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SO
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RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents a Copy
Saturday, July 3, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 1
rwu«] Weekly at 110 W. 40th Street. New York, N. Y. Lttdwig C A. K. Martens Publisher. Jaeoh Wittmer Hart man n, Editor.
Subscription Rate, $5,00 per annum. Application for entry as second class matter pending.
*•&
The Economic Policy of the Sovm Govern-
ment . 674
N on-Party Conferences, by A, Myosnikov. . . . 650
Cultural Work in the Red Army 651
A Year of War. . . ♦ . 653
England's Russian Policy, by Karl Radek,. 657
Art and the Bolsheviki 658
TABLE OP CONTENTS
PAGE
PAGI
Organization of Labor in Soviet Russia 660
Editorials 662
Statement of the Bureau 663
New Photographs from Soviet Russia 665-672
Press Cuttings . . . . 673
Book Review , 675
Radios .......... 676
The Economic Policy of the Soviet Government
'pHE economic policy of the Soviet Government
* was established in the midst of incessant
fighting, when the entire country was a vast mili-
tary camp, and the problems of the war were para-
mount. To put this policy into practice demanded
an intense application of forces to overcome in-
ternal as well as external resistance. The carrying
out of this policy was hindered as much by the
attacks of the counter-revolutionists as by the
open and secret sabotage of the superior technical
personnel ; inertia and prejudice were the enemies
to be fought in a difficult struggle.
The Soviet organs which direct the economic
life are based upon trade union organizations.
From top to bottom the system of direction is
constructed upon this basis.
At the head of the entire administration is the
Supreme Council of National Economy; in the
provinces the local Councils of National Economy.
All the activities of the Supreme Council of Na-
tional Economy are supervised by a Bureau com-
posed of eleven persons. Corresponding to the
various branches of industry : metallurgical, chem-
ical, textile, electro- technical, etc., the Supreme
Council of National Economy is divided into fifty
sections of production, at the head of which are
the Committees, each composed of from three to
seven persons.
The appointment of the president of the Su-
preme Council of National Economy, and that of
his substitute, are ratified by the Central Executive
Committe of the Soviets of all Russia; that of
the members of the Bureau by the Council of Peo-
ple's Commissaries. But the candidatures are usu-
ally submitted before ratification to the general
Council of Russian labor anions.
All the sectional committees of the Supreme
Council of National Economy are approved by the
Bureau, but never until after a preliminary under-
standing with the corresponding syndicate. The
workers as well as the specialists (engineers, tech-
nicians), have members in all the committees and
in the Bureau.
The local Councils of National Economy are
the executive organs of the Supreme Council of
National Economy, and are organized on the same
basis as the latter, though being more restricted.
The management of the factories and adminis-
tration for the various state enterprises and trusts
is composed in each case of from five to seven
members (workers and specialists), but they are
sanctioned by the corresponding section of the
Supreme Council of National Economy or of the
local Council of National Economy only after a
preliminary understanding with the corresponding
syndicate,
A great number of specialists are on the Com-
mittees and in the management of f ac tones: as
many as sixty per cent are specialists and forty
per cent are workers.
Thus the Soviet power replaced the system of
capitalist direction by the Soviet system, which
planted deep roots in the farthest corners of our
economic life. Despite the difficult external and
internal conditions this system is accomplishing
its task perfectly.
To sum up these two years of struggle, the
means of production passed almost entirely from
the hands of the capitalists and proprietors into
those of society personified in the Soviet organs.
Nationalization of the factories, shops, mines,
etc., was brought about first in the principal
branches of induiJrv and in Hie most important
ei,terpri^ N | VERS | Ty0Fjyi | CH | GAN
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information has often been circuit * •
•*•* - r l Europe with regard to this nari^ :ii7i.
v> hich, it was said, followed no fi:<< : f
This is a falsehood without foundation.
Nationalization, especially beginning with the
second half of the year 1918, was brought about
in accordance with a fixed plan embracing the
industrial branches and enterprises most important
and indispensable for the organization of the na-
tional economy.
As to the "small trades" and the cooperatives,
not only were they not nationalized, but they were
protected by special decrees and dispositions.
The following tables gives an idea of the pro-
portionate figures for nationalization in the course
of the last two years :
Nationalization During the Years 1918-1919.
1. Enterprises 4,000
2. Merchant marine construction 16,000
3. Private property 60,000,000 hectares
4. All the banks of all cities.
These figures are a little short in the case of the
enterprises, 4,000 enterprises are under the Su-
preme Council of National Economy, but in the
provinces many nationalized enterprises, being un-
der the direction of local organs, do not figure in
the statistics drawn up by the central organs.
It may be said with certainty that ninety per
cent of industry is nationalized.
The Soviet power inherited from Capitalism en-
terprises isolated and deprived of connecting
bonds.
Its task, as indicated above, was to construct an
organization of national economy based upon
socialist principles.
It was indispensable that there be organized and
created in the domain of industry and that of
rural economy associations of isolated enterprises,
that they be provided with fuel and basic materials,
and their financial system constructed upon new
principles.
In resume of all the innovations introduced in
the domain of national economy in the course of
these two years (1918-1919) we have the following
table:
There were organized :
I. In Industry.
1. State trusts 90
2. Factory administrations 4,000
3. State systems for the provision of wood, flax, wool,
hemp, etc.
II. In Rural Economy.
1. Soviet exploitations 2,399
2. Rural communes and associations 5,961
In this manner industry and rural economy
during these two years were not only placed under
the direction of the organs of the proletarian dic-
tatorship, but also reorganized internally with
reference to production. A concentration of pro-
duction was brought about. Trusts like that of
the electro-technical industry, uniting without ex-
ception all the enterprises which fought one an-
other in pitiless rivalry before the October Revo-
lution, or like the State trust .for machine con-
-■ ruction, comprising sixteen of the most import-
ant enterprises, represent a result unprecedented
'n the economic world.
The situation is similar in the nationalized en-
terprises of the textile industry, to the number
of more than 500, divided into forty different asso-
ciations each embracing several enterprises and all
directed by a "principal management."
From the point of view of finance, provisions,
registration, the reception of products, etc., the
organization of industry in state trusts was of
enormous advantage. The regulation of accounts
between the nationalized enterprises and their asso-
ciations takes place only in the books and without
the payment of cash.
Owing to this system the distribution of fuel
and basic materials becomes more equal and ra-
tional. If one considers the extremely difficult sit-
uation in which Soviet Russia was placed, during
these last two years, in the matter of fuel, having
at her disposal only ten per cent of indispensable
coal and only ninety-three million poods of naphtha
in lieu of the 400 millions necessary each year, one
can see that only the centralization of distribution
and a certain economy have aided us to evade a
terrible fuel Crisis. As for the distribution of
raw materials, that was organized in a satisfactory
manner.
In the sphere of rural economy the organization
of Soviet exploitations directed by Soviet organs
made it possible not only to protect agriculture,
the great land properties, but also permitted the
industrial proletariat to take part for the first time
in agricultural labor, and created also for the first
time solid ties between industry and agricultural
exploitation, between the city and the country.
At present nearly three million hectares are al-
ready in the hands of Soviet exploitations and
agricultural communes.
Returning to the economic situation and the re-
sults of the economic activities, we should indi-
cate first that this situation, as a result of our
activity, depended upon changes brought about by
the civil war.
The Don Basin, the Urals, the Caucasus, the
principal sources of fuel and raw material — of coal,
naphtha, iron, cast-iron, steel — passed from hand
to hand. For a certain length of time they fell
again to the Soviet power, but new assaults by
the White Guards deprived us of them, ruining
organized production and taking from us accumu-
lated reserves.
As a result the center of Soviet Russia became
our principal base.
The loss of the Don Basin meant for us the loss
of eighty per cent of all our coal ; the occupation
of Baku by the English deprived us of naphtha;
the occupation of the South and the Urals— of
metals.
It is easy thus to realize clearly the difficult con-
ditions under which our economic life developed.
But in addition tc territorial conditions, our
economic situation wai* isfineiuttd by the fact that
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SOVIET RUSSIA
649
we had again to mobilize our industry and employ
it for the needs of war.
Such are tte conditions under which our eco-
nomic activity was developed and our progress
brought to realization.
The following figures characterize the principal
branches of our economic activity where it was
pursued without interruption during these two
years :
ment working in the industries of Soviet Russia.
(The figures are incomplete.) In certan branches
of industry (in the mines of the region of Mos-
cow, in the electro-technical industry) all the en-
terprises are operating without exception ; in oth-
ers, — in the textile industry for example — almost
fifty per cent of the enterprises are at a standstill,
but it is impossible to name a single branch of
industry which has ceased completely. The facts
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PREPARATION OF FUEL AND RAW MATERIAL }
(Quantity in Poods)
Products 1918 1919
A. Fuel
1. Coal (regions of Moscow and Borovichi) almost 30 million almost 30 million
2. Wood (in stock and reserve) 4 mill. cu. sazhins 5 mill. cu. sazhins
3. Peat 58 million 60 million
4. Naphtha 93 million Baku occupied by English
B. Raw Material (in the stores of the S. C. of N. E.)
! - Flax iy 2 million
2. Cotton 2,784 thousand 6 l / 2 million (with Turkestan reserves)
3 - Wools 2 million
4 - H « m P 2 million
5 - Hides ' 5,461,000 pieces 2,365,800 pieces (for six months)
6. Metals (reserves) 30 million 40 million
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The above figures are only for fuel and raw
material accumulated and utilized by the Supreme
Council of National Economy.
We can see that the situation has become worse
in the matter of fuel because of the loss of the
naphtha. In 1918 we could transport the naphtha
from Baku, but in 1919 we did not receive any
at all.
Owing to this circumstance we were obliged to
use wood fuel for the railroads and other enter-
prises, and this was the cause of the famine in fuel
for dwellings. Before the war no more wood was
prepared than now: from four to five million cubic
sazhins, but then there was coal, and naphtha
which served industry, and the wood was used
principally to heat dwellings; now wood is the
principal fuel. As regards peat, the situation has
improved, and in 1919 it was prepared in greater
quantities (1918 — fifty-eight million poods; in
1919 — sixty million poods). The preparation of
raw material for our textile industry was sufficient,
and the industry is fully provided for. Flax and
furs have accumulated in such great quantities
that it would be easv to export them abroad.
With regard to metals the situation has become
difficult, we have utilized our old reserves all this
time. With the retaking of the Urals and the
defeat of Kolchak, the situation has improved and
we are receiving metals from the Urals.
In short, the system of provisioning under
Soviet rule functions perfectly and is solidly con-
structed.
The latest statistics indicate that more than a
million workers (excluding those employed on
railroads, commerce, etc.), are at the present mo-
do not show it. In short, the total number of
salaried workers (workers and employees) reaches
the minimum number of three million men. In
certain spheres progress even may be claimed. Dur-
ing these two years our economic organs undertook
the organization of fifteen important enterprises
several of which are already completed and oper-
ating. At Podolsk (province of Moscow) a great
factory for the repair of locomotives has been con-
structed and is already operating ; as is a cartridge
factory at Simbirsk. Two great electrical stations,
one at Kachira, the other in the marsh of Chatour,
are being completed. The construction of a fac-
tory of agricultural machinery and implements
has commenced at Saratov.
But the most important enterprise is the exploi-
tation of schist deposits in the provinces of Samara
and Kazan, an enterprise begun in 1919. Several
mines are already being exploited.
Let us cite here the figures relative to the prin-
cipal branches of industry serving military as well
as civil needs.
Production and Reserves in 1919
Fabrics
Average monthly production — 14 million arzhins
Reserves — nearly a milliard arzhins.
Sugar
Production during the campaign 1918-1919:
In Soviet Russia — 4 million poods.
In Soviet Ukraine — 10 million poods.
Q WW
Production in 1918 — 1.052,023 boxes.
During six mouths b 1919— 412,805,000 boxes.
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July 3,.1920
Soap
Monthly production — 20 to 25 thousand poods.
Salt
More than 10 million poods have been extracted.
These products are distributed in accordance
with a definite plan. First the Red Army is pro-
vided, then the workers, and finally the rest of the
population.
Let us consider now the question of food.
During these two years the most difficult prob-
lem was that of food. The regions most rich in
wheat, such as the territory of the Don, South
Russia, the territories beyond the Volga, and
Siberia, were either in the hands of the enemy or
were passing from hand to hand.
When, after the October Revolution, we took
over the power there were almost no reserves of
bread. The harvest of 1918 had a yield above the
average (in twenty-five provinces of Soviet Rus-
sia it reached 1,235 million poods). The system
of rationing which was organized about this time
could store 106 million poods. This permitted us
in the second half of 1918 and in 1919 to improve
the bread ration for the poptdation compared to
the first half of 1918. The harvest of 1919 was
also above the average, and besides, the whole re-
gion beyond the Volga and a part of Siberia passed
into our hands. This year we hope the grain re-
serves will surpass those of last year. Difficulties
are encountered principally in transportation for
the war. But thanks to the consolidation of the
distributing system an improvement may be ex-
pected, not very great it is true, but an improve-
ment nevertheless.
We have cited figures relating only to the prin-
cipal branches of industry, taking for a basis the
average monthly production. We have described
only the general economic situation in Soviet Rus-
sia, and we have summarized the results of our
activity in the economic sphere during the last two
years. But it is needless to say that we could
not here include all that has been accomplished by
the working masses in the titanic creative work of
the new life which is in the making under* our
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Non-Party Conferences
By A. Myasnikov
T^" ON-PARTY CONFERENCES or confer-
^^ ences of the wide laboring masses have be-
come a common practice in Russia for the last
year. Experience has shown that these confer-
ences are of great importance in the political
education of the great masses of workers, peasants,
and Red Army men.
A country like Russia where, after the October
Revolution, the rank and file of the proletariat
and the great masses of the peasantry awoke and
became a great factor in political life, their poli-
tical education and their participation in the con-
struction of a new Soviet life became a question
of the first importance. The Communist Party
in Moscow has decided for the first time to carry
on its activity in labor circles through the so-
called non-party conferences.
Either the authoritative and experienced groups
of Communists or the local Soviet calls a confer-
ence under the control and leadership of the party
Corhmittee, usually by electing one delegate for
every ten or twenty men as representatives for the
various factories, or villages of Red Army detach-
ments. The agenda includes all those topics of
the day which interest the workers, peasants, and
the Red Army soldiers. Such topics are often the
state of siege of any particular town or territory,
the food Crisis, the struggle against the transport
disorganization, and so on. The preliminary work
for the election, as well as the election itself, takes
place under conditions of the greatest activity of
our party comrades who explain to the masses the
aim and the significance of the conference. They
pur;x)se to choose as delegates such men as are able
later on to relate to their constituents in an in-
telligible manner all that took place at the confer-
ence. At the pre-election meetings it is generally
pointed out that the aim of the conference is to
obtain the sympathy and the support of all the
workers in favor of the Soviet Government, to ex-
plain and to discuss all the new undertakings and
measures, all the victories and errors of the Soviet
Government.
Generally the conferences actually succeed in
attaining this end; the multifarious mass listens
eagerly to reports in connection with military
questions, social maintenance, or the economic sit-
ution of the country. They become interested,
they criticize, they approve or dispute, they raise
hundreds and hundreds of questions which are in-
stantly answered. The delegates come to the con-
ference with prejudice and lack of confidence but,
after becoming acquainted with the Soviet
policy and participating in the discussion of
concrete measures, they gradually acquire a poli-
tical education. After one, two, or three sittings
of the conference the majority of the delegates,
and often even an entire conference, are completely
drawn into the Soviet policy, into its life and
work and general plans. The delegates become
firmly conscious that the Soviet Government is
really a government of workers, and that only
by way of collaboration with it can the so-called
non-party sections strengthen the government as
well as the ranks of the fighting proletariat.
These conferences also prove that the so-called
non-partv secticrs are in reality communistic
a iMMrt«mr parate the working
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class from Communism. Thus the non-party
conferences, these organizations of sections which
are little concerned with politics as a whole, be-
come a mighty weapon for the development of
Soviet construction. No better party and political
work can be created. It enthuses and electrifies
the non-party sections and rapidly and easily
draws them into the Communist Party. Very often
many delegates, both at and during the confer-
ence, join the party.
With the return of conference delegates things
become very lively in the barracks and army de-
tachments. Heated disputes, explanations, and
discussions ensue, and in the end a unanimous
approval of the policy of our party is reached;
this is the general upshot of those great confer-
ences, at which hundreds, and, very often, thous*
ands of delegates are present. Cases were not rare
where the number of participants reached three
and a half to four thousand delegates. Most
prominent workers in the Soviet Government,
commissars and heads of departments, speak at the
conferences. In Moscow Comrade Lenin is often
a welcome speaker on international and home
policy.
The non-party conferences, have become usual,
— they have become part of our ordinary life ; fol-
lowing the example of Moscow the provinces now
hold such conferences; thence the movement
spreads to the towns, and from the towns to the
villages. There is hardly a spot left in Soviet
Russia where these conferences fail to educate
the masses, and in their name to support the Soviet
Government and to approve its measures and pol-
icy. These workers' and peasants' and Red Army
soldiers' conferences have become quite a common
occurrence.
Here are a few figures of the Moscow confer-
ences as striking instances. Recently, prior to the
elections for the Moscow Soviet, a number of mass
conferences took place in every district of the city:
Within a fortnight seventeen conferences took
place in Moscow having a total number of 15,600
delegates and representing approximately 280,000
workers and Red Army soldiers ; out of this num-
ber 200,000 workers took part in the elections. On
an average the Communist delegates at these con-
ferences composed no more than one-fifth, the rest
being either non-party men or sympathizers with
Communism. It is the intention of the Russian
Communist Party not to elect communists for the
non-party conferences, but to elect non-party men,
yet the masses most often elect Communists, who
form a firm and healthy nucleus at these confer-
ences. It is characteristic that among the 15,600
delegates, there was, as an exception to the rule, an
insignificant number of Mensheviks, namely three,
two Anarchists, and five Socialist-Revolutionaries,/
and members of other groups and parties.
All this mass has clearly shown that it is in fav-
or of the Communist Party and that, in Moscow
Soviet elections, it has carried with it the entire
garrison and proletariat of Moscow towards the
victory of the Communists. At the present time
the elections are over. The result is as follows:
Out of 1,461 deputies, 1,281 were Communists and
sympathizers with Communism, 128 non-party,
and fifty-two of various parties. This result is to
a great extent, to be attributed to the non-party
conferences.
We are therefore justified in stating that non-
party conferences are the best means of introduc-
ing the idea of Communism in the masses, and they
are, at the same time, a correct indicator of the
temper of the masses at every particular period.
Presumably this experience will in due time be
taken into account by the Western proletariat.
Cultural Work in the Ranks of the Red Army
T^HE Red Army is victorious on all fronts. At
the same time the Soviet Government has
also gained victories in the ranks of its own army,
victories which are of great significance in the
cause of Socialism — victories over illiteracy, pre-
judice, and ignorance of the peasant Red Army
soldiers.
The tremendous successes of cultural work in
the whole country and especially in the ranks of
the Bed Army are so conspicuous that on many
occasions they were the subject of the Kolchak
and Denikin newspapers which commented with
envy and impotent rage on these successes, setting
them up as an example for their own unpreten-
tious "propagandists" and "agitators." The com-
ments of the White Guards on these successes are
franker still in unofficial documents. As an in-
stance, we quote the following report of August,
1919, of the Chief of the Scouting Division of
the Headquarters of Kolchak's Third Army — Col-
onel Shokov.
Agitation and propaganda in Soviet Russia is
brilliantly organized. Propaganda classes have
been established in every government town, which
have already turned out a number of trained agi-
tators. The ideas of Bolshevism are disseminated
in simple, comprehensible, and convincing lan-
guage and forms. The whole country is literally
flooded with appeals, placards, newspapers, and .
colored pictures.
At the front the Bolsheviks have made propa-
ganda a weapon as mighty as artillery, aviation,
and tanks.
The report of the Literary Publication Depart-
ment of the Political Administration of the Revo-
lutionary War Council of the Republic for the
period of June i to November 1 gives a clear idea
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July 3, 1920
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of the extent of cultural work performed in the
Red Army.
The following were issued during the five
months :
"The Red Soldiers" magazine (No. 3-9), 1,004,-
000 copies; the magazine "Svetoch," for White
soldiers, 40,000 copies; 241,000 pamphlets. The
following leaflets were published: for the Red
Army, 1,810,000 copies; for the Whites, 1,075,000
copies; 1,130,584 colored pictures; 45,000 graphic
tables.
Bv the 1st of December 487,000 pamphlets were
issued; 1,000,000 leaflets; 500,000 copies of the
"Red Soldiers"; 600,000 open letters; 628,000
placards and colored pictures, and 92,000 graphic
tables.
The whole of this tremendous work was carried
out solely by the Central Political Administration.
A perfect conception of the colossal cultural work,
organized for the Red Army, will be formed if we
carry in mind the fact that the political depart-
ments of all fronts as well as the Red Army Divi-'
sions publish a great amount of printed matter.
The whole of this agitational and cultural liter-
ature is written in the most popular style, com-
prehensible to the intelligence of the meanest peas-
ants of the most remote corner of illimitable Rus-
sia. The gist of all the placards, pictures, and
cartoons is easily grasped even by such of the
peasants who have never had occasion to turn the
pages of an illustrated magazine.
The distribution of literature is not the only
form of cultural activity among the Red Army
soldiers. Another form of this activity is ex-
pressed in the organization of schools, libraries, *
clubs, and theatres. In this direction the results
achieved were also quite brilliant. By the 1st of
November 3,800 schools had been established for
the Red Army soldiers; there are 2,392 circulating
libraries and 1,315 clubs. There is a theatre with
almost every club. There are fifty-two Red Army
soldiers' theatres in Moscow alone.
The Red Army soldiers attend their schools
eagerly. In the Yaroslav garrison attendance rose
to 90-95 per cent of the illiterate. At times spe-
cial measures are taken towards the instruction
of the illiterate. Thus, for instance, at Kazan, all
the illiterate of the Artillery Depot are exempted
from all service for three weeks on the condition
that they attend school every day.
The following is a description of the successful
development of the Red Army theatre. The Cul-
tural Department of the Red Army at Samara has
at its disposal two troupes of professional actors.
In the garrison hospitals, Red Army clubs, and
town theatres, the following performances were
given to the Red Army soldiers: In August 24
plays, 14 concerts, and 129 cinematograph shows ; in
September, five performances, 41 concerts, and 40
cinematograph shows ; in October, 8 plays, 54 con-
certs, and 60 cinematograph shows. All perform-
ances are free to the soldiers. The following are
the figures of attendance: In August, 79,240 Red
Army soldiers attended; in September, 76,860; in
October, 76,860. The total number of spectators
amounted to 291,920 soldiers. During this period
besides the professional troops 35 dramatic Red
Army circles were established and worked in the
army; by November 1, the number of plays and
concerts given by these amounted to 235.
The amateur Red Army dramatic circles ver\'
often put on the stage plays which were written
by Red Army soldiers themselves. These plays
are not pretentious, they cannot be said to be
striking for their aesthetic qualities; their great
advantage lies however in the fact that dealing
as they do with vital questions and realistic prob-
lems of the day they find a ready appeal in the
hearts of the workers and peasants, whom circum-
stances have temporarily turned into soldiers.
Cultural work is as equally intense in the rear
as it is at the front. It is understood that the
conditions at the front create a great number of
obstacles in the normal development of this kind
of activity. Where, however, the communist cir-
cles are at their height, this work with the assist-
ance of the Red Army soldiers "who are eagerly
striving towards knowledge, is often successful. As
an example we may give the activity of the clubs
at the front. At a certain club organized in one
brigade, within three weeks were given four plays,
a review, and three cinematograph performances;
a lecture was read by the lecturer of the political
Army Department on the Origin of Man; the lec-
ture was illustrated by slides and proved, of the
greatest interest to the soldier-audience. There is
a library and reading room at the club, a small
string orchestra, courses for the illiterate daily
filled with soldiers, who- — to repeat the expression
of a Red Army soldier-correspondent — seek to ob-
tain at their temple of art not only mental rest
but also knowledge.
Thus we see that in its cultural activity in the
ranks of the Red Army the Soviet Government
strives to satisfy the spiritual demands of the Red
Army soldiers. The task of the revolutionary-
socialist education does not consist in raising the
spirit of the Red Army when faced by the enemy ;
it is much broader than that. Compelled by un-
fortunate circumstances to take the peasant from
his plough and the workman from his bench, the
Soviet Government strives, at the same time, to
utilize the period of the soldiers' service in the
interest of his spiritual development, and to make
him a worthy citizen of the Socialist State. With
the return from the front to his remote village
the Red Army soldier will not only take a vital
and intelligent interest in his surroundings and
in political events, but will, in his turn, become the
bearer of socialist education and enlightenment to
the dark masses of peasantry who as yet have failed
to shake off the traces of an age-old slavery.
Col. B. Roustam Bek's article on Tur-
key will appear in next week's issue of
Soviet Russia. *•*
IIMIVF^.ITYnC^irHI^N
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July 3, 19-20
SOVIET RUSSIA
653
A Year of War
[In beginning a new volume of Soviet Russia, instead of our usual Military Review we are
presenting an official account of the military situation during the year 1919, taken from "Izvestia,"
Petrograd, January 2, 1920.]
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TPHIS last year was a year of intense struggle
*■• on the revolutionary front; but it seemed at
times that the final victory of the Soviet Govern-
ment was becoming uncertain.
In the beginning we had only two theatres of
war, one in the north and the other in the east.
Nevertheless the danger to be faced seemed to
be great. The eastern front had cut off Siberia and
Turkestan, had moved to the Volga and the Kama
and its tributaries, and in places was already on
the hither side of those two rivers. Although the
pressure from the north was not very great, never-
theless -it was dangerous, and threatened to allow
the two groups of the enemy to unite and form a
single front from the Murmansk road and Arch-
angel to Orenburg and the Caspian Sea.
This uneasiness was all the more logical because
at that time intervention was being considered,
and our military apparatus was only in the period
of formation and did not provide us with a suf-
ficient guarantee of safety.
The eastern front had formed the year before
last. Its kernel consisted of Czecho-Slovak regi-
ments inspired by the White Guards and sup-
ported by foreign embassies in their fight on the
Russia of the workman and peasant. Around this
kernel there gathered other inimical elements com-
posed of ex-officers, ex-junkers, land-holding bour-
goisie and local cossacks. And although the nu-
merical strength of the White army was not large,
still that army was successful in the beginning,
because it was faced by poorly organized Bed
Guards. It held the line of the Ural mountains
with the Yekaterinburg mining district as the cen-
ter. Its south wing intrenched itself rather strong-
ly in the district of Orenburg, and the center was
placed on the lines of the rivers Belaya and Ufa,
and threatened the city of Ufa. Here the enemy
fortified himself rather well, and began to gather
new strength.
Meanwhile the northern front, formed in the
same year by the expeditionary forces of the Allies
in Archangel who were later joined by other White
Guard elements, gradually grew in width, crossing
the Murmansk road not far from the lake of
Onega, and moved its left wing to the river Pe-
chora and its left tributary, Izhma. The chief
pressure of the enemy was directed along the river
Northern Dvina, its tributary Vaga, and the Arch-
angel railroad. At first he planned to pierce our
position in the district of Vologda or Kotlas, and
tried to establish tactical connections with the
army of Admiral Kolchak in the vicinity of Perm.
But tremendous distances between places and
impossible roads, together with the defense put up
by the Red Army did not allow the operation to
develop. It died out naturally, one might say, be-
Diqitized by VjOOylc
cause of the expenditure of muscular energy on the
part of the enemy.
From that time on, the great northern theatre
of war lost its primary strategic importance. It
still retained the serious role of a sector of the
flank, both during the general attack of the Si-
berian armies and during the attacks of the Finns
on Petrograd, when the latter were joined by the
enemy at the beginning of last year and occupied
the inter-lake district to the west of Lake Onega,
between Onega and the Olonets range.
Spreading out along the western ranges of the
Urals, the reorganized army of Admiral Kolchak
directed the efforts of its right wing and its cen-
ter to a movement in the direction of the northern
part of the River Kama, and the district of Ufa.
Here there were many hard fights qf an indecisive
character on the roads near Perm and Osa, near
Kungur and Krasnoufimsk, near Birsk, near Ufa,
and at last near Sterlitamak. The first few months
of 1919 were passed in such encounters which were
more or less occasioned by chance, and took place
especially in the mountainous district of Yekater-
inburg.
The conditions of struggle in the Yekaterinburg
sector are in reality unfavorable to the develop-
ment of attacking measures on any large scale.
The vicinity is a row of more or less wide valleys
rimmed with mountains. At the foot of the lat-
ter there are railroads which radiate from Yekater-
inburg, and other means of communication. There
are also factories and settlements. In other words
there is a series of defilations with ready made
points of defense. Besides the railroad lines, as
has been said before, meet in Yekaterinburg, a
fact that gave the staff of the enemy a great. ad-
vantage in the matter of attack, notwithstanding
that at the beginning of the year he was numeric-
ally weaker than we were.
All this allowed the enemy command with it*
Ural section to hold our armies back until it had
finished the formation of new armies in its rear.
At the beginning of April the Eastern front
suddenly came to life. Formidable masses of troops
were advanced to the front, and the enemy seemed
to have made clear his intentions of advancing on
th whole line of operations towards Perm and the
Volga along the Volga-Bugulminsk and the Sama-
ra-Zlatoust roads. His left wing began to press
energetically between Sterlitamak and Orenburg in
order to reach the Samara-Orenburg and the Sara-
tov-Ural lines.
Ufa was soon taken. Then came the turn of
Perm, and then, after unsuccessful battles near
the Osa and Kungur we evacuated the entire basin
of the river Kama as far as Yelabuga, and also
the river Belaya and Ufa.
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Soon it became evident that the center of the
enemy attack was west of Ufa, along two lines
leading to the Volga near Simbirsk and Samara.
'At the same time both wings of the White army
►continued the pressure on our troops near Vyatka
And also to the north-west of the Orenburg-Ural
line. Here and there they advanced comparatively
far. On the north they were west of Glazov, and
their southern wing captured the cities of Buzuluk,
Uralsk, Nikolsk, and Yershov, and threatened
Samara and Saratov. But Orenburg did not sur-
render, remaining like a red island in a raging
white sea. Later this was of great importance in
the development of our counter-attack.
The situation was. becoming dangerous. Not
only because the enemy, after occupying Bugulma,
Buguruslan and Buzuluk, was but 100 miles from
the Volga and its bridges. This had happened
many times before. But more because of the im-
petus of his movement and the seeming prepara-
tions of the White forces to attack in other the-
atres of war. It became clear that the armies of
Kolchak were only a chain ring in the plan of a
concentrated general attack from all directions on
Soviet Russia on the part of the enemy.
In fact, after the German evacuation of the
occupied provinces of what was once the Russia
of the Czar and parts of Ukraine, revolutionary
struggle began everywhere. In Ukraine the Reds
were quickly victorious. But the hetman's army
was not destroyed. Its kernel and most of all its
officers went to Kuban and the southern part of
the Army of the Don, and with the energetic co-
operation of the Entente served as the nucleus for
the quick formation of a strong southern army
under the command of General Denikin. At the
same time, General Yudenich was able to create a
strong army corps on the border of the government
of Pskov. In doing so, he took advantage of sim-
ilar conditions in Esthonia, Finland, and Latvia.
It became known that Polish and Lithuanian at-
tacks were in preparation. The position taken by
the border countries showed that they were only
waiting for a favorable moment to attack.
In a word one could see the separate rings of the
White chain that was supposed to cut off Soviet
Russia from Siberia, Turkestan, the Caucasus, the
southern provinces, the north, and the Baltic Sea ;
to deny it bread, fuel and raw material, and to
continue it within the frontiers of the time of Czar
Ivan III.
Two circumstances spoiled the success of this
plan. In the first place the various groups of the
enemy did not co-ordinate their operations from a
strategical point of view. The result achieved was
not one of complete constriction as the enemy de-
sired, but a succession of independent, although
powerful blows. And what is still more important,
the Red Army seemed to be reborn in the moment
of the greatest danger, reborn from the very top to
the very bottom. The ghost of defeat brought the
army and the people closer together, and the army,
like the ancient Antaeus, drew new strength by
touching the earth. Past defeats were useful.
The muddy water caused by them had left the
army only its healthy elements. There was a fil-
tration of the command and the commissary; the
ammunition supply, food, and clothes came more
regularly, and what is most important, one general
plan of action became for the first time visible in
the command.
Taking advantage of the fact that the attack of
Denikin was stopped for a while, and that on all
other fronts, except in the north where an attempt
had been made to reach Kotlas by Way of the
Dvina, everything was quiet, our command di-
rected the full force of its blows at the enemy
in the east.
Its plans was to push back the forces of General
Dietrichs on the Ufa sector, and at the same time
to sever his communications with Yekaterinburg,
by pressure towards Sarapul and Krasnoufimsk.
Then, if the operation was successful, the plan
was to pass on and strategically surround both
groups.
As far as the left wing of the White army is
concerned it was first planned to restrict our oper-
ations to a frontal attack, so as to surround the
White army on the Ural-Orenburg line.
The enemy had by this time spread considerably,
centering his reserves partly behind his right wing
and partly behind his center. The point of at-
tack towards Krasnoufimsk was rather sparsely
defended, and the attack was successful.
Without giving time to the enemy to regroup
his forces, the Red column began to move forward
towards the line of Yegaterinburg-Cheliabinsk,
threatening the communications of both armies of
the enemy, which were especially open to attack
in the central sector. The enemy began to re-
treat, but could not succeed in doing so in an
orderly manner, or by occupying one position of
prepared defense after another, for the northern
and central groups of the Red Army, seeing the
moral and physical exhaustion of the enemy and
the failure of his plan of attack caused by our vic-
tory at Krasnoufimsk, developed the maximum
amount of energy in their attack. The quickly
defeated White vanguard flowed swiftly backward,
leaving the main forces open to attack. In turn
they also, not being able to withstand our pressure,
began to retreat slowly, trying to hold us back in
a series of rearguard encounters mostly in the
northern sector, where the development of the
Krasnoufimsk wedge had put the enemy army in
as bad a position as in the center.
Soon Ufa and Perm were recaptured, and then
Yekaterinburg and Cheliabinsk.
With the capture of Ufa our command began
to take strong measures against the southeast sect-
or. Even before that we had attacked along both
railroads towards Orenburg and Uralsk. Now a
third group was moved from Sterlitamak and Ver-
khne-Uralsk in the north towards Orenburg and
Orsk. This finished the matter. The end was
hastened by a victorv of the Turkestan Red Army
which had defeated a White column defending the
railroad from Orenburg to Tashkent.
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The road to Turkestan and cotton was now open.
Only a small part of the local White Guards oc-
cupied the Trans-Caspian railroad, closing the way
to Krasnovodsk. They are being cleaned out at
present.
Meanwhile the operations of Denikin's army had
become more and more real in their form. His
central group seemed to be moving into the Don
coal mine district, trying to cut off the Eed troops
near the sea of Azov by a left flank movement.
At the same time they began to press strongly in
the Don sector along the Kharkov-Balashov line
with the clear purpose of attacking the Soviet
armies on the southwest near Kamishin and Tsar-
itsin.
The plan of the enemy was to clear the central
part of the Volga of Red troops, to take posses-
sion of it, and to enter into close communication
with the Ural White army which still managed to
hold its positions, resisting all our attacks. Hav-
ing captured Kamishin and Tsaritsin the White
Guards were not able to help the Ural army, which
had already been forced by us to retreat, leaving
Uralsk to us, and which had been defeated at
Erikov by our left wing and was holding a line
north of Alexandrov-Gai near Novo-Uzensk.
The successful manoeuver of the volunteer left
wing column of our army saved the situation,
leaving our command free of the worry of having
to do with a united South Ural front, and with
the possible loss of Saratov.
Just when the movements of Denikin's armies
began to take form, and the armies of Admiral
Kolchak had reached the zenith of their successes,
that is, at the end of April and the beginning of
May, the new attack of the enemy began to show
on the northwest front, aimed at Petrograd.
Having decided to capture the capital, Yudenich
took measures to weaken the unity of our position
in the west and southwest of the city. With this
goal in view the Finnish White guard group in
the Murmansk sector began to press energetically
along the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga in the
direction of the northern branch of the railroad,
thinking of capturing it at Zvanka, and then to
move along the Nikolayevsk road, helping there-
with the armies of Kolchak, especially his right
wing. But after it had captured the Lodeynoye
Field, it was stopped and forced to retreat.
The attempt of the White command to act in
unity had failed.
Nevertheless, this attack which began with a
strong blow at Yamburg, continued to develop
favorably to the enemy. For many reasons which
were given at that time in all newspapers, the
Red columns were speedily retreating, especially
north of the Baltic road. Soon the vanguard of the
enemy was only thirty miles from the capital. The
fortress of Krasnaya Gorka, captured by the coun-
ter-revolutionists was a great menace both to
Kronstadt and the fleet. But it was this very fact
that showed what little forces the White Guards
had when they attempted their adventure. They
did not possess the few necessary batallions to hold
Krasnaya Gorka, and the fortress was recaptured
by us after a heavy artillery attack by our fleet,
through the brave attack of a compartively small
number of sailors.
This success seemed to be the signal for an en-
tire change in military affairs. The enemy began
to retreat quickly before our blows. He managed
to remain a short time at Yamburg, but was quick-
ly driven from there, and later from Pskov, and
had to satisfy himself with holding Narva and
Gdov, wedging outwards a little between them
towards the southeast and Luga.
Both sides held their positions for four months
or until the new attack of General Rodziakno on
Petrograd in the beginning of October.
Meanwhile conditions on the southern front were
becoming more and more serious. Even at the
end of May the strength and resources of Denikin
were very apparent. It became self-evident that
he would not stop with the capture of the Don Re-
gion, the Don coal mines, and the southern sea
provinces, but that he would begin a general at-
tack on the north, the northeast and the northwest,
where Kharkov, Poltava, Voronezh, Yekaterino-
slav and Kiev would serve him as stopping places.
Tired with its fighting of many months' dura-
tion and suffering besides from local parttzanship,
the Red Army began to retreat. The Kharkov
sector gradually became open, especially in one
place where the White army succeeded in driving
a wedge into our positions a little outside the city.
The further development of the White attack in
this direction led them through Chuguev to Volo-
chansk, and finally forced us to evacuate Kharkov.
Soon after the enemy occupied Kursk, Yekaterino-
slav, and a little later, Poltava, which was sur-
rounded from the north in the neighborhood of
Lebedin.
Having captured the central section of the Kiev-
Voronezh railroad, and developing the success of
the Poltava-Lebedin group, the command of the
enemy decided to attack both Voronezh and Kiev.
The struggle for these cities, especially for
Voronezh, was already of a more difficult nature,,
but the proportionate strength of the sides waa
such that we were forced to evacuate both cities.
The central White army continued its move-
ment north on a wide front in the general direc-
tion of Bryansk, Orel, and Yelatz, that is, in the
direction of the important railroad centers in cen-
tral Russia.
Its advance was greatly helped by the continual
cavalry raids of General Mamontov, who had
broken our lines near Novokhopersk and Boriso-
glebsk, and who had attacked Tambov and Kozlov,
and later moved north on Skopin, destroying rail-
roads, and bringing disorganization into the work
of our transport in the rear.
Notwithstanding this, the movement of the
White Guard in the direction of Briansk-Orel-
Yeletz was of an altogether different character
from its advance on Kursk. It was at once notice-
able that our enemy was growing weaker and more
tired, and our military strength was increasing.
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And although Orel fell finally, it was clear that
this was due to the law of inertia, and a sort of
unfitness on the part of our command in the mat-
ter of counter-attack. A change was imminent.
Orel, exactly like Voronezh, served as a dam
that held back the White current. For a little
while longer the enemy showed activity, trying to
take Yeletz so as to attack the Red Army in the
rear from Tambov and Penza, and to unite with
the Voronezh column, which was attacking us in
the direction of Kozlov, but these were merely last
and unsuccessful efforts.
The Bed Army had managed to fill its ranks
with replacements, and having been regrouped, had
passed from the defense to the attack on the wide
front between Orel and Yeletz. At the same time
the Soviet cavalry was sent to attack the enemy's
cavalry vanguard near Voronezh.
The fact that we had torn the initiative from the
hands of the enemy and that we were numerically
superior, broke like lightning on the tired foe.
Orel and Voronezh were taken by us in almost one
day (October 20), and this moment saw a com-
plete change in the nature of our operations.
Even the inspired attack of Rodzianko on Petro-
grad did not help Denikin. The capital lived
through two or three weeks of danger, but the pop-
ulation was quiet and worked hard in putting the
city into a state of defense, even fortifying the
outlying suburbs, and then the enemy rolled back,
even more swiftly than in May, before the blows
of the garrison and of the replacements sent from
the center. The reserves of our southern armies
were untouched and continued to pursue their
work.
After the capture of Orel and Voronezh, the Red
Army began to move on Kursk from two sides —
on the north, from the surrounding railroads, and
on the east from Voronezh.
The enemy defended himself vigorously in all
encounters, often passing into short energetic
counter-attacks. But little by little, before our
steady attacks, his forces were disorganized into
separate groups and columns, and the fighting de-
veloped into a series of encounters between small
detachments. Most of these encounters ended fav-
orably to us. They allowed us to keep the advan-
tage of the initiative and make use of manoeuvers
on the field of battle.
The fall of Kursk, and then of Kharkov and
Poltava, and our latest successes are, the results
of the numerous little victories of our independent
columns, which are at once used to advantage by
our command.
When the center of the enemy first trembled
and then began to retreat, it dragged with it both
wings, that of the Dnieper and that of the Don.
In both places the defensive strength of the
enemy is broken. He is forced to evacuate a
tremendous stretch of country, on one side cover-
ing the right frontier of Ukraine, and on the other
the southern part of the Don region and the roads
to Rostov and Tsaritsin, which are important to
him strategically, for Ihey guard the way to the
Caucasus. In the center the enemy is striving to
defend the region of the Donetz and Yekaterino-
slav, but without any success. Yekaterinoslav was
taken by us on the last day of last year.
While the southern Red Army was living
through a crisis, Soviet troops also had a hard time
in the east, where they had passed Kurgan and
Yalutorovsk.
Covering up with his rearguard, General Die-
trichs collected new forces and moved them against
our outspread and somewhat tired columns. The
manoeuver was successful. We were forced to re-
treat, but very little in all, a matter of sixty miles
at the most. During this time, the Red Army,
having succeeded in moving up its reserves, passed
into a general attack on the whole front. It
quickly defeated the columns of the enemy, and
then captured Tobolsk, Ishim, and Petropavlovsk,
and without giving the enemy any rest attacked in
the direction of Omsk, which it took at tlie begin-
ning of November.
This moment marks the beginning of a general
pursuit of the enemy, who retreated eastward. We
are pressing him continuously, taking a tremen-
dous number of prisoners, cannon, machine guns,
and an amount of war material and food that beg-
gars all description.
In Xikolayevsk the downfall of the enemy was
especially shown in high relief, when seventy sep-
arate detachments, and their senior staffs, refused
the order to evacuate the city and surrendered to
us.
At present in Siberia we are faced only by the
pitiful remnants of the White armies, which are
trying to organize the defense of Krasnoyarsk.
The regions of Akmolinsk, Semipalatinsk and a
part of the region of Semirechensk are already
*clean of White Guards.
In the great struggle that marked the last year,
the Polish-Lithuanian front deserves a special
place. Because of its central position between the
armies of Yudenich and Denikin it could have
played a great part, binding them into one com-
plete unit; or it could at least have attempted to
unite with one of them, for instance the southern
army, in this way taking advantage of the moment
when the latter was occupying Chernigov. But
the Polish command did not try hard to unite with
either of the White Guard leaders, being satisfied
with operations on a small, provisional scale. Satis-
fied with its first successes, which enabled it to
take the government of Minsk, and part of Vitebsk
and Polotsk, the Polish-Lithuanian army remained
in one place, allowing us to better conditions in
case of having to conduct a general defense. This
is the cause of the effort to take Dvinsk and move
toward Polotsk, Vitebsk, and Mohilev.
During the past year, the Red Army lived
through a great life. It may be said that* during
these twelve months it has been entirely reborn,
having become, from the viewpoint of military or-
ganization, completely modernized, completely Eu-
ropean, and even eucooggful in developing new men
tehWw VEfelTr OF MICHIGAN
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July 3, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
d5?
England's Russian Policy
By Karl Radek
[The following is a portion of an article appearing in "Pravda" (Moscow) on April 17, 1980.
The first part, which is not printed here, deals with the internal alignment within the English
social system, and is therefore not suitable for insertion in these columns. The portion here given
is the main body and conclusion of the article.]
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The interesting question now is that of the sig-
nificance of the recent alteration in the English
policy toward Soviet Russia. How shall we ex-
plain that just at the moment when the English
bourgeoisie is preparing for the decisive struggle
against the working class of England, it should
make an effort to secure an understanding with
Soviet Russia, the home of the revolution? Do
not these facts involve a contradiction indicative
of a lack of candor in the English hymns of peace ?
May we consider this to be a typical case of Eng-
lish cunning? If we may speak of a desire on the
part of the EnglisTi Government to conclude peace
with us, there is no doubt that we must consider
this desire as a mere manoeuvre; and that the
English Government does not intend to secure a
permanent peaceful relation with Soviet Russia.
But if we do not consider the ultimate plans of the
English Government, but merely put the question
as to whether England intends in the most im-
mediate future to follow a policy of peace with
us, we may answer this question affirmatively.
There is no doubt that the English Government
is attempting to arrive at an understanding with
Soviet Russia and to pave the way for peaceful
relations with Soviet Russia. This policy in no
way contradicts the internal policy of England,
which is directed against the working-class of that
country, but is closely related with that policy.
In England's struggle against Soviet Russia, in
the period extending from the November revolu-
tion to the collapse of German imperialism, the
dominant factors were not social in their nature.
The object of England's struggle was to throttle
the power in which England's imperialism beheld
an alleged ally of German imperialism. Stupid
as this assumption must seem, there is no doubt
that the English Government seriously feared a
conquest of Russia by German capital, with the
tacit or open consent of the Soviet Government.
For the English bourgeois, as we know, do not
believe in the possibility of a permanent workers'
and peasants' government in Russia. When Eng-
lish imperialism was freed from these fears by the
collapse of German imperialism; when the con-
clusion of the war and the demobilization of the
armies put social questions into the foreground;
when the revolutionary ferment among the work-
ers showed the English Government that even vic-
torious nations are not immune from the danger
of social upheavals ; — at this moment the struggle
against the Soviet power began to assume a char-
acter that was entirely social. The capitalist class
of England decided to throttle Soviet Russia, the
home of the world revolution. Lloyd George had
already then doubted the possibility of an armed
Digitiz
victory over Soviet Russia, but the majority of
the English bourgeoisie, blinded by hate and uur
certainty, assumed the standpoint which was ex-
pressed by the former first Councillor of the Eng-
lish Embassy at Petrograd, Mr. Linley, in his let-
ter to Lord Curzon, in the following words : "They
must be treated as hangmen."
The crushing of Kolchak, Yudenich, and Deni-
kin by the Red Army has proved to English capi-
tal that Lloyd George was entirely right when he
opposed the adventure of armed intervention. The
English bourgeoisie recognized that it would not
succeed in suppressing the revolutionary center in
the East. It therefore determined to utilize its
powers to beat down the revolutionary forces that
were gathering in its own house. If it is success-
ful in this latter task, the time will not fail to
arrive when relations with Soviet Russia may be
subject to revision. From this standpoint the
turn in the English foreign policy toward Soviet
Russia may be militarily expressed as follows:
Since the offensive against Soviet Russia may be
said to have failed, to a certain extent, because
of the fact that the English workers, the Allies of
Soviet Russia, were active in the rear of English
imperialism, English imperialism therefore wisely
determined to create a powerful rear by means of
a victory over the English working class, and to
attain this victory — we are here dealing with an
excellent example of the adaptability of England —
English imperialism intends to utilize precisely its
peaceful relations with Soviet Russia. The in-
auguration of peaceful relations is not only to
quiet the English workers, who have united under
the slogan "Hands off Soviet Russia !" ; but must
also become the means for the permanent pacifica-
tion of the English proletariat. The chief cause
of the peaceful character of the English workers'
movement for the last decades was the low prices
of the means of subsistence. In the few years
preceding the war the increase in the cost of these
materials also stimulated ferment among the Eng-
lish workers.. The chief cause of the present revo-
lutionary troubles in England is the rise in the
cost of living since the conclusion of peace. One
of the causes for this increased cost appears to be
the American monopoly of grain and raw materi-
als. Should English imperialism succeed in re-
organizing the Russian transportation system, in
obtaining in exchange for its industrial protection
cheap grain from Russia, it thus hopes to overcome
the revolutionary crisis at home. Now, it is pos-
sible that the leaders of English imperialism are
asking whether this understanding will not
strengthen revolutionary Russia. This question,
which has been put to Lloyd George by a portion
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of the bourgeois press, is answered \)y him in
terms about corresponding to the following: "No
permanent system can be built on a Communist
foundation. It is only on the basis of private
property and private initiative that society can
endure. The danger of the Communist opposition
■does not therefore lie in the fact that Commun-
ism may replace capitalist society for ever. The
danger lies in the devastations of the revolution-
ary period. But after this period of devastation,
every country will N return to capitalism. Russia
also will come back to capitalism, and its return
will be all the faster if it speedily enters into com-
mercial relations with the capitalist world. In
the concentrated factories the capitalists of foreign
countries will prove to the Russian workers that
capitalism is better than Communism. When the
blockade is removed, trade will be carried on not
only with the Government of Soviet Russia ; secret
traders will create a secret system of trade with
foreign capital, and this will destroy the whole
economic policy of the Soviet power. And if the
Soviet power, not defeated by force of arms, should
not succumb in the peaceful economic struggle, it
will nevertheless have to transform itself entirely
and become a power that unites the interests of
the capitalist farmer with those of the worker on
the basis of a commodity economy. In this way
we may enter into a peace with Soviet Russia with
hopes for victory not only over the English revo-
lution, but also over the Russian revolution."
Such are the thoughts of the leaders of English
imperialism when they enter into relations with
us. As it is not our task to educate England's
ministers, we may. relinquish the pleasure of cri-
ticizing their views, which we have merely cited
in order to reveal to our readers the causes of the
English peace policy toward Russia.
The English peace is the continuation of the
English war against Soviet Russia, by the use of
economic means. The possibility of a victory or of
a defeat of this English policy depends upon the
rapidity with which capitalist economy disinteg-
rates in England, and on the rate of the organiza-
tion with which Communist economy in Russia i:s
accomplished.
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Art and the Bolsheviki
{From "La Vie Ouvriere" — June 4)
TVf E ARE quite familiar with the policy of the
" capitalist press in its attempt to deceive the
people by repeating that the Bolsheviki are bar-
barians and a menace to civilization, and by spread-
ing stories of the destruction of works of art, muse-
ums, etc. Whenever there is danger that a ray
of truth will shine through, all conceivable means
are used to repress it. Therefore, we need not be
surprised at the refusal of the Institute to enter in
its report the communication of Victor Henry,
which gives a very truthful account of the pro-
gress of education in Russia under the Bolsheviki.
But in spite of everything, the despised truth
was brought to light. In the May 15 issue of the
Art Life Bulletin, a paper which can hardly be
accused of any subversive tendencies, Felix Fenelon
describes a conversation which he had with M.
Ivan Morozov, a wealthy cotton spinner, who be-
fore the war, had gathered a world famous col-
lection of modern pictures. About a year ago he
left Russia, where he had been staying for five
and a half years. He describes in these words the
fate of his collection:
"It is intact. Not one of the 430 Russian paint-
ings or the 240 French paintings has been harmed.
The collection has never been removed from the
palace where I kept it. But it has been national-
ized, like my factories, and it is the 'Second Mu-
seum of Western Art.'
"The first is made up of a number of French
paintings, collected by our mutual friend Sergius
Shchukin, and his daughter, Mme. Yekaterina
Keller, is in charge of it.
"The government placed Boris Ternovetz, the
noted sculptor, in charge of mv collection, and
Digitized by LtI
appointed me associate director, turning three
rooms over to me, and opening up the rest of the
building to the public. It was, as a matter of
fact, an extension of my own system : in the days
of the Czar, I had opened the doors to the public
every Sunday morning, and on all other days
except Monday artists and critics were admitted
under very slight restrictions. As associate direct-
or, I had to make out an explanatory catalogue,
and give some lectures to the visitors. Yekaterina
Sergey evn a did the same thing in her father's mu-
seum. It was a pleasure to us to praise the work
of your country. The pictures were there, in il-
lustration of our talks, and our audience did not
lack appreciation.
"Even at this stage of the dictatorship of the
proletariat, artists are considered by the govern-
ment as workers occupied in useful occupations.
This of course enables them to make great head-
way. In Moscow, during the winter of 1918-1919,
which was the last that I passed at the capital, an
art committee of the extreme left organized no
less than ten expositions, illustrating various tend-
encies in art.
"Trotsky's wife is in charge of a committee,
the work of which will be better understood by an
illustration. In more than one part of the Re-
public there was danger that the pictures, statues,
and other objects of historical and aesthetic value
might suffer injury through popular riots or in
the general confusion caused by the movement of
troops. At the request of the owners, or by gov-
ernment authority, in cases where the owners were
negligent or had moved out, Madame Trotsky's
committee, with the aid of competent commissions,
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took them to Moscow. There, a systematic inven-
tory was taken of them, and they were placed on
exhibition. In this way, many great works hith-
erto unknown were brought to light.
"This activity may be said to be the result of
individual initiative, but it was often started, and
always aided by Lunacharsky and his associates.
This work was included in his services as People's
Commissar of Public Education and Fine Arts.
"It has been claimed that the Petrograd mu-
zhiks made great rents in the Renmbrandt pictures
at The Hermitage/ The muzhiks are not so
stupid. I know of no case, in Petrograd or else-
where, in which any museum has been harmed.
The principle works of the 'Hermitage' were taken
to Moscow some time ago, when the fall of Petro-
grad was predicted. They are now at the Krem-
lin, waiting to be carried back. The Louvre took
such precautions in 1914 and 1918.
"As for the Tretyakov Museum, it is in good
condition.* The form and subject matter have
received most careful attention, and the signatures
are stereotyped . . .
"Couldn't some Bolsheviki be brought to the
Louvre, where so many catalogues date back half
a century or more, and where there is nothing to
guide and inform the public .in the midst of that
great accumulation of works of art ?"
Felix Fenelon ends this interview, which con-
tains many other interesting details, by saying that
he did not ask Mr. Morozov's opinion on the poli-
tical situation of his country. And he adds, with
that tone of sarcasm so characteristic of him:
"Sufficient light is thrown on this subject by the
western press, which is always so well informed."
THE MUSEUM OF THE REVOLUTION
[The following article is taken from "Pravda"
Petrograd, January 13, 19&0.]
T^HE opening of the Mu^um of the Revolution
. took place on the 11th of January at the
Palace of Art.
The vast hall of the Palace was crowded with
people. The hall was beautifully decorated and
adorned with portraits of the "Decembrists" and
a few of the other more important leaders and
active participants of the Russian movement.
The solemn session was. opened with the speech
of Comrade Zinoviev, who outlined before the
assembly the aim and the problems of this museum.
Comrade Zinoviev touched in his speech upon
the last smashing victories of our Red Army and
pointed out that the opening of the Museum of
the Revolution coincided with the fall of the last
citadel of the counter-revolution, Rostov-on-Don.
It did not happen by accident. Therein lay a
deep symbol predicting the early end of the bloody
war; this will enable the Soviet Government to
take up peaceful reconstruction work and new
* Its former catalogue was brief and inexact. The
new director, Igor Grabar, has made one which is more
-complete.
Digitized by LjOOgle
cultural pursuits. Then the speaker characterized
the first workers of the Russian revolutionary
movement, beginning with the "Decembrists" and
ending with the last victims of the counter-revo-
lutionary terror, Comrades Volodarsky and Urit-
sky ; he suggested honoring their memory.
In the conclusion Comrade Zinoviev spoke about
the Museum of Revolution established in Paris,'
in memory of the Revolution of 1789; he made it
clear that our museum will justify its own exist-
ence only if it will meet the support and coopera-
tion of society as a whole and of the working
masses in particular.
Then V. V. Vodovosov had the floor ; he gave a
brief review of the movement of "Decembrists"
and pointed out the significance of this movement
on the future development of Russian social and
political life.
P. E. Shchegolev also talked about the move-
ment of the "Decemberists." This speaker em-
phasized one detail of that movement, i. e., the re-
volt of the Chernigov division, which took place
on January 3, 1826, and the part the soldiers took
in this revolt.
M. V. Xovorussky, who spoke later, pointed out
the problems involved in establishing the museum
and asked that every possible assistance be given it.
Comrade Lunacharsky devoted his report to the
characteristics of the leaders and workers of the
"Decembrist" movement.
Comrade Zinoviev made the final speech ; he an-
nounced among other things that the next session
of the museum would take place on January 21
and would be dedicated to the memory of Herzen.
Comrade Zinoviev also advised that the question
of erecting a monument at the Senatsky square in
memory of the "Decembrists" was under consid-
eration and that until this monument was erected
a corresponding poster would be placed on that
square.
V. D. VILENSKY
An Envoy of Soviet Russia for Peace-Negotiations
With America.
Russian newspapers state that V. D. Vilensky,
who is now in Vladivostok, is authorized by the
Soviet Government to carry on peace negotiations
with the United States Government.
In the year 1918 Vilensky, who was then a
Social-Democrat-Internationalist, became a mem-
ber of the Siberian Central Committee (Center-
sibir).
In Irkutsk Vilensky was a member of the Sup-
ply Commissariat of the Centersibir. In the sum-
mer of 1918, after the evacuation of the Center-
sibir to Verkhne-tTdinsk, Vilensky was despatched
to Blagoweschensk for the establishment of a sin-
gle united monetary system for Siberia and the
Far Bast.
With the fall of Soviet power in Siberia and
the Far East, Vilensky succeeded in breaking
through to the West and reaching Soviet Russia,
as representative of which he now appears.
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I.
ORGANIZATION OF WORKING
CONDITIONS
The principal committee of general obligatory
work on the 26th of February addressed the fol-
lowing appeal to all workers, laborers and honest
citizens :
Comrades and Citizens! The Soviet Republic,
having repulsed by armed force the attack of the
generals, the barons, the princes, the proprietors,
the foreign and Russian capitalists, must without
a minute's loss take to the regeneration of its na-
tional economy. Stubborn, heroic and energetic
labor is the chief task of the present moment. The
workers in the cities and some in the country are
perishing of famine. The railroads are scarcely
operating. The houses are destroyed, the cities
filled with dirt, epidemics are everywhere abroad,
death reaps right and left, industry is annihilated.
The war, the blockade, the assaults of the world
counter-revolution, and the uninterrupted internal
plots of the rich have accomplished their designs.
There is no escape in free speculation. That is
an issue for isolated speculators and for the de-
stroyers of the people. It is an issue for the rich
and a knot for the poor. There is no escape in
the utilization of old reserves, they are exhausted,
lacking, there are no more.
The only issue now consists in labor.
To aid industry to recover and to revive those
who are dying of cold, to prevent the entire de-
struction of our buildings, we must find and
gather fuel.
Each repaired locomotive represents a hundred
infants saved from starvation. Every ton of dirt
removed prevents the death of several citizens from
contagious diseases. Every kilometer of cleared
railroad means bread for the hungry. A great
problem is before the working republic : to recover
from misery, from filth and disease, attain the
heights, and create with its own hands living con-
ditions worthy of humanity.
The working people will accomplish it.
Compulsory labor — that is the word for us. Our
aim is the creation of an army of several million
workers, a creative army which by dint of stub-
born labor will cause to arise out of chaos and
ruin a magnificent future. The czars, oppressors
of the people, constructed pyramids, dug canals,
drained the marshes by means of the efforts of
millions of slaves. Is it possible that the working
class will not perform miracles for themselves, in
their own interest, and to save themselves from
destruction ? They will do it ! They have defeated
their adversaries decorated with decorations and
ribbons, they will not fall before cold and misery.
They will stretch their muscles. They will com-
municate to the others their desire for work, they
will set an example, they will drag along with them
bv force all who will oppose them.
d oogle
It does not matter what the duty of each citizen
is, for all who desert their work despoil the chil-
dren, increase famine and kill the citizens.
For this reason the most important organiza-
tions of the Soviet State created the Principal
Committee of Compulsory Labor, which was given
the task of organizing general obligatory work, di-
recting all forces for the construction of a new
future, leading all the other people in the war
against popular calamities. The Principal Com-
mittee will be in a position to accomplish this task
provided that it is supported by the large masses.
It is the business of all honest citizens, for all are
interested in destroying typhus. Citizens capable
of working ought all to be registered, enrolled,
and distributed in accordance with their profes-
sions, just as for a war against the enemy. All
the forces must be enrolled in order to be utilized
effectively. For the war against misery and death
all forces must be arranged and inventoried in
order to create grand, strong, heroic armies which,
with banners unfurled, will attack ruin, typhus,
cold, the disorganization of the means of trans-
port, and famine.
A genuine rising in force of the entire people
must be organized. Even invalids must do their
part in the work of general salvage. As soon as a
dangerous situation is discovered reserve forces
must be thrown in. We shall conquer ruin, we
shall reach the end of our misfortunes on the en-
tire front. Comrades and citizens ! Let there be
no Soviet institution without a committee of com-
pulsory labor. An organization of compulsory labor
should be found in every factory, in every shop, in
every office, in every inhabited house, in all the
factory and shop committees, and in the house
committees. Come to the aid of the district, city,
and provincial committees. Through the medium
of these committees supervise the putting into
practice of compulsory labor.
The duty and honor of each one consists in be-
ing at his post. We must have no deserters from
work. All the parasites who at the moment of
danger prefer to abandon their work and speculate
upon the sufferings of the hungry will be collared
by the proletariat and assigned to the most dif-
ficult labor. If we have a proletarian discipline
of iron, we shall transform, repair, adjust, heal,
and construct all that is necessary. Every com-
mittee must in its place put this discipline into
practice, it must see to it that each does his duty
by working, and that each applies his work in a
manner conforming to the end in view.
II.
THE NEW LABOR ARMY
The Council of Workers' and Peasants Defence
on the 11th of February adopted the following
resolution :
For the purpose, of improving the transport in
the system of railroads of the Southwest, the Coun-
cil of Worker*;' ami Peasants' Defense has resolved
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to utilize all the forces and means of the Second
Army of the Republic for the improvement of the
transport in the railway system of the Southwest,
as well as for increased production in the work of
repairing locomotives and railway trains.
In all questions of a purely military character
the Revolutionary Council of the army reserves all
its rights and the old order of subordination.
The Revolutionary Council of the Second Army
must take all necessary measures so that the mili-
tary units in the rear of the army and all workers
laboring in the sphere of activity of the Second
Army may be provisioned on the same basis as the
soldiers of the Red Army forming part of the
units in the rear of the army.
To this end the provisioning system of the Sec-
ond Army must be utilized whenever there is need
for it.
III.
INAUGURATION OF THE BRIDGE OVER
THE KAMA RIVER
As a result of the activities of the reserve army,
transformed into a revolutionary labor army, the
bridge over the Kama river, destroyed by the
White Guard, was reconstructed two months
before the date fixed for its completion. On Feb-
ruary 17 the opening of the Kama bridge was
solemnly inaugurated in the presence of workers'
regiments, the Fourth Construction Brigade, the
delegate of the provincial Soviet assembly, and a
great public gathering. A train bearing the per-
sons taking part in the inauguration crossed the
bridge acclaimed by a great hurrah from the as-
sistants and saluted by the band playing the In-
ternationale.
The People's Commissary of Ways of Communi-
cation, Comrade Krassin, expressed his gratitude
in the name of Soviet Russia to all who had par-
ticipated in the work of reconstructing the de-
molished bridge.
IV.
THE LABOR BULLETIN
The General Staffs of the revolutionary labor-
ing armies publish daily labor bulletins giving fig-
ures relating to the work of the armies performed
in the preceding twenty-four hours.
The journal entitled News of the Russian Cen-
tral Executive Committee expresses itself in the
following manner with regard to the importance
of these bulletins :
"Consider the labor bulletins. Did ever any-
thing of the kind exist? History has known im-
mense armies, armed from head to foot. It has
known slave troops working till exhausted under
the whips of their executioner masters, troops
which built the pyramids of the pharaohs. But
history has never known labor armies working with
internal discipline, reliability, and punctuality;
armies having at their head the best, the most de-
voted representatives of the working class.
"Every army has destroyed the economy of the
Digitized by L^OOglC
country directly or indirectly. Even the Red pro-
letarian and workers' army cost the Russian people
dearly. One cannot dispense with it. Without it
all is lost. But nevertheless it has produced noth-
ing. The labor army does produce. A bulletin
of the military armies speaks of the capture of
cities and villages, the number of the enemy killed,
the number of cannon taken. The bulletin of the
labor armies speaks of the quantity of wood cut
or loaded, the number of versts of railroad cleared ;
it communicates the amount of c6al, slate,or peat
extracted, and the amount of wheat accumulated.
"The military problems of the armies of war
stated that it was necessary to occupy such or such
a village, city, mountain, or valley. The 'orders
of the day' for the military armies give similar
commands.
"The problems and orders of the laboring armies
are: 'cleave/ 'carry/ 'load/ 'repair/ 'clear away.'
"The means of battle for a military army are:
cannon, rifle, machine-gun, powder and dynamite.
The means for a laboring army are: the hammer,
shovel, saw, axe, machine."
THE POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE OF THE
LABOR ARMY
The transformation of the military armies into
a labor army solves the question or the organiza-
tion of a polytechnic institute for the Red soldiers,
similar to the institute for the workers. The mili~
tary technical courses which prepare technical
workers for the labor armies now constitute this
institute for the Red Army.
These courses are separated into the following
specialties: the section of automobiles and rail-
roads, mechanical and ways of communication
section, the telegraphic and telephonic section, and
the section of sanitary construction.
VI.
CURTAILMENT OF STUDIES FOR ENGI-
NEERING STUDENTS
In view of the transformation of the Red Army
into a labor army, and the necessity of having in-
cluded in the latter engineers with a fundamental
knowledge of their profession, the Polytechnic In-
stitute of Petrograd decided to accelerate the
studies for turning out engineers in accordance
with an abridged program with the elimination of
several subjects for the students able to complete
their studies not later than the 19th of May, 1920.
SUBSCRIBE TO SOVIET RUSSIA
If you arc going to the country, you will not want
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your copies of Soviet Russia. You may be sure
of its delivery regularly for three months by send-
ing us one dollar for that purpose.
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will carry articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles.
A GENTLEMAN described by the New York
*^ Times as "an architect and former President
of the American-Scandinavian Society," and more
recently United States Commissioner to the Bal-
tic Provinces, returns to America to find "an ap-
palling indifference on the part of the people of
this country toward the danger that threatens them
from Soviet Russia." The exact nature of that
danger is not quite clear from the subsequent re-
marks of the former Commissioner. He is posi-
tive that the Communist Government, failing to
establish trade relations with the outside world,
will fall within three months. (We ask our read-
ers to mark the date on their calendars.) Trans-
portation, he reports, is in utter collapse ; industry
and agriculture are paralyzed. The army deserts
"in droves," and the rumor that General Brussilov
is field commander is "Soviet propaganda." Un-
der these conditions, we fail to understand why
anyone should be "appalled" at the prevailing in-
difference towards the danger from Soviet Russia.
The danger does not seem very formidable — not
to America, at any rate. We can understand that
the Polish Government, perhaps, might still have
some cause for alarm, in spite of this reasurring
picture of a demoralized Red Army. The explana-
tion that Russia is "using Brussilov as a figure-
head, while the real leader is Trotsky," will scarce-
ly revive the flagging zeal of the Polish army, the
less since Trotsky, himself, is described in the
same report as "one of the world's greatest ad-
ministrators." But the position of Poland, for a
moment, is peculiar. Other peoples appear to
share the indifference of Americans towards the
dangers threatening from Soviet Russia. Even in
the Baltic Provinces, where the Commissioner
learned all about Russia, there is no great alarm.
Esthonia has concluded a treaty with the Soviet
Government, and Latvia and Lithuania, he re-
ports, are preparing to do the same. In Esthonia
it is possible to keep in "close touch" with Russia
and to know the truth about the collapse of trans-
portation and industry, because "for several
months there has been direct rail communication
between Esthonia, and Petrograd and Moscow."
The Bolsheviki are a strange lot ! With industry
unci transportation in collapse, with nothing what-
sover to export, they whimsically insist upon main-
taining direct train service between Moscow and
Reval. The ex-Commissioner offers no explana-
tion for this odd caprice.
It is a bewildering report. We fear it will leave
the readers of the Times somewhat confused, and
perhaps still indifferent to the dangers threaten-
ing from Russia.
* • * *
TI^ITH loud denials of any intention of "recog-
™ nizing" the wicked Bolsheviki, the allied pre-
miers at Boulogne told Lloyd George to run back-
to London and continue his discussions with
Krassin. M. Millerand returned to the Chamber of
Deputies to undertake a task described by the
correspondents as "defining the French Govern-
ment's position with regard to Soviet Russia."
France, said the Premier, would never, never recog-
nize the Soviet Government — or at least certainly
not until it promised to pay the Czar's debts. M.
Millerand, we are told, spoke "as forcibly as on
previous occasions." But to the correspondents,
lingering in the corridors of the Chamber it was
whispered that "a new promise to pay the Russian
debt to France will go far toward smoothing the
way for the opening of negotiations." On the
same day Premier Giolitti received an ovation in
.the Italian Chamber when he announced the in-
tention of the Italian Government to resume re-
lations with Russia without delay. Meanwhile, the
negotiations between Litvinov and Danish officials
have resulted in the organization of an interna-
tional clearing house in Copenhagen for the es-
tablishment of commerce with Russia. No one
need imagine that the Danish Government took
this step without the specific approval of the
greater powers.
It is not surprising that Chicherin's recent re-
port upon the policy of the Commissariat of For-
eign Affairs received the unanimous approval of
the Ail-Russian Central Executive Committee. In
spite of the hostility and treachery of the capitalist
powers, reported Chicherin, the Commissariat of
Foreign Affairs had never ceased striving to pre-
vent the further shedding of blood of Russian
peasants and workers. Events will soon demon-
strate that the confidence expressed by the Central
Executive Committee in this policy was not mis-
placed. The Red Army has convinced the Euro-
pean powers of the futility of war against Soviet
Russia. The European rulers are preparing to.
accept the only alternative.
* * *
T^HE following notice appeared in a prominent
A place on the first page of the Krasnoye
Znamya (The Red Flag) of Vladivostok, in its
issue of May 12:
The crew of the ice-cutter Baikal announce to rela-
tives and friends that a requiem mass will be celebrated
at the Intercession Cemetery at 3 P. M. f on May 15,
this being the 40th day since the death of the third
mate, Anatoly Andreyevich Turumin.
The Krasnoye Znamya is the official organ of
the Communist (Bolshevik) Party of Vladivostok/
Notwithstanding the oppression of the Orthodox
Greek Catholic Church by the unspeakable Bol-
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shevik, whereof we have read so much, the official
organ of their party somehow has no objection to
announcing in its columns the service of a requiem
mass at the Cemetery of the Intercession of the
Holy Virgin. And the mates of the deceased
sailor apparently considered the Communist organ
a good medium for apprising his relatives and
friends of the church services which were to be
held for the peace of his soul on the fortieth day
after his demise.
* * *
THE MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW issued by
the United States Department of Labor (Bu-
reau of Labor Statistics, Royal Meeker, Commis-
sioner), publishes in its April, 1920, issue a good
summary of the Labor Laws of Soviet Russia, as
originally printed in Soviet Russia for February
21, 1920, and since issued by us in pamphlet form.
The summary, which will be found on pp. 210-214
of the issue mentioned, concludes with the words :
"The absolutely dominating nature of these reg-
ulations is shown by the following preliminary
article :
"IV. All labor agreements previously entered into,
as well as all those which will be entered into in the
future, in so far as they contradict the regulations of
this code, shall not be considered valid or obligatory,
either for the employes or for the employers."
This is the only article of the laws that is quoted
in the summary given in the Labor Review, and
it is one whose importance should not be under-
rated. It indicates, as the Review does not fail
to point out, that the Labor Laws are intended to
have absolute validity all over Russia, and to super-
sede all previous and merely local arrangements.
The Labor Laws may be considered as a broadly
and profoundly national document, replacing and
dominating all other similar documents in Russia,
in about the same way as the Constitution of the
United States supersedes and takes precedence of
local and State measures.
* * ♦
ENCYCLOPEDIAS are great slowly-moving
engines of learning. They admit to their
columns information that has already had time
to season, and, let us hope, be freed from its chaff.
It is therefore perhaps well that the encyclopedias
have not yet given much space to Russian sub-
jects — as far as events after the revolution of
November, 1917, are concerned. Nelson's Loose
Leaf Encyclopedia had an interesting article on
"Bolshevism," by Professor Nicholas Hourwich, in
a recent edition, but has unfortunately substituted
for it a rather poor "study" on the same subject,
written, in the current number of newspaper mis-
representation by a person very much less fully
informed. One encyclopedic work, however, the
Encyclopedia Americana, seems to be ready to
include truthful articles on Soviet Russia, and,
in the volumes that have thus far appeared (1-27)
has at least three articles that are of interest to
the student of revolutionary Russia; they are on
Lenin, Trotsky, and Plekhanov. All three should
have been longer and more complete, but they are
truthful and unprejudiced, and that is saying a
good deal in these days when much that is Russian
is misrepresented. Unfortunately, counter-revolu-
tionary spellings are sometimes retained: thus,
Lenin appeared under his strange French pseudo-
nym of "Lenine." We note that the agitational
organs of posthumously recognized Czarist ambas-
sadors still make use of the spelling 'Tjenine," and
therefore feel justified in calling it counter-revolu-
tionarv.
STATEMENT OF THE BUREAU
New York, June 18, 1920.
T C. MARTENS, Representative of the Rus-
■*-'• sian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic, yes-
terday filed with the Department of Labor in
Washington a sworn statement giving his reasons
for having declined to answer the long list of
questions put to him in the course of the hearings
in the deportation proceedings conducted by an
Inspector of Immigration.
Recalling that he had been under constant in-
vestigation during the past twelve months by vari-
ous local and Federal officials and committees, Mr.
Martens said: "Upon the completion of the in-
vestigation by the Senate Committee I concluded
that no further benefit could be derived, either for
my Government or for the Government and peo-
ple of the United States, from endless repetition
of the interrogation to which I have submitted
during the past year.
"Common sense and the privileges adhering to my
official status both dictated that I should stand upon
the comprehensive statements which I have already-
made under oath, covering every pertinent phase of
my official mission and my personal activities. The
official record of my testimony before the Senate Com-
mittee, together with various documents attached there-
to, are in evidence in this inquiry now being conducted
by the Department of Labor. No essential facts could
be added thereto by any further testimony of mine. By
standing on this record, I have withheld no important
information, but have expedited these proceedings by
avoiding unnecessary repetitions of testimony and fruit-
less excursions into matters of a purely speculative and
argumentative nature. My declination to answer ques-
tions put to me during the course of the hearing con-
ducted by an Inspector of Immigration was further
impelled by the fact, of which I was advised by counsel,
that these hearings were irregular, inasmuch as I was
not afforded an opportunity, previous to the hearings,
to examine the evidence upon which the warrant for
my arrest was obtained, as is provided by the rule of
the Department covering these cases."
The statement filed by Mr. Martens then re-
viewed his testimony given before the sub-com-
mittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Commit-
tee, in which his Russian citizenship and his of-
ficial status as the accredited Representative of
the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic were
established and have never been disputed.
Referring to his attendance at several public
meetings in New York City, a matter which has
been the subject of special attention in the course
of these investigations, Mr. Martens reviewed the
circumstances surrounding those meetings, which
had been arrange:! ipen various occasions for the
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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purpose of extending greetings and sympathy to
Mr. Martens and his Government.
It was a natural circumstance, said Mr. Martens,
that most of these meetings were held under So-
cialist auspices. "I represent a Socialist Govern-
ment. It is natural that Socialists in America
should be particularly interested in my mission,
and that they should have been the first to extend
sympathetic greetings of encouragement to me."
"In this respect," Mr. Martens pointed out, "the
meetings arranged to greet me as the representative of
the Government of revolutionary Russia did not differ
from the public reception tendered to my predecessor,
Mr. Boris Bakhmetiev, when he visited New York for
the first time as the representative of the former Pro-
visional Government of Russia. The New York Call,
a Socialist newspaper, in its issue of July 8, 1917, de-
scribing the reception tendered to Mr. Bakhmetiev at
a mass meeting at Madison Square Garden, July 7,
1917, said : 'Twenty thousand American Socialists and
radicals . . . welcomed the Ambassador of Free Rus-
sia.' The Chairman of that meeting, Rutenberg, was
a veteran of the Russian Social Revolutionary Party,
who had stated in the public press of Russia that he
had organized the conspiracy for the assassination of
priest Gapon, who had betrayed the revolutionary party
to the Czar's Government. The principal speaker at
that meeting was Abraham Cahan, the editor of a
prominent Socialist paper in New York, and addresses
were made by various representatives of the Russian
revolutionary parties."
"Describing the meeting attended by Mr. Bakhmetiev
at Madison Square Garden on July 7, 1918, the New
York Call saids 4 Manv baners with inscriptions were
hung in the hall. Some of them were carried by dele-
gations. Practically all of them were in Russian script.
One in English read : "We demand the release of Emma
Goldman and Alexander Berkman." Another read :
"We demand the release of political prisoners in Amer-
ica." Still another called for the release of Louis
Kramer and Morris Becker, convicted recently of anti-
draft activities. Some of the banners in Russian read
"Friends of American Freedom"; "The Earth for the
People"; "In the Battle You'll Get Your Rights" (the
slogan of revolutionary Russia for half a century) ;
"Greetings to the International." The Socialist banners
reading, "Workers of the World Unite," were scattered
in profusion through the hall.' "
"It must be borne in mind," said Mr. Martens,
"that Mr. Bakhmetiev was then the recognized
representative of the Provisional Government of
Russia and is still certified by the State Depart-
ment to be the recognized representative of the
Russian Republic. His attendance at a public
meeting of American Socialists and 'Radicals', pre-
sided over and addressed by Russian revolutionists,
is apparently not considered objectionable by the
State Department of the United States."
Regarding his own political opinions, Mr. Mar-
tens stated: "I have been frank and explicit. I
have testified that I believe in the basic principles
of the Communist Party of Russia and of the
Third Internationale. I am the Representative of
a Nation of which the majoritv is the Communist
Party.
"I am not a member of any political organiza-
tion anywhere in the world. I am not now, and
never have been, a member of the Russian Social-
ist Federation, nor of the Communist Party of
America, nor of the Communist Labor Party of
America, nor of any other political organization in
America. I am not even a member of the Com-
munist Party of Russia, to the principles of which
I subscribe, because this party was organized after
I had left Russia and it has been impossible for
me to apply for and receive membership therein."
RUSSIA'S PEACE PROPOSAL TO
FINLAND
According to Petrograd papers the radio in
which Chicherin on May 11 proposed peace ne-
gotiations to the Government of Finland is in the
following terms:
The negotiations begun between Russia and Fin-
land at Systerbeck, which were intended to result
in an armistice between the two states, encountered
serious difficulty. A closer examination of this
difficulty has shown that it lay in the very nature
of the negotiations to lead to such a result. As an
armistice is not a definite peace, Finland laid
claim to measures of military security which the
other party to the negotiations was not to approve.
On the other hand, the conclusion of a definitive
peace would result in the elimination of all such
demands dictated by the accidental military con-
siderations.
On the other hand, it was impossible to draw a
sharp distinction between the views which were
of military nature and those that were of political
nature ; and such questions would be numerous in
definitive peace negotiations. The conditions
treated in negotiations at Systerbeck, for an armis-
tice, could not be viewed from the standpoint of
a definitive peace, to which an armistice should
only have been a preliminary step. These condi-
tions made the sharp difference of opinion on mili-
tary matters even more complicated. In addition,
it was not possible at the negotiations, which only
aimed at an armistice, to make mutual concessions
to such an extent as would be possible in negotia-
tions for definitive peace. The experience gained
in the negotiations at Systerbeck therefore shows
that the difference of opinion between Russia and
Finland might easily be overcome by the con-
clusion of peace which would bring about the ex-
istence of an understanding between the two states.
In consideration of these experiences the Russian
Government is of the opinion that the time has
come to proceed together with the people of Fin-
land to negotiations of peace, and formally ad-
monishes the government of Finland to begin ne-
gotiations with Russia concerning the conclusion
of a treaty of peace between the two countries.
THE FIRST OF MAY IN SOVIET RUSSIA
Moscow, May 4. — The greater part of the pop-
ulation of Russia took part in the celebration of
May Day. The people in many important indus-
tries worked throughout the day; for example, in
Saratov, out of a total of 80,000 workmen, 70,000
remained at woii>.
UNIVERSITYOF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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Station of the Moscnw-BHansk Railway at Moscow from which the troops were dispatched to the front.
Reserve troops of the Red Army leaving for the front.
v ^k rnnnl^ Original from
izeti Dy Vjuugic UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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660 SOVIET RUSSIA July 3, 1930
T/jojf J^/wiir tft** Blockade Tried to Starve
Children's holiday in a village of Pirogov County, near Moscow. Due to the
hlockade, the children m Soviet Russia have to do without toys, using:
their caps. The teacher is watching their game.
The Soviet Government pays particular attention to the children. The best
food is kept for the coming generation of Russia. The children in
this picture look clean, well fed, and show good manners,
3d by LjOOgle UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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July 3, 1920 S V I K T RUSSIA feW
Patriarch Tikhon, the present head of the Russian Church, who recently
issued a pastoral letter to the clergy in favor of the Soviet Govern-
ment, The Patriarch is wearing a gulden crown ornate
with precious stones. The picture was taken at
the Nikolsk Gates, in the Moscow Kremlin,
The unearthing of the relics of St, Tikhon from the Don, The picture
shows a human skull amidst the vestments of the saint. The abuses of
some unscrupulous clergymen who were exploiting the religious sentiments
of the masses for their own ends, led to the unearthing of a number
of relics.
by\j
.-it
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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When Petlura with his bands appeared in Ukraine thousands of Ukrainians luoktd for refuge in Soviet
Russia. Since the occupation of Ukraine by the Soviet Army, the refugees have gradually been
returning to their native land. Here a group of Ukrainians are awaiting their per-
mits to leave Soviet Russia for Soviet Ukraine, in front of the Ukrainian
Immigration Office in Mosti^ftQ j p g | from
xJ by ^OOgie UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
July 3, 1920
S V I E T B IT S 8 I A
669
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The Fi f th All -Russian Congres sof Soviets in Moscow, Members of the Congress resting outside the
building during an intermission*
The Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets in Moscow. The people are eager to get the news of the
days proceedings. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
670
SOVIET HI! SSI A
July 3, 1920
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The Military Section on Printed Propaganda of the All -Russian Central
Executive Committee is here shown busy supplying the army with literature*
Many special cars are used for this purpose, On the car shown above is
written; "All for the Workers. All for those who work," "The Commun-
ist Party of the Bolsheviks is at the head of the Revolutionary Proletariat;
The Red Army is its armed hand, let them he forever a common hody.
The Red soldier knows only the truth of what is happening in Russia and
in spite of bad or good news he is conscientiously doing his duty."
A train with literature for the men at the front. The car bears the in-
scription; "Military Literature from the Publishing Department of
the All-Russian Central Executive ComirdtUt/'
VERSITY OF MICHIGAN
JnJy 3, 1920
SOVIE T RUSSIA
671
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The berry markets in llie street of Moscow. Russia is very rich in all kinds
of berries, and even the blockade did not prevent them from growing.
The merchants speculators look contented in spite of Soviet rule.
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Public Dining Room No. 1 of the "Committee of Public Food Distribution" lt\ Moscow, v. f here food is being
rationed bec^e of ,„. W^^y Q| . ^^
6?S
SDVIK T » U S S I A ■
Julv 3, 1920
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All the Russian theatres are under the control of
the Soviet Government which supervises performances
and maintains order. Here is Comrade Strinsak, the
commandant of the ''Great Theatre" of Moscow.
en
o
On the "Square of Revoluti< n" meeting are oft en held* The picture shows
a soldier orator speaking to a crowd from th P lop of an armored car.
The people listen to his appeal, keeping go 0( i ,-rde r ~ a strange sight
in old Russia. Original from
ty^* 4 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
July 3, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
673
Press Cuttings
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GERMAN AUSTRIA AND RUSSIA
Very soon there will hardly be any court left
in Europe which will not have been visited bv our
Chancellor of State, Renner, who bears the tapal
blessings. Whenever the need arises for assuring
some capitalist robber-clique of the friendship of
the Austrian Republic, the government of Vienna
immedimately present itself for duty. Representa-
tives of the trusts, of the Pope, bankers, whether
from Italy, Jugo-Slavia, Czecho-Slovakia, let
them all come to us, say the wise men of the
Vienna government. The Social-Democratic heroes
of the Coalition have an unshakable faith in world
Capitalism. But they will not bear any mention
of Soviet Russia, they will not hear of resuming
trade relations with her. Our glorious halting re-
public is the only country in Europe which has
no trade relations with Russia. The Social-Demo-
crats have invented the most stupid tales to prevent
the working classes from sending representatives
to Russia. They declare that the way to Moscow
is too long, and that Russia cannot produce any-
thing. As a matter of fact, we know that Spain
is much farther away from Russia than Austria,
but nevertheless, the Havas Official Telegraph
Agency reports the following news from Madrid:
"There is a Commission leaving for Russia, com-
posed of representatives of the * government, the
employing classes, and the working classes, re-
spectively. The object of sending this Commis-
sion, is to study the social, political, and economic
conditions of Soviet Russia. Fernandez Rios is
participating in this Commission, as a representa-
tve of the working classes." England, France,
Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, and Italy
already have official relations with Moscow. The
statement that Russia has no goods to export is
baseless and false. Already the first shipment of
Russian goods has been delivered in Italy. There
is a regular trade going on between Italy and Rus-
sia. We are on the best of terms with Horthy,
supply him with ammunitions to his heart's con-
tent and we have stretched out the hand of friend-
ship to the White Guards of Poland ; but no notice
is taken of the existence of Soviet Russia; the
Austrian Social-Democrats have a marvelously
worthless and beggarly foreign policy — the foreign
policy of the Coalition. — From a recent number of
Die Rote Fahne.
SOVIET RUSSIA AND CHINA
The representatives of Soviet Russia and China
have entered into an agreement on the exchange
of goods. Freedom of transportation is guaran-
teed. The Chinese supply Russia with leather,
clothing, sewing thread, and tea in exchange for
articles of prime necessity. — Krasnoye Znamya,
Vladivostok, May 14, 1920*.
INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT OF
POLAND
By Henry Bernard.
Poland is bankrupt and no longer capable of pro-
ducing her own food. She is forced to acquire food-
stuffs from other countries, and, since she is bankrupt,
she can only get them on credit or trust. No country
would think of supplying another country with goods
on credit, unless there existed a good guarantee that
within a stipulated time payment would be made in
cash or its equivalent. The latter may take the form
of goods for services rendered. Poland's position is
such that she will be unable for a very long time to
come to meet her bills either in cash or in kind. Con-
sequently, she has agreed to discharge her liabilities,
at least in part, by rendering seri'iccs to her creditors.
She has agreed to work off her debt: to become a
menial to the great powers who now are literally
her bread-masters. She is rendering this service by-
launching an attack on Soviet Russia. There exists
no other explanation of her much boomed "Big Of-
fensive." In the first place, let us consider if Poland
is actually bankrupt and poverty-stricken.
Poland is primarily an agricultural country. Prior
to the war those territories which now compose the
"independent" States of Poland yielded average pro-
duction of six to six an a half millions tons per year,
two millions tons of which she exported. Today Pol-
and cannot export two million tons per year: She can-
not even produce the pre-war four to four and a half
million tons for home consumption.
I will prove the statement by submitting the testi-
mony of the greatest authority in the matter, namely,
no less a personage than the Polish Food Minister.
In an official statement he annouced that, if all existing
stores of grain were commandeered by the Ministry
of Food, Poland's requirements could be securely met
up to April 1, 1920. In order to meet requirements
after the then existing supplies ran out, the Minister
was compelled to turn to the U. S. A* with a request
of 400,000 tons of grain, and found that country was
willing to supply on credit. Furthermore, Great Britain
showed herself ready to undertake the transport of the
grain also on credit, estimating the monthly transport
costs at 700,000,000 Polish marks (£933,333 Is. 4d.).
America is charging Poland:
Per ton of Grain : 20,000 Marks— £26 13 4
Britain is charging Poland:
Transport per ton: 10,000 Marks— £13 6 8
£40
This then is the position : in order that Poland might
have bread to cat after April 1, 1920, she was compelled
to make herself indebted to Britain and U. S. A. to the
extent of £16,600,000.
The Polish Food Minister further states that Poland's
requirements in meats amount to 373.000 tons. If
slaughtering is carried on judiciously only 149,000 tons
(representing the natural increase from breeding) will
be at her disposal. If Poland is forced to cover her
requirements from her own present available cattle the
supply she will have consumed her entire stock within
the short space of four years.
I have before me a mass of figures, but I think the
foregoing should suffice.
It is a sifinificant fact that very shortly after April
1, 1920, IV hen Poland must have commenced living on
the grain for which she owes Britain and U. S. A.,
£16,000.000, she launches a heavy offensive against Rus-
sia. What does it mean?
Poland was in a state of agricultural and industrial
chaos. Factories, aid thousands of workers were idle
for want of raw materials, etc, Thousands of small
farmers were 111? for wa.nt if money wherewith to buy
674
SOVIET RUSSIA
July 3, 1920
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seed and implements. Thousands of acres of soil were
uncultivated and went to ruin because their bourgeois-
art istocratic owners were too much engrossed in gam-
bling on the bourse. Profiteering was raging unchecked.
Such power did the profiteers possess, that the Food
Minister was compelled after a while to relinquish the
meat control, and thus allow meat to be sold indis-
criminately and at back breaking prices. According to
the reports of the American Red Cross, two millions
have died of starvation and epidemic since the beginning
of the war. In the winter of 1919 no less than 270,000
cases of typhus were reported in one month!
Some of the more sane amongst the ruling class were
compelled by the absolute extremity of the situation,
to introduce agricultural and other reform bills in the
Sejm (Parliament). Those that were passed were later
on amended and re-amended by the more myopic and
profitomaniac section of the bourgeoisie, until they were
amended out of existence. The Sejm accomplished
nothing. Exploitation had run amuck.
The mad bourgeoisie was riding its steed to death.
No section of the masses was harder hit than the small
farmers. When, as a harbinger of the coming crash,
the General Strike occurred in October last year, 8,000
farmers were sent to prison. It is the agricultural
workers and small farmers that represent the revolu-
tionary section of the masses. They readily turn to
Communism as a deliverer, and the government
strengthens their faith in it, by instituting punitive ex-
peditions, tortures, and wholesale imprisonments.
Can one wonder what made Marian Seyda give ut-
terance last year to the warning that "Peace with Bol-
shevik Russia means Poland's sure death?"
Is Poland attacking Russia at the command of Allied
Capitalism?
Let us seek from Poland herself an answer to the
question. With reference to army estimates, recently
under discussion in the Sejm, the Polish dailies raised
a howl of objection : They argued that it is the duty
of the AlUed poivers to feed, equip, and support the
Polish Army in vicxv of the fact that it is fighting in
the interests of the Allies! Thus the Polish press
literally kicks the cat out of the bag.
Meanwhile the Polish Army is marching into Russia,
"conquering town after town." But the thing has only
just commenced. Napoleon I. also marched into Rus-
sia, "conquering town after town" — we know the rest !
But Russia retaliates, and her army will march into the
midst of a people that will greet it with acclamation.
This people will be the Polish workers and peasants.
—The Spur, London, June, 1920.
CHICHERIN'S INTERVIEW WITH A
JAPANESE CORRESPONDENT
Fusse's cablegram from Moscow is published in
Osaka Mainichi, Japan, April 18. Fusse relates
his interview with Chicherin:
To a question as to the policy of the Soviet Govern-
ment in the Far East, Chicherin replied : "Our numer-
ous offers of peace were interpreted by foreign govern-
ments as an admission of our weakness. But it is an
entirely incorrect opinion. Our peace proposals are
made for no other reason than that the Russian people
have no territorial aims. The Russian people like peace.
We have no desire to disturb the peace of the Far East.
You have as proof of this our decision to organize a
buffer region between the Baikal and the Pacific Ocean,
which region will include the Russian Sakhalin. It is
understood, of course, that the majority of the popula-
tion of this new State tends to lean towards Russia,
and Russia will therefore extend her influence over it
in the future, just as she is doing at present. However,
we are prepared to recognize the autonomy of this
state. It is understood that the international forms
which the relations between this new state and Russia
will assume will depend solely upon the relations be-
tween Russia and Japan. Therefore, it is necessary
for Japan to enter into a lasting agreement with Russia
and with the above buffer state. If, owing to the great
area of the new buffer state, Russia and Japan will
thus be separated from each other, we would invite
Japanese technical men and Japanese capital for the
purpose of rehabilitating all branches of Russian in-
dustry, and would simultaneously reestablish exchange
of goods. We believe that this would be of great ad-
vantage to Russia and Japan. It is understood that
our general conditions pertaining to foreign trade will
be defined in a treaty, which will be signed between
ourselves, and the British, French and Scandinavian
delegates. Therefore, the Russo-Japanese treaty would
have to be drawn up in accordance with the above-
mentioned treaty." — Krasnoye Znamvo, Vladivostok,
April 28, 1920.
THE PRODUCTION OF AGRICULTURAL
MACHINERY
[The following article is taken from "Izvcstia"
Petrograd, December 23, 15)19.]
T^HE agricultural economy suffered greatly dur-
**• ing the war from the loss of animate and in-
animate stock. Supplying agricultural machinery
is one of the "principle problems of the Soviet
Government, but the war imposed by the Allies
is hampering the production of the needed im-
plements.
The production of agricultural machinery for
the last two vears is given in the following tables:
1919 1918
Straw-cutters 3,200 3,800
Thrashing-machines . . . 1,246 6.500
Winnowing-machines .. 3,710 21,000
Harvesting machinery.. 11,980 33,380
Harrows v 11,450 45,000
Scythes 98,000 160.000
Sickles ;... 684,400 1,700,000
Plows 147,450 361,000
With the exception of straw-cutters, the output
of machines in 1919 decreased in general from
3-5 times in comparison with the output of 1918.
The principle reason for this was the lack of fuel,
raw material, and work-hands.
The supply of metal in 1919 (up to the first of
October), for the use of agricultural production,
is estimated as follows (in thousand poods) :
Per Cent
Assigned Delivered Delivered
Cast iron 394.5 58.9 14.9
Iron 662.7 369.5 55.7
Sheet iron 361.6 68.1 18.8
Roof iron 14.5 22 15.8
Steel for scythes 20
Nails 15.7 1.8 11.5
Colored metals 3.9 1.5 38.5
Bolts and screws.. 35.0 10.0 14.9
Wire 54.2 8.1 14.9
1,562.1 520.2 33.3
The above table shows that there was assigned
for distribution 1562.1 thousand poods, but only
33.3 per cent, or one-third was delivered. 2,155
thousand poods were required, in comparison with
which the assigned amount (1,562.1) was only
72.4 per cent.
The only way out of this critical situation is to
be found in victory and peace, at which time Soviet
Russia wiM be able to direct all her energy to the
reestablishmeiit ol' industry and agriculture.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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July 3, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
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Book Review
"Barbarous Soviet Russia," by Isaac McBride, Thomas
Seltzer, New York, 1920. Price $2.50.
(")NE is inclined to sympathize with the Red
^ soldier whose duty it was to conduct Isaac
McBride on his journey to Moscow. McBride
asked a great many questions and wanted to see
a great many things. When he saw soldiers march-
ing through the streets, McBride had to follow
them to the station and watch them entrain for
the front. When a body of prisoners were brought
off a train just in from the front, nothing would
do for McBride but to follow them out to the
prison barracks and watch them being fed with
bread and propaganda. If he saw children run
out to play at recess, he followed them back into
their school room. If a man ran down the street,
McBride ran after, and when the man was ar-
rested, McBride followed captive and captors to
see what it was all ahout. His Red soldier guard
and guide followed patiently after, interpreting
and answering questions. We venture to say that
one Red soldier knows more about Soviet Russia
today than he did when he first met McBride.
TJJie result of all this running about and asking
questions, is embodied in a volume of sketches and
impressions entitled "Barbarous Soviet Russia,"
published by Thomas Seltzer, New York. The
title is bait for the unwary. McBride found no
barbarity in Soviet Russia, he did not even find
the nationalization of women which was so con-
fidently promised him by a young gentleman in
the Foreign Information Bureau of the Lettish
Government. Indeed, this account of "Barbarous
Soviet Russia" will be disappointing to many gen-
tlemen in many foreign information bureaus. It
does not confirm their information.
McBride walked into Soviet Russia with a white
handkerchief tied to the end of an umbrella and
a knowledge of Marx. The second item of his
equipment was the more essential. It prepared
him for the sight — so surprising to more naive
observers — of Bolsheviks without beards or bombs.
He was able to observe the Soviet state and sub-
sequently to report upon his observation, with com-
prehension and sympathy. The book covers a wide
variety of subjects that came within his eager vis-
ion and insatiable curiosity. He writes much about
the Red Army, its discipline, and spirit, the rela-
tions between officers and soldiers; much, also,
about the care and education of children in Soviet
Russia — "the strategical reserves of the communist
state." There is an interview with Lenin, another
with Gorky, and talks with many Soviet officials.
A valuable appendix contains the Code of Labor
Laws of Soviet Russia and many important and
hitherto inaccessible documents and articles from
official publications, relating to labor, finance, in-
dustry, and agriculture.
"Barbarous Soviet Russia" is an entertaining
account of an adventurous journey and a com-
petent report upon conditions within the workers >
republic.
NORTH RUSSIA READY TO TRADE
The following two telegrams were recently re-
ceived by the Norwegian newspaper "Social-Demo-
kraten" from its correspondent at Vardoe, who had
just returned from North Russia:
I.
Your correspondent, who has just landed from
North Russia, is able to report that everything i&
ready on the Russian side to open commercial re-
lations with Norway and the rest of the world.
All steam and sailing ships available for the
purpose were taken during the month of May
from various points in northern Russia to the
White Sea in order to be loaded there with wood
for foreign countries.
II.
Your correspondent has had a conversation with
the Norwegian Consul Finstad at Murmansk. The
latter states that no previous government in north-
ern Russia had treated him as well as the present
government. All the reports in Norwegian papers
as to the Consul's arrest and as to the confiscation
of goods are pure fabrications. On the whole, Fin-
stad seems unable to find words of praise strong
enough to apply to the leaders of the Bolsheviki.
With regard to Norwegian speculators and their
goods which had been confiscated in northern Rus-
sia the Consul reports: Long ago, as early as
1918, Finstad warned the Norwegian merchant*
operating in northern Russia against sending goods
to Russia without first having received an advance
as a guarantee of good faith, and without first
assuring themselves that the rest would be paid
when the goods arrived in Russia. He had called
the attention of Norwegians to the class struggle
that was in progress in Russia, and had clearly ex-
plained to all that if they undertook to gamble
with what they had, they must run the risk of
losing something.
BOUND VOLUMES FOR 1920
At the end of June, 1920. which marks the close of our second volume (January to June), we shall bind two
hundred foil sets of Soviet Russia for this period (26 issues — half a year), and deliver them to persons who have
placed their orders in advance. The price for such a volume, bound uniformly with the first volume, is five dollars.
The volumes will be delivered promptly in July.
Send orders, accompanied by amount required, to
110 West 40th Street
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
New York, N. Y.
We need, in order to be able to bind so many sets of Soviet Russia, a few more copies of Vol. II, No. 6
(February 7, 1920), which we are willing to pay for at the rate of ten cents p»r ccvy.
Jh MILHIbrtH
{J
676
SOVIET RUSSIA
July 3, 19
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A GREAT RUSSIAN ACTOR DIES
Berlin, May 29. — The Russian periodical Go-
los Rossyi, appearing at Berlin, reports that one
of the greatest Russian actors, V. N. Davidov, has
died at Archangel. He had been imprisoned dur-
ing the "White" rule at Archangel, but intended
after the victory of the Soviet Government to re-
turn to the Alexandrovsky Theatre at Petrograd
as one of whose foremost actors he had worked for
many years. In order to provide Davidov with
an opportunity to appear before the end of the
season, it had been decided to delay the close of
the theatrical season.
SOVIET GOVERNMENT NOW REPRE-
SENTS ALL RUSSIA
Steklov writing in Izvestia says:
"The bourgeois governments of Latvia and Fin-
land have recently altered their attitude toward
Soviet Russia and are now putting forth unrea-
sonable demands. It is certain that this sudden
outbreak of Latvian and Finnish defiance may be
explained only by the pressure exerted by the
Entente on Latvia and Finland. The manifest
threat from all sides against the existence of Soviet
Russia must finally produce a consolidation of all
Russian parties, regardless of their political con-
victions, around the Soviet Government, which is
at present not only a Government of Russian work-
ers and peasants, but represents all of Russia and
is defending its independence and honor."
LATVIA AND RUSSIA
Riga, May 27.— The Leta (Lettish Telegraph
Bureau) reports: The chairman of the Lettish
Peace Delegation, Seeberg, has returned to Riga
from Moscow. He declares that the boundary
question is settled. All that remains is the de-
termination of a number of technical matters con-
cerning the district of Drissa, where a plebiscite
is to be held. Soviet Russia has recognized Lat-
via's independence. The economic provisions are
not yet determined. A number of Lettish fugi-
tives and hostages have returned from Moscow.
The above news item makes it probable that the
signing of a treaty of peace between Soviet Russia
and Latvia will soon be announced.
With this accomplished we trust we may be able
to provide the readers of Soviet Russia with a
translation of a full text of a Latvian-Soviet Rus-
sian treaty, as we have already provided them with
a translation of the Esthonian-Soviet Russian
treaty.
ENGLISH BOMBARD A RUSSIAN CITY
(Private Telegram to Avanti.)
Vienna, May 5 (Brante). — Moscow communi-
cates that English naval forces in the Sea of Azov
have bombarded the city of Mariupol. The Soviet
army has occupied the city of Shemakha in the
sector of Baku.
SECOND ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATED
AT MOSCOW
Moscow, May 23. — Today there was celebrated
here the second anniversary of the introduction of
universal military instruction. This institution is
of a provisional nature and makes it possible for
the Soviet power to organize a proletarian army
of defence without having to mobilize the workers
in the industrial enterprises. It is simultaneously
a school which trains hundreds of thousands of
soldiers for Soviet Russia.
On this anniversary day, reviews of troops were
held, in which detachments of the Red Army
marched by in the presence of the English Work-
ers Delegation. There also were held today ath-
letic meets, theatrical and moving picture perform-
ances, as well as open air concerts.
SOVIET RUSSIA TO THE ALLIES
Moscow, May 22. — The People's Commissar for
Foreign Affairs of Soviet Russia, Chicherin, and
the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the
Ukrainian Soviet Republic, Rakovsky, prepared a
note addressed to the governments of France,
Great Britain, Italy, and the United States, in
which they declare that neither of the two repub-
lics has any intention of invading any country in
order to gain more territory. They have almost
succeeded in ridding themselves of the enemies
within, who, aided by the Entente, have threatened
the very existence of the republics; they have dedi-
cated all their resources to the stupendous task
of rebuilding their countries. The governments
of both republics have used every means in their
power, to bring about peace negotiations with the
Polish Government, but, despite that, the Polish
army began to invade the territory of Ukraine,
which is allied to Soviet Russia. Simultaneously
with this move, the Polish Government recognized
the counter-revolutionists with Petlura at their
head, the Petlura who had so often been repudi-
ated, and made an agreement with him, whereby
Ukraine was to be virtually a vassal of victorious
Poland.
The governments of the two Soviet republics
find it necessary to call the attention of the En-
tente governments to these events the responsibility
for which rests at their doors. They passionately
protest against this new bloodshed, and against
the aid which the Entente is giving the Polish
Government. They are summoning all the na-
tions of the Entente to witness this new attack
against the liberty of Soviet Russia. Russia and
Ukraine will fight until they are victorious
against these new invaders, to whose greed they
are the victims and who are threatening their in-
alienable right of self-determination. The govern-
ments of the two Soviet Republics are prepared
to set all «s^>-en J( nt developments to the influence
that th(. ^^.^^j^jWrelfling over Polish actions.
CD
July 3, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
677
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DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN
RUSSIA AND ENGLAND
Moscow, April 20. — The People's Commissar
for Foreign Affairs, Chicherin, sent a note to the
British Foreign Minister, Lord Curzon, setting
forth the following:
Soviet Russia has remarked with satisfaction
England's move to investigate certain vital ques-
tions, which, once out of the way, would pave the
way to future friendly intercourse between the
two nations.
The Russian Government has no intention, at
the present time, of making an inquiry as to
whether the assistance rendered by Great Britain
to the foes of Soviet Russia (and that avowedly
so) was actually necessary and justifiable, in order
to crush Germany. Russia is all the more ready
to let this matter pass, since she has the assurance
of the British Government, that from the moment
when peace is concluded between the two govern-
ments, and all danger of retaliation by the Rus-
sians is removed, England will feel herself free
from her obligations to these people whom she
aided. But in the event that Great Britain should
declare that all these questions will have a great
bearing on the whole of the peace proceedings,
Russia will not set these matters aside, and will
have them brought up along with the mass of
others.
Russia realizes the justice of Britain's assertion
that the rehabilitation of Russia is to the interest
of the rest of the world, and that the continuation
of the present state of hostilities hinders that pur-
pose. Poland is far more active in continuing
these hostilities than the remnant of Denikin's
army. Therefore the war with Poland must be
ended if Russia is not to be hindered in her work
of reconstruction.
Moreover, the Soviet Government requests that
the British Government use its influence to make
possible the peaceful departure for Soviet Russia
of the Hungarian People's Commissars at present
in Austria,^ — for they were allied with that govern-
ment.
To conclude, the Soviet Government is of the
opinion that the settlement of the above-mentioned
questions, as well as all others, can best be accom-
plished through personal negotiations between
Litvinov and the London Government. It is con-
fident that the results will be favorable, and to
the mutual advantage of both countries.
PEASANTS AND WORKERS IN RUSSIA
Moscow. — Izvestia publishes an article by Stek-
lov in which he says, among other things :
The peasants have lately begun to sell large
quantities of potatoes, grains, meats, and several
other products, with payment in paper money only.
When it is realized that nothing whatsoever can
be obtained for paper rubles it follows that the
peasants are delivering their products on credit.
The workers again tighten their belts and continue
with the greatest zeal their efforts to reconstruct
the Soviet state.
Through a proclamation of the All-Russian
Defense Council, the peasants of the governments
of Tver, Smolensk, Riazan, and Moscow have been
ordered to give to the Moscow Commune all draft
animals, wagons, and forage. This requisition is
intended to create a means of transporting food
into Moscow.
PROTEST TO BULGARIA
In a note recently forwarded to the Bulgarian
Minister of Foreign Affairs, People's Commissar
of Foreign Affairs, Chicherin, writes as follows:
Already during the first half of the past year
Bulgaria has become a base for the operations of
White troops in the Ukraine and Russia. In ac-
cordance with the instructions of French imperi-
alists, Bulgaria in every way supported the Rus-
sian generals in their battle against the working
masses of Russia; thus, among other things, on
August 9, 1919, Bulgaria sent to the Russian
White Guards 25,000 rifles, 12,000,000 cartridges,
and a number of projectiles for cannon; on No-
vember 22, 1919, about 3,500,000 cartridges were
sent, and 12,000 more rifles on December 4, 1919.
The Bulgarian government opened a bureau for
recruiting Russian volunteers at Varna. Bul-
garian authorities purchased and" delivered to the
White Guards in Odessa all kinds of material and
fuel. Bulgaria was the support to Denikin's rear.
This procedure of the Bulgarians constitutes a
brutal violaton of neutrality and a warning to
the Russian and Ukrainian workers and peasants.
The Soviet Government protests against this
and expresses the hope that at a moment when
the question of the recognition of the Soviet power
is becoming a burning question all over western
Europe the Bulgarian people may not continue to
permit their government to involve them in new
conflicts.
RUSSIA UNITED AGAINST POLAND
Moscow, May 25. — The provisional Soviet at
Nizhni-Novgorod has received a number of volun-
tary offers from factory committees and peasant
organizations to give aid and support in the war
against the external enemy. Not only Commun-
ists, but all the workers and peasant organizations,
whose numbers constitute great masses of the pop-
ulation, are offering their aid, and affording mani-
festations of their zeal and their firm confidence
in the Soviet Government's defence of Russian soil.
At Smolensk an All-Russian popular meeting was
held which shows how all nationalists within the
Russian Soviet territory are united in joining in
the battles against the new invaders. Voluntary
organizations of troops have placed themselves at
the disposal of the army command. From Poland
reports are received of insurrections among the
population. In several places insurgent divisions
consisting of rebels and deserters have taken pos-
session of the forests. These detachments attack
Polish Government troops and destroy railroads
and bridges. The Polish Government is having
the schools transformed into barracks and prisons.
(L>
678
SOVIET RUSSIA
July 3, 19-20
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ESPERANTO USED ON RAILROADS
[The following appeal to the railroad workers
is printed in the "Herald of Ways of Communica-
tion" published in Moscow by the People's Com-
missariat of Ways of Communication.]
(^OMUADES, RAILROAD WORKERS! The
^* great watch-word of democracy — the brother-
hood of nations— ^-which is in the order of the day
of the Russian Revolution, calls for a rapid dif-
fusion of an international language.
The absence of an international language hin-
ders the inter-relations of peoples; hampers the
diffusion of arts and sciences; serves as a cause
for national and international controversies; in-
terferes in the exchange of thought and the prod-
ucts of labor, etc., etc.
We, the railwaymen, being directly connected
with one of the greatest arteries in the intercourse
of nations, feel to a greater extent the need for a
universal language for all peoples. We do not
have to go to other lands to convince ourselves of
.this fact, — every day we can observe on trains, as
well as on railroad stations, the helplessness of
foreigners who do not know our language.
Such a situation is also awaiting us abroad.
We cannot possibly know all languages, not even
the most important. The isolated mode of living
that our ancestors led created too many of them.
Neither can we accept as international any of the
existing languages, as this would bring about cul-
tural (which would be followed by economic, and
perhaps by political) supremacy of that nation,
whose language would be recognized as interna-
tional. But we have no means, nor moral right to
impose our language upon other peoples. There-
fore the only language acceptable for this pur-
pose would be a neutral international language.
Esperanto is such a neutral language, and has for
a long time been used in various branches of in-
ternational life. Esperanto excels all existing lan-
guages in being easy to learn; its melodiousness,
elasticity, and beauty have been recognized by au-
thorities. More than a million people of various
nationalities and races already speak this lan-
guage. Many books, and periodicals are published
abroad in Esperanto. There are Esperanto peri-
odicals pertaining to railroads. All large and even
small centers have Esperanto societies and groups,
which aid foreign tourists and persons who study
Esperanto.
Comrades, Railroadmen! Do not stand aside
from this great task! Learn Esperanto! This
will give you an opportunity to correspond, on
questions which interest you r with your fellow-
creatures in all parts of the world; it will help
you in traveling through Russia and abroad; it
will facilitate your official and personal relations
with foreigners who travel on the railroads; and
will enable you to participate in international rail-
road conventions, to which you will have to go, as
the railroad branch of transportation is of an in-
ternational character.
Organize Tailway Esperanto groups, learn and
spread the language of Esperanto!
THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. State Construction Under the Soviet Regime. An official article dealing with the
progress made in the construction of railways, ports, bridges, waterways, elevators, re-
frigerators, etc., under the Soviet Government.
2. Organization ok Labor in Soviet Regimk. An ojficial article dealing with the
Labor Army.
3. Agricultural Cooperation, by V. Milutin.
4. Poland and Ukraine.
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make all checks payable
to L. C. A. K. Martens.)
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inal from
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CD
SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents a Copy
Saturday, July 10, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 2
iHUfd Weekly at 110 W. 40th Street. New York, N. V, Ludwig C A< K< Marteni. Publisher. Jacob WLttmer HartmiiirL, Editor,
Subscription Rate, $5.00 p*r annum. Application lot entry aa second class matter pentiing.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PAGE
PAGE
so
State Construction Under the Soviet Reci me 33 Press Cuttings
Military Review, by Vo* /?. Roushun lU>k M Debate on the Russian Negotiations —
The Creation ov the Laboring Army of Pet- Czecho-Slovakia — Ukraine — Russia —
ROGKAU ...... * 40 Radios * . . . 54
Editorials 44 Two Notes on Polish Atrocities ........ —
Poland and Ukraine , 46 The Bolsheviki in Persia —
State Construction under the Soviet Regime
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STATE CONSTRUCTION AND PUBLIC
WQRKtf
T^HE construction of buildings by the State, and
architecture in general, were always very lit-
tle developed in Russia, From time i in memorial,
the country has suffered from the insufficiency and
imperfection of communicating roads and other
works of public utility. During the war, when
about seventy per cent of all production and the
creative forces of the State were consumed by the
special military necessities, all construction work,
even the more or less urgent work of reparation,
was entirely suspended and displaced by the tech-
nical needs of the war. Before the October Revo-
lution the question of a more intense and regular
development of public works was not even dis-
cussed. There was at that time no general [dan
uor any system for State construction ; this con-
struction was ordinarily confined to numerous pro-
jects conceived separately and accidentally by vari-
ous administrations and institutions. Conversely,
the absence of a general plan for State construction
accounted for the absence of a central organ to
administer it.
The October Revolution having demolished all
fhe artificial barriers hindering the development
of the productive forces of the country, and having
made of the latter the basis for solving all prob-
lems, opened up the way for the extensive execu-
tion of the projects for State construction upon
a grand scale.
That the labor in this direction might be prac-
tical and systematic it was necessary that a special
central organ supervise the direction and orgai liga-
tion, undertaking the registration, regulating the
distribution of material and technical resources,
and putting into execution the necessary work. In
pursuance of this course, the Soviet Government,
in 1918, created a Committee of State Construe-
tion.
If we compare side by side the grandeur of the
projects of this committee and the necessity for
their realization, on the one hand, and the extra-
ordinary lack of resources and materials, and the
obstacles of every kind, on the other hand, we shall
have a faithful enough picture of the conditions
under which the committee has worked from the
time of its creation to this day, endeavoring de-
spite all to develop its activity,
II.
RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION
The Committee of State Construction has com-
pleted numerous technical researches and planned
a series of projects in connection with the con-
struction of new railroads*
In 1918 these researches and projects covered
12,924 versts of railroad lines divided as follows:
1,337 versts— projects definitely elaborated; 3,480
versts — field and leveling work ; 5,682 versts —
construction from fifty to ninety per cent com-
pleted, and finally, 2,4$ 5 versts— prepared for field
and leveling work.
Furthermore, in the coutso of the same year
the private railroad companies which were still
operating at that date on their part carried
on technical researches and planned the construc-
tion of o,600 versts of new railway lines.
In 1919 the figures relative to the completed
technical researches covered 7,889 versts, part of
which was for an earner ;>cnod and the rest for
the year ^^g^^jgjf^ compris-
34
SOVIET RUSSIA
July 10, 1920
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ing in all 11,517 versts were undertaken in the
same year, followed by several economic researches.
Summarizing, the Soviet Government has, dur-
ing the last two years, performed all the prepara-
tory work necessary for the construction of 7,889
versts of new railroad lines.
Technical researches recently planned and to be
undertaken very shortly amount to 12,460 versts.
In addition, the construction of the following
railroad lines is now being studied from the eco-
nomic point of view: Moscow-Ukhta (1,400
versts), Moscow-Murmansk (800 versts), Koros-
tene-Orel (900 versts), and Kiev- Voronezh (via
Romny and Sumy).
Several of the above-mentioned lines are, how-
ever, of but secondary economic importance and
they were projected for strategic reasons only, or
to meet the special needs of the present moment.
As for the railroad lines which are already be-
ing constructed, they number fifty-five, the work
being done under the direction of thirty-eight spe-
cial technical administrations. The total length
of these lines is 9,730 versts, apportioned as fol-
lows: lines begun and exploited, 374 versts; lines
operating provisionally, 1,384 versts; lines
from forty to ninety per cent completed, 7,370
versts, and, finally, lines to be constructed, but for
which all necessary materials are already supplied,
602 versts.
It should be added, nevertheless, that by reason
of the general economic situation and the inces-
sant changes at the front, construction work of
the above mentioned railway lines, was for the most
part greatly retarded or provisionally suspended.
In 1919 the total length of railway lines in
course of construction was 8,328 versts, appor-
tioned as follows: exploited'lines, 1,367 versts, and
lines from twenty to ninety per cent completed,
6,961 versts. Moreover, all the preparatory work
necessary for the construction of railroads had
been completed, amounting in all to 2,557 versts,
but following upon special economic conditions,
the construction of these lines was postponed to a
more favorable time.
Summing up, the Soviet Government, in 1918
and 1919 completed the construction of several
railroad lines having a total length of 1,741 versts,
and operating regularly. In addition it undertook
all sorts of work looking to the construction of
various auxiliary and connection lines necessary
for the transport of fuel. The number of these
lines is twenty-eight and they measure in all 498
versts. f
Exclusive of the credits allowed the Committee
of State Construction considerable sums have been
given, for the construction of railroad lines of
secondary importance, to various administrations,
among others the Central Committee of Woods and
Forests, and the Central Coal Committee. The
above lines have a total length of 2,500 versts.
III.
RIVER CONSTRUCTION
Despite the very important role of river con-
struction in the national economy; of the country
its development was greatly retarded and it was
not until 1918, after the Revolution, that such
work was carried on with greater intensity. This
work had for its basis a very vast and rich pro-
gram of grandiose construction, but later, just as
that for railroad construction, it underwent a sen-
sible reduction due to the general difficult situa-
tion.
Thus the preparatory work for the irrigation of
the so-called '^hungry" steppes, and of Turkestan,
commenced in the summer of 1918, was suspended ;
at this moment there is being pursued only the
work relative to the arrangement and publication
of the rather voluminous projects and results of
economic and technical researches, which will be
completed probably in January or March of the
present year; for analogous reasons (and especially
in view of its being impossible for the engineers
to get to the place of work) it was necessary to
abandon completely the construction of a system
of necessary and valuable locks on the Tura and
Tobolsk rivers, which were to connect by waterway
the industrial region of the Ural and the coal basin
of Kuznetsk. Owing to the lack of resources and
food supplies, similar work on the rivers Svir and
Volkhov likewise suffered a great reduction; at
the same time it was necessary to abandon com
pletely the construction of an interior river port
on the Volga where a part of the banking work
had already been completed.
Thus all the activity of the Committee of State
Construction was in this important need of the
national economy finally reduced to insignificant
work looking to the improvement of already exist-
ing waterways, technical researches, the elabora-
tion of projects, etc.
The following work has been organized:
A waterway has been created between the Shek-
sna river and the White Sea (utilizing a system
of locks on the Sukhona river and the Little Dvina
of the North).
On the great waterway between the Onega river
and the White Sea, the exploration of the current
of the Neva and the construction of the hydro-
metric station of the Neva where a very important
hydrometric work is being carried on, have been
completed; also, there is being elaborated a pro-
ject relative to a system of locks in connection
with the White Sea and the Baltic to meet the
actual exigencies of river and naval navigation.
There have been completed the elaboration of
a project and the necessary technical researches
relating to the canal between the Volga and the
Don.
* A river port, called Borsk, has been constructed
at Nizhni- Novgorod on the Volga.
A river port has been constructed at Rybinsk.
Several projects of reconstruction have been
elaborated and technical researches made for the
river systems of Maryinsk and Tikhvin, which are
falling into neglect.
A series of general technical and economic re-
searches have been completed for the creation of
UNlV tK->l Ii Ur MlLrlKjMN
(L>
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July 10, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
35
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a program of construction and improvement of
riverways.
In addition, important secondary works have
been executed and are proceeding constantly in
the following regions of Russia:
In the regions of Moscow and of Nizhni-Nov-
gorod, which embrace the whole basin of the river
Oka and all its affluents, from Nizhni-Novgorod
to the source of the Moscow river, projects for
ports to be constructed at Moscow and at Nizhni-
Novgorod have been elaborated, and followed up
with vast researches relating to hydrometrics and
perforation, and very detailed economic inquiries
concerning this whole region.
Technical researches are now being carried on
in the whole southwest region of Russia, notably
in the provinces of Samara, Saratov, Astrakhan,
Simbirsk and Penza; in addition, hydrogeologic
researches are being actively pursued at the same
time iA the province of Saratov, and general re-
searches have been made along the river Irghys,
with the purpose of constructing there a system
of locks to aid in the utilization of water power;
projects have also been just drawn up for the irri-
gation of the province of Astrakhan by the waters
at the mouth of the Volga.
Finally, the local sections of the Committee of
State Construction, occupied especially with the
solution of various questions in connection with
waterways in fifteen provinces, are constantly car-
rying on, under the general direction and with
the aid of the central administration, various
works in connection with irrigation and drain-
age of terrains, the drainage of marshes, the con-
struction of wells, the repair and reconstruction
of dikes, etc.
IV.
THE CONSTRUCTION OF BRIDGES AND
HIGHWAYS
Roads have always been in a very bad condition
throughout Russia; the highways and- other car-
riage roads, especially, were almost entirely im-
practicable.
The Committee of State Construction, from the
time of its creation, saw the necessity of resuming
the construction of connecting ways, leading prin-
cipally to railroad stations, river wharves, and vari-
ous industrial centers.
But here again, in view of the impossibility of
constructing new ways of communication and re-
pairing at the same time those already existing,
the greater part of the work was soon concen-
trated upon repairing and perfecting already exist-
ing routes and especially upon the construction,
the reconstruction, and the maintenance in a satis-
factory condition of the bridges on all the mosi
important communicating ways.
At the same time, pursuant to the orders of the
Revolutionary War Council, the Committee of
State Construction considered its principal problem
to be the construction of communicating ways
necessary to the Red Army. This very important
task, which the Committee is performing with the
aid of special crews of military raodworkers, aims
at perfecting roads and highways, constructing
bridges, and consolidating strategic ways and other
special works.
The needs of the war demanded, among other
things, in the year 1918 alone, the accomplish-
ment of the foDowing tasks : the construction of a
series of the most necessary carriage-roads, alto-
gether 12,313 versts in length; the construction,
less urgent, of a second series of carriage-roads of
a total length of 5,067 versts; the construction of
several highways measuring in all 2,800 versts in
length, and the construction of a group of bridges
each exceeding twenty-five sazhens and making up
a total of 640 sazhens. It was at the end of June,
1918, that the execution of this program was be-
gun. At the end of six months, that is, at the
end of 1918 and the 1st of January, 1919, the
results of the work completed in this connection
were shown in the following figures: of the 5,663
versts of carriage-roads to be repaired, 1,700 were
repaired, or thirty per cent; of the 20,250 sazhens
of small bridges to be repaired, 8,200 were repaired,
or forty per cent, and, finally, of the 1,321 versts
of large bridges to be constructed, an average o$
twenty-six per cent were completed.
In February, 1919, in keeping with the changes
at the various war fronts, the whole military pro-
gram for bridges and highways was revised and
subjected to essential modifications. This changed
program included for 1919: 24,991 versts of the
most important carriage-roads to be repaired, 3,507
versts of carriage-roads of lesser importance to
be repaired, 6,060 versts of highways and 8,507
sazhens of bridges (each more than twenty-five sa-
zhins) to be repaired. The results of the execu-
tion of this new program were indicated, on the
1st of October of last year, by the following fig-
ures: carriage-roads repaired, more than 1,000
versts of the 4,458 to be repaired, or twenty-three
per cent; small bridges repaired, twenty-four per
cent of the 16,272 sazhens to be repaired, and
large bridges, 36 per cent of the 5,000 sazhens to
be repaired.
In addition, the Committee of State Construc-
tion has completed a great number of works tend-
ing to place upon a rational and practical basis
the question, of the organization of the ways of
communication: to this end the Committee accu-
mulated the most necessary tools and machinery,
and undertook various kinds of chemical and
mineralogical researches, to replace by substitutes
the natural stones in the regions where the latter
are difficult to find; it made detailed calculations
of the force of the provisional resistance of the
temporary bridges upon various roads and high-
ways, and elaborated a series of fundamental pro-
jects for types of specifications, tables, technical
normals, etc.
V.
THE CONSTRUCTION OF PORTS AND
VESSELS
Because of the military situation which followed
the revolution, the concrete realization of the pro-
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July 10, 1920
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jects, as well as the technical researches relating to
naval construction, were possible only in a small
corner of the Gulf of Finland and on the littoral
of Astrakhan. Nevertheless, in consideration of
the importance and the necessity of improving our
naval and river ports, and in anticipation of under-
taking work of this nature on a vast scale, it was
important that the active preparatory work should
continue incessantly, in order to resume the naval
construction in question as soon as more favorable
conditions should arise in the country's affairs.
At the present moment the undertakings con-
centrated in the region of the Gulf of Finland
comprise various kinds of construction on the ports
of commerce and war of Petrograd and Kronstadt,
as well as various technical researches in connec-
tion with it. In addition all the preparations were
made for the researches to be carried on in the
Gulf of Kaporsk and in the Bay of Luga.
The second group of naval works undertaken in
the region of the mouth of the Volga includes the
reconstruction of the canal which joins this river
with the Caspian Sea, from the city of Astrakhan
to the sea; to this group belong also various hy-
drotechnical works necessitated by the war, and
the naval researches at the mouth of the Volga.
The Committee of State Construction has done
important work in the White Sea and in the Arctic
Ocean, looking to a detailed economic, techni-
cal, and hydrometeorologic analysis of all the data
relating to the construction of ports on the shores
of Murmansk and the White Sea, and the equip-
ment of the ports of the North with reloading
apparatus and ship equipment.
Moreover, naval researches have been carried on
in the North at the mouths of the Obi and Yenissei
rivers and in the Bay of Indig.
Important preparatory work, technical research-
es and projects have been undertaken in the ports
of the Black Sea of Azov and in the waters of the
Far East.
As . for the construction of vessels, the general
political condition and the extreme lack of our
material resources have forced us to limit our-
selves, while awaiting a change, to technical re-
searches, all kinds of attempts and experiments,
and the construction of wooden ships, although the
naval needs o/ the country are much more im-
portant.
VL
THE CONSTRUCTION OF ELEVATORS
AND REFRIGERATORS
In 1918 the Committee of State Construction
undertook the administration and direction of
thirty refrigerating plans installed at slaughter-
houses, the construction of which was suspended by
the war, as well as the management of two special
refrigerating plants at Simbirsk and Samara; in
addition, the committee had charge of completing
and equipping two temporary refrigerating plants
at the old war fronts. It discharged this task as
well as possible during the course of last year,
completing from seventy to ninety per cent of the
projected works.
The Committee is completing also the installa-
tion and mounting of refrigerating apparatus and
machinery at Arzamas, Simbirsk, Cheliabinsk,
Tiumen and Barnaul; all these refrigerators will
begin to operate very shortly; at other places the
per cent of completed installation and mounting
of refrigerators varies between seventy and ninety.
To the end of a more rapid and regular devel-
opment of refrigerator construction on a large
scale, the Committee of State Construction accom-
plished a great work in accumulating numerous
economic and statistical materials, relating to the
regions which produce perishable products and at
all refrigerating plants operating in Russia. It
appears that the thirty-seven provinces of the
Soviet Republic possess, in all 168 refriger-
ating plants, with a capacity of 11,000,000 poods;
of this number twenty-eight plants, with a capacity
of 2,000,000 poods, are in Moscow alone; while
the other provinces have only from one to twelve,
or an average of three, of widely varying capacity :
all the refrigerators operate for local needs and
very particularly for exportation. This unsystem-
atieal and altogether accidental distribution of the
refrigerating plants was contrary to the interests
of the country. The Committee of State Construc-
tion, in seeking to furnish the State with a ra-
tional system of refrigerating plants, in conformity
with its economic and statistical researches, elabor-
ated a general plan of refrigerator construction, to
be realized in the course of the very next few years.
We should note very particularly the efforts of
the Committee of State Construction to give the
country necessary floating refrigerators, an abso-
lutely new technical innovation in Russia and dat-
ing only from the end of 1918.
As for the construction of elevators, which had
become particularly intense in the years which pre-
ceded the war, the People's Bank had traced in
its time an enormous program, expecting to cover
the country with a net-work of these structures.
This program planned, in the provinces of South-
east Russia in the first jdace, the construction of
eighty-one elevators, with a total capacity of fifty-
eight million poods and seventy-seven elevators
with a total capacity of sixty-two million pooA*
in the thirteen provinces of southern and central
Russia; in addition, five elevators were planned
for western Siberia. Of this program there are
only forty-seven elevators whose construction was
completed and which are operating regularly at
the present moment.
During the war the construction of elevators
was completely suspended, and it was not resumed
by the Committee of State Construction until to-
wards the end of 1918.
Besides the elevators of large capacity, the Com-
mittee of State Construction had also to contribute
to the development of a net-work of small elevators
for the local war needs, and for the peasants. These
elevators are in most cases constructed by the co-
operative or regional organs, under the technical
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SOVIET RUSSIA
37
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surveiUance and with the material aid of the Com-
mittee of State Construction.
VII.
INDUSTRIAL CONSTRUCTION
Before the organization of the Committee of
State Construction, there was in Sussia no special
organ to direct industrial construction. Before
the nationalization of industry (towards the sec-
ond half of 1918) the government withheld only
an insignificant percentage, while the greater part
was restored to individuals; also, the creative role
of the government in industrial construction was
greatly restrained and almost nil, being almost
entirely reduced to a police surveillance exercised
over private industrial construction.
Since then there have been radical changes.
At present the State is the only proprietor and
director of all the industry of the country, and
it is bound by this fact to develop it and to carry
on all sorts of construction of an industrial nature.
The work already completed and constantly pur-
sued in this sphere may be divided into the fol-
lowing groups :
1. Construction of great factories and shops, al-
ready begun during the war, to meet the various
needs of the country, and determined by the mobili-
zation of industry ; the industrial enterprises under
this head are: the factories of the "Section of
Automobiles of the Supreme Council of National
Economy," notably "Kusso-Baltic," "Ame" and
"Rene-Russ" at Rybinsk.
2. The restoration, capital repair, and enlarge-
ment of factories and shops which are already in
operation and several of which are at present
adapted to other branches of industry. This cate-
gory comprised the cloth and fabric factory of Is-
tomine, at Bogardsk, the old factory at Riabushin-
sky, at Vyshny-Volotchek, the schist factory at
Briansk, the group of chemical product factories of
the regions of the Volga and of Kama, the electric
station near Bogorodsk, and the first factory for
mechanical construction at Nizhni-Novgorod, etc.
3. The construction of new factories and shops
of great importance for the development in the Re-
public of branches of industry still unknown and
the necessity for which depends upon the economic
conditions of the present time created by the dis-
placement of the industrial centers and by the ces-
sation of foreign importation. In this way was
constructed the factory of agricultural machinery
callled "The Star," at Saratov (it cost the govern-
ment sixty million rubles), which is already in
operation ; next comes the sugar refinery of Novo-
Kamensk at Penza, for the construction of which
the necessary materials are being collected, and
the earthwork begun.
4. Further, the Committee had planned and
even commenced the preparatory work for the con-
struction of a whole series of factories and shops of
the greatest necessity, but it was soon forced to
abandon this work under pressure of various con-
ditions of the present moment.
But the work of the Committee was more im-
portant and productive in so far as it concerned
the analysis and approval of numerous projects,
technical plans, and devices which were submitted
for its examination by various central and local
institutions. In the course of the last year the
number of these projects and devices was about
300, representing a round sum of several milliards
of rubles.
VIII.
ELECTROTECHNICAL CONSTRUCTION
It is useless to emphasize the important, even
colossal, role of electrical energy in the national
economy, in the mechanical industry, and in the
utilization of the natural forces and resources of
the country (water currents, cataracts, peat soil),
as well as its valuable properties during a general
fuel crisis.
Before the October Revolution, electro-tech-
nical constructon was of very little importance:
in the whole country there was only two or three
regional stations. Similarly, there was no central
state organ to regulate this branch of industry.
It was only with the constitution of the Commit-
tee of State Construction that this branch was
placed upon a new basis, having been given the
necessary special organ of direction and taking on
considerable dimensions as a result.
Since then a whole series of technical researches
have been undertaken and with the participation of
more than a hundred engineers numerous projects
have been carried out, important preparatory work
has been done on the sites, great quantities of con-
struction material collected, and provision for
workers, temporary stations, wharves, etc., created.
Last spring, in view of the lack of resources and
of the necessity for the employes of the immediate
construction of a part of the projected stations,
the decision was taken to reduce the general work-
ing program, limiting it to the construction of a
single station on the Svir river and of a station
on the Volkhov, postponing to a later time the
construction of all other projected stations.
In the same way necessary work has been begun
for the construction of regional stations near the
city of Kashira, 126 kilometres from Moscow, with
utilization of the local coal mines, and on the
marshes of Shatour, 150 kilometres from Moscow,
using for this purpose the peat soil of this region.
These two stations are to furnish the electrical
energy to the cities of Moscow and Kolomna and
to other central points in the industrial region.
At present, in addition to the stations already
under construction, projects for others are elabor-
ated for the central industrial region; all these
stations will be constructed on the peat marshes
of the region of Ivanovo- Vozniessensk, and will
perhaps be able to supply the cities of Yaroslav,
Kostroma, Kineschma, and Vladimir; electrical
stations are planned on the peat marshes near
Nizhni-Novgorod to supply the region about this
city and Murom, utilizing for this purpose the coal
in the neighborhood of Moscow and the provinces
ofRiazan 9lMl^TY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
July 10, 1920
The greater part of the work which the Com-
mittee of State Construction is now carrying on is
influenced by the urgent necessities of today and
tomorrow, and by the questions relating to the
war, fuel and transport, or even the mechanical
industry, dwellings, their sanitary condition and
the provisioning of the people.
This brief and rapid expose of the activity and
the successes achieved by the Committee of State
Construction is incomplete. We have passed in
silence the enormous number of merely local con-
structions by the provincial sections of the Com-
mittee, the vast municipal works, the organization
of workingmen's quarters, which are particularly
important in view of the dwelling crisis which is
everywhere more or less acute. Nor have we indi-
cated the rather important work of the Committee
in connection with the development of urban cul-
ture and the organization of new places for habi-
tation.
Unfortunately, under pressure of very difficult
economic conditions and the circumstances of the
war the Committee was all this time just passed
forced to reduce its program considerably, instead
of developing it. Nevertheless, it should be af-
firmed and recognized that the Committee of State
Construction has achieved a capital work and that
in this direction the success of the Soviet power
is not inferior to that which it has attained in the
other branches of social life and particularly in
that which concerns the ordinary work of construc-
tion in most of the countries of western Europe.
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
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T N SPITE of all the efforts of the censors to
*** keep in the dark, as far as possible, the real
situation on the Polish front, the truth about the
desperate conditions of the Poles has become more
and more evident every day. A very important
cable from London, dated June 29, and published
in the New York Call of June 30, said that ac-
cording to a Moscow official wireless message, the
new offensive launched by the Russian Red Army
against the Poles had "put the Second Polish
Army entirely out of action and had cut the Third
Army off from all communications." This was the
case in the Kiev region as well as in the Podolia
and Volhynia, on the so-called Southern Polish
front, situated between the rivers Dnieper and
Dniester. In regard to the northern front, which
extends to the north of the Pripet Marshes, the
same ditspatch gives but little information that
the Sixth Polish Army was "retreating rapidly
in the region of Podolzk" There have i>een no
details as to the new Russian progress in that part
of the war area, at least for the last three weeks,
while it has been certain that a decisive operation
of the Red Russian Army is in full progress. It
was hard to believe that the Russian General Staff
would have lost a favorable opportunity to defeat
partially the retreating armies of the enemy, which,
after a series of tactical reverses, were compelled
to abandon some most important strategical points,
such as Borisov, Kiev, Minsk, and Vilno.
It is very interesting to note that the above men-
tioned wireless message from Moscow did not ap-
pear in any New York newspapers, in spite of its
great strategical and political significance. Two
armies put out of action! This means nothing
else than a debacle confirming my former state-
ments relating to the successful enveloping man-
oeuver of the South Russian Red Army against
the right flank of the Polish battlefront.
There is no doubt that all the wireless reports
from Moscow have been held up, and we know
nothing about the most remarkable enveloping
movement of the Russian armies in Podolia, which
has been accomplished with much vigor, so vigor-
ously that the Poles could not retreat.
It is important to note that with the complete
destruction of the Southern Polish armies, the
Russians hardly can meet with any serious obsta-
cles intheir future advance, even as far as Galicia,
with Lemberg as their objective. Once in posses-
sion of the Mohilev-Kiev railway parallel, they
easily can use for the purpose the double-track
railway extending northwest from the very import-
ant railway-junction of Zhmerinka, and passing
through Proskurov and Tarnopol to Lemberg.
Such a movement into Galicia can be accomplished
without any serious danger from Rumania, because
the latter is anxiously watched by the Russians
along all the length of the Dniester, which repre-
sents the natural frontier between Russia and Bes-
sarabia, now cpcupied by the Rumanians, and is
simultaneously a protection to any movement of
the Red Army on its left banks.
On the front situated to the north of the Pripet
Marshes, the same thing has happened as on the
southern front, with the difference that the en-
veloping movement was accomplished by the Rus-
sians gradually, moving on the enemy from the
north.
Already about June 18-19, when I was in De-
troit, I noticed in the local press a sensational
item on the capture of Minsk by the Reds. It
was said also that Vilno, the capial of Lithuania,
had been evacuated by the Poles. That dispatch,
repeated in the morning papers, never* appeared
in the New York press in spite of the fact that
there was nothing unusual in the possibility of
such an event.
In my statement to the representative of the
Detroit Free Press, published June 17, 1920, I
firmly insisted that Poland is on the verge of de-
feat and this reactionary newspaper found space
for the following lines of my remark: "A year
ago, when the press of the whole world prophesied
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the victory of Kolchak, Denikin and Yudenich, I
declared that the days of Kolchak were numbered.
With the end of that Russian adventurer — a pup-
pet of the Allies — came the end of Yudenich and
then of Denikin. Now I see the end of the Pol-
ish army" (Detroit Free Press, June 17, 1920).
In the same newspaper, and in the same issue, the
recognized ambassador of Poland, Prince Lubo-
mirsky, who was also in Detroit, published a state-
ment in which he described the "brilliant victo-
ries" of the Polish army, and prophesied the early
defeat of the Bolshevik forces. This Polish state-
ment tried to convince American public opinion
that it is the Russian Bolsheviki who attacked un-
fortunate Poland, and that the Poles are far from
any idea of any offensive against Russia; and, on
the basis of these misstatements, he appealed to
Americans for their financial support.
The Polish military experts, to prove the
strength of the Polish front, always point out of
the unbreakable resistance of its center, situated
at the eastern extremity of the Pripet Marshes,
namely, in the Mozir region, which was, since its
capture by the invaders in the early days of March,
1920, an object of constant attacks by the Red
Army.
In reality, the Mozir region was of great stra-
tegical importance for the Polish battle front. It
was practically a junction for the northern and
southern Polish armies, divided from each other
by the inpenetrable Pripet Marshes, about 120
miles from east to west, and more than fifty miles
from north to south. Just in the middle of these
famous swanips, a navigable river, the Pripet, af-
fords communication for the town of Pinsk, situ-
ated on the western extremity of the marshes, with
Mozir, situated on its eastern end, and a double
track railway built along the northern border of
the Pripet Marshes also connects Pinsk with Ko-
lenkovitz (ten miles northeast of Mozir). Being
more than 100 miles from any railway system
north or south of it, in the region of the marshes,
this railroad when attacked, cannot be supported
in any way, according to the principles of modern
war, which does not recommend any military oper-
ation more than seventy miles from a railroad.
Now it becomes clear why the Poles were so
anxious to capture Mozir in the early days of their
offensive against Russia, and even made Mozir their
first objective. In losing that point, they are los-
ing the Pinsk-Mozir railroad, which they are un-
able to defend, either from the north or from the
south, especially at the moment when their south-
ern front is defeated, and two of their most im-
portant armies, namely, the third and second
armies, thrown out of action, encircled and per-
haps capitulated.
On the other hand, the Russians, while further-
ing their enveloping movement on both the ex-
treme flanks of the enemy, have maintained only a
steady strong pressure against the center of the
Polish battle front in the Mozir district. They
did not intend to advance in that sector, unless
their strategical enveloping manoeuver in the
north, as well as in the south, would be success-
fully accomplished, and only under such condi-
tions would the Russians have been able to start
their decisive operation to the westward, along the
river Pripet, and simultaneously along the Mozir-
Pinsk railway, with the task of cutting off the
southern Polish army from the north entirely,
thus easily solving the problem of encircling each
of them separately. \
According to the dispatch from London (Mos-
cow wireless) of June 30, "In the Mozir region,,
after fierce fighting, our troops have occupiedd sev-
eral villages from six to ten miles east of Mozir,.
capturing prisoners and machine-guns" (The
Christian Science Monitor, July 1). This news;
only proves that the previous dispatch about the-
defeat of the southern Polish armies was accurate,
and that the Russian General Staff has begun a
decisive blow on the Polish center. The further
report from Warsaw about the fall of Mozir and
Kolenkovitz, according to the New York Globe
of July 1, confirms absolutely my supposition : that
only after a complete victory over the southern
Polish armies could the Russians vithout any risk
accomplish such an important movement in their
center, during the progress of their encircling
manoeuver in the northern theatre of war.
The New York Times of July 2, confirming
the defeat of the Polish army in the Mozir region,
explains the Polish hasty retreat as a measure un-
dertaken by the Polish command, "for the purpose
of shortening the front." Such a blunder I leave
with the Polish experts, and merely say that the
Red Army had shortened the Polish front quite
sufficiently and I do not think it was with the con-
sent of the Polish General Staff.
In the above-mentioned dispatch from London
of June <29 (N. Y. Call, June 30), it was said
that "the army of General Baron Wrangel, anti-
Soviet leader in the Crimea, has been completely
destroyed." This also means that after having
completely defeated the Poles on the Podoliar*
front, where the Russian cavalry of General Bu~
denny is engaged in vigorous pursuit of the beaten
and flying enemy, the parts of the Red forces now
freed fro engagements aaginst the Poles in Po-
dolia have been rapidly turned against the ad-
vancing Wrangel, whose victorious offensive was so
widely advertised by the New York Times, as were,
at an earlier date, the campaigns of the Russian
counter-revolutionary leaders: Kolchak, Denikin
and Yudenich. And while there was no longer,
in reality, any Wrangel army at all, in the July 1
issue of the New York bourgeois press, we have
noticed with astonishment a delayed dispatch,
dated May 25, on the successful advance of the
Wrangel army, which has captured Berdiansk on
the northern bank of the Sea of Azov.
Only one completely ignorant of the military
art could have failed to foresee the inevitable end
of this new Allied adventure, in this case carried
out by their newly created puppet, Baron Wrangel.
Within the Crimean peninsula, the army of this
adventurer was in a very safe position. Supported
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'by the Anglo-French navy, Wrangel could have
held the Crimean peninsula for a long time, pro-
tected, as he was, from the north by very strong
positions on the narrow neck of land of Perekop.
For the Beds, on the other hand, it was not an
^asy task to recapture Crimea from the usurper,
in view of the Allied naval forces, and the regular
•supply of the enemy with ammunition, war ma-
terial, foodstuffs and money.
But, unfortunately for Wrangel, he could not
remain always only on the defensive. The Allies
paid him for his activity; he had to crush the
hated Bolshevik regime in Russia, and being as-
sured that the Polish victory was imminent, he
started his famous invasion of Russia.
The weak local Red forces, which succeeded
some months ago in capturing Perekop, were na-
turally defeated, mostly by the activity of the
Allied naval artillery, which shelled the Russian
Soviet troops from the Black Sea and later from
the Sea of Azov. Wrangel's advance in the mean-
time encouraged the Poles and other Russian re-
actionaries, such as the former Russian War Min-
ister under Kerensky, M. Guchkov, who, with the
Allied help is about to repeat a new Yudenich ad-
venture, using the remains of the Avalov-Bermond
"army," but at the same time the Wrangel's ad-
vance to the north and northeast was just a move-
ment which was very eagerly expected in Moscow.
In order to put an end to the counter-revolution
in South Russia, the Wrangel array had to be de-
stroyed entirely, and for this reason it had to be
drawn out of Crimea. Giving a chance to the new
hero of the western capitalistic imperialism to gain
some "brilliant" victories over their own forces,
the Reds at last very skillfully got him out of his
shelter, and once his bands found themselves far
from the naval support of their protectors, they
were vigorously attacked and completely defeated.
The victory over the Poles and the extermination
of the counter-revolutionary hordes of Baron
Wrangel will doubtless encourage the desire of the
Turkish nationalists to defend themselves, whose
common disaster under the pressure of the civilized
countries, which are still fighting for the sake of
Democracy, is gradually bringing them together
under the new standard of communism.
The Turkish people are anxiously watching
Soviet Russia, they know that only the Russian
workers and peasants can save them from immi-
nent disaster, and they know also that the declara-
tion of the Soviet Foreign Minister, M. Chicherin,
that Soviet Russia would support any oppressed
nation, communistic or not, in case such a nation
should appeal to Mocow for support, was not a
promise which would not be fully carried out, and
the Turks are now defeating the Greeks. The Mo-
hammedans of the world during last two years have
learned to trust Russia and to love her working
people. They have realized the real strength of
this giant and his unselfish and fair policy, and
they all seek union with him, perhaps with the
intention of forming one common body, under the
standard of real freedom and equality, which only
the real proletarian social structure can give to
humanity.
The Mussulmen of the world are with Soviet
Russia, and nobody can tear them away.
The Creation of the Laboring Army of Petrograd
RESOLUTION OF TEE COUNCIL OF
DEFENCE
The Seventh Army is being transformed into a
labor army, forces of considerable strength being
maintained for military service on the frontiers
of Finland and Esthonia. The Seventh Army is
to be called the Revolutionary Labor Army of
Petrograd.
The principal work in which the forces and
means of the Seventh Army must now be em-
ployed are: (1) the exploitation of peat and
schist deposits indicated above; (2) the prepara-
tion of wood supplies; (3) the transportation of
prepared fuel (peat, schists, wood) to the indus-
trial factories of Petrograd and to the railway
stations, and the loading and unloading of this
fuel; (4) the organization to this end of horse
transport; (5) the cultivation of all the wild land
of this region, capable of being utilized for vege-
table gardens; (6) an extensive organization of
potato plantations in the Soviet exploitations; (7)
the acceleration and reinforcement of the work of
repairing rolling-stock, unloading fuel and prod-
ucts arriving at Petrograd by waterway; (8) the
repair of agricultural machinery, agricultural work
of all kinds, aid in the cultivation of the soil, the
gathering of harvests, and (9) the reinforcement
of labor discipline in the enterprises and supplies
of manual labor.
The council of the labor army may also take
part in the exploitation of the coal mines in the
region of Borovichi.
Specialist workers, in so far as they are not
absolutely indispensable in supporting the forces
of the Seventh Army, must be transferred to local
factory institutions and those of every kind of ex-
ploitation, according to the indications of the mem-
bers of the council of the labor army.
The revolutionary council of the labor army is
the directing organ for all the above-mentioned
activities.
The representatives of the power of the Council
of the Defence of the Republic, the President of
the Petrograd Soviet, Comrade Zinoviev, is placed
at the head of the Labor Army.
The President of the Council of Defence,
Moscow, February^. %#.
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" II.
THE REVOLUTIONARY LABOR ARMY OF
PETROGRAD
(A new era in the life of Petrograd.)
The glorious Seventh Army, which has twice
defended against the enemy lied Petrograd, our
dear native city, becomes on this day a revolution-
ary labor army. This transformation constitutes
one of the most important events in the life of
Petrograd and that of all Soviet Russia.
Workers of Petrograd! Today — I am sure of
this — is the beginning of a new era in the history
of our city. We have won the right to work. We
have created, after victorious battle, conditions per-
mitting us to proceed in the right way to the con-
struction of a new life.
For two consecutive years you have battled with-
out respite on all the war fronts, glorious prole-
tariat of Petrograd 1 . There is no front where the
soil has not been generously sprinkled with the
noble blood of the workers of Petrograd. But —
we dare to say it — there is also no city in all Soviet
Russia where the workers burn always with an in-
extiguishable enthusiasm, where they are so firm,
so tried in battle, and so strong in spirit as those
of our city.
In short, Bed Petrograd is indeed Red Petro-
grad, sole and unique ! All the world knows it.
The spirit of Petrograd is not dead. But the
physical forces of our beautiful and admirable city
haye weakened little by little to the last degree.
It is only at the present hour that we are finally
permitted to proceed to the restoration of the
material powers of the giant city.
The workers of Petrograd have given their blood
and their lives without stint to the work of the
revolution, accomplishing it with devotion on all
the war fronts and wherever the situation was
most dangerous. Our best comrades of Petrograd
dreamed, as of a supreme happiness, of the hour
when the war should have been brought to a suc-
cessful issue and they should be able to devote
themselves to the reestablishment of the economic
life of the people on a communist basis, the hour
when they should be able to devote themselves to
the purification of Petrograd.
But few comrades, alas! have seen this happy
day arise. Many of them, and of the best, repose
in eternal sleep in the damp earth. Some have dis-
appeared, others are far away . . .
But these cruel losses are one more reason that
the responsibilities of their comrades who survive
should be emphasized and be tendered more seri-
ous. A new dawn is rising upon Petrograd.
Weakened and half-dead with hunger and cold, but
always standing, and not flinching even for an
instant, the city is about to receive significant
support.
More than 100,000 men, levied from the organ-
ized effectives of the Seventh Army, are to be in-
corporated in the labor army of Petrograd. Of
this number, more than 25,000 are communists.
Although the old Seventh Army is not the richest
of the Soviet Republic, it possesses nevertheless
considerable material and numerous beasts of bur-
den. It is thus a very great, strong hand which
will be able to offer us powerful economic assist-
ance. These 100,000 men will be our advance-
guard, powerful and numerous, which, if we sup-
port it in turn, will finally enable us to leave be-
hind our present state of stagnation.
We must, in the first place, wash Petrograd^
clean it, warm it, and make it eat to satiety. Peat
will have to be brought to it, and not the five
million poods of last year, but twenty-five, at least,
extracted from the earth and brought to the very
gates of the city. Wood and schists must be
brought, so that we may not lack these fuels next
fall and winter. The workers of Petrograd must
be assured of the potato supplies necessary to
them ; our province produces a sufficient quantity,
but up to this day the Petersburg proletarian had,
often enough, to sell his last shirt to buy five
pounds of potatoes from the greedy suburban cul-
tivator. We must repair our locomotives. Trans-
port is everything; it is the measure of the final
triumph of the revolution; it is the salvation of
our children, who are dying of hunger. We must
renovate our buildings. We must resume the op-
eration of our great factories. Let us but put a
pair of the best in operation, and our guard, the
Petersburg workers, will return to us, flying like
moths towards a flame.
The creation of the labor army of the Petro-
grad Soviet opens a new page in the history of
our city. Petrograd has suffered more than the
other Russian cities, from famine, repeated evacu-
ations, lack of fuel, and other misfortunes. But
our city will also be the first to recover from the
paralysis which is enchaining it. Petrograd is
situated at the crossroads of European routes. In
a little while it shall become again an enormous,
universal economic center.
The construction of the labor army of the Pet-
rograd Soviet puts before us a series of difficult
an^d complicated questions. They are all in a
sphere where there are no well-beaten paths. AH
here is new and unusual. At each step we shall
have to surmount enormous practical embarrass-
ments of which we shall speak again more than
once.
However, at the present lime, there is only one
thing which concerns us: our whole communist
organization, all our Soviet organs, the entire
working family of Petrograd — must fix their at-
tention upon the labor army which has just been
created.
Let the best forces of the elite come to the sup-
port of the labor army !
Let the best organizers of public life enter the
ranks of the labor army!
We are passing our examination before all Soviet
Russia and even before the whole world.
And this examination is definitive. We have al-
ready proved that the communists are no mean sol-
diers when they fight for the cause of the workers
and peasants. We must now prove that we are
good architects oi iife and good masters, that,
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alone, we are able to heal the wounds of the war,
that, alone, we can regenerate the disorganized
economic life, and save humanity from hunger
and cold.
The bourgeoisie of the Entente countries some
time ago created an institution thoroughly bureau-
cratic — an "international committee to combat
cold." The Soviet Eepublic has already created
four labor armies, all for combatting hunger and
•cold.
We shall see which of the two will be successful.
It is Petrograd which will form the rear of the
labor army of the Petrograd Soviet. If in October
of 1919 our rear had wavered were it only for a
second the city would have been condemned to
destruction. That is precisely the situation at the
present time. If the rear does not this time sup-
port with all its force the laboring van, our labor
army— our experiment is condemned to failure.
But we know Petrograd and its workers. We
are therefore sure that our experiment will suc-
ceed.
We must have iron discipline ! The labor army
must be fortified with it as is every military army,
and the communist must be in the first ranks of
the labor front just as he was on the war front.
We address our fraternal greeting to the Red
soldiers of the old Seventh Army, who have been
renamed from this day soldiers of the Labor Army
of the Petrograd Soviet.
All the workers of Petrograd follow you. Let
us roll up our sleeves, then, and set to work.
O. Zinovtev.
III.
TO WORK!
The government has just published a decree
which sends the soldiers from military work to the
work of peace, from destruction to creation.
"War produces heroes" — that is very true, but
the real hero, is the worker, whose energy has cre-
ated, and is always creating the innumerable values
of this wrold : material and moral values, the pos-
session of which renders humanity more stable in
its war against Nature and against the forces of
Nature which it seeks to vanquish.
But war produces also stupidity and greed, and
the soldiers know it better than the others, for they
see that war destroys, brutally and implacably,
the precious results of long years of human effort.
It is only the amicable and close collaboration
of all the good men of our republic which can
assure to our country the first place in this world,
where all the beautiful and precious things are
created only by honest and peaceful labor.
We see coming at last the day when we shall
be able to take to the reparation of the destruction
made upon the body of our country, by healing
those deep bleeding wounds and cleansing the an-
cient dirt of the past; the day when we shall be
able to make of half -devastated Russia a .beauti-
ful country where men shall live in ease, enjoying
liberty and ignorant of suffering; a country where
every citizen will be able to cultivate the best in
his nature.
At the present time, when we are free, we can
blame nobody for the sad existence we are leading,
because we are masters of our destiny and must
understand that all here below depends upon our-
selves, alone, upon our will, our work.
Let us always recall that all the marvels of
this world were created only by the hard enthusi-
astic labor of man.
It does not suffice simply to take the things that
have been created before our time and derive profit
from them; it is necessary to know how to use
them rationally, and above all, to know how to
produce similar things. Now, two forces alone
can give us this knowledge : science and labor, and
these two forces are within our power!
To work, comrades!
If we do not succeed, this time again, to organ-
ize our life as is fitting, we shall have ourselves
to blame, for there will be no others to blame.
Long live peaceful labor for the common good !
Let us be courageous and brave in spirit, and
let us not forget that the things we lack can be
created only by ourselves.
M. Gorki.
IV.
TO THE'LABOR ARMY OF PETROGRAD
Order of the Day No. 1
[To be read in all the companies, to the squad-
rons, and batteries, and in the barracks of the old
Seventh Army, the garrison of Petrograd, and the
military units of the Petrograd Districts, form-
ing part of the Labor Army of Petrograd.]
Soldiers of the labor army, commandants and
commissaries !
1. The Seventh Army, which has twice de-
fended Red Petrograd and saved it, has irreproach-
ably performed its duty towards the Socialist
Soviet Land. Thanks to the heroic efforts of the
Seventh Army, we have concluded peace with Es-
thonia. The blockade ring which has encircled
Soviet Russia and condemned it to famine, has
been broken in some measure following the mili-
tary successes of the Seventh Army, which has
beaten Yudenich.
2. But the enemy has not yet been completely
annihilated. The strategic situation of Petrograd
is such that attempts to attack it by sea or by
land are always possible, as long as the bourgeoisie
govern the neighboring states. Also, our army
must be on its guard. "Pile arms !" — that is the
watchword for the present. But if the least dan-
ger threatens the Red Army, we must be ready to
hear the old war order: "Shoulder arms!" The
Seventh Army has been transformed into an army
of labor, But it must not for that reason lose
its readines* to fight or reduce its force.
3. On the 13th of February the Council of the
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Labor Army of Petrograd was definitely consti-
tuted, and it then set to work.
4. Red Petrograd has given all its forces to the
front. Red Petrograd is being exhausted under
the burden of the privations imposed upon it by
the sacred war for the rights of the workers and
peasants. The revolutionary army of labor of Pet-
rograd must therefore aid the glorious city where
the revolution of the workers and peasants was
born. Petrograd is in need of fuel. There is fuel
very near the city. Peat, schists and fire-wood are
in the vicinity of Petrograd. The soldiers of the
labor army must aid the workers pf Petrograd to
collect this fuel and bring it to Petrograd.
5. The labor army must also aid the peasants
in the neighborhood of Petrograd to repair their
agricultural tools. Some of our detachments have
already done this in several rural communes. Glory
and honor to these soldiers of labor. Let us aid
the peasants. Let us give electricity to the vil-
lages. Let us aid the peasants to perfect their
agricultural tools, and help them this spring in
their work in the fields, and they will share with
us their last bit of bread.
6. Eruptive typhus is raging in Petrograd.
After five years of war, the city needs a radical
cleaning. The men and women workers of Pet-
rograd are charging themselves with this. The
Communists are with them in the front ranks.
The military units of the fortified region of Pet-
rograd have the task of aiding the workers of
Petrograd in this work. For a soldier of the labor
army there is no "dirty" work, if the interests of
the workers and peasants demand it.
7. The soldiers of the labor army and their
commandants shall have to work side by side with
the labor unions and other organizations of work-
ers and peasants. You, who are yourselves laboring
men, treat with love and respect these workers'
organizations.
8. We order that a detailed investigation be
made within ten days of the profession or specialty
of every soldier of the labor army. The technicians
and special workers will remain in the army and
direct its work. We must give all our best work-
ing forces to the work of repairing locomotives
and trains. Specialist workers will not be sent to
the factories and shops except in special cases.
9. The command and the commissaries will
have now to perform much more responsible du-
ties than before. They are responsible for the
discipline, the execution of work, the maintenance
of the fighting strength of the army, the zeal and
punctuality of the workers, the exactness, reliabil-
ity and good condition of the liaison service, just
as they were responsible formerly for the execu-
tion of military orders.
10. The political section of the army has the
very important task of explaining to all the sol-
diers the enormous role of the labor army, and it
must therefore hasten its political work.
11. The revolutionary tribunal of the armv has
Diqiliz&d by ^OOQIC
the task of eradicating by sword and fire the spec-
ulators, the deserters, the idle, the indolent, and
the thieves.
12. The executive organs of the army are en-
joined to reduce as much as possible the military
functions of the rear of the army. Besides the
measures already taken to this end, similar action
also must be taken in all units of the labor army
of Petrograd.
13. The more a soldier of the labor army mani-
fests zeal, the more he economizes the national
good; the more energetic and constant he is, the
sooner shall we conquer hunger, cold, and disor-
ganization, and the sooner shall every soldier be
able to return to his domestic hearth.
14. Soldiers, commandants, and commissaries
of the labor army of Petrograd ! Keep always in
your memory the words which the president of
the military Revolutionary Council of the Republic
addressed to the soldiers of the labor army:
"Worker-soldiers, do not dishonor the Red Flag !"
The Soviet and the workers of Petrograd will aid
you as well as they can. The revolutionary labor
army of Petrograd must become a model army for
all Russia of the workers and peasants.
President of the Council of the Revolutionary
Labor Army of Petrograd,
G. Zinoviev.
"SOVIET RUSSIA PAMPHLETS"
The Russian Soviet Government Bureau has
issued a series of pamphlet reprints of important
Soviet documents. The following are the first
three of these pamphlets:
1. The Labor Laws of Soviet Russia. Official
text, with introduction, by the Bureau, and
an answer to a criticism by Mr. W. C.
Redfield. 52 pages, stiff paper cover, price
10 cents.
2. The Laws on Marriage on Domestic Rela-
tions. To be ready about September first.
Price 15 cents.
3. Two Years of Foreign Policy, by George
Chicherin. The relations of the Russian
Socialist Federal Soviet Republic with for-
eign nations, from November 7, 1917, to
November 7, 1919. 36 pages, stiff paper
cover, price 10 cents.
Other pamphlets will follow,
quantities.
Special rates for
Address :
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 West 40th Street New York City
Are you reading our weekly, Soviet Russia,
the official organ of the Russian Soviet Govern-
ment Bureau?
—= - final fj^ :=:=
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will carry articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia,
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles.
T^HE London correspondent of the New York
, Journal of Commerce warns his American
readers against the current propaganda which pre-
tends that Soviet Russia has no goods to export.
"These statements must not be accepted as accu-
rate without substantial proof," he cites, "or with-
out considering the channel through which they
come, and the purpose for which they are circu-
lated. It is to be remembered also that in numer-
ous cases where it has been possible to test these
depressing reports, quite a different aspect has been
given to the facts" (Journal of Commerce, June
30). As an instance of this "harmful inaccuracy,"
the correspondent cites the often repeated state-
ment that there is no surplus grain in Russia and
that the present cultivation is not even adequate
for the domestic needs. To demonstrate the utter
falsity of this story he quotes the reports published
last January in the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung
+i which contained the findings of the German com-
. , missioners who visited Odessa, Kherson, Nikolaiev,
Simferopol, Taganrog, and Novorossiysk, for the
-purpose of learning the truth regarding the avail-
able grain stocks. With two exceptions, all the
/German commissioners reported that they had
, /found immense accumulations of wheat and barley
: which could be made available for export. Accord-
ing to one of the commissioners, it would be pos-
^ sible to export from Odessa and Nikolaiev, alone,
90,000,000 poods of breadstuffs during 1920. The
German reports of January put the acreage of
wheat, rye, and barley at about the same figure
as in 1919. A later report in March, however, as-
serted :
"We are now able to state with tolerable confidence
that while the acreage this spring under oats, rye, and
barley is practically that of 1918, there will be a striking
increase under wheat, especially in the Black Earth
Zone, where confidence is returning to the peasants and
where they are looking forward to secure markets. The
desire of agricultural machinery of all sorts is spread-
ing, and the best known manufacturers of Germany,
England, and America, if they only seize their oppor-
tunity, are certain of doing a roaring business."
The writer in the Journal of Commerce con-
cludes that while America hesitates to enter the
open field of Russian trade, "there is nothing re-
sembling hesitancy in Germany ." He quotes the
words of a well-known German businessman, Herr
Butman, who recently, in an address before the
Bremen Chamber of Commerce, spoke with satis-
by LiOOglC
faction of the progress which German manufac-
turers and merchants were making in establishing
commercial relations with Russia.
* * *
A NOTHER dispatch to the Journal of Com-
*** merce, this one from Ottawa, reports the live-
ly interest aroused in Canadian commercial and
financial circles by the announcement that the
Soviet Government is contemplating extensive pur-
chases in Canada. The correspondent learns that
the Canadian Government will place no obstacles
in the way of trade with Russia. Indeed, he re-
ports, "the proposal is likely to be received with
favor, and it is quite probable that the attitude of
the government is identical with that of the Im-
perial Government, which is now conducting ne-
gotiations with Krassin looking toward the resump-
tion of trade with Russia." Canada is suffering
from an adverse balance of trade which is causing
much concern and has seriously affected Canadian
exchange. "Such being the situation/* the corre-
spondent of the Journal reports, "anything that
is likely to start a stream of gold into Canada
would undoubtedly be welcomed by those promi-
nent in the financial and industrial life. Under
existing conditions, Russia seems to be the only
source from which this can come in appreciable
quantities in the ordinary course of 'time."
A writer in the Financial Times of Montreal,
January 26, gives similar explanation of the favor-
able attitude of the Canadian Government towards
the resumption of trade with Russia. "The great
attraction for the Imperial Government in the re-
sumption of trade with the Soviet Government is
that there is $300,000,000 in gold in sight, a com-
modity that is badly needed. Consequently the
passing of a goodly portion of this to the United
Kingdom for commodities that the Soviet Govern-
ment badly needs, would do much to strengthen
Britan's financial position ... It would seem
probable that the possibility of securing a large
supply of gold is a consideration that may influence
the Dominion Government towards the proposal
of resuming trade with Russia. It, too, has com-
mitments in the United States, though not on any-
thing like the scale that the mother country has;
but for these gold is required. Already it is con-
tended in some quarters that the reserve held in
this country is too low and the trade situation is
becoming such that an even greater demand will
be made of Canada for the precious metal."
Propagandists may play with academic argu-
ments to prove that a capitalist country cannot
afford to do business with Soviet Russia. More
practical considerations, however, prevail upon
politicians and financiers. The question which
has become immediately pressing in many coun-
tries is how much longer they can afford to do
without the advantages of Russian trade.
* * *
TPHE departure of Krassin from London was of
x course eagerly "interpreted" by the Tory press
as the "breaking off" of negotiations between Eng-
land and the Soviet Government. Ever since Lit-
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vinov arrived in Copenhagen last fall, these same
newspapers, on one pretext or another, have been
breaking off the negotiations which threatened to
interfere with their plans for intervention and
endless war. The negotiations, however, have pro-
ceeded slowly but steadily, without interruption,
and with constantly increasing significance.
Professing loudly that their conversations with
the Soviet delegates related solely, at first to pris-
oners, and later to trade, the European partici-
pants have with increasing insistence interjected
matters of wholy political. nature into the parleys.
The question of Czarist indebtedness, uppermost
in the French consideration, and the matter of
Persia, haunting the minds of English politicians,
carry the negotiations into a much wider field than
the mere business of aranging commercial barter.
Krassin, no doubt, has been willing enough to dis-
cuss any question which might* interest his hosts.
But he is no imperialist diplomatist, commissioned
to sign blank checks upon the policy of his govern-
ment. He will not go a step further than he is
authorized to go. He will make no secret com-
mitments in the name of the Russian people, re-
turning to Moscow with the bond signed and
sealed. He will get his instructions first and sign
afterwards. The Allies can have any kind of ne-
gotiations they want. They can have trade nego-
tiations or they can have peace negotiations. But
if it is only trade that they want, then they must
talk only about trade. If they want to talk about
peace and international guarantees, then they must
be prepared to make peace and to give gurantees.
Far from indicating an interruption of the nego-
tiations, Krassin's trip to Moscow plainly discloses
that the discussions have entered upon a decisive
political phase. The Soviet delegation to London
was fully empowered to negotiate all matters of a
purely commercial nature. There is a rumor that
Chicherin may return with Krassin to London. In
any event, we can assure our readers that there
has been no breaking off in anything. Quite the
contrary.
♦ * *
r\R. FRIDTJOF NANSEN, trying to salvage
**** a small part of the vast human wastage of the
war, has reported to the League of Nations upon
the conditions of the former prisoners of war still
remaining in Russia and Siberia. They are no
longer prisoners, save under the duress of distance
and destitution. There is nothing to prevent their
repatriation but the indifference and inhumanity
of their own governments. From Vladivostok to
-Turkestan 160,000 to 180,000 men and boys —
termed Germans, Rumanians, Hungarians, Poles,
Czecho-Slovaks, Rumanians, Jugo-Slavs, but men
and boys in spite of these labels — scattered like
chaff across the plains of Russia by the winds of
war and left there neglected and forgotten by gov-
ernments more interested in the fate of a handful
of Russian grand dukes and landowners than in
the welfare of their workers. The Soviet Govern-
ment, in spite of blockade and invasion, has not
failed in its duty to these unfortunates. It is test
and proof of the thoroughness of the revolution
that the Russian masses have never hesitated to
share their scanty stores with these fellow workers,
with whom so shortly before they had been engaged
in deadly, slave-driven combat, and have even
stinted themselves to place their meager facilities
of transportation at the Service of these forlorn
bands.
"What is the attitude of the Soviet Government in
the matter?" Dr. Nansen was asked.
"They are really behaving extremely well," he an-
swered. "They are extremely anxious to send home
the prisoners they still hold, and despite their difficul-
ties of transport they are sending trains of prisoners
regularly from Moscow through Petrograd to Narva
on the Esthonian frontier . . . There is an old fort-
ress there used as a depot and disinfecting station, but
it is found that at present a trainload a day means
more than the shipping available can clear, so one train
every two days is the rule at present. The Bolsheviki
are prepared to double this service when required."
"And how have the men been treated?" he was asked.
"Very much better than I expected," was the reply.
"They have, of course, had a hard time, but most of
them say they have no reason to complain, as they got
as much food as the ordinary population of the dis-
trict they were in. I met several batches who came
through to Berlin, and was favorably struck with their
appearance . . . There is no doubt that the Soviet
Government is acting in good faith in the matter and
doing all it can to get the prisoners out." (New York
Tribune, June 27.)
Isaac McBride, in his book "Barbarous Soviet
Russia," which we have already recommended to
our readers, gives a similar report. He questioned
a group of English soldiers whom he met walking
freely in the streets of Moscow. "Of course food
is scarce," said one, "but we get just as much as
anyone else. Nobody gets much . . . We are
free to go where we please . . . They send us to
the theatre three nights a week. That's what they
do with all prisoners." And these English soldiers
were not, as were most of those described by Dr.
Nansen, the survivors of the previous nationalistic
conflict, but were prisoners taken on Russian soil
in the act of invasion and assault upon the work-
ers' government.
Dr. Nansen's report will be passed over in dis-
regard by those whose eves and ears are trained to
catch only the headlined atrocities. It may per-
haps serve somewhat to spur the European Govern-
ments to take a more active interest in the fate of
their "nationals" hitherto abandoned to the mer-
cies of the "murderous" Bolsheviki. It will serve
not at all to restore life and happiness to the hun-
dreds of thousands of Russians who have suffered
ruthless barbarities in German, Austrian, and
French prisons.
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July 10, 1920
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N APRIL 22 the Polish Chief of State, Joseph
Pilsudski, a "Socialist" and a "General," who
obtained his first military laurels on the suburban
fields of Cracow, where years before the war he
had been training Polish volunteers, under the
benevolent supervision of the Austrian General
Staff, so-called strzelcy (fusileers), for a future
war against Eussia, concluded an agreement with
Petlura, an Ataman and a "Socialist," too, who
again obtained his military fame by forming irre-
gular military bands of Ukrainians with whom he
was robbing the peasants and making bloody pog-
roms on the Jews until the exasperated populace
of Ukraine drove him out of the country so that
he had to take refuge in the Polish capital, War-
saw. Although no official text of this agreement
has ever been published, some details of it have
found their wav into the Polish and the Ukrainian
press from which we were able to compile the
following version:
1. Poland recognizes Ukraine as an independ-
ent and autonomous state within definite boun-
daries
2. The Polish Government refuses to recognize
the Soviet Government of Ukraine, considering it
as a usurper, and recognizes the government of
Petlura as the rightful Ukrainian Government.
3. Poland agrees to leave with Ukraine all the
territory lying between Dniester, Dnieper, Zbruch,
Gorin, Styr, and Pripet. This territory Poland
will demand from Soviet Eussia on the ground
that it was a part of the Polish Kingdom prior
to the year 1772, and will return it to Ukraine
immediately after peace is concluded.
4. Poland enters into a military pact with the
Ukrainian Eepublic with a stipulation to clear the
part of Ukraine lying on the right bank of the
Dnieper from the Bolsheviki, but Poland is not
obliged to participate in the military operations on
the left bank of the Dnieper.
5. Poland agrees to recall its troops from
Ukraine upon the latter's request and promises to
defend its land with its own forces.
6. Ukraine drops all claims on the territory
located west of Zbruch, Gorin, and Styr, and, in
the main, on Eastern Galicia.
7. Ukraine guarantees to Poland free access
to Odessa.
8. Two Polish ministers must be admitted to
the Ukrainian Cabinet, one a resident minister,
and the other delegated.
9. The land question in Ukraine shall be set-
tled by a Constituent Assembly. Until that time
the status of the large landowners— Poles— may be
changed only upon a special agreement between
Poland and Ukraine.
According to this Polish scheme, Ukraine has
been divided into three parts: one, comprising
Eastern Galicia and parts of Volhynia, Kholm and
Podolia, is to fall under the permanent rule of
Poland; the second, lying within the boundaries
indicated in point three of the above pact, is to
be a "buffer" state under the protectorate of Pol-
and, with Petlura as its political chief; the third,
situated on the left side of the Dnieper is to re-
main, so far as Poland is concerned, as it is, which
means a Ukrainian Soviet Eepublic in union with
Soviet Eussia.
In a world of general turmoil and depredation
it matters but little that by this act Poland has
arrogated to herself, among others, a permanent
right to Eastern Galicia, a right which the Ver-
sailles Peace Conference, despite its friendliness
toward Poland, did not feel able to accord her,
granting her only the right of administration for
a period of twenty-five years (this decision was
subsequently reversed and the question left open,
supposedly for a settlement by the League of Na-
tions). Nor is it a fact of over much significance
that Poland, herself a member of the League of
Nations, has completely disregarded her duties
with regard to that body, and has acted as if no
such thing as a League of Nations were in ex-
istence. After all, since the time of its inception,
the League was able to manifest a policy common
to all of its members and so to be representative
of that "comity of nations" for which it is sup-
posed to stand, only in the case of Soviet Eussia:
by the marvelous silence with which it has viewed
all the imperialistic attacks upon the Workers'
and Peasants' Eepublic. Otherwise, things are
taking place in Europe that mock any idea of
harmony between the nations, cynical imperialism
coming now into the open, nations fighting with
each other and displaying impudent greed for the
possession of raw materials and land, while the
League of Nations in its role of supreme arbiter is
giving occupation to some renowned international
lawyers who, undisturbed by the events of the day,
are busy drafting all kinds of regulations, orders
of procedure, etc., all of which will probably go
as far in mitigating the forces of imperialism
and militarism as the laws of "humane" warfare,
composed by the Hague tribunal and subscribed
to by all "civilized" nations, went in mitigating
the horrors of the Great War.
To be sure, League or no League, the success
of the Polish plan will depend largely, if not main-
ly, on the resistance of the Bed Armies of Soviet
Eussia and Soviet Ukraine and on the development
of social antagonisms within the territories of
Ukraine that do not constitute its Soviet part, and
no less within Poland herself. Nevertheless, it is
worthy of note that in carrying out the designs of
her master, France, and in striving to become a
"Greater Poland," (according to the French plan
she is to border in the south on Eumania, while
in the north she is supposed to swallow up Lithu-
ania and base herself on the Baltic Sea) Poland
is developing the same methods which Germany
did when she tried to become a "Greater Germany"
and which cost her acdear in the end. Particu-
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larly in dealing with the problem of Ukraine, Pol-
and is copiously repeating the methods of Ger-
many in dealing with the problem of Poland, the
analogy going so far as to apply even to the in-
ternal political divisions regarding the best meth-
ods of annexation. As an indication of this we
may regard also the fact that the political align-
ment in Ukraine with regard to the Polish annexa-
tion schemes reminds one much of a similar align-
ment in Poland with regard to the German annex-
ation schemes.
History is regarded as a guide to peoples and
men. And doubtless, in a limited sense, it is for
those, of course, who are able to read its lessons
and are prepared to draw their line of action ac-
cordingly. Their number is, however, small. On
the other hand, it is remarkable how a set of lhen,
nay whole social classes, are acting in a similar
manner when they find themselves in similar con-
ditions, repeating what the historians are apt to
consider as "mistakes" with regard to the pre-
decessors of these classes, and thus tending to
prove, against the popular assumption of a "free
will," the iron strength of historic determinism.
It was a remark of the German philosopher Hegel
that historic situations repeat themselves, and, al-
though Hegel himself had in view a rather meta-
physical formula of historic evolution, his remark
stands true insofar as it means that men act in
obedience to certain laws of history of which they
themselves are but the instruments.
Viewed from this angle it is not altogether sur-
prising that the kind of social elements which had
been directing the policy of Prussia, or Germany,
toward a subject nation, when permitted to rule,
are developing in Poland identical tendencies to-
wards a subject nation of the latter, Ukraine. A
sign of the times being only the circumstance that
the same press which had been heretofore untiring
in engineering the "Prussian horror" is somehow
silent now concerning the "Prussianism" of Pol-
and, though the latter country has much per-
fected the methods of its predecessor.
The colonization methods by which the govern-
iug classes of Prussia — upon the initiative of Bis-
marck, who, in his ignorance, regarded the Poles,
and particularly, the Polish nobles as a band of
insurgents — were trying to displace the Poles from
their inherited lands and to colonize the country
with German peasants, is but recent history. The
Prussian expropriation laws and the practices of
the Ansiedelungskommission were arousing the
protests of all Poles, contributing to the world
reputation of Prussia and its junkerdom. Is it
not remarkable then that the same Poland which
had been the victim of this Prussian policy of ex-
termination should apply the same methods with
regard to the Ukrainian population of Eastern
Galicia? Still, such is the policy of Poland there,
and many a Prussian "Hakatist" would stagger at
the ruthlessness and brutality of the Polish meth-
ods. The land law regarding the parcelling out of
large land holdings and their sale to the peasants,
adopted by the Polish Diet on July 10, 1919, does
not apply to Eastern Galicia (and other border ter-
ritories) with its large Polish estates and pre-
dominant Ukrainian peasant population. Polish
land owners in Eastern Galicia are enjoined from
selling their land to Ukrainian peasants. The
large estates in Eastern Galicia are to be colonized
with Polish peasants who are to be brought over
there from Poland proper. It was partly to stim-
ulate this colonization and to induce the Polish
peasants to migrate to Ukrainian territory that
the Polish Government stopped the operation of
the land law, leaving the Polish peasantry in quest
of land the only choice of finding the land in the
border territories.
Those acquainted with European affairs and
particularly with Polish affairs might recall an-
other little incident that took place in 1902 in
the little Polish town of Wrzesnia, at that time in
Prussia. A German teacher flogged Polish chil-
dren because they refused to say their prayers in
German and insisted on saying them in Polish.
The incident — an instance of the policy of Ger-
manization — aroused general indignation and was
widely commented upon in the European press —
not excluding the German press itself — and was
pointed out as an example of Prussian cultural
methods. Today Poland is carrying out in the
border territories, particularly in Ukraine, a policy
of Polonization which leaves the methods of Prus-
sian officialdom far behind. The Ukrainian lan-
guage is forbidden in the schools and the children
are maltreated for using it, everything reminding
one of Ukrainian culture is banished from all of-
ficial institutions; Ukrainian youth, a thing un-
heard of in the past, are not permitted to study
in their own universities. In Kamenetz-Podolsk,
hundreds of Ukrainian young men were compelled,
by order of the Polish authorities, to leave the uni-
versity and abandon their studies, which they had
already undertaken.
A most remarkable analogy with Germany will
be found in the policv adopted by the Polish gov-
erning classes in the problem of annexation. It
will be remembered that after the occupation by
the armies of the Central Powers of what was
formerly the Kingdom of Poland (Russian-Pol-
and), there developed in Germany a sharp struggle
within the governing circles themselves as to how
to solve the Polish problem. There were tendencies
active that asked for the creation of an autonomous
Polish state, to act as a "buffer" against Russia,
and to be dependent on Germany ; there were other
influences asking for a partitioning of the occupied
country between. Germany and Austria, and warn-
ing the German Government against the formation
of an autonomous Poland, as this would mean a
constant danger to the Polish provinces of Prussia,
which, to be sure, not even the Social-Democratic
sponsors of Polish independence thought of return-
ing to this new Polish state. The government
adopted neither of these policies, or, more cor-
rectly, a combination of both. Acting hypocritic-
ally as a "liberator" of Poland, it proclaimed in
November^^^ip^^^ Poland, in
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the meantime dividing Russian Poland into Ger-
man and Austrian administrative spheres, thus
accomplishing a further division of the Polish
lands.
In exactly the same manner, the plan adopted
by the Polish Government regarding Ukraine is a
compromise between the elements in Poland that
are against the creation of an independent Ukraini-
an state and which want to solve the problem of
Ukraine by dividing it up between Poland and
Russia, and those that look for a formation on
the boundary of Russia of a small Ukrainian "buf-
fer" state under the domination of Poland. For,
according to point three of the above pact, Poland
is interested only in the creation of a Ukraine
whose boundaries are limited by the Dnieper. In
the opinion of the Polish politicians, this means
leaving a part of Ukraine under the rule of Rus-
sia, for they are not able to regard the union of
Soviet Ukraine with Soviet Russia in any other
light than that of political subjection. Moreover,
like Germany, which declared that as a price for
the "liberation," Poland must completely drop all
claims to its Prussian part and to permit Germany
to have her "special economic rights" in "inde
pendent" Poland, the pact between Poland anc
Petlura calls for the abdication of Eastern Galicia
and other Ukrainian provinces (point six) and the
granting of "special rights" in the "independent"
Ukraine (points seven and eight). Point nine is
the result of the Russian revolution with its revo-
lutionary settling of the land question, and bears
a strong resemblance to the protection accorded
by Germany to the Baltic barons against the claims
of the native peasants.
It would lead us too far to follow up the ana-
logy and to show how the Ukrainian people are
behaving in much the same way towards the Pol-
ish aggressor as the Polish people did towards the
German conquerors. In both cases the majority
of the people look with distrust upon the new mas-
ters, and their professions of liberality, and in
both cases there was found a group of middle class
intellectuals, who, eager for the administrative po-
sitions that would open up in the autonomous
state, were ready to strike a bargain with the
"benefactor" and to become its plenipotentiary.
Just as the folio weds of Pilsudski in Poland did
not shrink from bargaining away Prussian Poland
for the "benefit" of an autonomous Poland of a
German pattern, Petlura and his retinue are ready
to hand out to Poland Eastern Galicia and other
Ukrainian provinces, only to get hold of a stretch
of Ukraine, cut out by the Polish designers.
However, the analogy has its limits. For, where-
as the German domination— despite its determin-
ing economic factors — appeared to the Polish peo-
ple predominantly as a form of national oppres-
sion, the Polish domination over Ukraine assumes
in the eyes of the majority of the Ukrainian peo-
ple first of all the appearance of a social and only
in the second place that of a national (and re-
ligious) oppression. Whether toiling on the large
estates in Eastern Galicia, or in the naphtha fields
of Boryslav, or in the sugar refineries of Volhynia
and Podolia, the Ukrainian worker feels and ex-
periences that his places of work are owned or man-
aged by the Poles. Thus, independently of the na-
tional question, which is causing the Ukrainian
worker and peasant to desire to unite with their
brothers of the same nationality who live on the
other side of the Dnieper, the workers and poor
peasants of Eastern Galicia and other parts of
Ukraine behold in Soviet Ukraine a country where
their class is not dominated by the Polish masters,
where it has liberated itself from economic bond-
age and is itself exercising the power, and to which,
consequently, they are looking for their liberation.
The governing classes of Poland might never-
theless have agreed to conclude peace with Soviet
Russia, but it was impossible for them to decide
for a peace with Soviet Ukraine. A rumor in the
Ukrainian press, which we are not able to con-
firm, had it that the Ukrainian Soviet Govern-
ment intended to bring up, during the peace nego-
tiations, among others, the question of Eastern
Galicia, and Poland knew too well on what foun-
dation its domination there was based.
To be sure, the pompous appeal of Pilsudski to-
the Ukrainian people tries to make believe that
it is Soviet Russia which is the invader of Ukraine,
from whose "foreign" rule Poland is endeavoring
to free that country. We shall not dwell now upon
the nature of the union between Soviet Russia
and Soviet Ukraine, as we intend to discuss the
matter in the near future. For the present we may
say this much : First of all, Soviet Russia, by the
nature of its political program, the basis under-
lying the whole structure of Russia, even if it
should invade another country (which it does not),,
can never develop the usual tendencies and func-
tions of a capitalist aggressor, because, in order
to carry out its social program, it would have at
once to call into life in the invaded country all
its own political and social institutions, viz., all
the kinds of Soviets instrumental in the carrying
out of such program, and which must be made of
the masses of the local working population. Sec-
ondly, the character of Soviet Russia's economic
and social policies absolutely excludes the neces-
ity of a national (cultural) domination and op-
pression. Thirdly, a union with Soviet Russia
can only be based on the consent, still more on
the support of the toiling masses of the popula-
tion, forming the majority of the people. We
shall find opportunity to show that such is the
case with regard to the adherence of Soviet
Ukraine to Soviet Russia. However, the peace
submitted by Soviet Russia to Poland is a suf-
ficient proof, if proof be needed, that it is Soviet
Russia which always stands out for the rights
of small or weak nationalities. According to the
Moscow Pravda, Soviet Russia has offered Poland
the following terms:
1. The Polish troops are to evacuate the ter-
ritories of Ukraine, White Russia and Lithuania,,
and to allow a plebiscite to be taken in these ter-
ritories.
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2. A militia of the local population shall be
formed for the duration of the plebiscite.
3. The plebiscite commissions shall be mixed,
and shall include one-fourth for the representa-
tives of Poland and one-fourth for the Soviet rep-
resentatives.
4. The communication between the plebiscite
territories with Russia and Poland shall be free.
5. All the native inhabitants of the plebiscite
territories to have the right to vote.
6. Russia will demand free communication with
Germany across Poland.
Confronted with an eventuality of a free deci-
sion on the part of the peoples whom she is so
desirous to liberate, what wonder that Poland
found no other way out by to have recourse to the
force of arms, confident as she was in the support
of the Entente.
History will record with irony the fact that by
her present schemes of aggrandizement and by her
war upon Soviet Russia, Poland has at last as-
sumed that role which the powers of reaction were
eagerly preparing for her since the time of her
coming into life as a so-called independent state,
that is, to stand as a barrier separating the West-
ern European "civilization" from the danger of
Soviet Russia, or to put it correctly, as a bulwark
of western European reaction against the Russian
system.
In his "Eighteenth of Brumaire" Karl Marx,
commenting on the remark of Hegel that historic
situations repeat themselves, added: "First as a
drama, next as a farce." In the case of Poland,
it is cogent to note that it is not merely a travesty
on her past that the Polish governing classes are
performing now, but a direct reversal of that in-
ternational role which Poland was playing, but to
a greater extent, up to the eighties of the past cen-
tury, was still expected to play in the progress of
European democracy. It was Marx who, during the
German revolution of 1848, was clamoring for a
war against Russia in defense of Poland. The
same influence manifested itself at the time of
the Polish insurrection in 1863, and later in the
First Workers' International. Poland then was
regarded as the incarnate fighter for freedom. Pol-
ish emigrants could be found wherever a sup-
pressed nation or a class was struggling for its
liberation. Polish troops were fighting under their
own generals by the side of Hungary in the Revo-
lution of 1848, Polish generals were leading the
defense of the Paris Commune in 1871. The resti-
tution of Poland was demanded by the democracy
of Europe as a barrier against "Cossackdom," that
is, Czarist Russia, whose pernicious influence dis-
played itself in the crassest way in the aid given
to Austrian absolutism against revolutionary Hun-
gary. "War on Russia," and "Free Poland," were
for decades the slogans of European democracy,
and the knowledge of this fact was used by the
German militarism in drawing to its imperialist
plans the somewhat disturbed consciences of the
German social-democratic workmen. True, as has
been pointed out by some socialist historians and
writers (among others Rosa Luxemburg and Franz
Mehring), Poland's economic and social structure
in 1848 was not what Marx and others thought it
to be, and Poland was in no way ready to play the
progressive role of a bulwark against Czarist Rus-
sia, allotted to her by the democratic world, none
the less the fact remains that up to the most re-
cent times Poland's freedom was regarded as be-
ing indispensable to the progress of Europe, while
the Poles themselves were looked upon as its fore-
most bearers.
It needed the bloody plough of war and the dis-
secting knife of the social revolution in Russia, in
order to throw full light on the changes that his-
tory has brought upon the face of the world dur-
ing the last decades. And possibly no country
has come out in such a surprising costume, no
nation has so reversed the verdict of history, as
has Poland. It would fill pages to show all the
reactionary features of this changeling of inter-
national imperialism. It would fill pages to re-
count all the rotten practices of this new pretender
to world power. Suffice it to say that where the
thin layer of civilization is a distinct hindrance,
viz., in occupied regions, Poland is showing a
face that is ugly to the point of abomination. The
Ukrainian press of all shades of opinion knows of
instances of brutality on the part of the Polish
military and civil officials that call forth horror
in the reader. Tens of thousands of innocent
Ukrainian people suffering in prisoners' camps or
in jails for their "disloyalty" to Poland, and dying
in batches of hunger and sickness, peasants robbed
of their grain, which is being sent to France in
payment for ammunition, an entire people starving
from hunger and disease, and driven to continuous
outbursts of despair and to riots that invariably
end in people being shot down by the Polish mili-
tary, as happened but a few weeks ago in several
peasant districts of Eastern Galicia; that is the
kind of "liberty" that Poland is holding out for
Ukraine, the only consolation for the Ukrainian
people being the fact that under the same bene-
volent rule the Polish people themselves do not fare
much better.
Under these circumstances we must not wonder
that it was this country (with its favorable ge-
ographical position) that France, which is also a
country that is playing grim tricks with her glori-
ous revolutionary traditions, has selected to act as
a barrier against revolutionary Russia. Sic transit
gloria mundi, a pessimist might say, mindful of
the French and Polish annals, and recollecting the
tension with which the democrats of the past were
watching the destinies of these two countries. The
revolutionary optimist, however, will keep up his
spirits with the belief that after all the French
rooster has repeatedly changed its mood, and, as
for Poland, feudal and bourgeois Poland has dis-
played more than once its inability to play any
kind of historic mission, except that of a historic
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July 10, 1920
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DEBATE ON RUSSIAN NEGOTIATIONS
The following discussion took place in the House
of Commons between Lloyd George and several
members of the House on the evening of June 7,
1920. Lloyd George gives his reasons for begin-
ning negotiations with Russia.
In the House of Commons.
Colonel Gretton (C.U. — Burton) moved the adjourn-
ment of the House in order to jcstt attention to the
negotiations between the Government and Mr. Krassin.
According to the best information, he said, the present
Russian Government was not a national government
and did not represent the people of Russia. It had
repeatedly committed acts of war against this country,
the most recent being the expedition into Persia. It
had entered into an understanding with Afghanistan,
and was maintaining an active propaganda in various
countries. He asked whether we proposed to enter
into negotiations with a Government of violence of the
kind existing in Russia?
"Who is Mr. Krassin?" he asked. He wanted full
information as to whether Mr. Krassin represented the
Government of Russia and held full credentials to act
for them in this country and whether he was empowered
to conduct negotiations. As a preliminary to such ne-
gotiations had we insisted on full satisfaction and
reparation to British subjects who had been tortured
or murdered during the Bolshevik regime? Also he
wanted to know whether a condition of trade relations
was that British traders should not enter Russia, and
that such relations should be carried on with represen-
tatives of the Russian Government. What reason was
there to suppose that Russia was producing any sur-
plus quantities of corn, and were we negotiating for
gold that belonged to one of our Allies?
It was notorious that Russia owed enormous debts
to France and also was under obligations to British
subjects, and he asked whether we were negotiating for
gold that belonged to others. He implored the govern-
ment to give the fullest information about matters that
were causing the greatest uneasiness and perturbation
throughout this country.
Admiral Hall (C.U. — West Derby), who seconded
the motion, questioned what Russia had to send in ex-
change for our trade.
The Need of Peace
Mr. J. H. Thomas (Lab.— Derby) gathered that the
view of the previous speakers was that the opening
of relations with Russia would not be advantageous
because there was little to trade with. He submitted
that that question had no bearing on the situation.
(Cheers.) The view the Labor Party took was that
never was peace in the world more necessary than now,
and that whatever might be the objections to Soviet
rule the war could not continue without our feeling
its effects. He submitted further that all the predictions
about Bolshevik rule coming to an end had been fal-
sified, and that war against a country like Russia tended
rather to strengthen than to weaken it.
He noted in particular that a distinction was sought
to be drawn between trading with Russia privately and
trading officially. If we were not to trade with Russia
officially because of the Red Terror, why should we
trade with Hungary, where there was a White Terror
almost as bad?
Mr. Lloyd George
Mr. Lloyd George : First of all I should like to give
the House just a narrative of how the present negotia-
tions have arisen. The decision to trade with Russia
was taken in Paris, with M. Clemenceau in the chair —
he certainly is not a Bolshevik. All the Allies were
represented. It was after a year or fifteen months of
other efforts to produce some sort of settlement in
Russia. To put it quite mildly; those efforts were not
a success. The produce of Russia, the contributions of
Russia to the essentials of life, were seen to be as re-
mote as ever. Peace in Europe was seen to be as
remote as ever, and we came to the conclusion, quite
unanimously, that it was desirable, at any rate, to open
up trading relations with Russia.
We took the evidence of refugees from Russia who
had been driven out of the country by the Bolsheviks.
We did not act upon Bolshevik evidence — we acted
upon anti-Bolsheviks' evidence. They were Russians
who had associated with the cooperative movement in
Russia, and upon their testimony and upon the general
review of the situation we came unanimously to the
conclusion that it was in the interests of the world that
we should reopen trading relations with Russia.
That was the first step. Then there was the meeting
in London at the latter end of February. France was
represented by M. Millerand and Italy by Signor Nitti,
and Japan was also represented, and then this decision
was taken:
"The Allies cannot enter into diplomatic relations with
the Soviet Government, in view of their past experi-
ences, until they have arrived at the conviction that
Bolshevik horrors have come to an end, and that the
Government of Moscow is ready to conform its methods
to those of all civilized governments. The British and
Swiss Governments were both compelled to expel repre-
sentatives of the Soviet Government from their re-
spective countries.
"Commerce between Russia and the rest of Europe,
which is so essential for the improvement of economic
conditions, not only in Russia but in the rest of the
world, will be encouraged to the utmost degree possible
without relaxation of the attitude described above/'
Unanimity at San Remo
That was decided in February. Action had been
taken upon those two resolutions, and Russia hid of-
fered to send over a delegation to this country, headed
by Mr. Krassin and Mr. Litvinov. We knew Mr.
Krassin's position in the Soviet Government. With a
full knowledge of these facts the Allies passed this
resolution at San Remo :
"The Allied representatives will be prepared to dis-
cuss with the Russian delegates the best methods of
removing the obstacles and difficulties in the way of
the resumption of peaceful trade relations, with a de-
sire to find a solution in the general interests of Eu-
rope."
Thus by a perfectly unanimous decision of the Allies
— France, Italy, Japan and Great Britain — it was de-
cided not merely to open up trade relations with Russia,
but to open up those relations with the delegation that
was then at Copenhagen, including Mr. Krassin, but
excluding Mr. Litvinov.
It is upon that we are acting at the present moment.
This was a decision taken by the official leaders of the
Allied nations — taken after consultation with their gov-
ernments. We each were armed with authority from
our respective Cabinets before we committed ourselves
to this policy. It was discussed fully in Italy, in France,
and in Great Britain, and we came to the conclusion
unanimously — all the official Allied leaders came to the
conclusion — that it was essential in the interests of the
world to resume trade relations with Russia.
It is a very serious thing to reverse a policy come
to reluctantly, with all the evidence of dislike of shrink-
ing from and natural aversion from doing something
which looks like going back upon a policy which you
have already embarked upoi?.. In spite of those things,
,hesc ifiFMff 5nt fte onc,usion unanimous,y
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that it was in the interests of the scores and hundreds
of millions they represent to resume trade relations.
Mr. Kennedy Jones (CU. — Hornscy) : Who proposed
the policy, may I ask?
Russia Essential to Europe
Mr. Lloyd George : I really do not think it very much
matters, but if my hon. friend thinks that any one of
us shrinks from it I accept full responsibility, not only
by taking part but in promoting it, and I am glad that
all my colleagues agree with me. Why did they do it?
Is it not obvious to any man who looks at the facts
through the world that there was an imperative need
of it?
Russia is essential to Europe. Russia is essential to
the world. Has anyone been looking at the figures of
the world production of wheat and raw material, and
will anyone — I mean will anyone responsible, — will any-
body who can be called to account as I could in every
court — the court of public opinion, the court of the
conscience of the world and my own, — will anyone with
that responsibility stand up and to save his own amour
pr i opre-—bcc2LUse he is afraid of being misinterpreted
and misrepresented, — will any man with responsibility
say that he will bar the door of Russia against the
millions who are waiting in order to get what Russia
can produce ?
It is because we realized the peril, because we knew
the limitations, because we knew the dangers, because
we knew the fact that the world was running to a
shortage, and that here was a country which before the
war produced twenty-five per Cent of the imported food
of Europe, that we decided that steps should be taken
in order to restore relations with her. (Hear, hear.)
You may say you cannot do it. If you cannot, then
the blame will not rest with us, but you certainly can-
not do it unless you try.
Great Supplies of Wheat
But I am told, why should we restore relations? I
tread with considerable diffidence upon this ground, be-
cause I don't wish to misrepresent anything that my hon.
friends said. We are told that Russia has not got any
food and material It is more than any hon. member here
can say, but the statement I made in this House origi-
nally I make again. There are men who say that there
is a prodigous quantity of grain and raw material in
Russia. I can give a telegram which came this morn-
ing from Poland in which the Poles say that they have
come to the conclusion that there is a considerable
quantity of wheat for export abroad in the Ukraine
alone. Men who had got the same opportunities of ob-
taining information say that there are prodigious quan-
tities in the Ukraine, in the Kuban and in Siberia, and
that the peasants are storing because they cannot sell.
The mere fact that Central Russia is starving is no
proof at all that there is not plenty in other parts.
I agree it is transport stands in the way. There is
no doubt from the evidence we have got there is grain
in Russia; there is oil, there is flax, there is timber-
all of them essential commodities for this country.
Equally there is no doubt that the transport is insuf-
ficient. But trade is necessary to improve the transport.
Trade With Turkey Under Abdul Hamid
I am told that we must not adopt this policy because
we disapprove of the government. Is it really sug-
gested that we are not to trade with a country whose
government we condemn, that we are not to trade with
a country that is misgoverned? When was that doc-
trine laid down ? Unless war has been declared between
the countries there is no precedent for declaring that
you cannot trade with a country because you abhor its
government.
Take the case which has been given by my hon.
friend, the case of Mexico. We had a Charge d'Af-
faires in Mexico the whole of the time to which refer-
ence has been made. Where you have anarchy and
where you have civil war, there trade is impossible.
But apart from that, we would have traded with Mex-
ico — we did as a matter of fact trade — where we could.
Take another case. I am told you must not trade
with Russia because of the atrocities of the Bolshevik
Government. Have we never traded with countries
which have been guilty of atrocities? What about Tur-
key? Were not the atrocities in Russia, bad as they
were, exceeded in horror, in number, and in persistence
by the atrocities perpetrated in Turkey under Abdul
Hamid against the Armenians? Violations, murder,
wholesale — hundreds of thousands. Did we cease trad-
ing for a single hour?
Mr. Billings : We ought to have done.
And With Czarist Russia
The Prime Minister: What a misfortune the hon.
member was not in power. Nobody proposed it from
any part in the House to my recollection. Our trade
with Turkey was a very substantial one, but never was
it suggested that we should cease trading with Turkey
or leave off trading relations or even diplomatic rela-
tions because of these atrocities. It is quite a new doc-
trine that you are responsible for the government when
you trade with its people. Were we responsible for the
Czarist Government? Were we responsible for it with
its corruption, its misgovernment, its pogroms, its scores
of thousands of innocent people massacred? We were
not responsible for that, yet we continued our relations.
Why, this country has opened up most of the cannibal
trade of the world, whether it was in the South Seas or
in Kumassi. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) Have we
ever declined to do it because we disapprove of the
habits of the population. (Laughter.) We exercised
caution. We chose our representatives. It is really a
new doctrine that you must approve of either the
habits, the customs, the government, the religion, or the
manners of the people before you start trading with
them. (Renewed laughter and cheers.)
It would be very pleasant if there were no trading
relations except with people just like ourselves, those
who had a sane government — (loud laughter), — and
who show the same wisdom and judgment. (Laughter.)
But we cannot indulge in these things; they are a
luxury. They are beyond the reach of anyone except
a favored country^ We must take such governments
as we find them and thank God how very happy we
ourselves are here. (Renewed laughter.)
I think we have displayed in this matter, even if
we had taken the initiative, the sort of rough common
sense that leads the British people in the end to the
right conclusions. They may not be able to give good
reasons for it (loud laughter), — but they are generally
sound and their instinct has led them to the right con-
clusion.
Prejudice — and the Facts
Let us look at this matter without prejudice. You
cannot afford to have prejudices if you are a trading
community. Certainly not. You cannot always ex-
amine the^pecords of your customers. Let us look at
this matter from the point of view of the realities of
the situation. What is the position?
It is very easy to get up in this House and say, "Look
at this horrible thing; look at this and that atrocity;
are you going to grasp this tainted hand" — (laughter) —
with a sort of Pharisaic principle that you must wash
your hands for fear you touch a tainted customer.
Russia exported 4,000,000 tons of grain before the
war, and every grain of it is needed by Europe now —
and in Europe I include Great Britain. Millions of
tons of timber, scores of thousands of tons of flax were
exported before the war, all needed by the industries
of the world. When are you going to trade with
Russia? Is there any man here who will get up and
say : "We will never trcde with Russia as long as
there is a Bolshevik Government ?
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SOVIET RUSSIA
July 10, 1920
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Colonel Page Croft (N.P — Bournemouth) : Not so
long as a single British subject is imprisoned in Russia
— you ought not to trade with them.
The Prime Minister: My hon. and gallant friend
will perhaps be very shocked to hear that in fact I have
said so to Mr. Krassin. I am asking is there anybody
here who is ever likely to win the confidence of the
people to the extent to being chosen to fill the office
which I now hold or the office held by my right hon.
friend who will say that he will never trade with Rus-
sia as long as there is a Bolshevik Government? All
I can say is, if there is anybody who says it, then it
would be an act of gross folly which either he would
repent of or the country that trusted him would repent
of.
Lieutenant Colonel Archer-Shce (U. — Finsbury) : M.
Clemenceau said so.
The Prime Minister: He did say so. I know far
more of M. Gemenceau than the hon. and gallant mem-
ber does. M. Clemenceau said that as long the the Bol-
shevik Government are guilty of atrocities —
Lieutenant Colonel Archer-Shee : They are.
The Prime Minister: Then they will not be recog-
nized, but to say that you cannot trade with a people
whose government is guilty of atrocities is to rule out
more governments than I care to think of. To see
peace established in the world is not an easy task. I
wonder whether any of my hon. friends who ride this
particular prejudice have ever put themselves in the
position of those who have got to consider the whole
situation. We are responsible not merely for what is
to be done today but we are responsible for the future.
It appals me when I think what may happen unless
peace is restored in Russia.
What War With Russia Means
Lieutenant Colonel Archer-Shee : Why do you not
win it?
The Prime Minister: What is the good of talking
like that? That is the sort of flighty, irresponsible talk
that is responsible for more mischief than I can tell.
How can you win unless you are prepared to lose?
What do I mean by that? If you are going to crush
Bolshevism because it is an evil thing, put your might
into it, put your manhood into it. We have lost hun-
dreds of thousands of lives and are we prepared to
lose hundreds of thousands more? We have £8,000,-
000,000 of debt, and are we going to pile up another
£3,000,000,000 or £4,000,000,000 more? If you arc not
prepared to do that, what is the good of talking lightly?
I sincerely hope that my hon. friend's views about the
Polish prospects are right. I wish I could be as sure.
I think they were badly advised. I earnestly hope that
my reading of the situation is wrong, but is there any-
one here will predict that I have taken the wrong view?
A World Peace Vital to All
It is easy to find quarrels. The world is bristling
with them. Hand-grenades are scattered over the
ground, and you have got to walk carefully forward
or you will have an explosion. The world is full of
explosive matter. You have quarrels here and quarrels
there where the blood pressure is still too high. You
won't restore its health until you bring it down to
something like a sane normal.
Do not let us excite it. Do not let us stir it up. Do
not let us have a prejudice here, a quarrel there, an
outrage somewhere else, and do not let us say, "I will
quarrel with that man who is not of my way of think-
ing. I do not approve of him." You will never get
peace in the world in that way. I would not guarantee,
nor would any Minister holding anv responsible position
guarantee, the stability of any land unless you get peace
in the world. (Loud cheers.)
Sir Donald Maclean
Sir Donald Maclean (L.— Peebles) said the House
now knew that the action taken by the government
was the action of the government as a whole, with the
full assent of the Allies. He welcomed heartily what
the Prime Minister had said with regard to the mistakes
made during the last eighteen months in our dealings
with Russia, and wished well to this first step to-
wards bringing about relations which, he hoped, would
create a condition of things in which Bolshevism in
the future would be impossible. (Cheers.)
Colonel Archer-Shee, answering the challenge of the
Prime Minister, declared that he supported the view
that we ought not to trade with the Bolshevik Govern-
ment at all.
Mr. J. O'Grady (Lab.— Leeds), on the other hand,
asserted that commercial men, together with the work-
ing classes, had made up their minds that whatever
might have happened in the past commercial relation-
ships should be resumed freely and openly.
Colonel Page Croft continued the debate and the mo-
tion was eventually talked out. — Manchester Guardian,
June 8, 1920.
CZECHOSLOVAK MINISTER REPLIES
TO CHICHERIN
On the basis of a report in Czecho-Slovak news-
papers, we print here the principal parts of the
reply of the Czecho-Slovak Minister of Foreign
Affairs to Chicherin's peace proposal :
No one has ever doubted the sincere loyalty of the
Czecho-Slovak people to the great Russian people. Dur-
ing the war we have raised the banner of rebellion for
our political and social freedom. Our nation and state
has really come into existence as a result of our revo-
lutionary struggle. No one could therefore question
our profound loyalty to the ideal of freedom and revo-
lution, which broke open for us the jails of the mon-
archy. With the object of removing all misunderstand-
ings between the two sides regarding the question of
our Siberian army, I am at present preparing a com-
pilation of documents which will make clear the position
of our government and of the official leaders of our
revolutionary movement, particularly in Russia. This,
of course, requires some time. Nevertheless, I am even
now already able to state that from the standpoint of
law your note does not quite correspond to reality and
that the Czecho-Slovak Government has never been in
a state of war with Russia.
In Siberia, it is true, some agreements were entered
into, which were of a purely local character. But from
the standpoint of law, this question should be regarded
in a different light. I will therefore, take the liberty
soon to send to you the compilation of documents and
BOUND VOLUMES FOR 1920
At the end of June, 1920. which marks the close of our second volume (January to June), we shall bind two
hundred full sets of Soviet Russia for this period (26 issues — half a year), and deliver them to persons who have
placed their orders in advance. The price for such a volume, bound uniformly with the first volume, is five dollars.
The volumes will be delivered promptly in July.
Send orders, accompanied by amount required, to
SOVIET RUSSIA
110 West 40th Street Room 304 New York, N. Y.
We need, in order to be able to bind so many sets of Soviet Russia, a few more copies of Vol. II, No. 6
(February 7, 1920), which we are willing to pay for at the rate of ten cents rcr copy.
UN I VERS I TY OF M I CH I GAN
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our delegates, who will be able directly to discuss with
you the question of the situation of our citizens in
Russia and of our future economic relaitons.
This commission could at the same time determine
what other questions should be discussed. ¥
The Czecho- Slovak Government expresses the hope
that this will lead to successful results which will be
of equal advantage to both nations.
CZECHO-SLOVAKIA— UKRAINE-
RUSSIA
Vechernik Prava Ludu, an organ of the Social-
Democratic Party of Czecho-Slovakia, the strong-
est party in the country, published in its issue of
May if, 1920, an article entitled: "The Direct
Negotiations of Our Country with Russia," which
we print in full translation below :
Remove all ambiguity!
Yesterday there was published a note sent by the
Czecho-Slovak Government and the Soviet power with
regard to the relations between Central Europe and
Russia, and states that this constitutes a basis for di-
rect negotiations without any delay. Simultaneously,
the Czecho-Slovak Government communicates that it
gives consent to having representatives of the Russian
Red Cross come to the Czecho-Slovak Republic.
Thus relations are being started, and soon direct ne-
gotiations will follow. Just at a time when Poland is
attacking Russia, this act will be greeted with joy by
the whole Czecho-Slovak working people, and we are
sure to greet with all the greater joy the whole Russian
people and nation, which is preparing now to a man to
repel the Polish attack. <•
We consider it, however, our duty to point out that
it is necessary to remove all ambiguity. There are
residing in Prague and in our republic a number of
reactionary Kolchak and Denikin officers who are repre-
senting here, in some unofficial manner, non-existing
governments, and to whom — as we learn — pensions are
being paid out which, it is said, the Russian Government
will repay in the future; thus these men live here on
our money even publishing two reactionary dailies ; they
have their own Red Cross and receive support from the
American Red Cross; and are being used in a political
way for purposes of reactionary propaganda among the
Russian prisoners. Moreover, in Teresin, a small de-
tachment of the Russian army is still undergoing mili-
tary training. What does all this mean?
There have remained in our republic about 10,000
Russian prisoners almost all of whom sympathize with
the Soviet power. They have thrust and are thrusting
aside, away from themselves, those reactionary officers,
che masters and their representatives. The situation of
these prisoners has been and is still very sad. They
stay in camps (in Josephov about 1.300 men), or they
are obliged to work for farmers and allow themselves
to be shamefully exploited, subjected to the scorn of
the local working people. The millions which were
handed out to these reactionary officers and representa-
tives might have alleviated, here and there, the difficult
situation of the prisoners. It is necessary to amelior-
ate their conditions immediately : it might be good to
issue at once a Russian newspaper for the Russian
prisoners which would be run by the prisoners them-
selves according to ther sympathies, and to inform them
clearly of the probable negotiations. It is very im-
portant to us that these prisoners (who are mostly
workers and peasants who will soon return to Russia)
think well of us.
In his latest note Chicherin pointed out the fact that
Petlura's armies are now in our republic. In Yablontz
there is interned the so-called Ukrainian Brigade, an
army which after the attack of Haller on Prezemysl
had crossed the Carpathians. In this army, Petlura's
officers hold sway, and persecuting every one who is
opposed to Petlura's views. A communication has
reached us from the camp of this army to *he effect
that the majority of the camp is against Petlura and
his partners, the Poles, and asking that the Czech com-
rades take up this matter, in order that they may not
fall victims to the pressure of Petlura's agents. To
what extent the conceit of Petlura's agents, may be
judged from an impertinent note of a "representative
of petlura's government" at Prague, Slavinsky, sent to
Dr. Benesch.
No ambiguity in these matters must be permitted to
stand for even a day, if we are to enter into direct
negotiations with Soviet Russia. We learn with horror
of speeches which we — if we had known of them be-
fore — could not under any circumstances have endured.
We demand that pensions to reactionary Russian of-
ficers be immediately stopped, that complete liberty of
opinion and choice be secured to all Russian prisoners.
IVe also demkind the absolute termination of all Pet-
lura ayitation in the Ukrainian brigade.
And we ask for a full explanation with regard to
these matters!
THE RUSSIAN ICE-BREAKER SOLOVEI
Our readers will remember reports appearing rn
Soviet Russia concerning the Russian ice-breaker
Solovei, adrift in the Kara Sea. It will be re-
membered that preparations were being made in
Norway to dispatch another ship in order to res-
cue the crew of the Solovei, and, if possible, to
tow the steamer out of its present perilous position
among the ice packs. From various issues of re-
cent Norwegian newspapers we now are able to
report that the position of the Solovei on May
10 was 72 degrees 80 minutes north latitude and
63 degrees nine minutes east longitude; and that
on May 18 the position had changed to 72 degrees
38 north latitude and 63 deegres and 36 minutes
east longitude. Both these figures were communi-
cated to the Norwegian newspapers by Russian
Soviet officials; the first by Dr. Shklovsky, the
Commissar for Foreign Affairs stations at Mur-
mansk; the second by the People's Commissariat
for Foreign Affairs at Moscow.
THE UKRAINIAN PRESS ON PETLURA
The Ukrainian Socialist (non-Bolshevist)
papers are subjecting Petlura's agreement with
Poland to a destructive criticism. For example,
the paper Gremadska Dumka says among other
things: "The agreement of April 22 was entered
into by officials and persons who cannot be con-
sidered as the authorized representatives of
Ukraine. The Directorate and the Government of
Mazepa actually no longer exist, for their members
have departed for various quarters of the globe.
What then can the Polish Government hope for
in concluding agreements with persons behind
whom there is no one, who are by no means the
representatives of the whole Ukrainian people, and
who have even ceased to represent their own poli-
tical parties?"
Vbryod writes: "History is repeating itself.
Within the boundaries of Ukraine the Polish troops
have penetrated. They come with the same slogans
as did once the German troops: to liberate the
Polish people and to give them an opportunity to
express their will. We nay what the result was
""-"lislMrfisiH
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POLISH AEROPLANES STOPPED
Santhia, Italy, May 22. — As has been already
announced, a train stopped at our station with war
materials addressed to Poland. This train con-
sists of cars bearing the following numbers:
346,444; 346,439; 346,252; 346,235; 346,467;
346,406 ; 346,283 ; 346,264 ; 346,269 ; 346,211 ;
346,202; 346,203; 346,273; 346,426; 346,461;
346,286; 346,219.
Almost all these cars contain SVA aeroplanes
which, according to information collected by the
railroad workers, were put on board at the station
of Collegno, by the Ambrosetti Forwarding Com-
pany, to the account of Ansaldo-Pomilio. Two of
these cars are also said to contain explosives, al-
though they are put down as cargoes of return
freight.
All the railroad workers have unanimously re-
fused to permit these trains to depart. But it is
necessary that the railroad administration should
not find at any station a crew ready to carry out
work of this kind, and it is also necessary that the
railroad workers of Turin and of the surrounding
stations should organize themselves, together with
the truckmen and chauffeurs of the above men-
tioned forwarding company, to undertake the most
rigorous surveillance in order that such attempts
may be frustrated in the future.
THE BOLSHEVIKI IN PERSIA
Constantinople, May 23. — The naval forces of
the Russian Bolsheviki on the Caspian Sea left
Baku on the 19th of May, and entered the harbor
of Enzeli, on the night of the 20th. Here they
landed their troops in the harbor city of Kasma.
Russian troops are also marching towards Resht,
to take possession of that city. The Persian Bol-
sheviki in Tabris have proclaimed the New Per-
sian Republic, and have mustered a force of 18,000
men, supplied with arms and ammunition, partly
by Russia, and partly by Turkey. On the 20th
of May, several gunboats steamed into the harbor
of Abbasabad, situated north of Teheran, and
landed 800 men. The city is being occupied by
these troops, among whom there are Persians and
Turks: but a force of 10,000 men is expected to
reinforce them, to proceed to Teheran. In Tabris,
too, the Bolsheviki are pushing on to Teheran, for
they are expecting reinforcements from the Cau-
casus. At Aukhabad, on the boundary of Turkes-
tan, there is a large army of revolutionists, who
are ready to cross the boundary. The Shah of
Persia has gone from Bushir to Ispahan, but it
is believed that he will not return to Teheran so
long as the *ity is in danger. The English troops
are so widely scattered throughout the southwest-
ern part of Persia that they can have no effect on
the development of events in the north. The
Persian gendarmerie are not sufficiently prepared
to defend Teheran, unaided. The Russian Bol-
sheviki are aided by the Persians evervwhere. The
foreign representatives at Teheran have all, with
the exception of Sir Percy Scott, the English
representative, decided to remain in Teheran, even
if the Bolsheviki should succeed in taking it. The
English troops are retreating toward Ispahan. In
the English circles of Persia, it is understood that
it is useless to resist, because the Bolsheviki are
themselves very powerful, and they are being aided
by the population everywhere, so that the danger
is doubled. An English squadron, which has just
left Alexandria and passed the Suez Canal, is
expected in the Persian Gulf. The Indian squad-
ron of the English fleet is also expected to follow
with troops. But no military expedition can be
thought of for the time being, because conditions
in India also demand a great deal of attention.
According to wireless messages received by English
military authorities on conditions in Teheran, the
situation is more serious than the English Govern-
ment seems to realize. It has come to such a pass
that the English are no longer attempting any
resistance, but endeavoring to leave the country
as soon as possible, and confine themselves to con-
trolling the situation in British India, where a
revolution is also expected.
TWO NOTES ON POLISH ATROCITIES
I.
Copy of a radio sent to Earl Curzon, of Kedles-
ton, Minister of Foreign Affairs, London; M. Mil-
lerand, President of the Council, Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Paris; M. Scialoja, Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Rome; M. Colby, Secretary of
State, Washington.
May 29. — Information coming from the districts
occupied by the Polish White Guards continues to
mention acts of violence committed by the Polish
civil and military authorities against the peaceful
population. The Polish Government does not con-
teiutitself with reestablishing the old regime, with
appointing such outspoken reactionaries as Krach-
kevich, who have nothing more urgent to do than
to publish severe orders for the restoration of the
rights of landed proprietors of the soil and of the
forests. That government does not contend itself
with closing the Ukrainian schools and sending
the teachers into concentration camps at Demba
near Cracow. It hands over the population to
systematic pillage. The Polish cavalry particu-
larly distinguishes itself in this matter. By way
of example we shall point out an incident that
took place at Razivirovka district of Mayochennian,
province of Berdichev. A detachment of Polish
cavalry, consisting of ten men, immediately on its
arrival assembled the village council and ordered
to hand over all militant Soviet adherents. When
the peasants answered that not a single such per-
son had remained, the cavalry detachment scat-
tered about the village pillaging and sacking all
that it could lay hands on. It stole twenty-one
horses, eight piga, 350 poods of flour. In the vil-
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lage of Vatavnikha, in the same district, this de-
tachment demanded forty horses, twelve pigs, 350
poods of flour. All this booty was actually car-
ried off with the exception of two horses, whose
owner refused to hand them over to the mayor,
who had tried to take them by force. This peasant
was shot on the spot and his house burned down.
As for the policy of national oppression which be-
gan to flourish after the Poles arrived, the fol-
lowing facts may give some idea of this work.
They are concerned with- the province of Volhynia.
At Luninets, the director of the High School was
obliged to resign his duties to a Pole and to take
up the functions of a station employe. The Rus-
sian and Ukrainian railroad workers, station mas-
ters, lower officials, and conductors have all been
discharged and replaced by Poles. The railroad
school at Luninets has been transformed into a
Polish school, where instruction is given in Polish.
Questions and petitions are received only in Polish.
The Poles cynically declared to the Russians and
Ukrainians that they (the Poles) were once held
in slavery and obliged to speak the language of
the enemy, and that they were now going to force
the latter to speak their language. In a word, the
barbarous procedure and action by which the Pol-
ish authorities have distinguished themselves in
Galicia and in all the territories in their power, are
being reproduced on a larger scale, with the dif-
ference that the scene is now Ukraine. The Soviet
Governments of Russia and Ukraine protest most
emphatically against these acts of violence and
are informing of these facts the governments of
those Entente Powers who are primarily respon-
sible for the attack that has been launched by
Poland against the above described regions.
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs
of the Russian Republic,
Chicherin.
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs
of the Ukrainian Republic,
Rakovsky.
II.
June 2. — Information which reaches the Russian
Soviet Government about the Polish atrocities
forces the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs to call
the attention once more of the powers of the En-
tente to the responsibility incurred by them for
the unjustifiable acts of of which the armies of
a state which is a member of the League of Na-
tions, and obviously supported by them, is guilty.
The commander of the Red Armies on the Western
Front gives an account which follows : "The city
of Borisov was occupied bv Red troops at noon
on May 25. The 28th of "May, at three o'clock
in the morning, the enemy commenced a systematic
destruction of the city by a bombardment of the
right bank of the Berezina. At nine o'clock in
the morning, the Poles opened a rolling fire of
artillery with asphyxiating and incendiary shells.
About 800 shells of six and eight inch dimensions
were thrown, setting on fire several buildings, and,
because of the wind, enveloping half of the city in
flames. Notwithstanding the rain of enemy shells,
the devotion of the communists and the energy
of the Revolutionary Committee made possible the
protection of the other half of the city against the
fire. The enemy attempted to place obstacles in
the way of the extinction of the fire by firing at
those engaged in this work, with a resulting loss
of more than 500 lives among a peaceful popula-
tion of men, women and children ; more than 100
people seriously wounded perished in the flames,
and the rest of the corpses were collected and
buried on May 29. The same day the enemy set
fire to the rest of the city, and continued during
the two mornings of the 29th and 30th so in-
tensive a firing that the rest of Borisov was de-
stroyed. The city is turned into a mass of smolder-
ing ruins; 10,000 inhabitants who escaped from
burning buildings are scattered in the woods,
naked and starving, without having had time to
take aught with them. The condition of the in-
habitants is frightful; the number of victims,
among whom are women and children, increases
constantly. The Military Revolutionary- Council
of the Army knows the urgency of relief measures,
necessary to furnish the victims provisions, money
and lodgings. Thus, by the taking of Borissov,
thanks to the valor of our military troops, a vin-
dictive army has replied in anger by completely
destroying the city and massacring hundreds and
thousands of peaceful inhabitants, including wom-
en~and children."
In bringing these facts to the attention of the
governments protecting and allied or associated
with Poland, the Soviet Government raises the
most energetic protest against these foolish acts of
cruelty of an enemy who attacks tens of thousands
of innocent women and children, and calls the
attention of all peoples to so odious a violation of
the most elementary principles of humanity.
Commissar for Foreign Affairs : Chicherin.
AGAINST THE "RUSSIAN PERIL"
Comrade Victor Kopp, representative of the
Russian Soviet Republic in Berlin, has published
the following statement in the Rote Fahn of Ber-
lin:
"Following up the failure of the Polish offensive,
and the breaking up of the Polish front by the
Russian troops, alarming reports of the danger
threatening Germany through Russian invasion
appeared in the German press. Although the ob-
ject of these reports is transparent enough, the
undersigned considers the matter important
enough to assert and affirm that neither the Soviet
Government nor the Russian people have any hos-
tile feelings nor intentions against Germany, and
that the 'Russian Peril* belongs in the realm of
fable or vicious libel. And furthermore, the base-
lessness of these rumors may be seen, when we
consider that the battle front is a distance of 300
kilometers from the frontiers of German territory,
and that, between these are two independent states,
Lithuania and Latvia, whose independence Russia
recognizes, and wmch nre on frJendlv terms with
the German peopl^ygp M | CH f|HF K ° PP '
56
SOVIET RUSSIA
July 10, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA PROTESTS
We have received the following dispatch from
Stockholm :
Chicherin, the People's Commissar for Foreigu
Affairs, has sent a note to the Austrian Govern-
ment in which he expresses the extreme displeasure
of the Russian proletariat with Austria, because
of her continued deliveries of munitions to Poland.
The Soviet Government calls the attention of the
Austrian Government to the fact that this will
doubtless affect the fate of the Austrian officers
in Russia and cause the exchange of prisoners to
cease for the time being.
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KINDERGARTEN AND SOCIAL WORK
Pravda reports that at the beginning of May a
conference of kindergarten workers took place, for
which there had assembled fifty-three delegates
from thirty-four Russian provinces. It was learned
from a report made to the conference, that there
were in the Soviet Republic on January 1, 1919,
1,799 kindergartens, which were attended by
90,950 children altogether. On January 1, 1920,
the number o! kindergartens was 9,623, with
11,234 workers, and 204,913 children in attend-
ance. The work in the establishment of rest homes
at Petrograd is rapidly advancing. Fifteen rest
homes are already in operation, providing accom-
modations for about 1,000 workers. The opening
ceremonies will soon be held.
A NOTE TO COL. BEK'S MILITARY
REVIEW
HE news from London dated July 3 about
the capture of Lemberg by the Soviet Army
reached us when the Military Review by Lt.-Col.
B. Roustam Bek was in print. Col. Bek, in his
statement, indicates that the Red Army, after hay-
ing routed the Poles in Podolia and Volhynia, is
moving into Galicia with Lemberg as its ob-
jective. Today, when asked, Col. Bek confirmed
his opinion that simultaneously the Soviet armies
are marching also oil Rovno, after having captured
the most important railway junction of Shepe-
tievka, southeast of Rovno.
Lemberg, which formerly was the capitol of
Galicia, and belonged to Austria under the deli-
mination effected by the peace treaty, became a
part of Ukraine. It was captured by the Rus-
sians early in the Great War, and evacuated after
the German offensive by General Mackensen's
army. The fall of Lemberg (Lvov) indicates that
neither the Southern Polish army nor its Galician
reserves are any longer in existence, and that the
enveloping movement of the Red Army in the
southern theatre of war has been brilliantly ac-
complished.
Col. Bek predicts an important movement in
Hungary as a result of the successes of the Rus-
sian Red Armv in Galicia.
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THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. Prohibition* in Soviet Russia. .1 remarkably interesting account on the prohibition
situation in Soviet Russia.
2. Who Takes Part in the Government? .1 review of the work accomplished by Rus-
sian workers participating in the government o fthe country.
3. The Provincial of Petrograd. An account of the methods by which the government
of the often threatened city accomplishes the problem of feeding the citizens.
4. Terror in North Russia. Describing the blessings of the White Government of Gen-
eral Miller at the time of Allied Intervention.
5. Ukraine, by Hannes Skoeld (Stockholm). An ethnographic and historic sketch, based on
the writer's own observations.
6. The regular weekly Military Review of Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek.
Also, Editorials, Book Reviews, Wireless Notes, etc.
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make all checks payable
to L. C. A. K. Martens.)
110 West 40th Street
SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVED BY
SOVIET RUSSIA
(Room 304)
Ten Cents at all News Stands
It l tivbhSlhuhM l LHhrtH
New York City
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, July 17, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 3
Iwd Wwltly at HO W. 40ih Street, New York, N. Y. Ludwig C A + K + Marteni, Pflfcliaher. Jacob Wittraer Hartmann, Editor.
Subscription Rate, $5.00 per annum. Application for entry as second class matter pending*
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PAGE
PAGE
Prohibition in Soviet Russia...
57
Economic Policy in the Far East 12
Military Review, by Lt.-CoL B,
Rous tarn Bck 59
A Communist Manifesto from Poland 73
The Provisioning of Petrograd,
62
An Appeal to the Labor Army of Petrograd 74
Ukraine, by Hannes Skoid.
65
Ramos . . ♦ 75
Editorials ,,..,...,..,•.,».
68
Press Cuttings 76
Terror in North Russia. , t
.... 71
Statement by L, C. A, K, Martens . ...♦«,..* . 80
Prohibition in Soviet Russia
[The Swedish prohibition newspaper "Templaren" (so-called because it is the organ of the
Independent Order of Good Templars, a powerful European prohibition movement), in a recent
number prints a remarkably interesting and detailed interview on the prohibition situation in Red
Russia, with the Swedish author, Ture Nerman, a Left Wing Socialist, who has recently returned
to Sweden from Soviet Russia. Mr. Nerman 1 s view that prohibition in Russia is permanent must
not be taken as final, however, since at least one prominent Soviet leader has expressed a conviction
that prohibition in Russia may not be final. See remarks of N. Bukharin, as quoted by Arvid Han-
sen, in Soviet Russia for September 13, 1919*]
TN SPITE of serious attempts, said Mr. Ner-
1 man, he was unable to get hold of any promi-
nent prohibition leader in the course of his jour-
ney. The reason foT this was that there is prac-
tically no separate prohibition movement in that
urantry now, in the sense in which we apply the
word in Sweden.
The prohibition question in Russia, says Mr.
Nerman, is already disposed of and solved in an
entirely different manner, and more fundamentally
and effectively, than it ever could be solved in
capitalistic countries, where a sort of so-called pro-
hibition has been introduced. On the one hand,
it must be admitted that the Bolshevik i have had
an easier time in introducing and maintaining
prohibition, in view of the fact that in Russia,
because of the low supply of grain, caused chiefly
by. the lack of railway material, there often has
been nothing to distill. But, on the other hand,
the consumption of alcoholic liquors has never in
any country been as great as it once was in Rus-
sia. And consequently, the desire for alcoholic
liquor must, among great sections of the popula-
tion, particularly among the peasantry, have been
especially developed in Russia.
Vodka was a fundamental factor in the Russia
of the Czars, and has now, almost at ;i single blow,
been abiolutaly eliminated*
The sale of spirits is met with very rarely and
is punished— those guilty rarely escape — with un-
u&ual severity. The case is quite different from
that of Sweden, where the authorities almost al-
ways close their eyes to the traffic and appear even
to be half in league with the spirit dealers.
How the Russian Prohibition Was Carried Out
The Bolshevik Party, said Mr, Nerman, to be
sure never had any attitude toward prohibition
on its party program, but when the revolution
came, the leading personalities, wise statesmen as
they are, immediately recognized that the victori-
ous putting through and solidifying of the revo-
lution, were unthinkable without an immediate car-
rying out of a severe and absolute prohibition.
Certain vicious elements desire to make use of
the revolution only as a means of satisfying their
outi lusts, among which none the least was their
strong desire for alcohol. The only possibility of
preventing these dangerous elements from ruining
the revolution and hindering its development into
an orderly social system, was to deal harshly with
them.
Particularly at the outset, it was necessary to
proceed with unusual severity with regard to these
elements. In the first stage of the revolution, they
were simply shot down, It was considered that
individuals who iasuch ABfrioua ajjuatioa were so
58
SOVIET RUSSIA
July 17, 1920
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little conscious of their dignity as men as to drink
away their reason in alcohol, which they succeeded
in stealing from the saloons, would never be of
any use for the future, but would rather consti-
tute a permanent danger to the workers' revolu-
tion.
For a long time the opponents of the revolution
tried with the aid of alcohol to ruin and under-
mine the morale of the best Bolshevik troops. And
precisely this explains to a certain extent the
severity with which prohibition was carried out.
The Leading Bolsheviks Were Not Teetotalers
Mr. Nerman points out that Lenin, for example,
was not a teetotaler, while, on the other hand, he
always had led a life that was exemplary and
Spartan, both with regard to spirits as well as in
general. Otherwise it is certain that his brain
could not at the present moment be the clear states-
man-like organ which it is.
The same is the case with most of the Bolshevik
leaders in Russia. But when they became active
revolutionists, as Mr. Nerman points out, they had
to be actual enforcers of prohibition, while in Swe-
den, the grandiloquent leaders of prohibition, such
as Arthur Engberg, 6tc., as soon as their party
assumed political power, betrayed their former
position, resigned from the prohibition organiza-
tions and are now agitating in the Riksdag and
in the government for a renewed liberation of the
flow of spirits over the whole country !
. "I spoke," continued Mr. Nerman, "with a num-
ber of the most important revolutionary leaders on
the question of prohibition, and all considered it
as self-evident that in a revolution one of the
most indispensable conditions is the enforcement
of an effective and absolute prohibition of alcohol,
in order to prevent and obviate the demoralization
of the masses. As a matter of fact, the better
moral tone among workers and peasants in Russia
has its explanation, in addition to the freer air
introduced by the revolution itself, also in the
complete liberation from the consumption of al-
cohol."
"It would be awful," continued Mr. Nerman, "to
imagine a revolution here in Sweden with the
popular masses in the condition in which they are
now in the cities, particularly, in Stockholm.
"As long as a great part of the working class
consists of demoralized appellists* and other lum-
pen proletariat, terror is as absolutely necessary,
at the moment of revolution, in dealing with such
anti-social elements, as it is in dealing with the
counter-revolutionary bandits."
How the Bolsheviki Oot Rid of the Great Stores
of Alcohol
"At the outbreak of the revolution," Mr. Ner-
man said, "there were great quantities of liquor
in Russia. In the Kerensky revolution, liquor
therefore played a prominent role. But the Bol-|
* The "appellists" are readers of a Swedish periodical
called Appel, which is edited by a prominent "Socialist' 1
anti-prohibitionist, August Palm (born 1849).
I
sheviki viewed the matter in an entirely different
way, from the very outset. I need only mention
a single case to indicate what often was the pro-
cedure.
"A Bolshevik patrol encountered a tremendous
store of valuable old wines in the cellars of the
Winter Palace. Some of the Red leaders made
efforts to intoxicate themselves with this wine, but
were prevented. A conduit was prepared leading
from the cellar down to the Neva river, and then
the entire stock was shot to pieces with machine
guns. The spirits flowed down to the river in
great streams."
Mr. Nerman added that it would be a positive
pleasure, in a possible Swedish revolution, to have
ch&rge of a few such machine-guns, directed
against a certain cellar under the Stockholm castle.
A great portion of the liquor stocks confiscated
in Russia have been a valuable addition to the
seriously depleted medicinal supplies of the coun-
try.
Smuggling in Russia
Mr. Nerman further pointed out that very little
smuggling was going on. Of course it is not im-
possible, particularly on the southern fronts, such
as the Crimean, to smuggle liquor in. among the
soldiers of the Red Army, and even to forward it
into the country through them.
But all offenders are punished very severely,
and the spirit among the soldiers is one of such
consciousness of purpose that cases of this kind
occur with great rarity. On the other fronts,
smuggling in liquors is impossible, if only for
the simple reason that these frontiers have thus
far been almost hermetically sealed.
Of course, now that relations with Russia are
to be opened, there is a great danger to prohibition
precisely in these possibilities of smuggling. But
the wisdom and energy thus far shown by the
leading elements in the great Russian social sys-
tem will surely be able to combat even this dan-
ger so powerfully that it will finally be eliminated.
Temperance Propaganda in Russia
Mr. Nerman also reports a number of interesting
details concerning the temperance propaganda of
the Russian Bolsheviki.
He says they are carrying on an instruction
concerning the dangerous effects of the use of al-
cohol everywhere, in the cities as well as in the
provinces, through their extraordinarily well or-
ganized schools. In addition they give instruc-
tion in all subjects connected with general hygiene.
In the ubiquitous and very artistically drawn
posters you behold not rarely the vodka drinking
peasant, lying on the ground like a pig, a hor-
rible example of the destructive effect of liquor.
Similar pictures are also seen in the famous pro-
paganda trains which traverse Russia in all di-
rections. In the newspapers and periodicals also,
the ineluctable duty of the class-conscious worker
.nd peasant to abstain from alcoholic liquors is
lso duly emphasized.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
July 17, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
59
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As counterparts and opposites of this horrible
example from the period of the Czar and of vodka,
one often beholds accompanying pictures ot sober
workers, studying their books or circulating liter-
ature among their comrades. On one of the trains
you see painted on the side "What did the old
regime give us? — Vodka, the nagaika (the knout),
czarist oppression, etc." The accompanying pic-
ture is that of an intoxicated worker being led to
prison. "What does the new regime give us? —
university, books, instruction for children, etc."
There is no doubt that a powerfully conducted
agitation of this kind will have a profound and
serious influence on the masses. And there is also
no doubt that such an intensive and purposeful
agitation, coupled as it is with the fundamental
principles of social justice and the dignity of man,
will soon make the Russian people, who once were
completely steeped in drunkeness and dissolute-
ness, the most sober nation of the world.
Effectiveness of Russian Prohibition
Mr. Nerman says that prohibition is so well
carried out that in a stay of more than five weeks
in Moscow and Petrograd, during which he has
been as much as possible among the people on the
streets and in the public places he was unable to
find more than two or three slightly intoxicated
persons. "On the first day of my return to Stock-
holm, on the other hand, I saw more than a dozen
heavily intoxicated persons in barely an hour.
"It may be objected that the punishments for
intoxication, inexorable and severe as they have
been in Russia, have gone somewhat to excess in
severity. But it is a fact that it was only this
method that made it possible in Russia to create
a general respect for prohibition. And it is just
this fact, in great measure, that made the Russia
of the workers so strong and invincible. For, in
the last analysis, it is this which made it possible
to create the Russian Socialist society which is
now being built up by the people with such en-
thusiasm and self-sacrifice."
Russian Prohibition Permanent
At the end of his interview Mr. Nerman said the
following :
"I asked, among others, one of the leading men
in the Soviet Republic whether he believed that
prohibition in Russia would be of permanent char-
acter and would be maintained even after the
complete establishment of the revolution. His an-
swer was short and definite, and was spoken with-
out hesitation: 'Yes, that is absolutely certain!'
"My opinion is that only a sufficiently well
founded and therefore successful workers' revolu-
tion can create a truly effective and permanent
prohibition of alcohol. The so-called total .pro-
hibitions which were finally carried out, in other
countries, in Finland, Norway, and America, can
be only half-measures as long as the capitalistic
system of society endures. The ruthless and never
seriously impeded lust for personal profit will
never succeed in respecting the purely human de-
mands that constant prohibition involves. Only
in a socialistic society, where the welfare and hap-
piness of the individuals composing it are the
first considerations, where private property has
been abolished and the watchword is 'Socially use-
ful work by all for all!' can the traffic in liquor be
completely abolished."
66
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
New York City, July 10, 1920.
TN MY interview published in the New York
* Call of June 30, I stated definitely that the
town of Minsk was already in the hands of the Red
Army, and I pointed out the fact that the press
is withholding the real truth about the situation
on the Polish front.
For a long time I was suspicious that something
of importance was going on in the northern part
of the Polish front, which extends to the north of
the Pripet Marshes, and that General Szeptitzky's
army had suffered a considerable tactical defeat.
This has become certain to me, now that I observe
a considerable advance of the Russian armies be-
tween the Berezina and the Pripet Marshes, which
could not have been accomplished to such an ex- .
tent as one hundred miles west of Bobruisk, situ-
ated on the river Berezina, had Minsk remained in
the possession of the enemy.
The dispatch from London, of July 9, informs
us that all the bridges along the Brest railway,
between Minsk and Baranovichi, have been de-
stroyed by the Red cavalry. This absolutely con-
firms the opinion expressed by myself that Minsk
has been captured by the Russians and consequent-
ly Vilno has had to be evacuated by the Poles.
Today I received a copy of Krasnoye Znamya
(The Red Banner) of May 27, 1920, the official
organ of the Communist Party at Vladivostok, in
which I noticed some most important data con-
nected with the capture of Minsk by the Red
Army, a translation of which may, I think, in-
terest the readers of Soviet Russia :
"The Polish Defeat in the Region of Minsk.
Omsk, May 24 (Sibrosta). — The Moscow radio
informs us that the resumed offensive of the Red
Army progresses with success. The main blow w$s
inflicted on the enemy in the region of Minsk,
where, after three days of fighting, more than
60,000 Poles were made prisoners. There were
captured also the Polish officers and great quan-
tities of artillery and booty. The latter is being
counted." Another dispatch in the same paper
says that "Trotsky and Brusilov have left for
Minsk, where a great quantity of property was left
" ythee WERSITY0FMICHISAN
6b
SOVIET RUSSIA
July 17, 1920
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So there cannot be any doubt that Minsk is in
Russian hands.
In the same issue of the Krasnoye Znamya, a
radio of the Central Executive Military Commit-
tee characterizes the situation on the Western
Russian front. "The blow," the message says,
"prepared by the Red command, has been inflicted
upon the enemy, and the initiative henceforth is
entirely with Brusilov. The Red General Staff
will develop its plan, combining a wedge attack
with parallel operations on the flanks." "Our
former experiences," continues the message, "con-
vince us that our plans will be accomplished in a
masterly manner."
Indeed, it was so accomplished, in spite of all
the lies of the capitalistic press agencies, and the
prophecies of the western military experts, With
General Foch at their head. It is perfectly well-
known that the famous trench-warfare strategist,
Foch, inspired in his victories, as he himself con-
fessed, by God, brilliantly lost the Great War
strategically, and that the same "great strategist"
carefully prepared the Polish plan of campaign
against Soviet Russia.
But unfortunately for General Foch, the Polish
God was weaker than that of France, and the
Poles are defeated not only tactically, like the Ger-
mans, but also strategically. Fieldmarshal Foch,
a student of the old military routine, did not even
dream of the possibility of accomplishing the dar-
ing and unprecedented strategical plan which the
Red General Staff not only designed but also car-
ried out, with a success unseen in military his-
tory.
Now, acknowledging the approach of the un-
avoidable end of the entire Anglo-French Polish
scheme, the supreme French command is trying
to utilize the last means which, they suppose, re-
main at their disposal, namely, > Rumania and
Germany.
According to the Evening Sun, of July 8, "a
French delegation has arrived at Bukharest to urge
the Rumanians to give all possible aid to the re-
treating Polish army." On the other hand, news
reaches us from Sofia (Bulgaria), that "Rumanian
mobilization is under way, and the Rumanian Gen-
eral Staff has announced its intention to erect a
strong defence against the Bolsheviki along the
entire Bessarabian front."
In one of my previous articles, I already stated
that Rumania cannot intervene in the Russian-
Polish war, after having suffered the German in-
yasion, and herself accomplished a most disgrace-
ful invasion of Hungary. Rumania knows what
both things mean. It would be incredible to be-
lieve that Rumania, surrounded by enemies
like the Hungarians and the Bulgars, would dare
to attack victorious Soviet Russia, or support the
beaten Poles at the moment when an uprising
against the imperialistic Rumanian government is
threatening Bessarabia.
My conjecture is now confirmed by Karl H.
Wiegand, whose letter from Berlin of July 8, ap-
peared in the New York American, of July 9,
1920. This staff correspondent of the above-men-
tioned paper says: "Advices reaching here state
the Rumanian Government has refused to lend any
assistance to the Poles and that Hungary likewise
has turned down Poland's plea for aid."
And in addition to this hopeless situation of
Poland, it may be noted that the social revolution
already has begun in Poland. The most important
strategical railway line, between Warsaw and Vil-
no, is afflicted with a strike, and this at the most
critical moment for the Polish army. It is said
that " the railway men in that area refuse to move
additional troops to the front" (N. Y. American^
July 9, 1920).
In short, the situation behind the Polish battle
front reminds me of the situation of the great
"strategical" retreat of Kolchak through Siberia,
with the difference that before the Kolchak army
there lay the extent of Western Siberia and Trans-
baikalia, as well as the Amur and Maritime dis-
tricts, with Kamchatka in addition, while the last
stand of the Polish army can be accomplished in
the region of Brest-Litovsk only, where the Poles
may try to defend themselves by using the railway
communications for operations on inner lines. But
this could only be possible of accomplishment in
case the Polish army had concentrated toward
Brest-Litovsk in full order. In reality, as far as
can be judged from the hysterical Polish reports,
confirmed by the British War Office, the situation
of the Polish fighting forces must be in a state of
general confusion and disorganization approach-
ing that of a panic-stricken horde, flying before
the energetic pursuit of General Budenny's caval-
ry. Had it been different Lloyd George, the protec-
tor of the small imperialistic nations, would never
have so rudely refused the Polish delegation any
aid whatsover, besides looking after General Baron
Wrangel's army, which officially he does not con-
sider as a support to Poland. In such circum-
stances, there cannot be any question on that the
Poles, in spite of the formation of a new militia,
including even women, will be unable to avert the
unavoidable end.
If the Polish army is in reality as numerous as
it is claimed to be, its situation must be only worse,
because in the Brest-Litvosk region, as well as in
a possible future resistance on the Warsaw lines
of defense, there will be not enough room to man-
age a large army and to undertake any serious
manoeuver. The gloomy economic and sanitary
conditions of Poland, on the other hand, besides
all the disadvantages, military as well as political,
of the Polish nation, make further resistance by
militaristic Poland an impossibility, and the Pol-
ish command must know this, and therefore, in
order to avoid a most criminal and useless blood-
shed, it must surrender to Soviet Russia.
While the American press is keeping t&e public
in complete darkness about real happenings on
the Polish front, and, for one reason or another,
is afraid to tell the people the truth, great events
are in full progress in Central Europe.
The collapse of imperialistic Poland, created by
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July 17, 1920
SOVIET BUSSIA
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the coalition of the Entente world, may be con-
sidered as a prelude to a new sanguinary drama,
more terrible and longer than the so-called "Great
War," which will be child's play in comparison
with the gigantic events which the "peace-loving"
imperialistic Entente is so carefully preparing.
Do Lloyd George and Millerand understand that
by their unprovoked aggression on Soviet Russia
they are challenging not only the Eussian people,
but also almost all Asia and very probably also
Africa? Have they calculated the number of
fighters whom their old-fashioned imperialistic
armies have to meet on the battle-field, and do they
really believe that the armies on which they are
reckoning would all obey their criminal orders.
Far from any idea of friendly peace established
with Moscow, and camouflaging her new prepara-
tion under trade negotiations with Soviet Russia,
England in reality is planning a new plot against
the Russian Soviet Republic. Her intention is now
to create a new military coalition in Europe, in
order to meet the Red Armies in Poland, and
therefore England must have militaristic Germany
at her disposal, which, together with the French
colonial (colored and yellow) troops, and the re-
mainder of the beaten Polish armies, supported by
the child of England, the reactionary forces of
Wrangel, would create a new front against Bol-
shevism.
This can be accomplished only on condition that
the entire German population and part of the Ger-
man army shall be disarmed. Only then would
militaristic Germany be able to control the coun-
try, as British imperialism has promised to es-
tablish in Germany a regime suitable for the Jun-
kers, able to help the Entente to carry out the new
British plan against "Bolshevism," a plan similar
to that which fell down so perfectly in Russia in
1917, when the Allies tried to create a new front
against the Germans. For this purpose only, Eng-
land, in spite of the complete collapse of the coun-
ter-revolution in Russia, still found it necessary
to arm and to maintain Baron Wrangel's adven-
ture.
It is an absolute absurdity that Germany, in
her present economic condition, would present a
menace to France, even if the Germans should
have in their possession an army of more than
one million men. I can say without any hesita-
tion that even 2,000,000 • German soldiers would
be not at all dangerous for France and her allies,
and, as a matter of fact, neither France nor Eng-
land fears the military strength of the German
regular army. They are afraid of the German
workers and the transformed German proletariat,
who are the possessors of weapons in Gemany. The
persistence of Lloyd George in forcing the German
government to disarm them proves this. Lloyd
George well knows that the German working cldss,
as long as they are in possession of confiscated
arms and ammunition, great quantities of which
are hidden by the civilian population, would never
allow the Entente to accomplish its new plot
against Soviet Russia, and only this has forced
Lloyd George to be so persistent in his demand to
disarm the German people. I can firmly state
that in spite of ail the attempts of England to
utilize Germany as a weapon against "Bolshevism/ 1
at the moment of the collapse of militaristic Pol-
and, England will not succeed, as she also did not
succeed when she tried to entice Germany to par-
ticipate in the blockade of Soviet Russia, so mon-
strous and criminal to humanity.
There is not the slightest possibility that Ger-
many will be disarmed, regardless of the nature of
the agreement she may be forced to sign at Spa.
The moment has come when the German work-
ers may show their determination to overthrow the
hydra of reaction which poisons their country, and
they may rise once more in arms, to bar the way
to the western invaders in their attempt to crush
the Russian Revolution.
The workers and peasants of Germany, humili-
ated, ruined and oppressed by their imperialistic
enemies, are anxiously watching the Russian peo-
ple, ready to support them at the decisive moment.
"SOVIET RUSSIA PAMPHLETS"
The Russian Soviet Government Bureau has
issued a series of pamphlet reprints of important
Soviet documents. The following are the first
four of these pamphlets:
1. The Labor Laws of Soviet Russia. Official
text, with introduction, by the Bureau, and
an answer to a criticism by Mr. W. C.
Redfield. 52 pages, stiff paper cover, price
10 cents.
This is a new edition of the Labor Laws,
and every owner of the old edition should
have it.
2. The Laws on Marriage on Domestic Rela-
tions. To be ready about September first.
Price 15 cents.
3. Two Years of Foreign Policy, by George
Chicherin. The relations of the Russian
Socialist Federal Soviet Republic with for-
eign nations, from November 7, 1917, to
November 7, 1919. 36 pages, stiff paper
cover, price 10 cents.
4. Protection of Labor in Soviet Russia, by
S. Kaplun, of the People's Commissariat of
Labor. This pamphlet, an interpretation of
the labor laws of Soviet Russia, is necessary
to a full understanding of these laws, and
readers should therefore order it in addition
to their copies of the laws. This pamphlet
has never been -published in Soviet Russia.
To be ready August 1. Price 10 Cents.
Other pamphlets will follow. Special rates for
quantities.
Address :
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 West 40th Street New York City
Are you reading our weekly, Soviet Russia,
the official organ of the Russian Soviet Govern-
ment Bureau?
Original from
=="""= ^ 1 '!^
62
SOVIET RUSSIA
July 17, 1920
The Provisioning of Petrograd
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DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD PRODUCTS
The system of communist economy differs from
the economic conditions of capitalist society: in
place of the anarchy in production and free com-
petition, it establishes as the basis for the construc-
tion of all life, a complete inventory, made in ac-
cordance with a certain plan, of all the products
and articles of consumption of the greatest neces-
sity, as well as of their distribution.
At present, when the food crisis, determined by
the world war of five years, is at its height, the
regulation by the State of provisioning and the
distribution of food acquires a capital importance,
for the quantity of available food products and
other articles of consumption is insufficient to
satisfy all needs, thus necessitating a certain class-
ification in their distribution.
Under such conditions, the application of the
principle of the inventory prevails most completely
in the great centers of consumption, first of which
is our Bed capital. Despite a considerable dimi-
nution of the population, a diminution produced
by temporary causes, the total number of inhabi-
tants in Petrograd is not below a million, of which
about 250,000 are children. The entire mass of
the population receives food products and articles
of prime necessity, although in very small quan-
tity, through the aid of a single organ — the Com-
mune of Unified Consumption of Petrograd. This
body is little by little enlarging its sphere of ac-
tivity and aims to meet all the needs of the work-
ing population of the city. At the present time
the Commune of Consumption is organized upon
the following principal foundations of the eco-
nomic system :
1. The concentration of baking, by which all
the bread for a million of the population of the
capital is baked in the minimum number of places :
eight factories for bread making, and eleven bak-
eries.
2. Communal feeding with a large net-work of
refectories for children in particular, and feeding
stations near institutions, etc., in which most of
the working population may eat.
3. A system of distribution by depots, Com-
munity shops, and distributing stations, from
which products are distributed by card, the prod-
ucts being other than those destined for the "food
commune."
4. A system for the distribution of articles of
prime necessity, among which are : raw and manu-
factured tobacco, matches, soap, oil, etc.
5. The distribution of clothes, shoes, fabrics,
and other articles of prime necessity.
6. The feeding of cattle with fodder and other
foods.
In this manner, the Commune of Petrograd is a
real center, affecting all sides of the life of the
working population of the city. This center di-
rects an enormous technical system which, in turn,
is divided into separate branches, sections, auxili-
aries, etc.
All food products, all fodder, etc., arriving at
Petrograd and addressed to the Commune of Con-
sumption, are allotted at the moment of their stor-
age in the depots — inventoried by the organization
of distribution. They are then transferred upon
special orders and according to established rations.
On the average, there pass each month, through
the system of the distributing organization, one
million poods of products.
Following is an approximate table of the daily
distribution of products by the distributing or-
ganization of the Commune of Petrograd:
The bread is delivered daily in accordance with
established rations to the amount of 15,000 poods.
Next come the following products, delivered to
the Communal refectories and the food stations :
the vegetables which are daily distributed to the
amount of 10,000 poods, the fish 4,000 poods daily,
various groats almost 2,000 poods, fats distributed
according to the quantity available, etc.
Bread is distributed to the population according
to the ration calculated for two days. The prod-
ucts are delivered to the communal refectories and
the institutions twice monthly, according to the es-
tablished rations of consumption.
II.
COMMUNAL PROVISIONING
Immediately after the first realization of the
principles of the October Revolution, energetic
measures were taken for the solution of the pro-
blem of the socialization of popular provisioning
at Petrograd. This problem each month acquired
an increasingly greater importance, in view of the
food crisis, which became steadily worse.
Under the pressure of circumstances, the solu-
tion of this problem proceeded so speedily that as
early as the 1st of July, 1919, the working popula-
tion of the Commune of Petrograd, more than a
million in number, commenced to be fed by a
single food commune. The infantile population
had been, for more than a month, fed altogether
without cost.
The advantage of communal provisioning, com-
pared to individual provisioning in the home, are
so evident as regards the economy of fuel effected
in this fashion, the economy of products and of
labor, and thus the diminution of the price of
foods, that from the first moment of the appear-
ance of the food crisis, communal food organiza-
tion began to arise as if created by the forces of
nature.
Towards the beginning of the month of Decem-
ber, 1918, the number of refectories under the
jurisdiction of the Central Section of Communal
Provisioning of the Commissariat of Provisions of
the Commune of Petrograd, reached fifty-seven,
the general number of consumers was about
108,578, and that of the personnel was about
4,011.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
(1>
July 17, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
63
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Towards the end of the year 1918, the refec-
tories in question numbered sixty-two, with
120,133 consumers.
Parallel to the refectories dependent upon the
center, communal refectories of another type were
operating, such as the section refectories and the
refectories near various institutions. In all, in
the beginning of the year 1919, 281 refectories of
different types were operating with 269,234 con-
sumers.
In view of the continuation of the critical state
of provisioning, the number of consumers in the
communal refectories naturally increased a great
deal. Considering this circumstance, the Commis-
sariat of Provisioning took energetic measures for
the proper operation of communal provisioning.
The Commissariat attracted to an active participa-
tion in this work, on the basis of autonomy, prin-
cipally the workers of the union of popular pro-
visioning, the workers of the syndicates of em-
ployes of provisioning, the organizers of factories
and shops, and the workers taken from the large
masses of proletarian workers.
Thanks to these measures, an increase in the
number of refectories and consumers was observed
in the first half of the year 1919.
In the month of January of the same year, the
central refectories alone reached the number of
sixty-eight, with 154,700 consumers. In the month
of February, the number of refectories remained
the same, the number of consumers was about
150,111, and in the month of March about 160,687.
Parallel to the central refectories, there arose
spontaneously in different quarters of the city,
various organizations for communal provisioning,
of lesser size. These organizations were under the
jurisdiction of the Provisioning Committees of the
districts and were calculated for a special number
of consumers united by the place of their service,
their work, or their occupations. The organizations
mentioned served a relatively limited number of
consumers who had attached themselves to them.
In the month of September, there were twelve
great sectional refectories with 1,000 consumers
and over, but less than 2,000. In the month of
October there were twelve, and in December, fif-
teen. During the course of the year 1919, the
general number of consumers in the sectional re-
fectories continued to increase greatly.
Simultaneously with the sectional refectories a
great number of refectories operated, which were
closed to general consumption, as well as provis-
ioning stations near institutions, as : hospitals, asy-
lums, prisons, refuges, schools, etc., where the pro-
visioning proceeded by lists. All these stations
reached in the month of August, 1919, the number
of 550.
If one calculates the number of refectories of
all kinds which operated at the moment when the
whole population of Petrograd began to receive
communal provisioning, one arrives at the import-
ant number of 679 refectories with 480,423 con-
sumers.
This reform, realized the 1st of July, was ef-
fected very rapidly and energetically, despite the
enormous difficulties encountered in the course of
this realization, because of the necessity of prompt-
ly increasing the capacity of the refectories to meet
the increased needs.
From the moment of this reform, the need natur-
ally arose to concentrate the number of consumers
in separate refectories with the purpose of encour-
aging products and fuel. This resulted in a sub-
sequent increase in the number of central refec-
tories among which arose several refectories of an-
other type, and, at the same time, this led to a
great increase in the number of consumers.
Thus, for example, in the month of July, the
central refectories increased in number thirty per
cent from 157 to 204, the number of consumers
increased more than 100 per cent from about
340,657 to 695,852.
In the month of July, 1919, in keeping with the
introduction of communal provisioning for the
whole population, a very marked increase was ob-
served in the number of consumers receiving pro-
visions by card. The number of consumers rose
to 825,363. In this manner almost the whole pop-
ulation of Petrograd was fed by the food commune
and of ten persons an average of two children were
fed without cost.
Simultaneously, a concentration of the food sta-
tions was effected, by the increase in the capacity
of the best-provided refectories and the decrease in
the number of the refectories having few consum-
ers.
These results were attained in the course of but
one year, and under conditions very unfavorable to
the development of communal provisioning; these
conditions became especially difficult in the month
of July, at the very moment of the realization of
communal provisioning for the whole population.
III.
FEEDING OF CHILDREN
Solicitude for the children is always one of the
principal problems of the Soviet power, and it
marked with red ink all the enterprises of the lat-
ter. Free feeding of children, realized from the
beginning of the month of May, 1919, represents
one of the gigantic historic events which mark
the world progress of the general unique proletari-
an commune.
The decree for free infant feeding, promulgated
on the 17th of May of last year, declared that all
food products distributed to children by the local
food organs, with the exception of the food shops,
as well as the public refectories, must thereafter
be furnished free, at the cost of the State.
All the feeding organs were to distribute food
products primarily to children. The right to free
food was granted to all children, independently of
the class ration received by their parents.
The right to infantile feeding was established
primarily for infants, it was then extended to chil-
dren under fourteen years, and later to all children'
to the age of fifteen yean? inclusive.
This ri^ht proclaimed also one of the most ira-
(1>
64
SOVIET RUSSIA
July 17, 1920
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portaut principles of the new life: all children
are children of the Socialist state. The import-
ance and the historic role in the work of the or-
ganization of the Soviet Republic, of the decree
regarding infant feeding, obliging the Section of
Feeding of the Commissariat of Provisioning
of Petrograd to take all effective measures tor its
realization, — are evident.
For all that has just been mentioned, the Coun-
cil of Direction of the Commissariat of Provision-
ing of Petrograd issued a detailed order for the
distribution of dinners to children, anticipating a
whole series of prescriptions* concerning the hy-
gienic- phase of the preparation of the dinners, the
possible variety in the preparation of the dishes,
and the general attitude to be taken towards the
children.
In practice, the realization of the decree for free
feeding of children in Petrograd was brought
about very Tapidly. Towards the 16th of June,
that is, no less than one month after the promul-
gation of the decree, eighty per cent of all the
children from one to three years of age enjoyed
free feeding in the communal refectories. It is
almost exclusively women who direct the children's
refectories; they bring to this work much gentle-
ne !•• and cordiality ; the refectories are often decor-
ated with flowers and greens, and are distinguished
by perfect order. In the course of these few
months, the children have become accustomed to
their refectories, they love them, and to frequent
them has become for them a necessity. The work of
infantile feeding in the institutions is not limited
to the distribution to the children by the Sectional
Communal Feeding of food products according to
established rations: a bond is established with the
Commissariats of Public Assistance and of Pub-
lic Instruction. This bond had a very special im-
portance in the summer for the organization of
infant colonies, playgrounds, and excursion sta-
tions for children. The representatives of the in-
stitutions participate in the meetings of the com-
munes: the preliminary lists of distribution and
the menus are sent to them; for the control of
the products dispensed, special persons are sent by
tit** Section, etc.
IV.
DETACHMENTS OF PROPAGANDA FOR
FEEDING, ORGANIZED BY THE COM-
UNE OF PETROGRAD
In the mon tli of July, 1918, the Petrograd
Soviet resolved to form among the workers of Pet-
rograd detachments to list and secure the results
of the harvest. A difficult task then fell to the
Soviet power. The state of provisioning in Petro-
grad became disastrous. Several times telegrams
were sent to the places of harvest, in the name of
tie* Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet,
with a prayer to increase to the maximum the ship-
ments of food products for the famished northern
c ■: tor. But that wa< unavailing. A certain meas-
u. e had to be taken, very simple, but effective, a
measure of internal organization of the masses.
This measure was the creation of detachments of
conscious workers of Petrograd who went to the
villages of the Red north to inventory and dis-
tribute in a just manner the small amount of food
products to be found in the Northern provinces,
as well as the little excess which might be found
in separate places. In the month of August, these
detachments, under the general direction of their
creator, Comrade Badaiev, set out for the prov-
inces, dividing themselves into organized groups,
assigned to various provinces, districts, cantons,
villages, communes, and hamlets. The workers of
Petrograd were for the most part communists.
There has been described before the enormous
work of organization of the party, the work of con-
struction and cultivation which fell to the workers
of Petrograd, and which was, for the greater part,
accomplished by them. Committees of the poor
were created in the provinces by hundreds and
thousands. It was the period when, by the iron
will of the revolution, division of the peasant class
took place in the north, separating it into two
groups : that of the poor peasants, and that of the
well-to-do peasants. History decided that an im-
portant part of this work should fall to the work-
ers' detachments of Petrograd, sent to list and se-
cure the results of the harvest.
In the late autumn, after the harvesting in all
the provinces of the north, in the districts, the
cantons, the communes and villages, and after tens
of thousands of pages of investigation were col-
lected with exact figures, then only did the chiefs
of the detachments of the cantons, the districts
and provinces permit their detachments to return
to Petrograd.
Those who took part in this campaign without
precedent in the whole world, in its conception
and its revolutionary character, assembled at Red
Petrograd with their materials, their figures re-
lating to their work, with interesting reports, a
great acquired experience and revolutionary im-
pressions.
The inventory of the crops and the realization
of the harvests were accomplished, and, incident-
ally, the organization of the masses of the Red
North was effected.
The surplus found in separate districts was sent
to the places harrassed by famine.
The reserves which could be divided between the
cantons and villages, were distributed in small
quantities, but with perfect equity.
The different committees of provisioning began
to operate more spiritedly and energetically.
Then these detachments under their organizer,
Comrade Badaiev, set out for the provinces of Vi-
atka, Ufa and others. From the province of Yi-
atka alone there were exported, according to the
report of the Commissariat of Provisioning, as
many as 8,000,000 poods of wheat.
A considerable quantity of wheat was exported
from the government of Ufa, etc.
Here the detachments, called Detachments of
Pn WMYWM&Ar 1 * 1 not on,v t0
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July 17, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
65
make an inventory of the crops, but principally to
prepare reserves of grain.
In the spring of the year 1919, the detachments,
after their stay at Petrograd, with renewed spirit,
and reinforced by hundreds of fresh communists,
were sent to work some in the Ukraine, some in
the Don district. After a slight interruption in
their work caused by the retreat of the Red troops,
the detachments of provisioning propaganda of
Petrograd were sent again to the provinces of Ufa,
Viatka, Samara, Saratov,, and to Siberia.
These detachments were again reinforced at Pet-
rograd before being sent to solve new problems of
provisioning. After the arrival at the places, as
before, these detachments have their provincial
general staffs supported by chiefs of districts, can-
tons and villages. They are scattered through every
province, and, as before, there is going on without
interruption, a work of organization and reserve
of the grain supply.
Ukraine
By Haxnes Skold (of Stockholm)
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YlfHAT is Ukraine? What sort of people are
" the Ukrainians?
"They are a nationality by themselves," say
some, "who were oppressed by the Russians, and
who when the revolution began, made a number of
attempts to cut loose from the Muscovite yoke."
Let us examine this statement more closely.
What is it that constitutes a "nationality ?" To
be sure, the members of one and the same national-
ity speak the same language; they have the same
manners and customs, the same culture, and in
most cases,, centuries of common history, which
unite them into a single whole as opposed to
other "nationalities." However, purely ethno-
graphic descent plays a very small part in the feel-
ing of "national" solidarity. The Swedes, who
are considered as the most purely Germanic people,
have probably in their veins the overwhelming
proportion of about ten per cent of Germanic
blood, and the "leading Germanic nation," the
Germans, to judge by all available indications are,
from the purely ethnographic standpoint, a Slavic
people. While the leading Romance nation, the
French, are descended chiefly from a blend between
Teutons and Celts, and the leaders of the "Slavs,"
the Great Russians, are doubtless from the anthro-
pological standpoint a mixture of various Finnish
and Tartar tribes.
If you apply this rather generally recognized
yardstick to the Russians and "Ukrainians," do
you think you will be able to show that the latter
are a separate nationality ?
Bv no means! Their customs may in certain
respects differ from those of their Great Russian
brothers, particularly in those sections of the Little
Russian linguistic territory which were under the
authority of the former Austrian empire. But not
more than, let us say, a difference between the cus-
toms of a Dalecarlian and a Skoning, or, between
those of a native Gudbrandsdal, and one of Troen-
der. And as to language, it is much easier for a
Little Russian to understand a Great: Russian than
— let us say — for an adherent of the Norwegian
Landsmal (the Norwegian provincial dialect) to
make himself understood by one speaking the Nor-
wegian Riksmal (the official language of the Nor-
wegian kingdom) or, for a native of Lulea in Swe-
den to understand a man from Trelleborg. The
Little Russian and the Great Russian languages
are, in other words, dialectic divisions of one and
the same main language.
And, as to culture, Kiev, the capital of
"Ukraine," is the cradle, not of a Ukrainian
separatist culture, but of Russian culture as a
whole. If "Ukrainian" did ever exist as a separ-
ate language, the entire Russian culture would
have become "Ukrainian" instead of Russian. Not
even the most daring "Ukrainian" national ambi-
tions go so far as to deny that Kiev was the Hrst
city in which Russian culture flourished.
Great portions of the Ukrainian language ter-
ritory have also a history in common with that of
the rest of Russia.
The close connection between Ukraine and Rus-
sian culture is most clearly seen perhaps from the
manner in which all attempts to draw it into an-
other cultural sphere have ignominously failed.
In the last century, when the church was the rh : ef
bearer of the cultural development, it was at-
tempted to convert the Little Russians from the
orthodox Russian church to the Roman chuivh,
but these attempts, on the whole, were failure*,
as were likewise those to arrive at a com prompt*
between the two peoples by a "union" on Little
Russian territory, in order to draw the Little
Russians away from their community with the
Great Russians in the religious field.
Propaganda for the "Ukrainian" idea in our
days has likewise turned out to be a failure. TN>
"Ukrainian" movement from the very start was
essentially a movement among the Intelligent*.'.!,
who have never succeeded in penetrating into the
great masses of the people, who always felt that
they were "Russians" and not "Ukrainians."
But, one may object, it is hardly possible for
such a thing as the Ukrainian "national move-
ment" to have arisen from nothing.
Of course not. There are, or rather, there were,
important political moves behind the origin of the
"Ukrainian" movement. The fact was that ino
Little Russians living within the former Austrian-
Hungarian, monarchy did feel a natural tendency
to unite with their kindred in Russia. And this is
the case all the more, since the Austrian policy
in the last dec&dea die! aim at a combination of
GermanajiHuugarianfiiandiPcilesrfiflja sort of ruiirg
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SOVIET BUSSIA
July 17, 1920
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caste in Austria, as opposed to the other nationali-
ties of the Dual empire. Now, the Poles were the
ruling class in Galicia, while the impoverished
tillers of the soil were precisely Little Russians,
and therefore there came about the almost incon-
ceivable condition, from the standpoint of the
policy of nationalities, that the Slavic majority in
Austria-Hungary was condemned for decades to
be powerless, and this, above all things, in the
very period of the strong nationality movement.
But if it was to the interest of the Austrian
state to sow dissension among the Slavic nations
and to make use of the Polish plans against the
Little Russians (Ruthenians), it was nevertheless
in Austria's interest not to permit the Little Rus-
sians within the state to cast their eyes too much
to the East. * The latter condition was particularly
dangerous in view of future warlike collisions, and
therefore there was created in Austrian territory
a "Ukrainian national movement," which natural-
ly, apart from the direct support by the Austrian
Government, also enjoyed a certain not less im-
portant support in the stupidity and folly of the
Russian Government system, which found its ex-
pression in a number of repressive measures.
The close connection between the Vienna Gov-
ernment and the "Ukrainian" propaganda cannot
be disputed. Personally, I have a very lively re-
collection, from the earliest days of the war, of
two "Ukrainian" students, who had come to Bul-
garia in order to carry on a propaganda for the
erection of a "Ukrainian" national state, under the
rule of an Austrian archduke. I met these young
men at the house of the Bulgarian Party Secre-
tary, Kirkov, and we both laughed heartily at the
two propagandists when they tried to convince us
that they were Socialists. Their central office was
of course in Vienna. Even Pilsudski is a Socialist
— God sa ve the mark !
It was striking, that not only was the Ukrainian
propaganda carried on diligently as long as Aus-
tria had any means to support it, but that it sud-
denly suffered a remarkable atrophy, as soon as
Ukraine became a "nation" by itself. It then no
longer received the powerful support it had gotten
before.
The history of the Ukrainian idea after the out-
break of the revolution is of too recent date to
require more than a hasty recapitulation.
Under the early revolutionary governments, the
Ukrainian "Rada" did not dare make any attempts
to separate Little Russia from the rest of Rus-
sia. These "Socialistic" nationalists, of the type
of Grushevsky and Vinnichenko, allied themselves
however with the great opposition party, with the
Bolsheviks. But it turned out, as was also the
case with Finland, that the opportunism which
expressed itself by cooperating with the national-
ists was destined to avenge itself in the most ter-
rible manner. Hardly had the Bolshevik revolu-
tion been victorious, than its friends of yesterday
grasped every opportunity to fall upon the Bol-
sheviki from behind, and to proclaim independent
worlds with arbitrarily chosen boundaries, without
even consulting the other parties interested.
But the Ukrainian peasants were as little in-
clined to tolerate a bourgeois republic as were their
Great Russian brothers, and when finally the usur-
pers in the Rada was forced to take to their heels
before the Soviet troops, they turned in their dis-
tress to the enemy of all democracy, to the German
imperialists, which was very natural after all, for,
as Austria was allied with Germany, Austria's vas-
sals were also, of course, allied with Germany.
The reward for this treachery was not lacking.
After the Central Powers had made use of the
Ukrainian nationalists who had been literally
driven out of the Ukrainian territory, at the peace
comedy in Brest-Litvosk, they were considered to
have done their duty, and one fine day the Ger-
man military forces dispersed the Rada and in-
stalled as a director one of the former creatures
of the Czar, who naturally wanted to hear of no
"Ukrainian movement."
Well, the sacred Ilium of the Central Powers
was destined to fall, and one fine day Skoropadia
collapsed. The Soviet power was reestablished,
but the statesmen of the "Directorate" and the
"Rada," who, like the Finnish bourgeoisie, had
suddenly discovered that they were pro-Entente,
now turned, with the aid of Black troops, merely
for the pleasure of beating their heads against an-
other ally of the Entente, to Denikin, and finally,
together with him, were turned out of the country
by the discontent of the people and the Red Army
of the Bolsheviki.
What happened during the past year, particular-
ly the refusal of the Entente to drop their support
of Denikin, produced a great change of opinion
among the "Ukrainian intelligentsia," that is,
among the university trained petite bourgeoisie,
which had held aloft the flag of nationalism. Both
Professor Grushevsky, the President of the former
Directorate, and one of the most sympathetic and
able advocates of the "Ukrainian idea," and Vin-
nichenko, the famous author, chairman of the
Rada, have recognized that the Entente intends
only to reestablish the old Russian Czarism. They
have therefore declared themselves to be advocates
of the Soviet system. Personally, I regard the
Soviet Republic of Ukraine also as an unnecessary
cession to a petty bourgeois Ukrainian ideology,
but one thing is certain: the Little Russian indi-
viduality has certainly developed more freely un-
der the Bolsheviki than under Denikin, who began
his rule in Ukraine by closing all the Little Rus-
sian schools, as well as the university at Kiev.
When Petlura, this king without a kingdom, allies
himself in an armed coalition with the Poles, this
is no more than the logical conclusion of the
Ukrainian movement.
We in Scandinavia cannot as a rule be in a
position to understand the ridiculous baseness that
is involved in the declaration of the Poles, with
Petlura as their right hand, that they are again
going to "liberate" Ukraine. For the Poles are
hated ^i^wohrai^ pu,ation with a
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hatred that has been kept warm by centuries of
maltreatment and exploitation. About one-half of
the territory of Little Eussia was in the possession
of the great Polish magnates, and it is the ruling
junker class of Poland that now wants to recover
the dominions lost by it during the revolution.
This is the real cause of this war of "liberation."
Another element is the desire of Poland, at the
command of the Entente, to cut off Soviet Russia
from the granaries of southern Russia for the lift-
ing of the blockade could not otherwise be materi-
alized, in other words, the blockade could not be
maintained in practice in any other way !
And the national hero Petlura is beginning to
do his share in this nation liberating process, by
ceding to his great political companions the gen-
uinely Little Russian territory of Galicia and
Cholm ! And his further cuts will probably not be
better than his beginnings.
We are now beginning to understand what it was
that lay behind the constant Polish shouts of the
last half year, concerning a projected Russian of-
fensive. It is precisely the same mode of thought,
as lay behind Germany's herostratically notorious
act of war when she marched through Belgium for
the reason, as she said, that France had planned
to march through it if she did not.
But it is always a very risky thing to attempt to
force the Lord's hand. Pan Pilsudski will learn
this to his cost. For it is no use putting any faith
in the fact that his army, as Karl Ferdinand Lun-
din maintains, is far more disciplined and. trained
than Denikin, Kolchak and Yudenich's armies.
The fact is that a revolutionary war is not the
same as any other kind of war. Great masses of
the population of the country itself will sympathize
with those attacked, and these feelings cannot be
prevented from spreading to the army also. And
this will be all the more the case in a country like
Poland, where Bolshevism is, as a matter of fact,
already gnawing away the ground under the feet
of the present system, and there is the additional
fact that all the social classes of Russia will rise
as one man against the plans of these mad im-
perialists. A consideration of these facts will en-
able one to understand what a dreadful mess the
Poles have prepared for themselves, and that they
will probably have no cause to be pleased with the
outcome. The consequence will probably be that
the catastrophe which was feared, and which they
wish to avoid, will befall them all the earlier.
It is my opinion that Poland will be ruled by
Soviets within six months.
THE VERDICT ON KOLCHAK'S REIGN
A revolutionary tribunal of the Siberian Revo-
lutionary Committee has announced its verdict
over the members of Kolchak's former government.
