JPRS-UPS-86-058
5 DECEMBER 1986
USSR Report
POLITICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL AFFAIRS
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JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 DECEMBER 1986
USSR REPORT
POLITICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL AFFAIRS
CONTENTS
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS
Yeltsin Speech on School Reform
(B. N. Yeltsin; MOSKOVSKAYA PRAVDA, 21 Sep 86)........... 1
Chinese Social Science Delegation Visits USSR
(OBSHCHESTVENNYYE NAUKI, No 5, Sep-Oct 86).....cceeeeeees 17
PRAVDA Attacks Corrupt Kazakh Officials
(G. Dildyayev; PRAVDA, 11 Oct 86)......ccccccecccccececes 18
KaSSR: Obkom First Secretary on Chimkent Oblast Cleanup
(R. Myrzashev; SOVETSKAYA KULTURA, 16 Oct 86)..........-- 23
Kirghiz Officials Cited in PRAVDA Article Punished
(B. Artemov; PRAVDA, 23 Sep 86)......ceccccccccsceveeeces 24
Turkmen CP Debates Widespread Malpractices
(V. Loginov; PRAVDA, 24 Oct 86).....cccccccccscccccsccecs 25
Peoples Control Groups Urged To Use Full Potential
(SOVET TURKMENISTANY, 7 Aug 86)........ccceccceccccceeces 30
RAPO Party Management Criticized
(SOVET TURKMENISTANY, 22 Aug 86)......ccceeeccscecceccees 30
Briefs
First Secretary Appointed 31
Tselinograd First Secretary Profiled 31
MEDIA AND PROPAGANDA
Soviet TV Permits Expressio. of Controversial Views
(Svetlana Zhiltsova Interview; ARGUMENTY I FAKTY,
FO GES GEE GE) c ccc ccccccss ccc cesesccecssesscccocececces 32
Restrictions on Newspapers, Journal Subscriptions Eased
ees Ge GU 665660606 056050050048600600006000666068 35
Kazakhs Planning One-Volume Explanatory Dictionary
(Sh. Sarybayev; QAZAQ ADEBIYETI, 25 Jul 86)..........006- 38
Shortcomings Noted in Textbook Printing, Distribution
CORGRELTORAR GAZETTE, 3 Aue OE) occ cccccccccccccccccccccens 38
HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY
Various Explanations for 1916 Kazakh Uprising
(A. Takenov; SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN, 27 Jul 86).......... 39
New Series on Marxism-Leninism Produced
(OBSHCHESTVENNYYE NAUKI, No 5, Sep-Oct 86)..........000-. 41
RELIGION
Importance of Youth Atheist Education Stressed
(Raisa Yegorovna Zlobina; SELSKAYA ZHIZN, 5 Sep 86)...... 42
CULTURE
PRAVDA Editorial Desc'ibes New Cultural Emphasis
(PRAVDA, 25 Sep 86).......... secccces Seco ceescccccccccoes 45
Zaytsev Notes Eight Republics Chosen for New Theater Experiment
(Ye. V. Zaytsev; SOVETSKAYA ROSSIYA, 15 Aug 86).......... 48
Zilbershteyn Describes Russian Theater Art Collected Abroad
(I. S. Zilbershteyn; OGONEK, Nas 36, 37, 1986)............ 51
Seven Experimental Studio-Theaters Opening in Moscow
(V. Shadrin Interview; IZVESTIYA, 9 Oct 86)..........008- 64
Bulgakov's Writing in Emigration, Support for NEP Described
(Mikhail Bulgakov; ZHURNALIST, No 9, Sep 86)........+506- 68
Gumilev's Disciple Described Living in Paris
(Anna Kolonitskaya; MOSCOW NEWS, No 41, 19-26 Oct 86)... 69
sh «
SOCIAL
Improper Restoration of Historic Structures Decried
(G. Ivanova, Ye. Strelnikova; IZVESTIYA, 13 Aug 86)......
Kazakh Museum Displays Explained Only in Russian
(Otegen Abdiramanov; IAZAQ ADEBLY ETI, ll Jul 86) eeceevecese
ISSUES
Kravtsov Touches on Key Issues Facing Justice Ministry
(B. Kravtsov; SOTSIALISTICHESKAYA ZAKONNOST, No 6,
Jun Ba 6eeesése oe ff feevreeenrererTrteneeeeieeeeseesese re fr eeeeneeeeete *-.
Growth of Lawyers’ Services to Citizens Discussed
(Ye. Sekhin; SOTSIALISTICHESKAYA ZAKONNOST, No 6,
Jun wa esses “eee eee ee ee
KaSSR: Too Few Doctors in Rural Rayon
(T. Ysqaqov; SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN, 19 Jul 86)......... °
KaSSR: Misuse of State Vehicles for Private Purposes Protested
(N. Khisameddinov, N. Muftakhov; SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN,
Be SOR BE bbb oo cece eee essseeseccepsdceccecsecescccesosess
KaSSR: No Reason To Rest on Antialcoholism Laurels
(SOTSIALISTIK QAZAOSTAN, 18 Jul 86)... ccccccccccccccces
Underground Video Theaters Discovered in LiSSR
(V. Vatis; SOVETSKAYA LITVA, 5 Oct 86).......ceeee0. peese
Turkmen Women Not Entering Work Force
(S. A. Niyazov; MUGALLYMLAR GAZETI, 27 Aug 86)..........-
Women Drawn Into Bakherden Rayon Work Force
(K. Nazarov; SOVET TURKMENISTANY, 20 Aug 86)......2e-ee0-
Teachers’ Conferences To Stress Ideology
(MUGALLYMLAR GAZETI, 15 Aug 86)......cccccecccccccccccees
School Food Organization Assailed
(MUGALLYMAR GAZETI, 13 Aug 86)....... eceerecceccccccovcce
1985-1986 TUSSR Educational Statistics Published
(MUGALLYMLAR GAZETI, 31 Aug 86)......cccccccccccccccccees
Shortcomings in Kirghiz Student Training, Need for Russian Noted
(S. Daniyarov; SOVETSKAYA KIRGIZIYA, 16 Aug 86).........-.
Use of Television in Examining Georgian Agroprom Lauded
(Eduard Yeligulashvili; LITERATURNAYA GAZETA, 15 Oct 86).
70
75
76
84
89
89
90
94
94
94
95
95
96
96
Concern Expressed for Effects of TV Broadcasting on Youth
CL. Ghbeiatiks IZVESTIVA, 22 Sap 96). cccccccccccccccccses 97
Briefs
Moscow Synagogue Services Disturbed 98
Airport Runway Lights Stolen 98
REGIONAL ISSUES
/12223
KaSSR: Failure To Use [rrigated Lands Fully
(SOTSIALISTIK OQAZAQSTAN, 15 Jul 86)........... TYTTiTTitiTy 99
KaSSR: Large-Scale Poaching From Vehicles
(N. Sadwaqasov; SOTSIALISTIK QAZAOQSTAN, 16 Jul 86)....... 99
All Poachers Must Be Prosecuted Says KaSSR Fisheries Chief
(Y. Oteghaliyev; SOTSIALISTIK QAZAOSTAN, 13 Jul 86)...... 99
KaSSR: Editorial Warns Units Not Heeding New Consumer Goods Goals
(SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN, 20 Jul 86)....... cece ecceeees 100
KaSSR: Managers Prosecuted for Product Quality Violations
(Q. Dysenbin; SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN, 30 Jul 86)......... 100
KaSSR: Herdsmen Shortage Heralds Crisis of Sheep Raising
(Sultanali Balghabayev; QAZAQ ADEBIYETI, 18 Jul 86)...... L100
Construction of Hydrosystem for Moscow on Upper Volga
(SOVETSKAYA ROSSIYA, 12 Oct 86)........cceeeeeeeces ovceee 102
TuSSR Freight Handling Viclations Discussed
(N. Yusubov; SOVET TURKMENISTANY, 5 Aug 86).......2esee5- LO9
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS
YELTSIN SPEECH ON SCHOOL REFORM
Moscow MOSKOVSKAYA PRAVDA in Russian 21 Sep 86 pp 2-3
[Report on speeches of B.N. Yeltsin and others at Moscow Gerkom and
Gorispolkom meeting of Moscow's public and vocational-technicz1 education
workers }
[Text] In realizing today in practical activity the policy of the Central
Committee April (1985) Plenum and the 27th party congress aimed at the
country’s accelerated socioeconomic development we must always bear in mind
the prospects of this work connected with the training of personnel. The
reform of the general and vocational school occupies a special place here. We
link with it big hopes in respect of the training and education of the younger
generation of Soviet people, who are to be direct participants in the
reorganization.
Stepping up the acceleration process and making it stable in the future means
raising the younger generation, our replacement and today's schoolchildren and
college trainees who think and are prepared to act in accordance with the
highest standards of civicism and party-mindedness. It is the accomplishment
of this noble task--perfecting the process of education of the young Soviet
individual and all his attributes--dilligence, collectivism and devotion to
our ideals--which the current reform of the general and vocational school
serves.
Does the progress of the reform correspond to the dynamism of the
transformations occurring in the country and in Moscow in the economic and
social sphere? What is the main thing in the reform? Have we not reduced it
merely to a reinforcement of the physical plant? Why has today's teacher, who
was deservedly known in earlier times as an enlightener, "gong gray," so to
speak, against the backdrop of the capital's intellectual potential? Have not
the teachers themselves given rise in Moscow to an erroneous wave of coaching?
Is the teacher the central, principal figure of the current reform? Has not
the system of his retraining lagged behind? Why are the home and the school
at times failing to exert the strongest influence on adolescents? Why in the
Moscow school is everything geared to preparing the bulk of students for VUZ
enrollmeni:? From where will we supplement the ranks of the capital's working
class? How is the large number of special schools formed in accordance with
special principles squared with the demands of social justice? How long wil]
some students come to c’asses in their parents’ office cars? Why may a pretty
good workman whose childien are learning and behaving in school badly be put
among the production pacesetters? Percentage-mania, excessive memoranda, the
male teacher, the climate in the teaching outfit, the 6-year old--there are
many, many questions on the agenda today.
It had not been the done thing to speak out loud about some of them,
unfortunately, in the spirit of now bygone times. But we must speak about
this and, what is most important, tackle questions such as to lend new,
correct, and strong impetus to the reform in Moscow.
On the threshold of the meeting gorkom officers visited many schools and
vocational-technical colleges, talked with various categories of teachers and
educators and sat in on classes. The question was asked everywhere: "What
has the school reform produced?" The stereotyped answer: "We have increased
wages. The physical plant is being reinforced. We are embarking on the
teaching of 6-year olds." The question concerning what had changed in the
content of the teaching, educational process, and the students’ knowledge
level remained unanswered, as a rule.
For fairness’ sake I will say that the meeting in the gorkom with a group of
school and vocational-technical college workers showed in this connection that
our city has creative, searching people who are boldly taking the path of an
upgrading of the educational system. They shared their experience of reform
in their outfits. There was much to talk about. Many public and vocational-
technical education workers are now working creatively and performing complex
work in the search for interesting, new forms of realization of the demands of
the reform.
Reconstruction, acceleration--these concepts have now become the main content
of our entire work. There is movement in a!l areas. But the pace and scale
of school reform in the city cannot be regarded as satisfactory today. In
education inertia of thinking does not so much hold back as pull back,
How often do we still hear references to an absence of programs, textbooks,
instructions, and directions! We are still waiting. But in this time many
regions of the country have long since moved ahead.
School reform implies assertive action, and not only in the sphere of shaking
loose capital investments for development of the physical plant. The reform
will not be successful without this either. But this takes time. And the
reform must be producing results already. Seeking and applying more boldly
all that is best end progressive is the main task of the teaching groups.
The basic provisions of the reform were developed with the aid of science.
Life compelled this. But it is too early to rest on our laurels. Practical
workers are awaiting new methods aids, studies and recommendations from the
scientists. But they do not exist in the educational] institutions. Except
for some experimental institutions, perhaps.
Everything new and progressive which has appeared in practice and in the minds
of scientists must be actively introduced in Moscow. Are the education
ministries, vocational-technical education committees and the Academy of
Pedagogical Sciences not ashamed at the present standard of education in
Moscow? And this is not a localistic approach. Where else, if not near at
hand, should an experimental base be? Full use is not being made of the
tremendous scientific potential of the city, primarily of the USSR Academy of
Pedagogical Sciences institutes and the Pedagogical Institute imeni V.I.
Lenin.
On the other hand Moscow teachers’ attitude toward science is markedly more
skeptical than in the localities. Is this not because they consider
themselves omniscient and capable of everything? This is a mistaken opinion.
A more sizable step forward in the scientific elaboration of the reform has
been taken in many regions of the country.
But there is creative concord in Moscow. After all, Brezhnevskiy Rayon has
managed to organize interesting and, as the first results show, efficient work
with teaching personnel. The rayon's entire teacher collective is split into
three groups. The first are experts, the second, trained teachers and the
third inadequate teachers (this is the most populous group, what is more).
Microgroups have been set up with regard for this differentiation. Young
specialists are incorporated in them. The central figure of such microgroups
is the expert teacher. A qualification apprenticeship is served and
experience excharged. Results are not to hand immediately. But in 1-2 years
they will be for certain. The party Central Committee calls for the reform to
be conducted precisely thus, creatively, enterprisingly and in alliance with
science, by each collective and each worker. Failing this, we will not take a
single step forward in the reorganization of education.
Labor resources are an acute problem for Moscow. Do we have to recount in
detail the economic, social, moral, and psychological losses which we are
incurring in connection with the fact that in 10 years we have brought into
the city 700,000 workers from other cities? The easily acquired work force in
the city has deformed the system of training personnel] necessary for the
Moscow economy. This has also been reflected at the school and in the
vocational-technical college. It is simpler attracting workers from outside
than training one's own highly skilled personnel. But the success of such an
approach is illusory.
Only 10 percent of 10th grade graduates continues to work per their specialty
acquired at school. The proportion of young people entering after school
graduation thc sphere of material production and service in the llth 5-Year
Plan declined from 23 to 19 percent of graduates. This is the result of
shortcomings in vocational guidance, a low level of organization of industrial
training in school, a lack of training zones and shops at the enterprises and
inattention on the part of enterprise manegers to retraining school graduates
on the job. Education in the home should have an important say here also.
Last year 335 sewing machine operators, 200 sales assistants, and 400 fitters
were graduated in Pervomayskiy Rayon without regard for the needs of
production. And given a shortage of almost 900 workers of construction trades
and 340 mechanics, Oktyabrskiy Rayon trained not one. Given a need for an
additional 500 construction workers, Lyublinskiy Rayon trained...38!
No one is seriously involved in vocational guidance in the city. It is as yet
chaotic. Forty-seven industrial training centers are providing training in
120 occupations. Is such an abundance necessary?
However, strange it may seem, many rayispolkoms are today remaining aloof from
the formation of the list of specialties in the vocational-technical schools
and exert no influence on this sphere. Departmentalism lies heavy. We need
to remove the interdepartmental barriers in the city and train in the schools
and vocational-technical colleges people of the specialties which the city
needs, making use of all the available facilities for this. The Moscow City
Soviet must take all this in hand.
We shall not solve the problem of labor resources in the city unless we change
our attitude toward the system of vocational-technical education. The gorkom
recently examined and approved, in the main, a program for the development of
Moscow's vocational-technical education for the period up to the year 2000.
Its principal distinguishing feature is an orientation toward satisfaction of
the city’s skilled worker personnel requirements and the training there of
predominantly from the ranks of Moscow youth. It is intended in the 12th
5-Year Plan increasing Muscovites’ enrollment in the vocational-technical
schools by a factor of almost 1.5 with a simultaneous reduction in the numbers
of out-of-town trainees from 16,000 to 10,000. This measure will make it
possible to reduce worker personnel] turrover considerably.
Another distinguishing feature of the program is a significant expansion of
the training of personnel for the sectors determining S&T progress. For the
amachine-building sectors alone there will be an increase of almost 8,000 in
the training of workers for the operation and maintenance of automated
equipment, robotic engineering complexes, and flexible automated process
modules and systems.
What is the main problem of vocational-technical education? Primarily the
lack of the necessary facilities and the criminally indifferent attitude here
toward the vocational-technical school on the part of ministries and
departments and base enterprises. The state of many schools is so wretched
that no promises could entice the youth to them. One out of every four
vocational-technical schools has unsatisfactory conditions for holding classes
(and 18 are in an extremely dilapidated state). One out of every three lacks
a gym, one out of every 19, ® library.
The attitude of directors N. I. Pershin of the Second Clock Plant, A. N.
Petrov of the "Kompressor" Plant, L. N. Vavilova of the “Raduga™ Garment
Associations, T. N. Barkanova of "Zhenskaya moda" and A. N. Ilin of a
scientific research institute toward the schools under their jurisdiction is
worse than toward a step-daughter.
It is no accident that in confirming the comprehensive program of the
development of vocational-technical education we are not orienting ourselves
toward a sharp increase in graduates--they will grow only 3 percent in che
5-year plan. We are investirg almost R/00 million, one-third more than in the
preceding 5-year plan, in the construction, modernization and equipping of
vocational-technical schools. The ministries and base ent<rprises shovld have
a decisive say here.
The task of training apprestices in occupations directly or the ‘fob is being
tackled inadequately. Many base enterprises are shirking the conclusion of
the corresponding contracts and not making joos available. Whai are ‘he
directors of the "Manomet-," "Stankolit” ard "Spetsstanok” plarts, for
example, thinking of? Are they hoping that someone will train workers for
them? Some 16,000 jobs have not been allocated for seniors in the city as a
whole.
The schools are making prectically no use uf the industriai-training
facilities of the vocational-technical colleges. Only 2 out of every 1,000
school students on average does practical work here. Only one out of every 10
colleg?s cooperates with the schools in this respect. And this is wrong in
principle. The vocational-technical colleges shovid be the school's senior
classes. This will bring the youngsters cloger to work.
Departmental discreteness between the «wo systems of education and the lack of
due contacts at all levels are reflected as yet.
The experience of the creation of the clothing design center in the
industrial-training workshops sponsored by the Experimental Engineering
Factory imeni Klara Tsetkin serves as an exampie of how it may be overcome.
Instead of monotonous primitive work here--the sewing of sacks--the girls are
given a chance to work on their own models, creatively. There is now no end
of applicants! And the initiative did not come from the factory's workers--it
came from Deputy Minister Vladimir Andreyevich Malvshev, who heads the
workshop directors’ pioneering council. A good example for many leaders. If
each of the other 29 deputy ministers in the room were to follow his example,
it would be simply spiendid.
Sound industrial facilities have been created in some schools today. The
students are already manufacturing necessary products and being paid. It
would seem that productive labor needs to be stimulated. But our finance
worker-dogmatists are a brick wall. What business of theirs is the reform?
And the seniors continue to take money from their parents for school neecs and
measures.
i.° question legitimately arises today concerning the soundness of the
allocation of industrial enterprises in respect of sponsorship relations in
the city. They need to be made more even. Rayon boundaries have always been
the stumbling block here. Let us overstep this narrow-departmental approach.
This ace not fraternal currently: abundance in the central rayons, paucity in
the rayons of the second zone. A clinic (which is itself in need of sponsors)
and ineffectual workshops rank among the sponsors. The “Khimreaktivy"™ Store
in Krasnogvardeyskiy Rayon "sponsors" as many as five schools! Who needs such
sponsorship! It is only for accountability. In conjunction with the Moscow
Gorispolkom, the rayispolkoms and the raykoms the main administration should,
having carefully considered everything, revise the current system and help the
outlying rayons thanks to major enterprises and organizations which are not
even on the party register there, perhaps.
It is perfectly natural that in the category of the major tasks being tackled
in the course of the reform we put information science and computers. We are
among the leaders in the race for the numbers of computers. Although the
requirement is far from satisfied as yet. Approximately 200 information
science centers have been created and three computer centers are operating in
the city. But this means that only one out of every six schools has its own
center. And even by the end of the 5-year plan, according to calculations of
the Vocational-Technical Education Main Administration, 80 vocational-
technical schools (out of 201) will not have their own visual display class-
rooms. I recently visited Brezhnevskiy Rayon's School 117. The sponsors--the
Space Research Institute--have not stinted on the most modern equipment. The
seniors compile study programs for the youngsters. Machines are used in the
study of other subjects. The schoolchildren ask: give us a chance to tackle
practical assignments for the rayon--we are capable of this. But the rayon
leadership is not prepared. The children are running into a brick wall. The
result--zero.
Our main admistrations are following in the wake, it may be said, of urgent
problems. The schools are experiencing big difficulties in computer
maintenance. And even if we set the task of an expansion of the system, it
will then be necessary to simultaneously give thought as to how and with what
forces we will repair the computers. Interrayon repair workshops, perhaps?
But it is necessary to put this on a practical footing and not force the
school director to shift and dodge in the acquisition of spares and the search
for repair specialists.
In the majority of cases talk of reform begins with the 6-year olds. This is
a most important area. But not the sole one, although in many instances the
entire reform has been reduced precisely to this. There have been many
"miracles," alas. Figure-mania and an endeavor to be the first to report,
ignoring actual possibilities, have been at work. There have been deliberate
violations of the established norms for the sake of fulfillment of the plan
"launched from on high." Instead of the appointed classroom and two
additional premises for the children's sleep and play, merely one room is
frequently allocated. Such schools now constitute 40 percent. Questions of
the youngsters’ diet and medical services are all being sacrified for the sake
of the notorious figures and percentages.
The 6-year olds are alright in school in the first half of the day, at the
time when lessons are under way. Real suffering for these young children
begins in the second half of the day because they cannot rest owing to the
noise. And the school cannot provide quiet at this time--it is living its
natural, fvll-bloodied, noisy life.
We are today artifically fencing off the 6-year olds _a the school from the
school community. Partitions within the school have been built. This is not
the solution. School annexes are what is needed. But departmental separation
is currently killing the good idea and necessary undertaking.
It would be good, of course, were parents to bring children to school in the
morning, and in the latter half of the day for them to be sent to the
kindergarten. There they could be conveniently fed, and they would have an
opportunity to walk about and rest, and in the evening the parents would tzeke
them away. There are no simple recommendations. But we need to look for a
solution.
We must devote the entire business of the youth's tuition to the youth's
education. This work needs to be performed comprehensively. We have
considerable unfinished business here. There is much dogmatism. Out-of-
school work is inadequately organized, and the role and independence of the
Komsomol and pioneer organizations have diminished. The result of the
negligence is the social inertness of a considerable proportion of the youth
and more frequent violations of moral standards and principles.
Infractions of the law are a graphic indicator. Crime among cschool students
and the number of those arrested for drunkenness and other disturbances of
public order increased in the past 5 years. Drug addiction is becoming a
serious problem. We have closed our eyes to it for a long time and have been
ashamed to talk about it. The ostrich policy has led to the point where
Moscow now has 3,700 registered drug and toxin addicts. Some 164 such persons
have been discovered among school and vocational-technical college students in
the current year alone. A steady trend toward an increase in group crimes
among adolescents has been observed recently.
Such occurrences in the city have been the consequence of a criminally
negligent attitude toward their duties not only of the police officers, since
many juvenile criminals are on file at the police stations, but also of the
school and vocational-technical college teachers. The main administrations
are not holding duly to acccunt the rayon public education departments and
school and vocational-technical college leaders for inadequate individual-
educational work with the students, primarily with difficult adolescents. In
some vocational-technical schools of Leningradskiy, Proletarskiy, and
Kuybyshevskiy rayons one out of every four offenders goes unpunished. It is
no accident that it is in these rayons that there has been an increase in
crime.
There are also serious shortcomings in the presentation of military-patriotic
education and examples of an irresponsible attitude toward this on the part of
many leaders. Just one example. The initial military training “assault
course” has become an insurmountable barrier for the Moscow Gorispolkom. A
mass of decisions has been adopted, but things are at a standstili. Currently
only 10 percent of the schools have camps. How are we thinking of preparing
future fighters for army service?
Things are no better when it comes to physical education. Half the young men
who, according to the reports, passed the Ready for Labor and Defense physica!
training tests cannot confirm them a second time, and in Babushkinskiy,
Baumanskiy, Dzerzhinskiy, and certain other rayons only !]5 percent of
graduates confirmed the tests in the current year.
Inadequate attention to physical education is a reason for the deterioration
in the students" health. The percentage of sick children or those predisposed
to illness increases by a factor of more than 1.5 by the eighth grade and
amounts to 55 percent. One out of every two juniors fails to correspond in
terms of physical development to the norms of his age group, one out of every
three has anomalies in his state of health and more than 10 percent are
chronically ill.
There are serious complaints to be leveled here at both the teachers and
medical personnel. Two departments, no contact. There is a shortage otf
doctors for adolescents. Doctors and nurses are not subordinate to the school
and dictate "their" operating hours. Twelve percent of schocls do not have a
doctor, and there is no second shift anywhere. An arrangement has been
reached with USSR Minister of Health S. P. Burenkov: the problem not only
concerning doctors for adolescents but also in respect of a number of other
narrow specialties in Moscow will have been solved within 2 years.
Thousands of students do not know how to occupy their free time and are
involved neither in school groups, in out-of-school establishments, nor at
their place of residence. At the same time, according to report data, a wide-
ranging system of activity groups, sections, and clubs for children and
adolescents has been created and is operating actively in the schools,
vocational-technical colleges, and out-of-school establishments. Paper, as we
know, stands up to everything. Only can we agree to numerical, paper well-
being?
It is necessary to pay the most serious attention to the organization of the
students’ extracurricular activity and the strengthening of educational work
among adolescents at the place of residence. This is as yet one of the most
neglected areas. Despite insistent demands and recommendations, neither the
raykoms nor the rayispolkoms have availed themseives of the experience to hand
in the country. And there is such. In many areas the school is the center ot
educational work in the microregion. A socio-pedagogical complex has been
formed around it--a successful form of unification of the efforts of the
school, the home, and the production outfit in educational work and in work at
the place of residence. It is headed, as a rule, by industrial leaders of the
sponsoring enterprise. It has been said repeatedly: travel about, study and
apply with regard for Moscow's specific features. No. What is this--capital]
egotism or ossification? I believe it could be formulated more simply: Lack
of dispatch, indiscipline. Everyone must involve himself in this work also
with regard for the change in sponsorship ties.
On the question of personnel. Who are the educators? Undoubtedly, thousands
and thousands of teachers who are devoted to the cause, who love children and
who are giving them all their powers, knowledge, and experience. But “flies
in the ointment" in education are doing irreparable damage.
R. Kh. Khabibulin, former director of Sovetskiy Rayon's School 628, was
sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment. The systematic extortion of bribes from
school employees was not only his "hobby" but also the principal content of
administrative-teaching activity. Various pretexts were used: concealment of
absenteeism and drunkenness among the teachers and the low level of teaching.
Former master craftsman S. I. Lebedev was sentenced--also to 5 years--for the
systematic involvement in drunkenness of the trainees of Vocational-Technical
School 191, extortion of money from them to cover up absenteeism and vandalism
and the torture of trainees whom he did not like. Systematic unlawful actions
in both cases. Is such a "system" possible in collectives where there is a
normal moral-psychological atmosphere and where chere is a militant party
organization? I believe not.
Some 330 teachers in 47 schools inspected by the prosecutur's office were
punished for breaches of labor discipline and drunkenness. What happened to
them? An example. Having embezzled state property, Smirnova, director of
Vocational-Technical School 169, against whom criminal proceedings were not
instituted merely in connection with an amnesty...was transferred to the
position of deputy director for teaching-educational work in another school.
fhere are dozens of examples of such personnel outrages. The legitimate
question arises: where are the publicity, objectivity, and democratic
principies in personnel selection?
We have analyzed the letters which the gorkom has received on the work of the
schools, vocational-technicai colleges, and preschool establisnments.
Approximately 1,000 in 6 months. Only eight of them concern problems of
school reform. The majority (and almost half are anonymous) concern
conflicts, abuses, and shortcomings in personnel selection. Such is the
social maturity of our teachers?!
Practice shows that a considerable proportion of the city's teachers has yet
to absorb the ideas of the reform in depth. There is a good weapon for
compelling a worker to shake himself up and evaluate his activity critically--
personne! certification. But it is proceeding in the schools and vocational-
technical colleges formally. Statistics show that practially one-third of the
lessons fails to correspond to the demands of the present day. At the same
time, of the 7,000 teachers who have undergone certification in the current
year, recommendations for an improvement in the work, and cautious, at that,
were expressed by only 315. Who needs such certification--paper, formal,
bureaucratic? It is proving very difficult to shift our teachers from the
beaten track!
Even in elementary matters many workers as yet lack the boldness to abandon
the old, customary path in work with children.
A classic example of stereotyped inveterate bureaucratism was the graduation
assembly of 10th grade students of Frunzenskiy Rayon. The atmosphere of
school exhortation extinguished the graduates’ enthusiasm and gave rise to
gloom and tedium. The teachers manifestly underestimated the social] maturity
of their wards and played it unduly safe.
Yet Krasnogvardeyskiy Rayon took a risk and entrusted the graduates with
conducting the assembly independently. The graduation ball was conducted in
organized and interesting fashion. From the stage of the “Rossiya™ Motion
Picture-Concert Hall the young people reported to the teachers and parents
present in the hall on their activities and readiness for real work.
