeri authors and

instruments of Azeri folk musicians were burnt by Iranian authorities. At

the same time a number of Azeri intellectuals were arrested. The article

claims that "in the course of 10 days writers' councils at 13 locations were

broken up and those arrested were declared to be political prisoners. A

heretofore unseen reaction had taken the initiative in Southern Azerbaijan.

And who belongs to this reaction?... Nationalists who made their way into the

apparatus of the Islamic Republic of Iran and secret Shah-lovers." It is

claimed further that "one can say that the publishing of a national press in

Azeri has been halted" and that "in newspapers the publications of articles

in the mother tongue, in Azeri, has been forbidden."

/9738

CSO: 1831/407

47
HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY

HISTORICAL NOVEL ABOUT SOVIET INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS REVIEWED

[Editorial Report] Yerevan SOVETAKAN AYASTAN in Armenian on 16 September

1986 carries on page 4 a 700-word article, published under the rubric "Newly

Published," by A. Gevorgyan titled "The 'Foreigner' Returned...." The article

is a review of a book by Sergey Chobanyan titled "Harkadir »Pakhust1" [Forced

Escape], published in Yerevan in 1986 by the Hayastan Publishing House. A

complete work in its own right, it is also a continuation of "Yerrbrd Handipum"

[Third Encounter] (published in 1968) and "Menamart Endhatakum" [Duel in the

Underground] (published in 1972). This book is of special interest, the

reviewer notes, because it informs the reader about the exploits of Armenian

Checkists. The author spent more than 20 years collecting material for his

book, examining many archives and interviewing a great many people, both at

home and abroad, having connection with the heroes and events depicted in

this book, and has created a work which is faithful to historical fact. In

this volume, in contrast to the preceding two volumes, which were set during

the Great Patriotic War and dealt with the activities of Soviet intelligence

officers deep behind enemy lines, the narrative deals with events which took

place immediately after victory was won, when the Germans were attempting to

hide all their documents to prevent them from falling into Soviet hands, as

well as in the period when the CIA stepped up its activities in the USSR,

planting recruited agents, especially in areas bordering Soviet Armenia. The

facts and individuals described in this book are true, but names have been

changed. The reviewer has a few minor criticisms, but praises the book

highly.

/9738

CSO: 1838/402

48
HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY

HISTORY EDUCATION INADEQUATE IN GEORGIAN SCHOOLS, VUZ'S

[Editorial Report] Tbilisi KOMUNISTI in Georgian on 22 January 1987 carries

on page 3 under the title "The Past Must Serve the Present" a 2,400-word

article by Professor A. Surguladze, head of Tbilisi State University's

Department of USSR History, concerning the inadequacy of history instruction

in Georgia's schools and VUZ's. In particular, total classroom hours

devoted to USSR, Georgian, and world history are insufficient (some figures

are given); textbooks are skimpy and outmoded, and auxiliary materials such

as chrestomathies, maps, and popular publications are in short supply; the

history departments have very few graduate students; and professors and

instructors who should be writing seminal new works are, owing to low

salaries, devoting their extracurricular time to tutoring to boost their

income. One major result of all this is that Georgian secondary school

graduates, for example, have a very poor knowledge of the history of their

own people, the USSR, and the world.

The author also laments that a split has developed between the study of

history (which includes archeology and ethnography as well), on the one

hand, and the "social sciences" (including scientific communism, political

economy, etc.) on the other, and historians tend to be left out of all-union

Conferences dealing with matters of ideology.

In one passage, Professor Surguladze contrasts today's "vacuum" in regard to

historiography and its specialists with the brilliant historians who were

writing and teaching in the 1930s (Berdzenishvili, Dzhavakhishvili).

The author focuses particularly on the poor quality of much of the

historical literature in use today, especially works dealing with the

1950s-1970s, which tend to be superficial and opportunistic [konyunkturnyy],

glossing over "sore points" and "prettifying" events and stages in the

building of socialism. With reference to the party's appeals to get rid of

"scholasticism" and "dogma" in evaluating history, Professor Surguladze

quotes Patiashvili at the Tbilisi State University party aktiv to the effect

that "dishonesty" in various aspects of life does not derive from historical

traits but "has been acquired under present conditions."

Georgian historiography also lags badly in regard to cultural history,

although to be sure a Department of Georgian Cultural History has been

49
created in Tbilisi State University. What is needed now in addition is a

scientific-research laboratory to work on this field.

Finally, the author stresses the critical need for improved and

broader-range historical studies as a tool to counter bourgeois propaganda,

in particular to counter "sovietologists" who distort Georgia's experience

with Russia, the installation of Soviet rule, nationality policies,

friendship of peoples, and the like. At present, materials are superficial

and lack system. One urgently needed remedy is for Georgian historians to

study sources and materials being used by the bourgeois sovietologists, in

particular to use foreign holdings such as the menshevik archives in Paris

and at Harvard.

6854

CSO: 1830/451

50
RELIGION

UNREGISTERED BAPTIST ACTIVITIES DISCUSSED

Kiev RABOCHAYA GAZETA in Russian 27 Jan 87 P 3

[Article by V. Arestov, candidate of philosophical sciences, assistant

professor at the Department of Scientific Atheism, Ethics, and Esthetics, Kiev

State Pedagogical university imeni A. M. Gorkiy: "Instigators' Prayers"]

[Text] In recent years the self-styled and unofficially operating religious

extremist «Council of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists" (STsEKhB)

has been simply nagging the believers who are under its influence, requiring

them to carry out "prayer weeks11 and "prayer months" for the "salvation of the

faith."

What has caused this crude pressure upon the awareness of the average

believer, a pressure that is carried out to the point of hysteria?

This can be understood by using as an example one of the largest Protestant

churches in the USSR — the Baptist church. After the end of the Great

Patriotic War there was a decrease in the rate of religious participation in

that church, and a decrease in its monetary income. The crisis phenomena in

religion, which, we might note, are completely natural for socialist society,

have caused serious alarm among the Baptist activists, who have begun to seek

a way out of the situation. Most of the believers are honest Soviet citizens,

workers, and patriots, and the official directive organ elected by them

the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christian Baptists (VSEKhB) began by

resolving their problems on purely religious paths, without slipping onto

antisocial positions and without committing any violations of Soviet

legislation concerning religious cults.

However, the situation that formed historically in the Baptist church is such

that its congregations, during the prerevolutionary years and the first decade

after the Great October, were socially unhomogeneous— most of the average

believers were peasants and the urban poor people employed in hand crafts,

while the leading positions were occupied by rich farmers and their henchmen,

and the trade bourgeoisie. Petty-bourgeois ideology and psychology were

reflected in the practical life of the Baptist congregations.

Antisocial moods were introduced into the midst of the believers during the

postwar years by a group of persons who had served their sentences or had

succeeded in avoiding punishment: former rich farmers and their henchmen,

51
deserters, members of the Polizei, and their ilk, who had "seen the light" and

who had found in the Baptist church a convenient cover for. their- vengeance on

society. Taking advantage of the crisis situation in religion and the ferment

in the ranks of the believers, these "formers" gave themselves the task of

discrediting the Baptist church leaders who were loyal to the Soviet state and

of switching the church onto the path of confrontation with the agencies of

authority. To the honor of the Baptist believers, most of them did not yield

to the provocations, but instead remained in loyal positions.

But the instigators who were using religious demagoguery and who were

speculating on the believers' religious feelings succeeded in enticing a

relatively insignificant but extremely active segment of the believers and

switching them to antisocial positions. After adopting from bourgeoisclerical subversive centers in the West various "theories" concerning "state

atheism" and the "persecutions of the faith" that allegedly occur in the USSR,

and concerning the "second-class" citizenship of the believers, whose rights

are allegedly being violated crudely in Soviet society, and using the

political illiteracy of a small number of these believers, anti-Söviet G.

Vins, former rich farmer S. Golev, Vlasovite D. Minyakov, deserter I. Antonov,

rich farmer sons N. Khrapov and M. Khorev, and their ilk proclaimed themselves

to be the "saviours of the faith" and declared a "crusade" for the "complete

evangelization" of the USSR.

But from the very beginning, the "rebirth movement" began to warp in a

direction that is very far from satisfying the religious needs of the

believers. At the "prayer meetings" the leaders devoted only a miserly part

of their sermons to the glorification of Christ, but expended the lion's share

of their rhetoric and oratorical ardor to falsification and slander.

Directing their principal attention to the children and adolescents in the

Baptist families, they attempted to prepare a "Christ-like flourishing tribe"

for the purpose of confronting the agencies of authority and for trampling

crudely on Soviet laws; agitated against service in the ranks of the Soviet

Army; and used various situations — marriages, funerals of coreligionists who

had died, and parties to send people off into the army — for the purpose of

organizing slanderous meetings.

Deafened by the religious-political blather and roused by the false assertions

of their allegedly having been "chosen by God," the average believers at first

followed their leaders obediently, gave them the rubles they had earned, went

out into the forest and the ravines in order to listen to the latest series of

provocational speeches, and tuned their radio receivers to the frequencies

of Western radio stations when told to do so by their leaders, and thus they

absorbed into their awareness, in addition to evangelical fairy tales, antiSoviet propaganda.

The subversive anti-Soviet centers that had been created by the imperialists'

intelligence services were delighted. One of the fervent anti-Söviet clerics,

Anglican Church pastor Michael (Burdo) during those years wrote, having in

mind the illegal activity of the so-called STsEKhB: "If this takes on

everywhere the decisive nature that it has in the church of evangelical

Christian Baptists, then Christianity can again prove to be one of the most

dynamic forces in the future evolution of Soviet society."

52
That is the role that was assigned to the instigator-leaders, but the fate

that was prepared for the ordinary believers was to act as the "gray mass,

11 by

the efforts of which the anti-Soviets intended to implement an "evolution," by

which they meant the elimination of akes it possible to estimate the swap time

so-called STsEKhB who were blinded by religious fanaticism, the serving of a

false idea, the final goal of which they could not even guess, turned out to

be completely wasted years, the rejection of a normal human life, and the loss

of respect on the part of their fellow citizens, both believers and

nonbelievers.

An "evolution" occurred, but not the one that the instigator-leaders and their

foreign protectors had counted on. The average believers and some of the

Baptist activists who were troubled by questions of faith but who had never

even thought of serving the enemies of their country began gradually to see

things more clearly.

In the late 1970's and early 1980«s there was a "split within the split." In

the "council of churches" itself the next stage in the power struggle began —

the leaders began reviling one another, heaping one another with accusations

of all kinds of sins, of which there actually were a large number: the "older

brothers," without any supervision, used the funds that had been collected

from the believers "for church matters," scandalously divided the rags that

had been sent by the foreign guardians, paid obviously un-Christian attention

to the young "sisters in Christ," and their families thought not so much about

God as they did about their personal profit. Those activists who objected to

the line that did not have anything to do with faith were driven out of the

"council of churches," as were those who failed to agree with the practice of

antisocial provocations and who were indignant at the ties that the "council"

had with such western centers of subversion as Underground Evangelization,

Slavic Mission, International Amnesty, and others like them.

Two of the "council" founders — S. Dubovoy and M. Shaptala — disappeared

unnoticed from its list, and its well-known functionary, "bringer of good

tidings No. 1" Anatoliy Petrenko, from Shostka, Sumy Oblast, broke with the

extremist center. He spoke openly about the nowise holy customs that

prevailed in the leadership of the so-called STsEKhB, for which he was

immediately declared to be a traitor to the "holy cause."

But the main thing lay in the fact that entire groups of believers began to

get out from under the subordination to the so-called STsEKhB in Donetsk,

Kharkov, Rostov, Kursk, and Rovno oblasts, Moldavian SSR, Krasnodar Kray, and

other places, taking the legal path of religious activity. They were

convinced that no one in the USSR was violating the believers' rights and that

the freedom of conscience that was guaranteed by the country's Constitution

was being carried out scrupulously, just as they understood the quagmire that

their "older brothers," who had covered themselves with religion, were

attempting to lead them.

The Western protectors, with doubled energy, started to require their wards to

increase their participation rate sharply, to intimidate the believers more

53
with "the Lord's punishment," to continue the collecting and sending to the

West of anti-Soviet concoctions concerning the "persecutions," etc. A.

Petrenko told about the admission made by the self-styled chairman of the socalled STsEKhB, G. Kryuchkov: "It is necessary to speak frankly, and not to

close one's eyes to the fact that, as soon as the flow of information there

(that is, to the West) stops, there will be no prayers there..."

Religious extremist M. Khorev, who is well-known for his immoderate

pseudoliterary fertility, revealed, without desiring to do so, both the true

position of the "church" and its leaders' goals. In 1985 he published, in the

slanderous VESTNIK ISTINY, an article under the curious title "Insane for the

Sake of Christ." In text that made no attempt at concealment, the person who

had been a member of the "council of churches" for many years called upon the

believers to take the positions of "insanity," that is, extremism and

fanaticism that were completely unprecedented. He told how he had attempted,

in one of the congreations, to conduct an illegal mass assemblage, asking one

of the faithful to chop down an orchard on his personal plot, thus freeing a

place for setting up a large tent under which the "praying" would occur.

However, the believers, using various pretexts, refused to do that. Finally

one fanatic agreed, and Khorev exclaimed, "Are many people capable to doing

this? There are few people like this."

The extremist thus admits that the believers, albeit passively, have been

resisting the leaders, having no desire to feed the pride of the "older

brothers" who are greedy to prance around and pontificate to their audience

and to destroy the fruits of many years of labor.

Another member of the "council of churches," Ye. Rodoslavov, from Odessa, who

is well known among the believers as a person who likes the "beautiful" life,

published in the same VESTNIK ISTINY his own sermon, "Faith Is the Source of

Strength," in which, as it were, he concretizes Khorev, showing what

categories of believers do not want to follow those who are "insane in

Christ": they are the "elders" who had previously "demonstrated audacity";

"ministers' wives" who "cannot understand that difficult grace of selfsacrifice"; and "young people" who do not want to "suffer." It is necessary

for the leaders to intimidate them with "spiritual destruction," but even this

is no longer yielding the desired results.

In the mid-1980's the pastors and preachers of the Baptist groups that had got

from under the subordination to the "council of churches" and had taken the

legal path of religious activity distributed among the believers a document

under the title of "Fraternal Consent," in which they directly admitted that

"in the environment of separated brotherhood there Occurs a stratification

with respect to the attitude to the present-day course of the Council of

Churches. Certain congregations and ministers in the church cannot agree

unconditionally with the actions of the ministers in the Council of Churches,

or accept their opinions as being mandatory for execution."

That is why, when attempting to stop the process that is so undesirable for

them — the process by which the believers Who have been deceived by them are

changing over to civil positions — the leaders of the "council of churches,"

urged on by their Western "benefactors," are turning themselves inside out,

54
thinking up various "prayer months" and inflating the religious fanaticism and

extremism. Therefore it is necessary to fight for every believer who has not

yet become completely aware of the true goals of the extremists, including the

fight for the young people who have lent themselves to the lure of false

religious "heroism." The times for negative phenomena, among which religious

extremism has occupied a place that is by no means the last place, have

passed.

