THE SHEPILOV reshuffle is just the sort of minor and
obscure development on which K remlinolo- gists most delight to exercise their mutually con- tradictory ingenuity. Shepilov was transferred from the Party Secretariat to be Foreign Minister when Khrushchev was at the height of his power, presumably in order to strengthen Khrushchev's position. For this reason, I should have thought it logical to view the present reversal as a setback for Khrushchev. If, as has been suggested, farther than one imagined is indicated by an astonishing statement in the paper Party Life referring to the possibility that 'hostile and anti- Soviet elements will try to use the forthcoming local election campaign to discredit 'the entire state apparatus' for 'individual bureaucratic distortions.' The Party organs are called on to rebuff these 'hostile and demagogic elements' and—can one believe one's eyes?—`to take under their protection' the candidates. If this sort of thing continues, who will protect the protectors?
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