The verdict records :
1. That these members of Kolchak's govern-
ment took part in a conspiracy together with for-
eign governments against the Government of the
Workers and attempted to reerect the old Gzarist
regime ;
(2. That they organized an armed war of starva-
tion against the Soviet Government;
3. That they plundered the property of Soviet
Russia and handed it out to foreign governments ;
4. That they treasonably invited the armed
troops of foreign imperialistic governments to
come in against the state to which they themselves
belonged ;
5. That they brought about a gigantic devasta-
tion of Russian national property as well as that
of the working population ;
6. That they systematically organized mass ex-
ecutions.
In all twenty-four persons were sentenced, in-
cluding five sentenced to death by shooting. The
others were sentenced to hard labor either for life
or for periods of five or ten years.
The telegram does not report the execution of
the death sentences. While the death penalty has
been abolished in Soviet Russia, this does not ap-
ply to the front, and the tribunal referred to is
within the war zone.
ENGLISH PRISONERS AT BAKU
Amsterdam, June 3. — A representative of the
military authorities in the English House of Com-
mons, declared, upon inquiry, that when the Bol-
sheviki occupied Baku, they took five marine of-
ficers and twenty-five sailors prisoners* and that all
attempts on the part of the English Government
to obtain their release had thus far been fruitless.
When asked why the English Government was
continuing her peace negotiations with the Bol-
sheviki when they were holding English seamen
prisoners, the representative of the War Office re-
plied : "This is a matter of diplomacy which does
not concern our department."
NEW SCHEMES AGAINST RUSSIA
Mad France.
Kovno, May 22 (Lithuanian Telegraph Agen-
cy). — The chief of the French Military Mission
of this city, has set out for Riga to attend a con-
ference, the object of which is to strengthen the
Entente Cordiale between the three Baltic States.
The mad imperialists of France are continuing
their machinations against Soviet Russia. It is
their purpose to drag the countries round about
France into the same destructive policy; Foch,
the greatest bandit and assassin of the continent,
desires new victories. The working people of
every country must do away with this monstrous
policy of intrigue on the part of France, no mat-
ter, what the cost may be.
MOSCOW DISINFECTION STATION
The Council of People's Commissars has pub-
lished a decree stating that Moscow is to erect a
disinfecting station. All travellers arriving in
the capital must tnl« a haih there, and their clothes
must be dfsinfecte^y QF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Qrgan of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will carry articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles.
THE blockade is broken. Not by the recent
announcement of the American State Depart-
ment, which changed nothing and left the barriers
as high as ever between America and Russia, as
the official statement published elsewhere in this
issue points out. But the blockade is broken,
nevertheless. Indeed, at this moment when we are
forced to take a most pessimistic view of the pros-
pects of an early resumption of trade between
Russia and America, we are all the more glad to
be able to bring our readers the good news, which
reaches us from many sources, that at last the
gates are down and a great stream of long awaited
supplies is steadily flowing into Soviet Russia.
Trade has begun, and large consignments of tools,
machinery, medicines and food stuffs are actually
crossing the border at many points. The first
shipments are only the beginnings of the enormous
quantity of goods of all sorts needed to fill the
requirements of a population suffering from the
deprivations wrought by war and blockade. But
even these first shipments are large. Before the
end of June several hundred carloads of agricul-
tural implements had already reached Reval con-
signed to Soviet Russia. According to the London
Daily Herald, a list of shipments shortly expected,
as published in Pravda last month, included : fifty-
two locomotives to be delivered by July 1 ; over a
million scythes; 15,000 threshing machines, 7,000
reaping machines, 400 cultivators; 102,000 ordi-
nary files and 330,000 saw files, of which half
were to be delivered by July 1. In view of the
large amount of goods expected at Reval and Pet-
rograd, arrangements were being made to run a
daily freight train of six cars from Reval to Pet-
rograd and a daily train of forty cars from Petro-
grad to Moscow. On June 22 the third cargo of
Swedish merchandise, consisting of agricultural
implements, machinery and books, valued at one
million kroner, left Stockholm for Reval consigned
to Soviet Russia. It was announced at that time
that regular weekly freight sailings would shortly
be inaugurated to carry the increasing volume of
Swedish manufactures ordered for Russia.
According to a recent Moscow radio message,
between May 8 and June 19 the following con-
signments from abroad had passed through Yam-
burg into Soviet Russia: 269 carloads of agricul-
tural implements, 117 carloads of paper, eight car-
loads of leather, three carloads of saws, eleven car-
loads of tanning extract, sixty-two carloads of
garden seeds, 827 carloads of potato seed ; a total
of 1,297 carloads. In addition, the same wireless
message reported, among the goods unloaded at
Reval and awaiting shipments to Russia were thir-
teen automobiles, 2,400 poods of sole leather, 5,000
barrels of herrings.
Cheerful news of the same sort comes from the
south. Traffic is moving. Fuel and oil are com-
ing to the factories and the wheels are turning
faster and faster. A correspondent of the London
Daily Herald, recently returned from a trip down
the Volga, reports a brisk revival of the river
traffic:
All day we passed tows, tank and wood barges, and
long processions of lumber . . . The river presented
a busy scene. A good percentage of the 2,000 river
craft is back in use.
This means a great deal to Russia. In all the cities
along the route, factories had been crippled on account
of the lack of fuel, oil and wood. In Nizhni the great
Samarov steel works, and in Samara the flour mills,
have been hampered. Now they are commencing at a
high speed to work again, because oil from Baku is
moving up the river via Astrakhan.
Samara now has a store of 400,000 poods of oil, and
her mills will turn out more than 30,000,000 poods of
flour this year.
It will be long before all the want and wastage
of the last two years is repaired. But the period
of isolation is over at last and a start has been
mfcide towards replenishing the depleted stocks. The
volume of commerce is steadily swelling and be-
fore long factories in all lands will be contributing
their products to supply the needs of the Russian
workers. In the end, even the United States will
send its share.
* * *
"C*OR the present, American manufacturers and
A merchants remain debarred from entering the
Russian market. The announcement from the
State Department regarding the lifting of restric-
tions against trade in certain unspecified commo-
dities in no way removes the main obstacles. In-
deed, the official declaration of American policy,
unless considerably modified by further explana-
tion, appears to proclaim a continued policy of
non-intercourse and embargo. Postal and cable
communications between Russia are not restored.
Travelling facilities are not to be granted. There
is no hint of any provision for the establishment
of Russian credits in America and no suggestion
of any means by which Americans can be paid for
their goods. So far as its actual effect upon the
resumption of trade is concerned, the recent an-
nouncement is an empty gesture. Without the
essential means of communication and financial
exchange, trade cannot be resumed. Russia re-
mains as effectively blockaded from America as
ever.
Comparatively small lots of American goods
have already been purchased and shipped to Rus-
sia. But these transactions depended upon the
willingness of the American merchant to wait for
payment until the recefpt of his goods in Esthonia.
Xo considerable volume of business can be tran-
UNh' trOI I r Ur mILnlbMN
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July 17, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
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sacted in this inconvenient and uneconomical
manner. So long as the Soviet Government is not
permitted to establish credits in this country and
so long as drafts upon Russian funds abroad can-
not be safely brought to New York, there is no
way in which the vast purchases commensurate
with Russia's needs can be made in America.
Of the great volume of manufactured articles
already in transit to Soviet Russia only a very
small portion are of American origin. Moreover,
as this commerce rapidly increases, as it will dur-
ing the next few months, the American share of
it will not increase proportionately. Some articles
of American make, sold to middlemen in Europe
and Scandinavia, will find their way into Russia.
But the Soviet Government will desire, so far as
possible, to avoid uneconomical commission tran-
sactions of this kind. If the goods manufactured
by America cannot be purchased directly from
America, substitutes will have to be found for
them elsewhere.
We see it confidently predicted in the usual
quarters for such predictions that the so-called
'lifting of the blockade" will result in the un-
masking of Bolshevist propaganda and the speedy
downfall of the Soviet Government. The line of
reasoning involved here is not quite clear to us.
So far as we can see, the only effect to be antici-
pated is the further confusion and entanglement
of the American exporter, with perhaps a further
acceleration of the activities of British and other
European merchants who may have been spurred
to even greater haste by a mistaken notion that
the Americans were at last to be permitted to
enter the field.
* * ♦
A LTHOUGH every returning traveller of in-
^ telligence brings the same report, it is pleas-
ant and reassuring, nevertheless, to remind our-
selves now and then of the constant normality of
many phases of life in Russia, even in the midst
of civil war and invasion, and in spite of plague
and blockade. We dwell so much in our thoughts
upon the unexampled hardships and sufferings of
the Russian workers, we rejoice so greatly over
their fortitude and are so constantly inspired by
their heroism in battle with the enemy and their
no less heroic successes in the daily economic
struggle, that the picture we carry of the whole of
life within Russia suffers a certain distortion,
which the monstrous perversions of the capitalist
daily press in no wise serve to correct. The pro-
portions are restored by reading such a letter as
that sent out by one of the British Labor Dele-
gation to Soviet Russia, William McLaine of the
Amalgamated Society of Engineers.
The people, McLain writes, live their lives much as
we do at home. They go to work; they take their
leisure; they read their daily and weekly newspapers,
and do all the thousand and one things that ordinary
people do.
The theatres are full every evening ,and it is rather
interesting to note that they are open on Sunday, when
the people can more easily get there, and closed on
Monday, so that the artists and workers can rest. Last
Thursday we went to the Summer Theatre to hear
Shaliapin in the "Barber of Seville" . . .
On Saturday we went for a week-end in the country.
We took our food with us, and travelled third class in
the usual way. It w.as just like a week-end from Lon-
don or Manchester. Crowds of people were doing the
same, and as we came back on Sunday they were to
be seen on the station platforms with great bunches,
of wild flowers gathered from the fields and woods.
There is nothing very exciting about all this. I know r
but I am just trying to show that the normal is the
dominant note.
For those who desire religion there are the enormous
number of churches for which Moscow is noted, all
open in the usual way.
Another English observer gives a similar picture
after a trip through the southern provinces. Mr.
George Young, the correspondent of the London
Daily Herald, writes:
The provincial cities present a normal appearance.
Everywhere reigns perfect order without the apparent
use of police. 1 sat in the Park at Saratov and watched
the parade of pretty girls in white and young men
neatly dressed, and almost thought myself in a pros-
perous English provincial city . . .
In the villages . . . the peasants have everywhere
they want to eat and look very fit . . . In most villages
you see plenty of pigs running about the lanes. One
village of 5,000 inhabitants boasted 7,000 head of cat-
tle .. .
I spent Sunday in one little hamlet and watched the
peasants streaming out of the local church. They stated
that religion is not interfered with and that they sup-
ported the priest now themselves instead of the State.
Said they: "Maybe he doesn't get quite so fat as he
used to."
So life runs on in the towns and villages of
Soviet Russia: the peasant better fed than ever
before, and the priest perhaps not quite so over-
fed. Where, then, is all the "chaos," where the
"utter collapse," where the "dissatisfaction," which
we are told is so shortly to bring on the downfall
of the Communist regime? Is it in the ranks of
the Red Army hurling the Polish invader out of
the land? Or is it concealed in this picture of
peaceful, normal people going about their work and
play, in and out of church and theatres, on Sun-
day picnics in the country or walking out in the
parks? Or is perhaps only in the bitter minds of
those who hate this new thing so that they will
never stop to learn that it has come to stay?
* * *
COME must remember the glorious visions and
^ proud programs that were developed in the
press of this country and elsewhere when, after
intervention had become a fact, the means were
discussed by which the western civilization, with
its highly developed industry and orderly process
of economic life, would come to the aid of Russia,
to rehabilitate the country and make happy its
people as soon as the hateful Soviet regime should
be overthrown. To be sure, prosaically speaking,
the magnificent program would reduce itself to
investments and trading with that country, so rich
in natural resources. But in the situation in which
Russia found itself after the devastations of war,
this prosaic program meant progress and better
life to the Rustnin -people.
The PM^R^3F'^fflG>,W ng *° Jt " iD
70
SOVIET RUSSIA
July 17, 1920
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the form of the Soviet rule in Russia, and so the
sphere of its action had to be reduced, to apply
only to those parts of the country which, thanks to
intervention, were prevented from having a gov-
ernment to their liking, and had to accept, for
a time, one of foreign choice. But, unexpected to
the "civilized" world, the hateful Soviets were able
not only to establish their rule firmly in the re-
gions which Allied intervention was not able to
reach, but even slowly but steadily to drive out
the interventionists from the occupied territories
of Russia. As a result, the scheme of "aiding
the Russian people" had to undergo changes,
shrinking more and more in its field of applica-
tion. One by one, Odessa, Archangel, Murman,
Siberia, the Don and Kuban territories, the Cau-
casus, had to be abandoned, and the people left
""to help themselves," as the "benefactors" of Rus-
sia invariably put it. Still, they have not lost all
hopes for Russia's "rehabilitation" for, in certain
Tecent issues of the New York Times, we read of
the great hopes that are being pinned, in some
circles, to the development of trade with — the
Crimea. Mind you, of the hundred and sixty mil-
lion people that were to receive the benefit of
western trade, the "benefactors," with strange self-
restraint, are ready to accept the homeopathic dose
of some two million of Crimean population.
How is the head by hope not all forsaken,
That ever cleaves to stalest stuff, and when
With greedy hand he digs for treasures, then
Is overjoyed, if earth-worms he hath taken!
So Faust might repeat in this case. On our part,
we wish to console the "benefactors" with the
thought that in case even these "earth-worms"
should fail, and the Crimea be captured by Soviet
arms, there nevertheless still remains a limited but
grateful field of action in the persons of the Rus-
sian emigres living in the large cities of Western
Europe and America. Let the interested business
world take heed, especially pawnbrokers, ready to
cash aristocratic family jewels, smuggled out of
the country, runners of card games, petits chevaux,
roulette, bookmakers, and men of kindred occu-
pations. Here is their opportunity. And perhaps
the clients of these gentlemen — and the idle Rus-
sian nobility has always afforded them many clients
— are more likely to "fall for" the schemes of
ambitious "promoters" than the real people of
Russia, who want real business for the real inter-
ests of both sides.
♦ * *
T17HEN large masses of mankind are stricken
, * * with calamities, it is next to impossible to
expect even from sympathetic souls any attention
to individual cases of misery and sorrow. The
human field of vision is limited, and cannot be
concentrated on a microcosmic world at a mo-
ment when its eye is focused on the great mac-
rocosm.
And yet a calamity that befalls the masses of
people is reflected in multiform ways in the life-
struggles of individuals and quite often attains,
in this little world, an intensity that brings it to
the point of tragedy.
It is over two years since the intervention and
the blockade of the Allies began to subject the
people of Russia to war, starvation and all kinds
of miseries. The Russian people bear all this
heroically, happy in the consciousness that out of
this misery and sorrow there will come a better
and happier world, if not for themselves, then for
their children. They go to war, they exert them-
selves in the Sisyphus task of building up their
country, they limit their needs to the demands of
the most primitive life, and they are nevertheless
happy, with the happiness that great achievement
gives to man.
Much worse is the case of the tens of thousands
of Russian war prisoners, scattered all over Eu-
rope, some even in the hot regions of Africa, un-
dergoing worse privations, in the concentration
camps in which they are kept; and they must
pass through even worse mental torments, due to
the constant attempts on the part of the reaction-
aries to compel these innocent men to join the
counter-revolutionary bands, and to war on their
own brothers, and suffer maltreatment owing to
their invariable refusal to obey the call of their
masters.
A different case is that of the Russian emi-
grant workers and poorer intellectuals living in a
strange land, and unable, because of the blockade,
to return to their home country. Although they
are in most cases better off materially than they
were before they left Russia, and surely incom-
parably better off materially than they would be
on their return to Russia, they invariably long with
all their heart to return to their home land, ready
to sacrifice all their savings to buy passage for
themselves and their families, and suffering from
their inability to do so. They feel that there,
far away, their kin are passing through a great
historic upheaval that is radically changing all
that had existed before and that, by the way, had
driven them away from their country and sent
them to a strange land. They feel that their kin
are living a great life, despite the fact that it is
full of privations, and they want to unite with
their brothers in their inspirations and in their
sufferings, at the cost of abandoning a mjore com-
fortable and easy life, which is for them devoid
of that human element that gives meaning to life.
Those that have families may forget, through the
worries of every day life, the longings of their
hearts. But there is a considerable number of
Russians who, in their exile, have no one to whom
they could attach themselves, and are as lonesome
as shooting-stars in the immense spheres of the
universe. They wander around without aim, and
sometimes, in despair of a better day, they put
an end to their unenviable lives. A case of this
kind, which recently was brought rather forcibly
to the attention of this office, impels us to say
these words concerning the unhappy lot of the
solitary Russian in America.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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July 17, 1920
SOVIET EUSSIA
71
Terror in North Russia
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[A recent number of "Krasnaya Gaze fa" published the following article under the title "The
White Guard Torture Chambers/' written at Archangel by A. Dedikov, describing the customs pre-
vailing under the "government" of General Miller, on the island of Yokanga, a place of banish-
ment for political prisoners.]
'THE head of the prison at that place was a cer-
A tain Sadukov, a former convict in a prison
for criminals, who had acted as warden in a Si-
berian prison. This "head" was a grim execu-
tioner, a real Sadist, who delighted in murdering
and torturing prisoners. He commanded his su-
bordinates to shoot the victims in their cells when-
ever the slightest noise could be heard on the part
of the prisoners within. The latter had a cate-
gorical order to "sleep from five o'clock in the
afternoon until eight o'clock in the morning."
After five o'clock the earth huts (the place where
the prisoners were kept) were as if dead, for the
people in them, sentenced to a slow death, lay there
without the slightest motion.
Whenever any seriously ill person in the earth-
huts was heard to cough, the warden would step
to the window and call out : "Quiet, or I shoot !"
Occasionally, at night, Sudakov would get up a
little massacre in which the prisoners were the
victims. In such cases he would have his hench-
men surround the earth-huts and order them to
beat with their gunstocks all the prisoners that
happened to come their way. The "White" hang-
men would pass from one hut to the other, leaving
behind them the cries and moans of the mal-
treated victims. To find an occasion for such
massacres Sudakov would also resort to provoca-
tion. He once decided to arrange a little "flight,"
for which purpose he made use of tunnels that had
been dug in the huts. After a shot was fired as a
signal there came a general shooting, which re-
sulted in seven killed and more than twenty
wounded, of whom several died later. With the
aid of provocatfve denunciations Sudakov also suc-
ceeded in arranging a special trial concerning the
above-mentioned "flight," thirteen prisoners were
put before the court-martial at Murmansk and it
was only due to some accident that they were not
shot. The general conditions of life for the poli-
tical prisoners were fully in accord with the char-
acter of the head of the prison. They were obliged
to sit naked in their earth huts, practically without
air, tortured by monsters. Under the floor they
fteard the trickling of water; when it rained,
streams of water would flow into the huts through
the roofs, which were full of holes. Every day,
regardless of the weather, all the prisoners, half
naked, were led out into the yard, where they were
subjected to inspection. When the unfortunates
requested clothes with which to cover their bodies,
the guards would answer with derisive laughter
and with assurances that things were better as they
▼ere, for they would die quicker. Under these cir-
cumstances the prisoners fell ill in great numbers.
The "hospital" was not better than the earth-huts ;
it is not surprising that no one got well at the
"hospital." Of the prisoners, 185 died; the num-
ber who were ill rose to 400.
The author concludes: Yokanga will constitute
the blackest page in the golden book of capital,
which is soiled with the blood of tortured men.
The story of this prison should be trumpeted
forth all over the world, so that men may shudder
at its horrors.
This article is stated to be only the first of a
series which will give accounts of the doings at
Yokanga. The reports of those who will return
from the other world — from Yokanga — will con-
tain even worse things.
The bourgeois press of the world, daily reports
every possible kind of fabricated story concerning
the "cruelties" of the Bolsheviki, but guards care-
fully against reporting any of the acts of the
Whites, who in this matter have really beaten the
record in the history of the world.
ARCHANGEL UNDER ENGLISH RULE
A recent number of Krasnaya Gazeta gives ad-
ditional details of terror by describing scenes from
the period in Archangel when the English were
the administrators of the city.
Most of the schools in the northern territory
were not operating during that period. English
soldiers had broken up school benches and black-
boards. Many schoolhouses had been transformed
into Anglo-French barracks. At school entertain-
ments the director of the gymnasium, as well as
the students, were in the habit of drinking them-
selves into a state of intoxication. The English
officers molested even school girls. In a girl's
school in Archangel, eighty girls were found
to be pregnant, a great number of whom were in-
fected with venereal diseases. And from Arch-
angel, syphilis cases were being spread in the
northern region to an alarming extent. These
gentlemen were so enterprising with regard to Rus-
sian women that no woman dared to go out into
the streets at night. The English did not even
hesitate to carry off women by force in broad day-
light. The women who were so unfortunate as to
be found infected with venereal diseases were shot
down without further warning.
In addition to these diseases, English whiskey
and other liquors were also imported by the Eng-
lish. The bourgeoisie at Archangel had expected
entirely different things from the English. The
"White" Russians had imagined that these bearers
of civilization would bring them white bread and
sugar as well as "order." In reality they acted as
a "civilized" nation is accustomed to act towards
an "uncivilized" colony. The English soldiers
called the Russians p^g& und treated them as such.
Street fights between English and Russian sol-
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SOVIET RUSSIA
July 17, 1920
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diers, as well as between Americans and English-
men, were the order of the day. In June, 1919,
such a street encounter, which had begun, quite
"modestly," between a Eussian civilian and an
English soldier, finally assumed such gigantic di-
mensions that the number of English participants
rose to about two thousand persons. To put down
this "peaceful" scrimmage, a detachment of Eng-
lish sailors was sent out, and even the English
Commander-in-Chief made a trip to the scene of
battle. The greater part of the Russian partici-
pants in the encounter were immediately locked
up. On the next day, the English Commander-
in-Chief, General Miller, declared in the order of
the day that those who were guilty of preparing
for "Bolshevik uprisings," would be sentenced ac-
cording to the rules of war.
Before their evacuation, at the end of Septem-
ber, the English stationed on the Northern Dvina
(to be distinguished from the Western Dvina,
which flows through Latvia) sank in that river
25,000,000 cartridges, 80 aeroplanes, cannons, sev-
eral lighters full of coal and many automobiles.
Intensive labor is being carried on now to recover
these valuable properties. The English tried to
make their flight appear as an intended evacu-
ation. They tried to carry with them a part of
the Russian population, in order to point out to
the English workers that "the peaceful" inhabi-
tants of Russia were fleeing before the "cruel Bol-
sheviks." But in spite of these indications of
"evacuation," in spite of the promises of a splen-
did trip on an Atlantic steamer, and other alluring
things, the English were compelled to leave Arch-
angel in empty steamers on which they had loaded
only a number of dilapidated German locomotives,
which the Englishmen were annexing from Arch-
angel.
But the English "benefactors" were boasting of
their sugar and white bread. Thus, for example,
an Allied officer said to a Russian lady who was
cautiously censuring the conduct of the civilized
nations at Archangel :
"Yes, that is the gratitude shown us by these
Russian pigs for our white bread and sugar."
THE FAR EAST ECONOMIC POLICY
The peaceful policy of the Soviet Government
placed before us a number of questions of a
political and economic nature. Having intro-
duced by force with the aid of the laboring masses,
Soviet forms of rule in central Russia, the Soviet
Government considers that in the interest of es-
tablishing the peace of the country, both internal
and external, it is necessary to substitute peaceful
methods for those of force. The boundary re-
gions, which are in direct contact with capitalistic
countries, must enter upon the path of a slow
transition to unified state forms. The compul-
sory methods used in the Far East injured the
interests of foreigners and created a state of ner-
vousness among the people. It is necessary to
make it understood that in these regions we con-
sidered forcible measures necessary in so far as the
Allies were in active opposition to Russia. At
present, however, when the Allied policy towards
Russia assumes a peaceful character, there is no
need for a severe attitude towards the interests
of foreign capital. Inasmuch as Russian proposals
are received sympathetically by Europe and Asia,
we, in the Far East, in our financial and economic
relations with foreigners, will meet sympathetically
and discuss all of their proposals.
Soviet Russia believes that it is possible to set-
tle peacefully all questions pertaining to the ex-
ploitation of the natural resources of the Far East,
and it does not hesitate to permit to a certain ex-
tent the participation of foreign capital in such
exploitation, provided the capital is assigned to
carry on long, serious work. One of our direct
problems is to eliminate the private and coopera-
tive capital now invested in the Far East, and to
endeavor to set it to the task of increasing pro-
ductivity; it is necessary to create, of these capi-
tals, two compact active forces, and to direct their
activity into one channel. We must turn these two
forces into a strong competitor of the possible great
aspirations of foreign capital.
Having admitted the view that the development
of this region is to be carried on with the aid of
capital, we modify only that portion of our labor
policy which states that the workers are to take a
direct part in the management of the affairs of the
enterprises. This modification pertains to all pri-
vate enterprise. The forms of contracts between
labor and capital will continue their transforma-
tion, and will gradually assume the legislative
form. We believe that productivity of labor and
the development of industry can only be possible
when the workers are well organized; the organs
of the state power will only then be able to intro-
duce the well-drawn up conomic plans of the state*
when they will deal with organized capital and
organized labor.
The government organs will give enough at-
tention to labor as well as to capitalist organiza-
tions, and will utilize all the efforts of either of
these to cooperate with the government for the
purpose of strengthening the economic and poli-
tical power of Russia as a whole. — Krasnoye
Znamya, April 28, 1920.
ELECTIONS TO MOSCOW SOVIET
At Moscow the elections of the Council of
Workers' and Red Soldiers 5 Deputies are now tak-
ing place. The communists are elected in over-
whelming numbers. Among the elected deputies
are, the celebrated savant, K. A. Timiryazev and
Maxim Gorky.
A resolution was adopted by the elective assem-
bly of more than 1,000 persons. It declared that
the railroad workers of the shops of Kursk elected
Professor Timiryazev, thus symbolizing the union
of labor and science ; similarly, the workers of the
railroad station of Parkhovo (Kazan railroad), in
electing Maxim Gorky, wish to mark the union of
labor and art, of which the popular proletarian
writer | isrft..bjr+Uia^t representative.
(1>
July 17, 19>0
SOVIET RUSSIA
A Communist Manifesto from Poland
[The following is a translation from "Swit" Vienna, May 28, 1920.]
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Instead of Peace — a New War.
O OLDIER WORKERS !
^ A new conflagration has come upon the Polish
land.
Pilsudski is proclaiming in his manifesto a war
for the "liberation of Ukraine." He announces
that Polish armies will drive the "foreign invad-
ers*' out of the territories inhabited by the Ukrain-
ian people. And the Ukrainian hireling of the
Warsaw Government, Ataman Petlura, promises
in his manifesto to conquer Ukraine beyond the
city of Yekaterinoslav with the aid of the Polish
arms.
That means a new war for life !
For almost four months the Polish Government
has been deceiving the masses of the Polish peo-
ple, concealing first the peace proposals of the
governments of Russia and Ukraine, and then
simulating a desire to take up peace negotiations.
Public opinion was being hoodwinked with dis-
putes over the place of negotiations, Borisov.
Meantime, behind the scenes, in concert with
French generals, a great offensive was being pre-
pared against Soviet Ukraine, a bargain was be-
ing negotiated with Ataman Petlura, Ukrainian
detachments were being reorganized and armed.
The Government was speaking falsely of peace
while it was preparing for a new war.
In the year 1918, Petlura, together with his
government, brought upon Ukraine the German
invasion, in order to strangle in its blood the work-
ers' and peasants' revolution. Today, the same
bandit becomes a convenient tool in the hands of
new "liberators," the Polish conquerors, masquer-
ading under the cloak of defenders of the "peo-
ple's" Republic of Ukraine.
The real nature of such "liberation" a la Hin-
denburg can be seen right now in Lithuania and
White Russia, in Volhynia and Podolia, where by
the order of Pilsudski the predatory occupational
authorities are now ruling. They are robbing the
whole country, throttling the popular strivings for
liberation, shackling the people with the chains of
peonage while crushing all resistance with blood
and iron.
The manifesto of Pilsudski is a declaration of
war upon the revolutionary Ukraine. Revolution
is to be crushed on the vast stretches of Ukraine
—is to be swamped in the blood of the Polish sol-
diers. The comedy of the peace negotiations is
finding its conclusive end. A war is beginning for
the destruction of the Ukrainian revolution, and
later the Russian as well.
SOLDIER WORKERS! The mad campaign
of the Polish militarists cannot end with a victory.
By squandering the blood of the Polish people for
the purpose of strangling the revolution in the
neighboring countries, Polish reaction is digging
its own grave. But it depends upon us to bridle
this bloody madness, to prevent the war being
drawn out into the seventh year.
Let us understand once for all, that they are
deceiving us infamously those who under the cloak
of defending Poland or liberating Ukraine are
spilling ever new streams of our blood, placing
Poland in the position of a gendarme of the capi-
talist counter-reyolution in the east of Europe. Let
us thrust aside the infamous deceivers of the Pol-
ish Socialist Party, who are hoodwinking us with
their peace agitation, but who in reality are sup-
porting Pilsudski and the imperialist government,
who have drawn Poland into a new slaughter, in
order to strangle the rule of the workers and peas-
ants in Ukraine.
The Polish people will gain nothing from this
predatory war under the leadership of bourgeois
hangmen — nothing except famine, misery, and de-
struction. The toiling masses of Poland have an
enemy not in the workers and peasants of Russia
and Ukraine, but in their own exploiters. The
toiling masses of Poland would trample upon their
own rights and interests if they allow themselves
to be thrust into war against their own brothers
liberated by the revolution.
It is not Ukraine which we must liberate now,
but Poland from the rule of the bourgeoisie. Our
arms must be raised against the ruling band, al-
ways greedy for spoils and acquiring them at th*
price of our blood.
Only one thing can extricate us from the abyss
of constant war calamities — the conquest of power
by the proletariat, a Government of Workers'
Councils.
In the face of the new terrible war that has been
started, new slaughter for capitalist profits, there
is only one way out for us — revolution.
Let the new criminal campaign of the ruling
hangmen awake to a struggle the entire proletariat
of the villages and cities.
Down with the piratical campaign against
Ukraine !
Down with the Government of Mass murder!
Long live Soviet Ukraine !
Long live Soviet Russia!
Long live a Polish Republic of the Workers'
Councils.
Central Committee of the Communist
Labor Party of Poland.
SUBSCRIBE TO SOVIET RUSSIA
If you are going to the country, you will not want
to depend on chance or on a small news-stand for
your copies of Soviet Russia. You may be sure
of its delivery regularly for ten weeks by sending
us one dollar for thai pui'iposie,
(1>
{J
74
SOVIET RUSSIA
July 17, 1920
An Appeal to the Labor Army of Petrograd
[The following appeal was adopted in the course of the meeting of the Petrograd Soviet after
the report of Comrade Zinoviev on the creation of the Labor Army of Petrograd.]
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Comrades, Soldiers of the Labor army! The
Petrograd Soviet salutes you in the name of the
entire working population of Petrograd on this
day that you enter a new and glorious arena. The
heroic Red Army having repulsed the attacks of
the world organization of the "White Guard" on
all fronts, has obtained for the workers and peas-
ants of Soviet Russia the possibility of giving
themselves to the works of peace. But the counter-
revolution, defeated on the fronts, is not yet en-
tirely crushed.
Remnants of the Denikin bands are still to be
found in the Northern Caucasus. The Ukraine
is not yet entirely freed of the "White Guard."
The North of Russia is still in the hands of the
creatures of English imperialism. The capitalists
of the Entente countries are still trying to set the
Polish "White Guard" upon Soviet Russia.
These pitiable remnants of the counter-revolu-
tion must be completely settled with, or they may
again become a formidable menace.
Thus, we must in no way diminish our military
force. But also we must not for a moment aban-
don the most energetic struggle against economic
disorganization, hunger, cold, disease. That is
why the Soviet Republic is transforming entire
military armies into armies of labor, without de-
mobilizing them, but maintaining them as military
units. These labor armies now devote all their
forces and means to the fight against economic dis-
order, while remaining a formidable military force,
ready to rush into combat at any moment, at the
first call of the workers' and peasants' government.
Comrades, Red soldiers of the old Seventh Army,
now soldiers of the Revolutionary Labor Army of
Petrograd ! Your heroic and glorious army, united
with the workers of Petrograd, twice defended the
city against a menacing danger. Thanks to what
were we strong in this struggle? What was the
force which anihilated Yudenich and wrested peace
from Esthonia? It was the force created by the
union of the Red front with the Red forces in the
rear. We have now before us a new and immense
work.
And we can accomplish this work, upon which
depends the fate of Soviet Russia, if we not only
preserve this military union, but increase it five-
fold, and transform it into a union of labor. Our
factories are idle. The railroads are destroyed.
Locomotives are wanting. There is no fuel. There
is no bread. Peasant exploitations are disorgan-
ized. The country is suffering from lack of ar-
ticles of the greatest necessity. We must procure
fuel, repair the locomotives, operate the factories,
in order that the city may aid the country — to
bring its products there.
The peasants must be supplied with agricultural
implements. Agriculture must be raised to the
necessary level. The country must be given elec-
tric light, and chemical fertilizers; the peasants-
must be given fabrics, nails, oil. The labor army
will help the peasants work the soil, and harvest
and store the products. We cannot do it without
your aid and if we should not do it, it would mean
that the sacred blood of our best comrades, fallen
for the defence of Red Petrograd, shall have been
shed in vain. We must overcome the economic-
disorder. And we shall vanquish it with the aid
of the Revolutionary Labor Army of Petrograd.
Comrades, soldiers of the labor army! It is-
together that we beat Yudenich, let us then march
together, shoulder to shoulder, to a new combat
aaginst the cursed misfortunes of the people.
And let our enemies know that the fighting
strength and military discipline remain the same
in the ranks of the labor army of Petrograd, and
that at any moment it can again, from a labor
army, become a military army. And if the frous-
sards and the lazy are still found in the ranks of
the army, let them know well that deserters from
labor will be punished as pitilessly as tlio.se de-
serting from the war.
Defenders of Petrograd against the white bands,,
forward! Forward in the name of the regenera-
tion of Petrograd!
Eternal glory to the heroic Seventh Army — the
protector of Petrograd. Long live the Revolution-
ary Labor Army of Petrograd !
ADDRESS ON LABOR MOBILIZATION
At a meeting of railway engineers held several
days ago, Professor Gredeskul, a former Cadet,
delivered a particularly important address on the
mobilization of labor, and admonished his col-
leagues to devote all their energies to the economic
reconstruction of the Soviet state. In an article
in Economic Railway Exploitation, the same pro-
fessor states that the Soviet Republic has under-
taken the task of realizing the ideal of the libera-
tion of labor from economic and moral oppression.
REVIEW OF THE GARRISON OF
PETROGRAD
The second day of the fetes on the occasion of
the second anniversary of the creation of the Red
Army began on the 23d of February with a review
of the troops for internal defence of Petrograd.
Towards noon, the vast Place Uritzky was black
with troops of all the armed branches. There was
also numerous cavalry, bristling with a forest of
lances, prettily decorated with Soviet emblems. On
the two flanks of the Art Palace (the old Winter
Palace), were the infantry and the military as
pirants, forming a circle ringed, near the Arch,
bv the marines and the troops for internal defence.
" UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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July 17, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
75
Official Soviet Radios
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RADIO SENT TO LORD CURZON BY
CHICHERIN ON JUNE 11
The Russian Government cannot refrain from
remarking that the change of attitude of the Bri-
tish Government towards the new offensive of
WraiigePs White guards against Eussia would
have been more beneficent to the real interests of
the Russian and British people and to the cause
of the mutual understanding of the two Govern-
ments had it happened at an earlier state of the
above offensive. As much as the declaration of
the British Government disassociating itself from
Wrangel's attack upon Russia is to be welcomed,
the fact remains that this attack is the outcome
of the political protection lent to Wrangel's White
Guards by the British Government's diplomatic
intervention, and of the direct help rendered to
them by the Allies. If, under the cover of Great
Britain's diplomatic protection, the White Guards
have prepared their offensive, the latter cannot be
considered as being in no connection whatever with
the British Government's attitude. The White
Guards Commander-in-Chief, Wrangel himself, in
an order to his men, dated May 6, openly and
bluntly refers to Great Britain's diplomatic in-
tervention on his behalf as to a means for secur-
ing for him Crimea and for preparing a new blow
against Soviet Russia. It is true that it is Wran-
gel with his White Guards and not a British gen-
eral who is once more attacking Russia, but the
arms and munitions he is using have been given
to him by the British Government and other Al-
lied Governments ; his strategical movements have
taken place under the protection of British and
other Allied ships; he has received the necessary
coal from Great Britain and the Allied fleet has
partly assisted him, partly directly participated
in his landing operations. The Russian Govern-
ment cannot therefore share the point of view of
the absence of responsibility of the British Govern-
ment as to this new aggression against Russia.
It considers it the more important to ascertain
what actual effect will be given by the British
Government to their present opposition against
Wrangel's offensive move. Seeing that at the time
when the British Government, on the basis of the
non-reception of our answer which was held back
by its own agents, considered us as being adverse
to the British proposals of amnesty — the same
government threatening us with new military op-
erations of the British forces against our troops
and our territory — we claim the right to expect
that the same measures will be applied to Wrangel
now that it is he the obstacle to the accomplish-
ment of the British Government's will, and we
would find it expedient to be timely informed
thereof in order to enable us to coordinate our
measures in this respect with those of the British
Government running in the same direction. See-
ing likewise that in this question all that hindered
a full community of views between both govern-
ments seems to have been removed, we would like
to know what is the obstacle still in the way of
general negotiations between our governments
aimed at a full agreement upon all pending ques-
tions.
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs,
Chicherin.
LITHUANIA'S DEMANDS
Moscow, May 26. — At the fourth meeting be-
tween the Russian and Lithuanian Peace Delega-
tion, the Lithuanian delegation presented its ob-
jections on the boundary question. These were
chiefly to the effect that Lithuania should receive,
in addition to the Kovno provinces, also certain
districts of the provinces of Suvalki, Vilna, and
Grodno. The objections were based on ethno-
graphic data and religious statistics, which as-
sumed that the entire Catholic population should
be considered as belonging to Lithuania. Rosen-
baum, representing the Lithuanian Jews, spoke in
favor of the right of self-determination not only
for nations but for all groups living on certain
territories. In his answer, Yoffe expressed his
distrust of his correctness of the historical "facts."
To demand that every Catholic should be consid-
ered belonging to Lithuania would be very bad for
the Poles, for instance. The only righteous and
acceptable principle is the right of self-determina-
tion of populations. To yield this right to every
group would be equivalent to making every town
an independent republic.
At the congress of White Russians, recently held
at Minsk, the wish was expressed for independence,
while other delegates spoke for a union of White
Russia with Russia. The province of Grodno can
therefore not be given to Lithuania. Yoffe pro-
posed that all boundary questions should be treated
in detail by a special commission.
SUPPLYING POLAND WITH MUNITION
Moscow, June 3. — The People's Commissar for
Foreign Affairs, Chicherin, sent a telegram to the
Czecho-Slovak Foreign Minister, Benesch, in which
he protested against the action of Czecho- Slovakia,
in continuing the delivery of war supplies to Pol-
and, in view of the fact that this occurred at a
time when the governments of both countries had,
agreed to begin an exchange of prisoners and citi-
zens of their respective countries.
SOVIET RUSSIA AND AZERBEIDJAN
Moscow, June 5. — The Central Committee of
the Communists of Azerbeidjan have expressed
the gratitude of the peasants and workmen of
Azerbeidjan to Lenin and Trotsky for the help
given them by the Russians. They have offered
theiraidagai MlfOF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
July 17, 1920
Press Cuttings
Russia's Raw Materials
[The following interview with Rykov, President of the Supreme Council of National Economy,
appeared in the "Manchester Guardian" on June 18, 1920.]
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Reval, June 10.— Rykov, the President of the Su-
preme Council of National Economy, is one of the
hardest-worked men in the Republic, and the only day
on which I was able to have a long talk with him
(although on several occasions he snatched minutes to
give me information on particular questions which in-
terested me) was on a holiday in Easter- week, when
the old Siberian Hotel, now the offices of the Council,
was deserted and I walked through empty corridors
until I found Rykov and his secretary at work as usual.
Most of our conversation was concerned with particular
economic perspectives of Russia on which I was col-
lecting information. Some parts of it, however, were
of more general interest, and these I am putting to-
gether here.
After talking of oil, the building of the railway from
Alexandrov Gai to the Emba, the prospects of develop-
ing the oil industry in that district, the relative values
of those deposits with those of Baku, and the possible
decreasing significance of Baku in Russian industry, gen-
erally, we passed to broader perspectives. I asked him
what he thought of the relations between agriculture
and industry in Russia, and supposed that he did not
imagine that Russia would ever become a great indus-
trial country.
He replied : "Of course not. But we may have to
wait a long time before the inevitable arrives, and there
is a Supreme Economic Council dealing with Europe
as a single economic whole. If that should come about
we should, of course, from the very nature of our
■country, be called upon in the first place to provide
food for Europe, while the western countries would
supply our mechanical needs. We should hope enorm-
ously to improve our agriculture, working on a larger
scale, using mechanical ploughs and tractors, which
would be supplied us by the West. But in the meantime
we have to face the fact that events may cause us to
be, for all practical purposes, in a state of blockade
for perhaps a score of years, and, so far as we can, we
must be ready to depend on ourselves alone.
Gigantic Electricity Schemes
"For example, we want mechanical ploughs, which
•could be produced abroad. We have had to start mak-
ing them ourselves. The first electric plough made in
Russia and used in Russia started work last year, and
this year we shall have a number of such ploughs made
in our country, not because it is economical to make
them so, but because we could get them in no other
way. In so far as is possible, we shall have to make
ourselves self -supporting, so as somehow or other to
get along even if the blockade, formal or perhaps willy-
nilly (imposed by the inability of the West to supply
us), compels us to postpone cooperation with the rest
of Europe. Every day of such postponement is one in
which the resources of Europe are not being used in
the most efficient manner to supply the needs not only
of our own country but of all."
I referred to what he had told me last year about
the intended electrification of Moscow by a station
using turf fuel.
"That," he said, "is one of the plans which, in spite
of the war, have gone a very long way towards com-
pletion. We have built the station in the Ryazan gov-
ernment, on the Shadul peat mosses, about 110 versts
from Moscow. Before the end of May that station
should be actually at work. Another station at Kashira,
in the Tula government (on the Oka), using the small
coal produced in the Moscow coal fields, will be at work
before the autumn. This year similar stations are be-
ing built at Ivanovo-Voznesensk and at Nizhni-Novgo-
rod. Also, with a view to making the most economic use
of what we already possess, we have finished, both in
Petrograd and in Moscow, a general unification of all
the private power stations, which now supply their cur-
rent to a single main cable. Similar unification is
nearly finished at Tula and at Kostroma. The big
wyter-power station on the rapids of the Volkhov is
finished in so far as land construction goes, but we can
proceed no farther until we have obtained the turbines,
which we hope to get from abroad.
"As you know, we are basing our plans in general
on the assumption that in course of time we shall supply
the whole of Russian industry with electricity, of which
we also hope to make great use in agriculture. That,
of course, will take a number of years." (I have
collected detailed information and maps on these wider
perspectives of Russia's economic development which
I hope to include in a separate article. They are of
interest as indications of future geographical redistribu-
tions of industry in Russia, of eventual tendencies and
not of immediate possibilities.)
Raw Materials: A Transport Problem
Considering the question of the import of machinery
from abroad, I asked him whether in existing conditions
of transport Russia was actually in a position to export
the raw materials with which alone the Russians could
hope to buy what they want. He said:
"Actually we have at hand about two million poods
(a pood is a little over 36 English pounds) of flax,
and any quantity of light leather (goat, etc.), but the
main districts where we have raw material for our-
selves or for export are far away. Hides, for example,
we have in great quantities in Siberia, in the districts
of Orenburg and the Ural River and in Tashkent. I
have myself made the suggestion that we should offer
to sell this stuff where it is — that is to say, not de-
livered at a seaport, and that the buyers should provide
their own trains, which we should eventually buy, pay-
ing with the raw material itself, so that after a cer-
tain number of journeys the trains should become ours.
In the same districts we have any quantity of wool,
and in some of these districts corn. We cannot, in the
present condition of our transport, even get this corn
for ourselves. In the same way we have great quali-
ties of rice in Turkestan, and actually are being offered
rice from Sweden because we cannot transport our own.
Then we have over a million poods of copper ready
for export on the same conditions. But it is clear that
if the western countries are unable to help in the trans-
port they cannot expect to get raw materials from us."
I asked about platinum. He laughed.
"That is a different matter. In platinum we have a
world monopoly, and can consequently afford to wait.
Diamonds and gold, they can have as much as they
want of such rubbish ; but platinum is different, and we
are in no hurry o part with it. But diamonds and gold
ornaments, the jewelry of the Czars, we are ready to
give to any king in Europe who fancies them, if he
can give us some less ornamental, but more useful loco-
motives instead."
I asked him if Kolchak had damaged the platinum
mines. He replied, "Not at all. On the contrary, he
was promising platinum to everybody who wanted it,
and he set the mines going; so we arrived to find them
in good condition, with a consedirable yield of platinum
ready for us."
(I am inclined vo think that, in spite of Rykov's
rather intruisiipcnt attitude on the question, the Rus-
July 17, 1920
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sians would none the less be willing to export platinum,
if only on account of the fact that in comparison with
its great value it requires little transport, and so would
make possible for them an immediate bargain over some
of the machinery they most urgently need.)
Finally we talked of the growing importance of the
Council of National Economy. Rykov was of opinion
that it would eventually become the center of the whole
state organism, "it and the trade unions, which will
then be the purely productive unions- organizing the
actual producers in each branch/'
Political Parties Disappearing
"Then you think that as your further plans develop,
with the creation of more and more industrial centers,
with special productive populations concentrated round
them, the councils of the trade unions will tend to
become identical with the Soviets elected in the same
districts by the same industrial units?"
"Precisely," said Rykov, "and in that way the Soviets,
useful during the period of transition as an instrument
of struggle and dictatorship, will be merged with the
anions." (One important factor, as Lenin pointed out
when considering the same question, is here left out
of account, namely the political development of the
enormous agricultural as opposed to industrial popula-
tion.)
"But if this merging of political Soviets with pro-
ductive unions occurs, the questions that concern peo-
ple will cease to be political questions, but will be
purely questions of economics?"
"Certainly. And we shall see the disappearance of
political parties. That process is already apparent. In
the present huge Trade Union Conference there are
only sixty Mensheviks. The Communists are swallow-
ing one party after another. Those who were not drawn
over to us during the period of struggle are now join-
ing us during the process of building, and we find that
our differences now are not political at all, but con-
cerned only with the practical details of construction."
He illustrated this by pointing out the present consti-
tution of the Supreme Council of National Economy.
There are under it fifty-three departments or centers
(textile, soap, wool, timber, etc.), each controlled by
a "college" of three or more persons. There are 232
members of these colleges or boards in all, and of them
eighty-three are workmen, seventy-nine are engineers,
one is an ex-director, fifty are from the clerical staff,
and nineteen unclassified. Politically 115 are Com-
munists, 105 are of no party at all, and twelve are of
non-Communist parties.
He continued : "Further, in following the other par-
ties, the Communists themselves will cease to exist as
a political party. Consider only that youths coming to
their manhood during this year in Russia and in the
future will not be able to confirm from their own ex-
perience the reasoning of Karl Marx, because they will
have had no experience of a capitalist country. What
can they make of the class struggle? The class strug-
gle here is already over, and the distinctions of class
have already gone altogether. In the old days, members
of our party were men who had read, or tried to read,
Marx's 'Capital/ who knew the 'Communist Manifesto'
by heart, and were occupied in continual criticism of the
basis of capitalist society. Look at the new members
of our party. Marx is quite unnecessary to them. They
join us, not for struggle in the interest of an oppressed
class, but simply because they understand our aims in
constructive work. And as this process continues we
old Social-Democrats shall disappear, and our places
will be filled by people of entirely different character
grown up under entirely new conditions."
WHAT THE CONFISCATED ISSUE OF
"OSAKA MAINICHI" CONTAINED
The first wire sent by Fusse on April 12 from Mos-
cow was printed in Osaka Mainichi of April 18. This
issue was confiscated by order of the authorities. The
Central Information Bureau succeeded in obtaining a
copy of this issue.
The wire is headed : "A disclosed secret of the work-
ers' and peasants' Russia." At the beginning of the
report Fusse states that he received from the Soviet
Government an official permit to enter Moscow. In
Reval he boarded a train put at his disposal by the
Soviet of People's Commissars. On entering the ter-
ritory of Russia Fusse received a definite amount of
bread and sugar. He was greatly surprised by the
surroundings: women were cleaning the stations while
singing the "Internationale" ; the word "Tovarishch"
(comrade) was heard everywhere. The correspondent
further says: "It seemed to me that I had entered a
new world."
The correspondent, Fusse, passed Yamburg and Gat-
china — these places of recent terrible battles. The sub-
urbs of Petrograd have wire obstructions and trenches
everywhere. The correspondent regrets that he was
unable to stop in Petrograd for lack of time, and he
had therefore to content himself with just a walk within
the surroundings of the stations. He states that the ap-
pearance of Petrograd had not changed at all; the
streets of Petrograd are very crowded. The corre-
spondent observed the faces of the inhabitants but could
not detect traces of fatigue and privations, although
much is said about this in foreign countries.
On the 7th of April Fusse arrived in Moscow. The
city has changed entirely. Almost all the stores are
closed and no signs with golden letters may be seen.
Instead of these, government stores can be seen; these
issue all sorts of articles on presentation of cards. The
correspondent saw in various places small stores, in
which handicraft articles were being sold.
Fusse noticed that the change in the psychology of
the population is much more serious and profound than
the change in the exterior surroundings. The workmen
and women, soldiers and children, are full of energy
and merriment. One can seldom meet a "bourgeois."
The Intellectuals, who placed great hopes in Kolchak
and Dcnikin until last fall and have since been sabotag-
ing, are now convinced that it is futile to struggle
against the course of events.
Further, Fusse describes his meeting with one of the
former rich landowners, who lost their property on
account of the Bolsheviki. This former landowner
said that he was employed in a factory in the capacity
of engineer, was getting a decent salary, and, in gen-
eral, lead a quiet life.
According to Fusse the situation within the Republic
is gradually getting better : the disturbances have ceased,
the epidemics of typhus and other illnesses are dis-
appearing. The future of Russia can be looked upon
optimistically. Economic disintegration and the short-
age of food are felt keenly.
The correspondent admits that before he entered Rus-
sia he did not expect to find such a fine situation. Im-
mediately upon arriving in Moscow, Fusse visited the
Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. The Assistant Com-
missar for Foreign Affairs, Eastern Division, Mr. Voz-
nessensky, told Fusse: "Your arrival coincided with
the opening of military operations by the Japanese
troops in Khabarovsk and Nikolaevsk; you have come
at an unpleasant time. Is the position of your military
party really so strong?"
Fusse was given a room in one of the luxurious
buildings. The Afghan representative lived in this
building during his visit to the Soviet Government.
When Fusse arrived in Moscow, two conventions were
held there at the time: the Ninth All-Russian Confer-
ence of the Communist Party, and the Third Conference
of the trade unions.
The Communist Party number at present 600,000 mem-
bers, and the trade unions unite three million workers.
Fusse declares that the 600,000 Bolsheviki are the kernel
of the Soviet Republic; all responsible posts in all gov-
ernment institutions, lactones, schools, railroads are fill-
ed by therru—Xvasrtoye Znamya, Vladivostok, April 30.
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UKRAINIAN SOVIET CONGRESS
The newspaper Byednota for May 27 prints a
short account of the Ukrainian Soviet Congress.
There took part in the Congress 811 men and
784 women. The following resolution on the
question of the war with Poland was unanimously
adopted: "Before all the working people of Pol-
and and all the Soviet republics, the Soviet Con-
gress vows to devote all its forces and all its
thoughts to the struggle against the Polish mas-
ters.
"All, the delegates to the congress must place
themselves at the head of every provincial uyezd,
volost, and rural trade union, at the head of the
workers and peasants organizations, in order to
strengthen the front and the work of defence be-
hind the front.
"All the members of the Congress are mobilized
as one man for labor and for war against the Pol-
ish masters."
In addition the Congress passed resolutions on
the food stuffs and agrarian questions. In the
first named resolution, the necessity is emphasized
of continuing in the future the system of state
confiscations of grain, and of fixed prices. In
addition a resolute struggle must be begun against
all speculation. In the resolution on the agrarian
question occurred the following words :
"Peasants having no land or too little land are
to be provided with land according to the working
norm of each land worker. Such individual farm
lands as exceed the norm but do not exceed the
land area fixed in certain districts are to be re-
tained, but all lands going beyond the latter limits
must be taken from the individual owners."
A DECREE ON THE ELIMINATION
OF ILLITERACY
[The following decree on the elimination of
illiteracy among the population of the Russian
Soviet Republic appeared in "Izvestia" Petrograd,
on December 30, 1919.]
Moscow, December 29 (Rosta). — In order to
enable the entire population of. the Republic to
participate consciously in the political life of the
country, the Soviet of People's Commissars de-
crees :
1. That all citizens of the Republic, between
the ages of eight and fifty, who cannot read and
write, must learn to read and write in their native
tongue or in Russian, as they may choose. Such
courses are given in the existing government
schools, as well as in those which are now being
organized for the illiterate elements of the popula-
tion in accordance with the plans of the Peoples'
Comissariat of Education.
Note : This decree extends to the Red Guards.
Responsible work in the military units is carried
on with the direct participation of the Political
Departments of the Red Army and Navy.
2. The period of time in which illiteracy is to
be eliminated shall be determined by the provincial
and city Soviets of Deputies, respectively. The
general plans for the elimination of illiteracy in
the localities are to be worked out by the organs
of the People's Commissariat of Education within
two months from the publication of this decree.
3. The People's Commissariat of Education
and its local organs have the right to call the liter-
ate elements of the population, which were not
recruited, for the purpose of teaching the illiter-
ates. They are to be called in the compulsory labor
order and are to be remunerated in accordance
with the standard of educational workers.
4. All organizations of the toiling population,
such as: trade unions, local branches of the Rus-
sian Communist Party, unions of the communistic
youth, etc., are called by the People's Commis-
sariat of Education to participate in the elimina-
tion of illiteracy.
5. If those who are taught to read and write
are employed (except those working in military or-
ganizations), their working days are made two
hours shorter for the period of learning, and they
receive full wages.
6. For the purpose of eliminating illiteracy the
organs of the People's Commissariat of Education
are given the right to utilize public houses, church-
es, clubs, private houses, appropriate space at the
factories and works of the Soviet Government, etc.
7. The supply organizations are ordered to
give preference to the needs of the organizations
combating illiteracy before the needs of other or-
ganizations.
8. Those who disregard the rulings of this de-
cree and prevent the illiterates from attending
schools, are held liable under criminal law.
9. The People's Comissariat of Education is to
issue within two weeks detailed instructions for
the execution of this decree.
Chairman of the Soviet of People's Commissars :
Vladimir Ulianov (Lenin).
Chief Clerk : Bonch-Bruevich.
Secretary: Brichkina.
PRAVDA ON THE POLISH DEFEATS
Pravda on May 25 prints a leading article en-
titled the "Red Army a Liberator," which says
among other things that the Polish imperialists
began their campaign against Soviet Russia with
the object of driving the Reds from Ukraine. But
the Polish agents miscalculated and underesti-
mated the military forces in Soviet Russia. The
Red Army will not retire from Ukraine, but will
instead drive the Poles from the Lithuanian and
White Russian districts occupied by them. On an
earlier occasion the Red troops were not able to
come to the assistance of the Lithuanians and
White Russians in their battle against the Polish
imperialists. Now, however, Soviet Russia is
strong enough to be successful in its aid to Lithu-
ania, and White Russia, in shaking off the Polish
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EXPEDITION TO THE KARA SEA
The rescue expedition to the Russian ice-breaker
in the Kara Sea, as is well known, was delayed at
Tromsoe because the Norwegian Government had
required assurance that the Russian Government
would also cover the insurance for the English
ice-breaker Sviatogor. To our request for inform-
ation on this subject from Foreign Minister Chi-
cherin, we today received the following radio-tele-
gram, dated May 30 :
"According to Minister Ihlen's communication
of April 29, the total expense of the expedition
was estimated at about £,000,000 crowns, including
the sum of 350,000 crowns insurance against the
total loss of Sviatogor. In pursuance of this esti-
mate from the Norwegian Government, the sum of
2,350,000 crowns was remitted on my order to
the Centralbanken for Norge, for the rescue ex-
pedition, and the sum, as acknowledged by Minis-
ter Ihlen is already at the disposal of the Norwe-
gian Foreign Department.
After we received the latest communication from
Minister Ihlen concerning the necessity of provid-
ing the Norwegian Government with two addi-
tional millions, especially for insurance, I on May
25 telegraphed to our Representative Litvinov,
asking him to communicate personally with Ihlen
in order to adjust this question. In this telegram
I presumed the possibility that the Russian Gov-
ernment would assume the general responsibility
for any damage that might occur to Sviatogor in
the course of the expedition, if the Norwegian
Government was satisfied with this regulation of
the insurance question.
"By wireless message of May 25, I informed
Minister Ihlen of the steps that had been taken
by Litvinov, simultaneously asking the Minister
to use his influence that the expedition might not
be delayed by reason of the insurance question."
In connection with the above mentioned tele-
gram the press bureau of the Foreign Department
reports that the 350,000 crowns mentioned in the
telegram for the insurance are for the coaling ship
that was to accompany Sviatogor. The Depart-
ment has received a telegram from Litvinov, pro-
posing that the Soviet Government take over the
responsibility for the entire Kara Sea expedition,
including the insurance. The Department has ac-
cepted this proposition, and declares that the Nor-
wegian state will advance the money while Russia
may regulate the payment. As soon as Litvinov's
approval is received for this arrangement, Sviato-
gor will receive clearing papers.
RESUMPTION OF TRADE RELATIONS
WITH RUSSIA
As is well known, the Norwegian Trade Depart-
nient has appointed a committee to treat the ques-
tion of a resumption of trade relations with Rus-
sia, as well as all questions connected with it, in-
cluding also the Norwegian indemnity demands.
The committee ( under its chairman, Director of
Fisheries, Asserson, has recently been holding
daily meetings at Christiania. Its transactions
have now been closed and the members of the
committee have traveled to their homes.
The Trade Department has received the com-
mittee's report, which will be used as a basis for
the further work of the department in this matter.
Most of all, this is interesting the fishermen and
merchants of northern Norway, who have already
received information as to the contents of the
report.
Essentially, the report states that the Norwegian
nation will not place any hindrance in the way of
a continuance of the local trade between Russia
and northern Norway and guarantees that the ves-
sels coming from Russia to purchase fish may re-
turn unmolested to Russia.
The state will also assume an accommodating
attitude if the Russian authorities should wish to
have the resumption of trade take another form.
It will support an eventual other form by declaring
a guarantee.
Large deliveries of fish to Russia may be based
upon gold or other species in Norway. The Nor-
wegian state guarantees that the gold or species
deposits sent to Norway for this purpose will not
be confiscated.
The report further states that the exchange of
goods should be encouraged upon the broadest pos-
sible foundations, that sales bureaus should be
opened in northern Norway and that the Russian
business men should have the easiest possible ac-
cess to Norway, and that holders of commercial
scholarships should be sent to Russia.
Note: Social-Demokraten, of the same date,
prints a strong editorial demanding that the report
of the committee be complied with, and that full
trade relations with Russia be entered into at once.
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STATEMENT BY L. C. A. K. MARTENS
Representative in the United States of the Russian
Socialist Federal Soviet Republic
July 8, 1920.
I welcome the announcement by the State De-
partment that the restrictions which have hitherto
stood in the way of trade between Soviet Russia
and the United States have been removed.
I must say frankly, however, that the state-
ment published this morning, as it stands, does
not at all dispose of the problem of establishing
trade between Russia and the United States. There
is no indication in the statement as to how or
whether Russia is to be permitted to pay American
business men for goods purchased in this country.
We have long been prepared and willing to es-
tablish credits in favor of American manufactur-
ers in Esthonia. The Federal Reserve Board, how-
ever, some time ago, issued a warning to all Amer-
ican banks advising them against honoring any
drafts drawn upon Esthonian banks. In this man-
ner all plans for the payment of American goods
by drafts on Esthonian banks were effectively
checked. We cannot establish credits by the de-
posit of Russian gold in American banks so long
as there is danger that these deposits may be
molested. The statement published this morning
gives no assurance that any practical credit ar-
rangements may be effected. It is further stated
that postal communication and travelling facilities
are not to be restored. It is plain enough that
trade cannot be resumed if there is to be no op-
portunity for the establishment of the essential
means and facilities for international commerce.
Trade is dependent upon an intricate machinery
for transfer of funds with proper guarantees and
securities on both sides, and commerce cannot be
successfully carried on without postal and cable
commhinication and the ordinary facilities for
travel and international intercourse. The an-
nouncement of the State Department, while os-
tensibly setting aside restrictions, appears actually
to announce a policy of continued restriction.
Although the question of diplomatic recogni-
tion in all its formalities and niceties may be in-
definitely postponed, the effective resumption of
trade relations must depend upon the establish-
ment of a certain minimum of political relations.
The English and Canadian Governments in their
commercial negotiations with Russia have already*
recognized this fact. Mr. Krassin has returned
from London to Moscow for the very purpose of
perfecting the political arrangements essential to
the resumption of trade. The Canadian Govern-
mfent has sanctioned the establishment of a Com-
mercial Bureau of the Soviet Government in Can-
ada and has officially approved the commercial ar-
rangements already entered into between Canadian
business interests and the Russian Government.
This morning's announcement of course has ex-
cited much interest and we have been overwhelmed
by inquiries from American business men who de-
sire to know just how this statement affects their
opportunities for trade with Soviet Russia. We
can only refer them to the American Government
for a further explanation of its policy. The
Soviet Government is ready, as it has been ready
for over a year, to establish trade relations with
America. We will gladly go more than half way
to meet any practical arrangements. All we ask
is the right to buy goods in the American market,
to have them shipped to Russia and to pay for
them. If the statement means that these things
can be done we are heartily glad. But the spirit in
which the statement is composed, with its many
reservations and ambiguities, compels us to await
developments before deciding upon its practical
outcome.
THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
Agricultural Cooperation, by V. Milyutin. This highly instructive article, written by the Vice-
Chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy in Soviet Russia, contains a historical
review of the development of agricultural cooperation in Russia and its present stand.
The Second Anniversary of the Red Army. An account of festivities in celebration of the crea-
tion of the Red Army that is saving Russia from the onslaughts of her enemies.
Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek.
Important Official Compilations of Recent Economic Progress of Soviet Russia.
Who Participates in the Government? An analysis of the party affiliations and social class of
those who control the destinies of the Russian people.
Poland and White Russia. A letter just received from our Paris Correspondent.
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make all checks payable
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Vol. Ill, No. 4
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limed W«k)r »t 110 W. 40th Street, New York, N, Y, Ladwig C. A. K. Marteni, Publiiher, Jacob Wittmer Hartmattn. Editor
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TABLE
Agricultural Coofemation, by V. Mityutin...
Who Takes Pabt in the Government?
Military Review, by LL-Col B. Rous tarn Bck
Map of the Military Situation
OP (
page
81
84
86
87
92
94
INTENTS:
Second Anniversary of the Red Army. ...
The All' Russian Trade Congress. ...,..,
The Museum of the Revolution..,.
PAGE
... 95
... 96
... 98
Clement Arkadyevich Timiryazev, .♦,,♦«.
98
Editorials „
Battle With Disease in Soviet Russia......
Official Communications
Books Reviewed ,,•,.»•«••. •>.«,••, •**•*,•
... 100
... 102
Agricultural Cooperation
By V, Milttjtin
A GRI CULTURAL artels (cooperative teams)
must be considered the oldest form of agri-
cultural cooperation. The artels have behind them
a history of more than one century, and many
works have been devoted to their theoretical ana-
lysis and interpretation.
Information of hunting and fishing artels goes
as far back as the 13th century. One of the latest
investigators of the artels, Sergey Jlaslov, writes:
"Artel forms of toil in agriculture go far back
into the past. The peasants worked in artels for
men called into military service, for monasteries
and churches, and during the period of serfdom,
on jobs for landowners. We find agricultural ar-
tels* labor even in the pre- reform period. At this
time it manifests itself in common tilling, in work
for the olergy, in so-called 'nest exploitation/
which was described by N. V. Shelgunov, in artels
of scythemen who were tramping every year to
the far off steppes of the Don and Kuban"
In the period of serfdom, we find also instances
of "artel" experiments by the landed proprietors,
which were quite characteristic although not very
numerous. There aro detailed descriptions of such
artels, as, for instance, by Stremuhov, Yilkins,
Zhukov, and others.
After the sixties (of the nineteenth century, that
is, after the liberation of the peasant), the artels
developed independently and became the refuge of
the narodniki, who were seeking in them the re-
alization of new forms of social life.
But despite the long history of the agricultural
artels they have always been very few in number
and very weak. Coming into existence with the
object of practicing cooperative economy, cooper-
ative tilling, the artels would speedily disintegrate
byLiGOgle
under the pressure of the slightest economic chang-
es. As soon as the economic situation would im-
prove the artel would fall apart.
Usually the artels consisted of a few members.
An artel would have only from ten to twelve men,
heads of families. There was no internal eco-
nomic bond in the artels; the petty bourgeois as-
pirations and delusions would not die out; they
had absolutely no technical equipment, and they,
therefore* naturally could not develop into an im-
portant social movement.
The following at bottom deadly characterization
of artels was written by the same Sergey Maslov,
who is a narodnikj a Right Socialist Revolutionist,
but whose characterization, in our opinion, never-
theless correctly interprets the nature of the ar-
tel movement:
"Summing up the characterization of the Rus-
sian agricultural artels as a type, we will say that
the impression of the extreme weakness and prim-
itivenese of our artels remain upon closer examin-
ation* There is not the slightest indication in
them of broad social tasks; there is no adequate
technical equipment; the productivity of labor is
low in true Bussian fashion ; all the inter-relations
are extremely reduced and simplified; there are
absolutely no written forms ; and the artels have no
commton fund of finances and resources* The Rus-
sian artel is very weak in membership, very weakly
organized and probably disintegrates easily."
As a narodnik, Sergey Maslov is trying to sof-
ten his verdict on the artels, but it is, nevertheless,
deadly*
Thus, as attempts of small owners to organize
cooperative production, the artels were a failure,
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and never had a serious social significance or in-
terest from the economic or any other standpoint.
Of much greater extent and importance were
the new cooperative forms in the domain of agri-
culture, which are an independent movement and
the product of the new period — the end of the
19th and the beginning of the 20th century.
Agricultural cooperation spread to many phases
of agriculture and succeeded in becoming so large
that it has even formed the basis for the origin
of new theoretical Utopias, or the possibility of
creating an ideal cooperative system by the ex-
clusive means of economic changes, by uniting
millions of small owners, or for the peaceful and
painless attainment of the Socialist system.
• • • • •
The basic forms of agricultural cooperation un-
til recent days were: (1) credit cooperatives, (2)
buying and selling cooperatives, (3) some special
associations, such as control unions, insurance asso-
ciations, etc., and (4) artels, of which we have
already spoken.
The consumers* associations, which are very
strong in the villages, ordinarily do not belong to
the forms of agricultural cooperation, since they
are not directly connected with agricultural pro-
duction, but are, on the contrary, connected with
urban industry.
Cooperation in Russia in general, and in agri-
culture in particular, began to develop and reached
serious dimensions only after 1905. During ten
years all the forms of cooperation made great ad-
vances.
The War of 1914-1918 not only did not weaken
the cooperative movement, but on the contrary
hastened its development. On January 1, 1918,
there were 54,400 local cooperatives in Russia.
They were distributed in different groups as fol-
lows:
1. Credit cooperatives 16,500
2. Consumers' associations 25,000
3. Agricultural associations 6,000
4. Agricultural corporations 2,400
5. Dairy artels 3,000
6. Artisan and home manufacturing
and other cooperatives 1,500
54,400
From these data we can form an opinion of
the relative development and spread of one or an-
other form of cooperation. We see that, with the
exception of the consumers' cooperatives, the credit
cooperatives have the greatest development and
popularity.
The agricultural cooperatives are united into
several large central organizations. At their head
at the present time is the "Selskosoyuz," which is
analogous in its functions to the "Centrosoyuz,"
the central organ of the consumers' cooperatives.
An important part in the agricultural cooperatives
belongs also to such organizations as the "Central
Association of Flax Producers" and the unions of
Butter Producing Artels of Vologda and Siberia.
But what place can be taken by the agricultural
cooperatives under thejaew social conditions, and
what is their future ?
Digitized by CjOOgle
This question is of great importance for our
work of socialist construction.
Heretofore we have had interpretations of the
socialist cooperatives only from the standpoint of
the cooperators themselves, who adhere firmly to
the basis of private economy.
In the capitalist system the cooperatives are not
only of great economic but also of great social
importance. The different kind and forms of co-
operatives not only bring definite economic advan-
tages to their members as well as to non-members,
but they also wage a struggle — both economic and
ideologic — against the capitalist forms. To be
sure, this struggle is first of all conditioned by the
competition inherent in the capitalist system. Un-
der the capitalist system a struggle prevails of
each against all and all against each.
In their economic life and activity the coopera-
tive organizations, inasmuch as they desired to
exist, naturally and inevitably were forced to wage
this struggle, and frequently not only against the
capitalists, but also against each other.
But besides this struggle, which arose on the
basis of competition — a struggle for existence, the
cooperative organizations, uniting those who were
oppressed by large capital became united in the
struggle against the capitalist system, and in the
workers' cooperatives as class organizations, —
these elements appeared stronger and clearer. In
the other cooperatives, the civic and agricultural,
that are essentially petty bourgeois, this appeared
much weaker. The last kinds of cooperative organ-
izations have almost never risen to a consciousness
of the political struggle — the necessity of over-
throwing the yoke of capitalism. The sphere of
their struggle was confined to the aspirations to
improve their economic organizations, the position
of their members, or to the purely ideologic pro-
paganda of their cooperative principles and their
cooperative virtues. Many have tried to define
the nature of the cooperatives. Among the well-
known definitions are those of Tugan-Baranovsky,
Nikolayev, Prokopovich, Semen Maslov, and other
cooperators. As a typical definition, we will cite
the following of Semen Maslov :
"The cooperatives are first of all organizations
or unions of toilers. This union consists in the
creation by the collective effort of the toilers of
special economic enterprises or economic organiza-
tions. The aim of the cooperative organizations
is the removal of those losses and hardships which
are inflicted on the toilers by the power of modern
capitalism in its various manifestations. The co-
operatives are thus a voluntarily organized eco-
nomic activity of the toilers the aim of which is
to raise the income from the toil of its members
and, as much as possible, to liberate them from
the tribute which the toilers are forced to pay to
the owners of capital."
In this, quite precise, definition we see the
boundaries which limited the activity of the co-
operatives in general and of the agricultural co-
operatives in particular. This economic organi-
zation aims to raise the income,' to improve the
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conditions of living, but it is not concerned with
questions of changing the basis of the social and
political system.
This nature of the cooperatives in the profiteer-
ing capitalist system and their opposition to capi*
talist principles appealed to many. But in the
present conditions of Soviet Eussia, when the
power, the whole power, both economic and poli-
tical, passed into the hands of the toilers, — all
these features of the cooperatives lose all their
meaning. There is no more room for competition.
The world of competition and speculation is dying
out, being replaced exclusively by organized and
social forms of economic activity.
Opposition to the power of the state loses its
significance, for opposition to the Soviet power,
to the power of the toilers, inevitably turns into
its very opposite, becoming reactionary. Inasmuch
as the cooperative organizations tried to take this
path (as, for instance, in Siberia and in the Urals)
they inevitably became counter-revolutionary or-
ganizations, helping the power of the capitalists
and landed proprietors.
Thus, from the standpoint of the development
of new social forms, there was no reason why the
cooperatives should set themselves up in opposition
to the new Soviet state forms.
The existence of private social organizations of
toilers (and not of those who frequently hide be-
hind this flag) side by side with the Soviet state
organizations of the toilers, both in the cities and
villages, is an absolutely superfluous parallelism
which, if anything, can be only harmful.
Only those who cannot go forward, who value
the old division of society into separate groups,
who grasp at the old and dying, would advocate
the continuation and the safeguarding of this se-
parate existence of two social organizations. There
are many such groups among the millions of small
owners and particularly among the petty bourgeois
ideologists.
Behind this, of course, is a definite reason.
To make it clearer, the aspiration to save the bour-
geois property forms of social relations. However,
since the elemental forms of social development
are being replaced by the consciously regulated,
the harmful remnants of the past, also in this do-
main, which are hindering the unity of social de-
velopment must be broken and replaced by new
forms in harmony with the Socialist content of
the social development.
Under the Soviets the private organizations
must be included in the unified network of Soviet
organizations. Life has taken this path with re-
gard to the consumers and credit cooperatives, and
the agricultural cooperatives must also follow the
same path.
This becomes particularly clear when we con-
sider the economic tasks of the agricultural co-
operatives under the conditions of the economic
developments of the Soviet system.
In distinction from the agricultural artels whose
activity consisted mainly of agricultural produc-
tion, the agricultural cooperatives have had as the
Digitized by viOOQ IC
center of their activity intermediary operations.
The agricultural cooperatives stand between the
city and the village, and are engaged, on the one
hand, in collecting manufactured products which
they sell in the villages and, on the other hand, in
gathering raw materials, flax, butter, grain, etc.,
and selling these in the cities or abroad. Few
people have paid attention to this circumstance,
and yet precisely in this consists the essential na-
ture of the agricultural cooperatives.
Indeed, the strongest cooperative organizations,
such as the butter producing union, the associa-
tions of flax producers and others, are important
as intermediary and not as producing organiza-
tions. Production remains in the hands of indi-
vidual peasants, while the cooperative organiza-
tions direct their activity to collecting the pro-
ducts of individual small producers.
In this respect the agricultural cooperatives play
the part of a large buyer of raw materials, which
they do not use themselves for manufacturing pur-
poses, but sell to others. Of course, there
are exceptions, but they have no important, deter-
mining significance for the character of the co-
operatives. Again, the role of the associations for
the purchase of agricultural machinery is merely
of an intermediary nature, just as is the role of the
credit associations. Only in Eussia they do not
act as large buyers, but, on the contrary, as whole-
sale sellers.
However, precisely in this activity of the agri-
cultural cooperatives lies the secret of their
stability, of their capacity for development and
entrenchment which they have manifested in the
capitalist society, differing in this respect from
the agricultural artels, which had but a pitiful
existence.
The intermediary activity of the agricultural
cooperatives was a response to the vital and neces-
sary needs of the peasants. This quite justified
their existence and this economic activity furnished
the soil on which alone they could live and de-
velop.
The significance of the agricultural cooperatives
can be fully expressed in the word intermediary.
However, inasmuch as the agricultural cooper-
atives precisely by this activity grew strong and
won the sympathies of the broad social groups in
the bourgeois society, growing economically strong,
in so much do they become weak in the socialist
system, when the very basis for such activity be-
tween the city and the village becomes unnecessary
and superfluous. Indeed, of what use is the pri-
vate intermediary activity under the conditions
of a food monopoly, of a monopoly on flax, of
state distribution, of agricultural machinery, when
state collecting and distributing organs come into
existence ? Of course they are of no use !
Furthermore, against whom would the cooper-
ative organizations fight and compete when the
class of landed proprietors has disappeared as a
class and the capitalist enterprises have been na-
tionalized? With the Soviet institutions? But
this would be useless r*ud h?rntfuL If the cooper-
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atives would undertake such activity they would
be the first to suffer. Thus, the agricultural co-
operatives lose under the Soviet system their most
vital and practical function — the intermediary
function, which passes to the state organs organiz-
ing the whole society. We, who advocate a united
co-ordinated national economy, do not need to
prove the necessity of such a transition.
If we desire the development and strengthen-
ing of the industry, if we desire to raise the na-
tional conomy to higher stages we must concen-
trate in the hands of the state organs the collecting
of raw materials and the distribution of these to
our factories and workshops, and only then can
we be sure that no private or group interests will
hinder the development of the national economy,
particularly in its most advanced parts.
For this purpose Soviet organs have been cre-
ated during the first two years of the existence of
Soviet Bussia for the purchasing of flax, wool,
leather, etc.
Hence, from the standpoint of the collectiviza-
tion of the village, the agricultural cooperatives
have played only an auxiliary part. They were
necessary and useful both from the standpoint of
economics and education only in the capitalist sys-
tem. In the Soviet Socialist system they become
useless, at least, as an independent private organi-
sation.
Of course, the process of the dying out of the
old forms proceeds slowly. It will probably take
a good deal of time before the cooperative organ-
izations will change from private or group organ-
izations into Soviet state organizations, into real
social institutions.
But the development towards these results is
irresistible.
The collectivization of the village must proceed,
but not through the agricultural cooperatives. They
lack the necessary qualifications for this purpose.
First, as we have seen, their direct connection
with agricultural toil and, in general, with the
productive processes is extremely weak. Secondly,
they are organizations of separate groups of peas-
ants, and their interests will therefore always be
opposed to the general interests and to the inter-
ests of the national conomy as a whole. Thirdly,
their intermediary activity is passing to the state
organs. Fourthly, their educational activity, in
the presence of the extensive educational efforts
of the Soviets, is losing its importance.
From all this we must conclude that the pro-
cess of the collectivization of the village must not
be expressed in the old forms, even if they have
a respectable past. It must be expressed in new
forms in harmony only with the demands of the
national economy, and such forms are only the
agricultural communes and the Soviet economy.
We regard with respect the role of the coopera-
tives in the past, we do not refuse to take advan-
tage of their present useful functions, but we re-
spectfully tell them: "give way to new forms of
life and change yourself into these, if you can." —
Narodnoye Khozyaistvo, September-October, 1919.
Who Takes Part in the Government?
\/f ILLIONS of workers participating daily and
^ A directly in the difficult work of management,
which sometimes appeared insignificant, gave birth
in their ranks to thousands of experienced con-
structive workers, sacrificing all their strength and
ability to the work of organization. The work of
the congresses of Soviets and of their committees
was devoted principally to the work of the Soviet
creation. Let us see who takes part in these con-
gresses and of whom the Executive Committees are
composed. We will speak first of the number of
Soviet congresses which have taken place. The
figures relative to the 119 congresses (of prov-
inces and districts) meeting in 1919 in a third
of the territory of Soviet Eussia indicate that
almost half of the congresses (fifty-five district
congresses, or forty-six per cent; and eight pro-
vincial congresses, or fifty per cent) have already
been held for the fifth and sixth times. Almost
one-fourth of the congresses (twenty-two district
and two provincial) are meeting for the seventh
and eighth times. Certain congresses, chiefly dis-
trict congresses, have met from nine to fourteen
times. There should be noted a certain consider-
able group of congresses (eleven congresses or
ninety per cent) which met for the first time : this
Digitized by Vj'
was the case in places near the front ; nearly half
of them are in the province of Archangel.
The figures relating to the parties of which these
congresses were composed are also available. Al-
though incomplete, these figures furnish a general
idea of the principal creative forces in Soviet Eus-
sia. All the congresses are divided into three
periods: From October, 1917, to July, 1918 —
the first period of the work of Soviet construc-
tion; from July, 1918, to January, 1919 — when
Soviet work was carried on almost exclusively by
the forces of the Eussian Communist Party, and
the third period, from January, 1919, to the pres-
ent year, when the great masses, finding them-
selves without party affiliations, took part in the
work of Soviet organization.
The members of the Communist Party, together
with persons sympathizing with that party, form
the fundamental group of the members of the
congresses for all three periods. In the first period
they constitute a little more than half of the mem-
bers of the congresses; one-fourth of the mem-
bers of the congresses was represented by other
political parties, principally by the Social-Eevolu-
tionaries of the left: twenty-one per cent of all
the members of the congresses; the number of
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Table I
PARTIES COMPOSING THE CONGRESSES
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o
if)
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Nn
«#*
Dates of the
°6 »
O to
Total No. o
Members
of the
Congresses
3
1 •
arty
tion
•»
Congresses
1»
J
No P
Affilial
Other
Partie
Provincial ..
s
1,681
722
103
290
566
42.7%
6.1%
17.3%
33.7%
From October, 1917, to
District ....
20
1,912
836
309
450
317
43.9%
162%
23.5%
16.6%
July, 1918
Total No...
25
3,593
1,558
412
740
883
43.4%
11.4%
20.6%
24.6%
Provincial ..
10
1,447
957
353
90
47
66.1%
24.4%
6.2%
3.3%
From July, 1918, to
District
24
3,960
1,470
1,781
505
204
37.1%
44.9%
13.0%
5.1%
January, 1919
Total No...
34
5,407
2,427
2,134
595
251
44.9%
39.5%
11.0%
4.6%
Provincial ..
12
1,780
1,045
355
378
22
58.7%
18.8%
21.3%
1.2%
From January to
District
68
8,679
3,447
2,276
2,732
224
397%
262%
31.5%
2.6%
October, 1919
Total No...
80
10,459
4,492
2,611
3,110
246
42.9%
24.9%
29.8%
2.4%
Table II
COMPOSITION OF THE PERSONNEL OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEES OF THE PROVINCES, CITIES, DIS-
TRICTS AND SOVIETS, ABOUT OCTOBER 19. 1919
Type of
Executive
Committees
Distribution by Party Members
Work in Soviet
Organizations
Education
♦4-1
o
O* w
1§
6
C/5
cri
cn
"55 .
•■§
u
4
-.3
3*
8
1*
u
JS
6
<
Si
In
>
3
a
§
&
J
E
o
H
4-*
u
O
Provincial
Executive
Committees
516
456
20
6
1
33
66
309
141
51
118
251
40
56
% of Total
88.3
3.8
1.1
••
••
6.3
12.7
59.8
27.3
9.8
22.8
48.6
7.7
10.8
Gty
Executive
Committees
404
292
28
3
81
47
175
182
35
67
249
34
19
% of Total
72.2
7.
0.7
••
20.
11.7
43.3
45.
8.6
16.6
61.7
8.4
4.7
District
Executive
Committees
4,166
2,879
461
30
14
6
776
857
2,313
996
124
605
2,772
406
259
% of Total
69.1
11.
0.77
0.32
0.1
18.6
20.5
55.5
23.9
2.9
14.5
66.5
9.7
62
General
Total
%of Total
5,086
3,627
7U
509
10.
39
0.8
14
0J
7
0.1
890
17.5
970
19.1
2,797
55.
1,319
25.9
210
4.1
790
15.5
3,272
64.4
480
9.4
334
6.6
LI
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86
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July 24, 1920
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Social-Revolutionaries of the right was insignif-
icant (1.2 per cent), there were still fewer Men-
sheviks (0.9 per cent), the rest (twenty per cent)
— were without party affiliation. In the following
period the number of Social-Revolutionaries of
the left after the July agreement became almost
nothing (about three per cent), and the Com-
munist Party with its sympathizers constituted
more than four-fifths of all the members of
the congresses. The Communist Party became
stronger and stronger, to the loss not only of the
other political parties, but also of persons without
party affiliation, the process of dismembering the
classes proceeded in a more striking and profound
manner in the country; in the cities persons out-
side of the parties joined the ranks of the Com-
munist Party. In the third period the influence
of other political parties is diminshing still more,
although the Maximalists and the Revolutionary
Communists appear in their ranks. The repre-
sentatives of the great mass without party affilia-
tion, and of the peasants of the middle class ap-
pear at the congresses, especially the district con-
gresses. (Composition of personnel of the pro-
vincial committees, of the cities, the districts, and
the Soviets about October, 1919 — see Table No. 2.)
Thus the work of Soviet construction proceeded
all this time under the direction of the Russian
Communist Party. Table No. II, relating to the
composition of the Executive Committee shows
the participation of this party in the daily current
work of the Soviets.
The above figures refer to June-September,
1919, embracing the largest number of Executive
Committees, 211 district committees, and thirty-
six urban committees. In the provincial commit-
tees the Communist Party is represented by an
overwhelming majority (eighty-eight per cent) of
all the members, who together with the party sym-
pathizers constitute ninety-two per cent of the
composition of the Executive Committees. The
number of those not affiliated with any party is
much greater in the districts ; they constitute 18.6
per cent. (In the last congresses the representatives
of the middle class peaants joined the Executive
Committees). The Communist Party sympathizers
are here also in comparatively greater number, but
the Communists constitute the principal nucleus
of the workers (ninety-six per cent). The urban
Executive Committees occupy a middle place be-
tween these two groups: four-fifths of the Com-
munists with their sympathizers, and one-fifth of
those not affiliated with any party.
Who then represent the Communist Party which
dominates the Soviets? Unfortunately, the col-
lection of figures relative to the professions of the
members has not yet been completed, and we can-
not form a judgment while waiting except by bas-
ing it merely on the figures concerning their edu-
cation. Four-fifths of the members of the
Executive Committee, including a small group
(six per cent) which have not yet given any in-
formation with regard to their education, belong
to the workers, having received very primitive
instruction in the primary schools or having in-
structed themselves.
Persons having the highest education, the in-
tellectuals, are insignificant in number — four per
cent.
Persons with secondary education constitute fif-
teen per cent — they are all sorts of employes, fac-
tory technicians, etc. In the district Executive
Committees, the persons with primary education
predominate; in the provincial Executive Com-
mittees, on the other hand, there are some who
have a higher education. The table is clear: in
Soviet Russia where all the power belongs to the
workers, four-fifths of the workers who manage the
state machine are workingmen and peasants.
CO
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
Detroit, Mich., July 14, 1920.
AN OPPORTUNITY came to me to learn
**** about the real state of affairs in the Russian
Far East. Now that the Polish army is com-
pletely routed, and on the eve of its final anni-
hilation, we may look to the Pacific, where soon
another dangerous enemy — imperialistic Japan,
will undoubtedly meet the fate of those who dared
encroach on Soviet Russia's territory by armed
invasion.
But before touching upon the question of the
Russian Far East Republic, let me explain the sig-
nificance of the strategical term annihilation.
Strategy does not tolerate hesitation or uncer-
tainty, and therefore the Russian strategists are
firm in their determination to annihilate the mili-
tary power of their enemies, that is, to destroy its
unity of direction, and divide it into scattered
tM nto scatt
bands that will be easy to capture.
If the morale of an army before its defeat was
at a high level, there is a possibility that the
fragments of such an army may undergo some
process of reorganization, and its further defense
may then assume the character of so-called par-
tisan warfare, with the help of the local popu-
lation.
In order to prevent the possibility, the victor
must by means of a most energetic pursuit of the
fragments of the defeated army of the enemy,
break them up as much as possible, thus affecting
their morale to such an extent that there will be
no possibility for them to accomplish any regroup-
ment.
The small bodies of a defeated army, even one
whose prior morale was very high, usually do not
resist the superior forces of their adversaries, and
IVERSITV OF MICHIGAN
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The Military Situation in European Russia on July 18, 1920
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The heavy doited lines indicate the Polish and Crimean Fronts. The lighter dolled line indicates
the farthest Polish advance before the present drive of the Russian* armies.
by LiOOgLC
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66
must surrender. The history of the Great War
gives us numerous examples, on both belligerent
sides, which prove this.
After a series of important tactical defeats, the
morale of the defeated armies is gradually lowered,
and finally attains the complete undermining of
the fighting spirit of the majority of the soldiers,
who begin to look with absolute indifference on
all that is happening around them.
Such a state of universal paralysis of a fighting
body is known in military art as annihilation.
When a pursuit is vigorously accomplished by
cavalry, and the retiring enemy is not definitely
demoralized, and refuses to surrender, he may suf-
fer high casualties and the greatest part of his
forces finally will lay down their arms before the
victors.
We have at present before us a most character-
istic example of a general pursuit of the beaten
Poles by Russian cavalry.
The victorious Red Army has succeeded in di-
viding the Polish front in several separate groups,
which have lost communication with each other.
The Red cavalry, after breaking through the Polish
lines, penetrated far to the rear of the enemy,
cut off all his means of communication with his
base, and forced them to seek shelter at any suit-
able position which they may meet on their way.
The military situation of such detachments is
in reality very critical. They are practically sur-
rounded on all sides, and can exist only for a
very short period. Sometimes they are capable of
capturing one or two insignificant places, and
such occupation may be used by their general staff
for publicity; they say they have obtained "vic-
tory," in order to increase the morale in the rear,
but all this is useless.
For instance, the American press has issued a
report of the Polish War Office that the Poles have
captured the town of Ovruch about sixty miles
southwest of Mozir, about 120 miles northeast of
Minsk, about 120 miles north of Zhitomir, and
120 miles northeast of Rovno. All these towns
have for a long time been in the hands of the
Soviet armies.
The important railway junction of Sarny, sit-
uated 100 miles west of "captured" Ovruch, has
been captured by the Russians and its capture was
reported in the same dispatch in which the cap-
ture of Ovruch by the Poles was mentioned.
The Polish General Staff, in advertising such a
"victory," are gambling on the psychology of the
public and on ignorance of most of the editors,
who generally do not like to look at the map. But
if anybody should glance at the map, he certainly
would understand that by "taking" Ovruch, the
Poles mean that they have hidden in that town,
being completely defeated by the Russians, espe-
cially if we take into consideration that the Red
Army is also approaching Pinsk, at the western
end of the Pripet marshes.
I noticed also a similar dispatch, issued some
days ago by the Associated Press, referring to the
Baron Wrangel Army. First it was said that he
had captured Orehov during his march northward
from Berdiansk, on the Sea of Azov, and—
after a series of great "victories" of that adven-
ture, the cables of the same Associated Press now
state that WrangePs army has captured Melitopol,
about fifty miles southwest of Orehov. This means
in reality that Wrangel had retreated towards Me-
litopol, after having been well beaten at Orehov.
I shall not be at all surprised if very soon we
should be informed that the victorious Pilsudski
army has occupied Cracow, and some people may
then believe that the Poles have won a very im-
portant victory.
But all the efforts of the Allied governments
and their satellite press agencies are unable any
longer to camouflage the real happenings in Eu-
rope. Lithuania has joined the Soviets, and is
fighting now hand in hand with the Red Army.
The Poles are anxiously expecting that the so-
called great powers will be able to stop the Russian
strategical pursuit of the routed Poles by fright-
ening Russia with the prospect of a new European
War.
Any man in his senses certainly will under-
stand that such a declaration is nothing more or
less than a new blunder of the Allies. Far from
being in a position to declare war on Russia, they
cannot even force Germany to fulfill the peace
treaty. Russia is ready at any moment to sign
a peace, to establish an armistice with Poland, and
to enter into negotiations with the Polish govern-
ment, and in order to do this Russia requests the
present Polish imperialists, beaten and helpless,
to cede their power to the Polish people, who will
be able and ready to make peace with Russia. Can
the Allies prevent this? Never. Can the Allies
any longer support Pilsudski's band? They can-
not. Do the Allies think that after two years of
bitter lessons in dealing with the hypocritical
Allied policy, the Russian people would lose the
opportunity to obtain guarantees of the security
of the western border of the Soviet Republic, and
that the Russian General Staff will sacrifice its
strategical superiority, which the Red Army has
won at such an enormous sacrifice, to the new
political tricks of the Entente ? If they think so,
they are greatly mistaken.
Russia may be forced to "dictate peace at War-
saw," as Yoffe says.
Now let us look at the Far East, leaving the
Poles to the mercy of the Red Army.
It was generally supposed that Kolchak was
overthrown by the Bolsheviki, and the reaction-
ary press, together with the Japanese newspapers,
tried to persuade the public that the Kolchak
army was demoralized chiefly by Bolshevik propa-
ganda. An exceptional opportunity permitted me
to learn the truth from a most trustworthy source.
The uprising against Kolchak did not originate
in his army. In spite of the fact that there were
among his officers some individuals who hated the
usurper, and who desired his early downfall, they
were in such a minority that there could not have
been ,^veqi_a question of an open mutiny. The
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men were terrorized by cruel discipline, tortures
and capital punishment. The officers were treated
severely by their superiors. Everybody who even
dared to show the slightest vacillation in his feel-
ings towards the Supreme Chief was shot without
mercy. Even the famous adventurer, General
Gaida, the leader of the Czecho-Slovaks, though
disgusted with the conduct of Kolchak and his
subordinates, hesitated for a long time to rise
openly against the man whom he considered a
monster and outcast. Only after the first serious
defeat of the Kolchak army at Perm, did Gaida
start his campaign against his Supreme Com-
mander.
The uprising against Kolchak originated in the
villages. It was the peasants themselves who first
rose against the Russian autocrat and his captains.
There was no propaganda in those days amongst
the Siberian peasants, who were by no means Bol-
sheviki. The atrocities and violations of human
rights by the Kolchak men, and the Allied troops
which supported them, — this was the real propa-
ganda which transformed the local population into
real Bolsheviks, and forced them to rise in arms
against the invaders.
This uprising, in almost all the villages of
Eastern Siberia, and especially in the Amur and
Maritime provinces, began in the period when the
Kolchak armies were in full advance on Moscow
and "victor iously" approaching Perm.
After the first defeat inflicted on the invaders
by the young Red Army, the revolutionary spirit
penetrated the rank and file of the White forces.
The men organized themselves very rapidly and,
some of them deserted, joining the local partisans,
already operating in the rear of Kolchak's army,
while some remained in the ranks, awaiting a
favorable opportunity. Amongst the officers there
already existed in those days several revolutionary
organizations, controlled by the Central Bureau of
the Revolutionary Organizations of the Far East
and Siberia.
This organization, together with General Gaida,
decided to overthrow Kolchak and put an end to
the civil war in Siberia.
The revolution against Kolchak was to be
started at Vladivostok on November 18, 1919, and,
in case of its success, the new provincial govern-
ment was to proclaim Kolchak a traitor and ar-
rest him.
The local Russian garrison was fully prepared
to act in harmony with the local Communist party,
practically submitting to its orders. There was
little doubt that in case of success, the whole White
Army would mutiny and support the provisional
government.
November 18, 1919, General Gaida arrived in
Vladivostok with sixty of his own men and issued
orders to start the attack on the reactionary gov-
ernment and their defenders. There is no doubt
that the revolutionaries could have overpowered
the hated regime without difficulty, but the Jap-
anese interfered, and after sharp fighting dispersed
the Reds, thus precluding any possibility that th
revolutionists should accomplish their plan. The
uprising of November 18 ended in complete fail-
ure.
The remainder of the dispersed Reds found ref-
uge in the Czecho-Slovak barracks, and, under the
protection of the latter, reorganized themselves on
new, purely Bolshevik lines. The presence of the
Allies prevented the revolutionary organization
from forming Soviets, and this complicated the
situation.
General Gaida was forced by the Japanese com-
mand to quit the Far East, and was allowed to
return to his country. General Rozanov, com-
mander-in-Chief of the White forces in the Mari-
time province, did not dare either to arrest or
court-martial him, being afraid of the Czecho-
slovak army, 6till in Siberia.
It is very interesting to note that the Ameri-
cans were in sympathv with the revolutionists, and
helped the Reds at each favorable opportunity.
Under the protection of the Czecho-Slovaks on
the one hand and the Americans on the other, the
new revolutionary organization grew so rapidly
that it became known that a new uprising against
Kolchak would take place at the end of January,
1919.
The Japanese were fully prepared to crush this
new outburst of revolution also, and General Oi,
commander of the Japanese troops of the province,
issued a warning to the Reds that he was instructed
to prevent the uprising, by force, with Japanese
arms.
But the American Commander-in-Chief, General
Graves, very energetically intervened, and advised
the Japanese General to maintain strict neutrality,
and in no case to repeat what the Japanese had
done during the uprising of November 18, 1919.
By order of General Graves, American patrols
were sent out in different parts of Vladivostok,
and when the Revolution was completely success-
ful, the Americans remained at their posts during
the whole day of February 1, thus protecting the
formation of the first Russian Revolutionary G<fir-
ernment in the Far East.
It may be imagined how great was the rage of
the Japanese command whose plan was frustrated
by the energetic and determined action of the
young American general.
On the other hand, the Japanese were powerless
to protest to General Graves. They were not strong
enough to retain control of Vladivostok, the forts
and batteries of which had been disarmed even
during the Great War, and all the cannons and
ammunition transferred to the western front. So
that all the fortifications surrounding the town
represented simply hills, requiring to be properly
armed with suitable artillery, an equipment which
the Japanese in no case would have been able to
accomplish, as they were not numerous enough and
had not sufficient time to complete such a serious
task. Finally, the Japanese were obliged to re-
cognize the Russian Provisional Government and
to keep themselves quiet while the Americans re-
mained in Vladivostok, An & they did so, and only
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when the last American contingent left Russian
territory, they attacked the town of Vladivostok,
April 4, 1920, the very day after the Americans
had completed their evacuation.
General Rozanov, together with a group of Kol-
chak officers, under cover of the Japanese troops,
left for Japan, already after the second uprising
in Vladivostok, on the Russian transport Orel,
taking with them part of the Kolchak gold, stolen
from the Russian people by that monster of czar-
ist reaction, and all the cadets of the Vladivostok
Naval School.
The Provisional Government was established
and became known as a "Zemstvo" government.
This curious name was given to it only because all
the members of the newly formed government be-
longed to the local Zemstvo, created during the
time of Kerensky's premiership.
The success of the second revolution in Vladi-
vostok was chiefly due to the fact that the greatest
part of General Rozanov's White army at a most
decisive moment deserted Kolchak's general and
joined the Reds.
The political situation in the newly created
Russian Far Eastern Republic has become very
peculiar.
There were no Soviets in Vladivostok after the
formation of the Provisional Government, and
meanwhile the government was pro-Soviet and ob-
tained instructions from Moscow to such an ex-
tent that Lenin found it possible to recognize the
young republic, and Commissar Vilensky has been
appointed representative of Soviet Russia in the
Far East.
Practically the new government may be consid-
ered as Socialistic, being suported and directed by
the Russian Soviets. Only the abnormal position
of the Far Eastern Republic with regard to Japan
prevented it from immediate association with
Soviet Russia, a consummation which naturally
must and will take place at the first favorable
opportunity.
On the Russian population of the Far East Re-
public, Moscow can reckon without reservation.
Every Russian of the Maritime Province dreams
of throwing off the Japanese yoke and of joining
the Soviets.
The second uprising against Kolchak was suc-
cessfully accomplished in every town of both the
Amur and Maritime provinces, and in many towns
and villages of Siberia. In Irkutsk, for instance,
the revolution broke out as early as January 20,
and as we know, it was very successful.
This was the beginning of the end of the rule of
the Eastern tyrant.
The military operations of the revolutionists
were mostly of guerilla character, and while the
retiring Kolchak army melted like snow in the
spring, the number and the activity of the
partisans were steadily increasing. Practically the
main forces of the Red Army only followed the
fleeing Kolchak hordes, which were gradually an-
nihilated by partisans recruited by men of its own
forces, and who existed at the expense of the rich
supplies carefully prepared by the Allies along all
the immense distance from the Urals to the
Pacific.
After the revolution of January 31, in Vladi-
vostok, the partisan detachments started to con-
centrate toward their former headquarters, situ-
ated in the principal cities of the various regions,
and finally a new Red Army of the Far East was
formed in a very short time. In the Maritime
Province, this army was not numerous. There
were scarcely 12- 13,000 men under the Red ban-
ner, while the Japanese have almost an army corps,
namely, 40,000 men. But although they were su-
perior in numbers, the Japanese did not dare over-
throw the Vladivostok Government, knowing that
they would be unable to police the whole province
and guard the Ussuri railway in the presence of
the hated partisans, who at once appear when the
Japanese troops show any aggression towards the
Russians.
The Japanese, who before the second Vladivos-
tok revolution, were in occupation also of Amur
Province, started then to evacuate it with the ob-
ject of concentrating a sufficiently strong army in
the Maritime Province for its final annexation.
The treacherous attack of the Japanese on Vladi-
vostok on April 4 and 5, 1920, caused a series of
sanguinary fights throughout the country, since
they attacked the Russians in all the cities occu-
pied by the Far East Red Army. Nikolsk,
Spassk, Iman, Khabarovsk, and Nikolaievsk, all
were attacked. Consequently, the forces of the
Reds were much weakened. Most of them were
compelled to hide in the woods or in the hills, be-
cause the peasants could no longer feed the par-
tisans. It must be noted that the whole Maritime
Province lives only on imported food, and besides
the normal population, there were the Japanese,
who had requisitioned everything, and the coun-
try was filled up with refugees.
So it was decided that only a part of the Red
forces should remain in the Province to protect the
peasants and to garrison the big towns, but the
rest were to break through the Japanese guard
lines, into the Amur Province, rich in food, and
now absolutely free from Japanese.
Besides that, in the Amur Province a consid-
erable army was already in existence, and the pro-
clamation of universal service promised to double
the number of the fighting element.
In addition, desertion from Ataman Semionov's
bands became more and more frequent, as well as
from the army of the reactionary General Voitze-
hovsky. Both these armies were in occupation of
that part of the Transbaikal Province that lay
east of Chita, backed by very strong Japanese
reserves.
The rear of the Amur Province was secured by
the presence of the Soviet Army concentrated in
the Irkutsk region. This army, after successfully
fighting Semionov's troops, occupied Verkhne-
Udinsk and advanced on Chita, showing the inten-
tion to establish a junction with the Amur Prov-
ince.
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The presence of the bandits Semionov and Voit-
zehovsky in Transbaikalia cut off the Amur Prov-
ince from direct communication with Eastern Si-
beria and it was possible to reach the Irkutsk re-
gion only through the Yakutsk district, by means
of very difficult rocky roads, many of which were
unsuitable even for mounted troops. Communi-
cation through Mongolia, or with China through
Manchuria, practically became impossible, first,
because of Japanese intrigues amongst the Mon-
gols, and secondly, because the Eastern Chinese
Railway is practically under the control of the
Japanese.
This situation at first glance seems gloomy for
the Russians, especially if we understand that
thanks to the oppressive policy of the Japanese
the Far Eastern Russian Government had com-
promised in many ways in order to avoid a conflict
with the invaders.
But in reality the position of the Russians is not
so hopeless as it may seem.
The approaching events of great importance in
Chita will certainly alter the situation in the Far
East in Russia's favor. The Japanese will neces-
sarily lose control over the Eastern Chinese rail-
way; they have already begun the evacuation of
Transbaikalia and withdrawn their troops from
Chita, leaving only the bands of Semionov and
Voitzehovsky. Both these traitors will soon be
annihilated by the Red Army — they cannot with-
stand the approaching winter in that vast and un-
inhabited country, and will have to join their
brother in arms, Rozanov, in Tokio.
The Chinese, if they are masters of the Eastern
Chinese Railway, will never allow the Japanese to
dispatch their troops by this railroad, and finally,
at the disposal of the Japanese General Staff, there
will be only Port Arthur and Dairen, the bases of
the South Manchurian railway. This is not at all
sufficient for their serious operations in the Rus-
sian Far East, because Amur Province, adjoining
Transbaikalia, where the Red Army is still con-
centrating, would have in its rear East Siberia,
West Siberia, and, last, victorious Soviet Russia.
And the Japanese will learn that the Russia of
1920 is not the effete Czarist organization of 1904.
the West, have invaded Soviet Russia. The per-
manent commission on administration conveys to
the revolutionary government of Russia its most
profound sympathy and fraternal greetings. It
announces that it has fought with every means
against every military assistance to the enemies,
of Soviet Russia. It has always told the workers,
and. will always tell them, that it lies chiefly within
their power to help the Russian Revolution on to
victory. It invites the party in parliament, as
well as all comrades, to offer a solid front against
the coalition which has been formed between the
entente power, capitalistic and feudal Poland, and
the Russian monarchists, against the regime of the
People's Commissaries. It promises to make use
of all forms of propaganda in order to support
the Soviet revolution in this most critical hour,
from which it must emerge victorious, in order
that all humanity may be liberated."
FRENCH AND GERMAN PEOPLE
SUPPORT SOVIET RUSSIA
Beblin, June 6. — According to newspaper re-
ports, the executive body of the association of
German railroad workers and state employes has
decided to order their members to refuse flatly to
render services in the transportation though Ger-
many of troops of the Entente for Poland against
Russia.
The permanent commission on administration
of the French Socialist Party unanimously passed,
at its last meeting, among other things, the follow-
ing resolution:
"The Polish imperialists, the faithful executors
of the decrees of the council of imperialists of
"SOVIET RUSSIA PAMPHLETS"
The Russian Soviet Government Bureau is
issuing a series of pamphlet reprints of important
Soviet documents. The following are the first
four of these pamphlets:
1. The Labor Laws of Soviet Russia. Official
text, with introduction, by the Bureau, and
an answer to a criticism by Mr. W. C
Redfield. 52 pages, stiff paper cover, price
10 cents.
This is a new edition of the Labor Laws,
and every owner of the old edition should
have it.
2. The Laws on Marriage and Domestic Rela-
tions. To be ready about September first.
Price 15 cents.
3. Two Years of Foreign Policy, by George
Chicherin. The relations of the Russian
Socialist Federal Soviet Republic with for-
eign nations, from November 7, 1917, to
November 7, 1919. 36 pages, stiff paper
cover, price 10 cents.
4. Protection of Labor in Soviet Russia, by
S. Kaplun, of the People's Commissariat of
Labor. This pamphlet, an interpretation of
the labor laws of Soviet Russia, is necessary
to a full understanding of these laws, and
readers should therefore order it in addition
to their copies of the laws. This pamphlet
has never been published in Soviet Russia.
To be ready August 1. Price 10 Cents.
Other pamphlets will follow. Special rates for
quantities.
Address :
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 West 40th Street New York City
Are you reading our weekly, Soviet Russia,
the official organ of the Russian Soviet Govern-
ment Bureau?
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles.
THERE is an increasing disposition in Europe,
especially in England, to consider the problem
of the Czar's debts in a more candid and reason-
able spirit. There is less arrogant talk of "insist-
ing" upon "sacred obligations", and as the moment
of adjustment between Soviet Russia and capitalist
Europe draws nearer there is a dawning realization
that there will be two sides of the ledger to con-
sider. Though propagandists tried to misrepre-
sent its real significance, there was food for
thought in the reminder casually put forward by
a Soviet official that among things "repudiated"
by the workers' republic was the claim to Constan-
tinople which had been given to Imperialist Rus-
sia by her allies as a bribe for continued allegiance.
No one of intelligence seriously thought from this
remark that Soviet Russia intended to press a
claim for the possession of Constantinople. Never-
theless, the moral was sufficiently pointed and it
has been increasingly difficult ever since for French
and English politicians to talk glibly about Rus-
sia's obligations without being reminded that their
words cut both ways.
Several English writers have pointed out that a
strict insistance upon a capitalist interpretation
of international law might prove embarrassing in
the final settlement. It is not forgotten that a
trifling lapse in neutrality in the "Alabama" case
cost England heavily in damages. Mr. H. N.
Brailsford, in a recent discussion of the Russian
credit and debit, recalls the "Alabama" incident.
"Compare this case," he writes, "with our con-
duct in the Russian Civil War . . . Openly, yet
without a declaration of war, we have backed the
beaten 'White* cause with troops, 'missions', naval
bombardments, and the blockade, with supplies of
munitions and direct subsidies. If a fair court
could be formed, it would certainly inflict on us
for these deliberate breaches of neutrality a fine
which would multiply the 'Alabama' damages a
hundredfold, and when the court had dealt with
us it would go on to rain similar fines upon Amer-
ica, France, Japan, and Czecho-Slovakia . . .
Add up one page of the ledger, the loss suffered
by investors, merchants and bondholders, the sabot-
age, and the slaughter, due to our lawless blockade
and our direct intervention in the civil war, and
then dare to say that Russia is in our debt."
That these considerations had due weight is seen
in the terms of the official memorandum of the
Digitized by W
terms upon which Great Britain has suggested the
renewal of commercial relations with Russia. Ac-
cording to the press reports, this memorandum
stated that the British Government "was prepared
to leave the determination ... of questions re-
lating to debts or claims by Great Britain on
Russia or by Russia on Great Britain to be mu-
tually settled at peace negotiations." It is plain
enough that Mr. Lloyd George realizes that he will
have to pay for Mr. Winston Churchill's indis-
cretions.-
* * *
pRIENDS of Soviet Russia have justly com-
J " plained of the monstrous campaign of false-
hood and vilification conducted by the capitalist
press of all countries against the Russian revolu-
tion and the workers' republic. All the powerful
resources of censorship and propaganda have been
massed in an attempt to mislead the always tract-
able middle class opinion and to discourage and
stultify the courage and faith of socialists. The
thing was vastly over-done, to be sure, and by the
very grotesqueness of their perversions the pro-
pagandists have destroyed their own power. Never-
theless, it must be admitted that they achieved a
certain ghastly measure of success, to be reckoned
in terms of economic wastage and human suffer-
ings endured by the Russian workers in their long
struggle against blockade and war. The blockade
is broken at last and the war ends in magnificent
victory for the workers. Nevertheless, the long
duration of the struggle and all the destruc-
tion and agony is to be charged to the successful
efforts of those who successfully misled public
opinion by their lies and sophistries and delayed
the effective protests of the laboring masses of
Europe and America while the great conspiracy
against the Russian workers was carried on to its
ultimate failure. Now that it has come to final
and utter failure, it is well for us not to blind
ourselves to the reason why it lasted so long. We
cannot doubt that it would have failed earlier had
the workers of all lands known the truth sooner.
Moreover, we cannot dismiss the case by easy
abuse of the bourgeois press. In spite of all lies,
in spite of censorships and concealments, the truth
about the revolution and the Soviet Republic was
never altogether inaccessible to any one with suf-
ficient interest to investigate and sufficient intel-
ligence to discriminate between facts and propa-
ganda. Nor was any exceptional intelligence re-
quired for this discrimination. All that was neces-
sary was a sufficiently class-conscious distrust of
all the outgivings of the capitalistic and social-
patriotic press. Complete befuddlement came only
upon those who struck the impartial pose and made
the ridiculous and impossible pretense of "consid-
ering all the testimony." Where the great bulk of
the testimony was so inevitably prejudiced, even
when not deliberately perjurd, this juryman atti-
tude could at best lead only to doubt and misgiv-
ings and more generally to complete delusion.
What was necessary was a certain honest preju-
dice. For isstimcfi, n prejudice against the New
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York Times, to take a single example, but in no
invidious spirit. The Times is a great newspaper
with a vast and efficient organization for the col-
lection and transmission of news. During the past
two years any one could learn much about the
Russian Bevolution from the Times. Properly
read, the Times from day to day has contained
sufficient truthful information about Russia to en-
able a discriminating reader to arrive at a con-
clusion quite the opposite from that entertained
by its editors. All that was required was a suf-
ficient degree of prejudice and suspicion.
Mr. Evans Clark has included an interesting
"life" of Lenin, as lived in the columns of the
Times, in his pamphlet, "Facts and Fabrications
about Soviet Russia", recently published by the
Rand School. We can only quote a few chapters
from this entertaining biography.
All from the New York Times-. January
16, 1918, Lenin Sanitarium; February 20,
Heard Lenin Had Fled; March 12, Lenin
Dismissed Trotzky; April 28, Revolt in Rus-
sia — Grand Duke Michael Emperor ; June 23,
Lenin Ready to Resign; August 12, Lenm
May Seek Refuge in Berlin; August 16, Bol-
sheviki Flee Moscow; August 20, Bolshevist
Chiefs Reported on Warship at Kronstadt
Ready to Flee; December 9, Red Leaders
Ready to Flee to Sweden; December 28, Lu-
dendorf Chief of Soviet Army; January 3,
1919, Trotzky Dictator — Arrests Lenin; Jan-
uary 24, Trotzky's Forces Quit Petrograd;
April 22, Red Rule Totters; September, 26,
Says Lenin is Captive in Kremlin; Septem-
ber 26, Rumor that Lenin is Slain; and so on.
Mr. Clark has made a similar compilation of
the history of Petrograd. From September 12,
1918, to October 20, 1919, take it from dispatches
in the Times, Petrograd "fell" seven times, was
five times in "revolt", and twice in "flames", not
to mention a constant succession of massacres, pil-
lages and bombardments. In spite of this, how-
ever, the truth prevails. No one believes today
that Lenin arrested Trotsky or that Trotsky ar-
rested Lenin, and no one believes that Petrograd
ever fell; nor need any one of sufficient caution
have ever believed these things. Still less is there
any excuse for believing them when they are re-
printed tomorrow and the day after as they in-
evitably will be. Hold fast to a determined pre-
judice, we repeat, and you can still read the capi-
talist press and still know the truth about Russia.
Moreover there is already available a considerable
library of reliable literature on all phases of the
revolution and the Soviet Government.
Mr. Clark has included in his pamphlet an ex-
tensive, though necessarily incomplete, biblio-
graphy of books, pamphlets and magazine articles
relating to Soviet Russia. It is a long list which
mocks at the censorships and is a standing chal-
lenge to anyone who still ventures to complain that
the truth about Russia is inaccessible.
DigmzetfbyV^UUglL
/CONSPICUOUS in the published accounts of
^^ the official British memorandum on the con-
ditions of the approaching trade agreement with
Soviet Russia was the declaration that "the Bri-
tish Government had no intention of debarring
any Russian on the ground of his communist opin-
ion, provided the agents of the Russian Govern-
ment complied with normal conditions of friendly
international intercourse". The statement would
seem almost superflous, having in mind the most
obvious essentials of the case. It is plain enough
that the capitalist states cannot outlaw Russian
communists merely because their opinions are dis-
pleasing. Russia has to be dealt with, and, much
as the capitalist politicians may dislike the thought
of it, they are unable to contrive any satisfactory
method of dealing with Russia except through
Russian communists. The first plan was to refuse
to deal with communists and to recognize only
czarists and counter-revolutionists. This plan
collapsed with the defeat of the czarists and the
counter-revolution. Then there was the scheme
of dealing through the cooperators, who, it was
hoped, might somehow or other be free from the
communist taint. But this hope died in its turn
when it was discovered that the only cooperators
with whom it was profitable to deal were merely
communists under another name. Then for a
while the English Government tried absurdly to
discriminate between communists, saying that such
and such might come to London, but such another
could be entertained only at the safe distance of
Copenhagen. This was too ridiculous. And so
at last England announces that she never had any
intention of debarring any Russian "on the ground
of his communist opinion."
A sensible decision, and the only one which-
will allow of the resumption of normal commercial
intercourse between Soviet Russia and any capi-
talist country. England, desiring to trade with
Russia, is rapidly sweeping away all the obstacles,*
real and fantastic, which the intrigues of reaction-
ary politicians and the vaporings of a fanatical
press have contrived to erect. As the barriers top-
ple one by one they are seen to be not too formida-
ble as they sometimes appeared. As soon as the
economic pressure overtook political prejudice, the-
blockade was broken. If you don't want to trade
with Russia, then, of course, trade is impossible*
and all communists are uncongenial. But if you
have goods to sell, Russia is a veritable oasis in
a desert of bankruptcy and a representative of the-
Commissariat of Foreign Trade is a welcome
visitor, whatever his political opinions.
* * #
pERSONS who feel that there is any danger of
■*■ their being deceived by current misrepresen-
tations as to the absence of democracy in Russia
should read the article appearing on page 84 of
this issue, entitled "Who Participates in the
Government", in which unqualified support may
be found for the opinion — corresponding to the-
fact — that there is absolute freedom of representa-
tion in Soviet Russia.
IVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
July 24, 1920
The Battle with Disease in Soviet Russia
[The following is an article sent from Petrograd in April, 1920, by Jakob Friis, special cor-
respondent of "SocialrDemokraten" Christiania, Norway, and printed in a recent issue of that
paper.]
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/~)N MY journey through Esthonia I heard so
^^ many horrible stories about health conditions
in Russia, that I passed over the boundary line
with a certain sense of the gravity of the situation.
I could not help this attitude, all the more since
the conditions on the Esthonian side were any-
thing but pleasant. At Narva we almost felt the
typhus in the air, for it is at that city that the
remiains of the Yudenich army are concentrated.
That army, as everyone knows, was a veritable
army of the pest, in a literal as well as in a fig-
urative meaning. At Narva, in its "best" hotel,
I soon noticed I had lice, and became quite de-
pressed through fear of typhus. "If it is going
to be worse than this in Russia," I voluntarily
thought, "it will be a matter of life and death."
When I got to Petrograd, my first question was
therefore this: "How about the epidemics that
are said to be raging here ?" In order to give me
a satisfactory answer to this question, I was re-
ferred to a great building in a little street run-
ning off the Nevsky Prospect, the Commissariat
of Medicine, where one of the veterans of Social-
ism, Dr. Pervukhin, is the leading spirit. I asked
him to tell me something about the health con-
ditions and about the struggle against epidemics.
"Of course we have had many epidemics to
struggle against."
"The difficulties of nourishment, the blockade,
the civil war, — all these have of course had a pow-
erfully depressing influence even on the health
situation, but in spite of everything, we can say
confidentially that conditions have been and are on
the average better than in the border states, al-
though the latter have been well supplied both
with foodstuffs and with medicines. Our deficien-
cies that have been mentioned are much out-
weighed. This summer we had no cholera epi-
demic, and spotted typhus has been practically put
down in Russia. The danger of infection came
generally from the White armies, from the hordes
of Denikin, Kolchak, and Yudenich. Practically
all the prisoners we took were infected with typhus,
but we managed to keep them isolated. We over-
came the Spanish influenza better than the western
world did. Thanks to the new social conditions
created by the Soviet Power we are in a position
to combat epidemics with much greater force than
in the old days. Now that all dwellings are na-
tionalized, no one any longer lives in the surround-
ings so dangerous to health which many had to
put up with under the old regime. By means of
our grain monopoly, foodstuffs are guaranteed first
of all to the sick and weak. In consequence of
the nationalization of the drug stores, our scanty
supplies of medicaments are distributed equitably.
It would have been impossible for any capitalistic
government to protect the popular health so well
Digitized by L.i i
as the Soviet power has been able to do. By the
decree of July 21, 1918, the entire system of
medicine in Russia was placed under a single con-
trol, the Commissariat for Public Health, which
has absolute authority in all medical questions. A
few figures will show what this commissariat has
succeeded in doing. At Moscow, before the No-
vember Revolution, there were about 8,000 sick
beds for civilians and 100,000 for soldiers. We
now have 22,000 for civilians and 1,500,000 for
soldiers.* We then had £0,000 sanitary physicians
we now have 34,000. We then had 31,000 school
physicians; we now have 137,000. We then had
about 10,000 physicians who examined foodstuffs;
we now have 28,000. All the best specialists at
Moscow have now been assigned to public hospi-
tals and anyone may apply to them for treatment.
The winter of 1918-1919 was the worst time we
had to go through, for spotted typhus was then
at its height. By the summer of 1919 it had
more or less affected 1,500,000 people in Russia.
And yet it had not come as a surprise to the medi-
cal authorities. A plan for combatting the epi-
demic had been worked out in advance, circulars
and pamphlets concerning the disease had been
scattered in great quantities, all the bacteriological
institutes were nationalized and extended. The
struggle against the epidemics has been constantly
waged by the whole population. Special workers'
commissions, consisting of representatives of trade
unions, factory committees, and other workers' and
peasants' organizations, have conducted the work
of education from this field ; they have supervised
the matter of cleanliness, have erected bathing es-
tablishments, etc. In spite of all external dif-
ficulties, the health conditions have become better
and better systematized and adjusted during the
past year. New factories for medicaments have been
erected, and great stocks have been confiscated
from the speculators in medicaments. Children
receive special attention in Russia, not only in
the field of alimentation, but also in the hygienic
field. Already in December, 1917, a special coun-
cil of physicians and pedagogues was organized
for the protection of the health of the young.
Their work is divided into three sections :
1. Sanitary inspection at all children's institu-
tions, schools, children's homes, kindergar-
tens, etc.
2 . Physical culture.
3. Distribution of children, in accordance with
their conditions of health, to the various
medico - pedagogical institutions. (Forest
schools, auxiliary schools, schools for morally
defective children.)
♦These figures, which seem somewhat excessive, are
taken from the Norwegian article as it stands. We
cannot vouch for their correctness.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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July 24, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
95
Eussia was the first country in the world (1918),
to pass a decree demanding that no persons under
eighteen years of age should be stamped as crimi-
nals by the courts. Such transgressors as are min-
ors are subject to a medico-pedagogic treatment.
By the decree of May 17, 1919, free alimenta-
tion of all children under sixteen years of age was
introduced. This decree has of course had an
enormous influence in the hygienic field also. We
njay say confidently, on the whole, that what was
done before the revolution, for feeding the chil-
dren and keeping them healthy, was as nothing;
while at present the work of all the authorities
— even of the whole population — is directed to-
ward the care of children as the first and most
important task of all. Only a physically and spir-
itually healthy generation can put through the
social revolution and build up a communistic so-
ciety. Thus, the guiding thought in the work of
Soviet Russia is that of the coming generation.
"May I have statistical data as to those who
became sick or who died in Petrograd during the
last half year ?" I finally asked Pervukhin.
"Yes, you shall have them." He rang for his
assistant and asked him for this material. A
moment later the assistant returned with a heap
of detailed reports from hospitals. I copied the
following table:
1919
1920
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Jan. Febr.
Typhus patients 1603
2227
2153
3939 —
Of these there died 90
Total number of pa-
tients 139S8
Total number of deaths
including children . . 1295
153
14982
1732
214
14584
1704
345 —
16030 23060
1652 1819
This table, of course, governs only the hospitals.
But since all the hospitals give free treatment, it
is self evident that the totals of deaths cannot
be much greater than the totals given for the hos-
pitals. As far as I know, these figures cannot be
said to be abnormally large, when the distress of
the situation is considered, and when it is recalled
that Petrograd has now about one million in-
habitants.
The last thing Pervuchin told me was that the
day I spoke to him there were 350 empty beds
in the hospitals of Petrograd. This shows at any
rate that there is no truth in what I heard in
Esthonia and what the bourgeois press of Europe
has tried to tell people, to the effect that Petro-
grad is overfilled with sick people who have no
opportunity to obtain any treatment at all.
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Second Anniversary of the Red Army
"OUR SWORD"
On the 22d of February all Soviet Russia cele-
brated the second anniversary of the Red Army.
At Petrograd, the ceremonies organized on the
occasion of this commemorative fete took on a
particularly imposing character. Comrade Zino-
viev dedicated to them an article entitled, "Our
Sword," emphasizing the important role of the
Red Army for Soviet Russia and the Communist
Internationale. Comrade Zinoviev writes:
"On the ruins of the old Czarist Russia, and
the debris of the Russia of Kerensky, we have be-
gun the organization of our national army. Scarce-
ly two years have passed, and we not only have
this army of flesh and bone, but further, we are
happy witnesses of its dazzling victories over nu-
merous enemies. The history of the human race
has never known conditions so little favorable to
the accomplishment of such a labor. At no time
and in no place has one seen born, in so little
time, an army worthy to serve a great revolution.
Yes, great — we say it loudly — for a revolution is
not great if it cannot withstand by force of arms
all the attacks of its external and internal adver-
saries. Our Revolution of October has triumphed
over them all and therefore merits well this name
of "great," for never has a revolution had so many
external enemies and enemies so cynical as ours.
Nevertheless, the second anniversary of the Red
Army finds all our adversaries defeatd. Our Red
Army has tried its forces in battle and combat,
and it will continue to gain in power from day
to day. A great revolution must solve great prob-
lems, despite all the difficulties which they pre-
sent. Two years ago, and even last year, the
question of command gravely embarrassed us, but
at the present time we can regard it as nearly
solved. In less than two years we have created a
whole line of officers — red commanders. The stu-
dents in our universities become red military
aspirants, study their profession in very abridged
courses. Nevertheless, they do not need to blush
for their fighting qualities, in the presence of the
officers of the old army of the bourgeois regime
who had spent years in perfecting their military
education at superior schools and in special courses.
The Red Army, called to being under painful cir-
cumstances, — not to say insurmountable ones — is
a striking proof of the vitality of the Soviet power.
It is known that an army ordinarily finds itself
attached to the people by many ties, and includes
within itself all the social particularities of its
country. If the Red Army did not have very solid
roots in the masses of the workers and peasants,
the Soviet power would never have been able to
succeed in organizing it. The Red Army — is our
sword, the sword of the revolution of the workers
and the peasants. The hammer and sickle are the
emblems of the Soviet power, but the cross of the
Red Army is not less dear to our people, to the
nations of the whole world. For us, the Red
Army is the army of the Communist Internation-
ale ; it is from this point cf riew that the conscious
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SOVIET RUSSIA
July 24, 1920
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proletariat of the world regard it, and this is also
the greatest recompense for its soldiers and pio-
neers/'
The high point of the first day of the fetes in
honor of the second anniversary of the Eed Army
was the solemn inauguration of a special exposi-
tion followed by a reunion at the quarters of the
administration of the political section of the war
commissariat of Petrograd. This reunion, and es-
pecially the exposition, indicated clearly the in-
tellectual development of the Eed Army, which
accompanies stey by step the icnrease in its mili-
tary strength. This reunion attracted representa-
tives of all the units of the Eed Army of Petro-
grad, the chief commissar of war, Bitker, and a
number of invited guests, as well as the delegates
from various organizations of military instruction.
The symphony orchestra of the political adminis-
tration of the War Commissariat played the Inter-
nationale and then interpreted artistically the can-
tata, "Hail to the Warriors," composed for the
special occasion of this fete by the orchestra leader,
Varlish.
The representative of the political section then
informed the audience that theatrical pieces of a
nature to glorify the present fete being absolutely
lacking, a competition had been declared by the
administration of the political section. Twenty
dramatic works (besides a nuber of poems), had
been presented to the jury, which had awarded
prizes to six authors. The first prize had been
given to the Society of Dramatic Artists for the
piece, "The Eed Year." After the reunion, the
audience was invited to visit the exposition, or-
ganized by the administration of the political sec-
tion of the war commissariat, and representing all
phases of the intellectual and artistic life of the
Bed soldier. There are numerous photographs,
poems and art works (painting and sculpture), the
artists being all Eed soldiers.
The All-Russian Trade Union Congress
[The following report, dated Moscow, April 8, was sent to "Sorial-Demokraten," Christiania,
Norway, by Jakob Friis, special correspondent of that paper in Russia. It was printed in "Social-
Demokraten" on June 3, 1920.]
T ST THE great hall in the former assembly
A building of the nobility, the AU-Eussian Trade
Union Congress was opened yesterday. The palace
was seized by the trade union movement after the
revolution, and reconstructed as the chief edifice
for trade union offices. It is of course a very
handsome building, on which nothing has been
spared in the matter of decoration. The nobility
here had their clubrooms. After they left, there
were found fourteen great chests full of playing
cards. In the great hall in which the trade tran-
sactions are now proceeding, the nobility had held
its balls. Illuminated by the great candelabra,
splendid costumes had dazzled beholders on many
a "great" evening in the sublime presence of the
czar and czarina. Now it is a very ordinary meet-
ing of plain workingmen that has taken up its
abode here. But there are 1,600 of them, and
they come from all sections, from Murmansk in
the north to Baku in the south. They have gath-
ered to discuss the higher affairs of their nation ;
they have gathered not for celebration but for
work. In an apartment behind the platform, the
members of the trade union secretariat are gath-
ered. There sit Chairman Tomski; Vice-Chair-
man Lozovsky; Melnichansky, Chairman of the
Moscow Trade Union Council; Schmidt, Com-
missar of Labor ; Tsyperovich, Manager of Dvorets
Truda (the trade union central), at Petrograd;
Secretaries Antselovishch and Glebov, from Pet-
rograd, etc. Tomteki is a little black haired man,
thirty-seven years old, a lithographer by trade,
who entered the labor movement in 1904 and was
immediately afterward sentenced to ten years*
hard labor in Siberia. He worked there in chains
for four years, and then a few years without chains,
after which he was pardoned.
d LiGOgle
Lozovsky is somewhat older. His first impri-
sonment was in 1904, his second in 1905, when
he was sentenced to imprisonment for life and
sent to Irkutsk. He fled the day after his ar-
rival and reached Paris, where he worked for nine
years, first as a chauffeur, then as manager of a
garage and later as a journalist, cooperative secre-
tary, etc., returning to Eussia in 1917.
Melnichansky is thirty-one years old, and was
first arrested in 1904 at the age of fifteen. He
succeeded in escaping, and took part in the up-
rising at Odessa in 1905. He was arrested and
again succeeded in making his escape. After hav-
ing been again arrested, he was sentenced to im-
prisonment for life and sent to Siberia, making
his escape immediately after his arrival there. He
took part in the party congress at Nikolai under
a false name, after which he was again arrested.
After an imprisonment of eighteen months, he
was sentenced to eight years in Siberia, whence
he fled to the Urals. Having again undertaken
revolutionary work — this time the publication of
illegal periodicals — he was arrested and again put
in prison for eighteen months, and sentenced to
banishment to Siberia for life, and of course he
again escaped. This time he went to America.
He was for a while business manager of the Bus-
sian daily, The New World. During this entire
period he was a Menshevik internationalist, only
becoming a Bolshevik after his arrival in Eussia
in 1917. He became secretary of the Moscow Cen-
tral Soviet, and a member of the Committee of
the Moscow Soviet, as well as of the Central Ex-
ecutive Committee.
So it is with all of them. Lozovsky interrupts
my biographical curiosity. "All the members of
the Central Executive Committee have been in
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
July 24, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
97
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prison several years, and all of them have several
decades of party activity behind them," he de-
clares.
Lozovsky prefers to explain to me the develop-
ment of the Trade Union Movement since the
revolution.
"It is characteristic for the Bussian Trade
Union movement that it has a small number of
trade unions. While in France there are sixty-
three, in Germany forty-eight, and in England
several hundred, we in Russia have only thirty-
one, and after the resolutions that are to be adopted
at this Congress, the number will be only twenty-
five. Our union is not an industrial union in the
ordinary sense of the word, but an operative union
(Mr. Friis uses the Norwegian word industribed-
rift). All the workers, as workers, in a metallur-
gical factory, for example, are in the union of
the metallurgical workers. As is well known, the
trade union movement in Russia is of very recent
date. Even after the first revolution of 1917,
there were no trade unions in Russia. But as
early as June, 1917, the number of trade organ-
ized laborers was 1,400,000; in January, 1918, it
was 2,500,000, and in February, 1919, 3,500,000.
There have now arrived at the Congress 1,600
delegates representing about 4,000,000 workers.
There have arrived representatives, among others,
from Murmansk in the north and from Baku in
the south. The latter have arrived illegally, since
Baku, as you know, is still in the hands of the
English. No representatives from Poland, Fin-
land, or Lithuania have arrived. Of the 1,600,
fully 1,300 have the right to vote; 300 have an
advisory function. By parties they run as fol-
lows: thirty Mensheviks; twenty-five "sympathiz-
ers" (with the Communists), 200 non-partisan,
the rest are Communists."
Lozovsky developed for me the underlying prin-
cipal of the trade union movement under Com-
munism.
'The trade union movement under the dictator-
ship of the proletariat," he said, "is entirely dif-
ferent from the trade union movement under capi-
talism. What is a dictatorship of the proletariat ?
It is a form of political government by the work-
ing class. If the trade unions should wish to
preserve their independence under the dictator-
ship of the proletariat, what would this amount
to? It would amount to a maintenance of the
distinction between the state as an economic or-
ganization, and the state as a political organiza-
tion, as the state of the workers. Such a distinc-
tion is impossible. By the very act of seizing the
power in the state, the working class has made
it impossible for the trade unions to preserve their
independence of the state. The trade unions, on
the contrary, have now become the basis for the
Soviets — they are the most important instrument
of Soviet authority. While the trade unions be-
fore were class struggle organizations — in as far
as they were not such, they were "yellow" organi-
zations of traders — they are now, if not officially
regulated state organizations, at least state-con-
structive organizations. The question is no longer
— how is capitalism* to be abolished? — but, In what
manner shall the trade unions participate in pro-
ductionf"
"But are there no oppositions or frictions be-
tween the Soviets and the trade unions ?"
"No. In the first months after the revolution
there were some differences. There were reaction-
ary trade unions, which were against the Soviet
Oovernmnt. Now the Soviets and the trade unions
are united and working side by side."
"What is the attitude of the trade union move-
ment toward the wage system ? Will it abolish the
wage system?"
"Yes, but this cannot be done at one stroke.
Workers are being paid with increasing frequency
in the form of products, and not with money. But
the tariffs are still drawn up in terms of money.
But it is the trade unions themselves that estab-
lish the tariffs. This is a great difference as com-
pared with all other countries."
"Then what is the cause of the conflict within
the trade union movement ?"
"The Mensheviks want the trade union move-
ment to maintain its 'independence* of the state.
And we, as I have indicated, think this is an im-
possibility in a workers* state. There are no other
opposition tendencies in the trade union move-
ment than those of the Mensheviki, and they are
an insignificant minority."
"What is the relation of the trade union move-
ment to the party?" (The Communist party is
meant.)
"The party leads the trade union movement.
The leaders of the trade union movement are also
among the leadership of the party."
"The trade union movement is therefore a poli-
tical organ in Russia?"
"It is a political movement, and for this reason
the trade union movement at this congress will
apply for membership in the Third Internationale.
It is of equally great importance for the trade
union movement and for the political movement
to work on an international scale. If capitalism
is to maintain itself, let us say for the next ten
years, in western Europe, the workers in Russia
will hardly be able to retain their power."
"How about the new principles for industrial
leadership ?"
"Melnichansky can tell you more about that
than I."
Jakob Friis.
CHANGES OF ADDRESS
Readers wishing to have their addresses
changed should give notice of such changes at
least one week before they expect the weekly to
be delivered at the new address.
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SOVIET EUSSIA
July 24, 1920
The Museum of the Revolution
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The magnificent and impressive revolutionary
past of Russia imposes upon us the duty of treat-
ing lovingly and carefully all the materials, so rich
and abundant, which relate to the history of the
revolutionary movement, materials scattered here
and there over the whole territory of the country.
The Museum of the Revolution, founded upon the
initiative of the Petrograd Soviet, has the purpose
of collecting everything having reference to the
revolutionary movement, in order that future
generations may know its history and learn to
know those who were sacrificed for their lib-
erty. But this information is not the only pur-
pose of the Museum: it proposes also to collect
piously the numerous relics — letters, photographs,
drawings, note-books, appeals, manuscripts — which
once belonged to citizens who had in one way or
another engraved their names on the pages of the
history of the great struggle of the working class.
The Museum of the Revolution is collecting and
completing incessantly these collections, adding to
them everything connected in the least degree with
the revolutionary movement. All these materials
are destined to complete directly the inventory of
the Museum, and will be printed, in part, in the
review: "The Museum of the Revolution." The
regional Soviets, the councils of the communes,
the agricultural communes, and the other organi-
zations of the revolutionary State will find in it
a faithful expression of themselves.
On the 11th of January, there took place in the
Art Palace the inauguration of the Museum of
the Revolution. The vast hall of the Palace was
crowded with people. Portraits of the first Russian
revolutionists (from the epoch of Czar Nicho-
las I.), and other eminent revolutionists, hand-
somely decorated, added to the elegance of the
hall. The ceremony of the inauguration began
very solemnly with the address by Comrade Zino-
viev, who related to the audience the purpose and
the fundamental tasks of the Museum, and spoke
of the latest brilliant successes of the Red Army.
Comrade Zinoviev indicated among other things,
the coincidence of the two dates : that of the in-
auguration of the Museum of the Revolution, and
that of the fall of the last stronghold of the coun-
ter-revolutionaries — the city of Rostov-on-the-Don,
and emphasized the fact that this coincidence was
not at all accidental. It was, on the contrary, sym-
bolic, and presaged for us the imminent end of the
bloody war, which would permit the Soviet Power
to take to the peaceful work of social organization
and new spiritual conquests. Comrade Zinoviev
then gave several characteristics of the Russian
revolutionists, beginning with those of the time of
Nicholas I. and ending with Volodarsky and
Uritzky — the last victims of the counter-revolu-
tionary terror of our own time. The speaker in-
vited the audience to rise in honor of the memory
of these martyrs. Comrade Zinoviev ended his
address by stating that the Museum of the Revo-
lution could accomplish its task only with the
support of all sections of the population, and, par-
ticularly, of the working masses. The publicist
Vodovosov next took the floor to trace the history
of the first revolutionary movement of 1830, and
its important part in the development of Russian
social and political life. Another publicist, P.
Stchegolev, read a similar report, but insisted par-
ticularly upon one detail of this movement, name-
ly, the revolt of the Chernigov regiment on the
3d of January, 1826, and the role of the soldiers
in this affair. The journalist Novorussky referred
in his address to the tasks of the Museum and in-
vited the audience to give its support and aid.
Comrade Lunacharsky devoted his report to the
characteristics of the leaders and partisans in the
first revolutionary movement of 1830. The meet-
ing ended with a declaration by Comrade Zinoviev
that a resolution had been adopted to erect a
monument to these revolutionists in the Senate
Place.
o
Clement Arkadyevich Timiryazev
On the 29th of April Professor Timirayzev died
in Moscow. He was one of the greatest of Russian
scientists. Born in 1843, he was appointed to a
professorship at the Agricultural Institute in the
year 1871, and in 1877 he was called to the chair
of Plant Physiology at Moscow University. Be-
sides special scientific works, Timirayzev has left
us popular works on natural science such as "Ag-
riculture and Plant Physiology", "Charles Dar-
win and His Theory", and the "Life of Plants".
But special significance is attached to him in that
he, as a creative spirit, as early as November,
1918, understood the Great Revolution and had
joined the workers. On this account he made
many enemies among the bourgeois intelligentsia
who were carrying on sabotage. In an article in
Pravda, in memoriam, Bucharin says : "In Timi-
rayezev old Russia has lost her last scholar, Soviet
Russia her first."
Characteristic of the personality of Timirayzev
is the following letter which he published ten
days before his death in Trudovaya Nydelya
(Labor Week) on April 19, 1920:
Comrades !
Elected by the comrades who are working in the car
construction workshops of the Moscow-Kursk Railway,
I hasten to express first of all my most heartfelt ap-
preciation and at the same time my regrets at the
fact that my old age and illness do not permit me to
assist at today's session. Furthermore I am faced with
the question: How can I justify the confidence placed
in me, what can I contribute in the service of our
common cause? After the magnificent, unselfish sue-
cesses fefeftf art.ftriis»f £ ,he Red Anny -
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who saved our Soviet Republic when at the very verge
of destruction, and have thereby called forth the ad-
miration and respect of our enemies, it is now the turn
of the Red Labor Army. All of us, old and young,
muscle and brain workers must join together in a
common labor army in order to obtain further fruits
of our victory.
The fight against the enemy without, the struggle
against sabotage within, even liberty — are only means;
the aim is — the well-being and happiness of the people ;
and they will be accomplished only through productive
labor.
Workl Work! Work!
That is the call that must resound from morning until
night, from one end to the other of our much- tried
land which has the utmost right to be proud of what
she has already accomplished, but which has not yet
received the well-earned reward for her sacrifices, for
all her heroic deeds. At this moment there is no
work that is insignificant, unimportant, or in any way
ncgiible. There is only one kind of work — a necessary
and idealistic work. But the work of an old man can
still possess a peculiar importance. The free uncon-
strained work of an old man, even if not within the
calculations of the general work of the people, can
inflame the spirit of the young, can awaken a sense of
shame in the idle.
I have only one healthy arm, but it could turn the
crank of a wheel if necessary ; I have only one healthy
kg, but that will not keep me from stamping the
earth with my feet. There are lands which call them-
selves free where this sort of work is prescribed as
a shameful punishment for criminals; but, I repeat,
in our free land there can be at the present moment
no work that is shameful or humiliating.
My head is old, but will not fail me at work. My
scientific experience of many years might perhaps be
of use in the educational work or in the field of agri-
culture. And, another point: There was a time when
my words of conviction found an echo in several gen-
erations of students; perhaps even now they may be
a prop to the vacillating, and admonish those who are
shirking the common work to reflect on their position.
Therefore, comrades, let us all get down to our work
together, without placing our hands in our laps, and
may our Soviet Republic flourish, created as it was by
the unselfish heroic deeds of the workers and peasants,
and saved before our very eyes by our glorious Red
Army.
K. Timiryazev,
Member of the Moscow Soviet.
eminent has directed all its energies to the prob-
lem of economic reconstruction. The Eed Army
has been turned into labor armies, which are dis-
charging their tasks with success. The army is
disciplined to a high degree, and the spirit of the
soldiers is fine. The Polish attack has merely had
the effect of strengthening the army. Its confi-
dence in victory is unshakable.
"The Soviet Government has carried out a tre-
mendous cultural labor. No previous regime has
ever done so much in this direction as the Soviet
Government which is carrying on a ruthless strug-
gle against illiteracy. In a short time there will
no longer be any illiteracy in Russia. However,
the cultural work is being hindered by a lack of
teachers and assistants. Theatre tickets are dis-
tributed among the people and the theatres are
attended almost exclusively by the proletariat.
"The Soviet Government is at present employ-
ing trained specialists in almost every line, and is
developing constantly new forces, which do their
work well. Revolutionary conditions are giving
place to a permanent consolidation, and after the
certain victory over Poland, Russia will be the only
country with a healthy development in Europe,
if not in the world."
Thus speaks Psenicka, a counter-revolutionist.
What is the reason for this counter-revolutionary's
expressing himself so straightforwardly on condi-
tions in Soviet Russia? Is it simply the desire
for truth, or is the reason the present orientation
of Czechic nationalism which beholds its
enenvy in Poland? The latter is more probably
the case. The desire for truth is not so powerful
among the bourgeoisie as to force its way through
other motives. And therefore Soviet Russia and
the European proletariat as a whole must still
struggle along against the only industry which is
at present at the peak of production, — namely,
the industry of lies.
(Signed) Heneick Ungab.
o
A CZECHIC SOCIAL PATRIOT ON
SOVIET RUSSIA
Prague, May 27. — Josef Psenicka, a recently ar-
rived Czecho-Slovak legionary, cannot in any way
be suspected of Bolshevik sympathies. He has a
counter-revolutionary past, the like of which would
be hard to match even among the defilers of Soviet
Eus8ia. While the latter, newspaper prostitutes
for the most part, have been able to consume in
comparative leisure and comfort the pay given
them by their employers, Psenicka has had to go
through the experience of being condemned to
death, only escaping execution by being pardoned.
Two years ago he was imprisoned at Moscow, and
he has now finally been sent home through the in-
termediation of the Czecho-Slovak Foreign Minis-
ter. He recently delivered a lecture at Prague,
saying among other things the following :
TThe Russian Revolution may now be consid-
ered as completely successful, and the Soviet Gov-
BOROTBISTS FOR SOVIETS
The Executive Committee for the Left Social
Revolutionary Party in Ukraine (Borotbists) has
published a resolution in which it approves the
policy of the Communist party. Under these cir-
cumstances, the Executive Committee finds it un-
necessary to support two separate organizations to
carry out Soviet policies. The revolutionary move-
ment of the country will now be united at this
critical moment, in the battle against foreign im-
perialism.
WORKERS' DETERMINATION
It is reported from Rome by Le Matin that the
Italian land organizations have interfered in the
matter concerning the two boats which are lying
in Genoa, which belong to Denikin, and which
the sailors have vainly tried to seize. The workers
have informed the authorities that they will op-
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TBSSBN AND KNUDSBN DEAD
[A recent issue of "Social-Demokraten", Nor-
way, prints an answer received by the Norwegian
Foreign Department to a question addressed by
it to the Soviet Government, requesting informor
tion concerning the fate of two Norwegian sailors
known to have left Boaid Amundsen's ship, the
"Maud", and to have entered Siberian territory
that has since come into the possession of the
Soviet Government.]
The Foreign Department has received the fol-
lowing wireless telegram dated Moscow, May 28 :
"Referring to our radio-telegram of April 9
concerning the sailors Tessen and Knudsen, be-
longing to Amundsen's expedition, we report that
as a result of our investigation we have learned
that the two sailors died in the winter of 1914 at
Cape Pill. We expect further information from
Yenisseisk and will inform you immediately on
their arrival/'
Note: Probably 1914 is a telegraphic error for
1918 or 1919. Cape Pill is also an error; probably
Cape Wild, about 360 kilometers from the place
where the two left the "Maud" is meant. There
is a great supply base there holding provisions for
one man for fl&O days.
Knudsen and Tessen were sailors of Amundsen's
ship "Maud", who left the ship at Cape Chely-
uskin in Ooctober, 1918. Knudsen was well ac-
quanted with the supply base at Cape Wild, which
he helped to establish in 1915.
Paul Knudsen was about 31 years old, and was
born in Helgoland. He had been at sea for a
number of years as a ship's mate and had been a
member of Sverdrup's relief mission. Knudsen
was well known in the region where he appears to
have met his death.
Peter Tessen, who was born at Trendelagen, was
about forty-five years old. Like his comrade, he
was an experienced sailor and had sailed for many
years with Arctic vessels. Tessen was married.
The reason for the death of the two it is now im-
possible to conjecture. Presumably some inform-
ation will arrive concerning this question within
the next few davs.
CHICHERIN'S RADIOS TO FOREIGN
MINISTER IHLEN MUCH DELAYED
Social Demokraten this morning received the
following telegram from the Russian Foreign Min-
ister, Chicherin, dated June 1 :
"Our radio telegrams unfortunately do not
reach Foreign Minister Ihlen. On May 29 I in-
formed him that Consul Geelmyden was enjoying
the best of health at Moscow and entirely free.
He was entirely at liberty either to return to
Novorossiysk or to Norway, together with the next
consignment of Norwegians. But in spite of this,
I again received today a telegram from him put-
ting the same question to me."
In connection with the above telegram, the >/ess
bureau of the Foreign Department reports that
the Foreign Department did not receive the in-
formation mentioned from Moscow until today.
The cause of this is probably that the Norwegian
receiving station at Christiania, is overburdened
with work.
TRADE ROUTE OPENED FROM ENG-
LAND AND SIBERIA
A recent London message reports that Renter's
Telegraph Agency is informed that Jonas Lied
is at present in London on business connected with
a new trade route to the Kara Sea. He has re-
ported to neuter's correspondent that he is author-
ized by the Soviet Government to hire three steam-
ers of 3,500 tons each, to be loaded with factory
products which are to be exchanged for Siberian
products. The vessels are to leave England the
latter part of July and to return from Siberia with
cargoes toward the end of September. Lied said
that he had already received offers to the value of
several million pounds of material for such de-
scription as was needed by the Russians. This was
the Soviet Government's first effort to again bring
Russia into commercial relations with the outside
world. To counteract difficulties encountered in
ice-bound waters, a plan has been drawn up for
erecting radio stations and carrying on aeroplane
traffic, which will keep all parties informed con-
cerning the ice situation.
THE WAR IN THE ORIENT
Moscow, June 2. — The representative of the
Turkestan Commission declared, in an interview
with a correspondent, that the English Govern-
ment is preparing a military base in Persia, and
especially in Korhassan, for the purpose of making
a stand against an invasion of India.
Moscow, June 2. — In addition to the fleet,
which consisted of ten cruisers and seven trans-
ports, an English detachment was also captured
in Enzeli. The Red troops entered the city after
the English evacuated it, and were joyfully greeted
by the Persian workers. The Red troops captured
a great quantity of war supplies and the entire
fleet. The Persian Government understands that
the Red troops will evacuate Enzeli.
FOREIGN WORKERS IN RUSSIA
The President of the Supreme Council of Na-
tional Economy has forwarded a radio-telegram
in which he points out that the workers of foreign
countries who wish to come to Soviet Russia and
look for work should first send special delegations
to study conditions. Workers who emigrate to
Russia cannot expect to obtain better conditions
than the Russian workers.
EVACUATION OF THE CRIMEA
M08DOW, June 5. — The evacuation of the Cri-
mea by the English troops is complete, according
to reports from Sebastopol. English civilians are
leaving the Crimea, along with the troops, on
transport vessels find stammers, en route for Con-
stantino]
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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PERSIA AND SOVIET RUSSIA
Pravda of May 21 states that an exchange of
notes took place between the Persian Government
and the Soviet Government at Moscow, with the
object of opening diplomatic and commercial rela-
tions between Persia and Soviet Russia. The ini-
tiative to this exchange of notes appears to have
been taken by the Persian Government, which, in
a communication to Chicherin, declared that it
had learned with satisfaction of the proclamation
issued in 1918 by the Soviet Government, in which
Persia was recognized as an independent state,
while all the treaties of the Czar's Government
with the Shah were annulled. With the object of
inaugurating friendly relations with the Soviet
Governments of Azerbeijan and Soviet Bussia, the
Persian Government promises to send out two dele-
gations, one to Baku, the other to Moscow. Simul-
taneously, Soviet Russian vessels operating in
Persian waters are guaranteed unimpeded return
to ports in Soviet Bussia and Azerbeijan. The
Persian Government further expresses its desire
to resume commercial relations with Soviet Bus-
sia, and to extend such relations. Finally, the
Persian Government requests that it be informed
whether the Soviet Government of Azerbeijan is
willing to ratify the treaty concluded between Azer-
beijan and Turkey.*
Commissar for Foreign Affairs Chicherin an-
swered on May 120. The Soviet Government greets
Persia's decision to send a diplomatic mission to
Moscow with pleasure, and declares itself ready im-
mediately to reestablish postal and telegraphic re-
lations with Teheran, as well as to continue in its
pursuit of a policy of conciliation and peace to-
ward all the races of Central Asia. As the reason
for the cutting off of relations with Persia, Chi-
cherin enumerates a number of offenses committed
against the diplomatic representatives of Soviet
Bussia at Teheran, as well as against its consuls
in northern Persia, particularly from counter-revo-
lutionary Bussian and English quarters. But the
Soviet Government understands the difficult situ-
ation in which Persia has been placed, and is
therefore quite ready to regard as bygones the
events of the past, on the condition, however, that
the Teheran Government will guarantee complete
security of the new representative and consuls of
Soviet Bussia against eventful violence at flie
hands of the foreign troops still remaining in
Persia.
AID TO THE SWEDISH PROLETARIAT
The Swedish capitalists have declared a lock-
out on their workers. "Petrograd Pravda" makes
an appeal to organize a collection in all the fac-
tories and shops, in the labor unions and in the
detachments of the Bed Army.
The typographical conference of the province
contributed 200,000 rubles for the Swedish work-
ers.
♦It appears that the last sentence refers to two
Azerbeijan governments, one no longer in existence.
After the Bed typographers came the Bed work-
ers in tobacco manufactures.
An assembly was held at the first state factory
with great enthusiasm. The workers decided to
contribute one day's pay for the benefit of the
Swedish workers. This amounted to 350,000
rubles.
The Bed cavalry soldiers also made themselves
heard. They voted the following resolution : "The
cavalry of the N. division of the reserve cavalry,
having learned of the inhuman lockout declared
by the Swedish bourgeoisie, have met in an as-
sembly of the whole division. After hearing the
reports of our comrades, we resolve to give each
according to his means, to aid the bitter lot of the
Swedish workers who tried to follow our road.
"In sending our aid, we say to them: 'Comrades,
Swedish workers, do not waver in your demands,
know that the Bussian proletariat are always ready
to aid you. The Swedish bourgeoisie are terribly
deceived if they think by this inhuman measure
to oblige the workers to yield."
The cavalry added 18,000 rubles to this resolu-
tion.
In all the enterprises and institutions of Petro-
grad collections are being organized for the bene-
fit of the Swedish workers.
Similar collections will probably be organized
throughout Bussia.
RUSSIA AND POLAND
A recent number of Izvestia prints an item by
Badek in which the latter points out the absurdity
of the French policy in driving Poland into its
present hazardous enterprise, which may become
so fatal to the latter, for France needs Poland as
an ally against Germany.
After an analysis of the international situation
Badek concludes as follows :
"We are entering upon this war under condi-
tions ten times as favorable as those in which we
entered the war against Kolchak and Denikin,
who have now been destroyed, — our certainty of
victory is based not only on the alignment of
forces between Poland and Bussia, but even to a
greater extent upon the entire international situ-
ation."
ARREST OP BATUM BOLSHEVIKS
The Moscow wireless reports that the British
in Batum continue to arrest all suspected of Bol-
shevism. Moscow further alleges that two Bol-
sheviks were deported from Batum to Constantin-
ople and there shot by the British. — Wireless Press,
Manchester Ouardian, June 16.
EARLY ISSUES
The next issue of Soviet Russia will contain
a new and striking article by Nikolai Lenin, en-
titled: "Economics of a Transition Period."
Number 6 (issue of August 7) will have a
special picture supplement with new photographs
from Russia.
'VERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
July 24, 1920
Books Reviewed
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Bolshevism: An International Dangeb. By
Paul Miliukov. Charles Scribner's Sons, New
York.
Sovietism. By William English Walling. E. P.
Dutton and Company.
A Pbisoner op Trotzky's. By Andrew Kalpasch-
nikoff. Doubleday, Pake & Company.
With the "Die Hards" in Siberia. By Colonel
John Ward. George H. Doran Company, New
York.
These books represent a propaganda offensive
against Soviet Russia on four fronts. Differing
widely in style and method the authors have a
single common objective : to discredit the Russian
Soviet Republic at all costs.
Professor Miliukov sees that all the old familiar
excuses for foreign intervention have broken down
under the relentless pressure of events. The charge
that the Bolshevik leaders were German agents
has been disproved by the testimony of the German
generals themselves and invalidated by the end
of the war. The manufactured scare about the
arming of German and Austrian prisoners by the
Soviets was disposed of by the Webster-Hicks re-
port. The pretext of aiding the "westward moving
Qzecho-Slovaks" disappeared when these troops
repudiated dictator Kolchak and demanded imme-
diate repatriation. The claim that intervention
was designed to vindicate the Constituent Assem-
bly was demolished when Supreme Ruler Kolchak
refused to convoke that body on the ground that
most of its members were to be found in the Com-
munist ranks. Atrocity tales have begun to lose
their effectiveness because the supposed victims
have developed an unpleasant habit of turning up
alive and working in hearty cooperation with the
Soviet Government.
In short, all the conventional arguments for the
policy of isolating and attacking Soviet Russia
have collapsed out of their inherent weakness and
falsity. So Mr. Miliukov, being a man of original-
ity, conjures up the spectre of Bolshevism as an
international menace, a sinister threat against
every organized government. In support of this
theory he cites numerous newspaper reports about
radical activity in Europe and America. Aside
from the dubious veracity of many of Mr. Miliu-
kov's allegations, it is highly absurd to hold the
Soviet Government responsible for every manifes-
tation of discontent all over the world. If Miss
Sylvia Pankhurst chooses to attack Mr. Lloyd
George in The Workers' Dreadnought, there is no
reason to assume that she is acting under direct
and specific instructions from Moscow. If there
is a strike in Winnipeg, it should be remembered
that strikes took place before Karl Marx was born.
When Irish workers display dissatisfaction with
English rule they need no stimulus from abroad
to urge them on. Where Mr. Miliukov attempts
to prove a direct connection between the Soviet
Government and domestic disturbances in other
countries his "evidence" usually takes the form of
O
the unsubstantiated and unproved statement of
some excited and overzealous public official. Mr.
Archibald Stevenson is one of his authorities.
The Russian people have, so far as possible, de-
fended themselves against a cruel and unprovoked
war and blockade by the method of laying their
case fairly before the pe'oples of the Allied coun-
tries. This method was widely practiced by all the
belligerent nations in the late war. It is a note-
worthy fact that most of the "propaganda" which
Mr. Miliukov traces directly to Russia consists
not of appeals for a world revolution, but of ar-
guments against the war and the blockade.
Mr. Walling, a much clumsier propagandist than
Mr. Miliukov, attempts to create an impression of
impartiality by pretending to base his work upon
a compilation of excerpts from alleged speeches
and writings of various communist leaders. Just
how fair this compilation is may be judged from
the fact that the book includes copious quotations
from Gorky's paper, Novaya Zhizn, during the
period when the famous author was not reconciled
to the Soviet Government, while it does not con-
tain a reference to the many eloquent tributes
which Gorky has since paid to the first proletarian
republic.
Mr. Walling has much to say about the hard-
ships of the peasants under Soviet ride. He says
not a word in condemnation of the blockade, which
has been the primary, if not the sole factor in
making difficult an adjustment of interests be-
tween the peasants and the city workers. And he
does not mention the indisputable fact that the
downfall of Kolchak and Denikin was compassed
by the Red Army with the hearty cooperation of
the peasants in Siberia and the Ukraine, who
hastened the downfall of these two tyrants by their
revolts. Mr. Walling does not hesitate to draw the
most unwarrantable conclusions from his own
statements. So he quotes the following passages
from an article by Zinoviev in Izvestia:
"Has the Soviet Government, has our party done
everything that can be done for the direct improve-
ment of the daily life of the average workingman
and his family? We hesitate to answer this ques-
tion in the affirmative.
"Let us look the truth in the face. We have
committed quite a number of blunders in this
realnl"
Mr. Walling adds:
"Zinoviev is not the only leader of the Bol-
sheviki who has admitted the total failure of their
labor policy."
So a f rank admission that the Soviet Government
has not achieved perfection is distorted into an
"admission of total failure." Many of Mr. Wal-
ling's statements are so ridiculous that they carry
their own refutation. He asserts, for instance, that
half the engineers in Russia have been murdered
by the Bolsheviki. He represents Bolshevism as a
military menace to the rest of the world, wilfully
ignoring the uLnatatn peace offers made by the
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103
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Soviet Government and rejected by the Allies, dis-
regarding the obvious fact that every military
operation from the attack of the Czecho-Slovaks
to the recent Polish offensive was an attack on
Russia fought out on Eussian soil. In fact there
are so many falsehoods, misrepresentations and
distortions in Mr. Walling^ book that it would
require another volume to point them out and
adequately correct them- It may be predicated
that, like all inept and exaggerated propaganda,
"Sovietism" will prove chiefly injurious to its au-
thor.
It is a relief to turn from Mr. Walling^ dreary
maunderings to that thrilling story entitled "A
Prisoner of Trotzky's." Colonel Kalpaschnikoff
possesses fictional imagination of a high order, and
his account of his own adventures deserves a place
among the most fantastic romances of all time.
The very title has a fine dramatic ring; it sug-
gests a long drawn out duel between the hero and
the Soviet War Minister. One has to read the
book to find out that Trotsky had no direct con-
nection whatever either with the author's impris-
onment or, we are glad to say, with his release.
Colonel KalpaschnikofFs case was reviewed in
detail in the Moscow and Petrograd press at the
time of his arrest in December, 1917. Papers
were discovered in his apartment which convinced
the Soviet Government that he had planned to send
eight motor cars belonging to the American Eed
Cross to General Kaledin, the counter-revolution-
ist leader in the Don region. As Kaledin was
carrying on an open war against the Soviet Gov-
ernment Kalpaschnikoff certainly exposed hiriiself
to the double charge of espionage and treason, and
raSght well have considered himself fortunate in
escaping with a few months' improsonment. He
is discreetly reticent about the facts leading up to
his arrest, which he represents as part of a deep
laid plot on the part of the Soviet Government to
secure recognition from the American Ambassador
Francis. Just how his arrest would induce or
compel Mr. Francis to recognize the Soviet Gov-
ernment he does not explain. In this connection
he quotes Trotsky as saying in an imaginary
speech :
"I shall not hesitate to take extreme measures
and wipe out all the Americans and foreigners
who dare to plot anything against the liberties so
dearly bought by us for our country."
A careful examination of the newspapers pub-
lished at this time in Moscow and Petrograd shows
that Trotsky never said anything of the kind. It
would certainly have been rather curious language
for a foreign minister who is represented as des-
perately anxious to secure diplomatic recognition
from "the Americans and other foreigners" whom
he so cheerfully promises to wipe out.
But Colonel Kalpaschnikoff^ poetic soul rebels
against all restraints of fact, reality, and even pro-
bability. Wishing to convey the impression that
sinister relations existed between Colonel Raymond
Robins and the Soviet Government h« asserts that
Boris Bernstein was first an interpreter for Robins
Digitized by CjOOQK
and then a secretary to Lenin, although Reinstein
never held either of these posts.
The author describes the Constituent Assembly
as "composed of eighty-five per cent East Siders
from New York City and Socialists who hurried
from all parts of the world, and fifteen per cent
Old Regimers." Certainly a very extraordinary
body. One wonders whether Colonel Kalpaschni-
koff really examined the records of the Assembly
with meticulous care and proved that only fifteen
per cent of its members (the Old Regimers) were
living in Russia at the time of the Revolution.
One more incident before we lose sight of this
engaging fictionist. It is possible to believe Col-
onel Kalpaschnikoff when he declares that insur-
gent peasants destroyed the grand piano in his an-
cestral mansion. But when he adds that they made
a manure sledge out of the piano one's credulity
begins to wane. Somehow the contrast seems too
obvious, too dramatic, too perfect : on one side the
traditional culture of the Kalpaschnikoff family,
exemplified in the grand piano; on the other, the
barbarism of the Bolshevik peasants, exemplified
in the manure sledge.
Colonel Kalpashnikoff will scarcely take rank
among the great historians of the Russian Revolu-
tion. But he certainly deserves a place by the
side of Baron Munchausen as one of the truly
great creators of highly colored imaginative fiction.
Colonel Ward is a sturdy Britisher with a good
opinion of his King and country, and a somewhat
better opinion of himself. He went to Siberia with
his regiment in the summer of 1918, and cooper-
ated with the Japanese and the other allies in sup-
pressing popular government in eastern Siberia.
He specialized in giving the Russians instruction
in patriotism and good government. As an orator
he must have touched great heights: for he very
seriously declares on one occasion that "my list
of telegrams and messages of every kind and char-
acter from every part of Russia and the outside
world, together with constant repetition of the
speech in the press, indicates plainly that from this
day began the resurrection of the Russian soul."
Colonel Ward set about his task of resurrecting
the Russian soul in various parts of Siberia. At
the instigation of the Supreme Ruler he went up
and down the Trans-Siberian railroad, warning
audiences of workmen against the horrors and
fallacies of Bolshevism. The workers showed their
appreciation of Colonel Ward's eloquence and argu-
ments later, when their strikes and sabotage con-
tributed materially to Kolchak's debacle.
Some light is cast upon the sincerity of the
British Government in the Prinkipo proposal by
Kolchak's comment in an interview with Colonel
Ward :
"There must be some facts with which we are
not acquainted, for, while the British Government
advise an arrangement with the Bolsheviks, they
continue to furnish me with suppliest for the Rus-
sian army."
It has remained for Colonel Ward to make an
authoritative pronouncement upon the purposes
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of British intervention in Russia. It seems that
the participation of British soldiers in the fighting
in Archangel and Siberia, the constant shipments
of munitions to the counter-revolutionists, the
merciless enforcement of the blockade, which
starved hundreds of thousands of women and chil-
dren, that all these measures were designed to
save Russia from a reversion to autocracy. In the
words of the gallant Colonel:
"The workmen are sick of strife, and would
gladly go straight back to the old regime as an
easy way of escape from Bolshevism. This is the
danger from which English diplomacy has, and is
trying to guard the Russian people, if possible."
Here we may take leave of Colonel Ward. What-
ever else may be said of him he cannot be accused
of lacking a sense of humor.
SHIPPING BETWEEN ITALY AND
RUSSIA
Rome, June 7. — It is announced from commer-
cial quarters of the government that Italy, without
regard to the Allies, will shortly take up trading
with Russia on the basis of special agreements.
It is now only a matter of getting ready the ships
that are to ply between Italy and the ports of the
Black Sea. Italy will receive coal and grain from
South Russia in exchange for machinery.
ELECTRIC POWER STATIONS
Petrograd newspapers report a gigantic engi-
neering operation undertaken as a result of the
opening of the Svir- Volkhov canal. Dams are
being built on this canal, on which electrical power
stations will be erected. On the river Svir there
are a very powerful waterfall and a number of
smaller cascades. Petrograd will be supplied with
electrical energy from two stations situated 270
kilometres from the city. A third electrical
station will provide the local industry and the
Murmansk railway with electrical energy, which
will be conducted to Petrograd by four cables
along the Northern railway to the station of
Zvanka, and thence to Kobino. From the latter
point the current will be conducted in part to
Petrograd and the Shuvalov district, and in part
southward to Ligovo. It is calculated that these
operations will require a period of four years. On
the Volkhov river an electrical power station is
also to be erected. All these stations together will
furnish 1,500,000 kilowatts per hour.
OIL PRODUCTION AT BAKU
Constantinople, June 7. — In^Baku the admin-
istration have been taken over by a commissar of
the Moscow government. The production of pe-
troleum has increased considerably. The Russians
are sending large quantities of oil to Russia by
way of the Volga.
THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. Economic Situation op Soviet Russia. Important official compilation of recent eco-
nomic progress in Soviet Russia.
2. A Funeral in the Taiga. An incident from the diary of a partisan who fought against
Kolchak and the Japanese in Siberia.
3. Economics of a Transition Period. A new and interesting article by Nikolai Lenin.
4. Regular Weekly Military Review by Ll.-Col. B. Roustam Bek.
5. Russian "Bolshevism" and the Working Women.
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, July 31, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 5
lined Weekly »t 110 W. 40th Street, New York, N. Y> Lndvi* C. A. K. Mirteni, Pubtfahef. Ucnh Witttner Hartmaim Editor
Strtntnption Rate, $S.0O per id num. Application for entry a* ieeond class matter pending. Cbangea of address should reach
the office a week before the changes are to be made.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PAGE
Economics of a Transition Period, by Jv\
Lenin 105
Russian "Bolshevism" and the Working
Women, by N, Bukharin ........ 109
Lenin's Address * 110
Recent Impressions of Poland 112
Sanitation in Russia ..« , . . . . 113
A Kolchak Manifesto . . . . , 114
(A Facsimile and Translation)
PAGE
Editorials ,. , 116
Economic Situation in Soviet Russia . . . 1 19
Through Latvia and Esthonia to Russia... 122
The Russian-Georgian Peace Treaty .... 123
A Funeral in the Taiga. 124
Official Communications of the Soviet
Government ., 126
Economics of a Transition Period
By N. Lenin
f\S THE occasion of the second anniversary
of the Soviet power I had proposed to write
a short brochure devoted to the study of the prob-
lem formulated by this title. But in the pressure
of daily work I have up to the present succeeded
only in sketching the first draft of certain chap-
ten. I have therefore decided to attempt a brief
systematic resume of what I consider to be the
essential ideas bearing on the question. Doubt-
less the systematic character of my resume will
involve a number of inconviences and gaps. Never-
theless perhaps I shall succeed in achieving, as
far as a concise statement for a review will allow
me, the modest aim which I have put before my-
•ell
Theoreticaly it is beyond doubt that Capitalism
and Communism are separated by a certain period
of transition, which must of necessity combine the
characteristic traits or properties of these two
forme of public economy* This period of tran-
sition cannot but be a period of struggle between
dying Capitalism and growing Communism, or, in
other words, between Capitalism already defeated
but not destroyed, and Communism, already born,
but g till extremely weak, Not only for a Marxist,
but also for any educated man, however little ac-
quainted with the theory of evolution, the neces-
sity for a whole historical epoch, recognizable by
these general characteristics of a transition period,
must be self-evident. And nevertheless all the
recriminations relative to the transition to Social-
ism which we are hearing from the mouths of the
contemporary representatives of petty bourgeois
democracy (and in spite of their self-assumed So-
cialist label, all the representatives of the Second
Internationale, comprising men like Macdbnald
and Jean Longuet, Kautsky, and Friedrich Adler,
are representative of petit-bourgeois democracy)
are characterized by a total ignoring of this self-
evident truth,
The distinguishing feature of petit-bourgeois
democrats is to cherish a disgust for the class
struggle, to dream of a means of avoiding that
struggle, to seek always to "come to an arrange-
ment," to conciliate, to round off angles. That
is why such democrats either refuse to recognize
the whole historical period covering the transition
from Capitalism to Communism, or else set before
themselves the task of working out plans for the
conciliation of the two forces at grips with each
other, or of assuming control of the struggle in
one of the two camps,
IL
In Eussia the dictatorship of the proletariat
must necessarily present certain features peculiar
to themselves in comparison with the advanced
countries, in consequence of the very backward
state and the petit bourgeois spirit of our country.
But at bottom we find in Eussia the same forces
and the same forms of political economy as in any
capitalist country whatsoever: in such measure
that those features cannot in any way affect the
essential points. The forms which are at the root
of public economy are capitalism, small produc-
tion, and Communism. The fundamental forces
are the bourgeoisie, the petite bourgeoisie above
all, the peasant class, and the proletariat.
The economic activity of Eussia in the period
of the dictatorship of the proletariat consists in
the struggle, during its first stages, of labor, uni-
fied on thie baais o'f OcinmnnitEn^ witltto tfa& siagle
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framework of giant production, against small pro-
duction, and against the capitalism which has been
preserved and which is being born again on its
basis.
Labor is unified in Russia on the basis of Com-
munism in such measure as, first of all, private
property in the means of production is abolished,
and, secondly, the Government of the proletarian
state organizes large scale production on a na-
tional scale of the state land and in the state
enterprises, distributes labor-power amongst the
various branches of the economic structure, dis-
tributes the accumulated stocks of products for
consumption belonging to the state amongst the
workers.
We speak of the "first steps" of Communism
in Eussia (to borrow the expression used by our
party program adopted in March, 1919), in view
of the fact that all these conditions have been
only partially realized by us, or, in other words,
in view of the fact that the realization of these
conditions is with us only in a primitive stage.
Immediately, in one revolutionary sweep we did
all that in the long run could be done in the first
days. For example, on the first day of the dicta-
torship of the proletariat, October 26 (November
8), 1917, private property in land was abolished
without indemnification of the great landowners;
that is to say, the great landed proprietors were
expropriated. In the course of a few months we
expropriated, also, without compensation, all the
large capitalists, proprietors of factories, work-
shops, limited liability companies, banks, railways,
etc. ; the state organization of large production in
industry and the transition to "workers* control,"
to "workers' management," in factories, workshops,
railways, etc., are already realized, while in the
sphere of agriculture they are only just begun
(Soviet estates, large agricultural enterprises or-
ganized by the workers' state on the state lands).
Similarly, the organization of different forms of
association amongst the small farmers as a form
of transition from small exploitation of the land
for profit, to Communist exploitation, is also only
as yet taking shape. One might say the same of
the organization by the state of the distribution
of products instead and in place of private com-
merce: that is to say, of the preparation and of
the transport by the state of the cereals necessary
for the towns and of the manufactured products
necessary for the country. Farther on will be found
the statistical data so far accumulated on this sub-
ject.
Small production for profit remains the form of
rural economy.
Here we have to deal with a vast and very
deep-rooted groundwork of capitalism. On this
groundwork capitalism maintains itself and is re-
born, fighting against Communism with the most
ferocious energy. The weapons of its fight are
smuggling and speculation, directed against pre-
paration by the state of stocks and cereals (and
also of other products) , and, speaking generally,
against the distribution of products by the state.
Diqilized
III.
To illustrate these abstract theoretical asser-
tions, let us take some concrete data.
The total quantity of cereals prepared by the
state in Russia, according to the figures of the
Commissariat for Food, amounted from August
1, 1917, to August 1, 1918, to thirty millions of
poods. The following year the amount rose to
110 millions of poods. During the first period of
the following year (1919-1920) the stocks pre-
pared amount, it appears, to about forty-five mil-
lions of poods, in place of the thirty-seven millions
prepared during the same months (August-Sep-
tember) in 1918.
These figures eloquently attest the slow but
constant improvement of the situation, from the
point of view of the victory of Communism over
capitalism. And this improvement has taken place
in spite of difficulties unheard of hitherto, conse-
quent upon the civil war, and organized by Rus-
sian and foreign capitalists, who had at their dis-
posal the whole forces of the most powerful states
in the world.
That is why, in spite of all the lies, in spite of
all the calumnies of the bourgeois of all countries,
and of all their direct or secret agents (the "So-
cialists" of the Second Internationale,) it remains
beyond dispute that, from the fundamental eco-
nomic point of view, victory is assured in Russia
for the dictatorship of the proletariat: that is to
say, for Communism over capitalism. And, if the
borugeoisie of the whole world, consumed with
such an excess of rage against Bolshevism, organ-
izes miltary expeditions, hatches plots against us,
it is precisely because it realizes perfectly the per-
manent nature of our victory in the sphere of
economic reconstruction, provided we are not over-
whelmed by force of arms — which it does not suc-
ceed in achieving.
The following statistical material, furnished by
the Central Department of Statistics, and which
has only just been compiled in order to be given
publicity, relates to the production and consump-
tion of cereals, not throughout the whole of Soviet
Russia, but only in twenty-six of its provinces
(governments). It demonstrates to what degree
we have already conquered capitalism during the
short 6pace of time which we have had at our dis-
posal, and, in spite of the difficulties unpre-
cedented in the history of the world, amidst which
we had to work.
We see that about half the cereals were furnished
to the towns by the Commissariat for Food and
the other half by smuggling.
An exact inquiry into the feeding of the town
workers in 1918 established precisely this propor-
tion. And the bread supplied by the state comes
to the workers ten times cheaper than the
bread supplied by the speculators. The price of
bread fixed by the latter is ten times higher than
the price fixed by the state. That is what beoomes
apparent from an exhaustive study of workers*
budgets.
These are the fttefiirtica:. 8
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Millions of poods
107
Population
in
pillions.
Production of
cereals (with-
out sowings)
Cereals Supplied
Total quantity
at disposal of
population
Twenty-six Provinces
of Soviet Russia
By the
Commissariat
of food.
By
smuggling
Consumption
per head,
in poods
Producing Provinces :
Towns
4.4
28.6
5.9
13.8
52.7
625.4
114.0
739.4
20.9
20.0
12.1
53.0
20.6
10.0
27.8
58.4
41.5
481.8
40.0
151.4
714.7
9.5
Country
Consuming Provinces :
Towns
16.9
Country
6.8
11.0
Totals
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The statistics I have just reproduced, if they are
studied as they merit, furnish an exact picture
which throws into relief all the essential features
of the present economic situation in Russia.
The workers are emancipated from their ex-
ploiters, and their age-long oppressors: the great
landed proprietors and the capitalists.
This step forward in the path of true liberty and
real equality which, in its scope, its extent, and
its rapidity, is without precedent in history, is not
taken into consideration by the partisans of the
bourgeois (including the petit-bourgeois demo-
crats), who understand liberty and equality in a
sense of bourgeois parliamentary democracy, which
they grandiloquently call "Democracy" in general,
or "Pure Democracy" (Kautsky). But the work-
ers have in view real equality, real liberty (eman-
cipation from the yoke of the great landed propri-
etors and the capitalists) ; and that is why they
come out so firmly for the Soviet power.
In an agricultural country it is the peasants
who have gained first of all, who have gained more
than anyone, who have reaped the first fruits of
the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The peasant suffered from hunger in Bussia
under the rule of the great landed proprietors and
the capitalists. The peasant had never yet had, in
the course of the long centuries of our history, the
possibility of working for himself; he died of hun-
ger while supplying hundreds of millions of poods
of cereals to the capitalists in the towns and
abroad. For the first time, under the regime of
the dictatorship of the proletariat, the peasant
can work for himself, and feed himself better than
the town dwellers. For the first time, the peasant
has made the acquaintance in practice of liberty;
the liberty of eating his own bread, liberation from
famine. It is in the redistribution of the land
that equality reaches, as is known, its highest
point; in the enormous majority of cases, in fact,
the peasants have divided the land equaly
amongst the "consumers."
Socialism is the suppression of classes. In order
to suppress classes, it was necessary first of all to
overthrow the power of the great landed propri-
etors and the capitalists. We have accomplished
this part of the task; but that part was not the
most difficult. In order to suppress classes it is
necessary, secondly, to bring about the disappear-
ance of the differences at present existing between
the peasants, and this is a problem which is neces-
sarily more protracted. It is a problem which can-
not be solved simply by the overthrow of a class,
whatever that class may be.
It is a problem which can only be solved by the
organized reconstruction of economic life, by pass-
ing from small private, scattered production for
profit, to large Communist production. Such a
transition is of necessity of very long duration,
and would only be retarded and hindered by re-
course to hasty and insufficiently-considered ad-
ministrative and legislative measures. It can only
be hastened by assisting the peasant in such a way
that he is given the possibility of improving, on a
vast scale, the whole of the technical side of agri-
culture, and, indeed, radically to transform it.
To solve this second most difficult part of the
problem, the proletariat, after having overcome
the bourgeoisie, had speedily to carry out the fol-
lowing line of policy towards the peasant class;
it had to wipe out the distinction between the work-
ing peasant and the peasant proprietor, the labor-
ing peasant and the trading peasant, the toiling
peasant and the speculating peasant.
This difference constitutes the very essence of
Socialism. And it is not surprising that the So-
cialists in words, who are in fact only petit bour-
geois democrats (the Martovs, the Chernovs, the
Kautskys and Co.) do not understand the essence
of Socialism.
This distinction is very difficult, in addition, be-
cause in practice all forms of private property, in
spite of their differences and their mutual oppo-
sition, are confounded in one whole by the peasant.
Nevertheless, the distinction is possible, and not
only possible, but flows irresistibly from the con-
ditions of rural economy and of peasant life. The
working peasant foi cent^ica has been oppressed
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by the great landed proprietors, the capitalists,
the brokers, the speculators, and their states, in-
cluding the most democratic bourgeois republics.
The working peasant has learnt, through his own
experience in the course of centuries, to hate and
combat these oppressors and exploiters; and this \
"education," which life has given him, forced him
in Russia to seek an alliance with the worker
against the capitalist, against the speculator,
against the broker.
But at the same time, the economic conditions
under the system of production for profit infallibly
transform the peasant (not always, but in the im-
mense majority of cases) into a broker and a spec-
ulator himself.
The statistics reproduced above show clearly the
difference between the toiling peasant and the
speculating peasant.
The peasant who, in 1918-1919, gave to the
famished workers of the towns forty million poods
of cereals at a price fixed by the state, through the
machinery set up by the state, in spite of all the
gaps which that machinery reveals — gaps of which
the workers' government is perfectly aware, but
which cannot be avoided during the first phase of
the transition to Socialism — that peasant is the
toiling peasant, the comrade, equal in rights, of
the Socialist workman, the best ally of the latter,
his true brother in the struggle against the yoke
of capital. And the peasant who sold in contra-
band forty million poods of cereals at a price ten
times higher than that fixed by the state, taking
advantage of the necessity and of the famine with
which the town worker was struggling, thwarting
the state, increasing and engendering everywhere
lies, theft, chicanery — that peasant is the specula-
tor, the ally of the capitalist, the class-enemy of
the worker, the exploiter. The surplus cereals
which he possesses indeed were gathered in from
the common land with the aid of instruments the
manufacture of which entailed the labor not only
of the peasants, but also of the workman; and it
is perfectly clear that to possess a surplus of cere-
als and to use part of it to launch into speculation
is to become the exploiter of the starving workmen.
You desire "Liberty, Equality, Democracy," we
are told on all sides, and you perpetuate the in-
equality of the workman and the peasant by your
Constitution, by the dispersion of the Constituent
Assembly, by the violent requisition of surplus
stocks of cereals, etc.
We reply: there has never been a state in the
history of the world which has done as much to
abolish the de facto inequality, the real absence of
liberty, under which the toiling peasant has suf-
ered for centuries.
But we shall never admit equality for the specu-
lating peasant, just as we do not admit "equality"
of the exploiter and the exploited, of the well-fed
and the hungry, or the "liberty" of the first to
plunder the second. And we shall deal with the
erudite gentlemen who will not understand this
difference as we deal with White Guards, even if
these gentlemen give themselves the title of demo-
Digitized by VjOOgk*
crats, socialists, internationalists (Kautsky, Cher-
nov, Martov).
IV
Socialism is the abolition of classes. The dicta-
torship of the proletariat has done all that it could
to achieve that abolition.
But it is impossible to abolish classes at one
blow.
And those classes have remained, and will re-
main, during the period of the proletarian dicta-
torship ; the dictatorship will have played its part
when classes disappear, and they cannot disappear
without it.
Classes remain, but each of them has changed in
aspect during the period of the dictatorship of
the proletariat, and the mutual relations of classes
amongst themselves have similarly changed. The
class-struggle does not disappear with the dictator-
ship of the proletariat ; it only assumes new forms.
The proletariat was, under class capitalism, the
oppressed class, the class deprived of all property
in the means of production, the class which alone
was directly and wholly the antithesis of the bour-
geoisie; and that is why it alone was capable of
remaining revolutionary to the bitter end.
After overthrowing the bourgeoisie and conquer-
ing political power, the proletariat has become the
ruling class; it holds the reins of power in the
state; it disposes of those means of production
which have already been socialized, it directs the
hesitating and intermediate elements and dasses;
it crushes the reviving resistance of the exploiters.
These are special problems of the class struggle
which the proletariat did not and could not have
to face previously.
The class of exploiters, of great landed propri-
etors and of capitalists, has not disappeared, and
it cannot disappear straightway upon the coming
of the proletarian dictatorship. The exploiters
are defeated but not annihilated. There remains
to them an international base, the international
capitalism of which they are a branch. They par-
tially retain some of the means of production, they
still have money, they still have considerable social
influence. The energy of their resistance has in-
creased, just because of their defeat, a hundrd-
and a thousand-fold.
Their "experience" in the spheres of state ad-
ministration, of the army, of political economy,
gives them a very considerable advantage, with the
result that their importance is incomparably great-
er than the numerical proportion they bear to the
rest of the population. The class-struggle carried
on by the defeated exploiters against the victorious
advance guard of the exploited — in other words,
against the proletariat — has become infinitely more
violent. And it cannot be otherwise, if one is
really considering a revolution, and if one does not
comprehend under that term (as do all the heroes
of the Second Internationale) mere reformist il-
lusions.
Finally, the peasant class, like all the petite
bourgeoisie generally, also occupies under the die-
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SOVIET RUSSIA
10<>
tatorship of the proletariat a middle, intermediate,
position. On the one hand, it represents a very
considerable (and, in backward Russia, an enorm-
ous) mass of the workers united by the interests,
common to all workers, of , emancipating them-
selves from the great landed proprietor and the
capitalist; on the other hand, it comprises small
farmers, peasant-proprietors and traders. Such
an economic situation inevitably provokes a tend-
ency to oscillate between the proletariat and the
bourgeoisie. And in the intensified struggle be-
tween the latter classes, in the extraordinarily vio-
lent subservsion of all social relations, when we
take into consideration the strength of the habits
acquired during the previous epoch of class society
— a routine which is particularly noticeable pre-
cisely amongst the peasants and the lower middle-
class generally — it is quite natural that we should
witness amongst the latter desertions from one-
camp to the other; hesitations, waverings, incer-
titude, etc.
As far as this class, as far as these social ele-
ments are concerned, the task of the proletariat
consists in guiding them and in struggling for a
position of leadership over them. To rally. behind
it the hesitating and the uncertain : such has had
to be the role of the proletariat.
Russian "Bolshevism" and the Working Women
By Nikolai Bukharin
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YyE COMMUNISTS in Russia live under such
*^ unusually hard conditions that we have
neither energy nor time to record immediately all
the important and interesting events created in
the course of the revolution and now bing fur-
ther developed. We are entirely taken up with the
struggle that is going on for the protection of the
revolution, attacked by its deadly enemies ; we also
must do reconstruction work, so as to bring about
Communism. Owing to the pressure of work and
struggle we fail to pay sufficient attention to the
fact that the new order created also a new, an
entirely different individual, who did not exist
before, in fact, whose existence before was impos-
sible. The new social relations among the people
create and educate new human beings. Everybody
is ready to abuse and insult the Bolsheviki, — most
people do it without any particular reason, simply
for the pleasure of passing judgment on Bolshev-
ism ; others have no idea about it and don't know
what it really means. Only a few realize what a
tremendous rebuilding task Bolshevism is perform-
ing for the benefit of humanity. Under the scorch-
ing breath of the revolution, and owing to the
activity of the Communist Party, there sprang out
from the lowest rank of the society, among the
creative mass, new people of higher type; they are
determined fighters, full of self-sacrifice, bright
and faithful workers, real heroes.
It is especially interesting to observe the change
which took place among the women of the plain
proletarians and peasants. Those hitherto treated
like cattle have at last realized that they are human
beings entitled to equal rights. They take part in
the general struggle against capitalism, against
exploitation and slavery in any form. The work-
ing-women and the rural female population begin
to participate in the administration of husbandry.
They sit in the Soviets and Executive Committees
of various types and hold responsible positions,
and are frequently seen armed, or nursing at the
front. The working women of the middle class
and the peasant women are especially active in all
institutions that deal with the social care of wom-
en, mothers, children, aged people, sick, invalids,,
etc. They are to be found in institutions for
pregnant women, women who have just been con-
fined, for nursing women, in infant asylums, in.
children's colonies, at vocation centers, in school
kitchens, public dining rooms, tea houses, in hos-
pitals, recreation centers, in aged and invalid)
homes, in public libraries, reading rooms, in pro-
paganda centers for the spreading of communistic-
ideas and general knowledge; everywhere these
simple women are active in bigger or smaller
groups; they are, in fact, often the very soul of
such establishments. In the performing of their
duties they show as much brain as heart, they
have an almost "ambitious, passionate enthusiasm'*
for the new creative abilities, and possess common
sense for practical things.
Women who hardly ever heard about Commun-
ism before the revolution, many of whom learned
to read and write only in the schools of the party
organizations, do real good distinguished work in
order to realize the Communistic theory. The
talents and energy of the women after the revolu-
tion, owing to free activity, grow like plants in
the sunshine after a shower has just passed. This
new life awakens the women of the proletariat and
peasants; it gives them tasks and duties, experi-
ence and training; it transforms them into revolu-
tionary fighters and co-workers of the Commun-
istic Society. This is still more surprising when
we keep in mind all the suffering, strain and
struggle which Soviet Eussia has had to go through
in order to protect its existence and secure its
proper development. Here and there the Bolshev-
iki are compelled to take up anew the struggle
against armed forces, to suppress the spirit of
capitalism which the counter-revolution of the
whole world is ready to save by the force of its
weapons; the shattered domestic economy results
in privation, hunger, diseases. In spite of all this,.
Soviet Eussia is struggling for a bright future,
for a free and happy common life, and the women
of the proletarians and. peasants are working and
struggling together with them. A person who*
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would have to report the activity and strivings of
these women from day to day would have a hard
task to decide where to begin and where to stop.
The Cossack Conference now being held in Mos-
cow is very typical as an indication of the new
individuality awakening in the women. Women
are also taking part in this conference as delegates
entitled to equal rights. The revolution opened
their eyes, awakened them, transformed them into
fighters for the cause of the working people. What
a transformation! Before the revolution, these
women sat in their Cossack villages, managed their
cottages, gardens and fields, as their mothers and
grandmothers had done before them. They did
not care what took place beyond the boundaries of
their little village. When one of these women
happened to visit the seat of the county or prov-
ince, this was an event which gave material for
long gossip. Now they participate in the dis-
cussions and decisions of their Soviets, they do not
hesitate to make the long journey to Moscow. They
sit among strangers, whom they have seen for the
first time, and they express their opinions, discuss
and come to conclusions ; they feel as if they were
among brothers and sisters, and discuss the most
important life-issues of great Russia. Many a
sensible remark, a clever suggestion, a thoughtful
question, comes from the peasant women. It
seems like a dream but it is reality.
The revolution and the Soviet Government of-
fer to every toiler, creating with his hands or
brain, the possibility to work for the common
welfare and progress, and thus enable him to ob-
tain bread, freedom, dignity, honor, in short —
helps him to create an existence worthy of a human
being. The right and the duty to cooperate, re-
gardless of sex — that is the rule in Soviet Russia ;
this cooperation is carried out through the shops,
fields and administration. During the regime of
the Czar, the women had no part in the political
life of the country. The lady of the higher circle
was wife and mistress, she did not care about the
affairs of the state. The fate of the women of
the masses was similar to this. After the March
revolution of 1917, the women of the wealthy
classes, namely, the liberals and the intellectual
women (the "Intelligentsia") began to take part
most energetically in public life. They also ap-
peared as speakers at meetings. But only among
the revolutionists could the Russian woman, who
has always been so daring and full of self-sacrifice,
take a full part in the political life. The revolu-
tionary movement and struggles were carried on
by men as well as by women. Not only Sophie
Perovskaya, but many other Russian women who
found death on the gallows, in horrible prisons,
in deserts of snow, have their revolutionary in-
tegrity attested with a firm hand. As soon as
the revolutionary movement had penetrated the
masses, the women also became its supports. The
proletarian women did not fail to appear at any
economical or social walk-outs, at general strikes,
at public information centers, at May demonstra-
tions. Working women and wives of workingmen
fell on the battlefields of the revolution. But in
comparison with the great number of the working
class, the number of women who took part in the
political struggle of their class was comparatively
small. Only a small group of the elite of the
working women was working and fighting for the
emancipation of the exploited and suppressed, who
were in misery and slavery. Only the proletarian
November Revolution brought out the big mass
of the working and peasant women, who were seek-
ing and failing, but always conscious of the great
ideal. The individuals were growing intellectually
and morally through this ideal, and in serving it,
these individuals became the majority and are now
innumerable.
o
Lenin's Address
At the Third All-Russian Congress of the Council of National Economy
£* OMRADE LENIN says that he will only
^^ briefly speak on those questions with which
he had to deal more of late. One of these questions
is the organization of management, the question of
collective or individual management. In the en-
suing discussions, the question is approached on
the basis of abstract reasoning, to prove the ad-
vantage of collective management over individual.
But this leads us far away from the practical
tasks of the present time. Such reasoning takes
us back to that stage of the primary constructive
work of the Soviet power, which we have already
passed. It is time to pass to a more practical
basis.
Collective management as the basic type for the
organization of Soviet management represents
something rudimentary and imperative at the first
stage, when it is necessary to build from the
ground up. But under the settled, more or less
stable, forms, the transition to practical work calls
for individual management, as the system which
more than any other assures the best use of human
abilities and a real, and not merely verbal control
over the work.
The experience which the Soviet power under-
went in the field of military construction should
not be looked upon as an isolated experience. War-
fare includes all kinds of endeavors in all fields.
The construction of our army could bring suc-
cessful results only because it was created in the
spirit of general Soviet construction, on the basis
of class correlations. We find there the same thin
layer of the leading class — the proletariat, and a
mass of peasantry. And while in other spheres the
essence of this correlation was not revealed with
absolute j-cleamess^i^j5YA&. given a real test in the
(L>
July 31, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
111
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army, which faces the enemy and pays dearly for
every mistake. This experience should be pon-
dered upon. It led, developing systematically, from
accidental, indefinite collective management
through a collective management raised to a sys-
tem of organization, and has now, as a general
tendency, reached the stage of individual man-
agement as the only correct basis of endeavor. In
any Soviet endeavor you will find a small number
of class-conscious proletarians, a large number at
a lower degree of development, and a vast mass of
peasantry with all the habits of individual eco-
nomy, and hence of free trade and speculation,
which the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries
and non-partisans call freedom, while we call it
the heritage of capitalism. This is the environ-
ment in which we have to act, and it demands
corresponding modes of action. And the experi-
ence of the army has shown us the systematic de-
velopment of the organization of management from
the primary collective forms to the individual
form, which is now in force there to the extent
of at least fifty per cent.
Collective management at the best causes an
enormous waste of effort and hampers the speed
and accountability of work required by the con-
ditions of a centralized large industry. If you
will turn to the advocates of collective manage-
ment, you will find in their resolutions, in an
extremely abstract formulation, that each member
of the collegium should bear individual respon-
sibility for the execution of certain tasks. This
has become a commonplace to us. But every one
of us who has practical experience knows that
only in one out of a hundred cases is this followed
in practice. In the vast majority of cases it re-
mains only on paper. None of the members of
the collegium is given any definite tasks, and they
are not executed under individual responsibility.
In general, we have no investigation of the work.
Suppose that the central committee of a trade
union suggests a candidate for a certain position,
and you will ask for a record of work performed
by him and examined by experts. You will be
unable to get it. We are all only beginning to
approach real efficiency.
Our fault lies in the fact that we dream of
performing everything by our own forces. We
suffer from the most acute lack of workers, and
we do not take them from the rank of the workers
and peasants, among whom there is a mass of un-
developed administrative and organizing talent.
It would be much better if we should pass as
speedily as possible from general and in most
cases absolutely futile discussions to a practical
basis. Then we will actually act as the organ-
izers of the advanced class, and we will discover
hundreds and thousands of new nten with organ-
izing abilities. We must put them forward, try
them, put them on certain tasks, and ever more
complex tasks. I hope that we shall accomplish
this, that on reviewing our work, after the con-
gress of the Councils of National Economy, we
shall take this path, and shall extend and multiply
the numer of organizers, so that the inordinately
thin layer which has become worn out during these
two years will be refilled and augmented. Be-
cause the tasks which we are undertaking, and
which should redeem Russia from poverty, hun-
ger and cold, will require ten times more organ-
izers, who should be responsible to scores of mil-
lions.
The second question, which interests us more
than any other, — is the question concerning armies
of toil.
This is a task which involves a transition be-
tween two periods of our activity. The period
which was wholly devoted to the war is not yet
ended. A number of signs show that the Russian
capitalists will be unable to continue the war. But
that they will make attempts to invade Russia
is beyond doubt. And we must be prepared. But
on the whole, the war which they forced upon us
two years ago has come to a victorious end, and
we are passing on to tasks of peace.
We must realize the peculiarity of this transi-
tion. A country utterly ruined, in the grip of
hunger and cold, with destitution reaching the
very bottom ; and in this country — a people which
has been aroused to its power and became self-
confident when it found that it is able to with-
stand, without exaggeration, the whole world, for
it was the whole capitalist world that was defeated.
And in this original environment we propose
armies of toil, in order to solve urgent problems.
We must concentrate on the main task — to
gather grain and to bring it to the centers. Any
deviation from this task, the least scattering of
effort would be the greatest danger, would be
fatal for our cause. And in order to make use
of our apparatus with all possible speed we must
create an army of toil. Concerning this question
you have already the theses of the Central Com-
mittee and the reports, and I shall not touch
therefore upon its concrete aspects. I would only
like to point out that at the moment of transition
from civil war to the new tasks we should throw
all our resources to the labor front and concen-
trate on this all our energy, to the utmost exer-
tion, with implacable, military resolution. We
will not allow now any deviation. Advancing
this slogan, we declare that we must exert to the
utmost all the live forces of the workers and
peasants, and must demand that they should
wholeheartedly aid us in this. And then, through
the creation of an army of toil, and through the
exertion of the energy of the workers and peas-
ants, we will accomplish our fundamental task.
We will succeed in gathering hundreds of millions
poods of produce and in transporting them to the
center. We have them in our country. But it
will take incredible, demonic efforts, the utmost
exertion of the country, and military resolution
and energy, to gather these hundreds of millions
of poods of produce and transport them to the
center. Here, in the center, we shall largely be
busy working oat a plan for this, and shall there-
fore speak of thin work and all iha other questions,
(1>
112
SOVIET KUSSIA
July 31, 1920
the questions of financing, of industrial reconstruc-
tion and the questions regarding broad programs
— these must not distract us at present. We
are confronted by this fundamental task — to re-
sist the danger of being enticed by broad plans
and tasks. We must concentrate on the most ur-
gent and basic task, resisting any distraction from
the chief task advanced by us, namely — to gather
grain and produce, to gather them through the
state, at fixed prices, in the socialist way of a
workers' state and not in the capitalist way,
through speculation, and to bring them to the
center by overcoming the disintegration of trans-
portation. It is a crime for any one to forget of
this task.
To organize the execution of our fundamental
task on a more or less sound basis, the leaders of
all the state organs, particularly of the Councils
of National Economy, should arouse activity to
this end in tens of millions of workers and peas-
ants. To this end a comprehensive plan for the
reorganization of Russia will be furnished. For
this we have ample means, materials, technical
possibilities, raw materials, enough of everything
to begin this work of reconstruction from every
angle, drawing into it all the workers and peas-
ants. Comrades, we shall develop a stubborn strug-
gle, a struggle which will require heavy sacrifices
at the labor front, but which we must carry out,
because of the famine, cold, disintegration of
transportation, and typhus. We must fight all
these hardships, and we must commence building
our state from all sides on the basis of the methods
of large machine industry, in order to become a
cultured country and, by means of a sound social-
ist struggle, get out of that swamp in which other
countries, the countries of world capitalism and
imperialism, are at present submerged. — Izvestia,
January 29, 1920.
Recent Impressions of Poland
(From our Paris Correspondent)
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Pabis, June 21. — I have just returned from a
five weeks' trip through Poland and White Russia,
where I had a chance to observe the political and
economic conditions, especially in so far as they
affect Soviet Russia. I was most interested in
discovering the sentiment of the people on the
projected peace discussions between Poland and
Russia, which had gone to pieces on the rocks of
Polish duplicity and hypocrisy. After I had talked
to various individuals of different political shades,
I gathered the impression that nobody had ever
put much hope in the negotiations. The mass of
the people feel so depressed by the war that they
accept it as a fatal and eternal thing, and the
newspaper discussions of peace could not awake
them from the state of pessimistic apathy into
which they had fallen.
The poorer class of Polish society are so pressed
down by economic conditions that they have little
time to think of politics. They are occupied with
the problem of seeking their daily bread, in the
most literal sense of the word, and have yet to
understand the mysteries of politics. Among those
peasants who had been made prosperous by the
famine conditions, the younger element is still
deluded by the jingoistic ideas which both the
church and the government are doing their best
to propagate; their minds have been artificially
wrought up against the Jews as the prepetrators of
the ruin that has come upon the country. But
in the cities it is impossible to find any enthusiasm
for the war. The repeated victory celebrations
fell flat after the first one, and now that the vic-
tories have been turned into defeats, there can be
no more thought of celebrations.
Of the organized labor element, a large propor-
tion are Communists, despite the underground na-
ture of their propaganda. When I left Warsaw,
the city was in the grip of a general strike on the
part of the municipal employes. While the strike
was non-political in its nature, it did not receive
the support of the yellow and chauvinistic Polish
Socialist Party, and it marked a distinct orienta-
tion towards the left. As for the Polish Socialist
Party itself, a motion instigated by Daszynski to
have the party associate itself with the govern-
ment, was defeated by a narrow majority, the vote
serving as a warning to the organization leaders
that they cannot hope to serve the White Eagle
and internationalism at the same time.
The bankruptcy of the Polish aristocracy has
been shown by its inability to make peace with
Russia. The peace efforts of the Polish govern-
ment were marked by thoroughgoing insincerity,
but the insincerity came from the lack of courage
to conclude peace. The National Democrats were
apparently the only party that sincerely desired
peace, regarding it as essential to their policy
of social conservation. But even they did not dare
insist upon their program.
The Poles may truly say with Macbeth that they
have waded so far in the pool of blood that it is
just as far to wade back as to go through to the
end. They have staked all their hopes on the de-
feat of the Soviets and the division of the Russian
booty with the Allies. But if there is no booty
to divide, the Allies will not repay them for the
effort they have expended in fighting the Bol-
sheviks. The shade of Kolchak looms ominous in
the distance as a warning of the treatment the
Allies meet out to those who fight for them — and
lose.
For the present, Poland is receiving munitions,
food and clothing from the Allies for her army.
The moment peace is declared, these supplier will
be cut off, and the government, which in the two
"IVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
July 31, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
113
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years since the recognition of its independence
should have learned to administer the economics of
the country, will have to tackle the problems of
reconstruction absolutely unprepared and without
aid from their former friends and employers, the
Entente powers.
England's policy in Poland has been to spend
millions for war, but not a shilling for peace. For
investment purposes, English capital has been
afraid of the unsettled conditions of the country,
but it has been good business to equip the Polish
army in order that it might exert pressure on the
Soviets and thus hope to extort from them better
trade concessions. This is the real explanation
of the simultaneous negotiations with Krassin and
the support of the Polish and Wrangel offensives
by Lords Curzon and Churchill.
When the Poles learned of the Krassin negotia-
tions, a light began to dawn upon them in regard
to English policy. The comment of the press with
regard to England was extremely bitter, scenting
in Lloyd George's action a counterpart to the
French betrayal of Kolchak. In the explanations
regarding the failure of their offensive, the Poles
feature the disillusionment caused by the news of
the Krassin negotiations.
After this disillusionment, it would be a bitter
pill for the Polish landlords to have to cultivate
the friendship of the Russian Soviets, but this is
their only recourse if they wish to save the coun-
try from ruin and collapse. This friendship does
not necessarily im|)ly the adoption of the Soviet
form, for the Russians are sufficiently realistic to
be friends with people not of their own beliefs.
The case of Esthonia, Czecho- Slovakia and Latvia
is an example of peace and friendship concluded
between Communist Russia and her non-Com-
munist neighbors.
But it is hard to believe that the Polish aris-
tocracy will have the courage and the self-control
necessary for this. On my way back from Poland,
I talked to a Belgian officer, a member of the
Inter-Allied Commission of Control, who, while
passing through Poland, had interviewed the Pol-
ish general staff on the military situation. The
Poles had told him that they regarded the Bol-
shevik war as mere training practice. After they
had finished with the Soviets, they would fight the
Czechs and the Germans . . .
Those whom the gods would destroy they first
make mad. If we are to judge present indications,
the Poles are being prepared for just such a de-
struction.
In a subsequent article I shall deal with the
impression the Soviet troops made during their
occupation of White Russia.
FOR FREE LUNCHES
According to Economic Life, 2,100,000,000
rubles have been allotted for the organization of
free lunches to the end of the current year. It
is proposed to give a quarter of a pound of bread
twice a day to all children from four to sixteen
years of age.
SANITATION IN RUSSIA
"For every thousand in the population of Rus-
sia, writes A. Sisin in No. 21 of the Izvestia of
the Central Executive Committee, "26.7 died in
1914. In Germany, the total mortality was only
16.2, in England, Sweden and Norway 13-14 per
1,000. In the last thirty or forty years, the mor-
tality in Russia rose only 4.8 per cent, in Ger-
many 9.6 per cent, and in England 9 per cent.
As far as child mortality is concerned, in 1903-
1907, 24.7 per cent of all those born died without
reaching the age of one year. Infant mortality
does not seem to change much. In 1883-87 it
was 26.1 per cent, that is, almost at the same level.
In absolute figures, of 5,223,369 souls born in
Russia in 1907, 1,217,436 died before reaching the
age of one year. In England, the child mortality
is only 11.7 per cent, in Norway 6.9 per cent, that
is, for every 1,000 born, only 69 died in the first
year.
"General cases of sickness in Russia amounted
in 1913 to 95,401,750, epidemic illness constitut-
ing seventeen per cent of the total, skin and germ
diseases fourteen per cent.
"The total number of contagious diseases in
1913 was 14,577,271. They consisted of 3,577,966
cases of influenza, 2/296,629 of malaria, 1,124,477
of syphilis, 775,904 of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Scabies, a typical disease due to dirt and ignorance,
had 5,532,723 cases in 1914, and trachoma, also
a sickness of poverty and dirt, 891,368 cases.
"The small number of medical personnel also
had a large effect on the national health.
"In 1915 there were in Russia 33,082 doctors,
male and female, and 29,866 assistant doctors.
There was only one doctor for each 5,140 popula-
tion, while in Germany there was one for each
1,960, and in England one for each 1,400. The
entire expense of the Czar's government and social
institutions for medical and sanitary work in 1914
amounted to 150,000,000 rubles. Only ten per
cent of this money was government money. The
expense per inhabitant was only one ruble, and
only about eight kopeks was spent on sanitation.
The rest was spent on medication.
"Sanitation was far from being at all satisfac-
tory. Out of over 1,000 cities in Russia, only 170
had a central water plant; only in fifty was there
any sewer system; and only in thirteen was the
refuse carried away by water. Many large cities
had no doctors at all, and many of the govern-
ments had no sanitary organs or institutions what-
soever.
"The victorious revolution has faced Russia more
than sharply with all the problems of hygiene, es-
pecially as the latter had been entirely neglected
thanks to the bloody four years* war, and the
crisis caused by the latter. Therefore, having as-
sumed the helm of power, the proletariat must at
once begin to put in shape the work of national
sanitation, in cooperation with the central govern-
ment organ, tl;e National Commissariat of Sani-
tation, so as to forever cat this Gordian knot, this
cursed legacy of capitalist/-- mr- 1 kj
(L>
1917.
True translation filed with the Postmaster of New York, on July 29, 1920, as required by the act of October 6
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PEASANTS AND SOLDIERS:
Can you still believe the Bolshevist trouble-makers and deceivers?
™™i**;,l nt y?U r^u ytt th , at th u cncmics °[ the people, having seized power, looted the property of the peasant and city
population, ruined the workers by mean, of their sly promises, made paupers of all of us and ledVr country^? deletion?
laboring people *"" W consxder.it just and necessary to turn over the entire land to the
I said this and the entire world heard my words. Now I am repeating it to you, peasants and soldiers and I shall
not go back on my word. Remember this well and do not believe the Bolshevist fakers.
Also bear in mind that it is necessary to defeat those bands which in their blindness and darkness defend the People's
of'RuMi^and the 1 "**) f c rg ° ttCn God and - thc P c °P ,c: HcI P. therefore, our Army that is honestly fighting for the salvation
... Every extra day of f outer of the Soviet of People's Commissaries remo-Jts 1J1* liour when the Russian mother-earth
unit pass into the hands of the farmers who love their country and haur xav'd it ir, time of stress.
rw.ir T«i„ *o 1010 Supreme Fnlev ana Sufinmt Ctmin** 4 win-Chief,
Omsk, July 29, 1919. ADMIRAL KOLCHAK.
July 31, 1920
SOVIET BUSSIA
115
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NEWS FROM RUSSIAN
Bosta, June 10, 1920. — In the \5^ te Russian
paper, Svoboda Rossyi, which is published at Eeval,
Duschen recently published an article concerning
Poland, in which he says, among other things:
'Is it not already time to understand that all
Russians must place themselves, at the defence of
their Fatherland, in those places which are best
adapted to them, in order to repulse the new at-
tack of bandits ? All those who will do their task
in Russia and close their ranks to defend every
foot of Russia's soil need have not fear. The lied
Army in Russia has a prominent place, because
of its organization. The Russian Army has won
on fourteen fronts, has crushed many generals
and their followers, but hitherto it has not even
yet shown its entire strength. It has met slanders
and sneers from the whole world with invincible
heroism, bravery, and courage, so that even the
worst slanderers have learned to respect it. The
army is the pride of the nation, and the Red Army
is the pride of the Russian people. It bears evi-
dence that during all the horrors of the past years
the Russian people have preserved an enormous
spiritual force and firmness. In this respect we
may be quite at ease.
"But if there is any possibility of shortening
this war, if there is a trace of hope that our weak
voices, the voices of the Russian emigrants, can
contribute to the cessation of this brother murder,
then our duty to our Fatherland consists in openly
declaring — 'Leave Russia alone. Do not disguise
your bandit intentions with assertions that you
desire to help the Russian people. Take your
hands off! The Russians do not need your help.
Let them attend to their own affairs, in their own
way !' "
Pravda comments on this as follows: "This
article is the more characteristic in that it reflects
the conception of almost all the Russian emigrants
in Esthonia. All refugees and all former White
Guards unanimously express in their conversations
with the members of the Russian delegation, —
'whatever differences of opinion there may be be-
tween us and the Soviet Government, we all unani-
mously wish that the Red Army may crush Poland
as fast and as completely as possible/ The same
statements have been made unofficially even within
Esthonian miltary circles."
"PRAVDA" ON THE CADETS
Helsingfobs. — The Moscow Pravda writes that
Paris has become the center of the remnants of
the Russian bourgeoisie, just as Koblenz was at
at one time the center of the remnants of the
French nobility. Just now eminent Cadets are
gathering at Paris to decide definitely how to fight
Soviet Russia. Some of them managed to obtain
high positions in the financial circles of Paris.
Their pockets are being filled by subsidies from
the League of Nations. They are trying to res-
urrect the National Center.
THE INAUGURATION OF THE UNIVER-
SITY OF THE RED ARMY
The second day of the fetes on the second anni-
versary of the creation of the Red Army was also
marked by the inauguration of a university of the
Red Army, bearing the name of Comrade Tol-
machov. Professor Shlebnikov informed the au-
dience of the general plan and history of the or-
ganization of the university. There were, first, the
instructors' courses, which, at the end of a few
months of work, could congratulate themselves on
brilliant results. The first group of students fin-
ishing their studies was already anticipated for the
current March. In view of this pedagogic success,
on the one hand, and the intention of the students
to pursue their studies, on the other, it was decided
to transform the school of instruction into a uni-
versity of the Red Army, with five faculties to
begin with.
by L^OOgle
"SOVIET RUSSIA PAMPHLETS"
The Russian Soviet Government Bureau is
issuing a series of pamphlet reprints of important
Soviet documents. The following are the first
four of these pamphlets:
1. The Labor Laws of Soviet Russia. Official
text, with introduction, by the Bureau, and
an answer to a criticism by Mr. W. C.
Redfield. 52 pages, stiff paper cover, price
10 cents.
This is a new edition of the Labor Laws,
and every owner of the old edition should
have it.
2. The Laws on Marriage and Domestic Rela-
tions. To be ready about September first.
Price 15 cents.
3. Two Years of Foreign Policy, by George
Chicherin. The relations of the Russian
Socialist Federal Soviet Republic with for-
eign nations, from November 7, 1917, to
November 7, 1919. 36 pages, stiff paper
cover, price 10 cents.
4. Protection of Labor in Soviet Russia, by
S. Kaplun, of the People's Commissariat of
Labor. This pamphlet, an interpretation of
the labor laws of Soviet Russia, is necessary
to a full understanding of these laws, and
readers should therefore order it in addition
to their copies of the laws. This pamphlet
has never been published in Soviet Russia.
To be ready August 1. Price 10 Cents.
Other pamphlets will follow. Special rates for
quantities.
Address :
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 West 40th Street New York City
Are you reading our weekly, Soviet Russia,
the official organ of the Russian Soviet Govern-
ment Bureau?
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited ; if sent in, their return is not promised.
T N THEIR desperate efforts at the eleventh
**■ hour to rescue the Polish Government from
tthe consequences of its ambitious folly, the Euro-
pean politicians once more reveal the impotence
of capitalist militarism and the humbug of bour-
geois diplomacy. Having encouraged their vassal,
Poland, whom at any time they could have easily
iheld within bounds, to embark upon a disastrous
:adventure, the Allies, beholding the disaster, can
think of no way to avert it save by making vain
threats against Russia, over whose independent
-government and victorious worker's army they
have not the slightest influence. So we come again
to one of those moments, of increasing frequency,
when confusion and bewilderment prevail, and the
conflicting interests of nationalist ambitions dis-
rupt the solidarity of Allied capitalism. At such
times the censorships fail to function and the vari-
ous official propagandas lack coordination. Even
the best trained bourgeois correspondents lose their
bearings in this chaos, and, lacking the accus-
tomed guides and restraints, are daily in danger
vof giving the show away.
The reply of the Soviet Government to the Bri-
tish proposal, which was designed to rescue Polish
imperialism from its plight, precipitated the crisis.
Mr. Lloyd George, "looking pale and haggard,"
admitted his bewilderment and complained that
rthe Soviet note was difficult to understand. No
•doubt it was. Nothing is more confusing to the
^diplomatists of old Europe, accustomed to a
language of evasion and equivocation, than the
straightforward talk of the Commissariat of For-
eign Affairs. How could Lloyd George understand
;a note in which the victors, repudiating the inter-
ference of the Allies in the Polish debacle, actually
^offered the defeated Poles more advantageous ter-
ritorial terms than those suggested by their west-
ern protectors. "Propaganda," cried Lloyd George,
in consternation, fearful lest the Poles discover
the obvious truth that it is better to be defeated
by Soviet Russia than to be protected by the
Allies. To add to his embarrassment, the Soviet
Foreign Office replied to Mr. George's suggestion
of a general peace conference of the border states,
by reminding him that Soviet Russia had already
successfully concluded peace with Lithuania, Es-
thonia and Georgia, and that negotiations were
Digitized by (jOOglC
proceeding with Latvia and Finland. There was,
no doubt, an unpleasant suggestion in the infer-
ence that while Mr. George and hi# peripatetic col-
leagues had been running about from one watering
place to another, talking peace and prolonging
war, Soviet Russia had been persistently and suc-
cessfully making peace wherever possible. It was
perplexing to be reminded that the Soviet Gov-
ernment has done more to make peace in the world
and has actually conducted more successful peace
negotiations with its neighbors than any other
power in Europe since the armistice. We gather
from the reports of the Prime Minister's dis-
course, however, that he understood that the Soviet
Government was ready to make peace direct with
Poland and that he would advise the Polish Gov-
ernment to sue for terms. Perhaps he did not
find the Soviet note so difficult of comprehension
as he pretended. He did not care where the peace
conference met, he said, and did not desire to in-
terfere if the Poles would negotiate directly with
the victors. The main thing was to save Poland
from the consequences of her "mistake." He con-
cluded with some perfunctory and meaningless re-
marks about the aid which England and France
would give to Poland. The British Ambassador
at Berlin had gone to Poland. The French Gov-
ernment was sending "a General who is Chief of
Staff," and finally, as some sort of dark hint, "it
may very well be that Marshal Foch will follow/*
What all these worthies would do or could do in
Warsaw, except to impede the hasty preparations
for evacuation, the Premier did not say.
Over in Paris, M. Millerand was having his
say, calling the Soviet note an impertinence, and
threatening wildly. "France must keep her word
to Poland," said the French Premier, forgetting
that only a few days ago no less a personage than
Marshal Foch himself had disclaimed all responsi-
bility for the Polish enterprise. One correspon-
dent, reporting the belligerency of the French
Premier, remarks dryly that "it is possible that
actions may not correspond with orations, for it
is difficult to see how France or England can
practice a war policy in the present circumstances."
Indeed it is difficult. Marshal Foch is not an
army corps. Meanwhile Ignace Paderewski, pour-
ing out his heart to the correspondent of the
Philadelphia Public Ledger, tells how Clemenceau
and the Supreme Council prevented Poland from
accepting the peace offers of the Soviet Govern-
ment of August of last year, and how, when that
offer was repeated last January, the Allies left
Poland to her own devices and Poland accordingly
conceived herself in the romantic role of the ap-
pointed defender of civilization. "The Allies have
agreed to support Poland in every way with all
their powers," proclaims Millerand with large as-
surance. Specifically in what way or with how
much power, he does not say. At ajiy rate, he
adds, France will not negotiate with the Soviet
Government until it has recognized the debts of
the former Russian governments.
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,r PHERE have recently come to light some in-
A teresting financial items which must ulti-
mately enter into the reckoning' by which the Eu-
ropean and American people will count the cost of
their unsuccessful military operations against the
Soviet Republic. The figures now revealed, we
may be sure, are far short of the gigantic total
which the promoters of a bankrupt enterprise will
have to write off as bad debts and profitless in-
vestments. No government would dare acknowl-
edge to its people all at once the full sum of this
extravagance and waste. The English Govern-
ment, for instance, has announced that the total
■of Great Britain's expenditures on naval and
military operations in Russia from the signing of
"the armistice in November, 1918, to March 31,
1920, was more than fifty-five million pounds
sterling. Enormous as this sum is, it is obviously
far from the total cost of British intervention.
The total in, human and economic wastage, of
^course, can never be reckoned. But this figure
only pretends to give the bare cost of English
naval and military operations. It is not assumed
to cover the expenses of the Canandian invading
forces in Siberia, nor does it account for the price
•of all the material and financial assistance wasted
on subsidies and donations to Kolchak, Denikin,
Yudenich, Wrangel, and every other White Guard
adventurer who came begging about the Allied
treasuries and war offices.
The account rendered by the United States
Liquidation Commission covers still another form
of expenditure in the anti-Soviet campaign. Ac-
cording to the official report, a total of $140,-
104,021 represents the amount of sales of surplus
American munitions and supplies to the nations
of the defunct "cordon sanitaire," as well as di-
rectly to the White Guard counter-revolutionists.
These so-called sales were, in effect, direct loans,
proffered, according to the official report, because
it was believed that thy would "serve a very im-
portant function in stabilizing the government and
social institutions" of the buffer states, and "would
help check the insidious advances of Bolshevism."
No cash was taken or asked in return. The amount
advanced to Poland for checking the "advances
of Bolshevism" was $59,365,000. The other bor-
der states received proportionate amounts, and
Kolchak's "Russian Government" got its share.
It is not our purpose here to question the value of
these American investments or the solvency of the
debtors. Two considerations do arise, however,
upon which it is interesting to speculate. Among
the states to which the United States extended
credit in this form were Esthonia and Lithuania.
Now both of these countries have made peace with
Soviet Russia, and under the terms of their re-
spective treaties, both have been allotted a share
of the Russian gold reserve. This gold which Es-
thonia and Lithuania have accepted from Russia
is part of the same reserve out of which the Soviet
•Government is making its initial purchases of sup-
plies in England and in Scandinavia and else-
where. It is the same gold which the American
Government has warned American manufacturers
and merchants is "stolen" and subject to confisca-
tion. Query : Can the United States Government
accept payment from Esthonia and Lithuania in
this same "stolen" gold? This tainted metal is
now inextricably mingled with whatever assets
Esthonia and Lithuania may have had before they
made peace with Russia, if, indeed, it does not
constitute the total of their available reserve.
When Esthonia and Lithuania pay the interest on
their debts to the United States out of this Russian
gold, will the United States Treasury be the re-
ceiver of stolen property? At present the Ameri-
can Government forbids the transfer of Russian
credits from Esthonia to the United States to pay
American manufacturers for goods sold to Russia.
Will the same prohibition affect the transfer of
gold from the same source when it is to be applied
on purchases from the United States Government ?
We do not think so. Moreover, we are confident
that the logic of this situation will shortly result
in the removal of the ban on Russian exchange
which debars the American manufacturer from
the Russian market. It is plain enough that the
United States can never in clear conscience col-
lect its debts in Esthonia and Lithuania until it
is ready to acknowledge the right of the Russian
people to the possession of their own treasury.
The other consideration evoked by the report
of the Liquidation Commission arises in connec-
tion with the recent outcry from the Russian-
American Chamber of Commerce calling for the
protection of American investment in pre-revolu-
tionary Russia. The statement of the Chamber
is not very specific, but the gist of its seems to
be that some Russian Government owes a few
Americans a certain amount of money for indus-
trial plants and other investments in Russia. This
may be true. Still, it must be apparent, even to
the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce, that
it is not a question which can be settled in any
frank and generous spirit until the United States
has recognized some Russian Government — we
modestly refrain from even suggesting what gov-
ernment. When the moment for settlement ar-
rives, it is of course inevitable that one side will
raise the question of the various subsidies and
donations which the American Government has
given to counter-revolutionaries engaged in civil
war against the Russian Government, and to for-
eign belligerents engaged in armed invasion on
Russian soil, all of which cost the Russian people
much sacrifice and expense to suppress. Even
leaving aside any direct American participation in
hostilities against the Russian Government, these
questions must be discussed. But, like the ques-
tion of remuneration to American investors, all
these matters are susceptible of adjustment.
* ♦ *
A CONSIDERABLE FLURRY of newspaper
**■ headlines, parliamentary interpellations, and
trade union resolutions, has been raised in Eng-
land by the publication of a secret record of Win-
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ston Churchill's intrigues with the Russian coun-
ter-revolutionaries. The document in question
contributes nothing essentially new to the long and
sordid record of capitalist imperialism in its fu-
tile campaign against the Soviet Republic. It is
interesting merely as an exhibit of the peculiar
psychology of bourgeois chauvinism engaged in
ridiculous plots and pretensions which fool no
one but the self-deluded actors. Two copies of
this "strictly confidential" memorandum were cap-
tured by the Soviet forces, with other more im-
portant booty, one at Omsk, and the other at
Archangel. In substance it is a report by the
Czarist General Golovin to Sazonov, the Czar's
ex-Foreign Minister, dated May 6, 1919, recording
the progress of the General's negotiations with
the British War Office.
General Golovin proceeded cautiously; "taking
into consideration," he explains, "that Churchill
was all the time very careful to avoid meeting
Russian war representatives — being afraid of cri-
ticisms on the part of the left element and per-
haps on the part of Lloyd George." Through the
mediation of one, Sir Samuel Hoare, Golovin pre-
pared a memorandum for Churchill on the plan
of operations against Petrograd. Hoare had in-
tended to arrange a "private interview" at his
own house between Churchill and Golovin. The
General, however, observing some hesitation in this
matter, was extremely courteous and considerate.
"I understood that he was in doubt as to whether
Churchill would wish to violate his outward cau-
tiousness towards us. I frankly told Hoare that
I considered it necessary to bear in mind Church-
ilPs wishes, as the latter sees much better the
political situation, and that I would not like to
embarrass him." So it was decided that Hoare
should continue to act as go-between. The General
was well pleased with the results of his negotia-
tions. "I was told that everything would be aone,"
On May 4, Hoare reported that Churchill was
"extremely interested in the Yudenich business,"
and so far overcame his fears as to invite the
General to visit him personally. Hoare was greatly
elated, "and asked me to make it a point to come
in military full dress." The romanticism of these
absurd creatures is irrepressible. Duly capari-
soned for the occasion, Golovin waited upon the
War Minister. He records the exact hour of the
momentous event — "at 5.30 of the same day" —
and was properly impressed by the condescension
of the Great Imperialist. The reception was "most
cordial," and Churchill "displayed great kindness."
The War Minister explained his difficult position :
"Until now he was unable to meet the higher rep-
resentatives of the Russian Army, for the sole
reason that, in the interests of the cause itself,
and owing to the political conditions of the mo-
ment, he had to keep a secret of many things."
Circumstances had now altered somewhat; never-
theless, Churchill asked Golovin, "in the name of
our common cause," to keep their relations "in
full and strict confidence." Getting down to busi-
ness, Churchill confessed that the question of giv-
DigitizedbytaOOgle
ing armed support to the Russian counter-revolu-
tion was difficult, because of the "opposition of
the British working class." However, "even in.
this matter, without promising anything, he
would try to help." He then outlined the naive
plan which he subsequently put into action.
Churchill had already declared in the House of
Commons that fresh forces were necessary for
the evacuation of North Russia. 'TJnder thia
pretext," reports Golovin, "he would send 10,000
volunteers who would replace the worn-out units,
especially the demoralized American and French
troops." Then, under this flimsy sham, "he would
postpone the actual evacuation for an indefinite
period." He promised that the assistance of the
newly arrived British detachments should be "ac-
tively manifested." "In short," wrote General
Golovin, "he will do all he can, but again he added
that the success of our common cause demanded
great secrecy." The question of support to Denikin
was more difficult, "because as far as the North
was concerned he had a pretext — that of sup-
porting the British troops already there." No
such pretext existed in the south. Another pre-
text had to be invented. Churchill would send
2,500 British volunteers to Denikin, "under cover
of instructors and technical troops, and if these
fight side by side with us against the Bolsheviks
it will, of course, be natural." There is more
of this, but one turns disgusted from the record
of such petty chicaneries. Churchill made lavish
promises of financial and material support to the
various counter-revolutionary enterprises, called
himself "the devoted champion of a great united
Russia," and histrionically announced to the de-
lighted General that "I am myself carrying out
Kolchak's orders." The conversation, reported
Golovin, "exceeded all my expectations," and he
concludes : "Great Britain's help is guaranteed to
us to the fullest possible extent."
This record is little more than a year old. Win-
ston Churchill, the "devoted champion" of the
counter-revolution, remains War Minister in the
same cabinet with Lloyd George, who negotiates
commercial relations with the Soviet Government
and disavows responsibility for the Polish offen-
sive. Moscow, well-informed and forewarned, pro-
ceeds cautiously and will not be easily tricked by
fair words and false promises.
HP HE reader is asked to note the tone of the
Kolchak proclamation which we have pub-
lished in facsimile and translation on page 114
of this issue. With the magnanimity of a god,
Kolchak assures the lowly that he has heard their
prayers and will be kinder to them than are the
wicked Bolsheviki. Or shall we rather say, with
the magnanimity of a Wrangel, who promises to
be no less godlike in his unsolicited largess to
the peasants of Russia. The time for gods is part:
the people demand their own, and no Kolchak
or Wrangel can any logger withhold it from them.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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The Economic Situation in Soviet Russia
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'THE economic situation in Russia at the pres-
** ent moment can be characterized by a few
most typical facts. The fact of the complete sus-
pension of foreign trade, which always played an
important part in our economic life, had a great
influence over our industry and trade. Approxi-
mately the value of commodities exported from
Russia, for the five year period, 1901-1905,
amounted to 941 million rubles a year, but for
the five year period, 1906-1910, it already
amounted to 1,205 million rubles a year, which
means that on the average there was an increase
of twenty-eight per cent in the exports from Rus-
sia. The yearly import of commodities for the
period 1901-1905 amounted to 632 million rubles
a year; for the period 1906-1910 it was 910 mil-
lion rubles a year — an increase of forty-four per
cent. From 1910 to 1912 the exports of Russia,
on an average, amounted to 1,520 million rubles.
(See Table I.)
For the same three (3) years prior to the war,
our complete imports amounted to 1,139 million
rubles, and were divided as shown in Table II.
It is characteristic that Russia exported chiefly
food products, all kinds of raw materials, mineral
ores, and petroleum, and imported chiefly manu-
factured products.
Imports to Russia were mostly such ware and
commodities as were not manufactured on her
territory. For instance, for the above three (3)
years prior to the war, the following commodities
were imported in considerable quantities :
Carriages, musical instruments, all kinds
of machines and apparatus, machines and
parts, power engines, lathes, sewing ma-
chines, binding machinery, harvest ma-
chinery (to the aggregate amount of 50
million rubles).
Iron and steel products, pewter, lead,
(about 15 million rubles each), coal
(mainly for Petrograd), paper products,
books, tanning materials, fertilizing ma-
terials, all kinds of flax and woolen
goods, tea, coffee, fruit, etc.
Imports to Russia are given by countries of
origin in Table III.
For the above we are using mainly figures of
pre-war times, as they are more characteristic for
Russia's previous relations with the rest of Europe.
Data for the time of the war are entirely different,
because during the said period materials for war
purposes were mostly imported, which is not char-
acteristic at all of our normal trade relations.
Post-war trade relations of Russia appear most
unfavorably, i.e., — Russia's chief source of supply
of all kinds of manufactured goods and commodi-
ties, exporting about fifty per cent of Russia's
total purchases of said commodities — Germany —
cannot be counted upon in Russian foreign trade.
Besides, Germany is so exhausted, that she will
not be able to resume her trade relations with
the outside world in the immediate future. There
remain other European countries, which could, if
they would, start trade and bartering relations with
Russia, but at the present time this is prevented
by purely political combinations. The powerful
countries of Europe decided to blockade Soviet
Russia, suspending all imports to that country, in
spite of the fact, that they themselves are in need
of the raw materials, which Russia is in a position
to supply them with. This is evident from the
fact that some of them were willing to start bar-
tering with her. In any event, we must face the
fact that Russia's foreign trade with European
countries and bartering relations with the outside
world are completely paralyzed and cannot be re-
stored in the near future.
The shortage of manufactured products and
other commodities would have to be made up by
the products of Russian factories, which is most
difficult at the present time. For instance, the
agricultural industry would have to increase its
productive capacity, which is impossible at pres-
ent. The same is true for other branches of our
industry, which are in the same position, and have
to develop their activties without any assistance
from the outside. One of the most important fac-
tors in the economic life of the Russian Soviet
Republic is that Russia is cut off from her main
industrial centers and sources of raw materials and
fuel. Industry can normally develop only when
she has at her disposal the main sources of raw
materials and fuel, and when the exploitation of
the same is not hampered by great difficulties. The
geographical situation of Russia's main sources
of raw materials is comparatively inconvenient, as
they are located in the Donets Coal Basin, in Pol-
and, in the Ural region, in Western Siberia, and
very little in the central regions. The same is
true of the metal ore mines, which are also for the
most part located on the outskirts. The center
and the northern part of Russia are comparatively
poor in ore, the exploitation of which, is, in addi-
tion, connected with difficulties.
The political situation was such, that the Donets
Coal Basin was cut off from the rest of Soviet
Russia about a year ago, and since then no con-
nection with that region could be established. In
the summer of 1918 the Czecho-Slovak movement
had began and cut off the second source of metal,
the Ural region.
The following figures will give an idea of the
production in the above-mentioned industries:
The work of the Donets Coal Basin can be
seen by the figures of production for the years
1913-1918. (See Table IV.)
The tables show that the production of these
mines has decreased to about one-third of the
normal production.
The export of mmerul fuel from the Donets
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120 SOVIET RUSSIA July 31, 1920
Exports from Russia, Annual Average 1916-1912 (Table I)
Value in Percentage of
Products Million Rubles Total Export
Grain 617 40.6
Lumber 145 9.5
Flax and hemp 103 6.8
Feed 77 5.1
Eggs 76 5.0
Butter 64 4.2
Hides and skins 50 3.3
Sugar 50 3.3
Other goods 338 22.2
Total 1,520 100.0
Imports into Russia, Annual Average 1910-1912 (Table II)
Value in Percentage of
Products Million Rubles Total Import
Textile materials 203 17.8
Machinery 137 12.0
Textiles and yarns 83 7.3
Tea " 59 5.2
Hides and skins 53 4.6
Coal and coke 43 3.8
Manufactured metal prod-
products 38 3.4
Metals 38 3.3
Gum 34 3.0
Fish 33 2.9
Other merchandise 418 ....... 36.7
Total 1,139 100.0
o
Imports by Countries, Annual Average 1910-1912 (Table III)
Value in
Countries of Origin Million Rubles Percentage
Germany 490 43.0
England 150 13.2
United States 88 7.7
China 79 6.9
France 58 5.1
Persia 36 3.1
Austria-Hungary 34 3.0
Other countries 204 18.0
Total 1,139 100.0
Production of Coal in Donets Basin, 1913-1918 (Table IV)
Average Monthly
Year Produuction Production
1913 1,543,790 128,000
1914 1,683,780 140,000
1915 1,625,580 135,000
1916 1,743,860 145,000
1917 1,510,600 n ,,; hS ^j^,. 125,000
1918 OOO 530 000 9f!9 P. a J. f . r ? nf 44 000
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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Goal Basin has decreased in the same degree.
There were 1,360,000 thousand poods of coal
brought out of the Donets Coal-Basin in 1916,
and 1,034,000 thousand poods in 1917. In 1918
the figure was only 261,000 thousand poods, i.e., a
decrease of about seventy-four per cent in com-
parison with 1916.
A more acute decrease is noticed in the produc-
tion of the Donets Coal Basin in 1919. The pro-
duction of the Lisachinski, Marievski, Almasny,
Slavianoserbski, and Grishinski mines has been as
follows :
January, 1919
February, "
March, " ....
8,719 thousand poods
11,289
11,152 "
April " ....
5,459 " "
instead of 38 million poods in 1917 and 14-15
million poods in 1918.
Transport of coal from the above mines has been
accordingly :
January, 1919.... 4,694 thousand poods
February, " .... 8,451 "
Taking into account that only one-third of the
Donets Coal Basin has been occupied by the Soviet
forces, it must be admitted that the production of
coal was very low, and under such conditions it is
impossible to satisfy the demands of our industry
for coal.
The following months (April and May), were
even less favorable for that part of the Donets
Coal Basin occupied by the Soviet forces. Deni-
kin began his offensive at the Donets Coal Basin
and this was a final blow to its work. It was sup-
posed that we would be able to get about 13-14
million poods of coal from that part of the Donets
Coal Basin, but the events that followed destroyed
all plans and suppositions.
The Donets Coal Basin was occupied by the
Denikin Army and this entirely destroyed its pro-
duction. Judging by the figures which we gave
above regarding the production of the Donets Coal
Basin in 1918, it cannot be supposed that the pro-
duction of that part which was occupied by Deni-
kin, could be very considerable; in any event it
was four to five times less than the normal pro-
duction. In regard to the other part of the Basin,
which was occupied only recently, the position will
be very difficult, as Denikin's offensive is always
accompanied by complete destruction. Working-
men from the factories are in flight, many enter-
prises are left without technical and labor help,
and this leads to the complete and final destruc-
tion of the mines. Falling and crumbling of coal
beds take place, ventilation gets out of order, mines
are overflooded, etc. Due to the absence of the
workingmen, the work of the coal mines is hind-
ered in such a way as to make its restoration im-
possible, and the mines are destined for destruc-
tion.
The longer the power of Denikin will last in the
Donets Coal Basin, the worse it will be for the
latter, and the more acute will be the disorgani-
zation of all industrial enterprises.
A very close connection with the rest of Kussia
is necessary for the Donets Coal Basin, because
only from Russia can it get all the required prod-
ucts and commodities. For instance, for the re-
storation of its production of coal to one and a
half million poods a year, it is necessary for the
Basin to have at least 100,000 cars of timber, of
which 75,000 cars must be binding timber.
The redemption of the Basin gave an oppor-
tunity to supply it with timber — the part occupied
by the Soviet forces received in May about 7,000
cars of timber, including binding timber.
The Donets Coal Basin has none of the above
products. The same can be said about the other
products necessary for the satisfactory work of the
Basin — all kinds of machinery, explosive materi-
als, etc.
The same fundamental principles were applied
to the factories and enterprises under the Soviet
influence as were applied to those in Soviet Rus-
sia, namely, Ukraine's Economic Council had be-
gun the nationalization of the large enterprises of
that region. Very soon there was established a cen-
tral committee for the nationalized coal mines of
the Donets Coal Basin, which committee included
a number of branches and was to handle the work
of the coal mines of the Basin. It was intended
to carry out the nationalization of the coal in-
dustry slowly and carefully, so as not to injure
in any way the normal routine of the work. It
was intended to begin with the nationalization of
the largest enterprises, which could be counted
upon in the production of coal in the region,
namely, thirty-four of the largest mines, with
29,000 workingmen. The remaining small enter-
prises could go on working, but their production
would not have any significance for our railroads,
transports, and industry, and therefore, supplying
them with necessary material could be postponed.
Denikin's offensive destroys all these plans, and
they are not to be realized until a more or less
distant future.
The Donets Coal Basin is a source of coal for
all our industry and after the restoration of its
work all our hope in regard to fuel will depend
entirely upon it.
Restoration of its work will be very difficult, but
it must be done as soon as possible, as all other
kinds of fuel cannot satisfy the demands of our
industry, and will not furnish that which the
Donets Coal Basin is able to furnish us with.
(To be continued)
Chicherin's Pamphlet
"Two Years' of Soviet Russia's Foreign
Policy" (1917-1919).
Just from the press ; never published even in
our weekly; 36 pages; stiff cover; price ten
cents.
Gives complete account of relations with all
Foreign Nations from November 7, 1917, to
November 7, 1919.
UNIvbky I V Oh .VJlHKjAH
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122
SOVIET RUSSIA
July 31, 1D20
Through Latvia and Esthonia to Russia
[The following article appeared in a recent number of "Social Demokraten/' Christiania, Nor-
way. It is from the pen of that paper's correspondent in Russia, Jakob Frits.]
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QN MARCH 1, Editor Otto Grimlund, of
^^ Stockholm, and I, left Stockholm on the
steamship Igel, bound for Libau, intending to en-
ter Russia via Riga, Reval, and Narva. The route
through Murman had not yet been opened, and it
was impossible for Grimlund to obtain a passport
through Finland, while there were as yet no di-
rect connections between Stockholm and Reval.
The way through Libau was thus the only possible
one. It proved, however, to be a much more tire-
some and troublesome way than we had expected.
It took us fourteen days to reach Narva, but as a
reward we obtained some very vivid and valuable
impressions of conditions in the border states, im-
pressions which were of especial value in making
comparisons with conditions in neighboring coun-
tries.
As is well known, Latvia and Esthonia became
independent states after the Russian revolution.
Their populations aggregate not more than three
millions, both together. That these two small
states have been able to stop the access to the sea
of the giant Russia is in itself rather abnormal.
It is doubtful whether they can govern themselves,
since in the short period of their independence
they have already become mutually hostile. If the
matter had been one for their decision alone, they
would have undoubtedly already been at war with
each other, so strong was this hostility, but the
Entente powers prevented this war. It was during
the worst days of this wrangle that Grimlund and
I travelled through Latvia and Esthonia, hearing
expressions of opinion from both sides, and every-
one said that there was more hatred than love for
each other in these two newly founded independent
states.
The Letts and Esthonians belong to entirely
different races, the former to the Indo-Germanic
racial group, forming a single language group,
with the Lithuanians and ancient Prussians. The
Esthonians, on the other hand, belong to the Fin-
nish-Ugrian race, being as similar as are, for in-
stance, the Norwegians and Swedes.
Libau is "Leepaya" in Lettish and means the
"linden-tree town."* It is an important seaport,
which carried on an enormous trading and ship-
ping business before the war, when it had a pop-
ulation of about 110,000 inhabitants. "The
great prosperity of the town was evident from its
appearance," says a book about Esthonia. "An
elegant residence quarter and modern and up to
date institutions give the town a modern west
European character." So says the book, and it
was probably true when the book was written, but
* Numerous towns in territory no longer Slavic bear
evidence of former Slavic occupation; thus, Leipzig,
in Saxony, is also derived from the Slavic root lipa,
"linden-tree," although it is situated in what is now
Germanic territory.
times have changed since then. The town looks
unclean and decayed, and its impression is far
from that of having a ''modern west European
character." In the best hotel of the town the ef-
fect of the years of war can everywhere be seen.
The dining room makes a very poor impression,
and the food is very scanty. We did not desire to
extend our stay here longer than necessary and
took the first train, to continue our journey ay
soon as possible.
Here as everywhere else in the belligerent coun-
tries trains were all crowded with people. We
knew this in advance, and inquired at the station
at Libau if we might be permitted to buy a special
stateroom, as we had quantities of baggage which
we wanted to keep with us. "Oh, yes," we were
told, "it will be all right." It was only necessary
to buy eight tickets instead of two. As the differ-
ence in cost was not great enough to warrant long
discussion, we bought the eight tickets. We did
not get the stateroom, however. It was so crowded
with passengers that special rights were of no use
whatever. Our stateroom was simply taken over
and occupied by others.
Riga appears to be a much more modern city
than Libau. Before the war it had about a half
million inhabitants. It is, moreover, a very old
city. In the year 1150 it was razed to the ground
by Gothlandian merchants from Lubeck. The
inner part of the city has a very venerable aspect.
From the broad modern circular boulevards it is
only a few steps to the old narrow streets where
the religious and guild atmosphere of the middle
ages seems still to exist. The high tower of St.
Peter's church rises here above the old-fashioned
houses and precipitous slanting roof of the monas-
tery of the Holy Ghost. Here stands the ruin of
the old church of the Knights of the Sword, St.
George's cathedral, where the Augustinian monk
Meinhard, Bishop Albert of Bremen, and several
others are buried. Together with the merchants
front Gothland Meinhard went out to the Baltic
States, the merchants to carry on exchange trade
with shipments from the Novgorod market, Mein-
hard to convert the heathens to Christianity. The
Hanseatic ships went home again when the
autumn storms began, but Meinhard remained and
preached among his heathens, among whom he
died, in 1196. Bishop Albert of Bremen became,
however, the real founder of Riga. With crowds
of noble crusaders he founded the colony of Riga
and instituted there the famous order of the
Knights of the Sword, which carried on the work
of reformation with great zeal and faithfulness.
In addition to the churches there are the Guild
buildings, which remind one of ancient times. The
magnificent "House of the Black Hoods," with
its beautiful tower, aad the Marie guildhouse with
its w^derfjLl.architecuture, are the most famous.
July 31, 19«0
SOVIET RUSSIA
123
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It is remarkable how little damage Jias been done
to this city in spite of the battles that raged about
it during the war. True, however, the beautiful
town theatre was destroyed by a 42-centimeter
shell, but the city as a whole seems untouched . . .
Before the war Eiga was governed by German
capital. The upper class of the German merchant
families, small and few in number, dominated the
economic and political life of the town. They
guarded their privileges, carefully upheld their
connections with the German home country, and
held the Lettish laboring class under a strict Ger-
man discipline. At the outbreak of the war there
were fifty Germans and only fifteen Letts and
Russians participating in the local government of
Eiga,
The provincial national government of Latvia,
the "People's Council," now existed at Eiga. The
Social Democrats had one-third of the representa-
tion there. Election to the Constituent Assembly
was being held while we were in Riga. We visited
the office of the Right Social Democrat headquar-
ters where the young Dr. Kalnitz gave us some
information on the situation. When the German
troops marched into the town in 1918 they formed
•a Baltic-Lettish reactionary government, but they
had to flee when the Bolshevist government came
into power. In May, 1919, the government came
back again, however. The elections to the Con-
stituent Assembly took place with the participation
of everyone above twenty-one years of age. There
are five election districts: Latgallia, Riga, Kur-
land, Semgallian, and Livland. The results de-
pend especially on Latgallia, where the priests have
great power over the peasants and where reaction
is therefore strong. The Communists boycotted
the elections, since they could only work illegally.
The trade unions which go with the Social Demo-
cratic party number about 25,000 members. The
most important question of the election was the
attitude towards Eussia. The government was
against, the Social Democrats for, peace with Eus-
sia. I do not remember the immediate results of
the election, but the government has been com-
pelled to make peace with Eussia. In the same
house where I lived in Moscow, later on, peace
negotiations between Soviet Eussia and Latvia
took place. Peace was declared, but on much
severer terms for Latvia than they had expected.
The Eussians reasoned, and rightly, that it was
more important for Latvia to obtain peace than for
Eussia. Had Latvia offered peace at the time
when Eussia had not yet defeated all her enemies,
the Lettish negotiations would have been met with
greater benevolence than they met later.
From Eiga we proceeded through the border
town, Walk, to Esthonia, and, by way of Dorpat
to Beval. It was not a pleasant trip.
THE RUSSIAN-GEORGIAN PEACE
TREATY
June 5, 1920.
On the night of May 3, at 12.20 P. M„ peace with
Russia was signed by Gregory Uratadse, member of
the Georgian Constituent Assembly.
The chief points of the treaty are the following:
1. Russia recognizes unreserverdly the sovereignity
and independence of the Georgian state, and renounces
all previous sovereign claims in reference to the Geor-
gian people or Georgian territory.
2. Russia renounces all interference with Georgia's
internal affairs.
3. Questions of boundary will be settled in Georgia's
favor. Among other things, Russia recognizes that the
whole Batum territory belongs unconditionally to the
Georgian state.
4. Georgia and Russia both pledge themselves to
maintain strictest neutrality towards each other, and not
to permit the establishment of any armed power for
the purpose of overthrowing by force the established
order of either state. Groups of this nature, which
have intruded, or which intrude in the near future upon
the territory of the states signing this treaty, must be
disarmed and interned.
5. Industrial relations between Russia and Georgia
will be established in accordance with the following
principles :
a. Mutual advantage;
b. Mutual renunciation of tariffs.
These conditions will continue to hold until a com-
mercial treaty is signed, which must be concluded within
a short time.
Noe Jordania, president of the Georgian Government,
wired the Georgian peace delegate in Moscow as fol-
lows :
"Congratulations on the conclusion of the peace
treaty. Inform the Council of People's Commissars that
the news of peace will be received by the people with
intense joy. I hope that from now on, all misunder-
standings between Russia and Georgia will disappear,
and that both nations will work together in peace and
harmony for the reconstruction of life on a Socialist
basis. Greetings to all friends and comrades."
Noe Jordania.
The peace treaty which Soviet Russia has concluded
with Georgia is another document true to proletarian
foreign policy. Georgia is not an industrial republic,
but a bourgeois democratic state, which the Mensheviki
succeeded in tearing away from Soviet Russia, with
words of bourgeois democracy, and tried to steer into
the deep waters of Entente politics. Rather than gain
its independence from Moscow, it resorted to depend-
ence upon Entente imperialism. The policy of Soviet
Russia was not to set about to overthrow the Men-
shevik Georgian government, but to make it clear to
the Georgian people that the all-Russian Soviet Govern-
ment entertained no oppressive designs upon them, and
would not try to further their political development by
violence. In this way, the Georgian Mensheviki had to
accept against their will peaceful and friendly relations
with Soviet Russia, and Georgia became an ally of
Soviet Russia instead of an enemy. And in addition
to this, the nationalist agitation of hostile Russians has
been abandoned, and the most favorable conditions for
the victory of the Socialist Revolution have been cre-
ated in Georgia.
PICTURES IN NEXT ISSUE
The next issue of Soviet Russia will contain eight full pages of new photographs (Red Army Soldiers, New
Moscow Monuments, etc.), printed on special calendared paper. Also, the reader mierzsting reading matter.
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124
SOVIET KUSSIA
July 31, 1920*
A Funeral in the Taiga*
From the Diary of a Partisan
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WE KNEW Pankratiev was going to die. For
the last few weeks he had been gradually
passing away. He was not receiving any food and
had acquired the appearance of a living skeleton,
with his large burning eyes, into which I dared
not look, for so strong was their look, that it
seemed Death itself was gazing through them.
And there he lay, in the middle of the tent, upon
a canvas stretcher, always with eyes open, even in
his sleep. We, wounded men, patients of the Par-
tisan Hospital, have suffered enough not to be
moved by the moans of that man; but the last
few days of his life brought such suffering upon
him, so torturing and painful were his animal-like
shrieks and groans, that each of us wished the
moment of his death would come sooner.
Around us was wild, impassable forest, always
mysterious, real Siberian Taiga in its virgin gran-
deur, unexplored, just as it was thousands of years
ago. Wild beasts were roaming right around our
camp, sometimes rushing through so near as to
make the leaves rustle. And we knew that even
the King of the Taiga — the invincible Amur Tiger,
was wandering at a mile's distance from us. Wild
nature was spreading before us, but we hardly
took notice of it. We could not think of the
splendor of the trees, and flowers in their full
bloom, for our very lives were at stake. Our sit-
uation was dangerous, it seemed even hopeless.
The Japanese had landed superior forces in our
region, and supported by machine guns and light
artillery, had driven us Partisans from the villages
we held. Armed with old, half-broken rifles and
a limited supply of ammunition, and no new sup-
plies in view, we kept up a stubborn fight against
the overwhelming forces. Poorly clad, without an
adequate food supply, in many cases having black
bread as our only meal, we were willing to stand
even greater hardships, firm in our determination
to see Russia free. We were cut off from the
world and received information only accidentally.
The only delayed newspaper we ever got was an
enemy publication, because the revolutionary press
was ruthlessly suppressed, and the newspapers we
received always tended to kill our hope for freeing
Siberia from the yoke of Kolchak and his foreign
supporters.
For us Partisans it was a hard struggle, with
victory very far off, perhaps not to be witnessed
by us at all. The difficulty of fighting a superior,
well-armed, and adequately supplied enemy was in-
creased by the rigors of wild nature that we had
to overcome. We never discussed among ourselves
what would happen if we were completely beaten.
We knew that we had to fight on.
Even more unfavorable was the situation of
those Partisans, who had the ill luck to be wounded
in various skirmishes with the enemy. When in
* The forests in Siberia are called Taiga.
battle line, we could not have the consoling thought
of a soldier of the regular army, who knew that at
well-equipped hospital with the best accommoda-
tions was awaiting him in case of injury. The Par-
tisan could not hope for anything. We always pre-
ferred to be killed than to be wounded, because*
terrible uncertainty lay in store for us in the latter
case. We might fall into the hands of the cruel,,
merciless enemy, and we well remembered the case
of the torturous death inflicted upon our unfor-
tunate comrades who had been accidentaaly cap-
tured.
And now the worst has happened. Thirty of
us were in this little improvised hospital. We
were made to move from place to place until the-
advance of the enemy compelled us to retreat to
the thick of the Taiga. We were lucky to have the
attention and care of a physician, Dr. Senkievich,.
but we were cut off from the world and had a
very small stock of hospital supplies on hand. On
account of this, we had to be very economical with
the bandages, washing them over and over again,,
until nothing but rags remained.
Then there was the terrible vision of hunger
coming. The few sacks of flour and beans — the
only provisions we managed to take with us — were
fast becoming empty. With Japanese and Kol-
chak troops right around us, how were we to get
food? And so we cut down our meagre rations
of flour cakes and beans. We were weak and ex-
hausted from our wounds and constant moving
from place to place, and here we lay in the open,
the damp taiga air pressing heavily on our lungs.
We did not complain because of the absence of
sugar or meat or any such luxuries — we did not
even have bread and were now facing starvation.
To aggravate matters, we were in a helpless state-
and could not even move.
We well knew that we were not in a regular hos-
pital. Each time we cast a glance upon our dy-
ing Comrade Pankratiev, we realized the sadness
of our situation. We realized that he would sur-
vive if he had a chance to be operated upon. But
the surgical instruments necessary for the opera-
tion were not on hand and could not be procured
in the Taiga, and so we had to watch his flesh rot
slowly, see his eyes sink deeper into his eye sockets
and hear his wild shrieks of pain. It was sad for
us to see Pankratiev pass away, because the ma-
jority of us, wounded men, were with him through-
out the fighting and had learned to like him. He
had been destined to live and enjoy health and
happiness, but here he was, far from his beloved,
to be buried in the thick of the Siberian Taiga.
It was not only his fate to give up his life under
such conditions and be buried among the wild
beasts of the forests. Many more comrades had
to pay the price with their young lives in the-
just two weeks ago*
struggle for liberty. It -\
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July 31, 1980
SOVIET BITSSIA
125
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that we received news of the tragic death of Karl
Liebknecht, nephew of the great German Socialist,
who was killed by a bullet. In the small fore-
gaken graveyard of Kazan ka lies the body of Lieb-
knecht, and a cross with the following simple in-
scription tells the tale of heroism and hard strug-
gle: "Here is buried Earl Liebknecht. Peasants,
pray for him! He died for you in a strange
land."
It was early in the morning that we saw Pan-
kratiev's last hours of life. He was unconscious
at the end and could not answer simple questions.
The few attendants began preparations for his
burial. We could not pay proper tribute to his
dead body, for we did not even have a saw to make
a coffin. And the corpse was laid in the bark of
a tree and covered with a sheet. The attendants
and those of the wounded who could walk were
the only ones in the procession to the place of
burial — some thirty paces from our hospital The
little band started off and began to sing the revo-
lutionary burial song, "Vechnaya Pamiat". Those
of us who were lying helpless could only hear the
pathetic air sung in a subdued voice, and a feeling
of mortal anguish overwhelmed us. This was the
last we would see of Pankratiev. We did not con-
verse among ourselves and each of us was alone
with his sad thoughts. Would we be saved from
this fate of perishing in the Taiga? Death from
hunger awaited us, for we had provisions only for
a few days. Isolated from all villages and farms,
we could not expect any new food supplies, ex-
cept by a miracle. We could not hunt game, be-
cause the sound of shooting could be heard by the
enemy. Yes, we always felt the danger of being
discovered. We never spoke but in a low voice,
for did not the Japanese and Kolchak soldiers
look for our hospital twice? The last time the
Japanese traced all paths so steadily and carefully
that they came within less than a mile from our
hospital. We gave up our bonfire at night and
every little noise in the bushes made us feel the
fear gnawing at our hearts. The enemy was per-
sistent in his attempt to find the Partisan Hos-
pital and inflict his vengeance upon the helpless
wounded. We knew that and expected no mercy.
Every night we fell asleep uncertain whether we
might not find ourselves surrounded at daybreak
by enemy troops. We were convinced that these
were our last days, for we were bound to be dis-
covered.
Slowly were dying away the sounds of "Vech-
naya Pamiat", and each one of us was deep in his
reflections of our situation.
We were not regretting that we would have to
part with our lives in an age so youthful and
promising. We had reconciled ourselves to any
fate when voluntarily entering the Partisan De-
tachments. What did one's life matter when Rus-
sia's liberty was at stake? The Revolution was
demanding a great price to be paid, and we wil-
lingly gave our young lives. We felt that the
cause was bound to be victorious, for were there
not thousands of others like ourselves, who had
parted with everything to bring themselves to the
altar of the Russian Revolution? Great physical
sufferings, hunger, privations, a superior enemy —
what could stop us? Truly, we did not have ma-
chine-guns or even good rifles, but we felt that
it was not a matter of arms — something more
powerful than fast bullets supported us and noth-
ing could stop that — the Revolution was behind
us, bidding us fight on, and we joyfully sub-
mitted to the call.
We, wounded Partisans, half of whom at best
would remain crippled forever, would forget our
sufferings, when we reminded ourselves of the de-
votion of the workers and peasants to our common
cause of freeing Siberia from the hated rule of
Kolchak. We gained inspiration and a greater de-
sire to battle on, when we thought of the poor
peasants, who had to suffer all the wrath and ven-
geance of the Japanese and Kolchak punitive ex-
peditions. A peasant shared his meagre food with
us, or perhaps one of his family went to the hills
and shouldered a rifle to fight the oppressors of
the country — and often their houses were burned
down, and everyone in the village flogged.
We reminded ourselves of the peasant children,
revolutionaries of the future, who shared their
parents' hatred for the dictator's role. They sang
revolutionary songs with real enthusiasm and
would rather die than disclose anything that might
injure the cause of the Partisans. Here it was,
in the village of Novo-Niezhino, that a twelve year-
old boy showed singular heroism. The Kolchak
troops occupied the village a day after the Par-
tisans had left it. The Kolchak officers seized a
twelve year old boy and insisted that he tell the
direction in which the Partisans had gone. But
the little boy felt that not merely the lives of
those men were at stake — something greater than
that depended upon his answer, and so he stub-
bornly claimed that he knew nothing. The of-
ficers insisted, threatened, and finally told him
that he would be burned alive if he remained ob-
stinate. The big Russian kitchen stove was at
the officers' order filled with straw and the boy
was shoved into the stove. Then the officer lit a
match and ordered the boy to give full informa-
tion, or the straw would be ignited. The boy
knew, but would not tell. The inhuman threat
was not carried out, however, and the boy was let
out of the stove. What must he have felt when
the officer held the match?
We thought of the binding ties that exist be-
tween us, Partisans, and the peasants and workers.
We are brothers of one great world army that
can never be conquered. What did it matter
that the Japanese had landed another few thou-
sand soldiers in our region? Was not the whole
nation, nay, the entire world with us? We could
not measure our forces in thousands of rifles, as
the enemy did. We felt we could fight even with
bare hands. The Russian Revolution, irresistible
as fate itself, told us to wage the battle. We shall
fight on . . .
Leo Peblin.
UNIVERSITYOF MICHIGAN
126
SOVIET RUSSIA
July 31, 1920
Official Communications of the Soviet Government
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ENGLAND'S SUPPORT OF WRANGEL
Moscow, June 26. — Simultaneous with the as-
surances of the British Government that they are
not associated with Wrangel's offensive, the latter
continues with a considerable display of war ma-
terial still furnished by Great Britain. One of
WrangePs associates, General Beirshin, who was
made prisoner on June 10, declared as follows:
"Wrangel receives equipment, such as guns, rifles,
and other arms, principally from Great Britain,
and secondly from France. Large British ships
and small French craft help Wrangel on the sea.
He receives fuel from Batum."
In an answer to Earl Curzon's assurances, we
asked what Britain would do to enforce her dis-
approval of Wrangels* action. No answer is forth-
coming, but help is steadily being given to Wran-
gel. When the Entente is thus actively attacking
us our masses will be hard to convince of the de-
sirability of recognizing the claims of British
creditors. The British Crimean policy is wrecking
our efforts; we have seen the effects in the Central
Executive Committee at a session with the Trade
Union and Factory Committees.
RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND
Moscow, June 17. — Today at the second sitting
of the session of the Central Executive Committee,
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Chi-
cherin, made a report on the whole position of in-
ternational policy. He showed England's duplic-
ity in supplying Poland and Wrangel with muni-
tions to be used against Eussia, saying that while
England denied her aggressive policy, at the same
time she was evading real diplomatic negotiations
with Bussia's political representative Litvinov, and
during commercial negotiations with Krassin's
trade delegation was attempting to bind Eussia in
political questions without binding the Entente,
and wished to take everything from Russia, giving
nothing in return.
We desire real negotiations with Britain, but
Britain evades them. Opposition speakers, like
Ossinsky, Chairman of the Executive Committee,
of Tula; Kaganovich, Chairman of the Executive
Committee of Tambov, Sosnovsky, member of the
Central Executive Committee, attacked Chicherin's
peaceful policy demanding stronger action, and
especially pointing out the danger in the duplicity
of the Entente. All appeals for a stronger policy
provoked great applause. A resolution endorsing
Chicherin's peaceful policy was carried with fif-
teen votes against it.
Chichekin.
RUSSO-FINNISH PEACE PARLEYS
Moscow, June 17. — The Eusso-Finnish peace
negotiations were opened in Yurzev. The Bussian
representative Kervenec proposed the conclusion of
an armistice.
gitized by LjOOgle
A SOVIET DENIAL
Moscow, June 20. — Western radios tell hes
about Bussian troops allegedly marching towards
Teheran. Such statements are quite false. All
our forces have evacuated Persian soil and waters.
A revolutionary Soviet Government headed by
Mirza-Kutchuk carries on its struggle with its own
forces; it is entirely the work of the Persian peo-
ple themselves and not in the remotest of foreign
interference. The Persian people are determining
their own fate.
Chicherin.
POLISH ATROCITIES
1246. May 4, 1920.
The eighth congress of Soviets of the district
of Polotsk, after taking cognizance of the lament-
able situation in which the population of the can-
ton of Turovlian had been placed by the incursion
of the Polish legionaries, and the calamities and
privations without number which were imposed
upon it by the barbarous Poles, expresses its pro-
found sympathy for the victims of the cynical im-
perialist brigandage. The congress loudly protests
before the workers and peasants of the whole world
against the savage horrors and barbaric atrocities
committed by the Polish troops upon the Russian
workers. Moved by the unheard of cruelties of
the Polish legionaries and the sufferings endured
by the populations of all the occupied localities,
the delegates of the congress express the firm hope
that the day is near when the workers and peas-
ants will overthrow all the bandits of imperialism
throughout the world. It hopes that soon the
revolution commenced by the working masses of
Eussia, which has already passed beyond her fron-
tiers, will bring liberation to all the oppressed
nations, and that then, over the corpses of the
Polish lords and proprietors, the Bussian workers
will extend a fraternal hand to the Polish workers,
in order to construct with them the radiant future
which is called communism.
The President of the Congress,
Nikanenok.
Secretary, Stanul.
PROTEST AGAINST POGROMS
1178. April 22, 1920.
The united committee of public Israelite organ-
izations and an assembly called together by it of
the Jewish citizens of Moscow, after having heard
on the 19th of April, 1920, a report concerning
the bloody pogroms and massacres of the Jews
committed in four hundred and forty-seven locali-
ties in Ukraine and in several central provinces
of Greater Eussia, as well as in a part of Poland,
by various units of the army of Petlura, Denikin
and the Polish legionaries, massacres which have
cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of Jews,
and which havo bem accompanied by the most
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horrible atrocities and cruelties, the violation of
several tens of thousands of tortured women, the
murder of hundreds of children before the eyes
of their parents, etc., expressed their indignant
protest against all the authors of these savage
atrocities,- against the governments controlling
Denikin and Poland, who, far from taking the least
measures to protect the property and welfare of
the Jews, have made of the pogroms an instrument
of their policy. The bloody events in Ukraine
and other parts of old Russia threaten to destroy
completely the most magnificent conquests of the
human spirit, and excite in all hearts an inflamed
contempt for all the direct or indirect authors.
The responsibility for the shedding of Jewish
blood in torrents rests equally upon all the govern-
ments of the civilized world, whom human soli-
darity should have impelled to take effective meas-
ures to prevent the massacres and punish their
instigators. The united committee and the assem-
bly place the responsibility for any future excesses
which may take place, upon all the peoples of the
world, and demand the absolute cessation of similar
occurrences. Declaring that even the avowed and
known agents of these murders, such as Petlura
and his partisans, who have by their orders pre-
pared these bloody massacres and who have direct-
ly taken part in them, have remained unpunished,
the united committee and the assembly demand the
immediate judgment of those responsible directly
or indirectly for these bloody events and of the
governments which have permitted them. The
president of the assembly. Signed.
BULGARIA AND DENIKIN
1301. April 22, 1920.
The People's Commissars for Foreign Affairs
of the Eepublic8 of Eussia and Ukraine, Chi-
cherin and Eakovski, address to Bulgaria a note
of protest against the aid furnished by that govern-
ment to the counter-revolutionary army. The
Bulgarian Government, as is evidenced by the of-
ficial telegrams of the Bulgarian authorities, has
directly delivered considerable supplies of artillery,
rifles, and munitions to the representatives of
Denikin. At the same time the representative of
Denikin in Bulgaria opened a recruiting bureau
for Russian counter-revolutionary troops. After
the defeat of the volunteer army, its. remnants
were sent to Varna to reorganize, in the camp
created especially by the Bulgarian authorities for
the recruiting of this army. Bulgarian territory
thus served as a training-ground for Denikin, and
also as a concentration camp for the numerous
hostages taken in Ukraine by the volunteer army.
These acts constitute a violation of neutrality and
of the principle of non-intervention by the Bul-
garian government. The Soviet governments hope
that the Bulgarian people will not allow them-
selves to be led by a thoughtless government from
the true interests of the country into new conflicts
disastrous for Bulgaria, already ruined and ex-
hausted by. a series of wars.
Google
A CRIME OF JAPANESE IMPERIALISM
1413. April 30, 1920.
In the port of Alexandrovsk, at Sakhalin, some
Japanese cruisers arrived, the commander of which
declared that he came only to inform himself of
the lot of the Japanese subjects, and that he had
no aim of aggression. Soon after, the whole Jap-
anese population boarded the cruisers on the pre-
text of witnessing a spectacle, while the represen-
tatives of the Japanese commander declared to the
executive committee that on the morrow they
would come to treat with it in all friendliness.
These events took place on the 22d of April. Im-
mediately after, the Japanese made a landing, took
possession of Alexandrovsk, and the wireless sta-
tion, from which they sent on the 24th the follow-
ing telegram: "Inform us immediately whether
the Japanese officers and soldiers are alive and in
what number, and take measures to assure their
security/' If not, they declared, they would not
leave one stone upon another in Alexandrovsk.
The Soviet officers replied that no Japanese civil
prisoners in their possession in Eastern Siberia
were menaced with any danger. At the same time
the Japanese landed a thousand men at Dekastri,
on the continent. At Khabarovsk, the Japanese
worked in concert with the White Guards. Never-
theless, on the 22d of April, an attack of Red
troops obliged them to abandon in haste their
bases near the city, after having suffered consid-
erable losses. Thus Japanese imperialism, which
had many times assured the Soviet command of
the loyalty of its intentions, does not neglect an
occasion to give itself over anew to its appetite
for conquest and its perfidious attacks, preceded
by lying declarations of friendliness.
THE SOVIET POWER AND CULTURE
1298. April 20, 1920.
In the provinces. The Commission of Kazan
for the instruction of illiterates has opened four
thousand six hundred and forty special schools
attended daily by thirty-five thousand illiterates.
In a Quarter of Moscow. The last meeting of
the Soviet of the quarter of Khamovniki was de-
voted to the section of public instruction. The
quarter has twenty kindergartens with fifteen hun-
dred children, three times more than one year ago.
Somle of them are open all day, and these carry
on almost entirely the collective education of the
children. From the point of view of material,
locality and nourishment, these gardens leave
nothing to be desired. The quarter has further
thirty-one primary schools with seven thousand
five hundred children and several colonies in the
neighborhood of Moscow or in the country, all in
perfect condition. One hundred and fifty com-
munists have been mobilized for the instruction
of the illiterate, which has already commenced in
all the factories. The Soviet urges the factory
committees to take the most active part in the
campaign for obJig&toiy infitaiotion.
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EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES
A new labor palace containing libraries, read-
ing-rooms and lecture halls is being organized at
Moscow.
In the medical faculties of all universities the
courses will be continued this year during the en-
tire spring and summer in order to obtain a pro-
motion in medicine on the first of January next.
Viestnik.
THE THEATRE
Lunacharsky points out in Izvestia the constant
enriching of the revolutionary repertoire. After
the already famous play entitled "The Legend of
the Communard," there has just been composed a
play still superior from a literary point of view,
with the title, "The Great Communard." The
Petrograd Soviet has also published several origin-
al plays full of talent, and suitable for the theatre
of the worker and peasant. It is known also that
there is at Petrograd a "heroic-revolutionary" the-
atre, designed especially for the presentation of
the new revolutionary repertoire.
NOT ONLY WORDS BUT DEEDS
(Letter from a worker to the editor of a news-
paper in Soviet Russia.)
A few days ago I was walking by chance along
the railroad tracks toward the station Yekaterin-
burg.
Some repair workers were shoveling the snow
from off the tracks. Among them I suddenly
espied, on the sixth track, a man whose face
seemed very familiar to me. Upon looking at him
more closely, I r*$ognized the man, it was Comrade
Trotsky.
At first I could not believe my eyes, but then
I considered the matter thus:
Why should not Comrade Trotsky work at
cleaning off the railroad tracks? For he is the
leader of the Labor Army and has to set the whole
army a good example. He, the one who is always
saying that all, particularly those who sit in the
administrative staffs and who lead the political
work, should aid in the reconstruction of the
transportat system — he is the very one whose duty
it is to be the first suit the action to the word . . .
When I saw how skillfully Comrade Trotsky
handled the shovel, I continued thinking:
There is a genuine leader of the working people
and the Labor Army. He is helping not only
with the pen, not only with words, but also with
deeds to save the workers' and peasants' Russia
from hunger and cold. Our leaders understand
not only how to command, how to govern, but also
how to work side by side with the simple manual
laborer. With such leaders Soviet Russia is un-
conquerable . . .
And I gave up the errand on which I had set
out, and took a shovel, in order that I, like Com-
rade Trotsky, might contribute a little of my work
to the mighty work of the battle on the new
front, the labor front.
Workbb Ivan Gatev.
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THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. Eight full pages, on special calendared paper, of recent photographs from Soviet Russia.
2. Four Interviews by Nakahira, a prominent Japanese correspondent, with important
Soviet officials, translated from the Japanese for Soviet Russia.
3. New Problems for Russia, an address by Ltriin, delivered at the Ninth Congress of
the Russian Communist Party.
4. Russia : as I Saw It, by Robert Williams, a member of the British Labor Delegation to
Russia.
5. A Challenge to the Intellectuals, by Maxim Gorky.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
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NEW PHOTOGRAPHS from SOVIET RUSSIA
SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, August 7, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 6
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Subscript ion Rate, $5.00 per annum, Application for entry ma second class matter pending. Changes of add real should reach
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PAGE
Russia : As I Saw It, by Robert Williams 129
A Challenge to the Intellectuals, by Maxim
Gorky , 130
Military Review, by Lt.-CoL B. Roustam Bek 131
A Japanese Correspondent in Russia. 133
From; the Secret Chamber of Diplomacy... 135
Editorials , 136
Port Regulations . . . . 137
Soviet Russia and Turkey t 138
Saturdayings in the Villages , 139
Official Communications of the Soviet
Government 141
And a Special Supplement of eight pages of new photographs from Soviet Russia, on calendared paper (pages i — vti'O,
between pages 136-137,
Russia: As I Saw It
By Robert Williams
(Member of the British Labor Delegation to Russia)
A LL my previous wishes and expectations have
been more than borne out by my experiences
and actual contact with Soviet Russia's affairs.
In view of the appalling difficulties — two revolu-
tions, counter-revolution, and external and internal
war — Russia is manifesting a prodigious capacity
for social reconstruction on Socialist lines,
I visited the War Office, witnessed parades, in-
vestigated munition and engineering establish-
ments, saw aeroplane construction, investigated
military transport, and saw the actual operations
on the Polish front, and I am fully convinced that
die Soviet Power is unshakably established before
the entire world. Despite the immense drain upon
the skilled urban proletariat caused by revolutions,
casualties, and migration, and by providing revo-
lutionary leaven for the Red Armies, and also by
the appointment of alert and energetic individuals
to administrative posts, industry is being carried
on with phenomenal resourcefulness.
Proletarians are used in diluting the skill of
the competent men by the introduction of lesser
skilled and unskilled labor, combined with a won-
derful development of technical and scientific
training and education, united with the provision
of all possible incentive to increase output and
accelerate transport by a bonus system paid over
the normal flat rate. Trade unionists and their
leaders are cooperating with technicians and com-
missars, thus accelerating output in all depart-
ments of industry and agriculture. While capital
and labor are at death grips under capitalism in
Europe generally, in Russia the government and
the people are cooperating and coordinating in
the most remarkable manner. It is here demon-
strated that men and women will make sacrifices
for social and collective well-being, aa contrasted
with hampering output and stultifying organiza-
tion of labor under a capitalist regime where pri-
vate profit is the only motive and the advantage
is only for the privileged few,
I saw the great engineering works of Putilov
and Somora, near Nizhni-Novgorod, and I ob-
served that the heartiest cooperation existed be-
tween the management and the workers. The
Soviet Government is admitted, by opponents and
supporters alike, to be the only possible form of
government. The Red Armies go to the front
with unparalleled enthusiasm and zeal for the
cause of working-class emancipation and the real
brotherhood of nations* The national hymn is
"The International," and it is sung everywhere
and played everywhere by the military bands.
Our delegates were received with acclamation,
and as an appreciation of the first real indication
that the barriers set up by hostile capitalism are
breaking down. The Russian people displayed an
unqualified appreciation of the efforts of the Bri-
tish Triple Industrial Alliance to prevent inter-
vention, restore peace, and establish commercial
relationships between the nations. The Russian
proletariat want only to live in peace and pro-
gressive development with the rest of the world J s
workers.
The delegation made their own plans, went
where they liked, interviewed and saw whom they
pleased and made absolutely independent inquiry
. rgarding the general economic, political and in-
dustrial conditions, and were much impressed with
the intelligence and ability of the heads of the
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Soviet administration, who compare more than
favorably with bourgeois politicians and adminis-
trators.
The food position is gradually improving, de-
spite the terrific strain of six years of war ; trans-
port facilities are improving and Sverdlov, Act-
ing Commissar of Ways and Communications, as-
sured me that transport had improved forty per
cent in three months. While on the Volga trip
I saw the improvement of the river transport since
the defeat of the raiding Cossacks and counter-
revolutionaries. Oil fuel is proceeding up the
Volga as rapidly as transport can convey it. It
is expected that the deliveries will shortly reach
thirty-five million poods per month, and coal is
now being won from the Donets region. Oil and
coal will enormously assist rail and water trans-
port, and allow wood to be used for heating in
the cities during the coming winter.
Wheat from the *T)lack belt" is being sent to
the northern areas to supplement rye products;
and this will provide sufficient cereals to carry on.
The peasants are accepting more readily the Soviet
regime, although still lamentably short of agri-
cultural implements and the amenities of life
which reorganized industry can alone provide.
My general impression, after exhaustive study,
is that the Russian Soviet regime has come to stay.
The more formidable obstacles in England
against trade with Russia are collapsing. Russia's
eastern policy is not one of imperialism and con-
quest, but is simply one to provide a diversion for
British imperialism, and the prevention of con-
tinued intervention, and the organization of inter-
vention, against the Soviet regime.
I am confident that in the battle of brains be-
tween Lenin, Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev, Chi-
cherin, and the world's bourgeois diplomats, the
former must ultimately triumph.
A Challenge to the Intellectuals
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By Maxim Gorky
Petbograd, January, 1920.
AN INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS of intel-
^"^ lectuals is to be held about the end of this
month at Bern, Switzerland. Representatives of
the intellectual forces of Great Britain, Germany,
France and of other countries will meet under the
same roof. The enemies of yesterday, victors and
vanquished, will come face to face.
Among these men there will probably be also
moral participants in the most infamous crime, the
war of 1914-1918, whose indescribable vileness —
having clearly demonstrated to honest thinking
men how thoroughly rotten the old order of life
has become — has somewhat moderated the nation-
alistic fanaticism and shaken the prejudices which
caused the universal degradation to savagery of
the cultured men of Europe and led to the shame-
ful all-European bloody slaughter.
If this should happen, if such men should also
come to the international congress of the repre-
sentatives of the intellect, it would be a very im-
portant fact which might have abundant results of
great social value. The importance of this is, of
course, not in the fact that there will be ex-
pression of belated repentance and useless self-
condemnation, but that, at last, the congress will
have to resolutely and firmly take up the question
of the universal function of the intellectual prin-
ciple in the historic process.
Only after solving this question can the intel-
lectuals firmly and unshakably choose an absolutely
definite position either at the head of the popular
masses who are striving for new forms of social
life, or among those classes who selfishly and sense-
lessly exploit the phyical energy of the people, ob-
structing their spiritual and intellectual growth.
If the intellectuals would realize that hereto-
fore they have played the onerous part of the mule
by LiOOgle
of capitalism, it would be a fact of immense im-
portance. An earnest merging of the compara-
tively small fund of intellectual forces with the
inexhaustible mass of emotional energy of the peo-
ple, the harmonization of the exploring and or-
ganizing intellect with the unorganized but
aroused will, would give to the progress of uni-
versal culture an impulse of enormous force and
fantastic velocity.
In short, the intellectuals of the world are facing
the grave question, demanding a courageous solu-
tion: with the people toward the radical trans-
formation of all forms of life, or with capital for
the defense of the decayed order.
The role of the Russian intellectuals in the
events of the last two years should be highly in-
structive for the intellectuals of the west. Had the
Russian intellectuals been more sound spiritually
and more far-sighted practically, had they imme-
diately after the "Bolshevist" revolution estab-
lished contact with that group of intellectuals who
had the courage to lead the labor masses and to
seize political power in the country which had
been ruined by the autocracy and the war, then the
sweep of the emotional storm would not have
caused such appalling destruction in the domain
of industry, technique and culture, then there
would have been less bloodshed and fewer mis-
takes, then the moderating power of intellect
would have been more effective. I am not con-
demning any one, I am merely pointing to an
indisputable fact. The withdrawal of a certain
part of the intellectual forces from the process
of the revoluticn had this effect --that ihe solu-
tion of the question of the quality of life became
inevitably subordinate to the needs of the quan-
tity of backward people, as I believe the Russian
peasants are.
