Not a Lovely Lady?

One night last week Andrei Vishinsky, Russian-Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, strode into the paneled, tapestried chamber of Paris' Palace of Justice where Petain and Laval were tried for treason. For two hours he spoke on "Principles of Soviet Law" to a group of 200 French Resistance lawyers and their families.

Vishinsky turned his attention to "democracy." "Many people love democracy but do not know how to defend it. They take democracy for a lovely lady instead of seeing it as a vigorous comrade."

His listeners soon learned how vigorous a comrade Vishinsky had in mind:

"Democracy is sometimes called the dictatorship of the proletariat. Dictatorship of the proletariat in fact is democracy in action. ... As long as dictatorship acts in the name of the people for the welfare of the fatherland, it is sacred. When it acts against the people, it is criminal. In Russia, our regime is one of democratic dictatorship."

Somewhat inconsistently, Vishinsky offered another definition. "After all, what is democracy if not the power of the people? . . .As Lenin said, every worker of our nation should be able to direct the state, and every cook should be able to govern. Democracy in the Soviet Union is in fact the participation of tens of millions of peoples in the government." Vishinsky does not always discuss democracy in such exalted terms. Recently in Bucharest he was asked privately how he thought Rumania would go in a completely free election between the Communist-dominated Government parties and the opposition. He pondered a bit, replied: "In completely free elections, about 40% for the Government." Then he smiled cynically: "But with just the littlest bit of pressure--we would get 90%."

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