"Next Saturday, almost the whole city gathered to listen to the word of God …"
(Acts 13:44)
Memories of the recent past. And it happened that not very long ago, although more than a month ago, a conversation began on VO about what the communist propagandists were doing in the 80s of the last century, that is, on the eve of 1991. It is clear that they were doing what they were ordered from above. There is such a concept - party discipline. And, fulfilling her requirements, you do not need to be too clever: once a private, do it. But these are all just words. And many, probably, wanted to know about what and how they were doing more specifically.
And what? Everyone who is interested in this is very lucky, because I have such information at my disposal. Moreover, not in one region, but in three at once: Penza, Saratov and Kuibyshev (now Samara). And this information is from the archives of the OK KPSS, that is, it cannot be more reliable. All the figures and facts given in the article will be links to archival materials. So you can check everything. And just as a drop of water can make a conclusion about the presence of the ocean, so according to the data of these three regions, it is quite possible to imagine the situation on the territory of the entire Union.
So, the concern of the party bodies, starting from the OK, the RK and the primary party organizations (in addition to the economy) was agitation and propaganda, that is, information support for the implementation of the party's policy. The goal was as follows: the formation of a Marxist-Leninist worldview, class consciousness, intransigence to bourgeois ideology, an organic need for mastering modern knowledge, raising the level of moral culture, developing high moral qualities, strengthening the fight against manifestations of individualism, indiscipline, immoral behavior [1] … this required increasing the professionalism of radio, television, press workers and their own moral qualities [2]. It was important to note the reaction of the workers, that is, how positively they relate to the policy of the party. And such a reaction was observed.
So, in the "Information on organizational and ideological activities" for 1985, received by the OK of the CPSU of the Penza region, the responses of the workers of the Penza region to the visit of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Mikhail Gorbachev were given, among which there is the following:
“With a feeling of deep interest I received the news about Mikhail Gorbachev’s trip to France,” said VM Burov, a locomotive depot locomotive depot in Penza-Sh, “when American imperialism intends to transfer the arms race to outer space” [3].
It was planned to raise the economic consciousness of the workers, as well as their sense of responsibility, with lectures. In 1985, the lecturer group of the Penza OK of the CPSU was instructed to prepare lectures on the following topics: "Developed socialist society - a society of true democracy" communal services of the city of Penza”[4].
In 1986, lectures were given on the following topics: "Labor accomplishment of workers of the region - to the XXVII Party Congress", "XXVII Congress of the CPSU and the tasks of the workers of the region", "Decisions of the XXVII Congress of the CPSU in the work and in the life of every labor collective, every worker", "Time and Harvest without losses, create a reliable forage base - the main tasks of the agro-industrial complex worker”[5]. In general, there are only solid "mantras". Because it is already clear and understandable that you need to work well, because they pay for a good job, and not for a marriage. Because housing and communal services should provide water and heat, and livestock without feed at all … will not last.
This is understandable today. But then, for some reason, it was believed that such an "ideological trick" is extremely necessary for the working people, that it must be constantly reminded of this, and that without such lectures it is impossible in any way.
These lectures were read on “Lenin's Fridays”. Moreover, an analysis of the funds of the regional committee of the CPSU of the Penza region shows that since 1986 the department of propaganda and agitation began to record the "sharp questions" that were asked on these "Lenin's Fridays". In 1985, there are no data on such questions at all. In 1986 they are there, but not enough. And since 1987, their volume has been growing sharply. Moreover, it is funny that the lecturer reads about one thing, and he is asked questions about something completely different. Roughly speaking, what's on the mind is on the tongue.
Here is the topic of the lecture on the Zheleznodorozhny district of the city of Penza on August 3, 1987:
"The June plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the tasks of the workers of the region to deepen perestroika." There are a lecturer of the RK, two speakers from the RK and three people from the city committee of the CPSU. And here are the questions asked to the speaker:
"What is the expression of the restructuring at our precast concrete plant?"
"Why do buses No. 1 and 4 run badly?"
"When will the road to the settlement of Soglasie be asphalted?"
"Will the percentage of housing for piano factory workers be increased?"
