Propaganda and agitation in the USSR in the era of perestroika (part of 2)
“... seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, and do not understand; and the prophecy of Isaiah comes true over them, which says: hear with hearing, you will not understand, and you will look with your eyes and you will not see. ”
(Matthew 13: 13,14)
(Matthew 13: 13,14)
As already noted, an important role in the training of propaganda personnel was assigned to the universities of Marxism-Leninism, which were under the direct jurisdiction of the agitation and propaganda department of the OC of the CPSU. Thus, in 1986, a branch of such a university was opened at the Penza State Pedagogical Institute. V.G. Belinsky. There were also branches in the regional centers, the cities of Kuznetsk, Zarechny and the VEM plant. The course of study was designed for two years. The total number of students in 1987-1988. - 1600 people. Graduated 1138 people. Translated into 2 course 730 person. The newly adopted 870 man. However, the names of the courses studied: “The problem of accelerating the socio-economic development of the country”, “Lenin’s theory of communist morality”, and “Mastery of public speaking” were least intended to prepare people for fundamental changes in Soviet society. Study of stories The CPSU and scientific atheism could not prepare them for the reforms necessary for the transition to a market economy, and therefore, in the future, the majority of all these people were socially disoriented [1].
It was on such slogans that agitation for socialism was built here. Yes, that's something she did not act! In any case, in Penza, for us, the shoes of our Kuznetsk factory, if anyone bought, then only for work. But the Yugoslav shoes for 40 rubles wore with pleasure, although they had to get.
At the same time, on the one hand, lecturers, agitators, propagandists, political informers for fieldwork prepared, on the other hand, lecturers prepared lectures for lecturers of the city and party workers who graduated from the HPS, collected and processed significant amounts of information, those. direct communication management was carried out, even if in a very limited form.
Specifically, the House of Political Education under the OC of the CPSU was responsible for ideological work with the population in each region. For example, only in terms of the activities of the DPP (“House of Political Education” - we had those “houses” in those years - V.Sh.) in Penza from 6 to 11 in January 1986 were: classes of the University of Marxism-Leninism, a seminar of propagandists of the schools of the foundations of Marxism-Leninism, the occupation of schools of ideological activists, a meeting of the party and economic activists of the regional public catering department. From 10 to 15 in February of the same year, the work plan was just as rich: the internship head. cabinets of political education of the party committees, a seminar of propagandists of the scientific communism schools of Penza, a Day of political books and posters; classes of the ideological asset of the Leninsky district. At the same time, an exposition from the experience of propagandists studying the works of V.I. Lenin [2].
Board "book" of any Soviet propagandist agitator. Armed, so to speak, the right angle of view ...
According to 1987 – 1988, the audience was 13540 people. Of these, 17 propagandists, 12 speakers, 22 lecturers, 33 political informers, 73 agitators [3] were prepared.
It turns out that through the system of political agitation and propaganda in the city of Penza alone in the 80-s. Tens of thousands of people marched, of whom they brought up people devoted to the cause of Marxism-Leninism and “fiery fighters”. At the same time, in a secret report on the work of the party committee at the Kamensky city committee of the CPSU for 1986, it was stated that violations of party discipline continue to occur. The most frequent violations of labor discipline were negligence and abuse of official position. The immoral behavior of many communists was expressed in drunkenness, embezzlement, embezzlement, criminal offenses, loss and damage of party cards, separation from the party organization, followed by the exclusion of 20 people [4]. This was the case at the “dawn” of perestroika, and then the number of retired and excluded communists began to grow. That is, on the one hand, the party trained cadres of agitators and propagandists, on the other - life confidently took its toll. It became harder and harder for people to live with double morality, when in words there was one thing, another was thought, and they had to do something completely opposite. It can be concluded that it was only thanks to such a massive processing of public opinion and the lack of real opportunities to obtain information from countries with developed economies that the party leadership in our country lasted for such a long period of time.
Naturally, all the cadres trained in the Marxist-Leninist education system were directly used by direct instructions from the regional committees, city committees and district committees of the CPSU to hold meetings, talks, lectures and political information based on materials received from the CPSU Central Committee and field developed [5].
The propaganda and agitation departments of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the regions also acted as receivers of information on the feedback from the media. Usually, after the publication of the article in the newspaper, the Bureau of the Communist Party of the Communist Party met, where it was discussed, after which there was a standard record that the criticism was found correct and the guilty would be punished. It has often been pointed out that “concrete measures are being taken to correct deficiencies” [6]. But these measures themselves were not always indicated.
