responsibility PPO's have for ensuring the correct behaviour of party members. PPO's and other social organisations are in fact respons ible for the social behaviour of all members of society. One of the leading actors of the
Novosibirsk oblast’ Drama Theatre got drunk and ruined a tour by the theatre. It was not the first time he had done so, but previously he had been considered indispensable. This time the party members decided that it was necessary to show that no degree of artistic merit can justify drunkenness. They demanded that the director dismiss the actor. Sov.kul rtura, 23/11/73, p. 2.
control, and the correct "social" values. These latter are not of such immediate political significance, but are
still of ideological importance, because they legitimise party involvement in all areas of life and because they foster the type of social behaviour necessary for a stable society. This fostering of the social values necessary for correct behaviour is of particular importance for
educational PPO's, since it is in educational institutions that much of the basic socialisation work in this area takes place.
I will now describe those PPO activities that are specifically concerned with operational indoctrination. We have seen that propaganda is theoretically directed
primarily towards the legitimation of the regime. By way of contrast agitation is generally concerned with more immediate and topical matters, Marxism-Leninism providing only the general framework. The Spravochnik declares:
Political agitation will be militant, concrete and realistic only when the
explanation of the ideas of Marxism-Leninism and the policies and decisions of the
Communist Party is given, not in general terms, but with an organic connection with the concrete tasks before each oblast', raion, enterprise and collective and state
masses in the resolution of these tasks on the basis of the experience of
leading people.^-
This quotation suggests that the main function of agitation is communication. The massive agitation campaigns that accompany, for example, each Party Congress and Five Year Plan are designed to explain to each collective and each individual worker what is expected of them in the
fulfilment of the particular goals set by the Congress or Plan. The explanation of these tasks should take account of the general context in which the collective or
individual is situated and the immediate production
concerns of the collective. The party buro, when working out the topics for agitation work, is expected to consult with the "host" organisation's leadership to ensure that
2 the most important production problems are covered.
What are the various forms of agitation and what role do PPO's play in them? The means of agitation include all the media and various forms of face-to-face communication, oral and visual. PPO's are involved only with the latter. Face-to-face communication consists primarily of meetings, smaller informal conversations, and visual agitation
through the use of posters, placards, etc.
1 Spravoohnik, op. cit., p. 519. 2 ibid, p. 525.
Meetings can be organised under party or non- party auspices. Other social organisations such as trade unions and the komsomol conduct mass meetings for their
members to publicise recent events and policy announcements. While the PPO is not directly involved in such meetings it can be confidently stated that it controls these activities as closely as it controls all other activities of social organisations. The Bol'shaia Sovetskaia Entisklopediia, quoted by Conquest, declares that the Central Committee of the CPSU "has charged Party organisations with conveni ng general meetings of the workers in all enterprises and collective farms to hear reports on current political
events at least once every 1-15$ months".^ I have not found any specific mention of such regular general meetings for all workers organised by PPO’s. However trade union and komsomol meetings, combined with the usual PPO meetings, would certainly have the same effect as such meetings.
Many regular general PPO meetings are essentially exercises in agitation. The key-note addresses at these meetings are usually concerned with the tasks of the collective in the fulfilment of the latest economic and other policy goals of the party leadership. It is
particularly evident that, after a Party Congress, the announcement of a new Five Year Plan or a particularly
important Central Committee Plenum, party meetings are used as forums for explaining the role of the collective and its individual members in the fulfilment of national policy. The wide, and apparently increasing, use of open party meetings means that these forums are not closed to non-party members. Certainly there are occasions when party members will be informed of their own particular
tasks in closed meetings. However party meetings concerned with publicising recent important announcements of the top leadership are usually open to non-party people. The
Spravochnik says:
It is well known that the decisions of plenums of the Central Committee of the
CPSU on questions of agriculture and industry are addressed not only to the party, but to the whole Soviet people. Primary party
organisations, in considering these decisions, work out practical measures which they will be putting into effect with the cooperation of the non-party masses. It is understood that the enlisting of non-party people in the consideration of these questions can only help the party organisation more completely uncover shortcomings in work, take into account the advice of the non-party masses, and heighten their
political and production activity (aktivnostf).^
These general meetings are complemented by closer contacts between agitators and smaller groups of workers. Conquest quotes Lenin to the effect that "mass meetings are not enough; what is needed is personal agitation - 'every free day, every free hour of the
conscious worker must be used for personal agitation'."^ Conquest gives the best brief description of the style of
2
such close forms of agitation. The "chats" (besedy) conducted by agitators are concerned with recent policy decisions, best illustrated by reading aloud from Soviet newspapers, so carefully portrayed in photographs in the Soviet press. However they also deal with more specific and immediate production problems and are expected to contribute to the mobilisation of workers towards greater efficiency and productivity.
