From the Other World

Said the rumors: Generalissimo Joseph Stalin was ailing, dying or dead.

The rumors were nothing new. For years they had recurred again & again. In 1936 Stalin, in reply to a press query concerning rumors of his death, artfully paraphrased Mark Twain: "I know from reports of the foreign press that I long ago abandoned this sinful world. ... I request you to believe them and don't disturb me in the calm of the other world."

Last week the Bern radio reported rumors that Stalin had died aboard a Red warship in the Black Sea. Vienna gossips said he was a victim of illnesses ranging from blood poisoning to cancer. The French radio at Brazzaville broadcast a Soviet Embassy denial. Washington and London half-believed that something had happened to the Generalissimo. Russian troops in Germany, Austria and the Balkans were said to be restive. Many U.S. newspapers prepared obituaries.

Then, on Big Two business (see INTERNATIONAL), U.S. Ambassador W. Averell Harriman visited Stalin at his vacation hideaway on the Black Sea coast, some 280 miles east of Yalta. Reported Harriman when he returned to Moscow: Stalin was amused and healthy.

Russians said they expected Stalin to return in time to celebrate the 28th anniversary of the revolution, Nov. 7.

However hale & hearty Stalin may have looked last week, he is not in good shape. On Dec. 31, the Generalissimo, Premier and Dictator of the Soviet Union will be 66. He has a liver complaint. Like his late friend Mr. Roosevelt, he suffers from recurrent colds. At least one responsible U.S. official who saw much of him at Potsdam got the impression that Stalin's heart was shaky.

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