Molotov Expelled From Party

Press, Volume C, Issue 29669, 13 November 1961, Page 13

Molotov Expelled From Party

(N .Z.P.A ■-Reuter Copyright) MOSCOW, November 12. The former Soviet Foreign Minister, Mr Molotov, has been expelled from the Communist Party; but has appealed against the expulsion, according to informed sources in Moscow.

Expulsion represents the final degradation in Soviet society. It also means he will no longer*be entitled to engage in political debates inside the Communist Party. Mr Molotov was due back in Moscow by train late today to fight for his political hfe. Observers doubt very much if he is in any physical danger. Informed: reports in Moscow also claim that the former Prime Minister, Mr Georgi Malenkov, and Stalin’s brother-in-law and former First Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Lazar Kaganovitch, have also been expelled from the Communist Party. Like Mr Molotov, they were disgraced at the recent party congress as leaders of the "anti-party” movement which wants to topple Mr Khrushchev from leadership. It is understood that the expulsions of all three men were taken through their local branches of the party. Purpose Of Trip In Vienna, Soviet officials refused to disclose the purpose of Mr Molotov’s journey, but it is generally believed that he is to be called to account for his “Stalinist” activities, which led to his downfall as Foreign Minister and his posting first to Outer Mongolia and then to the International Atomic Energy Agency m Vienna.

A spokesman of the agency said it had not yet been informed that Mr Molotov had been relieved of his post as Soviet delegate. Mr Molotov and his wife Pauline arrived at the station in Vienna accompanied by several Soviet officials, but Austrian frontier guards at Hohenau, where the train entered Czechoslovakia late last night, said they apparently bad no corppaniocs in their comportment. One guard said Mr Molotov “seemed quite normal* ’ and added, "He told me he was very satisfied.’’ The guard said he believed Mr Molotov meant he was satisfied to be going to Moscow. He bad been seen twice at the Soviet Embassy yesterday and .was believed to have spent the day there. An Austrian police spokesman who confirmed Mr Molotov's departure said: “We are unable to explain just how they managed to get him out of the Embassy and the railway station without being noticed by our men who were stationed at the Embassy. “How Molotov and his wife got together is also a big mystery. We know that Molotov entered the Embassy early this morning but we did not see Mrs Molotov enter. We lost track of her after she went out shopping this afternoon.’*