Word: stalins
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...unknown to the Russian people. Only one list of 37 names was offered as candidates for the Praesidium. An announcement was made in passing that this list had been prepared by the "Council of Elders"-an imaginary body which Moscow correspondents had never heard of, presumably a euphemism for Stalin...
Also elected by the Supreme Soviet was a new Council of Commissars whose names were presented by Premier Vyacheslav Molotov. Of these 27 Russians only seven were Commissars a year ago, emphasizing the drastic nature of Stalin's recent "purge." Notably missing from this new Cabinet was Commissar for Justice Nikolai Vasilievich Krylenko, the pouncing prosecutor of early Moscow purge trials. Successor to Krylenko is Judge Nikolai Richkov, who sat on the bench which condemned to death famed Old Bolsheviks Piatakov, Kamenev and Zinoviev. Named new chief of the Caspian-i. e., No. 1 maker of five-year-plans...
...during 1937 was the Russian Commissar for Finance Grigoriy Grinko. Not one of the 1,143 deputies of the Supreme Soviet who elected the new Council asked any questions last week about Mezhlauk, about Grinko, about any of the other Big Reds who continue to disappear, put away by Stalin's Secret Political Police. They also asked no questions about the Government's policies or plans...
Soviet newsorgans were crammed last week with a new scandal: the crimes committed by small Communist officials in carrying out locally the nationwide purge fathered by Joseph Stalin. Typical was the case of one Pavel P. Postishev, Communist leader in Kuybishev (formerly Samara). He was arraigned in the harshest terms by Pravda, "because he purged local Communists by tens and hundreds." Pravda added with frankness that Postishev committed such "excesses" in Kuybishev after he had been transferred thither from the Ukraine six months ago as "punishment for lack of political vigilance...
Similar cases were cited by dozens. This washing in the press of dirty Communist linen strongly suggested that, even though the Dictator may continue his own purge of Red bigwigs, public sentiment has made it advisable to put a stop to local imitators. Under Stalin's instructions, a vigorous roundup of small-fry purgers began. Jumping in to lend the Dictator their prestige, justices of the Soviet Supreme Court exhorted the lower courts and the Secret Political Police to join forces in a nationwide campaign to "Purge the Purgers...