Unrest in Georgia
The news of another major reshuffle in the Soviet leadership in Georgia, the third within a year, is of increased significance when considered in the context of the wider situation in Russia. Newspaper speculations of the past few days need not be taken too seriously, but there is still no clue as to the actual whereabouts of the Georgian, Lavrenti Pavlovitch Beria. There is something intrinsically comic about the idea of his escaping to the arms of Senator McCarthy, but there remains an obstinate doubt which was voiced in these columns some weeks back. For in spite of the guarded statements that Beria has been " rendered harmless ' and that his case will be brought before the Supreme Soviet, there have been no indications of either Habeas Corpus or Habeas Cadaver on the part of the enigmatic caucus which now holds power in the Kremlin. Georgia is plainly in a state of ferment, and Shatalin, the recently appointed Party Secretary, and faithful henchman of Malenkov, has been sent from Moscow to purge the country afresh, which is sufficient indication of the importance with which the local situation is regarded from the centre. It is in the true tradition of Russian history that this should be the moment for the appearance of " a false Lavrenti " to make confusion worse confounded, however brief and unsubstantial his appearance may have been. And these events cannot fail once again to draw attention to the oddness of the alleged set of circumstances in which the most experienced' Police Chief in Soviet history should have so far forgotten the violent end of his two predecessors as to have allowed himself to be liquidated overnight. There are many questions yet to be answered before the assumption of inepti- tude on such a scale can be accepted as fact. And Mikoyan, who suffered serious demotion in the recently announced ministerial reshuffle, may perhaps hold the key to some of them.
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