RUSSIA: A Rose Is a Rose

In search of the sweetest possible name for its secret police, the Kremlin has given that dread body its fourth title since December 1917. Once the CHEKA (Extraordinary Commission), then GPU (State Political Management), 1922-34, then NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs), 1934-46, it is now MGB (Ministry of State Security). Said the proverb-loving Russians on hearing the news: Khren ne slashche redki ("Horseradish is not sweeter than radish").

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