RUSSIA A FINE ITALIAN HAND THE PAUCITY OF FACTS IN MOSCOW LENDS 
A CERTAIN CREDIBILITY TO EVERY RUMOR ABOUT THE KREMLIN, ESPECIALLY WHEN 
IT CONCERNS THE SUPPOSED UPS AND DOWNS OF NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV. THUS 
IT WAS LAST WEEK THAT A WHISPER FROM MOSCOW VIA ROME 
BECAME A BLAST OF HOT AIR FELT AROUND THE WORLD . 
IT ALL BEGAN WITH A MOSCOW DISPATCH BY GIUSEPPE BOFFA, CORRESPONDENT 
FOR ITALY'S COMMUNIST NEWSPAPER L'UNITA, WHICH SOBERLY DESCRIBED SOVIET TROUBLES IN 
DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND AT ONE POINT PERMITTED ITSELF THE 
FLAT ASSERTION THAT " MOSCOW IS LIVING THROUGH A DELICATE AND 
INTERESTING POLITICAL MOMENT . " ROME'S VOLATILE PRESS ERUPTED WITH SCREAMING 
HEADLINES PREDICTING NIKITA'S IMMINENT DOWNFALL . BIG PAPERS IN NEW YORK,LONDON 
AND PARIS GAVE WAY TO SIMILAR SPECULATION . THOUGH KHRUSHCHEV WAS 
SURELY UNDER PRESSURE, HE DID NOT ACT LIKE A FELLOW ON 
THE SKIDS . HE SENT A NOTE TO HIS POISON PEN 
PAL MAO TSE-TUNG POLITELY DECLINING MAO'S INVITATION TO TALK OVER THE 
SINO-SOVIET SPLIT IN PEKING (TIME, MARCH 22). INSTEAD HE INVITED MAO 
OR A GROUP OF COLLEAGUES TO MOSCOW . SUGGESTED TIME FOR 
THE CONFRONTATION OF QUARRELING COMMUNISTS : IN THE SPRING OR SUMMER, 
" WHICH ARE GOOD SEASONS OF THE YEAR IN OUR COUNTRY 
. / EVEN THE UPS AND DOWNS OF SOVIET SPACE TECHNOLOGY 
WERE SHROUDED IN UNCERTAINTY LAST WEEK . MOSCOW LAUNCHED A FOURTH 
MOON PROBE, BUT WITH TYPICAL SECRECY DID NOT REVEAL ITS MISSION 
. THE SIZE OF LUNIK IV (1F TONS) LED SOME WESTERN 
SCIENTISTS TO BELIEVE IT WAS DESIGNED TO CARRY OUT A SOFT 
LANDING ON THE MOON . BUT AFTER 3F DAYS IN FLIGHT, 
LUNIK IV MISSED THE MOON BY 5,281 MILES . WAS LUNIK 
IV A FLOP ? TASS REPORTED ONLY THAT EXPERIMENTS " HAD 
BEEN CARRIED OUT, " THEN CURTLY ADDED IT WOULD HAVE NOTHING 
MORE TO REPORT ABOUT THE FLIGHT . 