Friday. February 5, i965

SCARLET AND BLACK

 

 

Brzezinski Analyzes Leadership,
Power, Groups in Soviet Union

By Dick Chady

Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski be-
gan this year’s Rosenfieid lec-
tures on contemporary Russian
affairs by discussing “The
Character of Leadership.”
Brzezinski traced the develop-
ment of Soviet leadership from
Lenin to Kosygin and Brezh-
nev.

Lenin's rule was character-
ized by a “fusion of functions,”
meaning that Lenin accepted
the roles of party organizer,
professional revolutionary, ide<
clogue, and personal ruler all
within himself. His power did
not have an institutional base.
Lenin depended on charisma
for his power.

Those surrounding the first
Soviet leader were all dedicat-
ed fanactics, and Lenin dc-
manded the subordination of all.
He was able to maintain power
by exercising leadership on the
yan‘ety of levels mentioned,
and by his obsession with per-
sonal instead of institutional
power.

Stalin, on the other hand, de-
pended not so much on per-
sonal power as he did politi-
cal leverage, as the party he
came the embodiment of what
is correct. Any charisma he ob—
tained was from the party.

The four bases for Stalin’s
power were the state, the par-
ty, the army, and the secret
police. He ruled by maintain<
ing the proper balances be-
tween these bases, and by bal-
ancing coercion with relaxa~
tion, Stalin’s government then
rested on a “complex web of
cross-controls,” and none was
allowed to develop to challange
his authority.

According to Brzezinski, Stal-
in was able to accumulate pow-
er on the basis of Commitments
to great tasks: coilectivization,
industrialization, the war. All
these tasks led to an expan-
sion of the powers of the party
and its ruler.

Khrushchev was seen as a
transitional figure, under which

BRZEZINSKI—
(Continued on Page a)

By David Lighthourne

“We are likely to see in the So-
viet Union an increasing tendency
for leadership at the top to become
more limited in time," according
to Dr. Zhigniew K. Brzezinski, di-
rector of the Research institute on
Communist Affairs at. Columbia
University.

Speaking at the second of this
year’s Rosenfield Lecture Series,
Brzezinski traced the acquisition of
power in the Soviet Union from
Stalin through Khrushchev, and
pointed to the similarities and dif-
ferences in their emergence to
power. Brzezinski then outlined the
implications of his study with re-
gard to future Soviet power strug-
gles,

The pattern {or acquiring power,
said Brzezinski, has been a gradual
transition in which the future lead-
er starts as an equal among
equals, at the top of the Soviet
hierarchy, then he becomes first
among equals, and finally first
among nonequals. Stalin followed
this pattern, Brzezinski said, rough-
ly from 1923 until 1934. Speaking of
the year 1934 Brzezinski noted,
“Now, terror takes on a physical
violence,” as Stalin was soon to
guarantee his supremacy. Khrush-
chev, likewise, followed this pat-
tern, rising in a much more com-
pressed period equal among equals
in 1953 to a position above his as-
sociates in 1957, Brzezinski said.

“in both cases, Stalin's and in
Khrushchev’s case, we are not
dealing with a skilled organizer
who rose to power on the basis of
a slnlllul manipulation of organiza-
tional devices—which is true in
both cases, but to my mind has
been stressed too much, In both
cases we are also dealing with in4
dividuals who intuitively perhaps,
or consciously, associated them-
selves with the right issues at the
right time. And in politics this, of
course is of the greatest impor-
tance."

Stalin, on the basis of certain ora
ganizatianal devices, as well as
sensing accurately the mood of the
emerging party utficialdom, said

rowan—
(Contlnued on Page 6)

 

By Glen Ashmon

Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, in
the final Rosenfield lecture,
shattered the longstanding
concept of Communist Russia
as a totalitarian state whose
leaders are responsible only to
the party. The lecture, “Groups
and Policy Making," distin—
guished three kinds of groups
influencing government policy.

The least influential of these
group Brzezinski termed
“amorphous soci a1 aggre-
gates,” Such aggregates com-
prising the industrial proletarv
lat and the peasantry are unor—
ganized and lack cohesion.
Their power to exert pressure
on governmental policy arises
from the fact that they account
for 40 per Cent of the populav
Lion and are in a positiOn to
slow down production and out
put in protest against unpopu-
lar official policy.

The second class of pressure
groups that Brzezinski acknowl-
edged was the “special interest
group.” Such groups are com-
posed of the literary segment
of Soviet society—some 150,000
scientists, 350,000 physicians,
and the Jewish minority. Spec—
ial interest groups become ac-
tive when policies of the Soviet
interfere with their real or
imagined "rights.”

Finally, Brzezinski recognized
“policy groups” as the most
powerful of the pressure groups.
He explained that policy groups
include nearly 200,000 top g0v~
crnment officials who are not
members of the Central Com-
mittee—commanders of mili-
tary personnel and state minis-
ters. Brzezinski outlined the
following reasons for explain»
ing the influence of policy
groups:

a) Extreme cohesion. Policy
groups are well organized
units such as the military.

b) Strategic location, Policy
groups have offices or branches
in major cities as well as in
the Kremlin itself.

c) Access to top leadership.
Policy groups maintain rela
tions with the Party Secretary
and other officials.

d) Institutional freedom for

 

 

 

 

 

Page Five

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zbigniew Brzezinski inﬂerrick Chapel

the implementation of their
goals.

Concluding his lecture, Brzez«
inski divided Russian leader-
ship into five “Columns” rang-
ing from extreme right wing to
extreme left. The far right col-
umn includes the central party
at large who oppose any
change. They favor a central-
ized economy maintained by
governmental computations and
manipulation as opposed to an
open market system. In the
second right column, Brzezin-
ski included the industrial man-
agers who are happy with the
economy as it stands.

Occupying the center position

are groups who favor any sta-
bilizing policy. Party Secre-
tary Leonid Brezhnev was
placed in this column.

Brzezinski included Khrush-
chev in the first left hand col-
umn along with students and
scientists. Finally, on the ex-
treme left are those economists
who favor a free market sys-
tem modeled after the Western
system.

in summary, Brzezinski stat-
ed, “The Soviet Union is no
longer governed on the basis
of single will, single party. The
party itself is no longer a co-
hesive organization but is torn
by conflicting goals."

 

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