RUSSIA: Flame Throwers

Around the world last week were anniversary celebrations of the 1917 Russian Revolution which brought the Bolsheviks to power. Even Franco Spain was faithful in its fashion (see above). As usual, the most notable celebration was in Moscow. Notably absent: ailing, aging Joseph Stalin, 66, whom rumor put at Sochi on the Black Sea. where he rested for two months last autumn.

In Moscow’s flag-bedecked Bolshoi Theater the keynote address of the anniversary was delivered by the man whom many think Stalin has picked as his successor: swart, stocky Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov, 50. He is secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and is also chairman of the Supreme Soviet (Russian parliament), boss of Leningrad, colonel-general in the Russian Army and member of the potent, 14-man Politburo.

Zhdanov’s exposition of Soviet policy put the problem of peace in terms just opposite from the way most non-Russians thought of it. He said that Russia would not be intimidated by exponents of aggressive expansionism who were undermining international collaboration, but would continue to fight for security and the prevention of further aggression. Russia wished “to strengthen U.N.,” which other nations were trying “to shatter.” Russian blood, he added, “was not shed for atom blackmailers.”

Soviet newspapers carrying the Zhdanov speech featured a cartoon captioned Crew of Warmongers. It showed a fire truck driven by a cigar-smoking Churchill. The other firemen were Hearst, Baruch (with a bucketful of atom bombs), Franco, a Turk and a Greek. Said a poem accompanying the cartoon: “Although this crew carries a fire hose, it’s really a flame thrower.”