RUSSIA: Looking Outward

It was the biggest, most meaningless election on earth. From Archangel to Erivan, from Kënigsberg to the Kurils, almost 100 million citizens of great Russia voted this week in their first national election in eight years.

For weeks past, with unaccustomed candor, party chiefs had been talking to the people. The campaign keynote was fear of the world outside.

The Enemy, Capitalism. Candidate Lazar M. Kaganovich asserted flatly: "We are still within the capitalist encirclement." Candidate Viacheslav Molotov warned: Russia is watchful of "possible hotbeds . . . intrigues against international security. ....

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