Ext 6116/46(S) 'Secret Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries, nos 356-416, August 1946-November 1947' [‎35r] (69/978)

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34402
11
this year that the term “ Ukrainian
traitors ” is entirely meaningless as
applied to them. The group in question
consists of some 8,000 prisoners of war who
were certainly of Ukrainian origin and
belonged to the First Ukrainian Division
«^the Wehrmacht. As far as is known,
they are all from the Polish side of the
1939 frontier and therefore cannot be
legitimately regarded as Soviet citizens.
No evidence of war crimes committed by
their number has been produced. As
prisoners-of-war, they will be disposed of
in the same manner as German prisoners-
of-war in England when their turn comes.
Any wishing to go to the Soviet Union will
then be, of course, free to do so, as far as
this country is concerned.
The dilemma of the Marxist economist
forced to square the dictates of Marxist
teachings with the actual course of
economic events and developments is once
more graphically illustrated by the polemic
which recently arose in the Soviet Union
concerning the trends of Academician
Varga’s new book “ Changes in Capitalist
Economics as a result of the Second World
War.” The terms in which Varga has
been condemned by his more orthodox
Marxist brethren show the sophistry to
which such controlled thinking inevitably
leads. More than twenty Academicians
took part in a three days' discussion on
Varga's work, assembling for this purpose
at the Institute of Economics of the
U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences. In the
report of the proceedings given in
Bolshevik (No. 17, 1947) Academician
Varga’s main shortcomings were sum
marised on the following lines : (a) failure
to describe the characteristics of contem
porary imperialism as a whole—the author
was charged with not effectively linking up
with one another the various changes in the
capitalist crisis and for not dwelling on the
problem of the growth and intensification
of the crisis; (&) his analysis of the
phenomena and trends of modern capital
ism erroneously separates economics from
politics; (c) he is criticised for his state
ment that in the bourgeois countries during
the war the military economy was entirely
Government-controlled and for thus show
ing it to be an organised economy without
stressing its anarchic characteristics. This
concept is stated to be contrary to Marxist-
Leninist teaching, which proclaims that the
economy of capitalist countries is con
trolled by private enterprise and not by
Governments; (d) he is accused of un
critically repeating bourgeois propaganda
to the effect that in the U.S.A. food con
sumption rose by 20 per cent, during and
after the war and also that during the war
the population of Great Britain was better
fed than hitherto. It was pointed out
during the discussion that the serious mis
takes in Varga's book also reveal the weak
spots in the work of Soviet economists and
especially that of the Institute of World
Economics and World Politics (of which
Varga is the Director). It was insisted
that all such studies of modern capitalism
should be carried out in the light of the
Leninist-Stalinist theory of imperialism.
In spite of this attack, it is interesting to
note that an article by Academician Varga
on “ the Marshall plan and Britain’s
Economic Crisis” appears in the current
number of New Times (No. 42), so the
Academician is apparently weathering the
storm of criticism, as he has on several
occasions during his long life in Soviet
service.
Tass has announced that the Soviet
Government, with the aim of satisfying
Moslem religious traditions, had given per
mission for a considerable group of Mos
lems to make a pilgrimage to Mecca in the
current year. The group contained repre
sentatives of all the Moslem nationalities
of the Soviet Union, including such
prominent Moslem personalities as the
President of the Spiritual Directorate for
Moslems of Transcaucasia, Sheik-ul-Islam
Ali-Zadeh Akhum-Aga, the President of
the Spiritual Directorate for Moslems of
North Caucasia, Mufti Gebekov Khizri
Qavi, and other members of the Spiritual
Directorates for Moslems. This permis
sion has now been cancelled in view of the
outbreak of cholera in Egypt and the
setting up of an anti-cholera quarantine
in certain countries of the Near East
through which the pilgrims would have to
travel and the pilgrimage has been post
poned until next year. The list of Mos
lem dignitaries announced in connection
with the cancelled pilgrimage suggests that
a different group were intended to visit
Mecca this year from that which went from
the Soviet Union in 1945.
Tass (the 11th October) announced that a
Soviet aircraft had arrived in Cairo with
a gift of vaccine to combat the cholera
epidemic.
According to a summary of the Gosplan
results for the third quarter of the year,
this year’s grain harvest is stated to be
58 per cent, higher than last year’s. As