So at the present time Lenin's words are more timely than they have ever been

before — his words concerning the need for the unity of the proletarians —

both the believers and the nonbelievers — in the struggle to create paradise

on earth, the struggle to prevent antisocial elements who have concealed

themselves with religion, and their Western "mentors," from undermining that

unity.

5075

CSO: 1800/382

5.5
RELIGION

AZERBAIJAN GEORGIANS' RELIGIOUS, ETHNIC REVIVAL SKETCHED

[Editorial Report] Tbilisi KOMUNISTI in Georgian on 6 December 1986 carries

on page 4 Mikheil Kuloshivili's 700-word article, titled "For They Remained

Georgians," concerning the religious and ethnic revival of the Ingilos

(Georgians inhabiting districts in western Azerbaijan) in the 19th century.

Despite centuries of savage oppression and forced Moslemization at the hands

of the Persians, Lezghians, and Tatars who held sway there, the Georgians of

Saingilo kept alive the flame of their Christian faith—in secret while

outwardly manifesting Moslem beliefs—and managed to maintain their language

and customs. Then in 1850, a patriot named Ivan-Baba Bulugashvili

(1801-1872) and several of his associates took the bold step of having

themselves baptized, and they spearheaded what became an Ingilo renaissance.

They undertook to build a Georgian church on the site of a razed mosque

which itself had been erected on the site of an old Georgian church. They

went door to door and persuaded parents to send children to school in the

home of a priest named Mikheil (Mirza) Kuloshivili; a full-fledged Georgian

school was opened in 1858. All of these were acts of true heroism at that

time. Thanks to these efforts, and with some help from important figures of

the day in Georgia, the Ingilos preserved their faith, their language, their

Georgianness. The author of the article proposes that a celebration in

honor of Bulugashvili, Ivan-Babaoba, be instituted in Kakhi.

6854

CSO: 1830/452

56
RELIGION

BETTER ATHEIST WORK NEEDED IN UZBEKISTAN .^

Tashkent PRAVDA VOSTOKA in Russian 10 Dec 86 p 2

[Unattributed report: "Let's Raise the Atheist Education of ,the Public to the

Level of the Present-Day Requirements: Topic of the Single Political Day Which

Will Be Held in Uzbekistan on 12 December"] , ,,

[Excerpts] As was noted at the 21st Congress of the Communist Party of

Uzbekistan, religion acts as a tremendous inhibitor of public, economic, and

social development and the confirmation of the socialist way of life and

communist morality. Closely intertwined in the religious survivals and

backward customs and mores are oppositions to the changes in our life, as well

as petty-bourgeois elements and a psychology of private ownership, and a large

number of undesirable phenomena. t ^

The anti-popular, anti-scientific essence of religion manifests itself even

more graphically in its attitude toward phenomena of social life; there is,

for example, the suggestion to the believers that they should be meek and

humble. Asserting that class inequality is a "law" that has been dictated by

God and has been predetermined by Him, religion always justified social

oppression and drew a veil over class contradictions.

Religion provides an untrue, distorted idea concerning reality, displaces the

real scale of values, devalues the true ones and extols the illusory,

imaginary ones, suggests a false program of life and an idea concerning a

meaning and goal of life which are situated somewhere outside of life itself,

somewhere beyond its limits.

The harm that religion inflicts has the most acute, most tragic effect on the

believer himself. But scientific atheism emancipates a person's awareness from

delusions and prejudices, and frees his life from archaic and conservative

traditions and customs.

We also do not have the right to forget that religion is a variety of an

ideology that is alien to us. This principle takes on particular significance

in connection with the ideological struggle that has become more acute, a

struggle in which an increasingly active role is played by clerical

anticommunism and the attempts of imperialistic circles to use religion for

57
political purposes against socialism, for the purpose of persecuting

everything that is advanced and progressive.

Thus, in the prerevolutionary Central Asian khanates, Islam, having combined

within itself the secular and religious spheres, equating morality and law,

permeated the entire structure of society and was a force that actively

supported the stability and durability of dominance by the reactionary

regimes, and the clergy acted as a leading propaganda force. The life of

every individual from its beginning to end was under the clergy's control.

Islam served as the basis of the stable views of society and certain

individuals concerning the life around them and the value orientations that

guided the Muslims in their everyday life and activities. It exerted a

decisive effect upon the reproduction of the ideas and views of society and

its moral principles, and completely permeated education, legal proceedings,

etc.

The growth of the economy, culture, and the sociopolitical and labor

participation of the Central Asian nations, and the changes in their socialclass structure as ä result of the victory of the Great October and the

historic achievements of socialism, became the objective sources that promote

the liberation of various aspects of the life of society and the individual

from under the religious influence.

The socialist state does not need religion as a means of unification and

consolidation. Marxist-Leninist ideology became that factor for consolidating

and uniting Soviet citizens. The moral values and ideals of our society are

completely free of religion. Religion does not play any role in our economy,

politics, law, or educational system, and exerts an influence only upon the

moral values and ideas of individual citizens. Having lost its support in the

leading areas of life in Soviet society, Islam, like the other religions, has

now become a matter of personal consciencer; and occupies a place only in the

sphere of social psychology and personal life.

But underestimating the harm and danger of religious ideology, and feeling

that religion will die out of its own accord and thus there is no need to

expend efforts to further this, will be a serious delusion and error.

Wherever atheistic work is not carried out, religion can firmly retain Its

viability and, moreover, can increase the number of its followers. As was

noted at the 3rd Plenum of the Uzbek CP Central Committee, during recent years

that work has become weaker in our republic, and in individual cities and

rayons has been completely nullified. The belittling of the danger of

religious prejudices, the camouflaging of atheistic education with declarative

slogans and, at times, the playing of games with the clergy have led to a

definite religious splash, especially in Islam. Gullible, easily-deceived

people continue to make pilgrimages to the so-called "holy places.»' Various

kinds of charlatans, posing as ministers of the faith, use prejudices and

superstitions for their own selfish purposes, and engage in the carrying out

of ceremonies, sorcery, the healing of the sick, and the unauthorized building

of new houses of prayer.

A considerable number of newlyweds continue to marry in accordance with

religious canons, and the attraction to religious ceremonies with all their

58
extravagance has seized many people. A large number of people take the

attitude toward Islam that it is a mandatory attribute of national life and

they evaluate uncritically the role of Islam in the development of the culture

and art of the nation.

The clergy makes strenuous attempts to adapt the religious ideology to

present-day conditions, to modernize it, to reconcile religion with science,

and to substantiate the humanistic essence of religious, including Islamic,

morality, and is speculating on people's esthetic needs and emotions.

Individual representatives of the clergy in all trends attempt to substantiate

the religious dogmas and norms of behavior by national customs and traditions

and to present religion as being the guardian of the cultural heritage of the

nations and nationalities in our country and in our republic. And this does

not occur without leaving any traces. There have been attempts to channel the

natural interest in the nation's past into a religious, nationalistic way of

thinking, and there are some who are beginning to speak of the desirability of

showing tolerance toward religious ideas and religious morality. Such

concessions in one's political philosophy play into the hand of the proponents

of mysticism and religious superstition and our ideological opponents.

Certain young people, although they themselves are not believers, consider it

their duty, in the face of the traditions of Islam, to "respect the customs of

our nation," to respect "what has remained to us from our fathers and

grandfathers," and take a prejudicial attitude toward people who think

otherwise.

A tremendous influence upon the formation of a person's atheistic convictions

is exerted by his production-labor activity in the collective. It is only

that activity that develops such qualities as collectivism, a conscientious

attitude toward labor and social property, and an understanding of the fact

that it is not religion, but a person's labor, his intelligence and energy

that are the creator of material and spiritual values, and the basis of his

personal prosperity. This is of especially great importance for our republic,

where a considerable part of the population does not participate in social

production.

The existence in the labor collective of an atmosphere of a creative attitude

toward labor is a very important factor that promotes the formation of a

scientific, atheistic view of the world.

Another very important factor for overcoming a religious attitude is the

sociopolitical activity of the workers. The data provided by specific

sociological studies indicates that the level of atheistic conviction is

directly dependent upon the person's rate of sociopolitical participation.

Participation in sociopolitical work reinforces people's ties with society,

with their collective, and promotes the integration of their behavior and way

of thinking with the way of life of the entire Soviet nation. Another factor

of great importance in this regard is the creation of a favorable moralpsychological climate in the labor collectives, the strictest observance of

the principles of social justice, and the showing of concern, respect, and

constant attention to every individual, the lack of which is skillfully used

by the members of the clergy.

59
Practical life indicates that under our conditions it is very difficult to

bring a socially active individual into the orbit of religious influence.

But the formation of firm atheistic convictions is possible only by

simultaneously exerting upon a person an ideological influence and a

practical social influence that coincide in content, that is, only on the

basis of the simultaneous development of his consciousness and his practical

experience.

In this regard a factor that is of extreme importance is the culturalcognitive activity of all members of the collective. In the process of

assimilating various kinds of knowledge, a person develops his scientific,

political, and moral convictions. Knowledge, in addition to the effect of

other factors, is capable of leading also to a change in the convictions that

believers have formed.

The formation of the individual's atheistic view of the world is also promoted

by the carrying out in the collective of broad information directed at the

workers. The party and social organizations at enterprises and institutions

must show constant concern for improving the content of that work, and its

ideological-political directedness and its understandability.

A condition that promotes the formation of people's atheistic conviction is

the strict observance of the norms of socialist democracy. Practical life

indicates that every violation of its principles, as a rule, leads to a sharp

reduction in the effectiveness of ideological, particularly atheistic

education. Socialist democracy provides the workers with the opportunity to

participate in the administration of production, to improve their working

conditions, to raise their proficiency level and improve their education, and

to improve their everyday living conditions, that is, it instills in a person

an assurance about his emotions and strengths, and his sense of his own

dignity, and develops the conviction that the person himself is the master of

his fate.

Finally, a special place in the formation of the public's atheistic conviction

is the educational system, which includes mass-scale and individual forms of

propagandizing atheistic knowledge and the formation of the materialistic view

of the world. ; ,

In the areas where Islam is widespread, special importance is being given to

what V. I. Lenin considered to be the most important thing in atheistic

propaganda, namely: giving the masses a self-interest in taking a conscious

attitude to religious questions and to the conscious criticism of religion,

and forming a politically correct attitude toward Islam.

It is necessary constantly to carry out a scientific criticism of the essence

of religious theory and the cult, and to explain not only the ideological harm

of a particular religious ceremony, but also to indicate that the attitude

toward it that it is a "national tradition" does not allow the nation to go

forward, inflicts direct harm to it, and pulls it back. This is because we

are dealing not with a loss of a truly valuable form that reflects the

60
national uniqueness, but the rejection of something that at one time was

Brought in from the outside and that, during the period of feudal dominance

and the age of ignorance and darkness, became widespread.

A leading place in educating the upcoming generation must be occupied by the

formation of a thorough understanding of such very important concepts as

patriotism, love of the Soviet nation, and concern for its flourishing.

Internationalism, friendship between peoples, and the reciprocal enrichment of

national cultures objectively contribute to the formation and confirmation of

atheistic conviction and eliminate the very possibility of the appearance of

religious-nationalistic moods and prejudices.

' , l • - '■■. . ..;!

Under present-day conditions, when there has been an increase in the interest

shown to the monuments of national culture and history, special importance is

attached to the critical analysis of the true role of religion, particularly

Islam, in the history of nations, the role that it plays in preserving ideas

that have outlived their time, and the separation of religious ideology from

the cultural values that emerge in a religious envelopment.

New Soviet rites have been called upon to play an important role in overcoming

the attraction to religious rites. It is necessary to strive for a situation

in which these Soviet rites encompass all aspects of people's lives, become

firmly established in a truly mass-scale, universal, organic way in everyday

life, and absorb the best nonreligious national features that have been

accumulated over the centuries.

Solemn ceremonies to initiate people into the working class and the kolkhoz

peasantry and to mark a person's entrance into the ranks of the Soviet Army,

the honoring of advanced workers in production and of labor dynasties, the

presentation of internal passports and Komsomol cards, the conducting of

Memory Day, and other excellent ceremonies must become firmly established in

the life of every collective. It is necessary to intensify the work of the

agencies at the ZAGS [vital statistics department], the marriage palaces, and

the other organizations and institutions that have been called upon to

develop socialist traditions.

An absolutely mandatory condition for the effectiveness of atheistic education

is its systems approach and its unbroken continuity. Atheistic education must

be carried out aggressively, beginning with the kindergarten, in the family,

the school, the vocational-technical schools, the secondary special and higher

educational institutions, the army, and the labor collectives. For this

purpose it is necessary to use all forms and means of disseminating scientific

atheism: the press, oral political and graphic agitation, the Marxist-Leninist

educational system, clubs, palaces of culture, museums and libraries, question

and answer nights, discussions, lecture and movie-lecture series, readers'

conferences, and excursions. In a word, it is necessary to have a precise

differentiation of the forms and means of exerting an atheistic effect upon

various groups of the public, with a consideration of the place of their

residence, national peculiarities, the type of Work they perform, their

training, and their recreational activities. A special place in this matter

must be assigned to individual work with believers; this work has been

organized at a very low level everywhere.

61
The religious narcotic and the sly intrigues of our ideological opponent must

be opposed by a high level of professionalism among our cadres -- atheists,

all the ideological workers — the morality and culture of socialist society,

the frankness of information and openness, the bold and creative nature of our

propaganda, and its combativeness and aggressiveness. Only this kind of

stubborn and systematic, comprehensive work can provide positive results.

unfortunately, as was pointed out at the 3rd Plenum of the Uzbek CP Central

Committee, there have been instances, and not individual ones, in which the

participants in religious rites have included members of the Communist Party

and the Komsomol and managerial workers, but the party organizations have not

shown even the elementary exactingness toward the Communists who have been

attempting to combine party spirit with religious prejudices. Sometimes the

attempt to justify this is made by incorrectly citing Article 52 of the USSR

Constitution, which grants Soviet citizens the right of freedom of conscience,

that is, the right to make a personal decision on the question concerning his

attitude toward religion.

Proceeding from these Leninist principles, the 21st Congress of the UzSSR

Communist Party and the 3rd Plenum of the Uzbek CP Central Committee have

required an increase in the responsibility borne by Communists for the state

of atheistic propaganda, for the introduction and confirmation of new Soviet

rites, and for the absolutely strict observance of the requirements of the

CPSU Rules to the effect that a Communist must "wage a decisive struggle

against any manifestations of bourgeois ideology or a psychology of private

ownership, and against religious prejudices and other views and mores that are

alien to the socialist way of life."

The 26th CPSU Congress and the 21st Uzbek CP Congress have developed a number

of specific measures for overcoming the shortcomings and omissions in economic

and cultural building, in carrying out the social policy and ideological work,

and in atheistic education.

