Letter FromnCalifornianby Jay KinneynSoviet Agitprop ImplodesnThough it gets harder to remembernwith every passing day, one of thenlong-established premises of the recentlynended Cold War was the notion thatnboth the Soviet Union and the U.S.A.nwere engaged in an ideological battle fornthe minds and souls of the worid’snpopulation. In line with this the Westnused powerful transmitters to beam RadionFree Europe and Radio Liberty pastnthe Iron Curtain while the Soviets spentnmillions trying to jam the broadcasts.nFor its part, the U.S.S.R. establishednnumerous international front organizationsnand publications to parrot thenSoviet line.nFor decades this East-West psychologicalnwarfare was relatively upfront.nTheir side touted Marxism-Leninism,ndenounced American imperialism, andnencouraged Third World “liberationnstruggles.” Meanwhile, our side toutednthe free market and democracy, denouncednSoviet imperialism, and encouragednThird World development.nHowever, after five years of glasnostnand perestroika and the much heraldednend of the Cold War, we have come tona puzzling juncture where the psy-warnhasn’t exactly ended but seems to havenimploded — at least at the Soviet end.nSoviet propaganda is still being produced,nbut the logic behind it hasngotten a little . . . twisted.nTo see this more clearly, consider forna moment a typical pre-glasnost analysisnof Soviet “active measures,” i.e.,npropaganda and disinformation aimednat the West. In Dezinformatsia: ThenStrategy of Soviet Disinformationn(1986), two Sovietologists identifiednSoviet propaganda themes and notedntheir reproduction by front organizationsnand other secondary sources. Thenauthors analyzed two prime sources:nthe weekly “International Review” columnnin Pravda and New Times, then”Soviet Weekly of World Affairs,”n40/CHRONICLESnCORRESPONDENCEnwhich is published by the InternationalnInformation Department of the CentralnCommittee in ten different languageneditions and shipped all over thenworld.nStanislav Levchenko, a former KGBnofficer who had worked undercover asna New Times journalist, described thensupposed targets of New Times propagandanthis way:nNew Times propaganda in largenpart is directed against foreignnelites. In Western Europe, thisnincludes academics, journalists,npolitical leaders, and so on.nThese are the kinds ofnindividuals, the Soviets know,nwho read the magazine and areninfluenced by it. Additionally,nNew Times sets the lines onnvarious issues for foreignnCommunist parties. . . . NewnTimes also is used for internalnpropaganda directed at thenpopulation of the Soviet Union.nNew Times, in other words, isndirected against both foreignnand domestic audiences.nAccording to this pK-glasnost model,nNew Times ought to be a revealingnsource of Soviet propaganda and intentions.nMoreover, with so much ridingnon it — the influencing of foreignnelites, no less — it would stand to reasonnthat the Soviets would be bendingnover backwards to get it to their targetnaudience. Or so I assumed until I setnout in search of contemporary Sovietnagitprop.nThe first thing that an Americanndiscovers in his quest to be propagandizednis that the odds against successnare overwhelming. This is not due tonour government’s effort to keep propagandanout of the country. Quite thencontrary. The last hme I checked, ourncustoms and postal agencies were notnconfiscating shipments of revolutionarynliterature from abroad. During thenI970’s the Chinese shipped crateloadsnof little red books that domestic Maoistsneagerfy snapped up without anyonenin Washington batting an eyelash.nRather, the problem seems to lienwith the Soviets themselves. Just asnnnthey have trouble harvesting their ownngrain, the Soviets appear to have seriousndifficulty with getting their propagandananywhere near that target audiencenof academies, journalists, andnpolitical leaders — or near anyone fornthat matter. Take New Times, for example.nNew Times publishes, from time tontime, an impressive list of outletsnaround the worid where the curiousncan pick up a copy or enter a subscription.nIn San Francisco, New Times listsnThe Book Center (a modest little leftistnbookstore in the Mission District thatndoubles as the office of the Californianbranch of the CPUSA) and ZhanienBooks (a primarily Russian-languagenbookstore). However, as I discoverednon a recent visit, The Book Centernhadn’t • received a new copy of NewnTimes in several months. Why? Annapologetic clerk explained that sincentheir subscription of ten copies of thenEnglish-language edition had expired,nthe Soviets had been a bit slow innputting things back in order. There wasna stack of fresh New Times in Spanishnon the racks, proving that the Sovietsnhadn’t lost interest in publishing per se,nbut precious months of potentiallynfruitful propagandizing were slippingndown the drain, never to return.nThe situation at Zhanie was hardlynbetter. An initial phone call inquiringnabout New Times produced the glumnnews that “No, we don’t have any NewnTimes. They sell out within a day orntwo of when we get them in.” Short ofnhaunting the bookstore on a daily basis,nit sounded like one had to have anninside line in order to lay hands on thenperiodical. Perhaps all of Zhanie’s cop-n. ies were being snapped up by localnRussian emigres nostalgic for the oldnsod. That left very few for foreign elitesnhoping to chow down on some genuinenpropaganda.nA visit to Zhanie a week or two laternwas even more discouraging. No NewnTimes were in sight, only three-montholdncopies of Krokodil and a few newspapers,nall in Russian. Two elderlynRussian women were indifferently inncharge, lending the place an uncannilynauthentic Moscow air. Seized with an