Oregon Daily 2 «S§EMERALD . ■"■■■| ■ 1 ■■'■ ..* ' i ■-■■■•■■■ 1 f’tjty fmt'lh \. ijr jj Huhlifahnn Vo!- L,V. Lni. of Oregon, Kugrnr, Friday, Mar. 6, 1953 No. 85 Russians Grieve; Ike Sends Cable Of 'Condolences' The Moscow home radio gave the news of Joseph Stalin's death to the Russian people some f ight hours after Stalin had died and two hours after the world uJ large had received the news. Associated Press Correspondent Kddy Gilmore reported hearing the news over car radio as he was riding through Moscow's snowy streets. The driver, a former So viet army man, was stunned and could hardly drive the car. "Excuse me," he said, a trickle of tears rolling down his cheek. "He was a real person." That probably sums up \vhat is in the heatt of many Soviet citizens, Gil more reported. In Washington President Eisen hower directed Secretary of State Dulles to send a message to the American embassy in Moscow for transmission to the Soviet govern ment as follows: "The government of the United State;! tenders its official condol ences to the government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Repub lirtx o! the death of Generalissimo Joseph Stai n, prime minister of the Soviet Union." It was noted immediately that the message, which spoke only of "official condolences," ommitted the usual words of sympathetic tribute which are almost a part of protocol when the leader of any other nation dies. Secretary of State Dulles has asked the senate to speed action on the nomination of Charles Kohlen to be ambassador to Russia. Dulles indicated he wants Bohlen to be free to hurry to Moscow to repre sent the counti y during any crisis which may develop. Bohlen is a specialist on Soviet affairs. In New York, it was announced the blue and white UN flag will be lowered to half staff this morn ing. This is in accord with the UN code to honor dead chiefs of state. The announcement of Stalin's death came as Soviet Foreign Min ister Andrei Vishinsky was mak ing hurried preparations to leave New York for Moscow. 4 —— 11111 ■ *' ■ ' ■* ilWBIK .i. JOSEPH STALIN Th.- leader is gone . . . Jiussia mourns MALENKOV, BERIA AND STALIN Anil the free world wonders LONDON-(AP)-Moscow announced Thursday that Joseph Stalin, who ruled Russia for nearly 30 years as the most powerful dictator in history, is dead. The official announcement said: I he heart of the comrade and inspired continuer of Lenin’s will ,the wise leader and teacher of the Communist Party and the Soviet pet pic—Joseph Vissarionovitch Stalin—has stopper! beating.” The news of his death reached London initially in a Russian lan guage broadcast by the official Soviet news agency, Tass, for news papers in the provinces of the Soviet Union. The 73-year-old Russia* prime minister had been stricken with a brain hemorrhage Sunday, and had grown progressively worse. The announcement at 5:07 p.m. said Stalin had succumbed at 10:50 a.m., 'PSTi. The broadcast said the announcement of Stalin's death was author ized by the Central Committee of the Communist Party, the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. As if appealing for unity, the official statement said: "In these sorrowful days all the peoples of our country are rallying even closer in a great fraternal family under the tested leadership of the Communist party created and reared by Lenin and Stalin. The Soviet people have boundless faith in and are permeated witJv a deep love for their Communist party for they know that the supreme law governing all the activity ox the party is service ;n the interests of the people, ". Stalin, who through Communism extended his sway beyond the bor ders of the Soviet Union and its 200 million people to areas encompass ing another half billion people, rose from a hovel in South Russia to this fantastic power. K. was a small man physically., just five feet five inches in height, two inches taller than Napoleon. But if he was short in stature, he was a giant in intrigue. Stalin was the grandson of a chattel slave. K<s father was a ne'er do well cobbler and his mother a peasant. His mother dedicated him to God in childhood, but he schemed, plotted, clawed ar.d killed ar.d made his way over blood stained paths —to the top. Born Dec. 21. 1S<9. in Gon. Georgia, Staim was christened Joseph Vissanonovitch Djugashviii. When he was 15, his mother er.tcied Joseph—Little Soso, she called him—in a seminary’ at Tiflis. There he found a hotbed of revolutionary activity—against the monks, estab lished cruer and the Czar. Your.g Joseph was a good, sometimes even a brillant. student. But he Irecjnently was penalized lor breaches of discipline. Ke joined-the revolutionists and came upon the works of Kar! Marx. On May 29. 1S99, he was expelled. He became an organizer of the Social Democratic party under th<* name of Koba. In 1917 he was called Staim ("man of steel”) by Lenin, who he had joined after his return in 1904 from Siberia, where he had | been sent after his arrest by the Czar's secret police. After Lenin's death in 1924 Stalin fought it out with Leon Trotsky, and won. Slowly, without pity, he consolidated his power, until he be came the most powerful dictator the world has known. Of his seem ingly endless executions, Tiotsky said, "Stalin cannot stop. Me re sembles a man who drinks a salt solution to quench his thirst.” After shocking the world with his 1939 deal with Hitler, Stalin fought with the'Allies to win World War II. Then he returned to Communist world aims, whipping them to such a peak that they be came the center of the great struggle of today’. Who's Next? Maybe No One: Wright Who will replace Stalin? Georgi Malenkov? V. M. Molo tov ? Lavrenty Beria ? While the woild played guess ing games Thursday night, the Emerald contacted a man who insisted that he was no expert on the matter. Nevertheless, the opinions of Dr. Gordon Wright, head of the history department, were worth listening to. This was, in essence, his analysis of the situation. There’s a possibility that no one will replace Stalin, either in a formal or informal sense for some time. The Red boss's posi tions may be portioned out among various other top officials with no one man taking the whole job. Nobody replaced Lenin imme diately. When he died a trium virate emerged and shared pow er, primarily because each man was jealous of the others. If there is a smooth transition ami one replaces Stalin, it will be the first time in history that a group of men held such power and failed to quarrel over its suc cession. It’s possible that Molotov, the only remaining Old Bolshevik, would be the front man, but not much more than that. Eventually somebody will take over. Malenkov probably has the inside lane. There's also some speculation on Nikolai Schvernik, a younger man who’s suddenly been given some very Important assignments. No matter who takes over, there'll probably be littte change in Russian policy. There prob < ably aren't any deep divergen cies in (he Politburo. There could be differences among top leaders, but these would prob ably be more of temperment. One might be more inclined toward aggressive action than another. Official policy has certainly been shaped a lot by Stalin in the 20 odd years he’s been in power. Its probably to the point now where the basic doctrine is clear cut, the long-run goal de termined. This death doesn't make much difference except that after sev eral years the effects will start showing up. If there are internal squabbles, they probably won’t occur for a while, and we may not know about them for a long time after that. The purges ? It was probably just an accident that they hap pened just before Stalin died. There h^ve been three schools of thought about them: 1. that they were connected with foreign policy; 2. that they were part of the battle for power internally; 3. or that they were intended to divert the people from other sources of internal discontent. And the satellites? Stalin's death shouldn't have much effect. The European countries are pretty well tied to Russia. China, a kind of junior partner, may be a different story. We may ex pect trouble in the long run be tween Russia and China, but not in the short future. His death probably won't speed its coming very much. GORDON WRIGHT Smooth Change Would Be Unique