“… Seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, and they do not understand; and the prophecy of Isaiah is coming true over them, which says: with your hearing, you will not understand, and you will look with your eyes, and you will not see."
(Matthew 13:13, 14)
As already noted, an important role in the training of propaganda cadres was assigned to the universities of Marxism-Leninism, which were directly under the department of agitation and propaganda under the OK KPSS. So, in 1986, a branch of such a university was opened at the Penza State Pedagogical Institute named after V. I. V. G. Belinsky. There were also branches in regional centers, the cities of Kuznetsk, Zarechny and at the VEM plant. The course was designed for two years. The total number of students in 1987-1988 - 1600 people. 1138 people graduated from the training. 730 people were transferred to the 2nd course. 870 people were admitted again. However, the titles of the courses studied: "The problem of accelerating the country's socio-economic development", "Lenin's doctrine of communist morality", "The skill of public speaking" were least of all designed to prepare people for radical changes in Soviet society. Studying the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and scientific atheism could not prepare them for the reforms necessary for the transition to a market economy, in connection with which in the future most of all these people turned out to be socially disoriented [1].
It was on these slogans that our agitation for socialism was based. But she didn't act very well! In any case, if anyone bought footwear from our Kuznetsk factory in Penza, it was only for work. But the Yugoslavian boots for 40 rubles were worn with pleasure, although they had to be taken out.
At the same time, on the one hand, lecturers, agitators, propagandists, political informers were prepared for work in the field, on the other hand, lecturers of the regional committee of the CPSU (teachers of the city's universities and party workers who graduated from the HPS) prepared texts of lectures for them, collected and processed significant amounts of information, those. direct communication management was carried out, albeit in a very limited form.
Specifically for the ideological work with the population in each region was responsible for the House of Political Education under the OK KPSS. For example, only in the plan of events DPP ("House of Political Education" - we had in those years and such "houses" - V. Sh.) in Penza from January 6 to 11, 1986 were listed: classes at the University of Marxism-Leninism, a seminar for propagandists of schools of the foundations of Marxism-Leninism, classes for schools of ideological activists, a meeting of the party and economic activists of the regional public catering department. From 10 to 15 February of the same year, the work plan was just as intense: the internship of the head. offices of political education of party committees, seminar of propagandists of schools of scientific communism in Penza, Day of political books and posters; classes at the school of the ideological activists of the Leninsky district. At the same time, an exposition of the work experience of propagandists studying the works of V. I. Lenin [2].
Desk "book" of any Soviet agitator-propagandist. Armed, so to speak, with the correct angle of view …
According to the data for 1987–1988, 13,540 people were listeners. Of these, 17 propagandists, 12 speakers, 22 lecturers, 33 political informers, 73 agitators were trained [3].
It turns out that through the system of political agitation and propaganda in the city of Penza alone in the 80s.tens of thousands of people passed, from whom they brought up people devoted to the cause of Marxism-Leninism and "fiery fighters". At the same time, a secret report on the work of the party commission under the Kamensk city committee of the CPSU for 1986 indicated that violations of party discipline continued to take place. The most frequent violations of labor discipline were negligence and abuse of office. 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 expelled and expelled communists began to grow. That is, on the one hand, the party trained cadres of agitators and propagandists, on the other hand, life confidently took its toll. It became more and more difficult for people to live with a 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 only thanks to such a massive processing of public opinion and the lack of real opportunities to obtain information from countries with developed economies, the party leadership in our country lasted such a long period of time.
Naturally, all the personnel trained in the system of Marxist-Leninist education, on the direct instructions of the regional, city and district committees of the CPSU, were used to hold rallies, conversations, lectures and political information in labor collectives, educational institutions and at the place of residence of the population based on materials received from the Central Committee of the CPSU and developed locally [5].
The departments of propaganda and agitation of the OK KPSS in the regions also acted as receivers of information on feedback from the media. Usually, after the publication of an article in the newspaper, the bureau of the regional committee of the CPSU met, where it was discussed, after which there was a standard record that the criticism was recognized as correct, and the perpetrators would be punished. It was often stated that “specific measures were outlined to correct shortcomings” [6]. But these measures themselves were not always indicated.
Thus, in the materials of the Samara OK KPSS one can find a number of similar responses to newspaper publications sent by the OK KPSS to the editorial staff of critical newspapers. In response to the article “We do not like your work”, which was published in the newspaper “Soviet Russia” on May 6, 1986, the question was raised about the low quality of the Cascade TV sets produced by the “Ekran” association. The article was considered by the party committee of the enterprise and the bureau of the Kuibyshev OK of the CPSU. The newspaper's criticism was deemed correct. For serious omissions, the chief engineer, controller, head of TV production, head of the graduation department, deputy director for social issues were severely punished. To eliminate the identified shortcomings, with the participation of labor collectives, a complex of organizational and technical measures has been developed aimed at significantly increasing the operational reliability of televisions. For this purpose, their production was temporarily stopped [7].
