811.20261/212: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 17—2:18 p.m.]
1352. 1. In my telegram 225, March 31, 1943, I recommended that a competent expert be sent to the Soviet Union to consult with me and make appropriate recommendations regarding our Government’s efforts in the field of informational and cultural activities.
As almost 6 months have now elapsed since my telegram of March 31 I believe that the Department will be interested in the situation as [Page 692] it now exists here. An important feature of that situation is the activity of various other governments and I shall therefore first outline what those governments are doing.
[Here follows description of the functioning of the British establishment in the Soviet Union, the success of the first year of publication of the Russian language weekly Britanshy Soyumik (British Ally), the plans for publication of the periodical British Chronicle every 2 months in Russian, and the lesser propaganda activities of the Chinese, French, and Czechoslovak Missions.]
2. Since my telegram of March 31 the Embassy has continued its work in the field of informational and cultural activities along the lines set forth in that telegram. American news continues to receive more space in the Soviet press than the news of any other foreign council [country]. Notwithstanding that fact and taking into account all factors in the situation it seems to me that the time has now come when we could usefully expand our activities here. Obviously such expansion would require additional personnel, substantial expenditure of funds and a definite agreement with the United States military authorities that transportation by air would be furnished for the sending to the Soviet Union of the material and personnel essential to the carrying out of such activities. The British Government has shown by its preparedness to utilize air transport for such purpose and by the assignment of a considerable number of highly trained personnel to this work that it regards such activity as an important part of the war effort. I also so regard it.
I doubt whether the Department of State, the Office of War Information or any agency of the American Government has at present available for sending to Moscow any large number of specially trained personnel. If the personnel in this field were to be substantially increased it would probably have to be recruited from a number of agencies and from civilian life.
As the Department is aware there are a number of factors which need to be given special attention in formulating a program of cultural and informational activity in the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union these factors include the centralized control by the Government of all agencies of information and propaganda and the usual importance attached by the Government to the shaping of public opinion. Any significant foreign propaganda activities or what the Soviet Government may regard as such may thus become matters of high policy. It should of course be borne in mind that any American cultural or informational program in the Soviet Union should be based squarely upon the actualities of American life and thought. If it does not portray an accurate picture of American opinion and [Page 693] life the Soviet Government will readily detect that fact and the net result will be distinctly harmful to the cause of good relations between the two countries. In the United States there are various schools of thought with regard to some aspects of the Soviet system and the ideas underlying it. Care should be taken to avoid stressing in any informational activity on the part of our Government any particular American school of thought in such a way as to provoke internal controversy in the United States and impair the unity of desire on the part of the American people as a whole to go forward with a program of collaboration with the Soviet Union.
In the light of the foregoing I make recommendations as follows:
- First. I believe we should continue actively in our program of exchange of motion pictures and of supplying news pictures to the Soviet press. In this program I believe that we have been more successful than the British.
- Second. I believe that we should expand materially our present program of supplying printed matter to Soviet agencies here. At present the Embassy receives two copies of OWI clip sheets containing speech excerpts, special articles, etc. I recommend that the Embassy be furnished with 50 copies of such material. The Embassy could use to advantage 10 additional sets of the magazines now received Life and Time. Material descriptive of the American war effort including sets of the best American war posters would also be useful.
- Third. I believe that our Government should send to this Embassy for distribution copies of the best American fictional and scholarly works.
- Fourth. I believe that immediate attention should be given to the question of publishing in Russian text in the United States by the American Government or under governmental auspices of a serious magazine which could be sent by airmail for distribution here. It is our thought that such a magazine could usefully include scientific articles, historical articles, articles on social welfare, cultural matters, child problems, industrial development and in general serious subjects of a non-controversial character.
- Fifth. As an alternative or possibly as supplement to the publication of a serious magazine such as suggested in the preceding paragraph I believe that consideration should be given to publication in the United States of an illustrated magazine with text in Russian perhaps along the lines of En Guardia and sending it to the Embassy for distribution in the Soviet Union.
The question whether our Government should endeavor to publish in Russian text a newspaper in Moscow for distribution in the Soviet Union is one which presents greater difficulties than the program outlined above. It would require the working out in advance with the Soviet Government of arrangements for distribution and the sending to Moscow of a special staff for that purpose. I think that before [Page 694] definite decision is reached it would be advisable that a specially qualified person be sent here to survey the field and endeavor to effect any needed arrangements with the Soviet authorities.
Aside from such staff as might be needed to inaugurate publication of a newspaper here I estimate that the Embassy would need for the expanded program which I have outlined above two additional officers who might be appointed from the auxiliary service and one additional stenographer. The officers should have a good command of the Russian language. I believe that the Division of Cultural Relations could adequately and appropriately undertake direction and supervision of this program. The assistance and cooperation of other governmental agencies especially the Office of War Information would of course be needed.
I feel that we could put into effect all of the five recommendations which I have made without prior consultation with the Soviet authorities with the exception of the fourth and fifth recommendations. If the Department approves the fourth and fifth recommendations and desires to proceed therewith I should be instructed prior to actual arrangements for publication to take the matter up with the Soviet authorities and to endeavor to obtain a Soviet distributing agency here.
Whether the Soviet Government would be willing to permit the American Embassy to undertake the distribution through a Soviet agency of specially prepared magazines along the lines described in my fourth and fifth recommendations or to embark on the publication of a newspaper cannot be definitely stated in advance of presenting the matters to the Soviet Government. In this connection it is the Embassy’s understanding that about the time the British started publication of the Britanski Soyuznik here the British Government removed the ban on publication of the Daily Worker in London; also that the Soviet Embassy in London prints 50,000 copies of its propaganda publication. Although officers of the British Embassy here claim that there is no connection between British publication activities in Russia and Soviet publication activities in London the fact that the British Government has an authority which it has used on occasion in reference to Soviet publication activities in London may not be unrelated in fact to British publication activities in Russia.
I believe that the present is as opportune a time as we shall have to inaugurate an expanded and informational program here along the lines set forth in this telegram. With the passage of time the opportunities are likely to diminish. I therefore urge prompt consideration and early decision.