"Independent Armies"

Soviet newsorgans last week followed their reports of the "purge"' conducted in the Soviet Far Eastern Army by War Commissar Kliment ("Klim") Voroshilov with significant references to the previously unheard of "First Independent Far Eastern Red Army" and "Second Independent Far Eastern Red Army."

It was assumed in Moscow that Commissar "Klim" had evidently split into two forces the single great Far Eastern Army previously commanded by Soviet Marshal Vasily Bluecher, who "disappeared" in the purge (TIME, Oct. 17).

Before Marshal Bluecher "disappeared" his authority was extended to unify under him the secret police of the Soviet Far East as well as its Red Army. To the All-Union secret police Chief Nikolai Yezhov, Commissar for Home Affairs in Moscow, this was a partial curtailment of authority, and likely was it that potent Yezhov helped to "break" Bluecher.

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