RUSSIA: Health Harangue

Russians listened in over the radio, last week, while Minister of Health Semashko delivered a "psychopathological analysis of the Romanov Tsars." Said he: "They were depraved and drunken despots. . . . Peter the Great personally decapitated many victims of his bestiality and buried others alive. . . . All the Romanovs were incurable epileptics. . . . Alexander III was a fat, greasy hippopotamus. . . ." During the Health Commissioner's harangue, Dictator Stalin, Premier Rykov and 200 other prominent communists sat gravely before Dr. Semashko in the Imperial Opera House, applauded him...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!