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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: re: STARWARS....A REPLY TO JERRY NOWLIN
Message-ID: <1096@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 31-Aug-84 14:54:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: dciem.1096
Posted: Fri Aug 31 14:54:41 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 31-Aug-84 15:58:00 EDT
References: <1236@druxy.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 31

===============
You musn't be old enough to remember the period immediately following Stalin's
death.  Every few weeks another premier took over after his predecessor was
blown away.  Look 'em up.  Malenkov, Beria, Bulganin and on and on until Krusch
-
chev.  There wasn't anybody left alive with a mob big enough to bump him off. I
t
was like Chicago in the twenties.  The bozos now taking over as the old Bolshe-
viks die off grew up during that period and learned their civics from those
guys.
===============

Maybe you are old enough, but your memory is failing.  Only one of the
people you listed was killed, and he was never a "premier" or other
leader.  On Stalin's death, the rest of the Praesidium were dead scared
of Beria, who was Stalin's secret police chief, and they got rid of him.
Since Stalin, all Soviet leaders, whether Party Secretaries or Presidents,
have either been voted out or died of what seem to be natural causes.
Malenkov was around for a long time after he became a private citizen.
And the changes at the top didn't happen every few weeks (I know, time
seems compressed when you get senile, doesn't it).

What the "bozos now taking over" learned was that Stalin's methods were
not healthy, and they have followed the traditions established by
Malenkov and particularly by Khruschev: get your power base solid,
and then get voted into office by the appropriate body for the office you want.
-- 

Martin Taylor
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