While it is said that agitators should display some initiative in the choice of the topics of chats, in fact they are closely controlled by the PPO. Conquest quotes a Soviet handbook to the effect that "usually a model list of the most topical themes at a given moment
3
is recommended to agitators every month". The PPO is also responsible for the appointment, organisation and training of agitators. Work as an agitator is one of the most common
1 Conquest, op. cit., p. 114. 2 ibid, pp. 114-117.
ways for a party member to fulfil his obligations to do some party work in addition to his normal job. Conquest speaks of the agitkollektivy, the groups of agitators run by the PPO. While the group will not usually be headed by the party secretary, he must personally direct its work,
"because he knows the concrete tasks of the enterprise or collective farm, and the raikom's or gorkom's instructions better than anyone else and can ensure that agitation is carried out not in an abstract manner, but closely linked to life".^ The formal head of the group will be one of the best-trained party activists. Presumably in PPO's big enough to have a deputy secretary for ideological affairs he will be directly responsible for agitation.
The training and preparation of agitators is also the responsibility of the PPO, with the party secretary again being directly involved. The Spravochnik declares:
The quality of agitational work depends largely on how party organisations assist in expanding the political vision of agitators, how they arm them with concrete knowledge of industrial and agricultural production and teach them how to conduct explanatory work.
In seminars for agitators there must be
1 Conquest, op. cit., p. 116. The quotation is from the Spravochnik, p. 504. It is a good illustration of the staff generalist qualities which must be possessed by a PPO secretary.
presented general political reports, consultations must be arranged and exchange of experience conducted. There should be sample illustrations
(predmetnyi pokaz) of how to conduct a chat, how to best make some fact or other easy to understand.
But along with the whole range of reports and seminars no less significance for the training of agitators should be given to everyday contact between them and the party organisation secretary.'*'
Conversations between an agitator and one other person are also common, particularly, it seems, in cases where the subject of attention has persisted in holding
incorrect views. In these cases the control element
appears to be dominant over the communication function. The party secretary will often be involved in such conversations. The secretary of the party committee of the Mossovet Theatre is praised for the fatherly attitude he has towards the
younger generation, particularly in the individual conversations
2
he conducts as part of the PPO's agitation work. When the party buro of Kazan State University found out that one
fourth year student in the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics
1 Spravochnik, op. cit., p. 520. 2 Teatralrnaia zhizn', 4/69, p. 9.
had confused and inconsistent opinions on party policies and Soviet power, the party secretary set matters right by answering all the student's questions in a personal conversation.^
Some brief mention should be made of visual agitation. Little need be added to Conquest's treatment
2
of the matter. All visitors to the Soviet Union will have seen the placards, posters, large photographs and stands for the display of newspapers that are found in the streets and on buildings. The messages conveyed are usually of a very general nature. They are complemented by further
placards, charts, graphs, "boards of honour", wall newspapers, etc., inside working organisations. These displays usually carry a more concrete message for the working collective. They are not necessarily arranged by the PPO; for example, charts on the progress of socialist competition are
probably put up by the trade union. However the PPO has overall responsibility for visual agitation.
As Conquest makes clear, some Soviet writers are themselves aware of the inadequacies of most forms of visual agitation. It is impossible to measure their overall
effectiveness. My own observations suggest that they are paid very little conscious attention. While the possibility
1 Kom., 7/57, p. 118.
of a sub-conscious effect should not be entirely
discounted, some considerable scepticism is justified.
How widespread and effective, then, is the work of agitators? Conquest makes the interesting point that agitation meetings provide one of the few forums available to Soviet citizens for making complaints, not about the system as a whole, but about specific grievances they might have.'*' It is difficult to say just what advantage is taken of such a forum. The fact that the Spravochnik finds it necessary to devote several pages to the "explanation of difficult (ostrye) questions" suggests that considerable
2
advantage is taken. It is even more difficult to decide what effect the answers to the questions have. Do they contribute to the legitimation of the regime and the positive mobilisation of the masses, or do they serve to further alienate them? It must depend enormously on the quality of the particular agitator and the nature of particular questions. However the general tone of the Spravochnik's treatment of the matter is not reassuring.
