INTERNATIONAL: Bitter Pills

"Many Moscow residents listened in on the radio this morning expecting every moment to hear an announcement that Soviet troops had crossed the Finnish frontier," cabled the New York Times's Moscow Bureau last week. "In some respects Finland's situation closely resembles that of Czecho-Slovakia in September 1938."

Instead of Adolf Hitler it was Soviet Premier Viacheslav Molotov who alternately cajoled and threatened, and instead of the Völkischer Beobachter it was the Communist Party official newsorgan Pravda ("Truth") that was out to whip up public indignation against the tiny "aggressor."

Russians were told...

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