Behind the Moscow Shifts:

...Everyone in the Western world seems surprised that the present struggle is taking place in such soft and "humane" forms, so different from those of the Stalinist purges...

...There are struggles between individual leaders for power, conflicts of interest among various departmental or social groups, clashes along ideological lines—in short, all those rivalries that Stalin had managed to wipe out by 1937...

...A leader of the Russian Social Democratic party, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Socialist International from 1923 to 1940...

...People breathed more easily at home, and Western countries took up the slogan of "coexistence...

...The tactics of "sentimental feeling" for the demands of the people were abandoned...

...First of all, one must never forget that the very nature of a dictatorship, especially such a totalitarian one as the Soviet, impels it toward individual rule...

...Does this mean that the Soviets have not succeeded in fufilling their plans for hydrogen bombs (as Churchill recently declared...

...And a struggle among the ruling handful will unavoidably broaden the gaps...

...What is puzzling, therefore, is that the relationship between light and heavy industry did play such a great role in the discussion of the Government changes and Malenkov's dismissal...

...A second Genghis Khan was not found...

...Every failure of this kind will aggravate the internal struggle, cause friction, bring shifts in the Government and sometimes even panic in a collective dictatorship which has no generally recognized and strong leader...

...But even after that active resistance was broken, the peasants continued in a silent and passive struggle, which has not let up to this day...

...he alone makes the final decisions?without appeal—and everyone and everything is subservient to his unquestioned authority...

...These "bottlenecks" are consciously planned as such...

...Among the nine present members of the Presidium, there are more than enough candidates for dictator in terms of brutality and cruelty...

...It is hardly likely that a second Stalin will be found...

...We no longer have the atmosphere which Stalin was then able to exploit...

...is also far ahead of the USSR in the field of intercontinental ballistic missiles...

...Stalin's heirs understand this and therefore prefer to follow, at least for the time being, the legacy of Lenin...

...True, there was one old Stalinist touch in the picture: Malenkov had to publicly confess sins which he did not commit and, indeed, could not have committed...

...For this reason, in our first reaction to Stalin's death we wrote (THE NEW LEADER, March 16, 1953): "What one can expect is a period of growing tensions and clashes of interest between the various elements of Soviet society and the Party...

...Forced collectivization, begun with ruthless coercion in the winter of 1929-30, evoked desperate peasant resistance...

...see the recent statement of Admiral Carney, U.S...

...This new method seems quite logical to me...

...Perhaps the shift in the Kremlin scenery was primarily aimed at demonstrating the end of the epoch of peaceful coexistence and the beginning of the old-new world revolutionary era...

...Not because he was the most influential or the most capable, not even because he tried to stage a coup—there is no conclusive evidence to this effect...

...Meanwhile, the other minister who had just resigned, Anastas Mikoyan, not only remained a member of the Presidium but was promoted to First Deputy Premier...

...Why was there such heated discussion of the inattention given to heavy industry...

...In his "testament," Lenin seriously warned his followers against imitating the Jacobins, who sent all their dissenting comrades to the guillotine...

...And if Malenkov fell as a result of rivalry with more powerful members of the Presidium, this is hardly the last act of the struggle for power within the Party...

...the man who craftily piloted the ship through many a storm is no more...

...During the first months, Lavrenti Beria's name appeared often in connection with possible changes in the regime, but, after his swift and almost bloodless liquidation, there was a great deal more respect for the stability of the Soviet Government...

...The situation in light industry is not much better, despite some "successes" in 1954 with products like television, which are available only to the Soviet aristocracy...

...Beria was liquidated first because he was the most dangerous rival of all the others...

...Such a propaganda is aimed not only to deceive the West and to blackmail it by menacing gestures into new Munichs, but also to spur the energy of the Soviet masses...

...Those in a minority do not always knuckle under, but fight to change the decision...

...To all this was recently added the task of building a huge navy second only to the American fleet...

...With no God-like 'Father of the Peoples' to throw his weight into the conflict, wide gulfs in the very structure of the Party and the state are bound to come...

...There was a change in the Cabinet...

...Light industry was immediately pushed aside...

...Evidently breakdowns did occur recently in that area, the area which is primarily concerned with military production...

...As a result, the farm crisis persists—particularly in livestock...

...Here again Malenkov's departure was indicated...

