". . . Tovarishchu Stalinu"

To the pink-walled Kremlin the postman brought the usual batch of patriotic letters for Tovarishcha Stalina, the usual donations ranging from 50,000 to 1,000,000 rubles for Red Army weapons.*The one Comrade Stalin liked the best and the one Pravda featured came from gnarled, patriarchal Ferapont Golovaty, father of four, grandfather of ten, keeper of the bees and assistant chief of a collective farm in the Saratov region.

Last year Grandfather Golovaty gave 100,000 rubles for a fighter plane, which his Saratov neighbor, Guards Major Yeremin, had flown at Stalingrad, Rostov, Taganrog, Melitopol and in the Crimea. Now, wrote the beekeeper, the plane was "quite worn down." Meanwhile, Grandfather Golovaty's bees had produced much honey, earned a good bounty, helped stock up Moscow's long-depleted food stores (see cut). They could afford to give another 100,000 rubles for a new plane. And might Grandfather Golovaty, personally, present the gift to Major Yeremin?

Replied Comrade Stalin: Most assuredly.

Last week Grandfather Golovaty left his bees to their own hard-working devices, journeyed to town for the ceremony of presentation. To Major Yeremin he imparted some grandfatherly instruction: ". . . revenge my son Stepan, and my cousin Ivan . . . and all the sorrow and suffering which the Hitlerite invaders have caused."

*Officially five rubles equal one U.S. dollar, but this ratio has no bearing on relative purchasing power. The actual value of the ruble varies from article to article, depending on scarcity and Government decree. A pair of shoes worth $5 may cost 300 rubles. A pound of butter worth 52^ may cost 167 rubles. A fighter plane worth $120,-ooo may have an arbitrarily fixed value of 100,-ooo rubles.

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