Truly, werk in the educational institution and where child.en are being taught
is not easy. What is needed is knowhow, willpower, and character. And good
health also. Otherwise one will not last. Not everything is as it should be
here in Moscow. There are many ailing teachers. The clinical examination of
teachers is formal. The main administration is not paying attention to
sports and recuperative work with teachers and has not embarked on the
elaboration of the “Health” program. Education workers lack their own
sanatorium-preventive clinic and pioneer camp. And the trade union gorkom has
for several 5-year plans been “sending a message to the main administration."
The question arises: Do the functions of the union gorkom officials amount
merely to this? For what reason are 36 persons in receipt of wages?
The Voroshilovskiy, Kuybyshevskiy, Perovskiy, Tushinksiy, and a number of
other rayispolkoms are displaying inadequate concern for the creation of
normal housing conditions for education workers.
There are many other problems of a social nature. There are difficulties
involving passes. It is not always easy getting children into a preschool
establishment. It is difficult getting tickets to a new performance at the
theater.
All this may be encapsuled in one thing--the need to pay increased attention
to education workers. And we are displaying insufficient attention. Try to
remember: when was the last time the best teachers were assembled in the
raykom for advice on reform problems? And when was there a discussion in the
raykom or ispolkom with teacher and master craftsmen newcomers just starting
out? Who presents the teacher with the Veteran of Labor medal in the rayon?
Has a recreational evening been held for teachers?
Many other questions may be asked. And not so much as a test as to induce
reflection on whether we have done everything for our teacher.
Remember Lenin's words: "We...are displaying far from sufficient concern for
raising the public teacher to the eminence without which there can be no
question even of any culture...." Topical words!
10
The ievel of work of the party organizations in the schools and vocational-
technical colleges is low. The forms of party influence on the solution of
problems of the reform have not been determined in many party organizations,
and there is no precise and clear idea of what the party organizations should
be doing.
One cannot make out when attending party meetings (and gorkom workers now
participate in them quite often) whether it is a party meeting or routine
teachers’ council. One out of every two meetings was conducted thus even in
respect of the results of the 27th CPSU Congress.
The raykoms also are paying insufficient attention to the practical
realization of the reform of the general and vocational-technical school. In
the current year one out of every three raykoms has failed to analyze these
questions of school reform. Such pertinent questions as the students’
computer competence, the development of physical culture and sports among
teachers and adolescents, the organization of military-patriotic education in
the schools and the preparation of the young men for service in the Soviet
Army remain beyond the field of vision of the raykom bureaus. But the main
task of the party organizations and the raykoms is work with the teacher
personnel.
The Komsomol authorities have cultivated great bureaucracy in the educational
institutions. The schedule of the main city activities of pioneers and
schoolchildren for the 1985/86 academic year published by the Moscow
Gorispolkom Public Education Main Administration, the Moscow Komsomol Gorkon,
the All-Union Pioneer Organization Moscow City Council, and the Moscow City
Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren incorporates numerous pages of a list of
reviews, campaigns, various movements and rallies. One could be confused by
the names alone. Everything has been scheduled for the junior by misters and
ladies from the executive authorities. What kind of independence of the
schoolchildren can we speak of today? And, what is more, a report has to be
presented in respect of each measure. To what are we accustoming children
from their youngest years? Is it any wonder where an armchair style and
bureaucratism come from.
We speak a lot about the significance of the human factor. But who are these
boys and girls sitting ** their desks today? They are the human factor of
tomorrow! It is they who will have to assume the main burden of the solution
of problems of acceleration and reconstruction in the very near future. And
how substantial the contribution of the new generations to our common cause is
will depend on how the reform of public and vocational education is realized.
Ultimately, the success of the revolutionary transformations in society which
the party has outlined!
From the speech of L. P. Kezina, chief of the Moscow Gorispolkom Public
Education Main Administration.
The pace and depth of implementation of the reform are unsatisfactory. It
would certainly be right to self-critically evaluate the activity primarily of
Ll
the Public Education Main Administration. We have not succeeded in fully
excluding instances of duplication in the activity of the rayon components and
the main administration. We are rendering insufficiently qualified assistance
locally as yet and not always opportunely supporting innovative initiatives.
We have a right to reproach the rayon public education departments and
administrations and school leaders for the abundance of documents addressed to
them from the main administration. The main administration has practically
let the activity of the rayon components of public education slip from its
control and has not sought their reorganization.
Particular attention in the system of administration should be paid to work
with the personnel. It has to be acknowledged that we have been unable to
reach the point where every teacher is an initiator and conduit of the reform
and is creatively solving new problems. The qualitative composition of the
city's teacher personnel is disturbing. Approximately 3,000 teachers of
grades 4-10 lack higher education. Irreparable damage is being done to
teaching-educational work by teacher personnel turnover. Some 4,500 teachers
have quit the city's schools in the past 3 years.
We must acknowledge today with all party scrupulousness that neither the main
administration, the public education administration nor the school directors
are accustomed to listening to critical observations about them and react
painfully to criticism. An uncritical evaluation of our work, at times an
unscrupulous position in defense of a discredited leader and an inability to
heed the opinion of the working people and Muscovites concerning our work have
led to the fact that difficult and protracted conflict situations have now
taken shape in more than 30 teacher collectives.
Right this year the main administration plans to begin certification of
officials of its machinery and the machinery of the rayon public education
departments and administrations. School director certification will begin
also.
From the speech of N. N. Losev, chief of the Moscow Vocational-Technical
Education Main Administration.
The main administration's orientation toward fulfillment of the state plan for
bringing the school staff up to strength in terms of the "gross" indicator has
led to a number of schools failing to fulfill the applications of the base
enterprises and essentially to satisfy their worker personnel requirements,
which held to a loss of the interconnection of a number of schools with the
base enterprises and had a negative effect on the state of their physical
plant and the level of the teaching-educational process. Some 58 schools have
yet to meet this year's plan quotas. Bringing the schools up to strength with
young people with complete secondary education has not been completed either.
There is big potential for an improvement in the joint work of the vocational-
technical college and the school. Krasnogvardeyskiy Rayon's experience of
introduction of schoolchildren to the life of the vocational-technical
colleges testifies to this. As a result the colleges have for a number of
12
years been brought up to strength by graduates of the rayon's schools, in
the main.
The facilities for the young people's industrial training are being developed
at an inadequate pace. Measures to create new production bays and reequip the
workshops of the base enterprises of the “Serp i molot™ Plant in Rural
Vocational-Technical School 53 and the “Vympel" Garment Association in Rural
Vocational-Technical School 101 remain on paper. The Glavmosinzhstroy has not
embarked on the construction of a proving ground and testing track in Rural
Vocational-Technical School 21. Subdivisions of the Ministry of Aviation
Industry and Machine Tool and Tool Building Industry have not allocated the
scheduled funds for machine tools with numerical programmed control.
The construction of facilities of the system is proceeding inadequately.
"Mosstroy™ trusts 15 and 31 of the Glavmosstroy have flunked the year's plan
quotas pertaining to vocational-technical school construction. The
Glavmospromstroy is building inadequately also.
There has been an increase in the current year in the number of disciplinary
fines. Eight college directors and deputy directors have been dismissed for
various violations. The qualitative composition of the cont ngent of
industrial training experts is not improving quickly enough-—one-fifth of
them lacks the appropriate education. We believe it essential to accelerate
the creation of a Moscow institute for the improvement of workers of the
system and request that the Moscow Gorispolkom speed up a decision on this
question.
From the speech of N. M. Andreyanova, first secretary of the Gagarinskiy
Raykon.
This year we, together with the rayon Public Education Department, have named
as the most pertinent theme of study for the rayon's teachers “Development of
the Pupils’ Spiritual Requirements in the Light of the Demands of the 27th
Party Congress." School 43--our best school, the center of methods and
educational work and a collective which is working creatively--was determined
as the base school. Seminars for teachers of history, social studies, and
literature and on problems of ideological influence on the students with the
resources of the teaching-educational process will cuperate on a rayon basis
with the assistance of the Teacher-Improvement Institute. Considering th.
rayon's great science potential, the raykom has resolved to unite the efforts
of VUZ social science departments in work on a common pedagogical problem.
Visits of raykom bureau members, raykom secretaries and department chiefs and
rayon organization leaders to the schools has shown that the students are
experiencing a clear shortage of information on the state of affairs in the
economy of the country, the city, and the rayon.
L3
From the speech of G. M. Batrakova, director of Leninskiy Rayon's High
School 23.
An avalanche of certificates, reports, meetings, and obligatory measures is
crashing down on the teacher and continuing to swamp the school. Open up, for
example, the work plan for the city Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren.
Here you will read that the pioneers and Komsomol members will take part in 1/7
actions, surveys, campaigns, and expeditions, 5 monthly festivals, and 15
“weeks.” There is further a schedule of basic activities--the city plan has
51 of them, the rayon plan, more than 40. When will the school contingent
tackle its problems, when will it create traditions and acquire its own
character? What can be said about an active position in life, if the pupil
even thinks of such from time to time, there is simply no time for displaying
iritiative.
The teacher often finds himself face to face with the problems with which the
reform is confronting the school. Difficulties arise every year, and
pedagogical science is not coming to our assistance. It is not outpacing
practice but dragging along behind it, often late and lagging behind by years.
There is a shortage of elementary studies and methods material. For example,
a new type of daybook has a chart on which parents should weekly record a
mark for the pupii’s homework. But per what criteria should it be deduced?
What should we advise the parents? After all, even an experienced teacher is
guided by sets of instructions when marking in class, but how is an
uninitiated parent to manage?
Under the conditions of the reform the teacher collectives frequently “stew in
their own juice." The main administration should introduce into the system
the organization of meetings of teachers and school directors for an exchange
of experience, consultations, and mutual methods assistance. And in informal
and businesslike manner, what is more.
From the speech of V. S. Filippov, director of Rural Vocational-Technical
School 180.
In recent years we have been carried away with tackling tasks of general
secondary education. The leaders of the union and republic vocational-
technical education committees and the Moscow main administration have
slackened their attention to vocational training. It is largely this which
has led to the lagging of the vocational-technical education system behind the
demands of the times and the decline in the prestige of a vocational-technical
school graduate at enterprises, the prestige of the trainees in the eyes of
Muscovites and the prestige of the schools among the young people. It is
necessary to pay more attention to the development of the innovative, creative
principle in the future workers and enlist them more actively in productive
labor. A young innovator school has been set up here in the rural vocational-
technical school. We are prepared with its assistance to make the most
progressive gear and attachments not only for ourselves but for other of the
city's schools also. However, the materials and conditions are needed for
this.
14
From the speech of V. A. Sytova, chief of the Kalininskiy Rayon Public
Education Department.
The reorganization of managerial activity at the rayon component level began
considerably later than we demanded of the teacher and school leader. The
reform has raised the demands on the level of qualifications of executive
personnel and the rayon public education department workers. But the tuition
program at the improvement faculty is identical for the school director with a
length of service of 1 year and of 20 years and for the rayon public education
department inspector, although the methods and content of their work are
different. Nor has the system of teacher improvement been perfected. It
needs to be tied in closely with the the results of certification.
Much paper and directives. In May-June the rayon Public Education Department
received 23 orders and instructions and approximately 50 telephone messages--
the bulk of them from the Public Education Main Administration. The rayon
component is frequently involved not in administration but the gathering of
information for the higher authorities.
From the speech of Ye. A. Brakov, general director of the “AvtoZIL"
Association.
We are switching to the manufacture of a new diesel-engine automobile. The
equipment is changing accordingly. Modern, skilled personnel is required to
service it. This task should be tackled largely by the base vocational-
technical school. However, its possibilities do not correspond to the demands
of the times. The equipment is obsolete, and there is a lack of premises.
The plant has resolved to rectify matters. New classrooms and industrial-
training complexes employing modern automated equipment have been created.
Schoolchildren of Proletarskiy Rayon are being enlisted increasingly
extensively for vocational guidance at the ZIL, and more than 1,000 of them
are participating in productive work in the enterprise's shops. But the
number of school graduates joining the plant is insufficient and could be
increased. Among other possible measures for this is an increase in the time
allotted by the school curriculum for productive labor. Six hours a week is
not enough.
I was recently looking through chemistry and physics textbooks for the senior
grades. I was amazed how extensively they used examples far removed from the
modern life of production. They do net even contain the terms typical of the
progressive technology which we employ today. I believe that the Ministry of
Education and “Prosveshcheniye™ Publishers should do away with this lacuna as
quickly as possible.
From the speech of V. A. Korobchenko, chairman of the Baumanskiy Rayispolkom.
The progress of realization of the school reform is not yet a cause for
satisfaction in the rayon. The blame for this lies with the rayispolkom also.
Ways to rectify the shortcomings have been outlined. This year for the first
15
time the rayon soviet has incorporated in the plan of the rayon's economic and
social development a section devoted to public education.
Only 7 percent of school graduates joined rayon enterprises this year. And
although a second industrial-training center has now been built, there is no
certainty that the resources spent on its organization will justify themselves
if there is not a fundamentally revised approach to vocational guidance. It
is necessary to make its results a criterion in evaluation of the work of both
the teacher and productivn outfits.
Insufficient attention is being paid to the needs of the vocational-technical
school. Literally 200 meters from the Main Administration for Trade there is
a vocational-technical school training personnel] for this sphere, but no
attention is paid to the school.
It is essential to unite at the rayon level the administration of the public
and vocational-technical education systems. We are prepared to conduct the
experiment in our rayon.
From the speech of M. I. Kondakov, president of the USSR Academy of
Pedagogical Sciences.
I have to confess that not everything is scientifically substantiated and
considered in the methods and didactic support of the teachers carrying out
school reform todav.
There are a number of problems to which the schools are not paying due
attention. Thus, according to our data, 3 percent of young men have poor
reading ability following elementary school. This is very many, particularly
if it is considered to what extent this shortcoming is negatively reflected in
the quality of the student's further training.
We are prepared to expand experimental work in Moscow's schools. This will
facilitate the elaboration and introduction of modern methods aids and help
strengthen the ties between science and the teacher collectives.
8850/9599
CSO: 1800/36
16
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS
CHINESE SOCIAL SCIENCE DELEGATION VISITS USSR
[Editorial Report] Moscow OBSHCHESTVENNYYE NAUKI in Russian No 5, September-
October 1986, (signed to press 11 August 1986), carries on page 224 a 75-word
item which announces that a Chinese social sciences delegation headed by Aca-
demy of Social Sciences Deputy General Secretary Ding Weizhi visited the USSR
from 11 May to 2 June 1986 at the invitation of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
"Between the USSR Academy of Sciences and the People's Republic of China
Academy of Social Sciences an agreement was reached on the development of
contacts in the area of social sciences. The sides expressed satisfaction at
the positive result of talks which took place in a businesslike and construc-
tive atmosphere."
COPYRIGHT: Izdatelstvo "Nauka", "Obshchestvennyye nauki", 1986
/6662
CSO: 1830/122
17
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS
PRAVDA ATTACKS CORRUPT KAZAKH OFFICIALS
PM151550 Moscow PRAVDA in Russian 11 Oct 86 First Edition p 3
[Correspondent G. Dildyayev article: "Old Connections: What Is Behind the
Conflict?" -- first paragraph is editoriai introduction; passages between
slantlines are published in boldface]
[Text] The "resilience" of some officials does not cease to amaze people.
Whatever “storms” assail them, they emerge with their reputations unharmed.
The whisper of rumors surrounds such people: “With his connections, he is
safe..."
Kazakh SSR -- "This is a slap in the face for our oblast party organization,"
was how a letter which arrived at PRAVDA's correspondents center from
Shetskiy Rayon in Dzhezkazgan Oblast ended. The subject of the letter was
M. Abakanov, former first secretary of the party raykom. It has been reported
that a Dzhezkazgan Party Obkom plenum recently decided unanimously to expel
hiv: from the CPSU and relieved him cf his duties. Why? "For failing to
ensure leadership of the rayon party organization and for reducing exacting :ess
toward cadres, which led to instances of toadyism, mismanagement, and distor-
tion of figures." 5
M. Abakanov appealed to the Kazakh Communist Party Central Committee Party
Control Commission. Commission member V. Kolpakov went to Dzhezkazgan,
looked at documents, and talked with people.
In M. Abov's personal file, which I locked through the other day, there is a
character reference signed by N. Davydov, first secretary of Dzhezkazgan Party
Obkom. It repeats that the former raykom first secretary failed to ensure
leadership and was warned for a lack of personal modesty and for alcohol abuse.
Using falsified documents, M. Abakanov's son obtained a place on a study
course and concealed his criminal record when entering the party. His daughter's
school grades were boosted on her secondary school certificate. \
But 20 days after the obkom pi-num, M. Abakanov was restored to the party by
decision of the Kazakh Communist Party Central Committee Buro. Soon he was
appointed deputy chairman of the Zhanaarkinskiy Rayon Agroindustrial Associa-
tion.
/Who is this Meyram Abakanov? Let us leaf through a few pages from his
biography. In March 1973 he was elected secretary of Ulytauskiy Party Raykom
in Dzhezkazgan Oblast. Putting it bluntly, Abakanov made a mess of the
rayon. This is demonstrated by the results of the rayon farms’ work in the
10th 5-Year Plan: Their targets for meat purchases were only 73 percent ful-
filled and those for milk purchases were 86 percent fuifilled. But despit«
this, in 1980 M. Abakanov was recommended for the post of first secretary
ir Shetskiy Rayon, one of the best in the oblast.
/For several days the new appointment was celebrated noisily and Abakanov was
seen off and welcomed by representatives of sovkhozes and rayon organizations
along the many-kilometer route between his old place of residence and his
new one. The toasts were innumerable. Let us just cite the oificial document
of that time: “Instances of immodesty occurred."/
They came to the notice of the Kazakh Communist Party Central Committee
Party Control Commission. "We hud a firm word with him then,” commission
chairman A. Kalikov recalled.
How did the first secretary work in his new job?
In his appeal he asked for account to be taken of the fact that the rayon's
farms coped with a number of the main indicators in the llth 5-Year Flan.
Indeed, they did cope with them. It would have been strange had they failed--
the rayon was one oi the best. Could tne results have been better? They
should have been! After all, in compari:on with the 10th 5-Year Plan there
was a considerable increase in production capital in the rayor. yet the average
annual sale of meat to the state fell and milk yield per cow dropped by 150 kg.
Here is what M. Abakanov said from the platform of the party raykom plenum
held in the spring of last year: "As a result of work with the cadre reserve,
a large detachment of organizers has established itself in the rayon who are
setting examples of true efficiency. They include Dulat Mukhamedzhanovich
Smailov, director of the rayon specialized agricultural agsuciation..."
He constantly protected the “efficient"™ director. But within 10 months
Smailov was expelled from the party and dismissed from his post. For regular
overreporting and for a cattle shortage of 1,213--one-fourth of the herd!
The Gamage amounted to more than Rl million. Important matters, there is no
doubt. Criminal proceedings have aow been instituted becau:e of them, al-
though it is true that the investigation is making only moderate progress...
/But the party investigation of M. Abakanov's personal case is already complete.
At the end of the report on the appeal, signed by A. Kalikov, it says that
“Comrade Abakanov basically recognizes his guilt for the violations committed
and asks that the rayon's achievements be taken into account..."
/We have already spo.:en about the “achievements.” Why did A. Kalikov need
to resort to such a farfetched interpretation, to put it mildly? Clearly,
there were no other redeeming features to be found.
19
/Let us return to the letter. "People were confused by events. What does
this all mean? it transpires that Abakanov's connections are stronger
than the law."/
The talk about connections reminded me of another story. D. Aralbayev
worked as secretary of Dzhezkazgan Party Obkom for over 10 years and dealt
with ideological questions. On retirement he became director of the oblast's
teacher training institute. A conflict soon arose: The former secretary re-
fused to accept the jurisdiction of the oblast public education department
and ignored the instructions of K. Shingisov, its chief, who for a long time
had worked under him.
The institute's staffers became involved in the conflict. Several times
D. Aralbayev tried unlawfully to dismiss L. Gorshkova, head of the Russian
language and literature department, who had appealed to the PRAVDA editorial
office and dared to mention the director's incompetence.
"Of course, he is no methodologist," Kh. Madiyev, chief of the obkom science
and educational institutions section, said about his recent boss. "But he
has his merits. He has strengthened the institute's material base. By using
his old connections he has managed to extract money for repair work and
furniture."
"Aralbayev is an extremely unfortunate candidate for the post of institute
director," L. Rustemov, the republic's deputy minister of education, believes.
"He is simply slowing things down.”
In April of this year the Ministry of Education collegium met to discuss
matters in Dzhezkazgan. Its draft decisions recommended that D. Aralbayev
be relieved of his duties. During the collegium session everyone stated the
obvious: The institute and its director are working badly. Not a word was
spoken in D. Aralbayev's defense. The issue seemed clear. However, the dis-
cussion ended with the following remark by the minister, K. Balakhmetov:
"Let me talk about Comrade Aralbayev at the Central Committee..."
A few days later the collegium's decision was ready. When it came D. Aralbayev
went back to Dzhezkazgan...as director.
It has long been true that wherever a party committee is inconsistent in its
assessment of cadres, tries to gloss over the problems, and replaces firmness
with a vague "compromise" ["khoteli kak luchshe"], that is where the complex
knot of conflict becomes enmeshed and where the aggrieved party brings more
and more fresh forces into operation, and not without success. Here is a
graphic example of that.
/On 22 November last year a session of Nikolskiy City Soviet, Dzhezkazgan
Oblast, relieved Gorispolkom Chairman M. Akhanov of his duties. He had
repeatedly been criticized for shortcomings in his work, in particular
for patently unprofessional dealings with the party gorkom first secretary.
Painfully conceited and intolerant of other people's opinions, the chairman
did not easily work well with people. With his connivance housing in the city
20
was squandered. In brief, there were enough shortcomings for an obkom
buro session to severely reprimand M. Akhanov and recommend that he be
dismissed. But then--they "compromised."
/At a city Soviet session, Oblispolkom Chairman K. Zhumabekov thanked
M. Akhanov for his good work and told deputies that he would be employed
according to his specialty./
Then they tried to find the former chairman a new post. He was choosy and
rejected their suggestions. As a result M. Akhanov did not work for
several months. Then on 29 April 1986 the oblispolkom decided to reinstate
M. Akhanov's labor record. He blamed all his "misfortunes" on Party Obkom
First Secretary N. Davydov and stated that he would try to make the latter
pay him from his own pocket for his “enforced idleness."
That was his plan. M. Akhanov went flat out to implement it. He wrote
to the authorities himself and got members of his family to write. They
went around town collecting the signatures of well-known people on a letter
"in defense" of the former chairman.
"They approached me but I refused to sign," said Hero of Socialist Labor
D. Baymagambetov, a well-known Dzhezkazgan miner. “Akhanov rebuked me:
"I made you a hero of socialist labor,’ he said, ‘I gave you your apartment.’
But I earned my award and housing with my own hands. Such behavior by
leader Akhanov (he is now chief geologist of a shaft-sinking trust) infuriates
me."
There is another disturbing fact which provides food for thought. The party
obkom's most confidential information is made known to the former gorispolkom
chairman, information which concerns not only him, and he keeps himself well
posted about the latest news. He gathers it and uses it in his "combat
operations.”
"Sometimes he is better informed than I am," P. Belousov, chief of the
Dzhezkazgan Obkom Party Organizational Work Sections, said with a resigned
shrug.
This discussion--about connections--is not an easy one. Deprive each of us
of our friends and the possibility of turning to people at a difficult
moment for advice and help and friendly support, and we would be left high and
dry. It is all clearly a question of motives and moral judgments: Who is
helping whom, how, and why. It is one thing to help an honest comrade and
to wish that he finds within himself the strength to emerge with dignity
from a difficult situation. It is quite another to play the defense lawyer,
to actively protect people, and to use your authority to enable a worker who
has compromised himself and exhausted his potential to "keep afloat." In
so doing people are guided by a false sense of comradeliness. Or, far worse,
by the cynical calculation that, in the event of a critical situation, someone
will support them.
21
Having been stripped of their chair and telephone-strewn desk, some “erst-
while officials," harboring a grudge, frustrated ambition, and the urge for
"revenge," display an activeness of an unacceptable kind. You cannot
interest them in social work--they consider that below their dignity or say
they are too busy: Making use of the ties they have built up, they try to
influence the solution of cadre questions and support the "vital" person even
though he has made a mess of the job. In the evenings over a traditional
supper they gather their own “shadow bureau" whose members wave intrigues, use
their "old friendships" to obtain diverse information from unscrupulous party
and Soviet apparatus workers, "pressure" people by exploiting past favors,
pride themselves on their connections, including family ones, and bring them
into play. These petty intrigues are far from harmless.
The fabric of human society... The purer and more trustworthy the threads
that bind us, the more beautiful and richer life becomes. And there must be
no room in that life for corrupt old connections.
/9716
CSO: 1830/1301
22
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS
KaSSR: OBKOM FIRST SECRETARY ON CHIMKENT OBLAST CLEANUP
PM310851 [Editorial Report] Moscow SOVETSKAYA KULTURA in Russian on 16 October
1986 carries on page 3 a 1,500-word article by R. Myrzashev, first secretary
of Chimkent Kazakhstan Communist Party Obkom, entitled "Openness and Truth
Alone." Myrzashev describes the obkom buro's steps to rectify the situation
in the oblast in the light of "severe criticism" of the obkom's work at the
27th CPSU Congress. He lists and gives examples of the "complex" problems of
the buro faced: "Major thefts," officials conniving at criminal activity and
concealing crimes, inflated statistics, and managers misappropriating funds
and establishing extravagant lifestyles. "Before I came to Chimkent,"
Myrzashev writes, "I heard that you could escape punishment there for any crime
by paying someone off." He dwells on the "cronyism" practiced in the oblast
internal affairs administration and reports that the obkom buro has adopted
stringent 1 :asures to supervise the cadre situation and ensure that only
the "best c.mmunists and Komsomol members" get into the militia.
Myrzashev says that “some citizens are still hoping that the struggle against
negative phenomena is merely a temporary campaign” and that they will be
able to revert to the old ways, the old principle of “live for yourself and
don't interfere with others." Myrzashev says that he cannot be "totally
optimistic" about the situation, but states that people want things to be
sorted out as soon as possible and that there have "undoubtedly been changes
for the better" in the economic sphere, although rapid reorganization is being
"hampered by bad leadership methods and accumulated debts."
/6662
CSO: 1830/120
23
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS
KIRGHIZ OFFICIALS CITED IN PRAVDA ARTICLE PUNISHED
[Editorial Report] Moscow PRAVDA in Russian on 23 September 1986 carries on
page 2 a 500-word article by B. Artemov, Kirghiz Communist Party secretary in
Talas Obkom, titled "Difficult Renovation" which responds to a 14 August PRAVDA
article citing resistance to change in Kirghizia. [For text of original
article see FBIS DAILY REPORT: SOVIET UNION Volume III Number 166, 27 August
1986, pages R6-R9]. Artemov admits that the criticism as "justified," that
"serious miscalculations have been permitted in livestock-raising,"” and that
"the agricultural situation in the oblast has not changed for the better."
He reports that action has been taken against “leaders guilty of worsening
the agricultural situation in the objast," including four who were specifically
held out for criticism in the original article. "At the party plenum of the
Talas Raykom, First Secretary 0. Bayyzbekov was released from duty. For
serious shortcomings A. Omuraliyev, director of the Talas state special
garm [gosspetskhoz] was removed from his post. D. Ryskulov, who had worked
as director of the Talas RAPO group for procurement, storage and processing
of agricultural products, was demoted to a staff specialist position. The
party obkom buro turned the attention of Obkom Secretary B. Doolbekov of the
agriculture and food industry department to shortcomings in selection, place-
ment, and education of cacres and party leadership of the branch.” Artemov
States that the PRAVDA article was discussed at party raykom buro sessions and
at meetings of primary party organizations at a number of farms, and notes
other measures taken to improve agriculture in the oblast.
/6662
CSO: 1830/122
24
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS
TURKMEN CP DEBATES WIDESPREAD MALPRACTICES
PM271325 Moscow PRAVDA in Russian 24 Oct 86 First Edition p 2
[Special correspondent V. Loginov report: "In the Light of Truth: At the
Turkmen Communist Party Central Committee Plenum"]
[Text] Ashkhabad--...The three of them came in to the plenum session hall
together. They entered, as in the past, inorder of "seniority": Atayev in
front, Mollayev and Lomov behind. They entered in that order and sat down
hurriedly, hiding their eyes. But they sat--whether by chance or in the hope
that is would "help" them--near the rostrum, the very rostrum which they, as
members of the Turkmen Communist Party Central Committee, had often mounted
with heads proudly held high, as if to say: "We're from Tashauz!"
For a long time Tashauz Oblast was famed for being virtually super-prosperous.
However, this prosperity was bogus. The semblance of prosperity was stub-
bornly created and maintained by the republic's former leaders. And B. Atayev,
first secretary of the party obkom, Oblispolkom Chairman K. Mollayev, V.
Ilyushkin, former obkom second secretary, and Secretary N. Lomov had suc-
ceeded in lying shamelessly about the "successes" achieved under their lead-
ership.
