To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The CRIMSON erred in reporting on October 23 that I had said the Russian people "just constantly put up with 'usurpers, criminals, traitors and... Adventurers.'" These words were taken entirely out of the context of my speech. I did say that the present Soviet government is a government of "usurpers" who have no mandate of any kind to speak in the name of the Soviet population. I then went on to say that what made matters worse are that this government has been unable to evolve a satisfactory procedure of self-perpetuation. Each change of government in the Soviet Union since 1924 has been attended by a formal rejection and vilification of the preceding leadership. Thus, Trotsky was charged by Stalin with being a "traitor;" Stalin was accused by Khrushchev with having engaged in "criminal" activities against his country: and now Khrushchev himself is being charged with being a "hare-brained adventurer." In other words, the epithets are not mined, but the Soviet governments. Richard Pipes   Professor of History