Report discussing the production and export or chromite from the U.S.S.R, including an overview of the industry (raw material base, mining and processing facilities, foreign trade, and policies and programs controlling its operations) as well as observations on the outlook for the future.

Report presenting a study of the Soviet manganese industry, which is intended to aid in assessing the present and future role of the U.S.S.R. on the world supply. Information is provided on reserves, mining, technology, ferroalloy production, trade, and consumption.

A report by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), which "has undertaken a study of the presence of Soviets in space and their Salyut space stations, in order to provide Congress with an informed view of Soviet capabilities and intentions" (p. iii).

Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet state, provided the ideological underpinning for Soviet Third world policy. Be believed that the developing nations, most of which were still part of European colonial empires, were the "weakest link in the capitalist empires and that revolution along these nations would undermine the military and economic power of the West- In 1920, he called on all Communist parties to support these revolutions, but Soviet Russia at that time vas involved in its own civil war and too weak to sake many inroads in the Third World.

The United States has charged that the Soviet Union is implicated in the use of chemical weapons in Afghanistan and of chemical and toxin weapons, including the toxin known as "Yellow Rain," in Laos and Kampuchea (Cambodia). These charges raise two significant sets of issues: First, issues surrounding the evidence that has been presented to show: (a) that such weapons have been used and (b) that the Soviet Union is implicated in this use. Second, issues connected with the implications of Soviet involvement, if proven, in chemical and toxin warfare.

None

On Jan. 1, 1981 the Soviet Union's Eleventh Five Year Plan (1981-85) began. An analysis of the new plan provides some insights into Soviet priorities and economic prospects for the next half-decade. The following are the plan's main goals: to allocate sufficient investment funds to ensure adequate growth of output in the industry, agriculture, transportation, energy, and other sectors; to raise consumer income sufficiently to provide needed incentives and increase consumer satisfaction; to meet security needs at home and abroad; and to import technology, grain and other goods needed to meet priority domestic goals.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan has raised a number of serious issues and choices for the United States. The train of events seem likely to have an important influence on overall American foreign policy in the 1980s. Reassessment of Soviet motives and of U.S. roles in the world are already in progress. Emerging American attitudes, in turn, will shape more specific policy decisions on several issues, which this issue brief discusses.

In 1979, a time of clear downturn in U.S.-Soviet relations over such sensitive issues as SALT, Soviet troops in Cuba, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Carter Administration moved ahead with a series of measures designed to improve relations with Moscow's major adversary in Asia, the Peoples Republic of China (P.R.C.). The purpose of this report is to provide background for and summarize current developments in U.S. - People’s Republic of China (PRC) relations, including current and pending congressional actions involving the PRC.