Never Really Certain?

Every so often someone claims that Stalin does not really run Russia. Last week two Britons publicly joined this soft-headed school of thought.

Said Lieut. General Sir Giffard Le Quesne Martel, who headed a British military mission to Moscow during the war, in a speech at Bristol: "I think he [Stalin] was banished to the Crimea for a bit and then he came back and found that Molotov and Vishinsky and that lot had won the day."

Said Harold Laski in the New Republic: "He is the leader of a team, the

Politburo, and he must convince the team. He will find criticism there, dissent as well as agreement; and ... he can never be really certain that he will win. At least three of his colleagues in the Politburo come very close to him in the authority they exercise."

Skeptics recalled the story of Abe Lincoln proposing a change of policy to his Cabinet and meeting hot opposition. At the end of the argument he polled the meeting and announced: "Seven noes, one aye; the ayes have it."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.