Anniversary Waltz

"Everywhere," shouted Russia's Marshal Nikolai Bulganin last week to the crowds gathered in Red Square to celebrate the 67th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, "the warmongers are still continuing and increasing their activity." Such words are as expected a part of revolutionary celebrations as references to Old Glory on the U.S. Fourth of July. But last week the remarks were milder. When the usual parades were over, several representatives of the "warmongering" U.S. were among honored guests at a huge Kremlin banquet. There for the first time, U.S. Ambassador Charles Bohlen broke bread with Premier Georgy Malenkov.

Malenkov walked amicably among the 2,000 guests, cracked jokes, sang a folk song and chatted with a visiting Democratic Congressman from Oklahoma, Victor Wickersham. "You are an American Congressman," said Malenkov. "Take my message back to America. We have been friends and we want to go on being friends." Then Malenkov asked Wickersham: "You are not afraid here, are you?" Wickersham said he was not.

At another point, Molotov raised his glass to "better understanding" between the U.S. and Russia. "Chip" Bohlen responded handsomely by describing Comrade Molotov as "the most experienced diplomat in this room," recalled Molotov's incognito visit to Washington as "Mr. Brown" during World War II, and toasted "his next visit to Washington." Then Bohlen leaned over to reporters behind him and made it plain that he was not really extending an invitation.

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