The Person-to-Person Distribution Program and Personalized Mailings
Because mailed books were subject to censorship, most of the books about international affairs and politics, as well as selected books with political impact about philosophy, religion, law, history, social sciences, economics, business, and labor, were distributed hand to hand to east european visitors to the West. This method was given the name “person-to-person distribution program.” this chapter is based on general data and selected accounts of hand-to-hand distribution to visitors from all the target countries of the book program. From the start, book distributors were to use an initial for each east european visitor and to avoid precise identification, to make sure the recipients would not get into trouble once they returned home.480
Because of its size, importance, and openness after 1956, Poland was the most significant east european target country of the Free europe Committee’s book program. accordingly, Polish visitors to the West were the first to benefit from the new book distribution method. In the first three quarters of 1957, an unprecedented number,
Some 55,000 persons, from the satellite countries visited the West, the vast majority of whom were Poles. This provided an opportunity to directly deliver, without the hindrance of postal censorship, selected literature, including politically significant books and periodicals, to the recipients. on the other hand, only those granted exit visas could receive books in this fashion. At the end of the year, Free Europe Press (FEP) initiated a permanent system for the purpose of distributing by hand books of political impact to the Polish intelligentsia traveling to Western europe.481 stockpiles of no more than 100 books supplied from a central stockpile in Munich were to be maintained in London and Paris, the two centers that attracted the greatest number of important visitors from Poland. Three types of literature were envisaged: books requested by the visitor, books selected by the two Polish FEP editors in New York and in Munich, and books published in Polish for this purpose under FEP sponsorship. the project would operate as a branch of the mailing project through a network of Polish cultural institutions, libraries, bookshops, publishing houses, clubs, and cultural associations. among them were the sikorski Institute in new York, the Kosciuszko Foundation, the Polish library in london and in Paris, the Polish Youth Center in Paris, and the Polish YMCA in Geneva. their number eventually reached 30 in london and 11 in Paris, and the two cities became the main publishing centers of Polish books outside Poland.482
As outlined in the preceding chapter, the initial Polish project ran from 1958 until the summer of 1959 under the aegis of the east europe institute under 8am Walker and John kirk, in order to avoid any identification with the Free Europe Committee. Through a network of distribution points in London, Paris, Rome, Stockholm, Brussels, and Munich, it distributed over 1,000 books per month to East Europeans traveling in the West. After returning home, some recipients continued to request books to be sent to them by mail.483 This program was followed
By a special book distribution project targeting the East European and Soviet delegation members attending the communist-organized Seventh World Youth Festival held in Vienna from July 26 until August 4, 1959. Despite the lack of records up to 1963, the Polish person-to-person program was in fact never terminated, and it continued with success, as shown by a telling FEP office memo for the period 1958-1961. It noted: “The number of frontier confiscations is so negligible that one may assume a 100% successful transportation through the Iron Curtain. The position of our Program seems to be even more firmly established among the Polish intellectual and literary circles than it was last year [1960]. These circles,” the memo continued, “rely very much on the regular supply of our literature, and recognize the activities of Polish authors, translators, and publishers in the West as an important complement to their own literary achievements gained in the most difficult political circumstances. Although, quantitatively, the number of volumes penetrating Poland does not satisfy the demand of the general reading public (not more than 500 copies of each edition suitable for person-to-person distribution enter Poland, unless special circumstances demand greater supplies), the improvised lending system among our friends ensures fairly satisfactory circulation [...].”484
In August 1962, Minden extended the Polish person-to-person distribution program to Hungary by setting up additional book distribution centers and contracting selected local distributors—mainly exiles or second generation West Europeans of East European descent—in London, Paris, Munich, Vienna, and Rome, and in New York through Columbia University. 2,500 books and Hungarian exile publications were allocated for the first half of 1963. The program got off to a very good start, with visitors favoring books in Hungarian, as well as literary and political works. In 1962, a more modest distribution operation for East European and Baltic visitors was established in Stockholm, with
Links to Finland and Estonia.485 A Czechoslovak network in Vienna, Rome, London, and Paris was added in 1963, and Bulgarian and Romanian networks were started in 1965 in Vienna, rome, and Paris. The largest by far of these distribution networks remained the Polish one, followed by the Hungarian and Czechoslovak. the statistics for the year 1963—9,708 titles sent in 108,711 copies—do not provide separate monthly figures for the person-to-person program. on the other hand, the nine monthly highlights reports available contain separate references to the program with partial figures, titles of books and periodicals distributed, city of distribution, and names of prominent and other visitors from Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. these reports clearly show the growing importance of the various distributors, whose increased personal contacts with East European visitors provided a wealth of information about the conditions in their respective countries. Distributors also reported their visitors’ enthusiastic response and eagerness to take back a large number of the items, many of them of a political nature, offered to them.486
Very little is known about FEC activities at the Eighth World Youth Festival in Helsinki, held from July 28 until August 6, 1962. A special staff was to distribute publications during and after the festival among delegates from Europe, as well as from Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Books in Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Polish would be given only to Soviet bloc delegates, together with records, musical scores, fashion magazines, and books on art and architecture.
