The purge now going on within the ranks of the Communist party in Russia and the severe punishments meted out by Stalin to all of his opponents appear to be similar, in many ways, to the conduct of the National Socialist dictator, Herr Hitler. When Hitler found out about the plot organized against him by the storm troopers, he ordered mass executions, which were carried out on June 30, 1934; later on, this incident became known as the "bloody bath".

After Kirov's assassination, Stalin discovered a plot among prominent party members and agents of the secret police to stage an uprising against the all-powerful dictator. With the help of troops stationed in the city of Leningrad, he arrested all members of the Leningrad secret police together with the local chief, Mr. Medved, and the head of the service, Mr. Yagoda who was replaced by the "all-union attorney general," Mr. Akulov, coworker of Dzerzhinsky, 2first head of the dreaded GPU.

Taking into consideration the lessons of the past, the coward Stalin, trembling for his life, ordered mass executions of members of the Communist party who were suspected of plots. He hoped that by terror he could repair his party fences and could stop the growth of discontent among members of opposition groups.

For this reason the purge is still in progress and there is still a great deal of ferment among the party members.

The system of constant purges indicates mistrust of the party machine, which has begun to decay at its head. Last year on orders from the Central Committee, the reliability of the party members was checked by depositions from private citizens who were, in many cases, called to testify against prominent party leaders, with the exception of agents of GPU. The latter have seemingly degenerated entirely, because the head of the GPU at present is unable to 3distinguish between reliable men and traitors, as Kirov's murder indicates. The assassination was conceived and carried out by Nikolav, a bodyguard of the murdered Communist chief. The murderer could just as easily have gained access to the innermost chambers of the Central Executive Committee, and levelled his gun against Stalin himself and other prominent members of the highest ruling body in Moscow.

Stalin, afraid of being killed by one of his own colleagues from the inner council, issued orders subjecting to search all party members entering the premises of the Central Committee on business. But the guards stationed at the entrances must have guns.

Vainglorious and yet cowardly, Stalin quickly settled his accounts with his colleagues from the opposition groups, after he tagged them White Guards and "enemies of the working class".

On the same day that Kirov was killed, Stalin's Central Executive Committee 4promulgated a decree establishing military field courts. The decree was published in the papers on December 5, and on the same day, sixty-six men were shot in Moscow and Leningrad. After that the number of those executed grew by leaps and bounds. In Moscow and Kiev, Urlich was chief executioner; in Leningrad and Minsk, Matulevich. The executioners reported only the personal and family names of the persons shot, but did not give the victim's age, profession, origin, past or present record, or social status.

All this was done by Stalin with the avowed purpose of hiding from foreign countries the breakdown and demoralization taking place in the Communist party, and of presenting the executed as White Guards. However, this decay cannot be concealed from two and a half million Communists and five million Young Communists who are still living in Russia. They know what caused the shooting of one hundred and seventeen men. They know that the same fate threatens them, for everyone is under suspicion, and every suspect's destiny is to be shot. Charged with being an immigrant, M. M. Lebedinetz, former chairman of the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian Societ Socialist Republic, was executed;

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Esmond, former general consul in Warsaw and former Commissar of Justice in 1919 and Commissar of the Interior in 1930, met the same fate. The murderer of Kirov, Nikolae is also a very prominent agent of the GPU. He was well known not only by the inner circles of the Communist party in Russia, but also abroad. His sympathies and inclinations drew him into the camp of the Soviet younger generation, which presents a serious threat to Stalin's regime due to its growing dissatisfaction with the existing conditions. That is why Stalin is so vindictive in settling his accounts with all kinds of "plotters" and oppositionists.

A very close analogy can be drawn between the events accompanying the French revolution of 1789 and those of the Russian revolution. This is particularly evident when one compares Stalin and Robespierre, who figured as the "incorruptible revolutionary" and all-powerful Judge. Robespierre used leftwing elements to exterminate the rightists, and, then in the name of the "revolution," cut off the heads of his assistants from the left. Stalin does the same. First he wrecks the opposition from the right, later--the left, 6and now he is engaged in doing away with his assistants. The guillotine severed the head of Robespierre on the 9th Thermidor; later on, events led to the 18th Brumaire--to Napoleon. The fate in store for Stalin and Russia is similar.

Stalin's regime has created such conditions that party members themselves shoot down their own idols, who in turn shoot down their own party members.