ZHDANOV’S FUNERAL, AND DOUBTS ABOUT STALIN’S SUCCESSOR

Grey River Argus, 4 September 1948, Page 8

ZHDANOV’S FUNERAL, AND DOUBTS ABOUT STALIN’S SUCCESSOR

LONDON, Sept. 2 The funeral took place on Friday of General. Zhdanov, aged 51, who was the secretary or the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Soviet Union, a member of the Soviet Commission on Nazi crimes in the. U.S.S.R. and one of the organisers of the nine-nation Cominform Propaganda Bureau. It is noted-here that.no previous report had been issued of General Zhdanov’s illness, though this is by no means unusual. Neverthless, there is some speculation as to whether General Zhdanov died a natural death as claimed by the Moscow radio, or had fallen a victim in an internal Politbureau struggle for power. M. Stalin, with the highest Communist chiefs, attended M. Zhdanov's burial ceremony, which lasted nearly an hour. Practically the wole of the diplomatic corps, except the British and American representatives, were present at the funeral. M. Molotov, in. a funeral oration, told a huge mourning crowd in the Keu Square: “The .bolshevik Party and the Soviet State have lost one of their most beloved sons, who was a true pupil and talented comrade in arms of the great Stalin. Zhdanov’s life had been an example of supreme service to his people for 33 years.” M. Molotov credited Zhdanov with crushing tne “last dregs of 'the Trotskyites, Bukharinites and other foreign intelligence supports and agents.” The late General Zhdanov was like M. Stalin, a name of Georgia, South of Russia. He achieved his first important office in the Communist Party in 1934 when he was appointed party secretary for Leningrad and nortn-west Russia. He became a national hero as a result of his able conduct of the defence of Leningrad for which he received the two highest awards df the Soviet Union, the orders of Suvarov and Lenin. Between 1944 and 1947 he was chairman of the Russian Control Commission for Finland and he signed the armistice with that country. He was generally considered, the ablest orator among the Politbureau leaders. There was considerable comment when he deputised for M. Stalin at the 29th anniversary celebrations of the October Revolution in 1946. Considerable interest is shown by British newspapers in his death. General Zhdanov has been generally described in recent months as the most likely successor to M. Stalin. It is widely believed that General Zhdanov headed the section of the Politbureau most violently opposed to the West and he was generally credited with having been the chief instigator of the Cominform’s attack upon Marshal Tito. It was recently suggested that a struggle was in progress between General Zhdanov and his supporters on one hand, and M. Molotov and his supporters on the other for second position in the Soviet hierachy.