When Stalin died, we ventured to suggest that his successors might feel a need to simplify; that abroad they might choose real peace, or real war, instead of Stalin’s twilight cold war; and that at home they might go for real relaxation, or a real war-regime, instead of Stalin’s war-like discipline in peace-time.
It begins to look as if this tentative prediction is being borne out by events, and as if the change, mercifully, is towards peace rather than war. In the first four weeks of its existence, the Malenkov regime has changed the Stalin line, both in home and foreign policy, in so many respects that it is no longer possible to regard it merely as a continuation of the Stalin regime.
The release of the Kremlin doctors accused of murdering Soviet leaders and the admission that their confessions were extorted by the former organs of State Security are the most spectacular breaches with the past, but they do not stand alone. The far-reaching amnesty at home, the gestures of a new courtesy in international dealings, the apparent change of attitude in Korea — all are pointers to a Russian policy which seems to aim at relaxation at home and appeasement abroad.
All these developments indicate we are dealing with a Government which should not be automatically identified with the Stalin regime, and which ought to be judged anew.
Key quote
The British must push along the European Defence Community without entirely joining the club
Field Marshal Montgomery
Talking point
J. Edgar Hoover, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told Congress that Communists are infiltrating every field of American activity and enemy espionage rings are working more intensively than ever before.
‘Communist spies everywhere’, news in brief