Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-04-02
KEY TO THE KREMLIN XII
Khrushchev Often Clumsy,
But He Is Fast on His Feet
By WILLIAM 1. Ryan

1AiCAlCNs JubblAlB . ctubby hAhbCh
into the chest Of his startled
listener.
The scene was q British En-
bassy reception In Moscow in
mid-1954. The listener was
Clement Attlee, head Of Brit
aims Labor Party.
. Stain, safely mummified. lay
In his gaudy Red Square
tomb. His lieutenants had faces
now. They were individuals.
They could talk out in public.
Mr.. Khrushchev talked and
talked, torrents Of rapid. often
ungrammatical Russian tinged
with Ukrainian accent. Through
!. It all his broad, persistent grin
exposed two front teeth Of gilt
/, tering gold. His pale blue eyes
, stared into his hearers. His
; pudgy fists would grab the
hearers lapel and hold him
= captive.
Era of Smiles Begins
Cultivated, taciturn Georgi
Malenkov, who considered him.
self Stains heir. looked on
with a superior smile. Few out
siders seemed to take Mr.. Khru-
shchev seriously. and some in
the Kremlin made the same
mistake.
NOISY chap" muttered Mr..
Attlee when the talking bout
was over.
The first summit meeting still
was a year away, but already
1t may have been in the back
of the Khrushchev mind as a
device to lull the West. An era
Of smiles had begun.
Soviet leaders became ag-
gressively friendly to diplomats.
The smiles obscured from
view a titantic struggle for
Stains power.
In that struggle, Mr.. Khrush-
chev performed like a true Sta
lin pupil. He made alliances as
necessary, repudiated them
when they no longer were of
use.
Beria Eliminated
Moscow's collective leader
ship was a mutual protective
association to prevent any one
man from getting the upper
hand. Its first concern was to
break the power of Lavrenty
Beria. whose army of secret
police nearly took over Moscow
at the hour of Stalin's death.
With the help of Marshal
Georgi Zhukov and the army,
the collective destroyed Beria
and purged the secret police
machine.
Stains power had derived
from control Of both party and
police. Having pushed Malen-
kov, aside, Khrushchev had the
party reins. No single leader
had the police to himself. The
latter's authority increased.
The world began to take no.
tice of him.
Hopefully, some Westerners
clicked him as a man of quiet
strength who leaned to the
West.
The Kremlin in 1854 was I'M
der severe strain. The Korean
War was ended, a Stain gam
BILE which failed. The Indo-
china war was ending. Moscow
limited it wanted to settle the
Austrian occupation problem,
too. The Kremlin made ex-
traordinary gestures toward
Yugoslavia's Tito, the MAYER
lex Communist with whom
Stain feuded.
big Happy Family"
And the Soviet consumer was
promised the world on a plat
ter if he would just be patient.
The collective leadership, to
the uncritical observer, was
Just one big happy family.
Writers in the Soviet Union
blossomed out with daring new
ideas. In Hungary. Communist
leaders, taking their cue from
Premier Malenkov, permitted
unheard-of relaxations Of Stall
inism. Young intellectuals in
Poland stirred restively against
the StalinistS.
Khrushchev exploded the
happy family notion in 1855
He outfoxed Malenkov and re-
quired him to step down as
Premier, confessing himself a
failure. Khrushchev installed
pliable Nikolai Bulganin as Pre-
mier-a mere echo of Khru-
shchev himself.
Thereafter, he did the talk
ing. At home he indicated the
consumers would have to wait
for the promised amenities of
life while the USSR concen-
trated on heavy industry to
build world power.
Abroad he mixed smiles with
threats. With the prospect of
Western agreements to rearm
West Germany, Moscow an
nounced a Warsaw alliance of
satellite armies under Soviet
direction. He was setting the
stage for summit conference
bargaining.
No "Whistling Shrimp"
KhruShchev and Bulganin
journeyed to Belgrade to get
YugoSlav forgiveness for Stall
ms abuse. Did all this mean
the Russians at last planned to
relax Communist pressure in