The Resurrection Of The Trojan Horse
By David Truskoff
26 August, 2007
Countercurrents.orgHe who controls the mind controls the world
It was a beautiful spring in Moscow in 1991 and I was in Russia to do research for a book that I was working on. The fifteen year old daughter of my host explained that April first in Russia is called "Humor Day" It is supposed to be a day of fun and laughter just as it is in America. We sat around the kitchen table and told funny stories about politics in Russia and America. On April second 1991 the laughter stopped. Shocking new price increases went into effect. For Russians it was indeed a shock. They had not seen price increases in Years. To illustrate how sudden it all was let me tell you that I took the metro from one section of Moscow to another that day. It cost me five kopecks. On the way back the same trip cost fifteen kopecks. My trip was to attend a meeting at one of the largest publishing houses in Moscow.
History, the world over is written with just the right amount of dry fact and figures mixed with the proper quantity of selected quotations to put the writers own spin on his or her version, but we all know that preceding every historic action by one country or another, the most important event in history that takes place is the shaping of the public mind. With out it dictators can not move their armies and even in democracies politicians can not get elected, Nor can they send young men off to war.
One of the busiest stores in down town Moscow was the block long, two story HOUSE OF BOOKS. On the front window in April of 1991 a banner proclaimed. "Books serve peace and progress." Sitting on a reader’s bench up on the second floor, surrounded by lovely green plants and reading a book of prose written by my friend and host, I was impressed by the great public interest in books. I am sorry to say, however, that as soon as I began my investigation into the Soviet publishing industry, a day later, I learned that the industry, not only was beginning to suffer from the incipient national disarray but was certainly contributing to it, and in doing so was actually writing its own obituary.
My last interview before leaving Moscow for Minsk was with Nickolia Bordofski. He wore many hats at Progress Publishing, one of Moscow’s largest publishing houses. In his capacity as liaison with the foreign press he had many important things to say, but toward the end of our interview he nonchalantly stated that the American State Department through the United States Information Agency gives hard currency (in dollars) to Soviet Publishing houses. With those dollars they are encouraged to buy the rights to American books. That was an astounding statement, but he followed that by telling me that the U.S.I.A. told the Soviet publishing house what books to publish under this program.
I had just a few hours before train time so I rushed back to my apartment and tried to put a call through to the American Embassy. It was not easy. A recent fire left the entire cultural affairs department with only one working telephone. I finally did reach David Sieskin, who was the cultural affairs attaché at the embassy overseeing the, "USSR Book Translation Program" for the United States Information Agency.
"This is how the program works," he said. " American publishers submit a list of books to the U.S.I.A. to be considered under the program. The U.S.I.A. council in America (Sieskin said that he did not know the names of those who served on the council.) has the final say." Here are some of the books that he listed for me that were being published under the program: "Nixon, Reagan, Eisenhower, The Joy of Sex, The life of an American Farmer, and Invitation to Entrepreneurship"I decided to backtrack over my interview list and telephone writers that I had already spoken to, and ask them about the Book Translation Program. No one wanted to be quoted on this subject, but most of the writer’s opinions can be summed up in one man’s comments. He said, "We Soviet writers are being subverted from within. The dollar is about to destroy our publishing industry." Asking that his name not be used. The writer explained, "I have a book that I am trying to get published." Then he continued, "The U.S.I.A. is exploiting an already serious situation that we have here. I will try to explain with my limited English. The subsidies that the Soviet Publishers got last year are almost no more. Costs for printing and the cost for paper has gone up like one of our space rockets. Now a publishing company is expected to make a profit on it’s own! The serious Soviet writer who spends years on one manuscript is being squeezed out by the need for quick profits. The publisher has to give the people what they want. They are to be treated like children who want candy for dinner. If it is pornography that they want, then given them pornography. They will buy American propaganda books the same way they buy hamburgers at McDonald's. It is good to publish foreign books and we should be able to do more of it, but not at the expense of Soviet writers. Soviet publishers should be the only ones to decide what they should publish, and it should be done on a we.. . they. • .kak po Engliski...
" Reciprocal?"
"Yes. .Yes. . Reciprocal basis."
I went back to see Alexander Pumpianski, the well known and well-respected editor in chief of the very popular magazine "The New Times". (He wrote a review of my book) His response to the translation program was typical of the Yeltsin supporting anti-socialist, anti- Soviet, Journalist. "Let’s not read any CIA intrigue into this as we would have done just a few years ago," he said. "This is done out in the open and is welcomed as part of perostroika. It is well received by the new profit motivated publisher in the Soviet Union."Boris P. Likachev was then the Editor in Chief of the International Book Publishing House, which specializes in international relations. It had been publishing for thirty-three years. It is a medium size book publisher and considers itself independent; however, in 1991 it was still under the Party Committee for Publishing and The Foreign Ministry of the USSR. They also publish biweekly reports of the Foreign Ministry.
(Truskoff) "Mister Likachev, How did the most drastic changes that have occurred in the Soviet publishing industry come about? For Example, How did the Progressive Publishing House suddenly stop publishing Communist Literature and begin to publish books of western authors?"
