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Show RUSSIANS... . Jo INSTALLMENT SKVKX Our Leningrad trip conies to a climax with a big dinner given in Eric's honor by Fopkov, whose title I suppose would be Mayor or Leningrad. Lenin-grad. Anyway, he is head of the local Soviet and more important still, he is for this region Stalin's light bower in the organization of the Communist Party, second only to Zdiinov. Like an American city buss, he runs the town, regardless of what title he holds. Popkov apologizes because his wife and family were evacuated and cannot meet us. It is the first time this has happened in Russia. So far, these important Bolsheviks have entertained us like Moslem princes without mentioning their hidden families. Then at Eric's request he tells of the siege. He was in command the whole time. The palace dining hall and table were what you would expect, something some-thing out of an eighteenth century set in the movies. We were impressed im-pressed and showed it, and this rielsinkiTrt j iiH a m i n a"Jv f Signboard on way to Yiipuri. pleased Popkov, who had settled into his great throne at the head of the table. The dinner now began to jog along. Popkov turned loose with a couple of Soviet funny stories, one of which was mildly dirty and the other mildly anti-Semitic. "It seems," said Popkov, or rather rath-er the interpreter for him, "that the First Imperialist War of 1914-1917 created such a rumpus that it penetrated pene-trated Heaven, so the Lord God sent Saint Peter down to find out what was the matter. Next day he got a telegram: URGENT. NOT HAVING HAV-ING PROPERLY COUNTERSIGNED COUNTER-SIGNED TRAVEL PERMIT HAVE BEEN THROWN IN JAIL BY THE CHEKA. PLEASE OBTAIN RELEASE RE-LEASE EARLIEST. PETER. "The Lord God sent Saint Paul, and next day got this telegram: WHILE MAKING INQUIRIES FOR PETER ENCOUNTERE1I CHEKA POLICE AND NOT HAVING TROP-ER TROP-ER IDENTITY PAPERS AM HELD IN JAIL FOR INVESTIGATION. IMPORTANT SEND HELP AT ONCE. PAUL. "So the Lord God sent Saint Jacob, Ja-cob, this also being a common Jewish Jew-ish name in Russia, and the following fol-lowing day opened this telegram: PETER AND PAUL RELEASED WITH APOLOGIES SITUATION COMPLETELY IN HAND. AWAIT YOUR FURTHER ORDERS. JA-COn, JA-COn, CHIEF OF THE CHEKA." Popkov, by now, was reasonably mellow, leaning back in his chair. He said he was delighted to have us with him. He hoped we were learning about Russia, which maybe may-be we hadn't understood. Now, for Instance, he said, there were some things he certainly didn't understand under-stand about our country. And the principal thing, he said, squinting at us, was this: Here we ere, fighting a war together, or nywny Russia was fighting, and maybe we would be soon. But In Pile of that, we let a Fascist Press x'st In America, clearly fascist because be-cause it frequently criticized Rus-,ia- That, he laid, he certainly uld not understand; why wc let Russia and her leader be criticized ta America. Now, of course, this was Eric's snow, but I wanted to handle Oils ne and signaled as much to Eric. Knve me a nod to go ahead, aid I could well understand his confusion and perhaps could clear up because I was not a busl-ncss busl-ncss man but ran a newspaper. America was a free country, and therefore had a free press. And nile most Americans supported bth President Roosevelt and Russia, Rus-sia, all of us would fight anyone who "led to stop criticism of them. Because Be-cause a country where criticism Is "fad. is not free. This right to criti-clz?. criti-clz?. I said, ii the most Important freedom for which we are now fighting. Then a curious thing happened. Some of Topkov's henchmen at the table were old-timers-men in their fifties and sixties. They were smiling smil-ing and nodding approval. One thin old man even had his hands poised tu clap, but then he looked at Popkov and le didn't clap. At this point Joyce got up and said that in a free country we always al-ways criticized our friends. We had been supporting and criticizing the British ever since this war began in 11)39. and we saw no reason why we shouldn't do the same with Russia. Then Eric got up and smoothly settled everything, freedom of the press, Russia, England, and even I'upkov, who had been a little bit taken aback by it all, and who now said that this freedom to criticize was a most interesting thing, and he hoped we didn't mind that he had himself used some of this American freedom to criticize America. So then he filled up his glass and mine, and grinning, said he suspected suspect-ed me of being a khitre moujik, a back-handed Russian slang compliment, compli-ment, which means "sly farmer" one who knows more than he ap-pears ap-pears to. So I said I was sure he was a khitre proletarian, and after that we got along very well. We all liked Popkov. He meets you head-on. He is tough but this is a tough country and only tough men can ride this broncno. Talkers don't last. Keren-sky Keren-sky and Trotsky weren't quick enough on the draw. These combination combi-nation city-manager Little Caesar types are the only ones who can handle it. We start for the Finnish front and the reporters, against all experience, experi-ence, are hoping. All previous front trips have gone no further than the headquarters of a general. But Eric Johnston, even in America, was promised a look at the fighting. We drive over one of Russia's few paved highways from Leningrad to Viipuri, until 1940 Finland's second largest city. Russia took it by the treaty of that year. In 1941 the Finns again reoccu-pied reoccu-pied it, continued to their old frontier fron-tier and then dug in a few kilometers beyond. In these trenches they stayed during 1942, 1943, and half of 1944. They were there until a few weeks ago, when the Russian drive easily crashed through their first carefully prepared defense line, and then their second. We are told that they have now been pushed back to their third, just outside Viipuri. The Russians profited greatly in experience by that little war. They were badly mauled in the first months of fighting because, being overly Impressed by the success of German tank tactics in flat, treeless tree-less Poland, they had tried to copy them in Finland, a rolling, heavily forested country studded with lakes and swamps. After early setbacks they corrected correct-ed their errors. They abandoned all open tactics, brought up their big guns (which are excellent and which they possess in great numbers), banked them hub to hub in front of the Manncrhcim line and blew it to bits, after which the Finnish infantry infan-try could ofTcr only token opposition to the Red Army masses. On June 22. 