5075

CSO: 1800/382

62
CULTURE

CONTROVERSIAL LATVIAN FILM ON YOUTH PROBLEMS REVIEWED

Riga LITERATURA UN MAKSLA in Latvian 30 Jan 87 p 8

[Article by Victor Avotinsh under rubric "Cinema": "Bird of Youth over Crowd

and Basfement." Critique on the film "Is it Easy to be Young?" Authors of the

script: Abrams Klyotskini Yuris Podnieks, and Yevgeniys Margolins. Director:

Yuris Podnieks. Camera: Kalvis Zaltsmanis. Music: Martinsh Brauns;

passages enclosed in slantlines printed in boldface in text]

[Text] Despite social differentiation and the contradictions within each

person, there is only one continent of mankind in which if a person, young or

old, muddies the well of experience and heritage, he ruins his life, his

future, and his own heritage. In order to assess this continent's lifeforce,

one must not only find the practical significance of a certain event, but also

discover its ethical.meaning. If we look at three films made by Yuris

Podnieks and his collaborators —*'Riflernen Constellation", "Sisyphus Rolls a

Stone", and "Is it Easy to be Young?"—it seems that no other works of art or

journalism in the eighties have so convincingly uncovered the modern condition

of man. People in these films, it seems, return from old age back to their

youth, evaluating themselves, their times, and their environment from three ^

stages in their lives. In addition, these films are made "from the ground up

without any especially unique professional methods and without unique research

into the depth of society. The "material" of these films may be seen in

every-day life, as regularly discussed in newspapers, but It seems that it

required the "miracle drug" of (atklatiba) openness for us to be able to see

real life on the screen, more of less, rather than an official account of it.

Besides, there are pure relations between the heroes and the makers of the

films and mutual harmony among creative groups; and, therefore, one senses

united purpose rather than the separate and self-serving purposes of their

creators.

This question of unity in all three films may be cited under one title "Is it

Easy to Be?" not only with regard to fate and history, but also because of the

continuous dialogue between experience and love, dualism between a person's

question and society's answer, between a historic experience and its

interpretation in time, between a word and an action, desires and

possibilities, duty and explanation . . . Neither (atklatiba) openness itself

nor honesty (I do not see a reason to accuse authors of other, less effective,

films of dishonesty) in my opinion guarantees the film a free atmosphere.

63
Openness creates trust, while significance is created by the orientation of

the authors toward reality itself, rather than toward notions and theories

concerning reality. Moral, ethical, and preconceived cliches hamper many

works of the Riga documentary film-makers. In this case, first of all, the

work is protected from the cliches imposed by the authors; secondly, the

authors can therefore place themselves among the heroes of their film without

being didactic; and thirdly, the viewer meets the "primary source" rather than

hears it through retelling. You see, therefore, that one is stirred up not

only by the fact, but also by the soul; we perceive that the soul, and thus

the viewer, if he wants, can perceive more than he sees. Three films, three

generations. From the riflemen's youth to the youth of his child, which

Aivars Gulbis is forced to take from the hands of a bronze mother that he

himself created.

/The riflemen. The majority of them in the timeframe of the film live with

the pride of their experience, without pretense and without any signs of

special social benefits, and their honor lies with the plough, with bees . . .

A tourist or a passer-by would see that here lives one of those whose actions

resulted in one of our people's most courageous moments of self-expression.

The ideal for which they fought, and the comparison of that ideal with its

realization at this time becomes important both in the riflemen themselves and

in reality. The theme of the film is a lesson about a hero who did not

perform his heroic deeds for money, and who does not wear his heroic'deeds on

his sleeve. The film reminds society that the ideal and its outer vestiges

are not good which are bought once and then last forever, and that they must

be continually "reproduced" in men, in generations, and in society. At the

same time, the authors of the film present these old men as a strong social

foundation, and not only for the history of the formation of our society. In

my opinion, a quite definite dialogue exists between the heroes of "Riflemen

Constellation" and of "Is it Easy to be Young?" If the hero of "Is is Easy to

be Young?" in all of his good nature (this will be discussed later)

conditionally expresses such "free love" toward the world and mankind which

does not involve any specific duties and restrictions, if this hero somehow

constantly distances himself and considers society mostly as a mechanism which

is socially disconnected from himself and his interests, then the measure of

the cultural depth of the old men is precisely the feeling of duty and the

ability to assimilate their own situation within the total situation of the

cultures and to find their place there. When the family and the school every

day use the ideal in order to realize moral-ethical views which support only a

temporary, selfish, and materialistic mental outlook, it is not surprising

that young people do not have patriotic feelings. Therefore, the student

Yuris in the film "Is it Easy to be Young?" honestly remarks:" "But it does

not say anything in principle to our generation." Such things happen not only

when history is taught approximately, but in addition, when the students are

ordered to stand with their backs toward the future (you see all roads except

your own and, therefore, you do not see the usefulness of the available

experience). Yuris himself expresses the extreme situation that emerges when

a person lacks the practical ethical sense of linkage with society: "There is

nothing worth living or dying for." Because, you see, the young boys'

patriotism begins not with bees or with work, but with a parade, with

marching. In addition, they are to pretend that they know why they are

64
marching, to walk around in neatly fit uniforms and shiny belts won by the

home front rats strolling through the front lines during war time. In the

film "Is is Easy to be Young?", this episode serves as a convincing example of

how the loss of touch between the ideal (how it is taught) and reality becomes

approximate; and of how it does not affect everyday moral norms. Here also is

revealed the1 significance of the problem raised in "Riflemen Constellation":

our attitude toward the ideal NOW, riflemen's experience and life as the

alternate PRESENT. The riflemen's experience and life as the alternate

PRESENT. The riflemen «re at the PRESENT MOMENT, and we are at the PRESENT

MOMENT./ .

I do not see any necessity to "repair" the film "Is it Easy to be Young?" The

approach chosen by the authors seems to me to be convincing, the journalistic

result is impressive, and the subject for thoughts is rich and multilayered.

Naturally, during the polemics about the film, differences in opinion also

appeared. However, this may be already a discussion of another film. For

example, it seems to me that in the film's context, the episode with the girl

and the child actually does not belong. Not because of the girl, but because

here, and to a certain extent in the episode concerning the dead boy, the film

"falls out" of style: the authors are hovering over the heroes and start (not

using the actual image) to give instructions in their own voice. However,

such "preparation" may indirectly divert from the essential, and make the

significance of the realistic combined image approximate. Moreover,

collective work is obvious in the film, which more or less was able to show

what has already become, as it is, a sociological step.

Yes, yes, indeed there are not "all layers" in the film. There are no

superstupid dregs of society, no young conformists, as well as no other young

and Compulsory, but maybe not so openly extreme characters. There are no

"all" and "everything" at all, only real people. People who can be, and are,

real , each of them able to introduce a certain sign of his generation. The

thinking in the film is precise and effectively addressed. This film often

shows specifically one of the greatest abilities of Yuris Podnieks and his

collaborators: to discover the inner character, richness, and purity of heart

among the stereotypes and seemingly the most unusualNpeople and places. And

if we start.imagining that the film could have other "alls", we must bring

ourselves in a hurry to other things and our own work in this connection.

However difficult it is to say something from the heart, we can&ot want for

Yuris Podneiks to do it along with his group. The film's authors ought to be

told that one more degree of openness exists. There is not only a social

revelation as a cut across the base, but also a cut from the top to the roots.

Our own people will always understand without words and without a sound, but

those social institutions, which are guilty of our difficulties, will

understand only when a finger with all its force (image, word, and sound) will

be shoved directly into their eye.

The main heroes of the film are endowed with a tangible human energy

potential. They are attractive, mentally unspoiled people, whose openness

definitely has content, and whose reproach of society is not an empty

ambition, but rather is the result of their self^evaluation. In the film we

see independent people, who in our routine life seem to us to be less

65
attractive than obedient people. An impression emerges that these people have

the ability to take and to reject, without which qualities a person is an

automaton that they more or less understand themselves, and that the closer

they are to their own essence, the more ability they have to harmonize with

their social group. Therefore, I think that the notion "new, young" is

optimistic within the boundaries of the film. -The film not only corrects the

stereotyped opinion that young people lack ideas, but also discovers the live

spiritual forces, and if these forces vanish, only an abstract will remain and

the culture will fade.

.- i

However, each spirituality is confirmed only in practice, in the attitude and

in self-expression rather than in potential capabilities. The heroes of the

film can consciously separate the real from the false, they want to see

reasons instead of explanations alone. I could say that the struggle for

existence, that is, its unattractive types, have not damaged them yet.

However, the social support alone obviously was not enough for them, so that

in their thoughts, feelings, and beliefs they obtained such a wide personal

experience, which would allow one to consider that their psychology had

overcome its "self-centered formation." In the film, these young people

possess one of the acceptable practical ways (you can have a heart-to-heart

talk, it is worth it to open up), an exception, which in this case confirms

the relationship. In the "to be" category, the relations between the young

and the environment are not any more as attractive and bright as when the

young are out for themselves. It is especially true, considering the positive

potential background which the film discovers in young people. Why is this

so? The young, as is expected at their age, want to deal with an ideal world.

We think that it is good enough if we provide them with an activity

(noncreative work) which does not demand their tremendous energy. They (thank

God) are not yet interested in our alibi, which we call circumstances. Each

of them is the quality of his own moment. And then, when they need

self-respect most of all, and when there is nothing more important than to

find a position where the strongest sides of the mind and the character are

expressed, we offer A PRIORI small ethical and aesthetic plots. We forget

that we ourselves in our time were offended when somebody else had his finger

in the pie instead of us. We forget that at this age, even the most

unattractive and the most rude expressions contain a longing for a touch and a

human statement. And one word is enough to provide a direction for this

liability. Very often it is determined by the artificiality of social

contacts and by the degrees of hypocrisy. Why then do they "dry out" from

their ideals and the heights of idealism or keep these ideals only for

requests from society? They don't do it for themselves and for their activity

in the name of these Ideals. They do it in an entirely subjective plane

because there are differences between the personal interests of this moment

and the interests of the developing personality. If these differences cannot

be overcome in favor of development, something called vice, hypocrisy, etc.

emerges. For example, pleasure usually follows or is felt during an activity.

In order to experience pleasure without work, one must use drugs. Secondly,

they "dry out" because the bright and ideal aspirations meet greatly

materialistic obstacles which can cut off oxygen to any noble shoot. These

too great obstacles in the path of the development of normal social feelings,

it seems, are one of the most important reasons for pessimism among young

66
people. There is not enough sufficient cultural means in the hands of young

people for self-assertion. In traditional practice, where all the

materialistic power resides, very often a refrain is ordered that has nothing

to do with creative work, honesty, and ideals. Here also emerges that

"tragedy of wanting and being unable" which is felt in the pronouncements of

the film's heroes; and the more conservative the environmental attitude toward

young pepie, the more aggressive the expressions of the young people's

complexes, and the more expressed opposition they experience. In this sense,

the film "Is is Easy to be Young?"is a film about alternatives and about the

quality of alternatives offered to the young people.

Paraphrasing the words which the amateur filmmaker Igors says in the film, it

seems that the alternatives offered to our young people are such that they

very well may experience when they are thirty, forty, and even a hundred years

old. To sing the same pseudo-optimistic artificial verses; to prance the

parade grounds with victories which were never won; to shout at a girl who

wants a white dress that she is a prostitute, and after that to order that she

is not to jump from a window and that she is to live, because it is the

correct thing to do; and, finally, to try the results rather than the reasons.

Igors expresses one of the most precise thoughts in the film, which is one of

the most essential to our culture's make-up and to the fortitudes of the

young, namely that what you want to say when you are 19 years old will be lost

when you are 20; your 20 will not wait for you to become 25 and not at all

until you become "respectable." The lack of young people's voices in artistic

and nonartistic parts of our culture is at least as important as the lack of a

certain theme or historical period in our artistic memory. Of course, we are

talking about a creative voice. Then, why is it that Igors must realize his

ideas and principles in a "basement" (we are not talking about a specific

film)? Why is it that Igors must realize his ideas and principles in a

"basement" (we are not talking about a specific film)? Why did the mailman

choose as his philosophy the dogmatic Veda teachings. Leaves are not born

separately from the stem and roots. The direct and indirect questions in the

film concerning "to be", first of all, are directed at society and its mood.

Conformism is presented as a means of coexistence. The exploitation by the

environment (grown-ups) is without respect and mercy. It is because they

often consider the pragmatism of grown-ups as extreme: "Those who are around

forty all lie, steal, and poke" (teenager on the Central TV program). I think

that the important thing in the film is that together with the intellectuals

there are also laborers with their attitudes and notions, who represent the

money earners, or maybe the bread-winners, even though the results of their

work may not last for ages. In addition, there is also love as an abstract

thesis. In school they are taught that it means a "medical clarity" between

two human beings. It is possible to learn from the grown-ups that it is

higher and nobler than just that? Without dreams, illusions, eternity, and

starry personality and environment, the friction becomes painful.

Therefore, the type of attitudes offered by the authors of the film is

especially important. It convincingly discovers how important are openness,

mutual honesty, and equality in the formation of culture, personality,

self-understanding, and self-expression. If only there were no ranks, chairs,

67
positions, and the average statistical man, this film could be, with regard to

a style of attitudes, a "manual" for many people "tending the fields" of

society.

There is the staged charge of dissatisfied fancily-dressed youth (or punks)

through the Old City. A bunch of satisfied young boys and girls, who on

Sunday are dressed in blue jeans, wearily participate in assistance work. And

an undifferentiated mass of people, who vitally, and, let us assume, very

stupidly, and at the same time nonagressively are having fun at the Ogre's

town open platform for dancing. It is specifically this same crowd which

produces the notorious criminal results on the train, and the criminal .

punishment for some, which is a punishment without a positive,

socially-psychological and educational result. This result does not have a

single feature, which is either unfinished or misunderstood. All these crowds

serve in the film as a realistic social background, and as a "home town" for

many heroes of the film. From the outside, these features characterize the

belonging, style, fashion, and behavior of young people. This is to say that

the film is in its place. However, even people of my age get together in a

crowd (although it is not so conspicuous). These crowds are also often

^unattractive and boring. And for some unknown reasons, the mechanisms which

transform vitality into savageness are the same for crowds of all ages. It

may be that they are different with regard to the means that are used.

There are those who came back from Afghanistan. It seems that the authors of

the film have found boys who withstood both the war and its heavy aftermath.

Only, please, let us not imagine that in their fortunes we have found a

generally recommended remedy for how to discover courage and how to figure out

a man's value. Let us imagine all these boys in line; and only then will we

see how many spots are empty, how many empty sleeves are there, and how many

could not withstand the relaxation, that is, those who were bent down by the

aftermath of the war . . . Because one may want quite involuntarily to stand

up at attention in front of such boys, some may think that it is good that we

have them and that we should have more of them . . . Understandably, we are

talking about people, not fortunes. In an extreme situation, a man, if he

can, does heroic deeds by himself, that is, achieves such a result that for an

ordinary man under normal circumstances may be guaranteed only by the society

as a whole, which must be done by the society because that is its purpose (to

shape a beautiful man). Of course, the fortunes of these boys are quite

different from the fortunes of theirs in their age group. However, they are

not Martians, and their frienship, their feelings, and their attitudes toward

after" and "before", and "here" and "there", live one life with us. In

addition, they are young, even though their attitudes toward the present have

a completely different character compared with those of the people who spoke

at the beginning of the film. Young boys and young men. For the former, a

relatively determining factor may to be prove themselves, and for the latter,

this factor is how to be (what to do with yourself). Their personalities and

characters are tested and they know their own value. It is possible that what

was there will be the maximum load in their lives (on their character, nerves,

and feelings). Another such heavy load may never occur again. You have been

like a champion of yourself. And you are still young. This, in my opinion,

partially determines their complicated moral-ethical situation

68
(understandably, both the event and its essence). The resulting feeling is

that life is not cheap, and the experience forbids living cheaply. Because of

this, he cannot withstand pressure and feels that "it is bad." The fact of

finding careless attitudes here toward the most important or only significant

things there creates the alienation in the film. This will go away. This

will go away and will remain. Maybe, it will not go away.

