THE STRUGGLE OF THE NATIONALITIES 115
itself to the persecution of a few important or particularly
incriminated persons, but was directed against all nationalist
elements, whether Communists or otherwise, is apparent
from Postyschev's speech delivered in October 1933 on the
conclusion of his campaign. He believed that "counter-revo-
lutionaries" and "agents of foreign countries" had established
themselves everywhere, who, together with the leaders of the
Ukrainian emigres abroad, were attempting, in Postyschev's
words, to bring the workers and the rest of the population of the
Ukraine once more under the domination Of Polish magnates,
German barons and British interventionists. According to
Postyschev these endeavours were supported by thousands of
misguided Ukrainian Communists in all the party organizations.
They had crept into every field of activity, whether in the
cultural, the economic or the educational sphere. They had
penetrated even into influential circles and the leading positions
in the Ukrainian Communist Party. They were in the collective
farms, the Soviet farms, the agricultural offices, in the People's
Commissariat for Education, and in certain departments of
the Treasury, where they did the enemy's work.
Postyschev then specifically attacked the People's Com-
missariat for Agriculture. There, he said, a band of counter-
revolutionaries had been at work for years as members of the
college of the People's Commissariat, as presidents of sections
and as heads of groups. Their counter-revolutionary activity
was reflected in the position of agriculture and the course of
collectivization. They had penetrated especially into the
agricultural administration to prevent the proper organization
of agriculture. "They penetrated into various sections of the
agricultural planning department, in order, by their own plans,
to hamper the collection of grain and increase the supply
difficulties in the country."
Thus even the fact that the Ukrainian Communists pro-
tested against the intolerable burdening of the peasants by
the excessive demands made in the plans is described by