811.42700 (R)/2–2449: Airgram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Kohler) to the Secretary of State
A–195. For OII. The memorandum of February 2,1 from Mr. Reinhardt2 of EE to Mr. Lehrbas3 of OII, on spreading heresies among Soviet intellectuals, raises very important issues on which the Embassy wishes to offer the following comment.
The Soviet “intelligentsia”, though by no means the sole group deserving attention in planning VOA programs, are probably a more important target than the workers and peasants because they occupy more influential positions, own a disproportionate number of radios and, being better educated, are more responsive to the spoken word. Also they doubtless feel the spiritual bondage of Soviet life more keenly, and even in the case of persons who never speak of this or perhaps admit it clearly to themselves, they presumably suffer with boredom or mental numbness from the monotony of official propaganda, [Page 579] and with frustration from being unable to express themselves sincerely and spontaneously. This state of mind should be admirably suited for seduction with forbidden fruit which is made all the more appetizing by the fact that the Soviet press talks a great deal about condemned heresies but seldom gives concrete examples, thus whetting curiosity. An Embassy contact recently said she had been very much interested in some music she had heard on VOA because she had long wondered what “formalist” music really was.
For the foregoing reasons the Embassy believes that VOA should tempt its Soviet listeners with selected heresies not only in science, but also in art, literature, philosophy and possibly religion—though the latter would be more difficult to handle. The presentation in each case should seek to make sin attractive by not labelling it too obviously as sin, thereby arousing fear or bad conscience, but at the same time connecting it with Soviet taboos obviously enough to enable the listener to satisfy his curiosity and his thirst for novelty. Those forms of heresy most likely to be congenial to Russian taste should be used. On the other hand, it is important to avoid forms which would be uncongenial or even offensive to Russian taste; for example, it is believed that the extreme forms of atonal and non-melodic music have little appeal here. In each case, great care should be taken to present the reasons which lead sensible people to believe or adopt a particular heresy. Soviet people are accustomed to a diet of assertion and vituperation, with little reasoning or inquisitive weighing of evidence; so any sample of really good thinking should come as a breath of fresh air. Also the explanation of, for example, modern scientific theories in popular terms should have great appeal because the Soviet press never seems to go into such matters. For example even on a relatively non-theoretical topic like soil erosion, so intensively publicized of late, the Embassy noted no explanation of how erosion actually takes place or specifically how it is cured.
Presentation of heresies should particularly avoid polarizing the contrast between heresy and orthodoxy as a clash between Russian and other cultures or peoples, thus sounding a hostile note in Soviet ears and defeating our purpose. Every effort should rather be made to tempt the Soviet listener to identify himself with heresy, and some third person or group (such as Party leadership) with orthodoxy. One device that might be helpful in this would be to mention with esteem the work of one or more Russians in the field under discussion, especially if their names have not yet been conspicuously attacked by Soviet heresy-hunters, and still better if, like Herzen4 and others, they have been generally canonized.
- Not printed.↩
- G. Frederick Reinhardt was Chief of the Division of Eastern European Affairs.↩
- Lloyd C. Lehrbas was Director of the Office of International Information.↩
- Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (Gertsen) was a nineteenth century publicist and socialist critic living much of his life abroad, where he published The Bell, the first Russian émigré journal.↩