Transcript No. 14 of the Meeting of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Moldavian Communist Party

Transcript No. 14

Of the Meeting of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Moldavian Communist Party

Cde. Grossu presided

Participants included:

3. With Regard to the Situation and Measures for the Intensification of Internationalist and Patriotic Education of the Population of the Republic [and] the Fight Against Manifestations of Nationalism (Cdes. Roşca, Muntean, Semionov, Mocanu, Eremei, Smirnov, Voronin, Grossu)

The Moldavian Communist Party CC notes that, guided by the decisions of the XXVII^th Congress of the Party, the June (1986) Plenum, the Plenum of the CPSU CC, and the XVI^th Congress of the Moldavian Communist Party, the organs of the party, soviets, trade unions, komsomols, ministries, state committees, departments and creative unions of the republic develop heavy activity for the consolidation of friendship and brotherhood, the social units of the representatives of all the nations and peoples that live in the republic, the consolidation of the sentiment of a united family, of general Soviet pride, the clear understanding of the high social importance of assuring a maximum contribution to the resolution of the problems of accelerated social-economic development of the country, the turning point in the life of Soviet society.

The questions connected with the education of the working people in ideological firmness, political vigilance, of the sentiment of Soviet patriotism, as well as of the realization of offensively unmasking, arguing against the bourgeois and revisionist falsifications of the CPSU’s Leninist national policies are examined in the primary party organizations, trade unions, komsomols, [and] in the ranks of the ideological activ [militants].

The forms and methods of counterpropaganda are improved, of the struggle against bourgeois ideology and morals through other means of mass information and propaganda, through the system of political and economic education, propaganda through lectures, political and intuitive oral agitation, and musical and literary-artistic creation.

It has increased the attention of savants in the republic towards the elaboration of current problems connected with the history of Moldavia, economic, social and cultural construction, the development of bilingualism, the creation and consolidation of the Soviet national statehood of the Moldavian people.

In spite of all that, the content and depth of international and patriotic education of the multinational population of the republic does not correspond to the demands of the day regarding intolerance towards narrow manifestations of nationalism, the necessity of intensifying counterpropaganda, the fight with the ideological adversary, the increase of political vigilance and class intuition. As a result of passive and non-interventionist attitudes cases of narrow nationalism, of arrogance and secretiveness have appeared in a series of municipal committees, departments, institutions, primary party organizations and komsomols in the work collectives, among the ranks of representatives of the native nationalities, autonomist tendencies are tolerated on the part of some persons of Gagauz ethnicity, the disposition to emigrate [exists among] a part of the Jewish and German population of the republic.

The municipal committees of Chişinău, Bălţi, Bender, the county committees of Călăraşi, Orhei, Lazo and other county party committees develop insufficiently oriented and differentiated internationalist and patriotic education among the representatives of the Jewish ethnicity—the Tiraspol municipal committee; the county committees of Grigoriopol, Dubăsari, Căuşeni, Soroca, Ocniţa, Edineţ; the Germany ethnicity—Soroca, Ocniţa, Edineţ, [and] the Gypsy ethnicity, which cedes to the influence of foreign hostile nationalist centers. In the primary party organs of the multinational collectives the system of class education of the respective persons is lacking, active forms and methods of unmasking the actions of the ideological adversary, and of the formation of immunity to bourgeois and revisionist ideology, are not used.

Many municipal and county party committees, primary party organizations have not succeeded in solidly establishing in the public consciousness of everyone the idea that, today, internationalism and patriotism must be manifested in the active participation in the solution of the problems of the intensification of production, the acceleration of scientific-technical progress, the better utilization of material and human resources for the consolidation and prosperity of the Soviet fatherland. Failure to fully understand the essence of internationalism is manifested through the fact that that the efforts in the work of some collectives are not sufficiently oriented towards the fulfillment of the delivery contracts beyond the borders of the republic. The competition with the Ukrainian SSR region has weakened, [as it has] with other union republics and with the enterprises of the community of socialist states.

