THE STRUGGLE OF THE NATIONALITIES 133
German peasants, who had been settlers in the region for
generations. Naturally enough Comrades Petin, Reuter, etc.—
German and Austrian emigrants who were at the head of the
recently founded federal republic—did all in their power to
destroy the entire national life of the local population, using as
a pretext the federal constitution or the cause of local autonomy.
I cannot speak here of the sufferings of the population
during the first great famine of 1921-2. I would merely
point out that the conclusion of the Treaty of RapalloT brought
no alleviation to the Germans settled in Russia, because the
Reich did not consider it necessary to champion their vital
interests. Things became particularly difficult at the beginning
of the process of collectivization, which here again meant a
campaign against soil, nationhood and religion. Of the mass
banishments and the fate of the victims we possess excellent
accounts by reliable eyewitnesses.1 These are historical
documents, and they fully establish the systematic extermina-
tion of the banished and persecuted persons, especially clerics
of every denomination. The process of collectivization and all
that went with it placed the German settlers, totally deprived
as they were of the yield of their harvests, in a desperate
position. Faced with disaster, thousands of German peasants
made their way to Moscow, believing that there would be help
for them in the German motherland. On their arrival at
Moscow they besieged the German Embassy, and finally 5,000
of them were saved, i.e. were allowed by the Soviet authorities
to proceed to Germany. All these are well-known facts. What
is perhaps less familiar is the fact that the rest of these people—
the majority—trusting the assurances of the Soviet Government
and the advice of the German Government, returned to the
Volga region, where almost all of them were exterminated
some time later through banishment and in other ways.
• It is certain—Pastor Kern's notes make this quite dear—
1 Cf. The Whited Sepidchre> an authentic account of Church persecution
in Russia, by Pastor A. Kern, edited by Carlo von Kttgeigen. The Lutter-
worth Press> London, 1935.