'Pravda' Reports Academic Purges

Soviet Russia has joined the trend towards elimination of academic freedom, the Red newspaper "Pravda" reported last week. Accompanying the present "housecleaning" in official Communist circles is a purge of Russian academics.

Pravda cited the unmasking of a bourgeois nationalist agitator in the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh republic. It said B. Suleimenov had wormed his way into the Communist party through deceit and had carried out "political double dealing."

Said Pravda: "Presenting himself as an exposer of bourgeois nationalists, he carried on active nationalistic work and dragged hostile 'little ideas' into his lectures."

Vigorously attacking naive education officials. Pravda added: "In order to liquidate sabotage, it is necessary to put an end to gullibility in our ranks and create an atmosphere of high political vigilance."

The Soviet press has been blasting government officials since the recent announcement of the arrest of nine Soviet doctors accused of plotting murder of top officials.