You should not shout at someone who stands in the blue sea of hope: "Hey, why

do you soak your feet!" If this sea will dry out and the lack of knowledge

will remain, it will be very gloomy. Young people are against us only when we

fight life. I am sure of this, thanks to this film.

13355/13104

CSO: 1808/26

69
CULTURE

IBRAHIMOV NATIONAL LIBERATION NOVEL REISSUED IN MOSCOW

[Editorial Report] Baku KOMMUNIST in Azeri on 9 January 1987 carries on page

4 a 600-word article by Amirkhan Khalilov, docent and cand.philol.sci., on the

publication in Moscow by Khudozhestvennaya Literatura of the selected works of

Mirza Ibrahimov, including his work on the national liberation of Iranian

Azerbaijan, "The Coming Day"; the report is headlined "A Wise Look at Life."

The author points out that "this novel revealed the new artistic potential of

its writer. This work, which demonstrates both the writer's pen and his

political perspicacity, brought him a new renown. Azerbaijan's talented

writer advanced even further than the steps represented by Gor'kiy's 'Mother'

and the 'Story of Klim Samkin' and M.S. Ordubadi's political novels 'SmokeCovered Tabriz,* 'Fighting City,' and 'Secret Baku.' As researchers have

noted, 'The Coming Day' is one of the most characteristic novels of this

genre. The novel, which renders an epical artistic description of the

struggle of the workers of Southern Azerbaijan for independence, is considered

to be a new achievement in Soviet literature."

TWO NEW IRANIAN AZERI STORIES PRINTED

[Editorial Report] Baku ADABIYYAT VA INJASANAT in Azeri on 16 January 1987

carries on page 8 two new short stories, totalling 1300 words, by the Iranian

Azeri writer Ahmad Azarlu: the stories are "Comfort Was Born Together With

Labor" and "If He's Not Dead, He's Still Not Alive." In an editorial

introduction by Mirza Ibrahimov, it is pointed out that "publishing the works

of Southern writers in the Soviet Azeri press both inspires them and our

readers, and arouses enthusiasm. In Ahmad Azarlu's new letter, he especially

stresses this point, and he sent us two novellas. These stories are written

in the spirit of tales and legends which have been widely disseminated among

the Azeri people since olden times and used in the folk literature. Their

basic goal is to aid in the clean, pure moral training of children and youth."

AZSSR: NEW CONTROLS PLACED OVER TRANSLATIONS

[Editorial Report] Baku ADABIYYAT VA INJASANAT in Azeri on 16 January 1987

carries on page 1 a 700-word unsigned article under the rubric "In the

Azerbaijan Writers Union" discussing the need to improve the organization of

artistic translation and defining its path of future development. "In

neighboring Georgia the Chief Editorial Board for Artistic Translation and

Literary Relations under the purview of their Writers Union has been in

operation for close to 15 years. If we also consider that a Translators'

70
Union exists in a number of socialist countries and that significant work has

been done in this sector, our dillydallying becomes more obvious." It is

pointed out that while there is a translation council in the republic, it does

not concern itself with translation works being prepared for publication.

Thus, it has been decided to change its name and functions to correspond with

the need to produce high-quality translations of literary masterworks; it has

been reformed as the Council for Literary Relations and Artistic Translation.

Abbas Abdulla was elected chairman.

STATE OF AZERI LEXICOGRAPHY CRITICIZED

[Editorial Report] Baku ADABIYYAT VA INJASANAT in Azeri on 20 February 1987

carries on page 6 a 1600-word article by Professor Hasrat Hasanov criticizing

progress being made in Azeri lexicography; the title is "our Dictionaries and

Our Duties." Claiming that there are a number of reasons for the slow

development of Azeri lexicography, he notes that "there is no single,

centralized leadership and control over dictionary work. Often, those with no

experience or competence are engaged in this work and, as a result, flawed

works appear. A clear example of this is the 'Azerl-Russian Dictionary'

published for students. As a rule, dictionaries prepared for the press are

never reviewed, and those discussions which do take place convey a formal

character. Reviewers, who provide a service to the author, give positive

opinions without reading the work and pass over its shortcomings. While this

protectiveness and mercy pleases the author, it is neither in the interest of

the author or the people."

PLAY 'SHEYKH KHIYABANI» RECEIVES RAVE REVIEWS

[Editorial Report] Baku KOMMUNIST in Azeri on 10 January 1987 carries on page

4 a 1400-word review by Bakir Nabiyev, corresponding member of the AzSSR

Academy of Sciences, of Ilyas Afandiyev's historical drama "Sheykh Khiyabani";

the review's title is "Love of Freedom." In the play "the conflict is exposed

and elaborated on the basis of the hard struggle between social freedom and

despotism, the desire for national independence and the dominant concept of

nationalism, pure human feelings and unbridled horror. Sheykh Mahammad

Khiyabani was one of those prominent revolutionary leaders who write a

brilliant page in the struggle for social justice in Azerbaijan." He

organized a national government in Tabriz in 1920 (and was executed by the

Iranian army in the same year). "The performance of the drama 'Sheykh

Khiyabani' has gained the deep respect of art lovers for attracting their

attention to the great sorrow of the Azeri people—its division into two

parts, the Southern question."

MODERN AZERI ART TO BE SHOWN IN PARIS

[Editorial Report] Baku KOMMUNIST in Azeri on 21 January 1987 carries on page

3 a 500-word Azerinform report on preparations being made for an exhibit of

modern Soviet art in Paris to mark the 70th anniversary of the October

Revolution; the report's headline is "Art Serves Peace." Exhibits are being

organized by the Galerie de France and the Du Regard publishing house. Jose

Alvarez, president of Du Regard, said in an interview that "the work of the

Azeri artists we have seen in Baku is at the modern world level and will

71
represent the multinational Soviet art worthily." He and Katrin Reynom-Tyek,

director of the Galerie de France, were in Baku at the invitation of the AllUnion Authors Rights Agency. Reynorn-Tyek, "noting that certain circles in

France have spoken out against strengthening Franco-Soviet cultural relations,

expressed the hope that the forthcoming exhibit will be successful."

/12913

CSO: 1830/436

72
CULTURE

'PEOPLES FRIENDSHIP UNIVERSITIES* IN GEORGIAN BORDER AREAS

[Editorial Report] Tbilisi KOMUNISTI in Georgian on 6 December 1986 carries

on page 4 V. Okrodzhanishvili's 200-word article titled %ei Brotherhood Be

Firm Forever!" concerning the establishment of Peoples Friendship

Universities in three districts near Georgian borders: Lagodekhi Rayon [on

the eastern edge of Georgia], Kakhi Rayon [across the Georgian border in

Azerbaijan], and Idzhevan Rayon [in Armenia]. Recently a festive meeting

was held in Kakhi to celebrate the opening of these institutions, designed

to foster brotherhood and proletarian internationalism,"with the rectors of

the respective universities addressing the assemblage.

AZERBAIJAN'S GEORGIANS COMPLAIN OF CULTURAL NEGLECT

[Editorial Report] Tbilisi LITERATURULI SAKARTVELÖ in Georgian No 52,

26 December 1986 carries on page 3 MziaKhetaguri's 500-word article, titled

"Meeting With Kinsmen," concerning the problems of ethnic Georgian (Ingilo)

teachers and school children In ah Azerbaijan village. A group from

Georgia's Merani Publishing House visited International School No 1 in

Aliabad [Zakataly Rayon], which both Georgian and Azeri children attend,

accompanied throughout by the school's Azeri director and the head of the

Culture Department.

During the assembly, children begged to exchange visits with Georgians and

get the chance to tour Georgia's historic places. Georgian teachers voiced

a number of complaints: There is no local Georgian radio; all the school

books are old; they need portraits of Georgian writers In order to set up a

Georgian Literature Room; they need Georgian mathematics texts; Georgian

periodicals are hard to get.

The Merani delegation found that the school's Georgian library was indeed in

sad shape; There were no books published later than 1953, and what few they

saw were in disarray.

Two months after that visit, the Merani group is still getting letters. A

teacher thanked them for new books and urged them to consult with Azerbaijan

rayon authorities on improving Georgian schooling there--"otherwise, we will

lose each other." The author of the article states that "Azerbaijan's

Georgians need more concern and attention," arid she urges that local

Georgian schools and rayons arrange exchange visits with their Ingilo

kinsmen, provide art, music, theater, and books. She suggests that the

Writers Union assign writers to visit the Ingilos.

73
ETHNIC GEORGIANS IN AZERBAIJAN RECEIVE CULTURAL HELP

[Editorial Report] Tbilisi KOMUNISTI in Georgian on 3 January 1987 carries

on page 4 Eter Gugushvili's 1,000-word article, titled "We Are Waiting for

You, Dear Friends," concerning the cultural help which Georgian theater

groups are providing to ethnic Georgians [Ingilos] inhabiting Kakhi Rayon in

Azerbaijan, specifically secondary school students in the village of

Alibeglo. Some years ago, students and faculty of the Rustaveli Theater

Institute visited the village, put on plays, literary readings and concerts,

and helped the Georgian students set up a Peoples Theater. The tradition

has continued on a regular basis ever since. Not long ago, the Alibeglo

troupe came to Tbilisi and performed a number of plays, sketches,

"miniatures," and musical numbers reflecting chiefly Georgian traditional

themes, with a strong emphasis on fighting social Injustice and fostering

human rights and dignity. Much of the music came out of the Georgian folk

liturgy. The troupe also puts on traveling shows in neighboring districts

of Azerbaijan, incorporating Azerbaijani materials as well as Georgian. The

Alibeglo youngsters have received considerable material help—a bus,

costumes, and so forth—thanks to the Georgian Culture Ministry and the

Theater Society.

BUREAUCRATS, APATHY BLOCK GEORGIAN CULTURAL RESTRUCTURING

[Editorial Report] Tbilisi LITERATURULI SAKARTVELO in Georgian No 5,

30 January 1987 carries on page 7 writer Davit Mchedluri's 2,600-word

article, titled "Vital Necessity," concerning ongoing efforts of the

restructuring (and its closely related term acceleration) of all aspects of

political, social, economic, and cultural life. The new way of thinking

will not be turned back, despite the hopes of the philistines [obyvateli]

that things will soon return to "normal."

The author emphasizes two main and interconnected forces constituting

obstacles in the path of restructuring: The inertial power of the

bureaucrats, who have for too long enjoyed special rights and privileges and

have not hesitated to trample on "the manifestation of free will" and

"different thinking" of others; and the apathy and fear of the public in

general and those who "should speak out" in particular.

In the sphere of literature and the arts, conformity has been the rule as

literary and artistic efforts to portray social phenomena objectively have

been declared harmful, for bureaucrats wielding authority over such things

always prefer "Potemkin villages."

One result has been increasing mediocrity in all endeavors—workmanship,

literary and artistic works, the economy, education, and of course

leadership itself. Mediocrity is "what sells," and just about anybody, it

seems, can get his writing published and even win a prize.

Over the years, conversely, many worthy works have been ignored or

suppressed. Russian writers now are calling for the publication of such

74
masters as Bulgakov, Platonov, Zoshchenko, Gumilev, Pasternak and Akhmatova.

How about Georgia? Why was director Tengiz Abuladze's film "Repentance"

[Georgian "Monanieba," Russian "Pokayaniye"] blocked for so long? People do

not forget what was done to them, "nor can old stains be covered by the dust

of archives.*! Or consider historian Mikheil Tamarashvili's monumental

"History of the Georgian Church" [published in Rome, in French, in 1910],

which has yet to appear in Georgian. "It's about time we, so to speak,

forgave certain of our writers' and scholars' witting or unwitting errors

and returned their works to our people" (historian Zurab Avalishvili and

politician Archil Dzhordzhadze [both emigres] are mentioned in this

context).

Bureaucrats, chinovniki, are a dangerous force, whose thinking and actions

undermine people's respect for the law, for legality and justice, for

authority itself. The privileges and powers of the chinovniki lead to an

ever-growing gap between them and the people, toward a "caste" system. Even

false rumors of special privileges may be bitterly believed by the public.

Hence, "vox populi" must not slacken, nor Themis slumber, lest law and

legality give way to force [nasiliye].

6854

CSO: 1830/453

75
SOCIAL ISSUES

MOSKOVSKIYE NOVOSTI REPRINTS LETTER FROM EMIGRE DISSIDENTS

LD251851 Moscow TASS International Service in Russian 1540 GMT 25 Mar 87

[Text] Moscow, 25 Mar (TASS)—MOSKOVSKIYE NOVOSTI has reprinted from the Paris

newspaper LE FIGARO a letter from 10 "fomer Soviets," including Vasiliy

Aksenov, Yurly Lyubimov, and.Ernst Neizvestriyy, and published a reply to it.

It was written by Yegor Yakovlev, chief editor.of the paper, who once personally knew many of the signatories of the "sensational" letter entitled:

"Let Gorbachev Give Us Proof." The great, complex and not easy process of

restructuring and democratization of Soviet society now taking place in the

USSR is declared in the letter to be virtually a fiction.

"The publication of this letter in the Soviet press would be the most convincing proof of the sincerity of the statements about openness," says the letter

from the ten "former citizens" [byvshiye].

"It's been published. What next?" asks the editor of MOSKOVSKIY NOVOSTI,

which, incidentally, is published not only in Russian but also in several

other languages.

"A man is tested when he is free in his choice," Yegor Yakovlev believes.

"Those 10 were free to decide. They chose the other side of the barricades."

So everything has been decided. The ones accusing their restructuring, democratizing homeland are not only, say, Vladimir Maksimov, a man of monarchical,

even pro-Romanov views, but also Vasiliy Aksenov, who quite recently was

dreaming of a time that has today arrived in the USSR; Yuriy Lyubimov, who

established the revolutionary theater at Tagaiika....

In a word, those who quite recently were zealously advocating democratization

of Soviet society, are now saying spiteful things about this same democratization, and are singing its requiem before it's started.

"Having parted from one's people, it is difficult to keep on the same wavelength as them; one loses one's sense of time," writes the editor of

MOSKOVSKIYE NOVOSTI "and that's what the authors of the letter have löst toom.

It's as if they intended to write about the present, but there is not a line

that is not from the past."

76
The "10" plead for copiers, incidentally, but today—if only one had time to

read everything that used to be copied out by hand in secret—^today thev are

published in the press, they come out in bookloads. The "former ones" discuss "independent publishing houses," but meanwhile the USSR Writers' Union

is examining proposals for the organization of cooperative publishing

houses. One of the first is to be called "Vest."