In the counties of Călăraşi, Căuşeni, Leova, etc., international and patriotic propaganda lacks foundation, veracity, operational impact and an active attitude. The ideological cadres make insufficient use of the historical importance of the social-economic changes in the region during the years of Soviet power in their activity, explaining the real difficulties and contradictions in social life, and the activity of the party for overcoming them, in an unconvincing manner. A series of party organizations in the cities of Chişinău [and] Bălţi do not employ an offensive spirit in [their] counterpropaganda, [nor] decisiveness, perseverance [and] intolerance towards nationalist manifestations. Some primary party organizations in the counties of Glodeni, Kotovsk, Kutuzov, Anenii Noi, Râşcani, Soroca, Ungheni, etc., do not take into sufficient account the particularities of the development of the republic and of its historical past, they do not manifest the appropriate perseverance and ability in developing their individual daily educational activity for combating manifestations of nationalism and localism.

The nations and ethnic groups that live in Moldavia are unequally assigned to the leadership cadres of the party, soviet, trade union, komsomol and economic organs of the republic. This is all the consequence of the errors committed in the selection of cadres, of underestimating the political importance of this activity [and] of the XVI^th Congress of the Moldavian Communist Party.

A series of municipal and county party committees, of basic party organizations do not take into account sufficiently the fact that, in the recent period, bourgeois and revisionist propaganda has abruptly intensified its actions against our republic. A series of historians, publicists and means of mass information in the Socialist Republic of Romania have aligned themselves with the falsifying calumnies of the bourgeois ideologists.

Romanian citizens visiting the republic likewise contribute to the rebirth of nationalist manifestations and remains. Many of them, educated in the spirit of nationalist and chauvinist calumnies of Romanian bourgeois and revisionist historiography and propaganda, frequently enter into provocative discussions on the margin of the Bessarabian question, on Russo-Romanian and Soviet-Romanian relations, however, a decisive riposte is not always given to their attempts to defame our people and its history.

In the course of the last years, some savants from the scientific institutions of the Academy of Sciences of the Moldavian SSR, of the “V. I. Lenin” State University and of other institutions of higher education in the republic [and] of branch scientific research institutions tolerate nationalist and localist opinions in discussions, reviews and scientific treatises, and in the evaluation of events [and] of thinkers of the past that deviate from the principal of party-mindedness, from clear class positions. In published works there are few new conclusions, generalizations and recommendations that correspond to the requirements of the CPSU XXVII^th Congress and the XVI^th [Congress] of the Moldavian Communist Party regarding the improvement of patriotic and international education, the offensive character of counter-propaganda, and the timely unmasking of the falsifiers and distorters of the historic past, of socialist and communist construction.

Serious shortcomings and negligence exists in the institutions of higher education and specialized secondary education, in the professional-technical schools and in the schools of general culture. The party organizations, the leadership of the ministries of higher education and specialized secondary education, of professional state education of the republic do not undertake the necessary measures for intensifying the conceptual orientation of the education process. Part of the professors in the institutions of higher education, of schools, of the students and pupils manifest political myopia [and] national limitation, tolerating verbal expressions of anti-Russian and pro-Romanian opinions. Similar incidents have occurred at the “M. V. Frunze” Agricultural Institute in Chişinău, at “S. Lazo” Polytechnic Institute in Chişinău, at the “A. Russo” Pedagogical Institute in Bălţi, at the Institute of Scientific Planning and Research at the State Planning Committee of the Moldavian SSR, [and] at a series of institutes of the Ministry of Culture of the Moldavian SSR. There have been cases of nationalist manifestation on the part of the Moldavian students and doctoral candidates, who are studying at the institutions of higher education in Moscow, as well as on the part of the Romanians originally from the Transcarpathian regions and Cernăuţi in the Ukrainian SSR who work and study in Moldavia.