And now this plenum started. The question "On the Blatant Violations of Party
and State Discipline, Complicity in Overreporting, Window-dressing, Defraud-
ing of the State, and Distortions in the Implementation of Cadre Policy in the
Tashauz Oblast Party Organization" was being discussed. These facts were
revealed, incidentally, by central--not local--control organs. On the eve of
the plenum, as the main speaker--S. Niyazov, first secretary of the Turkmen
Communist Party Central Committee--reported to those assembled, the oblast
was visited by members of the republic Communist Party Central Committee and
leaders of a number of ministries and departments. Numerous meetings and talks
were held with the elective aktiv and working people. All this helped in
studying the state of affairs in greater depth. The picture was alarming.
Take the oblast's economy. In the last three 5-year plans (Atayev was obkom
first secretary for exactly 15 years) industrial and agricultural development
rates fell by two-thirds. Labor productivity in the llth 5-Year Plan fell by
3.8 and 4.5 percent for industry and agriculture, respectively.
25
But what was the situation on paper? What was in the speeches? Nothing but
idylls. For instance, in 1984, after Atayev's triumphant report, the oblast
was awarded a republic Challenge Red Banner. There were ovations and hand-
shakes, and ardent assurances from the Tashauz leaders: We will try to live
up to the award and consolidate the success. Yet the plan for sales of raw
cotton to the state was "fulfilled" thanks to overreporting of more than 19,000
metric tons. They got away with it.... And in March 1985 Atayev, as if noth-
ing had happened, waxed lyrical at the Turkmen Communist Party Central Com-
mittee Plenum: "Thanks to the implementation of organizational and economic
measures agriculture is developing steadily."
Eager for undeserved glory, the obkom and oblispolkom leaders produced “front-
rankers" in the same way in the oblast. They showered praise on Oktyabrskiy
Rayon, for instance, calling on others to emulate it. It had not then been
revealed that the leader's secret was to understate plans and not disclose sown
areas in the reports.
Incidentally, having won the support of the republic's previous leadership,
Atayev and Mollayev zealously opposed any control sowings of cotton. Others
can do that, but us--no way. We can get by on our own, they said. And they
did "get by" just as they wanted. Even this year, after repeated warnings
were published about the impermissibility of secret above-plan sowings, more
than 10,000 hectares of such sowings were discovered.
Thus, the republic, its communists, and working people were deceived year in
and year out. The overreporting, sham prosperity, and the desire of the first
secretary and his immediate entourage to win fame at any cost, the main speaker
and other speakers in the debates noted, so corrupted local leaders that they
essentially stopped being concerned about work in their own sectors and lapsed
into crime.
Fraud, bribery, embezzlement of public funds, and other monstrous phenomena
became widespread. Communist leaders were often involved in them. And as
often as not the obkom shielded and protected them. The plenum participants
were reminded of the exposure of a large group of Tashauz of ficials-—-including
Piriyev, formerly first secretary of Leninskiy Raykom--who were Later con-
demned for overreporting of cotton, embezzlement of funds, and bribery. The
obkom did not even deem it necessary to make a principled assessment of this
affair and tried to hide everything from the public. Worse than that, T. Mere-
dov, chief of the oblispolkom Internal Affairs Administration Struggle Against
Embezzlement of Socialist Property and Speculation Department, who discovered
the swindlers' actions, was persecuted.
An isolated case? The problem is that it was not. Relatively recently
L. Yuldashev, senior official at the Tashauz Rayon Internal Affairs Depart-
ment, brought to light a case of major b-ibe-taking by a leading worker. But
the raykom asked Yuldashev to explain why he had not coordinated his action
with party organs. The criminal proceedings that had been begun were stopped
and Yuldashev was expelled from the party on the basis of an anonymous letter.
26
The obkom ratified the raykom bureau decision without carrying out any investi-
gation. And--this is typical--at the same time they calmly watched the passiv-
ity of many staffers of law enforcement organs and even the fusion [srashchiva-
niye] tetween certain custodians of the law and criminal elements.
The main speaker, speakers in the debates--S. Motayev, first secretary of
Kunya-urgenchskiy Raykom, and A. Durdyyev, first secretary of Takhtinskiy
Raykom--and other speakers condemned the shameful practice prevalent in Tashauz
Oblast of selecting cadres on the basis of family ties, personal friendships,
or subservience. Thus, 33 percent of party-vetted workers were natives of
Ilyalinskiy Rayon, where Atayev was born, or of Takhtinskiy Rayon, where
Klychev, the former obkom organization section chief, came from. Two deputy
chairmen and the secretary of the oblispolkom, the first deputy chairman of
the oblast agroindustrial complex, an administration chief and deputy chief of
the Political Department at the Internal Affairs Administration, the chiefs
of the health care, national education, finance, prices, and social insurance
sections, as well as the chairman of the oblast Potrebsoyuz, directors of trade
bases were all people from the same area as Atayev.... In short, he had “his"
people everywhere.
Copying Atayev, many raykom first secretaries and leaders at other levels
also surrounded themselves with “their own" people. The poisonous fruit of
toadying, boot-licking, and hypocrisy in the face of the "strong of this world"
flourished. And, on the other side of the coin, people adopted imperious man-
ners and overblown arrogance with regard to their “subordinates.”
"We did previously talk a great deal about the serious errors in leadership
and the violations of legality and the norms of party life in the oblast,"
Z. Tangirbergenova, chairman of Tashauz Ispolkom, stated, “but we did so be-
hind the scenes, among ourselves, and we never raised these issues at obkom
plenums or oblispolkom sessions. That is why these negative phenomena became
rife. I was recently elected ispolkom chairman and immediately encountered
numerous unsolved problems. There were thousands of complaints: housing
shortages, frequent water supply problems, a total lack of fuel, numerous
problems in trade, medicine, consumer services...."
And the same problems exist in the oblast as a whole. Large numbers of fami-
lies are living in temporary structures and huts not only in Tashauz, but in
many rayon centers. Housing construction was in a terrible state. Yet there
were so many “new settlements" on paper! This year alone there had been re-
ports of the commissioning of 4,000 square meters of nonexistent housing.
"The obkom and oblispolkom leadership sheltered unworthy leaders from party
assessment," I. Khamrayev, Lathe operator at the Ilyalinskiy Rayon Agroindus-
trial Association Repair Enterprise, said. "Working people in our rayon were
well aware of the dishonest acts and abuses committed by former Raykom First
Secretary Khalov. But for a long time he was personally protected by Obkom
First Secretary Atayev, which confused and dissatisfied people. Leaders
like Khalov are more concerned about their personal well-being than about
people. They isolated themselves from the people. That cannot continue. It
is, I believe, a direct deviation from the decisions of the 27th CPSU Congress.’
27
The disregard shown by the oblast leaders for people's interests and needs was
angrily discussed by G. Kopaysinova, worker at the Krupskaya Sovkhoz in
Tashauzskiy Rayon; K. Baydzhanova, lecturer at the republic Communist Party
Central Committee; writer Kh. Durdyyev; and others. And they all painted in
great detail an unattractive picture of local “leaders” who were up to their
eyes in deception. Snug in their well-equippped houses they neither noticed
nor wanted to notice the working people's "trivial" concerns. People's faith
in social justice and the possibility of learning the truth was thereby under-
mined.
In the last 2 years at party committee plenums in the oblast there has not been
a single critical remark leveled at the obkom secretaries and section chiefs.
Try to criticize, many people thought, and you would immediately be out of
favor. When faced with Atayev, most obkom bureau members kept silent. Parti-
cular diligence in servility and connivance at patent deviations from the
norms of party life was shown by Oblispolkom Chairman K. Mollayev, who was at
the same time callous and indifferent to “ordinary” people. Obkom Secretary
N. Lomov showed himself to be a politically immature and irresponsible worker
engrossed in affairs involving overreporting and economic acquisition.
During the exchange of opinions natural questions arose again and again: Just
why did the Tashauz leaders essentially escape criticism and control for so
long? Why were those who could no longer stand the Atayev system unable to
“get through” to the republic Communist Party Central Committee, its secre-
taries, and its section chiefs? In this regard Central Committee Secretaries
V. Zhuleneve, M. Mollayeva, and K. Sakhatmuradov were criticized, as was
A. Khodzhamuradov, chairman of the republic's Council of Ministers.
I. Bekiyev, chief of the Administrative Organs Section, devoted particular
attention to the oblast. It was the destination for one-third of his trips
and he personally selected and placed cadres. Incidentally, Bekiyev was
specially recalled from vacation for the plenum—-so great had been his “ser-
vices" in what was discovered in Tashauz. He was warned that there would be
a serious discussion about his work. Bekiyev saked for a sheet of paper. In
a blink of an eye he had drawn up a statement that deserves to be quoted:
"Since I have been chief of the Administrative Organs Section for a long time-—-
since May 1975--I ask that the question of transferring me to another sphere
of work be examined.” Naive? But how many times had such “naivete" saved
culpable workers until quite recently from investigation of their--to put
it mildly—-shortcomings, and even helped them to find a new position! That
was what Bekiyev was hoping. He hoped in vain, times have changed. The
plenum quite rightly relieved Bekiyev of his duties as section chief using the
formla: "For serious shortcomings in his work...."
"The Turkmen Communist Party Central Committee Buro, each of its members per-
sonally, and above all I--as first secretary," S. Niyazov, first secretary
of the republic Communist Party Central Committee, said from the rostrum, “are
responsible for everything that has been reported to the plenum (and all kinds
of negative phenomena permitted in other oblast party organizations were also
mentioned--V.L.) Buro members did not always examine urgent questions with
28
the proper principledness. We often kept silent. We kept silent when we should
have been firm. We kept silent in our desire not to spoil relations. Although
we often held a different opinion in our heart of hearts we failed to openly
state it at sessions. Our work lacks criticism, self-criticism, and--in cer-
tain cases--sincerity, particularly when resolving cadre questions."
For 5 solid hours without a break or pause (nobody even mentioned the standing
orders) the frank and acute conversation continued, shedding the clear light
of truth on who was who. Never before had the representatives of the republic's
communists-—-and the Central Committee members and candidate members felt that
was indeed what they were-—-spoken out so resolutely against those who call
black white, failures achievements, and lies truth.
-+-I glanced at the Tashauz trio sitting alongside me in the hall, facing the
rostrum. And it struck me that these were the very people M.S. Gorbachev was
talking about in his Krasnodar speech: They understand perfectly well what
restructuring is, but, realizing what its consequences will be, they do not
accept it. Restructuring goes against the grain as far as they are concerned!...
These are the people who would like to give less to society and take more from
it. They are a cunning lot. Their main concern is to maintain old and out~
moded systems and retain their privileges, even though this does not accord
with our principles, laws, or morality.
Did Atayev, Mollayev, or Lomov guess how their present trip to the republic's
capital would end? It seems they did not. They thought they would be re-
proved, at worst there would be a reprimand, and things would continue as be-
fore.... But they will not; that was the plenum's unanimous decision.
For their blatant violations of party and state discipline, fer conniving in
overreporting and window-dressing, and for defrauding the state, which led
to the demoralization of a number of cadres, the plenum unanimously removed
B. Atayev, first secretary of Tashauz Obkom; K. Mollayev, chairman of Tashauz
Oblispolkom; and N. Lomov, secretary of Tashauz Obkom, from their posts and
expelled them from the CPSU.
Obkom Secretary U. Shamuratov was relieved of his duties. In carrying out
ideological work, he bent over backwards to please Atayev and praise the ser-
vices of his "boss." Curtailing the attempts of local newspapermen to speak
out against the outrages of the oblast, he told them to praise the personality
of the “first” secretary, whose portraits were published in virtually every
issue of the local newspapers.
The plenum instructed Tashauz Turkmen Communist Party Obkom to examine the
question of the party responsibility of Shamuratov and of V. Ilyushkin, former
obkom secretary, for major errors in their work.
Frankly admitting that it will be difficult to overcome the protectionism,
bribery, window-dressing, and other negative phenomena which have emerged in
republic in recent years, the plenum called on communists and Komsomol members
to intensify the struggle to improve the moral and psychological climate every-
where. The plenum's decisions have been received with approval by Turkmenia's
communists and working people.
/6662
cso: 1830/121 29
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS
PEOPLES CONTROI. GROUPS URGED TO USE FULL POTENTIAL
[Edit..rial Repo.t] Ashkhabad SOVET TURKMENISTANY in Turkmen on 7 August
1986 carries on page 1 a 1000-word lead editorial on the need for peoples
control groups to culfill their responsibilities. "The work done by
certain groups, posts and peoples controllers is less than that demanded.
In some places the strength of peoples control is underestimated; here
they are not exploiting their possibilities to the fullest extent. The
level of activity of peoples control groups at certain enterprises in
Koneurgench, Dostluk, Kirov, Mary, and Krasnovodsk Rayons is low. They
are not looking into matters of economic and sociocultural building and
are not exerting enough influence on increasing production efficiency
and raising the quality of the work done and product produced."
RAPO PARTY MANAGEMENT CRITICIZED
{Editorial Report] Ashkahabad SOVET TURKMENISTANY in Turkmen on 22 August
1986 carries on page 1 a 1000-word lead editorial on party organizations
within RAPO and their management problems. “There are instances when
agroprom party committees are not working according to demands of the
party. One must note some of the reasons for this: for example, 13 primary
party organizations were established in TUSSR Gosagroprom's management
apparatus, yet no party committee uniting these organizations has been
established up to the present. Thus, it is impossible fully to mobilize
communists to solve the important problems which arise." The editorial
adds that “earlier psychological barriers between agroprom sections have
still not been completely overcome."
/12624
CSO: 1830/107
30
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS
BRIEFS
FIRST SECRETARY APPOINTED-—-A plenum of the Tashauz Party Obkom was held today.
It examined the question of the results of the plenum of the Turkmen Communist
Party Central Committee, and the tasks of the oblast party organization con-
cerned with strengthening party and state discipline, intensifying the
struggle against bribery, statistical exaggeration and cheating the state.
An organizational matter was examined at the plenum. Khodzhakov, who worked
as chairman of the Ashkhabad Oblispolkom, was elected first secretary of the
Tashauz party obkom in place of Atayev, who was removed from his post and
expelled from the party. Niyazov, first secretary of the Turkmen Communist
Party Central Committee, took part in the work of the plenum. [Text] [Moscow
Domestic Service in Russian 1600 GMT 25 Oct 86 LD]
TSELINOGRAD FIRST SECRETARY PROFILED--Alma-Ata, 23 Oct (TASS)--TASS corres-
pondent Omurbek Yerkimbayev reports: There is now more precision and organi-
zation in the work of the obkom. Isn't this evidence of the new leader's
traits, said some following the election of Andrey Braun to the position of
first secretary of Tselinograd Obkom in Kazakhstan. However, there is hardly
any basis to attribute the changes in leadership style of the obkom to the fact
that it is now headed by a German. Rather, the changes reflect the restructur-
ing that is going on throughout the country in practically every sphere. As
far as national characteristics are concerned, of course they make their mark,
but more on family traditions, Braun thinks. “Andrey was the youngest in a
large family of a German peasant who lived in the Ukraine in pre-war years.
Along with other factors, he was educated by the verses of great German poets.
They, said Braun, “taught honesty, kindness and respect for work," and in this
way helped him in his work as well as in socializing with people. In
Kazakhstan, Andrey became a 200 technician. He then headed the rayon agricul-
tural directorate. The young leader made a good impression and gained popu-
larity among the people. He was selected as first secretary of the raykom and
later as chairman of Tselinograd Oblispolkom. Now, Andrey Braun is the head
of the obkom. [Excerpts] [Moscow TASS International Service in Russian 1129
GMT 23 Oct 86 LD]
/9716
CSO: 1830/102
31
JPRS-UPS- 86-058
3 December 1986
MEDIA AND PROPAGANDA
SOVIET TV PERMITS EXPRESSION OF CONTROVERSIAL VIEWS
Moscow ARGUMENTY I FAKTY in Russian 30 Sep-6 Oct 86 p 6
{Interview with Svetlana Zhilvsova, announcer for Central Television:
"Television Broadcasting Through the Eyes of an Announcer;" time and place of
interview not specified]
(Excerpt] Today it is difficult to imagine that some 25-30
years ago far from all Soviet families had a television.
We appreciate and like television, and this is why we
analyze it so frequently and with such interest.
Today, Central Television, like the country as a whole, is
undergoing restructuring. But the speed at which this is
, proceeding is not always what we would like to see.
Readers of "ARGUMENTY I FAKTY" have also written to us
about this.
But what do television people think about’ this
restructuring? How do they, who can observe this work
"from inside," evaluate it? These were the questions with
which we started our discussion with Svetlana Zhiltsova,
announcer for Central Television.
[Answer ] Everything cannot be completely restructured in a short period of
time. You must be a realist; after all, a great deal here depends on our
psychology, our professionalism, and on our knowledge of life. I think that
our sociological service and the letters from viewers must give television
some help here. It is a paradox -- the flow of letters and comments has
increased, even as virtually everyone acknowledges that television programs
have gotten more interesting to watch.
In my view, more programs which permit comtemplation have begun to appear.
For example, I like programs about interesting people. I really liked the
interviews with academicians Likhachev and Piotrovskiy, with the writer Pikul,
the educator Ilyin, and a number of others.
I take pleasure in watching the "telebridges” programs, and admire the mastery
with which V. Pozner conducts then. A number of interesting programs for
32
young people have begun to appear, for example, "Peace and Youth," and "i2th
Floor." I like the boldness and originality of certain episodes. Even
controversial, sensitive parts are not "cut out," as they used to be quite
recently, but are presented to the viewers so they can decide for themselves.
[Question] And what comments would you make about entertainment programs?
[Answer] Well here we haven't done as good a job. We have too few,
inexcssbiy few, entertainment programs, which are also done tastefully,
whici, you might say, not only give the "brain a rest," but also offer food
for thought. Moreover, age has to be considered when such programs are
planned. After all, programs which young people like may not be acceptable
entertainment for their parents, and still less to their grandmothers and
grandfathers. And yet we are still developing programs for the “average”
viswer. But we don't have any “average” viewers, not at all.
It seems to me that we have to be bolder in our entertainment programs for
young people. They like "hard rock" -- well, let them listen, [but] naturally
to its best representatives. In many socialist countries I have visited, this
is what they do. We have to have more confidence when we address our young
people these days -- they are wise and intellectually mature, they understand
what is good and what is bad.
[Question] Svetlana Alekseyevna, you were the hostess of all the KVN [Club
for the High-spirited and Quick-witted] programs of past years, and in KVN-86,
which we saw recently, you were a member of the jury. What do you, as an
expert in this area, think of KVN in general and KVN-86 in particular?
[Answer] First let me talk about the "club" of past years. Yes, this was one
of the most brilliant, best programs on our televsion. The programs of the
1960s had it all -- sparkling humor, caustic sarcasm, talented sketches,
improvisations.
But gradually they began to get "whitewashed" and, in addition to the rough
sp ~“s which are certain to occur in programs like this, they began to edit out
the wit, the impartial satire. In short, they began to throw the baby out
with the bath water. And the interest of both the viewers and participants in
KVN began to decline...
What can I say about KVN-80? I was very pleased when I found out they were
going to resurrect this television game, since KVN was a personal favorite of
mine. But it seems to me that, nonetheless, this program was a test, although
it contained a good deal of wit, clever skits, and even pointed satire.
In my opinion, the fact that there was no host who could hold the whole thing
together and act as a connecting link was a shortcoming. There was too
little improvisation. I also felt that the fact that the jury was not present
in the studio was a minus. I would say that there was a total lack of fans,
there were only viewers. The competitiveness of KVN disappears without fans.
33
In the old days, you remember, we even organized fan competitions, which
earned points for the team. If I were to state my attitude to KVN-86 in a few
words, I would say that I am for KVN, but believe that it will survive and be
loved only when it becomes better than it was before. After all we have
changeé with the times, and what set a standard 20 years ago no longer suits
us.
9285
CSO: 1800/71
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
MEDIA AND PROPAGANDA
RESTRICTIONS ON NEWSPAPERS, JOURNAL SUBSCRIPTIONS EASED
Moscow PRAVDA in Russian 2 Aug 86 p l
[Unattributed article: "The Subscription Has Begun" ]
[Text] Subscription for newspapers and journals for 1987 is now open. Party,
trade union and komsomol organizations, as well as Soyuzpechat collectives
and the postal service prepared in advance for this great and important
operation which will continue until November. Doors of nearly 400,000
subscription processing centers opened; assistance councils under party
committees for distribution of periodical publications and 1,348,000 public
press distribution agents are gearing up their activity.
In the majority of families, the issue of which newspapers and journals to
have in the home has probably already been settled. Selection opportunities
have expanded. As we know, one can freely subscribe to central newspapers.
Restrictions on all republic, kray, oblast and city newspapers and local
radio and television programs have also been lifted. The press run of the
journals NAUKA I ZHIZN, RADIO, TEKHNIKA~MOLODEZHI, and YUNOST is no longer
restricted. The press run of subscription supplements to the OGONEK journal
is being doubled. People of various nationalities work in many regions of
the country. They have the opportunity to order a subscription to newspapers
and journals in their native language at an address in the area where they
live.
All this is evidence of how the task set by the 27th CPSU Congress to more
fully satisfy the population's needs for periodicals and artistic literature
is being implemented.
The selection of the newspaper or journal which each of us would like to
receive depends on many factors. Professional needs and a sort of social
mission have a say here, as do family concerns connected with bringing up
children and managing a household... But the main factor is to what extent
the publication's content reflects the demands of the times; does it keep
abreast with life; are there answers to disturbing questions in it? When
readers reflect on the work of the mass information media in their letters,
they single out newspapers and journals which give a vivid account of the
best experience, print in-depth material on issues of the day, raise serious,
socially significant problems, oppose negative phenomena relentlessly and give
the news on a broad scale and truthfully.
35
The June CPSU Central Committee Plenum noted that it is especially important
now that our press catch th: seeds of the new, the advanced, which has been
engendered by the reorganization in all spheres of life and help these to
become the property of all. It is no secret that by no means all local
newspapers please their subscribers with their development of current topics,
nor do they sharply criticize shortcomings and oversights. Frankly speaking,
the prestige of such publications is not great. And only serious work by the
editorial staff which takes into account the readers’ collective opinion and
the improvement in the activism of their publications, efficiency and literary
level can raise it. Much depends here on the position of the party committee,
their support of principal publications and help to journalists. As it
improves its methods, so does the press. A newspaper reflects, like a mirror,
the style and methods of party committee work and the leadership level of
economic and cultural building.
The subscription campaign is a crucial test in the distribution of periodical
publications for those in the news and information field and their volunteer
assistants. Special concern must be shown for rural residents and those who
exploit the riches of the Urals, Siberia, and Far East and the Far North,
as well as for sailors, ocean fishermen, teachers, participants in the Great
Patriotic War, servicemen and those who take part in carrying out international
duty. Public press distribution agents are eagerly awaited in the field, on the
farm, at the shop and in the brigade.
Some restrictions on the press run of a number of journals and their literary
and cultural supplements are being retained for the time being. Taking this
into account, it's necessary to see that publications with quotas go to
workers’ collectives first of all, and that they don't accumulate en masse in
oblast, rayon and city institutions, as sometimes happen.
It's not good when bureaucratism and a formal approach become apparent in any
work. But they are absolutely intolerable if the question is the satisfaction
of spiritual needs. Errors in the subscription system happen because of poor
knowledge of conditions and regulations. Hence, we have instances of ground-
less cancellation of subscriptions on unrestricted publications, discontinuation
of subscriptions earlier than the established expiration date, and incorrect
forwarding of newspapers and journals. Furthermore, complaints and petitions
are sometimes considered in a careless manner on the local level and people
are forced to turn to higher levels of authority.
The main principle of a subscription is its voluntary nature. But this doesn't
mean that party organizations, assistance councils and public distribution
agents must abandon propaganda, advertisements of publications, and first and
foremost, party publications. On the contrary, sensible advice is simply
quite necessary. And for this, press distribution agents themselves must
also know the features, merit and subject of newspapers and journals better.
What frequently comes to light? Here is what a young communist writes in
PRAVDA; he complains that the trade union newspaper he receives deals
sparingly with the life of primary party organizations. And for me, as a
communist and propagandist, it is impossible to manage without such materials.
This opinion is correct; but the complaints to the particular newspaper that
he subscribes to are unjust. The public distribution agent should have
36
explained to this subscriber that one should, of course, look in a party
publication for an exposition of intraparty work experience.
In August subscriptions to the priodical press are accepted from institutions.
Checks indicate that losses on these type of subscriptions are unjustifiably
increasing. We must, more decisively, stop attempts to obtain, with state and
public funds, publications which do not confrom to the profile of particular
enterprises, institutions or organizations.
These days, it is necessary omce again to amalyze and take measures to improve
the system for forwarding and delivering printed matter. The mailman's sack
is noticeably heavier, since every family now receives about six periodical
publications. However, the work of those in the news and information field
is poorly mechanized and brigade forms of organization are timidly intro-
duced. There is no evidence of proper initiative even in delivering mail to
retirees, housewives, students and school children.
The organization of retail sales of periodicals arouses serious criticism.
Complaints come from resort cities, railway and Aeroflot passengers. The
work schedule of “Soyuzpechat™ shops and kiosks is still not convenient
for customers everywhere. Thus up to now, there has not been a single kiosk
in Rovno operating on an expanded schedule in order to serve readers during
morning and evening hours which are more convenient for them.
The Soviet press is a powerful medium for ideological education of the masses
and formation of public opinion. Daily acquaintence with her current
publications by millions of readers promotes the further activization of
workers in the struggle for the acceleration of the social and economic
development of the country and the fulfillment of the five-year plans.
12976/12828
CSO: 1800/382
37
JPRS-UPS-86-05°
3 December 19! >
MEDIA AND PROPAGANDA
KAZAKHS PLANNING ONE-VOLUME EXPLANATORY DICTIONARY
[Editorial Report] Alma-Ata QAZAQ ADEBIYETI in Kazakh on 25 July 1986 carries
on page 4 a 200-word article by Sh. Sarybayev, deputy director of the Linguistic
Institute of the KaSSR Academy of Sciences, titled "A One-Volume Explanatory
Dictionary." The article announces plans--in response to considerable popular
demand--to produce a one-volume (60,000-word) Kazakh explanatory dictionary
based upon Ozhegov's "Slovar russkogo yazyka" [Dictionary of the Russian Lan-
guage]. The new dictionary, which will basically be a one-volume dictionary
of convenience for general use, will also make up for deficiencies in the
recently completed 10-volume dictionary--the "Oazaq tusindirme sozdigi"
[Explanatory Dictionary of the Kazakh Language]. /6662
SHORTCOMINGS NOTED IN TEXTBOOK PRINTING, DISTRIBUTION
[Editorial Report] Ashkhabad MUGALLYMLAR GAZETI in Turkmen on 3 August
1986 carries on page 1 a 500-word unsigned report on a meeting of
the college of the TUSSR Ministry of Education at which "general
dissatisfaction" with the printing of textbooks was expressed. In addition,
"a number of school books which have been printed have not yet been
distributed due to a mistake by the trade organizations. Another
shortcoming is the small number printed of some textbooks. Certain
methodological aids have also not yet been printed. These and similar
shortcomings were strongly criticized by the college of the TUSSR
Ministry of Education."
/12624
CSO: 2830/208
38
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY
VARIOUS EXPLANATIONS FOR 1916 KAZAKH UPRISING
[Editorial Report] Alma-Ata SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN in Kazakh on 27 July 1986
carries on page 2 a 1,800-word article by Docent and Candidate in Historial
Sciences A. Takenov, titled "A Wavering in the Torghay Region." The article
reviews the 1916 Kazakh uprising which, in Takenov's view, had a strong class
character since Kazakh bays, the bourgeoisie Kazakh intelligentsia, and the
princes made common cause against poor rural Kazakhs and a growing urban Kazakh
work force. Although Takenov does see Russian colonialism in the steppe as one
primary cause of the revoit, he downgrades the anti-Russian character of the
movement, noting cooperation in many cases between Russian and Kazakh revolu-
tionaries. There were, for example, Takenov claims, active contacts between
the Kazakh revolutionaries and Bolsheviks and other Russian revolutionary
leaders in Petrograd, while Bolsheviks and other all-Russian revolutionary
groups played a direct role in carrying out the Kazakh uprising itself.
Another point made by Takenov is that it is a mistake to regard the 1916
uprising as something totally separate from the events of 1917. Hostilities
in Kazakhstan, he shows, continued well into 1917 and some of the same persons
fought in both the 1916 and 1917 uprisings. /6662
[Editorial Report] Alma-Ata IZVESTIYA AKADEMENII NAUK KAZAKHSKOY SSR, SERIYA
OBSHCHESTVENNYK NAUK in Russian and Kazakh No 3, March-April 1986, carries on
pages 36-41 a Kazakh-language article by S.S. Nawryzbayev titled "From the
History of the 1916 National Liberation Movement of Southern Kazakhstan
Workers." The article reviews the background and history of the 1916 Kazakh
uprising discussing, among other things, the long- and short-term causes of
the revolt. These included, according to Nawryzbayev, Russian expropriation
of Kazakh land, and their colonization of the steppe, something which had been
going on long before World War I, the immediate circumstance for the outbreak
of rebellion.
Although stressing the 1916 uprising as part of the process leading to 1917--
Nawryzbayev notes the participation ofa new Kazakh urban intelligentsia in
particular to make this point--the author also records "reactionary," feudal-
religious aspects of the rebellion. Also noted are the ercesses of inexper-
ienced revolutionary armies.
