RUSSIA: Something

There was more news from Russia last week—or at least what passes for news in Moscow—than there had been in months. Item: for the first time since before the war, Stalin called a Communist Party Congress. Item: the leaders of 464 million Chinese were in Moscow, talking (about something) to the leaders of 207 million Russians. Item: the Kremlin sent another note designed to prevent West Germany's joining the West. The outside world was sure that something was up—but what?

There were two major possibilities, not mutually exclusive:

¶ The stirrings may be caused largely by internal Russian necessity, i.e., a tightening...

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