Original from
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To the numerically small Russian working
class has fallen a colossal task — to transform the
vast mass of the peasantry, of many tongues and
nationalities. This mass is capable of developing
immense energy for destruction, but is not likely
to create anything new, anything more refulgent
than a life thoroughly permeated by the psycho-
logy of the small owner. From this point of view,
a well organized large industry is not so dreadful
an enemy of the worker and intellectual as the
endless swamp of small property owners, who are
usually indifferent and even hostile to the high
interests of universal culture.
The Russian intellectuals are gradually begin-
ning to feel the tragedy of their position. It is
true they lived thus before the revolution, between
the anvil and the hammer— the people and the au-
thorities, but at present the fatal inconviences
of this position are too evident and too painful
for them. But, I repeat, they are beginning to
realize that the power is held by an intellectual
force spiritually ekin to them. And probably
the near future will witness the merging of the
organized intellect with the aroused will, and these
two factors are capable of creating wonders. These
—I believe — are the thoughts and questions which
cannot be ignored by the international congress of
intellectuals.
Sincerely believing in the honor and conscience
of the Western European representatives of the
intellectual principle, I confidently expect that the
congress will also take up the question of the
blockade of Russia.
It is not necessary to point out how vile is this
blockade which condemns the Russian people to
death from famine, from lack of medical supplies,
etc. But the congress should perhaps be reminded
that the first and worst victims of the consequences
of the blockade are the children, and next to them
— the representatives of the world of learning, who
as men of the study room and the laboratory are
ill adapted to practical life and are not hardened
in the struggle for existence.
To starve the children, the future strength of
the people, to starve the accumulated intellectual
energy of the people, — is this what "enlightened,"
"cultured" Europe wants?
The congress should and must take up this
question. And it is extremely interesting what
answer will be given by the governments of Great
Britain, of Prance, and of other countries, which
consider themselves the "abodes of culture and
civilization."
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
July 27, 1920.
TF ONE of the belligerent parties suddenly ap-
peals for an armistice this does not prove that
it sincerely desires a peace. Very often, under the
shelter of an armistice, one who suffers a series of
tactical defeats may be able to yecover the fighting
power of his armies and accomplish a regrouping
which may permit him to continue military oper-
ations at the first favorable opportunity.
In military history we have many examples
of a renewal of warfare after an armistice. Dur-
ing the Russo-Japanese war, the Japanese, after
several fruitless attacks, directed against the line
of forts of Port Arthur, succeeded in obtaining
from the Russian command an armistice which
lasted only twenty-four hours, and thus gained not
only time to bring to their battle lines a consider-
able reinforcement, but also to move their artillery
closer to the attacked points.
During the Great War there was no interrup-
tion of military operations at all, and the armis-
tice signed by Field-Marshal Foch and the Ger-
man command practically put an end to the hostil-
ities of the engaged parties.
But this early armistice was a great mistake
on the part of the Allied military command, and
now the Allies are face to face with the bitter
consequences of their error. The Germans, now
stronger militarily than is supposed by the Allied
command, have never fulfilled their obligations as
fixed by the armistice, and, overlooking this, the
Allies signed an abortive peace with the enemy,
which will remain a scrap of paper.
The differences which have arisen amongst the
Allies have prevented them from acting in har-
mony in order to force their enemies to fulfill their
obligations, and the new adventures in Russia and
other parts of the globe, as well as the unstable in-
ternal political situation in their own countries,
weakened them to such an extent that there can-
not be even a question that the Allied armies may
again resume hostilities against the Germans, es-
pecially when we consider the serious turmoil now
spreading throughout Europe, Asia and Africa.
An armistice signed and not fulfilled cannot
bring a good peace; on the contrary, it will be fol-
lowed by endless conflicts and small wars, which
may provoke a new terrible catastrophe.
The side requested to grant an armistice must
be very careful, because it might be confronted
with a dangerous trap. Only in case there is no
question of the complete demoralization of the
tactical body of the enemy, and when a possible
intention on the part of the latter to reorganize
his fighting forces and to attack may be suitably
opposed and finally overpowered, thus inflicting on
him a strategical defeat — only then may such an
armistice be granted.
So it becomes clear that in some case3, when
an armistice is fixed too early, the tactically beaten
enemy may escape strategical defeat, as was the
case with the Germans. On the other hand, an
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armistice established at the moment when the
enemy has already lost the campaign strategically,
and is unable to break his pledged obligations,
thanks to the superior forces of his adversary,
would be a real armistice, undoubtedly followed by
a stable peace.
Now let us consider the position of Soviet Rus-
sia in regard to Poland, in granting an armistice
to the latter.
The victorious Eussian Eed Army, holding the
most important strategical points, such as Bialos-
tok, Brest-Litovsk, Kovel, and, very probably,
Kholm, to the east of the latter city, and having
reached the East Prussian frontier in the north,
as well as north-east Galicia in the south, is in a
position to take Warsaw without any difficulties in
a very short time, thus bring the victory of the
Eussian arms to a complete strategical consum-
mation. So it is now and so it will be if the
Poles should decline to fulfill the conditions of
the armistice granted to them.
After a short time for rest, the Soviet army
cannot be other than stronger, morally as well as
physically, while it is hard to expect that under the
unfavorable circumstances in which the Polish
military organization is now situated, there could
be possible a new regroupment and reinforcement
of the Polish battle front, even by her foreign
protectors.
Germany has refused to allow the Allies to send
military aid to the Poles through German terri-
tory, and has decided to be strictly neutral. This
means that the Polish army is left to fight on its
own, in case it should try to continue the senseless
struggle against the formidable Soviet army.
That the Poles have suffered not only tactical
reverses, but also a strategical defeat, and that
their army is practically annihilated, is not only
my personal opinion, but also that of Major-Gen-
eral Hoffmann, one of the foremost specialists on
Eussia on the former Great Central Staff of the
German Empire, and General LudendorfPs chief of
operations in the east, and later on Chief of Staff
of Prince Leopold of Bavaria, then virtually com-
mander-in-chief of the entire eastern front. Gen-
eral Hoffmann made a remarkable statement to the
New York World, July 25, about the Polish situ-
ation. The opinion of this German strategist is
"that it is too late to save Poland," and that
northern and central Germany will be inevitably
Teached by Bolshevism. "The Polish army has
suffered serious reverses," says Maj.-Gen. Hoff-
mann. "In connection with such reverses invariably
panicky reports are disseminated, the effect of
which must not be over-estimated. But even by a
cautious evaluation of the reports, the complete
collapse of the Polish Army, and therewith of
the Polish state, appears unquestionable, where-
upon the Moscow Soviet Government's armies
would appear on Germany's eastern border."
I agree with General Hoffmann that the capi-
talistic Polish army and the imperialistic Polish
state are on the eve of their complete collapse,
but I do not see any danger for the rest of Europe
from the Eed Army, in case Poland should be ruled
by Polish Soviets; in that case it would be the
Polish Soviet army, and not the Eussian Eed
Army, that will appear on the eastern border of
Germany.
Further on, General Hoffmann confessed that
"the German Government is not in a position to
defend Germany against an attack by the Bed
Army," and his opinion of the new Eussian mili-
tary force is well illustrated by his words:
"The operations of the Bolshevik armies against
Denikin and Kolchak, as well as in the Caucasus
and Persia, have proved that the Moscow Soviet
Government's troops are well fed. This is all the
more apparent since the Poles' plan of operation
was projected by Foch and the Poles were led by
French general staff officers. The success achieved
by the Soviet Government's armies has further
shown that the troops of the Eed Armies, under
rigid discipline, fight better than their enemies,
that they are adequately equipped with war ma-
terial, and that the Eussian railroads are still ef-
ficient enough for moving large masses of troops."
And in his fear of the proletarian military
strength of Eussia, this representative of the fal-
len militaristic Germany exclaims : "The Moscow
Soviet Government never had other intentions than
a military conquest of the world !"
"Fear has large eyes" is an old saying.
But far from conquering the world, the Eus-
sian Soviet Government has not even the intention
of conquering Poland, and has agreed on an armis-
tice at a moment most unfavorable for the Polish
strategy, thus depriving the Bed Army of the
pleasure of most brilliantly concluding the cam-
paign with the capture of the Polish capital. Once
more Soviet Eussia has proved to the world that
her political and strategical aim with regard to
the border states is far from that of enslaving or
conquering their population.
"Victorious over reaction in her own country,
and having defeated the armies of the imperialistic
coalition of the world, Soviet Eussia has won a
great diplomatic victory as a result of the corre-
spondence over the proposed peace between Eus-
sia and Poland," cabled the Chicago Daily Trib-
une representative, John Steele, from London,
July 26. "She has compelled," continues the mes-
sage, "the western Allies to recognize her diplo-
matically, and the next step undoubtedly will be
negotiations for a general peace and recognition."
John Steele is quite right. Eussia has won a
great diplomatic victory, the way for which was
so wonderfully prepared by the Eussian strategy.
It is sufficient to read the answer of Chichenn,
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the
Eussian Soviet Eepublic, addressed to the British
Government, in which Soviet Eussia rejects any
British intervention in her dealings with Poland
and with the former General Wrangel, in order
to understand the significance of the victory which
the young proletarian diplomacy has won over the
crafty old statesmen of the remainder of the so-
""llfiMWficHISAN
August 7, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
133
There is no doubt that, in spite of the fact that
the complete victory of the Eussian arms is evi-
dent, there will be further efforts to renew the
attacks on the Eussian proletariat.
Even now, one observes that France endeavors
to protect the life of one of the bitterest enemies
of the Russian Soviets, former General Wrangel,
whose army is doomed to unconditional surrender,
and that at a very near moment. What is Wrangel
to France ? Is he a French national hero, or are
the French people i_ot satisfied with having a hero
like Foch, and do :hev need in addition also
Wrangel ?
It is quite clear why the French Cabinet de-
sires to have Wrangel back at Paris. The brain-
less French statesmen think that this adventurer
would be a good puppet in their hands for the
future campaign against Eussia which is now
planned in Paris and in London, while the British
and French governments are hurrying to sign a
peace with Moscow.
But, in spite of all these preparations for a. new
war, with all its superhuman horrors, which the
dying capitalistic-imperialistic coalition is plan-
ning against the proletarian movement, I am sure
their plan will end in a general collapse. They
will not be able to draw troops from their own
populations, which are already hostile to the pro-
secution of any such enterprise.
A Japanese Correspondent in Russia
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The Condition of Eussia's Industry
Interview with Commissar Milyutin by Nahahira
Moscow, May 9.
AS THE Special Correspondent for Osaka
" Asahi, I met Mr. Milyutin, the President of
the People's Supreme Economic Council. He
spoke of the industrial conditions in Soviet Eus-
sia, saying :
"Owing to the condition of civil war, up till
now all the factories of Eussia have been mobilized
for military purposes. But since we have been vic-
torious, we are now entering on the period of re-
construction. Industry is almost entirely nation-
alized, and there exist already 197 cooperative so-
cieties. Thus we are planning by the application
of electric power to increase our productive power
to the maximum. Hitherto the industry of Soviet
Russia has been greatly handicapped due to the
lack of fuel and labor power, but now that we
have recovered the Donets basin, and swept the
Denikin partisans from the Caucasus, vast amounts
of coal and crude oil are being sent to the center of
industrial localities and increasing amounts are
daily being forwarded. The newly organized labor
has solved the problem of lack of labor power.
Just at present we need various kinds of machines.
In Eussia at present there are vast amounts of
flax, hides and other raw materials. These ma-
terials are now stocked up and we wish to barter
machines for these raw materials."
At this point I asked what kind of goods Eus-
sia desires Japan to ship on the day that peace
is signed between Eussia and Japan. To this
question Mr. Milyutin answered that in the first
place Eussia needs medicines. Besides medicines
they will welcome every kind of manufactured
goods, in compensation for which Eussia will con-
sent to give Japan various privileges in Siberia,
including the labor power of places where con-
cessions are given.
Digitized by L^OOgle
ii
Intebview With Kamenev
Nakahira, a special correspondent, interviewed
Kamenev, President of the Moscow Soviet, on
May 13, 1920. The following is his reply, to my
questions :
"After the Bolshevik Eevolution of November,
1917, all the Socialist parties fell into a condition
of bankruptcy. The laboring classes entirely lost
their confidence in them because of their conduct,
their power weakened and fell away. We, the*
Bolshevik Party, shall never tolerate them — -the
Socialist Parties. Some people may say that the
majority of the peasants are opposed to the Bol-
shevik Government, but this is a mere empty sup-
position, without any foundation in fact. The
peasants well know that they cannot produce with-
out the industrial cities. This — (something mis-
sing). This is the reason for the support of the
Bolshevik party by the vast majority of the peas-
ants. Yes, it is the necessity for war that enables
the Bolshevik Government to collect more from
the farming people than it gives them, but the
wars also interfered with the development of the
industrial life of the workers and peasants. It is
these wars that almost gave a death blow to their
development. But the peasants do not doubt —
because they know the real facts of the matter
— that the government has done everything pos-
sible in view of the situation. The foreign policy*
of the Bolshevik Party is expressed in one word:
Peace. Eussia possesses vast land and resources
and is rich in labor power. But there is no ne-
cessity for secrecy in the politics of Soviet Eussia,
which has no intention or thought of invading*
foreign territory. We, by the utmost efforts of
mutual aid, are able to restore our industries and
to plan the development necessary for the organiza-
tion of the Eed Army (something missing). Passed
by the Censor. — Osaka Asahi, Tokyo, May 30,
1920.
Original from
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134
SOVIET KUSSIA
August 7, 1920
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III
From Moscow — The Eiddlb Metropolis
Special
Moscow, May 25, 1920 — Despatched from Mos-
cow by Mr. Nakahira.
Interview With Chicherin, Commissar for
Foreign Affairs.
As special correspondent, I interviewed Mr.
Chicherin, the Commissar for Foreign Affairs of
the Soviet Government today. Below are the
questions which I put to the Commissar for For-
eign Affairs and his answers :
1. What is your policy toward Japan ?
We have no aggressive policy toward Japan.
The policy of the Soviet Government is simple:
namely, peace and non-interference.
2. If the Soviet Government and Japan should
conclude peace, what will the peace terms of Soviet
Russia be ?
Japan must withdraw her army from Siberia
and must further recognize the democratic Far
Eastern Republic to be a neutral zone state.
3. Is it true that you have given up your Bol-
shevik propaganda in other countries and (some-
thing missing here).
I firmly believe that the peoples of other coun-
tries are becoming class-conscious (something mis-
sing) ; the peoples of other countries are now
awakening, though very slowly (something mis-
sing). Soviet Russia has no time to attend to
other matters. She is occupied in the reconstruc-
tion of her own country. We are now bending
all our efforts toward this reconstruction.
This declaration of Mr. Chicherin, the Com-
missar for Foreign Affairs, is (something deleted).
(Passed by the Censor.)
IV
Interview With Lenin
By M. Nakahira, Correspondent of "Asaka Asahi."
Moscow, Special Despatch by Nakahira, June 6,
via Pekin ' June 3, 1920.
I interviewed Mr. Lenin at his office in the
Kremlin. Contrary to my expectation, the decora-
tion of the room is very simple. The hall that
leads to the office is guarded. Passing through
the guards we reached the office. Mr. Lenin's
manner is very simple and kind — as if he weTe
greeting an old friend. In spite of the fact that
he holds the highest position, there is not the
slightest trace of condescension in his manner. He
did not wait for our question, but started to speak
of the relations betwen Japan and Russia, — to
the effect that it is regrettable that Japan does
not seem willing to adopt an attitude of willing-
ness to meet the Soviet Government's attitude of
peace. The Soviet Government stands for peace,
and therefore it recognizes the neutral zone govern-
ment. He then asked : "Is there a powerful land-
owning class in Japan ? Does the Japanese farmer
own land freely? Do the Japanese people live
on food produced in their own country, or do they
import much food from foreign countries ?" He
asked many other questions, showing his deep in-
terest in living conditions in Japan. Mr. Lenin
next asked whether Japanese parents beat their
children, and said that he had read of this in a
book. "Tell me whether it is true or not," said
he, "it is a very interesting subject." I answered
that there may be exceptions, but as a rule parents
do not beat their children in Japan. On hearing
my answer he expressed satisfaction and said that
the policy of the Soviet Government is to abolish
this condition. After that he asked about the
revolution and subsequent developments. In giv-
ing a resume of Russian revolutionary history, he
said : "Before the revolution, the working and peas-
ant classes of Russia were extremely oppressed — in
fact, their oppression was without parallel in past
history. As a result of this most severe oppression,
the revolutionary spirit of the poorer class gradu-
ally increased until it broke out in the revolution.
But the organizing capacity of the lower strata
of Russia is comparatively weak and the degree
of education is lower than in other countries. In
spite of all this they could not be suppressed. But
now, after two and a half years of experience, the
Russian working and peasant masses have obtained
a great deal of political and social discipline. The
experience of this two and a half years can truly
be compared with the development of several cen-
turies. At this point we asked why the Soviet
Republic, in spite of its having repudiated the
national debts of czarism, had promised to give
Esthonia vast amounts of gold, when concluding
peace. Smiling, Mr. Lenin said: "Esthonia has
shown her good will toward the Soviet Government
and therefore the Soviet Government has promised
to pay her this gold. Moreover," he continued,
"to deal with the propertied class is really a very
difficult matter. The propertied class cares for
nothing but its own material interests. For in-
stance, look at America. America proposed a
peace treaty with Soviet Russia. When we ex-
amined the treaty, we could not accept it because
it was based on exploitation. So we rejected it.
Of course we do not consider ourselves incapable.
The Allied nations, rejecting recognition, attempt
to interfere with Russia. There is reason to think
that if the intervention of the Allies should con-
tinue, it will be profitable to the Bolsheviki. All
in all, considering the prospects of Russia's in-
dustries, the situation is promising. If our elec-
trical program is attained, entire industries can
be electrified. The creative capacity of commun-
ism will be increased and will exert the greatest
influence in solving these problems, and the de-
velopment will be equal to that of several decades."
SPEECH BY NIKOLAI LENIN
This speech, which was delivered on the sub-
ject of "New Problems for Russia", at the Ninth
Congress of the Russian Communist Party, has
had to be omitted this week for lack of space.
Original from
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August 1, 1920
SOVIET EUSSIA
136
From the Secret Chamber of Diplomacy
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A Few Documents of Recent Date
HP HE documents printed below were published
in the Moscow Izvestia of February 4, 1920,
with the following introductory note :
"The former White officer Oleinikov, who
joined the side of the Soviet power after a serious
internal struggle, turned over to us documents
which he was bringing through Sweden to Yuden-
ich from Kolchak's Minister of Foreign Affairs
Sazonov at Paris. The documents contain a note
from Sazonov to Konstantin Nikolayevich Hul-
kevich, Kolchak's ambassador to Sweden, with
two supplements — a communication in code from
Eolchak's Washington ambassador, Bakhmetiev, to
Sazonov and a coded communication from Sukin
at Omsk, transmitting instruction from Kolchak
to Sazonov at Paris. The latter speaks of negoti-
ations with General Knox, the representative of
the British Government to Kolchak. Bakh-
metiev*s communication speaks of instructions by
the American Government to its Commissioner for
the Baltic states, Mr. Gade. In addition, the
documents contain a coded communication from
Kolchak's Charge d' Affairs in London, Sablin, to
Sazonov regarding a conversation with General
Radcliffe of the British War Office, and telegrams
passing between Sazonov and Bakhmetiev, Kol-
chak's ambassador at Washington.
'These documents vividly reveal the attitude
both of Kolchak and of the United States to the
Baltic nationalities, to whom the American Gov-
ernment even refuses recognition of the right to
self-determination."
Paris, October 14, 1919. No. 668.
S. D. Sazonov, attesting his perfect respect to Kon-
stantin Nikolaevich, has the honor to transmit herewith,
for information, copies of telegrams from B. A. Bakh-
metiev, No. 1050, and from I. I. Sukin, No. 28, con-
cerning the question of the situation in the Baltic
provinces.
To K. N. Hulkevich.
Rec October 12, 1919. Ent. No. 3347. D. 24. West.
Sukin — to the Minister.
Omsk, October 9, 1919. No. 28 (code).
Knox presented to the Supreme Ruler a communica-
tion from the British War Office, in which the latter
warns that the Baltic states are disposed to conclude
peace with the Bolsheviki who guarantee immediate
recognition of their independence. In connection with
this the British War Office asks if the Government
should not counteract these promises by satisfying on
its part the wishes of the above mentioned states. We
replied to Knox by referring to the principles which
were stated in the note of the Supreme Ruler to the
powers of June 4, and at the same time pointed out
that the conclusion of peace with the Bolsheviki by
the Baltic states would be an unquestionable danger,
since it will allow the release of a part of the Soviet
troops and will remove the barrier which keeps Bol-
shevism from the west. The mere fact of their readi-
ness to discuss peace bears witness, in our opinion, to
the extreme demoralization of the parties of these self-
governing units, which cannot alone defend themselves
against the penetration of aggressive Bolshevism.
Expressing the belief that the powers cannot sym-
pathize with the further spread of Bolshevism, we
pointed out the necessity to stop further aid to the
Baltic states, which is an effective method of pressure
in the hands of the powers and also a more expedient
method than rivalry in promises with the Bolsheviki,
who have nothing to lose.
Informing you of the above, I beg you to make proper
representations in Paris and London. With Bakhmetiev
we are communicating separately.
Received October 12, 1919. Entry No. 3346. D. 24. West.
Bakhmetiev — to the Minister.
Washington, October 11, 1919. No. 1050.
Referring to my telegram No. 1045* (coded), the
Department of State orally informed me of the instruc-
tions given to Gade. His title is American Commis-
sioner to the Baltic Provinces of Russia. He is not
accredited to any of the Russian governments. His
mission is to observe and report. His conduct must not
inspire among the local population hopes that the Amer-
ican Government might consent to support separatist
tendencies going further than autonomy. On the con-
trary, the American Government hopes that the Baltic
population will help their Russian brothers in their
national effort. The instructions are based on the in-
terpretation of the understanding between the Allied
governments and the Supreme Ruler as developed in
my memorandum to the Government of June 17. Gade
is furnished with excerpts from the latest speeches of
the President in which he attacked Bolshevism.
Rec October 9, 1919. Incoming, No. 3286. D. 24. West.
Sablin— to the Minister.
London, October 7, 1919. No. 677 (code).
In a letter to Guchkov, the Director of the Depart-
ment of Operations of the War Office, to whom G.
wrote offering our tonnage to help the English in the
delivery of supplies to Yudenich, that in the opinion
of the War Office Yudenich now has everything, and
that England finds it inconvenient any longer to pro-
vide supplies for him. He adds, however, that since
we have vessels we could organize the supplying of
Yudenich on a commercial basis, provided we could
obtain credits. At the same time General Radcliffe
recognizes that Yudenich's army must be properly
equipped, being the only force among the Baltic states
which is able to undertake active operations against
the Bolsheviki.
To Washington, for Minister Bakhmetiev.
Paris, September 30, 1919. No. 2442 (code).
In a letter from a confidential Swedish source I am
informed that Morris, American Ambassador at Stock-
holm, speaks of the growing sympathy toward the Bol-
sheviki in the United States and of the intention of
stopping aid to Kolchak in order to enter into rela-
tions in the interests of American trade. Such state-
ments by the official representative produce a strange
impression.
Rec. October 5, 1919. Incoming, No. 3244.
Bakhmetiev— to the Minister.
Washington, October 4, 1919. No. 1021.
With reference to your telegram No. 2442 (code).
I was confidentially informed at the Department of
State that Ambassador Morris at Stockholm, and es-
pecially Hapgood at Copenhagen, are really known for
their personal left sympathies, but that they have not
influence or standing (authority) here, and that the
Government is compelled to admonish them periodically,
stating categorically that the American policy unalter-
ably aims at supporting our Government in the struggle
against the Bolsheviki.
Original from
♦Entry, No. 3343.
um i
ERSITY OF MICHIGAN
136
SOVIET RUSSIA
August 7, 1920
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised.
T T WAS an apt phrase Churchill used when he
A designated imperialist Poland as "the linchpin
of Versailles." When the hammer-blows of the
Bed Army shattered that vital link, the whole
ramshackle contrivance of the Entente politicians
tumbled into wreckage and confusion. Despite
their cynical repudiation of the Polish enterprise
in the hour of its defeat, it is plain that the Allies,
out of sheer lack of any other plan or resource,
had staked everything on this last desperate gam-
ble of force. To be sure, French officers, in re-
ports which were carefully suppressed, had ex-
posed the futility of the Polish campaign and pre-
dicted its inevitable disaster ; likewise, a few Eng-
lish liberals like Cecil and Asquith had protested
openly against its immorality and inexpediency.
But these warnings that the thing was both bad
policy and bad strategy did not deter those whose
actions were dictated neither by prudence nor
humanity.
Confronted by the accomplished defeat of the
Polish army, the Allied politicians bluster and
clutch at straws. Lloyd George twists and turns
and tries in vain to dodge the barbed shafts hurled
with such unerring aim by the Commissariat of
Foreign Affairs. Millerand threatens war in one
breath and begs for gold in the next. The irre-
pressible Churchill calls upon Germany to join
with the Allies against the Russian workers. "Not
by reckless military adventure nor with ulterior
motives," says Churchill — though he does not sug-
gest how else can Germany "build a dike of peace-
ful, lawful, patient strength and virtue" against
Soviet Russia. To which Ludendorff replies by
offering to raise an army in return for Posen and
Danzig. The German Government meanwhile de-
clares its neutrality in the struggle betwen Pol-
and and Russia; though we learn that it took a
"crowd of German civilians" to halt a trainload
of munitions in transit across Germany to Poland.
Dr. Simons, the German Foreign Minister, points
out that the function of Poland should be that of
a bridge rather than a barrier between Russia
and Germany. This appears a most sinister sug-
gestion to those who have become so possessed
by their plans for blockades and barriers that they
have lost all conception of the ordinary economic
interests of the peoples of Europe. Dr. Simons,
for his own purposes, saw fit to take a bold line
in a recent speech before the Reichstag.
"I do not believe," he said, "that it is to
the interest of the Soviet Republic to de-
vastate Germany with murderous, incendiary
hordes. What the Soviet Republic requires is
economic support ... I am not one of those
who see in Russia merely chaos. I know
from thorough reports of unbiased, intelli-
gent men that a variety of enormous, con-
structive labor is being performed — a work
which, in certain respects, we would do well
to use as a model."
Thus each separate leader cries his pet panacea
in the market-place ; each with a different nostrum
to cure the ills of a decayed world order. A wild
confusion of tongues tells the wreck of capitalist
ambitions in Europe. The tottering edifice went
down in a heap when the Red Army smashed
through the Polish lines.
Tif RITING in The New Europe for July 1,
* * Professor George Young, who was, if we are
not mistaken, formerly in the service of the British
Foreign Office, gave a succinct account of the
achievements of Soviet Foreign Policy.
"The tide has turned, and time is running
against us," writes this Englishman. "Rus-
sia is fast making peace with the Finns at
Dorpat, and soon the Petrograd water-gate
will ' be opened through the blockade and
added to the Reval sally-port. Already a long
train of trucks, with ploughs, seed potatoes,
printing paper and medicines, leaves Reval
daily. Already the mines are being swept off
Kronstadt. And with the blockade goes our
best basis for bargaining. The main clauses
of the treaty with the Letts, including the
frontiers, are already settled. The Lettish
peace opens the line to Riga. Lithuania is un-
important, and depends on the Polish settle-
ment. Peace with Poland offers no difficul-
ties, and is much nearer than is generally
supposed. Some say Moscow could turn War-
saw Red tomorrow if it wished it, and that
Warsaw knows it. With Polish pressure goes
our next best basis of bargaining. Roumania
is strictly neutral, awaiting an agreement as
to Bessarabia, to which Moscow will accede.
Peace with Georgia was made in half an hour
a month ago. The new frontiers of Armenia,
to include Trebizond and a transmigration of
populations such as was effected recently in
Thrace with Bulgaria, have now been settled
by Russian mediation. The Turks of Asia
Minor are allied with Russia, like the Tartars
of Azerbaijan. Persian nationalism seeks
Russian support, and Persia is going Red
rapidly. Khiva is Red already. Bokhara
could be turned Red at any moment. The
Far Eastern Republic of Siberia at Verkhne-
Udinsk, which will shortly extend to Vladi-
vostok, ia only kept by Moscow's influence in
VERSITY OF MICHIGAN
The Life of the Masses in Soviet Russia
A Review of the Reii
Army hy Trotsky
People's Commissar for Army
and Navy, Leon Trotsky,
wearing a soft black hat, and
mounted on horseback, is
seen in the background, to
the left of the armored car.
A military band is marching
ahead of the car. The re-
view is being held at Mos-
cow as is also the parade in
the following picture.
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Red Infantry
The Red soldiers, well-
clothed in warm coats* in
parade on Khodinskoye
field, Moscow. The white
structures in the back-
ground are soldiers*
messes, a moving-picture
theatre, and a concert
hall where the best sing-
ers appear-
rii-hil of M«y f'clr-brjitlon
The crowd* are assembled in front < f
(Ik- obi Historical Museum, Moscow,
later the home of the Moscow I'iiy
Duma, Banners with inscriptions cele-
brating the achievements of the Revolu-
tion are held aloft by the panders.
Soviet Russia, Vol. Ill, No, 6
by Google
Original from
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Lid neat lonal Conference, Moscow
A Moscow Congress of Educational
Soviets discussing reforms in higher
education. Eager interest is shown in
the proceedings not only by the men,
but also by the women, of whom a
number are present
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Congress of Working Women
The All- Russian Co tigress of Working
Women was held at Moscow in 19 If
The banner seen on the right indicates
that it is borne by the delegates ol
tile Petro grail women workers.
no
A Lesson iti i.L'itjiifir.t, Moscow
A class in the Workers' Section of
the University of Moscow. Tlie pic-
ture shows only how intettsted arc
the students. It cannot show — hut it
is none tilt less a fact — that cduratimi
is now accessible to all in Russia.
by Google
Soviet Russia, Vol. Ill, No. 6
Original from
UNIVERSITYOF MICHIGAN
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Volunteers for the 1 .iilmr Army
The scent shows Moscow workers, chiefly young men, reporting voluntarily to be assigned to urgent tasks of
reconstruction^
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Purchasing Horses
The brilliant cavalry manoeuvres of General Budrnny would have been impossible without good horses. The i
latter are carefully inspected and registered.
Soviit fivssiA, Vol. Ill, No. &
by
d
Ic
Original from
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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ItrvtiiuHoiiiirj Songs
A chorus of trained viiiccs
lead a the singing of re vol u
Uonary hymns at the unveil
of the Mon ument of
Liberty, Soviet Square, Mos-
cow, (sec pictures of the
Monument, page viii).
Religious Procession.
A scene on. "Red Square", where so
many victims of the Czars had bled.
The Church of St. Basil is in the
central background, with the Historical
Museum on the right and the old Spas-
sky Gates on the left
by Google
Original from
UNIVERSITY OF Ml tnlM
ssia, Vol. Ill, No. 6
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Children Lunching
Tsnrskoyc Selo, formerly the summer
home uf the Czar's family, is now
Dyctskoyc Selo ("The Children h &
Town"), where all the splendid huiM
ings have been converted into sanatoria
and vacation houses for children,
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Children'* Holiday, Pirugov
County
The children of this community, not
far from Moscow, are evidently gathered
in one of their school -moms to prepare
for a parade and outing.
no
cn
Out In the Country
After having listened to speeches ami
recitation*, the children arc marching
with their banners over the country
roads.
Soviet Russia, Vol. HI, No. 6
by Google
Original from
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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The st rumple of the Revolution evidently injured churches as well as other buildings, as may he inferred
from the above photograph of a shell-scarred church near Moscow, but the other picture shows, that the
Soviet Government does not prevent religious processions. The scene is at the Nikolsk Gates, the Kremlin,
Moscow.
en
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cri
Pendants* Soviets, Mciscovv
A pbntttKraph of some of the sessions of the -Congress Q f Poorer
EYasaiits at Moscow; a discussion of the future of cxploiation.
by Google
OS^i«t Russ.a. Vol. III. No, 6
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Kamcncv Speaking, Moscow
A rally in Soviet Square,, Moscow, in the spring of 19 1°, connected with the organi-
zation of the Red Army*
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Unveiling a Monument
The crowds here shown are in front of the building of the Moscow Soviet of Workers' and Red Army Delegates, waiting
for the unveiling of the Monument to Liberty (see next page). The red star of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Reptiblic
may be seen over the door of the building.
S&rtMT Russia, Vol. HI, No. 6
vii
by Google
Original from
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
The Monument to Liberty
The Monument has recently been unveiled on Soviet Square, The detail picture shows that- it is also equipped
with a speaker's Tostrum, hearing the seal of the Workers' Repuhlic t with sickle and hammer crossed*
Q.
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Another View of the ('rowels at the Unveiling of the Monument.
Soviet Russia, Vol, 1 1 T. No, 6
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Original from
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the pink of propriety. If we stick in the mud
of our old diplomacy much longer, the line
wil not run through Turkey, Persia and Kash-
gar, but through Egypt, Mesopotamia, India,
and China. We cannot fight Eastern nation-
alism and liberalism with White terrors and
black troops. Why should we let the Russians
exploit all the true forces and facts of foreign
relationships against us ?"
Dissatisfied with "the tattle of refugee govern-
esses, dished up in Times and Morning Post lead-
ers/' Professor Young went to Moscow to seek an
explanation of this series of diplomatic successes.
The explanation was not far to seek. Moscow acts,
he found, "by common sense and in self-defense."
He was somewhat surprised by the frankness of
the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs. "How do
you venture to tell me this?" he asked a Soviet
official who had described a coup that was to
come off the following week in Asia Minor to the
confounding of British imperialism there. "Why
not V was the reply, "your peole can't stop it, and
they must be pretty stupid if they don't know
what is going to happen. We, each of us, ought
to know by now what is in the other's hand. We
can lay our cards on the table because we know
them to be better than yours."
♦ * *
A GREAT DEAL of adverse criticism has
-**■ been directed by American editorial writers
against the disfranchisement of clergymen by the
Soviet Constitution. In this connection the fol-
lowing bit of constitutional history of the State
of New York may be pertinent. The Constitu-
tion of the State of New York, adopted in 1777,
just one year after the Declaration of Independ-
ence, contains the following provision (Section
39):
And whereas the ministers of the Gospel are by their
profession dedicated to the service of God and the
cure of souls, and ought not to be diverted from the
great duties of their function; therefore, no minister
of the gospel, or priest of any denomination whatso-
ever, shall at any time hereafter under any pretence
or description whatever be eligible to or capable of
holding any civil or military office or place within the
State.
RUSSIAN PRISONERS IN GERMANY
Quedlinbubg, Germany. — The first detachment
of Russian prisoners of war, to the number of 600,
have left the prison camp for their homes. For this
reason solemn memorial services in honor of the
dead took place Wednesday afternoon at the sol-
diers' graves in the parish cemetery. In closed pro-
cession, wearing mourning-crepes, and with a black
flag, the Eussians walked to the cemetery where
several of their compatriots made addresses, in-
terspersed with hymns and strains of mourning
from a near-by chapel. After the services the
Russians, wearing red insignia and with a red flag
at the head of the procession, returned to the camp.
On the graves were placed large quantities of
flowers and wreaths. — From Die Kommunistische
SturmglocJce, June, 1920.
PORT REGULATIONS
Circular to all governments concerning entrance
into the ports of the Soviet Republic in accordance
with the naval command.
The following rules are established for the en-
trance of foreign vessels into the ports of the
Soviet Republic.
First, for the Black Sea. Vessels arriving from
the high seas must first, before entering, having
come within ten miles of the port, inform the au-
thorities of the port by wireless telegraph; next,
at a distance of from three to five miles, make
known by the international code signals the pur-
pose of their arrival. At both times the vessels
must ask the right of way, and the hours and local
rules of entry into the port. If weather permits,
foreign vessels will, upon their approach, be re-
ceived by the coast-guard scouts, who will furnish
them all necessary information with regard to
entrance into the port. Only the port of Odessa
is open to foreign vessels.
Second, for the White Sea. Entrance of foreign
vessels is not authorized on the Murman coast in
Pechenga and on the coast west of the Isle of
Fishers, on the White Sea, in the Gulf of Kan-
dalaksha, in the Gulf of Onega, at Kem, in the
Solovetsky Isles, in the mouth of the Pechora.
On the other hand there are open to them Mur-
mansk, Archangel, Novaya Zemlya, continuing on
the Sea of Kara, and at the mouths of the Obi and
the Yenissei. It is established as a condition that
they announce themselves at the right time. To
inform by wireless the commandant of the naval
forces, who will send to meet them a warship from
Murmansk to the Cape Pogan, from Archangel to
Mudtug. Foreign vessels can communicate by
signal with the lighthouses of Voida-Guba, Tsypna-
vokski, Teriberka, Pogan, Sviatoi, Nos-Gorodetski,
Orlovski, Sosnovetski. The "flame" of the inter-
national code, placed above the disk, indicates —
free passage ; under the disc — indicates entrance
only with a Russian military pilot. . The same
"flame" under the cone with an apex indicates —
possible, await arrival of a Russian war vessel.
Hoisted between two disks it signifies— ^anchor un-
til further orders.
Third, for the Baltic Sea. Rules for approach
to the Russian coasts will be given out after the
completion of dredging operations.
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs,
Chichebin.
Commandant of Naval Forces,
Nemitts.
June 7, 1920.
ENGLISH GUNS FOR WRANGEL
Copenhagen, July 8, 1920.^The counter-revo-
lutionary Russian paper Oolos, published in the
Crimea, announces the arrival in Sebastopol of a
steamship from England with 12,000 machine
guns, among them being 9,000 of Vickers pattern.
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Soviet Russia and Turkey
[An indication of Soviet Russia's readiness to live at peace with governments that are not based
on Communism will be found in the following interesting items from the negotiations between the
present government of Turkey and Russia. The two items are: 1, a wireless message from Chi-
cherin to Eemai Pasha, with suggestions of the conditions on which the Turkish Government should
make peace with foreign countries, offering the assistance of the Russian Soviet Government as medi-
ator; 2, a clipping from a London newspaper of recent date, reporting the progress of direct nego-
tiations, at Moscow, with Turkey.]
NOTE TO TURKEY
Note addressed June 4 by Chicherin through
the offices of the representative of the new Otto-
man government to the President of the Grand
National Assembly of Turkey at Angora, Mustafa
Eemal Pasha:
"To the President of the Grand National Assem-
bly of Turkey. The Soviet Government has the
honor of acknowledging receipt of the letter in
whicji you express the desire of entering into regu-
lar relations with it, and taking part in the com-
mon war against the foreign imperialism which
menaces the two countries. It is with satisfaction
that the Soviet Government has taken cognizance
of the fundamental principles of the foreign polic}
of the new government of Angora.
"These principles are: First, the declaration
of the independence of Turkey. Second, the in-
clusion in the Turkish State of territories incon-
testably Turkish. Third, the proclamation of
Arabia and Syria as independent states. Fourth,
the decision taken by the Grand National Assem-
bly to allow Turkish Armenia, Kurdistan, the
territory of Batum, Oriental Thraoe, and all the
territories of Turco-Arab population, to decide
their own destiny. The government naturally un-
derstands by this that a free referendum will take
place in the countries with the participation of
the refugees and emigrants previously obliged to
leave their country for reasons independent of
their wishes, and who will have to be repatriated.
Fifth, the granting to the minor nationalities of
the territories forming part of the new Turkish
state, having at its head the Grand National As-
sembly, of all the rights allowed minor nationali-
ties in the most liberal states of Europe. Sixth,
the reference of the question of waterways to a
conference of the states bordering on the Black
Sea. Seventh, the abolition of the conventions
and economic control of foreign states. Eighth,
the abolition of zones of foreign influence of every
kind.
"The Soviet Government takes cognizance of
the desire of the Grand National Assembly to
conform your labors and your military operations
directed against the imperialist governments to
the noble ideal of the liberation of oppressed peo-
ples. The Soviet Government hopes that diplo-
matic pourparlers will permit the Grand National
Assembly to establish between Turkey on one side
and Armenia and Persia on the other side, exact
frontiers determined by justice and the right of
peoples to decide their destiny. The Soviet Gov-
ernment is always ready, upon the invitation of
the interested parties, to act as mediator.
"In order to bring about amicable relations and
enduring friendship between Turkey and Russia,
the Soviet Government proposes immediately to
enter into diplomatic and consular relations. The
Soviet Government extends the hand of friend-
ship to all the peoples of the world, remaining in-
variably faithful to its principle of recognizing
the right of all to dispose of their destiny. The
Soviet Government is following with the greatest
interest the heroic struggle which the people are
undergoing for their independence and sovereignty,
and in the present painful days for Turkey she
is happy to establish a firm foundation for the
friendship which ought to unite the nations of
Turkey and Russia.
"In bringing to your knowledge the above,
Mr. President of the Grand National Assembly,
I have the honor in the name of the people of the
Federated Republic of Workers and Peasants, to
offer you our wishes for the success of the peoples
of Turkey fighting for their independence."
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs,
Chicherin.
NEGOTIATIONS AT MOSCOW
Moscow, July 6. — In an interview I have had with
Djemal Pasha, who was formerly Governor of Syria,
and was Turkish Minister of Marine during the war,
he made the definite statement to me that
Last January a British Emissary visited Enver Pasha
in Germany, and made a proposal to him for an alli-
ance with Enver, Talaat, Djemal and the Turkish Na-
tionalists. This alliance was to assume the form of
armed aid for the anti-Soviet forces to be sent into
Russia.
The British Emissary spoke on behalf of Lloyd
George and the Secretary for India, and went so far
as to invite Enver to London.
The latter discussed the matter with the Turkish
group in Germany, and it was decided that, while they
wanted the Turkish Nationalist aims recognized, never-
theless they were not justified in interfering in Russian
affairs, nor was it politic to do so.
Turning to other subject, Djemal expressed his hope
to see the creation of an independent Armenia.
He maintains that racial difficulties in Asia Minor
were due to the old czarist policy of rousing one na-
tionality against the other. Shortly after the Balkan
War, Russia urged reforms in Armenia. Fearing Rus-
sian interference at that time, Turkey developed a
scheme of creating three large provinces in Asia Minor
covering the mixed populations. The scheme was sub-
mitted to Britain, who was asked to recommend in-
spector-generals and experts to help to govern the new
provinces.
This verbal proposal was accepted, but when a writ-
ten proposal was handed to the British Foreign Office,
the answer was a refusal, on the ground that Russia
would not approve — a happy example of old-school di-
plomacy.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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Saturdayings in the Villages
By L. Sosnovsky
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T^HE importance of the saturdayings as a means
*■• of training the proletarians in the direction
of communism is at present generally recognized.
And their importance as a school in the organiza-
tion of collective mass labor is not disputed,
though not appraised at its full value.
More important from this standpoint is the use
of saturdayings in the villages, among the poli-
tically and culturally backward peasants, where,
the individualistic, private property conceptions
are particularly strong, offering great resistance
to the new — communistic — conceptions.
Unfortunately, there is no record of the satur-
dayings in the villages. The party organizations
do not give the saturdayings the serious attention
which they merit. They are still looked upon as
demonstrations. And who would bother to keep
a record or make a study of demonstrations?
We are therefore forced to make use of acci-
dental data. On looking over a few dozen provin-
cial Soviet newspapers, I got the impression that
the idea of the saturdayings has gotten quite a
firm foothold in the villages. From the Arch-
angel forests to the steppes of the Turgay region
and the Yenisseisk province, not to mention the
central provinces, — everywhere the saturdayings
are mentioned. As a general rule, the village
saturdayings are not directed by the city, but are
organized by the peasants themselves, according to
their own plans.
The only part in which the directing arm of the
capital is still shown, is the tilling of the Red
soldiers' fields, through the saturdayings. And
even this is rather a compromise. The tilling of
the soldiers' fields is obligatory, according to the
decrees. And in this way the burden is placed
upon the volunteer participants of the saturday-
ings, that is, first of all, on the communists and
the sympathizing poor peasants. At any rate, the
spread of the saturdayings has greatly advanced
the work of aid to the soldiers' families. All re-
ports mention not only the tilling of fields, but also
the repairing of houses and implements.
Particularly noteworthy in the list of satur-
daying works is the service for schools. Repairs
on school buildings, cleaning, the storing of wood
for the winter, the ploughing of the school gar-
den — such is an incomplete list of the various
tasks. A remarkable feature of the saturdayings
is the participation of the teachers, who are some-
times even the initiators of the saturdayings. This
was not the case before.
But, most of all, the saturdayings are devoted to
the improvement of the unattractive surroundings.
Here is a brief summary of the work for the
First of May and for the week of the labor front
only for one volost (Lenin volost, of Koliazin
County — province of Tver).
"During the week for the labor front and the
First of May saturdayings, 130 bridges were put
up in the volost, whose total length is 1,050 feet,
and in addition the Votrin bridge of 175 feet.
"Ditches were dug for approximately fifteen
versts, an average of about 1/14 verst for each
village.
"Roads were repaired for over thirty versts, an
average of a little over two versts for each village.
"This does not include the smaller scale work —
the loading of wood on twenty-three carts, public
tilling, etc."
The Cheliabinsk newspaper Sovietskaya Pravda,
contains a summary of the work for the labor
front week for a whole county. In forty-two
volosts (townships) of Kurgan county, 35,262
men and 27,441 horses participated in the work
during the week.
Repaired: seventy-three mills, twenty-six
schools, 364 soldiers' houses, (201 storage places,
fourteen oil mills, 183 bridges, twenty-two dams,
914 carts, 684 ploughs, 1,029 harrows; made —
102 axes, 145 axles.
Mended: 1,954 pairs of boots, 1,035 pairs of
shoes, 1,613 harnesses, 1,274 cart-seats.
Cleaned: 7,940 yards, 382 streets, and moved
out 44,489 wagon loads of garbage.
Chopped 7,945 feet of wood and moved 6,055
feet; ground 13,450 poods of grain, and loaded
and sent away 12,000 poods; brought in 8,000
pieces of timber; moved out 30,000 wagon-loads of
straw, hay, ice, pulp and brush-wood.
The newspaper adds that similar work, though
not so well recorded, was performed also in other
counties of the province.
Let the reader ponder on these figures, this
varied work, and chiefly on the expedient selection
of the work. This list shows, firstly, what divers
wants have accumulated in the villages for the last
few years. Only great collective effort can save
the villages from this- situation.
Starting with the above mentioned work on
bridges, mills, schools, oil-mills, storage places,
roads, etc., the peasants will be led by experience
to the socialization of the basic economic process
— the exploitation of the soil.
The total figures are very considerable. This
will be admitted by everybody who has been in
touch with the Russian peasants during the last
(after- war) years.
And this for but one week !
Let there be more such weeks, properly organ-
ized, directed by the party, and linked with a sen-
sible propaganda of communism. No agitation —
by speech or press — could compare in results with
this agitation by actual creative work.
Try, for instance, to keep step with the agita-
tion of the Red soldiers of the Fifth Army, who,
in undeveloped Siberia, beyond Krasnoyarsk, ef-
fected in one day — the First of May — the electri-
fication of the village of Sukhobuzimskoye.
The communist unit of the Fifth Army initiated
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this idea, formulated a detailed plan of work and
executed it in military fashion.
On April 29 a motor, dynamo, tools, and a
group to prepare poles were sent ahead from the
city. On the next day a detachment of Eed sol-
diers departed with music. On the morning of
the First of May the detachment, at a given signal,
took up their places in the village and started to
work. They erected poles, put up wires, attended
to the interior wiring, and mounted the mootr and
dynamo.
During this time the educational unit and the
agitators were holding several meetings in the
neighboring villages.
At six o'clock in the afternoon the work was
completed. A special commission examined the
work and saw that everything was in proper order.
In the evening, at the conclusion of a meeting
where the significance of collective labor was ex-
plained to the peasants, the light was turned on.
Later in the evening a play was staged for the
peasants in the club-house, which was illuminated
by electric light. Altogether, light was provided
for eighty houses, for the school, the headquarters
of the Revolutionary Committee and for the club-
house.
On the next day two addresses of appreciation
were presented to the Red soldiers in the name
of the peasants.
Such is the result of one day of volunteer col-
lective labor. The electrification of the village of
Sukhobuzimskoye is a miniature anticipation of
the bright future which awaits the country after
we shall have overcome the main obstacles on our
road.
In order to overcome these difficulties, it is
necessary to attract the peasants to the common
work, to awaken them to a conscious attitude to-
ward the general work of reconstruction, to arouse
the villages to volunteer collective labor, prepara-
tory to the coming universal obligatory service —
and the saturdayings in the .villages are of great
value for this purpose.
The saturdayings departments attached to the
committees of the Russian Communist Party must
become efficient, practical organs, must be in touch
with the committees on labor service and must
give particular attention to the development of
volunteer labor in the villages.
This is one of the methods through which com-
munism will make its way into the villages. —
Pravda, June 6, 1920.
THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS AT
DORPAT
The first session of the peace negotiations at Dorpat
began Saturday at 11.45 A. M. Both delegations were
present in a body, with secretaries, experts, stenograph-
ers, and newspaper representatives. The meeting was
opened by the chairman of the Russian delegation,
Bersin, who stated that it was not the fault of Soviet
Russia that the conference was holding its first meeting
two and a half years after the proclamation of the
independence of Finland, and expressed his joy that
the representatives of the two countries had at last
met to clear up misunderstandings and create new rela-
tions. The chairman of the Finnish delegation expressed
his thanks to the government of Esthonia for the hos-
pitality it had afforded by allowing the negotiations to
proceed on Esthonian territory. He stated that the
aim of the negotiations was the creation of a founda-
tion for political and economic relations between Fin-
land and Russia which should last for a long time to
come, and that this aim would be reached if, in addi-
tion to consideration of the historical and judicial facts
of the past, the ideas of justice and self-determination
of the peoples are laid down as leading principles.
Numerous questions which had arisen during the time
when Russia and Finland were united, as well as later
ones, require solution. As for instance, the question
of the territory between the northern boundary of
Finland and the Arctic Ocean, to which Finland has
an old historic right, derived from former times. The
demand of the people of East Karelia to decide their
political future for themselves, in accordance with the
right of self-determination of peoples, must be taken
up during these negotiations. The speaker expected
happy results from the conference, if these principles
were adhered to and impartially applied to the questions
pending between Finland and Russia.— Folkcts Dagblad
Politiken, June 14, 1920.
Just Off the Press!
I
Two Years of Soviet Russian
Foreign Policy (1917-1919)
By GEORGE CHICHERIN
Gives a complete account of all the negotiations
between the Russian Soviet Government and
all foreign countries, for the two years begin-
ning November 7, 1917, and ending November
7, 1919.
Price Ten Cents
II
The Protection of Labor
in Soviet Russia
By S. KAPLUN
of the Corntmissariat of Labor
This pamphlet, reprinted for the first time from
an English translation that appeared in Petro-
grad this year, is an authoritative study of the
actual operation of the Code of Labor Laws,
which has already been reprinted by us in
pamphlet form.
Price Ten Cents
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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August 7, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
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Official Communications of the Soviet Government
ECONOMIC SITUATION IN SOVIET RUSSIA
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1287. April 20, 1920.
LENIN'S SPEECH AT TEXTILE CONGRESS
The congress, at the proposal of the president,
gave an ovation to Lenin on the occasion of the
fiftieth anniversary of his birth. Lenin greeted
the congress in the name of the Council of Peo-
ple's Commissars. He recalled to the audience the
resolutions adopted by the last Communist Con-
gress, especially those which concern the intensi-
fication of production and working discipline.
Lenin invited all the workers in the textile indus-
try to the labor front. In this branch, as in others,
the situation is difficult. Russia must depend
upon this industry if no cotton should be obtained
from Egypt nor America, but only from Turkes-
tan, in addition to which the ways of communi-
cation must be improved at all costs. The ques-
tion of fuel must also be solved by the exploitation
of peat-bogs. Peat constitutes the salvation of
Russia in the matter of fuel. There are rich peat
deposits near the textile factories, and the workers
of these factories must be the first to exploit them
in this way surmounting all difficulties and sacri-
fices. On the bloody front which the Red soldiers
have held in water and mud, they have known how
to carry off victory even under these conditions.
On the labor front no task should be beyond our
strength. Whoever yields is not a communist.
The capitalists place their greatest hopes in our
weakness. They hope that the Russian workers
will become professional reformers of the old style.
They wish to destroy all our production. The mo-
ment of the greatest and most severe trial has
come. Every worker should repeat the deeds of
prowess achieved on the front by every Red soldier.
And these deeds will be one hundred times more
profitable than the latter. We must be victorious.
Down with the old trade unionism. Happily, the
textile workers have maintained the proletarian
enthusiasm with which they will repeat on the
front of labor the miracles which have given vic-
tory to the Red Army. The congress resolved to
distribute Lenin's speech widely among the mem-
bers. The reports read at the meeting in the even-
ing show that energetic measures have been taken
for the transport of eight million poods of cotton,
available in Turkestan. One hundred and fifty
locomotives and six thousand cars will be re-
paired to this end, with the collaboration of the
textile factories. The directing commission of
water-ways promises to transport an important
part of these supplies by the Caspian, Astrakhan
and the Volga. Six great textile enterprises are
already undertaking the repair of locomotives.
AGRICULTURE
The general policy of the Commissariat of Agri-
culture aims at increasing the amount of surface
under cultivation. To this end, the committees
of the districts and the cantons of the province of
Saratov have organized extraordinary commissions
to assure the cultivation of all available land.
Moreover, the provincial agrarian section is or-
ganizing cultivation by the State with the aid of
the labor army. Throughout the Republic and
Soviet Ukraine, shops are being multiplied for the
repair of plows and agricultural implements in
general. In numerous provinces an increase is ob-
served in the number of agricultural communes.
Thus, in the single province of Saratov, sixty-four
new associations for communal cultivation have
been established in the month of March. Likewise,
there are four hundred and sixty-seven communes
and associations for communal cultivation in the
provinces. In the province of Nizhni-Novgorod
there has been declared an agricultural week, in
the organization of which are taking part all the
instructors and students of the agricultural facul-
ty, and the communist committees. The Council
of National Economy has sent into the country
forty-six experts for the repair of agricultural im-
plements. The cultivation of the land of all the
mobilized is assured.
WORKING MONTHS IN THE URALS
During the first six days of the working month,
production in the mines of Cheliabinsk increased
about seventy per cent. The workers in certain
enterprises have spontaneously fixed a day of from
ten to twelve hours. New excavators will shortly
be put into operation. The machinery abandoned
by the Whites has been returned to Cheliabinsk.
The speed of trains has been restored to that of
peace times, for example thirteen hours between
Omsk and Cheliabinsk. The enthusiasm for work
has taken possession even of the country districts,
and everywhere the orders of the day establish
spontaneously a working day of from nine to
twelve hours. Bridges and roads are repaired,
and the stocks of provisions demanded by the
center are entirely made up. The peasants bring
their grain to the railroad stations.
In the zone of the first labor army, with its
center at Yekaterinburg, sixty-six railway bridges
have been rebuilt since the creation of this labor
army.
INDUSTRIAL RENAISSANCE
In the region of Krasnoyarsk, the construction
has been undertaken of an immense metallurgic
factory, capable of working each year seventy-five
million poods of metal with blast furnaces and
Martens ovens for the manufacture of coke and
the extraction of carbon or metals. Studies on a
large scale are being carried on in the minor de-
posits of the region. Expert Russian and foreign
engineers have been attached to the enterprise.
The Council of National Economy of the prov-
ince of Tambov has sent to the bureau of the
Supreme Council of National Economy a report,
in twel^o articles, on all the manufactures of the
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province for the month of March, the leather in-
dustry, building, textiles, automobile repairs, man-
ufacture of preserves, paper, forestry, etc.
COAL
Extraction of coal in the Moscow basin has in-
creased by about six hundred thirty thousand
poods from February to March. At Kizal, in the
Urals, there was an increase of about fifty-four
per cent. Everywhere there is evident improve-
ment in the mines.
TEE LABOR ARMIES
The first labor army during the first twenty-five
days of March furnished more than three thou-
sand highly qualified workers to the principal fac-
tories in the Urals.
RAILROADS
At Kharkov the railway construction shops are
operating at maximum capacity. During the last
fifteen days, two new locomotives have been con-
structed and three major repair operations com-
pleted, exclusive of the repair of numerous trains,
six camion automobiles, two light automobiles, etc.
On the Volga-Bugulma line the trains are now
accomplishing in forty-eight hours the trip which
recently took eleven days.
On the Alexandre line working production is on
a constant increase throughout the system. Days
of idleness are diminishing in number and the
workers are spontaneously instituting supplemen-
tary working hours.
1300. April 22, 1920.
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
The Supreme Council of National Economy is
organizing into a single group all the enterprises
for the manufacture of oxygen and acetylene. The
purpose is to develop these manufactures.
The production of potash in the province of
Saratov is expected this year to reach seventy
thousand poods instead of the twenty-two thousand
of last year.
FUEL
An article in Pravda points out the excellent
results obtained by the use of peat coke, already
employed for two years on the Alexander line and
in two or three factories in Moscow. This coke
can be used with advantage for the forge and with-
out inconvenience for the foundry. It may be
obtained either by rudimentary processes, as coke
is obtained from wood, by the means of kilns, or
pits, or by the use of special coke ovens.
TRANSPORTATION
The resumption of transports is proceeding rap-
idly on the Southern lines. In the month of
March five hundred and thirty locomotives and
fourteen hundred and ten complete cars under-
went capital and lesser repairs. The organization
of the work also has made enormous progress.
The report of the commissar of the third sector
of the Kazan line, that is, in the region of Murom,
indicates general and significant improvement in
all the services. Orders are executed with mili-
tary precision, loading attains the fixed figure and
even surpasses it sometimes. Idleness has disap-
peared. During the "week of the front" four hun-
dred sixty-eight seriously damaged locomotives
were repaired in addition to routine repairs.
In Pravda, Arski points out that in the first
week of April in the entire system of Russia the
number of cars loaded and unloaded has exceeded
the figure fixed and reaches sixteen thousand one
hundred and ninety-five, an increase of fifteen
hundred over the preceding week. Similarly, the
time that the cars stand idle has diminished
considerably, being reduced to three days at Mos-
cow, for example, instead of four days at the end
of March. The results are insufficient, but in-
contestable.
A NEW BRIDGE
On the 29th of March, several hours before the
break-up of the ice on the Volga, a bridge was
opened on the Savielovo-Kaliazin-Kachin line,
which is under construction. This event must be
noted as the first example since the revolution of
a bridge newly built on caissons. Construction,
begun in 1917, was resumed in the winter of
1918, and has just been completed, thanks to the
extraordinary energy of the workers and the tech-
nical personnel, who worked as much as fourteen
hours a day to insure completion at the moment of
the breaking up of the ice. This bridge is the
shortest route between Moscow and the rich for-
ests of the province of Cherepovets and the dis-
tricts north of the province of Tver. Thus the
Soviet Republic not only repairs the destruction
wrought by the Whites, but also enriches the coun-
try with absolutely new roads and works.
May 2, 1920.
ECONOMIC SITUATION
Bukharin compares the economic situation with
that in which the Soviet Eepublic has been
from a military point of view. "On the laboring
front the proletariat inherited the same ruins as
in the army. The old regime of labor was nothing
more than a mass of filth and debris. The first
step of the workers to piece together the little
that remained was the communist Saturdays. They
constituted on the laboring front that which the
Red Guard was formerly. The communist Satur-
days embraced all Russia. There were seen to
appear detachments of volunteers or partisans
fighting sometimes heroically on the laboring front.
Then the Soviet power accomplished the next step
in realization of universal obligatory labor. The
corresponding decree plays the same role as the
decree for the formation of the Red Army. Since,
then, we possess the necessary form, it is necessary
that we place in it a content worthy of it. We
must obtain the power of enthusiasm for work in-
dispensable to overcome the crisis. We must un-
derstand the necessity for an implacable war, a
regular war on the laboring front. We are already
on our way, The enthusiasm for work is in pro-
cess of being born. The masses understand their
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duty more and more. Thus we see the regular
labor army being created at this moment."
INDUSTRIAL AWAKENING
At Petrograd the Council of National Economy
has ordered all enterprises to furnish for the 5th
of May a detailed report of the products manu-
factured by them and the quantity of fuel utilized.
The extraordinary commission for the repair of
rolling stock has noted a considerable increase in
the production of the shops of the Northwest
system at Petrograd. They are making repairs
with great success and send locomotives to the
central shops only in exceptional cases.
Recently the San Galli factory at Petrograd
was still scarcely operating. It is now in full
swing and its production is increasing. It is re-
pairing the bodies of locomotives and cars, man-
ufacturing hatchets and all kinds of material for
hospitals, etc., with the same number of workers.
The weight of metal worked has tripled between
February and April. In the same period the value
of the articles manufactured has also tripled. The
factory is directed practically by a workingman
president and an engineer.
The Kalinkin brewery at Petrograd has been
shut down since the Yudenich invasion, when all
the workers were obliged to take arms to repulse
the enemy at the gates of the capital. Now it is
again operating for the manufacture of starch.
A factory has just been organized at Petrograd
for the production of turpentine essence. This
manufacture is absolutely new for Petrograd.
RAILWAYS
In an article in which he indicates that the sit-
uation remains serious, and in which he urges the
proletariat to redouble their efforts, Krumin notes
that the average number of cars, loaded each
day on the Soviet railway system has nevertheless
increased about twenty-three per cent between Jan-
uary and March.
TRADE UNIONS
At Petrograd has just been held a full meeting
of the council of trade unions, the purpose of
which is to put into practice the last resolutions
adopted by the communist congresses, as reen-
acted by the congresses of trade unions.
THE GRATEFUL PROLETARIAT
Under this title Krizhanovski describes the vast
horizons which are opening to agricultural and in-
dustrial Russia, thanks to the communist regime.
This article, written by one of the first engineer-
ing specialists of Russia, the creator of the ambi-
tious plan for the electrification of the entire coun-
try, and president of the commission designated
for its realization, is a symbol of the union which
now exists between the scientific forces and the
Soviet Government. Krizhanovski recalls that the
productivity of a hectare of Russian soil is from
three to six times inferior to that of a hectare in
other countries. The imbecile enemies of the Soviet
power reproach it because Russia now suffers from
hunger, while formerly she nourished Europe. It
" t.TOOgU
is true that Russia exported a fourth of her CTops,
but it was at the expense of her people. The pro-
letariat and the peasant know this truth by experi-
ence. Since 1880, famine has been a recurrent
phenomenon of Russian life. Extensive cultiva-
tion on an exhausted soil had become insufficiently
remunerative, and the Russian peasant was obliged
to emigrate to the virgin lands of Siberia. This
was the case until October, 1917, when the prole-
tariat came to the aid of the peasant. Then the
peasants received two hundred and two million
hectares of land of the nobles or of the crown,
and were freed from a redemption tax of from
four hundred to four hundred and fifty million
rubles per year. Now the proletariat is preparing
to give the peasants their liberty, by no
means the liberty understood by the ruling classes,
but rather the liberation of the man from all the
debasing influence of toil, from perpetual care for
his daily bread, from fear of the morrow, from
stupid submission to nature. The liberty given
by the proletariat to the peasants will be the de-
struction of ignorance, of misery; it will be the
firm and sure step of the man who knows why
and how it is necessary to act, it will be the domi-
nation of the forces of nature. To deliver the vil-
lages from ignorance it was necessary to destroy
the privileged classes. The proletarian alone is in-
terested in having the peasant enlightened, for
then only does he become his friend and ally. But
this ambitious program cannot be attained by or-
dinary means. Fifteen years will be necessary to
repair the loss of horses in the war. Fifteen
years are needed to repair the ordinary agricultural
materials of peasant exploitation. To repair the
ruins of the great catastrophe which has put an
end to capitalism it is necessary then to employ
new methods. Agriculture cannot get out of its
impasse except by the support of industry. A
profound and attentive mechanization of agricul-
ture is a fundamental condition for Russian crops.
Thanks to the communist regime, this ideal is cap-
able of realization. We shall be the witnesses of
the gigantic rivalry between powerful tractors and
rapid electrical ploughs. Electrical energy will
also play an essential part in technical cultivation,
such as that of flax. Electrical current will set
in motion all kinds of contrivances, facilitating
the care of cattle, the manufacture of milk prod-
ucts, etc. Already, following upon their revolu-
tionary experiences, the Russian people are making
colossal progress. Their pacific and military alli-
ance with the proletariat is showing itself more
plainly each day. In the near future we shall see
new progress towards a superior conscience and
quality of human labor. The new model worker
will rapidly assimilate the principles of agriculture
and electrotechnical theory and practice, and will
himself know how to use to his profit the electrical
energy which is available in the peat deposits
or in the rivers. Already the Russian peasant is
demanding electric light for his homes and electric
motors for his mills. Henceforth famine has ceased
to dominate the Jfasalan lni\d. But the scientific
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cultivation of the soil was not possible until the
day the proletariat put an end to the arbitrary
egoism of the petty proprietor?, discovered the
riches of the soil and the treasures of science and
consecrated all its governmental forces to the serv-
ice of the workers.
1441. May 4, 1920.
ELECTRIFICATION
The question of the electrification of the Donetz
basin is on the way to realization. The entire plan
will be executed in two or three seasons. Work
on the construction of the electric stations in the
Valdai lakes has passed the preparatory phase and
will be completed next summer. The Supreme
Council of National Economy has given orders to
the effect that the commands necessitated by night
work be executed immediately.
RAILROADS
The factories and shops of the Petrograd rail-
ways have in the month of March made capital
repairs upon twenty-one locomotives and nine hun-
dred and ninety-five cars as against twenty loco-
motives and six hundred and seven cars the pre-
ceding month.
On the Tomsk line traffic has doubled since
the power of the Soviets was established. The
park of locomotives is henceforth sufficient. Coal
is furnished by the mines of Andjer Sudja Temi-
rov, which are constantly increasing their produc-
tion. The situation is improving every day.
COTTON FROM TURKESTAN
Several train-loads of cotton are en route from
Turkestan to Samara and Moscow as well as the
industrial centers of the Volga.
FOOD
The Council of People's Commissars publishes
a fundamental decree and proceeds with long dis-
cussions and studies regulating the whole food
question. "In order to assure a more intelligent
distribution of food products among the working
population of the cities, the industrial centers, and
the non-agricultural population of the country, in
order to increase the capacity for work and pro-
ductivity, the Council of People's Commissars has
decided, first, to distribute food products among
the working population in conformity to a uniform
system for the whole republic, the distributions
being calculated according to the number of days
of effective work or of legal inactivity. There will
be distinguished among the workers the following
groups : first, manual workers in Soviet enterprises,
second, intellectual workers or those in the office
of Soviet institutions; third, workers in private
enterprises not exploiting the work of others. The
relative proportion of rations between the first and
second groups will be composed by the Commis-
sariat of Provisioning, in accord with the Com-
missariat of Labor and the All-Russian Central
Council of Trade Unions." The remaining articles
of the decree anticipate the particular cases re-
garding invalids, the unemployed, children, the
families of the mobilized, and the medical person-
nel during periods of epidemic.
THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. Transporting Naphtha From the Caucasus, by U. Larin.
2. Bertrand Russell in Russia. An attempt at a sympathetic understanding of the well-
known English pacifist's impressions of conditions under the Soviet Government.
3. Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Beh.
4. Book Reviews. A number of books on Soviet Russia will be described and judged.
5. New Official Documents, including short decrees and a wireless message of July 10
to the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mirza-Firouz.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make all checks payable
to L. C A. K. Martens.)
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110 West 40th Street
SOVIET RUSSIA
(Room 304) New York City
. Original from
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Bertrand Russell Answered!
SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, August 14, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 7
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iMned Weekly at 1J0 W. 40th Street, New York, N\ Y, Ludwig C A. K. Martens, Publisher. Jacob Wittmer Hartmann. Editor.
Subxription Kate, $5-00 per annum. Application for entry ft* aecond dftu matter pending Change* of address should reach
the office a week before the changes are to he made.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PAGE
Bertrand Russell m Soviet Russia, by Jacob
Wittmer Hartmann . 145
Soviet Russia and Germany, , . , ........ 148
Soviet Russia and England {Complete text of
notes passing between the two countries) , . , , 149
Military Review, by Lt.-CoL B w Raustam Bek 154
Map of the Military Situation, August 9th 157
Editorials 158
Economic Situation in Russia (Continued) 160
Peace Offer to Japan . . 168
Declaration of Moscow Intellectuals 166
Appeal to Toiung Peasants . . 170
Official Communications , . . 171
Russia and Finland, . 173
Russia and Persia 174
Books Reviewed 175
Bertrand Russell in Soviet Russia
By Jacob Wittmek Habthann
¥ T IS not certain that the first expressions of a
*■ new religion or a new art will always be appre-
ciated by outside observers for what they really
are. Early Christianity, which was undoubtedly
a real religious force, and which certainly bore
within it the germs of a long and very impressive
development of many arts, did not appear to the
Roman masters as anything else than a dangerous-
ly seditious irruption which had to be suppressed
at any cost* We doubt whether even the most gen-
tie and sympathetic Romans of the Augustan
period — those who deplored the massacres of Chris-
tians and were for giving them a "fair deal" with
the rest of the population — had any real under-
standing of the mighty alteration in the mode of
life of the Bom an Empire which was finding its
crude expression in the first stirrings of the Chris-
tian sect and in its earliest, exceedingly primitive,
artistic production. Of course, those Romans who
were themselves Christians, who had that sym-
party with the oppressed classes that had kindled
them with the flame of the new life, must have
understood the importance of what was in pro-
gress; but we could not expect such understanding
from even the well-disposed outsider.
It is often a source of kindly amusement to
those of mature years to be obliged to hear the
frenzied and inspired words of atheism spoken by
the young, for it is impossible to think that such
devotion to no god can be without religion. How
is it that Mr. Bertram Russell could have taken
so literally the man who told him in Russia a
few months ago that art and religion were matters
of no moment for that country? "We haven't
time foT a new art any more than for a new reli-
gion," were his exact words. Mr. Russell really
Digitized by V^iOOQ IC
does not believe this man, for he has furnished us
with all the data we need to refute him. Thus,
to quote Mr. Russell :
"The Communist who sincerely believe* the party
creed is convinced that private property is the root of
all evil ; he is so certain of all this that he shrinks
from no measures, however harsh, which seem neces-
sary for constructing and preserving the communist
state. He spares himself as little as he spares others.
He works sixteen hours a day, and foregoes his Sat-
urday half -ho lid ay. He volunteers for any difficult
or dangerous work which needs to be done, such as
clearing away piles of infected corpses left by Kolchak
or Denikin. In spite of his position of power and his
control of supplies, he lives an austere life. He is not
pursuing personal ends, but aiming at the creation of a
new social order. The same motives, however, which
make him austere make him also ruthless. Marx has
taught that Communism is fatally predestined to come
about; this fits in with the Oriental traits in the Rus-
sian character, and produces a state of mind not un-
like the early successors of Mahomet."*
Here is a description that seems to register the
impressions of a person who has just been in con-
tact with a "religion" he does not understand.
And note how the presence of the strange enthusi-
asm leads to attempts at a racial explanation, to a
feeling that it is essentially "Russian", or *'Ori-
ental", to the surprising (for the reader) analogy
with the "successors of Mahomet" (later varied by
the substitution of Cromwell's Puritans for Ma-
homet's successors) ; at least Mr, Russell has not
found a parallel in the blind nationalistic fana-
ticism preached by certain sections of the popula-
tion of the European nations before and during
the Great War, The devotion of the Russian
people to the ideal of a nation that is the common
♦"Soviet Russia— 1920", by Bertrand Russel, The
Nation, New Yoilt, July 33, 1920.
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possession of the whole population (a devotion that
is by no means peculiarly "Russian" or "Oriental",
and that seems to be sufficiently prevalent out-
side of Bussia to have made the masses in all
.countries understand perfectly well that they must
do everything in their power to prevent their mas-
ters from crushing the Russian Revolution) is as
near to a religion as anything that has been born
in the last few centuries, and it is difficult to
find parallels to a devotion so complete and self-
sacrificing. Mr. Russell likes to compare the pres-
ent Russian situation with that of England under
Cromwell after the Revolution of 1648.
"The sincere Communists (and all the older mem-
bers of the party have proved their sincerity by years
of persecution) are not unlike the Puritans in their
stern politico-moral purpose. Cromwell's dealings with
Parliament are not unlike Lenin's with the Constitu-
tional Assembly."
The parallel with the Cromwell period is by
no means perfect. Cromwell's firmness and sever-
ity in dealing with counter-revolutionary parlia-
ments may have been as great as Lenin's, but not
his consistency of purpose and inflexible mental
straightness. Cromwell was an opportunistic
"revolutionist" of the type of Martin Luther, and
was not opposed to making concessions that jeopar-
dized the interests of those sections of the popula-
tion that had most strongly supported the over-
throw of the monarchy.* Lenin, together with
the Bolshevik group and its successor, the Russian
Communist Party, has remained true to those
classes that made the revolution possible, and all
the severity which the present dominant party of
Russia is sometimes obliged to use in order to pre-
serve the achievements of the revolution, is directed
not against those parties who insist on putting
through the revolution with absolute consistency,
but against those elements whose policy of con-
cession and coalition has endangered the very ex-
istence of the new state. CromwelFs policy toward
true Communists of the type of Gerard Winstan-
ley and John Lillburne was one of opposition, re-
pression, and persecution, which is quite different
from the policy of the Russian Soviet Govern-
ment and that of the party now dominant in that
government.
But Mr. Russell should not be one of the first
men to object to the alleged absence of art and
religion in Russia, for Mr. Russell seems to be
entirely irreligious. He rejoices that "English
life has been based ever since 1688" upon "that
kindliness and tolerance which are worth all the
creeds in the world," although he admits that his
fellow-countrymen "do not apply to other nations
or to subjects races" the dictates of this "kindli-
ness and tolerance." The fact is that Mr. Russell
is a member of a class which in England as well
as in other countries has no religion, no creed, and
therefore is inclined to exalt as a creed, when he
needs one, those practices of that class which have
..made its mode of life seem pleasant and exem-
* Eduard Bernstein, Sozialismus und Demokratie in
der Englischen Revolution, 2d ed., Stuttgart, 1908.
by LiOOgle
plary to those who have been able to lead it The
college professor — and Mr. Russell is a distin-
guished' mathematical scholar who occupied a chair
at Oxford, and we may therefore speak of him as
a college professor — who is shielded in many ways
from the rude contacts to which much of the rest
of the population is exposed, frequently comes to
regard the privileges of his class as the common
possession of the entire population. He meets
persons who are cultured and refined, and who are
unableto use poor English, and falls into the seri-
ous error of believing that the use of choice dic-
tion and the affectation of a "judicious attitude,"
of "detachment" from life's merely personal in-
terests, are accomplishments that are accessible to
the entire well-disposed section of the body-politic,
eschewed only by those whose vulgar natures have
denied them the faculty of appreciating such
achievements. Constantly in contact with persons
of modest wants, like himself, but of excellent
powers of enjoyment and appreciation, he forgets
that many have been excluded from the charmed
circle they would love to enter (has he read "Jude
the Obscure"?), and that many more, in fact, al-
most the whole population, have never wanted to
enter it, have never wanted to lead detached lives,
but have always eagerly pursued interests that have
been more compelling than those of a merely kind-
ly, detached and tolerant discusssion of affairs. In
fact, Mr. Russell must know that though "kindli-
ness and tolerance" be "worth all the creeds in the
world," it is a view which not only is not applied
to other nations or to subject races, but is not ap-
plied, except within a small group, in England
either.
Real life in England is not always a gentle dis-
cussion between intellectuals; there is much vig-
orous hating and a strong tradition of physical
violence, expressed in often cruel juvenile games
and frequent resort to fisticuffs by all classes. Mr.
Russell's tradition of delicacy has so completely
cut him off from his own countrymen that he en-
tirely misrepresents the really vigorous tone of
English life, which is often far from kindly and
tolerant.
The Russian Revolution is also not "tolerant."
Every individual who took part in the great
achievement of November 7, 1917, had suffered
personally the blows of tyranny and economic ex-
ploitation. Through long years of preparation, the
political bodies had been organized, on whom would
ultimately depend the execution of the great pro-
ject of overthrowing the Czarist Government. False
leaders had been interposed, and for the six months
before November one mass upheaval after the other
had come to naught because of the readiness of
these faithless ones to dilute the demands of the
people in a pointless and disillusioning policy of
compromise and coalition. The Soviet Govern-
ment was established in November precisely be-
cause every attempt to put through a revolution
by using the efforts of gentle, well-meaning "sym-
pathizers" had failed, and because the Bolshevik
Party had promised that it would carry out the
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Revolution without compromise, without coalition.
To the Bolsheviks the masses looked for salvation,
for peace, bread, and land, after all the others who
had promised them these things had turned out
to be deceivers.
The world knows how well the Bolsheviks and
the government they founded carried out the prom-
ise to give peace, bread, and land to the people;
the world also knows that it is because of its
services to the Russian people in these and other
ways that the Soviet Government, and its domi-
nant party, are allowed to continue in power. And
the world also knows that in this achievement of
returning their possessions to the people the Soviet
Government has had to encounter the opposition of
every force of reaction inside and outside Russia.
It has been impossible to fight all these forces with
gentle means, although gentle means were more
frequently applied than is commonly known. How
was it possible to use gentle means against the
Staff of the Seventh Army, to whom the defence
of Petrograd against Yudenich had been intrusted,
and which turned out to be in league with Yuden-
ich, and preparing to hand over the city to him?
How is it possible to fight active counter-revolu-
tionists without the use of force? Do not forget
that it is hard for men in power to feel that they
should give up this power; Mr. Russell himself
declares this to be a fact with regard to Commun-
ists; can he not see that it applies much more
strongly to the great body of exploiters and para-
sites who ruled Russia until November, 1917?
"Almost all men, when they have acquired the habit
of wielding great power, find it so delightful that they
cannot voluntarily abandon it. If they were men who
were originally disinterested, they will persuade them-
selves that their power is still necessary in the public
interest; but, whether with or without self-deception,
they will cling to power until they are dispossessed by
force;"
Perhaps such powerful elements would prefer
to remain undisturbed in their kindly and tolerant
discussion of what they conceive to be public af-
fairs; and to retain this privilege of "detached"
and "disinterested" discussion they are often will-
ing to let loose on an unhappy nation all the
terrors of espionage, imprisonment, exile, physical
torment, and the death penalty. With such ten-
acity do they cling to their gentle privileges, that
only force, determined force, can dislodge them.
And what shall be said of the intellectual ele-
ments who had fed from the hands of the mighty
in Russia, who felt perhaps instinctively that their
privilege also of "kindly and tolerant" discussion
was threatened by the downfall of the class on
which they depended? Did they not vigorously
defend the reaction in order to keep the people
from power ? Did they not write against the Soviet
power in counter-revolutionary papers, take part
in counter-revolutionary conspiracies, conduct
counter-revolutionary propaganda in foreign coun-
tries?
The first duty of a revolution is to defend itself.
Self-defence requires the use of force where neces-
sary. Revolution is first and foremost an act of
force — the overthrow of an existing government —
and then the defence of the new government
against such remnants of the old order as con-
tinue actively to oppose it. Every petty noble
who can draft a little army and secure financing
for it from foreign powers will raise such an army
and hurl it against the new government ; the capi-
talists of the whole world will unite in increas-
ingly greater numbers for the purpose of crushing
the new organization, by crippling its transporta-
tion, blowing up its bridges, burning down its fac-
tories and wireless stations, discouraging those
elements who are eager to work, and destroying
its stocks of food. No measures can be too stern
to be used in putting down rebellious acts of this
kind, and if a little of the leisure of detached
non-combatants of the Russell type has had to be
sacrificed in the process, we can only say that no
revolution was ever made to please pacifists, and
that Mr. Russell would probably not find any
revolution to suit his taste.
A gentleman who had always lived among nice
people and had been pleased with their pleasant
manners, manners perfectly possible because no
serious interests were colliding, was suddenly
thrown among plain men faced with great prob-
lems, who were more concerned with the solution
of their problems than with the delicacy of their
methods. This is Mr. Russell's difficulty. And
yet he would no doubt understand Schiller's words,
spoken by Wallenstein, to the effect that the mind
has room for many things, even for discordant
thoughts, while 6pace is filled with real objects,
many of which collide unless carefully distributed :
Eng ist die Welt und das Gehirn ist weit.
Leicht bei einander liegen die Gedanken,
Doch hart im Raume stossen sich die Sachen.
Mr. Russell's own inference from his own facts
should have been : Applied Socialist is being born
in Russia; it has all the rudeness and animation
of physical life, and it will tolerate no fooling.
* * *
A CONCESSION granted by Mr. Russell is
***■ that the Mensheviki have not fared so badly
under the "Bolshevik tolerance" as to be deprived
of representation altogether ; he admits that of the
1,500 members of the Moscow Soviet, forty are
Mensheviki, although every possible hindrance is
placed in the way of electioneering by opposition
parties ; Mr. Russell enumerates a few of these :
"In the first place, the voting is by show of hands,
so that all who vote against the government are marked
men. In the second place, no candidate who is not a
Communist can have any printing done, the printing
works being all in the hands of the state. In the
third place, he cannot address any meetings, because
the halls all belong to the state."
Mr. Russell's objections are the typical objec-
tions of a bourgeois democrat. And yet Mr. Rus-
sell knows perfectly well that whenever any gov-
ernment finds it necessary to devote all its energies
to the struggle to maintain itself against external
enemies — which was the case of England during
the World War, and with Soviet Russia after the
Revolution — marry of the oo-called "safeguards" of
democriioy iiust be abandored. We are not cer-
t vi?\ Jr Mr . i ni'iHiJ
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SOVIET RUSSIA
August 14, 1920
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tain that Mr. Russell's charges are correct: our
direct communications from Soviet Russia are too
incomplete to permit us to speak with authority
on the technique of elections; but there is a cer-
tain refreshing return to the most "democratic''"
procedure in the picture Mr. Russell paints,
of a whole nation resorting once more to direct,
open, frank recording of opinion by word of
mouth. No doubt the Soviet Government must
withhold freedom of the press from political par-
ties suspected of being in league with foreign and
counter-revolutionary enemies; but to all genuine
workers freedom of the press and of assembly are
guaranteed by the constitution of the Soviet Gov-
ernment.
But it is difficult to believe that the Soviet Gov-
ernment is as "autocratic" as Mr. Russell says,
even for those who have not had the information
we have just given. It is true that the text of
decrees concerned with the mechanism of elections
is not in our possession, and we are obliged
to depend on data from the mouths of those who
have witnessed elections in Soviet Russia ; it is not
the first occasion on which we have wished that
there might be complete postal and telegraphic
intercourse between the United States and Soviet
Russia. But there is a way of considering this
question logically, even though much of the neces-
sary data be not at hand. A government that is
autocratic feels the necessity of suppressing dis-
cussion, of denying the right of assembly, of draw-
ing the inhabitants apart rather than bringing
them together. Let us see whether any effort is
made to prevent people from gathering for dis-
cussion in Russia. The Ail-Russian Congress of
Soviets, in its existence of less than three years,
has already had no less than seven sessions, and is
now engaged in the preparations for its eighth All-
Russian session, and of course the subsidiary
Soviets are holding very frequent local sessions.
The pages of this weekly have from time to time
printed the proceedings of workers' gatherings,
and the impression one gains from the official wire-
less messages is that such gatherings are constantly
in progress and are well attended ; we had a num-
ber of recent photographs of such conferences and
demonstrations in the last issue of Soviet Russia.
Lenin addresses the Textile Workers' Congress;
the All-Russian Congress of Wireless Operators
sends out a message to the wireless operators of
the world; a Congress of the Poorer Peasants of
Russia meets in a brilliantly lighted hall in Mos-
cow; teachers and librarians are constantly hold-
ing congresses of provincial as well as national
scope; to one not accustomed to the present con-
dition of affairs in Russia, the probable impression
of the exceedingly active political life would be
rather one of over-interest in politics, of too many
meetings, of too much participation in public af-
fairs, and we have no doubt when some gentle-
man of Mr. Russell's type, who has given up all
interest in things political, goes to Russia and
witnesses the universal love of discussion and de-
liberation that seems to have seized that country,
he will come back with pessimistic tales of a land
going to the dogs for too much democracy, for
too much talk, too much attention to everyone's
opinions.
* * *
"FINALLY, let us come to Mr. Russel's personal
-■" impressions of individual Russians of import-
ance. He is particularly interested in Lenin,
Trotsky, and Gorky. In Lenin he finds religion:
"religious faith in the Marxian gospel, which takes
the place of the Christian martyr's hopes of Para-
dise, except that it is less egotistical." It is just
in Lenin that we had thought the Marxian method
unmixed with elements of religion ; we had rather
supposed that it was the Russian masses who would
transform the Marxian teaching into a reli-
gion. It is interesting that Trotsky made a more
favorable impression on Mr. Russell than did
Lenin ; certainly there are a number of Americans
who will agree from personal observations not
much more than three years old that Trotsky "has
bright eyes, military bearing, lightning intelli-
gence, and magnetic personality." Russell met
Gorky at Petrograd and found him in bed seriously
ill. "Gorky has done all that one man could to
preserve the intellectual and artistic life of Rus-
sia. But he is dying ,and perhaps it is dying too."
And perhaps it isn't. Gorky himself has his own
ideas on the subject, which he appears not to have
succeeded in communicating to Mr. Russell. We
have recently seen a Swedish translation of what
appears to be Gorky's latest book,* a study of the
relations of the petit bourgeois spirit to the Revo-
lution, and, while we do not like to speak of a
man of Mr. Russell's self-sacrificing and intellec-
tual spirit as a petit bourgeois, there are many-
lines in this new Gorky book that make Mr. Russell
appear in the light of a small man interested only
in comfortable and pleasant discussion with nice
people, and not in the hot, fierce breath of creation,
the blast of social transformation, which is less
pleasant than magnificent — but whose magnificence
only those can see for whom life is more import-
ant than any of its external forms.
SOVIET RUSSIA AND GERMANY
According to German newspaper reports, the
German representative, Gustav Hilger has ar-
rived in Moscow and has been received by People's
Commissar Chicherin. When receiving him, Com-
rade Chicherin declared that Russia's attitude to-
wards Germany would be dictated by the sole wish
to establish closer economic, political, and cultural
relations. Temporarily, Hilger is only a semi-
official representative and holds practically the
same position as does the Russian representative,
Comrade Kopp, in Berlin. An official resumption
of diplomatic relations, therefore, is still a thing
of the future.
holm, 1.920.
Translated by
nes "Roed Kultur", Stock-
ERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET EUSSIA
149
The real significance in a financial way of the -
real intent of the Soviet powers were recognized,
much of the diplomatic exchanges were coming
Soviet Russia and England
Russian advance into Poland could be determined more nearly than at present if the
ed. As the week ended the military outlook was decidedly discouraging, but only as
to light as the British Premier elected to make public. — -Financial Page, New York
Times, Monday, August 9, 1930.
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Note handed by M. Krassin to Mr. Lloyd George at
their interview on July 29:
"In submitting the following reply to the declara-
tion made by the Prime Minister and other members
of the British Government at the sittings of June 7,
I am consrained once more to point out the abnormal
conditions in which the representatives of the Soviet
Government have been placed in conection with the
present negotiations.
"The plenipotentiary representative of the People's
Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, whose presence is
absolutely necessary at the negotiations in the course
of which the British Government has raised purely
political questions, has not been admitted, whilst my
own telegraphic intercourse with the Soviet Govern-
ment has been very imperfect. Between twenty-five
and thirty per cent of outgoing and incoming telegrams
haived failed to reach their destination, and numerous
telegrams have been received in a highly multilated
condition.
"Nor have we succeeded up till now in organizing
a courier service with any regularity, despite the prom-
ised assistance, owing to the difficulties and delays in
the issue of visas by the countries through which the
couriers have to pass. These circumstances not only
deprive me of the possibility of promptly returning
answers to questions put to me and of submitting as
promptly questions on our part, but also prevent me
from fully and precisely informing myself of the deci-
sions, and intentions of my Government.
"The British Government has put forward as the
main conditions of the renewal of commercial relations
between Soviet Russia and Great Britain the demand
for a mutual pledge to cease all propaganda and hostile
acts, and for the recognition in principle by the Soviet
Government of Russia's liability towards private credi-
tors.
"On the first question it is necessary to distinguish
between the propaganda of communist ideas amongst
laboring masses of the Western European countries and
the organizing of the working class of those countries
for the final struggle against the capitalist order on
the one hand, and the general direction of the foreign
policy of Soviet Russia against the Entente countries,
particularly Great Britain, and complicity with or di-
rect participation in, hostile acts directed against Great
Britain in various countries of the Near and Middle
East, including India, on the other.
"So far as the Communist propaganda and interfer-
ence in the political life of Great Britain are concerned,
the Soviet Government is prepared to give a formal
pledge not to carry on such propaganda in England
either openly or secretly, and not to interfere in her
internal political life, if a general agreement is reached
between the two countries concerning the renewal of
economic and commercial relations and if the British
Government on its part undertakes not to carry on any
propaganda in Russia against the Soviet Government,
provided that such undertaking does not prevent the
representatives of the Soviet Government in England
from issuing through the press or some other channel
denials of false or deliberately perverted reports and
communications regarding the fundamental principles
of the Soviet Regime or incidents in the life of Soviet
Russia.
^ As regards the general foreign policy of Soviet Rus-
sia, the Soviet Government has more than once pro-
claimed to the world its readiness to begin peace nego-
tiations which alone would put an end to all hostile acts
between the various States and bring about the com-
plete restoration of peace. The Soviet Government
would be perfectly willing to revise the fundamental
principles of its foreign policy, and, in particular, with-
draw from all participation in hostile acts directed
against Great Britain, if the British Government were
to give a similar undertaking.
"The loyal fulfilment of this understanding would
have to be properly guaranteed by a special treaty
between the two governments, to be drawn up at a
special conference composed of an equal number of
representatives and experts on either side without the
right of objection to any members of such conference
on either part. The Soviet Government would be pre-
pared on the question of place and time of such con-
ference to meet the wishes of the British Government
in the most liberal spirit
"A considerable difficulty in the drawing up of such
treaty is presented by the fact that Great Britain is a
member of a military Coalition, some members of which
are to this day directly or indirectly in a state of war
with Soviet Russia and are taking part, in one way or
another, in hostile acts directed against her, in conse-
quence of which an undertaking on the part of Great
Britain to stop hostile acts would lose a good deal of
its importance, as it could easily be paralyzed by the
action of Great Britain's Allies in continuing their
assaults against Soviet Russia and in supporting her
enemies by any and every means.
"It would seem, therefore, that a final settlement of
this question would only be possible by the negotiations
for the conclusion of a formal and definite peace.
"The British Government makes it a preliminary
condition for the restoration of commercial relations
between the two countries that the Soviet Government
recognize in principle the liabilities of the Russian State
towards private creditors.
"Such formation of the question obviously tends to
the disadvantage of Soviet Russia, since in consequence
of the nationalization of land, factories and works, as
well as of commerce, the greater portion of the private
claims on the Russian side has been transformed into
state claims, and Soviet Russia, therefore, in case of
an unqualified acceptance of the above claim of the
British Government, would risk losing the preferential
right to put forward a large number of quite incon-
trovertible claims of her own.
"The liabilities to private persons form but a fraction
of the mutual liabilities of the two countries, and there
is absolutely no ground to put forward for accepting,
in the order of priority, this particular fraction of the
mutual liabilities. The argument that the British busi-
ness world would, without such recognition, never
agree to resume trade negotiations with Russia is re-
futed by the numerous declarations of British business
men anxious to resume such relations as soon as the
obstacles raised by the British Government in their way
have beeen removed.
"Such declarations frequently emanate precisely from
such British industrialists and business men who have
claims on Russia, as these business men quite justly
think that, in the absence of all possibility in the near
future for ruined Russia to pay the claims of her
creditors, the immediate resumption of trade relations
will constitute the best and probably the only means
of gaining such advantage through regular intercourse
with Soviet Russia as may in the next few years more
than meet such claims.
"The demand to recognize private claims has for
its object to protect in the first place the interests of
those capitalist circles of Great Britain who have al-
ready taken full advantage, with great profit to them-
selves, of the war of 1914-1918, and are now trying
to exploit to perhaps stil! greater advantage to them-
selves, the winding up of that war. The workers'
and peasants' government of So riet Russia cannot pos-
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SOVIET RUSSIA
August 14, 1920
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sibly recognize the interests of this particular section
of the population as the most important and as deserv-
ing preferential treatment.
"On the contrary, from the point of view of the
Soviet Government, primary importance and urgency
attach to the private claims against the Entente Powers
on the part of the hundreds of widows and orphans of*
workers and peasants of the Soviet Russia, the Ukraine,
the Caucasus, and Siberia, whose kith and kin have
perished from British and French bullets and shells
during the so-called intervention, that is, the wholly
uncalled-for interference of the Entente in the internal
affairs of Russia. Russian debts towards British sub-
jects were contracted as the result of certain agree-
ments or undertakings entered upon in respect of such
persons by the previous Government of Russia.
"Such agreements and undertakings towards British
subjects were, however, annulled by the acts of the
British Government itself at the moment when
it began war and intervention against Soviet Russia
and proclaimed a blockade, having for its object to
compel the Russian people, by famine and privation,
to renounce the form of government which it had
chosen after having overthrown the autocratic Czarist
regime.
"Hence the question at issue at the present moment
cannot possibly be the recognition of tieaties and
agreements abrogated by the war, but only their restora-
tion — an act which is only possible after the Soviet
Government has been officially recogized as the result
of peace negotiations and the signing of a peace treaty.
"The Soviet Government agrees to the examination of
all mutual claims, including those arising from liabilities
towards private British subjects in conjunction with
peace negotiations at a conference to be held on the
basis of an equal number of delegates and experts
without the right of objection to anyone on either side.
"If the British Government regards the immediate
clearing up of all misunderstandings and frictions in
the domain of foreign policy and in particular the
cessation of all hostile acts in the Middle and Near
East, as well as the immediate settlement of material
claims on the basis of reciprocity as necessary and
urgent, the Soviet Government will be prepared to meet
such desire half way, but does not regard, for reasons
of principle as well as on actual practical grounds, an
agreement on such points as possible, except as the
result of formal negotiations for the restoration of
peace relations between the two countries.
"Should the British Government be unwilling to enter
into such official negotiations for the restoration of
peace relations between the two countries, the imme-
diate resumption of economic and commercial relations
appears, nevertheless, possible, on the following basis :
1. All controversial questions in the domain ef
foreign policy, as well as those relating to the partici-
pation of individual Governments in coalitions, alliances,
and individual enterprises of a hostile character to the
other country, as well as all questions relating to the
mutually material claims of Governments and subjects,
are to be postponed until such time as they may be set-
tled by diplomatic methods at the Peace Conference.
2. The two Governments immediately proclaim the
resumption of economic and commercial relations, and
announce the temporary suspension of the material
claims of the Russian State and Russian subjects against
Great Britain and the British Empire, and of British
subjects against Russia, pending the settlement of the
question at the Peace Conference.
3. The fundamental principles for the resumption
of trading relations are immediately established, in-
cluding :
a. Concrete measures for the removal of mines in
the Baltic and other seas, as well as other measures
for the safety of navigation.
b. An official anouncement to all neutral coun-
tries about the renewal of commercial relations be-
tween Russia and Great Britain and the complete free-
dom of navigation from and to Russian ports.
c. The establishment of commercial representations
in the two countries on the basis of reciprocity and
immunity, with the right of free sojourn, travel, com-
munication with other countries by letter, telegram and
courier and the use of cypher.
d. An agreement by which passports, certificates
of identity, powers of attorney, protocols .agreements,
and such like documents issued or certified by the
authorities of one country are recognized as valid in>
the other country on the basis of reciprocity.
"With particular regard to Clause (c), I have the
honor to add that the suggestion made by the British
Prime Minister about applying to commercial represen-
tatives the principle of prior consent to their appoint-
ment on the part of the Government of the other coun-
try is unacceptable to the Soviet Government, since,
from the point of view of the bourgeois governments
of Europe who, on principle, are opposed to the Soviet
regime, every representative of the Soviet Government
might be treated as persona non grata.
"The reference to the agreement concluded by my-
self in Sweden does not refute, but, on the contrary,
bears out the point of view of the Soviet Government,
since the consent given to this reservation in their
agreement with Sweden is already bringing about the
impossibility of establishing commercial representation
of Soviet Russia in Sweden.
"The Soviet Government, being anxious as much as
possible to meet the wishes of the British Government,
will not object to the right of each Government to
insist upon the immediate recall of such members of
the trade delegation of the other country, with regard
to whom an infringement of the laws of the country in
which they reside, or, in particular, participation in
political propaganda or interference in the internal af-
fairs of the country, will save been proved.
"In conclusion, on behalf of the Government of the
Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic, I have the
honor once more to bring under the notice of the
British Government and the entire British people, and
particularly the British laboring masses, that it is the
most urgent and earnest wish of the Government of
Soviet Russia and of the entire Russian people, to
conclude at the earliest possible date a full and general
peace, without reservation, with all the powers who in
recent years have taken part in hostile acts against
her."
II
Mr. Lloyd George's reply was handed to M. Krassin
on the eve of his departure for Moscow on July 1 :
"The British Government has given careful consider-
ation to the Memorandum of June 29, produced by M.
Krassin, on the negotiations which have been proceed-
ing since the arrival of the Russian Delegation at the
end of May. The British Government has, during
the course of these negotiations, shown its sincere
desire to end the isolation of Russia from the Western
world and to reach an agreement for the resumption
of trading relations which might pave the way to a
general peace.
"They do not think that any useful purpose will be
served at this moment by attempting a detailed reply
to the Russian Trade Delegation Memorandum or by
entering into arguments of a recriminatory character.
The negotiations have now reached a stage where it is
necessary to bring them to an issue. It is not clear from
M. Krassin's Memorandum whether the Soviet Govern-
ment really desires the restoration of trading relations
or not, or what are the conditions upon which it is
willing to resume them.
"In order, therefore, to arrive at a definite decision,
the British Government now repeats what it has de-
clared throughout, mat it is willing to make an agree-
ment for l.l*ii5 rmtual; cesiiitior of hostilities and the re-
August 14, I960
SOVIET RUSSIA
151
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sumption of trading relations with Russia, and asks for
categorical replies, yes or no, as to whether Russia
is prepared to enter into a trade agreement with the
British Empire and other powers on the following con-
ditions:
"1. That each party refrains from hostile action or
undertaking against the other and from conducting any
official propaganda, direct or indirect, against the in-
stitutions of the other party; and, more particularly,
that the Soviet Government will refrain from any at-
tempt by military action or propaganda to encourage
any of the peoples of Asia in any form of hostile
action against British interests or the British Empire.
For reasons already given, this, in the opinion of the
British Government, is the fundamental condition of
any trading agreement between Russia and any Western
Power.
"Trade is only possible under conditions of peace
or armistice. The British Government proposes what
is tantamount to a general armistice as the condition of
the resumption of trade relations, in the hope that this
armistice may lead ere long to a general peace.
"2. That all British subjects in Russia should be
immediately permitted to return home, all Russian sub-
jects in Great Britain or other parts of the British
Empire who desire to return to Russia being similarly
released.
"3. That the Soviet Government, in return for a
corresponding undertaking from the British Govern-
ment, agrees to recognize in principle that it is liable
to pay compensation to private citizens who have sup-
plied goods or service to Russia for which they have
not been paid. The British Government asks for some
declaration of this kind at the present time because it
believes something of this nature is essential to the
effective starting of trade between the two countries.
"It considers it a matter of simple justice, for in-
stance, that where a merchant has supplied the Russian
people with a thousand ploughs which have been used
or are still being used by the Russian people to their
own great benefit, that the Russian people should admit
that they ought to pay that merchant and the work-
ingmen who manufactured the ploughs for the goods
and services they have rendered. Unless Soviet Russia
is prepared to admit that it must deal with those whom
it now wishes to trade on some recognized principles
of justice, trade on a large scale such as is desired
on both sides will be found to be practically impossible.
The British Government does not ask that these debts
should be settled now.
"It is prepared to leave the determination of Russia's
liabilities under this head as well as all other questions
relating to debts or claims by Great Britain on Russia
or by Russia on Great Britain to be mutually settled
at the negotiations of peace. But it considers it neces-
sary that the Soviet Government should make a declara-
tion on this point in order to give the necessary con-
fidence to Western merchants, manufacturers and work-
ers to embark upon manufacturing and trading opera-
tions.
"4. The British Government agrees to the conditions
laid down by the Soviet Government in regard to com-
mercial facilities, communications and so forth, pro-
vided that they are mutual and excepting that it can-
not agree to surrender the right possessed by every
civilized Government, and which it freely accords to
the Soviet Government also, to object to the entry as
an official agent of any Government of any person
who is non-grata to itself.
"It asserts, however, that it has no intention of de-
barring any Russian on the ground of his Communist
opinions, provided the agents of the Russian Govern-
ment comply with the normal conditions for friendly
international intercourse.
'The British Government now awaits a definite state-
ment from the Soviet Government as to whether it will
accept these principles as the basis of an agreement to
reopen trade negotiations between Russia and the Bri-
tish Empire and any other power willing to accept the
same conditions. If an answer is returned in the
affirmative the British Government will be willing to
discuss details with any experts or representatives which
Soviet Russia may nominate, except such as have al-
ready been refused.
"Should, however, no affirmative reply be obtained
within one week of the presentation of this Note, the
British Government will regard the negotiations at an
end, and in view of the declared unwillingness of
the Soviet Government to cease its attacks upon the
British Empire will take counsel with its Allies as to
the measures required to deal with the situation."
Ill
The text of the SoiAet Government's acceptance of
the foregoing offer of the British Government is re-
produced below:
"Complying with the desire of the British Govern-
ment and with the object of arriving at an early peace
between Russia and Great Britain, the Russian Soviet
Government accepts the principles laid down in the
Allied memorandum transmitted on July 1 by the Bri-
tish Government to the President of the Russian Dele-
gation, Krassin, as the basis of an agreement between
Russia and Great Britain, which agreement will be the
object of negotiations, which must begin without de-
lay, between both Governments.
"The Soviet Government agrees that the plan pro-
posed by the British Government will have to be con-
sidered as a state of armistire between Russia and
Great Britain, and shares the British Government's ex-
pectation that this armistice will pave the way to a
definite peace. At the same time the Soviet Govern-
ment protests against the affirmation, contrary to the
real facts, relative to the presumed attacks of Soviet
Russia upon the British Empire.
"The Soviet Government emphasizes once more that
as to Soviet Russia in her relations with Great Britain,
she desires nothing but peace, and that the absence of
the same disposition on the other side was the only
cause preventing it from being as yet attained."
IV
Note from Lord Curson from Spa to Chicherin on
July 11, demanding an armistice for the Poles, and ask-
ing for a reply within a week :
"The British Government notes the acceptance by the
Russian Soviet Government of the principles laid down
in its memorandum of July 1, as. the basis of an agree-
ment for the resumption of trade relations and the ces-
sation of mutual hostilities, and it therefore agrees to
continue the negotiations for a definite trade agreement
as soon as the Russian delegates return.
"The British Government has a further proposal to
make. The Soviet Government of Russia has repeat-
edly declared its anxiety to make peace with all its
neighbors; the British Government, which is no less
anxious to restore peace throughout Europe, therefore
proposes the following arrangement with this object
in view :
"a. That an immediate armistice be signed between
Poland and Soviet Russia whereby hostilities shall be
suspended. The terms of this armistice should pro-
vide on the one hand that the Polish army shall imme-
diately withdraw to the line provisionally laid down
last year by the Peace Conference as the Eastern
Boundary within which Poland was entitled to es-
tablish a Polish Administration; this line runs ap-
proximately as follows: Grodno, Vapovka, Nemirov,
Brest- Litovsk, Dorugusk, Ustilug east of Grubeshov,
Krilov, and thence west of Rawka Ruska east of
Przemysl to Carpathians. North of Grodno, the line
which will be held by the Lithuanians will run along
the railway running from Grodno to Vilna and thence
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"On the other hand, the armistice should provide that
the armies of Soviet Russia should stand at a distance
of fifty kilometers to the east of this line; in Eastern
Galicia each army will stand on the line which they
occupy at the date of the signature of the armistice.
"b. That, as soon as possible thereafter, a Confer-
ence sitting under the auspices of the Peace Conference,
should assemble in London, to be attended by repre-
sentatives of Soviet Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia,
and Finland, with the object of negotiating a final peace
between Russia and its neighboring states.
"Representatives of Eastern Galicia would also be
invited to London to state their case for the purpose
of this Conference. Great Britain will place no restric-
tion on the representatives which Russia may nominate,
provided that they undertake while in Great Britain not
to interfere in the politics or the internal affairs of the
British Empire or to indulge in propaganda.
"The British Government as a separate proposal
suggests that an armistice should similarly be signed
between the forces of Soviet Russia and General Wran-
gel, on the condition that General Wrangel's forces,
shall immediately retire to the Crimea, and that dur-
ing the armistice the Isthmus be a neutral zone and
that General Wrangel be invited to London to discuss
the future of troops under his command and the refu-
gees under his protection, but not as a member of the
Conference.
"The British Government would be glad of an im-
mediate reply to this telegram, for the Polish Govern-
ment has asked for the intervention of the Allies, and
if time is lost a situation may develop which will make
the conclusion of lasting peace far more difficult in
Eastern Europe; further, while the British Government
had bound itself to give no assistance to Poland for
any purpose hostile to Russia and to take no action
itself hostile to Russia, it is also bound under the
Covenant of the League of Nations to defend the in-
tegrity and independence of Poland within its legiti-
mate ethnographic frontiers.
"If therefore Soviet Russia, despite its repeated de-
clarations accepting the independence of Poland, will
not be content with the withdrawal of the Polish armies
from Russian soil on the condition of a mutual armis-
tice, but intends to take action hostile to Poland in its
own territory, the British Government and its Allies
would feel bound to assist the Polish nation to defend
its existence with all the means at its disposal.
"The Polish Government has declared its willingness
to make peace with Soviet Russia and to initiate nego-
tiations for an armistice on the basis of conditions set
out above, directly it is informed that Soviet Russia
also agrees. The British Government therefore would
be glad of a definite reply within a week as to whether
Soviet Russia is prepared to accept the aforesaid pro-
posal for putting an end to further unnecessary blood-
shed and giving peace to Europe."
Text of the Soviet Republic's reply to the Allied
ultifnatutH of July 11:
The Russian Soviet Government is the more pleased
to acknowledge the declaration of the British Govern-
ment of its desire to contribute to the establishment
of a general peace in Eastern Europe, as even quite
recently, at the time when the complications between
Russia and Poland were developing, which led to the
Polish advance against Russia and the Ukraine, the
British Government, unfortunately, did not manifest
the same desire to contribute to the cause of peace in
Eastern Europe. Earlier, also — namely, at the time
when Soviet Russia was trying to obtain peace with
the Border States— the British Government did not
support the attainment of this aim, and, again, when
the Esthonian Government was preparing to conclude
peace with Soviet Russia in December of last year it
received a warning in the name of the Supreme Council.
The present change in the attitude of Great Britain
on the question of peace between Soviet Russia and
other States is in complete harmony with the wishes
of Soviet Russia, whose desire to live in peace with
all other States, to which reference is made in the
last communication of the British Government, remains
firm and unalterable.
Regarding Poland, likewise, in spite of the latter**
wanton aggression against the Soviet Republic, Soviet
Russia remains as faithful as before to the principles
she has proclaimed So often, and to her earnest desire
of establishing peaceful relations with all peoples.
The question, however, of the cessation of the armed
struggle between Russia and Poland will be unfavor-
ably influenced by the fact that on the part of the
Polish Government there has been no direct declara-
tion to the Soviet Government regarding its wish to
conclude peace. Numerous utterances of representa-
tives of the Polish people have come to the knowledge
of the Soviet Government in which they express them-
selves in an extremely bitter sense as to the British
Government's political action on this question, and in-
formation has been likewise published in the Press as
to a decision of the Polish Diet to reject the proposal
of an armistice with Soviet Russia.
The Soviet Government must, therefore, consider
with some caution such proposals so far as they do not
come directly from the Government and as long as the
danger exists that the attitude of the Polish Govern-
ment will not correspond to the declarations of other
Governments which speak in its name.
The necessity of a direct communication from the
Polish Government to the Soviet Government in this
case is the more urgent as the past attitude of the
British Government in the conflict between Poland and
Russia can hardly be considered as a reason for assum-
ing the role of mediating between these two govern-
ments.
If at the time when the Polish Republic was pre-
paring its wantoh aggression against Russia and the
Ukraine the British Government not only made no
attempts at hindering this aggression, but even left
without any answer the communication of the Soviet
Government to the Entente Governments on this ques-
tion; if at the time when the Polish offensive has had,
as a result, military disaster for Poland, the British
Government tries to assume the role of mediator in
order to suspend the hostilities that have become so
disastrous for Poland, the position which results for
the British Government from this line of action is
such that it deprives it of the role of an impartial
third party which would alone render possible its medi-
ation between the belligerents.
It is necessary to remind the British Government,
likewise, that it has itself described the state created
by the adoption by Russia of its memorandum of July
1 as a state of armistice, and that it has, therefore,
described itself in this way as a belligerent waging war
against Soviet Russia— a fact that can in no way create
a normal basis for the recognition of its role of medi-
ator between Soviet Russia and another belligerent. .
Regarding the British Government, the Russian Gov-
ernment has in its answer to the memorandum of
July 1 made an absolutely conciliatory declaration, in-
cluding the acceptance of all the demands of the Bri-
tish Government. It has thus shown its anxious desire
to remove completely all conflicts and to obtain a
definite peace with Great Britain. It desires, likewise,
to establish peace with Poland, and in the attainment
of this aim it considers direct negotiations with Poland
without any "immixion" from outside, as necessary as
direct negotiations with Great Britain in its relations
with the latter.
The Soviet Government is the less inclined to accept
the proposed mediator for the negotiations with Poland
as the reconciliation with Poland (which it earnestly
desires) can only be hampered in such a case, in view
of the subordinate nositfon which Poland's interest and
fate, in comparison with interests foreign to Poland,
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are occupying in the domain of relations between Soviet
Russia and a third power.
With a frankness which can alone completely remove
all misunderstandings between the two governments,
the Soviet Government ventures to recall to the British
Government that, when one of its members defended
in the House of Commons the help given to Denikin
and Kolchak, he justified this line of action of the
Government by the argument that the struggle of Deni-
kin and Kolchak against the Soviet Government pre-
sumably helps towards the defense of Indian and of
British interests in Asia; in general, against the dan-
gers which are alleged to threaten them.
Not long ago, when the Head of the British Govern-
ment was negotiating with the Head of the Russian
Trade Delegation regarding the resumption of trade
relations, he referred to the relations between Russia
and the numerous other States as to facts that can
have some influence upon the commercial relations be-
tween Russia and Great Britain.
The Soviet Government is of opinion that recon-
cilation with Poland can be successfully accomplished
only in case the interests of both parties are taken into
consideration, seeing that these interests can easily be
reconciled; and this aim will be, on the contrary,
extremely hard to attain if these interests are subordi-
nated to the interests of a third Power.
The laboring masses of Russia desire full and com-
plete reconciliation with Poland, and, in order to attain
this aim the Soviet Government considers it necessary
to remove from the action of reconciliation all that
does not belong to the interests and desires of the two
peoples and Governments.
In the matter of reconciliation with Poland the
Soviet Government finds it necessary to consider, be-
sides the interests and desires of the Russian laboring
masses, only the interests and desires of the Polish
laboring masses, and it finds it therefore possible to
attain peace with Poland only through direct negotia-
tions with the latter.
It must also point out that it has already obtained
without foreign "immixion," complete reconciliation
with three neighboring States, and that Esthonia has
concluded peace with Russia, in spite of the warning
of the Supreme Council ; that the treaty between Russia
and Georgia has been, at the moment of the negotia-
tions between the Head of the Russian Trade Delega-
tion and the Head of the British Government, a com-
plete surprise for the later; and that the British
Government was deprived of all information regarding
the peace between Russia and Lithuania when, in its
ultimatum of July 12, it pointed to Lithuania as to one
of the Border States with which Russia has still to
obtain peace.
The Soviet Government thinks that it can, with the
same success, obtain peace with Poland through direct
negotiations as it did with three other neighboring
States.
The Soviet Government considers still less admissible
the interference in the cause of peace between Russia
and Poland of the group of governments called the
League of Nations, whose covenant is quoted by. the
British Government in its ultimatum of July 12.
The Russian Government has never received from the
so-called League of Nations any communication as to
its creation and existence, and it has never had the
opportunity of adopting a decision about the recogni-
tion or non-recognition of this association of States.
When acquainting itself from unofficial press sources
with the covenant of the so-called League of Nations,
the Soviet Government could not leave unnoticed the
fact that, according to Article 17, the non-members in
case of a conflict with members of the so-called League
of Nations can be invited to submit to its decision as
if they were members. The Soviet Government can
in no way agree that one group of powers should
assume the role of supreme body over all the States
of the world; and watching over the full inviolability
of the sovereign rights of the Russian laboring people
the Soviet Government absolutely rejects the preten-
sions of any foreign groups of Powers claiming to
assume the role of supreme masters of the fate of
other nations.
It absolutely rejects, therefore, every "immixion" of
this association in the cause of peace between Russia
and Poland.
Direct negotiations with Poland are in full harmony
with the wishes of the Soviet Government, and it de-
clares therefore, that if the Polish Government ad-
dresses to Russia a proposal to enter into peace nego-
tiations the Soviet Government will not reject its pro-
posal, and will also consider in the most friendly spirit
any subsidiary proposal as to an armistice or some other
means intended to facilitate peace negotiations.
The Soviet Government also expresses its willingness
to agree to a territorial frontier more favorable for
the Polish people than the frontiers indicated by the
Supreme Council in December last, and proposed once
more by the British Government in its ultimatum of
July 12.
The Soviet Government canot leave without notice
the fact that this frontier was elaborated by the Su-
preme Council in some parts under the pressure of
counter-revolutionary Russian elements, adherents of
the Russian capitalist and landed class, and that, for
example, as to the region of Kholm, the decision of the
Supreme Council clearly reflected the influence of these
counter-revolutionary elements and followed the wishes
of the anti-Polish policy of the Czarist and Russian im-
perialist capitalist class on this question.
Soviet Russia is willing, in general, as to the peace
conditions with Poland, to meet the wishes and inter-
ests of the Polish people the more fully, the more the
Polish people in its internal life enters upon the path
creating a solid basis for really fraternal relations be-
tween the laboring masses of Poland, Russia, Ukraine,
White Russia, and Lithuania, and creates guarantees
that Poland will cease to be an instrument of aggression
and intrigue against the workers and peasants of Soviet
Russia and other countries.
As a separate proposal, the British Government has
put forth the idea of an armistice between Russia and
the mutinous ex-General Wrangel. The Soviet Govern-
ment, however, cannot shut its eyes upon the indis-
soluble connection between the military operations of
Wrangel, which were supported by the Entente Powers,
and the Polish campaign against Russia and the
Ukraine. This close connection found its expression
in the negotiations and the military agreement between
Wrangel and the representatives of the Polish Govern-
ment.
Wrangel's offensive, which coincided with the advance
of the Polish Army in the Ukraine, was only a sub-
sidiary military manoeuvre aiming at rendering more
difficult the struggle of the Russian and Ukrainian
troops against the Polish aggressor, and at facilitating
the latter's task. The army and administration of
Wrangel, being almost completely deprived of sources
of revenue of their own, exist almost entirely with the
financial help received from some Entente Powers.
His military operations are carried out exclusively
with the help of the war material sent by these Powers.
This war material is brought to him on British ships
or from harbors under British occupation, and the
proposal itself regarding Wrangel in the British ulti-
matum of July 12, in which the British Government
decides for Wrangel that he will come to London for
the discussion of the fate of his troops, shows with
complete evidence that he is only a subordinate agent
of the British Government and partly of its Allies.
The Soviet Government, in its wish to obtain peace
with the British Government, and wishing to meet the
latter's desires, confirms once more its willingness to
guarantee personal safety to the mutinous ex-General
Wrangel, to all persons belonging to his army, and to
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the refugees under his protection, on the condition of
immediate and full capitulation and of surrender to
the Soviet authorities of all the territory he occupies
and of all the war material, stores, buildings, means of
communication, and so on in his power on the same
terms as was proposed by the Soviet Government with
reference to the Northern Government of the ex-Gen-
eral Miller.
The Soviet Government cannot, however, remain in-
different to the repeated attempts of the British Gov-
ernment to transform the Crimean Peninsula into an
inviolable permanent asylum for the mutinous general
and for other mutineers who, in fact, are the British
Government's subordinate agents, and thus really to
render the Crimean Peninsula a British Dependency.
It is impossible not to mention that, at the time when
the Archangel and the Murmansk region was in the
same subordinate position to Britain, the British au-
thorities ruled there unrestrained, and acted as the
Supreme Power, devastating the whole region, wasting
its natural resources, and exporting to Britain as much
as possible of its riches.
The bearer of the will and the representative of the
interests of the Russian laboring people, the Soviet
Government, canot remain indifferent to any violation
of its vital interests and of the inviolability of its ter-
ritory, and it protests most strongly against the attempt
of Great Britain to annex in fact the Crimean Penin-
sula.
It must be pointed out that the present proposal
of the British Government is a violation of its pre-
ceding proposal, which became an obligation, after hav-
ing been adopted by the Soviet Government, regarding
the cessation of any help and support to ex-General
Wrangel. The Soviet Government is, therefore, of
opinion that the greatest possible concession on its
part — a concession which is the outcome of its anxious
desire to come to terms with the British Government —
is its willingness to agree to the capitulation of
ex-General Wrangel and of his troops, with the guar-
antee of their personal safety.
The Soviet Government thinks that the proposal to
convoke in London a Conference of representatives
of Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Finland, is
the outcome of insufficient information of the British
Government as to the relations between the Russian
Republic and her neighbors. The peace treaty between
Russia and Lithuania was signed on July 12, and the
negotiations between Russia and Latvia, and Russia
and Finland are being carried on independently without
foreign interference, and their further continuance on
the same lines is the best pledge of their successful
result.
Being animated with the most earnest desire to put
an end to all conflicts between Russia and Great Bri-
tain, and to the struggle between them, and to obtain
a definite peace with Great Britain, the Soviet Govern-
ment rests its hopes upon the Delegation which it
sends to London, with additional members, for the
purpose of carrying on negotiations with the British
Government on the basis of the British Memorandum
of July 1, and of the reply of the Soviet Government
of July 7, in order to obtain a full agreement with
Great Britain. This aim will be attained the more
successfully if all new and strange elements which can
only do harm to the beginning of an • improvement in
the relations between Russia and Great Britain are
kept aside.
(Signed),
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Chicherin.
VI
To Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, Foreign Office,
London.
I am instructed by Mr. Chicherin to acknowledge
your message of July 2, Number 1312, transmitted
through the Russian Trade Delegation in London, and
to point out that the Russian Government are in pos-
session of a number of undoubted informations about
the continuation of help to Wrangel by Great Britain.
In particular Batum continued to be the supply base
for Crimea. Small craft with' supplies of war materi-
als were being daily despatched to Wrangel from
Batum. The British authorities in Batum were ar-
resting workmen who refused to load these supplies.
A transport of war material, petroleum and benzine
loaded for Crimea on June 17, was put on fire by the
workers in Batum port. At same time the British
authorities organized in Batum recruiting of soldiers
for dispatch to Crimea. Several thousand men were
recruited in Batum in short time, middle of June. The
Governor General of Batum declared to the representa-
tive of volunteer army, General Drotzenko, that Eng-
land has sent out to Wrangel two thousand guns besides
horses. Middle June British ships transported in great
numbers from Batoum to Theodosia, and Sebastopol
Cossacks going to join Wrangel. On June 21 a large
steamer loaded with various war material and goods
for Wrangel was to leave Batoum for Crimea. The
Russian seamen refused to carry the goods to the
volunteer army. When attempt was made to replace
them by Englishmen, the Russians raised anchor, in-
tending to go out into the open sea, but the steamer
was sunk by gun fire of British batteries. The Daily
Express of June ?5, brings an account of its Constan-
tinople correspondent of how the British authorities
are forcibly sending Russians from Turkey to Sebas-
topol, where they are made to enlist in Wrangel's army,
under threat of being hanged. These few individual
facts picked out of a large number in our possession
afford undeniable proof that Great Britain or its agents
continue to give support to Wrangel and that all the
inferences the Russian Government formerly drew from
these facts thus remain in force.
Copenhagen, July 19, 1920.
Hotel Cosmopolite.
Litvinov.
d
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
New York City, August 8, 1920.
TN THE Detroit Times of July 20, 1920, I
A firmly stated that "unless there is an armis-
tice, the Polish capital will be occupied by the
Soviets within three or four weeks."
This was not a prophecy or an optimistic sup-
position; my declaration was simply an inference
from the military situation of both belligerents,
as well as the political and strategical condition
of the rest of the world.
by LjOOglC
Such a strategical center as Warsaw may be
captured only if the Polish army has suffered com-
plete defeat on the battlefields. Conversely, once
this defeat has been accomplished, the fall of War-
saw is certain. The Germans were unable to cap-
ture Paris in 1914, because General Joffre, by
skillful manoeuvring, on the one hand, succeeded
in withdrawing his army beyond Paris, practic-
ally intact, and the vigorous Eussian invasion of
East Prussia, oa ;Le other hand, forced the Ger-
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The Military Situation in European Russia on August 8, 1920
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The heavy dotted lines indicate the Polish and Crimean fronts. The lighter dotted line indicates the Polish
from as it was an July IS, 1920. The line of small crosses indicates the farthest Polish advance before the
present drive of the Russian armies. i j i-. a I from
3d by LjOOgle UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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mans to make a regronpment of their forces that
was most unfavorable for their strategy.
In spite of several tactical reverses, which the
Anglo-French army suffered while falling back,
the Germans were unable to force their enemy to
accept a decisive battle; on the contrary, the
Anglo-French armies were able to accomplish a
concentration and to complete their mobilization.
As soon as the German General Staff understood
that the Anglo-French field army had succeeded
in escaping the general battle, the German army
stopped its dash on Paris, and took the defensive,
thus permitting the Allies to counter-attack, which
resulted* in the first serious tactical reverses of
the invaders on the Marne. Then the Great War
lost its manoeuvering character (Bewegungshrieg)
and became a war of purely positionary type (Stel-
lungskrieg) . This was the German method of
warfare, and is commonly known as trench-war-
fare and the reason for it was that the Germans
were first of all concerned with keeping their
fighting forces as long as possible on the enemy's
territory with the least possible losses, thus pre-
venting their adversary from reaching their stra-
tegical objective — Berlin. There cannot be any
doubt that Germany succeeded in this absolutely.
German territory was occupied by the Allies only
after the armistice was signed in France, and fin-
ally, the German people escaped the most terrible
possibility of the war — invasion by the Allies.
Quite different is the Polish situation at pres-
ent.
Polish strategy aimed at Moscow as its objec-
tive, and the Poles directed all their efforts to find
the main Russian army, in order to challenge it in
decisive battle and destroy it, thus opening for
them the gates of the Russian capital.
The Polish General Staff, thanks to the unreadi-
ness of the Russian Red Army on the western
front, succeeded in concentrating its armies and
finally found its enemy's main forces east of the
Berezina and Dnieper rivers, thus accomplishing
two important strategical tasks of the planned
campaign. Now the Poles had to defeat the Rus-
In order to do this, the Polish command
sians.
sent to the battle front not only all its first and
second lines armies, but also the greater part of ist
strategical reserves,a fact which now is fully es-
tablished. So the Poles have had practically all
their fighting forces in the field against Russia.
But, unfortunately for them, they were unable
to defeat the Soviet armies, but were defeated
themselves, and finally the main bulk of their tac-
tical body, their field army, was annihilated. After
a careful study of the way in which the retreat of
the fragments of the beaten Polish armies was
carried out, their fighting body is seen to be in
panic-stricken flight, with the pursuers at their
heels. The Russians are speedily pressing the
beaten enemy towards Warsaw — and Lemberg.
Therefore, in spite of all the endeavors of the
Entente press to assure public opinion that the
Polish army can be reorganized and will recover
its fighting ability for further resistance to the
Digitized by ^OOgle
Soviet Army, I can state that the Polish field army
is completely beaten and that the gates of Warsaw
are wide open to the victorious Red Army.
The Russian Red General Staff well knows that
it will have no difficulty in entering Warsaw, but
its main idea is not so much to capture the Polish
capital as to force the Entente to accept the terms
dictated by Soviet Russia from Moscow. We must
not neglect the fact that at the present moment
the Russian strategy supporting the diplomacy of
the Soviets. First of all, the supreme military
command of the Red Army directs its forces to
preventing the Entente from supporting the beaten
Poles by sending them fresh reinforcements
through the so-called corridor with a landing base
at Danzig. In order to accomplish this, the North-
ern Russian army, basing itself on Bialostok, cap-
tured Lamzha, about sixty-five miles northwest of
Warsaw, and occpied Mlava, about seventy miles
northwest of Warsaw, thus threatening the com-
munications of the Polish capital with Danzig
through the corridor built by the Allies.
The Red Russian Army in the northern part of
the battle front is very strong and fully ready to
meet any attempt of the Entente to support the
Poles, in case this foolish and militarily abortive
measure should be resorted to by the senseless
Anglo-French military leaders. In one of my
former articles I have already explained the rea-
son why the Allies would be unable to reinforce
the Polish fighting body with their troops — I re-
peat again that it is an impossibility no less than
the suggestion that England might involve Europe
and America in a new war with Russia. The
Poles themselves understand this ,and in distress
and fear they appeal to President Wilson for moral
support. An army which needs such support from
the outside is no longer an army at all.
There cannot be any doubt that the Red Army's
vanguard is already in the sphere of defense of
the Polish capital in spite of conflicting reports
from Poland. Already on August 4, the Associ-
ated Press informed us that in some sectors the
Red cavalry was seen 36 miles from Warsaw.
The first rumors of a possible armistice found
me in Detroit, Michigan, and I was asked by the
representatives of the local press to make a state-
ment about its possibility. It was about July 19
when the Russian Red Army was east of Brest-
Litovsk, and Bielostok was still held by the Poles.
"Asa military man, I hope there is no armis-
tice," I stated, "only through defeating the Poles
will Russia be safe from other attacks. Poland
forced the war on Russia, though my country made
several overtures to prevent it. Unless the Allies
stop backing Poland in its unwarranted warfare,
they will regret it later.
"I am against an armtistice for the same reason
that I was against the armistice with Germany.
The Allies and United States should have gone
to Berlin. Though they won the war tactically,
they lost it strategically. Such would be the case,
I fear, should Russia treat with Poland now."
(The Detroit Times, July 90, 1920.)
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Naturally, the Russian Soviets are seeking peace,
and they would not have rejected an armistice in
the moment when the circumstances were such as
to allow its acceptance, but there cannot be room
for an armistice, when the victory is in the hands
of the Red Army and when one hour of vacillation
or delay may be disastrous to the victor.
Therefore it is clear why Lloyd George and
Millerand are doing their utmost to arrest the vic-
torious advance of the Red Army even for ten
days. This time will be sufficient for the Poles
to bring the fragments of their beaten army into
a certain order, and to receive from their support-
ers their "moral" help, which will not prevent the
final disaster and only prolong the premature
agony of the Polish militarism. According to
the New York Times of August 9 (Associated
Press, August 8) :
Before receipt in Moscow of the note dispatched as
a result of Friday's conference between Premier Lloyd
George and Leo Kamenev of the Russian delegation,
today's announcement says, the Soviet Government in-
structed its delegation to communicate to the British
Government the following statement:
"Resultant on acceptance by Poland of the armistice
terms, which will deal principally with reduction of her
armed strength, the Soviet Republic will be prepared
to begin withdrawal of her troops to the line drawn
by the Supreme Council in 1918 and indicated again by
Earl Curzon (British Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs), in his note of July 20 to M. Chicherin (Bol-
shevist Foreign Minister), and considerably to reduce
the number of Soviet troops on this line if the Allies,
particularly France, undertake not to advance and not
to support any advance against Soviet Russia on any
front and to withdraw General Wrangel's army from
the Crimea."
There is no doubt that Moscow is standing firm
on its decision and does not show any confidence
in the promises and "guaranties" of the Entente.
On the other hand the Russian people know well
that the Allied blockade still is hanging over Rus-
sia and was never lifted, as it is alleged, and
therefore to threaten Russians with a new blockade
would be fruitless. A new performance on the
6eas, which England and France may stage for
their "democracies", is the senseless bombardment
of certain Russian ports, even Kronstadt and
Petrograd included, but the results of such a game
would be the same as they were in the past; seri-
ous experts, I am sure, will share my opinion.
The sufferers would be only those countries
which have just begun to trade, thinking the seas
are open for them, and Great Britain herself will
suffer most of all, and she knows it.
Soviet Russia has broken through the cordon
sanitaire of Clemenceau, and in spite of the Bri-
tish blockade on the seas, Russia will still be able
to continue her fighting for freedom and justice,
and she will win. Let the Allies take the matter
seriously, let them understand that Italy has
parted company with their criminal coalition, and
there are many other nations in Europe which are
far from joining in their new plot against Soviet
Russia.
According to the latest news from Paris (New
York Times, August 9), the Reds are massing
troops in the region of Mlava, north of the capital,
for a drive upon Warsaw, in conjunction with
the movement of troops from the east. "The Bug
river was crossed by the Reds on a wide front,"
the gessage says, and there can be no doubt that
the Warsaw-Danzig railroad has already been cut.
The Red Army is so close to the capital that its
siege artillery already started the bombardment of
the outer forts of Warsaw on Friday. There is
no danger to the city, however, because these forts
are very near the town, but the fall of one of them
means the capture of Warsaw.
The withdrawal of the Polish Government from
Warsaw to Cracow proves that the surrender of
the new capital of Poland is a matter of a very
short time.
I think that after the retreat of the govern-
ment a new government — a Soviet Government —
will be established in the city, which will seek
contact with the military command of the Red
Army. The fact that the Warsaw police were di-
rected to the front (New York Times, August 9),
is suggestive in this connection.
I believe also that the Reds have already cap-
tured Siedlec, fifty miles east of Warsaw, and
Lublin has also fallen into the hands of the Red
Army. (Lublin is situated about 100 miles south-
east of Warsaw, and has great strategical import-
ance.) From there the Red troops are moving in
a northwesterly direction, along the Lublin-War-
saw railway, aiming at Ivangoro, situated on the
eastern bank of the Vistula, about sixty miles from
Warsaw. These places are now bases for the Rus-
sians in their operations against the Warsaw for-
tified region.
It seems that the Poles are making a last mad
effort to save their capital. Thousands of men
are working on the defenses on the east bank of
the Vistula, the great semicircle taking in the
ex-fortress of Novo-Georgievsk, the forts of Mod-
lin, Segev, Sielce, and Ivangorod. They stopped
repairing the great bridge destroyed by the Rus-
sians in 1915. There are two more bridges, one
for railway traffic only, and another for vehicles;
the latter is overcrowded by refugees.
The Russian airmen are freely flying over the
city and dropping . . . not bombs, but only pro-
paganda . . . Did the Poles and their Allies,
when they flew over Kiev and other Russian places,
limit themselves to dropping printed propa-
ganda? The hour has come when the Polish
shliakhta must pay their debts to the Polish pro-
letariat.
On the eve of the fall of the Polish capital it
will be inteersting to recall that Warsaw was not
originally the Polish capital. Warsaw, situated
in the territory of the former duchy of Mazovia,
was founded by a Mazovian duke, Conrad, in the
ninth century, who built a castle there. In 1526
the Poles and Lithuanians, after their endless
quarrels, reunited, and Warsaw became the resi-
dence of their kings. In 1550, Sigismund Augus-
tus (Wasa) proclaimed Warsaw as his capital, thus
suppressing the old Polish capital, Cracow.
(Continued on page 159)
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised.
TN A NOTE dated December 24, 1918, one of the
A many offers of peace addressed by the Soviet
Government to its enemies, Maxim Litvinov
stated clearly the alternatives then open to the
caitalist powers. One choice, he said, was "to
come to an understanding with the Soviet Govern-
ment, to withdraw foreign troops from Russian
territory, to raise the economic blockade, to help
Eussia to regain her own sources of supply, and
to give her technical advice how to exploit her
natural richness in the most effective way, for the
benefit of all countries badly in need of foodstuffs
and raw materials." The other alternative was
"continued open or disguised intervention on the
present or on a still larger scale, which means pro-
longation of war, further embitterment of the
Russian masses, intensification of internal strife,
unexampled bloodshed." The choice has always
been open and still remains open. So long, in-
deed, as the imperialist leaders are permitted the
power to make any choice, these alternatives re-
main open to them: peace with Soviet Russia for
the benefit of all peoples, or war. During the
nineteen months that have elapsed since Litvinov
stated the case, the imperialists have held their
power and have made always the same choice.
Under one pretext or another, by dint of every
imaginable intrigue and conspiracy, they have
managed to keep up the war. It was no easy
task. They have had to lied to their own peoples,
they have had to lie to one another, they have,
we do not doubt it, even had to lie to themselves,
in order that the zest for slaughter and destruc-
tion should not lag. The peoples sickened of car-
nage, and the need for foodstuffs and raw ma-
terials grew month by month. From Soviet Rus-
sia came repeated offers of peace, over and over
again, to every nation, to every ruler, to all peo-
ples. But the choice remained for war. While
there was still a man to be conscripted or a pup-
pet state to be thrust into the fire of nationalist
ambitions, the leaders held to their course.
The truth is, of course, that they never seriously
considered the alternative of peace ; nor will these
leaders ever voluntarily choose the way of peace
while the power remains to them to make war.
Soviet Russia again offers them the alternatives.
But if there are still men who can be summoned
or driven to fight against the Workers' Republic,
Digitized by ^OOQIC
and if there are still other men who will make
munitions and transport them to the battle, we
know that the choice of capitalist rulers will be
as before. The war will go on. But if at last
the decision is for peace, we shall know what that
means. We shall see these same leaders hiding
their impotence and chagrin under a fine mas-
querade of statesmanship and diplomacy. But we
shall know that they have made peace only be-
cause they no longer had the power to make war.
* * *
T^HE ALLIES appear now to be still determ-
ined to fight Soviet Russia, but they are be-
ginning to resort once more to their pretended
readiness to conclude peace. Prance, the backbone
of eraction in Europe at present, must refrain from
any attempt to send a French army into Poland,
in order to "defend" that country, and the sending
of black colonial troops into Poland would prob-
ably be very unpopular : it has already been found
impossible by the French to use such troops in
western Germany. Black troops are as a matter
of fact not any more savage than whites, but the
characteristic experiences of colonial exploitation
must reduce native Africans, or natives of any con-
tinent, to a point where they are ready to cut the
throat of any white man — or woman — and as the
only whites accessible to their weapons are sub-
jects of defeated and associated powers, they re-
frain for the moment from attacking their real
exploiters, their masters who have come victorious
out of the Great War. Poland probably likes
colored troops as little as she does French or Eng-
lish or German troops, and the Polish people would
tolerate their presence only as long as they might
be compelled to. Small nations who enjoy the
"protection" of the great League are often in the
unenviable positon of being forced to carry out
its mandates even to the point of courting de-
struction themselves. Their selfish governing
classes accept the League's favors, as did the rul-
ers of Esthonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — for a
time — until they found that serving the Entente
was a business that was ruinous not only to the
proletariat of the small border states, but also
to the bourgeoisie in those regions. Even Finland
is now engaged in peace negotiations with the
Soviet Government, at Dorpat, while Esthonia and
Lithuania have already signed full treaties of peace
with Soviet Russia. How long will Poland look
to the West? Her real friend is in the East.
* * *
YVTHO WILL next bear the burden of carry-
" ing out the demands of the Entente? The
answer is already before us, in the news reports
of the daily press. Roumania and Hungary are
preparing to raise armies to be placed at the dis-
posal of the great powers. Fourteen-year old boys
and fifteen-year old boys will be drilled to make
cannon-fodder for French and English imperial-
ism, and when the masters of Hungary and Rou-
mania have exhausted the resources in man-power
of those countries, their peoples will force them
to make peace with Soviet Russia.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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Germany seems disinclined to become a link in
the cordon sanitaire, but it is possible her ruling
classes may be forced by the Entente into the po-
sition of hangmen of the Eussian Revolution, a
position that some of them are no doubt ready to
assume. Perhaps this will precipitate a prole-
tarian revolution in Germany. To what extent
preparations are already being made in Germany
for intervention in Russia it would be difficult to
say, beyond the fact that some of the reports of
such preparations appear to represent empty ges-
tures. Thus, German newspapers have recently
had references to an army of trained volunteers
that was being raised by Guchkov, of Provisional
Government fame, in East Prussia. But great
Soviet armies are passing along the southern and
eastern border of that province, and Guchkov's
forces have made no effort to attack their flank.
And yet the reports in the German papers have
been full of rumors of millions of rubles raised
by Russian counter-revolutionaries in Sweden to
pay the expenses of Guchkov's armaments, while
the German Government has been described as
facilitating this work in every way. All of which
may be true or not — but Guchkov seems willing
not to invite destruction at the hands of the Red
Army.
* ♦ ♦
"M'EWSPAPER REPORTS state— on what au-
^^ thority we do not know — that the Soviet
armies are to reestablish the border of 1914 be-
tween Poland and Germany. That is a rather
peculiar way of saying that they may have been
ordered to occupy all of what was Russian Poland,
and not to invade German or Austrian Poland,
although we have no knowledge of the nature of
the instructions under which the Red Army is
advancing. As long as the Entente has a square
mile of Polish territory they will throw its un-
happy population into war with Soviet Russia.
Possibly it may be less necessary to occupy the
Polish "corridor"; the Entente might encounter
other than Polish opponents if it should attempt
to raise armies anywhere in Prussian Poland.
♦ * *
OEVERAL NATIONS have already practically
^ made peace with Soviet Russia. The New
York Times of August 7 reports that Soviet Rus-
sia is sending a representative to Rome, while
Italy already has a representative at Moscow. Com-
ing fast upon the news of the arrival in Vienna
(reported in the London Daily Herald, July 24)
of the Soviet Government's representative to Aus-
tria, on July 22, this opening of relations between
Italy and Soviet Russia seems to be but a link in
a long chain. Mieslav Bronsky is the name of the
new Soviet representative in Vienna. It is not
so long ago that the first representative, Kamenev,
was sent away from that city. Thus one govern-
ment after another is finding it necessary to re-
cognize that if there are to be dealings with Rus-
sia, they must be with the government that really
represents the people and the power in that coun-
try, namely, the Soviet Government.
NATIONALIZATION OF INDUSTRY
Omsk, June 6. — The total results of nationali-
zation of industry since the November Revolution
show that during the past two years 5,000 large
commercial establishments, constituting ninety per
cent of the industry, have been nationalized. The
government also nationalized 16,000 vessels and
all the banks. At the same time ninety state trusts
have been formed out of the enterprises which
were nationalized. In the domain of rural economy
6,000 agricultural artel-communes have been or-
ganized. The smaller domestic industries, as well
as the cooperative industries, not only were not
nationalized, but were upheld by decrees. 3,000,-
000 workers found employment in the nationalized
industries. During the two years of Soviet rule,
the Department of State Construction began
building up fifteen large enterprises, a number
of which have already been completed.
MILITARY REVIEW .
{Continued from page 157)
Thenceforth Warsaw became the objective of ag-
gressive attempts by Sweden, Russia, Branden-
burg, and Austria. In 1655, Charles Gustavus,
of Sweden, captured Warsaw, and in 1764 the Rus-
sians occupied it also. In 1773, the first partition
of Poland took place, and in November, 1793, the
Russian army captured Warsaw. In 1806, Na-
poleon entered the Polish capital, and in 1807, ac-
cording to the peace of Tilsit, an independent
Duchy of Warsaw was created, but the Austrians
invaded it in 1809 and kept Warsaw until June 2.
After having defeated Napoleon's army and an-
nihilated the Polish forces at Berezina, the Rus-
sians entered Warsaw February 8, 1813.
In 1831, during the first insurrection of the
Poles, Warsaw witnessed terrible bloodshed, and
was captured by the Russian General Prince Pas-
kevich. A new uprising of the Polish people against
the autocratic Russian oppressors took place in
1863, and once more blood flowed in Warsaw,
which was taken by the Russians.
During the Great War, the Germans, after hav-
ing captured the capital of Poland, returned it to
the Polish imperialistic Shliakhta, with the idea
of transforming Poland into one of the provinces
of the Kaiser, but the Russian Revolution saved
the independence of Poland. Unfortunately, the
country fell under the rule of the Polish capital-
istic class, which became obedient servants of the
imperialistic Entente, who finally hurled the Pol-
ish people into a criminal war with Soviet Russia.
Now the Polish autocracy is defeated by the Rus-
sian people, and Soviet Russian armies are ap-
proaching the gates of Warsaw, but the Russian
Red armies will enter the Polish capital with no
idea of conquering it, but with a sincere desire to
take it from the usurpers who tried to subject the
Polish people to the despotism of the capitalistic
coalition of the world, after which Soviet Russia
will return it, together with the rest of the coun-
try, to the Polish worker;; and peasants, thus free-
ing the Pol^^e^^^^slavery.
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The Economic Situation in Soviet Russia
(Continued from Vol. Ill, No. 5, of Soviet Russia)
Our steel and iron industry depends entirely factories, which always had had a unique signifi-
on the working of the coal mines. The following cance for our industry, as well as for the rest of
figures will give an idea as to the decrease in the the country,
production of the former : The second largest factory, which is just as im-
Year . Ore portant for our industry, is the Alexandrovsk-
1916 350 million poods Briansk Works. This factory was closed in March,
1917 232 " " but it was intended to open it, giving it for the
1918 2(2 " " first two weeks about 70,000 poods of metal, and
Therefore, the decrease in comparison with 1916 for this it was necessary to have 115,000 poods of
was ninety-four per cent. In the same manner fuel.
smelting of cast iron has decreased, falling from Those factories of the Donets Coal Basin which
176 million poods in 1916 to 125 million poods were occupied by the Soviet forces, could be work-
in 1917 and to 17 million poods in 1918, a total ing now if they were supplied with a satisfactory
decrease of ninety per cent. amount of fuel and ore. Under such conditions
The transportation of cast iron and all kinds they would be in a position to give the following
of metals from the Donets Coal Basin has de- quantities of metal (in accordance with the data
creased in the same degree. The average produc- for 1916) :
Quantities in Million Poods
Consumption
Factories Rolled of hard Consumption Production Mould
Products material fuel of ore of cast iron pigs
Dnieprovsk 20.02 46.53 42.92 24.09 24.99
Alexandrovsk . . . 11.86 40.45 _ 35.44 20.25 16.02
Ekaterinoslavsk-
Shoduar 2.52 14.10 9.00 4.89 7.62
Nizhni-Dnieper . 7.02 5.28
Kramotorsk 3.62 15.47 15.88 8.62 4.49
Druzhkovsk .... 8.04 21.64 14.37 8.24 9.44
Donets-Urievsk . 8.72 26.43 24.17 13.06 11.32
if!
d
tion is shown in the following figures:
1916 170 million poods
1917 109 " "
1918 13
and this makes a decrease of ninety-two per oent
in 1918 in comparison with 1916.
Under such adverse circumstances, the position
of the large steel and iron factories is very diffi-
cult, particularly in connection with the shortage
of coal. In accordance with the investigation of
the metallurgical industry, made by the Ukraine's
Economic Council, the position of the industry can
be pictured as follows :
The Dnieper Works in February were working
only part time; the factory's normal yearly pro-
duction has been 25 million poods of cast iron,
and in addition the factory produced :
Railroad bandages 3 million poods
Railroad axles iy 2
Sheet iron and iron plate ... 2 " "
Rails and assorted iron 10 " "
Wire 4 " «
Metal products 4 " "
In February the above works had only two mil-
lion poods of fuel, which comprises only a half
month's normal supply. On account of such
shortage, the factory was closed for an indefinite
time on the 1st of April, and this deprived us of
the opportunity to make use of the largest of our
From the above table it is evident that if these
six mills were supplied with enough fuel, they
could produce a great deal. But this was impos-
sible on account of the shortage of coal which has
paralyzed the entire production. Due to this
shortage, the Dnieprovsk Works had to close, and
the rest of the mills were greatly hindered in their
work.
We cannot hope to resume the work of the above
factories in the near future, due to the shortage
of coal. When occupying these factories we could
only use their stocks of metal. It was impossible
to take stock of same as there was not enough time
for this. But it was evident, that such stocks as
accumulated in the factories during the Ger-
man occupation and the former regime, were not
carried away by the bourgeoisie, but remained in-
tact in the factories.
According to the stock-taking of the 1st of May,
in the factories and warehouses of the Ekaterino-
slav district there were :
About 9,000,000 poods cast iron (smelted).
15,000,000
u
cast iron.
250,000
a
ferro-manganese.
80,000
u
ferro casts.
2,000,000
«
pig-iron.
45,000
a
sheet steel.
5.000
u
instrumental steeL
50,000
3 1 cTrc
all kinds of steeL
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u
850,000
a
150,000
a
32,000
<c
86,000
u
140,000
u
150,000
it
180,000
€C
35,000
U
350,000
u
45,000
it
100,000
SOVIET RUSSIA
161
assorted iron,
sheet iron,
fancy iron.
f sheet iron.
1 beams and rails.
( all kinds of rails.
f bandages.
f tin plate.
f wire.
f axles.
i nails.
A considerable quantity of all kinds of pipes and
parts, screws, screw-nuts, pegs, etc.
In the factories and warehouses of the Donets
Coal Basin, in the part occupied by the Soviet
forces, there were:
About 12 million poods cast iron.
More than 1 million poods ferro-casts.
About 4 million poods pig-iron.
About 280,000 poods all kinds of steel.
Abount 2,500,000 poods assorted and fancy iron.
About 1,000,000 poods sheet iron.
More than iy 2 million poods beams, rails.
About 460,000 poods wire.
300,000 poods gas and iron pipes.
200,000 poods nails.
Denikin, of course, will not be able to requisition
all of the above stocks, as Denikin's forces will
not have the necessary facilities to remove them.
Economic organs of the Soviets in the Donets
Coal Basin have taken the right course in their
activity. They have decided, first of all, to nation-
alize the largest factories of the metallurgical in-
dustry, to unite them in one unit, creating in this
way, one administration, and thus realizing the
syndication and trustification of the industry,
which they are applying on a large scale in Soviet
Russia.
In case we get back the Donets Coal Basin, the
important question of resuming the work of the
metallurgical factories will again arise. We will
have to supply them with fuel, because their un-
derproduction will affect the work of machine fac-
tories and repair shops in Soviet Russia.
To requisition such stocks as have accumulated
in the Donets Coal Basin factories will not be
difficult, inasmuch as the former organs of the
Soviets in the Ukraine coped with this alone more
or less satisfactorily. For instance, for the rail-
roads about one and a half million poods of metal
were removed during the two months' work of the
Birozaga, and a number of nail factories of Cen-
tral Russia were supplied with six months' normal
supply of wire.
Our main problem, in case we succeed in occu-
pying at least a part of the Donets Coal Basin,
will be to supply as soon as possible the necessary
metal for Central Russia, which is all important
in this time of metal hunger which the country
is undergoing.
The time, during which the Donets Coal Basin
is occupied by Denikin's forces, we can use for
our work in the Urals. It is true that the Ural
region has been, for a very long time, under the
Kolchak forces, which have, to a large extent,
hindered its work. The main obstacle for resum-
ing the work in the Ural factories will be the in-
ability of supplying its industry with the neces-
sary lumber, which is the only fuel used there. For
the production of one million poods of cast iron
a year it requires about 91,000 — 98,000 feet of
timber, which could be obtained by cutting down
about 700-800 acres of timber.
There were 50 million poods of cast iron
smelted in the Ural mills in 1913 against 175
million poods in the mills of the Donets Coal
Basin. There are in the Ural district four and a
half times more foundries than in the Donets
Coal Basin, and about twice as many blast-fur-
naces as in the South. Smelting of cast iron in
the Ural district foundries amounts to about 339
poods to one workingman, against 1,620 poods in
the South, and 5,000 poods in America. The
Ural region is immensely rich with ore; accord-
ing to Prfessor Bogdanovich, there is twice
as much ore in the Urals as in the Krivoli-Rog
Basin, totaling about 25 milliard poods.
The fundamental question in regard to the de-
velopment of the Ural industry is its unification
with the Kouznetski Basin in Siberia, rich with
coke coal, so necessary for the development of the
metallurgical industry in the Urals, and which
would enable it to get along without the wood
fuel. But, at the present time, the Kouznetski
Coal Basin is not under the Soviet power, and the
work of requisition and development which the
Soviets started, was interrupted by the Czecho-
slovak movement.
In this manner, the Ural district, at least tem-
porarily, can depend only upon wood fuel, and the
work here will be hindered due to the fact that
wood fuel is usually prepared during the winter,
but this winter the Ural district was under the
power of the bourgeoisie, who only partially sup-
plied the factories with the necessary fuel. On
this account, it is hardly probable that the fac-
tories will be able to produce to the full extent,
as is desirable and necessary for the country. To
resume their work will be possible only after a
considerable length of time, and only a small part
of the factories will be able to resume their work
in the near future; for instance, the Zlatoust
Works have enough fuel and metal to resume their
work, and the following are working :
Asha-Balashov, Ust-Kateaev, Simsk District,
and others. Temporarily, it will be necessary
to use such stocks as can be found in the
Urals. The metal is scattered in various parts of
the district. Part of it can be found in the fac-
tories, part on the docks. To verify precisely the
quantity of metal in possession of the Soviets will
be very difficult. The mills are not provided with
the necessary facilities to take up this question,
and there are no labor organizations which can
handle this matter.
Prodmet, which is interested in obtaining
metal, has already started the transportation of
the same from the Urals. Loading of ships has
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commenced on the quays of Ufa, where there are
about 275,000 poods of cast iron; there are all
kinds of metal on the wharfs of Akteshevo on the
White River, and 28,000 poods of cast iron on the
wharf at Shaksha on the river Ufkima, where
there are also considerable quantities of nails, wire
and sheet iron (about 2,000,000 poods). Accord-
ing to the calculation of the commission, which
was sent to the Ural district for metal, about
2,500,000 poods of metal could be transported from
the Urals on ships.
At first, only transportation of metal from the
Ural metal mines will be possible, and only later
the resumption of the work of the factories at
normal speed. In connection with this, it will be
necessary to supply with fuel the factories of this
industry, and this will require a large number of
workingmen for woodcutting.
In regard to fuel, Russia is not very secure in
this respect. As was outlined above, temporarily
we cannot depend on coal from the Donets Coal
Basin. There only rejnains the Moscow Coal
Basin, which can give only a small quantity of
coal (maximum 50-60 million poods) and of a
variety which cannot be used for transport and
industry.
Coal of the above Basin can be used only right
on the spot. Such small quantities of coal are
obtained in the Undermoscow Coal Basin that this
Basin has no significance for the country. Only
about 40-50 million poods of coal can be obtained,
which cannot improve the fuel situation at all.
Other fuel which plays an important part
in our industry is turf. But this is found mostly
in the Central Districts where the food situation
is the worst. We cannot count upon development
of turf culture. The situation as to liquid fuel
is still worse. Soviet Russia is cut off from Baku
and Orosnograd, and it is impossible to get any
quantity of oil from there. The Baku District
is over-saturated with liquid fuel. According to
approximate calculation, there can be found about
150-200 million poods of liquid fuel, which can-
not be transported either through Turkey or by
way of the Black Sea. According to casual and
contradictory information which we get from the
Caucasus, the railroads there cannot accommodate
even a small part of its transports. The famous
Caucasian oil pipes are not working, as they were
destroyed by the civil war. Only Soviet Russia
is in a position to get oil from the Caucasus, but
England prevents that, striving to prevent barter-
ing between the Caucasus and Soviet Russia.
In spite of the above difficulties, the work of
industrial enterprises in Soviet Russia is continu-
ing, of course, with many hindrances and intervals,
but is, nevertheless, working without interruption.
The foundation of the whole work is the group-
ing of factories of similar industry into one body.
The economic policy of the Soviet Government
is already giving certain results. It is based partly
on the nationalization of industry and confisca-
tion from private owners. This system was first
applied after the October revolution, and since
then it has been infallibly put to practice by the
Soviet Government. At first it was unsystematic
and chaotic, and only with time it got to be an
efficient system of economic measures, dictated by
economic expediency and economic necessity. Na-
tionalization of industry at present is accom-
panied by the organization of corresponding organs
which guide and direct the given industry.
At the outset, these organs were only created
for separate enterprise, but later on they were
organized for groups of factories with one central
administration, embracing a group of enterprises
of similar industry. Along this line were organ-
ized central administrations for a group of ma-
chine factories, airplane, automobile, textile,
chemical and other factories and mills.
Notwithstanding all difficulties which arose in
the work of the above industrial enterprises, de-
spite the shortage of raw material and fuel, they
continued to work ; but the above difficulties hind-
ered the production of the factories. Production
of the following factories : Sormovski, Kolomenski,
Mietischincki, Kulebski, and Vikeunski in 1917
was about 62-68 per cent of the production in
1916. In 1918 it was 33-38 per cent of that in
1916, and in the Kolomenski factory it was only
14.3 per cent of that in 1916. Of course, shortage
of fuel and raw materials played an important
part in the decrease in production in these fac-
tories. For nine months of 1918, locomotive and
car manufacturing factories (Nevski, Putilovski,
Sormski, Kolomenski, Brianski, Botkinsiki, Khar-
kovski, and Gartman, manufactured 38 passenger
train locomotives, and 103 freight locomotives, and
during this time, part of the above-mentioned fac-
tories were for some time occupied by enemy
forces. The following car manufacturing fac-
tories: Putilovski, Petrogradski, Phoenix, Dviga-
tel, Moscowski, Soromovsky, Malisovski, Tverskoi,
and Odesski, for nine months manufactured 175
passenger train cars, 3,578 freight cars, and 362
special cars, and part of these factories was also
occupied at some time or other by the enemy.
In 1919, the work of the locomotive and car
manufacturing factories was resumed. During
five months the factories of Soviet Russia released
65 new locomotives ; 6 locomotives in January, 12
in February, 13 in March, 16 in April, 18 in May.
They also released cars as follows: 255 in Janu-
ary, 247 in February, 350 in March, 345 in April,
and 243 in May, a total of 1,440 cars.
It must be remembered, that beginning with the
last part of 1918 manufacturing of new locomo-
tives and cars was stopped, and all attention was
concentrated on repairing the rolling stock. For
the first five months 154 locomotives and 1,440
cars were repaired.
Airplane and automobile factories comprise an-
other group of industrial enterprises. In Soviet
Russia there were seventy-eight such factories in
May of this year. The average production of these
factories for the first four months of this year —
repairing of 480 automobiles, in a month, i.e.,
0.058 for one workingman in a month, against
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0.067 of the provincial factories, shows that the
production of provincial factories is higher tfian
that of Moscow (0.059).
In the first quarter of 1919 the Economic Coun-
cil of the Northern District worked out a program
of work which was more or less successfully
achieved by the metal-working factories of the
Northern District. For instance, they performed
sixty-eight per cent of the work of preparing new
locomotives, seventy-seven per cent of work out-
lined in the program of building new freight cars,
other works, between thirty-three and fifty per
cent. In regard to war supplies, the factories
contended with this part of the work quite suc-
cessfully. They produced ninety per cent of heavy
guns of the program, 220 per cent of three-inch
mountain guns, 150 per cent guns zenith, 230 per
cent howitzer, 90 per cent trucks, 102 per cent
artillery wheels, 25-75 per cent of the rest of the
works outlined in the program.
The shipbuilding program was achieved to the
extent of 66-83 per cent, and only in regard to
barge repairing was it as low at 13 per cent.
From 60-90 per cent of the work for farming
equipment was performed.
The program of machine manufacturing was
performed to the extent of 12 per cent for engines
of inside combustion, and from 38-60 per cent
of various machines and lathes.
From 20-28 per cent of the program for auto-
mobile and motorcycle repairing was carried out.
The same policy of concentration was applied to
the textile industry. The textile factories were
nationalized and combined into separate units for
joint work. Uniting of mills of similar character
on a certain territory into one unit for joint work
with one administration was the most popular form
of concentration in this industry. Such units are
called "Shrubs." In Central Eussia the following
units were created: Presnenskoe, consisting of
four mill factories, with 2,090 spinning spindles,
7,180 weaving looms, thirty-two printing ma-
chines, Moscowsko-Bladimorskoe, consisting of four
factories with 309,936 spinning spindles, 6,760
weaving looms, thirty-five printing machines, Dan-
Uovskoe, consisting of seven factories with 189,824
spinning spindles, 5,845 weaving looms, thirty-
four printing machines ; Serpouchovskoe, eight fac-
tories, 28,454 spinning spindles, 7,858 weaving
looms, thirty-nine printing machines ; Kovrovskoe,
twelve factories, 232,556 spinning spindles, 7,615
weaving looms, twenty-one printing machines;
Orechovolikinskoe, eight factories, 521,356 spin-
ing spindles, 11,490 weaving looms, eight printing
machines; Ivanovo-Vosnesenskoe, four factories,
159,664 spindles, 9,460 looms; Teikovskoe, three
factories, 93,994 spindles, 3,523 looms; Tverskoe,
six factories, 456,608 spindles, 11,553 looms,
twenty-four printing machines; Saratovskoe, four
factories, 58,040 spindles, 1128 looms; Bogorod-
skoe, four factories, 298,772 spindles, 7,870 looms,
four printing machines \Kineshemskoe, four facto-
ries, 223,190 spindles, 5,444 looms. Thus, the
above thirteen units cover about seventy to eighty
per cent of the normal production of the textile
industry, and include seventy-two factories with
324,974 spindles, 90,115 looms, 221 printing ma-
chines.*
Due to a shortage of coal and an inadequate sup-
ply of cotton, part of the above mills could not con-
tinue their work, and in April and May of this
year only four-four per cent of the mills were work-
ing, with fifty-three per cent of the spindles, forty-
six pre cent of the looms, and seventy-two per cent
of the printing machines. On account of the
shortage of coal 86,000 workingmen were dis-
missed, and at the rest of the mills part time
work only was going on. In accordance with the
information of the Centrotextile in March and
April of this year only 523,000 poods of cotton
were to be found on the territory of Soviet Rus-
sia. In Turkestan there were about five million
poods of cotton fibre, and ten million poods of
raw cotton. Nevertheless, these supplies were only
of potential importance, and could not be delivered
to Russia in the immediate future.
The way to Turkestan, which was for a long
time cut off from the rest of Russia by counter-
revolutionist armies, is open now, but to obtain
there cotton and cotton fibre immediately, is im-
possible. We must wait for the restoration of the
transport system, which suffered most from the
war activities. Thus, the improvement of the po-
sition of our textile industry is still a thing of the
future, although not such a distant future at that.
But, notwithstanding all the difficulties of the
present situation, the textile industry continued
its work. According to the report of the Centro-
textile, 158 of the operating mills for three months
(January-March, 1919), produced 28,953,481
yards of various piece goods, and 44,015 poods of
yarn.
With the impoverished condition of our textile
industry even such production counts and is use-
ful.
The position of the textile mills of the Petro-
grad District was the same, and their supplies of
cotton were of a more or less casual character.
It was supposed that according to the program
the following quantities of yarn would be manu-
factured: By the Sampsonievski mills, 5,740
poods; by the New-Paper mills, 9,500 poods; by
Vibourgskoi, 7,500 poods; by Petrovsko-Spasskoi,
10,650 poods. But in reality there were pro-
duced : by Sampsonievski, 4,042 poods ; New Paper
mills, 7,640 poods; by Vibourgskoi, 1,782 poods,
and by Petrovsko-Spasskoi, 5,781 poods of yarn.
On the whole only fifty to sixty per cent of the
work outlined in the program was achieved by the
Petrograd District. The chief evil and hindrance
in the production of these mills is the shortage
of fuel and raw materials. Comparatively better
is the position of the woolen industry. According
to information of the 1st of July, nationalization
of this industry was almost complete.
* One unit seems to have been omitted which accounts
for the discrepancies in the totals.
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Two factories of the Petrograd Unit were na-
tionalized and twenty-eight factories of the Mos-
cow Unit. Petrograd mills of fine woolen goods
are provided with raw materials and fuel for a
considerable length of time, but the Moscow mills
are worse off, as part of the factories are provided
with fuel for only two to three months, and some
even less than that. The administration of the
textile industry has decided to reopen only eight of
the largest mills, and to close down the rest tem-
porarily.
The position of the mills manufacuring heavy
woolen goods is still worse, due to a shortage of
raw material, gordolent, and fuel. According to
information from the Tombov District, it can be
expected that about fifty per cent of the mills will
be closed on account of the shortage of the above-
mentioned materials. Only fifteen and a half per
cent of the 46,242 spindles of the Moscow textile
mills are working. The provincial mills are some-
what better off, as they would be in a position to
work if they were supplied with some of the sur-
rogates. In the warehouses of the Centrotextile
there are about 150,000 poods of coarse wool, whiSh
will be enough to keep them going for two and a
half months, and 110,000 poods of fine wool,
enough to keep them going for four to five months.
The general position of our industry is very
insecure and we must admit this frankly. It is
explained by the fact, that our most important
industrial centers, which are the foundation of our
industry, are absolutely cut off from us.
Our metallurgical industry was hindered in its
development and is in very poor condition, as the
Ural metal mines and the Donets Coal Basin were
cut off for a long time and only now is there a
possibility of using to a certain extent the work
of the Ural metal mines.
The work of the Donets Coal Basin which is
the foundation of our industry, is badly injured,
and it is problematical whether it can be revived
in the near future. The only way out of this dif-
ficulty is to seize such districts as were taken
away from us. Without contact with Soviet Rus-
sia these districts cannot exist and develop, not-
withstanding their natural riches. As for instance,
Turkestan cotton cannot be gathered and used in
case there are no direct transportation facilities
with Soviet Russia, which provides Turkestan with
bread. Unable to obtain the grain, imports of
which from Russia fell off in 1917, the natives of
Turkestan have cut down the area of cotton planta-
tions from seventy to eighty per cent, and thus
have almost eliminated this very important branch
of industry. If Turkestan will not be provided
with bread this year, the area of cotton plantations
will be cut down again, and thus finally it will lead
to complete disorganization and confusion in this
industry. In the same manner, the Donets Coal
Basin cannot be looked upon as an independent
unit; for its work it requires building and bind-
ing materials, dynamite, all kinds of drills and
machines from Soviet Russia.
The Caucasus oil industry is in the same posi-
tion. It requires all kinds of metals for drilling
and binding the oil wells, building timber of large
sizes, steel ropes, and other materials. Without
these materials this industry is disintegrating. And
further, without an outlet to Soviet Russia, there
is no way of exporting its riches.
The Soviet Government has to solve the follow-
ing problems of economic construction. First of
all it is necessary to unite with those districts
which are our source of raw materials and fuel, as
without contact with them the existence of Soviet
Russia will not be possible. Relations with foreign
countries will undoubtedly be resumed in the near
future, as they cannot get along without Russia's
raw materials. Their own supplies of raw mate-
rials are exhausted to the limit, and naturally, they
will have to apply to Russia to furnish them with
Russian timber, flax, etc. Business relations with
Western Europe will be gradually resumed, even
if Russia retains the Soviet form of government,
and Europe the present form of capitalistic gov-
ernment.
These relations will be concentrated in the
hands of the Soviet Government and will be con-
ducted in accordance with existing plans of the
Soviet Government. The blockade, which Russia
is undergoing at present, cannot last much longer,
and when it is lifted, and normal relations with
Europe are resumed, we shall furnish them with
raw materials which they are in need of, and will
get in exchange manufactured products and ma-
terials, necessary for the strengthening and re-
storation of our industry and our industrial ac-
tivities.
The fundamental principles which were in the
past proclaimed by the Soviet Government are
being realized and practiced in the interior of the
country.
Nationalization of industry on a large scale, and
the transfer of same into the hands of the working
masses, was the basis of our politics.
The nationalization of industry has gone
through many different stages in its development
— from a disorderly, purely anarchistic — to a har-
monious, systematic nationalization of whole
branches of industry as well as separate enter-
prises, and organization of councils for the purpose
of administrating this nationalized industry.
The next step in this direction would be to put
in order and to systemize all that which has been
previously done by the Soviets.
The main point of our economic reconstruction
activties of recent days is the organization of
such administrating units as could cope with the
difficulties of managing the newly nationalized
industry and which could regulate the activities
of various branches of our industry.
Judging by the recent facts, we are solving this
problem to a certain extent, successfully, and in
our work we have to depend a great deal on labor
organizations — trade unions — which are at the
head of our industrial and economic life.
The general situation of Soviet Russia is such,
that the work of reel using our plans is being met
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
165
with great difficulties, but nevertheless, the creative
work in every line of our economic life is being
continued in spite of all.
The necessary basis for our work is the lifting
of the blockade against Soviet Russia, and the
restoration of connections with our sources of
fuel and raw materials. This can only be achieved
as a result of a vigorous fight of proletarian Eus-
sia with her enemies on all fronts. Every step
forward in this direction will give us a stronger
foothold and will determine our success which
means life or death for Soviet Eussia.
Through Latvia and Esthonia to Russia
By Jakob Fbiis
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"D EVAL is an extremely old city. It is still
"* very medieval in its character, and reminds
one of various German towns, particularly Nurn-
berg. The old wall around the inner part of the
city has survived the ravages of time, almost un-
impaired. If one climbs up on this wall, in the
evening, or enters one of the old round towers, it
is very easy to dream of former times when each
town lived its own separate life, in constant fear
of foreign conquerors. From this wall one has a
view of the low land toward the sea. The enemy
who would make an attack upon Eeval must be
prepared to lose many men while storming the
castle gates.
Keval has ancient associations with Danes,
Swedes, and Norwegians. Its Esthonian name is
"Talinin" which means "the Danish city." It
was founded by the Danish king, Valdemar, in
1219, and the three Danish leaves are still extant
in its emblem. The population, however, even in
those early times, consisted largely of Low Ger-
mans, and the city became during the 14th and
15th centuries, one of the most important towns
of the Hanseatic league. One of its oldest churches,
dating from the 13th century, is called St. Olaus
Church, in honor of the Norwegian king, Saint
Olaf. In 1561 the city came under Swedish rule
and was entirely Swedish until 1719, when it be-
came Russian. There are many reminders of the
Swedish rule everywhere. It was with great ap-
parent pride that Comrade Grimlund (who in
spite of his Socialism is not without reverence for
"glorious memories") called my attention to the
many Swedish names upon the old noblehouses at
the "Cathedral," that upper part of Eeval which is
located upon the cliffs, behind the castle wall.
At Eeval we had our passports vised by the
Bussian representative, Gukovski, but in order to
cross the frontier we had also to obtain permission
from both the Esthonian Foreign Department and
the General Staff, as well as a doctor's certificate
to prove that we were not suffering from either
typhus or cholera. At the Foreign Department
there was not much haste shown. Day after day
we were detained, always with promises, and when
we at last obtained our permission and reached
Narva we were also held there. Again permission
had to be obtained from the commandant of the
border town here, and we were compelled to re-
main in Narva, though we were eager to get on.
We had experienced a view of typhus at close
range, earlier in our journey, but it was not until
we reached Narva that we could realize what a
plague-infected city meant. The hospitals here
were crowded with typhus patients, mostly sol-
diers from the army of Yudenich. At the hotel,
an unclean, unsanitary, place, we met two men
from the American Red Cross. They told us of
their fight against typhus. Tightly enclosed in
rubber coats they had washed house after house
with carbolic acid and creosote, and had thereby
decreased the death rate in the city to about five
per cent, as I remember it. We sent a detailed
telegram about their work, from Narva, but un-
fortunately kept no copy of it. It has not arrived.
The Narva authorities probably found it com-
promising for Esthonia. (In the imagination of
western Europe, it is not in Esthonia, but in Eus-
sia, that typhus rages.)
My impressions of Narva will never desert me.
It was diabolical, that city. The plague was felt
and seen everywhere, but upon the streets there
walked the elegant ladies, the 'Tight guard" of
the Yudenich army, nonchalantly, with soldiers
and officers. It seemed that the thought of the
nearness of death brought the "joy of living" to
a hectic flush upon their cheeks.
As is well known, Narva is famous for its con-
quest by Charles the XII, in 1700. It is a war
town from top to bottom. The great castle walls
stand as relics of the time when war was the order
of the day, — as indeed it still seems to be. Upon
the wide fields outside the city, armies have met
many a time and oft. Narva, the typical border
town, the town where one lives on the border be-
tween life and death.
THE PROTECTION OF LABOR IN
SOVIET RUSSIA
By S. KAPL.UN
of the Commissariat of Labor
This pamphlet, reprinted for the first time from
an English translation that appeared in Petro-
grad this year, is an authoritative study of the
actual operation of the Code of Labor Laws,
which has already been reprinted by us in
pamphlet form.
Price Ten Cents
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
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Press Cuttings
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THE NINTH CONVENTION OF THE
COMMUNIST PARTY OF RUSSIA
Concerning the ninth party-convention of the
Communist Party of Russia, which ended on April
5 of this year, the Pravda of April 6 writes as
follows :
The ninth party-convention of the Communist Party
of Russia came to an end on April 5 of this year. The
work of this convention differs sharply from that of
the other congresses of the revolutionary party. It is
sufficient to compare the decisions made at the former
conventions of the party with the practical measures
passed at the ninth party-convention, instead of resolu-
tions, in order to realize the vast difference betwetn
our past and our present.
Until the seventh party-convention our party was one
that was still striving for the power with which to
destroy the old regime. The seventh party-convention
concerned itself almost exclusively with questions of
foreign policy. The eighth party-convention had to
decide upon the right course of action for the working
class in relation to the peasants and to determine in
its program the lines of future activity. The ninth
party-convention, which convened on the boundary of
two epochs — that of war and that of peace (so far as
we can, at this time, speak of peace at all) — proceeded
under the motto: work.
Not until now has it been possible for the Soviet
Republic to devote all its energy to work, and it is
therefore no wonder that the governing party of the
proletariat in its congress treated as a cardinal ques-
tion the organization of work in the new society. It
was a congress of real builders of the future.
Before the party -convention of the Communist Party
of Russia there existed some differences within the
party. These resulted from the limited experience of
different groups of members, groups that were active in
various fields. It is only quite natural that the activity
in the army, in the workers' unions, the politico-eco-
nomic councils, and the party, so far as those con-
cerned are active exclusively within a special domain
and limit themselves to it, should impart a particular
stamp to their thoughts and feelings. For that reason
just such a party-convention is needed to sum up and
unify these individual experiences, to consider different
phases of the work and, on the basis of such checking-
up, to find a fixed and precise line of action in the
matter of party-policy.
The party, as a whole, has of course before this
party-convention recognized the need of intensive work.
Some there were, to be sure, who were undecided con-
cerning both the question of militarizing the work and
the question of methods of management. The con-
vention declared by an overwhelming majority that the
highest degree of reality, feeling of responsibility, con-
scientiousness, and discipline is necessary. It put aside
petty illusions and proclaimed the necessity of under-
taking a rigid organization of the work throughout the
working class itself.
Self-organisation. — Constantly the need of a still
closer contact with the masses was emphasized. From
this it followed that the convention, after it had re-
jected all talk about independence of the unions, talk
revealing a syndicalist-menshevik spirit, emphasized at
the same time with all possible clearness that the role
of the unions in the domain of organization of pro-
duction must continually grow in importance. The con-
vention condemned, in unmistakable terms, the attempt
of some comrade to minimize this role. More than
that, the convention supported unequivocally the view
•represented by Lenin that the most important problem
of the day, without the solution of which we would not
;be able to avert the threatening situation which has
.arisen through economic disorganization, is the
Digitized by VjOOgJC
actual complete unification of party and union tactics.
The question of organization was likewise one of
the purely practical questions which were also treated
in a purely practical way. To these purely practical
questions belonged also the militia question.
There was nothing clamorous or sensational. On
the contrary, the debates at the convention might even
seem prosaic. This is, however, an indication of our
gigantic growth ! We no longer discourse in general
terms on what will perhaps be; we consult about what
is to take place immediately.
The party emerges from the ninth party-convention
just as firmly united as before. Undivided and heroic,
radiant with joy in work and combat, it prepares for a
new campaign — the most difficult one — the campaign
against decay, and with it marches the living embodi-
ment of its unity, of its iron will, Lenin, the man who
on the threshold of the sixth decade of his life leads
and guides the Russian proletarians who have rebelled.
— Die Rote Fahne, Vienna, June 9, 1920.
THE LABOR SITUATION IN MALIGNED
RUSSIA
Since the newspaper press of the world has spread
misleading and false reports about conditions in Soviet
Russia, the telegraph bureau Rosta is now using every
opportunity to obtain the most exact information
possible from the foremost representative of the trade
unions in Russia, the former Minister of Labor, Alex-
ander Schlapnikov, who kindly gave us an interview
shortly before his departure from Stockholm last Sat-
urday.
One of the most frequently repeated lies which has
obtained wide circulation is the assertion that a twelve-
hour working day has been enforced upon the workers
of Soviet Russia. Although Rosta has received daily
reports direct from Moscow to the effect that in various
parts of Russia, in factories, mills, and other workshops,
the workers themselves have voluntarily decided to ex-
tend the working day, yet even when these reports
have been printed the newspapers have given them mis-
leading headlines in order to create false impressions
about notices which have been correctly printed. (For
instance Svenska Dagbladet, April 16.)
Our first inquiry directed to Mr. Schlapnikov was,
therefore: "What are the real facts in connection with
the length of the working day in Soviet Russia?"
He gave us the following answer: "The question as
to the length of the working day is in every case solved
by the trades unions of that particular trade and with
the approval of the workers in that particular industry.
As a general rule the question of the lengthening of
the working day beyond eight hours has come up very
rarely. The attempt to increase labor productivity
by lengthening working hours is not at all the last
word in the labor policy of Russia. On the contrary
we strive to use every expedient which will increase
production by utilizing labor power and technical means,
such as machinery, within the eight-hour working day
and seven hours of night work. The increase of labor
productivity by increasing the number of working hours
per day was used principally in the sphere of strictly
war industry, and all time over the eight-hour day
was paid for at the rate of one and one-half the normal
rate, and in addition special prizes were given for the
increased production resulting therefrom. The workers
could not be compelled, naturally, to work beyond that
standard set by the decree of the eight-hour day, but
class instincts and the desire to defend the republic
against its enemies and against economic ruin spurred
the workers to a voluntary increase of their working
intensity by every means at their disposal."
Our second question was: "What is the truth in
regard to the conflicts between the workers and the
i u r 1 1 r _u 1 1
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Soviet powers, which certain papers have called 'hair
raising?' "
"As far as statements about bloody conflicts between
the workers and the Soviet power are concerned, and
about any repressive influence or authority of the
Soviet power, these statements are simply lies. During
the civil war the working class was, to a large extent,
deprived of its best developed members who either
joined voluntarily or were mobilized into the ranks
of the Red Army to fight on the fronts. This naturally
decreased the level of the conscious intelligence of
the workers of the factories and mills, as well as
their numbers. The working class, like every other
large aggregation of human beings, is not without its
'black sheep' and even among us there were a few
counter-revolutionists, as well as provocateurs left from
the old Czarist times, especially among the former of-
ficers, and the bourgeoisie, who took positions at fac-
tories and elsewhere merely to conduct counter-revolu-
tionary activities. On account of the lack of food and
the activities of these provocateurs, there have been
strikes at Moscow and at Petrograd and attempts have
even been made to destroy industrial establishments,
such as the water supply of Petrograd, in the spring
of 1919. But all these conflicts were solved by the
forces and means of the labor organizations, the
Soviets, the trade unions, and the factory committees.
All these strikes were of short-lived character, and
nowhere was the interference of the military power
necessary. Just here I may remind you that the guard-
ing of the factories of the war industry has been in
every instance entrusted to the labor administration of
the workers, all of whom have realized the responsi-
bility of defending the property of the republic against
the attempts of the counter-revolutionists to destroy it.
"Those who assert that the labor administration in
industrial enterprises in Soviet Russia have 'gone bank-
rupt' are wrong," Schlapnikov continued. "The facts
are the contrary. The labor administration has saved
industry from ruin, that ruin which impends wherever
capitalist sabotage and speculation lead. The labor ad-
ministration has obtained great importance and the
sphere of its influence widens daily. The labor organi-
zations have now many thousands of active administra-
tors at their disposal. The intelligentsia takes, in the
form of technical and administrative direction, a most
active part in industry and in the work of the trade
unions. The engineers within the metal industry have
amalgamated themselves into a special section, and work
in the most intimate connection with the metal organi-
zations of all Russia.
"The unity principle in its literal meaning does not
exist with us. All the larger industries are conducted
by responsible labor administrators who are elected by
the labor organizations. All industrial enterprises of
a complicated kind are conducted by councils, but
subordinate branches ,or factories and mills of a simpler
nature and for less complicated production, are occa-
sionally conducted by individuals in connection with
responsible administrators appointed by the trades
unions. As a rule, I might say, that where important
decisions in regard to the administration of mills must
be made, a council assists, but at those mills which have
only to execute the decisions of the head administrators
even individuals, or directors, or administrators, may
be personally responsible for the accomplishment of
the program of production. Laborers may act as di-
rectors."
Our last question concerned the transportation system
in Russia.
"We have, during the past year," Schlapnikov said,
"taken prompt measures as to our rolling stock, and
particularly engines. For the present we have succeeded
in stopping the continuing increase of disabled engines.
The railroad factories are now reorganized according
to new factory principles. Up to recent times they have
been in the hands of the specific railroad bureaucracy
well-known for its routine and hostility to everything
that does not bear the seal of the head office. Nowa-
days we employ our best qualified labor and admini-
strative forces for the transportation department,
and with the announce of liquid fire from Grosny
and Baku transportation is greatly improving and the
results of our activity will make a better showing still,
within the next few months. The first and greatest
improvement will occur when we are able to renew
our entire rolling-stock, and especially engines, of
which twenty-five per cent are between twenty and
fifty years old. A great number of engines are ready
in America for our railroads, and the Americans have
been compelled to build special storehouses for them.
They cannot use them there themselves on account of
the difference in the rail width of the roads. — Foikets
Dagblad Politiken, April 22, 1920.
THE TRAGEDY OF NIKOLAIEVSK
The Japanese rescue army discovered on its arrival
at the harbor that the entire Japanese army and
civilian population, with the exception of a few women
(fourteen in number) who had married Russians and
Chinese, had been massacred. Some Japanese had sur-
vived the first battle as prisoners. But with the ap-
proach of the rescue army in the harbor, it is reported
that the so-called Partisans left the city killing these
prisoners. We are deeply sorry for those unfortunates
who met with disaster. At the same time we cannot
but deplore the thoughtless policy toward Russia which
finally caused this tragedy. Had we speedily withdrawn
our army from Siberia, such a terrible event would
never have happened! At any rate the stationing of
a small army in a distant place like Nikolaievsk with
the detention of our countrymen there was the root
of a mistake. Look! It seems that at Nikolaievsk
there were not only Japanese, but also other foreigners.
Yet they did not suffer at all. Moreover, is it not the
case that the Chinese joined the Partisans and attacked
our countrymen? What does this mean? It means
nothing but that the Japanese are a target of hatred
for all the people in the Far East. What are our peo-
ple to do about this state of affairs? Although the
cruelty of the Partisans is detestable, at the same time
our people must seriously think of their own position.
— From the Oriental Economist, June 12, 1920.
THE OCCUPATION OF NIKOLAIEVSK
IS WRONG!
Moreover, we cannot but question the policy of the
government in its action in regard to the present situ-
ation at Nikolaievsk, by dispatching the reserve army
there. As far as we can understand, it seems that our
government has deliberately dispatched an army there,
without consulting with any of the Russian govern-
ments. It is even reported that the Japanese military
authorities compelled the Investigating Committee sent
by the Vladivostok Provisional Government to return
from Alexandrovsk. Moreover the Partisans, being
nothing but a group of people, there is no responsible
body against whom the Japanese can enter a protest.
Thereupon, according to a street rumor, it is repeatedly
reported that the Japanese army occupying Nikolaievsk
and surrounding strategic points, will not readily give
them back to the Russians. We think such a thing
impossible, but from the very beginning the govern-
ment has assumed an attitude of not recognizing any
of the Russian governments and so it despatched the
army without consulting any Russian government This
street rumor is the natural result. But we say in
advance that the Japanese are now a target of hatred
for the Russians. Although Japan may temporarily
seize Nikolaievsk and other points, as long as this
thought is not erased from the mind of the Russians,
Japan can never safely keep them. Nay more, if Japan
should manifest her territorial ambition, her already
difficult position in Siberia, in the Far East, and in the
world will grow worse. There is no reason for our
government — though it be foolish — to do such a thing.
—From the Oriental Economist, June 12, 1920.
UNIVERSITY OF MfCHlGAN
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SOVIET BTJSSIA
August 14, 1920
Documents
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PEACE OFFER TO JAPAN
To the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tokio.
February 24.
Immediately upon its formation, the Russian
Soviet Government proclaimed the principle of the
right of peoples to self-determination, a principal
which became the basis of the peace decree of
the Soviet Government. Beginning with the month
of December, 1917, the People's Commissariat for
Foreign Affairs entered into pourparlers with M.
Uyeda on the subject of revision of all relations
between Russia and Japan, and proposed the con-
clusion of a new commercial and economic agree-
ment, as well as a convention on the situation in
the Far East and on the Pacific littoral. The
proposals of the Russian Soviet Government were
received by the Japanese Ambassador for commu-
nication to his government. However, no reply
was received from the latter. Similar proposals
were again made by the People's Commissariat for
Foreign Affairs in the spring of 1918 through the
offices of the Japanese Consul, Marimoa Vologda.
This time again our proposals were received for
transmission to Tokio, but there was no result.
In his report to the Fifth Congress of the Soviets,
the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs ex-
pressed once again the desire of the Soviet Govern-
ment to find a peaceful solution to all the ques-
tions pending between itself and Japan. The peace
proposals which were repeatedly presented by the
Soviet Government to the governments of the En-
tente were always addressed to them jointly and
individually and each time aimed at negotiations
of peace with the Japanese Government. At the
present time, when all the attempts made to crush
by arms the power of the workers and peasants of
Russia have proved their absolute inanity, when
the Entente governments have withdrawn their ex-
peditionary forces from Russia, and when various
governments have already entered into pourpar-
lers with the Russian Soviet Government, we ad-
dress once more to the Japanese Government the
proposal to engage in peace negotiations. The
peoples of Russia cherish no aggressive designs
against Japan. The Soviet Government has no
intention of meddling in the internal affairs of
the Japanese people. It fully recognizes the special
economic and commercial interests of Japan in
the Far East, interests surpassing in several re-
spects those of other countries. It is equally in-
terested in concluding an agreement on this sub-
ject which will be useful and of benefit to both
parties. The Russian Soviet Government wishes
to establish a modus vivendi guaranteeing peace
between Russia and Japan, and the reciprocal ad-
vantages resulting for both countries from the re-
lations to be established between them. Taking
into consideration the numerous voices which reach
our ears, even from Japan, demanding the secur-
ity of the needs of the Japanese people by the
conclusion of an agreement with the Soviet Gov-
ernment, the Russian Government expresses the
certainty that these needs will be satisfied in effect
by the agreement which it intends to conclude
with Japan. It does not doubt at all that in view
of the deplorable state of affairs resulting from
the Japanese expedition in Siberia, and of the
growing opposition in Japan even among the
powerful political parties against this expedition,
it will soon be withdrawn. The People's Commis-
sariat therefore proposes to the Japanese Govern-
ment to engage in negotiations of peace with the
purpose of guaranteeing to the two peoples a peace-
ful existence of friendship and the mutual satis-
faction of their reciprocal interests.
Peoples' Commissar for Foreign Affairs,
Chicherin.
DECLARATION OF INTELLECTUAL
WORKERS OF MOSCOW
[The declaration which is printed below was
published by a group of intellectuals in Soviet
Russia who organized a "Union of Intellectual
Workers." Among the founders of this union
were many eminent scientists, professors and acor
demicians, such as V. Bekhterev, S. Oldenburg;
industrial entrepreneurs and bankers — V. Tarnov-
sky {formerly an owner of steamers and mills),
A. Brofman {formerly Director of the Petrograd
Credit Corporation), Zhelvatk {ex-P resident of
the Council of the Ural industrial mines) ; law-
yers, engineers, writers, etc., as, for instance: V.
Planson, Margolis, P. Voronov {former General
of the General Staff, and Director of the magazine
"Rtisskaya Starina") ; former officials of the old
regime: A. Babnevsky, S. Korf {an ex-Senator),
N. Yalachin, and others.]
THE DECLARATION
We, the undersigned — members of the "Group
of Russian Intellectual Workers", adherents of
various trends of political and socialist thought
— having witnessed all the events occurring in
Russia during the last few years, have united for
the purpose of applying our energy and our know-
ledge to restore the productive ability of our coun-
try, and to save the balance of culture which was
left by the war and the revolution. We also ap-
peal to the public opinion of Europe and America
and to our fellow countrymen abroad to point out
the only way which could restore as speedily as
possible the economic might of the nation and
would lead to the resumption of commercial rela-
tions between western Europe and Russia.
The revolution in process over two years has
entirely destroyed the foundation of the old regime
and is persistently forging new forms of the poli-
tical and social structure. These changes are in-
evitably accompanied by certain excesses. This
movement is reflected in all countries, which, after
this unprecedented war, are in need of peace and
of the essential mc-ui£ of a cultural life during the
VERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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August 14, 1920
SOVIET EUSSIA
169
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restoration of order and the establishment of a
new system in Russia. These, it seems to us, are
the causes which prompt the ruling spheres of
other countries to attempt to establish a strong
political and economic regime in Russia,
As foreign aid is necessary for the economic and
productive life of Russia — and this question af-
fects the interests of all countries — just so is for-
eign intervention and particularly military inter-
vention a danger to the internal policy of the pop-
ulation, constituting 150 millions. In Russia the
people are themselves — at the price of suffering
and struggle— organizing their new life, their fu-
ture. For there is no doubt that the ways of vio-
lence will bring no positive results, but, on the
contrary, will serve as a source of new suffering
for the revolutionary people and will lead to the
disappearance of the last traces of civilization.
In view of all this, our Russian emigrants must
revise their opinions and convictions, which, in
their present form, do not conform to the real
needs of the country nor to the sentiments and
convictions of the popular masses and, particularly,
of the numerous groups of intellectuals, whose
opinions underwent a radical transformation dur-
ing these last months in the course of which days
and hours seemed like years.
One may, of course, deprecate the excesses
which took place in Russia and which merit con-
demnation, but it is necessary that the Russian
intellectuals should not charge these negative ac-
tions of a passing nature to the whole Russian
people, whose suffering should be mitigated by
concessions and individual sacrifices.
The political and economic situation of Russia
is obviously severe. Russia is in need of a new
jurisprudence, without which civil life is impos-
sible; she is in need of economic reforms and of
conditions which would facilitate production and
the development of her forces.
But as to the direction which the revolutionary
process will take in the future, as to the directing
ideas which will ultimately triumph and which
will determine the change in the psychology of the
people, — all this cannot be foreseen. At any rate,
for weighty reasons this change cannot be acted
upon by means of violence.
The sole viewpoint on the Russian question is
the following: To continue to keep this colossal
country isolated from the whole world until she
will have solved her economic and social problems
is an impossibility.
The interests of Russia and of other countries
do not permit this, and the present, state of af-
fairs demands:
1. The cessation of any armed intervention in
the internal affairs of Russia.
2. The resumption of spiritual and business
relations with Russia, irrespective of the regime
existing in this country.
3. That extensive aid be furnished the Russian
people for the restoration of its economic, material
and spiritual forces.
Profoundly convinced that Russia will overcome
all difficulties and will reconstruct a new civilized
life, we are confident that the ruling spheres of
the public opinion of Europe will regard our
hopes with sympathy, will respond to our appeal,
and will help the Russian people in its efforts to
find the road to peaceful toil.
RESOLUTION OF THE CENTRAL
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Moscow, June 8.
In order to aid the campaign of the laboring
masses of Karelia for their social enfranchisement,
the Ail-Russian Central Executive Committee has
decided: First, to establish in the localities in-
habited by Karelians in the province of Olonets
and Archangel, in accordance with article eleven
of the Constitution^ distinct regional unity, the
Karelian Commune. Second, to charge the Kare-
lian Committe, composed of Comrades Clyying,
Jaques Miakki and Vassili Kondjiev, to prepare
without delay the assembly of the Soviet Con-
gresses of the Karelian Commune, which assembly
will determine the organization of power in this
commune.
President of the All-Russian Central
Executive Committee,
Kalinin.
Secretary, Jbnukilse.
TEXT OF THE TREATY BETWEEN
SEMIONOV AND JAPAN
The Peking and Tien-Tzin Times of May 27
contains the complete text of the treaty which
was concluded between General Semionov, the
'lawful successor" to Admiral Kolchak, and Japan,
and which was signed by Semionov's representative
Nuritov on September 28, 1919. The contents of
this treaty are as follows:
1. All governments formed by the Bolsheviki or
any political party after the fall of the Kolchak govern-
ment shall not be recognized by Japan and she must
fight them by force.
2. In the recruiting of volunteers for Semionov's
army Japan must continuously support Semionov finan-
cially, under the control of Japanese officials.
3. Japan must drive out all the Bolsheviki from
Siberia.
4. Without regard for the opinion of the Allies,
Japan must convince Kolchak of the necessity to trans-
fer all his power to General Semionov.
5. After the fall of the so-called Omsk Government
of Kolchak, Japan must immediately recognize General
Semionov as the Supreme Ruler of all Siberia.
6. Japan must reorganize the Russian monetary sys-
tem, in recompense for which she will receive the fol-
lowing :
a. Russia must turn over to Japan as security certain
real properties.
b. Japan obtains special leasing rights in the Amur
and Primorsk provinces.
c. If the Japanese forces should reach the Ural,
Japan gets full ownership rights in the Ural mines.
—Krosnoye Znvm^c, "N^adivostok, June 8, 1920.
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SOVIET RUSSIA
August 14, 1920
Appeal
Long live the world leaders of Communism ! —
Izvestia, December 25, 1919.
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Of the First All-Russian Congress of the Agri-
cultural Communes and Artels to the Toiling
Peasants
To you, comrades, peasants, the first All-Russian
Congress of Agricultural Communes and Artels
addresses an ardent appeal to join in the con-
struction of a new, socialist economy. The severe
economic distress which the Soviet Republic is
living through demands of all of us extraordinary
efforts for the reconstruction of our economy, de-
stroyed by the imperialistic war. Only we, the
many-millioned peasantry, can and must supply
bread to the workers, who will intensify the work
in the factories and workshops to manufacture for
us the necessary articles of consumption, and agri
cultural implements. The speediest rehabilitation
of railway transport also depends on us. At the
same time we must always remember our com-
rades at the front, who are thrashing the White
Guard bands. For them, first of all, we must as-
sure bread and provisions. In addition, we must
vanquish another enemy — the cold; we must take
upon ourselves the gathering and delivery of wood
for the cities and railways. In order to conquer
our foes, the enemy at the front and the cold in
the rear, we must be organized in communes and
in toiling artels. With strict conscious comradely
discipline and with universal revolutionary energy,
we will emerge victorious.
The first All-Russian Congress of Communes
and Artels has already decided upon a number
of measures to furnish every kind of aid to the
toiling peasantry and to the families of the Red
soldiers, such as:
For the organization and improvement of agri-
culture, in the artizan industry, by the opening of
various shops to repair agricultural implements,
to pare hides, to make felt boots, to do tailoring,
carpentering and other work. To open loan sta-
tions and to establish electric stations to serve the
communes and artels as well as the neighboring
population. To develop large and small breeding
cattle, fowl breeding, and rearing of bees; to or-
ganize dairies; to establish seed-plots for garden-
ing ; to organize sundayings to help the families of
the Red soldiers and the poorest peasants ; to open
people's houses, reading rooms, libraries, kinder-
gartens; and to furnish all kinds of aid to the
toiling peasantry, and by advice and explanations
to settle arising conflicts.
Comrades peasants, organize and unite into a
single toiling communal family, for our strength
is in union.
The Soviet power, the powers of the workers
and peasants, has furnished and will furnish all
kinds of aid to the toiling peasantry, and organized
into communes and toiling artels, we will overcome
all the obstacles on our path and will emerge vic-
torious from the struggle.
Long live a world Commune and the Toiling
Peasantry !
Long live the brotherhood of all toilers !
BLACK SEA MUTINEERS
The following appeal has been issued by the
committee appointed to defend the heroes of the
Black Sea Mutiny among the French sailors sta-
tioned in that region and is taken by us from a
recent issue of a French newspaper:
"For having refused to be the accomplices of a
government which, in direct violation of all consti-
tutional law, has been guilty of one of the greatest
crimes in history — the treacherous attack upon the
Soviet Republic— the crews of the Black Sea Fleet are
in captivity.
"And their crime? They have refused to starve into
submission a great people heroically struggling for
freedom; they have refused to bombard undefended
towns; they have refused to massacre women and
children, and old men who received them as brothers ;
they have trusted to the word of honor of their
officers, and in the justice of their country.
"Their self-sacrifice, their faith in the ideal of human
solidarity will ever stand out as an example to all who
fight for the emancipation of the world.
"Their idealism and fidelity to principle has won
for them the fervent admiration of lovers of freedom
the world over; and the oppressed of all lands can
take courage from the thought that in one country
at least there are men willing to dare all rather than
slaughter their fellow-men at the bidding of the blood-
hounds that rule over them.
"Citizens of town and country, workers of all trades,
and of all creeds ! to the rescue !
"Remembering the grandeur of their deeds and of
the motives which prompted them, surely the heart
and conscience of every one of you must revolt against
the sufferings your sailor comrades are called upon
to endure. Come, then, to our aid and help to wring
from their persecutors the amnesty they have so long
delayed."
TRANSPORT ON THE VOLGA
The Moscow paper Pravda, of June 15, gives the
following information with reference to the work of
the water transport :
Up to June 1 by the river Volga there were trans-
ported :
Thousands Thousands
of poods* of poods
in 1919 in 1920
Bread 1,375 7,189
Salt 2,526 3,381
Wood 5,494 3,943
Timber 381 15,885
Petroleum 2,085 8,444
11,861
Bv the Maryinsky waterway:
In 1919
Bread 50 ....
Salt 2 ....
Wood 4,119 ....
Timber 245 ....
Petroleum 187 ....
44,842
In 1920
. 263
61
. 9,457
. 1,395
. 283
4,603 11,459
It is necessary to point out that the reports referring
to the year 1919 (covered in the above figures) are
complete, whereas reports for 1920 from some parts
are delayed, thus the total number of poods trans-
ported in 1920 (when the report is complete) will be
greatly increased.
These figures indicate that the work of Russian trans-
port in 1920 has improved in comparison with 1919.
Ifli^OTf flf^ftifiraBtf 1 avoirdu p° is -
August 14, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
in
Official Communications of the Soviet Government
ECONOMIC AND OTHER ITEMS
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May 24, 1920.
TEE FIRST OF MAY
The workers of the March factory at Moscow
had refused to work on the First of May and to
perform their three hours of work supplementary
to the week of the front. A general conference
of the workers of the quarter voted disapproval of
them. Since the day following the reproach eight
hundred workers of the March factory enrolled
with the factory committee for work on the first
of May. The following day the general assembly
of the March factory unanimously withdrew the
first resolution adopted aganst working and de-
cided that in the future the March factory would
not limit itself to giving an example itself, but
would watch over the good conduct of all other
factories on the laboring front.
The journals continue their reports of the First
of May. Sosnovski relates' how the work went on
in the Kremlin, where everybody worked, even
Lenin, who was seen with a group of eight workers
carrying enormous logs. There were present also
the members of the Executive Committee, several
commissaries of the people, the members of the
All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions. The
rest of the day Lenin delivered several speeches;
one was at the inauguration of the monument
to liberated labor, replacing the old monument of
Alexander the Third. "The capitalist," said Lenin,
"called it free labor when the workers and the
peasants were obliged to sell them their labor or
die of hunger. We call this work slavery. We
know it is difficult suitably to organize free labor,
especially in the period of transition. The volun-
tary labor on thi6 holiday is the first step on this
road, and, in continuing on the 6ame way, we shall
really create free labor." Lenin presided also at
the inauguration of the monument to Marx. He
inaugurated the Zagorski Workers' Palace in the
Lefort quarter and recalled the devoted life of this
old secretary of the Bolshevik group of Geneva.
Lenin spoke also at the meetings in several quar-
ters and in the factories. The President of the
Central Executive Committee, Kalinin, and the
Secretary, Lutovinov, worked all day as weighers
in the Mikelson factory. In the same factory an oak
was planted on the scene of the attempt upon
Lenin's life in 1918.
IN THE CAUCASUS
Smilga, commanding the Caucasus front, has
declared that the army of the Caucasus had taken
every measure to restore the economic life of the
country and especially to insure the cultivation
of the fields. To this end the soldiers originally
drawn from the Kuban have been sent home. The
Caucasus labor army has already sent from Grosny
by railroad one million five hundred thousand
poods of naphtha, and is now repairing the Grosny-
Petrovsk oil conduit.
1466. May 6, 1920.
AGRICULTURE
The Central Executive Committee has urged all
the executive committees and agricultural sections
of the provinces to use every resource in their
power to insure the cultivation of the land of
peasants who do not own horses.
PROTECTION OF LABOR
The Commissariat of Labor has elaborated a
code of laws for social insurance, presenting in
detail the rights of citizens and of their families
in all cases of permanent or temporary loss of
ability to work. This code will be published short-
ly by the Council of People's Commissars.
SOLIDARITY OF INTERNATIONAL LABOR
There has just arrived from Petrograd a group
of Swedish and Norwegian metallurgical workers
who have been placed in the factories for the re-
pair of rolling stock.
FOOD RELIEF
At Petrograd, all citizens, in addition to the
basic food ration, receive a varying supplementary
ration, according to the kind of work done by them.
This ration, called the labor ration, is of three
kinds, first, for the manual workers who expend
more energy; third, for the employes of Soviet
institutions. By a recent decision the engineers
taking direct part in production are included
among the workers of the first class. The whole
teaching staff is included among the workers of
the second class. This supplementary ration is
supplied only for the days of effective labor or
legal rest.
INDUSTRIAL RENEWAL
At Petrograd the Salonin factory produced daily
four hundred poods of soap powder as against fifty
in January. The workers have taken as their
motto: "Death to the economic crisis."
The nationalized paper-mills produced in the
week of April 17-23, sixteen thousand five hun-
dred and twenty-6ix poods of print paper for jour-
nals, an increase of about five thousand poods over
the average of the preceding weeks.
During May there will be resumed at Petrograd
the operation of the Phoenix and Lesner Junior
factories, the Franco-Eussian factory and the fac-
tory of Eussian motors, previously shut down ow-
ing to lack of fuel. Economic Life already an-
nounces the resumption of work in the Lesner
factory. The Phoenix factory will manufacture
tools for the repair of rolling stock. The Franco-
Eussian factory will make copper tubes.
The national manufacture of porcelains at Pet-
rograd is now proceeding on a larger scale than
before the revolution. Whereas in December the
average production of each worker reached one
hundred unci sixty pieces per month, it now attains
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SOVIET RUSSIA
August 14, 1920
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four hundred and fifty. The factory is making
isolators for high-tension currents. The optical
section is the fourth in the world. The manufac-
ture of pyroscopes for the measurement of high
temperatures is the second in the world, and has
produced this year one hundred and forty-six
thousand pieces as against the one hundred and
twenty thousand expected. The factory has pro-
duced for the year seventeen thousand china
pieces. The manufactory depending upon the Sec-
tion of Beaux Arts of the Commissariat of Public
Instruction has created a whole series of establish-
ments, schools of ceramics and glass-works, pro-
fessional courses, a library, and a museum, with a
series of lectures for the workers.
EXPORTS
Soviet Eussia possesses a stock of about two
hundred fifty thousand standards of wood and
seven hundred seventy-three railroad ties ready for
export. In 1919 seventy per cent of the saw mills
on Soviet territory were in operation. New large
saw-mills are under construction in the north.
RAILROADS
Economic Life publishes a bulletin of informa-
tion of the Commissariat of Ways of Communica-
cation, showing that the fuel situation on most of
the railway systems is perfectly satisfactory. Sev-
eral lines have used coal, peat, and naphtha in-
stead of wood.
The shops of Kharkov have increased their re-
pairing capacity to enable them to repair eight lo-
comotives per day.
The Second Labor Army has repaired numerous
special trains for the transport of naphtha from
Grozny. Beginning with May 10, five trains will
be sent out every day. In addition, necessary ves-
sels are ready for the transport of naphtha by the
Volga. At the same time, the Second Labor Army
is continuing the construction of the Saratov rail-
way. On the Uralsk-Iletsk sector the rails and ties
are ready for placing. The work is proceeding
simultaneously on the whole line.
VOCATIONAL INSTRUCTION
Supplementary courses are being instituted in
the Agricultural Academy of Petrovsko-Razumov-
skoie to obtain earlier promotion of agriculturists.
IN SIBERIA
The productivity of work on the Tomsk line
has increased about three hundred per cent. Dur-
ing the last three months two hundred and forty-
eight locomotives have been repaired.
THE KAZAN LINE
The official figures for the operation of the
Kazan line since the month of January show a
constant improvement. The total number of
cars daily loaded or received has increased from
940 to 1,303 in April. The average number of
locomotives daily employed has grown from 57 to
82. The commercial speed has increased. The
duration of stoppage of material has diminished
as well as the number of cars awaiting unload-
ing, which has been reduced from 6,000 to 2,500.
The number of arrivals of grain at Moscow, at
the Kazan station, has grown from 1,037 in Jan-
uary to 2,820 in April. In addition, a comparison
of the figures shows that the fixed programs have
been almost entirely carried out.
LABOR PROPAGANDA
The Krasnaye Gazeta of Petrograd has an-
nounced on the 25th of April that the average
idleness of empty trains in the first week of April
at Moscow was about three and a half days, while
at Petrograd it was about six and a half. The
journal asked the trainmen of Petrograd the rea-
son for this fact, and invited them to reply. On
the 5th of May the journal printed the following
response from the station Moscow Vindava Ry-
binsk, at Petrograd: "The average idleness of
merchandise trains was in our station about thirty-
six hours on the 18th, that is, a day and a half."
The journal continues that the station Moscow
Vindava Rybinsk is not a case in point, since the
trains at that station are two times less than at
Moscow. Who then is to blame, where are the
trains, where is the weak point which hinders the
work of all the stations of Petrograd? Workers
on the railways, reply! Thus the propaganda
goes on with fact and emulation.
INDUSTRIAL REVIVAL
At Petrograd three new factories have resumed
work, the "Beyond the Olue Seas" factory, the fac-
tory for re-inforced cement, and the sixth brick
plant, all nationalized enterprises.
THE FIRST OF MAY IN SIBERIA
At Irkutsk there were counted at the fete of the
First of May twelve thousand voluntary workers,
not including the garrison, the railway men and
the women who worked in sewing shops and hos-
pitals. Numerous peasants came to offer them-
selves in repairing the road. At Yenissei six
thousand persons took part in the grand celebra-
tion which followed the work.
FUEL
Economic Life publishes a study showing the
immense significance in the transport crisis, of the
necessity in which Russia was placed of using wood
fuel for all machines. At present wood transport
still occupies more than half of the loaded trains
on all the lines, while every day only ninety-eight
trains are loaded with coal. Every new train of
coal from the Donets frees three trains of wood,
that is, furnishes two trains more for the trans-
port of other articles. In other words, the loss
of coal from the Donets and of naphtha from Baku
was equivalent to the suppression of two-thirds of
its transport capacity for the railway system of
Russia.
ORGANIZATION OF TRANSPORTS
Economic Life states that the campaign under-
taken for the improvement of the wayB of commu-
nication hsu rEuuited in perfect co-ordination be-
tween. i±t\ Supreme Council of National Economy
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SOVIET RUSSIA
173
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and the Commissariat of Ways of Communication.
There has been created a mixed commission of
transports, composed of the representatives of those
two organs, which examines all questions of rolling
stock, repair, production of changeable ports, man-
ufacture of new material. In particular this com-
mission is now studying the operation of the pri-
vileged group of factories designed for the con-
struction and repair of rolling stock. This com-
mission, furthermore, has great value in principle
in that it coordinates the activity of the supreme
organ of production and that of the transport
services. The admitted program looks to the pro-
gressive reduction of the number of locomotives
out of service until twenty per cent, the normal
percentage, is reached January 1, 1923.
EXPLOITATION OF RAILWAYS
The figures published by the service of the ex-
ploitation of railways indicated an increase from
February to March of two million, seventy-two
thousand, two hundred and twenty-three versts
traveled. In the same way the figures show an
improvement in the rational utilization of loco-
motives, the average daily amount traveled by each
locomotive being about sixty-five versts in Febru-
ary and mounting to seventy-two in March.
From December to March the total number of
trains not employed productively, either because
of lack of unloading or delays en route or through
employment for storage for a long time, has dimin-
ished by more than ten thousand.
THE COMMUNIST SATURDAYS
Pravda writes on the subject of the first anni-
versary of the Communist Saturdays organized on
the line Kazan-Moscow on the initiative of a
workingman weigher. "One may say boldly that
there does not now exist in all Soviet Eussia a
city where Communist Saturdays have not been
organized. They are held even in the country.
First the Communist workers were the only ones
to take part in them, but soon the movement came
to embrace both those without party affiliation and
other classes than the workers. This immense
extension of Communist Saturdays and their uni-
versal success, clearly indicate the extraordinary
aptness which devised this form of organization of
labor in the present period of transition, a form
which has the more value in that it is the first
realization of the Qollective and disinterested labor
of the future."
Izvestia remarks that the internal organization
of the Communist Saturdays during this year has
made immense progress. Not only the quantity,
but also the quality of the work is constantly in-
creasing. More and more are the masses imbued
with the idea of the necessity of an intensive, pro-
longed and disinterested labor. The proof of this
is that the Saturdays have taken the form of weeks
and months of intensive voluntary work.
RUSSIA AND FINLAND
1487. May 8, 1920.
Of the last attempts to conclude an armistice,
at a meeting which took place at Rajajiki between
Soviet Russia and Finland, Suhl, delegate of the
Soviet Government, writes in "Izvestia" :
"The pacific declarations of the Soviet Govern-
ment have been reflected in the armistice condi-
tions proposed by her. Far from claiming an inch
of Finnish territory, the Soviet power was ready
to admit the provisional neutralization of two con-
tested parishes of the province of Olonets, leaving
to the peace conference the definitive decision. In
order to avoid every pretext of hostility in the
interval, it proposed, also, all along the Russian-
Finnish territory of 1914 a line of demarcation,
or neutral zone, on both sides of this frontier. On
the other hand, the Finnish Government immedi-
ately expressed the intention of occupying the
northwest part of the province of Archangel, re-
cently liberated from the Whites, together with
Petchenga and an outlet on the sea, as well as
the whole western part o fthe province of Olonets
or Karelia. It next attempted to impose armistice
conditions placing Russia in the most disadvan-
tageous position in case of the resumption of
hostilities. The Finnish delegation proposed a
zone of protection, so-called, traced almost alto-
gether upon Soviet territory and extending as far
as the Murman line, embracing even the suburbs
of Petrograd. From this zone Russia would have
to retire its troops in favor of the troops of Man-
nerheim, said to be charged with the protection of
the interests of the Finnish Government on wholly
Soviet territory. Only in the southern zone was
there admitted the presence of thirty to forty men
of the Red Army per kilometre of frontier, and
this to the very doors of Petrograd. The armis-
tice conditions with regard to the sea, in their
original form, would have forbidden all navigation
with Petrograd and Kronstadt. Only towards the
end the Finns allowed a free passage. The di-
plomacy of the Finnish military command was
sewn with white thread. As soon as the question
of Russo-Finnish pourparlers was decided in prin-
ciple the Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs left
for London and Paris, taking with him Baron
Enkel, Chief of the General Staff. The Finns, in
thus developing their maximum program, declared
with an altogether military frankness that this
was not yet the last word of their government.
Immediately following upon the arrival of Holsti
and Enkel at London the pourparlers visibly
dragged, the delegation retarding at pleasure the
communication of new propositions announced,
and prolonged sterile debates upon historic ques-
tions. In the meantime, Holsti and Enkel are at
Paris, breakfast with the president, receive and
confer decorations. The international barometer
settles, Lord Curzon takes a firmer tone in his
humanitarian propositions. The weather changes
also in Finland and the tone of the declarations
becomes a little provoking. The Russian delega-
tion thus found itself obliged U\ reply that the
174
SOVIET RUSSIA
August 14, 1920
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Finnish demands surpassed all that one could ex-
pect at the beginning of the pourparlers, it had
provisionally to interrupt the negotiations and re-
turn to Moscow to report to the Revolutionary
Military Council of the republic. Now the Polisk
invasion shows clearly the internal connection ex-
isting between the failure of the peace pourparlers
with Poland and Finland. They are the threads
of a single web, held somewhere, and some idea
of which is given in the tone of Lord Curzon's
radios. The people of Finland desire no war, they
are resolutely opposed to it. If in spite of the
desire of the enormous majority of the nation, the
bourgeois government of Finland allows itself to
be drawn into the path of imperialist adventurers
and expects to make of its people an instrument
for foreign interests, that is its affair. Every
bourgeois government is free to break its neck as
it sees best."
RELATIONS WITH PERSIA
[Copy of the radio sent by Chicherin to Prince
Firouz-Mirza, Persian Minister of Foreign
Affairs.] June 27, 1920.
Information obtained on the subject of the re-
cent incident at Astara has enabled us to form
an exact idea of the nature of this incident.
The city of Astara, finding itself partly on Per-
sian and partly on Russian territory, — a small
stream separating the two States — the Persian part
of the city was made the object of an attack by
armed bandits who crossed the frontier and at-
tacked Russian territory and troops. The latter,
during the engagement with the bandits which was
forced upon them, found it necessary to conduct
the battle partly in the quarters of the city be-
longing to Persia, especially since the inhabitants
of these quarters implored them to do so. The
Persian territory was then evacuated immediately
by the Russian troops, wh are at present on no
part of Persian territory. If the Persian authori-
ties maintained sufficient order in the frontier re-
gions to keep Russian property safe from attack,
no incident such as that at Astara would have
taken place.
We repeat once again that, faithful to its usual
policy, the Russian Soviet Government in its policy
with regard to Persia is guided by the principle of
non-intervention, which ought, however, to be re-
ciprocal and enforced to the same degree by both
parties.
Desirous of seeing the strengthening of firm and
enduring ties of friendship between the peoples
of Russia and Persia, which the Russian people
desire, the Soviet Government supports, and will
continue to support, all that may tend to this end,
regarding itself as the executor of the wishes of
the working masses of Russia, who hold the Per-
sian working masses to be their brothers, united
to them by a strong solidarity. The Russian Soviet
Republic can therefore consider itself, with reason,
the only disinterested and faithful friend of the
Persian people.
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs,
Chicherin.
MESSAGE TO PRINCE MIRZA-FIROUZ,
PERSIAN MINISTER FOR FOREIGN
AFFAIRS
July 10.
After the receipt of your wireless message dated
June 23, received here July 4, we investigated in
dtail th questions raised by you, and I am now
able to declare to you positively, on the basis of
exact data in my possesion, that theer is now no*
longer any military or naval force of the Russian
Republic in the territory or in the waters of Persia.
Forces which according to your declarations are
in the districts designated by you, have no rela-
tion whatever with our Government, nor was any
consignment of arms sent by our authorities or
under their protection. The attitude of the Rus-
sian Government toward the interior struggles
proceeding in Persia is one of non-intervention, in
spite of the similarity in ideas between the Gov-
ernment established at Resht and the Russian
Government. Non-intervention is the principle
not only professed but also carried out by us in
Persia, and we apply this principle to both parties,
being no more in a position to support the govern-
ment established at Teheran against that at
Resht, than to defend the latter against the former,
tl is consequently impossible for the Soviet au-
thorities to undertake repressive measures against
th government established at Resht, or against its
adherents, as you would wish.
The Russian Government is convinced that the
principle of non-intervention is the one best
adapted to the feelings of friendship and frater-
nity animating the masses of the Russian people
with regard to the Persian masses, and to the rela-
tions of neighborliness which it desires to see es-
tablished between itself and th Government of
Prsia, for the affairs of the Persian people should
be disposed of by the Persian people themselves.
The Russian working masses warmly desire that
the Persian masses may deevlop their well-being
on the basis of disposing of their own fate in ac-
cordance with their own desires. We wish to see
the best of relations established between Russia
and Persia.
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs.
Chicherin.
TWO YEARS OF SOVIET RUSSIAN
FOREIGN POLICY (1917—1919)
By GEORGE CHICHERIN
Gives a complete account of all the negotiations
between the Russian Soviet Government and
all foreign countries, for the two years begin-
ning November 7, 1917, and ending November
7, 1919.
Price Ten Cents
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 Wesi m'r Street New York, N. Y.
========== -==:===
August 14, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
175
Book Reviewed
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The Advancing Houb, By Norman Hapgood,
Ex-Minister to Denmark. New York: Boni &
Liveright, 1920.
Russian-American Relations, March, 1917 —
March 1920. Documents and papers. Com-
piled by C. K. Cummings, Walter W. Pettit,
etc., etc., at the request of the League of Free
Nations Associations. New York: Harcourt,
Brace & Howe, 1920.
Two Years of Foreign Policy, by George
Chicherin. The Relations of the Russian
Socialist Federal Soviet Republic with Foreign
Nations, from November 7, 1917, to November
7, 1919. New York: The Russian Soviet Gov-
ernment Bureau, 1920.
TpHE first of the above titles represents a book
A that is primarily concerned, not with Russia,
but with the author's conviction that in combat-
ting radical thought it is important that con-
servative elements should use honorable methods
in order not to defeat their own purposes. It is
natural that in a discussion of this question Mr.
Hapgood should have felt obliged to devote two
of his chapters to a consideration of the problems
the Russian people are facing, and to the manner
in which their solutions of these problems are mis-
represented abroad. The two chapters are Chap-
ters V and VI, and their titles are respectively
"Facing Bolshevism: Our Follies in Russia", and
"Facing Bolshevism : The Future in Russia". The
former, which opens with quotations from Prince
Kropotkin's Letter to George Brandes, in which
Kropotkin protests against Allied attempts to re-
store counter-revolution in Russia, is entirely
taken up with a review and criticism of the stupid
manner in which newspapers and even govern-
ment authorities in foreign countries have per-
sisted in misrepresenting to the outside world
every step taken in the internal reconstruction of
Russia by the Soviet Government. Mr. Hapgood
forcibly and ably states the case against the agen-
cies that have so assiduously been poisoning the
public mind in all countries against the people
of Russia and their government, and quotes in
this conection a number of interesting examples
similar to those which Soviet Russia for more
than one year has had to present to its readers in
its exposure of the campaign of vilification that
has been so voluminously waged from so many
quarters. Particularly interesting are these ex-
amples when they come in the form of documents
issued by powerful governments which some per-
sons may have considered superior to petty forms
of misrepresentation. Thus, Mr. Hapgood gives
us (pp. 109-111) a document issued by the Gen-
eral Staff of the British War Office, entitled:
"Notes for Personnel Volunteering for Service
With the British Military Mission in South Rus-
sia," and dated August, 1919, in which the old
tale of the "nationalization of women" is rehearsed
in respectable form, that is, its "horrors" are
not emphasized, and are even modestly reduced
to application over a small part of the country,
instead of being represented as nationwide in their
baleful operation. The pretty little paragraph in
question is here reprinted (as it appears in Mr.
Hapgood's book) from the circular issued to the
persons volunteering for this service:
6. The well-known decree for the nationalization
of women did not come from the Central Bolshevik
Government, but it has been put into force in several
towns. By this decree all women were forced to
report at a "commissariat of free love", where they
might be selected by any man, and had no right to
refuse.
Needless to say, Mr. Hapgood points out the
absurdity of this invention, and also shows that
he considers it mean to cling to such a vestige of
the old story when the tale as a whole has been
exploded. Perhaps the time-honored "British"
quality of self-restraint is beginning to reassert
itself, and the indignation against an outrage that
never took place is gradually being reduced to
more moderate for, finally to disappear altogether.
In his Chapter VI, "The Future of Russia," Mr.
Hapgood pays somewhat too much attention to
the cooperatives as distinct from the Soviet power,
being probably under the impression that the co-
operatives and the Soviets in Soviet Russia are
still functioning as rival organizations, and not as
two phases of the same authority. Particularly
misleading is the statement appearing at the head
of a table at the end of Chapter V : "Much of the
solidest information about what is really happen-
ing in Russia can be obtained in New York from
the agents of the cooperatives," as well as his ex-
aggerated opinion of the disinterested political im-
partiality of Mr. Alexander Berkenheim, who is,
after all, so far out of sympathy with the Soviet
Government as to have been involved in machina-
tions against that government in May of this year.
The 400 pages of "Russian- American Relations"
present a splendid and authoritative collection of
official documents passing not only between the
United States Government and the Soviet Govern-
ment, but between representatives of the United
States Government themselves, while they were in
Russia studying Russian conditions. Particularly
interesting are the communications passing be-
tween United States Ambassador Francis and Col-
onel Raymond Robins. President Wilson's speech
to Congress, January 8, 1918, in which the fam-
ous fourteen points were first publicly proclaimed,
is also printed in full (pp. 68-74), as it contained
much that was evidently suggested by the Russian
situation, and was later widely circulated in Rus-
6ia by the United States Committee of Public
Information. Other documents are included which
make only casual references to the United States,
as, for example, the Soviet note to Italy, of Feb-
ruary 14, 1919, which is reprinted (pp. 306-317)
for the quotation it contains from the letter of
Rene Marchand, in wlieli th3 latter mentions the
YERSITY OF MICHIGAN
176
SOVIET BUSSIA
August 14, 1920
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no
attendance of Mr. Poole, "former Consul General
of the United States," at a counter-revolutionary
gathering of foreign diplomats. But the collec-
tion is by no means one-sided: it prints all the
available documents concerning the relations be-
tween the two countries, not only in the period fol-
lowing the establishment of the Soviet Govern-
ment, but from the first announcement of the
First Provisional Government that succeeded the
monarchy. No student of Eussian affairs should
fail to acquaint himself with the contents of this
book, which also has a good introduction in which
an attempt is made to place the various documents
in their proper setting historically. And in study-
ing these documents, the reader could not supple-
ment them with a better and more readable ac-
count of the diplomacy of the period than the
splendid report, by People's Commissar for For-
eign Affairs, George Chicherin, entitled: "Two
Years of Foreign Policy," which has much good
interpretation in its thirty-six pages. It covers
the relations of the Soviet Government, not only
with the United States, but with other nations as
well, and should preferably be read before under-
taking the larger book on '^Russian-American
Eolations."
CHICHERIN TO GERMANY
Hague, June 21. — From a Moscow radio we
learn that Chicherin has sent a telegram to the
German Government in which he repudiates the
malicious, prejudiced reports that Eussia takes a
hostile attitude to Germany.
LATVIA AND SOVIET RUSSIA
Copenhagen, June 29 — According to a tele-
gram from HeMngrfors, Finnish troops have been
pressed back from East Karelia into Finland by
Bolshevist troops.
NEWSPAPERS IN SOVIET RUSSIA
On May 16, the first All-Eussian Congress of
the workers of the "Bosta" (telegraph bureau of
the Eussian Soviet Government) was opened in
the press headquarters in Moscow, with 109 par-
ticipants, mostly Communists. The first resolu-
tion passed by the Congress was a greeting to
Lenin as the leader of the proletariat, as a revolu-
tionary journalist, and as the founder of the Com-
munist press.
The chief of "Bosta", Karschentsev, reported
on the work of the past years. Formerly there
were only five branches, but at present Eussia is
cornered with a network of branches. There are
sixty-eight provincial branch offices and fifty dis-
trict branch offices. The task today is the organi-
zation of the press and educational work. "Rosta"
has established schools of journalism and has as-
signed literary talents to the various parts of the
country.
The Congress took up also : the universal work-
ing norms for the provincial sections, the unifica-
tion of the workers, the financing of the press, and
the propaganda among the workers for the crea-
tion of their own local organs. '
THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. Women in Soviet Eussia, by Helen Blonina.
2. The Situation in Ukeaine, by 0. Zinoviev.
3. Tkanspohting Naphtha fbom the Caucasus, by U. Latin.
4. Tbavel in Eussia in the Spring of 1920, by a Swedish Newspaper Correspondent.
5. New Problems for Soviet Eussia, by N. Lenin.
6. Eegular Weekly Military Beview, by Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Belc.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make all checks payable
to L C A. K. Martens.)
110 West 40th Street
SUBSCRIPTIONS received by
SOVIET RUSSIA
(Room 304)
New York City
-
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Russia and the United States
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, August 21, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 8
timed Weekly mt 110 W. 40th Street, New York, N. Y, Ludmsr C, A. K, Marteni, Publisher, Jacob Wittraer Hartmann, Editor.
Subscription Rate, $5.00 per annum, Application for entry at second claae matter pending. Changca of addreu ahontd reach
the office a week before the changes are to be made.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PAGE
The American Policy 177
New Problems for Russia, by Lenin . 179
Military Review, by Lt-CoL B. Rouslam Bek 183
Concerning a Disappointed Traveler, by /, B* 185
The Communist Party in Russia, by Arvid
Hansen , . , , , * 187
Editorials , , , , 188
Murder of Deportees 190
A Russian Journey in the Spring of 1920,.. 191
Working Women in Soviet Russia by Helen
Blonina 195
Official Communications of the Soviet
Government , , 197
The American Policy
HP HE NOTE recently delivered by the American
* Secretary of State to the Italian Ambassador,
contains little which is of interest or direct appli-
cation to the Russian people. The most important
significance of this document lies not in the mere
reiteration of the hostile attitude of the American
Government towards the Soviet [Republic, an at-
titude already repeatedly expressed in word and
deed, but rather in the expression of the purpose
of the United States to break with its recent asso-
ciates in European and Asiatic affairs. The note
places the United States, on one ground or an-
other, in direct opposition to England, Italy*
and Japan. This is a matter which will be of
interest to the peoples and governments of the
latter countries, but which does not concern the
Russian Government, except insofar as it serves
to confirm our repeated contention that there can
be no unity of policy or action among the Allies
in matters involving their economic rivalries, and
that the gross misunderstanding and mishandling
of the Russian situation by all the associated na-
tions of the Entente have been the chief cause
of the present political and economic chaos of
Europe.
However, although Soviet Russia is not directly
affected by an academic restatement of the already
well-known views of the American Government,
we nevertheless share in the profound disappoint-
ment which will be felt by the workers everywhere
that the official representatives of the American
nation have so irrevocably placed themselves in
opposition to the aspirations of the toilers of the
world, who seek only peace and freedom from
oppression. This disappointment will be the more
sharp inasmuch as this declaration of the Govern-
ment of the United States has come at the very
moment when the governments of Europe, yielding
to the demands of the workers, have shown a tend-
ency, to revise their previous misjudgments of
Russia, and to adopt a policy of adjustment* The
Government of Italy has already taken steps to
resume active relations with Soviet Russia, Great
Britain has expressed its desire to reach an un-
derstanding with the Soviet Government, The
British Government has invited the Soviet Re*
public to send representatives to a general con-
ference of nations which should have as its main
object the restoration of peace in Europe, by re-
pairing the damage done at the conference of Yer*
sailles, where it was attempted to arrange the af-
fairs of Europe without consulting the Russian
people.
Against all these steps towards pacification and
the restoration of normal economic intercourse in
Europe, the Government of the United States has
maintained an attitude of irreconcilable opposi-,
tion. If the policy of the American Government,
reaffirmed in this recent note, should prevail as
the policy of the Allies, there would be no hope of
peace in Europe, Fortunately, however, much as
we regret the position in which the American peo-
ple have thus been placed before the world, we
are confident that the hopes and purposes of the
European workers, striving for peace and sue-
cessfully prevailing upon their governments to
adopt courses of moderation, will not be frus-
trated by any official declaration from any source.
The European masses will make peace, in spite
of the insatiable imperialistic ambitions of their
own rulers, and in spite of any interference fTom
the American Government. This utterance of the
American Govern ttient may give temporary en-
couragement to the most reactioiiy.ry elements in
178
SOVIET KUSSIA
August 21, 1920
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Europe; it may even prolong the bloodshed and
destruction a little longer, but it will not swerve
the European workers from their determination
to achieve peace and freedom. Much less, of
course, will it move the people and Government of
Russia from their determination to defend the
Revolution against all assaults. The naive hope,
expressed in some quarters, that this note may
affect the purposes and actions of the Russian
people, can only arise from ignorance of the facts
and is too ridiculous for serious consideration.
Those portions of the note which refer to the
internal affairs of the Russian Republic do not
merit extended comment. The domestic affairs of
the Russian people are no concern of the Govern-
ment of the United States, and we do not desire
to enter into any controversy with American of-
ficials upon matters concerning which they are so
lamentably ill-informed. Moreover, for us to point
out the manifest inaccuracies contained in this
note, or to defend the Soviet Government against
such grossly unwarranted misrepresentations,
would be to appear to accept a principle in inter-
national dealings which we must specifically repu-
diate; namely, the principle put forward in this
note that the recognition of a foreign state is
determined by considerations of the social struc-
ture or political principles of that state. No gov-
ernment has ever based its foreign relations upon
this principle, and if the American Government
now assumes to do so, we repeat that this is a
principle which the Soviet Government emphatic-
ally repudiates. The Russian Socialist Federal
Soviet Republic has repeatedly offered to estab-
lish friendly economic and political relations with
foreign governments with whose principles and in-
ternal structure the Soviet Government has no
sympathy. In resuming relations with capitalist
states, which the Soviet Government has already
done in several instances, and is ready to do in
general, we should never for one moment wish to
be understood as approving or countenancing the
social structure or the political ideals of those
states. We do not ask them to approve our in-
stitutions, nor can they expect us to approve theirs.
The principle advanced in the American note,
if generally acted upon, would be destructive of
all international relations. We know, of course,
that this principle does not actually determine the
attitude of the American Government and that the
real motive for its hostility to the Soviet Republic
lies elsewhere. We particularly regret the posi-
tion assumed by the American Government in this
respect because of the unfortunate effect which
it will have upon the sentiments of the Russian
people. Having only recently escaped from the
tyranny of the Russian Czar, and suffering at this
very moment from wanton invasion and spoliation
by the troops of the Japanese Mikado, and remem-
bering that the American Government held no
aversion to intimate and friendly relations with
the autocratic governments of the Czar and the
Mikado, the people of Russia will not comprehend
by what standards the American Government
judges the beneficence and virtue of those govern-
ments to which it extends recognition. As for the
alarm of the American Government that the dip-
lomatic service of the Soviet Government might
become a "channel of intrigue," against which
the American people could not defend their
cherished institutions, we cannot repress a smile
of amazement at such an expression from anyone
who is in the least familiar with the traditional
and general practices of the diplomatic agents of
capitalistic and imperialistic nations. The Soviet
Government had its experience with foreign diplo-
matic services employed as "channels of intrigue"
and was able to take adequate steps in its own
protection. We should imagine that the American
Government, familiar with such matters, might
assume that it had the ability to protect itself
from any dangers arising from this source.
As for the solicitude of the American Govern-
ment for the "integrity" of the Russian Empire,
we can only explain this by the continued and
favored presence in Washington of certain reac-
tionary Russian elements who still hope for the
restoration of the old Czaristic regime with all
its unbridled tyranny over the peoples formerly
held in subjection along the borders of Russia.
We are amazed that the influence of these dis-
carded representatives of Russian Imperialism
should have moved the American Government to
abandon the principle of "self-determination of
peoples." However this change may have been
brought about, and whatever the American Gov-
ernment may seek to gain by supporting the re-
storation of Russian Imperialism, we must em-
phatically deny the claim of the American Gov-
ernment to determine the present or future status
of any of the component parts of the former Rus-
sian Empire. This is a matter for decision be-
tween the peoples inhabiting those regions and
Soviet Russia, and it is not for the Government
of the United States to decide which of the as-
pirations of these people are "legitimate". The
Government of Russia has freely recognized the
independence of Finland, Esthonia, Latvia, Lithu-
ania, and Poland, and other border states, and so
long as the peoples of these states desire to main-
tain their independence, their sovereignty will be
respected by the Soviet Government. The Soviet
Government, moreover, will defend by every avail-
able means the right of these peoples to self-de-
termination against the pretensions of any foreign
power. The peoples of these states, freed at last
from the long tyranny of Russian Imperialism,
will view with amazement and alarm this declara-
tion of an intention on the part of the American
Government to restore them to their former bond-
age.
The hope which the Soviet Government has
maintained, against all appearances to the con-
trary, for the early resumption of friendly inter-
course and profitable economic relations between
the peoples of Itusoia aid America is now definite-
ly dettii;]'oye<l by thfc official declaration. The Rus-
(L>
August 21, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
179
sian Government cannot urge and will not permit
the resumption of commercial relations between
Russia and America so long as the attitude and
policy of the American Government remains that
expressed in this document. It has become plain
that the present administrators of the foreign
policy of the United States are irrevocably hostile
to the Russian Government. This fact, however,
does not shake our confidence that there is no con-
flict, but only sympathy and identity of interest,
between the broad masses of the American people
and their fellow toilers in Russia.
New Problems for Russia
By N. Lenin
(An address delivered at the Ninth Congress of the Russian Communist Party, held at Moscow
about the end of March.)
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\XTE MUST give our best thought to the ques-
* * tion as to what should be the basis of our agi-
tation and propaganda, to the analysis and inter-
pretation of the reasons for our victories, why our
sacrifices in the civil war paid a hundred-fold, and
how to profit from this experience and organize
our work so as to insure a victorious outcome in
a different war, in the war on the bloodless front,
in the war which is different only in form but is
waged against us with more fury and determina-
tion by all the old representatives, the servants
and leaders of the old capitalist world.
Our revolution has, more than any other revo-
lution, confirmed the law that the resistance of
the bourgeoisie is intensified in proportion to the
force of the revolution, the force of the attack,
the energy, determination, and triumph of vic-
tory. The more we, proletarians, are victorious,
the more we destroy the capitalist exploitation, —
the more the capitalist exploiters learn to unite
and pass to a more determined attack.
All of you well remember — it is but a short
while ago if you think of it in terms of time, but
so far back when compared with the present events
— how Bolshevism was looked upon as a joke at the
beginning of the October revolution. And though
in Russia this view had to be discarded very soon,
it was held for quite a long time in Western Eu-
rope. During the last year we have lived to see
this view, which was a sign of the isolation and
weakness of the proletarian revolution, discarded
also 'in Western Europe. Bolshevism has become
a world phenomenon. The workers' revolution has
raised its head. The Soviet system, in the crea-
tion of which, since the end of October, we fol-
lowed in the footsteps of 1905, developing our own
experience, — this Soviet system has become a phe-
nomenon of universal historical significance. And
now the whole world, without any exaggeration,
has divided into two camps consciously facing each
other. It should be noted that during this year
they have lined up against each other for a final
and decisive struggle, and just at present, while
we are meeting in congress, we are living through
what is perhaps one of the greatest, sharpest, as
yet unfinished transition moments from war to'
peace.
You all know how the leaders of the imperialistic
Entente powers, who shouted to the whole world
that they "will never give up the war against the
usurpers, bandits, the enemies of democracy — the
Bolsheviki," were forced to lift the blockade, how
they failed in their attempt to ally the small na-
tiong, because we not only won over to our side the
workers of all countries, but also succeeded in
winning the bourgeoisie of the small countries,
for the imperialists oppress not only the workers of
their countries but also the bourgeoisie of the
small nations. You know how we won over the
wavering middle class within the advanced coun-
tries. And now the time has come when the En-
tente is breaking her solemn promises, is violating
the agreements into which she entered with the
various Russian counter-revolutionary groups, and
the latter are left in despair with these worthless
agreements. The Entente has thrown away hun-
dreds of millions on these agreements and had to
give up this policy. Now, after lifting the block-
ade, they have actually started peace negotiations
with Soviet Russia, and these negotiations have not
been completed, because the small powers have lost
faith in them and in their power.
* We see that the position of the Entente cannot
be defined from the standpoint of the ordinary
conceptions of jurisprudence. They are neither
at war nor at peace with the Bolsheviki. We are
recognized and not recognized by them.
This absolute disintegration of our adversaries
who were sure of their power, shows that they are
but a handful of capitalist beasts at odds among
themselves and absolutely powerless to fight us.
And now the situation is such that Latvia has
made an official peace proposal to us, Finland has
sent a communication which officially speaks of
the line of demarcation but which really marks a
transition to a peace policy, and, finally, Poland
— the Poland whose representatives have displayed
t*nd are still displaying a particularly belligerent
attitude, the Poland which more than an} other
country has been getting, and is still getting, trains
with war supplies, and has been promised every
kind of aid if she would only continue to fight
Russia, — even this Poland, whose tottering govern-
ment would consent to any war adventure, has sent
us an invitation to open peace negotiations.
We must be extremely cautious. Our policy
demands most of all carefulness. It is very hard
to determine the DroDer course, for there are no
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lines pointing the way. (The foe himself doeB not
know what will be his next step. The gentlemen
directing the French policy, who more than any-
body else are inciting the leaders of the Polish
landed proprietors and bourgeoisie, do not know
what will come next, do not know what they want,
today they are pleading with the Germans : "Gen-
tlemen, give us a few trains with cannon, several
hundred millions, and we will be ready to fight
the Bolsheviki." They are suppressing the news
of strikes spreading in Poland, they are clamping
down the censorship lid to conceal the truth. And
the revolutionary movement there is growing. At
the same time the revolution in Germany grows
into a new phase, into a new stage. In the wake
of the German "Kornilovism," the German work-
ers, according to the latest despatches, are creating
a Red Army. And the Polish workers are getting
more and more inflamed. Into the consciousness
of the representatives of the bourgeois-landowners'
Poland is stealing the thought — is it not too late ?
Will not a Soviet republic in Poland come earlier
than the execution of a national act for peace or
war ? They do not know what to do. They do not
know what the next day will bring.
We, however, know that each month brings a
gigantic increase of our forces. For this reason
our international situation is now particularly
firm, firmer than ever. But with regard to the
international crisis we must be extremely watchful
and must be ready to face any surprises. We have
a formal peace offer from Poland made at a time
when these gentlemen are in a desperate situation,
like that which tempted their counterparts, the
German monarchists, — who are better trained,
with greater experience and more political knowl-
edge — to embark on a similar adventure ; and this
is even more likely from the Polish bourgeoisie.
We know that our adversary, who does not know
what to do and what he will do tomorrow, is in
a desperately difficult situation and we must firmly
tell ourselves that though a peace offer has been
made, a war is possible.
Their future conduct cannot be foreseen. We
have watched these men, we know these Kerenskys,
these Mensheviki and Socialist Revolutionaries. We
have seen during these two years how they extolled
Kolchak one day, were almost with the Bolsheviki
on the next day, then went to Denikin. We have
seen how all this was covered up with phrases of
liberty and democracy. We know these gentlemen.
For this reason we grasp the peace offer with both
hands and are willing to make the maximum con-
cessions, being confident that peace with the small
powers will advance our cause infinitely better
than war. By means of the war the imperialists
deceived the toiling masses, they suppressed the
truth about Soviet Russia, and any peace will clear
the road for our influence which has already be-
come great during these years. The Third Com-
munist International won unheard of victories.
But we know at the same time that war may be
imposed on us any day.
Questions of Economic Reconstruction
Important considerations of principle forced us
resolutely to direct the toiling masses to make use
of the army for the solution of the immediate basic
problems of economic construction. Let us take
up these considerations of principle, which are of
tremendous significance.
The old source of discipline, capital, has been
undermined ; the old source of unification has dis-
appeared. We must create a new source of dis-
cipline and unification. Any compulsion arouses
indignation and protests, shouting and wailing
among the bourgeois democracy, which extols the
words "liberty and equality" failing to under-
stand that freedom for capital is a crime against
the workers, that equality of those who have plenty
and those who are starving is a crime against the
toilers. In the name of the struggle against false-
hood we are enforcing obligatory labor and the
union of the toilers, having no fear of compulsion.
For never has a revolution been carried out without
compulsion if it showed ability to lead this class
to sacrifices. The revolution has a right to use
compulsion if it is necessary for the realization of
its aims.
In the controversy as to the historical factor of
the domination of the bourgeoisie, the comprom-
isers, the German Independents, the Austrian In-
dependents, and the French Longuetists, always
forget such factors as revolutionary determination,
firmness, and inflexibility of the proletariat. And
this inflexibility and hardihood of the proletariat
of our country who said to themselves and to others
and have proven it by deeds, that we would rather
all perish than surrender our territory, than sur-
render our principle of discipline and firm policy,
to which we must sacifice everything, — that is a
fact. This is the historic fact, at the moment of the
^integration of the capitalist countries and the
capitalist class, at the moment of their despairing
crisis, this is the decisive political fact which
makes ineffective the phrases of majority and min-
ority, of democracy and freedom, notwithstanding
the pleas of the heroes of the past historical period.
The decisive factor in this case is the class-con-
sciousness and firmness of the working class. If
the worker is ready to sacrifice himself, if he
proves himself able to exert all his energy, —
this solves the problem. Everything must be sac-
rificed to the solution of this problem. The de-
termination of the working class, its inflexibility
in carrying out its slogan "Rather death than
surrender !"
We are now facing the task of solving the prob-
lems of economic construction, of the rehabilitation
of ruined production, and how to direct toward
this end every force that the proletariat can bring
into play, how to make use of their absolute unity.
We must have an iron discipline, an iron order,
without which we would not have lasted not only
over two years, but not eventwo months. We must
know how to make use of our victory. On the
other hand, we must understand that this transi-
tion requires many sacrifices, and the country has
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already made many sacrifices heretofore. From the
standpoint of principle the activity of the Central
Committee was clear. All our activity was subor-
dinated to this policy, was directed in this spirit.
Take, for instance, the question — which seems but
incidental, which taken by itself, not in connec-
tion with the whole situation, could not be claimed
to have any importance as far as the basic prin-
ciples are concerned — the question of collegiate
or individual management. It is imperative to
consider this from the angle of our fundamental
gains in knowledge, in experience, in revolutionary
practice during the past stages.
The Expression of Class Domination
Comrades, allow me to bring some theory into
this question — how does a class rule, in what does
the domination of a class manifest itself? We
surely are not inexperienced in this respect, and
we differ from former revolutions by the fact that
there is no utopianism in our revolution. If the
old class has been replaced by a new class, the
latter can maintain its power only in a furious
struggle with the old class. And not unless it is
able to destroy the old class, will the new class
be completely victorious. This is the way in which
the question is determined by the gigantic and
complex class struggle. Or else you will sink in
the swamp of confusion.
In what is the domination of a class revealed?
In what was revealed the domination of the bour-
geoisie over the feudal class? The constitution
said : "In freedom, inequality/* What a lie ! As
long as there are toilers, the capitalists can, and
as capitalists they are even forced to, speculate.
We say that there is no equality, that the satiated
is not equal to the hungry, or the speculator to
the toiler. In what then is the domination of a
class revealed ? The domination of the proletariat
is revealed in the expropriation of the property
of the landed proprietors and capitalists. While
the spirit and the fundamental content of all
former constitutions — including the most demo-
cratic — was based in the last analysis only on
property. Our constitution has won the right of
historical existence. The victorious proletariat has
definitely abolished and destroyed property — this
reveals the domination of this class. First of all —
in the question of property. The domination of
a class was secured by the decision on the ques-
tion of property. The constitution then recorded
what life had already decided — "capitalist and
land-owners' property is no more," and added:
"the working class, according to the constitution,
has more rights than the peasantry, and the ex-
ploiters have no rights at all." This recorded
everything by means of which we established the
domination of our class, by means of which we
linked ourselves with the toilers of all sections, of
all small groups. The petty bourgeois property
owners are divided. Those who had large prop-
erty are enemies of those who had less property,
and abolishing property, the proletariat declared
open war against them.
There are still many who are unenlightened, who
are in the dark and who will support any kind of
free trade. But in the struggle, when they see
the discipline, the self-sacrifice, in the victory over
the exploiters, they cannot fight. They are not
for us, but they are powerless to act against us.
The domination of a class is determined only by
its attitude toward property, and this determines
also the constitution. And our constitution has
correctly recorded our attitude towards property
and the question as to which should be the upper
class. Those who connect the question as to how
the domination of a class is expressed with ques-
tions of democratic centralism, cause such con-
fusion that any successful work on this ground
becomes impossible. The clearness of propaganda
and agitation is the fundamental condition of
work.
If our opponents admit that we accomplished
wonders in the development of agitation and pro-
paganda, it should not be understood superficially,
in the sense that we used much paper and many
agitators, but rather as referring to the content
of the agitation, that the truth contained in this
agitation forced its way into the minds of every-
body. And we must not deviate from this truth.
When classes replaced one another they altered the
atitude toward property. Replacing the feudal
class, the bourgeoisie changed the attitude toward
property. The constitution of the bourgeoisie
says: those who have property are not equal to
those who are poor. This was the freedom of the
bourgeoisie. This "equality" gave the domination
in the state to the capitalist class.
And what are you doing ? When the bourgeoisie
replaced feudalism did they confuse the state with
management (administration) ? No, they were
not such fools. They said that in order to man-
age, they must have people who know how to
manage; for this purpose we will take the feudal
administrators and will change them. And this
is the way they acted. Well, was this a mistake ?
No, comrades. The ability to manage does not
come from nowhere, nor is it of divine origin.
And because an advanced class is an advanced
class, it does not at once become capable of man-
againg. When the bourgeoisie came into power
it took men from the feudal class for administra-
tion. And, comrades, any other way is impossible.
We must judge things realistically. The bourg-
eoisie made use of the preceding class, and now
we are confronted with a similar problem — how to
take advantage of and subject their knowledge,
their technical training, how to make use of all
this to insure the victory of the working class.
We have said that the victorious class must be
mature, but maturity is not attested by a certi-
ficate ; it is proven by experience, by practice. The
bourgeoisie conquered before they knew how to
manage, and they insured their victory by pro-
mulgating a new constitution, then recruited ad-
ministrators from their own class and began to
learn, took administrators from the preceding
class and began to teach aiid train their own, the
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new administrators, to the work of administration,
using for this purpose the whole state apparatus,
sequestering the feudal institutions, placing the
schools at the disposal of the rich. Thus, after
many years and decades, they trained administra-
tors of their own class. And now in a state which
is built in the image of a dominant class we must
do as was done in all states. If we do not want
to take the position of pure utopianism and inane
phrases, we must say that we ought to learn from
the experience of the past, that we must secure
the constitution conquered by the revolution. But
for administration, for national construction we
must have men who know the technique of admin-
istration, who have had experience in state and
economic affairs. And such men can be gotten
nowhere else, except among the preceding class.
Concerning Collective Management
Quite frequently the arguments on collective
management are imbued with the spirit of the
worst ignorance, the spirit of opposition on spe-
cialists. With such a spirit we cannot win. In
order to win we must comprehend the complex
historical environment, we must remember that
we are building Communism out of the ruins of
the old bourgeois world, and in order to build this
Communism we must take hold of technical knowl-
edge and science, and make them accessible to
wider circles. And we cannot get this, save from
the bourgeoisie. This fundamental question must
be clearly presented and must be made the basis
of economic construction.
We must direct both the affairs of the state and
the work of reconstruction with the aid of men
of the class that we have overthrown; men who
are imbued with the bias and prejudice of their
class we must re-educate. Then we must select
administrators from the ranks of our class. We
must use the whole state apparatus so that the
schools, extra-mural education and practical train-
ing, — that all this should serve the proletarians,
the workers, the toiling peasants, under the direc-
tion of communists. This is the sole way in which
we can organize our endeavors.
After our experience of two years we cannot
argue as if we were for the first time undertaking
Socialist construction. Thank heaven, it is not
true. We committed enough foolish acts both in
the period of Smolny and in te following period.
There is nothing shameful in this. Where were
we to get 6ense if we were for the first time under-
taking a new endeavor? We tried one way, and
tried another way. We followed the line of least
resistance, because we could not separate the sound
from the unsound — this requires time. Now the
recent past from which we have emerged, this past
when chaos and enthusiasm reigned, is gone. Doc-
uments are left of this period. The Brest peace
is a historical document, more than that — it is a
historical period. The Brest peace was forced
upon us because we were powerless in every do-
main. What was this period ? It was a period of
impotence from which we emerged the victors. It
was a period of collegiums everywhere. This his-
torical fact cannot be evaded.
When we are told that the collegiums are a
management training school, I reply: comrades,
we cannot forever stay in the lower grades ! This
will not work. We have grown up, and we will
be spanked, and spanked in every domain, if we
will act as school boys. We must move forward.
On the Trades Unions
We must climb upward with energy and with a
single will. The trade unions are carrying gigan-
tic burdens. We must see to it that they learn
the task in the spirit of the party and in the spirit
of the struggle against the false democratism and
the cries about appointees. All this old harmful
rubbish, which can be tolerated only in resolutions
and conversations, should be swept out. Other-
wise we cannot win. If we have not learned this
lesson in two years, we are laggards, and laggards
do not win.
This is an extremely difficult task. Our trade
unions have given gigantic aid in the construction
of the proletarian state. They were the link which
connected the party with the millions of the un-
enlightened mass. Let us be frank. The trade
unions have borne on their shoulders the whole
task of the struggle with the economic chao6. When
they had to assist the state in the work of pro-
visioning, was it not one of the greatest tasks?
The proletariat continued to make sacrifices.
There is talk of violence, but the proletariat by
making the greatest sacrifices proved that this vio-
lence was justified and right. The majority of the
peasant population of the fertile provinces of our
famished, devastated Bussia had for the first time
better food than they had had for centuries in
czarist and capitalist Bussia. It was necessary
that the vanguard of the working class should
make this sacrifice. It was a school of struggle.
Having graduated from this school, the worker
must go further. Now it is imperative to make
this step.
The trade unions have their history and past.
In this past they were organs of resistance against
the oppression of labor, organs of defense against
Capitalism. But when the working class became
the class controlling the state power, and when it
had to make more sacrifices and give more lives
to the struggle than before and had to starve more,
the situation was changed. Not everybody com-
prehends and appreciates this change. And here
the Mensheviki and Socialist Bevolutionaries come
to our aid, unconsciously demanding that individ-
ual management be replaced by collective manage-
ment. No, comrades, this will not pass. We are
through with this stage.
A Different Front
We are confronted by a very complex task : hav-
ing conquered on the bloody front— to conquer on
the bloodless front. This is a more difficult war.
This front is more severe. We say this frankly
to all conscious workers. After the war which we
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August 21, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
183
We are confronted with the following situation:
the more we conquered the more we had to deal
with such regions m Siberia, Ukraine, and Kuban.
There the peasants are rich. We know that there
the peasant who has a parcel of land says: "to
hell wit the Government; I will set the price for
my produce as I will see fit, and I should worry
about those who starve/* We have to rule with
the aid of the class which has spent its energy and
which must exert itself again. The speculator
peasant, who after coming in contact with Denikin
swayed toward our side, will now be aided by the
Entente. The war has changed its front and
forms. Now we are being fought by commerce,
by swindling. They want to make swindling in-
ternational. They want to transform peaceable
economic construction into peaceable disintegra-
tion of the Soviet power. We regret disappointing
you, gentlemen imperialists, but we are on guard.
We say: "We had war, and we therefore still in-
sist on this fundamental slogan — to maintain un-
abated and to transfer to the domain of toil the
principles of firmness and unity of the proletariat.
The old prejudices, the old habits, we must dis-
card,"
(At this point Lenin mentioned a pamphlet by
Gusyev > which was written for the congress and
in which the author formulated a plan for indus-
trial reconstruction.) Lenin then continued:
With the aid of specialists we can elaborate in
greater detail this basic economic plan. We must
bear in mind that this plan counts on an effort
which will last many years. We do not promise
at once to deliver the country from famine. We
say that the struggle will be more severe than at
the battle front, but it ie of greater interest to
us, because it is a closer approach to our really
fundamental tasks* It will require a maximum
exertion and that unity of will which we mani-
fested before and which we must manifest now.
If we will solve this problem, we will be just as
victorious on the bloodless front as on the front
of the civil war.
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Military Review
By Lt,-Col, B. Eoustam Bee
August 16, 1920.
TIT ARSAW is situated on both banks of the Vie-
" tula. The western part of the town, on the
left bank of the river, is connected by railway with
Berlin and Vienna; the northeastern part of it,
known as Praga, ie situated on the right bank of
the Vistula, Both parts of the town are con-
nected by the Alexander Bridge, 1,666 feet long,
which was built in 1865. There ie also another
bridge, besides the railway bridge, across the river.
Fort Sliwicki, situated at the northwestern ex-
tremity of Praga, defends these bridges and, to-
gether with the Alexander Citadel, on the western
bank of the Vistula, almost directly opposite this
fort, these fortifications were left by the Russians
when Warsaw was disarmed by order of General
Sukhomlinov, late War Minister of the Czar's
regime. Fort Sliwicki and the citadel were left
intact only for inner-political purposes. The old
Russian Government, ready for the coming insur-
rection of Poland, kept these forts fully armed,
with the idea of destroying Warsaw by their ar-
tillery in case a revolution should break out in the
Polish capital.
It must be noted that all the heavy guns of these
forts were directed towards Warsaw.
Praga is connected with Petrograd, Moscow, and
the Baltic republics, as well as with Ukraine, by
four main railway lines of great strategical im-
portance, because they are protected by the Vis-
tula, Bug and Narev defence lines*
About twenty miles northwest of Warsaw, where
the Vistula and the Bug meet, is the former fort-
ress of Novo-Georgievsk, or the Modlin forts. This
fortress was built in order to protect Warsaw from
German invasion but was considered useless from
a strategical standpoint and dismantled entirely
soon after the Russo-Japanese war. I do not
mention the other fortified places west of Warsaw,
which have no importance at the present moment,
when Warsaw is the objective of the Russian Red
Army. Practically, Warsaw has no technical de-
fense at all, from a purely military point of view,
and is protected only by the natural barriers of
the Vistula, Bug, and Narev, on the north, and the
Vistula and Bug on the east, while its eastern
portion, Praga, is open to the invaders once the
Bug has been forced*
Warsaw and its Entihons
(New York papers of August 17 report a Moscow
wireless of the same date, announcing the fall of Wmr-
saw. if the press report is true, it proves that Col Bet
was correct in hit ivjphrtv V*tf* Warsaw would faU
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"There is* no river that cannot be. crossed,"
Napoleon often repeated, and the history of war-
fare has proved this to be true. Only in June,
L920, I noticed the statements of the French and
Polish military experts that the Soviet army would
be unable to cross the Dnieper, Berezina, and
Dvina, because of the strong defence of the Polish
army, which had prepared in advance the most up-
to-date positions for passive defense, on their west-
ern banks. Nevertheless, the Russian cavalry
crossed these rivers with extraordinary ease and
penetrated in the rear of its enemy, thus producing
a panic amongst the fighting body of the Poles,
and facilitated the crossing of these rivers by the
Eed infantry. Finally, all the natural obstacles,
namely, the Dvina, Berezina, Dnieper, Narev, and
Bug, were forced by the Soviet army, which now
is already on the eastern banks of the Vistula,
and I do not see any reason why it should not cross
this river also, which is easier to cross than, for
instance, the Dvina or Berezina.
There were two possible methods for the Rus-
sian command to capture Warsaw, either by means
of a general assault, or to force it to surrender
by an encircling movement. The former certainly
would have been accomplished more swiftly, tak-
ing into consideration that the Red Army has al-
ready overpowered the .most serious natural and
technical lines of defence of the Polish capital.
But, in moving its masses on Warsaw, the Russian
Soviet Army would have been obliged to prepare
such an attack by most intensive artillery fire,
which would mean the destruction of the city, with
heavy casualties among the civilian population,
which is far from the intentions of the Russian
General Staff.
To say that the Russian Red Army is short of
siege artillery suitable for the purpose, is simply a
miscalculation on the part of the military critics
of the Allied press, who have forgotten that only a
month ago they declared that the Red artillery
was very active, and was using big guns "cap-
tured from Kolchak and Denikin," against the
Poles. It is therefore incredible that they should
have been left somewhere in the rear, unless they
were captured by the "victorious" Wrangel dur-
ing his latest "great victories."
It is sufficient to look at the map to understand
that the Red Army, about twenty to twelve miles
from Warsaw, at the very outskirts of Praga, and
bombarding Fort Sliwicki, could easily bombard
Warsaw. The fact that our airmen, as newspapers
tell us, are flying over the city unmolested and
dropping propaganda, shows that the Russian com-
mand does not intend any unnecessary destructive
action.
Therefore the Russian General Staff decided to
undertake a gigantic encircling movement which
has been called "dangerous" by Vidou, an eminent
military writer: "The Bolshevik generals are car-
rying out an extraordinarily daring manoeuvre
on the fronts north and east of Warsaw," he said,
and further explains a matter which I think the
Red General Staff knows something about and
naturally had counted on, namely, the fact that
"the terrain northeast of Warsaw is particularly
difficult, being covered by the Narev and Vistula
rivers," and that the fortress of Modlin is an es-
pecially formidable obstacle.
"The Soviet forces," he continues, "are trying
to move further westward, probably toward Plock/
so as to take Warsaw in the rear, but in so doing
they are lengthening their whole front from the
Vistula to the Prussian frontier." Further, Pro-
fessor Vidou declares, "this movement exposes the
Bolshevik line to a counter-offensive, which might
easily pierce it, even if not delivered in great
force."
Theoretically, the supposition of this French
strategist seems sound, and I should share his
opinion if the Polish field army were intact, and
Warsaw were a fortress prepared for the defence
from eastern invaders. But in reality Warsaw is
not a fortress, and the Polish field army is beaten,
and there are no reserves at the disposition of the
Polish command for properly accomplishing the
suggested counter offensive, except those which the
Allies were supposed to send for the Polish relief
through the famous corridor, now partly in the
hands of the Red Army.
Already on August 13, I stated to the Philadel-
phia Press representative that "in my opinion,
the Polish army is completely routed. The Rus-
sian General Staff hasn't decreed the capture of
Warsaw, because they are busy surrounding the
Polish army and cutting off entirely the communi-
cation of the Polish force with Danzig, from,
where the Poles can only expect war materials and
money from the Allies. The Russians are also
directing their cavalry army toward Plock, with
the objective of cutting off communication along
the Vistula river and afterwards threatening the
Warsaw-Bromberg railway, and thus practically
rendering it impossible for the Allies to communi-
cate with the Polish Army through the famous
corridor. This has all been much more strategical
than the immediate capture of Warsaw, but I
predict Warsaw will be captured by the Bolshevists
in the next few days." (The Philadelphia Press,
Saturday, August 14, 1920.)
The Russian-Polish battle line is divided now in
two fronts: the Western front (250 miles in
length), which begins at the East Prussian fron-
tier and now very probably ends at Lublin. This
front, under the command of the twenty-seven
year-old leader, Comrade Tukhachevsky, a former
lieutenant in the old Russian army, is operating
against Warsaw. Comrade Tukhachevsky is an
experienced officer, who distinguished himself as
an army commander, first against Kolchak, then
against Denikin, later again against Kolchak, after
which he once more returned to the southwestern
front to fight Denikin's hordes. Comrade
Yegorov, former Lieutenant-Colonel of the old
army, is commander-in-chief of the so-called south-
western front (100 miles in length), which ex-
tends approximately from the Lublin district up
to Kameujeiz-Podolak, and is in occupation* of
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northeastern Galicia, operating with Lemberg as
its objective. This front includes also the armies
which are guarding the Rumanian frontier along
the Dniester river to the Black Sea (300 miles in
length). The general command over all the Soviet
armies is in the hands of the well-known leader,
S. S. Kamenev, a militarily well-trained former
general of the old army, who is aided by Comrade
Lebedev as his chief of staff. All these leaders
are Communists who joined the party in the early
days of the Revolution.
The general military command over all the mili-
tary organizations in Russia is with the Supreme
Revolutionary Military Council, the executive
member of which is also the Commissar of Mili-
tary Affairs, or War Minister, Trotsky. Therefore,
the earlier information so often and so persistently
repeated by the Associated Press, that General
Brussilov is in the command of the armies operat-
ing against the Poles, is incorrect ; it has also been
officially denied by Moscow. General Brussilov,
however, is with the Red General Staff, and holds
an advisory position, like many of the Russian
generals and officers of the late Russian army.
The greater part of the commanding element of the
Red Army are recently trained and fully experi-
enced officers of the working class of Soviet Rus-
sia. One of them is the former corporal of the
Czar's army, Comrade Budenny, who is now head-
ing the so-called Red cavalry army, a unit which
does not exist in any capitalistic military organi-
zation. An independent cavalry army naturally
can be created only in such a country like Russia,
which has 43,000,000 horses, and once cavalry is
organized on the principles of a mounted infantry,
and supported by horse artillery and special ma-
chine gun units, and represents not an auxiliary
body to an army corps, but a quite independent
tactical unit, such a cavalry army cannot have any
rivals except in the form of an identical organiza-
tion, inspired by the same spirit and method of
tactics; but such a rival army cannot be found
either in Poland or in all Europe. Therefore, the
Soviet General Staff is enabled to undertake even
such "dangerous" manoeuvers as theoreticians con-
sider even impossible, and I am absolutely sure
that the Red Army will carry it out to a victorious
end.
We have often read in the American newspapers
during the last two years that the Red Army would
be unable to carry out this or that one of its stra-
tegical problems, and yet, it is getting stronger
and stronger, together with the present Russian
regime, although the former American ambassador
to Russia, David R. Francis, for more than two
years has been predicting "that the Soviet Govern-
ment at Moscow will go to pieces in six months."
According to the special telegram to the New
York Times from Washington, of August 13 (N.
Y. Times, August 14), Mr. Francis has stated
this once more, "made the prediction with con r
fidence . . ." He said that "when the Russian
people understood, through the medium of Secre-
tary Colby'6 note of last Tuesday, that there was
no intention on the part of the United States
Government to interfere with Russia's conduct of
her own affairs, and that it favored a united Rus-
sia, the effect would be detrimental to Bolshevist
rule." In view of the fact that it was openly
and officially declared that Secretary Colby's note
would be widely distributed among the Russians
by Wrangel and in other ways, and that this would
take place — while Russia is at war with Poland
and France, this action of the United States Gov-
ernment may be considered as military propaganda
and should therefore be discussed by a military
expert.
Therefore I am taking the liberty to state, after
having studied the note, that it would be very de-
sirable that it should be distributed among the
Russian people, especially amongst the soldiers of
the Red Army, and I believe it will be so distri-
buted, but not by Wrangel or by any other agency
than by the Soviet Government itself, because this
note is of a kind that will certainly produce an
effect on the Russian masses such as the Bolsheviki
are anxiously looking for.
Secretary Colby could not send out better moral
help for the beaten Poles and I suppose they
hardly expected assistance of this kind.
In spite of all the repeated accounts of Wran-
gel's alleged victories north of Crimea, I firmly
stated in the Philadelphia Press, of August 14,
that the army of this Russian usurper is already
"surrounded by Soviet forces north of Crimea, is
completely routed, and will be destroyed before
any military assistance from the Allies can reach
it." The recognition by France of this German
baron is the greatest blunder, much more senseless
than was the support of Denikin and Kolchak.
France is too late with her recognition, as is
also Secretary Colby's note, for any distribution in
Soviet Russia with the aid of Baron Wrangel.
The resolution of the organized workers of Eng-
land and the decision of Italy have already reached
the Russian people, and the workers and peasants
of Soviet Russia hence know that they are far
from alone in their efforts. Russian strategy was
supported at the decisive moment by the powerful
veto of the British workers, addressed to their
imperialistic government. Such help from the
outside is a great aid to the Russian Red Army,
now supporting the newborn diplomacy of the
Soviet Republic.
THE PROTECTION OF LABOR IN
SOVIET RUSSIA
By 6. KAPLUN
of the Commissariat of Labor
This pamphlet, reprinted for the first time from
an English translation that appeared in Petro-
grad this year, is an authoritative study of the
actual operation of the Code of Labor Laws,
which has already been reprinted by us in
pamphlet form.
Price Ten Cents
SOVIET RUSSIA
110 W. 40th St. Room Mi New York, N. Y.
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•186
SOVIET BUSSIA
August 21, 1920
Concerning a Disappointed Traveler
By B. J.
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TpHIS thing that we brag about — this vaunted
progress in the means of communication and
globe-trotting so that everyone knows exactly what
everybody else in the most distant parts of the
world is doing — all this is a lie and a delusion.
It will and must remain so, as long as it is to the
interest of one class to withhold or bar any inform-
ation whatsoever from another class. Meanwhile
we must try to nourish our hungry curiosity about
the mystic wonders of the East with such stuff
as the "Voyage and Travaile of Sir John Maun-
deville," or, if that resists digestion because of
its antiquity, . with Bertrand Russell's "Soviet
Kussia— 1920."*
Let there be no mistake about it : Bertrand Rus-
sell is one of the greatest men of our time, a pro-
found philosopher, a brilliant metaphysician, and
an uncompromising revolutionist in higher mathe-
matics. Nor is he content with being a great
high-priest in academic temples, for when Europe
was writhing in the travail of the war he came
forth bravely and pronounced a stinging ana-
thema against the social system which breeds such
horrors. Then did those doughty champions of
freedom, who proclaimed that, if necessary, they
would die for the sacred principle of liberty, take
his liberty from him and cast him into prison for
speaking freely and courageously the truth as he
saw it.
Concede his greatness and his valor, but do not
be dazzled by it into blindness. Even the sun
has spots. Bertrand RusselPs trenchant criticism
of Soviet Russia based on a sojourn of five weeks
and a day in that tremendously vast country, of
whose life and language he confesses he knew
nothing, is a distinct blemish on his career as a
political observer and commentator. This is not
the first instance of such a blemish, for in his
chapter on International Relations in "(Proposed)
Roads to Freedom" he fails to consider the origin
and nature of nationalism without which it is im-
possible to discuss satisfactorily the amelioration
of international relations ; after showing how the
capitalistic system inveigles the working classes
into becoming accessories to the crimes of imperi-
alism he predicts with a queer inconsistency that
owing to the psychology of competition, power,
and envy, the participation of the workers in the
capitalistic system will still cause war even after
the revolution has destroyed the capitalistic sys-
tem and all participation therein ; and finally, dub-
bing himself a "sober idealist" he condones the
exploitation of the subject peoples of Africa by
the Europeans, he calls the discontinuance of this
banditry Quixotic, and proceeds to offer some
white^-manVburden buncombe for public consump-
tion. Bertrand Russell does sometimes write on
matters with which he is very scantily familiar.
•The Nation, (N. P.), July 31, 1920; pp. 121-126.
We are not therefore so terribly shocked when
we find this great man fumbling about Soviet
Russia with his competence as a diagnostician im-
paired not only by negative handicaps (ignorance
of language, of conditions in Eastern Europe, etc.)
but by an unaccountable positive prejudice.
"Friends of Russia here think of the dictatorship
of the proletariat as merely a new form of repre-
sentative government, in which only working men
and women have votes and the constituencies are
partly occupational, not geographical." Later on
he repeats, "Before I went to Russia I imagined
that I was going to see an interesting experiment
in a new form of representative government." It
is too bad that he was disappointed, but it would
be hardly fair to call the Bolsheviki to task because
Mr. Russell confused the quiet speculations of the
National Guildsmen in England with the actual
struggles of the Bolsheviki in Russia. He imag-
ined he was going to see a fascinating model labor-
atory for trying out new schemes of representa-
tive government, and it pained his gentle nature
to discover instead the class struggle unmasked,
brought out into the open in its naked ferocity.
His conversation with Lenin leads one to conjec-
ture that little love was lost between the two gen-
tlemen, for the latter probably suspected that the
grandson of Lord John Russell was looking for a
proletarian revolution to suit his own very fas-
tidious palate.
He apparently did not know that the Commun-
ists regard all improved brands of bourgeois de-
mocracy as so much improved camouflage for con-
cealing the relentlessly brutal economic exploita-
tion of the workers. In the words of Lenin, "But
we shall never admit equality for the speculating
peasant, just as we do not admit 'equality' of the
exploiter and the exploited, of the well-fed and
hungry, or the 'liberty' of the first to plunder the
second."* The Bolsheviki maintain that "the
state is the product of the irreconcilable character
of class antagonism,"** and they are not interested
in perfecting this product. "Socialism is the sup-
pression of classes,"* and with that accomplished,
the state as we know it is automatically abolished.
All this Mr. Russell might easily have learned
without troubling himself with a long and stren-
uous journey from jolly old England. But since
he did so gallantly undertake the trip, his intelli-
gence should have told him that Soviet Russia is
not a finished product, but in the turbulent flux
of a transition stage. "The class truggle does not
disappear with the dictatorship of the proletariat ;
it only assumes new forms."* "This period of
* Economics of a Transition Period," by N. Lenin-
Soviet Russia, Vol. Ill, No. 5, pp. 105-109, July 31,
1920.
♦♦"The State and the Revolution," by N. Lenin;
p. 12 (published by The British Socialist Party and
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August 21, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
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transition cannot but be a period of struggle be-
tween dying capitalism and growing Communism,
or, in other words, between Capitalism already
defeated but not yet destroyed, and Communism,
already born, but still extremely weak."* Mr.
Russell's splendid passion for intellectual honesty
should have cautioned him to hold his judgment
of Communism in abeyance.
Mr. Russell has a very harrowing tale to tell
about the Extraordinary Commission, and he as-
cribes incredible atrocities to it: "It has shot
thousands without trial, etc." He does not, how-
ever, describe a single outrage that he has per-
sonally witnessed. We £an only accept such evi-
dence as hearsay of an indeterminate degree. A
much more substantial statement of the status and
conduct of the Extraordinary Commission is that
made by D. J. Kursky, People's Commissar for
Justice, who in his report to the Congress of
Soviets, dated December 4, 1919,** rejects as false
the theory of bourgeois law about the superclass
nature of courts, frankly admitting that the Revo-
lutionary Tribunals and the Extraordinary Com-
mission are instruments of the proletariat in the
war against the bourgeoisie. Kursky then de-
scribes how by a decree of the Russian Central
Executive Committee the Extraordinary Commis-
sion was deprived of its right to give extra-judicial
verdicts. The Revolutionary Tribunals are privi-
leged to revise judicial enquiries carried out by
the Extraordinary Commission, and to visit pris-
ons and free inmates illegally imprisoned. "The
fierce character of the civil war under which we are
living has prevented the complete realization of
these humane principles." It may very well be
that both friends and foes of the Bolsheviki "deal
only in superlatives," but this cannot bo said of
the Bolsheviki themselves, who have a too realistic
problem before them and who know how to face
the truth even when it is adverse.
Much credit is due to Mr. Russell for reporting
this fact of fundamental importance: that when
the incentive of amassing wealth is removed, men
of ability will still give their services to the com-
munity either out of patriotism or because they
enjoy the opportunity of developing their ideas
freely without the obstacle of tradition institutions.
If Russian art is only holding its own
under the stress of very unpropitious circum-
stances, it is a wonderful achievement of the Bol-
sheviki. Peace and the re-establishment of normal
relations with the rest of the world is necessary
for the continued development of Russian Com-
munism and Russian art. As for the future let
our disappointed traveler take new hope in the
words of his contemporary, G. B. S., "Art rises
when men rise, and grovels when men grovel."
Art will rise very high in Russia — and elsewhere.
* Economics of a Transition Period," by N. Lenin ;
Soviet Russia, Vol. Ill, No. 5, pp. 105-109, July 31,
1920.
♦♦Contemporary Review; VoL CXVII, pp. 861-878,
June, 1920.
BATTLING FOR SOVIET RUSSIA
With what earnestness the Italian comrades re-
gard their task of preventing arms and war ma-
terial from being sent for use against Russia ia
made clear by the following report:
On the 18th of June representatives of
the Italian proletariat from Trieste arrived in
Prague. They were authorized by political and
Social Democratic organizations to obtain from the
leaders of the Czecho-Slovakian Social-Democracy
guarantees that the transports of Czech legionaries,
which were being sent by way of Trieste, would
in no case be sent against Soviet Russia. The
last transports had encountered difficulties as the
workers refused to unload them and demanded the
disarming of the soldiers. The Czech Consul in
Trieste tried to persuade the workers that their
fears were groundless, but the Social-Democratic
organization of Trieste had thought it advisable to
apply directly for information and guarantees to
the leaders of the Czech Social-Democracy.
The Executive Committee of the Social-Demo-
cratic Party therefore held a meeting at which the
Italian representatives were present, and ^t which
the declaration was made, that no one in the Re-
public thought of taking any military action
against Russia, and that the fears of the Italian
comrades were groundless. The Italians informed
the meeting that one of the resolutions adopted
in Milan was that no transports for use against
Soviet Russia were to be allowed to pass through
Italy. After a prolonged discussion, the Italian
representatives were given a written declaration
in the name of all the Czechic workers that no
hostile steps against Soviet Russia would be toler-
ated. Every attempt of that kind would meet
with the retaliatory action of the proletariat. And
finally, the Italians were given the assurance that
the Czechic legionaries who had just come home
were declaring that they would never fight against
Soviet Russia. Thereupon the Italians announced
that they would from that time forth allow the
transports to go through Italy unmolested and
fully armed. (From a recent issue of a German
newspaper.)
HELP THE RUSSIAN CHILDREN
On our editorial pages, the reader will find a
presentation of the plight of the 780 Russian
children who will reach New York about Sep-
tember 1st.
They need clothing and blankets for their jour-
ney across the Atlantic and through the Baltic
Sea to their homes in Petrograd. They need
food and clothing and medicaments, in addition
to the expenses of their entertainment in New
York before their steamer sails for Europe.
Our readers should send contributions for this
purpose to the address below, in addition to en-
couraging their friends to do likewise.
RUSSIAN SOVIET BUREAU, Dept. A
Room 304
110 West 40th Street
I from
New York, N. Y.
uni
VbHSI IV 0h MICHIGAN
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August 21, 1920
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau onlv
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised
'THE TRAGEDY of the Menshevik is that the
■*■ position of begging the question which is char-
acteristic of his philosophy is not only not accept-
able to both of the contending parties between
whom he is trying to act as moderator, but that,
to complete his misfortune, the most reactionary
of the reactionaries are the first to attempt to
make common cause with him.
Mr. Bertrand Russell went to Russia under the
impression that he was a Communist. He found,
after observing Communism in actual operation,
that he had been mistaken — that the ways of
Communists in power were not sympathetic to
him. In a series of interesting articles which Mr.
Russell contributed to the London Nation (they
were later reprinted in the New York Nation)
he has advanced a number of objections to the
Soviet Government and to the party dominant in
that government, concerned chiefly with the al-
leged absence of "democracy" in the technique of
elections and in certain other phases of the ad-
ministration of the country.* Mr. Russell has no
doubt experienced a number of unpleasant shocks
as a result of the frequent and gleeful reprinting
of his comparatively mild strictures by the coun-
ter-revolutionary press in his own country as well
as abroad. But he probably was less disappointed
by any of these peculiar "allies" than by his new
associate, who is no less a person than Premier
David Lloyd George. "I trust the members of the
House and the country will read the remarkable
articles of Bertrand Russell," said Mr. Lloyd
George in the House of Commons on August 10,
in his long speech on the Russo-Polish situation.
And then the Premier pointed out statistically
(using Mr. Russell's figures) that Soviet rule in
England would mean the rule of a small class of
only 200,000 persons (Mr. Lloyd George appears
to imply that the class at present ruling in Great
Britain is a somewhat more numerous body) ; that
the parliamentary system is more "tolerant" and
"humane" than that of the Soviets (Mr. Russell
used similar words: "kindliness and tolerance") ;
that elections are not "democratic" in Russia, and
numerous other things.
Not dissimilar was the plight of the Menshevik
* Some of these objections are considered in the last
issue of Soviet Russia.
during the early days of the Russian Revolution.
Seriously wishing, as most of the Mensheviks did,
that the capitalist system in Russia might be over-
thrown, he yet was so firmly convinced of the im-
possibility of achieving this object in a country
so undeveloped industrially as was Russia, as to be
willing to resist even by force of arms the accom-
plishment of the overthrow of capitalism. What
this meant to the Menshevik in the way of entang-
ling alliances with other counter-revolutionary ele-
ments it is painful to rehearse. Every force work-
ing for the destruction of the government set up
by the Russian peole quoted the Mensheviks in the
prosecution of its counter-revolutionary policy,
printed their articles in its papers, afforded their
spokesman an opportunity to speak in its organiza-
tions. Many an honest Menshevik has no doubt felt
pangs of remorse on seeing his articles reprinted in
Struggling Russia, the former organ of Mr. A.
J. Sack and his very provisional government.
How far this resistance went is well-known. In
spite of frequent efforts, on the part of the Soviet
Government, to give the Mensheviks an opportun-
ity to retain their freedom of the press and their
other channels for self-expression, it was found
necessary on each of these occasions to withdraw
their privilege of association and to close the of-
fices of their newspapers, for their determination
to place all their efforts at the disposal of counter-
revolutionary forces was so persistent as to make
it impossible to grant to them the right that was
given as a matter of course to bona fide supporters
of the Soviet Government — to the really working-
class elements of Russia's population.
After all their alliances with foreign and do-
mestic counter-revolutionists had proved to be
failures, the Mensheviks finally began to support
the Soviet Government, a course to which they
were impelled chiefly by the horrors of the Allied
policy of intervention. These men were poor So-
cialists, but they were Russians who loved their
country, and hatred of the foreign invader moved
their spirits to do what their economic convictions
had failed to make them accomplish. In this re-
spect, also, as we shall later observe, they were not
unlike Mr. Bertrand Russell.
Mr. Lloyd George tells us he would not like
to see established in England the working-class
government that now rules Russia, and in de-
scribing its "tyrannies" he bases his statement on
— Bertrand Russell. And we are sure that Mr.