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Copies of FEC’s magazine East Europe were to be shipped to Helsinki and stockholm. Four main channels of distribution were named: information centers, hand-to-hand distribution, mailing, and other means such as distribution in hotels and conference rooms.487
Since the inception of the Hungarian program between August 1962 and December 1963, 5,900 books and 6,500 periodicals had been given out to Hungarian visitors. Visitors from Poland received some 4,500 books in 1963, and those from Czechoslovakia some 500. Distribution usually fell during the winter months, and rose during the summer months due to the increase in the number of visitors, and some of them received literature at more than one distribution point. Kultura in Paris regularly mailed books in Polish and copies of Kultura to merchant seamen stopping in Western ports such as Antwerp, amsterdam, and Le Havre, and copies of Kultura were mailed to Poles in Havana. The crew of a Polish ship in Port said requested books to be forwarded to Istanbul, their next port. the manager of a firm supplying Polish ships regularly gave Kultura and other Polish-language publications to Polish seamen. Two Polish travel agencies in london were handing out issues to passengers going to Poland. Polish visitors who received books while in Western Europe reported that they were not questioned about the books when re-crossing the border into Poland. Veritas, the Polish Catholic publishing house in london, acted as a sponsor and provided Polish bishops in Rome with books during the Vatican Council. When returning to Poland from the Council, Polish clergymen took so many books that these were openly stacked in the compartments of their train. the Czech delegation to the Vatican Council took 20 suitcases of books and had to pay $800 for excess weight on the airplane. A five-page appendix lists the names of 155 Hungarian visitors who received books in London, Paris, Rome, and Vienna. 141 books were given out as gifts of the International Writers Fund to east european delegates at the international P. E.N. conference in reims in october. Members of the MTK and FTC Budapest
Football teams, a Hungarian boxing team, the Rajko Gypsy Orchestra, a Hungarian parliamentary delegation, and a representative of Kultura also took books back with them to Hungary.488
Starting with the 1964 statistics, Minden added the monthly person-to-person totals to the monthly total of responses and requests received as a result of the mailings, covering both books mailed and books given directly to visitors from Eastern Europe. The person-to-person program proved to be extremely successful, with roughly 23,400 copies given out in 1963, 44,000 in 1964, 62,300 in 1965, 61,900 in 1966, and 87,600 in 1967. In this manner, it was possible to know with certainty that the books offered had actually been taken by the visitors who came to the various distribution points. of the 44,075 items distributed person-to-person in 1964, roughly 2,100 each were taken by visitors from Hungary and Poland, and 2,573 by visitors from Czechoslovakia. the report gives the 1964 breakdown by categories of books received and by profession of the individuals who received person-to-person copies, with professors, teachers, writers, clergymen, and students making up the majority of the Polish and Hungarian recipients. in January 1964, books and periodicals were distributed at the Winter olympic Games in Innsbruck to Hungarian and Czechoslovak participants. the latter received 348 copies of the Look and Time Magazine kennedy memorial issues, the FEC magazine East Europe, and the emigre book Ceskoslovensko published in Washington, D. C. In cooperation with the Institute for International Education (IIE), the lAC presented 40 coupons worth $10 in books at the Grand Central Paperback Bookshop in New York to visiting East European scholars.489
The person-to-person distribution program continued to grow during 1965, with a total of 62,278 books and periodicals. These books were distributed to roughly 30,000 visitors from Poland, 26,000 from Hungary, and 6,500 from Czechoslovakia. More than half of the publications given out were about politics and recent history, many of them anti-communist emigre periodicals in the native language of the recipients. 1,000 copies of the Polish emigre journal Wiadomosci were smuggled into Poland with a large shipment of books that had already been cleared by the authorities. 30 athletes and nine journalists received books at the Ice Hockey World Championship in Tampere, Finland. One French distributor reported that Polish sportsmen attending sports events in France took books primarily to sell them in Poland. In October, 300 musicians and singers of a Czech orchestra in Rome received some 1,200 booklets, and a group of 70 Czech tourists were also given books. In Rome, a total of 3,054 books were distributed between August and December to 699 clergymen from Eastern Europe attending the Vatican Ecumenical Council. Czechoslovak distribution in Vienna expanded by obtaining the cooperation of the Jungbrunnen Verlag, the publishing house of the Austrian Socialist Party.
March 1965 was marked by the initiation of yet another method of book distribution, named “personalized delivery” and “personalized mailing.” This method was already advocated in the late 1950s by U. S. government agencies, which felt that American scholars would have a greater intellectual impact on intellectual circles in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe than U. S. officials. With the help of the Committee on International Exchange of Persons, the Conference Board of Associated Research Councils in Washington, D. C., and PSPD’s cover organization, the International Advisory Council, an already existing fictitious corporation in New York, Minden began to provide books and periodicals to American professors, students, and journalists who were visiting or studying in Eastern Europe for dis-
To prevent the dissemination of political publications. February [1964] Highlights, dated March 6, 1964, 4. Ibid. In 1965, the IIE and IAC cooperated to provide each East European student at the IIE foreign student department with a $25 allowance to purchase books at Barnes & Noble in New York, with IAC paying the bill. February [1965] Highlights, dated March 5, 1965, 9.