At the same time, it should be emphasized that a very significant volume of cases that were in the jurisdiction of the Penza, Saratov and Samara regional committees of the CPSU (and it can be argued that in other regions too), was considered secret information and passed through secret office work with a "secret" stamp and "top secret". So, in the information marked "secret" dated January 10, 1985 "On the work of party, secular, trade union bodies of the region on the implementation of the decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU" On serious shortcomings and perversions in the development of collective horticultural and horticultural farms "it was indicated that all such partnerships there are 267 on the territory of the Penza region. 226 violations were noted in them. Cases of unauthorized seizure of land - 70. Excess in construction - 61. Illegally built garages - 4, bathhouses - 6 [8].
It seems to be obvious that it is precisely the negative aspects in the activities of these partnerships that should be made known to the general public, but then people would have to explain why nomenklatura workers had the right to a two-story dacha, while ordinary citizens did not.
At the same time, from the documents of the late 90s. 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 of the CPSU "On the socio-economic and political situation in the region" (1990) it was stated that "… confusion in the minds and panic moods are largely provoked by the imposition of an atmosphere of social distrust and suspicion in society …" and that … a barrier … to one-sided views … should be increased responsibility of journalists, heads of editorial teams, the introduction of representatives of the public, party, Soviet and Komsomol activists into editorial boards”[9].
It is indicative that the number of written appeals of workers to party bodies from 1985 to 1991 was constantly growing. This type of work is under the jurisdiction of the general departments of the OK KPSS. Many citizens were received personally by the secretaries of the respective departments. All letters had to be considered within a strict deadline. However, this rule was usually never followed, most often due to their large number of calls. So, for example, in 1988 in the Penza OK of the CPSU 865 people were personally received and 2,632 letters were considered. The largest proportion of such appeals accounted for requests for the provision, distribution and repair of housing, public services, comments on the work of leading personnel, courts, prosecutors, police and public amenities [10].
In the Samara region, for example, in 1985 alone, 4227 letters were received by the OK KPSS, of which 73 percent were sent for consideration to various committees of the OK KPSS and other organizations. During the same year, 225 issues related to working with letters were considered.
Letters from citizens and questions of working with them were discussed at 115 meetings of local executive committees, 188 sessions of village councils, 30 sessions of people's deputies. In the certificate of the OK KPSS "On the work of the committees for the implementation of the instructions of the XXVI Congress of the CPSU" On improving the work with letters "it was emphasized that all letters were considered within a strictly specified time frame. However, during their initial consideration, decisions in the interests of citizens were not always made, as evidenced by 700 repeated appeals on the same issues [11].
The largest number of letters related to the housing issue, including abuse of office. For example, in one of the letters it was reported that V. I. made an illegal three-time exchange of her apartment, as a result of which she left her daughter a 3-room apartment for a family of 2 people, and she herself moved to a cottage with a garden plot. These facts were confirmed by verification, Fetisova was expelled from the party and fired from her job [12].
But even when in the Samara region in 1990 - the first half of 1991 there was a sharp decline in the flow of letters, the terms of their consideration continued to be grossly violated. As a result, despite all the regulations, the work with citizens' appeals has not improved! [13]
By the way, what were the Soviets of Working People's Deputies - the direct organs of state power - doing at that time? We will tell you about this next time!
Archival sources:
1. OFOPO GAPO. F. 148. On. 1. D. No. 7177. P. 30.
2. OFOPO GAPO. F. 148. On. 1. D. No. 7094. From 25.
3. OFOPO GAPO. F. P. 148. On. 1. D. No. 77176. P. 219.
4. OFOPO GAPO. F. P. 148. Op. 1. D. ZH7031. P. 166.
5. Central House of Scientific Information (Central House of Scientific Information) F. 594. Op. 49. No. 161. P. 1.
6. OFOPO GAPO. F. P. 148, On. 1, D. No. 6902, p. 42.
7. GASPI F. 656, On. 189, d. No. 208. P. 31.
8. OFOPO GAPO. F. 148. Op. 1. D. # 6898. P. 156.
9. GAS PI F. 656, Op. 195, D. No. 564. P. 17.
10. OFOPO GALO. F. 148. On. 1. D. No. 7228. P. 23.
11. GASPI F. 656, Op. 189, D. No. 201. P. 31.
12. Ibid. P. 31.