And further:
"Who is to blame for the fact that there are no cookies, gingerbread, rice and other goods on the shelves of shops in our city?"
"On whom does the poor performance of transport during rush hours depend?"
“In a bakery shop on the street. K. Zetkin a small assortment of bread, and they bring it in late … Will these shortcomings be eliminated?"
But besides the "everyday" people asked very acute questions of a social plan: "How can we explain the stagnation in our economy?", "How many drug addicts are there in Penza?"
And here are the questions on “Lenin's Friday” of August 19, 1988: “When will the local Soviets be the real power on the ground?”, “Where did the washing powder, caramel and items of women's toilet go?”, “What is the reason for the shortage of gasoline in the city?”, "How will each family get a separate apartment in 2000?" [6].
Well, and in Saratov in January 1986 they came up with a single political day throughout the region, at which a lecture was to be delivered: "A world without wars, without weapons - the ideal of socialism." That is, "the topic is about nothing," because this does not depend on the workers of the region. But for the implementation of plans for this political day, the forces of lecturers of the OK, RK, university professors and lecturers of the Knowledge Society were thrown [7].
Moreover, this work also noted shortcomings: a formal approach, a narrow topic of lectures in a youth audience, a lack of counter-propaganda in the media. It was noted that the majority of young people are critical of the Komsomol [8].
But can we say that the indoctrination of the same youth was poorly placed or insufficient?
For example, only in the Penza region in one year (from 1985 to 1986) there were 92 young communist schools, 169 political schools, 2366 schools of the foundations of Marxism-Leninism (this is, in general, beyond the limit, right?). And another 1279 schools of scientific communism, 31 - the school of party and economic activists, ideological activists - 62, theoretical seminars - 98, methodological seminars - 30, the University of Marxism-Leninism - 1. And in total, 5350 people passed through these structures in a year [9] …
And in Syzran in 1987 more than 5 thousand young men and women studied Marxist-Leninist theory and issues of foreign and domestic policy [10].
The term of study at the same university of Marxism-Leninism was calculated for two years. In 1987-1988. 1,600 people passed through it. 638 people completed the training. 730 people were transferred to the second course. 870 people were admitted again. But what courses were studied there: "The problem of accelerating the socio-economic development of the country", "Lenin's doctrine of communist morality", "The skill of public speaking."Frankly, they were not designed to prepare people for fundamental changes in Soviet society. Studying the history of the CPSU and scientific atheism also could not prepare the people for the reforms necessary for the transition to a market economy. Why did so many of our citizens turn out to be socially disoriented afterwards [11].
But in each region there was also a House of Political Education under the OK KPSS. There were organized internships for the head. offices of political education of party committees in production, seminars of propagandists of scientific communism, days of political books and posters, and much more.
In 1987-1988 alone, the DPP had 13,540 people on its list of listeners - a very impressive figure. Of these, 17 propagandists, 12 speakers were trained (and even an exam was arranged for them - an "open lecture" in the presence of an instructor of the Republic of Kazakhstan and a methodologist of the DPP), 22 primary-level lecturers, 33 political informers and 73 agitators [12].
So lecturers, agitators, propagandists, political informers were preparing for work in the field. And even the management of communications was carried out - information was collected about what people think and what they want.
At the same time, in a secret report of the party commission of the Kamensky district of the Penza region for 1986, it was reported that morality and ethics among the communists were not up to par. The negligence of workers and employees was noted, people abused their official position, such phenomena as drunkenness, embezzlement, embezzlement, loss and damage of party cards flourished (and in 1986 perestroika as such had not yet begun), separation from the party organization. For all this, 20 people were expelled from the party [13].
That is, what happened? It turns out that for many people it became simply difficult to live with a double morality, because propagandists and agitators said one thing, but in life they saw something completely different. And we had to do exactly the opposite. So it would not be an exaggeration to say that it was precisely due to the massive processing of the public consciousness of Soviet citizens and their lack of real opportunities to receive information from abroad and read the literature hidden in the special storage of Leninka that the party leadership in our country lasted so long. But in the end it also turned out to be untenable.
And how exactly this manifested itself in this region will be described in the next article.
