THE STRUGGLE OF THE NATIONALITIES 131
Luther's famous hymn "A strong castle is our God"1—the
Finns of Ingermanland being Lutherans, whereas the Karelians
belong to the Orthodox Church. As a result of this action the
troops immediately fired volleys on the demonstrators, for this
hymn is considered the visible sign of a Christian and hence of
an anti-Bolshevist mentality.2
The remaining, mainly agricultural communities living
in Russia—Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, Czechs,
Bulgarians and Rumanians—are in much the same position
as the Finns.3
A separate description of the fate of each of these groups
would be a mere repetition. The archives at Warsaw, Riga,
Tallinn, etc., contain authentic evidence of this process of
destruction, and with their help the tragic fate of each group
could be separately described. In dealing with the topic of the
fate of these nationalities I will confine myself to that of the
most important, the Germans, who numbered about two
millions at the beginning of the war and who, to-day, like the
Finns, possess an independent State existence, at least in
theory, in the shape of the German Volga Republic. To this
extent their position is like that of the Finns. The fate of the
Germans in Russia at the same time throws light on the fate
of all the Western settlers in Russia, who, like the Estonians,
1 "EinefesteBurgist unser Gott"
2 In June 1935 Httfvudstadsbladet* of Helsingfors, published the last
message from its special correspondent who stated that the complete break-
clown of the educational system in Karelia had caused Moscow to send a
commission of inquiry to Petrozavodsk. It had become known, inter cdia,
that various schoolchildren had been frozen to death during excursions
through the neglect of the teachers. There was also said to be serious fric-
tion between disappointed Finnish Communists who had returned from
America and the local rulers. At the instance of Moscow a number of the
most influential local officials were said already to have been relieved of
their functions.
8 While the members of these groups are less numerous than the Finns
and the Germans—instead of millions only hundreds or tens of thousands—
nevertheless these smaller national groups living in Russia represent con-
siderable percentages of the totals of the various nationalities. Thus the
Estonians in Russia constitute 10 to 15 per cent of the whole Estonian race.