So, in the materials of the Samara OK CPSU it is possible to find a number of similar responses to newspaper publications sent by the OK CPSU in the editorial office that criticized the newspapers. In response to the article “We do not like your work”, which was published in the newspaper “Soviet Russia” 6 in May 1986, the question was raised about the low quality of Cascade TVs, produced by the association “Ekran”. The article was reviewed by the party committee of the enterprise and the Bureau of the Kuibyshev OK Party of the CPSU. Criticism of the newspaper was recognized as correct. For serious omissions, the chief engineer, controller, TV production manager, head of the graduation department, and deputy director for social issues were punished. To eliminate the identified deficiencies with the participation of labor collectives, a set of organizational and technical measures have been developed, aimed at significantly improving the operational reliability of televisions. To this end, their production was temporarily stopped [7].
At the same time, it should be emphasized that a very significant amount of cases under the jurisdiction of the Penza, Saratov and Samara Regional Committee of the CPSU (and it can be argued that in other regions too) was considered secret information and passed through the secret office work with the “secret” signature. and "top secret". Thus, in the information classified as “secret” from 10 in January 1985, “On the work of party, secular, trade union bodies of the region to implement the CPSU Central Committee decree“ On serious shortcomings and distortions in the development of collective horticultural and gardening farms ” on the territory of the Penza region there is 267. They noted 226 violations. Cases of unauthorized seizure of land - 70. Excesses in construction - 61. Illegally built garages - 4, baths - 6 [8].
It seems to be obvious that it was precisely the negative aspects in the activities of these partnerships that should have been made available to the general public, but then people would have to explain why nomenklatura employees had the right to a two-story dacha, and ordinary citizens did not.
At the same time, from the documents of the end of 90's. one can see a complete lack of understanding of what is happening among the workers of party organizations. So, for example, in the document of the Samara OK CPSU "On the socio-economic and political situation in the region" (1990), it was stated that "... confusion in minds and panic moods are largely provoked by planting an atmosphere of social distrust and suspicion in society. .. ”, and that ... a barrier ... one-sided views ... should be increasing the responsibility of journalists, heads of editorial teams, introducing members of the public, party, Soviet and Komsomol activists to the editorial board [9].
It is indicative that the number of written appeals of workers to the party organs from 1985 to 1991 was constantly growing. This type of work is managed by the general departments of the CPSU OK. Many citizens were taken personally by the secretaries of the respective departments. All letters should be considered in a strictly fixed time. However, this rule was usually never maintained, most often because of their large number of hits. So, for example, in 1988 in the Penza OK CPSU, 865 people were personally accepted and 2632 letters were considered. The largest share of such appeals accounted for requests for the provision, distribution and repair of housing, public services, comments on the work of leading cadres, court bodies, prosecutors, police and improvement [10].
In the Samara region, for example, only for one 1985, the OC of the CPSU received 4227 letters, of which 73 percentages were sent to various committees of the OC of the CPSU and other organizations. Over the same year, 225 addressed issues related to work with letters.
Citizens' letters and issues of work with them were discussed at 115 meetings of local executive committees, 188 sessions of village councils, 30 sessions of people's deputies. The certificate of the OC CPSU "On the work of the committees for the implementation of the instructions of the XXVI CPSU Congress" On the improvement of work with letters "emphasized that all letters were considered in strictly fixed terms. However, during their initial consideration, decisions in the interests of citizens were not always made, as indicated by 700 repeated appeals on the same issues [11].
The largest number of letters concerned the housing issue, including on the abuse of official position. For example, in one of the letters it was reported that the head of the department for accounting and distribution of living space of the Togliatti city executive committee, VI Fetisov. made an illegal three-time exchange of her apartment, as a result of which she left her daughter 3-room apartment for a family in 2 a person, she herself moved to a cottage with a private plot. These facts were confirmed by verification, Fetisov was expelled from the party and dismissed [12].
But even when in the Samara region in 1990 - the first half of 1991, there was a sharp reduction in the flow of letters, the timing of their consideration continued to be grossly violated. As a result, despite all the decisions, the work with citizens' appeals has not improved! [13]
By the way, what did the Soviets of Workers' Deputies - the direct organs of state power do at this time? We will tell about it next time!
To be continued ...
Archive sources:
1. OFOPO GAPO. F. 148. On. 1. D. No. 7177. S. 30.
2. OFOPO GAPO. F. 148. On. 1. D. No. 7094. From 25.
3. OFOPO GAPO. F. P. 148. On. 1. D. No. 77176. S. 219.
4. OFOPO GAPO. F. P. 148. Op. 1.D.J7031. S. 166.
5. TsDNI (Central House of Scientific Information) F. 594. Op. 49. No. 161. C. 1.
6. OFOPO GAPO. F.P. 148, On. 1, D. No. 6902, S. 42.
7. GASPI F. 656, On. 189, d. No. 208. S. 31.
8. OFOPO GAPO. F. 148. Op. 1.D. No. 6898. S. 156.
9. GAS PI F. 656, Op. 195, D. No. 564. S. 17.
10. OFOPO HALO. F. 148. On. 1. D. No. 7228. S. 23.
11. GASPI F. 656, Op. 189, D. No. 201. S. 31.
12. Ibid. S. 31.
Information