Tribution to selected East Europeans. After their return to the U. S., further books would be mailed to the East European contacts, with the americans as the ostensible donors. 489 books were distributed in this manner from March until December 1965 to selected individuals in the five East European target countries, and Minden planned to further expand this method. He was aware, however, that this was the method over which he had the least amount of control, since the initiative came from american professors and specialists who wished to mail books to east europeans.490
Minden’s annual report for 1966 listed a total of 61,911 books distributed person-to-person, with Polish visitors to the West receiving 32,215 books and periodicals, Hungarian visitors 21,820, and Czech and Slovak visitors 7,497. The Romanian program got off to a slow start, with 82 books given out by the end of June, and 238 by the end of the year. The infant Bulgarian program registered even less: 47 books by the end of June and 111 by the end of the year. Personalized mailings and deliveries amounted to 1,899 books to some 700 individuals—a 300% increase over the 489 distributed in 1965. One-third of all books distributed dealt with politics, communism, and international affairs. The Paris Kultura publishing house started to reprint politically important articles from its magazine in pamphlet form on thin paper for both mailing and person-to-person distribution. Polish channels were expanded when the Nansen Haus in Vienna, operated by the association of Poles in austria, became active in handing out books to Poles visiting the city. Distribution was intensified in
Switzerland and in provincial France, and a new reading room for visiting Poles was established in the Polish Library in Paris. A new channel for Czechoslovak distribution was set up in Paris, and operations in Vienna and Rome were augmented. accademia Cristiana Cecoslovacca, the main distributor in rome, set up a reading room for Czech visitors to encourage their visits. In addition to its own publications, mainly Catholic pamphlets, it also started to distribute large quantities of books supplied by PsPD. Because they were more subject to censorship when mailed, many books written in Hungarian and even more Hungarian emigre periodicals were distributed to Magyar visitors. PSPD also tried to organize outlets for person-to-person book distribution to visiting Latvians with the cooperation of the Latvian Veteran Organization in Stockholm and the Latvian Reconstruction Committee in London. The report also listed 105 American professors and students who personally carried about 1,900 books to approximately 700 individuals in Eastern Europe—a 300% increase over
1965. 435 of these books were taken to Czechoslovakia and 381 to Poland.491
PSPD’s person-to-person distribution in 1967 amounted to 87,568 books and periodicals, a 41% increase over 1966. 36% of the literature given out dealt with international affairs, politics, and law (47% in the case of Hungary), 29% with history, religion, philosophy, economics, social science, and education, and 22% with literature, language, arts, and architecture. Over 20 Western titles were distributed in connection with the 50th anniversary of the Russian revolution, and six titles related to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Poles visiting the West received 43,658 items (a 36% increase over 1966), Hungarians 25,962, Czechs and Slovaks 15,369 (twice as many as in 1966), and Romanians 1,747, a sharp increase over the 238 books given out in
1966. In December 1967, new Bulgarian distribution points in Munich (since March) and in Vienna (since october) gave out 111 books to Bulgarian visitors, the same number as during the entire year 1966. More Bulgarian visitors were expected in Vienna as a result of a recent agreement between Austria and Bulgaria, which allowed unrestricted travel without a visa between the two countries. There were many requests for svetlana alliluyeva’s Twenty Letters to a Friend, Pasternak’s Dr. Zhivago, and Djilas’s The New Class. A student reported that Dr. Zhivago had been translated into Bulgarian, reproduced in mimeographed form, and was now secretly being sold in Bulgaria, mainly to students. 54 books were given to Latvians in London and, for the first time, 171 books to Lithuanians. Personalized mailings to Poland rose from 525 in 1966 to 824 in 1967, and those to Czechoslovakia from 495 to 692.492
New Polish distribution centers included the Jungbrunnen bookstore in Vienna and the Polish YMCA in Geneva, headed by the banker Zygmunt Kallenbach (1901-1988), a very active and successful book mailer for many years. Since 1966, Polish visitors also received books from Kazimierz Knap at the Nansen Haus in Vienna, and from Jerzy Jankowski of the Union of Polish Federalists in several provincial French cities and in West Germany. New Czechoslovak distribution points included the Arts and Crafts Arcade in London, set up by the International Book Fellowship (IBF), a PSPD sponsor for mailings. The Arcade initiated a new practice that was adopted by all book distributors who worked through bookstores. It offered to lend, rather than to give away, books to Czechs, Slovaks, and other East European visitors with the understanding that there would be no problem if the borrowed books were not returned. occasionally, some of the visitors who took books to read while in the West returned them to the distributors, gave them to friends living abroad, or discarded them before returning home, because they felt it was too dangerous to take them with them. In this way, when questioned about their contacts in the West, they could say that bookstores had libraries with books they lent out. Another new Czech outlet was the Velehrad Center in London, run by a Czech priest, Father lang. another priest, the Rev. Karel Fort in Munich, began to distribute books to Czechs visiting Germany. The accademia Cristiana Cecoslovacca gave out books, not only in rome but also through its representatives, to Czechoslovak visitors in Germany, austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and switzerland. In Vienna, the Herold Verlag distributed books in German and Czech, and the Osterreichische Gesellschaft fur Literatur in Vienna established contacts with Czechoslovak writers visiting the city. Books were distributed to Czechs attending various conferences and international events, in two instances inside Czechoslovakia itself.
In April 1967, at a conferences held in Marienbad on the dialogue between Christians and Marxists, sponsored by the Paulus Society of West Germany in cooperation with the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, some 420 books were given out to 30 Czech and 15 other East European participants. At the Congress of Historians in Bratislava, the Jungbrunnen bookstore exhibited books and gave out 224 books on politics and history to 53 Czechs and 15 Hungarians. Other events included the World Hockey Championship in Vienna in March 1967; Expo 67, the Montreal World Fair; the second Congress Historiae Slavicae in Salzburg; the Alpbach Forum in Alpbach, Austria, where 35 East Europeans took 268 books; and three more conferences in Linz and in Vienna, respectively. Romanian visitors received books at the Carol I Foundation headed by Constantin Cesianu, Libella in Paris, the Jungbrunnen bookstore in Vienna, and the Arts and Crafts Arcade in London. Several Western publishers (PSPD sponsors) participated at a book exhibit on linguistics at the 10th International Congress of Linguists held in Bucharest between August 27 and September 2,
1967. After the closing of the exhibit, the books remained the property of the Organizing Committee, which donated them to the Romanian
Academy or university libraries in Romania. With PSPD backing, Hachette in Paris, Longmans and Green & Co. in London, and two bookstores in Munich provided some 50 books in English, French, and German. an american-lithuanian basketball team, which visited lithuania to play against lithuanian teams, distributed 160 books, all lithuanian works published in the West, to some 54 artists, writers, and students they met there.493
