The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-11-17

v N~~~ ~@e@ N$NsA4%N NASW ~a& %@4NSA& --------.-~------s~s=-.~ tober 18th. Later I learned what fol- lowed from friends and acquaint- ances who left the capital later.
 The Germans in the MoRhaisk region began to harrass the rear Of the hard.pressed Soviet troops tn the Vyazsna area 70 miles Co the west. VyaErna controlled the main road to Moscow and if the Germans broke through there they could quickly have poured in reinforce ments and the forces at MozhalslE could have advanced quickly on Moscow.
 Wild rumors spread in the capital and behind the front.
 I heard of one labor battalion of men and women which scarcely had arrived at the sector which they were assigned to fortify 3B miles northeast of the capital when the rslsnor spread the Germans were Rp. preaching and the entire group scurried back to Moscow.
 On the morning of the 18th the official communique said that the situation on the central front had "deteriorated."
 The Moscow proletariat seemed daEed. The subway stopped. Street. cars and busses ran irregularly. Many stores closed. Pupils-hoys from the technical schools-hur- riedly marched out of Moscow on the road leading east to 0orki. Cars loaded with Muscovites and their household goods poured onto the road, almost blocking military trat. fic to the west.
 Words oe Authority
 Then the Kremlin spoke.
 Its mouthpiece was a man un- known outside the Soviet Union. His name is Alexander Shcherbakov, Q member Of the politburo and chair man of the Soviet information hu- reau (s. A. Lozovsky is It's better. known ice-chaiFman).
 On the night of the 18th shcher- bakov broadcast to the people of Moscow.
 His talk was not heard abroad or anywhere else in the Soviet Union for the simple reason 1t was not broadcast over ordinary radio sta. tionS. At the beginning of the war the Soviet government collected all radio sets so the people could not hear foreign broadcasts. The Rus sians are able to hear only Soviet programs brought to them by loud- speakers on the principal street corners or piped over telephone lines Into their homes.
 Silent masses of people standing in the black-out streets or in little groups gathered before loudspeak. CTS in their homes heard Shcher. bakov speak.
 He told the people of Moscow that the Red Army would save their city. He told them to return to work. '
 The next morning the subway, the street cars and the buses ran. The shops opened. Moscow went back to normal.
 Fresh Troops To Front
 Fresh troops poured through the capital on their way to the front, East of the city NKVD (Russian government police) straightened out the traffic tangle. At one point 6 guard stood with a drawn revolver. He told drivers going out: T will shoot anyone who gets out of line"
 Tanks: armored cars, guns and trucks loaded with munitions roll. ed through the city onto the broad Moscow.VyaSHna highway.
 Housewives and their daughters threw stawls over their heads, picked up their spades and marched oil to dig trenches west of the city. Old men and younger men unfit for duty with the army marched with them across the snow.
 Strengthened by the fresh troops, the Russians hurled back the Ger mans. They drove them almost 10 miles from Mozlaaisk and stabilized the front in that sector.
 Rolled ct Mozhaisk the Germans tried to break through at Kalinin to find S hole in the defenses around Kaluga and Tula to the south.
 Capital Still Stands
 4 month has passed since Mos- cows crisis and teh capital re- mains in Russian hands. That was the severest test the Soviets have had to face but 1t showed what they could do. Moscow still may fall but If 1t does the men who surmounted the mid-O October crisis undoubtedly will carry on the war with unweak. ened determination.
 The drive on Moscow was the climax of i've months of the heav- lest fighting in the history of war.
 Today the Soviet giant is battered. But tt is not bowed. And 1t is sin strong enough to hold o1f the Ger. man army through the winter and light new campaign in the spring of next year. The Red army Is in. tact--in the sense that sk remains an ef11clent, wei-organixed fignt f0rce.