39
[Editorial Report] Alma-Ata SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN in Kazakh on 18 July 1986
carries on pages 2-3 a 1,600-word article by Doctor of Historial Sciences and
KaSSR state prize laureate K. Nurpeyisov titled "A struggle Along the Road
to Freedom." The article chronicles and reevaluates the 1916 Kazakh uprising
aud the circumstances leading up to it. The uprising--occasioned, in
Nurpeyisov's views, by pressures occasioned by the World War I, including
high prices for necessities of life and forced conscription of Kazakhs and
others from Kazakhstan to serve in front line labor brigades--is treated as
one of the events leading directly to the 1917 Great October Socialist Revolu-
tion. In their 1916 uprising, Kazakh workers are said to have expressed their
solidarity with a larger, all-Russian movement under the leadership of Lenin.
The issue of Russian colonization of Kazakhstan is not discussed by Nurpeyisov
but the multiethnic character of the 1916 movement--including Russian partici-
pation--is repeatedly stressed. /6662
csO: 1830/128
40
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY
NEW SERIES ON MARXISM-LENINISM PRODUCED
[Editorial Report! Moscow OBSHCHESTVENNYYE NAUKI in Russian Number 5, Septem-
ber-October 1986 (signed to press 11 August 1986), carries on pages 219-220 a
100-word item which notes issuance of the first book in the serial publication
"Istoriya marksizma-leninizma" ["The History of Marxism-Leninism"] (Moscow,
Politizdat, 1986). This first book covers the early work of K. Marx and
F. Engels through the time of the Paris Commune. "The history of Marxism-
Leninism is examined as an integral process of development of its component
parts--philosophy, dialectical and historical materialism, proletarian poli-
tical economy, and scientific socialism--in their unity and mutual dependence."
COPYRIGHT: Izdatelstvo "Nauka", "Obshchestvennyye nauki", 1986
/6662
CSO: 1830/122
41
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
RELIGION
IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH ATHEIST EDUCATION STRESSED
Moscow SELSKAYA ZHIZN in Russian 5 Sep 86 p 3
{Article by Lipetsk Obkom Secretary Raisa Yegorovna Zlobina: "Good by Name"]
[Excerpts] How does one begin to educate atheists who are
able to stand up for their point of view in honorable,
frank dispute with those who have been led astray and are
on the clergy's leash? This is discussed by Raisa
Yegorovna Zlobina, secretary of the Lipets CPSU Obkom.
This question of the education of atheists is not as easy as it might seem at
first glance. And this question can scarcely be a.iswered with a single word.
In this endeavor, it is important not to omit a single link of quite a long
chain. And the first link, in my opinion, has been and remains the
internalization of the culture of man himself, that is, the sum total of his
knowledge, which allows him to derive the correct world view on the basis ot
scientific data.
It is not surprising that the education of atheists, I mean here active
atheists, begins while they are still in elementary school, technical-
vocational schools, specialized secondary schools, or institutes. I could
cite the number of societies, lecture agencies, film lecture series, peoples’
universities, and programs which are intimately linked with atheism. But
quantitative information is far from being the most important factor in
atheist education.
We are attempting to avoid mere mechanical increases in the number of measures
being taken, but instead are concentrating on in-depth analysis and on
creating a world view consistent with the knowledge that we offer.
The effectiveness of atheistic propaganda depends not merely on its scientific
approach, but, first and foremost, on how concrete and specific it is.
Without knowledge of the actual religious circumstances in a given locality,
in a given group of people, what the people live by, what they are attracted
by -- it is difficult to rely on success in creating timely opposition to an
alien ideological trend.
At first glance it would not seem to be very significant that young people
have begun to appear on the streets of our settlement (you might not even
notice them in the crush) sporting two "figure eights" on their shirts, and
some of them also have crosses hanging from their necks. An atheist will
immediately understand where this "fashion" came from. In 1988, the Russian
orhodox church will celebrate its millennium, and it is being "helped" in this
celebration by Western ideological centers. In other words, some enthusiast
has been found eager to warm his hands at the church's "jubilee." And who is
wearing these "ecclesiastical" T-shirts? You guessed it, these same young
"neutrals," who don't care what they put on -- jeans with American symbolism
or jerseys with this strange number. But we do care what the young fellow of
Lipets or Elets is wearing. We want to find the path to his heart and his
mind, to channel his ethical and spiritual powers onto a surer path. This is
why this question was considered in detail by the CPSU Obkon.
The approach of the anniversary date is also reflected in the content of the
chruch's sermons. With ever increasing frequency, the priests speak to their
parishioners of the benefits of Christian dogma, of the “historical merits" of
Russian orthodoxy. Even beyond the walls of the church, the priests are
showing increased activism, and are seeking out informal contacts with youth.
One priest does not think it beneath him to play soccer with the neighborhood
kids, and another offers to inscribe the names of the villagers’ relatives who
died in the Great Patriotic War in gold in the church.
How should one react to such increased activism on the part of representatives
of the clergy? Unfortunately, not all young people are able to find the right
answer to this question. And so their older comrades, the communists and
propagandists, come to their aid.
The residents of the village where the “enterprising” pastor lives refused
point-blank to "immortalize" the memory of the war dead through inscriptions
in the church. After all, the majority of those who did not return from the
war were not religious people, and at the front they fought not for the
orthodox faith, but for Soviet Russia. Not the gold leaf of the church, but
the hearts of the surviving villagers will immortalize the memory of these
heroic countrymen.
The past does not disappear without a trace. Historical memory is closely
linked with the atheist education of the youth.
Yes, atheist and ethical education are inseparable. To react to another's
misfortune as your own, to understand another person, to know how to
sympathize with him, to be able, as V. A. Sukhomlinskiy once said, "to sense
the person" -- all this seems to me to be the major theme of atheist
educational work with children and adolescents.
Lectures, evenings of questions and answers, readers' conferences -- all these
are the traditional forms of atheist propaganda.
I remember a story published in the oblast newspaper. In her despair over her
parents' separation, Svetlana felt herself all alone and then turned to
religion, toa sect. The girl had become so alienated from the "world" that
43
she rejected the arguments of her own father and the good advice of her
comrades at work.
Today, the individualized approach to education has become the leading
approach in all our educational efforts. This is especially evident in our
work with believers. Here what is important is not only a substantive
reasoned argument on one or another point of dogma, but, and this is the main
thing, stress on the "worldly" interests which all people, even believers,
have. As was emphasized in the new edition of the CPSU Program adopted at the
27th Party Congress, the true path to overcoming religious prejudices is an
increase in the activism of the people at work and in society, their
education, and the creation and broad dissemination of new Soviet rituals.
In recent years, the creative use of such new rituals in our oblast has led to
a stable trend for religious rituals to decrease. For example, the number of
christenings has decreased by almost 5 percent in 3 years.
Of course, the effectiveness of our efforts is not demonstrated through
curtailment of the number of christenings and church weddings alone. The main
demonstration lies in the growth in communist consciousness, in labor and
social activism, and in the atheistic convictions of the young generation.
9285
CSO: 1800/91
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
PRAVDA EDITORIAL DESCRIBES NEW CULTURAL EMPHASIS
Moscow PRAVDA in Russian 25 Sep 86 p 1
{Editorial: "The Artist and Life"]
(Text] To create the optimum conditions for revealing the creative abilities
of the Soviet people and to make their lives spiritually rich and multifaceted
-- this is the main goal of the cultural policy of our party, as emphasized in
the documents of the 27th CPSU Congress. In the resolution ratified by this
congress, a major role is assigned to the fine arts -- an important component
of our multinational socialist culture. The best works of our fatherland's
painting, sculpture, and drawing have entered the golden fund containing the
artistic annals of achievements of labor and feats on the battlefield, and
have made a worthy contribution to the progressive art of the world.
The masters of chisel and brush greeted the decree of the CPSU Central
Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers entitled "On Measures to Further
Develop the Fine Arts and to Increase Their Role in the Communist Education of
the Workers" with deep interest. This decree answers many questions which
have been troubling them. This decree is concerned with strengthening the
ties between the fine arts and architecture and the practice of communist
construction, with combining the efforts of cultural agencies and institutions
and creative unions to achieve unity for true creative activity, with
improving the organization of exhibitions as one of the most effective forms
of propaganda on the achievements of Soviet art, with depicting what is new in
our lives in a way that is both true and worthy of the highest type of art,
and with definitively identifying factors hindering progress. The decree
stipulates a whole series of radical measures to enhance the resources and
facilities made available to the fine arts and also to improve material
incentives for creativity on the part of artists and workers in institutions
devoted to fine arts and architecture.
Without a doubt, the resolutions adopted will facilitate adherence to high
professional standards, responsibility and social activism in the creative
environment. The novelty, scope and complexity of the tasks facing our
country and the ideological conflict which is growing more intense in today's
world requires artists to display intolerance of the still-existing
manifestations of an undiscriminating world outlook, triviality of subject
matter, and philistine narrow-mindedness. Improvement in the performance of
45
the creative unions and their local organizations will also be facilitated by
further democratization of their operation, and assimilation of the principles
of openness, criticism, and self-criticism.
Broad scope is being opened up for art criticism and art theory which, under
these new conditions, must study more deeply, propagandize in favor of the
achievements of socialist realism more steadfastly, show intransigence with
regard to manifestations of drabness and lack of ideological content, actively
oppose bourgeois aesthetic tenets, and carry on multifaceted work to enrich
our workers’ knowledge of fine arts and engender wholesome artistic tastes.
The USSR Artists Union and the USSR Academy of Arts must improve their
guidance of their publishing organs so as to continually incrase their
influence on the creative process and to make them passionate propagandists
of the attainments of the fine arts, actively supporting gifted works and
giving timely encouragement to young talents.
We attach much importance to work with creative young people. Young artists
and architects participate in exhibitions and are sent on tours as creative
ambassadors. The gold, silver, and bronze medals for the best graduation
project of students graduating from the art VUZes [Higher Educational
Institutions] which are conferred by the institute of the USSR Academy of Arts
are a great incentive. All these measures are designed to faciliate the
creation of young artists from whom we can expect talented works, in both the
civic and the creative sense, be they paintings or sculptures, architectural
drawings or the original developments of designers.
We have mandated an extensive program for improving the training of artists
and architects in middle and higher educational institutions, and the teaching
of fine arts in non-specialized schools. In this endeavor, the USSR Academy of
Arts has been assigned to coordinate scientific research on the most pressing
problems of theory and practice within Soviet multinational fine arts and its
synthesis with architecture, as well as to provide methodological guidance for
the training of artistic work forces throughout the country. The artistic
community has placed great hopes on the crations of the Siberian-Far Eastern
Department of the USSR Academy of Arts in Krasnoyarsk, and on the
establishment there of academic creative studios for painting, sculpture,
drawing, and the synthesis of fine arts and architecture, and of an artistic
institute with an associated secondary school. These measures, and the
opening of an essentially new Institute of Painting, Sculpture and the
Teaching of Art in Moscow, and the planned more systematic special purpose
training of specialists in the USSR Ministry of Culture art VUZzes should
facilitate the rational distribution of artistic work forces throughout the
country as a whole.
A procedure has been defined whereby competitions will be held to select
designs for memorials and monuments of nationwide significance, as well as for
important architectural groupings, buildings and facilities in Moscow,
Leningrad, and the capitals of the Union republics and other major cities of
the country. It is essential that this important procedure become an integral
part both of longterm planning for propaganda through monuments and of the
solution of immediate problems in city planning.
A great deal of attention is being devoted to problems of preserving and
restoring historic, cultural and architectural monuments which are of major
importance for the patriotic education of the Soviet people. Substantial
financial and material resources have been allocated to such repair and
restoration. Soviet artists, architects, and all involved in working in
culture are expected to take a vital and active role in this endeavor of
nationwide importance.
In order for everything which has been stipulated in the plan to become a
reality, a great deal of serious work will be required. Psychological
restructuring is needed for the most effective answer to the organizational
and creative questions, posed by the decrees of the 27th Party Congress with
regard to literature and art. We must remember that today (as at any time)
cultural construction needs people who are committed, and know how to work
actively with a high degree of professional expertise, and to adopt a truly
innovative attitude to this endeavor.
Every member of a creative union, every member of the staff of cultural
agencies, no matter how modest his role in the artistic process, is called
upon to make his contribdution to the development of multinational Soviet fine
arts and architecture. This will be a worthy response to the party's and
government's concern about those involved in Soviet culture and about the full
satisfaction of the spiritual needs of the Soviet people.
9285
CSO: 1800/73
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
CULTURE
ZAYTSEV NOTES EIGHT REPUBLICS CHOSEN FOR NEW THEATER EXPERIMENT
Moscow SOVETSKAYA ROSSIYA in Russian 15 Aug 86 p 2
[Interview with USSR First Deputy Minister of Culture Ye. V. Zaytsev by TASS
correspondent L. Bernaskoni: "Great Hopes for the Theater;" date and place of
interview not specified. ]
[Text] The theater is justly called the mirror of life, with the mission of
reflecting the times in all their multiplicity, drama, and greatness. But the
theater has another mission as well: that of actively intervening in life by
contributing to the moral education of the people and influencing the
spiritual climate of society. This is particularly important today, when we
are at a major turning-point in history.
"The theater is involved in the most direct way in the process of renewal and
restructuring,” said USSR First Deputy Minister of Culture Ye. V. Zaytsev in
a talk with TASS correspendent L. Bernaskoni. "A demonstration of this was
the just-ended 1986 season which delighted us with new and interesting works.
The performance by the Soviet Army Central Theater of 'The Article,' based on
a play by R. Solntsev, stirred people up and made them think about life. The
problem play by V. Udam, ‘Responsibility,’ which was performed simultaneously
on a number of stages in Estonia, stimulated keen discussions. This era of
change was reflected in new works by the Moscow Art Theatre, the Little
([Malyy] Theater, the Leningrad Bolshoy Dramatic Theater, and the Moscow
Theater imeni Leninskiy Komsomol. The civicmindedness and contemporary social
and political themes of our art take on special significance, demonstrating
the maturity of our dramatic art and theater, acting as a kind of tuning-fork
for their creative innovations.
"All the same, we have not yet experienced a radical turning-point in the
theater's perception of reality. What do the playgoers get from the
performance of ‘Supreme Court Judge' by A. Vaksberg at the Moscow Theater
imeni N. Gogol, or ‘Entrance Hall' by S. Kokovkin at the Theater imeni
Mossovet, or ‘'Yeniseysk Encounters' in the Theater imeni Ye. Vakhtangov or
‘Aliya’ by A. Tarazi at the Turgayskiy Theater in Kazakhstan, or ‘Railroad’
by Ye. Yernshakyan at the Yerevan Young People's Theater, or unfortunately,
many additional examples?
48
"The themes of creative labor, the party's constructive struggle for the
purity of our lives and for the affirmation of the moral ideals and genuine
values of socialism have not been convincingly reflected on the stage. And
yet by merely posing these problems and solving them through art, the theater
could become one of the most essential factors in social and economic
acceleration.
“Today there is much which is disturbing in the way the theatre is run. The
decrease in the artistic quality of productions and in the professional
caliber of performances has discredited the art [of the theater] in the eyes
of the audience. The problem of bringing representatives of the working class
and youths into the theater is urgent. The statistics alert us to the
existence of a problem: only seven percent of our audiences are laborers. The
contacts between the theaters and playwrights are weak. The way theatrical
matters are managed does not stimulate creative activism. The times demand
restructuring -- we must begin to move, it is time to get underway.
"In response to a proposal by the theatrical community supported by the CPSU
Central Committee, it has been decided to conduct a wide-ranging, multifaceted
experiment directed at raising the effectiveness of the way the theater is
run. This experiment will begin on 1 January 1987, but the first steps have
already been taken," said Ye. V. JZaytsev. "A new procedure for determining
the composition of theater companies, involving periodic reevaluation of their
performance, has been instituted. This procedure creates a good basis for
recognizing talent, and developing the initiative and activism of all members
of the company. The economic power the theaters will have in their dealings
with authors have been expanded significantly -- this opens up real potential
for the theaters to involve new talents in writing plays. The resolution
creating the Moscow Theater of Friendship Among Peoples was an important
politcal act. Our task, even this year, is to perform the necessary
preliminary work so that regular showing of works by theater groups across the
nation can begin by the 70th anniversary of the Great October Revolution.
Soviet multinational drama, which speaks in 50 tongues, is atruly unique
phenomenon in world culture. And we are confident that the Theater of
Friendship Among Peoples will give new impetus to its further development and
will actively facilitate enhanced communication and mutual enrichment among
the fraternal cultures of our country.
"In conducting this experiment, we have placed great hopes on the Union of
Theatrical Societies, which will have its next regular congress in December
of this year.
"The corner-stone of this work will be a new kind of expansion of the rights
and autonomy of the theaters. This applies to selection of the repertory,
which has been delegated to the artistic council and the management of the
theater. Speaking figuratively, the "OTK" [External Quality Control Agency]
has been eliminated as an intermediary between the theater company and the
audience, and the theater will now issue its own "seal of quality." This is a
great trust, and also an enormous responsibility, and is being shouldered,
primarily, by the artistic council which selects the artists for the theater's
company.
49
"One of the essential components of the experiment will be the radical
restructuring of the economic resources available to the theaters and of
management methods. Without boring you with complicated calculations, let me
note that the number of plan indicators are being reduced to three, which will
be set for the theaters by the organizations to which they report. The state
subsidy will be stabilized and its use will be left completely to the
discretion of the theater. The price setting system will also become more
flexible, which should have a significant influence on increasing revenues:
under the conditions of the experiment, the theatres will have the right to
add to or discount ticket prices at their discretion. The plan stipulates the
formation of a creative-production fund and an incentive fund. The bonus
system -- up to 50 percent of salary for active creative and productive
activity -- should have a beneficial effect on the growth of professional
competence. In a word, the economic methods of management will increase each
person's responsibility for the final results.
Naturally, the experiment also calls for reorganization of the cultural
agencies. Instead of the authoritarian scoldings or prohibitions,
undemocratic rule and arbitrary decisions, which, why try to hide it, have
been the foundation of "interactions" until now, expert advice, reasoned
arguments, substantive criticism, and constructive creative suggestions will
form the basis for our partnership. In our view, the introduction of
peformance evaluations of the theater managers will also facilitate matters.
At the present time, there are 630 theater companies in our country. Over a
2-year period, 69 of them from 8 Union republics will participate directly in
the experiment. But it has been decided to introduce components of the new
operating procedures everywhere. Once they have demonstrated their worth, the
procedures and methods will become the property of all Soviet theaters. An
organizing and supervisory committee will be established at the USSR Ministry
of Culture to implement the strategy and tactics of the experiment and to gain
valuable expertise.
Before beginning the experiment, a theater must develop its
ideological/aesthetic and social progran. Even at this early stage, it is
important to assign each one his task and his place, so as to make maximal use
of creative potential. This program must be reviewed by the theater's
company. Only with their support can we count on success.
As we approach the restructuring of the theater, we understand very well that
no administrative or economic transformation is an end unto itself. Our
higher order goal is to raise the ideological and artistic level of theater
arts and to qualitatively improve the way the theater is run. And this means
making the theater a reliable aid to the party in its tasks of shaping the
citizens of socialist society and promoting progress.
9825
CSO: 1800/73
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
CULTURE
ZILBERSHTEYN DESCRIBES RUSSIAN THEATER ART COLLECTED ABROAD
Moscow OGONEK in Russian No 36, 37, 1986
[Article by I. S. Zilbershteyn, doctor of art studies and recipient of the
USSR State Prize: "A Matter of Life Itself: The Best Foreign Collection of
Russian Theater Art")
[No 36, pp 8-9]
[Text J I
In France, Sweden, the United States and England there existed until quite
recent years highly interesting collections covering various aspects of the
art, intellectual life and even military history of our country in its
prerevolutionary period. Space does not permit detailed description of all
these collections, however I will briefly describe several of then.
Russian collections were assembled in France over a period of many decades.
Yet the fate of the overwhelming majority of them is most lamentable. There
follows some information on this subject.
The best postrevolutionary collection of Russian works of art in Paris
belonged to A. A. Popov, the owner of an antique store on the Rue Faubourg-St.
Honoré, opposite the French presidential palace. A. A. Popov was a zealous
collector, and his collection was so rich that its description was written by
Aleksandr Benois. Represented in this collection were works by the best
artists of the period extending from the 18th century to the beginning of the
20th century. It contained, for instance. Borovikovskiy's 1806 portrait of P.
M. Bestuzheva, the mother of four Decembrists. Not only were Popov's love for
Russian culture and his tremendous interest in our history never extinguished,
they became a genuine passion which led him to study Russian fine arts in
depth. And since Popov was a truly gifted individual -- as a rule he mastered
to perfection any subject to which he turned his attention -- soon Aleksandr
Aleksandrovich, a man who in his youth had had scant interest in the arts --
became one of Paris’ greatest antiquarians and connoisseurs of Russian fine
arts. For example, Popov had merely to pick up a plate which its owner
Claimed to be porcelain from the time of Czarina Elizabeth, kept in his family
for 150 years, and examine it carefully before returning it to its owner with
a courteous smile: "I would advise you, kind sir, to feel free to eat soup or
51
borshcht from this plate, since it has no other value: it is a replica
manufactured in Wiesbaden about 10 or 12 years ago." And with particular
politeness he would go on to explain to the owner of the unfortunate plate
that after 1917, when many famous art works were being brought out of Russia,
old Russian porcelain came to be highly valued by foreign collectors, and
facsimiles of it began to be produced.
In 1939 there appeared in one of the Parisian periodicals a note which
reported the following: "The Duchess of Windsor is very interested in
anything Russian, and in Russian antiques in particular. Recently she told an
English journalist that she knew ‘very strange Russian people.' They have an
antique shop on the Rue Faubourg-Honoré, just across the street from the
presidential palace. I visit it often. But what strange merchants these are!
They are collectors, and they take the best items home and then do not wish to
part with then."
"The reader will recognize in this portrayal the famous collector Popov, whose
porcelain, paintings and furniture did so much to ensure the success of last
year's Pushkin exhibit."
After A. A. Popov's death his widow, B. Ye. Popova, became the owner of his
collection and antique store. When I first arrived in Paris, I asked her to
turn over to our museums some works by Russian masters, and these were sent to
the Tretyakov Gallery and the A. S. Pushkin Museum on Kropotkinskaya Street.
During my following visit to Paris I once again approached B. Ye. Popova with
the same request, and at first she acquiesced and even selected several
paintings, watercolors and sketches. But later she refused to carry out my
equest, citing the opinion of store manager Andrey Barush. Then I explained
to her that he was an adventurer who preyed upon old women and who had but one
objective: to gain control over Popova and take all her possessions. He soon
achieved this goal: after sending B. Ye. Popova off to a suburban hospital,
where she died soon after, he was able through all sort of untruths to take
possession of everything which had belonged to Popov. However, within two
years Barush himself died. One can scarcely imagine how many Russian
paintings, albums with sketches by the great masters of the last century,
priceless porcelain, interesting dairies of her late husband, his
correspondence and what a library B. Ye. Popova had! What has happened to all
of it?! Yet A. A. Popov had repeatedly told friends about his dream of
returning everything which he had collected over a period of more than 50
years to his homeland.
A number of other Russian collections which have been discovered in Paris in
recent years have also suffered a sad fate.
Artist and restorer I. K. Kraytor, who was on close terms with Repin, Korovin
and Shalyapin, lived in Paris for 35 years. An outstanding connoisseur of
Russian and foreign paintings, Kraytor assembled a good collection of pictures
which he dreamed of sending back to his homeland, to Moscow, where members of
his family lived. In 1957 he died unexpectedly in Paris. And since Ivan
Kondratyevich lived alone, the usual fate in such cases befell his collection
as well: many first-class canvases disappeared.
52
Something similarly tragic happened to another Paris collector, I. S. Gurvich,
a regular at the Paris auctions. He lived alone on the fifth floor of an old
building without an elevator and, already being of an advanced age, had
difficulty climbing the stairs. It was on those stairs that he died suddenly.
Although his apartment was soon sealed off, the notary public did not know
that it had a second entrance, through a back stairway. This made it possible
for burglars to carry off all the most valuable pieces from I. S. Gurvich's
collection, which had taken decades to assemble. And I was not surprised
when, arriving in those parts soon after I. S. Gurvich's death, I saw a book
by Alexandr Benois with an inscription dedicated to I. S. Gurvich on sale in
the store of bookseller Claude [Gerain].
Twenty years ago in Paris I had the opportunity to visit the home of F. F.
Yusupov, where I looked at several notable works by Russian painters. These
included Venetsianov's painting entitled "A Peasant Family," and a portrait of
F. F. Yusupov, Sr., painted by Valentin Serov. The following year Feliks
Feliksovich, Jr. died. Soon afterwards his wife also passed away. And their
only daughter sold all the works of art which had belonged to her parents.
An unforgettable impression remained with me after my visits to the home of V.
A. Verlin, a Paris collector of antique Russian porcelain. Suffice it to say
that his collection contained over 80 pieces of porcelain from the era of
Czarina Elizabeth and approximately 150 pieces of Russian porcelain from the
earliest periods, including some Russian porcelain works reflecting the
Patriotic War of 1812. As a superb connoisseur of old Russian porcelain, he
did not miss a single auction in Paris or London where such items were to be
sold, with catalogues of the items to be auctioned being sent out to
collectors and antiquarians one or two months in advance. Vladimir
Aleksandrovich's collection also contained more than 60 old Russian
miniatures, some of which were the work of the best Russian artists. It is
sad to say that the fate of V. A. Verlin's remarkable collection was no
different from that of many other collections of relics from our culture which
have been assembled in France.
The well-known Paris collector S. A. Belits for many years collected works by
the "itinerants," Repin and Surikov in particular. Incidentally, in the hands
of various collectors in Paris I counted no less than 15 studies by Surikov
for his famous canvases. Belits' collection has disappeared without a trace;
there does not even exist an annotated list of its contents.
There you have, in the briefest possible form, a few facts concerning several
works of Russian art owned by "Russian Parisians."
Beginning in distant prerevolutionary times, works of antique foreign fine
arts, ancient icons and the works by our outstanding artists of the 18th and
19th centuries, unique manuscript folios with wonderful miniatures and
extremely rare printed works, autographs of famous Russian writers and books
with inscriptions by them were transported out of Russian intensively and
uncontrolledly...
53
Many of our country's cultural relics began to be shipped abroad after the
February Revolution. This, for example, is what A. M. Gorky wrote with deep
concern in one of his articles written during those months:
"An individual who has just arrived from abroad tells me that “in Stockholm
there are up to 60 antique stores which trade in paintings, porcelain, bronze,
silver, rugs and any other sort of objets d'art which have been brought out of
Russia. In Kristiania [Oslo] I counted 12 such stores, and there are very
many of them in Goteborg and other cities in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. In
some stores there hang signs reading "Antiques and Art Objects From Russia,"
or "Russian Antiquities." In newspapers one often sees advertisements reading
"Rugs and other items from the Russian imperial palaces for sale".'"
And here before me is proof of the fact that A. M. Gorky'’s alarm was well-
founded: a beautifully printed 1956 catalog in Swedish, published in
Stockholm, a large-format volume on luxurious paper. It contains, along with
detailed commentaries, reproductions -- most in color -- of 200 masterpieces
of old Russian painting from the 12th-17th centuries which are now in private
collections in Swedish and Norwegian museums.
A great deal could be said about the remarkable creations of the Russian
school of painting which have turned up in the United States, but I will limit
myself to three cases.
I know of an English-language catalogue entitled "Works of Art in the
Collection of Nicholas de [Bazili] at the Hoover Institute" published in 1972
in Stanford (California). The catalogue lists 52 works, primarily by Russian
masters, including three portraits by Rokotov, five by Levitskiy, and eight by
Borovikovskiy, as well as portraits by Argunov, Shchukin, F. P. Sokolov...
Also in California, at the San Diego Museum, is one of Karl Bryullov's best
works: his portrait of Duchess Yu. P. Samoylova with her adopted daughter
Giovanna [Pachini] and a black child.
A portrait of writer Vsevolod Garshin, painted in 1884 by I. Ye. Repin, was
considered by Academician I. E. Grabar to be one of the culminating points in
the great artist's entire creative career, his undisputed masterpiece, since
in this work Repin reached his deepest and most exhaustive treatment of the
subject. Prior to the Revolution this portrait was in the collection of Kiev
collector B. I. Khanenko. Later the whereabouts of this masterpiece remained
unknown. Only recently was it learned that Repin's portrait of Garshin is in
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The number of relics of Russian culture discovered in England is very large,
but I will mention only two collections.
Prominent Odessa engineer M. V. Braykevich, who emigrated to London in 1920,
donated his personal collection of paintings, watercolors and sketches by the
artists of the "Mir iskusstva" [World of Art] creative community to the
university of his mative city. Now these works adorn the Odessa Picture
Gallery. While living in England, Braykevich over a period of two decades
also assembled another collection of works by "Mir iskusstva" artists.
54
Represented in this collection as well are Bakst, Aleksandr Benois, Bilibin,
Goncharov, Dobuzhinskiy, Korovin, Larionov, Levitan, Malyavin, Leonid
Pasternak, Rerikh, Serov, Somov, Chekhonin, Shukhayev and Aleksandr Yakovlev.
