THE TESTIMONY OF MONSIEUR HERRIOT 237
resulting tragedies, and the rigour with which the "light cavalry"
were urged to deal with adults, as also the manner in which
the latter were dealt with if proved guilty of grain theft, appears
best from cases quoted by Molot (the Hammer), the leading
Soviet paper in the Northern Caucasus.
The following instance is quoted on August 30,1933: "The
Pioneer Sorokin, who was guarding the collective farm grain,
caught his father filling his pockets with grain. He immediately
reported the case and his father was arrested."
On July 19 the paper reported from Kislyakovka: "The
Pioneers Ania Samobvalova, Manya Luschakova and Mischa
Guba surprised the kulak Koschka cutting grain in the fields.
She had had time to get her sack half full and succeeded in
escaping. This happened on July 7. On the I3th the same
Pioneers caught her at her home at the moment when she was
beginning to thrash the grain. She was told to come to the
militia post, instead of which she used insulting language and
again attempted to escape. But Mischa Guba stood in her way
and the two girls dragged her to the door by her skirt." There
follows a description of the struggle which ended by her being
brought to the militia post. Eventually she was sentenced to
ten years' imprisonment—in other words, to a penalty ordinarily
reserved for the gravest crimes.
Even the Red State prosecutors sometimes lose their nerve
on these occasions. Thus on July 5 the Molot recorded a case
from the Stanitza Naurslaya, where another grain thief had
been sentenced to ten years5 imprisonment. Soon after his wife
was also caught in the act. In Court the State prosecutor asked
whether it was desirable that she should be imprisoned when
she ought to be taking care of her children. Against this view
the Molot protested energetically, writing: "We want no
rotten liberalism when dealing with thieves."
So much for the attitude of the leading local paper. Nothing
could better characterize Moscow's attitude: Moscow does not
care if the peasants perish by the thousand; what does matter