Stalin’s “million hostages”

Press, 8 March 1978, Page 16

Stalin’s “million hostages”

Sir, — The "Economist" article (“The Press”, March 3) is pure fiction. The cases of those Soviet traitors who fought for the Wehrmacht and Soviet citizens who were transported to Germany as slave workers were entirely different. Of these latter, who were in Western hands at the cessation of hostilities, Western authorities hampered their return by propaganda of their dire fate should they return home, while Soviet repatriation teams were refused access to them for interviews. For Graham Rhind, who claims some expertise on Soviet affairs, Alexei Kosygin is alive and well and living in Moscow. As Chairman of the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers, he received Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky of Austria, in the Kremlin on February 7. In reply to E. Sutherland, no Soviet dissident has ever suffered Steve Biko’s fate, nor been pushed out of the upper storey windows of police headquarters.—Yours, Yours, etc., M. CREEL. March 6, 1978.