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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 1963)
From the World of Communism - - Sports Features MEDFORD Tribune "SECTION B MEDFORD, OREGON, SUNDAY, JANUARY 27, 1083 PAGES 1 to 8 jiiiuissia Tern -Years After Josef." Stalin's Deofth By ROBERT J. KOREGOLD United Press International Moscow-flJPD-On March 5 next it will be 10 years since Josef Stalin, one of history's most ruthless tyrants, died in the Kremlin - apparently of a massive brain hemor rhage. Russia has changed much In Its decade without Stalin, in some ways has an entirely new look. Although the late dictator's blood-stained legacy still lies heavily on the nation, there is a new and freer spirit. There is some evidence of a yearning for the best of two worlds, a sort of "Communism with Cadillacs." When Stalin died he held absolute personal control over the largest empire the world had ever known. It was an empire built with bayonets and repression and nourished by fear. Its borders were virtually closed to outsiders and outside influences. Its control over lives and minds was complete; Decisions Mad By Stalin Its decisions were made by Stalin and Stalin alone. The alternatives to submission were prison or death. In 10 years without Stalin Russia has opened her doors, hesitatingly, to contacts with the capitalist world. It has trampled Stalin's memory but kept up his cold . war in a variety of new forms, mixing calls for "peaceful coexistence" with rockets in Cuba, atom tests and pres sure on Berlin. Under Nikita Khrushchev the Soviet Union has made betterment of relations with America a steadfast goal to which it bounces back after each U-2 or RB-47 incident and periodic crises in Berlin, the Middle East or Asia. It has gained an air of respectability and influence In the world - largely through its space successes - that it never had under Stalin. A Struggle Over Leadership It is engaged in a struggle with Red China over lead ership of the world Communist Bloc. Of all the changes in the USSR, however, one stands - head and shoulders above the rest-the abolition of police terror, the dreaded midnight knock on the door. "Foreigners can never understand what it meant for Russians to have been born and lived under Stalin," a middle-aged Soviet writer told me. "It meant a whole lifetime of bowing down to wor ship him and at the same time fearing to be taken away and shot or sent to a labor camp. "There is scarcely a family that didn't lose at least one member. "Now the camps that honeycombed Siberia are closed and everyone knows it. We are no longer afraid for our lives. That is why there are open discussions, dif . ferent trends and cross currents in Russia today. Where Currents Lead Uncertain "Where these currents will lead is uncertain. But they exist because the terror is gone." Freed of fear as they knew it under Stalin, Russians have profited on the home front in the 10 years since his death. The USSR is still far from an abundant society. But it has surged ahead industrially despite a chronically inefficient agricultural program. Its goal of out-distancing America remains a dream for the future but there is more housing, more food, more and better goods in the shops each year. The nation is strenously working to change Its image from that of a wallcd-in, fear-stalked society to a peace ful, prosperous example of what Communism can bring. Part of this post-Stalin new look is real. Part is politics. ' - . Khrushchev, as much as Stalin, is a confirmed enemy of the Capitalist system and is dedicated to bring about its downfall. ,.4- ii , w t , L The head of Josef Stalin monument lies "grounded" in a Budapest street with a traffic sign against it on Oct. 31, 1856, as Budapest citizens celebrate moment of victory in the Hungarian Revolution. The accompanying story tells how Soviet world has changed as it approaches the 10th anniversary of Stalin's death. (UP1) Stalin was a suspicious stay-at-home, rarely leaving even the Kremlin. Khrushchev is an argumentative extrovert, a tireless junketeer to China, Southwest Asia, the East European satellites. Western Europe and even to the heartland of capitalism - the United States. At home, over the world's largest nation and its roughly 220 million citizens, Khrushchev rules not with Stalin's iron hand but, along with other members of the tightly-knit Communist Party Presidium, in a sort guided collective leadership. He presides also over a different sort of a Communist empire, a growing move ment expanding to new nations in Africa, Asia and South America but no longer obedient, as it was in Stalin's day, to Moscow alone. Bothersome Rival in Peking Now there is a bothersome rival voice in Peking, obstinate, troublesome and much stronger than it was 10 years ago, claiming that it knows better than Moscow how to install Communism throughout the world. A Soviet Journalist, born in 1917 and ignorant of any other life than Russia under Communism, recently told a Western colleage: "There, have been astounding changes since Stalin's death, particularly when you consider the millions of people who died, the rivers of blood that ran. People Believe In Stalin "But people believed in Stalin. It cannot be denied. I saw soldiers rushing to certain death in the war with out wavering. "Why? Because they were dying for their motherland and for Stalin. "We who survived know now what else he did. But we who lived under him for 30 years cannot forget also ' what he did for this country, how he built it, held it to gether, inspired it." But scarcely had Stalin's body been placed along side that of Lenin in the red and black marble mauso leum on Red Square than his nervous heirs let It be known that the oppressive days of the late dictator were over. Beria Arrested, Excuted Hated Secret Police Chief Lavrentl Beria was ar rested, executed and there was a rash of amnesties for political prisoners in the Siberian camps. In