...Aside from this obligatory self-abasement, however, the Cabinet shift was not at all like a palace coup but almost like a change in the parliamentary government of a democratic country...

...Beria's removal was a preventive measure...

...In Peking, Mao Tse-tung enthusiastically echoed Molotov...

...Despite Stalinist models hallowed by tradition, Malenkov was not removed...

...Meanwhile, reinforce heavy industry as the base for the military might of the Soviet Union and its valiant ally, Red China...

...We no longer live in the epoch of "Sturm und Drang" in which Stalin created his system of terror, torture and executions...

...if the capitalists start an atomic war, Mao said, China and the USSR "will wipe them from the face of the earth...

...cruelty, vengefulness, forethought, cunning and iron nerves is not so easily repeated...

...Newspapers began writing about the dictatorship's "new look...

...Nevertheless, it would be a great mistake to take lightly what occurred in Moscow between January 25 and February 8. Behind all the superficialities, deeper, more serious processes are under way within the country and within the dictatorship...

...he resigned, and, having resigned, remained a Deputy Premier...

...Can it mean that the U.S...

...The atmosphere of a Malenkov "NEP" was created in Moscow...

...And, in the future, the growth of population will continue to outstrip production of these foods...

...The Party must not do this, Lenin taught...

...The West's psychological unpre-paredness may be partially explained by the fact that, immediately after Stalin's death, many people here expected the swift disintegration of the Soviet Empire, after the fashion of Alexander the Great's empire or that of Genghis Khan...

...But, in Russia today, there is no longer the authority of a single leader...

...Could such a path conceivably be smooth...

...And on this basis the dictatorship plans not only to build a highly developed industry in the USSR but also to contribute materially and technically to the industrialization of the satellites and of China, with its 600 million people...

...On such an occasion, it was only logical to offer as a sacrifice to the goddess of world revolution the head of the man who served for two years as the symbol of coexistence...

...Premier Georgi Malenkov resigned, the quasi-military man Nikolai Bulganin was appointed in his place, and a real military man, Marshal Georgi Zhukov, was named Minister of Defense...

...Nor was a second Hitler...

...Nobody foresaw the dramatic changes, no matter what various experts now say in hindsight...

...He knew Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Molotov and other leading Soviet figures personally, and is the author of several lengthy studies of Soviet life...

...As head of the unified MVD-MGB, he held enormous and very real power in his hands and might at any moment have become too big for his boots...

...The process will continue...

...This makes the Soviet administration more cumbersome—complicated, slow, less sure...

...In 1953, soon after the sudden death of Stalin in a heavy atmosphere of fear, rumors, uncertainty, food difficulties and international tension, the new Soviet Government embarked on a large-scale program which included the promise to take measures for the rapid increase of agricultural production and the wider development of light industry...

...Moreover, this plan includes building a gigantic military machine with hundreds of divisions armed with the latest weapons (atomic and hydrogen bombs, guided missiles, long-range jet bombers and fighters), not only for Russia itself, but for the world Communist bloc...

...Having liquidated the "rightist" Beria with the help of the centrist Malenkov, his "leftist" colleagues could then easily remove their former ally in the struggle against Beria...

...In Russia, the administration of an economic system with such a fantastically broad scope and intolerably fast tempo demands an inhuman straining of all the people's efforts and their readiness to make continual sacrifices—living on the very brink of famine, suffering privation, lacking elementary comforts...

...Is it any wonder that this fantastically grandiose scheme develops in zigzag fashion—with successes and failures, advances and breakdowns, glaring inequalities and incredible difficulties accompanied by crises, privation, and hunger for millions...

...To achieve these aims, the new Presidium majority perhaps decided to switch from the tactics of "peaceful coexistence" to the tried and true tactics of whipping up revolutionary and patriotic passions by exacerbating international tensions...

...Since World War II, he has been an editor of Modern Review, the Jewish Daily Forward, and the Russian-language journal Socialist Courier...

...Now his onetime subordinates must think for themselves, form opinions...

...History shows that great despots do not appear twice in a single epoch...

...Personal rivalry appears...

...Chief of Naval Operations...

...The Kremlin shifts surprised not only the outside world but the people of the USSR...

...Such an atmosphere could come again?for example, in the case of sharp conflicts in foreign policy when the "fatherland" is declared in danger...

