Demobilization

A bell rang. In a great hall of the Kremlin the twelfth session of the Supreme Soviet formally opened. Premier Joseph Stalin, wearing a fawn-colored Red Army jacket and his Marshal's diamond, sat in the last row of benches. The hall was thick with Red Army men.

To the speaker's rostrum strode Chief of Staff General Alexei Antonov. For the Red Army, for all war-weary Russians, and for Russia's Allies who are still at war, General Antonov had important news: by the end of the year, the Red Army's 13 oldest age groups, numbering undisclosed millions, would be demobilized.

(Demobilization news came almost simultaneously with the announcement of a four-year plan to step up Russian production of consumer goods.)

But General Antonov also declared: "We cannot rest on our laurels." Russian forces must "remain on a level commensurate with our greatness." Moscow's radio revealed that beyond the Urals "the training of fighting reserves does not cease for a moment."

No one could have watched these developments with greater interest than the Japanese. Three months had passed since Russia denounced its non-aggression pact with Japan. (Unusual candid shots of Stalin making the speech in which he branded Japan an "aggressor" nation reached the U.S. last week--.) For the Japanese the question of the Red Army's future role in Asia remained what U.S. Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall last week called "the great imponderable."

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