Russell has already bitterly regretted having given
one of reaction's most able champions the weapons
with which to fight his class opponents.
But we know that Mr. Russell's data are in
themselves by no means as damaging as Mr. Rus-
sell himself seems to believe. Hardly any of the
things he urges against the Communists are seri-
ous defects: it is rather in the manner of his pre-
sentation that Mr. Russell has injured the hearts
of the 4 friends of Soviet Russia abroad. Mr. Rus-
sell's claim to be a friend of the Communists, to
have been disappointed by their methods, to have
tried hard to be "jfair" with them — these painful
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August 21, 1920
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and over-conscientious observations of a lugubri-
ously pedantic "objectivity" are the weapons by
which he had made himself acceptable for quota-
tion in the reactionary newspapers of all the world.
We must close — it seexns to be the fate of the
radical untrained in economics that he is brought
into a most unholy and self-destructive alliance
with the forces of reaction. We cannot refrain
from repeating that it is sad to find Mr. Russell
consorting with Mr. Lloyd-George: it is a sadness
not dissimilar to that which is felt on witnessing
the spectacle of a young and unspoiled maiden in
dangerous intimacy with a lady of entirely differ-
ent age and moral character. And, as the past
suddenly flashes upon us, we recall the Welsh
miner, Lloyd-George, of a few years ago, one of
England's greatest "radicals", who has himself
more than completed since then the transformation
which, in the case of Mr. Bertrand Russell, has
barely begun.
"DUT even the relatively innocent Mr. Russell
-■"* already displays a cloven hoof. We had
thought of him as of some ethereal person, far
removed from life's vulgar struggles, entirely
apart from such mob-psychologies as that of crude
nationalism and insular imperialism. But, on
reading the second one of the reprints of his ar-
ticles (The Nation, New York, August 7), we ob-
serve things that had not at first revealed their
true nature to us; for instance, this paragraph:
But if wc continue to refuse peace and trade, I do
not think the Bolsheviki will go under. Russia will
endure great hardship in the years to come as before.
But the Russians are inured to misery as no western
nation is; they can live and work under conditions
which we should find intolerable. The government
will be driven more and more, from mere self-preserva-
tion, into a policy of imperialism. The Entente has
been doing everything to expose Germany to a Russian
invasion of arms and leaflets, by allowing Poland to
engage in a disastrous war and compelling Germany
to disarm. All Asia lies open to Bolshevist ambitions.
Almost the whole of the former Russian Empire in
Asia is quite firmly in their grasp. Trains are running
at a reasonable speed to Turkestan, and I saw cotton
from there being loaded on to Volga steamers. In
Persia and Turkey powerful revolts are taking place
with Bolshevist support. It is only a question of a few
years before India will be in touch with the Red Army.
If we continue to antagonize the Bolsheviki, I do not
see what force exists that can prevent them from ac-
quiring the whole of Asia within ten years.
There is no doubt that there are strong elements
of Bolshevism in the uprisings now taking place in
Persia and Turkey, but Soviet Russia is not invad-
ing those countries, and, even if it were, that would
be no cause for alarm to the pacifist "internation-
alist", Mr. Bertrand Russell. A true pacifist or
internationalist would not express undue concern
over the national institutions which the Persian
or .Turkish people — perhaps, he suggests, with the
aid of the Russian people — are about to establish
in tbeir own countries. Can it be that Mr. Ber-
trand Russell is really a British nationalist after
all, a man in whom the "judicious attitude", the
"reserved judgment", the "kindliness and toler-
O
ance", are only the modes in which an ingrained
desire for the continuance of British world empire
expresses itself? Does Mr. Russell not display
somewhat too much solicitude for "the whole of
Asia"? It is not impossible that the political
doctrine of Bolshevism, which is the philosophy of
the dominant factors in the Soviet Government,
may also animate such governments as may be
established in that continent in the near future,
but why should this fill Mr. Russell with concern ?
If we continue to antagonize the Bolsheviki, I do
not see what force exists that can prevent them from
acquiring the whole of Asia within ten years.
The acquisition of the whole of Asia by Bol-
shevik Governments — or does Mr. Russell imagine
that the Soviet Government could conquer all these
countries against the will of their populations and
put up a single government over all of them ? — no
doubt involves discomforts to certain classes of
persons. Perhaps Mr. Russell is solicitous for the
Japanese imperialists, who are helping themselves
in Eastern Siberia; perhaps he is desirous that the
United States shall continue to hold the Philip-
pine Islands, or France to govern Annam and
Cochin-China ; — or perhaps he fears that British
world-empire may be deprived of India, Hong-
kong, Burmah, and Mesopotamia? It is the Bri-
tish Government which he is warning to refrain
from antagonizing the Bolsheviki, and the reason
he assigns is that the Bolsheviki may otherwise
become powerful and aggressive, and therefore,
may deprive England of some of the colonies from
which her wealth is drawn.
Now, what is Mr. RusselFs position, anyway?
Does he think Bolshevism is so poor in merit that
it must be held together by a common antagonism
against foreign aggression? And does he think
that a defective political system, tyrannized by a
small minority of 600,000, and unpopular with the
rest of the people, could have maintained itself
against all the rest of the world, exercising against
it ail the pressure of their military and economic
organization. Is this logic, or mathematics, or
ideologic folly?
A SIA is an interesting continent. It is fre-
***■ quently spoken of as a land of mystery and
of breathless possibilities. A dignified magazine
printed in New York devotes its pages to Asiatic
material only — to studies of the peculiarities of
Asia's (to us) strange peoples. But let us be hu-
man. Let us assume that Asians are like us in their
normal reactions. If Asiatic populations are in any
danger of allying themselves with the Soviet Gov-
ernment, or of adopting Bolshevik rule, can it be
because they will not be able to resist Bolshevik
aggression ? At the bottom of his heart, Mr. Rus-
sell knows that if Asia leans to the Russian side, it
is because the Russian Soviet Government looks
good to it ; it is because the Soviet Government has
no aggressive designs on it; and because anyone
with half an eye can see that the Soviet Govern-
ment injtus&i^.is a oiLCce«s. Who is drawing Asia
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and the Soviet Government together? Does the
Soviet Government carry its doctrine by force into
Asia. Have China, Persia, India, Afghanistan,
Japan, been sufferers from any aggression on the
part of the Soviet Government ? Have any of these
countries suffered from English aggression? Would
they turn naturally to England or to the Soviet
Government for an alliance in the common pursuit
of peaceful aims? or — let us say — for protection
against foreign aggression or exploitation?
Mr. Russell is all wrong. The Soviet Govern-
ment can do nothing that will in any way accel-
erate the eagerness of Asiatic populations to clasp
its hands in friendship — for they have only to look
at the Soviet Government to see how magnificently
it compares, as a neighbor, with any other coun-
try. But then, perhaps Mr. Russell is not wrong
after all. We also see nothing that can prevent
Asia from accepting Soviet Russia's outstretched
hand of friendship.
CEVEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTY children
^ whose homes are in Petrograd will arrive in
this city in a few days on their way back home.
They are worn out and tired with traveling and
the following account of their travels in Russia
will explain why they are tired and worn out:
In the summer of 1918 some three thousand
children were sent to the Ural region from Petro-
grad in order that they might be among surround-
ings that assured them the possibility of securing
plenty of food and care, conditions that were then,
as now, decidedly lacking in Petrograd. They had
hardly begun to enjoy the advantages of their new
location, than the Czecho- Slovaks began their
treacherous internal attack on the new republic,
and seized the city of Kazan, cutting off railroad
connections with Petrograd. The children were
thus compelled to live in counter-revolutionary
territory during the winter of 1918-19, and when
Kolchak began his famous retreat, in May, 1919,
he moved these unhappy youngsters with him at
each stage of his retirement, thus pushing them
eastward over the whole breadth of Siberia. In
their temporary camps illness and privations so
often decimated their number, that over 2,000 died
before the present remnant left Vladivostok. A
Japanese steamer, the Yomei Maru, brought them
to San Francisco, and they are now, the 780 who
remain, making the journey through the Panama
Canal on the same steamer, which will take them
to Europe from New York. Our readers may con-
tribute to the expenses of entertaining these chil-
dren in New York and providing them with toys
and books and clothing to take back to Petrograd,
by sending checks, currency, or money-orders to
our publication office, drawn in favor of "The Rus-
sian Soviet Bureau." It is a cause to which all
should contribute to the best of their ability.
In remitting money, readers should indicate the
purpose of remittance by using the words: "For
the Children from Siberia." All such contribu-
tions must reach our office on or before August 30.
MURDER OF DEPORTEES
The White Guards serving in the Latvian Army
themselves disclosed the cruel act whereby they
were compelled by their' officers to shoot three de-
portees from England together with two other
captives. Ten of these guards have written the
letter which follows to the Social Democratic Fac-
tion of the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia.
ir We cannot be silent! We, the soldiers of the
8th Army Corps of Dvinsk, 6th Division, have
been today, May 27, 1920, surprised by a mys-
terious and exciting event which we cannot pass
over in silence. Two soldiers brought to us at
8.30 P. M. five civil persons who had been sent by
unknown superiors. The Chief Sergeant of our
Division explained to us that we should permit
these five persons (two men and three women) to
pass through our front to Soviet Russia. Then
we (ten soldiers) received orders to take light ma-
chine guns and lead them through.
"Our suspicions were first aroused by this : Why
should the government send captives and com-
munists to this place for an exchange of prisoners
with the Soviet Government? For that pur-
pose we have an official prisoners' exchange
station: Rosenovskaya, and prisoners are sent in
large batches several score at a time, convoyed by
specially appointed Government officers. Further,
the prisoners explained that three of their num-
ber (two men and one woman) had been sent from
London through Libau and Latvia to Soviet Rus-
sia and they were already many weeks in Latvia
as a result of different commandatures (govern-
ment establishments in charge of local government
dictators). These three persons had spent twenty-
eight years in London and were now deported as
foreigners (they were born in Dvinsk). The
others, the two women, they explained, had come
across the front at Rosenovskaya, bought salt, and
on their way back to Soviet Russia, were arrested
by our soldiers, sent to Rezhitza's commandature,
and from thence here. Together with the prison-
ers we went about a verst and a half from our
front line into the neutral zone. Then we were
all commanded to go down from the road to a
forest some hundred paces to one side. On reach-
ing the forest, we (soldiers) were ordered to shoot
down the five persons we were convoying through
the front. The order was finally carried out, after
serious discussion among the soldiers who were
all greatly excited by this unexpected and unfore-
seen order.
"Comrades, we cannot describe to you this ter-
rible deed, nor our own commotion. Comrades!
Up till now know that our government has given
various orders of this nature — as in the shooting
down of schools boys in Wolmar, etc. . . . Now,
when the back lines of the front expect the aboli-
tion of capital punishment, men are sent from the
back lines to the front for murder !" . . .
The ten shooters concluded the letter to their
comrades "of the Social Democratic faction of
the Constituent Assembly of Latvia," by asking
for an official investigation of the terrible deed!
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A Russian Journey in the Spring of 1920
A Visit to the Center of the Communist Party. An Easter Feast at Moscow.
By Z. Hoglund
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Friday, April 9.
It probably appears incomprehensible to many
how the Bolsheviki, this party which had such a
small beginning, and which was still small in
1917, has been able to take the lead in the Russian
domain of hundreds of millions, and to retain this
lead. There have been several reasons, of course,
but the real one and the most important, is that
the historical development of Communism was and
is the only power which can hold humanity to-
gether and prevent its disintegration. To a very
great extent their success is due to the fact that
the Bolsheviki were never a soft, weak party of
seventy-five per cent paper-members as were most
of the other Socialist parties, but have always been
a fully organized and exemplary revolutionary or-
ganization, ready for battle. To belong to the
party of Lenin and Trotsky is not to belong to a
party of parliamentary lobbyists, and to stand be-
fore ministerial chairs, nor does it mean the lead-
ing of the class struggle from a safe tower of
poetry; it is to put quiet living behind one, to
renounce all personal interests, and to risk one's
life daily. And yet, or rather therefore, this party
exercises at the present time in Russia, and over
the world, an enormous power of attraction. One
understands the mass psychology that is making
Russia win over a world of enemies, when one
remembers that during a week of agitation when
Denikin was dangerously close to Moscow last year,
the party enrolled 17,000 new members, in spite
of the fact that their becoming members was equiv-
alent to joining the Red Army, and that every
enrolment in the party was a candidature for
death.
Today I had an opportunity to observe
closely the organization of this party and its way
of working. The Communist Party has its secre-
tariat in a big building on Moskovskaya Street,
opposite the main entrance to the Kremlin. About
120 people are directly employed here, in offices
for agitation, registration, distribution, organiza-
tion, instruction, statistics, rural and women's agi-
tation, chancery, finance, etc., etc. The leader is
a woman named Yelyena Stasova, an elderly wom-
an, descended from an aristocratic bourgeois fam-
ily, who held the same position some twenty years
ago when neither the party nor the central com-
mittee existed, as such, when there was only the
committee of St. Petersburg. She has been four
times in jail, was deported in 1913 to the govern-
ment of Yenissei, in Siberia, obtained permission
to visit her old parents for six months in 1916, —
and did not return, for March, 1917, intervened.
The number of memberships in the Communist
party was 611,000 at the last Congress, Stasoya
informed us. The walls of several of the rooifts in
the secretariat are covered with statistical tables.
They are very particular about the keeping of sta-
tistics, so that it is possible at any moment 'o put
one's finger on the exact situation in any part of
the country. Among other things I learned that
the class grouping at the last congress, among the
representatives, was as follows: 271 workers
(lifty-one per cent) ; 129 intellectuals (twenty-
three per cent) ; employers (in the Soviet service)
tf5 (twelve per cent) ; forty-four artisans (nine
per cent); twenty-four peasants (five per cent).
As to the age of memberships of the party the
following figures were given: representatives who
were in the movement before 1903, thirty-
three (six per cent) ; 1903-07, 136 (thirteen per
cent) ; 1908-11, thirty-four (six per cent) ; 1912-
16, seventy-three (twenty-four per cent). The city
is divided into thirteen districts and the party has
680 groups, in factories, etc., and 300 lecturers
work here constantly, and there are thousands of
smaller local meetings.
The guide for the day was Nyevski, first assist-
ant to Kalinin in the Department of Peasant Pro-
paganda. (Kalinin is President of the All-Russian
Central Executive Committee.) Nyevski is a lit-
tle man, forty-three years of age, formerly a pri-
vate teacher of mathematics in Petrograd, a revo-
lutionist and organizer since 1895, and has spent
altogether eight years in jail. I learned from
another person that he had been a teacher. His
own reply to a question as to his occupation was
that he was a revolutionist.
During the six months of concentrated work in
rural agitation, Kalinin and Nyevski have had a
wide and comprehensive experience, not the least
of which has been the receiving of peasants and
peasant deputies. More than 3,000 peasants have
visited them to discuss the food question, and
there have been half as many for other agricultural
problems. Out in the country districts the peas-
ants have been visited in large meetings, according
to districts ; the situation of the republic has been
explained to them ; and those who understand and
sympathize with the movement are brought into
it. Nyevski read a few reports from those agitators
who had been sent out to the rural districts. One
reported that complaints were made of injustice
in the requisition of horses. The agitator in ques-
tion had advised them to form a party organization
in this district and obtain justice through this
organization.
As a result of the agitation work within the
Red Army, there has been developed a more con-
scious revolutionary spirit, and an almost incred-
ible self-discipline. For instance, after the Yuden-
ich victory, the soldiers, realizing the immense
difficulties of transportation, readily consented to
not being sent home at once, and remained at
work in and near their immediate stations. Dur-
ing the time between April 1, 1919, and March
1, 1920, 11,656 party members were sent to the
fronts for political agitation, most of them last
fall, against Denikin and Yudenich. They were
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taken largely from the political and administra-
tive party groups, and they have contributed large-
ly to the increase in the fighting ability of the
army. Political courses are given throughout the
Bed Army. The best pupils are picked out and
sent back to the workers' high school at Moscow
for further education. More than 300 talented
soldiers have been sent from the fronts to Moscow,
in this way. Among the troops there are in addi-
tion 2,348 non-political educational schools, 3,088
libraries, 1,315 soldier-clubs, also of an educational
character and with educational aims, 472 theatres,
and 220 moving picture establishments. All this
organization has been created within the past
eleven months. 9,600,000 kilograms of literature
have been sent to the army, at a cost of 16,000,000
rubles.
Easter Sunday, April 11.
Nothing human may be strange to one who is
out on an exploring expedition, and the Russian
Easter has always been so typical to the westerner
that Friis and the undersigned — Grimlund is more
ungodly— decided to study it at close hand, by
sacrificing a whole night's sleep.
Moscow is a city of churches, according to a
popular saying, and actually it is. On almost
every street corner there is a church or a chapel,
and there is probably no country in the world with
the possible exception of the United States, that
can compare in number with the edifices erected
for church purposes. Ivan the Terrible was a
great builder of churches. It is said that every
time he perpetrated a new crime his conscience
made him build a new church to bribe heaven. And
his successors to the throne have also had a great
deal to atone for, and have atoned in the same way.
At half past twelve this morning, according to
the summer reckoning of the Bolsheviki, we ar-
arived at the home of Klinger, the treasurer of the
Third International, one of the most lovable of
our Russian comrades. He lives in the quarters
occupied by the same Third International, form-
erly the German legation, where Count Mirbach
was murdered. The stairs are dimly lighted, and
add fuel to our already active imaginations.
Klinger, who is worn out from work and who suf-
fers from digestive trouble, has slept a little, and,
waiting while he dresses, we obtain from his writ-
ing desk some idea of the workings of his active
mind. There lie to be read presently, the German
edition of Faust, Frank's splendidly written war-
book, "Man Is Good"; Brandes* "Das Junge
Deutschland", and the "Afltionbuch" by Pfemfert.
We have still plenty of time, Klinger informs us.
The priests are sabotaging the summer time reck-
oning of the Bolsheviki, and consequently it is still
a couple of hours before their midnight, when the
Easter celebration begins. According to our
watches, which keep Bolshevik time, this will be
half past two. Soon we start out upon the streets
of Moscow.
The city is crowded with people, veritable migra-
tions, on their way to the many churches, particu-
larly the. largest ones. , Rockets throw a variegated
rain of stars over the city, and shots are being
fired, among shouts of joy and festivity. Who
does the firing? The priests, the priests. People
walk with candles in their hands, which they try
to keep burning as long as possible. ^
The great Tsar bell of the Kremlin is now
sounding. We arrive at our destination, the
Church of the Deliverance, the largest in all Mos-
cow, 102 meters high, built in 1837-83, located
south of the Kremlin, by the river bank. The
wide enormous stairs are crowded with people, and
there, are so many people inside that we can only
find our way in by following one of the small ener-
getic currents of people moving in and out through
the crowd. It is more like a crowd seeking sensa-
tion than a religious crowd. Men and women,
soldiers, old women, boys and girls — there is hardly
room to cross one's self. Some of the audience
can scarcely hold their candles, and there are long
streaks of wax on many a garment; toes are trod-
den upon, and cries appealing to "tovarishch" re
sound.
Just as we had succeeded in getting half way
into the shining, and, in its way, beautiful church,
with its quantities of candles, and the small lamps
in front of beautiful pictures, a procession meets
us and the crowd parts to make way for it. There
are two banners at the head, one with a golden
cross upon a green field, the other with a .picture
of Christ, and following these banners a procession
of choir boys with candles, then a group of long
haired popes, some in red garments with round
caps and big candles, and various gay ornaments
held aloft. The procession marches out and goes
around the church singing, and enters again.
Wherever it passes the chant goes up, "Christ is
risen," and the people answer, rather faintly how-
ever, "Yes, He is truly risen."
Our friend Friis has been separated from us,
in the midst of the crowd, and is fighting desper-
ately to rejoin us. This is the less surprising as
he has landed beside a homely old lady and is un-
doubtedly thinking of the obligatory Easter kiss-
ing attack, which may begin when least expected.
Klinger and I have had the luck (and taste) to
remain near three very sweet-looking girls. Friis
fights madly for happier hunting grounds, and is
finally by our side again.
The procession has again reached its place by
the altar, where order is called and singing begins,
now solo, now alternative song, then polyphonous.
They bow, swing gorgeous censors, light candles,
and perform other picturesque ceremonies. In the
midst of our interest in this we find that our three
pretty girls have disappeared. Instead we find
beside us a beautiful woman, of a Madonna-like
beauty, where she stands illuminated by a wax
candle. Yet there is nothing religious, in a literal
sense, about her. The odor of perfume brings quite
different associations of thoughts and feelings.
Klinger, who stands looking like a strayed Me-
phisto, with his long beard, and I, are suddenly in-
terrupted in our scrutiny oi f the Madonna by Friis,
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who pathetically exclaims, "They have stolen my
money." Quite right, — in the midst of the crowd
he has had to give an unwilling contribution
of from six to seven thousand rubles (according to
the present rate of exchange only fifteen to sixteen
crowns). He becomes less interested, and more
and more impatient. "We have already stood here
for two hours, — we cannot stand all night," he
insists. We finally persuade him to remain a lit-
tle longer.
The priests continue. They walk about, bow to
each other and to the Icons, swing their censors,
lift the crucifix, light candles, mumble prayers,
and sing. And this has gone on for thousands of
years. What an ocean of unproductive work ! I
think of Columbus, Newton, Voltaire, Darwin,
Marx, and Edison. The song, however, is beauti-
ful, although the main bass has recently been ar-
rested as a counter-revolutionist.
Few faces among the audience show genuine
devotion. They cross themselves mechanically and
are thinking of various things. Remembering the
possibilities of acquiring vermin, we are cheered
by hearing a voice at our side utter : "It is a good
thing that there has just been a week of baths."
The pontiff, an extremely neat and elderly gray-
beard, gives his blessing, and delivers a short ser-
mon. Two others hold candles beside him, kiss
his hands, and bestow blessings. Then he places
himself upon a chair opposite the altar, reads a
long litany, kisses a big golden cross, and hands
it on to be kissed by the others. All the priests
kiss the altar, which is beautifully decorated with
flowers, and the big Bible which lies there. There
is a new procession among the crowds.
It is past iive o'clock in the morning. Feet are
beginning to get sore, and legs to weaken. A
young man is asleep, standing beside us. Now
Friis becomes too impatient, and when we learn,
from a bystander, that this will continue for at
least another hour, we decide to leave. Klinger
remains, following everything with wonderful de-
votion. Later on I heard that he had studied for
the priesthood in his youth. It is interesting to
think that the treasurer of the Communist Inter-
national might have been, under other circum-
stances^ Russian pope.
Thus we do not see the end and cannot ascer-
tain for ourselves whether they still observe the
traditional kissing. We are told, later, that it is
very rare, however. When we come out in the
early morning, the bells are sounding everywhere,
and the stars shine in the cool spring sky.
Except for the ringing of the bells, which con-
tinues for a whole week, one beginning when an-
other leaves off, the Easter begins beautifully. The
one week of spring has already made great progress
here in Moscow. During the past few days
the river has risen higher and higher, and great
chunks of ice dance merrily down upon it. Peo-
ple stand on the bridges with pussy willows in
their hands, gazing at the sight. Now the river
is going down again, several meters each day. To-
day, Easter Sunday, everyone looks neat and quite
well-dressed. The women have evidently consulted
their mirrors. Many of them walk about in fine
white shoes. The bourgeois press should see this !
Small girls are selling violets in the sunshine,
on the stone stairs. Boys play upon the streets,
with copper kopecs. In. front of the Metropol a
dozen boys are practising the building of a barri-
cade by placing a stone pile against a trolley pole,
undisturbed by the police. Little girls are playing
jackstones on the sidewalks by the river. Their
toys are prettily decorated, and are not unlike
those used by Swedish children. People sit quietly
in the parks, the children play in the sand, and
along the river an occasional fisherman hauls in a
small fish. Dogs lie drowsily upon the asphalt,
the buds on the trees are swelling visibly, the ail
shimmers as in summer ,and the gold and tinsel
shine on the many cupolas.
At the Red Square, along the wall of the Krem-
lin, there is a long, long grave, where are buried
many of the fallen heroes of the two Russian revo-
lutions. In the middle of the wall there is an
allegoric painting, surrounded by the rays of the
rising sun. Upon a red banner, slightly faded by
the storms of winter, can be read: "All honor to
the Socialist fighters," and on the other side : "All
honor to the vanguard of the proletarian revolu-
tion." Wreaths are scattered at two places, one
where the twelve victims of the attempt of Sep-
tember 23, last year, are resting, and the other
upon the grave of General Nikolayev. He was at
first a Czarsit general, who later on went over
to the side of the people and the Soviet. He
fought bravely and with great honor against Yude-
nich, was taken prisoner by him, was hanged, and
had a red star cut upon the flesh of his chest.
When the Reds recaptured Yamburg, they found
his mutilated body and buried him with great
honor here among the heroes of the revolution.
His picture occupies a leading place in the office
of the International.*
Except for this there is no distinction made in
this grave. All those who fell in the revolution
are buried here, with the same lack of discrimina-
tion that is shown in caring for the children of
the Whites and the Reds alike, all being cherished
with the same loving care.
Monday, April 12.
The Commissars and other Russian Communist
leaders have not abused their possibilities for power
nor applied it to high living. Instead they have
paid for their positions with a fearful strain upon
their nerves and energy. But there is one man
in the Kremlin who still seems to be well off, as
though nothing had affected his life in either the
war or the revolution. He is Demyan Byedny,
the Beranger of Bolshevism, the poet laureate, as
he may perhaps be called. That he is well off
does not depend upon the fact that he is specially
paid by the government, but upon his enormous
19*20)" Sam Sffljftafflotfi N °
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popularity among the people, who 6end food and
beverages to his little flat in the Kremlin, — Rus-
sian peasants who are extremely fond of his funny
satirical fables, and soldiers who are enraptured
by his revolutionary songs.
In company with a woman comrade, Eugenie
Ditrikul, from Pravda, I visited the illustrious
poet this afternoon and had a very pleasant discus-
sian about the poetry of the time, etc. However,
as an account of this visit would take too long, I
shall only briefly characterize the poet himself.
He is a strong, broad-shouldered man of thirty-
seven years of age, quick of wit, and with a deep
bass voice. He is very jovial, full of laughter, re-
minding one of a kindly giant among children.
He has a wife, the ideal sort for a poet, one who
keeps the house and sees to it that he is able
to keep his poetic temperament unimpaired by
small worries. In the nursery, which is full of
toys of all kinds, there are two small human poems
of flesh and blood, enjoying a worldly paradise.
Demyan Byedny was born in 1883, in a peasant
family at Kherson, studied languages at the Uni-
versity of Petrograd, beginning with plans for
becoming a professor, but found himself in the
revolutionary movement during the reaction after
1905. It was his writing of political fables that
attracted Lenin's attention to him. He is a mod-
ern Aesop, and has, as a matter of fact, translated
into Russian the works of the great poet of fables.
He participated in the world war for the period
of one year, but thereafter kept himself in retire-
ment in Finland, from whence he came to take
his position as a revolutionary poet with Pravda,
as soon as that paper published its first number in
March, 1917.
He is the most popular poet of the revolution,
if not also its most literary one. He has written
twenty-eight poems, some of which have been
printed to the number of from 200,000 to 400,000
copies, generally in small illustrated satirical pam-
phlets. He showed me the proof of a new poem
of this same kind, which is soon to be published,
and in which he describes the march of the chil-
dren of Israel out of Egypt and to Canaan as a
parable of the liberation of the proletariat from
the capitalists. Lenin and Trotsky are Moses and
Aaron, and the pictures show among other things
the marching of the Israelites under a banner with
the inscription: "Workers of the world, unite."
He has also written a few poems in heroic style,
and a varied selection of prose.
The day becomes a literary one. In the after-
noon I meet the young French poet, Henri Guil-
beaux, also well known to Swedish Socialists as
the publisher of the excellent magazine, Demain,
in Switzerland, which was later on suppressed by
the faint hearted Swiss Government upon an order
from the French chauvinists, in connection with
the deportation of Guilbeaux. He went to Soviet
Russia and cannot for the present return to his
so-called fatherland, because he is there under sen-
tence of death as an ally of the Bolsheviki.
Guilbeaux is a small, thin man, thirty-four years
of age, with blond hair, who might easily be taken
for a German. He first studied engineering, and
participated in the French social democracy, but
left it very soon and has not belonged to the party
for the last ten years, but has associated with
syndicalist and anarchist spheres. He has now
been for several years a real Communist. He is
very glad that the Strassburg Congress, which was
held recently, led the French party so much to
the left, but thinks that the Loriot Group should
leave the party. He maintains that the intellectu-
als in France are for us, to a great extent, but is
very doubtful whether they will remain so in case
of a revolutionary situation in their native land.
As far as his old friend Romain Holland is con-
cerned, he too, is a Communist, but Guilbeaux
is certain that he will remain faithful to his radical
point of view, since he is honest and sincere.
The development of Romain Holland in regard
to Bolshevism is very interesting, and Guilbeaux
has shown me several letters which show that the
great French poet, who was strongly against the
Bolsheviki in the beginning, is now directing his
energies where they are most needed and will be
most effective, namely, against the Entente im-
perialism, and has decidedly taken his stand with
Soviet Russia. Among other remarkable letters
from the time of the world war, the former editor
of Demain has one from the great German-Aus-
trian poet, Rilke, written November 13, 1916, and
proving how even then that great personage,
musical and artistic, without interest in politics
and people, was already suffering from the war. As
a document illustrating the reactions of the intel-
lectual world a few lines may be reproduced here.
"You can imagine what I have suffered since
life has become so dreadful. The terrible death of
Verhaeren (the Belgian poet who was killed in a
train accident), has plunged me into impenetrable
grief. This great heart, this heroic friend, will
be of no further help in restoring and enriching
life. And when shall the work of recovery begin ?*
Guilbeaux is at the present time busy with the
preparation of a book on proletarian ethics and
revolution, and is at the same time editing a
continuation of the magazine, Demain, which is,
unfortunately, rarely published on account of the
scarcity of paper. He also works on the French
edition of the great magazine of the Third Inter-
national. He has learned the Russian language
very well since arriving here.
The writer of these lines has been ashamed of
his ignorance of this language, during his sojourn
here, and has been constantly conscious of the op-
portunities he is missing, because of this lack of
knowledge. Not least did I realize it this even-
ing when I, in company of intellectuals and pro-
letarians, attended a recital of the drama by Luna-
charsky, "The Chancellor and the Iron Worker",
conducted by the author himself.
The recital was held in the press building, in a
small room which had been furnished with a simple
stage and about 53 U0 chaini, ideal for an intimate
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SOVIET EUSSIA
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social theater. The walls were decorated with post-
ers, with satirical cartoons of the bourgeoisie, and
the labor press. The audience was an interesting
mixture of intellectuals, school children, splendid
looking laborers, and a general gathering of Rus-
sian people, like the party Congress the other day.
Balabanova enjoys the performance in the com-
pany of three Italians who have recently arrived,
and is overjoyed at meeting these representatives
from her former country. With me there are two
young boys, looking like college boys, but of a
laborer type. One produces a paper and shows it
to the other. It is a poem. Both of them read
and discuss it. For a moment I feel something
of the sentiment of my own college days, twenty
years ago, when one waited eagerly and impatiently
to see one's first rhymes printed.
Lunacharsky will be here within an hour. It
is a Eussian custom to give the full four quarters
to each hour, so this cannot be blamed upon Bol-
shevism. He places himself upon a little stage
beside a table, produces his typwritten manuscript,
and begins his recital. He has a wonderful voice,
which he varies in superb fashion in different roles,
and such is its magic and his mimicry that one
scarcely misses scenery.
The play is, strictly speaking, a whole dramatic
cycle, centering about the war and the revolution,
a chronicle of humanity during the past few years.
It begins with the chancellor of the north land
declaring a war. The proletariat are being sold
through the acceptance of a position of Minister
of Labor by a Social Democrat, the iron worker.
After the war is ended this man intends to work
on the Social revolution. This he explains to his
father, the laborer, who being ill wishes for a
bourgeois peace. After the war a government is
thus established, which is later overthrown by a
Kornilov-Kapp coup, and is later succeeded by a
Communist government.
After the recital a short debate and discussion
of the play took place, during which the comment
was made that it has been built too loosely and
that the end was not in harmony with the begin-
ning. The general opinion, however, was to the
effect that the play contained many valuable points.
It will be given in Moscow next fall. — Folkets Dag-
blad Politiken, June 23, 1920.
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Working Women in Soviet Russia
By Helen Blonina
T TNDER capitalism the proletarian and peas-
^ ant womenfolk were completely estranged
from social and political life both by the con-
ditions of bourgeois family tradition and by their
political subjection. Thanks to this, when power
passed into the hands of the Soviets, when before
the working class there arose the complex and
difficult task of control and reconstruction, the
working woman in the mass proved to be still
more inexperienced than the working man. In
order successfully to engage the working women
in the common task, it N was necessary, first and
foremost, to help them to learn how to work, and
to make clear where and how they could best apply
their energies.
It was necessary to work out new methods of
propaganda, new methods of approach, adapted
to the psychological peculiarities of the working
and peasant women and to the new problems
awaiting them. And in this connection especial
importance has to be attached to propaganda by
deed, i.e., to propaganda by means of the direct
attraction of the working and peasant women to
one form or another of Soviet or similar work.
Women's Delegate Conferences were organized,
which have rendered great services in this sense.
These delegate conferences are composed of repre-
sentatives from all the factories and works of the
given ward or town, elected at general meetings of
the undertakings. They play the part of institu-
tions by means of which working womeK team
in practice how to carry on Soviet work, how to
apply their forces and revolutionary energy to the
common proletarian struggle and work of recon-
struction. From another point of view, they con-
stitute an excellent link between the Soviet in-
stitution and the masses of working women.
The delegates break up into groups, working in
one or another Soviet institution (mainly, hitherto,
in the following sections : social welfare, labor, edu-
cation, and health), and there assist in the crea-
tion, investigation, and control of creches, homes,
children's parks, elementary and other schools,
public dining halls and kitchens; in the elimina-
tion from these organizations of abuses or disor-
der; in supervising the distribution of boots and
clothing in the schools; in collecting evidence for
and assisting the inspectors of labor; in insuring
the exact fulfilment of the regulations governing
female and child labor. They are entrusted with
the organization of ambulances and hospitals, the
care of the wounded and the sick, the inspection
and control of barracks; they participate in the
militia (police) ; they supervise the payment of
separation allowances; they assist in the engaging
of women workers in all forms of direction and
control of production, and so on.
On their part, the sections acquaint the dele-
gates with their activity, and enroll them in
schools or courses of instruction in one branch
or another of Soviet work opened by them (courses
in social welfare, pre-school education, Bed Sis-
ters and sanitary workers). At the same time the
delegates, continuing to work in their factory or
their workshops, make periodical reports to their
electors concerning their activity and that of the
sections in which they wcrk, and organize vigilance
committees in the workshops to receive complaints,
ERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET BUSSIA
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requests, and suggestions from the women workers.
The delegates take an active part in all the
campaigns initiated by the Soviets or the Party
(fuel campaign, sanitary detachments, food de-
tachments, help for the wounded, fight with epi-
demics, expeditions for agitation into the country,
etc.) The delegate conferences assemble two to
four times a month. Lately, in Moscow and in some
other towns, the basis of representation has been
lowered, and delegates are now elected one for
every twenty working women. In this way, through
the medium of the delegate conferences, it becomes
possible to reach the widest possible masses of
women workers, and more and more they begin to
constitute reserves, from which the Party and the
Soviets can draw new forces. This was strikingly
illustrated by the Party "weeks." In Moscow,
for example, where during the Party "week" about
15,000 new members were enrolled, amongst them
some thousands of women, a large percentage of
the new membership was given by these very dele-
gate conferences.
Great possibilities for agitation are contained
in the non-party conferences of women workers,
which in separate towns, provinces and counties
are convoked approximately every three to four
months.
Oral and printed propaganda and agitation are
also carried on. In almost every party organ there
is a "Working Woman's Page."
We can say, without exaggeration, that, what-
ever the faults and deficiences in our work, the
results achieved during the past year have sur-
passed our expectations.
A year ago there existed only a tiny group of
class-cpnscious women workers, while the mass of
the remainder, though revolutionary in tempera-
ment, was still lacking in consciousness and in
organization. Today there is a strong body of
intelligent workers, members of the Communist
Party, and all with experience of one form or other
of Soviet or Party work, gained during the past
year. Not a few brilliant agitators have made
their appearance, and now women journalists are
also rising from the working-class ranks.
The women workers' movement already em-
braces the widest possible masses, and is becoming
a considerable political force. Work has gone best
in Petrograd, Moscow, the Moscow province, and
the province of Ivanovo- Voznessensk. Undoubted-
ly the women workers are best organized and most
class-conscious in Petrograd. Work has also be-
gun in other provinces, and in some places fairly
promisingly. At the All-Russian Conference of
Party organizers of women workers there were
present representatives of twenty-eight provinces;
in addition to which comrades from the Ural,
from Ufa, Orenburg, Astrakhan, amongst other
places, were unable to be present, although work
is going on there. The working women's move-
ment thus covers today the whole of Russia.
The women workers have displayed splendid ca-
pacity both for organization and for labor. In
D igitized by d OO 5 IC
spite of unprecedented difficulties, they have al-
ready succeeded in helping the Soviet sections
(sub-committees) to organize not a few creches,
children's parks, schools, public dining halls,, etc.
And, while the working man has to go to the front
in the ranks of the Red Army, to defend the Soviet
power from the attacks of the Denikins, Yuden-
iches, Entente imperialists — the working woman
in the rear is replacing him, not only in the fac-
tory and the workshop, but also in the Soviets,
the trade unions, the militia, etc. Many women
workers, also, expressed a wish to fight at the front
against the White Guards, side by side with the
working men.
REPATRIATION OF RUSSIAN WAR
PRISONERS
Moscow, July 26. — The People's Commissar
for Foreign Affairs has called the attention of the
French Foreign Minister, in the matter of the
repatriation of the Russian war prisoners by way
of Odessa, to the fact that all ships without ex-
ception must make known their arrival twenty-
five nautical miles before Odessa by wireless to
Odessa or Nikolayev, and then take aboard a pilot
The Italian warship "Rucchia", which disregarded
this order, sank in a mine field.
The text of the Port Regulations governing the
arrival of foreign ships in Soviet Russian harbors
was printed in full in Soviet Russia for August
7, 1920.
VACANCIES IN UNIVERSITIES
Helsinqfors. — The Soviet press regularly car-
ries reports to the effect that professors are needed
for universities and colleges. The Izvestia of
June 4 contains an announcement of competitive
examinations for the chairs of geology and miner-
ology in the Institute of Forestry and for the
chairs of pathology and therapy in the Medical
Institute. It is expected that Dr. Rubel and
Professor Grinchikov will be appointed to these
chairs.
TWO YEARS OF SOVIET RUSSIAN
FOREIGN POLICY (1917—1919)
By GEORGE OHICHERIN
Gives a complete account of all the negotiations
between the Russian Soviet Government and
all foreign countries, for the two years begin-
ning November 7, 1917, and ending November
7, 1919.
Price Ten Cents
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
■-■ 1 1 ■_! 1 1 1 '.i i 1 1 ■_■
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Official Communications of the Soviet Government
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DECLARATION OF THE SOCIALIST-
REVOLUTIONARY PARTY OF THE
RIGHT ON THE POLISH QUESTION
1485. May 8. 1920.
The Central Committee of the Socialist Revo-
lutionary Party of the right, which has remained
prehaps the worst enemy of the Soviet power, has
communicated to the Moscow Soviet a declaration
which symbolizes better than anything else the
union of all Russian society about the Soviet power
against the Polish aggression, for in the midst of
the usual unfounded recrimination of this party
against the Soviet policy, is found approval of the
policy towards Poland and an appeal for the sup-
port of the Eed Army. The Central Committee
of the Socialist Revolutionary Party of the Right
recognizes in particular that the Polish aggression
is the work of renegades of the revolution adven-
turers of the type of Savinkov, Burtsev, and Pet-
lura, who, as is known, are at the same time the
proteges and the hirelings of the Entente. The
declaration follows:
The phantom of a new bloody and devastating
war lies over Russia. This time the danger for
the integrity and independence, for the freedom of
the internal development of Russia, comes from
the young Polish Republic. The imperialism of
the Polish bourgeoisie, tempted by the alleged
weakness of Soviet Russia, and excited by the im-
perialist elements of the Anglo-French bourgeoisie,
has presented to the Russian people insensate and
criminal demands, hostile to the vital foundations
of the Russian state, and threatening to seize from
Russia several territories whose population is en-
tirely Great Russian or Ukrainian. Instead of
solving all territorial questions in litigation by
means of an inquiry and under circumstances
guaranteeing the full voting freedom of the popu-
lation, the Polish bourgeoisie have drawn the sword
and with criminal thoughtlessness kindled the
flame of a new fratricidal war. Led into error by
the gossip of the renegades of the revolution, and
insensate adventurers of the type of Savinkov,
Burtsev, Petlura, and others, the Polish Govern-
ment expected to have in its campaign against
Soviet Russia the sympathy and support of the
Russian democracy always insulted and crucified
by the Balshevik authorities. In the name of the
fraction of the socialist demoracy which has al-
ways carried on and is now carrying on the most
implacable war of ideas against the dictatorship
of the Bolshevik party, the Central Committee of
the Socialist Revolutionary Party declares loudly
that, while remaining as before faithful to the
ideal of socialism and democracy, it deems it to
be its duty to wage all the working peasant class
and the laboring class to fight with all their energy
to repulse the conquering pretentions of Polish
imperialism. In the war imposed upon the Rus-
sian people for their national good, the socialist
democracy will perform its duty to the end. (The
by V 3
o
salvation of Russia from the danger which menaces
her demands imperiously that the war become a
national cause. Devoted ardor, acceptation of all
sacrifices, revolutionary enthusiasm, firm internal
discipline, these the Russian people should oppose
to the Polish imperialism armed with French can-
non and English gold. But the national ardor
cannot develop its force and attain all its aims
unless at the head is found a governmental power
working in perfect harmony with it. All the pop-
ular enthusiasm would disappear if the power
thought to replace the aims of legitimate defence,
comprehensible and clear to every revolutionary
worker's conscience with other foreign aims. The
words of advice which we address to the power
which the will of destiny has in the present period
of trial placed in a position to lead the Russian
people to battle are in no way dictated by a senti-
ment of revolutionary partisanship, of party hate or
factional rivalry. They are born solely of the warm
desire to save Russia from the new danger of na-
tional dismemberment which threatens, and to set-
tle as quickly as possible under circumstances ac-
ceptable to both sides a war which weighs heavily
upon an economic situation already unfavorable.
The peasant revolts which have been widespread
in the South and the East, and which have de-
stroyed the political fortresses of Kolchak and
Denikin, have manifested the will of the people
to defend the revolution against every menace of
reaction or restoration. They bear witness also
to the antipathy of the population for the anti-
democratic policy, the cause of insurrections. We
believe firmly that the Red Army which guards the
western limits of revolutionary Russia and defends
its interests in the most difficult conditions, will
be equal to the great national and human task
which has been imposed upon it by history, and for
the accomplishment of which the hearts of the
whole Russian nation beat in unison with those of
the Red Army. We now urge all citizens to sup-
port with every force the Red Army which is de-
fending the inteersts of the nation.
(Signed)
The Central Committee of the Socialist
Revolutionary Party.
PEACE POURPARLERS BETWEEN
RUSSIA AND LITHUANIA
1489. May 8, 1920.
(First Meeting May 7)
The president of the Russian peace delegation,
Yoffe, declares the conference open and greets the
representatives of the Lithuanian Republic. Lithu-
ania, having never been in a state of war with
Soviet Russia, the pourparlers will aim rather at
the definition of the juridical relations which
should exist for the good of the two republics be-
tween two nations which have always been so near
to one another. The principles proclaimed by the
Russian Revolution rffrttWTI right of peoples
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to self-determination, principles which Soviet Rus-
sia defends in all negotiations, furnish the guar-
anty that in the pourparlers with Lithuania no in-
surmountable difficulty can arise. At the moment
when imperialist Poland, which, despite the will
of the Lithuanian people, occupies a part of the
territory of this people, tries to impose by force
its domination upon the Russian and Ukrainian
peoples, now more than ever the only possible basis
for solving these conflicts is the liberty of the peo-
ples to dispose of their destiny. On this ground
agreement between Russia and Lithuania is certain
and rapid. All the questions allied to the imperi-
alist war should be set aside in order not to re-
vive in the least the wounds of the past. Russia
will raise against Lithuania no claims arising from
the old subjection of this country to the former
Russian empire. At the same time the Russian
delegation is ready to consider with sympathy the
unfortunate situation in which the imperialist war
and the Polish agression have placed the Republic
of Lithuania.
The president of the Lithuanian delegation re-
plies by expressing the desire of his government to
establish amicable relations between the two peo-
ples. He declares himself convinced in advance
that Soviet Russia will above all repair the historic
injustice of the Czarist government by renouncing
formally the sovereign right of Russia over Lithu-
ania. He expresses the hope that Russia will do
all in its power to allay the suffering into which
the imperialist war has plunged the Lithuanian
people. The president of the Lithuanian delega-
tion closes by declaring himself certain of the
favorable issue of the negotiations.
GORKY AND POLAND
The Krasnaya Gazeta of April 9, publishes the
following statements of Maxim Gorky :
"The whole world sees and knows that it is not
we who have plotted this war. I am the declared
enemy of war, that most hideous phenomenon in
all the world; but if I am seized by the throat I
shall defend myself to the last drop of blood.
Blows are inflicted upon your heads because you
are trying to build a new life. You are hated
not at all for some error or cruelty, but because
you have broken the rusty chains of the political
regime. When the workers of Soviet Russia
wanted only to take up their peaceful work, a new
enemy appeared before them and now wishes to
crush them with blows. But that should not
frighten us. On the day of the proletarian fete
of the First of May you showed what fraternal
solidarity in labor leads to, and that example, bet-
ter than any words, testifies to the fact that our
common efforts shall triumph over the enemy.
Perhaps this blow coming from Poland is the last
obstacle which separates us from the free road
where we shall build our life in conformity with
the new communist principles in such a way that
all will see us and hasten to imitate us. That is
my profound conviction. Greetings to you, Com-
rades."
Digitized by (jOOQIc
THE DEFENSE AGAINST THE POLES
1514. May 12, 1920.
On May 10 three Red aviators, flying over Zhlo-
bin, engaged in combat an entire escadrille of Pol-
ish planes. A Polish plane was shot down, falling
a verst and a half from Zhlobin. After having put
to flight the enemy machines the Red aviators
landed without damage within our lines. On May
9 one of these same aviators had already shot down
an enemy balloon in the region of Bobruisk.
In Pravda Sokolnikov shows that the Allies and
the Poles propose to make the Ukraine serve the
same selfish aims as formerly Germany. But it is
certain that the result will be the same and that
the Entente will not get more from the Ukraine
than it did from Germany.
Trotsky issues an order of the day to invite all
the troops of the west and southwest front to re-
gard as sacred in all circumstances the wounded
or prisoner enemy. If the Polish White Guard
torture, shoot and hang not only the communists,
but all the Red soldiers fallen into their hands,
Soviet Russia will hold responsible only the ruling
classes and not the people of Poland. The only
vengeance permitted against all the crimes of the
Polish is to push as violently as possible the at-
tack against the Polish White Guard.
The Central Executive Committee and the Coun-
cil of Defense proclaim a state of siege in a num-
ber of provinces of the center and the west. Full
power passes to the bureaus of the Executive Com-
mittees of the province.
The People's Commissariat of the Interior urges
all the district and canton Soviets to make known
to the village population by means of reunions and
meetings the causes of the war with Poland. There
should not be in the republic a single citizen who
does not know these causes perfectly.
The mobilization of the communists is proceed-
ing. Certain committees such as that of Riazan
furnish a larger number than that fixed by the
Central Committee.
The number of volunteers is so great in Moscow
that new bureaus had had to be installed. In
addition in the units which have not been desig-
nated for the Polish front masses of soldiers have
enrolled to leave for that front.
The Russian aviator, Rossinski, has just es-
tablished a new record for Russia, two thousand
versts in twelve hours, forty-two minutes, the
course from Moscow to Nizhni, Kazan, Samara and
return with a one hundred and twenty horsepower
motor.
There were counted at Petrograd on May 1
eighty technical schools, thirteen of them superior
schools, with about ten thousand students.
On June 1 there will be opened new working-
men's faculties at the superior technical school of
Moscow, the institute of surveying, the academy
of mines, the popular polytechnicum, the indus-
trial and economic institute, and the Razumov-
skoye agricultural sicddemy of Petrograd.
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POLISH TERROR
1518. Miay 13, 1920
In the territory occupied by the Poles the latter
pillage and in every way maltreat the peaceful pop-
ulation. The Red prisoners are stripped of their
clothing, beaten into unconsciousness, confined in
camps, where they die of hunger when they are not
shot.
In the Soviet provinces of Rybinsk, Kaluga,
Viatka, Kurgan, Kostroma, Tula, whole popula-
tions assembled in meetings swore to destroy the
Polish White Guards. The volunteers enroll by
thousands. All classes wish to take part in the
war. At Tula the representatives of the Men-
sheviki and the socialist revolutionaries urge their
supporters to reinforce the Red Army with every
means at their disposal.
THE ECONOMIC SITUATION
The agricultural campaign is proceeding with
the greatest success in the governmental organiza-
tion of sowing and the creation of local shops for
the repair of tools. An increase is observed in
the communal cultivation.
The line from Perm is improving every day.
The number of trains in daily movement has grown
from 560 to 900 since last January. The per-
centage of trains out of service has diminished
from twelve to seven per cent, that of locomotives
from sixty-four to forty-five per cent. The one
hundred and seventy-nine bridges destroyed by the
Whites are all rebuilt.
In Pravda Lomov compares the fuel situation on
December 18 and now. Of wood in place of the
thirty-five million steres there are today one hun-
dred million. Of coal the Moscow basin in the
three first months of this year has increased its
production twenty per cent in comparison
with last year. The mines of Cheliabinsk and
Kizel in the Urals give every satisfaction. The
basin of the Donets continues to improve. Of
naphtha one hundred million poods at least will
be brought from Baku on the Volga and at least
twenty-five will be realized from the reserves of
Grozny and Emba. The result is that a consider-
able part of the trains employed in the transport
of fuel are liberated, coal and naphtha having a
fuel value triple or quadruple that of wood. These
trains can now be employed in food or industrial
transport.
The Soviet power, not content with protecting
the small industries which have always rendered
enormous service to Russia, is occupied with or-
ganizing them into grand units and trusts. Thus
four of thees trusts exist in the region of Pavlov-
ski Posad near Nizhni- Novgorod, embracing ten
thousand artisans. In the region of Muron two
trusts are organized and two others are in the
process of organization, embracing seven thousand
artisans. The movement is spreading in the other
provinces.
THE POLITICAL SITUATION
Russo-Lithuanian peace pourparlers. At the
second meeting of the conference Yoffe proposed
the following text proclaiming Lithuanian inde-
pendence: "Conforming to the principle pro-
claimed by the Russian Soviet Republic of the
right of the peoples freely to dispose of themselves
and to separate themselves entirely from the state
in which they may be, and repudiating consequent-
ly the imperialist policy of Czarism, the conse-
quence of which was the annexation of Lithuania,
Russia recognizes and confirms the independence
and sovereignty of the Lithuanian state as well
as all the resulting juridical consequences and
voluntarily renounces for ever all the sovereign
rights which the Russian Government had claimed
over the people and the etrritory of Lithuania. The
fact of the old subjection of Lithuania to Russia
imposes upon the Lithuanian people and country
no obligation towards Russia." The Lithuanian
delegation accepted the proposed text and the next
meeting is to be devoted to the question of fron-
tiers.
THE ENGLISH DELEGATION IN
RUSSIA
The delegation of English workingmen's organ-
izations has been received at the Russian frontier
by Melnichanski, president of the Moscow Council
of trade unions. At Petrograd the chief
of the delegation, Ben Turner, bore witness in
his discourse, to the solidarity of the English
workers with the Russian revolution for the class
war to the end. Purcell declared that the dele-
gates came to Russia to learn from the Russian
workers to follow their example. Williams ex-
pressed his conviction that the members of the
delegation would learn much as the guests of the
Russian Communist Party.
ECONOMIC SITUATION
The mines of Kizel in the Urals in April yielded
nearly one million seven hundred thousand poods
of coal, that is, ten per cent more than in March.
The nationalized paper mills of the region of
Petrograd will furnish in May sixty- two thousand
poods of paper in place of forty-nine thousand in
April.
Measures taken by the direction of professional
instruction to obtain an anticipated promotion of
engineers have produced considerable results. Thus
the superior technical school of Moscow will sup-
ply more than five hundred engineers, that is, more
than all the superior technical establishments of
Moscow and Petrograd in all of last year.
IN UKRAINE
The Independent Social Democratic Party of
Ukraine, having at its head the old ministers
of the Rada, Tkachenko and Mazurenko, after
having entered into tentative accord with Petlura
has resumed the war against him and is defend-
ing the soviet id§fc_",|TY OF MIC I"
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FOOD AND TRANSPORTATION
Moscow, June 84. — The People's Commissar
for Food Supply, Sviderski, publishes the follow-
ing statistical data dealing with the work accom-
plished by the Soviet Government in the domain
of food supply and transportation. According to
this data, it is the plan of the Soviet Government
to raise annually from three to four hundred mil-
lion poods of wheat for the Red Army and the
industrial centers of the country, and also for
those provinces of the country which are not able
to supply themselves. During the past year, it
has succeeded in preparing ninety-one per cent
of this quantity. For the improvement of the
transportation system, the Soviet Government is
beginning to electrify some of the railways of the
country, particularly those of the districts adjacent
to Petrograd and Moscow.
LITVINOV, RUSSIA'S REPRESENTA-
TIVE IN NORWAY
Moscow, June 30. — The Soviet Government ex-
pects that in the near future, the Norwegian Gov-
ernment will be ready to start negotiations with
the Soviet Government relative to the questions
now pending between the two countries; and that
the Russian representative, Litvinov, will soon re-
ceive the necessary facilities for the journey to Nor-
way. The object of the negotiations on the part
of the Russians is the attainment of an under-
standing between the two countries in questions
which concern them both. Litvinov is also the
Swedish representative, and is awaiting passports
from Sweden.
BREAKING THE BLOCKADE
Moscow, June 28. — A blockade runner has ar-
rived in Esthonia with fifty wagon-loads of agri-
cultural implements and thirty-seven wagon-loads
of paper.
Moscow, June 16. — Latvia and Soviet Russia
have reached an agreement regarding the exchange
of fugitives. The carrying out of the agreement
will begin immediately. Yoffe is authorized to act
for Soviet Russia, and Vesman, Bergis and Kalnin
for Latvia.
FOOD CONDITIONS ARE IMPROVING
Moscow, June 30. — From official figures, we
learn, in comparison with the last few years, that
the distribution of bread i6 steadily increasing.
In the community kitchens established by the city
authorities, from seven to eight hundred thousand
people eat daily.
NEW RUSSIAN SCHOOL
Moscow, June 30. — The Soviet Government
has issued a call to all Russians belonging to the
learned professions, who are now in foreign coun-
tries, to return to Russia in order to help in the
establishment of a new Socialist school.
THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. The Soviet Power and the Preservation of Art, by A. Lunacharsky, People's Com-
missar of Education.
2. The "Misery" of the Russian Scientists, by C. Smirnov.
3. Combatting the Disorganization of Transport. An official article on methods used
and results obtained in the rehabilitation of the railroads in Soviet Russia.
4. Russian Women in the Red Army.
5. Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek.
Ten Cents at ail News Stands
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make all checks payable
to L. C A. K. Martens.)
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Gents
Saturday, August 28, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 9
Iraed Weekly at 1 10 W, 40th Street, New York, N. Y, Ludwig C* A, K« Martens, Publisher. Jacob Wittmer Hartm*nn p Editor.
Subscription Rate, $500 per annum. Application for entry aa second class matter pending. Changes of address should reach the
office a week before the changes are to be made.
TABLE OF
PAGE
The Soviet Powek and the Preservation of
Art, by A. Lunacharsky . . . . . 201
The "Misery" of the Russian Scientists, by
V* S> SmirttQV.... * . .. 204
Russian Women in the Red Army 20S
Military Review, by Lt,*CoL B. Rous tarn Bck 20?
Combatting the Disorganization ofTransport 209
Editorials ....... .,..♦.. 212
Petlura and the Vatican . 214
CONTENTS:
PAGE
Poland and Ukraine, by Karl Radek »..,.*««. 215
Women Workers in Soviet Russia 216
Transporting Naphtha from the Caucasus,
by £/, Larin , 217
The Communist Party in Russia 218
Rene Marchand in Russia 218
Zinoviev on the Situation in Ukraine..,.. 219
Official Communications of the Soviet
Government , , 221
The Soviet Power and the Preservation of Art
By A. Lunacharsky
A MOXG the many calumnies that are spread
^"^" conee ruing the Soviet power, I am made
particularly indignant by the report appearing in
American newspapers to the effect that we are
guilty of vandalism toward museums* palaces,
country homes of landed proprietors, and churches,
which constitute important monuments of an-
tiquity and frequently have a unique art value.
We can deny these accusations with pride and
firmness, for we have accomplished marvels in
protecting such monuments. Of course, I do not
maintain that individual objects of art have not
been destroyed in the course of the Russian Invo-
lution. We have been informed of certain country
Beats that have been burnt down, libraries de-
stroyed, of collections scattered, and similar in-
cidents, but surely it will be understood that such
a mighty upheaval as the revolution could not
proceed without some excesses, and we must call
the attention of the imperialists to the fact that
during the war that was staged by the "most civil-
ized" bourgeois armies, human property in the
occupied regions was destroyed in incomparably
greater measure than in our country.
In Russia this phenomenon was of temporary
nature and lasted only till the moment the Gov-
ernment took the reins into its hands. At present,
not only in Petrograd and in its environs,
where immense treasures of this kind have accu-
mulated, not only in Moscow and in the palaces
situated in the environs of Moscow, which
also are unique in their class, but also in the
provinces, often even in the most remote corners,
we find representatives of the "Section for the
Protection of Monuments of Antiquity and Ob-
jects of Art"; these representatives, with the aid
of educated peasants and workers, carefully guard
such property of the people as has artistic value*
American newspapers have dared to speak of
plundering and disorder in the imperial palaces.
I should be very happy to be able to show some
foreigners what is actually being done at present
in these palaces — and we did to be sure pass
through a serious period when all sorts of armed
forces were making Gatchina and Tsarskoye Selo
unsafe, when there were no supervising organs in
Petrograd at all. Under these circumstances it
necessarily appeared to be a hopeless undertaking
to protect the treasures of the palaces and museums
which are of immeasurable value even if considered
only from a material standpoint. The task was
rendered more difficult by the fact that many
palaces, particularly the Winter Palace, had eel*
lars that were chock full of wine, brandy and cor-
dials. We were obliged to destroy these stocks of
liquor ruthlessly, as the excesses of drunkenness
would otherwise have spread to the Eremitage*
and to the halls of the Winter Palace, and might
have caused unheard of damage. There is ter-
rible temptation in alcohol, and I remember one
good soldier of the Pavlovsky regiment who, to-
gether with certain other guards, had not been
able to refrain from tasting the wine, hundreds of
thousands of bottles of which he was guarding;
in extenuation of his act he later said to me: "Put
me alongside of an open chest of gold, and I will
not touch it; but it is impossible to stand along-
side of this wine," And yet we have managed,
by destroying this wine, by applying the severest
* The Eremitaae, one of the most famous museums of Europe,
was built in ) 840- 1852 hy the architect, Von Kirn re, and con-
tains valuable colkctbTi cl J<:ulfttiTC. coin*, weapons, etc. The
gallery of older European pamtmji is particularly noteworthy,
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measures, to prevent the misfortune that was then
threatening.
If you enter the Winter Palace or the Gatchina
Palace today, and find any traces of destruction in
these places, you may be convinced that they are
traces of the period when Kerensky and his young
imperial cadets and Cossacks were still carrying
on there. But there are practically no such scars
remaining; we have already healed them.
As for the museums, they are in excellent order,
in the hands of the best custodians. The muse-
ums have been much enriched by transferring to
them works of artistic and historic value, of the
most varied kinds, from private palaces and es-
tates. While the best pictures of the old Eremi-
tage were transferred to Moscow by Kerensky and
are there waiting, packed in their crates, for the
day when we may feel absolutely safe in Petro-
grad, the apartments of the Eremitage are being
filled anew with wonderful works of art, partly
purchased, partly taken from private store-
rooms, which were formerly inaccessible to the pub-
lic, and which now are being exhibited there. What
marvelous works have been discovered and, at pres-
ent, exhibited to the masses of the people and to
school children in the palaces of Yussopov, Stro-
ganov, and elsewhere!
The palaces themselves are devoted by us to the
most varied purposes. Only a few among them,
such as the artistically uninteresting Anichkov
Palace and the Marinsky Palace, have been placed
at the disposal of the authorities. But the Win-
ter Palace has been transformed into an art pal-
ace. In its magnificent salons, constructed by
Rastrelli and his pupils, you will always find a
crowd of people listening to excellent music per-
formed by the State orchestra or the State brass
band, or enjoying cinematographic exhibitions or
special dramatic performances.
One exhibition here follows upon another ; some
of them have really been magnificent both in the
number and beauty of the works exhibited. It
is our effort to make both the exhibitions and
the museums real sources of culture, by com-
bining them with lectures and attaching in-
structors and guides to every group of visitors.
By separating certain collections of moderate size
from the museums, and establishing separate exhi-
bitions, such as Buddhist religious art, or the
funeral customs or funeral superstitions of the
Egyptians, we create a splendid means of object
instruction, and such exhibitions are visited in
our much tried Petrograd by masses of interested
persons.
Other palaces have been entirely transformed
into museums : particularly the gigantic Palace of
Katherine at Tsarskoye Selo, and the Alexander
Palace nearby. The entire history of the autocracy
is here presented to the eyes of the workers and the
young people who come to this place from Petro-
grad in streams ; who walk through the parks that
are century-old, and then enter this palace which
is kept in apple-pie order. We are successfully
pursuing the aim of carefully preserving against
damage, in spite of this mass attendance, not only
the walls, furniture, and art works, but even the
interesting mosaic floors, to preserve which we go
so far, where we have not had enough protecting
runners, to provide visitors with special canvas
shoes to be put on over their boots. This practice
inspires the visitor, no matter how little he may
be accustomed to such surroundings, with the feel-
ing that he is face to face with the property of the
public, which must be guarded by both state and
public with the greatest care.
In the Palace of Katherine he beholds the
bizarre and heavy magnificence of the period of
Elizabeth, and the graceful and pleasantly har-
monious splendor of the epoch of Katherine II.
This civilization of the imperial masters, who were
the finest architects, decorators, and masters in
porcelain, bronzes and tapestry, appears to attain
its culmination during the reign of Paul, with its
incomparable perfection in works of the First Em-
pire.
The neighboring Pavlovsk is the best monument
to the taste of that epoch. The excellent choice of
art works constituting its equipment, as well as
the admirable decoration of its salons, make Pav-
lovsk an incomparable structure, the like of which
is hardly to be found anywhere in Europe.
But this art epoch has also left attractive traces
in the Great Palace at Tsarskoye Selo. Utilizing
the labor power of their serfs, the Ozars, standing
in proud seclusion at the head of their nobility,
were able to exploit all Europe's treasures, alter-
nating the Asiatic luxuriousness of their Moscow
ancestors with the excessive refinement of the
works of European culture.
Under Alexander I, taste goes down. In his
empire we find a certain coldness, which is not,
however, without impressiveness. It is the reflec-
tion of the Napoleonic imperialism of Russia, with
its serfdom.
And then look at the apartments of Alexander
II, distinguished, commodious, with a touch of
English bourgeois taste, devoid of ostentation —
these are the studies and drawing rooms of a
British gentleman, a wealthy country squire. And
suddenly we have Alexander III before us, a curi-
ously awkward, pseudo-Russian style, a splendor
chiefly distinguished by its material wastefulness.
This decline is already noticeable under Nicholas
I, with its heavy bronzes, with its second-rate Paris
trinkets, products of the Second Empire.
But the coarse, quasi-Russian style of Alexander
III adds an element which brings us back to Asia.
Only with the utmost effort can we here discern a
glimmer of true art. All of the objects are chosen
for their cost, their display, their glaring and
striking effects. You feel that the nobility has out-
lived its usefulness and is no longer the head of
society, not even in the field of material civili-
zation, not even in its house furnishings. They
are already adapting themselves to the practice
of living in ugly dwellings, calculated only to
impress theii yubjecta with spacious spleador and
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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gilt and tinsel. We already feel that the autocracy
is maintaining itself with difficulty, and no longer
has confidence in itself; it seeks to dazzle the eye,
and fails in the attempt; therefore its effort for
enormous dimensions and outrageous cost of ma-
terial.
If we have already witnessed a rapid drop in
taste, proceeding step by step, from Alexander I
to Nicholas I, from the latter to Alexander II,
then to Alexander III, we behoH a veritable col-
lapse into the abyss when we gaze at the taste-
less chambers of Nicholas II. What a conglomera-
tion of things ! A gaudy cotton print with photo-
graphs attached, as minute as in the attic room of
some millionaire's maid. Here is a Rasputin al-
cove, decorated with gilt images of saints; here
are curious little tubs, huge divans, and very pe-
culiarly decorated "dressing rooms", which arouse
in us a suggestion of gross animal sensuality; you
find furniture of the worst factory taste, furniture
such as could be found in the rooms of suddenly
enriched parvenus, who will buy any sort of "fur-
niture" that suits their unbridled taste.
We find here a curious combination of two tend-
encies — the repulsive lack of taste of a degenerate
Russian nobleman, and the not less repulsive lack
of taste of a German philistine woman.
And yet we are speaking of the descendants of
imperial dynasties ! No one can free himself from
the thought, even if his attention is not called
to it — that the dynasty was going down, morally
and esthetically, with breathless rapidity.
Our artists proposed to preserve undisturbed all
the chambers of Nicholas II as models of bad
taste ; we have done this, for this ramble through
the past, the most recent past, the period of the
collapse of the Romanovs, is really a marvelous
object lesson in Czarist kulturgeschichte, especial-
ly if it is aided by a preparatory lecture.
Gatchina provides much instructive material in
this connection. But I fear that General Yuden-
ich and the English bearers of culture who accom-
panied him have inflicted great damage upon the
palaces which we so carefully protected, and which
are so popular with the masses of the people, now
that they have been transformed into museums.
At Moscow, the Kremlin is visited by many
traveling parties. This set of buildings, with the
exception of a few that are occupied by govern-
ment establishments, has now become one gigantic
museum of instruction, including also the
churches.
The country seats surrounding Moscow are be-
ing carefully preserved by us. But, whenever their
totality does not represent a unified whole, every-
thing that has artistic and historical value is re-
moved from them — also from the monasteries —
and transported to other museums which have
been added to Moscow's attractions. The palaces
which are valuable for their architecture, such as
Archangelskoye and Ostankino, are even in our
hard times places of pilgrimage for all those who
wish to delight their eyes with unified monuments
of the period which was so "glorious" for our no-
bility, the period when that nobility exploited and
destroyed entire generations of its slaves, but was
at least clever enough to live elegantly and to ac-
quire in western Europe, in exchange for floods
of Russian workers' sweat, objects worthy of decor-
ating such fine structures.
In a country passing through a revolutionary
crisis, in which the masses are naturally inspired
with hatred against the czars and masters, and in-
voluntarily transfer this hatred even to their
dwellings and furnishings, without being able to
judge the artistic and historic value of these things,
since these same masters and czars had permitted
them to continue living in ignorance, in such a
country it was of course not an easy task to carry
out our work. For we had not only to dam the
wave of destruction, to preserve the works of art,
but it was our task to reanimate the latter, to
create living beauty out of mere museum speci-
mens, so that the worker, unconsciously thirsting
for beauty, might be refreshed.
It was our task to make of inaccessible castles
and palaces, where dwelt the degenerate scions of
once famous families — who had become bored with
everything and no longer observed anything — pub-
lic institutions, which, guarded with loving care,
must provide hours of pleasure for numerous visit-
ors. This was indeed a difficult task.
The Commissariat for Public Instruction and
its Section for the Protection of Historic and Art
Monuments, is ready at any time to render account
of its activities before civilized mankind, and, may
confidently say that not only the international
proletariat, which is the best part of this civilized
humanity, but also every other honest man cannot
withhold the tribute of respect to this immense
achievement. Emphasis must be laid not only on
individual cases of destruction — such might occur
in any country, even in the most enlightened; but
also on the fact that in a country which had been
kept back in a stage of barbarism through a crim-
inal government policy, these disturbances did not
attain any great dimensions, but were transformed
by the power of the government of workers and
peasants into a well organized possession of the
people as a whole.— The Kremlin, October 23,
1919.
)n$T<
HELP THE RUSSIAN CHILDREN
On our editorial pages, the reader will find a
presentation of the plight of the 780 Russian
children who will reach New York about Sep-
tember 1st.
They need clothing and blankets for their jour-
ney across the Atlantic and through the Baltic
Sea to their homes in Petrograd. They need
food and clothing and medicaments, in addition
to the expenses of their entertainment in New
York before their steamer sails for Europe.
Clothing, to be accepted, must be new; and no
contributions of any kind should reach this office
later than August 30th.
RUSSIAN SOVIET BUREAU, Dept. A
Room 304
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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August 28, 1920
The "Misery" of the Russian Scientists
By V. S "
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Under the foregoing title Dagens Nyheter
printed, last Sunday, an article by Dr. J. T. Arne,
with the benevolent and humanitarian purpose of
bringing financial aid to stranded Russians be-
longing to the so-called Intelligentsia; but his ac-
cusations against the Bolsheviki, who, he says,
want to wipe out the Russian scientists, are
founded upon ancient and absolutely false emana-
tions from the ultra-reactionary Huvudstads-
bladet, of Helsingfors, and other similar Finnish
sources. As, for instance, his assertion that the
famous historian, Platonov, died in jail. This
story was circulated widely in September last, in
Finland, and has since been proved to be entirely
without foundation. In fact, a former tutor, or
teacher, of the University of Petrograd, K. Tian-
der, recently an assiduous contributor to the Hu-
vudstadsbladet, some time later published in the
same paper a statement to the effect that a scien-
tific-historical commission had been appointed in
Petrograd under the chairmanship of Platonov.
Tiander has been responsible for much of the news
that comes from Russia through Finland. The
undersigned, who studied under Professor Platonov
in the University of Petrograd, met him, also,
several times during the summer of 1918, while
serving in the People's Commissariat for Edu-
cation. At that time Professor Platonov was
working with the Soviets, who accepted and appre-
ciated his endeavors with gratitude. There was
thus no reason or foundation for the statement
that Professor Platonov had died in jail.
Among other scientists who were supposed to
have died of privation in Petrograd Mr. Arne also
mentions Professor Shlyapkin. I can also say from
my own knowledge that Professor Shlyapkin, who
lived on the Finnish border, died long before the
March Revolution. Further mention is made of
the well-known historian and academician, Lappo
Danielevsky, "starved to death in Petrograd." This
statement, for which Tiander is also responsible,
although it was published in a more moderate
form in Huvudstadsbladet, also lacks foundation,
since, being an academician and a professor,
Danielevsky was in such economic circumstances
that it was entirely improbable that he died of
hunger.
From these examples it ought to be clear that
information which comes from the Finnish reac-
tionary press concerning the misfortunes of Rus-
sian scientists under the go-called repressions of
the Bolsheviki can scarcely be depended upon. That
severe food and fuel situations existed in Petro-
grad and Moscow as a result of the world war,
civil wars, and the Entente blockade, is generally
known, and is no secret. That under such condi-
tions the scientists suffer, along with the rest of the
population, is but natural. But to accuse the Bol-
sheviki of bringing about these privations and of
subjecting especially the scientists to them is at
least illogical.
Digitized by LjOOgle
Smiknov
Those who are familiar with present conditions
in Russia know very well that the Soviet power,
on the contrary, does everything in its power to
make life as comfortable as possible for scientists,
artists, technicians, and others. This is admitted
by all honest representatives of the Russian Intel-
ligentsia. For instance, issue No. 3, 1920, of 7y-
estnik Literaturi (The Messenger of Literature),
a magazine published by Dr. Kauffman, in Petro-
grad, contains an article under the title, "A Well-
Deserved Tribute," which is a tribute to the Com-
missar of Education, Z. 6. Grinberg, who was
transferred from Petrograd to a similar position
at Moscow. Almost every literary and scientific
institution in Petrograd, with the Academy of
Science at the head, participated in this tribute.
During the farewell meeting and banquet held at
the "House of Arts," many hearty and most touch-
ing speeches were addressed to Grinberg, in all
of which his great efforts in behalf of useful enter-
prises were emphasized. Among those who spoke
were the chairman of the Society for Literature
and Science, Professor Kauffman; Hariton; the
chairman of the Turgenev Society, the well-known
former senator, Koni; the critic, Chukovski, and
several others. All these speakers emphasized his
especially humane relation to scientists as well as
to literary persons. The two above mentioned
houses (of arts and literature), are large clubs
which owe much to Mr. Grinberg, and their aim
is to give thousands of scientists, artists, and writ-
ers, and their families, the possibility of receiving
help in the form of foodstuffs, and the opportunity
of carrying on their scientific, literary, and artistic
work. Similar institutions, as for instance the
House of the Press, may be found in Moscow and
other centers of culture in Russia.
Professor Kauffman emphasized in his speech
that the scientists have never had, nor could they
hope to have, a better Minister of Education than
Grinberg.
Here I must state that Grinberg, who was my
fellow worker during the entire time of my service
in Petrograd, is a faithful Communist. Just as
wonderful as he are the People's Commissars for
Education, Lunacharsky and Maxim Gorky, who
are at the head of the great national proposition,
the "Literature of the World," and several others.
During the severe food shortage in Petrograd last
January, a special commission was formed with
the purpose of improving the position of the scien-
tists. On account of the decision of this com-
mission, 1,800 scientists at Petrograd had a larger
food ration than the other inhabitants of the city.
Besides, this commission decided to establish a
"House of Science" in the former Palace of Grand
Duke Vladimir, in which several rooms were kept
heated and illuminated, in spite of the fuel short-
age, for the needs of the scientists.
All these measures ought to make it sufficiently
clear that the Soviet Government is not and has
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not been neglecting the fate of the Russian Intel-
ligentsia, which loyally cooperates with it. Dr.
Arne is very much grieved that a few professors
were arrested and executed, compelled to flee
abroad, etc., but he neglects to inform his readers
that these participate^, actively in various plots
against the Soviet Republic.
It is a little too much to expect that such men as
Kartashev, Kuzmin-Karavayev, Milyukov, Struve
and others, whom he especially enumerates, should
be allowed to remain unmolested in Russia, since
at the same time they are members of various
White Russian "governments." The two first men-
tioned belonged to the "Northwestern" govern-
ment of Yudenich; Struve is Foreign Minister
in the Crimean Government of Wrangel ; Milyukov
is head of the "White" Conferences at Paris, etc.
Naturally the professors in Soviet Russia have no
special privilege to conspire against the Soviet
power. In this regard they are on the same basis
as other Russian citizens.
I can assure Dr. Arne that nobody in Soviet
Russia is so stupid, — as he seems to imagine — as
to wish to create any special proletarian mathe-
matics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, etc. By
"proletarian culture," one understands in Russia
nothing so absurd as he seems to believe, but pro-
letarian art and proletarian literature, which are
actually being created in Russia now. But a more
extensive elucidation of this subject is not within
the scope and purpose of this article. In one thing,
however, I agree with Dr. Arne, and that is that
science, like literature and art, has in Russia
reached a very high plane, in spite of the most un-
favorable conditions, even much higher than he
knows. Beside these branches which have been
enumerated by him, and which have attained a
general recognition all over the world, I could add
many more, such as, for instance, the history of
literature, linguistic research (not only Oriental),
and natural science. (Dr. Arne mentions world-
famous Russian mathematicians and physicians.)
Within the sphere of natural science there was,
for instance, the Darwinist and biologist, Profes-
sor Timiryazev, who joined the Soviets as soon
as they were constituted, and whose long life
ended at eighty ; he was a faithful Communist and
contributor to the Communist International, to
Pravda, etc., etc., who had attained world-wide
fame.
Partly on my own account, from my own ex-
periences as superintendent of the high school de-
partment of the Commissariat for People's Edu-
cation in the northern Communes of Russia, at
Petrograd, I can bear witness to the fact that the
Soviet Government laid great stress not only upon
the spreading of education among the masses, —
as Dr. Arne asserts, — but also upon the promoting
of science in every respect. The paper shortage
and other consequences of the blockade organized
by the "democratic states of culture" cannot of
course contribute to the flowering of science, art,
and literature at th§, present time. Nevertheless,
no government in the world is doing as much as
the government of the workers and peasants in
Russia which is so maligned by "bearers of cul-
ture" elsewhere. — Folkets Dagblad Politiken,
Stockholm, July 2, 1920.
Russian Women in the Red Army
THE Russian women — peasant, working-class
A and bourgeois — have played an important part
in all revolutionary movements which have swept
through Russia. Amfiteatrov, the Russian writer,
acknowledges the importance of the Russian wom-
en's efforts, looking towards the emancipation of
the working and bourgeois classes in Russia, in
the following words: "The women have taught
the Russian people to read and write, they have
established new teaching methods and have borne
the whole martyrdom imposed by the work of en-
lightening the proletariat." As a matter of fact,
the Russian women are entitled to a large share
of the credit for the liberation of Russia's working
classes. Their solicitousness, their devotion and
spirit of self-sacrifice, intensified to the point of
fanaticism, enabled them to bear quietly and with
patience all these tortures which were a conse-
quence of illegal activity — the only possible meth-
od of agitation and propaganda in czarist Russia.
For many decades the woman revolutionist stood
watch at her quiet, hidden, and often most dan-
gerous post. She organized secret printing shops,
manufactured bombs, planned assassinations,
(fighting methods brought about by the peculiar
Digiiiz&d by v^OOQIC
conditions existing in Russia), carried on the pro-
paganda in the army, fought on the barricades —
everywhere, at all dangerous posts, we meet the
Russian woman revolutionist, whose self-sacrifice
and revolutionary energy served as an example for
others.
After the fall of czarism the energetic revolu-
tionary activity of the women continued. Unfor-
tunately it was put to a base use by the bourgeois
democracy. The so-called "Battalions of Death",
composed of inspired women of the bourgeois de-
mocracy, were used chiefly in the fight against the
revolution of the proletariat. And in these fights
against the revolutionary laboring class the famous
women's "Battalions of Death", defending the
bourgeois democracy with tenacious energy, were
almost completely destroyed.
The successors of the bourgeois women in the
bourgeois-democratic era were the women of the
proletariat, whose readiness to fight and determi-
nation in all things revolutionary were the means
of lighting the spark of the revolution of the pro-
letariat. For it was the strike of the women tex-
tile workers in the large factories on the Vyborg
side of Petrograd which gave the impetus to the
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Bolshevik uprising in October, 1917. These very
women, leaving their places in the textile works in
a body and pouring in a seething mass into the
inner city, gave the signal for the beginning of the
proletarian revolution in Petrograd.
It is sufficient to cite these incidents to explain
why Russian women of the proletariat are to be
found in the Red Army. But here there are no
separate battalions of women. The women volun-
teers (during the general mobilization they
swarmed in great numbers) are attached to vari-
ous units and sent to the front. Side by side with
their men comrades the women soldiers of the pro-
letarian army fight their battles, fight them with
the same degre of fearlessness and heroism as the
men. And all this is done quietly — modestly. No
one in Russia thinks it necessary to make special
mention of the fighting spirit and the fearlessness
of the women — or to praise them: it is all taken
for granted.
The women soldiers are chiefly active in the
auxiliary service. Thousands of women were at-
tached to the sanitary branch of the service. They
were first thoroughly trained and then sent to the
front or to field hospitals as hospital troops and
to hospitals in the interior as nurses. These fe-
male sanitary troops perform their duties at the
front with marvelous fearlessness. They do not
wait until the front is moved forward — while still
under fire they rescue the wounded from the line
of battle and thus save the lives of many of their
comrades in arms.
Women soldiers are also utilized in the auxiliary
service behind the lines — at the supply stations,
in the transportation service, as couriers, at the
army offices and post-offices — everywhere women
are to be found, everywhere they offer their
strength and their labor in the defense of the
Soviet Power. The women spare no efforts and
no sacrifices and willingly submit to the rigid war
discipline, for well they know that their services
constitute a strong support for the defensive sys-
tem of the proletarian state.
But in all other agencies, too, that serve educa-
tional purposes, women are used almost exclusively.
For the troops of the Red Army have their libra-
ries, reading rooms, etc., besides which they are
treated to lectures, meetings and debates for the
purpose of socialistic enlightenment and educa-
tion. All this affords the women a further field
for their activity. How much the efforts of these
women at the front have accomplished is shown
by the marked self-discipline and fitness of the
men composing the Red Guard. Above all the
troops are taught self-respect, and they are thor-
oughly imbued with the realization of the honor,
the privilege that is theirs in defending the cause
of the revolution and of Socialism; but it is not
forgotten to also impress them with the obliga-
tions which this honor places upon them.
The women inhabitants of large cities like Pet-
rograd, Odessa, Samara, and others were given
the opportunity to take a hand in the defense of
.>agfc
these cities. They were mobilized for the auxiliary
service and it was chiefly their task to replace the
men, who were leaving for the front, in factories,
offices, and other places of employment. Many
women even volunteered for the actual defensive
service under arms, were equipped and drilled, and
by the side of their male comrades of the proletari-
at, awaited the approach of the White Guard,
ready to defend their proletarian homes to the
last drop of their blood.
According to their ability the women are being
trained for military service. In fact, military
service is just as obligatory for all organized wom-
en Communists as it is for their men comrades.
Once or twice a week armed detachments, com-
posed of both men and women, may be seen march-
ing to the district training posts, where they are
drilled in the use of firearms, and where a gen-
eral military training is imparted to them. The
labor organization, "General Military Training",
the "Voevobuch" as it is called, counts among its
members many hundreds of women proletarians.
On May 1, when the volunteer labor battalions
paraded, there could be seen in their ranks splen-
didly drilled detachments of women soldiers. Wom-
en members of the "Voevobuch" do garrison and
guard duty in the cities, and women soldiers are
today a familiar part of the daily life of these
cities. Women are also trained for officers in the
proletarian officers* training schools. It was in
the fall of 1919 that the first woman officer left
for the front — one of those women from the ranks
of the youthful working women who form so large
a contingent of all volunteers.
The Russian working woman performs her duty
with enthusiasm, limitless devotion and quiet
modesty. Hunger, privation, and cold are for-
gotten, family cares and affairs are pushed aside
when danger threatens the Proletarian State. They
are not willing to give up without a struggle the
fruits of their heroic fight with their former op-
pressors, their deliverance from capitalistic ex-
ploitation, their complete economic and political
equality. The very thought of a return to the old
slavery of the working woman, to the yoke put
upon woman by a tyrannical state, appears unbear-
able to them. It is for this reason that they fight
with such passionate enthusiasm at the front of
the Russian Proletarian State, why they so willing-
ly bear all the burdens and hardships of the aux-
iliary military service. Not for the defense of
capitalism do they wage their fight, as was the
case during the war in the west and middle-Euro-
pean states: their fight is for the preservation of
the fruits of the proletarian revolution.
And the women of the Austrian proletariat?
Do they realize that the shells, which, in the muni-
tion factories, are loaded by women workers, will
also tear the bodies of daring, self-sacrificing pro-
letarian women fighters? Do they realize that
the heroic Russian women workers willingly sacri-
fice their lives under the fire of shells and ma-
chine guns, in order that the women proletarians
of other countries, too, mcy be free?
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SOVIET RUSSIA
207
The destruction of the Russian Proletarian
State through military force will result not only
in the abrogation of all liberties achieved to this
day by the women of Russia, but will make the
liberation and emancipation of the proletarian
women in other countries impossible for decades
to come. The fight of the Austrian women work-
ers against shipments of ammunition, destined to
be used in battles against proletarian Russia, is
just as much a fight for her own ultimate deliver-
ance from the yoke of capitalism. — From a recent
issue of Die Rote Fdhne, Vienna.
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bbk
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August 22, 1920.
"La victoire est aux gros
bataillons." — Napoleon.
<*TpHE victory is with the big battalions," said
A Napoleon, "it can be obtained only by force
and no force is too strong to bring victory."
When the Polish military leaders began their
offensive against Soviet Russia four months ago,
with Moscow as their strategical objective, they
believed that their army was strong enough to ac-
complish this difficult task. The Russians, on
the other hand, although their military strength
was superior to that of the Poles, allowed the in-
vasion to proceed, while they mobilized an army
with reserves sufficiently strong and numerous not
only to check the Polish advance in Russia, but
also to resume a decisive counter-offensive.
Following the classical doctrine of Napoleon, the
Soviet strategists looked with indifference upon
the situation of the Russian frontiers, still unset-
tled and uncertain, and did not trouble to guard
them, thus leaving open the gates of the Republic.
The attention of the Russian Supreme Revolu-
tionary Council was concentrated on the import-
ance of uniting all the fighting forces of the
Soviets in one army, which should operate under
one trusted leader. This leader was Comrade
S. S. Kamenev.
Since the beginning of the Polish campaign,
the firm hand of the Commander-in-Chief of the
Soviet Army could be discerned in every move-
ment of the Red Army, during their most danger-
ous and daring manoeuvres, and especially in their
retreats. The latter, on every occasion, were ac-
complished in extraordinary good order ; there was
never panic or confusion. Even the enemies of
the Soviets considered the flexibility of the Rus-
sian front as remarkable.
The Soviets military command, with no desire
to achieve a cheap victory, very skilfully evaded
the battles in which their enemy was anxious to
engage the Russians, and did not hesitate to do
this even when the Reds were numerically super-
ior to the invaders. The main strategical aim of
the Soviet command is the complete annihilation
of the enemy forces, and, in order to accomplish
this, suitable circumstances must be created. When
these circumstances were lacking, the Russian com-
mander held his forces in check even at times
when he would have been able to inflict on the
enemy's attacking army some considerable tactical
reverses. Let us remember Kiev. There cannot
be any doubt now that the Russians could have
defended the city and stopped the Poles west of
the Dnieper, as well as prevented their crossing
the Dvina and Berezina. The huge Russian re-
serves were already in full readiness about fifty
miles east of the Dnieper, and there was no diffi-
culty in moving them to the battle front in time.
But Kamenev knew well that a battle for Kiev
would certainly be followed by the complete de-
struction of this historic city, and, moreover, that
it would have been less favorable for the Russian
strategy to engage the Poles west of the rivers than
to counter-attack them after they had accomplished
the rather difficult crossings, which they would be
compelled to repeat during their retreat under vig-
orous pursuit by the victorious Red Army. Further-
more, thanks to the confusion which overtook the
Polish army when it was forced back across the
Dnieper, Budenny was able to penetrate in the
rear of the Polish battle-front, and thus to accom-
plish the gradual annihilation of the Polish field
army.
That this annihilation has been accomplished
is proved by the fact that the Russian Soviet army
not only was able to reach the gates of Warsaw
on August 15, but, as I predicted, entered, on
August 17, the northeastern part of that city, sit-
uated on the right bank of the Vistula, and known
as Praga. More than that: the fortifications of
Modlin (Novo-Georgievsk) were under the fire
of the Russian siege artillery. These fortifications,
newly built to replace the former Russian fortress,
are situated about twenty miles northwest of War-
saw, where the river Bug joins the Vistula, and
presents one single stronghold, ably protecting the
entrance to the city. Furthermore, the appear-
ance of the Russians at Plock, about thirty-five
miles west of Novo-Georgievsk (Modlin), on the
Vistula, and later in Wloclawek, northwest of Mod-
lin, thus ccompletely cutting off communications
between Warsaw and Danzig, both along the Vis-
tula as well as by the Warsaw-Bromberg railway,
proves that the Reds have accomplished a gigantic
movement, encircling the whole Polish army in
that region.
From a military standpoint, the Soviet troops
had already reached Warsaw on August 17. The
Russian cavalry, having crossed the Vistula at
several points, entered Praga, as I have said, and
we must note that Prega is even closer to Warsaw
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than Brooklyn is to New York. Being masters
of the east of Warsaw, of Novo-Minsk (twenty-
two miles from Warsaw) ; Tluszcz (eighteen
miles) ; Badzimin (twelve miles) ; and of several
points within range of field artillery of the city,
and, at the same time, encircling Warsaw on the
northwest and northnorthwest, there could be no
doubt in the mind of any military expert that
Warsaw was bound to fall, after the bombardment
of the city, the usual procedure in such cases.
I expected that at any moment we should hear
of the shelling of the city, which, from the tactical
point of view would have been a normal develop-
ment of the military operation.
We must not forget that Warsaw is not a fort-
ress, as I have already explained in my former
article. The population of this town is about
1,000,000, and it must have grown even more,
thanks to the presence of great numbers of refu-
gees. I must point out an important fact: in
most cases the military command of a besieged
town is far from any idea of surrender, and is
forced to raise the white flag either to avoid the
useless bloodshed of the civilian population, or
compelled by the latter to capitulate to the enemy
under a menace of revolution. Military history
is full of such examples. The national spirit of
the Polish people in Warsaw was at a high level
of patriotism, which was strongly supported by the
Catholic clergy. Therefore the bombardment
would have had to be of a most vigorous character,
and consequently would have caused tremendous
loss of life and property.
As I have often pointed out, however, the Soviet
strategy aims not at the occupation of one town or
another, but rather at the annihilation of the
enemy's fighting force. Destruction of the enemy's
forces can only be accomplished in the field. It
has already been clearly shown in repeated in-
stances that the Soviet strategy does not aim at
unnecessary destruction. The recapture of Kiev
was accomplished without bombardment — the
Poles left it when they lost their battle in the
field. Not one bomb was dropped from the air
on Warsaw, while leaflets covered all the streets
of the city, after they were dropped by the Bus-
6ian airmen in great abundance.
Thus it is clear that the Russian military com-
mand decided to forego the cheap and easy victory
of reducing Warsaw, by terrible destruction, in
favor of the larger strategy of drawing the Polish
army out for complete destruction in the field.
Once more the Eussian General Staff has suc-
ceeded in deceiving the Franco-Polish command,
as was also the case during the "great offensive"
of the Red Army in April, which was considered
by the Allies as a decisive movement on Warsaw.
The absence of bombardment by the Eussian
artillery was explained by the Polish military lead-
ers by a lack of guns in the hands of the Eeds.
Finally, as was anticipated by the Eussian com-
mand, the Poles undertook a desperate sortie from
Warsaw, a movement which has been erroneously
called in the papers as Polish offensive.
by LiOOglC
In such cases usually a sortie is a very fierce
venture, and as the Eeds are weak in number,
they must lose ground in that sector and retreat
towards Brest-Litovsk, and even further to the
east.
So, practically, Warsaw remains without any
garrison, as the latter was sent out to the field,
while the city remained still encircled and seriously
threatened, from the north and north-northwest,
without any hope of support from outside.
Simultaneously, the Polish command ordered
the garrison of the fortress of Ivangorod (sixty
miles southeast of Warsaw, on the Vistula) to
start a movement on Brest-Litovsk. At the same
time, their column left Lublin (southeast of Ivan-
gorod), directed on Vlodava and Kholm. The
column which started from Lukov has occupied
Biala and forced a front by joining the troops
which had reached Vlodava, where fierce fighting
with, the Eeds was lately reported, and finally
Brest-Litovsk was evacuated by the Eussians as
it is alleged.
Suffering from a lack of reserves, and using
even battalions of women, the Polish center is
approaching the river Bug, where fresh Bed re-
serves are in full concentration to meet the enemy's
foolhardy attack.
The southwestern Eussian front is gradually
advancing on Lemberg, which is now within range
of the Soviet artillery. I am absolutely convinced
that the complete defeat of the Polish armed forces
is a matter of but a short time, for the following
reasons: 1. The Poles have already lost their
field army, during the constant batttles since the
beginning of March, 1920; their reserves were
already almost annihilated during their flight
from Kiev. They have at their disposition a new-
ly-formed militia, and the troops which garrisoned
the fortresses, which they are now using for their
so-called offensive. 2. They have Haller's army
in Galicia, of considerable value, but part of that
army was removed to Warsaw at the request of
their French military advisers. 3. The situation
in West Prussia is very alarming for the Poles,
and requires serious consideration, because the hos-
tile feeling of the German population against the
Poles is growing there, as may also be noticed
throughout Germany. 4. That the British intend
not to interfere with the Soviets is becoming ap-
parent, and Danzig may even be guarded by the
British navy from any attempt by the supporters
of the Poles to send them arms, ammunition and
men ; this is sufficient for an understanding of the
grave situation in which the Polish strategy is now
placed. 5. The Polish command knows very well
that it cannot count on any reinforcement from the
Allies, nor does it count at all on WrangePs army
in South Eussia, especially since England has pro-
nounced her decisive word and the workers of Eu-
rope have made their final decision to prevent a
war with Eussia. 6. The morale of the Polish
army is very high, supported as it is by the na-
tional and religious feeling of the imperialistic
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
209
portion of the Polish population. The truth is
hidden from the Polish people very carefully, and
the time is near when it will come out; then the
morale of the people must collapse, and finally it
will collapse in the army also. 7. Three separate
Polish armies, or rather groups, are fighting the
Russians now, and in no case is the latter^ army
broken up; it is the Polish army that is broken
into pieces that have to act independently, in sev-
eral sections of the theater of war. Should one
of these groups be beaten, the remaining portions
will perish, one after another.
Some of the military critics tried to find a
similarity between the Battle of the Marne and the
so-called "release" of Warsaw. Such a parallel is
absolutely erroneous.
First of all, the Allies were in superior numbers
to the Gtercnans during the Marne battle, and the
Germans were forced to abandon Paris altogether.
Paris is itself a fortress, while Warsaw is not t
Moreover, the Poles never can be superior in num-
ber to the Russians.
"I have not, however, any doubt that Warsaw
will fall if the war continues," declared Major-
General Sir Frederic Maurice, in the Daily News
of August 18. "By throwing in their reserves, the
Poles can drive back the Russian advanced troops
and gain time," he continues, "but the advantage
of gaining time is small unless there are fresh re-
sources that can be brought into play, and these
the Poles have not got. The Russians must win
through in the end, and the sooner that plain fact
is recognized, the better for every one."
Such a statement by this important British,
general is of great significance and absolutely cot-'
responds with my standpoint, so often repeated in
Soviet Russia, as well as in the American press.
The hours of the Polish army are numbered..
Combatting the Disorganization of Transport
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I. MILITARIZATION OF RAILROAD MEN
The Council of Defence of the workers and
peasants has decided to militarize, throughout Rus-
sia, the work of persons aged eighteen to fifty and
employed or formerly employed within the past
ten years, in the railway service, as mechanics,
assistant mechanics and firemen of every class and
category, as well as the workers repairing boilers,
the superintendents, and laborers working in the
railway shops.
Persons working in the above-mentioned occu-
pations and filling responsible posts in the Red
Army or working, according to their specialty, in
the institutions of the War Commissariat or on the
construction of railroads, as well as persons now
occupied as railroad men and holding the positions
enumerated above, are exempt from militarization.
Persons liable to militarization and not present-
ing themselves within the time fixed, are tried be-
fore the revolutionary tribunal and punished by
confinement for a maximum period of five years in
a concentration camp.
2. MOBILIZATION OF COMMUNISTS
The Central Committee of the Russian Com-
munist Party has addressed a circular to all the
party organizations, announcing the mobilization
of the Communists for the combatting of disor-
ganization in transportation.
"The civil war which has been imposed upon us,"
the circular reads, "and which has lasted more than
two years, has brought our country to extreme
ruin. Our industry cut off for long months from
its sources of basic materials, deprived of fuel and
releasing a large number of expert workers for
the Red Army, finds itself paralyzed. Our trans-
port suffered especially. The number of newly
constructed locomotives and cars is altogether in-
significant, compared with that of the period be-
fore the war and our actual needs. The damaged
locomotives considerably exceed in number those
which have been repaired. The number of cars
and locomotives out of service is growing from day
to day. In the localities which were invaded by
the bands of Denikin and Kolchak almost all the
railroad bridges have been blown up, a great num-
ber of works have been destroyed, the railroads-
damaged, telegraph poles torn up, etc.
"All these ravages, together, render the situa-
tion of the railroads extremely dangerous. The 1
catastrophe of a complete cessation of the move-
ment of trains threatens us, if by heroic efforts;
we do not succeed within a short time in working*
a radical change. In view of this enormous and
mortal danger, the Central Committee is utilizing;
a means which was tried with success during the*
years of the revolution.
"We appeal to the masses of the workers, to you r
especially, comrades, members of the Russian Com-
munist Party. It is you who have led hundreds
of thousands of Red soldiers in the great and
sacred fight for the proletarian power, for Com-
munism. You have done this by your heroic ex-
ample, by your unlimited devotion to the cause
of the workers. Whenever the situation on the
front became threatening, our party ordered a
mobilization of the Communists, and always this'
mobilization regenerated the front. The Red sol-
diers, who were even yesterday dispersed by the-,
first attack of the enemy, are very different today,,
when a fresh force of Communist workers has en-
tered their ranks. They have become heroes and
accomplished great feats, competing among them-
selves in daring and courage.
"At the present time, comrades, we are on the,
eve of a new mobilization, but this time for an '
internal peace front. Cost what it may, we must
regenerate our means of transport during the com-
ing months. It is by this effort and only by this
eff0rt ' Mffeft?.«f *oA V ° rking "***'
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August 28, 1920
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from the terrible suffering of famine and cold.
This effort, if it succeeds, is the assurance of the
regeneration of our whole industry and the de-
finite consolidation of our victories against the
national and world counter-revolution.
"To this end, the Central Committee announces
a new mobilization of 5,000 members of the party,
for the work of transport.
"Let each city and district aspire to be in the
front ranks of the fight against the danger which
is menacing the revolution, a danger which must
be met.
"Let every mobilized member of the party report
at the peace front with the same disposition to
heroic acts, and the devotion of which tens of
thousands of our party members have given proof
on the fronts against Denikin and Kolchak.
"We must construct three new locomotives for
one, and repair a hundred instead of ten.
"Forward, Comrades, to a new heroic battle on
a new front. The victory which we shall win
there will be a victory on the whole line, and, es-
pecially, a general battle won against famine and
cold.
"We must win this victory, and we shall win it !"
3. THE PRODUCTION OF A WEEK OF
INTENSIVE LABOR
The week devoted to transportation has pro-
duced very satif actory results on the railroad lines
Nicholas and Murmansk.
Railroad men and volunteer workers partici-
pated, working particularly on large and small re-
pairs, in order to put into circulation, with the
least possible delay, the maximum number of loco-
motives and cars. The workers dismembered a
number of cars and locomotives which were ir-
reparably damaged, employing the useful parts for
other cars; they adapted numerous freight cars
for passenger service; they collected fuel, loaded
and unloaded trains, cleared the tracks of snow,
and selected the exchange parts and useful ma-
terial.
8,844 listed workers and 400 supplementary
workers were employed in the Nicholas railroad
shops on the repair of cars. They repaired 295
freight cars, twenty-six baggage cars and nine pas-
senger cars. In the centred shops for the repair
of locomotives 2,500 men worked during this week.
They completed almost all the capital repairs on
eight locomotives. Labor production increased on
an average of seventy per cent. On the same
Nicholas railway in the course of the week devoted
to transport, the work was pursued not less ener-
getically. They succeeded in repairing almost 900
trains and continued, moreover, the usual routine
repairs on locomotives. They adapted more than
100 freight cars for passenger transportation. In
short, the transport week has increased the quan-
tity of rolling stock by nearly 1,000 units.
The transport week also produced very satisfy-
ing results on the Murmansk railroad. They were
successful in repairing thirty locomotives, neces-
sitating ordinary repairs, and a tender, and two
locomotives were recovered. The parts of twenty-
one passenger cars were inspected, 168 freight
cars repaired, forty-three cars for the transport of
wood converted, the boards of 448 train-platforms
renailed, and 660 stove-pipes prepared. The in-
crease in labor productivity on the Murmansk
railway amounts on an average to sixty per cent.
4. THE RAILROADS OF UKRAINE
After Denikin's retreat, the Soviet power found
the railroads in the region of Kharkov in a de-
plorable state. The entire technical personnel had
been removed and the drafts, designs, and tools
carried off. The Whites burned everything they
did not have time to remove. Typhus raged among
the few employes who remained. In depriving the
railroads of the technical perosnnel, they did not
succeed, nevertheless, in doing it soon enough to
catch up with the Red Army, which advanced
rapidly, always liberating new sections of railroad.
The situation of the railroad bridges was particu-
larly critical. South and north of Kharkov, forty-
seven bridges were destroyed. The workers of the
railway service accomplished miracles, in order to
rebuild them. A special information section was
formed, to organize local reconstruction squads
which were formed with the immediate help of the
service section of tfye railroad. Reconstruction was
much hindered by the lack of material and the
absence of a transport operating regularly to bring
material. It is thus for example that the de-
mands for wood, addressed to Orel and Kursk
were not met except at the end of two weeks. In
view of this state of affairs the reconstruction sec-
tion of the southern railway service began itself
to exploit the forests. As a result twenty-nine
bridges of the forty-seven destroyed by the enemy
were repaired in June.
5. RESUMPTION OF INTERNATIONAL
RAILWAY COMMUNICATION
The economic activity of the country becoming
more intense upon the raising of the blockade and
the conclusion of peace with Esthonia, a question
of first importance arises, and one concerning the
very near future, that of the railroads, as one of
the principal economic factors.
In anticipation of this, the financial and eco-
nomic section of the Commissariat of Ways of
Communication elaborated a program of work re-
lative to the questions of transport economy.
This program is occupied, principally, with the
organization of new direct international transport
of passengers and freight and the reestablishment
of the old transports. Measures will have to be
taken henceforth to establish these transports with
the aid of the Esthonian railways.
The program next describes the financial situ-
ation of the railroads and enumerates the measures
designed to improve it; it then discusses the com-
parative study of the situation and of the role of
the economy of the railroads among the other
branches of the national economy and occupies
itself with a new distribution of the railways in
accordance with the economic situation.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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6. "ECONOMIC LIFE" ON THE QUESTION
OF TRANSPORTATION
Economic Life, a daily appearing at Moscow,
and serving as the organ of the Supreme Council
of National Economy and the Commissariats of
Finance, of Provisioning, and Foreign Commerce,
devotes its Sunday issues exclusively to the ques-
tion of the fight against the disorganization of
transportation. In the number of March 7, the
journal explains the purpose of thes^ periodic
articles.
"The worker having taken into his hands, fol-
lowing upon the October Revolution, the direction
of the national economy, must understand and
form a clear idea of the importance of the trans-
port and its regular functioning. Every locomo-
tive, every train, becomes, from this moment, a
valuable thing for the working class. The difficult
conditions in which we are forced to live render the
question of transport very urgent for the working
class, and it demands immediate solution. In ef-
fect, only the satisfactory solution of these ques-
tions will enable the worker to improve the present
difficult situation and destroy all the chains which
prevent him from constructing his new economic
life.
"The fundamental task of our Sunday members
is to inform the large working masses, the organ-
izers of the national economy, of the state of our
transport. We want, constantly, to attract the
attention of the workers to every change in the
transport situation for better or worse. We do
this in order to keep the workers constantly alert,
to call them to the fight against the disorganiza-
tion of transport, for only victory over this public
calamity will permit the strengthening of the pro-
letarian power and consolidate the conquests of
the October revolution."
The same number contains interesting informa-
tion on the situation with regard to rolling stock
on the railroads of Soviet Russia.
"We must recognize," writes the journal, "that
only a very insignificant quantity — but a few hun-
dred — remains to us of the number of locomo-
tives which were in use in 1914.
'There were constructed in our factories and
received from abroad nearly 4,000 locomotives in
the period from 1914 to 1919, inclusive. That
means nine locomotives for 100 versts of exploited
railroad, considering the system which we possess
at the present time (normally, there would be
thirty locomotives for every 100 versts). This
number of locomotives is four times less than that
aavilable in 1914, and two and a half times less
than that available in 1916.
"We must logically deduce from this that it
is not only necessary actively to repair the locomo-
tives out of service, but that it is also indispensable
to increase at all costs and in the shortest possible
time the number of locomotives in use, by con-
structing new and very powerful engines. This
second circumstance is even of more importance
than the first. [
"Such a critical situation with regard to our
rolling stock naturally brings up the following
question : are our factories for the construction of
locomotives and trains in a position to furnish us
the necessary quantity on the condition that they
be supplied with metal, fuel, and other indispen-
sable materials. On the condition, also, of their
having at their disposal a sufficient number of
workers provided with food and equipment? And
then the question: how soon will our factories be
able to achieve this task?
"Let us suppose that we have a system of 50,000
versts of railroad. For 100 versts in use, we must
have an average of thirty locomotives, the propor-
tion which obtained before the war. For 50,000
versts we must have 15,000 locomotives. The
working conditions on our railway system makes
thirty freights cars necessary for each locomotive.
Thus, a minimum of 450,000 freight cars must
be available. We now have about 10,000 locomo-
tives and 250,000 cars. We need, therefore, 5,000
additional locomotives and 200,000 cars.
"In 1912 and 1913 the committee charged with
the distribution of orders studied in detail
our factories for the construction of locomotives
and cars. It follows from this examination that
the maximum annual production of all the fac-
tories could be estimated at:
Locomotives from 1,700 to 1,800
Cars " 40,000 " 46,000
"About 1,300 locomotives and 30,000 cars are
annually put out of service. Thus the factories
can, in the course of a year, increase the total quan-
tity of rolling stock in use by the construction of
Locomotives 500 at most ;
Cars 15,000 " "
"To construct all the rolling stock that we lack,'
would require: 5,000 locomotives at the rate of
500 a year=10 years, and for the cars (200,000
at 15,000 a year) =12 years and a half. But in-
reality we would have to triple or ,at least, double
this figure, because, first, the machinery in most
of our factories is worn out and must be replaced ;
second, to restore working conditions such as they
were in the factories in 1912 and 1913 — the period
of the greatest production — a considerable length
of time will be needed."
MEDICAL RELIEF FOR SOVIET
RUSSIA
The Soviet Russia Medical Relief Committee
will hold a mass meeting in Madison Square Gar-
den, New York, on Thursday, September 2, at
8 P. M„ for the purpose of calling attention to
the necessity of raising funds to purchase and
forward medical and surgical supplies to Soviet
Russia. .Among the prominent speakers who will
address the mass meeting are Mr. L. C. A. K.
Martens, Dr. Judah L. Magnes, and Lt.-Col. B.
Roustam Bek. The admission fee is thirty cents.
UH l vbfc l 'hul- M l LH I b.M.N
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SOVIET RUSSIA
August 28, 1920
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised.
T EMBERG, in Eastern Galicia, will probably
-*-^be already in the hands of the advancing cav-
alry and other forces of the Soviet Russian army,
under General Budenny, by the time these lines
reach the reader. Anyone who knows the history
of the relations between the Poles and Ruthenians
in that portion of Galicia will not be surprised
to learn that the Russian troops have been greeted
as deliverers by the population of Lemberg and
the surrounding districts.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire, recently dis-
solved, by action of the Versailles conferences,
into a number of component and non-component
parts, included, as one of its largest crown prov-
inces, the country known as Galicia, which barely
more than touched another Austrian province
(Moravia), and was separated by high mountains
(the Carpathians) from Hungary, with which it
had a much longer common boundary-line. All of
Galicia had once been "Polish", by the rather ex-
tensive definition of the boundary-line of 1772,
the date of the first partition of "Poland". The
1772 boundary of "Poland", which the Polish im-
perialists have set up, it appears, as their least de-
sideratum, included great areas populated by con-
quered or purchased peoples: Lithuanians, White
Russians, Ukrainians, Letts, and others. With the
successive reductions of Polish territory involved
in the three partitions toward the end of the eight-
eenth century, and with the final incorporation of
Poland proper with the Russian Empire, the right
to tyrannize over these subject populations passed
from the Polish aristocracy to the Russian Czar-
ism and its more efficient exploiters, as well as to
the no less able tyrants in Prussia and Austria.
In Prussia it resulted that the uniform pressure
of the Prussian lords was felt by the entire an-
nexed population, the Poles themselves being the
chief sufferers; in Austria, however, this interest-
ing condition came to pass :
Austria-Hungary was a monarchy with a popu-
lation of over fifty million, of which the dominant
section was a German-speaking area with about
ten million population. It is well-known that this
apparent primacy of the German element in Aus-
tria was the result of various compromises with
other racial elements, and one of the most per-
manent and stable of these interracial bargains
was the one concerned with Galicia. Western
Galicia, with Cracow as its center, is largely, al-
most entirely, Polish in population; Eastern Gali-
cia, with its capital at Lemberg, is almost as ex-
clusively Ruthenian. The Ruthenians in language
and customs are difficult to distinguish from the
Ukrainians, or Little Russians, who inhabit much
of the south of Russia. The ruling class in Aus-
tria consented to grant to the Polish element in
Galicia the control of all of Galicia, retaining the
single capital at Lemberg, instead of dividing the
country into two provinces, an eastern province
with a Ruthenian government at Lemberg, and a
western province with a Polish government at
Cracow. This arrangement worked satisfactorily,
on the whole, both for the imperial bureaucracy at
Vienna, and for the Polish nobility and intellectu-
als in Galicia, although it will be readily seen that
the Imperial Government could (and it did) make
excellent use of threats of concessions to the Ru-
thenians whenever it was necessary to secure the
support of the Polish faction in the Imperial Diet
for some government measure.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire fell, and the
German section lost its privilege of playing off
one racial element against the other. But the
Eastern Galicians, in spite of many protests, met
with a worse fate than had been theirs in Austria,
where they had been a bone of contention between
the empire and the Poles. They were handed over
by the Peace Treaty to be administered "tempo-
rarily" by Poland for twenty-five years, after which
definite disposition would be made of them. Of
course the Poles, in Eastern Galicia as well as in
any other Ukrainian districts they have from time
to time occupied in the course of their recent cam-
paigns, continued the program of tyranny and
polonization which they had always pursued under
the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, where they had
been a sort of favorite element, with the exception
that now there was no curb whatever on their im-
perialistic and exploiting appetites. It is well-
known that their present occupation of Eastern
Galicia and of the capital at Lemberg was resisted
by all the Ruthenians by force, and that they did
not succeed in taking Lemberg until they had laid
siege to it.
But the exploitation of Ukrainian populations by
Polish overlords goes much further back in history
than the compromises governing the operation of
the now defunct dual monarchy. The relations
between the Ukrainians and their Polish masters
have been as sharp and bitter, for many centuries,
as those between English lords and Irish peasants,
and the present liberation of Lemberg, and, more
particularly, of the surrounding peasant popula-
tions, from the Polish yoke, will be as welcome to
the oppressed people as a liberation of the Irish
people from England would be to the Irish.
TT IS AS liberators, therefore, and not as con-
x querors, that the Soviet troops will enter Lem-
berg. To be sure, the original intention of the
Soviet Govermneii^, whici* dtill remains its fixed
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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August 28, 1920
SOVIET EUSSIA
213
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policy, was to let the subject populations decide
for themselves what form of government they
would live under, and with what other country, if
with any, they would join. But the necessities of
war have forced a new condition on the Soviet
Government. The necessity of self-defense against
Poland has forced Soviet armies to invade this
subject-land of Poland, as it has invaded other
lands similarly handed over by the "Peace Treaty",
to the tender mercies of the Polish tyrants. News-
paper readers still recall with what joy the Soviet
forces were received in the "corridor" torn from
Germany by the Treaty, when the German popula-
tion of that district had an opportunity to express
its feelings toward the advancing Eussian troops.
Here again, interference in the relations between
Poland and Germany had not been Soviet Russia's
intention, but had been brought about by the ne-
cessity only of replying to Poland's acts of aggres-
sion against Soviet Russia.
TZATTOWITZ is a prosperous city near the
-"^ southern tip of what was once the Prussian
province of Silesia (which had been forcibly an-
nexed from Austria in 1740). The newspapers
tell us that although Kattowitz is surrounded by
largely Polish populations, which would have been
ready to be joined with Poland if the plebiscite
area of which Kattowitz is the center had been
given an opportunity to vote immediately on this
subject, they have been so estranged by the recent
acts of the Polish government, culminating, the
other day, in the dispatch of Polish regiments to
patrol Kattowitz against the rising tendency to
throw off the Polish occupation, that they will
probably vote to remain with Germany when the
elections are actually held (July 1, 1921 is the
latest permissible date). In fact, so sure are the
German partisans of their ground, that they are
beginning to clamor for an election at once. In
this section also Soviet troops, if they should enter,
would be very welcome. Already it is impossible,
in view of the anti-Polish sentiment in this dis-
trict, to forward munitions to Poland from the
west through this route.
In Posnania (Posen, Prussian Poland), the case
is similar. Unlike the Kattowitz area, this coun-
try was handed over to Poland directly, without
even a plebiscite. Its population is now begin-
ning to feel what it means to be attached to im-
perialistic Poland's war-chariot. Already Poland
needs men ; Russia is defeating her, and the Euro-
pean imperialisms are afraid to draft men to aid
Poland out of their populations, and so Posnania
experiences the first "benefits" of annexation by
Poland; she must furnish 300,000 new troops to
resist the punishment rightfully threatening from
Russia, and, in order to raise this number of sol-
diers, all men of the age of seventeen to fifty years
are being drafted in the Polish army. Thus the
unhappy lands of Europe are being depleted of
men in order to enable Poland to carry out
France's orders, to force Soviet Russia to pay the
Czar's loans back to France, to maintain a buffer-
state against the dictatorship of the proletariat.
* * *
"DOLAND is represented as desiring peace; the
Soviet Government is declared, in the hostile
press, to be opposed to peace and engaged in the
pursuit of imperialistic aims. Thus, we are told
that the Soviet Government is delaying the con-
vening of the armistice commission by refusing
to accept the credentials of the Polish delegates.
The facts of the matter are well told in the fol-
lowing account, in the London Daily Herald, of
August 4, contributed by the Christiania, Norway,
correspondent of that paper :
Christiania, Tuesday. — The mystery of the delay
in the Russo-Polish peace negotiations, which has been
causing so much anxiety to the Allied statesmen, is now
cleared up. The cause of the trouble is another char-
acteristic piece of Polish duplicity.
The Poles are gambling for a catastrophe on the
chance of Allied intervention.
fhe Polish delegates were invited to a conference
with the Russians in order to discuss peace prelimin-
aries and armistice terms. From beginning to end of
the Notes that have been exchanged, there has been no
ambiguity about this.
Chicherin's Note to Lord Curzon on July 11 promised
that "if Poland addresses to Russia proposals to enter
into peace negotiations, the Soviet Government will riot
reject the proposal, and will also consider in the most
friendly spirit any subsidiary proposal as to an armis-
tice." Similar phrases have been used in every one of
the succeeding Russian Notes.
In Lord Curzon's Note of July 20 to Warsaw, the
Polish Government was advised "to send a formal mes-
sage asking for an immediate armistice and proposing
peace." Finally, the invitation by the Soviet High
Command asked the Polish delegates to come and "to
enter into negotiations on the question of an armistice
and peace between Russia and Poland," and mentioned
that the Russian Supreme Command would send "rep-
resentatives furnished with full powers."
The Polish delegates passed through the Russian
front on July 30. But when, on August 1, they pre-
sented their credentials, the Russians found to their
astonishment, that the Poles were only empowered
to discuss an armistice and that the credentials were
only signed by the military command.
The Russians thereupon demanded that the Polish
delegates should be provided with proper credentials
from their central government for negotiations both
for armistice and for peace preliminaries. They sug-
gested that negotiations should begin at Minsk on
August 4 and that, to save time, the Polish Government
should notify the Russian Government by wireless that
a courier with new credentials had been sent.
Again, to the astonishment of the Russians, the Pol-
ish delegates refused this suggestion, and declared that
they must go back to Warsaw to confer with their gov-
ernment. They therefore left yesterday, and the Rus-
sians are still awaiting the arrival of delegates with
proper credentials.
It seems clear that there is more than a mere tech-
nical question at issue. Recent declarations in Warsaw
have made it obvious that the Poles are desirous of
securing an armistice, not as a beginning of peace
negotiations, but as a means of preparing for a re-
newal of the war, in which they hope for Allied aid.
The Russians, on the other hand, made it perfectly
plain from the beginning that any armistice arrange-
ments must be actually part of the peace preliminaries.
In view of the extraordinarily shifty manner in which
the Poles have handled the whole business. Russia
cannot discuss armistice terms unless some guarantee
is given that they arc hofirstly intended to lead to the
establishment of peace. ._ _ _
rM'EMr OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
August 28, 1930
Petlura and the Vatican
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"\/f R. MORKOTUN, a member of the Paris
""*■ Ukrainian National Committee, which is a
Denikin organization, favoring a united Czarist
Russia, and opposed to movements pursuing sepa-
ratist aims, makes the following disclosures:
Russia — the Chief Enemy of the Vatican
The Vatican believes that a monarchist system,
established with the aid of the church, will replace
Bolshevism in eastern Europe. Eastern Europe
will then become the mainstay of reaction for an
offensive on the democratic and "godless" West.
The chief peril for the Vatican is a strong demo-
cratic Russia, for that country might wreck all the
plans of the Vatican. To dismember Russia, and
to seize parts of it, creating small states under its
influence — such is the policy of the Vatican.
The first victims of this policy are Ukraine and
White Russia, which the Vatican hopes to bring
under its power, relying on the support of the
Polish magnates and on the ignorance of the peas-
ants. The clerical plan counts on surrounding
Poland with catholicized Ukraine and White Rus-
sia, and on using Polish imperialism to subject
these countries to Poland, thus strengthening and
bringing into power in Poland the definitely
clerical group of magnates and military.
The Pope as Mediator Between Petlura and
Poland
In the spring of 1919 Petlura was in a desperate
situation. His territory extended over seven
versts, and he was threatened on all sides either
by the Poles or by Denikin. Among the persons
surrounding Petlura, the priest Boom (of Belgian
descent) — an official Jesuit, was of great import-
ance. Boom persuaded Petlura that the only way
for a rapprochement with Poland was through
the Pope.
To gain the Pope's support for Ukraine Petlura,
on Boom's advice, appointed Count Tyshkevich as
his representative to the Vatican. Count Tysh-
kevich is a great Polish magnate, a Jesuit, who in
the interests of the Church first gave his attention
to the Lithuanian question and later to the Ukrai-
nian question. At the Vatican Count Tyshkevich
was under the special protection of Benedict, and
Cardinal Gaspari began to direct his policy.
The Pope Sends a Letter to Petlura
Soon after his appointment Count Tyshkevich
transmitted to Petlura a letter from the Pope
which contained the recognition of Ukrainian in-
dependence. Boom then persuaded Petlura to
appoint Count Tyshkevich as his representative to
Paris, in place of Sydorenko, who was incapable
of acting in foreign affairs. In August this ap-
pointment became a fact.
Count Tyshkevich's son, who also belongs to the
Jesuit order, was preparing the ground at Paris
for his father. In the summer of 1919 the Presi-
dent of the Committee of the Polish Magnates of
Ukraine, Count Grokholsky, who was at Warsaw,
began to work for a union of Ukraine and Poland.
The catholic magnates of Ukraine conceived the
idea of making Ukraine, subjected to Poland, the
base of their monarchist plans: entrenched in
Polish Ukraine, the catholic reaction would seize
Poland. Count Grokholsky found the petty ad-
venturer Pavluk and presented him to the Entente
missions at Warsaw as a representative of the
Polophile Ukrainians. Pavluk went to Petlura as
an agent of Count Grokholsky. Count Tyshke-
vich's son traveled between Warsaw, Paris, and
the Vatican, keeping his father in touch with
Count Grokholsky's part.
TyshJcevich's Mission at Paris
Soon Count Tyshkevich arrived with a double
mission: from Petlura — to obtain recognition of
the independence of Ukraine; from the Pope — to
work for the reestablishment of relations between
Prance and the Vatican. In Paris Count Tysh-
kevich acted under the direction of Monseigneur
B., a high representative of the political Church,
and one of the leaders of the clerical parly. One
of the first steps of Count Tyshkevich was a state-
ment in the clerical newspaper La Croix of Sep-
tember 5 about the establishment of a church
Union in Ukraine and the despatch thither of
catholic missionaries. This statement led to a
written protest signed by the members of the
Ukrainian mission Lozinsky, Matushenko, and
Dedushka, which is in the possession of the author
of this article. Canon Simbratovich — a Jesuit —
served as the connecting link between Rome, Count
Tyshkevich, and Petlura. Count Tyshkevich'a
program was — a church Union between Ukraine
and the Vatican, and a political union with Pol-
and, and the establishment of an aristocratic mon-
archy in Ukraine. Count Grokholsky's agent,
Pavluk, was empowered to act as Petlura's repre-
sentative at Warsaw, and renounced Galicia and a
part of Volhynia in favor of Poland.
Petlura's Compact with the Polish Magnates
In the latter part of 1919 Petlura was forced
out of Ukraine. On December 2, 1919, he came to
Warsaw. He concluded a treaty with Poland
in which he recognized the inviolability of the land
estates of the Polish magnates, which were to be
excepted from any agrarian reforms (paragraph
3, of the first part of the treaty). In addition
Petlura agreed to an administrative protectorate
of Poland over Ukraine, that is, a political union
with Poland.
Petlura Represented at the Vatican by a Jesuit
Priest
At the end of 1919 priest Boom was appointed
Petlura's representative at the Vatican. In the
beginning of March, 1920, Count Tyshkevich gave
an interview for the Matin and Journal in which
he spoke of the Latin culture of the Ukrainians.
According to information from reliable sources,
Count Tyshkevich tried to convince the French
Government that the Ukrainian population was
ready to accept Catholicism. (In the past only
IVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
August 28, 1920
SOVIET KUSSIA
215
czarism prevented the Ukrainians from becoming
Catholics.) If the French Government wanted to
bring Ukraine into the sphere of its political in-
fluence it should support the Catholic as well as
the Polophile aspirations of the Ukrainian people
and defend it against the barbarians, the Musco-
vites. The Vatican would help the French Gov-
ernment, of course, if diplomatic relations were es-
tablished between them.
French Clericals for Petlura
The support of an independent Ukraine became
the official policy of the clerical and right French
parties. On February 5, 1920, Deputy Bonsel
spoke in favor of recognition of an independent
Ukraine. On April 12, 1920, Cardinal Genochi
( ?), the Vatican Minister to Ukraine, left together
with Father Boom for the Ukrainian region under
military occupation. The vast sums of the so-
called Polish fund of special contributions, which
were paid by the catholic landed proprietors to
the Vatican since 1830, were presented by the
Church for the conversion of the Ukrainians to
Catholicism.
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Poland and Ukraine
By Karl Radek
[The following remarks by the famous Polish-Russian political theorist are now a little super-
seded, but they acquire a new timeliness from the fact that we now know that the Russian and
Ukrainian Soviet Republics are both represented in the armistice commission that is ready to meet
with the Polish delegates.]
TTHE Polish press has of late been devoting con-
*"\ siderable attention to the Ukrainian question.
The Polish landed proprietors, who held the
Ukrainian peasants in bondage for ages, and who
are now waging war against the Ukrainians in
order to secure for the future the opportunity of
exploiting the Ukrainian landless peasants, and the
poor of Eastern Galicia, who are seizing Podolia
and Volhynia in order to save the estates of the
Branitzkys and Pototzkys from the Ukrainian
peasantry, who are shouting that the Ukrainian
nationality was invented by the Austrian Governor-
General Stadion, — these Polish landed proprietors
have suddenly begun to worry about the fate of
Ukrainian culture and democracy, which — they
say — is threatened by the Bolshevist peril.
In December they were negotiating with Pet-
lura. Petlura was assuring his braves that these
negotiations were only fictitious, but that they
were necessary as a cover for his flight from Deni-
kin to Warsaw. But the Polish press now reports
that these negotiations are very real, and that
Petlura really sought aid from the Poles. That
Petlura is capable of doing this, is beyond doubt.
He is irresistably rolling downward, since he is
unable to retain power with the forces of the
handful of intellectuals who are his only support.
In February, 1918, the Ukrainian Eada sold out
to German imperialism. They reasoned as fol-
lows: German imperialism wants the Ukrai-
nian produce, but is indifferent to the fate of the
Ukrainian landed proprietors. The Bada must
remain a peasants' party, at the same time seek-
ing protection from the German government. But,
unable to give anything to the peasants, the Ukrai-
nian Bada was also unable to furnish the produce
to the Germans, and was therefore discarded by
them. In its place, the Germans installed Skoro-
padaky, whose mission was to create for Ger-
man imperialism a basis of support in the Russian
and Polish landed proprietors. The illusion of
the compatibility of a peasant democracy with Ger-
man imperialism collapsed.
Petlura tried to repeat this experiment with re-
gard to the Anglo-French imperialism, but the
Allies — who were gambling on the counter-revolu-
tion of the Russian landed proprietors — did not
give Petlura the opportunity to feel on his own
hide that Allied imperialism differs in no way
from the German. Petlura was beaten by the
Red Army, was beaten by the Denikin bands, and,
realizing his absolute impotence, he now intends,
it seems, to throw himself into the arms of the
Poles. This is but the play of one who is hope-
lessly bankrupt, for Petlura cannot have even the
slightest hope that, remaining a peasant ruler, he
can at the same time accept help from the gov-
ernment of the Polish landed proprietors who
have in Ukraine more enormous estates than had
the Russian landed proprietors. And if Petlura
agrees to a bargain with the landed proprietors,
he thereby unreservedly renounces the social and
national program which was the basis of his policy.
Petlura and his adherents have only one thing
left — to fight for their own hides.
Offering their friendship to Ukraine, the Polish
nobility and landed proprietors are simulating no
less, if not more, than the German imperialists.
For the German military had yet to demonstrate
to the Ukrainian workers and peasants its attitude
toward them, but the Polish landed proprietors the
Ukrainian people know only too well, know them
through long experience, and with regard to them
there certainly cannot be even the slightest illu-
sions. The Ukrainian people will rise against the
Polish nobles more promptly and energetically
than they rose against Denikin.
The fact that with an extremely disorganized
transport and in the absence of any important aid
at all from the Alius,, the Polish Government
dares to undertake such an adventare, proves anew
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SOVIET RUSSIA
August 28, 1920
the truth of the proverb : "Whom the gods would
destroy, they first make mad."
The Eussian and Ukrainian Soviet governments
made a peace offer to Poland. They expressed
their readiness to discuss peaceably all disputable
territorial questions which might arise. And if
the Chief of the Polish State, ex-revolutionary
Pilsudski, whose head has been turned by the vic-
tories on the weak western front, intends to seize
Ukraine under the pretext of liberating that coun-
try, we have no doubt that this adventure will end
very sadly for him and for the Polish landed
proprietors and French capitalist circles whose
puppet he is.
The Russian workers and peasants know that
the Soviet Government did everything possible for
a peaceful settlement, and the Polish workers and
peasants will know that the government of the
Polish landowners did everything to get war. After
all the sufferings that the Polish people under-
went, they unquestionably desire peace. And we
have no reason to worry about the outcome.
The judgment of the Polish workers and peas-
ants on the adventurous policy of the Polish landed
proprietors will at the same time be a judgment
on the Polish conciliators and compromisers. Pil-
sudski is even now a member of the Polish Social-
ist Party. That party bears the full responsibility
for his policy. It is helping the Polish landed
proprietors in their vile undertaking, and repre-
senting Soviet Russia and the Soviet Government
as a government of national violence and national
aggression.
By exploiting the justified suspicion on the part
of the Polish people toward the Czarist govern-
ment, in order to create a distrust of the Russian
toiling masses, the Polish compromisers are assist-
ing the Polish landed proprietors in their policy,
which aims at the conquest and enslavement of
Ukraine, masking themselves with the idea of unit-
ing around Poland the Ukrainian states, which
would serve as a screen for the Polish imperialism
precisely as the renowned Tariba served as a screen
for German imperialism.
The Polish_compromisers talk of peace with
Soviet Russia and simultaneously create conditions
for a war against her. If this war should become
a fact, it will be the end of these henchmen of
the Polish bourgeoisie and Polish landed propri-
etors just as it will be the end of the bourgeoisie
and of the landed proprietors themselves.
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Women Workers in Soviet Russia
The women workers' movement has become an
important political factor in Soviet Russia. The
work has been most successful in Petrograd, Mos-
cow, and in the governments of Moscow and Iva-
novo- Voznessensk. But undoubtedly, the women
workers of Petrograd are more class-conscious and
better organized than the others. In other gov-
ernments, also, the work has been introduced, in
many places with considerable success.
The women workers have shown excellent talent
for organization, and have shown that they are
capable of accomplishing things. In spite of the
unprecedented external difficulties, they have al-
ready vigorously supported the Soviet institutions
by founding a number of nurseries, kindergartens,
schools, public dining-rooms, etc. And when the
male worker has to go to the front, in order, with-
in the ranks of the Red Army, to defend Soviet
Russia from the attacks of Denikin, Yudenich, and
the imperialists of the Entente, the woman worker
who remains behind, not only takes his place in
the factories and the workshops, but also in the
Soviets, the unions, the militia, etc. The number
of those who wanted to fight the White Guards,
shoulder to shoulder with their brothers at he
front, is also not small.
Faced by the imperialist enemy, the woman pro-
letarian has proved herself worthy of her brother
proletarian. Immovably the women workers
stood, ready for any sacrifice, in order to wrest
the power from the bourgeoisie. Of course, it is
hard for us — they 6aid to the workers — but go to
the front, don't think of us, we will take your
places, we will manage. During the last attack
by Denikin, the women workers of Tula, at a non-
partisan conference, declared unanimously that
Denikin would enter the city only over their dead
bodies. Similar resolutions were passed in other
cities.
The entire working-class of Russia rose against
Denikin and Yudenich. It is ready for the most
intense efforts, the deepest sufferings to defend its
Soviet Government. Deep are the roots of the
Soviet Government in the proletarian masses ; they
go down into the lowest classes of citizens. It
has been able to rally even the least progres-
sive, the most uneducated elements for its pro-
tection. In this fact lies the best pledge of its
strength, of its invincibility.
The bourgeois women hate the Soviet Govern-
ment; they try by all possible means to blacken
it in the eyes of the masses; they do not shrink
from the most ridiculous and incredible lies. Last
spring, the representatives of French and English
imperialistic circles spread the foolish and worth-
less lie of the "nationalization" and "socialization"
of women by the Soviet Government. For this
reason, the ladies of the Parisian and London
monde and demi-monde thought it advisable to
appeal solemnly to the imperialistic "tiger," Cle-
menceau, to protect the Russian women from the
wicked Soviet Government. This accusation against
the Communists is nothing new. Did not Marx,
in the immortal words of the "Communist Mani-
festo", brand and ridicule this invention of the
bourgeoisie? Obviously, all these attempts to
alienate the women from the party, to provoke
them against tfa<* revolution will have bo effect
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217
Transporting Naphtha from the Caucasus
By U. Labin
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TIT' HEN the first news came of the recapture of
" Baku with its hundreds of millions of poods
of naphtha, the sceptics made very much of the
difficulties of transportation. But already in the
middle of May the Glavtop (the Supreme Fuel
Commission) formulated a plan to transport five
million poods within a month and a half (May
15- July 1).
The Fuel Commission, which was formed on
May 11 (with representatives of the various fuel
and transport organs), coordinated also the data,
plans and actions of the different organs and in-
stitutions with regard to naphtha, and the results
are quite favorable. One of the important deci-
sions of the Fuel Commission was to give to the
Supreme Committee of Water Transportation
(Glavod) fifty per cent of the incoming naphtha
(within the limits of seven million poods a
month), in order to rehabilitate at once the water
transport, without which the transportation of
naphtha in large quantities would be impossible.
The Fuel Commission also decided in favor of the
Glavod the old question regarding the transfer into
its jurisdiction of the naphtha pumping stations,
and facilitated the transfer from the military or-
gans to the Glavod of the whole work of trans-
porting naphtha on the Caspian Sea.
The Fuel Commission, as early as June, planned
to provide naphtha for the railways, for which no
arrangements were made before, and for this pur-
pose to intensify the work on naphtha, so as to
have on hand during the period of May 15-July 1
not five million, but twenty million poods. Among
the other organization measures should be men-
tioned the creation of a distribution base at As-
trakhan on the plan of the distribution bases for
provisions which had been created a few months
earlier on the initiative of the chairman of the
Supreme Council of Provisioning, Comrade Mar-
kov.
According to the reports of the Glavod to the
Fuel Commission, naphtha is brought into Astra-
khan in ever increasing quantities. Since the
opening of navigation there arrived.
Until May 25 Until May 29
4,279,000 poods
777,000 "
83,000 "
Naphtha fuel
Kerosene . . .
Machine oil.
Benzine
7,297,000 poods
1,156,000 "
264,000 «
2,500 "
Total 5,139,000 poods 8,719,500 poods
It should be remarked that almost all of this
comes from Baku: 8,111,000 poods came from
there, from Grozny through Petrovsk came only
103,000 poods and from Emba through Eakushi
506,000 poods. There is a remarkable lack of spe-
cial products — lubricating oils and benzine, which
furnish only a small part of the transport. The
Digitized by V^OOQ lC
Fuel Commission found it necessary to take meas-
ures to obtain a considerable increase of these
products. The ready tonnage assures the daily
delivery to Astrakhan of about 800,000 poods.
The whole transport of naphtha in the Baku-
Astrakhan region is now united under the direc-
tion of the representative in the Glavod collegium
of the union of water transport workers, Comrade
Bovin.
The export of naphtha products from Astrakhan
up the Volga was begun on May 11, when the
first naphtha barge left with 415,000 poods; the
barge passed Samara only on June 2. After this
the work moved more rapidly. Up to May 30,
boats left Astrakhan carrying 4,600,000 pootfe of
naphtha fuel, 994,000 poods of kerosene, and
51,000 poods of machine oil — a total of 5,645,000
poods. We can therefore rest assured that the rail-
ways of European Soviet Russia will receive in
June the 2,000,000 poods of naphtha which the
Fuel Commission found necessary to furnish
them every month for the present (1,000,000 for
the South-Eastern railways, 600,000 poods for the
Riazan-Ural line, 300,000 poods to the Syzran-
Viamza line and 100,000 to the part of the Tash-
kent line near Ejnel). This will make it possible
to transfer the coal which the Riazan-Ural line
was getting, to the Moscow-Kursk line, and to
transfer the whole line up to Moscow to a coal
basis about July 1. Moreover, it will no longer
be necessary to bring wood from far-off districts,
carrying it for many hundreds and sometimes even
for many thousands of versts, for the following
roads, which heretofore were in the worst position
with regard to fuel : the Riazan-Ural, Syzran- Viaz-
ma, and Moscow-Kursk lines. The railway situ-
ation will be considerably improved and the rear
supporting the western front much stronger. And
in July we will begin to furnish naphtha to the
factories and workshops which were selected for
this purpose, the order of delivery being determ-
ined by the Fuel Commission in agreement with
the Central Industrial Commission of the Su-
preme Council of National Economy. — Isvestia,
June 15, 1920.
THE PROTECTION OF LABOR IN
SOVIET RUSSIA
By S. KAPLUN
of the Commissariat of Labor
This pamphlet, reprinted for the first time from
an English translation that appeared in Petro-
grad this year, is an authoritative study of the
actual operation of the Code of Labor Laws,
which has already been reprinted by us in
pamphlet form.
Price Ten Cents
SOVIET RUSSIA
110 W. 40th St. Room 304 New York, N. Y.
"
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET EUSSIA
August 28, 1920
The Communist Party in Russia
By Abvid Hansen
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In all countries there are at present in the
workers' movement Putschists* — people who think,
or say they think, that knowledge, study, prepara-
tion, are worth nothing, while action, immediate
action, is everything. Look at Russia, they say,
a people of illiterates, who really put over their
revolution, instead of talking about it. It is not
education, it is action that is demanded.
Reasoning of this kind may look very attractive
at first blush. The only hitch is that it is not the
illiterates who made the revolution, but, on the
contrary, the most educated, most intellectual
portion of the working class, those who not only
could read and write, but also think, people who
had acquired a firm Socialist education and un-
derstanding, and who had already shown them-
selves to be the possessors of an organizing talent
great enough to enable them to do away with il-
literacy in the near future.
The Communist Party in Russia is not a very
numerous party. It counts not more than half
a million members, but it is a party that has no
members on paper, a party of active units who
are not only masters of the language alphabet, but
also of the alphabet of revolution. Only through
a united organization can the party control the
situation.
In the larger cities, there are higher educational
institutions for the training of Communists,
schools in which instruction is given in history,
particularly in the history of revolutions, in social
economy, and social politics. Without a certain
education, and without having passed through a
practical test, no one is admitted to the Commun-
ist Party. Voluntary courses in the Communist
Party program are now to be found in most of
the schools in Russia. The young candidates to
the party are 6ent out as state employes on the
most varying errands, and are tested through a
period of three months; only after passing the
test can they enter the party. They are then sent
as party members all over Russia, as commissars
in order to exercise control over the administra-
tion. In every single school, every single hospi-
tal, every single railroad train, etc., etc., you will
find at least one Communist. The Communists
have better opportunities than others for advanc-
ing and are more certain of getting decent bread.
But in return, they must devote their lives to
Communism. It is one of their privileges also
to be sent to the firing-line, to the most danger-
ous positions, when the Soviet Republic is threat-
ened by any enemy. During the combined of-
fensive of Yudenich and Denikin, 20,000 Com-
munists were sent to the front at once from
their work in the institutions, and it was 300
young officers in training, with revolutionary in-
spiration from the Moscow War School, who pre-
vented the Yudenich vanguard from cutting off
the railway line between Petrograd and Moscow.
Very severe demands are made on the absolute
unselfishness, zeal and idealism of the Commun-
ists. Even a slight transgression of the party
program destroys one's future. A crime of selfish-
ness, such as speculation or embezzlement, if per-
petrated by a Communist, is punished inexorably
by death, at least in the more serious cases.
Rene Marchand in Russia
T^HE former correspondent in Russia of the
Paris, Figaro, Mr. Rene Marchand, has given
a most interesting account of his conversion from
nationalist chauvinism to international commun-
ism. As the correspondent of a French bourgeois
journal, he lived in Russia during the war and
through both revolutions without any suspicions
that all was not happening strictly according to
the orthodox bourgeois version of these events
which he and his colleagues were reporting to
their papers. He confesses that he failed utterly
to comprehend what was going on before his eyes.
He made the rounds of the Allied Embassies and
was gulled at every stage by the official version:
the Bolsheviks were German agents and Allied in-
tervention was an act of beneficent friendship
towards the Russian people. A partial report of
how this honest but thoroughly deluded man
stumbled upon the truth has already appeared in
* From the German noun Putsch, an unsuccessful
and premature attempt at revolution.
Digitized by L*005 le
these pages in a letter which he addressed to the
President of France. He retells the whole story
of his disillusionment with great frankness and
humility in a pamphlet entitled "Why I Side With
the Revolution." We give the story of his culmin-
ating discovery in his own words :
"A meeting at the Consulate General of Amer-
ica, which existed at that time at Moscow under
the Swedish flag, was to enlighten me in regard
to a whole series of facts and actions of which I
had as yet no idea whatsover.
"The intervention which I supported (even in
my blindness when it appeared to me as realized
against the Bolsheviks) had constantly remained
in my mind as directed first and foremost against
German imperialism and destined to give economic
aid to the Russian people . . . But never had
the suspicion even entered my head that our rep-
resentatives in Russia might have in view an in-
tervention of a different kind . . . such as must
surely bring about frightful sufferings to the Rus-
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sian people and which, to culminate matters . . .
could not, even indirectly, affect German imperi-
alism . . . What I accidentally learned at the
meeting at the American Consulate General
shocked and revolted me to the last degree, by
throwing a completely new light on the real plans
of our representatives ... No longer against
German imperialism (for they no longer discussed
that question) ... but simply and in fact,
whether they fully understood what they were do-
ing or not, against the unfortunate Russian peo-
ple themselves . . . Without doubt this meeting
was not, as I have already pointed out, an 'official
conference'; it bore the character of a private
business conversation. But that does not alter and
never can alter in the least that, in the presence
of the official representatives of the United States
and France, Consuls-General Poole and Grenard,
without being reproved for one single instant by
the latter, an English officer (whom the Extraor-
dinary Commission for combatting the counter-
revolution later identified as Lieutenant Riley)
was able to explain to a French agent the details
of a project, according to which he proposed to
blow up the railway bridge which crosses the river
Volkhov a little way from the station Zvanka.
What is particularly singular is that Lieutenant
Siley . . . observed quite coldly that the wrecking
of this bridge cuts off Petrograd from all com-
munication, not only from the north, but also from
the east, whence Petrograd exclusively re-
ceived all the trains of wheat and cereals and, in
general, almost all its provisions, already so pre-
carious, so insufficient for its population. And
Riley himself concluded that the wrecking of the
bridge could have as its direct consequence the
complete starvation of Petrograd . . . Never-
theless, the frightful prospect did not prevent him
from continuing the study of this infernal plan,
any more than it for one second troubled the peace
of mind of the Consuls-General of the United
States and France, who, probably, had not heard
of this affair for the first time. The French agent,
to whom Lieutenant Riley addressed himself, more
particularly than to the other persons present, was
M. de Vertamond . . . The latter, in point of
cynicism, was not in the least behind Lieutenant
Riley. He declared that he had attempted, but
without success, to blow up the bridge at Chere-
povets . . . Afterwards he expatiated on the
measures which he had taken in order to effect the
destruction of rolling stock and obstruct the prin-
ciple railway lines . . . After this stupifying
conversation which, I repeat, had not provoked
either on the part of Mr. Poole or M. Grenard the
slightest objection, Lieutenant Riley concluded,
addressing himself to M. de Vertamond, that it
was necessary for them 'to divide the work* . . .
Our Consul-General, who had until then kept sil-
ent, commenced to speak, and, addressing himself
more particularly to M. de Vertamond, said: 'At
present there is one question to which I should like
to call attention: the great interest in comprom-
ising Bolshevism in the eyes of western Socialism.
There must certainly exist some kind of agreement
between the Bolsheviks and the Germans . . .
A telegram emanating from the Commissariat of
War, or some other document of this kind, would
be most valuable for the political motives which
I have just mentioned, and it seems to me that it
should not be at all impossible for us to place our
hands on a document of this kind which we could
advantageously make use of/
"Espionage of the most contemptible kind, plots
and outrages cunningly devised in the dark, in-
ducements held out to agents anxious to make a
career in order to 'find' imaginary documents, to
such methods had the persons who had the honor
of representing France before the Russian people
arrived! These were the machinations to which
they resorted, acting in security under the pro-
tection of neutral flags, whilst accusing the Bol-
shevik Government, in the face of the whole world,
of giving evidence of *bad faith* towards them."
Mr. Marchand went forth from this meeting a
wiser man.
Zinoviev on the Situation in Ukraine
[In an article entitled "The Polish War in Ukraine and the Don Territory/* published in "Iz-
vestia" and "Pravda" of June 2, Zinoviev has given his impressions of a journey into Ukraine and
the Don district. In view of the present political situation the article, which we reprint, is very
significant]
"If the Polish gentlemen did not exist it would
be necessary to invent them." Beginning with this
formula I find it easier to recount the impressions
I obtained from my trip through Ukraine and the
Don district.
The whole population in the towns, with the
exception of the Polish spies, who are paid, and the
men who are otherwise profiteering, is entirely on
our side in our war against the Polish league of
nobility.
Among the workers at Kharkov the Mensheviki
have hitherto had a certain influence. At one of
by LiOOglC
the most important factories in the town, engaged
in the manufacture of locomotives, the Mensheviki
received at the election to the Soviet of Kharkov
a few months ago, about two-thirds of all the
votes. In the Kharkov Soviet the Mensheviki
have 200 delegates of the entire thousand there.
The situation has already changed, and continues
to change daily.
Some little time ago I had an opportunity to
attend a labor meeting at this same locomotive
factory, in addition to a few thousand locomotive
workers, there were workers gathered from six
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nearby factories, making in all a gathering of
8,000 men. The Mensheviki had sent their speak-
ers, who had unlimited freedom of speech. These
speakers adapted themselves to the sentiment
among the workers. They spoke against the Poles,
they declared that they would go to the front to
defend the Soviet Power in its struggle against the
Polish bourgeoisie, and they made only one
"change" in our resolution. The alteration reads
as follows: "To win an increased success in the
struggle of the Soviet Power against the Poles,
all Socialist parties must form one front. It is
necessary that the Communists take the initiative
in this union . . ."
Obviously, on this basis, it would appear easy
to win at least some of the workers, especially those
who for one reason or another had hitherto be-
longed with the Mensheviki. But the workers im-
mediately apprehended the Polish tone, and under-
stood that if the Mensheviki were honestly willing
to fight against the Poles, no special agreements
about unity in the matter would be necessary.
And the large meeting demonstratively rejected
the change of the Mensheviki leaders, with a
crushing majority, and joined our side.
Such is the situation in the railroad and other
factories. The Mensheviki loudly declare that they
are for the Soviet power at the present time, and
that they are ready to go out and fight against the
Poles. But at the All-Ukrainian Congress they
were conspicuous by their absence, because they
were insulted that the Soviet of Kharkov had not
given them a minority representation. The work-
ers of Kharkov had understood that one can see
anything except honesty and consistency in the
present attitude of the Mensheviki towards the
Russian-Polish war. And those places which a
few months ago elected Mensheviki to the Soviet
of Kharkov are now recalling one after another
of the Mensheviki delegates and replacing them
with our party comrades. The sentiment among
the workers is everywhere the same, a concentrated
increasing hatred for the Polish gentlemen who
have interrupted us in our peaceful reconstruction.
A labor meeting at Lugansk, which was attended
by 20,000 people, was aroused to passionate demon-
stration at the mere mention of the Polish bour-
geois forces. Among the rural workers in Niki-
tovka, where 10,000 people had gathered at a
meeting, the same condition existed. The labor
meeting at Rostov was especially grand. We had
not had in a long time such an audience to ad-
dress. Upon the immense open place outside the
town not less than 40,000 people had assembled.
A real proletarian audience. And everyone was
animated by the same thought, to defeat the Poles
and to assist the Soviet power. A half-hearted
attempt of an anarchist to bring about dissen-
sion met with unanimous oposition among the
assembly. For fifteen minutes after the meeting
was over it was impossible to leave the place, young
and old participating in an improvised enthu-
siastic demonstration for the Communists.
But the sentiment among the peasants is of still
Digitized by G><
greater importance. Our chief difficulty in
Ukraine up to that time had been that we lacked
sufficient support among the population in that
country. And now we can say "there is nothing
so bad but that there is some good in it." The
campaign of Petlura and Pilsudski has, without
doubt, created a closer connection between the
peasants and us. One must have seen the numer-
ous peasant representatives at the fourth congress,
one must have heard the delegates who came from
the governments of Kharkov and Poltava, and who
appeared at the Congress and made their simple
but sincere speeches against Polish gentlemen, one
must have read the numerous resolutions which
came from the peasant meetings out in the country
districts, and one must have been at the congress
when the manifesto concerning the Polish of-
fensive was read, which went through the whole
audience like an electric thrill. One must have
seen the peasants from the vicinity of Kharkov,
assembling with rapture to the banner consecra-
tion of the Ukrainian Republic, one must have
seen the recently mobilized men from the district
of Kharkov, — in number 120 per cent larger than
estimated. It is clear to the Ukrainian peasants
that Petlura and Pilsudski have split Ukraine
into three parts, one for the Poles and two for
the Ukrainian land owners. These Polish and
Ukrainian gentlemen have already this year con-
fiscated the crops from the farms of the peasants.
The peasants understand, and that is enough.
BELGIAN-RUSSIAN AGREEMENT
Berlin, June 24. — B. T. communicates as fol-
lows:
The Belgian Minister of Commerce, who has re-
turned from London, has delivered a report to
the Ministry Council on his negotiations with
Krassin. The Council decided to reopen trade,
postal and telegraph communications with Soviet
Russia. Belgium will ask from Russia the guar-
antees asked by Lloyd George. — Naye Arbayter
Shtimme, June 25, 1920.
TWO YEARS OF SOVIET RUSSIAN
FOREIGN POLICY (1917—1919)
By GEORGE CHIOHERIN
Gives a complete account of all the negotiations
between the Russian Soviet Government and
all foreign countries, for the two years begin-
ning November 7, 1917, and ending November
7, 1919.
Price Ten Cents
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
1 1 a i 1 1 ■_'
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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Official Communications of the Soviet Government
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ENGLAND STILL SUPPORTS
WRANGEL
Moscow, July 26. — (The People's Commissar for
Foreign Affairs, Chicherin, has sent a communi-
cation to the Russian trade representative, Kras-
sin, at London, stating that, simultaneously with
the declaration of the British Government to the
effect that no more war supplies would be delivered
to Wrangel, new shipments have arrived for Wran-
geFs army. One of WrangePs generals, Fevishin,
was taken prisoner and declared that Wrangel was
receiving supplies, cannons, rifles, and other arms
mostly from England and secondly from France.
Large British and small French warships are de-
fending Wrangel on the sea; they give him sup-
port from Batum. If the Entente continues to
support the enemies of Russia, it will be hard to
honor the claims of the British creditors. Eng-
gland's criminal policy brings to nought all ef-
forts made up to now in the Central Executive
Committee.
REGARDING KOLCHAK'S END
Moscow, July 26. — In order to correct the news
spread in the foreign press, the Soviet Govern-
ment has published all details regarding the end
of the Kolchak government in Siberia. Accord-
ing to this report, Kolchak was shot by the local
revolutionary committee of Irkutsk when an at-
tack of the counter-revolutionists was threatening
the revolutionary government. The Soviet troops
had at that time not yet reached Irkutsk. To-
gether with Kolchak were shot one of his minis-
ters and three agents of the secret service; later
on twenty-five more officers were shot. At Omsk
three of Kolchak's ministers were sentenced to
death by a revolutionary tribunal and shot. Be-
sides this there were very few death sentences car-
ried out in Siberia.
THE BEATEN WRANGEL
Moscow, July 22. — The Finnish and Swedish
dispatches about the victories of General Wrangel
are entirely invented and fallacious. Wrangel
landed some time ago with British aid, and sup-
ported by British troops west of Taganrog, suc-
ceeded (as the Soviet Republic had withdrawn
most of their troops to the Polish front) in driv-
ing ahead about eighty kilometers as far as Ory-
ekhov. There he was beaten; a part of his troops
fled to the south, the other part to the north,
where, cut off from all supplies, they will be sur-
rounded within the next few days.
Moscow, July 22. — Regarding the British de-
mand that the Crimea remain for the future neu-
tral, and that General Wrangel take part in the
negotiations, the Soviet Government has informed
the British Government that, in view of its de-
sire to establish friendly relations with Great Bri-
Digiiized by V^iOOQ IC
tain, it is ready to guarantee security of life to
General Wrangel and his troops, in case of their
immediate surrender.
POLISH BARBARIANS
Moscow, July 17. — During the Polish retreat
numerous pogroms were instituted by the Poles
in the localities evacuated by them. At Popo-
vicini twenty-six Jews between seventeen and sixty-
two years of age were killed. Most of the vil-
lages in the Kiev region were burnt down by the
Poles, and Jews and peasants driven into the
burning villages.
Stockholm, July 14 (A despatch to the Berlin
Rote Fahne). — Similar to their destruction of
Borissov and Kiev the Poles devastated Bobruisk.
Before evacuating the city the Poles pillaged the
stores, shot down ten party workers, and burned
down the freight station, the harbor, and the
bridges. The factories were dynamited. All cat-
tle and draft animals were carried away.
REPATRIATION OF AUSTRIAN WAR
PRISONERS
Vienna, July 17.— The Ministry for Foreign
Affairs has received from Moscow the following
radio :
The People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs
communicates herewith that nothing stands now
in the way of sending home the Austrian war
prisoners.
In pursuance of the exchange treaty concluded
at Copenhagen an order has been issued to the
Russian Central Bureau for War Prisoners in re-
spect to an immediate renewal of the repatriation
of Austrian war prisoners.
A request is made for, as far as possible, an
immediate repatriation of Russian war prisoners
who are in Austria.
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs,
Chicherin,
INDUSTRIAL RECONSTRUCTION
Moscow, July 12, — The industrial reconstruc-
tion of Soviet Russia proceeds favorably. The
railroad works of Kremenchug which in January
were rebuilding six locomotives and five tenders
daily, have reached, in June, a daily output of
fourteen locomotives and as many tenders. The
factories in Rostov-on-the-Don operate almost on
a peace scale.
Moscow, July 12. — The railroad line, Kazan-
Yekaterinburg, has been opened again.
NANSEN IN MOSCOW
Moscow, July 12. — On July 6, the newly elected
Moscow Soviet was inaugurated in the presence of
Fridjof Nansen who was greeted by Maxim
Gorky.
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ENGLISH REFUSE TO ALLOW RUS-
SIANS TO GO HOME
Moscow, June 30. — 70,000 former Russian of-
ficers and citizens, members of the middle class,
who had immigrated to Greece, appealed to the
English authorities to make possible their return
to their native country and to obtain for them an
amnesty from the Soviet Government. The Eng-
lish declined to act as mediators.
THE TARTAR REPUBLIC
Moscow, June 30. — People's Commissar Vladi-
mirsky has arrived in Kazan with a member of
the Turkish Communist Party and the represen-
tative of Mustapha Kemal. The Tartar Republic
will be solemnly proclaimed at Kazan.
WRANGEL WITHOUT SUPPORT OF
THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT
A radio from Krassin to Chicherin, dated June
10, 1920.
'Today Wise visited me and made in the name
of Lloyd George the following declaration :
"'The government of Great Britain received
news that Wrangel started an offensive against
you.
"'In agreement with a prior declaration, the
British Government has called off its representa-
tives who had been with Wrangel and has given
instructions not to render to Wrangel any support
either in money, gold, or ammunition.
" 'The offensive was taken against the plans and
counsels of the British Government which in this
manner does not bear responsibility for Wrangel/
"To a question of mine whether a telegram con-
cerning this matter will be sent from Curzon to
Chicherin, Wise asked to regard his communica-
tion as official and to send it to Moscow. To my
question whether the British Government will
make public this communication, Wise said that
Lloyd George would make today a corresponding
declaration in Parliament. I on my part promised
to send this communication to my government."
Krassin.
EXTRA-SCHOLASTIC INSTRUCTION
1524. May 14, 1920.
Krupskaya, Lenin's wife, placed at the head of
the section of extra-scholastic instruction of the
Commissariat of Public Instruction, communicates
the following information : "Before the war Rus-
sia had eighty-five per cent illiterates, and primary
instruction was in a lamentable state. To regain
lost time Soviet Russia must instruct not only the
young generations, but begin or complete the edu-
cation of the adults. The masses themselves rush
upon science. Since the revolution, every factory
has constituted a club, a library, a school. With-
out waiting for the intellectuals the working class
itself accomplished this enormous work of crea-
tion. At present this thirst for instruction pene-
trates into the country; the peasants give free land
and buildings for libraries, people's houses and
schools. The Commissariat of Public Instruction
centralizes and organizes all these initiatives
through the mediation of the extra-scholastic sec-
tions of the local Soviets. The heads of these sec-
tions meet at periodic conferences two or three
times a year. In addition there was held about
a year ago the All-Russian Congress for extra-
scholastic instruction, with six hundred delegates.
At the same time the Military Commissariat, the
syndicates, the Communist Party, the League of
Communist Youth, and the cooperatives also pos-
sess extra-scholastic sections working in always
closer contact with the Commissariat of Public
Instruction. The practical results manifest them-
selves in the form of schools, courses for the il-
literate, or semi-illiterate, popular universities,
conferences, reading-rooms, libraries, clubs, peo-
ple's houses, museums, excursions, houses for the
peasants coming into the city, etc. It has been
determined that within two years in the cities, and
four years in the country, there should not be left
in Russia one illiterate, and to this end the Coun-
cil of People's Commissars has given 4.5 bil-
lion rubles. This program, despite its grandiose
extent, will be realized, thanks to the collaboration
of the whole organized population. Everywhere
the illiterate have already been registered, courses
are multiplying, extensive propaganda is under way
to persuade the most recalcitrant, young and old,
to learn to read and write. In the advance guard
are the provinces of Petrograd, Moscow, Tambov,
but, above all, that of Cherepovetz, where six thou-
sand schools out of ten thousand planned are al-
ready operating. In the province of Tambov forty-
eight thousand illiterates had already completed
their courses on the first of April. There are
eighty-two popular universities giving more ad-
vanced instruction. The villages have reading-
rooms receiving regularly two or three journals
which are read aloud. The libraries are organized,
unburdened of all the rubbish ,and completed with
new books. There are courses for librarians. On
the first of January, 1917, there were eleven thou-
sand ninety-four libraries; on the first of July,
1919, twenty-five thousand five hundred, depend-
ent upon the section of public instruction, with-
out counting all those of the cooperative syndi-
cates, garrisons, political groups, etc. The present
number certainly exceeds one hundred thousand-
Clubs of every kind, for adults, adolescents, fac-
tories, etc., multiply. They often form integral
parts of people's houses in which there are also
theatrical performances, halls for meetings, con-
ferences, concerts, etc. The province of Homel
alone has sixty houses furnishing beds for the peas-
ants coming into the city, who can find there also
all kinds of information of a political, agricul-
tural or other nature. Moreover there is notice-
able in general a rapprochement of the city and
the country. Often the telephone unites the can-
tons with the capital of the district, the villages
receive the journals, they are visited by propaganda
trains and ships, and by touring parties from the
urban centers. The propaganda trains and ships
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bring with them cinematographs, stocks of pam-
phlets, exhibits, etc., with representatives of all
the commissariats, which assure a living bond with
the center. Every day are created new forms of
ertra-scholastic education. Thus the propaganda
wagons are sent by the capitals of the districts into
the most distant hamlets where they organize meet-
ings and distribute journals. Thus the informa-
tion bureaus are created in all the places of passage
of companies of refugee travelers, etc. Local and
individual initiative play the most considerable
part. In one word, thanks to the Soviet power and
the Russian working masses, one will soon see the
disappearance of the age-old ignorance, and Russia
will attain a level of culture unknown by all the
other countries so far as concerns the great mass
of the workers."
AGAINST THE POLISH ATTACK
1531. May 16, 1920.
Semashko, returning from a tour of the south-
west front, states in Pravda: "The sanitary con-
dition of the front is entirely satisfactory, the ty-
phus epidemic is diminishing with astonishing ra-
pidity. Cholera, even in the form of isolated cases,
does not exist. The medical personnel is sufficient
in numbers. There is a great number of vacant
beds, about forty per cent, and a considerable quan-
tity of sanitary trains. The administration of the
health service operates in a satisfactory manner."
On this subject Semashko mentions the shameful
conduct of the Polish troops, who pillage and mas-
sacre not only the civil population but even that
which is under the protection of the standard of
the Red Cross. "One of these reports, relating
how Polish officers under the orders of the most
serene Prince Radziwill pillaged a sanitary train,
shot a number of the personnel and robbed the
rest, has already been published. But reports of
this kind arrive every day."
The central bureau of the Socialist Revolution-
ary Party of the minority publishes an appeal to
all citizens to join their efforts and repulse the
enemy. "The working people must win their right
to peace and independence. The incursion of the
Polish bandits must be settled so that Russia may
enter the grand road of socialist construction. Ail
to the aid of Soviet Russia. All forces at the
disposition of the Soviet power for the front and
for the work in the rear."
All news from the occupied places report the
unbelieveable atrocities of the Polish White
Guards. At Zhmerinka, Russian railway men were
replaced by Polish legionaries, and ordered to leave
the place within twenty-four hours and carry
nothing away. Many were arrested and most of
them shot secretly in the night. The Poles have
exterminated all Red soldiers falling into their
hands, not sparing the wounded and the sick in
the hospitals. In the region of Mozir the Polish
proprietors have regained their domains and take
cruel vengeance on the peasants whom the Polish
authorities treat like beasts.
INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION
The Soviet of Moscow has decided upon the ad-
ministrative fusion of the capital and the province.
A preparatory commission of the members of the
Moscow Soviet and of the Soviet of the Province
has fixed at fifty the number of the members of
the executive committee of the future unified
Soviet, thirty for Moscow and twenty for the
province. The fusion of the corresponding com-
mittees of the Communist Party is arranged in
the same way. This measure in tightening the
bond between the city and the country will be
favorable at once to the economic and moral pro-
gress of the province and the provisioning of Mos-
cow with milk, vegetables, and fodder. It is one
step further in the direction of the great organic
rapprochement of the cities and the country.
THE SOVIET POWER AND CULTURE
The Executive Committee of the province of
Samara has allotted the little daughter of the cele-
brated writer Aksakov a relief of twenty-five thou-
sand rubles.
STATEMENT PROM REVAL
The following is the text of a statement issued
by the Russian Soviet Delegation at Reval on
July 21 :
The Russian Delegation, which is composed of
Leo Kamenev, Chairman ; Leonid Krassin, Deputy
Chairman, and Vladimir Milyutin, and which by
agreement with the British Government was en
route to London is leaving Reval today ; Kamenev
and Milyutin are returning to Moscow, and Kras-
sin is going to Stockholm in connection with com-
mercial affairs initiated there by the Soviet Govern-
ment. These departures are explained by the fact
that the British Government, at the very last mo-
ment, chose to condition their admittance to Lon-
don upon acceptance by the Soviet Government of
an armistice with Poland. It is very characteristic
that when Lloyd George formulated conditions for
the resumption of trade relations, no mention was
made of Poland, although the Polish aggression
against Russia was then in full swing. The com-
ing debacle of Poland was then not so evident to
the British and French governments as now. This
putting forward of entirely new conditions after
an agreement had been reached, following pro-
tracted negotiations, and when the delegation was
already on its way to London, flouts all interna-
tional rules, and throws a revealing light upon the
"impartiality" of the British Government in the
Russo-Polish contest. The delegation does not
doubt that British public opinion, especially that
of its laboring masses, will very well judge for
themselves whether it is in the interests of the
British people and of a general peace that their
government now causes a new postponement of
the negotiations — a postponement which has un-
doubtedly been prompted by the French protectors
of the beaten Polish adventurers.
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THE INTERNATIONAL BATTALION
On May 31, Acting People's Commissar of In-
terior, Comrade Kornev, reviewed at the Moscow-
Kazan railway station the international battalion
which was on the way to Ukraine to fight against
the imperialistic Polish magnates. The battalion
arrived from Siberia in seven days and was to
continue on its way to the south. It was decided
to take advantage of its passing through Moscow
to review the battalion.
One could not fail to be impressed by the splen-
did appearance of this battalion, consisting en-
tirely of R^d internationalists, among whom are
Hungarians, Germans, Galician Ukrainians, and
Poles. The battalion fully deserves the name
Communist, for almost a half of it, about 400
comrades, are either members of the Russian Com-
munist Party or candidates for members. Seventy
per cent of the battalion are workers. In the fight
in the East against the Kolchak bands, as well as
in the review, the battalion displayed an example
of iron discipline and unflinching proletarian
firmness. — Izvestia, June 3, 1920.
EASTERN REPUBLIC AND JAPAN
The Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Eastern
Republic has informed the Commissar for Foreign
Affairs of the Soviet Government that the Japan-
ese Government is ready to recognize the Soviet
Republic and the independence of the Eastern Re-
public in all economic and political questions.
PRISONERS OF WAR PROTEST
AGAINST THE POLISH OFFENSIVE
Reval, May 30 (From the Rosta Correspond-
ent). — The Russkoye Dielo of May 18 contains
the following protest by former Russian war pris-
oners against the Polish-Ukrainian offensive :
"We, former Russian war prisoners of all na-
tionalities held at Camp Yosephov (Czecho-Slo-
vakia), Great Russians, Ukrainians, White Rus-
sians, Poles, Tartars, Armenians, Georgians, Es-
thonians, Letts, Jews, Lithuanians, and others,
separated from our families for over six years by
the endless inhuman war and living only with the
hope of its speedy conclusion and the coming of
peace between all peoples, protest with every fibre
of our being against the brigand attack of the Pol-
ish landowners and Petlura's Ukrainian adven-
turers on bleeding, toiling Russia, which is in
vain holding out the hand of peace. We protest
against the new fratricidal war, which again shat-
tered our hope for a speedy restoration of a normal
life of toil and the friendly fraternal collaboration
of the toilers of all nations. We ardently call upon
the Czech workers and peasants, upon the Czech
democracy, upon the workers, peasants and de-
mocracy of the whole world, to protest most ener-
getically against this criminal attack. We call
upon them to exert all their power and to use every
possible means to prevent the success of this base
attempt. Let there be an end to bloodshed ! Long
live the peace of the whole toiling world !"
Attached are 809 signatures. — Izvestia, June 3,
1920.
THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. The Organization of the Labor Market in Soviet Russia. The first instalment of
a series of important statistical articles from official sources.
2. Women of the Russian Revolution. From the memoirs of a Czech Legionary.
3. A Logician's Report, by William M. Malissov.
4. The Polish Offensive and England's Monopoly of Raw Materials.
5. The First Worker's Commune in Moscow.
6. Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, September 4, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 10
famed Weekly at 110 W. 40th Street, New York, N. Y. Ludwitf C. A. K. Martens, Publisher. Jacob Wittmer Hartmann. Editor.
Subscription Rate, $5,00 per annum. Application for entry ag second class matter pending, Chan pes ol address sfaoutd reach the
office a week before the changes are to be made.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PAGE
The Organization of the Labor Market in
Russia 225
The Polish Attack and England's Monopoly
of Raw Materials 228
Military Review, by Lt.-Col B. Roustam Bck 230
The Truth About Soviet Russia, by Dr.
Bohumir Smeral . , t 232
Editorials *.,. 236
A Letter to the American Red Ckoss, by L* C.
Martens 233
A Logician's Report, by William M. Maths ov 239
Claims on the Russian Gold, by Prof. A,
Yashchenko 240
The Polish Advance, by AA A. Gredeskul 242
A Communist Appeal from Poland. 242
Wome*! of the Russian Revolution ......... 243
The Organization of the Labor Market in Russia
*X*HE history of the labor exchanges and the
organization of the labor market in Russia
begins with the March Revolution. The feeble
attempts of the public organs (the Zemstvos and
the cities), in pre-revolutionary times, to create
the semblance of such an organization, cannot be
taken into account, as they produced no results
whatever. As there was a complete absence of
any regulating organization, anarchy ruled in the
labor marekt, a condition under which the work-
ers as well as the national economy suffered and
which benefited only the manufacturers as the
unemployment produced by this anarchy made it
possible for the contractor to dictate any terms
that he pleased.
The March Revolution of 1917 also did not at-
tack the problem of the organization of the labor
market with determination. The newly formed
Coalition Government concerned itself just as lit-
tle about the needs of the broad masses of the
people as the government which had just been
overthrown. It therefore happened, that it was only
in August, 1917, that the first law dealing with
the Labor Exchanges appeared and that at the
outbreak of the November Revolution, in the whole
enormous country, with its hundreds of large
cities, there existed only about fifteen or twenty
labor exchanges. The law was not adapted to the
situation, According to this law, labor exchanges
were opened in cities of not less than 50,000 in-
habitants. The direction of the exchanges was
assigned to committees made up in equal parts
of representatives of the employers and employes,
with a neutral chairman at the head. In view of
the small number of labor exchanges, it can be
said positively that the problem of the organiza-
tion of the labor market was not solved by this
law in the least, The working-class disregarded
the law entirely* The unions simply ignoTed it,
they did not send any representatives to the bi-
partisan committees, did not take the least part
in organizing a network of labor exchanges, etc.
This was the state of things when the November
revolution broke out. The November revolution
placed the government of the Workers 1 and Peas-
ants* before unprecedented and difficult tasks :
millions of workers, who became unemployed when
war industries and the army were demobilized,
had to receive employment or in some way be
protected from poverty and degeneration. For
this work a steady and well-functioning apparatus
for the registering and distribution of the unem-
ployed was necessary. On January 31, 19 18, the
Workers* and Peasants* Government issued its first
law dealing with labor exchanges. According to
this law, employers were excluded from the ad-
ministration of the exchanges; it also decreed that
workers and clerks could be employed only through
the exchanges. The object of this decree was, on
the one hand, to protect the workers from being
exploited by the private employment bureaus, and
on the other hand, to get control of the labor
market. But its chief provision was the obliga-
tion to establish labor exchanges in places with
20,000 inhabitants, that is, to make an extension
of the net of labor exchanges possible*
The task was to establish as large a number of
labor exchanges as possible and to reorganize those
which had been inherited from the old Labor Min-
istry. In this respect an important work was in-
deed accomplished. We will let the facts speak
for themselves. In November, 1917, when the
government came into the hands of the workers,
there were about twenty-seven exchanges in exist-
ence; in January, 1018, their number had already
almost doubled to. fifty. And as time went on,
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the activity for furthering the establishment of
organs for the distribution of the unemployed be-
came more and more feverish. The activities of
these labor exchanges consisted chiefly in the regis-
tration of the unemployed, in obtaining work
for the unemployed, and in satisfying the demand
for labor. The statistics obtained by going over
the figures of seventy-two exchanges for the time
from January until April, 1918, gives the follow-
ing picture of the general situation at the time:
in all groups of production there were 342,448
applications for employment; there were 109,582
cases in which employment was offered, 85,782
unemployed obtained employment, of which 8,324
took work which was not in their own specialty.
The percentage of the demand to the supply was
thirty-two per cent, that is, for every hundred
unemployed workers, thirty-two received employ-
ment. This characterizes the depressed condition
of the labor market, which corresponded to the
period of acute demobilization at the beginning of
the year 1918, when as a consequence of the clos-
ing of a whole series of enterprises and the tran-
sition of part of them into production for peace,
enormous masses of workers remained without
work.
However that may be, we may say that the
Soviet Government quickly passed through the
initial stages of this work. Already at the begin-
ning of 1918 it facilitated in every way the es-
tablishment of organs for the registration of the
unemployed : in registering them it found also the
most suitable means for the overcoming of unem-
ployment. The larger part of the workers (seventy-
eight per cent) who received no employment,
began to be paid allowances for unemployment.
This period in the activity of the labor exchanges
gave rise to those funds for unemployment which
have played such an important role in our struggle
against unemployment, as the attempt to organ-
ize emergency works and other measures could not
exercise any genuine influence in modifying the
acute period of unemployment which the country
went through at the beginning of 1918.
The organization of the labor market which was
accomplished during this first period took definite
shape, on an all-Russian scale, at the Second All-
Russian Congress of the Commissars of Labor, the
Insurance Organizations and the Labor Exchanges.
At this Congress, the fundamental rules for the
new organization of the labor exchanges which
had been drawn up in Petrograd, and which had
found their first practical expression at the Con-
gress of the Moscow department, were confirmed.
At this Congress, a universal procedure, valid for
the entire Republic, and which had been elaborated
from the statistics of the labor market of the
department of Moscow, was adopted. And at this
Congress, firm connections were also made with
all the cities and towns of the provinces, and the
position which the workers took as regards the
organization of the labor market in all Russia,
was made clear. And finally the Congress gave
the first genuine impulse to the attack on the
problem of the real apportionment of labor power
in the Republic. Only after this Second All-Rus-
sian Congress was the practical execution of the
exchange of the superfluous labor hands, which
had been discussed at the Congress, carried out.
Since this time, a continually growing, important
work of organization has been accomplished.
Let us present here only the most striking facts
from these two years of labor exchange construc-
tion. The Section for Labor Market of the Peo-
ple's Commissariat for Labor during this period
of time has written and distributed about fifty
announcements and instructions. In these an-
nouncements numberless aspects and phases of
the general organization of the labor market have
been thoroughly discussed and rules for the ac-
tivity of the Sections for the Distribution of Labor
(the former labor exchanges) have been laid down.
And besides, in the legislative field, some of the
decrees and statutes written by the section have
been published.
All this important work, which in a certain
measure is equivalent to the creation of a new
labor legislation in the field of the organizing of
the labor market, has not been accomplished by
expert educated lawyers, but by the responsible
officials who are employed in the Section for the
Labor Market. Out of all this formal, legislative
work, the new law of November 1, 1918, dealing
with the Section for the Distribution of Labor
power must be considered more closely.
In the first place, we must point to the actual
establishment of the unity of all organs for the
organization of the labor market, which has been
finally accomplished by this law. This unity has
been achieved by the complete amalgamation of this
branch of the union production-organizations of
the workers, with the general government organs
by means of the collegium of the central and local
apparatus, which is made up of the organizations
of production of the workers and the clerical work-
ers. Even in the old labor exchanges, the basic
principle was to concentrate the entire demand
and supply of labor in the centralized labor ex-
changes of the workers, We have gradually
brought about the creation of such an organ. When
the labor exchange law of January 31 appeared,
one of its chief functions was to point out the
necessity of eliminating the employment bureaus
as well as labor exchanges and employment agen-
cies belonging to the separate unions. As regards
the former, the Section for Labor Market had very
little trouble because of the law making them
legally accessible. But it was otherwise with the
abrogation of the labor exchanges and the employ-
ment bureaus which belonged to the unions. The
workers, during the obstinate struggle fought out
during the revolution of 1905, had won the right
to establish these exchanges and agencies. After
the March revolution, these agencies developed
quickly, for the government labor exchanges came
into existence very slowly, and furthermore they
were composed eq^all} 1 of employers and of em-
ployes, and -ft-can. be well understood that they
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aroused the mistrust of the class organizations of
the workers. This lack of confidence was trans-
ferred to the new labor exchanges after the No-
vember revolution. In the meantime, we have suc-
ceeded, by obstinate work and by the gradual trans-
ference of the entire employment business into
the hands of the organized unionized workers'
movement, in gradually breaking through the ice
of this mistrust. At the head of the local labor
exchanges there were representatives of the unions,
and in this manner, the unions were enabled pain-
lessly to transfer their exchanges and employment
bureaus to the government. In practice, this took
place either by means of their complete amalga-
mation with the general workers' labor exchanges,
or by means of the establishment of special pro-
duction-union sections. This process of the abro-
gating of the individual labor exchanges and em-
ployment bureaus belonging to the unions, was
completed by consolidating the labor exchanges
and employment bureaus of the railroad workers
with the Section for the Distribution of Labor.
The decree of November 17 was issued for this
reason. In this respect, a considerable work has
been accomplished, the gradual consolidation of
all the individual agencies for the registering of
unemployment into one central agency. This cen-
tral agency has, in the future, only to work on in
the direction of an intensification of its activities
in registering and actually distributing labor. One
of the organizing measures which simplified the
carrying out of this work, was to extend the sys-
tem as was decreed by the law of November 1,
1918. Contrary to the law passed by the Coalition
Government dealing with the labor exchanges,
which maintained that the establishment of labor
exchanges was necessary only in towns of not less
than 50,000 inabitants, the first labor exchange
law passed by the Soviet Government, January
31, 1918, reduced this number to 20,000. In view
of the slight density of the working population
and in view of the fact that ever larger circles of
the working masses must be included, the new
law has made another step forward and has re-
duced this number to 10,000 inhabitants. Be-
sides this, the opening of sections or sub-sections
in towns of less than 10,000 was made possible
where the circumstances permitted. As a result,
on the first anniversary of the November revolu-
tion, November 1, 1918, the apparatus for the
registering and the distribution of labor displayed
a really imposing, widely ramified net of agencies.
The activity of the apparatus for the registra-
tion and distribution of unemployed kept on broad-
ening. According to reports which deal only with
203 sections, over one and a half million unem-
ployed, almost one million positions, and three-
quarters of a million of references, were handled
by the organized apparatus. These figures speak
for themselves and can stand comparison with
every labor exchange apparatus in Western Eu-
rope and America. But now we must also con-
sider the exchange of the superfluous labor power.
Already at the very beginning of an extended
activity the necessity of an exact organization be-
came apparent, before the accomplishment of an
exchange of the superfluous labor hands could be
approached. This plan of organization was worked
out after the second Congress and was as follows :
The entire territory of the Republic was divided
into a definite number of provinces for the ex-
change of labor, in accordance with the number
of labor exchanges, and the provinces were again
divided into districts for labor exchange, depend-
ing on the economic and geographical relations
of the districts in question and on the means of
transportation. The local labor exchange peri-
odically informs its district exchange of any super-
fluity of demand or supply. The district exchange
distributes this surplus in its district, and sends
that which it is not able to distribute on to the
provincial exchange; this last distributes all that
it is able and hands the demand for labor which
it cannot satisfy to the Central Sub-Section for
Exchange which is a part of the Labor Market
Section.
The last Congress of the Labor Sections which
took place in Moscow in January, 1919, did nothing
in regard to the organization of the Labor Market
but develop further the provisions of the regula-
tion of November 1. An amendment to this regula-
tion was adopted which found its final expression
in the order of the Council of People's Commissars
on May 3, dealing with the organs for the regis-
tering and distribution of labor. Aside from lay-
ing down the basic principles more firmly, (par-
ticularly in the sense of dividing labor into eco-
nomic districts), the changes made by this order
consisted chiefly in extending the activities of these
organs in the form already assumed. To the cen-
tral apparatus "the practical realization, by means
of its organs, of the registering, the distribution
and re-distribution of the unemployed, as well as
of the workers employed in all branches of indus-
try on an all-Russian scale" was transferred. The
local and district exchanges, for their part, aside
from their general activity in registering the un-
employed and in satisfying the demand for work-
ers "shall register all those who are working for
wages," "all those unemployed who are not seek-
ing employment," as well as "all citizens, who are
not doing work useful to the community and who
are subject to the obligation to work."
What form the activity of the section for the
registration and distribution of labor took in the
year 1919, is shown by the following picture of
the labor market in the months of January to
September, 1919, according to the reports from
271 sub-sections for the registration and distri-
bution of labor:
Applications for Employment 1,080,997
Help Wanted 1,202,196
Assignments 862,682
Of Which There Were Accepted 765,228
For every 100 unemployed there were:
Positions 111.2
Assignments to Positions 79.8
Of Which There Were Accepted 70.8
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For every 100 positions there were :
Assignments 71.8
Accepted 63-7
For every 100 assignments there were accepted 88.7
Aside from the extensive range of general ac-
tivity, this table shows how well adapted the ap-
paratus is for the accomplishment of the tasks
which arise in supplying the national economy
with labor. With such a lack of working hands
as exists in our country, the table proves that our
organs already embrace a wide field of activity.
This field is being constantly extended. The ap-
paratus itself will in the future be better adapted
to the newly-arising tasks.
At present, until the Republic is re-divided into
economic districts, the organziation system is based
on the generally current system of the local ap-
paratus and possesses sub-organs in the form of
agencies, corresponding points or sections, which
are connected with the central apparatus by means
of the government centrals, which central appara-
tus directs the entire system through the interme-
diation of these government centrals. The whole
system of the organs for the registering and dis-
tribution of labor in the governments, including
the newly liberated districts in the Urals and in
Siberia, comprised on November 1, 1919, alto-
gether 320 sub-sections and 280 branches in 39
provinces.
In the organizing of the labor market the Soviet
Government, consequently, in the course of its
revolutionary construction, has passed through a
great evolution. From the bourgeois employment
bureaus — the labor exchanges in the Coalition pe-
riod of the Revolution — the government passed
gradually, by way of the purely workers 'employ-
ment bureaus (Decree of January 31, 1918), to
organs for the distribution of labor power.
This conditions was fixed for the first time by
the decree of November 1, 1918, but since that
time also further steps have been taken for the
extension and intensification of the work. And if
the legal order of January 31, 1918, only changed
the forms of the organs, but allowed the essence
of their function to remain that of an organized
contract for the occupation of the workers, the
legal order of November 1, 1918, signified a step
forward in that it assigned to the Sections for the
Distribution of Labor, the task of registering the
workers who are employed for wages. This task,
however, can only be realized after exhaustive pre-
paratory work. This preparatory work is, at pres-
ent, almost completed, and the new amendment
to the order dealing with the organs for the regis-
tering and distribution of labor, makes it clear that
the government apparatus for the registration
and distribution of labor is to have as its func-
tion not only the registration and distribution of
the unemployed, but also the registering of the
workers engaged in production, that it not only
must register the unemployed who are seeking em-
ployment, but also those who are not seeking any
work, as well as all citizens who are eligible for
work, but are not busied with any work useful
to the community.
It must be taken into consideration that we
have accomplished this whole work of the con-
struction of the national economy under unpre-
cedented difficulties, without being prepared in
any way and without any preparatory steps in this
field. The registration of labor could be made
easier in capitalistic countries because of the ex-
istence of more or less regulated industrial sta-
tistic, but we are compelled to begin from the be-
ginning, we must create these statistics before we
proceed to the registration. So although we had
already in the order of a year ago, November 1,
1918, announced the transition to the registration
of the occupied labor hands, we were, neverthe-
less, compelled to refrain from taking practical
measures in this direction so long as we had not
finished the preliminary work necessary for the
regulation of the industrial statistics. In the new
decree dealing with the organs for the registration
and distribution of labor, Maq 3, 1919, the
function of registering of the ocgcupied working
hands is treated more concretely. But we are
now in a position to formulated concrete
provisions for the carrying out of this regis-
tration. At the same time that we are approach-
ing the solution of the problem of the registration
of the occupied workers, we approach the carrying
out of a number of measures which have for their
object the providing of our national economy with
labor. In this place belong the problems of mobil-
izing te workers, the registering of the entire un-
employed labor forces on hand (mobilizing the
non-working elements) etc.
The Polish Attack and England's Raw Materials
[The following article will be better understood if it is recalled that it was written about the
time of the Polish advance in May, 1920.]
"DROM London the Berlin Rote Fahne has re-
A received the following communication :
Anyone who has studied the labor movement in
England during the past few weeks will have ob-
served that the most intense question of the day is
not only that of the rise in wages, but of the fall
in prices. From all parts of England resolutions
are addressed to the government by local groups
of labor parties, unanimously demanding immedi-
ate steps for a reduction in prices. Quite evi-
dently a realization is beginning to grow within
the ranks of the workers that the continuous in-
crease in wages will never mean anything but the
Egging on an endless chain, until the day when
prices and profits of private capitalists are regu-
lated. However, the English Government pro-
U N I V ER.
ver, the English Gc
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ceeds in an exactly opposite direction. The con-
trol exercised by the state over the prices and dis-
tribution of various foodstuffs is to be dropped in
the course of the summer and, according to a
statement recently made in the Lower House by
Sir Robert Home, the Minister of Labor, "the
time has come when permission may again be
granted to owners of coal mines to run their busi-
ness independently ."
It thus becomes clear that the representatives
of the financial interests, standing behind the Bri-
tish world domain, are resorting to energetic meas-
ures to rid themselves of even a trace of public
control over their operations in the world market.
The critical financial condition of the French bour-
geoisie has caused the latter to become at this mo-
ment nothing more than an economic appendix to
London and New York, and while the French mili-
tarists are permitted a certain freedom in their
activities in middle European matters, it may be
taken for granted that they have ceased to play
their role as a factor in world politics. At present
the opponents in the battle raging in the capi-
talistic world are the trusts of Wall Street and
the syndicates of London. British high finance
has set itself the task of exercising unlimited con-
trol over raw materials in demand the world over,
in order that it may successfully meet American
competition and bring down prices in the English
markets. For if a reduction in prices is not ef-
fected through large imports of cheap food sup-
plies and fuel, the pressure of the English pro-
letariat will presently reach a point where some
form of state control over the operations of the
trusts would be unavoidable.
Now the situation is this: at the moment the
only necessities which could be brought into the
local market cheaply are to be found in half-de-
veloped regions, where the proletariat lives under
partly feudalistic, partly slave-like conditions, and
where the cost of production may be reduced to a
minimum. These regions are situated chiefly on
the gateway between Europe and Asia — on the
Russian plains and in various parts of the middle
East, in Mesopotamia and in Persia. The import-
ance of these regions for British financial inter-
ests is enhanced by the circumstance that if they
do not soon pass under the control of London,
they will no doubt come under that of American
trusts. Thus we have the picture of three world
powers at this moment, struggling on the thresh-
old between Europe and Asia for the control of
the raw materials in these regions — the financial
capitalism of Great Britain, the American trusts
and the Proletarian Republic of Russia, which
latter desires these raw materials for the recon-
struction of its industries on a communistic basis.
The offensive against the Russian Red Army,
undertaken by the Polish bourgeoisie under the
auspices of the British Ministry of War, is quite
evidently the work of those financial interests in
London whose mouthpiece is Winston Churchill.
It differs from the offensive of Denikin and Kol-
chak against Soviet Russia only insofar as it does
not, according to present appearances, seem to plan
a blow against the heart of the Russian Workmen's
Republic by means of the occupation of Moscow
and Petrograd and the reestablishment of a great
Russian czardom. The policy is evidently the same
as that pursued by the German General Staff in
the East after Brest-Litovsk and which aimed to
isolate the industrial region of central Russia and
to cut them off from the agricultural, coal, and oil
districts in the southern and southeastern border-
lands. The mere occupation of these districts by
the Polish hirelings of the London banks has a
twofold effect: first, it enlarges the territory
wherein these banks may carry on their operations
for the acquisition of raw materials and fuel, and
thus participate in the efforts to bring down prices
in England; and second, it makes the Soviet Re-
public economically dependent for its chief raw
materials upon the good graces of the London
financiers, without causing the latter any of the
expenditures which a military expedition would
entail.
It is a question if, in view of the difficulties of
gathering and of transportation in this part of
Russia, it will be possible for any length of time
to bring large quantities of grain into the English
market. On the other hand, Northern Caucasia
is said to have one and one-half billion poods of
grain, the reserve supply of several years' harvests,
ready for export to Western Europe. Before the
revolution seventy per cent of the capital invested
in coal mines in the Donets basin was in the hands
of French and Belgian banks. There is some
foundation for the belief that a short time ago a
part of this investment was taken over by a large
English mining syndicate headed by Mr. Urquarht,
as equivalent of English loans to France during
the war as well as of financial concessions made
to the French Government since the signing of the
treaty of peace. This syndicate of Mr. Urquarht
was one of the most influential English factors in
the allied intervention in Russia. His syndicate
owned the copper and iron mines of Bogoslov and
Troitsky in the Ural and West Siberia, and was
the main force behind Kolchak's great offensive
in the spring of 1919.
But just now the London financial capitalist is
not so much interested in coal, copper, and iron
as he is in oil. It is even now the opinion of ex-
perts in the British admiralty that oil will in the
future be the chief driving power in the navy, and
this opinion seems to be shared by the English
business world, insofar, at least, as it concerns the
possibility of utilizing liquid fuel for industrial
purposes. Lord Fisher, in a recent letter to the
Times, expressed himself as follows : "Our policy
should adopt for its guide the following words:
'If you don't succeed at first, dig, dig, dig again/ "
The formation of the new "Shell" combine, em-
bracing the Dutch oil interests in East India, as
well as the recent organization of a company for
the exploitation of the oil-fields of Mohammerah
in southern Persia, is only one part of the scheme
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to gain control of the world trade. After long
conferences between London and Paris the French
Government at last consented to relinquish the
claims to Mosul and upper Mesopotamia which it
had won by the secret treaty of 1916. It is not
quite clear what the nature of this transaction
was ; but it is probable that France was persuaded
to liquidate a part of her debt to the British fin-
anciers by giving up her claims granted to her
under the terms of the secret treaty. This will
enable the "Shell" group to exercise control over
the immense oil fields of Mesopotamia, which are
known to be very rich.
There remain, of course, the oil fields of Baku
and northern Caucasia, large,* but gradually be-
coming spent. It is not likely that possession of
these by the British "Shell" syndicate is of vital
importance for the needs of the domestic markets
in England. But, as so often happens under a capi-
talistic regime, a source of supply is not grasped
merely to satisfy a hungry market, but to prevent
a competitor from obtaining control of this source
of necessities.. Thus it often happened that the
capitalist, rather than permit natural wealth to
fall into the hands of a competitor, destroyed it.
One need only thing of the destruction of the
mines in the north of France by the Prussian mili-
tarists and the burning of the Galician and Ru-
manian oil fields in 1915 and 1916 by the czar-
istic armies and English engineers — and this at
a time when the workers of Europe were freezing
for lack of fuel. Many years before the war fhe
"Nobel" syndicate of Baku bought up land in the
neighborhood of Grozny and Maiko in the Cau-
casus in order to prevent the oil in these regions
from reaching a market which, through a reduc-
tion in price, would have resulted in a curtailment
of their profits.
The same thing happened recently in Baku. In
a letter to the Times, dated May 12, a technical
expert tells how in 1919 hundreds of thousands of
tons of oil were poured into the Caspian Sea, be-
cause the pipe lines between Baku and Batum
were too narrow to allow of oil being shipped to
the west and because it was impossible, by reason
of the allied blockade of Soviet Russia, to trans-
port the oil to freezing Russia (the natural mar-
ket for all oil from Baku) by ship. The same ob-
jective is maintained by the Polish offensive against
South Russia. If it becomes possible to occupy
Ukraine and to cut off communication with north
Caucasia, Soviet Russia will not be able to obtain
the oil which it needs for its industries. The con-
sequences will be these: first, Soviet Russia will
become dependent for its fuel needs upon the
"Shell" company, and second, Soviet Russia will be
unable to exchange a part of the oil from Baku
for machines from America — a transaction, which,
if it came to pass, would endanger the chances of
a British monopoly of supplying Soviet Russia
with certain technical articles, and would also
place the Standard Oil Company of America (the
only important rival of the "Shell" group) in
possession of quantities of oil which would have
the effect of breaking the monopoly-prices fixed by
London. In the service of these interests the
Polish army, led by the "socialist" Pilsudski,
marches eastward into South Russia.
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bbk
Pittsburgh, Pa., August 28, 1920.
T N SPITE of the fact that the armed interven-
A tion of the Allies was acknowledged by them to
be a complete failure, leaving to history a series
of the most shameful collapses of the Allied ex-
peditionary forces and the armies of Russian usur-
pers, namely Kolchak, Denikin, and Yudenich,
the capitalistic coalition of Europe, backed by
Japan and America, is still continuing this inter-
vention.
War on Russia exists de facto. Poland, the
puppet state of France, has to fight the Soviet
Army.
Under the cover of such useless and criminal
warfare, which doubtless will be terminated in a
general disaster for the Poles, and perhaps in a
complete collapse of the Polish state, a new coun-
ter-revolutionary army in South Russia is gradu-
ally growing, nursed by the imperialistic coalition
of the capitalistic Entente.
Now the Allies have Wrangel at their disposal,
a young adventurer of the Kolchak type, but
cheaper and less important. Wrangel, one of the
captains of the Denikin band, is now to repeat
O
absolutely the same game which his defeated chief,
Denikin, so brilliantly lost.
In order to support WrangePs operations, France
decided to sacrifice not only the Polish army, but
also the whole Polish nation. According to the
plan of Marshal Foch, elaborated together with
General Weygand, the Poles have to divert, and.
divert vigorously on the Rusisan front, as long as
they can, in order to attract as many as possible of
the Red troops, thus preventing the Russians from
directing a strong army against WrangePs bands,
and thus putting an end to the wanton adventure
of the Russian traitor, who, for the price of French
gold, is ready to sell the Russian people even to
the Polish shliakhta. France does not care very-
much about what will become of Poland in the
future. The main idea of the capitalist leaders of
France is to overthrow the present Russian govern-
ment and establish in Russia such a government as
would agree to pay to France 30 billion francs,
which reactionary Russia owed her. That is the
real policy of France towards Russia, and French
strategy is trying to support this policy with all
its means, usimj for tin tactical necessities the
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governments of small nations, and a band of the
ruined Russian bourgeoisie.
In reality, it is laughable to believe that France
sincerely seeks the reconstruction of Poland.
France knows perfectly well that it would be an
impossibility; Napoleon knew it a hundred years
ago. France is not afraid of a weakened Germany.
It will be a long time before Germany will become
once more dangerous for France. France knows
also, that in case of the restoration of an independ-
ent, imperialistic Poland, with all her corridors
and other means of communication with the out-
side world, Poland never will be able to repay all
the debts incurred since she started to fight the
Soviet Government in Russia. Pilsudski's "Social-
ists^ openly declare that they will not consider
valid the financial obligations towards America,
France, or England, as national obligations, be-
cause these loans were offered by the Allies to
Poland for the purpose of fighting the Russian
Soviet Government, which is more dangerous to
the Allied coalition than to the Polish people. We
must not forget the fact that Poland was ready
to make peace with Soviet Russia, but as the late
President of the Polish Republic, Paderewski, has
confessed, France rejected that project and forced
Poland to fight.
Finally, Poland is fighting Soviet Russia neither
for Poland's independence, which is in no way
menaced by Moscow, nor for her alleged historical
frontier of 1772, but she is fighting now only for
the 30,000,000,000 francs which the Russian Czars
borrowed from France, mostly for the purpose of
fighting the Russian Revolution.
Poland is not independent and cannot be inde-
pendent, since she is fighting the battle of the
imperialistic capitalistic coalition of the world;
and in order to gain her independence, she has to
turn her front to the opposite side.
The Polish army may be considered as nothing
else than an auxiliary force of WrangePs army, be-
cause it was not the Poles, but Wrangel, who
signed an obligation to pay the old Russian debts
to France, in case he should be able to overthrow
the Soviets; only therefore he was recognized by
the French Government.
So it becomes clear that France is openly waging
a war against Russia, that America is supporting
France in that war, and that England and Italy
are vacillating, uncertain of the outcome of the
new adventure. The British and Italian govern-
ments are certainly in sympathy with France, but
they do not dare undertake the risk, being handi-
capped by their working people on the one hand,
and by the terribly risky nature of the new enter-
prise on the other hand.
The alleged and exaggerated "great victories"
of Poland over the Red Army encouraged Wrangel
and his captains, and- since the reactionary press
has begun publishing these fables about the Rus-
sian 'defeats", the usurper in Southern Russia
has become very active, both in Northern Crimea
as well as in Caucasia, where the military situation
has assumed a serious character.
Therefore we must now consider the operations
of WrangePs hordes as a matter of considerable
importance, because after WrangePs recognition by
France and the sympathy expressed for him by
certain other states, his troops may be looked upon
as the vanguard of the whole imperialistic-capir
talistic Entente. When Wrangel debouched from
Perekop and started his invasion of Southern Rus-
sia, penetrating even as far as Orekhov, he caused
some annoyance to the Soviets, as a local counter-
revolutionist ; but since he has begun his landing
operations in the Kuban district, thanks to the
cooperation of Great Britain and chiefly of France,
just at the time when the Russians were fiercely
engaged with the Poles around Warsaw, he has
become very dangerous.
Making use of the favorable moment when al-
most the whole male population of the Kuban Cos-
acks are fighting in Poland, together with the Cir-
cassian tribes, Wrangel begins his invasion of the
Caucasus.
His first landing on the coast of the Black Sea,
near Sochi, was made on August 14, just when
the Russian cavalry was approaching the Vistula.
Here a weak detachment of the Reds offered fierce
resistance to the invaders, but was overpowered
and defeated. Simultaneously, the landing of the
counter-revolutionary forces took place north of
Novorossyisk, at Taman, and, further north, at
Eisk, with an unmasked movement towards Tik-
horetskaya, the important railway junction of the
Tsaritsyn-Novorossyisk and Rostov-Baku railway
lines. Sochi was held as a base for future oper-
ations south of the Caucasian mountains, should
the Azerbeijan Red Army attempt to support the
Soviet forces, which are defending Tikhoretskaya.
There cannot be any doubt that the railway con-
necting Yekaterinodar with Novorossyisk and
Rostov is the present objective of WrangePs ex-
peditionary forces. Later on, Wrangel landed a
detachment at Aktarask Liman, about seventy
miles northwest of Yekaterinodar.
Under the command of General TJlagai, well-
known as a captain under Denikin, the invaders
swiftly approached Yekaterinodar, which it is al-
leged has fallen into WrangePs hands.
The situation of the local Red Army became
very critical. Timoshevskaia, a Cossack place north
of Yekaterinodar, and southwest of Tikhoretskaya,
was captured, and the railway line between Tik-
horetskaya and Yekaterinodar very probably cut
off, thus isolating both places from any possible
relief.
About August 18 Wrangel troops were landed at
Anapa, on the Black Sea, and established them-
selves at Rayevskaia, and at once cut the com-
munication between Novorossyisk and Yekaterin-
odar.
It is reported that Nbvorossyisk was captured
by the invaders on August 23. There is some
reason to believe that the Russians were unable to
send reinforcements to Tikhoretskaya from Ros-
tov, because of the great importance of the latter,
on the other hand tpo mist nob neglect the declar-
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SOVIET EUSSIA
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ation of Moscow that the doors for the Wrangel
forces to enter Russia are wide open, and that he
should be cut off from his rear and defeated by an
attack on both of his flanks. The movements of
the Red armies in the region of the lower Dnieper,
as well as in Orekhov district, are proving this,
and there is no doubt that the necessary meas-
ures will be taken in due time in Western Cau-
casia, where the enemy is in a most unfavorable
condition, being forced to operate by basing his
operations on the landing points, which is one of
the most difficult things in military art, and, in
order successfully to accomplish this, there must
be at WrangeFs disposal not 150,000 men, as he
claims, but millions: and where could he collect
them?
The Wrangel adventure is the last trump which
the Allies have in their hand, but unfortunately
for them, the trumps are too low — the aces and
higher trumps are in the hands of the Moscow
players and they certainly will win the game.
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The Truth About Soviet Russia
By Db. Bohumib Smebal
[A newspaper appearing in Czechoslovakia prints several interesting accounts, by Dr. Smeral,
who has just returned to that country from Soviet Russia, of his impressions of travel. We print
below, after giving the newspaper's comment on Dr. Smeral's account, the first instalment of his
narrative.]
Dr. Smeral, a Czechoslovak Socialist, upon his return from Russia, writes about conditions
there and about the people whom he learned to know in Russia; and since the word ,r Bolshevik"
has been represented as on a par with "hordes of the bandits of old," we do not hesitate to print char-
acteristic excerpts from Dr. Smeral's notes, so that we can ease the minds of those who, through
the fear manufactured by the bourgeois Right, cannot recover from a certain painful consternaiion
and, in addition, because we wish to contribute to the sobering-up of the many so-called radicals
who, in their infantile naivete believe that under Bolshevism they can have an overflow of every-
thing, like Adam in the Garden of Eden, without having any duties or responsibilities. To be a
communist in Russia means self-discipline, and to impose duties upon oneself more strictly than
upon others. Briefly, it is a different understanding of life than we are here accustomed to; it is
a school in the knowledge of principles, for recogniton of duties, and woe to the communist who
is guilty of abandoning or neglecting his duties! Dr. Smeral learned that a communist is judged
more severely than anyone else, if he is not loyal in his life and work to all the principles of Com-
munism.
I of a simple country family ; or when after the un-
expected declaration of war by the Poles, in the
midst of mobilization of communists and workers,
an explosion of an ammunition factory in Moscow
tasked severely the nerves of the entire square.
When I wished to learn about official machinery
of the Soviet state administration, I did not put
theoretical questions to one of the comrades in
charge, but went to the square and acted in a
conspicuous manner during the reading of mili-
tary declarations, had myself arrested and brought
to the "cherezvichayka", and submitted to an in-
vestigation among other prisoners and suspects —
and only later showed my legitimation — and then
received, in additon to another, a special permit
from Lenin direct — and only then applied for
theoretical, correct, general information to one of
the comrades in charge of the local office. Those
were my methods of observation.
I am not a phantast, and I made an effort to
study Russia impartially. I cannot conceal, how-
ver, that the Russian Revolution had from its very
beginning my love and confidence. I would also
Notes of Travel in the Proletarian Country.
By Way of Introduction.
Prague, June 6.
I have returned from Soviet Russia. Everyone
on meeting me fastens his eyes upon me with the
serious question : "How are things there ? What
have you seen and experienced ?"
My answer is brief and simple: I have come
from a different world, I have returned a differ-
ent man. What is happening in Russia is enorm-
ous, overwhelming, honest, sensible, necessary, in-
defatigable. Novarum rerum nobis nascitur ordo.
A new order of things has been born! The cry
of terrorism which is asserted as taking place in
Russia for the past two years, is the work of the
capitalist class with its henchmen and means, and
it is a lie, the enormity of which has perhaps
never been equalled in history.
I had free admission everywhere. I talked in-
timately with leaders and with simple laborers.
I visited factories, barracks, meetings, organiza-
tions, Soviets, and children's schools. It was im-
possible to show me Potemkin villages.* I laid
special stress upon psychological observations and
facts in unexpected situations. For instance, when
our conveyance was detained in a village and we
were compelled to remain over night as the guests
* Potemkin (1736-1791) was a favorite of the Russian
empress Catherine II (1729-1796). On one of her jour-
neys, to impress her with the prosperity of the country,
Potemkin caused villages and roads to be hastily con-
structed and iillei with bustling crowds.
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like to have it distinctly understood that during
my six weeks' stay in Russia, it was impossible for
me to see all. On the other side, however, I want
it made public, that my observations will in every
case be verified. Quite some time before me,
two highly intelligent, critical Czech comrades
had been in Russia for the special purpose of a
systematic study: Ivan Olbracht, the writer, and
Dr. E. M. Vajtauer, grandate of Paris University,
young, but greatly honored in French scientific
circles as a scientific student of experimental psy-
chology. These two will remain in Russia for
several months longer. The great laboratory of
social construction offers them inexhaustible ma-
terial. They work day and night. All places are
open to them. Ivan Olbracht, who has been study-
ing the cultural organization in Moscow, was pre-
paring, at the time of my departure, to accompany
the Commissar of National Economy, Rykov,
through some of the districts of central Russia,
where preparation is being made for electrization
of the state, and then to remain alone for a few
weeks in one of the villages for the purpose of
studying the life and conditions there. Dr. Vaj-
tauer was preparing for a prolonged tour into the
Urals and Siberia to inspect the political and
economic systems there. Whoever fears that my
prejudice would not permit me to give correct in-
formation, because of my love for the country of
Russia and its proletariat, let him read my fines
merely as a foundation for what after a short
time other eyewitnesses shall say about Soviet
Russia.
In what form shall I put down my impressions
for the benefit of those who have the interest to
listen to me ? On this occasion I wish to request
comrades not to ask me to meetings or to lectures.
In a lecture, even though it might last for several
hours, only opinions, deductions, and general out-
lines are possible. The fundamental gist of the
Russian overthrow lies in its details, concreteness,
genuineness. Only the aggregation of details, in
which an isolated one would perhaps seem trifling,
makes it possible to form a picture of what is
happening in Russia. It would be my desire, while
my brain still teems with the history-making at-
mosphere through which I have just passed, to
publish a book of my impressions. It would of
necessity have to be a book, rather large, for which,
considering the high cost of production, it would
be difficult to find a publisher, and the price of
which would also hardly be within the reach of
the poor, among whom, above anyone else I should
like to find readers. It would also not be an
artistic book, because I have neither the talent nor
the time to do more than to state mechanically
and adjust the notes which I jotted down during
my nightly hours, without any regard to artistic
construction, striving merely to reproduce every-
thing photographically and with truthful reality.
The material, however, is valuable partly because
some of it is the first available to Western Europe,
so that it would be a pity, if under pressure of
work and everyday cares, it should be forgotten.
The first part of the material, therefore, I shall
report journalistically in the Svoboda and the sec-
ond part in the Social Democrat.
I dedicate these lines to the proletariat of Red
Kladno. The name of this district is well-known
in Russia. In a large meeting in Petrograd, from
the midst of the audience, a note was handed to
me on the platform from the Smolensk youth, re-
questing me to convey their greetings to the young
comrades of Kladno. I was entrusted with the
same message by the Pan-Russian Central Com-
mittee of Young People. Upon my departure all
the representative members of the Moscow Soviet
pressed my hand and sent their greetings to their
Kladno comrades. There were crucial months
when the fate of the socialistic republic hung in
the balance, and the heads of not of tens but of
hundreds of thousands of the Russian proletariat
in Siberia and all Russia were at stake. At that
time, terror-stricken, unable to grasp the situa-
tion, the entire working people of Russia looked
upon us as the merciless, bloody gendarmes of the
capitalistic world. At that time, Red Kladno
saved the honor of our nation. While in Moscow
I received proof that today the working masses
of our legion in Siberia realized the truth and
that the Russian struggle has their warmest sym-
pathy — and they are grateful to the Kladno pro-
letariat.
II
In the Secretariat of the Party
Moscow, April 15, 1920.
A FTER an interview at the International, I
*** commenced with a visit to the Secretariat of
the Communist Party. The Secretariat is situated
in the Fouth House of the Soviet, in Moskovskaya
Street, in the building of the former Hotel Peter-
hof . My guide and informant is Comrade Nevsky.
The first impression : The Secretariat has at its
disposal twenty-six rooms, in which there are 120
employes. The walls are hung with diagrams
(very complete), with maps of all Russian guber-
nias, with indicated places showing organization.
In the largest hall there is a huge map showing
organization in all of Russia. There are placards,
slogans. Portraits of leaders of the Russian Revo-
lution. And everywhere, in the most conspicuous
places, as impressive as in life, are the likenesses
of the dead leader and of the martyrs: Marx,
Liebknecht and Luxemburg. There is something
inexpressibly touching in this everpresent testi-
monial of reverence and love.
A first glance falls upon the nearest diagrams.
"Sostav Moskovskoy gorodskoy organizatsii R.K.P.
po professii do partiynoy nedeli na octabr 1919
goda." During the most critical situation in Russia,
last October, when Denikin was nearing Moscow,
and when Yudenich advanced upon Petrograd,
Moscow comrades organized a week for obtaining
new members. Prior to this, an investigation of
the old members was made, and those who were
found unreliable were expelled en masse, and could
not be reinstate*?. The most dependable ones were
sent to the front. In Moscow there were at the time
■ to Wmtf§
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only 13,287 party members, and as a result of the
"party week" this number grew to 30,000. So
large a number applied for membership, though
they knew well that just as soon as they joined
the organization, they could, after a period of
training and after instruction in the principles, be
8ent to the front, though their terms did not fall
into general mobilization, and that in the event
of Denikin's entry into Moscow, certain death
awaited each communist. The diagram shows the
increase in the different categorical occupations:
Among laborers the increase was from 5,122 to
11,036, former servants (waiters, etc.), from
2,078 to 4,165, among soldiers stationed in Mos-
cow as a garrison, from 4,957 to 12,448, and
among the intelligentsia from 443 to 1,569. An-
other diagram indicates the standing of member-
ship in thirty-eight provinces (outside of Siberia,
Ukraine and Turkestan). In all these provinces,
propaganda- weeks were set aside for obtaining new
members, from October, 1919, to January, 1920.
After re-registration of members and elimination
of those unreliable, there remained in this section
but 120,000. After completion of the propaganda,
this number was increased to 320,000. In Octo-
ber, the membership was lowest, not merely as a
result of the process of elimination, but also be-
cause in the terrific battles on all fronts in 1919,
a great number of the best comrades had fallen.
Now the number of members is constantly increas-
ing; with the liberation of Siberia and the
Ukraine, the Secretariat showed to the present
Party Congress a membership roll of 600,000.
Among the members, fifty-two per cent are work-
ers, twenty-five per cent soldiers, the rest are small
agriculturists, intelligentsia and other various oc-
cupations. The standing of membership is made
public and is strictly accurate, a f alling-off is never
concealed, diagrams are reproduced in the newspa-
pers and given to organizations. I continue to
examine diagrams of meetings, campaigns, dia-
grams of volunteer workers (party members)
during their hours of leisure — Saturdays and Sun-
days. The newest diagram, still damp, shows the
composition of the latest Ninth Party Congress
just completed. This diagram has just been at-
tached to the diagrams of all the other congresses.
Comrade Nevsky explains. The Secretariat has
no special secretaries at its head, but its admin-
istration is entrusted to three members of the Cen-
tral Committee (central executive body) of the
party. At present Comrades Krestinsky, Serebry-
akov, Preobrazhensky, are in charge. The Secre-
tariat has the following departments : 1. Agitation
and Propaganda; 2. Registration of competent
workers and their assignments all over the coun-
try ; 3. Organization and Instruction ; 4. Informa-
tion and Statistics; 5. Work in the Villages; 6.
Work among Laborers and Women in the Country ;
7. For Minority Nationalities; 8. Office of the
Directorate combined with the Department of Fin-
ance. Just at this time the Central Committee
decided that the Department of Registration was
to be enlarged so that each of the 600,000 mem-
bers in all Russia should have his own special
card, upon which should be entered the chief data
in his life, activity and possible offenses, etc. Fur-
ther, there is now in press a general legitimation-
book for the entire bulk of the party. The Com-
munist Party of Russia is the only political party
in the world which, not only in its tactics, but also
in its organization, is guided by scientific princi-
ples. To attain the greatest success with the feeb-
lest forces — only science can accomplish this. This
is the secret of the success of the Russian Revo-
lution. It is now twenty years since the party
proved the possibility of overpowering Czarism
with small circles. Today we are trying to become
a strong machine in the struggle to change the
private-capitalistic order into a socialistic one. For
this reason we must combine the highest degree
of knowledge with the practical experience of the
working classes. We are led by tried, strong author-
ities. We are held together by iron discipline.
According to present statutes (rules of organiza-
tion) of the party, whoever wishes to become a
member, must be recommended by two old mem-
bers. He does not immediately become a member,
merely a "sympathetic candidate" at first. Only
after six months can the Executive Committee
accept him as a member. As a candidate, he has
the right to be present at all meetings (except
secret ones), but he cannot vote. The workers and
landless peasants, may, upon special recom-
mendation, have this term shortened. Also dur-
ing special propaganda "party weeks" members
are accepted without these formalities. The great-
est cooperation is offered by the All-Russian Con-
gress, then comes the Central Executive Commit-
tee, after that the Executive Committee of the
provinces, districts, and cities. The chief nucleus of
the organization is then a village, a factory, an in-
dustrial enterprise, or a military division. In each
of these units are communists, whose duty it is
to form organizations. Even though there are
but three, they are obliged to form a "yacheyka"
(a group) to meet for consultation, to study all
questions and to act in union. Discussions are
entirely free. But once a decision is reached,
everyone must work along the same plan. The
decision of the highest institution must be carried
out, without any protest.
Lately, Comrades Kalinin and Lisitsin have been
added to the Secretariat. Each of them contri-
butes something to the milieu of activity of organ-
ization and agitation. Moscow is divided into
thirteen organized districts (parts), and in them
there are altogether 680 groups, trade and local.
Each district holds a meeting each Friday regu-
larly. Ordinarily there are held at Moscow, in
one month, 300 lectures and 500 meetings. In
the event, however, of special campaigns (such as
against Denikin) many more meetings are called.
The propaganda must touch each and every in-
habitant personally. The Executive Committee,
for psychological reasons, lays great stress upon
having the masses constantly occupied with some
important idea. For that reason, nearly every
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September 4, 1920
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week some concrete slogan is sent into the party
lines. "To arms against Denikin," "Yudenich
must be defeated," "Front-week," "Week of the
Wounded," "Week of Cleaning, General Bathing,
Shaving and Hair-Cutting," "Week of Fight
Against Spotted Typhoid and of Cleaning of
Dwellings," "Week of Kindling- Wood," "Week of
Transportation," "Week of Disabled Locomotives."
Important slogans these; for the fulfillment of
their text all forces must unite, and for their ac-
complishment the last session of the Party Con-
gress has just devised the means. They are wholly
designed for one purpose — to create a solid block
of work, which is necessary for the construction
of economic life.
In Moscow there are thirty-five party schools
and thirty-nine schools directed by Soviets, which
educate workers for Soviet functions. Both of
these types of schools are combined, like two facul-
ties in one university. Further, there is also here
a Central School of the Party and a Central School
of the Soviet. These institutions are a kind of
Workers* University and bear the name of the
dead Comrade Sverdlov. The students in these
universities are selected and are the especially able
and competent workers from Soviet organizations,
from the country and from the army. They re-
ceive lodgings in Moscow, maintenance and stip-
endia. They attend six months' courses (a part
three months) and then they are sent to respon-
sible posts. At present there are 1,200 pupils in
the central school. The teachers there are Luna-
charsky, Pokrovsky, Bukharin and other first-class
men. Should I have time, this afternoon, I shall
look in to see their life and work. Comrade Nev-
sky offers to be my guide.
Correspondence between the central and the or-
ganization is huge. The Provincial and the Dis-
trict Executive Committees (not the local organi-
zations) are obliged, after each meeting, to send a
copy of the protocols to the Central Secretariat,
so that their activity may be followed and con-
trolled. In this work of control alone, there are
a large number of comrades employed in the Sec-
retariat. In individual districts, appointed agi-
tators are always active. With them, too, regular
and accurate correspondence is necessary. We ex-
amine more minutely the department for work
in the rural districts, which is supervised by our
guide Comrade Nevsky. He is about forty, smooth-
shaven, has rather long hair, wears a white starched
collar, is well dressed, and of a quiet cheerful ex-
pression. He spent eight years in the different pris-
ons of the Czar. In answer to a question as to what
actually is his occupation, he says with a smile:
"Revolutionist". Otherwise, he had for three years
been in his youth a privatdozent of mathematics
in a university. He springs from a bourgeois mer-
chant family. He spent but three months away
from Russia (in Geneva). In 1917 he was Presi-
dent of the military organization in Petrograd,
where, in Kalinov's rooms, with the cooperation
of Podvoisky and Trotsky, all the military dispo-
sitions for the overthrow were worked out. When
he recalls those October days, he becomes animated
and narrates in detail, and only after a while re-
turns to his present agendum. In order to give
us direct proofs, he reads to us several letters
which he has just received. An organizer in one
of the districts writes that the small local peas-
ants are complaining that in requisitions they
are exploited as compared with the large peas-
ants, and that he has taken advantage of this
and had organized them. A student in the Moscow
University who was sent out to agitate in the vil-
lages describes his experiences, acquired by con-
tact with the people, experiencs still unknown in
Moscow. Inasmuch as other agitators have had
their experiences, he suggests that a conference of
agitators be called. Nevsky expedites his answer,
makes a memorandum of the suggestion for the
Central Committee to the effect that a conference
be called for the first Sunday in June. A Petro-
grad comrade, a metal worker, reports with what
results he is organizing the most obscure village
elements in Tula Province. The Caucasian re-
gion requests to be supplied with a propaganda au-
tomobile, with good men and literature. Comrade
Nevsky says that in dealing with simple country
folk, personal contact is necessary. They come
here to Moscow from the villages, usually to ask
for intervention with the different Soviet organs.
We receive them, act for them, talk with them
personally, and people who had come to Moscow
indifferent, very often return home wi{h at least a
spark of interest for the principle, and supplied
with literature. It requires a good deal of effort
and patience of course, but it bears fruit. I my-
self, according to my memorandum, have received,;
in the past five and a half month, 5,500 country
people.
To investigate other departments so minutely,,
was not possible because of lack of time. I am
taking away with me about thirty pamphlets, bro-
chures and diagrams designed for the organization
and agitation work of the secretariat. Among this
literature there are especially careful suggestions,
resembling military service hints, for the organ-
ization of the rural districts, women and young
people. At parting, Comrade Lisitsin reminds
himself to say that the political education in the
army is not directed by the Secretariat — for that
purpose a large, independent institution has been
established.
LONDON REPRESENTATIVE ON
WRANGEL
"Anti-Bolshevik forces landed in the province
of Kuban, east of the Sea of Azov, by General
Baron Wrangel have been completely annihilated,"
says a statement issued on August 31 at London,
by M. Kamenev, head of the Russian Soviet Trade
Delegation.
"After defeating General WrangePs forces Soviet
troops cut their communications, surrounded them,
and by a night raid destroyed their headquarters.
In the northern part of Taurida province, General
WrangePs army is completely beaten. He now
holds only Crime alifl c
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised.
LYING has always been the chief weapon of
the opponents of the Soviet Government, both
in Russia and. abroad, and we are once more about
to behold a resort to this weapon that will pro-
duce a general, almost epidemic expression of the
wish that neither the art of printing, nor those of
paper-making and newsfaking, had ever been in-
vented. For the Soviet Government has now re-
grouped its army, after the setback at Warsaw a
month ago, and is again advancing, after having
retaken Grodno and Byalostok. It will be dif-
ficult to disprove the actual advances of the Soviet
armies in this territory, and the capitalist news
agencies are therefore resorting to other fields of
"conquests." As yet they have left uncultivated
the possibilities of an overthrow of the Soviets in
Murmansk and Archangel, but have already served
us with a huge uprising all over Siberia. Omsk,
Tomsk, Novo-Nikolayevsk — to mention only a
few of the names as we recall them from the New
York newspaper reports of Sunday morning, Au-
gust 29 — are the scenes of revolutionary uprisings
of the "maltreated" peasantry, against the "tyran-
ny" of the Soviets. Only a year ago, by the way,
all Siberia was groaning under the iron heel of
Kolchak and his associates, and hundreds of revo-
lutionary uprisings were breaking up the contin-
uity of the great Trans-Siberian Railroad line, and
clearing the ground for Kolchak's four thousand
mile retreat across the face of Asia. These rebel-
lions were carried out by poorly-armed peasants
and deserters against trained troops of many na-
tionalities, armed and equipped with the best prod-
ucts of European and American factories. Evi-
dently the Siberian population must have been
animated by the feeling that it was in the Soviet
Government that it had a friend, and not in the
hirelings of the Entente Governments. Is not the
population of these regions the same? Does it
not still know what it means to be under the con-
trol of the hangmen hired by Western Capitalism ?
The news agencies should use better discretion in
selecting the news offered them for transmission,
or should instruct their correspondents to choose
more plausible scenes for insurrections against the
authority of the Soviets.
ON ANOTHER page the reader will find a
letter written last week to Mr. F. P. Keppel,
at present head of the American Red Cross, Wash-
ington, D. C. The subject of the letter is the
reported proposal to send the children from New
York, where they now are, to France, instead of
to their homes near Petrograd, and its intention
is to protest emphatically against this violation
of the most rudimentary right of the children to
a, consideration of their actual family status.
Nothing could be more hypocritical than the sug-
gestion, in the reports concerning the reason for
this deflection from the proper aim of the journey
on which the children are about to set forth, that
it will be possible in France to take steps to de-
termine the present whereabouts of the parents or
guardians of the children, none of whom have
seen their relatives for two years (in some cases the
period is even longer). As a matter of fact, there
is no possibility of getting more reliable informa-
tion concerning addresses in Russia than through
the instrumentality of the Soviet Government,
and, in the case of local matters, the self-govern-
ing administrations of its cities. To hope to get
information concerning the children's parents in
France is about as sensible as to hope to get it in
Japan or in New York. The American Red Cross
knows the addresses of the children; at least it
has the addresses at which they were living when
they left their homes in Petrograd two years ago ;
it has even printed an extensive list of these ad-
dresses, a copy of which is in our possession. What
can it hope to add to this list by sending the chil-
dren and the accompanying officials to France?
France has much less direct communication with
Soviet Russia than any other country in Europe:
in England the Soviet Government has duly ap-
pointed representatives in their offices at 128 New
Bond Street, London, who would be glad to do
anything they could to get information from Pet-
rograd or Moscow on this subject; Italy, Austria,
Germany, Sweden, Denmark, have regular offices
in their capital cities where Soviet representatives
do business, and all of them have some sort of
facilities for obtaining the forwarding of commu-
nications to and from Russia. It would be far
more reasonable, therefore, to send the children to
any one of these countries than to France, for
France is openly at war with Soviet Russia, and
what communication she has with Soviet Russia
is concerned only with the recovery of money
loaned to former Russian governments, and not
with works of charity and humanity. It may be
said without exaggeration that, owing to its selfish
pursuit of this money which was lent to destroy the
Russian Revolution, even before its birth, France
has succeeded in outheroding Herod — in practicing
more savage cruelties against citizens of Soviet
Russia than any other country in the world, in
addition to maintaining, in concert with the other
"civilized" powers, a blockade against Soviet Rus-
sia that has had the cruel results that are well-
known to the world. But to France has been
reservi
iffiWr
bie distinction of excelling
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September 4, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
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in direct physical brutalities against groups and
individuals wherever she had anything to do with
citizens of Soviet Russia.
The worst illustration of how brutal the French
Government can be in dealing with its "enemies"
is afforded by its treatment of the Eussians in
France. Perhaps 300,000 Russian soldiers were
sent to France during the early stages of the
World War, to aid in holding the Western Front
against the German armies. They were treated,
from the very outset, as "colonials", who must be
exploited, very much as the East Indian troops
were exploited by their English masters, but with
this difference, that while the East Indian troops
were sent home to India when they became disaf-
fected, the Russians were retained in France even
after two successive revolutions in their home coun-
try, in 1917, had made it impossible for them to
continue fighting with conviction in an imperialis-
tic war. Their refusals to fight had, however, be-
gun even before the revolution. Mutinies had fre-
quently broken out in their regiments, and it was
in connection with one of these that Leon Trotsky,
who was then editor of a Socialist paper appearing
in Paris (Nashe Slovo), was expelled from France.
Long after Russia had ceased to be an ally of
France in the World War, the French military au-
thority continued to demand service and obedience
from these soldiers whom Czarism had delivered
into their clutches. Refusals to do the bidding of
the French tyrant resulted in individual executions
and mass machine-gun massacres. The columns
of this weekly, particularly in its second volume
(January- June, 1920), have frequently told of
these cruelties which continued long _ after the
World War had ended. To this day, although
some of the former Russian soldiers wer$ returned
to Russia after having consented to forcible en-
rolment in counter-revolutionary, armies, many of
these men are being held in France against their
will, by the government of the nation that was the
light of the world in 1790.
And the Russian children, who are in a peculiar
sense the children of the Revolution — since they
were among the first to benefit by its generous
provisions for their welfare — are to be sent to the
home of world reaction !
• ♦ *
\/l AXIM GORKY was found by Mr. Bertrand
^ A Russell in bed, seriously ill. Mr. Russell,
in his article "Soviet Russia — 1920", reprinted in
The Nation, New York, July 31, 1920, describes
his meeting with Gorky in a manner calculated to
produce the greatest possible discouragement
among friends of Maxim Gorky and Soviet Russia.
How Mr. Russell could say that "Gorky is dying,"
which he said chiefly in order to be able to add
that intellectual life in Russia is also dying, seems
more surprising now than ever, for the New
Yorker Volkszeitung last week received a letter,
dated Petrograd, July 7, 1920, and forwarded by
way of Berlin, in which the writer, the German
proletarian poet, Max Barthel, says among other
things:
"And whom should I sec, but Maxim Gorky, walking
along, big, brown, hale and hearty, broadshouldered
and wholesome. We press each other's hands. He
urges me to come to see him."
Of course, neither Mr. Russell nor Mr. Barthel
is telling an untruth. When Russell visited Gorky,
he was sick in bed; when Barthel saw Gorky, he
looked healthy and was walking around. Gorky's
illness has had these ups and downs for years;
it is unfortunate that Mr. Russell should have
seized so eagerly an opportunity to discourage all
those who see more in the possibilities of the new
era than he does.
Perhaps Mr. Russell jumps at conclusions. Did
he not tell us in his second article that he saw
in the environs of Moscow enough cows to feed
all the babies in Moscow ? Let us hope his knowl-
edge of cows and milk is better than his power of
medical diagnosis.
* * »
l^JAXIM GORKY has himself passed through
^""* an experience not unlike what Mr. Bertrand
Russell is now having. In 1917, Gorky, who was
temporarily estranged from the leading elements
of the Bolshevik party, published a number of ar-
ticles, attacking them, in his paper Novaya Zhizn,
then appearing at Petrograd. Gorky, as is well-
known, is no longer an opponent of the Soviet
Government, in fact, he is one of its most useful
workers, but not a day has passed in all the three
years since those articles appeared, but it has seen
the republication of at least one of these articles, as
an alleged indication that Gorky was still an oppo-
nent of the Soviet authority. The New York
Tribune was particularly active last year in put-
ting such misrepresentations before its readers.
And, by the way, it is possible that a new flood
of Qoriy "propaganda" of this sort may be about
to issue forth, for the Tribune has again reprinted
one of his sharpest rebukes of the Soviet Govern-
ment, dating from 1917, but with the insinuation
that Gorky wrote it very recently. Probably, if
Gorky should some day become President of the
Council of People's Commissars, he would still
continue to be quoted in the Tribune as an "Anti-
Bolshevik." Already Mr. Russell has withdrawn
some of his casual strictures on the Soviet Govern-
ment (for instance, the one in which he suggested
that the Soviet Government did not encourage the
arts : see letter to The Nation, New York, August
14), but he might now write the most glowing
laudation of its work, and he will yet go down in
history, at least in the yellow press, as an opponent
of the Soviet Government. In attempting to be
"fair", it is well for the liberal to remember which
of his delicately balanced half-truths will be most
efficiently press-agented by the side that has at
present all the money and all the newspapers.
* * *
HT HE Index for Volume II of Soviet Russia
-* (January to June, 1920) is now ready. It
will be sent to all subscribers; those who buy it
on the stands may ohicin the Index by sending in
""HBfflfiSlWiftllCHISAM
238
SOVIET RUSSIA
September 4, 1920
A Letter to the American Red Gross
[On August 30, Mr. L. Martens, Representat ive of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Re-
public, sent the following letter to the American Red Cross, of which copies were sent to the prin-
cipal New York newspapers. We are reprinting "t he letter here, as not all of the newspapers to
which it was sent have printed it.]
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Mr. F. P. Keppel,
Vice-Chairman, American Red Cross,
National Headquarters, Washington/ D. C.
Dear sir :
I learn from New York newspapers of Saturday
morning, August 26, that the Russian children
who have arrived in New York on board the Jap-
anese steamer, Yomei Maru, and who, I had un-
derstood, were to be returned to Petrograd, their
home, are to be sent to France instead, and that
steps are there to be taken to learn the present
addresses of their parents or other relatives.
This news must arouse the indignation of every
fair-minded person. These children have not seen
their parents for more than two years. All of
them were living, in 1918, in the vicinity of Pet-
rograd and were sent by the Soviet Government
in the summer of that year to the Urals, in order
that they might enjoy a care and a diet such as
could not then be provided in Petrograd. The
Soviet Government has always been eager to give
to children the best opportunity to grow into
healthy manhood and womanhood. But the chil-
dren of these colonies, unfortunately, have not re-
mained under the care of the Soviet Government.
When the Czecho- Slovaks began their campaign
against Soviet Russia, late in 1918, their opera-
tions cut off these colonies of children from com-
munication with European Russia, and as Kol-
chak and his Czecho-Slovak allies were then al-
ready beginning their retreat, the children were
moved along with the retreating armies across Si-
beria in the great military migration that was to
result in the restoration of almost all Siberia to
the Soviet Republic. The Soviet Government, as
well as committees of the parents of the children,
during this retreat, frequently demanded of the
Kolchak generals that the children be returned
to Petrograd instead of being dragged away across
the entire breadth of Siberia, but all was of no
avail. They were shifted about in the vicinity of
Vladivostok and finally the remnants of the party,
after disease and death had decimated their ranks,
were interned on Russki Island, opposite Vladi-
vostok, whence 780 have been brought to New York
by the American Red Cross, on the Japanese
steamer Yomei Maru.
Now that they have literally encircled the globe,
and have been hoping that after two years of sep-
aration they might again see their parents and
homes, I am informed that these children are to
be sent, not to Petrograd — and all of them lived
at addresses in the vicinity of Petrograd, as the
American Red Cross indicates in its list of the
addresses of the children's relatives — but to the
port of Bordeaux, France. It is a cruelty to the
children and to their parents not to return them
k
to their homes, and it is an indication of the
grossest neglect of the interests of the children,
and of the utmost indifference to their fate, to
undertake to forward them to France, the last
country in the world that will pay any attention
to the needs of children who are citizens of the
Russian Soviet Republic.
France has shown what is her attitude to Soviet
Russia. The France which is egging on the Poles
to crush the Soviet Republic is not a country that
will show much solicitude for the welfare of Rus-
sian children who are eager to reach their homes
in Soviet Russia.
I know very well that tbese children are anxious
to go home. I know, from many conversations
with the children that have been reported to me,
that none of them want to go to France. It is the
duty of the American Red Cross to send tneETto
their home in Russia and not to a country which is
in fact at war with Soviet Russia.
I am ready to make every effort to get in touch
with the Russian Soviet Government without de-
lay, in order to arrange for the return of the chil-
dren to their homes in Petrograd, in which the
Russian Soviet Government, ever solicitous of the
welfare of the rising generation, will be more than
anxious to aid me. And I demand that these chil-
dren be sent, not to France, but to Russia, and
that if the American Red Cross cannot immedi-
ately decide to seek contact with the Russian Soviet
Government through me for this purpose, the chil-
dren be allowed to remain in New York rather
than forwarded to France, until the question of a
suitable method of their return to Petrograd may
be properly solved.
Yours trurly, L. C. A. K. Mabtens,
Representative in the United States of the
Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic.
ITALY AND RUSSIA
Moscow, July 26. — Two Italian steamers ar-
rived yesterday at Odessa, bringing medicaments
and surgical instruments for Soviet Russia, valued
at 2,000,000 lire. A portion of this material is
donated by the Italian Red Cross. Red Cross Mis-
sions from Italy will depart for Soviet Russia in
the near future in order to fight epidemics.
Among the passengers on the steamer were a
reporter of the Roman newspaper Tempo, and the
delegate of the Italian Socialist Party, Rondoni,
who will leave for Moscow in a day or so. Ron-
doni is to deliver a congratulatory message from
the Italian Government to negotiate at Moscow
both in the matter of the exchange of prisoners
of war, and in that of establishing maritime traf-
fic between Odessa and Naples, thus resuming
commercial relations mih the Soviet Government.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
(L>
September 4, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
239
A Logician's Report
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By William Mabias Malissov
l^R. BERTRAND RUSSELL'S hell is formal logic, ists are "honest men" yet ''their own materialistic
iVX And he has but himself to blame. Were he to theory should persuade them that under such a system
retranslate his observations of Soviet Russia into the
original symbolic postulates of his fertile mind, there
would really result a work shorn both of fact and of
Prop. 2.
hope, a work that would appeal to neither scientist nor
optimist
It has occurred to me to point out some few of the
leading propositions that transcend fact and inquiry:
Prop. 1. Revolutions are exchanges of power largcrly and
merely due to boldness and violence.
There is nothing new under the sun.
(Analogies are the basis of conviction.)
There is no progress.
There is no evolution, just change.
(To hope for a change is futile; better not hope.)
Men are fundamentally bad.
Corollary: Men's faults will spoil a system. Their
virtues, although they may be mentioned for the
sake of fairness, have no results at all.
All action is narrow.
(How else would it be action?)
Sincerity exists only on the ideal plane.
(In action it is bound to be fanaticism.)
All men are deluded.
(It might follow that one is not. At any rate a
psychic weakness is detectable in the greatest.)
Nationalism is natural and instinctive.
Ordinary men, like peasants, understand practically
nothing.
(Aristocracy is bad.)
With this decalogue, reader, all sailing becomes easy.
No squalls need affright the five-week-old explorer.
Before we proceed, however, — and the "before we
proceed's" are characteristic of logistic — let us mention
"principles" :
1. It is necessary to start with an analysis, but apparently
not necessary to follow it.
2. It is necessary to be aware of the other side, because all
ideas are divisible in two, viz. those I approve of and
Prop.
Prop.
3.
4.
Prop.
5.
Prop.
6.
Prop.
7.
Prop.
8.
Prop.
Prop.
9.
10.
those I do not. Synthetic observation is for poets.
It is not necesary to use statistical knowledge if plausiuimy
is assured. Deduction is more fundamental than induction.
A consciousness of lack of information will make up for
that lack. All Anglo-Saxons should admire the poise of
mind that confesses ignorance while it dogmatizes ad
libitum.
5. Most people will accept innuendo for argument — it is well
to remember.
Well, then. At analysis Mr. Russell is quite a mind.
Soon enough he realizes that Russia should not be com-
pared to England or France, but to Germany and Hun-
gary. Now see principle 1. It is not necessary to sus-
tain one's honest analysis ... Of course there are
evils in Russia. Analysis, again, shows them to be
principally due to the war and to the blockade, there-
fore . . . again see principle 1. It is not necessary
to sustain one's honest analysis, not at least till the
second article.
We might now collect some careless phrases that
are innuendo — see principle 5. "Everything was done
to make us feel like the Prince of Wales" is malicious
cleverness for the idea of hospitality; "propaganda
meetings" antedates 1688 because it is hardly tolerant,
although it is stated, "we were all allowed complete
freedom to see politicians of opposition parties." These,
later, degenerate into hostile generalizations about Rus-
sian laziness and activity, Communist internationalism
and nationalism, Communist self-denial and parasitism,
Communist sincerity and insincerity, this and that, yes
and no. Indeed, so far, Mr. Russell has already gone
on record as retracting his own grossly exaggerated
statements about the status of art in Russia.
An illustrative example of Mr. Russell's consistency
of thought must be emphasized. The Communist:
"In spite of his position of power and his control of
supplies, he lives an austere life. He is not pursuing
personal ends, but aiming at the creation of a new
social order." ... A moment later, "In a thousand
ways the Communists have a life which is happier than
the rest of the community." Yes, the older Commun-
corruption must be rampant." Another class of Com-
munists is "working for success and power, not for
money," and " the harsh discipline to which they are
subjecting the workers is calculated, if anything can,
to give them the habits of industry and honesty which
have hitherto been lacking." And finally, deductive
logic wins, "With success would come increased oppor-
tunities of corruption, and of exploitation of unde-
veloped countries, I cannot believe that these tempta-
tions would be permanently resisted." The cat is out
of the bag— IT WAS ALL DEDUCED!
Many more drifts of reasoning like that, from as-
sumed propositions — and not a particle of evidence!
Most of the pseudo-facts — Mr. Russell ought to be
challenged — are further apparent parrotings of com-
plaints of disgruntled partisans, as talk of "friends",
"permits", the reactionary version of . Russian skep-
ticism about the Allies being really the insincerity of
the Bolsheviki ; vague fears for the "heritage of civi-
lization" and shuddering at an alleged "death of culture"
—one feels that it was proper for Lenin to wave them
aside as bourgeois prejudices — indicate clearly that at
least four of the five weeks Mr. Russell spent with
partisan opponents of the government, or . . . despair !
Indeed there is no distinct indication in most cases of
any personal observation. Mr. Russell really refutes
his own facts.
Unfortunately at one point in particular this un-
scientific gossip degenerates into a shameful charge
and a nasty innuendo — without semblance of proof or
understanding of the seriousness of the presentation of
such a charge in vacuo — (about the Extraordinary
Commission) — "it has shot thousands without trial, and
though now it has nominally lost the power of inflicting
the death penalty, it is by no means certain that it has
altogether lost it in fact." There is hardly any use
presenting counter-evidence to mere allegation that is
clearly bad-natured.
Mr. Russell throughout seems to be unaware of how
weak his demonstrations are from an inductive pont
of view. Entirely unaccustomed to the discipline of ob-
servation of the natural scientist, he does not hesitate
to estimate the relative fatness of the populace of Pet-
rograd and that of Moscow ! It is astonishing what
even a cautious man will see once he has convinced
himself by deduction as to what he ought to see. It
is similarly possible to avoid seeing. What! Has Mr.
Russell not a single word to say about the program
of education in Soviet Russia? How is science faring?
What of the standards of living, hygiene? Are there
no practical attempts to cure inherited and new evils?
Has literacy gone up, is Communism being explained,
any happiness?
It is something of a relief to find Mr. Russell in
his second article confessing the motives underlying his
selective presentation. He fears Lenin's Ironsides, wants
quiet and none of that horrible emotionalism. It is
not unnatural then to speak of Russia's being "not
yet ready," that is, practically to present the old Czar-
ist argument, which we have recently heard from Baron
Rosen. Ah well, aristocratic Mr. Russell does not know
Russia, especially a proletarian Russia. He even finds
it necessary to repudiate his statement that nationalism
is natural and instinctive when he states that the
"peasants are too ignorant to have any national con-
sciousness." This is entirely the proper tremolo in
which to end an opinionated piece of work. Qever as
it is and seductive as it is in its sweep and stand-me-
up-before-the-Lord judiciousness, it must be condemned
as unscientific, since it preordains observation by deduc-
tion; and as suUenly ; sqr.eakily pessimistic, since it is
hostile to actioii ar:d IWe-giving hope.
VERSITY OF MICHIGAN
240
SOVIET RUSSIA
September 4, 1920
Claims on the Russian Gold
By Prop. A. Yashchenko
[The following is (tn almost complete translation of an article which appeared on June 12 in
'Golos Rossyi", a decidedly anti-Bolshevik newspaper, printed in Berlin.]
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TN REGARD to the London negotiations with
A People's Commissar Krassin concerning the
resumption of trade relations with Russia, and in
connection with the question of gold payments for
the first deliveries to Russia, energetic opposition
has been voiced in the European press, and is,
apparently, also entertained in certain official
(particularly French) circles against the right of
the Russian Government to dispose of the Russian
gold reserve.
Numerous claims have been made on this gold
reserve by creditors and "heirs". Of the latter
(various border states) it is yet too early to speak.
Russia, thank Heavens! is not yet dead, and the
too hasty "heirs" may be committing a very grave
mistake in their rash calculations on a speedy de-
mise and on a rich inheritance. But the question
of the countless creditors presenting their loan
claims to Russia is becoming a matter of immedi-
ate interest, and it is quite timely to analyze the
legal basis of these claims.
The leading place among Russia's creditors be-
longs to France. France supplied Russia with
money almost from the very beginning of the
Franco-Russian alliance. Russia's foreign loans
were placed almost exclusively on the Paris stock-
exchange. The total debt is considerably higher
than the whole Russian gold reserve. The Russian
loans in France were given a patriotic character
and were placed among small subscribers, and quite
often the Russian bonds made their way into the
hands of prosperous workmen and peasants. France
is aroused against the Soviet regime most of all
by the latter's refusal to pay the loans made by
the Czarist government. The stubborn hostility
of France to Soviet Russia arises, in the last ana-
lysis, not so much from the aversion of the French
bourgeoisie to the political principles of Bolshev-
ism as from her fears of losing the money which
she loaned to Russia.
Then comes the debt to England, consisting of
England's charges for the military supplies fur-
nished to Russia during the war.
Thirdly, Roumania demands her gold reserve,
about 100 million rubles, which was removed to
Russia at the time of the German invasion and
remained there.
Finally, there are the claims by nationals of
different countries — allied and neutral — for indem-
nification for the losses which they suffered owing
to 1, expropriations based on Soviet decrees, and
2, destruction, seizures and looting during the
revolution and the civil war.
From the standpoint of jurisprudence the ques-
tion of foreign loans has not been solved by the
decree of the Soviet Government simply annuling
them. A loan must be paid. An internal revolu-
tion does not affect this at all. The new revolu-
tionary government may abolish vested rights only
within the country, within its jurisdiction, but it
cannot alone repudiate the obligations undertaken
by the former government. Otherwise, the over-
throw of a government would provide a convenient
way to get rid of obligations. International loans
can be annulled only in the case of a world revo-
lution. Since there was no world revolution the
decree of the Soviet Government repudiating its
debts has no legal force with respect to other
nations.
It would be unjust, however, to accuse the Soviet
Government of completely ignoring this elemen-
tary legal principle. During the negotiations of
1918 in Berlin, with regard to the application of
the Brest-Litovsk treaty it recognized the debt
claims of Germany and determined their size by
a definitely fixed total amount — Pauschalsumme.
In the peace offer :addressed in February, 1919,
to all the Entente countries the Soviet Government
agreed to recognize in principle the old debts of
Russia.
It should not, however, be inferred from this
that France can, without much ado, demand that
Russia pay the full amount of the Russian debt.
We should not overlook the counter-claims of Rus-
sia on France.
The principal part of these claims would be
based on the losses which Russia suffered owing to
the fact that France (together with England) in-
tervened in (if they did not cause) the civil war
in Russia.
France and England openly took sides in Rus-
sia with one of the belligerents in the civil war.
In 1918 the Allied missions were the centers of
counter-revolutionary conspiracies. Later France,
England and Japan helped to organize the civil
war. They sent troops and ammunition to North
Russia, to Kolchak in Siberia, to Denikin in South
Russia, — and loaned them money. Soviet Russia
was subjected to a blockade. The civil war in
Russia caused immeasurable destruction, and it
is impossible at present to estimate it even ap-
proximately : the loss of men who perished in the
battles or from disease and starvation, financial
expenditures, destruction of goods, loss of human
labor, destruction of buildings and of all kinds
of constructions.
The essential feature, from the legal standpoint,
is the fact that France and England, in this case,
openly violated the neutrality with respect to one
of the contending sides. Russia should be indem-
nified for the losses which she suffered thanks to
this violation of neutrality. These counter-claims
of Russia on her credit Errs are so vast that they
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
(1>
September 4, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
241
T3
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can hardly be covered by merely canceling the old
debts of Bussia.
During the Civil War in the United States Eng-
land allowed the arming in her territory of the
privateer ships of the southern states which were
attacking the ships of the northern states, and
when the Civil War ended in a victory for the
North, the United States demanded of England
reimbursement for the losses caused by this viola-
tion of neutrality. England had to satisfy this
demand, and by the decision of the Alabama ar-
bitration court was forced to pay a considerable
compensation.
From the legal standpoint, the situation in the
present case is not different, with this exception,
of course, — that the losses are much greater and
the violation of neutrality more obvious, having
reached actual warfare, though without a declar-
ation of war. The French and the English have
no reason to raise the legal question of Russia's
debts. From the standpoint of international law
this case would not end to the advantage of these
countries.
As to the loans and supplies which England
furnished to Bussia during the common war
against Germany and which she apparently cal-
culates at 600 million pounds, — these loans were
given for the needs of the war in which England
fought against Germany. During the first years
of the war, while Bussia and France were bleeding
to death, England — feeling more secure on her
islands— -contented herself with loaning money and
munitions to her allies, on the pretext that she had
no compulsory military service. This alone was
immoral — that while some countries were giving
their manhood, others should only give their
pounds. After the war, England grabbed the
lion's share in the division of the war booty. And
now it turns out that Russia, who, Thank God!
has taken no part in this feast — is yet to pay over
six billion rubles in gold for the English cannon
and rifles which were meant, first of all, to save
England herself, and which enabled her to seize
all the German colonies, the whole German fleet,
and the Turkish petroleum wells.
The next among Bussia's old debt obligations
is the Boumanian gold which was removed to Bus-
sia during the war. However, it is usually over-
looked that when Germany signed the armistice
with the Allies in November, 1918, she bound
herself, according to one of the armistice condi-
tions, to turn over to the Allies the gold which she
received from Bussia, amounting to about 100
millions. This gold was described in the armis-
tice terms as the Boumanian gold, and the Allies
bound themselves to return it to its owner. We
do not know what has become of this gold. Ap-
parently it is held at Paris. At any rate the Eou-
manians ought to direct their inquiries, first of
all, to Paris and London. Besides, among the
Bus8ian-Boumanian reciprocal claims there is the
question of Bessarabia, — a rather ticklish question
for Boumania.
Digitized by V^pGOQIC
Finally, there still remains the question regard-
ing the indemnification of nationals of different
countries — Allied and neutral — who suffered in
the course of the revolution and the civil war.
These losses belong to two main categories.
Some of them were caused by the decrees of the
Soviet Government which aimed at the expropri-
ation and socialization of different kinds of capi-
talist property. Is Bussia obliged to reimburse
these losses? It is a debatable question. On the
one hand, these confiscations were of a general
legislative character, were directed at all persons
residing on the territory of the Bussian state, and
did not separate foreigners into a special category.
Every government of a sovereign state has a right
to pass within its territory any laws which it deems
just and expedient. Foreigners may only demand
that they should not be placed in a worse position
than the natives, but no more than this. They
cannot claim special privileges.
The other losses of foreigners in Bussia belong
to the loss of property owing to the civil war, loot-
ing, destruction, etc.
According to the principles of international law,
with regard to the indemnification of those who
suffered through the actions of private persons the
state is only obliged, if possible, to punish the
responsible persons and to make them pay for the
harm caused by them. Beyond this the state has
no responsibility for the actions of private per-
sons, and, in particular, the state is not obliged
to indemnify for these losses if the responsible
persons are unable to do so. The same principle
applies in the case of violations during insurrec-
tion or civil strife. Private persons entering a
foreign country assume the risk of possible insur-
rections or riots, just as they assume the risk of
other misfortunes — earthquakes, epidemics, floods,
etc.
As to the losses suffered by foreigners through
the action of the governmental agencies or troops
during the suppression of an insurrection or riots,
the prevailing practice of international law recog-
nizes no obligation on the part of the state in
which civil war occurred to reimburse the losses
of private persons. If now and then states must
such reimbursements, it was only as voluntary con-
tribution to the victim and not as a legal obliga-
tion. This principle was promulgated in a num-
ber of international treaties which we cannot cite
here.
The whole question of the reciprocal claims of
Bussia and of the foreign nations is very compli-
cated and will probably require a special confer-
ence at the proper time. At any rate, the claims
which are advanced at the present time by the
Allies are one sided and do not at all reflect the
real position of this question. The representatives
of the Bussian nation should remember this and
should defend with all their energy their indisput-
able right.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
242
SOVIET RUSSIA
September 4, 1920
The Polish Advance
By N. A. Geedeskul
(Professor of the University of Petrograd andKharkov, and former Vice-Chairman of the First
Imperial Duma. He is a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party.)
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The Polish attack has totally altered our in-
ternal position and external relations.
Internally we have just put an end to the civil
war. This war has resulted in a complete vic-
tory for the Soviet Power. Its result brought the
complete solution of our internal quarrel after the
assaults on the present regime by Kolchak and
Denikin, who opposed it, not as individuals, but
claimed to be representatives of governments of
an all-Russian importance.
The solution of our internal dispute has given
us the possibility of passing from war and destruc-
tive conditions to constructive and creative work.
This constructive work must be on Socialist lines.
On the ruins of the former life and culture, a new
life and culture must be built. We can and must
go in this direction because it is now our right,
bought at a heavy historical price. The whole
price has been paid, all obstacles done away with
— we can begin with the realization of the big
social revolution, in the name of which we must
give the necessary organization and power to liber-
ated labor, we must accomplish that which is of
enormous importance not only to Russia, but to
the whole world.
And now we are suddenly confronted with an
alien external force, which is again dragging its
into war — which prevents us from building our
Socialist state and compels us to divert our whole
activity to the business of war.
And what is the pretext under which it is being
carried on ?
In order to destroy Bolshevism ; in order to pre-
vent the accomplishment of the Social Revolu-
tion in Russia; in order not to allow the Russian
people to live and manage as they choose.
But this is not all. There is still another rea-
son, and that reason is simply plunder and con-
quest.
The Soviet Power, having for its aim the solu-
tion of internal problems, is prepared for all sorts
of concessions. It is prepared to make peace, sac-
rificing, of its own desire, nothing that belongs
to anyone else. The peace with Esthonia has suf-
ficiently proved this. But Poland is not satisfied
with such conditions. She simply thirsts for plun-
der — territorial, ethnographic and economic. And
there is no limit to her appetite.
Brussilov is absolutely right when he says in his
appeal to the Russian officers that the attack means
not only the plundering of Russia, but its total
destruction.
In case of Polish victory, Russia will undoubted-
ly be torn to pieces under the pretext of fighting
Bolshevism, and will be subject to the domination
of foreign powers, which will exploit her and take
away from her everything they can carry with
them.
Digitized by CjOOgle
And they will come to make order and will
mock us physically and morally . . . "Know, bar-
barians, what it means to rise against 'Culture*
and 'Freedom'."
But as we said before the Polish attack has al-
tered our relations with the Entente, or at least
with their governments. As long as our civil war
lasted they were able to wear the mask of friends
of Russia, and to help Kolchak and Denikin at
the same time. They were able to say that they
preferred only that particular government and
only from it can they expect the restoration of
Russia. What can they say now? Can they say
they are helping Russia? Or that they wish to
restore Russia with Polish arms ? NTo, they do not
say such things now. They say that they are sav-
ing Poland from an attack by Bolshevik Russia.
The hypocricy remains, but one mask has been
thrown off and exchanged for a new one. What is
then our position, those of us who are in Russia,
no matter who we are?
We have to go voluntarily, with complete self-
denial, wherever the government of the Russia
of the workers and peasants instructs us to go,
to serve not through fear but conscientiously.
The Russian officers will do all that they can
at the front, and we — the Russian Intelligentsia
— will help them at home, on the labor front.
Without a strong, a comradely, energetic, and pro-
ductive rear the officers cannot fulfill their duty.
Their efforts to save Russia would then be vain.
Thus there is but one duty.
We must have complete unity, we must have
concerted action against the attack undertaken
against us by European Capitalism. This com-
plete unity and concerted actio internally depends
mostly upon the intelligentsia.
The intelligentsia must understand this and
take the credit or the responsibility for their policy.
The Russian officers have determined their posi-
tion in the Soviet Government; so must the In-
telligentsia. — Izvestia, June 5, 1920.
A POLISH COMMUNIST APPEAL
To the workers of all countries :
The crushing victory of the Red Army, the pre-
cipitate retreat of the Polish forces sent to conquer
Ukraine, has caused violent repercussion in the interior
politics of Poland.
The two conceptions of Polish imperialism, the one
of annexation pure and simple (Dmowsky), and the
other disguised under the formula of the "liberation"
of Ukraine and White Russia, are in harmony.
Both of them are equally evil. There are no longer
any differences in the bourgeois camp of Poland.
All the privileged classes, all the profiteers of the
present regime form nothing but one reactionary block
against all thy workers. The counter-revolution,
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ashamed of defeat, incited by the fear of its conse-
quences, is blind, ferocious, and is ready for anything.
We, adherents of the party which alone is capable,
through fraternal collaboration with the proletariat of
our neighboring countries, of putting an end to war,
famine and epidemics, which alone will be able to
bring about, with the Socialist order, the peace so much
desired in this unfortunate country, we, Polish Com-
munists, appeal to the world.
It is necessary that you should know under what
conditions we pursue our work for the safety and eman-
cipation of the working class.
A state of siege is proclaimed throughout the entire
country. The legal press of the workers, even of the
pure and simple trade unions, is suppressed, at least
those that do not bear the protective label of the P. P.
S. (Polish Socialist Party). The troops and detach-
ments of gendarmes invade trade union meetings, de-
molishing the interior and arresting all the officials. In
certain localities, such as at the works of Starachowice,
the workers nave replied to the provocations of the
soldiers with a general strike and have retaken arrested
comrades by physical force. The resistance of the work-
ers is often paralyzed by the National Socialists of the
P. P. S., whose leaders forestall the governmental re-
pression as a means of freeing themselves from revo-
lutionary opponents and recovering their waning in-
fluence over the working class.
At the trade union meetings, all those who dare
raise their voices against the patriotic propositions of
the partisans of the P. P. S. are arrested, either on
leaving the meeting, or some hours later, by the agents
of "law and order" (military gendarmes) and disappear
in the infected prisons of the bourgeois republic. The
prisoners are always beaten, insulted and often subjected
to tortures.
Since the formation of the volunteer army, the streets
have been in the possession of armed bands of the
young bourgeois, school-boys, students, who, in com-
pany with outcasts of society of all kinds, are organized
for civil war. Patriotism is extorted from the passers-
by at the point of the bayonet. It is sufficient for one
not to manifest chauvinistic sentiments before one of
the ribald placards against the Soviets, covering the
walls at each step, to be treated as a "Bolshevik."
Rumors are circulating that French colonial troops
will soon arrive to reinforce the Polish army. These
black troops will be utilized, without the least doubt,
to keep in awe the Polish working class. It is for our
French comrades to take effective measures to prevent
such a disgrace.
Lately there has begun the transportation of hundreds
of Communist prisoners from the overcrowded prisons
and fortresses to an unknown destination. To the rela-
tives of the prisoners all information about their new
destination was refused. It appears that one party of
prisoners has been transferred to the detention camp
where the prisoners of the Red Army are detained.
The typhoid fever there made such ravages that to
stay in that place amounts to being condemned to
death. Besides, the gendarmes and the military openly
declare that at the first sign of a revolution all the
notorious Communists that are found in their hands
will immediately be executed.
Comrades I Socialist opinion throughout the world
is already a power. Do not wait until there are re-
peated at home the unheard of scenes of barbarism of
Hungary. In nearby regions at the front the blood of
the workers and peasants flows ever and anon. Some
thousands of prisoners of the class struggle are at the
mercy of the reactionary brutes who do not spare
them.
The white terror rules our country.
Proletarians of the world, raise your voice!
Act, act, without delay!
The Central Committee of the Polish Communist
Labor Party.
Warsaw, July 14, 1920.
SOVIET RUSSIA AND PERSIA
An Order of the Day Issued by Trotsky
The revolutionary council of the Persian Red
Army, which is now fighting foreign and internal
oppressors, has sent the following greeting to our
Red Army :
"The Revolutionary War Council of the Per-
sian Republic, organized upon the decision of the
Council of People's Commissars of Persia, sends
its sincere greetings to the Red Army and Ived
Navy. After passing through great hardships, and
undergoing all kinds of privations, we succeeded
in crushing our internal counter-revolution, which
was merely a hireling of international capitalism.
By the will of the toiling people there was organ-
ized in Persia a soviet power which began the
creating of a Persian Red Army, built upon the
principles of the Russian Red Army, with the pur-
pose of destroying the enslavers of the Persian
people.
"Long live the fraternal union between the Rus-
sian Red Army and the young Persian Army!
Long live the union of the toilers of the world,
the Third International !"
Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council,
Kuchuk-Mirza.
Commander of the Armed Forces,
ESKHANULA.
Member of the Revolutionary War Council.
MUZA-FOBZADE.
The following reply to this was sent in the name
of the Russian Red Army :
"The news of the creation of the Persian Red
Army has filled our hearts with joy. During the
last decade and a half the toiling people of Persia
has been struggling hard for its freedom. It has
thus proved to all the world its right to this free-
dom, -n the name of the workers' Red Army of
Russia I express my firm conviction that, under
the guidance of your Revolutionary War Council,
Persia will conquer for itself the right to free-
dom, independence and fraternal toil.
"Long live the free toiling people of Persia as
well as the families of free peoples of Asia and
the whole world !"
In bringing to the knowledge of the Red soldiers
this exchange of fraternal greetings, I express
my firm belief that from now on the bonds be-
tween the revolutionary armies of Persia and Rus-
sia will grow and become stronger, to the great
advantage of the toiling masses of all countries.
Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council
of the Republic,
L. Trotsky.
WOMEN OF THE RUSSIAN
REVOLUTION
(From Memoirs of the Czech Legionary M )
. . . We were advancing, everything was peace-
ful, no signs of the Bolsheviki. Suddenly we
were surprised by shooting from a machine-gun.
Bullets flew too high, the gun firing was unsteady,
and we knew that it was being handled by a
novice. I say thti'i it was a woman. I made a
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side-attack upon her and called to her to sur-
render. She did not obey, but continued to fire.
I did not want to bayonet a woman, and, there-
fore, struck her with the butt of my rifle. She
shuddered, but continued to fire. I, therefore,
struck her harder and took her prisoner. When
later we became engaged in a battle, she nursed
our wounded. After the battle, the boys held a
consultation as to what to do with her. They
suggested something too horrible to express in
words. I shuddered and said to them: No, boys,
only over my dead body! She was with us a few
days, but I feared for her safety as I could not al-
ways stand guard over her. I, therefore, brought
her before the commanding officer, and reported
that this woman wanted to take care of our
wounded. I received orders to do away with her
at once, no matter in what manner. I took with
me two boys and ordered them to be prepared,
that we would lead her through the woods; they
were to walk behind and in a favorable place they
were to fire the shots so that she should suspect
nothing. I told the woman to get ready, that
she was to go with me. "I know where you are
taking me," she said with a calm smile, "you are
going to kill me." I denied this and told her
that we were going to an investigation. I led
her through the woods and chatted with her so
that she should not suspect anything. Suddenly
we heard a faint sound of the pulling of triggers.
She turned around and said calmly with a smile :
"Do you see, I knew very well that you were
bringing me to my death." She turned to the
boys and, uncovering her bosom said: "Fire, you
will kill me but you cannot kill my ideal!" I
was mortified and could not give the order to shoot.
Here before me stood an illiterate Russian woman,
of whom the strength of her conviction made a
saint and I — I am supposed to be helping the
Russian people? . . . Turn back, boys, I shall
not do it! When we returned, I turned her over
to my comrade of another division and told him
everything. He was able to smuggle her away —
into the city.
After a time, we were retreating — the commun-
ists were victorious. By chance, while retreating,
I met the same woman in the city. She recog-
nized me immediately and said with her calm
smile : "Did I not tell you, that time in the woods,
that our ideal would be victorious ?" Tears dimmed
my eyes. We continued to retreat.
COMPOSITION OF THE MOSCOW
SOVIET
The Communist Toil of June 7 quotes the fol-
lowing figures as to the composition of the Moscow
Soviet : 1,339 men and 133 women. Of the total
membership, 1,220 are communists, forty-six be-
long to various socialist parties, and 156 are non-
partisan. According to their occupations the mem-
bers of the Soviet are grouped as follows : sixty-
seven office employes, fifteen physicians, eight stu-
dents; the other members are mostly workmen.
D igitized by L^ OO Q IC
DYING FOR THE CZAR
The Sebastopol Velikaya Roma of May 22
printed the following obituary notice :
"On the eve of the regimental holiday of the
horse-guard regiment of the life guard, on May
23, a requiem mass will be held in the Cathedral
of St. Vladimir m honor cf the officers and sol-
diers of the regiment who had died for the Faith,
Czar, and Country ."
The Simferopol Yuzhniye Viedomosti took
editorial note of this announcement, wondering
for which czar the horse guards have died.
In reply +o this the officers of the above regiment
sent the folic wing brief but explicit letter to the
editors of the Yuzhniye Viedomosti:
"The horse-guards always died and are dying for
that Russian Czar who was and who some day will
again be."
FINNISH TRADE UNION CONGRESS
DEMANDS PEACE WITH RUSSIA
HEL8INOFOES, May 31 (Rosta). — The Congress
of the Finnish Trade Union Organizations adopted
the following resolution on peace with Soviet Rus-
sia, which was proposed by the Organization
Commission :
"Whereas, a state of war between Finland and Rus-
sia is still maintained, despite the resulting economic
disturbance and uncertainty in the country; and
"Whereas, the peace offers made by Russia were
not received sympathetically by the Finnish Govern-
ment, which seemed to be watching for a convenient
opportunity to attack Soviet Russia;
"Therefore, The Congress of the Trade Union Or-
ganizations demands that all procrastinations definitely
cease and that steps be immediately taken for the con-
clusion of a real peace, for only this will open the
way for the improvement of the economic life of the
country and of the conditions of the workers. After
the conclusion of a sound and lasting peace the mili-
tary fortifications will become superfluous, the force
of the army should be immediately reduced, reducing
at the same time the expenditures for military pur-
poses, and gradually the useless expenditure of labor
energy for the manufacturing of military equipment
should be done away with." — Pravda, June 6, 1920.
THE PROTECTION OF LABOR IN
SOVIET RUSSIA
By S. KAPLUN
of the Commissariat of Latwr
This pamphlet, reprinted for the first time from
an English translation that appeared in Petro-
grad this year, is an authoritative study of the
actual operation of the Code of Labor Laws,
which has already been reprinted by us in
pamphlet form.
Price Ten Cents
SOVIET RUSSIA
110 W. 40th St. Room 304 New York, N. Y.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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The First Workers' Commune in Moscow
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A MONO our proletariat, especially among the
'*** women, there is still to be found a deep-
rooted dislike of social housekeeping. For this
reason it is interesting to observe how there de-
veloped in the workers' communes of Russia new
forms of social organizations which are intended
to replace our primitive, old fashioned ways of
keeping house. The following article will give the
reader a picture of the first workers' commune in
Moscow:
In the heart of the city is located Moscow's
first residence commune. It comprises a group of
about twenty houses, four to five stories in height ;
this block of houses was well-known as the "Bakh-
ru Houses" (so named after the former owner).
Today they bear the proud title "First Moscow
Workers' Commune."
At the beginning of the Revolution these houses
were socialized by the city and turned over to the
bakers' union for their use. They in turn es-
tablished the commune. All apartments, even
those which were vacated by former tenants, are
completely furnished. Tenants remaining in the
building were assigned only as many rooms as they
actually needed for their families. All superfluous
rooms had to be vacated, together with all their
furniture.
These vacant apartments and rooms were turned
over to the bakers and other workers, as well as
to Soviet officials and their families. The rent is
proportionately low and evenly divided among all
tenants; in fact, only enough is collected to cover
the necessary expenses for the maintenance of the
houses.
The commune is supervised by a house commit-
tee which is elected every six months at a meeting
participated in by all the tenants. (Excepted are
workers in technical branches.) Included in the
house committee are an engineer, whose duty it
is to see that the houses are properly maintained,
and a physician who watches over sanitary condi-
tions in the commune. A few men to make neces-
sary repairs in the houses are also employed: me-
chanics, roofers, carpenters, etc., but no one re-
ceives pay.
In the commune are located a bakery and a
store for the sale of foodstuffs, conducted in con-
junction with the municipal consumers' league.
The house committee is represented in both organ-
izations. The members of the commune also re-
ceive cards through the committee, which enable
them to obtain various textile goods. These man-
ufactured goods, clothing, shoes, hats, etc., are dis-
tributed through the warehouses of the municipal
consumers' league. Members are also entitled to
written orders for the repair of shoes and clothing,
as well as for the supply of fuel. Moreover all
rooms have heat from a central heating plant,
electric light, and gas.
There was also installed in the commune a large
laundry, in which linen is carefully, washed at very
low cost. A community kitchen, too, was estab-
lished and is used in connection with a large din-
ing room. If desired, families can call for their
meals and carry them to their apartments. Need-
less to say the comfort of the commune's children
has not been overlooked; there are cribs for in-
fants and little tots, and kindergartens for the big-
ger children. The women workers, away at their
tasks during the day, need have no worry on ac-
count of their little ones; they know they are well
taken care of.
The houses are placed in the center of a beau-
tiful, scrupulously well kept garden. Every Sun-
day a concert is given there, and occasionally lawn
parties are arranged. Adjoining the garden is a
theatre (in memory of a martyr of the Revolution
called the "House of Peter Alexinsky") in which
plays are frequently given for the members of the
commune, sometimes, too, performances for chil-
dren, or lectures with and without stereopticon
views; the weekly meetings likewise take place in
this theatre.
The commune has established a comfortable
reading room, and maintains a well stocked li-
brary. A dramatic and musical club is busily at
work. The soul of the whole commune is of course
the communist element, which has established it
all and brought it to its present high standard,
and which always calls on everybody for solidarity
and a spirit of mutual assistance.
All members are obliged to maintain strict clean-
liness and order. In the spring of the year, when
the great masses of snow which have accumulated
during the winter, begin to melt, all members are
requested to lend a hand in the cleaning of yards
and sidewalks. Cheerfully everybody grasps spade
and broom, and it is a veritable pleasure to see
how gaily and quickly the work is completed. All
these people, performing their unaccustomed work
in a spirit of so much cheerfulness, have the
elevating consciousness that even these little tasks
contribute to the common weal.
TWO YEARS OF SOVIET RUSSIAN
FOREIGN POLICY (1917—1919)
By GEORGE GHICHERIN
Gives a complete account of all the negotiations
between the Russian Soviet Government and
all foreign countries, for the two years begin-
ning November 7, 1917, and ending November
7, 1919.
Price Ten Cents
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
===============
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Soviet BtrssiA
September 4, 1920
News Items
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NEGOTIATIONS WITH FINLAND
(Session of June 14)
Reval, June 15. — Chairman Paasikivi informs
the Bussian delegation that he had communicated
to the FinnisB Government the proposition to con-
clude an armistice, and that a reply is expected
every moment. Furthermore, Paasikivi proposes
to discuss the question of the Pechenga region.
Venola, a member of the Finnish delegation, makes
known the following territorial demands of Fin-
land:
The infringements upon the rights of Finland
to the Arctic coast and its utilization should from
now on be removed, and the Finnish population
be accorded the access to the Arctic Ocean which
is necessary for its existence.
The Finnish population of Karelia, which
bounds on Finland, should be given a possibility
— in accordance with the principle of self-determ-
ination of peoples — to decide whether it wishes to
belong to Finland or Russia.
In regulating the boundaries, attention must be
paid to making the boundary line between Finland
and Russia form, as far as possible, a natural
boundary line, guaranteeing a durable peace be-
tween the two states.
In his further remarks, Venola endeavors to
offer reasons for the demands advanced by him by
referring to historical and natural rights, partic-
ularly to the conditions of life of the Finnish pop-
ulation in the north, for whom navigation and
fisheries in the Arctic Ocean present a problem
of extraordinary importance, as well as by refer-
ence to the promises made by Emperor Alexander
the Second.
In view of the complexity of the problems
touched upon in Venola's speech, the Russian dele-
gation proposes to postpone further discussion to
the next session. Comrade Bersin proposes the
following draft of the formula which is to re-
affirm in the treaty the fundamental act of Fin-
nish independence, which up to now has not yet
received its juridical and diplomatic affirmation.
Based upon the principle proclaimed by the
Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic of the
right of all peoples to a free self-determination
even to the point of their full separation from the
state of which they are a part, Russia recognizes
without reservation the independence, self-determ-
ination, and sovereignty of the Finnish state, and
renounces of its own free will all her supreme
rights which had been vested in Russia with re-
gard to the Finnish people and soil, and existing
by virtue of the former constitutional order or by
virtue of international treaties which in the sense
indicated lose all their strength for the future.
Paasikivi promises to reply in this matter at the
next day's session, and proposes to take up the dis-
cussion of the questions relating to the self-de-
termination of Eastern Karelia. M. Venola ex-
presses the hope that the population of Eastern
Karelia will be accorded the right to decide by
means of a general vote whether they wish to be-
long to Russia or Finland. "The principle of
right," says Venola, "demands that the present
Finnish border should not divide two populations
of the same stock between two states." Venola
also calls attention to the fact that in a part of the
Petrograd province Finnish tribes are living, and
asks some concessions of a cultural character for
the Finnish population in the province of Petro-
grad. Comrade Bersin says that all the questions
raised will receive a general reply. — From Kras-
naya Qazeta, June 17, 1920.
A RUSSIAN CZARIST WARSHIP IN
KIEL
The following is communicated by the Chem-
nitz (Germany) newspaper Kaempfer:
Kiel, July 13. — A Russian warship with the old
flag and a Czarist crew entered the port of Kiel,
in order to proceed by the way of the Baltic-
North Sea canal to the Black Sea. After it was
ascertained that it was a case of military support
for the Russian General Wrangel, the captain of
the ship was notified that the passage through the
canal would not be permitted for reasons of neu-
trality.
Where was the ship up to now? Apparently in
a Finnish port. Where does it get coal? It will
be the task of the dock workers not to allow this
ship to get even one ton of coal. The mad de-
struction of values in the Russian civil war must
finally be stopped, in order that the Communist
reconstruction of the Russian economy may be car-
ried out.
FOR THE STRUGGLE AGAINST POLISH
AGGRESSION
Sacrificing Their Day of Rest
Tula, June 4. — The workers and employees at
the Tula station of the Tykhvin railway line re-
plied to the aggression of the Polish magnates by
intensifying the struggle on the labor front. On
June 2 they decided to give up their Sunday rest
for a month and to work every Sunday six hours.
JEWISH POGROMS
It is reported from Stockholm : Delegations sent
by the Jewish inhabitants of various localities
which have been occupied by the Poles, are ar-
riving in Kiev. They are soliciting aid for the
victims of the pogroms which the Poles organized
before they retreated.
RUSSIAN WAR PRISONERS
Moscow, July 27.— The last contingent of Rus-
sian prisoners of war that has arrived in Odessa
brings five former Oalician officers who are apply-
ing for commissions in the Red Army.
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LITHUANIAN-POLISH ENCOUNTERS
Kovno, July 16 (Lithuanian Telegraph Agen-
cy). — Yesterday a train with Lithuanian soldiers
was proceeding from here to Vilna. At Landvarovo
the train was stopped by Polish partisans. The
Lithuanians resisted, whereupon a three hours'
struggle developed, which ended with the retreat
of the Poles in the direction of Vilna. South of
Meishapals, the Lithuanian troops during their
forward march came across a Polish brigade which
was retreating from the front. The Poles were
isarmed and a large amount of war booty fell
lto the hanv. ' +he Lithuanians. The Lithuani-
n troops stand Defore the gates of Vilna. It is
sported further that the Bolsheviks, east of Vilna,
re marching on the city. Vilna itself has been
ompletely evacuated by the Poles.
Petrograd and Moscow. In the near future many
deliveries are expected from Scandinavia and
America.
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN
LITHUANIA AND RUSSIA
Kovno, July 16. — The peace treaty between
lussia and Lithuania sets forth approximately the
ollowing boundary line : from the Dvina through
he Crivista lake, Narosh lake, and Molodechno,
long the Beresina west of Memel, along the
Jemel through Grodno up to the region of Au-
ustov, then in a northerly direction to the Ger-
ian border. Lithuania gets also Grodno and Lida.
We hope soon to be able to present the full text
f the treaty between Soviet Russia and Lithuania
o the readers of Soviet Russia.
TRADE RELATIONS WITH SOVIET
RUSSIA
Stockholm, July 8 (A telegram to the Berlin
Rote Fahne). — Since the opening of the Esthonian
border on May 8 to June 19 the following mer-
chandise passed through the Yamburg boundary
station to Soviet Russia: 269 cars with agricul-
tural machinery, 117 car-loads of paper, 8 car-
loads of leather, 3 car-loads of saws, 11 car-loads
of tanning extract, 827 car-loads of potato seeds,
altogether 1,235 cars weighing over 1,000,000
poods. Besides there were transported 2,400 poods
of sole leather, over 5,000 barrels of herrings, and
many other goods.
Prague, July 4. — Narodni Listy reports that
the trade mission of Krassin has placed a large
order for shoes in a Czech shoe factory, the pay-
ment for which will be made in gold.
EXPORTS TO RUSSIA
Copenhagen, June 22. — The Berlinske Tir
dinde reports from Kovno the following news
item taken from the official Bolshevist paper
Pravda concerning the resumption of exports to
Russia. The exports are forwarded partly by way
of Reval and partly by way of Petrograd. In
both cities large quantities of goods have arrived.
Contracts have been made for locomotives, scythes,
threshing machines, mowing machines, etc. Prom
the first of July, a train will leave Reval daily for
CONTROL OP FOREIGN TRADE
Paris, June 29. (Havas). — According to a tele-
gram of the Petit Parisien from Helsingfors,
Lenin has signed a decree by which the People's
Commissariat for Industry is transformed into a
Commissariat for Foreign Trade. In the future,
no one will have the right to undertake business
transactions without being empowered to do so
by this Commissariat. The result of this decree
will be the unconditional control of foreign ex-
change of goods by the Soviets.
THE FOREIGN DEBT
The Izvestia writes as follows:
In January, 1919, we offered peace to the En-
tente and asked the Allies what sum they de-
manded of us for the debts made by the Czarist
government. In reply there came the offensive of
Kolchak, Denikin, and Yudenich. Today they
want to present us with a bill. But, we, too, have
a bill to present. The bill for the destruction of
Borisov, Kiev, Balta, for the devastations made
by the White generals in the pay of the Entente,
for the executions of Russian workers and peas-
ants by the English, French, and American of-
ficers. We shall see who will remain in debt, who
has something to pay.
IN THE REAR OF THE POLISH ARMY
Lvov (Lemberg), June 2 (Via Belo-Ostrov).
— In the rear of the Polish front there is a grow-
ing wave of insurrection against the Polish usur-
pers. Reports of this come not only from White
Russia, but also from other localities. In Oalicia
a strong nationalist movement is expected. There
were already numerous cases of encounters between
the populace and the Polish gendarmerie, with
killed and wounded on both sides. The Poles are
sending punitive expeditions, but their activities
are obstructed.
AN ARMENIAN EMBASSY ON ITS WAY
TO MOSCOW
Stockholm, July 1. — A delegation of the Ar-
menian Republic, consisting of Leon Schandt, the
Chairman of the Armenian Parliament, and other
members, has arrived in Rostov on the Don on its
way to Moscow. The delegation is authorized to
discuss the conditions of a peace treaty between
Armenia and Russia.
KAHIL PASHA IN MOSCOW
Stockholm, July 1, 1920. — The well-known
Turkish statesmen, Kahil Pasha, Fuad Pasha, and
Gemse Pasha have arrived in Moscow. Two of
the above-mentio T jod ^entle^nen are representatives
of the Government o* Mustapha Keraal Pasha.
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248
SOVIET RUSSIA
September 4, 1920
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00
TWO DECREES OF THE RUSSIAN
SOVIET GOVERNMENT
[The following abstract of two official Soviet
Government decrees is taken from a recent number
of "Politiken", of Stockholm. We cannot vouch
for the correctness of the details given, as we have
not seen the originals of the decrees.]
On the 5th of May of this year, the Russian
Soviet Government published two decrees of ex-
traordinary significance for the industry and agri-
culture of Russia.
I
Supplementary to the decree dealing with the
socialization of the land, which does away with
the private ownership of the surface of the land
and the resources under the ground (1918), there
was issued on the 5th of May a decree in which
a new mode of utilizing the resources under the
ground is provided for. All contracts dealing with
the rights of private persons and companies to
the resources under the ground are annulled. The
exploitation of these resources and the minerals
mined, the general direction and control of the
mining industry are assigned to the Mining Sec-
tion of the Supreme Council of National Economy.
II
The object of the other decree is to increase the
productivity of agriculture, which suffers much at
present as a consequence of the often injudicious
division of the land by the local communes.
It provides a regulation according to which a
redivision of the land by the agricultural com-
munes may be carried out only with the consent of
the local Agricultural Economic Councils. A com-
plete re-division of the land is forbidden until the
cultivation period has been completed according
to the Socialization decree of 1918.
