Memorial to Lenin

In Moscow it was the anniversary of Lenin's death. The city smoked with the cold. From the frozen Moscow River, from the Kremlin, and the Cathedral of St. Basil, a vapor rose, clouding the skies and befogging the stars. It was 50 degrees below zero. To Correspondent Eve Curie, a little old woman in a tattered shawl said: "This is a real Russian winter. A winter to freeze Russia's enemies. A winter to freeze Hitler."

There was to be no holiday this year. Lenin would hardly have wanted his death to interfere with the war against Russia's enemies. But in their heavy winter boots the citizens of Moscow trudged across Red Square, past Lenin's tomb. Whether or not Lenin's remains were still in it, the tomb was still a symbol. Other citizens, remembering other days, smiled at a large painting of Napoleon's 1812 retreat hung in a subway station.

The news spread through the city. Mozhaisk had been recaptured. The last German stronghold near the capital was again in Russian hands. Smoking Russian cold and smoking Russian artillery (under heavy-jawed Major General Leonid Alek-sandrovich Govorov, hero of World War I and the Finnish War) had at last shattered the carefully prepared German positions in the city.

To the happy citizens of Moscow, it seemed that the Battle of Moscow, after three bitter months, was over. They could want no better memorial to Nicolai Lenin.

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