In 1968—which Minden called “the best year”—P8PD was able to distribute a total of close to 328,000 books and periodicals to over 70,000 individuals and institutions. of these, 109,049 were given out to east european visitors to the West, a 24.5% increase over 1967. Because books and periodicals that dealt with politics were liable to be stopped by the censors, two-thirds (62.7%) of the books on politics and international affairs were distributed person-to-person rather than mailed. Through an arrangement with Dr. Gunther Nenning, the Vienna representative of the Paulus Gesellschaft in Freilassing, Bavaria, the distribution of books and periodicals on politics, philosophy, and theology for all visitors from Eastern Europe started in the Society’s reading room in Vienna. A London distributor wrote: “The most wonderful part of this job is witnessing the tremendous happiness of hundreds of people starved of many kinds of literature when they are able to browse through Interpress’s wide range and select the books they want free of charge. Some spend hours poring over the books to choose only a handful.” Personalized mailings amounted to 4,440, with 1,499 books mailed to Poland, 1,363 to Czechoslovakia, 587 to Bulgaria, 474 to Hungary, and 467 to Romania. An American graduate student in Finland distributed 50 books and magazines among visiting Estonians.494
Polish visitors took back 47,555 publications from the many distribution points in West Europe: the Librairie Polonaise, Libella, and Galerie lambert in Paris; esperienze Internazionali in Rome; a number of Polish associations and cultural groups, and a Polish travel agency, in london, Gloucester, and Manchester; and Jerzy Jankowski of the Union of Polish Federalists in both France and Germany. 400 books were given out to about 100 Poles at the Winter olympic Games in Grenoble, France, and about 100 books to Polish participants at the international Philosophical Congress in Vienna. several hundred books were distributed to Polish bishops and priests in Rome, particularly during Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski’s visit to the Vatican.495
In the case of Czechoslovakia, person-to-person distribution reached an all-time high after the August Warsaw Pact invasion, with 28,713 books given out, an 86% increase over 1967. This was due to the large number of tourists stranded in the West due to the invasion, with students making up between a quarter and a half of all recipients each month. Distribution points included the Munich representative of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America, Dr. Antonin Kratochvil; the Librairie Payot in Lausanne and Professor Laszlb Nagy in Geneva; Dr. Peter Gosztonyi in Bern; and Svedestvi and the Librairie Polonaise in Paris. The St. Methodius Association of Vienna, an organization of Austrian Catholics of Czech origin, provided a library and a reading room for visiting Czechoslovaks. Hungarian visitors received 25,164 books, almost the same number as in 1967. The most important Hungarian distribution centers continued to be Vienna: the Osterreichische Gesellschaft fur Literatur, as well as the Europa Haus and its director, Dr. J6zsef Varga (19231998). A group of 14 Hungarian teachers visiting Rome took a total of 146 books and 66 periodicals, and books were distributed in Vienna to members of the Madrigal Choir of Budapest and a group of 18 mining engineers from Tatabanya. New centers were set up in 1968 in Stockholm and Goteborg under the supervision of J6zsef Molnar of Uj Ldtohatdr, PSPD’s distributor in Munich. Book distribution to Hungarian visitors to Yugoslavia was initiated through the sale at a token price of some 250 copies of Hungarian emigre works supplied by Molnar to the Forum publishing house in Novi Sad and in Subotica, Vojvodina.
2,499 books and periodicals were distributed to Romanian visitors in Paris, Vienna, and London, a 43% increase over 1967. The Arts and Crafts Arcade was visited by many Romanians, most of them students who asked for books on literature and art. Some returned with friends, and some gave the names of friends in Romania who wished to receive books by mail (one gave a list of 15 students at a language school). 1,500 Romanians were expected in the next few months to visit two large travel agencies in Vienna. According to the Jungbrunnen bookstore, it was almost as difficult to contact Romanian groups, as it was Soviet groups, since the groups always stayed together. Jungbrunnen planned to distribute a short guide to the city with a letter inviting the Romanian tourists to visit the bookshop and get other free books. As more Romanians were allowed to travel to the West, distribution to them became increasingly successful. In October, the Carol I Foundation asked for an increased supply of books to replenish its stocks depleted by its many summer visitors. PSPD sent them 600 books. Bulgarian visitors in Vienna, Munich, Frankfurt, and since February also in Paris received 4,556 books, against only 367 in 1967. Several unnamed Bulgarian government officials visited Munich and took 38 books, including works by Ladislav Mnacko and Andrei Siniavsky. Vienna was the closest place Bulgarians could visit, and recipients there included two groups of 25 folk dancers from the Sofia radio and television, and 20 members of the city’s Spartak basketball club. Dr. Zhivago, The New Class, and copies of Der Spiegel and Svoboden Narod, a Bulgarian monthly published in Vienna, were in great demand. A bus tour of 86 intellectuals and government officials took 48 books and magazines, as well as some jazz records. At the 2-9 September Philosophy Congress in Vienna, nine top Bulgarian philosophers received a total of 44 books, and a group of 300 party and government functionaries, students, and intellectuals who came by steamer for a week’s visit took 110 political books, 50 copies of Svoboden Narod, and 45 German magazines. A group of 30 physicians and their families received 20 books, and the chief editor of BTA, the state news agency, received works by Pasternak, Svetlana Alliluyeva, Mnacko, and Sinyavski. A Lithuanian journalist and a theatre director received 80 books in London, mainly by Lithuanian emigre writers and lithuanian periodicals published in the West. The chairman of the latvian Veterans Association in stockholm distributed 82 latvian books, published in New York and provided by PsPD, to 54 visiting Latvians, including official delegations, basketball players and boxers attending international competitions, Latvian sailors in sweden, or to swedes visiting relatives in latvia.496
Because of the serious difficulties created by the need to work out new financial arrangements for Free Europe, Inc., 1969 was not a good year. PsPD expected to operate with only 70% of the money it received in 1968. the book program contracted, with a 13.4% reduction of its budget as compared to 1968. The price of books also rose by 10%, and the number of books and periodicals had to be cut back due to the end of the subsidies paid to a number of East European emigre magazines. Many thousand copies of these periodicals, until then received free of charge, now had to be paid for by the New York Book Center. This reduction was partly offset by gifts of books by the USIA. 104,630 books and periodicals were distributed person-to-person, only 4% less than in 1968, and 3,999 books were sent as “personalized” mailings in the name of American professors and experts to their academic colleagues in Eastern Europe. 1,282 books went to Czechoslovaks, 1,402 to Poles, 712 to Romanians, 468 to Hungarians, 396 to Bulgarians, 94 to Lithuanians, and five to Latvians. Because of regime censorship, the bulk (82.2%) of the books dealing specifically with politics and international affairs, and 70% of the some 18,500 newspapers and periodicals, often with a strong political content, were distributed person-to-person.497
41,599 books and periodicals were handed out to Polish visitors at some 30 distribution points in Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and Luxemburg. in Germany, distribution of Polish books was expanded to the Ruhr area, Hamburg, Bonn, Cologne, Frankfurt, and Mannheim. Books were also given to persons of Polish descent to distribute in Poland when visiting there. Czechoslovak visitors took 30,063 books, some 1,350 more than in 1968, offsetting the decrease in the number of books mailed and requests received as a result of the increasingly conservative climate in that country. Thus, 46,5% of all books distributed to Czechoslovakia were given person-to-person, as compared to 36.4% in 1968. 42% the total person-to-person distribution dealt with politics and international affairs. Visitors received books at 28 distribution points in austria, England, France, italy, Germany, switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, sweden, the Netherlands, and in new York. new travel restrictions came into force in october, according to which all Czechs and slovaks abroad had to return to Czechoslovakia by the end of the year, regardless of the terms of their exit visas, or they had to apply for new permits at their consulates. Nevertheless, group excursions organized by the CEDOK tourist agency continued, and people were still coming in groups.
