“Lesson In Fall Of Malenkov”

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27584, 15 February 1955, Page 13

“Lesson In Fall Of Malenkov”

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, February 14. “For free nations the most important lesson to draw from Mr Malenkov’s fall is surely not that the age cf ‘coexistence’ is now over, but something far more fundamental—a lesson about the essential nature of the Communist system itself,” says the weekly newspaper, the “Economist.” “Last Tuesday two cherished illusions were destroyed in one blow. The idea that there was any kind of democratic element in the Soviet political system was disproved in blindingly clear fashion when 1300 members of the Supreme Soviet meekly and unhesitatingly accepted a change of government forced upon them by backstage intriguers who did not even trouble to make out a convincing explanation. “And the idea that communism offers an easy road to economic plenty for any backward country vanished in the same puff of smoke. “The fall of Mr Malenkov and Mr Mikoyan was a portent for all of Asia and Africa. “It is to be hoped that the record of the last few months will be studied carefully enough for all to see that in Communist practice the well-being of the people is at the mercy of arbitrary and doctrinaire decisions of the «nen at the top. “Last Tuesday the Soviet rulers revealed in a melodramatic manner that their promises of quick progress towards a better life ought not to be believed, even by the most gullible, i and they presented a glimpse of infOngue and absolutism that must give (pause to anybody who imagines that w firm and lasting settlement can be [reached merely by sitting down at the Stable with the current occupant of Stalin’s throne. “While so vast a power can pass in so abrupt and furtive a manner into such impulsive hands, what is the justification?”