The 280 million-strong Soviet people is living its life, busy with the great

and complicated task of ordering its destiny. And the 10 emigres discuss in

all seriousness some kind of special "guarantees" which.someone should give

them, about a "reconciliation of the people with the government." There is

one thing the authors of the letter do not think about, and that is how they

themselves can find the road to their people. "I have never known," writes

Yegor Yakovlev, "in all the history of the Russian emigration, anyone for

whom life in exile seemed more desirous than at home, and who would not want

to take the first opportunity to return."

So what do the authors of the letter want, what are they worried about? Evidently about the fact that the accustomed ground is giving way beneath their

feet. They used to be able to point to Sakharov exiled in Gorkiy, but now he

himself says that he is not loath to go off to Gorkiy for a while—the visitors

are keeping him from working. They used to come out in defense of avant garde

artists, and now those artists are having one exhibition after another opened—

and that subject was dropped....

"Watch out or you'll be left without a job," exclaims the author of the reply

"to 10 former ones," referring to the anti-Soviet writings which have become

customary for emigres. "But what kind of a job is it, if it is based on an

affirmation long known for its.immorality: The worse the better. If what is

being engaged in now in the Soviet Union does not succeed, it will result in

a defeat on the scale of a national tragedy. But the authors of the letter

will start rubbing their hands. In the people's disaster they are ready to

find both self-affirmation and self-justification."

"They who pray for evil" is the name of the paper has given to the authors

of the letter published in LE FIGARO.

76662

CSO: 1800/526

77
SOCIAL ISSUES

PRAVDA HITS DEFECTORS' 'LIBELOUS' WRITINGS

PM261919 Moscow PRAVDA in Russian 25 Mar 87 First Edition p 5

[V. Korionov "Rejoinder": "Panic Among the 'Former Soviets'"]

[Text] It is no secret that the further democratization of every aspect of life

in Soviet Society, the establishment of openness, and the course aimed at

introducing a new kind of political thinking in interstate relations are causing, growing alarm among imperialist reactionaries. Their construction of a

"Soviet threat," "Soviet totalitarianism," and so forth is caving in. But

even greater despondency, literally panic, has seized the renegades who have

settled in the West.

It is not difficult to discern the reason for this. When they packed their

bags and ran, they were expecting the West to hand them a large piece of bread

and butter on a plate for free. It is possible that not all of them realized

the price they would have to pay for this. But they are having to pay a price.

Particularly now, when the designs and plans conceived by the enemies of socialism are miscarrying. They have no option but to pay the price.

A libelous article appeared in the French newspaper LE FIGARO by a group of

renegades who call themselves the "Resistance International," The article

is signed by V. Aksenov,.V. Bukovskiy, A. and 0. Zinovyev, E. Kuznetsov,

Yu. Lyubimov, V. Maksimov, E. Neizvestliyy, Yu. Orloy,. and L. Plyushch.

There is hardly any point in analyzing this list. These people were not driven

from their country. They upped and ran of their own accord. And when this

crowd increasingly inevitably hears the question "But why did you do this?"

they try to drown it Out with a drumroll of.anti-^Sovietism and slander against

the people who fed and raised them. They have not only become a mouthpiece for

ultra-right-wing reactionaries—they have also elected for the profession of

denouncing their own people.

It would be futile to look for even one good word about their former home in

the writings of these renegades. The fugitives are driven to a frenzy at

the very idea of millions of people all over the world regarding the Soviet

Union as the "prototype of a radiant future"—they put these words in

quotemarks. One would think that the people who signed this libel would

78
nevertheless be able to recall the 20 million Soviet people who laid their

lives at the altar of mankind^ freedom. But no. What is more, they are

against the idea of a generation growing up in our country who would be prepared to defend their country. In fact, the writers of this libel even went

as far as making the following comparison, and I quote: "Military-patriotic

training can be compared to the training given to the Hitlerite youth."

The defeatists even raise a hand trembling with fear and malice against our

most holy of holies—Lenin and his teaching. It is revealing, however, to

see what it is about Leninism that is not to their liking. It is "peaceful,

coexistence with the bourgeois world." But is there a.reasonable alternative

to peaceful coexistence in the nuclear missile age? Even the word "detente

—which they also place in quotemarks—is hateful to these provocateurs.

Needless to say, these gentlemen have not uttered a word of condemnation against

the arms race unleashed by imperialism or the consequent threat of nuclear

war on earth and in space. The military profiteers across the ocean who are

filling their purses by producing the means to destroy people are their real

lord and master. Their true friends are the Afghan dushmans, the Nicaraguan

"Contras," and the Pol Pot murderers.

As far as their socialist homeland is concerned, their hatred for it prevails

above all else. The liars claim, for example, that in the USSR "No one has

the right to simply go.about his own business. The population is as if mobilized." The entire Soviet way of life, our democracy, and our electoral

principles are not to the liking of the renegades. But the "elections" in

El Salvador, held while people wielding U.S. machineguns looked on—this,,

in their opinion, is "democracy." They have a resolute dislike of the Soviet

policy of publicity arid openness." But what moral right do these fugitives

have to latch onto the question of changes in our country if they themselves

have abandoned it?

Having scribbled .their signatures to this."manifesto" which, to all appearances, is the work of Western special services, these gentlemen evidently

must realize deep down what pathetic* lonely figures they are and how much

Soviet people despise whose who choose to spend their lives in Parisian dens

of iniquity. That is why they will do anything to try to enhance their reputation. But, when it really comes down to it, who needs them?

Even the right-wing French press (LE FIGARO) considered it right and proper,

once it had published the aforementioned letter, to dissociate itself from the

authors of the letter by unambiguously reminding people of the pro-Nazi

views of some of them.

The fact that a handful of renegades have given themselves the title "Resistance International1' can be called nothing other than blasphemy. The concepts

of resistance and the international (suffice it to recall the resistance^

movement against the Hitlerite invaders) have always been and always will be

dear to Soviet people and to genuine internationalists throughout the world.

These sacred symbols should not be associated with defectors.

79
It remains to be added that the label "Made in the United States" is patently

obvious as far as this "international" is concerned. Its origins are to be

found in one of the anticommunist organization (the so-called "Committee for

the Fight Against Totalitarianism") in operation in the United States at the

beginning of the eighties, which was later moved to Paris where it acquired

its present title. This medley is financed by American Congress and its subversive activity is directed by the CIA.

The entire course of events is evidence that the forces with a vested interest in continuing the arms race and in confrontation and "star wars" regard

our restructuring process and our constructive foreign policy initiatives,

which are meeting with people's ardent support, as a threat to their dark

intentions. By carrying out its radical restructuring process, the Soviet

Union is a danger to them. And that is why "former Soviets" make heart-rending

appeals to the "unsuspecting," "good-natured" West not to believe Moscow.

Otherwise they risk alienating the hand that feeds them. These gentlemen have

obviously earned a little money from some circles for this "manifesto" of

theirs. But this handful of libelers will not be able to wash away the dirt

they are in up to their necks. .

The Soviet people are preparing to celebrate their great holiday—the 70th

anniversary of the October Revolution. This date will be honored by, the conscience of the world today. On the eve of this event a handful of mudslinging renegades are trying to besmirch our radiant homeland. They will

fail!

/6662

CSO: 1800/526

80
SOCIAL ISSUES

LITERATURNAYA GAZETA OPENS 'HOTLINE' FOR YOUTH GROUPS

[Editorial Report] Moscow LITERATURNAYA GAZETA in Russian on 4 March 1987

carries on page 1 an article providing a telephone number for young people to

call concerning the "Lyubery," young body-builders from a Moscow suburb who

have allegedly attacked Moscow's non-conformist youths. The article suggests

that using this telephone hot line may help the various groups work together

to settle their differences in a peaceful manner. The telephone number,

208-85-37, is available from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

A follow-up item in Moscow LITERATURNAYA GAZETA in Russian on 11 March 1987

on page 1 describes some of the hot line calls received. A caller from

Lyubertsy claimed that his school required all students to attend a special

disco on Saturday. Other callers reported similar events designedjto keep

young people busy and off the streets on weekends. Although the newspaper

discouraged adults from using the hot line, many calls were from parents. One

mother complained that the required school meetings and empty streets were

causing unnecessary panic. Raykom and Komsomol committee members suggested

mobilizing the voluntary militia [druzhiniki] to deal with the situation.

Fortunately, writes the author, the Iroung people appeared to be more sensible^

than the adults expected. Some reacted to the situation with humor: \Hello,

a young voice burst out, "our school is ready for the invasion! The seventh

graders have a banner on the wall saying 'Pupils! Warriors! Defenders!

Arise for the battle. Get bows and arrows in the cloakroom. Take mail coats

from the Komsomol committee. The Huns will be beaten...'" "It's too bad, ^

continues the author, "that the adults don't display such a sense of humor.

Another series of calls came from long-haired teenagers who said they were no

long being detained by the militia on the basis of their looks alone, which

the author sees as a positive step.

/9599

CSO: 1830/441

81
SOCIAL ISSUES

GRADUATES ABANDON: SCHOOL-TAUGHT TRADES

[Editorial Report] Baku KOMMUNIST in Azeri on 17 January 1987 carries on

page 1 a 1000-word lead editorial headlined "The Second Half of the School

Year. It points out that "special attention has been paid to improving

students labor education and trade orientation under the school reform. It

is very important that existing opportunities be fully and correctly exploited.

But this is not happening everywhere. According to specialists, a very small

percentage of secondary school graduates are working in skills they acquired

during their school years. That means that the vocational education conducted

in school xs still ineffective and that the potentials of boys and girls are

not being related to the needs of the economy." The editorial adds that "one

cannot say that the help provided to schools by base institutions is satisfactory because "a significant number of them are holding a passive

position with regard to supplying the schools with various types of equipment,

or attracting students into production, or other matters."

SHORTAGE OF AZERI-LANGUAGE SOCIAL SCIENCE AIDS

[Editorial Report] Baku KOMMUNIST in Azeri on 17 January 1987 carries on page

2 a 1400-word article by T. Ismayylova, chief of the social sciences teaching

department of the AzSSR Ministry of Higher and Specialized Secondary Education,

and N. Mikayylov, director of the Scientific Communism Department at the

Azerbaijan Construction Engineers Institute, on needs for the teaching of the

social sciences; the article is headlined "Social Science Departments: In

Close Relationship With Practice." The article, in enumerating the various

teachxng aids and technical resources available to teachers in those fields

notes that 'there are very few slides available in Azeri and no instructional

films. They propose that "the republic Ministry of Higher and Specialized

Secondary Education establish a laboratory which would prepare slides for the

social sciences. One could also authorize Azerbaijanfilm to dub the

instructional films into Azeri."

SOVIET WOMEN WEEP FOR 'SISTERS IN IRAN1

[Editorial Report] Baku ADABIYYAT VA INJASANAT in Azeri on 20 February 1987

carries on page 7 a 1300-word article by Khalida Khasilova timed to the AllUnion Conference of Soviet Women headlined "0 Woman, Your Name Is Honorable "

She points out that "close to a million women are working in public enterprises

82
in our republic, and 24,000 are deputies in the USSR Supreme Soviet, the AzSSR

Supreme Soviet, the city, rayon, and village Soviets." She adds that "we are

citizens of the most democratic, most peaceloving state on the face of the

earth. We wish that women of the entire world could live with the same good

fortune and abundance as we and make every effort in this direction. The

sorrows of bur sisters in neighboring Iran, who have been confronting the

catastrophes of tyranny and Muslim fanaticism, are breaking our hearts."

/9738

CSO: 1830/437

83
SOCIAL ISSUES

HIGHLAND SVANS RESETTLING IN GEORGIAN LOWLANDS

[Editorial Report] Tbilisi LITERATURULI SAKARTVELO in Georgian on 3 October

1986 carries on page 6 under the title "The Tasks of Georgian Publicistics"

Miron Khergiani's 2,300-Word article sketching the various economic,

political, and sociological sectors that Georgian publicists [journalists

specializing in current affairs] must focus on in order to foster

restructuring, acceleration, intensification, and the like. In effect,

publicists must make themselves experts in general and specific fields.

Most of the article concentrates on ''new economic thinking."

The final one-quarter of the piece is devoted to certain aspects of Georgian

demographic policy, a matter of great concern which* unfortunately, still

seems to be somewhat disorganized and "adrift." As an example, Khergiani

deplores the practice of resettling highlanders in such overcrowded

communities as Krtsanisi and Lilo [outskirts of Tbilisi] when there is an

abundance of good but underdeveloped land in south Georgia.

On the positive side, the author notes with satisfaction the Georgian

leadership's decision to set up new communities in historic Nagebi and

Dzhandari [villages in Gardabani Rayon] and Tandzia [Bolnisl Rayon], "the

nucleus of which will consist of surplus population from Svanetia, primarily

Mestia Rayon." In the same general context, he makes reference to

communities of highland Adjarians who have successfully resettled in and

revived the old Meskheti-Dzhavakheti region.

Areas of south Georgia have been culturally neglected—in particular, those

self-same Meskheti-Dzhavakheti districts. The Writers Union's Publicistics

Section has decided to take those communities, also the Svan settlements,

under its wing [shefstvo] and see to it that this neglect is no more.

SVAN COMMUNITY. SYMBOLIZES HOPE FOR GEORGIAN DEMOGRAPHY

[Editorial Report] Tbilisi MNATOBI in Georgian No 12, December 1986 carries

on pages 86-91 under the title "Nagebi [a place name]" noted writer Akaki

Gelovani's 4,800-word article about the thriving new community of Nagebi,

6 kilometers from Rustavi in Gardabani Rayon, which is being populated

mainly by Svans resettled from land-short highland Mestia Rayon under an

organized program. A thriving population center in centuries past, Nagebi

was ravaged and razed over and over by invading Tatars and other enemies of

84
Georgia, and in recent times disappeared from maps and even scholarly

reference works.

Thanks to popular, state, and party initiatives in the last couple of years,

Nagebi is experiencing a rebirth. The town and sovkhoz now numbers 135

households (up from about 50 just 2 years ago) totaling around 600

population; of that number, 117 households are Georgian, the rest Russians

and Azeris. Avtandil Margiani, the Svan director of the sovkhoz who has

spearheaded the project, hopes to bring the community up to about 500

households in the near future, again mainly Svans from Upper Svanetia. It

would not be wrong to think of the community as a "Little Svanetia."

Author Gelovani [himself a Svan] emphasizes several times that Nagebi^

symbolizes hope for Georgia's alarming demographic picture and hence "is of

national significance," for Georgian birth rates [i.e., of ethnic Georgians]

have been declining steadily for over 20 years—except among the Svans.

Hence, "we must take" initiative..as the nation's bastion." Population

growth "is Concern No 1." Georgians have always been few in number, except

for the "Golden Age" [12th-13th centuries] when Georgians held sway from the

Black Sea all the way to Derbent and numbered 5 to 6 million. Now that

Georgians are finally living in peace, unthreatened by the enemies and

vicissitudes of the past, there is no excuse for the current drastic decline

in population. Young people are pampered, preferring pornographic videos to

hard work and ideals—and families. "Childlessness helps our enemies."

Thanks to community leader Margiani's initiatives and party and governmental

support, Nagebi is comfortable, well laid out, and prospering, utilities

and kindergarten are free of charge. The sovkhoz is becoming more

efficient. The heart of the community is an 8-story Svanetian tower—the

tallest ever—that houses cultural facilities and meeting rooms, a library,

and the like, and moreover stands as a symbol that this land, so often laid

waste by enemies, is again in the hands of its rightful owners.