Hungarians received 21,258 books and periodicals from individual book distributors in Vienna (the Europa Haus and Dr. Gyula Klamar, editor of Magyar Hirado); Rome and the Vatican (Zsuzsanna Triznya and Father Ferenc Szabo, at the Society of Jesus [S. J.]); Paris (Laszlo Marton, and afterwards Gyula Sipos); Munich (Jozsef Molnar); London (Lorand Czigany, and afterwards Matyas Sarkozi); and New York (Dr. Gyorgy Lowy and Alajos Papp at the Butler Library of Columbia University). Romanian person-to-person distribution rose from 2,499 publications in 1968 to 4,499 a year later, yet it remained a small part of the Romanian book project because few Romanians were allowed to travel abroad. They were also more careful in their choice of books, preferring literary works to political ones. they were particularly pleased to pick up copies of the Bible in Romanian, which they said had long been out of print in romania. the main distribution points remained the Carol I Foundation in Paris, which again was short of books and sent a list of 61 titles to replenish its stock. other Paris distributors were Libella and the Librairie Polonaise (with 30 romanian visitors monthly), Esperienze internazionali in rome, the Arts and Crafts arcade of interpress, ltd. in london, and the Jungbrunnen bookstore in Vienna. the latter noted that practically no individual romanians visited them, and that almost all contacts were with group tours. Bulgarian visitors received 7,091 books, an encouraging 43% increase over 1968, and 62% of what they took dealt with politics and international affairs. the share of person-to-person distribution in the overall Bulgarian project rose from 18.4% to 33%. Vienna remained the most important distribution center, with several large organized groups arriving by rail, boat, and bus throughout the year, especially during the summer. individual field representatives also gave books to Bulgarians in Munich, Frankfurt, and Paris. Visitors in Vienna included 80 teachers who arrived by boat on a Danube tour arranged by the Bulgarian teachers’ Union, and participants at the Vienna medical congress. Some 200 economists, enterprise managers, and state and party officials attending the Vienna Economic Fair between october 25 and November 5, 1968, received 132 books, including works by Djilas, Mnacko, Alliluyeva, Pasternak, Sinyavsky, and Solzhenitsyn. A 31-strong Komsomol group was given 41 books, a group of 12 musicians took 15 books, and 18 migrant farm workers on their way home from Czechoslovakia received 72 books while passing through Vienna. Six groups totaling 225 persons visited Paris in the summer months, taking many political books. A group of 68 tourists visited Frankfurt am Main in December and received a total of 108 books. the Baltic person-to-person distribution operated at a very low level, with 118 Latvians and 2 Lithuanians receiving books in 1969.498
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Due to the tense political situation in Poland, intellectuals were issued passports only on a selective basis. One visitor reported that the authorities had revived an order dating from stalinist times, forbidding state employees traveling abroad to have contacts with foreigners except in the company of at least one other Pole. Despite this, Polish employees of and delegates to international organizations in Geneva received books, and half a dozen Poles as well as Czechs and slovaks, including many students, used the reading room of the Librarie Polonaise in Paris every day. In July, a team of 75 Polish athletes who visited Paris received 89 books and magazines, including Kultura, and many works in Polish. in london, all 65 members of the choir of the University of Poznan received a Polish guide to the capital city. A group of 33 Poles took 60 books at the Jungbrunnen bookstore in Vienna. Large Czechoslovak groups (38 and 45 tourists, 28 textile workers, 30 food industry workers, 40 metal workers, and 26 communications workers) also received many books and emigre newspapers there. In Rome, books were distributed at a new hostel for Czechoslovak visitors that opened at the Nepomucenum College. The orchestra and chorus of Radio Prague, 200 persons, gave a concert in Rome and left with the words: “Please do not forget us.”499 Large groups of Hungarian tourists, hospital workers, teachers, and students numbering over 199 persons were given a total of 185 books and periodicals in Vienna, and many groups of Hungarian tourists from provincial towns such as Szolnok, Miskolc, and Szentgotthard continued to receive books there. A Hungarian delegation to an Italian film festival took 70 books and 34 periodicals, many of them works by Hungarian emigres in the West. During the Budapest International Trade Fair in May 1969, Austrian truck drivers took some 300 copies of the emigre paper Magyar Hirado, published in
Vienna, into Hungary for distribution. A boatload of 175 Bulgarians received books in Vienna, and six Bulgarian groups totaling 225 persons were given books in Paris. six Bulgarian Communist Party instructors attending the Congress of Historians in Linz, austria, asked for a total of 13 books, all on politics, to be mailed to their home addresses. Two Bulgarian bishops, in Vienna for medical check-ups, took books on Czechoslovakia as well as works by Djilas and andrei sakharov. In response to a request from a playwright in Vilnius, two books of modern plays were given to a visitor from lithuania in New York. a total of 110 books and periodicals were given to 15 Czech and slovak and eight Hungarian participants at the 1969 Alpbach Forum in Austria.500
Following the separation of his Press and special Projects division from Free Europe, inc. in July 1970, and the ensuing division of his budget, Minden switched from annual to semi-annual reports on his book program. The first report covering the first half of 1970 was still sent to Free europe, along with a Highlights Report for January-February 1970, and two lengthy Statistical Reports for January-February 1970 and July-August 1970. In his successive semiannual reports, Minden compared the results not with those of the previous calendar year, but with those of the preceding half-year. Due to the absence from the Minden Collection of any further Highlights Reports, there is much less detailed information about the activities of the numerous book distributors in Western Europe, with the sole exception of Romania. Because of a much smaller operating budget, the number of books distributed person-to-person in the first half of 1970 dropped, with the exception of Bulgaria, to 40,999 books and periodicals. Of these, 15,634 or 38.1% were about international affairs
And political science, while political books accounted for 57.1% of all person-to-person distribution. 70% of the 8,306 newspapers and periodicals distributed by PsPD were given to East European visitors to the West. 70% of all newspapers and magazines, many of which were published by emigres from Western Europe and had a strong political and anti-communist content, were distributed person-to-person. Personalized mailings by or in the name of American academics numbered 1,841. Of these books, 679 were sent to Poland, 504 to Czechoslovakia, 275 to Romania, 257 to Hungary, and 126 to Bulgaria.501
