NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE decision to remove the headquarters of the Soviet civil government from Moscow to a town farther east is what we have been led to expect in the event of the German armies drawing near to the capital's outer defences. Kuibishev, on the Volga, 55o miles to the east, is the town selected, and M. Molotov, the Foreign Commissar, has gone there with the officials of the principal State Departments to direct the civil administration. But M. Stalin remains in Moscow, and has put himself at the head of the Red Armies in the middle sector where, with his Generals,- he will assume responsibility for defending the city and the whole area of which it is the centre. His presence there is an indication of the Russian resolve to contest every yard of the outer and inner fortifications. There is no question of making the mistake which gave the finishing blow to French morale when the road to the French capital was left open to the advancing enemy and Paris was taken without a struggle. Moreover the armies and the citizen guards of Moscow are all the more determined to fight to the last knowing that M. Stalin is among them and that they are not being abandoned. As in the case of Leningrad, the whole fit male population of the capital is training for home guard services and actively participating in the building of fortifica- tions of various kinds. But while the defence of Moscow plays a vital part in the far-flung battle of Russia, and the resistance there is counted upon to wear down the Germans' offensive capacity, even its fall, grievous as it would be, and Involving serious industrial loss, would not end the battle. The 550 miles between Moscow and the Volga are some indica- tion of the geographical distances over which these armies of millions are manoeuvring.