Margiani goes frequently to Svanetia to counsel persons desiring to resettle

in Nagebi. There have been so many applicants that they cannot all be

accommodated yet. Accordingly, some 60 Svan households have gone to Tandzia

[Bolnisi Rayon] and 22 have gone to Mzianeti [Gardabani Rayon]; members of

the latter group work on the Dzhandari Sovkhoz "alongside their fraternal

neighbors [presumably Azeris]." Margiani is careful in selecting Svan

families for resettlement, in order to ensure that "part of them remain in

their ancestral Svanetia and not let it die out."

Svan communities are alluded to also in Udabno [Sagaredzho Rayon] and Lilo

[outskirts of Tbilisi]. These communities are an encouragement to all who

are concerned for Georgia's fate, and should be emulated. Let many such

communities adorn the "blessed Georgian earth."

FACTORS IN GEORGIAN NARCOTICS RISE EXAMINED

[Editorial Report] Tbilisi AKHALGAZRDA KOMUNISTI in Georgian on 4 December

1986 carries on page 2 a 1,800-word article titled "Without You We Can Do

85
Nothing" by Militia Major Dzhemal Dzhanashia, head of the Department To

Combat Narcotics Addiction, MVD Criminal Investigation Administration,

concerning the various factors accounting for the rise in narcotics

trafficking, especially among Georgian young people, and the attendant rise

in property crimes. The article is a kind of follow-up to one on 3 June

1986 which focused on the evil done by drug pushers and urged that they be

called "creeps" [Georgian qrolebi, Russian gadiny].

The author of the article refers to, but in most cases does not cite,

"official statistics" attesting to particular aspects of the problem. For

example, in some districts the drug culture involves mostly users, while in

others pushers predominate, and so on. The same statistics state that

trafficking is greatest in North Ossetia, Central Asia, Krasnodar Kray, and

Novosibirsk Oblast; Georgia also ranks very high.

Drug-related crimes among young people have climbed alarmingly since the

1970s, persons suffering from withdrawal [narkoticheskiy golod] being

especially prone to commit crimes in order to procure narcotics. A gram of

opium costs 50 rubles on the black market. Several paragraphs in the second

half of the article go into some detail on various busts that have taken

place in Georgia and outside, involving both Georgians and outsiders, noting

the amounts of drugs (mostly hashish) siezed and their street value. In some

cases, the Georgian MVD teams have gone outside the republic to make the busts.

The author examines five factors that account for the rise in narcotics use

among Georgian youth. (1) Increasing contacts with persons from capitalist

countries and more exposure to bourgeois propaganda. (2) Persons age 20 or

younger, sadly, fail to see the social harm in narcotics. Some 63 percent

of 250 young persons who were surveyed even thought that narcotics

stimulated artistic creativity and performance, citing foreign musicians who

did their best work while high. (3) Improper use of painkillers in medical

cases. (4) Bad upbringing and schooling. Some 97 percent of addicts came

from pathological homes and did poorly in school. (5) Curiosity and

ignorance, in conjunction with peer pressure and the desire to emulate

"fashionable" users. Some 51 percent became hooked in this manner.

The problem cannot be solved through the efforts of the militia and law

enforcement organs alone. It takes the efforts of every concerned citizen.

GEORGIANS IN RUSSIAN VUZ'S 'BESMIRCH' THEIR PEOPLE'S GOOD NAME

[Editorial Report] Tbilisi AKHALGAZRDA KOMUNISTI in Georgian No 149,

13 December 1987 carries on page 2 under the title "Why Are We Letting Our

Children Go to School?" a 2,600-word article by Vakhtang Nanava, deputy head

of the Georgian Komsomol Central Committee Department of Propaganda and Mass

Culture, and AKHALGAZRDA KOMUNISTI correspondent Kakha Sikharulidze,

concerning the disgrace brought upon the republic and its people by the

unseemly actions of Georgian students in several of Rostov-on-Don's VUZes.

Reference is made to an earlier (last summer) Komsomol Central Committee

investigation into similar goings-on as well as recent findings by a joint

86
Komsomol Central Committee and Georgian MVD brigade who looked into matters

in Rostov.

Several particular cases are recounted in which named Georgian students in

Rostov's Railroad Transport Engineering Institute, the Agricultural

Machinery Institute, and a vocational-technical school (PTU) "besmirched"

the honor of Georgia and its people. One student was charged with 11

burglaries and 2 assaults in the space of 2 months. Another was caught, in

company with several associates, with 50 grams of opium. Many Georgians

have been involved in fights. Criminality and hooliganism aside, most of

them are said to lead dissolute lives.

The Georgian students perform wretchedly in school, cut classes, and in

general exhibit a deplorably low intellectual and cultural level. Most of

them have such a poor command of Russian that special Russian courses have

had to be set up just for them.

Further, there is evidence of crooked dealing on the part of the parents of

these "students" — people who have plenty of money and can pull strings.

Their motive is that Georgian PTU graduates holding "outstanding" diplomas

are accepted without examination in Rostov VUZes, and many have taken

advantage of that fact. But are their diplomas genuine? Missing school

records and other suspicious evidence give grounds for serious doubt. In

one case, a young man named Besarion Natsvlishvili, who was once enrolled in

the Crimean Medical Institute, expelled, enrolled in the Rostov Medical

Institute and then expelled from there for poor grades and cutting classes,

wound up "reinstated" in Tbilisi Medical Institute. The author notes that

something is surely amiss.

These and similar episodes elsewhere (for example, in Kalinin Polytechnic

last year) prove that Komsomol and local authorities responsible for young

people under their jurisdiction are not doing their job.

GEORGIAN TRANSPORT MILITIA'S ANTIDRUG EFFORTS DESCRIBED

[Editorial Report] Tbilisi KOMUNISTI in Georgian on 21 December 1986 carries

on page 3 under the title "War on 'Runners'!" Gruzinform correspondent

V. Yaralov's 1,500-word interview with Transport MVD Chief Colonel Robinzon

Tushurashvili concerning that organization's increasingly successful efforts

to combat drug smugglers on the republic's railroads. Statistics show that

the number of "runners" and dealers that have been caught has doubled in the

past 3 years, and amounts of drugs confiscated have tripled. To some extent

this reflects increasing efficiency, but it also indicates rising drug

trafficking. Runners range from age 18 to 30, they live in the

Transcaucasus, North Ossetia, Stavropol and Krasnodar krays, the Ukraine,

and Central Asia. Most of them are not employed in socially useful labor.

This past year, one-third of the crimes solved by the Transport MVD were

drug-related, but in a larger sense, the narcotics problem exacerbates the

whole crime picture.

87
Colonel Tushurashvili notes that the manufacture of narcotics "is not a

tradition in Georgia," hence most of them come in from outside. As a

result, Georgian MVD teams have gone outside the republic to collaborate in

drug busts with, for example, Ukrainian authorities; a link between Lvov and

the Georgian resort town of Tskneti was recently broken up. It is essential

to get to the manufacturers, not just dealers and users. Recently a hashish

supplier in Shovgenovskiy, who worked in a poultry plant as a cover, was

caught with large amounts of hashish and weapons in his home. :

The Transport MVD has expanded its activities in recent years, now

patrolling train station districts and accompanying all trains through

Georgia. Colonel Tushurashvili stresses that cadres are specially selected

for the work, persons who have good powers of observation and sound

intuition. Several incidents are sketched in which suspicious persons were

caught with drugs—one episode even involved a couple who had a child with

them as cover. Yet, it is emphasized, not a single false arrest has been

made in recent years.

REPRODUCTOLOGY CLINICS, FIRST IN USSR, OPENED IN GEORGIA

[Editorial Report] Tbilisi KOMUNISTI in Georgian on 3 January 1987 carries

on page 2 under the title "First Results" a 400-word article by L.

Mamaladze, head of the Organizational-Methodology Department in the

Zhordania Scientific-Research Institute for Human Reproductive Functions,

concerning the need for modern methods in the prevention, diagnosis, and

treatment of childlessness. Some 10 to 15 percent of Georgian married

couples are unable to have children. Accordingly, reproductology clinics

[kabinety] have been opened in a number of rayons under the supervision of

the institute. Headed by gynecologists, they provide consultation and other

needed services. Men's reproductive problems are handled by urologists

trained in andrology. Patients who need it are sent to the institute for

hospital treatment. Results are already encouraging, and it is envisioned

that the system—the first either In Georgia or the USSR as a whole—could

become more widespread.

MISDIAGNOSIS HAMPERS GEORGIAN ANTIDRUG EFFORTS

[Editorial Report] Tbilisi KOMUNISTI in Georgian on 16 January 1987 carries

on page 4 under the heading "It Is the Worst of Plagues" a 1,300-word

article by Professor D. Gegeshidze, vice-rector of the Tbilisi Medical

Institute, concerning factors that hamper the fight against drugs,

especially among young persons and students. In particular, owing to the

proliferation of new varieties of drugs—many of them home-made since

certain regular ones have been withdrawn from official production—medical

personnel have a hard time making accurate diagnoses. Addicts are taking

all kinds of toxic substances such as sleeping pills, stimulants, and

tranquilizers. Many are growing cannabis and poppies in their own gardens.

Biochemical methods alone are no longer adequate for accurate diagnosis.

Incompetent diagnoses lead to grave consequences and give a false picture of

the narcotism situation. In particular, the Republic Narcology Hospital has

88
"on more than one occasion" diagnosed actual addicts as "clean" while

wrongly labeling innocent persons as addicts. The Medical Institute has had

to work out its own method of detecting drug users among its faculty and

students in order to decide whether anyone should be expelled, etc.

Briefly, it consists of "characterization" by student academic groups, which

are "a reliable barometer" of such abuse and considerations such as class

attendance, academic performance, and the like. On the negative side,

students thus expelled are left to their fate "on the street."

The author urges a program to provide graduate training of narcology

specialists, of whom there is a severe shortage at present not only out in

the rayons but in Tbilisi itself. Concerted efforts by psychiatric, legal,

medical, and other specialized cadres are essential, to be spearheaded by a

special laboratory of the Psychiatric Institute. Throughout, better

equipment is needed. Above all, narcology hospitals and clinics must be

staffed with "skilled and moral" personnel.

Finally, the author urges "rethinking" of the practice of dispensing

narcotics to severely ill patients in their homes, a procedure that is

practiced only in Georgia.

6854 .

CSO: 1830/454

89
SOCIAL ISSUES

KAZAKH EDITORIAL LOOKS AT RURAL SCHOOLS

[Editorial Report] Alma-Ata QAZAQSTAN MEKTEBI in Kazakh No 12, December 1986

carries on pages 3-8 a 3,000-word editorial entitled "Let Us Improve Rural

Schools." According to the editorial, the vast majority Of KaSSR schools,

including 6,254 of 7,767 republic general education, and 2,749 of 3,981 middle

schools (with 1,649,500 students in all republic rural schools) are rural,

meaning that there are often special problems associated with their operation

which, in the view of the editorial, are not always given adequate attention

by the educational authorities.

The editorial goes no to discuss some of the issues which are, in its view,

particularly problematical for republic rural schools. These include not

just shortage of cadres but an acute shortage of the best cadres (only 85.9

percent of rural teachers have a higher eduation, a figure that is an

improvement over recent years), poor and inadequate school facilities, weak

development of some vital programs including math, the sciences and vocational

education (in spite of the current emphasis on vocational education, particularly to meet needs of rural areas for trained specialists, only training in

physical labor is available in most cases), poor support of certain types of

instruction including Russian language teaching, also some technical subjects,

and the conservatism of rural school administrations making change and the

solving of problems difficult if not impossible. The editorial makes clear

that in all this the key issue is making rural schools responsive to local

conditions and local needs. -

PROMISED KAZAKH SCHOOLS BECOMING RUSSIAN SCHOOLS

[Editorial Report] Alma-Ata BILIM ZHANE ENGBEK in Kazakh No 9, September 1986

carries on pages 10-13 a 3,400-word article by BILIM ZHANE ENGBEK special

reporter Marat Toqashbayev published under the rubric "School Reform—In

Practice," entitled "From the Past to the Future." The article looks at the

past and present of the Kazakh nationality school. There are now, Toqashbayev

records, a total of 2,440 Kazakh schools in the KaSSR—856 middle, 782 8 and

852 primary schools—with 937,046 students, and more open with each passing

year.

90
However, Toqashbayev compalins about the uneven development of Kazakh schools

from one part of the republic to the other (there are few or no schools, for

example, in some areas of heavy Kazakh population concentration and about the

tendency of Kazakh schools to become Russian schools through neglect. He

also scores the many problems of adequately supporting 837 Kazakh kindergartens

(with 17,157 students). Here the problem is above all cadre shortage, since

Kazakh teacher training schools are producing few specialists in preschool

education. The result again is the conversaion of Kazakh into Russian schools

since instructors knowing no Kazakh cannot teach in that language but teach

in Russian.

/9738

CSO: 1830/445

91
REGIONAL ISSUES

RSFSR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION PROBLEMS DISCUSSED

Moscow SOVETSKAYA ROSSIYA in Russian 20 Feb 8? P 3

[Replies by I. Kuleshov, chief of the Far Eastern Territorial Administration

for Regulating the Use and Protection of Water Resources, RSFSR Minvodkhoz

[Ministry of Water Resources], to questionnaire, under rubric "Our

Questionnaire: From February to February": "Protecting Purity"]

[Text] [Question] What real features of the restructuring do you see in life

and in your collective?

[Answer] 1. Yes, it is specifically the features, rather than the results, of

the restructuring that we ought to talk about. Although we can already see

today, for example, serious changes in the attitude toward the preservation of

mineral wealth, the pernicious squandering of which I wrote about in the

article "In Defense of the Marine Field" (13 February 1986). The project for

shifting the flow of the northern rivers has been rejected, and there is a

hope that the surface of Lake Baykal will be cleared of the cellulose foam.

What truly gladdens a person and gives him hope is the decisive, precisely

directed turn that has been taken by public opinion toward the active

protection of the environment. The results of the consistent, decisive

governmental measures are being revealed: the ecologists' voice has become, I

must say, rather decisive. And not just their voice. During the year after

the congress we have got a rather large number of volunteer assistants. I do

not have to go far to get examples. Recently, reacting to a warning message

from a person who, so to speak, is an outsider, engineer 0. Kulunzhakov, we

were able in a time-responsive manner to eliminate the consequences of the

effluent of harmful substances from the aluminum structural-elements plant in

Khabarovsk. An ecological catastrophe was prevented. True, it was on the

small Chernushka River, but, judged on the basis of its scope, it was a real

catastrophe. I can name dozens of other people who helped us to cope promptly

with other emergency situations such as this.

Many party committees and ispolkoms of local Soviets are also turning their

face directly toward problems of protecting the water resources. An extended

program of ecological construction was adopted by the buro of the CPSU

Khabarovsk Kraykom and the krayispolkom. For these purposes it is planned to

assimilate in the kray during the 12th Five-Year Plan 159 million rubles of

capital investments. Interpreting that figure, that represents the activation

of purification structures with a capacity of 550,000 cubic meters a day, and

92
a reduction of the effluent of harmful substances into the atmosphere by

85,400 tons a year.