CONGRATULATIONS FROM CHINESE
WORKERS
A Chinese labor union, organized in Shanghai
in April, 1920, sent the following telegram to the
Siberian Soviets in the name of the "Chinese La-
borers and Peasants":
"To the Russian Laborers and Peasants and the
Red Army in Russia: We, representatives of ihe
Chinese workmen and peasants, offer our hearty
congratulations to you on the success of your revo-
lution and hope that some day the capitalists of
the whole world may be put down, to the advan-
tage of our brother workers so that all of us can
gain liberty, freedom and equality in the true sense
of these words. We welcome the Russian Red Army
because its members have made great personal sac-
rifices for the benefit of our working brothers
throughout the world, so that we Chinese laborers
and peasants are quite willing to stand shoulder
to shoulder with you under the flags of the army
of right in the hope that ultimately we shall up-
root the evil of capitalism and class distinction."
(Signed)
The Chinese Labor Association.
— Asiatic News Agency, Shanghai, April 23, 1920.
THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. Russia, by Oeorg Brandes, the famous Danish critic of art and literature; by many
considered to be the greatest critic in the world.
2. In the Halls of the Czar in the Kremlin, by Bohumir Smeral.
3. The Soviet Republic and Foreign Capital, by A. Lomov.
4. Recent Correspondence Between Soviet Russia and England.
5. Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make all checks payable
to L. C. A. K. Martens.)
110 West 40th Street
SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVED BY
SOVIET RUSSIA
(Room 304)
New York City
=====
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
j
SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, September 11, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 11
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limed Weekly at 110 W\ 40th Street, New York, N. Y. Ltidwig CL A. K. Martetia, Publisher. Jacob Wittmer Hartmann, Editor.
Subscription Kate, $5.00 per annum. Application for entry as second class matter pending. Changes of address should reach the
office a week before the changes are to be made.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PAGE
249
251
Impressions or Moscow, by Bahumir Smeral. .
Military Review, by Lt.-CoL B. Roustam Bek
Soviet Republic and Foreign Capital, by A,
Lamov I,**..*..*..*.,............,....., 254
Crimean Tartars and Revolution, by AT. B.<* 2SB
Poem : To the Russian Proletariat, by Carte-
ton Beats . , 259
Editorials . . , . 260
page
Tiik Revolution in Persia, by A. Leontiev*.. 262
Agreement Between Soviet Russia and
Latvia 264
kolcmakists on trial , 265
Recent News Items. .»«...*.«•*,••*•.*••• .267, 268
Truth About Poland, by Thomas Dabai 267
Recent Russo-Engltsh Correspondence, 269
Impressions of Moscow and the Kremlin
By Dn. Bohumib Smebal
I used the last moments for a rapid survey of
some of the interior departments of the Kremlin.
That part of the Kremlin which served as dwell-
ing and show apartments of the Czar's family, is
in charge of a comrade who uses for its adminis-
tration an entire office. In rooma adjoining his
offices are the dwellings of the Red soldiers on
guard duty in the Kremlin. Here it is necessary
to procure a card of admission. A former lackey
of the Czar is assigned to me as a guide* In addi-
tion to me j at least eight divisions of Red Guards
are inspecting the luxurious halls of the former
residence of the Czar, Each division is escorted
by a woman comrade, who explains each object,
each hall, each picture, to her soldier comrades.
The guides explain and instruct with much zeal
and very ably* They show them the luxury of the
former Czar, combining with their explanation a
lesson in Socialism. The monarch could live in
this luxury only because millions were slaves. The
revolution overthrew the Czar and today these
mementos, as museum relics, belong to the people.
It is important to remark that all historical me-
mentos and places in the Kremlin are very con-
scientiously guarded by the Soviet rule. Wherever
there is a rare mosaic floor, it is covered with a
coarse cloth cover, also costly carpets, chaiTs and
lounges are covered. In the lower halls in this
part of the Kremlin, there is a vast number of
cases unopened, strictly numbered and provided
with seals of the state. How easily it could be
spread through the world, that these are the Krem-
lin treasures which the Bolsheviki are trying to
steal and selL Instead, they are the treasure of
the Petrograd museums, which the government,
with the greatest care, had brought over here into
safety, at the time, when it was not improbable
that Petrograd might fall into the hands of
Yudenich, Now, the Soviet Government feels it-
self so secure that it expects to transfer the cases,
which were not opened here, back to their original
place in Petrograd.
The one-time lackey who escorts us has been un-
able to shake off the atmosphere in which he has
lived all his life. Although he does noE use the
words "His Majesty", whenever he pronounces the
name of some monarch he uses the word "im-
perator", and you can feel with what reverence
he speaks it. When he points to the vast number
of gold and silver plates, upon which the cities
were wont to hand the Czar bread and salt on the
occasion of state visits, and when he notices my
consternation that the Czar should have taken not
only the bread, but the heavy plates also, the good
old soul excuses him, saying : "Later, however, the
Imperator realized that it was too costly and
hinted that bread and salt be given to him on
wooden plates/' and he turns and calls attention to
a collection of wooden plates. His sentiments are
no obstacle for him to finish the rest of his life in
the service of a proletarian republic.
To describe the luxury of the Czar's hall would
be of no value. This description may be found in
my guide-book. Upon the minds of the simple
Russian soldier this luxury makes an unusual im-
pression, when his attention is called to it in con-
nection with the explanation of Socialism. I no-
ticed the impression it made upon a division of
the Red Guards, when shown the salons furnished
with Babylonic splendor within the immediate
proximity of the private, apartment of the Czar's
family, and whm they wi'rfCtyfgyytyat with the
250
SOVIET KUSSIA
September 11, 1920
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exception of two visits, of a few days, by the Sia-
mese King and the Persian Shah, these rooms have
not been occupied for centuries. The most vivid
impression, however, upon the simple visitors, is
made by a picture by Ryepin, which the Czar ap-
parently greatly treasured, for he had it hung in
a very conspicuous place in one of the first halls,
so that it drew my eye immediately upon the stair-
case landing. The Czar, after the war, receives
representatives from the country. Around him,
in the first rows, are official personages, in pos-
tt:r ,. o* official humility, with indifference in their
fa<*s. K,j'ii" p in the background are the repre-
K-ninnvv
with yt
population, muzhiks. They are
;;u at their "gosudar", their eyes up-
...*> though they wished in advance to
.> rd he may say : a very old man, bent
4 inhuman toil, with his hand to his
ear in order the better to hear what is said by
him from whom he expects salvation. And the
words are such that the Czar himself considered
them of such importance that he had them en-
graved in the metal covers of this picture. "I am
glad to see you once more. I am particularly
grateful to you for your hearty cooperation in our
victories, in which all Russia so valiantly partici-
pated. When you return home again, give my best
thanks to all. Let yourselves be guided by the ad-
vice and leadership of your masters and the nobil-
ity, and do not be misled by the silly and ugly
prattle that the land shall be divided among you,
and other such talk. Such talk is spread by our
enemies. All private property, including yours,
must remain untouched. God give you happiness
and health." This picture deserves to be exhibited
in the largest square in Moscow. But nowhere
could it be more effective than here amidst the
luxury and pomp of the private life of the Czars,
in a place where the Czar himself, so enchanted
with it, had it hung. In the private apartments
of the Czarine stood a lot of unusually hideous
bric-a-brac and vases from Nuremberg and Frank-
fort. By these intimate details it can easily be
seen how close they were — those who ruled nations
— and who drove them into international murder
— how close were the Romanovs and the Hohen-
zollerns.
In the afternoon I visited a division of the Cen-
tral Workers' School. "Raboche-krestyanski uni-
versitet imeni tovarishcha Sverdlova" (Workers'
and Peasants' University in memory of Comrade
Sverdlov), which is situated in several buildings.
One of its chief parts is in the University building
in the Minsk Square ; the second is in the palace
in the Malaya Dmitrovka 6. I shall visit this
second division. A few days ago, Comrade 01-
bracht visited the Central Workers' School, during
the forenoon lectures. He was present at a lecture
given by Lunacharsky on the development of
Greek culture. Lunacharsky, having been detained
by his official duties, was late. Before his arrival,
the students held a meeting, in correct form.
Domestic affairs were brought up (linens, heating,
etc.). One complained about food. He was over-
ruled by other students, who pointed out cate-
gorically that the students had the best food, the
same as soldiers and factory hands. Lunacharsky
lectured for three-quarters of an hour on Greek
culture. His lecture was exhaustive, concise, ob-
jective,' distinct. It was supplemented by stere-
optican views, and followed by the recitation of
Sapphic verses by an actress of the Moscow theatre.
Then a ballet performed Grecian Dances, which
finished the program. "In two such hours a stu-
dent acquires more than if he sat bent over his
books for days," Olbracht then said to me. I saw
today worker-students in the afternoon, a time,
which according to the school-plan is devoted to
repetition and resume of material given by the
professors.
I entered the building at five o'clock in the aft-
ernoon. In the doorway I encountered a Japanese
with note books under his arm. In the conference
room I am received by an intelligent woman-com-
rade of about twenty-six. She will immediately
telephone to Nevsky. In the meantime she offers
me tea. The room is simply furnished. Along
the walls are portraits of thirty-six of the most
renowned Russian poets, writers, scholars: Gri-
boyedov, Ostrovsky, Uspensky, Korolenko, Che-
khov, Pisarev, Goncharov, Turgenev, Nekrasov,
Pisemsky, Dostoyevsky, Apukhtin, Dobrolyubov,
and others. Above all, in a large frame, Pushkin
and Tolstoy. The woman-comrade answers my
questions about the building. This place was a
club-house of the wealthiest merchants in Moscow.
Here were held dinners, drunken bouts, and much
was rumored in Moscow about orgies with women.
Today, these halls serve for the socialistic train-
ing of the proletariat. In the first' phase of the
Revolution — which it is impossible to deny — there
came to the surface much of the mob-element, and
this building was captured by a group of well-
armed bandits, numbering several hundred. They
declared themselves to be anarchists. They were,
however, people without any principles or ideals,
who threatened the safety of the entire vicinity.
There was no help, and our comrades were com-
pelled to clean out this nest by means of bullets.
When you walk through the halls, you will see in
one of them two couches from which the velvet
had been torn. This damage was not done by our
people, — that was done before.
Comrade Nevsky comes in. He supplements
what has already been said about the school. The
division into two parts (a sort of faculties), par-
ty and soviet, is carried out practically in such
manner that the first three months all students
receive the same theoretical education. The other
three months, they are separated. During the first
three months they are obliged to learn the Marxian
theory, the Soviet constitution, party program, the
programs of other parties, history of the Russian
revolution, history of other revolutions in Western
Europe, history of the Russian Communist Party,
important facts in the history of agriculture, his-
tory of culture, and statistics. In the practical
course, the general party doctrine, its life and
UN I '*' Eh JtTt U F ffifCfl lb AH
September 11, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
251
agendum is adhered to. This course, which hasj«the students wear their overcoats and caps. It is
this year 500 pupils (there are 1,200 altogether )™a remnant from hard weeks, when it was necessary
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is divided into seven sections: Organization, Pro-
paganda, Work in the Rural Districts, Work
Among Women, Work Among Young People,
Journalistic Section, Military Section. The Sec-
ond Soviet Department is divided into as many
sections as there are commissariats in the Central
State Administration. The students are delegated
from the midst of political organizations, trade
unions, and the Red Army, from all over Russia,
and represent their most able workers. For each
province there is assigned a certain number of
places. The student receives lodging, maintenance
and clothing and 1,600 rubles a month ; if he has
a family, the enterprise where he was employed
pays him full wages. Besides the Workers' Uni-
versity, which for the time being must needs be
organized only as a revolutionary substitute for
the fast training of the working force, which the
involution urgently needs, there is the general
university, in which the theological and law facul-
ties have been abolished.
We are walking through the individual halls.
Recitations are in progress. In each room there
are between twenty and twenty-five student-com-
rades, in front of them a black-board, and before
it a male or female teacher. Teachers for recita-
tions are workers, male and female, who had com-
pleted last year's course. One hundred of the
best have remained with the institution. They re-
ceive maintenance for their assistance, and they
educate themselves further. In each group there
are several women or girls and a few Red Guards.
Instruction is carried on in unconstrained man-
ner, in the form of conversation. In some of the
rooms, the students sit on school benches, in
others around a table. In one room the twenty
students, including their Red teacher, were
crowded on a balcony, so that while receiving in-
struction, they might enjoy the sun which was
beginning to be quite warm. Nearly everywhere
for them to sit in these rooms during the most
severe frost. In all the groups instruction about
the Soviet is given. Here the composition and
jurisdiction of the Provincial Congress, elsewhere
the jurisdiction of the Soviet People's Commis-
sars is taken up, and, in other groups, the Soviet
Congress, etc. I ask a woman-student : "In what
way does our constitution differ from that of the
bourgeois-democracy ?" She gives the correct an-
swer: "The Soviet Constitution is the expression
of the will and power of the working people, la-
borers and peasants." These courses have not as
yet text-books of their own, only a few possess very
nicely illustrated readers for higher public school
classes, which bear the title: "We will create a
new world." I have seen, in special division, young
comrades representing Asiatic nations: Siberians,
Turkestans, Hindus, two Japanese and two Chin-
ese. They cannot- write Russian and in order to
be able to read Russian socialistic literature, they
were just then learning the Slavonic alphabet. The
majority of these have no academic education from
home, yet they are picked and seem to have sharp
native intelligence.
We also inspected the economic arrangement of
the building: a pantry, a kitchen, cellars. Be-
neath, masons are at work; they are installing
tubs and shower-baths. The building ought to be
painted. This year, however, there will be neither
time nor funds for it. This improvement there-
fore will have to be postponed until the following
year. Finally we walked through the lodgings of
the students — large, barrack-like, yet clean. When
we were leaving the building, the students were
crowding into the kitchen as hungry as wolves.
Although they receive precisely the same kind of
food as is served in the house 1 live in, the young
people are unable to wait until evening. They
carry bread with them and tea is to be served to
them.
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
'HP HE official statement of Kamenev, the Soviet
A Government envoy in London, concerning the
complete defeat of the Wrangel armies, both in
the Kuban region as well as in South Russia, has
been confirmed by Trotsky. The Soviet War Min-
ister stated that ex-General Wrangel's forces that
landed in Kuban territory have been "wiped out."
On August 27 a Russian detachment landed two
versts from Nizhnestiblevskaya, which was attacked
at dawn and captured after fierce street fighting.
"A large number of officers and three generals were
cut down" the dispatch explains. "We captured
over 1,000 prisoners, many guns and military
stores. We captured technical stores and many
other trophies, an inventory of which is being
made. We also destroyed an armored car." And all
this was so quickly and unexpectedly accomplished
by the Soviet raiders that they lost only twenty
men killed.
In other parts, where the Wrangel expedition-
ary forces were in full advance into the Kuban
region, they were surprised by a series of vigorous
counter-attacks of the Reds and entirely defeated.
In commenting on this victory, Trotsky states
that WrangePs "hope of holding the Kuban ter-
ritory, and after it, Northern Caucasus," has been
destroyed at its root.
Being also defeated and vigorously pursued in
South Russia, the Pranco-Wrangel forces have
fallen back in disorder towards the Crimea, and
finally their front is now confined to the Crimean
sector, where the fragments of the beaten White
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forces will find a shelter, being protected by the
Allied navy.
The Bussian delegation in London officially
stated that the reports of Wrangel's capture of
Novorossysk and Yekaterinodar are "pure inven-
tions."
This great success of the Soviet army over the
counter-revolutionary invasion assumes major im-
portance in view of the events in Persia and its
probable influence on the Mussulman Congress,
now being held in Baku. According to a dispatch
from Teheran, Persia, (The Christian Science
Monitor, August 3) : "In the fighting on August
25, near Enzeli, the Russians landed heavy trench
mortars, and four-inch howitzers. A long struggle
was maintained where the road from Resht reaches
the sea. Here the Persian cossacks (the reaction-
aries) suffered from mortar and howitzer fire and
were also enfiladed from the ships." .The retreat
towards Resht is described as "somewhat disorder-
ly." "British support, however, is close at hand,"
says the message, and adds that "in Persia some
convoys have lately been attacked between Hama-
dan and Kavsin." Taking into consideration this
positive success of the Soviet arms in South Rus-
sia and in Asia, it becomes an easy matter to throw
a little light on the mysterious circumstances on
the Russo-Polish front.
Now, when once more the accuracy of the re-
ports as to what took place during the so-called
"battle for Warsaw," is absolutely compromised,
and the "victorious" Poles are falling back under
the pressure of the Soviet army along the Northern
front, it is clear that the time has come when the
real Russian offensive of the Red Army with War-
saw as its objective is only in its first stages.
The military news from Polish and French
sources remains extremely obscure; the Moscow
wireless reports are in part suppressed and in part
censored to such an extent that it is scarcely pos-
sible to follow the movement of the Soviet army.
But, in spite of this lack of information, the real
state of affairs in the Russian army can be firmly
ascertained.
An army that was able, within one week after a
considerable setback, to restore order, and not only
to stop the advance of its enemy, but counter-
attack him and force him to give way, is an army
which may be considered as physically and
morally intact. And that is at the present mo-
ment the condition of the Soviet Army.
Therefore it may be said with absolute cer-
tainty that the morale of the Reds, as well as their
military organization, must be on a very high
level.
We were told by General Weygand that two-
thirds of all Bolshevik fighting forces were abso-
lutely annihilated during the Polish "pursuit",
within six days. If so, how could the remaining
one-third have been able to check the pursuers,
defeat them and recapture such important places
as the forts of Brest-Litovsk, situated on the west-
ern bank of the Bug, Grodno, and many other
Digitized by V^iOOQ IC
towns and villages, which represent the defense-
line of the Warsaw region?
General Weygand seems to be as poor an arith-
metician as he is a strategist. If this French mili-
tary leader saved Warsaw, which he did by forc-
ing the Polish Government to massacre all the
Polish Communists or sympathizers with peace
with Soviet Russia, and, with the help of the
Catholic clergy, forced the Poles fanatically to
rush to meet the Russian cavalry, which had al-
ready broken into the city of Warsaw, he simul-
taneously led the Polish army into complete de-
struction, and finally condemned Warsaw to the
inevitable occupation by the Soviet armies in the
near future.
For a former chief of staff of Marshall Foch,
who together with his chief planned the Polish
campaign, it is unpardonable not to have under-
stood the real significance of the Russian advance
on the Polish capital. For he had at his disposal
the American Kosciusko Squadron, and a huge
number of French and Polish airmen, to aid in
discovering the real strength of the advancing
Russians, and to appreciate the strategical charac-
ter of the movement, which now, after the defeat
of the Wrangel armies, becomes as clear as day.
As far as we may learn from a summary of
the general military situation since the failure of
the Soviet forces to take Warsaw, there never was
a decisive offensive on the part of the Soviet head-
quarters staff directed against Warsaw. The Su-
preme Russian Military Command, after the defeat
of the Polish field army, considered the Poles as
unable for a considerable period to constitute a
serious threat to Russia. Therefore Budenny's
cavalry was ordered to continue its pursuit of
the beaten enemy, as far as possible. In order to
make this pursuit more effective, a considerable
number of the mounted infantry and some
mounted and field artillery were added to this
force. The movement was so perfectly camou-
flaged by its decisiveness and vigor that it was
considered as an offensive of the bulk of the Red
Army directed on Warsaw. In reality, it was
only a demonstration staged on a large scale, while
the real blow was directed by the Russian General
Staff, not towards Poland, but towards Wrangel,
who was gradually approaching the Donets in-
dustrial district, and becoming more and more dan-
gerous, and more important than the defeated
Poles, being an enemy in the interior who could
be constantly supported by France, England and
other sympathizing governments, without encoun-
tering difficulties in view of hostile railroad work-
ers in Western European countries. General Wev-
gand did not expect this, and also failed to foresee
that after the Poles had defeated, in Warsaw, the
Russians who had penetrated into the city, and
then broken through the thin lines of the Red
attacking forces, they would, instead of being able
to force a decisive battle, be obliged to move on,
almost without resistance by the enemy, as far as
Brest-Litovsk and Grodno. They also did not
foresee that along the n/er Bug the weakened
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Polish army would then suddenly come upon fresh
and formidable Bed forces, the real bulk of the
Soviet Army, which is in full advance to the West,
being now capable of receiving reinforcements
from the ranks of those Eed troops which have
so brilliantly accomplished their heavy task in
South Eussia.
When General Weygand understood the real
dramatic situation in which he had put the "vic-
torious** Poles, whom he had so eloquently con-
vinced that the Eussians were by no means able
to counter-attack, he hurried to leave Poland with
the idea that the approaching Polish debacle had
better take place under the command of Polish
generals rather than of himself.
That this French strategist has suddenly dis-
covered the critical position of the Polish army, is
proved by his sudden return to Paris, after which
the Poles also suddenly were advised not to pene-
trate too far while "pursuing" their enemy, where-
as they had been ordered only a short while ago
by the same military adviser, to take as much as
possible of the territory of Eussia in order to es-
tablish themselves in "strong, strategical posi-
tions." Where these positions are was not men-
tioned. Then the Poles were advised to entrench
themselves, using the old German trenches. This
last suggestion naturally provoked a protest from
Pilsudski. The famous Polish conqueror of Mos-
cow, in spite of all his ignorance of military art,
well realized that in order to hold a front of a
length of about 400 miles, in the same way as
the Germans had, one must have a German army,
not a Polish army, which, according to Pilsudsky^s
confession, is "far too small and poorly supplied."
"Our friends wish us to halt on the eastern
front and maintain a solely defensive attitude,"
he says. "In my opinion, that cannot be done.
How is it possible for a small army, not technically
well equipped, to create a defensive line on a front
of hundreds of kilometers?"
And in despair, and showing his complete lack
of military training, Pilsudski continues "either
to advance to complete destruction of the enemy
or else to halt on our illusory frontiers, to con-
clude peace as quickly as possible."
The last suggestion is very safe and sane, but
how poor Pilsudski is supposed to advance to a
complete destruction of the enemy, when he does
not find it possible even to maintain a solely de-
fensive attitude, is rather difficult to ascertain.
Such ideas, it seems to me, can only be explained
by the Franco-Polish military experts; I do not
understand at all.
Considering the total losses of the Soviet army
during its "offensive" on Warsaw, Pilsudsky con-
tinues : "It will therefore take the Soviets a long
time to reorganize their armies, and I doubt
whether they will even then be of great military
value." (N. Y. Times, August 31.) The facts
show us that the Eed Army did not even require
any reorganization, because it never was disorgan-
ized, and the gallant Polish military leader will
certainly soon appreciate the military value of the
igiiizedbyOOOgle
Soviet forces if he has not in the past been able
to understand it.
The London Daily Her aid of August 21 gives
a rather interesting description of the develop-
ment of the last Eussian dash on Warsaw, which
I consider as a very important piece of informa-
tion for an understanding of the character of the
whole Eussian manoeuver.
"After the crossing of the river Bug, the Bol-
sheviks appear to have advanced directly on War-
saw with about two corps, badly supplied with ar-
tillery, and at the same time to have made a great
raid north of the city, between the river Vistula
and the East Prussian frontier, into the Danzig
'corridor*, through which alone supplies for the
Poles could reach the front from the Entente
powers.
"The main advance reached a line variously re-
ported as seven to fifteen miles east of Warsaw,
but the raid, doubtless made by the very efficient
Eed cavalry, was extraordinarily successful. One
railway line through Mlava and Novogeorgievsk
was cut, and that lying much farther west and
running through Thorn and Graudenz was at least
temporarily interrupted.
"The Poles in the meanwhile had apparently
been forced by panic to accept the suggestion of
General Weygand, the chief of the French mission.
A more or less 'prepared* position had been con-
structed and garrisoned by the new Polish levies
Considerable forces of artillery and machine-guns
were brought into play.
"Into this defended zone the two Bolshevik
army corps bumped, and, having outstripped their
artillery, recoiled after failing to rush it.
"At this moment Pilsudsky, still acting under
the inspiration of Weygand, launched a counter-
attack, or, rather, two counter-attacks.
"He struck north along the railway towards
Mlawa, and brought the Bolshevik cavalry tumb-
ling back out of the 'corridor*, their communication
being now threatened in turn. And he struck also
due east towards Siedlec in the hope of overwhelm-
ing the advanced corps of the Eed Army before
they were adequately supported.
"The Polish plan was, or seems to have been, to
drive two wedges into a not very compact or thor-
oughly coordinated line. It has been so far suc-
cessful that Warsaw reports the Polish army as
having reoccupied Lukow, sixty miles east of the
capital, and rather less from Brest-Litovsk. Lu-
kow was captured by the Bolsheviki on August 11.
To the north, the Polish counter-attack seems to
have gone fifty miles, before, in its turn, receiving:
a check.
"The importance of the Bolshevik reverse lies r
of course, rather in its political than its military
aspect. Knowing the shifty people he has to deal
with at Minsk, and that they were supported byr
even shiftier people at Paris and elsewhere, Trot-
sky took the risk to secure the valuable pawns of
Warsaw and the Danzig 'corridor*. He foresaw
that with these pawm in his hands, the course of
j i 1 1 ■_' 1 1 1
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SOVIET RUSSIA
September 11, 1920
the peace negotiations would be smoother and more
rapid.
"That coup appears to hare failed, at any rate,
temporarily. If the Bolsheviki really want to
take Warsaw for its own sake, they can almost
certainly do so, when their reinforcements and ar-
tillery have come up. But there is every reason
to believe that what the Bolsheviki really want is
not Warsaw, but peace."
Unfortunately, I do not see a stable peace with
Poland unless Warsaw will be occupied by the
Russians as a guarantee. Warsaw, as I have often
repeated, is the political and strategical center of
Poland, and, according to strategical principles, it
must be struck at bv all means. Warsaw is the
only place where a stable peace could be signed
between Soviet Russia and a free Poland. At
least this is the opinion of a military expert who
still remembers the consequences of the failure of
the Allies to reach Berlin.
General Weygand's relief of Warsaw from its
occupation by the Russian cavalry without bom-
bardment of the city and without bloodshed only
caused the Polish delegates at Minsk to stiffen
their peace terms and practically break off the
peace negotiations, and there is little hope that
they will limit their ambitions unless Imperialistic
Poland is struck in the heart, as is the principle
of strategy, and the heart of Poland is Warsaw.
The Soviet Republic and Foreign Capital
By A. Lomov
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THE PROBLEM OF CONCESSIONS
THE economic life of Russia has always de-
pended on that of Western Europe. Moreover,
before the war it was foreign commerce that pre-
dominated.
In the last years before the World War almost
thirty-four per cent of the finished products and
the half -finished products in metallurgical produc-
tion were imported from abroad. And the situa-
tion was exactly the same in all the other branches
of industry.
The subordination of the economic life of Russia
to that of other countries was not, however, the
result only of the industrial situation in Russia.
Russia suffered particularly from lack of nation-
al capital and, as a result, offered a ready field
for the importation of foreign capital. The Donets
Basin, the most highly developed industrial dis-
trict in Russia, was the most striking example
of this, but not the only one.
In 1869 John Hughes formed in London a
stock company with the object of organizing the
first metallurgical enterprise in the Donets Basin.
Since that time the metallurgy of Southern Rus-
sia, which developed considerably meanwhile, has
continually attracted foreign capital.
At the time of the November Revolution there
was not a single metallurgical enterprise in the
South of Russia which did not employ foreign
capital. Of 18 stock companies, 16 were quoted
on the foreign exchanges. As for the stock of the
two remaining companies, the foreign exchanges
were closed to them, but German capital was never-
theless the principal stockholder. Thirteen (13)
companies, embracing more than two-thirds of the
total production, are enterprises supported almost
exclusively by foreign capital. In six other enter-
prises of mixed capital, foreign capital also pre-
dominated.
Furthermore, foreign capital plays the same
important part in the coal industry of the Donets.
In 1912, the total coal extracted amounted to
806.78 million poods (13,012,000 long tons). The
Digitized by L^OOglC
war it was foreign commerce that predominated,
with foreign capital produce alone 769.46 million
poods (12,410,000 long tons), that is, 95.4 per
cent of the total amount of coal extracted.
Further, foreign capital was invested in stock
companies owning coal-mines and coke ovens, pro-
ducing 93.5 per cent of all the coke in Russia.
Seventy-eight per cent of the total production of
briquettes in Southern Russia was also in the
hands of enterprises operating almost exclusively
with foreign capital — which played just as import-
ant a part in other districts and other branches of
industry. Before the war German capital owned
the greater part of all the electrical enterprises,
part of the railroads, numerous factories for chem-
ical products, etc., etc. ; while English capital had
secured possession of most of the oil wells and
part of the gold mining industry. According to
the estimate by Neumark, England had invested
in Russian enterprises and in the loans 4^ mil-
liard rubles ($2,317,500,000), and France 17 mil-
liard francs ($3,281,000,000).
Russia was especially important from the point
of view of raw material.
In fact Russia exported to the markets of West-
ern Europe immense quantities of wheat and nu-
merous agricultural products and cattle, as well
as wood, butter, etc.
It is evident that after the war, during the
course of which Belgium, Serbia, and part of
France, were devastated, immense quantities of
raw material will be necessary for the economic
restoration of those countries. After the war it
will be necessary to reconstruct what was de-
stroyed, and the need for raw material will be the
more acutely felt according as the devastation was
greater.
The scarcity of wood which mankind will shortly
experience, which indeed it is already beginning
to feel, will inevitably force Western European
capital to seek reserves of wood for the markets
of Europe. The forests of northern Russia will
accordingly be given preference over the rest of
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Europe; it is therefore natural that the world's
capital should turn first to them.
Exportation of wood had, moreover, increased
greatly before the war. This is shown in the
foll owing table :
Wood Exports Percentage of
Millions Millions wood exports as
of of compared with
Years Rubles Dollars total exports
1901-1905 (average).. 65.9 33.9 7.0
1906-1910 (average).. 116.4 59.9 9.6
1910 138.2 71.2 9.5
1911 142.4 732 9.0
1912 153.4 79.0 10.0
1913 164.9 84.9 15.8
Wood exports, just before the war, had increased
much more rapidly than the total exports of Rus-
sia, or the exports of other articles. When war was
declared, the wood exports of Eussia were greater
than of all other articles with the exception of
wheat. It is interesting to see how our wood ex-
port was divided among the different countries.
The following table shows per cent distribution
of exports by countries of destination :
Country 1901-05 1906-10 1910 1911 1912 1913
Germany . 40.5 38.7 33.9 33.2 33.8 32.3
Austria-
Hungary . 1.9 3.7 2.9 2.6 2.7 2.3
Belgium .. 5.7 5.1 4.9 3.8 3.7 3.9
Gt. Britain 33.4 32.8 37.3 39.8 40.0 37.7
France ... 3.6 4.7 5.1 4.1 3.9 4.9
Holland .. 12.4 12.7 13.3 12.1 11.7 16.2
All Other. 2.5 2.3 2.6 4.4 4.2 2.7
Total .... 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Before the war almost half (45.6) of our ex-
ports by weight, and more than half (51.4) by
value, went to the Entente countries. It is evident
that the need for wood material after the war will
compel the Entente countries to increase this per-
centage still further, the more that Eussia in this
respect enjoys a monopoly in Europe. (The for-
ests of Sweden and Norway were exhausted before
the war, and Eussia alone has kept large supplies
of superior qualities of wood.)
Moreover, it is because of such considerations
that the capital of Western Europe looks to the
other natural riches of Eussia, which have been
hitherto only partially exploited or not at all.
The scarcity of minerals in Europe, the lack of
certain metals, may easily be overcome by an in-
tensification of production.
In addition we possess a number of agricultural
products which we do not even dream of exporting,
given the present situation, but which we can send
to various parts of Eussia to feed the population.
These products are of importance to Europe also.
Butter, for example, was one of the chief products
exported.
In 1910 Siberia alone exported about 4,000,000
poods (144,400,000 lbs.) of butter and, in 1912,
4,525,000 poods (163,352,500 lbs.), of which
1,500,000 poods (54,150,000 lbs.) went to Eng-
land.
The economic life of Eussia, closely connected
as it is with that of Western Europe, will have
Digiiiz&d by V^OOglC
still greater need after the war and after the
Eevolution, of the products and capital of Western
Europe; and foreign capital will more than ever
demand Eussia's raw material, which in the case
of numerous products enjoys a world monopoly.
Although Eussia is now at war with almost all the
capitalist powers of Europe, although the world's
capital has established the economic blockade of
Eussia, we can say with certainty that this situa-
tion can not last long, and that the two parties
will be forced within a short time to resume close
economic relations.
The re-establishment of the economic activity
of Eussia implies the necessity for her breaking at
all costs the chain which now blocks her economic-
ally. During the war not only did Eussia not
succeed in increasing her production, but on the
contrary it decreased. In fact a great part of the
machines and renewable parts came to us from
abroad, and principally from Germany. Since the
war the character of importation into Eussia has
changed radically. In place of machinery and
articles necessary for the economic life of peace
times, only articles for war have been imported.
The revolution of 1917 did not, moreover, bring
any improvement in this situation. After the
Eevolution in November, importation decreased
gradually. The question of the re-establishment
of commercial exchange with foreign countries is
therefore of great importance for the economic
life of Eussia.
Foreign capital is offered two means to solve
the question of economic relations with Soviet
Eussia.
1. Direct suppression of the Communist Eevo-
olution in Eussia. This foreign capital tried to
do, in the first phase of the revolutionary develop-
ment, when Japanese, American, German, and
English troops were sent against Eussia. This
first phase may now be considered ended. Today
Lloyd George understands more and more the ne-
cessity of ceasing military operations against Eus-
sia, and seeking to enter upon an agreement with
the Bolshevik government.
2. The Entente bourgeoisie, feeling that it is im-
possible rapidly to destroy Bolshevism, will inevit-
ably seek another policy, that is, they will try to
exploit, even under the authority of the Bolshev-
iks and under the dictatorship of the proletariat,
the natural riches of Eussia, in the hope of reap-
ing great profits. Naturally this implies the ne-
cessity of concluding a precise arrangement with
the Communist government.
The two parties will therefore hasten to estab-
lish a mutual agreement in order to end hostili-
ties and renew friendly relations.
We know, of course, that foreign capital will
agree to this solution only if the Eussian Soviet
Eepublic offers it sufficient compensation. It can-
not permit that the Soviet Government, "to save
the face of Socialism," should repudiate the debts
contracted by Eussia towards foreign capital, re-
fuse to pay the interest and nationalize the mines
and factories which it owned.
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SOVIET RUSSIA
September 11, 1920
AREA OF STATE FORESTS
Total Area Useful Area
Total
REVENUE
Total Area
Useful Area
w c
g'Z
O rt
•2 *3>
Districts: §.§
European Russia 105.9
European Russia (with the ex-
ception of 5 provinces of the
North) 13.5
The 5 provinces of the North,
Archangel (without the for-
est district of Pechersk
and Mesensk), Vologda
(without Pechersk), Vi-
atka, Olonetsk, and Perm... 70.8
Basins of the Dnieper and
Dniester 1.6
Poland 0.6
Niemen Basin 0.8
o ctf
c
.2 CA
S cd
285.9 84.2
36.5 10.8
190.9 57.8
c
.2 «
-— o
i <->
227.4
156.1
c
o <*>
S3
18.4
G o)
13
29.1 64.0 32.9
9.5
o # rt
4.72
0.25
cd
82.4 42.4 0.78 0.15
0.90
0.05
jO so
0.98
5.91
0.32
cd
IS
0.19
1.13
0.06
4.2
1.3
3.5
14.7
7.6
9.34
1.78
1U9
2.17
1.6
0.6
1.6
8.2
4.2
13.47
2.57
14.74
2.81
2.1
0.7
1.8
8.2
4.2
9.97
1.90
10.83
2.07
T3
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The whole question then is one of weighing
coldly the advantages offered to us by the eventual
lifting of the economic blockade, the cessation of
hostilities and the resumption of international
economic relations without which political rule in
Russia is extremely difficult.
Foreign capital can come to us in two different
ways, either in the form of foreign loans, or as
concessions.
As far as foreign loans are concerned, given the
present instability of the international situation,
it is impossible to hope for them, especially since
under the present circumstances one can hardly
expect the acceptance of the conditions which the
capitalists of Western Europe and of America
would propose.
As regards concessions, it may be said that in
the present situation they appear to be practically
more convenient and more possible of realization.
In fact, the interest which the powers of Western
Europe took in Chicherin's note on the subject
of the admissibility and possibility of concessions,
as well as in the proposal for concessions presented
by Borissov and Hannevig, prove sufficiently that
this method is possible.
If one examines the projects for concessions
which will tempt the foreigners and which the
Russian Soviet Republic is able to accept, it seems,
the most interesting are those which relate to our
forests, our natural resources, our railroads and
our waterways. We must not forget, even though
it be a little beside the question, the exploitation
of our cotton plantations, which is intimately con-
nected with a whole series of irrigation works.
With regard to the concession of forest ex-
ploitation to foreigners, Europe must take into
consideration not only her interest in getting wood
from our republic, but also the fact that our coun-
try in this respect holds an altogether privileged
position in Europe. In fact, the devastation of
Belgium and of nine French districts, and the
considerable falling off in construction during the
war, will make much greater still the demand for
this product.
The forests cover a colossal area of 1,080 mil-
lion acres, of which 432 millions are in European
Russia, which has 227 millions in the North.
In Archangel Province, of 43 million dessiatins
(116 million acres) of forests belonging to the
State, only 5 million dessiatins (13^ million
acres) are exploited, and only 1,800,000 dessiatins
(4,860,000 acres) are exploited in the Province of
Vologda, whose forest area is 24 million dessiatins
(65 million acres). The expression "exploited",
however, far from signifies that the forests are ex-
ploited in the usual sense of the word.
The table, printed at the head of this page,
which is taken from the reports of the Forestry
Department, gives the figures for 1912 with re-
spect to the production of the different districts:
Given the relatively slight revenue from forest
exploitation, their development and output were
very unequal. Whereas the area of the State for-
ests in the basins of the Dnieper and the Dniester,
in Poland, and in the Basin of the Niemen, repre-
sented 2.5 per cent of the area of European Rus-
sia, and the utilized part constituted only 3 per
cent of the forests, the gross revenues from the
exploitation of these forests nevertheless repre-
sent more than 35 per cent of the total revenue
from the forests of European Russia. In the five
provinces of the North, the output of the exploited
forests was about 0.32 rubles per dessiatin (0.06
dollars per acre), while in Poland it was 14.74
rubles per dessiatin ($2.81 per acre).
In all the provinces of European Russia an aver-
age of 27.8 cubic feet per dessiatin (10.3 per
acre) of exploited forest area was cut, an insignifi-
cant figure, it is true. This is explained by the
fact that there was almost no production in the
provinces of the North. On the other hand, in the
basins of the Dnieper and the Dniester, the cutting
reached 241 cubic feet per dessiatin of exploited
forest, or 89.3 cubic feet per acre.
Up to the present our woodworking industry has
not been able to exploit all the wealth of our for-
ests, or, rather, has ignored them. In 1905, in the
provinces of the North, there were 164 saw-mills
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and woodworking establishments (53 of them in
the single province of Petersburg) ; in the central
industrial district of Russia 222 factories, and in
the central agricultural district, 230.
The exploitation of forests in Northern territory
properly so-called, which, because of its geograph-
ical situation, descends towards the White Sea,
was not at all developed in the provinces of Arch-
angel and Vologda, but on the other hand, it in-
creased in the countries towards the Gulf of Fin-
land and Petersburg. In 1911 Russia exported
through Archangel and the ports of the White Sea
66 million cubic feet of timber and manufactured
wood, and 78 million through Petersburg and
Kronstadt.
Under these circumstances there can be no fear
that Soviet Russia would be injured by organizing
rational exploitation of forests under the direction
of the government and by granting concessions to
foreigners.
The projects of Hannevig and Borissov were,
to allow foreigners to exploit the forests in
northeast European Russia, principally, which
cover an area of 8 million dessiatins, 21.6 million
acres). There are also in the same region of the
northeast, in the district which extends towards
Kama, and in the province of Perm, immense for-
ests, almost untouched, and from 5 to 6 million
dessiatins in area (13 to 16 million acres). In the
province of Perm, notably, are the forest districts
of North-Kolvinsk, Poluchinsk, Weshanchinsk,
etc., as well as numerous other forests. All this
region is immensely valuable to foreign capital.
Naturally the exploitation of these forests is closely
connected with the construction of railroads and
waterways (Soroki-Kotlas-Obi Railway, and de-
velopment of the Staro-Yekaterininski Canal).
Under the present circumstances the Soviet Re-
public is not able to undertake the construction
of big railway lines, as its railroad system is ab-
solutely impaired by the wear and tear, and all the
rails which have been or will in the next few years
be made, can serve only the big lines already exist-
ing or the projected railroads to be constructed in
order to improve the supply service of Russia's
industry.
The situation is the same as regards rolling
stock. The Russian republic will not be able,
therefore, to undertake the construction of large
or small railways in the north of Russia within
less than ten years.
It seems then under these circumstances that it
is to the interest of the economic fabric of Russia,
in addition to the necessity for her re-establish-
ing commercial relations with the powers of West-
ern Europe and with America, to conclude a spe-
cial agreement relative to the construction of rail-
ways and waterways, an agreement granting for-
eign capital the exploitation of our forests.
According to information in our possession on
the negotiations begun with the foreign conces-
sionaires on the subject of the proposals suggested
by Hannevig and Borissov, we are to have a say
on the conditions under which these concessions
may be brought about. Unlike former concessions,
these will probably be of mixed character.
With regard to the railroads and the canals, the
concessionaires are authorized to exploit the re-
sources of the forests and the soil, which will be
indicated explicitly. These concessions can be
granted only on the previous condition of obeying,
without evasion, all the decrees which have been
or will, in the future, be passed by the Soviet
Government. The concessionaires must observe
rigorously all the Soviet laws concerning labor.
The enterprise of the concessionaires is placed un-
der the strict control of the Soviet Government,
which has the right at any time to purchase this
enterprise. The exploitation of the forests and the
soil is permitted only after or during the time that
the construction of a railroad is going on and roll-
ing stock is provided. In case of violation of the
rules which govern the construction of the railroads
or in case of infraction of other conditions imposed
on the concessions, the concession right is taken
from the concessionaires for the benefit of the pub-
lic treasury and without compensation. The con-
cessionaires have the right to exploit the forests
and export wood abroad. Nevertheless, the Soviet
Republic has the privilege of buying all the ma-
terial designed for export. The concessionaires
are to pay to the public treasury, for every tree, a
certain sum based on the price of the wood before
the war, plus a fixed rate. The government can
guarantee the entrepreneurs a certain rate on the
profit realized, as well as on the capital stock.
The forest and railroad concessions must depend
absolutely one on the other, that is, must proceed
together, and be exploited by the 3ame company.
As for the forest exploitation, it must proceed in
accordance with the plans elaborated by the Soviet
Government.
Foreign capital thus acquires a certain guarantee
on the profits realized in the enterprise. At the
same time, the Soviet Republic is benefited not
only because of the lifting of the economic block-
ade, but also by reason of the construction of new
railroads which will open up the districts where
the exploitation of the forests could not be ef-
fected hitherto because of the complete lack of
transportation facilities.
The possibility of Soviet Russia's obtaining for
herself an option on all the wood intended for ex-
port gives thus to the question of concessions, from
the point of view of exportation, a particularly
reassuring character for Soviet Russia, since it is
under effective control of the government itself.
If we consider the railroad concessions, it must
not be forgotten that the Soviet Republic has ab-
solute need of an enormous railway system of
which the following lines would be of particular
importance for Russia :
1. Moscow- Voronezh railway to the Donets
Basin (via Rostov), extending to Mariupol and
Taganrog, Sawolschskaya-Mantorovo-Kazan-Bug-
ulma.
2. Ufa-Perm railway,
3. Railroads from fJnibmskaya to the Amu-
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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Daria (the shortest route from London to the In-
dies).
4. Railways Koslov-Swyatsi-Krest ; Basin of
the Kusnetzk - Tomsk - Krasnoufimsk - Kostroma ;
Basin of the Kuznetzk-Magnitnaya-Insa.
5. Ural railway : Slavgorod-Semipalatinsk-
Vernyi.
It is at present impossible with the means at
Russia's disposal to construct all these railways:
it is necessary either to postpone their construc-
tion to a distant future or to seek foreign capital.
The situation is identical with regard to our
waterway system. We have often enough in the
past been shown the necessity of constructing the
canals Riga-Kherson, Volga-Don, Onega-White
Sea. Soviet Russia could not in the near future
complete more than very little of all this work.
It is also of capital importance for Soviet Rus-
sia to organize the rational exploitation of oil and
cotton, which at present leaves so much to be de-
sired. But this work would be completed only in
years to come unless we have recourse to foreign
capital.
In closing we will say a few words concerning
our cotton program, which is, in the true sense of
the word, our labor program. The territory which
Soviet Russia can devote to the culture of cotton
is in Turkestan, and the implements which have
been sent there are intended for this work alone.
In this region, moreover, are immense plains, all
along the southern frontier of Russia; in the di-
rection of Afghanistan and towards the Caspian
Sea, which, if they were irrigated, would be best
suited for these cotton plantations.
It has always been intended to divert the course
of the Amu-Daria (from the Arad Sea on), to-
wards the Caspian. This project will always be
of immense importance from the international
point of view, as the place where one could most
easily divert the rivers course is in Afghanistan,
and the execution of this work depends first of all
upon the consent of England and that of several
other states.
The Crimean Tartars and the Revolution
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By N. B.
TNAN article in Nos. 48 and 49 of "The Life
of Nationalities" devoted to an ethnographic
review of the Crimean peinsula, Comrade Gaven
writes :
"The population of the Crimea is extremely
heterogenous. The numerically predominant part
(about forty per cent) consists of Crimean Tar-
tars, with an admixture (a small percentage) of
Turks. Then follow, according to their numerical
strength, the Russians and Ukrainians, Greeks,
Germans (about 40,000), Jews, Armenians, Bul-
garians, etc. In the large cities of Crimea the
Russians (including the Ukrainians) are predom-
inant, but in the village and in small towns the
Tartars compose from seventy to eighty per cent
of the population."
As to the social differentiation of the Crimean
population, "the Crimean Tartars are, in their
vast majority, peasants who devote their labors
to gardening, cattle breeding and agriculture. The
Tartar bourgeoisie consists largely of small and
middle artisans and merchants. The bourgeoisie
is comparatively poor and not numerous, and is
therefore of no importance as a social-economic
force. But the numerically tiny class of Tartar
landed proprietors (mirzas) possesses immense
riches and owns large estates, enormous orchards
and vineyards. The Crimean Tartar peasantry be-
longs to the poor peasantry. "Fisthood" is strongly
developed, but in the role of "fists" (kulaks) there
appear mostly Greek and Armenian merchants and
usurers. This is one of the economic causes of
the hatred which the Tartar peasants feel toward
the "unbelievers", chiefly, toward the Greeks. The
cultural level of the Tartar peasantry is very low.
Until the October revolution they were in complete
spiritual subjection to their priests (mullas), who
are either ignorant and superstitious or conscious
impostors. The class of city workers is still in
the embryonic stage among the Crimean Tartars.
This class is composed of a small number of pro-
letarians of the shop-counter, office employes and
laborers, that is, of that section of the proletariat
which is the hardest to assimilate the ideas of the
class struggle and of communism. The industrial
proletariat — this vanguard of the proletarian revo-
lution — is not to be found among the Crimean
Tartars.
The division of the Crimean Tartars along poli-
tical lines in 1917 was as follows: the liberals,
chauvinists and social-nationalists united into a
"people's party" (Milli Firka), which started
among the masses of the Tartar population an
extensive oral and printed agitation in favor of
the formation of a Crimean-Tartar democratic
republic. From the very first day of its appear-
ance on the political scene with the slogan of na-
tional self-government, the Milli Firka party ab-
solutely forgot the fact that over half of the Cri-
mean population was non-Tartar. The Milli Firka
party set out to agitate for the convocation of a
representative organ of the Crimean Tartars, and
the elections took place while Kerensky was still
in power. The Tartar parliament, the Kurultai,
assembled in the historical Bakhchisarai, in the
palace of the Khan. In November, 1917, on a
motion of the Milli Firka party, the Kurultai
formed the so-called Crimean-ZTartar Government,
with Mufti Chelibeyev as premier.
This imitation government, uniting all the bour-
September 11, 1920
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geois and nationalist elments of Crimea, became
a reliable support for the international counter-
revolution in Crimea. "As a result of sanguinary
battles, the troops of the 'Crimea-Tartar Gov-
ernment* were destroyed by the revolutionary de-
tachments of the sailors of the Black Sea fleet
and of the Sebastopol workmen. The Kurultai
was dissolved by the Sebastopol Military-Revolu-
tionary Committee, which took over the power un-
til the convocation of a provisional congress of
Soviets." Such was the sad ending of the first
adventure of the Crimean Tartar chauvinists.
"The leaders of the Milli Firka party went into
hiding and continued their black work. Creating
conflicts between the unenlightened masses of the
Tartar peasantry and the Soviet troops, they suc-
ceeded in raising a wall between the toiling Tar-
tars, on one hand, and the workers and peasants
of other nationalities, supporting the Soviet power,
on the other hand." They roused national hatred,
and, thanks to this, they overthrew the Soviet rule
in Crimea." "But shortly after this insurrection
a change began in the state of mind of the Tartar
workmen and peasants."
In the spring of 1918, "together with the Ger-
man troops, the leaders of the Milli Firka party
and the members of the cabinet of the 'Crimean-
Tartar Government', who had escaped from the
Bolsheviki, reappeared in Crimea. They were so
sure that the aims and plans of the German im-
perialists did not conflict with their own aims
that they immediately took steps to govern the
Tartar people. The second premier of the Tartar
cabinet, Jafed Seydamet — an adroit adventurer
who posed as a Socialist Eevolutionist — delivered
public speech in which he lauded the merits "of
the great monarch, who, sword in hand, has de-
fended the interests and rights of the enslaved peo-
ples." A petition which was signed by the presi-
dent of the Kurultai was presnted to Emperor
Wilhelm, in which the "elected representatives of
the Tartar people" appeared in a disgustingly,
cringing attitude towards the then leader of inter-
national reaction.
Soon after the occupation of Crimea by the
German hordes, the Czarist General Sulkevich ap-
peared suddenly on the scene and unceremoniously
dismissed the Kurultai cabinet, declaring himself
the ruler of Crimea. The rule of the "usurper"
Sulkevich, which was supported by German lio-
nets and by the Crimean, including the Tartar,
landed proprietors who returned to their estates
and began to inflict punishments on the peasants
who were involved in the seizure of the estate
lands, was a better lesson for the Tartar poor peas-
antry than the Bolshevik agitation.
About the same time in the Crimea appeared
a ne woppressor in the person of the Entente im-
perialism, which based its calculations and plans
°n the victory of Kolchak and Denikin, who
adapted the slogan "a united and indivisible Rus-
sia." The Kurultai was again left emptyhanded.
In the beginning of 1919, when the Soviet
Power was again established in the Crimea, a de-
Digiiized by viOOQ IQ
cided change in favor of the Soviet power occurred
even in the views of the leaders of the Milli Firka
party, thanks to the cautious policy of the Cri-
mean communists, who tried to attract to active
participation in their work of the Soviets the more
conscious Tartar workmen and peasants, and one
of the most eminent leaders of the Milli Firka, in
an article in the Krumsky Kommunist, pointed
out that the "Bolsheviki succeeded in appraising
with mathematical precision the hopes and aspir-
ations of the Mussulman people" and have thus
shown "great statesmanship." At the June (1919)
conference of the communist organizations of the
Crimean Tartar delegates were present from seven-
teen units, represting a membership of over 400
and considerably more sympathizers. — Petrograd
Izvestia, January 30.
RUSSIA AND THE EAST
A delegation from Khiva arrived at Moscow.
The delegation includes the People's Commissar
of the Khiva Eepublic, Baba-Akhund-Salimov,
who is greatly respected in Khiva, and the Presi-
dent of the parliament, which had been dispersed
by the overthrown Khan. The delegation was
elected by the Kurultai (Eepresentative Assembly)
and was sent to express to the Government of the
Russian Soviet Republic the appreciation of the
people of Khiva for the support in the struggle
against the power of the despot and to give assur-
ance of the eternal friendship of the Khiva people
to the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic.
POSTAL COMMUNICATON BETWEEN
ENGLAND AND SOVIET RUSSIA
The Vladivostok Erasnoye Znamya of June 8,
contains the following news item :
"The Soviet Commissariat for Foreign Affairs re-
ports the conclusion of an agreement between Russia
and England with regard to the resumption of postal
communication, including the dispatch of money orders
not exceeding one thousand rubles."
TO THE RUSSIAN PROLETARIAT:
THE MODERN PROMETHEUS
By Carleton Beals
To steal white fire from Zeus were crime enough
For all the lesser gods to shrink in fear
From out the star-hewn mansions you might rear
Upon the simple human soul-made stuff,
And turn to cringe before the same rebuff
Of master and of scorn as yesteryear, —
And still in toothless hate grown old and drear,
They would rechain you to wild cliffs as rough
As those your patient might had through the past
Of ages, calm endured. But now the chains
Are forever snapped apart, and you are free
To face the blinding sun of destiny
That floods your troubled path with light at last
And leads you on to final victory.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
Next week Soviet Russia will print an an-
nouncement of the series of "Soviet Russia
Pamphlets", in which a complete rearrangement
of the series, including new pamphlets, will be
described. But this is only one of the reasons
why you should not fail to buy next week's copy.
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised.
/^J.ERMANY, according to a statement made by
^-^ her present Foreign Minister, Dr. Walter
Simons, to the Reichstag Foreign Affairs Com-
mittee on September 1, was urged to "collaborate
with the Russian bolsheviki as a means of breaking
the bonds imposed by the Treaty of Versailles."
Simons, according to his declaration, "rejected
this course after mature reflection."
"If we had followed these exhortati ns " said the
Foreign Minister, "Germany would immediately have
become a theatre of war. Furthermore, the disastrous
consequences which Bolshevism might be expected to
bring with it would have fallen with double force upon
Germany."
Dr. Simons said proposals also have been made that
Germany cooperate with the western powers against
Russia, which he considered an equally impossible
course. "No power at war with Soviet Russia," the
Foreign Minister added, "need count upon our sup-
port." (N. Y. Globe, September 2, 1920.)
Germany appears therefore to be between the
devil and the deep sea. The Entente would have
her enter the lists against Soviet Russia, exhaust-
ing her resources and population in the service of
world reaction, while the German workers are not
only determined that they will not be used for
such purposes, but are actively preventing muni-
tions from passing through their country, in many
cases going so far as to destroy such consignments
when they discover them. The reader will find a
number of news items reprinted in this issue of
Soviet Russia, describing such incidents. It is
not surprising that Dr. Simons cannot decide to
plunge Germany without some hesitation into the
civil war that would immediately result from an
attempt to intervene militarily in Soviet Russia.
• * *
O WITZERLAND is reported to have declined to
^ permit the transporting of munitions of any
kind across her territory. Switzerland is frequently
spoken of as the oldest republic in Europe; she
might therefore be expected to have a sympathetic
interest in the maintenance of other governments
of the same type elsewhere in Europe. But the
people of Switzerland seem to know that what goes
by the name of "Polish Republic" is a reactionary
country, manipulated by an unscrupulous ruling
class, and surrendered by them body and soul to
Digitized by LaOOglC
the Allies, for use in the nefarious task of attempt-
ing to crush the Soviet Republic. And the people
of Switzerland seem to have sufficient influence
with their government to force it at least to pub-
lish a declaration forbidding the use of Swiss
territory as a thoroughfare for the transporta-
tion of materials to be used in destroying the only
workers' government in the world. The people of
England have succeeded in forcing the govern-
ment headed by Lloyd George to make a similar
declaration. Of course, this has not prevented the
English Government from assisting Poland, as well
as Wrangel, in their imperialistic designs on Soviet
Russia. Similarly, the Swiss Government, which
was ready to precipitate its country into the Great
War, and could not decide on which side to enter,
may do its friends abroad a good turn by permit-
ting occasional consignments to slip through. But
it is interesting and encouraging to note that there
is now not a single country in Europe, outside of
the fireside of reaction which is now France, where
the workers have not been able to force their rulers
to promise to be neutral toward Soviet Eussia.
♦ * *
T N HIS latest book The Brass Check, Mr. Upton
A Sinclair sounds the alarm against the dangers
involved in the great news agencies and the big
newspapers, with their enormous circulation, for
the formation of what is called a true public opin-
ion. And in fact, no one possibly has felt so much
the power for harm of these modern organizations,
in shaping the mind of the general public, as the
adherents and sympathizers of the Soviet regime
in Russia. However, the same industrial develop-
ment that has created this dominion of the news
agency and the big press over the minds of the
people, has made possible the existence, in this
field, as in many others, of a corrective to this
dangerous influence, in the fact that, owing to
modern means of communication, such as rail-
roads, steamships, telegraph and wireless, it is
impossible completely to shut off the truth from
the knowledge of the public, and sooner or later
truth is bound to filter through to the interested
community. We surmise that the same reaction-
ary circles which are planning and bringing into
execution their world-wide plans of dark and
bloody reaction and which, by the way, are able to
force their perversion of the facts on the public as
information, or rather misinformation, would in
many cases prefer to have none but medieval con-
ditions of communication, in order that their black
deeds might remain in the darkness for a consid-
erable length of time.
We feel that such must be also the feelings of
the Polish reactionaries, when they are compelled,
for the sake of "western" public opinion, to white-
wash their government and their nationals of the
blot and odium of anti-Jewish pogroms.
A friend has provided us with a copy of a cir-
cular letter sent out by a Polish daily in Milwau-
kee, Wisconsin, Kuryer Polski, together with a
clipping from this paper, apparently sent broad-
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cast to the press in the country, which, because of
its significance, we are reproducing below in full.
Dear sir:
The enclosed clipping from the Kuryer Polski shows
"Who are the Present Rulers of Russia."
Until recently the American public opinion was misled
by the Bolshevik propaganda exalting the Red victories
over the Polish armies.
Now, however, with the war tide decidedly favoring
the Polish arms, we must prepare ourselves for the
renewal of "pogrom propaganda."
In justice to the four million of Poles in America,
may we not ask you to be on guard against the mali-
cious Jewish-Bolshevik "pogrom propaganda"?
There should be expected some executions of the
Jews in Poland, who, as the latest telegrams inform us,
were captured with arms fighting on the Bolshevik side.
Would not our own government punish its American
citizens for giving help and comfort to the enemy
overrunning the U. S.?
Thanking you for your impartial stand in these try-
ing hours for the Polish nation, we remain,
Respectfully yours,
KURYER POLSKI,
(Signed) S. Lempicki, Editor.
Out of consideration for the reader we refrain
from reproducing the contents of the clipping, one
of the clumsiest and most mendacious pieces of
anti-Bolshevik propaganda we have ever come
across. In the above mentioned list of the alleged
"rulers" of Russia are gathered names of Russian
political writers and workers, friends as well as
bitter foes of the Soviet regime alike, whose only
connecting link in this case is the fact of their
Jewish descent. Possibly it may be the same list
that was recently circulated by the American So-
ciety for International Conciliation. However, it
is the letter which calls forth some necessary ob-
servations.
It is clear as day that those of the Polish re-
actionaries whose unenviable duty it is to "neu-
tralize" the foul odor emanating from the Polish
misdeeds know too well from the past — this has
been the Polish reactionary practice since the year
1910 — that anti-semitic propaganda and excesses
are the frequent, and, unfortunately up to now the
surest means, used by the reaction threatened in
its very existence, to foster "patriotic enthusiasm,"
so necessary for the support of the tottering Pol-
ish state. They know that with the recent working
up of a new "patriotic outburst," there "should
be expected some executions of the Jews in Pol-
and," or, more correctly, indiscriminate killing
and pillaging of the Jews by inflamed and in-
stigated legionaries and black hundred elements
aroused by the civil war. To forestall the news of
these heroic deeds, the Polish propagandists speak
of a "renewal" of the "malicious Jewish-Bolshevik
pogrom propaganda," forgetting — poor souls —
that it was the Polish War Ministry itself which
saw itself compelled to issue quite recently an
order against anti-Jewish excesses.. It is charac-
teristic also that the alleged facts about the "Jews
fighting with arms on the Bolshevik side," if true,
refer, according to telegrams, to localities lying in
White Russian or Lithuanian territories, whose in-
habitants could only be considered as "Polish citi-
zens" by the principle of "might is right."
It is really inadvisable for the Polish reaction-
ary editors in this country to leave their literary
dens, from which they are gladdening their not
too fastidious Polish readers with humorous ac-
counts of old Jews whose beards are literally torn
out, or Jewesses fleeing from the drunken volup-
tuousness of an unbridled soldiery. After all, the
thin veil of sham innocence and concern for civil-
ization may, under the breath of publicity, easily
melt away, displaying the hideousness that is un-
derneath and calling forth its correct appreciation
in line with the known maxim of Boileau : J'appelle
un chat un chat et Rolet un fripon. We advise the
Polish editors of such papers to restrict their pub-
lic utterances to the columns that are read by their
own reactionary readers, and not to court the ex-
posure that they cannot escape if they appeal to
masses that may really understand them.
T S IT REALLY planned by the American Red
A Cross to send the Russian children from Petro-
grad, who are now in New York, to France, in-
stead of to their homes in Soviet Russia? We
have already called attention to the fact that send-
ing them to France means sending them to an
enemy, openly at war with Soviet Russia, an enemy
who has savagely maltreated many citizens of
Soviet Russia who had been sent to France by
the Czar's government. The duty of the American
Red Cross toward the children, if this plan should
be persisted in, would be almost impossible of
fulfilment. That duty would seem to be to for-
ward the children at once from the port in France
at which they arrive (assuming that the children
must be sent to France), to Petrograd or to some
other Russian port designated by the Russian
Soviet Government. If this should be impossible,
the American Red Cross will be faced with the
almost insuperable difficulty of keeping the chil-
dren from the clutches of the French authorities,
who will of course, in pursuance of their vicious
Russian policy, attempt to hold them as hostages
of Soviet Russia, in order, perhaps, to use them for
the collection of the Czar's loans. Assuming that
the bulk of the children should thus be compelled
to remain in France, under the protection of the
American Red Cross, it will be the difficult task
of that body to prevent the French Government
from attempting forcible enlistments of the older
boys into the counter-revolutionary forces of Wran-
gel (with whom the French Government is said
to have made a criminal alliance, to cover a period
of twenty years). That there is an almost cer-
tain danger of such an attempt on the part of the
French Government is proved by its conduct in the
past toward the Russian soldiers in France, as well
as by the fact that already the group now in New
York had been deprived, while in Siberia, of some
of the older boys, who were recruited there for
Kolchak's army. Of the 777 children in the group,
427 are boys, and 350 girls. We have prepared a
list of the various age-groups in the colony (some
of the girls have reached the age of 20), and find
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Age 16 and
Over
117
Total
all Ages
427
182
350
299
777
that while there are fewer girls than boys in the
number, the boys greatly outnumber the girls in
all the year-groups from four to fifteen years, while
the girls (whose total is less than that of the
boys), are far more numerous than the boys in
the age-groups of sixteen to twenty years, inclusive.
The figures are these:
Age 15 and
Under
Boys 310
Girls 168
Both Sexes 478
Some of the boys, after being recruited, escaped
and traveled great distances on foot to return to
the camp of the children's colony.
It will be necessary for the American Red Cross
to prevent the French Government from repeating
such lawless and cruel acts on the older boys of the
group. But it would be very much better to send
the children to Petrograd directly, and thus escape
the arduous responsibility of answering for the
savage acts of a government that has grown mad
with imperialism.
As this issue goes to press, we are informed that
Mr. Martens has received an answer to his protest
from the American Red Cross. This answer, to-
gether with his reply, will be published in the
next issue of Soviet Russia.
T N OUR issue of August 31, we described a sav-
age execution of civilian prisoners by Latvian
White Guards. We are now in a position to give
details of the manner in which news of this act
was received in Latvia.
At the regular session of the Constitutional
Assembly of Latvia, June 3, 1920, the Social
Democratic faction introduced an interpellation:
"We ask the minister of defence, does he know
this fact of the shooting down of prisoners with-
out trial and if he knows what steps he is to take
to avoid such murders and to call the guilty per-
sons to account."
The motivation of this interpellation is stated
by the speaker of the Social Democratic faction as :
"this is not a single fact, but a well-known thor-
ough system." He quotes other facts from his
own personal experience on the amnesty commis-
sion where his attention was called to the fact
that political prisoners who had been granted am-
nesty disappeared after they were rearrested with-
out having committed any new offences.
A Latvian newspaper, reporting the event, adds
the following editorial comment:
"We have here disclosed a part of the well-
known, thorough system," through which in Latvia
alone tens of thousands of alleged communists
have already been murdered.
As we can see by the above facts this "thorough
system" goes far beyond its limits in the territory
of Latvia. Some of the murdered victims start
on th-.-ir way to Golgotha through the act of De-
portation from London.
The Revolution in Persia
By A. Leontiev
[An interview with Comrade Voznesensky, in
charge of the Eastern Department of the Com-
missariat of Foreign Affairs, on the Revolution
in Persia,]
Persia is on fire. A revolutionary Provisional
Government has been formed in Eesht. The en-
try of our troops into Enzeli seems to have given
wings to the Persian revolutionists. They felt
the proximity of fraternal support. In an inter-
view with one of our collaborators regarding the
significance of the Persian revolution for Soviet
Russia the Director of the Eastern Department of
the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, Comrade
A. Voznesensky, said:
"At the head of the revolutionary government
is Kuchuk-Khan. He was one of the most active
among the Persian revolutionists of 1908. He is
a nationalist, and has a burning hatred for the
enslavers of Persia, the English, and the Teheran
government which sold itself to them. When
Persia became a field for military activites after
the outbreak of the world war in 1914, and was
invaded by British, Russian and Turkish forces,
Kuchuk-Khan formed his own detachments, which
were named 'forest brothers/ "
After the solemn declaration of Trotsky regard-
ing the annulment of the former treaties, which
was followed by the evacuation of our troops from
Persia, Kuchuk-Khan inaugurated a definite ori-
entation toward Soviet Russia, and began to act
with more energy against the English. He cap-
tured Resht several times, and arrested the Eng-
lish consul. Strong forces were repeatedly sent
against him, but they could never capture him,
because he was hiding in the mountains and had
the support of the broad masses of the people,
who idolized him as a hero. The numerical
strength of Kuchuk-Khan's forces fluctuated be-
tween one thousand and eight thousand men, de-
pending on the extent of the revolutionary activ-
ity. At present, before the capture of Teheran,
Kuchuk considers the uniting of all the Persians
as the most important task. VVhen the capital city
passes into the hands of the revolutionists, social
reforms will be inaugurated, and first of all the
land reform, since side by side with many large
land owners Persia has an enormous mass of des-
titute agricultural laborers. Kuchuk's program
includes the nationalization of the banks and cus-
tom houses, and also the introduction of an in-
come tax.
As early as the summer of 1918, Comrade Kolo-
meyzev was sent to Kuchuk-Khan with a special
letter addressed to the Persian people. The let-
ter did not reach Kuchuk. Kolomeyzev was cap-
tured by the English and shot. We nevertheless
succeeded in establishing connections with Kuchuk.
Besides Kuchuk, in Western Persia, in the dis-
trict of Kussan and Rhvrvan, there is the insur-
rectionary activity of Dokhol-Khan, aiming at the
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liberation of the sacred city of Meshkhed, which
the English are using as their base. This move-
ment also became stronger after the meeting at
Enzeli. It may lead to momentous results. For
the revolution will undoubtedly pass from Western
Persia into Sestan over the railway line that is
now being built, and thence it will inevitably
spread to Afghanistan and Beluchistan. And when
Afghanistan is aflame, the fire will spread to
northern India. Kuchuk's insurrection thus ac-
quires the importance of a world event. — Petro-
grad Krasnaya Gazeta, June 10.
FROM WORKERS CONFERENCE
On July 12 the AU-Hussian Conference of work-
ers in socialist agriculture opened at Moscow. The
Peopled Commissar of Agriculture, Kurayev, read
a long report on the immediate problem of Social-
ist agriculture. Comrade Kurayev pointed out
that heretofore the process of organization of new
forms of agriculture had been but a rudimentary
one. But now we are in a position to make the
first steps in the direction of conscious influence
on the process of agricultural production. He
emphasizes the connection between the Soviet
farms, communal farms, and peasant farms. The
methods of organization in these three forms of
agriculture, which are connected by a single plan
and policy, should nevertheless be different. The
Soviet farms permit the direct execution of a defi-
nite production plan, while in the collective and
peasant farms only measures of indirect regulation
and the influence of education and demonstration
can be used. The plan of production should be
based on the division of Russia into agricultural
districts, which should also be the basis for in-
fluencing the agricultural population in the de-
sired direction.
The Conference then listened to the reports of
the delegates. The reports show that immense
work has been accomplished on the agricultural
farms as well as in the agricultural communes and
artels (cooperative teams). All of them are united
in the All-Russian Union of Communes and Ar-
tels. Of late there has been a notable increase
of the agricultural communes and artels in the
border provinces. The exploitation area of the
collectives has greatly increased. The general im-
pression from the reports is that the Soviet Farms
as well as the communes and artels have become
considerably stronger in comparison with last year,
despite the extremely difficult conditions for their
development. Gradually the peasants are becom-
ing friendly towards them.
THE NAPHTHA SITUATION
Economic Life of July 27 contains the follow-
ing report on the naphtha situation in Russia.
On June 12 the stock of naphtha products in
the Baku region was represented by the colossal
figure of 291,716,000 poods. This is three times
as large as the stock in pre-war days (91,200,000
poods on June 1, 1913) There are no complete
reports on the production of naphtha in the Baku
district.
As to the Grozny district, the production be-
tween January 1 and June 14 amounted to 10,-
641,000 poods. The small production of naphtha
in Grozny, on the average a little over 2,000,000
poods a month, is explained chiefly by the fact that
many wells have been closed since the end of
1917, owing to the overcrowding of the storage
places and the small exports. The exports of
naptha products from Grozny on the railways in-
creased in June, giving an average of 232 cisterns
a day, as compared with 150 cisterns, which was
the number set for the district according to the
plan of the Supreme Naphtha Committee attached
to the Supreme Council of National Economy.
Let us now take up the question of the trans-
portation from Baku of naphtha by water. The
export of naphtha products from Baku was 21,-
200,000 poods in June, which is an increase of
thirty-one per cent in comparison with May
(16,500,000 poods). The total export from Baku
since the beginning of the operations (in May)
up to July 1, amounts to 37,400,000 poods, which
is fifty per cent of the quantity determined by
the plan for the export of naphtha products from
Baku during the current navigation period.
RUSSIAN RAILWAY PROJECTS
A few months ago, a German Economic Mission
went to Soviet Eussia. A member of this com-
mission, which has recently returned to Berlin,
writes in a Berlin newspaper:
"At the present time, Russia is suffering most from
a shortage of locomotives in good repair. Of the
35,000 locomotives which Russia possessed in 1914, only
1,200 are in good repair. The entire industry and
economic life in Russia is, of course, harmed consid-
erably by this shortage. Russia is now trying to remedy
this evil by ordering machines in foreign countries.
England and America are broadminded in this respect,
at any rate, more so than Germany, for in spite of the
agitation carried on in their countries against the cursed,
Bolshevist Russia, they are, nevertheless, attempting to
do business with Bolshevism. When we arrived in
Petrograd, 200 brand new, highly modern machines
were being unloaded, which had been manufactured in
America and had been shipped to Russia. At present,
the crisis in the shortage of machines seems to have
been overcome. During the stay of the German In-
vestigating Commission in Moscow, the representatives
of English and American industries who were present
there, were commissioned by the Soviet Government
to carry out the gigantic project of electrifying the
entire Russian railway system. The electrification is
to be finished in ten years. Eight long-distance power
stations are to be built, each of which is to produce
300,000 kilowatts. Soviet Commissioner Krassin, who
is in London at present, has already made payments
on this project. The gigantic plan was already con-
cluded in March of the present year, during the sojourn
of the German Investigation Commission in Moscow.
At first the Soviet Government wished German industry
to have the contract, but the German Government, as
Herr Mueller has emphatically said, put up so many
subterfuges that the negotiations came to nothing. It
is a question of a contract worth 80 million dollars.
Unfortunately, Germany has not received it, and the
more astute, energetic English and American industries
have skimmed the cream- Our biggest long distance
power station at Bitterield produces only 200,000 kilo-
watts."— From Dt> Rote Fahnc, July I, 1920.
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Agreement between Soviet Russia and Latvia
The following agreement regarding the repatriation of refugees was signed at a session of
the Russian-Latvian Commission on Saturday, June 12, 1920. Our readers will recall that a com-
plete peace treaty has since been concluded between the two countries. We are in possession of
the full text of this treaty, which will be printed in the next issue of Soviet Russia.
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TREATY BETWEEN RUSSIA AND LATVIA
REGARDING REPATRIATION OF
REFUGEES
Russia, on the one hand, and Latvia, on the other,
actuated by the desire to hasten the liquidation of
the distress caused by the world war, to enable the
refugees of both sides to return immediately to
their fatherland, without awaiting the conclusion
of peace between the contracting parties, and to
facilitate thereby the establishment of peaceful,
good-neighborly relations between the two parties'
have concluded, to this end, a treaty for the re-
patriation of the refugees, and have appointed as
their plenipotentiaries :
The Government of the Kusaian Socialist Fed-
eral Soviet Republic — A. A. Yoffe.
The Government of Latvia — I. I. Wesman, P.
R. Bergys and Colonel E. TJ. Kalnin.
After the reciprocal presentation of their cre-
dentials, which were found to be of the proper
form, the plenipotentiaries came to an agreement
with regard to the following decisions :
Article 1
Refugees of both contracting parties who desire
to return to their fatherland shall be returned to
their former places of residence within the short-
est possible time.
Article 2
The terms "refugee" shall apply to persons who
formerly dwelt in the territory of one of the con-
tracting parties and are now on the territory of
the other, having left during the World War of
1914-1917, or during the civil war, the districts
occupied or threatened by the enemy or having
been exiled by order of the military or civil au-
thorities from a district of military operations.
Note. The term "refugee" likewise shall apply
to all war prisoners of the World War who formerly
resided on the territory of one of the contracting
parties and who are on the territory of the other
contracting party after the present treaty shall have
gone into effect.
Article 3
Refugees shall be sent to transfer (exchange)
stations in echelons or in single cars.
The transfer of refugees to points whence they
will be sent in echelons or in single cars shall, con-
tingent upon local conditons, also be made in
groups, if possible, or individually.
In all these cases each of the contracting parties
shall bear the expense involved in the transport
of the refugees and of their belongings within the
territory of the contracting party.
Note 1. Russia shall send each week to the Rus-
sian-Latvian border not less than two thousand re-
fugees.
Note 2. The following shall serve as stations for
the exchange of refugees : the railway station Rozen-
ovskaya, of the former Windau-Rybinsk railway line,
and the railway station Zhogovo, of the former
Petrograd-Warsaw railway line. The exchange sta-
tions may be altered in the future by agreement
between the respective organs of the contracting
parties.
Article 4
Refugees have the right to export their belong-
ings in accordance with the rules regarding the
transport of baggage appended to this article.
APPENDIX
I
Refugees returning to their fatherland may
take their belongings with them.
The total weight of the baggage, besides that
carried by hand, must not exceed eight poods for
the head of a family or for a single person, five
poods for each adult member of a family, and two
poods for children up to ten years.
Among other things, the hand baggage of re-
fugees going abroad may contain :
1. Clothing and underwear : clothing and boots
— not more than two pieces or pairs of each kind
(only one fur coat) and not more than six changes
of underwear for one person.
2. Necessary travelling belongings in finished
form, not to exceed in number the ordinary needs
for the journey, such as, for instance, pillows,
blankets, sheets, towels, tea pot, etc.
Note. Persons of special vocations, such as physi-
cians, artists, artisans, etc, shall be allowed to take
along implements necessary for their professional
work.
II
Refugees shall not be allowed to export :
1. Printed matter, deeds and business docu-
ments, photographs and records of any kind, un-
less these carry marks showing that they were
examined by the respective institutions.
2. Arms, products of military equipment, and
field glasses.
3. Manufactured goods, fur goods, leather
goods, dry goods and similar products, intended
for trade and not for personal use.
4. Over twenty pounds of provisions for each
person, — among these over eight pounds of flour
or bread, five pounds of meat products, three
pounds of dairy products and four pounds of other
food products, including over one pound of sugar
and one-quarter of a pound of tea.
5. Domestic cattle and fowls.
Note. Refugees who do not travel by rail should
be allowed to export domestic cattle and fowls, in
the same number as they brought with them when
they evacuated their fatherland.
6. Automobiles, motor cycles, bicycles, any kind
of carriages, carts or sleds.
Note. The note to (5) shall be effective with
regard to carriages, oi any kind, carts and sleds.
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7. Precious metals in crude form, loose gems,
gold and silver coins.
8. Gold and platinum products weighing over
sixteen zolotniks (2.5 ounces) each, gold and plat-
inum wares exceeding in total weight sixteen zolot-
niks for one person and silver products exceeding
in total weight one pound for one person.
Note. Refugees shall be allowed to export gold
or silver watches, marriage rings, silver cigar cases
and silver bags — to the number of one piece for every
grown-up person, and the weight of these shall not
be included in the norm determined by the present
article.
9. Wares of precious stones (diamonds, emer-
alds, rubies, sapphires), and also of pearls, the to-
tal weight of which will exceed one carat.
10. All kinds of machines or parts of machines,
physical apparata, surgical and musical instru-
ments, — except those mentioned in the note to ar-
ticle two of the Appendix.
Note. One sewing machine for a family shall be
allowed for export.
Musical amateurs shall also be allowed to export
musical instruments, if it will be proven that they
brought these with them when they fled from their
country.
11. Tobacco products (over 500 cigarettes or
half a pound of tobacco for every person over
eighteen years of age).
12. Soap, over one piece of toilet soap for each
person and over half a pound of plain soap for a
family.
13. Paper currency of any issue, over 20,000
rubles of Russian or Latvian money for each per-
son. The passage of a greater sum than that
determined in this article shall be allowed only by
special permission of the respective organs.
14. Foreign bills, excepting bills of the con-
tracting parties, without special permission of the
respective organs in each individual case.
15. Any kind of interest or dividend drawing
papers, mortgage deeds and coupons, as well as
notes, transport receipts and insurance policies,
save those the passage of which will be permitted
by the respective organs.
16. Articles of artistic or antiquarian value,
unless there will be special permission for their
passage by the respective organs.
Article 5
First of all shall be repatriated those refugees
the members of whose families are on the territory
of other other contracting party. The repatria-
tion of refugees, with the observance of this pro-
vision, shall begin with districts which are the
most unfavorable for them in food, housing or
other living conditions.
Article 6
The present treaty shall not be subject to rati-
fication and shall become operative immediately
after it is signed.
As authentic texts shall be considered both the
Bussian and the Lettish texts.
In confirmation of which the plenipotentiaries
of both parties affixed their signatures to the pres-
ent treaty.
The original is in two copies.
A. Yoffe,
I. Vesman,
P. Bebgis,
E. Kalnin.
Moscow, June 12, 1920.
Kolchakists on Trial
By A. GOYKHBABG
[The following interesting revelations, from the pen of a talented official in the Commissariat
of Justice at Moscow, were published in two instalments in Isvestia, in the latter part of June, 1920.
This account is not complete in the present issue; the rest will be printed next week.]
HP HE Kolchak rule was liquidated in January
A last. Kolchak was captured near Irkutsk, with
the gold which he was carrying away. Many of
his ministers were seized in Irkutsk. A consider-
able number, of his former ministers managed to
escape under the protection of the Czechs and the
Japanese.
And the trial of the Kolchakists by an extraor-
dinary revolutionary tribunal took place in Omsk
only in May, — four months later, when not a trace
was left either of Kolchak's military forces, or of
the forces of his successor, Denikin.
Nothing like this trial has ever occurred in his-
tory, — whether we judge by its external setting,
or by the character of the defendants and the
crimes of the perpetrators of violence, and of the
representatives of the middle-in-the-roaders, the
wavering petty bourgeois socialist parties, as re-
vealed at the trial.
The workers and peasants of Soviet Russia
Digitized by V^iOOQ lc
should be informed of everything that was revealed
at this trial. Thev should also know what becomes
of respectable, *4deal", "socialistically" minded
people, when they enter into a bargain with the
undisguised bandits of capital.
We will begin with the environment of the court
and a description of the defendants.
The external environment of the court. An im-
mense new hall in the railway shops, with snow-
white columns, lighted through the glass roof by
dazzling sunlight. The hall is filled with about
eight and a half thousand workmen, Red soldiers,
students from different parts of Siberia and spe-
cial peasant delegates from the counties that have
suffered most. The hall was hurriedly fixed up to
give it a better appearance and to make toilers
attending the trial feel more comfortable.
A striking impression is made on the defend-
ants by the self-control, the almost incredible dis-
cipline of the i.ms3 of toilers,, "How was this ac-
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complished, how did the Soviet power manage to
change them so quickly !" — the defendants and
their partisans whisper to each other. And in-
deed, this vast "mob" listens to a recital of hor-
rible crimes, they see the very perpetrators of these
crimes on the stand, they listen to the testimony
of witnesses who but a short time ago shot with
their own hands friends and relatives of those who
are in the "mob", and yet this "mob" sits as if
bewitched, firmly relying on its workers' and peas-
ants' tribunal. During the days of the trial the
chairman only three times had to call for order:
when there was applause after the reading of the
indictment, when almost all the audience shouted
that the defendants ought to be shot, and when
there was again applause at the conclusion of the
prosecutor's address.
And the defendants? Almost all of them in-
tellectuals. Some of them eminent scientists,
former representatives of the left parties. And in
this political trial they hardly ever tried to voice
any political note. In the political trials of the
Czarist regime the defendants always appeared
morally superior to the power which tried them.
But in this case the moral superiority of the Soviet
power over the defendants was revealed in every
word of the defendants, until, finally, they openly
began to laud the Soviet power and tried to prove
that they had been defending some of the Soviet
achievements.
Let us give some individual characterizations.
The chief figure is A. A. Cherven-Vodali. At
the end of the Kolchak rule he was acting Presi-
dent of Kolchak's council of ministers ; he appealed
for help to the Japanese troops and to Semionov's
bestial bands, insistently urged the transfer of all
the gold reserve "as all-Russian property to all
the Allies." He found his way to Kolchak from
Denikin. And to Denikin he went, through Kiev,
in a "lawful" way, with Soviet documents. It
was shown that for a whole year, from October,
1917, to Ooctober, 1918, he was an active organ-
izer of the "National Center" at Moscow, "work-
ing" at the same time in the Soviet commission
for the regulation of questions connected with the
Brest treaty. In 1906 he organized in Tver a
committee to combat unemployment, and in 1917
he was chairman of the revolutionary Executive
Committee in Tver.
The second figure is Shumilovsky, Minister of
Labor. He was called "a minister from head to
foot." Was an elector from the Mensheviki to
the second and fourth dumas, was a candidate for
the Constituent Assembly from the same party;
voted for Kolchak as dictator; thanked the Omsk
garrison for the successful suppression and shoot-
ing of workers; thanked General Rozanov for the
brutal suppression of peasant insurrections; re-
signed from the party to get a free hand ; defended
hospital funds (sick benefit funds). And when
the Czechs were leaving the front, believing the
Kolchak regime too reactionary, he was drafting
democratic declarations for his "government."
Here is another one — Laryonov. A railway spe-
cialist. Evacuated toward the East the mining
enterprises and all the railway stock. While hold-
ing the post of Minister of Communications, lie
was at the same time employed by the privately
owned Altai railway. Copies of the applications to
the "council of ministers", in which this road soli-
cited certain privileges, were sent to its "minis-
ter", who was a salaried employe of the road. Over
his signature he published in the Collection of
Laws a decree granting lands to this very road.
On the eve of Kolchak's fall he transferred to his
personal account in Vladivostok and Kharbin,
from his current account as minister, 5,000,000
rubles, and during the negotiations for the sur-
render of the power he appropriated another
50,000 rubles "for evacuation."
Then there is Professor Novombergsky. "For
the 170 millions of the population of Russia there
are only six such men as I" (Doctors of Consti-
tutional Law), — he declared at the trial. He was
a member of the Siberian regional Duma, took
part in the election of its presidium, and, to win
favor with the Kolchakists, he compared this pre-
sidium to a merchant swindler who would swallow
a note of his creditor ; voiced his approval of exe-
cutions, and was rewarded for this by his appoint-
ment to the post of assitsant minister. He re-
proached the Bolsheviki because they prevented,
by their revolution, a separate peace with Austria-
Hungary, and urged a fight against them for the
Brest peace. He, a "Marxian", became an "in-
formant" of the cossack troops, took an ikon from
His teminence (the Bishop) to bless cossacks for
a battle against the communists, and, on March
18, 1920, he spoke at a meeting about the Paris
Commune. He won the confidence of the students
by this speech, and they elected him chairman
of the Council of the Omsk Polytechnic Institute.
And it is said that he planned to join a unit of
"sympathizers" (of the Communist Party), but
the trial spoiled this plan.
And here is Professor Preobrazhensky. He re-
ceived a commission from the geological commit-
tee, which was financed by the Soviets. "The front
passed over him," — and he became a minister.
Science takes no interest in gold, nevertheless he
claims that as a result of his labors the next few
decades will see an additional 30,000 poods of
gold. And, with his approval, 10,000 poods of the
stolen gold reserve were sent abroad, and his ap-
pointees demanded that the remaining 20,000
poods or more be also sent abroad. But he tried
to carry into life the principles of a single school.
And here is the assistant minister of finance
Khronovsky. Before he was appointed to this post,
he was a Director of the International Bank, and
under the Soviet power in Ufa he was chairman
of the commission for the distribution of the
Soviet levy.
Take State Controller Krasnov. He was en-
trusted with a certain task by People's Commissar
Lander. But the front rolled over him, or he
rolled over the front, and during "the forced year
and a half of interruption of the Soviet work"
byLiGOgle
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he held the post of State Controller with Kol-
chak. But he "was enforcing all the time only
the decrees of the Sovnarkom (Council of Peo-
ple's Commissaries )" and he asked to be taken
into Soviet service.
Or take Zhukovsky, the assistant Minister of
Foreign Affairs. He consistently followed "a lib-
eral-democratic policy," and "supported the ideas
brought forth by the revolution." But when he
was in the train with Kolchak, — to whom he served
as confidant — in December, 1919, he was writing
verses to the effect that Russia could be saved
only by a monarch crowned at Moscow by the
Patriarch.
We could follow this up with a description of
the rest of them. One cannot imagine intellect-
uals sinking lower than this, to greater corruption
and lack of principles.
THE TRUTH ABOUT POLAND
Vienna, August 7. — Thomas Dabal, who is not
a Socialist, but a representative of the left radical
peasant party, made a speech in the Polish parlia-
ment that was completely suppressed by the Polish
censor. In his speech Dabal spoke as follows :
In the name of the Radical Peasant Party I
have the honor, as representative of the poor peas-
ants and of the landless, to declare that I should
like to espouse with all my heart the cause of
a Poland of the people, and that its protection
must be our highest aim, but I wish to observe
that the destructive war-policy, which since the
beginning of the Polish State has been followed
by the Polish bourgeoisie, powerfully supported
by those who are the gainers in war, the land-
owners and capitalists, falls squarely on the shoul-
ders of the working people.
The war which is being waged against Soviet
Russia has not in reality for its aim the protec-
tion of the independence of Poland, since this has
been recognized by all the states of the world — by
Soviet Russia earlier than by the Entente. The
only purpose of this war is to overthrow by our
bayonets, with the assistance of foreign capitalists,
the internal regime of Soviet Russia. The Polish
bourgeoisie, conjointly with foreign capitalists, out
of fear of the victorious onward march of the
world revolution, and in spite of the peace pro-
posals of Soviet Russia, has continually, on the
one hand, through the Polish Prime Minister
Paderewsky, been clamoring for the overthrow of
the present regime in Soviet Russia and, in, con-
junction with the blackest reaction, has challenged
it to combat. Instead of putting the government
in the hands of the country and city proletariat,
and leaving to it the task of restoring economic
conditions in the state, the people has been given
over to misery and starvation, and every movement
for its liberation has been met by reprisals which
have often surpassed in cruelty those of the Czar.
Two years of this rule have completely ruined
economic conditions in Poland and have clearly
shown to the people that they cannot expect a
better future from such a government.
Digitized by GGOgle
It is therefore no wonder that the people, who
honestly desire peace and the beginning of con-
structive work, are unwilling to enter the army, in-
asmuch as they see in the war only the class inter-
est of a handful of exploiters. The present coali-
tion government, whose majority is composed of
those who until now have been decidedly of the
war party, cannot have the confidence of the peo-
ple. The people, who wish to defend only a real
Poland of the people, see their liberation not in a
war with Soviet Russia, but in a lasting peace,
in the bringing about of the necessary changes in
present-day society, which is based on exploitation.
THE HYPOCRISY OF POLAND IN THE
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS
Prom Stockholm we received the following tele-
gram: Comrade Sadoul makes public a state-
ment concerning statements which were made to
him confidentially in Moscow by the French Dep-
uty Ernest Lafont, with regard to Pilsudsky and
other leading Polish statesmen, with whom he
had the opportunity to speak personally about &
week ago in Poland. According to Pilsudsky's
opinion the Polish army is not defeated, it is only
obliged to retreat on account of lack of shells,
because their transportation has been blocked by
German and Czech workers, and is in need of a
truce only to reorganize its forces.
Through the influence of the Entente, Poland
would receive from Germany in exchange for nec-
essary concessions in Silesia a part of the arms
and munitions which Germany would have to de-
liver up to the Allies in accordance with the Ver-
sailles Treaty. As soon as these munitions arrive,
the army, through enlistment of volunteers, will
soon be in fighting condition again and will ad-
vance victoriously. Now it is only a matter of
gaining time for that purpose, thinks Pilsudsky.
Sadoul declares it to be unnecessary to emphasize
the importance of this report, which shows with
cynical openness that Pilsudsky and his govern-
ment are entering into negotiations for a truce
only in order to gain time, while the Soviet Gov-
ernment announces its honest desire for peace.
POLES APPROPRIATE WHITE
RUSSIAN FORESTS
Minsk. — The Polish Government has under-
taken an energetic exploitation of the forests in
the occupied districts of White Russia. It is also
selling vast quantities of flax and hemp for export
through large commercial firms. Recently timber,
to the amount of two billion rubles, was sold to
English lumbermen.
KONI LECTURES TO THE SAILORS
A group of Petrograd sailors decided to take
up the study of ethics. The People's Commis-
sariat of Education invited the former Senator,
A. F. Koni, a prominent lawyer, to give a course
of lectures on this topic. — Russki Oolos, New
York, July 10, 1920.
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GERMANY'S NEUTRALITY, GERMAN
WORKERS ON GUARD
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Simons, said in his
speech of yesterday:
We must maintain our neutrality. It is to the
interest of the Entente to send troops through
Germany to the East. If it should turn out to
be true that preparations with that end in view
have already been made in the occupied area, then
German neutrality would thereby have been vio-
lated. For whether unoccupied or occupied, Ger-
man territory remains German territory, and no
part of the territory of a neutral power may be
used for the movement of troops. We shall try
to protect our neutrality by all means at our dis-
posal.
Thus Mr. Simon.
We received by telephone the following commu-
nication from Berlin:
In Kattowitz the railway management received
a telegram from the Entente Commission, an-
nouncing the transportation of French troops
through Upper Silesia. The railway workers of
Upper Silesia have declared a general strike, in
case the railway management yields to the demand
of the Entente.
We see that the German proletariat has every
reason to place no credence in the solemn asser-
tions of ministers. It will take care itself that
Germany will not be used by the Entente as a
place for marshalling troops against Soviet Russia.
—From Die Rote Fahne, Vienna, August 3, 1920.
NO MUNITIONS FOR POLAND
From Woellersdorf there arrived yesterday at
the Nordbahnhof (Northern Station) three cars of
small-arm munitions, with the order to be sent
on to Poland. The consignment, which had been
announced by our comrades, was entered on the
declaration as paper. Investigations revealed the
contents of the consignment.
The constant holding up of consignments of
munitions is a proof of how necessary it is for the
workers to keep the closest watch, and how little
they can rely upon any official declarations. —
Same source as above.
GERMAN WORKERS DESTROY WAR
MATERIAL DESTINED FOR POLAND
Stuttgart, August 4. — "The new military au-
tomobiles, which had been destined for the Reichs-
wehr and provided with guns and loaded on rail-
way cars, were completely destroyed Tuesday after-
noon in the Daimler Works at Untertuerken by
Spartacan elements in those works."
The Rote Fahne of Berlin writes as follows con-
cerning this report :
The autos and guns, which were already on
board the cars, were destined for Poland. Through
their vigilance, the workers of Stuttgart thwarted
the purpose of the shipment, which is now being
by LiOOgle
hurriedly declared to have been destined for the
Reichswehr. This act of the workers of Stuttgart
deserves to be ranked with the acts of the workers
of Chemnitz, Marburg and Erfurt. It showB above
all how the railway workers can be assisted in a
practical way by other groups of workers in pre-
venting the transportation of troops and war ma-
terials. — Same source as above.
NO MOBILIZATION IN RUMANIA
Vienna, August 2. — The Royal Rumanian com-
missariat in Vienna communicates the following:
With regard to a telegram from the South-Slavic
Press* Bureau from Belgrade of July 31, 1920, we
again deny most emphatically the report of a
mobilization in Rumania.
According to a telegram arrived today from the
General Staff in Bukarest, not a single Russian
soldier has entered Bessarabia, and perfect quiet
and order prevails in the whole country. Likewise,
the report of a visit of the King of Roumania to
Belgrade, for the purpose of asking for help
against the Bolsheviki, is false. All reports in
contradiction to the foregoing statement are inven-
tions of interested circles.
ATROCITIES OF THE POLISH WHITES
At Minsk. — According to the Izvestia, of July
29, 1920, a resident of Minsk who had just arrived
at Moscow reported that before they evacuated
Minsk the Polish soldiers looted the city, per-
petrated violence on the inhabitants and burned
houses. On the day preceding the entry of the
Red troops into the city, the workers and students
organized a defence force, which courageously re-
sisted the Polish bands. The entry of the Red
troops into the city was welcomed by the whole
populace. It has been established that the Polish
bands at Minsk killed thirty-five Jews, raped 150
women, burned 1,500 houses, and looted all the
stores and about 1,000 homes.
Along the Line of Retreat. — Reports arrive
every day from the towns along the line of retreat
of the Polish army from Vilna to Grodno, giving
details of the Jewish pogroms perpetrated by the
Polish legionaries. Especially brutal was the pog-
rom in the town of Rudzishai. There were many
killed, among them old Jews; children were tor-
mented, Jewish girls outraged. Actually all the
inhabitants of the town fled into the woods, leav-
ing their belongings to the looters.
The Vilna organizations of the Socialist parties
organized a special investigation commission to in-
quire into these pogroms.
A PRESENT FROM THE QUAKERS TO
SOVIET RUSSIA
A Moscow wireless reports the arrival in Mos-
cow of several railroad cars with medicaments,
fats and sugar, which were sent by the English
Quakers as a present to the Russian workers.
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SOVIET RUSSIA
269
Recent Russo-English Correspondence
[Unfortunately we have not a complete set of all notes passing between Soviet Russia and England dur-
ing the fast six weeks. We print below such as are in our possession, and hope to have occasion later to
interpret the relations between the various documents.]
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I
Radio sent by Chicherin on July 24 to Lord Curzon
of Kedleston :
The Russian Soviet Government expresses its willing-
ness to meet the desire of the British Government in
its proposal to convene a conference with the purpose
of establishing a definite agreement between Russia
and other powers which participate in hostile actions
against her or support such, and is of the opinion that
the said conference ought to be composed of represen-
tatives of Russia and of the leading powers of the En-
tente. The Russian Soviet Government agrees that
this conference should be called together in London.
It makes known at the same time to the British
Government that orders had been given to the military
command to meet the Polish parlamentaires and to begin
with them pourparlers relative to an armistice and peace.
The Russian Government can not refrain from ex-
pressing its astonishment, in view of the demand of
the British Government to suspend the trade negotia-
tions after the adoption by the Soviet Government of
all its proposals, which were the condition for the
opening of these negotiations, since none of the said
proposals has been violated by that government. And
the latter thinks that the establishment of durable peace-
ful and friendly relations will be extremely difficult, if
agreements once adopted are violated on the following
day or left unheeded, or if conditions already accepted
are, after the adoption of an agreement, supplemented
by new and unexpected conditions not stipulated before.
The Soviet Government expresses the hope that the
British Government will henceforth adhere immutably
to the principles laid down in the British memorandum
of July first and in the reply of the Soviet Government
of July seventh and will in future abstain from any
violations of this agreement or from adding to the latter
new conditions not provided for therein.
The Russian Government on its part strictly adhering
to its declarations, as laid down in its note of July
seventeenth, expects that before the beginning of the
above conference the surrender of ex-General Wrangel
and of his military forces will have been carried
through on the conditions of securing personal safety
to him, his adherents, and the fugitives under his pro-
tection, and of the transfer to the Soviet power of all
the territory under his control as well as of the war
material, stores, means of communication, and vessels
now in his hands.
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Chicherin.
II
The reply of the British Government to the note of
July 24 from the Soviet Government of Russia, which
is printed above, was dispatched in the form of two
notes. The first, dated July 26, reads as follows:
The British Government is glad to learn that the
Soviet Government has authorized the military command
of the Soviet armies to negotiate an immediate armistice
with the Polish military command, and that they are
prepared to agree to a conference meeting in London
for the purpose of establishing a definite agreement
between Russia and the Powers which were engaged
in hostile actions against her or supporting such action.
They note that the Soviet Government further pro-
poses that the representatives of the leading powers of
the Entente should attend this conference, and they
are communicating with their Allies on this subject.
Meanwhile they would suggest that Messrs. Kamenev,
Krassin, and Miliutin should be authorized by the
Soviet Government not merely to conclude the trade
agreement between Russia and the Allied Governments,
but also to discuss preliminary arrangements for the
proposed peace conference, because communications by
cable will involve delay and possible misunderstanding.
In reply to the latter part of the telegram, the Bri-
tish Government would point out that no trade agree-
ment, even if completed, could have produced practical
results if Soviet Russia had refused an armistice and
invaded Poland, and had thus forced Great Britain
and her Allies to give active support to the Polish
people in defending their liberties and independence.
They, therefore, thought it best to stop Messrs Kamen-
ev, Krassin, and Miliutin from making a journey which
would be fruitless if no armistice were arranged.
In view, however, of the present reply, they have in-
structed the destroyer to bring Messrs. Kamenev, Kras-
sin, and Miliutin to England immediately, or, if they
prefer another route, the British Government will ask
the governments concerned to facilitate their journey.
As regards General Wrangel, the British Government
must declare that General Wrangel is not, as the Soviet
Government have suggested, their agent, or in any
way under their control. Nor have they had any re-
sponsibility for the recent offensive, while the sugges-
tion that the British Government have any such de-
signs with with regard to the Crimea as the Soviet
authorities appear to imagine is absurd. They have,
however, communicated to General Wrangel the terms
of the Russian Government's declaration.
Ill
The second note is dated July 28, that is, after the
meeting between Mr. Lloyd George and M. Millerand
at Boulogne. The text follows:
The British Government, having consulted its Allies
is now in a position to send the following reply to
Chicherin's telegram of July 24:
The British Government which, on the assumption
that an armistice is about to be concluded and that
hostilities are about to cease between Soviet Russia and
Poland, is proposing to its Allies that they should take
part in a conference to be held in London, at which
the Soviet Government of Russia will also be repre-
sented, considers that no doubt should be left as to
the object of the meeting, as to the powers which are
to be summoned to attend it, or as to the essential
subjects which it is to discuss.
The two last telegrams from the Soviet Government
leave some doubt upon these points. The telegram of
July 19 seems to reject the participation of the Allies
in the negotiations for peace between the Soviet Gov-
ernment and other neighboring governments of Russia.
The last telegram, on the other hand, seems to admit
this participation.
The British Government considers that, if the Allied
Governments are to meet the delegates of the Soviet
Government with any chance of success, the delegates
of the Polish Government, and of the other border
states who are concerned, must also be present.
The conference should have as its essential object the
reestablishment of peace in Europe, and in the first
place between Poland and Russia, upon conditions which
would secure the independence of Poland and the legi-
timate interests of both countries.
The conference shall also consider the questions which
are still outstanding between Soviet Russia and the
border states which have not as yet signed a definite
peace with Russia.
After the settlement of these questions the confer-
ence could proceed to deal with the matters in dispute
between the Government of Soviet Russia and the
Allies, and the reestablishment of normal relations be-
tween them.
IV
Copy of Note sent to Lloyd George by Kamenev on
August 5 :
I have the honor to inform you that I sent last night
to my Government an urgent telegram communicating
the statement you irjadt a: our interview yesterday
about the deoir.foti oi t'ne British Government to side
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SOVIET RUSSIA
September 11, 1920
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with Poland in her war with Russia and to renew the
blockade in consequence of the invasion of ethnograph-
ical Poland by the troops of the Soviet Government.
At the same time I am instructed by my Government
in connection with the reference made in the British
Note of August 3 to the delay in the negotiations be-
tween Russia and Poland to draw your attention to
the following facts. In the Note to Chicherin of 20th
of last month Lord Curzon of Kedleston informed him,
that the Polish Government had been urged by their
Allies immediately to initiate negotiations for armistice
and for peace. On the 22d July a telegram over the
signature of Prince Sapieha, the Polish Minister for
Foreign Affairs, was received at Moscow proposing in
accordance with the suggestion of the Allies, to open
negotiations for an armistice and peace. At the same
time a telegram received from General Razvodovski,
Chief of the Polish General Staff, mentioned July 30 as
date of meeting of the delegates of both parties. On
the very same day, namely, July 22, Mr. Chicherin, on
behalf of the Soviet Government, informed the Polish
Government of his consent to begin negotiations for
an armistice and peace. The Polish delegates crossed
the frontier on July 30 and met the Russian delegates
at Baranovichi. It turned out, however, that contrary
to the agreement reached by the previous exchange of
messages the Polish delegates had only been authorized
to deal with the military problems and that their powers
had been derived solely from the military command.
It is obvious from the above quoted facts that such
limited powers did not correspond to the tasks with
which the conferences of the delegates were to deal, in
accordance with the proposals of both the British and
Russian governmens. It goes without saying, that the
Russian Soviet Government have and never have had,
any desire to combine the negotiations for an armistice
with negotiations for a definite peace treaty between
Poland and Russia: nevertheless, it is inevitable that
negotiations for an armistice should include negotia-
tions for certain conditions and guarantees over and
above the strictly military domain. The history of the
Polish attack aaginst Russia, the patent facts of the
systematic and uninterrupted assistance to Poland on
the part of France and the presence on the right wing
of the Polish army of the troops of General Wrangel,
who is also supported by the French Government, ren-
der it a matter of necessity for the Russian Soviet
Government to demand the inclusion in the terms of
armistice with Poland of such reasonable guarantees as
would prevent all attempts on the part of Poland to
use the period of armistice for the renewal of hostile
acts against Russia. Such guarantees would include
partial disarmament, the cessation of recruiting and con-
scripting soldiers, as well as of voluntary enrolment and
so on. It was the absence of authority to deal with
such questions by the Polish delegates which compelled
the Russian delegates to propose, that they should ob-
tain powers. They agreed, at the same time, in order
to accelerate the proceedings, to begin the negotiations
for an armistice as soon as wireless communication
had been received from Warsaw at Baranovichi that
a courier had set out with new credentials. But the
Polish delegates did not accept this suggestion and de-
cided to return to Warsaw, thereby deferring the com-
mencement of the armistice negotiations. International
law and the customs of war know of no case in which
the army of one of the belligerents has suspended mili-
tary operations before the conclusion of an armistice,
and it is therefore natural that the Russian Soviet
army should continue its advance, which, being purely
a military operation, does not in the least prejudice the
nature of the peace treaty and does not constitute an
attempt against the independence and integrity of the
Polish state in its ethnographical frontiers. The Rus-
sian Soviet Government have more than once pledged
themselves fully to respect the independence of Poland
and the right of her people to political self-determina-
tion, and the intended terms of armistice and peace in
no way include any restriction of the Polish people in
this respect. The sole obstacle in the way of commen-
cement of the negotiations for the suspension of mili-
tary operations is at the present moment the absence
of the Polish delegates, and their return is being
awaited by the representatives of the Russian Soviet
Government in order immediately to open those nego-
tions. One is indeed justified in inferring from the
conduct of the Polish delegates, who have preferred
to return to Warsaw, that the Polish Government are
speculating on foreign assistance and are delaying the
armistice and peace negotiations in expectation of it.
The Russian Soviet Government will exceedingly
regret, if any false hopes or exaggerated expectations
on the part of the Polish Government of strong sup-
port from outside should cause the failure of the
Polish delegates to present themselves for negotiations
with the Russian delegates at the earliest possible mo-
ment. As for the suggestion of a conference in Lon-
don the above mentioned British Notes of Julv 20 ex-
plicity declared that the British Government had not
the least desire to insist upon the inclusion of other
states in our negotiations with Poland, if the Soviet
Government adhered to their objections. It was on
the. strength of that declaration, that Mr. Chicherin
in his Note of July 22 proposed a conference with
the leading powers of the Entente. The only use-
fulness of such a peace arises from the fact
that without the assistance of these leading pow-
ers other states could not wage war against us and
such a conference would really guarantee the general
peace of Europe. We are still of the opinion that
direct negotiations with Poland for peace would serve
the interests both of the Russian and the Polish peoples,
and the Russian Soviet Government again declares that
it is firm in its recognition of the freedom and inde-
pendence of Poland and its willingness to grant to the
Polish state wider frontiers than were indicated by
the Supreme Council and mentioned in the British
Note of July 20. Such a conference in London between
the leading powers of the Entente and Russia would
have for its object the regulation of the international
position of Russia and the settlement of all outstanding
questions between her and the Allies for the benefit of
the general peace.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Kamenev.
V
The following telegram was received in London on
August 12 by M. Kamcnev from the Soviet Govern-
ment :
It is obvious that the Poles try to protract prepara-
tions for negotiations and to delay the latter. On
August 7 we sent our answer to Warsaw. The wire-
less station at Warsaw refused to give receipt, but
several days later acknowledged having received this
radio. On the same date this radio was communicated
to the British Government and published in London.
In this radio we invite Polish delegates to cross the
front on August 9 and begin negotiations in Minsk
on August 11. When a representative of the Military
Command, Piatnikov, went on August 9 to meet the
Polish delegation the latter did not appear, but a Polish
officer on the spot told Piatnikov that the delegation
was coming; he sent to Siedlicc, but did not find the
delegation.
On August 10, in the morning, Piatnikov sent autos to
Siedlicc, but the Polish Delegation could not be found.
Later on in the same day the Red Army took Siedlicc
and found there the Polish Delegation. Afterwards
it was ascertained that the latter consisted only of a
par of the real Polish Delegation. They declared that
the Polish Government had not received the Russian
radio of August 7.
The delegates present in Siedlice had come to agree
about the date of meeting. They proposed that the
Polish Delegation should cross the front on August
14; this was accepted by the Russians, and thus the
meeting with the Poles is once more postponed.
This thing has continued already for three weeks,
and every lime the d'-lay comes from Poles.
It is obvious they have reasons for desiring the nego-
VERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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September 11, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
271
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tiations to be delayed; probably they think that if
Warsaw is taken it will force the Allies to intervene.
Behind them is France, which deliberately hinders
peace and kindles war.
It is known that four billion francs for the restora-
tion of the Northern Department of the French Gov-
ernment has been used for intervention in Russia lately.
On ships carrying Russian soldiers repatriated to
Odessa hydroaeroplanes were found, undoubtedly in-
tended for Wrangel. When Russian miiltary authori-
ties in Odessa, using their obvious right, declared they
would not allow this war contraband to leave Odessa,
a French squadron appeared outside the harbor and the
French admiral threatened to shell the town.
France attempts to draw into the trap not only Rus-
sia, but also Britain, which desires conciliation. France
tries to throw responsibility for the delay upon Russia,
but it is clear who is the real culprit. France tries to
protract war and to prevent Poland from reconciliation
with Russia. The workers must put an end to this
shameful policy of the French Government.
(Signed) Ciiicherin.
Mr. Lloyd George a few days later sent a Note to
M. Kamenev protesting against the alleged wireless
delays on the part of Moscow, which he accepts as the
reason for the failure of the Poles to turn up!
VI
Kamenev to Lloyd George, August 15, 1920:
XI. Kamenev presents his compliments to Rt. Hon.
D. Lloyd George and has the honor to communicate
to him the following statesment :
The recognition of General Wrangel by France, made,
as it was, after the declaration of the British Prime
Minister in the House of Commons on August 8,
promising, in the name of those who took part in the
Hythe Conference, not to give any support to Wrangel,
has transformed the question of the former General
Baron Wrangel into a question of international politics.
Owing to the decision of the French Government,
the question of a general peace has become bound up
with this question.
It is important, therefore, to fix the responsibility
borne by England for Wrangel's attack and to put the
question whether the British Government, in view of
its earlier steps on behalf of Wrangel, will not deem
it necessary to take some new steps which would facili-
tate the resumption of friendly relations between the
English and Russian nations and their governments,
and would remove all obstacles from the road leading
to that goal.
The question of Wrangel was brought by the British
Government for the first time to the notice of the Soviet
Government in Lord Curzon's Note to Chicherin of
April 14 last. In that Note Lord Curzon wrote:
"Having realized for some time that the military
struggle in South Russia should not be indefinitely pro-
longed, and being convinced that its continuance could
not but be attended by further loss of life and by serious
set-backs to the recovered tranquility and prosperity of
Russia, I have exerted my utmost influence with General
Denikin to induce him to abandon the contest, and have
promised him that if he did so I would use my best
efforts to make peace between his forces and yours,
and assure the safety of the rank and file of his follow-
ers and the population of the Crimea. General Deni-
kin finally decided to act upon this advice, and has left
Russia, resigning his command to General Wrangel.
"Therefore, I communicate with you at once to re-
quest you in the interests both of Russia and of human-
ity to issue orders for the termination of hostilities,
and to grant general amnesty upon the disbandment of
the volunteer army. If the latter are not assured of
conciliatory treatment, they are, I understand,
still able to maintain themselves in being, and to offer
a stubborn resistance for some months to come in the
Crimea."
In the same note Lord Curzon, not content with ap-
pealing to humanity and to the special interests of
England in the fate of General. .Wrangel's. army, de-
clared that there would not be much hope for the suc-
cessful opening of commercial relations between Soviet
Russia and Great Britain, if the Soviet Government
did not agree to this proposal.
After Great Britain's refusal to begin the direct ne-
gotiations proposed by Mr. Chicherin, for the solution
of the fate of Wrangel's army (raised in the above-
mentioned Note by Lord Curzon), the Soviet Govern-
ment on May 5 declared:
"The Russian Soviet Government notes with pleasure
the conciliatory spirit of the British Government's wire-
less message, dated May 4, and, being on its part in-
variably imbued with completely pacific intentions, is
ready to meet in the largest measure the wishes of the
British Government.
"In its earnest desire to accelerate the conclusion of
a general agreement with Great Britain about all ques-
tions concerning both governments, the Russian Gov-
ernment, in compliance with the wishes of the British
Government, is ready to negotiate immediately with the
British Government, or with the Government or Group
indicated by the British Government, a suspension of
hostilities on the Crimean front for the purpose of a
speedy conclusion of a special agreement with Great
Britain concerning a general amnesty for those who
are continuing still in the ranks of Denikin's forces
the struggle against the Soviet authority and for the
purpose of a bloodless liquidation of the Crimean front."
On May 18, Lord Curzon of Kedleston, noting the
receipt of the Soviet Government's agreement to Great
Britain's suggestion with regard to a peaceful solution
of Wrangel's question, said:
"His Majesty's Government are anxious that hostili-
ties should cease as soon as possible, and I am endeav-
oring to arrange for immediate opening of negotiations
in South Russia, in which General Wrangel and any
British military and political representative will par-
ticipate."
On May 21 Mr. Chicherin declared as follows:
"Russian Government will consider in most friendly
spirit proposals of amnesty for White Guard remnants,
which the British representatives will put forward dur-
ing the impending armistice negotiations."
In the meantime, under the cover of these negotia-
tions, and taking advantage of the fact that the Rus-
sian Government, relying on the declaration of Lord
Curzon, had taken no military measures to increase the
strength of its army against Wrangel, the latter, with
the British assistance, reorganized his army in the Cri-
mea, and started ah offensive against the Soviet Govern-
ment. The British Government answered to this with
a declaration disowning any responsibility for Wrangel.
After the demands which the British Government
made to Russia in the interests of General Wrangel.
and which facilitated General Wrangel's preparation of
his military enterprise, the Russian Government was
entitled to expect more active steps on the part of the
British Government, and explained its view thereon in
the Note sent by Mr. Chicherin on June 11.
In that Note it says :
"Though the declaration of Great Britain disown-
ing any solidarity with Wrangel, and his attack against
Soviet Russia, is to be welcomed, there still remains the
fact that this attack is the result of the political pro-
tection secured for Wrangel's White Guards by the dip-
lomatic intervention of the British Government and of
the direct help given them by the Allies. If the White
Guards prepared their offensive under the cover of the
diplomatic protection of Great Britain, it must be ad-
mitted that this offensive is not entirely unconnected
with the position taken by the British Government.
"Wrangel, Commander-in-Chief of the White Guards,
in an Army Order of May 6, himself refers to the dip-
lomatic intervention of Great Britain on his behalf as
a means of securing for him the Crimea and the oppor-
tunity to prepare a fresh blow against Soviet Russia.
The Russian Government is therefore unable to share
•the view of the British Goverranent that the? latter. can.
272
SOVIET RUSSIA
September 11, 1920
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be held exempt from responsibility for this fresh at-
tack against Soviet Russia.
"For this reason the Russian Government regards it
as all the more important that it should be made clear
in what actual form the British Government proposes
to embody its present negative attitude to the aggressive
action of WrangeL
"Having regard to the fact that the British Govern-
ment threatened us with new military operations by
British forces against our armies and our territories,
when it believed, on the strength of the non-reception
of a reply from us (although this was held up by its
own agents), that we were not inclined to accept the
British proposal for an amnesty, we hold that we have
the right to expect that similar measures will be taken
against Wrangel when it is he alone who stands in the
way of the desire of the British Government being suc-
cessfully carried out.
"We should be glad to receive information on this
point in due time, in order that we may be able to co-
ordinate our measures in this matter with the measures
of the British Government directed to the realization
of the same object."
It is a matter for regret that the Russian Govern-
ment received no reply to this communication. Only
in the Note of July 11 — i.e., exactly a month later—
did the British Government return to the question of
Wrangel. On this occasion, however, the point of view
of the British Government showed a marked change —
instead of the proposal to cease hostilities on the basis
of an amnesty, the British Government suggested only
that an armistice should be granted and that General
Wrangel should be present at the London conference.
Thus, after the treacherous attack by General Wran-
gel, in defiance of the British proposal, the British Gov-
ernment again took upon itself the protection of Gen-
eral Wrangel and the defence of his interests, and
deemed it possible that he should be present at the
conference.
Despite the fact that this new proposal meant die
open protection of Wrangel and was inconsistent with
the earlier proposals already agreed to by the Soviet
Government, the latter again expressed its willingness
to meet the wishes of Great Britain, and declared itself
as follows in its Note of July 17:
"... The Soviet Government is of the opinion that
the greatest possible concession on its part, a concession
which is the proof of its anxious desire to come to
terms with the British Government, is its willingness
to agree to the capitulation of the ex-General Wrangel
and of his troops, with the guarantee of their personal
safety ..."
To this the British Government replied that it had
no control over General WrangeL
It will thus be seen from the documents quoted above
that on every occasion the British Government has ap-
peared before the Soviet Government as the guardian
and protector of the interests of General Wrangel's
array (by doing which it actually facilitated the prepar-
ation of his military plans), while on the other hand it
refused to undertake any practical steps whatsoever to
make it more possible for the Soviet Government to
bring to an end quickly and peacefully the hostilities in
the South of Russia.
Availing himself of this situation, General Wrangel
has been enabled to wait for the moment when he has
been at least given official recognition by Great Bri-
tain's ally, France. Having regard to these considera-
tions, the Soviet Government would be glad to know
the final decision of the British Government with refer-
ence to General Wrangel.
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THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. Russia, by Qeorge Brandes, the famous Danish critic of art and literature; by many
considered to be the greatest critic in the world; he strongly denounces intervention
and blockade.
2. Nikolai Lenin, by Maxim Gorky. In this article, Gorky recants his former opposition
to the Soviets, and presents a warm appreciation of the character and work of a great
statesman.
3. Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt.-Col. B. Rouslam Bek.
4. The People's Commissariat op Health. A concrete and up-to-date official account of
all the activities of this important and necessary institution.
5. The Russian Railways. Professor G. Lomonossov, formerly with the New York Bu-
reau, who left for Russia in May, 1919, gives an interesting interview to a Swedish
daily. Professor Lomonossov is now stationed at Stockholm.
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TABLE OF
PAGE
Nikolai Lenin, by Maxim Gorky 273
The Work of the People's Commissariat of
Health . , 276
Military Review, by LL-CoL B. Roustam Bek 279
"Psychological Imagination" 281
Editorials 284
Correspondence With the American Red
Cross 286
CONTENTS:
PAGE
Kolchakists on Trial, by A. Goykkbarg, of
the People's Commissariat of Justice 287
Nasty a Terentyeva, — Sketch, by Dr. Bohumir
Smeral . . , 290
Wireless and Other News 291
Prof. Lomonossov on the Russian Railways 293
Official Radios on the Negotiations With
Poland 295
Nikolai Lenin
By Maxim Gobkt
V!
r LADIMIR ILYICH LENIN is an adherent
of the theory which holds that the role of the
individual in the progress of culture is insignifi-
cant, but he himself is, in my opinion, a source
of energy without which the Russian Revolution
could not have taken its present course.
I once compared him— conditionally — with
Peter the Great. This comparison was ridiculed
as an exaggeration, but it was, of course, a con-
ditional comparison : to me personally Lenin's role
as a social reformer of Russia seems leas signifi-
cant than his importance as a world revolution-
ist. He is not only a man on whose will history
has imposed the awful task of arousing to the
very bottom the variagated, clumsy, sluggish hu-
man ant-hill which is known as Russia, — his will
is a tireless battering ram whose powerful blows
shake the formidable capitalist states of the West,
and the hideous slavish autocracies of the East
which were stagnant for thousands of years,
I still think — as I did two years ago — that to
Lenin Russia is only the material foT an experi-
ment which has been launched on a universal,
planetary scope. At one time this thought, dim-
med by the feeling of commiseration for the Rus-
sian people, made me indignant, But, observing
how the course of events in the Russian revolu-
tion, widening and deepening, is ever moTe arous-
ing and organizing the forces which are capable
of destroying the foundations of the capitalist
order, I am now of the opinion that even if Rus-
sia is destined to serve as the object of an experi-
ment, it is unjust to hold as responsible for this
the man who strives to transform the potential
energy of the Russian toiling masses into a kine-
tic, active energy.
To each according to his deserts, — this is no
more than just. A people which was rotting in
the stifling atmosphere of the monarchy, a slug-
gish people, lacking will-power and faith in itself,
not sufficiently "bourgeois" to be strong in resist-
ance and not sufficiently strong to subdue in it-
self the beggarly but firmly held aspiration for
bourgeois welfare, — this people, by the very logic
of its stupid history, must obviously live through
all the dramas and tragedies which are the in-
evitable fate of an inert being living an epoch of
outspoken, brutalizing class-struggle, the most
hideous expression of which was such a vileness
as the war of 1914-1918,
T do not, of course, intend to compose a speech
for the defense or vindication of T. Lenin. Neither
I nor he are in need of it*
But I know him to some extent, and when the
"objectively thinking people" accuse him of being
the cause of cruel civil war, of terror and other
crimes, I think of Lloyd George, who in 1913-
1914, while delivering nice laudatory speeches
about the German people to English teachers who
were leaving for a visit to Germany, and to Ger-
man teachers who were visiting England, was at
that very time preparing bayonets and shells to
be used against the Germans. All these "great
men": the best— the most shameless cynic, Clem-
en ceau ; the Socialists who voted credits for the
organization of the all-European slaughter; the
scientists who invented poisonous gases and other
abominations; the poets who cursed the Germans
in 1914 and the English in 1918, —precisely all
these musty and rotten elements of the decaying
old order inflicted a deep, perhaps mortal wound
on European culture^ and they continue to torment
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Russia, facilitating the continuation of the civil
war, intensifying it by the blockade, and murder-
ing little children by cold and hunger.
Mistakes — if they need be mentioned at all —
are not crimes. The mistakes of Lenin are the
mistakes of an honest man, and history knows
of no reformer who has not made mistakes. It is
different with Lloyd George, Clemenceau and
Company. They commit no errors, they act as pro-
fessional murderers, condemning a whole people to
the tortures of hunger and cold, and facilitating
the continuation of civil strife, which is absolutely
senseless, for save the Bolsheviki there is no force
in Russia capable of taking the power into their
hands and arousing the exhausted country to the
energetic effort which is necessary for productive
toil.
"D ETURNING to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, I must
AV say that my personal sympathies for him do
not affect me when I write about him. I look upon
him as an object of my observations equally with
all other men and phenomena which interest me
as an interpreter of the life of my country.
Take this man as he addresses an assembly of
workmen. He speaks in amazingly simple words,
a vigorous, iron style, with irresistible logic. But
in his stern words I have never detected either
crude demagogy or the insipid foppery of beauti-
ful phrases. His is invariably the same leit-motif
— the necessity of destroying to the very root the
social inequality of man, and the means to this
end. This ancient phrase acquires on his lips a
sharp, uncompromising sound: one always feels
that his faith in it is unshakable, one feels the
calm of his faith, leaving no room for doubt, —
the faith of a fanatic, but a scientific and not a
metaphysical or mystical fanatic. It seems to me
that he takes hardly any interest in individualized
mankind, he thinks only of parties, masses, states,
and in this domain he possesses the gift of vision,
the intuition of a genius, a thinker-experimenter.
He possesses that extraordinary clearness of
thought which can be acquired only through in-
tense, ceaseless work.
A Frenchman once asked me : "Don't you think
that Lenin is a thinking guillotine ?" I replied:
"I would compare the work of his mind to the
blows of a hammer which is endowed with sight
and crushes precisely the thing which it is high
time to destroy ."
To the smug and comfort-loving, to the philis-
tines of all countries, Lenin must, of course, ap-
pear as an Attila, coming to destroy the Rome of
their sluggish and comfortable well-being, based
on slavery, blood-shed and spoliation. But just
as ancient Rome deserved to perish, so do the
crimes of the modern world prove the necessity
of its destruction. This is a historical necessity
which no one and no means can prevent.
There rises the plaintive babble of the value of
European culture and of the necessity to protect
■oogR
it from the assault of the new Huns. Only on
the lips of revolutionists is this sincere and im-
portant; but it is a hideous lie on the lips of those
who organized and assisted in the slaughter of
1914-1918.
The advancement of culture — if these terms
signify the further progress of art, science, tech-
nology and the humanization of man, which goes
along with and results from this progress — cannot,
of course, be impeded by the new conditions which
will make it possible for the masses, the many
millions, instead of only tens of thousands, to par-
ticipate actively in cultural work.
OOMETIMES the audacity of the imagination,
^ essential to all literary artists, urges upon me
the question:
"What is Lenin's vision of the new world ?"
Then there unfolds before me a beautiful vision
of the earth, exquisitely shaped by the toil of free
men, into a gigantic emerald. All men are intelli-
gent and everyone has a feeling of personal respon-
sibility for everything which is created by him and
around him. Everywhere are beautiful orchard-
cities filled with majestic buildings, everywhere
the forces of nature, subdued and organized by the
mind of man, are at work for his benefit, and he
himself is — at last — a real master of the elements.
His physical energy is no longer spent on rough,
filthy labor, it has been transformed into spiritual
energy, and all its power is directed to the investi-
gation of the fundamental problems of life, against
which the human mind has battered for ages with-
out avail, shaken and torn as it was by the neces-
sary effort to explain and to justify the phenomena
of social strife and worn out by the drama involved
in the recognition of two irreconcilable principles,
which was unavoidable in a world of such phe-
nomena.
Ennobled technically and comprehended social-
ly, toil has become an enjoyment for man. The
intellect of man — the most precious element in
the universe — has, at last, become really free and
really fearless.
Fearlessness of thought and keen penetration in
the domain of politics are the fundamental traits
of Lenin's mind. The world had never heard such
language as is used by the diplomacy which is
inspired by him. It is, to be sure, a language
which tortures the tender ears of the diplomats,
of cutaways and smoking-jackets, but it is a mer-
cilessly truthful language. And truth will remain
rough as long as we men will not ourselves make
it as beautiful as our music, which is one of the
finest truths we have created.
I do not believe that I ascribe to Lenin dreams
which are alien to him, I do not think that I
romanticize this man. I cannot imagine him with-
out this fine dream of the future happiness of all
men, of a bright joyous life. The greater the
man, the more daring his dreams.
Lenin is mora a raa^ than anyone of my con-
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temporaries, and though his thought is, of course,
mainly occupied by such political matters which
a romanticist would be constrained to call "nar-
rowly practical", still I am certain that in his
rare moments of repose his active thought soars
much further in the beautiful future and beholds
much more than I can imagine.
The fundamental aim of Lenin's whole life is
universal welfare, and he must inevitably see in
the far-off ages the end of the great process to the
beginning of which all his will is ascetically and
courageously devoted. He is an idealist, if we in-
terpret this concept as a merging of all thoughts
in one idea— the idea of universal welfare. His
personal life is such that in an epoch of religious
fervor Lenin would be considered a saint.
I know this assertion will make the smug philis-
tines indignant, that many comrades will smile at
this, and that Lenin himself will have a good
laugh. "Saint" is really a paradoxical and strong
term to be applied to this man for whom— as the
ex-revolutionary Chaikovsky said — "absolutely
nothing is sacred." Saint Lenin,— whom the well-
bred and cultured leader of the British tones,
Lord Churchill, considers "the most ferocious and
abhorrent man"!
But the honorable Lord will not deny that the
saintliness of the church seldom excluded ferocity
and cruelty. Evidence to this effect may be found
in the bloody fights of the church fathers at the
oecumenical councils, in the inquisition and in
many of the other abominations. On the other
hand, the domain of civic activity has always given
a greater number of truly saintly men, if we as-
sume this to signify unselfish and fearless service
to the interests of the people, of freedom, of truth.
Lenin, the stern realist and keen statesman, is
gradually becoming a legendary personality. This
is as it should be.
From the obscure villages of India, many In-
dians who have felt the age-long oppression of
British officials go secretely to Kabul, tramping
hundreds of miles along mountain paths and in
forests and risking their lives, they come to the
Russian mission and inquire: "What kind of a
man is Lenin?" And, at the other end of the
globe Norwegian workmen say to an indifferent
Russian : "This Lenin is the most honest of chaps.
There has never yet lived such a man."
As I said before, this is as it should be. Most
men must have faith before they can begin to
act. It will take much longer for them to begin
to think and comprehend, and the evil genius of
capital is oppressing them with ever greater in-
tensity by poverty, alcoholism and exhaustion.
It seems necessary to mention that the passion
of friendship is not alien to Lenin, and that in
general, nothing human is alien to him. I feel
somewhat embarassed and amused in speaking of
this, but the smug and comfort-loving of the
whole world are so sacred, and Lord Churchill be-
comes so exasperated and upset when he gazes
toward the East. Being of kindly disposition, I
feel myself obliged to reassure somewhat the scared
and irritated philistines and all the other enemies
of the Bolshevik leader.
It sometimes happens that Lenin exaggerates
the good qualities of certain people to their favor
and to the injury of the cause. But almost with-
out exception his negative appraisals — though
they may have seemed unfounded — are inevitably
vindicated by the men whom he appraises nega-
tively before even seeing the results of their work.
This possibly proves that the evil qualities of men
are everywhere considrably more numerous than
the useful qualities.
In this stern statement there sometimes appears
a spark of almost feminine tenderness, and I am
sure that the terror costs him unbearable, though
very well concealed anguish. It is improbable and
inconceivable that men condemned by history to
the irreconcilable contradiction of killing some for
the sake of the freedom of others, should not suffer
soul-torturing pains. I know several pairs of eyes
in which this burning pain has settled for life.
I instinctively abhor any killing, but these men
are martyrs, and my conscience will never let me
condemn them.
I notice that in discussing Lenin I am involun-
tarily led to digress to other subjects. But it
could not be otherwise when one speaks of a man
who is in the center of everything and above
everything.
Of Lenin himself one could, of course, say a
good deal more than I have said here. But I am
hindered by the modesty of this man who is ab-
solutely free from any conceit. I know that even
the little that was said in these remarks will seem
to him excessive, exaggerated and ridiculous . . .
Well, let him have his laugh, he does laugh so
well. But I hope that many will read these lines
with some profit to themselves.
I have spoken in these lines of a man who had
the courage to begin the process of the all-Euro-
pean social revolution in a country in which eighty-
five per cent of the peasants want to become well-
fed bourgeois, and no more than this. Many con-
sider this fearlessness as madness. I started my
work as a provoker of revolutionary moods with
a glorification of the frenzy of the brave.
There was a moment when a natural commisera-
tion for the Russian people led me to look upon
this frenzy as almost a crime. But now, after
I have seen that this people is much better at
patient suffering than at honest and conscious
work, I once more sing the glory of the sacred
madness of the brave.
And of these Vladimir Lenin is the foremost
and the most magnificently mad !
ARTICLE BY GEORG BRANDES
For lack of space Georg Brandes' article on
Russia, promised for this issue, has been post-
poned to next week's issue.
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The Work of the People's Commissariat of Health
By N. Semashko, People's Commissar of Health
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(^ BEAT difficulty has attended the carrying out
*"-* of the work of the People's Commissariat
of Health. Epidemics, the general disorganiza-
tion left by the imperialistic war, which was much
increased by the civil war, and food difficulties,
were among the serious impediments met with in
the work of the institutions concerned with public
health. One epidemic followed close upon the
heels of the other, requiring the entire attention
of the medical staff, and, as a result, even the most
essential reforms and improvements were capable
only of partial accomplishments, if they did not
have to be postponed altogether.
The year 1918 was marked by a cholera epidem-
ic. The Peopled Commissariat of Health undertook
the most energetic measures to stop this epidemic
and, in spite of very difficult working conditions,
the outcome was a success: only 35,619 cases of
cholera were recorded in 1918, while the previous
cholera epidemic, in 1908, had more than 200,000
such cases. In the autumn of 1918, the "Spanish
Influenza" swept over the country; more than
700,000 cases were recorded. In addition to the
practical measures, the People's Commissariat of
Health also undertook a far-reaching scientific
study of this as yet little known disease ; scientific
staffs were organized and instructed to gather all
possible information concerning the nature and the
types of the disease ; meetings were held and much
material was collected. Now a special commis-
sion, including many experts, is digesting this ma-
terial and preparing it for publication.
After the Spanish influenza came the typhus.
This epidemic began in the autumn of 1918 and
reached its climax in the Spring of 1919. During
the eight months ending with July, 1919, the total
number of cases of typhus registered was 1,299,263,
of which between eight and ten per cent ended
fatally. The cities, whose food situation was par-
ticularly grave, were most affected.
In July and August the typhus subsided, only
a few cases still being recorded. In October, and
more particularly in November and December, the
typhus again began to increase. Its revival oc-
curred about the time of the advance of our army
in Siberia, and was due to the fact that all the
districts that were being evacuated by the Whites
were full of typhus. As a matter of fact, it was
the friendly relations between our soldiers and the
local population and the war prisoners that aided
in spreading this epidemic in the army. Serious
efforts had to be put forth to prevent it from
reaching the rest of the country. When the epi-
demic subsided in the East, and our army was
advancing in the South, the disease began to in-
filtrate from the South; other epidemics encoun-
tered by the advancing army were: intermittent
fever, very serious typhoid fever and cholera epi-
demics. We did not succeed in putting down
these South Russian epidemics until late in March,
Digitized bytjOOglC
1920. Other sections of the country had already
been cleared of it by the beginning of the same
month. No epidemic appearance of typhoid fever
were still to be observed in May.
There was no cholera in the summer of 1919,
only a few sporadic cases being recorded.
The People's Commissariat of Health also paid
special attention to smallpox infection; from No-
vember 1, 1919, to July, 1919, there was 81,851
such cases registered. The most energetic measures
were taken by the People's Commissariat of Health
to oppose this epidemic. Former governments
had never dared attempt to take such measures;
by decree of the Soviet of People's Commissars
of April 16, 1919, obligatory vaccination was pro-
vided for in Eussia. Large credits were allotted
and vaccine distributed with the purpose of exter-
minating this epidemic. Smallpox is now non-
existent.
Details of the Soviet Medical System
Owing to the extremely hard conditions of work,
already suggested above, the People's Commis-
sariat of Health could never have carried out its
duties if the Kevolution, which so completely al-
tered the course of the Bussian national life, had
not also made considerable changes in this field
of activity.
The great alteration in question was the com-
plete reorganization of the public service. All
medical services were united into a single insti-
tution which now exists as an independent depart-
ment, or the People's Commissariat of Health.
Already before the war the European medical
press was discussing the possibility of such a de-
partment. In 1913, a well-known French medical
writer, Mirman, in one of the articles contributed
by him to "Hygiene" asked what would be the
source of information to answer a French deputy
who might ask what measures the French Govern-
ment undertook in order to fight phthisis, and
arrived at the conclusion that four ministers would
have to answer the question, the Ministers of
Labor, Agriculture, Interior, and Public Instruc-
tion, possibly, in addition, the Ministers of War
and of the Navy. Of course, the sanitary efforts of
the hygienic service among various institutions
produce clashes and endless expenditures of labor
and funds. "The organization of a Department
of Public Health," writes Mirman, "would bring
order into this chaos." The honor of having es-
tablished the first Commissariat of Public Health
belongs to Soviet Eussia. Furthermore, such uni-
fication was a necessity brought about by the situ-
ation, and made possible the task of carrying out
a health service at all, by coordinating the work
of the military and civil medical services, avoiding
reduplication, utilizing in the most economic man-
ner the limited medical staff (reduced by the mobi-
lization and by the epidemics) and the very small
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supply of medicaments (which could not be in-
creased owing to the blockade).
We see, therefore, that the creation of the Peo-
ple's Commissariat of Health is important not
only from the standpoint of principle, but also
from the practical point of view.
There is an additional factor which much facili-
tated the work of public health. It is the watch-
word set up by the People's Commissariat of
Health, which has been strictly followed from the
very outset: "the workers themselves must take
care of their health."
Everyone understands that in Russia all
branches of government, including therefore the
Commissariat of Health, are in the hands of repre-
sentatives of the workers and peasants: "the
Soviets of Workers', Peasants and Bed Soldiers'
Delegates." But the watch-word of the Commis-
sariat of Health means more than this. It means
particularly that a great deal of assistance is re-
ceived in the daily work of the Commissariat from
the people themselves. In explanation, let us men-
tion the Workers' Committees to Combat Epi-
demics, established in 1918 by the Soviet of Peo-
ple's Commissars. These committees functioned
not only in the cities, but also in the larger vil-
lages, assisting the local sections of the People's
Commissariat of Health. During typhus epidemics,
the duties of such committees consisted in in-
specting the baths, the supply of soap, cleanliness
of lodgings, especially of public institutions (sta-
tions, jails, boarding houses, etc.), and in spread-
ing among the population correct information and
advice on hygiene. Such committees are appointed
in all the important districts of large cities; the
elected have representatives in the factories. The
assistance of women (workers and peasants) is
particularly desired, for, being housekeepers, it
is easy for them to teach the population habits
of cleanliness. We may say without exaggeration
that the epidemics of typhus and cholera were
stopped chiefly by the assistance of the workers'
and peasants' committees. But this is not all. Not
a single important problem has been carried out
without the assistance of the workers. The ques-
tion of systematic measures to combat social dis-
eases, such as phthisis and venereal diseases, was
discussed with the representatives of trade unions,
Women's Organizations, Young People's Unions,
etc. The organization of sanitary protection for
workers was carried out by special inspectors,
elected from among the workers themselves: in-
spectors of dwellings were organized in the same
way. Not only from the standpoint of organiza-
tion, but also from the standpoint of its practical
value, this system was of great importance. It is
a fact that the People's Commissariat of Health
can only overcome the numerous difficulties met
with in this impoverished and devastated country
by assuring itself of the support and assistance
of the population.
The third peculiarity of the Soviet medical or-
ganization is this: it is now operating on an en-
tirely different social basis. Formerly, necessary
sanitary measures for the benefit of the poorer
classes always met with obstacles. For instance,
sanitary protection of labor in factories always in-
terferes with the profit of the capitalists. Mother-
hood and childhood could not be fully protected,
even though such protection may be provided for,
owing to the merciless necessity of increasing the
production of the plant. Private property rights
also interfered with the improvements of housing
conditions, etc. In Soviet Russia, sanitary reforms
do not know such obstacles.
The above circumstances played a very import-
ant part in combatting the so-called social diseaes.
The name "social disease" was derived from the
social conditions in a capitalistic state, as even
the bourgeois medical service recognizes the fact
that diseases, such as phthisis and venereal di-
seases, are an outcome of these conditions.
The betterment of the conomic ceonditions of
the working class, the abolition of the system of
exploitation, the establishment of protection of
labor, motherhood and childhood — all these meas-
ures formed a strong foundation for success in
combatting social diseases, this evil of humanity.
Purely curative measures, however, are only one
of the links in the long chain of measures for
combatting tuberculosis and venereal diseases. A
great deal of work has been done in this field:
in the year 1919 we had 17 summer sanatoriums
with 876 beds; 54 permanent sanatoriums with
4,750 beds ; 5 infirmaries for the tuberculous, with
310 beds; 5 children's sanatoriums with 280 beds
and 9 dispensaries.
This summer (1920) beds are installed much
more rapidly, as large private estates are used for
this purpose, and there is, therefore, sufficient rea-
son to believe that at the end of this year the num-
ber of beds will have increased fifty per cent.
For combatting syphilis alone, 3,363 special
beds and 29 ambulances were available in the
period from January 1, 1919, to May 1, 1920,
in addition to 11 laboratories performing the Was-
serman test.
In addition, the work of instruction in hygiene
has been directed very methodically along the line
of combatting these social diseases, thus making
the fight particularly against infantile tuberculosis
and syphilis effective. Also, the protection of
motherhood and infancy has attracted particular
attention on the part of the Soviet Government.
At present, the following institutions are available
in Soviet Russia:
Total for Russia. . .
Homes for
Babes in
Arms
115
Institutions
for Children
1-3 years old
56
Day-
Nurseries
24
Consulta-
tions
72
Milk
Kitchens
4
Houses for
Mothers and
Children
4
Total for Moscow. .
3
8
36
21
14
1
The above table shows that most of the institutions are scattered, jil the provinces.
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What the Soviet Government Has Done for
Public Health
In examining the results attained by the Peo-
ple's Commissariat of Health, the difficult condi-
tions under which this work has been carried out
must again be emphasized. Numerous diseases
were called forth by the war and by the starvation
conditions. Under these awful conditions, which
are serious even for people in good health, it was
impossible to employ good, systematic treatment.
It was only the methods introduced by the Soviet
Government that made it possible to move effect-
ively against these conditions.
We have spoken above of the work done in sup-
pressing epidemics; the money spent in this en-
deavor during one and a half years by the People's
Commissariat of Health was over one milliard
rubles (about 1,200,000,000 rubles). Never be-
fore had so many patients been admitted to hos-
pitals shortly after their infection.
At present there are 150,000 special beds for
civilians suffering from epidemics. In addition,
there are 250,000 beds for soldiers.
The organization of treatment has made great
progress. The report of the All-Russian Con-
ference of Health Boards shows that during two
and a half years the number of treatment beds for
civilians increased forty per cent (we must point
out that the figures include only permanent beds
in therapeutic, surgical, special and other hospi-
tals; special beds for the infected, as above indi-
cated are not included) ; there are now four pro-
vincial physico-mechanical-therapeutic organiza-
tions at Kazan, Saratov, Orel, and Kostroma. No
fee is taken in any Soviet hospitals or medical in-
stitution for treatment. The ambulatories and the
hospitals deliver medicaments free of charge. The
drug stores are nationalized and all medical goods
are distributed in the most economic! and sys-
tematic manner.
Special forms of medical attention are perhaps
best illustrated by the example of the development
of dentistry.
Before October, 1917, free dental ambulatories
were very few in number and were found only in
the large cities, particularly the capitals. By May
1, we already had 1,406 free national dental am-
bulatories, uniformly distributed throughout the
Repubic, including even institutions in villages,
which employ 1,776 dental surgeons for free den-
tal care of the population. In addition, 160 den-
tal ambulatories have been organized in the Red
Army, for which purpose 1,500 dentists have been
mobilized. There is also a free dental ambulatory
in each provincial capital. The expenses for the
organization of dental treatment in 1920 are about
352,000,000 rubles.
The government has been particularly effective
in the work done in health resorts. Before the
October revolution the health resorts were under
the direction of various departments and institu-
tions, such as, for instance, the Ministry of Trade
and Commerce, Home Office, The Irkutsk Moun-
tain Department, local government of the Cau-
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casus, military direction of the Cossack Army, and
even the clergy. At present, however, all health
resorts without exception are under the direction
of the People's Commissariat of Health. Formerly,
health resorts existed only for the rich; now not
only treatment, but board and lodgings at these
health resorts are at the expense of the governmnt.
For 1920, the estimated expenses allotted for the
maintenance of health resorts are about 2y 2 mil-
liard rubles.
At resorts where formerly there appeared the
members of a capitalist society in order to cure
their bloated stomachs and gouty limbs, the work-
ing people are now restoring their health. Ac-
cording to the statistics of one of the big health
resorts, that of Lipetzk, the patients were dis-
tributed last year as follows : Workers and work-
ing members of the intelligentsia, 70 per cent;
Red Army soldiers and invalids, 25 percent ; others,
5 per cent. The People's Commissariat of Health
has made considerable efforts to broaden the work
connected with health resorts, and now that the
Crimea has been cut off by the White Guards, we
have in Central Russia 20,000 beds at these health
resorts, in Ukraine 35,000; in the Caucasus
40,000; on the coast of the Black Sea, 30,000;
in Siberia, 18,000 ; total, 143,000 beds.
Special attention is paid to health in general.
Free feeding of children below the age of sixteen
was decreed by the Council of People's Commis-
sars. Thousands of children in winter, and many
more in summer, enjoy a stay in the children's
colonies and sanitariums, for which purpose the
estates of the former landed proprietors are used.
The People's Commissariat is particularly inter-
ested in children. It is about to install special
institutions, to be called "Institutions for Defect-
ive Children," in all provincial capitals. The de-
cree of the Council of People's Commissars stipu-
lates that children below the age of eighteen are
not subject to trial in court. Their cases are ex-
amined by a special committee composed of of-
ficers and teachers, which decides either to send
them to an educational or a medical institution
of the People's Commissariat of Health, or the
People's Commissariat of Instruction.
What Could Not Be Done
There are many problems still remaining un-
solved in spite of the two and a half years of work
and the results which have been already obtained.
Under the rule of the czar, every inhabitant paid
about one ruble in health taxation. Of this sum
ninety-five kopeks went for purposes of general
treatment, and only five kopecs for sanitary pro-
phylaxis. In other words, all effort was directed to-
ward curing diseases, while only a very insignifi-
cant labor was devoted to their prevention. Fur-
thermore the appropriation for health protection
was quite insufficient. Of course, this ridiculous
condition continued even under the Kerensky Gov-
ernment, where more attention was given to cure
than to prophylaxis. But all this now is changed.
More than sixty per cent of the appropriation of
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the People's Commissariat of Health for 1920 (the
total appropriation for the Commissariat runs into
several milliards) will be spent for sanitary pro-
phylaxis. The People's Commissariat of Health
will consider it its duty to combat unsanitary
health conditions, ignorance, dirt, lice, those
wretched vestiges of Czarism and slavery ; the Com-
missariat will do all it can to accustom the people
to cleanliness, to improve the sanitary conditions
of living, particularly the housing conditions, to
put an end to the terrible infant mortality (under
the Czar one child out of every four died before
the age of one year), to improve the medical sys-
tems and make it really accessible to the population
and of a nature to be useful to the population.
Such are the aims of the People's Commissariat
of Health. The economic disorganization, the war
and the mobilization, to be sure, have offered very
serious obstacles to the full realization of this
program.
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
September 7, 1920.
LITHUANIA is fighting the Poles. Armed
by Great Britain, organized militarily by Bri-
tish officers, and financed by the British treasury,
the Lithuanians have turned against the Polish
army nursed by the Entente.
This is a real triumph of the peaceful policy of
the Soviet Government ; it is a great support to the
strategy of the Revolutionary General Staff of
Soviet Russia. Henceforth the right flank of the
Russian Red Army will be fully protected by the
Lithuanians, and this is happening at the most
important moment of the development of the gen-
eral Russian offensive towards Warsaw. On the
other hand, a revolution in Italy appears to be in
progress, which may develop into a general upris-
ing of the Italian proletariat against its govern-
ment.
From a purely strategical point of view the
Italian revolution has come just in time for the
Russian strategy, as it certainly will destroy the
carefully prepared plan of the Entente, first, to use
Italy as a base against the Russians, and second-
ly, to establish a route through Italy for material
support to the Poles. Had Italy remained passive
to the situation in Soviet Russia the Allies would
have overcome the difficulties in Czecho-Slovakia
and Rumania, and finally succeeded in one way
or other in forcing these small nations to open
their gates not only to cargoes directed into Pol-
and, but even for the actual military support of
the Polish army, by consenting to the transport
of troops to the Polish battle-front. Now this
looks quite different. The Italian movement may
be a long and very serious one, and the Italian
proletariat will never support the strategy of the
enemies of the Soviets.
Isolated from the imperialistic Entente, the
small Balkan States, especially Rumania and Hun-
gary, even if they do not follow the Italian ex-
ample, will certainly remain at peace, well know-
ing that if their conduct is unfriendly to the Rus-
sian Soviet Republic, they will become the object
of the Soviet strategy and pay dearly for their
hostility.
Summing up these political circumstances of
the central and southern part of Europe, and tak-
ing into consideration the seriousness of the re-
verses of WrangePs army north of the Crimea and
in Georgia, I am brought to the conclusion that
the left flank of the Soviet army operating against
the Poles is also absolutely secured, and that the
present moment may be considered as very favor-
able for the great Russian offensive against the
Poles.
I see that in the near future the Polish armies
will have to meet the bulk of the Red Russian
forces somewhere between Brest-Litovsk and War-
saw, where the Poles will be completely defeated
and will again seek shelter beyond the Vistula.
The Russian cavalry army, in spite of its alleged
"annihilation", is still holding the enemy in check
in Galicia and is continuing its raids in the rear
of the Polish front, thus threatening the operative
lines of the Poles.
It is ridiculous to suppose that the Allies will
be able to save Poland from the disaster towards
which the Polish imperialistic leaders of the Pil-
sudsky type are pushing their people. Danzig,
with its "corridor" now is still at the disposal of
the Polish supporters and unfortunately for them
this "corridor" has by no means been cleared of
Red elements. From a purely military standpoint,
I do not consider Danzig as a strong and safe base
for the supply of the Polish battle-front, and very
soon it will be seen that I am not mistaken.
A corridor with too many rooms on either side
is a very dangerous thing, especially if these rooms
are filled with elements hostile to those who are
moving through the "corridor".
Practically the Polish supporters will have to
face a serious problem, to repeat what they have
already tried so abortively to execute, namely, to
start once more an armed intervention in Russia,
with a strong Allied army. If they still have in
view such an absurd adventure, so much the worse
for them, for it is not necessary to be a military
expert to prophesy a complete collapse of such a
foolish enterprise. And only by a strong and
active military support, namely, by reinforcement
of the Polish army with a very strong contingent
of Allied forces, the situation of the Polish army
can be temporarily improved. Any capable mili-
tary student certainly should realize that landing
operations on a large scale would be an absolute
impossibility for the Allies, especially at the pres-
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ent moment, when one part at least of Europe is
ablaze with revolution.
Let us not overlook the fact that in 1917 and
1918, there was practically no definite military
organization in Russia. The new-born Soviet Re-
public had still to fight the German invasion, and
had to meet its counter-revolutionary enemies
within, supported by the Entente. Then the gen-
eral intervention began, and, in spite of all the
efforts of the Allies, it failed. Nor should we
overlook the fact that in those days the Soviet
army was not yet popular among the working peo-
ple of the world, or rather, the greater part of
them, thanks to the "anti-bolshevik" propaganda
of the Entente, supported by its reactionary press.
We must not neglect the truth that in those days
the revolutionary movement in Europe had not
attained its present proportions.
Quite different are the happenings of the pres-
ent moment. The Russian Soviet army is con-
sidered by the foremost military experts as per-
haps the strongest army in the world, with an ex-
traordinarily able General Staff, well equipped
and brilliantly led, in the field. This same Red
army, which was two years ago an object of the
most bitter mockery and criticism on the part of
the newspaper correspondents, had now acquired
wholesome respect of its former mockers. The
series of most striking victories of the Red army
over its numerous and powerful enemies has in-
spired the complete confidence of the workers of
the world in the strength of the proletarian army
of Russia and there is no means left in the hands
of the imperialistic coalition to persuade them to
the contrary.
Therefore I take the liberty to declare firmly
and confidently that the Russian Soviet Republic
is not much concerned about the possibility of a
future war against Russia or about any kind of
support that Poland may or may not expect from
America or from elsewhere. The military strength
of the Soviet Army is growing with noticeable ra-
pidity, and, in spite of the expected disorganiza-
tion of the Russian fighting body, after the alleged
"defeat" of the vanguard of the Russian cavalry
army on Warsaw, which the Polish and French
military experts predicted so firmly, the Russians
are now moving towards the west, having seized
the initiative, which proves that the rear of the
Soviet army is in complete order and that the
check which they received before Warsaw was only
of tactical importance, without the slightest ef-
fect on the general strategical situation of the
Soviet army.
"Under-estimating the Bolshevik strength is a
great mistake," said General Rozwadowsky, Chief
of the Polish General Staff, to Colonel Henry J.
Reilly (The Philadelphia Press, August 30). "We
know," continues General Rozwadowsky, "the Bol-
sheviki had organized seventy odd divisions. Their
total loss in killed, wounded, prisoners, and other
casualties, approximates 250,000. However, their
man power virtually is unlimited, and makes re-
placement only a question of time. As an example,
Budenny's cavalry in the south lost probably half
its strength during its advance to its present posi-
tion before Lemberg. Now practically it is at full
strength, due to replacements easily accomplished."
In other words, this Polish strategist is openly
confessing his conviction of the impossibility for
the Polish army to fight the Bolsheviki in the fu-
ture, and it is absolutely certain that had the
Poles freed themselves from the destructive tutel-
age of France or any other capitalistic country,
they would have established a peace with Soviet
Russia long ago. The autumn now is at hand.
The rainy season in Poland will favor the Rus-
sians, because the Poles who are basing their tac-
tics mostly on technical warfare, will be handi-
capped by the bad roads, which are the greatest
obstacle for an army which is using all the mod-
ern machinery of destruction, such as tanks,
armored cars and heavy artillery. During the
rainy season, the activity of the aviation service
is also paralyzed to a certain extent, and at last
it is becoming known that the Poles generally do
not stand either rain or cold. Finally, their resist-
ance must weaken. Quite different is the case with
the Russians, who are waging war with limited
resources in heavy artillery and the other tech-
nical machinery of modern war. Their chief
weapons are their numerous cavalry and their
infantry, which know no obstacles, and which
would be suported by their field artillery. It is
well known that the Russian soldier can stnnr]
rain and frost with equal firmness, and from hi>
boyhood he is accustomed to the most severe
climatic conditions. So the approaching autumn
and, later, the severe winter, do not frighten him.
especially when he realizes that the seasons al-
ways were and will be faithful allies to the Rus-
sian people.
I must say that if the war is prolonged an-
other winter, the Russian people will have to suf-
fer much, but however terrible these sufferings
may be, Soviet Russia will overcome them both
at home as well as in the field, while imperialistic
Poland must collapse, in spite of all the endeavors
of her supporters to save her existence.
Napoleon often repeated : "He will be victorious
who can suffer a half-hour longer than his enemy."
Russia's trials began in 1914; what can it mean
for the Russian people to suffer one winter more ?
But can the Poles stand the approaching win-
ter? The Allies think they could, but I can as-
sure them without any hesitation that with the
next winter the end of the Polish army will be a
fait accompli.
LITHUANIAN AND LATVIAN
TREATIES
The texts of the treaties of peace signed be-
tween Soviet Russia and these two border states,
are in our possession, and will be published as
soon as space permits. Do not miss the October
issues of Soviet Russia.
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"Psychological Imagination"
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TN A recent speech in parliament, Mr. Lloyd
"■■ George quoted Mr. Thomas Shaw, an English
labor leader, who returned a short while ago from
Eussia, to the effect that "the people (in Russia)
are submitting not only to military conscription,
but to industrial compulsion which the workers of
Britain have never dreamt of."
The allegation is clear. The poor people of
Russia, kept down, as others allege, by the "force
and cunning" of a handful of Bolsheviks, have to
"submit" to every kind of compulsion. It would
seem that men who, only a short while ago — dur-
ing the great war — were either themselves, like Mr.
Lloyd George, instrumental in bringing about mili-
tary conscription in their own counrty, or, as Mr.
Thomas Shaw, were "submitting" to it, should not
have the temerity to express surprise at the intro-
duction of military subscription in a country at-
tacked on all sides and compelled to wage war
against ever new hosts of enemies, a war which
Mr. Lloyd George himself has done much, for his
part, to foster, and which, if not for the "submis-
sion" of Mr. Thomas Shaw and his friends, would
probably have long ago reached its end. How-
ever, it was the "industrial compulsion" that has
seemingly most shocked the mind of the English
visitor. For, has not "English life ever since
1688" been based on "kindliness and tolerance"
(Bertrand Russell) ?
Had the adherents of the Soviet regime felt the
necessity of adapting themselves to the mental
processes of their intellectual opponents, they could
easily hire some learned men of the professorial
guild, who with citations from many recognized
authorities on constitutional law, would compose
an "Apologia" showing the supreme rights over
the individual that are vested in the "state". We
are sure many an intellectual opponent would be
overawed by such learned quotations. Or they
could bluntly point to the "necessity" that "knows
no law", not even — remember the war — the sup-
reme law of a country's constitution. Fortunately
for revolutionary Russia, it needs no apologists, as
the Russian revolutionary masses themselves, in
their constant struggle for the maintenance of the
Revolution and its achievements, offer more than
enough argument for the soundness of their gov-
ernment and its policies. It would possibly sur-
prise the opponents of the Soviet regime who are
constantly raving about "compulsion" — if argu-
ments, generally, could find weight with them —
to hear that it was the worker and peasant sol-
diers themselves — those mobilized in the Third
Army of the Ural — who advanced the idea of trans-
forming their army into a labor army, in order
to utilize the period of military calm — it was
after the defeat of Kolchak — for the improvement
of the industrial situation in the Ural region. Nor
would it suit men with preconceived judgments,
to learn that the matter of compulsory labor and
the formation of labor armies have been discussed
byLjOOgk
in thousands of meetings, in the various Soviet
departments, sections and sub-sections, local and
provincial Soviets, at the congress of the councils
of national economy, trade union conferences,
peasant congresses, and no less in the assem-
blies of the Red Army soldiers themselves. At all
of these meetings the opponents of the measure,
by no means all of them drawn from the
Soviet Government's political opponents, the Men-
sheviki and the Social-Revolutionaries, but who,
more often than not, were genuine "hundred per
cent" Communists, discussed the situation with a
liberty, candor, and seriousness which would do
honor to many a western democratic assembly
where the "will of the people" is being coined.
There also the advocates of the government meas-
ure, who most of the time are men equipped with
the training received through their Marxian school-
ing, and who besides have passed through the hard
and convincing school of two revolutions, were
obliged to explain and defend the proposed meas-
ure by explaining the "material causes" (material
causes in the Marxian sense, of course, which does
not exclude such a "cause" as the "submissive-
ness" of some labor leaders in some countries)
which necessitate the adoption of the measures.
Shall we add that these numberless gatherings of
the Russian workers and peasants, taking place all
over Soviet Russia during the entire period of the
revolution, which, after a thorough discussion of
all government measures and policies, usually end
with the adoption of a corresponding resolution,
are the places where the will of the Russian people
is being formed and expressed, in order later to be
carried out by the executive organs of the Soviet
Republic ?
This being so, we cannot abstain from devoting
a few lines to the working of the petty bourgeois
mind so far as its judgment of Russia and the
revolution is concerned. With its disdain for all
"doctrinarism" (Bertrand Russell, for example,
has an almost inborn dislike of Marxism, with its
"stressing of material causes") and with its in-
stinctive fear of great mass movements, the petty
bourgeois intelligentsia is at a loss to understand
the live connection that binds, at a time of a
revolutionary upheaval, the masses of the people
with their revolutionary leaders, making both, as
it were, the organs of one will that is behind them.
Having no clue, owing to his superficiality and
class prejudice, to the undertsanding of the psy-
chology of the revolutionary masses of Russia, and
having consequently arrived at the vain and ridicu-
lous idea that the people of Russia are but an
object of the Soviet Government's measures and
experiments, the petty bourgeois intellectual, in
order to solve his problems, follows at once his
mental habits: he employs "pychological imagina-
tion", that is, he emphasizes the national pecu-
liarities of the Russians ("Oriental traits in the
Russian character") which, according to his view,
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produce in the Russian leaders a fatalistic fanati-
cism with which they cling to their communistic
doctrines, while in the Russian masses they express
themselves in the fatalistic passivity with which
they submit to their leaders.* Side by side with
this accentuation of the national peculiarities of
the Russians, goes his conviction — based appar-
ently again on "psychological imagination," that
these peculiar Russian national traits are com-
pletely strange to the nation to which he happens
to belong. However, this insistence on the psycho-
logical and other peculiarities of the other nation
as contrasted with one's own is not original. It
occurs with regularity whenever the petty bour-
geois defenders of an old order try to vindicate it
against the onslaught of progress. It was so in
Russia years ago, when the narodniki insisted that
Russia need not enter the path of development of
western Europe. Similarly in Germany, a few
decades earlier, the German counterparts of the
Russian narodniki insisted that Germany must not
at all follow the steps of England.** And in the
same manner the sweeping remark of Mr. Shaw
regarding "industrial compulsion" in Russia has
this — though concealed — meaning that what is
called "Russian methods" would generally be en-
tirely impossible of adoption in England.
A very illuminating historical comment on this
kind of allegation was given by Professor Charles
A. Beard in the New Review of June, 1914, in
an article entitled : The Key to the Mexican Prob-
lem. We quote from it, because of their timeliness,
the following paragraphs :
Contempt for other countries and scorn for their
incredible follies are two characteristics that have al-
ways accompanied the development of nationalism. In
the seventeenth century, when the English Whigs were
laboring with might and main to establish parliamentary
supremacy and had to execute one king and drive out
another in order to accomplish that high purpose,
Torcy, Louis XIV's cynical minister, remarked with ill-
disguised amusement oh the inherent disability of the
Anglo-Saxon to conduct himself with decency and self-
respect. The half-century of turmoil in the British
Islands was looked upon by less-informed continentals
as a battle of kites and crows arising from a tempera-
mental opposition to order and settled social life. The
• This obvious contradiction is but a result of the fact that
such "psychological" assumptions are devoid of any actual value.
In a somewhat different connection, the well-known German
psychologist, Prof. Hermann Ebbinghaus, passed the following
remarks on the popular supposition that the "views" (or
religion) of men influence their way of action:
"A sluggish and comfort-loving man with deterministic views
may cross his hands and say: let things pass as they are de-
stined to; there is nothing further to be done here. But what
leads him to this is not his views, but his independently exist-
ing tendency to laziness. For an active and energetic man with
similar views is possessed of the consciousness that he is the
means selected by the destinies of the world, through which
they come into realization. This is also confirmed by historical
experience. Fatalistic Islam is losing quite inactively one piece
of its power after another. Still, originally, it has with the
same fatalism conauered a world in a quick onrush, and kept
the peoples of the West in terror. And has perhaps the modern
belief of the Boers in predestination — which is not, however,
identical with determinism — made them any less active and
less energetic than the orthodox belief in freedom has made the
Spaniards?" — Hermann Ebbinghaus, Abriss der Psychologic,
p. 153.
•• The problem is discussed with great ingenuity by the late
Russian socialist writer, George Plekhanov, in his work entitled:
K voprosu o monisticheskotn vzglyadye na istoryu, published
under the pseudonoym of N. Beltov. Plekhanov thus characterizes
the sociological views of the petty bourgeois intellectuals: "If
there is anything original in their views it is their naive
ignorance as to how little original they are."
byLiGOgle
Frenchman, who then laughed at the Englishman's ex-
pense, of course prided himself upon his own good
sense and innate devotion to properties under the bene-
ficent rule of the Grand Monarch.
Long afterward, for reasons similar to those which
had disturbed England, the land of Torcy and Louis
XIV was torn with civil discord which ran a course
almost identical with that across the Channel. The
English had executed Charles I. The French beheaded
Louis XVI. The English had instituted a Protectorate.
The French experimented with a Consulate. The des-
potism of Cromwell was matched by that of the Cor-
sican adventurer. The English had welcomed their
restored and flattered Charles II. The French endured
their Louis XVIII. The English had driven out James
II, the Stuart who forgot and learned nothing. The
French ousted Charles X, the Bourbon who, like James
II, forgot and learned nothing. And for William III,
there was a bourgeois Louis Philippe.
Strange as it may seem, the French contest for par-
liamentary government, which almost paralleled that of
the English, was regarded by the descendants of those
Englishmen whom Torcy held beneath contempt for
their political imbecilities, in exactly the same spirit
and with the same degree of penetration. Who does
not recall Burke's stately and vindictive diatribe (for
in spite of its lofty airs it was nothing more) and the
many lesser diatribes against the poor, weak, and vacil-
lating Frenchman wanting one thing today and another
tomorrow, and in general acting like a spoiled baby?
Chesterton has sagely remarked that to the average
Englishman the French Revolution is still something
like a huge bye-election.
Illustrations of the opening statement of this article
might be indefinitely multiplied, if there were no limit
to the patience of printers and readers. But one more
reference will bring the principle closely home to the
citizens of the United States. A little more than half
a century ago, the people of this country engaged in a
desperate fratricidal conflict, testing whether the re-
public founded by their fathers could endure. For four
long years they waged such a civil conflict as the world
had never seen. Property totaling into the billions
was destroyed in the South (including millions owned
by Englishmen) and under the suspension of the writ
of habeas corpus in the North the rights of persons
were everywhere put in jeopardy. Wiseacres in Europe
laughed loud in their scorn for a slave republic which
had forever demonstrated, on a stupendous scale, the
failure of democracy.
These lines were written before the Russian
Revolution. Today it is Russia, that is the Russia
of the workers and peasants, that is the center of
philistine scorn. Mr. Thomas Shaw draws a pic-
ture of the Russian people as living under mani-
fold forms of compulsion, and declares that the
English working class never dreamt of similar con-
ditions of compulsion. To us the "voluntary" sale
of labor power to an employer in whose enterprise
the worker is not interested in the least, but to
whom he is compelled to sell his labor power by
the force of economic relations, seems also a kind
of "industrial compulsion," though not decreed by
the force of law. Moreover, the Russian "com-
pulsion" seems to have the advantage that despite
its greater duress, the workers somehow feel and
realize that it is the Russian people as such who
will reap the advantage from their sweat and toil,
and not a small privileged group. However, as
a labor leader, M. Shaw ought to be acquainted
with the history of English labor, which would tell
him that it needed the draconian legislation of the
early English labor statutes to "induce" the ex-
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propriated English peasants and artisans to adapt
themselves to even this "voluntary" compulsion of
the normal process of capitalist production. A
brief review of these statutes containing such pun-
ishments for beggary and vagabondage as "tying
to the cart-tail and whipping until the blood
streams from their bodies", or "branding with an
R on the left shoulder and setting to hard labor",
or even, in case of repetition of the "crime", exe-
cution would convince many an English ideologist
that not only in Russia life was "fierce" and
"cruel", while the history of the English strike
and trade union movement up to 1825 would more
than prove that life in England, even after 1688,
was not all based on "tolerance and kindliness".
But above all, the perusal of the English practice
of the past would show that the capitalist class did
not always depend on the working of the law of
"supply and demand", but that, when it was nec-
essary, it used the power of the state to hold down
the workers to the drudgery of factory work. Many
of these compulsory labor laws existed until the
end of the nineteenth century, as the law (act of
5 Eliz., repealed 1875) compelling all persons able
to work as laborers or artificers, and having no
other means of existence, "to work upon demand",
or the law permitting a criminal action against a
contract-breaking workman, though allowing only
a civil action to the worker against the contract-
breaking master.
It is comprehensible that a statesman, like Mr.
George, would not keep in memory the history of
the English people some centuries or even decades
ago. He even forgets what he himself did only a
few years ago, during the war. Did not Mr. Lloyd
George, when he assumed the office of Minister
of Munitions, insist that it was necessary for the
civil authorities to have the same control over the
men in the workshops and the factories as the
military authorities possessed over the men in the
trenches ?* But that a labor leader of Mr. Shaw's
reputatfon should allow to slip out of his memory
the past martyrology of his own class, and more-
over, that he should forget that recent bit of "in-
dustrial compulsion" known as the "work or fight"
order that had to guide the English trade union-
ists during the war, is more than regrettable. Or
does he perhaps think that revolutionary Russia
is at present not engaged in a bitter war for ex-
istence?
We do not know much about the national psy-
chology of the English, but we do remember the
reactionary uses made of the stereotyped psycho-
logical observations pertaining to the Russian
"plain" people. Thanks to them, an average
French (or other) investing rentier beheld in the
Russian people before the revolution gentle and
humble semi-barbarians, willing, in the simplicity
of their minds, and out of devotion to the Czar,
to toil and sweat in order to secure the interest
on his Russian investments. Similarly, even a
T * As quoted by Robert Williams, The Soviet System at Work,
London, 1920, p. 16.
few weeks before the revolution, the American pub-
lic was deluded by ingenuous correspondents with
tales of the peculiar "psychology" of the Russian
muzhik, whose mind was preoccupied with the
sole desire to please the Czar, and whose devotion
for the "little father" had no parallel in the other
nations. Today all these investors behold in every
Russian of the "lower classes" an image of lazi-
ness, disorderliness and faithlessness.
However, if lessons are to be drawn from hitory,
one such lesson is the outstanding fact, clearly
demontrated during the last few years, of the ease
with which these so-called national differences yield
to the fundamental social antagonisms. Sympto-
matic in this respect is the talk of "general human
civilization," indulged in by the reactionary "bear-
ers of civilization," in countries that were but re-
cently warring with each other. Confronted by
the new rising proletarian culture in Russia, the
English and French forget completely their vicious
diatribes against the "Deutsche Kultur" that had
to be destroyed for the happiness of mankind,
while the Germans have ceased their scurrilous
attacks on the French culture of decadence or the
English shopkeepers' civilization, presumably an
abomination to mankind, to be preferably sup-
planted by the "healthy and harmonious" German
Kultur.
But the "psychological imagination" that imag-
ines it beholds national "resemblances", for in-
stance, between Winston Churchill and Robert
Smillie, or between Lenin and Kolchak, disregards
entirely the fact that this sort of thing is at best
hardly capable of recognition, and is particularly
concealed whenever elementary problems of social
nature come seriously into play. After all, it was
not to Mr. Smillie that Mr. Churchill looked for
inspiration, or for advice in his bold and bloody
plans of assailing the Russian revolution, but to
Kolchak and Von Ludendorff. Therefore psycho-
logical points of "resemblance" of this sort, being
incapable of affecting one's attitude, or even one's
frame of mind, have to be relegated, it seems, to
the domain of transcendent psychic monads, to
act there as they list. As for itself, this "psycho-
logical imagination" must be given its real name,
which is, the "feeling of nationalism", even though
it be unconscious. For it is just where ideas are
lacking that a word will be a splendid substitute
(Faust).
by \j
j^
INCREASED BREAD RATIONS IN
RUSSIA
In spite of all reports of the bourgeois press,
according to which Russia has no bread supply
and is starving, the council of workers of Petro-
grad has decided to increase the daily bread ra-
tions on June 25 to two pounds for group A, 1.5
pound for group B, and 0.75 pound for group C.
Children without exception receive a daily bread
ration of one pounjLjp^
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised.
T^HE FRENCH LOAN has been placed. The
■*" mysterious financial operation that is desig-
nated in the financial pages of the newspapers as
"a $100,000,000 refunding loan" was successfully
put over, as New York newspapers of September
10 put it, in the course of one hour. No doubt
France's credit is now somewhat too promiscuously
associated with that of Poland, and no doubt Pol-
and's is pretty far gone, as the "no market" com-
ment opposite the word "Poland" in the Foreign
Exchange Quotations would seem to indicate. But
it was not impossible, as the event has shown, to
find purchasers for these new securities, after the
public "mind" had been assiduously belabored for
weeks with accounts of Polish "victories" and
"Bolsheviki" collapses, and after even Wrangel
had been prevailed upon — with an eye to the fact
that some bond-purchasers are Jews — to utter a
rather mild and condescending disapproval of po-
groms. T^he fact that both he and the Poles are
at present indulging in veritable orgies of pogrom
activity is one that will not transpire until long
after the so-called "refunding" operation has be-
come long a thing of the past. Meanwhile Kuryer
Polski, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, may continue
with impunity to let the cat out of the bag as to
prospective pogroms in Poland, as they did in a
letter sent out by them which we reprinted in our
last issue.
* ♦ *
INSTRUCTION is the dominant fear of the
**-^ capitalist press when it alleges to discuss the
situation in proletarian countries. The reader will
recall the howl of indignation that was raised in
the newspapers about the reconstructional activi-
ties of the Hungarian and Bavarian Soviets last
year. Of course, when Russia is under "discus-
sion", the "destruction" assumes proportions so
"alarming" as to encourage the counter-revolu-
tionary press to cherish wayward hopes of a speedy
overthrow of the Russian Soviet Government. Re-
gret is expressed in at least one quarter, however,
that in spite of the serious "plight" of the Soviet
Government, there is a probability that it may yet
hold out for another year, and readers are warned
not to be too hopeful of the destructive effects
Digitized by Li
of forest-fires said to have been raging in mj&ny
parts of Russia. Who kindled the forest-fires, we
are not told — it is only the dismay that is ex-
pressed at their failure to accelerate the "ruin"
of Soviet Russia that leads to a conjecture that
perhaps they were of incendiary origin, and that
perhaps the incendiary was not a mere amateur,
but was well paid for his act.
The people of Italy are about to be subjected to
similar "interpretation" in the columns of the
counter-revolutionary press. They appear to have
taken peaceful possession of many factories, and
to have made a serious beginning at production
under proletarian control. We are given amusing
accounts, in hostile newspapers, of the inefficiency
of their management and the resulting ridiculously
low production, occasionally coupled with confes-
sion's that the owners of the factories had locked
up the raw materials and hidden the books, to pre-
vent a proper running of the establishments. All
this we have already heard in connection with Rus-
sia, and it may be some time before we get au-
thentic information as to what has really occurred
in Italy.
Meanwhile, let us call the attention of the reader
to two of the articles appearing in the present is-
sue of Soviet Russia, which throw considerable
light on the causes of whatever destruction the
Soviet Government has had to cope with. One is
the article by the jurist, Goykhbarg, "Kolchakists
on Trial," which gives some indication of the man-
ner in which the counter-revolutionists in Siberia
squandered the property of the Russian and Si-
berian populations. The other is the interview
with Professor Lomonossov, now a prominent of-
ficial in the Commissariat for Means of Communi-
cation, who points out the extent to which the
railroads were run down and wilfully destroyed by
the beasts who have conducted the White invasions
into Soviet Russia's territory. But their day is
nearly over, and Soviet Russia will soon be able to
devote herself heart and soul to the work of recon-
struction. If the case of Italy is parallel to that
of Russia, the revolution in Italy is not nearly so
wasteful as is alleged.
♦ * *
"DONAR LAW or some other British politician
- L * said the other day, in reply to a note by Com-
missar Chicherin, that while he had no doubt of
the ability of the proletarian dictatorship to make
rich men poor, he was not at all certain that they
could do much toward making poor men rich.
There is no doubt an appearance of truth in Mr.
Bonar Law's remarks, as far as the present con-
dition of Russia is concerned. It has thus far been
very difficult to do much toward making poor men
rich, thanks largely to the intervention by France
and England in Russian affairs, and to the coun-
ter-revolutionary activities of the Russian hire-
lings of those governments. It would be interest-
ing to reflect on what better modes of administer-
ing Russian affairs would have been introduced —
had they remained in power — by those friends of
the Entente diplomats who succeeded in arrogating
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control to themselves as soon as the proletariat of
Petrograd and Moscow, in March, 1917, had
overthrown the Czarist Government. To be sure
we should not have heard much of the sufferings
of the peasants had Kerensky maintained his hold;
we were not told much about these things when
the Czar was in power. The Entente would have
considered all to be well with Eussia if the few
bourgeois and reactionary Russians in control of
the country had merely succeeded in keeping the
country at war, in hurling one peasant army after
the other into destruction in order to keep certain
bodies of German troops engaged on the "Eastern"
front, in holding down the rising resistance of
the population and continuing to rule Eussia as a
dependency of the Entente, a tributary who must
furnish cannon-fodder even though it remain itself
unsupplied with cannon. If certain portions of
the upper layer of Russian society could be kept
in sufficient comfort and strength to hold down the
lid — that was all Mr. Bonar Law, and Mr. Church-
ill, and Mr. Lloyd George wanted. But their
friends in Russia lost power, and these three gen-
tlemen, and the newspapers who echo their views,
have an entirely different tale to tell. Now that
the effort is being made in Russia to give to every-
one who works — in other words, to all but these
few friends of the Entente — an opportunity to
share equally in the distribution of food and com-
forts, the present difficulties encountered in this
task are hailed with glee by the counter-revolu-
tionary world. And their exultation is not hard
to understand, for much of the occasion for it is
directly due to their own machinations.
* * *
"POLAND'S claim, expressed while the Soviet
A Government was attempting to persuade the
Polish delegates to the Armistice Conference to
report for the negotiations, to the effect that the
Soviet wireless station was refusing to receive Pol-
ish wireless communications, is somewhat weak-
ened by a revelation made recently in the columns
of Humanite, of Paris. Humanite says that the
following wireless message from Carnarvon was
picked up by the Paris station :
"By order of the British Government the Warsaw
station is asked to cease its boycott of the Moscow
station, and to take a message of extreme urgency."
Humanite goes on to report that while Warsaw
remained silent, emitting no answer, remaining
apparently in a broken-down condition, it dis-
played perfect efficiency an hour later, when it
called up Prague and began sending out stock
exchange quotations.
* * *
C IX MONTHS is the period commonly allowed
^for the persistence of the tottering Soviet Gov-
ernment. And this period is allowed rather indis-
criminately, whether it begin in January, 1919,
or September, 1920. And always the source is
official and confidential and awe-inspiring. And
yet, gift sources must always be looked carefully
in the mouth. We refrain from pursuing the origin
of the latest six-months' scare, but cannot resist
the temptation to look more closely at the sources
of some of the other "news" trickling out of Rus-
sia or bellowed from the seats of counter-revolu-
tionary news services.
The latest "documentary" evidence that Russia
is no place to live in, and advising workers not
to travel to Russia in order to live and work
there, comes from Stockholm, Sweden. It appears
that a delegation of Swedish workers, who had
gone to Russia in order to investigate conditions
of life there, returned recently to their homes and
published an unfavorable account of their observa-
tions in Russia. But it is interesting to note that
this report, to judge by the accounts of it given in
the New York daily press, was published in the
Stockholm Social-Demokraten, a right-wing So-
cialist organ, which, like all of its counterparts in
European cities, is furiously opposed to the Soviets.
We shall probably receive copies of other Swedish
papers in a few days, in which the truth on this
matter is revealed.
Another hostile account is that printed in the
New York Times of Sunday, September 12, full
of details as to the savage treatment alleged to
have been accorded the population of Kiev on the
occasion of the recent occupation of that city by
the Red Army. The source is again very illumin-
ating: "The report is certified by the Central
Committee of the Russian Red Cross." Who is
the Russian Red Cross"? Is it the Red Cross Or-
ganization of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet
Republic, which always encounters the utmost dif-
ficulty when it attempts to get in touch with West-
ern European authorities, or the Czarist "Russian
Red Cross", to which all avenues of communica-
tion, all gates to the news services, are opened on
demand? That is the only question to which an
answer is required by him who seeks enlighten-
ment as to the trustworthiness of these latest ac-
counts of "Red Terror."
Tl^HILE Western Europe is completely acces-
" sible to any communication the counter-revo-
lutionary Red Cross may have to make — and we
regret to say, America is also available for such
purposes, — it should interest readers to reflect for
a moment on the standing of this organization in
Russia. Here is an organization of enemies of
the Russian people and of the Soviet Government,
who spread lies about Soviet Russia and the prac-
tice of justice in that country, but who are per-
mitted to spread such lies only in countries whose
governments are hostile to the government that
was set up by the Russian people themselves, and
has remained in power for three years, in spite
of alleged drownings of commissars in the Neva
at Petrograd, in spite of the "nationalization of
women" — and, we may add seriously — in spite of
the hardships of one of the most trying military
situations in history. The American reader, when
he is a reasonable man, will be moved only to
greater respect for the Soviet Government, by each
new fabrication its enemies place before him.
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Correspondence with the American Red Gross
[The following letters exchanged between Mr. Mart"*>s and the American Red Cross are, it is
hoped, the conclusion of the episode of the Petrograd ( *dldren's Colony, which sailed for Europe
on September 11. Next week we shall print a resolution of the Colony expressing hope that they
may go directly to Petrograd. We strongly share this hope.]
September 7, 1920.
Mr. Frederick P. Keppel,
Vice-Chairman American Red Cross,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir:
I have received your letter of September 3 and
note with satisfaction that the American Red Cross
is considering my protest against the taking of the
780 Russian children to France. I feel sure that
upon careful deliberation you will decide against
an action which would be an obvious injustice to
the children and their parents.
I urge you, however, as soon as possible to make
a public statement that the children will not be
sent to France and that they will be sent to their
homes without delay. I know from reliable re-
ports that the children are in a most unhappy state
of dread lest they be sent to the unfriendly atmos-
phere of France, thus greatly delaying their home-
coming and making them the innocent victims of
international political enmity. A clear statement
from you that it is not the purpose of the Red
Cross to send them to France will relievS the fears
of the children and make them better able to bear
their impatient longings for their parents and
their homes.
Yours very truly,
L. A. Martens,
Representative of the Russian Socialist
Federal Soviet Republic.
THE AMERICAN RED CROSS
National Headquarters
Washington, D. C.
September 3, 1920.
Mr. L. Martens,
110 West 40th Street,
New York City.
Dear Sir:
Your letter of August 30th has been received
and carefully noted.
I am taking the matter up with my associates
both in this country and abroad with a view to
determining just what action should be taken, and
^e will be glad to communicate with you when
we have arrived at a decision.
Yours very truly,
(Signed) F. P. Keppel,
Act ing Chairman .
THE AMERICAN RED CROSS
Atlantic Division
44 East 23d Street
New York, N. Y.
September 9, 1920.
Mr, J. K. L. Martens,
Russian Soviet Bureau,
110 West 40th Street,
New York City.
Dear Sir:
Confirming our telephone conversation I en-
close herewith a copy of a statement given to the
American and Russian press for tomorrow morn-
ing's issue, relative to the destination of the Petro-
grad Children's Colony.
Yours very truly,
H. J. Rogers, Manager.
by Google
THE AMERICAN RED CROSS
Atlantic Division
44 East 23d Street
New York, N. Y.
For Immediate Release
The American Red Cross yesterday authorized
the following statement regarding the Russian
children who are being transported to their homes
under its care:
The American Red Cross announces that, in
accordance with its original plan, the Petrograd
Children's Colony will be taken from New York
direct to a Baltic port; from there, the children
will be sent to their parents in whatever part of
Europe they may be residing.
When the S. S. Yomei Maru left Vladivostok
with the children and their attendants, no other
procedure was contemplated. While the boat was
en route to New York from San Francisco, the con-
ditions in Northwestern Europe forecast the pos-
sibility that such a course would result in taking
the children into another war zone. Solely for
the safety and comfort of the Colony, the advis-
ability was discussed of holding the children in
Western Europe in Red Cross buildings and prop-
erty until actual health and political conditions
could be clearly known, and preliminary arrange-
ments were made to use an American Aviation
Field in France near Bordeaux.
By the time the Yomei Maru had reached New
York conditions had again changed, and the rea-
sons for apprehension for the health and comfort
of the children were less urgent, and no longer
outweighed the convenience in debarking and for-
warding them home from a Baltic port. It has
therefore been decided, after cabled consultation
with the Red Cross Commissioner to Europe, to
adhere to the original plan. In arriving at this
conclusion, the wishes of the children, their teach-
ers and attendants, have been considered, as well
as the almost unanimous opinion of our Russian
residents of all shades of political belief.
The Red Cross considers its prime obligation to
be the restoration of the children to their parents.
The Yomei Maru will probably sail early Saturday
morning, th Ijft^jpfe September.
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Kolchakists on Trial
By A. GOTKHBABG
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What crimes of the Kolchakists were revealed at
the trial ? It took six days to present the evidence
of the prosecution, and a complete account of the
evidence would require more than one tome. Only
the most important points can be briefly stated
in a newspaper article.
Almost all the material of the prosecution was
taken from declarations (secrret and public) of
the defendants themselves, or of their co-partisans,
from their official secret documents, telegrams,
long distance conversations and decisions of the
Kolchak government. We practically refused to
call our own witnesses or to present our evidence.
We merely made public the secret acts of the "re-
generators". And the result of this was such a
vile chain of treachery, betrayal, spoliation, petty,
grand and collosal larceny, destruction, cruelty and
murder, that many of the defendants were con-
strained to declare at the trial (perhaps, hypo-
critically) : had we known all this, we would have
refused to have any connection with that govern-
ment.
We will begin with the right socialist parties.
Theoretically, we are convinced that the right
socialist parties participating in the government
act only as the servants of the bourgeoisie, as its
valets, that the bourgeoisie and the military use
them as a democratic fig leaf, covering their ugly
nakedness from the eyes of the toiling masses.
This theoretical convicition of ours was dramatic-
ally corroborated at the trial by the amusing and
horrible picture of the bourgeoisie and military
removing this fig-leaf.
At the beginning the reaction was impotent.
Hence the democratic and socialist fig-leaf was
prominently put forward. Hence the cabinet of
the Socialist-Revolutionist Derber, who, testifying
at the trial, admitted that at a secret conference
he had been elected as the first premier for the
purpose of overthrowing the Soviet power. His
comrades composed the council of ministers at
Omsk. His friends, L. Mikhailov and Markov,
signed the first "laws" abolishing Soviets, annul-
ling the nationalizations, abolishing the whole
Soviet system. They appointed "efficient" men,
from the circles connected with industry. But
the "efficient" business men were not serving the
socialists. On the contrary, they merely tolerated
the socialists as long as these served their cause.
But it became necessary to create the eastern
front to "aid" the Allies, and it was not certain
that the Socialist Revolutionary "ministers" would
consent to this. Then the most accomodating
Socialist Revolutionary minister, Vologodsky,
speaks on the long distance from Vladivostok to
Omsk : the Socialist Revolutionary ministers, Kru-
tovsky and Shatilov, should be removed, and the
Derber minister Novosselov should be given to
understand, through the proper people, that his
Digitized by t^OOglC
appearance at Omsk would be out of place. Two
days later, Novosselov was arrested and killed by
officer Semenchenko, who went unpunished. While
Krutovsky and Shatilov were arrested by order
of the Chief of the Omsk garrison, Volkov, were
taken to the home of certain officers, and, with
guns aimed at them, were forced to sign an illiter-
ate statement of their resignation. The "efficient"
men accepted these resignations of the "ministers",
falsely recording in the minutes that the resigna-
tions were considered in the presence of Krutovsky
and Shatilov. Then these "efficient" officials asked
Gratzianov, a friend of the arrested ministers, to
convey to the latter their sympathy, and after this
Judas kiss, the "ex-ministers" were forced to sign
their consent to leave Omsk within twenty-four
hours.
But trouble came from the Czechs. They threat-
ened to leave the front if too right a course should
be taken, and the "efficient" men perforce agreed
to turn over the power once again to the Social-
ist Revolutionist (somewhat more right) Directory,
with Avksentyev and Zenzinov, and removed them
to Krassilnikov's camp. "In view of the absence
of any governing power," the ministers led by
the Socialist-Revolutionist Vologodsky elected Kol-
chak as dictator. After which they sent the Min-
ister of Justice, Starynkevich, a member of the
Socialist-Revolutionist Party, to express their sym-
pathy to Avksentyev and Zenzinov. He took them
to the city, where he put them under guard, al-
leging afterwards that he did this at their own re-
quest, and then they were forcd to sign a state-
ment declaring that they would leave for abroad
within twenty-four hours, and promising to ab-
stain from any agitation against Kolchak.
The culmination of these events was the horrible
drama of the thirty-one men, enacted in January,
1920. In December, 1919, during the insurrec-
tion against Kolchak at Irkutsk, the Kolchakists
seized at a secret meeting thirty-one men, includ-
ing the creators of Kolchakism, L. Mikhailov and
Markov. These thirty-one men were turned over,
through General Sychev, and not without the as-
sistance of the ministers who were originally called
into the service by Mikhailov and Markov, to Col-
onel Sypailov, the aide of Attaman Semionov, who
boasted that he personally, with his own hand, had
"got rid" of 3,000 persons. "By hand and stick"
the thirty-one were forced to sign a statement that
they were leaving for abroad. After this they
were brought up to the side, murdered by a mallet
blow on the head, and all of them, including P.
Mikhailov and Markov, were thrown under the
propeller of the steamer, which cut out a layer
of ice six inches thick.
Thus history completed her circle.
Ill
It was shown at the trial that the Socialist-Revo-
lutionists and the McnahfiTiki , who organized their
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governments at Samara, Ufa and in Siberia, in-
stigated the insurrection of the Czecho-Slovak
troops, and that they executed workmen in Samara
and Ufa. Their favorite hero and 'liberator", the
Czech General Gaida, devastated the Russian city
of Perm, for which, incidentally, he received a
telegram expressing appreciation, from the chair-
man of the eastern section of the "Cadet" party,
Mr. Klafton, who "loved his fatherland with the
ardor of a true Russian." This same Gaida issued
orders to shoot every tenth striker.
Despite all this, the Kolchakists soon began to
take summary measures not against alleged Bol-
sheviki (the term "Bolsheviki" — Kolchak stated
in his testimony — was very indefinite), but also
against Socialist Revolutionists and Mensheviki.
Thus, Kolchak ordered the arrest of many Social-
ist-Revolutionists, members of the Constituent
Assembly. Together with these, v many other So-
cialist-Revolutionists were seized. And when it
was ascertained that the arrest of the latter was a
misunderstanding, and when Kolchak asked the
Minister of Justice, Starynkevich, a Socialist-
Revolutionist, what should be done with them,
he replied : "Let them stay in prison for a while."
By order of the council of ministers, passed with
the consent of "former" Social Democrats, includ-
ing Shumilovsky, the Social-Democrat Kirienko
was imprisoned, as was also the Social-Democratic
editor, E. Mayevsky.
On December 21, 1918, an unsuccessful insur-
rection of workers occurred in Omsk. The insur-
gents first of all went to the jail and liberated not
only the Bolsheviki, but also all the other political
prisoners. One cannot read without a feeling of
repugnance the testimony given by the Socialists-
Revolutionists of the Constituent Assembly, to the
Kolchak Commission of Inquiry, in which they
stated that they left the jail because they feared
punishment at the hands of the "perpetrators of
violence, the Bolsheviki," but that on the next day
they voluntarily returned to the jail of the free-
dom-loving democrat Kolchak.
On the evening of the following day the Kol-
chakists began to remove from jail for execution,
not only the Bolsheviki, who had been seized by
force, but also the Socialists-Revolutionists and
Mensheviki, who had returned voluntarily. Officer
Cherchenko came with a personal order of Kol-
chak to remove for execution the Social Democrat
Kirienko, the Socialist-Revolutionist Devitov, and
the Internationalist Popov. Kirienko and Devitov
were shot in the street. Popov was sick with spot-
ted typhus. They therefore tried to lower him
into the sewer, but were prevented by "technical
conditions" — the passage was too narrow. Officer
Bartyshevsky, of Krasylnikov's force, took fifteen
prisoners for execution, among them the Socialist
Revolutionary member of the Constituent Assem-
bly, Bruderer, and E. Mayevsky. All the "removals"
were managed by the head of the school for non-
commissioned officers, Rubtzov, by whose order
forty-four "Bolsheviki" were shot at three o'clock
in the morning. And after this the following entry
Digitized by tiOOgK'
was made in the minutes of the military court
under the chairmanship of General Ivanov : at six
o'clock in the morning, forty-four defendants (they
had already been shot at three a. m.) were in-
formed of their sentence, as well as of the time
allowed for an appeal. And who is this Rubtzov ?
Not long before, on June 8, 1918, at a meeting
of the Right Socialist parties, directed by the
Socialists Revolutionists, he was elected chief of
the revolutionary staff whick was organized for
the purpose of overthrowing the Soviet power in
the city of Tare, and was at the same time pro-
moted by them to the rank of a captain. For
shooting the "Bolsheviki" and Socialists-Revolu-
tionists, he was promoted by Kolchak to the rank
of lieutenant-colonel, dating from December 22,
1918. The other executioners were sent by Kol-
chak to the detachment of Attaman Annenkov, to
avoid the formality of a trial, although before they
were sent away, the work of these executors was
characterized as "beyond all praise" by all the
ministers, including the members of the Socialist-
Revolutionist Party and the former members of
the Social Democratic Party.
The cossacks of Annenkov's detachment were
distinguished by the skull and crossed bones worn
on their sleeves, and this signified the fate that
awaited toy one who fell into their hands. They
had "death-cars", which they used for summary
executions. According to Kolchak's own testimony,
Kalmykov's men were seizing people on the roads,
robbing and murdering them; and if these acts
were discovered, they claimed that thir victims
were Bolsheviki. Attaman Semionov's lieuten-
ants killed by their own hand as many as 3,000
persons each. And not only did these braves go
unpunished, but they were even rewarded for this
brutality.
Particularly at the end of the Kolchak regime,
it became a common practice to take prisoners
from the jails and shoot them. This was the fate
of thousands. On a motion made by the "former"
Social-Democrat, the Minister of Agriculture Pet-
rov, the council of ministers adopted a resolution
"to prevent the captured Bolsheviki from settling
on the territory of Siberia." And in Omsk alone we
buried so many people who were tortured to death,
that their coffins formed a line over half a mile
long. There was not a city or town where these
horrors were not enacted.
The number of persons killed by the Kolchak-
ists, not in the course of battles, is enormous. The
Kolchakists were active in sixteen provinces. And
in the province of Yekaterinburg alone, according
to the underestimates of the official data, at least
25,000 persons were tortured to death, shot, or
buried alive.
Besides murders, the Kolchakists used mass
floggings, chiefly with rods. They flogged young
and old, men, women and children. In the prov-
ince of Yekaterinburg, not less than ten per cent
of the two million population were subjected to
floggings.
Kolchak and General Rozanov issued order to
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raze to the ground whole villages, — not for mili-
tary-strategical reasons, but solely through brut-
ality. This wag confirmed at the trial by Colonel
Syromyatnikov, former chief of General Rozanov's
staff. In only a few of the Siberian provinces,
over 20,000 farms were destroyed, and over 10,000
peasant houses were burned down. The same Gen-
eral Eozanov issued orders to shoot ten hostages
for every Czech or officer killed. The Kolchakists
destroyed over a hundred large bridges. They
blew up almost all water stations. On the morning
after the entry of the Soviet troops into Omsk, the
Kolchak General Rymsky-Korsaiov was arrested
while he was on the way to his office, and in his
portfolio was found an order to blow up the Omsk
powder stores, which would have meant the de-
struction of the whole city, except perhaps the
outlying districts.
There was hardly any foreign government, not
excepting the German, which the Kolchakists did
not beg for military aid, whose military forces they
did not call up to aid them against their "ar-
dently beloved fatherland." In payment for this
aid they sold 'their country", as much as it was
in their power, to foreign governments. "The
matter of concessions to the Japanese" — Vologod-
sky wrote in a secret communication to Rozanov,
— "has been arranged on a broad plan, and it may
be hoped that it will develop." All the Siberian
railroad lines were placed under the unrestricted
control of foreigners, that is, of the Inter-Allied
Commission. But this was not all. They pro-
tested against workers' control, but they agreed to
the unrestricted control of foreign generals. In
a note addressed to the chairman of the council
of ministers, and dated December 26, 1919, Gen-
eral Janin wrote : "The agreement signed on Jan-
uary 14 by Admiral Kolchak, General Stefanik,
General Knox and myself, stipulates that I, as
commander-in-chief of the Allied armed forces
and as representative of France, shall have general
control both at the front and in the rear"
They turned over to foreigners about 10,000
poods of gold — one-third of the gold reserve stolen
for them by the Socialists-Revolutionists and Men-
sheviki — amounting at the pre-war valuation to
240 million rubles. They tried also to turn over the
remaining 20,000 poods of gold, as "all-Russian
property,"— to "all the Allies."
To secure some sympathy abroad for their cause
they needed a corrupt and libelous press, and they
6pent tens of millions for this purpose. Their
agents in foreign countries were energetic, — they
worked on a salary and did piece work in addition.
Alexinsky and Savinkov were paid for piece work.
In the second half of 1919 they sent a half mil-
lion francs to Burtzev at Paris, 33,000 dollars to
the "Liberation Committee" (Milyukov and
Struve) at London, and similar sums to Mitarev-
sky at Tokio and to Sack at New York. The
supreme governing board of the Church, financed
by the government, sent to the Pope, to the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, and to other, "reliable" re-
ports to the effect that the Bolsheviki had nation-
alized the women, and the "socialists" of the Omsk
government sent the same "reliable" reports to the
ex-pope of Marxism, Kautsky. And yet, in one
of Kolchak's pockets, when he was captured, was
found a copy of the lampoon regarding the nation-
alization of women — the "Decree of the Free Anar-
chist Association of Saratov." This, however, did
not hinder the Kolchakists from trying to seduce
two popes by this plain falsehood.
In addition to the foreign "financial policy", they
had an internal one: steal as much as you can.
Every day they granted subsidies to enterprises,
amounting to over a billion. They gave to the
"Cadet" military-industrial committee many mil-
lions, all of which went into the pockets of the
latter, as was admitted in the report of Kolchak's
inter-departmental commission to the council of
ministers. They established an "emigrant" bank
and appropriated for this purpose hundreds of
millions in gold currency, to be used in loans to
various establishments and individuals, to enable
them to buy shares of this bank. They purchased
for the government at double the price (sixty
million rubles) the Cheremkhov mines, which had
been nationalized by the Soviet power and was
"denationalized" by them.
In comparison with all this the individual thefts
(with or without permission) of individual minis-
ters seem insignificant. Three days after it had
been decided to evacuate Omsk, the council of min-
isters resolved to give to Kolchak an appropriation
of three million rubles for the moving of the of-
fices and for the maintenance of the garage (at
Omsk!) and its guard, and 75,000 rubles to pur-
chase furniture for the dining-room of the Su-
preme Ruler. Pissarev was given an appropria-
tion of 100,000 rubles for "patriotic agitation";
of these he spent 20,000 for the moving of an
echelon, 20,000 he gave as a subsidy to the refugee
popes, 5,000 he sent to his wife. Larionov trans-
ferred many millions to his personal account. On
the eve of their fall, about the end of December,
they gave an appropriation of 100,000 rubles to
the charge d'affaires of the council of ministers,
for the needs of the library. At the same time,
they gave 100,000 rubles to the ministry of foreign
affairs (which had only one official and one typist)
to purchase wood for the office of the ministry.
"To relieve the situation" of the ministers and
their assistants, the council of ministers decided to
supply them with Japanese yens at a special ex-
change rate — ten rubles for a yen, that is, to give
them fifty rubles in exchange for one. The min-
isters Zefirov, Mikhailov, von Goyer and Sukin
simply stole, and did not even trouble to cover
up their traces. Their thefts were discovered,
but they were not brought to trial, because the
judges themselves had their hands in the pie. And
then, was not the whole rebellion against the rule
of the workers and peasants organized with the
aim of securing the possibility to speculate, to loot
and 6teal, on the basin of private property?
VERSITY OF MICHIGAN
390
SOVIET RUSSIA
September 18, 1920
Nastya Terentyeva
A Pen-Picture: A Proletarian Type
By Dr. Bohumir Smeral
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Nastya Terentyeva, twenty-two years old, charm-
ing, pretty, an exceptionally intelligent comrade.
A factory hand, seamstress, — today a propagan-
dist and organizer in that trade. About a week
ago Olbracht and Vajtauer escorted her home from
the theatre — her home lies in an obscure city sub-
urb. She considered this to be a bourgeois habit
and was offended. "Why, I travel alone all over
Russia, why couldn't I walk alone in Moscow ?"
She did not show herself for a week. They met
her yesterday and brought her to Gani for tea.
Here I met her personally. Her first glance, the
pressure of her hand, confident and friendly, like
that of an affectionate sister. At Olbracht's sug-
gestion, I offered her a box of bon-bons I had
brought for myself from Reval, a rarity, and, be-
cause of shortage of sugar, almost a necessity.
She looks at me with a proud, childlike reproach.
She will have none. When pressed, she puts them
down on the table before her and during the entire
evening does not take any. Then, perhaps, during
the whole evening she did not look at me directly
even once, and when she left, the box of sweets re-
mained behind. Such is the proud disdain that the
proletarian has of our Western European customs,
which apparently make upon them a bourgeois im-
pression. And how she speaks! She is still a
child, but when she discusses the revolution or the
most technical details of the trade movement, she
speaks with such accurate knowledge, with such
logic, with such fervor and tense interest, that
Olbracht dropped a remark that not even his wife
at home nor Marka Mejerova could measure up
to this twenty-two year-old girl. I say: In fact,
in thoroughness, depth and understanding of her
sphere, not even Hampl. Quietly, and in an even
voice, with sincerity and earnestness, she explains
the history of the factory in which she works.
Factory committeeg in the first phase of the Revo-
lution during Kerensky, the sudden springing up
of trade organizations, the conflict between the
two, the passing of factory control into the hands
of the workers, dissention between the officials and
the workmen about this control, sabotage of the
capitalist, and the realization that he could no
longer hold the factory, his flight with money into
the ranks of the counter-revolutionists and to
Denikin ; the workers run the factory, put through
its municipalization, the nationalization of indus-
try and its subordination to the Supreme Council
of National Economy. Today, the factory is man-
aged, under the supervision of the state, by three
members. One member is elected by the factory
workers, one is appointed by the Soviet Govern-
ment. Wages were formerly paid by the piece, dur-
ing the revolution the minimum wage was placed
at 250 a month. Later it was raised to 300 ; — now
it is according to the tariff. And she explains the
general application of the tariff in her trade. Out
of the thirty-five scales of the tariff, twelve are
in actual operation. The others apply to officials
and state employes. Regular wages of workers
range between 1,200 and 2,100 rubles per month.
In placing the workers in these grades, the nature
of the work is considered : dangerous, harmful, the
length of learning the trade, experience after learn-
ing it, dampness, mental exertion, physical exer-
tion, heat, etc. Each of these conditions is sup-
plied with a numerical value, the total of these
values is divided by the number of grades and the
result is the tariff classification. Our comrade
draws a system of squares, on which these numbers
are marked, so that the result is immediately seen,
as well as the method of derivation. Each worker
receives such a diagram, showing his tariff classifi-
cation, which is made by a commission of his co-
workers. Should he have any objections, he can
appeal to the tariff commission of the trade organ-
ization. To this regular wage are added: prem-
iums for higher production, job-work, overtime,
etc.
Never before have I heard anyone speak about
these technicalities of the movement with such
fervor and love as the twenty-two year-old Nastya
Terentyeva. Her pretty cheeks are aglow, her
eyes would like to impart to you all she herself
feels. What God and love are to others — the
working class is to her. When she speaks of her
youth and tells how her father beat her, it seems
but trivial to her. In telling that her brother
ran away from home because he was in danger of
moral corruption, she says simply: "He learned
the tailoring trade. Tailors were, in the capitalis-
tic past, one of the most exploited trades, class-
consciousness was small, and they had no represen-
tation anywhere, and they drowned their sorrow in
alcohol. Brother fell into such company ." Social-
ism and revolutionary ideals took hold of her
brother upon the very edge of the chasm, and to
socialistic and revolutionary ideals she too fled
from the home, which could be no home, when she
was eighteen years old. Today she has behind
her four years of activity, and what the last four
years have been in Russia is well known. But she
is not tired. Her sweet face is quietly cheerful.
The results are giving her satisfaction and joy.
I almost think that she has a longing to be a
martyr to the cause. Here the hardest work has
been done. She tells you frankly that she would
like to come to us in Bohemia, to work among
those strange people who do not know that every
communist is good, people who have all sorts of
ideals which to her seem trivial, where the working
classes do not really know what the class struggle
means, where the name of Lenin is an insult ; who
are so benighted that they do not know that there
is such a thing as class-consciousness, and that
there is no higher ideal, no higher hope than the
1VERSITY OF MICHIGAN
September 18, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
291
working class, communism, revolution. And how
she sings in a low voice the Russian revolutionary
songs. Olbracht says : "Sweet." But I see before
me a saint of early Christianity. Czecho-Slovaks,
you who were deceived and who fought in Siberia
— it would never have come to this tragic conflict,
had you but for one brief hour seen this Russian
child, felt the pulse of her heart, listened to her
talk, calm, ardent, humble, yet ringing with the
joy of victory. Yesterday Nastya expressed her-
self to the effect that she would like to go and
work in Bohemia. I thought it was but a fleeting
thought. Today when she appeared at Gani, she
had with her a Czech grammar and was learning
to spell the Latin alphabet.
Wireless and Other News
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FROM THE REPORT OF THE DELE-
GATES OF THE JOINT DISTRIBUTION
COMMITTEE, MR. MAX PINE AND
JUDGE H. FISHER
[Mr. Max Pine and Judge H. Fisher spent sev-
eral months in Central and Eastern Europe,
whither they were sent by the Joint Distribution
Committe to investigate the situation of the Jews
and to organize the relief to the Jewish war and
pogrom victims. The following is a short cita-
tion from their official report to the Joint Distri-
bution Committee, which was published in the
Jewish newspapers on August 24.]
"It will take months before we shall be able to
arrange all the materials which we have collected
and to submit a detailed report on the pogroms.
But from the materials on hand it is obvious that
the leaders of a people who could perpetrate such
acts as had taken place in Ukraine have not the
slightest desire to establish law and order. The
worst criminals would be ashamed to be known
as the leaders of such a country as the present
Ukraine. And yet the leaders of the Ukrainian
bands have been trusted by the civilized coun-
tries, and have received from them material as well
as moral support. Regardless of whether we are
or are not in sympathy with the present form of
government in Russia, it would be an ignominious
cowardice on our part were we not to state openly
that Soviet Russia is the only power in Eastern
Europe that has honestly, earnestly and energetic-
ally combatted and used all her moral and physical
power to suppress the monster of anti-semitism,
which thoroughly contaminated the White armies.
Every counter-revolutionary group in Russia
bathed in innocent Jewish blood. Every counter-
revolutionary movement showed its first sign of
life by pogrom agitation in proclamations, leaflets
and newspaper articles . . .
"In its attitude toward the formerly oppressed
peoples the Soviet Government has shown such a
free and humanitarian spirit, that nothing like it
can be found in any of the countries of Central
or Eastern Europe. And sad as it may be, the
fact remains that the Allies supported its enemies,
who were just as brutal and inhuman as the Soviet
Government was sincere and sympathetic. The
position of the Soviet Government in this respect
is brought into even greater relief if on considers
its attitude to the Jews. Despite the fact that
the Jewish masses were anti-Bolshevik and opposed
to the Soviet Government, the latter gave billions
of rubles and immeasurable humanitarian aid to
the Jewish pogrom victims . . . "
GERMAN - AUSTRIAN BOURGEOISIE
IN FAVOR OF COMMERCIAL RELA-
TIONS WITH RUSSIA
Only some months ago the actual restoration of
commercial relations between Russia and German-
Austria would have been a revolutionary act. At
that time the Social Democrats hindered it in every
way, and in that respect they have kept with the
bourgeoisie, which was still hoping for the over-
throw of the Soviet Government. Today it is all
done with this hope, even the capitalists favor the
resumption of economic relations between German-
Austria and Russia. Hence the following report :
At a meeting of the Russian division of the
Chamber of Commerce, presided over by the Vice-
president of the Chamber, Councillor Etsinger,
which took place a few days ago, it was pointed
out by many who were present that notwithstand-
ing the numerous peace treaties the beginning of
commercial relations with Russia, so important for
our industries and the whole economic life of Aus-
tria, is still impossible ; that the restoration of our
ruined commerce and industry is unthinkable with-
out renewing our connections with the Russian
markets, disrupted by the war, and utilizing again,
to the advantage of Austrian industries and com-
merce, the numerous Austrian funds which at
present lie buried in Russia. It was expressed as
a certainty that other states would try all means
of entering into commercial relations with Russia,
and that we should once more come too late, un-
less we should succeed in concluding as soon as
possible economic peace with Russia. On a mo-
tion made by the head of the Zisarsky firm, the
wishes of the meeting were summed up in the fol-
lowing resolution: "The industrial and commer-
cial circles of German Austria, represented in the
Austro-Russian division of the Chamber of Com-
merce, consider the speedy official resumption of
commercial relations with Russia an absolute ne-
cessity, inasmuch as the economic reconstruction
of Austria is urgently in need of the Russian
market, and, according to reliable reports, other
states are already beginning, if only unofficially,
to seek the Russian market, in so far as it is within
reach at present. The government is urged to take,
as soon as poesiWs, any steps that will lead to an
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
September 18, 1920
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eventual economic peace with Russia. The ques-
tions as to in what way and under what guarantees
commerce with Russia may be begun, what the
owners of Russian securities may expect, what po-
sition the Soviet Government takes with regard to
the pre-war Austrian creditors and what has hap-
pened, and is to happen, to liquidated Austrian
property in Russia, — these questions ar^ extremely
urgent and in need of speedy solution. The ad-
mission of an official commercial commission for
the purpose of studying the economic conditions
in Soviet Russia should be striven for by all
means." The resolution was unanimously adopted.
Thus the Social-Democrats have happily lived
to see the day when a demand of the revolutionary
proletariat has changed to a demand from the
profit-greedy bourgeoisie. Now the Social-Demo-
crats in the government will be able to approach
with untroubled conscience the establishment of
economic relations with Russia. — From Die Rote
Fahne, Vienna.
RUSSO-LETTISH PEACE
Moscow, August 16 (by wireless). — Vestnik
reports in a communication according to which
peace was concluded with Latvia, that Latvia had
demanded that Soviet Russia cede to it the even-
tual German indemnities awarded to it in the
Treaty of Versailles. Since the Soviet Govern-
ment does not recognize the Treaty of Versailles,
and since, therefore, this treaty does not exist for
Soviet Russia, the Lettish demand was rejected
and the peace treaty signed without reference to
the Versailles Treaty.
THE RUSSO-FINNISH ARMISTICE
Moscow, August 16 (by wireless). — The armis-
tice agreement with Finland, which originally had
been concluded for thirty-one days, was extended
indefinitely. The present front between the Red
troops and the Finns will probably be the future
frontiers.
AMERICA AND RUSSIA
Moscow, August 7 (by wireless). — People's
Commissar of Foreign Affairs, Chicherin, has in-
formed the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs,
through Frithjof Nansen as intermediary, that
the Russian Government is ready at any time to
grant American citizens on Russian soil all rights
and liberties, but that the United States must
change their treatment of Russian citizens. Chi-
cherin finally calls attention to the inconsistency
in the fact that Russian citizens, on account of
their protest against the military activity of the
United States against Russia, that is to say, against
a country with which the United States was not
and is not at all at war, have been sentenced to
twenty years in prison. All those who have been
thus sentenced would have to be set free, in which
case the Russian Government would adjust the
matter suggested by Nansen in a friendly spirit.
BELA KUN IN MOSCOW
Moscow, August 16 (by wireless). — Bela Kun
has arrived in Moscow. He was greeted at the
station by representatives of the Communist Par-
ty, the President of the Soviet, the trades unions
and the Red Army. Polidorov, of the Central
Committee, recalled in his address Bela Klin's
assistance in the battles of the November Revolu-
tion in Moscow, when he was in that city.
IN THE LAND OF WRANGEL
Stockholm, August 15 (Rosta, Vienna). —
From Kherson has been received the following re-
port: Refugees from towns occupied by Wrangel
relate that half of WrangePs army is composed of
mobilized peasants, who are continually deserting.
Officers and soldiers frequently clash, there is
marked disintegration in the army, and a slacken-
ing of discipline is to be expected. The arbitrari-
ness of the military toward the population shows
no sign of abating.
CIVILIZED FRANCE AND BARBAROUS
RUSSIA
Moscow, August 7 (by wireless). — On the
French ships bringing the Russian prisoners of
war to Odessa were discovered twenty-eight fully-
equipped hydro-planes, destined for General Wran-
gel. The hydro-planes were declared contraband
and will not be permitted to leave the harbor. The
fact that the conveying home of prisoners of war
under the protection of the Red Cross is being
used by the French Government as a means of
delivering implements of war to counter-revolu-
tionaries has created the greatest bitterness.
Soviet Russia Pamphlets
An important rearrangement of this valuable
series is about to be made. Orders should not
be placed before October 1, as the series will not
be ready before then.
1. Labor Laws of Soviet Russia. Third Edi-
tion. Will contain all the matter included
in the first and second editions, together with
a supplement on "The Protection of Labor
in Soviet Russia," by S. Kaplun, of the Com-
missariat of Labor. About 80 pages, price
25 cents.
2. Marriage Laws of Soviet Russia: also Laws
on Domestic Relations. New translation from
recently received Russian original ; an im-
provement on the version printed in Soviet
Russia. Almost 60 pages, price 15 cents.
To be ready about October 1st.
3. Two Years of Soviet Russian Foreign
Policy, by George Chicherin. A full account
of all the diplomatic negotiations between
Soviet Russia and foreign powers, from No-
vember 7, 1917, to November 7, 1919; 36
pages, price 10 cents.
All bound in heavy paper covers.
Special Rates in Quantities
Address :
"SOVIET RUSSIA"
110 W. 40th St. Room 304 New York, N. Y.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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September 18, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
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Lomonossov on the Russian Railways
[Professor George Lomonossov, who came to the United States in 1917 as a member of Keren-
shy's Railway Mission, and who was forced out of thai mission in 1918 by counter-revolutionary in-
fluences, was appointed head of the Railway Department of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
in New York in April, 1919, when the Bureau was opened. He was called to occupy a post in the
Commissariat for Means of Communication, in Soviet Russia, in May, 1919, and left New York for
Stockholm, Sweden, whence after many adventures he finally reached Russia. He is now again in
Stockholm, on official business, and has given the following interesting interview to "Folkets Dag-
blad Politiken," a Stockholm daily, which was printed in a recent number of that periodical.]
PROFESSOR LOMONOSSOV first of all
A pointed out that the reports contained in
Swedish newspapers (such as Dagens Nyheter and
others), that he had been appointed head of the
Soviet Commercial Delegation at Stockholm are
"absolutely misleading".
"I am a member of the collegium in the Com-
missariat for Means of Communication," said Pro-
fessor Lomonossov. "At present I am commis-
sioned to assume the chief management of Soviet
Russia's railway purchases abroad, for which pur-
pose I discharge the functions of a People's Com-
missar. But 1 am constantly acting in close touch
with Mr. Krassin," added Lomonossov.
"As for the general situation of the Russian
railroads, I must point out that the figures given
in Dagens Nyheter, in its interview with me, are
unfortunately somewhat incorrect. The deliveries
of anthracite coal, for instance, are a thousand
times as high as that newspaper says.
"Before the war the Donets Basin furnished
5,000,000 poods of anthracite per day {Dagens
Nyheter says only 5,000 poods) ; now they deliver
500,000 poods per day {according to Dagens Nyhe-
ter, only 500; one pood is equal to 16.38 kilo-
grams, or 36.7 pounds).
"The railroads in southern and southwestern
Russia as well as in Siberia, burn anthracite, in
southwestern Russia naphtha, and north of Mos-
cow wood. The circumstance that Soviet Russia
came into possession of 500,000,000 poods of
naphtha after crushing Denikin made it possible
to rebuild a number of locomotives for naphtha
fuel instead of wood, which means that the popu-
lations of Moscow and Petrograd will get more
wood for warming their houses during the coming
winter."
Passing on to the question of the actual func-
tioning of railroads and transportation in Russia,
Professor Lomonossov said:
"People abroad have no conception of the dam-
age that has been done by the Whites. These
bandits have thrown hundreds of locomotives into
the rivers and destroyed countless railroad bridges.
They have not only burnt down entire railroad
stations, but even systematically wrecked all brick
structures on the station grounds. Thus, for ex-
ample, on the railway line from Borisoglebsk to
Tsaritsyn (over 350 kilometers in length) all sta-
tion structures have been destroyed. The tracks
have been torn up and special machines have been
used for the purpose of twisting them so as to make
them completely worthless. The Whites blew up
all electric power stations; under every machine
that they could not take with them they placed
dynamite cartridges. They also blew up all water
works, so that for instance Tsaritsyn not only lost
all its railway connections, but also its water sup-
ply, and the whole population was deprived of
water.
"When they lay in path over which the Asiatic
hordes of Tamerlane passed, these regions could
hardly have been in a worse condition than they
are now. Nor could I refrain from pointing out
the horrible cruelties that were perpetrated by
Denikin's robber hordes on his retreat, — 'this hon-
orable defender of the German nobility and of
private property/ With the officers at their head,
these bandits destroyed the dwellings of the pros-
perous and violated women in the streets. They
suspended communists by the feet, with their
heads hanging downward. A conception of the
number of such executions may be gained by con-
sidering the following example : In the little water-
ing place of Kislovodsk, 156 persons were hanged
publicly in the market place. The shamelessness
of these 'heroes' went so far that General May-
Mayevsky, sat in an armchair and kicked the dying
victims in the head (they were hanging with their
heads downward).
"It is of course clear that under these circum-
stances, to which must be added a lack of build-
ing materials, the question of reconstructing the
railways is not one to be solved in days or weeks,
but rather in years. I conjecture that, assuming
all our orders placed abroad to have been filled,
the Russian railroad3 may be restored to the con-
dition of before the war, by the first of January,
1925. Of course, no such task could be accom-
plished at once as by a miracle, but will be solved
gradually by hard systematic work. To form a
proper conception of the present condition in Rus-
sia it is important to consider not only the present
state of the railroads as such — that is very bad to
be sure — but also the certainty that this condition
is being improved daily: We have already re-
stored passenger traffic ; we are restoring the oper-
ation of our railway machine shops; we have suc-
ceeded brilliantly in transporting our troops to
the Polish front, etc. Already the fact that the
condition of the railways has been perceptibly
improved without any external help gives me a
right to maintain categorically that even if poli-
tical conditions should take such a turn as to pre-
vent us from buying locomotives either in Sweden,
Germany or America, this vould not mean the de-
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SOVIET RUSSIA
September 18, 1920
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struction of the Russian railway lines — for we
have already learnt to adapt ourselves to any cir-
cumstances that may arise — but under such cir-
cumstances the Russian railways could not be re-
paired by the year 1925, but would require until
1935. The chief sufferers — as has been the case
also under the blockade — would not be the Bol-
sheviks, who are hated so by the European bour-
geoisie, but principally the so-called peaceable
population, chiefly consisting of women, the aged,
and children, thousands of whom have perished as
a result of hunger and cold, the consequences of
the disorganization of the railways." — From Poli-
tiken, July 27, 1920.
THE RAILWAY SITUATION
Economic Life prints the following data re-
garding the situation of the railway transport of
the Soviet Republic in June, 1920.
The average daily loading for a hundred versts
in June was eighteen cars as against nineteen in
May. This small decrease in the daily loading in
June, as compared with May, is not due to the
deterioration of the work on the railways, but
solely to the weaker delivery of the freight depart-
ments*
The average daily run of the locomotives and
cars in June was 74.7 and 41.4 versts respectively,
as compared with 72.8 and 39.1 versts in May.
Of healthy locomotives for every 100 versts of ex-
ploitation length, there were 11.2 in June against
11.0 in May. The number of healthy cars in June
had also increased in comparison with May. In
June there were 773 healthy cars for every 100
versts of exploitation length as compared with 548
in May.
Thus, despite the extremely grave situation of
our railways, a slow, though as yet inconsiderable,
improvement is to be recorded.
SWEDISH DELIVERIES OF LOCOMO-
TIVES TO RUSSIA
The director of the Russian railways, Prof. Lo-
monosov, who is at present staying in Stockholm,
has brought to final conclusion the negotiations
with the Nydquist machine works in Holms, Troll-
hattan, which have been in progress until now.
The factory pledges itself to deliver one thousand
locomotives to Russia in the course of six years.
The first consignment is to be ready in from eight
to nine months. Within a year and a half 100
machines are to be ready for delivery. The prices
are not fixed, but are made variable in accordance
with the fluctuations in the value of money. Ac-
cording to information obtained by the Goeteborgs
Stadsblad, the amount of the entire contract is
from 300 to 400 million crowns. The filling of
the order will probably require a considerable ad-
dition to the works. Other arrangements with
other companies are in prospect.
Digitized by \^UU£ll
RECONSTRUCTION IN SOVIET RUSSIA
The Russian representation in Berlin, .at the
head of which is Comrade Victor Kopp, has put
at the disposal of the German press, in connection
with the sensational declarations of Simons, some
statistical data from which we take the following
examples, illustrative of the energy with which
the work of reconstruction is being conducted in
Soviet Russia. The figures for the output in the
Moscow coal-district, which supplies Moscow with
electrical power, are as follows:
Thousands of poods (1 pood — 16.38 kgrs)
1916 1920
January 2,226 2,245
February 2,537 2,861
March 2,669 3,515
April 1,640 1,989
Total 9,072 10,610
The output has thus already exceeded the pre-
revolutionary figures.
The number of locomotives available for use,
for each 100 versts of the railway system, is, in
1920:
January 8 locomotives
February 7 "
March 8
April 9.6
May 11 "
TRADE WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES
Import
The border line with Esthonia is so far the chief
artery through which trade is carried on between
Soviet Russia and the outside world.
To watch the export and import of goods, three
control custom stations were established near the
Esthonian border — at Yamburg, Gdov, and Pskov
However, the last two stations are not yet in oper-
ation.
Almost all merchandise that comes from abroad
passes through the Yamburg control station. This
station opened on April 5, but at that time trade
relations with Esthonia and other countries were
just beginning. Therefore there was hardly any
activity at the control station during the first two
weeks.
The first shipment of merchandise (thirteen
cars of garden seeds) passed through Yamburg
only on April 18. This day really marks the be-
ginning of actual trading. After April 18 the
work of the Yamburg control station began grad-
ually to develop. Between April 18 and June 1
the total imports into Russia consisted of 976 cars
of various products, the total weight of which was
859,000 poods.
The largest part of the import consisted of seed
potatoes — 785 cars, whose weight was about
780,000 poods. Of garden seeds up to June 1
were imported sixty-two cars, weighing about
40,000 poods.
The import of paper amounted to 16,231 poods,
paper began to arrive only about the end of May.
Likewise, only on May 30 the first shipment
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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September 18, 1930
SOVIET RUSSIA
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of agricultural implements passed through Yam-
burg, fifty cars arriving in the two days before
June 1.
Export
Flax is one of the chief products of our export.
The shipment of flax abroad has already com-
menced. Between April 1 and June 7, 54,950
poods of flax (127 cars) were exported from Rus-
sia. — Krasnaya Oazeta, June 16.
THE FIRST EXPERIMENTAL
ELECTRIC STATION
On July 25, in the Shatursk peat district, prov-
ince of Ryazan, about 110 versts from Moscow,
occurred the opening of the first experimental
electric power station of 3,000 kilowatts per hour,
which will supply electric power to Moscow. This
is the first experiment of an economic organiza-
tion of vast importance, carried out exclusively
by the effort of the working class.
Until the October revolution the Shatursk dis-
trict, which has the richest peat deposits, was
hardly exploited at all. From the very first days
of its existence the Soviet power directed its at-
tention to this district. An area of about a thou-
sand dessyatins (2,700 acres) was cleared, com-
mon roads were laid along fifty versts and a rail-
way line built — broad-gauge, two and a half versts
long, and a narrow-gauge forty versts long ; a tele-
phone system, twenty-eight peat machines were
mounted, shops and several settlements were built
as homes for workmen, whose number at the
Shatursk works has at present reached over 3,500.
These settlements have schools, a hospital and an
emergency medical station, a People's House, a
hotel, lunchrooms and so on. In two years over
5 million poods of peat was obtained in these peat
bogs, and also over 630,000 cubic feet of lumber.
At present this erstwhile uninhabited district has
become a broadly laid-out labor town, where one
sees at every turn amazing results of the persistent
efforts of the emancipated proletarian toil. It
should not be overlooked that the immense work
which the Shatursk workmen have accomplished in
two years was carried on under the conditions of
our food crisis and our economic disorganization.
If the obstacles due to these conditions have been
overcome by the Shatursk workmen, if they have
attained in their work eighty per cent of the pro-
ductivity of the pre-war days, it was accomplished
solely through their exceptional proletarian energy
and discipline.
At the Shatursk electric power-station a special
system of steam boilers, which were removed from
submarines, was used for the first time. This ex-
periment is of great importance for the industry
of Soviet Russia, since it is still extremely difficult
to get steam boilers from abroad.
The Shatursk electric power station is the first
of a set of similar stations which are planned for
the largest industrial districts.
Work has now been started on the construction
of a more powerful electric station, of fifty thou-
sand horsepower.
by \j*Q
OFFICIAL RADIOS ON THE NEGOTIA-
TIONS WITH POLAND
August 18.
Yesterday, at first sitting at Minsk conference,
Ru880-Ukrainian delegation had insisted that sec-
ond sitting should take place today, eighteenth,
and should not be delayed until the nineteenth as
the Polish delegation desired. Nevertheless,
through the fault of the Polish delegation today,
the eighteenth, the sitting did not take place. The
Russo-TJkrainian delegation sent through its secre-
tary an official protest to the Polish delegation.
Today the second session of the Minsk confer-
ence was held. A resume of the Russian condi-
tions was handed to the Poles. These conditions
are in the main those that had already been pub-
lished by the Russian delegation in London.
August 22.
Yesterday, August twenty-first, Danishevsky
sent to Dombsky, Chairman of the Polish Delega-
tion, the following letter :
"I earnestly request to give as soon as possible
opportunity of fixing day of following sitting. A
new delay in negotiations contradicts your declar-
ation of August nineteenth, to the effect that Pol-
ish Delegation wishes as soon as possible to term-
inate work of conference. Responsibility for fur-
ther protraction is laid by Russo-TJkrainian Dele-
gation fully upon Polish Delegation.
Danishevsky."
August 24.
Yesterday, August twenty-third, Polish Delega-
tion gave answer to Russian proposals. It was
simply a complete refusal, a declaration "non pos-
sumus". Eastern frontier fixed on December third
by Supreme Council, and confirmed in Curzon's
note, December eleventh, is described by Polish
Delegation as line of Poland's third partition, as
arbitrary, and as based upon nothing Polish.
Delegation added : Numerous Polish elements live
outside this line, and must be considered. Poles
flatly refuse limitation of army, and delivery of
war material. They described workers' militia as
impossible to discuss. Poles declared Russo-
TJkrainian Delegation must first take back prin-
cipal points, whereas Danishevsky demands to go
over to discussion in detail of points. If Poles
remain by their demand of immediate withdrawal
of principal Russian points, it would mean imme-
diate rupture of negotiations.
August 24.
Polish and Prench wireless spread false news
about Polish victories. In reality, Russian forces
are intact. Some number of prisoners inevitable,
but this time not considerable. Russian army had
executed rush to Warsaw, with swiftness unex-
ampled in history. During this, a rapid movement
of the Poles compelled the army to retreat, their
retreat being executed in full order. The Russo-
TJkrainian army is ready for a new advance, when
moment will be considered favorable. Polish
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
September 18, 1920
radios about great victory belong to the domain of
fable.
August 24.
Fundamental trait in Polish answer to Russo-
Ukrainian proposition is that it contains only cri-
ticism, and nothing resembling positive proposals
of their own. The Poles only criticise, only de-
mand withdrawal, but themselves they give no
basis of peace, no programme, nothing business-
like; they reject flatly frontier fixed by Supreme
Council, but they oppose this frontier only by
vague generalities about the existence of a Polish
element that must be taken into consideration, and
about the self-determination of White Russia,
Lithuania, Galicia, Ukraine, all these being coun-
tries which the Poles themselves had subjected to
military occupation, and frightful oppression ; they
only reject Curzon's line. Polish Delegation avoids
businesslike declarations ; avoids all that refers to
real substance of question; they generalize, they
criticise, that is all.
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MILITARY DICTATORSHIP IN
POLAND
Vienna, August 14 (Special report from Cra-
cow to Rosta, Vienna). — General Latinik, the
former commander of the Austrian Regiment No.
100, is today Governor-General and dictator in
Warsaw. As such, he immediately proclaimed a
state of siege in the Warsaw radius. The severe
regulations of the military dictatorship are di-
rected almost exclusively against the workers, a
revolt of whom is feared. Numerous arrests were
made recently, chiefly among representatives of
trades-unions, regardless of whether they were
communists or socialists. Thousands of workers
are in prison because of political offences. Par-
ticularly brutal is the treatment which the mili-
tary regime accords to Jews. All newspapers
printed in Jewish, socialistic and bourgeois, have
been suspended by the censor. The population is
openly incited to pogroms by the official organs.
The temper of the Jews in Warsaw is much
aroused. Daszynsky therefore expressed his an-
xiety in a speech, for there are in Warsaw 400,000
Jews who are still in possession of arms for their
own protection against pogroms. This armed body
of Jews is now feared by the Polish Government.
In Poland today all free discussion is suppressed,
even that of the liberal bourgeoisie. Accordingly,
the editor of the bourgeois satirical periodical,
Dyabel Warszawski, Witold Koszutsky, was sen-
tenced to three months in prison, because he had
written, in an article, that the friendship of the
Entente had brought Poland the loss of Vilna,
and hunger, misery and typhus. — From Die Bote
Fahne, Vienna, August 17, 1920.
en
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THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. The Soviet Power and the Struggle Against Famine, by A. Svidersky.
2. Red Russia, by Vincenzo Vacirca. An eye-witness from Italy gives his impressions o]
Soviet Russia.
3. The Collectivization of Agriculture, with statistical tables showing the growth of
agricultural communes in Soviet Russia.
4. Educational Achievements in Soviet Russia, by William W. Dambit.
5. Agriculture in Soviet Russia, by U. Larin.
6. Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make all checks payable
to L. C A. K. Martens.)
SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVED BY
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SOVIET RUSSIA
(Room 304) New York City
Original from
==========
Georg Brandes on Russia
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, September 25, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 13
tuned Weekly at 1 10 W. 40th Street, New York, N. Y. Ludwig C A. K. Marten §, Publiiher. Jacob Wittmer HiftmauB, Editor,
Subscription Rate, $5,00 per annum. Application for entry as second class matter pending. Changes of address should reach the
office a week before the changes are to he made.
TABLE OF
PAGE
Agriculture in Soviet Russia, by U» Latin 297
Russia, by Georg Brandes.. 298
The Soviet Power and the Struggle Against
Famine, by A. Svidersky .* 300
Military Review, by LL-CoL B, Rousiam Bek 301
Rei> Russia, by Vincenso Vacirca, 304
The People's Commissariat for State Control 305
Editorials . . . 308
CONTENTS:
page
Resolution of Petrograd Children's Colony . . 310
Educational Achievements in Soviet Russia,
by William M. Dambit. , . , 311
The Collectivization of Agriculture 313
Membership of Gqllegiums of the Main Com-
mittees and Centers of Economic Council 31 S
The Red Officers , 316
Wireless and Other News 319
Agriculture in Soviet Russia
By U* Labin
Seven-tenths of our population are peasants.
The question arises : what has been done in the two
and a half years of Soviet rule in the domain of
agriculture, and how has the latter changed since
the beginning of the imperialistic war in 1914?
The most important thing in farming is seeds.
From the variation in the amount of land devoted
to seeds in recent years one can estimate the rise
or decline in agriculture. In all the countries of
Europe the imperialistic world war has since 1915
to a greater and greater extent brought about a
reduction of the amount of land devoted to seeds.
The same was true in Russia, If we place the
amount of seeds in the year 1915 at 100 per cent,
then in the following year it went down to ninety-
four per cent. In the year 1917 it was only eighty-
seven per cent of what it was in 1915, If this
reduction in agriculture had continued at the same
rate, we would have had in 1920 only sixty-nine
per cent of the usual amount of seed-land. And
if the Soviet Government were increasing disorder,
as ignorant Philistines will maintain, the amount
of seed would be still less*
But the revolution of November, 1917 played a
great part in saving Russia from final economic
downfall. To be sure the war, with its bad effect
on the economic life of the nation, continued, but
the new conditions which victory created for the
active workers, the enthusiasm which seized all
workers and peasants at the thought that they were
from now on the masters in Russia, inasmuch as
all misery would then only be temporary, and that
it was therefore worth while to suffer — that is
what worked the miracle which in a bourgeois state
is unthinkable, that is what helped to bring it
about that disorganization made no further pro-
gress.
When people complain of hard times, disorder,
etc., under the Soviet Government, they must first
all of consider what would probably have taken
place if the Soviet Government had not come into
existence* Only then will it become clear whether
it is approaching destruction, or, on the contrary,
in spite of all difficulties, is holding it off, and has
created the possibility of change for the better.
In the matter of transportation, a marked improve-
ment has taken place in the last two years, in
spite of the reduction in the number of cars and
locomotives, which meant such hardship to us, in
spite of the fact that shortly before the November
Revolution of 1917, the representatives of the
Kerensky Government reported to the Executive
Committee of the Petrograd Soviet that railroad
traffic would positively have to be discontinued if
the process of decay should continue at the same
rate.
Similar were the prospects in the domain of
agriculture. In 1919 we would have had only
Bixty-nine per cent of the seed-land of 1915 if the
decay of agriculture had continued at the same
rate as under the Czar and the Keren sky Govern-
ment. But the Soviet Government did not allow
this decline in agriculture to continue. The peas-
ants threw off the political and economic yoke of
taxation, With a quite different feeling did they
approach the working of the soil, and the result
was that in 1919 the seed-production was eighty-
one per cent of what it had been in 1915, It was
eighty-one per cent, jiltbaa^h from 1917 to 1919
the seed prortu^ion T yfQ^^|ja^rf ii proprietors,
298
SOVIET RUSSIA
September 25, 1920
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which formerly amounted to seven per cent of the
total seed production in the territory of pres-
ent-day Soviet Russia (exclusive of the Ukraine,
the Don, the Caucasus and Siberia), has disap-
peared and has been replaced only partly by com-
munes, Soviet farms, while in 1918 a considerable
part of that land still lay fallow.
Accordingly, the yearly diminution in seed pro-
duction under the former government amounted
on the average to six and a half per cent; under
the Soviet Government, on the other hand, to
only three per cent. The Soviet Government has
succeeded in retarding the decline of Russian
agriculture by one-half, and that under the most
unfavorable conditions that any country has ever
had to endure. That has been brought about by
the intrinsic driving force of the mere fact of
the existence of the Soviet power and Soviet pol-
icy. That the Russian worker, the Russian citizen
is able to get bread at all is only due to the fact
that, thanks to the Russian Revolution, our seed
production amounts to not sixty-nine per cent, but
eighty-one per cent. Millions of farms were saved
from ruin.
Of course we must not rest satisfied with these
results, but must strive to restore agriculture com-
pletely. The Russian peasant, who is now fighting
in the Soviet Army against the Polish land-owners,
knows and sees what the Soviet Government has
already given him. He knows that he is not fight-
ing in vain, but for his own interests.
Russia
By Georg Brandes
[The aged Danish critic, in a recent issue of the Copenhagen newspaper "Politiken" (a bour-
geois paper, not to be confused with "FoTkets Dagblad Politiken," of Stockholm), discusses the
blockade and the intervention, both of which he opposes. While his conclusions, particularly as to
the alterations possible in the character of the Soviet Government, are not invariably our own, we
present this article to our readers with the comment that in the main it is one with which we agree.]
T P, in these days when important events are
*• hidden in clouds of triviality and fumes of
falsehood, we should ask ourselves the question —
<r Which of the countless occurrences that encumber
the mind of the reading public are not only valu-
able but decisive for the present and for the fu-
ture ?" the answer would very likely be as follows :
Of decisive moment is the fact that all the
armies which the Entente — without a formal de-
claration of war — had equipped, furnished with of-
ficers, arms and ammunition, and let loose upon
the Russian Republic, hoping thus to overthrow
its government, that all these armies have been
crushed. First the armies of Denikin and Yuden-
ich, then Kolchak's army, and now the Polish
army led by Pilsudski. Of decisive moment is the
fact that while the statesmen of England and
France show an amazing arrogance which corre-
sponds to their lack of ability and constant mis-
calculation, and while Germany and Austria are
constrained to hand the reins of government to
inexperienced men of doubtful abilities, who cer-
tainly have to face quite intolerable economic and
political conditions, Russia has her civil affairs
directed by an indisputable genius — Lenin — who
skilfully selects his objectives and chooses his
means, and against whom the newspapers can find
no sharper weapon than that his real name is Uli-
anov; her military affairs are directed by another
genius, Trotsky, who took charge of the Russian
armies when they were defeated, utterly weary,
and desiring only peace, and who starting from
the bottom, has seemingly out of nothing created
the one army which is more victorious than any
other, while the world press can find no sharper
weapon against him than that his real name is
said to be Braunstein.
The world press is always an imposing power,
but when it begins to indulge in wit and unveils
pseudonyms, then it is simply irresistible, — al-
though not in quite the same sense as the armies
of the Russian Republic.
After this long chain of defeats the Entente
will have to try something new. So far, the En-
tente have this one indisputable triumph to their
credit, — that the blockading of the Russian people
has caused a famine almost equal to that in Aus-
tria, and the spread of epidemics, which take an
enormous toll, while the absence of means of trans-
port renders the resources of the great republic
inaccessible.
While a large number of young men have been
kopt at the enormous front, farming, trade, and
industry have lacked hands. Distress grows as
fast as confidence of victory and hatred toward
the wily politicians of the hostile governments.
These governments have consistently fought Rus-
sia in an underhand manner; they egged on
against Russia Czech deserters or reactionary
czarist volunteers, or Poles intoxicated by national-
ism. And every peace offer of the Russian Gov-
ernment was rejected by the united European re-
action, which officially poses as the champion of
self-determination of peoples.
This reaction has no leading idea. There is,
however, a leading all-dominating basic feeling —
fear. They fear that revolutionary ideas may
spread from Russia both to Asia and Europe.
The coalition against revolutionary Russia re-
sembles in many respects the coalition against
revolutionary France, which was formed 130 years
ago. But it has done much more harm to the gen-
eral welfare, because, more than anything else, it
is the cause of high, prices, (which are still ris-
"VERSITYOFMfCHlGAN
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{J
September 25, 1920
SOVIET BUSSIA
299
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ing), lack of fuel and housing, and all the dire
misery of the human race.
All the constantly offered reasons for the misery
since the so-called termination of the war count for
very little in comparison with the insane foreign
policy of the Western Powers. It has made im-
possible the resumption of trade and shipping, the
restoration and improvement of transport. It
caused the system of constantly soaring taxation
and the paralysis of every peaceful initiative,
which weighs upon all of us, but which is felt
most keenly by the largest nation of Europe,
counting over 150 million human beings. Even
the most fanatical shouters for what is called civil-
ization, independence and justice, ought to under-
stand that the famine in Russia steadily aug-
ments the misery in Germany and Austria. Hence,
what is needed politically is not to send sandwich-
baskets southward, or to take a few hundred poor
children northward,* but that people shall at last
turn a deaf ear to phrases and open their eyes to
the truth.
On the day when not only the workers of Eng-
land and France, but also the middle class — in
spite of its fear of Socialism — will understand
that a hazardous and inappropriate foreign policy
is the real cause of the evils undermining the
vitality of Europe, on that day a gleam of light
will appear in the gloomy chaos in which we stag-
ger along.
But — it may be said — will not socialization, na-
tionalization, will not Communism come and turn
everything upside down, rob us of what we own
and turn us from comparatively free individuals
into slaves?
It is useless to send armies against ideas.
Nobody knows what the future carries in her
womb. Yet we know that what is expedient for
one country will not do for another. Every coun-
try has its past, its social differences, its special
culture. Never yet has any idea gone from one
country to another without being transformed to
suit the needs of that country. Even the parlia-
mentary idea, at one time very strong, was taken
up very slowly and adapted to the peculiarities
and conditions of the different countries. The
Reformation meant a seizure of the property of the
Catholic church, but it had a different course in
England, Germany, Switzerland, and Scandinavia.
The French Revolution brought along the confisca-
tion of the noblemen's estates. But though most
of the ideas of the French Revolution were adopted
little by little even in conservative Germany, the
Germans copied only that which they considered
useful for themselves, and the German noblemen
kept their estates.
The more absolutely Europe leaves Russia in
peace, the more it allows the Russian Republic to
settle its external affairs in accordance with the
advice of its leading men who are backed by the
* Georg Brandes alludes here to the work of some
Scandinavian and other organizations which have thus
tried to do their best for suffering Central Europe,
especially for the children of Vienna.
people, the more calmly will the Russians regard
the rest of Europe, and let the European nations
arrange their own affairs as they may desire.
Historical experience tells us that a political
movement which is let alone by the surrounding
world may assume milder forms, lose its violent
character, and change from within until it reaches
a certain equilibrium in its relations with sur-
rounding countries.
There is one certain course to propagate Com-
munist ideas in their crudest form, and that is the
one which the Entente has adopted: ceaseless in-
tervention in the affairs of Russia, continual re-
jection of appeals for an understanding, the equip-
ping of all kinds of free-booters and newly-formed
nations with English cannon, Czecho-Slovak non-
commissioned officers, and French officers.
It is therefore high time now, after six years
of war, to lift the blockade and to make peace.
It ought to be done, not necessarily for humani-
tarian reasons, but because it is in the interest of
the Western Powers. They will soon have their
hands full revising the peace treaty with Turkey.
Or in case they should not revise this treaty, they
will be a hundred times busier with the seventy
million Mohammedans in India, who very passion-
ately protest against the partition of Turkey and
against robbing the Caliphate of its worldly power.
The Western Powers will soon find themselves en-
gaged to the utmost in defending civilization
(which translated into English means oil-wells)
and culture (in English, coal). Asia Minor and
India offer so much material for thought that
these powers cannot too soon establish friendly re-
lations with Russia.
The lessons in religious psychology which the
Mohammedan will soon — gratuitously — give their
excellencies Lloyd George and Millerand will re-
quire all the attention that these statesmen may
be able to spare. Anatolia is as stormy as Ireland.
Only the Armenians will not need any attention;
for them nothing has been done. They have
neither coal nor oil, and they are therefore neces-
sarily the step-children of Christian love.
by LiOOgle
a
99
Moscow in 1920
Under this title, Dr. Alfons Goldschmidt, a
brilliant writer who had contributed many articles
on economic topics to German periodicals before
the Revolution, and now a member of the Dele-
gation of the Independent Socialist Party of Ger-
many to Russia, has contributed to recent Ger-
man periodicals a full account of his journeys
and impressions in Russia. The first instalment
of this important series, which has been trans-
lated especially for Soviet Russia, will appear
in our next issue.
The first instalment deals with the steamer trip
to Helsingfors and Reval, as well as with the
arrival in Petrograd and the railway journey to
Moscow ; Dr. Goldschmidt arrived in Moscow on
May 1, 1920. Do not fatl to read this important
series, which will run through six issues of
Soviet Russia.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
800
SOVIET RUSSIA
September 25, 1920
The Soviet Power and the Struggle Against Famine
By A. Svidebsky
[The following is a resume of an article which appeared in "Izvestia" (Moscow) on June 22, 1920.]
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TPHE Soviet power is making headway toward
■■* victory over famine. Encountering thousands
of difficulties, the advance toward this end is slow,
but steadfast.
In order more or less tolerably to support the
Red Army and to feed the populace of Moscow,
Petrograd and other cities, industrial districts and
the consuming provinces, the Soviet power must
provide every year not less than from 4,821,000
to 6,429,000 long tons of grain. Actually it pro-
vided only: in 1917-1918, 482,100 tons (in ten
months — from November, 1917, to August 1,
1918), in 1918-1919, 1,768,000 tons, and in 1919-
1920 (for nine months, between August 1, 1919,
and May 1, 1920), 2,845,000 tons.
True, the Soviet power is unable under the
present conditions to provide as much grain as
is required to satisfy all the needs of the popula-
tion. But in the second year of its existence it
provided almost four times as much grain, and in
the third year (there is no reason to expect that
the total for 1919-1920, ending August 1, will
equal from 3,214,000 tons to 3,375,000 tons)
seven times as much as in the first year of its ex-
istence.
Though the geographical boundaries of Soviet
Russia were not the same at different moments, the
territory in which the Soviet organs actually car-
ried on the food campaign during the whole period
of two and a half years did not vary to any serious
extent.
The current food campaign began when our re-
public had moderate territorial limits, and extend-
ed only to ten producing provinces which largely
provided the grain in the preceding years. A not-
able increase of the number of producing prov-
inces, which would be sufficient for the food stor-
ing activity of the Soviet power, took place only
in the second half of the grain campaign. But
owing to the inevitable slowness in the organiza-
tion of food-storing organs in the districts devas-
tated by the Whites, the grain campaign in the
newly acquired provinces has been and still is
carried on but feebly, and hence they should not
yet be taken into account.
The above mentioned 2,845,000 long tons of
grain do not include grain obtained in Ukraine,
the Caucasus and the Don. If we subtract from
this figure the 252,500 tons of grain obtaine.d in
Siberia, we find that ''basic" Soviet Russia fur-
nished during the nine months of the current cam-
paign 2,592,500 tons.
Thus, the improvement of the storing activity
of the Soviet power in the domain of food is in-
contestable. This success appears even more clear-
ly and vividly if we compare the results of the
Digitized by G*
allotments in the last campaign with their result
in the current campaign. Last year the allotments
were carried out at the end of the year to the ex-
tent of 41.6 per cent; while in the current year
the allotments, which were considerably higher
than last year's, have already been carried out to
the measure of 53.8 per cent, and in some of the
producing provinces the percentage of the allot-
ment already realized varies between 53.8 and
91.4 per cent.
In the present grain campaign there are villages,
townships and counties in the producing provinces,
and provinces in the consuming districts, which
have already completely filled their allotments
even before the end of the fixed term. Reports to
this effect have so far come from the provinces of
Vologda, Kostroma, Vladimir, Penza, Simbirsk,
Viatka, Kazan, Ekaterinburg, Samara and Ufa.
For the consuming provinces the allotment was
set at 187,500 long tons, and the result already
obtained equals 194,700 long tons, that is, over
100 per cent of the allotment.
And yet one can hear reproaches among the toil-
ing masses that the Soviet food administration
does not provide any more food at the present time
than it did last year. This is both just and un-
just. It is just, because the consumer really does
not receive from the food administration any more
than he was receiving from them before at the
most meager norm. It is unjust, because before
the Soviet power from its small stock furnished
meager rations to but several million consumers
— only to the populace of the capitals, the Red
Army and some famishing industrial centers, while
now, having a larger stock, it furnishes meager
rations to tens of millions of consumers, giving
starvation rations also to that mass of consumers
whom she was constrained to ignore before. While
the stock obtained in the last grain campaign is
almost twice as large as the stock obtained last
year, the number of consumers provided by the
provision organs has increased in even greater pro-
portion. This justifies only one conclusion: the
Soviet power does not provide better food, but was
enabled to provide bread crumbs for a consider-
ably larger number of consumers.
The following phenomenon is very significant:
in 1918-1919 the accumulation of grain progressed
in leaps, — rising at once to a considerable height,
then falling abruptly and just as rapidly; in 1919-
1920 the accumulation, on the contrary, progresses
and continues to progress more or less uniformly.
Analyzing this phenomenon, and taking into ac-
count along with the factors of the food situation
also factors of a different kind, the irregularity of
the accumulations in the last campaign appears as
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a direct result of the unstable position of the
Soviet power, caused by the successful operations
of the White bands against the Eed Army; and,
vice versa, the uniform progress of the grain accu-
mulation campaign of the current year is a direct
result of the greater stability of the Soviet power,
which has become well settled since the end of
1919.
The significance of the military operations, of
their success or failure, for the struggle against
famine appears clearly from the following table:
Supplies laid in during* Per cent of
the year ending May if increase (+)
Regions: 1919 1920 I or decrease
Long Tons * (— ) 1920-1919
Free from military operations 103,479 186,058 +79.8
of 1919-1920
Involved in military opera- 59,116 40,550 — 31.4
tions
Total area 162,595 226,608 +39.4
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Rou8tam Bek
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T^HE Poles have been advised by their French
* military leaders to adopt the methods of war-
fare employed by the Germans after the battle of
the Marne. This means that the Polish army has
to entrench itself along the whole battle front, on
a line of perhaps more than 450 miles in length.
According to this French suggestion Polish tactics
will be based on the principles of trench warfare,
with the idea of forcing the Soviet army to accept
the same method.
There can not be any doubt that, in the present
conditions of the Polish fighting forces, trench
warfare would probably be the most favorable for
their strategy. Although unable to support their
shattered protege by reinforcements of their own
troops, the capitalistic coalition of the West is still
able to supply the Poles with a certain amount of
ammunition and war material, though in limited
quantities, thanks to the effective opposition of
the European workers. Such aid as the Allies are
able to give would be inadequate to the needs of
the Polish army in case it continued a war of
movement such as is now in progress. It is be-
lieved by many military experts, that Poland, like
Germany in the middle of September, 1914, is
now compelled to stop on a definite line of de-
fense, because the Polish army has completely lost
the initiative and has no hope of regaining it. The
French strategists understand this very well and
they see in the suggested trench warfare a way for
the Poles to continue the war against Soviet Rus-
sia in the manner most economical in regard to
their effectives and munitions, while very costly
for the Russians, who the French General Staff
believe are not fully equipped for such methods.
It is true that the Russians have avoided trench
warfare and that their tactics have been based
on the principles of skillful maneuvering. The
flexibility of the Russian front was astonishing
and attained striking successes during the Allied
intervention. Since the Red Army perfected its
organization this flexibility of the Soviet units has
attained such a degree that the most severe mili-
tary critics are compelled to pay tribute to the
maneuvering ability of the Red forces.
But if the French strategists assume that the
present situation of the Polish Army is similar
to that of the Germans in September, 1914, they
are mistaken. In the first place, the German Gen-
eral Staff adopted its plans for trench warfare
aganst the Allies long before the war broke out.
If I am not mistaken, this question was discussed
and decided in Germany as early as 1906, and
German specialists carefully studied all the tech-
nical methods employed by the Russians and the
Japanese in 1904 during the siege of Port Arthur
where the trench warfare was carried on for eleven
months. Secondly, the Germans had sufficient
numbers to build the most powerful and modern
trenches and temporary fortifications along the
whole occupied front and they possessed enormous
reserves of suitable artillery. They were able to
prevent the enemy from breaking through their
entrenched lines, and where this happened they had
ample artillery and fresh reserves in position to
paralyze the effect of such a break. As a matter
of fact, the line where the Germans first entrenched
themselves in France was not a line chosen un-
expectedly by their military command in the field,
but, on the contrary, was selected many years prior
to the war, studied carefully by the General Staff
and inspected by their spies during peace. The
French, on the other hand, were inferior to their
enemy in this rspect, and in spite of the support
of the Allies they remained to the end inferior
to the Germans in their methods of trench war-
fare, which was shown by the fact that the Allies
were unable to reach German territory. We must
remember that Germany lost her war tactically
because of the sudden disorganization of her rear.
Russian revolutionary propaganda was the real
cause of the German collapse. On the other hand,
the unrest in the rear of all the Allies with the
exception of America was the real cause of their
acceptance of an armistice terms which were most
unfavorable from a strategic point of view. The
French General Gascouin and many other French
military experts have admitted that only during
the war did the French artillery, first with the help
of English industry, and later with American sup-
port, become strong enough to compete with the
Germans. The famous French 75 mm. field gun
was absolutely powerless against the trenches and
practically lost its importance during the period
of trench warfare. The lack of suitable artillery
in time for trench warfare caused the prolongation
of war for the Allies and this prolongation pro-
duced such economic and political conditions in
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France and England that it became impossible for
the Allied command to continue the war to a vic-
torious end, namely, to the annihilation of the
German army in the field and unconditional sur-
render. We must remember also that the Allies
were never able to force their enemy to change
their methods and on each occasion it was the
German General Staff on its own initiative that in-
terrupted the trench warfare in one or another
part of the front and temporarily adopted the
method of the war of movements.
The case of the Polish Army in the present war
is quite different. First of all, in spite of the fact
that Poland is supported and directed by its west-
ern Allies, its present military situation cannot be
compared with that of Germany. Modern warfare
requires long preparation in time of peace. For
this the Polish Army has had no opportunity. On
the other hand, the Allied industries cannot be
considered as Polish industries and we have al-
ready seen how dangerous it is to count on the
supply of ammunition and arms from external
sources. Supplies from the outside can only be
depended upon when the routes of communication
are in full control of the forces to be supplied;
otherwise unexpected conflicts may easily overturn
all plans and bring disaster. Let us remember the
fate which overtook Kolchak, Denikin and Yuden-
ich, in spite of their facilities for supply by the
Allies, which were even more favorable than are
those of the Poles at present. There is no possi-
bility that Poland, having no industry at home
and suffering lack of all kind of raw materials,
can be supplied by its allies with guns, ammuni-
tion, war material, and food in such quantities
that its army, even if it could succeed in barring
the way to the Soviet forces by means of trenches,
could hold this fortified line for any considerable
period. Trench artillery is not very costly and
can easily be manufactured, but its use is tre-
mendously expensive and requires a constant and
timely supply of ammunition as well as material
for replacement. Wherefrom can the Poles expect
to get this ? Naturally from France, England and
America ! But by what route ? This is the most
important question to be answered. Through Ger-
many they cannot send a single cartridge to the
Poles. It is foolish to imagine that Italy will al-
low such transit, or that Czecho- Slovakia will sup-
port the Poles in any way, or that Rumania will
undertake the risk of war with Soviet Russia. So
there remains only the same dangerous Danzig
corridor which recently was cut off from Warsaw
by the Soviet cavalry and is still in a very pre-
carious condition. Such a means of communica-
tion can in no case be considered as a sufficient
route for the military supply of an army which
has to defend its entrenched front from the at-
tacks of a numerous and determined enemy, which
possesses its own industry and powerful artillery,
an enemy which had an earlier experience in trench
warfare than any of its adversaries, and whose
inventions for waging such war were widely
adopted by the Germans and the Allies.
Moreover, in spite of the lack of railway com-
munications with the rear, the Soviet Army need
not expect any surprises or any interruptions in
the constant communication of its battle front with
the supply bases. This might be slow, it is true,
but it will be accomplished surely and permanently,
and this is of prime importance. Only a perman-
ent supply of the battle front assures victory. The
Red artillery will never suffer for the lack of am-
munition.
But will it be possible for the Poles to follow
the French advice and entrench themselves along
a front of 450 miles? Taking into consideration
the actual military strength of the Poles, we know
that they can only entrench several parts of that
front.
The Soviet tactics would never allow them to ac-
complish even this much. By means of constant
maneuver the Russians easily can prevent it. But
even if we assume that the Poles should succeed
in establishing an uninterrupted line of trenches
along the whole front, such a line, in spite of all
the artillery it might possess, would be too weak
and too thin to resist the Russian advance, and,
once broken through at one point, would be de-
stroyed throughout. To keep their entrenched
front intact, the Germans had at their disposal
huge fresh reserves, which the Poles have not at
all and cannot hope for. Poland has already lost
more than half of its fighting strength, and is
losing every day more and more men, while its
supporter Wrangel is on the eve of complete fail-
ure, his army having almost lost its strategical im-
portance in connection with the Russo-Polish war.
The struggle with WrangePs bands henceforth is
of a local significance, still annoying to the Soviets,
but in no way endangering the Polish campaign.
In conclusion I can affirm that the Poles will
never be able to stop the advance of the Soviet
army by means of trenches, as the Germans stopped
the Allied advance in 1914. This last effort of
France to build a wall between Soviet Russia and
Europe is a task which Poland cannot accomplish.
Speaking on the war with Poland, at a joint
meeting of the Supreme Central Executive Com-
mittee of the Moscow Soviet of Workers and Red
Army's Deputies and of Trades Unions and
Manufacturing Committees on May 5, 1920, Trot-
sky said :
"The struggle which is before us will be hard
and strenuous. The Polish bourgeoisie knows that
in attacking us they stake their very existence. And
those who are backing the Polish bourgeoisie know
also that White-Guard Poland is oppressing the
Polish proletariat, which is closely bound with
Petrograd and Moscow by decades of mutual revo-
lutionary struggle. They know that White-Guard
Poland is hastening to build a barrier between
ourselves and Europe. The Polish shliakhta say
that the Russians, those barbarians and Schythians
must be pushed eastward as far as possible. But
we, on the contrary, are hurrying towards the west
to meet the E;iropo£Ji Proletariat, which knows
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that we can meet them only over the dead body of
White-Guard Poland in an independent Poland of
the workers and peasants.
"The struggle will be terrible. But if you ask
me about the outcome of that struggle, I will an-
swer that I never was so strongly convinced that
we shall be victorious, completely crushing the
enemy. I am absolutely certain of that.
"For the last two years and a half we have been
continually fighting, and during that period we
have learned something. Certainly we have had
in the past and we may have in the future some
failures, as for instance at Zhitomir; they may be
even more important than that. The western front
was considered by us as of secondary importance,
and our diplomats were engaged on that front in
long pourparlers with the enemy. Therefore it
was not a difficult task for Pilsudski to strike us
on that front. But we are in possession of reserves
and other reinforcements. At the time when we
transferred our army into a labor army we said
we were winding our military strength from the
skein on the spool. But should our enemy con-
sider that signified that we were tired and that we
were ready to surrender, — then we shall reverse
the process and we shall begin to wind the thread
from the spool back to the skein.
"This is happening just now. Our railways
warmed by the sun and reinforced by thousands of
workers, have doubled their activity. Our labor
regiments from all parts of Eussia will go to the
western front. We have taken all measures in
order to insure the success of the coming winter
campaign and especially in respect to the supplies.
"Our first task has been accomplished ; the Com-
munists of Petrograd are leaving today for the
front. They will be followed by Moscow and by
the entire country. All the Communists on the
western front!
"The victory will be with us ; the victory will be
with the Russia of the workers !"
THE SPYING COMMISSAR
The following communication from Sadek is
sent to the Rote Fahne, on the subject of one of
the adventurers of law and order in Germany:
"I read in the German press that the former
prosecuting attorney, Weissmann, who now occu-
pies the office of Commissar for the Maintenance
of Public Law and Order, is publishing reports
of spies in the press, according to which there took
place in the dwelling of our Berlin representative,
Victor Kopp, a conference of Communist and
Independent leaders, in which Kopp argued for
an early organization of the overthrow of the Gov-
ernment. The prosecuting attorney has made
somewhat of a bull with these reports of spies,
for it has been possible to ascertain at once that
Kopp gave up some weeks ago the dwelling in
which this meeting was alleged to be held, and
that several comrades who are named by the spy-
ing attorney as having been present at the secret
conference were not in Berlin on the date given.
And yet the German Government does not con-
sider it to be its duty to hand his walking papers
to the official who would publicly spread such lying
reports against the diplomatic representative of
Russia. May I further be permitted to state to
this Government, that if it should dispense with
the services of Herr Weissmann it would not ex-
actly be parting with a jewel. I made the acquain-
tance of this gentleman when I enjoyed the hos-
pitality of the German Government in the former
prison of the Moabit section. After having been
imprisoned for more than a month, after the Min-
istry of Justice had already obtained the removal
of my chains, Herr Weissmann again ordered that
I be provided with chains while taking my walks.
On my own protest, and that of the juge d'instruc-
tion, this barbarous demand was cancelled. Im-
mediately the attitude of the prosecuting attorney
changed. He granted permission to a number of
political persons to visit me, which was not at
all within his jurisdiction, although they were
persons whom the German Government would cer-
tainly have not liked to visit me; and all this he
vouchsafed me as a return for the kind assistance
of one of my friends in obtaining for him a pass-
port viza of Swiss origin, without any knowledge
that this would make the prosecuting attorney so
grateful. We soon learned the reason for the pro-
fuse gratitude of the prosecuting attorney, for
this good guardian of law and order had won about
a million at a game of chance and was slipping his
gains into Switzerland.
I consider it to be quite natural that Weissmann
the guardian of law and order should be succeeded
by Weissmann the smuggler of money. Poachers
often become excellent wardens, and who is to
defend a republic of jobbers if not a jobber ? My
Plutarch task is concluded. I shall supplement
it with a prophecy : Just as it has been impossible
to prove that Mr. Straus has made millions in
profiteering games, although the entire political
and business world knows all about it, and just
as what is narrated above cannot be proved with
documents, although every colleague of Mr. Weiss-
mann knows all about it, Mr. Weissmann will no
doubt continue to practice his task of spying. But
I ask you to prevent him from molesting our dip-
lomatic representative, and to remember what is
the duty of our Foreign Office, which is not obliged
to treat Herr Hilge any better than Victor Kopp
is being treated.
Kael Radee.
Note: I beg you to note the last sentence of
this article.
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Red Russia
By Vincenzo Vacirca
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THE first inhabited place that we came to after
crossing the border between Esthonia and Rus-
sia was Yamburg, a village of 3,000 inhabitants,
which in the preceding autumn had acquired some
little fame, thanks to the White Army of Yuden-
ich, who had made it his headquarters with a
view to marching on St. Petersburg. The train
stopped at the station in Yamburg, where a crowd
of peasants, workers, women, children and Red
soldiers were waiting for us. Almost all of them
had lined up along the station, in military fashion.
Nobody left their number to make his way to the
train, as a crowd at home in Italy would have
done. Everywhere there were banners and red
flags. Suddenly a solemn singing was heard, all
uncovered their heads, the soldiers stood at atten-
tion, and, with their hands at their caps, sang with
the rest. It was the Internationale — sustained,
in a deep tone, with an almost religious expression
in their faces and in their voices, they sang it.
It reminded me of the liturgical hymns in the
church at Reval. We all listened with profound
emotion.
The most sceptical among us felt a moisture in
our eyes. We thought of the long, cruel, inde-
scribable sufferings of the Russian people, a small
part of which were here represented, on the thresh-
old of the Soviet Republic.
The singing stopped. Some one, a commissar
of the local soviet, called out something that we
understood to be a cheer for Italian Socialism, and
the crowd replied with three cheers.
Then followed short addresses of welcome. A
soldier welcomed us in the name of the Red Army,
a worker in* the name of his factory-companions, a
communist in the name of the party, the president
of the soviet in the name of the local government.
Serrati answered for us all and a Russian com-
rade translated.
We thought the train could now continue its
journey. But such was not the case. The soviet
wished us to be its guests for at least an hour.
We mingled with the crowd, a procession was
formed, and we proceeded through the broad,
straight streets of the village with its small houses
of wood or red brick, through long avenues lined
with trees, with delicate green foliage. The pro-
cession moved forward singing. Again it was the
strain of the Internationale pouring forth into
the clear, fresh air of the Russian spring.
No shouts and no uproar. Nothing that could
remind us of a political manifestation of the
masses of the Latin race. If we had seen, in place
of the red flags, banners with sacred symbols, we
might have thought of a religious procession in a
Venetian village.
In the People's House was a long banquet-table
with covers for about thirty persons, on which were
displayed little mountains of slices of black bread,
plates with butter, excellent fresh cheese and a
monumental samovar for the tea.
After breakfast we inspected the building. It
was a large bourgeois residence. The owner had
fled from it with his family, God knows where,
and the soviet had taken possession of it. The
little drawing-room was there. Everything was in
its place and kept scrupulously clean, two comfort-
able divans, lounges, armchairs, wall-mirrors, in
the corner a piano. Once the daughter of the
owner had played on it. Now the sons and daugh-
ters of the workers, who also were receiving in-
struction in the soviet schools, were playing on it.
In the long winter evening this little drawing-
room is always crowded. There they play and
dance. There are still other rooms — a reading-
room, smoking-room, also small rooms with sleep-
ing accommodations. The little beds give the im-
pression that they expect occupants. A certain re-
serve of beds is kept here, for the comrades who
stop here, due to there not being any hotels in
Yamburg.
To an old peasant whose face is framed in a
heavy and curly gray beard and who looks at me
with a pair of lively and restless eyes, full of
goodness and understanding, I put the question:
"Are there still some bourgeois in Yamburg ?"
"Surely," he replied. "And have you taken from
them their houses, their furniture and their land ?"
"Oh, no! The land, yes, because they did not
work it, but they have remained in their houses
and no one has disturbed them."
Then I asked him if he was satisfied with the
Revolution. He replied : "I have two sons in the
Red Army, and I only regret that I can not con-
tribute more or go myself to the front. They tell
me I'm old and that I'll do more good by working
in the factory. To be sure, the Revolution is no
pastime, but it is necessary. Yamburg has been
in the battle area three times, and twice under the
Whites. And if we should have to come twice
more under their domination, I would still say the
Revolution is a sacred thing."
Another, a young worker, officer of the garrison,
gave me a better explanation of what it meant to
have been under the Whites — violated women, men
tortured and shot to death, houses set on fire and
provisions requisitioned.
"But now it is over," he continued, "Yudenich
will not come again. The last lesson was decisive."
"And suppose some new Yudenich should
come ?"
"Then we will fight again as we are fighting
the Poles, until we break the ribs of all of them."
It was a young man of twenty with whom I was
speaking, blond, with blue eyes and refined face.
He spoke with calm, without any outbursts of pas-
sion, as if he were relating a story that he had
read in a book.
After some more addresses and more cheers we
left Yamburg, greeted again by the strains of the
International t,, hil<3 by hfijids that stretched out to
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us and waved to us while the train was slowly
getting into motion eastward.
In Gatchina the train made two stops. First,
one in the suburb, where again a crowd greeted
us, more numerous and more festive than the one
in Yamburg; and then another at the main sta-
tion.
Here there was a huge crowd. The enthusiasm
was more intense. The women, some young,
and others more advanced in years, ap-
peared in great numbers. They displayed also
somewhat more elegance, and one felt already the
proximity of St. Petersburg. What surprised us,
however, was the long line of soldiers that formed
a sort of dam to prevent the crowd from over-
flowing. Splendidly equipped, with their bayonets
fixed on their muskets, they sternly and earnestly
greeted our arrival with a military salute. It was
a division of the Eed Army, the full discipline
of which we now saw and understood.
The Commissar of the Seventh Army, Lashke-
vich, a metal worker, mounted a bench, and spoke
to the soldiers and the people. He is a born
speaker — one of those men who are made to raise
the masses to the greatest heights. Aside from
what he had to say — which was briefly translated
for us by our interpreter — his success as a speaker
lay in the pitch of his clear-sounding voice, in his
decisive, authoritative gestures, in his glance of
a man who knows no discouragement, in his whole
mighty form, an eloquent expression of power,
conviction, courage and will, which in battle can
bear up and inspire the disheartened.
There were other speakers, plain workers they
were. Yet none of them succeeded in effacing the
impression which the speech of that metal worker,
the political head of the army, had left with us.
We understood how with such a man, forged in
the glowing heat of the Revolution, sprung almost
violently from a class that even until yesterday
was doomed to destroy in the cruel grind of eter-
nal slavery all spiritual and moral values forming
within it, this people, in spite of the greatest
obstacles that history has ever presented, would
unquestionably, in order to prove their tenacity,
the capacity for victory of a race or a class, come
off triumphant.
When I listened to Lashkevich it seemed to me
that eloquence, that wonderful instrument for
making known man's thoughts, which has been cor-
rupted only through the rhetoric and lying of an
enervated and over-refined civilization, was again
coming into its own as maker of history. I can-
not conceive of this mighty Red Army, so great
and well-disciplined, so heroic and patient, which
from Irkutsk to Archangel, from Persia to Crimea,
from the Berezina to the Ural, fought and is still
fighting, constantly destroying a multifarious
enemy that is ever being revived, I cannot, I re-
peat, conceive of this proletarian army, composed
of men that know that they are offering their lives
for their freedom and for the highest human ideal
that ever was born in the minds and hearts of
men, without a host of speakers similar to the one
I heard, who are capable of kindling in the heart
of the soldier an ardent passion for the Revolu-
tion, for which it is beautiful to live, but also
beautiful to die.
The People's Commissariat for State Control
T^HERE has existed in Russia for more than a
x century a special institution with the purpose
of assuring the protection of the economic inter-
ests of the country in all the principal departments
of economy. Until recently, this institution was
called the State Control.
Under the autocracy, the activity of the State
Control was based upon the principle of non-inter-
vention in the economic and administrative work
of the state institutions. Its role was a purely
passive one; it consisted in seeing to it that the
calculation and collection of revenue as well as the
expenditure of the state funds were made in a
regular, legal, and rational manner.
But the State Control found it impossible to
even acquit itself of these more than modest tasks,
because a whole series of institutions remained out
of the sphere of its authority ; because considerable
sums were declared uncontrollable; because plun-
derers and falsifiers of high rank, near the throne,
were unassailable ; and because, on the other hand,
the formal conditions of the activities of the Con-
trol permitted the organs of control, in the case
of the discovery of irregularities or frauds, to find
a number of subterfuges, and to edit the reports
without limit, etc., etc. Complete silence sur-
rounded the activity of the State Control, precisely
because publicity would have been likely to throw
light upon the illegal practices of many institu-
tions and a number of personages of prominence.
Before the Revolution the State Control was
thus nothing but the accessory organ of a rotten
regime.
After the Revolution of February, 1917, it was
deemed sufficient to introduce a single reform in
the sphere of the State Control; the representa-
tives of public organizations were drawn into par-
ticipation in it. But the role of the Control re-
mained very modest, and the sphere of its activity
very narrow; as in the past, its duty ended with
discovering irregularities already accomplished in
one or another department of state economy.
After the November revolution the Soviet
power decided to completely and immediately re-
construct the State Control on new foundations.
On January 18, 1918, a decree was published
determining the fundamental principles governing
the projected reform. It proposed essentially to
"suppress bureaucratic delays and to create more
living and rational forms of control which could
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no longer threaten the spirit of initiative, and to
permit the discovery and rapidly prevent actions
of a nature to corrupt the administration of state
economy ." This aim was attained by the creation
of the following system of control :
1) Commissions of control, elected by the em-
ployes and workers in the institutions or enter-
prises under control are organized locally; they
are composed of persons who are not members of
the direction; 2) in the government and regional
centers, colleges of enrolment and control are es-
tablished, organized by the Soviets of workers,
soldiers, and peasants deputies; 3) the Central
Executive Committee of the Soviets established in
the capital a Central Collegium, which directs all
the activities of control in the country.
On the 9th of March, 1918, there appeared a
"provisional resolution for State Control, designed
to remain in force until the definite organization
of the administration of the Republic on a new
basis." This "resolution" contains only two classes
of institutions of control: the central organs and
the local organs. It establishes, for the organiza-
tion of control, central as well as local, the system
of Collegiate administration, entrusted to persons
elected, according to the circumstances, either by
the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, or
by the Soviet of the assemblies. In conformity
with the "provisional resolution", the Control
sees to it that the public funds are expended not
only in a legal and regular manner, but also with
economy and in conformity with their purpose.
The State Control is henceforth independent of
the Soviet administrative organs.
The "provisional resolution" subdivides the Cen-
tral Control into sections: a military section, a
naval section, a civil section, and sections for rail-
roads, credit, accounts, and a general section. The
"provisional resold tion" of March 9, 1918, has
marked the point of departure for the work of
organization of the Control.
Following upon further work performed in the
sphere of the reorganization of the State Control,
the Central Collegium has become the People's
Commissariat for State Control, which comprises
the following sections: Military and Naval, Ways
of Communication, Distribution, Agriculture, Fin-
ance, Instruction and Propaganda, Protection of
Labor and Public Health, Administration, and
finally Accounts.
The Commissariat of State Control enters into
close relations with the Soviet organization and
institutions. All the budget projects and the de-
mands for credit submitted for the approval of the
Council of People's Comissars must first be ex-
amined by the State Control. The representatives
of the State Control participate with the right of
consultation in all commissions, conferences, etc.
The provision for the obligatory submission of all
the Soviet institutions to the State Control has
made necessary the formation of a Section of
Budget Schemes which is charged with the exami-
nation of all the schemes mentioned.
Next, for the first time since its foundation, the
Control obtains access to the review of the tech-
nical division of economic enterprises.
This fact, as well as the increased number of
important nationalized enterprises in which the
control must be organized, has made necessary the
creation of a special technical and industrial sec-
tion. Special sections have also been created for
the review of public organizations and expenditures
for prisoners and the repatriated.
The new method established for juridical re-
ports has given birth to subdivisions of jurists,
while the necessity of instructing new workers in
the organization of the central and local control
has given rise on the other hand to a Section of
Organization and Instruction. To this end there
have been organized all the available forces of the
State Control. Comptrollers charged with effect-
ing new changes have been sent to all the enter-
prises, Soviet institutions, commissariats, etc., on
the other hand, experienced instructors in book-
keeping have been placed at the disposal of the
local Soviets ; courses for the preparation of comp-
trollers and also of comptroller-instructors have
been organized.
Regional and special controls have been es-
tablished locally, for example, for water transport-
ation, the direction of roads, a regional control for
the Western Region, etc. In many districts
district controls have begun to be formed. In the
capital as in the provinces, groups of instructor-
bookkeepers have been created, leading to the estab-
lishment of special courses in connection with the
Central Control.
For the purpose of developing technical and gen-
eral education for workers in the Control, the
Commissariat of the State Control has enlarged
the circle of its activity in the sphere of publica-
tion. In 1918 the "Messenger of State Control",
which planned a vast program, was established to
spread among the great masses of the population
information relative to the activity of the insti-
tutions of control, and to bring to public knowledge
the abuses discovered by the Control there has been
created a special press bureau which publishes the
"State Control News" as well as special material
of various kinds.
Moreover, further measures have extended con-
siderably the authority of the State Control. If
formerly it supervised directly the economy of the
state in its various spheres, in 1919 the state ad-
ministration was entirely brought under the super-
vision of the State Control. This supervision is
exercised from the point of view of the legality
and technical perfection of the state administra-
tion ; it insures not only the execution of the pro-
visions of the central power, but also the rapidity,
the exactness and precision of this execution. The
control watches over the local application of the
provisions of the central power, and over the cen-
tralization of power. It is charged with accusing,
before the tribunals, the officials guilty of negli-
gence or offences.
Moreover, the State Control has seen fit to claim
the right of initiative iu "legislative matters. Work-
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ing upon practical observations, it draws up pro-
jects of law tending to simplify the governmental
machinery, suppress the superfluous organizations,
the bureaucratic red-tape, etc. Thus the Con-
trol plays an active and responsible part in the
work of the new construction of the state.
So important an extension of the authority of
the State Control involves significant changes in
its organization.
The personnel of the Control has been modified
and completed by bringing about the constant col-
laboration in the capital as in the province, of the
trade unions and the workers' and peasants 1 or-
ganizations. By this union the question of mutual
reports between the State Control and the control
of the workers (factory and shop committees) was
solved. All the existing organs of control in con-
nection with the separate departments, enterprises,
etc., are hereafter placed under the direction of the
People's Commissariat for State Control.
There exist, in connection with the central State
Control as well as in connection with its local
sections, bureaus of complaint and claims, with the
purpose of seeking all the irregularities committed
by the officials in the exercise of their duties, as
well as by the organs of power and the various
institutions in their activity. The existence of
these bureaus realizes as perfectly as possible the
principle of wide public control of the activity of
the power. All the citizens, without exception, can
make complaints or claims, indicating the ille-
gality, the absence of cause, or the unlawful char-
acter of any act of the power whatsoever. The
deposed complaint or claim is examined immedi-
ately. One part of the complaints is sent to the
interested institutions, which must furnish precise
explanations with justifying documents in their
support ; the others are entrusted to special comp-
trollers for a "rapid review". These reviews have
the purpose, on the one hand, to unmask the dis-
honest elements, who, in addition to their Soviet
work, are doing other work, and on the other, to
seek out everything imperfect and unnecessary in
the functioning of the various institutions.
All these measures have been introduced by a
decree of the Soviet of People's Commissars dated
April 9, 1919. Following is the integral text of
this decree :
1. The State Control is charged with the func-
tions of effective control with the purpose of assur-
ing exact, rapid execution, in conformity with the
idea of the decrees and resolutions of the central
power in all the spheres of the State economy and
administration.
2. The State Control has the right :
a. To suprvise directly the activities of all the
people's commissariats and their local sections, and,
in general, of all the organs of the Soviet power.
b. To verify the activity of the above-mentioned
organs from the point of view of the real results
achieved.
