Ext 6116/46(S) 'Secret Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries, nos 356-416, August 1946-November 1947' [‎378r] (771/978)

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led by Archbishop Vitaly, have already
decided to form a group maintaining rela
tions with the Anastasy Synod.
It has been announced from Rome that
J^ie Italian and Soviet Governments have
agreed to exchange a number of students.
No confirmation has so far been received
from the Soviet side, but if the agreement
comes into operation it will be of interest
as being the first evidence of such an
exchange between the U.S.S.R, and a
country outside the group of Soviet
satellites.
The situation in Indo-China, of which
little mention has appeared in the Soviet
press in recent weeks, is the subject of a
short comment in New Times No. 15 of the
11th April. The starting-point of the
article is the recent vote on military credits
in the National Assembly, from which the
Communists are said to have abstained.
The article proceeds on the usual lines to
differentiate between French and demo
cratic circles and those who wish to reim
pose a colonial regime on the young
Republic by force. Reference is also made
to the “ brutalities committed by the
French soldiers,” which are allegedly only
rousing the peaceful population to greater
opposition, and to a secret meeting in
Hong Kong last month between “ a French
official ” and certain emigre x\nnamite
leaders who desire independence within the
French Union. “It is to be hoped," con
cludes New Times, “ that the peoples of
Indo-China will thwart these new
manoeuvres of their enemies.”
The success of collectivised agriculture
depends very largely on the quality of the
team of organisers and supervisors, i.e.,
brigade-leaders, collective farm managers,
etc., attached to each farming unit, and
responsible for the fulfilment of its plan.
In view of the difficulties of re-establishing
the collective farm system in large areas of
European Russia and the Ukraine in the
post-war period, the importance of the
work of these king-pins of the Soviet
agricultural system has greatly increased
and is pivotal for the fulfilment of the
Soviet Government’s food production
plans. This is clearly reflected in an order
of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet,
awarding orders and medals, such as the
Order of Lenin, Hero of Socialist Labour,
Order of the Red Banner of Labour, to the
brigade-leaders and other senior officials of
the collective farms and tractor stations
for obtaining specifically high yields of
wheat, rye, maize, sugar beet and cotton.
Thus, presidents of collective farms, senior
agronomists, mechanics of State farms and
other such officials may be awarded the
title Hero of Socialist Labour for obtaining
yields of wheat and rye on non-irrigated
land of not less than 30 centners a hectare,
while the same official group is awarded
the Order of Lenin for obtaining yields of
wheat and rye on non-irrigated land of not
less than 25 centners a hectare. Officials
of the local Soviets, the Communist Party
and the agricultural departments are also
encouraged to promote the food production
drive by the award of the Order of Lenin,
the Order of the Red Banner of Labour,
etc., for fulfilment and over-fulfilment of
the local planned yield. Individual
agricultural workers as such are not men
tioned in this order, and apparently are
not to benefit by it.
It is reported that the Five-Year Plan
of aerial photography of the Soviet Union
comprises the surveying of remote districts
which so far do not possess exact maps,
such as parts of the YaJkut Province, the
Krasnoyarsk Region, the Northern Urals
and the Nenets National Region. M.
Sudakov, Deputy Chief of the Department
of Land Surveying and Map-Making,
recently stated that it was proposed to
photograph about 7,000,000 square kilo
metres and to issue maps covering more
than 6,000,000 sq. km. This year it is
proposed to photograph 600,000 sq. km.
from the air, two and a half times as great
an area as in 1946. The main objectives
will be the districts due for irrigation in
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, the Kura-
Arakinsky lowlands in Azerbaidjhan.
Large scale photographic operations are
also to be carried out in districts liberated
from the Germans in the Pskov, Smolensk,
Vitebsk, Orel, Velikie Luki and Kursk
Provinces, in Stavropol and in the
Ukraine, where aerial photography will
aid in correcting existing maps. To draw
up plans for the reconstruction and
restoration of cities, photographs of Stalin
grad, Kursk, Smolensk, Voronezh, Sverd
lovsk, Chelyabinsk, Astrakhan, Kemerovo,
Stalinsk, Prikopievsk, Leninsk-Kuznetsk,
Karaganda and other towns will be taken
this year. It is also proposed to carry
through vast survey works along the rivers
Ob, Yenisei, Lena, Nizhni Tungus and
others. Much surveying in connection with
the needs of the coal industry is also
planned to take place in the Donbas,
Karaganda and Kuzbas. At present pre
parations are being completed. Aircraft
and apparatus for high-altitude precision
photography are being checked and equip
ment for the expeditions is being prepared.