If someone complains about living conditions the agitator must not express sympathy, but is to strengthen the person's confidence that life for the masses is improving. It goes o n :
Of course, we meet some people who do not want
1 ibid, p. 115.
to take into account anything, who do not wish to see our great successes or achieve ments or the reasons for any shortcomings. For them everything is bad. And there are others who see everything only from their own point of view (sudiat obo vsem so svoei kolokol'ni), who do not think about state interests ... One has to explain things patiently to those who .really do not under stand something and wish to satisfy them selves with the truth, but those who stir things up should receive a decisive rebuff.^"
Indeed other statements lead one to suspect that ideological control plays a prominent part in the minds of the
authorities who have established the system of agitation. The Spravoohnik declares that "party organisations must
directly interest themselves in the questions that the masses put to agitators so that these questions can be generalised, conclusions can be derived from them and the agititor him self will consider it essential to go to the party organis ation to tell about how a conversation had gone and what
2
matters of interest had arisen from i t " . Although the control function of agitation should not be stressed at the expense of its communication function the close and
1 2
ibid, pp. 522, 525. ibid, pp. 520-521.
continuing contacts between agitator and the masses that characterise so many forms of agitation give it a great potential for contributing to that constant and pervasive observation of the everyday activities of the Soviet
masses which is such an important part of rank-and-file
party members' functions and is so important for maintaining the supremacy of the party's ideology.
Thus it appears that while propaganda activities make a very significant contribution to operational
indoctrination, agitation activities could make their contribution to value indoctrination. But before we can confidently assert this we have to look at the actual
extent of agitation activities in non-production institutions. There have been complaints in the Soviet press that PPO's
neglect agitation because they consider "agitation (to be) work of minor importance, destined only for the backward
strata of the population".'*' Such an attitude would
presumably be most widespread in the PPO's of non-production institutions, with their virtual monopoly of the Soviet
intelligentsia. Evidence of the unwillingness of communists in non-production insitutions to involve themselves in
2
agitation work gives some limited support to this view. The 1 Kom. , 10/65, p. 51; quoted in Conquest, op. cit.,
p. 117.
2 In 1966 the secretary of the party committee of Moscow State University complained about the unwillingness of academic workers to become
involved in party work. Kom., 10/66, p. 36. In 1968 in the Obninsk branch of the Physical Chemistry Institute only seventeen of the 79 leading workers were involved in political work. Kom., 18/68, p. 43.
fact that there is an almost total lack of detailed information on agitation activities in non-production institutions constitutes stronger evidence. Even articles by party secretaries on the ideological
activities of their PPO's give few details on the type of agitation work described in this section. The emphasis is usually on the political indoctrination seminars already described. It is unlikely that non-production PPO's entirely ignore agitation work - .my own observations at Moscow State University suggest that they continue;
visual agitation was very much in evidence, while large- scale meetings and smaller-scale chats appeared to be conducted in order to discuss current political events. However the evidence, circumstantial as it is, strongly suggests that the PPO's, and their party superiors, believe in the superiority of political indoctrination
seminars for providing a combination of ideological control, communication and practical training in a form that
intellectuals will not find totally ridiculous. The
evidence suggests that of the types of agitation activities discussed in this section only party meetings, including open party meetings, are used to any significant degree for operational indoctrination.
4. Material and other forms of incentive
indoctrination discussed so far have really touched on is mobilisation. Value indoctrination provides a passive acceptance of the legitimacy of the Soviet ideology and party power. However there is no evidence that it
produces positive mobilisation of the working masses. Operational indoctrination, in the form of agitation, undoubtedly lays considerable stress on the material benefits, both long and short-term, to be gained from
dedicated production performance.. However the effectiveness of such agitation seems to depend heavily on the workers being presented with actual evidence of those benefits, particularly the short-term ones. In effect agitation activities become little more than publicity for various systems of material incentive. It can hardly be said, in that case, that the agitation is providing the mobilisation.
When we speak of material incentive we mean mobilisation through the material reward of individual workers by their working collectives. Soviet theorists recognise that Soviet citizens, not yet living in a society that has reached the stage of full communism, do not
see work as an "organic" need, but primarily as a necessary means to life. This makes it possible, and indeed necessary, to motivate people to work through material reward.'*' Wages
are the basic form of material reward, providing the essential means of life.1 However it is recognised that wages are of limited mobilising value. Because they are
fixed at a certain level that will not be changed
regardless of work done,short of promotion or dismissal, they motivate little more than minimum job fulfilment.
This fact has enabled, or required, the Soviet authorities to develop an extensive and complicated
system of material incentive beyond the payment of a fixed wage. Using as justification the socialist principle of
"to each according to his work", Soviet theorists and administrators have worked out a system in which material rewards to individual workers are tied to the degree of their fulfilment and their collective's fulfilment of set tasks.
In practice the range of different systems of material incentive is enormous. Even a brief survey of them is far beyond the scope of this thesis. However I will give some idea of the problems facing the systems, an
indication of the extent of their use in the different
categories of non-production institutions, and one relatively detailed example that shows PPO involvement in material
incentive.
The main problem with systems of material
incentive is finding ways to effectively measure