the next few years agreements to end the Korean War were made, apparently with the Soviet Union's bles sing, and the treaty ending the occupation of Austria and . giving her neutral status was signed. There was the brief "thaw" at home in literature and art in 1054 when artists and writers began halting to turn out something other than tractor epics and portraits of Stalin. The first "thaw" had to be slapped down again even tually, by Khrushchev himself, when it showed signs of getting out of hand. But like the cultural controversy raging at the moment in the nation, it was a sign that Soviet culture could not be held indefinitely In old socialist-realist moulds. , Stalin's First Successor Stalin's first successor as Soviet premier, pudgy Georgia Malenkov, even broke with the traditional So viet emphasis on heavy industry to endorse a program ' Tibet liberated' by Communist Chinese By CHARLES R. SMITH United Press International Tokyo -(UPD- There's an old Tibetan proverb that says, "To hold Tibet firmly, the conqueror must win the Potala's top floor." After more than a dozen years of deceit, suppression nd hard work, the Commu nist Chinese appear to have won the top floor of the fab ulous winter palace of the Tibetan God King, the Dalai Lama. The Chinese say they now . have almost completed the basic communization of the roof of the world while the Dalai Lama sits in almost hopeless exile in neighbor ing India. End of Preparatory Work They are nearing the end of preparatory work for for mally inaugurating Tibet into the Communist repub lic as a full-fledged autono mous region. A . recent Peking radio broadcast, monitored in To kyo, said that by mid-January a series of local elec tions throughout the moun tainous region was "about 95 per cent" completed. The elections are among the final steps in what the Communists call the "demo- I" " " -'..I'M HI ! :-:: V; fitir j WW -a . '1 " r"v- 8 A relic of a vanished way of life, the Potala. winter palace of the Tibetan God King, the Dalai Lama, looks as grandly as ever in Lhasa, Tibet, In this picture from an of ficial Communist source. (UPD cratic reform" of the Tibet an society. It was just about 10 years ago that the Chinese decid ed to set up a preparatory committee for the Tibetan autonomous region and be gin a large-scale program to transform the primitive feudal society into a Com munist society. Troops March In That was almost three years after the Communist troops had marched into the isolated Buddhist kingdom and proclaimed its "peace ful liberation." But as plans for the pre paratory committee pro gressed, so did Tibetan re sistance. The Tibetans rebelled vi olently against their Com munist oppressors and, in 1957, the Red Chinese an nounced a softening of their policies. They promised there would be "no democratic reforms" for at least s I x years, and only then with the popular consent of the Tibetans, Fail To Check Resistance The Chinese promise fail ed to check the Tibetan re sistance, which grew into a full-scale rebellion by 1959. The Red Chinese switched to a tough stand. They crushed the rebellion in a harsh military cam paign that the International Commission of Jurists said probably cost the live of 05.000 persons. The Dalai Lama escaped to India at that time. By the end of June, 1959, the rebellion was suppress ed. The first week of July, a new Tibetan preparatory committee began a 10-day session in Lhasa, the cap ital. The committee, with the Puppet Panchcn Lama as acting chairman, adopted a comprehensive program of reforms designed to com munlze the entire region. In Sufficient Force The Chinese Army was there in sufficient force to make certain the "demo cratic reforms" were car ried out. The Peking regime sent In thousands of Chinese Communist party cadres to push the communization campaign in every field. And reform was carried out. Thousands of "mutual aid" teams were set up as ' the first step toward event ual establishment of peo ple's communes, About 95 per cent of the peasants "joined" the teams, Pe king Radio said. A school was set up to train and indoctrinate teach ers. .By last summer, the Pe king regime's top political representative in Lhasa, Chang Ching-Wu, was able to announce: "Feudal serfdom has ended in Tibet. The Dem ocratic reform movement has in the main been com pleted. A social system of People's Democracy has been established. . ." On Aug. 23, 1962, a new . election committte was es tablished and the series of general elections begun. The Peking regime's pup pet ruler, the Panchen Lama, was chairman. But named as his chief deputy ' was Lt. Gen. Chang Kuo- Una. the commander of the Chinese military forces In Tibet. Elections Held In Lhasa On Christmas Day, elec tions were held in Lhasa. Peking Radio said "227 deputies were elected from the eleven electoral dis tricts to the first "People's Congress of the city proper. Over 80 per cent of the dep uties were serfs and slaves before the democratic re form." The report added: "During the days of the election, the Tibetans streamed to the polling sta tions in high excitement. They held aloft colored flags, beat drums and gongs danced and sang to mark tneir enjoyment for the first time In their life of universal suffrage." The Red Radio said that the top Chinese Communist party representatives In Ti bet were among the first to cast their votes. How Many Chines Volt? What it did not mention was how many Chinese voted in the elections in Lhasa and other areas. The Dalai Lama and oth ers on the outside have cs- timated that the Peking re gime has sent more than $3 million Chinese Into the vast region to settle among tne estimated 3 million Ti betans. The Peking regime has given no figures on this. It did announce last summer, however, that more than "6,000 (Communist) cadres of Tibetan nationality" have been trained. It add ed: "While continuing to train large numbers of cad res of Tibetan nationality, it is also necessary to have a