Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-07-07
The Seat of Power

In any Communist country, the
man who Yields the real power is
the party's First Secretary. 1t was
in this position that Josef Stain
consolidated his personal dicta-
torship, and ruled without serious
challenge from 1927 to his death
in 1858.
Stain clinched his hold on the
Soviet Union in 1927, when the
Central Committees Politburo
predecessor to today's Presidium)
voted to GUST Leon Trotzky, who
with Nikolai Lenin had MASTER
minded the coup by which the
Bolsheviks seized power in 1917
from the Kerensky provisional gov
eminent, and Gregory Zinoviev,
another of the personal---very.
Red leaders. During the dictator's
long and bloody reign, he used the
Central Committee to make and
break men, never relaxing his
hold.
Fully aware Of the Importance
of the post Of First Secretary the
members Of the party's Central
Committee on Stains death saw
to it that the responsibility for
the time being was to be "collec-
tive" with no one man holding all
the strings that were Stains.
There was but one man on the
Central Committee who might
have held power enough to bid
for the succession. He was the
bespectacled Lavrenti p. IBERIA,
Minister Of State Security and
chief Of the dreaded Secret Po-
lice. Either Beria did not consider
his powers adequate, or he waited
too long to use them. In a swift
stroke, his erstwhile colleagues
with the support of the Soviet
Army arrested him, charged him
with high treason and numerous
other crimes, and had him shot.
With Beria gone. the leadership
Of the Central Committee was
shared among the other top pre-
lates Of communism, with Nikita
Khrushchev, as First Secretary,
being FIRST among equals"
BY last weeks moves, Mr.. Khru-
shchev let the world and the Rus
slams know that he was indeed
FIRST. Despite the setback he and
his group had suffered when the
"Stalinists," led by Comrades
Molotov and Kaganovich, gained
a transitory advantage when the
Hungarian revolt of last autumn
brought savage Stalin-style Rus
sian response. Mr.. Khrushchev.
with the undoubted support of
the Army, cleaned his committee
of descriptive and anti-party in
fluences" and relegated his OPP
ponents to a fate still uncertain.
The fired leaders had, it was
charged. sought by intrigue and
open opposition to disparage Mr..
Khrushchev's ambitious plan to
step UP agricultural production,
particularly attacking as impos-
sible the drive to equal or sur
pass American output Of meat and
dairy products. They were also
accused Of attempting to sabotage
the conduct Of foreign affairs.
In the Communist scheme of
things. differences Of opinion on
matters of major or minor i'm
portance can be freely spoken
until the ruling body (the Presi-
dunn has spoken. From that
moment on. the decision is un-
assailable. Deviation, in the form
Of open criticism or objection. is
deadly error. Punishment can
range from expulsion from the
Party--an extremely serious mat
ter-to death in the dim cellars
of the Lubianka or the drab court
yard Of q provincial prison.
Under Stain. the roster Of
those condemned to outer dark
ness and to death was long. The
three top men whose careers we're
so abruptly ended last week (the
action, according to the official
Soviet statement, was decided up
on at q special meeting Of the
Central Committee from June %
to 29) were parties to many Of
those condemnations. So. for that
matter. were many Of their rivals.
But there were signs that this
time. unlike the Stain era, the
culprits would at least remain
alive.