Evening star., 1943-12-19

he told Wlllkie. Il am unschooled in
pretty talk He likes the questions
and-anSWers method. His speech of
November last, in celebration Of the
26th anniversary of the Soviet revolu-
tion, was Churchillian in it's hard hit
ting simplicity and its use of homely
metaphors. His speeches show, as would
be expected. a thorough grounding in
the basic ideas of Marx and Lenin,
though he has always been the "practi-
cal' man rather than the theoretician
He knows the Russian classics and has
read some of the works of Shakespeare,
Dickens and other foreign authors in
translation. He once tried to learn Eng
lish Chamberlin says, but gave it up
because of trouble with the spelling.
His manner is usually serious, but, in
Davies phrase to the writer. he "can
turn on the charm when he wants to-"
Davies says in Mission to Moscow" that
"a child would like to sit in his lap and
a dog would sidle up to him''-which
Chamberlin, incidentally thinks is going
rather far in an effort to "prettify"
Stain. Ralph Ingersoll was impressed
by the transformation worked in his
face when he smiled. THE effect" he
writes. was startling His whole face
changed. The austere, static, deadpan
quality disappeared and his expression
became warm and alive ="
Tastes Are Simple.
BY all the testimony, his tastes are
extremely simple. He plays an oc-
casional game of chess and goes now
and then to the opera, where he sits
we'll toward the rear of a proscenium
box He lives in three rooms in the
Kremlin-a walled compound-and has
his Office there. The visitor reaches his
office by way of a maze of rooms and
passages, to find Stain at the far end
of long baize- e-covered table.
Willkie and the other recent American
callers on Stain had expected to see
bigger man. He is, in fact, about feet
S inches tall. His head and eyes are
large; they are dark brown eyes-cold,
calculating, wary, say his detractors;
friendly" or "appraising" from another
point of view. Ingersoll found that he
looked exactly like his pictures, but
older and grayer. "His face was lined
and his skin was brown and coarse, but
not unpleasant" writes Ingersoll In his
youth his hair and his mustache were
very black, but now they are quite gray"
To Wiilkie he seemed desperately
tired"
Much Of Stalins private life is yelled
in mystery. He has been twice married.
Hardly anything is known of his first
wife, Catherine Svanidze, a Georgian
woman, who died in 1907. He had by
her a son named Jacob, who is said to
have been captured by the Germans
early in the war His second wife was
Nadyezhda (Nadya) Alleluyeva, the
daughter of an old revolutionary friend.
BY this marriage there are two chill
dren-a son, VASTLY, vino is in the Soviet
air force, and daughter, Svetlana.
Stain saw to it that they were treated
In school like any other children.
The wife entered school for in
dustrial arts to study the manufacture
of artificial silk; she hoped to become
head of the rayon trust. She worked,
Gunther says, like any one else, and
battled her way into streetcars instead
OF using one of the Kremlin Packards.
Wife Dies Suddenly.
Nadya Stain died suddenly on the
night Of November 8, 1882, and the
rumor sprang up that she had killed
herself after violent quarrel with her
husband over the ruthless measures he
was using against the peasants who re-
sisted collective farming. Souvarine says
fatty that she killed herself, but offers
no proof. The facts seem to be, accord.