Stalin’s Culture Aide Praised

The Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda, in a long, laudatory biographical article, marked the 90th anniversairy Monday of the birth of Andrei A. Zhdanov, a close associate of Josef Stalin and the man who controlled culture under the late dictator.

The official press virtually never refers openly to Stalin but occasionally mentions his associates. Western diplomats said it was probably coincidental that the article appeared on the eve of the 27th Soviet Communist Party Congress.

However, they said the apparent endorsement of Zhdanov’s cultural policies might bode ill for artists hoping that a more liberal line on culture would emerge from the congress.

Pravda said Zhdanov had a brilliant ability to analyze the problems of politics, economics, philosophy and culture. “His statements and writings were distinguished by adherence to principle, not admitting any deviation from the general line of the party, any compromise with ideologies hostile to the Soviet people, burning with hatred for class enemies,” it said.

As the secretary in the party’s Central Committee in charge of ideological affairs, Zhdanov was one of Stalin’s right-hand men through the 1930s and war years.

He imposed strict political control on the arts, demanding a tone of fervent patriotism and condemning the slightest hint of Western influence.

He died an apparently natural death in 1948, but a group of Jewish doctors was later accused of his murder. The charges were dropped after Stalin died in 1953.