MAY SUCCEED STALIN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 14 April 1945, Page 7

MAY SUCCEED STALIN

WHO WILL LEAD THE RUSSIANS?

PART PLAYED IN DEFENCE OF LENINGRAD

When Joseph Stalin dies what will happen to Russia? It is generally believed in Moscow that Andrei Alexandrovitch Zhdanov will take his place, says Dr. Jerome Davis, war correspondent and former Associate Professor at Yale. He is a heavily-set, mediumlystout man ol 49, with black hair, black moustache, and piercing dark eyes. If he came to power what would be his policy? What changes would he make’* His whole life spells the answer. First of all Zhdanov is a party man He was born in the family of a school inspector on February 26, 1896. and at; 16 he was already the backbone of an illegal Marxist circle*of students in j Tver, now called Kalinin. Zhdanov ; has risen from the ranks, holding at one time or another nearly every post in the party ladder. Consider for a I moment a few of the successive steps which won him distinction. At 20 he was elected to the city committee of the ' Communist Party of Tver. One year later after the Revolution he was chairman of the County Party Committee in Shadrinsk. From his record it is clear he will not tolerate rival parties. Right from the start he was noted for his relentless struggle ' against all opposition parties. He was ; the bitter opponent of the Kerensky ! Government, demanding.- all power to j the Soviets He is very close to Stalin. At the; Fifteenth Party Congress in 1925 he was elected to the Central Committee I for the entire Soviet Union, and in 1934 he became a secretary of the Cen-! t.ral Committee —one of the highest ! positions the party can give and direct- . ly under Stalin. Destiny seems 'to have had its hand ! on Zhdanov, for in that very year; Kirov, Stalin’s right-hand man in Len- ; ingrad, was assassinated. Stalin sent Zhdanov to take his place and secured: his election to the Political Bureau the 1 following year. The Political Bureau is actually the most important ruling body i in. Russia—the one which makes the | most vital decisions of policy. Zhdanov j is also fully acquainted with the work of the Communist International, for he served on its Central Committee from 1935 until its dissolution. DEMOCRATIC LEANINGS In 1938. in addition to all his other duties, he headed the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the party. Something of the power and influence of this key post can be understood when it is recognised that at that time it. controlled the worK of 112.000 propagandists throughout the length and breadth of the Soviet Union. Zhdanov reduced the number. Jf Zhdanov should take the helm, he will strongly favour inner party democracy. We know this because in 1939 at the Sixteenth Party Congress he gave a report on changing the party rules, over 60 pages long. It is a most revealing document. Zhdanov demands more democracy. He wants an allunion party congress held annually. The social background of candidates for party membership should not be considered. Whether a man’s father was a cap’talist or a worker does not matter. A man must be judged by his own record, not that of his family. Zhdanov advocates changing the rules to permit any member to criticise anyone regardless of position. He urged the abolition of mass purges. Zhdanov has humour. He can keep I an audience in gales of laughter. On | one occasion, he told of the secretary of a party committee who 58 out of 175 members by using what I Zhdanov called the “belt” system—first one individual was expelled, then any- j one who had any relation to him was j forced out. By using this ingenious device. cv°ry party member in the Pro- j gress Collective Farm was expelled! ] Zhdanov is a military man. He would | maintain a strong army and navy. He j entered the Czar’s army in 1916 with , the 139th Infantry Reserve Regiment, j all the time keeping up revolutionary j propaganda among the soldiers. DEFENCE OF LENINGRAD Zhdanov's extraordinary success in j defending Leningrad during the siege ■ has given him the rank of colonel-gen-1 eral. I visited the city twice, his pic- 1 ture is everywhere, and the people

Claims of Andrei Zhdanov t /

spoke with feeling and enthusiasm of his military achievements. On August 21 1941, Zhdanov aroused the workers to white heat patriotism by declaring that Leningrad was in danger and reminding them of his historic and revolutionary role. As a result, four hundred thousand women and children volunteered to dig trenches and fortifications. In spite of Nazi air superiority, which kept spraying them with machine-gun bullets and dropping bombs, they never stopped working. The men formed a workers’ Home Guard, which manned the guns. The Nazi armies were blocked at the threshold of the city. Undismayed, Hitler surrounded Leningrad, and waited for starvation and capitulation. On December 15 1941, everything, came to a standstill. The city was without fuel, electric current, tramcars. and running water. Citizens were only getting a quarter of a pound of straw-bread daily. Workers in the Kirov ammunition plant were being served a yeast soup with soya flavouring "to give them the illusion of eating something,” as the director told me To prevent scurvy, Zhdanov had the ctfildren collect fresh pine and fir needles. From these a brew was made. It had a horrible taste, but it did the trick, and the people drank gallons. Still Hitler waited for the death of the city. A Russian proverb says, “Though your elbow is very near, you can’t bite it.” ESCAPE OVER LAKE LADOGA To the north stretched Ladoga, the largest lake in Europe. Zhdanov used "Engineer Frost” to break the German blockade. He built a highway stretching for hundreds of miles right across the ice. It was an engineering feat without parallel. First motor trucks made the trek, then a railroad was built right over the ice. Daily some eight thousand tons of supplies were brought in. and some six thousand children and invalids were evacuated. But Zhdanov proved that he could be hard boiled when necessary. In December, 1942, it was possible to increase the food ration slightly. Zhdanov vetoed the idea. He said at all costs food reserves must be kept for the defence army even if a few thousand civilians died. He collaborated in the brilliant military strategy which finally pulverised the German army and sent the Nazis reeling back to East Prussia. Besides the “Defence of Leningrad Medal,” Zhdanov has received the Suvorov and the Kutuzov Medals, both of the first class. The latter citation read : "For skilful and courageous generalship in military operations and for successes achieved in battle against the Fascist invaders.” If Zhdanov came to power he would follow in Stalin’s footsteps in continuing the industrialisation of Russia. FAMILIAR WITH INDUSTRY During the early days of revolution and civil war he worked in the Urals, and is thoroughly familiar with the mammoth industrialisation programme there. Later, he became secretary of the party in Nishni Novogorod, now Gorki, on the Volga River. For helping to organise the gigantic Ford automobile plant and other factories he was awarded the Order of Lenin. In Leningrad he has built up the heavy industries until they are among the more important in Russia. We can be certain if he came to power that he would try to make Russia surpass any other nation in production. Zhdanov believes in building up Russia first rather than working for Bolshevik revolutions abroad. He is president of the Russian Republic, by far the most important of the 16 republics in the Union. In 1939 he became chairman of the Commission of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union. It has been said that since that time to a consideraole extent he has been the architect of foreign policy under Stalin. After the collapse of Finland in 1944 he was made chairman of the Allied Control Commission at Helsingfors responsible for enforcing the armistice. In this position he has refused even to receive any Finnish Communists. In the light of his policies and achievements, it is not surprising that Zhdanov ranks as Russia’s top-flight executive next to Stalin.