Purge of Purgers

Soviet newsorgans were crammed last week with a new scandal: the crimes committed by small Communist officials in carrying out locally the nationwide purge fathered by Joseph Stalin. Typical was the case of one Pavel P. Postishev, Communist leader in Kuybishev (formerly Samara). He was arraigned in the harshest terms by Pravda, "because he purged local Communists by tens and hundreds." Pravda added with frankness that Postishev committed such "excesses" in Kuybishev after he had been transferred thither from the Ukraine six months ago as "punishment for lack of political vigilance."

Similar cases were cited by dozens. This washing in the press of dirty Communist linen strongly suggested that, even though the Dictator may continue his own purge of Red bigwigs, public sentiment has made it advisable to put a stop to local imitators. Under Stalin's instructions, a vigorous roundup of small-fry purgers began. Jumping in to lend the Dictator their prestige, justices of the Soviet Supreme Court exhorted the lower courts and the Secret Political Police to join forces in a nationwide campaign to "Purge the Purgers!"

"A policy of shedding blood is dangerous and contagious. One cuts off a head today, another tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow a third--then what remains of the Party?" So said Joseph Stalin in 1925. Last week scholarly William Henry Chamberlin, who for twelve years placidly represented the Christian Science Monitor in Moscow, threw Stalin's words back at him. In February's American Mercury Mr. Chamberlin went on to suggest things even grimmer:

"Stalin's degeneration as a Dictator is especially marked if one considers that he should now have easier sailing than during the first years of 'planned economy,' from 1929 to 1933. . . . More Communist heads have fallen, either literally or figuratively, during the last year than in any year which has passed since the Revolution took place two decades ago. . . . The autocrat publicly drinks in the adulation of sycophants and privately dreads the unseen assassin. . . Czar Paul of Russia was strangled by a group of officers who were apprehensive of sharing the fate of the many victims of his capricious ruthlessness. . . ."

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