Prized Assassin

On the monster collective farm near Saratov peasants decided to do something about the assassination of Dictator Stalin's "Dear Friend Sergei" Kirov (TIME, Dec. 10 et seq.). Slapping together improvised scenery to represent Leningrad Communist Party Headquarters, where the crime was committed, they re-enacted it before a fascinated audience which came from miles around. As in real life, Comrade Kirov was shot by another Comrade, both men correctly represented as Communists in good standing.

"Everyone appeared to enjoy the spectacle, hissing the assassin and applauding Comrade Kirov," innocently telegraphed the local Soviet Tass Agency reporter. "Afterward the actors received prizes for their efforts."

When news of this reached the Kremlin fury knew no bounds. Nobody knows better than shrewd Josef Stalin that the shrewd Russian peasant is a born ironist, famed for taking cracks at his masters by sly indirection. That one of the Dictator's pet collective farms should have staged an assassination of Red by Red, no matter under what pretext, meant just one thing in Russia. Last week Pravda, newsorgan of the Party, banned any further staged assassinations, denounced Saratov's rustic thespians, demanded their instant punishment.

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