Evening star., 1939-12-28
DisilIusioned Reds

Truth is crushed to earth in Rus
sia as fundamental tenet of the
Soviet creed. Never has it been sup
pressed more ruthlessly than under
the Stain czardom. Yet among the
other miraculous aspects of the gal
liant and unexpected resistance Fin
land has offered to the Red moloch
must now be listed the fact that con-
ditions produced by the. campaign
are at last becoming known despite
the censorship, Ogpu terrorism and
all the other repressive devices of the
regime. The result is disillusionment
on rapidly rising scale. 1t has not
reached stage that justifles predic-
ton that it will compel Stain to call
off the aggression on the tiny neigh
Dor or face domestic revolt, but fer
ment of undeniable significance is
at work.
It is the Red Army's failure to
crush the Firms capture of Helsinki
within week was the popular
expectation-that irks and agitates
the Russian people. They are ac-
customed, for sedative purposes, to
vast and frequent displays of Com
munism's "invincible" military might.
AS recently as November Z, only
a month before the wanton in
vasion of Finland, Red Square in
Moscow was the scene of the great
est parade in Soviet history. On the
reviewing stand near Lenin's tomb
were the autocrats of the Kremlin-
Stain, Voroshiloff, Molotoff, Dimit-
rolf and even Litvinoff, who is said
to have looked on with a kind OF
sardonic grin. Naval, land and air
forces took part. Only the most mod
ern war paraphernalia was on view.
Two million workers marched behind
the fighting units, the heavy tanks
and the new eleven-inch howitzers.
The ''proletariat" had just heard Mo-
lotoff proclaim that I'VE are entering
the twenty-third year of the October
Socialist Revolution. We will march
forward along the same sure and
tested Lenin road we have followed
all these years. It is the road that is
leading to the ultimate victory of
Soviet power!"
How ironically and speedily the
foreign commissar was destined to
experience the hollowness Of that
boast! Instead of advancing down
the road that leads to victory" Red
armies in the frozen reaches of the
Arctic are treading, footsore, frozen
and battered, the highways of retreat.
Meantime, the home front is the
scene of developments suggestive of
mounting disenchantment and de-
featism. Leningrad hospitals are so
overcrowded with casualties that
wounded are now beginning to be
sent to Moscow.
Stories have come back Of the
wholly insufficient equipment Of Red
troops, which, underclad, made
quately shod and equipped with in
ferior planes, rifles and tanks. can
put up no effective resistance against
we'll directed enemy machine-gun
fire. There is, perhaps, first and
foremost, the clearly demonstrated
lack of able leadership in the Soviet
high command. And not the least
notable feature Of the Reds disillu-
sionment is the non-appearance Of
the much-advertised revolt Of the
Finnish people"
How long the dupes of Stalinism
will contentedly pay the cost of Com
munist imperialism is anybody's
guess. A casualty list compiled by
northern neutrals fixes the Red
Army's losses at $4,000 to 10000 dead
and 10000 to 10000 wounded, FROST
bitten, i'll and deserted. Even such
figures do not denote a calamity for
a country with the manpower reser-
voir of the Soviet Union. What such
a tabulation does do is to blow the
prestige of the Red Army into smith
Greens. It supplies irrefutable evi-
dence that the Russian juggernaut
is largely bluff. It may mean eventu-
ally that Stalin's dream of world
power is q bursted bubble, a threat
never again to be taken seriously.
Because of Finland's mighty part
in bringing this suddenly about, by
dint only of her own brave efforts,
she deserves, at once and in large
scale measure, that practical, mill
tary support which will enable her
to continue work so effectively be-
gun, for she is fighting all civiliza-
tion's battle.