Evening star., 1953-03-06


world, the reaper was long time
catching up with Joseph Stain.
Since 1929. when he repeatedly
suffered a paralytic stroke. no
year was quite complete without
its rumor that he was dead or
dying.
1t was the kind Of grim, clear
cut joke that the Red czar could
appreciate. In 1886, he replied
in writing to a correspondents
query: II know from the re-
ports In the foreign press that I
long ago abandoned this sinful
world and moved into the other.
Since one cannot question such
foreign press dispatches unless
he wants to be expelled from the
list Of civilized people, I ask you
to believe them and not to dis
turb me :"
The personal thought Of death,
however, apparently was no joke
to the man who demonstrated
over and over again the imper-
sonal detachment with which he
could view the death Of millions.
Stain put his own physicians,
Doctors Speransky and Preobra-
1hensky, in charge Of the great
scientific project which worked
at top speed to produce, in 1945,
the so-called Longevity serum"
ACS. This nostrum was pro-
claimed in Russia as raising the
possibility that the average man
might soon live $50 years. Amer
1can scientists were skeptical.
Perhaps Stalin's death may be
taken as an indication that at
least some of the skepticism was
justified.
He Made His Mark.
In terms Of his impact on his
times, there can be no question
that Stain was a great man.
Directly and indirectly, he prob
ably had a more profound and
varied influence on more people
in more places than any other
person in the last half century.
He was hated, feared and re-
vered-a symbol to some Of a
tyranny threatening to destroy
civilization; to others, OF man
kinds last best hope. No dictator
ever welded greater power over
a wider area of the globe, and
few if any rivaled his tenure Of
office.
He was the absolute master of
perhaps ITS million people in
the u. S. S. r.. and perhaps an
other 100 million outlanders in
recent years-not to mention
the tordes Of Chinese and other
faithful around the world who
danced to his tune. He helped
sell his subjects dream Of free
dom from the oppression they
had known, enslaved them in its
pursuit, gave them a tyranny
second to none in its ruthless
ness-and made them like it.
The tyranny, and the dream,
will live on after his death.
He took a sprawling, incohe-
sive country Of more than 100
peoples and many tongues. and
fused it in a generation into a
nation tough enough to stand
up, in World War II, to the most
powerful army that ever had
marched across a border. And
the Fascist menace was smashed,
with the help Of these Russians
about Is million Of whom were
themselves rotting in Stalin's
concentration camps.
Smashing the Wehrmacht.
World War II seems long ago
today. But if there was a mo-
ment in Stalin's career when all
the powers of the man and the
country he made were brought
into focus to tip the balance of
history, it probably came one
dark December day in 1941. Six
months had passed since Adolf
Hitler's armies struck at the
Soviet Union-six months in
which the Red Army fell steadily
back, leaving behind 2 million
of it's dead and thousands of
square miles of scorched earth.
Now they stopped in front OF
Moscow. The German comman-
ders-as Napoleon's once had
done-were choosing their billets
from large-scale maps Of the
city.
And then, to Maj. Gen. Below,
Just south of the capital near
Tula, came a telephone call. The
rest of the government had re-
moved to Kuibyshev. but Stain.
from the Kremlin, told him to
turn and fight.
The counteroffensive was
under way. The hoof beats Of
Bellows cavalry charge echoed
around the world; the reserves
Stain had been boarding behind
Moscow were thrown to the at
tack. The coiled spring let 60
and the Nazis were rolled back
that winter like a window shade,
all along the front from the
Crimea to the Arctic Circle.
The event was symbolic Of
Stain the man. He knew many
things. But most of all, he knew
how to wait.
A Chance Missed.
Russia, under Stain, survived
her ordeal. East and West stood
face to face, at the end of the
war, possessors of the battlefield,
their common foe destroyed.
Few nations have had q
greater share in the world reser-
voir of good will than Russia had
In this moment Of victory-few
men more than Stain. Here was
no sinister Oriental despot. Here
was a kindly, stubborn old man,
who had proved he could work
miracles in freedoms cause.
It seems a long time ago.
In the first months following