[Question] How are the problems that are alarming you the most being

resolved?

[Answer] 2. Well, let's discuss the problems. Can you believe the tremendous

efforts that still have to be expended to convince certain "statesmen'1 (and I

deliberately put the word in quotation marks because, although they are state

employees, they certainly do not reveal a sense of state duty or civic

responsibility) of what ought to be primordially obvious to every manager and

patriot! We are actually continuing to prove truisms to them: Russian nature

— that mine of wealth, our benefactress, the focus of our national welfare

and spirit — must not become small change to pay off departmental

narrowmindedness!

Nowadays, not a single statement made by a modern economic manager can do

without phrases concerning the love of nature. But here is an example that is

taken not from the rostrum, but from practical life: the plan for the

Soyuzzolöto VPO [All-union Industrial Association], of USSR Mintsvetmet

[Ministry of Nonferrous Metallurgy], which plan was sent -down to the

Primorzoloto Association. Its enterprises are supposed to work only in a

closed cycle. Instead of that, Mintsvetmet has been increasing the water

intake and runoff, and has not been reducing the use of recycled water. An

unhappy fate awaits the "golden" streams. It is easy to imagine what a wall

of explanations the producers of the valuable metal erect in order to justify

themselves. Everything is put in motion: references to the scope of the

tasks, to the complexities of the mining operations — and to this

accompaniment, it is planned to give the Primorzoloto Association not a single

ruble to carry out out measures to protect the water resources! The same can

be said about Minrybkhoz [Ministry of the Fish Industry]. At the fishprocessing plants in Nikolayevsk and Komsomolsk-na-Amure and at the oceanic

fishing base in Sovetskaya Gavan, the volumes of runoff have been growing, but

no purification structures are being built.

A long-standing and, to put it bluntly, uneven struggle has been raging

between us and such an industrial giant as the Plant imeni Leninskiy Komsomol.

Every 24-hour period « every 24 hours! — the enterprise spews out 10,000

cubic meters of runoff water, and this is already the twelfth year that the

construction of purification structures has been under way. Actually, this

leader in the industry has become one of the worst sources of the pollution of

the Amur.

I am convinced that, for the Far East drainage area, it is necessary to adopt

a system of measures to protect the environment — on the analogy of those

measures that have been proposed to protect the Caspian, Black, and Azov seas.

It is traditionally felt that the shore and maritime zones of the Far East are

in a comparatively favorable ecological condition. But this is no by means

the case, the program for the Comprehensive Development of the Far East which

is currently being developed presupposes a sharp transformation of industry

and agriculture. That region will be converted more and more from an

extractive region into a processing one. The pressure exerted by man on the

93
environment will become much more severe. It is important for the

environmental-protection measures to be balanced with industrial growth. Of

course, this will require large expenditures* However, one must not forget

that the drainage areas of the Amur and the other Far Eastern seas and rivers

are a unique creation of nature. One should not take an "average statistical"

approach to them.

[Question] What is your personal contribution? What do you intend to

undertake in the near future?

[Answer] 3. I head a collective. Therefore I gauge my personal contribution

to the restructuring according to the collective's actions I could, of

course, enumerate our successes, and mention substantial amounts of penalties

in order to show that no violators remain unpunished. It has also happened

that production had to be stopped. But it is necessary to be honest: we

rarely resort to extreme measures. In this regard we ought to take decisive

steps to restructure ourselves in the direction of greater consistency,

adherence to principles, and steadfastness. Unfortunately, quite frequently

we are tricked by the sad experience of "believing the word" of our partners.

We understand their position, we accept their guarantee letters, but the oaths

prove to be only made of ink. This pertains primarily to the Far East

construction workers. They have become accustomed to investing all their

efforts and funds in industrial construction, postponing everything else for

later on, including the resolution of ecological problems.

We attempt, of course, to display hardness. Recently we drove out in response

to a warning message to the Kuldur resort, one of the few Sanatoriums in

Khabarovsk Kray. It would have seemed that its managers should have kept an

especially vigilant watch on the water-resource conditions: the resort exists

thanks to the curative springs. However, those very springs proved to be

threatened — they were being polluted by runoff from the resort itself! The

question was posed point-blank: either shut down the resort, or immediately

stop polluting the water. And things got moving.

We had to withstand a major onslaught in December:1986 during the turnover of

the second unit of Khabarovsk TETs-3. L. Lipövich,representative of the

territorial administration, who is part of ä state commission, refused to sign

the acceptance document: hydraulic aSh-disposal systems had not been prepared

at the new object. unfortunately, the administration there had fallen under

the pressure of its own managers. Minenergo [Ministry of Power and

Electrification] representatives decided to bypass the stubborn individuals

and went to RSFSR Minvodkhoz — all with the very same guarantee letters. But

what happened? It is recommended to us that we close our eyes to the

violations. But what kind of benefit results from these maneuvers, and for

whom?'

It would seem that there is a vital need to restructure the environmentalprotection system and to raise the status of their territorial agencies. I

would like to make an analogy with State Inspection: its agencies have been

taken out from under the regional and departmental command element, and

large rights have not only been given to them, but have also been provided

with the broadest party and public support. Therefore the benefit to be

derived from this kind of monitoring is great.

5075 ' ' ':. n. .

CSO: 1800/457 94
REGIONAL ISSUES

LENINGRAD HOSTS DISCUSSION QN NEVA, LADOGA POLLUTION

Moscow IZVESTIYA in Russian 22 Feb 87 p 6

[Article by IZVESTIYA correspondent A. Yezhelev: "Once More About the Dike:

The Opinion of Leningrad Seientlsts"]

[Text] Leningrad. Last summer, in the part of Neva Bay which is set off from

the gulf by a system of dikes that are being constructed to protect Leningrad

against floods, spots of "efflorescene" in the water appeared. Undesirable

changes in the water quality were also noted farther away, in the cifcy

,s

resort area. All this caused an understandable concern among Leningraders for

the ecological consequences of the construction of the protective complex.

That concern was expressed on the pages of IZVESTIYA by Academician D.

Likhachev, and by writers D, Granin, M. Dudin, and A. Liverovskiy in the

article, "But Where's the Protection Against the Dike?" (No 11, 1987).

On 20 February, at the House of Scientists, there was a discussion, together

with the authors of the article, of the questions raised in the newspaper.

Those who spoke at that meeting — chairman of the presidium of the Leningrad

Scientific Center of USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician I. Glebov; director

of the Institute of Lake Studies, Academician A. Treshnikov; director of the

Zoological Institute, chairman of the USSR Academy of Sciences Scientific

Council of Problems of Environmentäi Protection, USSR Academy of Sciences

Corresponding Member 0. Skärläto; and the heads of the Institute of Hydraulic

Engineering imeni Vedeneyev and the State Hydrological Institute -— cited the

latest information concerning the state of the water drainage area, remarking

that no worsening has been observed. They discussed the measures being taken

by the party's obkora and the ispolkom of Lensovet to eliminate the

shortcomings linked with the violations in the procedure for constructing the

protective complex. It was noted in particular that, in accordance with the

new decisions, there will be ä two-year acceleration in the activation of the

purification structures, which will largely determine the biochemical and

sanitary condition of the body of water. It was also mentioned that there may

be no clean water in the Neva or in Neva Bay if there is a continuation of the

intensive pollution of Lake Ladoga by the unpurified runoffs from enterprises

and animal-husbandry complexes and by the mineral fertilizers that are washed

off the fields.

95
Scientists and specialists have noted that there undoubtedly do exist problems

which justifiably alarm public opinion. However, as was stated, in the

construction of the complex of protective structures there is "no reverse

motion." Therefore the most important thing is to search for those ways to

carry out the planned intentions in such a way that the unfavorable effect

upon the environment will be minimal.

The authors of the article "But Where's the Protection Against the Dike?" have

expressed their alarm at the fact that, even today, when openness has become

one of the immutable conditions for the restructuring, there continues to be

an "information shortage," which pertains, for example, to the water quality

and the state of Neva Bay, the purification of the city runoffs, and the

appearance of new circumstances that can complicate the ecological situation.

Examples were given of the poor operation of the city's purification

structures, which by no means always justify the purpose for which they were

intended. This put in doubt the data concerning the percentage of runoffs that

are actually being purified. The idea was expressed concerning the need to

intensify the responsibility for the ecological balance in Leningrad's water

system.

The participants at the meeting included numerous specialists, scientists, and

correspondents from the central and local newspapers, radio, and television.

It was decided to prolong the discussion in March at a new meeting to«*discuss

the problem at the Home of Scientists with a broader circle of specialists and

researchers, as well as designers and participants in the construction of the

dike.

5075

CSO: 1800/457

96
REGIONAL ISSUES

DREDGING CAUSES DROP IN MAJOR RSFSR RIVER WATER LEVELS

Moscow SOTSIALISTICHESKAYA INDUSTRIYA in Russian 14 Jan 87 P 2

[Article by Ye. Chekalovskiy, candidate of geographical sciences: "Why Has the

•Silent Don' Become More Silent?"; first paragraph is source introduction]

[Text] The concern that is evoked by the worsened state of Lake Ladoga, as

described by Academician A. Treshnikov for the readers of SOTSIALISTICHESKAYA

INDUSTRIYA (No 273, 1986) is understandable and explainable. In recent years

the flora and fauna of this unique body of water have been seriously harmed.

In continuing the discussion that was begun by the newspaper, the author wants

to share his thoughts concerning the fate of our rivers.

Today many heated words are written about the fact that our rivers are

becoming shallower and are being polluted by industrial waste products, and

about the disappearance of valuable species of fish and vegetation. Acute

problems, for example, are linked with dredging operations.

One of the most complicated and painful problems, in my opinion, is the

artificial deepening of rivers. Let us attempt to trace the various stages in

which the river transport workers today "improve«1 the navigational properties

of the water ways. Along the entire length of its navigational path, a

dredger digs a ditch along the bottom. If the dredger has dug a ditch with a

depth, say, of one meter, they have improved the river by only 10-15

centimeters. And the farther the dredger goes, the worse that ratio becomes,

until finally the critical point is reached. Then, no matter how much you

scrape the bottom, the depth of the river itself will not change: the water

surface will drop by the same figure. Hydrologists call these phenomena

»settling." At the present time, practically speaking, there is not a sxngle

navigable river which, to one degree or another, has not experienced settling.

The water surface has dropped by more than a meter, revealing the banks, in

the lower part of the Don, in the upper parts of the Oka, and on the Volga —

downstream from the Volgograd GES. On the Irtysh and the Ob the settling

measures 1.5 meters, and on the Tom it exceeds 2 meters.

Why is this phenomenon dangerous? It is difficult to enumerate all the

consequences, but here are the basic ones. Settling dries out the water

intakes — the "sunken" river water stops feeding them. The pipeline siphons

are actively eroded — and the revealed pipes, filled with petroleum and gas,

97
hang over the bottom, creating emergency situations! which have already led

several times to a catastrophe. The settling also reduces the economic

effectiveness of the hydroelectric power stations.

And what about the natural resources? In the bottomlands of major rivers

there has been a noticeable drop in the ground-water level, and this is ä

direct threat to the diversity of the vegetation along the banks. In

addition, operations to deepen the river bottom noticeably hinder the river

current. The speed of the Don, for example, as in some places dropped by

half. Having become truly "silent,11 the Don has irreversibly lost many

valuable species of fish and has become overgown with blue-green algae, which,

as everyone knows, hamper the river's self-purification.

Like persons receiving a punishment, the first tovencounter the unforeseen

consequences were the river transport workers themselves. In Ufa, Omsk,

Pavlodar, and Novosibirsk, the walls of the berths have been laid bare to such

an extent that during years when the water level is low, not a single large

ship can approach them.

But what has been the reaction to all this? The RSFSR Ministry of the River

Fleet, for example, is considering a plan that is fantastic in its logic:

leave the bed of the Tom River for quarrying sand and gravel, and lay a canal

for navigation! On the Lena, which has also been Caused visible harm by the

dredgers, exploratory work is under way for designing a navigable lock. You

can only imagine what capital investments will be required to carry out

projects like this.

The saddest thing is that the lesson learned has not forced anyone to think

seriously about the situation, and has not stopped the dredging operations,

because everything is continuing to follow the previous pattern. But even the

use of locks, from the ecological point of view, is an extremely doubtful way

out: it exerts an influence upon the ground water, leads to stagnation

phenomena in the river bed, and, consequently, promotes the pollution of the

river.

In a word, nature is sending distress signals, but it is as though we do not

notice them, but, rather, are stubbornly trying to have it our own way. And

we do this instead of soberly evaluating the situation and admitting that the

deepening of the bottom is by no means the best way to improve the

navigational properties of the rivers. As long ago as the past century,

Russian engineers were able to regulate the depths with the aid of guide

levees and half-dikes. And currently these methods are being used

successfully, for example, on the Tur. The dredging has been reduced there to

the minimum, and the navigable depths have been almost doubled. But,

unfortunately, for the time being this is, if anything, the exception to the

rule that makes it possible to take the consumer approach and attempt to get a

quick benefit from exploiting our blue highways. The situation — and I shall

speak without exaggeration — is critical, and therefore it is necessary to

have a harmonious system, monitored by the USSR State Committee for

Hydrometeorology and Environmental Control, for maintaining the optimal

navigational conditions.

98
There ^Ls another problem that is no less painful for the welfare of the rivers

— a problem that is engendered by excessively zealous dredging. We have in

mind the barbarous exhaustion of the deposits of sand and gravel with which

our rivers are rich. Absolutely no one will stand on ceremony in this regard.

And, properly speaking, what is there to discuss? These building materials

are needed, the cost of quarrying them is low, and there is no monitoring at

all. Thus, unusually beautiful beaches on the Belaya River are being destroyed

from year to year. On the Angara it is proposed, within the near future, to

start (using the sandy wealth of the islands, and this means, factually

speaking, ruining them.

Should we be concerned about the beauties of nature and people's convenience

when we are considering economic problems? This is an idle question. In

addition, in nature, beauty almost always coincides with desirability. Are we

really to believe that people have already forgotten the bitter lessons of

recent years, when, for the sake of an instantaneous benefit, the pebbles from

the Black Sea were shipped to the concrete plants? Or the kind of damage that

that "economizing" resulted in, when the sea dashed against the banks that had

been laid bare. It was necessary to spend a tidy amount of money to reinforce

the banks with concrete blocks.

But what state agency monitors the quarrying of sand and grayöl, or weighs its

desirability on ;the scales of economy and ecology? There's no such

department! Sand and gravel are practically the only type of mineral

resources the plans for quarrying of which are not defended at the State

Committee for Useful Mineral Reserves. The State Committee for

Hydrometeorology also prefers not to interfere in the activity of the

"quarriers." And so it turns out that the RSFSR Ministry of the River Fleet

has concentrated in its hands the designing of the quarries, the quarrying

operations, and the monitoring of those operations. The plans are

overfulfilled, and people receive bonuses... For what? For blithely

squandering national property?