3. The State Control is ordered to accuse, be-
fore the tribunals, officials guilty of negligence or
offences and to demand their dismissal from au-
thority.
4. The State Control is charged with submit-
ting to the examination of the Central Power con-
crete proposals resulting from its observations and
from its researches and aiming at the simplifi-
cation of the machinery of the Soviet power, to
eliminate duplication of work, lack of organiza-
tion, bureaucratic delays, as well as reform the
administrative system itself in this or that sphere
of the political life.
5. It is essential for the realization of the above-
mentioned tasks:
a. To place under the direction of the State
Control all the organs of control functioning in
connection with separated departments, organiza-
tions, and enterprises, to modify the machinery
even of the State Control so as to adapt it to new
tasks of control.
b. To attract to constant participation in the
work of central as well as local control, the work'
ers' and peasants' organizations.
c. Further, to attract systematically to partici-
pation in the various operations of the State Con-
trol citizens drawn from the largest masses of the
laboring population.
d. To introduce the system of "rapid review".
e. To charge the State Control with watching
over the methodical organization by each institu-
tion of the reception of complaints and claims of
every kind which are addressed to it, and to insure
their regular transmission, as well as to see that
in connection with the State Control itself there
should be organized a bureau for the deposition of
claims and declarations relative to irregular prac-
tices, abuses and violations of the law committed
by the officials; these claims and statements must
be examined by the State Control.
THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT AND
SOVIET RUSSIA
Milan, August 26, 1920 (By Telegram to Rosta,
Vienna). — II Messagero, in connection with the
answer given by the Italian Ambassador, Baron
Avezzana, in Washington, to Secretary of State
Colby, reports that the Italian Ambassador has
been unable to do more than to repeat to the Amer-
ican Government that the Italian Government has
already entered into relations with Soviet Russia,
in view of the fact that the Soviet Government
is at present the only actual and powerful author-
ity in Russia.
Sfuilty of negligence c
by doogl c
Soviet Russia
is now in a position to offer its readers Soviet
radios a very short time after their trans-
mission. A number of radios will be pub-
lished weekly.
\_/l I LJ 1 1 I Q I I l<J
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
Ui
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia,
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised.
l^ORWAY is negotiating with the Soviet Gov-
^^ ernment, at Christiania, for the opening of
trade relations between the two countries. The
Soviet Government's representative for the pur-
pose is Litvinov, who went to Christiania from his
regular post, at Copenhagen, with this in view.
There has been much discussion in Norwegian
newspapers as to the delays in the opening of
trade relations, which the Norwegian Government
had been instructed by the Storthing to bring
about, in June of this year. A number of organs of
commercial organizations, among them Mea, the
journal of the fishermen of Finmarken, have com-
plained in their editorials against the policy of
procrastination that was being pursued by the
Norwegian Foreign Department. Mea on August
11 received telegrams from Honningsvaag, couched
in these terms: "Great indignation here against
the Government, which seems incapable of taking
up official negotiations with Russia on the subject
of commercial relations. Readiness is expressed
to support any action that may result in the over-
throw of those now in power, who are leading the
country into ruin." On August 25, Social-Demo-
kraten, of Christiania, prints an interesting com-
munication from Councillor of State Meyer Bruun,
Minister of Commerce, who attempts to defend
the attitude of the "present government" of Nor-
way, and to give the impression that it has done
everything it could to inaugurate commercial re-
lations with Soviet Russia. The expression, "the
present government," used by Mr. Bruun, seems
to express an effort to throw the odium of the un-
popular policy on earlier cabinets. Mr. Bruun
goes on to say that if Norwegian fish is rotting in
the storage-houses, for lack of a purchaser in Soviet
Russia, it is because of the deficient initiative of
the Norwegian fishermen, who seem to expect the
government to do all their work, even their sell-
ing, for them. Mr. Bruun strongly recommends,
in terms that seem strangely antiquated now, that
the fishermen recognize the fact that it is now
time for "private initiative to do something," etc.
We have the text of Mr. Bruun's letter on file, but
shall not print all of it unless conditions should
later make it necessary, nor shall we publish the
by LiOOglC
able editorial answer appearing in the same issue
of Social-Demokraten. We shall content our-
selves with this little quotation from Mr. Bruun :
"That Norway should proceed to an official recogni-
tion of the Soviet Government, before the latter has
been recognized by any of the great powers, is more
than anyone, as will be readily understood, can ask."
Not everyone may understand it. And yet, on
reflection, in the days of the "League of Nations",
it is probably one of the rules of "self-determina-
tion" that a small state may determine by itself
whatever it likes, while large states may not only
determine, but also act, the distinction of the "self-
determined" small state being that its function is
restricted to "determination". Not only govern-
ments hostile to that of Soviet Russia, such as the
government of the "Republic" of Poland, must
travel to Paris and London for instructions con-
cerning their relations with Soviet Russia. Even
little Norway, which was not an "associate" in the
"League of Nations", which does not owe its exist-
ence to the "League", and which gained not an
acre of land in the division of the loot, must ob-
tain permission from Prance and England for
the acts of its own Department of Commerce, or,
if negotiation be the question at issue, its Foreign
Department.
But Soviet Russia appears not to insist on ne-
gotiation. Soviet Russia wants only peaceful rela-
tions, wants only the mutual advantages to the
nations that would result from a free exchange
of commodities, and is willing to forego the joys
of diplomatic uniforms and formal ceremonial re-
quirements, if the Entente can take any satisfac-
tion out of withholding these things from her. Mr.
Bruun, by the way, seems, rather arbitrarily, to
assume the identity of recognition and commercial
intercourse, and to make rather ingenious use of
the resort to "great powers", above quoted, which
is made accessible by this confusion. For he could
not pretend — certainly not if he is acquainted with
the statistics on this subject that appear in the cur-
rent issue of Soviet Russia — that the "great pow-
ers" are not engaged in commercial relations with
Soviet Russia, while he might truthfully deny that
they have recognized that country diplomatically.
* * •
T ITHUANIA, in its swift ontogeny, is passing
- L# through the whole gamut of the phytogeny of
nations ; which musically and biologically expressed
truth means this: Lithuania is rapidly reflecting,
in its short existence as an "independent" nation,
the historical stages that were characteristic of
national developments in Europe during the nine-
teenth century. Of course the analogy is by no
means perfect, as it was possible for a few of the
large European nations in the nineteenth century
to develop as units that were curbed only by other
powerful nations, while the tragedy of the "new"
political organism is that it is entirely a creature,
at least in its present form, of the "great powers"
interested in its existence. But the history of
the Lithuanian national movement is an interest-
ing parallel to the national movement of any big
or little nation, whether it be Russia, Germany, or
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Czecho-Slovakia. In many individuals, the dis-
covery of the importance of the fact that he is a
Lithuanian comes only when he is well along in
his education — and those who know will tell you
the same was the case in other countries. Per-
haps he meets with a philological discussion of an
Indo-European word, and finds that the Lithuani-
an form is more similar to the Greek than is the
Latin, Celtic or German. Or, passing through
the fields of primitive mythology, he may discover
that the chief of the old Lithuanian gods was one
who wielded the thunder and who, like Jove, ruled
the heavens. It is difficult for one of romantic
imagination — and what young man has not a ro-
mantic imagination ? — to resist the implications of
a racial relation that is urged with much delicate
fervor and supported with much apparent science.
A long-nursed hostility to clericalism, or an even
Voltairian scepticism, will do much to help the in-
cipient national movement, and there was no lack
of these in the Lithuanian movement of the last
decades, as anyone knows who has met its ad-
vocates. A one-sided love of the native language,
the native traditions, folk-songs, and so on, is of-
ten enough, once it has been planted, to warp the
intellectual nationalist for the rest of his life.
But, in the case of the small nation, these feel-
ings are permitted to operate only when the power-
ful "protecting" (let us say, "determining") na-
tion decrees that they shall be released. Lithuania
reached this point in her existence a few months
ago. Her march to the sea was satisfied by a taper-
ing boundary converging toward the Baltic and
ending a few miles of seacoast including the former
German town of Memel and the famous Russian
town of Polangen. Her desire for offensive and
defensive alliances expressed itself in numerous
arrangements with powerful "protectors". She
has been hard put to it by attacks on the part of
Polish imperialism, and she evidently now has a
liberal government that is beginning to see the
desirability of mutual arrangements with Soviet
Russia. In her sufferings at the hands of the na-
tions of the past, and in her hopes of friendly rela-
tions with the land of the future, Lithuania paral-
lels many a community of much larger size and
power.
Soviet Russia has succeeded in obtaining an
interesting article from a Lithuanian authority,
who discusses the relations between Poland and
Lithuania. This article will appear shortly.
(CORNELIUS VANDERBILT, JR., a newspa-
^ per correspondent, in a "Special to the New
York Times" from San Francisco, dated Septem-
ber 15, and headlined: Says Big Massacre Will
End Red Regime, does indeed quote a former
Czarist military officer as predicting such a term-
ination for the Soviet Government. Lt.-Gen. Sak-
harov, whose former Czarist milieu is enveloped in
much glamor of detail by Mr. Vanderbilt, and
who, like the former German Kaiser, is writing a
Digitized by LiOOQK
book on Bolshevism, seems to have led a rather
finely pompous life as head of the Court Guard in
the old days, and now delivers himself of these
pregnant words :
"It is my opinion," he said today, "that Bolshevism
will not last much longer, and that as soon as it starts
to go to piecess, it will tumble with such a great fall
that not any or all of the Red element in the world
can ever put it together again. When it commences to
crumble there will be a massacre of its tyrants that will
appall the nations.
"But the fall of Bolshevism will come only from
within the great walls of Russia herself. I have talked
with peasants, with the great middle class of my coun-
try, with merchants and with priests during a wander-
ing trip on horseback, and, when I could, by auto-
mobile, from the Volga to the Pacific Ocean. They
are all against the type of government set up in Mos-
cow, and which is shutting them off from the rest of
the world. They are all tired of fighting, and soon they
will rise in revolution that it will be impossible for the
Bolsheviki to suppress. There are no large classes or
parties in entire Russia who are for Bolshevism, which
is imposed merely by a cunning, clever group of men
who are strong enough in arms to keep down the tim-
orous, sheeplike peasants. Personally, I think it is im-
possible for Bolshevism to continue longer than this
winter,"
Well, let us say six months. Six months is the
favorite figure, and it will be easier to check up
Mr. Sakharov if we force him into the Procrustes
bed of his fellow prophets of the Russian counter-
revolution. We shall come back to Mr. Sakharov
in March or April, 1921.
Soviet Russia Pamphlets
An important rearrangement of this valuable
series is about to be made. Orders should not
be placed before October 1, as the series will not
be ready before then.
1. Labor Laws of Soviet Russia. Third Edi-
tion. Will contain all the matter included
in the first and second editions, together with
a supplement on 'The Protection of Labor
in Soviet Russia," by S. Kaplun, of the Com-
missariat of Labor. About 80 pages, price
25 cents.
2. Marriage Laws or Soviet Russia; also Laws
on Domestic Relations. New translation from
recently received Russian original; an im-
provement on the version printed in Soviet
Russia. Almost 60 pages, price 15 cents.
To be ready about October 1st
3. Two Years of Soviet Russian Foreign
Policy, by George Chicherin. A full account
of all the diplomatic negotiations between
Soviet Russia and foreign powers, from No-
vember 7, 1917, to November 7, 1919; 36
pages, price 10 cents.
All bound in heavy paper covers.
Special Rates in Quantities
Address :
"SOVIET RUSSIA"
110 W. 40th St. Room 304 New York, N. Y.
:=:=::-:==":=:=
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Resolution Passed by Petrograd Children's Colony
[The following resolution was passed by the children and teachers of the Petrograd Colony
just before sailing on September 11.]
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We, the undersigned, Executive Committee duly ap-
pointed by 780 children and thirty-seven teachers who
accompany the said children, at the meeting of the said
children and teachers held this day at Fort Wadsworth,
Staten Island, United States of America, after being
duly authorized and commissioned by the said assembly,
do hereby certify that the following resolution was
unanimously passed by the said children and teachers
and that we were directed to forward said resolution
to the parties mentioned in the said resolution:
"During the year of 1918 while a famine was threat-
ening the city of Petrograd we were sent by a commit-
tee of the Soviet Government and of our parents, to the
Ural district in order that we might there receive proper
nourishment and support. We were then settled in
small colonies of children in that district. When the
Czecho- Slovaks began their campaign against Soviet
Russia, late in 1918, their operations cut off our colon-
ies from communication with European Russia, and as
Kolchak and his Czecho- Slovak allies were then al-
ready beginning their retreat, we were moved along
with the retreating armies across Siberia, without our
consent and contrary to the repeated protests of our
parents. We were shifted about in the vicinity of Vladi-
vostok and finally the remnants of our colony, after
disease and death had decimated our ranks, were in-
terned on Russki Island, opposite Vladivostok, whence
780 of us have now been brought to New York by the
American Red Cross, on the Japanese steamer Yomei
Maru.
Now that we have literally encircled the globe, and
have been hoping that after two years of separation we
might again see our parents and homes, we are in-
formed that we are not to be sent directly to Petro-
grad — and all of us lived at addresses in the vicinity
of Petrograd, as the American Red Cross indicates in
its lists of the addresses of the children's relatives —
but to some Baltic port.
After many disappointments we are about to embark
on a journey for a Baltic port which we are informed
is to be Copenhagen. We trust and rely entirely upon
the promises of the American Red Cross. Realizing
that no obstacles should ordinarily lie in the way of
a Red Cross organization to get into communication
with even a belligerent government, we cannot conceive
of any reasons why a ship flying a Red Cross flag
should not sail directly for the port of Petrograd which
is our home city. Having taken all these matters into
consideration, the colony of children and teachers, this
day in assembly convened, has declared the following
to be its unanimous resolution:
RESOLVED, That the colony of the children and
teachers accepts the word of the American Red Cross
officials and their promises and interprets the same to
signify that they will be returned to their homes in
Petrograd without any further delay;
That the colony demands that a communication be
sent to a committee of their parents in Petrograd
through the Representative of the Soviet Government
in New York. The colony is informed by the said
Representative that he will gladly cooperate with the
American Red Cross to make that possible;
That having been taken by different belligerent forces
without their consent, having been held by Red Cross
bodies for a period of about two years, without their
consent, having been kept away from their families for
over two years, and shifted from port to port, the
children's colony feels that in the decision of all mat-
ters of importance, such as the destination where they
are to be taken, they will not be obedient to the orders
of any other body except their own parents' committee.
That the communication aforementioned be sent
through the Representative of the Soviet Government
in New York, shall be to the effect that the American
Red Cross will meet the parents' committee at some
convenient Baltic port and through the committee of
parents arrange for the final transportation and dis-
position of the children's colony.
Further resolved that a committee of five consisting
of S. Bobrova, E. Mazun, L. Debner, G. Zavodchikov,
O. Kamenskaya, be appointed at this meeting and that the
said committee be authorized to transmit a copy of the
resolution to the Atlantic Division of the American Red
Cross, to Woodrow Wilson, President of the American
Red Cross; to the International Red Cross in Geneva;
to the Representative of the Russian Soviet Govern-
ment in New York City, to the Secretary of State of
the United States of America, and to the Committee
of Russian Organizations;
And be it further resolved: That the children's and
teachers' colony is deeply appreciative of the charity
and hospitality of the American Red Cross and of the
numerous favors and acts of kindness shown to them
and it is the hope of the children's colony's assembly
that the children can take with them and cherish un-
impaired this feeling of gratitude and appreciation to
the American Red Cross."
(Signatures)
S. Bobrova,
E. Mazun,
L. Debner,
G. Zavodchikov,
O. Kamenskaya.
ANTI-BOLSHEVISM
By A. E. C.
The following poem, taken from an English weekly,
makes references to London newspapers:
The anti-Bolshevik Press
Has many wonderful
Tremendous
Arguments
Against Bolshevism;
So full of logic and cor recti*
tude.
The Morning Post and Times
Are fearfully upset
Because in Russia
No one works or toils,
But also
Are very distressed
Because in Russia
Everyone is compelled
to Work;
In Russia, no strikes
Are allowed.
Here a free country,
A man can quit his job.
And when he strikes and does
9 uit
The Times and Post inquire
Why doesn't the Government
Club the dogs back to work.
Thank God for English
Law
And Order.
Bolshevism has no law
Nor order:
All chaos and anarchy:
A country
Where all are compelled
By stringent
Decrees and State regulations
To the bidding
Of tyrant usurpers.
It must be chaos
Where so many laws
Are severely enforced.
And that tyrant,
Lenin,
Living in luxury
On a diet of fruit
In a whitewashed cell.
Seated, it is said,
On a throne
by L^iOOgl
v/w * iuiuuc y even inc
Of skulls, Ail the time.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
A sensualist,
A fanatic,
A Puritan and a debauchee.
Drinking babies' blood
And writing pamphlets
On Fraternity.
And pacifist Trotsky,
Who
For peace at any price
Sold his country
At Brest-Litovsk,
And leads Red armies,
A full-fledged
Blood War-lord,
Wading through carnage
To Imperialism.
And the remaining Bolsheviks
Are so uneducated, so illiterate,
As to want to teach
The peasant
How to read;
And so uncivilized
As not to believe
The words
Of Western statesmen.
But surely the
Great and freedom-loving
Constitutional
British working class,
Knows our armies
Are not for oil and steel and
gold,
But to teach
The Backward peoples
The Art
Of Self-determination.
But why they don't rally
To freedom-loving Wrangcl,
And poor innocent Poland,
And peaceful Mr. Churchill
Passes the comprehension.
But perhaps
Those organs of Trade Union-
ism,
The Morning Post and Timts,
May yet find
That you can't dope
Even the British workers
September 25, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
311
Educational Achievements in Soviet Russia
By William W. Dambit
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'T* HOUGH a number of correspondences in the
, American dailies have justly appreciated the
educational work of the Soviet authorities, one still
finds in some of the conservative press-organs ar-
guments to the effect that the Soviet Eevolution
has destroyed schools, culture, and civilization in
general. To contradict those misrepresentations,
it is quite timely to summarize the state of educa-
tional affairs in Soviet Russia, and also, to com-
pare them somewhat with the educational situa-
tion in pre-Soviet Russia and America, in order to
reveal more conspicuously the defects or the
achievements of the educational work done by the
Soviets.
The Soviet regime, aiming at the abolition of
economic and other class privileges, could not af-
ford to preserve them in education. If the acqui-
sition of education is dependent upon the money-
resources of those who aspire to it, it constitutes
largely, if not exclusively, a privilege of the rich
and well-to-do. It was true to a very large extent
in the old imperial Russia, where all the secondary
and higher educational institutions charged high
tuition fees, and where even most of the city and
a number of the country elementary schools were
pay-schools. The admission to the higher schools
was unreservedly conditioned by certificates and
diplomas held chiefly by the children of the proper-
tied classes. Besides, the higher schools in old
Russia (and, undoubtedly, elsewhere) could be
attended, mainly only by students whose living ex-
penses were covered by the good incomes of their
parents or relatives. The sons and daughters of
the poor were with a few exceptions excluded,
though they might have finished the course of the
secondary school. Likewise the children of wage-
laborers and peasants in Russia (and not in Rus-
sia alone) often were kept from attending even the
elementary school, because the necessity of pro-
viding them with food and school-supplies consti-
tuted too heavy a burden for their poor parents.
In view of such facts, the Soviet Revolution, in
order to provide equal opportunities of education
for all, had before it, as its first task, the elimina-
tion of those privileges in education. For that
purpose the Soviet state itself took over, or na-
tionalized, in 1917 and 1918, the whole educational
system. At the very beginning of this change, ele-
mentary and secondary education was made gra-
tuitous and compulsory for all. In addition, the
Soviet authorities, since 1918, have been supplying
the primary and secondary schools with free text-
books and other school appliances; and in August
of the same year, the School Health Department
of the Peopled Commissariat of Education ordered
that each school child be provided gratuitously with
lunch "containing, at least, 20 grammes of protein,
12 grammes of fat, and 100 grammes of carbohyd-
DigiiizedbyLiOO^k"
rates." Though this free feeding was at first ne-
cessitated by the extraordinarily bad food condi-
tions in the cities, it finally became a permanent
integral part of the Soviet public school system.
In relation to higher education, a decree of the
Soviet Government promulgated in August 1918,
abolished tuition fees in the higher educational
institutions, and prohibited the use or require-
ments of certificates and diplomas as the prere-
quisite for admission, stipulating that all persons
of both sexes over sixteen years of age were en-
titled to admission without any diploma. Subse-
quently, the Soviet Government decreed to pay
from the state resources to the students of the
higher schools regular monthly allowances suffi-
cient to cover moderate living expenses. Every
student having no means of subsistence and show-
ing success in his studies is entitled to these al-
lowances during the whole period of his studies.
Thus, the Russian nobility, rich peasants, and
bourgeoisie lost the advantage of preferentially
placing their children in the higher educational
institutions. Their doors, since the reforms re-
viewed here, were thrown open to every working-
man, peasant, and any one else who was ambitious
enough to aspire to higher education.
Another fundamental educational task for
Soviet Russia has been the increase of the facilities
for education, as the number of schools and their
equipment was very inadequate in pre-Soviet Rus-
sia ! Therefore, the Soviet authorities set to work
to build new schools, to equip them better, and to
enlarge the school extension activities. In this
respect the Soviet regime has made remarkable
progress. According to the most recent available
official data of the People's Commissar of Educa-
tion, Lunacharsky, in the school year of 1918-1919
alone, 5,700 new schools were opened, the number
of students amounting in all the elementary grades
to 2,618,000, in the secondary grades, to 200,000.
This number makes a good showing in
comparison with that of old imperial Russia where
the number of children in schools never exceeded
twenty-five per cent of the whole number of the
children of school-age. Of course, in the subse-
quent school year of 1919-1920 the number of
scholars was surely much higher. Lincoln Eyre,
the well-known correspondent of The World, whom
nobody would accuse of exaggerating the achieve-
ments of Soviet Russia, makes the statement (The
World, March 25, 1920), based on his personal
conversation with Lunacharsky, that 3,000,000
children in Soviet Russia were attending the prim-
ary schools and half of that number the secondary
schools. Obviously, the figures given by Lincoln
Eyre represent the first half of the school year of
1919-1920 and, consequently, a more recent school
situation. It show? thfl.t the Soviet Republic, in pro-
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
September 25, 1920
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viding facilities for elementary and secondary edu-
cation, seems to have greatly surpassed the pre-
Soviet regime.
As to the higher schools, the Soviet Government
as early as August 2, 1918, passed a decree urging
"in case the number of applicants for admission
to the higher educational institutions should ex-
ceed the usual number of vacancies, to undertake
extraordinary steps insuring an opportunity for
study to every one desiring it." In consequence,
many new smaller colleges, technical high schools,
special rural universities, and universities of the
usual type were opened. The number of larger
universities alone has increased from seven (in
Czarist Russia) to seventeen under the Soviet Re-
public. Moscow, the present cultural center of
Russia, in 1919 had 22 colleges with 69,916 stu-
dents, of which 25,972 attended the University of
Moscow alone.
In regard to equipment, among other things,
school museums were collected, established, and
consolidated, and special workshops for the pro-
duction of museum articles and laboratory facili-
ties were erected.
The educational extension work of the Soviets
embraces different kinds of classes and courses in
the usual academic subjects, sciences, arts, technol-
ogy, agriculture, social activities, labor and peas-
ants' organization problems, etc., and in combat-
ting adult illiteracy. For the last-named purpose
an anti-illiteracy decree of the Soviet Government
provides that all Russians between the ages of
eight and fifty must learn reading and writing in
Russian or in their native tongue. All literate per-
sons may be ordered to assist in teaching illiterates.
For the adults receiving instruction in reading
and writing, the working day is shortened by two
hours. In pursuance of the stipulations of this
decree, almost every city and country school is
used in the evenings, as well as during the day, for
teaching illiterate adults ; in addition, newspapers,
posters, and special propaganda trains disseminate
a conception of the importance of everybody's
knowing how to read and write.
The organization, courses of students, and cur-
riculum of the schools likewise have undergone
the most remarkable progressive changes. Accord-
ing to the program for school reform, the ordinary
schools should be preceded by the kindergarten,
which is now being organized on the basis of a
mixed Froebelian and Montessori system. In old
pre-revolutionary Russia, the kindergartens existed
only in the larger cities, almost entirely as private
charitable establishments for the poor, or as luxu-
rious institutions for the rich. Now they have
been opened both in the cities and the rural com-
munities, for all children without discrimination,
amounting in number at the end of 1919 to some
2,000 schools, with an attendance of over 200,000.
The public school itself embraces the school years
from eight to sixteen, and is made up of a primary
school (eight to twelve years) and a secondary
school (twelve to sixteen years), the scholars pass-
ing automatically from the primary to the second-
Digitized by LnOOgl C
ary grades, and from the latter to the higher
schools. The curriculum has been thoroughly
modernized by the introduction of modern social
subjects and the elements of the sciences, already
in the primary school, and by school excursions,
auditorium assemblages, play activities, shop work,
and domestic science, both in the primary and
secondary grades. In old Russia, these modern
subjects of the curriculum were taught only in
a comparatively small number of schools, of the
best type; the Soviet Revolution made them an
essential part of the whole public school system.
Furthermore, the Soviet public school is conceived
as a work school-commune, where the children
themselves perform the work for its upkeep and
maintenance, taking part in the preparation and
serving of their food, engaging in play, self-activ-
ities, and rest, and, together with the teachers, rep-
resentatives of the parents, and school employes,
constituting an organization for the administra-
tion of the affairs of the institution. Thus, the
school represehts, in miniature, a socialized, self-
active, self-supporting society, serving as a means
of practical education in productive work and civil
activities.
The proper vocational education is provided by
special secondary technical schools, to which the
pupils pass after their graduation from the second-
ary schools. The Soviet authorities, however, con-
template, by extending the number of school years
and enlarging the curriculum, to transform in the
course of time the primary, secondary, and voca-
tional schools into a unique polytechnic school,
where the usual academic subjects, sciences, art,
and vocational training constitute a combined
unique system of elementary compulsory education.
The curricula and the organization of the higher
schools also have been affected by considerable
changes. In addition to the traditional courses
extending over many years, there are now in ex-
istence various short college courses giving instruc-
tion in the usual academic subjects, education, and
vocational branches, and thus meeting the urgent
educational needs of the people for a speedy prepa-
ration of trained workers in the field of economic
and civic activities. Simultaneously, special labor
faculties and special labor universities have been
opened. Their aim is to educate from among
workingmen and peasants, faithful to the Soviet
regime, thoroughly trained specialists in Soviet ad-
ministration affairs, the organization and manage-
ment of industrial enterprises, Soviet estates, agri-
cultural communes, cooperatives, and in other
branches of the economic and social life. To those
labor faculties and universities the students are
appointed by the Soviet authorities, the Commun-
ist Party, labor unions, agricultural communes,
cooperatives, and other workers' and peasants' or-
ganizations, the students receiving the means of
subsistence from the state or respective organiza-
tions. For the promotion of science and higher
learning in general, new special scientific institu-
tions for research and experiments in chemistry,
biology, bacteriology, agriculture, mining, electro-
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
September 25, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
313
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technics, etc., have come into existence. A number
of the higher schools have been consolidated, in
order to enrich the equipment of the enlarged in-
stitutions. The students of the higher schools
possess the right to participate in their administra-
tion, having at the same time ample opportunities
for self-activity, and initiative in their studies.
As to methodology, the People's Commissariat of
Education and its subordinate organs have spared
no effort to introduce into the primary, secondary,
and higher schools modern, scientific methods : ob-
servation, self-activity, selection of studies by the
scholars, experiment, and research, as the basis for
the determination of the best methods to be em-
ployed. Some of the work school-communes have
been assigned, and a number of higher educational
institutions established, mainly for experimenta-
tion purposes.
It is obvious that the Soviet regime has been
and is hard at work in completely democratizing
education, diffusing knowledge amongst the masses
of the people, in order to enrich their mental life,
to equip them with scientifically trained minds,
with efficiency in production, and with self-activ-
ity in every line of life, for the development and
welfare of the republic. The school reforms of
Soviet Russia are in accord with the greatest mod-
ern educational principles, which, in substance, ad-
vocate the complete democratization of education,
training in efficiency, and the application of ex-
periments and innovations. Particularly the Soviet
work school-commune contains many features of
the best American public schools (the introduc-
tion of manual training and domestic sciences, the
school auditorium and play, the salf-activities of
the scholars, the junior high school, etc.), together
with radical innovations such as those advocated
by pedagogues like John Dewey. But the intro-
duction of free feeding and of communal work in
the public schools, the abolition of fees, the simul-
taneous payment of monthly allowances to the
students in the higher schools, and the ample pro-
vision for the workingmen's higher education in
Soviet Russia, surpass the most progressive edu-
cational achievements in any other country.
Finally, in evaluating the educational work of
Soviet Russia, one must take into consideration
the widely known efforts of the Soviet authorities
in the distribution of cheap editions of classic
works of literature (some 6,000,000 volumes in the
last two years), in the establishment of a whole
system of new libraries, in the collection and pre-
servation of art works, and in the provision of ex-
ceptionally wide opportunities for the masses of
the people to obtain aesthetic education through
art and music schools, concerts, and theatres.
Does this look like a "destruction of civiliza-
tion", so stupidly alleged and realleged by some
of the conservative anti-Soviet press organs? On
the contrary, the Soviet regime has brought civili-
zation into the very midst of the masses of the
people, has enriched and developed it. Of course,
the war, exhausting the material and human re-
sources of the country, has largely handicapped
the Soviet authorities in carrying out completely
their educational program. Therefore, the num-
ber of schools, teachers, and equipment, is as yet
by no means adequate in Russia. But these limi-
tations can not be ascribed to any alleged ineffi-
ciency of the Soviet educational policy, which un-
der the circumstances has proved to be very effi-
cient.
The Collectivization of Agriculture
The Department of Collective Farming in its
present form was organized after the First All-
Russian Congress of the Departments of Agricul-
ture, of the committees of poor peasants and of
the communes, which took place in December,
1918, and began to work regularly only about the
end of May, 1919. Until then the work of col-
lectivization of agriculture was under the jurisdic-
tion of the Department of Communes, which had
been formed in May, 1918.
The first task of the Department was the form-
ulation of a model constitution for the communes,
for which purpose the Department made use of
the abundant material of the local constitutions.
Simultaneously the Department worked out rules
regarding the registration of agricultural collect-
ive enterprises and drafted the regulations regard-
ing loans to these enterprises.
In the beginning of July, 1918, the Department
of Communes of the Commissariat of Agriculture
had registered only 342 communes with 9,985
members ; about the end of August 523 communes
were registered; on October 15, 700, and on No-
vember 1, 1918, there were already registered 912
communes and artels, with 32,199 members. They
had in their possession 73,809 dessiatins of land,
of which 40,038 dessiatins were cultivated. Al-
most daily the department was visited by dele-
gates from the communes, who came there for in-
formation on collective farming.
The First All-Russian Congress of the Depart-
ments of Agriculture, committees of poor peasants
and communes was in session from December 10
to 20, 1918. Although the congress considered the
communes of paramount importance, it neverthe-
less worked out "Regulations for social exploita-
tion of land" as a transition measure to collective
agriculture. Thus, the methods for the realization
of socialist agriculture were considerably widened.
In accordance with this the activity of the organs
directing the work for the collectivization of agri-
culture unfolded.
By November 1, 1919, there had been registered
1,921 communes with 100,037 consumers, and
4,445 cooperatives and other societies with
320,367 consuHierbln <
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
September 25, 1920
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Lately, the population has taken a friendly at-
titude towards the communes, particularly in those
localities where the communes have demonstrated
their ability to exist.
For instance, the peasants of a commune in the
Government of Penza furnished of their own ac-
cord, 150 wagons for the transport of timber. Re-
ports are being received from various localities, to
the effect that members of the communes are being
elected to the District Executive Committees, and
that, in general, they are being favored as respon-
sible workers, for they have the reputation of be-
ing non-partisan and just.
In the district of Tarusa, the Government of
Kaluga, a kindergarten was established in the com-
mune "Liberty", to which not only the children of
the commune members were admitted, but also the
children of the other comrades in the village. In
the Government of North-Dvinsk, the communes
have risen much in the estimation of the popula-
tion because they employ mowing and harvesting
machines. And the organization of model com-
munes has contributed not a little in producing
this result.
There are communes which have, out of their
own resources, created repair shops, oil mills, and
other establishments of similar nature, which min-
ister to the needs of the population, and in this
way a friendly relation is established.
During the last few years, the membership of
the communes has mostly been made up of prole-
tarian elements from country and city. The well-
to-do did not participate, as the feeling for prop-
erty is still strongly implanted in them, and be-
sides they were not convinced of the permanence
of the Soviet Government. These elements prefer
to own their own property even if it is a small
one.
As can be seen from the following table, reports
concerning the growth of communes had not been
received from all the provinces on January 1, 1920.
However, the material at hand proves that there
has been no cessation in the growth of the
communes, but that, on the contrary, they are be-
coming more firmly established. (See following
table.)
In view of the fact that at the present time the
poorest classes of the agricultural population have
already been admitted to the communes, and that
these at present are also improving in quality, it
can be asserted that the movement is becoming
more and more deeply rooted, for now a new less
mobile class of peasants from the ranks of the so-
called middle, formerly "established peasants" are
being attracted to them.
en
o
Number of Operative Collegium* Number of Consumers Under Area of Land Belonging to
the Operative Collegium* the Operative Collegium*
S * s §|S § - .sSi-s § i .sSg-a
I | . b3 j t | w j a 1W
1 Astrakhan
2 Archangel 1 .... 2 3 42 .... 96 138 36 .... 77 113
3 Vitebsk 47 139 .... 186 2,225 4,728 .... 6.953 8,698 7,739 .... 16,437
4 Vladimir 46 92 21 159 2,358 11,026, 1,735 15,119 1,468 2,035 351 3,854
5 Vologda 16 72 20 108 845 5,557 1,486 7,888 4,709 2,968.5 888 8,565.5
6 Voronezh 10 38 3 51 ....
7 Viatka 57 84 21 162 2,301 4,701 2,189 9,191 2,030.17 1,326.24 2,188.1 5,744.51
8 Homel 70 180 20 270 5,110 n,325 1,010 17,445 8,723 15,794 1,640 26.157
9 Ivanovo- Voznesaensk 38 198 .... 236 1.270 21,124 .... 22,394 2,547.5 2,923.5 .... 5,471
10 Kazan
11 Kaluga 37 77 158 272 1,690 n.322 3,109 16,121 4,082 11,692 1,759 17,533
12 Kostroma 63 311 96 470 1,970 14,667 5,597 22,234 4,925 36,740 1,978 43,643
13 Kursk
14 Moscow .... .... ....
15 Nizhni-Novgorod .... 17 88 36 141 856 6,622 7,595 15,073
16 Novgorod «... •••• ••■• •••• .... .... .... .... ....
17 Olonetz 9 36 10 55 341 1,025 374 1,740
18 Orel 57 357 414 4,000 25,181 .... 29,181 5,003 33,771 38.774
19 Penza
20 Petrograd 59 152 17 228 1,420 5,821 443 7,684 6,267 18,440 1,176 25,883
21 Perm 28 1 .... 29 1,598 34 .... 1,632 4,216 4,216
22 Pskov ....
23 Riazan 87 # 11,811* 56.777*
24 Samara .... • • • • • « • • .... .... .... .... .... ....
25 Saratov 63 135 198 4,892 13.764 .... 18,656 13,369 21,692 35,061
26 North-Dvinsk 29 65 .... 94 1,482 3,623 .... 5,105
27 Simbirsk 22 26 48 1.834 931 .... 2,765 2,378 548 2.926
28 Smolensk 360 121 273 754 15,923 5,450 12,076 33,449 21,033.5 7,670 18,008 46,711.5
29 Tambov 43 191 1 235 1,893 20,627 316 22,836 16,062*
30 Tver 120 180 30 330 4,509 5,640 1,933 12,082 13,815 14,039 2,091 29.945
31 Tula 30 78 5 113 2.073 8.230 133 10,436 2,986 3,577 6.563
32 Cherepovetz 49 122 15 186 2,455 7,317 1.253 11.025 3,017 9,146 1,556 13.719
33 Yaroslav 40 143 34 217 1,197 6,954 2.37a 10.522 3,066 3,719 800 7,585
1.311 2,886 762 4,959 62,284 195.669 41.716 299,669 112,369.17 194,020.24 32,512.1 338,901.51
•Not included in the total.
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Membership of the Gollegiums
of the Main Committees and Centers of the Economic Council
According to the results of an investigation of
fifty-three production committees and centers of
the Supreme Economic Council, the number of
members of the main committees and centers con-
sists of 232 persons, as can be seen by the follow-
ing table:
Members
of the
Collegiums
Workers
Engineers
Directors
Qerical Workers
All Other
Per Cent
Number of
Total Members
83 35.8
79 34.0
1 0.4
50 21.6
19 8.2
Total Members of 53 Com-
mittees
232
100.0
Among the 232 members of the collegiums there
is only one single former Director. The largest
group of collegium members is formed by genuine
workers who number 83 persons, or about 36 per
cent of the entire membership. But upon closer
consideration, the number of proletarian elements
in the membership of the collegiums of the main
committees and centers proves to be still larger,
as a considerable number of the clerks, of whom
there are 50, or almost 22 per cent of the entire
membership, consists of office workers, book-keep-
ers, etc., who absolutely must be regarded as pro-
letarian elements and have always been regarded
as such. Besides these, the other members of the
collegiums are 79 engineers, or, to express it differ-
ently, — specialists, who constitute 34 per cent of
the entire membership, and 19 persons (eight per
cent) of various callings, as, for example, literary
men, lawyers, etc., who were for the most part
active in the party for many years.
From the professional membership of the col-
legiums functioning in the main committees and
centers, the conclusion may be drawn that the
power of the proletarian influence in the col-
legiums is sufficiently well grounded. This fact
will be still more evident if the party affiliations
of the membership of the collegiums of the main
committees and centers are investigated. From
this standpoint, the members of the collegiums of
the main committees and centers may be divided
into the following groups:
Persons Per Cent
Communists 115 50
No Party 105 45
Members of other parties (Men-
sheviki) 12 5
Total , 132 100
These figures prove that a large number of the
engineers and clerks belong to the Communist
Party, while on the other hand a large number
of the non-partisans are sympathizers with the
Communists. The number of party members in
the existing collegiums of the main committees
and centers, also shows that the Russian Commun-
ist Party plays an unqualifiedly leading role in
them.
Let us turn to the question of how many mem-
bers the said collegiums consist of. It can be
seen from the following table, that in 80 per cent
of the main committees and centers (in 43 out of
53) there are not more than four or five members
and that, on the average, to every main committee,
there are not more than four members in the col-
legium. Only in particularly large main commit-
tees and centers, such as the Main Committee of
the textile industry, which has 10 collegium mem-
bers, does the collegium consist of more than five
people.
Number of Number of Per Cent
Collegium Members Committees of Total
1 3 6
2 or 3 18 34
4 or 5 22 41
5 or 7 7 13
Over 7 3 6
Total 53 100
The members of the collegiums of every main
committee and center are subject to the constant
supervision of the Presidium of the Supreme Eco-
nomic Council on the one hand, and the Union
Organizations on the other.
The collegium of every main committee and
center is confirmed by the Presidium of the Su-
preme Economic Council, after an obligatory pre-
liminary agreement with the Central Committee
of the corresponding Union Organizations or with
the All-Russian Central Soviet of the Union Or-
ganizations. Every single member of a collegium
has a strictly defined set of duties, and carries to
the fullest extent personal responsibility for the
services rendered by him.
THE GRAIN STOCK IN SIBERIA
The Moscow Pravda published the following
data on the grain stocks in Siberia:
According to the data of Kolchak's ministry of
supplies, the free surplus of grain for 1918-1919
amounted to 77,054,000 poods more than the
total needs for Siberia. The surplus of the 1919-
1920 harvest in excess of the needs of the local
population is estimated at 71,753,000 poods. Thus,
the total surplus for 1920 amounts to about
140,000,000 poods.
CENSUS IN SOVIET RUSISA
Christiania, August 29. — A message from
Moscow dated August 28 states :
A general census begins in Soviet Russia today,
which is to be not only a census of the population,
but also a total inventory of the workers' and peas-
ants' republic. The object of the remuneration is
to determine the character and the capacity of
agriculture and manufactures, the distribution ac-
cording to occupations, and the efficiency of the
population of ftmot Russia.
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The Red Officers
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The miracle oj the Red Army astounded the whole world. Built in a country completely dis-
organized and ruined by the world war, and attached on all sides by mighty enemies, the Red Army
has become, to the amazement of both friend and foe, perhaps the best, certainly the most reliable
army in Europe. There are many puzzling features about this army, for the outsider, and one of
them is the question of officers. The old, czarist officers were counter-revolutionary, and could
be expected to do and did their utmost to overthrow the rule of the workers and peasants. Even
the few czarist officers who joined the Soviet army could not be relied upon and had to be watched
by Soviet commissaries. But what about the tens of thousands of officers that were required for the
lower command and that could not be watched by commissaries?
The Soviet Government solved this problem by taking hold of the old military 'schools and
by opening a large number of short courses for military instruction. We offer to the readers of
Soviet Russia a number of statements by the chiefs of the Soviet army and the Soviet military
schools, which were published in the "Izvestia" of June 6, 1920. June 6 was the "Day of the Red
Commander" at Moscow. On this day Moscow was giving a great send-off to a few hundred of
Red officers, new graduates of the Moscow military schools, who were leaving for the western front.
The "Izvestia" used this occasion to publish statements from the Soviet chiefs, extolling the Red
officers and calling up the workers and peasants to fill up the military schools, to provide a reserve
force of officers for the front. Some of these statements the reader will find below.
PROVIDE RED COMMANDERS FOR THE
FRONT
By L. Trotzky
The war with the Polish nobility is a serious
war. Poland is not alone. She is backed by the
mightiest nations in the world. The Anglo-French
imperialists not only linked Pilsudsky with Wran-
gel, but Pilsudsky with Ebert and Scheidemann
as well. The Polish command removed its troops
from the German frontier and sent them against
us. New armies are being hastily formed in all
the provinces of Poland.
Of course, Poland is worn out and ruined. But
the Entente is furnishing all the necessary supplies
for the creation of White divisions. France sup-
plies instructors: The United States lends equip-
ment at a low price. England, in accord with the
October contract, supplies cartridges and shells to
be used against the Russian workers and peasants.
All this mighty international combination has put
too great a task on Poland. Those are wrong,
therefore, who say and write that the Polish army
is on the eve of annihilation. No, the struggle
is only beginning. The Polish army is still power-
ful and is being strengthened with new units. We
can conquer White Poland only through the heroic
efforts of all the toiling people. The Red troops
on the western and southwestern fronts must have
a continuous flow of reserves, and these reserves
must have a commanding staff.
The Red courses for commanders are the forges
where our coming victory over Poland is now be-
ing forged. We must have a large reserve of Red
commanders. There must therefore be no vacan-
cies in the courses for commanders. The party or-
ganizations, the trade unions, the young people's
organizations should launch a vigorous agitation
among their members, to urge their best young
men into the courses for the commanding staff.
Work in the courses should be carried on with
trebled energy. The enemy is strong and well
trained, — and we must have an efficient and com-
petent commanding staff, capable of initiative.
Therefore let the workers and peasants of Rus-
sia whole-heartedly help their courses for com-
manders, their foundries of victory.
STATEMENT OF S. S. KAMENEV
Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces of
the Soviet Republic
Today, on the "day of the Red Commander",
we are sending off a new group of Red command-
ers to battle against the Polish nobility. There,
at the western front, our new commanders will
have to apply their knowledge and ability to bat-
tle against the enemies of Red Russia. In this
struggle, in this best school of war for the Red
commander — for the Polish army, built from parts
of the armies of all nations which waged the war
of 1914-1918 and possessing the experience and
the methods of all of them, is a serious and able
adversary, — the Red commander will display with
particular splendor and vigor his basic traits, his
enthusiasm and conviction of the righteousness of
this great final struggle, as well as his firmness
and unexampled daring.
Waging this struggle and dying for the cause
of the workers, departing comrades will be sure
that the Russian workers who have already en-
dured three years of desperate struggle under im-
possible conditions and who comprehend the im-
portance and the necessity definitely to liquidate
the attempts of the Polish nobility, must and will
give new groups of working class youth to replace
those who will be forced out of the ranks and to
complete and secure their bloody and difficult task.
Even now the necessity to fill the ranks of the
Red commanding staff is already clearly felt, and
the working class youth must and — I am sure —
will enroll in the schools for Red commanders,
for this is demanded by the interests of the work-
ing class struggle and the duty to Soviet Russia.
On this day I cannot help recalling the service
which many of the departing students already
rendered to the Red Army, which they performed
at the time irh?7i the students of the Moscow and
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Petrograd courses for commanders, sent in a body
to halt the bands of Yudenich, accomplished this
task, defending Bed Petrograd with honor and
thus giving us time and enabling us to concentrate
ample forces completely to crush the enemy. A
similar feat, though on a smaller scale, was per-
formed at the height of the Polish offensive by the
students of the Minsk courses for commanders,
who twice halted the Poles before Gomel and pre-
vented its falling into the hands of the enemy,
thus saving for us this important railway junction.
The departing comrades know all this, they re-
member and they highly value the name and honor
of the Red commanders, they know that the work-
ers' Russia is proud of them, and we are sure that
these new fighters for the cause of the workers
will soon vindicate our pride in them.
STATEMENT OF COMRADE BATTEL
Chief of the All-Russian General Staff
We have a considerable number of courses and
schools to train Red commanders for the work-
men's and peasants' army. These courses have al-
ready trained several tens of thousands of work-
men and peasants for the commanding staff, who
have proven with their blood their loyalty and
faithfulness to the workmen's and peasants' Re-
public. Among those who are now graduating
from the courses for the commanding staff there
are many workmen who are well along in age, and
there are quite a few who are very young. All of
them studied in the courses with unusual exertion,
eagerly assimilating the practical and theoretical
knowledge offered to them. In the ranks of the
army, the Red commander is welcomed with par-
ticular affection and confidence, and in general
they work splendidly. The great advantage of the
Red commanders in the army is the absolute con-
fidence in them of the mass of the Red soldiers,
and their fearlessness in battle.
Their weak side — which is, of course, explained
by the short term of instruction — lies in the fact
that on the whole the training in military science
is poorer than that which former officers had. But
many of them very quickly learn from practice
what they could not learn in the courses for com-
manders, owing to the brief terms of instruction.
The army is in extreme need of a Red com-
manding staff, emerging from the ranks of the
workmen and peasants; the army needs them in
large numbers, but with longer terms of training,
and for this purpose it is imperative that the
courses for commanders shall be filled with stu-
dents. As experience has shown, the Red com-
manders emerging from the ranks of the workers
have proven especially valuable in the army, and
more easily and quickly assimilated the military
science and practice.
We must use all means to urge the workers and
peasants — especially now, when the struggle on
the western front will be difficult and protracted,
requiring a large commanding staff — to fill the
courses for commanders and keep flocking to those
courses. Our reliance is on the Red commanding
\ j i TOsfVc
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staff of workmen and peasants who have received
adequate training in the courses.
RED STUDENTS AND RED COMMANDERS
By D. Petrovsky*
Today the young Red commanders who are leav-
ing for the western front to fight the Polish nobil-
ity will assemble on Theatre Square. They num-
ber hundreds. They are the result of the feverish
work of the workmen's and peasants' courses for
commanders. On the Square will be assembled
infantrymen, cavalrymen, machine-gun operators
and artillerists, Red technicians, and artillery and
supply experts. There will be among them com-
manders of platoons and of companies, of squad-
rons and battalions. And all of them come from
families of toil, for whom the November Revolu-
tion opened the schools, which train the prole-
tariat to become the dominant class in order to
abolish the existence of classes. The whole coun-
try is covered with such schools. And on the
Theatre Square of Moscow will be assembled only
a fraction of the Red commanders who are leaving
today from all parts of the country, to defend the
front of the revolution.
Each of these schools has a fine legend of its
own. To be sure, they have only existed 25-28
months. But we live in the time of the greatest
revolution, when the country is rushing ahead like
a hurricane, when an hour is equivalent to a year,
and a month to a decade. Of course, the time has
not yet come to summarize the results of our activ-
ity. This will be the work of future genera-
tions. We are too close to the picture of social
triumph to be able to analyze correctly. But some-
thing can and should be said of the importance
of the new schools.
At the Fifth Congress of Soviets it was already .
shown that the Red officers are the most loyal
and the most determined soldiers of the Soviet
power. This was at the dawn of our revolution.
Since then, much blood has been shed, and the
Red commanders, as well as the Red students, have
earned unfading glory.
The first treacherous attack on the Soviet power
— the insurrection of the left Socialists Revolu-
tionists — was repulsed by the Red students. Since
then these students took part in numer-
ous great battles. They were the mighty support
of the revolution in the struggle against the in-
surrections of the rich peasants, and against the
Russian and world counter-revolution. They stood
unflinchingly in front of the capital of the Social
Revolution — Red Petrograd. They were the main-
stay of the armies at all fronts. The immense
importance of the schools for Red commanders is
felt at every front of our revolution. The students
are the most fearless soldiers, and the commanders
became the armor of the revolution against which
all the intrigues of our enemies within the Red
Army itself went to pieces.
The regenerating power of the Soviet military
♦Educational Director oi: tlie. Moscow Military School.
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schools was revealed with particular force at the
hour when it seemed that toiling Kussia, at the
price of great sacrifices, had won for herself the
right to a respite, which she wanted to utilize to
heal her wounds. The Eed students and the Red
commanders were the inspiration of that passion-
ate impulse for toil which began to spread through
the country with the force of a whirlwind. With
every blow of the hammer they proclaimed to the
world :
"We are not soft-handed, we are not professional
officers. We took the sword to conquer the right
for the hammer and the plough." And the records
of the toiling artels of the military schools furnish
clear and unmistakable evidence of the future for
which Soviet Russia is fighting.
Today all Russia is cheerfully and confidently
sending off her best sons to battle and to victory.
The workers should immediately, today, enroll in
the courses for commanders, in order to fill the
vacancies and to prepare valiant commanders for
the valiant army.
THE MILITARY COMMISSARIAT OF
EDUCATION
By V. Rosovsky
Today, on June 6, when the Soviet Republic is
sending forth into the ranks of the glorious Red
Army several thousands of tried proletarian Red
officers, hardened in battles and politically de-
veloped, who are armed with knowledge of mili-
tary science, it is but right to give at least a gen-
eral outline of the work of the General Board
of the Military Schools, of the Red "Guvuz",*
or, as it is called by many, not without reason,
of' the "Military Commissariat of Education."
The "Guvuz" is one of the institutions which
retained the old name, but has nothing in com-
mon with the old "Guvuz", either in spirit, or in
the methods of the work in the courses for com-
manders.
Constant communion with the Red soldiers and
workmen, orientation in political questions, un-
qualified loyalty to the working class, self-reliance,
training not only in military science but also in
political and economic problems, and in the organ-
ization of production— in short, they are Red of-
ficers for defence and toil — such are the distinctive
traits of the pupils of the present military schools,
of the Red students, who are workmen and peas-
ants.
It need hardly be mentioned that the Commun-
ist Party furnishes the greater part of the students.
The groups of the Party include, in most of the
schools, from eighty to ninety per cent of the
student body.
The most remarkable feature is this, that the
students not only overcome their lack of educa-
tion and various vices (drunkenness, gambling,
etc.), but accomplish far more than that. They
win over to their ideas the (old) commanding
staff. Most of the latter have already been at-
* "Guvuz" is an abbreviation of the preceding full
name in Russian, formed from the initials of its parts.
tracted to the educational work of the courses and
they form a single friendly family with the stud-
ents. There are also tens and hundreds of the
best commanders, who have already joined the
Communist Party. The cooperation of the non-
partisan commanding staff with the students dur-
ing "saturdayings" is convincing evidence of how
much has been accomplished in this direction.
COMPOSITION of PETROGRAD SOVIET
(In the First Half of 1920)
There were registered in all districts, including
the representatives of the Petrograd Party Com-
mittees (eighteen comrades), altogether 1,924
persons. Of these there are : Persons
Communists 1,431
Candidates 17
Sympathizers 55
No Party 402
Social Revolutionaries of the Minority 10
Left Maximilists 1
Left Social-Revolutionaries 1
Anarcho-Syndicalists 2
Anarchists 1
United Labor Party 1
Bundists 1
Social Democrats 2
The data concerning the length of membership
in the party of the Communist majority may be
of interest. To the party have belonged:
Since the year: Comrades
1896 1
1897 1
1900 1
1901 3
1902 6
1903 12
1904 7
1905 17
1906 3
1907 3
1908 4
1909 6
1910 2
1911 1
1912 6
1913 2
1914 10
1915 6
1916 1
1917 220
1918 300
1919 480
1920 10
The remaining comrades who number over 300,
have not reported as to the length of their mem-
bership in the party.
The largest number of our party members in
the Petrograd Soviet joined the party during the
years of revolution, 1917, 1918, 1919, and 1920.
This fact is very significant. Our party grew at a
period of the utmost difficulty for the party. We
were surrounded within and without by class ene-
mies, we had inherited from bourgeois society a
completely disorganized economy, a similarly dis-
organized transport system, hunger, cold and di-
sease. During this period, so difficult for us, the
new members joined our party, our revolutionary
ranks filled up.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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Wireless and Other News
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APPEAL OF THE RUSSIAN WATER-
TRANSPORT WORKERS
(Private telegram to the "Rote F aline", Berlin.)
Stockholm, August 10. — To the transport
workers of all countries, to the International Sec-
retary of Transport Workers' Unions in Amster-
dam, to the Secretary of the British Transport
Workers' Union, Eobert Williams, London.
The All-Eussian Union of Water-Transport
Workers has received news of the shameful acts
of violence which the British Government com-
mits against Russian seamen who enter its terri-
tory. The protest of the Seamen's Committee
in Cardiff, in the Daily Herald, describes the meth-
ods employed by the British Government. It treats
the Russian seamen as its colonial slaves, in that
it takes from them the right of domicile, dooms
them to unemployment, and deprives them of their
legal rights. And this does not happen in some
remote corner of India or the Pacific Ocean, or
the Colonies, but under the eyes of the English
workers, right on the British Isles.
We understand the hatred of the bourgeoisie for
the working class, but we do not understand how
the British workers still stand and look on while
their class brothers are being treated in this hos-
tile way. All the beautiful speeches about the
sympathy for the Russian Revolution and the
Soviet system, which your representatives have
long ago made, have so far remained idle talk. But
the cup of sorrow of the working class is over-
flowing in all countries. The shamelessness of the
bourgeoisie knows no limits, because it meets with
no active opposition from you. We appeal to you
to take a stand against the shameful treatment
of Russian seamen by the English authorities. We
hope for the success of your action and are con-
vinced that you will translate into deeds your soli-
darity with the Russian Water-Transport Work-
ers which you have expressed in words.
MUNITIONS DELIVERED TO POLAND
Moscow, August 2 (by wireless) — Pravda re-
ports that while the official organ of the Czecho-
slovak Republic declared that all nations wanted
to live at peace with Soviet Russia, French arms
and munitions were passing through Czecho- Slo-
vakia to Poland.
THE RUSSIAN WIRELESS
Moscow, August 2 (by wireless). — In the Mos-
cow district a large wireless station is being
erected for communication with America. It will
bear the name of Khutorov. Another, smaller wire-
less station, will be erected for the European wire-
service.
GERMAN ARMS FOR FINLAND
AGAINST RUSSIA
Swedish newspapers inform us that the German
sailing vessel Merlcur, has arrived in the harbor of
Hango, with a crew made up exclusively of former
German officers, and carrying war material of all
kinds on board. The cargo was destined for Major
von Coler, a former German officer, now in the
Finnish army, and Chief of the garrison troops
of Hango.
It is peculiar that the guard kept by the Entente
Commissions over the rivers and harbors of Ger-
many never discover when war material is loaded
on German ships to be sent to the coalition against
Russia. Peculiar also is the fact that Mr. Man-
nerheim had so much freedom of action while on
German soil, that he could charter German ships
for the transport of war material for his own pur-
poses and could organize on German territory a
Finnish military organization composed of former
German officers.
THE POLISH WHITE TERROR
Socialdemokrats, the central organ of the Social
Democratic Labor Party of Latvia, which did its
best in an effort to reach an "understanding with
Poland" in their fight against Soviet Russia, in its
issue of June 4, 1920, gives the following facts
about the Polish terror in White Russia:
"The Polish occupational forces in White Russia,
in their willingness to terrify the people of White Rus-
sia who began to fight the Polish occupationists in
armed insurrections, are not only using the death pen-
alty against the rebels, but have made the infliction
of the death penalty a public holiday. So in Minsk,
as stated, every day from seven to ten men are shot.
The shooting takes place in the day time. The men
condemned to death are driven around the streets be-
fore their shooting and the inhabitants are invited to
attend the killings, which are held in the suburbs of
the city, at the so-called Kararovka (Romanovka?)."
IN DEFENCE OF SOVIET RUSSIA
At the conference of the shop councils in Stet-
tin, Germany, the following resolution was
adopted :
The general meeting of the shop councils expresses
its full satisfaction with the resolution passed in Stet-
tin by the dock-workers, not to load any ammunition.
This resolution indicates the spirit of solidarity which
the workers of all countries must manifest in their
attitude towards the proletariat of Russia. The work-
ers of Stettin are following in this instance the good
example of the workers of Italy, England, France and
Czecho- Slovakia, who are obstructing shipment of arms
and ammunition to be used against Russia. These
transports are utilized for counter-revolutionary pur-
poses and will bring new wars or reinforce the reaction
in its struggle with the proletariat. These weapons are
never used to arm the workingmen, and therefore they
must prevent the expert of arms and ammunition,—
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SOVIET RUSSIA
September 25, 1920
A BUREAU FOR SCIENCE
Stockholm, August 15 (Rosta, Vienna). —
From Moscow the following is reported: A bu-
reau for foreign science and technology is being
organized, for the purpose of acquainting Russia
with present-day science and technology. The bu-
reau is counting on the support of all workers and
communists of all countries in its work. It has in
view to organize in all countries scientific-technical
missions to be constantly connected with the cen-
tral management.
Q.
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RUSSIA'S FOREIGN TRADE
London, August 10.
While the game of the diplomats as to the re-
sumption of economic relations with Soviet Rus-
sia still moves to and fro, while the whole world
is still disputing the fact that Soviet Russia really
has any products at its disposal for the purposes
of exchange, English commercial statistics already
record a very active trade with Russia. The
Europaische Wirtschaftszeitung of Zurich, prints
some data concerning this trade. According to this
journal, the goods imported into England from
Russia in May, 1920, are valued at 1,185,305
pounds sterling, while, according to the figures
of the Russian-British Chamber of Commerce
there was sent to Soviet Russia British goods to
the value of 1,085,158 pounds sterling. The prin-
cipal products furnished by Russia were: flax,
wood, butter, hides. There were exported to Rus-
sia manufactured products of all kinds, especially
metal goods, cotton goods, and scientific instru-
ments.
The Paris journal Information furthermore
printed a July 12 message from Stockholm, stat-
ing that the Swiss National Bank had received a
considerable quantity of Russian gold. As the
Europaische Wirtschaftszeitung learns, this gold
is designated as "Swedish gold". Trade with Rus-
sia is already also in full swing. The Canadian
Government will probably create a special office
for trade with Soviet Russia.
DEFENSE AGAINST POLAND
1523. May 14, 1920.
In all the provinces the communist committees
and trade unions, the troop corps and
the whole population are enrolling volunteers for
the Polish front en masse. The movement em-
braces all Russia and the most distant provinces
of Siberia and Turkestan. The provisioning sec-
tions spontaneously reserve special supplies of
flour and meat for the west front.
en
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THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. The Active Officials of the Petbograd Unions. An interesting statistical study clas-
sifying the officials of the Petrograd Trade Unions by trade, education, party affilia-
tion, etc.
2. "Moscow in 1920," by Dr. Alfons Goldschmidt. The first instalment of an interesting
series of six articles.
3. Profiteering a Hindrance to Economic Relations With Russia, by Professor George
Lomonossov.
4. A Letter from Russia, by G. M. Serrati.
5. Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek.
Also
Book Reviews — Editorials — Radios — Press Cuttings
Ten Cents at all News Stands
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make all checks payable
to L. C. A. K. Martens.)
110 West 40th Street
SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVED BY
SOVIET RUSSIA
(Room 304) New York City
Original from
IIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
First Instalment of * Moscow in 1920
93
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, October 2, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 14
iMped Week); at 110 W, 40tb Street, New York* N. ¥. Ludwig C. A. K. Marten* Publisher. Jacob Wittmcr Hartmann, Editor.
Subscript iod Rate* $5.00 per an a urn. Application lor entry aa second class matter pending, Cbangea of addreu should reach tbr
office a week before the changes are to be made.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PAGE
"Moscowjn 1920", by Alfons Galdschmldt. . . . , 322
Military Review, by Lt.-Col B* Roustant Bck 327
The Humanity of Lord Curzon, by Karl Radck 328
Composition of the Petrograd Soviet. ...... 329
A Note to the Austrian Government 330
Peace With Lithuania . 331
Editorials • 332
Statement of the Bureau . 334
The Active Officials of the Petrograd
Unions 33$
A Letter from Russia, by G, M. Serrati 33%
Treason in the Centro-Sqyuz.. 340
Wireless and Other News : , . . 341
Books Reviewed, by A. C. Freeman 343
"Moscow in 1920"
Leaves from a Diary
By Dr. Alfons Goldschmidt
[Preface: These notes were jotted down on the trip to Moscow, as well as in Moscow and on
ike return journey to Germany. After a hard work of scientific observation, these notes are merely
a hasty discharge of accumulated observations. They were a sort of outline 9 of illumination, for
my larger work; a sort of anecdotic inspiration in a vehement period of new birth. I was to un-
dertake a sketch of gigantic phenomena, and needed diversion, in order not to become tired. These
little sketches, although separately published, are nevertheless a portion of my scientific work. They
are arabesques for this work, but are nevertheless organically connected with it. Always they have
a connection, either latent or visible, with the efforts for the extension of the economic revolution
of Soviet Eussia. A mountain must be covered with verdure, otherwise its effect will be thwarted
and it will appear brusque and sudden. — Neckarsteinach^ End of June, 1930.]
THE SHIP
\ SHIP in a revolutionary period is not an or-
*"^ dinary ship. It is not a ship of peace, which
one boards without preliminary cares, on which one
lives through the day without special disquiet, to
enjoy the ocean and the shores and to anticipate
the pleasures of the port. It is not easy to go
aboard a ship, particularly a ship sailing for the
east, For on such a ship there is a supervision of
passports, customs inspection, and, if you have not
the swiftness of an eel and a tarnhelm to make you
invisible, you will not succeed in evading all "these
examinations. Arguses are on guard, whose eager
eyes shoot Eoentgen rays of inspection on contra-
band of every kind. A veritable purgatory of
siftings is passed through in the presence of these
Arguses. For instance, ministers of police, who
diligently pass their noses over anyone aiming for
Moscow, and wi!l not approve the addition of a
visa until some interest of the fatherland appears
to be at stake.
At last, we are on the ship ; that is, you are sur-
rounded now only by the salt air and by the odors
of tar and oil. A ship that sails in periods of
revolution is infected with the pestilence : the es-
pionage pestilence, the stool-pigeon pestilence, the
disgusted epidemic of sniveling. Thick vapors,
odors of mould, swift double-barbed arrow -glances,
furtive amblings around your baggage, your cabin.
The whole world is infected, but on a ship that
sails in revolutionary periods there is pestilence
in concentrated form, accumulated malevolence.
And you behold around you all the classifica-
tions, all the degrees of mind and fortune, all the
groups, reserves, flights, agilities, and stupidities
the revolution has revealed, There are new for-
tunes created out of foreign money speculation,
the misery of emigrants in hail storms and cn
ice-clad decks, pale self-sacrifice for a great hour,
and a placid nursing of time worn values.
I was soon in the midst of the babble of the
revolution. There was a table at which were seated
those who had been washed to sea by Soviet Rus-
322
SOVIET RUSSIA
October 2, 1920
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shore, as they expected blessings and quiet from
the border states. A former Czarist colonel ; with
a characterless Tolstoian beard on an egg-like head,
and an unheard of appetite for cognac. He gave
evidence of a veritable juggler-like skill in arbit-
rage, and juggled with the exchange quotations as
a circus performer does with his balls. Sitting
opposite him was a Czarist lieutenant, with his old
swiftness in genuflection, his ramrod angularity,
his monocularity of the old period. Opposite him,
a Russian lady warmed with a sealskin; with long
pendants attached to her ears and breast ; and then,
two border state jobbers, merchandise middlemen,
purveyors, of base calibre.
On this table bottles of cognac and red wine
were being decimated and completely annihilated.
Here you beheld the Baltic fervor against Soviet
Russia, inspired by brandy and tempered with the
consultation of exchange quotations. While out-
side the little refugee children were freezing, and
dishevelled Jews and homecoming prisoners of war
were longing for peaceful barter and the mother's
arms, this table was the scene of a boastful misery
that was really not misery at all. Wretchedness
was drowned in cognac and red wine and thus
transformed to joy. Principles vacillated and found
support only in the hope of a favorable develop-
ment of the quotations. You will always find such
rabble on the outer margin of purposeful action
and incipient energetic cleanliness. You had it
around Christ ; you had it around the great French
Revolution ; you had it when the Americans were
liberating their slaves; you find it wherever the
clean will of man assumes energetic forms.
What a delight to be able to move one's eyes
from this mess, from this unclean drunkenness,
to the sea and to the distant coasts; what a joy
to swing on the waves off Gotland, off Oeland.
What a double delight to sail for twelve hours or
more through the Finnish skerries, through this
wondrous fairy land of polished stone toys, distri-
buted with volcanic playfulness. Studded with
Liliputian islands, neat little shelters for boats
at their edges. Every possible form presents it-
self to your view: wreaths with water inside of
them, giant turtles, lowering alligators, gay islets
still dotted with sn6w in April. Robinsonian re-
treats, and between them the zigzag of twisting
and surprise-strewn calm, placid water, with the
most abrupt changes, and seamews flying above.
This marvel lasts until you reach Hango, until the
moment when the uncouth giant, the sea-lion, the
Finnish pilot, with his catlike moustache, descends
from the ship and is rowed off to one of the islands
that surround Hango like so many castles. After
leaving Hango the path becomes dangerous once
more, as it was before entering the miracle of the
skerries, for here we still have a great mine fron-
tier. Great fields of mines, whole regions filled
with pestilentious explosives. Every moment the
first officer must be on guard not to foul one of
these monsters that will cast us into the air. The
war ended in November, 1918, and to this day
these vile things lie in wait, covered with blue
water cushions, a veritable association of sulphur-
ous assassination. Why not remove the damned
stuff? Who has the right to permit death to remain
on guard in this way ? In places, a disconnected cap.
will work itself loose and drift over the sea, lewdly
shaking. One of them came within twenty meters
of our ship, a dreadfully rusty cap of iron, ready
to spew, which our captain shot at in order that
it might spew harmlessly ; but in vain, the moving
pestilence wiggled on. It is harmless if it shakes
its head over the quicksilver surface of a sunny
sea, for then you can see it even kilometers dis-
tant. But, when it comes shaking along during a
storm or under the cover of a fog, your ship will
be shattered.
Our captain was a careful man. He sailed as it
were by pen and slide-rule through the official
mine chart and had his ship anchored in the fog.
And thus the steamer, — its freight of salt still dry,
and all its social classes, heterogeneities, self-sacri-
fice, vulgarities, longings, stock quotation sharks,
and with considerable remains of ham and sausage
and other amiable properties — reached Helsingf ors.
We sailed past the guns of Sveaborg, which were
turned toward Soviet Russia, into the calm basin,
interrupted by islands and animated with villas
and parks, which edge about the modern city,
through which electric cars, automobiles, and coun-
try-carts are constantly rushing. It is a city that
has seen unparalleled terrors, frightful days of
extermination, bloody heroisms for the new time,
in this land of giant forests and almost vanishing
coasts. I was not permitted to enter this city,
which has no particular physiognomy in the strip
near the harbor — nothing but churches, human
caravansaries, customs sheds, shops, and banks.
It is a clean city, less clean in its principles than
its streets and its skin; for in Finland even the
poorest peasant bathes at least once a week.
The trip from Helsingfors to Reval was in blue
and moving waters, past a bright red lightship,
still bumped by pieces of ice and snow-white foam.
Again a narrow path between chains of mines,
without any marks to steer by. This wretched
business really must stop. The sea must again
have its landmarks and be liberated from this pes-
tilence of the ignition-caps. Is there no form
of organization that can dispose of this work quick-
ly? It is hard work, dangerous to life. A huge
far-reaching pair of scissors is used to cut through
the mine chains, and then the creatures are blown
up. Many a man has lost his life, many a brain
has been shocked, and yet many a mine still threat-
ens, although its destruction has already been an-
nounced. For cheating is practiced at this game
as in all other games.
No city looks lovelier from the sea than Reval,
with islands in front of it, with promenades by
the shore, with a handsome port, with towering
church spires, visible afar, soaring in the blue.
It is handsomer even than white Algiers. The
view of the city from the sea is far more attractive
than the life in the city. For this city is a gro-
tesque and u slough. The city has wonderful
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walls of masonry, cupolas 1 promenades and buf-
fets. But it is nevertheless a grotesque and a slough.
BOUNDARIES
Formerly, before the war, boundaries were al-
ready boundaries. Even then there were customs
officials, briberies, police spies, and other advan-
tages of the kind. There were nationalistic de-
limitations, delicate rims surrounding the nations.
But there was no such mistrust as there is today.
Boundaries still had their pleasures, there was only
a cursory ogling this way and that. There were
outbursts of joy at the boundaries, loud hand-
shakes, unforced joys at meeting old friends. There
was a frictionless, well lubricated intercourse,
which went off with the smoothness of the old re-
gime. But today things are different.
Today the boundary is a stimulus to smuggling,
much more than it was before. It is a cordon of
corruption. It is a wall of distrust and a provo-
cation of nationalistic megalomania, particularly
the boundaries of the new small states, the girdle
of the so-called self-determination of nations. We
here behold an actual birth of madness. A regard
which has been already completely undermined
and upset by distrust.
You will observe no sign of handshaking, of
dignified selfconsciousness, of a new pride of ori-
gin, such as is proclaimed by the League of Na-
tions. When your ship moors at the Helsingfors
quay, you will see customs officials with rigid eyes
and Finnish policemen with English hairdress and
London clubs. The port is lifeless and exclusive.
As you leave the ship you encounter a humorous
Prussianism, which is in no way in accord with
this primeval forest, the ice and the world of
waters. It is a ludicrous Prussianism, with new
postage stamps and flags, with its "own" colors,
all displayed on all occasions, but controlled by
foreign money. A ludicrous Prussianism with an
insane fear of the importation of political epi-
demics, and possessed of an abject paragraphic*
obedience, which only such money can attenuate.
The Finnish and Esthonian boundaries are dom-
inated by a terror of the influx of political epi-
demics and exchange values. Attitudes are not
assumed toward the neighbor nation, but against
the neighbor nation. When the purchasing power
of the Finnish mark is higher than that of the
Esthonian mark, Esthonian potatoes may rot in
the harbor of Helsingfors, although Finland may
be suffering a potato famine. For they will not
permit the Esthonian potato to exploit the pur-
chasing power of the Finnish mark. Bather let
the Esthonian potatoes rot. This is the self-de-
termination of nations. The country now has a
money system which is dictated by a foreign stom-
ach, but it is not permitted to appease its own
hunger for potatoes, for the self-determining gov-
ernment is operating with money and not with
potatoes.
I never saw so many eyes look so suspiciously
♦What is meant is evidently the slavish respect for
the letter (the paragraph) of the law, which is charac-
teristic of "Prussianism".
on a single object as when the eyes of Finnish
agents inspected our ship at Helsingfors. They
were the eyes of an Okhrana. In the same ship I
later stopped at Helsingfors on the return jour-
ney, and there beheld even more Okhrana eyes
looking at the ship and me. I had been in Soviet
Russia and "anyone who has been in Soviet Russia
is a wandering infection in the eyes of the Finnish
political police.
On the Esthonian border, on the seaport of
Reval, the gestures are somewhat freer and the
longing for money is less concealed. Smuggling
passes more easily ashore than at Helsingfors and
the fear of political contamination is moderated by
the administration of the coin.
First, the states that were erected on the prin-
ciple of self-determination adopt postage stamps
and flags. Then they create an official class which
gradually assumes the proportion of an army. They
are pension organizations, enormous new oppor-
tunities for uniformed collectors of annuities. The
little potato republic of Esthonia, which has no
possibility of existing alone, has 25,000 officials
and at least 20,000 soldiers, while the total popu-
lation of the country is about 1,250,000. The
diligent peasants of a somewhat blond, Mongolian
type, are obliged to support 45,000 parasites. The
parasites are always bustling about, but they have
nothing to do. When I left Eeval, on June 9,
1920, there were five or six cabin passengers on
board, to x-ray whom not less than twelve officials
came aboard.
The official apparatus of Reval was founded by
the German-Baltic army and retained or even ex-
panded by the Esthonians. In every street you
will find a government office or several such. They
pass regulations, but create nothing. Reval is a
colony of the English pound sterling. The domi-
nant note is the pound note. It is an awful and
grotesque democracy, whose new nationalism con-
sumes, deceives, and develops its own conceit. It
shoots down idealists, puts its betters to inconven-
ience, and founds banks, in association with the
pound sterling. Ministers arrive and enter the
directors' meetings, and become rich and inde-
pendent bankers, while the working population
becomes poorer and poorer and longs for true
independence. Everyone is soliciting or howling
or conniving for foreign money, while the common
toiler finds it impossible to live. The port is idle,
industry going to the dogs. The country is be-
ing drawn to the east while the officialdom is lean-
ing to the west. It is a very inorganic form of
life, even today. It is as if the umbilical cord
had been severed.
You will find all that your heart desires in
Reval: lubricous cinemas, magnificent serving-
tables covered with delicacies, apples at three Es-
thonian marks each, girls ready to pounce upon
you, gay little theatres, an insane taxation policy,
postage stamps with venemous colors, western trust
fabrications. Early in June, 1920, the German
mark was worth five Esthonian marks, and even
I felt in^^^i^^^changes, and
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bought splendid furs for a song. The thing sim-
ply infects you whether you wish or not.
Beval is so to say a window into Soviet Russia.
But those looking in see nothing, or when they
see anything they see it wrong. It is from here
that the fairy tales pass out into the world and do
their damage. From here the forging of the news
slowly infects the western lands. Those impotent
of vision and producing colored news stories are
stationed here, where they invent their malicious
tales.
Much good might already have been done if
stupefaction had not spread from this boundary
to the corners of the earth.
Armies have staffs, and staffs are uncommonly
important institutions. Particularly, boundary
division staffs, with generals at their heads, are
today the preservers of the happiness of the world.
World happiness means neatly preserved democra-
cy. It is preserved, it is protected with barbed wire,
bayonets and paragraphed puppets. At Narva I
witnessed a clicking of heels as once in Prussia
in its palmy days. 1 saw half-baked adjutants
with a graceful bow not unlike the imperial ball
at Berlin, with a rectangular correctness, with
jack-knife motions. At last I was again seeing Lieu-
tenants of the old type, lieutenants standing guard,
guardians of world happiness. Of course they were
not guardians of world happiness at all. Misfor-
tune is lurking all around them and even if bay-
onets are presented to its skin, it simply makes off
for the moment.
Our locomotive passed through the blockade
cunning of the Esthonian post near Yamburg, the
telephone terrors, to and fro across the barbed
wire entanglements. For a few days we were
held in check by that terror to preserve the hap-
piness of the world. But then on we went, on and
on, although I was driven by a soldier and a bay-
onet into the German war prisoners' camp at the
rushing Narva River, and although two soldiers
with bayonets were guarding the official Soviet car.
They even presented their bayonets to the member
of the English parliament, Thomas Shaw, in other
words, even to friends. They even turned their
bayonets against the aged Ben Turner, the English
textile-worker, who was lying so peacefully on
his divan. If they held down their bayonets to-
ward these two, how do you think thc-y held them
down toward me, and yet I passed through both
ways, quite legally, accompanied by good wishes,
by leers of distrust, by denunciations, and by a
number of other vulgarities.
Such is the amiable character of a boundary on
the east. It is a doleful boundary. But be con-
soled, ye who cross the boundaries on your own
volition, or on the volition of others: ham and
hard sausages are put on board at Helsingfors, to
make your mouth water, and the pork chops at
Narva are democratic enough to tempt you to
overeat.
THE RAILROAD JOURNEY TO MOSCOW
A thousand people have asked me : How should
one get to Moscow? To them I can now say: It
Digitized by LiOOglC
is not a simple matter, yoii will be passed through
the sieve, seven times, and even then you will be
found wanting. Soviet Russia is at war, there has
been war for six years; they have passed through
all 6orts of experiences. I can say that I saw an
international at Moscow that has nothing to do
with the Third Internationale, but consists of ex-
tremely dubious characters.
The Russian boundaries are veritable tape worms
in length. But though you be clad with every
manner of legality, you must be tested and found
clean. For they have had experiences in Soviet
Russia. There have been and still are people in
Moscow who are proof against any innovations.
All adorned with war decorations in front, and
with the eyes of prejudice stuck in their heads,
spraying venom with their tongues, they infest
-the city. There are those who are slicker, and
who foment on the quiet. They neVer even think
of being without preconception, of examining with
objective eyes. They come to Moscow with the
superior attitude of Olympians. Though they look
about they behold nothing. Their eyes are dimmed,
and dimmed eyes see nothing. The Soviet repre-
sentation at Reval is perfectly right in sifting its
currents of scrutiny to and fro, and he who applies
for admission waits at the door for weeks and even
months before Chicherin will open it. But once
the door is opened, the newcomer is a guest of the
Soviet Government and travels unmolested in its
courier-car, sleeping, eating, contemplating the
scenery from the window, chatting with the other
passengers in the car, all the way to Moscow. He
is in a Russian car of first or second class, fitted
out with Russian railroad comforts.
The locomotive covers about twenty or twenty-
five kilometers an hour, not more. There are no
longer any express trains in Soviet Russia, and the
local traffic locomotives have wood fuel, and are
somewhat antiquated and often asthmatic. They
are not in a hurry. You at once begin to grasp
the serious transportation problem, on the solution
of which the economic future of Russia depends.
The road from Yamburg (boundary-station) to
Moscow is clean, but run down. The body of the
road is no longer sound. This of course goes with-
out saying, .and it is the chief trouble of Russia's
economic life. Its veins are calcinated and must
be rejuvenated. We made up our minds to do
everything that can be done from Germany to aid
in rejuvenating them : We made up our minds to
this before we reached Moscow.
But in Esthonia also the trains do not hurry.
It is a twelve hours' ride from Reval to Narva.
You progress slowly, very slowly. At Reval I saw
a locomotive in full fettle, which was a veritable
antique. It had been delivered in 1871 by the
Berlin Locomotive Works of Schwartzkopff. It
still has the vaulted chimney piece and affects a
pleasing embonpoint. It is a puffing little loco-
motive. It was once, together with all the gun-
boats, maritime steamers, and the rest of Es-
thonia's property, the possession of Russia. Today
it is self-determined, and like the Esthonian of-
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ficial government its self-determination takes the
form of an aggressive snort. You might call it
a symbolic locomotive, but a confoundedly old one.
Even the notion of self-determination is mighty
old and mighty rusty.
A quarter of an hour beyond Narva (the great
textile works were idle) you passed through the
barbed wire frontier. You might almost say that
peace is lurking at the boundary and war not yet
asleep. The Esthonian and the Red Guards are
barely a stone's throw apart. Credentials are gone
through and consultations exchanged as at Narva.
We are now in Soviet Russia, in Yamburg.
There are still signs of Yudenich here. The
little city had been a witch's cauldron of shells
and bullets. There is now little life, but there
are signs of vehement conflict, broken windows,
and the shattered green cupolaf of the church.
Across the rushing river, one section of the town
is almost entirely destroyed. I recall the bareness
of Belgium and France in 1914; it is a dismal
scene, murder coagulate, hollow-eyed desolation.
When on my return journey I again passed
through Yamburg, I was invited, together with my
English companions, to be a guest of the town
Soviet at dinner. We ate and sang and I was
asked to leave a souvenir. I wrote some poor
verses in an album, but my feeling was genuine:
Shells exploded in this town,
Where the idea was enthroned,
Broken windows,
Life dismantled,
Already blossoms the IDEA
Through joys and woe,
Through blood and pain.
The Bolshevists have much to do at Yamburg:
at night Red Guards are doubled (no one is ad-
mitted after 1 a. m. unless he gives the pass word) .
There are many propaganda posters at railroad
stations and on the houses. There are red flags,
there is a club for boys and girls, a news stand with
the illustrated monthly issue of the Third Inter-
nationale. The drug-store will sell medicaments
only on a doctor's prescription, for Russia has not
much in the way of medicaments. Distribution
must be closely supervised. My stomach was com-
pletely out of order, and I entered the Yamburg
drug-store for relief. But I got no relief as I had
no doctor's prescription ; to be sure they were very
pleasant to a member of the German delegation,
but gave him no relief for his stomach. This
was quite proper, for nothing can be done if order
is neglected (as we say in Germany).
I forgot to speak of the red flag at the boundary.
Attached to its birch-sapling it flutters, already
quite pink, among the huge shell holes. It has
been waving there §ince the conclusion of peace
with Esthonia.* Its red is not a savage or a
bloody red, a fierce red, but a gentle red, a red
* Peace between Soviet Russia and Esthonia was
concluded on February 2, 1920. The full text of the
treaty will be found in Soviet Russia, Vol. II, No. 16
(April 17, 1920).
byV^OOgM
of the lamb (if there were such a red). But the
flag at Yamburg is a more striking red, it hangs
out on the Soviet office and is quite handsome on
the railroad building. And the red of the Soviet
posters is also more aggressive. Preparations are
being made for May First. Red draperies are be-
ing removed from a train that has just arrived
from Petrograd, colored cloths for meetings, for
draping the speakers* stands. The significance
of the First of May is already being proclaimed
from the walls, the significance of this day for
labor, for the First of May means something else
here than in capitalistic countries. In capitalistic
countries the proletariat demonstrates its Socialism
by refraining from work, in socialistic Russia it
works more intensively. Every effort is made to
emphasize the difference in the two systems.
At all railroad stations there are armed Red
Guards and often consignments of troops, but very
few freight consignments; again you think of the
transportation problem, and the war that cripples
the arteries. Great piles of wood at all stations:
preparations for winter. The hardships of the last
period of snow have taught much. Fuel for the
locomotives, a modicum for the factories, a modi-
cum for domestic uses, must be on hand.
It is April, but already the winter crop is com-
ing up. Long, thin, narrow fields, awakening my
memories. Forests, forests, forests. Churches,
churches, churches. Onion cupolas, silver as child-
hood's joy, ancient green, pale red, golden (bright
gold, old gold, gold in every shade). There is still
much praying done in Russia. I shall say more
of this later. Millions still go on pilgrimages,
millions still kneel, millions still long for heaven.
One forest after the other, with but narrow
paths between them, worked only with the sokha.
The sokha, (Russian coxa), the primitive thorn
plow, is the cardinal sin of Russian agriculture.
This sokha is guided by God himself. There are
regions in Russia that are inhabited by peasants
still living in pristine innocence, for whom the
sokha is already a step on the road of sin; for
God does everything : He created man, he fed him ;
why interfere with his handiwork? (see Tolstoy).
One forest after the other. Immense possibili-
ties of exploitation. Even here, in this region not
favored by nature. Many villa colonies, also fac-
tory towns, delightful country seats, little houses
with filigree trimmings, brown idylls in logs, en-
veloped in the budding green bushes of early
Spring ; some villages like a flattened form of Swiss
settlement. But the sokha must give way — the
sokha must give way. We reached Gatchina, forty-
five versts from Petrograd: not unlike Potsdam.
A balcony on the great Dowager Palace is draped
with red flags: a speaker's tribune for the First
of May. Gatchina was as far as Yudenich got.
Petrograd then became a regular fortress, a bridge
for sorties, for the world advance from the fort
of the proletariat organized for struggle. Men and
women seized arms. Petrograd wrestled with ag-
gression and depuMon and was threatened only
in its rear by a littie counter-revolutionary group
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of officers.* Even important Soviet leaders took
up the rifle, and Mazin and others fell. Women
fought like Germanic Valkyries, Yudenich had to
withdraw. His effort has already become a le-
gend. I heard a number of narrations of this
period and all those who spoke were proud of their
work.
PETROGRAD!
We arrived at the Baltic railroad station. A
shower is coming down. Our car is pushed about
for hours until it finally gets to Nikolai Station.
We go to sleep in the car, between an armored
car and a propaganda train in somewhat extra-
vagant colors with the inscription: "Bring the
book to the people." Millions of books are thus
transported through Soviet Russia and distributed
everywhere. Propaganda speakers, artists and spe-
cialists of all sorts travel through the country
in placarded trains and play, speak, dance and
sing for Communism. The most famous propa-
ganda train is the Lenin Train, adorned with the
astutely smiling diplomat's countenance, the peas-
ant head with the privy councillor's face, the genial
revolutionary hotspW, Ilyich (he is thus affection-
ately called) on its walls.
I enter the city with the head of the delegation.
In spite of all the glowing descriptions, I am
ijevertheless surprised, for here there is no desola-
tion, no stagnation, there is no fallow land; there
is live life. Electric cars full of passengers, al-
though not overcrowded, circulating about the
Nikolai Station, I see the first rushing Soviet au-
tomobiles, shooting along at an alarming speed,
a speed to raise your hair on end. A military
speed, a campaign speed, a speed for providing the
munitions, a speed to replace men at the front.
My first impression : It is a city of proletarians.
The worker rules, the worker dominates the streets,
the life of the city. We enter the Nevsky Pros-
pect, the principal business and pleasure street of
the old empire. Many shops are boarded up, many
shops are still open and doing business, but it is
clear at first sight that they are selling out super-
fluous things, gewgaws, perfumes, expensive writ-
ing paper, photographs, pictures ; 400 Soviet rubles
for a small bottle of perfume, 500 Soviet rubles
for a small silver mesh purse. I later grasped the
money problem and was no longer surprised.
Nevsky Prospect is very lively about noon, there
are no hitches in traffic. At street corners cigar-
rettes and pastries are being sold, and these places
are respectfully avoided by foot traffic. Every-
where you still see the old signboards of former
pastry-shops, tailors, etc. As a financial writer
I am interested particularly in the bank buildings.
*The staff of the Seventh Army was engaged in
counter-revolutionary activities at this time and was
ready to hand over the city to Yudenich. Fortunately
the plots were discovered in time, (see article entitled
"The Accomplices of Paul Dukes," in Soviet Russia,
Vol. II, No. 23, page 560) and due punishment was
meted out to the traitors. The English not only sup-
ported Yudenich, but also were generally responsible
for this counter-revolutionary attempt from within.—
Editor, Soviet Russia.
In my day I produced many a criticism of Petro-
grad stock speculation, contributed to German
commercial papers. Now the building of the Petro-
grad International Commercial Bank, the chief
financial institution of Eussia, is hollow-eyed. Look
behind the window panes and you will find noth-
ing. Eussian banks have ceased to be banks, there
is only one clearing house still in use, at Moscow,
the National Bank, it is really only a bank of
issue, with distributing branches all over the
country.
Preparations for the First of May: These are
particularly active at Petrograd. Eed everywhere.
Troops marching along the Prospect, and here
and there groups led by armed women. The groups
include also bourgeois people, some of them calm,
downcast, poorly shod; others, on the other hand,
cheerful. There is no trace of terror, devastations,
of the type featured in capitalistic propaganda, no
ravages of disease, no persons falling dead in the
street. The street has been deprived of its splendor,
but it is a clean street; it has lost its wood trim-
mings, but it is clean. It is thoroughly swept;
carriages move about; automobiles dash about;
pedestrians walk unmolested. Everywhere in
Eussia I heard sung the praises of Zinoviev, the
rations-dictator, the organizer of Petrograd. But
I can only speak of what I saw; I shall say no
more and no less than that.
The railroad journey from Petrograd to Moscow
takes twenty-three hours; you still have cars of
several classes, but the classification of humans
according to their railroad purses has disappeared.
You pay the same fare for all classes. They tell
you that people travel only on regular traveling
passes (this is made necessary by the desire to ra-
tion out the poor resources in transportation).
But as a matter of fact people travel in other ways
too ; many travel as stowaways ; to be sure punish-
ment is threatened, but punishment does not ap-
pear to deter. A juristic adherent of deterrent
punishment, of the school of Liszt, would find
little grist for his mill; life insists on living and
on traveling, and communications operate in spite
of all threats. And even the threats do not bite
as badly as they bark. Decrees in Eussia are often
propaganda decrees and not decrees of law. At
any rate people do travel by the railroads, bargain,
visit friends in other cars, and buy milk at the
stations at the rate of 125 rubles for 1-4 litre,
get hot water from the station supply, have a good
time, perspire, and are distracted with care, sing,
and hope, and everything goes on in the train it-
self. For the Eussian railroad car is a moving
dwelling, including everything, even the W. C.
Our progress is slow, but at least it is progress.
If Eichendorff has permeated you with his ro-
mantic lyricisms, if you have longings for forest
arches, for white birch-trunks appearing between
pines, for dancing trains between forests, and sum-
mer houses by the brown roadside, then take the
railroad from Petrograd to Moscow; it is a beau-
tiful journey, a fragrant journey, a journey in
the spring. These wayside forests, these moun-
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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October 2, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
327
tains and fields, have all the poetry of the German
forest. It is a simple sort of journey. There are
cities with their onion-domed churches, groups of
summer homes, and then again nothing but forests.
There is no country in the world that has so many
forests as Russia (it is an interesting problem
from the standpoint of concessions and foreign
trade).
Moscow does not extend its arms so greedily into
the surrounding country as Petrograd does ; Petro-
grad is surrounded with the bald industrial sub-
urbs of a great city. Moscow is surrounded by
green idylls.
We arrived at Moscow on May first at noon,
under a bright sky. On the day of the proletarian
festival, the Red day, the day of world jubilation.
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
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T^HE lack of news direct from Moscow and even
-■* of wireless transmitted via London makes it
impossible for the moment to judge the real situa-
tion on the Polish front. The messages which
appear in the American press from Warsaw and
Constantinople are of the familiar sort which tell
us that the Poles and Wrangel are winning "vic-
tory" after "victory" over the "beaten" Soviet
armies. We have read such messages before, and
know what they are worth. In the same vein is the
Associated Press correspondence from Riga which
would have you believe that a "victorious Poland"
is about to dictate terms to a "defeated" Soviet
Russia. This is far from the truth.
The Russian Soviet delegation, it is said, will
insist that Poland must disarm, with the exception
of a small defensive force, since Poland will be
at peace with the world upon the conclusion of
an armistice with Moscow. The Soviet Govern-
ment, however, cannot undertake disarmament
while it is still faced with other enemies.
The strategical position of the Soviet Republic
permits its delegates at Riga to be as firm and
decisive as they were during the former negotia-
tions with the Poles. The appearance of the Allied
navy before Riga will neither frighten them nor
alter the terms which they are offering to the de-
feated enemy, to the same enemy who only several
months ago declared "no peace until the Soviet
regime is wiped out of Russia."
Diplomacy is strong only when it is properly
supported by strategy; the latter is powerful only
when it commands the necessary military strength
and when it is able to bring all its forces to the
battlefield. Tactics cannot expect from strategy
anything more than that.
Russian strategists know that only a complete
victory in the south can end the war. They know
well that the Polish army has already been weak-
ened to such an extent that it will be unable in the
future to repeat its offensive performance of early
in 1920. Having lost -the initiative forever, the
Poles do not now present any danger to Russian
strategy, which successfully supported its tactics on
the western front according to the best principles
of the economy of forces. These principles con-
sisting in throwing all one's forces at a given time
on one point, in using there all one's troops, and,
to this purpose keeping them always in close com-
munication. This principle has governed the ac-
tion of the Russian Revolutionary Field Staff.
WrangePs bands were allowed to advance while the
Russian army was busy crushing the Polish in-
vasion. Once this end was accomplished and the
beaten enemy was driven to the gates of Warsaw,
the Red Army turned all its forces against Wran-
gel.
The Soviet General Staff knows well how to
accept a loss when advisable and how to sacrifice
a province. The Red Army is now directed with
all its forces against Wrangel and will spare no
effort for his destruction. When that is com-
pleted it will turn its attention to other adver-
saries. Therefore the Russian military leaders can
look calmly on the tactical activities of the Poles
on the western front, which is designed merely
with the hope of securing more favorable terms at
the peace table.
Turning to the East, we find that the situation
there has become exceedingly unfavorable to the
Japanese occupation. In addition to purely eco-
nomic diffculties, the Japanese contingents are
meeting hard treatment at the hands of the hostile
population which acts in full harmony with the
numerous partisan bands spread throughout the
vast country. Experienced in guerrilla warfare and
having nothing to lose and all to gain, the Rus-
sians are constantly making the most surprising
and troublesome attacks upon the Japanese troops,
reducing them to a state of real terror.
I was always of the opinion that Japan alone,
or even in company with her western Allies, would
never be able to hold the invaded part of Siberia
for long and that, even without a real war with
Russia, she would be compelled to withdraw from
the occupied area.
According to The Christian Science Monitor
of September 22 which is often well informed in
these matters, "The Japanese Government has de-
cided to withdraw all troops from Siberia." "This
step," it is said, "is being taken partly for political,
and partly for financial reasons. The Japanese
people are strongly opposed to further military
advenutres, on account of the heavy burden of
expense attached to them, especially to the military
occupation of Eastern Siberia, and the Allied op-
position to continued Japanese occupation has un-
doubtedly led, it ib Elated, to the present decision."
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
October 2, 1920
Explaining the Japanese invasion of Siberia as
a step for the protection of the commercial in-
terests of Japan, and in general for cooperation
with the United States against" Bolshevism,
the Japanese Government now "categorically de-
nies" that it "desires to set up a buffer state in
Eastern Siberia, with a view to final annexation."
Suddenly Japan has lost her interest -In fighting
Bolshevism and assures the world that she had
no purpose in Siberia except to protect Japanese
commerce. If it is true that the Japanese are
quitting East Siberia, which is still doubtful, it
is an open confession by Japanese statesmen that
they have taken a burden beyond their strength.
The Japanese are practical people and they know
well that, after the liquidation of her enemies in
the west and in the south, Soviet Russia will not
hesitate to deal with the eastern invader.
In China also, "as well as in Korea, the situation
is gloomy for Japan and prominent Japanese dip-
lomats are already declaring that the annexation
of Korea has proved to be a great mistake and
that the Japanese Government is even considering
the adoption of some form of autonomous self-
government for the Koreans. If, then, the Japan-
ese have come to this (conclusion from their ex-
perience in Korea, what must they expect in
Siberia?
The Humanity of Lord Gurzoii
By Karl Radek
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"DOR two years on end the British bourgeois press
*■ attacked Soviet Eussia as a country in which
the primitive barbarism of the mouzhik, united
with the hatred of a Socialist fanatic, found ex-
pression in a kind of Satanic orgy, to which the
flower of Russian society was daily falling a vic-
tim. There was no invention concerning the
"Soviet Inferno" which the Northcliffe press did
not put before its readers. And when the British
ministers made pronouncements on the Russian
question, they spoke of the Soviet Government like
pirates of the pen, hired by Lord Northcliffe.
The masses of the people of Great Britain, as
in other countries, did not believe the fables of
the capitalist press, despite the fact that it had
recourse to the evidence of the pseudo-Socialists in
the Menshevik and Social-Revolutionary camp. To
these masses, even without a detailed knowledge
of the situation in Russia, it was clear that, if the
capitalist press of Europe itself described plots
against the Bolsheviks, and told of the civil war
organized with British funds by Denikin, Kolchak,
and Yudenich, it was thereby supplying the best
possible justification for the Red Terror, as the
Soviet Government's method of self-defence. But
now the public opinion of Europe, from which
the capitalist press is attempting to conceal the
fact that capital punishment has been abolished,
is about to have the possibility of comparing in
practice the behavior of the Whites and the Reds
in their hour of victory.
Lord George Nathaniel Curzon of Kedleston
addressed a radio telegram to our Government, in
which, on the day before our occupation of Arch-
angel, he asked for mercy for the White leaders,
and declared that the British Government, being
responsible for the Archangel adventure, would be
happy to learn that the Soviet Government would
take into consideration its request, inspired by a
sentiment of humanity. Reading this radio, one
involuntarily recalls the couplet which, forty years
ago, was written in Curzon's honor by one of his
university colleagues :
)gie
"My name is George Nathaniel Curzon:
1 am a most superior person."
We bow reverently before the humanitarian feel-
ings of Lord Curzon; and our Government re-
plied immediately that the personal safety of the
White Guards who lay down their arms will be
guaranteed. We only regret that Lord Curzon
had no opportunity of expressing his feelings at
the time when Archangel, in the summer of 1918,
was seized by a British Expeditionary Corps.*
. Before us lies a photograph found by our troops
in Onega amongst the papers of the British staif,
and reproduced in No. 5 of the "Communist Inter-
nationale"** It represents the execution of a Rus-
sian Communist on a British naval vessel by Bri-
tish, French and Russian officers. British officers
are watching the scene with great interest, How
unfortunate that Lord Curzon has not seen this
photograph! How unfortunte that Lord Curzon
has not seen a photograph of the execution of
• Shaumian, the glorious leader of the Baku prole-
tariat, with twenty-nine of his comrades — shofr
near Krasnovodsk, not in battle, but captured in a
boat, by the order of the British Command, after
the Bolshevik withdrawal from Baku!***
How unfortunate that Lord Curzon has not seen
photographs of the public execution at Budapest,
on a square, in the presence of the Allied Com-
mand and the Allied mission! With sarcastic
curiosity these representatives of the civilized
world watched the death on a gibbet of Korvin,
* To judge by reports in the British press, an amusing
"Blue Book" has been issued by Mr. Churchill, Secre-
tary for War, in explanation of the Archangel adven-
ture. We shall print further comment on this publi-
cation as soon as we have received a copy.
** This photograph was reproduced in Soviet Russia,
Vol. I, No. 25 (November 22, 1919). In our note
printed under the photograph, we erroneously stated
that the execution had taken place on Lake Onega; as
a matter of fact it must have taken place near the
town of Onega, on the White Sea.
*** An account of the Baku executions will be found
in Soviet Russia, Vol I, No. 9 (August 9, 1919), in
the form of a Soviet Government radio message.
"IVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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one of the best representatives of Hungarian Com-
munism. How unfortunate that Lord Curzon,
despite his traditional connection with Indian af-
fairs, has heard nothing about the ferocious mas-
sacre, a few months ago, of a peaceful meeting of
Hindus at Amritsar by the British General Dyer !
And how unfortunate that we cannot let him
have pictures of the White Terror in Dublin and
the other towns of Ireland!
But now that we are aware of the humanitarian
sentiments of the British Minister for Foreign
Affairs, we hope to see eye to eye with him on
the following agreement: A defeated foe who has
laid down his arms must not be the object of
revenge.
And as, in contradiction to the English proverb
that charity begins at home, it will be easier for
Lord Curzon to defend the principles of humanity
outside the borders of the British Empire, we an-
ticipate that at least he will assist the Soviet Gov-
ernment in its attempts to save the Hungarian
Communists from Horthy. It is too much to ex-
pect more, as even an expert in humanitarianism
is at present very embarrassed in the civilized
countries themeselvs, in view of the international
collapse of morality.
The London "Communist", of August 26, 1920, from
which we copy the above translation, has the following
pregnant addition to make, by way of comment :
"To the instances which Comrade Radek cited in this
article, five months ago, there now have to be added :
l f the treacherous abuse of those same "humane senti-
ments" by Baron Wrangel, who used the armistice they
procured him to prepare a new offensive with British
assistance; 2, the infamous conduct of the Polish land-
owners, the proteges of the Allied Powers, in Kiev,
Borissov, Disna, etc.; 3, the imprisonment in and de-
portation from Batum of Russian Trade Union leaders
by the British forces in occupation there. The article
will then be quite up to date."
COMPOSITION OF THE PETROGRAD
SOVIET
By Trades
1. Mathematicians 1
2. Teachers 22
3. Doctors 13
4. Male Nurses 22
5. Female Nurses 6
6. Journalists 11
7. Lawyers 5
8. Musicians 8
9. Students 11
10. Managers 3
1 1. Statisticians 1
12. Bookkeepers 29
13. Telegraphers 20
14. Telephone Operators 4
15. Electricians 30
16. Stenographers and Typists 3
17. Draughtsmen 12
18. Accountants 17
19. Agents 5
20. Economists 1
21. Office Employes 118
22. Printers 16
23. Liberal Arts 16
24. Typesetters 34
25. Tabulators 2
26. Mechanicians 39
27. Metal Workers | ^8
28. Watchmakers and Goldsmiths 7
29. Photographers 3
30. Comptrollers 2
31. Engineers and Firemen 38
32. Chauffeurs 14
33. Railroad Conductors 2
34. Locksmiths 240
35. Lathe-Workers 59
36. Water Supply Workers 9
37. Textile /Workers 5
38. Fraisers 6
39. Lumbermen 7
40. Carpenters • 5
41. Blacksmiths 24
42. Moulders 12
43. Spinners 7
44. Scavengers 10
45. Copper Piston Workers 10
46. Folders 8
47. Decorators 10
48. Drillers 2
49. Vulcanizers 1
50. Weavers 10
51. Street Car Conductors 6
52. Paper Box Workers 10
53. Modelers 5
54. Leather Workers 23
55. Stock Clerks 4
56. Shoemakers 22
57. Rubber Shoe Makers (Women) 5
58. Tobacco Workers 3
59. Divers 2
60. Carriage Makers 3
61. Barbers 9
62. Gardeners 14
63. Clerks 4S
64. Glaziers *
65. Parquet Floor Workers 3
66. Joiners ^6
67. Roofers N 5
68. Painters 2 ~
69. Fire Department Workers 3
70. Tailors and Tailoresses 1M
71. Millers *
72. Cooks 2 l
73. Chimney Sweeps and Stove Installers 8
74. Waiters *
75. Servants and Messengers ™
76. Truckmen ~
77. Washerwomen *
78. Coachmen 3
79. Postillions £
80. Sailors ^
81. Butchers *
82. Bakers 2 *
83. Housewives &
84. Masons j3
85. Manual Laborers 2 ™
86. Peasants 5 ^
87. Porters 15
88. Miscellaneous 166
Total L924
The degree of education of the members of the
Petrograd Soviet:
Persons
With University Education 95
With Secondary School Education 393
With Elementary School Education 1,250
With Home Education .i -f^^ 14 °
Miscellaneous . .-. :: 9. '/? . . . !! 9. 171 ™
IVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
October 2, 1920
Documents
A Note from the Soviet Representative in Austria to the Austrian Government
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in
Vienna, August 20. — According to advices re-
ceived by the Herzog Correspondence, the plenipo-
tentiary of the Eussian Soviet Mission in Vienna,
Dr. Bronski-Warszawski, sent a note to the State
Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Henner, on the
tenth of this month, the substance of which fol-
lows :
On July 23, I requested the Austrian Govern-
ment to permit me to get in touch with my govern-
ment by means of the wireless telegraph. In re-
sponse to this request, I was verbally notified that
the Austrian Government would take the matter
up with the Entente Mission. On the fourth of
this month, Dr. Kenner explained the Copenhagen
agreement to the Entente representative, and stated
that he saw no point which was at variance with
the peace pact of St. Germain, "and even if there
were such a point of variance, still the terms of
the peace pact would have to be followed out, as
a matter of course."
As was to be expected, this explanation was re-
ceived as a revision of the Copenhagen agreement.
From the text of the official and semi-official
reports, it is to be seen that the question at issue
deals in the main with two points of the Copen-
hagen agreement, to wit, the second and third
paragraphs, which refer firstly to the unrestricted
use of the telegraph station, and secondly to the
obligation of the Austrian state to absolutely for-
bid the shipping of all weapons, munitions, or
other war-materials, as well as the use of Austrian
rairoads for foreign armies to aid the states at war
with Soviet Russia.
According to an official report given out on the
twenty-seventh of July, the Copenhagen agreement
"was ratified by the assembled governing body, and
indorsed by the representatives of all parliamen-
tary parties."
The Copenhagen agreement was therefore en-
tered into by a political body to which the peace
pact of St. Germain was well-known, and with the
assumption that it could not be at variance with
the pact previously concluded.
Paragraph 143 of the St. Germain treaty for-
bade the Austrian Government, for a period of
three months after the treaty went into effect, the
use of the Vienna wireless stations for the purpose
of conveying messages dealing with questions of
the army, the navy, or politics.
It is difficult to understand into which of these
three categories the question of war-prisoners can
be fitted. It can readily be seen that this is un-
deniably a matter of mercy, which, however, has
nothing to do with either the navy, the army, or
with politics.
For that matter, it was foreseen in the above-
mentioned paragraphs that the telegraph stations
could be used for the purpose of transmitting com-
Digitized by LaOOgl C
mercial telegrams. However, we all understand
that charitable undertakings take precedence of
commercial matters. If, therefore, the telegraph
stations are now to be taken over for use on
questions of war prisoners, the repatriation of
the prisoners is made a political question, and by
the very Entente powers which have made peace
with German-Austria.
The acceptance, on the part of the Austrian
Government, of the principle of the Entente mis-
sion in Vienna, that the repatriation of war prison-
ers is a political question, means an immediate re-
linquishing of the attitude hitherto held by the
Austrian Government.
The Eussian Soviet Republic has no cause to
create any difficulties for the Austrian nation or
the Austrian Government, either from within or
without the country.
The result of this attitude on the part of the
Austrian Government will be a strong dissatisfac-
tion, on the part of the Austrian war prisoners
with the Soviet Government, and will throw the
entire responsibility for the unnecessary sufferings
of thousands of Austrian families, upon the Soviet
Government.
I entreat you, Secretary of State, to bring
the true state of affairs before the Austrian public,
in order to spare my government and the Russian
nation from these unjust reproaches on the part
of the families of the Austrian war prisoners.
The strict neutrality of German-Austria, con-
cerning which Dr. Renner explained to the repre-
sentatives of the Entente, is also guaranteed in
Paragraph 3 of the Copenhagen Agreement, and
was objected to by the representatives of the En-
tente, and that on the ground that such neutrality
is contrary to the St. Germain Agreement. It is
said that the Secretary of State, Dr. Renner, made
the statement that he is ready to recognize the
result of the negotiations of the Entente Powers
with Germany in a similar transaction.
Thus the Austrian Government abandons the
third paragraph of the Copenhagen Treaty, for
it declines to take part in the defence of an
agreement to which it affixed its signature. It
abandons the defence of a pact which it made
with Russia, to a third power.
I must affirm that the Austrian Government has
adopted an attitude which must be looked at as
harmful to the interests of the Russian Soviet
Republic, and which is absolutely contrary to the
spirit of the Copenhagen Treaty.
As the representative of the Russian Soviet Re-
public, it is my duty to demand that the Austrian
Government live up, fully and entirely, to the
terms of the Copenhagen Treaty, which it volun-
tarily entered into,
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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October 2, 1920
SOVIET EUSSIA
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PEACE WITH LITHUANIA
On July 12 a peace treaty was signed between
Soviet Russia and Lithuania. According to this
treaty Eussia has recognized without reservation
the sovereignty and independence of the state of
Lithuania. The boundary between the latter and
the Eussian Socialist Federal Soviet Eepublic be-
gins from the place of juncture of the Gorodyanka
river with the Bobr river, passes to the south of
Grodno between the stations Kuznitsa and Sokolka,
further, somewhat to* the south of Lida, then con-
tinues between Smorgon and Vileyka, the latter
being left with Eussia while Oshmiany is left with
Lithuania, and ends between Kreslatka and Pri-
draisk on the Western Dvina. The treaty con-
tains decisions enjoining both contracting parties
from permitting on their territories the formation
or existence of organizations having as their aim
an armed struggle aganst the other party, the re-
cruiting for the armies of such organizations and
the transportation through the territory of either
party of materials that could be used against the
other party. Both parties relinquish all accounts
which might result from the fact of Lithuania's
former subjection to the former Eussian empire.
The state of Lithuania takes over the title to all
treasury claims on properties within the confines
of the Lithuanian state.
As regards deposits with credit institutions, etc.,
Lithuanian citizens have the same rights as had
been recognized as applying to Eussian citizens.
The property of the Lithuanian citizens, evacuated
during the world war, is returned, in so far as it
actually is under control of the Eussian Govern-
ment. But this point does not apply to sums,
deposits, and valuables that had been held in the
credit institutions in the territory of Lithuania.
Part of the rolling stock and railroad as well as
telegraph and telephone appurtenances, evacuated
at the time of war are restored to Lithuania in
quantities corresponding to the local needs. In
view of the fact that Lithuania has been almost
completely devastated during the world war, she
is granted the right of timber-cutting in the near-
est localities on an area of 100,000 dessiatins for
a period of twenty years, according to the plans
of the Eussian forestry and receives 3,000,000
rubles in gold. Negotiations regarding a trade and
transit agreement should begin as soon as possible.
As a basis for the trade agreement there is laid
down the principle of the most favored nation.
Diplomatic and consul relations are to be estab-
lished immediately after the ratification.
In a special declaration, the Lithuanian delega-
tion, taking into consideration the fact of the war
between Eussia and Poland, had declared that the
crossing by the Eussian troops of the Lithuanian
border and the occupation by them of parts of
territories, which, according to the present treaty
constitute a part of the territory of Lithuania shall
not be considered as a breach of the agreement
and an inimical act with regard to Lithuania, pro-
vided that after the military and strategical ne-
cessity has passed Eussian troops will be evacuated
from the territories in question.
GREETINGS FROM THE MOSCOW
SOVIETS TO THE ENGLISH
PROLETARIAT
Christiania, September 1, 1920 (Eeport from
Rosia, Vienna) . — The following report reached us
from Moscow, August 31 : After listening to the
report given by Milyutin, who recently returned
from England, of conditions in that country, the
Moscow Soviets resolved to send their greetings
to the English proletariat, on their proletarian
solidarity with Soviet Eussia, and their stand
against the imperialistic English Government. In
that message, they point out that, despite the fact
that the Polish White Guards are being assisted
by the French and English governments, they are
being hard-pressed by the Bed armies, and that
the Eussian workers, although they have no idea
of seizing Poland or taking away her independence,
have the desire and the power to defend themselves
against any and all onslaughts on the part of
imperialistic nations. The Moscow Soviet noted
with especial satisfaction the formation of an Eng-
lish Committee of Action, and the resolution to
stop English intervention through the general
strike.
Soviet Russia Pamphlets
An important rearrangement of this valuable
series is about to be made. Orders should not
be placed before October 1, as the series will not
be ready before then.
1. Labor Laws of Soviet Russia. Third Edi-
tion. Will contain all the matter included
in the first and second editions, together with
a supplement on "The Protection of Labor
in Soviet Russia," by S. Kaplun, of the Com-
missariat of Labor. About 80 pages, price
25 cents.
2. Marriage Laws of Soviet Russia; also Laws
on Domestic Relations. New translation from
recently received Russian original; an im-
provement on the version printed in Soviet
Russia. Almost 60 pages, price 15 cents.
To be ready about October 1st
3. Two Years of Soviet Russian Foreign
Policy, by George Chicherin. A full account
of all the diplomatic negotiations between
Soviet Russia and foreign powers, from No-
vember 7, 1917, to November 7, 1919; 36
pages, price 10 cents.
All bound in heavy paper covers.
Special Rates in Quantities
Address :
"SOVIET RUSSIA"
110 W. 40th St. Room 304 New York, N. Y.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
October 2, 1920
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
»St!
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised.
\ N INCIDENT of the French imperialist con-
***■ spiracy against Soviet Kussia, little noted in
the American press, has been the recently dis-
closed treaty under which Hungary, the political
puppet of the French militarists, has been com-
pletely subjected to the control of Paris capitalists.
Some time ago, English liberal and labor papers
reported the conclusion of an aggressive alliance
between France and the Hungarian White terror-
ists. The inspired Paris Matin on September 2
confessed the whole plot. The Hungarian Govern-
ment had been induced to agree that France, in
return for considerations not clearly stated, should
assume control of the Hungarian railways and the
navigation of the Danube, and should take over
the principal Hungarian industries, the chief Hun-
garian bank and the Port of Budapest. The final
term of this extraordinary conquest placed at the
disposal of the French General Staff "all the mili-
tary forces of Hungary which France and the
Allies might, in case of need, use against the Red
Army of the Soviets." According to the Matin,
the signing of this treaty was significantly accom-
panied by reconciliation between Hungary and her
enemy, Rumania. Le Temps, on the same date, at-
tempted to evade the facts by declaring that "the
acquisition of these various interests did not form
the subject of an agreement signed by a representa-
tive of the French Government." It did not, how-
ever, deny the nature and extent of the concessions,
which, by whatever machinery they were contrived,
amounted to a complete abdication of Hungarian
sovereignty.
The threat of this arrangement to the peace of
South-Eastern Europe, where it so obviously en-
dangered the security and ambitions of several
petty nationalisms, was answered by the appear-
ance of the so-called "Little Entente", fostered by
Czecho-Slovakia to the undisguised annoyance of
the French imperialists. The purpose of the "Lit-
tle Entente" is to secure an agreement between
Czecho-Slovakia, Jugo-Slavia, and Rumania,
partly to maintain the neutrality of this group,
threatened by the plans of the Allied imperialists
in their support of the Polish war, and partly to
protect themselves against the aggressions of a
militaristic Franco-Hungarian alliance. All this
is but a small part of the sinister transactions de-
veloping in Europe under the fine phrase of
"peace making" politicians. At the bottom of it
all, of course, lies the insatiable hostility towards
Soviet Russia, of world capitalism which contrives
anything and stops at no risks of human sacrifice
in its plans for the overthrow of the workers'
republic.
Mr. Robert Dell, an English journalist well-
informed in French politics and policies, has re-
cently declared that to attain its desperate ends,
"the French Government is prepared to risk an-
other European war, although that would mean
the final ruin of the whole continent of Europe,
including France itself." Of the franco-Hun-
garian conspiracy, Mr. Dell says :
"Should France call upon Hungary to attack
Russia, the inevitable result would be a general
war in Central Europe. For the Hungarian army
would have to cross Czecho-Slovakian territory,
and that the Czecho-Slovakian Government would
not tolerate. Indeed, Czecho-Slovakia and Jugo-
slavia have already made a defensive alliance
against Hungary, which has not given great pleas-
ure in Paris. The Quai d'Orsay is now making
desperate efforts to prevent Rumania from entering
that alliance and to reconcile her with Hungary.
But the Rumanian Government has discovered that
France has secretly promised to Hungary that part
of Banat transferred to Rumania by the Treaty of
Trianon, although the fact was denied by the
Temps on September 2. That France must have
given some consideration for the extraordinary con-
cessions of the Hungarian Government is, however,
evident."
Such are the perils into which the capitalist
rulers of Europe have dragged their subjects.
Against this threat of endless wars stands only the
Red Army of Soviet Russia and the growing power
and determination of the European workers.
* * *
T^HE British Government's treatment of ac-
■*■ credited representatives of Soviet Russia, whim-
sical as it appears on the surface, is not without a
certain pattern of useful purpose. Mr. Litvinov,
"persona non grata" in England, was convenient
and suitable for prolonged negotiations at Copen-
hagen. Accordingly, Mr. (VGrady, ably assisted
by the ubiquitous Mr. Nathan, was dispatched
thither to negotiate at length and at leisure, while
the British Foreign Office warned away all pos-
sible competitors with gruesome tales of the un-
ethical and undiplomatic character of Mr. Lit-
vinov. Mr. Nuorteva, hospitably received in Can-
ada, was forwarded thence to England and gra-
ciously admitted, only subsequently to be discovered
an unwelcome guest who must be suddenly trans-
ported to Russia to head a special bureau in the
Soviet Government for the promotion of foreign
trade. Mr. Kamenev, convenient scapegoat, is sac-
rificed to the exigencies of the Anglo-French-
Polish situation. Mr. Krassin, absolved of Mr.
Kamenev's alleged guilt, is allowed to remain —
and continue his purchases of British goods. Ac-
cording to a note in a trade paper, Mr. Krasssin
is "inquiring for fshski ya:ru:s from 2-10c to 2-40s
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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October 2, 1920
SOVIET BUSS r A
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for Russian overcoatings and suitings." He has
already purchased heavy woolen cloth for civilian
use to the amount of one million pounds sterling.
Twenty-five per cent of this purchase price, in
"Russian gold/' was handed over when the goods
were delivered at the port of London. Among the
purchases made recently by the Russian delega-
tion in London were 36,000 yards of khaki flannel
manufactured for American uniforms. The reac-
tionary British press does not fail to twit the Gov-
ernment with the fact that the departure of Mr.
Kamenev does not prevent his colleague from do-
ing "business as usual." "Notwithstanding this
adverse comment," however, says a recent dispatch
to the New York Tribune, "Mr. Krassin is com-
pleting arrangements for the delivery of much food
stuffs to him in England." The Tribune's corre-
spondent notes with apparent surprise that "the
Russian buying organization is so well arranged
that Russians associated with Krassin are even
negotiating for the purchase of between 9,000,000
and 10,000,000 cigarettes, manufactured and
owned by Britishers and stored at Reval, Esthonia,
where they were in transit to Russia when the
revolution removed Russia as one of the Allies."
The correspondent apparently was under the de-
lusion that Russians do not smoke under the Bol-
shevist regime. (We are informed by a traveler
recently returned from Moscow that the official ra-
tion is twenty-five cigarettes a day.) Mr. Lloyd
George, however, is under no misapprehensions.
He knows that even Bolshevists smoke cigarettes
and wear clothes, and are prepared to buy both, —
which is why Mr. Krassin remains in London.
* * *
CIR PHILIP GIBBS won distinction as a war
^ correspondent with a fine sense of what could
and could not be told about the war. His dis-
patches from France, though realistically flavored
with mud and blood of the trenches, were yet al-
ways prudently restrained within the bounds of
propriety set by the censor. After the armistice
he won further fame by the publication of a
volume entitled "Xow It Can Be Told", which
was a monument to his own discretion and journal-
istic economy. In this book he revealed some,
but not all, of the sordid facts of the intrigue
and blundering, selfishness and chicane, which lay
unrevealed behind his previous tales of heroism
and sacrifice.
With the same prudence which characterized his
war correspondence, Sir Philip now reports upon
the state of society in Europe. He has heard the
cry of Anatole France that European capitalism
is dying. He does not believe it, but he admits
that "Europe is very sick." In a special cable to
the New York Times he reports everywhere a
"sense of impending ruin and dreadful anxiety."
In some regions ruin is not impending, but "pres-
ent and engulfing." Austria, for one, "stricken,
helpless, hopeless," existing on charity, "sapped of
all vitality." Germany in somewhat better state,
but far from well ; "people over here who imagine
that she will soon be rich and strong and trucu-
lent again are deluded by false evidence." Poland
is "typhus stricken and starving in her cities, rav-
aged by the tidal waves of war." France he de-
picts in the words of Frenchmen who say:
"Our million dead will never come to life
again. Our debts will never be paid. Our
industries are decaying for the lack of coal,
which England sells us at outrageous cost
and Germany does not deliver as she was
pledged. Our best brains were plugged by
German bullets and England won the peace
which we lost . . . France, victorious, is
dying."
"In Italy," continues Sir Philip, "there is no
great comfort for the soul of Europe." They stag-
ger under debt; their paper money is worthless;
unemployment grows ; strikes for higher wages are
"ceaseless and futile." What then of England, so
envied by her continental allies ? Less hurt by the
war than most of the other countries, concedes the
journalist, but still, "it is enough to glance at the
headlines of today's paper, or to have a little chat
with any discharged and unemployed soldier to
repudiate the gains of England in the war." Eng-
land has "vast imperial tendencies" which can only
be maintained by "our old prestige and some new
wisdom, if we can find it." Meanwhile, in im-
perial England, too, "crippling taxation of moder-
ate incomes, high prices . . . paper money worth
little more than half its face value, lessening pro-
duction and the black shadow creeping nearer of
widespread unemployment because the markets of
Europe are not buying or paying at English
prices."
This is the account of a journalist distinguished
for his fine sense of what can and cannot be told.
Sir Philip's picture of the misery and sickness of
Europe is as true as were his vivid sketches of the
filth and pain of war — and as far from being the
whole truth. He pretends to find a simple cause
for all this sickness in the "failure of idealism"
and calls vainly for new ideals, new leaders, but
confesses that "just now we do not see them com-
ing." The truth which he does not report, the
truth which he conceals, was in that cry of Anatole
France which he heard but did not believe, "Capi-
talist Europe is dying." But this is the truth
which the prudent Sir Philip thinks cannot yet
be told.
* * *
"DETWEEN the intervals of his physical exer-
- L * cise in Holland, the late Emperor of Germany
is said to be writing a serious book on "Bolshev-
ism", for which he is said to be going through
numerous issues of German newspapers. Not less
sharp in their condemnations of the Soviet system,
and therefore just as exploitable for Wilhelm's
purpose as the German newspapers, are a consid-
erable number of American journals. We recom-
mend that the former Emperor do not limit his
sources to German papers, but go carefully through
at least some of the American sheets that are most
hostile to Soviet Russia. He will not be disap-
pointed. ^ r
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
October 2, 1920
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STATEMENT OF THE BUREAU
New York, September 16, 1920.
Mr. L. Martens, Representative of the Russian
Soviet Government, today issued the following
statement :
"In spite of the impression apparently held by
some persons, the Soviet Government has never
made political recognition a condition precedent
to the establishment of trade relations. It has come
to the attention of the Commissariat of Foreign
Affairs in Moscow that certain high officials of the
American Government are under the misappre-
hension that the Soviet Government has demanded
full political recognition before it will enter into
commercial relations with any foreign country.
This is not the case, and in a cable just received
from the Commissar for Foreign Affairs, George
Chicherin, I am instructed to correct any false
impression which may exist in this regard.
"The Soviet Government is ready and willing
to enter into commercial relations with any coun-
try, without waiting for the formalities of diplo-
matic recognition. Mr. Chicherin, in his cable re-
questing me to make this point clear, says :
" 'The only thing the Russian Government
demands are de facto relations, without which
it is obvious that trade relations are impos-
sible. Resumption of de facto relations are
inseparable from the resumption of trade re-
lations/
"In other words, all that the Soviet Government
asks is the resumption of the ordinary facilities
for travel and exchange of goods, with means for
the transfer of funds in payment for purchases,
and communication by post and cable. Interna-
tional trade, of course, is impossible without these
facilities ; but they may be arranged without wait-
ing for diplomatic recognition. "
A SIGNIFICANT ORDER BY TROTSKY
Moscow, June 30, 1920. No. 230.
The issue No. 13 of the Voyennoye Dielo con-
tained an article "The First Militant Steps of
Marshal Pilsudski," which was thoroughly im-
bued with the spirit of gross chauvinism. It is
sufficient to mention that the article speaks of
"the inherent Jesuitism of the Poles" as opposed
to the honest and candid spirit of the Great Rus-
sians. There is no need of proving how much such
crude and false generalizations contradict the spirit
of brotherhood which permeates the attitude of the
Russian working class to the toiling masses of
Poland. The article "The First Militant Steps
of Marshal Pilsudski" shows the complete inabil-
ity of the present editorial staff of the Voyennoye
Dielo to act in this responsible position.
Therefore, in order to prevent the possible fur-
ther spread of the chauvinist poison by the mili-
tary-scientific journal of the workmens* and peas-
ants' Red Army, I hereby order that :
1. The publication of the Voyennoye Dielo shall
be suspended until the composition of the editorial
staff will be radically changed.
2. Steps shall be taken to ascertain what per-
sons were directly responsible for the publication
of the above mentioned article, in order to remove
them once for all from any further connection
with the work aiming at the education and en-
lightenment of the Red Army.
Chairman of the Revolutionary Military
Council of the Republic,
L. Trotsky.
(Pravda, July 1, 1920).
RUSSO-POLISH PEACE NEGOTIATIONS
Moscow, August 28, 1920.— On August 27 the
Russian Government sent a radio to the Polish
Government, emphasizing that the Dombski jour-
ney to Poland signifies a new delay coming once
more from the Polish side. All facilities for com-
munication with Warsaw were given to the Polish
delegation. In Minsk they were allowed to bring
their own wireless apparatus, and five hours daily
were designated for their own wireless communi-
cation with Warsaw. Those dispatches which they
gave to the Russian Government for Warsaw were
wirelessed there at the first opportunity. Unfor-
tunately these facilities were made use of by the
Poles for constant delays and conflicts. The War-
saw wireless station constantly refuses to answer
Moscow and its work is so bad that it is hardly
perceptible. In Minsk the Polish delegation con-
tinuously raised conflicts demanding uninterrupted
wireless work with Warsaw. It was obviously im-
possible at a time of war for its adversary to pick
up Russian military wireless dispatches. Never-
theless the Poles attempted to impose their de-
mands by violence and to enter the wireless sta-
tion by force. In general the Polish delegation
tried continuously to create various conflicts and
to delay the negotiations. The Russian Govern-
ment has come to the conclusion that its decision
to elect for the negotiations a town situated en
route to Poland like Minsk, a decision dictated
by the desire for peace, has unfortunately been the
source of Polish attempts to protract the nego-
tiations and to prevent peace. Answering faith-
fully to its peace desire the Russian Government
is now of the opinion that negotiations will best be
carried on in a neutral land, and proposes to Pol-
and to transfer them to Esthonia.
This wireless message was sent to Warsaw yes-
terday and the Russian Government hopes to re-
ceive soon the desired answer.
WRANGEL'S HINTERLAND
Christiania, September 1, 1920 (Report from
Rosta, Vienna). — The following report reached us
from Moscow, September 1, 1920: According to
a wireless dispatch received here from Sebastopol,
there has been a fearful increase ip the price of
necessities in the Crimea. English and French
speculations have made Wrangel's currency almost
valueless. As a result of the lack of foodstuffs,
tvphoid is raging throughout the country.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
October 2, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
335
The Active Officials of the- Petrograd Unions
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DY ORDER of the Executive Committee of the
■*"* Petrograd Trades Unions Council, the Sub-
section for Labor Statistics undertook, in Sep-
tember, 1919, the registration of the active officials
of the unions. The object of the registration was
on the one hand, the drawing-up of lists of all
these officials, and on the other hand, the determ-
ining of their numerical relations. According to
the orders of the Executive Committee, the fol-
lowing were to be regarded as "active officials":
1, the members of the main committees of the
union organizations; 2, all the employes cooptated
by the collegiums of the unions, in so far as they
performed responsible work in the union centers,
and 3, the entirp membership of the factory com-
mittees.
In the first place, the workers of the central
and district collegiums — altogether 564 persons —
were registered. This number can be regarded as
complete. Only those members of the union col-
legiums were not included who, because of their
activity in the Soviet or in other central organi-
zations, were prevented from taking part in the
immediate work of the unions, so that the union
collegiums thought it proper not to include them
in the list of their active officials.
By trade unions groups the above mentioned
564 members can be divided as follows :
•a 3
Union Groups fc ° v j>~*
33 3 S «
1* Unions of the Manufacturing Industry 222 579
2 Unions of Transport Workers 69 985
3 Unions of the Exploiting Industries 23 1,628
4 Unions of the Manual Workers 114 421
5 Unions of the Intellectual Workers 136 578
The relatively smallest number of active officials
falls to the group of the exploiting industries, but
the greatest number to the union of manual labor,
in which there are not more than 421 members to
every active official. The relative number of union
members to each active official in the unions be-
longing to the manufacturing industries and to the
intellectual workers may be considered as normal,
as these two unions are the best organized and the
most active.
Among the registered officials, the elected offi-
cials formed the largest percentage group, that is
90.7 per cent; the next group was the one formed
by the cooptated officials, 4.8 per cent; the next
•To the first group belong the unions of the metal workers,
wo °? wor ^ er »» textile workers, needle industry workers, paper*
workers, glass and porcelain workers, food-stuff workers, tobacco
workers, leather workers, chemical workers, printers, construc-
tion workers; to the second group: the unions of railroad work-
ers, workers on water transport, automobile and truck workers;
to the third group: the unions of fishermen, forestry workers,
agricultural workers; to the fourth group: the unions of hair-
dressers, public hygiene (washerwomen and bath employes),
domestic servants, firemen, militia, municipal employes, public
provision; to the fifth group: the unions of financial employes,
business apprentices and employes of the Soviet institutions,
apothecaries, sanitation, culture and education, postal and tele-
fiapn employes and artists.
that appointed by the Communist Party, 0.0 per
cent; and employes working for wages, 3.9 per
cent.
But what are the callings and trades of the ac-
tive officials?
The majority of them are factory workers (39.8
per cent) or persons who perform intellectual
work (37.5 per cent). Members of both these
groups are to be found not only in their own
unions, but also in the unions of the other groups.
Distribution of active official* according to trades
(in per cent)
. * .2 i
|| I .2* J 1 |
2. £1! i 2£ -a 8 5
3 *»2 S .§3 3 =•* °
I S * § H S *° a
° 3.S h i3J3 * 3% <
1 79.7 0.5 19.8
2 20.9 49.2 .. .. 29.9
3 17.4 30.5 4.3 43.5 4.3
4 20.1 5.5 0.9 53.4 18.3 1.8
5 9.4 .. 0.8 2.3 84.4 3.1
In all groups 39.8 7.7 1.8 11.9 37.5 1.3
The metal workers, of course, form the largest
percentage group (15.6 per cent). In the first
group they number 22.8 per cent, in the second,
13.4 per cent, in the third, 8.7 per cent, in the
fourth, 12.8 per cent, and even in the fifth they
have 9.4 per cent.
The number of women among the active officials
is even now very small. It amounts to not more
than 15 per cent. Their number is largest in the
first union group where they form 20 per cent of
the total; in the second group they amount only
to 4 per cent; in the third group, 9 per cent, and
in the fourth 14 per cent; in the fifth 11 per cent.
The number of women is smaller in the unions of
intellectual work than it is in the unions of the
manufacturing industries and even in the unions
of manual labor.
The average age of the active officials is 34.1
years; but if the men alone are counted, the aver-
age age amounts to 35.3 years. This number is
practically the same for all trade union groups.
With the exception of two persons, all respon-
sible officials know how to read and write. An in-
vestigation of the degree of education which they
possess, gives us the following table :
Active Officials (in per cent)
v*o u-2 .2
TO vo o
sii -b* is* -si 1 1
I jsll 1| | e | 1! |b!
x 83.6 10.8 7.2 5.6 4.1
2 '"/. 76.1 14.3 4.8 9.5 7.9
3 57.1 .. 42.9 38.1
4 ! 90.7 9.3 2.8
5 37.5 34.4 22.7 28.1 21.8
In all groups P'Tl'.i ' "fe 11 " 1 "77 7Ii "77
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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October 2, 1920
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The fourth group, that of manual workers, is
the most backward as far as education is concerned,
and, as was to be expected, the fifth group is the
most advanced. The officials of the transport
workers' union are more advanced as regards edu-
cation than the workers of the production unions.
Among the active officials 21.5 per cent, that
is more than one-fifth possess a secondary school
education, while one-tenth possess a university ed-
ucation. If we exclude the unions of intellectual
workers, in which the participation of persons with
a university education is a matter of course, the
remaining four union groups will show 5 per cent
of active officials with a university education, and
11 per cent with a complete secondary school edu-
cation. We see, therefore, that educated persons
are taking an important part in a field of labor
where we should least expect to find them, that is,
among the regular officials of the trade unions.
According to the date of their entry into the
unions, the active members may be classified as
follows (in per cent) :
2 2 ofc fc "
. -2 -9 2 * *
a. £ £.0 jo 8 8 2 2
£ £§ §>£ >^2 22
u 41 v J5 »2 o!T o!T o »*- y
U « «2 S552 £20 <S
1 4.S 26.8 49.0 14.6 S.6
2 27.1 49.2 22.2 1.6
3 9.1 40.9 27.3 22.7
4 14.7 56.9 10.3 9.2
5 10.9 62.5 7.8 18.8
In all groups 1.7 19.6 53.7 15.4 9.6
Therefore, only one-fifth of the active officials be-
longed to the unions before the revolution, while
four-fifths joined the unions only after March,1917.
The functionaries of the first group are the oldest
members. Among them, we find the patriarchs
of the Russian trades unions : 4.5 per cent of them
were members of the unions before the year 1905.
Second comes the group of the transport workers
unions ; 27 per cent of the members of this union
entered the union before the March revolution. The
unions of the exploiting industries and the intel-
lectual workers show the smallest percentage of
members whose membership dates back before the
days of the March revolution.
Aside from activity in the unions, participation
in the workers' movement, in the period before
the revolution, might be indicated by affiliation
with one or other of the Socialist parties. The
following table shows the relation of the number
of active officials to the number of members of
the political workers* parties (in per cent) :
"o 2 a Date of admission to the party
lift |j If c
I l°Jl el i-1 J
2 «.?oS 2 2 £->*- 2>^
u &m && *££» 3sSS
1 63.3 13.8 9.7 38.3
2 65.1 19.1 6.3 36.5
3 34.8 4.3 4.3 26.2
4 51.3 . 6.4 6.4 38.5
5 53.9 9.4 11.7 32.0
In all groups S7.5 11.4 8.9 36.0
Therefore, at present, only a little more than
half of all the active trade union officials belong
to one or the other party. The majority of them
are, of course, Communists (55.9 per cent). Most
of these, (36 per cent) only joined the party after
the November revolution. The old party members
whose membership dates back to the time before
the revolution make up only 11.4 per cent. More-
over, this percentage is in reality large, as many
of those of no party probably were at one time
affiliated with some party.
Let us now consider the distribution of the
active officials, from the standpoint of the work
accomplished by them, and according to the de-
gree of their experience.
Of the registered officials 75 per cent are mem-
bers of the union collegiums. 15.4 per cent be-
longed to the union collegiums for over a year,
84.6 per cent have belonged less than a year. The
average duration of their activity as members of
the union collegiums is 6.6 months. The rapid
change in the membership of the collegiums is ex-
plained by the fact that those officials who gain a
certain amount of experience are called away from
the unions and are sent to the front or are utilized
in various departments of the government.
According to the kind of work which the active
officials are performing at present in the unions,
they can be classified as follows:
& Have been §*g
$ at work '2 £
c 5 9
v 3 z
Knd of work § & 1 «*
Organization Work 34.7 14.7 85.3 7.7
Elaboration and Regulation of Wages 9.4 9.8 90.2 4.3
Arbitration of Labor Disputes 8.1 4.4 95.6 3.2
Dissemination of Culture and Educa-
tion 7.6 2.4 97.6 3.6
Distribution of Labor 0.9 .. 100.0 5.0
Other Work 14.0 1.3 98.7 3.8
All the active officials by no means work directly
in the unions themselves, but only 343 persons,
that is 64.4 per cent. The remaining officials are
either only members of the union collegiums or
they work, by order of the unions, in government
or public organizations.
The greatest attention is given to the organiza-
tion work in the unions. Apparently the smallest
number of officials is called from this department
of work for other purposes, as the averge duration
of the activity is more extended in this department
than in the other groups. Next in importance,
comes the work of elaborating and regulating
wages.
It very often happens that several tasks are
allotted to one official. On the average, every
official holds from 1 to 2 positions in the union.
The frequent change of responsible officials can
hardly be said to exercise a very beneficial effect
on the life of the trade unions, all the more, since
officials entering upon their duties are usually in-
experienced. 49.6 per cent of the registered of-
ficials began their work without any experience
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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whatsoever in the field of union work. Among
the experienced officials, only 8.1 worked before
the revolution, but their experience is very im-
portant as every one of them had, on the average,
29.6 months of pre-revolutionary activity.
As the majority of active officials possess little
or no experience, they have to learn in the course
of their work. But there is no lack of diversified
and important work. Besides their work in the
unions and in the party, 47 per cent hold various
posts in the government. Often they hold several
positions at the same time. The average duration
of such work is 13.4 months.
The degree of experience of the active officials
is not the same in all the unions. The members
of the unions of the manufacturies, the' transport
workers, and the intellectual workers have the most
experience. In this respect, the unions of manual
work and the exploiting industries are consider-
ably less advanced.
The average number of months of work of every
active official:
Work in Work in Work in the
Groups the Unions the Party Government
1 17.9 8.1 5.4
2 13.9 3.6 4.3
3 7.7 1.0 14.6
4 7.4 1.5 3.6
5 13.1 3.7 6.9
In all groups 13.7 4.8 5.8
RUSSIA
337
OUT OF A JOB
The Petrograd Pravda of July 2, on receiving,
the news that the Russian emigres had decided to
found a "new and final government" under the
Presidency of Savinkov, ridicules the many short-
lived White Guard Government formations: Yu-
denich, Tchaikovsky, Kolchak, Semionov, Dutov,
Kornilov, Kaledin, Denikin, Wrangel, etc., and
quotes a humorous contribution to the Riga news-
paper Sevodnia, which itself ridicules this mania,
even though it is a White Guard sheet. The text
of this feuilleton is as follows :
His Execellency's Diary
March 21. Some Government has been formed
somewhere. Sent an inquiry today to find whether
there is need of an experienced minister :
"Distance is no objection. Ready to assume
position for good wages, good title, and spacious
office."
Answer : '
"No need of ministers. But if you will sign
a contract with us for effecting removals, we re-
quest that you communicate conditions."
Dirty dogs! Think they can understand the
psychology of a man applying for a ministerial
position.
April "22. Received an urgent communication,
announcing formation of a Wrangel Government
but I do not know whether it is in the Crimea or
in Archangel. But it does not matter, so long as
there are railroad cars.
Telegraphed as follows: "Minister out of a
job, former real estate councillor, applies for min-
isterial post or other suitable occupation. Dis-
tance is no objection. Ready to undertake serv-
ice in exchange for free board and lodging. Point
of the compass not important. Prefer such as are
not Communistic."
Answer received immediately: "Come. Cabi-
net not yet existing. Subjects also not yet exist-
ing. Available: Typewriting machine, capital
city constructed, and two staff captains. 2,000
a month, warm food and boots as a present every
Christmas."
May 17. Met a man on the street today, one
of our people, a Russian. Appeared to be a very
serious man. Asked him whether he did not wish
to found a new Government on the Caspian Sea.
"Yes, I should not mind. If I had a hundred
francs," — I gave him a hundred francs. He gave
me his word of honor that within two months he
would have formed some kind of a government if
not on the Caspian Sea, then on the Black Sea.
You could hardly expect me to quarrel with him
about the name of the sea! Then I gave him
fifty francs more, so that he would go away at
once.
May 18. Miserable wretch ! Met him again to-
day. Was drunk and wanted 100 francs more.
Said he had fallen in love and did not know what
to do — whether to marry or to enter into diplo-
matic relations with Mexican diplomacy. Rascal !
How many hundred franc notes have I not wasted
in this way !
I think it will come off this time ! I have been
called, actually called. I got the following tele-
gram today: "Your Excellency indispensible.
Government being formed instantly for purpose of
traveling in Russia. Three days stop at various
places. Salaries paid after each fall of Cabinet.
Advance salary by week. If you know any people
out of work, bring them with you. There is re-
quired : a minister for postal affairs, and for com-
mon as well as wireless telegraphy. Also a min-
ister for public education, who is acquainted with
sign painting, and also knows some tailoring. Will
have to earn his own living. Monarchistic govern-
ment is planned, but if unsuccessful Socialistic not
unacceptable. Answer requested by telegraph. Re-
turn charges paid."
I shall leave at once for a specialist cannot af-
ford to remain out of work very long.
THE FOOD SITUATION IN SOVIET
RUSSIA
Christiania, September 1, 1920 (Report from
Rosta, Vienna). — The following report reached us
from Moscow on August 31 : The arrival of food-
stuffs from Siberia is increasing month by month.
In May, Siberia delivered 800,000 poods of wheat,
in the month of June, 1,300,000 poods, and in
the first part of July. 4,400,000 poods. Half of
this quantity comes from the district of Omsk.
The territory of Cheliabinsk produced nearly half
of the quota delivered by the district of Omsk.
During the summer months, Siberia was the chief
corn producer for European Russia.
U N IV ERSI TY F ml C H IGA N
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SOVIET RUSSIA
October 2, 1920
Letter from Russia
By G. M. Serrati
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/^\NE cannot learn to know a great city like this
^-^ in four days, not even as a "tourist", in
normal times, with every facility at one's disposal.
Let us not even pretend to know and interpret its
spirit, to perceive its intimate sensations, to appre-
ciate its virtues, or criticize its vices or errors;
especially if one does not know the language per-
fectly, and is unable, therefore, to grasp a situa-
tion as expressed in the words of the people, in
their exclamations, their songs and even in the
graphic manifestations along the roads or in the
public places . . . manifestations very eloquent
in their naivete.
The journalist who passes and judges, who
makes literature and proves a theory, is not a
chronicler, still less a historian. The only eager
readers of Barzini* are those who are ignorant of
what he writes and of the facts. He who knows
laughs at him and sees in his prose only an object
of mockery. There is not a soldier from the
trenches who holds in the least esteem this nar-
rator or the journal which opens its columns to
him.
Only the ignorant, or fools, travel through a
country in revolution with pencil and notebook
and pretend to pass judgment upon it. To arro-
gate to one's self the right to point out errors and
indicate the road which the army of citizens sans
culottes should take in order to gain time and has-
ten their epic, is ridiculous. I do not investigate,
nor examine, neither judge nor criticize ; I feel.
In the past a long history of centuries of prostra-
tion, of humility, of slavery and tyranny, of vio-
lence and absolute, irresponsible personal power.
Every street, every square and palace, recalls the
living memory of a time when one commanded and
one hundred and twenty millions obeyed. In the
present, a people who, ten, twenty, a hundred
times a day sing the glory of the Internationale
of Labor with a quasi-mystic fervor of social re-
newal. Where people fell stricken by tyranny,
behold, the debut of the renaissance inspired by
the communist spirit. This is a great thing.
Grass has grown between the paving stones of
several streets in Petrograd. The city which at
one time had two million inhabitants has today
not more than 700,000 or 800,000, perhaps. I
have seen Paris when the German Bertha hurled
its projectiles against the Erench capital. In a
few days the joyous city became funereal. In
those terrible days there were no crowds except
at the railroad stations, and in the trains which
bore away the terrified inhabitants. The P.-L.-M.
was taken by assault. To fly to Marseilles, to the
Cote d'Azur, was to flee death and seek life. Now,
after six years of war, when three armies halve
menaced its gates, when it has experienced two
revolutions, and has had only yesterday to deprive
* Correspondent of the Corriere delta Sera.
IC
its factories of those able-bodied men who re-
mained at home, and of women and young people,
to throw** them, armed rather with heroism than
with rifles, into the battlefields of Gatchina and
Tsarskoe-Selo before the white armies of Yuden-
ich, — Petrograd cannot give any thought to its
own toilette. There is grass in its streets . . .
there has been blood also. It cannot be otherwise
in a revolution.
Yesterday, when my comrade and I visited the
Putilov factories, and they asked a number of
trifling questions of the engineer and the workers
who accompanied us, I kept back. The questions
seemed to me simply superfluous. In the immense
factory — one of the three or four largest in the
world, although it is not very well organized —
from forty to fifty thousand workers were em-
ployed before the war. Today there are only a
few thousand- -mostly children, women and old
people. The rest are soldiers at the front. Com-
munists first. Scarcely has one entered the fac-
tory before he receives the impression of almost
absolute cessation of life in this colossal body.
Only a few puffs of thin smoke rise from an occa-
sional chimney. A few blows of a solitary ham-
mer resound through a hundred shops, the grind-
ing of wood is scarcely heard from a few fraise
machines. A few workers, mostly women and chil-
dren, gaze at us with wild, curious eyes. The
great, powerful pestle hammers are silent; the
cranes with their immense nervous arms of steel
are motionless; high furnaces are extinguished;
the great rolling-mills, which can seize the red-hot
iron in their steel claws and force it to bend in
their powerful grasp, are in disuse and rusted.
The many sounds of clanging steel, the roar of the
foundries, the rolling of the pestle hammer, in the
midst of millions of sparks and the ardent fires
of a thousand flames, have yielded to a silence
as of the grave — and the cawing crows pursue one
another from iron truss to iron truss — and some-
times one hears the song of a bird, a veritable
defiance.
In the back of the shop they are still repairing
railway carriages; farther on four great locomo-
tive boilers are only waiting for coal to be finished ;
another shop has already several cannon to be
transported to the Polish front; they can still be
manufactured here, the special steel necessary be-
ing abundant; but they are best manufactured at
the place to which the manufacture of war ma-
terial was transferred at the time it was feared
Petrograd might be taken.
Other factories, one for cotton hydrophil, gauze,
bandages, and other articles for sanitation, the
other for caoutchouc, are working almost maxi-
mum. The central electric station is operating
**In the text is the word, "cacciarli" ... to push,
chase, impel— which does not correspond to the con-
text or the genera! bought.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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October 2, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
339
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satisfactorily. But all the furnaces use wood fuel,
so that the work is not very rapid, and industrial
activity is reduced. On the other hand, the depar-
ture for the front of almost all the best workers,
the great suffering due to insufficient food supplies,
have deprived the remaining working masses of
the zeal for work which they might have had, and
which would not in any case be very great among
people with the characteristics of the peoples of
the Orient. Our Southerners, in comparison with
the philosophic apathy of this Russian popula-
tion — calm, serene, apathetic, slow even amidst the
thousand tortures of the war, the revolution, and
the blockade — appear to me today to be a most
active and energetic people.
This native indolence of the Russians partly ex-
plains the grave difficulties which our Bolshevik
comrades must encounter in the industrial reor-
ganization of the communist society, and makes
necessary the supremely grandiloquent proclama-
tions of the governors. They employ the grand
manner to overcome such apathy. I have seen
posted in the factories a placard depicting an enor-
mous, extremely repugnant louse, and beside this
terrible parasite, Death, with his usual attribute,
a scythe. Among us the ordinary proclamation of
the mayor is sufficient to advise the population
that they must take necessary hygienic measures to
prevent the spread of disease epidemics. Here
they need enormous signs, grand speeches, bold
expressions. It is only thus that one can overcome
the tendencies which naturally impel the Russian
to the contemplative life.
The war, the revolution, and the suffering aris-
ing from them have doubtless accentuated this
Mussulman spirit of the Russian people. In a
country where the day is sufficient unto itself, and
where the situation changes, or may change, so
easily, where uncertainty prevails, it is very natur-
al that the inhabitants should not give special
thought to the morrow and that the gravest pre-
occupation should be that of satisfying the most
urgent and immediate needs.
This only emphasizes the merit of the work
which is being accomplished by our comrades who
— very few in number as compared with the great
magnitude of the work — are working actively for
reconstruction.
Together with Comrade Zorine, General Secre-
tary of the Communist Party of Petrograd, which
has about 35,000 adherents, we visited the rest
homes for men and women workers who needed
pure air, good food, and complete rest. These
houses, built on a verdant island in the middle of
the Neva, in the most delightful section of Petro-
grad, and which were formerly resorts for the
pleasures or debauches of the Petersburg bour-
goisie and aristocrats, were, at Zorine's suggestion,
rapidly transformed into health homes for the
workers. They are magnificent villas in the midst
of the verdure, with ample terraces, large stained-
glass windows, and enormous bays, tastefully de-
corated; some of them are furnished with real
artistic sense, others in the worst bourgeois taste.
In the entrance of one of them we saw a collection
of eight magnificent Flanders tapestries, old gifts
of Napoleon to some Russian Duke or Prince;
their price is placed at eight million francs. I
pass over in silence the furniture of incalculable
value.
In these villas, amidst the most dazzling luxury,
men and women, two and three in a room, who
have hitherto lived like beasts of burden in the
murderous factories, take their rest. They come
here in turns — upon designation by the organiza-
tion committees — and spend about a month in
complete repose. They scrupulously respect the
property, now become collective. Whatever the
localities visited, everywhere was the greatest
cleanliness, order and tranquility. Each in his
room, or in the common rooms, and wearing their
plain working clothes, men and women live serene-
ly in these halls, on these divans, amidst the splen-
dor of the pictures, the mirrors, the objects of art
and luxury, as if they had lived there all their
lives.
I asked tui old woman tobacco worker who has
been employed in the factory for more than forty
years: "How did you get used to such a life?"
"Eh ! Comrade, when one is well off, one gets used
to it quickly !"
For them Communism is somewhat like the first
taste of revenge. Formerly the masters were there.
It is just that the workers should be there today.
This easy turn-about in the infantile spirit of the
working masses was, moreover, easily affected, as
soon as the communists overthrew the old regime.
The villas are there, the proprietors fled ; it is not
at all difficult to organize in these pleasure resorts
— formerly the dwelling-places of pleasure-seekers,
some of them the nouveaux riches of the war —
communal life. In the last analysis it is a question
only of consumption. The consummate is easy.
It is true that the former inhabitants no longer
produce. But — now that the revolution has abol-
ished the masters, that is, those who could make
others work for their own well-being — will the
Russian working class be able to find within itself,
in its energy and its own virtue, the power to pro-
duce, with the incentive of its own collective in-
terests, as much as it produced formerly for the
benefit of its exploiters?
That is the very grave problem. In the letters
which are to follow we shall examine the program
by which the Russian Communists are seeking the
solution.
From Bulletin Communiste — Paris — No. 25 —
August 19, 1920.
Soviet Russia
will shortly publish an interesting article
on the railroad situation in Russia, compiled
from authentic sources. The article will be
accompanied by maps showing railroad lines
planned and built under the Soviet Govern-
ment.
UNIv'btollVOh.VJtHI'oAN
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340
SOVIET RUSSIA
October 2, 1920
Treason in the Centro-Soyuz
By Meshcheryakov in Pravda, April 30.
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HP HE arrest of the cooperators at Moscow seems
*■■ to continue to arouse great sympathy among
bourgeois circles in Europe. These convinced
counter-revolutionaries are represented in many
newspapers as innocent victims. It will therefore
not be out of place to reprint here an article pub-
lished in Pravda on April 30 by Meshcheryakov,
under the title : "The White Guard Conspirators."
The old Russian cooperators often insisted on em-
phasizing their political neutrality, while they
were in reality carrying on a secret counter-revo-
lutionary policy.
The well-known Russian historian Professor N.
Pokrovsky recently published in Pravda a number
of documents which show clearly that in Moscow,
in the house of the well-known woman conspir-
ator Kuskova, meetings were held of representa-
tives of the "National Center", the "League for
the Rebirth of Russia", and other White Guard
organizations. These meetings were also attended
by the former chairman of the Centro-Soyuz,
Korabov.
It was already a well-known fact that the Si-
berian cooperators gave very active assistance first
to the Czecho-Slovaks, and later to Kolchak. At
Moscow it had also become clear that a similar
relation existed between the cooperators in south-
ern Russia and Denikin. Now the editor of
Pravda has received the cooperative periodical
"Bulletins for the Cooperatives of Southern Rus-
sia" dated November 10, 1919, in which the White
Guard cooperatives expose themselves. In this
paper there are a number of interesting documents
emanating from various southern Russian organi-
zations, and addressed to "His Excellency, the
Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Russian
Forces" — for this is Denikin's title among the
White Guard cooperatives. These generally ex-
press their pleasure on the occasion of the suc-
cessful advances of Denikin's army into the in-
terior of Russia, and enthusiastically greet its
"liberation from the Bolsheviki", as they put it.
Thus, for example, the Provisional Committee for
the Russian Southern Cooperatives, in its report
to Denikin, writes the following: "Wherever the
cooperative organizations have been active in the
territory now occupied by the Volunteer Army
(Denikin's army was so called), they gladly, hon-
estly, and without delay entered into close com-
munication with this army." This report was
handed to Denikin by a delegation at whose head
was a "well-known Menshevik", the lawyer Nikitin.
In another similar "address", the delegate of the
Workers' Cooperatives, the former Assistant Min-
ister Gvozdyov (in Kerenky's Cabinet) and Ara-
yev, enumerate even more definitely the services
they had performed for Denikin. They asseverate
that "many of those persecuted by the Soviet
power" (they mean the White Guardists) find a
Digitized by LiGOglC
refuge and a livelihood in the cooperative organi-
zations. At the time of the advance of the Volun-
teer Army, many officers who had until then
worked in this movement, in addition many court
functionaries had considered the cooperatives as
the only possible sphere of activity for them. The
"neutral" cooperatives were thus perfect dens of
White Guardist refugees.
The South Russian cooperators, through their
"Provisional Committee", openly declared to Deni-
kin that they wished to aid him in his counter-rev-
olutionary work ; they stated that it would be neces-
sary for the cooperatives to begin taking part in
the legal consultative and in the consultative or-
gans within the administrative institutions. The
conference of the cooperators at Kharkov declared
in its resolution that "cooperation cannot stand
aloof from questions touching the work of the
state, and cannot avoid attaching itself to the
struggle against the anti-state movement of Bol-
shevism."
In the commissions and other organs of the
"Government", the old cooperators carried on the
so-called policy of "free trade and free industry."
Particularly characteristic is the instruction quoted
in a Rosta radiogram, from the cooperators that
had departed to foreign countries, to the head of
the Petrograd section of the Centro-Soyuz Krok-
hmal, which instruction dates from the period be-
fore Yudenich's offensive against Petrograd. The
instruction admonishes him to apply all available
means, and also all means he can obtain by selling
goods held by the cooperatives in the purchase of
goods to be sent to foreign countries to the cooper-
ators who had gone thither without regard to price
for "the gain or loss is to be calculated later."
Krokhmal is asked to purchase everything that is
available for sale; flax, hemp, lumber, even books.
His departed friends, it seems, had heard that it
was possible to purchase the works of the Russian
classic authors at rather low prices — they had been
issued by the Bolsheviki — and the demand for such
works, it was said, was great in foreign countries.
The "instruction" therefore constitutes an open
admonition to plunder and to impoverish Russia
in order to aid Yudenich.
Such was the economic problem of the "neutral",
"non-political" cooperatives. These "innocent"
gentlemen everywhere in Russia — in southern Rus-
sia, in Archangel, in Siberia — supported in the
most energetic manner the White agents and car-
ried on an active warfare against the Soviet power.
The above article which was published in Pravda
a few weeks before the Moscow radio reported the
arrest of certain Russian cooperatives, completes
in a striking manner that short account, for it
gives an insight into the attitude of the coopera-
tives in various parts of Russia toward the Soviet
power.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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October 2, 1320
SOVIET StTSSlA
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Wireless and Other News
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COPY OF RADIO SENT THROUGH MR.
KAMENEV TO THE BRITISH GOVERN-
MENT ON AUGUST 25
The unusual tone of the British and Italian
governments* communications, published in yester-
day's London paper, and sent to us by Mr. Kam-
enev, is not apt to contribute to the establishment
between both parties of permanent good relations
so necessary for the world's welfare, and to the
restoration of a general peace, which the British
and Italian governments themselves declare to be
their fundamental aim. We note especially that
the same governments which have so often accused
the Russian Government of interfering in internal
affairs of others states have, in this communication,
published a piece of propaganda work directed
against our institutions and representing such an
act of intervention in our affairs as would suffi-
ciently justify corresponding action on our part.
The desire of the workers' and peasants' govern-
ment for peace is nevertheless of such paramount
bearing, that it has resolved in spite of the just re-
sentment that must be created by the above commu-
nication, not to dwell on this point, and to meet
fully the wishes of the British and the Italian
governments, with which it hopes, in spite of their
unusual action, to establish as soon as possible per-
manent relations of peace and goodwill. Our
astonishment was the more justified seeing that
the divergence of views in this case is only that of
the interpretation of a peace term about which
full solidarity exists between us and the above
governments. We. find it really strange that a
question of interpretation of a principle agreed
upon should have given rise to a step of such a
character. After the limitation of the Polish army
to fifty thousand men had been recognized by the
British Government as a just term of peace, it is
on our part a concession to Poland that we admit
besides this number the formation of an armed
civil militia, which is in fact a supplement of the
armed force, and we find it astonishing that an
increase of Poland's forces has aroused the indig-
nation of the British Government. Seeing that
the British Government declares peace throughout
Eastern Europe to be its aim, we can point to the
fact that the workers in Poland have been for a
long time the force which has steadfastly opposed
the Polish Government's aggressive policy, and
have in numberless resolutions demanded peace
with Russia. If, nevertheless, the British Govern-
ment stands up with such force against strengthen-
ing this fundamental pillar of peace it clearly
shows that distrust animates the British Govern-
ment with regard to workers. If the British Gov-
ernment believes that the workers are by nature
inevitably receptive to the doctrine of Bolshevism,
such a point of view will undoubtedly be welcomed
by those who look forward to the spreading of
Bolshevism in Britain. However justified our inter-
pretation of this point of our peace terms may be,
we are nevertheless willing to remove this only
point of divergence in order to establish full soli-
darity between us and the above governments as to
the terms of peace with Poland. We firstly declare
that we never considered our terms as ad ultima-
tum, and are now, as we have all the time been,
willing to discuss them with the Polish Govern-
ment. This discussion takes place between us and
the Polish Government, with whom alone we are
treating peace in this case without outside inter-
ference, so that all the pledges in this respect are
taken by us before Poland alone. In view, never-
theless, of our earnest desire to attain the import-
ant results for the world's welfare and peace which
can be achieved by peace with Great Britain, we
are willing to inform the British Government of
the fact that the Russian Government has resolved
to make in this question a concession, and not to
adhere to the term of arming in Poland a workers'
civic milma, thus attaining full solidarity with
Great Britain as to all the terms of peace with
Poland.
The Russian Government is not inclined to mix
practical business transactions with theoretical
polemics, but since the British Government has
in this connection published a purely pole-
mical communication directed against the princi-
ples upon which our government is constructed
we cannot avoid entering, for the moment, the
same path. The British Government having
launched against the Soviet regime the strange
accusation of being an oligarchy, it is impossible
for us not to point out that all the states which
have another kind of government than ours pres-
ent, obviously to all, the most real oligarchy: the
fruits of the whole nation's production being seized
by a privileged few, whereas in Soviet Russia the
whole nation works for the whole nation's benefit
under the rule of those whom the above communi-
cation describes as an oligarchy. We can only
remind ourselves of Mr. Chiozza Morey's calcula-
tion of the distribution of British income in 1904:
Rich (one and a quarter million)— 585 million
pounds; comfortable (three and three quarter mil-
lion)— 245 million pounds; poor: (38 million)—
880 million pounds. As to real participation in
political power we ask what form of government
gives more of such to the great masses of the na-
tion: the parliamentary form, under which inco-
herent masses give their support once in many
years to firmly established political parties directly
representing the above oligarchy or strongly in-
fluenced by the latter; or the Soviet form under
which tke working people, at their place of work,
form permanent local unities in whose hands rests
the control of the whole Soviet fabric built up by
delegation of the local Soviet. And more than
that, it is the whole administration that is in the
hands of the local Soviets. This structure in itself
gives such power to the permanently organized
working classes that its mention alone is suffi-
UNIVERSITr OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
October 2, 1920
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cient to< refute all the fablfes spread by the dis-
possessed or frightened privileged Russians and
repeated in the British Government's communica-
tion as to an alleged tyranny of an oligarchy, the
latter being as a matter of fact an impossibility
under Soviet rule and government, this re-
gime being able to exist only through the will of
the working masses. Being a truly popular gov-
ernment, the Soviet Government is by its nature
peaceful and averse to conquests, its true peaceful-
ness being of another kind than that of the gov-
ernments of wealthy oligarchies which desire peace
after having taken away the riches of their van-
quished adversaries. A peace that has in view the
maintenance of such a result can never be a firm
one, whereas the peace of the workers' and peas-
ants' government, being based upon the' rejection
of exploitation of others and upon the true soli-
darity of the great working masses of all nations,
is the only genuine and really permanent peace.
Animated with this spirit the Soviet Government
as declared above, does not insist upoMjhe inter-
pretation of the peace terms with Poland which
has given rise to a divergence with Great Britain
and Italy, and renouncing the demand of the cre-
ation of a workers' militia in Poland, it thus
restores the full agreement with the above two
governments which existed before this divergence
arose.
JAPAN AND SOVIET RUSSIA
Christians, September 1, 1920 (Report from
Rosta, Vienna). — The following report reached us
from Moscow, on August 31 : Vilenski, the Soviet
Russian plenipotentiary to the Far East, who has
just arrived here from Vladivostok, stated to the
representative of the Rosta, that no military or
diplomatic clashes between Soviet Russia and
Japan are to be expected for some time to come.
Both the defeat of the party friendly to Japan
in China, and the doubtful outlook for military
assistance from the Allies, have forced the Japan-
ese, impressed with the success of the Red Armies,
to resume diplomatic and commercial negotiations
with Soviet Russia.
REPRESENTATIVE OF SOVIET RUSSIA
IN LITHUANIA
Kovno, August 25 (Report from Rosta, Vienna)
— Dr. Axelrod, member of the People's Commis-
sariat of Finance, and former representative of
the government in Bucharest, has been chosen rep-
resentative to Lithuania.
THE VERBAL NEWSPAPER
It is reported from Moscow that since it is im-
possible to supply every Russian city with enough
newspapers, the custom of the verbal newspaper
has been instituted. In public places, especially
in theatres, the newspaper is read to the audience.
There is always a large mass of auditors, consist-
ing of inhabitants and soldiers.
CULTURAL ACHIEVEMENTS IN
SOVIET RUSSIA
Christiania, September 1, 1920 (Report from
Rosta, Vienna). — We received the following re-
ports from Moscow, August 31 :
Education in Azerbaidjan
The Commissariat for Public Education has re-
solved to help the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan
as far as possible in the field of education, and to
go so far as to organize higher education in that
country.
New Star Discovered
Kovraisky, the astronomer, discovered a new
star of the second magnitude on the night of the
23rd of August; this was made known on August
24.
Culture of the Proletariat
In September, 1920, the Fourth All-Russian
Conference for the People's Culture (Workmen's
Board for the Culture of the Proletariat) will take
place.
All-Russian Congress of Bacteriologists
Yesterday the Fifth All-Russian Congress of
Bacteriologists and Students of Epidemic Diseases
opened here. Three hundred delegates from all
districts of Russia assembled. The People's Com-
missar Siemashko, who was elected Honorary Pres-
ident of the Congress, stated that it was the duty
of the conferences to find more effective means
to overcome disease, and to protect the lives of
the people.
THE DEFEAT OF WRANGEL'S TROOPS
ON THE SHORE OF KUBAN
Christiania, September 1, 1920 (Report from
Rosta, Vienna). — The following report reached us
from Moscow, on August 31 : Many White troops,
who landed on the coast of Kuban were literally
wiped out. Only a miserable handful who had
landed are now fleeing toward the south. Today,
Trotsky wired to Moscow: This is an important
victory, at which not only the Red Army of Kuban
rejoices, but the entire army on the southern front,
and with it, all Soviet Russia. The bloody rid-
dance of Wrangel's landed troops demonstrates
that this attempt on the part of the White Baron
to extend his strategic base to the territory of
Kuban has been shattered. So Wrangel is doomed
to confine his operations to the limited field of the
Crimean peninsula, and the activity of our 13th
and 2d Cavalry Armies leads us to hope that we
shall soon be through with this front as well.
SOLIDARITY WITH SOVIET RUSSIA
Prague, August 2Q.—Pravo Lidu reports the
following :
Committees of the Czech Social Democratic
Party and of the Trade Unions of Prague have
sent a telegram of greeting to the mass meeting of
the English workers, scheduled to take place on
Sunday, the twenty-second of this month, in which
they declare their solidarity with them, in their
refusal to tike part m my hostile act against
&¥iet ^^ITY OF MICHIGAN
October 2, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
Books Reviewed
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By A. C.
The Greatest Failure in History. By John
Spargo. Harper and Brothers, New York.
The Russian Peasant and the Revolution. By
Maurice 0. Hindus. Henry Holt and Company,
New York.
John Spargo is at it again. Pursuing his fav-
orite sport (or business) of exposing the sins and
shortcomings of the Russian Soviet Government,
he presents a newness of "impartial evidence,"
chiefly gleaned from "Struggling Russia" and
similar disinterested sources. Mr. Spargo is sus-
piciously eager to vindicate the accuracy and reli-
ability of his book in the eyes of his readers. He
says:
"It is no mere chronicle of scandal ; neither is it
a cunningly wrought mosaic of runners, prejudiced
inferences, exaggerated statements by hostile wit-
nesses, sensational incidents and utterances,
selected because they are calculated to provoke
resentment."
One does not have to be an expert in psychoana-
lysis to realize that these invidious phrases, which
Mr. Spargo is so quick to repudiate, constitute a
fair, if inadequate, indictment of his work. The
author doubtless remembers the humiliating ex-
posures which his first propagandist effusion, "Bol-
shevism", received at the hands of Mr. William
Hard and other critics. He wishes us to believe
that he has reformed his habits, that he has really
written an honest book about Russia. Unfortun-
ately, "The Greatest Failure in All History" does
not show the slightest evidence of any such change
of neart.
Mr. Spargo very solemnly asserts, on page 410,
that "in no instance has the testimony of witnesses
of anti-Bolshevist views been cited without ample
corroborative evidence from responsible and au-
thoritative Bolshevist sources."
On page 70, discussing the land problem, he
says:
"The Provisional Government, under Lvov,
dominated as it then was by landowners and bour-
geoisie, never for a moment sought to evade this
question."
Now everyone, Bolshevik or anti-Bolshevik, who
is even slightly acquainted with the course of the
Russian Revolution, knows perfectly well that the
overthrow of Lvov, and of his successor, Kerensky,
was largely due to the unwillingness and inability
of a government composed partly of bourgeoisie to
settle the land problem in accordance with the
wishes of the toiling peasants.
On page 158 the author quotes the following
passage from a work by a certain Maurice Ver-
straete :
"He (Uritsky) is a refined saddist, who does his
grim work for the love of it . . . Uritsky is a
hunchback and seems to be revenging himself on
all mankind for his deformity."
Who is Maurice Verstreate; and where is the
Freeman
responsible, authoritative, corroborative evidence
show that Uritsky was a saddist and a hunchback ?
On page 248 Mr. Spargo, among other unsub-
stantiated stories of alleged repressive measures
practised against Russian workmen by the Soviet
Government, makes the following accusation :
"At the Alexander works, Moscow, eighty work-
ers were killed by machine-gun fire."
He gives neither date, nor details, nor authority
for this alleged atrocity. As Mr. Spargo has not
been in Russia himself at any time since the Revo-
lution, we can only conclude that the source of
his second-hand information was so dubious that
he does not care even to indicate it.
These instances, which might be multiplied in-
definitely, show clearly that Mr. Spargo does not
even make a pretense of living up to his own pro-
fession of accepting only unquestionable evidence.
The untrustworthiness of his book must be suffi-
ciently OJM0U8 even to readers who possess very
little kq^Kdge of Russian revolutionary history.
A few oWfte other palpable dishonesties and ab-
surdities of the book may be now taken up.
In his first chapter Mr. Spargo, making a des-
perate effort to explain how the Soviet Govern-
ment has survived, despite its "undemocratic char-
acter" and despite the tremendous external pres-
sure which has been exercised against it, asserts
that "on more than one occasion the overthrow
of the Bolsheviki might easily have been brought
about by the Allies if they had dared it." In the
light of the aid which has been lavished by the
Allied governments upon every counter-revolu-
tionary movement, this statement is so amusingly
untrue that comment seems superfluous.
In comparing the cost of conducting industry
under the Czar's regime and under the Soviet
Government, Mr. Spargo treats the ruble as a
fixed quantity, making no allowance for its depre-
ciation. Using this method of reasoning it would
be easy to prove that a most appalling deterioration
has taken place in the industrial life of every coun-
try since the world's currency was inflated by the
war.
Like most reactionaries, Mr. Spargo is very
solicitous for freedom of speech and press — in
Soviet Russia. Apparently he believes that the
Soviet Government was morally bound to show the
utmost gentleness and consideration towards coun-
ter-revolutionists at a time when workmen were
being butchered by thousands in Siberia and
Ukraine, when Russia was being slowly strangled
by a blockade of unexampled ferocity. Such a
course might have been possible in a community
of angels ; but Soviet Russia cannot claim to have
achieved this position as yet.
In an introductory note Mr. Spargo expresses
his gratitude to a number of well-known Russian
reactionary propagandists in this country and in
Europe for their help in furnishing him with in-
formation au<i tfijggiisiitnUo And his book very
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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October 2, 1920
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faithfully reflects the viewpoint of Kolchak, Deni-
kin, Yudenich and Wrangel, of the counter-revo-
lutionary emigres and renegade radicals. In ex-
actly the same measure it misrepresents and fal-
sifies the viewpoint of the great masses of the Rus-
sian people.
In "The Russian Peasant and the Revolution",
Mr. Hindus gives a vivid description of the
systematic oppression and exploitation of the
mouzhik under Czarism. In the eyes of the old
regime the peasant was not a human being; he
was only a source of cheap labor. He was never
given an adequate supply of land ; he was discour-
aged and browbeaten if he attempted to leave his
own village ; every possible obstacle was thrown in
the way of his material advancement. He was
periodically scourged with epidemics; in a land
of plenty he often felt the pinch of famine. The
most elementary comforts and decencies of life
were beyond his reach; he was almost always un-
able to secure even the simplest education. Together
with his fellow toiler, the town wor^j, he was
compelled to sustain the whole wei^KJRan out-
rageously unjust and incompetent pQJn^ft and
economic system.
Now the Russian peasant, despite Mr. Stephen
Graham and his "Holy Russia" myth, is by no
means enamored of suffering and oppression. On
the contrary, he cherishes a very normal human
desire for his share of the material and spiritual
benefits of life. As Mr. Hindus shows, the
mouzhik's attitude towards the Revolution was ad-
mirably expressed in the slogan : "Land and Free-
dom." He was naturally not attracted by the
Cadets, with their vague promises of land reform
and their tender consideration for the interests of
the big landowners and exploiters. The Social
Revolutionist, Kerensky, during his period of of-
fice as Premier, showed clearly that he possessed
neither the will nor the executive ability to put his
party's land program into operation. It was
only after the establishment of the Soviet Govern-
ment that the peasant's own firm conviction that
the land should belong to those who work on it
found expression in law.
Mr. Hindus is carefully non-partisan in his poli-
tical viewpoint, and nowhere indicates a preference
for the Soviet form of government. He pleads
strongly for the lifting of the blockade and the
restoration of commercial relations between Russia
and the rest of the world.
The book effectively demolishes the fictitious re-
ports from the familiar counter-revolutionist cen-
ters about the widespread opposition of the peas-
ants to the Soviet Government. The old regime
gave the peasant oppression, starvation and com-
pulsory ignorance. The Soviet Government has
given him freedom, land and education. The
mouzhik is very far from being a fool ; and he may
be relied upon to go on heartily supporting Soviet
Russia in its struggle with domestic reactionaries
and foreign imperialists.
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THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. Easter in Moscow, by Dr. Bohumir Smeral.
2. A Statistical Investigation of the Managements of Petrograd Industries.
The Grave-Diggers of White Poland, by Karl Radek.
The Second Instalment of "Moscow in 1920", by Dr. Alfons Goldschmidt.
Profiteering a Hindrance to Economic Relations With Russia, by Professor
George Lomonossov.
6. Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make all checks payable
to L. C. A. K. Martens.)
SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVED BY
SOVIET RUSSIA
(Room 304)
110 West 40th Street
New York City
byV^C
■j. _---_- ==
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
(1>
Chicherin on America's Policy
SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, October 9, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 15
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en
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lined Weekly it 110 W, 40th Street, New York, K. Y. Ludwig C. A. K. Martens, Publisher. Jacob Wittmer Hartmann, Editor*
Subscription Rite, $5,00 per annum. Application for entry ai tecond clan matter pending. Channel of addreaa thou Id reach the
office a week before the change* are to be made.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PAGE
Chicherin on the American Policy, 345
The Whites and the Reds in the Don Basin, >
by F. Chubar. . . 346
Moscow in 1920, by Dr. Alfans Galdschmidt . , 348
Military Review, by LL*CoL B. Roustam Bek 353
Editorials 356
PACK
PROFITEERING A HINDRANCE TO TRADE WlTK
Russia, by Prof. George Lomonossov , 358
The Managements of Petrograd Industries., 359
The Lafont Affair . 362
Soviet Medical Service . . 363
Documents ♦. 364
Wireless and Other News 366
Chicherin on the American Policy
T N OUR next issue we shall publish in full the
A reply of the People's Commissar for Foreign
Affairs of the Soviet Republic, to Secretary Col-
by's note on Russia, For the present we shall con-
fine ourselves to a brief summary of Mr* Chicheifr
ill's reply and a few comments on the issues raised*
Mr. Chicherin first calls attention to the incon-
sistency of Mr. Colby's stand on the question of
territorial integrity of the former Empire of the
Czars, Mr. Colby concedes the claims of Poland,
Finland and Armenia for independence, but de-
nies the same privilege to Lithuania, Georgia, Es-
thonia, etc* Mr. Chicherin accounts for this in-
consistency by Mr. Colby's ignorance of Russian
history. If it is remembered that an official, whose
duty it was to keep the American public informed
of matters political, had an idea that Ukrainia
was a musical instrument (apparently confusing
it with the ocarina), it is small wonder that the
Secretary of State is unfamiliar with Russian his-
tory.
Reference to a textbook of Russian history would
apprise the reader of the fact that at the time of
the partition of Poland Lithuania was an inde-
pendent dominion united with Poland by what is
known in international law as a "personal union",
the king of Poland being also the grand duke of
Lithuania. Inasmuch as one of the results of the
World War has been the nullification of the parti-
tion of Poland, the state sovereignty of Lithuania
was revived with that act. On the other hand, as
the Polish monarchy was not restored by the Treaty
of Versailles, the "personal union" disappeared
with the royal power, and Lithuania once more
became an independent sovereign nation. The le-
gal justification for Lithuania's claim to independ-
ence is precisely identical with the claim of Fin-
land.
After the forced abdication of Czar Nicholas II,
the Finnish Diet proclaimed the independence of
Finland, on the ground that the Grand Duchy had
been united with the Russian Empire by the Act
of 1809, whereby the Finnish Diet seceded from
Sweden and conferred upon the Emperor of Russia
the herditary title of Grand Duke of Finland, but
the abolition of the Russian monarchy eo ipso
severed the bonds which had united the Russian
Empire and the Grand Duchy of Finland under
the personal rule of the Czar. The Kerensky Gov-
ernment thereupon dissolved the Finnish Diet,
claiming that the fate of Finland could be decided
only by the Russian Constitutional Convention.
The spokesmen for the Finnish people, however,
regarded this act of the Kerensky Government as
plain usurpation, because it had not been the
Russian people, but the Russian monarch, who
had been the sovereign of Finland. This contro-
versy was terminated by the Soviet Government
immediately upon its assuming power, To be sure,
the Soviet Government did not go into a disquisi-
tion of the respective historical claims and coun-
terclaims of Russia and Finland. It simply acted
upon the principle of self-determination of all
peoples, which had been proclaimed by the Rus-
sian Revolution, or — to express the idea in Ameri-
can terms — upon the right of secession. Lithu-
ania's case stands on all fours with that of Finland,
Another example of Mr. Colby's ignorance of
Russian history is his refusal to recognize the
independence of Esthonia and Latvia (the prov-
inces of Li viand and CouHand). Esthonia and
346
SOVIET RUSSIA
October 9, 1920
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Great as a result of his war against Sweden. The
Duchy of Courland was at the close of the XVIIIth
century a vassal state of Poland. After the third
partition of Poland, Courland regained her sov-
ereignty, but by a resolution of her Diet in 1795
recognized the sovereignty of the Russian Em-
peror. Her case is thus analogous to that of Lith-
uania.
Mr. Colby's stand regarding the claims of the
Caucasian Republic except Armenia is likewise
inconsistent. The incorporation of the Caucasus
in the Russian Empire was the outcome of more
than half a century of constant warfare which was
terminated as late as 1864. The Soviet Govern-
ment has recognized the independence of Ar-
menia, along with that of Georgia and Azerbaijan
(with the capital at Baku). It is inconceivable
why Mr. Colby should discriminate against the
latter two.
Up to the reign of Alexander III the Bal-
tic provinces (Estland, Li viand and Courland)
had their own systems of government and their
own laws, the official language of the provinces
being German. The substitution of the Russian
language for the German as the official language
of the government under Alexander III was not
accompanied by a repeal of the special laws govern-
ing those provinces. The Soviet Government, con-
sistently with its recognition of the right of seces-
sion, did not question the right of Esthonia and
Latvia to form independent sovereign states. But
Mr. Colby apparently has chosen to uphold the
sovereign claims of the Czar down to its annexed
territories.
Still another objection of Mt. Colby's to inter-
national relations with the Soviet Government is
based upon the allegation that the Soviet Govern-
ment does not "rule by the will or the consent of
any considerable portion of the Russian people."
This is rather a novel departure in the policy of
the United States toward foreign nations. The
American Government did maintain international
relations with the Government of the Czar, which
certainly did not base its rule "upon the will or
the consent of any considerable portion of the Rus-
sian people." Nor has universal suffrage been a
condition precedent for recognition of foreign gov-
ernments by the government of the United States.
There is no universal suffrage in Prance where
one half of the population is disfranchised by rea-
son of sex. Nor is there universal suffrage in the
states of the South where the negroes are disfran-
chised in effect on the ground of race. In Soviet
Russia, on the other hand, all workers by hand or
brain are represented in the government, and they
certainly form a majority of the Russian people.
It is said that in the Soviet constitution the repre-
sentation of the urban and rural workers is not
equal. Nor is the representation equal in the
United States Senate, the State of Delaware and
the State of New York having an equal number
of representatives.
Mr. Chicherin patiently explains that the vitu-
perative epithets of Mr. Colby against "the exist-
ing regime in Russia" have no foundation in fact.
The Soviet Government has faithfully adhered to
all terms assumed by it even under duress. On
the other hand Mi\ Chicherin reminds Mr. Colby
of the fact that Mr. Creel's Public Information
Division was responsible for the circulation of the
notorious Sisson documents which bore all the ear-
marks of forgery.
It is quite pertinent in this connection to bring
ttf the knowledge of the American public a fact
which has never reached it through the American
press. Immediately after the publication of the
Sisson documents Mr. Panov, the editor of a con-
servative Vladivostok daily, published a series of
articles in his paper showing the Sisson documents
t(J be a rank forgery. It appeared that he and a
number of other prominent citizens of Vladivostok,
including a former judge appointed by the Czar,
were mentioned in these documents as German
agents. Mr. Panov exposed the contradictions and
absurdities contained in these charges. The Bar
Association of Vladivostok held a meeting at which
resolutions of protest were adopted — upholding
the integrity of the judge whose name was men-
tioned in the Sisson documents. All these facts
were brought to the attention of the American
Consul at Vladivostok who promised to bring this
matter to the attention of the State Department.
Nothing was done, however, by the State Depart-
ment in this matter.
The Whites and the Reds in the Don Basin
By V. Chxjbar
At the moment when the Don Basin was liber-
ated from the White bands the acute fuel famine
in the republic reached its climax, and the demand
for coal from the Don Basin was exceedingly high
from the very first moment after the occupation of
this district, exceeding many times the possible
supply. The slow movement of the present work
of reconstruction is a direct result of the fact that
the Denikin authorities did not restore the pro-
duction of coal and had even aggravated the devas-
tation of the mines. Notwithstanding the friendly
relations of Denikin with eminent foreigners,
"Russia's well-wishers", this friendship left no im-
pression on the industry of the Don Basin. Dur-
ing the whole period of the rule of the Whites,
when the Volunteer army was the object of solici-
tation by all kinds of Entente visitors, technical
materials and machinery, which were so greatly
needed for the industries, were not sent here. In-
stead of humanitarian aid with mining machinery
and electrical supplies, which would have shown
the desire of the Entente to increase the world
total of economic goods, the "humanitarian" Su-
preme Ecoucmk Council of the League of Na-
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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tions was sending Denikin tanks, shells, machine-
guns, and other tools of destruction, "conducive"
to the development of "civilization". This atti-
tude of the Entente to the problems of world re-
construction serves as an eye-opener to the work-
ers, the more so now that they can compare it
with the work of the Communists, the Bolsheviki,
who have been denounced by the Entente as de-
stroyers of the world's welfare. The Soviet power,
which the bourgeoisie of Europe and America is
trying to vilify by every possible means, and which
is denounced by all bourgeois governments as a
menace to civilization and its economic achieve-
ments, is now proving by deeds, and not by words,
that it alone is capable of reestablishing produc-
tion, that only the Soviet power is interested in
the development of the economic might of the dis-
trict. Though the struggle at the front is not yet
terminated, though the cannon which were fur-
nished to the Whites by the "peace-loving" govern-
ments of the Entente are still roaring, the Soviet
power is transferring from the front, men, techni-
cal materials, and means of transportation to be
used in the effort to restore the coal industry. De-
spite the acute struggle at the fronts, which the
Entente is assiduously promoting, the Soviet power
is sending to the coal mines all the necessary ma-
terials from its scanty stores.
French and British instructors helped the Vol-
unteer army to dynamite the railway bridges in the
Don Basin, and taught them how best to destroy
railway stations and canalization, how to damage
locomotives, machines, etc. The Soviet power is
sending into the Don Basin pumps, cables, elec-
trical materials, technical men, skilled workers,
building materials, and lumber, everything that
may halt the further deterioration of the mines.
And now when the Polish army is packed with
Entente instructors, when the Entente imperialists
are again stretching their paws toward the Don
Basin, it is worth while to point out once more the
difference in the methods of struggle, and the
difference on approaching the solution of the prob-
lem of how to overcome economic disorganization
on a world scope. While the Soviet power is trans-
ferring dynamite and other explosives to the Don
Basin to increase the production of fuel, salt, and
other products which are necessary to combat the
cold, famine, and general scarcity of goods, the
peace-loving Entente is sending similar materials
at increased rate to the Polish nobility to enable
the latter to blow up bridges, locomotives and cars,
workshops and railway stations, and to destroy
whole cities. While the Soviet power is building,
in the Don Basin, and in other districts, new rail-
ways and new houses, and is restoring factories and
workshops, the Entente continues, through the
Polish nobility, to pile up destruction on an enorm-
ous scale, inflicting new miseries upon thousands
and millions of men.
The Soviet power has never pursued the methods
which are used by the Whites instructed by the
Entente : the retreating Red Army never destroyed
tools of production, never deliberately condemned
to death any industrial enterprise. When the
Bed Army was forced to retreat from the Don
Basin, the lumber and technical equipment which
were brought there during the existence of the
Soviet power, were left there ; their utilization for
the industries was not interfered with. Compar-
ing our attitude toward production in the Don
Basin with that of the Whites, it is necessary to
point out that the conditions of capitalistic eco-
nomy under the Whites destroyed the very founda-
tions of the reconstruction work, causing the scat-
tering of the workers, and leading inevitably to
the development of speculation. The activity of
the bourse manipulators who preyed on the organ-
ism of production, created an appearance of an
economic revival, but in reality destroyed the
healthy foundations for economic development.
The Soviet power, mercilessly uprooting the in-
fluence of these manipulators on the economic life,
places the work of reconstruction on the healthy
rails of the proletarian road. It transfers the cen-
ter of attention to the organization of production,
to drawing the broad masses of the toilers into the
process of production, to the creation of a firm
foundation for Socialism. — Ekonomischeskaya
Zhizn, June 23.
Soviet Russia Pamphlets
An important rearrangement of this valuable
series is about to be made. Orders should not
be placed before October 1, as the series will not
be ready before then.
1. Labor Laws op Soviet Russia. Third Edi-
tion. Will contain all the matter included
in the first and second editions, together with
a supplement on "The Protection of Labor
in Soviet Russia," by S. Kaplun, of the Com-
missariat of Labor. About 80 pages, price
25 cents.
2. Marriage Laws of Soviet Russia; also Laws
on Domestic Relations. New translation from
recently received Russian original; an im-
provement on the version printed in Soviet
Russia. Almost 60 pages, price 15 cents.
To be ready about October 1st.
3. Two Years of Soviet Russian Foreign
Policy, by George Chicherin. A full account
of all the diplomatic negotiations between
Soviet Russia and foreign powers, from No-
vember 7, 1917, to November 7, 1919; 36
pages, price 10 cents.
All bound in heavy paper covers.
Special Rates in Quantities
Address :
"SOVIET RUSSIA"
110 W. 40th St Room 304 New York, N. Y.
'bRSIIVOl-MlLHIeiAN
348
SOVIET RUSSIA
October 9, 1980
"Moscow in 1920"
By Dr. Alfons Goldschmidt
(Continued)
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May 1.
T^HERE is no one in the offices. Everyone is
**• engaged in Communist Saturday work, in May
First work. For three hours we wait at the Nikolai
Station and watch the girls engaged in cleaning
up the railroad tracks and cars, smiling as they
work. Some of the girls are dressed in velvet and
have Eussian hoods of good cloth, gloves, and
well-kept finger nails. They are removing the
debris from the railroad station : not very pleasant
work, but it is a pleasure to them. I was watching
five girls for about an hour, lovely red-cheeked
girls among them. With much puffing they are
pushing a car full of refuse. One of them has a
red flower in her black hair and a red girdle about
her velvet bodice. Another is sweeping the steps
and the approach to the station. A fur-piece is
thrown around her. Many thoughts came to my
mind, such as, for instance, thoughts of the per-
fume-besprayed Kurfurstendamm in Berlin, of
that street of Sodom, that filthy asphalt pavement
on which these females ruin their every possibility
of life.
The Communist Saturday work, and the Com-
munist Sunday work is rather a work of educa-
tion and of demonstration than a work of actual
performance. But it is nevertheless a labor in
common with others and not the uncouth sloth of
the Kurfurstendamm of Berlin. And sometimes
actual work is accomplished. When I was riding
back along the same street I saw hundreds of
railway cars adorned with emblems of praise. These
emblems lauded the Communist work that had
been performed on May First on these cars.
Everybody in Moscow worked on May First,
everybody who was not an outspoken lazy dog or
a convinced saboteur. Our interpreter, who had
gone to town in order to look for persons who
might assign us to lodgings, told us he had seen
Bukharin sweeping the streets. Lenin swept one
of the courts of the Kremlin on May First. I
know this is simply for purposes of demonstration ;
I know this very well. But never before have
there been demonstrations of this kind, they are
new demonstrations. None of the perfume-be-
sprayed idlers of the Kurfurstendamm in Berlin
would ever take a broom in her hand or touch
refuse, even with her gloves on. And yet the
clean-swept, smooth, sprinkled asphalt of Berlin is
a bearer of much corruption. For many hours we
sat impatient on the steps of the staircase of the
Nikolai Station. A factory delegation marched
by, singing "The Eed Flag", the song of death
for the revolution, of proletarian death, the song
of proud self -sacrifice. I shall say more of this
song later. Every child knows it and smgs it.
The delegation marched by, singing all the time,
and the song was marching with the men, led by
the waving red flag. One man, at the left of the
front row, was beating time with his hands. All
were serious.
Autos with red stars on their radiators and red
flags at the chauffeur's seat, rushed by to reach
meetings. Everywhere, on the squares, on the
gigantic squares of Moscow, in factory yards, in
halls, meetings were being held on this day.
The city was flooded with red. Bed flags, red
bands around white garbed arms, red flags on the
walls. Nothing but red. We were rushed in a
flying motor-truck to one of the Soviet houses.
Troops of children pass by singing, but otherwise
the city is silent. For everyone is engaged in the
holiday work. The festivities are not to begin till
the late afternoon. In the afternoon we paid a
visit to the German Council. The German Council
is the center for the German prisoners of war ; at
present it is occupied chiefly in arranging for the
home transportation of these prisoners of war. We
received an invitation to the May festival of the
German Council, to be held in the building of the
Third Internationale.
The hall (in which Count Mirbach was mur-
dered) is crowded to the doors. Prisoners of war,
together with their wives and guests, brought from
remote parts of Russia, and the employes of the
German Council, are waiting for the opening of
the exercises, the speech of Balabanova, Secretary
of the Third Internationale.
A little woman dressed in black, of pleasing fig-
ure. Gray strands in her hair, a cane in her hand.
She began to speak at once, still breathless from
her swift auto trip. Rather empty eyes, directed
inward, somewhat faint enthusiasm; she is not a
thunderbolt, not a bomb, not a piercing sword.
Everything about this woman is heart. She ex-
plains the significance of the holiday work, and
sings a paean, a song of songs, on socialistic
humanity. In the Third Internationale she repre-
sents the Italian Party. She loudly praises the
readiness of the Italian comrades to aid suffering
Austria. The Italian comrades, she says, snatch
the Austrian children, neglected wretches, blood-
less worms, broken down with hunger, from their
misery into the citron warmth of the south. They
snatch them to their homes — so ready to aid are
they.
There follow dances and symbolic performances.
Two 'living pictures" represent, one of them, pro-
letarians under the domination of the bourgeoisie,
and the second, the same workers after their lib-
eration, with the bourgeoisie lying on the floor
in chains.
I saw a dancer of the Grand Ballet, with shoes
on her feet, but with bare legs. She was dancing
beautifully, and yet it was not a leg-show as in
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Tauentzienstrasse, in Berlin. It was a dance of
bare legs, but not a leg show.
Of the proletkult movement, I observed very lit-
tle there. Art in Russia is still essentially a
means of propaganda. I shall report about it later.
About two o'clock at night, after vehement con-
versations, we dropped asleep in our beds, over-
whelmed with the fatigue of too many impressions.
The Soviet Hotel
Hotels in the European sense of the word do
not exist either in Petrograd or in Moscow. To
be sure there are porters and cabbies, but no hotel
coaches, no hotel commissaires, with the names of
the hotels on their caps. If you have been an-
nounced from Reval, and if your luck is good, a
guest automobile of the Foreign Office or of the
Third Internationale may be waiting for you. I
had been announced but my luck was bad, for it
was May First and on May First nobody pays any
attention to us. More important things are under
way.
There are guests of the Soviet who have to be
treated according to a certain program, with the
necessary official apparatus. Others apply to the
Foreign Office, whose representatives are very ami-
able. Of course, it is a Russian amiability; in
Russia much is promised and not everything kept.
This is due partly to difficulty of organization;
at any rate, it never does any harm to keep re-
minding people, to knock at their doors frequently.
If I say to Karakhan, in spite of the fact that I
have been assigned to a hotel by the Foreign Of-
fice, that people have sometimes been kept waiting
for several days in Moscow without any legal
domicile and food, he will not be angry, he will
simply smile. Every hotel (Soviet house) is un-
der a Commandant. The Commandant has com-
plete control of the hotel, within the outlines of
his jurisdiction. He regulates his acts in accord-
ance with the instructions of the Foreign Office,
or of the Third Internationale, which also has a
fine hotel for its guests. As long as the Com-
mandant has no instructions to entertain a new-
comer in the hotel in question, he will do nothing,
and it is immaterial to him how the guest may get
along. But once he has received his instructions,
the guest need have no further care. He sleeps,
eats, and drinks in the Soviet house; his laundry
is taken care of. For these services the guest pays
either nothing or a Liliputian fee. For reasons
of formality I had to pay 200 Soviet rubles a day.
At the time of my stay in Moscow this meant two
or three marks of German money.*
But instructions alone are not sufficient. Every
stranger must have a pass, a propusk — otherwise
he cannot even enter the hotel. The pass is issued
by the Foreign Office and is valid for the entire
city. For Russia is at war and it would not pay
to have people running around unregistered in
* The author probably means marks gold : paper
marks are quoted at about \ l / 2 rubles, while gold marks
are worth about 100 paper rubles. — Editor Soviet
Russia.
the country. Even one who only pays a visit to
the guest of a hotel must have a pass, for not even
Soviet hotels are free from spies. Therefore every
visitor, be he a native or a foreigner, must have
credentials. He must show these credentials to
a guard, who is armed, and who would surely not
hesitate to arrest an interloper who would come
without credentials. The most spacious Soviet
houses of Moscow are the Metropole, the National,
and the Savoy. They are not called hotels, but the
First Soviet House, the Second Soviet House, etc.
The lobby of such a "house" is still the old hotel
lobby, but it has nothing else about it that would
remind you of a great metropolitan lobby. The
padded arm chairs, on which women in rustling
silks and smugly-groomed officers reclined by the
side of provincial merchants, tourists, etc., have
disappeared. The mirrors are covered or at least
dimmed. One big stair-case mirror in the Metro-
pole still shows a bullet-hole as a vestige of the
struggle for power. The bustling porter, with his
staff of flunkeys, is gone; the stands for the sale
of trinkets, chocolates, and newspapers, are but a
memory, and no grand duke calls to rent a suite
of rooms. Ever^hing proceeds in a sober and
businesslike way. To compensate for this you are
not fleeced. You pay no tips. Your room is
clean; your food is scanty but good (much kasha,
a few potatoes and little meat, much tea, sufficient
bread, a little butter) .
Of course, the rooms of the Soviet houses are
still provided with all their past splendors. These
splendors may be somewhat dimmed ; the Empire
sofas, the plush chairs, the rococco tables, are losing
their brightness, even as are the bourgeoisie.
There has been no time for repairs, nor have they
been needed. The guest must content himself.
And he may well do so; The Commandants, the
chambermaids, the waiters (all Government em-
ployes) are pleasant and efficient.
Some hotels have telephones in almost all rooms.
Central will connect you quickly. As every guest
has important business, as hardly anyone is loafing
in Moscow, the telephone girls at the centrals are
more than busy. The service is not worse than in
Berlin.
Most animation centers about the Metropole,
in which many of the higher Soviet officials live.
As the Foreign Office is housed in an annex of the
Metropole, most of the Foreign Office officials live
in this Soviet house. Often their wives and
children live with them and their entire domestic
life is passed in this building. Before the Revolu-
tion, the Metropole was the most aristocratic hotel
in Moscow, and grand dukes celebrated their orgies
here. There are still Trimalchian recollections,
orgiastic reverberations; but most of the things
are being devoted to better purposes now. I am
told, for instance, that in one palace of pious
pleasure, profiteers are now being confined in jail
for their offenses.
The red leather alcoves of the Metropole, which
form a rotunda abo'Jit f;be former concert hall, with
little projecting balconies and secretive doors, are
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October 9, 1920
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today occupied by Soviet officials. The concert
hall is the meeting place of the Central Executive
Committee of the Soviet Republic. Speakers speak
from the platform of the concert hall, on which
the managers of the meetings are sitting. In
place of a gypsy violinist, Kalinin now holds the
baton. He is the chairman of the Presidium of the
Central Executive Committee. He directs the
proceedings, faced by a picture of Karl Marx,
whose gnarled bust has been placed in a niche of
this hall.
Meals are, to be sure, equitably rationed in the
hotels, but the foods are not prepared uniformly.
Cuisine is still an important feature. If guests
arrive who must be placated, who are to be treated
realpolitically, guests whose idiosyncrasies must
be observed, there is a marked improvement in
their rations. For instance, there was a ruler of
a semi-Asiatic state that had attached itself to
Soviet Russia. At Moscow he was surrounded not
with hotel splendors, but certainly with all hotel
comforts, such as were not offered to other guests.
There was a hum of energetic activity around him.
The English Mission, which was in Moscow in
May, 1920, was very well entertained and served.
They had salmon, ham, much meat, splendid autos,
attaches, and the like. We observe the following
law : those who are comrades in thought and action
are treated as if they were really inhabitants of
Russia, as real Russians; people whose ideals are
not completely reliable are treated with kid gloves.
For instance, if Scheidemann should come to Mos-
cow, he would probably be received as was that
semi-Asiatic prince. Of course the truth would
not be withheld from him. Lenin told the English
trade union leaders a number of things that were
far from pleasing to them. But Scheidemann
might eat at Moscow as well as with Sklarz* in
Berlin. Therefore, Philip, on to Moscow, and take
Fritz with you ! He will not get thinner there.**
The head of our delegation was assigned, to-
gether with myself and others, to a splendid villa.
To a villa that had been the residence of a Consul
before the Revolution, and contained large rooms
and halls, white tiled bathrooms, dreadful paint-
ings, a billiard room, a terrace and syringa
grounds, of an unspeakable spring sweetness. There
was gathered here an international company of
journalists; Japanese, Chinese, English, Ameri-
cans, Frenchmen, Italians, not to mention repre-
sentatives of Korea, Bokhara (they ran off at the
appearance of pork), Tatars, a veritable Babel.
Miss Harrison also was there. I cannot omit this
fact, for everybody knows her and she knows every-
body else. She said to me: I know Theodore
Wolff. Miss Harrison is a courageous woman. She
travels through all the editorial offices and revolu-
tions for her news syndicate and she knows even
Theodore Wolff.
* Sklarz.
** Fritz probably means Friedrich Ebert, President of
the German Republic.
-leanch tLbert, fres
Streets and Squares
Moscow is in need of repairs. Every European
capital, now that the war is over, is in need of
repairs. But Russia is still in the midst of the
war, is still obliged to wage war; for no peace is
given to Russia.
The railway stations are in need of repairs;
so is the pavement, so are the facades of the
houses; everything needs repair. The pavements
of Moscow are said to have been no delight to the
gentle spirit even before the war. There is little
asphalt and no lack of cobblestones. Cobblestones
lacking symmetry, cobblestones lacking a sense of
order, cobblestones possessed with curiosity, stick-
ing out their heads higher than the rest. There
are hills and dales in the pavement. Therefore
everyone who makes a pilgrimage to Moscow must
take with him at least two pairs of well-soled boots.
The trolley cars ("200 of them were in operation
at the time of my visit) are overcrowded; most of
the automobiles are at the front, and there are not
too many cabs. So you have to walk, and you
walk not only on the splendid smooth boulevards,
on the asphalt of the show streets, but also on the
block pavement. Former ministers of the German
Republic, who have the intention to visit Moscow,
and who are accustomed to living on a splendid
scale, should perhaps take three pairs of well-soled
shoes with them, as they will always step on several
cobblestones at the same time. But they may
leave their tuxedos at home. Tuxedos are not
needed at Moscow. You can pay a visit even to
Lenin in an ordinary business suit. Your trousers
may be torn, provided your soul be clean. It is
necessary to impart this information concerning
clothing, for I was asked immediately on my re-
turn as to wardrobe needs, and I herewith give
the information for the benefit of everyone who
may read my book. I may even go so far as to
betray the fact that several "high" Soviet officials
and revolutionary leaders are walking about with
torn pants. For instance Bukharin is no Petro-
iiius, God knows, and Klinger, Secretary of the
Third Internationale, wears clothes that are more
threadbare than the platforms of the parties in the
German Reichstag. He was not at all comme U
faut when I spoke to him. But the streets of Mos-
cow are clean. They are often a little friable, like
those of Petrograd, and people with an instinct for
niveau might wish they were more uniform, but
they are clean nevertheless. Last winter the sewer-
age system was frozen up and things were pretty
bad. But when I was there the water supply was
functioning well, the gutters had been washed
clean, and there was no odor of garbage.
Of course the streets are not splendid metro-
politan streets with bourgeois decorations. Most
of the shops, as in Petrograd, are closed or even
boarded up. The little stores, in which goods are
still being sold, offer for sale trinkets, gewgaws.
little mechanical devices, particularly electric, soda
water in bottles, soaps, and things of the sort.
Occasionally you catch sight of Soviet shops, or
even Soviet stores, in which products are sold that
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SOVIET BUSSIA
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have been rationed by the authorities (the Pro-
visioning Commissariat) and may not be sold
above maximum prices. There you will find shirts,
socks, hats, also utensils at very low prices. To
obtain even these objects is still difficult as in-
dustrial production in Russia is almost at a stand-
still. It will not be possible to carry out the ra-
tioning system until a sufficient supply of com-
modities is on hand.
Many houses in Moscow are weather-beaten, and
many are empty, and yet there is an acute shortage
of dwellings ; but this also will be changed for the
better before long. A country waging war cannot
work as does one at peace. Particularly the big
cities suffer from the war. They are the chief
stumbling blocks in all economic and human crises.
The streets of Moscow, particularly the main
streets, are animated. At certain times of the day,
for instance, about ten in the morning and about
4.30 in the afternoon they are very animated. For
these are the hours for beginning and ending work.
The streets at these hours are alive with people,
there is a general pushing and shoving, a general
rush, an extraordinary bustle in the streets. But
at other hours also, and in the evening after the
closing of the theatres, the streets are also active.
The boulevards are then more than filled.
Moscow too is a city of workers. Externally not
quite so much so as Petrograd. But the prole-
tariat rules the city. You have this impression
as soon as you enter Moscow. There is still much
elegance in Moscow and yet the proletariat rules.
This is essentially the stamp of the Moscow street.
Every possible social layer may crawl about on
thf# street, and yet the proletariat is dominant. It
dominates the street with its police, it dominates
the street with its labor regulations. The street
•of luxury, of amusement, of bazaars exists no more ;
it is now a labor street and a street of relaxation.
There is not much work being done yet; there is
by no means enough work done in Moscow; and
yet Moscow is already a city of workers.
Splendid are the squares of Moscow. The finest
square of Moscow is that of the Kremlin. It is
half a drill ground, half a market place, or half a
parade ground and half an amusement place, or
half a business market and half a place for show.
The high Kremlin wall on one side, with its towers
and its still preserved miracles, the former gigantic
bazaars* a modern Asia, at present the Commis-
sariat of Labor, on the other side. At its entrance,
the wonderful image of the Iberian Madonna,
which is still entreated for miracles, and at its exit
the finest architectural splendor of the world, the
Church of St. Basil. Along the Kremlin wall
there are the graves in which the heroes of the
Revolution rest, covered with red ribbon wreaths.
The Kremlin wall is covered with shining revolu-
tionary plastic art, from which great tracts of red
issue forth and spread in all directions. It is a
* The Targovye Ryady, an arcade consisting of small
shops formerly selling luxuries, souvenirs and other
objects.
splendid square. It is broad — broad as the Rus-
sian soul. So broad that the giant map of the
Polish front which has been set up there, looks
like a little white speck. It is a splendid square
for red parades, for troop reviews, for militia
drills, for burning addresses, for reminiscences of
struggle. While helmeted warriors are seen climb-
ing the Kremlin walls with carved swords between
their clenched teeth, the marks of machine-gun
bullets still bear witness of the struggle of the
proletariat against capital.
Red troops march around the square at the
Kitaisky Wall (the Chinese Wall), singing as they
go, red flags attached to their guns. Their knees
not rigidly straight, their attitude a proud
insolence, they sing the song of the Red Flag as
they pass under this mighty wall, on which armies
might defend themselves; they pass this product
of an infinite brick-like patience, built by ants.
Thus the walls were built that the Jews once had
to erect in Egypt. And much sweat has been
cemented in this wall.
Splendid is the Theatre Square, the square in
front of the Great Theatre. Here the official life
and the pleasure life of Moscow center. It is the
stone rosette of Moscow, enameled with verdure,
and flowers, and always with many people sitting
on the benches. Across this square automobiles
are constantly dashing, while cabs pick their zig-
zag course and troops are marching, troops of
children, of scholars, or soldiers. I have spent
hours on this square, the broad artery of Moscow,
the compass-rose of Moscow, with its rays directed
towards all the sections of the city. Here I watched
the sellers of mineral water, the flying tradesmen,
beggars, arguing citizens, elegant ladies. There
is nothing finer in the world than the broad squares
of Moscow. It is a very ancient city, with its
squares. The squares have seen storms and have
been in complacent repose, and such is their re-
pose now, after the storm of the November Revo-
lution.
Splendid are the squares of Moscow. Red
rimmed, green rimmed, flooded with broad day-
light, dotted with leafy shade, with all the anima-
tion of the city. By the squares of Moscow you
can see that the city is still living, that it cannot
die. A great city cannot die in three years. Rome
is eternal and Moscow is immortal.
The Boulevards
Is there still a terroristic dictatorship in Mos-
cow? No there is not a terroristic dictatorship
in Moscow. If there were a terroristic dictatorship
in Moscow, there would be no May boulevard with
the merry spring life of May, 1920. A green
recreation thoroughfare, interrupted by squares
and intersections, the Moscow Boulevard encircles
the entire inner city. It was once better groomed
than now; you might say it was combed and
washed. But its streets are still there and the
brown road still runn rouT)d the inner city, the
benches remain, the music-stands, and the refresh-
ment-boouiiSc The little lakes at;ill twinkle and
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SOVIET RUSSIA
October 9, 1920
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if there are few incandescent lights, in order that
the electric current may be saved, the life on the
boulevards is still incandescent. About 10 o'clock
at night (Moscow time) life becomes active in this
region, but not as active as before the Revolution.
There is not the hectic animation, the flashing
bustle, the blinding brilliance, the carnival gaiety,
the Cossack officers ready to pounce on their booty,
the shining dowagers in their rolling chairs, the
pearl-covered corruption of before the Eevolution.
There is still enough of the bourgeois, enough of
vulgarity, enough of profiteering and speculation,
and other vermin. But, as the Moscow street is al-
ready a labor street, so the Moscow Boulevard has
become the recreation thoroughfare of the proleta-
riat. Often you see no proletariat on this recreation
street, and yet the street is a promenade for the
proletariat, for the proletariat now tolerates the
jobbers, speculators, the ear-pendants. Formerly
the ear-pendants, the jobbers and speculators, tol-
erated the proletariat.
Along this Boulevard, this long, gently-winding
recreation thoroughfare, no bomb explodes, no gun
is fired, no dictatorial glance is seen to flash. Every-
thing is very peaceful. Couples are out walking,
red soldiers ambling along, people coming from
work across the promenade. There is joking, prob-
lems are illuminated, secret deals are whispered,
and women are loved. The citizen of Moscow
walks, sits and promenades, a free man, along this
brown and green girdle, singly and in pairs, serious
or glad, full of care or. with breast held high.
There is no horse play. In no city of the world
have I seen so much dignified pleasure displayed
along the promenades. In no city of the world
(and I have seen many cities) have I seen women
so modest (romantically speaking). There are no
professional prostitutes in Russia any longer. Be-
fore the Revolution statistics show (statistics were
particularly unreliable in Russia) 160,000 prosti-
tutes in the streets of Moscow. If one is still
found, she is put into a labor battalion. The eli-
mination of professional prostitutes, in fact their
immediate elimination, assigning them to a place
in working society, is a self-evident demand of
Socialism. It is a human demand, an anti-capi-
talistic demand, even a sanitary demand. Venereal
diseases (read the program of the Bolsheviki)
are among the social diseases, together with tuber-
culosis and alcoholism. The program of the Com-
munist Party of Russia adopted at the Eighth
Party Congress, under the caption "Protection of
Public Health", demands that social diseases (tu-
berculosis, venereal diseases, alcoholism), be com-
batted.
Love has not ceased to live in Russia. It is
eternal as is also folly. But the communization
of women by means of prostitution has ceased.
Of course this does not mean that "venal love"
lias given up the ghost. Things do not move as
fast as that. Love is still bought and sold in
Russia and in Moscow, but the process of buying
and selling love is being wiped out. The process
is already moribund and will shortly die. Habitual
prostitutes have already been eliminated; secret
prostitutes, such as those that are married cannot
be eliminated within three years. There is still
much distress in Moscow and distress breaks the
pride of women, and therefore there is still a
social plague of love. Women complained to me
in Moscow about this. They loudly and warmly
praised the great elimination that had been accom-
plished by the Soviet Government and they wished
a swift alleviation of the distress of life so that
the social plague of love might be done away with.
If there still exists a communization of women
as was formerly the case you would notice it on
the boulevards, for it was on the Theatre Square
and on the boulevards that the communized women
sold themselves, but this is a thing of the past.
Even one who would love to condemn and hate
every act of the Soviet Government must laud
this act, even though he be a merely liberal hu-
manity whiner. Of course this act will ruin his
case, but it is an act that is on his own program.
The trade in women has ceased, the slavery of lust
has died out, the pride of women is rising. I
shall only say what I actually saw, no more and
no less. I must repeat that this is my intention,
for otherwise you may think that I am merely
a propagandist.
The refreshment booth with the garden tables
and garden chairs in front of them still have lit-
tle buffets inside. People told me about the buf-
fets during peace and war times. They had been
wonderful buffets of delicacies with Moscow can-
dies, cordials in a hundred colors, and an elegant
crowd seated round them. Of course this is all
past. Very courageous speculators, who do^pot
fear the combat of the Extraordinary Commission
against smuggling, openly sell mocca and delicate
cream tarts. Their customers are bespangled rem-
nants of the bourgeoisie, women with pearl orna-
ments, fabulous footwear and flashing rings on
their manicured fingers. They sit there with their
cavaliers (there are cavaliers still in Moscow) and
sip, (elegant ladies as is well known, do not drink,
as proletarians do, they sip) mocca and perhaps
an ice. It may cost a few thousand rubles, but
there is more where that came from. Nichevo!
They sell a few things to a jobber, escape work,
and sip !
I should like to give a hint to those who are
seeking pleasure. If one of my readers should
arrive at Moscow during the summer, the hot Mos-
cow summer, far from the sea, the asphalt dis-
solving summer, the perspiring summer, let him
carry a thermos bottle of cold tea with him, but
in the evening let him eat or drink the thick
milk, ice-cold thick milk, which he can get in the
buffets of the boulevard's booths. It is delicious.
The price is only 125 rubles per glass. But he will
have to hurry. He must reach Moscow before the
end of the summer for otherwise the price will be
much higher. It will be double, triple, even
much higher. Of course that will make no dif-
ference, but it will shock the quantity idiots. The
boulevard doec not become empty until about one
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October 9, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
353
o'clock at night (Moscow summer time). But
every night unless there is a storm, it is filled with
a dignified, jovial humanity, not without a few
centers of decay and with some who are infected,
but nevertheless a street of the future, leading to
a more honest civilization.
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Eoustam Bek
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THE RED NAVY
TN MY book, "Panama da la Marine Russe",
A published in 1908*, I foretold the approach
of the Social Revolution in Russia. Disclosing the
mischievous deeds of the officers of the imperial
Russian navy. I described the true conditions of
the Russian seamen whose lot was not better than
that of the convicts serving sentences at hard labor.
It was the first public disclosure of conditions in
the Russian imperial marine, described from with-
in, and it produced a great scandal in higher
circles at Petrograd. Naturally, the circulation of
this book in Russia was strictly forbidden. Dealing
with the life of the Russian bluejackets I stated
positively that these sailors would accomplish the
most important part in the approaching struggle
for liberty and that they would be uncompromising
revolutionists because they had endured real slav-
ery and knew better than anybody else in Russia
what the rule of the bourgeois class meant.
As I foresaw twelve years ago, so it happened.
The conditions under which the Red Navy acted
during the Revolution, from a purely strategical
point of view, required great secrecy; therefore
for a certain period there was almost no informa-
tion about it. Nevertheless, the part played by the
Red Navy during the Revolution, during the armed
intervention of the Allies, and during the civil war,
was of great importance. It must not be forgot-
ten that the victory of the Revolution in February
and in March, 1917, was due chiefly to the activity,
firmness, and self-sacrifice of the members of the
Baltic Fleet. The revolutionary sailors remained
inflexible even at the moment of compromises when
the eloquent Kerensky tfi'ed to persuade the Rus-
sian people to act together with the capitalistic
coalition. The famous Kronstadt Republic, which
remained faithful to the principles of the Soviets,
made a desperate fight against reaction and be-
came a real terror to the bourgeoisie. The work-
ing class of Russia looked on the sailors as their
most faithful brothers. Finally the Baltic and the
Black Sea Navies became the backbone of the
young Soviet Republic.
As far back as the winter of 1917 the Baltic
Fleet, in spite of all the existing disorder in the
naval structure of Russia, succeeded in steaming
from Reval to Helsingfors, thus saving the Rus-
sian warships from the German invaders, while
• Roustam Bek. "Panama de la Marine Russe". Nice, France,
1908. Librairie Rozanoff, 3, Rue Longchamps. This book was
printed in the Russian language and was suppressed in Russia. A
year later Captain Semenov's book, "Rasplata", appeared in Rus-
sia describing the cause of the failure of the Russian navy during
the Russo-Japanese War. The information in this article has
been taken mostly from official publications of the Soviet Gov-
ernment which have recently arrived from Moscow. — B. R. B.
by LiOOgle
the Black Sea Navy, being menaced by the enemy,
preferred to sink their best ships rather than sur-
render them to the Germans. In both cases, how-
ever, the enemy met a most fierce resistance from
the Red Navy of Soviet Russia.
The Naval Commissariat of the Republic even
in the early days of its existence showed great
activity. In order to arrest the movement of the
invaders a rather* powerful flotilla was created on
Lake Chudskoie, while a great part of the sailors,
on several inner fronts, were engaged in fighting
the invaders and counter-revolutionists together
with the Red Guards, and covered themselves with
glory.
Allied intervention forced the Soviet Govern-
ment to reorganize the Red Navy on new lines
suitable to the new regime. The volunteer sys-
tem introduced in the naval organization was
found to be weak and unpromising. The Red Navy
had to be a strong and stable organization. There-
fore the revolutionary committees which were in
existence on every warship were dissolved, and the
Soviet of the Commissars of the Baltic Fleet was
replaced by the Revolutionary Military Soviet,
which in the beginning of 1918, appointed to every
warship a naval commissar who worked with the
naval commanders in the same way that the com-
missars worked in the army.
The result of this reorganisation was excellent.
In the autumn of 1918, the warships Oleg and
Andrei II successfully supported the operation of
the Red Army along the Baltic shores. During
the famous Anglo- Yudenich dash on Petrograd in
1919, these warships successfully repulsed all at-
tacks of the British torpedo boats directed on
Kronstadt, with heavy losses for the aggressors,
three of seven English torpedoboats being sunk
by the Russians. It was the Baltic Fleet which
recaptured Krasnaya Gorka, treacherously sur-
rendered to the enemy by its commandant Neklu-
dov, an officer of the Czar's army who had suc-
ceeded in winning the confidence of the Soviets.
This was at the most critical moment of the strug-
gle for Petrograd.
In spite of all alleged weakness and all existing
difficulties, the Red Baltic Fleet inflicted upon the
British navy blockading Russia considerable dam-
age, sinking a large British destroyer of the latest
type, the Victoria, as well as one submarine. There
were also some losses in the navy of our enemy,
which remained unknown to the public. The Red
torpedo-boat Oavriil heroically beat off an attack
of four enemy torpedo-boats, while the Baltic Navy,
during all the battles near Tsarskoye Selo and
Peterhof, bombarded the siege batteries of the
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enemy, in spite of the presence of the 15-inch guns
of the British navy, and protected the coast line
of the Finnish Gulf as far as Yamburg.
The famous Krasnaya Gorka, key to Kronstadt,
after it was recaptured from the White Guards in
one day by naval contingents supported by the
bombardment of the Bed Navy, was henceforth
defended by Bed seamen, and it was they who so
stoically repelled all attacks of the enemy directed
on this strategical point from land and sea. Neither
Yudenich nor the Allies were able to break down
the heroism of the Bed sailors in spite of all the
superior technical means at their command. Mean-
while on the Lakes Ladoga and Onega newly
created Bed flotillas were active and distinguished
themselves as the watchful guardians of these
waters, gradually clearing them from the enemy.
The Kolchak offensive in Siberia also forced the
Soviet Government to create naval forces on sev-
eral rivers and the Volga was the first where the
Bed Flag of the revolutionary navy was hoisted.
Here the Bed sailors cooperated with the Bed
Army in perfect harmony, repulsing the attacks
of the Kolchak hordes along the river.
The military operations in Russia, gradually in-
creasing, required the assistance of naval forces
in the other regions of the Bepublic. So in 1919
Bed naval units were established in the Caspian
Sea and it was no easy task to transport destroy-
ers and submarines from the Baltic Sea to Astra-
khan, particularly through the water system and
partially by the rails.
The iron ring of the Allied blockade forced the
strategy of the Soviets to counter-balance it by a
similar ring formed of a series of flotillas estab-
lished on several lakes and rivers throughout the
territory of the Bepublic. Great was the surprise
of the Allies and of the reactionary generals when
they met along the whole system of the water com-
munication of Soviet Bussia the most stubborn
resistance of the newly created Bed naval force.
Thanks to the superhuman energy of its members,
the Bed naval administration succeeded in estab-
lishing flotillas on the Lower Dnieper and Dnieper,
on Chudskoie Lake, on the Northern Dvina and
on the Western Dvina, on the Don, and later on the
Pripet, Berezina, as well as on the other rivers,
according to military circumstances and demands
of the army command. And everywhere the enemy
was met successively and in many cases suffered
tremendous losses.
All this was accomplished in spite of disorganized
industry and without the necessary number of ex-
perienced specialists. Besides these difficulties,
there was another obstacle, perhaps the most im-
portant of all for a naval organization. There
was a general shortage of coal in Bussia. Denikin
became the master of the Donets industrial region
and practically left the Bussian Navy without fuel.
The difficulties which the Bed Naval administra-
tion had to overcome can be imagined if we will
take into consideration that the active part of the
Baltic Fleet alone required more than 300,000 tons
of coal annually without considering the necessi-
Digitized by G*
ties of the numerous lake and river flotillas. Only
the revolutionary spirit of the Bed Navy could '
have kept its guns constantly active and brought
the Bed ships where their help was required.
After the October Bevolution the whole naval
apparatus of the imperial ministry of marine was
taken over by the Soviets and a great majority of
the existing employes submitted themselves to the
new regime. This to a certain extent helped
the Soviet naval administration in their work of
reorganization.
Comrade Dybenko was appointed Commissar for
Naval Affairs, replacing the former Marine Min-
ister, and a board was formed under his control
with one specialist, M. Ivanov, and three political
representatives : Baskolnikov,* Saks and Kovalsky.
Also a special board was established under the
name "Centrobalt", which took the supreme com-
mand of the Baltic Fleet.
At the end of January, 1918, the imperial navy
was completely liquidated and replaced by the
"Workers' and Peasants' Bed Navy". In the spring
of 1918, Trotsky was appointed Commissar for the
Military and Marine Affairs of the Bepublic.
When the Soviet Government established its
headquarters in Moscow the center of the naval
administration with the Naval Commissariat, the
Marine General Staff, and all the technical and
other administrative and supply branches of the
naval management left Petrograd, where only one
member of the Naval Commissariat remained as
representative.
The former Admiral V. M. Altvater was ap-
pointed by the Soviets the member of the Supreme
Naval Board. The appointment of one of the most
famous admirals of the old regime produced a
great impression on the reactionary elements of
the Bussian Navy. Altvater was known not only
as a foremost expert, but as a man of high charac-
ter and as a man of honor. It is said that when
Kolchak learned that Altvater had joined the
Soviets he was much upset and said : "If Altvater
is with the Bolsheviki it is a very bad sign."
Admiral Altvater succeeded in attracting to the
Bed Navy many important experts, who henceforth
became devoted and industrious elements in the or-
ganization for the support of the cause of the
Bussian workers.
Anticipating an attack from both land and sea
by a numerous enemy, in the autumn of 1918 the
Soviet Government undertook a general reorgani-
zation of the defense forces of Soviet Bussia. The
Bed Navy with all its administrative machinery
was submitted to the control of the Bevolutionary
Military Soviet. Altvater and Baskolnikov be-
came members of this Soviet and formed its Naval
section. Strategically Altvater was the head of
all naval forces of the Bepublic. The Chief of
the Bed Naval General Staff was also an expert, a
former officer of the imperial navy, E. A. Barens,
a man of great ability, who is at present the Com-
* Comrade Raskolnikov was later captured by the English
during a raid undertaken by the Baltic Fleet on Riga in
October, 1918, when the Red Navy lost two torpedo-boats^ Aatrii
and Spirt a.
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mander-in-Chief of the Naval Forces of Soviet
Russia, having succeeded Altvater, who remains on
the board of Supreme Bevolutionary Military
Soviet.
Comrade Barens has at his disposal a special
staff and is delegated with purely strategical and
executive power, practically as an assistant of the
Commander-in-Chief of all military forces of the
Republic, who is, as we know, Comrade Trotsky.
The administrative and supply departments are
centralized under a Commissariat of Naval
Affairs under N. I. Ignatiev, subordinate to the
Revolutionary Military Soviet of the Republic.
Thus it is clear that the Revolutionary Military
Soviet of the Republic is the supreme authority
of the military and naval organization of Soviet
Russia. To this institution the Commander-in-
Chief of the army and navy is subordinate. By
this organization was secured the coordination and
cooperation of the land army and the marine,
which is so important for Russian strategy.
The organization of the command of the
Baltic Fleet is similar to the organization of the
military command in the army. The chief
commander of the naval forces is assisted by two
political commissars, while in the flotillas one com-
missar is attached to each commander. This or-
ganization is considered as the most suitable to
the existing regime.
The Naval General Staff, besides its purely stra-
tegical and scientific purposes, is also an advisory
institution to the Revolutionary Military Soviet
and under its control the general and special naval
education is conducted.
The most important branch of the Naval Com-
missariat is certainly its technical department.
The supply of the Red Navy with all kinds of the
material, as well as the work in the shipyards is
of the foremost importance. The task is a most
difficult one in the presence of the economic con-
ditions in which the country finds itself at the
present critical moment. The Technical Depart-
ment of the Naval Commissariat is divided in
eight sections : shipbuilding, mechanical, ordnance,
mining (torpedoes), submarine, radio- telegraphy,
naval aviation, and fortifications. This institu-
tion, during the period of the civil war, had built
and equipped on the rivers Volga, Kama, North
Dvina, Dnieper, and Don as well as on the lakes
Ladoga, Onega, and Chudskoie, more than ten
ports, up to 1920, and had supervised the recon-
struction and armament of more than one thousand
commercial ships. Such a gigantic work could not
have been accomplished without the most efficient
organization for the distribution of material.
♦ * *
On its front page the New York Times pub-
lished a cable from Warsaw in which the sum-
mary of Pilsudski's victory over the Red Army is
given in such a way that an average reader might
believe that the Russian Red Army in the West
is completely routed and no longer exists. Ac-
cording to this dispatch, "sixteen Red divisions
are routed by the Poles; 42,000 prisoners and
166 guns captured." "The staff of the 3rd and
4th Bolshevik armies," the message says, "are
captured and the staff of the 21st, 41st, 55th and
57th Divisons and of several brigades and regi-
ments also have been taken prisoners." "The
Poles," it is said, "have taken from the Russians
166 guns, and in addition to 90 machine guns,
1,180 armored cars, 7 armored trains, 3 airoplanes,
21 locomotives, 2,500 wagons, 10 motor-cars and
great stores of ammunition and other material
which the Bolsheviki had assembled for a Fall
drive against the Poles, have been taken."
There cannot be any doubt that these figures
are much exaggerated, though they are still lower
than those which appeared in the American Press
after the Russian attack on Warsaw had been
beaten off. In any case, the number of prisoners
now claimed by the enemy, in comparison with
the number of divisions engaged, namely, sixteen,
is far from showing that the Russian army on the
Western front was "routed".
In the Red Army a complete division represents
about 25,200 men, formed of three brigades, each
of three regiments of three battalions. There is
no army corps in the Red Army and therefore the
infantry divisions are completed proportionally
with cavalry, artillery, engineers, aerial squadrons,
ambulances and with other auxiliary units. Fin-
ally the "routed" sixteen divisions roughly repre-
sented a force of about 450,000. The Poles are
claiming that they have succeeded in capturing
42,000 men, during the Russian retreat, when
the Russians certainly were unable to collect their
wounded and sick comrades. Therefore it is plain
that most of these prisoners are founded and sick
as well as a great number of surgeons, nurses, and
orderlies of the medical staff of the Red forces.
At the present moment the Revolutionary Red
Field Staff concentrates all its attention upon the
South Russian Front where the Wrangel forces
have become more and more active. There is no
doubt that the Poles, after a long and costly cam-
paign, have been brought by the Russian arms to
such a state that they cannot and certainly will
not repeat the invasion of Russia. Physically it is
an impossibility. On the other hand, Soviet Rus-
sia never had any intention of annexing even the
smallest part of the Polish territory and once its
army succeeded in clearing Soviet Russia from the
invaders, strategy had accomplished its task in
case the Poles would move sincerely towards peace.
Now the bulk of all the reserves of the Red
Army is directed against Wrangel in order to pre-
vent the capture of the Donets industrial region
and to put an end to his adventure. This new
Russian movement has forced the French stra-
tegists to feel very uneasy and, according to the
New York Herald of October 2, the French mili-
tary authorities are expressing great doubts as to
Wrangel's future success.
The French Government has already started to
excuse itself for being forced to cease further mili-
tary support of WrangePs army and suggests that
America might continue it alone.
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SO VIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised.
IT IS well to know how things stand. Accord-
ing to the Polish Minister of Finance, the
total of American support to Polish chauvinism
amounts to $169,000,000, this being the sum of
Polish indebtedness to the American Government
and various American corporations for war materi-
als and other supplies essential to the campaign
against Soviet Russia. M. Grabski was quite frank.
Unless the United States has this sum to throw
away, he told a correspondent of the New York
Sun and Herald, "she will have to continue pa-
tiently lending financial and economic assistance,
and perhaps even military aid — until the Red*
menace is entirely crushed." M. Grabski must
have imagined that the American people have for-
gotten the old adage about the questionable prac-
tice of throwing away good money after bad.
Whether they have or not we do not know. At
any rate, M. Grabski continued, "for the present
there is no possibility of an early repayment of
the huge sums we owe the United States." More-
over, he said, "we have nothing to offer the United
States, as she does not need the small export sur-
plus which we are directing elsewhere." Econom-
ically, said the Finance Minister, Poland is where
it was upon armistice day. Only he neglected to
* reckon into the account the vast accumulation of
debts to the United States and to the other Allies
and the untold suffering and wastage of human
life which have accrued as a result of Polish im-
perialism since that day.
According to M. Grabski, the largest items of
indebtedness to the United States are distributed
as follows : to the Baldwin Locomotive Works ap-
proximately one million dollars; to the United
States Shipping Board nearly fifteen million dol-
lars; to the United States Grain Corporation and
the United States Relief Administration nearly
one hundred million dollars ; to the United States
Liquidation Commission and the United States
Army, items designated with significant vagueness
as "several millions".
An American correspondent, recently turned
propagandist for Polish imperialism, cites the gen-
erosity of the Baldwin Locomotive Works as an
example to other American industrial concerns
Digitized by (jOOg I C
whose duty it is to help "build up a strong Pol-
and" which might successfully perform its mission
of standing as a "bulwark". The securities which
the Polish Government has given for its purchases
in the United States, said the correspondent, "real-
ly amounted only to the word of honor of the
Polish Government."
* * *
T T IS reported that the Chinese Government has
-*■ at last decided to discontinue the payment of
the Boxer indemnity to the Russian Czarist Lega-
tion in Peking. Accordingly, says the dispatch,
it is expected that the Russian representatives will
shortly withdraw from China. Thus is a rich
source of subsidy to the counter-revolution cut off.
Representatives of Russian reaction in China and
elsewhere have made good use of these indemnity
payments which China some time ago proposed to
discontinue and was only prevented from doing
by strong coercion from some quarter. The Soviet
Government, of course, long since renounced any
claim to the indemnity, and the continued forced
payment to reactionary intriguers representing
no government anywhere in the world was the
sheerest swindling of the Chinese treasury. We
must expect now to hear more talk of "Bolshevist
propaganda" in China. Under this convenient
phrase the imperialists attempt to disguise the
fact that one of the early acts of the Soviet Gov-
ernment was to announce that it intended to treat
the Chinese people as equal members of the human
race and not as vassals of the West. For in re-
nouncing the Boxer indemnity — that pitiless trib-
ute which the European nations wrung annually
from a people too weak to protest — the Soviet
Government also renounced those other forms and
symbols of western domination over China. The
Soviet Government proclaimed the abrogation of
the old treaties of the Russian Czar which were
so unfavorable to China, and renounced also the
principle of extra- territoriality and the system of
maintaining "legation guards" on Chinese soil and
other forms of oppression. The news of these fea-
tures of the eastern policy of the Soviet Govern-
ment has spread slowly but no less effectively.
TPWO English journalists, returning from so-
A journ in Soviet Russia, were strangely moved
by such a commonplace sight as the railway res-
taurant at Narva, the first station over the Es-
thonian border. The return to this "outpost of
Burgerdom," relates Mr. tJeorge Young in the
London Daily Herald, produced an extraordinary
exhileration in his traveling companions. They
joked and laughed over their coffee and buns, "like
children home from school."
"But I felt suddenly very old— very old and dead.
I was not coming home from school, but back from
the next world — the world we shall all come to some
day. A world where at first sight there is nothing to
see but death and its terrors, because life there is lived
in a different plane and at a higher power than here.
A world where at first sight there is no beauty and
no happiness; but where before I left I began to see
a new be? k nty cf serial structure and a new happiness
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in devotion and discipline. A world that has something
of hell and something of heaven, but nothing of the
happy home of the middle class limbo . . .
". . .1 felt curiously unsubstantial and unassimilated
in the world of Burgerdom — a thin, melancholy spook
haunting the old familiar railway restaurant of thirty
years of foreign travel. That restaurant so expressive
of Burgerdom — property, propriety, and pretension. I
felt like hovering ominously between my reveling com-
panions and their third go of coffee and buns — waving
a warning of impending doom and vanishing back into
the fourth dimension of Bolodom. — And some day I
shall."
Mr. Charles Roden Buxton described the same
scene in the London Nation:
"Here was the first refreshment room I had seen
for two months ! Nice cold filets of fish, and slices '
of ham, and delicious clean brown bowls of sour milk
— lovely hot veal cutlets of gigantic size. The whole
of my bourgeois instincts rose up in rejoicing. Here
was the normal type of civilized life.
"And now that I am at Reval, I find that all the rest
is of a piece with it. The shops are full of bewildering
variety of wares. All is as it should be. The men drink
alcohol; the women wear stays; the horses wear bear-
ing reins. It is the old familiar thing again.
"But is it the right thing? How many share in it?
. . . What of the countless ones to whom the refresh-
ment room is as remote and inaccessible as it is to the
dweller in Soviet Russia — to whom the brilliant shops
of capitalist cities are merely a show, and not a thing
that they ever expect to enter upon and enjoy? What
of the innumerable submerged, packed away out of
sight behind the glaring main streets?
"Here in Reval yesterday, poking about the back
streets, I met a woman, a widow, who earns twenty-
three marks a day in a factory. She pays twelve marks
of this for bread, and eight for milk, each day. Does
she ever go into the Wiru Ulitsa to buy in the shops
there? Certainly not . . . If the Wiru and all its
shops were to disappear tomorrow it would make no
difference whatever to her. She has nothing to do
with it . . .
"Some of us have said that a social transformation
was possible. Did we really mean it? The Russian
Communists have taken it literally, and engaged in the
effort at a moment of history which, by its confusion
and collapse, gave them the opportunity, but which at
the same time was the worst possible moment for the
experiment from the point of view of production. If
they have not exalted those of low degree in the sense
of giving them more to eat than before, they have
certainly put down the mighty from their seat. And
this was enough to make the world outside fall upon
them with horse, foot, and artillery.. . ."
This leads Mr. Buxton into certain reflections
upon the subject of "investigations", official and
otherwise :
"There is something almost impudent about a minute
investigation . . . When I think of the colossal effort
that is being made, the tragic conditions of the experi-
ment, the feverish atmosphere of excitement, of elation,
of depression, now one and now the other, I feel I
cannot isolate the machinery of the Revolution from
the human elements that play round it and make, mar,
or modify it ... I cannot examine this people as if
they were beetles or butterflies . . . And there is
another side to the matter. Why do we not investi-
gate and criticize ourselves? Here is Esthonia, for
instance . . . Three days ago took place the trial of
some twenty or thirty Communists- . . . Two were
sentenced to death; eleven to imprisonment . . . The
offense may have been great, the trial fair; I have not
been able to check the facts. All I know is that I
have heard horrifying tales of persecution. But why
docs nobody investigate the matter? . . . The Morning
■ i
Post representative in Reval sends full accounts of
what he thinks is going on in Moscow. Why does it
never occur to him to ask what is going on in the next
street in Reval? . . . My point is simply that if any
capitalist state were to be subjected to the minute
examination which Soviet Russia is now undergoing
at -the hands of numerous delegations, it would cer-
tainly be found far from perfect. But it is not thought
necessary to examine it at all."
JWAPROZOD, a Polish Socialist daily appearing
* * in Cracow and for years the mouthpiece of
Ignace Daszynski, the Polish Socialist leader and
at present the Vice-Premier of Poland, contains in
its issue of September 8 the following notice :
Vice-Premier Dasznyski had also in that matter (con-
troversy with Lithuania) a conversation with the papal
nuncius, Monsignore Ratti, to whom he said that the
Vatican must not be indifferent if catholic Lithuania
concluded a union with Russia.
If we remember that Daszynski is a Socialist,
who, by his creed, ought not to foster religious dif-
ferences and animosities, that he is a member of the
Polish Socialist Party which by its program is
bound to recognize the separation of church and
state, and that, furthermore, as an adherent of
"western democracy" he should be expected to live
up to the commonplace doctrine of liberalism
which is antagonistic to any interference of the
Vatican in state political affairs, this matter of
asking the intervention of the Vatican may be
seen in its true light. And then we may also
apprehend the fathomless depth into which the
Socialist Ootterdammerung has brought its un-
principled riders. What a calm and firm superi-
ority over these men breathes from, let us say,
the order of Trotsky, printed in the last issue of
Soviet Russia, and calling to order some chau-
vinistic elements in the Soviet Russian military
bodies. Is it not that the "revaluation of values"
by the variety of Socialists who, like Daszynski of
Poland, are condemning the "autocracy" of the
Bolsheviks, leads somehow not to democracy, but
to the camp of black reaction?
PEACE WITH FINLAND
The Moscow wireless states that, according to Ker-
zhentsev, a member of the Russo-Finnish Peace Con-
ference, the fundamental work of the peace negotiations
is practically finished.
At present an agreement has been reached by which
Russia concedes Finland part of the Pechenga region,
thus affording Finland access to the Arctic Ocean.
Finland is, however, receiving less territory than was
offered to her in 1918. Russia retains the right of free
transit through Pechenga. In this way communication
with Norway is maintained. Finland is evacuating the
two cantons of Eastern Karelia, which she occupied,
and these pass to the Eastern Karelian Labor Com-
mune. In the Finnish Gulf, all the islands, including
Hogland, are neutralized.
With regard to economic questions, an agreement has
been reached by which all past relations are liquidated
on the basis of the status quo.
The Finnish Delegation considers that the Treaty
will be signed in the near future. — London Daily Her-
ald, September 15, 1920.
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Profiteering a Hindrance to Trade with Russia
By Pkopessob George Lomonossov
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TPHE conviction is becoming more and more
* widespread that the economic system of Europe
may be much strengthened by the aid of Russia's
raw material. But such a consummation is pre-
vented not only by the military resistance of capi-
talism^ but also by its lust for profit, as is shown
by the negotiations which are now being carried
on by the Russian Government and the German
locomotive industry, on the subject of the delivery
of locomotives. The following remarks are taken
from the Leipziger Volkszeitung on this subject:
The head of the Russian transportation, Profes-
sor Lomonossov,* who is at present in Berlin ne-
gotiating with the German locomotive factories,
gave a long interview to our Berlin correspondent,
Comrade Walter Oehme, and stated among other
things, the following :
"The negotiations to conclude whicK I came to
Germany developed as far as the technical side
was concerned with a rapidity that I have not wit-
nessed in any other country, and I may say, that
during the war I was making purchases both in
France and Sweden. We were able to arrive at an
agreement very swiftly concerning all technical
questions. But the negotiations concerning price
have been extremely unsatisfactory. In fact, I
now have hardly any hope that this extremely im-
portant contract may be concluded, unless the Ger-
man locomotive manufacturers make serious coif-
cessions to us. The negotiations concerning price
have now been in progress for a month. We have
succeeded in lowering the first offer, which was
several hundred thousand marks higher per loco-
motive than the one preceding it, by consenting to
technical simplifications and easier constructions.
The negotiations were originally carried on in Ber-
lin. Somewhat later the German manufacturers
tried to transfer the seat of negotiations to Stock-
holm. But I am of the opinion that it is best to
negotiate with the English in England, with the
Swedes in Sweden, and with the Germans in
Germany.
"The German locomotive industry has estab-
lished a firmly constructed combine, which is nego-
tiating with us. They are attempting thus to
shield themselves against underbidding by com-
peting firms. I explain the demands of too high
a price by the fact that the capitalists fear new
wage demands, and that they wish to secure as
much of a capitalistic profit as possible, under any
eventuality. But I am convinced that this prob-
lem, so important for both peoples, cannot be solved
if it is attacked from this standpoint alone. The
whole German, people, and particularly the Ger-
• Professor Lomonossov is not the head of the Russian trans-
portation system; he has the powers of a Commissar for pur-
chases in Western Europe for the Russian railway system, but
»» not the People's Commissar for Means of Communication.
The Acting Commissar for Means of Communication is now
Trotsky, replacing Krassin, now at London.
man workers, are profoundly interested in having
this contract concluded.
"Russian foodstuffs and raw materials can only
be exported if it is possible to reconstruct the
transportation system, which has been much dis-
organized as a consequence of war. In southern
Russia, in the Kuban district, and in Siberia, there
are quantities of grain, but in consequence of the
poor traffic conditions, it is not even possible to
transport it to Moscow, far less to export it to
Western Europe. Even though we have succeeded
in improving somewhat, with our own efforts,
transportation conditions, so that at this date there
are two accommodation trains and one express
train daily between Moscow and Petrograd, and
although we already have 3,600 kilometers of new
railway construction, we, nevertheless, by no
means are in a position to cover our need of loco-
motives with the products of our own labor. We
need about 5,000 locomotives. The annual pro-
duction of the whole world is about 10,000. Amer-
ica can construct 5,000 locomotives a year, Ger-
many about 2,500. Germany therefore occupies
second place in its capacity in* this field. This
will give you some idea of the immensity of the
prospect of profit in reopening economic relations
with Russia. As far as I am informed the negotia-
tions that were conducted in Canada have not yet
led to conclusions, but are at present being contin-
ued in London. In the interest of both peoples,
the German as well as the Russian, it would be
very regrettable if our negotiations are a failure
because of this matter of price, and we should be
forced to depend entirely upon American produc-
tion. Of course the question of exchange value
of money has played no part at all in the nego-
tions, for all our calculations have been undertaken
on a gold basis. It is self-evident also that we are
in a position to furnish complete guarantees for
the payments we are to make. But the question
of price remains the alpha and the omega of the
whole business. It seems necessary to me that
the German public be informed that this contract
for deliveries of locomotives is not only the begin-
ning of the economic relations between Germany
and Russia, but actually the basis and the prelim-
inary condition for such negotiations. I have by
no means any doubt that the German workers
and the entire German people will recognize this
significance of the contracts, or that they are
unwilling to permit the great work of a common
German-Russian labor in economic reconstruction
to be frustrated by differences as to the question
of price. The amiable reception and support
which I have recently been given at the hands of
the German Government, permit me to hope that
(since you ask me about this) I may expect from
a possible intermediation of the Government or
perhaps from thf* ne^tiBtions which the Govern-
UNIVERSITY0F MICHIGAN
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SOVIET EUSSIA
359
ment is carrying on for all the German economic
interests, a favorable influence on the negotiations
which are still in progress. And my hope of this
is all the greater since I have learned with pleasure
that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Simons,
has expressed his appreciation of our vast plans
and labors of reconstruction. I cannot, however,
close the conversation, without repeatedly em-
phasizing that the question of transportation is
at present the most decisive and significant one,
the one on which all other economic relations are
based, and that it therefore would be a great dis-
aster to both peoples if difficulties regarding price
to be paid on delivery of locomotives should cause
the extremely important negotiations with the
German locomotive industry to fail. — Prom Die
Rote Fahne, August 24, 1920.
The Managements of Petrograd Industries
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T^HE question which form of management, col-
*■• legium or individual, is the better, has been
eagerly discussed in those circles interested in the
reconstruction of industry in Russia, -since the last
Congress of the Economic Councils. The Statistical
Bureau of the city of Petrograd together with the
Statistical Subsection of the Petrograd Labor
Committee has sent out a questionnaire with the
object of determining how far these two forms of
management are represented in the factories of
Petrograd, and also to determine the membership
of the collegiums directing the factories on March
1, 1920. From this questionnaire we take the
following data:
Two hundred and sixty enterprises were investi-
gated with a total working personnel of 81,069.
As Petrograd, according to statistical reports had,
at the time of investigation, 205 enterprises (each
having over 50 workers on January 1, 1919), which
employed altogether 87,578 workers, the investiga-
tion consequently covered enterprises embracing
at present more than 90 per cent of all Petrograd
workers.
Number of Enterprises
Individual Collegium
management management Total
'Size of the Per Per Per
Enterprises No. Cent No. Cent No. Cent
50 workers or less 35 64.8 19 35.2 54 100
From 51 to 200 workers 73 60.3 48 39.7 121 100
Over 200 workers 26 30.6 59 69.4 85 100
Total 134 51.5 126 48.5 260 100
Individual management is the rule, for the most
part, in the small enterprises, of which 64.8 per
cent are managed by one person. Among the
medium-sized enterprises, we find individual man-
agement in 60.8 per cent of the enterprises, among
the large enterprises, in 30.6 per cent. It is also
mostly in the small enterprises that we find the
former possessor acting as manager or retaining
charge of the business. Of considerably greater
interest are the large enterprises. The following
table shows in what form and for how long the
one or the other form of management has been
introduced into these enterprises :
Distribution of Enterprises According to the Time When the Present Form of Management Was
Introduced (in per cent)
The present form of management was introduced:
In the period from
Before the November November 1917, to
Revolution January 1, 1919 After January 1, 1919
Size of the — fi S — s o _ c c
if i| 3 II is , 1* si 5
50 worker* or lets 53.3 46.7 100.0 66.7 33.3 100.0 57.9 42.1 100.0
From 51 to 200 workers 67.4 32.6 100.0 55.6 44.4 100.0 64.4 35.6 100.0
Over 200 workers 33.3 66.7 100.0 16.0 84.0 100.0 31.0 69.0 100.0
Total 55.2 44.8 100.0 39.0 61.0 100.0 52.7 47.3 100.0
Of these 260 enterprises, 134, that is 51.5 per Of those enterprises which have not altered their
cent, with 27,639, that is 34.1 per cent of the form of management since the first date mentioned
workers, are managed according to the principle above, the largest number (55.2 per cent) have
of individual management. Some of the enter- been managed on the principle of individual man-
prises have retained their former proprietors who, agement, while the principle of collegium man-
together with the factory committees, manage the agement has held in the minority (44.8 per cent),
enterprises. The form of management in these en- After the November Revolution the expropriation
terprises, therefore, has not been altered since the of enterprises naturally reached its highest point ;
pre-revolutionary period. on this account it csn easily be understood that
*J by V^-OOglC UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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of those enterprises which have retained the same
form since that time, in the larger number (61
per cent) collegium management is to be found.
But lately, a reaction has taken place ; most of the
enterprises that have changed their form of man-
agement since January 1, 1919, have gone over to
individual management; 52 per cent of all enter-
prises whose form of management has been altered
in the course of the last 14 months, have decided
on individual management.
This rapid change, which has taken place since
the Revolution, is particularly interesting in con-
nection with the size of the enterprises.
In the small and medium-sized enterprises the
picture is exceedingly clear: they have retained
their form of management only when the form was
that of individual management. In reference to
the small enterprises, individual management has
been the rule since the first period in 53.3 per cent
of the enterprises; since the second period in 66.7
per cent; since the third period in 57.9 per cent
of the enterprises. The case is the same in the
medium-sized enterprises : individual management
has been the rule in 67.4 per cent of all enter-
prises since the first period; in 55.6 per cent since
the second period ; and in 64.4 per cent since the
third period. The large enterprises, on the other
hand, present a different picture. The transition
from collegium management to individual man-
agement is accomplished much more slowly in
these enterprises. Nevertheless, the number of
cases in which individual management is intro-
duced has increased from 16 per cent in the sec-
ond period to 31 per cent in the last period.
As we see, a definite tendency in favor of the
gradual transition to individual management is
making itself felt. Collegium management has
not demonstrated its ability to exist in the smaller
enterprises alone, but also in the large enterprises,
and as time goes on, is being more and more dis-
carded for individual management.
Collegium Management
Number of Members
u u
IS S |- 8
Size of the *-£ u e w w
Enterprises -a g o. — "3 o. -5
Ho J5 ho »5 H
50 workers or less 26 44.8 32 5S.2 58
From SI to 200 workers 82 53.2 72 46.8 154
,Over 200 workers 105 46.6 120 53.4 225
Total 213 48.7 224 5L3 437
Since the beginning of the Revolution, the enter-
prises have not only made alterations in their form
of management ; but also, of course, in the method
of production and in the extension of the enter-
prises, great changes have taken place. In the
greater part of the enterprises, the number of
workers has decreased greatly; instead of
239,356 workers at the time of the outbreak of
the Revolution, the enterprises investigated show
that they now employ only 81,069 workers. The
average number of workers to each enterprise,
jitizedbyGt
which is now 312.8 workers, was at the beginning
of the Revolution 920.6 men. The difference,
therefore, is very great. But which enterprises
suffered more, those with collegium management
or those with individual management? Let us
turn to the numerical data:
Enterprises With Collegium Management
Average number of workers to each enterprise:
Ratio of
prere volution
Size of the On March Before the figure to
Enterprises 1, 1920 " Revolution 1920 figure
50 workers or less 41.4 119.7 2.9
From 50 to 200 workers 117.0 342.7 2.9
Over 200 workers. : 797.6 2,451.4 3.1
Total average 345.2 1,313.8 3.8
Enterprises With Individual Management
Average number of workers to each enterprise:
Ratio of
prerevolution
Size of the On March Before the figure to
Enterprises 1,1920 Revolution 1920 figure
50 workers of less 29.0 86.7 2.9
From 50 to 200 workers 103.7 396.5 3.8
Over 200 workers 734.1 1,691.0 2.3
Total average 206.8 573.3 2.8
The decrease in the number of workers is very
significant in both groups of enterprises. But
there is no doubt that those enterprises which have
the collegium form of management have suffered
more. As a consequence of the disorganization of
industry, they have been compelled to decrease their
working force to one-fourth (3.8 times), while the
enterprises with single management have decreased
their forces only 3 times. If we view the single
groups according to their size, we become convinced
that of the enterprises with collegium manage-
ment, just those have been affected the most that
have resisted most obstinately the introduction of
the system of individual management, namely, the
large enterprises.
But what is the social position and what are the
callings of the members of the managements, of
what persons are they composed?
Individual Management
Number of Managers
u u u c
SB • i.3 u |2J3 "
* S Si 5 S "f8 I _ I
3I * 3» "■ 38- * 3
a o^. e Ota. e Ota. a c .0 e
5 Ho J5 Ho .5 HoS J5 H ~
100.0 11 31.4 15' 42.9 9 25.7 35 100.0
100.0 20 27.8 28 38.9 24 33.3 72 100.0
100.0 7 26.9 9 34.6 10 38.5 26 100.0
100.0 38 28.6 52 39.1 43 32.3 133 100.0
The majority of the directors, in single manage-
ment as well as collective management, are not
workingmen. The percentage of workingmen
among the collegiums, which amounts in enter-
prises with collegium management to 48.7 per cent,
falls in enterprises with single management to
28.6 per cent. In the collegium management
groups, this percentage fluctuates without showing
any definite tendency. But in the single manage-
ment the demands on the directors result slowly,
but the larger the enterprise the more definitely,
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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in the appointment of specialists, technicians, and
in fact, of the employes and former managers, to
direct the enterprises. We see also, that the num-
ber of experts, technicians and in fact the office
employes among the managers is not only larger
in the enterprises with individual management
than in the enterprises with collegium manage-
ment (71.4 per cent against 51.3), but that it
rises with the size of the enterprise, in enterprises
with individual management.
The members of the managing groups belong to
the most varied specialties. Unfortunately, in this
respect, we have reports only from those members
of the managing groups who were in Petrograd
when the questionnaire was sent out (altogether
372 persons). Among the metal workers, the lathe
workers (6) and the locksmiths (27) are par-
ticularly numerous ; among the food stuff workers,
the bakers (13) ; among the printers, the typeset-
ters (16) ; among the needle trades, the tailors
(10), etc. Among the officials the group of engi-
neers (73), technicians (20), mechanicians (12),
bookkeepers (13), office employes (11), etc., is
particularly noticeable. However, we find here
also persons who, according to their former occupa-
tions have no relation to industry whatever, such
as a lawyer, a literary man, a former officer, two
teachers, two merchants, etc. It is hard to say
how these persons came to be placed at the head
of Petrograd enterprises.
The number of female members of managing
groups is very small : there are altogether 34 wom-
en among 570 directors. The percentage of women
is somewhat larger in the enterprises with collect-
ive management (7.1 per cent of all members -of
managing groups) and much smaller in the enter-
prises with single management (altogether 3.3
per cent) .
Of interest also is the position taken by the
Communist collectives in the enterprises towards
the one or other form of management, for to the
collectives fall the leading role in the organization
of production in the enterprises. If we place the
single groups of enterprises with individual and
with collegium management in juxtaposition, we
obtain the following picture:
« | V
Hi
Size of the
Enterprises
Form of
Management
ttg So
50 workers or less
From 50 to 200 workers
Over 200 workers
Total
7.3
13.3
10.9
10.1
37.4
39.0
18.3
29.5
Individual 17.1
Collegium 22.2
Individual 65.8
Collegium 54.3
Individual 88.0
Collegium 98.3
Individual 57.1
Collegium 70.4
We see, consequently, that the number of Com
munist organizations in the enterprises depends on
the size of the enterprises. The percentage of the
enterprises with collectives increases with the size
of the enterprise; in regard to enterprises with
individual management it is 17.1 per cent (for
enterprises of 50 workers or less), 65.8 per cent
(for enterprises of from 50 to 200 workers), and
88 per cent (for enterprises with over 200 work-
ers) ; and in enterprises with collective manage-
ment it is 22.2 per cent, 54.3 per cent, and 98.3 per
cent respectively. This phenomenon can be ex-
plained by the fact that the mass of workers in the
large factories and works are always better organ-
ized than the workers scattered about in small en-
terprises. In the same manner, the power of the
collective, the number of its members increases
with the size of the enterprise. The single excep-
tions in this respect are the medium-sized enter-
prises with collegium management. Extremely sig-
nificant, however, is the distribution and the influ-
ence of the party collectives in connection with the
form of management. While of those enterprises
with single management only 57.1 per cent have
collectives, the percentage of enterprises with col-
legium management in which collectives are to be
found reached 70.4 per cent. The number of mem-
bers of collectives is smaller in enterprises with sin-
gle management (18.3 members as against 29.5).
The degree to which the Party collectives con-
tribute to the organization of production, can be
seen by comparing the extent of. voluntary work
(worker's Saturdays and Sundays) in the enter-
prises with collegium management with that in
the enterprises with individual management.
Individual Collegium
Management Management
ills SSI *t£$ x-sc
Size ol the ° « ». ° « * ° • '" ° • 8
Eaterpriw. -|-g| ...J-g -Sf-oJ -Sf
50 workers or less 21.4 17.1 18.2 22.2
From 50 to 200 workers. . 10.7 65.8 ' 34.1 54.3
Over 200 workers 37.5 88.0 46.0 98.3
Total 23.7 57.1 38.2 70.4
The Saturday and Sunday work is the more in-
tense the larger the enterprise (with one single
exception) and corresponds in this respect to the
number of collectives in the enterprises. The sig-
nificance of the collectives in this connection stands
forth most clearly in the fact that the number of
organized Saturdays and Sundays in the enter-
prises with single management, that is, in the
group which possesses the smallest number of col-
lectives, is strikingly smaller than in the enter-
prises with collegium management (23.7 per cent
against 38.2 per cent) .
INTERNAL* RECONSTRUCTION
The Izvestia reports that in the Shaitan works
(in the Urals) a new production entirely for Rus-
sia of seamless tubing has been arranged for. The
test of the tubes gave splendid results. The work
on the installation of the pipes is taken care of
by the plant.
In connection with the foreign goods exchange
experimental work was started in the Ural emerald
mines; preparatory work was also started on the
exploitation of asbestos mines and putting asbes-
tos factories into operation. This summer a few
pounds of thorium har» beou already washed.
363
SOVIET RUSSIA
October 9, 1920
The Lafont Affair
[The following interesting documents speak of a meeting between Ernest Lafont, a French
Socialist, and the Polish "Socialist" Daszynski, with resulting revelations concerning the aggressive
policy of the present Polish Government, and also concerning Lafonfs subsequent etputewn from
Russia.]
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Order from the Chairman of the Revolutionary
Military Council of the Republic
Moscow, July 31, 1920. No. 232.
The French citizen, Ernest Lafont, together
with his wife, Zinaida Lafont, arrived in Soviet
Eussia via Poland. When he was in Warsaw he
visited the French military mission, which is the
center of all hostilities of the imperialist counter-
revolution against the Socialist Republic. Having
arrived in Russia, Deputy Lafont did not, on his
own initiative, give any explanations to the gov-
ernment of the Soviet Republic, and did not take
any immediate steps to aid the Soviet Government
in the war against the bourgeois counter-revolu-
tion. In a private talk which he delivered in
the presence of Comrade Jaques Sadoul, Deputy
Lafont made a number of extremely interesting
statements based on his visit to Warsaw. In the
opinion of Jaques Sadoul, whose judgment and
integrity are above suspicion, the import of these
statements was perfectly definite, which he related
in a letter appended herewith. The import of
Deputy Lafont's speech, as related by Comrade
Sadoul, shows that the social-chauvinist Daszynski,
who is one of the persons most responsible for the
Polish offensive, and who is now a member of the
Polish Government, considers an armistice with
Russia a respite to secure the concentration of
military forces for a new attack on Soviet Russia.
When questioned by me, Deputy Lafont, while
not disavowing this view of the "peace" steps of
the Polish Government, emphatically denied the
above stated sense of his conversation with Das-
zynski, who, as is well known, is looked upon as
a Socialist by Lafont's party. Regardless of what
may be the cause of Lafont's statement, the in-
dubitable fact remains that at a time when the
Socialist Republic is at war with a bourgeois re-
public, which besides is but a tool in the hands
of the imperialists of the country in whose parlia-
ment Deputy Lafont has a seat, this Deputy, who
considers himself a French Socialist, travels in the
capacity of a neutral observer from Paris to War-
saw and from Warsaw to Moscow, exchanges
"comradely" opinions with Daszynski, with the
members of the French military mission, and with
other organizers of the base and dishonest offensive
against the Soviet Republic, and consciously re-
fuses to stigmatize publicly the worst enemies of
the Polish, French, and Russian proletariat. In
view of citizen Lafont's refusal to unmask the
perfidious, treacherous scheme of the enemies of
Soviet Russia, there are no guarantees that his
friendly relations with the former may not lead
to consequences which make dangerous his pres-
ence within the boundaries of Soviet Russia.
In view of the above, and in order to protect
the Russian Socialist Republic from "socialists"
who try to appear simultaneously as friends both
of bourgeois Poland and Socialist Russia, which
are at deadly grips with each other, I hereby order
that: Deputy Ernest Lafont and his wife, who
is bound to him by political solidarity, shall be ex-
pelled from the boundaries of the Soviet Republic,
and the reasons for this extreme measure shall
be widely announced in Russia and throughout the
world for the information of the working masses.
The execution of this order of expulsion is en-
trusted to the special department of the All-Rus-
sian Extraordinary Commission.
Chairman of the Revolutionary Military
Council of the Republic,
L. Tbotskt.
Jaques Sadoul on Lafonfs Statements Regarding
the Polish Plans
Ernest Lafont, a French" Socialist Deputy, ar-
rived in Moscow. This is not his first visit to
Russia. He came from France during the Keren-
sky regime, to urge the Russian soldiers to con-
tinue the imperialistic war.
Lafont had just spent a week at Warsaw, where
he met a number of political leaders. Speaking
of the situation in Poland, he related as follows:
"I met Daszynski. Like most of the Poles, he
declared that he did not consider as hopeless the
situation created by the defeats inflicted upon
Poland by the Red Army. In his opinion Poland
was not defeated and, consequently, the war was
not ended. The armistice, which Poland wants, is
necessary for the reorganization of the army. The
army has not been annihilated. It was forced to
retreat owing to the lack of ammunition. Czecho-
slovakia, Germany, and Danzig are blockading
Poland and hinder the arrival of ammunition. He
stated further, "but we are negotiating with the
neighboring countries, particularly with Germany.
Through Entente pressure Poland will receive
from Germany, for certain concessions in Silesia,
a part of the arms and ammunition which Ger-
many had to turn over to the Allies in fulfillment
of the Versailles Treaty. When these arms and
supplies are delivered our army will be rapidly
reestablished by means of volunteers, for the ap-
proach of the Soviet troops has aroused great pa-
triotic zeal in Poland. Thus, all that we need
now, is to gain time/"
We do not need to emphasize the importance
of the statements made to Lafont by M. Daszyn-
ski, who is now the Polish Minister of Foreign
Affairs. At the very moment when the Polish
Government is solemnly declaring to the whole
world' that it &incerely desires peace, one of the
eminent cynically admits that !his government de-
October 9, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
363
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sires an armistice and enters into negotiations,
solely with a view to gain time in order to be
able to reorganize its military forces and to begin
the war anew.
Under a Socialist Mask
By N. Meschebiakov
The French "socialist" Laf ont, who came a short
time ago, was expelled from Soviet Russia. The
circumstances which led to his expulsion reveal
a very interesting view of conditions in the old
socialist parties of Western Europe, and of the
disintegration and decay which is now taking place
in these parties.
In the midst of a bitter war between the work-
men's and peasants 9 Socialist Russia and landlord's
Poland, with the French workers unreservedly in
sympathy with Soviet Russia, a member of the
French Socialist Party, Lafont, travels to Poland,
listens there to French generals and Polish min-
isters who confess that under cover of an armis-
tice they want to prepare for a new war, a new
attack on Soviet Russia; that they want to use
once more the Polish workers and peasants as can-
non fodder in the interests of the bourgeoisie and
the landlords. The French "socialist" listens to
all this, and does not protest, does not expose these
base, perfidious plans to his party and to the pro-
letariat of the whole world.
When he came to Russia he spoke of these plans
only among acquaintenances. And when he was
asked to make a public statement he cowardly re-
fused to do so. Trying to cover up the vile perfidy
of Daszynski, his friend through the Second Inter-
nationale, Lafont himself becomes a traitor to the
proletariat of Russia and Poland, to the prole-
tariat of the whole world.
It is obvious that such a "socialist" could not
be tolerated in Soviet Russia. His expulsion from
Soviet Russia was a necessary reply to his base
complicity and betrayal . . .
SOVIET MEDICAL SERVICE
(At the Congress of Physicians)
By U. Bovin
Close cooperation of the toiling intelligentsia
with the working masses was always in the interest
of both groups. The Soviet power has always
urged such cooperation. Especially important is
cooperation with the workers on the part of the
medical profession.
This path has now been chosen by the physicians,
who recently joined a common trade union with
all medical workers. To be sure, the physicians
have always lived up to the highest conception
of their professional duty, have always unselfishly
fulfilled their obligations. But, heretofore, a cer-
tain lack of sympathy with some measures of the
Soviet power in general, and with those in the
domain of medicine in particular, was apparent
in their work.
The First Congress of the Physicians of the
Petrograd province which is now taking place has
shown that the physicians have found a common
language with the Soviet 'power, that highly es-
teeming their professional duty, they firmly ac-
cepted a command basis of cooperation with the
Soviet power.
A good deal of discussion was around at yes-
terday^ session of the congress by the reports of
Comrade Pervukhin and Dr. Gran on the ques-
tion of Soviet and local medical service.
After elucidating the chief principles of Soviet
medical service (popular or free service, etc.), Com-
rade Pervukhin pointed out that the Soviet power
is striving to consolidate medical effort, and to put
into effect a number of measures which will tend
to bring order into medical work. The Depart-
ment of Health and the working masses welcome
all physicians who are willing to work in this field.
Dr. Gran, in his report, took issue with the
opinion that the Soviet medical service is based
on new principles. Its slogans, he contended, are
the slogans of Russian social and labor medical
service, and the Soviet power merely energetically
brought them into life.
Yesterday's discussions centered around these
questions. Most of the speakers held that it did
not matter how the organization of medical effort
would be called, whether it be called Soviet, social
or labor medical service, but that the important
thing was to carry these slogans into life without
convulsion.
On the whole the speeches of the physicians
showed willingness and readiness to work in favor
of the new medical service, for the Soviet power
has created all the possibilities of attaining this
end, much more so than the bourgeois-capitalist
order.
In his closing speech Comrade Pervukhin urged
the physicians to cooperate. As to the criticism
that there is bureaucratism in the Department of
Health, he replied that this evil, which the Soviet
power is now energetically combatting, is an out-
come of the difficult time when the Soviet power
could not obtain the necessary forces from among
the broad masses of the medical workers and was
forced to engage the old officials who brought with
them their bureaucratic spirit.
Replying to other questions which were brought
up at the congress, Comrade Pervukhin pointed
out that many plans in the interests of medical
reconstruction cannot be realized, and that a good
deal of the work done is not at all what might
be desired, principally because we are now using
all our energy for the struggle with the external
enemy, because many physicians and other essen-
tial medical workers have been taken away for work
at the front; but after the victorious termination
of the war we will be able to devote ourselves, with
renewed energy, to the realization of the outlined
measures. — Kmsnaya Gazetq>iJylv- 1,l1920.
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SOVIET 11 U S S I A
October 9, 1920
Documents
Mr. Chicherin has sent, through Mr. Kamenev, the following reply to Mr. Balfour's Note :
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Mr. Balfour having acknowledged the receipt of
our last dispatch with a few words of comment,
we on our part cannot let these pass without mak-
ing some remarks. After the British Government
has recognized that the Russian Government was
entitled to demand from the Polish Government
guaranties against the recurrence of its wanton at-
tack, Mr. Balfour now says that the British Gov-
ernment does not consider the limitation of the
Polish army a just condition, but one which only
does not involve British active intervention.
Taking note of this change in the British Gov-
ernment's attitude, we cannot help suspecting that
the British Government is once more a victim of
what has so often, unfortunately, influenced its
Russian policy, namely, misinformation.
It seems as if Mr. Balfour labors under the illu-
sion that a radical change has occurred in the
military situation as between Russia and Poland.
What has in reality occurred is the unsuccessful
result of one particular operation, which, at most,
means a delay in the attainment of the object of
the campaign.
Mr. Balfour has been completely misinformed if
he ascribes more than this to the military events
which have taken place before Warsaw. Our rela-
tive strength with regard to Poland is the same
as before; it has even altered to our advantage,
owing to the reinforcements sent to the front. If,
therefore, members of the British Government
recognized three weeks ago that Russia was entitled
to apply the rights of victor, the situation in this
respect remains unchanged.
We, for our part, still adhere to the attitude
which we adopted from the beginning: namely,
that not one of our terms has the character of an
ultimatum, and that each one of them can be dis-
cussed and examined during our negotiations with
Poland.
Having a lasting peace as its object, the Rus-
sian Government's principal means of attaining
this is the moral support and sympathy of the
grfcat working masses of other countries. In view
of the constant action of the Polish workers for
the cause of peace with Russia, the Russian Gov-
ernment, without endangering the cause of peace,
felt itself justified in supplementing the Polish
army by an armed militia consisting of workers;
while any other composition of this militia would
nullify the limitation of the Polish army.
Mr. Balfour once more repeats the insulting ac-
cusations contained in the unfortunate British
communique of August 24 against the Russian
Government's action in this matter. The original
summary of the Russian terms consisting only of
a few lines, and the final peace conditions having
to be a lengthy document, the abundant material
which the latter must contain, but which naturally
was not in the former, is open to the same objec-
tion of having been concealed from the British
when the initial summary was communicated to
the latter.
The Russian Government, therefore, cannot help
seeing in this objection an outcome of the same
delusion under which Mr. Balfour was laboring
concerning an imaginary radical change in Rus-
sian policy, which, he appears to consider, justifies
the new attitude towards Russia, as expressed in
the above communique.
Nor can we help doubting whether the British
Government would have come out with the same
violent opposition had the proposal been to form
the civic militia from members of the propertied
classes. In fact, the British Government has given
sufficient proof of its sympathies with victors im-
posing upon a vanquished people the strengthening
of the power of the propertied classes. Great Bri-
tain was, f6r example, one of those Powers which
put forward, as a condition of peace for the Hun-
garian Soviet Republic, the removal of its Prole-
tarian Government; and the whole Russian policy
of the British Government during the last two
years has exclusively been an expression of the
same tendency.
Mr. Balfour is therefore hardly justified in in-
voking an alleged principle of the British Govern-
ment in this matter : and if he thinks that the cre-
ation of an armed workers' militia would upset
civil order it is clear that he regards civil order
as the crushing of the great working community
under the domination of the propertied classes by
sheer brute force.
Mr. Balfour's final observation as to the sup-
posed failure of Russia's workers' and peasants'
government to procure more well-being for the
poor is in no greater measure a proof of impar-
tiality. The Government which, for two years,
carried on the so-called "economic encirclement"
of Russia for a long time deprived the Russian
people even of coal and oil, and cut it off from
the richest grain-producing provinces, is hardly
in a position to express astonishment that the Rus-
sian Government has not been able to secure to
the Russian people more well-being than is now
the fact.
The complete confidence which was so many
times expressed by members of the British Gov-
ernment, or by their mouthpiece in the press, as
to the effectiveness of the blockade in crushing the
resistance of the Soviet Government, must lead to
the conclusion that it is not the lack of well-being
in Russia which should be an object of astonish-
ment: on the contrary, no other form of Govern-
ment given similar conditions could have called
forth such a power of resistance in the Russian
{J
October 9, 1920
SOVIET EUSSIA
365
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people, or could have preserved it during the un-
precedented trials to which it was subjected by
the action of the Allied powers.
Under no other form of government would it
have been possible for the Russian people to hold
out without fuel, without the southern grain, with-
out agricultural implements, and without the other
machinery which Eussia has always imported from
abroad.
Mr. Balfour is once more completely misin-
formed if he thinks that the riches of the upper
class in Eussia have simply been destroyed and
have not become the patrimony of the whole com-
munity ; the marvels of art which formerly adorned
the palaces of princes or great financiers are now
available to the whole nation, and have become a
source of delight to the great masses, who formerly
were cut off from the highest joys of life.
These palaces are now palaces of the people and
the home of great popular institutions, in which
the life of the nation centers. The luxurious
dwellings of the aristocracy have been converted
into great popular clubs, in which the working
community enjoys life, listens to music, sees good
plays, participates in political discussions, attends
scientific lectures, or simply spends its free time
in friendly intercourse. Popular theatres, pop-
ular concerts, popular scientific institutions are
multiplying daily in the suburbs of the great cities,
as well as in remote villages.
Special institutes of proletarian culture are ini-
tiating the great working masses into all the mys-
teries of art and science, and every human talent
finds generous encouragement, enabling it to de-
velop its highest possibilities. The houses of the
rich have been given to the poor, and those who
formerly rotted in slums now enjoy the benefits
of good housing. Technical inventions are now
utilized to promote the welfare of the great masses,
and electricity appears in villages where primitive
conditions hitherto prevailed. Popular soup kitch-
ens and communal feeding bring relief, in the
painful conditions created by the blockade, to the
great masses, which under any other system would
have been a complete impossibility.
The great working community of Eussia has
taken its fate into its own hands, in the form
of the Soviet system. Peace alone is needed in
order to enable it to develop its incalculable pos-
sibilities. Peace is therefore our fundamental aim,
and Eussia's war with Poland is only an episode
in her struggle for peace.
SITUATION OF THE NAPHTHA INDUS-
TRY IN THE BAKU DISTRICT
The Ekonomischeskaya Zhizn contains the fol-
lowing data on the situation of the naphtha in-
dustry in the Baku district:
In 1919 the production of naphtha in the six
sections of the Baku district (Balakhny, Sabunchi,
Bomany, Bibi-Eibat, Surakhany and Vinagady)
amounted to 225 million poods, against 192 mil-
lion poods in 1918. But in comparison with 1913,
when the production in the same sections amounted
to 443 million poods, the production of last year
is almost 50 per cent less.
In the current year the production of naphtha
in the Baku district continues to remain on the
level of 1919. In the first third of the present
year the production of naphtha in the six sections
was 55.9 million poods; in January 18.7 million
poods, in February 17.9 million poods, and in
March 19.3 million poods.
The export of naphtha products from the Baku
district, which was isolated during the whole of
1919 from its chief markets, was expressed by
the insignificant figure of 40.5 million poods, of
which 20.7 million poods were sent to Batum.
Under such conditions the reserves of naphtha
products, which in the beginning of 1919 amounted
to 126 million poods, mounted on January 1, 1920,
to 275 million poods, on June 12 to 292 million
poods, which is three times that of the reserves in
peace time (9 million poods on June 1, 1913).
They continued to increase in the early months
of the current year, since the export remained as
before, considerably behind the production. Only
the export of naphtha products to Astrakhan,
which began after the establishment of a Soviet
regime in Baku, stopped the further increase of
the naphtha stock and the overcrowding of the
warehouses, which threatened to paralyze the pro-
duction of naphtha.
The reserves at hand of the naphtha products
in the Grozny region, as of June 16, 1920, are
33.5 million poods.
Work will begin in the nearest future on the
construction of the naphtha pipe line Emba-Ural-
Saratov. The construction provides for two shifts :
the first, from the naphtha wells to the right bank
of the Ural, in a period of four to five months, on
a length of 200-250 versts; the second shift is
from the Ural to Saratov, 500 versts in length. In
Saratov will be built a plant for the production
of naphtha products.
A POLISH COMMISSION IN BUDAPEST
Bbunn, September 3, 1920 (Eeport from Rosta,
Vienna). — Der Tagesbote axis Mahren und Schle-
sien of September 2, reports as follows: Accord-
ing to information we received from political
sources in Budapest several days ago, a Polish
Commission arrived in Budapest. Its main ob-
ject is to draft into the Polish army citizens of
Poland residing in Hungary. Its second object
is to recruit soldiers for the Polish army from
among the Hungarian people; this will be done
with the consent of the Hungarian Government.
In short, the Commission was given to under-
stand that they might recruit all Hungarian citi-
zens who volunteer for the Polish army.
DIRECT ALLIED THREAT
Paris, Friday. — The Conference of Ambassa-
dors has decided to send Germany a note protest-
ing against the stoppage of vessels bound for Dan-
zig in the Kiel Cfrual.
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Wireless and Other News
CULTURAL ACHIEVEMENTS IN
SOVIET RUSSIA
New Library in Archangel
Moscow, August 27, 1920 (Eeport from Rosta,
Vienna). — The building of a colossal library has
been undertaken in Archangel. This library is to
be the central point for the entire northern dis-
trict.
New Polytechnic Institute
Moscow, August 27.— The newly erected Poly-
technic Institute of Kamyschlev began its sessions
during the month of July.
Music for the Blind
In Eiskla there has been organized a depart-
ment for the musical guidance of the blind. The
orchestra consists solely of blind people.
Courses in Science
Moscow, August 27, 1920.— In the district of
Gomel, active steps are being taken to instruct
those ignorant of science. The courses are under
the guidance of professional organizations.
Petrograd Schools
Moscow, August 31, 1920.— The registration of
Petrograd children for the new school year took
place on August 22 and 25. From the 25th of
August to the 1st of September, the entrance ex-
aminations will take place. A commission com-
posed of five members determines the classes for
which the children are fitted. Instruction will
be carried on in buildings especially constructed
for the purpose. In the schools, there are specially
constructed rooms for musical and artistic studies.
HYGIENE IN SOVIET RUSSIA
Chkistiania, September 3, 1920 ( Rosta, Vien-
na) The following report from Moscow has
reached us, dated September 2: Under the aus-
pices of the Congress of Bacteriologists and Stu-
dents of Epidemic Diseases, which is now in pro-
gress in Moscow, a National Institute of Hygiene
was opened on the 30th of August. Diatropotov
and other famous professors gave enthusiastic
speeches on the subject. Moscow is making con-
siderable headway in city hygiene through the
appointment of hygiene instructors. The inhabi-
tants of every house elect a delegate, who, after
receiving special instruction in sanitation and hy-
giene, becomes the inspector of hygiene of his
special group of public and private dwellings.
time. We, in Moscow, can proudly and joyfully
set to the credit of the Sanitary Army a number
of successful undertakings. The daily order of
Kalinin, Chairman of the All-Kussian Committee
of the Soviets, points to the exemplary conditions
existing in the war hospitals, in regard to the
cleanliness of the wards, as well as to the treat-
ment of the soldiers lying there for treatment in
the hospitals. In regard to the technical question,
the ruling powers there are carrying on a very
obvious struggle against all defects of the past.
RED ARMY HOSPITALS
Moscow, August 20, 1920 (Report from Rosta,
Vienna).— The great vigilance which the Work-
men's and Peasants' Committees exercised in the
nursing of the sick and wounded Red soldiers has
already borne fruit. Sanitary conditions have im-
proved noticeably within a comparatively short
LABOR INSPECTION
Report from Rosta, Vienna. — On the 27th of
August, Pravda wrote as follows, with regard to
the question of superintendence of labor: While
there were on}y 212 labor inspectors on August
first a year ago, the number has increased to 535.
Nevertheless, the number is still too small, and
provision will have to be made for labor inspection
to include not only the immediate laboring pop-
ulation, but the country as well.
PRIESTS IN FAVOR OF SOVIET RULE
Report from Rosta, Vienna. — Izvestia reports
from Minsk: In several villages in the vicinity
of Minsk, priests addressed public meetings, de-
clared themselves followers of the Soviet Govern-
ment, and called upon the peasants to turn over
their stores of grain to the Red Army, and to help
destroy the Polish advance by joining the Red
armies.
