Brezhnev Warns Dissenters

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31725, 8 July 1968, Page 7

Brezhnev Warns Dissenters

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) MOSCOW, July 7. The Soviet Party leader, Mr Leonid Brezhnev, has made a new attack on Western democracies and took a hard line against educational and cultural dissent in the Soviet Union, the Associated Press reported. In a speech at a national teachers’ congress, he condemned complete artistic freedom and insisted that writers and other artists serve the Communist Party. He said schools in this country could not stand aloof from politics but must indoctrinate the youth with communism. At the same time, Mr Brezhnev insisted that Western democracies were experiencing a deep socio-political crisis and were losing their attraction for young people. His speech was the latest! development In the steppedup ideological struggle by the Soviet leadership. This is apparently aimed at retaining the loyalty of Soviet citizens and stopping liberalisation movements in the East Bloc. The Soviet School trained not merely educated people, the Communist Party General Secretary told 4000 delegates to the teachers’ congress. It was responsible for the graduation of politicallyversed, ideologically-con-vinced fighters for the cause Of communism The school had never stood nor could stand aloof from politics and class struggle. The Communist outlook must be inherent in a Soviet citizen. Turning to the arts, Mr Brezhnev said some reflection of difficulties, negative phenomena and mistakes could be tolerated. But he opposed one-sided demonstrations of the dark things alone. Refusal to allow such art, he said, was condemned by communism's opponents as something short of the summit of artistic freedom. But Mr Brezhnev made clear that present policy would continue. He told the teachers about efforts by the West to under-

mine faith in the system and cause trouble between Communist countries.

In the West, Mr Brezhnev said, things were going from bad to worse, while communism improved steadily. The country which the exploiters and oppressers of the world regarded as an impregnable fortress of the old order (the United States) had entered into a period of serious internal upheavals, he declared.

The class struggle of the proletariat in France, the successes of the forces of the Left in Italy, the mass demonstrations against the emergency legislation in the Federal Republic of Germany —all these confirmed the depth of the socio-political crisis capitalism was experiencing. It became more difficult for capitalism to keep its hold on youth and to maintain its influence with young people. This confirmed once again

that this system had no future.

The “New York Times” news service reported that Mr Brezhnev then rejected accusations that the Soviet education system suppressed individuality in pursuit of “narrow, pragmatic goals.” He attributed the accusations of suppression of individuality to foreign “Sovietologists,” but the charge also has been raised by Soviet educators.

Speakers at the congress have emphasised the need to instil in students an ability to perform independent and creative work, departing from rigid conformity. Mr Brezhnev’s speech reflected a growing consciousness of the influence of young people on Soviet society and its progress towards the proclaimed goal of communism. More than half the people of this country are under 25 years of age. Mr Brezhnev asserted that

only the Communist system afforded young people a full opportunity toward the development of their talents and for a “genuine, all-round development of Individuality.” Although defending the place of individuality in Soviet society, he said that “imperialist propaganda” was seeking to spread ideas of “individualism" and "nationalism” in the Communist bloc. In an apparent reference to a relaxation of totalitarian controls in Czechoslovakia, he charged that enemies of communism were “slanderously” trying to depict the dominating role of Communist parties as creating obstacles to democracy.

“As long as two fortes, socialism and democracy, exist and fight in the world, democracy serves classes,” Mr Brezhnev said. “Bourgeois democracy covers up the power of a handful of magnates of finance, capital and groups associated with them.”