A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
MSTALIN is seventy this week. It is an interesting milestone in the Russian Dictator's career, and a good . deal has been written about it in the English Press already. But no one knows how important it is, because no one knows how important Stalin himself is. In one sense—as a legend —he is all-important. The Communist Governments of the satellite States burn incense at his shrine more assiduously and more slavishly than Russians themselves. And not the satellites only: the oration delivered by Signor Togliatti in Rome on Sunday carried fulsome eulogy to new heights ; so immeasurably superior is a personality to a principle as rallying-point. • But Stalin's place in Russia can only be divined, for the Iron Curtain grows more, not less, opaque. Of course, he is the figurehead, and invaluable as that at home as abroad. But how much more ? Does he make decisions, or the Politburo ? And if the Politburo, who are the men whose lead the others follow, for there are always one or two dominating figures in such a body ? If we knew that we might get a clearer idea about the succession to Stalin, for if Molotov
and Beria and Malcnkov, particularly the two latter, are as powerful as they are thought to be it is hard to believe that they could be passed over in favour of some lesser man. And will Stalin, in fact, nominate his successor, as seem to be generally assumed, or will the Politburo elect him ? Answers may be attempted to all these questions—I attempt none myself—but they will not be answers on which any reliance can be placed. Yet one day it may all settle itself suddenly, for the one fact on which there is general agreement is that Stalin's health is not good. He spends more time each year at Sochi in the Crimea, and some day he may never return.
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