In 1949, ten years after the death of M. V. Braykevich, this collection
entered the [Ashmall] Museum in Oxford. However, as Aleksandr Benois wrote in
an article dedicated to him, Mikhail Vasiliyevich himself would have preferred
to see everything which he had acquired during his years abroad be added to
those works which already hang in the Odessa Picture Gallery.
Another countryman of ours, Ye. S. Mollo, lived in London for many years and
created a one-of-a-kind collection of Russian militaria, a unique personal
collection which was without parallel in the entire world. Yevgeniy
Semenovich turned his finds and acquisitions into a museum complex; this was
evident from the photographs he sent me of the interior of his apartment,
where he had many items on display. The contents of this collection were
diverse and wide-ranging. It including paintings reflecting feats of valor by
the Russian Army, portraits of prominent commanders, prints and engravings,
porceiain and bronzes, uniforms, medals, certificates commemorating the
presentation of medals, autographs of Russian military figures, and various
documentary materials... It was a Museum of Russian Military Glory. Ye. S.
Mollo was the author of a number of studies, including one on Russian military
orders of the 18th century.
In a letter written to me on 14 February 1970, Yevgeniy Semenovich reported
the following: "I went abroad to join my father in 1922. I came to London in
1924 and immediately entered the Royal College of Art (which corresponds to
our Academy of Arts). Thus by training I am an artist. My passion for
collecting Russian antiques is the result of homesickness for my native land.
During my first years abroad I missed my homeland terribly, and more than once
I made up my mind to return there. At first I collected everything which I
came across and could afford. Later I began to specialize in military
antiques."
Ye. S. Mollo passed away recently, and his remarkable collection no longer
exists.
Another topic concerns the personal papers of our prominent countrymen who
died in England. Above all I have in mind the renowned ballerina Tamara
Karsavina, whose memoirs were published in 1971 in Leningrad under the title
"Teatralnaya ulitsa" [Theater Street]. No less interesting than her personal
papers are those of outstanding painter Leonid Pasternak. In particular, he
began to spend time at Yasnaya Polyana in 1898, and L. N. Tolstoy considered
his illustrations for the novel "Resurrection" to be "splendid."
II
Russian theatrical artists working at the turn of the century exerted a
tremendous influence on their foreign colleagues and added a brilliant page to
the history of world theater art.
55
The most ~ignificant collection of works by outstanding Russian theatrical
artists which has been assembled abroad was collected over the course of the
past 25 years by N. D. Lobanov-Rostovskiy. He was born in 1935 in Bulgaria,
and lives today in London. This collection is largely made up of works by
Russian artists who helped stage the "Russian Seasons" and worked on contract
to S. P. Diaghilev, guided by his instructions and advice.
These set designers, assistants to Diaghilev, are represented in Lobanov's
collection by over 20 sketches of sets and costumes. All in all the
collection contains approximately 1,000 works by 110 Russian theater artists.
And all of them were scattered to the four corners of the earth; at times they
had to be searched for page by page.
Becoming acquainted with N. D. Lobanov's collection through the numerous
foreign catalogues which illustrated and described the works by our theatrical
artists which he had collected, I recalled that I had seen the names of N. D.
Lobanov's ancestors in art literature as well. They had also been passionate
collectors. Soon, following up various sources in the press, I1 came across
something which one rarely encounters in the world of collecting: this
passion had become a sort of Lobanov family tradition, passed on from
generation to generation.
But first a word about this very old family. In order to obtain at least some
of the information about it contained in historical literature, I turned to a
weighty volume (850 pages of fine print in large format) published in 1914,
one of the volumes which made up the 22-volume "Russkiy biograficheskiy
slovar" [Russian Biographical Dictionary], published over a period of decades
by the Russian Historical Society (and which remained uncompleted). This
valuable directory gives detailed biographical information and bibliographic
data about the long-past activities of our prominent countrymen who played a
Significant role in the history of our country.
Information about the Lobanov-Rostovskiy family in this volume of the "Russkiy
biograficheskiy slovar" turned out to be more than abundant, and the first
entries went back to 1530. This single volume listed information on 20 of N.
D. Lobanov's forebears, the majority of whom won renown in the military realm.
One of these latter was Ivan Ivanovich Lobanov-Rostovskiy (born at the
beginning of the 1600's, died 1664), who also served as a diplomat. As
recounted by the "Russkiy biograficheskiy slovar", “Ivan Ivanovich is, through
his second son Yakov Ivanovich, who had 28 children from two marriages, the
founder of the present-day Lobanov-Rostovskiy family."
As for their taste for collecting, which was already noted in the biographies
of some family members in the distant past, I will mention only two such
collectors.
Major-General Aleksandr Yakovlevich Lobanov-Rostovskiy (1788-1865) was
acquainted with Pushkin and wanted to publish a collection of his poetry in
Paris; however, this did not come about. After his retirement, according to
the Lobanov biography, he "was able to give himself over fully to his natural
inclinations: he had a passion for the assemblage of all sorts of
collections, many of which were valuable from a scientific standpoint." Thus,
56
after becoming interested in Mary Stewart, he collected as many as 800
portraits of her and sent a description of them in two volumes to Petersburg
in 1856 and 1860, bequeathing this collection to the Hermitage Museum, which
also received his collection of books about Mary Stewart. He donated his
collection of portraits of Peter the Great to the Public Library. And that is
by mo means all that A. Ya. Lobanov collected, categorized and described
during his lifetime.
At the end of the last century A. B. Lobanov created a collection of
portraits, most of which were drawn by Russian painters. This is what
prorinent Soviet art historian G. V. Smirnov wrote about the fate of this
collection in his introduction to the 1980 publication "Gosudarstvenniy
Russkiy muzey. Zhivopis XVIII - nachala XX bekov. Katalog." [The State
Russian Museum, Painting from the 18th Through the Beginning of the 20th
Centuries: A Catalogue): "A. B. Lobanov's collection was a major
contribution which comprised the core of the Russian Museum's portrait
gallery. It added to that section 95 portraits of Russian state officials,
dating primarily from the 18th century."
In terms of his fondness for collecting and also his sincere attraction to
art, N. D. Lobanov is a worthy successor of his distant ancestors. In
addition -- and this does not occur very often in coliectors' families --
Nikita Dmitriyevich's interests were shared by his charming wife Nina. It was
she who in New York in 1962 acquired the sketch of a curtain for the
Stravinsky ballet "Petrushka" drawn by Aleksandr Benois; this acquisition
marked the beginning of their collection. Evidently this was a "wedding gift"
from Nina to her future husband, since they married that same year, after
Lobanov came to New York from Argentina, where he had been working as a
geologist.
Thus began the young Lobanovs’ fascinating journey into the world of art.
(No 37, pp 22-24)
III
They say that miracles do not happen. Is that true? No, of course miracles
do happen, and not just when justice does in fact triumph in the lives of
genuine, honest, conscientious people. Miracles happen very, very often in
our business of searching and finding. I have a right to say that, because as
the initiator and creator of the the publication "Literaturnoye nasledstvc,"
which is devoted to the publication of previously unknown materials on the
history of Russian literature and public thought, I have prepared and
published many tens of volumes of this publication over the course of almost
half a century. And in any one of them one always encounters new finds of
creative manuscrips and correspondence by our outstanding writers and
publicists, and the memoirs of and codumentation on these individuals, which
had remained unknown to the best researchers, and whose existence they did not
even suspect. Do not these sort of finds sometimes come close to being
miracles, even if they are only small ones?!
As for the field of collecting in the fine arts, the genuine, erudite
collector encounters miracles at every turn. Ofttimes he will also discover
the romance, the poetry of searching and finding. I am well acquainted with
this feeling through the mere fact that I have been smitten with a passion for
collecting since my youth. I was already filled with a love for Russian art
when, at the age of 17, I acquired two sketches by Boris Grigoryev which
became the beginning of my collection (a catalogue of the Western European
portion of that collection was published in 1973 by the State Museum for the
Fine Arts, which has already prepared a catalogue of its Russian portion). I
have also come to a full realization of the poetry of seeking and finding in
the field of my beloved Russian art on more than one occasion. Specifically,
it was precisely this happy sentiment which characterized my discovery of 76
watercolor portraits of male and female Decembrists which were painted by
Decembrist Nikolay Bestuzhev at the Chita Jail and Petrovskaya Prison. This
was only the beginning of my search for Bestuzhev's portrait legacy; later I
began to search for his works and correspondence in museums, archives and
personal collections from Kyakhta to Paris. This activity inspired me to
create an extensive monographic study entitled "Nikolay Bestuzhev, Artist and
Decembrist," which was subsequently awarded the USSR State Prize.
I am very happy that now my entire collection of Russian and Western European
art, which I collected over a period of two-thirds of a century, has become
the core of the Personal Collections Museum established at my initiative as
part of the State Museum of Fine Arts imeni A. S. Pushkin. Our Personal
Collections Museum has already received several private collections, each of
which will always be preserved intact.
The new museum was allocated a building which is practically connected with
the State Museum of Fine Arts. By a decisions of the Executive Committee of
the Moscow City Soviet from 11 March this year, a building with a total area
of 3,000 m~ was set aside to house the Personal Collections Museum; it had in
recent years been home to the Avtoeksport Association. Once a hotel and the
"Knyazhiy Dvor" furnished rooms were located in this building. V. {. Surikov
lived there, as attested to by a plaque above the entrance. When in Moscow A.
M. Gorky, i. Ye. Repin and I. A. Bunin stayed there... The total area of the
building to which Avtoeksport is supposed to move is over 4,000 m*. It has
already been well over six months since the Moscow City Soviet Executive
Committee made its decision, and I would hope that that decision will be
implemented without further delay. The Personal Collections Museum will become
one of our most-visited museums, since millions of art lovers will see things
there which they have never seen before.
I am convinced that it was precisely the poetry of the search which helped
Lobanov make his dream a reality: to collect works of Russian theatrical art
dating from the first thirty years of the 20th century. Today, of all similar
personal collections existing abroad, Lobanov's collection can rightfully be
regarded not only as the best, but also as a great one. Furthermore, not a
single foreign state theatrical museum exhibiting works by set designers from
around the world, including some from our country, can even begin to approach
the Lobanovs' collection in terms of the quantity and quality of works by
Russian theatrical painters represented.
58
I would like to note one important detail: the fact that there arose in 19-
year-old Oxford University student Nikita Lobanov a burning interest in
Russian theater art was the "fault" of an exhibit put on by the English critic
Richard Buckle, first in Edinburgh in 1954 and later in London, in connection
with the 20th anniversary of S. P. Diaghilev's death. In an interview Lobanov
related: "At that exhibition I for the first time became acquainted with real
painting and with theatrical creations by outstanding Russian masters." And
he continued: "As compared to the works by Western artists on display at the
same exhibit, I found them astounding for their colorfulness and harmony of
brilliant designs and whimsical motifs. It was then that I decided that
someday similar works by Anisfeld, Bilibiin, Korovin and Rerikh would hang on
my walls as well. I had the good fortune to see the dream of my youth become
a reality."
Now a word about the contents of Nikita and Nina Lobanov's collection.
However, I cannot speak of this in an exhaustive fashion, since a detailed
account of everything which they have collected would fill a large book.
The theatrical creations of Aleksandr Berois are superbly represented in their
collection. They have over 200 of his works, including sketches for the sets
and costumes of ["Pavil'on armidy,"]) "Petrushka," and "The Imaginary
Invalid". It was this master who was the first to discover the trend in
Russian theatrical design which has been world-renowned since the time of
Diaghilev's “Russian Seasons."
I should note that Aleksandr Benois’ major contribution to our country's
artistic culture was rated highly in statements by A. M. Gorky, A. V.
Lunacharskiy and K. S. Stanislavskiy, whose opinion was shared by many famous
figures in our arts and literature. Thus, approaching Benois in 1922 with the
idea of “acquainting Europe with true, pure Russian art," Gorky wrote to him:
"You are the founder and creator of a whole school which has revitalized
Russian art." One year later A. V. Lunmacharskiy made the following statement
in the press: ",... the principal vanguard of our art is that center, coming
from refined Europeans, which has formed around the so-called "Mir iskusstva,"
the central figure of which, as theoretician, historian, aesthete and artist,
is one of Russia's most pleasant and cultivated figures: A. N. Benois." As
for K. S. Stanislavskiy, who was very closely acquainted with Benois, since
they had worked together on a number of performances at the Moscow Art
Theater, that great reformer of the dramatic arts not only ecstatically lauded
the innumerable talents of Aleksandr Nikolayevich in his famous book of 1925,
but also called him "a first-class" artist, and considered his set designs for
one Moscow Art Theater show to be a "work of genius."
Incredible success accompanied the appearance abroad of a show with sets which
Lev Bakst helped design. The highest praise for these creations of his came
from prominent Western cultural figures. When Diaghilev presented the ballet
"Scheherazade" in Paris in 1910, set to the music of Rimsky-Korsakov, the
artist was Lev Bakst; this evoked general raptures, including on the part of
Henri Matisse. The Swiss GAZETTE DE LAUSANNE wrote: "All of Paris was
capitivated by Mr. Bakst's colorful and furious artwork.
*“Scheherazade' was an unveiling; its performance will go down as a singular
event in the entire history of French theater." The Paris THEATRICAL REVIEW,
59
writing about the state of theater set art at that time, declared: "Even in
France Bakst dominates in terms of the brilliance and diversity of his talent
to such a degree that it is becoming threatening." In an article printed in
one of the Paris newspapers, composer Renaldo Gan asserted that the libretto
of the ballet "Tamara," set to the music of M. A. Balakirev, "served as a
pretext for Bakst to add yet another dazzling spectacle to all the others
which his genuis for sets has already created." A. VY. Lunacharskiy summed up
this artist with a single brilliant sentence: "There is no doubt that Bakst
is a very major talent, perhaps even too major a talent for the theater."
In the Lobanov collection are 15 sketches of Bakst's works, and among them are
such masterpieces as the sketch of a costume for the leading female performer
in Anton Arenskiy's ballet "Cleopatra." This is a wonderful watercolor which
is so fascinating that it has been reproduced in foreign monographs and
articles on Bakst on more than 10 occasions. Recently a color reproduction of
this sketch was published in OGONEK (1983, No 20, between pages 24 and 25);
the same issue included reproductions of nine theatrical sketches by Aleksandr
Benois, Mstislav Dobuzhinskiy, Boris Kustodiyev and Nikolay Rerikh, as well as
other Bakst sketches from the same collection.
In addition to Bakst's theatrical works, the Lobanov collection includes a
1921 Bakst drawing in which he depicted I. A. Bunin. This portrait was
included in the French-language anthology of Bunin's short stories which was
published in Paris in 1922 under the title "The Gentleman From San Francisco."
The writer and the artist were friends. This is attested to, in particular,
by the text of an unpublished letter from Bunin to Bakst dated 31 August 1922
which I have in my possession, and which begins with the words "Kind and
dear..."
Only very rarely does one find theatrical works by B. M. Kustodiyev abroad.
Nevertheless, the Lobanovs have managed to obtain a sketch which he did in
1925 for A. N. Ostrovskiy's play "Ne bylo ni grosha, da vdrug altyn" [Not Even
a Penny, Then Suddenly Three Kopecks]. This was one of the artist's last works
for the theater, since Boris Mikhaylovich, gravely ill for many years and
confined to a chair, died on 26 May 1927. In his memoirs about meetings with
Kustodiyev, F. I. Shalyapin was fully justified in making the following
remark: "It is impossible to recall without emotion the magnitude of the
moral force which lived in this man, and which can be called none other than
heroic and valiant."
M. V¥. Dobuzhinskiy made sketches for the scenery and costumes of 12 shows
staged by the Moscow Art Theater, and many of these works of his help comprise
the golden treasury of Russian fine arts in the 20th century. As K. S.
Stanislavskiy wrote in his autobiography, he invited Dobuzhinskiy to design
the sets for the first of those shows, the play "A Month In the Country" by I.
S. Turgenev, because “one could scarcely have wished for a better painter."
Stanislavskiy was not mistaken, as this show became, thanks in part to
Dobuzhinskiy's contribution, one of the most famous in the history of the
Moscow Art Theater.
As yet there are still only a few works by this artist in the Lobanov
collection, but I have no doubt that in their untiring search abroad they will
add to the number of Dobuzhinskiy's works in their possession.
A total of 10 books about N. K. Rerikh have appeared in Russian, and as for
literature on him in foreign languages, it would comprise an entire library.
In ome of the books published here, "N. K. Rerikh. Zhizn i tvorchestvo.
Sbornik statey* [N. K. Rerikh, His Life and Work: A Collection of Articles]
(1978), V. S. Kemenov writes: "The sets designed by Rerikh for “Prince Igor’
were a true innovation in the history of world theater art." He was referring
to the 1909 performances given in Paris as part of Diaghilev's "Russian
Seasons."
The works by Rerikh in the Lobanovs’ collection give an idea of all the charm
of his scenery creations.
N. S. Goncharova lived along, creative life and made a large personal
contribution to the development of the craft of Russian set design. A. V.
Lunacharskiy was almost always able to capture the basic feature of a talent,
as for example when he evaluated this artist's great gifts with a single
phrase. After coming to the Paris exhibitions in 1927 and examining her work
which was on display there, Anatoliy Vasilyevich noted positively in one of
his articles "the artistic fantasies of Natalya Goncharova, unequalled by
poetry." Her works from different periods of her creative career are
abundantly represented in the Lobanov collection. The most significant of her
works which they have acquired is her sketch for the sets of Igor
Stravinskiy's ballet "The Firebird," which she did in 1926.
A very large place in the history of our country's theater art belongs to the
work of G. B. Yakulov. It achieved world recognition with the appearance of
his very first set designs. Thus, the sets and costumes designed by Yakulov
were in large part responsbile for the tremendous success of the staging of
the play ["Zhirofle-Zhiroflya"] by the Moscow Chamber Theater.
As for his set designs for S. S. Prokofiev's ballet "The Steel Gallop", which
was presented by Diaghilev in Paris on 7 June 1927, the international success
of this show, which was devoted to glorification of Soviet reality, was a
source of true joy for Yakulov. In his article entitled "In Memory of A Great
Artist and Human Being,” which was published at the beginning of January
1929, A. V. Lunacharskiy wrote of Yakulov: "I recall his boundless joy when
his staging of ‘The Steel Gallop' in Paris was crowned with success. The
deceased himself regarded this play as a stylized apotheosis of the new
Russia."
In Paris the Lobanovs have been able to acquire a number of theatrical works
by Yakulov, including some from the show mentioned above.
Here I have mentioned only a few of the artists whose works comprise the
Lobanovs' collection. As was noted above, they have assembled works by 110
Russian theater designers who did their creative work during the first three
decades of this century.
61
IV
I will now list all the exhibitions abroad at which works by theater artists
included in the Lobanov collection have been displayed, nor will I mention all
the catalogues in which those exhibitions have been described, I will merely
note that in some years there have been 15 such exhibits in foreign cities,
and eight such catalogues. However, I would like to examine in detail the
latest catalogue, which gave reproductions of 280 of the best set and costume
sketches of the total of 900 works in the Lobanov collection; well-isnown art
historian John [Bolt] added very informative facts about each of them and
about their authors.
This well-designed catalogue/album was published by the Mississippi Art
Museum, where the exhibit was on display from 18 June through 29 August 1982.
On the reverse of the title page is a note that the same exhibit would be on
display from 13 December 1982 through 25 February 1983 at the Art Museum of
the City [sic] of Wisconsin, from 1 July through 7 August 1983 at the Phoenix
City Art Museum, during the winter of 1983/84 in New York, and from 3 June
through 29 July 1984 at the University Art Gallery in the city of Austin.
All this and many other facts eloquently bespeak the fact that from the time
of Diaghilev right up to the present day there has been tremendous interest
around the world in the work of theaterical artists from our country.
Judging by the catalogue published by the Mississippi Museum of Art in
connection with the exhibit of works by Russian theatrical artists in the
Lobanov collection, that exhibit included works by all of the very best
masters of set design at the turn of the century and during the first three
decades of the 20th century. These are Bakst, Aleksandr and Nikolay Benois,
Bilibin, Vrubel, Dobuzhinskiy, Golovin, Goncharova, Boris Girgoryev,
Konstantin K.: ovin, Kustodiyev, Lansere, Larionov, Lentulov, Lisitskiy,
Malevich, Yelena Polenova, Rerikh, Sapunov, Serebryakova, Valentin Serov,
Somov, Stelletskiy, Sudeykin, Tatlin, Chekhonin, Chagall, Shukhayev, Yuon,
Aleksandr Yakovlev, Yakulov... The exhibit included many masterpieces of
theatrical art, and on the whole the items displayed by the Lobanovs at that
exhibit were a broad reflection of the development of our school of set design
during the period in question.
N. D. Lobanov, speaking with the above-mentioned art historian John [Bolt],
said, referring to one of the objectives of his collecting: ",...the goal in
acquiring these works was to popularize the creative work of Russian
theatrical artists outside the Soviet Union. It seems to me that I have
achieved this goal: since the exhibits which I put on in 1966 at the New York
Harkness House Gallery and one year later at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
not a year has gone by without exhibits of works from our collection in some
museum or otner in the United States, Canada or Western Europe. Therefore I
fer:l that tiie goal of popularizing Russian painting has been achieved."
We are happy to note this patriotic tendency in the collecting of Nikita and
Nina Lobanov. Nikita Dmitriyevich's reply wher he received from us the first
volume of the two-volume "Sergey Dyagilev i russkoye iskusstvo" [Sergey
62
Diaghilev and Russian Art], which was written by V. A. Samkov and myself,
testifies to their love for the cultural heritage of their people: "You and
your coauthor V. A. Samkov have done a tremendous job publishing this book
about Diaghilev, with voluminous footnotes. I am reading them along with the
text and am discovering so much which is new and interesting. I am
impatiently awaiting the second volume." In the first volume we quoted a
letter from S. P. Diaghilev to the composer Rimsky-Korsakov, written in 1907:
"Remember us, “these little ones', for whom the question of Russian cultural
triumphs is a matter of life itself." In the same letter to me, Lobanov
applied Diaghilev's words to himself: "Yes, I would be happy if the
inscription on my grave were to read: “Remember us, “these little ones', for
whom the question of Russian cultural triumphs is a matter of life itself."
I am happy to report that N. D. Lobanov has reacted very positively to the
Personal Collections Museum which has been established in connection with the
State Museum of Fine Arts. And I have no doubt that at least one gallery in
this museum will be filled with works of Russian theatrical artists from the
collection of Nikita and Nina Lobanov.
Referring to the works by Russian masters of the fine arts which have been
found abroad, Andrey Voznesenskiy wrote: "I have been to auctions and
exhibits, and have seen Somov and Borovikovskiy in private collections. Why
not send out an appeal and organize in Moscow an exhibition of masterpieces of
our art which are now abroad?"
How happy we would all be to see in Moscow that cf which Andrey Voznesenskiy
was speaking! And I daresay that first of all we should organize an
exhibition here of the theater art in the collection of Nikita and Nina
Lobanov. An exhibition of their collection would mo doubt evoke considerable
interest. Our innumerable admirers of the creative achievements of Russian
theatrical artists would say a great word of thanks to the USSR Ministry of
Culture for helping arrange such an exhibition as soon as possible.
COPYRIGHT: Izdatelstvo "Pravda", "Ogonek", 1986
12825
CSO: 1800/29
63
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
CULTURE
SEVEN EXPERIMENTAL STUDIO-THEATERS OPENING IN MOSCOW
Moscow IZVESTIYA in Russian 9 Oct 86 p 3
[Interview with V. Shadrin, director of the Central Administration of Culture
of the Mossovet Ispolkom, by N. Kishchik: "The Capital's New Theaters;" date
and place of interview not specified]
[Text] An undoubtedly unprecedented event has occurred in Moscow:
seven new studio-theaters are opening here virtually simultaneously.
An IZVESTIYA correspondent met with V. Shadrin, director of the
Central Administration of Culture of the Mossovet Ispolkonm.
iQuestion] Valeriy Ivanovich, this good news has already gone beyond the
planning stage...
[Answer] You are anticipating events somewhat. Right now in the Mossovet
we are only in the process of drawing up documents for officially approving
all seven groups.
[Question] Then, tell us, what kind of groups are these?
[Answer] Strictly speaking, these groups are already known to Moscovites.
Oieg Tabakov's studio needs no introduction. For many years this studio
sought a place for itself in the theatrical world, it did interesting,
thoughtful work. And now the issue is being decided by transforming it into a
stuido-theater. The troupe was formed on the basis of two performances
directed by Tabakov at the GITIS [State Order of the Red Banner of Labor
Theatrical Institute imeni A.V. Lunacharskiy] and contains 25 people in all.
[Question] Where will the theater be located?
[Answer] Right where it is now, on Chaplygin Strees in the basement of the
Club imeni Krenkel. We will make the first floor a cloakroom, foyer, and
refreshment counter. This will be the way things are at first. We are
thinking about ways of further expanding their "territory..." We expect the
theater to open for business on 1 January.
64
(Question] What will the economic status of the theater be?
[Answer] Like any ordinary theater with a state subsidy. On this same basis,
we also want to create an experimental young people's studio-theater under the
direction of Svetlana Vragovaya. Its "backbone" will be graduates of the
course taught by people's artist Mikhail Ivanovich Tsarev. This course caught
people's interest by their production of "House" by Ahramov. For this studio,
we are completing the conversion of the former B--manskiy Rayon Pioneers
Palace on Spartakovskiy Square. The building will house two halls, one
seating 450 and the other 200. There will also be rehearsal rooms. The
troupe will contain 28-30 people. However, the theater's repertory has not yet
been developed. It will probably not operate at full strength until next
season.
And the third will be an experimental theater-studio under the direction of
Anatoliy Vasilyev. The troupe of this new theater will consist of a group of
like-minded artists which had already formed during the period when Vasilyev
was working on such plays as "Grown Daughter of a Young Man," "Solo for
Striking Clock," and a number of others. It will include well-known actors,
such as Filozov, Grebenshchikov, and Petrenko... At present the theater
rehearses in facilities on Vorovskiy street... We want to assign to it the
"Little Riding-Hall" built in 1830. This troupe will also be small, 20-25
people. But it will have its own particular arrangement, the orincipal
actors will work mainly on contract, and additional people needed [for a
performance] will be recruited from other theaters. When the repertory is
developed, it is possible that this troupe will acquire a constant membership.
[Question] After all is said and done, when will the three new troupes show
up on the playbills, at the beginning of the year or a little bit later?
[Answer } That depends on many factors. There are still problems which have
not been resolved, including financial ones. The situation with facilities,
repair, and conversion are also not all that simple...
[Question] At the start of our conversation, you cited the number seven...
lAnswer] Yes, there are four more studio-theaters being prepared for opening.
And here the occasion is truly special. They are going to be self-supporting.
They will belong to an experimental self-supporting association called "Echo."
And they will pay their own way entirely. They will have their own account at
the bank, and, as they say, they will be accountable only to themselves, they
will have their own "book-keeping" system too.
They also are similar in that they will include both professionals and
"amateurs." But everyone will have their wages set by a state board. The
artists will be given permission to practice more than one profession. This
is beneficial because in these theaters the essentiai work can be performed by
a smaller number of people. And all the expenses -- the rent for facilities,
payment for electricity, and payment of wages -- will be taken out of the
money they receive for the plays.
65
For the time being, the duration of the experiment with these studio-theaters
has been set as two years.
Well, now I will list them in order. The studio-theater under the direction
of Mark Rozovskiy, which has already been in existence for 4 years, includes
50 people. This company has its own original repertory. For the time being
it operates out of the Central House of Culture for medical workers. In the
future this studio will occupy the second floor of the "Second Run Film"
cinema. While this building is being reconstructed, they will be given a hall
in the "Swan" cooperative on Leningradskiy Prospect.
The studio-theater directed by Sergey Kurginyan. This company has won prizes
aS @any competitions and festivals. It has been in operation for 15 years.
It puts on approximately 120 performances a year. Its repertory includes
"Shore" by Bondarev, compositions based on works by Pushkin, Chekhov, and
Gogol, and "I'm Waiting for Trouble" by Shukshin...
The studio-theater directed by Mikhail Shchepenko. This studio is also over
10 years old. Five years ago it was accorded the title of people's theater.
Much has already been written about this company. It is known as the Chekhov
Street studio-theater.
The last studio-theater is under the direction of Vyacheslav Spesivtsev. This
studio was established in 1983 at the House of Culture of the steel and alloy
institute. Forty people are involved in the performances here.
[Question] What benefits do you anticipate from the appearance of these new
theater's?
[Answer] First of all, our theaters will grow "younger." The repertory will
expand. The appearance of new energetic young companies will, without a
doubt, infuse new vitality into the life of the theater. A note of
competitiveness will also be introduced. We ourselves will watch with
interest, at the progress of the "Echo" association experiment from an
economic stam 'point. We have agreed that either the new theaters will swia,
as they say, or they will sink. I repeat: they will be completely self-
suppu. “ing, with no subsidies. They will have one source of revenue -- the
proceeds from their performances.
[Question] But won't this make ticket prices go up?
{Answer} No, the prices will remain the same.
[Question] This is a major undertaking -- seven theaters at the same time.
But, as we all know, Moscow has many other studios. What are their future
prospects?
[Answer] What I have just told you is the first step. Even so, I have not
named two theaters which opened very recently and added their names to the
Moscow playbill. They have facilities at the Moscow Concert Hal’. These are
Ekaterina Elanskaya's “Sphere” studio-theater and the Jewish Dramatic Theater
under the direction of Yakov Gubenko.
