Boot is on Another Foot

The explanation of governmental changes in the Soviet Union most congenial to the British left was that expressed by the "New Statesman and Nation" in these words:

In response to Western complaints of Stalin's toughness. Mr. Malenkov was obligingly selected to "play it soft," When no response was forthcoming, both the tune and the piper have been abruptly changed.

How exceedingly nice of the dear Russians to bow to Western complaints of tough Soviet politics! How mean-spirited of the West to withhold its response!

What is most interesting in that fatuous passage is to know precisely who was obliging enough to "select" Mr. Malenkov. It could not have been the Supreme Soviet, that stooge body which "carries unanimously" every proposition put before it. Nor was it likely to have been the Council of Ministers, or the Central Committee of the Communist Party, neither of which is addicted to the habit of counting noses. Either there is in Moscow, as in the United States, a Government behind the Government, or else power goes to whoever is able at any given time to marshal a decisive" combination of factors—factors of which nobody except the chief contenders arc perhaps aware. At the time of Stalin's death it is certain that Malenkov held that advantage, but lost it in the subsequent battle of intrigue. The one unlikely explanation is that which commends itself to the British left wing—that Malenkov was put in to "foot it" with the West and replaced when "they" wished to change the game to kicking the West in the pants.