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This was the platform, and this the occasion on May Days past, when the chunky rulers of Russia had hurled their condemnations at the U.S. "warmongers" and bellicosely pointed to their own armed strength in the square below and in the skies above. But now, like any bureaucrat in any Communist town hall, Marshal Zhukov read off the standard mimeographed tributes to workers in animal husbandry fulfilling their norms. His speech was short and sweet. Even when he came to foreign policy, he denounced West German rearmament almost more in sorrow than in anger. It "hampers," he said, "the lessening of international tension." As for Russia, he proclaimed, its policy is Lenin's: "The possibility of a peaceful coexistence and economic competition of states regardless of social and state systems."
The band struck up the National Anthem, and a salute was fired. "After the thunder of the salute," whispered Radio Moscow's announcer, "how quiet it is in Red Square!"
My Old Friend. A fortnight earlier, Zhukov had written to President Eisenhower, addressing him as "Dear Old Comrade in Arms." Reminding Ike of their friendship in Berlin at the end of World War II, he had asked Ike's help in persuading the runaway son of a Russian colonel to return home. Only last week, at his press conference. Eisenhower referred once again to "my old friend" Zhukov.
Red army marshals do not enter lightly into correspondence with old friends abroad. Zhukov's letter, taken together with his May Day speech, was an official gesture toward the West. Coming from Zhukov, and not from Molotov the Great Stone Face, the message was, and was meant to be, more acceptable. For Georgy Zhukov is a great professional soldier, whose name will be linked in Russian history with the victories of Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad and Berlin. Zhukov has always faithfully obeyed party orders, but he also seems to have stayed out of power politics and cliques. From the point of view of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (of which he is a full member), Zhukov was the perfect channel for a direct approach to President Eisenhower. Around the world last week, people asked: Could the friendship of two old soldiers provide the basis for a genuine easing of tensions between the U.S. and Russia?
The question begot other questions. Does Zhukov represent a new force in Soviet affairs? Has the Red army assumed a new and stronger role in Soviet policy? Not knowing all the answers, the White House reacted skeptically to Zhukov's overtures, but kept open a small hedge on the future. The past, in Georgy Zhukov's case, is also instructive. His hazardous climb from Czarist dragoon to Communist marshal, his differences with the military commissars, his fallings in and out of Communist favor, are significant clues to the nature of the instrument he has wielded with such success.