How Minden obtained the necessary information to compile his person-to-person distribution reports, and how he sought to control it at the various locations where it took place, was well known to his staff and his distributors. Yet, the actual control method was described for the first time in his last report for Free Europe. “Person-to-person distribution is effectively controlled,” Minden wrote, “by means of overt and covert inspections by the director of the division and by divisional representatives (sometimes using assumed identities). The names, callings, and hometowns of East Europeans who receive books in this manner, to the extent that they are known to our field representatives, are reported back to New York. It is therefore assumed that all books reported to have been distributed reach their target.”502 Minden traveled twice a year—once in summer and once in fall—to Western Europe, usually by ship, to visit most if not all of his major book distributors in London, Paris, Rome, Munich, and Lausanne, where he conferred with his German and Austrian distributors.
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Being very security conscious, he usually avoided Vienna because of its proximity to the Iron Curtain. Between 1973 and 1991, the year marking the end of his operations, Minden undertook no less than 25 such inspection tours, a practice he began on an annual basis in the 1960s. Unfortunately, none of the post-1973 trip reports contain any statistical data about the distribution of books and periodicals to East European and later to Russian visitors to the West.503
Polish person-to-person distribution totaled 18,352 books and periodicals, a 18.7% drop over the second half of 1969, even though the Polish government now granted exit visas to intellectuals more readily. The large number of institutions to which books were mailed was counterbalanced by the high proportion (51.5%) of books given out to Polish visitors to the West, versus 50.7% in 1969. 8,018 or 43.7% of the books given out dealt directly with politics and law. 12,694 (69.2%) were overtly political, many of them in Polish, making them accessible to many more Poles than books in other languages. The Institut Litteraire in Paris arranged for distribution to Polish sailors at their ports in Belgium, Ireland, Sweden, and the Ivory Coast, to Polish vacationers at tourist centers, to a Polish professor in Belgrade, and to Polish specialists at their work sites in Africa and the Middle East. Two groups of 280 tourists who visited Rome were given about 500 books, and 40 sportsmen visiting France took about 200 books back to Poland.504
The last two PSPD statistical reports give the numbers and occupations of the Polish book recipients. In January and February 1970,
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2,141 Polish visitors received 6,766 books and periodicals. They included 330 students, 171 scientists and technologists, as well as 25 government and party officials. 895 individuals were not identified. A statistical report for July and August 1970 showed that during the first eight months of 1970, 2,143 Polish visitors received a total of 25,745 books and periodicals. The largest group of recipients consisted of students (423), followed by clergymen (384), scientists and technologists (184), teachers (169), workers (88), doctors and psychologists (52), historians (49), and artists and architects (47). there were also 47 political scientists and jurists and five government and party officials. 406 individuals were listed as unidentified.505
While the hardline political climate in Czechoslovakia had no visible effect on P8PD’s mailing program, tougher exit visa regulations came into force on January 1, 1970. In February, Jaromir Hrbek, the Minister of Education for the Czech Lands, announced a ban on all “uncontrolled contacts” between Czech and Western universities and scientific institutions. All such contacts had to be cleared in advance with his ministry, these measures resulted in a sharp decrease in person-to-person distribution, which amounted to 7,329 books and periodicals, slightly less than one-half of the 14,492 given out during the second half of 1969. However, Czech and Slovak visitors were not afraid to take highly political books, and 4,696 or 50% of the items taken dealt with international relations, political science, and law. Minden’s book distributors sent some disturbing reports to the New York Book Center. His London distributor wrote on January 26: “The situation concerning visits from Czechoslovakia is unclear. People still arrive for private visits to relatives [...] and there are persons coming on official business. [Before they leave], all are briefed by security organs: they are warned against contacts with emigres and they have to report on everything, to whom they spoke, etc.” A Czech visitor to Paris told Galerie Lambert: “Contacts with you, your books and kindness, were
Always valuable to us. I cannot emphasize enough how important that is today now [that] we are cut off from everything.” Another Czech correspondent wrote to arts and Crafts in London, from which he had received books in 1969, to mail books to him because “now as you probably know, the so-called ‘our government’ [has] prohibited traveling abroad.” Groups seemed to fare better, with 35 singers and musicians from the Czechoslovak Radio in Prague who visited Rome taking 56 publications, including emigre periodicals. 15 members of the Prague Chamber Orchestra were given some 70 publications in Vienna, including political works dealing with the events of 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia. In the first eight months of 1970, 2,089 books were given to 626 Czechoslovak visitors, with students (78) and scientists (55) making up the largest group of recipients.506
Due to the smaller operating budget, Hungarian distribution also decreased from 11,000 in the second half of 1969 to 8,811 publications in the first half of 1970, and accounted for 38.4% of all items distributed to Hungary. This occurred at a time when a gradual liberalization was taking place in the country, with some emigre works becoming officially available. Unlike Poles and Czechoslovaks, Hungarians took with them far less books on international affairs and political science— only 13.5% of the items given to them. On the other hand, they took 3,555 newspapers and magazines published by emigres and of highly political content, which, added to the political books, raised the above share to 69.3%. Distribution was carried out in Vienna, Rome, Paris, London, New York, and, on a smaller scale, in Novi Sad and Subotica in Vojvodina, Stockholm, and Bern. Personalized mailings amounted to 257 books. A group of 42 tourists from Budapest and another group of 15 from Kalocsa visiting Vienna received between them 51 books and 45 periodicals, including the emigre publications Magyar Hirado and Katolikus Szemle. In the first eight months of 1970, 964 visitors
