Evening star., 1945-05-06
Marshal StoIin Speaks
In MoIotov's Words

IN MOIOCOV S WOr0S
Commentator Explains Minister'S
Rise to Second Place
By Joseph II. Baird
| In prewar Russia those Soviet citizens
who dared to make light Of the Bolshevik
hierarchy used to refer to vyacheslat1
M. Molotov, then Premier, as Stains
glorifled clerk
The phrase, SO far as it implied that
Molotov had no force or decisiveness,
was not accurate. All the old Bolsheviks,
OF whom he is one, were men Of courage
| and daring. To carry on underground
| revolutionary activities while being
bounded by the Czarist police. they had
| to be. But, in its implication that
Molotov was Stains man." the express
sion was most appropriate.
Indeed, the man who now is Foreign
Minister Of the Soviet Union and who
heads its delegation to the United Ma
tions Conference at San Francisco, is
one OF mere handful who have con-
tinued in power since the 1917 revolu-
ton. Think back over the names which
once appeared regularly in the political
news from Moscow and who were close
associates Of Lenin in the early days
of the Soviet regime-Zinoviev, Kane
nev, Bucharin, Rykov, Tomsky. Radek
and Mihailsky. All have gone down
before firing squads or have been sent
to jail or Siberia. The reason in every
case was fundamentally the same
Stain doubted their loyalty.
Alone among the Russian political
giants of the early days, three remain
in positions of power: Stain, Molotov
and Mikhail Kalinin, the Soviet Presi-
pent. The latter two have lived and
prospered not because Of any particu-
larly outstanding virtues but because
they are trusted implicitly by the man
who wields the ultimate power in Russia,
Comrade Stain.
In the early days of the revolutionary
struggle, virtually all the old Bolsheviks
adopted pseudonyms in an effort to con-
ceal their true Identities from the Czarist
secret police. Stain, as most readers
will know, means Steel Similarly, Molo-
tov derived his appellation from the
Russian word 'molot," meaning ham
mer. The name is apt He is the ham,
mer whom the man Of steel has used to
beat out and fashion the policies whose
design is determined by the Politibureau
under Stalin's leadership.
When Bolshevik leaders stand atop
Lenin's tomb at public ceremonies in
Red Square, foreigners are quick to note
how Molotov differs from the rest. Sta
lin and his comrades, even before the
war, affected semimilitary dress con-
sisting Of long olive drab blouse worn
In the Russian manner, outside their
trousers. and visored cap. But Molo-
tov, alone among them, always wore
well-cut civilian clothes in the western
manner.
Well-tailored, clean-shaven. wearing
pince-nez glasses and curled-brim hat,
he readily could have been mistaken for
the president Of the First National Bank
in an American Midwestern city. Visi-
tors seeing Molotov with the other lead
ers for the first time have been known
to ask: who Is that foreigner with the
old Bolsheviks?"
But the man who at the age Of SIS is
now outranked only by Stain himself
as power in the Soviet government is
in no sense foreigner" In the group
that rules Russia. Although. unlike most
Of the prerevolutionary Communists,
Molotov came from well-to-do middle
class family and received q good educa-
ton, he Joined the anti-Czarist move
ment at the age Of 16 and before the
revolution had been exiled for his politi-
cal activities.
He was born In 1890 at Kukard, a
small town near Kazan on the Volga
River. After receiving an elementary
education there he studied at the Poly
education there, he studied at the Poly
ST. Petersburg. While still a student he
Joined the Social Democrat party, which
later was to split into the Bolshevik and
Menshivik branches. the former eventu-
ally attaining dominance.
According to most accounts, Molotov
first met Stain at meeting Of Marx
lists at Stockholm in the First World War.
Molotov, Soviet historians say, tmmedi-
ately was impressed by the power and
leadership Of the older man and became
the devoted disciple which he has re-
NAMED ever since.
With q flair for journalism, Molotov's
first services to his party took the form
Of editorial work on the underground
Communist newspapers, Zvezda and
Pravda, to which Lenin and Stain also
contributed frequent articles. When
only 10 he was arrested by the Cars
secret police as he was leaving political
meeting. Due perhaps to his familys
influence, however, he was not Jailed,
but was sent out Of the capital to exile
in his home village.
From there, however, he kept up a
regular correspondence with Lenin and
Stain and In 1913 again was arrested
and was forbidden to live in any urban
area. This form of punishment often
was meted out to Social Democrats
who were regarded by the Czarist gov
eminent as politically dangerous but
who had no criminal record.
4 X
When the short-lived Kerensky gov
ernment seized power in February, 1917.
Molotov, then ~ years old, was leader
OF the st. Petersburg Bolsheviks- having
returned to the capital secretly-and a
co-editor Of the newspaper Pravda.
When, later in the year, the Bolsheviks
took over from the faltering Kerensky