Evening star., 1951-08-04
They Sit on q Volcano

The plane escape of four young Poles to
Sweden and the Baltic mutiny of twelve Polish
sailors now seeking asylum in that country-an
asylum that may be difficult to grant under
international law-may be small incidents in
themselves, but they lend significant support to
persistent reports of mounting anti-Soviet unrest
in Poland. They are of piece with the current
purge trial of high-ranking army officers in
Warsaw. Trouble is in the air over there Some
thing is bubbling up. The Kremlins puppet Red
regime seems very definitely to have problem
on its hands.
This should surprise nobody After all,
Poand-with its overwhelmingly Catholic pop
uation-is by its nature, its culture its tradition
its history, land with an ancient and deeply
inbred yearning to be its own master. Few ma
tions in Europe can match the intensity of its
feeling for independence. Through the centuries,
during which it has been periodically partitioned
by Germany and Russia, it has developed fiery
sense Of nationalism and a unique dislike Ito
use an understatemen0 for both those countries.
If anything, it has been even more anti-RusSian
than anti-German. And since the end of the
war, with the Kremlin taking over control
through the tratorous puppet regime in Warsaw,
the religious-minded Polish people, in the vast
majority, have had every reason to look upon
their eastern neighbor-the athestic tyranny
creaSing fear and hostility
In varying degrees much the same thing
can be said of the other Soviet satellites in
Europe. Actually-although it has the power
now to suppress uprisings and although it may
believe that it successfully absorb and digest
these lands if given enough time to terrorze the
people into total submsson-the Kremlin has
acquired an empire made up of human forces
and age-old historical attitudes and inclna tionS
that operate constantly. even though beneath
the surface at the moment, against the Commu-
mist striving fol domination For it is simply
against the nature of the Poles, the Czechs and
all the rest of the oppressed to be one with Red
Russia. At the present stage, they may appear
to be generally compliant, but the compliance
such as it is-exists only because the secret
police, the concentration camps and the other
weapons of tyranny are at hand to hold the un-
armed in line There is no love or loyalty in this
forced wedding; there is nothing in it, by and
large, but hate.
AS matter of fact because the hate is real
and widespread, even though locked up and
hidden in the mind and heart, Russias rulers
must often feel that they sitting on vol
cano And that is what their empire truly is. 1t
is volcano full of raging fires and pressures
deep nside-relatively dormant now, but capable
of exploding in the future with terrific force.
Possibly given enough time, the men of the
Kremlin will be able to eliminate it, but mean
while and for more than a few years ahead, they
must reckon with 1t as something that could blow
them sky high in event of war or similar great
crisis. The peoples involved ought certainly to
get oil the encouragement we can give them In
their own way potentially, they constitute
gigantic fifth column for the free world.