From Hungary took 3,972 books, with teachers, students, and scientists making up the largest groups of recipients. 51 titles were distributed person-to-person, including six books in Hungarian and five emigre periodicals.507
Romania was already a special case in 1969, when more than half of the mail received from Eastern Europe came from Romanians, asking for twice as many books as they had done in 1968, on subjects which had little political impact such as literature, arts, language, and architecture. This compelled Minden to put the brakes on the mailing program by selectively rejecting many book requests. Because few Romanians received visas to travel to the West, direct distribution remained limited, with 2,408 books given out, slightly less than the 2,573 books handed out in the second half of 1969. Romanian visitors were the most cautious among East Europeans in their choice of books, and only 18% of the publications they took were overtly political. By the end of August 1970, the number of books distributed, given to some 900 visitors, rose to 2,758. 161 Romanians, most of them artists and teachers, received 350 publications in July and August.508
to a number of salvaged, and very detailed, Romanian reports, it is possible to follow the Romanian person-to-person distribution up to the end of 1974, and to learn about the Carol I Foundation in Paris. In 1968, it only mailed books to Romania and had no contact with Romanian visitors. In 1969, it already distributed a total of 2,228 books, and in January-February 1970, it distributed an average of 200 books a month. In March and April 1970, Constantin Cesianu was surprised to see that that the number of visiting Romanians increased to at least 300, despite new travel restrictions imposed by the communist regime. He reported: “They are
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All interested in books on western ways of thinking, western politics, western art and literature, etc. They are willing to go back to Romania with ‘dangerous’ books [and] distribute them over there only because they can’t take communism anymore [...] They don’t want any publications about socialism or communism, they know it too well [...] But authors such as Solzhenitsyn, or a book about the current events in Czechoslovakia will interest them.” In London’s Arts and Crafts, PSPD distributor Zdenek Mastnik told a Romanian lecturer on an educational course at Manchester University that he could send along any or all of his fellow lecturers, whether teachers or students. In the next few days, there was a “Romanian invasion,” with the leader of the group coming in last and promising to write “many letters [...] asking for books.” Matsnik also reported that “another Romanian visitor [...] said things were much freer in Romania now and that he did not think people were afraid to have books such as The New Class sent by post. But his was one man’s opinion. The Romanians are very slow to take political books—they almost invariable stick to English language and literature. Copies of Romania and any political journal they carefully hide in their pockets.”509
Bulgarian visitors received 4,068 books and periodicals, as compared to 4,069 in the last half of 1969. Bulgarian distribution was less drastically cut back because of reports of increasing intellectual ferment in the country. Through one of Minden’s field representatives, the Union of Bulgarian Writers made an appeal for more books. Bulgarian visitors were ready to take more political books than any other nationality, and 65% of what they received consisted of political books. Four produce truck drivers who were in Vienna took back a total of 22 books and magazines. By the end of August 1970, the total Bulgarian person-to-person distribution had reached 5,458. In July and August, 1,389 publications were given to 583 visitors, including 52 doctors, 33 journalists, and 30 economists and manag-ers.510 In the first half of 1970, the book program targeting the Baltic republics was almost abandoned and presumably handed over to Radio
Liberty. Even so, Minden decided to meet any requests that might still be received and to give out books to any estonians, latvians, and lithuanians who might contact his distributors.511
The report on book distribution for the second half of 1970 was Minden’s first report as President of the International Council (lAC). For reasons that may have had to do with U. S. government budget support, he continued the practice of preparing semi-annual reports for the ensuing years—at least until 1973—with his report for the first half of the year being the last report available at the Hoover Institution Archives. For the sake of simplification, the figures for the two semi-annual reports for 1971 and 1972 will be combined when examining the progress of the person-to-person distribution program to East European visitors to the West. During the second half of 1970, the program gave out 43,586 books and periodicals (a 6.3% increase), and, together with the 41,492 publications given out during the first half of the year, the grand total for 1970 was an impressive 84,585 publications—less than the roughly 109,000 given out in 1969 but almost as many as the 85,914 books sent as scheduled mailings in 1970. In the second half of the year, person-to-person distribution accounted for almost 40% of all book program operations, with Poles, Hungarians, and Bulgarians receiving about 10% more books and Czechoslovaks and Romanians receiving less. Personalized mailings for 1970 totaled 3,007 publications, with a marked decline during the second half of the year after IAC ceased to canvass for this service, which accounted for only 1% of Minden’s total distribution to all target countries. 1,077 were sent to Poland, 874 to Czechoslovakia, 408 to Hungary, 456 to Romania, and 192 to Bulgaria. These mailings were replaced by so-called “unscheduled mailings” of single copies sent to individual addressees at the initiative of New York. They consisted of review copies received from publishers and books from the stockpiles received as gifts from the USIA. 4,149 books were mailed in this manner in 1970, most of them to Hungary (1,750) and to Czechoslovakia (1,267).512
Because the Polish government was somewhat more generous in issuing exit visas in the second half of 1970, 14% more Polish visitors received books than during the first six months of the year. This method of distribution accounted for 59% of the total of Polish operations during this period. In all, Poles received 39,614 publications during 1970, as compared to 41,599 in 1969. More than two-thirds of the books handed out were of an overtly political nature. Czechs and slovak visitors received a total of 13,580 books in calendar year 1970.513 Despite the repressiveness of Gustav Husak’s “normalization” drive, Czechs and Slovaks were less circumspect than Poles in their choice of books, and 50% of the publications they took were on politics and international affairs, and 79% were directly political. In 1970, 13,580 publications, roughly 13% of them highly political newspapers, were distributed to visitors from Czechoslovakia. Special distribution occurred among delegates to the International Historical Congress in Linz, Austria, the Esperanto Congress and a conference on productivity in Vienna, the Sagra Musicale Umbra (Sacred Music of Umbria) festival in Perugia, Italy, and among correspondents covering the SALT meetings in Vienna. Books taken included political works by Djilas, Amalrik, Pelikan, and Garaudy.514
