RUSSIA: Stabilize, Execute

The Soviet unit of currency, the chervonetz, continued last week officially at par: $5.15. None the less rumors were current that it had declined fully 17% on the secret “Black Bourse” of Moscow.

Late in the week, three important Finance Ministry officials—Volin, Chepeliovsky and Rabinowitch—were executed, all charged by the Soviet “political police” with “abetting speculation tending to depress the chervonetz.”