1941. Hitler attacked Russia. As his armies crossed the border he spoke over the radio. Several Sev-eral paragraphs were devoted to praise of Finland's 1940 resistance to Russia. Germany was ready to defend the integrity of little Fin-land, Fin-land, he said. And even now German Ger-man troops were on Finnish soil. Technically this was true. It had been explained to the Finns, who had no foreknowledge of the attack on Russia, that these German divisions divi-sions were only en route to Narvik. But the Russians jumped to the conclusion (as Hitler intended they should 1 that Finland was already In the war. The Finnish version of events is the Russians immediately began bombing Finnish cities, that the Finns sent unanswered notes of protest. Historians will settle this point. At present we only know that the Finnish declaration of war on the Soviets came four days after Hitler's attack, indicating the obvious ob-vious reluctance of many Finns. It was a beautiful June day, and the countryside was vividly green. The land is rolling, with patches of woodland and not many houses. We share the road with truckloads of Red Army boys rolling toward the front. Nunc of them seemed to have steel helmets, also rare in Moscow. Then we pass a curious sight to our Western eyes the wounded coming back from the front heads In bloody bandages, armi in slings, but jolting along In horse-drawn carts They are the kind we often whisk back across the Atlantic by plane. Maybe it was not typical. From three creaking wooden cartloads it is not safe to assume Uiat human luiTenng is so cheap in Russia that you take n rnnn to battle by truck but, once his flghtlng'usefulnrss is gone his time is not valuable, and a horse cart is fast enough. Only there were the trucks and the carts on the only front I saw. 1 We mount the crest of a hill, ani. below us in the valley and on the hill opposite we see the outworks ol the Finnish defense line, behind which they camped from the fall of 1941 until June 12, 1944 about a week ago. The valley is thick with barbed-wire spun like spider web on a stubbly forest of waist-high posts. The green hill beyond is scarred with zigzag trenches. A number of Russian tanks pass, big ones and good-looking, on their way up to the front. Behind us comes a dull roar and we look up to see a formation of Stormoviks on their way toward the Viipuri front. Finally at about noon we arrive at the little village of Terijoki, which I had visited almost five years before be-fore when it was a front-line town on the other side of the Russo-Finn-ish lines. Kirilov leaves us to visit the local lo-cal commander who will decide how much farther and by what road we may go to the front. A quarter of an hour later, he comes back and imperturbably motions mo-tions us to follow. We drive to the outskirts of Terijoki. Kirilov strolls over. But the front, we ask. "The commander has said today we can go no farther. There would be danger." We argue, plead, expostulate. We express dismay, chagrin, consternation. consterna-tion. We point out that we have been nowhere near the front. "The commander has said no further. fur-ther. Now we picnic." The Soviet standard of living is a shock to anyone from the Western countries. During the world depression, depres-sion, a number of young English and American workers, intellectually intellectual-ly inclined, took passage to the Soviet So-viet Union because in this land there is always work for everyone. Swept away by the enthusiasm of the first few weeks, they surrendered surren-dered their British or American passports and took out Soviet citizenship. citi-zenship. Within a year practically all of them were back, clamoring at the doors of their former embassies, em-bassies, pleading for help to get out of Russia. It was, of course, impossible. They had freely given up their passports pass-ports and with them their rights, and under any interpretation of international in-ternational law they were indistinguishable indistin-guishable from any other Soviet citizen, citi-zen, bound to their assigned Jobs and with no hope of leaving. And when they exercised their former Anglo-Saxon rights to protest pro-test about living conditions they got the treatment meted out to any other oth-er Soviet citizen who stirs up discontent: dis-content: they were arrested and thrown into labor battalions. All trace of them was lost and no longer long-er could they plead with their embassies em-bassies in Moscow. But one man's family made persistent per-sistent inquiries for news of him, and his legation brought pressure to bear on the Russians for at least some information. So after some months, it was announced that the man had died in his labor camp, that according to law his effects had been sold, and the legation was given giv-en a check for 15 roubles to be turned over to his next-of-kin abroad. These relatives, however, would not believe that he was dead, and darkly suspected that it was worth those 13 roubles to the Soviet government to be rid of the tedious inquiries. Americans frequently express amazement that the Red Army Lh . 's 'aVaaaai Bit of Old Russia In Finn town of Viipuri In 1939. should have been able to resist the German attack, and feel iti exploits are miracle. The Red Army Is good. Russians make good soldiers. They are well disciplined, competently led, and equipped with good rifles and plenty of heavy artillery which they handle with skill. But this Is not all. Soldiers Sol-diers must be young, and the mill tary strength of any nation is determined de-termined not only by Its total population, popu-lation, but by the number of boys In their late teens and early twenties. twen-ties. I (TO OK CONTINUED) j |