Remarks at a Session of the Bureau of the Presidium of the CC CPSU, 27 October 1952

Source: Tom 18

Our propaganda is conducted poorly — it is some kind of rubbish, not propaganda. Everyone is dissatisfied with the state of propaganda work. There is not a single member of the Politburo who is satisfied with the work of the Propaganda Department. Our cadres, especially the youth, lack a deep knowledge of Marxism. Our older generation was strong because we had a solid command of Marxism and political economy. Propaganda through newspapers is particularly weak, especially in Pravda. Pravda's editor Ilichev is feeble. He is simply too small for such a job. We ought to appoint an editor-in-chief of Pravda who is stronger than this one, and let this one go and learn.

Pravda is the newspaper of newspapers. It must synthesize the experience of all newspapers. It must reprint good articles and excerpts from other newspapers. Pravda must be the principal base for the work of the Propaganda Department. Well, whom do you propose to appoint as editor-in-chief of Pravda? Surely this cannot be put off for a hundred years? — Everyone was silent. — Yes, you do not know your people.

We must also think about better leadership of industry. We need a unified Department of Industry and Transport, headed by a major figure. We must monitor cadres, study them, and promote young people to leading positions in a timely manner. We have many capable young people, but we know the young cadres poorly. And after all, if you have promoted a person to some position and he sits in that job for ten years without further advancement, he stops growing and is ruined as a worker. How many people have been ruined because they were not promoted in time.

Things are going poorly in agriculture. Party workers do not know the history of agriculture in Europe, do not know how animal husbandry is conducted in the United States. They just sign papers and by doing so ruin the cause.

Our young cadres are poorly prepared in theoretical terms; they must be helped to grow. Lectures, of course, are a useful thing, but the main role in the growth of cadres must be played by printed propaganda.

To direct all of the Party's ideological work, a standing commission on ideological questions should be created under the Presidium of the CC. The commission should be staffed with 10 to 20 qualified workers — the commission's apparatus. We need people there with knowledge of languages — English, German, French (which is now less widely spoken), Spanish (more than 120 million people speak Spanish). We need to find someone with a good command of Chinese. Perhaps take Fedorenko? They must all be provided with good salaries.

The commission on ideological questions must help raise the level of printed Marxist propaganda. The base for this commission's work should be the journal Bolshevik. The journal is being run poorly, in a petty fashion. It must be set up so that other journals take their example from it. The editorial board of the journal must be reviewed. What do we need Ilichev for? There you could even have two editors.

Bolshevik must carry reviews and critical articles on local journals, target them, help them improve their work. The commission must take under its supervision the work of the journals Problems of Philosophy, Problems of Economics, Problems of History, and perhaps some other journals. It is time to put an end to the disgraceful practice of reprinting various Party and government resolutions in theoretical journals — after all, that means trailing behind events.

Propaganda of political economy and philosophy must be placed on a serious footing. Only, do not get carried away with the unity of opposites — that is Hegelian terminology.

The Americans refute Marxism, slander us, try to discredit us. We must expose them. We must acquaint people with the ideology of our enemies, criticize that ideology, and this will arm our cadres.

We are now conducting not merely a national policy, but a world policy.

The Americans want to subordinate everything to themselves. But America is not respected in a single capital.

In Pravda and the Party journals we must broaden the horizons of our people, take a wider view — we are a world power. We should not be rummaging around in petty questions. Our people are afraid to write on questions of foreign policy; they wait for instructions from above.

Popular pamphlets on various subjects are needed. In the old days there were pamphlets such as Who Lives by What? or What Every Worker Needs to Know. Many workers began their political-economic education with such pamphlets. We now need pamphlets that are more serious, more substantive — but such popular pamphlets are needed.

Our lectures lack depth, but they do give something. For lectures, one must sometimes travel out to the localities. In general, for ideological work, for inspections, one should travel out to the localities for a couple of weeks.

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Source: Voprosy istorii [Problems of History], 1998, No. 7, pp. 33–34.

Note: Recorded by D. T. Shepilov and P. F. Yudin.