THE T A B L E T , March 14th, 1953.

THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGINA ET PATRIA

VOL. 201, No. 5886

LONDON, MARCH 14th, 1953

NINEPENCE

FOUNDED IN 1840

PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

MARSHAL TITO’S VISIT

The Memorial of the Catholic Union on his Persecution of the Church

MANAGER VERSUS COMMISSAR Who is Fighting Whom in Russia ? By Victor S . Frank

THE MONGOL AND THE SLAV When the Lord of All the Russias Dies. By Denzil McNeelance

AN INTERVIEW WITH STALIN Impressions of an Ambassador in Moscow. By Sir David Kelly

THE PROBLEM OF EVEREST The British Expedition of 1953. By Sir Arnold Lunn

CHILDREN’S RECORD CARDS Some Recent Concessions. By Philip G. Anley

NO BEVANISM IN MOSCOW T HE best thing to hope for in the changes in Moscow after the death o f Stalin would perhaps be the emergence of something that might correspond to Bevanism in this country —an increased influence, in other words, for the views represented by Voznesensky, whose condemnation, discussed in these pages by Mr. Victor Frank, was one of Stalin’s last public interventions in Soviet affairs. This is the school o f thought—necessarily very reticent in its public utterances in Moscow, however eloquent it may be in London —which would like to pay more attention to living standards a t home, and correspondingly less attention to military strength.

are worse ; th a t Stalin’s was a moderating influence, increasingly ignored, as he grew older, by those who have now succeeded him. His own utterances on foreign policy, occasionally given, for instance, to American journalists, were singularly unlike leaders in Pravda, and were usually hopeful in tone. I t may be that men even more ruthless than the Stalin of the last few years have now taken over. They have lost no time in sweeping away, according to an obviously prearranged plan, Stalin’s measures for broadening the basis of the Government and Party leadership. They did this within twenty-four hours o f his death. Power is concentrated now in the hands of five men. “ Disarray and Panic ? ”

In the long statement announcing Stalin’s death there was an assurance that the production of consumer goods will not be forgotten under the new dispensation. I t spoke o f the “ constantly growing material and cultural needs o f the entire society,” and declared that “ the further improvement of the material well-being of all sections o f the populace . . . has always been and always is a subject of particular solicitude on the part of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government.” Malenkov likewise spoke a t the funeral of his concern for living standards a t home. There is, however, no reason to think of these remarks as more than signs that Stalin’s successors are not only jealous of each other but unsure o f themselves, and anxious to make the best impression.

I t is too easy to build unsubstantial theories out of the available information. I t would be dangerous, and perhaps disastrous, if a new legend should now begin to gain ground, in which it would be said that everything has changed with the death of Stalin ; that, now the tyrant is gone and cannot bequeath his prestige, the threat to the world has been removed ; and that Malenkov’s use a t Stalin’s funeral of the old phrase about “ peaceful co-existence and peaceful competition between two different systems, the Capitalist and the Socialist system,” means that the tension has been relaxed and that Western vigilance can be relaxed as well.

I t may be true, as Mr. Foster Dulles has suggested, that the prospects for peace are better, but the strength of the Soviet Union remains dedicated to the same purposes as before, and, save only for the passing o f Stalin, power remains in the same hands. The tru th may be that the prospects for peace

The statement announcing the political changes consequent upon Stalin’s death included a phrase about “ the prevention o f any kind o f disarray and panic.” Inside the Kremlin at any rate some disarray and panic clearly existed, and a sense of dangers threatening the Soviet structure in this historic moment both internally and externally. Malenkov referred a t the funeral to the “ spirit of political vigilance’” “ the spirit of intransigent and hard struggle against internal and foreign enemies.” Those filled with the thesis about the aggressive nature of Western capitalism may well have thought that here was the moment when Western capitalism would suddenly and swiftly strike ; those with special knowledge o f the Ukraine, for instance, or of conditions in the Communist-dominated countries in Eastern Europe, may well have thought that here was a moment when risings might be attempted. Neither fear was well-founded, but both can easily be imagined in the strained atmosphere o f the Kremlin last week. A t all events, no time was lost in announcing measures to ensure “ the uninterrupted and correct leadership of the whole life of the country.” The Restoration of the Politburo

The effect o f these measures was to sweep away the administrative structure set up only last October by the nineteenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and to restore th a t of the war years. The same men who prosecuted the war, now ten years older, have brought back the Politburo, under another name. The key bodies con­