154 HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
forests with his own horses, and that twice the old number of
woodcutters and three times the number of horses were to be
mobilized. "The daily standard work of each cutter/' the
decree says, "must amount to double the number of trunks cut
down, and each horse must yield a maximum of transport
labour. This can only be done if every woodcutter does his
duty from early morning till late at night; if every moment
during the day is spent wholly and entirely in work." But what
is most characteristic in this decree is the statement that the
"first duly" of every peasant and worker in the north was to
"fight" for the fulfilment of the export programme, so that
non-fulfilment of this duty and evasion of the obligation to cut
wood would be considered "direct sabotage." The penalty for
such "treachery" would be, for collective farm peasants,
banishment from the collective farm; as for individual peasants,
the local Soviet was to take immediate steps to make them feel
the consequences of their action.
Members of Communist organizations detailed for work in
the forests were instructed to keep a sharp look-out for the
machinations of class enemies and counter revolutionaries—
for if "treachery" occurred it must be due to these. What did
this mean? Malcolm Muggeridge, from whose account in the
Manchester Guardian I have taken these details, rightly points
out that the entire population of a district has been condemned
to forced labour, under threat of being treated as class enemies
in case of inadequate compliance.
The degree of compulsion applied in collecting grain from
the peasantry in the agricultural districts has been described
elsewhere. Here I would merely refer to a particularly charac-
teristic measure. This is the order prohibiting the peasants
from leaving the collective farms. They are thus deprived of
their liberty of movement—in other words, tied down to the
collective farms.
And yet this decree was issued IB the name of an idea and
in order to realize the ideal of harmony between men and