Soviet Orientalist Propaganda
BALLIS, WILLIAM B.
Soviet Orientalist Propaganda By William B. Ballis USSR seeks to influence the emerging states with its Oriental and African research work THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS of Orientalists, held in...
...While most of the 20 sections of the Congress dealt with ancient historical or esoteric philological subjects, some of the sections had discussions of basic ideological differences...
...This struggle was manifested in the selection of the site of the next conference—not New York as proposed by the Americans, nor Baghdad or Cairo as proposed by the Soviets, but India, which is at least out of reach of American influence...
...the Soviets will be able to continue their very impressive campaign to influence Oriental studies and the relations between the USSR and the new nations of Asia and Africa...
...The final Pravda account of the congress emphasized that rarely was the colonial policy of imperialism suggested and even the Japanese delegates warned of the danger of the revival of Japanese imperialism...
...They do not want the United States to play an influential role in the management of Oriental studies on an international level lest American scholarly activities out-weigh Soviet-led scholarship...
...Maiskii went on, in front of the primarily Mongol audience of the section, to denounce the foreign policy of the United States as decadent and without feeling for colonial peoples...
...First, the congress was designed to let the peoples of Asia and Africa see the great accomplishments of the Soviet Asian Republics, thereby identifying the Soviet Union as the true friend of Asian and African peoples...
...Three vears hence, in New Delhi...
...He developed further the line that in the former colonies of Tsarist Russia—Central Asia, the Transcaucasus and Kazakhstan—industrialization had increased 50 times in the years of Soviet authority, and education had shown comparable advances...
...The Soviets want not only their own scholars, but as many as they can convert from these Asian-African countries, to put their problems in a Marxist frame of reference...
...Petersburg over 80 years ago, but emphasized that the contemporary world had wrought great social and economic changes...
...Many delegates were housed in comfortable rooms in a new University building and ate in the professors' dining room at very reasonable rates...
...The American delegates to the congress had a small exhibition of recent books published by American scholars on Asia, but 25 of them were removed on the ground that they were anti-Communist...
...The congress met in the main auditorium and lecture halls of the new buildings of Moscow State University in Lenin Hills on the edge of Moscow...
...It is worth noting that in the Pravda accounts of the congress on August 10 and 17, nothing was reported about American participation...
...Originally scheduled for Leningrad, the congress site was changed to Moscow because the Russians had better facilities there and also because they could more effectively impress foreign visitors with Soviet achievements...
...Some delegates, especially from the new nations of Asia and Africa, were housed in other residential quarters throughout the city...
...when the Americans protested, some—but not all—were returned...
...In another section, an American scholar's paper on the Chinese family unit was bitterly denounced by a Soviet scholar, who was impertinent enough to charge that the paper should not have been allowed on the program...
...He spoke of the national liberation movements of the Oriental and African peoples, of the force released by the "great October Revolution" and of the perspectives it opened to the peoples of the East...
...The emphasis in the concluding report on the congress was mainly on the Orientalists from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia and Japan...
...Giving special greetings to the representatives from Asia and Africa, he stated that the "duty of Orientalists in their works is to reflect objectively the most important processes which have occurred in the past and are taking place especially now in the countries of Asia and Africa, to assist in the creative work on the basic problems of the struggle of the peoples of the East for national and social liberation and for overcoming their economic backwardness...
...Mikoyan also spoke of the friendship and sympathy for the new nations of Asia and Africa, indicating that Russia wanted to help them in WILLIAM B. BALLIS, just back from a trip to the USSR, teaches political science at University of Michigan...
...In the Mongolian section, I delivered a paper on Soviet relations with Outer Mongolia which was violently attacked by Mongolian and Russian scholars, including Soviet Academician I. M. Maiskii, a former Menshevik, who accused me of being a capitalist-imperialist historian...
...others stayed at the newest and most lavish hotel in Moscow, the Ukraina...
...They did this by loading the Soviet papers with such nomenclature as "national liberation movements," and by discussing a number of modern Asian and African political problems...
...To the Soviets, Oriental studies are a vital medium to influence the intellectual leaders of the rising new nations of Asia and Africa...
...At the convocation of the congress, Anastas Mikoyan, First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, called attention to the meeting in St...
...The Soviets denounced a few other Western papers but fundamentally they were quite restrained in their criticism, for they did not have to attack openly to win their public...
...In the University halls, the Soviets had special exhibits showing the achievements of the Central Asian Republics in art, culture, science and education, and a large exhibition of Soviet books recently published on Oriental studies...
...their struggle against imperialist aggression and the colonialists...
...The lesson Mikoyan wanted to drive home was two-fold...
...Second, the congress was to serve as a refresher course for the Soviet and satellite Orientalists, who made up the majority of the delegates, to emphasize that the function of Soviet Oriental studies is to facilitate an understanding of the national liberation movements of the East...
...This injection of political topics into the congress discussions can be attributed to the Russians' desire to broaden the scope of Oriental studies to include contemporary Asia and Africa, and to the political nature of all scholarship in the eyes of the Soviets...
...Soviet Orientalist Propaganda By William B. Ballis USSR seeks to influence the emerging states with its Oriental and African research work THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS of Orientalists, held in Moscow in August, was an illustration of how the Soviets attempt to use a respectable international organization as an instrument of Soviet propaganda...
...The Soviets arranged special parties for Asian and African delegates (excluding Western scholars) and gave them unusual opportunities to meet Soviet Orientalists...
...This the Soviets did by "stacking" the executive committee of the congress with representatives from states like Nepal, whom they could pressure...
Vol. 43 • December 1960 • No. 47
