Intensify Ideological-Political Work, Improve the Internationalist Upbringing of The Working People: Meeting of Georgia’s Party Aktiv.
Original Source: Zarya Vostoka, 27 April 1973, pp. 2-3.
Georgian researchers have done a great deal to restore historical truth recently, especially since the 20th CPSU Congress. However, vulgar sociologism and subjectivism have still not been eliminated in certain works. Unfortunately, the “Essays on the History of the Georgian Communist Party,” published by the Georgian branch of the CPSU Central Committee’s Institute of Marxism-Leninism in 1971, are not free of subjectivism, although a great deal of work went into their preparation. The book’s final two chapters, covering the period 1952-1970, need serious reworking. They must be reworked in the light of the CPSU Central Committee’s resolution “On the Organizational and Political Work of the Tbilisi City Party Committee in Fulfilling the Decisions of the 24th CPSU Congress,” which opened a new stage in the activity of the Georgian Communist Party.
The publication of the classic works of Marxism-Leninism in the Georgian language is very important for the intensification of all ideological work. However, it was noted at the meeting that work has still not begun on translating the fifth edition of the Complete Collected Works of V. I. Lenin, and not all the volumes of the fourth edition have appeared as yet. Sometimes mistakes are made in the translations. Concrete examples were cited at the meeting. The speakers sharply criticized the inadmissibility of this irresponsible attitude, the loss of Party conscience and elementary ethics and standards, and the disregard for scientific truth…
Shortcomings in ideological-upbringing work among young people are graphically manifest in the fact that some young specialists refuse to work where they are needed and have been assigned. Thus, the schools of Abkhazia are short 282 teachers, while 456 temporarily unemployed teachers are registered with the Sukhumi City Executive Committee’s Department of Education…
As the CPSU Central Committee’s resolution on the work of the Tbilisi City Party Committee noted, there were shortcomings in the internationalist upbringing of the working people in our republic. This was expressed in the existence of nationalistic prejudices, in a certain infatuation with antiquity and, in a number of cases, in the absence of a class approach to certain historical figures and trends of sociopolitical thought. These shortcomings have by no means been eradicated. Thus, it was noted at the aktiv meeting that in Abkhazia a half-baked “theory” according to which responsible posts should be filled only by the representatives of the indigenous nationality has gained a certain currency. The authors of this theory forget that all residents of a particular republic, regardless of their national affiliation, are exponents of the statehood of the republic in question and its builders in all fields of the national economy and culture. Of course, every national republic has local cadres that have grown up during the years of Soviet power. This is a great achievement of the Communist Party. But no one has been given the right to ignore the national composition of the population or to disregard the continual exchange of cadres among nations and the interests of all nationalities.
The speakers directed attention to the struggle against the national narrow-mindedness that is sometimes manifested in the replacement of feelings of Soviet national pride by national conceit and excessive stress on the “uniqueness” of the given nation’s development path.
This and similar “theories” could have appeared only as a result of the fact that there was a considerable slackening in political and ideological work, particularly in the Abkhaz Province Party organization, and that the former leadership of the Georgian Communist Party Central Committee tolerated all-forgiveness and laxity toward nationalistic elements and flirtation with them.
Then there were the executives who urged the Adzhar Party organization to reject proposals to set up a Georgian Steamship Line, to build new factories and plants and to develop resorts and tourism, basing their advice on the premise that this would lead to the migration of people from other republics. That is how some former executives interpreted the prospects for the development of the republic’s national economy, the tasks of the rational utilization of its natural resources and, most important, the internationalist friendship among peoples.
The level and effectiveness of the internationalist upbringing of the working people in the South Ossetian Province Party organization still do not meet the high demands made by the Party, although a good deal has been done in this direction. The works of certain writers still betray elements of the idealization of outmoded traditions and the glorification of moribund attributes of antiquity. The present day has not yet become a theme in the works of part of the creative intelligentsia of this autonomous province.