The manifestations of narrow nationalism and localism are a result of the fact that the youth do not know the history of the region, the problems of the formation of the Moldavian nation and statehood, which speaks to the shortcomings in the teaching of Moldavian history in the schools and in the institutions of higher education in the republic. At the University, at the Agricultural, Polytechnic and Medical Institutes, the above-mentioned course is held without the appropriate counter-propagandistic orientation, [and] without taking into consideration the hostile ideological subversions realized abroad. The lack of specialists, the absence of a unified, methodical system, and the [lack of] effective evaluation of the above-mentioned materials is felt, as is [the lack] of an inter-university history faculty in Moldavia. In addition, the possibilities of studying the Russian language are insufficiently exploited in the familiarization of pupils and students with the spiritual and cultural values of the fraternal peoples.

The preparation of the youth for service in the ranks of the Armed Forces of the USSR on the part of the UTCL CC of Moldavia, the Komosomol municipal and country committees, the CC of DOSAAF [Society for the Voluntary Support of the Army, Air Force and Navy] and the Military Commissariat of the Moldavian SSR suffers from an insufficient and declarative [rather than genuine] orientation regarding internationalist and military-patriotic education. Year after year the plans for the selection and admission of the youth in military schools are not fulfilled.

Serious conclusions were not drawn from the critical observations regarding the intensification of internationalist and patriotic education, [and] the necessity of forming immunities to hostile ideology by the Ministry of Culture, State Cinematography, [and] the Moldavian SSR Union of Writers. As a result, in the discourse of some poets and prose-writers at the VII^th Congress of Writers in Moldavia immature [and] marginalized localist judgments predominated, manifesting a total misunderstanding of the ideological tendencies of the works of literature, of their role in the formation of a communist concept among the working people.

Guiding itself principally by financial considerations, the State Cinematography of the Moldavian SSR and its subdivisions continue to present some foreign films with a noxious ideological-artistic content.

There has been no radical restructuring in the activity of the press, television and radio broadcasting through the generalization and dissemination of the experience of party organizations, soviets, and komsomols, etc., in the formation of an internationalist and patriotic consciousness, [and] they do not give the appropriate response to the manifestations of nationalism and localism. The articles, TV and radio broadcasts, and literary works which lack a class approach to the appreciation of the cultural heritage of the Moldavian people stir up legitimate reproaches, [as do] the eulogizing of a philosophy foreign to us of self-forgiving love for those nearby [and] dubious aesthetic tastes.

The above-mentioned circumstances dictate the necessity of a more profound and complex approach to the objectives of patriotic and internationalist education, of the fight against nationalist and localist detritus.

The Central Committee of the Moldavian Communist Party

DECIDES:

1. To oblige the municipal and county party committees, the Moldavian trade unions, the UTCL CC of Moldavia, the ministries, the state committees and departments to intensify consequent activity for the education of the working people in the spirit of Soviet patriotism, socialist internationalism, fraternal friendship between the peoples of the USSR, pride for the great achievements of the Soviet people, [and] to conduct an offensive struggle against any manifestations of nationalism or localism. To assure that the orientation, content and high level of these activities be aligned as much as possible with the principal objective—the acceleration of the socio-economic development of the republic, the fuller use of the human factor. To develop by every means the internationalist and patriotic spirit of the competition for the contribution of the republic’s working people to the development of the unique complex of the national economy of the country, to increase its role in activating the human factor, in the development of reciprocal collaboration and assistance, in common work. To develop and to strengthen the ties between the work collectives of the Moldavian SSR and the regions of the Ukrainian SSR, of other union republics and countries of the socialist community.

2. The municipal and county party committees, the executive committees of the country municipalities, the ministries, the state committees and departments, the basic party organizations must pay special attention to ideological convictions, political maturity, and professional preparation in the resolution of cadre issues. To more actively draw working people of all nationalities and ethnicities that live in our republic into the leadership, to assure their full representation within the party, soviet, trade union, komsomol and economic organs.

Through the use of the means of mass information, the system of Marxist-Leninist education, propaganda through conferences, and oral political agitation, to broadly propagate and to obtain a profound understanding of Marxist-Leninist doctrine in the national question. To demonstrate meaningfully and convincingly the advantages of the socialist order, the radical socio-economic and cultural changes in the years of Soviet power, to demonstrate with concrete examples that the successes in the construction of communism are the result of the reciprocal collaboration and assistance of all the peoples of our country.