certain number of cadres of Han (Chinese) and other nationalities to help build a prosperous and happy new Tibet." But it Is likely the Chi nese wil have to keep their troops In Tibet for a long time to come to keep the Ti betans moving along the road to Communism. for more consumer goods. It was a tactical error that helped lead to his ouster in 1954. His place first was ceded to goateed marshall Nikolai Bulgania, who, under pressure, turned it over to Khrushchev in 1958. Thus, in just five years from the death of a man, who hsd mide solitary rule a nightmare in Russia, the na tion's two top posts the premiership and the first secre taryship of the communist party t came' again In the hands of one man, Nikita Khrushchev. Having waited his time while consolidating his pow er in the first years after Stalin's death, Khrushchev al ready had launched the all-out drive to blacken his for mer chief's name in his famous 1956 secret-Stalin speech to the 20th Party Congress. The echoes of that speech are reverberating to thii -day. But the most immediate effect was in the East European satellites where the loosening of Stalinist chains almost led to Hungary and Poland throwing them off completely. Now Leads More Than Dicta! Today, Moscow apparently leads more than it dic tates to its East European allies. But in 1958 Russian tanks in Budapest proved that the Kremlin's new lead ers could when necessary, turn back to the old ruthless- ness. The lesson of Hungary was not lost either on the satellites or the world. At home, de-Stalinization started with the outward signs. Little by little Stalin's name began to disappear from history books. His pictures faded from post offices and hotel lobbies. His statues were knocked down or carted off to storage. . . . , ,. When harvests are not up to snuff, the Stalin system of grass rotation is at fault. When industry lags or plan ning goes wrong, it is because of the lingering effects of the "cult of personality," when political opponents at homo or abroad in Peking and Albania balk at Kremlin policies, then they are sticking to outmoded Stalinist concepts. Question Has No Easy Answtr The question of how much Khrushchev's Russia has really thawed since Stalin has no easy answer. To be sure, Russians and foreign visitors can now stroll casually to the Kremlin grounds, where they would have been afraid even to approach its walls under Stalin. Thousands of foreign tourists now com pouring into the USSR each year, junketing to Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad or tthe Black Sea with the same ca Bu siness they might visit Paris or the Riviera. In addi tion increasing numbers of Soviet tourists and delega tions are travelling abroad. Western jazz can be heard In Soviet restaurants. Havana cigars and French cognacs can be bought in the stores. Russians can see an increasing number of for eign plays and Movies, adapted into Russian or shown under the cultral exchange programs. Young People Not All ConUni With more freedom and easier living than their par ents would have dreamed of under Stalin, many Soviet young people are not content. They seek Western clothes, newspapers, books, and phonograph records. They would like to be able to travel abroad, to meet foreign ers freely and to have access to western ideas, even those they dispute. These young are not looking for a return to Capi talism. But they would like some of the freedoms and many of the material benefits of Western societies. They . are the dreamers of a . ."Communism with Cadillacs." . Despite the admitted improvements, Khrushchev's Russia In 1963 Is still a great deal closer to Stalin's Rus- sia than It Is to an operating western-style democracy. ' Risks Being Seised, Bata . t In Khrushchev's Russia a Soviet citizen who tries to enter a Western embassy without authorization risks being seized and if necessary beaten on the spot by Rus ian police. Diplomats can be and are trailed, and at times seized and grilled. Public figures, for instance au thor Boris Pasternak's companion Olga Ivinskaya, can be secretly tried and sent to prison. Foreigners, includ ing Americans, are still upon occasion arrested and tried in secret without any notification to their embas sies. Non-Communist news correspondents still are restrict ed in number, hampered in their travel and fathering of news, and risk explusion for displeasing dispatches though since March, 1961, they have been able to send them without prior censorship, Soviet citizens, by and large, cannot hope to travel abroad, to listen to unjammed foreign newscasts, to buy or receive non-Communist newspapers, to read anything but carefully slated, culled and controlled news in their own press. They can mix cautiously with foreigners, as they could not under Stalin, but such fraternization can still cause trouble. . Elections Ar Rubber-Stamp Russia 1963 is a nation where some of the forms, but little of the essence of democracy as it is known in the West is observed, where elections and parliaments mere ly put a rubber-stamp legal gloss on decisions of a tight little group of leaders at the top. It is still a nation where laws are made, warped and broken in the interests of policy, where repressions ' against religion and minority groups continue and an ; usually covered up by a tightly controlled press. But it also is a nation where a Yevgeny Yevtushenko . can write a poem attacking Russian antl-semitism, come safely through a storm of criticism and then be pres sured to re-write it In less critical terms. In short, Russia in 1963 is a changing, not a changed society; an opening country, not an open one. . , X (BlOn a 1 f ' ' ! t EjS - VJ - 4 r -.11: 1 I 'I L Uii 'Mf - ;i m ' w a, - .. LM - ! ?-Z2 J C' Th-S efi The Ngajim hydro-clcctrlc power station In LliHsa, Tibet, is a sign of the Iron hand of progress In Communist ruled Tibet. This picture, from an official Communist sou rce was taken prior to October, 1961. (UPI)
