The Daily Alaska empire., 1944-02-26
Sixteen Russias
Washington Post)

1
 Further indication that, far as the Kremlin IS
 concerned the fate of the Baltic states integral
 parts of Soviet Union is beyond discussion IS
 furnished in Molotovs speech to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR announcing program of devolutlon ln Russia On paper the grants of local autonomy Will be extensive. They will give individual Soviet re- publics within the Union the right to establish sep rate armies and have separate diplomatic represen- taton abroad which would be empowered to negotiate treaties In point of fact, separate army formations according Molotov. already exist in the Red army, though presumably, in the setup they would be given more formal recognition It in mentioning the existing army formations that Moscows foreign commssar said that these included formations made up of Lithuanians, Latyans and Estonans It is quite possible that through this gesture Staln hopes to bridge the diplomatic gap existing between Russia and her allies on the subject of the Baltic states and other newly incorporated Soviet areas. In other words a seemingly autonomous Latvia,
 thuana and Estonia may be the bait held out to the United States and Great Britain to get us to accept the absorption of those nations by the Soviet Union Once his has been achieved, the farce of autonomy could speedily be ended
 If this is the intention of the Kremlin, it is doubtful whether the world will view the gesture seriously Certainly the examples Stan cites of the exercise of autonomy by Soviet republics in the past, and his statement that in the Soviet Union the right of free secession exists, provide fuel for the skeptics In the old days MT. Molotov pointed out, Peoples Commissarats of Foreign Affairs existed in the Ukraine, Tn ByeloruSSla, GeOrgla, armenia ana Azerbajan. But these groups, as it happens, were merely transitional that carried between the period of less actual independence and the time when those independent regions wer reabsorbed by Russia Certainly the Kremlin did not regard with any of tolerance the efforts of the Caucasian republics to secede from the Soviet Union. Their in dependence movements were pretty thoroughly sup pressed.
 It is true that in the realm of language, literature customs and fokways, the Soviet government has proved to be infinitely more enlightened than were the Czars No effort has been made since the Revo- luon to Russify the Russian peoples. Since 1917 Russia has been, as Mootov rightly says. multi national state But constituent republic has been permitted to have shadow of the freedom that is permitted, say, the individual members of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Thus the world will remain skeptical of the apparent readiness to extend to the Soviet republics larger measure of ostensible autonomy
 The Kremlns present move, in fact will nevt ably recall the of the Far Eastern Republic which came into being in Siberia in the period following Allied intervention and the surface at least was democratic rather than a Communist regime The record clearly shows that the Far Eastern Re- public merely bait to win indirect recognition for the Soviet Union. When the usefulness of the Far Eastern Republic at an end, it disappeared from the scene.