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"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.
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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-
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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. .
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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)