Zinoviev the Thunderer

The Fifth Congress of the Third International (Communist organization) ended.

To the Executive Committee (Komintern) were elected Alexis I. Rykov, also President of the Council of People's Commissaries and head of the Soviet Cabinet; Grigori Zinoviev, Ivan Stalin, Leo Kamenev, Nikolai Bucharin, editor of the Pravda, official Moscow journal ; William Dunn of Montana and some others.

Grigori Zinoviev became President of the Committee for the second time; the names of War Lord Trotzky and Karl Radek, two erstwhile powers of Communism, were dropped. This is obviously in retaliation for both Trot-ky's and Radek's criticism of the Communist Party, but it is exceedingly doubtful if the former, who is said to be popular in Russia, can be ousted from the Committee with impunity.

Most interest, however, attaches itself to the reappointment of Grigori Zinoviev to the Presidency of the Executive Committee. What is this Committee? What manner of man is Zinoviev? The Executive Committee of the International is, of course, the governing body of Communism. Theoretically it is separated from the Soviet Government, but actually it is the most important branch of that body, controlling foreign policy and spending Government funds. Its prime function is the propagation of Communism throughout the world--a call to the world proletariat to throw off the capitalist yoke, overthrow the existing government, proclaim a dictatorship. "Workers of the World, Unite!" That is its slogan.

The man who directs this policy and possibly has more to say about it than anyone else is Ovsei Grigori Aronovitch Radomyslski, alias Grigori Zinoviev.

Opinions differ widely as to the extent of the power wielded by Grigori. Some people claim that his is "the greatest force that has ever shown itself in Communist Russia, not excepting Lenin." Others refer to him merely as "Lenin's assistant."

Undoubtedly he is a great power, perhaps the greatest power in Russia. His mind is a volcano spewing up from his revolutionary soul the cruel lava of Communism. In this he differs from Rykov (TIME, July 14), who is the conservative power functioning noiselessly. Grigori is "the bomb boy of Bolshevism," whose autocratic impetuosity has earned for him the title of "Red Emperor." Again, he is different from Trotzky, whose aggressive spirit is tempered with shrewdness and whose power is wielded less by the force of oratory than by Machiavellian methods. In Zinoviev the fire of revolution burns unextinguishably; the power of his oratory is his most deadly weapon; his lips form revolutionary metaphors and epigrams and hurl them upon his audience until it becomes intoxicated with his magic; his voice, aided by gestures from "a windmill of arms and legs," is like that of a tragedien, rising from the soft strains of pathos to the roar of dramatic agony. Some have called him "the thunderer of the Revolution," others, "a demagogue, pure and simple."

About 41 years of age, Zinoviev is a man of arresting appearance, exuding "a picturesque madness that adds glamor to his character." His round head is surmounted by a shock of bushy black hair; his eyes, like those of all born revolutionaries, are coal black, luminous, revealing intensity and some times an appealing tenderness, but capable of flashing fire--"ashes and sparks my words among mankind." In stature he is of medium height, with a thick-set figure, beefy as a bull.

The son of an erstwhile prominent Rabbi, he received opportunities of perfecting his literary education to a high degree, an achievement which has been invaluable to him ever since the day upon which he met Lenin in Germany and became an ardent revolutionary.

It has been said of the two men:

"Lenin was a little Mongol, Zinoviev a big Jew." While Rykov was the able lieutenant of Lenin in Russia, Zinoviev was at his side in exile.