Evening star., 1937-12-25
BY ALEXANDRA BARMINE.

e BY ALEXANDRA BARMINE.
PARIS. Dec. Is (N.AN,A,) ).-Of
those who composed the Central Com
rnittee Of the Communist party in
Russia and directed the revolution Of
October. 1917. only two are left
Stain and Trotzky.
Lenin died Trotzky is in exile. OF
the others. Michael P. Tomsky, Greg
ory Zinoviev, Nikolai Bukharin and
Leo Kamenev have died, either by
their own hand or by an executioner's
bullet in the back of the neck. which
Ii the usual form of execution in
Soviet Russia. G. Y. Sokolnikov and
Karl Radek are in prison as traitors,
II they are still alive
Only Stain remains. He is all
powerful. So has been fulfilled what
Lenin feared when he wrote in his
will that it would be dangerous to
leave Stain in the post of secretary
general Of the party He foresaw
the probability of division in the party
because Of the diversion of views be-
tween Stain and Trotzky. Perhaps,
slso, he saw dimly what Stain might
become but even he could never have
imagined what has happened. His
choice for succession in leadership of
the party was Gregory Piatakov. as
the wisest statesman. and Bukharin
Is the greatest theoretician.
TrotHky Insulted, Driven Out.
Stain did not forget those words.
Trotzky is an exile after having been
driven out, covered with insult and
dScredited by accusations of treach-
ery-nethods which have become
only too common.
When TrotZky and Stain clashed
IN 1927 Stain appeared against him
as great defender Of unity of the
party and its directive committee In
opposition to Trotzky and Zinoviev,
he declared there must be no looping
of OF any member of the committee.
He would not for a moment consent
to Ton1sky. Rykov and Bukharin,
who formed the right wing being
excluded
IT We begin there, where will We
end?" he asked. We shall be obliged
TO exclude more and more until the
party disappears.
But . beginning was made just the
came with Trotzky. and Lenins
prophecy has been only too we'll full
oiled. All others have followed, In
place of group of able men with
different opinions, but all united in
their ambition to give the workers
Pappler lives, he is now surrounded
by fear and emptiness. That's the
result OF his policy of opportunism
and lust for power without principle.
AL these machine-made celebrations
and gloriflcations, almost DELEGATION,
which fill the press cannot fill up that
void in which he lives or drive away
the ghosts Of these men who were his
friends and colleagues and whom he
has murdered.
: Macbeth. haunted by the ghosts of
Duncan and Banquo.e must have had
an easy conscience compared to this
man who now rules Russia in the
name Of the revolution.
= Election Z Farce.
To fill that void and preserve the
appearance of something dierent from
purely personal rule, Stain has gone
through the farce of election of
supreme Soviet. Let us look at it,
After Stain, the most powerful man
IN the union is Nicholas Ejov or
Yezhov, minister of police and interior.
Three years ago he was a minor func-
tionary, from which he was promoted
to the presidency of the Committee
Of Control and then to the secretary
ship of the Central Committee of the
party. He Is Stalin's man. He took
Yagoda's place after the trial of
Zinoviev and Kamenev, when that
minister of police was disgraced be-
cause It was alleged he had badly
prepared the trial for the accused
traitors.
With his arrival to power began
with full force the elimination of the
whole kernel of the revolutionary
generation of the party. 1t was his
name which took second place after
6talin's- nomination for election to
the supreme Soviet, and he has ar
rived in that legislative body like VIC
tory accompanied by Pretorian Guard
Of his staff and all the police heads
from departments throughout the
country.
:. When one takes in representatives
OF. the frontier guard and others who
belong, directly or indirectly, to the
secret police service one finds in the
new Soviet nearly $50, or over 10 per
cent of its representatives, from the
police party. 1t is curious comment
on Stains boast that this election
was the most democratic that ever
has been held in the world.
50. Gulf Unbridgeable.
- It was by this election that he
sought to reconcile the Russian people
to the events of the last 18 months
and to the club of the executioners
who form the government But even
before the elections were held it be-
came evident that the gulf between
the people and this clique could not
b. bridged. Despite the pressure of
the police and terror it was not pos
sihle for Stain to take the risk Of per-
mitting other candidates than his own
among whom the population could
choose.
Only one candidate could be pre-
sented in each district, and even
among these over 80 who had been
chosen were eliminated and nrobablv