"God's Candles, Devil's Brooms"

A merry time of year in Moscow under the Soviet regime has always been when delegates come swarming up all the railways of Russia, traveling on free passes, supplied with bounteous food & drink, and are given the best hotel rooms in the cap-ital--used by tourists in the summer--while they meet as the Parliament of Bolshevism. Last week this national picnic was extra special. The Soviet Union has a new Stalin Constitution and under it the deputies going to Moscow had been elected for the first time directly by all the voters whom they represent (TIME, Dec. 20).

On the eve of the opening of the new Council of the Union (House of Representatives) and Council of Nationalities (Senate), delegates from rustic farms downed scorching vodka and wolved caviar with delegates from thundering factories. Hot jazz blared and later the springs of many a de luxe hotel bed groaned under the hulks of exhausted peasants.

If there was any small, sour group of delegates who disliked Moscow's biggest party, awful warning not to spoil it had been given them, and by Joseph Stalin. In a speech the chief parts of which did not come through the censorship but whose text was printed and reprinted in Soviet papers, the Dictator said of the men and women up for election to Russia's new Parliament: "I cannot say with assurance that their ranks are free ... of such men whom the Russian proverb describes as 'neither God's candle, nor Devil's broom.'. . . Our Constitution foresees the possibility of that situation--a deputy who has begun to kick. . . . The Government must organize new elections in a case like that. . . . If they have gone astray, get rid of them!" Russian wise-acres estimated that it would take about 24 hours for Mr. Stalin to "organize" the recall of any deputy who kicked.

To enter the Kremlin, which is a small city (wherein J. Stalin has his office) shut off from the rest of Moscow by enormous, closely guarded walls, is a privilege now granted only exceptionally to Soviet citizens and foreigners. Last week the 569 deputies of the Council of the Union and some 3,000 other people who had acquired special permits surged into the Hall of St. Andrew (Throne Room) of the Great Kremlin Palace. The seats for the spectators were separated only by a small barrier from those of Russia's elected representatives. So it was hard to tell who was who and spectators solemnly raised their hands at the same time as deputies, whenever a vote was taken. This would have led to confusion, except that every vote was a 100% unanimous endorsement by all deputies & spectators of whatever the Government proposed.

The Dictator, who in former years has made a point of taking a modest back seat behind other Soviet officials, sat in full view, picked out by a powerful mauve spotlight. Not only did nobody "kick." For perhaps the first time in Soviet parliamentary annals the official speeches indicated frankly that the Government is now primarily a dictatorship. Thus 80-year-old Soviet Academician Alexey Bach, who acted as Speaker, declared: "It is an honor to open the first session of the Supreme Soviet at the order of Stalin and the Constitution." Announced Comrade L. P. Beriya, secretary of the Georgian Communist Party: "Our foreign policy is dictated by Stalin."

During the routine organizing of parliamentary committees, correspondents busied themselves finding out what sort of people the 1,143 deputies are.

They found that 28% of the deputies are workers. Of these about three-quarters are collective farmers and tractormen, the remaining quarter factory workers, that is, "proletarians" in the Marxian sense.

The other 72% of the deputies are members of what amounts to a new Soviet bourgeoisie--Government officials, the professional Communist politicians, plan experts, factory managers, bosses and foremen. All these have now had for some years better living quarters, more worldly possessions, and greater privileges than Russia's manual workers. Stalin has fostered the development of this quasi-bourgeois group by making it again legal in Russia for children to inherit their parents' property, tightening the marriage tie, once more forbidding abortion, encouraging citizens to buy bonds, clip coupons, and remember that a kopeck saved is a kopeck earned.

By occupation delegates of this New Bourgeoisie are about 35% Government officials; 2 7% officers of the Communist Party; 12% Red Army, Navy & Air Force; 10% members of the Secret Political Police; 9% so-called intelligentsia (from cinemactors to scientists); 6% Soviet bosses (factory directors, managers, engineers & foremen) and 1% trade union leaders.

First real work done by the deputies was to vote that Stalin, President Kalinin and Premier Molotov shall continue in their posts. Loudest cheers were for Stalin, for Secret Political Police Chief Nikolai .Yezhov, and for Police who have been elected deputies. Only deputy to attack anything approved by the Dictator was a burly Tartar who bellowed, "Why do we meet at hours when I want to go to the movies!" (Indignant shouts.) The No. i Communist of Leningrad, Stalin's protege Zhdanov, started some excitement by berating Soviet Foreign Office officials in general, then pulled his punch by praising Foreign Commissar Litvinoff. Most ominous note (suggesting that Justice Commissar Krylenko was about to be "purged") was struck by a minor Stalin henchman who made a speech declaring: "Krylenko does not fulfill his duties, but spends most of his time playing chess!"

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