5075

CSO: 1800/457

7

/

99
REGIONAL ISSUES

POSITIVE, NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF NATIVE LANGUAGE STATUS IN ARMENIA

Official Concern With Development

[Editorial Report]; Yerevan SOVETSKAN AYASTAN in Armenian on 18 December 1986

carries on page 3 a'1,700-word article by Hovh. Baghdasaryan titled "Our Old

and Rich Language." The author states that, according to the Constitution of

the Armenian SSR, the'Armenian language Is an official language of the Armenian

Soviet Socialist Republic, that everything possible shall be done to promote

its development, and that the constitution guarantees the use of the language

in governmental and public agencies, in cultural, educational and other

establishments. The authör states that developing and working the language

to bring it up to a level adequate to official use is of the utmost importance.

In support of this statement he says that there has long been in operation a

terminological Committee attached to the Armenian SSR Council of Ministers,

consisting of linguists, literary scholars, writers, historians, journalists,

and representatives of other fields. The committee is tasked with determining

the principles of standardization and development of terminology in standard

literary Armenian; with creating, when needed, new words, terms, and acronyms;

and with correcting terminology, controlling linguistic borrowing, and working

with matters pertaining to correct spelling, grammar, and transcription.

The author notes the importance of development of terminology. He states

that there are currently more than 60,000 terms in the area of electronics

alone. He states that at the present time matters pertaining to developing

terminology are at a crucial stage. There are many who maintain that it is

proper to borrow foreign words and terms directly into Armenian because certain

words and terms do hot lend themselves to translation, while others argue

that there should be absolutely no foreign borrowings. The author expresses

his own views on the extent of borrowings and creation of new Armenian words

and terms. " - '

Teaching Aids, Methods Outdated

[Editorial Report] Yerevan GRAKAN TERT in Armenian oh 19 December 1986

carries on page 1 a 1,400-word article published under the heading "Anticipating

the Plenary Session of the Board of the Union of Armenian Writers," by HAYOTS

LEZUN YEV GRAKANUTYUNE DPROTSUM [The Armenian Language and Literature at

School] chief editor Lyudvig Karapetyari, titled "Native Tongue." The author

states that teaching the native language and literature is of primary importance in the schools. The author quotes K. Demirchyan as stating that in the

100
school every pupil should master his mother tongue. The present situation

is not promising, however, as regards meeting this requirement. Curricula

and textbooks play an important role in the school reform, to achieve

qualitative improvement in instruction. For.a number of years curricula and

textbooks have been in the process of "improvement, refurbishing, and reform,"

but this process does not seem to be coming to an end. "Old" authors continue

to hold a monopoly on the preparation of textbooks, and the legitimate demand

that new textbooks be co-authored by our best teachers, methods experts,

and writers is hardly ever met. Instead of developing written and oral

mastery of one's native language, instead of teaching the ability of wordbuilding, the schools continue with the mechanical process of rote memorization

of rules of grammar—there is a lack of real contact with the living language.

The author states that it is also important to listen to what teachers of

language and literature have to say and stresses the importance of those

teachers who teach other subjects but feel a responsibility with regard to

this question.

The author also addresses a "special" matter pertaining to language teaching.

Many Armenians living outside the Armanian SSR frequently write letters to the

editors of SOVETAKAN AYÄSTAN asking for-advice on how to teach Armenian to

themselves and their children. A textbook by Ararat Ghazaryan came out many

years ago, but it is out of print. There is a great need for a new selftaught Armenian language textbook, recores for learning the Armenian language,

recordings of the finest works of Armenian writers, etc

/9738 ;

CSO: 1838/401 ,

101
REGIONAL ISSUES

AGRICULTURE INSTITUTE ATTACKED FOR POOR RESEARCH

[Editorial Report] Baku KOMMUNIST in Azeri on 4 January 1987 carries on page

2 a 1600-word article by E. Iskandarov, deputy director of the Science,

Culture, and Health Department of the AzSSR Peoples Control Committee, and

KOMMUNIST correspondent M. Samad headlined "Research Must Be Profitable"

attacking research conducted by the Institute for Agricultural Economics and

Organization. Pointing out that the institute has a "careless attitude"

toward the dependency of quality research on practical experience, they claim

that "here, preference is given to people without practical experience in

agriculture. Out of 130 people directly engaged in research at the institute,

close to 100 have never worked directly in agriculture. Out of 37 chief

scientific workers, department directors and section chiefs, 16 have never

been connected to kolkhozes, sovkhozes, or other agriculture departments.

Between 1981 and 1986 27 senior and junior scientific workers did not even

prepare one scientific article, yet they were all reappointed."

SUCCESSES ANNOUNCED IN HOUSING CONSTRUCTION

[Editorial Report] Baku-KOMMUNIST in Azeri on 13 February 1987 carries on

page 1 a 1400-word lead editorial headlined "Wide Room for the Construction

of Social Buildings." It points out that "our builders worked well in this

sector last year and exceeded plan commitments in the construction of preschool childrens' institutions, general education and vocational schools,

hospitals, polyclinics, clubs, and cultural houses. For the first time more

than 2 million square meters of housing space were turned over for use so that

200,000 republic workers greeted the New Year in new, well-appointed housing,"

Problems remain in the construction of schools. In addition, "there are still

a number of educational-cultural centers located in inadequate buildings

lacking the necessary equipment."

/9738

CSO: 1830/438

102
REGIONAL ISSUES

ADJARIAN RAYON RANKS FIRST IN GEORGIAN POPULATION GROWTH

[Editorial Report] Tbilisi LITERATURULI SAKARTVELO in Georgian No 49,

5 December 1986 carries on page 16 under the title "From Goderdzi to

Khikhanä [place names]" Mikheil Makharadze's 1,100-word review of a TV

documentary on highland Adjaria's Khulo Rayon. Among other interesting

data, viewers were informed that Khulo Rayon ranks first in Georgia in the

rate of population growth, with some 1,200 to 1,300 births yearly [current

rayon population is approximately 40,000]. Khuloans are proud of this, also

the fact that they have made their own considerable contribution to the

demographic revival of parts of Meskheti and of Tsiteltskaro Rayon, having

sent many of their number to settle and "multiply" in those districts.

A number of problems are touched upon as well as positive aspects. The

forests are in sad shape, and with excessive cutting there is the danger

that they will be totally depleted in 10 to 15 years. Unemployment is a

problem in the winter; this could be alleviated if small processing plants

and other facilities were set up. The rayon lacks dentists, doctors, and

teachers, also pharmaceutical facilities. The fine, centuries-old Christian

church in Skhalta is badly in need of restoration.

The documentary's candid treatment of highland Adjaria's problems, the

reviewer emphasizes, is a refreshing change from past "stereotypical" and

"prettifying" looks at the region.

SVANS DEBATE RESETTLEMENT AFTER AVALANCHE DISASTER

[Editorial Report] Tbilisi AKHALGAZRDA KÖMUNISTI in Georgian on 24 January

1987 carries on page 2 under the title "Khocha Ladegh [the Svan greeting]"

special correspondent Manana Kartozia's 2,800-word reportage on the

avalanche disaster that struck villages in highland Mestia Rayon (Svanetia).

Bad weather set in around mid-December and continued into January, with

heavy snows that cut many communities off and blocked even the main roads.

The local newspaper, recalling the disaster of 1976, warned everyone to take

precautions and called for the evacuation of avalanche-prone communities.

Disaster did strike "like lightning" on 9 January, when five families in the

village of Zhamushi (a few kilometers from Mestia) were wiped out—a total

of 25 persons. The reporter describes In graphic detail the heroic efforts

to rescue any survivors and the numb grief of heartbroken relatives; one

103
father wore on his chest the pictures of his dead children. Some 5,000

mourners showed up for the mass funeral.

Fear of the future, both immediate and long-term, has led many Svans to talk

seriously about leaving Svanetia to settle elsewhere in Georgia—Tandzia

[Bolnisi Rayon] arid Udäbno [Sagaredzho Rayon], for instance. There have !

been more and more applicants in recent years. Others, however, argue

against quitting their ancestral homeland; they know the fate of highland

Khevsureti {north of Tbilisi] and Racha [north-central Georgia], which have'

become virtually depopulated. Besides, they invoke the old legend of the

"Kurdiani boy," the sole survivor of an avalanche that wiped out everyone

else in his big family. He stayed in Svanetia, typically produced numerous

progeny of his own, and now there are Kurdianis everywhere. On another

upbeat note, on 17 January eight babies were born in the Mestia hospital.

The author of the article emphasizes throughout the Svans' industriousness,

courage, and pride, Which have enabled them to live and thrive in Svanetia's

severe conditions from ancient times. Unfortunately, in recent times many

Svans'merely pay lip-service to their heritage, spending as little time as

possible there, perhaps to add "a romantic page to their biography" or

attract attention', arid putting down roots in other places—Tbilisi, Sukhumi,

etc.—where life is easier. "Svanetia should not be used as a springboard

[tramplin]," the author states.

Admittedly, Svanetia is backward in many respects and lacks the amenities

that are long since considered the norm elsewhere in Georgia. It is up to

the Svans themselves—especially young people—to do something about it, and

the Komsomol has indeed been very energetic. But republic-level ministries

and departments must also take steps.

OVERLOADED PRINTING PLANTS DELAY GEORGIAN DICTIONARIES

[Editorial Report] Tbilisi AKHALGAZRDA KOMUNISTI in Georgian No 12,

29 January 1987 carries on page 3 under the title "Language Is the Nation's

Mother" [a weekly feature focusing on problems of standard usage in all

aspects of public life] Levan Gvindzhilia's 1,200-word inquiry into the fate

of two very essential dictionaries whose publication has been delayed for a

number of years. They are: "Dictionary of Terms in the Economics of Trade

and Commodities Handling," and Akhvlediani & Topuria's "Georgian-Russian

School Dictionary," both to be published by Ganatleba Publishing House.

The trade and economics dictionary, designed to impose order in the

presently chaotic terminology of merchandising and goods, was prepared by

Tbilisi State University in accordance with a special Council of Ministers

decree in 1970 [as printed; 1980 is presumably intended] for Tsekavshiri

[the republic consumer cooperative system]. The Georgian-Russian dictionary

goes back even further. They both have suffered the same fate as dozens of

other titles—mainly textbooks and other educational literature—which

Ganatleba has had to "carry over" from one year's plan to the next. In the

104
case of the latter, the original itself is far from completely ready for

typesetting and printing.

In a lengthy reply to the author's inquiry, Ganatleba's director, Luka

Khundadze, pleads that the publishing house's printing plants are woefully

inadequate to their exacting tasks—ranking very low in the USSR as a

whole—and are always badly overloaded. He cites numerous figures

reflecting Ganatleba's backlog of textbooks and dictionaries and the numbers

of printing sheets [listy] required. Moreover, even the various clients,

including Tsekavshiri and the Education Ministry's Textbook Administration,

hardly seem to care, although the economics dictionary has now been taken to

Tsekavshiri's own printing plant for typesetting.

Not all is hopeless, however. Khundadze notes the progress that has been

made in the past two years, the fact that several essential texts and

reference books are now in press. What Ganatleba needs to improve its

dictionary publishing program is to receive a yearly allotment of 150-200

sheets specifically for that purpose. In addition, Goskomizdat [State

Committee for Publishing Houses, Printing Plants, and the Book Trade] must

monitor the situation more closely. He anticipates that the new khozraschet

system of management and stricter enforcement of contract discipline will

help. And he promises that the Georgian-Russian dictionary will be out in

the fall of 1988.

6854

CSO: 1830/455

105
REGIONAL ISSUES

KAZAKH FOOD SUPPLY PROBLEMS DISCUSSED

[Editorial Report] Alma-AtaSOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN in Kazakh on 24 January

1987 carries on page 3 a 2,400-word article in three parts by SOTSIALISTIK

QAZAQSTAN reporters A. Zholdasbekov, M. Abughaliyev arid B. Abdirazaqov,

published under the rubric "Supply With Food and Produce, A Responsible Duty,"

entitled "Let There Be No Lack of Attentiveness in Sales." The article

reviews problems in the sale of meat, milk, and other food products in three

KaSSR oblasts: Chimkent, Eastern Kazakhstan, and Kzyl-Orda. The authors show

that there are considerable problems with food availability in all three

areas. : '" / '

Specifically, Zholdasbekov, Abughaliyev and Abdirazaqov compalin of great

unevenness in food availability from store to store, of rural abundance and

urban shortage, of seasonal oversupply, of poor quality products, of too much

spoilage, and of many trade system irregularities (short weights, overcharging,

etc.). They suggest that a large part of the problem is due to failure of the

authorities to take difficulties discussed seriously enough. Failure of

suppliers to meet output plans is also a problem.

GREAT DISPARITY IN KAZAKH TELEPHONE DEVELOPMENT

[Editorial Report] Alma-Ata SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN in Kazakh on 6 February

1987 carries on page 2 a 2,100-word article by KzSSR Minister of Communications

S. Bayzhanov entitled "Urgent Need To Improve Telephone Connections." The

article evaluates the achievements and problems of KaSSR telephone systems.

According to Bayzhanov, major progress in developing republic telephone systems

has been made with 252,400 new telephones installed during the years 1981-1985

alone. Every fifth urban inhabitant of the KaSSR now has a telephone at his

or her disposal and every 12th rural inhabitant (by 1991, however, every third

urban house and every eighth rural house will have a telephone, above all due

to efforts to provide newly completed housing with telephones already

installed; the percentage of housing completed with telephones installed will

rise from 77 percent today to 85 percent by 1991). By 1993-1995, republic

communications workers, Bayzhanov goes on, should be able to eliminate the

current backlog of telephone orders completely and to provide new service

within no more than a year. By the year 2000, republic telephone needs are

"to be met completely," claims Bayzhanov.

106
Turning to problem areas, Bayzhanov scores construction lags in building up

some systems and failure to install electronic systems as construction takes

place. He also notes serious problems due to regional inequities in telephone

service. Instead of the average of 20 telephones per 100 inhabitants (the

figure given by Bayzhanov in the beginning of his article), figures are substantially below this in many oblast centers. For example: Uralsk, 9.5 per

hundred; Pavlodar, 17.4 per hundred; Gur'yev, 9.7 per hundred; Arqalyq, 10.0

per hundred; Dzhambul, 10.7 per hundred; Kzyl-Orda, 11 per hundred.

KAZAKH, SOVIET URBAN GROWTH TRACED

[Editorial Report] Alma-Ata BILIM ZHANE ENGBEK in Kazakh No 1, January 1987

carries on pages 12-13 an 800-word article by journalist Marash Toqashbayev,

published under the rubric "Flourishing Since the Revolution," entitled

"History Written in Stone." The article looks at Soviet and KaSSR urbanization

in a world context, noting how in fact the Soviet Union has no means been

immune to the effects of a revolution which has changed the world from a

largely rural state into one of major urbanization today with more than 200

cities with populations exceeding one million.

In 1926, Toqashbayev continues, only one-fifth of the -population of the Soviet

Union lived in cities. Today two-thirds does, or 180.2 million persons, a

more than 6-fold increase over 1926, during a period when the general population increase was only 1.5 fold« Alma-Ata is among 22.Soviet cities with a

population of one million today. That level was achieved in 1981 and

signified a 10-fold increase in the population of the city since 1917«

/9738' . ;.,..'•

CSO: 1830/446 END

107