RUSSIA: Gay-pay-oo

(See front cover)

One day last week many a U. S. businessman thought his wish had come true; but soon Correspondent Walter Duranty cabled from Moscow:

"The rumor circulated in New York yesterday of a revolution in Russia is regarded here simply as an attempt to rig the wheat market.

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly that no upset is possible here without a grave disturbance inside the Communist party, the preliminary signs of which would be unmistakable. Nothing of the sort is evident now. Quite the contrary."

The reason why no upset of the Soviet Government is possible without "preliminary signs" is pronounced "Gay-pay-oo." Last week the first picture of Gay-pay-oo's supreme and secretive head reached the U. S.

The Gay-pay-oo or "G. P. U."* is the espionage department of the Soviet Government. It is usually described in eerie terms of terror. Facts:

Lubyanskaya, The large but unimposing G. P. U. headquarters face Moscow's unprepossessing Lubyanskaya Square. The building is not in the Kremlin where Dictator Stalin has his home and offices. The smaller buildings in the block behind G. P. U. are all interconnected and contain the homes of its lesser officials. The highest officials of G. P. U. live in rooms adjoining their offices and seldom stir outside. Each has his kitchen, his trusted cook. The entire G. P. U. block is guarded as a unit. Sentries mount double guard at each outside door and on each landing. The highest officials of the Government and of the G. P. U. itself cannot enter or leave without showing a written pass.

Menzhinsky, The Chief of the G. P. U. is Viacheslav Rudolphovitch Menzhinsky, son of a former nobleman and a Pole, like his late, great predecessor Felix Edmundovitch Dzerzhinsky, first head of the Ogpu which was then called the Cheka.

Comrade Menzhinsky is believed to suffer from ulcers of the stomach, and his complexion is sallow. He prefers to work, as so many Soviet officials do, very late at night, and his appointment calendar is always full of things for him to do at three and four a. m. His temper is easily aroused, but he appears to take sincere pride in his work. His job, as he conceives it, is to "Make the World Safe for the World Proletariat." His attitude is as universal as that of the Pope. Wherever upon the face of the earth Capitalism can be undone, in whole or in part, there is the place for an agent of the G. P. U.

Yagoda.The second ranking official of the G. P. U. is Comrade Yagoda. He is supposed to be "Stalin's man in the G. P. U." and also to direct a sort of private espionage service in the sole interest of the Dictator.

Unlike the celibate and sour Menzhinsky, Yagoda is married, happily it is said. About one quarter of the G. P. U. staff in Moscow are women. They are on the whole, more cheerful than the men, upon some of whom the strain of ceaseless office intrigue appears to have told grievously.

Work, Broadly speaking the work of the G. P. U. falls into four divisions: punitive action, general supervision, propaganda, intelligence.