Ext 6116/46(S) 'Secret Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries, nos 356-416, August 1946-November 1947' [‎34v] (68/978)

10
SOVIET UNION
Reports from the Political Committee of
the General Assembly again took pride of
place in this week’s news to the exclusion
of most other United Nations activities.
Headlines such as “ Unexampled violation
of the principles and regulations of United
Nations,” “The U.S.S.R. on Guard over
the Sovereignty of Peoples; further Dis
closures of Gross United States
Manoeuvres ” show the line of interpreta
tion underscored for home consumption.
Comment on the British Cabinet changes
was given by quoting the opinion expressed
in the British press (and by Mr. Pollitt)
that the Government had turned sharply to
the Right. Zaslavsky made a fiercely
malicious attack on Mr. Noel-Baker for
alleged fairy tales told to visitors from
Eastern Europe about Yugoslav aggression
against Greece and Trieste and the
imminence of war; all this, Zaslavsky
claimed, was evidence of the sleepless
nights of British Cabinet Ministers
anxious to distract attention from Anglo-
American activities in Greece.
In view of the vigour and persistence of
the Soviet allegations of Anglo-Saxon war
mongering during the present session of
the United Nations, it may not be without
interest to review the Soviet record in this
respect. While it would be difficult to find
any such direct advocacy of a preventive
war in Soviet statements as have appeared
recently in the United States, Soviet propa
ganda by its consistent suppression of the
truth and suggestion of the false has
systematically created an atmosphere of
distrust and suspicion among the Great
Powers. Provocative statements appar
ently deliberately designed to embitter
relations between Allies abound in all
Soviet publicity. Soviet leaders and Soviet
press and propagandists are constantly
guilty of what might be termed ‘ £ war
mongering in reverse through the
steady omission of references to events
which would counteract the present war-
scare propaganda and through the neglect
or deliberate distortion of actions and
statements by Allied Governments in the
West which might help to improve rela
tions. Among the more obvious omissions
and distortions is the unscrupulous treat
ment of the Palestine, Indian and Egyptian
questions, on none of which has the British
case been fairly explained. Other specific
points on which the Soviet people are being
deliberately misled are the United Nations
proceedings, Germany and disarmament.
They are being taught that the United
States and, to a lesser degree the United
Kingdom, are out to destroy the United
Nations, that Anglo-American plans are
afoot to restore German imperialism and
that little or nothing is being done to dis
arm in this country, while the fact that
the Soviet Union, like other countries, em
ploys German scientists for weapaj
research is, of course, completely ignored.
Possibly as a propaganda campaign pre
paratory to the November meeting of the
Foreign Ministers, the flourishing economic
conditions in the Soviet zone of Germany
are now being played up in the Soviet press.
The c ‘ export potential ’ ’ of the Soviet zone
was analysed in a long article in Izvestiya
(the 10th October) which began with a
glowing account of the Leipzig fair. The
significance of the Fair for Germany’s
export possibilities was stressed, and it
was claimed that export deals with foreign
firms totalled over 16 million dollars.
Dutch representatives were said to have
made the biggest contracts totalling
5,310,000 dollars. It was alleged that
trade was being conducted mainly with
countries that had not previously had trade
connections with Germany; imported raw
materials from the Soviet Union occupy
first place, while in trading with the
Western zone the trade balance of the
Soviet zone is said to have risen from
1-3 million marks in the period January-
February to 51-3 million marks in the
period January-June 1947 (a figure which
should be accepted with reserve pending
confirmation). Finally, in view of the
repeated attempts to achieve unity, the
United States and United Kingdom
Governments are most unfairly attacked
for having sabotaged German economic
unity and the development of peacetime
industries in Germany.
According to Moscow radio (the 21st
October) the Presidium of the Supreme
Soviet of the U.S.S.R. has appointed
M. Kyril Vasilievich Novikov as Ambas
sador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
of the U.S.S.R. to India. M. Novikov, who
was appointed to the Collegium of the
People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs
in 1945, has represented his country at
many important post-war Conferences, in
cluding the Potsdam Conference, the Five-
Power Conference in London (1945) and
the Paris Peace Conference. He was
awarded the Order of the Red Banner of
Labour in 1944 for outstanding services to
the Soviet State and the Order of Lenin in
the following year.
It should be clearly understood in con
nection with the flow of malicious Soviet
propaganda against the Ukrainians
brought to this country from Italy early