The World Outside

It was Molotov's day. The fact that the Foreign Commissar was chosen to make the anniversary address to Communist Party leaders showed how important to Russia was the world outside.

In a week when Britain's Bevin and Churchill adopted tactics of extreme tough ness (see below), tough Molotov was rela tively relaxed. His whole speech testified to the U.S.S.R.'s awareness of its limitations.

The address was far less truculent and self-righteous than the one he delivered on the same occasion six years ago. Then Molotov, justifying the Berlin-Moscow pact, pictured Russia as an island in a hostile capitalist world. In 1945, Molotov actually recognized that there were other peaceful states, although he was not ready to concede that they were entirely free from the imperialist taint.

The intense isolationism of the 1939 speech was replaced by a sensational confession: "Acquaintance with the life and customs of other nations will be of benefit to our people and will widen their outlook." Conscious that returning Red Army soldiers had brought home much dissatisfaction with them, Molotov earnestly said that Soviet living standards must be improved (see below).

He again committed Russia to world collaboration, with a special Russian interpretation: Russia's war sacrifices and victories justified all that Russia asked of the world; all combinations of nations outside the Soviet sphere were anti-Soviet; the United Nations Organization was not so much a world organization as an extension of the wartime Big Three.

Churchill and Bevin had said that Russia should not have the atomic bomb now. Well, Molotov did not ask for it. He simply said that the Russians would get it for themselves.

On this subject his audience was more taut. When Molotov promised that Russia would have "atomic energy and many other things," the party leaders cheered until bells rang to stop them.

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