LATE ITEM
(Classification)
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
INR BRIEFING NOTE
TO: The Director, INR
GIST: Obscure Oblast Party Secretary From Chelyabinsk Succeeds Sergey Pavlov as Komsomol Chief
DATE: 12 Jun 68
TIME: 1530
COMMENTS CONTAINED IN INR BRIEFING NOTES ARE INITIAL AND TENTATIVE.
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SOURCE(S)
FBIS 47
12 Jun 68
CLASS./CONTROL(S)
Unclass.
A plenum of the Komsomol Central Committee today released Sergey Pavlov as first secretary and member of the Euro. In grateful recognition of his great contributions, Pavlov was elected an honorary Komsomol, awarded an honorary badge, and his name was inscribed in the Book of Honor.
Yevgeniy Tyazhelnikov was elected first secretary of the Komsomol. Secretary Marina Zhuravleva was released from the Secretariat and Euro in connection with her transfer to another post, and was honored with a badge.
The agenda of the plenum consisted of:
1) fulfillment of decisions of the CPSU April Plenum
2) Komsomol guidance by the Krasnoyarsk Kraykom
3) preparations for the World Youth and Student Festival in Sofia this summer.
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INR Comment: The reasons for Pavlov's donation were discussed in our briefing item of last Friday and our IN of Monday. Today's move confirms our view that a candidate outside the Moscow Komsomol group would be chosen.
Yevgeniy Tyazhelnikov comes to Moscow from the obscurity of the agitprop secretaryship of the Chelyabinsk Oblast Party Committee. Judging from his writings, he was interested in pedagogy in the rural schools and pre-university levels. He has been an oblast party secretary at least since September 1965, and he attended the 23d Party Congress as a voting delegate in March-April 1966. The choice of an obscure oblast Party secretary without any known Komsomol rank emphasizes the point of tighter Party control over the Komsomol which was spelled out in the recent Party decree on the shortcomings of the Krasnoyarsk Party Committee. The decree, which is binding nationally, noted general slackening of Party monitoring, a decrease in the percentage of Party members among Komsomol officials, and an undesirable level of antisocial acts, indifference to Party indoctrination, and sparse recruitment of laboring and rural youths.
The presence of Party ideologist Suslov and Party personnel secretary Kapitonov further emphasizes the observations in the above paragraph. Evidently, the Komsomol will participate actively in the current ideological holding operation as outlined at the April Plenum, and organizational steps may be taken to check the spread of youthful receptivity to Western ways and ideas.
Presumably, Moscow will furnish further details on Tyazhelnikov. His recent Party boss in Chelyabinsk is Nikolay Rodionov, a Leningrader who was considered a member of the faction of the late Frol Kozlov, a one-time contender for supreme Party power. Rodionov's current political ties are not clear.
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IN OFFICE
BRIEFER
EXTENSION
RSE/SCV
D. Graves
5088
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