PEOPLE'S COMMISSARIAT
FOREIGN TRADE
FOR
Christiania, September 2, 1920 (Report from
Rosta, Vienna). — Moscow, September 1. The Peo-
ple's Commissariat for Foreign Trade was created
in connection with the important tasks with which
Soviet Russia was confronted at the time when she
resumed her trade relations with foreign countries.
The People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade is
the only technical and executive body which con-
cerns itself with export and import trade in all
its aspects.
LUMBER INDUSTRY
Moscow, August 30, 1920 (From Rosta, Vien-
na). — The All-Russian Congress of Lumber Com-
mittees adopted a resolution in which its report
of successful activity during the past year was
accepted with satisfaction, and the formation of a
Central Committee approved. The Congress also
declared itself in favor of a mobilization of labor
in the lumber industry,
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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IMPORTS TO RUSSIA
Christiania, September 2, 1920 (Report from
Rosta, Vienna). — On September first, the follow-
ing report came to us from Moscow: The Eko-
nomischeskaya Zhizn writes as follows: Statis-
tical reports of Russian foreign trade demonstrate
clearly the fact that importation is on the increase.
Thus we see, for instance, in June, 1920, only
66,000 poods of paper were imported, while in
July the quantity had increased to 190,000 poods.
Electrical appliances, parts of farm-implements,
instruments of various kinds, and other articles
are being imported in large quantities. At pres-
ent, Soviet Russia is dependent upon the good
offices of Esthonia, but the conclusion of peace
with Latvia will doubtless greatly influence Rus-
sian trade, and afford Soviet Russia wider scope
for the transportation of her goods.
THE RETURN OF RUSSIAN PRISONERS
FROM BULGARIA
Chbistiania, September 3 (Rosta, Vienna). —
A report from Moscow, September 2, reads as fol-
lows: A transport of 350 Russian war-prisoners
reached Odessa on August 31. These had lan-
guished in Bulgarian prisons for years. The pris-
oners relate what ill-luck the generals of Denikin
and Wrangel had when they tried to force Russian
soldiers into the White armies.
ATROCITIES OF POLISH OFFICERS
Odessa, August 11. — The Polish newspapers
publish reports of the trial in the field court-mar-
tial of Lieutenant Malinovsky of the Polish army,
who, acting as commandant of a camp for war
prisoners, personally shot soldiers of the Red
Army, without any trial. He buried one live sol-
dier up to his necK and then cut his head off with
a sabre.
Even the Polish court felt it necessary to sen-
tence Malinovsky to imprisonment for four years.
— Krasnaya Oazeta, August 14.
FORMER WHITE OFFICERS AGAINST
WRANGEL
Christiania, September 1, 1920 (Rosta, Vien-
na) . — On the 30th of August the following report
reached us from Moscow : Fifteen hundred officers
of the one-time Kolchak, Denikin, and Yudenich
armies assembled in a concentration camp on the
Caspian Sea, and issued a proclamation to the
Cossacks and all other soldiers fighting under the
white banner. In this proclamation, they call
upon these White Guards to desert their generals
and join the Soviet Army, where, for the first
time, they will be allowed to enjoy rights as free
citizens of their fatherland.
Another group of two hundred officers, serving
as instructors in the Soviet Army, have issued a
similar proclamation to the officers of WrangePs
amy.
MARINES OF WRANGEL MUTINY
Odessa, August 11. — A mutiny of the marines
occurred on the volunteer fleet dreadnought Volya,
which took part in the bombardment of Ochakov.
After the suppression of the mutiny over a hun-
dred marines were executed.
On August 7 the dreadnought Volya sailed out
to sea, despite orders from Wrangel that on that
day it should bombard the Dnieper-Bug firth. The
local populace is extremely hostile to the Wrangel-
ists. The repeated treacherous bombardments of
Ochakov only intensified the hatred toward the
Wrangel authorities. — Krasnaya Oazeta, August
14.
THE LOSSES OF THE POLES
Christiania, September 1, 1920 (Report from
Rosta Wien). — The following report reached us
from Moscow on August 31 : The radio stations
of the Entente and Poland are vying with each
other in spreading imaginary descriptions of re-
ports of Polish victories, of the defeat of the Red
troops, and are inventing tremendous numbers of
losses on the part of the Russians, both in men
and horses. The Poles seem to forget that in
their steady retreat from the Beresina to the Vis-
tula, across a distance of 500 kilometers, they, too,
lost no less than one hundred thousand men, taken
prisoners, and more than 200 cannons. Our army
was compelled to withdraw for a short time, to a
certain distance, but its war-power has by no means
been broken, and with the addition of the inex-
haustible reserves, and new fighting strength, it
will soon be marching to new victories. Let not
the Poles forget the example of their predecessors,
the armies of Denikin, Kolchak, and Yudenich ; let
them remember that those, too, were victorious up
to the time of their defeat.
INTERNAL RECONSTRUCTION
In Petrograd, preparatory work has begun on
the electrification of the soil in Petrograd and in
the province of the northern region. It is planned
to start, in autumn of the current year, the cul-
tivation of the soil by electricity on an area of
300,000 dessiatins.
According to EJconomischeslcaya Zhizn there
was mined in the nationalized mines of the Donetz
Basin during May, 1920, 10,516,000 poods of coal
of which 6,805,000 poods was consumed on the
spot (that is 58 per cent of the total produced).
The total production in the blast mines amounted
to 4,755,000 pods, the consumption for own needs
aggregating 2,322,000 poods, that is 48.6 per cent
of the production.
Since the opening of the Volga navigation lines
up to July 1 503,203 passengers were transported,
besides 33,97924,0 poods of commercial freight,
34,647,206 poods of timber materials, and 22,041,-
134 poods of various naphtha products.
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October 9, 1920
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A MASS-MEETING IN SERAJEVO
Serajevo, August 10 (Rosta). — The labor
leaders Zivota Milokovic and Snoten Jaksic pro-
tested at a mass-meeting against the enslavement
of the Jugo- Slavic people by the Entente, against
the attempt of the Jugo-Slavic bourgeoisie to de-
cide the conflict with Italy by means of war, and
above all against instigation of a war against
Soviet Russia by the Entente. The Entente rep-
resentatives had requested that the government of
Jugo-Slavia send five divisions to the Bessara-
bian front. The speakers declared that although
the Jugo-Slavic bourgeoisie proclaimed through its
newspapers that it had no intention of playing
the part of an agent in the war against Soviet
Russia, one could not but be suspicious. Ninety-
nine per cent of the Jugo- Slav people are, how-
ever, utterly opposed to a war adventure. They de-
sires nothing but peace and friendship with the
Russian Soviet Republic. The passing of a reso-
lution and the appeal of the leaders at the meet-
ing to sacrifice even life for the realization of these
demands called forth long-continued shouts of
"Yes, we will ! If our blood must flow for foreign
interests, then it can also flow for our own." The
Clas Sloboda of Belgrade writes as follows con-
cerning this matter : "Our government, as a vas-
sal organ of the Entente, is ready to engage in an
adventure, but fortunately it is prevented from
doing so by united public opinion."
RAKOVSKY ON THE SITUATION IN
UKRAINE
The Chairman of the Ukrainian Council of Peo-
ple's Commissars, Rakovsky, made a report at the
all-city communist conference in Kharkov on the
situation in Soviet Ukraine, the main points of
which were as follows :
"The chief aim of the party — to give as great
forces as possible for the front — has been bril-
liantly accomplished. In the provinces of Khar-
kov, Poltava, and Yekaterinoslav mobilization was
completed ninety per cent. Though the mobiliza-
tion in Ukraine was carried out under difficult cir-
cumstances, it succeeded none the less.
"The carrying out of the mobilization proves the
strengthening of our influence all over Ukraine.
Petlura's mobilization in Ukraine was a failure.
This proves our popularity.
"Our provisioning organs," continued Rakovsky,
"have given us 14,500,000 poods of bread up to
the end of July.
"The exploitation of coal in the Donetz Basin
shows a tendency to a twenty-five per cent monthly
increase.
"Notable results have been obtained in the work
on the improvement of transport. At present the
haul of the military echelons reached 400 versta
a day.
"We are progressing also in other fields of eco-
nomic and industrial life."
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THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. Ox the Caspian and in Persia. An interview with Raslcolnikov, Commander of the
Soviet Fleet during the period described in the interview, and since then appointed
Commander of the Baltk Fleet.
2. The Condition of Working Women in Soviet Russia.
3. The Agrarian Policy in Ukraine, by A. Manuilsky.
4. The Polish-Lithuanian Relations, by A. D.
5. The Peace Treaty With Latvia.
6. Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make all checks payable
to L. C. A. K. Martens.)
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Original from -
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, October 16, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 16
Issued W«Hy at 110 W. 40tb Street, New York, N, Y. LudwiF C A, K + Martens, Publisher- Jacob Wittmcf Hartmaim, Editor
subscription Kate, $5.00 per Annum, Application for entry as second claw matter pending Change* of address should reach th*
office a week before the changes are to be made.
the
TABLE OP CONTENTS:
The Agrarian Policy in Ukraine, by A.
Manuihky . , , , _ , 369
Moscow in 1920 (Third Instalment), by Dr.
Aifons Goldschmidt „ 371
Military Review, by LL-CoL 8, Roustom Bek 376
The Ghave-Diggers of White Poland, by Karl
Radck , 378
PAGE
Editorials . •. . 380
Chicherin's Note to Baron Avezzana. ... 382
Polish-Lithuanian Relations, by A. D 384
The Condition of Working Women in Soviet
Russia 335
Easteh in Moscow, by Dr. Bohumir Smcral..* 387
Wireless and Other News .. , 390
The Agrarian Policy in Ukraine
By A. Manuilsky, People's Commissar of Agriculture in the Ukrainian Soviet Republic,
IN NO country is the agrarian question as im-
portant as in Russia, in general, and in
Ukraine, in particular.
Owing to the fact that Ukraine served as a
field of war operations for almost three years of
continuous civil war, the agrarian question has
not been definitely solved. The shifting of re-
gimes created among the peasant population a feel-
ing that their possession of the land of the former
estates was not secure, It resulted merely in the
break-up and spoliation of the cultivated estates,
stock farms, and sugar refineries, in the destruc-
tion of forests, in the reduction of the cultivated
area, which in some of the Ukrainian provinces
declined forty per cent, in the fall of labor effi-
ciency, in short, it caused the retrogression of
Ukraine and brought her to an economic
state from which she can be redeemed only by
years of hard toil and the exertion of an iron
will. The German occupation, Petlurism, Skoro-
padskykm, Denikinism, Makhnoism, — all these fol-
lowed each other chronologically and brought
about such a state of affairs that not a single law
passed by the Soviet power during its rule in
Ukraine was ever fully enforced. We must can-
didly admit that in Ukraine all our laws touched
merely the surface of things, and that before they
could reach the peasant masses they were swept
aside by the swooping down of a new ataman,
hetman, or White general.
Coming for the third time into Ukraine under
such conditions, the Soviet power faced the task
of settling the land question in accord with the
full implications of the November Kevolution, that
is of abolishing ]he private ownership of large
by LiOOglC
estates which still persisted under various disguised
forms despite the previous decrees and acts* The
mistake which the Soviet power committed last
year consisted precisely in this, that new social
forms of farming — agricultural communes and
Soviet farm* — were inaugurated before the rem-
nants of feudalism in land relations had been
removed. Last year, with large scale land-owner-
ship still in existence, the peasants looked upon
the attempts to socialize farming as a new form of
communist state enslavement. Of the 15 million
dessiatins (40.5 mi Dion acres) of aT able land which
had been owned by the churches, monasteries,
and landlords, the Soviet power last year set aside
2,5 million dessiatins for sugar plantations and
f>34,000 dessiatins for Soviet farms, and this was
enough to make the Tich peasants in the villages
vociferous against the "Communists taking the
land away from the peasants." The fact that the
Soviet power turned over 12 million dessiatins
of land to the peasants of Ukraine was overlooked.
The resulting wave of insurrections showed how
far the peasants were from the Soviet power, how
little they comprehended the Soviet land measures.
And the Soviet power had to take this experi-
ence into account. The new land law of the All-
Ukrainian Revolutionary Committee of February
5 and the instructions of the People's Oommis-
sfiriat of Agriculture which were issued later dif-
fered from the former land policy in that, first,
they broke away from the practice of a too hasty,
mechanical institution of Soviet farms and agri-
cultural communes, and set themselves the task
first of all of sweeping out all the remnants of
feudalism; and ; secondly, that they left the prac*
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tical enforcement of the law to the activity of the
masses themselves, entrusting to the local land
departments the task of attracting the peasants to
the work of land distribution. Reviewing now the
results of our land policy after four and a half
months of the land distribution campaign, we can
say with a clear conscience that the course taken
by the Soviet power for the settlement of the land
question was a correct one. The author of these
lines has before him a pile of reports from local
military and civil authorities as well as reports
from the party organizations to the Central Com-
mittee of the party. In not a single one of them
is there any mention of local dissatisfaction with
our land policy. And yet these reports come from
the districts where the insurrection wave of last
year was at its worst. Hundreds of provincial
and county non-partisan peasant conferences gave
their whole-hearted approval to the new land law.
Indeed, this attitude of the peasants toward the
new land law was but natural. If we recall the
fact that the four and a half million peasant farms
of Ukraine aggregated about 20 million dessiatins
of land, we find that as a result of the new land
law the land portion of the Ukrainian peasants
has almost doubled. In some provinces, as, for
instance, in the provinces of Taurida, Bkaterino-
slav, Kherson, this increase led to the creation of
strong peasant farms of from ten to fifteen dessi-
atins of land. In such regions as the provinces of
Podolia, Volhynia, Chernigov and Kiev, where the
scarcity of land was felt most keenly, the peasant
farms will now have on the average from five to
ten dessiatins of land. At the same time, the
fears, expressed when the land law was being
drafted, that the present land policy would ruin
our sugar industry and lead to destruction of the
model cultural centers of agriculture, have been
proved unjustified. The new land policy made the
allotment of land required for sugar plantations
and experimental Soviet farms conditional upon
an understanding with the peasant masses, and
this produced very favorable results. About one
and a half million dessiatins of land have already
been secured for the sugar refineries and for the
Soviet experimental farms. An average of 200
dessiatins was voluntarily allotted in each volost
by the peasants for mddel farms and experimental
stations. In a large number of counties in the
provinces which have more land, as, for instance,
in the province of Ekaterinoslav, the norm per
volost was raised, on the initiative of the peasant
congresses and conferences, to 500 dessiatins.
The comrades who found fault with our new
land policy, arguing that it meant too abrupt a
change from the extension of "agricultural factor-
ies", which was our policy last year, to land par-
cellation and to individually owned peasant farms,
committed the self-same error as the immoderate
admirers of the law of February 5, who saw in it
the final stage in the land policy of the workmen's
and peasants' rule. They forgot that the law of
February 5 in Ukraine, just as in its day the land
law of November 10, 1917, in Great Russia, were
Digitized by CjOOQ IC
but certain milestones in the land policy of the
Soviet power, having as their sole object the weld-
ing of the whole peasant mass, during the primary
stage of the Revolution in villages, in the fight for
the abolition of large land ownership. The Novem-
ber period in land construction in Great Russia
was followed by the so-called "Committees of the
Poor Peasants" period in the Soviet land policy in
the spring of 1918, which marked the beginning
of the division of the peasantry along class lines.
We are now approaching this division among the
Ukrainian peasants. We must not overlook the fact
that besides the solid usurer section (the "fist"
strong arm peasants), there is in Ukraine a nu-
merous agricultural proletariat, poor peasants pos-
sessing no horses nor agricultural implements, who,
unless united for a merciless struggle against the
rich peasants, the "fists", are doomed to economic
enslavement by the "fist" elements who have be-
come enriched during the war and the Revolution.
Before the Revolution, Ukraine had about a million
agricultural laborers and workmen in the sugar
refineries; forty per cent of all the peasant farms
had no horses, cattle or agricultural implements;
the distribution of the land was monstrously un-
equal. The landless peasants who owned only
their homes constituted fifteen per cent of all the
peasant population of Ukraine, the owners of puny
farms of about one dessiatin constituted five per
cent, peasants who owned from one to three des-
siatins — twenty-five per cent, and those who owned
from three to five dessiatins constituted twenty
per cent. We may assume without exaggeration
that the poor peasants formed the vast majority
of the peasant population. The real "fist" ele-
ments who owned from ten to twenty-five dessi-
atins of land formed only from eight to ten per
cent of the peasantry and were lost in the general
mass of poor and middle peasants. Of course, the
war and the Revolution effected considerable
changes in the proportion of the various groups in
the villages, but the small peasant farms did not
become stronger even after the general redistri-
bution of land which accompanied the Revolution
of November, 1917.
Last year we defended the poor peasantry by
the organization of Soviet farms and agricul-
tural communes; we helped them by transferring
to them the land and the agricultural machinery of
the former large estates ; we did our best to unite
and to organize them around the 1,500 Soviet
farms and 300 agricultural communes which were
scattered throughout Ukraine. After the Denikin
campaign the Soviet farms were left without agri-
cultural implements and without cattle, and they
would have been doomed to a parasitic existence.
To defend the interests of these poor peasants, who
have been still more impoverished by the civil war
and for whom additional land is but dead capital,
is the next task of the Soviet power. Having
completed in the spring of this year the campaign
for the distribution of land, we will have to devote
the fall of this year and the spring of the next
year to * campaign for agricultural implements
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and cattle ; we will have to organize the poor peas-
ants on economic lines for this struggle against
the "fists". Under the existing scarcity of agri-
cultural implements and cattle, the workmen's and
peasants' government is unable to get new imple-
ments and cattle for the masses of the poor peas-
antry. But it can and should facilitate a more
equal distribution of the stock on hand. And
it can carry out this task with the aid of "Com-
mittees of the Poor Peasants." Only a network
of such committees covering Ukraine will be able
to uphold the economically unarmed poor peasant.
The wearing out of the agricultural implements,
the extermination of cattle, the depreciation of
currency and the insufficient supply of manufac-
tured goods in the villages have caused the reduc-
tion of the cultivated area in Ukraine, which suf-
fered, in addition to all these evils, from the civil
war. Already during the imperialist war, begin-
ning with 1915, the area of cultivation was re-
duced each year by six per cent. Under Denikin
the land of the former manors remained almost
untilled. The area of untilled land and of winter
crops which have perished forms sixty-five per
cent in the province of Kharkov, thirty-five per
cent in the province of Chernigov, forty per cent
in the province of Ekaterinoslav, and fifteen in
the provinces of Poltava, Taurida, and Kherson.
With regard to spring tilling in Ukraine we may
figure on a shortage of about thirty per cent. And
if the reduction of the area of cultivation will con-
tinue at this rate, it may be expected that Ukrain-
ian agriculture will not produce any surplus, that
the Ukrainian peasants will sow just enough to
provide the needs of their families. At the same
time the phantom of world famine which is threat-
ening Europe, the reports that this year's Euro-
pean crop was but forty-five per cent of the pre-
war average prove that the reduction of the area
of cultivation has become a universal phenomenon,
that the struggle for the production of grain must
become as vital a task as the struggle for the pro-
duction of manufactured goods, as the struggle for
transport. The recovery of impaired agriculture
must be included in the general plan for the eco-
nomic regeneration of the country. We are pre-
paring for commercial relations with Europe, and
our grain is our gold, our best medium of exchange.
To secure economic victory over the European
capitalists we must prevent the disappearance of
this gold and must increase its production. We
must not tolerate parasitism, laziness, and inertia
among the producers of grain, the peasants. For
only thus can we conquer capitalism most strongly
entrenched — among the small property owners of
the rural districts. — Ekonomicheskaya Zhizn,
June 11, 1920.
en
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Moscow in 1920
By Dr. Alfons Goldschmidt
' (Continued from
T N THE winter of 1919, during a lecture which
**■ I was giving at the Lessing College in Berlin,
on various problems of Socialism, the question of
dress under a socialist society came up. One lady
asked anxiously: Would everybody dress alike? I
reassured her. The fear of monotonous standard-
ization is exaggerated, I told her. If she had no
other objections against Socialism, she could be-
come a Socialist today.
So far, there is no trace of a change in dress
in Moscow. Of course, there is really no Socialism
in Moscow; Socialism is only just beginning. Of
Communism there is still less; there is a Com-
munist Party, nothing more. But even in a fin-
ished Communist Society (if it could ever be
called so) dress revolutions would hardly be char-
acteristic. An extraordinary variety of color and
style is even conceivable. However, the fate of
the world will not depend on it.
At any rate, the Russian Revolution has not been
a dress revolution, so far, although one of its re-
sults has been an increasing scarcity of clothing.
For the army needs immense quantities of cloth,
and there is a decided lack of tailors for civilian
purposes. Cloth there is in abundance. One bil-
lion arshins are already on hand, and 700 million
arshins could be finished in a short time. But the
step from the yard to the finished suit is consider-
our last issue)
able. This problem is especially well-known to
the Marxian student, who has tackled the Marxian
theory of value. If the step from yard to suit
were short and easy in Russia, the entire popula-
tion could be dressed in new clothes.
I was told that the workers of Russia are better
dressed now than they were in peace times. I
had no means of comparison, as I did not see
Moscow in peace time. I can bear witness, how-
ever, to the fact that the clothing of the workers
whom I saw appeared to be far from hopeless. I
never saw a single workman in rags. The workers
in the factories, which I visited, were well dressed
without exception. I saw immense numbers of
workers in great organizations, especially meetings.
Not one of them came in rags; neither did the
women. The wife of a workman in Russia still
wears the well-known head covering. She is dressed
very simply, but her dress is neat and clean. The
Revolution has accomplished a good deal in this
respect.
The problem of clothing for the workers is first
of all being taken care of by the system of clothing
rations. In times of peace, the Moscow worker
made an average daily wage of 79 kopecs. Dur-
ing the war the wage scale rose, prices rose also.
The average was so insignificant, that good clothes
were never even thought of. TMs wm true also of
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living quarters with even the most rudimentary
sanitary necessities. The average wage barely suf-
ficed for the rent of a cellar, for some inferior
bread, and a bit of vodka. Even in peace time,
the price of a room in the heart of Moscow was
at least fifteen to twenty rubles per month, and
that of a cellar about three to five rubles. A
worker hardly ever afforded himself the luxury of
a room above ground. He was glad to be able to
live in a factory tenement. Today the housing
problem is practically solved for the worker. There
are still a great many difficulties, but the worker's
housing troubles are a thing of the past. The con-
tention that the worker has driven the bourgeois
from his home is incorrect. As a rule families
were allowed to remain in their homes, but were
compelled to submit to the per capita housing
regulation, and to take in their quota of homeless
workers. I was in one "bourgeois" home in Mos-
cow, whose space was entirely adequate. It was
the old home of that particular family.
The wages of the Moscow workman of today
(on an average of 6,000 to 7,000 rubles per month,
without bonuses) would not cover the expense of
new clothing. At least they would not suffice to
acquire them in the open market where the price
of a suit is about 50,000 to 60,000 rubles. The
worker is dependent upon clothing rations. Of
course, he is furnished with very few street clothes ;
working clothes must be the first concern in the
official apportionment. These working clothes are
made according to one standardized pattern. I
saw several standard patterns in the Clothing De-
partment of the Textile Trade in Moscow. But
this is only a beginning. The official distribution
is not universal as yet, by any means. The de-
mands of the army eat up most of the necessities.
For instance, when I was in Moscow I was told
of a gigantic order of overcoats which had been
filled for the army at the Polish front.
Clothing in the Soviet stores and bazaars is very
cheap. But buying it is a troublesome affair. The
way to such a piece of wearing apparel leads
through miles of red tape, and even after a suc-
cessful passage along this road one does not obtain
the desired article at once. Women Soviet work-
ers complained bitterly to me of the lack of cloth-
ing, and my women translators in Moscow begged
me to give them clothing instead of money. Among
other things, they took my bathrobe, which they
intended to convert into flannel waists. They also
suffered from a scarcity of stockings. One of my
translators told me that she was forced to patch to-
gether two stockings to make one. Of course Rus-
sian women as a whole are extraordinarily clever
with the needle. Most of them make their own
clothes, and very often even their own shoes. To
be sure, they are cloth shoes, the leather soles of
which must be left to the shoemaker to supply.
The lack of knitted wear for hose, and the scar-
city of dyes, has resulted in the most remarkable
styles in some cases. For instance, many women
wear white socks, which extend only a little way
above the shoe tops. Otherwise the leg is naked.
This nakedness disturbs not a soul in Moscow,
however, and occasions not the slightest erotic com-
motion, nor does it appear indecent. At first I
though it to be an old custom due to the summer
heat, but was informed later that it was due to the
scarcity of knitting materials.
There was no sign of a clothing famine in Mos-
cow. Although there are beggars in rags, as in
other cities, Moscow is far from being in tatters.
To be sure, the question of how it is possible for
a city with at least one and a quarter million in-
habitants to be so well dressed in times like these
goes unanswered. Not even the Russians in Mos-
cow are able to answer it. Or they say simply:
Life helps itself. Just as Moscow eats and looks
well nourished, so also does it clothe itself.
Dress distinction in Moscow continues to exist.
There is still carelessness, simplicity and luxury
of dress. Ladies continue to arrive at the theater
amid the soft swishing of silken gowns, sweet
fragrance still breathes from delicate blouses,
young dandies swarm daintily as before in elegant
tailors' confections, or in bright Russian jackets.
And as always, there are the industrious ones, un-
concerned with raggedness or tatters. And there
are the shabby and unambitious, who are neither
pushing nor on the lookout for bargains, satisfied
with anything. I saw unblushing trouser holes,
unblushing coat fringes, and shoes from which
the unblushing corns stared haughtily at an in-
quisitive world.
As for shoes ; I have never seen in any other city
such elegant foot gear as in Moscow ; such elegant
men's shoes, high shoes reaching well up over the
calf of the leg, and especially elegant ladies' shoes,
not quite so high. There is still much leather for
uppers in Russia (I believe it is even permitted to
export it), but there is a lack of sole leather, and
yet these elegant shoes are well soled. I have
seen most distracting Kirghiz boots, worn by
ladies. I saw high shoes, low shoes, bright colored
slippers, shoes with ribbons and shoes with rosettes,
and patent leather shoes. The women of Moscow
cannot complain of a shoe famine. Officially speak-
ing, there is a serious lack of shoes, but the un-
official shoe situation is satisfactory. At least this
was the case during my stay in Moscow. It goes
without saying that there are exceptions, hardships
and scarcities. Also I have seen shoes down at
the heel and other shoe atrocities. But it cannot
be said that Moscow is down at the heel any more
than it is out at the elbow.
Beggars
One would think that a Socialist Society has
no beggars, and that therefore begging would be
unnecessary and prohibited. But Soviet Russia,
the Soviet Russian people, are not a Socialist So-
ciety as yet. The Communist Party of Russia
has done away with property rights in regard to
the means of production, and has thus prepared
the ground for Socialism. But it is a far cry from
that point to an accomplished Socialism. That is
why social insurance :i«i not as successful as it
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should be, and even if it functioned successfully,
there would still be beggars in Moscow. For beg-
gars beg from sheer laziness as well as from poverty
and need. There are whole beggar families, who
inherit their street corner along with their pro-
fession from generation to generation, just as the
Paris speculators inherit their profession with their
seats on the Bourse. There are very wealthy beg-
gar families, and whole beggar dynasties, as well
as beggar princes, beggar dukes, and beggar kings.
It is very often quite a profitable calling, and so
long as the profitable business opportunities are
not completely done away with, so long we will
have beggars. Soviet Russia had hardly the rudi-
ments of a practical policy before the November
Revolution, and admired the German official model,
which was after all so far from admirable. It is no
small matter to steer a practical social course in
Russia. The program of the Communist Party
in Russia says : "The Soviets have legally full and
complete social maintenance, in all cases of inca-
pacity to work, or loss of work, for all workers
who are not exploiting the labor of others."
That is true, fundamentally true, and yet main-
tenance is not sufficient. For it is simply impos-
sible so far to care for the workers as one would
like. The maintenance will finally come up to the
planned intention, but it cannot be done today.
And even if it could be done, the beggars would
not die out at once.
The beggars of Moscow are not like the beggars
of other cities. At least not like the beggars of
Western Europe. They are beggars with a semi-
asiatic patience, at least. Beggars with a definite
stand, who never leave their place; moving
beggars, who weave back and forth between two
fixed points, from morning till night; mandarin-
beggars, who bow their heads before each passer-
by; religious beggars who cross themselves inces-
santly ; murmuring beggars, who whisper to them-
selves all day long, as though they were reciting
an endless chapter of the Koran.
You sit in the Theater Square in Moscow. A
beggar passes — a tall man, somewhat bent, a long,
grey beard. His coat is shabby, torn, felt boots
are on his feet, or only one foot is in a felt boot,
the other in a dilapidated shoe. The right hand
is missing. The stump of an arm is hidden by a
sleeve. As he reaches your bench, he draws the
sleeve back and holds the naked stump of an arm
close to your face, mumbling the while. You give
him a few Bolshevik rubles. He passes on, with-
out changing his tempo, from bench to bench,
everywhere mumbling and showing his stump of
an arm. You think, now he is gone, for the day
at least, finally gone. But you are wrong. A
quarter of an hour, and he is back, repeating the
same beggar performance. He never scolds, never
becomes impatient if you give him nothing. He
simply returns every quarter hour, and knows well
that finally you will give him another ruble, or
else the bench may have a new occupant.
A woman stands at the corner of the general
poet office, near the boulevard entrance, with her
head sunk low upon her breast. Opposite stands
a church with a green dome. She is singing softly
to herself, and bows incessantly like an automaton.
You think she is praying. Perhaps she really is
praying to God to make those who pass generous.
At any rate praying and begging are all one to
her. So she stands, for many hours, slowly moves
her bowed head up and down, and mechanically
extends her hand. Many pass by without giving,
but now and then there is one who leaves the great
stream of passers-by in order to give.
Women, their heads monotonously moving up
and down, stand in front of the Iberian madonna,
who stands guard at the Red Square. Women with
palms outstretched, not without fervor — beggar
women. When several ruble notes have accumu-
lated, they vanish into the skirt pocket. One or
two ruble notes remain as a kind of bait. They
stir the emotions. They say, these rubles notes:
You see, there are some kind hearts still; won't
you be kind to us, too? They have stirred me
again and again, these ruble notes, although my
constant companion advised against it. For he
was a rationalist, and a rationalist in Moscow gives
nothing to beggars. Begging must be abolished,
root and branch. If you give to beggars, they con-
tinue to beg, refuse to work while they are able-
bodied, and when they are incapacitated, they will
not take the trouble to obtain the necessary social
insurance. I was acquainted with this theory
from my university days. I used to defend it, I
defend it still, but I violate my own principle.
One should not violate one's own principles. When
you go to Moscow do not give to the beggars.
Furthermore, there is the genteel beggar, a kind
of society mendicant.' This form of begging is
abominable. They are usually not beggars from
poverty, but from sheer laziness. Helping those
who are willing to work, but who are temporarily
in need, is not supporting beggars, it is a duty.
If society is not yet able to take care of its peo-
ple, our fellow men must come to our assistance.
For society, even a beginning socialist society, is a
beast. Genteel begging, however, is disgusting
laziness, is turning human compassion to a profit,
full of hypocrisy and brazen insolence. Such beg-
gars should be thrown out of the house and the
dogs sent after them, even though they may come
with diamonds on their fingers. For such beggars
often wear diamonds. They can afford it.
But there are also beggars in Moscow who are
beggars by conviction ; proud beggars, people who
have lost everything, who have nothing, and yet
who will not submit. People who once were great
figures, people of position, people of brilliance.
Not tinsel brilliance, but brilliance of diligence
and application, brilliance of family or of daring.
They sell their last possessions, refuse to take ad-
vantage of the parasite allowance, scorn to play
the role of the obsequious government clerk, and
beg.
One evening I saw, in front of a well preserved
old house on the boulevard, a tall and stately old
man in U *V Efiltf ^*rff* weU dre88ed
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SOVIET EUSSIA
October 16, 1920
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men and women. I inquired about this man, and
was told that he was a former Czarist general
turned beggar. Every one to whom he spoke must
have given him no inconsiderable gift. I saw this
man several weeks later, in the Theater Square.
Again he only spoke to well dressed people. He
did not address them with a servile air, with the
air of a beggar. He begged just as one would
exchange greetings with an acquaintance. He
accepted the gift as a tribute, and always he re-
ceived a gift. No one knew the exact details, but
I thought to myself : Here is a man who begs, not
from laziness, or from gentility, but from principle.
A beggar from pride and from conviction. Many
Czarist generals have put themselves at the dis-
posal of the Soviet Government. Brussilov heads
them all ; he had been a kind of people's general.
I believe they did this from conviction; not per-
haps from communist conviction, but from patri-
otic conviction, because they think that the Rus-
sian Communists will save the country. But this
general this begging general, did not place himself
at their disposal. He would rather beg.
I do not like people who are able to change front
suddenly. I do not like dishonest people, oppor-
tunists, people with a turn-table heart. I know,
too, what might be said against the begging gen-
eral. But he struck me as a man.
Churches and Chapels
Moscow boasts forty times forty churches and
chapels. Forty times forty says the Russian when
he wants to signify a great number, when he
would express their power, their variety, their
teeming multitude. I do not know how many
churches and chapels there are in Moscow. Perhaps
there are more than 1,600 — perhaps less. It really
matters not at all. Every one who visits Moscow
knows that it is a city of churches, a city bedomed
and bespired, a city of a thousand church bells, a
hundred thousand devotees, and ten thousand
popes or more.
This is true even today. The churches and
chapels are still standing. Many facades are
crumbling. They lack the scrupulous care which
they received under the Czarist papalism. Their
walls have been gnawed a bit by the revolution.
But still they stand, and few of them are closed.
They stand in streets and earners, on stony hills,
on city squares, surrounded by convent walls ; they
are everywhere. Their bells still call the faithful
to prayer; here and there a devotee sits or stands
on a roof, as on the roof of a minaret, semi-asiatic,
careless and indolent, making an uncle of his God.
I saw chapels where prayers were said from
morning till night; I saw churches which were
empty during the day. There are still Eastern
processions in Moscow, there are still churches and
chapels where the images of the saints are fervent-
ly implored for miracles. There are still pictures
and picture frames in these churches, heavy with
gold and encrusted with many precious stones. No
one knows exactly how these churches and their
popes are being supported. But they are being
supported, in spite of the state, which has washed
its hands of them.
However, the state is not satisfied with the sep-
aration of the church from the state, and the sep-
aration of the school from the church, but is mak-
ing every effort to sever "the connection between
the exploiting classes and the organiza-
tion of religious propaganda, by means of a wide-
spread organization whose task it is to enlighten
and finally free the working masses with the help
of scientific and anti-religious propaganda. Great
care must be taken to avoid any injury to the sen-
sitive feelings of the faithful, as such injury would
only result in a strengthening of religious fana-
ticism." As may be seen, this is not tolerance,
but a fight to the finish. It is not merely to be
a separation from the church, but the church is to
be fought tooth and nail. But the churches in
Moscow seem to pay small heed to this fight, or to
the posters of enlightenment, to the slurs against
the old, decayed, pope-ridden regime, which so
many Russians have fought long before the Bol-
sheviki ; Leo Tolstoy first of all.
I have spoken of the Chapel of the Iberian
Madonna in the Red Square. There the flickering
light of candles, gold and precious stones mingle
constantly, and prayers never cease, even at night.
Here the most fervent miracle fetish of Moscow
is centered, a fervor which reached a climax of
religious jubilation when religious insignia on
one of the towers of the Kremlin miraculously
escaped the gunfire of the revolution. Often I
have stood in front of this chapel with its small,
time-worn, somewhat elevated, stone court, and its
begging women standing guard. More people cross
themselves in front of this chapel than anywhere
in Moscow. Constantly one sees people passing
these churches and crossing themselves, or stand-
ing still a moment and murmuring a prayer. The
Revolution has not killed the church, or at least
not yet. And there are a great many people in
Moscow who predict a much longer life for the
church than for the Revolution. There are still
poor-boxes in these churches, by no means empty.
The popes no longer strut confidently, it is no
longer a majestic strutting, but they go about un-
molested. I have seen laughing popes, popes pray-
ing in the streets, slinking popes, dirty popes, and
even smartly dressed popes, priests such as the
French novelists love to describe. I even saw a
sort of Rasputin, a pope flaunting his peasant
vigor, with high boots, immense black beard, and
seductive eyes.
There is that wonderful Cathedral, with the
great, golden dome, which absorbs the sun in the
evening, and which expels it again during the day,
which throws out fire that blinds and consumes.
This church grows up out of a lovely landscape,
its great square stones rising up free and powerful.
It is a wonderful church, an inspiring church, even
for those who do not worship the God of this
church. When you walk along the wall of the
Kremlin, look for this church; you will find it
if you look for it in summer, on an evening full
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of the warm gold of the evening sun, and the
glowing tints of a hot Moscow sky, an evening that
makes the heart restless and yet strangely quiet.
But the great marvel, the real marvel is the
church of St. Basil. It is not a church, it is a
phantasy, a mosaic of domes, an undreamed fairy
tale, a riot of colors, a color illusion. It is hard
to believe that a man, an architect can have built
this church. It changes constantly, in the morning
it is different from the evening, afternoon differ-
ent from noon. If you approach it from the
Moskva bridge, it looks like a great ship with many
bulbous mastheads. If you come upon it from the
Red Square it is like a castle made of toy blocks.
It has bewitching little windows, gratings and
crumbling corners of incredible antique charm. It
has really no symmetry, and yet it is an organism.
It looks as though it were built piecemeal, and
yet it is a harmonious whole. Sometimes it seems
a massive heap, and again delicately scaled. Some-
times it looks large, sometimes small. It moves
the soul, it charms, it shocks the eye, it is a delu-
sion. It is the most wonderful thing that I have
ever seen ; the entire forest of domes of the eternal
Kremlin fades out before this church. No one
visited it, an old scaffolding embraced one of its
towers, when I was in Moscow. I did not see the
interior, and yet I saw it, because I saw the out-
side. It is an epic, a small lyric poem, a ballad,
a toy, it is a mother and a fresh young girl, it is
all that your heart desires. If you do not go to
Moscow to look at the beginning of Socialism, go
there and look at the church of St. Basil.
They say that an architect under Ivan the Ter-
rible built this church ,and that the Terrible Ivan
had killed the builder, to prevent his building an-
other church of equal wonder and beauty. That
is what they told me. I don't know how true it is,
but it is possible.
The Great Opera House
When the English delegation arrived in Moscow
I received an invitation from the Bureau of the
Third Internationale to attend the Grand Opera,
an opera with ballet. They were giving Prince
Igor, an opera whose music my friends praised
very highly. All my friends tell me that I know
nothing about music. For I hate opera, and I
am quite frank in saying so to my friends. I
wonder at those who can enjoy the opera, who are
able to hear and to see at the same time. It is
impossible for me to watch a dramatic perform-
ance, and at the same time hear the orchestra. I
can not get over that conflict. There is only one
opera whose music takes hold of me to such an
extent that I can bear the dramatic action : Car-
men. Read Tolstoy's criticism of Wagner's Rhein-
gold.* That is my criticism too. It leaves me
untouched.
Hence the opera, Prince Igor, was of no import-
ance whatever to me. It was the audience which
•drew me to the theatre. A new audience. The
* This criticism, which differs considerably from that of most
TViSJS? 1 P« ra °ns, will be found in Tolstoy's book, "What is Art?"
U897).— Editor, Soviet Russia.
six gigantic rows up to the very top abundantly
sprinkled with the proletariat. The parquet al-
most entirely filled with workers, in the boxes many
workers. There was a sprinkling of Red soldiers.
Also Soviet women secretaries, Soviet officials,
women officials. Any one wishing to go to the
theatre must be organized, else he receives no
ticket. For instance, tickets are issued by trade
unions. Of course, not all theatres in Moscow are
city theatres or people's theatres. The Korsh
Theatre, for instance, where I saw a most horrible
play, is still a kind of private theatre. In this
theatre there is no trace of a proletarian influence.
Xor in the Great Opera House, where the stage is
still working with its old material, is a prole-
tarian influence to be noticed, although it is pat-
ronized mainly by the proletariat. There is no
trace so far of a new art, an art of the people, of
a socialist art, or hardly a trace.
But the audience, such an audience ! Today it
is made up of proletarian children, thousands of
children, dressed in white from tip to toe, from the
parquet to the very topmost gallery. Childish awe,
childish whispering and applause from little hands.
A new world is in the making here. This is the
nursing future, drinking its fill, this is flame and
fire, the great hope of Russia.
Then again they are trades organizations, an au-
dience still colored by the past. But always it is
a public made up from the ranks below, a pro-
letarian foundation, a proletarian majority, work-
ing men, working 'women.
Trotsky had arrived in Moscow from the Polish
front, in order to receive the English, to attend
to parades and to war affairs. The public was
quieted with difficulty. It stood up, it shouted, it
went mad with applause when Trotsky appeared
in his box. He bowed as he seated himself near
the railing, with Mrs. Snowden, the coldly intel-
ligent, wet-blanket-like English woman, at his
right, and the remaining English delegates ranged
to the right and left. With a gallant bow to the
English lady, who was only half a comrade, he
took his seat. A gallant bow, for there are such
things even in Soviet Russia. For almost a quar-
ter hour the people continued their ovation to
Trotsky.
The performance was sumptuous. It was the
play of a bourgeois composer, played before red
draperies and red minds. Enjoyed with enthusi-
asm and great applause. It was a touching flame
to flare up for this opera, which has so little fire,
which is so full of yearning, of melancholy and
sentimental love. But it is Russian, and the artist,
the singer, the actor is loved in Moscow still. He
is called again and again, he beams, he needs ap-
plause. That is true everywhere, but especially
is it true in Russia, it is more true than ever be-
fore. I believe that it is even more so in Soviet
Russia than it was in Czarist Russia. For art
finds new receptive grounds here, the most delicate
appreciation, a promise of fruitfulness never
dreamed of before. Unfortunately it is still the
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old art, representative art, academic art, silly art,
and not an art of the people.
I did not come to see Prince Igor, I came to
see the public, and the ballet. After a period of
hard scientific work I wanted to see a Russian
Ballet: Nizhinskis, Pavlovas, butterflies, yellow
wagtails (a la Kerr), humming birds (a la Kerr).
They gave us a savagely sumptuous women's scene,
with heavy animal skins, richly embroidered cush-
ions, and inconceivably beautiful Russian cos-
tumes; with brocades, semi-oriental slippers, rug
fantasies, tent mysteries. Katherine Geltzer ap-
peared; she is forty-eight; forty-eight, and a vig-
orous fawn, fleet-limbed, with firm white flesh,
unspeakably graceful. Wonderful muscles on the
limbs of a Diana. Little covering. She appeared
and the house stormed. She danced little. She
made long bounding leaps like a setter, she
crouched down like a shamefaced peasant girl, she
strode majestically like a queen. She is madly
beloved in Moscow. Every workman knows Kath-
erine. She is fragrant with perfume, she wears
rings, she is fashionable as always. She is a bal-
lerina for the proletariat too. She dances hap-
pily, she grows happy with her dance, joy flings
her high as if caught by the wind, she is a sprite,
she turns her toe upon your heart, she whirls her-
self into your soul, she is a great artist, at forty-
eight. A fawn — at forty-eight. With the years of
a grandmother and yet a fawn.
It was fearfully hot in the theatre. But every
one remained to the very last tone. And then
came the wonder, the surprise, the thing that did
not belong to the play at all, the proletarian thing.
For now it was no longer the stage who was sing-
ing, it was not alone the orchestra, the people
were singing. They stood singing, they left sing-
ing, they crowded singing through the exits. They
marched down the stairs singing. The house sang
from the gallery to the pit. The song rose up,
the song grew, the song threatened, swore,
pounded, that proletarian song, that song of
humanity, the song made up of awkward words,
that uncouth, that fighting song, that primitive,
rallying, uniting song:
Arise ye pris'ners of starvation 1
Arise ye wretched of the earth,
For justice thunders condemnation,
A better world's in birth.
No more tradition's chains shall bind us,
Arise, ye slaves ! No more in thrall !
The earth shall rise on new foundations,
We have been naught, we shall be all.
Tis the final conflict,
Let each stand in his place,
The International Party
Shall be the Human Race.
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
f T*HE readiness of the Soviet Army to meet the
■"■ coming winter campaign on the Western Front
produced a decisive effect upon the Polish policy
towards Russia.
The Polish General Staff, in spite of all its
bellicose sentiments against the Bolsheviki, has at
last realized that Trotsky is right in his declara-
tion that the whole Russian nation is ready for
new sacrifices, and that the Red Army is strong
and vigorous enough to continue the war.
The Polish victory over the Soviet forces which
tried to capture Warsaw was greatly exaggerated,
and now we can see that the Russians have finally
won the war against the Poles strategically in spite
of the fact that they lost their last battle tactically.
Soviet Russia fought imperialistic Poland in
order to obtain a suitable peace. This the Soviet
Government openly declared at the time when in
March, 1920, the Poles so treacherously attacked
the weak Red forces, and peace negotiations were
so abruptly broken off by Pilsudski. Let us re-
call the declaration of the military leader of the
Polish army, that Poland would never make peace
with Russia unless the Soviet Government were
dismembered.
Therefore, Polish strategy had to carry out the
policy fixed by the Polish Government, namely, —
to defeat the Red Army, thus opening the gates of
Moscow, and by force of arms, and with the sup-
port of the counter-revolution, to put an end to
Bolshevik rule in the Russian Republic.
The policy of the Soviets was far different. The
Russian Soviet Government never thought of
dismembering Poland. The Soviet peace
delegates on several occasions met with the Poles
in order to come to a possible understanding.
The Russian policy toward Poland never was based
on the policy of conquest and annexation of Pol-
ish territory. On the contrary, Russia at first
adopted the most peaceful methods of forcing the
Polish Government to withdraw its troops from oc-
cupied Russian and Ukrainian territory. When
it became clear that it was impossible to reason
with the aggressive Polish leaders, the Soviets pre-
pared to meet any possible surprise on the western
frontier of the Republic, and began to concentrate
their forces in the west only when the Poles had
completed the concentration of their military
forces and unexpectedly attacked the Russians.
Summing up all that has happened since March,
1920, we come to the conclusion that Soviet Rus-
sia attained its political and strategical aim dur-
ing the Polish war. Soviet Russia won peace, and
won it at the most important moment, when her
southern part was seriously threatened by counter-
revolution supported by the capitalistic coalition
of the world. Polish strategy, on the contrary,
failed to accomplish the gigantic political plan
concocted in Paris.
The efforts of our enemies to create a powerful
military alliance of the Scandinavian states, Bal-
tic republics, Lithuania, and Rumania, failed com-
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pletely. The moral and material support of the
Allies, and the counter-revolutionary movement of
Baron Wrangel, to a certain extent, only helped
the Polish shlakhta to exist longer than would
have been the case if Poland had been left to her
own fate. With great fear and prejudice the Pol-
ish political leaders approached the new Russian
adventurer Wrangel. They knew very well that
each success of the Polish army over the Bol-
sheviki was also a victory for Wrangel, that such
victories were very dangerous not only for the
Polish shlakhta but for the very existence of Pol-
and as an independent state.
In reality a victorious Wrangel would have been
more dangerous to the Poles than was Denikin,
whose defeat was partially due to the obstinate
neutrality of Poland at that time. But in spite of
realizing the danger of reestablishing a strong
monarchical Bussia, the Poles, thanks to military
circumstances and, to a great extent, to the in-
6i8tence of their French advisers, were forced to
enter into an alliance with the Crimean baron,
who, after all, supported them at the most cri-
tical moment. Let us not overlook the fact that
Wrangel began his active offensive at the time of
the recent attack of the Soviet Army against War-
saw.
This dangerous alliance of Poland with one of
the worst Russian reactionaries produced a very
strong effect on some small European states, which
in spite of the alleged collapse of the Red armies,
not only did not join the Poles in their campaign
against Soviet Russia, but hastened to establish
friendly relations with the latter. This was the
case with Lithuania, Latvia, and Finland. Ru-
mania, holding Bessarabia, a part of the late Rus-
sian empire, also looked suspiciously on the Wran-
gel-Polish cooperation, and remained neutral in
spite of all efforts of Polish and Allied diplomats
to force her to attack Soviet Russia. Had the
capitalistic coalition succeeded in enticing all these
nations into a war with Soviet Russia, there is no
doubt that Wrangel would have reached Moscow,
and the old regime, with all its terrible conse-
quences for the states formerly constituting the
Czardom of Russia would have been established.
France and the other capitalistic supporters of
Poland, in case of a decisive Wrangel victory over
the Soviets, would undoubtedly have deserted the
Polish shlakhta, leaving Poland to her own des-
tiny. France, first of all, needs a strong military
and financial Russia, a Russia that will repay all
the debts of the Czars. In reality, what does Pol-
and alone mean for France ? Poor, burdened with
debts, with an unstable government on the eve of
an unavoidable political crisis and social revolu-
tion, exhausted by war, such a Poland, with Rus-
sia hostile, would never be a support for France
in case of the restoration of German militarism.
The real aim of France is to strengthen Russian
counter-revolution, and the Poles, finally under-
standing the real aim of their protectors, have re-
jected all further military assistance, preferring
peace with the Bolsheviki to the danger from
WrangePs victory.
Therefore, unable to defeat the Russian army in
the field, and to overthrow the Soviet Government,
driven from the territory of the Soviet Republic by
the force of the Red Army, the Poles are now
forced to sign an armistice, and to enter into peace
negotiations with the representatives of the Soviet
Government, leaving their ally Wrangel to his
own fate, namely, to complete destruction.
Can such a situation be considered a victorious
end of war for the Polish shlakhta?
The victors, politically as well as strategically,
are the Russian Soviets. Never was the Soviet
Government so strong and stable as at this mo-
ment; never was the Red Army so enthusiastic
and ready to fight the foe as it is now. The Riuk
sian dash on Warsaw, though a failure from a tao»
tical standpoint, brought the Russian people to a
great strategical victory — to peace with Poland.
Had the Red Army occupied Warsaw, the war with
Poland would have been prolonged, and the Rus-
sians would perhaps have been forced to move
their armies farther to the west, thus complicat-
ing the gloomy political situation in Europe. The
set-back of the Red Army prevented this danger-
ous movement, and there came the possibility of
stopping the war. Now both belligerents are
frankly seeking peace, and peace must come. Even
the reactionary bandits understand the real situa-
tion of the war and are deserting Wrangel. Only a
few days ago, it was reported that the famous
Petlura captain, the leader of the Ukrainian na-
tionalists, Makhno, succeeded in joining the ad-
vance of WrangePs cavalry twenty-five miles south
of Yekaterinoslav, and that these united bands
were moving on Kharkev.
According to the Associated Press, on the fol-
lowing day, Kharkov, this very important center
in South Russia, was captured by Wrangel. To
determine the truth of such news, it is sufficient
to look at the map ; Kharkov is situated 120 miles
northeast of Yekaterinoslav.
After having carefully studied the situation on
the Crimean front, I consider that all the news
referring to the fall of Kharkov and to the alleged
danger to Odessa and Kiev* is nothing more than
the usual fabricated stuff of the capitalist press
agencies and is not even worthy of discussion.
But the important fact is this: that Makhno, ac-
cording to a dispatch published in the American
press on October 7, has left Wrangel and joined
the Bolsheviki. Now it becomes clear that under
such circumstances, it is quite possible that
Makhno entered Kharkov with his troops.
This extraordinary Ukrainian adventurer
changed sides on several occasions during the civil
war in Russia. First, with the Bolsheviki, he fought
the Germans, then he joined Denikin against
them, and at the most critical moment of Denikin's
retreat, after his defeat at Orel, he, together with
Petlura, betrayed their ally, attacking his left
flank and his rear, thus aiding the Reds to finish
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During the Polish campaign, Petlura, as is
known, led the Ukrainian nationalists and the
Poles, while Makhno stood at the head of the so-
called insurgent parties. These parties, mostly
recruited from rich peasants ("fists") and cos-
sack landlords who had lost their property to the
poor peasantry, were armed by Wrangel and fin-
ancially supported by him. The most important
of these bands are led by the very well-known
bandits, Yazenko, Savchenko, Grishin, and Pro-
khan, whose names are inscribed with the blood of
innocent victims in the history of the Russian
Revolution.
The forces of Makhno are not numerous. He
had under his command about 30,000 horsemen
divided into many small parties which were in-
structed not to come in contact with the Red Army.
On the contrary, they had to raid behind the bat-
tle front of the Soviet forces, and to penetrate, as
far as possible, in the rear of the Reds. Not being
in immediate danger, they traveled from one vil-
lage to another, distributing printed pamphlets
and manifestos printed by Wrangel. The main
idea of such raids was to stir up the peasants of
South Russia, as well as the Don Cossacks, against
the Soviets. But as far as we can see, this plan
failed completely. Makhno himself realized that,
in case of peace with Poland, it would be an easy
task for the Reds to put an end to the existence
of Wrangel's army, and being a practical man, he
again joined the side which is destined to win.
This last step of Makhno's, from a strategical
point of view, is very important. Once more the
left flank of the reactionary army is absolutely
open for a counter-attack of the Reds, and a part
of its rear is also threatened. On the other hand,
the name of Makhno is very popular among the
Ukrainian nationalists, and especially among the
insurgents, and his decision to join the Bolsheviki
will certainly produce a great moral impression
upon the Ukrainian reactionaries.
Finally, our enemy in the south is confronted
with precisely the same situation in which Denikin
found himself a year ago.
Such deplorable conditions of WrangePs armed
bands produced great anxiety in Paris, and Gen-
eral Weygand, the famous "savior" of Warsaw, was
ordered to proceed to the South Russian front
immediately, in order to take supreme command of
WrangePs forces.
But even the reactionary press of France is sus-
piciously watching developments in South Russia.
Le Matin, for instance, is bitterly attacking Eng- .
land for her treacherous Russian policy, and ener-
getically denies that the French fleet intends to
attack Black Sea ports, although such a discovery
was recently made by the Revolutionary Field
Staff of the Red Army.
The approaching peace of Poland with Soviet
Russia was met by French military experts with
great dissatisfaction, and according to despatches
from Paris on October 7 (The Evening Post),
military circles in France "are concerned over the
effect the conclusion of an armistice between Rus-
sia and Poland will have on the campaign of Gen-
eral Baron Wrangel in South Russia. They assert
there is no doubt that the Bolsheviki will at once
send reinforcements to the Crimean front." The
most remarkable part of the report in the French
press is that it denies that "the Soviet regime is
nearing its end; for, despite the gravity of eco-
nomic conditions, certain gains of the revolution
have been consolidated.
Thus, one of the most irreconcilable of the ene-
mies of Soviet Russia has begun to recognize the
failure of its fruitless adventure. Then why con-
tinue these useless experiments ? Would it not be
better to keep hands off Russia, and at last allow
her alone to settle with the enemies at home?
THE GRAVE-DIGGERS OF WHITE
POLAND
By Karl Radek
White Guard Poland is fighting to the death.
She realizes this fact, and asks herself
if ruin, which she is experiencing, and from
which there is hardly any escape, is unavoidable?
She points her finger at the Commander-in-Chief
of the army, Marshal Joseph Pilsudski, as upon
the person guilty of having brought this catas-
trophe upon Poland, and reproaches him with hav-
ing followed a romantic illusion, the dismember-
ment of Russia, and the liberation of the border
countries, and for the sake of this illusion having
refused a favorable peace.
The White Guardist press bases its similar as-
sertions simply upon facts commonly known, facts
of which the documents made public in the "Bed
Book" of the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs,
speak. But there are documents which compromise
White Poland even more than do the documents
which are to be found in the "Red Book".
We have reference to the negotiations carried
on in October of the past year in the name of the
Soviet Government by General Machlowski, and
Captain Ignace Berner, the representative and per-
sonal friend of Joseph Pilsudski, in the town of
Miklashevichi. Machlowski was at that time in
the territory occupied by Poland, attending a
formal conference dealing with the affairs of the
Red Cross. Independently of these conferences,
and under their cover, political conferences were
also carried on.
When Captain Berner was reproached with the
fact that the Poles were directly aiding Denikin
and Yudenich in invading Russia, and that the
latter, in case of victory, would seize independent
Poland, Berner tried to prove, by analyzing the
military situation, that, in their advance upon the
southwestern front, the Poles were not moving
against Soviet Russia, but on the contrary, against
Denikin. He explained that, despite the fact that
the Poles had been compelled by the Allies to nego-
tiate with Denikin, these negotiations were merely
carried on for the sake of appearances; and as to
the matter of taking joint action with Denikin,
that was out of the question. He pointed out the
line which the Pcl^sh army would not cross, if the
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Soviet Government would abandon the revolution-
ary propaganda on the Polish front. This line
corresponds precisely to the line which the Soviet
Government had officially promised not to cross,
on January 28, 1920.
Captain Berner assumed a majestic mien. He as-
serted that it was not Pilsudski's purpose to treat
with the Soviet Government ; he dictated the front
line. But General Machlowski was perfectly right
in ignoring the knightly and commanding postur-
ings of Pilsudski's representative, because these
attitudes were assumed to cover up a very ugly
fact — the fact that Pilsudski had sold us to Deni-
kin and the Allies.
The Allies did not create the Polish army in
order to have Marshal Pilsudski clank his sword,
single-handed, but in order that the White Guard-
ist Polish army, cooperating with the White Guard-
ist Bussian armies, should destroy Soviet Bussia.
The Polish bourgeoisie, led by the National Demo-
crats, were for an alliance with Denikin, whose
imperialist ambitions against Poland they hoped
to render harmless, with the help of the Allies.
Pilsudski, like any other narrow provincial,
hoped for the death of Bussia, but feared the
method that would lead thereto, and shrank from
an alliance with the Bussian White Guard. He
sought the aid of the Allies, but wished to be more
than their vassal — he sought to carry on an inde-
pendent policy. Being the narrowly provincial
nationalist that he was, he hated Denikin no less
than Soviet Bussia, out of hatred of everything
Bussian. Despite the fact that he was in the
power of the Allies, and could not exist for a day
without their aid, he knew, nevertheless, from the
time when he had been a Socialist, that the Allies
were not to be trusted. As a result of this distrust
of the Allies, as well as of Denikin, he sold out
both the Allies and Denikin to Soviet Bussia. He
not only allowed Bussia to rest, because she was
threatened with grave danger, but went so far as
to enter into a military treaty, with reference to
the front line fixed by her, which was directed
against Denikin and the Allies. And it is be-
cause he is a narrow provincial that he was unable
to keep consistently to a fixed course of action.
Pilsudski was only capable of betraying the Allies
and Denikin, but he was incapable of reaping the
fruits of his betrayal.
When Machlowski proposed to Pilsudski the
drawing up of a treaty of peace, Bussia was in the
direst possible straits, all her powers were strained
to the utmost to vanquish Denikin. But Pilsudski
could not make up his mind to make peace with
Bussia, for despite the fact that he did not trust
the Allies, and in fact had betrayed them, he never-
theless and at the same time feared, as befitted
the provincial that he was, the wrath of the Allies.
Pilsudski declined to make peace with Bussia.
When the Allies lifted the blockade of Bussia,
and began to negotiate with Litvinov, only then
did this provincial in the coat-of-mail of the Polish
Commander-in-Chief decide to treat with Bussia.
Pilsudski took the typically adventurous path —
he tried "corriger la fortune"; with the view that
the hesitancy of the Soviet Government to enter
into peace negotiations at Borissov meant nothing
less than refusal to sign the peace treaty under
the command of the cannons of Pilsudski, he de-
termined to surprise the Soviet Government by
an invasion of Ukraine.
This narrow provincial, Pilsudski, swinging
from the extreme of pessimism to the extreme of
optimism, was convinced that the Soviet Govern-
ment was made of the same metal, and that having
once learned to know the power of the Polish army
in battle, it would not try it again. Like the
provincial he was, Pilsudski was incapable of
weighing and judging the relative strength of the
two nations ; he did not perceive that in case of a
Bussian-Polish war, after the Denikin adventure
had failed, the lapse of time would operate in Bus-
sia's favor; he did not take, into account the in-
ternational situation, which had not permitted
the Allies to support Poland in her war with Bus-
sia with the same energy they had given to the
support of Denikin and Yudenich.
RUSSO-RUMANIAN NEGOTIATIONS
Bucharest, August 12 (Damon).— The Buma-
nian Government has answered the note of the
Soviet Government concerning peace proposals as
follows: Bumania is not in a state of war with
Bussia and, therefore, can not begin any peace
negotiations for the purpose of terminating a war
which has not been waged. Inasmuch as a state
of peace actually exists between Bumania and Bus-
sia, this fact needs only to be recognized, which
can be done between their governments by means
of plenipotentiaries. — From Die Rote Fahne,
Vienna, August 15, 1920.
RUSSIAN-LATVIAN TREATY OF
PEACE IN THE NEXT ISSUE
OF "SOVIET RUSSIA"
Complete peace treaty translated from
the Latvian text. A study of this treaty
will show the actual peaceful aims of the
Soviet Government towards its neighbors,
its desire to right the wrongs committed
by the Czarist regime, and even more, its
regard for the interests of the broad
masses of the people in the country with
which the treaty is made.
Soviet Bussia will also publish the
Lithuanian peace treaty in the near
future.
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised.
A NOTHER long news item of October 2
**- from Washington, telling about what are
the present objects of the "attention of diplomatic
observers", appears in the New York Times of
October 3. The subject is the refusal of the Chin-
ese Government to continue to pay the Boxer in-
demnity to the representatives in China of the
no longer existing Russian Czarist Government.
What the "diplomatic observers" say to the Times
on their fears of the consequences of such dis-
continuation of payments, is the subject of the
following paragraph :
"For some time there has been reason to expect that
China would attempt to use the temporary disability
of Russia to forcibly repudiate the international obliga-
tions into which she entered with the government of
the late Czar. The coup that has just been executed,
however, has come rather suddenly and is occasioning
the more concern because it affects directly one of the
basic principles on which the development and welfare
of European and American activities in China are
founded — the so-called right of extra-territoriality, or,
as it is sometimes called, the capitulations."
Now, although this "right," as the "diplomatic
observers" go on to say, "has been established grad-
ually by consecutive treaties betwen all the white
nations and China," it is a "right" which flies
directly in the face of any pretense of self-determ-
ination of nations, for, as the "diplomatic observ-
ers" put it, it provides that :
"Subjects of European powers and American citizens,
as well as European and American corporations and
institutions doing business or engaged in trade with
China, are exempt from the direct application of Chinese
law and from the administration of Chinese officials."
This means that the Chinese cannot rule their
own country, but must consult foreign govern-
ments instead of being permitted to enforce their
own laws.
Should the Chinese declare their unwillingness
to allow the capitulations to remain in force, the
diplomatic informants of the Times would be be-
set by the following fears :
"Thus such a course by China would be a new blow
at the principle of the inviolability of treaties and would
exemplify anew the old German maxim that Might
makes Right. Above all else it is felt here to be essen-
tial that the principle be well established that treaties
can be changed only after proper reconsideration and
by VjOOgl C
agreement by all parties, and that if one party to an
international compact is temporarily prostrate it is the
duty of the community of nations to uphold the prin-
ciple of inviolability of the status quo. There are
friends of the League of Nations in Washington who
are saying emphatically how different the situation
would be if the league were at hand, with American
participation, as an instrument to adjust international
troubles in the Orient."
Of course, China lay prostrate when the capitu-
lations were forced upon her, but she must re-
spect the dead Czarism when the Soviet Govern-
ment of Russia, the only Russian Government in
existence, and the only government therefore that
has any right to represent Russia in China, pub-
licly denounces the Czarist concessions and re-
nounces any desire to profit by the past military
weakness of China. The morality that the West-
ern powers appear to oppose to the alleged prin-
ciple of "Might makes Right", is that it is right
to despoil a prostrate colony or an incipient prole-
tarian state, but wrong to withdraw from an effete
tyranny capitulations imposed by force by that
tyranny. For "diplomatic observers" to object to
China's using the "Might makes Right" principle
on Western nations is a rather sad joke.
And let us not forget the Boxer indemnity itself.
By the treaty of September 7, 1901, the Chinese
Government, after foreign troops had put down the
Boxer uprising, and after Chinese mandarins had
been legally sentenced to commit euicide in the
presence of foreign troops, in the streets of Peking,
the indemnity to be paid to the United States,
France, Germany, England, and Russia, which had
been fixed at 450,000,000 taels, was divided into
thirty successive annual instalments, of which
each of the powers mentioned was to receive an
equal share. This humiliation Czarist Russia per-
mitted China to bear, but Soviet Russia has de-
clared its unwillingness to accept this money. We
may note, in passing, that the United States Gov-
ernment had (in 1908) already taken similar ac-
tion, and thus taken an important step toward
gaining the friendship of the Chinese people. But
how do the diplomatic informants of the Times
greet the new Russian proposal to treat China as
an aggregation of human beings? Let us quote:
"China's decision is closely connected, in the opinion
of informed Washington observers, with the renewed
and energetic activities of the Bolshevist delegates in
China, who with fresh vigor are evidently carrying
out the program announced as long ago as April, soon
after the Kolchak collapse brought Bolshevik power into
contact with the very frontiers of China. At that time
a note, which may soon assume historic importance,
was addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs at
Peking, to the Chinese people and to the Governors
of East and West China, by Janson, Bolshevik pleni-
potentiary of Foreign Affairs in the Far East Inform-
ing the Chinese people of the approach of the Red
Army, Janson, as envoy of Lenin, called upon the
Chinese people to join hands with the Russian prole-
tarian forces to throw off the "hated yoke" which
foreign capital and "imperialistic government" had im-
posed on the Chinese people in order to exploit them."
The Soviet Government, on its side, proposed to pay
for the affiliation of the Chinese, the price of repudi-
ation of all the treaties, including the agreement cover-
ing the Chinese Eastern Railway, which had been con-
cluded between Russia and China."
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In other words, when a proletarian government
rights an ancient wrong, it is "paying a price for
the affiliation of the Chinese," while the honorable
Czarist Government was no doubt unwilling to
"bribe" the Chinese people in this way. It makes
a great difference "whose dog is bit," and it will be
a long time before American newspapers apply to
proletarian governments the yardstick with which
other institutions are measured. We are surprised
the New York Times should not go so far as to
permit its informants to tell it that the United
States Government, when it remitted the payments
on the Boxer indemnity in 1908, was "bribing" the
Chinese people, or "paying a price" for some con-
cession. It would be no more ridiculous than the
misrepresentation of which the Times is guilty
with regard to Soviet Russia's attitude toward
China.
* * *
VflCENTE BLASCO IBANEZ is a Spanish
* writer known in his own country and much
better known in the United States. When he
turned from the production of novels of Spanish
peasant-life, such as Barraca, La Catedral, La Bo-
dega, and other works dealing with things he knew,
to the creation of Los Cuatro Ginetes del Apoca-
lipsis, and other even less literary labors in the
service of French and English propaganda in
Spain and in Spanish- Amercia, his reputation per-
force rose in France, England, and America, while
it somewhat declined in Spain. We have not read
the illustrious journalist's remarks on the Mexican
Eevolution of 1920, but an article from his pen in
the New York Times of September 26, entitled
"Bolshevism as a Tyranny," has come to our no-
tice. Mr. Ibanez in this article says he has cer-
tain friends, and they are represented by him in
the course of his remarks — chiefly quotations from
these friends — as having misinformed and lied to
him to a rather unfortunate degree. These friends
seem, some of them, to be former Russian revolu-
tionists who turned their backs on the Revolution
as soon as it became a reality, and Mr. Ibanez ex-
presses some surprise that these men should now
be "persecuted" in Soviet Russia. Some of these
gentlemen live in Paris because there is freedom
of thought in that city! One of them, doubtless
practicing the "new freedom" of thought, told Mr.
Ibanez, who quotes his remarks as if approving
them, that "Lenin is a Czar without the crown
and without the scrupulous sense of responsibility
of the old emperors." So Mr. Ibanez also is will-
ing to have the New York Times pay him for
aiding in the rehabilitation of Czarism ! And they
used to tell us Mr. Ibanez had begun as some sort
of a radical in Spain.
With some understanding of the recent course
of European history, Mr. Ibanez writes a few para-
graphs, of which we quote three, on the Second
Internationale :
As the reader knows, there now exist two "Interna-
tionals", the Third, which met in Moscow and is com-
posed of adherents of Bolshevism, and the Second,
which met recently at Geneva, and is composed of
Dioilized bv vjjL
what people think of as the "Common Sense Socialists"
but whom Lenin refers to as the Opportunists.
The Second International always does everything "in
theory". That is why it is inferior, as an organization,
to the International of Moscow. In 1914 the Second
International expressed itself as opposed to the war
"in theory". It does not want a Soviet world, but
it will do nothing to prevent such a catastrophe from
taking place.
The Second International is an assemblage of cele-
brated nonentities, men who are famous the world over,
but have no power anywhere.
It would be far from us to deny the accidental
hit Mr. Ibanez makes when he alludes to persons
whose principles are at variance with their prac-
tices as nonentities, but we consider it unfortun-
ate, from his standpoint, that he should at once
continue with a quotation from one of his nonen-
tities in support of his hope that Soviet Russia
may be going to the "demnition bow-wows."
Mr. Vandervelde, the illustrious Belgian Socialist,
uttered some undeniable truths in his speech to the
congress.
Said he: "Russian Bolshevism is not the dictator-
ship of the proletariat, but the dictatorship of a small
group of individuals resting on bayonets and machine
guns. The work of the Soviets will be simply that of
preparing for the restoration of the Czars."
r^ZAR NICHOLAS II OF RUSSIA was con-
^* sidered in the editorial columns of American
newspapers during his lifetime as a tyrant, the
head of an undemocratic and cruelly autocratic
government. But now that all the newspaper edi-
tors have been told that they must fight "Bolshev-
ism" to the last drop of that fluid which in other
men would be called blood, the former exaggera-
tions of the personal wickedness of the Czar are
beginning to be replaced by a kindly respect for
his "gentlemanly" qualities, and no doubt the
newspapers will soon have placed him on a pedestal
fully as high as that to which they elevated Wil-
liam II of Germany on the occasion of the twenty-
fifth anniversary of his accession. We are informed
by persons who read the newspapers carefully that
the details of the execution of the Czar by a cer-
tain Soviet commissar — who, by the way, was later
executed by the Soviet Government for this al-
leged and unauthorized act — are again being
paraded before the public, of course with many
indications of the truly noble nature of the poor
maltreated sovereign. If any of our readers have
seen these accounts, and if the details should have
represented the act as one of unparalleled cruelty,
they should not forget that the whole business is
the report of a Commission instituted by Kolchak
to study the manner of the taking-off of Kolchak's
illustrious rival (for there can be little doubt that
there would have been many questions requiring
heated discussion between the Little Father and
the Supreme Ruler, had both remained alive and
in control of a sufficient number of "subjects" for
mutual mobilization) — and perhaps Kolchak com-
missions, like Kolchak propaganda organs in
America, have not altf*y*i told the truth.
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Chicherin's Note to Baron Avezzana
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October 4, 120.
The following letter has been sent by the Rus-
sian Soviet Representative in the United States
to the Italian Ambassador in the United States:
His Excellency, Baron Camillo Romano Avezzana,
Washington, D. C.
Excellency :
I am instructed by the People's Commissar for
Foreign Affairs of my Government to transmit
to you his despatch in reply to the note of the
Secretary of State, Bainbridge Colby, addressed
to you under date of August 10, 1920. The des-
patch of the Commissar for Foreign Affairs,
George Chicherin, follows:
"Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby's note to
the Italian Ambassador contains an attack upon
Soviet Russia's policy and her political system.
Soviet Russia cannot leave unheeded these false
and malicious accusations of a character quite un-
usual in diplomacy, and desires to bring them
before the bar of public opinion.
"The American Government bases its objections
to the policy of the British and Italian Govern-
ments on the principle of the territorial integrity
of the former Russian Empire and would enter
into friendly relations and intercourse only with
such a Russian Government as would not be a
Soviet Government. The only exceptions made by
Mr. Colby from the principle of the territorial
inviolability of the former Russian Empire are
Poland, Finland, and Armenia. The demand for
independence of those nations is considered by
him as legal, inasmuch as they were annexed to
Russia by force, wherefore their secession does not
infringe Russia's territorial sovereignty. Mr.
Colby imagines that the other oppressed nationali-
ties of Czarist Russia were not annexed by force,
and that the aspirations of the Georgian, Azer-
baijan, Lithuanian, Latvian, Esthonian, and
Ukrainian peoples for independence in the form
of either secession or state sovereignty and federa-
tion with Russia are illegal. The discrimination
on the part of the American Government in favor
of some of these nationalities as against the others
is unintelligible, being probably due to lack of in-
formation concerning national conditions in East-
ern Europe. The condition precedent for Mr.
Colby's friendship towards Russia is that her gov-
ernment should not be a Soviet Government. As
a matter of fact any other government at present
would be a bourgeois or capitalist government,
which in view of the present economic unity of
the world, would mean a government identified
with the interests of the world's dominating finan-
cial groups. The most powerful among the lat-
ter, as a consequence of the world war, are the
North American financial groups. The condition
upon which Mr. Colby would extend American
friendship to Russia is therefore that her regime
should be such as to permit of the domination of
the American financial groups in Russia. Mr.
Digitiz
Colby displays in his note a strong friendly feeling
towards the Russian Government of 1917, i. e. to-
wards that Russian Government which coerced
Russia's working masses to bleed on the side of
the allied and associated powers in the world war
which was fought for the interests of financial
capital ; of that Russian Government which under
the cloak of a pretended democratic regime sup-
ported the domination of the bourgeoisie in Rus-
sia, i. e. of the capitalist system and in the last
resort the domination of the world's leading fin-
ancial interests over Russia. As fas back as 1905,
when the weakness of Czarist Russia and her de-
pendence on the western financial interests for the
first time became clear, Maximilian Harden wrote
that Russia was in fact a colonial land which must
be governed in a business-like manner by com-
mercial agents and clerks of business firms. This
idea, so cynically avowed by Harden, in reality
underlay all those plans which were elaborated by
the Entente during the period of the intervention
against Russia's Soviet system, and likewise ex-
plains the hostility towards Soviet Russia of the
interests Mr. Colby speaks for. At the same time
it must be noted that Mr. Colby, in his desire to
maintain the integrity of the Czarist territory,
not merely dissents from Britain's policy, but is
actually engaged in a struggle against her policy.
Obviously the groups he represents perceive that
other, viz., British, interests have established them-
selves in the new states separated from Russia,
and Mr. Colby sees no other way of combating
those interests than to abolish the independence of
these states. Quite different from this policy of
maintaining the integrity of the Czarist territory
with the object of establishing on this territory
the domination of foreign financial interests, and
quite different, on the other hand, from the more
successful policy of establishing the domination
of those interests in the new bourgeois border
states, quite different from both, is Soviet Russia's
policy, — the policy of complete abolition of the
exploitation of the workers by the former owners
of the means of production, which is the basis of
the Soviet system. The Soviet Government un-
waveringly upholds the right of national self-de-
termination of the working people of every nation-
ality, including the right of secession and of form-
ing separate states. This is the cornerstone on
which it wishes to establish friendly relations with
the new border states. This system, represented
by the Soviet Government, under which the work-
ing masses govern themselves and determine their
own fate, is the only present day challenge to the
domination of the exploiting interests of the lead-
ing groups of world's capital, foremost of all the
American groups; this is why Mr. Colby displays
such an implacable hostility to the Soviet regime
and hurls his false charges at it, which are the
exact opposite of actual facts.* Mr. Colby asserts
that the Sovfet system ifl based, not upon the rep-
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resentation of the popular masses, but upon brutal
force, notwithstanding the fact that this system is
at present the only one under which the working
masses are free from exploitation by the privileged
few and from the domination of the exploiting
financial capital, a domination really based on
brutal force. The latter dominates in all coun-
tries where the parliamentary regime is in force,
and yet this regime is held by Mr. Colby to be
the only one deserving recognition. The substance
of the parliamentary regime is that the working
masses being in an unorganized condition are un-
der the absolute domination of strongly organized
political parties which are completely subservient
to the leading financial groups. This organization
has its ramifications throughout the country, which
are connected with innumerable local interests; it
subjugates the minds of the masses through a
subservient press, through inspired literature,
through the pulpit, etc. Under the so-called de-
mocracy the semblance of freedom of the press, of
freedom of assemblage, and of association, and of
free speech is in reality a mise en scene of the
domination of the leading financial groups acting
through a venal press, venal politicians, tribunals,
writers, clergymen, etc. The Soviet system alone
is a permanent organization of the working masses
under which the real sovereignty and the executive
power in every locality are vested in the local
Soviet, this permanent organization of the working
masses on the spot. The structure of the Soviet
regime invests the working masses with -such
power and draws them to such an extent into the
workaday functions of government that the mere
suggestion of the central power being able, under
the Soviet system, to rule against the will of the
masses, is sheer absurdity. It is the masses them-
selves, who, in the fight for liberty, amidst a san-
guinary civil war which threatens all their con-
quests, have come to realize the necessity of a firm
centralized revolutionary power for crushing the
last resistance of the exploiting classes at home
and for carrying on the unprecedented struggle
against the capitalist governments of the whole
world, which stand united against the Revolution
whenever the working masses attain power in a
particular country. At the time when all the
capitalist governments of the world are united
against the workers' and peasants' rule in Russia
in an attempt to crush her resistance by the force
of arms, by the hunger blockade, by fostering pe-
rennial conspiracies of the exploiting classes
against the working masses in power, — at this time
the working masses have become fully conscious
of the fact that only a relentless proletarian dic-
tatorship can defend their revolutionary conquests
against the attacks of capital and of all its agents
from within and without. The Communist Party,
which directs this implacable struggle against the
exploiters of the whole world, rules in Soviet Rus-
sia for the only reason that the masses themselves
consider its rule as the only effective means of suc-
cessful warfare against the deadly danger threat-
ening them from world capital.
>gi,
"But the Communist Party arouses Mr. Colby's
ire also for another reason, viz., because the Com-
munist Party is at the head of the revolutionary
movement of the working masses in all countries,
and also in the United States. Its world-wide
struggle is rooted in the actual conditions of all
countries, but Mr. Colby attempts to account for
it by alleged propaganda of Russian Soviet agents.
It is not for the first time that we witness at-
tempts on the part of American financial groups to
discredit Soviet Russia by calumnies. We have
not forgotten the publication by the United States
Public Information Division of the absurd Sisson
documents charging the Bolsheviks with being
German agents. The forgery was so crude that
the least examination was sufficient to disclose that
fraud. Owing to the subserviency of the press to
the financial interests, which is almost complete
in the parliamentary countries, calumny against
Soviet Russia is one of the principal means of
combating the movement of the working masses
in every country including the United States. Mr.
Colby, too, in his note to the Italian Ambassador,
has resorted to coarse slander against Soviet Rus-
sia. We most emphatically protest against his false
allegation that the Soviet Government violates its
promises and concludes agreements with a mental
reservation to transgress them. Not a single fact
can be quoted in support of this calumny. Even
the Brest-Litovsk Treaty which was imposed upon
Russia by violence was faithfully observed by the
Soviet Government. Whenever it was accused of
violating its diplomatic obligations, a frame-up by
enemies of the Russian Soviet Government was
shown to be at the bottom of the charges. If the
Russian Government binds itself to abstain from
spreading Communist literature, all its represen-
tatives abroad are enjoined scrupulously to observe
this pledge. The Soviet Government clearly un-
derstands that the revolutionary movement of the
working masses in every country is their own af-
fair. It holds to the principle that Communism
cannot be imposed by force but that the fight for
Communism in every country must be carried on
by its working masses themselves. Seeing that in
America and in many other countries the workers
have not conquered the powers of government and
are not even convinced of the necessity of their
conquest, the Russian Soviet Government deems
it necessary to establish and faithfully to main-
tain peaceable and friendly relations with the ex-
isting governments of those countries. That the
elementary economic needs of the peoples of Rus-
sia and of other countries demand normal rela-
tinos and an exchange of goods between them, is
quite clear to the Russian Government, and the
first condition of such relations is mutual good
faith and non-intervention on both parts. Mt.
Colby is profoundly mistaken when he thinks that
normal relations between Russia and the United
States of America are possible only if capitalism
prevails in Russia. On the contrary we deem it
necessary in the interests of both nations and de-
spite the differences of their political and social
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October 9, 1980
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structure, to establish proper, peaceful and friend-
ly relations between them. The Russian Soviet
Government is convinced that not only the work-
ing masses, but likewise the farsighted business
men of the United States of America will repudi-
ate the policy which is expressed in Mr. Colby's
note and is harmful to American interests, and that
in the near future normal relations will be estab-
lished between Russia and the United States.
(Signed) Chicherin."
Accept, Execellency, the assurances of my high-
est consideration.
Very respectfully,
(Signed) L. C. A. K. Martens,
Representative in the United States of the
Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic.
POLISH-LITHUANIAN RELATIONS
By A. D.
The relations between Poland and Lithuania
were never too friendly, but at the present
moment these two countries are actually, if not
formally, in a state of war. In the first days of
September the Polish legioners crossed the Curzon
line, ostensibly for strategic reasons, and occupied
the county seat Seyny (of the Suwalki province),
situated within the boundaries of ethnographic
Lithuania. By order of the Kovno government
the Lithuanian troops then took the offensive, re-
captured Seyny and forced the Poles to retreat
to Suwalki. And but for the fact that Grodno is
defended by the Russian Red Army, the Lithuani-
ans would now be battling the Poles in the Grodno
region.
To show why the Polish-Lithuanian relations
have become so strained we will have to recall
briefly the events which preceded the Russian of-
fensive.
In the course of 1919 the Poles occupied almost
a third of ethnographic Lithuania. They seized
not only the whole province of Vilna, but also
most of the Suwalki province and the southeastern
part of the Kovno province. The Polish authori-
ties and the Polish legioners acted in the most
flagrant manner. Requisition followed requisition,
extreme measures of compulsion were used to force
the Lithuanian youth to join the Polish army, all
the Lithuanian newspapers were suspended. So-
cialists and even moderate nationalists were
thrown into the jails. Everyone who could be
suspected of the slightest connection with Lithu-
anian culture was thrown out of the University of
Vilna.
To provide itself with "spokesmen" in the name
of the Lithuanian people, the Warsaw govern-
ment used all means to promote and to support
Lithuanian Petlurism. It dug up a few mercen-
ary Lithuanian nationalists, appointed as their
chief the well-known adventurer Augsztolaytis,
and began to publish in Vilna a Lithuanian news-
paper, United Lithuania, which voiced the views
of the Polish Government. This newspaper ad-
vocated the union of Lithuania with Poland, which
would thus form the strongest part of the anti-
Bolshevist cordon. In this jespect the Polish oc-
cupational authorities of Lithuania followed in the
footsteps of the German occupational authorities,
who closed all Lithuanian newspapers and began
to publish their own organ Dabrtis (The Present)
to propagate their views. But the Lithuanian
Petlurists had no influence. Their newspaper was
generally boycotted.
The Lithuanian nationalist government at
Kovno was not in a position to fight the Polish
occupants and confined itself to protests. More-
over, this government could not even wage an
ideologic struggle against the Poles, since it pur-
sued an aggressive policy against the working class
and the small peasants in that part of Lithuania
which was under its rule. It submitted in political
affairs to the direction of the British mission.
The role of liberator of Lithuanian territory
from the yoke of the Polish landlords fell to the
Red Army. This is a fact of great significance.
But in driving the troops of the Polish landlords
out of Lithuania the Red Army did not intend to
conquer Lithuania for Russia. According to the
peace treaty which was concluded between Soviet
Russia and Lithuania, the whole province of Vilna
(except the Disna and Vileyka counties), and part
of the Grodno county were given to Lithuania.
Soviet Russia concluded peace with a government
which can by no means be called a workmen's and
peasants' government. But the establishment of
such a government is the task of the toiling masses
of Lithuania. The Soviet Government does not
interfere in the internal affairs of the neighboring
countries.
The fact that the Red Army liberated almost
a half of the Lithuanian territory from the oppres-
sion of the Polish nobles naturally aroused great
sympathy to the Bolsheviki among the masses of
the Lithuanian people. Of late the Communist
movement in Lithuania has grown stronger. As
a result, the Communists and their sympathizers
are attacked with more ferocity than ever by the
government circles and the reactionary Lithuanian
press. The British diplomats, and of late the
French diplomats also, are doing their utmost to
bring about an understanding between the Lithu-
anian reactionaries and their Polish brethren. As
Millerand himself admitted recently, France has
recommended to the Poles to be moderate and to
refrain from invading Lithuanian territory, be-
cause an open war between Lithuania and Poland
would indirectly aid the Red Army. If the report
of the Paris correspondent of the New York Sun
is authentic, several French diplomats recently
expressed themselves emphatically in favor of im-
mediate peace between Poland and Lithuania, for
such a peace would strengthen the anti-Bolshevist
coalition and, consequently, weaken Russia.
That is why the Allied imperialists are opposed
to a war between Lithuania and Poland. They
are well aware that this would make a very con-
siderable gap in the "cordon sanitaire." It is pos-
sible that their efforts will be temporarily success-
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SOVIET RUSSIA
385
fill. Poland may agree to some insignificant con-
cessions to the Lithuanian nationalists.
But this will not at all solve the nationalist con*
flict in the southern part of the Suwalki province
and in the provinces of Grodno and Vilna. The
Lithuanian nationalists are getting ready to act as
the masters of this region, just as the Polish na-
tionalists acted as its masters before they were
forced out by the Bed Army. The Polish nobles
who left Lithuania and White Russia, and took
refuge in Warsaw, have organized there a so-called
"Vilna-Grodno conference" and have sworn to re-
store the power of the Polish nobility along the
Nieman and Vilya. A secret patriotic military
organization of "Nieman sharpshooters" is active
on Lithuanian territory. Only a really popular
Lithuanian government, which would bring about
the union of Lithuanian, White Russian, and Jew-
ish masses, only a Soviet government could wage
an effective struggle against the Polish counter-
revolutionists. But as long as Lithuania is ruled
by the present nationalist government there will
be no end to the intrigues of the Polish nobility,
the nationalist problem will not be solved, nor will
there be a solution of the social question. And
at the same time the foreign and internal policies
of Lithuania will be dictated by the British and
French missions.
The popular masses of Lithuania, as is becoming
ever more obvious, are in favor of a "Russian
orientation." The congress of the trade unions
(the largest organization in Lithuania) has given
unequivocal expression to the opinion that the eco-
nomic and political interests of Lithuania demand
the closest possible union with Soviet Russia. The
eyes of the Lithuanian masses are directed toward
Moscow, not toward Paris or Warsaw. The Allied
imperialists are striving to enslave Lithuania eco-
nomically and politically. Russia alone has noth-
ing to gain from the enslavement of Lithuania.
Only in union with the Russian revolution will
the Lithuanian toiling masses be able to secure
the final defeat of their sworn enemies, the Polish
landlords.
The Condition of Working Women in Soviet Russia
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T^HB transition from the monarchical to the
*• republican form of government, bourgeois de-
mocracy, has brought political equality to the wom-
en of Germany and German Austria. It has, how-
ever, inasmuch as it did not touch the system of
individual housekeeping, prevented women from
progressing from formal equality on paper to real
equality in life. In Russia, the Revolution, the
dictatorship of the proletariat, has not only freed
women from political injustice, it has at the same
time (and therein it decidedly throws into the
shade the much vaunted progress in the capitalis-
tic states) cleared the way for actual liberation of
women from exploitation and oppression of every
kind.
In the resolution of the All-Russian Women's
Congress of November, 1918, it is pointed out that
with the passing of the power into the hands of
the Soviets there becomes possible not only the full
political and civil liberation of women, but also
the complete abolition of her sex and family slav-
ery, and that the thing to strive for now is
the concrete realization of these conditions. As a
result of the November Revolution, as a result of
the coming into power of the Soviets, the complete
social liberation of working women, by way of
the abolition of the old forms of family and of
household economy, becomes not only possible, but
appears also as one of the necessary conditions for
the development of Socialism. The resolution con-
tinues as follows:
The first All-Russian conference of working
women declares that working women have no spe-
cial problems that differ from the general problems
of the proletariat, for their liberation depends
upon the same conditions as that of the proletariat
as a whole, that is to say, the proletarian revolu-
tion and the triumph of Communism. At the mo-
ment of the socialist revolution which is now in
course of development, which demands the putting
forth of every proletarian effort for the develop-
ment and defence of the Revolution as well as for
the cause of constructive Socialism, all working
men or women must become soldiers of the Revo-
lution, ready to offer all their forces for the
triumph of the proletariat and Communism; thus
appears as the fundamental problem of working-
women the active cooperation in every possible
form of the revolutionary struggle, at the front as
well as behind the lines, by way of propaganda
and agitation as well as by immediate armed strug-
gle. Likewise, the conference states that the old
forms of family and of domestic management
weigh as a heavy yoke on the woman worker, and
prevent her from becoming a fighter in the cause
of the Revolution and Communism ; and that these
forms can be abolished by means of the creation
of new forms of domestic economy. The belief
is also expressed that the working woman, in tak-
ing the most active part in all expressions of the
new order, must also devote her particular atten-
tion to the creating of new forms of feeding, social
distribution, and public bringing-up of the young,
by the help of which also the old form of family
slavery will be destroyed.
So long as the care of feeding her people rests
with woman, so long as it is her office to buy and
prepare the necessary food for her family, and to
keep the house clean and in order, she cannot
attain professional equality with man; nor can
she find time and strength to take part in public
life to the same extent as man, and develop her-
self further mentally. To deliver woman from
the duties of individual housekeeping means, there-
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fore, to afford her the possibility of freeing her-
self from ignorance and narrow-mindedness, of
becoming man's fellow-worker and fellow-combat-
ant, instead of being his inferior and creature. The
first step toward unburdening woman of domestic
duties is the establishment of community kitchens
in which the cooking for a considerable number
of people is done by trained hands. In Russia,
during the dictatorship of the proletariat, the num-
ber of community kitchens has steadily been in-
creased. That has also been the case among us,
although not to the same extent. But in Russia
— and therein lies the merit and the power of
attraction of this institution in the eyes of women
workers — the character of the community kitchens
has at the same time changed. They are no longer,
as before the Revolution and as with us today,
more or less charitable institutions whose beggar's
soups the workers must gulp down without a pro-
test on pain of being cast out, but they are real
democratic establishments that are managed and
controlled by the men and women workers them-
selves. Particularly highly developed is the sys-
tem of community kitchens of Petrograd. There
a complete transition to communal feeding was
made in July, 1919; that is to say, nearly the
whole population receives its food from the gen-
eral municipal caldron. In July, 1919, there were
already in Moscow 679 eating houses and their
number has since increased considerably.
So long as the task of caring for and bringing
up children falls on the family, so long is woman
not only seriously hindered in her freedom of
movement, but it is also impossible for her to
free herself from economic dependence on man.
For the sake of providing for her children she
is forced to enter marriage, which in many cases
robs her of her economic independence; for the
sake of providing for her children she is compelled
to tolerate an unhappy marriage, submit to tor-
ment and humiliation of every kind. The libera-
tion of woman from the predominance of man will
therefore be possible only when it is no longer the
duty of the individual partners, but of society, to
feed, clothe, and educate children. In Russia they
are on the way toward this new order. As early as
May, 1919, a decree appeared which established
gratuitous feeding of children up to the age of
sixteen. In Moscow and Petrograd, as in all in-
dustrial centers, the cost of the maintenance of
children has since been borne by the state. Of
how much nerve-shattering care, how much
trouble and labor are women thereby relieved!
The number of creches, kindergartens, children's
asylums, and recreation homes has been increased
enormously during the dictatorship of the prole-
tariat. And these institutions are no longer, as
in capitalistic society, charitable institutions to
which mothers must reluctantly and only out of
need entrust their little ones; they have become
establishments which exist not only for, but also
through the workers. Managed by specialists, phy-
sicians, and educators, they are under the con-
trol of the proletarian parents. In the homes and
schools the children are provided with clothes and
shoes. Instruction is free of charge from the kin-
dergarten to the academy. Noteworthy, and par-
ticularly important, for the position of woman is
also the fact that illegitimate children enjoy the
same rights as the legitimate.
If a prisoner who has never known freedom is
to find his way into the open, it is not enough to
unbolt the door of his prison, he must also be
taught to open the door himself. Through having
been bound to the house for thousands of years
woman has become accustomed to a narrow sphere
of action. The desire to be active in public life,
to take part in men's battles, to cooperate in the
building up of the new order, and, through the
perfection of the above-mentioned arrangements,
to realize the conditions necessary for their own
complete deliverance, must first be awakened in
the great majority of women. In Russia, with
her numerous backward peasantry, this is a par-
ticularly difficult problem. One of the most im-
portant means of solving it lies in the "propaganda
of action." An effort is made to attract women
workers of the cities and peasant women directly
to work that is carried on by the Soviets or to any
other work. "Delegates of women workers and
peasant women," says Comrade Kollontay, "are
divided into groups that work in some one of the
Soviet districts. They cooperate in the creation,
investigation, and control of creches, homes, kin-
dergartens, and elementary schools, in the control
and inspection of kitchens and dining-halis, in
the elimination of abuses and disorder in the lat-
ter, in the supervision of the proper distribution
of clothes and shoes in the schools, in the collec-
tion of information and in assisting the work of
inspectors, and in the strict enforcement of the
regulations for woman and child labor."
To be sure there is in Russia, for the present,
only a small advance guard of women who are
consciously and actively cooperating in building
up the new social order. But, as we have seen,
the provisions for freeing the great mass of women
from domestic conf nement and slavery have been
made in Russia. What *ne future development
of these things will be depends not only on the
Russian working woman, uut also on the workers
of other countries. If Russia finally arrives at
peace with her external enemies, and that depends
essentially on the revolutionary determination of
the non-RiiSsian workers, if she can devote to in-
ternal constructive work the forces which she is
at present consuming in war, then these beginnings
in behalf of the liberation of woman, for which
we can even now envy f>o\iet Russia, will have a
truly wonderful development. — From Die Rote
Fahne, Vienna, August 15, 1920.
MARRIAGE LAWS
The pamphlet containing these may be some-
what delayed, but the new edition of the Labor
Laws will probably be ready by October 20.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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Easter in Moscow
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By Dr. Bohumib Smebal
Moscow, Wednesday, April 14. warmth and thaw.
'VkT INTER lasts a long time in Moscow, but in
" the middle of April, it suddenly transformed
itself into summer. A week ago, I still trembled
from the cold in my room. Today my overcoat
seems too heavy. And Easter is behind us. Life
here is so strenuous and the impressions received
so strong that we were hardly conscious that we
were in the midst of the holiday season. Even
the leader "The Paskha of the Proletariat" appear-
ing in Pravda, failed to bring the fact to our
consciousness. We were surprised when on the
third of April the streets of the city were full of
branches and pussy-willows. I look at the calen-
dar — Holy Saturday.
With these first pussy-willows, official Easter
was inducted. It is the "Soviet Easter", in reality,
however, celebrated by no one. Officially, the
western European calendar has been inducted. But
that part of the population, which is subject to
religious feeling and to the old orthodox traditions,
notwithstanding state decrees is, in matters of
the Church, guided by the old calendar, and will
celebrate a second — its own Easter — twelve days
later. No holidays here for the Communists!
Only work, work, work. Among the indifferent-
ists, religious feeling has not been entirely weeded
out. Already, the very first Sunday of my stay
in Moscow, I did not fail to notice how full the
churches were. Moscow has a greater number of
churches than any other city in the world. Forty
times forty, as they say here. The gilded or blue
domes supported on their low steeples give each
street an individual character. In every church
which I entered there were services and attend-
ance. Through the streets, accompanied by the
tinkling of small bells and singing, and with flags
flying, religious processions pass. In former days,
it was of course unthinkable for even one man
not to uncover. Today a large number of passers-
by greet it with indifference, but a good half of
them remove their hats, and I have seen a Red
Guard, who was doing guard duty in the middle
of the street through which the procession was
passing, remove his cap and cross himself in the
orthodox manner. I almost have the impression
that there is a large number of people here whom
tho crucial time is driving to mysticism and to
God. The Workmen's Government should, in a
sense, imitate these religious functions, organize
meetings in beautiful hails and among beautiful
surroundings with music and song, with a short
talk, not about the daily cares and battles, but
dealing with inspiring thoughts of the High Ideal,
and with music and song ending the program.
The proletariat in power has the means for it, and
taking into consideration the psychology of the
people here, I believe it would have a good effect.
The unofficial but the real Holy Saturday oc-
curred a week later. By that time, spring had
truly made its entry into Moscow. We have
k
The waves of the river have
just borne the last ice away, the water rose two
meters in four days. Children are swarming in
the streets. They play in the same way as our
own children at home, in that they jump on one
leg kicking a pebble from one square to another
in a traced pavement, or they play foot-ball with
a large leather ball (where did they get it here?).
One new game I have seen here which has been
born of the spirit of the times. Just as at home
our boys play "soldiers", so here they play "revo-
lution". In one of the side streets about twenty
boys, between six and eight years of age, stand
in a semi-circle around a lamp-post, with pockets
full of stones and with yells begin bombarding the
lamp-post. Bang ! Bang ! the stones fly against
the metal post, and the greater the noise the throw-
ing of the stone makes, the greater the glee. Two
fishermen have betaken themselves to the Moscow
quay and are trying to catch fish with a long pole.
I fail to see that they have got anything, however.
At another spot near the river lies a wet fishing
net. In the park sits an eighteen-year old lover
with a still younger maid. Hand in hand, tender-
ly gazing into each other's eyes, their words flow-
ing with the soft breath of love. I pass by and
overhear that they too address each other "tovar-
ishch". A group of people sit on the steps of the
Church of Christ the Savior, awaiting the begin-
ning of the services. Here too, I hear the word
"tovarishch". Were I to describe the clothing of
the people in the Moscow streets on week days,
I would say that I did not see clothes strikingly
beautiful nor extremely poor. On this day, people
are generally, better dressed — more holiday-like
than usually. It is therefore not true that they
have worn out their last.
In the evening and at night I walked with Sirola
and Olbracht through the city. We wished to wit-
ness the night service in one of the cathedrals.
In the churches within the Kremlin there will be
no services. In the afternoon a rumor was spread
among the indifferentists that the members of the
Soviet Administration would participate in the
services of the Uspensky Coronation Cathedral.
Obviously this was not true, yet it is characteristic
that there were people who believed it. At mid-
night we went to the Church of Christ the Savior.
The church adheres not only to the old calendar,
but also to the old time (hours). Therein lies,
perhaps, a tacit rebellion of the clergy against the
Soviets. The midnight service does not begin until
three in the morning. We could not wait
so long. At two o'clock in the morning, we were
tired and went to bed. In some of the smaller
churches services had already begun. Attendance
was not as large anywhere as I had anticipated,
considering the full churches of the Sunday pre-
vious.
Easter Sunday is one of the most important
holidays in ifciopKihodoj church. Through the
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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entire city of Moscow the bells toll. In the im-
pressive clanging of the chimes, the small bells
of the passing processions are discernible, with
their higher and quick tones — just as at home on
the day of Corpus Christi. At the Savoy, we get
pure white bread and a side portion of good Siberi-
an cheese ; at noon, besides soup, a portion of tasty
goulash with good potatoes; in the evening two
meat balls, potatoes, and butter. How reverently
do all the people here take up pure white bread!
And to the spell of the holidays which to them
brings also the recollection of their young and
peaceful days, even the extreme communists suc-
cumb. We spent the morning together with 01-
bracht and Vajtauer at Miligina's. To a good
revolutionist, religious holidays are obviously
"Bourgeois Prejudices", but today, it is evident
that she gladly succumbs to the spell of the day,
which, even for her, is not an ordinary day. Sun-
shine streams in through the windows, the table is
at least half-covered with a clean cloth. At other
times, we take turns in bringing in from the
kitchen water for tea, where it boils all day long
in a copper kettle. Today it bubbles in a large
polished samovar standing on the table. Four
more comrades come in, two men and two women.
We do not know each other, do not ask each other's
name, we naturally belong together: "All Com-
munists are good." In the afternoon Sirola and
I strolled through the remotest corners of the city.
The house in which I live, in the meantime, re-
ceived additional inhabitants. One day, there ap-
peared at breakfast, for the first time, a patri-
archial-looking man, of an aristocratic countenance
— a beard like that seen in pictures of St. Peter.
He wore an old shabby plush coat — Chertkov, well-
known as a friend and disciple of Tolstoy, former-
ly a publisher in London, now propagandist of his
ideas in Bolshevik Russia. Now and then we read
on street corners notices of his meetings of pro-
test against violence and against war, and with a
prophet's indignation, he proclaims it a crime,
even if carried on by the Bolshevists. On the door
of the room next to mine, there is a new visiting-
card. "Jean Mayerhoffer, Chef de la Mission Au-
trichienne pour la Russie". Oh, Viennese, then!
Then I am accosted by a young man who says he
knows my name : he was, last year, a member of a
Mission of the Russian Red Cross in Prague, and
wa/s given three days by the government to leave
the country. From Germany a new comrade was
added to the delegation, which is negotiating for
collective immigration of German workers into
Russia. He speaks pessimistically about internal
conditions in Germany, is in despair over the split
in the labor movement, over the sectarian spirit,
which with its heated quarrels weakens even the
Communist wing. Says he has no faith in the
development of German affairs, and that he would
rather not go back at all. Several of the old in-
habitants moved out. Sirola departs today for
Petrograd on a special train for the delegates of
the trade congress. When he took leave of me
in the dining room, a "tovarishch", who before
the war had been an official at the Consulate in
Prague, said to me: "He is an important per-
sonage here. In Finland, the government would
give many thousands for his head." It is peculiar
how quickly people get acquainted with each other
here. When alone in the dwelling which we had
mutually occupied, I miss Sirola, and I feel that
he will miss me too. We worked well together
and in observation supplemented each other. Last
night before retiring, in my last conversation with
Sirola, he was explaining to me his interesting
ideas about the necessity of having a knowledge
of military science for the purpose of revolution,
and how he, during the Revolution, came to know
the meaning of the religious movement; and fur-
ther how hard it is for him to think that Finnish
revolutionary Socialism has no real scientific ex-
pert for military navigation, so important for that
country. At home, no one could imagine with
what seriousness the Finnish comrade thinks of
these problems. He reads Tirpitz' memoirs and
speculates how things could be made to become a
reality when transferred from the experience of
a German militarist into the arsenal of the fight-
ers"" for the liberation of the proletariat. He es-
pecially became discursive on the subject — that
those who stand at the head, are not, in fact should
not be specialists, but should be able to govern
the specialists (Trotsky) ; and that the one who
stands before a great achievement, should beware
of wanting to do everything himself (a leader of
a revolution can only work with success when he
surrounds himself with efficient, reliable co-work-
ers). I recollect now also that the Finnish com-
rade TJsenius, on his way from Reval to Moscow
for revolutionary reasons, read LudendorflPs me-
moirs. Now I am beginning to grasp why Engels,
when he graduated from the 1848 Revolution, in
which he participated during the armed uprising
of Willich, profoundly submerged himself in mili-
tary science. Until now I did not realize this
connection with the principle of his life, and saw
in it merely a whim incidental to his inclination
to sportsmanship.
After Sirola's departure, I go to report to the
commander of the house that one room is at
his disposal. Comrade Commander is in bad
humor. He grumbles that the Department Soviet
sends him so many bourgeois strangers. "I put
three in one room and they have plenty of space.
You are a comrade, and you are working and can-
not be disturbed by another occupant: you will,
therefore, for the time being, remain alone in both
rooms." For the first time in my life then, I live
alone, bourgeois-like — have two rooms, one for
sleeping, and one for visitors and work.
Now that the season of congresses and holidays
is over, I feel it a necessity to lay out a definite
constructive plan for i»y work and for my oberv-
VERSITY OF MICHIGAN
October 16, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
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ations for further stay in Bussia. Although per-
sonally I prefer to conduct myself unobtrusively
I must needs act quickly, definitely, clearly. I
cannot stay away from home indefinitely and I
am obliged to use the short time to the greatest
possible advantage. I went to the building of the
Internationale, where I said to Berzinov and Ead-
kov as the representatives of the Executive Com-
mittee of the Communist Party, in substance, this :
"I have been here fourteen days. During the Con-
gresses all official persons were so occupied that
I could make no demands upon them. Also, I
used this time to look around for myself and to
accustom my ear to the language, so that I should
be able to understand at least the most essential
and that I might become somewhat acquainted
with the city and its people. Now I have to have
a strict plan for my activity. Either I shall carry
on here merely elementary political talks, leaving
deeper penetration to Olbracht and Vajtauer, and
return to Bohemia — or I shall remain longer. In
the event of my prolonged stay, I shall have to be
afforded an opportunity of free entry everywhere,
so that, if time permits and if I should find it
expedient, I can look into every department of
the state administration and economic life, and
that I may be able to investigate everything per-
sonally and form an independent judgment. This,
after my prolonged stay, the workers would ex-
pect of me, and I shall have to answer for it. I
am putting this question to you for decision, be-
cause in the event of your deciding that it is ad-
visable that I should not be limited to political
questions only, but that I should stay on, then you
would be in duty-bound to make things accessible
to me, and I, who am generally unobtrusive and
retiring, shall be in a position to ask energetically
and squarely all the support you can give me for
facilitating my work." The Comrades were of
the opinion that even in the event of my longer
stay in Russia, it would be impossible for me to
investigate everything, yet they requested that I
stay in Sussia at least a month. I shall, of course,
have admittance everywhere. And they ordered
for me by telephone a special legitimation card
signed by Comrade Lenin, and we agreed that the
next few days I was to devote to the study of Mos-
cow wholesale merchant in the street of Denezhnyi
ill at present, has recovered, that I am to accom-
pany him, Radkov, and Berzinov to Petrograd to
a conference with Zinoviev, on which occasion I
6hall .have an opportunity of becoming acquainted
also with the organization and social administra-
tion of Northern Russia.
Today for the first time I inspected the house
in which the Third Internationale has its offices.
It is a large house of a one-time millionaire Mos-
cow wholesale merchant in the street of Deneznyi
Pereulok. The house is furnished in bad taste with
overdone luxuriousness. The largest of its salons,
overfilled with rare treasures, is not used by
the Internationale, and is closed so that nothing
can be damaged. This entire palace served for the
exclusive use of one family consisting of four
members. While visiting this bourgeois Croesus,
the German Ambassador Mirbach was killed by
bombs hurled by Social-Revolutionists. Until the
present day in the same corner stands the same
chair from which Mirbach fled when the bombs
were hurled at him. Berzin, the Chief Secretary
of the Third Internationale was, in the first phases
of the Soviet Republic, its ambassador to Switzer-
land. I am of the opinion that he is tired, over-
worked, and that he has incipient tuberculosis.
He admits nervousness and smokes a great deal.
He will last at his work possibly a few weeks, but
then he will have to go to a sanitarium. I made
new and interesting acquaintances at the Interna-
tionale ! A French comrade, the writer Guilbeaux,
the Servian comrade Mikic, an English correspon-
dent of the Daily Herald, and a young Italian
journalist, Kappa. Guilbeaux tells me of Sadoul
who is organizing the work in Kharkov. Mikic
too is active in the Ukraine. Joy is mirrored in
his eyes, when he tells me what spirit rules the
Jugoslav movement and how bravely stands Com-
rade Lapcevic. Comrade Kappa is better ac-
quainted with Olbracht and is very much inter-
ested in Prague. His wife is a Czech, Zatkov's
daughter. He is separated from his wife's family
by an abyss of world's creed, but humanly it seems
to me, he entertains for them tender affection and
devotion.
Soviet Russia Pamphlets
An important rearrangement of this valuable
series is about to be made. Orders should not
be placed before October 20, as the series will not
be ready before then.
1. Labor Laws of Soviet Russia. Third Edi-
tion. Will contain all the matter included
in the first and second editions, together with
a supplement on "The Protection of Labor
in Soviet Russia," by S. Kaplun, of the Com-
missariat of Labor. About 80 pages, price
25 cents.
2. Marriage Laws of Soviet Russia; also Laws
on Domestic Relations. New translation from
recently received Russian original; an im-
provement on the version printed in Soviet
Russia. Almost 60 pages, price 15 cents.
To be ready about October 20.
3. Two Years of Soviet Russian Foreign
Policy, by George Chicherin. A full account
of all the diplomatic negotiations between
Soviet Russia and foreign powers, from No-
vember 7, 1917, to November 7, 1919; 36
pages, price 10 cents.
All bound in heavy paper covers.
Special Rates in Quantities
Address :
"SOVIET RUSSIA"
110 W. 40th St Room 304 New York, N. Y.
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APPEAL OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN UNION
OF WORKERS IN THE BUILDING
TRADES
Moscow, September 15, 1920 (via Stockholm).
—To all Unions of Building Trades. Although
our government of workers and peasants readily
puts at our disposal all means of communication,
and in spite of its incessant appeals to our com-
rades and brothers in capitalistic Europe to enter
into constant and organized relations, we have up
to now, thanks to the ruling classes of the West,
been deprived of the possibility of communicating
with the unions abroad. On account of this lack
of information, it is uncertain whether our dele-
gates will be in a position to attend the next inter-
national congress of the unions of the building
trades workers. We shall be informed about that
congress only by the bourgeois press, from which,
moreover, we will receive only garbled reports
which may come late.
We are sending to the International Union of
the Building Trades Workers and to the kindred
unions an urgent request to send us detailed in-
formation on all matters that interest us, and to
keep up live communication with us through the
medium of the Communist parties which will
readily undertake the task of coming to our aid.
With brotherly greetings.
Central Committee of the All-Russian Union
of Workers in the Building Trades,
Buragol, President,
Bogdanov, Secretary.
THE RUSSIAN MANCHESTER
Moscow, September 17, 1920.— Pravda pub-
lishes the following report about the conditions
in the district of Ivanovo- Voznessensk :
In this Manchester of Russia the power belongs
to the workers, who have instituted complete order
and maintain an exemplary cleanliness. All
branches of the public service are functioning with
the greatest exactness. The political activity of the
people in the entire district is energetically en-
couraged. Industry has reawakened to a new life.
Everybody, beginning with the ordinary workman
and ending with an engineer, is consciously work-
ing in the interest of the Soviet Republic. In the
center of the district, as well as in the villages, one
finds the same zeal as in the first days of the Revo-
lution. On the Volga, a busy traffic of steamers and
barges, carrying corn, timber, cotton, chemical pro-
ducts, etc., is developing. All workers compete in
the work of production for the proletarian state
(as well as for themselves), and not for the privi-
leged classes. Meetings are being held regularly
for the discussion of internal and foreign political
affairs. This state of affairs is the more noteworthy
since the majority of the best revolutionists are
at the front.
SHLYAPNIKOV SECRETLY SENT TO
NORWAY
Christiania, September 17, 1920 (Rosta,
Vienna). — From Bodo, Norway, the following is
being reported to Rosta : The head of the Russian
Trade Union Delegation, Shlyapnikov, who had
been arrested in Stockholm and brought to an un-
known place which the police refuse to dis-
close, was, according to Nordlanets Social
Demokraten, brought over under police guard
from, Stockholm to Norway. He arrived in the
company of a Swedish detective on Sunday in
Narvik, whence a Norwegian detective brought
him on to Vardo. The Swedish as well as the
Norwegian Government has done everything to
keep the voyage a secret.
OIL DRIVEN LOCOMOTIVES
The following information is taken from a state-
ment made in a London periodical by W. McLaine
upon his return from Russia.
Last week's London papers made a tremendous
fuss about a new oil driven locomotive that had
drawn a train from London to Birmingham.
In the Volga region in Russia, now that the
British have been cleared out of Baku and oil is
available, oil driven locomotives are performing
daily service. The steamer Belynsky that took us
down the Volga was oil driven, and I spent a
profitable half -hour looking round her engine room,
where everything was in apple-pie order.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY TROTSKY
Christiania, September 3 (Rosta, Vienna). —
Moscow, September 2. Trotsky issued the follow-
ing announcement, at the time of the defeat of the
troops landed by Wrangel on the coast of Kuban :
The railroad workers of Kuban suffered a great
deal, in order to bring about the defeat of the new
Wrangel offensive. The self-control, the exemplary
conduct and rapid movement of the Red troops,
made it possible to move them from 700 to 900
versts in twenty-four hours. Railroad workers!
Remember that you have a great responsibility
and that it is you that are next in importance to
the Red Army in the fight for freedom and labor.
Leon Trotsky.
Alexandrovsk, September 1, 1920.
REORGANIZATION OF INDUSTRY
Moscow, September 13, 1920 (Rosta, Vienna).
— The Petrograd Pravda (communicates that the
well-known rubber-boot factory Treugolnik, which
occupies a space of sixty nectars, is in operation
again. The operation aims first of all at satisfy-
ing the needs of the army and navy. In some
scetions of the factory, the production exceeds that
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WORKERS 9 RING ROUND POLES
Berlin, September 9. — The Rote Fdhne accuses
the German Government of allowing shiploads of
munitions to pass through the Kiel Canal with the
full knowledge that they' are meant for Poland.
The Rote Fahne is evidently right, for this morn-
ing the Greek steamer Iolanthe, carrying air-
planes and munitions, passed through the canal
unhindered.
The Swedish steamer Cavalla was stopped by
the workmen at one of the locks, and the Danish
steamer Dorxit, coming from France with 10,000
tons of munitions for Poland, was held up by
workmen near Kiel and Brunsbuettel.
To organize more efficient control over * every
lock, the Control Commission of Berlin Workers
has circulated a manifesto, insisting that the great-
est vigilance over the railways and canals is neces-
sary in order to maintain German neutrality in the
Russo-Polish war, and pointing out that the gov-
ernment, contrary to its promises, is not genuinely
trying to stop war material from reaching Poland.
The Exchange reports that a British steamer is
also held up.
GERMAN WORKERS DOING THEIR
DUTY
Ratibob, August 14 (Wolff). — The workers of
the Ratibor Main Works held up early today a
French troop-train and, according to the Oher-
schlesischer Anzeiger, insisted, with success, that
the train be switched off onto a side track where
it remains guarded by the workers.
Mannheim, August 12 (T. TJ.). — A street de-
monstration in favor of Soviet Russia, which had
been called for by the Spartacus League, took place
yesterday afternoon. Many thousands attended,
among them a surprisingly large crowd from Lud-
wigshafen and environs. Street-car traffic was in-
terrupted for a considerable length of time by the
procession in which several bands of music marched
also. No clashes are known to have occurred.
DANISH COUNCILLOR OF STATE ON
SOVIET RUSSIA
Stockholm, August 19. — A few days ago there
arrived in Copenhagen about fifty Danes, some of
whom had been prisoners of the Red Army in
North Russia. Among those returning from
Soviet Russia there was the Danish Councillor of
State, Kofoed, who had worked in the services of
the Russian Ministry of Agriculture during the
Revolution, and has been a resident of Russia for
about forty years altogether. Nationaltidende has
had an interview with the Councillor concerning
conditions in Russia, and his statements on Bol-
shevism are noteworthy, particularly in view of the
fact that he is an opponent of the Bolshevist ideas.
On the matter of provisioning, the Councillor of
State says: "I assume that they now have over-
come the worst difficulties. Hunger is not past,
and things still look bad for those who are not
particularly healthy, but the people in general are
beginning to adapt themselves to the existing con-
ditions."
The Councillor particularly emphasizes the care
of children, as follows: "I have had occasion to
visit a number of the public children's colonies,
both at Moscow and Petrograd. Everywhere I
received the most favorable impressions; the chil-
dren look happy and healthy, and the teachers took
their tasks seriously and with understanding. In-
struction in general has not yet been completely
regulated, but the plan at least is good."
The interviewer asked : "Is it possible to place
children in the schools chosen by their parents?"
"Yes, the parents are at liberty to send the chil-
dren where they will really learn. The Bolsheviki,
furthermore, devote much care to arts and sciences ;
the great art collections remain intact. Society
looks after the professors and the scholars, who
get big rations and are not obliged to resort to
additional work to eke out their income." Finally,
the Councillor definitely denounced the contemp-
tuous attitude of the bourgeois press on the subject
"mob in power". He had met a number of the
leading men of the government and had found
them to be men of clear vision who are open to
negotiations even with those who do not share
their ideas. In one respect the present govern-
ment is far superior to the earlier governments:
"It maintains justice within its own ranks."
FOR THE RECOGNITION OF THE
RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT
Prague, September 3, 1920 (Report from
Rosta, Vienna). — Dr. Benesch, Minister of Czecho-
slovakia, delivered an oration on the question of
the alliance of his country with Jugo-Slavia and
Rumania, and on its politics with regard to the
Entente, in which he made the following state-
ments : Our attitude to take every means possible
to resume commercial relations with Russia as soon
as possible, marks one of the policies of Czecho-
slovakia's peace and neutrality activities. The
Russo-Polish War hindered this." During the de-
bate, Dr. Heller, the German senator, declared that
he agreed with the speaker. He said that this
should be done as soon as possible, since Italy and
England have entered into friendly relations with
Russia. The speaker declared, however, that the
Russian Government should be recognized, and
that this should be done independently of the En-
tente.
RIGA PEACE PROPOSALS
The following interview 6ent by the special cor-
respondent in Riga of the London Daily Herald,
appeared in that newspaper on September 15,
1920:
Riga, September 13. — The Russian -Ukrainian Peace
Delegation has arrived, Yoffe and Abolinsky represent-
ing Russia, and Manuilsky the Ukraine. Kirov, the
Russian representative in Georgia, is on his way. Among
the advisory experts w?. Pofivanov, the former Czarist
War Minister, and Noviisky, a Czarist general.
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October 16, 1920
I interviewed Yoffe, who said that he would urge
that the conference be open to the press, and that the
British Labor representatives (Adamson and Purcell)
should take part in the deliberations if they wish. He
stated that the Russians expected immediately the Pol-
ish counter-proposals, though they would consent to
discuss on the basis of the Russian proposals, which
are still pending.
The most important issue was the guarantees that
Poland would give of a lasting peace. This point
involved practically all the Russian proposals, but most
of all disarmament.
Territorial considerations are not, he said, a fetish
with the Soviet Government, but it could not handle
the principle of self-determination. The new national-
ities of Lithuania, Lettland, White Russia, Ukraine,
and so forth, were established facts. The new nationality
issue in East Galicia, however, would be a matter for
discussion. Thus far Western Europe had considered
the principle of self-determination as it applied to the
diminishment of Russia only. It must also be applied
outside Russia, as in the case of Eastern Galicia, whose
status the inhabitants should decide.
A Moscow wireless message states that the Polish
delegation is expected tomorrow.
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A JEWISH RABBI OF A LITHUANIAN
TOWN ON THE BOLSHEVIKI
[The following is part of a letter which was
received by Mr. S. ftfinkin, of 196 Canal Street,
New York, from his father, David Minkin, who
is the Rabbi of Dubnes, province of Kovno. The
letter was published in full in the Jewish "For-
ward" of September 1.]
July 19, 1920.
I will briefly relate to you the miracles which
the Creator has shown toward us, be He ever as
merciful. On July 3 we heard* that the Poles were
retreating and that they were looting Breshlov.
You can imagine how we felt. Monday, 10 A. M.
People were walking around, awaiting the fate
that might befall us. Suddenly a report came
that the Poles were retreating toward Wanighishok.
This was a great miracle. Had they marched
through Dubnes and halted there for one moment
we would have been lost. In Zakistcheny they set
fire to seventy houses and did not allow the fires
to be put out.
Suddenly a Gentile came riding up and reported
that the Beds had already reached Plusse (eight
versts from our town) . An hour later Bed scouts
arrived. Then our dread left us, for we had heard
that wherever they came they did no harm.
A little later the Beds came riding in thousands,
like a flood. They stopped in the streets and in
the houses. I can describe to you how kindly and
gently they acted toward us. All night long we
cooked for them, but we rejoiced. They thanked
us for everything. In some houses they paid very
well.
The whole world should take lessons from Trot-
sky. What a wonderful teacher he is (the Lithu-
anians, however, need no lessons, as I will explain
below) to have taught millions of soldiers to be
so honest and fine ! They did not trouble anybody.
Even the children played with them, addressing
them as "Comrades" . . .
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THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
An Interview With Victor Kopp, by Julio Alvarez Del Vayo. An interesting state-
ment by the Soviet Representative in Berlin.
The British Conspiracy in Russia. A striking account of the plot hatched in 1918
by British and other foreign representatives in Russia, to overthrow the Soviet Govern-
ment.
3. The fourth instalment of "Moscow in 1920", by Dr. Alfons Ooldschmidt.
4. Peace Treaty Between Soviet Russia and Latvia.
5. Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt-Col. B. Roustam Bek.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
Subscription Price : $5.00 per year ; $2.50 per half year ; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make all checks payable
to L. C A. K. Martens.)
SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVED BY
110 West 40th Street
SOVIET RUSSIA
(Room 304)
New York City
-~ = .- === ~ ==== .- J= : =
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Gents
Saturday, October 23, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 17
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Iaaued Weekly at HO W. 40th Street, New York, N, V, Ludwijr C. A. E. Martens, Publisher. Jacob Wlttmtr Hartmann, Editor.
subscription Rate, $5,00 per annum. Application tor entry u second din matter pending Chances of address should reach the
oftoe a week before the changes are to be made.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PACE
Ow the Caspian and in Persia, by B* V 393
Moscow in 1520, (Fourth Instalment), by Dr.
Alfons Goldschmidt 39$
Military Review, by Lt-CoL B. Rous tarn Bek 400
Fishermen Demand Trade With Russia 401
LrrfiNoVs Mission in Norway . . 403
Editorials . . • . *.« . 404
The British Conspiracy in Russia.. 406
PACE
An Interview With Victor Kopp, by Julio
Alvarez Del Vayo 407
Peace Treaty Between Soviet Russia and
Latvia 409
CarcHERtN's Note to France 413
Baron Wran gel's Land Program, by N. Mesh-
cheryakov , 414
WriELEss and Other News 415
On the Caspian and in Persia
By E, V.
[The following interview with Comrade Raskolnikov* in which he gave a brief review of the
conquest of the Caspian Sea and of the capture of Enzeli by the Soviet forces, appeared in the Pet-
rograd "Pravda" of July 15, Comrade Raskolnikov was Commander of the Soviet Caspian fleet
during the period described in the interview and has since been appointed Commander of the Bal-
tic fleet.]
The Conquest of the Caspian
TP HE conquest of the Caspian Sea took two navi-
x gation seasons of 1919 and 1920* In 1919 our
fleet waged an active defence of Astrakhan from
the Sea and from the Volga, assisting at the same
time the forward movement of the Bed Army along
the banks of the Volga, and helping it to drive
the Denikin army from both banks,
In the beginning of 1920, after the capture of
Petrovsk, our fleet took up the task of clearing
the Caspian Sea of the British and Denikin fleets.
The base of our fleet was transferred from As-
trakhan to Petrovsk, whence the fleet commenced
its active operations,
The first battle of our .torpedo-boat Earl Lieb-
hnecht with two cruisers of the enemy near the
Alexandrovsk fort, showed clearly the fighting
ability of our fleet and the demoralization of the
enemy's forces. As a result of this battle we
seized two enemy boats and the remnant of the
Ural White army of General Tolstoy, which con-
sisted of 2,000 men.
Arriving at Baku, the crews of the enemy ships
brought the news of the defeat which was in-
flicted upon them by our torpedo-boat- The
Whites in Baku were confronted by the question
whether they should remain in Baku and give bat-
tle there, or should go to Enzeli. Under pressure
• Comrade Raskolnikov, whose capture by the British was
announced m Sovirr Russia some time ago, returned to Russia
on May 28, 1919.
by LiOOglC
of the British command, it was decided to transfer
to Enzeli the whole Caspian White fleet, a part of
the army, and all the military stores. But a part
of the crews and of the officers, who were demor-
alized by the defeat, resolved not to take part in
the sea operations against our forces, refused to go
to Enzeli, and disembarked at Baku.
When the White fleet entered Enzeli the British
military command interned the White crews, be-
lieving that if the White ships were placed under
British protection our Bed fleet would not attack
them.
At this time the British began energetic prepara-
tions to convert Enzeli into a base for their rule
on the Caspian Sea. They began to send their
marines and officers through Mesopotamia and
Persia to provide crews for our naval ships at En-
zeli. Simultaneously they began to fortify Enzeli
and make it ready for defence. They hoped by
fortifying Enzeli to transform it into their fore-
most outmost which would cover the approaches to
Persia, Mesopotamia, and, what was most im-
portant for them, to India.
After an insurrection had broken out in Baku,
and the insurgent workers had called upon the
brotherly Bed troops and Red fleet to come to
their aid, our fleet was sent from Petrovsk to
Baku and arrived there on May 1, almost concur-
rently with the Red Army.
After the prod&aifl^oTi cf this Azerbaijan repub-
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October 23, 1920
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lie, knowing that Soviet Bussia and the Azerbaijan
republic cannot be sure that the British will not
make a new attack on Baku from Enzeli, I decided
to seize Enzeli and to remove from there all the
White ships, thus depriving the British of their
main-stay on the Caspian Sea.
The Capture of Enzeli
On May 18, in the early morning, our fleet ap-
proached Enzeli and opened fire, bombarding not
the city itself but Kazan, where all the staffs and
military forces of the British were located. Simul-
taneous with the bombardment of Enzeli our tor-
pedo-boat made a demonstration near Besht,
whither the British immediately sent their cavalry.
To the east of Enzeli, about twelve to fourteen
versts from the city, we landed a force which cut
off the British from the road to Eesht. They thus
found themselves in a trap. At first the British
tried to offer resistance and sent two detachments
of sharpshooters against us. But after a few vol-
leys from the ship cannon the British troops be-
came disorganized and retreated. Finding the
situation hopeless, the British sent emissaries to
us to ask for an armistice.
I told the British emissaries they must immedi-
ately surrender Enzeli, in view of the presence in
the port of ships and military stores belonging to
Bussia.
As to the future fate of Enzeli, I told them that
this question would be settled through diplomatic
negotiations between Bussia and Great Britain.
My ultimatum was reported to General Shampein,
who asked for an extension of the two hour limit,
pointing out that he could not so quickly get a
reply from the Persian Government, whose inter-
ests he claimed to represent.
Some time after this, the Governor of Enzeli
came to my ship and declared that he came to
greet the Russian Bed fleet in the name of Persia.
He agreed to evacuate Enzeli.
Since the British could not present an answer
from the Persian Government before night, I pro-
posed to General Shampein to allow the British
troops to leave the city if he would turn over to
us all the marine stores which he had seized from
the Denikin fleet and part of which was still at
Enzeli (a part he had already removed from the
city). General Shampein accepted this demand
and gave a formal promise to return all our stores
unharmed. Shortly after this, Indian sepoys
brought thirty cannon locks and turned them over
to us.
After this I gave permission for the evacuation
of Enzeli by the British troops, but on condition
that they should not take along the Russian Whites.
When the British troops were leaving the city we
watched carefully that no Denikin officer should
slip through with them.
The morale of the Indian troops, the Eng-
lish, the Turks, and the sepoys seemed to be
very low. When we opened to them the road from
Enzeli they started at a run, apparently eager to
get out of Enzeli as quickly as possible. Before
the evacuation of Enzeli the British announced to
the local populace that they were leaving but for
a short time, and that they would soon send an
army a hundred thousand strong for a new occu-
pation of Enzeli. But watching their hasty evacu-
ation of the city and how submissively they turned
over to us the military stores, the local populace
did not believe their boast.
Reception by the Population, and Our Booty ai
Enzeli
Before the British had evacuated Enzeli, we
landed troops which occupied the city. All the
streets and squares were packed with people. The
whole city was covered with Red flags.
From the very first moment of our entry we
announced that we had no intention of interfering
in the internal affairs of Persia. The Persian
Governor and other official representatives of the
Persian authorities welcomed us as liberators from
British oppression. The whole populace cursed
the British as exploiters.
In Enzeli we captured an enormous military
prize : Denikin's whole fleet which had been armed
by the British, and which consisted of armed ships
and transports, came into our possession. In addi-
tion to this we captured over fifty cannon, 20,000
shells which were brought from abroad, 160,000
poods of cotton which had been removed from
Ej-asnoyarsk and sold to the United States, but
which is now being sent to Astrakhan, 8,000 poods
of copper, 25,000 poods of rails, forty cars, over
twenty ship radio stations and three field radio
stations, six hydroplanes, and four destroyers. It
is impossible to enumerate the smaller materials.
We have removed these military stores to Bakn
and Astrakhan.
Kuchuk-Khan
After the occupation of Enzeli we entered into
negotiations with Kuchuk-Khan, urging him to
advance on Eesht. When the British heard of
this they hastily evacuated Eesht and retreated
toward Bagdad.
Kuchuk-Khan had been at one time a mullah,
but disillusioned of religion and seeing how his
people were exploited by the British, he changed
the cassock for a rifle. Escaping into the moun-
tains, he gathered a small band of reliable men and
for seven years waged bitter warfare against the
British, fighting for the liberation of Persia. The
British repeatedly dispatched against him much
stronger military detachments, but to no avail.
The local populace supported Kuchuk-Khan and
always notified him of the approach of British
troops. After making a sudden attack on the Bri-
tish and inflicting heavy losses, Kuchuk-Khan
would retreat into the mountains through paths
which his pursuers could not use.
The arrival of the Bed fleet at Enzeli enabled
Kuchuk-Khan to seize Eesht and to form there a
revolutionary government of Persia. The revolu-
tionary government formed by Kuchuk-Khan was
greeted with enfchueiMn not only by the poor, but
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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also by the landowners and even by a part of the
khans, who had suffered under the British yoke.
Kuchuk-Khan is an idealist and revolutionist.
He will act in cooperation with the wealthy classes
until he drives out the bourgeois Persian Govern-
ment and turns over the land to the poor. He
does not like to be called khan, declaring that the
khans are the oppressors of the people and that
he is simply a representative of the people — Mirza
Kuchuk.
Comrade Raskolnikov expressed the belief that
the struggle of Kuchuk-Khan for the liberation
of Persia from the British yoke would be success-
ful, for the Persian Government has no real power
in the country. The Persian cossacks and gen-
darmerie, the best organized troops of the bour-
geois government, are in sympathy with Kuchuk-
Khan and against the British. Knowing that the
people of Persia hate them, and fearing a rebellion
in India and Mesopotamia, the British will not
dare to send any help to the Persian Government.
To fight the British, Kuchuk-Khan formed a
revolutionary military council, of which he is a
member. Kuchuk-Khan himself is fairly well ac-
quainted with military operations, but he is more
capable in guerrilla warfare than in field mass war-
fare. But since the topographical conditions pre-
clude any other but guerrilla warfare, Kuchuk-
Khan's victory seems to be assured.
Kuchuk-Khan^s government is revolutionary in
its composition and is made up of men who, like
Kuchuk-Khan, fought for years for the liberation
of Persia. Closest to the Communist Party is
Comrade Ecsanula, who is the Commander-in-
Chief of the armed forces of revolutionary Persia
and a member of the Persian revolutionary mili-
tary council.
The government itself acts in close contact with
the Communist Party of Persia. The government
understands that the Persian revolution cannot be
confined within narrow national forms, but must
aid also in the liberation of other peoples of the
Orient. The government is in touch with the
revolutionary movement of Mesopotamia.
Kuchuk-Khan himself is an ardent sympathizer
of Soviet Russia. "When I was leaving/' con-
cluded Comrade Raskolnikov, "he asked me to
give his sincere regards to Comrade Lenin and to
tell him that he will act as his disciple, and that
the alliance between Soviet Russia and revolution-
ary Persia will never be broken."
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Moscow in 1920
By Dr. Alfoks Goldsohmidt
{Fourth Instalment)
The English Speak
\ GAIN the Great Opera House. Something
**• was being done with the English, they were
being fawned on, pawed over, petted and tickled
with inscriptions, warnings, challenging placards.
"We are for children, for future, for humanity "
Or : "We started the social revolution, we started
it alone, let us go together to the end."
Or, they were welcomed in view of the new color
of Russia: "Welcome, comrades, to Red Russia/ 5
They were being played up to, they were being
belabored with their own principles, to convince
them. They were not loved and yet they were
flooded with kindness. All this was to spur them
It was unnecessary in my estimation. For
on,
English trade union leaders look upon things with
clear eyes, they have an appraising eye, that sees
a thing as it is. They do not look for the goal
far away, they are no problem hunters, no emo-
tionalists, but they see things as they are. They
see the present rather than the future, even when
they seem very revolutionary.
Several of them spoke in the Great Opera House,
surrounded by many Soviet leaders (Lenin was not
present). They spoke very violently, very revolu-
tionary. They spoke and sweated, they shook
their fists, they set one firm foot forward, they
spoke themselves hoarse, and they were cheered
wildly. No one understood them, but they spoke
from conviction, urged by the flame of the mo-
ment, before this public hungry for help, this peo-
ple abandoned by the world, that desires peace
with such consuming fervor. England is lord
over war and peace, and the English labor leaders
in England are no inconsiderable factors. They
do not approve of a great many things in Soviet
Russia, but they want to help the country, and
this government. They do not desire that system
for England, but they approve of it for Russia.
They would have approved it even without the
challenging posters, without petting and lashing.
For they are shrewd, but not cold-blooded. This
visit was really a victory for Russia.
So they spoke: red overhead, red at their feet,
and before them a people yearning for help. Here
and there a word of censure, a cutting remark,
some bitter comment. But the workers listened
quietly and cheered. The last to speak was Mrs.
Snowden, a lady correctly booted, delicate but not
lovely, confident but not cold. Not a woman storm-
ing for a goal, not a woman with a red flag, but
a rosy-tinted woman, powerful of word, but pale of
color. She said what she meant. She declined:
"Go your way, we go our way to Socialism."
After every speech the content was translated
for the hearers. At first Balabanova translated.
Clearly, fluently, without hesitation, almost word
for word. A fabulously gifted linguist. All well-
educated Russians speak several languages, but
Balabanova, one might say, has a number of
mother tongues. Now they understood, and they
applauded againPriBI Mas not Communism that
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wai now being translated, that the English speak-
ers had spoken, but it was gratefully applauded.
Russians spoke. Tomsky> the Chairman of the
Trade Union Federation, spoke. He spoke fast,
with vigor, familiar with the public. Other Rus-
sians spoke, and always there were cheers. And
now came Abramovich, the Menshevist leader. He
spoke to an audience that was unfriendly to him,
and was greeted by small scattered groups of fol-
lowers only. He was pale m he spoke. He was
often interrupted by violent calls of opposition.
He spoke smoothly, courageously. He made the
most of the presence of the English. They tried
to force him to end his speech, but the chairman
of the meeting called the meeting to order with:
"Behave like Communists." He finished his speech.
It was a long address. They called him Eolchak,
but he continued to speak. I do not know what
he said, I only know that it came from the soul,
that there was fervor in him, too. He spoke in a
rage, he unburdened himself. The Mensheviks
today are united with the Communists on the
great questions, especially on the question of war
with Poland. But they are an opposition party,
and they are by no means a weak party. When he
ended, the applause was again only group applause
from his followers. Otherwise there was hostile
coldness. It was plain this man was respected, not
loved.
But then came that wonderful thing again. Even
during the meeting the public had been singing
the Internationale. Now it sang the song of the
Red Flag. It was steeped in this song, there was
military rythm in the song, while they were de-
scending the stairway. There was massiveness,
determination, power, in this song of the masses.
It begins with a ringing clearness, and gains force
and momentum as it proceeds. Slowly the crowds
rolled out through the exits, in step to the tunt,
held in check by the song, pushed along by it, down
the stairways and through tHe doors, and out upon
the wide sunny square in front of the Great Opera
House.
A Proletarian Meeting
At the end of the Red Street, the proletarian
main thoroughfare of Moscow, is the Zoological
Garden. There are only a few animals left. The
cages at the entrance, a long row of cages, are
empty. But otherwise nothing has been destroyed.
Water birds are perched on the rocks in the lake
of the park, and the meeting halls are ready for
the meetings. We are in a large hall, an audi-
torium with light effects like those in a gigantic
tent. The light streams in through the door with
such force that the ceiling seems transparent. In
front beside the stage are a few boxes, constructed
of wood. On the stage is a small table for the
chairman of the meeting. In front of the center
of this table is the chairman of the Communist
Party of the district. He is a small, black-haired,
long bearded workman, smartly put together,
whom we already knew. He has been abroad and
is a linguist. He speaks fast, one might say
with graceful violence, with his hands behind his
back, applauding his own particularly apt points.
That seems to be a Russian custom among speak-
ers. This hand clapping does not denote self-ap-
plause, but is meant to emphasize important points,
and to denote reverence for things mentioned as
worthy of such reverence. The public applauds
also. Or the public first applauds the striking
passages, and then the speaker joins in the ap-
plause.
Next to him k a man with a blond mane, a
tender, bony face, a mild leader's face. He is half-
woman, half-hero. He is the head leader of the
Red Ukrainian army. He speaks later, thunder-
ingly, lifting the public up with his hands, filling
the hall with his voice, giving the effect of a
cyclone. He speaks of the Paris Commune, he
hurls giant blocks into the audience, he throws
his fiste at the people, he is transported. A fer-
vent flame burns in his eyes, he is fire and sword.
We spoke also, brought greetings, and promises.
I speak plainly to 5,000 people, and all understand
me, even in the most obscure corner. But this
man swept and raged through the audience, he
hammered against their heads, he shook them, he
tore at them as at young trees. A powerful speak-
er, a man to speak to troops, to armies. There
was a sigh of relief when he ended, for the pres-
sure was becoming unbearable.
Meetings are tape worms in Moscow. However,
the public is patient, it cheers again and again,
it listens, sits up and holds out. It is attentive,
does not flutter and whisper in corners during a
speech. Silent and enthusiastic, absorbed and ex-
plosive. I have never had such a proletarian audi-
ence before me. The German audiences are more
visibly disturbed, more spoiled, need to be brought
oftener to the platform. Possibly they are more
critical, more experienced. But the speaker makes
a greater effort, is at a higher tension, for he must
arrest their attention every moment if the audi-
ence is not to slip from his grasp.
Everywhere in Moscow there is a wave of ap-
plause at the mention of Spartacus. It is the firm
name of the German revolution, so to speak. The
chairman spoke the word, spoke the name of Lieb-
knecht, and the cheering doubled in volume. I
shall speak later of the effect of this name. It is
immense.
A resolution was accepted and passed, and ap-
plauded. We were then asked to enter one of the
boxes, for the performance was to begin after a
short pause.
This was no Grand Opera, this was a proletarian
performance. It was not yet new art, proletarian
art, but it was proletarian in spirit.
For this audience was purely a proletarian audi-
ence, and the acting, the singing, the speaking was
accepted with a childlike readiness and simplicity
that touched the heart.
First there were several pertinent scenes, with
folk-songs historically arranged. For instance,
there wa* a Volga boat song, a melancholy tow-
ing song, a drifting song, a song of the deep, wide
river, a Gorki song. The last was a scene from
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the days of the shooting down of the proletarian
masses demonstrating before the Winter Palace in
Petrograd in 1905. A wounded man stumbled in,
and a proud, angry, passionate song was sung over
this blood.
Thereafter song upon song was sung by artists,
men and women, whose names were whispered with
approval. Heavy melodies, playful village songs,
rythmic stamping songs, jubilant songs, also the
Internationale. They sang again and again, they
repeated the songs when the audience called "bis,
bis". Next to me sat a curly-haired, apple-cheeked,
round-headed proletarian girl, of about fifteen.
She raged, she perspired from exuberance, she was
quite beside herself. She pounded upon my ear
drums with her "bis, bis". I was completely over-
whelmed.
But there was something in the center aisle
which drew me and would not let me go. It was
a girl, youthfully delicate, covered with a red veil.
The small peasant face with a small, almost snub
nose was visible, and her black hair gleamed
through the veil. Her head rested on the shoulder
of a young giant, a blond, short-haired, Russian
Cheruscan. His arm was about her waist, and he
adored her from under his blond lashes. He held
her tightly, for she wept with almost every song.
She was stirred to her very soul, moved beyond
words, and was weeping her heart out against his
strong breast. It was a proletarian tribute, a me-
morial of the primitive soul, that I beheld there.
Again and again my eyes were drawn to this group,
which stood so alone in the surrounding throng.
Children were sitting upon the orchestra para-
pet. No one disturbed them, they were not fetched
down with authoritatively threatening fingers.
They bent toward the stage in childish awe. They
laughed, twittered and murmured sadly, when the
song was melancholy, when a song lamented the
death of a proletarian hero.
At the last a boy, a proletarian boy, came upon
the stage. Possibly twelve years old. He recited a
proletarian song in ringing tones. The audience
knew him. It was plain he was already used to
reciting poems at meetings, was used to speaking
at meetings. He was wide awake, put the right leg
forward with energy, and proceeded without a
tremor. But he stuck fast in the midst of it, he
couldn't make it go, he pulled on it, he improvised
a little, but it would not go. The audience laughed,
applauded, consoled him. Women petted him. to
make him happy again. No one heckled him. He
had simply broken down in his speech, that was
all. He had done his best.
Finally the closing speech, applause, curtain —
going home.
In going out some one said behind me: That
must be a German comrade ; his pipe never leaves
his mouth.
Posters
You will find posters on every wall, in a thou-
sand stores of Moscow, on telephone poles, in
rooms, in factories; they are everywhere. Picture
posters for propaganda purposes. Perhaps a pro-
Digitized by V^QOgR:
letarian rock, flaunting a red flag, with a capitalist
ship going to pieces at the foot of it. Or a poster
recruiting for the Communist Saturdays, with a
description of the consequences of laziness, and be-
side it the results of industrious work. Or else
a picture poster attacking the old greasy Czarist
officials, the pot-bellied popes and the aggressive
military officers. Placards with red stars, recruit-
ing posters of the Communist Party, showing a
procession of workers passing by some representa-
tives of the old order with an air of refusal, and
entering a house upon whose gable are the initials
of the party.
But these are not the most interesting posters.
More remarkable, more significant are posters of a
different oTder. For instance some wall bears the
information that somewhere proletarian courses
are being given on world problems, literature, prob-
lems of natural science, with excursions into the
field of bacteriology,, geology, agriculture, account-
ing, finance, etc. Entirely gratis, of course.
Another poster requests people with a love for
inventing and inventors' talent to invent all sorts
of substitutes. For there is a great scarcity of
raw materials in Russia. For instance a substi-
tute for soap. For such a substitute a premium
of 25,000 to 30,000 rubles is offered. The inven-
tion is tried out. It is distributed and the public
is asked to report on its usefulness. I read of such
a distribution of trial soap in a Moscow paper
while I was in Yamburg. This practice is to be
well recommended. During the war the German
people were flooded with every conceivable trash
as substitutes. Powdered chocolate of clay, pow-
dered eggs of chalk, cake and pudding of bone
glue, and such like whitewashed horrors. Had the
people been asked first, the manufacture of sub-
stitutes would probably have been less variegated,
but cleaner and a great deal more honest.
It goes without saying that study in the conserv-
atories is gratis also, just as there is no charge or
expense to any school or university training. Of
course, there are still private teachers, especially
for languages, but there are no more school fees
or expenses necessary for a course of study. There
is a poster of a state conservatory which recom-
mends its course of history of music, a course of
folk music, physiology of breathing, a course in
instrumental technique, etc. Nor are the conserv-
atories over-crowded. The system of free instruc-
tion seems already to be sifting the wheat from
the chaff. Formerly every blockhead struck with
the finger or vocal madness indulged his weakness
as long as father's money bag held out. The so-
called monopoly of education was a monopoly for
blockheads. A removal of the education monopoly
will result in setting real talent free. The music
fraud, the sickening pedagogic fraud, the adver-
tisement regime, the hunt for pupils is at an end.
Another poster calls the proletariat of a certain
district to an evening discussion of questions on
art. One comes to these discussions, and discusses
valiantly, clashes with the others, brandishes
sophistries, is clover or dull, as the case may be.
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At least such things scratch the surface, oil up
one's thinking apparatus, and make for mental
agility. The so-called musicales with their lemon-
ade souls, their long-haired atrocities and their
badly brewed tea are sufficiently tiresome. They
are mostly match-making institutions, nothing
more.
Another poster announces an industrial exhibi-
tion, with a platform where the principles of a
technical education may be discussed.
.The Department of Economics of the City of
Moscow is setting aside one evening a week for
discussion of the problem: "What is the best
method of growing vegetables ?"
One poster asks the public to attend several
lectures "given by technical experts, dealing with
the technique of the use of clay as a building
material. They will show that as far back as an-
tiquity clay was used in construction; they will
discuss the economic advantage of brick construc-
tion, and they will make every effort to interest
their hearers in the use of bricks as building ma-
terial. They are not interested in winning over,
say a group of profiteers, or a syndicate, or pos-
• eibly a sleepy Minister of National Economy, who *
is not even able to telephone without aid, but they
want to interest the people. Here again I am
tempted to become nasty. I feel the gorge rising
within me at the memory of such impotence on the
part of German Ministers. The projects for Ger-
man workingmen's homes were submitted to them
on a silver platter, so to speak. But some highly
paid blockhead could not be aroused from his leth-
argy. He could not even telephone. He referred
the project to the regular routine for such mat-
ters, disclaimed his competence to deal with it, and
continued his slumbers. The next day he published
a speech both disarming and agitating, that for
sheer stupidity, meaningless piffle, and school boy
logic could not well be equalled. I feel the gorge
rising, I feel myself getting hot under the collar,
when I think of that idiot.
Another poster announces lectures on forestry.
Further along there is an appeal of the Social-
Revolutionists against the Poles, and not far from
it another invitation to take part in discussions
about religion or about some technical problems.
The Soviet Republic makes a determined propa-
ganda in favor of sports. In every corner, on
every wall, and other spaces lending themselves
to the purpose, there are sporting posters. Who-
ever has the desire may become a sportsman. Pri-
vate yachts, tennis court rentals* and expensive
yacht club memberships are not required.
Only the men at the top of their profession have
charge of instruction in technical courses and lec-
tures. There are no entrance fees of any kind.
Also theJ people are being familiarized with all the
facts and possibilities of science. The discussions
on art, philosophy, religion, and politics serve to
liberate the people from heaviness, self-conscious-
ness, and timidity. One becomes acquainted with
one's own resources, it is good training. This also
is only a beginning, but at least it is a beginning.
I do not believe that one with half an eye for
soundness can find fault with this activity. Na-
tions are hungry for inspiration, for knowledge.
Whoever knows proletarians, whoever has been
able to understand them, knows how great this
hunger is.
It may be noticed in the morning at the news
stands. The workers stand in line, they form long
queues as in Berlin in front of the cigar stores.
Every worker in Moscow reads several papers. In
Moscow the posters are read, the passages pasted
on at the Rosta, the official telegraph station, are
read. The various writers of articles are known,
their style, the incisiveness of their various pens
is known.
Whenever any one group has a grievance, the
wound is plastered with placards. Whoever wants
something or other, speaks from a wall and later
from the platform. There are thousands of op-
portunities in Moscow to go before the people, so
long as one has something to say.
All nations are thirsting for enlightenment. I
believe that the time of beginning enlightenment
is here. Even other countries use more and dif-
ferent placards, not alone Russia. Placards ex-
press the soul of a people, the tendency of the
times, they speak the will of a people. They reveal
whether a people is heading upward or downward.
There is a marked difference between the posters
of Berlin with their skirt dance allurements and
the posters of Moscow. I do not mean to speak
politically. I merely mention what I saw, no
more, no less. I repeat this assertion, else I might
be condemned for a miserable fanatic.
Lenin and Liebknecht
Not an office in Moscow, not a Soviet house
entrance is without a picture of Lenin, without
a picture of that half -smiling head and the slight
turn of the body at the desk ; with the soft collar
(there are no stiff starched collars in Moscow,
for there is no starch). This picture is every-
where. One sees it in all sizes. Lenin everywhere.
There are also pictures of Radek, Zinoviev, Buk-
harin, Balabanova. There are group pictures of
the principal figures in the Third Internationale,
arranged in such a way that Lenin appears at the
top. There are many pictures of Marx in many
rooms, in many store windows, in many offices,
especially a Marx portrait which in my estimation
is not a good likeness. But more often than the
head of Marx* much more often, one sees the head
of Lenin.
The history of Lenin, Lenin's development, is
well known. His personality has often been de-
scribed. Perhaps it is not commonly known that
he, too, for a time stood alone, and was even ridi-
culed by his comrades. They called him a brake-
man. Radek and Bukharin did not agree with
him. But Lenin was right — he was right for Rus-
sia. That cannot be questioned. He was right —
for Russia.
Today every one loves him, even his political ene-
mies. Not one opponent speaks of this man with
disrespect. Not a Menshevist, not a Social-Revo-
by LiOOgLC
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lutionary, not a Kerensky man, not a monarchist.
They all respect him. In one bourgeois family,
of which I will speak later, he was being praised
for his idealism and his sense of justice.
Lenin wields a colossal influence over the Rus-
sians, over entire Russia. He is like a warm gulf
stream. He is feared because he is loved. He is
the court of last appeal. Every one knows he
works hard from morning till night. His work
is divided, well organized. His work calls him,
stimulates him. He is a living example. His
name is used as a threat and as a spur to greater
effort. Wherever he shows himself he is cheered.
People who have spoken with him several times
admire Lenin the fiery diplomat, the sure-footed
on the brink of the abyss, the Jupiter, the smil-
ing Lenin, the punishing Lenin. He is one of
the best publicists of Russia. His pamphlets are
examples of a literary virtuoso, of a prospector for
words and ideas, of a systematic thinker. They
are clear, concise, free from bombast, and real. One
does not have to agree with his conclusions in order
to admire their logic. They are unobtrusive, like
himself, the man who has so much power by rea-
son of the confidence placed in him by the prole-
tariat, and who lives so simply. He never dines,
he eats, he satisfies his hunger. He draws no
larger salary than the salary of a Moscow work-
man, 6,500 rubles per month. He lives in the
Kremlin. But he does not live there like a prince,
rather he lives there to escape the crowds, to es-
cape the love, the complaints, the appeals. He
lives in the Kremlin as a symbol. He is no longer
the revolutionary leader so much as he is the ex-
pression of the will of the people, the longing of
the people, their development. He does not. lead
with a sword, he is not a dictator from above, he
is being carried and holds the reins, while the peo-
ple voluntarily carry him upon their backs.
One day as I was working with one of the man-
agers of industrial combines (Centrals), a letter
came from Lenin's office.
He turned an ashen grey, hastily tore open the
envelope, and then breathed a sigh of relief and
smiled. "Why did you turn pale?" I asked. He
said, "It is a letter from Lenin." A letter from
Lenin is no ordinary letter, not the letter of some
people's delegate. It is a letter from Lenin. It
is like a toga, it holds happiness and pain. The
man has an unheard-of power for good, the power
to elevate, the power to inspire, as no Russian
Czar has ever had. Lenin is Russia today. With
him or against him, Lenin is Russia today. That
is true, it is a fact, people are saying it on the
streets in Moscow.
Karl Liebknecht has become a saint in Russia.
I have seen hundreds of pictures of him in Mos-
cow. I saw pictures of Liebknecht in his prime,
pictures of the assassinated Liebknecht, pictures of
Liebknecht on the stage of theaters, pictures of
Liebknecht lying in his shroud, strewn with red
tulips and lilies of the valley.
Proletarian clubs are named after Liebknecht,
streets and regiments are named after him. At
every mention of the German proletariat and the
German Revolution, Liebknecht is mentioned also.
But he is not only identical with the German
Revolution, his influence extends far beyond the
German boundary. Liebknecht today is the hero
of freedom in all the proletarian schools of Russia.
Poets have sung of him, he is being imitated, he
is loved as one loves a beneficent natural element.
One might say that he is the Siegfried of the
proletariat in Moscow.
Liebknecht would never had reached such power
had he not been murdered. His influence is only
just beginning to be felt. He will attain fabulous
power, a name which will resound far beyond
Germany.
The pictures of Liebknecht which appear in
Moscow are often pale likenesses. I have seen very
few striking pictures of him there.
You have the feeling in Moscow: Liebknecht
will become a legend. He will become an epic,
a passion way, a Golgotha of the proletariat.
Liebknecht's death was a sacrificial death. Mos-
cow feels that.
Transportation of Flour
Eighteen heavy "drays are passing the wall of
Kitai. Eighteen transport wagons loaded with
flour. Fifteen sacks of flour to every ton. That
makes eighteen times 3,000 pounds, or 54,000
pounds of flour.
The drivers are dozing upon their seats. Not
a soldier accompanies the transport. The horses
walk slowly. It is a hot day. A gallop or a trot
in this weather would be uncomfortable.
54,000 pounds of white flour, wheat flour, not
potato flour. 54,000 pounds of flour are slowly
being transported through Moscow.
There is no quality bread in Moscow, at least
not quality bread rations. There is bran bread,
heavy with a reddish tinge. One longs for white
bread, fresh white bread, flaky white bread with
light yellow butter.
There are hungry people in Moscow to whom
white flour would almost mean an escape from
death.
But not a soul pays the least attention to the
flour load. No one disturbs it, no one stares at
it. The wagons pass by undisturbed along the
Kitai wall, across the wide square near the Krem-
lin. Nobody thinks of taking the wagons by storm,
of stealing from the load, of cutting open a flour
sack while the driver is asleep.
And the eighteen wagons pass through the city,
across the square.
Stealing has not yet been abolished in MosCow,
robberies are still being committed in Moscow.
Stealing does not disappear so rapidly, nor are
souls changed overnight.
But the transports of flour, eighteen wagons
each with its load of 3,000 pounds, 54,000 pounds
altogether, a joy for the hungry, a life-giving load,
a life-saving load, pass on their way through Mos-
cow, unmolested.
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Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
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iipfVEN if the Bolshevists make peace with
■" the Poles and have no other -enemy than
Wrangel, they are not at present in condition to
maintain against him a really formidable army."
The New York Herald, October 11, published this
statement by Maj.-Gen. Sir Frederick Maurice,
one of the few English military experts of any
importance.
Is it only propaganda or does it represent the
sincere belief of this highly educated soldier ? The
question is difficult to answer, but if we must as-
sume the sincerity of General Maurice, then it
must be said without hesitation that he is mistaken.
First of all, in dealing with the failure of the
Russian attack on Warsaw, General Maurice not
only exaggerates the tactical importance of this
victory of the Poles, but also exaggerates its con-
sequences upon the general strategical situation
of the Russian Red armies. Had General Maurice
a chance to study the press of Soviet Russia and to
understand the military situation on both Western
and Southern fronts, as a man of great military
vision, he could never have issued a statement
which so clearly damages his authority as a mili-
tary critic. The most expert critic can easily
make mistakes in judging the tactical situation
from day to day, but there can be no excuse for
misjudging the strategical situation, with the facts
so plainly before us. Still less was it to be ex-
pected that General Maurice, who claims to be a
learned strategist, should have belittled the tre-
mendous importance of the Soviet strategical posi-
tion, based as it is upon operation on inner lines,
especially if the Bolsheviki make peace with Pol-
and. General Maurice does not speak about an
armistice between Poland and the Soviets; he spe-
cifically states that it would be impossible for the
Soviet Government, even in case the peace were
signed with Poland, to create an army suitable for
the defeat of the Anglo-French adventure under
the leadership of Wrangel. This is an unpardon-
able blunder by this famous British military au-
thority.
Everyone must understand that in the case of
a stable peace with Poland there would no longer
be any necessity to keep a huge army on the
Polish front for the protection of the frontier.
But even in the case that a permanent peace can-
not be secured, there will still be a cessation of
hostilities on the Western frontier for a consider-
able period. This period will be sufficient for the
Red Army to finish with Wrangel, who has
achieved his present strength only because the
Soviet military command for six months past has
been directing its principal military effort against
Poland.
General Maurice admits that "the Bolsheviki
have shown themselves good strategists and have
followed the sound military principles of trying
to do one thing at a time." When first the efforts
Diqilized by v^OOQlC
of their enemies became dangerous," he continues,
"they concentrated their attention on Admiral
Kolchak and held off General Denikin. Then,
having finished off Kolchak's army, they turnea
upon Denikin while they watched the Poles. Dur-
ing last spring and summer they concentrated
their forces against the Poles, leaving compara-
tively small detachments opposite Wrangel." (New
York Herald, October 11, 1920).
If this be true as General Maurice states it—
and we know that it is true — then what is wrong
with Soviet Russia that her strategists, having
thus far been so sound and so successful should
now fail in dealing with an enemy which even
the French admit is in a less favorable condition
than was Denikin?
In any event, the Soviet Republic has finished
with Poland. Perhaps the end of the struggle
did not give a result which would satisfy the am-
bition of an imperialistic nation. But the Russian
proletariat is satisfied to have brought the fight
to an end and to have freed its country from
the western invaders. Henceforth, following the
principle approved by General Maurice, the Soviet
military command has to continue its strategy
based on operations on inner lines; namely, to
concentrate all its forces against Wrangel, which
can be successfully accomplished as soon as the
situation on the Polish front is completely liqui-
dated. It is significant that in the same state-
ment the British strategist says: "It is possible
to say that Wrangel has not, and is unlikely to
have, resources to enable him to conquer Russia."
Taking into consideration that the resources
of Wrangel totally depend upon the Allies, we
must conclude that the Allies are unable to sup-
port adequately the Crimean Baron. And if, as
Maurice concedes, Wrangel cannot defeat the
military forces of the Soviet Republic, then the
Red Army is strong enough to meet the new
Southern foe and the calculation of its strength
by General Maurice is seen to be incorrect by his
own analysis.
The recent declaration of Trotsky regarding the
physical and moral state of the Red forces is
quite different from the estimate of General Maur-
ice. In Moscow, in spite of all fabulous lies to
which the American press has once more fallen
victim, the failure of the cavalry raid on Warsaw
was received according to its importance and did
not produce any confusion either among the
masses or in the central military command. The
reserves of the Red armies are so strong and so
enthusiastic to bring Russia to a general peace
that Trotsky was able to promise victory on the
Southern front even without the removal of the
troops destined for the Polish frontier. Let
us here not forget that Trotsky has never prom-
ised anything which he could not accomplish. Let
us remembnr that he cp^nly warned us that in the
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struggle with Polish imperialism, in spite of our
successes, we must be prepared for some reverses
which might be "more important and more costly
than that of Chernigov." That was Trotsky's
warning at the time when the Bed Army started
its victorious offensive last summer.
When I read the appeal of Lenin, Trotsky, Kali-
nin, and Brussilov in Pravda, September 12, 1920,
addressed to the officers of WrangePs "army", in
which they were warned of imminently pending
defeat, I was struck by strong arguments and by
the firmness of faith of these leaders. Such a
document would never have been signed by such
names, if they had not been confident of its truth.
In my former articles I have stated that I did
not believe the reports about the swift advance of
the Wrangel forces, and predicted that the Eed
command will now deal energetically with the
Southern enemy. According to an Associated Press
dispatch from Sebastopol, October 10, "General
Wrangel, the anti-Bolshevik leader, has launched
his expected offensive against the new Sixth Army
of the Soviet forces, sheltered behind the Dnie-
per . . . General Wrangel is carrying out a
pinching movement converging on the town of
Kakhovka, northeast of Kherson. Fine weather
is favoring the operations. General WrangePs per-
manent north front extends from Mariupol to
Yekaterinoslav along the railway. This control
of the Sea of Azov has been assured by the cap-
ture of 6,000 sailors at Mariupol who were pre-
paring to descend upon the grain port of Geni-
chesk. The remainder of the fleet fled to Tagan-
rog. General Wrangel has now cleared out Soviet
forces which have been operating along the net-
work of railways in the Donets Basin."
The fine weather, however, so it now appears,
was also favorable to the Reds and the same
Associated Press issued another dispatch on Oc-
tober 12, stating that "the reoccupation by Bol-
sheviki of Mariupol and Berdiansk on the Sea
of Azov is announced." This was cabled from
Constantinople and confirmed the following day.
The importance of this last message from a mili-
tary standpoint can best be seen by reference to the
maps. WrangePs permanent north front, it is
said, extends from Mariupol in the east to Yekat-
erinoslav, 150 miles northwest of the former. Mari-
upol represents the extreme right flank of that
front and, being a port, naturally is expected to
be protected by the naval forces of Wrangel and
the Allies. In such a case, when a very important
strategical base for the concentration of the ene-
my's forces is captured, and when this naval base
represents a flank of the battle front line which
is considered permanent, then the collapse of
the whole front must be the imminent conse-
quence of such a failure. But the Red forces did
not only capture Mariupol; they have also taken
Berdiansk and another port situated about twenty
miles southwest of Mariupol. Thus not only have
they destroyed the right flank of the main Wrangel
front, but also have succeeded in an encircling
manoeuver and have penetrated in the rear of
the battle-line of the enemy.
The Bolshevik successes along the Dnieper, and
especially in the region of Kherson, make me be-
lieve that both counter-offensives were carried out
simultaneously and that the aim of the Revolu-
tionary Field Staff is to cut off the main body of
the Wrangel forces from any possibility of retreat
into the Crimea through Perekop and by the Sea
of Azov, thus annihilating it entirely. Let us
not forget that it was at Berdiansk that Wrangel
landed his bands during his foolish offensive to
the north.
So it^eems that, in spite of all the hopes of his
supporters, Wrangel must say good-bye to the
Donets industrial district and probably very soon
to Russia itself.
Fishermen Demand Trade with Russia
[Certain newspapers in America have devoted considerable attention to alleged activities on
the part 'of Russian authorities in stirring up revolution in other countries. The following inter-
view with two members of a Norwegian Fishermen's Association, which was printed in "Social-
.DemoJcraten", of Christiania, Norway, on September 8, 1920, throws a somewhat different light
on the fomenting of discontent outside of Russia. It will appear from a reading of this interview
that a part at least of the discontent in one country is due to the unwillingness of the government
of that country to enter into trade relations with Russia. We regret to say that this unwilling-
ness on the part of the Norwegian Government is probably not due so much to its own volition as
to the demands of powerful nations upon whose good will the Norwegian Government largely de-
penis, notably England and France.]
TTWO prominent representatives of the North
*■ Norwegian Fishermen's Association, Captain
Lars Hagerup and Manager George Lorentzen,
have recently arrived in Christiania in order to
confer with Litvinov on future trade relations with
Russia. We have had an interview with these two
gentlemen on several questions.
"We have come to Christiania in order to make
use of the opportunity to get into direct contact
with the representative of the Russian nation," said
Lorentzen. "The foremost task of our organiza-
tion is to obtain direct relations between the con-
sumers and fishermen so as to eliminate unneces-
sary middlemen. Our hope is to establish rela-
tions with Russia. The Government and the com-
mercial classes can do nothing for they cannot
sell their fish anywhere,"
"What is the economic situation in the North ?"
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"Pretty dark, particularly in the predominantly
fishing districts, which are completely dependent
on the fisheries. The aid extended by the state in
establishing minimum prices is not sufficient. The
TTiiniTTnim prices are so low that it is not profitable
to go out and fish. With the present cost of uten-
sils and boats an average fishing expedition does
not even cover its expenses. In order to balance
expenses a certain minimum catch has to be made,
and this must in every case be more than the pres-
ent average catch. It is still far from possible
for the fishermen to get enough to live on, and the
condition now is this: Not only the prices, but
also the fish itself is bad. The results have been
poor this year both from the Lofoten and the Finn
mark. Becalling how expensive it is to live now-
adays it must be clear to all that the economic
situation is going to grow worse and worse.
"The situation for the fishermen is now such
that it really pays them to go about with their
hands in their pockets. Yet many of the fisher-
men do go to sea hoping that the catch may be
large enough to pay."
"How do other classes in the north regard the
situation ?"
"The business men and the public officials also
suffer to a great extent from the fact that the
fishermen in their opinion do not ekrn enough,
for the fisheries produced business and always
mean some income to these classes also, even if
no profit should remain for the fishermen them-
"What is the condition of the North Norway
Fishermen's Association under these circum-
stances ?"
"Even under these poor conditions the associa-
tion is making progress. Active participation is
growing considerably, and contact between the or-
ganization and its sections is improving more and
more."
"How many members has the organization
now?"
"Six thousand."
"When did the fishermen's organization begin
to consider the question of commercial relations
with Eussia?"
"Early in March this year. The authorities
promised to look after the matter but nothing
has resulted except that we have not yet succeeded
in establishing relations."
"What is the reason for this in the opinion of
the fishermen ?"
"The fishermen are firmly convinced that it is
due to misuse of authority, administrative inef-
ficiency, or perhaps unwillingness on the part of
the authorities. As many of us suspect that it is
a case of unwillingness to establish relations with
the existing authorities in Russia, that is dictating
the policy, we have applied directly to Eussia.
We have the impression that the authorities, in-
stead of assisting, are placing obstacles in the way
of the resumption of trade relations with Russia.
It is on this conception that the present attitude
of the fishermen is based. The assurances the
government has given us to the effect that it has
done what it could we have not been able to take
seriously.
"We think the whole trouble is that our govern-
ment does not want to recognize the Soviet Gov-
ernment. Whether it has any serious reasons for
this we do not know, but the result is, at any rate,
that the fishing population of North Norway is
suffering. It is the fishermen who have had to
pay for the policy recently followed."
"Whenever discontent has not yet expressed it-
self it is simply because the fishermen have thus
far been staying home," interposed Captain Hager-
up. (The conversation hitherto had been chiefly
with George Lorentzen.) "But if there is a big
fishing venture, with a large gathering of fisher-
men, the opposition to the authorities becomes so
strong, that there would appear to be little more
needed to make it come out. The government
therefore has every reason to regard developments
with some concern."
"How have the Russians taken the overtures of
the Fishermen's Association?"
"They have welcomed them. Litvinov as well
as Kamenev declared that they would gladly enter
into relations with us, but must wait until com-
munications had been conducted on the broadest
possible basis, and until Russia had found an occa-
sion to send representatives to Norway. This is
far off. Our overtures have been frustrated by
this condition. Now, however, we have sent peo-
ple to Russia, and the Russian commercial repre-
sentative has arrived in Christiania, as we have
already said."
Vardo Fishermen Protest
In connection with the above interview with two
of the fishermen of North Norway, the reader will
be interested also to find that their expression of
discontent has already found organized formula-
tion in a protest by the fishermen of the town of
Vardo, Norway, which is right across the bay from
Murmansk, Russia. The document, which we take
from Social Demokraten, Christiania, of Septem-
, ber 10, is as follows :
"The fishermen and workers of Vardo, gathered
in meeting to discuss the results of the attitude
of our financial powers toward Russia, as well as
their treatment of travelers from that country,
herewith adopts the following resolution:
"The population of Finnmarken depends for
its livelihood on the relations of our country to-
ward Russia. As a proof of this we may mention
the present bad economic conditions in these parts ;
this would have been quite different if our govern-
ment had had a different attitude toward Russia.
For it is our firm conviction that obstacles have
been laid by Norwegian authorities in the path of
the relations with Russia that are so necessary
for us in Finnmarken.
"The Russian Commercial Delegation has al-
ready completed an important exchange of goods
with the fishermen's organization in North Nor-
way, in accordance with an agreement that evalu-
ates the fish at a Drice high enough to enable the
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fishermen to do business. Now, while these nego-
tiations are in progress we witness the treatment
accorded to the Russian delegates who go to Nor-
way, a treatment which delays the conclusion 01
the agreement concerning an exchange of goods,
a delay that means for the population of Finn-
marken a loss of hundreds of thousands of crowns
per day.
"As this assemblage cannot find any material
reason for the prohibition uttered by our govern-
ment against the passing of Norwegian delegates
through Norway, and as the effect of this measure
aggravates the economic situation of the people of
Finnmarken with each additional day, the bitter-
ness among people is increasing, and they have a
feeling of being wronged and neglected.
"Should the actions of the authorities be based
on any demonstrative disapproval of Russia's form
of government, it seems to us that such a demon-
stration should in all reason not be made in such
manner as, to injure the working classes of this
part of the country. If our government cannot
maintain order in the country, as well as rela-
tions with neighboring peoples, in any other way
than by economically ruining one portion of the
country without any compensating action, it should
reconsider its attitude on this question, or should
alter its attitude toward the neighboring countries
which it is imperative for us to live at peace with.
"We pledge our honor from now on that we
will break the blockade against Russia. We do
not feel that we have any other obligations and
cannot be prohibited from doing so."
LITVINOV'S MISSION IN NORWAY
V|"R. LIT VINO V, who is now in Christiania,
"-*■ has given the following statement to Nor-
wegian newspapers :
"My arrival in Norway is in connection with
contracts that have been concluded between the
'Centrosoyuz', which I represent in Scandinavia,
and a number of Norwegian firms. But my chief
object is to seek to find a basis for regular com-
mercial communications between Russia and Nor-
way. After six years of destructive warfare, Rus-
sia of course needs all sorts of goods and machines
that are produced in other countries, particularly
the countries that have been exhausted by their
participation in the war. The Scandinavian coun-
tries will surely play an important role in connec-
tion with Russian foreign trade, not only by ex-
changing their own goods with Russia, but also —
owing particularly to their geographic situation
and particularly to the present chaotic interna-
tional conditions — as intermediaries between Rus-
sia and other European countries and America.
The Russian Government and 'Centrosoyuz* are
thinking of establishing in one of the Scandina-
vian countries a central repository for Russian
export goods, which can be catalogued, inspected,
and purchased at that point. For it is clear that
before Russia will attain a final peace, this work
cannot be done in Russia itself, where the war situ-
ation makes it necessary to limit the number of
visitors. With its large tonnage, and its easily
accessible ports, Norway is particularly important
for northern Russia, and we have sufficient proofs
of the great interest taken by Norwegian mer-
chants in trade with Russia.
"Russian domestic and foreign commerce has
been nationalized, and is entirely in the hands of
the Russian Government and of organizations like
the 'Centrosoyuz', which receive their powers from
the Russian Government. It is therefore clear that
relations are necessary between the Russian Gov-
ernment and governments in other countries that
wish to trade with Russia. Russia must have the
right to be represented in these countries, in order
to guard its interests, and must also have free
communication with its representatives. The ex-
periences of the last six months have strengthened
the conviction of the Russian Government as to
the absolute necessity of such representation. What
little trade has already been attempted in Norway
has cost Russia losses amounting to millions of
crowns, losses that might have been avoided if a
Russian representative had been in Norway and
had been able personally to clear up certain mis-
understandings.
"It is not less important, from a Norwegian
standpoint, to have representatives in Russia to
take care of Norwegian interests. It is also neces-
sary to fix the functions, rights and privileges of
these representatives. An exchange of opinion has
taken place on this subject by wireless between
the Norwegian Foreign Minister and the Russian
Commissar for Foreign Affairs, and it was decided
that I should come to Christiania in order tn
negotiate and conclude an agreement on all these
points, and, if possible, to organize a Russian
commercial office in Norway. Both the Russian
Commissariat for Foreign Affairs and the Com-
missariat for Foreign Commerce have laid down
the severest rules for their representatives abroad,
instructing them not to undertake any step that
might be interpreted as an interference in the in-
ternal affairs or social conflicts of the countries
to which they are assigned. The same conduct
will of course be expected of foreign representa-
tives in Russia, for Soviet Russia has suffered
much from interferences of this kind by foreign
diplomats and agents.
"It is superfluous to mention that as far as the
Russian Government is concerned, diplomatic ne-
gotiations might be taken up at once and in full,
and the necessary commercial agreements might
thus be rendered more stable and trade made more
secure for both sides."
BOUND VOLUMES FOR 1920
Volume II has been received from the binder
and is now being forwarded to those who paid
for it in advance. If any volumes are left over,
we shall announce th? fact ftext week.
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised.
^OCCASIONALLY we take the pains to answer
^- , specific misrepresentations as they blossom
forth in the fruitful columns of the American
press, the products of grafts of Helsingfors, or
Copenhagen, or Paris origin, all too readily wel-
comed by those dailies. We do not remember just
when the latest revolt was alleged to have taken
place in Petrograd, but we recall that a number
of commissars (the number varied with the pro-
gress of days after the reception of the news) were
said to have been thrown into the Neva by a wild
mob, infuriated no doubt by the fact that peace
had been signed by Latvia, or Lithuania, or Fin-
land; for, in spite of all the reports that Soviet
Russia is collapsing (and the volume of these
rumors is at present so impressive as to annoy even
Soviet Russia's most devoted adherents), one coun-
try after another, of those most contiguous to Rus-
sia and therefore best acquainted with the internal
condition of the country, finds it advantageous to
conclude peace with Soviet Russia.
There are so many fabrications, however, that
we for the most part have given up the attempt to
cope with them, although we know very well that
their volume cannot fail to produce a certain ef-
fect of discouragement. It was a source of pleas-
ure to us, therefore, to find in the New York
American of October 15 a general official denial
by George Chicherin, Soviet Russia's Commissar
for Foreign Affairs, which had been sent from
Moscow to the Universal Service correspondent at
Berlin, Mr. Karl H. Von Wiegand, and been for-
warded by the latter to America at once. This
document, of which we have no official knowledge,
but which presents every appearance of being au-
thentic, is reprinted herewith for the benefit of
those of our readers who may not read the Hearst
newspapers :
Moscow. — Answering your inquiry of October 6
about reports that have been circulated abroad alleging
that there are risings and rebellions and famine in
Soviet Russia.
The reports are ludicrous, contemptible lies such as
have often been circulated by scandal-bearers to create
confusion in order to prevent the establishment of peace
with Soviet Russia.
The internal position of Russia is unshakable. The
morale of the people is as good as ever. The tem-
porary reverses on the western front have only steeled
the determination to secure the position of Soviet Rus-
sia.
by LiOOglC
With the resolute inclination of the peasants in South-
ern Russia to support the Soviet Government, the ini-
tiative on General Wrangel's front has been trans-
ferred to our hands.
Wrangel's rear is being badly harassed by our Green
participating detachments.* A symptomatic incident was
that of Makarov placing himself at the disposal of our
commanders.
We are seeking no armistice with the reactionary
Czarist mutineer — Wrangel. The Red Army is fully
prepared to deal with him as he deserves.
While the prolonged drought did considerable dam-
age to the harvest the rumors of an impending famine
are senseless inventions. The increasing readiness of
the peasants to contribute their quota of products, to-
gether with the intensive increase in the gathering of
products, will make up for the deficit caused by the
drought.
We have more than one and one-half times as much
grain in storage as we had in 1919. Chicherin.
Owing to the wide circulation of the Hearst
newspapers, the above declaration will have a cer-
tain effect in counteracting the vicious results of
the continuous flood of lies that pours into the
newspapers from their news agencies as well as
from their own special correspondents, who are of
course under definite instructions as to the kind of
thing they are expected to write. But the Com-
missar for Foreign Affairs would have to keep hard
at work day and night if he should try to answer
all these fabrications, and it would be wasted labor
in most cases, for most of the American newspa-
pers would not print his statements.
For instance, on the morning following the
printing of the above document in the American,
New York newspapers (October 16) printed an
account labeled "Zurich", and dated October 15,
which alleged that the German Foreign Ministry
had information to the effect that a great rebellion
had broken out in Moscow, and that the rebels,
in the course of their operations, had invaded the
Kremlin, which, as the report does not fail to add,
is the place where the highest Soviet officials have
their offices and homes. No doubt we shall have
an official denial of this rebellion in a few weeks
from Moscow, but counter-revolutionary press
agents work faster than their enemies, and have
access to more means of publicity than has the
Foreign Office of Soviet Russia. The reader will
therefore not expect us to deny each story as it
comes up, but will take the new Moscow "rebel-
lion" with such number of grains of salt as may
make the thing palatable to him. In fact, it is a
time when each man, woman and child must carry
around his (or her) own salt-cellar.
* * *
C OMETIMES the inventions of our enemies are
^ not uninteresting. Mr. Evans Clark recently
collected a lot of newspaper lies about us in a read-
able booklet under the title: "Facts and Fabrica-
tions About Soviet Russia." It was interesting to
see how many times Lenin had murdered Trotsky
and Trotsky murdered Lenin. We do not remem-
ber whether Mr. Clark counted up these assassi-
* "Green" t armies are bodies formed by deserters from
"White" armies, now fighting against the latter.
•• A German official denial of having started this rumor has
already been made.
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nations and found that one of the two statesmen
had been killed more often than the other. This
would have been interesting from the standpoint
that it might have shown which of the two men
was most hated by the capitalist world. But a
German monthly magazine, Der Gegner, published
by Der Malikverlag, Berlin, has collected a few
European specimens of the same kind as those
gathered by Mr. Clark, and has hit upon one of
them that, while it "beats anything" we have ever
seen, is nevertheless merely the logical apex to-
ward which the counter-revolutionary lie-drives
will all ultimately converge. It was an Amster-
dam message of Wolff's Telegraph Agency, and
the headline was: Hat Lenin je gelebtf — "Did
Lenin ever live?" Why not? If you have suc-
ceeded in throwing doubt on everything that has
happened in Russia since November, 1917, you
must ultimately arrive at a state of mind in which
you are no longer certain that the subjects of your
misrepresentaions ever had existence in the world
of reality.
* * *
T> OLAND is making peace with Soviet Russia,
A and hostile newspapers are gloating over what
they consdier to be the ignominious defeat of the
latter. As a matter of fact, the external position
of the Soviet Government should cause its friends
no more concern than its internal position. Those
who are so certain the Poles have been victorious
should not fail to ascertain why it is the Poles
have not pursued the temporary advantage that
enabled them to save Warsaw from capture and
to prevent a complete occupation of ethnographic
Poland. The reason for this failure is an internal
Polish condition: The people of Poland, except
the extreme reactionaries, have for months been
demanding peace with Soviet Russia, and Polish
newspapers recently arriving in this country show
that the movement is increasing. Already before
the Poles began their offensive of last spring
against Soviet Russia — an offensive that has re-
cently been alluded to in certain political circles
in America as the "invasion" of Poland — Polish
workers in the May Day demonstrations at War-
saw had carried flags bearing inscriptions that
demanded not only peace with Soviet Russia, but
even an alliance with Soviet Russia.* The rich
landed proprietors' organizations of Poland are
opposing some of the social demands of the Polish
peasants by a reasoning which advances among
other unamiable traits of the peasantry the en-
thusiastic manner in which they received the ad-
vancing Soviet troops last July. These are merely
a few indications — we shall enumerate them with
greater fullness in a later treatment — of the facts
that make the situation between Poland and Soviet
Russia precisely analogous to that between Latvia
and Soviet Russia, or Lithuania, or Esthonia, or
Finland, or Rumania, and Soviet Russia. The
reactionary governments of the border states knew
that money was to be made by fighting Soviet
• A few of these inscriptions will be reproduced as illustra-
tions in our Anniversary Number. November 6, 1920.
Russia, in the pay of the Entente, but the people
of each state, the workers and peasants, have forced
the signing of peace with Soviet Russia. Poland,
far from having forced a peace on Soviet Russia,
was obliged, by the friendliness of its own popula-
tion for Soviet Russia, to accept the latter's re-
peated offer of peace.
The war-game between Soviet Russia and Pol-
and might appear to have ended in a draw, tem-
porarily at least, the Russians having been forced
back, and the Poles unable to pursue the foe. But
a defeat may also be taken to mean a failure to
obtain what one had set out to accomplish, and
in this sense Poland has been defeated. Poland
began her aggression on Soviet Russia with the in-
tention of conquering ("liberating") large sections
of Ukraine and the Baltic states, to make of them
buffer-states against Soviet Russia. In this re-
spect, Poland, herself a buffer-state, is aping the
policy of her imperialistic sponsors. But the peace
preliminaries that have just been concluded were
signed by Poland with both the Russian and
Ukrainian Soviet Republics, and evidently
Ukraine can not be considered in any way a buffer-
state friendly to Poland. Lithuania, which was
to be Poland's buffer-state to the Northeast, has
been forced into a position of hostility by Poland's
imperialistic attitude, and the new Polish d'An-
nunzio, whose name is Zeligowski in spite of the
persistent effort of the newspapers to spell it other-
wise, and who has just seized Vilna, is doing all he
can to agravate the situation. Where she thought
to make friends to the East of her, Poland has
raised enemies against her, and thus she has lost
the war for friendly buffer-states. In what sense
has Poland won the war? Others must answer
this question, for our answer is — in no sense.
* * *
T ATVIA'S peace treaty with Soviet Russia, the
-^ text of which capitalistic newspapers have
shown no alacrity to obtain, although some of
them have thirty-two pages of text devoted to lies
and murders every day, at last appears in a full
translation in this issue of Soviet Russia. The
Lithuanian treaty will soon follow, as it is being
translated for us. Article X of the Latvian treaty
has a supplementary note containing a provision
that shows how ready the Soviet Government is
to grant reasonable conditions to the peoples of
former Russian border-states, even when such con-
ditions require the Soviet Government to relin-
quish concessions it might make to their govern-
ments. Instead of transferring to the Latvian
state the debts of Lettish peasants to the financial
institutions of the former Russian Government,
the Soviet Government simply stipulates that this
indebtedness is cancelled. For this transfer of
the assets of Czarist institutions, the Soviet Gov-
ernment might have obtained other concessions in
return from Latvia, but the Soviet Government is
interested in improving the lot of the peasant in
Latvia and elsewhere. The Soviet Government
knows who its true friends in Latvia and else-
where are : they are the peasants and workers.
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The British Conspiracy in Russia
[In 1918, as our readers will recoil, a plot was hatched by British and other foreign represen-
tatives in Russia to overthrow the Soviet Government. This plot was referred to in several pas-
sages of a letter addressed by Rene Marchand to Raymond Poincare, then President of the French
Republic. From a recent issue of a London weekly we take the following account of the conspir-
acy, for which credit is given to a book entitled "Two Years of Struggle on the Internal Front: A
Sketch of the Activity of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee", by M. Y. Latsis.]
Plan to Corrupt Soviet Troops
THE All-Russian Extraordinary Commission
for Combating Counter-Revolution established
the attempts of the British diplomatic representa-
tive in Russia to enter into touch with certain
units of the armed forces of the Soviet Republic,
with the object of seizing the Council of People's
Commissaries and the principal strategic points in
Moscow.
Th observations made' demonstrated that the
agent Schnedchen, who arrived at the beginning
of August, 1918, from Petrograd, with a recom-
mendation to the Chief of the British Mission in
Moscow, Lockhart, managed to arrange a meeting
between the latter and the commander of one of
the Lettish units, to whom the British authorities
had entrusted the task of seizing the Council of
People's Commissaries.
Lieut. Sidney Reilly, Alias "Constantine Reiss"
Their first meeting took place on August 14 at
12.30 p. m. at the private residence of Lockhart
in the Basmannaia Street, Khlebny Pereulok,
House 19, Apartment 24. At this meeting there
were discussed questions as to the possibility of
organizing in Moscow, in the near future, a rising
against the Soviet Government in connection with
the British movements at Murmansk. It was here
agreed, on the proposal of Mr. Lockhart, that fur-
ther relations with the Commander of the Soviet
troops already referred to would be carried on
through the British Lieutenant Sidney Reilly, who
assumed the conspirative names of "Reiss" and
"Constantine".
The meeting between the Commander and "Con-
stantine Reiss" took place on August 17 at 7 p. m.,
on the Tsvetnoy Boulevard. At this meeting the
question was discussed as to the possibility of
sending military units to Vologda, in order treach-
erously to hand over Vologda to the British.
People's Commissaries to be Seized
It was suggested that a rising might be possible
in Moscow within two or three weeks, i. e., about
the middle of September. The British were con-
cerned that Lenin and Trotsky should be present
at the plenary session of the Council of People's
Commissaries, the arrest of which in its entirety
was planned. It was proposed simultaneously to
seize the State Bank, the Central Telephone Sta-
tion, and the Telegraph Station, and to introduce
a military dictatorship, with a prohibition under
pain of death to hold any meeting whatsoever be-
fore the arrival of the British military authorities.
The question was also discussed of enlisting the
assistance of the highest representatives of the
Church hierarchy in order to organize public pray-
ers and sermons in defence of the revolt. The
consent of the representatives of the clergy was
obtained. At this meeting the commander already
mentioned had 700,000 rubles handed over to him,
in accordance with Lockhart's promise, for the pur-
pose of organizing the projected rising.
Who Supplied the Money t
On August 22, a new meeting was held at which
a further 200,000 rubles were handed over and
plans were examined for the seizure of the cabi-
nets of Lenin, Trotsky, Aralov, and the Supreme
Economic Council, in order to gain possession of
the papers contained therein. The object of the
British officer (Reilly), who was carrying on the
negotiations, was mainly to utilize the material
seized to justify a new war between Russia and
Germany, which it was proposed to declare imme-
diately after the coup d'etat.
On August 28 the said Commander of the Soviet
troops was handed a further 300,000 rubles, and
it was agreed that he should go to Petrograd in
order to get into touch with the British directing
military groups here and the Russian White
Guards who had gathered around it. The inter-
view at Petrograd took place on August 29. At
this interview the question was discussed of get-
ting into touch with Nizhni-Novgorod and Tam-
bov.
Petrograd and Moscow to be Starved Out
Simultaneously with the conferences described
there went on other conferences between the diplo-
matic representatives of various "Allied" powers
concerning measures which could render more ac-
ute the internal situation of Russia and thereby
weaken the Soviet Government in its struggle with
the Czecho- Slovaks and the Anglo-French.
As was made clear, the principal problem to be
executed by the Allied agents, who are scattered
through all the towns of Soviet Russia, armed with
forged papersi was to increase food difficulties,
particularly in Petrograd and Moscow. Plans for
the blowing-up of bridges and railways, with the
object of delaying supplies of food, and also for
the destruction by fire and the blowing-up of food
dumps were worked out. It was also discovered
that the Anglo-French conspirators had an ex-
tensively elaborated system of espionage in all the
Commissariats, which was confirmed by the
searches which followed, in which a number of
secret reports from the Eastern Front were brought
to light. The officers arrested in connection with
this (Captain Fride *nd others), in their evidence
showed that they had handed over to the British
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and French secret information as to the movement
of Soviet troops and generally all secret informa-
tion as to the internal situation of Russia.
The Plot Unmasked
In connection with all this data, arrests took
place in Petrograd and Moscow. The complicity
of the diplomatic and military representatives of
the Allied powers in the conspiracy already de-
cribed was fully established. Ten million rubles
had been earmarked for the purpose. Amongst
other details, it was considered necessary to make
certain that the unit which was supplying the
guard on the appointed day at the Kremlin should
be bought over, and should carry out the arrest
itself. All the arrested members of the Council
of People's Commissaries were immediately to be.
sent to Archangel.
Relay's Change of Plan
This was the original plan. However, Sidney
Keilly soon expressed a doubt as to the utility of
sending Lenin thither. He considered that Lenin
possesses a marvelous faculty of appealing to the
man in the street. One might be certain that dur-
ing his journey to Archangel he would be able to
gain over the escort to his side, and the latter
would soon release him. Consequently, he con-
sidered that it would be most safe to shoot Lenin
and Trotsky immediately on their arrest.
Soviet Troops Incorruptible
The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission pos-
sesses certificates bearing the actual signature of
Mr. Lockhart, thanks to which the conspirators
could enjoy the protection of the British Military
Mission in Moscow. It has also supplementary
evidence of the detailed nature of the plans for
the organization of power after the coup d'etat.
The dictatorship was to be wielded by three per-
sons, special committees were to be set up in mili-
tary units, and so on.
The A. R. E. C. has also irrefragable documen-
tary evidence that while the threads of the whole
conspiracy centered in the hands of the British
Military Mission, the French Consul-General Gre-
nard, the French General Lavergne, and a number
of other French officers were also implicated.
Thanks to the incorruptibility of the Lettish
troops and the vigilance of the Extraordinary
Commission, the threatened attempt was frus-
trated.
The London weekly that publishes the above adds
a characteristic comment to illustrate the attitude of the
British working class on the subject of counter-revolu-
tionary activities of the British Government in Russia.
The following document may be regarded as of ex-
ceptional interest at a period when the British Govern-
ment has broken off political negotiations with the
Workers' and Peasants' Government of Russia for the
alleged reason that the Russian workers were prepared
to spare £75,000 out of their great need in order to assist
the only British working-class daily.
It should be remembered that the negotiations and
transactions described in the following documents took
place in the summer of 1918, while the Allied diplomats
in Moscow were still enjoying the most complete im-
munity; although it had already been discovered (in
June, 1918) that they helped to finance the Czecho-
slovak insurrection which had begun some months be-
fore, and which was at this moment, in conjunction
with the Allied landing at Archangel, threatening the
very existence of the Soviet Republic
The Communist Party of Great Britain considers it-
self bound to place the following facts before the work-
ing classes of these islands and of the whole world, in
order to expose at their true worth the pretensions of
the men who are gambling with the workers' lives in
order to serve the interests of bankers, timber mer-
chants, and oil magnates.
An Interview with Victor Kopp
By Julio Alvarez Del Vato
[The Spanish correspondent Julio Alvarez Del Vayo, who sends contributions to "La Nacion"
of Buenos Aires, from Berlin, has the following interesting interview with Victor Kopp, Soviet
Representative in that city, in the issue for September 4, 1920, of the Madrid "Espana", one of
the most dignified and serious of Spanish reviews.]
T-fOW do you judge the new situation brought
** about by the reverses of the Russian army,
and what in your opinion will be the future policy
of the Soviet Government with regard to the En-
tente and Poland?
I cannot answer officially, since Moscow has not
pronounced itself with regard to the latest events.
The news circulating in these parts is not authen-
tic. England's change of attitude is very natural.
Lloyd George is the typical incarnation of a capi-
talist bourgeois diplomat, for whom there are
neither laws nor principles. He exploits every
conjuncture in the sense that seems most favorable
to him at the moment. His morality is the Na-
poleonic morality, whose creed is that God is al-
ways on the side of the strongest battalions. His
principal interest is the defence of the interests of
his class. Lloyd George is consistent with him-
self, but his policy, although at times brilliant and
individual, soon discloses its myopic nature when
viewed as part of the larger whole. The case of
Giolitti seems clearer to me however. Italy must
reckon with the spirit of the proletariat, whose
influence is increasing day by day. The politician
of the old school knows only two methods of gov-
ernment with regard to the masses: make con-
cessions, or hand out brute force. To judge by
the importance of the growth of the workers' move-
ment in Italy, Giolitti seems to think the moment
has come for the use of the second method. The
situation seems favorable to him. He knows per-
fectly well the risk he is running; he knows that
the Italian workers m\\ oppose in every way the
destruction of their Russian comrades. The Gio-
TTNiv ltOi I T ur ml L TTF-J.^vn
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litti policy, which was at first farseeing and saga-
cious, will now contribute to intensifying class
antagonisms in Italy and precipitating the catas-
trophe.
What do you think of the activity displayed in
the last few days by General Wrangelf
The same fate awaits him as has overtaken
Denikin and Kolchak. Without doubt Wrangel is
more capable. He is dividing the land among the
peasants, pretending to them that he is their
friend. But this policy, on the other hand, will
alienate from him the support and the sympathies
of the reactionary elements who are opposed to
having the peasants become proprietors of the
land. Besides, Wrangel has already revealed his
game. The "liberator" has attached to his govern-
ment all the most discredited men of the old re-
gime, persons who have been in the vicinage of
Shulgin and Krivosheyin. It is certain that Wran-
gel has made considerable progress in the last few
weeks. Neither the Soviet Government nor its
press conceal this fact, and they are accustomed
to relating the facts as they are. They do not
conceal the danger that is involved in Wrangel's
operations near the coal region of the Donets
Basin, which threatens, furthermore, the Cauca-
sus railroad lines. But today the struggles going
on in Russia are not fought out exclusively in the
military field. There is always in the background
the social question, and this is the obstruction to
Wrangel's victory. The case is similar in Poland;
it should not be forgotten that the Polish peas-
ants openly sympathize with the Soviets.
Could you be so kind as to outline for me what
Russia intends to do with regard to Poland?
Russia has no intention to make any attempts
against Poland's independence. We shall respect
that independence as we have respected the inde-
pendence of the other marginal states. Of course
we shall be delighted with the entrance of Poland
and the rest of those states into a great federal
Soviet Republic. But, of course, only in case they
really are disposed to enter such a republic. So
long as they continue to be governed in a bour-
geois manner, Russia has no interest in uniting
with them or in imposing upon them by force
its own system of government.
You ask me about the Treaty of Versailles?
Russia cannot recognize this treaty. It*never was
informed of the treaty, nor has it ever taken any
note of it. It is just as if the treaty did not exist,
and the same applies to the League of Nations.
The Treaty of Versailles is only the expression
of the piratical policy of the Entente. We are
therefore unable to consider the question, for ex-
ample, of the "Polish corridor", as solved. On
the other hand, it seejns reasonable to us that
Poland should aspire to hold an outlet to the sea.
Why should not the fate of Danzig be decided by
a plebiscite, by reason of the much lauded prin-
ciple of the right of peoples to self-determination,
instead of forcing upon that city the autocratic
decrees of the Supreme Council of the Allies.
We desire to live perfectly at peace with Ger-
many. The state of peace still lacks certain docu-
mentary prerequisites: but as a matter of fact,
peace is already with us. It is to be hoped that
commercial exchanges will soon be resumed. 'Com-
merce with Germany is a vital necessity for us.
What do you think of the reconstruction of
Russia?
In spite of the enormous difficulty to be over-
come, the reconstruction of Russia is progressing.
Splendid prospects open before us. The initiative
has been taken in supplying hydraulic power od
a large scale in the Urals and in the vicinity of
Moscow. The installment of great electric power
stations is at present being planned. Of course.
Russia alone cannot reconstruct itself. Machinery
is necessary, and so are utensils. The cooperation
of international commerce is needed. At present
all those are deceiving themselves who are specu-
lating on the possibility of reducing Russia by
means of boycotting its desires for reconstruction.
Every attack from without redoubles our will to
resist.
Do you think that the economic crises involved
in every revolution might go so far as to com-
promise the work of reconstruction in Russia, and
do you think that from this standpoint it would be
to the interest of Russia to have the western coun-
tries, from whose industry Russia expects to re-
ceive raw ntaterials and machinery, remain at least
for a certain period of time unmolested by any
revolutionary upheavals?
For a moment the Soviet representative hesi-
tated. Then he answered: The world does not
dispose itself to suit our personal desires. What
we personally desire or may come to desire is not
of importance. History follows its inexorable
course. Capitalism is displaying its impotence at
all points in the solution of the problems presented
or aggravated by the war. Even the most pros-
perous countries, such as England and Prance,
cannot reconstruct themselves within the economic
system in which they live ; even there the capitalist
regime will crumble one day.
You have Friends
who would subscribe to Soviet Russia if
they knew of its existence. You know best
how to get new subscribers for us. One way
is to send us the names of persons who might
like to learn about us. We shall send them
sample copies of Soviet Russia.
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 West 40th St. New York, N. Y.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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Peace Treaty Between Soviet Russia and Latvia
[The following is a translation of the Treaty of Peace signed at Dorpat on June 13, 1920,
between representatives of the governments of Soviet Russia and Latvia. This translation has
been prepared for Soviet Russia from the Lettish official version, as it appeared in the Official
Gazette of Latvia. Unfortunately the Russian text has been as yet unobtainable.]
Latvia, on the one hand, and Russia, on the other,
animated by a firm desire to end the war that had
arisen between them, have decided to enter into peace
negotiations and to conclude, as soon as possible, a
firm, honorable and just peace and finally settle all
questions that arise from Latvia's former dependency
from Russia, and for this purpose have appointed as
their plenipotentiaries :
The Government of the Latvian Democratic Republic :
Jahn (son of Jahn) Wessman,
Peter (son of Rembert) Berg,
Ans (son of Kristap) Buschewitsch,
Eduard (son of Andrej) Kalinin, and
Karl (son of Jekab) Pauluk.
The Government of the Russian Socialist Federal
Soviet Republic:
Adolf (son of Abram) Yoffe, and
Jakov (son of Stanislav) Hanezki.
The above mentioned plenipotentiaries, assembled in
Moscow and after reciprocally presenting their creden-
tials, which have been found to be of the required form
and in good order, have agreed on the following:
ARTICLE I
From the day this treaty goes into effect the war
between the contracting parties shall cease.
ARTICLE II
In accordance with the declaration of the Russian
Socialist Federal Soviet Republic of the right of nations
to free self-determination, not excluding even a complete
severance from the state they were a part of, and con-
sidering the firm expressed will of the Latvian people
for an independent national life, Russia recognizes
without reservations the independence, self-existence
and sovereignty of the Latvian State and renounces
voluntarily and forever all sovereign rights that Russia
held over the Latvian people and land, according to the
former laws of the state and international treaties,
which to the effect, as above mentioned, shall forever .
be annulled. No obligations shall arise on the part
of the Latvian people and land toward Russia as a re-
sult of their connection with Russia.
ARTICLE III
The frontier between Latvia and Russia shall be as
follows :
From the Esthonian frontier, between the villages of
Babina and Vymorsk, through the village of Vymorsk,
by the Glubitza River, through Vashkova, further by
Opochka Rivulet and Opochka and Vyada Rivers, to
Dubinina, from there by the shortest straight line to
Kukhva River, further by Kukhva River and its tribu-
tary the Pelega River to Umernish, from there in a
straight line to the letter V of the place named
Kailova on the Utroja River, by the Utroja River to
its bend near Malaya Melnitsa, from there in a straight
line to the bend of Lsha River, two versts north from
the place name "Starina", further by Lsha River and
the administrative boundaries of the counties Luts,
Rezekne and Dvinsk with the counties of Opochka,
Sebezh and Drissa, to Passina, on the Osunitsa River,
further in a straight line through Lakes Bieloye, Cher-
noye and through the lake lying between Vasilev and
Mozishk, through Saveik, on the rivulet emptying into
the Dvina River between Koskovts and Novoye Selo,
further by the Dvina River to Shafranova.
By the 14th day after the ratification of the peace
treaty, both contracting parties agree to withdraw their
military forces to the national frontier within their
territories.
Note 1. The frontiers defined in this article are
marked in red on the map (three versts to one inch),
appended to this article. In case of difference*! between
5
the text and the map, the text shall be considered as
decisive.
Note 2. The surveying and the setting up frontier
marks between the Latvian and Russian States shall'
be carried out by a special mixed frontier commission,
with an equal number of members from both sides. In
surveying inhabited points traversed by frontier, what
points shall vest with one or the other contracting party's
territory shall be decided by the above mentioned com-
mission, according to the ethnographic and economic
features of such points. In cases where ethnographic
and economic features are to be considered, and the above
mentioned commission has to set the frontier along rivers
and lakes, the frontier goes through the middle of rivers
and lakes, disregarding the former administrative boun-
daries that may have run along one or the other side
of these rivers and lakes.
Note 3. The artificial diversion of water from border
rivers and lakes if that causes the lowering of the aver-
age level of water, — is prohibited. Rules and regulations
regarding shipping and fishing in these rivers and laxes
shall be set by special agreements; in fishing to be used
only such devices, that do not result in the extermina-
tion of fish.
Appendix (map)*
ARTICLE IV
Both contracting parties are bound :
1. To prohibit the maintenance of any armies on
their territories, except the armies of the government,
or the armies of friendly powers that have made a
military agreement with one of the contracting parties,
but who are not actually at war with the other con-
tracting party; also to prohibit within their territories
the recruiting and mobilization of persons for an army
by such states, organizations and groups, whose intent
is to wage armed war against the other contracting
party.
Nate: In the Russian army at present existing, the
names of certain military detachments, that form parts
of the Latvian Light Division, are considered by both
parties as names having only an historical significance.
The personnel in these detachments is not ana will not
be of a national Lettish preponderance, and, notwith-
standing the names, they have no relation either to the
Lettish people nor to the Latvian State.
Therefore Latvia will not consider the retention of
these historical names as a violation of this article.
Both sides shall not give to their military detachments
new names, that are originated from the other party's
geographical or national names.
2. To prohibit the organization and residence on
its territory of any organizations or groups who pre-
tend to be the government of the whole or a part of
the territory of other contracting party, to prohibit
also the residence on its territory of the representatives
and officials of organizations and groups, which intend
to overthrow the government of the other contracting
party.
3. To prohibit states which are actually at war with
the other party, and organizations and groups whose
intent is armed war with the other contracting party,
from using its ports and territory for the transporta-
tion of anything that might be used to attack the other
contracting party, such as : armed forces, military equip-
ment, technical appliances of military nature, and artil-
lery, intendancy, engineering and aeronautic supplies of
such states, organizations and groups.
4. To prohibit, except in cases provided for in inter-
national law, the entering and the passage through its
territorial waters of any war vessels, gunboats and tor-
pedo-boats, etc., that belong to organizations or groups
intending to wage armed war against the other con-
tracting party, or to states that are in a state of war
with the other contracting party and whose intention
is to attack the other contracting party, if such an in-
tention has become known to the contracting party to
whom the territorial waters and ports belong.
• Although we have looked for this map in a number of
Lettish papers containing th«? *c*t of this treaty, we have not
been able to fitd a copy of it.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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ARTICLE V
Both sides reciprocally renounce all claims to the
payment of military expenditures, i. e., state expendi-
ture spent in conducting war, as well as claims of war
losses, i. e., those losses caused by the military opera-
tions against them or their citizens, including also all
kinds of requisitions that have been made by the other
party on their territory.
ARTICLE VI
Deeming it absolutely necessary that obligations to
cover the losses of the World War of 1914-1917, suf-
fered by the ruined countries or parts of countries, on
which territories the war was carried on, shall be justly
distributed between all the world powers, both contract-
ing parties undertake the endeavor to reach an agree-
ment between all the powers for the creation of an
international world fund, from which the money shall
be drawn to cover the above mentioned losses.
Independently of the creation of such an interna-
tional fund, the contracting parties consider it necessary,
as far as it is in their power, to extend mutual help to
Russia, as well as to all independent republics, estab-
lished on the former Russian territory of the Czar's
government, joining with their own resources in order
to cover the losses of the World War, and both parties
undertake the endeavor to reach such an agreement
between these above mentioned republics.
ARTICLE VII
Prisoners of war of both contracting countries must
be transported to their respective countries as soon as
possible. The order of exchange of war prisoners will
be denned in the appendix to this article.
Note i Prisoners of war are considered all persons
captured and not serving voluntarily in the army of the
state that has captured them.
APPENDIX
1. Prisoners of war of both countries shall be per-
mitted to go to their respective countries, if they do
not wish to remain, with the consent of the government
of the territory on which they live, within its boun-
daries, or to go to other countries.
2. When the prisoners of war are liberated they
shall receive back their documents and personal prop-
erty which has been confiscated by the order of the
government that captured them, as well as the unpaid
and unaccounted portions of their salary.
3. Each contracting party agrees to repay the ex-
penses which its former adversary had borne in main-
taining its captured citizens to an extent such as these
expenses have not been compensated by the work of
prisoners of war in government or private enterprises.
The repayment shall be made in the currency of the
state that had made the capture.
Note: The expenses of maintaining prisoners of war
consist of expenditures for their food, clothing and sup-
plying them with money.
4. Prisoners of war shall be transported to the fron-
tier by echelons at the expense of the state that has
captured them; the transfer shall be executed according
to prepared lists on which is stated the first name, the
name of the father, the family name of the prisoner, the
time of his capture, as well as the army unit the pris-
oner served in when captured.
5. Immediately after the ratification of the peace
treaty a mixed commission composed of three repre-
sentatives from both sides for the exchange of prisoners
of war shall be established. The duty of this commis-
sion shall be the supervision of the execution of the
terms as stated in this appendix, the determination of
dates and the ways and means of transporting the pris-
oners of war to their country, also the fixing of the
amount of expenditures of prisoners of war, according
to the dates submitted by the respective sides at the
time of exchange of the prisoners of war.
6. Upon the same principles, as stated in regard to
prisoners of war, shall be carried out the exchange of
interned civilians and military persons, also the return
of hostages of both sides upon the request of the
adversary.
by K:
*L
IC
ARTICLE VIII
Persons who on the day of the ratification of this
treaty live within Latvia's boundaries, also the refugees
dwelling in Russia, who themselves, or whose parents,
before August 1, 1914, arc registered in the records of
town or country bodies, or institutions of social classes
on the territory now constituting the Latvian State,
shall be considered as Latvian citizens.
Persons of the same category, who, on the day of
the ratification of this treaty, live within the boundaries
of Russia, except the above-mentioned category of
refugees, shall be considered as Russian citizens.
However, within one year from the date of the
ratification of this treaty, all persons over the age of
eighteen, living on Latvian territory shall have the right
to renunciation of their Latvian citizenship and shall
have the right to choose Russian citizenship; their
citizenship is shared by their children under eighteen
years of age, and by their wives, if there be no specific
agreement between husband and wife.
Also persons, who according to the definititions stated
in the second section of this article, are to be con-
sidered Russian citizens, have the same right to choose
Latvian citizenship during the same period and under
the same conditions.
Persons, who have announced their wish for such
option, as well as those who share their citizenship
as above, retain their rights of movable and immovable
private property in accordance with the laws that
exist in the country where they live, but in case of
leaving the country they have the right to sell out or
to export their property.
Note L Persons Who, at the moment of the ratifica-
tion of this treaty, live on the territory of a third
country, but are not naturalized there and fulfill the
requirements of the first section of this, article, shall
also be considered Latvian citizens, but under the above
mentioned conditions they have the right to choose Rus-
sian citizenship.
Note 2. The right of option as defined in this article
relates also to those citizens, who up to the World War
of 1914-1917, and later, have lived on the territory of
one of the contracting parties, but at the moment of the
ratification of the treaty are living on the territory of
the other party.
Refugees, in regard to their property, which they
could not export on the basis of the agreement of June
12, 1920, regarding the repatriation of refugees, shall
have the same rights as are in this article provided for
citizens with the right of option, but only to such an
extent as the refugees can prove that this property be-
longs to them and has been during the repatriation time
in their actual possession.
Note 3. Both contracting parties give to the citizens
of the other side, as well as to those who expressed
their wish for an option, the right and facilities freely
to depart for their respective countries, and, in general,
the right to leave the boundaries of the other country.
Both contracting parties also agree to demobilize the
citizens of the other country as soon as this treaty is
ratified, also persons who have applied for citizenship
of the other country.
ARTICLE IX
The agreement between Latvia and Russia, of June
12, 1920, regarding the repatriation of refugees, remains
in effect, with the supplementary statement that refugees
who are citizens of the other side have, besides those
rights defined in the above-mentioned agreement, also
the rights given by this peace treaty to persons who
have expressed their wish for option and to citizens
of the respective country.
ARTICLE X
Both contracting parties reciprocally renounce any
claims that would arise from Latvia's former alliance
with Russia, and recognize the various state properties
on each respective country's territory, as the sole prop-
erty of that country. The right of claims for Russian
state property, which has been removed from the Lat-
vian territory after August 1, 1914, to a third country,
shall be transferred to the Latvian State.
To the Latvian State shall also be transferred all
claims of the Russian State against juridical persons or
a third country, as far as these claims concern Latvian
territory.
To the Latvian State shall be transferred all financial
tJngmal from
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claims of the Russian Treasury on properties within
the boundaries of the Latvian State, also all claims
against Latvian citizens, but only as far as these claims
are not liquidated by counter-claims presented at the
settlement of accounts.
Note: To the Latvian State shall not be transferred
the rights of claims against small holders-peasants, re-
garding their indebtedness and defaulting of payments to
former Peasant's Agrarian Bank of Russia, or to other
Russian agrarian banks now nationalized, these debts shall
be considered null and void; also the indebtedness of
the nobility to the former Noblemen's Agrarian Bank of
Russia, or other Russian agrarian banks now national-
ized shall not be claimed by the Latvian State, but shall
be considered null and void, if that land is given over
to the small holders-peasants and agricultural laborers.
The Russian Government shall hand over to the
Latvian Government the documents and acts that af-
firm the rights mentioned in this section, as far as these
documents are in the actual possession of the former.
If within a year from the day of the ratification of
this treaty this is not done, these documents and acts
are declared lost
ARTICLE XI
1. The Russian Government shall deliver at its own
expense to Latvia, and hand over to the Latvian Gov-
ernment, libraries, archives, museums, art productions,
school appliances, documents and other property of
educational, learned, state, religious, social institutions
and institutions of social classes, insofar as these men-
tioned articles have been removed from Latvia during
the World War of 1914-1917 and actually are in, or
may come into, the jurisdiction of the Russian Govern-
ment, or social institutions.
With regard to archives, libraries, museums, art pro-
ductions, and documents that are for Latvia of import-
ant scientific, artistic or historical value and that
were removed from Latvia to Russia before the World
War of 1914-1917, the Russian Government is willing
to return them to Latvia as far as the taking out of
these objects may not cause considerable losses to the
Russian archives, libraries, museums and art galleries
in which they are kept.
A special mixed commission with an equal number
of members from both sides shall settle all questions
in regard to the taking out of the objects mentioned.
2. The Russian Government shall return at its own
expense and hand over to the Latvian Government all
judicial and administrative papers, court and adminis-
trative archives, also the archives of the senior and
junior notary public, the archives of the title and land
office, the archives of religious departments of all con-
fessions, the archives and plans of the departments of
land surveying, land organization, of forestry, railroad,
highways, post and telegraph, etc. ; from the topography
bureau of the Vilna military district, plans, drawings,
maps and in general all material that relates to the
territory of the Latvian State; the archives and man-
agement of the local branch of the Nobles' and Peas-
ants' banks, of the local branch of the State Bank and
of other credit, cooperative and mutual insurance asso-
ciations, insofar as these mentioned articles actually
are in, or may come into, the jurisdiction of the Russian
Government, or social institutions.
3. The Russian Government shall return at its own
expense, and hand over to the Latvian Government, to
be forwarded to those to whom they belong, various
documents regarding property rights, as : purchase con-
tracts and obligations, rent contracts, bills of exchange,
etc, also account-books, papers and documents, that are
necessary in settling accounts, and documents, in gen-
eral, that are of value for the affirmation of legal
property rights of Latvian citizens, and that have been
removed from Latvia to Russia during the World War
of 1914-1917, insofar as they actually are in, or may
come into, the jurisdiction of the Russian Government,
or social institutions. If within two years from the
date of the ratification of this treaty these documents
are not returned, they shall be considered lost.
4. Russia shall deliver those papers and documents
from the archives of the central and local departments
that have direct relation to Latvian territories.
igitized by L^OOgle
ARTICLE XII
1. The Russian Government shall return to Latvia
the property of social, charitable, cultural and educa-
tional institutions that has been evacuated to Russia
during the World War of 1914-1917, also the bells and
property of churches and meeting-houses of all con-
fessions, insofar as these mentioned objects actually
are in, or may come into, the jurisdiction of the Rus-
sian Government, or social institutions.
2. The Russian Govrenment shall return to Latvia
valuables of all kinds that have been evacuated to Rus-
sia since August 1st, 1914, from the various Latvian
commercial, agrarian and credit institutions, as banks,
mutual credit associations, savings and loan banks and
associations, also town banks and banks of social bodies,
and lombards, that have done business within the ter-
ritory of Latvia, — valuables belonging to or deposited
in these above-mentioned banks, except gold, precious
stones and currency; insofar as these valuables are in,
or may come into, the jurisdiction of the Russian Gov-
ernment, or social institutions.
3. With regard to compensation for bonds of the
Russian Government,* for bonds guaranteed by that
Government, also for private bonds that are circulating
within the territory of Latvia, and have been issued
by associations and institutions whose enterprises are
nationalized by the Russian Government, as well as
Latvian citizens' claims against the Russian State and
nationalized institutions, — Russia shall comply to grant
to Latvia, to Latvian citizens and institutions all those
facilities, rights and privileges, wheh she directly or
indirectly has granted or may grant to another country,
or to citizens, societies or institutions. If bonds or
obligations cannot be presented, the Russian Govern-
ment, in applying this section of article 12, is willing
to recognize those persons as the holders of bonds, etc.,
who present proof, that valuable papers belonging to
them have been evacuated during the war.
4. In regard to savings deposits, securities, and other
money deposits made with the various state and judicial
institutions, as far as these deposits and payments be-
long to Latvian citizens, also in regard to deposits and
all kinds of securities, that have been deposited in the
local branches of the former State Bank or other credit
institutions now nationalized or liquidated insofar as
these deposits and payments belong to Latvian citizens,
— the Russian Government shall consent to allow to
Latvian citizens all rights that were formerly allowed
to Russian citizens and therefore to permit Latvian
citizens, who on account of their occupations could not
exercise their rights, to do so now. In meeting these
claims, the Russian Government shall allow to Latvian
citizens the benefit of paying them the amount that
the unit of Russian money has lost from its purchasing
value, counting it from the moment of the occupation
of Latvia— September 3, 1917 — to the moment of the
return of the money.
5. In regard to valuables and properties that were
kept in the rooms of the banks or in their safes, as far
as these valuables and property belong, or are in, or
may actually come into, the jurisdiction of the Russian
Government or social institutions, the terms of sec-
tion 4 of this article shall be applied. The same terms
shall be applied also to Latvian citizens' valuables and
property that was kept after August 1st, 1914, in the
rooms and safes of the evacuated Latvian credit insti-
tutions and safes.
Note: The money, valuables and property mentioned
in this article shall be handed over to the Latvian Gov-
ernment to be forwarded to whom they belong.
ARTICLE XIII
The Russian Government shall return to the Latvian
Government to be forwarded to whom it belongs all
property of Latvian cities, societies and juridical and
natural private persons, that has been evacuated to
Russia during the World War, insofar as this property
actually is in, or may come into, the jurisdiction of
the Russian Government or social institutions.
•Apparently the Ctarirt Govern or <;nf. is meant.
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Note 1 In caae of doubt, such organizations shall, be
considered as Latvian joint stock companies and wcieties,
as Sm present proof that the amount of shares and in-
"sSSnts belonging to Latvian citizens were in pre-
ponderance before the date of the publishing of the Rus-
K!n Government decree regarding the nationalization of
ind N*7.' This article shall not apply to investments,
deposUs and valuables that have been in the ^^nche.
of the State Bank, or private banks, credit institutions
and savings banks on Latvian territory.
ARTICLE XIV
1. In regard to post, telegraph and telephone prop-
erty that has been evacuated during the World War
of 1914-1917, from Latvia to Russia, the Russian Gov-
ernment shall return to Latvia and hand over to the
Latvian Government as much of this property as the
true needs of the economic and cultural life of Latvia
as an independent state may require, and insofar as
this evacuated property is in, or may come into, actual
jurisdiction of the Russian Government or social m-
2 In regard to floating equipments, and lighthouses
that were used in Latvian harbors and have been evacu-
ated during the World War of 1914-1917 from Latvia
to Russia, the Russian Government shall deliver to
Latvia and hand over to the Latvian Government as
much of this property as may be needed to the actual
needs for harbors and their appurtenances for Latvia
as an independent state, and insofar as this property is
in, or may come into, the actual jurisdiction of the
Russian State or social institutions.
3 In regard to the rolling stock and the railroad
shop equipments that have been evacuated during the
World War of 1914-1917 from Latvia to Russia, the
Russian Government shall return to Latvia, and hand
over to the Latvian Government, as much of it as may
be needed to the actual economic need of Latvia as an
independent state and insofar as this property is in,
or may come into, actual jurisdiction of the Kussian
Government or social institutions. t
A mixed Latvian-Russian commission constituted on
the principles of equal representation immediately after
the ratification of the treaty, shall determine in detail
the amount of property mentioned in this article, that
must be re-evacuated, and shall also settle the dates
of delivery. This commission shall determine the
amount of property to be re-evacuated, taking into
account the economic conditions as they were before
the World War of 1914-1917, on the territories that
according to this treaty now constitute the Latvian
State; deducting everything that has served the needs
of Russia's industry and Russia's transit in general,
the actual needs of present day Latvia as an independ-
ent state shall be determined in detail; considering,
however, the general lowering of the level of economic
life.
ARTICLE XV
The Russian Government shall be bound to give the
Latvian Government all instructions and information,
and render every assistance in the discovery of property,
archives, documents, etc., in complying with the terms
of the articles X. XI, XII, XIII, and XIV of this treaty.
The property that shall be re-evacuated by the Rus-
sian Government according to the above-mentioned ar-
ticles may be returned in kind or in respective equiva-
lents, if agreed so by the Latvian Government.
On account of the value of the property in the above-
mentioned form, to be returned to Latvia, the Russian
Government advances to Latvia 4,000,000 rubles m
gold to be delivered two months after the ratification
of the treaty.
ARTICLE XVI
Taking into account the devastation of Latvia during
the World War of 1914-1917 —Russia : .
1. Frees Latvia from responsibility for the Russian
debts or any other obligations, including the responsi-
bilities created by the issuance of paper money, state
treasury notes, obligations, the series and certificate
notes of the Russian Treasury, from responsibilities
for internal and foreign loans, guarantees to various
institutions and enterprises, and for loans guaranteed
by them, etc. All such claims of the creditors of
Russia in matters concerning* Latvia shall be directed
to Russia. . ,
2 Grants Latvia rights of cutting forest on an area
of 100,000 dessiatins in order to help Latvian peasantry
to rebuild their homes destroyed during the war; the
forests shall be as near as possible to the Latvian bor-
der, railroads and rivers adopted for floating timber;
the conditions of this concession to be defined by a
special Latvian-Russian mixed commission constituted,
upon the principle of equal representation, immediately
after the ratification of the treaty.
ARTICLE XVII
1 The contracting parties are willing to conclude
immediately after the ratification of this treaty com-
mercial and transit agreements, consular and post and
telegraph conventions and an agreement in regard to
the deepening of the Dvina River.
• 2. Until the conclusion of commercial and transit
agreements the contracting parties agree that tfieir mu-
tual economic relations shall be settled on the following
principles: , m „ , . . . 4
a. Both sides give to each other all the rights that
would be enjoyed by the most favored nation;
b. No customs duties nor tariff taxes shall be levied
on goods to be transported over the territory of one of
the contracting countries; .
c. Freight rates for transit goods shall not be higher
than rates for local transportation of goods of the
same nature. . .
3. In case of the death of a citizen of one of the
contracting sides, on the territory of the other side, his
property shall be given over to the consular or other
similar representative of the country to which belonged
the deceased whose estate is in question, which is to
be administered according to the laws and rules of his
country.
ARTICLE XVIII
Both contracting parties are bound to apply all pos-
sible means to facilitate the movements of merchant
ships in their waters, furnishing the necessary pilots,
keeping lighthouses in order, setting up the necessary
marks, sweeping the waters of mines, applying special
devices to cut down the mine fields.
Both sides express their willingness to participate in
the clearing of the Baltic Sea of mines, which work
shall be performed according to special agreement be-
tween the interested parties; in case this is not done
the degree of participancy of both sides shall be de-
termined by the court of arbitration.
ARTICLE XIX
Diplomatic and consular relations shall be established
immediately after the ratification of this treaty.
ARTICLE XX
After the ratification of this treaty the Russian Gov-
ernment shall pardon all Latvian citizens and all appli-
cants for Latvian citizenship, and the Latvian Govern-
ment shall pardon Russian citizens and applicants for
Russian citizenship, military persons as well as civilians,
for any kind of political or disciplinary offences. When
court decisions have not yet been made, the cases have
to be discontinued.
Persons who have committed the above-mentioned
offences after this treaty is signed are not subject to
this amnesty. .
Persons who are under investigation or are indictee,
or are arrested, having been charged with criminal of-
fences and misdemeanors, before the ratification of this
treaty, also those who are serving their sentences for
such offences, shall be immediately delivered to their
country upon the request of their government, together
with all the evidence adduced in their indictment and
trial. . . . „ j „
Simultaneously, both contracting parties shall pardon
their own citizens for offences that were committed in
the interests of the enemy before this treaty was signed.
Note 1. Since, according to the terms oC this article.
cevtivn persons ?r? »o be pardoned or delivered to tttu
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country, the sentences given for these crimes and offenses
to those persons shall be discontinued from the moment
of the signing of this treaty.
Not* 2. This article shall not be applied to Russian
citizens or applicants for Russian citizenship, who par-
ticipated on April 16, 1919, in the conspiracy and offensive
of Bermond.
ARTICLE XXI
The settlement of questions of public and private law
that may arise between the two contracting parties,
as well as the settlement of specific questions between
both states, or the state and the citizens of the other
country, shall be arrived at by a special mixed com-
mission, which shall be established immediately after
the ratification of the treaty, with an equal number of
members from each side, and whose composition, rights
and duties are defined in the instructions by agreement
of both contracting states.
ARTICLE XXII
This treaty is drawn up in the Lettish and Russian
languages. In the interpretation both texts shall be
considered authentic.
ARTICLE XXIII
This treaty must be ratified and shall take effect
from the moment of ratification, if it is not stated
otherwise in the treaty.
The exchange of the documents of ratification must
take place in Moscow.
Wherever in this treaty the moment of ratification is
mentioned as the effective date of its enforcement, it
is understood to be the moment of the exchange of the
documents of ratification.
to the latter are carried out. The Russian Govern-
ment will follow closely the Budapest trial and
will not hesitate to take such measures as it may
deem necessary.
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs,
Chicherin.
Pravda, August 13.
CHICHERIN'S NOTE TO HUNGARY
(Translation of the radiogram sent on August
6 by People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Chi-
cherin to the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Af-
fairs at Budapest.)
The Russian Soviet Government has become
cognizant of the fact that ten former members of
the Hungarian Soviet Government, a close and
true ally of the Russian Soviet Government in the
struggle against the enemies of the toiling masses
of Russia and Hungary, are at present in the hands
of a mock criminal court, and that they are threat-
ened with judicial murder for measures which
they enacted in their capacity as members of the
government for the weal of the toiling masses
whose will they represented.
In view of this the Russian Government de-
clares that the former Hungarian People's Com-
missars Dovcsak, Nyisztor, Agoston, Bokanyi,
Haubrich, Vantus, Szabados, Kalmar, Bajalsi and
Kelen are under its close and direct protection. In
view of the danger which threatens them, as well
as the dangers which threaten the numerous Rus-
sian citizens who are now in Hungary, the Rus-
sian Government has ordered the detention in
concentration camps of a thousand Hungarian of-
ficers from among those who are still in Russia.
Ten of these officers, namely: Major Arshad de-
Karolyi, Colonel Alexander Cbisar, Stefan Flora,
chief lieutenants Koloman de-Jankoviz, Victor
Shebcheli, Alexander de-Sal, Count Valentine
Szechenyi, Lieutenant Georgi Spolaritz, Eugene
Ferber, are declared to be direct hostages for
the ten former people's commissars who are
now appearing before the mock court in Buda-
pest, and will be subjected to the same fate which
will befall the people's commissars if the bloody
plans of the Hungarian Government with regard
CHICHERIN'S NOTE TO PRANCE
-The threat contained in the radio of the French
Government dated August 26, namely, to profit
from France's naval superiority on the Black Sea
by undertaking aggressive operations against Rus-
sia or Ukraine in case the French prisoners, still
retained in Russia, should not have reached the
Finnish frontier or Odessa by the first of October,
can be considered only as an act of brutal violence,
in violation of the most elementary principles of
justice. Against such procedure the Russian Gov-
ernment raises an indignant protest.
The agreement, which was signed at Copenhagen
on last April 20, with regard to the repatriation
of Russian and French nationals, was conditioned
by the formal promise of the French Government
not to intervene in Russia's internal affairs, nor to
cooperate hereafter in any aggressive measure
against the Soviet Republic. Owing to the fact
that this promise has not been kept, and that the
whole policy of France with regard to Russia has
been a direct violation of the obligations accepted
at Copenhagen, the treaty which was based on
this condition becomes invalid, as our representa-
tive Litvinov stated at the proper time to the
French representative in Copenhagen.
Desiring, nevertheless, to bring about as speedily
as possible the return of Russian soldiers and pris-
oners now in France and Algeria to their native
soil, we have proceeded with the repatriation on
the basis of proportional exchange, reserving only
the right to defer the return of members remain-
ing from the French Military Mission, until the
last moment of the repatriation of Russian sol-
diers and prisoners.
But even with regard to the reciprocal and pro-
portional exchange of those under the jurisdiction
of the two countries, the French Government acts
in flagrant, violation of the actual condition of
this question. In its note of June 12, transmitted
to the Russian Government by M. Fritjof Nansen,
the French Government declares that it has re-
patriated 47,000 Russian soldiers and prisoners,
while in reality hardly 15,000 have reached Russia
at the present time. The number of Russian na-
tionals to be repatriated in September is, then,
not at all in proportion to the actual number of
those who are still in France and Algeria, awaiting
their return to Russia. In the above-mentioned
radio of the French Government the return of
all Russian nationals from France was set for Sep-
tember 15, and for those in Algeria for September
20. We see now that in reality complete repatri-
ation is very fp.r off. Information from various
sources reaches u« concerning the number of sol-
IMvIR^TTt uF CTlPIIGAh
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dieie and prisoners from Russia that are still in-
terned in the concentration camps or fortresses of
France, or even groaning under the barbarous Al-
gerian regime. Our fellow-citizens continue to
suffer under the orders of the French authorities
who persist in forcing them to join the army of
General Wrangel, or to enter the foreign section.
It seems doubtful to us that the French Gov-
ernment could give us formal and documentary
assurance that all our fellow-citizens have been
repatriated. And yet, if the French Government
demands the complete repatriation of its own na-
tionals, arguing that it has legally fulfilled the
obligations legally incumbent upon it, it should
at least furnish us with a formal proof of the re-
patriation of our nationals. Now no such proof
has been furnished by the French Government.
Consequently, the demand for the complete repat-
riation of French nationals should be considered
absolutely unjustified. Nevertheless, the Russian
Government is so sincerely desirous of avoiding
any further bloodshed, that it has resolved to yield
before brute force, and to send the remaining
French prisoners to Rajajoci or to Odessa without
waiting any longer, convinced that this new act
of insolence on the part of the French Government
will continue to open the eyes of the masses of
French people, who some day will be able to im-
pose their will upon their government and make
up for the acts of injustice which it has committed.
The Russian Government in yielding to violence,
will, by this act, draw the conclusions that are
forced upon it, and from now on calls the attention
of the French Government in the most serious
manner to the new and important obstacles which
such precedents create with regard to the general
pacification of Europe.
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs,
Chichebin.
BARON WRANGEL'S LAND PROGRAM
By N. Meshcheryakov
One of the first steps of the workmen's and
peasants* Soviet power after the November Revo-
lution was the transfer of all the land of the land-
lords' estates to the peasants. The main object of
the Russian counter-revolutionists was, on the
contrary, to restore to the former owners the land
which had been taken by the peasants from the
former landlords.
For two and a half years the Russian Whites
fought in vain for this land. The result of this
struggle was the complete defeat of the Whites
on all fronts. Now the landlords propose to
achieve their aim in another way, by means of
cunning. Their new chief and leader, Baron
Wrangel, surrounded himself with former Czarist
ministers and officials and drafted with their as-
sistance a "new land law", which he published in
Crimea. This "law" will be enforced in every dis-
trict which the Baron may succeed in seizing.
The law states that all the land of the former
landlords shall be divided into two parts. One
part shall remain the property of the former own-
ers. "The size of this part is not determined in
advance, but is left to the judgment of the volost
and uyezd land institutions in each locality." But
of whom will these "institutions" be composed?
The Baron prefers not to commit himself on this
question. But the very fact that this "law" was
dictated by the landlords, who are led by the
former reactionary Czarist minister, the large
landed proprietor Krivosheyin, shows that the
"land institutions" will be packed with the land-
lords' henchmen, or perhaps with the landlords
themselves. Under such conditions the largest part
of the land will, of course, remain in the hands of
the landlords.
The other part of the land is to be transferred
to the peasants. "But the land is not to be ex-
propriated, but will have to be paid for at its full
value." The peasant who will receive a section
of the land which formerly belonged to a landlord
will have to make payments to the landlord in
grain for twenty-five years, turning over to him
every year one-fifth of the whole crop. Only after
twenty-five years will he become the owner of this
land. During this time he will have to pay to
the landlord five crops.
Thus is this "law" of Baron Wrangel's ex-
pounded by the Russian White newspaper Pos-
ledniye Novosti (No. 67), which is very favorable
to Wrangel and his "law".
The plan is more insolent than cunning.
For centuries the landlords exploited the peas-
ants by means of their land. The people lost pa-
tience and drove out the landlords. In a bloody
struggle they crushed the landlords and reduced
them to impotence. And now the landlords think
that the people will voluntarily once more put
their head into the noose, that they will voluntar-
ily consent to pay each year, in the course of
twenty-five years, one-fifth of the total crop to
their parasitic enemies, that they will voluntarily
surrender and declare that all the sacrifices and
all the blood that was shed by the people were in
vain. This new "law" of Baron WrangePs will only
serve as an additional concrete proof for the peas-
ants as to the real character of the Baron and of
the gang that surrounds him. — Pravda, July 31.
PLUNDER ACTS BY COUNTER-
REVOLUTIONISTS
Moscow, September 10.— The Vestnik gives a
detailed account of the plundering of the Russian
gold treasure. After the Czechs occupied Kazan,
in 1918, they took possession of the gold and car-
ried it to Samara, and later to Omsk. Kolchak
gave, altogether, 3,230 poods of pure gold to Eng-
land, France, and Japan in payment for war ma-
terial and for the upkeep of the allied troops.
Moreover, Kolchak deposited large quantities of
gold in foreign banks as security for loans and
munitions. Altogether the counter-revolutionists
spent over 600 million rubles in gold, all of which
is in the posession of the Entente. The Soviet
Republic has still at it? disposal one billion rubles
m University of Michigan
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October 23, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
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CULTURAL WORK IN SOVIET RUSSIA
Moscow, September 20. — The All-Russian Con-
gress of the Union of Educational Workers, which
opened on August 30, sent greetings and congratu-
lations to the British proletariat because of the
latter^ unwavering struggle against British im-
perialism.
Moscow, September 20. — The Congress of Edu-
cational Workers, at which 275,000 educational
workers were represented, resolved to create an
organ which should direct all educational work
outside of the school.
The People's Commissariat for Public Educa-
tion has opened courses for the preparation of
kindergarten teachers.
The Central Directorate of Archives has opened
special courses for archivists and paleographers.
The Moscow Izvestia reports that a propaganda
ship, The Red Star, has for some time been plying
on the Volga. The ship is decorated, and painted
with pictures ; it is equipped with a printing shop
and a radio-station and has, besides, a cinema out-
fit which gives productions for the peasants in
the villages.
The Moscow Pravda reports the following : The
proletarian poet, P. Kozlov, the author of 'The
Legend of the Communard" and of "The King
of the Black Radish Kingdom", has now completed
"The Vultures", a new drama in three acts, drawn
from the life of speculators.
ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION IN
SOVIET RUSSIA
Moscow, September 23. — Many new factories
were recently built in the Ural region. These fac-
tories delivered a considerable quantity of locomo-
tives and railroad material. In the northern part
of the Urals, one factory produces barbed wire
only, and another factory in the same line is to
be constructed presently. In Yekaterinburg, a
large factory has been built for the production of
steel cables and telegraph material. These
products formerly had to be imported from abroad.
Great importance is being attached to these under-*
takings which are operating at full force.
AN ORDER ISSUED TO THE WRANGEL
ARMY
Moscow, August 30. — In the town of Aleshki,
which has been occupied by the Red troopst the
following order of a captain in the Wrangel army
was found posted in the streets :
"Order 459. The Jews are again helping the
Bolsheviki. I will hang every Jew that I catch.
All weapons and munitions which the Bolsheviki
have distributed are to be brought immediately
to my staff quarters. Whoever hides any arms,
will be hanged. All the Red soldiers who remained
in the city are to report to me within five hours.
(Signed) Captain Sakonishin."
FAVORABLE CROP PROSPECTS IN
SOVIET RUSSIA
Moscow, September 19. — The provisioning cam-
paign in the province of Penza is proceeding very
favorably. Over seventy per cent of the promised
crop has already been harvested, among others
100,000 poods of oats and 137,000 poods of wheat.
Besides, 15,000,000 eggs, 15,000 pounds of butter,
etc., have been collected.
Moscow, September 19. — The Central Execu-
tive Committe of Turkestan has mobilized a large
number of its members, as well as many respon-
sible party members, for harvest work. The crop
in Turkestan will not be less than 21 million
poods, of which there will be two million poods
of rice. The People's Food Committee counts up-
on the possibility of transporting one million poods
of rice and the same amount of dried fruit into
the central provinces.
Moscow, September 20. — Transports of grain
and raw materials have been brought over from
Omsk to Archangel to be used as exchange goods
for export abroad.
ALLIED CAPITAL IN THE CRIMEA
Chri8TIAnia, August 31 (Dispatch of the Rosta,
Vienna Agency). — It has been reported from Se-
bastopol under date of August 28 that the United
Merchant Fleet of the Black Sea has been bought
up by foreign capital. The greater part of the
shares of a large Russian steamship company has
been bought by the English. Also the industrial
enterprises in the Wrangel territory are being
readily taken over by the French and English
capitalists.
THE ALL-RUSSIAN TRADE UNION
CONFERENCE
Moscow, September 17. — On November 1 there
will take place in Moscow the All-Russian Confer-
ence of Trade Unions. Following is the proposed
order of business:
1. Report on the activity of the All-Russian
Trade Union Council.
2. Report of the Presidium of the Supreme
Council of National Economy.
3. The aims of the Trade Unions in the field
of production.
4. The food provisioning campaign of 1920-
1921 and the Trade Unions.
5. The wage scale policy and the material se-
curity of the workers.
6. The immediate organization aims of the
Trade Unions, and methods for their realization.
7. The participation of the Trade Unions in
the work of Workers' and Peasants' Inspection.
8. Immedi&te measures in the field of vocal and
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SOVIET RUSSIA
October 23, 1920
AT A SOVIET ELECTION MEETING OF
HOUSEWIVES
A Sketch
In the open air, under the trees of the park of
the Vassilyevsky Island district Soviet, a meeting
of housewives was held for new elections of depu-
ties to the Petrograd Soviet. Many huckster-
women came to the meeting.
"Well, what did you get through the Commun-
ists? They give very little bread. And they
closed down the market where it was possible to
buy bread/' thus vociferates a former huckster-
woman.
"Not for us, we can't buy it. Only you, specu-
lators, can buy it," remarks one of the working
women.
The huckster-woman hotly resents the accusa-
tion.
"I a speculator ! Where and when did I trade ?
Why, here is my labor booklet. I could not have
it if I were a speculator."
Several persons corroborate that she is a specu-
lator, others side with her, and they almost come
to blows. But the chairlaay's bell calls the meet-
ing to order, and this puts an end to the quarrel.
"Anyhow, we won't elect Communists," de-
clares the huckster-woman.
During the report and the discussion on the
instructions to the deputies they really tried to
break up the meeting, but without success. The
instructions were adopted.
However, during the election of candidates the
list proposed by the section of working women,
which was composed of four Communists and
eight non-partisans, was rejected as a Tesult of
the agitation by the huckster-women. The meeting
decided to elect from their own midst.
"Now we will win. Not a single Communist
will be elected," rejoiced the huckster-women.
But the result was quite different. The voting
on the nominees present at the meeting gave the
following results: five Communists, one Com-
munist sympathizer and six non-partisans.
"The election is irregular," declared the huck-
ster-women, dissatisfied with the result of their
work.
"We are not going to hold new elections just
to please you. We would defeat your candidates
just the same," laughingly replied the working-
women. — Krasnaya Oazeta, July 1, 1920.
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THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. The True State of the Moscow Proletariat. A speech delivered in Berlin in Sep-
tember by Lozovsky, a member of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Council
of Trade Unions. (The material of this speech ably refutes the exaggerations of in-
ternal discomforts in Russia, which had emanated from speeches of the German Inde-
pendent Socialist Delegation to Moscow, such as those of Messrs. Dittman and Cris-
pien.)
2. The Food Policy op the Soviet Goverment, by A. Svidersky, Member of the Board
of the People's Food Commissariat.
3. Latest Economic Statistics from Soviet Russia. Items of interest in many economic
fields, such as railway transportation, industry, and agriculture.
4. A Biography of Litvinov, from a Moscow Wireless of September 13.
5. Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek.
We announce for November 6, a special illustrated 40 page issue to commemorate the
Third Anniversary of the Revolution of November, 1917.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make all checks payable
to L. C. A. K. Martens.)
110 West 40th Street
SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVED BV
SOVIET RUSSIA
(Room 304)
I
New York City
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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cento
Saturday, October 30, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 18
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Tasued Weekly at 1 10 W t 40th Street, New York, N. Y. Ladwig C A. K. Marten i p Publisher Jacob Wittmer Hfrrtminn, Editor,
Subscription Rate, $5.00 per annum. Application for entry as second class matter pending- Changes of addres* shoo Id reach the
office a week before the changes are to be made.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PAGE
Tbe TttUE State of the Russian Proletariat 417
Military Review, by U.-CoL B. Roustam Bck 419
Moscow IK 1920, by Dr> Atfons Goldschmidt
(Fifth Instalment) , 421
In Behalf of the Polish People, by L>
Kamrncv ■ 426
Editorials • . . - 428
The Food Policy of the Soviet Government,
by A Svidersky . . . 430
Statement of the Bureau . 433
Recent Economic Reports from Russia 434
Soviet Russia's Peace Offensive, by A, Yoffe 436
Anglo-Russian Notes . 437
Russian Note to Poland 439
The True State of the Russian Proletariat
[The following is an interview with Lozomlcy, printed in a September issue of "Die Rote
Fahne", in Berlin, in which he ahty refutes the exaggerations of internal discomforts in Soviet Rus-
sia, emanating from speeches of the German Independent Socialist Delegation to Moscow*]
Berlin;, September 15, 1920,— Comrade Lozov-
sky, a member of the Presidium of the All-Rus-
sian Central Council of Trades Union s^ and a
member of the delegation to bring to the western
proletariat information about the true state of
the Russian proletariat in the Russian Soviet Re-
public, has given us the following account of con-
ditions in Soviet Russia:
What role do the Trade Unions play in Soviet
Russia ?
Although the Russian trade union movement
dates back to the beginning of capitalism in Rus-
sia, its real organization began with the Revolu-
tion of 1905* However, it is only since 1917 that
it has become a mass movement* From that time
on the development of the trade unions has taken
rapid strides. In June, 1917, the trade unions
had already a membership of one and a half mil-
lions, in January, 1918, two millions and a half,
and now there are over five million organized
workers. This rapid growth is first of all due to
the revolutionary temper of the times, which has
stimulated the organizing tendencies of the pro-
letariat to a full and free fruition.
The role of the trade unions has, of course, un-
dergone a change since the November Revolution.
They are no longer fighting units, organized to
combat the bourgeoisie and the state ; for the bour-
geoisie exists no more, But wherever it is neces-
sary to fight the bourgeoisie, the battle m being
waged weapon in hand on the battlefield. The
state ia now a state of the workers.
Nevertheless, the trade unions have now other
tasks to perform which are no less important. For
D igiiized by \j* OO 5 IC
instance, they are charged with the duty of fixing
the tariffs and wages, as the People's Commis-
sariat of Labor exercises only the right of approval
in this respect. The trade unions also play an
important role in the direction and management
of production. There is no part of the public life
of Russia over which the trade unions do not
exert a deciding influence. Comrade Lozovsky
will give us further details later on of the mani-
fold duties of the trade unions.
Regarding the question of the economic condi-
tion of Soviet Russia and the prospects for the
coming winter, Comrade Lozovsky spoke as fol-
lows :
The economic couditon of Soviet Russia is un-
doubtedly showing a decided improvement. The
predictions of the bourgeois press to the effect, that
this winter will bring the downfall of the Soviet
Republic, are all pure balderdash. Our condition
this winter is much better than last. For instance,
after the taking of Baku over one hundred million
poods of naphtha was shipped to Central Russia.
By the first of November, i.e., by the time that
shipping on the Volga is closed for the season, we
will have transported over 130 million poods of
naphtha. That is forty per cent of the amount be-
fore the war. If we remember that we received not
a single pood of naphtha last year the significance
of these facts will be at once apparent Several
railroads are already being operated with naphtha,
also some electrical plants. Also we have succeeded
in other ways to add to our store of fuel, wood and
coal in the cities, and since our winter difficulties
are chiefly a question of fuel, it is plain that con-
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October 30, 1920
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ditions in Soviet Russia are much better for this
coming winter.
As far as the question of food is concerned, it
may be said that the crop was moderately good.
But the question of food for Soviet Russia is not
a question of quantity but of transportation. And
transportation facilities are better this year, so
far as the war demands permit.
Further, we succeeded in transporting to Cen-
tral Russia a part of the 10 million poods of cotton
which Were stored in Turkestan, after the taking
of that territory by the Soviet troops. Factories
which were not operating from lack of fuel and
raw materials are now running again since
shipments of materials have begun.
The reconstruction of our national industry in
other lines will depend chiefly upon our relations
with Western Europe. Russia suffers from an
excessive lack of goods. We lack steel mills, ma-
chinery of all kinds, especially agricultural ma-
chinery. The industrial countries, especially Ger-
many, are interested in trade relations with Soviet
Russia in this respect. Trade relations with Rus-
sia will now take on an entirely different aspect.
Russia will no longer appear as a great mass of
individual traders, commission men and specula-
tors, but as a state unit, as one great customer, who
will operate with billion ruble orders. The rela-
tions with Russia will be especially important to
Germany, as these countries complement each
other, and Russia represents the natural market
for the industrial products of Germany.
The list of goods which Russia will have to im-
port from the outside was determined in a number
of sessions between the Trade Unions and the
head of the Soviet of National Economy.
Regarding the articles of Dittmann, Comrade
Lozovsky remarked:
One needs only to select a few points from the
articles of Dittmann, in order to realize that in-
stead of presenting a purely objective viewpoint,
they attempt at every turn to paint Russian condi-
tions in the darkest colors. Thus Dittmann quotes
party figures. He asserts that the Communist
Party of Russia numbers 600,000 members. That
of these only 72,000 were engaged in industry,
and over 300,000 were in the army. From these
figures Dittmann proceeds to the conclusion that
the Communist Party of Russia is not a workers'
party, but an organization of officials and military
men who are at the head of the proletariat. What
is the real significance of the fact that 300,000
members of the party are in the army, however?
The bourgeois press claims at every turn that the
Bolsheviki are making others fight their battles
for them. The fact of the matter is, that fifty
per cent of the members of the party are fighting
in the army, and hence, that all the fighting forces
of the party are serving in the Red Army. The
Communists form the staff of the Red Army, they
are the mortar which holds that army together,
which leads them to victory. The Red Army is
interspersed everywhere with workers who have
Digitized by t-T*
been torn from their industry. These workers
are making the Red Army what it is. Now instead
of accounting these services in their favor, Ditt-
mann is counting it against them. It is plain
to be seen that in this way any phase in the life
of Soviet Russia may be perverted and turned
to unfavorable account.
The same is true of the reports which Dittmann
makes on the industrial condition of Soviet Russia.
Every one knows that the condition of the workers
of the Soviet Republic is a difficult one. No Com-
munist will deny it. But the conclusions which
may be drawn from this fact vary. Firstly, one
might conclude that the workers should not have
accomplished the social revolution. This conclu-
sion is the one made by the bourgeoisie, and this
opinion also animates Dittmann's articles. Every
revolutionist, every class-conscious worker knows,
however, and will assert that the Russian prole-
tariat has held its own, and is in power now solely
by reason of the fact that the entire organiza-
tion of the state, in spite of enormous difficulties,
has been placed at the service of that class which
hitherto has been under the heel of bourgeois
society.
In conclusion Comrade Lozovsky gives us some
information in regard to the peasant situation in
Russia :
The peasant is the great trump card of our op-
ponents, but only because they do not know the
real facts. The peasant has benefited by the
November Revolution beyond a doubt. It is a well-
known fact that the small bourgeois landowner
maintains an atitude of aloofness toward Com-
munism. But the fact that the same peasant who
is more than coldly indifferent to Communism, is
nevertheless the greatest enemy of the counter-
revolution, is not so well known by every one who
attempts to write about Russia. For the small
landowner has no choice : either the Soviet or the
Restoration ; and the small peasants owes his land
to the Revolution.
This fundamental paradox in the situation of
the Russian peasant has its positive and its nega-
tive aspects. The negative side is presented by the
effort on the part of the small bourgeois landowner
to work the land as a private individual, to
strengthen his hold on his property. But on the
other hand, the small owner is enabled to hold his
private property only with the help of the Soviet
power, while the Soviet power is striving cease-
lessly to abolish all private ownership of the means
of production, and therefore also the private own-
ership of the small landowner. Whether or not
this condition will continue for any length of time
is dependent in the main on the development of
affairs in Western Europe. However, the Russian
peasant has gained enough by the Revolution, and
especially by the November Revolution, to know
that no government outside of the Soviet govern-
ment will be able to satisfy him as welL
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET BTTSSIA
419
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Boustam Bek
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UHPHE fall of Moscow and a direct and over-
•"■ whelming disaster for the Bolsheviki as the
climax of the present campaign of General Deni-
kin, was predicted yesterday by Col. K. Shumsky,
formerly of the Bussian General Staff, and one
of the most widely quoted Bussian military critics
in the days before the collapse of the empire. Col.
Shumsky, who now is connected with the Bussian
Information Bureau, issued an analysis of the
Denikin campaign, received directly from the head-
quarters of the victorious anti-Bolshevik comman-
der." (The New York Sun, September 29, 1919.)
After the complete debacle of the Denikin ad-
venure, the American Press ceased publishing
the statements of this famous Bussian strategist
and he disappeared from view.
After the retreat of the Bed Army from War-
saw, when the "victorious" advance of the Wrangel
forces into Bussia was advertised to all the world,
the name of Col. K. Shumsky suddenly appeared
in one of the reactionary Bussian newspapers pub-
lished in Paris. Posledniye Novosti (The Latest •
News) announced that this famous Bussian mili-
tary expert would henceforth describe the military
situation on the Bussian front.
I have the first article from the pen of Colonel
Shumsky under the title, "On the Main Bed
Front". This article deserves comment not only
because it has been quoted both in France and
America. Colonel Shumsky does not like the
method of the Soviet strategists. He considers the
"new military art", created by the Eevolution, an
absolute absurdity, which will bring the Bolshev-
iki to a complete disaster.
After the defeat at Warsaw, says Col. Shumsky,
"the Bed Army lost its importance for a long
time. It lost also its precious initiative and can-
not even resist the advancing Poles by means of
more or less effective rearguard actions." The
swampy region of the western part of Bussia, ac-
cording to Col. Shumsky, was the only thing which
saved the Bed Army from general destruction.
The famous expert enjoyed the rapidity with which
the Polish army succeeded in capturing such im-
portant strategical points as Grodno, Pinsk, Pros-
kurov, and Staro-Konstantifiov. "Polish strategy,"
he says, "is preparing a new military map for
Polish diplomacy, and is establishing its lines of
operation directed against Vilna, Minsk, and
Baranovichi. By the capture of Proskurov the
Poles are reminding the Bolsheviki of the exist-
ence of the Ukrainian cause, and of their stra-
tegical aim upon Kiev, as well as upon the Dnieper
line, so important for Polish strategy."
Col. Shumsky commiserates with the Soviet dip-
lomatists who are forced by these unfavorable mili-
tary conditions to negotiate peace in Biga. "Pol-
ish strategy," he says, "can take any place and
anything which its diplomacy may require and
even more, and therefore the Bolsheviki have either
to capitulate to the Polish demands or undertake
a most difficult problem, namely, to organize the
fragments of their armies into a new fighting
force." Col. Shumsky does not think that there
is any possibility of creating a strong army in
Soviet Bussia.
Now let us see how correct is Col. Shumsky
in his authoritative conclusions. According to a
military wireless communique from Moscow, dated
October 18 (The Christian Science Monitor, Oc-
tober 20), "the Bed troops have reoccupied Minsk,
which has been abandoned by the Poles," while
in the Sarny direction, "several positions have been
occupied by the Bolsheviki, and the enemy ha6 been
driven back to his' original positions." This dis-
patch also informs us that the Beds "have occupied
several villages northeast of Novograd-Volynsk,"
and that in the Letichev and Shepetovka regions
"fierce fighting continues with alternating suc-
cess," while in the Novaya-Uzhitsa direction, "the
Bolsheviki have reoccupied the town of Bar."
This is enough to show clearly that the Bed
Army on the Polish front is far from being a dis-
organized body which has lost its fighting ability.
I agree with Col. Shumsky that the Polish
front was the main front for the Soviet strategy,
and that, therefore, it had to be liquidated, as
soon as possible, in order that the Bed command
might concentrate upon the increasingly import-
ant Crimean front.
Colonel Shumsky failed to understand one im-
portant fact; that the Poles are enjoying the con-
sequences of the only battle won by them, that
at Warsaw. He did not realize that Soviet Bussia
did not lose the war. A lost battle does not mean
that the campaign is lost, and even a lost campaign
would not signify that the war was a failure. One
of the Polish leaders, Daszynski, understood this,
and warned the Polish people to conclude peace
with the Soviets as soon as possible, because he was
informed from very creditable sources, according
to Rosta of September 13, "that the fresh reserves
of the Bed Army, which are concentrating behind
the Bussian battle-front, several times outnumber
the whole Polish army." This matter is over-
looked by Col. Shumsky, whose interest it is to
keep public opinion in France in confusion, as he
kept in some confusion the public opinion of the
United States, so long as it was possible. The
most interesting part of Shumsky's article is that
in which he embarks upon the philosophy of war,
quoting the words of a certain unknown social-
philosopher who, I venture to surmise, is no one
less than the Colonel himself.
"The course of a military victory," says this
anonymous philosopher, "is equal to the civilian
victory, namely to the victory of the progress of
humanity. The army and war is that special or-
gan and that special function by means of which
one culture — a superior culture — conquers another
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culture — an inferior one. In each a struggle the
superior will survive at the expense of the in-
ferior/ 1 How do Colonel Shumsky's present hosts
in Paris like this (to them) peculiar interpreta-
tion of the fortune of arms in the Franco-German
war of 1870-1871 ?
"In this," continues the Colonel, "lies the tra-
gedy of Bolshevik strategy and of the Bed mili-
tary organizers . . . The Bolshevik Bevolution
is a stranger to the principles which guided the
revolutionary army of France. Revolutionary
France successfully fought all Europe, whereas
Bed Bussia, on the contrary, has already capitu-
lated to numerous republics established round her
borders, and once again is ready to lay down her
arms at Biga."
Col. Shumsky does not like peace between Soviet
Bussia and Poland at all. He knows perfectly
well, what such peace means to his present chief,
Baron Wrangel. He calls a "capitulation" the
friendly relations which Bolshevik diplomacy,
thanks to the glorious success of the Bed Army,
has established with the neighboring republics,
and which constituted a notable diplomatic vic-
tory over the whole imperialistic world.
I already stated in former articles that the
Revolutionary Field General Staff, after having
succeeded in concluding an armistice with the
Poles, would at once undertake a series of serious
operations against Wrangel, in order to liquidate
the South Bussian front before winter. I said
that I was confident that the coming Bed offensive
in that theatre of war would be of a decisive char-
acter, and would result in the complete defeat of
the Wrangel forces. We must not forget that
Wrangel's military strength was due to the Busso-
Polish War, and that his successes were the result
of the development of the military operations be-
tween the Beds and their western enemy. The
Crimean White army had only an auxiliary im-
portance, and was never energetically fought by
the Soviet troops, which merely barred the way
to the advancing southern enemy. As soon as the
hostilities on the Polish front lost their military
importance and assumed a purely political char-
acter, following the signing of the armistice, the
Bed Army commenced active operations along the
Southern front, and put an end to WrangeFs ini-
tiative. The Taman peninsula was very quickly
cleared of the Wrangel forces, as was also the east-
ern coast of the Sea of Azov. The Soviet troops,
after several long battles on the Alexandrovsk-
Orekhov front, successfully defeated the enemy,
forcing him back along the whole battle-line.
Orekhov and Alexandrovsk fell into the hands of
the Beds, while along the Dnieper the Soviet
troops were so far victorious that they not only
succeeded in crossing this river, but entrenched
themselves along its eastern bank, thus holding
positions of active defence, ready to resume their
offensive as soon as fresh reserves would arrive.
In despair, the Crimean Baron launched a coun-
ter-offensive against the Soviet army, engaging all
the reserves in his possession. Using tanks and
Digitized by v^OOglC
numerous artillery, with gas and the other destruc-
tive means of modern warfare so courteously put
at his disposal by £he Allies, Wrangel fruitlessly
trif d to arrest the unshaken advance of the Beds.
This main counter-stroke was directed on the
Karkhovka bridgehead, but without any result. In
this battle Wrangel lost one of his important com-
manders, General Barbovich, with a tremendous
number of killed and wounded. Many tanks and
guns were captured by the Beds (and they need
them badly), and in this sector practically the en-
tire force of the Wrangel "army" was annihilated.
Even the news from Sebastopol, of October 19 and
20, clearly showed that the "permanent" front of
the Crimean Baron had already collapsed. Fur-
thermore, according to The Christian Science Mon-
itor of October 20, the Beds have again captured
the town of Aleshki, southeast of Kherson, close
to the right bank of the mouth of the Dnieper.
Holding in the north the railway parallel Niko-
lokovelsk - Apostolovo, Alexandrovsk - Volnovakha,
and being masters of Mariupol and Berdianak in
the south, thus controlling the railway lines which
connect these two seaports with the above-men-
tioned railway parallel lines, and controlling Alesh-
ki in the west as well as another railway parallel
extending behind the western bank of the Dnie-
per between Kherson and Yekaterinoslav, the Beds
have practically surrounded the Wrangel forces
operating north of Crimea, leaving at their dis-
posal only a single railway line, Alexandrovsk-
Simferopol, which can easily be cut off from the
east and west by the Beds somewhere to the south
of Melitopol.
This is the result of the revolutionary struggle
of Soviet Bussia which, according to Col. Shum-
sky, is capable only of laying down its arms and
capitulating. This is the early result of the peace
negotiations with Poland, and the consequence of
the armistice, which, however bad, is an armistice
at last. Some weeks ago, Baron Wrangel under*
stood his critical position and sent General Mahrov
to Warsaw, to persuade the Polish Government to
continue the war against Soviet Bussia.
Nothing has been heard of the decision reached
by the Polish imperialistic leaders after they con-
sidered the plea of their former ally, whom they
deserted at the most critical moment, but in case
the Poles should break the armistice and con-
tinue the war against the Soviets, Wrangel will
already have been put hors de combat, and the
Bussian Bed Army will be able to meet the Poles
unaided in the west, on the only front remaining
after thirteen fronts have been liquidated by the
Red Army, during its three years of constant
fighting.
According to Colonel Mahin, a reactionary,
whose article appeared in Volya Rossii, a Bussian
newspaper published in Prague, the total of
WrangeFs force is not more than two army corps,
or only about 100,000 men; and there is no doubt
that, without Polish support, he cannot resist the
Bed pressure. "In spite of French support," says
Colonel M&hia, "Baron Wrangel did not succeed
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in forming a considerable army. In reality the
famous Crimean army represents the remainder
of the late volunteer army which partially reached
Crimea from the Kuban region, and of some troops
lately come from Poland " The attempt of Wran-
gel to form a strong force in Kuban and win the
sympathy of the Kuban Cossacks, according to
Colonel Mahin, was a "complete failure/*
In a former article dealing with the reacti<mary
insurgent bands, I predicted that the Don Cos-
sacks, except for their bourgeois element, would
never cooperate with Wrangel, and that he would
be unable to raise the Don Cossack population in
the rear of the Bolshevik army. And now, read-
ing the local Eussian newspapers I see that I was
right, and that in the Don and Donetz regions,
the bulk of the population is as hostile to Wran- ,
gel as it was to Denikin.
Summing up the strategical and political cir-
cumstances in which the Crimean Baron finds him-
self at the present moment, I come to the follow-
ing conclusion : having been created by the Allies,
and mostly by Prance, according to the necessities
of strategical circumstances on the Polish front,
with an idea of later use in the event of a com-
plete Polish victory over the Soviets, and as a
Russian reactionary force which should stop the
Polish aggression towards the east and might per-
haps even swallow Poland entirely, Wrangel could
exist only in* case Poland had brought the cam-
paign to a victorious end. But this has not hap-
pened. In reality, Poland had already recognized
her inability to accomplish her original strategical
plan and, perforce, has accepted the armistice with
the Soviets. In so doing Polish diplomacy con-
demned WrangePS adventure to destruction.
Having been born of the Russo-Polish war,
Wrangel must perish when the hostility on the
Polish front ceases. This is the only logical de-
velopment of events.
I was rather skeptical in regard to the sincerity
of the Polish leaders in establishing a real peace
with Moscow. The recent policy of Lloyd George
toward Soviet Russia was not very promising, and
the supply of the Polish army through Danzig by
the Allies, under Great Britain's protection, sug-
gests that the Polish szlachta are keeping a loaded
pistol behind their backs while signing an armistice
with the Soviets. But events of great importance
in England altered this grave situation. The strike
of the local miners has put an end to any possi-
bility for Polish imperialism either to threaten
Soviet Russia with a renewal of hostilities, or even
to be too ambitious during the negotiations of
peace with the Soviet delegates.
The Polish army depends entirely on the sup-
plies from the Allies. The coal strike will un-
doubtedly prevent the Allies from continuing such
support of Poland for a considerable period. The
expenditure of ammunition in the Polish army is
tremendous, the need of coal, especially now with
winter at hand, is great. The United States alone
cannot support Poland without the cooperation of
the guardian of the seas, who was so excited over
the alleged appearance of Red submarines in the
Gulf of Danzig. There is no doubt that the coal
crisis in England may produce a condition in all
the industrial countries of the world which will
remove all possibility of further anti-Soviet adven-
tures in 6pite of all their alleged political and eco-
nomic importance to the future of the interested
states.
The Polish statesmen at least must understand
the gravity also of their position, and they have
to recognize the peril impending upon their stra-
tegy, which is already exhausted and soon may be
unable to support their ambitious policy any
longer.
The general strike in Warsaw, and perhaps in
Poland, was it not the first warning of the real
situation in that country ? There is no room for
such strategical blunders as the occupation of Vil-
na by the Polish "insurgents" at the present cri-
tical moment. There is no time for hesitation or
delay. Only a sincere peace with Soviet Russia
can save Poland from very bitter experiences in
the future.
Moscow in 1920
By Db. Alioits Goldsohiodt
(Fifth Instalment)
A Visit to a Factory
T T IS impossible to get a general view of Rus-
A sian economy. At least not 'today, for at pres-
ent it has no limits. It is a gigantic field with
thousands of variations in the character of the
work, in the presuppositions of the raw materials,
in the possibilities of transportation, climate, and
individual psychology.
A capitalistic economy, an incipient Socialist
economy, is not capable of being viewed as a whole
anyway. No person in Germany knows German
economy. If any man claims he knows German
economy, he is presumptuous, impudent, a bluffer,
byV_^005le
or a jackass. It is impossible to have a complete
view of the economy of a single great city. Not
even in the statistical departments, although the
economic statisticians imagine that they have
sounded the last depths of that economy. They
suffer, most of them, from pathological systemati-
tis. They do not know life.
Individual fields can be controlled. One who
has feeling for such things, who can make combi-
nations, who can make figures live, who is able to
understand facts, beholds the tendency, the direc-
tion, in which an economy is developing. He
recognizes it, but, so to say, from samples. Only
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a true Socialist economy will be a complete under-
standable economy, an economy capable of control.
But Soviet Russia has not readied that point
yet. The work of registration has progressed, has
progressed considerably, but has by no means
reached its culmination. We know how many fac-
tories are lying idle, we know the percentage of
recession in production, the number of working
and non-working laborers, and the like. But this
does not mean having a full view of the economic
life.
.Visits to factories, inspection journeys, are there-
fore at most revealers of tendencies. But at the
present stage of Russian economy they cannot be
taken as obligatory indications even in this direc-
tion. They are, so to say, results taken on faith,
results due to confidence, which for the tester may,
to be sure, have the value of certainty.
Outside the city, on the ring that runs around
Mqscow, at the end of Karl Marx Street, there
is a little factory, the so-called Russian-American
factory, run and organized by Russian workers
who have become skilled at their tasks in America,
it is a factory with 120 laborers. A factory pro-
ducing machine-tools, with good machines, with
good management, and with good workers. I saw
instruments of precision, splendid millimeter work,
carefully fitted and caliphered pieces of steel that
were neatly kept; splendid drills and the like.
The furnishing of this factory had not yet been
completed, but what was ready of it clearly showed
the quality nature of this little establishment. For
me it was a fine example of crossed breeds: an
example of the training of Russian workers in a
foreign technology. This is a very important prob-
lem for Russian industry, as well as for Russian
agriculture.
I am received by a very pleasant, very energetic
worker. There is a recess in the work of the fac-
tory, a recess for lunch, about half-past twelve.
The workingmen and workingwomen eat together.
There is a fish soup, kasha, bread and tea. The
food was sufficient and palatable, also quite clean.
I was served a portion. I tasted it, although I
had no appetite, and found everything clean anfl
well-prepared. The head of the inspection was
entirely satisfied with the wages and the food.
There were high bonuses in this factory, for work
of fine quality was being turned out. I was told
of monthly salaries going as high as 15,000 rubles,
in addition to good food furnished free, and work-
ing clothes and additional foodstuffs at low prices.
This pay is by no means high,' if we consider the
present low purchasing power of money. Most of
the workers at Moscow do n&t attain this pay, cer-
tainly not the ordinary clerks, but we cannot speak
of a real famine. That would be exaggeration.
Germany has had worse war-times; at least in its
large cities.
I saw workers here in their normal working
clothes. Wide brown suits with somewhat baggy
trousers, but of durable material. These are in
the nature of overalls, protective clothing. In
the future they are to be distributed generally.
bydGOgle
They resemble the French miners' costumes and
are comfortable, enabling the worker to move in-
side of them. I remained in the factory about
an hour.
Next day I visited the Prokhorov Factory near
Moscow, accompanied by one of the managers of
the Textile Combine. This is one of the biggest
textile factories of Russia. The factory was quiet,
for no fuel was available. The workers were re-
pairing and taking care of the technical appara-
tus. We passed through a control at the entrance
to the factory. A member of the factory commit-
tee, accompanied by specialists, led us.
Everything was in the best of order. Machines
were ready to run, the looms and spindles were
neat, spick and span, ready for work. Everything
had been carefully laid out, in long rows, the whole
length of the hall. The oil was flowing, and was
renewed daily. The driving machinery had been
cleaned, the lamps illuminating it had been care-
fully set. Protective devices were in perfect order.
Spinning works, weaving machinery, bleaching
establishments, power house, switchboard, every-
thing in order. The guides were proud of the
condition of the factory and might well be.
Only fuel was needed, and the gigantic apparatus
could function perfectly the next day. The feed-
ing wires were in place, the courts were being
swept, everything was bright and clean. Fuel
was ardently longed for.
We were shown the stocks of cloth. Immense
heaps of bales in halls and factory spaces. All
precisely registered. The manager of the combine
made a test of the registration. The test turned
out all right. Nothing had been prepared for us,
our visit was not announced untU shortly before
our automobile set out, there was therefore no
deception, we were dealing with facts. I saw good
simple cotton cloth in immense quantites. (In
the Zundel Factory near Moscow conditions are
similar.) I saw colored and printed cloths, hand-
some patterns; they were the well-known Moscow
cloths which had made their appearance in Ger-
many already before the war. The Moscow textile
industry is an absolutely modern industry in its
fixtures. It has the best machines and the best
methods. Then we visited the dining-room and
the kitchen, an immense room. Dinner is taken in
shifts. The kitchen was scoured, the kettles pol-
ished. New kettles are soon to be furnished. In
the dining-room there are Soviet inscriptions and
announcements of performances; it is evidently a
sort of meeting-room.
The Prokhorov Factory is a veritable miniature
city, one of the great Russian factories which are
cities in themselves. In other words, the workers
live in the factory. The owner formerly lived on
the factory grounds, in a villa which is now a pro-
letarian children's home. The workers' dwellings
are barracks and are called barracks to this day.
On the average there are six persons to a room.
The workeis might live more comfortably; they
might have larger dwellings in the city, but they x
prefer to live on the factory gounds for the sake
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of convenience at their work. This is only
the transition period. But this transition is al-
ready significant, for cleanliness has entered the
factories. The floors of the rooms are polished
clean, the bedding was not objectionable. The
clothing of the men and women was clean. The
health pedagogues have done good work here; the
health pedagogues in the factory committees will
tolerate no dirt. The ovens and great samovars
are outside on the landings of the barracks. The
working-women are baking and preparing water
for tea. Women and men were well nourished. I
saw none that were emaciated.
School children (school and playground are on
the factory grounds) are sent to the country dur-
ing the summer to recuperate. The villa 6t the
former landowner is now a home for children and
infants, a home with many beds, with happy sis-
ters, with playthings, with playrooms, with visit-
ing children, with everything that a little fellow
might desire.
I do not knaw how many factories in Russia
have a model establishment of this kind. The
Prokhorov Factory is a model factory in every
respect. It is unfortunate that the railroads are
overburdened with mobilization demands and are
inefficient aside from that. Not a moment should
such a factory be allowed to stand idle. Not a
moment ought it to stand idle, for the workers of
the factory want work, are calling for work, and
are hoping every day for work.
After our tour of inspection we were invited to
the meeting-room of the factory committee. We
were entertained. I must say a few words about
this entertainment.
Two heart-affecting episodes, two illuminating
episodes I experienced at Moscow. Two truly
heart-rending events, events that throw light on
much. The conversation with Krzyizanowsky, the
electricity director of Russia, the friend of Lenin,
and that session with the factory committee of the
Prokhorov Factory. The consultation with Krzyi-
zanowsky showed me the economic sense of the Re-
volution; the session with the factory committee
showed me its psychological sense. It was the
first time that I had been served a meal in one of
the producing centers of the proletariat out of its
own resources, out of its own hospitality. There
was a completely new world for me in the session
room of the factory committee of the Prokhorov
Factory. One member of the once very wealthy
Prokhorov family of textile princes, had adapted
himself to the situation. But he was no longer a
private host. The host was the worker and he was
host with them. The factory belongs to them.
It belongs to them not in the sense of private
property, it belongs to them in the sense of Social-
ism. It was an entirely new hospitality! it was a
revolutionary hospitality; it was the hospitality
of the new time. We were given fish, tea, small
preserved fruits, bread, sugar; and these things
were given to us with the authority of the prole-
tariat, by the self-determination of the workers.
This I admit was a new world for me.
byViGOgle
Modesty, dignified matter-of-factness, was our
host. Over the machines in the factory, and in
the rooms of the barracks, ikons are hanging, but
the workers are no longer humble, no longer down-
cast.
The whole factory committee, with its chair-
man, was assembled. Accounts were heard of the
armed defence of the factory against counter-revo-
lutionists, and readiness was evident to defend the
factory again, with arms, if the counter-revolu-
tionists should again attack. The working force
of this factory has actually conquered the factory,
the authority over the factory.
There were questions and answers. We asked
about the tasks of the factory committee, about the
process of nationalization of the factories, about
the influence of the unions on the administration
of the factories, about the influence of the Com-
munist fraction in the factory. The answers were
clear, very definite, and swiftly formulated. I
had absolutely the impression that I was in the
presence of workers who were capable of leader-
ship, workers empowered to control. I do not
know in how many factories of Russia the work-
ers are capable of such leadership, but those of
the Prokhorov Factory near Moscow certainly are.
The workers and we together were happy in the
green-covered factory; they were happy with us
in the entertainment room. They were modest,
self-conscious, delighted with their work, and ready
for self-defence. I believe that if anyone should
attempt to conquer Soviet Russia by military force
he would have to capture one factory after the
other, after having first annihilated the Red front,
and I believe that would be impossible. Lloyd
George is quite right: Soviet Russia cannot be
conquered by military force.
I heard of deficiencies in the Russian labor sys-
tem; in fact I saw such deficiencies and shall
speak of them later. But the working force of
the Prokhorov Factory gave me high hopes for
the working future of Russia, hopes in their edu-
cational possibilities, hopes in their qualifications.
As yet Russia is by no means lost.
Next day we were again guests of the Prokhorov
Factory. We were present at a session of the Com-
munist fraction of the factory.
It was a small meeting, a Communist family
meeting, as it were. We were made welcome, hopes
in us were expressed, we were spoken of as lagging
behind, a resolution was passed, and we were
again entertained. It was again a friendly enter*,
tainment with their own materials.
The Communist fractions, which are often small
fractions, control the factories, not by means of
terror, but by the cleanness of their aims, by
the consciousness of their work, the straightness of
their program. They are not fractions who rule
by force, they are disciplined fractions, model frac-
tions, that is, fractions of model workers, of Com-
munist Saturday workers. They hold the sceptre
in their hands because they are themselves exam-
ples. Of course there are weak sisters, but this
domination ^jflfpi'JJpf'jTQ^is domination jn the
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consciousness of their work, through the firmness
of their program, is a fact. They are phagocytic
fractions. They must absorb the vicious juices,
corrode and destroy them. The Russian Revolu-
tion was a revolution of phagocytes. In my book,
The Economic Organization of Soviet Russia* I
shall emphasize and prove this point.
They spoke, and we spoke. There were speeches
and promises, assurances of solidarity from both
sides, greetings, affectionate incidents, applaud-
ing shouts. Then the official portion of the meet-
ing was over and we were about to go. We wished
to go unostentatiously, that is, not through the
center of the room, as we did not wish to disturb
what was to follow. But we were amiably con-
strained to pass down the center.
As we thus moved out, the men and women, as
we passed them, clapped for us. They clapped
loudly and warmly, until we no longer could be
seen from the hall.
The black-bearded, neat-limbed chairman of the
meeting, with his linguistic talents and his good-
natured manner of bossing the meeting, accom-
panied us to our car, as did also the^hairman of
the factory. There was waving of hands and off
we went. I shall never forget this visit to the
Prokhorov Factory. It threw light on the Revolu-
tion, more than any theory could. For the first
time I understood what I had never before under-
stood — since I had only dimly felt it. I under-
stood what I had once set down in a little peri-
odical, Kommunismus, the psychology of the revo-
lution, and also the limitations of Marxism, its
finished sections, and that which lies beyond it.
By which I do not mean the outliving of Marxism,
but the psychology of purposeful Marxism, of the
Marxism of the goal, of good old Leninism. This
is a new task, a great task, perhaps the greatest
task of the coming centuries.
The Explosion
I was coming home from an economic study
with that fine fellow Stunkel (organizer of metal
workers), accompanied by the excellent Landa. We
crossed the bridge over the Moskva, and the Krem-
lin, city of cupolas, was aglow; the church of Saint
Basil was dying down in many colors.
We were passing over the Red Square. Swift
clouds shot up into the heavens; there were sud-
den reports from afar. A window went to pieces
in the building of the Commissariat of Labor.
Pieces of glass fell upon the head of a passerby,
who coughed and made off. The place immediately
emptied. Its exits filled with scurrying people;
the Iberian Madonna was deserted ; only the can-
dles were still burning before her.
New clouds darted by, unorganized clouds.
There was no interval of order in the cannon shots,
no measured tempo. There would be a sharp bang,
a sulphurous report, then a low rumble, and then
a whole family of concussions at once.
People were scurrying across the Theater Place,
* The German title is "Die Wirtschaftsorganisation
Sowjetrusslands"; we have not yet received a copy.
Digiiiz&d by OOOQ IC
Plateglass was crashing everywhere. A great pres-
sure of air was exerted against the Kremlin Wall,
expanded, quickly filled the great place before the
Kremlin city, exerted its force into Myasnitzkaya
Street, smashed into windows, and scared off the
people. The city was quaking and trembling,
ground heaving, panes splintering.
What was the matter? There had been a re-
assuring notice in the newspapers. We had read
that in the next few days woods were to be cleared
in the vicinity of Moscow, for agronomical pur-
poses, with the use of explosives. That would not
have been serious.
We complained among ourselves: Russian lack
of organization as always ! Perhaps immense quan-
tities of explosives have been set off instead of the
smaller amounts needed, and now the explosion is
progressing irresistibly. Se we thought.
A sulphurous detonation. One explosion after
Che other, explosions like thunderbolts, explosions
like a resounding blow, explosions with air pres-
sure. The panes of our villa bend before the im-
pact and the guests hold the weight of their bodies
against the panes. The lilac-bushes in the park
around the villa were swept by the moving air.
Children crept into corners and listened timidly.
This continued until late at night. What had
happened ?
Next morning I was told by the manager of the
textile combine, to whom I have referred before,
tfcat a munitions depot near Moscow had blown
up. It was a depot of old material, but yet a
store of munitions. It was a terrible nuisance.
No one knew whether the conflagration had been
spontaneous or the result of counter-revolutionary
attempt. Nothing had happened in Moscow aside
from the smashing of the windows.
But, he said, breathing proudly, by eleven o'-
clock at night the whole Communist Party of Mos-
cow had been mobilized, although it was a day of
rest. Orders by telephone were very rapidly for-
warded, and everybody, men and women with guns,
with determination to resist, with determination
to clean up what was wrong, had made ready to
work.
The explosion had therefore caused a sort of
general test of vigilance. The manoeuver thus
forced upon the populace had been successsful, the
party in Moscow appeared to be prepared even on
days of rest.
Until then I had not known this state of readi-
ness of the party; I had known nothing of this
soldier-like discipline, of this constant readiness
to answer the alarm, even in times of quiet. Not
a readiness for trouble, with guns cocked, but a
readiness with consciousness of purpose, with will-
ingness for sacrifices in any moment of danger.
Very few had been lacking.
Toward morning the series of noises had stopped,
the smashing panes, the oppressed hearts were
calm. Even on the western front I have rarely
heard such a cannonade.
But they are ready at Moscow, ready to answer
the alarm. They are ready to sacrifice themselves,
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to submit to discipline, to jump in and help when
danger arises; when swift disordered clouds, dis-
cordant clouds, shoot up into the air.
The Party
The Communist Party of Russia (Bolsheviki)
is a small party in number. It has not much more
than 600,000 members, and the total population
of the country is at least 150,000,000.
There are places, for instance, in the north of
Russia, pretty big places, that have but few Com-
munists. And yet the Communist Party rules
Russia. It does not, to be sure, dominate all the
souls of Russia, but the administrative apparatus,
the army, is now in the hands of the Bolsheviki.
