The following document describes how arrangements were made to jam Western broadcasts to Poland from Soviet and Polish territory in 1951.
October 24, 1951
USSR Council of Ministers Decree Instituting Jamming of Anti-Polish Propaganda via Radio on Polish Territory
toP seCret
USSR CounCil of ministers
deCree
Nº 4028-1849ss of 24 October 1951
Moscow, the Kremlin
The Institution of Jamming of Anti-Polish Propaganda via Radio on Polish Territory
In order to combat hostile propaganda via radio on the territory of the Polish republic[1] the USSR Council of ministers decrees:
1. That the Ministry of Communications (Comrade Psurtsev) should be charged with ensuring the institution of jamming on Polish territory of anti-Polish propaganda via shortwave radio beginning on 1 December 1951 using Soviet equipment and helping the Polish government organize protection from hostile propaganda on medium wave using Polish equipment.
2. That the ministry of Communications be charged [with]:
a) using up to 12 shortwave broadcast transmitters located at Soviet radio stations to institute jamming of hostile propaganda against Poland via radio;
b) sending Comrade A. I. Zharov, the Chief of the Main Directorate of Radio Communications, and Comrade P. K. Sergeyev, senior engineer of the Ministry of Communications, to Poland, within five days, with a group of experienced specialists (four or five people), for three months, to help organize a protection service and convey the experience of the Ministry of Communications in this area.
3. That the USSR ministry of foreign affairs (Comrade Vyshinsky) and the ministry of Communications (Comrade Psurtsev) be charged with submitting proposals within two weeks regarding the necessary measures for protection from hostile propaganda via radio based on the joint use of Soviet, Polish, Czechoslovak, Hungarian, Romanian, and Bulgarian equipment.
Chairman of the USSR Council of ministers I. Stalin
Administrator,
USSR Council of Ministers m. PomaZneV
[1]As archival documents testify, Western radio propaganda caused great anxiety to the Polish Party leaders, who regarded it as the most widespread and active form of hostile propaganda. For example, in the autumn of 1951, J. Prima, first secretary of the Party Provincial Committee in Szczecin, told the Soviet Consul in Szczecin, I. S. Borisov, that “receivers are widely distributed throughout the villages, and where there are none the kulaks organize community listening and then pass on verbally what was heard.” see RTsKhIDNI. f. 17. op. 17. d. 619. p. 113.
Decree ordering the USSR Ministry of Communications to assist with the jamming of Western radio broadcasts in Poland.
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State Archive of the Russian Federation, GARF, F. 5446, Op. 59, D. 1724, p. 12. Translated by Gary Goldberg.
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