Local Boy Makes Good

Georgia is a proud and fiery republic on the Black Sea, abutting on Armenia and Turkey, where Asia and Europe meet. A mountain-girt southland, incorporated in the Soviet Union in 1921, and still resentful of it, Georgia gave Communism two of its mightiest sons: Joseph Djugashvili

Stalin and Lavrenty Beria. Last week Police Chief Beria, the home-town boy, was back in Tiflis (pop. 520,000), capital of Georgia, to undo a purge that rivaled the bizarre fantasy of the Soviet doctors.

Things began going sour in Georgia--so far as the rest of the world was told--in the fall of 1951. Hundreds, perhaps thousands,of minor Red flunkeys were sent to the wall, but instead of getting better, the mess got worse. Tiflis newspapers exposed such "grave economic crimes" as "embezzlement of socialist property," "windows and doors that have fallen to pieces," "bedbugs breeding in our hotels." Then Pravda joined in with a story of "connivance" and "protectionism" in the Georgian party cadres; it charged last June that Georgia's Communist leaders did not know the names of the Marx and Lenin classics, never read the papers, and could not name a single book by a Soviet author.

In Stalin's Manner. All this looked suspiciously like a groundswell of Georgian nationalism, protesting Great Russian oppression. And as usual in such cases, the punishment was purge--this time "in Stalin's manner," as Radio Tiflis neatly put it. Nearly every ranking Communist in the Georgian Soviet lost his job for fostering "bourgeois nationalism," including three top officials--Baramiya, Zodelava and Rapava. The Politburocrat responsible for Georgian affairs was obviously in trouble. He was Lavrenty Beria, and in proof of his displeasure, Stalin forced the police chief personally to lead the purge of the very Georgian leaders whom he himself had appointed. Now, having outlived his old master, Beria was having his revenge.

He began last week with a startling announcement that last year's Georgian purge, like that of the Kremlin doctors, had been "a crude violation of Soviet law."

The victims (Beria's proteges) were "innocent workers" falsely accused by "adventurists" who "cooked up repulsive materials ... to do harm to the Communist Party." The chief adventurist was one I. A. Rukhadze, former Minister of [Georgian] State Security, and, according to Radio Tiflis, "an enemy of the people . . . with inimical careerist interests." "By all kinds of intrigues," the announcement went on, Rukhadze "tried to arouse a feeling of national enmity" between Georgians and Great Russians. He was aided by A. I. Mgeladze, boss of the Georgian Communist Party, and Premier Z. Ketskhoveli--the men whom Stalin promoted only last year to replace the purgees. "They have all been arrested," said Radio Tiflis, "and will bear severe punishment."

No More Bedbugs. That left the way clear for Beria to reorganize Georgia in his own way. The old "national" constitution was ditched overnight, the President and his staff were fired. Adventurist Rukhadze's Ministry of State Security--the agency most at fault for accusing the "innocents" and showing up Beria--was merged with Interior under a new Beria protege: Vladimir G. Dekanozov. To head the government, Beria chose Valerian Bakradze, who was removed as Premier in the purges of '37; Bakradze proved his loyalty by restoring the three Beria men purged by Stalin last year--Baramiya, Zodelava and Rapava. "They were always loyal to Soviet society," said Bakradze, and gave them jobs in his cabinet.

At a meeting of the Supreme Soviet of Georgia, Bakradze acclaimed Beria as "the best son of Georgia . . . the outstanding leader of the Communist Party and great Soviet State." Conspicuously unmentioned was Beria's nominal boss, Premier Georgy Malenkov. Was this simply Georgian chauvinism or more evidence of Beria's dominance? Both men could hardly be "the outstanding leader."

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