April 17, 1953
RUSSIA: (From an editorial in Kathimerini) Events behind the walls of the Kremlin following the death of Stalin are likely to prove to be of world-shattering significance. Of course, nothing at all might happen, apart from the usual upheaval accompanying any succession to an absolute ruler. There is nothing more explosive than passion and nothing more violent than the overthrow of power. In places where the people are not silent bystanders but participate, even in the chorus in ancient tragedies, outbursts – although not less violent – are dulled by the large size of the group from which they emerge and which contains them. When only a few people within a very narrow circle are struggling with each other as to who is to prevail, then this is truly a deadly situation. It is an interesting but probably futile exercise to try and find out what has been happening these past weeks within the closed portals of the Kremlin. Perhaps they are taking a leaf out of Dostoevsky’s «Brothers Karamazov.» However, nothing is certain. No one is capable of imagining what these people who are gripped by the terrible thirst for power and by communist dogmatism are capable of. EISENHOWER’S SPEECH: Yesterday’s speech by US President Dwight Eisenhower was the greatest and most serious attempt made so far by the West to compromise with the USSR and to coexist.