Shh! Happy Birthday

One index to the prestige of Russian leaders lies in the official fervor with which their birthdays are celebrated. It took nearly two years for Russian newspapers to print all the tributes to Stalin on his 70th birthday, but last Dec. 21, when his birthday rolled around again, no mention of it was made. Last week Premier Georgy Malenkov came to his 52nd birthday (on Jan. 8). In anticipation of the great day, Rumania's Communist news agency, Agerpress, filed a canned eulogy of the Soviet chief to its member papers in preparation for the standard high jinks. Czechoslovakian editors also got set with big laudatory spreads. Soon both Czech and Rumanian editors got urgent word from headquarters: no birthday greetings for Malenkov.

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