COMMUNISTS: The Peace Lovers

It was much the same old celebration of the Russian Revolution’s anniversary (the 32nd this year). Lieut. General Vasily Stalin, the boss’s son, led an aerial parade of four-engine bombers and jet fighters over the reviewing stand in Red Square. The main address was delivered by rising Red star Georgy M. Malenkov. Said Politburocrat Malenkov: the U.S. is trying to enslave the whole world, outdoing the Nazis and the Japanese imperialists; at the same time, the capitalist system is approaching another disastrous depression (by lumping in “those not working a full week,” Malenkov arrived at a U.S. unemployed total of 14 million). Russia, on the other hand, is surrounded by friendly neighbors* and, since the West’s fiasco in China, the number of people in the Soviet orbit now amounts to 800 million. “We do not want war,” cried Malenkov. “Let no one imagine, however, that we are intimidated . . . The Soviet government possesses the atomic weapon . . .”

Malenkov recalled that World War I had brought the Bolshevik revolution, World War II the Soviet sweep-up of Central Europe and China. After such massive gains did the Politburo fear another war? “A third world war . . .” said Malenkov, “will be the grave . . . for the whole of world capitalism.”

* The practical workings of the “friendly neighbor” relationship were illustrated this week when the Polish government announced that Marshal Konstantin K. Rokossovsky had been released from the Soviet Army to become Polish Defense Minister and “Marshal of the Polish Armies.” The Poles, citing “the Polish national origin of Rokossovsky,” said they had petitioned the Kremlin for his services.