To take into account on a permanent basis in political work the relentless subversive actions of foreign anti-Soviet and nationalist centers, of bourgeois and revisionist ideological influence. To demonstrate in a convincing manner the Soviet way of life, to inculcate Soviet people with a high level of political vigilance, the ability to evaluate events and phenomena underway from a clear class position. To animate in every way the counterpropaganda activity among the ranks of the population, to inculcate in the consciousness and behavior of the people intolerance towards the ideology hostile to socialism, towards the bourgeois way of life. To pay greater attention to the internalizing of general Soviet customs and traditions, to fight perseveringly against the appeasing attitude of some communists and komsomol members towards the dissemination of rumors and calumnious anecdotes, to utilize with intelligence individual influence over the specific exponents of nationalist manifestations. To increase the personal responsibility of the CPSU members who work in the ideological sphere for the state of the internationalist and patriotic education of the working people. To make propaganda and agitation taking into account concrete conditions and particularities, of the development of diverse groups and of the national make-up of the cities, counties, villages and work collectives of the republic. To always take care of ideological work forging the moral well-being of the youth, of their military-patriotic education, of their civic formation. To illustrate widely that the heroes and veterans of war [and] labor, [and] the mentors of the youth, participate in this process.

3. The Moldavian SSR Academy of Sciences, the Party History Institute of the Moldavian SSR CC, the scientific institutes and the institutions of higher learning  must focus the efforts of their savants on the elaboration of current issues that pertain to the internationalist, patriotic and class education of the working people, of raising the ideological-theoretic level of scientific research, assuring the elaboration of some concrete recommendations regarding the acceleration of socio-economic development and the improvement of education work. To profoundly study and to elaborate new forms and methods of raising the efficiency and quality of ideological work, of the formation of a materialist conception among diverse groups of working people, an active approach towards life, to give a principled riposte to the falsifiers of Soviet realities.

The State Planning Committee of the Moldavian SSR, the Academy of Sciences of the Moldavian SSR must examine the issue of creating a new complex sector specialized in Gagauz studies.

The ministries of higher and specialized secondary education, of state professional education of the Moldavian SSR, the party organizations, the leadership of the institutions of higher and specialized secondary education, the trade schools and schools of general culture must direct their attention towards the multilateral improvement of the education process, the consolidation of a conceptual knowledge of the world. To undertake supplementary measures for the improvement of the study of the Russian language in the educational institutions, the increase of its role in the internationalist and patriotic education of the studious youth, taking into consideration the fact that the ability to freely use the Russian language contributes to the continual consolidation of the friendship of peoples. The USSR broadens access to the spiritual values of national and world cultures, the achievements of technical-scientific progress, the consolidation of the defensive capacity of the country. To examine the question of increasing the number of hours for the teaching of Moldavian history in the institutions of higher and specialized secondary education. To intensify quality control over the teaching of social sciences, the socio-economic disciplines and special disciplines. To increase the responsibility of the didactic corps of the institutions of higher education and of the teachers for the efficiency of the international and patriotic education of the studious youth, the inculcation of communist convictions, the ability to evaluate the historic past and contemporary phenomena of the social life of the republic from a class position.

To intensify the activity for the education of students and pupils in the spirit of a strong political culture, intolerant attitude towards nationalist, localist, consumerist, [and] parasitic dispositions, and other detritus from the past; to use more productively in the same activity the force of public opinion, of the didactic and work collectives.

4. To oblige the Ministry of Culture of the Moldavian SSR, the State Committee for Cinematography of the Moldavian SSR, the creative unions of the republic to undertake urgent measures for the liquidation of existing shortcomings in the decisive fight against the lack of ideological principles, and mediocrity in literary-artistic and musical works. For increasing the responsibility and the role of cultural institutions and creative unions, to organize systematically competitions, film festivals, debates dedicated to memorable dates of the life of the country and of the republic, festive-memorial days of the remarkable sons of the Moldavian, Russian, Ukrainian peoples, and of other peoples [in the republic].