...Even at the time Victor Abakumov, former MGB chief, was executed, it was noted that the attempted whitewash of the followers of the late Andrei Zhdanov, Malenkov's chief rival seven or eight years ago, was a direct blow at Malenkov...

...Rephrasing Malenkov's declaration that atomic war would mean the "destruction of world civilization," Molotov made it fit the Stalinist line by declaring that atomic war would destroy only the rotten capitalist world, not the camp of "socialism...

...After all, the resources and manpower of even the greatest country are limited...

...In sentencing Beria, Malenkov predetermined his own downfall...

...The future will tell how long the Kremlin dictators can hold to this line...

...But neither the situation nor the man exists today to rouse the country...

...Agriculture and light industry are the first to suffer from such a course, and the Soviet regime is now experiencing its major setbacks in the field of agriculture, long the Achilles Heel of the Soviet economy...

...Once again the Soviet scene witnessed a specter which seemed to have disappeared in 1953—an orthodox Stalinist at the head of the party...

...Uncertainty and failure lie BEHIND THE MOSCOW SHIFTS By Raphael R. Abramovitch IF THERE are any doubts about the efficacy of the Iron Curtain, both within and outside the USSR, last month's events in Moscow should dissipate them...

...But the needed combination of rage...

...Raphael R. Abramovitch has been a leading figure in the struggle for a democratic Russia for five decades...

...Along with several other "liberal" declarations (the promise to observe the law, the granting of a limited amnesty, etc...

...After a quarter century of the regime's systematic and cruel struggle with the peasantry, per capita production of dairy, meat and high-caloric foodstuffs is less than in 1928...

...In such a dictatorship, the only real "parliament" is the mind of the supreme leader...

...The sad state of Soviet agriculture is the result of 25 years of civil war which the dictatorship has waged against the Soviet peasantry...

...Now the Soviet people are being told: You will no longer have food, and there will be no more consumer goods...

...The facts thus far are not clear enough to reveal the true picture and the true motives behind it, especially since last month's shake-up was a strange and most unusual one according to our usual conception of the Kremlin...

...Having suffered failure in the most sensitive area for its "long-range" plans, the Kremlin decided to cover up its temporary setback with a more aggressive, belligerent propaganda...

...Such a plan can only be realized by complete disregard for the individual and his needs—that is, in economic terms, by giving priority to heavy industry over consumer goods and food production...

...Then, suddenly, the Moscow actors shifted...

...Malenkov made a solemn declaration about the Soviet Government's desire for peaceful coexistence with the capitalist world...

...The most recent victim was Malenkov?partly because he was the leading figure in the Government, partly because he had irritated many people and made influential enemies...

...Live in the hope of the future victory of Communism all over the world, after which...

...Molotov's speech to the Supreme Soviet restored the old concept of the unstoppable world Communist revolution...

...A few days after his resignation, he received a new Ministry, that of Electric Power Stations...

...This is not all...

...To a significant degree, this will depend on how the dictatorship deals with its colossal economic and technological difficulties at home, and with the gigantic task which it has set for itself on a world scale...

...But the breakdowns in agriculture and light industry are evils inherent in the Soviet plan itself...

...you must not decapitate the Party...

...Perhaps there is a more serious and direct motive...

...The "new course" was abolished...

...But if the original NEP lasted seven years, the imitation one lasted not quite two...

...Here, all is centralized to the utmost degree, and everything either comes to the supreme power or emanates from it—goals, plans, methods, leadership, decrees...

...Removed from his post was the man who, in the eyes of Churchill and others in America, Europe and Asia, was the symbol of the "peacemaker," the man to whom everyone was ready to travel for negotiations...

...He was not expelled from the Central Committee, but remained a member of its Presidium...

...A totalitarian economy does not develop automatically, on its own momentum, as do those in free countries, where the spontaneous activity of the population is significant...

...Since no one of Stalin's heirs possesses sufficient stature to impress the others with extraordinary mental powers, perceptions or political authority, decisions must be adopted after long discussions (sometimes even disconcerting quarrels), after voting and counting ballots...

...The old Stalinist notes were sounded in speeches by Molotov and Bulganin, and later by Marshals Konev and Zhukov...

...He has been analyzing Soviet political and economic developments for The New Leader from its inception...

...And each time the temporary leaders will seek scapegoats among the minority of the moment...

...The new look is gone...