On to Odessa

Last week the Moscow censor passed a report that Marshal Georgi Zhukov, head of all Soviet land forces, had been assigned to command the Odessa military district. It was as though Ike Eisenhower had been sent back to San Antonio. The Soviet press did not mention the move, but the world outside erupted with rumors:

Was it part of Russia's war of nerves on Turkey? In 1940 Zhukov led the troops that took over Bessarabia and northern Bukovina from Rumania. Odessa is the military district nearest the Dardanelles.

Was the Communist Party "disciplining" the Red Army--the one power in Russia that might conceivably replace it? That seemed unlikely. Last week Red Star and Red Fleet, official organs of the Soviet Army and Navy, began a campaign to strengthen Communist Party organization in the armed forces. Red Star called for improvement in the Army's "weak and timid" propaganda discussions, and said that to "guarantee our state interests" the Party must reach thousands of officers who lack "serious political education."

Did Stalin, like all dictators, believe in periodic "changing of the guard?" One Russian smiled, shrugged, quoted the aria in Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades: "Today it is I, tomorrow, you. . . ."

Had Zhukov, whose broad bosom jangles from throat to waist with Soviet and Allied medals, been too friendly with U.S. and British generals while he was in Berlin?

Whatever the reason for the shift, it seemed a good guess that, with the war over, Russia wants her military leaders to take more & more of a back seat and mingle less & less with outsiders. From Washington last week came a significant story. When General Walter Bedell Smith, who had established close, cordial contacts with many a Soviet brasshat in Berlin, reached Moscow as U.S. Ambassador last spring, he invited seven of them (including Zhukov) to dinner at the Embassy. Only one (not Zhukov) came.

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