“… And the rain fell, and the rivers overflowed, and the winds blew, and rushed on that house, and it did not fall, because it was founded on a stone. And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not fulfill them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand; and the rain fell, and the rivers overflowed, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and he fell, and there was a great fall."
(Gospel of Matthew 7:27)
Memories of the recent past. So what are we writing about? We write about the achievements of party work with the masses, about the development of political education of the working people, about how the CPSU, sparing no expense and effort, trained agitators, propagandists, opened the universities of Marxism-Leninism, as professors and associate professors of universities in the Penza, Saratov and Kuibyshev regions read lectures, "round tables" were held, in a word, in every possible way they raised the information-conscious level of working fields, farms and industrial enterprises. Well, the district and regional committees of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union controlled this work and by all means increased its effectiveness!
True, it should be noted here, and, unfortunately, you cannot erase a word from the song, very often a significant volume of cases that could just interest the working masses went through the secret office work and went under the heading "secret" and "top secret". That is, the "people" should have known that the United States was preparing "Star Wars", but it was impossible to know, for example, about "Serious shortcomings and perversions in the development of collective and gardening farms", reflected in the information of the OK of the CPSU of the Penza region of January 10, 1985 … And there it was reported that there are 267 such partnerships in the region, but there are 1226 violations in them. Unauthorized seizures of land - 70 cases, violations in construction - 61, illegally built baths - 6, and garages - 4 [1].
It would seem that only people would be told about this, but then they would have to explain why nomenklatura workers could have a two-story dacha, but ordinary citizens could not!
Moreover, when the process of perestroika began in the country and in the region, the party bodies in Samara, for example, did not understand at all what was happening around them. In 1990, a resolution of the OK of the CPSU was issued, which stated:
"… confusion in the minds and panic moods are largely provoked by the imposition of an atmosphere of social distrust and suspicion in society …" [2]
And the conclusion was this:
"Increasing the responsibility of journalists should become a barrier to one-sided views … the introduction of representatives of the public (well, nonsense, absolutely obvious! - V. Sh.), party, Soviet and Komsomol activists into the editorial boards." [3]
As always, the Volga region party organizations from 1985 to 1991 paid a lot of attention to working with letters and appeals from citizens. And many secretaries of OK and RK were received personally! However, the deadlines for considering appeals and issuing responses to them were never met.
How many requests were there? Yes very many. For example, in 1988 in the Penza OK of the KPSS, 865 people were accepted and 2,632 letters were considered. In the Samara region in 1985 - 4227 letters, and work with letters of citizens was discussed at 115 meetings of local executive committees, 188 sessions of village councils, 30 sessions of people's deputies. The XXVI Congress of the CPSU demanded that this work be improved. But … a lot of letters were reviewed again. The citizens were not satisfied with the answers. Many of them have applied repeatedly [4].
As a result, no matter how much they talked about improving the work with letters, it did not improve [5].
But, implementing the decisions of the 27th Congress of the CPSU, the Penza Council of People's Deputies made the decision:
“To improve the service of the population with cultural and leisure activities … to conduct persistent anti-alcohol propaganda in cinemas, to open a lecture hall for a sober lifestyle. Conduct conversations about morality: "About materialism" (well, yes, very important in 1986!), "Friendship is a serious thing", "Let's talk about humanity." [6]
In general, people were engaged in building a house on the sand with the stubbornness of idiots!
But what cases were considered at the sessions of the City Executive Committee: "On the state and measures to improve the work on the prevention of offenses among students of the vocational school № 1" (08.04.85); "On measures to improve the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism and the eradication of moonshine at the brick factory No. 1" (09.15.87); "On the state of legal work at the Penza Brewery" (28.12.87) [7].
But the orders of voters sent to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and the USSR were fulfilled 100% in 1988. There were … three! While the district councils of Penza received 34 orders, and it was fulfilled … 17 [8]!
Since the deputies did not have personal funds at that time, they were completely dependent on budget allocations and could not do anything outside the budget. The documents also indicated that the deputy could not fulfill his duties due to being on maternity leave or on parental leave. But the main thing, of course, is the deputies' lack of money. Thus, the deputy M. Gubenko, when he reported on his work at the VEM plant (April 1987), told his voters that he wanted to build an underground passage from the VTUZ plant to the VEM. He also conducted a reception of voters, built a playground on the street. Revolutionary, and … that's it! Such was our effective “people's power” in the localities [9].
And then Gorbachev became famous for his statements: "" and "" [10]. That is, there is no money to improve the situation "below", but there is nothing to talk to the opposition about either. Let everything go as it went, as the "top" command!
More than once I met in the comments on VO statements that it was necessary for university employees to conduct research. Inform "where it is necessary" about what is happening in society. Like, what did they do that they didn't?
And they … just did! The ideological sector of the OK KPSS in the Saratov region conducted one of the first sociological surveys in the country. True, the report did not indicate the total number of respondents, but it was noted that 53% of Saratov women aged 29 to 49 took part in it. The result is a 29-page document full of very interesting information. In fact, this was a guide to action for the CPSU to deepen political, economic and other reforms, that is, the quintessence of what the people want. But … this study did not find any specific application. Its results were not reported by the media, newspapers did not write. They just put him under the rug … [11]
Curious events took place in the city of Chapaevsk. There, right within the city limits, they began to build a plant for the disposal of chemical weapons. And with the money of the Americans. They came to see what their money was spent on. Moreover, there were representatives of the US Congress and journalists. And opponents of the construction in August 1989 set up a whole tent city and walk around with posters in gas masks. The Americans arrived after these events, but, of course, they knew about everything. They ask, have you allocated money to work with public opinion? The answer to them is: “N-o-o-o! What for? Our people and party are one! " Americans: "But what about those in gas masks?" “And this is the opposition. And dialogue with the opposition is impossible! " As a result, the Americans felt that the money had been spent inappropriately and did not finance a project that so many people did not approve of. As a result, the plant was never completed and put into operation [12].
By the way, the Samara OK of the CPSU, just like the OK of Saratov, took care of researching the public opinion of the residents of the city and the region. Employees of the Kuibyshev State University interviewed the communists on the activities of the CPSU and perestroika. The result was a proposal to create an OPC - a social and political center to ensure a dialogue between the party and the masses, conduct consultations and forecast work [13]. And it was even created. It turned out to be something like a PR-department of the fourth type of communications according to J. Grunig. But … the train has already left!
And again, it is interesting that the regional committees of the CPSU demanded, and without fail, the following work with the masses:
But … it was all in words and on paper. Neither the party organs themselves, nor the masses of the working people were ready for this. They are accustomed to an imperative manner of communication. Hence the extremely painful nature of the entry of Soviet people into a completely new economic, but also informational space, in which people simply could not find their bearings. They did not have the habit of looking for information themselves, selecting the one that was beneficial to them, and acting accordingly to the information received … Find a common language with those who speak and think differently. There was also a crisis of social self-identity that gripped the majority of Russians [14]. The subsequent decades have only confirmed this. And even now, after so many years, we still do not observe an absolutely changed situation for the better. Although it would be high time …
