Evening star., 1946-08-25
Anglo-American Military
Fear European Outbreak
Threatening Soviet Attitude Disturbing MANY;
Russian People Held Anxious for Peace
but Politbureau Rules Firmly
BY Constantine Bro,Un

ported by the Soviet propaganda serv-
ices to have been largely expanded; the
total number, including the applicants
for that privileged honor, has now
reach 100000, or little more than 25
per cent of the total population.
The rank and file of the Russian
people are so peace-loving and so &C
customed to be ruled instead of ruling
themselves that they accept the present
regime with the same forbearance and
oriental fatalism that they accepted
the rule of the Czars for so many CEN
turies.
The revolutions in Russia from 1904
to that of the Bolsheviks in 1917 were
promoted by group of intellectual
ldealists who made their headquarters
in countries which gave asylum to polit-
ical refugees, and from which the revo-
lutions were directed. The coup of
Lenin and Trotsky which overthrew the
karensky regime was actually perpe-
trated by handful of determined men
some 1000 workers The rest of the
country followed because the new ad-
ministration promised two things
dearest to the heart of the Russian
peasant: A small tract of land of his
own and immediate peace.
There are no longer any political
refugees from Russia. The emigres who
fed the country because they feared
the Bolshevist persecution are all old
and belong to a period that has long
passed out Of existence. The millions
OF intellectuals and true socialists who
are IN Russia today are suffering in
silence. They cannot get away. The
present government has learned from
the experience of its own leaders how
dangerous it is for terroristic regime
to allow dissatisfied elements to get
out of the country. They know that the
seepage OF the western democratic ideas
into those prevailing in the U. S. S. r.
might eventually prove fatal to the pres
ent Kremlin dictatorship. Thus, on the
surface, it would appear that the pres
ent totalitarianism is firmly established
In Russia since there is no resistance
within or outside the country to upset it.
Yet the Russian leaders, and par
ticularly the IA members of the
Polltbureau, seem concerned over the
domestic difficulties which the regime
Is encountering. And these leaders ap-
pear to be ready to solve their domestic
problems by an overexpansion outside
the Soviet borders.
Preparations Offensive.
The Russian military preparations are
described in competent military quar-
ters as purely offensive. The heavy in
dustry in Russia has been reactivated
and is producing war materials. The
military training in the U. S. S. r. itself
and in all the satellite countries-with
the possible exception of Finland-is
even more intensive than during the
war
Russia Is fully aware that in spite
OF the large-scale demobilization in the
western countries their war potential,
and particularly that of the United
States, is very great. The Russian
high command was as surprised as Hit
ler and Hirohito to discover that within
less than 18 months after Pearl Harbor
America had become the foremost
naval, military and air power in the
world.
There are hundreds of other "straws
in the wind" which cause. sleepless
nights among the civilian and military
men who are responsible for the Sc
curity of the Nation. They know that
If the Russian people had chance
to be consulted they would overwhelm-
ingly decide for a long and lasting
peace. But 19o.0000O0 Russians have
nothing to say about peace or war.
Their fate, like the peace of the world,
Is in the hands of few who will de-
cide-possibly this year-whether the
world will live in law and order, as
provided in the Charter of the United
Nations, or whether lawlessness, blood
shed and destruction will be rampant
again.