Stalin's Mercy

Since few orthodox Communists believe in life after death or in redemption from sin by God's mercy, the nearest thing to these offered by the Soviet State occur on such solemn yet joyous occasions as last week filled Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre.

A host of 55,000 sinners, Russians who transgressed against their State and were sent to the purgatory of digging immense canals under the lash of Ogpu overseers, last week were redeemed by the mercy of Joseph Stalin. Making one of his rare public appearances the Dictator took an inconspicuous seat while the official pardon of the 55,000 was read out. How many more thousands died in the Soviet purgatory and how many are busy redeeming themselves in it still with picks and shovels, the State did not say. Most of Russia's 55,000 redeemed sinners sweated under Ogpu Chief Genrikh Yagoda who later sinned himself, and last week Yagoda was in the purgatory managed by his successor, Commissar for Internal Affairs Nikolai I. Yezhov.

Amid cheers Comrade Yezhov presented to officials of the Soviet of Moscow the newly completed Moscow-Volga Canal. Some of the sinners redeemed last week had worked also on the Baltic-White Sea Canal (TIME, Aug. 14, 1933). When Stalin's great system of convict-dug waterways is completed, it will be possible for a river steamer to go from Moscow to any of five seas bordering Russia--the Caspian, Black, Azov, White and Baltic.

Each of the 55,000 ex-sinners last week got a free ticket to his or her home town, a bonus of between 100 and 500 rubles ($20 and $100), and an honorary badge proclaiming the redemption. Next, the Order of Lenin, most exalted of all Soviet decorations, was awarded to 40 of the 404 officials who had acted as jailers and supervisors of the 55,000 during their forced-labor redemption. It was suddenly revealed for the first time that new Vice-Commissar for the Timber Industry Kogan acted as a jailer in the digging of the Baltic-White Sea Canal--something workers in the Timber Commissariat had never suspected about their close-mouthed boss.

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