RUSSIA: Anniversary Executions

Just as the odor of political assassination was beginning to fade from the Soviet scene—to be replaced by that subtler perfume called peaceful coexistence—the Soviet government last week reminded the world that murder is still very much a part of Kremlin politics. The government deliberately chose the anniversary of former Police Boss Lavrenty Beria's execution as "an imperialist agent" to announce the shooting of Viktor Abakumov and three other Beria associates.

The official communique said that Abakumov, "having been placed in the post of Minister of State Security by Beria, was a direct participant in the criminal subversive group that carried out Beria's orders." Abakumov, onetime chief of SMERSH, Russia's World War II counterespionage organization, was tried in Leningrad a fortnight ago before the military tribunal of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. The indictment accused Viktor Abakumov of having: 1) "framed up and falsified charges against individual workers of the party and Soviet government and representatives of the Soviet intelligentsia"; 2) "using methods of investigation prohibited by Soviet law"; 3) "having forced arrested people to give false confessions, saying that they were guilty of severe crimes against the state": 4) and having "prevented the arrested people from sending complaints to . . .

the Soviet government." After announcing its verdict, the Military Collegium tersely concluded its communique: "The sentences have been executed."