66
And what will happen next? First let us see how our studios “hold out." An
experiment is an experiment... In addition, we have our eye on the musical
Studio-theater directed by Valentina Tolkunova, and Oleg Leshchiner's company,
and the eurythmic [plasticheskiy] drama ensemble under the direction of
Gedryus Matskyavichyus is also attracting attention... But let us not get too
far ahead of events.
9285
CSO: 1800/7!
67
JPRS-UPS- 86-058
3 December 1986
CULTURE
BULGAKOV'S WRITING IN EMIGRATION, SUPPORT FOR NEP DESCRIBED
Moscow ZHURNALIST in Russian No 9, September 1986 features on pages 74-76 an
article on Mikhail Bulgakov’s work in emigration as a correspondent for a
Berlin newspaper, NAKANUNYE, a paper which, according to the article,
expressed “the thoughts and expectations of the left wing of Russian
emigration and played no small role in the correct orientation and return of a
significant number of emigrants to the motherland.” The article describes and
quotes from numerous sketches, feuilletons, and articles written by Bulgakov
from 1921-1924. The last half page of the article is devoted to his work
during the transition from war communism to the New Economic Policy and
concludes with the following quote:
“—— It seems Moscow is resounding [with activity], I [Bulgakov] said
uncertainly, leaning over the rail.
— That's NEP — my companion replied.
-—— Forget that cursed word! I answered, That's not NEP at all, that's life
itself. Moscow is beginning to live.”
/12913
CSO: 1800/045
68
86-058
JPRS-UPS-
December 1986
3
Moscow MOSCOW NEWS in English No 41 Oct 19-26, 86 p 16
GUMILEV'S DISCIPLE DESCRIBED LIVING IN PARIS
[Article by Anna Kolonitskaya]
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69
1812/13
/9274
cso:
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
CULTURE
IMPROPER RESTORATION OF HISTORIC STRUCTURES DECRIED
Moscow IZVESTIYA in Russian 13 Aug 86 p 3
(Article by G. Ivanova, Deputy Director for Scientific Work, Kirillovo-
Belozersk Historical-Architectural and Artistic Museum-Preserve, and Ye.
Strelnikova, senior scientific associate of a branch of the Museum of Frescoes
of Dionysius (Ferapontovo Monastery), under rubric "Problem": "Is This Kind of
Restoration Necessary?" ]
[Text] In IZVESTIYA (No. 149) we read the article "How Is Dionysius Getting
Along?", with comments by Academician D. S. Likhachev. We would like to share
our thoughts with regard to that article.
It is painful to see monuments of ancient culture being destroyed with no one
lifting a finger to preserve them because there are not enough funds, but it
is doubly painful if the desecration or the destruction of those monuments is
helped by the restorers themselves.
Not only the Preobrazhenskaya Church in Kizhi and the Solovetskiy Monastery
have proved to be in a tragic situation at the fault of restorers. The loss
of 20 monuments in Kalinin Oblast has become widely known. Similar examples
could be cited for almost any oblast. We shall consider the example of our
Kirillovo-Belozersk Historical-Architectural and Artistic Museum-Preserve, the
makeup of which includes structures that are known throughout the world -- the
Kirillovo-Belozersk, Ferapontovo, and Goritskiy monasteries and the complex of
monuments in the city of Belozersk.
Of the 26 monuments to which the restorers have "lifted a finger," during the
past 15 years the museum has accepted only three, and even those were accepted
with documents attesting to unfinished areas of work which have not been
completed to this day. During 1981-1985 alone, more than 1.5 million rubles
were expended, but even the restored items that were recently turned over
require major repair. And whereas 15 years ago the tour guides, responding to
tourist questions about the deadlines for the final completion of the work,
boldly mentioned the year 1995, at the present time no one is bold enough to
make any forecasts.
The optimism has subsided, and, indeed, where could optimism come from if not
a single item has been turned over by the planned deadlines? If, for example,
70
cracks have begun to appear along the the walls of the Povarnya (turned out in
1982), the ancient jambs are falling down, the floors have rotted, and the
cement paving has separated from the wall and has deformed. Nor is the
situation any better with the !o0th-century Church of the Transfiguration
(handed over in 1983), where a water drainage system was so "skillfully" built
that the water flows unimpeded down the south and north facades, where little
is left of the puttying and whitewashing, the ground floor is piled high with
trash, and the church itself looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. when was
that process begun, how long will it last and will it lead to the collapse of
the monument? At the present time there is practically no one who is in a
position to answer these questions.
The restoration cannot be done within the planned deadlines, but is it
possible that it can be done within the estimated costs? Unfortunately, one
cannot say that either. There has not been a single restoration item for
which additional funds, and rather considerable funds at that, have been
allocated. And how can one expect that work to be done within the estimated
costs if, for example, the windows for the Bolnichnyye Chambers at Kirillovo
and for the cathedral in Ferepontovo have been manufactured three times! The
third time, at the Church of Yevfimiy, a scaffold was installed only for the
purpose of channeling the water from the roof along the wall, but bypassing
it. A scaffold was installed twice, simply for whitewashing in the Church of
Ioann Lestvichnik...
Currently the restorers are unambigously hinting about the turning over of the
Large Bolnichnyye Chambers, where the work has been in progress since the mid-
1960"°s, and the museum associates are agonizingly thinking about how to hold
an exhibition there if the water is as high as the level of the paving.
A structure that has proved to be in completely catastrophic condition is the
18th-century wooden [linskaya Church, which is 1.5 kilometers from
Ferapontovo. The scaffold around it was installed about 12 years ago, but the
restorers have not even managed to replace the roof, and the haif-ruined upper
octohedrons are hanging on the inside scaffolding.
Why has all this become possibile? Apparently it is because no one is
seriously monitoring the rate of restoration, the expenditure of money, or the
issuance of the documentation for the planned restoration. No one bears the
material responsibility for the poor quality or for failing to meet the
deadlines. A paradoxical situation has developed: the museum, which has the
greatest self-interest in the final result, haa proved to be outside of the
financial interrelations involving the restoration. The customer is the
Vologda Administration of Culture, and the entire monitoring can be summarized
by stating that a representative of the production group, once a month for an
hour or two, drives out to look at the restoration projects and scribbles his
authorization for definite percentages of work completed. True, the museum
director is also invited to participate in this operation, but neither the
presence or absence of his signature can delay the payment for the completed
work that does not satisfy the museum.
The restoration sector in Kirillovo has been staffed with some of the
specialists: carpenters, masons, and roofers, but the persons who carry out
71
the cabinet-making and metal-working operations and the plans for the
engineering systems are in Vologda. But this would not be too bad if the
specialists who are needed at a particular moment could show up after the
first call and be visible, rather than simply looking at the blueprints to see
the items for which the work orders are being executed. The "bad" aspect of
ancient architecture is that it never had a standard. It is completely
obvious that the lines of frames that have been manufactured with the use of a
ruler will not coincide with the unique shapes of each aperture.
The fate of a monument sometimes depends on whether or not it will be "lucky"
with the leading architect, on how much he will like your project among 4
the others thai are under his care. It is regrettable to admit also that
everything is not well with the scientific substantiation of the planning of
restoration operations. When you leaf through a volume with research,
Grawings, and numerous photographs published by the Spetsproyektrestavratsiya
Institute or the Soyuzrestavratsiya shops, they seem to be convincing. Why,
then, when the scaffolding is erected, does one observe a weakness in the
preparatory operations and why do the "discoveries" begin when the operations
are already in progress?
It also happens that the operations themselves begin long before the approval
of the plan at the restoration council. For two years the workers at the
Kirillovo sector have been building foundations and installing concrete
floorings in the Arkhimandrichye building at Kirillovo, but the plan has not
yet bveen approved.
It can be noted that things go better wherever the only fully valid boss is
the museum, which is capable not only of promptly planning the necessary
operations but also of coordinating their implementation. For this purpose
the museum table of organiz tion must include an operational group and a
department in that group which directs the architecture and restoration.
Incidentally, this kind of department has been stipulated in the structure of
our museum-preserve, but the RSFSR Ministry of Culture has not allocated the
dDiliets.
Until the present moment this group of buildings of world importance, which
have been museums for more than 60 years, does not have any restricted areas,
and it is difficult to say whether any plans for them will see the light of
day soon. No one is concerned about the problem of the equipment operating on
the territory of the preserve. Powerful trucks pulling trailers loaded with
building material crawl along, shaking the towers and walls, or tear off the
facings of the gateway columns, or sometimes even the columns themselves, and
knock off the angles and the frames.
A task that has proven to be completely unresolvable is the task of using
standard-equipment metal scaffolding in the restoration. The metal design is
convenient, but what use is it to the restorers who have become accustomed to
executing the plans with expensive wooden scaffolding?
Something that causes special alarm is the application of modern materiais in
the monuments. First, as a rule, all of them are of pour quality -- the wood
is raw, the brick is poorly baked and is of the wrong size, and the lime used
/2
in the puttying and whitewashing is aimost unslaked. Secondly, such a
material as cement frequently contributes to the destruction of the monument.
Sixty years ago a special commission gave its findings concerning the
destructive action of the cement that had been used by the first restorers in
the monuments of Ferapontovo. Mildew had begun to appear on the frescoes in
places where the cracks had been filled with cement mortar. And now we are
returning to what we were forced by sad experience to reject. Cement in
modern restoration has become the basic bonding material, and is used to make
injections, pavings, and even floors, as, for example, in the 17th-century
Cathedral of the Transfiguration in the ity of Belozersk. The pile
foundations are being replaced everywhere by cement. It would seem that this
is a field for the aggressive, uncompromising activity of the architects,
engineers, and other specialists. But, as arule, they are completely
satisfied with the situation that has been created.
And what kind of serious monitoring of the carrying out of the restoration
plans can there be if the leading architect shows up at the site only
episodically and chiefly during the summertime? An entry in the architectural
inspection log does not guarantee anything and is frequently interpreted by
the executors of the operations as an expression of well-wishing. Even the
presence of the architect does not spare the monument for "random occurrences"
such as the one that occurred with the 19th-century mural in the
Arkhimandrichye cells in Kirillovo, when it “accidentally” proved to be
removed together with the plastering.
The peculiarities of the monuments are studied little, the ventilation systems
at many of them have not been researched, the work carried out by previous
specialists is disregarded, and the directions being taken in the research are
not coordinated. The impression is created that the restoration, which
presupposes long-range planning and scientific forecasting, is carried out on
a day-by-day basis, without any concern for the future.
Recently the press has begun to issue warnings more and more frequently about
the monuments of history and culture and people have begun to sense more and
more deeply the need to show concern for that to which no attention is still
being paid. And among the recommendations one begins to hear more and more
frequently that which comes into people's heads first of all: if there are not
enough funds, then it is necess*ry to increase the appropriations for
restoration. The recently created culture fund has indeed been called upon to
serve this apparently good cause.
However, as we are convinced, in by no means all situations does an increase
in the quantity of expended money determine the result. Money needs a good
manager. One cannot simply increase the expenditure. It is also necessary to
be more efficient in expending the funds. Even now, not all the restoration
sectors have been using all the amounts of money allocated to them. It is
necessary to think about the reorganization of the entire practice of
restoration operations which has developed and which has failed to prove its
worth, and to eliminate the excessive number of administrative levels and
intermediacy, the lack of monitoring, and impunity. It is necessary to
establish firmly: if the restorers cannot give long-term guarantees, they
should not be allowed to begin operations.
It is easy to say "Stop the restoration," but the restoration is so necessary
for the monuments that we await it impatiently. What paths exist for
temporarily maintaining the monuments in order? Repair operations. That's
right, repair. Restorers are afraid of that word. And yet, at the beginning
of the twentieth century, that is exactly what the specialists called their
work, not considering that work to be worthy of the high title of architect.
As long as the agonizing reorganization in the restoration system goes on, it
is precisely by this method that we can preserve the monuments.
Otherwise, is this kind of restoration necessary?
5075
CSO: 1800/585
74
JPRS-UPS- 86-058
5 December 1986
CULTURE
KAZAKH MUSEUM DISPLAYS EXPLAINED ONLY IN RUSSIAN
[Editorial Report] Alma-Ata QAZAQ ADEBIYETI in Kazakh on 11 July 1986 car-
ries on page 10 a 1,600-word article by museum worker Otegen Abdiramanov,
published under the rubric "Questions To Look Into," titled “Overrushed or
Hasty?" The article looks at the many museums of the KaSSR, which has in
fact become known as a museum republic since it is far better provided with
museums than most other Soviet republics. Abdiramanov, however, while by and
large praising the republic achievements in this area, also notes many "defi-
ciencies".
For example, Abdiramanov criticizes the lack of attention in many republic
museums to the traditional, prerevolutionary past of the Kazakhs, the lack
of explanatory texts in Kazakh (most exhibit texts are in Russian only) to
accompany displays, and the failure to provide Kazakh-language museum tours.
Abdiramanov also criticizes the hastiness with which some exhibits have been
assembled, the failure on the part of some museum personnel to understand
the difference between historical and monetary value, and the frivolousness
of some materials chosen for exhibits (e.g., in one case a poet's death
certificate--"is this to prove that he is actually dead?" Abdiramanov asks--
and passport). The author also criticizes the poor facilities of some museums,
something, he suggests, which makes it difficult for them to be museums at
all. /6662
CsO: 1830/127
75
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
SOCIAL ISSUES
KRAVTSOV TOUCHES ON KEY ISSUES FACING JUSTICE MINISTRY
Moscow SOTSIALISTICHESKAYA ZAKONNOST in Russian No 6, Jun 86 (signed to press
20 May &6), pp 7-12
[Article by B. Kravtsov, USSR minister of justice: "To Strengthen the Legal
Basis of State and Social Life"]
[Text] The 27th CPSU Congress passed in a qualitatively new situation and at
a drastic turning point in the life of the country and the contemporary world
as a whole. In the presence of the general progressive movement of Soviet so-
ciety, serious negative trends in the economy of the country were noted in the
1970's and increased more and more with every year before the beginning of the
1980's. There was an appreciable decline in the growth rates of labor produc-
tivity, there was a slowdown in scientific-technical progress, there appeared
disproportions in the economy, and sccial measures mapped out for realization
were not fully implemented.
ln all candor it was noted at the congress: The main reason for the lag was
the fact that a political assessment of the change in the situation was not
given in time, the whole acuteness and the urgency of the transition of the
economy to intensive methods of development were not realized, and persistence
and consistence were not manifested in the solution of the questions that had
become critical with respect to the reorganizaticn of economic policy, the
economic mechanism, and the very psychology of economic activity.
From the past omissions and mistakes, the proper conclusions have been drawn
and lessons have been learned. The basic directions of economic and social po-
licy have been determined and outlined. The tasks that have been set by the
congress require the active participation, in their realization, of the workers
of the organs and institutions of justice, the courts, and the other law en-
forcement organs. "Resting on the support of the labor ccllectives, the public
organizations, and all workers, the state organs are obligated to do everything
necessary to secure the safety of socialist property, the protection of per-
sonal property, and the honor and dignity of the citizens, to conduct a reso-
lute struggle against crime, drunkenness and alcoholism, to prevent all law
infringements, and to eliminate the reasons giving rise to them," it is stated
in the new edition of the CPS Program.
Complex tasks confront the workers of the ministries of justice. One of them
is the development and enrichmerit of the legislation which regulates the most
75
important aspects of the life of society. Soviet legislation is called upon
to promote the positive tendencies in the development of the economy to the
maximum degree and to reflect in good time the changes that are taking place
here. During the past years, quite a lot of work has been done in regerd to
its improvement. The preparation of the Code of Laws of the USSR has been
fully completed. Of the 1,400 acts included in the Code, 158 were prepared
anew or were set forth in a new edition. More than 1,500 obsolete acts were
recognized as having lost force fully or in part. With the direct participa-
tion of the USSR Ministry of Justice, more than 800 drafts of normative acts
were prepared during the past 5 years. During the 12th Five-Year Plan, the
volume of bill-drafting work is increasing significantly. This pertains to
the improvement of the management of the national economy, the reorganization
of the economic mechanism, and the more precise demarcation of the functions
of the central organs of management and the subordinated links.
In the Political Report of the CPSU Central Committee to the congress, the ne-
cessity of increasing the quality of Soviet laws was noted. The improvement
of the entire bill-drafting work, without a doubt, will be aided by the Sta-
tute on the Procedure for the Preparation of Drafts of Legislative Acts of the
USSR, which will be adopted soon. To give a methodical basis to bill-drafting
work is one of the paramount tasks for us today.
To secure the acceleration of the socio-economic development of the country re-
quires cardinal improvement of economic legislation and radical reshaping of
the normative acts that regulate the powers of ministri«ts, state committees,
enterprises, and production and scientific-production associations. The legis-
lative acts that are being developed on discoveries and inventions, rationali-
zation proposals and industrial models, on the quality of production, and
others, will become an effective means of accelerating scientific-technical
progress.
What is needed is the normative-legal guarantee of the realization of the so-
cial program, the further democratization of Soviet society, and the extension
of socialist self-government of the peorle. Among the normative documents that
will have to be elaborated are the USSR Law on the Procedure for Nationwide
Discussion and Voting on the Most Important Questions of Life ‘Referendum) ;
acts aimed at increasing the role and strengthening the responsibility of the
Soviets for the acceleration of socio-economic development. The questions con-
nected with the regulation of individual labor activity and the intensification
of the struggle against unearned income must also be solved legislatively. In
the near future, we intend to complete the preparation of the law which real-
izes Article 58 of the Constitution of the USSR--the Law on the Procedure for
Appealing to Court Against Illegal Acts by Officials Infringing on the Rights
of Citizens. Ahead lies a great deal of work in regard to the improvement of
labor, housing, marriage and family legislation, legislz*ion on taxes and edu-
cation. Acts will also be elaborated that guarantee the full realization of
all provisions of the Law of the USSR on Labor Collectives.
The proposals concerning the expansion of the authority of the very organs of
justice deserve attention--the allotment to them, in particular, of the right
of control over the state of legal work in the sectors of the national economy
and the organization of the activity of the legal services. In so doing, we
77
need to stipulate also the obligation of the economic managers to examine the
recommendations of the organs of justice within certain time periods and tc
inform them about the measures that have been taken. It has become urgently
necessary to review the legal position of the legal services of enterprises,
organizations, and ispolkoms. The legal adviser must be given the kind of
authority that willmake it possible for him to become the assistant of the
manager in the organization of legal work. The ministries and departments of
justice, in carrying out the methodical guidance of legal work in the national
economy, do not have the right to this cut of touch with the effective state
of legality in economic relations in one sector or another, in a concrete en-
terprise, in a sovkhoz or kolkhoz.
The study of the state of legal work should be conducted for the purpose of
securing the real influence of the legal service on the actual state of af-
fairs with respect to legality in economic relations. Methodological recom-
mendations of the organs of justice and measures in regard to increasing the
skills and professional mastery of the legal advisers must also serve the in-
crease in the effectiveness of its activity.
Not only the struggle against negative phenomena, but also the active improve-
ment of the administration, the increase of the quality of production, the
strengthening of labor and contract discipline, ana the elimination of obsta-
cles in such important a matter as the introduction of scientific-technical
progress, is becoming a vital undertaking of the legal service. At the present
time, with a view to the effective introduction of scientific-technical achieve-
ments in production, organizational measures are being taken. For example, 176
scientific-technical associations have been created for this in machine build-
ing. To help to bring about good organization of the legal work and the activ-
ity of the legal service here--is the task of the organs of justice.
In getting acquainted with the state of legal services and the activity of the
legal advisers, the organs of justice are obligated also to examine thoroughly
at the local level how thincs stand with contract discipline, to expose the
reasons for violations, anc to extend necessary assistance to the legal ser-
vice. The organization of legal work in the system of the USSR State Agroin-
dustrial Committ. > must occupy a special place in the activity of the organs
of justice. In so doing, unremitting attention must be devoted to the legal
questions of the management of agricultural production, tne guarantee of the
safety of socialist property, the prevention of losses of agricultural prod-
ucts in the various stages of their production, storage and sale, and the re-
imbursement of material losses. We will extend every conceivable assistance
to the USSR State Agroindustrial Committee in the strengthening of the legal
service and its organs.
As is well known, the central place in the activity of the organs of justice
is occupied by questions of strengthening socialist legality, the protection
of the rights and legal interests of state, cooperative, and public organiza-
tions and citizens, the participation, with other organs, in the struggle
against crime, and the elimination of the reasons and conditions that are con-
ducive to the perpetration of law violations. The basic form of the work of
the organs of justice in the realization of these tasks is to secure organiza-
tional guidance by the courts and every conceivable assistance in the realiza-
tion of the goals of justice by them.
78
During the last few years the quality of the examination of criminal and civil
cases has somewhat increased and there has been a reduction in the time periods
required for this. The courts are approaching the designation of punishment
with more differentiation. While continuing to apply strict measures of pun-
ishment to persons who have committed grave crimes and to recidivists, the
courts have begun to designate more measures of punishment which do not entail
deprivation of freedom. Such sentences are pronounced with respect to persons
who have committed crimes that do not represent great public danger, who have
shown remorse and who can be corrected without isolation from society. In the
structure of the use of punishments, the proportion of corrective labor and
penalties is growing. During the past year there has been an appreciable ac-
tivization in the work of the courts and the organs of justice aimed at the
decisive eradication of drunkenness. To a certain extent, the preventive work
of the courts has become more active. There has been an increase in the number
and effectiveness of interlocutory orders aimed at the elimination of the rea-
sons anc conditions that promote the perpetration of law violations. We have
begun to give greater attention to the organization and carrying out of trials
in out-of-town sessions. Material damage inflicted by crime and other law vio-
lations have begun to be compensated more fully. However, all this must not ap-
pease anyone. While there has been some reduction in the number of grave crimes
against the individual, an increase in the number of mercenary crimes--misappro-
priations, speculation, and bribe-taking--in some regions has taken place.
How attain a radical improvement of the work of the courts? The overwhelming
majority of civil and criminal cases are examined by the people's courts.
Practically all the work in regard to the control of the execution of sentences
and rulings is concentrated here. Every year, millions of citizens encounter
the activity of the people's courts. On the basis of the attitude of their
workers--from secretary to chairman of the court--toward their work, people in
our country judge about justice in the state. Of course, the people's courts
are not institutions called upon to bring people sheer joy and pleasure. Here
daily, at times rigorous, work is going on in regard to the establishment of
truth. All the more so it must be conducted with the maximum degree of objec-
tivity, with identical attention to all who take part in it, calmly and with
high standards. But some people's courts forget the Leninist proposition to
the effect that the people's court cannot be simply "an official institution",
where “they apply the corresponding articles of the Penal Code to individual
cases. ..," that the court is a state and public institution, in which all
work must be conaucted for the purpose of “exposing thoroughly and bringing to
public light all the social and political threads of the crime and its signifi-
cance, and drawing lessons of public morals and practical politics from the
trial." [Footnote 1] [V. I. Lenin, "Poln. sobr. soch." [Complete Collected
Works], Vol. 4, pp 407-408).
Biased rulings in regard to any cases are absolutely intolerable. All the more
inadmissible even isolated cases of the unjustified conviction of citizens.
Such cases are receiving a sharp and fundamental assessment. For gross viola-
tions of the law, involving the conviction of innocent people, the chairman of
the Judicial Division for Criminal Cases of the Saratov Oblast Court, Teplov,
the member of the same oblast court, Druzin, and the member of the Tashkent Ob-
last Court, Rasulov, were recalled ahead of schedule. Not long ago, at a ses-
sion of the collegium of the USSR Ministry of Justice, the question of the erad-
ication of violations of that sort in the activity of the courts was examined.
79
,
-
>
+
y
,
»~ ¢
;
y
;
>
rv
¥
—
mmended to the administrators of the organs of isti ind to the
t! supreme Courts of the union republi t ntroduce, for review
linated nferences of the law enforcement organs, nt proposals
ne prevention of unjustified institution of criminal pr lings and
f citizens.
ry to make more active use, in trials, of sound-: rding and re-
: Juipment and other scientific-technical means, which will make it
to improve the organizational aspect of the pr sses and substantial-
t time required for the examination of cases. ich experience of
m rt. of the Georgian SSR deserves dissemination.
expedient to grant urts the right to apply sanctions (penal-
ning fficials who do not carry out their orders. We must solve
n of material labor incentives of officers of the law for good work
) t mpensation of damage inflicted through mercenary crimes.
t achieve a sudstantial increase in the quality of work in regard
neralization of judicial practice. The USSR Ministry of Justice car-
juit i number of such generalizations, but their level is frequently
rh. We perceive qualitative changes in this work ir eing to it
renera ations, as a rule, are planned, ar: wer i it jointly wit
ind with the active participation of scholars.
r improvement of the work of the legal profession is of r small im-
: nt increase the professional level, r entiousness,
idherer principles, and persistence of the lawyer n Ziving as-
t ns is a dictate of the time. Every layer must understand
not only a defender of the law, but also a public figure, fully re-
for the proper execution of obligations. In accordance with the In-
rogram for the Production of Consumer Gocds and the Services Sphere
years 1986-2000, the further increase of the volume of services to the
non the part of lawyers is envisaged in the 12th Five-Year Plan.
f the legal profession is the increase, by every conceivable means,
lality of the assistance being given to the population and small enter-
attention must be given to the improvement of the organi-
f the work of the legal advice offices, first of all to the establish-
a routine of work that is most convenient for the population and which
the diversion of production. It is necessary to practice
workers from
egal assistance directly in the labor collec-
at the place of residence.
there has been an appreciable expansion in the notary services to the
n n 1985, approximately 24 million notary actions were completed,
significantly more thaninthe past years. And nevertheless, in
ity of the notary offices there are substantial defects. The possi-
f the notary's office for strengthening the legality of economix
ure far from being fully utilized. in the structure of operations of
‘fice: ne certification of the correctness of copies of documents
organs of justice do not show initiative in putting ques-
for the receipt
shown by
re-
nomic managers concerning turning to notary offices
ive endorsements
for penalties for arrears. This is what was
~9 ~ . > . . > . v > i. ~ > ™ ru tw . vr @ ¥ ™
ai B44 siusu . . nz > F- in rit a \4a A™ DIT « 4 : : - .
Varcr }-+ a *nan 7 tah rihorc had nat naid frre ear.
re | | . iG %is . OU OS s 2s i mau, LiL ~Giwu ‘
> - ~ > - T > + ~ . ++ - r+ moan ;
- y - -* ~ ~ sn : - ¥ “a
s ’ ‘ 4 rr’ (lat ai 4 2 year’. i tic ~~ 7 | 4avds f wi 2 a: .
in Tne 1Y “ff May more ‘nor } >t) “arr ene Teanan? at mer ’ ’
> = + , r) . ~
> “s . , » ‘* ’ : aii -* 2. ~* ts - Cas a s : : :
— * .
~~? a“ = 2 vr maw © hh o& . i. -~ > . ae i a - at “ > - > > . ~* over
“+ ‘a re lan ; Bai — « 2\ =a % roing aia mc ic < . Is ft . { P s
, -e.
rT nne rhe, rrS s rr “ "? 4 ~ > 193 vw Re . Tan ? ~~ ¥ r? ad =
spnere ir RMNoOuU Se. j r° mi vanuary iyoo amountec
—_ » 7 ~~ Tw ~ we senna to _ y . =i + ein = > ™ - a . ‘ 9
» + n rust itiOe aii Pl > | re . . > he) » » ua 1oOMn ~ ex 2 . s ’ ti .
~ ne ry —s 3m) _ -~ r - } cory eae ane ‘rs Af \rPoor =. o > 9 . .
24 4% IS ifiz : sV4iia > - ~~ ’ . Aiiva -i AUC i mali . “ ‘ , ‘
‘ne mot ary es ac far the re >) ryt ~? n> | anc rsemen my my"
i= ia as F kaa . . : ~ 4 ary sas 2 ; 4 ‘
Nena ’ rar tip noent ocnea cc The not ry Ft ec Be Tne . ’ rr .
» sa ai , > : ‘ as . . > sa ~ at , - 4 - +s | : . 2
~“s "> * rr . - *nse ~ avo >
A A alia ’ w re in ee Anas’ s i
~ .
“m2 rrTanc > , ‘cof + - o > a, > . > . > >» ow or
ati aii ‘ ADA ar -axingg measures in regsar it WT ‘ .
™ . 7 of
+ *< ~* hz nat > + ~~ +) ras + --¢ ; .
activ y : ins ALiONS i l¢ LVii efisvry 1ricesS, WI!
~ .
> ~——5 & ~* , ] > ro _ " - ; — y . > ro + > - ~~
i i€@£1Siati » rec tape anc Dureau aul ive y yer °
r yon vrs *oar ++ “+ nr -”“ +h + . - can o - > ~* ~~ - ~* ~ >
=" " -al ci > | ; Lnem, ri re aii z! 4 7. s t ’
r" tT ” sf the meacirs Ping t ake Wi me np ~Oy i T< sf Ds .
avi s : 402U . JO Ati ATi . " Viet s ‘ ‘ om OF | *
™ 4 no + «als no n* - ~ + lo -~ 7 aiea _ r {tne + -
—> 4 ‘ ee a” si ‘ aC in a4 Onda! 6 , itl X “Ws LEP { | 2 a _
> ace
+ *
' rro na rPecnnancih! taclc » Adoy >] Sry ; th >r ae , ‘ ;
Lal s* sis i TP OwWwViioilis ie ASAS are i —-— A ~~ ng in ne ~~" re Ti ! f
4 > ° ‘(TroQmoa > * -*ne > __- ] > : | . sf ¥ , . *>) .
ana improvement of tne methodical guidance OF work Ww} re
. >. 7 : .
