282 HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
forgotten whose name is held in great esteem and mentioned
with gratitude by numbers of political prisoners in Russia:
Maxim Gorki's first wife, Madame Peshkova. As president of
the Political Red Cross, which specialized in assisting this
category of prisoners, Madame Peshkova did wonders. She
visited all the important prisons of Moscow almost daily,
maintaining direct contact with the prisoners. But the assistance
that could be given in this way was, as will be understood, very
limited; the numbers saved were insignificant compared with
those of political opponents or simply of non-Communist
elements exterminated throughout Russia during this period.
The victims of this category were particularly numerous in
the years between the Revolution and the beginnings of N E p
in 1921. There followed a period of improvement, until a new
climax was reached during Stalin's first five-year plan. The
chief victims now were the so-called kulaks^ i.e. not persons
politically suspect, but all peasants who had any property, who
were attached to the soil, their family and their religion and who
were consequently reluctant to accept collectivization. Thou-
sands of these were condemned to forced labour in the forests
of the north, in Siberia and elsewhere. The only difference
was that during the first, or "pre-Nep" period, most of these
"enemies of the State" perished in prison, whereas the victims
of the second period, that of Stalin's five-year plan, were not
put in prison, but became "invisible" in the forests of the north
and Siberia. Moscow's policy in dealing with its enemies at
home has thus undergone a complete change: the prisoners are
not allowed to die unproductively in prison, but are deported
to the forests of the north and east, where a maximum of labour
on a minimum of food, for the purposes of the dumping policy,
is wrung from them before they die. In the case of victims
belonging to nationalities whose main branches are outside
Russia, the countries in question have felt unable to intervene
effectively on their behalf: any representations made were met
by the reply that the persons in question were "enemies of the