The Press WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1952. Mr Stalin’s Thesis

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26856, 8 October 1952, Page 8

The Press WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1952. Mr Stalin’s Thesis

Mr Stalin’s policy statement, which includes an assessment of the J prospects for the capitalist system, will attract particularly wide attention. It will be accepted as a contribution to communist doctrine, and, upon interpretation and h exposition, will act as a directive for ° communist activity everywhere 1 until further notice. In the West ’t a will be regarded as the first of a 0 series of clues to future Russian J developments, which observers have | expected to emerge from a most unusual period of public political C activity in Russia. An All-Union j Congress of the Communist Party i (10 years overdue according to a t provision in the charter of the E All-Union Communist Party) has v begun this week; directives for the * new Five-Year Plan will be i submitted to the Congress; the f famous Politburo (the political bureau of the party and the inner a Cabinet of the Soviet Union) and the Orgburo (which has directed all the j vast administrative work of the t party) will both be abolished an'd a J new body, to be called the r Praesidium, will be set up by the c Congress in their place. The j importance of Mr Stalin’s pre- t Congress statement is emphasised in I a cabled message from London, in j which Reuter quotes Western < observers who say that the statement g will “ overshadow ” the Congress, no c doubt because of the important effects it is expected to have on, policy both in Russia and in the satellite countries. Obviously, it i was not possible to cable the full , text of the statement, which filled 50 . pages in a Russian magazine; and J the summarised version necessarily < omits mi/ch of Mr Stalin’s argument, j But the summary makes it apparent that MT Stalin’s statement is a ’ development of the orthodox Marxist 1 prophecy that nothing can save capitalism from its “ inevitable ! “ doom ”. During the evolution of the Soviet system, under his direction, Mr Stalin has not scrupu- ! lously adhered to the Marxist ; doctrines. But it seems that he ’ believes in the validity of Marx’s forecast of the inevitable collapse of capitalism, because of its inability , to find markets for the enormous mass of products its machines turn ' out. Mr Stalin now predicts a j further narrowing of markets for 1 capitalist States, with heightened 1 , inter-capitalist antagonisms leading i to wars among the capitalist States, i It is interesting to notice at this point that the Leftist American i writer, Upton Sinclair, said 1 recently that the capitalist system ■ might indeed have been forced to meet a crisis of over-production before this had the post-war Russian * attitude not forced the capitalist > States into military production. It ’ is not necessary to believe that the i i capitalist system would have failed : J to meet such a test to agree that a , » test of over-production might have ■ i arisen, but for the Russian attitude. But there is nothing in Mr Stalin’s ; l statement to suggest that he is ready ; , to alter Russia’s attitude in ways ( that would cause the test to be ’ applied. Rather does Mr Stalin turn ‘ away from risking a test of capitalism in a “ peace ” economy. As London opinion, quoted by ' Reuter, says, Russian policy as ‘ voiced by Mr Stalin would appear to be to stay out of any major conflicts unless Russia or its allies are attacked, but to encourage the “ disintegration ” of the capitalist system by all means, including, no doubt, the Stalinist technique of - Sovietisation by infiltration and deceit. There is little that is ’ reassuring for the Western world in all this; and there cannot be so long * as exponents of communist doctrine r spare no pains to emphasise j fundamental antagonisms between 1 the communist and capitalist systems. It may well be, as some London „ opinion holds, that Mr Stalin's statement is to be construed as intending to reassure the Russians that war is not imminent and to turn their attention to the economic tasks ■ confronting them. The Western world will not necessarily take this 1 construction at face value, knowing from experience the Russian ' propensity for trying to make people : believe what the Russians want them □ to believe. But the Western world " would be foolish not to notice Mr e Stalin’s firm belief in inevitability of the collapse of the capitalist * system, and to heed in particular , hjs reasons for ’believing in the ? certainty of a clash between the United States and the rest of the ■ Western world. In fact, by so “ strongly emphasising this belief, Mr £ Stalin may be doing the Western « world a very good service, because what he says underlines what many i. authorities in the Western world are ? saying about the balance of ’ payments problem between Europe i. and the United States. For instance, J' the clash Mr Stalin foresees is, in - essence, the situation described in a n recent report of Major-General W. 0 H. Draper, American representative 4 on the North Atlantic, Treaty 2 Organisation council, in which he | warned that, “ unless a balance can ’■ “be restored there is danger of a e “ deep and disastrous fissure between e “the economies of Europe and - “America”.