Whoopee

Dictators have to sit lynx-eyed on the lid, have to stay home. But they have their proxies. Last year President Hoover honored Proxy Dino Grandi, pleased Dictator Mussolini (TIME, Nov. 23). Last week Turkish Dictator Mustafa Kemal Pasha sent two Proxies to Moscow and Dictator Josef Stalin supremely honored them by ordering the first Soviet reception ever tendered to foreigners in the former ballroom of Tsar Nicholas II the marble White Hall of St. George in the Great Kremlin Palace.

As Stalin's proxy, Soviet Premier Vyacheslav Molotov was to meet the Turks at the station. He wondered whether to wear a silk hat or the orthodox Bolshevik headgear, a cap. Mrs. Molotov. young, vivacious and a friend of young, serious Mrs. Stalin, suggested the way out of her husband's dilemma, whispered Moscow gossip. Going to the station and up to the very last moment before the train chuffed in, Premier Molotov wore his cap then whisked it out of sight as a Red Army band struck up the "Internationale" and an entire company of Red Army soldiers snapped to attention.

Snappy was the word exactly to describe General Ismet Pasha, Turkish Premier as he stepped from his private car, immaculate. Behind him trudged Turkish Proxy No. 2 whom no valet could make snappy -- peering, stoop-shouldered Dr Tewfik Rushdi Bey, Foreign Minister. Once an accoucheur, the patient, fumbling Tewfik wears high-powered spectacles with the thickest lenses in all Turkey. He, by six years of astute diplomacy, has made the Soviet Union small Turkey's fast & firm friend. While a Red Army commander stepped forward to greet General Ismet, Tewfik talked with Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Maximovitch Litvinov winced slightly at the too terrific blaring of the Red Army band which had burst into Turkey's national anthem: Istiklal Marsi (March of Independence).* In a Rolls-Royce the Turks were driven between two miles of cheering, flag-waving Muscovites to their lodgings in the ornate palace of Moscow's pre-Revolutionary textile tycoon, Croesus Morozov.

That night Dictator Stalin was not the host in Tsar Nicholas' onetime ballroom. Though Comrade & Mrs. Stalin live in three rooms at the rear of the Great Kremlin Palace, though they might have come to the party by taking 100 steps, they stayed away--for excellent reasons.

Dancing, which Turks like now that Dictator Kemal has forced it upon them as a "Western reform" (TIME, Jan. 17, 1927), is still deemed frivolous and degrading by Dictator Stalin, stern Asiatic. Since there had to be dancing in the flower-decked ballroom last week, Premier Molotov had to act as host -- wearing what? Seen from a distance the short, square-headed, black-mustached Soviet Premier looked as though he were in a tuxedo. Actually he was in the blackest business suit he could find, his black tie fixed securely in place by pins in the tabs of his soft collar. Only ladies of the diplomatic corps were in low-cut evening gowns, only they wore jewels. Hostess Molotov, after careful thought, had done up her light brown hair in a knot at the back of her head, wore a black gown with full-length sleeves and a narrow white collar. As the orchestra, perched on a balcony of the ballroom, struck up a fox trot, the 500 guests paused awkwardly, looked questions at each other. Officially the All Union Communist Party frowns with Dictator Stalin upon dancing.

Fortunately Foreign Commissar Litvinov has an English wife, gay Ivy Low. She broke the Communist ice, whirled out upon the floor, heartened other Soviet wives to dance (badly). From a fox-trot the orchestra switched to a tango, then to a throbbing Cuban rumba. In 20 minutes scores of Comrades and their wives were cavorting like Capitalists. Later there were caviar, French champagne, rich Russian pastries. The revel continued until dawn. Said Premier General Ismet Pasha, on behalf of Turkish Dictator Kemal, "I and the whole Turkish delegation ; have an unforgettable impression of the magnificence of our reception."

Even less forgettable was the mighty Red May Day parade which Premier Ismet and Turks saw from a special stand below and in front of the stand on which Dictator Josef Stalin stood rocklike and immobile from 9 a. m. until 7 p. m. (with time out for lunch). Sharp on the stroke of 9 a. m., War Minister Klimentiy ("Klim") Voroshilov cantered into the Red Square on a sleek bay steed, three Red Army bands blared the "Internationale" and 60,000 troops began an earth-shaking tramp led by picked units of the Ogpu (secret service). New fighting units this year were eight-wheeled "Speed Tanks" mounting two-inch guns and four-motored bombing planes. Swooping through the sky in "Red Star" formation 300 fighting ships made even more noise than the exuberant 30-gun artillery salute.

"Other nations try to provoke us," cried War Minister Voroshilov in the course of a 20-minute speech, "but our nerves are strong enough! We will not be foiled by these provocations. The Red Army will never threaten anyone but will continue to be where it should be when necessary!"

When the civilian parade began more than a million Russians marched across the Red Square in a solid, seemingly endless phalanx more than 100 ft. wide. At sight of Dictator Stalin, who wore a Red Army cap and bluish grey "semimilitary jacket" (said Moscow papers), each new group of workers burst into "spontaneous cheers." Just at dusk the parade's tail was brought up by a Soviet dirigible which had flown during the day from Leningrad to Moscow.

*Opening lines:

Fear not!

Our standard shall not fall--

The blood-red flag unfurled each dawn!

Not to be confused with the red Soviet flag (with sickle & hammer) is Turkey's "Red" flag With a white star & crescent.

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