5. The UTCL CC of Moldavia, the DOSAAF CC of the Moldavian SSR, the Military Commissariat of the Moldavian SSR must heighten attention towards the education of the youth, towards the formation in the youth of communist convictions, of social responsibility, work ethnic and social activity, of rational needs and healthy tastes, of a sentiment of civic duty. To improve the study of municipal art, to educate [in them] the disposition to defend the fatherland, [to defend] the achievements of socialism. To strengthen ties with the body of the troops and with the large military units.

6. The permanent representation of the Moldavian SSR at the Council of Ministers of the USSR must develop an intense activity regarding the internationalist and patriotic education of the students and doctoral candidates who study in the institutions of higher and specialized secondary education in Moscow, to appreciate justly and on the basis of principle the undesirability of ties with foreigners and with some nationalist demonstrators among the ranks of the students.

7. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Moldavian SSR, the Directorate of Foreign Tourism of the Moldavian SSR, the Moldavian Society of Friendship and Cultural Ties with Foreign Countries, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Moldavian SSR must assure a broad propaganda about the achievements of the Moldavian people in the fraternal family of peoples of the USSR; to give a decisive riposte to the revisionist and bourgeois falsifiers of the CPSU’s national policies, to the ideological subversions of the class adversary; to utilize more in this aim the actions developed abroad with the participation of the Moldavian SSR, as well as ties along the line of sister cities.

8. To rightly consider as very important the intensification of class education among the working people in State TV and Radio Broadcasting, in the State Committee for Publishing Houses, in the State Cinematography of the Moldavian SSR, in ATEM, and in the newspapers and journals of the republic. To profoundly explain for the understanding of everyone the foreign economic policy, social policy, and peace policy of the party, to propagate convincingly the advantages of the socialist way of life. To show clearly that the historic destiny of the Moldavian people is indissolubly tied to the development and consolidation of the Soviet state. To unmask in well-argued fashion the calumnies of the anti-Soviet ideological centers, to give a well-earned riposte to the demagogues and evil-wishers, to heighten political vigilance. In this aim, to use broadly the preparation for the celebration of the 70^th anniversary of the Great October [Revolution], of the 150^th anniversary of the joining of Bessarabia to Russia, of the 120^th anniversary of the birth of V. I. Lenin.

9. To approve the measure regarding the intensification of internationalist and patriotic education of the population of the republic, the fight against those engaged in manifestations of nationalism (See annex).

10. The municipal and county party committees, the Moldavian trade unions, the UTCL CC of Moldavia, the ministries of Higher and Specialized Secondary Education, Foreign Affairs, Culture, Education,^[1] State Professional Education, Intourist, State Television and Radio Broadcasting, State Cinematography, the State Committee for Publishing Houses of the Moldavian SSR, ATEM, the Moldavian Society for Friendship and Cultural Ties with Foreign Countries, the Central Committee of DOSAAF in the republic, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Moldavian SSR, the KGB, the MAI [Ministry of Internal Affairs] of the Moldavian SSR, the republican newspapers and journals, the Academy of Sciences of the Moldavian SSR, the Party History Institute of the Moldavian Communist Party CC, the republic Society Science, the creative unions of the Moldavian SSR must inform the Moldavian Communist Party CC about the implementation progress of the present decisions by 1 September 1987 and 1989.

II. To task the Moldavian Communist Party CC Sections for Science and Educational Institutions, for Culture and for Relations with Foreign Countries with the task of supervising the implementation of the present decisions.

MCP CC Secretary, V. Smirnov (signature)

^[1] In the Soviet system, separate ministries for higher and specialized secondary education for state professional education coexisted with a ministry for education. The more specific ministries used a term that can be translated as either education or instruction - învăţământ, while the ministry of education used the more limited educaţia. In this series of documents the ministry of education properly-speaking is not generally cited and the translator has opted to use education for both învăţământul and educaţia.