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June 4, 1968

Informational Note on Subversive Materials Arriving from the CSSR

CPSU CENTRAL COMMITTEE

Recently the newspaper “Nove zhittya” and the journals “Duklya” and “Druzhno vpered,” which are published in Ukrainian in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic by the Cultural Union of Ukrainian Workers (KSUT), have begun to arrive regularly from the CSSR for individual citizens and also for schools and museums in the Ivano-Frankivs'k oblast of the UkrSSR. As we reported earlier, these publications often feature materials that incorrectly depict the processes under way in the CSSR and USSR, and are replete with attacks against well-known cultural figures in the UkrSSR, casting doubt on Ukraine's achievements during the years of Soviet power, and so forth. 212

During the period from March to May 1968, some 152 issues of the “Nove zhittya” newspaper, 10 issues of the “Duklya” journal, and 6 issues of the “Druzhno vpered” journal have been sent by the editors of these publications to Ukrainians living in the CSSR.

A large quantity of newspapers and journals have been sent to certain individuals for possible redistribution among Soviet citizens. Thus, a resident of the Kolomyi district of Ivano-Frankivs'k oblast, S. Smetanyuk, received 72 copies of the “Nove zhittya” newspaper, including 10 copies of the issues of the newspaper in which the full text of the “KSC Action Program” was published. 213 It is telling that this type of literature is often sent to people who in the past have displayed nationalist traits.

Certain citizens of the CSSR are propagating anti-Soviet and nationalist views and are promoting so-called “democracy and liberalization” in personal correspondence.

The party organs of Ivano-Frankivs'k oblast are taking necessary steps to help workers understand events in the CSSR and are implementing measures to prevent wider distribution of tendentious literature brought in from the CSSR.

Reported for informational purposes.


SECRETARY OF UKRAINIAN CP
P. SHELEST

4 June 1968
No. 1/45


212 TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: For a concise survey of materials published in these and other Ukrainian-language periodicals in 1968, see Hodnett and Potichnyj, The Ukraine and the Czechoslovak Crisis, pp. 14-15, 17.

213 TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: The Soviet authorities had declined to publish more than very brief excerpts from the Action Program in the Soviet press. Of the Warsaw Pact countries (other than Czechoslovakia), only Romania published the whole program.

P. Shelest complains about subversive publications from the CSSR arriving in the Ukraine, mostly as a part of regular subscriptions.


Document Information

Source

TsDAHOU, F. 1, Op. 25, Spr. 28, Ll. 166-167.

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2011-11-20

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Information Note

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113087