21 December 1969 will be the ninetieth anniversary of the birth of Stalin. According to reports, a meeting of the Party Central Committee has been held, at which measures to be taken in honour of the forthcoming jubilee were discussed.
It was decided to mark Stalin’s ninetieth anniversary with articles in the newspapers Pravda and Izvestiya. Articles were to be prepared simultaneously for the journals Kommunist and Issues in Party History, but the question of their publication would be decided separately. The Institute of Marxism-Leninism attached to the Central Committee had prepared a four-volume anthology of selected works by Stalin, which it was planned to publish in a mass edition. The articles on Stalin were to be prepared by a group of historians headed by Academician Pospelov. The question of whether to hold a ceremonial meeting on the occasion of Stalin’s ninetieth birthday has not yet been decided, but there have been suggestions that a meeting similar to that organized by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism a few years ago to mark the anniversary of A. A. Zhdanov should be held.
Several printing-works have received orders to manufacture placards carrying a portrait of Stalin, and art-studios have orders to produce sculptures of him.
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In a new exhibition at the Central Lenin Museum a special section is to be devoted to the five-year plans and the “Patriotic War” [1941-1945], in which Stalin is to occupy a central position.
All the measures to be taken in connection with the Stalin anniversary celebrations are being directed by the Central Committee’s Department of Research and Educational Institutions, headed by S.P. Trapeznikov. As early as September 1965 Trapeznikov declared at a meeting of heads of social science departments, that he “constantly turns to the works of Stalin even today, to get guidance and instruction from them”. “I think”, he said, “that many of you do exactly the same thing, only you don’t speak about it.”
Trapeznikov was mentioned by Academician A.D. Sakharov in his famous treatise, in connection with the election of members of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Scientists and scholars boycotted Trapeznikov’s candidacy after his name was put forward by the Central Committee for election to the Academy.
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