Gde Khozyain?

Snow melted as it fell and clouds lowered on Moscow's greatest anniversary celebration of the Red Revolution. Across the Moskva River an electric sign half a block long gleamed: SLAVA VELIKOMU STALINU ("Glory to the great Stalin"). Pravda said: "Thousands of [Stalin's] portraits swam over the columns of the demonstrators and his name, pronounced by millions of lips, went soaring above the harmony of the songs, above the powerful, continuous thunderclap of hurrahs."

But the man whom Russian leaders call khozyain (the host, the master of the house) was missing. Moscow said: "Gde khozyain?" London and Washington said: "Where is Stalin?"

Answers varied: he was in Moscow, tanned and rested; he was dead; he had suffered a disabling heart attack during his Caucasus vacation; he did not dare risk a cold by exposing himself suddenly to northern weather; he had deliberately stayed away in order to watch his subordinates perform. One rumor even said that Stalin had gone to meet President Truman and Prime Minister Attlee (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS).

Ordinary Muscovites, asked about Stalin's absence, shrugged and said: "Nichevo --it means nothing."

The world was not so sure.

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