RUSSIA: Negotiator Stalin

During his twelve years as master of the Kremlin few authentic anecdotes have been printed about mysterious, closelipped, Georgia-born Joseph Stalin. Last week able New York Times Correspondent Otto D. Tolischus, nosing about the three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) which have been taken under the Soviet Union's "protective" wing, picked up what he thought were some genuine ones that came out of Russia's recent Baltic negotiations :

> On one occasion when a Baltic Foreign Minister was hard-pressed for concessions by Soviet Foreign Commissar and Premier Viacheslav M. Molotov and his aides, Comrade Stalin walked into the conference room, put his arm around the visitor's shoulder, smiled benignly, said: "Never mind, I'll protect you from these great Russians." > At a similar conference with another Baltic official Dictator Stalin varied his remark: "You know, these militarists want everything, but I am a politician and I can compromise." Result: The Russian demands were pared down. > When one Baltic Minister brought up the question of what was now to become of Communists whom Baltic States had jailed, Bolshevist No. i answered: "What you do with your own Communists is your own business. They are Trotskyists anyhow. If you must, shoot them, and if you can't handle them, I'll help you." > Once Dictator Stalin remarked: "You know, Communism has not worked here so well either."

Reporter Tolischus found that, frightened as were the bourgeois Baltic States at the Soviet advance, so far the Russians had observed all the diplomatic niceties with "banquets, mutual felicitations and exchanges of congratulatory telegrams." When the Soviet troops marched into Estonia the guns of both nations gave mutual salutes, bands played both the Estonian anthem and the Internationale. Attempts of Baltic Communists to "tovarish" the visiting Russians were received coldly. At Wilno, self-appointed Communists started to purge the bourgeoisie before the Soviet soldiers arrived, but once in control the Russians either shot the local Communists or deported them to Moscow.

Crucial Week? All this was small comfort for the Finns, who last week were harder pressed than ever by the Kremlin to come into the Soviet orbit. Finnish Minister to Sweden Juho Paasikivi and Finance Minister Väinö Tanner made another flying trip from Moscow back to Helsinki to lay before their government Dictator Stalin's "final offer." Mr. Tanner had hopes that "we can come to an agreement," reported that Tovarish Stalin had assumed personal charge of the Russian-Finnish negotiations. Negotiator Stalin was "very friendly and cordial" and smoked cigarets endlessly instead of the usual pipe.