(Likachev) "The initiator and the real force of this change was the State Committee who informed the publishers that they were now on their own. The State informed them that they would help them to become financially independent. They also said that we have the right to chose our own books."
(Truskoff) "How successful have you been?
(Likachev) "Well, let us look at all the changes that have occurred since then. All the conditions of the industry have been changed. The cost of producing a book has risen. The cost of the paper has become five to ten times higher and is still going up. The cost of the production services has become five times higher. The cost of social insurance (health and welfare have become five times higher and the taxes have become two and a half to three times higher... and all the changes have come at once. The result is that we must raise the cost of the book, but we cannot raise the price of a book five times higher. The customer’s wages have not gone up so they will not buy the book. We are forced to chose books that will make immediate profit."
(Truskoff) "Does this suggest to writers to write only commercial material? Is your publishing industry lowering its standards, and has this in turn lowered the quality of the writing in favor off the need for quick profits?"
(Likachev) "Yes, of course, there’s something in your question that needs an affirmative answer. There is a growing number of the detective and romance books that I would say are of a lower quality, but the growing share of the book market in that direction makes us try not to sacrifice the books that must be published. We can afford only to publish not the good books, but the very popular books such as famous people memoirs. They will always sell. The truth is we would like to once again be a State Publishing House. We do not want to be ‘privatized.’ The liberals ask for a freeze on the price of paper. Already the so-called ‘free market’ has failed. If it is free you cannot freeze prices."
(Truskoff)" Many American writers complain about the difficulty they have in getting royalties for their books that are published here."
(Likachev) "Yes, the only answer to that is to convert the Ruble."
Before we left the International Publishing House Likachev explained that the huge Progress and Raduga book publishing companies are "privileged" because for years they have been publishing propaganda materials for shipments abroad and, therefore, are still able to gather hard currency (dollars) to pay western authors and to pay American publishers for publishing rights." So I went to Progress publishing.
Nickolia Bordovski arrived at his office on the fifth floor of Progress Publishing, a little late, a little red eyed, and a bit disheveled, but he proved to be a very pleasant, witty and informative person with a deep commitment to the industry. His honesty and openness and courage to say what he felt was very helpful.
(Truskoff) "Nickolia, we could not have a discussion about trees in the Soviet Union without including politics. It is a fact that publishing is always a spearhead of political change.
(Bordovski) "Yes, of course, but now only the publishing house must pay for the royalties and the rights with hard currency for western writers. The subsidies are now finished. We are supposed to be free of politics. Now we have to worry more about finances.
(Truskoff)" We have asked others this question. Because of the present need for quick profits are you discouraging the serious writer?
(Bordovski) "The U.S.I.A. pay for the U.S. rights with dollars and then tell the publishing houses what books they can publish under the program. Therefore, we have to make very serious choices with the finances that we have left after we pay western royalties. We must show profit. Sometime we can pay foreign authors 40% in dollars and 60% in rubles."
(Truskoff) " There are now privately owned publishing houses springing up and many are publishing the hot romance novels and many other books that are pornographic in nature. Can they publish anything that they want without regulation?
(Bordovski) "One person is not supposed to own a publishing company. A group of men get together and form a company. But usually one person puts up most if not all of the money. Now it is possible to publish anything. There is much that I do not like, of course, but who can stop it?’
(Truskoff) "Does the present situation and the strain between the USSR hard-liners and the present State of Russia also put a strain on Moscow publishers?
(Bordovski) "We are, of course, concerned because the sudden food shortages in the stores create a bad atmosphere for the book buyers and the publisher must now calculate how he can survive without State money. So we really don’t know what will happen. Maybe if things get worse there will be a setback. No one here wants to go back to the old ways, but we now have serious problems."
In 1996 I was in Moscow to watch the media during Russia’s first national elections. As an ex television commercial producer I marveled at the simplicity of the ads created by the western advertising agency for Boris Yeltsin.
Scene one, in black and white, depicted Russian prisoners trudging through the snow and the voice over asked, "Do you want to go back to this?
Scene two, like in the Wizard of Oz, the screen turns to color and the voice asks, "or would you rather have this? And the viewer sees a handsome couple riding in a new convertible and waving as they drove down upper Arabat, the most expensive shopping street in Moscow.
The helpless people of Russia were injected with the lie that if you voted for Yeltsin you would all be rich like the Americans.
Today in 2007, people like Soros, Murdock, and Bertelsmann of Germany are all still vying along with the Russian oligarchy for the minds of the people of Eastern Europe. The effort today is to keep the masses from slipping back to socialism.
It was so easy. Oh, it was so easy. Gorbechev opened the doors and mind spinners poured out of the Trojan Horse and stole the minds of the people of Eastern Europe.
And so, it is now on to China. Who controls the media rules.
"Today's trading debut of Beijing Media on the Hong Kong stock exchange marks the first overseas flotation of a mainland newspaper - a significant step to modernize China's media industry.
The ground-breaking listing of the advertising and sales unit of the Beijing Youth Daily, one of China's most popular newspapers, will help lift industry standards while giving international investors an unprecedented opportunity to invest in China's media industry.
China Beijing Youth Daily 9/23/05
The Trojan Horse now stands at the gates of Peking
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