The speakers said that the serious mistakes in the work of the executive agencies of the Georgian Communist Party in the past could not help but have a negative effect on the internationalist upbringing of the republic’s working people. It was noted that elements of chauvinism may be manifested in various aspects. For example, in the Union republics there may be not only local nationalism but also local chauvinism with respect to the smaller nations and nationalities…
The speakers said that internationalist upbringing implies modesty and objectivity in appraising national achievements. However, this modesty does not rule out legitimate feelings of national pride for the real successes that have been achieved with the help of all the fraternal peoples of our great Soviet Union. However, certain of our comrades who waste their time and energy on investigating such problems as whose civilization is older or how many sentences mention Azerbaijan or Georgia in, let us say, “The History of Soviet Mathematics,” are stirring up trouble and acting against the traditional friendship of peoples and their mutual understanding and mutual respect…
The meeting devoted special attention to overcoming survivals of the past in people’s minds and behavior.
The discussion focused on the intensification of the struggle against manifestations of petit-bourgeois ideology and morals, against remnants of private-ownership psychology, relapses into bourgeois views, mores and customs, antisocial behavior and the violation of Soviet laws and the rules of socialist communal living. The need to step up the struggle against bribery, extortion, unprincipled pragmatism, covering up for one’s fellows, localism, the buddy system, favoritism, egoism, individualism. speculation, etc., was mentioned. A number of examples were cited indicating that such phenomena still occur in our reality now and then.
The speakers noted that some of the intelligentsia have succumbed to the cult of unprincipled pragmatism that became widespread in our reality recently. For instance, certain prominent workers in the arts were removed from the artistic council of the Mardzhanishvili Theater, while at the same time the schemer Babunashvili became a council member, although he had nothing to do with the arts.
Sports were not to be outdone by the arts. The well-known basketball player N. Dzhordzhikia was removed from his post as Chairman of the Tbilisi Basketball Federation and our old friend Babunashvili was elected in his place, evoking a great furor.
Concern was evoked among the participants in the meeting by the fact that such painful remnants of the past as religious prejudice, superstition and, in some cases, even blood feuds have still not been eradicated in such mountain regions as Svanetia, Khevsuretia, Abkhaz Svanetia and Adzharia and that atheist scholars, psychologists, pedagogues, sociologists, jurists and certain Party leaders do not want to deal with these and similar phenomena. We still do not have enough lecturers on questions of scientific atheism, and in the higher educational institutions problems of atheism are studied according to a syllabus that is too abbreviated.
The speakers decisively condemned the distortion of the fine folk traditions of Georgian hospitality as displayed in the holding of lavish weddings, nameday celebrations and funeral feasts, all frequently accompanied by drinking bouts. It was noted that instances in which the arrival of inspection commissions and brigades “from above” is accompanied by interminable welcoming feasts should be combated. Often the hosts entertain their guests not at their own expense but at the expense of the collective farms, state farms, institutions and enterprises. This creates conditions for forgery, report padding and embezzlement under cover of defraying these expenses…
The main speaker and those who spoke in the discussion devoted a great deal of attention to questions of the lag in literary criticism, especially to its feebleness and inability to fulfill its lofty mission. As a result, there has been a weakening in the civic resonance of Georgian literature. Another consequence is the sad fact that a number of prominent representatives of Georgian literature and art have somewhat withdrawn from the great themes of our time.
Quite a few interesting works of the Soviet fine arts have been created in Georgia in the past few years…
At the same time, it was stated at the meeting that we must recognize that some tendencies that are not altogether healthy have been noted in the work of certain artists. Some young artists have become infatuated with superficial stylization and affectation. Other artists are trying to clothe their work in artistic forms characteristic of Western modernistic art. Of course, this is not the main trend in Georgia’s fine arts today. But when we talk about primitivism and affectation now, it is only because exhibition committees sometimes support and advertise this undesirable tendency. In turn, this confuses the students, the future masters of brush and chisel. They often complain to their teachers -What good is academic training if primitivism and superficial stylization enjoy such great success?…
The fallacious methods and crude mistakes that were tolerated in the management of the national economy and in ideological work in the recent past have left a negative imprint on the sphere of public education as well.
In such a highly important index of the school’s entire instructional and upbringing work as the pass rate of pupils, the republic has held 12th place for the past two years. The situation is even worse in the evening (shift) general-education schools. In the number of students repeating grades, Georgia holds second place in the country…-(Georgia Information Agency.)
Source: Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Vol. XXV, No. 16, pp. 5-6.