= tom he nr _- —- - ledg > ‘c “ . »7 tr ‘ : . > ‘ ‘ _%
propagation of legal knowledge. It is a well-known fa
S| yy > " _- = . 5 | ~ j ~ - > - . +
‘ »— enw soal i+ +. tlv " tod ¢ th level 4 Pr
- iifie aii if Rai wy »* ams ec , re s a c * ON ne eve ‘ 4\. . ’ ‘ :
t+hno - +ie- > TrRie _ tsi +h vr +<s > _ °C woe of ao or : ™ >. ‘ 9
Lne — & © lizens. stiiwod ee wny ne part ¥ re Far is as ‘ ne : i€ ‘ i> r
_ ~ . . .
> ~ ~ * ¥ | * we . = be Tata tl > . i , + — » ” rr . ,
ne eaqucation i ne ooviet people in tne Spirit I /
. . ~ . :
la} bs | >t ~ . 4 + . tha ._+ i~ A-& + ~- " lj ~ +> ~N 45 + +, an
vit i iWwS in 4 ‘ r t} —> t an 4 ir’ ae 4 rn 1a Aw Uv ( rmUuu . i* “~
, 7~ ,
a rf tr ~ + mo + ai ian , + “~Y > + > ro As ~~“ < - 4 > + ‘ ; .
ny VioOlavion: Ll L@gaiity, anc ne reaain anG aol 5
nar? nr THe noreserva’t ~~ rT") a } tl ne wedier n r’é ent yeurur }
> as aia 4 a/ i . iv w * | ‘ - “ ALi ‘ 4 je At i J
bh > Ane ; lagal > “arin The mair +h} ea “Aneiae > 4F tne . ’
been done in iegal education. in lain thing nsists in
RE « > | _ + . - e » + >) ae 2 on + Cc * ‘
. . an i ) 2 rm ~ . = ry 2 mr ~< a a “are. ’ oo =) ’
lzational base: f this work, encompassing the differen lke 1
4 40,74 erriif ‘ + Ss AAR l in hawo ‘wat 41 anA toaectoand + r\y ‘
and A AAG er A : ne e. DU av A Ns, id ive opeen a / in 4 ani 4 — 4 ‘ J ; .
>
w
d
3
)
2
’
However, it is impossible not to see serious shortcomings as well. i!
propaganda there is quite a lot of formalism and working in spurts; the "gr
[production] approach" to the assessment cf legal education methods has not !
overcome. For a long time there has been no solution of such lLong-ago-matured
questions as the radical improvement of the legal training of leading ir .
the development of a state-wide integrated program of legal education for young
people, the increase of school hours for the study of law in all educat na
stitutions, the training of teachers of law, above all for the general educa!
schools and the vocational-technical schools, the increase of the output of
ft 1 ba f ] ,
legal
propag
literature, the strengthening of the material and methodica
anda, and the reorganization of the administration of legal education.
It is impossible to conduct the work in regard to the teaching of res! t for
the law without a well-adjusted system of legal information for the popula’ l.
xperience shows that the lack of information about legal matters on tt par!
citizens and officials lowers the preventive force of the law and is or r G
a a -+snne ans rer? ine
LUU Lis i :
reasons giving rise to numerous appeals to various in:
tions. During the past year, almost 100,000 people turned to the jourr
VEK I ZAKON, and over 110,000 to the newspaper TRUD, with a requ
*
?
81
an explanation of legal questions. Because of the lack of information about
legal matters, citizens frequently do not turn to the institutions and organi-
zations which can deal with their request. In 1985, the USSR Ministry of Jus-
tice alone received about 12,000 “misdirected” letters. One can imagine the
paper merry-go-round on a country-wide scale.
The task of the organs of justice, in coordination with other law enforcement
organs and public organizations, is to see to it that the Soviet person re-
ceives legal information where he lives and works. Positive experience of
such organization of things has been accumulated in the BSSR, the ESSR, and
the Mari ASSR, where, by decision of the party and soviet organs, active work
is being conducted in regard to general compulsory education in law for the
population. In the LiSSR, contests in legal knowledge, which have already be-
come traditional in the republic, serve the increase in legal literacy very
well.
The USSR Ministry of Justice receives quite a number of letters, whose authors
with good reason raise questions about the mandatory study of legal disciplines
in system of retraining of all categories of personnel and the introduction of
legal certification for officials, soviet and economic administrators.
We expect from the legal journals an improvement of their work with respect to
the illumination of new legislation, the demonstration of the positive experi-
ence of the work of the law enforcement organs and the legal services, as well
as the labor collectives and public organizations, in regard to the strengthen-
ing of discipline, legality, and law and order. Their pages still do not con-
tain discussions of the most important questions of legal work in the national
economy and the improvement of economic legislation. Little is being published
in the way of interesting, emotionally rich materials containing a profound
analysis of negative phenomena.
The constant task of all organs of justice is to conduct a resolute struggle
for the purity of cadres. Moreover, this is not simply a cadre problem, but a
political task, and it must be solved not as a campaign “to shake up” the
cadres. We must not propagate an atmosphere of distrust and suspiciousness.
The purity of our ranks must be achieved through the constant and p2instaking
study of cadres in the process of work and daily life. The necessary qualities
of workers in the field of justice are modesty, honesty, conscientiousness, ideo-
logical firmness, and the ability to actively put into effect the policy of the
party. Individual educational work must become an indispensable condition. In so
doing, special concern is being given to cultivation of ideological and moral
qualities. Their level and the ideological maturity of a given worker should
be judged, not by their ability to speak from a rostrum, but by their attitude
to their work, by the results of their work, and by their conduct in the
collective and outside it. Not a single worker, whatever post he occupies,
should be beyond control and criticism. In the process of all of this work,
the persons will be exposed who cannot or do not wish to live and work in the
new way, who oppose the reorganization that is taking place in our society.
The party is making special demands now on administrators of all levels and
ranks. “Every administrator," it is pointed out in the Resolution of the 27th
Congress, “must be distinguished by ideological firmness, high political cul-
ture, competence, the ability to organize collective work, to inspire people
82
with their personal example, faithfulness to principles, strong moral convic-
tions, the constant need to associate with the masses, and to live by the in-
terests and needs of the people.” The presence of these qualities should also
be verified in any promotion to executive work.
One of the key directions of our activity is the improvement of the style and
methods of administration, the development of measures aimed at increasing the
role of the legal means which the courts and the organs and institutions of
justice have at their disposal for the solution of the projected socio-economic
reforms. Ahead lies large-scale, intensive, and qualitatively new work.
COPYRIGHT: "“Sotsialisticheskaya zakonnost,” 1986.
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83
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
SOCIAL ISSUES
GROWTH OF LAWYERS’ SERVICES TO CITIZENS DISCUSSED
Moscow SOTSIALISTICHESKAYA ZAKONNOST in Russian No 6, Jun 86 (signed to press
20 May 86) pp 16-18
[Article by Ye. Sekhin, chief of the Department of Lawyers of the USSR Ministry
of Justice: “Increase the Level of the Work of the Legal Profession"]
[Text] The decisions of the 27th CPSU Congress concerning the increase in the
level of work also pertain to the legal profession. For this reason, the col-
leges of advocates and all legal advice offices must develop the necessary or-
ganizational measures for the realization of the decisions of the congress and
to secure their unconditional realization.
At the basis of the measures must be put the indicators envisaged by the Inte-
grated Program for the Development of the Production of Consumer Goods and the
Services Sphere for the Years 1986-200", which was approved by the decree of
the CPSU Central Compittee and the USSK Council of Ministers of 25 September
1985. An integral part of the Integrated Program are services of a legal
character being rendered to the population by the advocates.
The Integrated Program envisages the further increase in the level and quality
of the work of the legal advice offices, the strengthening of their material
base, and the provision of office equipment means. Special emphasis was given
to the necessity of every conceivable development of new services and the crea-
tion of conditions for the expansion of the practice of extending legal assis-
tance to citizens directly in enterprises, construction sites, kolkhozes and
sovkhozes. We will have to organize the constant study and prognosis of the
demand for legal assistance, taking into account the increasing literacy and
general culture of the population. While improving the already developed
system of free legal assistance to the population, it is necessary to harmo-
niously develop, in accordance with the needs and inquiries of the citizens,
some types of paid legal assistance.
How is one to understand the task of raisiug, to a qualititively new level,
the organization of the work of e presidia of the colleges of advocates and
legal advice offices? First of all, this signifies the well thought-out plan-
ning of the work of all links and the determination of the most promising di-
rections of organizational, methodical and professional activity. an indis-
putable rule must be the trustworthiness and objectivity of the assessment of
the results of the work and the contribution of every advocate in the execution
84
of the tasks of the Integrated Program in regard to the development of the
services sphere. The tasks that. have been set for the colleges of advocates
Gemand considerable efforts, but they are fully fulfillable.
The demand for legal assistance by citizens is constantly growing. During
the past year, the legal advice offices carried out more than 12.5 million
assignments of citizens, i. e., twice more than 10 years ago. This is an in-
dicator not only of the growth of the legal and general culture of the popula-
tion, but also of the increase in the level of work of the legal advice offices
and the quality of the professional activity of the advocates. Every year they
give citizens more than 9 million oral advisory opinions, compose more than 3
million legal documents, execute a significant volume of assignments for citi-
zens at the inquest, in courts and other organs, and introduce about 5,000 pe-
titions and proposals in regard to the prevention of violations of the law,
and conduct significant work explaining the law in labor collectives and at
the place of residence.
During the past years, quite a lot has been done to change the work routine of
the legal advice offices in the interests of the workers. Citizens can call
on advocates during non-working hours and on one of the days-off. The network
of public consultation points at the place of work and residence of people,
which are being created with the help of advocates and where legal assistance
is being offered to them free of charge, is being developed increasingly more.
However, objectively assessing the organization of the activity of the legal
profession, it must be acknowledged that there are still quite a few grounds
for concern.
The needs for legal assistance to the population, especially in remote rural
regions, are for the time being not fully satisfied by some colleges of the
RSFSR, the Belorussian, Kazakh, Azerbaijan, Moldavian, and other union repub-
lics. In some regions of country, legal advice offices have not been opened
to this day. Because of understaffing of colleges, timely and quality partici-
pation of advocates in trials, especially in civil law cases, is not guaranteed
everywhere. In a number of republics and oblasts, the network of public con-
sultation points at places of work and residence of citizens is not sufficient-
ly developed. Not isolated are cases where advocates give citizens poorly-
reasoned advice and consultation, compose legally ungrounded documents, and
have a poor command of existing legislation.
Regardless of the fact that on the whole, after the adoption of the Law on the
Legal Profession in the USSR, qualitative changes took place in the staffs of
the colleges of advocates, in many of them, especially in Kazakhstan, Kirghi-
zia, Uzbekistan, Moldavia, Azerbaijan, and Tajikistan, persons continue to
work who have compromised themselves both at their previous place of work and
in the legal profession. At times executive and labor discipline remains low.
Not everywhere has the instruction of the chiefs of consultation offices in
advanced methods of work been organized.
All of this, without a doubt, lowers the level of the professional activity of
the advocates and calls forth the justified censure of citizens. Until recent-
ly, insufficient attention, on the part of the ministries and departments of
justice, was given to the extension of real assistance to the colleges of advo-
cates in the strengthening of the material base, the creation of necessary
85
conditions of work, the solution of housing, consumer and other questions, and
the attaching of young specialists in the colleges. As a rule, this leads to
personnel turnover, to the transfer of skilled advocates to other departments.
Recently normative documents, in which the prospects of development for the
coming 10 years and the strengthening of the material base of the legal advice
offices and their provision with furniture, telephones and other office equip-
ment are set forth, have been adopted in practically all of the union repub-
lics. This undoubtedly will have an effect on the interest of the colleges of
advocates in the improvement of the organization of work.
While utilizing the developed forms and methods of activity of the legal advice
offices, it is important not to lose time in order to actively introduce new
forms of legal assistance to citizens as well. To take, for example, the right
of advocates, provided for by the Law on the Legal Profession in the USSR, to
represent the rights and legal interests of persons, who have appealed for legal
assistance, in various commissions, comrades’ courts, arbitration, and other
State organs, and to compose statements, complaints, and other documents of a
legal character. It seems that such forms of legal assistance could be intro-
duced much more actively if the citizens were more fully informed about the
possibility of receiving them. This process, without a doubt, will be conducive
to an increase in the legal culture of the population and the energy in the
activity of the law enforcement organs and public formations, and the strength-
ening of legality. It must be acknowledged that the colleges of advocates still
do not make use of the significant possibilities in the expansion of paid legal
assistance.
The experienc? of the work of the advocates of Azerbaijan, Belorussia and other
union reputiics shows that the brigade method of visits to labor collectives is
an extremely promising form of legal assistance to the population. This is in-
dicated by the positive reviews of both the economic managers and the yorkers
themselves. The practice of the use of such visits has shown that it is neces-
sary to complete the staffing of the brigades of advocates beforehand from
among highly-skilled specialists, to determine the time of the visit weli in
advance with the administration, and to inform the workers.
We will have to expand everywhere the practice of advising citizens by tele-
phone and visits by advocates when called to the home. In a number of repub-
lics such a form of legal assistance is successfully used for the composition
of legal documents or for the receipt of written information about different
branches of law. Usually invalids and the aged are in need of such a form of
legal assistance, as well as citizens who require effective legal assistance
because of various reasons.
Promising is also such a form of iegal services as the composition by the advo-
cate, upon the request of the citizen, of drafts of wills; agreements of the
purchase/sale of buildings anc property, the donation of dwelling-houses and
automobiles, about the establishment of the procedure for using the premises of
dwelling-houses; the registration of documents for the exchange of apartments.
For the preparation of such complicated legal documents, apart from specialist
knowledge, numerous kinds of information, acts, and findings obtained on demand
from various court instances are needed. The execution of these operations by
advocates would economize the time of citizens and would be conducive to ef-
fectiveness in the work of notary offices and other interested institutions
and organizations. Advocates of the Baltic union republics are successfully
introducing many of the indicated types of legal assistance and intend to de-
velop them in the future.
The reorganization of work in the indicated direction requires the revision of
some provisions of the Instructions on the Wages of Advocates. The Department
of Lawyers of the USSR Ministry of Justice intends to decide this question in
the very near future since the developed form of wages, in our view, at the
present time gives advocates an insufficient interest in the development of
legal assistance. The most qualified among them successfully fulfill the fi-
nancial plan and are not interested in its overfulfillment since everything
earned above their established maximum wages, without compensation, is trans-
ferred to the income of the presidium of the college of advocates. One can
also hardly recognize as right the fact that an advocate, who has conscien-
tiously worked in the college for many years, and a young specialist are
treated identically with respect to their wages. All this requires well-
thought-out proposals, which would encourage the establishment, in the college
of advocates, of an innovative approach to the organization of the work of legal
advice offices. The dependence of the wages of an advocate on their [as pub-
lished] competence and the real contribution of everyone to the increase of
the quality and standards of legal assistance will be conducive to the stabil-
ity of the collectives and the attaching of highly-skilled cadres.
Practice advances the demand to change the provision of Article 22 of the Fun-
damentals of Criminal Procedure concerning the admission of the advocate to
participation in a case by decision of the procurator from the moment a charge
is brought. It is expedient to introduce corrections in the criminal procedure
legislation so that, upon the petition of the defendant, the advocat< can take
part in the case both in the course of the preliminary investig.ution from the
moment a charge is brought and in the process of the inquest. Many practical
and scientific workers share this point of view. The introduction of such
legal norms would objectively encourage the increase of the quality and the re-
duction of the time periods of the investigation. Together with this, there
would be a fuller guarantee of the right of all defendants to a defense and a
Significant expansion of the participation of the advocates in the extension of
legal assistance to them. For this reason, we should envisage the right of the
defense counsel to participate in all investigative actions without restriction,
if such actions substantially affect the interests of the client.
The principle-based position of the advocate is always conducive to an objective
concept of the fairness of the application of the law in our country and about
the authority of justice as a whole. Hence--the problem of high professionalism
and purity of the ranks of the legal profession. Precisely for this reason,
constant attention has been given for some time past to the strengthening of the
personnel of the legal profession with skilled workers, who are capable of de-
fending the interests of citizens on the basis of their business and moral qual-
ities.
Activity in regard to the development of legal assistance insistently demands
an increase in professional mastery. We will have to revise the programs and
87
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SOCIAL ISSUES
KaSSR: TOO FEW DOCTORS IN RURAL RAYON
[Editorial Report | Alma-Ata SOTSIALISTIK OQAZAOSTAN in } 19 July 198¢
carries on page 2 a 1,400-word article by SOTSIALISTIK OAZAOSTAN reporter
T. Ysaaqov titled “Discussion That Gained a Lot of Attention.” Th rticle
looks at the results of a recently held “Open Letter Da in Irgizskiy Rayor
of Aktvubinsk Oblast Subiect was locally available medi ] ervices iT
facilities.
Although Ysqaqov stresses the positive side of ' rvice--tli
many new facilities and much new equipment, attempts t : lividua m-
munities better--many 1 tters were quite critica! e things rit
cized was a doctor-to-inhabitant ratio in the ravor : ) that
half the republic average, an acute shortage of per ! ertain ke
specialties (including X-ray technicians), the non- | t even the
most basic mecical supplies, instruments, and equipmer tt
is, for example, only a single mobile X-ray unit ar it i t opel
most of the year), and problems of attitude on the part tet age
and doctors and others toward those whom they are sup) , ' eY
Workers and managers both criticized failure t pt : rot i
facilities. Here those officials responsible pr k re Hh
KaSSR: MISUSE OF STATE VEHICLES FOR PRIVATE PURPOS!
[Editorial Report] Alma-Ata SOTSIALISTIK 0AZ/
carris m pare 4 a 1,200-word column by N. Ki
titled “Privilege.” The irticle protests--with Lic cS, té
an ther facts--the misuse of state vehicles for t t t
elite » 16@., ManaLre!t yy organizations ind enter LS ' : 1 r
Increased responsibility and more “order” i: 1] ea.
KaSSR: NO REASON TO REST ON ANTIALCOHOLISM LAUR!
[Editorial Report] Alma-Ata SOTSIALISTIK QAZAOSTA! B July 198
earries on page 1 an 800-word boldface editor 1 til ' ey
Life.” The editorial reviews what ha heen nis
evginnine of the latest Soviet ant ialcoholisnr
the number of outiet selline alcohol is noted af
have no reason to rest on our laurels since what
life and not in what quantities and wher ]
‘ 1] ; for +} renews f mpaigr ny si] concert f .
recreat ior ;o1 rea ol neentrat ir
JPRS-UPS-86-058
5 December 1986
SOCIAL ISSUES
UNDERGROUND VIDEO THEATERS DISCOVERED IN LiSSR
Vilnius SOVETSKAYA LITVA in Russian 5 Oct 86 p 2
[article by V. Vatis under the rubric "Feuilleton": "Video... Horror"]
[Text] In olden times, when the cinema was still the Great Unknown and film
rental was in the domain of initiative by private individuals, whose complete
lack of moral rprinc * and artistic taste was more than compensated for by
their thirst for the greatest poss: ble profits, movie posters produced a
stunning impression. For instance, they would proclaim that on a certain day
there would be shown a tragedy 3,000 meters in length, and that "individuals
with a nervous disposition are requested not to attend." Understandably
enough, nervous individuals, burning with curiosity, took the theaters by
storm. Just like the rest of the audience, they were thrill-seekers.
Of course, we now know that movie tragedies often in fact turned out to be
completely decorous melodramas, in which the most terrible things that
occurred were rapid-fire shoot-outs within the strict framework of the usual
triangle: husband, wife and a "friend of the house..."
The movies have long since been freed from their muteness, as well as from
some other ailments of an artistic or technical nature. Yet a certain segment
of the public still suffers from a thirst for thriils. And since these are
often in short supply on movie svereens in this country, once again private
entrepreneurs have come to the aid of these sufferers. These “electronic
peddlers" wander through cities and villages, heavily laden with videocassette
recorders and the cassettes for them -- both items exclusively of overseas
origin. What is more, they find their audience without the help of mass
advertising and colorful posters. Their occupation is secretive and of a
delicate nature, requiring darkness not only where the videos are shown, but
also in the commercial aspects of the video business.
Naturally their main attraction is their film repertoire. The very names of
the movies promise an abundance of thrills and a taste of "forbidden fruit."
Judge for yourself: "First Blood," "An Almost Perfect Crime," "Day of
Bloody Vengeance," "Wolf's Blood" and "The New Barbarians" -- these are only .
some of tnis sort of “horror films." Naturally chese "pictures" are not shown
for free. Admission is high -- sometimes up to 10 rubles a _ head. But; as
they say, you get what you pay for...
90
One must assume that an "underground video theater" with the impressive
repertoire listed above, operating in Lentvaris at the address of
Pervomayskaya Street 26, Apartment 10 and belonging to a certain V. Skayva (no
place of employment), would have continued these lucrative showings if law
enforcement officers had not intervened. It was tney who established that the
"video horrer™ cassettes belonged to A. Karalyunas, a junior scientific
assistant in the Department of Astronomy and Quantum Electronics at Vilnius
State University. And he was showing them on a VCR which, according to hin,
had been left with him for repairs. The "show" was simply a test of the
equipment. And although it appeared doubtful that the VCR had to be taken
from Vilnius to Trakay in order to test it out, and also doubtful that it was
necessary to assemble a large audience to do so, this “explanation” was
accepted as completely satisfactory...
However, the militia knows for certain that "video peddlers" are not leasing
VCR and videocassettes just "for the heck of it," Fut rather for a very high
price: from 50 to 100 rubles per day. Otherwise they would disappear, since
on the “black market" a single "video horror" cassette sells for a price which
is a horror story in itself.
Underground "video theaters" have been discovered not only in apartments and
private houses in Vilnius, in Kayshyadorskiy, Moletskiy, and Trakayskiy rayons
and in other rayons in our republic. They have also heen found in public
places and institutions. For example, again in Trakay, a group of thrill-
seekers got together for a video showing at... the local print shop. There
they saw a movie about Rambo, the American "Green Beret" idol, and his bloody
Outrages in Vietnam, played on the very latest model of Finno-Japanese VCR.
It was brought to the print shop by A. Raynis, a sports instructor at the
Drobe Woolen Goods Production Association in Kaunas; he had rented both the
VCR and the cassettes from a relative -- R. Pashkauskas, the chairman of the
vrade union committee of the experimental farm under “the Lithuanian Research
institute for Veterinary Medicine, located in Kayshyadoris.
In Kaunus, a small circle of thrill-seekers was gathered in a dormitory of the
Institute for Rural Construction Planning by V. Aldis, an engineer at the same
institute. In Druskininkay, at the Hotel Turistas, travelers were entertained
with the same type of movies by V. Ulinskas, an electrician at the Sheshupe
Textile Factory in Kapsukas. He not only owned a splendid VCR, but an
impressive coliection of videvwassettes as well. A total of 19 of them! Ina
word, the tourists got thrills apienty.-..
The “video peddlers" have also done their bit to "improve" discotheque
operations. For exemple, at the Kupishkis House of Culture one notable event
was a youth video discotheque, organized by E. Butkyavichyus, a highly
qualified professional in his field. The director of discotheques attached to
a number of restaurants and cafes under the Panevezhis Cafeteria and
Restaurant Trust, for two evenings in a row he regaled quite a large audidence
of young people, including vastly underage children, with all sorts of video
horrors, from the adventures of "Green Beret" Rambo to the series of movies
entitled "Deadly Vengeance," which portray in minute detail methods of killing
and maiming in hand-to-hand combat, using Karate and kung-fu tricks.
9]
One automatically wonders: how could the Kupishkis cultural authorities have
become accomplices to this newly-arrived "video peddler"? Through stupidity
and irresponsibility alone? Or did greed also play a role? It remains for
professional crime experts to come up with an answer to these questions...
Here we should note that it is no easy task to bring the "video peddlers" and
their willing or unwilling accomplices to justice. The law provides for
convictions only in cases in which it can be proven that a profit was made or
that viewers were charged an inflated admission price. Also, there is usually
a conspiracy of silence among the "thrill-seekers" who decide to go to such
underground shows.
The moral harm done to society and the decay of young people's spirits are,
alas, intangibles, and the law, to our great regret, does not prosecute on the
basis of such criteria.
It is true that there have been rumors to the effect that at the very least
the video peddlers will receive administrative punishments. But what do they
care about a small fine? They mock this measly increase in their rental
overhead; the profits will cover it...
And harm continues to be done to society, and on a rather considerable scale.
The militia told us that recently there has appeared a new type of crime
committed by young people: so-called "unmotivated" crimes. ror instance, a
group of kids might be walking down a street, and suddenly for no reason at
all attack a passerby with their fists. Or they might pull down a telephone
pole, or smash out someone's windows. Of course such incidents are rare, but
are they not the result of viewing all these video horrors, and are they not
the practical application of the lessons in violence and cruelty which they
contain? It is not we who are posing this by no means rhetorical question,
but rather law enforcement officers. And if crime specialists have already
asked themselves this question, that means that it is a question worth
considering!
Of course, the militia is not completely powerless in its struggle against the
"video peddlers," judging by the fact that dozens of cases have been brought
against individuals for showing inferior overseas movie productions. Yet only
those who were caught red-handed showing pornographic movies have actually
felt the full force of the Law's chastising hand. And only those showing
movies deemed by experts to be pure pornography at that. "Semi-pornographic"
movies are not punishable by law, although they too propagandize cruelty and a
contemptuous attitude toward women and their dignity.
You, dear readers, will probably ask: how and from where do the "peddlers"
obtain these cassettes of horror movies and porno films? Where are their
sources, the "black market" which feeds them? This question must be answered
by the customs, whose vigilance is at times unequal to the impudence and
cleverness of smugglers. Furthermore, it seems to us that the sale of
domestic cassettes with good video recordings of the most diverse types, yet
at the same time entertaining and wholesome, would work directly toward
reducing the demand for the video vwrash described above!
12825
CSO: 1800/78
93
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
SOCIAL ISSUES
TURKMEN WOMEN NOT ENTERING WORK FORCE
[Editorial Report] Ashkhabad MUGALLYMLAR GAZETI in Turkmen on 27 August
1986 carries on pages 1, 2 a 4100-word report on a meeting of party
activists to discuss problems in the implementation of school reform.
S.A. Niyazov, first secretary of the Turkmen Party Central Cc.mittee,
made the point that "strengthening educational work in the school itself
is required because its shortcomings are leading to very harmful results
and are exerting a negative influence on activating an active life
position among school graduates. The fact that many Turkmen girls are
not going to work after graduating from secondary school and that Turkmen
youths, expecting an easy road, are not entering production but instead
enter trade and service sectors, is hardly a surprise.”
WOMEN DRAWN INTO BAKHERDEN RAYON WORK FORCE
[Editorial Report] Ashkhabad SOVET TURKMENISTANY in Turkmen on 20 August
1986 carries on page 2 a 900-word article by K. Nazarov, first secretary
of the Turkmen Communist Party Bakherden Raykom, on efforts being made
"to eliminate shortcomings in raising women's work and social activism."
With this end in mind, “ideological and mass political work have been
strengthened, especially measures to provide youth with an atheistic,
legal and inter-nationalist education." He adds, however, that "not enough
work is being done to attract the non-working part of the population which
is capabie of working into socially useful work. The number of women working
in industry, construction and trade is still very small."
TEACHERS’ CONFERENCES TO STRESS IDEOLOGY
[Editorial Report] Ashkhabad MUGALLYMLAR GAZETI in Turkmen on 15 August
1986 carries on page 1 a 1400-word lead editorial timed to the city and
rayon teachers conferences which are to take place on 28-29 August, Gor-
and raykom secretaries will report on "the further strengthening of
students’ ideational-political, atheistic, and internationalistic
education" in connection with school reform. The editorial stresses that
"the basic attention of conference participants must be focused on
perfecting their Marxist-Leninist world-view and communist morality in their
teaching, and relentlessness towards any acceptance of bourgeois ideology
and morality."
94
JPRS-UPS -86-058
3 December 1986
SCHOOL FOOD ORGANIZATION ASSAILED
[Editorial Report] Ashkhabad MUGALLYMAR GAZETI in Turkmen on 13 August
1986 carries on page 1 a 1000-word lead editorial criticizing the
organization of food pro,rams at a number of schools. "One must say
that school cafeterias and buffets will not have been completely put
in order by the beginning of the school year." The editorial points
out that “only 50 percent of the school cafeterias and buffets will be
repaired by the beginning of the school year in Bayramaly city." At the
No 9 schoo) in Mary city "the building for this school cafeteria has not
had any maintenance or repair in the last 8 years; its floor has rotted
away and its refrigerator room does not function". Similar problems are
cited at a number of other schools.