Hungarian visitors took a total of 18,410 publications in 1970, as compared to 21,258 in 1969. 2,541 visitors received books in the second half of the year, a 56% increase over the first. Newspapers and magazines, many of them highly political emigre publications, accounted for about one-third of the total distribution, more than any other target country, and some 11,500 were distributed in 1970. Distribution to visitors accounted for almost 40% of the Hungarian book program, and one-third of the publications taken were of
A directly political character. Adding the newspapers increases this ratio to almost 70%. Hungarian correspondents covering the SALT negotiations in Vienna received 64 books, including works by Djilas, Solzhenitsyn, Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, and Gunther Grass.515
Because relatively few Romanians were allowed to travel to the West, especially privately, person-to-person distribution made up only a small part (12%-13%) of the Romanian book program. In 1970, Romanian visitors received a total of 4,310 books and periodicals. In the second half of the year, 1,048 visitors took 1,902 books. Artists and architects were the most numerous recipients, followed by teachers and professors, and writers and critics. More than one-fifth were tourists traveling in groups.516 Bulgarian visitors to the West received 8,671 publications in 1970, and the number of recipients grew by 78% to 1,954 persons in the second half of the year. Bulgarians were very cautious, and two-thirds of the visitors did not wish to identify themselves. On the other hand, roughly 52% of the books, newspapers, and periodicals they chose to take with them were about international affairs and politics, and 60% were of general political impact.517
In 1971, a grand total of 233,844 books were distributed to Eastern Europe, of which 96,518 were given directly into the hands of visitors to the West. USIA gift books accounted for 28% of person-to-person distribution. There are no complete figures for the number of visitors for all countries, but a single statistical report provides their number for January to October 1971: 2,531 came from Poland, 1,173 from Hungary, 695 from Romania, 659 from Czechoslovakia, and 304 from Bulgaria. Personalized mailings numbered 3,752, and all the books mailed in the name of Americans to their colleagues in Eastern Europe were delivered. An additional 6,732 individual copies, most of them USIA gift books, were sent as “unscheduled” mailings, mainly to Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The semi-annual person-to-person figures show that in the second half of the year, which included
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The tourist season, some 10,000 more publications were given out than during the first half. The greatest part of the increase went to Poles, for whom travel to the West had been made easier in the wake of the previous winter’s strikes and rioting. Direct distribution to Czechs and slovaks declined in the second half of the year, as it became increasingly more difficult for them to leave Czechoslovakia. Over half of all the books given out to the target countries were of a political nature, and this proportion rose to over 70% when political periodicals (over 21,000 in 1971) were added. Figures for the exact number of visiting recipients were sparingly given.518
In 1971, Polish visitors received about 45,000 books and periodicals. 22,500 were given to Hungarians, 16,000 to Czechs and Slovaks, 7,500 to Bulgarians, and 5,500 to Romanians. This method of distribution accounted for 60% of all the publications intended for Poland, and some 70% of the publications given out were political. Reports seldom mentioned the number of book recipients, but the report for the second half of 1971 mentions that the 26,800 publications, including 2,000 works in Polish, distributed during that period were taken by 6,913 Polish visitors, with students and clergymen being the largest group, and some 20% not identifying themselves.519
The “normalization” imposed under Communist Party secretary general Gustav Husak led to the resumption of watchful censorship of book parcels sent to Czechoslovakia, and to a reduction in the number of book mailings. As a result, person-to-person distribution assumed a new importance in the second half of 1971, when it became the prime method of distribution to that country. There was a 32% drop in the number of Czech and Slovak visitors in the second half of 1971, and Minden authorized his distributors to be more generous to those willing to take more books. Visitors took an average of five books and,
Symptomatic of their growing caution, close to 60% did not identify themselves. one-third of those who did were students, followed by scientists and teachers. To keep the program going, lAC also made greater use of Western visitors to Czechoslovakia or of travellers who would mail the books from Hungary or East Germany, thanks to these tactics, the Czechoslovak person-to-person program declined by only 17.5% during the second half of the year.520
The figures for Hungary show that person-to-person distribution grew to become the most important method of supplying Western books and periodicals to Hungarians, with 6,913 visitors receiving 21,668 items, some 40% of them periodicals. Actually, Hungarians took more periodicals than visitors from any other country. Most of these, in Hungarian and published in the West, had a highly political content. Visitors took an average of four books, but government and party officials received an average of 12 each. Journalists and clergymen each received eight. Special distribution was made to Hungarian visitors to the Vienna Trade Fair.521
While mailed books were allowed relatively free access to Romania, very few passports were issued, and travel opportunities to the West remained very limited for Romanians. As a result, the person-to-person program accounted for 10% of all book distribution to Romania in the fist half of the year, and for 18.5% in the second half. A grand total of 1,584 visitors received an average of two books each, with philosophers and social scientists getting seven, and journalists, historians, and clergymen receiving six. The largest groups were teachers and professors, artists and architects, physicians, and writers and critics. Only 3.5% were students, a much smaller ratio than for any other country.522
Four preserved bi-monthly reports on Romania for 1971 provide additional information about direct distribution to Romanian visitors to the West. The Carol I Foundation gave well over 2,000 books, and reported that people were more afraid to take political books than a few years earlier. Even so, next to books on literature, philosophy,
World History
