Evening star., 1941-07-01
New Council Formed
For Soviet Defense;
Headed by Stain
Leninerod Citizens Are
Conseripted to Build
City Fortifieotions
3, the Associated Press.


MOSCOW, July with virtually
all of European Russia organized for
war and notifications extending
even to Siberia, the defense of the
Soviet State was intrusted to
newly formed council today headed
by Joseph Stain.
In view of the war emergency, an
announcement said, the powers of
the government were given to the
new defense council and all Rus
slams were enjoined to obey its
orders.
That drastic step was taken sew
eral hours after all able-bodied men
and women in Leningrad-threat-
ened from the north and the SOUTH
west-were conscripted to build for
tifications around the No. Rus
sian city.
Sketches of Leaders.
Here are thumbnail sketches of
the big five" Moscow leaders who
ale members of the council:
Premier Joseph Stain, 61-Cast
off official anonymity May to be-
come head of the Soviet Russian
State, replacing Vyacheslav Molotov,
who had held the post IL years
Born Joseph Vissarionovich Dzu-
gashvili, the son of cobbler, he was
expelled from a seminary to which
he had been sent to study for the
priesthood because he preached
MarXiSm.
Thereafter he was arrested Is
times by Czarist police and sent on
five occasions to Siberian prisons
only to escape four times. Recap
tured in 1918, he was sent back to
Siberia, where he remained in GUS
tody until Trotzky and Lenin over
threw the Gar.
In 1922 he became secretary of the
Communist party. He succeeded
Lenin, who died in 1924. As driving
force of the party, but until last
May remained the "behind-the-
scenes" dictator of the U. S. S. R.
Succeeded LitvinOv.
Foreign Affairs Commissar Molo-
tOv. 50-Began his career as a revo-
lutionary at l6 in Kazan, a city on
the Volga BY 1920 he was secretary
of the Communist party of the Uk-
raine. A former editor of Pravda.
party organ Molotov became chair
man of the Council of Peoples Com
miSsars ,premierD in 1890 In April,
1889. he succeeded Maxim Litvinov
as Foreign CommiSsar to climax
what appeared to be a conflict over
LitvinoV'S diplomacy.
Marshal of the Red Army Kliment
Yefremovitch Voroshiloff. so, init
mate friend of Stain for 20 years,
is member of the inner circle of
the party. Born in the Donbas coal
region, he entered the Russian So
cial-Democratic party in 1903 and
joined its Bolshevik wing headed
by Lenin. Arrested a number of
times for leading strikes, he was
exiled finally to Archangel. He
escaped and settled in Baku, where
he met Stain.
During the World War he worked
in Petrograd NOW LeningradD and
organized workers for the revolu-
ton. For his part in the revolution.
the Soviet Polish War and in crush
ing the 1920 Kronstadt sailors re-
bellion he was appointed chief of
the North Caucasian military dis
trict. He was appointed defense
commissar in 1925, a post he held
until Nav, 1910.
Malenkov Election Official.
Georgei NJ. Malenkov, secretary of
the Soviet Election Board-as secre-
tary of board, he represents work
ers in political education establish
ments meaning teachers of Com
munism. Only last February he de-
scribed to an all-union conference
of the party lags in locomotive. car
building. electricity. timber, paper.
fish and building materials indus
tries and cited inefficiency in the sea
and river transport systems of the
U. S. S. r.
laurent Beria, commissar of in
ternal affairs, appointed in January,
1910. as general commisSar of state
security. Like Stain, Beria is a
native of Georgia. He was secretary
of the Communist Party Committee
in that province before going to
Moscow in 1888 to replace Nikolai
Yezhov as commissar of domestic
affairs and head of the NKVD (po-
itical police.