1985-1986 TUSSR EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS PUBLISHED
{Editorial Report] Ashkhabad MUGALJ.YMLAR GAZETI in Turkmen 31 August 1986
carries on page 1 a 1000-word editorial citing educational statistics
in the TUSSR for the 1985-1986 school year. "Last year 819,300 students
attended our republic's general education schools; 52,100 studied jn our
professional-technical schools, 37,000 in specialized secondary education
schools, and 38,800 at higher schools. In 1985 67,700 had a higher
education and more than 11,000 a specialized secondary education, were
trained for various branches of the economy”.
/12624
CSO: 1830/109
95
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
SOCIAL ISSUES
SHORTCOMINGS IN KIRGHIZ STUDENT TRAINING, NEED FOR RUSSIAN NOTED
[Editorial Report] Frunze SOVETSKAYA KIRGIZIYA in Russian on 16 August 1986
carries on page 3 a 900-word article entitled "Why the Best One Weeps" by
Professor S. Daniyarov, rector of the Kirghiz State Medical Institute, who
comments on the poor performance of those applying for admission despite hav-
ing received high marks upon graduation from lower schools. "One-half of those
taking exams on the-Russian language, biology, and chemistry received unsat-
isfactory marks. It is especially distressing that told and silver medal
recipients at the entrance exams do not corroborate the basis for having re-
ceived medals in school." Professor Daniyarov also approves of the insti-
tute's policy of teaching only in Russian, as it gives the medical student
wider access to primary sources of information and aids in further study. He
concludes by saying that the work of teaching collectives should be judged by
end results, notwithstanding the disappointed tears of students facing rejec-
tion. /6662
USE OF TELEVISION IN EXAMINING GEORGIAN AGROPROM LAUDED
[Editorial Report] Moscow LITERATURNAYA GAZETA in Russian on 15 October 1986
carries on page 10 a 600-word article by the paper's own correspondent Fduard
Yeligulashvili entitled "Early in the Moming" which notes that che republic
Gosagroprom [State Committee for Agricultural Production] recently put on a
round-table “selector” [seiecktornyy!] meetin:: to present information on agri-
culture directly to the target specialist. He contacted one such specialist
who remarked that "earlier in such cases, instructions and consultations got
to us via a long chain--from the Scientific Research Institute to the central
administration !vedomstvo], from there to the rayon, further to the kolkhozes
and sovkhoze-. and to the brigades. And now--there is a direct television
link." /666z
CSO: 1830/123
96
JPRS-UPS- 86-058
3 December 1986
SOCIAL ISSUES
CONCERN EXPRESSED FOR EFFECTS OF TV BROADCASTING ON YOUTH
[Editorial Report] Moscow IZVESTIYA in Russian on 22 September 1986 carries
on page 3 a 1,300-word article entitled "The Child in Front of the Television"
by L. Shkolnik, senior scientific worker in the Scientific Research Institute
of General Pedagogy of the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences. Shkolnik
reports that a growing number of youth are watching more television and notes
the importance of determining its effects as its use becomes more widespread.
"Specialists in the area of mass communications forecast that at the beginning
of the 2lst century, 5 to 10 union programs will be in operation on our coun-
try's territory, and also local television will send its 2 to 4 programs over
the airwaves. High-quality systems of stereocolor television broadcasting
with high resolution and quadrophonic sound will appear. In addition, with-
out leaving the screen, it will be possible to receive any information, to
conduct a dialog with a central computer.”
In order to gauge the effects of current television broadcasting on youth,
Shkolnik notes that "we questioned more than 800 students in grades 5-10 in
urban and rural schools. The questions were various: ‘Why do you sit in
front of the television?’ ‘Whom do you know and like on the screen at home?"
"Which broadcasts, what themes do you choose for yourself?'" Results of the
survey were analyzed on a computer and placed into six categories. The
author concludes that the results were not encouraging for television or
for parents and teachers. "An overwhelming majority of children perceive
contemporary television broadcasting first of all as a source of excitement,
to compensate for the monotony and sameness of their lives."
/6662
CSO: 1830/123
97
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1]
SOCIAL ISSUES 506
BRIEFS
MOSCOW SYNAGOGUE SERVICES DISTURBED--Disturbances interrupted Saturday evea-
ing services at the Moscow synagogue on Arkhipov street. Four drunken youths
disrupted the services, insulted passers-by and offended attending believers.
The group leader, V. Geyzel', responded to requests for respect and silence
with a stream of bad language and outbursts of “hooliganism.” The police
took the group away; the article observed that "probably, the offenders will
receive their deserved punishment." [Editorial Report] [Moscow VECHERNYAYA
MOSKVA in Russian 30 Oct 86 p 3] /6662
AIRPORT RUNWAY LIGHTS STOLEN--Kursk--Kursk airport recently suffered from a
rash of thefts of runway lights. After a lengthy investigation, the local
police discovered that a pair of young men had stolen them in order to rig up
stereo speakers with flashing lights, something they had seen in a film. The
two men are currently under investigation and may receive sentences as much as
6 years imprisonment. [By Lieutenant-Colonel V. Shepoval'nikov] [Editorial
Report] [Moscow VOZDUSHNIY TRANSPORT in Russian 28 Oct 86 p 4] /6662
cso: 1830/112
98
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 December 1986
REGIONAL ISSUES
KaSSR: FAILURE TO USE IRRIGATED LANDS FULLY
[Editorial Report] Alma-Ata SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN in Kazakh on 15 July 1986
carries on page 1 an 800-word boldface editorial titled "The Benefits of
Irrigated Land." The editorial restates the importance of irrigated lands
in terms of current agricultural goals and notices the on-going rapid pace of
development in this area. It also criticizes republic irrigators, however,
for tailure to use existing irrigation potential fully--40,000 to 80,000
hectares of irrigated land are left unirrigated each year--and for failure
to use some irrigation equipment. Such unutilized potential is indicated as a
major resource for future development. /6662
KaSSR: LARGE-SCALE POACHING FROM VEHICLES
{Editorial Report] Alma-Ata SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN in Kazakh on 16 July 1986
carries on page 4 a 1,000-word article by N. Sadwaqasov, senior consultant
of the KaSSR Ministry of Justice, published under the rubric "Man and Law,"
titled "Let Us Not Be Too Free With Natural Riches.” It is possible,
Sadwaqasov stresses, to combine economic development and environmental pro-
tection, and this is in fact being done successfully, he goes on, in terms of
the current economic program. However, he continues, the situation is by no
means perfect and one particularly sensitive area is illegal hunting and
fishing--poaching--both for individual benefit and for profit. The latter
activity is contrary, he notes, to the current campaign against “unearned
income."
Poaching, Sadwaqasov shows, is no small problem, with some 19,000 cases of
fish poaching uncovered last year causing 170,000 rubles worth of damage and
5,000 hunting violations which caused 386,000 rubles worth of damage. Parti-
cularly problematical, he goes on to indicate, is poaching from vehicles--
cars, trucks, even tractors--often to support large-scale, illegal commercial
enterprise. He suggests that one way to reduce the damage caused by vehicle
poaching is to hold those managers who allow vehicles to be used illegally
for poaching equally responsible (along with poachers) for damage caused. /6662
ALL POACHERS MUST BE PROSECUTED SAYS KaSSR FISHERIES CHIEF
[Editorial Report] Alma-Ata SOTSIALISTIK OAZAOSTAN in Kazakh on 13 July 1986
carries on page 3 a 1,700-word article by Y. Oteghaliyev, chief of the
Kazakhrybvod Administration, titled "We Are Not Valuing Our Fisheries Riches."
99
JPRS-UPS- 86-058
3 December 1986
The article looks at threats to republic fisheries posed by extremely preva-
lent poaching and through the pollution of waters by republic industry and
individuals. The article criticizes republic judicial, police, and other
enforcement authorities for their failure to investigate fully all cases of
fishing and huting violation and prosecute poachers to the greatest possible
degree. Only a fraction of cases uncovered are said to be fully prosecuted
now.
According to Oteghaliyev, there were 18,500 cases of fish poaching uncovered
last year with 34,000 tons of illegally taken fish seized by authorities.
In the first 6 months of this year alone an additional nearly 10,000 cases
have been uncovered. /6662
KaSSR: EDITORIAL WARNS UNITS NOT HEEDING NEW CONSUMER GOODS GOALS
[Editorial Report] Alma-Ata SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN in Kazakh on 20 July 1986
carries on page 1 a 1,000-word boldface editorial titled "Let Consumer Goods
Be Up to Demand." The editorial reminds the public of current party goals
calling for a drastic improvement in the quantity, quality, and variety of
consumer goods (a 26.2-percent growth in consumer goods production is called
for during the current 5-vear plan compared to the last, with consumer goods
production increasingly tied to the conditions of the marketplace). Organiza-
tions not performing current tasks up to required levels are criticized by
name, particularly those which have been subject to repeated product quality
criticism but which have still not altered production practices to meet new
needs.
KaSSR: MANAGERS PROSECUTED FOR PRODUCT QUALITY VIOLATIONS
[Editorial Report] Alma-Ata SOTSIALISTIK QAZAQSTAN in Kazakh on 30 July 1986
carries on page 4 a 700-word article by Q. Dysenbin, investigator of the
Leninskiy Rayon (Northern Kazakhstan Oblast) Procurator's Otfice, published
under the rubric "Man and Law," titled "Continued Attention to Product Quality."
The article notes recent prosecutions of factory managers and other respons-
ible persons for failure to produce good quality products in spite of repeated
and specific public criticism. Among those prosecuted was the head of a unit
producing nonalcoholic beverages in a food combine. In his case the problem
was failure to follow technological requirements in combining the ingredients
of lemonade, with irregular proportions in drinks the result, contrary to
state quality standards. /6662
KaSSR: HERDSMEN SHORTAGE HERALDS CRISIS OF SHEEP RAISING
[Editoral Report] Alma-Ata QAZAQ ADEBIYETI in Kazakh on 18 July 1986 carries
on pages 10, 11, and 14 a 4,200-word article by Sultanali Balghabayev, pub-
lished under the rubric "Questions To Look Into," titled "Why Are Shepherds
in Short Supply?" The article looks at the short supply of shepherds--the
republic is 10,000 short of an optimum 121,000, not to mention peak season
needs--as symptomatic of larger woes in the republic's economy.
100
The basic difficulty, Balghabayev makes clear, is that the sheep-herding sector
pays very poorly (substantially less than for crop-raising sectors, such as
rice growing, where the work is much easier, Balghabayev stresses), that very
long hours under impossible working conditions are required, that shepherds
receive little in the way of consumer or recreational services, and that the
sector is otherwise poorly supported in terms of mechanization (crop growing
gets the lior's share of all agricultural equipment), water (for very dry and
thus deteriorating pastures), and even basic construction (corrals are,
for example, a major problem). Even the traditional felt yurt is in short
supply and what is being produced is of poor quality. Moreover, Balghabayev
shows, modern agricultural labor organization--through brigades——-may be quite
unsuited to shee-raising and may be compounding the problem.
A major overhaul of the sector, Balghabayev stresses, is required, with major
efforts to understand the problems involved and to respond to them meaningfully.
And any such changes, he makes clear, must involve better wages and much im-
proved living standards for herdsmen if these vital figures of Kazakh life are
to be kept on the job.
Another difficulty of modern republic sheep raising discussed by Balghabayev
is the wolf problem. Wolf populations are described as being at record levels
and losses rapidly increasing. The modern technology--including helicopters-—-
needed to deal with the problem is lacking. /6662
CSO: 1830/125
101
JIPRS-UPS- 86-058
3 December 1986
REGIONAL ISSUES
CONSTRUCTION OF HYDROSYSTEM FOR MOSCOW ON UPPER VOLGA
Moscow SOVETSKAYA ROSSIYA in Russian 12 Oct 86 p 4
(Two articles, titles and authors as indicated below, under rubric
"Continuation of a Discussion" ]
(Text ] By means of articles that were published recently --
"Volga Whirlpools" (4 Jun 86) and "Planned Atlantis" (27
Aug 86) -- SOVETSKAYA ROSSIYA has touched upon an extremely
acute and multilevel problem -- the desirability of
building, in the area of the cily of Rzhev, yet another
hydrosystem with a reservoir in the upper reaches of the
Volga for the additional providing of Moscow with water.
"The construction is inevitable!" water-supply veterans
wrote, disputing the items printed in the newspaper, and
the newspaper completely printed their opinion. Their
opinion is also supported by another collective letter that
is being published today. However, there are also serious
alternatives to this point of view. They are proposed, in
particular, by buro members of the USSR Academy of Sciences
Scientific Council of Problems of the Biosphere who
recently, at a special meeting, thoroughly discussed
Moscow's water problem.
"The Construction Plan Has Been Carefully Weighed"
The article "Planned Atlantis" is in essence a continuation of the broad
discussion on the pages of SOVETSKAYA ROSSIYA of a problem that is very
important for Moscow -- the problem of the prospects of its water supply.
It is necessary first of all to refute the very principle of approach to the
problem to be discussed. It is not a "Planned Atlantis," but the social
demand formulated by the residents of Moscow, which has become the real reason
that has forced the construction planners and builders to search for the
optimal alternative for supplying the capital, within compressed periods of
time, with additional volumes of water. Linked with this is the possibility
that every Moscow family, by the year 2000, will obtain a separate apartment
that is provided with water in accordance with the existing standard.
102
In the newspaper items linked with the Rzhev Hydrosystem, we are constantly
asked one and the same question: wouldn't it be possible for everyone to begir
to expend water more thriftily, more economically, and then there would be no
need for a new hydrosystem? The serious situation that has been developirge
around the Rzhev Hydrosystem forces us specialists to answer that cuestion in
the most precise manner possible.
What does ome mean by “"economizing of water"? It is the fundawental,
technical-engineering reorganization of the system of cold and fot water
supply. It is the production of new, expensive equipment mad? of scarce
nonferrous metals and high-grade rubber, and the Gcevelopment cf new standard
construction plans. According to preliminary computations, the fuilding of a
plant to manufacture new plumbing fittings, the instaliatior of those
fittings, and the remodeling of the exterior networks and the plusbing pipes
within the buildings will cost the city of Moscow alone approximately a
billion rubles. Recently certain people have got the idea that if a water
meter were to be installed in every apartment and the price of water wer:
raised, one could immediately achieve a sharp economizing in the use of water.
Actually, this is by no means so. In Moscow aione it would be nesessary to
install 2.6 million such meters, which then would have to be operated. That
would cost 260 million rubles.
Under the existing conditions, the Administration of the Moscow Water-Supply
and Sewerage Management has taken steps to economize water. In 1985 the
implementation of this program provided the opportunity to supply water for
the newly constructed housing areas simply by relying on water economy
measures. But even according to the most optimistic forecasts, by relying on
these measures Moscow will be able to develop for no mere than 5-6 years, and
then, if a new water-supply source is not created, continuous water supply
will be interrupted.
The building of the Rzhev Hydrosystem began in 1983 in ccnformity with a USSR
Council of Ministers decree, which had been preceded by detailed studies by
bodies of experts and the coordination of the construction plan with the
interested organizations in conformity with the procedure existing in the
country for approving large-scale and complicated ccastructicn projects. rhe
discussion that has been going on in ~ecent months on the pages of newspapers
concerning the desirability of building the Rzhev Hydrosystem is explained by
the fact that THE AUTHORS OF SOME OF THE ARTICLES ARE IGNORANT OF THE ESSENCE
OF THE SITUATION.
The Rzhev Hydrosystem was selected as a first-priority project for increasing
the supply of water to Moscow as a result of the conducting of scientific-
research and exploratory construction-planning projects in comparison with
other possible sources of water supply...
When the construction plan for the Rzhev Hydrosystem was being developed,
consideration was taken of a multifaceted series of problems, ranging from the
purely technical ones to problems of the ecology, the development of the
affected rayons of Kalinin Oblast, the study of monuments of archeology, and,
finally, a painstaking, attentive attitude toward the military history of the
Rzhev area.
103
it has become axioma it the duilding of major national-economic prcjects,
and particularly majc irosystems, provides an impetus for the region’
economic development and raises the population's standard of living. lr
addition to resoiving tne tasks of water supply for Moscow, the Rzhev
aiydrosystem also wiil transform the Rzhev area. In conformity with the
construction plan, t Duiiders of the hydrosystem will build here 150
Kliometers of mod tor roads, 2i bridges, hundreds of kilometers of
lectric-power transmission Lines, 12 new populated points with a complete set
of pri ‘tts for sc ai, cultural, and personal purposes, which nave been built
in accordance with mode: standard plans, as well as production structures for
tl 1evelopment of agriculture. A settlement for the hydrosystem workers,
which is situated lose to the dam site, will appear on the map. That
2ttiement, wit node mes, 4 stadium, anda series of personal-services
enterprises, Nas deen specially designed to assure that the new working hands
ind tne people who i to the construction site wil find permanent
employment there. Thus, e hydrosystem not only will not remove manpower
from tne rayon or the I t, as stated in the article "Planned Atlantis,"
it, On tne contrary, w increase that manpower in a planned manner.
te this fact, titude toward the Rzhev Hydrosystem and its problems
in Kalinin Oblast f r The construction was begun with the mplete
consent f t ed organizations, including those in Kalinir
Odiast. wnat, n, nged since then? Because at the present time the
Duilding t tem has begun to evoke a fierce and, at times,
mpletely ine» resistance on the part of the people in Kalinin
\olast. It i iere to take a slight step backward and mention a few
typical figu : st of bDuilding the hydrosystem proper 3 69 million
ruoles, in t t a cost of the operations linked with improving the
social conditions for "sons living in three rayons of Kalinin Oblast is
128 million rubles.
Thus, from the very beginning, the construction planners took an attentive
approach to the need that part of the country, and all of this found its
Kpression ) le constructi plan. It must be said that this posing of the
question, for a definite period of time, was to the liking of he
1idministrator of Kalinin Oblast, but last year they began putting a monkey
wrencn in the whe f the hydrosystem buiaders. As ua result, the state plan
for the building the hydrosystem is not being fulfilled; an abnormal
Situation has bee created, wherein a construction project that has been
jefined by a USSR Council of Ministers decree has been restrained by the
Kalinin Territorial Adminis ation of Construction in accordance with secret
instruct is from the party's obkom. One asks why they don't sit down at the
negotiations tabdle and try to find out what the people of Kalinin Oblast want
from Moscow Goi lkom and from the hydrosystem builders, what specific
things they do not like in the construction plan, and what kind of guarantees
bney would want to preserve the environment in the area, the structure of
productive forces, and the outward appearance of the cities and settlements.
Instead of that, the editorial office has begun to receive letters whict, in
essence, are directed against the creation of the Rzhev Hydrosystem but
nicn, in words, a] r tne nondefiling of the memorable wartime sites, most
of which are not affected by the Rzhev Reservoir. This has resulted in
that confusion when peopie who are uninformec about special matter indertaks
the making of completely irresponsible judgments about a complicated techni
problem. T. Karyakina's article added another fly to the ointment. In ier
not to speak without substantiation, we shall cite certain data.
For example, data concerning the Selizharovka River. If one accep 3 the Rz
Reservoir level marker indicated in the plan, the backwater from
hydrosystem does not extend to the left tributary of the Volga --t
selizharovka River -- and, even more so, has no influence on Lake Seliger,
Since the lake is situated more than 20 kilometers from the reservoir and its
natural level is 7 meters higher than the backwater level of the future
hydrosystem. The banks of the Selizharovka River and Laxe Seliger will remai:
in their natural condition when the Rzhev Reservoir is in operation.
It is also necessary to recall that, in addition to Gidroproyekt Institute,
the participants in the creation of the plan for the Rzhev Hydrosystem
included a number of specialized institutes and organizations, including USSR
Academy of Sciences Institute of Archeology; the All-Union Producti
Scientific-Restoration Combine, of RSFSR Ministry of Culture; the USSR His
Department of Kalinin State University; the central forest-development
enterprise of V/O Lesproyekt [All-Union Association] of USSR Gosleskhoz [Stat
Committee for Forestry]; Giprodrevprom Institute of Minlesbumprom [Ministry
the Timber, Pulp and Paper, and Wood Processing Industry.; and others. All
the recommendations and proposals of the specialized institutes and the
expenditures to carry them out were completely taken into consideration in the
plan for constructing the new hydrosystem.
The USSR History Department of Kalinin University carried out a study of the
reservoir area in order to evaluate the possibility of its exerting an
influence upon the communal cemeteries where Soviet fighting men are interred.
On the basis of this data and subsequent studies, it was established that
there are no communal cemeteries in the area to be fiooded. Beyond the
confines of the area to be partially or completely inundated, on the territory
of the village of Sytkovo, at a distance of 120 meters from the waterline and
10 meters above the reservoir's normal backwater level, a communal grave oO!
Soviet fighting men is situated, where 2917 persons wer: interred. This
communal grave falls within the planned final zone for developing the bans
The question of the desirability of moving the cemetery or of protecting it
has been considered, and the expenditures have been taken into consideration
in the plan.
The reservoir for the Rzhev Hydrosystem is planned on th territory of
Rzhevskiy, Selizharovskiy, and Oleninskiy rayons. According to refined data,
the creation of the reservoir will result in the flooding of 9000 hectares of
land, including 5920 hectares of forest and 2740 hectares of agricultural land
(of which 800 hectares are plowland). These figures constitute, respectively,
1.0, 1.8, 0.9, and 0.5 percent of the total land areas.
In addition, in the area of the possible partial flooding and development of
the banks, there will be 1040 hectares of land, including 620 hectares of
forest and 380 hectares of agricultural land, of which 160 hectares are
105
plowland. For purposes of restoring the losses of agricultural production
resulting from the use of the land as a reservoir, the plans prepared by the
specialized organizations have stipulated expenditures for assimilating an
equally large area of new land. When the reservoir is createz, 5000 hectares
of forested area with commercial plantings will be flooded in Rzhevskiy Rayon.
This constitutes 6.7 percent of the forested area in that rayon. The most
valuable areas of forest to be flooded are situated on the territory of the
Rzhev Forest Area -- the Titov Bor tract, with the predominance of coniferous
species 60 years of age on an area of 1000 hectares. In the area along the
bank of the future reservoir, Soyuzgiproleskhoz Institute plans to carry out
forest-management and forest-cultivation measures, including the planting of
forests on the open banks of the reservoir in order tc organize water-
protection zones.
This is a perhaps dry but accurate presentation of the arithmetic pertainirg
to the hydrosystem, with which it would probably be desirable for the author
of the article "Planned Atlantis" to become acquainted before presenting «any
conclusions to the millions of newspaper readers.
One is surprised at the ease -- which of course arises from lack of
knowledgeability -- with which many people attempt to make judgments
concerning the possible alternatives for supplying water to Moscow.
For example, the alternative of taking water from the Rybinsk Reservoir to
provide water supply for Moscow is 3 times more expensive than the alternative
involving the Rzhev Hydrosystem...
The plan for the Rzhev Hydrosystem is currently being reconsidered
attentively. It is very important, during this critical period, for the
newspaper readers and all interested individuals to receive objective
information about the state of affairs.
S. V. Yakovlev, USSR Academy of Sciences corresponding
member, doctor of technical sciences; G. I. Muravin,
deputy chief of the Administration of Water-Supply and
Sewerage Management, Mossovet; A. A. Varga, doctor of
geological and mineralogical sciences; L. B. Bernshteyn,
doctor of technical sciences, and others. There was a
total of 11 signatures.
"A Number of Unsubstantiated Statements"
In order to begin, obviously, it is necessary to returr to the reasons why
today, when discussing the question of how to provide for the capital's future
water needs, specialists are arguing only about the Rzhev Hydrosysten. The
fact of the matter is that, in conformity with a decision by the directive
agencies of Mosgorispolkom, with the participation of USSR Minenergo [Ministry
of Power and Electrification], the technical-economic substantiation of the
Rzhev dam and two alternative plans was supposed to be prepared by 1977: one
was the building of the Oka-Moscow Canal and the other was the taking of water
from the Ryvinsk Reservoir. Gidroproyekt Institute, in essence, failed to
concur with the government's order by developing only the Rzhev version.
106
Other equally valuable studies for involving water sources to supply Moscow
remained unfulfilled b) the deadline. That is why there has been such a hue
and cry about the plan which is a model of a number of unsubstantiated
statements. We must prevent, and have the opportunity to prevent, any serious
ecological, economic, water-management, and cultural-historic miscalculations.
Let us re-emphasize: the Rzhev Hydrosystem will destroy the Volga River's last
ecosystem, which extends for 400 kilometers and where one can still find rare
species of the ichthycfauna (eel, lamprey, grayling), fertile bottomlands
along the banks, water meadows, and the most valuable pine forests in the
Volga basin, for which no compensation is possible. The accumulation of
spring waters in the Rzhev Reservoir will lead to a reduction of the
springtime freshet and to a sharp worsening of the quality of the water that
Moscow consumes today -- the water in the Ivankovskiy Reservoir. Benskiye
Rapids, the basic generators of oxygen saturation for the Volga, will be
destroyed by being included in the zone to be flooded. The regulated Volga
will become unrecognizable. Its climatic regime in the springtime will seem
to shift 100-200 kilometers to the north, and in the autumn, 100-150
kilometers to the south. Therefore the growing of plants, the management of
meadows, and the carrying out of agricultural operations will prove to be
under new and complicated conditions.
Furthermore, Mosgorvodoprovod, the basic work indicator of which is the volume
of water to be provided, finds today's wasteful water-management situation to
be economically profitable. That organization constantly plans an increase in
water consumption in the city, putting its hopes on production entities
requiring large a~ .ts of water and on an archaic structure of industrial
water supply. Fo example, Moscow has one of the country's lowest indicators
for the use of recycled industrial water: whereas in the Uralsk area, Kharkov,
and many other cities that recycling constitutes 80-90 percent, in the capital
that figure is only 43 percent. If, by the year 2000, Moscow's industry
reaches only the present-day level (average for the country) in the repeated
use of water, this will result in reducing the capital's fresh water needs by
an amount equal to 25 cubic meters a second. And that is the proposed water
production for the entire Rzhev Hydrosystem. Let us compute the expenditures:
the introduction of economy measures will require the investment of 40-45
miliion rubles. The Rzhev version will cost 200 million.
We have touched upon only one aspect of economy -- the recycling of industrial
water. But what if we were to eliminate the reasons why, today, in providing
water to apartment buildings and public buildings, 10 percent of the water is
lost, and 20 percent is lost inside them? And what if we coulc get back the
30 percent of the water that is overexpended today because of excess pressures
and uneconomical plumbing fixtures? Preliminary computations indicate that,
with average annual expenditures of approximately 40 million rubles to carry
out this program, there will be a saving of exactly twice as much by reducing
the per-capita water-consumption standards.
In our opinion, the situation has developed to such a point that the problem
of Moscow's water supply can be considered only from a combined approach.
Something that is very pertinent in this regard is the re-examination of the
traditional water-supply system: Moscow is one of the few cities in the Soviet
107
Union where, for the most part, surface water is used. But that system of
water supply is extremely vulnerable fror the point of view of pollution or --
in an extreme situation -- even the infection of that source of life. And yet
the total reserves of underground water in the Priokskoye and Vostochnoye
aquifers alone constitute 23 cubic meters a second -- an amount that is
sufficient to satisfy Moscow's drinking-water needs until the yer 2000. And,
incidentally, that water, after repurification, can be reused for technical
purposes.
Still another alternative decision could be the use of the water resources of
the upper-Volga reservoirs that are already in existence: the increase in the
reserves in the Ivankovskiy Reservoir with the aid of reverse pumping of the
water from its tail water, and the additional feeding of the water from the
Uglich Reservoir along the Canal imeni Moscow.
Thus, in order to provide the capital with water, the building of the Rzhev
Hydrosystem is not only undesirable, but also ecologically, economically, and
historically harmful. The USSR Academy of Sciences Scientific Council on the
Problems of the Biosphere considers it necessary to create a national park in
the upper Volga area, where, we repeat, man's strong interference has not yet
touched a unique sector of the ecosystem of this great Russian river, with its
rare species of fauna and flora, with its valuable (including recreational)
natural resources and irreplaceable natural landscapes and cultural-historical
monuments, the loss of which would become a disaster on a truly national
scale.
A. L. Yanish, Vice-President of the USSR Academy of
Sciences, academician, director of the USSR Academy of
Sciences Institute of the Lithosphere, Hero of Socialist
Labor; and B. S. Sokolov, academic secretary of the USSR
Academy of Science Department of Geology, Geophysics,
Geochemistry, and Mining Sciences, Hero of Socialist
Labor, president of the All-Union Paleontological
Society, academician.
5075
CSO: 1800/92
108
JPRS-UPS-86-058
3 Deceaber 1986
REGIONAL ISSUES
TUSSR FREIGHT HANDLING VIOLATIONS DISCUSSED
[Editorial Report] Ashkhabad SOVET TURKMENISTANY in Turkmen on 5 August
1986 carries on page 3 a 1600-word article by BN. Yusubov, first deputy
TUSSR procurator, on legal violations which regularly occur in the handling
of railroad freight; these primarily involve violations of safety regulations
and theft. Citing a number of recent accidents, he claims that “some
railroad workers are not following regulations and special instructions."
He adds that these situations “occur often" at freight handling
departments and result in damage or injury. He also notes that “"procuracy
and internal affairs organs have exposed numerous cases of the theft of
freight from rail transport. Such instances are occurring frequently at
railroad stations in Mary, Chardzhou, Ashkhabad, and Nebitdag."
/12624
CSO: 1830/110 - END -
199
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