264 HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
and Germany] and is openly starting a campaign on behalf of
the German victims of the Russian famine/'
It is true that during the summer the "Brethren in Distress"
and the "National Union for the Support of Germanism
Abroad" initiated collections on behalf of the victims of the
famine. But the idea remained that Soviet-German relations
must continue to be guided by the principle of non-interference
in the internal affairs of another State, even in such a matter as
the assistance of men of German blood in the Soviet Union.
The old view was even maintained that a restoration of the
former Soviet-German relations would amount to "a make-
weight against the pressure of the authors of Versailles," as a
Berlin paper put it.1
In the summer of 1933 the organ of the Central Union of
Germans in Russia2 contained the following passage: "We have
for months been publishing, both in this periodical and wherever
possible in other journals, extracts from letters written by
Germans in Russia, in the hope that their appeals might be
heard. A million Germans are threatened with destruction;
but we look in vain in the German press for any cries of ven-
geance against Soviet barbarism. Here and there a solitary
note is to be found, and that is all." Subsequently much more
interest was taken by the German public and press; yet the
prevailing opinion still is that, as things are, nothing further
can be done by Germany in this respect.
At a later stage, however, it was seen that Moscow regarded
the National Socialist regime as the chief and most fundamental
enemy of Bolshevism, and hence of the Soviet State. Anyone
who doubts this has only to look at the Soviet press for a few
days, and read the flood of mockery and contempt which is
daily poured upon the German endeavours. Acting upon this
view, Moscow has made relief work for the benefit of the dis-
1 In this connection reference should be made to a book by General von
Seeckt, the former commander of the Reichswehr, which was circulated
just at that time in Germany and abroad.
* Deutsches Lelm in RussIandfNo&. 1-5.