At present the number is even less than 600,000,
lor many of the party Communists, perhaps the
greater portion of them, are at the front. Moscow,
for example, is managed by a few Communists.
Never before has a Government ruled with the
use of such slight human resources.
There must be reasons for this, serious reasons,
reasons of weight. A people of 150,000,000 souls
will not without serious reasons tolerate for years
the domination of such a minority. A people has
always the power to eliminate a minority rule if
it has the will for such elimination. :
The will for such elimination is lacking in Rus-
sia, and why? Because nobody knows what could
be put in place of the Bolsheviki, who should as-
sume power, and how the power could be exercised
in any different manner.
Many people in Moscow spoke of Denikin irtth
enthusiasm. But if you asked them what improve-
ment Denikin could bring, they were silent. They
do not know, and they cannot know, for no party,
no wielders of power, could bring about anything
essentially different or essentially superior to what
the Bolsheviki have brought.
I nosed about for the cause, or the causes. For
this is a problem of tremendous importance for
the whole world. And I questioned, with as little
prejudice as possible, in fact with no prejudice.
I arrived at the following conclusion :
The assumption of power by the Bolsheviki was
nothing else than the affirmation and the further
organization of an existing condition. It was
nothing more than the extension of an already
present organization into a conquest of the im-
mense difficulties of the nation with the aid of
the proletariat. Everything else was merely of
concommittant nature, was merely incidental, was
capable of approval or disapproval, but not of es-
ential importance. In my book The Economic
Organization of Soviet Russia, I shall make an at-
tempt to explain, to assign causes for this fact.
I clearly understood the character of this revolu-
tion, which has truly been an ineluctable revolu-
tion. To be sure, its inevitableness was constantly
guided by energetic men with an eye to the pres-
ent opportunity.
Such was the cause of the seizure of power and
already the first cause of the consolidation of
power. Later, the power was solidified by means
of tactics, by means of a program very firm in
principle, but very adaptable in situations, con-
cerning which much nonsense is at present again
being uttered. It was a program of Communist
Realpolitikj of Communist diplomacy.
The dictatorship of the proletariat, proclaimed
by the Communist Party in Russia, is a real dic-
tatorship of the proletariat, for the overwhelming
majority of the Russian proletariat, of the indus-
trial proletariat, and of the small peasantry need
the Bolshevik form of administration. Even that
great part of the proletariat which does not have
membership in the Communist party. On the
other hand, it is a dictatorship of the Communist
Party of Russia which is simply attempting to
evaluate the necessities of evolution, to exploit and
organize these necessities. This is in a nutshell
all that need be said of the cause of Bolshevik
domination.
Russia may not be Communistic in the majority,
but it is a Sovietist majority. That is the secret.
There is no longer any other system. At least
not at this moment, and for many years to come.
The system is subject to deviations, to departures
for real political reasons — much nonsense is spoken
on this point — but the system itself is today in-
eradicable. Even a Czar could not wipe it out.
It would have to be a Soviet Czar, and therefore
not a Czar at all. This fact simply must be ac-
cepted. Such is the state of affairs, and not other-
wise ; it is impossible to escape this situation, and
Europe and America will only harm themselves if
they think they can overcome it.
Perhaps it is possible to push the Communist
Party of Russia out of power and to do one or
two things in a manner different from its man-
ner. But it is not possible to force back evolution.
Evolution has now advanced so far that it is now
no longer possible to go back. The only alterna-
tive is to make a chaos of the country.
The Communist Party of Russia takes part in
all activities, programizes everything, sets up prin-
ciples for everything, adorns itself perhaps with
subsidiary principles and attempts to act accord-
ingly. Like a Jesuit organization, it will not de-
part from the main principles, but is very elastic
in subsidiaries. It is rigid and adaptable; it
breeds statesmen, and, without departing from its
principles, is ready for all sorts of concessions.
It controls the filling of positions, the political
and economic administration. It controls the
army with a few people ; an army can only be con-
trolled by a few, if these few recognize the needs
of the army as the needs of the country. And it is
a matter of indifference, at least for the moment,
whether soldiers' councils of former competence,
or political commissars, are the acting officials.
The Communist Party of Russia attempts to
regulate national relations, jurisprudence, popular
education, religious conditions, the entire economic
life and the social policies of Soviet Russia. For
this purpose the party needs a real discipline. It
must be an advance guard, a troop of pioneers, a
troop that figlita to the end against all resistance
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that may be still present (and we shall have more
to say on these topics in this book).
For that reason the party has very stringent
requirements. It will not admit everybody into
its front lines. It selects, tests, decides on admis-
sion only after cautions examination. For the
party might be much larger if it so desired. Many
want to enter but are not admitted. For some
wish to enter not for the responsibility of the
position, but for the position itself.
For membership in the party ultimately means
assumption of important positions. It also involves
a certain protection. But the party cannot make
use of any people in important posts, who do not
belong to it with their hearts, and with a complete
spirit of sacrifice. Those whom the party accepts,
it accepts gladly and protects With all its power.
Of course there probably are, even in the Com-
munist Party of Russia, those whose hearts do
not belong to the party, men and women who are
eager for positions or who are flatterers or abject
yielder*. No party is safe against such elements,
not even the Communist Party of Russia. At
Moscow I heard many complaints that such patho-
logical substances had crept into the party.
The Communist Party of Russia, in the war
period, and particularly in the Kerensky period,
was the only party that was prepared, even in
defence of the Revolution of November, 1917, to
assume power in a manner that would not hurl
the country into an even greater catastrophe than
it was then passing through. Even non-Commun-
ists told me that at Moscow.
Such, I judge from my Moscow experiences, is
the mission and the essence of the Bolshevik au-
thority.
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In Behalf of the Polish People
SPEECH BY KAMENEV
[Stenographic report of a Joint Meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the Moscow
Council of Workmen's Delegates, Industrial Unions, and Shop Committees, held on May 5, 1920.]
Comrade Eamenev, Chairman: The meeting
will come to order. Comrades ! A regular meet-
ing of the Moscow Council of Workers' Delegates
was to have been held yesterday. The questions of
the day were the ones on which the whole working
class of Russia and we had been centering our
attention — the questions of economy and thrift.
We had to postpone this meeting so that we might
call today's meeting with but one point on the
order of business : the situation on the Polish front.
The offensive of the Polish nobility pushes aside
the problems of the day, problems on which We had
been laboring, and draws the attention, will, and
energy of the working masses of Russia to the
external fronts.
Comrades! The history of imperialistic Rus-
sia was a history of national oppression, of people
subjugated by Czardom. The history of imperi-
alistic Russia is a history of repeated outrages on
the small nationalities that were integral units of
the Russian Empire, an empire that was cemented
together by Muscovy with blood and violence. And
when a really revolutionary party had considered
the task of the overthrow of the old Russian regime
as an easy one, this party had to consider that
the imperialistic government of old Russia was not
only founded on the oppression of the masses of
the Russian people, above all the millions of peas-
ants, but, also on the indispensable Czaristic sys-
tem enforced on all the borders of Russia, — a sys-
tem of oppressing nationalities. That is why this
party, which today through the will of the work-
ing-masses of Russia holds the power, had to draw
up a clear program of national reconstruction;
that is why the Comunist Party of Russia, not in
the year 1920 nor in 1917, not even in 1914, but
long before the decision of the powers of the
Digitized by G<
World War on the question of the emancipation of
small nationidites, had to answer and has answered,
in an open and above-board manner, the question
of its attitude to nationalities, minorities, and to
peoples oppressed by Czarism and capitalism. Our
answer was given long before the world conflict,
and the Communist Party of Russia may boldly
declare that, aside from the changing political or
military situation, aside from the question of
whether a party struggled for power or possessed
it, the Communist Party always settled the problem
of oppressed nationalites in one way — by giving
them the complete right of self-determination. Our
policy is not one of opportunism; it does not de-
pend on the diplomatic or military map, but Aowb
from a deep insight into the united interests of
all the workers. That is why, when we had taken
over the power in 1917, and though we have con-
ducted war for two and a half years, we have ever
been proclaimng the Watchword of the right of
all the nationalities, formerly oppressed in Russia,
to separate themselves from Russia and to found
their own states. And no lies thrown at Soviet
Russia, no slander by bourgeois diplomats and
editors, have blinded the masses of the people to
the fact that in reference to oppressed nationali-
ties the Communist Party of Russia and the
Soviet Government, directed by the same, have
Drithout any deviation from this recognized the
right of Poland to guide its own destiny. Taking
the above position, we have many times submitted
to the Polish Government as it is constituted and
as it is yet accepted by the working people, peace
propositions, either directly or indirectly addressed
to the governments standing behind Poland and
directing its affairs. These propositions were re-
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jected, and that is why the attention of the work-
ing-masses of Russia is directed to a new front,
and for this reason we have to lay aside those
questions which were considered in the oxdet of
business at our last Soviet and Party Congresses,
and take up a new problem — the problem of the
Polish front.
We are confronted by a new situation because
the armies of the Polish bourgeoisie are standing
at the gates of Kiev, and a new development arises
in the Russian Revolution and in the history of
the Soviet Republic. We are convinced that we
shall withstand the new test in the same manner
as we have withstood other critical moments in our
struggles. We rely on two factors which have
never failed us and which today form the guiding
spirit of our victories. The first one is that of the
class-consciousness of the working-masses of Pol-
and, who despite all the obstructions raised by the
Polish ruling class, know and feel that we are not
only fighting for the independence of Soviet Rus-
sia, the freedom of the peasants and workers of
Russia and Ukraine. Not only are we fighting for
the gains made during the two and one-half years
of bloody struggle against the counter-revolution^
ists of different groups and countries. No ! Th*
workers and peasants of Poland know that on
the battle-fields of the western front we are strug-
gling for their freedom, their emancipation from
the yoke of the Polish nobility.
The second is our invincible Red Army.
The Polish villages and cities have, more than?
once, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries/
seen armies composed of Russian workers and peas**
ants, under the leaderships of the Czar's officials,
generals and officers, advancing to crush Poland, to
subdue its heroic insurrections. Now Poland will
see an army consisting of Russian workers and
peasants, led by workers and peasants or those of-
ficers who sincerely have taken their stand with
the army of workers and peasants and the Soviet
Government; she will see that this army is march-
ing under the banner of emancipation and not aim-
ing at conquest or repression; she will see an
army which has progressed because the workers
and peasants of Russia have directed it to defend
the freedom and revolutionary achievements of
the Russian people against the attempts of the
Polish bourgoisie. We are convinced " that this
army will arouse enthusiasm in the Polish peas-
ants and workers, and the spirit in which they,
the workers and peasants of Poland, who are thus
being liberated from the oppression of Polish land-
owners and capitalists, will receive this army, will
be the best assurance that our arms will triumph in
this struggle as they did in all the battles with
all the foes of the Soviet power. For the first time
we can unfold the banner which was the symbol of
all the true Russian revolutionists with regard to
the nations in general, in reference to Poland. It
bears the inscription: "For our and your free-
dom; for the fraternal unity of the Russian and
Polish workers; for the destruction of those who
desire to place a bayonet between the Polish and
Russian workers and to separate us with a wall
of national hatred."
Comrades! Convinced are we that the battle
will end victoriously, for today as formerly, behind
the ranks of the Red Army, stand masses of work-
ers full of sympathy and revolutionary fervor. We
believe profoundly that the first units despatched
to the western front by the Petrograd and Moscow
workers are like the early swallows; that the
workers and peasants of Russia will begin to ad-
vance to that front in broad masses and will bring
there military materials, bread, and all that the
Red Army needs. Incidentally, here today, we
have among us three hundred happy workers who
are on their way to the western front, mobilized in
Petrograd. (Loud applause.) With them we can
voice the motto, inscribed on their Red banners,
glorified in battles and handed on by Petrograd
workers to its forward post: "Death to Polish
magnates, long live the alliance with the peasants
and workers of Poland V "Long live independent
Poland, emancipated from the yoke of capitalists
and landowners, and long live its free alliance with
Soviet Russia." ( Applause. )
Chairman : Comrade Lenin has the floor. (Ap-
plause.)
Three Years
Soviet Rule
When on November 7, 1917, the Bolsheviks
came into power in Russia, the capitalist
press predicted that their rule would last
only a few weeks. Since then, every now and
again, a new capitalist press campaign
against Soviet Russia gives the Soviet Gov-
ernment only a short time before it is
overthrown. At this very moment, while
such a campaign is in progress, the Soviet
Government is preparing to celebrate on
November 7, 1920, the Third Anniversary of
its existence.
We take pleasure in announcing for next
week, a special illustrated forty-page issue of
Soviet Russia to commemorate the Third
Anniversary of the November Revolution,
and to show what Soviet rule has accom-
plished in Russia in the three years of its
existence.
Original fron
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SO VIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly' will print article* by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised.
JOHN SPARGO hastens to join the chorus of
** those who predict the imminent fall of the
Soviet Government. In a special cable to the
New York Herald, dated Paris, October 18, Mr.
Spargo is declared to have interviewed many per-
sons in Sweden, Germany, and Finland, "who had
just come from Russia." Details of Mr. Spargo's
prophecy are interesting only as indicating his pe-
culiar mode of thought, which is the mode of
thought of all persons who cut themselves off from
the world as it is, and dwell in the world as they
picture it. His remarks on what would happen if
the Soviet Government should fall are particularly
illuminating in this connection:
"What kind of regime will succeed the Soviets is a
question. From my studies I have reached the con-
clusion that each little Russian village will for a time
have its own independent government, as there is no
likelihood of a return of the Czarist regime. Eventu-
ally these little independent governments, will join hands,
forming a strong republic."
This is ideology apart from the fact, with a
vengeance. It is characteristic of the student of
other than the social sciences to deal with isolated
problems, with sharp outlines, ignoring all sur-
rounding conditions that are non-essential. But
we did not know Mr. Spargo was a physical scien-
tist. In the field of history and sociology such iso-
lations are very difficult to accomplish. If Russia
existed apart from the rest of the world, and
should be permitted to pursue her development
without any interference from the outside, it might
be possible to take Mr. Spargo's predictions seri-
ously, but, as a matter of fact, Mr. Spargo is not
acquainted with Russian conditions at all. The
history of Europe in the twentieth century
has shown that Russia, far from dwell-
ing part from Europe, is intimately con-
nected with the political and economic life of
Western Europe. The ententes and alliances pre-
ceding the Great War never omitted an attempt
to include Russia in their formations, and the pres-
ent furious hatred of the imperialistic govern-
ments toward Soviet Russia is a reflecion of tfie
tremendous economic dislocation that is indued
in other countries when they cut themselves off
from Russia, or rather, cut Russia off from them-
selves. The life of Russia, even in its present
blockaded and sequestered state, is indissolubly
O
connected, even in the minds of the administrators
of the cordon sanitaire, with that of Europe. It is
because he overlooks this fact that Mr. Spargo still
has sufficient "detachment" and "peace of mind"
to paint the pretty little idyl which we have quoted
above. It is not inconceivable that Russia might
develop little independent village communities, „
such with "its own independent government," if
the terror of the imperialists at what has been
accomplished in that country did not prevent them
from letting Russia alone. How willing foreign
governments are to have Russia develop from the
point where "each little Russian village will for a
time have its own independent government," is
shown by their readiness to support every Czarist
adventurer that seems disposed — with however lit-
tle likelihood of success — to attempt the gigantic
task of unseating a popular government established
out of the blood and suffering of a hundred mil-
lion persons. No idea is more unpalatable to the
foreign governments than that Russia may have to
br dealt with as a host of small communities, in
fact, some governments are actually refusing to
recognize the small border states who are more or
less friendly to them, and insisting on the reten-
tion of some sort of powerful Russian centraliza-
tion, so that the "powerful, united Russia" that
may later be set up may be more grateful and
useful to the powers favoring such centralization.
What "will succeed the Soviets," or rather, what
would succeed the Soviets, if they should be over-
thrown is probably some form of colonial division
of Russia among the great powers. Various Soviet
leaders have pointed out this possibility since the
very earliest days of intervention. But the imme-
diate consequences of the supposed overthrow of
the Soviet Government would be such as to make
all predictions as to the remote future uncertain
and unreliable, in view of the terrible conditions
for Russia, and for the rest of the world, that they
would involve. Immediately after the fall of the
Soviet Government, the counter-revolutionary
forces of Wrangel (or of WrangeFs successor, for
we cannot believe that France will decline to put
a new man in the field after Wrangel has been dis-
posed of) would advance through the impoverished
and semi-deserted towns and villages of Soviet
Russia — and they would by that time be impover-
ished and deserted indeed — and inaugurate a sys-
tem of terror and carnage that would be* vastly
more cruel and destructive than the deeds of Gal-
liffet after the Paris Commune of 1871 or of the
Rumanians and Horthy in Hungary in 1919 and
1920, after the overthrow of the Hungarian Soviet
Government. Eye-witnesses have described all these
events, beginning with the circumstantial accounts
(quoted from bourgeois journalists in Lissagaray's
book on the Paris Commune) of Paris bourgeois
ladies gouging out the eyes of captive workingmen,
and of other amiable acts of vengeance wreaked
upon the Paris proletariat after the overthrow of
the Commune, — and ending with the all too recent
accounts of newspaper correspondents from Hun-
gary and party of Germany.
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What this would mean in Russia is almost too
revolting to picture. If there are only 600,000 mem-
bers of the Russian Communist Party, who are
after all the guiding spirits in the march of events
in Russia, we cannot imagine that a smaller num-
ber of Communists would be murdered (we shall
not dwell on the preliminary tortures) by tha ad-
vancing counter-revolutionary forces. Further-
more, there are a few million Jews in Russia : the
resurgent Czarist anti-Semistism surely would not
spare them. Then there are the hundreds of thou-
sands of members of the Menshevik and other semi,
liberal parties who protested against intervention
and the blockade. Every reactionary officer return-
ing to Russia with the victorious counter-revolu-
tion would have some such person on his list for
proscription. Millions would perish if the Russian
^Revolution should be choked in blood; but Mr.
Spargo pretends blood isn't being shed -by the
"saviors" of Russia and of course will not admit
that much more would be shed if they should
really be victorious; — but we do not think that
Prance and England together, with all their Wran-
gels added, could overthrow the government that
has tried against terrible odds to give the Russian
people the bread, the land, the liberty they fought
for. «
• • *
T5EASANTS are alleged in the newspapers to
-■■ desire the overthrow of the Soviet Government,
and some of their "representations" are even re-
ported to have drawn up a protest (with only twelve
points) covering their grievances. It would be
ridiculous for this journal, because it is the Official
Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau,
to deny that its home government has found the
peasant problem a difficult one to deal with. The
peasants have demands, demands for manufactured
products, which it is very hard for the Soviet Gov-
ernment to satisfy. But this does not yet mean
— as some New York newspapers would like to
have it — that the peasants are ready to aid coun-
ter-revolution in substituting another government
for that of the Soviets. For they know that while
they may have grievances against the Soviet Gov-
ernment, they have nothing to hope for from a
restored Czarism or from an occupation by the
armies of the colonial powers. And this they know
from their own recent experiences — experiences so
recent that they will hardly be likely # to forget
them soon. The facts about the peasants might
be briefly stated thus: They do not get from the
Soviets as much as they want; they give perhaps
more than they like ; but when you have said this
and amplified and exaggerated it as much as you
like, you have yet to show that any other political
group in or out of Russia seems likely to be able
to provide better conditions for the peasants.
• * •
'IT^THILE some political circles see their solu-
y * tion in refusing to allow the old Russia to
divide into portions based on self-determination in
ethnic units, others, France and England among
them, would prefer to see the process of the colonial
parceling out of Russia begin at once. You have
only to read through the conditions exacted by
the French Government from Wrangel, as pub-
lished a few weeks ago in the Nation (New York)
to understand what are the hopes of France from
the "South-Russian" Government in exchange "for
promise of official recognition by France and diplo-
matic and military support against Soviet Russia."
One of the clauses of this interesting document
provides for "French financial and commercial
councillors" to be assigned to "Russian financial
and industrial ministries," "whose rights are to
be determined in a special treaty." Thus Russia,
or as much of it as the French Government would
include in "Southern Russia", would become a sort
of India, ruled by petty tyrants undfer the advice
— actually under the rule— of foreign official ad-
visers.
* * *
"C* OR years before the war Turkey was permitted
**• to live in Europe for the reason that any
attempt at handling the Turkish question by the
big powers would produce in the so-called concert
of powers a shrill dissonance not unlike that which
was heard in Europe in the year 1914. And al-
though the Sevres Peace Treaty with Turkey, as
well as all the various agreements between the vic-
torious nations, with regard to the division of Tur-
key, might suggest a solution of the Turkish tan-
gle, this is far from true, *not only because the
national life of Turkey does not yet show any
signs of certain dissolution, but also because the
agreement of the victors between themselves is
only a paper agreement. It has been justly re-
marked by many correspondents that only the fact
of the recent war can keep some of the powers,
notably France and England, from coming to blows
on account of the former's advantages in the divi-
sion of the lands (Arabia, Mesopotamia, etc.) that
were formerly a part of Turkey. Nor can English
domination in Constantinople be over-readily ac-
cepted by France. It will be remembered that
France had a Monroe doctrine of its own with re-
gard to matters chiefly financial — in Turkey. The
doctrine of "protection of Catholics" (despite the
fact of separation of church and state in France)
and the control of the Ottoman Bank used to be
strong cards in her hand, which seem to have lost
their value just now.
The character of the treaty with Wrangel leads
us to believe that France has come now to regard
Russia in the same light as she does Turkey. That
she will be badly disappointed, it is unnecessary to
prove. But the fact itself strongly suggests the
* idea that the Soviet Government is a powerful
force working for peace in Russia. Were it not
for the strength of the Soviet Government, which
was able to consolidate and unite Russia under one
banner, and to hold by force the too covetous pre-
tenders to Russia's resources, the very notion of
peace in Europe would be a travesty. For who
would expect the other big powers calmly to look
on while France skimmed the cream in Russia?
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SOVIET RUSSIA
October 30, 1920
The Food Policy of the Soviet Government
By A. Svidersky
(Member of the Board of the People's Food Commissariat)
HE People's Food Commissariat is in charge Commissariat; the general understanding is that
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of the state supply of the population. The lead-
ing organ of this Commissariat is, in accordance
with the constitution of the K. S. F. S. R., a col-
legiate (board) appointed by the Council of Peo-
ple's Commissars and is headed by a People's
Commissar appointed by the All-Russian Central
Executive Committee.
In the localities the chief organs of the Food
Commissariat are the Oubernia Provision Com-
mittees, the Uyezd Provision Committees and the
District Provision Committees.* In regard to or-
ganization the local Provision Committee organs
are connected with the local Soviets and with the
Provision Commissariat. In addition to this an
organization connection exists between the provi*
sion organs of the producing gubernias and the
workers of the consuming gubernias. This is
achieved in the following way :
The Uyezd Provision Committees consist of
Uyezd Provision Commissars, who are elected by
the uyezd councils and confirmed by the Oubernia
Food Commissars, and of a collegiate (board)
which consists of persons appointed by the Uyezd
Food Commissars of the uyezd councils (Sovi-
ets). The Oubernia Provision Committees consist
of Oubernia Food Commissars who are elected
by the gubernia Soviets and are confirmed by the
People's Commissariat for Food Supply, and of
a collegiate (board), whose members are appointed
by the Oubernia Food Commissars and are con-
firmed by the executive organs of the gubernia
Soviets. The District Food Committees are the
provision organs supplying a number of voloets* on
the economic principle; these act in some places
in lieu of the Uyezd Provision Committees. Their
structure is on the same principle of organization
as that of the Uyezd Food Committees and the
Gubernia Food Committees.
The People's Food Commissariat has the right
of delegating authorized persons to all the District,
Uyezd, and Gubernia Food committees with a view
of suspending decisions which may be contradict-
ory to the decrees and the instructions of the cen-
tral authorities, or appear inexpedient from the
point of view of general state interests. The Peo-
ple's Food Commissariat has the right of including
in every Uyezd Food Committee of a given gu-
bernia, supplying grain, from one to one-half of the
entire number of members of the Uyezd Provision
Committee out of the number of candidates recom-
mended by trade unions of workers, by Soviet or-
ganizations, and by various party associations of
consuming gubernias who stand on the Soviet plat-
form; in the same manner, representatives of
Gubernia Food Committees of consuming guber-
nias may be delegated to every Gubernia Food
• Gubernia, uyezd and volost are territorial sub-division ■ rough-
ly corresponding to a state, county and village.
one representative is sent from the capitals of
Moscow and Petrograd, and one representaive
from the Army and the Navy; the complete num-
ber of the representatives of the Food Commis-
sariat and of the consuming gubenv.as should con-
sist of not less than one-third and not more than
one-half of the entire number of the members of
the Gubernia Provision Commissariats. The num-
ber of representatives of consuming gubernias in
the Food organs of the .producing gubernias is
higher at the present time than the above-men-
tioned norm, and form approximately 80 per cent
of the general number of the members of the
Uyezd and Gubernia Boards of the Food Com-
missariat of the grain producing gubernias.
A special position in the general network of the
organization of the food organs is occupied by the
worker's food detachments, the provision army,
and the organs of labor inspection. The workers'
food detachments and the provision army taken
together, represent one of the main levers in the
activity of the People's Food Commissariat and its
local organs, especially with regard to the pro-
vision of grain and of forage.
The food detachments are formed by the Mili-
tary Food Bureau of the All-Russian Council of
Trade Unions. The functions of these detach-
ments are as follows: 1) the registration of har-
vests and surplus grain; 2) operations directly
connected with the dispatch of grain to the gran-
aries; 3) propaganda work to get the peasants to
deliver all the surplus grain to the state; 4) rend-
ering assistance to the transport and so forth. Dur-
ing the grain campaign of 1918-1919 the People's
Food Commissariat had at its disposal 400 food
detachments consisting of 13,000 men. For the
present food campaign the number of food detach-
ments was increased by another hundred which
consisted of nearly 13,000 workers mobilized in the
consuming gubernias.
The Food Army is entrusted with the duty of
compulsorily obtaining all the surplus of grain in
those cases where the owners decline to comply
with the grain levy laid upon them. In the majority
of cases, however, the Food Army is simply hela
in preparedness. Generally their mere presence
in localities where grain is gathered is sufficient to
insure the smooth delivery of all surplus, without
recourse to compulsion. This was the prevailing
state of things during the last grain campaign ; it
is also the prevailing state of things at the pres-
ent moment. During the 1918-1919 season the
food army numbered about 45,000 men. The in-
crease of the food army for the current supply
campaign is necessitated by the extension of the
territory at the disposal of the state provision
organs.
The Food Army is recruited from volunteers
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and those liable to military service, but whose state
of health renders them unfit for such. Prom the
point of view of organization the Food Army in
its structure is similar to that of the Red Army,
being subject to all the decrees applying to the
latter and it may be utilized for military purposes
should the need for this arise.
The organs of labor inspection are formed of class
conscious intelligent workers, recommended by the
trade unions. These are formed by the military
Food Bureau (of the trade unions) and are
under its supervision, but their activity is guided
by the People's Food Commissariat. The task of
the organs of labor inspection is to carry out class
control over the activity of the Food Commissari-
at's institutions as well as of the local food organ-
zations. Recently the Provision Labor Inspection
merged with the Workers' and Peasants' Inspec-
tion which took the place of the State Control.
This is the business apparatus of the People's
Food Commissariat and of its local organs. This
is not a mere technical apparatus which collects
grain by way of monetary payment at fixed state
prices or by way of exchange of goods, collecting
at the same time all other food products and ar-
ticles of general consumption, — but it is an organ m
which is ill every respect adapted to obtain grain ^
and to carry on an organized and systematic strug-
gle for the supply of food to the starving popula-
tion.
Until recently the People's Food Commissariat
in the center and the Food Committees in the lo-
calities, in addition to carrying out the functions
of supply, also carried out all the functions of dis-
tribution. For this reason as far as their struc-
tural organization was concerned the food organs
had to take into consideration the execution of
tasks connected with all matters of distribution.
At the present time, in accordance with a decree
of the 20th of March, 1919, the functions of dis-
tribution are entirely transferred to the coopera-
tive societies whilst the People's Food Commis-
sariat, as a state organ, retains the right of control
over the activity of the newly created distributing
organizations.
These problems, the practical solution of which
is entrusted by the All-Russian Central Executive
Committee and by the Council of the People's
Commissars to the People's Food Commissariat
and its local organizations are fully formulated by
a number of decrees published consecutively dur-
ing the period of almost three years' existence of
the Soviet Government. By a decree of the All-
Russian Central Executive Committee dated May
27, 1918, the People's Food Commissariat was in-
structed to unite into one organ the entire supply
of the population with articles of first necessity
and of consumption, to organize on a national
scale the distribution of these goods, and to pre-
pare the transition to nationalization of Trade and
Industry. By a later decree of the Council of the
People's Commissars dated November 21, 1918,
the Food Commissariat was instructed to organize
the supply of all products serving personal and
domestic needs; the aim of this decree was the
substitution of the private commercial apparatus
by a systematic supply of the population with all
necessities out of the Soviet cooperative distribute
ing depots.
The above-mentioned decrees do not by far ex-
haust all the Soviet legislation by which the activ-
ity of the Food Commissariat is defined. But
they mark the principal stages in the development
of the functions of the food organs. Both decrees
emphasize the gradual change of the Food Com-
missariat from a provision organ in the narrower
sense of the word into an organ for the state sup-
ply of the population.
As regards the principal instruction which dur-
ing the last two years were for various reasons
and in various forms given to the People's Food
Commissariat by the All-Russian Central Execu-
tive Committee and by the Council of People's
Commissars, it must be pointed out that these
instructions amounted and continue to amount to
the following: 1) the registration of articles of
provision and of general consumption; 2) the in-
stitution of state monopoly for the chief articles of
alimentation, and 3) distribution in accordance
with the principle of class distinction: he who
^does not work neither shall he eat. A certain
clarity was introduced in these basic postulates by
the Ail-Russian Central Executive Committee's
decree dated January 21, 1919: it was definitely
pointed out which particular products constitute
the monopoly of the state ; these were : grain, forage,
iugar, salt and tea; which kind of articles are to
fce collected on a state scale but not on monopoly
principles, these included all meat products, fats,
fish and so forth, and which may be obtained by
large labor associations and freely brought to town
for free sale in the open markets; to these cate-
gories belong potatoes and a few other articles.
The decree of January 21 clearly defined the
extent of the authority of the food organs by the
establishment of the two categories of monopolized
and ordinary products. As it happened, this at
the same time meant moving a step backward as
far as the state supply was concerned. The same
decree instructed the People's Food Commissariat
with taking measures to improve its supply ap-
paratus for the purpose of extending the state sup-
ply also to ordinary products. For the purpose of
fulfilling this regulation a decree was issued on
August 15, 1919, making the supply of potatoes a
state monopoly and prohibiting to any organiza-
tion, excepting state organs, the purchase of prod-
ucts which have by the decree of January 21 been
attributed to ordinary products; this prohibition
extended to five gubernias. Thus one of the chief
principles of organization of state supply of the
population was confirmed afresh.
Our food policy found its clearest expression
in the decrees and instructions with regard to the
supply of grain. The decree issued by the All-Rus-
sian Executive Committee and published on May
13, 1918, the purpose of which was to confirm the
hard and fast rule regarding the grain monopoly
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and making it incumbent upon every owner to
turn over all supplies, excepting the quantity re-
quired for sowing and for personal consumption
to the state food organs according to the estab-
lished levy ; this decree called upon all the laboring
and poor peasants to unite immediately for the
purpose of a resolute struggle against the grain
profiteering peasants. The same decree endowed
the People's Food Commissariat with extraor-
dinary prerogatives including the right of apply-
ing armed force in cases where resistance is offered
in the collection of corn or other food products.
The main idea of the decree of May 13 is still more
vividly expressed in the appeal of the Council of
the People's Commissars issued to the popula-
tion towards the end of May, 1918. Not a single
step backward should be made with regard to the
bread monopoly, was said in this appeal. Not the
slightest increase of the fixed prices for grain ! No
independent storing of grain! All that is dis-
ciplined and class conscious — into a united organ-
ized food front! Strict execution of all the in-
structions of the Central Government! No inde-
pendent activity! Complete revolutionary order
all over the country. War to the profiteers ! . . .
Not satisfied with the instructions regarding the
principal idea of our food policy, the All-Russian
Central Executive Committee by a decree dated
June 11, 1918, on the organization of the supply
of the village poor, has defined the form of organi-
zation in which the line of conduct towards the
profiteers as well as to the sections of the village
population who are guilty of hiding their surplus
of grain are to be treated. Although subsequently,
by a special regulation of the All-Russian Central
Executive Committee, the established forms of or-
ganization have been removed, in its principal fea-
tures the food supply policy remained as before and
is remaining so until the present time. As in the
past the policy is now based upon the organization
of the proletarian and semi-proletarian elements
of the villages against the profiteers, only under
a different form, i. e., in so far as the obligatory
grain levy applies also to the middle peasantry as
long as it has a surplus of grain.
Of special signifiance in the food policy of the
Soviet Government is the system of exchange of
goods, which serves as a means of extracting the
grain surplus from the villages: this policy by the
way was also utilized by the Provisional Govern-
ment. The policy of exchange of goods was first
practically realized when, in accordance with a
regulation of the Council of the People's Commis-
sars passed on the 25th of March, 1918, the Peo-
ple's Food Commissariat was financed for that
purpose to the extent of one milliard one hundred
and sixty millions of rubles; later on, on the 2nd
of April of the same year, a special decree was is-
sued regarding exchange of goods; here all ar-
ticles subject to goods exchange were enumerated
and at the same time a special principle was es-
tablished upon which all goods exchange is to be
carried on; this principle consisted in attracting
the poorer peasants to the organization of exchange
Digitized by V^OOQ IC
of commodies and the obligatory transfer of goads
sent in exchange for grain to the disposal of the
volost or district organizations for the purpose of
its further distribution amongst the population in
need of these goods. The establishment of this
principle was dictated by necessity, as it was proved
in practice that the exchange of grain leads to the
accumulation of goods in the hands of the profit-
eers to the great disadvantage of the poor section
of the peasantry.
A few months later it became necessary to in-
troduce one more important addition into the sys-
tem of goods exchange. It appeared that the de-
cree of the 2nd of April is eluded in various ways
by the grain owners ; this was largely facilitated by
'the fact that the profiteers and the richer sections
of the rural population were enabled to obtain the
necessary goods from private sources and thus
were not driven to the necessity of turning over
their surplus to the state organs with a view of
obtaining goods from them, which goods were in
addition given, to the disposal of the volost and
village organizations. In order to deprive the
grain owners of the opportunity of resorting to this
dishonest method a decree was published on the
8th of August, 1918, concerning obligatory ex-
change of goods; the first paragraphs of this de-
cree is to the following effect: For the purpose of
facilitating the development of the decree issued
on the 2nd of April regarding exchange of goods
— in all villages and uyezd established for exchange
of goods of the industrial gubernias as well as of
" all non-agricultural products exclusively for grain
and other food products, as well as for nemp, flax,
leather and so forth; this established system for
the exchange of goods applies to cooperatives as
well as to all state, public, and private institutions.
The decree concerning obligatory exchange of
goods, which was necessitated by the need of stor-
ing all grain in the state granaries has in addi-
tion to the grain monopoly, also marked a way for
the solution of one of the greatest problems in
the transitional peroid from capitalism to Social-
ism — the problem of establishing definite economic
relations between the industrial workers and the
agricultural workers. It became necessary to pro-
ceed further along this road the more so that for
the last two years the state reserve of goods shrank
to a great extent. The next progressive step with
regard to goods exchange was made on the 5th
of August, 1919. The publication of a decree
followed, by virtue of which: for the purpose of
furthering and combining the decrees of the 2nd
of April and of the 8th of August, 1918, concern-
ing exchange of goods, and for the purpose of stor-
ing raw material and fuel for the reestablishment
and the supply of the village population of the
R. S. F. S. R. by the organs of the People's Food
Commissariat and the cooperative societies with
the produce of mining and manufacturing indus-
tries as well as with bread and other food products,
is conducted on the sole condition of the delivery
to the state organs of all the agricultural and home
industry produce by the rural population.
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To sum up all the above, the basis of the Soviet
food policy may be defined in the following man-
ner: 1) the introduction of the principle of the
State supply of the population with food and ar-
ticles of general consumption, 2) the establishment
of a monopoly for the principal food products, 3)
the development of state storing with regard to
non-controlled products, 4) the introduction of
compulsory collective exchange of goods in the
rural districts for all porducts of agriculture and
of home industry, 5) the establishment of a com-
pulsory levy upon the population for the delivery
of the surplus of grain and the more important
products of agriculture, 6) a war for bread and for
other products and articles of general consump-
tion necessary to the town against the profiteering
peasant elements, which is waged in alliance with
the proletarian and semi-proletarian sections of
the villages and, 7) favorable terms of supply to
the workers as against the non-working sections
of the population.
STATEMENT OF THE BUREAU
New York, October 26, 1920.
Confirmation of the report that Washington D.
Vanderlip of California, representing a syndicate
of Pacific Coast capitalists, has concluded an ex-
tensive arrangement with the Russian Soviet Gov-
ernment for the development of natural resources
in Northeastern Siberia, was contained in a cable
received today by the Soviet Government Bureau
in New York from George Chicherin, Commissar
for Foreign Affairs at Moscow. Mr. Chicherin's
cable is directed to Mr. L. Martens, Representa-
tive of the Soviet Government in America, and
reads as follows:
"On October 22 there was announced the
consummation of the deal proposed by the
Vanderlip syndicate, comprising Vanderlip,
Barnt, Harry Chandler, Sartori, Le Phillips,
Fishburn, Edward L. Doheny, Gibbon,
Jayne, Whittier, Stewart and Braun, all
Pacific coast capitalists. The syndicate ac-
quires a sixty-year lease of territory east of
the one hundred and sixtieth meridian, in-
cluding Kamchakta, an area of 400,000
square miles, with exclusive rights to exploit
coal, oil, and fisheries. Vast oil strata and bit-
uminous coal deposits have been discovered in
this territory. The syndicate expects to take
possession and commence operations in the
spring of 1921. The same syndicate is also
acquiring a lease, with the right to purchase,
of the Seattle waterfront property purchased
by the Czar's Government. Negotiations are
proceeding successfully whereby this syndi-
cate will become our fiscal agents in America,
financing purchases up to $500,000,000; all
purchases to be made through your office.
(Signed) Chicherin."
The consummation of this arrangement with
the Vanderlip syndicate marks a notably success-
Digiiized by V^OOgTC
f ul achievement in the long endeavor of the Soviet
Government to enter into mutually advantageous
relations with American business men. Develop-
ment of the vast natural resources of Russia in
fuel, minerals, timber ,and other products, is an
undertaking for which American industrial and
technical talents are especially suited. Russia
greatly needs the skilled services of American tech-
nical and industrial specialists in all branches. It
may confidently be predicted that the Vanderlip
concession is only the first of many similar ar-
rangements whereby the enterprise and ability of
Americans will be enlisted in the development of
Russia. Alhough the details of the Vanderlip
concession have not reached us, it may be assumed
that the contract provides full security and rea-
sonable profits to the American operators, and at
the same time, carefully safeguards in every re-
spect the rights of the workers in the territories
to be developed. Foreign capitalists, taking up
concessions in Soviet Russia, will be required to
respect the sovereignty of the Soviet Republic, and
to conform to the laws of the Soviet Government
respecting the protection of labor and the demo-
cratic management of industry. It is evident that
Mr. Vanderlip, after a visit to Russia and a
thorough discussion of his proposition with the
Soviet authorities, decided that it was altogether
practical and profitable for foreign capitalists to
enter into business relations with the Soviet Gov-
ernment. This has long been the contention of
the Soviet Government, which has always insisted
that Russia needed the assistance of outside forces,
and that, moreover, the rest of the world could
not get on without Russia. With the successful
conclusion of peace with Poland and with the
rapidly approaching dispersal of all counter-revo-
lutionary elements, Soviet Russia is now on the
threshold of an era of peaceful organization and
productivity.
ALLIED CAPITAL IN THE CRIMEA
Sebastopol, August 28.— iThe united merchant
fleet of the Black Sea has been bought up by for-
eign capital. The greater part of the stock of a
large Russian steamship company has been bought
by the English. Also the industrial enterprises in
the Wrangel territory are being readily taken over
by the French and English capitalists.
RUSSIA'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS
PERSIA
A despatch issued from Moscow under date of
August 31 states:
"Chicherin sent a wireless message to Osoffar
Khan, the Persian plenipotentiary in London, in-
forming him that the Russian Soviet Government
would be glad to receive the Persian envoy in
Moscow and that all steps will be taken to facili-
tate his journey from T'ifi is."
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Recent Economic Reports from Russia
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LOCOMOTIVES
Economic Life gives the following account of
the general number and state of the locomotives
of the entire Russian railway system on the 20th
of July, 1920:
The daily accounts of 26 lines give 16,608 loco-
motives. In addition to this at the Turkestan,
Southwestern, and evacuated railways there are
2,735 locomotives, making a total of 18,803 loco-
motives. Out of the 16,068 there are 9,068 or
56.45 of the general number out of repair.
On the 1st of July the percentage of out of
repair locomotives was 58.2 per cent, on the 1st
of April 60.7 per cent. This shows a slight de-
crease.
In view of the fact that the cultural significance
of the estate of Tasnaya Poliana, formerly owned
by Leo Tolstoy, which is within two to three
versts from the station, is universal, a transmission
is to be installed both on the estate as well as in
the village of Yasnaya Poliana.
EXPORT OF PETROLEUM
Accordling to Economic Life the export of
petroleum products from Grozny is fairly success-
ful. From 200 to 250 cisterns are exported on
the railway from Grozny. In addition to this about
80,000 poods are pumped by the petroleum ducts
to Petrovsk. Altogether for the period from the
1st of April to the 31st of July inclusive the num-
ber of cisterns exported from Grozny by rail
amounts to 19,400, holding 14,880,846 poods. From
the 12th of June to the 31st of July 3,665,117
poods of petroleum products were sent, making a
total of 18,545,963 poods.
According to Economic Life, the output of pe- v
troleum in the Baku district in all the working-
places, with the exception of the South Valakhan-
sky district, amounts to 14,100 poods in June,
1920.
The reserve of petroleum in the above mentioned
industrial districts on July 1 is 32,638 pooods.
SATURDAYINGS (SUBBOTNIKS)
At the Communist Subbotniks at Moscow for
the month of April 84,768 persons worked; these
include 16,065 communists and 66,963 non-party
.members.
The great majority of these worked in connec-
tion with fuel and transport needs. Besides a
number of subsidiary tasks, the following was per-
formed at the Subbotniks:
Eight hundred and twenty-eight railway cars
were loaded and unloaded, 13 locomoives were re-
paired, as well as 37 cars and 31 engines. A total
of 500,000 poods has been replaced.
URAL METAL INDUSTRY
The general state of the Ural metal industry
may be judged from the principal Ural industry,
that of pig-iron smelting. In the first half year
of 1920 the smelting of pig iron has been effected
to only 50 per cent of the proposed amount. This
comparatively low output is to be explained chiefly
by the fuel erisis, which has been particularly
acute in the Yekaterinburg and Yisogorsk dis-
tricts. At the present time energetic measures are
being taken for the improvement of the fuel sup-
ply of the Urals and there may be expected in the
future an increase in the smelting of pig iron.
ELECTROTECHNICAL CONSTRUCTION
The Russian proletariat has gained one more vic-
tory upon the labor front. A new powerful elec-
tric station has recently been opened near the
town of Tula. This station is capable of generat-
ing a power amounting to 20,000 volts. This new
electric transmission has been erected by the Ad-
ministration of Electrotechnical Constructions of
the Committee of State Constructions within six
and a half months, from February to July, 1920.
This must be considered to be a very short period
even for peace time.
The electric transmission at the Sudakov Works,
which is within 14 versts of Tula, gives 3,000 kilo-
watts under a pressure of 17,500 volts, thus enab-
ling the Tula factories to work intensively. The
electric station is to be worked by Moscow coal,
the collieries of which are situated within four
versts of the electric station. The electric trans-
mission is connected with the Tula electric station ;
the surplus of energy will be given to the town
of Tula for municipal and private use.
TEXTILE INDUSTRY
In the recent past the Russian textile industry
passed through an acute crisis, owing to the lack
of raw materials. Turkestan, which is the prin-
ciple district supplying the textile industry with
raw materials, was for a long time cut off from
the center of the Republic. In 1918-1919 only
about 3,000,000 poods were received from Turkes-
tan, whilst the Russian textile industry required
about 20,000,000 poods of cotton. The cessation
of military operations in the Turkestan district
and the reestablishment of communications be-
tween the central industrial districts of the Re-
public with Turkestan had made possible an in-
creased export of cotton and wool to the Soviet
Republic. From the 1st of June to the 5th of
August 2,798 carloads of wool had been exported
to Russia from Turkestan. It is necessary to point
out the gradual monthly increase in the export
of cotton. In June, 1920, 869 carloads were sent
from Turkestan to the town of Samara. In July,
1,222 carloads, while 242 carloads were sent for
the five days of August.
by V_
A
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PRODUCTION OF COAL
*The Moscow District Coal Basin is the only one
of all the coal basins which, during the process of
the development of the civil war, was not cut off
from Soviet Russia even for a single day. This
was the reason why the Soviet Government had to
pay serious attention to this coal basin, and here,
more than anywhere else, the achievement of the
Soviet Government in the sphere of the organiza-
tion of the coal industry appears at its clearest and
best.
Prior to the November Revolution the Moscow
District Coal Basin was in a deplorable state. A
general idea of the Moscow Coal Basin at the time
of its nationalization is easily obtained when
we mention the following conditions prevailing
there ; these include : primitive exploitation of the
mines, looting, a shameless exploitation of the Aus-
trian prisoners of war working in the mines, and
an acute housing crisis. Thus, immediately upon
its nationalization of the mines, the Soviet Govern-
ment was faced with the tremendous work of organ-
ization of the Moscow basin upon new lines. First
of all, the reserve of coal in the district had to be
established. For this purpose, for the first time
in its existence, extensive investigation of the
mines was carried out. The result has proved
most favorable. The Bobrikov district may serve
as an example. The reserves of this district may
be estimated at one billion poods (16,000,000 long
tons).
The discovery of rich layers has led to the in-
crease of the output of coal. The technical instal-
lation of the Moscow District Basin is being im-
proved with a view to this. The plan for the
electrification of the district is being carried out.
Two large electric stations are to be erected short-
ly; one at Tovarkovo and another at Pobedenka.
The entire basin is to be covered with a network
of small stations. Underground electric lighting is
also installed. A wide gauge railway coed-branch
is being organized and built. In the last two years
12 branches have been built which are al-
ready in working order; the total length of these
is about 30 versts. In addition to this about 24
versts are beiug built and a number of additonal
branches are to be built shortly.
The technical equipment of the collieries is
also being improved? The more neglected collieries
are being shut down and new ones opened instead.
The actual mining is also improved by the intro-
duction of the latest methods of exploitation. For
the first time powder and dynamite are being used
in the Moscow District Basin in coal mining; this
has of course increased the output.
The enumeration of innovations introduced in
the Moscow District would remain incomplete
without the mention of the measures taken for the
amelioration of the housing crisis. During the
building season of 1920, house-construction has
been largely extended in every district of the basin.
All these measures which had been introduced by
the Moscow District Basin of course resulted in an
increase of the output of coal: In 1918 the output
of coal amounted to 13.4 million poods; in 1919,
24.2 millions, while for the first half of 1920, it
amounted to 16.9 million poods.
The following figures give an idea of the out-
put of coal for the first half year of 1920, as com-
pared with the same interval of time in 1919.
Month : Output in Poods Increase
1919 1920 Per Cent
January 1.923,807 2,343,484 21
February 2,523,162 3,040,184 21
March 2,947,864 3,745,825 26
April 1,658,647 2,216,931 34
May 1,831,962 2,471,931. 35
June 1,611,610 3,091,482 92
12,497,052 16,909,837 35
Thus the average increase of output for the first
half-year of 1920 is expressed by the figure of 35
per cent. This is the result of the work of two
years by the Soviet Government or its organs in
the Moscow District Basin. This gives us fuH con-
fidence that in the future the output of coal in the
Moscow District Basin will be increased and that
the intended program of the Moscow District for
1921, to the amount of 60 million poods, will be
successfully carried out.
PUBLIC FEEDING
The Moscow Cooperative Society has published
the following comparative figures concerning the
state of public feeding for the last three years :
In 1918 there were 204 public eating-houses in
Moscow for adults; these fed 112,195 persons
daily; in 1919 there were 452 eating-houses, capa-
ble of feeding 306,299 persons. In 1920 the num-
ber of eating-houses had grown to 617, providing
609,660 persons daily. In 1918 there were no
children's eating houses at all; in 1919 there were
98, providing for 106,230 children; in 1920, there
were 107, feeding 200,684 children.
by L^OOgle
THE FOOD SITUATION
At the plenary session of the Moscow Soviet, the
assistant commissar of the Food Commissariat,
Comrade Brukhanov, published the following data
regarding the food situation in Soviet Russia:
In 1917-1918 the food preparing campaign had
passed through the distributing organs of the re-
public about 30,000,000 poods of grain. In 1918-
1919 the preparation of grain was considerably bet-
ter: the distributing organs passed 109 millions
of poods. The 1919-1920 campaign was to provide
a reserve of 326 million poods of grain, 307 mil-
lions of poods were intended to be obtained in the
producing gubernias, and about 20 million in the
consuming gubernias. Altogether, in the produc-
ing gubernias, 165 millions of poods were obtained,
and 15 millions of poods in the consuming guber-
nias. In addition to this, 27 millions of poods of
grain were obtained in Siberia, and about 10 mil-
lions of poods in the Northern Caucasus, 16 mil-
lions of poods of grain will be obtained. The short-
of poods at the various fronts. Thus altogether
the past grain campaign resulted in the gathering
of 260 millions of poods of grain. For the coming
campaign, owing to the bad harvest, only 150 mil-
lions of poods of corn mil be obtained. The short-
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age will be covered by means of outside dis-
tricts. The People's Commissariat for Food hopes
to obtain 110 millions of poods of grain in Siberia,
and 120 millions of poods in the Northern Cay-
casus. Thus a total of 380 millions of poods of
grain will be obtained, a figure which approximates
the actual requirements of the republic.
SOVIET RUSSIA'S PEACE OFFENSIVE
By Adolph Yoffe
Simultaneously with the military offensive
against the Polish Whites, Soviet Russia is suc-
cessfully unfolding her peace offensive against
world imperialism.
A program of peace, the demonstration of her
peaceful intentions, proof not only in words, but
in deeds of the impossibility of defensive cam-
paigns against Russia, owing to the fact that she
has neither threatened nor attacked anyone, — this
has always been the strongest, both defensive and
offensive, argument of the foreign policy of Soviet
Russia against the attack of imperialism.
Our foes have long ago become aware of the
fact that the Soviet power has too many friends
among those who still form the majority of these
foes. They have long ago come to the conclusion
that on this account an open struggle against
Soviet Russia aiming at her destruction is abso-
lutely impossible. Hence the imperialists have
always screened their desire to crush the prole-
tarian revolution with hypocritical and false rea-
sons, alleging that it was necessary to defend the
interests of the small nations against Russia. Not
so long ago imperialist Europe, with these slogans,
succeeded in organizing the bands of Yudenich
and of the Esthonian White Guards for a cam-
paign against Petrograd, if not with actual aid,
at least with the passive consent and sympathy of
the democratic masses and small nations. And it
is not wihout reason that even strongly aggres-
sive Poland until recently included in her imperi-
alist peace program the demand that "Russia re-
cognize the independence of the border states."
To this program of falsehood and calumny
Soviet Russia opposed her honest program of peace
based on the recognition of the right of all peo-
ples to free self-determination.
And while the Entente, proclaiming itself the de-
fender of small nations, actually violated one small
nation after another;* while the League of Nations,
which was created to serve as a strong drug for
weak minds, was ever more revealed as a mere
dummy, Russia, persistently unfolding her peace
offensive, has been winning over one of her former
foes after another. And when, only about a year
after the farce of Prince's Islands, England made
a new offer to act as mediator between Russia and
the border states, in the interests of peace in
Eastern Europe, Russia was already in a position
to give the proud reply that she did not need the
hypocritical mediation of England, for, without
this mediation, and despite the intrigues of the
Entente, she had already concluded peace with al-
most all her small neighbors, and those who have
not come to reason she is ready to bring to rea-
son by force of arms, in order to conclude peace
with them on the same basis of self-determination
of peoples.
After Esthonia — Georgia, after Georgia — Lithu-
ania, after Lithuania — Latvia, then Finland and,
lastly, Poland, which if not yet quite reasonable
is gradually turning to a more sensible policy.
All the nations that surround Russia are becoming
convinced that unlike the Entente, which pro-
fesses to be concerned about their interests and
about defending their rights but which actually
plunders them, Soviet Russia alone of all the pow-
ers* actually defends their rights and interests, ac-
ually gives them what is their just due.
The Entente has lost the title of defender of
the rights of oppressed peoples, and it has been
won by Soviet Russia. The small oppressed na-
tions have discovered the fraud of the Entente and
have broken away, turning their eyes toward Rus-
sia as the oppressed classes have done long ago.
The yarn of Soviet imperialism and Russian
aggression has come to an end ; no one believes it
any longer, no one therefore believes that any
-defense is needed against Russia. The dullest
minds in Europe already clearly understand that
the attack on Russia is not for the purpose of de-
fense, that it is the work of hangmen. And demo-
cratic Europe does not want to act this part any
longer. Even bourgeois democracy, partly per-
haps because it no longer believes that it is pos-
sible to conquer Soviet Russia, refuses to aid any
effort directed against Russia. Aggressive imperi-
alism remains without allies.
The struggle is not over, and bloody battles are
still ahead. But the peace policy of Soviet Russia,
in conjunction with the successes of the Red Army,
will secure her final victory. — Pravda, Petrograd,
August 22, 1920.
Volume Two
Volume II of Soviet Russia (January
to June, 1920) has been sent out to all
who have ordered it. A few of the bound
volumes (cloth, stamped in gold) may
still be obtained if ordered at once.
Price Five Dollars, payment in advance
ADDRESS
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 W. 40th St. New York, N. Y.
i
by tjOOQle
-- 1 I •_! 1 1 I >.1 1 II"
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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Documents
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ANGLO-RUSSIAN NOTES
We print below the full text of the Note addressed
to Chicherin by Lord Curson, dated October 1, and the
reply made by M. Krassin on behalf of the Soviet
Government. ,,
I
Note addressed to Chicherin by Lord Curson, October
1, 1920.
In their Note of July 1 His Majesty's Government
laid down certain conditions on which they were pre-
pared to resume trade relations between Great Britain
and Russia. These conditions were accepted by the
Soviet Government in Monsieur Chicherin's telegram
of July 7, and it was on these conditions that Messieurs
Kamenev and Krassin were admitted to this counffy
and negotiations were resumed. At their meeting with
the Prime Minister on August 4 they made it clear that
they were fully aware of this.
By these conditions the Soviet Government undertook
both for itself and on behalf of its delegates :
a. To refrain from hostile actions and propaganda,
direct or indirect, against the institutions of this coun-
try.
b. To refrain from any attempt, by military action or
by propaganda, to encourage the peoples of Asia in
any form of action hostile to British interests or the
British Empire.
c. To permit all British subjects in Russia to return
home immediately, Russian subjects in Great Britain or
other parts of the British Empire who desire to return
to Russia being similarly released.
These conditions have been and are being flagrantly
violated. Monsieur Kamenev engaged in almost open
propaganda, and attempted to subsidize a campaign in
England against the British Constitution and British
institutions and for these reasons he could not have
been permitted to re-enter this country.
The message which the Prime Minister handed to
Monsieur Kamenev when he left London, and in which
the question was directly asked of the Soviet Govern-
ment whether it did or did not intend to desist from
propaganda, has received neither acknowledgment nor
reply.
The recent meeting at Moscow of the Third Inter-
nationale, which was presided over by Monsieur Lenin,
and attended by the members of the Soviet Govern*
nient, openly proclaimed that the intention of the Com-
munist Party, and therefore of the Soviet Government,
is to use every means to overthrow existing institutions
throughout the world.
In the wireless messages to the world, the Soviet
Government, through its individual members and
through its press, has never ceased to preach hostility
to Great Britain and the British Empire. The Soviet
Government recently convened a revolutionary confer-
ence of Asiatic peoples at Baku, avowedly aimed at
British interests. Its actions in the Caucasus, in Persia,
in Central Asia, and in Afghanistan, openly diiected
against Great Britain, are well known to the British
Government. Above all, in spite of long-continued ne-
gotiations and of a sincere and steadfast desire on the
part of the British Government to carry out the condi-
tions with regard to the mutual repatriation of nation-
als, British subjects continue to languish in Russian
gaols, or are refused permission to leave the country.
The persistent violation of these conditions can no
longer be permitted. The negotiations for a trading
agreement with M. Krassin to which His Majesty's
Government looked forward, as the first step, not mere-
ly towards the revival of material prosperity in Eastern
Europe, but towards the restoration of peace have
reached a point at which it is necessary to decide defi-
natery whether the conditions under which alone they
have been authorized are being, and will continue to
be, fulfilled, or whether the negotiations must be aban-
doned on the very threshold of success.
The answer to this question rests with the Soviet
Government. It is impossible for His Majesty's Gov-
ernment to carry the agreement to its final stage so
long as the three conditions of their Note of July 1
remain unfulfilled.
The Soviet Government must carry out its own un-
dertaking to desist from hostile propaganda and action
in this country and in the East. Every British subject
now detained in Russia, some of them in circumstances
of inexcusable hardship and suffering, must be per-
mitted to return to this country without further delay.
His Majest/s Government cannot acquiesce in the con-
tinued violation of a solemn undertaking involving grave
injury to British subjects.
The negotiations for a full exchange of prisoners,
whether naval, military, or civilian, between Russia and
Great Britain have now been proceeding with little or
no intermission since November of last year.
His Majest/s Government have throughout been
ready to repatriate all Russians without distention and
without exception. It was M. Litvinov who insisted
on excluding from the exchange persons whom he de-
clined to designate, but who were vaguely described
as grave offenders, although the nature of their alleged
offence has in no case been proved.
For a time, under the arrangement concluded between
M. Litvinov and Mr. O'Grady, the work of repatriation
proceeded, and by the end of June of this year 124
British prisoners of war and 727 British civilians had
arrived in England, and all the Russian prisoners of
war actually in this country, as well as in Switzerland
(for the area of operation had been extended), had
been returned. Since that date a series of obstacles
)has been placed by the Soviet authorities in the way
of complete repatriation. The majority of the members
of the British Military Mission to the number, it is
believed, of fifteen, who were captured in Siberia as
long ago as December and January, still remain in
confinement in Russian territory.
Adequate steps to make known to British subjects
the fact that they were at liberty to leave Russia were
not taken by the Soviet Government. No announce-
ment on the subject was published locally in Russia,
in spite of a positive statement by M. litvinov that
the widest possible publicity had been given to the fact
by all local Soviets. When M. Kamenev left London
on September 11 there were still in Russia, apart from
the Siberian Military Mission already mentioned, a
considerable number of British civilians, inquiries re-
garding eighty-one of whom had been received by me,
and a list of whom was handed to M. Kamenev. I
have since received further inquiries.
A third and even more painful case is that of the
British subjects, about seventy-two in number, who were
seized and thrown into prison by the Soviet authorities
at Baku, when the Bolshevik revolution took place in
that town. They included the British Consular repre-
sentative at Baku.
Our repeated endeavors to communicate with Baku
direct proved fruitless. Monsieur Litvinov then offered
to transmit a message to the Azerbaijan Government,
and to use the good offices of the Soviet Government
of Moscow to obtain the release of these unfortunate
and innocent persons, who were reported to us as re-
ceiving treatment of the most cruel description.
A message was in fact sent, but the only response has
been a proposal to exchange the British subjects for
a number 6f Turks at Malta, who had been convicted
of attempting to overthrow the Government of Turkey,
or of having committed atrocities against the non-Mos-
lem population of that country.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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We have ample evidence to show that the Baku revo-
lution was brought about in consultation with your
Government, and mainly through the instrumentality of
your troops. The continuance of your responsibility is
demonstrated by a telegraphic message received as re-
cently as September 28 from the Georgian Consul at
Baku to the effect that though he had obtained per-
mission from the Azerbaijan Soviet a fortnight earlier
for the release of the British naval and military pris-
oners below the rank of officer, this order has been
vetoed at Moscow.
Meanwhile, there remain in British hands in different
parts of the British Empire— the great bulk having
already been repatriated — a very limited number of
Russian subjects, of whom, whether they have or have
not been guilty of offences against the law of the coun-
try, we desire to be rid. In this country there remain
M. Babushkin and his companions, five in number, who
have been detained here on their repatriation from In-
dia solely as a means of inducing the Soviet Govern-
ment to proceed to the fulfilment of their undertaking.
His Majesty's Government has gone further than ne-
gotiate about individual groups or cases. On Septem-
ber 6, I telegraphed a proposal that we should agree
upon a common date and places for the simultaneous
delivery of all our respective nationals, wherever they
might be detained. I have received no reply to this
message. This conditions of affairs cannot be permitted
to continue.
The negotiations for the actual release of prisoners
cannot any longer be suspended or retarded by artificial
and heartless delays. Still more, it is impossible for
His Majesty's Government to append their signature to
a trade agreement with a government that thus treats
not only its undertakings, but the subjects of a country
with which its representatives are at the time engaged
in friendly negotiations.
We have given an undertaking, to which we have
scrupulously adhered, that we shall not assist in any
hostile action against the Soviet Government, but, unless
by October 10 we have definite evidence that the con-
ditions laid down as to the release of British prisoners
are being complied with, we shall take whatever action
we consider necessary to secure their release.
II
Note by Krassin dated October 6, in reply to Lord
Curzon,
Mr. Krassin presents his compliments to the Right
Honorable D. Lloyd George, and with reference to Lord
Curzon's Note of October 1, begs to make the following
statement, at the request of the Russian Government.
A conference of June 29, between the Russian Dele-
gation and the Prime Minister, preceded the handing
to the Delegation of the Note of June 30 from the
British Government. At this conference the Prime
Minister laid down, on behalf of the British Govern-
ment, the conditions which were afterwards incorpor-
ated in the Note of June 30.
The Prime Minister, after having stated the above
conditions, declared during the said conference that,
should the Russian Government accept the conditions
put forward by the British Government, and should an
affirmative reply from the Russian Government be re-
ceived at Spa by the Prime Minister not later than
July 9, the Prime Minister would make a declaration
at Spa to the effect that England would resume trade
relations with Soviet Russia irrespective of the posi-
tion taken up by other Allies and particularly by France,
in connection with this matter. Further, the Prime
Minister declared that a favorable reply from the Rus-
sian Government would create conditions equivalent to
a truce, and that the British Government would be ready
to enter immediately into political negotiations leading
to the conclusion of a general peace.
The Russian Government, upon receipt of the Note of
the British Government of June 30, decided to accept
all the conditions stated in the above Note, and on
July 7 cabled its decision to the British Government
Thus the reply of the Russian Government, agreeing
to the conditions put forward by the British Prime
Minister, was given before the stipulated date, and the
Delegation appointed by the Soviet Government for this
purpose assumed that immediately upon its arrival in
England the promised resumption of trade negotiations
between Russia and Great Britain would commence*
From the moment of the presentation of this Note of
June 30 to the moment of the receipt of the Note of
October 1 from Lord Curzon, the British Government
has not once reverted in its negotiations with the Soviet
Delegation, or in its telegraphic communications with
the Russian Government, to the conditions formulated
by the British Government itself in the Note of June
30, and to the consequences which were to follow the
acceptance of those conditions by the Russian Govern-
ment.
The actual policy of the British Government towards
Soviet Russia, after the presentation of the Note of
June 30, has been in direct contradiction to the condi-
tions formulated in the above British Note and ac-
cepted without modification by the Russian Government
for the conditions set out in that Note provided for
mutual undertakings and entailed, from the moment
of their coming into effect, obligations upon the British
Government as well as upon the Russian Government
In spite of the mutual undertakings which the two
countries had agreed to give, that they would not par-
ticipate in any hostile actions against each other, and
that they would not support any hostile actions directed
against one of the parties, the British Government has,
since the beginning of July, taken part in the most ener-
getic diplomatic campaign in support of Poland, which
had attacked and remained at war with Soviet Russia.
The British Government, while coordinating the diplo-
matic assistance to Poland, at war with Russia, with
direct military assistance given at the same time by
the ally of England, France, also used all its influence,
and even threatened to employ armed forces, in order
to secure the use of the neutral port of Danzig for
the transmission to Poland of ammunition and military
equipment This was against the decision of the High
Commissioner of Danzig, who had prohibited the trans-
port through the port of arms for either of the belli-
gerents.
In its diplomatic support of one of the belligerent
parties, i.e., Poland versus Soviet Russia, the British
Government went so far as to threaten Soviet Russia
with war, and mobilized the Baltic Fleet.
Although the British Government has taken no official
part in the recognition by France of the Czarist General
Wrangel, who is carrying on a civil war against the
working and peasant classes of Russia, the Russian
Government, nevertheless, has information showing
that General Wrangel, who had previously been abun-
dantly furnished with English ammunition and military
equipment, has also, during these last months, received
direct assistance from England in the shape of ammu-
nition and materials of war, and that General Wrangel
was given an official reception on a flagship of thd
British Fleet in the Black Sea, while his representa-
tives have been given facilities to purchase and send
from England all kinds of military supplies, and have
also been permitted to use financial resources left in
England by the Czarist Government.
As regards the clause dealing with repatriation, it
has to be pointed out that a number of Russian subjects
detained by the British authorities in Egypt, Persia,'
Constantinople, Batum, and other places, and who de-
sire to return to Soviet Russia, have not yet received
the necessary permit from the British authorities. It
must be pointed out also that some of these prisoners
— f or example, those held at Kantara in Egypt — are- be-
ing treated in a manner that calls for the strongest
protest
Finally, the questions relating to the resumption of
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trade' relations between Russia and Great Britain, the
raising of the blockade, the sweeping of mines, the or-
ganization of trade agencies — points outlined in the
Note of June 30— have not received favorable consider-
ation from the British Government, and are still in the
same position as 1 they were four months ago, at the
Very beginning of the negotiations.
. .In view of all these facts, the' Russian Government
is . led . tP assume that the agreement resulting*? from
the affirmative reply given by the Russian Government
tp the British Note of June 30 cannot be considered as
.being in force up to the present, in view of the fact
that its fundamental conditions have been disregarded
by the British Government.
Nevertheless, the Russian Government, actuated by
the firm conviction that the interests of the working
masses of Russia and of Great Britain demand the im-
mediate resumption of economic and trade relations
and the conclusion of economic peace between both
countries, is ready to give, at any moment, proof of its
sincere desire to arrive at a speedy agreement, and to
take all the necessary steps to hasten such agreement
The Russian Government is prepared to return with-
out exception all British war and civil prisoners who
are still in Soviet Russia (including convicts and also
those who have been taken in Siberia and temporarily
detained in connection with the arrest of Mr. Babushkin
and others by the British Government), on condition
that the British Government will permit the immediate
return to Soviet Russia of Mr. Babushkin and his
friends, who are in London, and also of Russian citi-
zens recently arrested in Constantinople and at Batum,
and of all other Russian citizens in Great Britain or
any other territory under the protectorate or de facto
control of the British Government, who are desirous of
returning to Soviet Russia.
The Russian Government and the British Government
mutually undertake to bring to the notice of the general
public the fact that, commencing from a certain date,
say October 15, 1920, all the Russians deprived of liberty
or detained in the territories of Great Britain, herv
colonies and her protectorates, and all the Englishmen
in the territory of Soviet Russia are proclaimed free
and, with the consent of the respective governments,
may be repatriated at specially fixed dates and through
certain frontier points. The arrangement of the place
and time of the exchange of the various groups and of
other details has been entrusted by the Russian Govern-
ment to Mr. Litvinov.
Should the British Government agree with the above
proposition, it will be necessary for it to take all the ^
requisite steps in order to secure for Mr. Litvinov, by
negotiation with the Norwegian and Danish Govern-
ments, the right to prolong his stay in one of those
countries for the purpose of reaching a final settlement
of the question.
The Russian Government, desirous of meeting the
wishes of the Government of Great Britain as far as
possible, is prepared to render assistance in the matter
of the Englishmen detained at Baku, although the set-
tlement of this question presents great difficulties in
view of the fact that this is a matter which must be
decided by the Azerbaijan Government.
The Russian Government, being unable to impose
any instructions upon the Government of Azerbaijan,
can only offer its friendly offices in this matter. It has
a,rc ady entered into negotiations with the Government
of Azerbaijan on this subject, and begs to submit the
following suggestion :
The Government of Baku will send to Tiflis a special
delegate authorized to conduct negotiations for the re-
lease of these prisoners. It is proposed that the British
Government on its part shall also send to Tiflis a duly
authorized representative of its own or shall authorize
some person in Tiflis to conduct the negotiations. The
Russian Government, on its part, will delegate to Tiflis
a special representative, or will authorize the represen-
tee .of .the Russian Republic there to give every as-
sistance in the negotiations, and the Russian Govern-
ment has reasons to believe that these negotiations in
Tiflis would lead to a speedy solution of the question
of the detention of Englishmen in Azerbaijan, and that
this solution would be one satisfactory to the British
Government
In answering Lord Curzon's statement that the Rus-
sian Government vetoed the release of British prisoners
in Baku, the Russian Government categorically assures
the British, Government that it has been misinformed
and misled on this matter, as the Russian Government
has never vetoed the release of British prisoners in
Baku.
The Russian Government declares to the British Gov-
ernment that it is ready, as previously, to accept in full
the agreement outlined in the Note of the British
Government of June 30, to confirm the assurance given
by it in its Note of July 7, and to carry out all the
clauses of the above agreement
This undertaking is, of course, given upon the under-
standing, and upon condition, that the British Govern-
ment, as the other party to a mutual agreement, will
carry out all its obligations under that agreement ; that
the agreement will be regarded as a whole, of which the
clauses are inseparable and mutually dependent; that
there will be no attempt to demand that certain clauses
(regarded by one party as particularly advantageous at
a given moment) shall be punctually fulfilled, while
the fulfillment of others is evaded or indefinitely post-
poned.
In conclusion, the Russian Government would be glad
to be informed as to when the British Government
would be prepared to renew trade negotiations.
RUSSIAN NOTE TO POLAND
The following is the text of the Russian Note to
Poland, read by Yoffe on September 24 to the Polish
Delegation at Rigki:
The war between Poland and Russia is still going on
— a war caused by an attack against Russia and the
Ukraine just at a moment when the working class- in
Russia had begun the demobilization of its armies and
devoted all its energies to peaceful creative labor.
This war, encouraged as it is by the Entente in its
imperialist interests, threatens an arduous winter cam-
paign, ruinous, sanguinary, and unprecedently cruel, and
its continuation can only be desired by the imperialists
of the Entente, who are calculating upon the further
exhaustion of the life forces of both Poland and Russia.
Should a winter campaign take place, it will involve
such suffering for the masses of the people that the
Russian Soviet Government and the All-Russian Cen-
tral Executive Committee, the supreme legislative organ
of the Republic, deem it their duty to take all steps,
and even to make heavy sacrifices, in order to attain
peace, to put an end to the bloodshed and to stave off
a winter campaign, equally trying for both parties.
In the opinion of the All-Russian Central Executive
Committee the basis on which a desirable agreement
could best be reached in the shortest possible time ought
to be the carrying out of the principle of self-determina-
tion for all those territories the frontiers of which have
been disputed during the war.
Starting from the full recognition of the principle
of self-determination, the Russian Socialist Federative
Soviet Republic recognized as far back as 1917, and
stfll recognizes absolutely without any reservations, the
independence and sovereignty of the Polish Republic,
and recognized in 1918 the independence and sover-
eignty of the Ukraine and White Russia, while in 1920
it signed a peace treaty with the independent and sov-
ereign Lithuanian Republic
In continuation of the same policy the All-Russian
Central Executive Committee is of the opinion that:
1. The immediate solemn confirmation, both by Pol-
and and Russia, of ths independence of the Ukraine,
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Lithuania, and White Russia, as well as recognition
of the independence of Eastern Galicia, ought to be
made the basis of peace ; (2) that both Poland and Rus-
sia must immediately and officially recognize as the
particular form of expression of the will of the re-
spective nationalities those representative state institu-
tions, such as diets, congresses, or Soviets and parlia-
ment, which exist in those countries.
On its part the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet
Republic is prepared, in view of the fact that the Soviet
regime has not yet been established in Eastern Galicia,
to accept a plebiscite there not on the Soviet principle
— that is, by a vote of those who work — but on the
bourgeois democratic principle.
The All-Russian Central Executive Committee, how-
ever, cannot ignore the fact that the standpoint of
certain leading Polish groups, political parties, and
statesmen, radically differs on questions of self-determ-
ination from that of the Russian Socialist Federative
Soviet Republic
If the Polish delegation at Riga were to place itself
on the standpoint of these parties, groups, and individu-
als, who, in the face of obvious and incontrovertible
facts, deny the self-determination of the Ukraine and
White Russia which took place in 1918, it would make
an agreement on the basis of self-determination impos-
sible, and render all discussions about the methods of
self-determination futile and even mischievous, since
they would only serve to camouflage a policy which
does not really want any peace, and is only aiming,
in the guise of peace, at the annexation of foreign
territories.
Hence, being anxious to prevent all ambiguities and
all delays on the most momentous question for the
laboring masses — that is, the question of a winter cam-
paign — the All-Russian Central Executive Committee
instructs hereby its peace delegation to offer to the
peace delegation of the Polish Republic, if an im-
mediate agreement on self-determination is not pos-
sible, at once to conclude on the following basis an
agreement on fundamentals, deferring these contro- -
versial questions and divergencies in the interpretation
of general principles, by way of which an early attain-
ment of peace would be impossible.
These are the fundamentals of an agreement:
1. Taking note of the declaration of the Polish dele-
gation rejecting the original terms of the Russo-
Ukrainian delegation concerning the reduction of the
Polish Army, demobilization of its war industries, the
surrender of its arms, and the transfer of the com-
plete ownership of the railway line Volkovysk-Grajevo %
to the Russian Republic, the Russian Republic renounces
these terms and expresses its readiness to make a pro-
posal in the same sense to the Allied Ukrainian Re-
public.
2. The Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic
is prepared immediately to sign an armistice and pre-
liminaries of peace on the basis of the recognition of
a frontier line between Poland and Russia, passing
considerably more to the east than that fixed by the
Supreme Allied Council on December 3, 1919, so that
Eastern Galicia might remain to the west of the line.
3. The Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic
believes it necessary to attain, in the speediest manner
possible, peace, and to deliver the Russian, Polish,
White Russian, and Ukrainian laboring masses from
the trials of a new winter campaign.
The rejection by Poland of this offer would mean
that Poland has resolved — probably under the pressure
of the imperialists of France and of other Entente
Powers — on a winter campaign.
Hence the All-Russian Central Executive Committee
is obliged to announce that the said offer is only valid
for the space of ten days, and that if the preliminaries
of peace are not signed by the time this term expires,
that is by October 5, 1920, the Council of People's
Commissaries will have the right to alter its terms.
In making such sacrifices for the sake of peace, Soviet
Russia does so in the consciousness of its right, and
of the inexhaustible strength of the Russian *nd
Ukrainian laboring masses, who are prepared to stand
up resolutely for the defense of the two Soviet repub-
lics . ^iould the Polish Government decide to assume
the responsibility, in the face of the whole world, for
the continuation of the war and for further bloodshed.
It is for this reason that the All-Russian Central
Executive Committee is convinced that the failure to
reply satisfactorily, within the above-mentioned period,
will practically decide the question of a winter cam-
paign.
(Signed) Kalinin, President.
Yenukidze, Secretary of All-Russian
Central Executive Committee.
MOBOLIZATION IN RUSSIA
Petroobad, August 31. — During the last mobi-
lization 2,508 Communists, the most responsible
Soviet workers of Petrograd, have been sent to the
Western front.
Moscow, September 1. — The Council of Peo-
ple's Commissars of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic
decided to carry through the mobilization in the
speediest possible manner, and to send the neces-
sary reinforcements to the Wrangel front by Sep-
tember 10.
Moscow, August 31. — It has been wired from
Armavir that the Congress of the Free Caucasian
Nationalities at Tekaterinodar has resolved ac-
tively to aid the Soviet power in its struggle
against Wrangel, and to defend the Kuban coast.
Anniversary Number
THE NEXT ISSUE
of
Soviet Russia
will commemorate the Third Anniversary of
the Bolshevik Revolution of November 7, 1917.
This special illustrated forty-page issue will
contain a number of interesting articles deal-
ing with the international and internal affairs
of Russia during the three years of Soviet
rule. Special attention will be given to mili-
tary accomplishments, political events and
development in various economic fields in
Soviet Russia during the last year. This is-
sue will also contain biographical sketches
with portraits of well-known Russian com-
rades who have led the workers' and peasants'
government in its struggle for existence.
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50
per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make
all checks payable to L. C. A. K. Martens.)
Ten Cents at all News Stands
SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVED BY
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 W. 40th Street New York Gty
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In Cammemoratfon of thy Third Anniversary
•f the Russian Revolution a/ November 1917
Special Illustrated Issue
SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, November 6, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 19
listed Weekly at J 10 W, 40th Street, Ne
S"b^ptipa 'Jull $5 WvtJnu^ ISlSl^ ^ Y ' J?**'* C > ,* MartM *' PubHihcr < ^ h WUtni " Hwtn-nn. Editor,
pescripuon sate, *5.Q0 per annum. Application for entry as second das* matter pending, Changei of addre» ■hould reach the
oftce a week before the changes are to be made.
the
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PACE
The Third Year of the New Era . , . 441
Military Review, by LL-CoL B* Roustam Bek 446
Map Showing Military Situation ok October
25, 1920 449
Moscow in 1920, by Dr. Alfons Goldschmidt
{Sixth Instalment) . 453
Editorials . . * 456
John Reed , 457
The Railway Situation in Soviet Russia 458
Railways in European Russia (Map) 461
Railways in Siberia (Map) . 46J
Notes on Russia, by William Hersog* . . \ " , ! 465
The Intrigues of the Officials of the
Cooperatives , , , . 467
Wireless and Other News . . , . ....... 469
Books Reviewed, by A. C, Freeman . . . 471
The Third Year of the New Era
T T WAS oar privilege to point out in the article
devoted one year ago to the purpose of com-
memorating the second anniversary of the estab-
lishment of the Soviet Republic, that while the
Paris Commune, the last proletarian dictatorship
set up in Europe before the end of the nineteenth
century, had succeeded in lasting only seventy-one
days, the Soviet Government in Russia, the first
proletarian dictatorship established in the twen-
tieth century, had already endured for more than
seven hundred days, or ten limes as long as its
Paris predecessor. Now, a year later, there aTe
many millions living in Russia who have risen over
a thousand times in the morning and retired over
a thousand times at night,— all finding the same
government in force at each successive rising, and
entrusting their safety to its watchful care when
they have gone to sleep.
Now, as then, the voices predicting a speedy
and disastrous termination of the Soviet Govern-
ment are loudly shouting forth their message of
joy to the oppressors. The interval of life they
grant to the government of the people of Soviet
Russia has grown longer ; there are no longer any
predictions limiting its existence to a few weeks:
months and even a year are the periods now com-
monly met with in the bourgeois press to indicate
the "probable" duration of the present government
of Russia. The most popular period among these
croakers of evil, as we have already mentioned in
these columns, is six months, and the fact that al-
ready six of these six-months periods have fol-
lowed one upon the other does not give the pro-
phets pause, and no doubt many "generations" of
such six-months and one-year prophets will suc-
ceed each other before the prognosticaton.
rs of the
bourgeois press begin to deal in decades rather
than in years or fractions of a year.
It is our belief that the Soviet Government in
Russia will last for many years— but, like those
who predict a much shorter span of life for us,
we are not without prejudice in the matter. Chris-
tianity, in its outward expressions at least, has
lasted nearly two thousand years, and Christianity
does not take its origin in social changes so pro-
found as those which forced the people of
Soviet Russia to try the Soviet form of govern-
ment, after all other forms had failed. The new
era may live as long as Christianity has lived, or
it may live longer. We see no reason why anyone
should hope that it should not last so long, unless
he be one of the exploiters who is interested in
preventing the exploited from freeing themselves,
and of these exploiters, we regret to say, there is
still a sufficient number who continue actively to
support counter-revolution on the Russian border
and armed intervention in Ukraine. Long life to
the Russian Soviet Republic, which will dispose
of all its counter-revolutionary foes !
* * *
gUT NOW for the past. Since November 6,
1919, the Soviet Government has had a more
favorable year, from the military standpoint, than
either of the two preceding years of its existence*
The second anniversary of the founding of the
Soviet Republic came immediately after the final
repulse of Yudenich in his mad dash on Petrograd,
and already the retreat of the Kolchak armies in
Siberia had progressed so far East ae Omsk. Deni-
kin was also being pushed back after having ad-
vanced as far north %t\ Orel, Issb than two hun-
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drcJ miles to the south of Moscow. Before the
Spring of 1920, Kolchak had been finally defeated,
8nd, before the Soviet Government had time to
intervene, was executed with two of his important
accomplices at Irkutsk (February 7, 1920). Deni-
kin was soon driven off the map, reappearing in
London, that former home of the disaffected of
other nations, and coming out with the declaration
that it was his intention to rest and absent him-
. self from military affairs for a long time. In
April and May of this year came the news of the
offensive that Poland, aided and abetted by great
supplies of money and munitions from the Allied
powers, was launching against Soviet Russia. The
wonderful and spectacular dash of a determined
army of Russian proletarians, which drove its way
up to the gates of Warsaw and flung its lines
around the city to the North and West, was Soviet
Russia's answer. The great advance was not suc-
cessfully pursued, however, and a new Polish of-
fensive, prominently aided by great bodies of col-
ored French colonial troops, hastily withdrawn
from garrison and police duty in Germany, again
threatened to penetrate Soviet Russian territory.
But once more Soviet Russia's Red Army is ready,
and if Polish troops again venture to cross into
her territory, they will encounter the strong re-
sistance of a reorganized and well-supplied army,
supported by the most determined civil population
in the world. But of these matters we shall read
the words of the Military Expert of the Russian
Soviet Government Bureau, Lt.-Col. B. Roustam
Bek, to whose article on the strategy of the three
years of the military history of the Soviet Repub-
lic, which appears in this issue,~the reader is re-
ferred.
* ♦ *
WHEN SOVIET RUSSIA celebrated the sec-
™ ond anniversary of its birth, one year ago, it
was st|ll uncertain whether any nations would go
so far, in view of the savage prejudices of the gov-
erning classes against any government established
anywhere by the workers and peasants, as to enter
into commercial or diplomatic relations with the
new nation. Soviet representatives had been ex-
pelled from several countries (England, Sweden,
Switzerland, Germany, Austria), and their suc-
cessors, appointed to replace the unwelcome har-
bingers of the new system, were in several cases
put into jail (Karl Radek in Germany, Peter Si-
raonov in Australia). But during the past year
Soviet Russia's military successes, coupled with
the misery induced in the Russian border-states
by the Entente policy of forcing those states into
warfare against Soviet Russia, has resulted in a
more general readiness to consider proposals made
by Soviet Russia, and the consequence has been
a rather impressive series of agreements and trea-
ties signed between Soviet Russia and a succession
of foreign governments, compacts which have for
the most pari been either carried out, or seem to
be still in course of satisfactory accomplishment.
The second of these agreements was the paper
signed, after months of negotiations at Copen-
Digilizedby^OOgK
hagen, between Litrinov, for the Soviet Govern-
ment, and O'Grady, for Great Britain, on the sut>-
ject of the mutual exchange of prisoners between
the two countries. This treaty, which was re-
printed in full in Soviet Russia, with a facsimile
cut of its title page (Vol. 11,^0. 16), was signed
February 12, 1920, and represented a tremendous
step in advance, in the formal diplomatic sense,
for it is an agreement in which, at least by impli-
cation, the two contracting parties recognize the
existence of each other. It has been impossible since
then for the British Government, however un-
friendly its attitude toward the Soviet Govern-
ment may be, to pretend that the Soviet Govern-
ment does not exist, or that the British Govern-
ment has never openly carried on negotiations
with the Soviet Government. A few days earlier
there had been signed the complete treaty of peace
between Soviet Russia and Esthonia (Dorpat, Es-
thonia, February 2, 1920 ; see Soviet Russia, Vol
II, No. 16), a document absolutely recognizing the
sovereignty of each of the two governments, and
providing for mutual repatriation of their respect-
ive nationals, for a definite boundary-line between
the two countries, for a payment of gold by Soviet
Russia to Esthonia, and for the later consumma-
tion of an agreement concerning the carrying out
of foreign trade between the two countries. The
relations with Esthonia, growing out of this treaty,
or, more correctly, of which this treaty was the
official promise and first realization, have been
mutually profitable. They made it possible for
Russia once more to draw certain advantages from
the existence in Esthonia of the port of Reval,
which had been of some value to Russia under
Czarism. For it is at Reval that the Centrosoyuz
has established an important purchasing agency,
under the able control of Mr. I. Gukovsky, which
forwards rather considerable quantities of manu-
factured products over the Esthonian railways in-
to Soviet Russia. This has been of value to Rus-
sia chiefly because of the facilities thus afforded
in the trade with Sweden, but the ultimate ad-
vantages of this open route will be far exceeded
when the new British train-ferry to Sweden (land-
ing in that country at Gothenburg) is completed
and linked up with the proposed new train-ferry
from Stockholm, Sweden, to Abo, Finland, botn
routes together providing a means for direct ship-
ment of loaded railway-cars from points in Eng-
land and Scotland to Petrograd. But of course,
the attitude of the British Government will have
to pass through very essential changes before the
possibilities of complete commercial exchanges be-
tween the two countries will be fully made use of.
To Esthonia also the advantages of open relations
with Soviet Russia, together with commercial ex-
changes, have been very great, and have involved,
aside from the large payment of gold by the Soviet
Government — which has been already referred to—
a considerable rehabilitation of the Esthonian rail-
way lines, made necessary by the new traffic with
Soviet Russia, and aided by important gifts of
locomotiTes end other rolling stock by the Soviet
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Government. It is to be hoped that during the
period of under-supply through which Soviet Rus-
sia is now passing, Esthonia may be able to pro-
vide, out of her own stores, large quantities of
potatoes. In the Baltic region generally, Esthonia
is frequently spoken of as the "potato republic",
because of her extensive production in this staple.
Other Baltic states have since made peace with
Soviet Russia, and the impelling motives for con-
cluding peace have been in each case the same as
with Esthonia. Our readers will recall how the
Allied agent Yudenich recruited all the man-power
of that little country, even boys of fifteen and
younger, how he made of it a mere supply-base
for cannon-fodder to be used against Soviet Rus-
sia. And of course, he could not have done this
but for the able and active assistance of the Bri-
tish Government, whose navy blockaded the Bal-
tic in his favor, whose finances paid for his sup-
plies and munitions, whose printers at Stockholm
were turning out from their speeding presses mil-
lions of rubles in notes — it was even rumored that
their parity was guaranteed by Great Britain —
of the new "Northwestern Russian Government-"
In spite of the pecuniary advantage involved for
certain classes in Esthonia in this relation with
Great Britain, the Esthonian people soon grew
tired of furnishing flesh and Bone to be ground
up in the hopeless war against the people of Soviet
Russia, who were determined to fight to the death
in the defense of the accomplishments of their
revolution. Great Britain got little assistance
from Esthonia after the failure of the last Yuden-
ich enterprise (the dash on Petrograd) in October,
1919. So, while there was money and death to
be earned in the service of the Allies against Soviet
Russia, the Esthonian people finally succeeded in
forcing their government to live at peace with
their Russian neighbors.
It is needless to repeat these details with regard
to the very parallel cases of Latvia, Lithuania, and
Finland. Latvia made peace with Soviet Russia
on June 13, and our readers were supplied with a
translated text of the treaty two weeks ago (Soviet
Russia, Vol. Ill, No. 17). Lithuania followed a
month later ( the treaty between Lithuania and
Soviet Russia was signed at Moscow, July 13) ;
we shall present our readers with a translation of
the treaty with Lithuania as soon as we have re-
vised it (from the Official Oazette of that country).
Finland, with whose government negotiations had
been in progress for many months, interrupted
by frequent disagreement between the delegations
of the two countries, signed peace less than two
months ago. We expect soon to receive a copy of
this treaty. Other treaties, concerning which we
are less fully informed, have been concluded with
the Republics of Georgia and Azerbaijan, practic-
ally making those countries allies of Soviet Russia.
Representatives of Soviet Russia have been as-
signed to a number of countries with whom treaties
of peace have not yet been concluded, and are still
living in those countries, representing the inter-
ests of Soviet Russia and protecting Soviet Rus-
Google
sian citizens abroad. These countries with com-
mercial missions or representations of Soviet Rus-
sia now are : Australia, Austria, Czecho- Slovakia,
Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Sweden,
Norway, and the United States of America.
The case of Lithuania is at this moment partic-
ularly interesting. Lithuania suffered terribly
under the German occupation, and has been the
theatre of extensive military operations since
then. Its population has been driven by Allied
misuse of the country for purposes of aggression
against Soviet Russia into a condition of recep-
tivity for the doctrine of proletarian dictatorship,
and, while confirmation is still lacking, it is not
impossible that last week's news of a Bolshevik
uprising in Kovno, with the establishment of a
Soviet form of government, may be a fact. Cer-
tainly the attitude of Poland's "insurgent" troops
under General Zeligowski, who have seized the
Lithuanian city of Vilna and refused to relinquish
it, has not had the effect of estranging the Lithu-
anian population from Soviet Russia.
* * *
"P OLAND has been the source of greatest trouble
A to Russia during the past year, or rather, not
Poland, but the Entente powers, notably France,
who were egging Poland on in her imperialistic
invasion of Russian territory. Whether we now
are really at peace with Poland or not, it is at
present difficult to say. Poland has signed a pre-
liminary peace agreement with Soviet Russia, but
it is by no means certain that she will not be again
driven by her masters to the West, into an invasion
of Soviet Russia. Whatever may be the outcome
of the relations with Poland, it should not be for-
gotten that Soviet Russia has made every effort
to remain at peace with Poland. On May 29,
Soviet Russia printed a collection of diplomatic
passages between the two governments, which was
far less complete, however, than an earlier official
compilation made at Moscow. Half a year ago,
the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs issued an
extensive pamphlet in French (and possibly also
in other languages), containing a full collection of
notes passing between various organs of the Soviet
Government and that of Poland. Some readers
may recall that The Nation (New York) recently
published some of this correspondence in its Inter-
national Relations Section. We shall in early
issues of our weekly take up the Polish question
in full. Lt.-Colonel Bek, our miltary expert, also
devotes 6ome attention to the Polish question in
his review of the military week, which appears in
this issue.
♦ * *
BESSARABIA, as we go to press, has been gen-
erously handed by the Allies to Rumania,
since the Allied Governments very well know that
Soviet Russia had already come to an understand-
ing with Rumania on the subject, under which
Rumania is to have sovereignty over Bessarabia.
Only for this reason has the reactionary Rumanian
Government refrained from taking part jointly
with Poland in the cornier -revolutionary attacks
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on Soviet Russia. This makes it very easy for the
Allies to detach from Soviet Russia what has been
already detached. But what of the professions that
Russia will be consulted? Not even the Russia
that the Allies desire to see formed would have
much to say on the matter, if the New York Times
Special Press cable of October 28 is correct :
"The high contracting powers will invite Russia to
adhere to the present treaty as soon as there will exist
a Russian Government recognized by them. They re-
serve the right to submit to the arbitrage of the Council
of the League of Nations all questions which may be
raised by Russia concerning details of the treaty." At
the same time it is specifically stated that the frontiers
settled and the sovereignty of Rumania will not be put
in question.
Russia, it appears, is not to have any word in giving
away her own territory even after a government is
formed which is recognized by the high contracting
powers.
* * *
O ELATIONS of the Soviet Government with
**■** the United States have unfortunately not
yet entered the 6tage of direct negotiations, al-
though the recently reported granting of conces-
sions by Moscow to an American syndicate headed
by Mr. Washington D. Vanderlip, of Holleywood,
California, seems to offer promise at least of com-
mercial exchanges. The past year has, we regret
to say, offered little other indication of an encour-
aging nature in this regard, and the repeated
suggestions in the press to the effect that the
United States Government would not recognize
any separate governments set up in territories once
comprising a portion of the area of the former
Empire of the Czars has seemed to indicate a de-
termination not to deal with any government in
Russia that would not undertake to weld into an
unwilling aggregate the numerous populations of
various races who have lately begun to avail them-
selves of the recently proclaimed "right of self-
determination/' Aside from personal discomforts
of individuals, however, the chances for friendly
relations with the United States seem better than
they have been for some time — certainly much bet-
ter than they were a trifle less than a year ago,
when Comrade Chicherin, People's Commissar for
Foreign Affairs, wrote the following paragraph as
a portion of his report on his activities during
the second year of the Soviet Republic, a report
submitted by him to the Seventh All-Russian Con-
gress of Soviets* (December, 1919) :
Relations With America
On June 20 we sent a protest to the American Gov-
ernment on account of the arrest of Comrade Martens,
the Russian representative in America, threatening re-
prisals on American citizens in Russia. The American
Government replied that Comrade Martens had not been
arrested. It appeared from supplementary information
that he had only been detained in custody for a few
hours, while a search was being carried on at the of-
fices of our mission at New York. This search was
the turning point in the attitude of the American Gov-
ernment towards our representative.** Up till then it
* This is not the report recently sold as one of the Soviet
Russia Pamphlets, although the materials of the documents
are similar. — Editor Soviet Russia.
** But this search was not conducted by authorities of the
United States Government. — Editor Soviet Russia.
byV*.
^
IC
had not interfered with his work, and he was actively
engaged in negotiating with the American commercial
world for an exchange of goods the moment the block-
ade was lifted. The search inflicted a heavy blow upon
this strictly business-like work of Comrade Martens;
the American Government added a warning that it
would lend no protection to the transactions between
American citizens and Soviet Russia. Our representa-
tive, however, in spite of the more difficult conditions,
continued his work in America, assisting at same time
those political workers who were agitating against in-
tervention in Russia.*** But as time proceeded, the re-
action in the United States raged more and more wildly,
and on November 20, on the strength of the British
wireless messages announcing the arrest of Comrade
Martens, the People's Commissar again sent a pro-
test to the American Government, threatening reprisals
and demanding the immediate release of Comrade Mar-
tens and a suitable indemnity, and the cessation of all
persecutions of Russian citizens loyal to the Soviet
regime, and suitable indemnities for those who had ac-
tually suffered through those persecutions.
It is hard to say, for us who live in America,
what is the present information of Mr. Chicherin
on the United States Government, but we hope
that he is not being misinformed by the British
wireless in the manner that called forth the pro-
test contained in the last sentence of the paragraph
above quoted. Needless to say, this protest was the
result of such false information. It is unfortunate
that there should be agencies at work in Europe
with the purpose of sowing discord between the
Soviet Government and that of the United States
of America, but such seems to be the case in view
of Comrade Chicherin's experiences with the Bri-
tish wireless.
♦ * *
f~\ FTEN during the past year we have printed
^■^ accounts from official Soviet Russian sources,
as well as by outsiders who had traveled in Soviet
Russia, describing internal conditions in that coun-
try. An article of this kind appears in the cur-
rent issue of Soviet Russia, dealing with the rail-
roads in an exhaustive and authoritative manner.
Transportation has much improved in Russia in
the third year of the Dictatorship of the Prole-
tariat, but still leaves much to be desired. The
recapture of Baku from the British, with the tak-
ing of Enzeli and the consequent restoration of the
Caspian Sea as a Russian lake, has made possible
the shipment of millions of poods of oil up the
Volga and over the contiguous waterways to every
part of the country, and has thus supplied the en-
tire South Russian railway system with oil; the lo-
comotive furnaces had already long previously been
reconstructed for the use of oil-fuel, and all the
locomotives in the southern part of Russia are
now operating with oil. We single out the trans-
portation conditions as worthy of special mention
for the reason that the problem of internal indus-
trial reconstruction in Russia has been and still
remains a problem of transportation. All Rus-
sia's industry is ready to move; the wheels will
turn as soon as raw materials are furnished for
machines and tools to work on, together with food
*** As a matter of fact, Comrade Martens only secured legal
counsel for such Russian citizens as were being prosecuted and
were unable to provide it for themselves. — Editor Soviet Russia.
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enough to keep the workers in a condition of health
and strength to work. There is no way of sup-
plying these things to the industries and to their
workers except by means of an efficient railway
or motor-truck service, and to restore the former
even to its pre-war efficiency requires the importa-
tion of many locomotives from foreign countries,
together with numerous duplicate parts and ma-
chine-tools necessary for effecting repairs of run-
down and damaged locomotives. Professor Lomo-
nossov, now a prominent member of the Commis-
sariat for Means of Communication (he was form-
erly head of the Eailway Department of the Rus-
sian Soviet Government Bureau in New York
City), recently visited a number of European
countries in order to make purchases of locomo-
tives for Russia's railroads. He succeeded in pur-
chasing one hundred locomotives in Sweden, which
by this time have probably been delivered to Soviet
Russia, and reported two months ago that much
larger purchases of locomotives in Germany were
being delayed only by the exorbitant prices asked
by the German manufacturers. It is possible that
these negotiations by this time have been termi-
nated and that the Soviet Government is now the
owner of several hundred German-built locomo-
tives. Of course, the Soviet Government is very an-
xious also to obtain American engines of this type,
but finds it impossible to get them, owing to the
fact that commercial intercourse between the
United States and Soviet Russia is not yet a fact.
The resources of Russia otherwise are the richest
in the world: permit Soviet Russia to build up her
transportation and carry food to the workers, and
she will soon be the best-organized and industrially
the most productive country in the world.
* * *
T> ITT UNTIL the problem of feeding the popu-
-*-* lation, and the even more basic problem of
transportation has been solved, it will be impossible
for Russia to resume a normal course of life. Pro-
fessor Lomonossov, for instance, in a recent inter-
view, in which he discusses the Russian railway
problem, declares that while it would be possible
for Russia, with the assistance given her by un-
impeded commercial intercourse with foreign coun-
tries, to reconstruct her railway system (to the
point of efficiency reached before 1914) by the
year 1925, this would not be possible before 1935
if commercial relations with foreign countries
should remain interrupted. In other words, there
would appear to be a problem more basic even
than that of transportaion, and that is the problem
of the Blockade. The capitalist nations of the
world, in their determination that the Republic of
the Workers and Peasants shall die, will not even
sell their wares to the workers and peasants for
heavy gold. And this Blockade condemns millions
to a half-fed and uncomfortable life, in which the
greatest exertions any generation of men and wom-
en has ever been called upon to put forth are sup-
ported by the poorest rations any nation of modern
times can supply to its population. The Blockade
also means that Russian workers and soldiers,
Digitized by V^OOgK
when sick or wounded, perish for lack of the ne-
cessary medical supplies, must suflEer operations
without anesthetics or antiseptics, and must permit
the progress of disease in their bodies to proceed
unresisted, with full knowledge that only a for-
tunate chance will save them from death should
they have acquired any infection. John Reed died
of typhus in Moscow two weeks ago, a disease which
(according to a report of the Peopled Commissar
of Health, printed recently in Soviet Russia)
had almost been overcome in Soviet Russia, in
spite of the tremendous obstacles in the path of
any sanitary improvements. It is the Blockade
which must be broken if men and women are to
live and work in Russia, and in many European
countries the populations have long been insisting
on a lifting of the Blockade against Russia.
♦ * *
AvfEDICALLY SPEAKING, the Blockade is
" -■■ in a sense being lifted. A number of public-
spirited physicians and laymen in this country
(similar movements are active in other countries
also, particularly in Scandinavia and Central Eu-
rope) organized a "Committee for Medical Relief
to Soviet Russia", which has collected money from
many available sources, for the purchase of medi-
caments and surgical instruments and supplies, to
be forwarded to Soviet Russia for the purpose of
ameliorating the lot of the diseased or wounded
in that country. This splendid work, although it
has been proceeding for only a few months, has
already resulted in the collection of about $35,000,
which has been expended for medical supplies that
have been or are to be forwarded to Soviet Russia.
Should it be possible for this work to expand, and
to forward still greater quantities of medical neces-
sities to Russia, it is very probable that American
visitors to Russia will no longer be under the
painful necessity of reporting to their fellow-
countrymen, when they return home, the dreadful
sight of a diseased limb being amputated with a
carpenter's saw, while the victim cries out in pain
which is unalleviated by anesthetics, or the dis-
charge of a patient from a hospital after his in-
fected eye had been gouged out by a rusty razor-
blade, because there were no suitable surgical in-
struments to be had for these operations. We
greet with pleasure the many men and women in
this country who are generously giving money for
this work of humanity, and wish them every suc-
cess in the prosecution and expansion of their
labors.
A number of interesting articles, includ-
ing biographies of those prominent in Soviet
Russia today, were omitted from this issue
due to lack of space. Biographies, accom-
panied by pictures, will be published weekly,
beginning in the next issue with Litvinov.
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November 6, 193d
Military Review
THREE YEARS OF THE RED ARMT
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustaic Bik
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T^HREE years of glorious fighting for the Revo-
■■■ lution have passed. Three years of super-hu-
man sacrifice on the part of the Russian working
class have just terminated, and still Soviet Russia
is ready to enter upon a new epoch of struggle,
high-spirited and fully equipped with decisive de-
termination to defend all the gains which the
Revolution won during the three sanguinary years.
The victory of the Revolution was gained by
the Red Army only because, by its structure, its
morale, and its methods of warefare it is absolutely
different from all other armies.
The secret of the extraordinary successes of the
Soviet Government can be explained by the fact
that the Red Army never was a so-called "people's
army", or a "national army". It was and is an
army of the working-class, fighting for the recon-
struction of the whole social system. Class criteria
were introduced in the Red Army, and in spite of
the cooperation of the former officers of the Czar,
it remained an army of the workers and peasants,
and can not give way to any reactionary trans-
formation. The experiences of the past three years
have proved that absolutely.
Soviet Russia has a regular army, — her enemies
also possess regular armies. Soviet Russia, in order
to create her army, mobilized the masses, so
did her enemies. The Red Army is chiefly com-
posed of peasants, while the armies of the Allies
and the Russian reactionary generals are also com-
posed of peasants. Thus it appears that the armies
of both sides are made up of similar elements.
Then wherein lies the difference between the Red
Army and the armies of its enemies which gave
the victory to the former ?
The Red Army of the workers and peasants is
led by workers, by the most class-conscious revolu-
tionary Communists, and there is a close connec-
tion between the men and their comrade-com-
manders. Quite the contrary can be said of our
enemies. Their armies are led by officers who are
most conscious representatives of bourgeois inter-
ests. Therefore, the progress of the struggle
unites and tempers the Red Army, while in the
capitalistic armies it results in disorganization and
collapse, a truth revealed during three years of
armed intervention and civil war in Russia.
Three years passed for Soviet Russia in unin-
terrupted fighting on several fronts. At one time
during 1919, there were in Soviet Russia thirteen
battle-fronts which I described in Vol. I, No. 13
of this weekly (August 30, 1919). As in a kalei-
doscope, one after another, the enemies of the
Russian proletariat appeared and vanished before
the Red Army. Kornilov, Krasnov, Dutov, the
Ozecho-Slovaks, the "people's army" of the sup-
porters of the Constituent Assembly, Kolchak,
Yudenich, Denikin, and the Allied invaders, all
were defeated. The Poles were weakened and
byLiGOgle
in exhaustion were forced to enter into peace ne-
gotiations with Moscow. The bourgeoisie of Fin-
land, Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Rumania
lost faith in their capitalistic supporters, and pre-
ferred peace with the Soviets to the useless san-
guinary struggle against the Russian proletariat
The former thirteen fronts are now reduced to
one, the Crimean front, where the last act of the
bloody drama is drawing to a close.
In this review I can give only an outline of
each front separately, basing my information most-
ly on official documents which have at last reached
here from Moscow. In many cases they confirm
statements previously made by me in Soviet Rus-
sia, with regard to the civil war in Russia; but
since the receipt of these important data from
Moscow, with real military maps, and long and
detailed descriptions of battles, I can now see
clearly what I could only guess at in the past.
The Northern Front
The Northern front deserves special attention.
There the reactionary forces, though a small part
was of Russian origin, were predominantly of a
purely foreign character.
This front grew out of British intervention
in Russian domestic affairs. It was Anglo-Frenek
strategy which organized and mobilized the
fighting forces on this front by sending Allied
troops there. It was after fruitless attempts
to force Russia to continue the war with Germany
for the benefit of the capitalistic coalition of the
West that the northern front attained its great
political importance. The representatives of the
Great Powers moved from Moscow to Vologda, and
started a diplomatic campaign against the Soviet
Government. After Comrade Radek*s mission to
Vologda the significance of the northern front be-
came grave from a strategical viewpoint also. The
representatives of the Allies left their headquar-
ters and moved to Archangel where they began,
openly, their hostile policy against the Soviets.
The strategical plan of the Allies was as fol-
lows: An uprising of the Czecho-Slovaks was to
begin along the Volga aiming its attack at the
political centers of Russia; while in the east a
permanent front had to be created, gradually mov-
ing its right flank towards the northern front i*
order to come into contact with Anglo-French
forces, which had already landed in Alexandrovak
on the Murmansk peninsula in the spring of 1918,
and had started their movement southward. The
general situation in Russia favored this plan of
campaign. In some provinces which separate
the northern part of Russia from the central part,
the agents of the capitalistic coalition succeeded in
raising against the Soviet Government a consider-
able part of the population, thus making it easy
for the invaders to accomplish their swift march
upon Moscow with the principal aim of overthrow-
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ing the Soviet Government. At first, the Allies
were very weak. There were no more than 8,000
men landed in Alexandrovsk and Archangel, but
after their troops had appeared at these points,
the reactionary element of the Eussian people
started to group themselves around the invaders,
thus increasing their fighting strength. About
August 1, the Allied Navy destroyed the battery
of Mudink Island, which protected the entrance
to the Northern Dvina, and approached Archangel,
landing an army corps from transports. The Bed
Guards did all they could to arrest the penetra-
tion of the invaders. The stations nearest to the
town, Isako-Gorka and Tundra, several times
passed from one side to the other, but finally the
Reds, outnumbered by the enemy, were forced to
retire.
A number of ships, captured by the invaders in
the Bay of Archangel, were quickly armed and
directed along the North Dvina. But in the mid-
dle of August, 1918, the enemy suffered a con-
siderable defeat, and was unable to continue his
movement further south until relief arrived, fresh
American contingents, with whose help the town
of Shenkursk was captured. The cold weather of
the north Eussian autumn was very unfavorable
to the invaders, and they could only move their
troops about one-quarter of the way between the
mouth of the Eiver Vaga and Kotlas. In the
direction of Onega,* the enemy concentrated his
forces south of the village of Sumskoye.
In November, the frost and deep snow almost
entirely paralyzed the activity of the enemy. The
initiative gradually drifted from the Allies, and
the Beds began to attack the invaders at several
points. In the middle of winter, the Soviet forces
concentrated to the south of Shenkursk, and by
means of a sudden and most vigorous attack, this
town was captured, and the rich reserves of ammu-
nition, arms, and food supplies brought here by
the Allies in the hope of establishing a base for
further operations in Shenkursk, fell into the
hands of the Bolsheviki.
Only in spring did the enemy begin an offensive
again, between Lakes Vygo and Sego, when they
succeeded in capturing the town of Povenetz.
This movement was provoked by the Finns,
whose bands raided Olonetz, and the British com-
mand intended to support the raiders. But as
usual the Allies came to the aid of the Finns too
late. The latter were completely defeated near
Birviza and the movement of the Allies became
useless. Unable to reach Petrozavowsk, they be-
<jame almost passive, and undertook some man-
euvers in the region of Lake Onega and along
the Murmansk railway. In the summer of 1919,
the Beds won an important victory at Onega, and
undertook a successful offensive up along the North
Dvina — above the mouth of the Vega.
It became quite clear that the campaign of the
Allies was lost. The Eussian "volunteers" de-
serted in great numbers to the Bolsheviki, and
*Not Lake Onega, but the town of Onega on the
White Sea.
there was neither unity among the Allied forces
nor belief in their leaders. Some mutinies took
place, and disorganization of the Allied contingent
began, the best sign of the approaching end of
this adventure.
In spite of the lack of good roads and the very
severe climate of this part of Eussia, the Bed de-
tachments, with the aid of the local Eussian
population, overpowered all obstacles, and estab-
lished contact with one another in order to act
in full harmony. We must not neglect the fact
that this campaign was carried through during
the first part of 1919, when the Military Commis-
sariat was busy organizing the first body of the
Bed Army, and therefore proper support could not
be given to the army engaged with the invaders
on the northern front.
The Americans were the first who realized the
uselessness of the expedition, and, tiring of the
frivolous policy of the British command to which
they had submitted, they left the battle front as
early as June, and were sent back to their coun-
try. Finally, the British Government decided to
evacuate Archangel, thus leaving the fragments
of the White Eussian troops and Northern Eussian
Government to their own fate.
The beginning of 1920 found the northern front
completely liquidated, and Archangel, as well as
the Murmansk peninsula, was gradually reoccu-
pied by the Bed Army without any serious re-
sistance by counter-revolutionary forces.
It must be mentioned that the Bed flotilla
played a great part during this campaign, and the
British naval forces suffered badly, thanks to the
activity of the improvised Bed Navy during the
navigable periods. The task of the Northern Bed
Army was clear and simple, — to clear our North,
and it was brilliantly accomplished in spite of all
efforts of the Allies to prevent it.
The Eastern Front
"The Eastern front represented a very important,
and, at certain periods, one of the most decisive
fronts of the Soviet Eepublic," declared Comrade
Trotsky in his report read at the Seventh AU-Eua-
sian Congress of Soviets in Moscow. By means of
the Eastern front the Eussian counter-revolution-
ary army, later led by KolchaKJ was to cut off the
Soviet Eepublic from fertile and wealthy Siberia,
from the industrial districts of the Urals, and from
Turkestan cotton supplies. Here, as in South Eus-
sia, the economic conditons were of such great im-
portance for the Soviet Eepublic that strategy
considered its main problem the immediate recon-
quest of the trans- Volga region, the Urals, and
all of Siberia. After a long and annoying
struggle with the Czecho-Slovaks and unorgan-
ized bands of counter-revolutionaries united with
them, the Bed Command started to concentrate
its forces in order to begin a serious campaign
for the liberation of Siberia from foreign invaders.
In the beginning of November, 1918, the Eastern
front extended beyond the Volga along the line
from Nizhni-Turiusk, Kungur, Sarapul, Bugulma,
Buguruslan, Buzuiuk, and lsTovji-Uzen. The Bed
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Army began its offensive in three directions with
Orenburg, Ufa, and Sarapul as its objectives.
Throughout the winter military operations were in
full swing, and at the end of April, 1919, the line
of the Eed Eastern front extended about sixty
versts east of Ufa and seventy-five versts east of
Orenburg, Uralsk, Alexandrovgai, and Guriev.
At the beginning of March, 1919, reinforced by
fresh reserves, Kolchak directed his counter-of-
fensive on Kazan, Simbirsk, and Samara, and in
the middle of April his army attained the zenith of
its success.
The situation of the Eed Army became very
serious. In the Southern part of Eussia, Denikin
inspired great anxiety, and the operations against
the southern invader, though successfully carried
out, were not yet really decisive in character,
and forced the Bed Command to be in full readi-
ness to meet a coming serious offensive on the
. Southern front. Nevertheless it was first neces-
sary to finish with Kolchak, while remaining tem-
porarily on the defensive in South Eussia. There-
fore, almost all reserves were ordered to the East.
At first, the Kolchak army resisted with an
extraordinary stubbornness, but when its demarca-
tion line was seriously menaced, it was forced to
fall back to Bugulma and Buzuluk, after which
all the Kolchak forces began their retreat east-
ward. During May, 1919, the Beds had to fight
for the possession of the outskirts of the Ural
Mountains, finally forced the Ural passes and en-
tered the plain of Siberia. Simultaneously, the
workers and peasants of Siberia started their "par-
tizan" campaign in the rear of the Kolchak forces,
which, as we know, ended so disastrously for the
latter. At the end of August the Soviet forces
crossed the Tobol and pressed the enemy towards
Ishim, but early the next month the counter-
offensive of Kolchak forced the Beds to fall back
as far west as Tobolsk. The counter-stroke of the
weakened counter-revolutionary army was not, and
could not be, strong enough to gain the initiative
for a considerable length of time. After a series
of serious tactical defeats, Kolchak not only lost
the initiative but was completely beaten, suffering
a strategical defeat which ended in the occupa-
tion of his political and strategical center, Omsk,
and followed by a most energetic pursuit of the
remnants of his beaten army.
This practically put an end to the campaign in
Siberia, from a strategical point of view, and all
further uprisings and military operations in East
Siberia are more of a local political character.
According to the official report of the present
commander-in-Chief of the Bed Army, Comrade
Kamenev, who is responsible for the whole Siberi-
an campaign against Kolchak, there were fourteen
fronts of the Siberian counter-revolution.
The Japanese and American troops landed at
Vladivostok in August, 1918, and together with
the local reactionaries began a campaign against
the Soviets in the Amur district, gradually mov-
ing westward towards Lake Baikal, and to the
north along the Amur Bailway line. A regular
uprising of Eussian population attained very
serious proportions. Armed bands of insurgents
operated throughout the country, and inflicted
heavy losses on the Japanese and Americans- The
local administration of the Kolchak "government* .
in spite of its drastic measures against the insur-
gents, became fruitless. The famous ataman and
bandit, Semionov, his colleague, Kalmikov, recent-
ly assassinated in Manchuria, General Larionov,
Baron TTngern-Sternberg, Colonel Silinski, and
many others, in spite of all their efforts, were un-
able to stop the elementary movement of the Eus-
sian masses against intervention. Here and there,
throughout all of eastern Siberia, fierce sanguinary
fighting raged between the insurgents and the
Allied troops on the one hand, and between the
former and Eussian generals on the other. Fin-
ally such confusion arose that nobody knew whom
he was fighting in reality, and such conditions
existed from Chita to the Pacific. The occupation
of Vladivostok by the Japanese, after the evacua-
tion of Siberia by the Americans, as well as the
further conflicts of Japan with the new Govern-
ment of the Far East, the friction between Gener-
als Semionov, Horvat, Kalmikov and others, and
the streams of blood of the peaceful population,
all this was the result of the baseless, stupid, and
criminal armed intervention of the Allies.
During 1919 alone, according to official informa-
tion, the number of victims in towns and villages
in that part of Siberia was estimated at about
80,000 civilians killed, besides the casualties in the
rank and file of the different Eussian forces, Beds
as well as Whites. At the present time, the Far
Eastern Government, with its headquarters in
Vladivostok, is practically in control of the Mari-
time and Amur districts, which are still occupied
by Japan. The Bed forces, meanwhile, are con-
centrated partly in Transbaikalia and in the prov-
ince of Amur, ready to complete their strategical
task in the Far East as soon as the situation in
European Eussia is settled.
The Turkestan Front
The Turkestan Front was separated from the
Eastern Front, and became independent after Kol-
chak's southern army was entirely defeated in the
Orenburg district, and Orenburg was captured by
the Bed Army. Thus 45,000 Kolchak soldiers were
taken prisoner, and an enormous quantity of booty
fell into the hands of the Soviet troops. The
final union of the troops on the Turkestan Front,
(that is, of that part of our front which is facing
Turkestan) with those troops which were actually
stationed in that region, came about in the middle
of September, 1919, in the district of Station
Emba on the Orenburg-Tashkent Bailway which
thereafter became a most important means of com-
munication between Moscow and Central Asia.
Ths victory of the Eed Army opened up in-
exhaustible possibilties for the Soviets. The Soviet
Government was established throughout all Rus-
sian Turkestan. A result of this victory was the
establishment of friendly relations with Afghanis-
tan and the Extraordinary Embassy of the Amir
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General Map of European Russia, Showing the Strategical
Situation on October 25, 1920
i Prepared from a Map of the Military Situation printed in four languages by the Typographical Department of the Field Staff
of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic)
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The line of heavy dots indicates the present Western and Southern battle fronts ; the line of lighter dots rep-
resents the farthest advance of the anti-Soviet forces, after the beginning of the Revolution of November
6, 1917; the line of small crosses represents the frontiers determined by peace treaties already signed. Note
that communications between Astrakhan and Moscow were never closed, as there was always kept open a
wide corridor extending from the mouth of the Volga to Saratov, which was never out of the hands of
the Soviet forces.
by Google
Original from
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arrived in Moscow. Strategically, Soviet Russia
has succeeded in organizing with Turkestan a
united army, and special "partisan" detachments,
subjected to one single command, were formed at
once. Early in 1920, the result of this victory
could already be seen. The British movement
from Persia into Turkestan and through Afghan-
istan now became an impossibility. The revolution
in Persia and the Anglo-Afghan War put an end
to British indifference as to the influence of the
Soviets in Asia, where the Russian proletariat put
themselves on a solid footing. The occupation by
the Russians of the port of Enzeli, and their march
on Teheran, as well as the successful operation of
the Turkestan troops in the rear of the Denikin
army, were strategical results of the Russian suc-
cesses in that part of the Republic. The Red
Navy took a very important part in the operations
on that front, and succeeded in destroying the Bri-
tish naval forces on the Caspian Sea, thus opening
the route for the Red Army in Transcaspia, Trans*
caucasia, and Persia. The famous oil industry of
the Baku region, already captured by the British,
again came into the hands of the Soviets. A quick
concentration of the Soviet Army on the new front
alarmed the British. The possibility for Soviet
Russia of cooperation with Turkey and the Cau-
casian republics, became a reality, and the possible
menace to India confronted Great Britain more
seriously than ever before. Finally, the British
Government showed great care in regard to her
attitude of further support for the Russian White
General, and became less aggressive against the
Soviets. Only the success of Red strategy in Cen-
tral Asia forced the British diplomats to begin
negotiations with Moscow, and brought the Rus-
sian Trade Commission to London to negotiate
commercial relations. How far events would have
developed on the Turkestan and Caucasian fronts
is difficult to forecast now, but I can state that
here the Soviet Army attained a complete victory,
and holds so strong a position, that only in a
real war with the western coalition would it per-
haps yield all it has succeeded in winning.
The West and East Caucasian fronts as well as
the Transcaspian front were also of great import-
ance ; here the Soviet Army was able to check the
British intrigues directed against Georgia, Persia,
and the Azerbaijan Republics, and it is only owing
to the lack of space that we include the review
of these fronts under the general title : "The Tur-
kestan Front."
The Western Front
At the end of 1918, after the collapse of Ger-
man militarism, which was brought upon Ger-
many not only by the military force of Allied im-
perialism, but from within by the masses of the
German workers and peasants, the yoke of
the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, imposed upon Soviet
Russia, was automatically destroyed. The Red
Army on the Western front in those days included
Esthonian, Lithuanian, Lettish and White Russian
detachments, which took the offensive, and in
March, 1918, a great part of Esthonia and a great-
Digitized by dOOg!
er part of Latvia, Lithuania, and White Russia es-
tablished Soviets. These countries formed their
own armies. At this moment, however, the west-
ern capitalistic coalition succeeded in supporting
the bourgeoisie of the newly formed republics to
such an extent that they were able in April to at-
tack the Red forces, defeat them, and start an
offensive against the Soviet Republic. This co-
incided with Kolchak's offensive in the East, and
the sharp struggle in the South, making it impoe-
sible for the Red Army to resist the advance of
the Poles, Letts, Lithuanians, and Eethonians,
backed by the Allies. Vilna and Riga were cap-
tured by the aggressors, and only in September,
the retreat of the Red Army along the whole line
on the Western Dvina, from Polotsk to Dvina, and
later on, along the line of Berezina to Pripet, was
arrested. Henceforth the Red front, extending
from Pskov to the South, became a permanent line
for the concentration of the Red Army. Twice,
on this front, the Russian Soviet forces were at-
tacked by the so-called Yudenich army which co-
operated with the armies of the small bourgeois
republics of the Baltic region. There the question
concerned Petrograd and its fate, over which the
bourgeoisie of the world gambled. But as our
readers are aware, Yudenich's adventure, thanks
to the self -sacrifice of the Red Army, and thanks
to the superhuman effort of the Red Baltic Navy,
became a complete failure. Petrograd was in great
danger, not only because of attack from the west,
but because of the very serious intention of the
Finnish bourgeoisie to support the plot of the
Allies. The situation was very grave, moreover,
because at the time the Soviet Army was fighting
for the fate of Petrograd on the Pulkov Heights,
the Finnish White Guards subjected the Red
troops to curtain-fire not only from machine guns,
but from cannons, and bombed Soviet territory
with dynamite. According to the report of Com-
rade Trotsky to the Congress of Soviets of Decem-
ber 7, 1919, the Soviet Army in those days was
"strong enough to make a counter-offensive. 3 '
"But," says Comrade Trotsky, "we gave orders to
the local command saying, 'no notice is to be taken
of provocation; but should Finland interfere in
spite of this, should she cross the border, should
she make an attempt to strike at Petrograd, you
are not to limit yourselves to mere resistance, but
you are to enter on a counter-offensive, and fol-
low it out to the end/ " And the Finnish bour-
geoisie understood what it meant.
The end of 1919 found the Polish army in
Lithuania, White Russia, in the greater part of
Ukraine, and even in Great Russia. There was
no peace between Moscow and Poland, but there
were no serious hostilities either. Soviet dip-
lomacy basing its policy on the principles of self-
determination of nations did not fix a definite
frontier-line between Poland and the Soviet Re-
public. The Polish Front was not considered stra-
tegically important, being the weakest of all the
Red fronts, and Moscow made every effort to con-
clude peace with the Polish Government.
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On April 18, 1919, Comrade Chicherin ap-
proached the Polish Government with an offer
to negotiate peace, but in answer to this a Polish
detachment disguised in Bed uniform, under Bed
banner, took Vilna from the Lithuanians.
On December 22, 1919, a formal note of Chi-
cherin with an offer to negotiate peace was trans-
mitted by radio to Poland. There was no reply.
On January 28, 1920, a formal note was com-
municated to the Polish Government and only on
March 27, two months later, did Patek, the Polish
Foreign Minister, answer more or less favorably.
But difficulties arose because of the insistance of
the Polish diplomats that the peace negotiations
should take place at Borisov, a Bussian town on
the Berezina, just captured by the Poles, and sit-
uated just in the middle of the battle front Bus-
sian strategy could not permit this, especially when
the Polish diplomacy refused to fix an armistice
and stop hostilities along the whole front.
On April 23, in its note to the whole world, the
Russian Government declared that it was ready to
meet the Polish delegates in any country, and in
any town that was not on the front zone. But the
Polish Government did not desire peace. The
negotiations, however, were important to en-
able it to camouflage the concentration of the Pol-
ish army and in this it succeeded in full.
Early in March, 1920, the Poles suddenly at-
tacked the weak Bussian forces along the whole
front and took Mozir, Kulenkovichi, Ovruch and
Eezhitsa, and on April 23, began a vigorous of-
fensive on the Volhynian-Kiev front, captured
Zhitomir and Zhmerinka and directed the main
bulk of their army on Kiev. The famous Ukrainian
bandit, Petlura, became an ally of the Poles. In
exchange for all Eastern Galicia which he had
given up to Poland, he was to be established as a
dictator over Ukraine, by force of the Polish arms,
thus subjecting ninety-nine per cent of the
Ukrainians to the Polish yoke.
The rest is well known. The Polish army
crossed the Berezina and Dnieper, and began in-
vading Bussia with Moscow as its strategical ob-
jective. Fifty miles east of Kiev, the Poles met
the bulk of the Bed Army, were entirely defeated,
and began a hasty retreat, pursued by the cavalry
of Comrade Budenny and the advance guard of the
Northern army of Comrade Tukharevsky. This
pursuit was of great strategical significance, be-
cause its duration was more than a month, and
the Polish held army was practically annihilated
and henceforth deprived of the possibility of re-
peating an invasion of Bussia, and consequently
reaching Moscow, in order to overthrow the Soviet
Government.
The failure of the Soviet army in their attack
on Warsaw and the resulting tactical defeat of the
pursuers did not affect the strategical situation of
the Soviet Army, which was reinforced by fresh
reserves and is gradually recovering its lost initi-
ative, thus supporting the Soviet diplomacy and
establishing a long desired peace with the last
hostile neighbor to the West. Strategically even
a short armistice with the Poles was of great im-
portance for the Soviet army, not in order to re-
inforce its western front, but rather to accomplish
some regroupments to support the Southern Bed
Army, which, thanks to the Polish campaign was
left to its own fate in fighting the hordes of Baron
Wrangel, the only active enemy of Soviet Bussia
left now in Europe.
The Ukrainian front, being closely connected
with the Polish front, is losing its strategical im-
portance since the peace relations between Poland
and Soviet Bussia are almost established.
The Southern and Ukrainian Fronts
I have always considered the South Bussian
front as a most decisive and most important
front for the Bed strategy. The war in the
south is the oldest of the civil wars- It was begun
by cossack forces before the Czecho-Slovaks and
Kolchak were created as the "champions of the
Constituent Assembly." The cradle of the coun-
ter-revolution was the Don. Active aid from the
working element of the cossack population, to-
gether with the Bed detachments of Comrade An-
tonov, caused the liquidation of the power of the
White Bussian generals. Kaledin shot himself
and Kornilov was forced to find a refuge in the
Kalmuk steppes; finally Soviets were established
throughout the Don. During the summer of 1918
the situation in South Bussia was aggravated by
the appearance of General Krassnov with his cos-
sacks, who aimed to capture the rich Donets in-
dustrial district. He was backed by the Germans,
who occupied Ukraine. Early in 1919, the Don
Cossacks were seriously defeated by the Bed Army,
but the reaction in the Kuban and amongst the
Don Cossacks gave an opportunity to General
Denikin, the successor of the departed Kornilov,
to form a strong army in the Caucasus and Kuban.
In the midlde of January, 1919, the Southern
front is occupied by the so-called "volunteer army",
under the supreme command of Denikin, and the
Don Cossacks are forming thirty-seven cavalry
and infantry divisions — to cooperate with him.
Prom the Don Cossack region to Kamishin, on
the Volga and the stanitza (village) of Nizhni
Chirskaia, this front enabled the enemy to cut off
Soviet Bussia from coal, and oil supplies and from
her richest agricultural area. Therefore the stra-
tegical problem of the Soviet Bevolutionary Field
Staff was to recapture the Donets coal district
and to open the way to the Caucasus oil region.
In the middle of January, 1919, the Bed Army
concentrated its forces and started an offensive
on a wide front: Ostrogorsk, Borisoglebsk, Po-
varino, Yelan, Tsaritsin, and Sarepta. In the
middle of February the Southern Bed Army forced
the Don and the beginning of May found the
Soviet troops eighty versts northwest of Taganrog
and 125 versts to the north and forty versts to
the east of Eostov. Further to the southeast a
line of fifty versts was occupied by the Beds, south
of the river Manich, — and the advanced troops
attained the upper Kiucui md approached the mid-
t
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die Terek. The strategical aim of the Red Field
Staff thus was accomplished in three months, and
the further operations were not undertaken be-
cause of the developing battles with Kolchak and
on other fronts.
This interruption of hostilities was sufficient to
enable Denikin to gain time and to reorganize his
army. He then formed a strong body of cavalry
and started a vigorous offensive from the Manich
in the direction of Tsaritsin, and on May 20, by
means of British tanks and poison gas, he broke
through the Red front in the region of Yuzevka.
The mutiny amongst the Don Cossacks against the
Soviets in the middle of March, in the rear of
the Red front, helped Denikin's advance and forced
the Red Field Staff to order a general retreat, pro-
tected by rear-guard actions.
The offensive of the enemy was directed north-
Ward, towards Bolashov and Voronezh, as well as
in a northwesterly direction, on Kharkov, Poltava,
Yekaterinoslav and Kiev. The Red Army stopped
its retreat, and then began to counter-attack the
invaders, the main front line passing through Niko-
laiev, Yelizavetgrad, Bobrinskaia, Romni, Obaian,
Korotokmak, Liski, Povorino, thence to the Volga.
The counter-offensive of the Reds in the middle
of August had as its objective to occupy the Khar-
kov region as well as the lower basin of Don. In
twelve days the Soviet troops succeeded in cap-
turing Volniki, Kupiansk, Volchansk and ap-
proached to sixty versts from Kharkov, speedily
moving also toward the middle Volga. By means
of a strong cavalry counter-attack in the Kursk and
Novokhopersk direction, the enemy not only
stopped the advance of the Red Army, but suc-
ceeded in breaking through the Red front in the
direction of Novokhopersk, and the cavalry of Ma-
montov and Shkuro penetrated far to the rear of
the Soviet field army and raided Tambov, Kozlov,
Yelets, and Voronezh.
Finally, the new retreat of the Red Army
brought the Denikin bands as far north as Orel,
but here, north of that town, in the Tula direc-
tion, he was met by fresh Soviet reserves. A de-
cisive battle took place, and after a series of tac-
tical reverses, Denikin received a final strategical
blow near Kharkov, and his panic stricken forces
were dispersed in complete disorder and ener-
getically pursued and annihilated by the Red
cavalry.
Only in the Crimean peninsula, under the pro-
tection of the Allied navy, a small part of the
Denikin forces, under Baron Wrangel, one of Deni-
kin's generals, were reorganized, with the help of
the Entente, as a new counter-revolutionary force,
which was to cooperate with the Poles. The gen-
eral aim of Wrangel's strategy is practically the
same as that of Denikin, but the existing political
and strategical circumstances, as well as his re-
sources of man-power and supply are much in-
ferior to those of Denikin.
The third year of the titanic struggle of the
Russian proletariat has ended with the triumph of
the Revolution.
A Prophecy by Victor Hugo
We are in Russia. The Neva is frozen over and heavy waggons roll across its surface.
The streets extend before us, there is buying and selling, laughter and dissonance; all pos-
sible activities are going on, faint fires are lighted over the water that has turned to granite.
It is winter; there is ice, and it seems as if this condition of affairs were permanent. A con-
tinuous pale light illumines the sky and it is as if the sun had been extinguished . . . but
no, you are not dead, oh liberty! At the moment you are most forgotten, the moment your
return is least expected, you will suddenly arise — a blinding vision! Your radiant glance,
your invigorating heart will again come to life over this dead mass of ice that has been trod-
den and become defiled. Can the peoples hear this crumbling, threatening, promising reso-
nance? It is the river Neva breaking up its coat of ice. You said it was granite, and behold
it splinters like broken glass. It is the great thaw, I tell you. It is water come to life. Water
in its powerful joy and its frightful wrath. Progress once more begins. Humanity contin-
ues its onward march. It is a river which now unobstructed again pursues its course, tearing
up by the roots, smashing to bits, crushing and drowning in its waves, not only the Empire
of the upstart Emperor Nicholas, but also ail the relics of ancient and modern despotism.
Do you see that bit of furniture floating along there? That is the throne. Over there some
other pieces of wood are being carried along. That is the gallows. Do you see that book,
half of it submerged? Thai is the codex of the old morality and law of capitalism. And what
are these crows nests that have just gone down? They are the barracks in which the wage
slaves lived. All these things are being dragged down and washed away; never to return.
And what was required to bring about all this — this incomparable victory of life over death f
But one of your glances, oh Sun! But one blow of your mighty arm, oh Labor!
UNIVhtolh -..HlfaAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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Moscow in 1920
By Db. Alfons Goldschiiidt
(Sixth Instalment)
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*HP HERE is a lack of draft-horses in Moscow.
*• The horses are not sleek, but you cannot see
their ribs either. They are not normal horses,
panye horses, as our soldiers in the East say. At
least this applies to the work-horses ; the cab horses
are often more defective, for the fodder rations
are scant and roundabout purchases expensive.
And then, there are rascals of cab-drivers who
think of their own pockets and let the horses
starve.
A cab journey from the Nikolai Station to the
Theater Square in May, 1920, cost three thousand
Bolshevik rubles, or thirty to fifty German marks.
At the beginning of the Revolution the Moscow
City Soviet had nationalized everything, surely
including the cabs. Now the latter are free from
nationalization. Quite a number have been requi-
sitioned for official use; the remainder are free
and wait at all corners.
But I was more interested in the dogs than in
the horses. I once read about the dogs of Con-
stantinople as they were in the 80's of the last
century, of the unnoticed, hardly even kicked, ne-
glected dogs of the Turkish capital. It was said
that at Constantinople in those days there was a
swarm of dogs, an army of dogs. The street of
Moscow is not so rich in dogs as that, but the
Moscow dogs are also neglected to the point of
not even being kicked; they are unkempt, unat-
tractive. Their skin, their glances, their places
of refuge are outcomes of revolution.
They rest in gutters, against the walls of houses,
and on the steps. They sleep all day long on these
steps, and also at night. I do not know how and
on what they live, for they do not stir from the
spot.
There are shaggy dogs among them, yoke-yellow
Saint Bernards, formerly master-dogs. They are
long-sinewed Russian greyhounds, their white pelts
soiled. The pelts are disheveled; the dogs' eyes
seem pasted shut. They are mere recollections
of the splendid days. Moscow dogs no longer have
system about them. The dog-days are over. There
are no longer masters and dogs. Many among the
dogs were once masters. The dog has had his
day.
My wife had packed a tin with anti-louse pre-
paration in my baggage. She said: "You will
get lice. Every night you must spread some of
this powder over your bed. I do not want a lousy
husband. I want one with a clean skin, a white-
colored man, and not a mangy scratched-up wretch.
Guard yourself against lice in Russia."
I made no use of the box of "anti-lice", and yet
I got no lice, not even fleas. Not until I got
back to Esthonia did the first flea alight upon me,
when I was with the doctor at Reval. The doctor
was issuing my non-vermin certificate, a certificate
declaring me free of lice and fleas, and at that
Digiiiz&d by ^OOQ It
moment the first flea fell upon me. But at Mos-
cow I was liceless and flealess.
There are some lice, however, at Moscow, also
fleas and bedbugs. But the terror of typhus (lice
carry the typhus) was past in May, 1920, at least
in Moscow. I was told that there was still typhus
in other parts of Russia. Physicians > medical in-
vestigators, should at least be sent to Russia, and
they should have with them stocks of medicaments,
of salvarsan, of quinine.
The chief typhus regions are the parts that were
evacuated by Kolchak and by Denikin; I was told
that these parts were afflicted with frightful epi-
demics.
Mdkhorka
It takes time to get used to it. There is some
of the Russian forest and of the Russian meadow
in it; at any rate Russian real estate. It exhales
fragrance — many fragrances. It is a tobacco for
men; it knocks you down. You have to get used
to it.
All Moscow that smokes pipes, and a part of
cigarette Moscow, puffs makhorka. It is a sort;
of minced landscape with a little tobacco in it,
chopped very fine, with obstinate white pieces of
resistance. It is an acquired taste.
I did not acquire it. I did not need to, for I
had brought twenty packages of tobacco with me
from Germany, and in addition Sasha gave us
twenty-five Russian cigarettes every ether day.
They were cigarettes with long paper mouth-piecea
and good tobacco in the paper.
But one of the members of the delegation was
intoxicated with makhorka. The audacious man
smoked only makhorka; he swore by makhorka
and sang its praises everywhere.
Makhorka (which was smoked already in peace-
times) is a tobacco for poor people, a substitute
tobacco, a growth of necessity, a make-shift mix-
ture, for the fragrant tobacco days of Moscow are
gone for the present. The wonderful one-kopec
cigarettes are a thing of the past. In May, 1920,
you paid the cigarette dealer 400 to 600 Bolshevik
rubles for 25 cigarettes. These peddlers were
crying out their wares in a thousand streets, out of
the recesses of houses, on street corners, and as
they ran through the street. They sold you mak-
horka and also the necessary cigarette papers.
Anyone who has gotten used to makhorka will
never part with the habit. I offered English cig-
arettes to a former director of the Credit Lyon-
nais and now a director in an industrial combine..
He declined on the ground that he 6moked only
makhorka. He had given up all other tobacco.
All paper, every kind of paper is used for cigar-
ette paper in Moscow. They smoked makhorka
in wrapping paper, in newspaper, in tissue paper,,
in each and every kind of paper.
The matterQpj ,jf ry pkin. They did not paste'
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the cigarette paper, they hardly licked it. They
turned a little "toot" of wrapping paper or news-
paper and smoked. It is not expensive and saves
time.
The English were better treated.
The Union of Tobacco Workers handed them
great boxes adorned with dedications and contain-
ing long cigarettes. The English had a good time.
Scheidemann, if he went to Moscow, would also
get a big box with a dedication on it. He would
not need to smoke makhorka.
The War With Poland
One day a young Communist came into the of-
fice of the combine. The manager signed some-
thing and the young Communist departed after
shaking his hand.
"What have you signed?" I asked. "It is a
front certificate. The comrade is going to the
front. He has volunteered. Of course the popu-
lation is being fine-combed, but this man, like
many others, is a volunteer." Before that I had
heard nothing of the war with Poland. They
spoke but little of this war. Russia has been at
war for six years, and, war-weary as Bussia is,
war has almost become self-evident. It is no lon-
ger a matter of lashing up initial enthusiasm, no
longer a matter of intoxication, but a simple self-
evident truth. It is a pressure, but it will not
press Russia down. They say very little of the
war with Poland. The leaders, the political lead-
ers, speak of it. They are confident; they do not
think of defeat.
This confidence is evident if you have com-
pletely grasped Russia. For this country makes
use, against each assailant, of its extent and of
its millions of men. If the war is a people's war,
like the war against Poland, a national war, Rus-
sia is unconquerable. Who will conquer this
length and breadth and these millions with the
sword ? Napoleon could not. Russia is one great
Kutuzov.*
The war is oppressive. For war means requisi-
tions, means sucking out energy, means cutting
off souroes of supply. Every war is oppressive,
even to Russia. Who on earth has any right to
wage war with Russia? It is a beastly crime. The
war weighs down upon the transport roads and
cripples them; both the railways and the water-
ways. The war murders. War is terrible in any
case.
Russia will not lose the war with Poland. In
the fall of this year, at the latest, Russia will win
the war. In the fall at the latest, the defeat of
the Poles will be decided. Russia's wars are au-
tumn and winter wars.**
Russia cannot lose the war with Poland. For
the Poles are fighting with a demoralized rear,
with bloodless peasants: the anarcho-Socialistic
peasant of Ukraine is undermining the rear. The
Poles have no firm redoubt.
• Michael Ilorionovich Kutuzov (1745-1813), Russian field-
marshal who led the resistance to Napoleon in 1812.
* # The fact that imperialistic Poland does not pursue Soviet
Russian troops, but makes peace with Russia, shows that Poland
lias been defeated in her attempt to annex Russian territory. —
editor Soviet Russia.
There is no sense in attacking Bussia. For many
reasons there is no sense in it. England, the Eng-
lish Government understands this very well. There
is an unheard of brutality, an incredible stupidity
in waging war on Bussia. Bussia is a gigantic
cauldron of f oodstuffs, a colossal warehouse of pos-
sibilities for the whole world. Who has any in-
terest in smashing this cauldron, in destroying the
possibilities ?
Europe has never before been guilty of an equal
stupidity.
The Ruble
Once the ruble meant something in ^the world ;
it meant 2.16 marks, (50 cents American money).
Of course there was a lot of trickery about it, a
gold standard flim-flamming by Witte and Kokoy-
tsev. For Bussia never really had a gold stand-
ard, only a centralization of the gold to entice for-
eign traders. Inside of the country you never saw
much of the gold standard. The paper ruble flut-
tered gaily, the little ruble, the debasing, prosti-
tuting, bribing little ruble. The ruble shot its
poison into the souls of Bussian* officials, and to
this day not all the souls of Bussia have been
purged of this poison. Already, in peace times
Bussia had a color psychology of rubles, a local
agiotage, according to the age of the ruble, the
color of the ruble, the size of the ruble. The Soviet
Bepublic must reckon with this psychology also.
Bomanov rubles, Czarist rubles, are considerably
higher in purchasing power than Bolshevist rubles.
In May, 1920, a speculator would pay 20 to 22
thousand Bolshevist rubles for 1,000 Romanov
rubles. Of course this is only true of speculators,
for the state exchanges only at par.
Bussian money, Bolshevist money is not money
in the European sense of the word. It is only
money of issue, not money of presentation. There
is no institution in Bussia that redeems the Bol-
shevik money, as for instance the Bank of Eng-
land redeems pound notes. To be sure, the obli-
gation to redeem in many countries of Europe is
today not different from the case of the Bolshevik
ruble. Bedemption has ceased. The German
Beichsbank, for instance, cannot redeem. It may
exchange notes for notes, or notes for treasury
loan certificates. But you cannot call that redemp-
tion. It is a sort of solution (viewed in the large)
but not a redemption. For the present it is a
humbug which is not admitted. But the Bol-
shevik ruble is an open humbug. The Bolshevik
ruble is really an unblushing deception, while the
European banknote is a veiled deception. That
is the right way. Deception should be practiced
openly, without a veil, if the whole monetary sys-
tem is to be swindled out of existence ; if that is
your object you cannot swindle sufficiently. The
Soviet Bepublic has thus far issued only 600 to
700 milliards of rubles. It cannot print as many
as it would like, only a few million milliards a
day. That is far too little if it is intended to
deal a death blow to the monetary system. But
it must be done to death, as it cannot be torn out
by the roots at once or beheaded at a single blow.
by Google
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That ifl what the system demands; and men will
have it so. They do not want it to be decapitated
at once ; they want to be deceived and they do not
notice that they are deceiving themselves. It is
an interesting, delightful episode. It is caviar to
the financial critic. The more magnificent the
deception, the more luscious the morsel to the fin-
ancial critic.
The Soviet Republic has now issued revolution-
ary certificates, notes with propaganda printed on
them, in all the languages of the world powers ; in
all the important languages of the world you read :
Proletarians of all Lands Unite! The notes are
smaller than the old Bolshevik notes. I saw 500
an<| 1,000 ruble notes. The rallying cry of the
Communist manifesto, of Marx and Engels, you
may read in the German language, and then in
the French language, in the English language, in
the Turkish language, in the Russian language,
etc., etc., right down the note.
This propaganda bank note, this tendencious
ruble note is worth less than the old Soviet note,
the Red note : 10,000 Red Soviet notes are worth
in Moscow, or were worth when I was there, 11,000
manifesto notes. There are also old Red 10,000
ruble notes; you do not see them frequently.
They print small notes, hardly larger than
postage stamps, of green, yellow, brown color.
Some of these also are manifesto notes, but the
rallying cry is printed on them only in Russian.
There are also Kerensky notes, whose purchasing
power fluctuates between that of the Romanov
notes and of the Bolshevik notes. Notes, notes,
notes. Heaps of ruble notes, crumpled notes,
patched notes, and lost notes. The little postage-
stamp notes hardly receive any attention. They
are worth practically nothing. You pay with
whole perforated sheets of such notes. The indi-
vidual note is hardly even paper, it is trash. It is
a caricature, a money joke, a parody on the capi-
talist money system.
People do not count in Moscow in rubles but
in bread. To be sure they say: "How much
bread shall I get for so many rubles"; or "How
many rubles must I pay for so much bread ?" The
emphasis is not on the ruble but on the "bread".
Bread is the measure, the standard, not paper.
There is a profound meaning in this, a Socialist
meaning. This is already one of the consequences
of the systematic gigantic devaluation, of the mag-
nificent relegation of money to the background, of
the huge mass-production of money. The ruble
is therefore a psychological matter, of color, of
size, a calculation on a scale according to the size
and color. The ruble is no more; money is no
more. This is the catastrophe of money, a fever-
ish production of a supplementary purchasing
power. If the people do not steal (from a Social-
ist standpoint), this whole deception would be un-
necessary. But as it still has capitalistic tend-
encies, it must be deceived in this way. That is
the essence of this printing of paper money.
In foreign countries the Bolshevik ruble is worth
Digitized by Google
nothing. Nor need it be worth anything, for Rus-
sian foreign trade is financed differently, is fin-
anced with gold, with foreign goods, with conces-
sions and products. The sellers to Russia need
not worry; the Soviet Government pays promptly,
and in good money, or the equivalent of good
money. It does not need to deceive foreign deal-
ers. It has enough wherewith to pay. It has a
devaluated standard (if you can speak of any
standard at all) in the interior, but its money
standard abroad is of high value, of the highest
value. No country in the world has a standard of
higher value, not even America.
Moscow Time
The clock is set ahead in Moscow. In the sum-
mer it is set hours ahead. For that reason, the
working-day begins very early and ends very early.
As time is counted in Berlin, the offices and fac-
tories close at noon. This arrangement is good,
for it permits of recreation during the daylight
hours. Moscow needs recreation. Moscow nerves
are no longer peace nerves. They need walks in
the open, relaxation, lounging lassitude.
Of course, there are also nerves in Moscow that
cannot escape their torment. The administration
heads slave for twelve and fourteen hours, and
more. Chicherin is such a slave, and many others
toil from early morning till late at night. They
are helpless and perplexed because there is such
a scarcity of labor, and such a tremendous amount
of work. Chicherin begins his work late in the
afternoon and continues until six in the morning,,
Moscow time. But these are intensified excep-
tions.
There is plenty of time in Moscow. There has
always been plenty of time in Moscow, even to-
day. Russia is large, and time is slow in Russia*
What is an hour more or less!
Often I lost patience, I stamped my foot, I
struck my fist on the table, I could not get used
to Moscow time. I liked the summer schedule of
time, but not the Moscow sense of time.
A horrible nuisance is the following practice:
I am speaking with the head of a department.
The thread of our subject weaves back and forth
between us. The door opens and some one stum-
bles over the carefully spun thread, breaks it in
two, and talks with the department head iguoring
my presence. I am bursting with rage, I stamp
my foot, I tremble with impatience, for I have
no time. The thread-breaking man or woman goes
out, smiling as though nothing had happened, and
immediately another breaks in and speaks over my
head. There is no rational system in this method
of holding conferences, time is frittered away, the
department head loses his perspective. There is
no sense of order, no sense of sequence, of consecu-
tiveness. Lenin has this sense, and there are
others who have it. With them one thing fol-
lows another in consecutive order, is assorted, reg-
istered, announced, cancelled, admitted. Order,
order, order. Blessed folk !
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y,
Mi
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised.
AN enterprising American engineer, "gTub-
staked" by a considerable group of Califor-
nia capitalists, goes prospecting in Soviet Russia,
strikes a rich lode, stakes out his claim, and re-
turns to arrange the development of his diggings.
The Commissariat of Foreign Affairs has an-
nounced that the American syndicate on whose
behalf Mr. Washington D. Vanderlip concluded
his contract with the Soviet Government will
commence operations in the spring of 1921.
The syndicate has acquired under a sixty-
year lease the exclusive right to the exploi-
tation of coal, oil, and fisheries within a ter-
ritory of 400,000 square miles, comprising all of
Kamchatka and a huge area of northeastern
Siberia. Here is a notable achievement which runs
true to the American pioneering tradition. Mr.
Vanderlip and his backers have "broken trail" in
the authentic spirit of the American frontier. They
may be said, indeed, to have picked up the Amer-
ican frontier and carried it across the Pacific
to penetrate new areas, and discover new riches.
We speak of the American frontier in no national-
istic 6en8e, but as that realm in which the charac-
teristic spirit of the American frontiersman found
free play for his audacity and hardihood. Mr.
Vanderlip, adventuring into Soviet Russia, brav-
ing the real hardships, and no less courageously
ignoring all the imagined perils of that hidden
land, displayed something of the same hardihood
and audacity. And yet, notable as is the perform-
ance of Mr. Vanderlip, the extraordinary thing
is that at so late a date he should be the
first American to bring 6uch an enterprise to suc-
cessful conclusion. For three years Soviet Russia
has been an open field to any American pioneer
with imagination and initiative. Almost from its
inception the Soviet Government invited American
engineers and specialists in all fields to come in
and do just what Mr. Vanderlip has done. Soviet
Russia asked for American technicians and Amer-
ican tools, but instead of these there came only
American soldiers with American guns. Dare we
hope at last that Mr. Vanderlip's achievement
marks the end of America's ill-advised and un-
happy experiment in foreign intervention and sig-
nifies the return to the nobler tradition of the
pioneer? American soldiers brought to Russia
only bitterness and hatred and death. American
by Google
pioneers can bring to Russia skill and enterprise
and experience. How welcome and how sincerely
appreciated these will be, the case of Mr- Vander-
lip has proved.
* * *
T^HE policy of granting concessions for ex-
ploitation by foreign engineers and capitalists
is not new with the Soviet Government. It is no
departure from established principles. On the
contrary, it is part of a program publicly an-
nounced from the very first. Just as Soviet Rus-
sia needs and will buy the most improved machin-
ery developed under the capitalist system and man-
ufactured by capitalists, so it will employ the best
technique and the most experienced technicians.
If this technique and these technicians can be
bought with high wages, Soviet Russia is prepared
to buy them that way, as Lenin announced in his
famous program speech in April, 1918. If these
forces can be attracted in greater volume by the
offer of concessions in natural resources, Soviet
Russia is rich enough and vast enough to grant
large concessions without in any way endangering
its sovereignty or social structure. In its reply
to the Prinkipo proposal the Soviet Govern-
ment stated officially that it was "ready to
give to the subjects of the powers of the En-
tente, mineral, timber, and other concessions, to
be defined in detail, on condition that the economic
and social structure of Soviet Russia shall not be
touched by the internal arrangements of these
concessions." Discussing this question with Ar-
thur Ransome in 1919, the Chairman of the Com-
mitte of State Constructions at Moscow said : "We
want from abroad all that we cannot make our-
selves. We want a thousand versts of rails . . .
We want new railways built. We want dredgers
for our canals and river works. We want excava-
tors . . . We shall pay in concessions, giving
foreigners the right to take raw materials. Tim-
ber, actual timber, is as good as credit ... We
are prepared to say, 'You build this, or give us
that, and we will give you the right to take so
much timber for yourselves.' "
The principle was exhaustively argued and de-
finitely accepted in the winter of 1919 when the
concession was granted for the building of the
Great Northern Railway. This contract was ap-
proved on the understanding that the foreign pro-
moters were financed by American capital. In
May, 1919, the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs
stated in a letter to its representative in America,
"We are ready to give all sorts of economic con-
cessions to Americans in preference to other for-
eigners. We mean concessions in Northern Rus-
sia, the development of natural resources (forests
and mines), the construction of railroads, of elec-
trical stations, of canals, etc."
It will be argued, of course, that concessions to
foreign capitalists may endanger the integrity of
the Communist state- One might concede the
danger. And yet Soviet Russia has already sur-
mounted the dangers of foreign intervention, of
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Recent Pictures from Soviet Russian History
This Illustrated Supplement lo tin; Third Anniversary Number of Sovikt Russia presents a few scenes, per-
sons, and institutions of importance in Russia's history. Our first picture represent Yu. Stcklov, editor of the
Moscow Ist-fstia, Official Organ of the Central Executive Committee of Soviets, leaving an automobile* Below is
a fifl-ruhle Soviet note (worth only a Few cents in American money), Both Shies are reproduced; the inscriptions
read: "Exchange token, Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Repuhlic. Sixty Ruhles. Chief Commissar of the Peo-
ple's Rank. C r Po . . Guaranteed by all the resources of the Repuhlic. Treasurer, G, Caltsov. 60 Rubles.
Proletarians of the World Unite. Counterfeiting id these notes punishable under the law/'
^vCUETIIM!fa, f
V; W MCCIlftCJCOJl ff w v *
c u mwin toiyech oil aiE/iEPATUBiioix
CUBCTCKOft PECUVBJWtW
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-*=^ A A- 00 7
Soviet Russia, Vol. lit, No. 19
by Google
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May First in Warsaw
While these scenes were photographed in Warsaw lor Soviet Russia they are of great importance as indica
tions of the attitude of the Polish masses toward their Russian neighbor. In the May First parades in the streets
of Warsaw* this ycar< banners were carried with the inscriptions reproduced in these pictures. The inscription in
the upper picture reads: *'Lonp Live an Alliance with Suviet Russia.*" That in the lower picture reads; "Long
Live Peace With Soviet Russia."
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M(iy Fir»fc In Warsaw
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demonstration on Theater Square, Warsaw.
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Above is a Group (if Worker* in the ComrmHKiruit r^ Kilucatimi. Below is a tug of war between buys eithI
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Russian Ofiiclalg In Conference
Above is * conversation between Trolsky h Lcnin T and Lci» Kann-ticv, IVuple's ("intimissar t*l War, President
of the Council of People's Commissars, and President of the Moscow Soviet, respectively* Below is shown Ylarii
mir Kalinin, Chairman of the All Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets, seated beside a village school-
teacher.
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UNIVERSITY OF Ml
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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blockade, and of civil war and internal intrigue
fomented by foreign agents. Soviet Russia will
have many grave dangers to face in the future.
There is no reason to suppose that it will lack the
strength and vigilance to safeguard itself against
any undesirable influences arising from the pres-
ence of foreign industrialists engaged in develop-
ing Russian resources under the close supervision
of the Soviet authority. Let it be remembered,
moreover, that Soviet Russia is offering to permit
the exploitation of its natural resources and not
of its men and women. Workers employed in the
foreign concessions will be guarded by all the laws
devised by the workers' republic for the protection
of labor.
* * *
LIEUT-COLONEL Cecil L'Estrange Malone,
M. P., rose recently in the House of Com-
mons to rebuke the Prime Minister for his
repetition of the cant charge that there is "no
democracy" in Soviet Russia. "Did they really
have democracy in England V asked Mr. Malone of
his colleagues in Parliament. "Are our elections
really free?" he inquired, and added "I got in by
the same method as you got in." From his own
experience Mr. Malone then described the pro-
cesses of an English election.
"What happens when an election takes place,
when great issues are before the country — new
housing conditions, better industrial conditions,
and all the hundred and one new social improve-
ments that are required? A great newspaper
magnate, or some other great influential interest
controlling the newspapers, comes along two or
three days before the election, and instead of the
issues being real, vital issues which are before the
country, what comes before the people? Hanging
the Kaiser, making Germany pay, and all this
futile rot which the people are asked to vote for
instead of the really fundamental social basis which
they should send people back to legislate for and
to improve their conditions. Then, even if the
people have the sense not to be bluffed, what hap-
pens ? Last week we saw in this House something
of the democratic legislation about which the
Prime Minister boasts. In two hours last Wed-
nesday 160,000,000 pounds of the tax-payers'
money was voted through the House without a
single word, or even half a word, of discussion.
That is the democratic legislation of which the
Prime Minister boasts. If anyone analyzes the
electoral machinery of the country, it is the re-
motest possible form of real democracy
On pure grounds of industrial democracy, election
by industrial franchise is obviously and clearly
more democratic than election by parlamentary
representation, which confuses, combines and
mixes up hundreds of different interests so that
the real vital interests of the people are totally
obscured."
Thus a member of the British Parliament on the
alleged perfection of the British Parliamentary
system.
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JOHN REED
John Reed was born in Portland, Oregon,
on October 22, 1887, and died in Moscow on
October 17, 1920. His career as a newspaper $nd
military correspondent, which he pursued up to
the end of his thirtieth year, provided him with
numerous opportunities for excitement and adven-
ture. Among the countries he visited in the course
of his journalistic expeditions were Mexico, Ger-
many, Poland, Serbia, and Russia. Each of these
countries added something to his view of life or
provided him with an experience that helped to
build up his mass of observation. In Mexico he
learned to know the lot of the exploited land-serf ;
in Germany he came in contact with a temporarily
triumphant militarism ; in Poland he saw a nation
being wrecked by the oscillating sweeps of oppos-
sing armies; in Serbia he found a primitive race
of shepherds fleeing unarmed before the heaviest
artillery in Europe.
His life in other countries is a life of adven-
ture that recalls to the European admirer of the
pioneer romances the audacious spirit that was one
of the most attractive qualities of American life
as seen from abroad. But his life after his sojourn
in Russia during the Soviet Revolution, the Revo-
lution of November 7, 1917, was different. His
contact with the proletarian revolution was more
a grip than a contact; it was to hold him in its
grasp until he died. During the "Ten Days That
Shook the World", John Reed received the im-
mense stimulus that was to separate him forevei
from a life of mere adventure and to cement him
definitely to the struggle of the working class for
its emancipation. He returned to America in
1918, understanding that he was to occupy an
important post in the employ of the Soviet Gov-
ernment. It happened that political considerations
required his relinquishing this career, and in spite
of a possible personal mortification or disappoint-
ment in this connection, he never permitted any
feelings of this kind to interfere with his affection
for the proletarian government to which he had
definitely devoted the service of the rest of his life.
The incidents in his life during the past few years
are still alive in the memory of every friend of
Soviet Russia. Many of us still remember the
great meeting in Carnegie Hall, New York, at
which John Reed addressed a large audience with
the message of the new era at whose birth he had
been permitted to be present. Many of us also
remember the meetings he addressed in November,
1918, held in commemoration of the First Anni-
versary of the Revolution. His work in connection
with American political conditions it is not our
function to touch upon. That he was the first
American to serve as a link between the United
States and Soviet Russia there is no doubt. He
was in Moscow since the Fall of 1919, although
he left there at least once, early this year, to pass
through Finland and return to America, which he
did not succeed in doing. He lies buried under
the Kremlin wall, together with other faithful
men who fell in defence of Soviet Russia.
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Noyember 6, 1920
The Railway Situation in Soviet Russia
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TV'EXT to the civil war and foreign wars, the
^^ solution of the railroad problem has been
the paramount issue of the Soviet Republic. The
history of the railroad situation in Russia, ever
since the beginning of the World War, has been
very illuminating with respect to its relation to
the Russian Revolution. The efforts of the Allied
Governments to prevent the entire breakdown of
the Russian railway system are quite well known.
Two commissions from the United States alone,
composed of prominent engineers and railway men,
were dispatched to Russia in the hope of saving
the situation, but to no avail. The evils of the
old government were too serious a handicap to be
overcome by good advice from experts of foreign
countries.
It was a very lamentable situation to which the
Soviet Government fell heir upon the accomplish-
ment of the November Revolution. From virtually
nothing, the Workers' and Peasants' Government
had to rebuild its railways. Here in the United
States we are familiar with remarkable railroad
undertakings and developments, but no situation
has ever existed which paralleled the difficulties
in this respect the Soviet Government has had to
face. A transportation system at best inadequate,
even under the most flourishing conditions before
the war, was practically a complete wreck by the
time of the Revolution. On top of this wars of
counter-revolution and invasion had to be fought.
That a distinct and well thought out policy of
railway rehabilitation and extension was actually
developed by Soviet Russia is perhaps one of the
most remarkable tributes to this country of work-
ers and peasants.
It should not be concluded, however, that Soviet
Russia is by any means beyond its difficulties. The
situation is improving, and the reason for it is
revealed, for example, by the spirit and morale
which has actuated the workers to engage, among
other things, upon enterprises as are indicated
below.
The Mobilization of Railway Workers
The Workers' and Peasants' Councils in the
various railway centers have early inaugurated a
systematic mobilization of all the local railway
workers. All persons who, during the last ten
years, have ever been in the service of railways
either in the capacity of engineers, firemen, boiler-
makers, machinists, trackworkers, agents, super-
visors of all kinds, as well as many others, between
the ages of 18 and 50 years, were called upon to
report for the purpose of engaging in railway
work. This movement was suggested from the
central body of Workers and Peasants, and carried
out at the discretion of the local groups.
The Central Committee of the Russian Com-
munist Party also issued a circular with respect
to the mobilization of all Communists to fight the
disintegration of the transportation system. This
by V_
iL
IC
appeal is a model of earnestness, sincerity, and
devotion to duty truly remarkable.
The groups they mobilized were organized into
technical gangs and, by way of a start, a week of
intensive work was inaugurated on every railway
system. This step alone did a great deal to inject
new life and spirit into the badly demoralized
railway structure.
On the Nikolai and Murmansk Railway both
regular railway men and periodic volunteers
worked at high capacity. In the first place efforts
were made to clean up all the equipment in need
of light* or so-called running repairs. As was to
be expected, the workers dismantled those loco-
motives and cars which were beyond repair and
utilized spare parts secured in this way for the
repair of less seriously damaged rolling stock.
Many box and cattle cars (Teplushki) were con-
verted for passenger and military transport pur-
poses. From available sources, in forests and else-
where, great supplies of wood were gathered for
locomotive, car and stationary heating purposes.
Coal had become very scarce owing to the occupa-
tion of the coal regions by counter-revolutionary
forces. At stations freight cars were promptly
unloaded and returned to service. The perman-
ent ways were repaired, switches and cuts cleared
of snow and dirt. Scrap was carefully sorted, and
materials which were reclaimable, properly trans-
ferred to centers of repair and construction.
The productivity of the shops was almost imme-
diately increased by 70 per cent. In the course
of the inaugural transportation week on the Mur-
mansk Railway, 30 locomotives were rehabilitated
and two badly ditched locomotives were derailed
and repaired. Furthermore six locomotives were
placed in condition to be forwarded to the large
repair works at Petrograd, 21 passenger cars, 168
freight cars, and 43 teplushki were reconditioned.
Much detail material for station purposes was
manufactured.
Perhaps one of the most serious conditions with
which the railway administration of Russia was
confronted concerned itself with the condition in
which the Denikin hordes left the railways in the
Ukraine. The entire technical personnel in this
region was forced to withdraw with the defeated
and retreating bands. All drawings, maps, and
instruments of any value whatsoever were either
destroyed or stolen. The bridge situation was par-
ticularly serious. To the south and in the north
of Kharkov over 47 bridges had been deliberately
destroyed. The personnel of the railways worked
heroically reconstructing them. Local expeditions
were organized and dispatched to various badly
affected portions of the railways for the purpoele
of getting them into shape. Naturally this rehabi-
litation work was seriously handicapped by lack
of necessary materials. The demand was infinitely
greater than the supply. Nevertheless, in a rela-
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tively short time over 29 of the 47 destroyed
bridges were gotten into condition for service.
The Inauguration of International Railway
Service
The conclusion of peace between Esthonia and
Russia, together with the gradual rejuvenation of
the economic and social life of Russia resulting
largely from the consistent and continuous efforts
of the railway workers together with the partial
lifting of the blockade, created new hopes and in-
centives for improving the railway situation. Thus
the reestablishment of service between Esthonia,
Petrograd, and Moscow became one of the really
important problems. A progressive plan was
evolved looking forward not only to the develop-
ment of this particular portion of the service which
was soon functioning smoothly, but to service with
all other countries as well, as soon as they made
peace with Russia.
Railway Numbers of the Daily "Economic Life"
In Moscow a daily paper entitled Economic Life
is published by the Supreme Council of National
Economy and Commissariats for Food, Finances,
and Foreign Trade. During the height of the re-
habilitation campaign two Sunday editions of this
paper were entirely devoted to the fight against the
disintegration of the railways. It was pointed out
that th4 workers, who, after the November Revolu-
tion, took over the direction of the social and eco-
nomic welfare of the country, have learned to rea-
lize clearly the great necessity of uninterrupted
transportation service. Every locomotive, every
car, has, in the eyes of the workers, become of great
importance. The difficulties under which exist-
ence has been carried on in the last two years has
made the question of railway service the most
burning of life's problems for the proletariat. For
only through its fortunate solution will a way be
provided for workers to find themselves out of the
difficulties and inhibitions which are their heritage
from the old reactionary government of Russia.
The paper further points out in clear and pre-
cise terms the exact situation with respect to the
railroads. Nothing was covered up for the pur-
pose of misleading the large masses of workers.
Untiringly were the workers informed of changes
which took place from time to time, good achieved,
losses suffered. It made no difference how things
actually stood. The workers were told the truth.
For the intention was to arouse their constant
thinking and activity in behalf of the battle against
gradual disintegration.
Thus very interesting and accurate figures were
presented with respect to the condition of, for in-
stance, the rolling stock. It was pointed out that
the number of locomotives in actual service as
compared with 1914 is only 25 per cent, or ap-
proximately 50 per cent of those which were in
service during 1916. It is thus pointed out, as
a logical conclusion to the situation as it actually
is, that nothing is of greater importance than to
repair wherever possible every available locomotive
in the shortest possible time, and to provide with-
by LiOOgle
out delay, from whatever sources available, as many
new locomotives as can be secured. The catastro-
phic condition of the railway situation has forced
the following question to the fore.
Are the locomotive and car manufacturing facil-
ities of Russia with an adequate supply of fuel,
metals, and other necessary construction materials,
as well as with workers, properly fed and clothed,
capable of providing the estimated number of loco-
motives and cars needed so badly? Furthermore,
in what time can this equipment be furnished by
Russian plants? Making an assumption that the
total length of the railways in Russia is 50,000
versts (33,333 miles) certain figures are derived
with respect to immediate equipment needs. Thus
assuming the normal to be 30 locomotives per 100
versts, at least 15,000 are necessary at the present
time. And on the basis of the average Russian
train length, normally 30 cars, the total number of
cars required is 450,000.
At the present time there are approximately
10,000 locomotives and (250,000 freight cars avail-
able. Consequently it is estimated that at least
5,000 new locomotives and 200,000 new freight
cars will have to be furnished in the near future.
In the years 1912-13, when the locomotive and
car factories of Russia were taxed to their highest
capacity, it was demonstrated that Russia could
supply from 1,700 to 1,800 locomotives and 40,000
to 50,000 cars annually. When it is thus further
considered that approximately 1,300 locomotives
and 30,000 freight cars must be retired every year
as no longer serviceable, it is revealed that the -
net rates of increase in locomotives and cars dur-
ing the best days in Russia were approximately
500 and 15,000 respectively. Thus it appears, if
Russia is dependent entirely upon its resources,
provided certain detail material can be secured
promptly from the outside, it will take at least
10 years to build the 5,000 locomotives immedi-
ately necessary, and at least 13% years to pro-
vide the necessary 200,000 freight cars.
Actually the conclusion has been reached that
this period of ten years for 5,000 locomotives and
13% years for 200,000 freight cars must be cut
at least in two. In order that this be accomplished
it is intended as quickly as possible to utilize
whatever locomotive and car building facilities are
securable in foreign countries. Furthermore it is
intended to rehabilitate as quickly as possible,
through installation of new machinery, the severely
taxed repair, and locomotive and car building
facilities of Russia itself.
The foregoing part of the program of railway
rehabilitation merely confines itself to the low
rate of railway expansion which prevailed in Rus-
sia before the war. If Russia is to progress as it
undoubtedly will, and if railway building receives
the impetus it should under the revised economic
system, additional large amounts of equipment
will be needed for many new lines and branches.
New Railway Projects in Russia
Railway development, under the Czarist Govern-
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November 6, 1920
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ment, resulted in a net low level of railway im-
provement. The existing government has dele-
gated the management and development of the
entire railway system of Russia to the Commis-
sariat of Ways and Communications. It has re-
cognized very clearly the weaknesses of the old
order of things, and has set about, in spite of
many other pressing problems, to study and or-
ganize comprehensive projects for the improve-
ment of its railway facilities. Coupled with this
are plans for far-reaching developments in the
mining and metallurgical fields, the increase of
coal production in the Urals, Siberian, Don and
Donetz regions, the development of hemp and cot-
ton cultivation in Turkestan, the irrigation of
barren and sterile lands, the developments of oil
industries in the Embea and Ukha regions, the
utilization of the vast lumber resources of the
north and of Siberia, which are not only needed by
Russia itself, but by foreign countries as well.
And lastly, the vast agricultural developments of
the new and as yet unpopulated parts of Siberia
and Southeast Russia all are expected to con-
tribute to the increased demands for new railways
and waterways. A long and interesting story alone
could be written on the remarkable economic pos-
sibilities which exist and which can be developed
with an ever increasing rapidity after peace has
once been established throughout Russia.
It has been pointed out very effectively during
the last two or three months that nothing is per-
haps of such great importance to the stabilization
of economic conditions in the world as the reopen-
ing of the great granaries of Russia. At the basis
of this whole situation lies the Russian railway
problem. Consequently every car, every locomo-
motive, every rail which in the future is supplied
to Russia will help by just that much in the
bringing about of improved living conditions so
sadly desired the world over.
The plans which have thus far been developed
for the extension of railway systems in Russia have
been, initiated and carried forward in most cases
by the local communal units and authorities who
are directly affected. The judgment of the rep-
resentatives of these territories upon all questions
connected with the future development of rail-
ways in their localities is always carefully sought.
The period when these problems were solved in the
remote depths of the Petrograd chancelleries has
passed, and passed forever. The time has also
passed when the final decision for the building
of railway lines and their operation rested with
this or that high-ranking, remote, disinterested
government or financial official. The people of
the different localities are encouraged to initiate
plans and proposals for the extension of railway
facilities. Local discussion of these problems the
country over stimulates their thorough study and
consideration from all sides and angles, so that
satisfactory and permanent solutions may be even-
tually secured.
A list of the projects considered by the Com-
missariat of Ways and Communications, shortly
by LiOOglC
after its organization, in 1918, along the lines
indicated above is given below. Previous to their
submission to the central commissariat, they have
been carefully studied by engineers and experts
in conference with interested communities and
regions. There are already many well worked out
plans looking towards the realization of these pro-
posals as soon as materials are available and the
Red Army can be converted into a labor army for
universal constructive service. Among such plans
and projects the following may be mentioned:
1. Kotlas-Soroki. This line is proposed for
carrying local freight, mainly timber, also freight
from the Ural and Siberia directly to the Arch-
angel and Murmansk coast, avoiding the Vologda
Junction. Besides reducing the distance, this is
extremely important because it relieves the con-
gestion of the railroad line connecting Petrograd
and Viatka. This congestion has been increasing
each year so that the Vologda branch is no longer
able to take care of all the freight although meas-
ures for its enlargement have been taken.
2. Yekaterinburg-Sinarskaya and Shadrinsk-
Kurgan. This line is of extraordinary importance
because it relieves Kurgan-Chelyabinsk and
Tumen-Omsk sections of the Siberian railroad,
which are overloaded even in peace times, and
brings the Siberian freight nearer to the northern
ports. When the Kazan-Yekaterinburg line will
be completed the new projected line will open a
direct outlet for Siberian freight to Moscow. This
is very important, for it will supply central Russia
with food-stuffs from southwestern Siberia.
3. TavdarTobolsk is of great importance be-
cause it connects the North Ural region with one
of the biggest harbors of Northeastern Siberia.
4. Kotlas~Solevarni-Verkhoturye~Tumen. This
line must be built next because the line Viatkar
Perm-Yekaterinburg-Kurgan, with the increase of
export, will soon become overloaded. It will not
only reduce the transit for the Siberian and Ural
freight, but will also attract much of the local
shipments, and will be of great significance for
colonization purposes.
5. The second Kurgan-Omsk route. Simul-
taneously with the building of the above lines, it
is essential to build a second track on the Kurgan-
Omsk railway without which it will be impossible
to carry all the freight from Siberia shipped
through this district going not only to the north-
west, but also to Central Russia.
6. Yermolino-Nizhni-Novgorod-Simbirsk-Kinel
will connect by direct line Petrograd with Tur-
kestan, especially after the Petrograd-Rybinsk is
completed. Besides its importance for long dis-
tance traffic this line will play an important part
in the internal exchange of commodities and will
facilitate the supply of the central industrial dis-
tricts with cotton and foodstuffs because this line
in its southeastern part will pass through grain-
growing regions.
7. Krasny-Kholm-Swir or Yaroslav-Povenetz.
The next preceding line must be provided with an
outlet to the Murman coast. The two variants
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
461
Railways in European Russia
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SOYIBT BUSSIA
Norember 6, 1920
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named in the title to this paragraph should be in-
vestigated from the economic and technical side.
The latter direction, although longer, passes
through a region better suited for colonization
purposes.
8. South-Siberian trunk line. The construc-
tion of this line was begun early in 1918, but was
interrupted by the Kolchak adventure. This road
together with the Orenburg-Orsk railway and its
junction with the Kulundinsk near Slavgorod is
necessary for the transportation of food supplies.
With the construction of this railway the granaries
of the southwestern section of Siberia will find
an outlet not only to the oenter of Russia, but
also to foreign countries. In the near future when
Barnaul is connected with Kuznetsk, a new outlet
will be provided from the Altai district.
9. Rybinsk-Krasnoufimsk- Ufaleirlshim- Yeni-
seisk-Pacific Coast. Next in order comes this line
owing to its great economic, transit, and coloniza-
tion importance. It is the second more northerly
Trans-Siberian trunk line which connects Petro-
grad with the Pacific coast by the shortest route,
through one of the ports on the Amur where it
empties into the Gulf of Tartary.
10. The Trans-Volga region railroad. For a
more complete connection on the northern ports
with the industrial centers, and serving them, it
will be necessary in the near future to consider the
construction of the Trans- Volga region railroad
through Kazan to £he station Mahturovo of the
Northern Railway line, thence either to the line
of intersection of the Kotlas-Soroki with the Arch-
angel line, or to the city of Povenetz and the Mur-
mansk Railway. The choice between these two di-
rections will entirely depend upon the results of
the technical and economic surveys.
Railway Lines Important for the Interior of
Russia
Besides the railway lines necessary for transit
purposes in both internal traffic and the export
to foreign countries, it is necessary to build a
whole chain of trunk lines of great economic im-
portance, mainly for Russia proper. Among the
railroad lines which should be built in the first
place are the following :
11. Saratavo-Chernyshevskaya with a branch to
the station Millerovo and a continuation to one
of the ports of the Azov sea, and the building of
a bridge across the Volga at Saratov to be built
without delay. The construction of this line and
bridge, together with the completion of the lines
Troitsk - Ursk - Orenburg - Orsk and Uralsk-Iletsk
will provide the shortest route for the exchange
of commodities between the Donetz Basin and the
Azov Sea on one side and the Trans- Volga region
on the other.
No matter what the political relations between
the different parts of Russia may be, the exchange
of commodities on these lines is bound to go on
very intensively, because only the Donetz Basin
can supply the Trans- Volga region with coal, con-
veying it further to the Ural ore-beds. To be sure
Digitized by tjOOgJC
the Kuznetzk coal region is farther removed from
the Urals and yet the railway lines for transporting
this fuel to the Urals are still but a project. The
building of those lines is more difficult, more ex-
pensive and not so important as the branch under
consideration. Returning cars on this line oaa
carry to the ports for export the food supply from
the grain producing Volga region.
12. Nikolaevsk-Samara or Saratov-Samara. One
of these lines must be built for straightening the
coal route from the Donetz Basin to the Ural i*
connection with the construction of the railroad
Saratov-Azov Sea. At a conference in Saratov the
Urban-Balakovo-Samara line was also considered
for serving the same region.
13. Oreriburg-UforPerm. A start has been
made on the construction of the line Orenburg-
Ufa which has a purely local character. In order
to utilize this branch for transport of the rich
northern mineral resources of the TJrala it is neces-
sary to extend it to Kungar or Perm.
14. Kiskan-Begdyash. Approximately in this
direction a line must be built to take care of the
mine districts of the Southern Ural slope (Koma-
rovsky, Magnitnaya mountain, etc.).
15. Moscow-Donetz-Basin-Azov Sea. This line
is of the same importance for the Moscow region
as the line Saratov-Azov Sea has for the Trans-
Volga regions and the Ural. Until the political
situation clears up, it will be necessary to post-
pone the building of this line, but it has to be
kept in view for the first opportunity. In the same
category belongs the long planned Kozlov-Swyat
or Krest-Vladikavkas line.
16. I nza-Penza - Tokarevka - Kharkov. The
building of this line, at least that part which will
connect with the line Moscow-Donetz Basin, should
be begun immediately, upon our internal life be-
coming more or less normal. This line will bring
order into the whole railway net of the region,
for it will help to relieve the existing congestion
of the lines and enable it to take on new freight
from the entire maze of new lines in the region
which are being or will be built later.
17. Aleksandrov-Oai-Chardjuv. This line will
be important for the internal exchange of com-
modities. It will relieve the Orenburg-Tashkent
railroad and will supply the central industrial re-
gion with cotton from the district of Amu-Darya,
and with petroleum from the district of Embinsk.
With the further development of cotton culture in
Central Asia and with the occupation of all avail-
able land for cotton raising, the growing popula-
tion of the cotton region could be supplied by the
same railway line from the Trans- Volga region
with grain and other commodities of prime im-
portance.
18. Petropavlovsk-Kokchetav-Chiderty. It has
been found that the first section of the line should
be built during the year, because of its importance
in provisioning the region. The importance of
this line will grow considerably when extended to
Chiderty on the Southern-Siberian railway (under
construction) &s it will make possible the exchange
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of commodities between northern Siberia, rich in
timber, and the Altay region, rich in agricultural
products. In addition to this, between Kokchetav
and Chiderty, there are beams of excellent quality
coal, which is of great importance in supplying
fuel to the railway and the iron industry of the
Ural.
19. Kurgan-Aibasar-Pishpek. Of almost equal
importance as, the previous line is the line Kurgan-
Atbasar. The construction of this line will find a
new outlet for provision cargoes from the south-
west of Siberia to the center through the com-
pleted line Kazan-Yekaterinburg and the line
Shadrinsk-Kurgan. The latter line must needs be
started during the current year, and if possible,
a temporary traffic over the line should be opened
during the food supply campaign. By continuing
this line to Pishpek through the Spassky works
access will be secured for food supply freight to
Turkestan, thus making a short cut between Tur-
kestan, and the western part of Siberia and the
territory adjoining the Ural.
20. Inzo-Kokchetav. Permission to survey the
ground for this line was evidently given prema-
turely, as its local and transit importance can not
be ascertained until the Southern-Siberian line
has been built. In the near future it would be
sufficient to survey and, if the results prove satis-
factory, to build the line Kustanay-Kokochetav,
which is important for provision transit.
21. Barnaul-Kuznetzk. Construction should be
undertaken immediately after completing the
Southern-Siberian line or possibly simultaneously
with it, in view of the fact that it will supply the
latter line and all others planned in the region
with fuel from the close-by Kuznetz coal-mine
district.
22. Kuznetzk-Telbes. Necessary to be built for
rendering more complete services to the Kuznetzk
coal-mine district.
23. Slavgorod-Semipalatinsk-Verny with a
branch to Kulja. This line is a natural continu-
ation of the Kulundinsk railroad, connecting it
with Semipalatinsk and will be of great import-
ance for exchange of grain and lumber material
between northern and southern Siberia and Tur-
kestan.
24. Tobolsk-Tatarskaya. Increases the import-
ance of the above trunk line, because it will furnish
the shortest route for the cheap Altai grain not
only to the north of Siberia, but even farther to
North European Russia and its northern ports.
Lines Important for Colonization Purposes
25. Perm-Pechora (near Uakshinsk) is to con-
nect for the first time the rich Pechora region
with the railway-net of Russia.
26. Kotlas-Ob (through Yakshinsk to the port
Chemashovskaya) . With the building of this line
timber-material will have access to the northern
ports. After the war this timber will be extensively
exported abroad from the basins of the Pechora
and the Ob.
bydGOgle
27. Kostroma-Afanturovo-Kotlas. This line
must attract timber material to the center of Rus-
sia, and on return hauls will distribute the Volga
freights among the counties of the Vologda and
Kostroma Provinces. It will also cross the best
farm lands of the province of Vologda — the region
of flax cultivation — and will hasten a transition to
higher forms of agricultural economy (the manu-
facture of oil) for which there are very favorable
conditions.
28. The Bay of Indiga-Ust-TzilmarYakshin-
skaya and further to Tobolsk or Turinsk. This
line is to be surveyed next. Aside from its impor-
tance for colonization purposes, this line, in case
it is possible to build at Indigskaya Gooba, a good
port, protected from Arctic ice, will be the short-
est trunk line for the transportation of Siberian
and Ural freights to the Arctic Ocean.
29. Archangelsk-Mezen-Shilma. It has been
planned by the technical conference of Petrograd.
Yet the significance of this line, and still more its
urgency is problematic and, therefore, it is neces-
sary only to survey the line most carefully from the
technical and economic points and put it on the
list of constructions only in case of weighty re-
sults obtained by the survey.
Branch Lines of Industrial and Local Importance
A well laid railway plan for connecting the in-
dustrial centers, factories, plants, mines with trunk
lines by means of branches is necessary for the de-
velopment of local industries. Such branch lines
must be laid out for the Ural, Altai, and the
Embinsk petroleum district, in the industrial cen-
ter, etc. The most important ones, however, many
of which have been partly begun, are the follow-
ing:
30. Tom-Bogoslovskaya line connects the sta-
tion Kemerovo of the Kemerovo branch of the
Kolchuginskaya railroad with the Altai coal mines
of the former Bogoslovsky Company in order to
supply the Bogoslovsky metallurgical district with
coking coal. Construction has been started and
must be finished without further delay.
31. Ugolbaya line from the Nadezhdinsk Works
to the coal mines of Bogoslov.
32. Samarskaya railroad £rom the Nadeshdinsk
Works to the Samarsky region of iron ore-beds.
33. Bogomolovskaya line from the station Ver-
khnyaya on the Bogoslovskaya railway to the cop-
per-pyrite beds of Bogomolovsk.
34. Sosvinskaya narrow gauge line from the
Nadeshdinsk Works to the Sosvinsk Works to con-
nect the Siberian water-system. Tumen-Irtysh-
Tobol-TavdarSosva, with the district of Bogoslov
and with the county of Verkhoturye in general.
The value of the last four branches is plain.
Their construction has already started and it is
necessary to complete them in the nearest future.
In the mining region of Verkh-Isetsk four other
branch lines have been begun, the completion of
which at a near date is absolutely essential for
the development of the activity of mills in these
regions.
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35. Karpushinskaya narrow track line.
36. Pyshminskaya narrow gauge line.
37. Cheremshanskaya broad gauge coal-carry-
ing branch.
38. Bursunskaya broad gauge coal-carrying
branch. The construction of the following branch
lines must also be begun immediately in the cen-
tral industrial region:
39. Kirshach-Oreykhovo. Establishes a passage
of the southern transit freight to the north, avoid-
ing the Moscow "Knot", intersects the peat beds
and passes through the factory district.
40. SeredarPles. Creates a new outlet from the
Shuysky-Ivanovsky district to the Volga, unloads
the port of Kineshma and the railway divisions
KineshmarYermolino and Novkv-Shuya.
41. Makaryiev-Semenov, which crosses the for-
est low land estates, undeveloped owing to the
lack of railway facilities. This line will open an
outlet for the lumber freight to Nizhni and to
the Volga.
Furthermore, construction of the following lines
must also be considered for the near future :
42. Vichuga-Yuryevetz. Must serve for receiv-
ing lumber material, floated down the rivers Volga,
Unzhe, and Nemde for the Moscow and Ivanovsk
district and for satisfying the local trades.
43. Kalyazin-Novki. Is of great importance
for the lumber trade and industrial enterprises of
the central region. It will shorten the transit
between Petrograd and the regions of Nizhni and
Vladimir.
44. Uglich-Rybinsk. Gives direct connection
between Rybinsk and Moscow, passes through for-
est lands and is of great local importance.
45. Belkovo-Chelkovo brings Moscow within
reach of Shyusky-Ivanovsky industrial region.
46. Tambov-Morshansk, passes through locali-
ties rich in forests.
47. The Dolgorukov branch from the station
Elnya on the Eyazan-Uralsk railroad is also neces-
sary for the exploitation of the local wealth of
lumber.
48. Iletzk-Orsk shortens the haul.
49. Fatezh-Malo-Archangehk is of importance
for the transportation of provisions.
50. Mishkino-Kurtamysh is also important for
transportation of provisions, though less so than
the line Kurgan-Atbassar, with which it must com-
pete. f
Two maps indicating nearly all of the projected
lines mentioned in the foregoing accompany this
article. Reference thereto will be of great interest
in explaining the details referred to.
The foregoing information which has been
gleaned from many important and reliable reports
issued by the local and central railway administra-
tions in Russia, amply Teveals the fact originally
pointed out that a very far-reaching and thorough
policy in railway rehabilitation and extension is
in the making at the present time in Russia.
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Notes on Russia
By William Hebzog
(May — August, 1920)
June 1, 1920. We are on our way to Samara.
A ship is coming towards us. There is music on
board.
At 10.30 in the morning a drive through the
city with Russell and Mrs. Harrison. The others
in autos to the Soviet House, where a meeting is
to take place. We stroll through the streets of
the very ugly city. Dirty and without individu-
ality. In the main street in front of the church
we meet a slender little woman who is carrying
three great round loaves of bread in her two hands.
Mrs. Harrison draws her into conversation in Rus-
sian, and a man joins our group. He says he is
a Jewish worker. He and the woman speak a
broken German. Both are complaining. It has
never been as bad as this. Nothing to eat, laments
the woman with the three loaves of bread. No
freedom, wails the alleged worker. It is true, ho
adds — when I question him in what respect the
Jews had been better off under the Czarist rule —
it is true the Jews suffered no longer as a race,
they have equal rights with the others; but the
cost of living is so dreadfully high. As on a
phonograph this world-wide complaint is repeated
over and over, and yet it loses nothing of its jus-
tification by this constant repetition.
The woman invites us to her home. We follow
her, curious to see how these plaintive petty bour-
geois really exist. So far as we could see, their
home, consisting of three or four rooms, was fur-
nished with the customary bourgeois fittings. Her
husband, whom she introduced to us, had been
a master tailor. Together they bewailed two grown
sons who were in America, one of them an engi-
neer, the other a physician, and at the sight of
the neat photographs of these two good sons all
the smug vanity of the bourgeois came out to bask
in the sun of his family pride. The woman con-
tinued to whine about everything and nothing,
raged against the Terror, told stories of atrocities,
and every look and every word begged sympathy.
We were soon to learn how much sympathy she
really deserved. The proof of the justification for
her complaints followed immediately. She invited
us to tea, implored us to remain, that we were a
godsend to her, for now she could cry out her
sorrow over the misery and the suffering which
had come over Russia. And when we declined, she
went out, and with the evident intention of tempt-
ing us to remain, returned with a loaf of the pur-
est white bread which I had seen in six years. She
declared that she knew what was due to German
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guests, and there should be no lack of genuine tea
and sugar. When I delicately hinted that their
condition could hardly be so deplorable, since they
had such beautiful white flour for their bread, she
smiled slyly, and her little eyes became like two
pinheads: "Oh, I have been storing that flour
for two years !" And the sugar and the genuine
tea and the butter, also, most probably. However
we investigated no further, for our doubts in the
beginning turned to certainty that all her crying
And whining about misery, and the cruelty of
the Soviet authorities was due to the fear of be-
ing arrested as a speculator. We thanked her very
cordially for the view she had allowed us of her
house, and left this hospitable little usurer, who
for obvious reasons could be no friend of a new
order so foreign to her thought and feeling.
But it is important to realize that aside from
the counter-revolutionists of aristocratic and capi-
talist extraction none are so dangerous to the Bol-
sheviki as just this stratum of open and secret ene-
mies, these petty profiteers and speculators.
* * *
At the house of the German pastor, by the name
of Lintius. He is out of the city. His wife, a
lanky lady wearing gold spectacles, receives us in
his library. She obligingly answers all our ques-
tions for information. In a very matter of fact
manner, simply and decisively, this woman, whose
philosophy and whose whole nature must make
her anything but a friend of the Bolsheviki, draws
for us a graphic and unvarnished picture of the
true conditions, and of the difficulties and the ef-
forts of the Communists to prepare a sound foun-
dation for the improvement of the people's con-
dition.
With a few simple illustrations she describes
for us every-day life:
The workers (who belong to the first category)
receive a daily ration of one pound of good bread.
The second category receives three-quarters of a
pound a day. Aside from this only one-half pound
of salt and two boxes of matches per month are
furnished. There should also be meat, fish and
oil rations, but none of these supplies are given
out. One egg costs forty rubles, one pound of
butter from 1,000 to 1,500 rubles.
The children's food dispensaries receive the con-
fiscated supplies of the speculators. The children
have the best of it. They receive a nourishing
soup with a piece of meat and tasty gruel for
lunch. Samara alone has sixteen of these chil-
dren's dispensaries. All the children in fhese in-
stitutions look well-nourished and well-dressed.
• • *
Shortly after our return to the ship we are
visited by the Commander of the Military District
of the Volga, Baltiski. This former Czarist of-
ficer and member of the great General Staff, is in
the service of the Revolution since 1917. He
answered my questions for information in the most
amiable manner. The soldier in the Bed Army
receives 1,000 rubles per month, the non-commis-
sioned officer 2,000 rubles, the commissioned of-
Diailized bv v.^CKl)QlC
ficer 3,000 rubles. The higher officers' up to the
general of any army 6,000 rubles.
Last year the class of 1901 was drafted. Every
man possible is taken on. The general temper of
the army: that of the victor.
* * *
At seven in the evening, a meeting of the Soviet
of Samara. In a great theater. The pictures of
Karl Marx, Liebknecht, Lenin, Trotsky in the
lobby, on the stage, around the house. Red flags,
standards, banners bearing revolutionary slogans
are seen before the wings. A great band from
the Red Army strikes up the Internationale. The
enthusiastic mass in its great unity, its palpable
longing with which it appeals to the foreign dele-
gates, and which culminates in the barely spoken
and yet so audible cry : "Carry on the work which
we have started", is powerful and compelling.
There is no doubt: the English delegates are
waking illusions, hopes, in the breasts of the Rus-
sian proletariat. Will they fulfill these hopes?
The masses are being stirred up by the represen-
tatives of a nation whose government is using
Poland and Baron Wrangel to make war on them.
These representatives of the English working class
are being welcomed by the Russian proletariat
with a touching enthusiasm. They are being
cheered. The Russian proletariat, of whatever
party, expects powerful assistance from the Eng-
lish. Very soon. Are they .mistaken? Will they
be disappointed again? The Englishmen, whose
words often sound revolutionary, seem honest citi-
zens, reformist-opportunistic Socialists. Arrived,
self-satisfied, enjoying their posit ion, at peace with
the world. No revolutionary, class-conscious
fighters.
TERROR IN RUSSIA
"There were two 'Reigns of Terror', if we
would but remember it and consider it; the
one wrought in hot passion, the other in
heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere
months, the other had lasted a thousand
years; the one inflicted death upon ten thou-
sand persons, the other upon a hundred mil-
lions; but our shudders are ail for the 'hor-
rors' of the minor Terror, whereas, what is
the horror of swift death by the axe compared
with lifelong death from hunger, cold, in-
sult, cruelty, and heartbreak f What is swift
death by lightning compared with slow fire
at the stake ? A city cemetery could contain
the coffins filled by that brief Terror which
we have all been so diligently taught to shiver
at and mourn over; but all France could
hardly contain the coffins filled by that older
and real Terror — that unspeakably bitter and
awful Terror which none of us had been
taught to see in its vastness or pity as it
deserves/' — A Yankee in Kino Ajtraro's
Court. — Mark Twain.
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The intrigues of the Officials of the Cooperatives
^ , Statement of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission
T N THE period when foundations were being
laid for the rehabilitation of the economic life
rf the country the Soviet power was naturally and
inevitably constrained to make use of the services
and experience of the old cooperators to supply
and distribute the necessaries of life to the popu-
lace. Favored at times with great confidence from
the organs of our power and working apparently
hand in hand with them, the cooperators have al-
ways maintained that despite the divergence of
political convictions and views with regard to the
world events which are now developing and with
regard to the course of our revolution they can
nevertheless work conscientiously and honestly in
conjunction with the Communists on the basis of
the cooperatives, since the latter are absolutely
neutral. The favorite refrain of the leaders of the
old cooperatives, which have outlived their useful-
ness, to justify their existence was the allegation
that the cooperatives were non-political, that their
activity was of a purely humanitarian character,
similar to the activity of the Red Cross, that they
did not interfere with the political activity of the
ruling power, and so forth. But all these were
only phrases. Actually the "neutrality" towards
the Soviet power took the form of a camouflaged
underground struggle against the entire course of
our economic policy within the country, while be-
yond the Soviet boundaries the leaders of the co-
operatives, finding themselvs within the sphere of
the White Guardists, immediately threw off the
mask of "neutrality" and in this case sincerely and
cheerfully joined the united front of the enemies
of Bolshevism.
Thus, for instance, in his report to Denikin,
which was published in the Bulletin of the Coop-
natives of South Russia No. 2, of December 10,
1919, a member of the Governing Board of the
(hntrosoyuz, Mr. N. M. Mikhailov, wrote : Wher-
ever the cooperative organizations found them-
selves in the sphere of influence of the Volunteer
Army they immediately and this time sincerely
and willingly established close relations with you,
sometimes suffering bitterly from the Bolsheviki
when the Bolshevik power would be temporarily
restored."
At the present time the All-Russian Extraordin-
ary Commission is in possession of ample materials
disclosing with incontestable clearness this under-
ground aide of the activity of the group of old
cooperators that has still remained in the Govern-
ing Board of the Centrosoyuz. In the course of
the investigation made in connection with the case
about the abuses in the Petrograd branches of the
Centrosoyuz and Centrosectsia (which abuses had
taken place before the fusion of these two organiza-
tions into one) it was established that the above-
mentioned group, behind the back of the other
part of the Governing Board, was carrying on its
secret activity which conflicted with the interests
of and the tasks set by the Soviet power. Having
connections with the center of the Russian co-
operatives in the western countries through Mr. A.
M. Berkenheim, who found his way to England
and played there such a "sensational" role in the
question of the resumption of trade relations, this
group was receiving from him instructions and
directions which, in the last analysis, aimed at the
restoration in Russia of free trade, of the de-na-
tionalization of the banks and so forth, that is in
other words, at the overthrow of the Soviet power
through economic meanR, which is fully in accord
with the theses of Mikhailov propounded in his
report to Denikin.
Thus, last , year, on the eve of the expected
occupation of Petrograd,* the aforementioned part
of the Centrosoyuz gave directions to V. N. Kro-
khmal (formerly a member of the Menshevik Cen-
tral Committee), in aocord with instructions which
they received from England from Berkenheim,
with regard to a number of financial operations
and to the further activity of the Petrograd branch
in the event that Petrograd would be captured by
the Whites, the instructions clearly revealing the
hand of the hidden instigators, namely foreign
capital. Among other things the instructions state :
"Find export commodities, spend for the pur-
chase of these commodities all the means in your
possession, spend all that you will obtain from the
sale of our goods, and send everything to us. Do
not worry about profits. Sell at the prices that
you can get, and the profits or losses we will
count afterwards. And don't be too particular
with regard to the commodities (for export). Flax,
hemp, lumber, we can use everything. Even books.
We have heard that there are in Petrograd editions
of the Russian classics at comparatively low prices,
and these goods are now in great demand here. We
recommend that you seriously consider this ques-
tion. In the lists of export commodities you should
not confine yourselves to Petrograd, you should
invesigate also the surrounding district, of course,,
leaving a certain part of the commodities for the
district. If necessary, you should establish con-
tact with and work through other cooperative or-
ganizations. In general, this is an important mat-
ter just now, and the whole future of our relations
depends on its successful solution."
On the basis of these data the Ail-Russian Ex-
traordinary Commission found it necessary to ar-
rest the members of the Governing Board of the
Centrosoyuz, D. S. Korobov, V. A. Kuznetsdv and
Lavrukhin, and to undertake a thorough investi-
gation of this case.
Chairman of the All-Russian Extraordinary
Commission, Dzihrztkski.
by LiOOgle
* By Yudcnkh.
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Order of the Council of People's Commissars
On becoming cognizant, through the report of
the Chairman of the All-Russian Extraordinary
Commission, of the charges brought against a
group of members of the Governing Board of the
Centrosoyuz, the Council of People's Commissars
resolved : that, while the case is pending, the fol-
lowing persons shall be suspended from the Gov-
erning Board : Korobov, Lavrukhin and Kuznetsov,
who are under arrest; Selgeim, Lenskaya, Vakh-
mistrov and Mikhailov, who are abroad, and their
three substitutes in Moscow, Sakharov, Pruss and
Sergheiev.
Chairman of the Council of People's
Commissars, Ulianov (Lenin),
Chief Clerk, Bonch-Bruyevtch,
Secretary, L. Fotyeva.
April 22, 1920.
APPEAL TO OFFICERS IN WRANGEL'S
ARMY
Christiania, September 14, 1920 (Rosta,
Vienna). — Officers of Baron WrangePs army!
Time and experience must have shown you clearly
what a criminal role was imposed upon you by your
leader. While toiling Russia bleeds in the strug-
gle with the Polish nobility aided by the robbers
of all lands, you, Russian officers, are playing the
part of auxiliaries to the Polish landlords. Who
is leading you? A Russo-German baron who has
intrigued against Denikin, accusing him of undue
democracy and who represents monarchist Rus-
sia. Aware of his impotence, Wrangel is ready to
yield to his lords and protectors three-fourths of
Russia in order to enslave the remainder himself.
English newspapers have revealed WrangePs secret
pacts with the French Government. According
to the Daily Telegraph of August 19, Wrangel
has ceded to a French sjTidicate the monopoly of
export and import in all South Russian ports.
The Daily Herald of August 30 states that Wran-
gel has accorded to the French bourgeoisie the
right to exploit all railways of European Russia,
the control of grain export at pre-war prices, and
three-fourths of the production of coal and naph-
tha. Everything Wrangel does depends on the
favors of Anglo-French capitalists, who for the
sake of economic subjugation of the Russian
people are ready to use any one, whether Czecho-
slovaks, black colonials, or WrangePs hordes.
Whatever original purposes you may have had,
you are now but the hirelings of Capital, and the
prop of the Polish aristocracy that has always
hated the toilers of Russia. WrangePs efforts to
occupy the Caucasus have been thwarted, his land-
ing parties have been destroyed. Sooner or later
your master will suffer a terrible defeat. You
cannot doubt this any longer; but the event will
be achieved at the price of your blood and ours,
and of new privations for our country. Have you
not had a lesson ? Is it not clear that all further
strife only strengthens the Polish lords, and helps
them to subjugate East Galician and Russian ter-
itory? The new Russia of the workers and peas-
ants is in need of labor and of economic and cul-
tural reconstruction. This can be attained only
with the termination of this senseless and pur-
poseless civil war. In the name of all that is hon-
est in Russia, guided by the need of reconstruc-
tion of laboring Russia, we appeal to you: Give
up your role of hirelings of Poland, of the French
usurers. Lay down the weapons that you are using
against your brothers, and freely join the Soviet
power. Officers of WrangePs army! The Gov-
ernment of Workers and Peasants for the last time
extends to you the hand of reconciliation.
President of the Central Executive Committee,
N. Kalinin.
President of the Council of People's Commissars,
Ulianov, (N. Lenin).
President of the Military Revolutionary Council
of the Republic, L. Trotsky.
President of the Extraordinary Council of the
General Staff, A. Brussilov.
PRESS LIES REPUDIATED
Moscow, October 18. — Every day brings new
absurd inventions about Russia. The latest fairy
tale is about alleged rising in Moscow. This is a
pure invention. There is not the least ground for
this absurd fabrication as complete order reigns
in Moscow. There are no disturbances, no anti-
Soviet movement; there is not the least trace of
any unrest.
Moscow, October 15. — The news about an al-
leged rising of sailors in Petrograd is an absurd
lie. Nothing of the sort has happened. Reports
about the alleged creation of an anti-Bolshevik
government in Nizhni-Novgorod are totally untrue,
pure inventions. Also Budenny never rose. He
remains unswervingly faithful to the Soviet Gov-
ernment. There has been no rising of insurgents
in Kiev. At present there is in the capitalist
press a general orgy of calumnies and lies.
Soviet Russia Pamphlets
An important rearrangement of this valuable
series has been made.
1. Labor Laws of Soviet Russia. Third Edi-
tion, revised and enlarged. Containing all the
matter included in the first and second edi-
tions, together with a 30-page supplement on
"The Protection of Labor in Soviet Russia,"
by S. Kaplun, of the Commissariat of Labor.
About 90 pages, price 25 cents.
2. Marriage Laws of Soviet Russia; with the
Laws on Domestic Relations. New and re-
vised translation. About 60 pages, price 15
cents. In preparation.
Bound in heavy paper covers.
Special Rates in Quantities
Address :
"SOVIET RUSSIA"
110 W. 40th St. Room 304 New York. N. Y.
by t^
A
IC
■--■I I '_| I I I U I IT
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET EUSSIA
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Wireless and Other News
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TROTSKY TO THE RED FLEET
Moscow, September 25, 1920 (Rosta, Vienna).
— Trotsky has addressed the following order to the
Red Fleet: The Central Executive Committee of
the Soviets of Workers, Peasants, and Cossacks de-
cided on September 23 to propose a ten day's
armistice to the Polish Government and to sign
the preliminaries of a peace treaty. In doing so
the Central Executive Committe has given proof
of an extraordinary spirit of conciliation having
in view the end of hostilities as soon as possible.
Red soldiers and sailors should remember that
we have not waged war for conquest, annexations^
contributions, or glory. We are defending the
Republic of Workers and Peasants. We are wag-
ing war for peace. Not at the price of blood, but
concessions do we intend to attain peace. Our
supreme power, the Central Executive Committee,
is making today an effort to spare the working
masses of Soviet Russia a fourth winter campaign.
Each Red sailor should comprehend the meaning
of this decision. All commanders and all political
and military commissars of the Red Fleet, and
of the sailors' formations on land, are ordered to
communicate and explain these decisions to the
sailors.
GENERAL WRANGEL
Odessa, September 25, 1920. — General Wran-
gel, accompanied by a foreign military mission and
newspaper correspondents, left for camp. In sal-
uting one of his regiments the general declared
that he and his army fought, not merely to anni-
hilate Bolshevism and to redeeom Russia, but to
save the culture of the world. That his faithful
army was the only power which would break the
waves of Red Internationalism that are extending
over all western Europe and are threatening to
invade America.
BAKU HAS NOT BEEN EVACUATED
Moscow, September 25, 1920. — Chicherin has
telegraphed to Litvinov as follows: "The news
spread by radio press concerning the pretended
evacuation of Baku is absolutely false and absurd.
It is contrary to truth."
CONGRESS OF THE METALLURGICAL
WORKERS
Moscow, September 24, 1920. — The Interna-
tional Congress of Metallurgical Workers, repre-
senting three million workers, has passed a reso-
lution against the capitalist war with Soviet Rus-
sia. The Congress requested all organizations to
prevent most energetically the war waged by in-
ternational capitalism against proletarian Russia.
This war is not directed against Russia alone,
but also against Socialism. The congress pro-
tested against the White Terror in Hungarj
COMMERCIAL RELATIONS
Moscow, September 25, 1920. — According to
the report of the Commissariat for Foreign Trade
the commercial relations of Russia with foreign
countries is improving daily. Over two million
poods of merchandise have been imported from
Sweden, Germany, and England. Canada has per-
mitted Russia to open credit in Canadian banks.
Russia has ordered, in Czecho- Slovakia and other
countries, great quantities of agricultural and
other merchandise. Russia actually has at her dis-
posal merchandise valued at one hundred million
dollars ready for export. This does not include
stocks of cereals, oil and wood stored in distant
provinces.
CULTURAL WORK IN SOVIET RUSSIA
Moscow, September 29, 1920. — Some Russian
factories have commenced the production of paper,
but not in sufficiently large quantities. To spread
the daily news among the working masses, the
Soviets post the journals which are read by mil-
lions throughout Russia. There is also a spoken
journal which is very popular among illiterates.
It is read publicly by some one in the villages, and
is greatly enjoyed by the villagers.
The Central Committee of the All-Russian Fed-
eration of Arts, with a membership of 150,000,
sends its fraternal greetings to all the writers and
artists of the West. The committee expresses its
conviction that the proletariat alone can guaran-
tee the free development of art.
At the third session of the Central Executive
Committee, the Commissar of Public Instruction
has given the details of the steady increase of
primary schools. The number has grown from
55,000 in 1911, and 73,000 in 1918, to 87,000 in
1920. The schools are attended by five million
children.
Moscow, September 25, 1920. — The Commis-
sariat of Public Instruction intends to found a
university in Tashkent (Turkestan).
A RUSSIAN SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION
Moscow, September 25, 1920. — The steamer
Dolphin, having on board a scientific mission sent
by the Soviet Government to Kanin Nos, has ar-
rived at Archangel. The ship also carried several
thousand poods of fish.
rror in Hungary
byOougle
KALININ IN THE CAUCASUS
Moscow, September 24, 1920. — During his so-
journ in the Caucasus, in the village of Armavir,
the president the Central Executive Committee,
Kalinin, made the acquaintance of the local priest.
The latter was converted to Communism, and is-
sued an appeal to the population inviting them to
support Soviet Russia with all their strength.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
November 6, 1920
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TROTSKY TO INTERNED SOLDIERS
Trotsky has addressed the following letter to
Bed soldiers interned in Germany :
Moscow, September 29, 1920. — Bourgeois Ger-
many wishes to exploit the internment of Red
troops in Eastern Prussia to arouse differences be-
tween the officers and the Red soldiers, and even
to recruit troops to Wrangel's cause. This coun-
ter-revolutionary propaganda will bear no fruit
mnless our interned brothers are neglected. This
must not be. The interned soldier should observe
that the preponderant majority of the German
people, themselves suffering under the yoke of the
Entente, have naught but sentiments of sympathy
and fraternal solidarity for the Red Army. The
millions of German workers are with us. Our
brothers in Eastern Prussia must know and feel
that we have not forgotten them, that we have
fulfilled our promises, and that Soviet Russia is
thinking of them. Moreover, our comrades must
conduct themselves in their difficult situation in
captivity as they did in the Red Army in Russia,
namely, as conscious militants of the international
proletariat. The moral solidarity of all comrades
must not weaken. All honest soldiers of the Red
Army must evince abroad the same discipline and
conscious solidarity. Provocateurs and traitors
must be expelled from the community of Red sol-
diers. Fraternal greetings to our interned Red
soldiersi Be brave and disciplined Communists!
NORWAY AND RUSSIA
The following communication was sent to the
Government of Norway:
The Central Governing Body of the Northern
Workers* Party and the Secretariat for the Na-
tional Trade Union Organizations of Workers have
been eagerly following the public discussions aris-
ing with regard to commercial relations with Rus-
sia. It is clear from the agitation going on in the
bourgeois press that powerful forces are at work
attempting to prevent a commercial agreement
with Russia. It has also been publicly announced,
without later denial, that the French Government
through its representative in Christiania has made
representations to the Norwegian Government on
the subject of the sojourn of Litvinov, Represen-
tative of Soviet Russia, in Christiania. The Sec-
retariat and the Central Governing Body are of
the opinion that the government's view of the
question does not coincide with the interests of
tiie Norwegian people. And this our view has been
strengthened by the manner in which the authori-
ties (particularly the policy of the city of Bergen)
have acted towards the Russian Trade Delegation
which recently was in Christiania.
In this connection we lodged a firm protest
against such treatment of foreigners who come to
this country as guests of the Norwegian working
class. Both the National Organization and the
Party will in the future take every step to prevent
the re-occurrence of rach incidents.
As for the commercial relations with Russia, it
must be demanded that the government should
meet half-way the request to bring about a com-
mercial agreement which will make it possible for
Russia to carry on regular trade in Norway. This
is a demand which first of all concerns the fishing
population, but also the rest of the working class,
in fact, the entire Norwegian people; for all are
interested in securing for one of the country's
most important occupations conditions to develop
without any artificial obstructions.
For the Norwegian Workers' Party,
Kyrbb Gkbpp.
For the National Trade Union Organization
of Workers, Olb 0. Lian.
ANTI-BOLSHEVIK PROPAGANDA
Vienna, October 1, 1920. — The press publishes
from time to time alarming news about Russia.
According to these reports, rebellions, internal
troubles, famines, etc., are the order of the day in
Russia. The false news is almost always spread at
the moment when the western workers make an
assault upon capitalism. On the occasion of the
recent action of the Italian workingmen, for in-
stance, a counter-revolution in Petrograd was fea-
tured. The news is almost always dated at Hel-
singfors, Stockholm, Viborg, or Reval, and relates
a conspiracy against the People's Commissars, the
assassination of Lenin by Trotsky, or describes bat-
tles in the streets of Moscow, etc. The anti-Bol-
shevik journal, New Russia, gives a list of anti-
Bolshevist agencies. Here are the names : Berlin,
A. V. Ditmar, Schellingstrasse, 2, Hotel Schnei-
der; Vienna, J. Perski, Wahringstrasse 5; Hun-
gary, Budapest, A. Chariton, Terezkornt, 34;
Czecho-Slovakia, Prague, I. Klopotonaky, Tabor-
sky 15; Poland, Warsaw, H. Tennenbaum, Novo-
lipie ; Finland, Helsingf ors, Alman, Preesbyrg, As-
planadgatte 23 ; Terioki, Mme. Bogdanov ; Greece,
Athens, Lefteraidolis and Earth, Librairie Inter-
nationale; Latvia, Riga, Ed. Petxhold, Schluh-
meala; Esthonia, Reval, A. Pumpinsky; South
Russia, Sebastopol, office of Zarya RossU; New
York, office of Russkoye Slovo.
RUSSIANS ARRESTED IN ALEXANDRIA
Odessa, September 25, 1920. — The police of
Alexandria have arrested three Bmasians accused
of having attempted to blow up transports of
munitions destined to go to Wrangel.
by Google
HARVESTING IN RUSSIA
Moscow, September 25, 1920. — In the gov-
ernments of Perm, Vladimir, Tambov, ekL, the
crops are being gathered very satisfactorily. la
some districts the entire population between the
ages of fifteen and fifty-five have been mobil»d
for work in the fields.
Original from
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
November G, 192*
SOVIET RUSSIA
471
Books Reviewed
By A. C. Fbeeman
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Thb Bolshevik Theory. By R. W. Postgate.
Dodd, Mead and Company, New York.
The New World. By Frank Comerford. D.
Appleton and Company, New York.
Mr. Postgate and Mr. Comerford represent two
opposing conceptions of the Russian Revolution.
Mr. Postgate looks upon the movement as a note-
worthy historical phenomenon, to be studied and
interpreted by scientific methods. Mt. Comerford
regards it as a strange outburst of human deprav-
ity, to be excoriated in fine frenzies of rhetorical
denunciation. In reading the two books one is
forcibly reminded of the arguments between
Galileo and his inquisitors. Mr. Postgate observes
political and economic facts as they are. Mr.
Comerford sets up a curiously fictitious theory of
the Russian Revolution, and wants to hang, draw
and quarter anyone who challenges its accuracy in
any detail.
Now the theories of the Russian Communist
Party have been subjected to an extraordinary
amount of ignorant and malicious misrepresenta-
tion. Certain excited individuals all over the world
have created a gory monster out of their inner
consciousness, labelled it "Bolshevism", and en-
dowed it with most incongruous limbs and fea-
tures.
Mr. Postgate shows quite clearly that "Bol-
shevism", which still remains the popular name
for the principles of the Russian Communist Party,
is simply the logical and immediate application of
the economic philosophy of Karl Marx. Despite
the name "Communism", which is sometimes mis-
understood by English readers — it does not imply
a community of goods such as was practiced in
some cases by the early Christians and other pri-
mitive communities and advocated by Sir Thomas
Moore in his "Utopia".
John Spargo, the chief professional "exposer"
of Bolshevism in this country, has solemnly ar-
raigned the Soviet Government as a product of
"Blanquism", without explaining very clearly what
this term means. Mr. Postgate points out that
there is not the slightest resemblance oetween the
ideals of Blanqui and the aims of the Russian So-
viet Government. Blanqui was a revolutionary ro-
manticist, who believed in violence and revolu-
tion as ends in themselves. He never displayed
any clear conception of the new order which should
replace the old. It is simply absurd to compare
him with the men who, in the face of enormous
obstacles, have wrought the greatest work of social
reconstruction in all history. The author disposes
of the equally senseless accusation that the Bol-
sheviki are "Hebertists" in the following passage
"Blanqui has been dead a long time. However,
in searching for evil words to throw at the Bol
sheviks, men have gone even further back. An<?
since we are raising revolutionary ghosts, we migt *
as well consider their last attack — 'Hebertist6. The
Bolsheviki are Hebertists/ This, however, is mere-
ly silly. There is not, and never was, such a thing
as Hebertism. Jaques Rene Hebert, Deputy
Procureur of the Commune of Paris in the year
of our Lord 1793 and III of Liberty, may in his
youth have been touched by the flame of the Revo-
lution. But when he came into notice he was but
a sordid seeker for power, picking up the passing
ideas of the sans culottes and making them more
savage and violent, crying always for blood to sell
his journal. His gospel was only the gospel of
getting on, of self aggrandizement, and that by the
worst means — excitation to murder. Anybody,
particularly a journalist or politician, who inflames
the anger of a mob against a minority, is a Heber-
tist. Nearly all existing governments are Heber-
tists. But, all the same, Hebertism is not a
theory."
Mr. Postgate makes an excellent and convincing
reply to Karl Kautsky's book, "The Dictatorship
of the Proletariat", which is an attack on the Rus-
sian Soviet Government and a plea for Kautsky^s
own particular brand of "moderate" Socialism.
Kautsky wilfully or unconsciously misstates the
whole case for the Russian Revolution when he
raises the academic question: is dictatorship (in
general) or democracy (in general) theoretically
preferable? This was not in any sense the issue
at stake in the November Revolution. On the con-
trary the question was : whether a temporary dic-
tatorship of the proletariat was not necessary in
order to save the toiling masses of the Russian
people from the clutches of domestic and foreign
exploiters.
Kautsky, moreover, attempts to bolster up his
case with several grave historical misrepresenta-
tions. He asserts that "all shades of the Socialist
movement" participated in the formation of the
Paris Commune. Louis Blanc, the only recognized
French Socialist leader of the time, certainly did
not participate. Kautsky also argues that the
Commune was based upon universal suffrage, a
theoretical truth which is practically invalidated
on account of the non-participation of the proper-
tied classes in its deliberations. Kautsky further-
more makes the astounding statement th» f
Russian Moderate Socialists were will ; "^ U>
their arms in readiness" in IT*'/ . a ._-•;■ 1
peace could not be arr*^ ; -w . '
* ' ■ V x heder- » - „,
■ - .-! ; ..;' '- v ■• ' ,k and
\j ^ .oiing of the
' '■< t ^ Constituent As-
> '« 3 ■ ■ - clear and scholarly analysis of
r i o igy of the Russian Revolution shoald
"v many doubts and misapprehension. It
. 1 i » 'ecomxQciided. bj ^nerican readers who
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
November 6, 1920
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wish to gain an accurate idea of the scientific the-
ories which inspired the creation of the Soviet
Government.
Mr. Postgate'8 sanity and scholarship are doubly
welcome in the light of Mx. Comerford's lurid
rhetorical outbursts. Mr. Comerford, according
♦o H~ t"* 1 * 1 *" 1 — «*.--j. n v- gtudy of un-
j • : .* ! • * ae Bolshevik
: *• •* ■-•' -' . ! i '„ - . ed so relent-
' i r. • - v -u-\[- :ku itself to his
»•• *".ii ,' is hypothesis
:- i: ;- » . nge mistakes
njnca are scattered broadcast throughout his book.
Mr. Comerford repeatedly refers to Yoffe, the head
of the Soviet delegation in the recent negotiations
with Poland, as "Joffre", apparently confusing
him with the well-known French Marshal. Again,
he speaks of "the coal fields of upper Galicia, to be
determined by the plebiscite between Poland and
Germany." No doubt Galicia and Silesia mean
much the same thing to Mr. Comerford's mind,
which boldly assails the most difficult problems of
economics and political science, while it scorns
such elementary subjects of knowledge as history
and geography.
In reading Mr. Comerford's concrete accuse
tions against the Soviet Government one is con-
scious of a curious sense of familiarity. There is
the inebriated Bekhalev, chairman of the Ural
Soviet; surely his misdeeds have already been
called to the attention of the American public
And there is the scandal in the village of Olkhi,
where the authorities are accused of manufactur-
ing illicit liquor; surely this has been published
before. When we come to the tax irregularities in
the county of Dekiashkov, in the third district of
Vitebsk, we suddenly recall the sources of all these
stories. They were published in Struggling Rus-
sia, before that harassed magazine gave up the
ghost; and, if we are not mistaken, Mr. John
Spargo, Mr. William English Walling, and others
now busily engaged in "exposing Bolshevism ,
have already made ample use of this material. In
regard to these accusations it may be observed that
the regulation of liquor and the apportionment of
taxes are apt to be thorny and controversial sub-
jects in the best regulated communities.
Incidentally, the passing of Struggling Russia
is an evil omen for Mr. Spargo, Mr. Comerford,
and all the gallant band of propagandists who lay
claim to encyclopedic knowledge about Soviet Rus-
sia without having set foot in the country and
without knowing a word of the language. This
drying up of the main fountain head of their
"knowledge" leaves them quite dependent upon the
stray tales of emigres and Polish propagandists.
en
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THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. Burtsev and Benes. A revelation of anti-Soviet intrigues in Czechoslovakia.
2. Two Interviews With the Soviet Peace Delegation at Dorpat. An account of two
interviews with the representatives of the Russian Delegation, ManuUsky representing
Soviet Ukraine, and Obolenski, by Mr. Linski, Riga correspondent of "Kuryer Polski"
of Warsaw.
3. British Capitalism Against Soviet Russia, by Lieut. Col. Cecil L'Estrange 2d alone, M-
P. A.j A Speech delivered by Col. Malone in the House of Commons as contained in
the official report of the proceedings of the English Parliament.
4. Litvinov. A Biographical sketch accompanied by photograph.
5. .Moscow in 1920, by Dr. Alfons Ooldschmidt. (Seventh Instalment.)
6. Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $&50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks,
to L. C A. K. Martens.)
(Make all checks payable
110 West 40th Street
SUBSCRIPTIONS UCKEVBD BY
SOVIET RUSSIA
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, November 13, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 20
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limed Weekly at 110 \V\ 40tb Street* New York, N. Y. Ludwi* C A. K. Martens, Publisher, Jacob Wittiaer Hartmanti, Editor.
Subscription Rate, $S.0O per annum. Application for entry aa second class matter pending. Changes of address flhouM reach the
office a week before the changes are to be made.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Poland, Lithuania, and Soviet Russia, by
N. Ossipov ♦..-,.- 473
Military Review, by Lt,-Col, B, Rous tarn Bck 475
Moscow in 1920, by Dr. Alfons Goldschmidt
(Seventh Instalment) ♦ . . ♦ 477
Burtsev and Benes 482
Editorials • . 484
page
The Russian Blockade and American Cotton 487
Poland and Soviet Russia, by N. Lenin 488
British Capitalism Against SovrET Russia,
by Lt.~CoL Cecil UEstrange M alone . 489
Murder of Baku Commissars 491
Wireless and Other News , 493
A Letter to Llovo George 495
Poland, Lithuania, and Soviet Russia i
By N. Ossipov
[The article herewith reprinted from "Petrogradshaya Pravda" of August 19 is not as recent
as we should like, but it becomes more timely by reason of the new occupation of Vilna by the Pol-
ish Gabriele D'Annunzio, whose name is General ZeligowsJcu The "insurgent" Polish troops un-
der the tatter's leadership are said to be strongly disapproved of by their home government, but it
will be interesting to note whether it takes the Polish Government as long to take Zeligowsii out
of Vilna as it is taking the Italian Government to get D'Annunzio out of Fiume.]
T^HE question of Vilna has been the cause of
* strife between the landlords' Poland and White
Lithuania ever since these two republics have come
into existence* The Polish Government would
not reconcile itself to the existence of an independ-
ent Lithuanian republic in which there was a
rather strong group of Polish gentry and in which
the Polish priests, who play an important part in
the aggressive imperialist efforts of the Polish
Government f had considerable influence. Having
seized Vilna, Poland could not become reconciled
to the fact that Lithuania, which looked upon
Vilna as her ancient capital, claimed this city as
her own. On the other hand, the White Lithu-
anian Government was dissatisfied with the fact
that the Lithuanian Republic embraced only the
province of Kovno and small parts of the provinces
of Grodno and Suwalki, and therefore persistently
strove to find powerful allies among the Entente
nations who would defend Lithuania against Pol-
ish encroachment and would secure for her, at
least in the far-off future, boundaries generous
enough to include Vilna as the capital.
Both the Lithuanian and the Polish govern-
ments used every possible method to justify their
claim on Vilna on the ground that its population
was Polish or Lithuanian. Both sides tried to
prove by statistical calculations and machinations
that Vilna, as well as the province of Vilna, in-
dubitably are an ethnographic part, of the country
to which the respective statistician happened to
belong.
Poland had seized the province of Vilna by force
of arms, but resorted also to the stylish phrases of
a plebiscite and self-determination of the popula-
tion, alleging that the population has definitely
expressed itself in favor of Vilna province becom-
ing a part of Poland, This plebiscite and self-
determination were carried out in a very "ori-
ginal" manner: the Polish gendarmes went
through the populace and inquired of everyone
whether he was for Poland or for Lithuania.
Naturally, in view of the vast power possessed
by the Polish gendarmes, who could without any
reason at all throw absolutely innocent persons
into the awful Polish prisons and keep them there
for months, this plebiscite carried out by gen-
darmes gave astonishing results. A large number
of villages with hardly a single Pole among their
inhabitants were recorded as being unanimously
in favor of Poland, The Poles, through their Gen-
eral Commissariat of Eastern Lands, organized
packed district and provincial conventions where
resolutions were unanimously adopted in favor of
joining Poland.
Any attempt to protean against this falsified
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SOVIET RUSSIA
November 18, 1920
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expression of the will of the population was sup-
pressed. Hundreds and thousands of active Lithu-
anians of the provinces of Vilna, Grodno and
Suwalki were thrown into prisons, where they
suffered indignities that could be inflicted only by
Polish jailers. The Polish military police was
especially violent in small towns and villages,
where they subjected the Lithuanian prisoners to
flogging and other torments in the name of patri-
otism and love for Poland.
On its part, the White Lithuanian Government
retaliated with repressions against Polish citizens
of Lithuania, who were striving to destroy the
Lithuanian Republic from within and to have it
declared a part of "Great Poland".
The antagonism between the Poland of the gen-
try and White Lithuania reached its climax but
recently, when war between these two young re-
publics seemed inevitable. The Polish Govern-
ment was trying to provoke such an armed con-
flict, in its imperialistic blindness hoping to swal-
low Lithuania without any trouble. Only the in-
tervention of Lithuania's protector, Great Britain,
prevented these provocative designs of the Polish
Government from going any further than the hys-
terical attacks of the Polish press against Lithu-
ania.
Convinced that the Entente, and particularly
Great Britain, would not allow Poland to attack
Lithuania, the Polish Government resorted to the
services of its agents, the social-traitors of the
Polish Socialist Party, who sent a special dele-
gation to Kovno to negotiate with Lithuanian
representatives and to settle the Polish-Lithuanian
relations. But the delegation suffered a complete
fiasco, for Niedzialkovski and his fellow-delegates
to Kovno were given to understand that as long
as Poland would not renounce her designs on Lith-
uania, and would not leave Vilna and put an end
to terroristic methods of governing Lithuania, there
could not and would not be any understanding
between Poland and Lithuania. Instead of form-
ing an alliance with Poland against Soviet Rus-
sia, Lithuania found it more profitable to start
peace negotiations with Soviet Russia, which led
in the end to the conclusion of a peace treaty.
Poland was, of course, infuriated by these nego-
tiations, which began at the very moment when
the Polish imperialistic hopes were most radiant,
and when the Polish press, intoxicated by victories
after the capture of Kiev, was shouting that Pol-
and, having in her hands also Vilna and Kovno,
could dictate the fate of all eastern Europe. Had
this situation continued a little longer and had
not the victories of the Red Army considerably
diminished the imperialistic passion of Poland,
the latter would not have tolerated the continua-
tion of the peace negotiations between Lithuania
and Soviet Russia, and despite the advice of Eng-
land and of the whole Entente, would have ac-
tively attacked Lithuania and put an end to the
existence of this republic. But the decisive change
in the fortunes of war (in favor of Soviet Russia),
which followed the capture of Kiev, put an end to
by LiOOgle
the dreams of the Polish gentry to seize Lithuania.
The great offensive of the Soviet army towards
Lithuania and White Russia, which followed im-
mediately, forced the Polish Government to a com-
plete change of front with regard to Lithuania,
to which until then Poland deemed it impossible
to accord recognition, and she announced through
her new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sapieha, the
de facto recognition of the Lithuanian Republic.
The continued advance of the Red Army and the
resulting retreat of the Polish troops, which soon
turned into flight, brought to the front the ques-
tion whether it would not be of greater advantage
for Poland to surrender Vilna voluntarily to Lith-
uania rather than to be compelled by the Red
Army to give it up at the cost of many losses.
The circles which are grouped around Pilsudsky
preferred the first choice to the second, and they
began negotiations with Lithuania to have Vilna
occupied by White Lithuanian troops before the
entry into that city of the Red Army, so that the
latter on approaching Vilna would be confronted
by an accomplished fact of Vilna having been pro-
claimed the capital of Lithuania. But the Naro-
dowa Demokracja* expressed its emphatic and
categorical opposition to such a solution of the
question, refusing even at this grave moment for
Poland to renounce "the historical claims" of Pol-
and on Vilna, and but two days before the glorious
military corps of Comrade Gay entered Vilna the
Dwa Grosze, a Warsaw national-democratic news-
paper, raised an alarm against the Polish political
leaders who were ready to renounce Vilna in favor
of the Lithuanians. The negotiations between the
Poles and Lithuanians on the question of Vilna,
which were carried on in Vilna itself, led nowhere,
owing to the pressure of Warsaw and Vilna Naro-
dowcy; and the commander of the Polish forces in
Vilna, General Boruschak, solemnly announced
that Vilna would be defended to the last drop of
blood and called upon the Polish residents to arm
themselves for the defence of the ancient Polish
city. The Polish Socialist Party also issued an
appeal to the populace which exceeded even Gen-
eral Boruschak's appeal by its stupid attacks on
the Red Army and its wild yarns. But both ap-
peals had no effect. Vilna fell under the blows
of the Red Army.
At the last moment, when the first detachments
of Comrade Gay's corps were already near Vilna,
and when in the city itself the remnants of the
Polish forces were looting the defenceless inhabi-
tants at their stores and homes, the Polish com-
mander invited two representatives of the Lithu-
anian committee of Vilna and informed them that,
in accordance with an order which he had received
from Warsaw, he turned over the city to the Lith-
uanian Committee.
This "surrender" of the city was carried out to
say the least, in so peculiar a manner that the
"brave" Polish commander could not even present
to the Lithuanian representatives a copy of this
* The National Democratic Party of Dmowski and Paderearslri.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
475
historic order in writing, for knowing of the ap-
proach of the Bed troops he found it impossible
to lose any time in copying the order, and retired
in a hurry, leaving the surprised representatives
of the Lithuanian Committee absolutely unable to
see what they should do with the city which was
"surrendered" to them by the Polish authorities,
and into which advance detachments of the Red
Army had already entered.
Immediately after the entry of the Red troops
into Vilna, the local Communists organized a
Revolutionary Committee, which announced at
once that all the power was in its hands. Only a
few days later it became known in Vilna that a
peace treaty between Soviet Russia and Lithuania
had been signed in Moscow, and that according
to the treaty Vilna and the province of Vilna will
become a part of the Lithuanian Republic, the
treaty to go into effect within a certain time after
its ratification by both sides.
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
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YI7 E WERE! correct when, in spite of the state-
* * ment to the contrary issued by some of the
foremost European military experts, we declared
that the Southern Front in Russia would be liqui-
dated before winter.
Baron Wrangel is defeated and defeated stra-
tegically. Both his "armies", which had fought
along the Dnieper on the Kherson-Yekaterinoslav
front, as well as on the Yekaterinoslav-Alexan-
drovsk-Mariupol front, are completely routed, and
some are forced to lay down their arms, while the
rest must seek refuge near the swampy Sivash
Bar, by trying to cross it in order to reach Crimea.
France and England, the main supporters of
the Crimean Baron, are in a state of great con-
fusion. The peace between Poland and Soviet
Russia entirely destroyed the whole scheme which
French strategists for a' long time have so care-
fully prepared. Once again the Red Army has
succeeded in settling its account with its enemies,
one after the other. Trying in despair to save the
situation of the South Russian adventure, the im-
perialistic coalition in spite of the state of peace
existing between Soviet Russia and Poland, en-
couraged the well-known bandit and traitor Bala-
khovich to continue his hostilities on the Russian
Western Front, which certainly has not and can-
not present any strategical importance whatsoever,
but may cause a little political uneasiness to the
Soviet Government, as well as a certain amount of
useless and criminal bloodshed.
As it was reported on November 2, the Balo-
khovich bands entered Minsk and are moving east-
ward with Smolensk as their objective, after the
usurper's declaring White Russia to be an inde-
pendent state, and convoking a "Constituent As-
sembly."
It is well known that the armed bands of Bala-
khovich do not represent the Polish army. Bala-
khovich joined Yudenich before the latter's fam-
ous dash on Petrograd, in which he took an im-
portant part- As one of the commanders in the
Red Army, enjoying the full confidence of the
Soviet Government, Balakhovich occupied with his
forces a very important position on the front,
when he entered into negotiations with the Es-
thonian bourgeois government, and finally sold it
the whole Pskov district. Henceforth he became
an unforgiving enemy of Soviet Russia. And such
a man is actually supported by the French and
English ; such they need and are choosing in their
sacred fight for "democracy". In the present case,
peace with Poland came so suddenly and unex-
pectedly for the Allies, that their general staffs
were not ready to instruct their counter-revolu-
tionary leaders in time in regard to their further
operation in Russia, and finally the Balakhovich
movement was started, after so much delay that it
did not produce even the effect of a mere demon-
stration upon the outcome of the Wrangel cam-
paign in South Russia.
Had such a movement taken place at the end
of September, after Baron Wrangel had reached
Alexandrovsk, and his battle front extended to
the north of that town, it would have strengthened
WrangePs position.
In order to understand this, as well as to realize
the importance of the recent victory of the Red
Army in South Russia, let us remember the report
of the Associated Press from Sebastopol as late as
September 27, 1920. "General Wrangel, the anti-
Bolshevik leader in South Russia, has made pris-
oners of nearly 20,000 Bolsheviki north of Alex-
androvsk.
"With the aid of the Ukrainian General Makh-
no, it is reported that Wrangel controls the famous
Donetz Coal Basin. Wrangel will attempt to car-
ry on a winter campaign. It is asserted that he
has obtained a guarantee of $1,000,000 with which
he is purchasing needed supplies, including shoes,
overcoats, and blankets. It is said that a Turkish
munitions plant is being established for Wrangel
outside of Stambul."
The cable from Constantinople of September
28 gives further details : "The t roops of General
Wrangel are continuing to pursue the Bolsheviki
along the railroad east of the Dnieper, beyond
Alexandrovsk, according to the communique issued
by General Wrangel's staff. North of Alexandrovsk
we have captured thirty-three locomotives in good
condition, 1,000 cars, ten machine guns and 1,000
prisoners. "The officers of the Kussian staff have
made public a proclamation inviting their col-
leagues now serving with the Bolsheviki to join
General Wrangel."
"Reports of an important anti-Bolshevik move-
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raeiit in the neighborhood of Kharkov, 150 miles
north of Alexandrovsk, have reached here. Gen-
eral Makhno, with the aid of local insurgents,
is said to have attacked Bolshevist positions to
the south of Kharkov" (New York Times, Sep-
tember 30). And this was at the moment when
the Eed Army on the Polish front, engaged in
constant rearguard actions, was gradually retreat-
ing in the regions of Grodno, Pinsk, and to the
east of Eovno.
A little more than a month has since passed,
and the victorious Eed Army has completely liq-
uidated the Wrangel battle-fronts. Already in
the middle of October, while there was no news
of the Wrangel "victories", the Beds began their
vigorous counter-offensive.
The Dnieper Eiver was crossed by the Eed
troops from Kherson to Yekaterinoslav at many
points, and its eastern bank fell into the hands
of the Soviets. Here the Eed Army entrenched
itself in very strong positions and, in a state of
active defense, awaited the full concentration of its
reserves. In vain the enemy tried to force the
Beds back across the river, and finally the enemy
was severely defeated at Nikopol, in the very mid-
dle of its battle front. The losses of the Wrangel
forces were so heavy that it was said the French
General Staff was afraid to make them public.
At the same time, as we kn'ow, Eed detachments
were landed in the vicinity of the ports Mariupol
and Berdiansk, on the Sea of Azov. Thus the
northeastern front of the enemy was not only out-
flanked, but also threatened in its rear, and, as I
have declared in one of my former articles, was
doomed to destruction. What I conjectured has
come to pass. The Wrangel front, which was
called a "permanent" front by General Maurice of
England, and which extended from Yekaterinoslav
to Mariupol, was broken by the Eed attack and
started its disorderly retreat, which gradually as-
sumed the character of a panic-stricken flight.
Finally, the strategical railway parallel to Volno-
vakha-Alexandrovsk-Kherson fell into the hands
of the Eed Army, as well as, a little later, the
railway triangle Alexandrovsk-Starokonstantinov-
Feodorovka, thus deciding the fate of Melitopol,
which as was reported on November 2, was cap-
tured by the Beds.
Meanwhile the Soviet troops which captured
Aleshki, southeast of Kherson, on the east bank of
the Dnieper, moved towards Perekop, which was
also captured about November 2, as well as the
single railway line which was still left to Wrangel,
that of Simferopol, cut off by the Beds moving
from Berdiansk, thus preventing the enemy from
continuing his retreat into Crimea. In short,
what I had foreseen about a month ago took place :
in one article I severely criticized the statement
of the British military expert, General Maurice,
who had firmly declared that Wrangel would hold
his present positions during the coming winter
because the Bed troops were absolutely unable to
concentrate a strong army on the Southern Front,
after their failure in Poland. The situation of
the retreating Wrangel army was a desperate one.
As far as we have been informed, he succeeded
in concentrating on both his battle-fronts 100,000
men. These fronts formed an acute angle, with
the apex at Yekaterinoslav. The sides of this angle
ran in the west to Kherson, and in the east to
Mariupol. At the moment when Berdiansk, west
of Mariupol, and Alexandrovsk, south of Yekater-
inoslav, were captured by the Reds, the battle-
fronts of the belligerent sides were shortened by
about one-third of their length. For the Bed
Army this was very favorable, because of the
strengthening of their reserves, while for Wrangel
it became disastrous. The space behind his battle-
front quickly became diminished and there was
not only not room enough for rearrangement of his
forces, but even for a normal tactical retreat,
thanks to the lack of railways and of roads suf-
ficiently developed for mechanical transport. The
retreating troops of the beaten enemy directed
their panic-stricken flight towards the remnant of
the Simferopol railway which already was threat-
ened also from the south by the Beds, who cap-
tured Perekop and entered the Crimean peninsula.
The only way for escape that now remains for
WrangeFs bands was that across the Sivash Bay,
but even here he is unable to effect an orderly
retreat.
All that the beaten Crimean Baron can do now
is to use the reserves of guns remaining in Crimea,
in order to offer some resistance in the eastern
part of Crimea, using for the purpose the Sebasto-
pol-Simferopol-Dzhankoi part of the Simferopol
railway, with its branches extending to the west
as far as Eupathoria, as well as to the east to
Feodosia and Kerch. But such a resistance is out
of the question and has no strategical importance.
We must not forget the fact that Wrangel was
in reality prepared for a winter campaign, and as
far as I know, from very creditable sources, es-
tablished throughout all the occupied regions,
many supply bases which are considered to be very
important. There is no doubt that he had to
abandon all these materials during his retreat, be-
cause there was no possibility or time to destroy
them and no opportunity of evacuating them.
Therefore the booty of the Bed Army must be
tremendous, and it comes just in time. During
the last six months, the expenditure of the Red
Army in ammunition and war materials was very
great, but it was a very necessary expenditure.
As usual, the Bed Army has again been success-
ful.
You Have Friends
who would subscribe to Soviet Russia if they
knew of its existence. You know best how to
get new subscribers for us. One way is to send
us the names of persons who might like to learn
about us. We shall send them sample copies of
Soviet Russia.
SOVIET RUSSIA
110 W. 40th St. Room 304 New York, N. Y.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
477
Moscow in 1920
By Db. Alfons Goldschmidt
(Seventh Instalment)
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The Third Internationale
Its office is in the building formerly occupied
by the German Legation. Deneshnyi 5. In a side
street. The chairman of the Extraordinary Com-
mission lives not far from there.
The day after my arrival in Moscow I spoke
with Badek in the study of murdered Coiiht Mir-
baeh. Radek called my attention to it.
It is a beautiful building. An airy vestibule,
hung with tapestries. The salon and reception
room of the legation look as they did in Mirbach's
time. At least so I was told. They showed me
the spot where Mirbach was struck by the bullet,
and the line along which he staggered until he
collapsed. They do not like to think of that hor-
ror. The Bolsheviki wanted to work with Mir-
bach, they regretted the murder in helpless wrath.
So I was told in Moscow. They described the
murder to me in detail, the auto, the flight of
the murderers. It was a shameful and useless
crime.
Klinger, the Secretary of the Third Interna-
tionale, has his office in a room on the ground
floor, not far from Sadek's study. He is a slender
man, with a great beard and many nerves. Not
robust, and often bent with the weight of his of-
fice. A peculiar crowd swarms in and out. Here
all the races come together, all those who have a
longing for Moscow. From Asia, from Europe,
from America they come. There is a twittering
of languages, a map of heroic proportions. The
history of the Third Internationale is perhaps the
most interesting history in the world. It is a
large scale political stpry, a story of sacrifices, a
story of far-flung interest, almost like the history
of Popedom.
I do not know how well this globe-embracing
organization functions. Only a few people are
working in the office. It is quiet here; but it is
from here that red trumpets ring forth. Looked at
architecturally it is a little Vatican. Perhaps its in-
fluence is no less than the influence of the Vatican
upon the world. It is not an artificial influence,
it is merely an organization center, a centralized
organization of an existing force, a developing
force. Revolutions, like religions, are not things
of force, things to be grafted on, but they are
matters of development and growth.
Behind the building there is a small park. It
is sadly neglected.
The grass is tall and uneven, the fountain plays
no more. Its statue is weather-beaten. While
the Third Internationale is growing strong, the
park is crumbling away.
Among Bourgeois
They live in an exclusive street in Moscow. In
a good house, with an elevator in the vestibule.
But elevators do not function in Moscow at pres-
ent. Power must not be wasted, for fuel is scarce.
A great power distributing station is in opera-
tion near Moscow. It was built (in peace times)
by a German firm. By Von Siemens, the A.E.G.,
and the porcelain factory of Rosenthal. A gigantic
net spreads over the Moscow district from here.
The power station operates, operates efficiently, but
it does not supply as much power as one would
like, for power must be saved*
Nor are the elevators in the government offices
running. At least one pair of soles is used up in
climbing to the top floor of the building of the
Supreme Council of National Economy, for the
elevator is not running. One arrives there with
fagged-out lungs. But no matter, the elevator
stands still. Blessed ration system.
In Moscow one never says a bourgeois, but bur-
zhui or burzhoi. It is the modern attempt at botch-
ing verbalisms, the popular tampering with vocal-
ization. There are many such modern verbal tam-
perings, such modern short cuts, modern perver-
sions. For instance, spezi for specialist. By
spezi, in Moscow, is meant not an expert; but the
rebellious expert, the sabotaging expert, the lazy
expert is so designated.
Burzhuis do not live in the sewer. Far from it
They are not starved for air, forced to do without.
I saw tables in their house, chairs, oil paintings,
"real" oil paintings. I sat on a sofa covered with
rep, and was invited to partake of the roast.
Mrs. Burzhiii was wrapped in a negligee. Per-
haps it was a kimona. I am no expert in such
matters. I do not even know whether pa jama
is of the masculine or neuter gender. But it was
a good piece of wearing apparel, undulating, and
reaching down to a pair of light-colored house
slippers. On her feet were silk stockings. I was
asked to dinner.
In the third room stood a baby carriage, a bour-
geois baby carriage, with a faithful soul beside it.
It was a nurse. A real nurse, not a phantom
nurse, a fourth dimensional apparition of a nurse,
but a nurse of bone and breast. A nurse of the
sort used by babies. Hence a vaulted nurse, not a
shallow, flat one. It was a real nurse.
The magnificent Landa was with me at the
Burzhuis. He is a Communist, and is entirely
surrounded by a leather suit. The toes of his
right foot, to be sure, cannot exactly be 6aid to
be surrounded. Or rather, they are surrounded
by air, if I might say so. But it was warm Mos-
cow air, summer air, quite harmless to the toes.
Of course, it cannot be said that it was particularly
cleansing, but it was warm.
In addition, the magnificent Landa wore an
Everclean. Everclean is the perfect thing. Ever-
clean is absolutely laundry-proof. One needs only
one Everclean, one needs no more. The magni-
uhiy Lnji i r ur nn
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ficent Landa washed his Everclean every morning
with a little tea water. Then it flashed and burst
into white glory in the warm rays of the Moscow
sun.
A bit of lace over a right hand studded with
diamonds was flirting across the table with Landa's
Everclean. Beside it stood a young lady — a young
lady, not a girl — with silk stockings, and draped
in a large striped swath of silk, with soft eyes and
bitter complaints.
For now tegan a discussion of the system, of
the problems. The Burzhuis were not satisfied with
the regime. No one can blame them for that.
For this regime certainly is no garden of Eden
affair, not yet. It is rather like the management
of a farm, of a rough piece of land, with a great
many weeds, badly-hoed, and not even well-
ploughed. There is no whole-hearted joy, no Bur-
zhuis fun in sauntering along that ground. Silk
stockings or silk-stocking souls do not feel at home
there. It is no good for silk-stocking souls.
The lady with the silk-stocking soul was a Soviet
employe. The kimona lady did no work at all.
"I would like to serve the people," she said feel-
ingly, "but I cannot serve the people, I haven't
learned to do anything. Revolutions should only be
allowed after every one is competent to serve the
people."
"What can I do," she said. "I must sell my
things, for I can't do with less than 100,000 rubles
a month. Too little bread, nothing to go with it.
What can I do? I sell one thing after another.
Unfortunately," said she, "unfortunately I can-
not serve the people."
They doted on Lenin, but they complained about
others. There is much to complain of in Moscow
still. Every one actively engaged under the Soviet
is far from being a paragon of unselfishness. Un-
fortunately many of them do not serve the people.
The little silk-stocking soul, wrapped in the
swath of silk, complained too. Although she
served the people in her way, she was not earning
enough. The Soviet employes, whether male or
female, really do not earn enough, with some ex-
ceptions. Neither in money nor in supplies. The
Moscow government dinner (usually served in the
government office building) is no luxury. It is
not sufficient. The bread ration is likewise insuf-
ficient. It is mostly a matter of wage depreci-
ation. The ruble depreciates with such rapidity
that the wages and salaries simply never catch up.
But the little silk-stocking soul did not look
starved in the least. She was no skeleton, she was
a comfort to the eye. She was lively, trim, and her
nails sparkled luxuriously. She was evidently liv-
ing, and living well. Every one complains in
Moscow, and hundreds of thousands of people are
living quite comfortably.
No bourgeois can really become a friend of the
system, can really come to love it, that is. The
Moscow bourgeois, in times of peace, was lavish in
the enjoyment of his food, his drink and his bed.
He cannot get used to the vexing frugality now.
That goes without saying.
But he lives, though he may not be able to serve
the people. He lives so long without serving the
people until he has used up everything that makes
his exemption from service possible. Then, of
course, he is compelled to serve the people.
Complaints about bread, about meat, about
meals, about clothes, about money. One hears
them constantly. They are complaints over tem-
porary conditions, over the present. There is no
perspective, only a retro-perspective. That is nat-
ural, it is probably the same in other places, or
will be.
The bourgeois are no Socialists, and certainly no
Communists. They lost what Socialism gained.
For this reason their complaints are justified, for
they do not know that a gain for Socialism is their
gain too.
I remarked upon the baby carriage, upon the
baby with the vaulted nurse. I said: this baby
will one day serve the people, and will cease com-
plaining. He will not be a mere plaintive present
conditionist, he will perhaps not even be a mere
perspectivist, but may become a real human-being
seeking his happiness in the present. The past
will have become a museum for him.
Perhaps, said the kimona. Perhaps said the
silk-stocking soul. But what good will that do
us ? It will do us no good whatever. We are pres-
ent conditionists, and present conditions are not
in a nice state, they are in a state, a state . . .
We did not accept the invitation to stay for the
roast. Not because of a prejudice against roast.
I longed for a Moscow roast, I reviled the roast-
fed English Delegation. When I stopped in Narva
on my return journey, I immediately ruined my
digestion on a heaping dish of pork chops. That
is how much I longed for roast meat.
But the bourgeois roast would have been a roast
fought over and hedged about with principles.
Therefore I went home, to a meal with kasha; to
a meal served by Sasha, the Soviet cook, with her
plump cheeks, her toothache, and her willingness
to serve the people.
Profiteering and Sabotage
Moscow lives. Moscow is no starvation camp.
The women of Moscow are balloon-cheeked. Their
faces too. The children of Moscow are round-
bottomed little ducks. Moscow men are far from
anemic, far from being narrow, or spineless crea-
tures.
Moscow lives. But Moscow lives only partly on
the rationed products, only partly on the money
it earns. A large part of Moscow lives by specu-
lating. Actively and passively it speculates. It
speculates, it buys and sells illegally, it speculates,
and speculates, and speculates.
This illicit commerce is a necessary evil. For
one cannot command the people : Live on your ra-
tions — when the rationed supplies are inadequate.
That, in my estimation, is a matter of transition,
but nevertheless it is an important phase of the
Moscow psychology just at present.
There is speculation in everything in Moscow.
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From a pin to a cow, furniture, diamonds, cake,
bread, meat, everything is traded secretly. The
Sukharevka in Moscow is a speculator's bazaar, an
illicit trading-house. Now and then the police
make a raid upon it. But the speculating is not
cut down ; it is a hydra-headed monster, which re-
turns with a thousand heads.
Moscow has free market-places, a number of open
markets, officially tolerated markets, supplemen-
tary markets, markets to fill out the inadequate
rations. For instance, there is a supplementary
market near the Theater Square. There are cu-
cumbers, fish, hard-cake, eggs, vegetables of all
kinds. There are great crowds on the long pave-
ment. Booths are ranged along the edge of the
sidewalks. Dealers are sitting around, are whisper-
ing from behind into ears of prospective buyers.
The price of a cucumber is 200 to 250 rubles,
an egg is 125 to 150 rubles, and everything else
in proportion. It is not much according to west-
ern exchange value, to say nothing of American
exchange. At the time I was in Moscow a dollar
was valued at a thousand Bolshevist rubles among
exchange speculators. Some one told me of an
American who changed 3,000 dollars into Bolshev-
ist rubles. He received nine million Bolshevist
rubles. Exchange speculation is not allowed, to
make the money rate fluctuate and confuse the
market — if one can speak of a standard rate. But
there is speculation just the same. There is specu-
lation in everything, in money too, of course.
Milk is being offered at every street corner by
peasants. Good milk, not watered milk. This trade
is allowed. It is not speculation, it is a legitimate
relief and supplemental trade. But other things
are speculated in. Every rationed product in the
way of small goods is speculated in. But they
speculate in bulk products, also. They speculate
in fire wood, in clothing, in everything.
This speculating, this profiteering, this hoarding
is a serious work preventer. Speculation is in the
soul of the workers. They speculate while they
work, they speculate when they should be working.
It is being fought against, but it has been im-
possible, so far, to overcome this mania for specu-
lation. So far it has been impossible, naturally.
This is war time, and there are not enough cour-
ageous ones in Moscow to take hold of things. It
is a matter of development. I do not think it is
a cardinal question.
The problem is well-known in Germany: Fixed
prices and a ration system tempt people to break
the law. But in Russia the underlying basis is
different, the principles underlying arrest, the hy-
pothesis upon which punishment is based are more
radical and fundamental.
Moscow has always been a city of dealers. It
was a political matter during the Revolution, and
is one still. Moscow is still trading. The bourgeois
trades, the Soviet employe trades, the worker
trades. Moscow is the great port in Russia for
illicit free trade. Often the trading is a mere
process of exchange. I witnessed the following:
One man, in high felt boots, stopped and spoke
to another man in leather shoes. They ended by
going behind a laurel bush. There they both
pulled off their footwear, or leg-wear. Then the
felt-boot man put on the shoes, and the leather-
shoe man the felt boots. It was a mere exchange,
a corner trade, a trade behind the laurel bush, a
simplified moneyless business transaction, so to
speak.
The death penalty has been abolished in Russia.
It is still in vogue at the front only. So I was
told. The Extraordinary Commission is now
fighting speculators and saboteurs. Speculation is
considered a conscious interference with the ra-
tioning system, injurious to the common welfare.
Sabotage, the direct or indirect refusal to work,
is considered to be a rebellion against work, a
hindrance to work, and welfare laziness.
The speculator is popular in Moscow, popular
on posters, in the vaudeville theaters. He is not
only being fought with every means, put behind
the bars or forced to work, but he is §lso being
made a laughing-stock. I saw one comedian who
whacked a wooden doll to the tune of his refrain.
Speculator, speculator, whizzed the song against
the wooden cheek. The audience was in a frenzy
of delight, and not one of them felt himself hit.
Quite like us, quite like us, but still with a dif-
ference, looked at in the light of a problem.
There are small and large speculators, there is
petty and great sabotage. Incredible horrors are
still being perpetrated, crimes against the health
of the people, storehouse speculation of colossal
proportions. The punishment is in accordance.
Such scoundrels should not be spared, scoundrels
who steal the fuel from the freezing. Such scoun-
drels must be punished until the bones crack. I
think they are still being treated much too mildly
in Moscow.
Hard labor is supposed to be the chief punish-
ment for laziness, as well as for speculation in-
jurious to the public welfare. But it seems to
me there is too little system connected with this
hard labor. Every crime against the people should
be paid with the sweat of the brow. Such trifling
should be made good with production.
There are small disciplinary punishments for
petty sabotage, lazy sabotage, rebellious sabotage.
Certain administrative heads are vested with dis-
ciplinary powers, as for instance those of a captain
in the former Prussian army. Jail up to two weeks.
They are punishments by request. They are not
given arbitrarily, but at the instance of the Ex-
traordinary Commission.
Very little use is made of this power. Generally
offenders are merely threatened. I experienced
the following: A Soviet woman typist remained
away from the office for weeks, without an excuse.
She sent no doctor's certificate, nor did she excuse
her absence with a single line. The managing
head was clearly justified in recommending punish-
ment. At last she appeared at the office, wept,
begged, and blandished. Perhaps the lovely spring
weather had tempted her to a little spree. Finally
the managing head relented, and let the matter
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drop with a good, strong warning.
On that account the offices are constantly short
of help. On that account there is a lack of punc-
tuality, there is slovenliness and flattery when pun-
ishment is about to befall. A firm hand is needed
here. One must and does oonsider all the exi-
gencies of life, but things must be handled with a
firm hand. At least there must be a more definite
punishment. Else there is danger of indifference.
Perhaps it will be different when the war ends.
There are not enough self-assertive administrative
forces in Moscow. The majority are at the front.
But these things will change, for a reason which
I cannot go into at present, for it is a matter of
economic psychology, a matter of organization psy-
chology, a scientific matter. This book is to be
no heavy, weighty matter, but a gathering of anec-
dotes, a light diary, a recreation, and not a brow-
sweating job.
The Streets at Night
I have already mentioned that there are no pros-
titutes prowling at night. Neither during the day
nor at night. The streets of Moscow are free from
prowling women even at night. One is not con-
stantly baited, leered at, no one tempts you with
fond reference to a waist line. This form of germ
I did not notice in Moscow, either by day or at
night. *
The night is not dark in Moscow. It is not a
white night as in Viatka, in Helsingfors, or among
the crags of Finland. It is not even a dusk-like
night. It is almost a rose-colored night.
Only a few lamps light the streets. The night
glows in Moscow. Even the Bolshevist night. The
glow of the Moscow night was not a product of
the bourgeois light — the night is not revolution-
ary. It remains unconcerned about the system. It
brings peace without bothering about the system.
After ten o'clock at night the theater, the con-
cert halls, and the lecture halls begin to empty.
But life is still throbbing in the social-gathering
places, and the crowd on the boulevards is only
just beginning to come to life. Toward one o'clock
it is quiet on the dark green girdle encircling Mos-
cow, and on the street.
In May, the Moscow sun went down about ten
of an evening. An enrapturing sun, a rapturous
sun. It glitters on all the golden domes, it frolics
in a mirror with a thousand faces. It rainbows
in all these golden mirrors as it sinks beyond the
horizon. It is a gaily-colored sun, a sun which
rises once more just before it sets, rises in the
thousand domes of Moscow.
Then there is quiet. The watches are doubled.
Those brown soldier watches in the door-ways,
for the dead, and on the crossings. Men and
women watches, with the gun shouldered upside
down, or the gun held between the knees, or in the
crook of an arm propped against a wall.
We were on our way from a visit to the German
consul at three in the morning. The streets were
quite still. They echoed almost like the streets in
a small German town on a moonlit night. The
watches were dozing. I said to my companion:
What nonsense they write in the European press.
If the people could only smell this peaceful quiet.
If only they could wander through this stillness
of the Moscow streets. He nodded, was about to
answer. Suddenly a gun-shot only five paces away.
It shattered the quiet, broke it into a thousand
pieces, drove it away in all directions, hunted it,
lashed it down the street.
What was it? People passed by and did not
even look around at the watch who had fired the
shot. We passed the watch and he shot again.
What was the matter? We did not find out that
night, and we were disturbed. Perhaps the Ter-
ror was not quite gone from the streets of Moscow.
The next day I was told that they were young
militia men, greenhorns with a gun, men and
women who like to pop a gun. They are forbidden
to shoot and so they do it. It is a safety valve to
discipline. A twitching finger on the trigger and
the bullet is gone. It does not lodge in a wall,
it misses a stray cat, or whizzes into the air be-
tween the houses.
Those free with their fingers are punished if
they are reported. It is a waste of ammunition,
it is insubordination, it is childish. Several times
I heard this gun-popping during the following
nights. Then there must have been a sudden
blow-up. For the streets of Moscow became very
quiet. The rifles slept. I think someone must
have been locked up.
Any women may go through the streets of Mos-
cow at night, unmolested. Miss Harrison, the
courageous newspaper woman, went to the
Foreign Bureau every night at eleven. About
two in the morning, and even later, she returned.
One noon hour she told us: "Once in Berim a
monocled-being spoke to me. One of those who
are exquisitely creased and pressed, including the
brain, a hand-kissing, finger-tip-touching expert.
At the Victory Arch I caused his defeat," she said.
"In Moscow I go about perfectly unmolested, even
by looks." That is what an American woman told
me, who appreciates good manners. She wanted
to tell that to the folks at home, especially the
women-folks.
Without Alcohol
A relief device : I am tired of writing and must
have a diversion. Otherwise I won't write any
more. Mrs. Snowden has just gotten some new,
high, stout, yellow leather boots, so that 6he may
have a look at Russia. And she has also gotten
from her husband a splendid hat with wings of
Hermes on it, so that her brain may not be dis-
turbed by the Russian summer sun. But her boots,
her high, stout, yellow leather boots and her splen-
did hat with its pinions have been of no avail. The
hat did not defend Mrs. Snowden against the heat
of summer, and in her boots she may have gone
through Russian cities and over the Russian
streets, but not through Russia. She certainly did
talk a lot of nonsense in her article in the'Fo*-
sische Zeitung. I tell you, she cooked together
something that Karl Marx once said about Russia,
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in a way that shows her absolutely devoid of rea-
son, shows that Mrs. Snowden not only did not
see Russia, but never even saw Karl Marx. And
she goes on to say something about Russian agri-
culture, which is absolutely wrong. And she talks
about the cities, which she has never understood.
She was led through Russia like so many others,
without having grasped a single point of the es-
sence of Soviet Russia. But she considers it her
right to judge. She was taken around in an auto-
mobile and paid visits to exhibitions and homes,
to cities and villages. But my dear high-booted,
wing-hatted lady, you must work, and work hard,
or else you will understand nothing of Russia.
When Mrs. Snowden left Moscow, the soles of her
high boots were still intact. People told me so.
When our Delegation left Moscow all their soles,
not to mention other things, were in pieces. That
is the point, wing-hatted, high-booted, dearly-be-
loved innocent with your Bnglish energy and your
glance — but I shall say nothing of your glance.
Not only Mrs. Snowden was without alcohol,
without whiskey, without any stimulation in Mos-
cow. I have seen many persons in Moscow that
had spirit, but none with alcohol. Many were in-
toxicated and none so sober as Mrs. Snowden, but
no one was drunk. Many were intoxicated with
the Idea. They were not so immune to it as Mrs.
Snowden who is not intoxicated with any idea be-
cause she sees none. She does not see the Soviet
idea nor the Marx idea. She simply releases silly
babble about children, future, humanity.
I saw no one drunk, not a single intoxicated
man in Moscow. Inebriation was a social disease
in Russia, a social disease that had to be eradi-
cated. And damn it, it has been! I will not
maintain that there is no such thing as a drunken
man in Moscow. But alcoholism in Moscow is a
thing of the past. There is no longer (relata re-
fer o) any alcoholism in the Russian army or in
Russia as far as the system of the Soviet reaches.
Do you know the story of the Russian alcohol
monopoly? It is a drunkard's tale, a delirious
tale, a tale of an idiotic way in which the state
financed itself. It is a story of national intoxica-
tion, of national stupefaction, of murder by mil-
lions, of a low-down national assassination. The
whole world raved and fumed against the Russian
vodka monopoly, against this base whiskey treach-
ery. The German press raged against it, the Eng-
lish press, the American press; every anti-rum
paper in the world raged against it. Why do not
these anti-rum papers now recognize this social
deed, this deed of eradication, this tremendous sob-
ering act, this health-giving act of the Soviet Gov-
ernment ? You might at least recognize that ! The
elimination of prostitution and the driving out of
the rum demon, you might at least recognize that.
That is all we ask from you. Do you know the
didactic story, the deterring story, the educational
story of Tolstoi against the demon rum? He
wrote it for the health of the peasants. The Mos-
cow proletarian had to drink rum in peace times-
He had to keep himself on his legs by means of
Digitized by W
rum, until his legs no longer kept him up, until
he dropped and died in his tracks. The state
required that he should drink rum. The rum
monopoly dragged its 600,000,000 rubles every
year out of peasant hearts, peasant livers, peasant
brains and peasant kidneys. It dragged its 600,-
000,000 rubles everywhere out of the hearts,
brains, livers and kidneys of the industrial pro-
letariat. It made all Russia drunk, it made a
pig-sty of Russia. You cannot deny that that
was a base murder, a vile and general assassina-
tion, a universal poisoning without parallel.
I am not saying this with propagandist pur-
poses. I am simply recording the narrative of a
man whom I trust. This is what he said to me:
White armies, aside from their other ailments,
were soaked in alcohol. The Kolchak army was
a staggering army. Prussian books of history tell
of Russian soldiers in the Seven Years' War lick-
ing up alcohol with their tongues. The Whites,
I was told, did not only lick up alcohol, they ate
it alive. This staggering army was fighting
against a sober army, and the sober army was vic-
torious. Sober armies will always be victorious;
sobriety will always conquer. Not the sobriety of
Mrs. Snowden, who knows no intoxication, but the
abstinence from alcohol, from cocaine, from all
stimulants.
Stunk el
When jou come to Moscow do not forget to pay
a visit to Stunkel. But make known your coming
in advance for he is a dreadfully busy man. He
works in Room 125 in the building of the Supreme
Council of National Economy. He is the metal-
master of Russia, an organizer of the metal divi-
sion of the Supreme Council of National Economy,
which embraces the entire metal industry of Rus-
sia, or will embrace it. I shall not give you his
private address, for Stunkel must remain undis-
turbed at night. He works from early in the morn-
ing until late at night.
You have surely not yet heard of Stunkel. You
only hear of the Soviet stars, the Soviet celebrities.
But I shall give you a tip : Politics is not as im-
portant as economic organizers. I have brought a
number of things with me from Moscow, and one
of them is a strong aversion for politicians. Poli-
ticians are stale, unproductive, officious, scribbling,
orating, but not working. This staleness is some-
thing out of place in the modern age. The middle
ages have just been overcome, the new time is
dawning, and it is to be hoped it will be without
politicians. The new era will not be made by poli-
ticians, but by workers of every stamp, it will be
made by the machine workers, the gardem workers,
economic organizers, physicians, teachers, popular
artists, technologists, workers of every kind, but
not by politicians. There are politicians in Mos-
cow who are workers, and there are workers who
are politicians. Lenin, for instance, is a political
worker and a working statesman. But even Lenins
will not make the new era, important thomgh they
may be for th^ transition period. The new era
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will be created by other persons, and among them
is Stiinkel.
Stiinkel is a Finn who was brought up in Ger-
many. He is an engineer, one of the few Russian
engineers who recognized the course of events
rather early. He plays an important part in the
Russian Society of Engineers, and that means a
part in an important phase of the Russian Revo-
lution. I cannot give you more information on
this just now; I can only say that this society is
very important for Russia, both in a negative and
a positive way, for the Russian Revolution.
Stiinkel is amiable, cool, and is equipped with
organizing eyes. He can at once tell you whether
things are not toll in Kolomna, one of Russia's
metal hearts. He sees the cycle of development,
the path of evolution, the economic tendency, the
errors and possibilities, and acts accordingly. He
acts quickly, without much apparatus, without the
red tape which is elsewhere so customary in Mos-
cow, without the official awkwardness sometimes
noticeable in Moscow, without long meditations,
circuitous routes, and fruitless discussions. He is
not a man of paper decrees, but a practical man.
In short, a splendid fellow.
In his ante-room (125-A) you will find people
who have been already satisfied, who know where
they are at. They are sure that Stiinkel will tell
them something definite. It will be a positive
statement, a plus or a minus, but it will be posi-
tive. He disposes of all these cases calmly, one
after the other, no one mixes in with the other.
Meanwhile he telephones, quickly and definitely,
as it were with an amiable lash. He is a mag-
nificent business man, a smooth, cool organizer, a
briber with calm energy. Soviet Russia needs
6uch people, and has all too few of them. Ger-
many has such people, and so has America. Send
them over to Soviet Russia, you will not regret it.
Outside of the city, across the Moskva, in a
garden shaded with cherry-trees and infested with
StiinkePs offspring, I worked with him until late
at night (that is he worked with me). At tea,
which was served by the amiable Mrs. Stiinkel,
he told me things of which I had had no sus-
picion. On four evenings he delivered a course of
lectures to me on the history of nationalization.
I understand the necessities, the requirements for
development, the distinctions. He took his draft-
ing-board and drew for me, and thus illustrated
the history of nationalization, simultaneously out-
lining it in the air with his fingers. I now
grasped the present needs of economy, the chaos,
the crying aloud for order; I saw people in this
chaos, above this chaos ; I saw money in this chaos,
money that was fleeting and gone ; I saw the accel-
erators and the retarders, the understanders and
the non-understanding, the.wanters and the resist-
ers. All was as clear as a straight line to me now; a
road ; everything was disentangled and I breathed
freely. It was Stunkel who provided me with
this point of vantage, with the tower, the hill from
which I could review the whole. I now understood
the social economy of Russia; the social -psycho-
logical transformation which was driving for revo-
lution. I understood the struggle of the officials
and private employes against the workers, the
struggle of the engineers against the workers, and
the counter-struggle of the workers. For the first
time I understood the new commercial geography,
the new economic map of Russia, which Krzyza-
nowski later made concrete for me, just as once
before Wermuth, now Mayor of Berlin, one of
Prussia's best officials, had explained to me with
the aid of a map a matter that I had not pre-
viously understood.
In the little cherry garden, Stiinkel gave me
these points, these illuminations and I am grate-
ful to him for them. I have rarely had such an
instructive teacher.
by L^OOgle
Burtsev and Benes
The agent of Russian reaction, Burtsev, during
his stay in Prague last week, was immediately re-
ceived by Foreign Minister Benes and President
Masaryk. In the Narodni Listy and Venkov, he
openly acknowledged that he was traveling as an
agent for the purpose of obtaining military assist-
ance for the Poles and for Wrangel against Soviet
Russia.
Prior to his arrival in Prague he was in Berlin
for the same purpose, and negotiated with the
Pan-Germans led by Luettwitz-Kapp. He pub-
lished an article anent his activities in the Vos-
sische Zeitung. After leaving Prague, he will
travel to America to obtain financial assistance
there from the capitalists. The immediate re-
ception of Burtsev by the President and the Min-
ister of Foreign Affairs, even were it not for other
matters to which we refer below, is tactlessness
against Soviet Russia, and is diametrically op-
posed to the manner in which the official Russian
Red Cross Mission, with Comrade Hillerson at
the head, was received; against whom the bour-
geoisie and the National- Socialist press combined,
is aroused- At the time, the President of the
Czecho-Slovak Red Cross, Dr. A. Masaryk, sent
a note (!) to Comrade Chicherin in which 6he
protested against the "agitation by the Russian
Mission," although there was no agitation, and
in spite of the fact that a long time before the
Russian reactionaries had made of Prague their
Centrum and Eldorado.
It is, however, not only a question of Burtsev
— it is more than that. Although the Government
declared its neutrality in the Russian-Polish con-
troversy, and although Foreign Minister Benes
declares his readiness to resume relations with
Russia, as though in direct ridicule of all present
customs, ammunition is being delivered and trans-
ported to Poland. All of Benes* actions, whether
regarding the famous Little Entente or anything
else, have an edge directed towards Russia. On
the 9th of August, the Government declared anew
strict neutrality, the war minister denied that
ammunition was being sent to Poland — but all
assurances are in vain. The Manifesto of Organ-
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ized Railroad Men, which we publish elsewhere,
shows that the Government and the Foreign Min-
ister are lying. We reiterate : It is not a question
of Burtsev, he is merely a link in a chain; we
say no longer that it is sophistry, but an evident
and — what is more — unconcealed hatred of the
Proletarian Russian Empire. Burtsev merely
proved how far-reaching is Benes* hatred and
shamelessness, for he is not ashamed to welcome
openly and to overwhelm with attention an agent
of the Russian and of the Polish capitalistic re-
action. Besides this, on the occasion of Benes*
last visit in Paris, a banquet was given in his honor
by Burtsev and by the entire group of Russian
reactionaries. It was then that Benes declared
that the Czech nation ( !) would never recognize
the Bolsheviki, and that he himself looked forward
to the time when he would be able to welcome in
Prague the representatives of the "liberated" Rus-
sian nation and of WrangeVs government.
In the case of Wrangel, the story of Kolchak
whom Benes warmly admired, repeats itself. It
was not only Kramar, but also Benes, who first
of all, during his stay in Paris while peace nego-
tiations were in progress, agitated for repeated in-
tervention of the Siberian armies against the Rus-
sian Revolution. But while Kramar openly ac-
knowledged his enthusiasm for Kolchak, Benes
with a truly realistic shrewdness knew how to put
on a mask of neutrality so cleverly, that he de-
ceived even his friends of the Realist Party. At
that time, Professor Radl, in a polemic against
Herben, quoted as a contrast to the policy of in-
tervention Benes* neutrality, and received a reply
from Herben which at that time we already re-
marked as a true picture of Benes* sentiments.
Herben said then : "It seems that an explanation
of politics or rather of the political A B C is
necessary. A political party (Herben understood
here Kramar*s position and that of his party in
the question of intervention) is more free than
the administration though their purpose may be
the same. The politician of a party may act and
speak differently from a Foreign Minister who is
bound by considerations and agreements. A Min-
ister sometimes finds himself in a situation where
he is compelled to reject a policy though he may
personally be in accord with it. Sometimes he
must even announce publicly that he is not in
accord with -it." It is clear from this that Herben
carelessly betrayed that Benes. was a Kolchakist
just as Kramar was, and that' he is today a Wran-
gelist again just as Kramar is.
Such is the appearance of Benes* neutrality,
which on the other side he parades in the House
under a mask of good-will and what not, sends
notes to Russia full of assurance of the Govern-
ment's goodwill toward Russia. It is therefore
necessary to view the furore artificially created
by Burtsev*s Visit in this connection, especially
as it appears in Benes* organs, the bought-over
Cos and his voluntary servant Ceslce Slovo. These
papers wash their hands of Burtsev, pronounce
him a reactionary, and show with transparent tend-
Digitized byG*
ency that it is upon a hint from the Hrad, that
they bamboozle their readers, saying that Burtsev
was not successful on the HradcHln. It is note-
worthy that the policy of Hradchin is to clothe
itself in a mantle of duplicity and humanitarian-
ism, and meanwhile, to poison the Czech atmos-
phere with lies, intrigues, reaction, in such meas-
ure that in the end no one will see his way clear
in this tangle.
We brand Benes as an evil spirit of the Czech
foreign and* internal policy. From the very begin-
ning of his taking hold of things in State Ad-
jninistration his career was marked by insincerity,
hypocrisy, and lies, in every act of administration
in relation to Russia. The falsehood has, of course,
its tradition from the time of the organized at-
tack upon Russia of the Czech armies, who were
deceived by the allied "liberators**, and designed
to become the executioners of the Russian Revo-
lution. Influences which, at the time, were active
upon the leadership of the Czech armies are still
active today — and everything else is a contemptible
lie.
To all the sins which our party has committed
will be added its support of Benes* double game
and his intrigues against the Soviets. It is im-
possible to believe that the leadership of a party
was not aware of the real sentiments and the real
purpose of that man, when he so often so openly,
and so shamelessly showed his true face. Notwith-
standing this, the party continued to deceive the
working-classes regarding the goodwill of the For-
eign Minister towards Russia. And today when
the third Coalition has passed away, and prepara-
tions are being made for the fourth, Benes again
figures in it. There is not the slightest doubt
that Benes has his fingers in the postponement
of Congress, and in the terror brought about by
Tusar against the proletariat and its representa-
tives by the uncompromising Left; it is certain
beyond doubt that this terror was arranged upon
a direct hint of the allied rabble whom Benes
serves. And here it will be necessary for the pro-
letariat to speak decisively, once for all. The or-
ganized capitalistic reaction, whose servants are
both Tusar and Benes, is planning an attack upon
the proletariat who until now have been an ob-
stacle in the way of execution of the plan of the
Allies to make of the "liberated" Republic a step-
ping-stone for an organized attack upon the Rus-
sian Republic.
Russian Comrades demand of the proletariat
of the world, not only in the interest of the Rus-
sian Empire, but above all in their own interest,
that they prevent any attack of the European
capitalists upon Soviet Russia. This is the task,
in the first place, of the proletariat of Czecho-
slovakia. There can be no peace as long as the
agent of the allied capitalists will direct the for-
eign policy of our state. The first duty, there-
fore, of the proletariat of the Czecho-Slovak Re-
public must be: Down with Benes I Down with
Intervention! Long live Soviet Russia! — From
Obrana, New York.
Original from
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised.
r^ ENEVA in 1864 was the scene of the first
^-* Red Cross Conference. It was the original
plan of this organization to assure to fighters on
both belligerent sides, in any war that might arise,
the medical and surgical care of a body of men and
women — doctors and nurses — who would be en-
tirely neutral in the conflict being waged, who
would treat the soldiers of one combatant with
exactly the same degree of solicitous attention as
those of the other side, and thus contribute, to
this extent at least, to diminishing the horrors of
war. The American Red Cross organization was
founded in 1881 by Clara Barton, who had already
practiced in at least one war (the Franco-German
War, 1870-1871) the principle of conducting a
neutral organization that should give aid, comfort
and care to fighters of both opposing nations. High
hopes have naturally been placed in the effects
of the operation of such kindly agencies — in fact,
more than one gentle enthusiast has expressed the
belief that the natural kindliness of many per-
sons contributing to the relief of friend and foe
alike would instil in both a spirit that would ul-
timately make war between tnem impossible.
Headlines appearing nearly two weeks ago in
New York newspapers (our attention has just been
called to them) would make it appear that this
splendid prospect is being more than realfzed. It
would appear that the kindly offices of the Red
Cross are being bestowed not only on enemies
against whom frank and open warfare is being
waged, but even on a nation against which the
hatred of its torturers is so great that they must
invade it without declaration of war, blockade it
without open confession of blockade, distort and
misrepresent its current history while pretending
to issue the truth. So great would appear to be
the kindliness of the American Red Cross, to judge
from the headlines of which we speak. They read
thus : "$14,000,000 Spent in Russia by Red Cross.
— 2,667 Persons, Including 503 Americans, Em-
ployed in Relief Work, According to the Annual
Report— 18 Hospitals in Siberia.— 10,000 Dif-
ferent Articles Distributed Free of Cost; Sanitary
Trains Operated."
Even Russia, then, barbarous, tyrannical, auto-
cratic proletarian Soviet Russia, seems to benefit
by the generous ministrations of the Red Cross.
But when you read through the news item, which
by ^_
*L
is dated Washington, October 30, and which an-
nounces certain data to be printed in a forth-
coming annual report of the American Red Cross
Society, you find that while no word has been
permitted to enter the paragraphs that might
weaken the impression that all of Russia has been
thus magnificently nursed and fed and tended,
there is yet not a single indication in the article
that would point to any aid actually given to com-
batants or non-combatants in Soviet Russia. Read
a few of the paragraphs of this forthcoming Amer-
ican Red Cross Report, as quoted in the New York
Tribune (October 31) :
"Service was extended to millions of men, women
and children and ranged from hospital care for the
sick to food and clothing for the starving and ill clad.
The work was carried on through commissions sent to
Siberia, western Russia, southern Russia and the Baltic
States; a total of 2,667 persons, including 503 Ameri-
cans, were employed and 10,000 different articles were
distributed free of cost.
"The commissions operated sanitary trains with a
total of seventy-five cars and equipped with 830 beds,
with a capacity of 1,550 patients. Anti-typhus trains
operated by the commissions traveled 11,000 miles, fur-
nishing preventive baths to 105,000 persons, disinfection
for 1,000,000 and issuing 500,000 clean garments. In
Siberia alone Red Cross trains distributed 8,000 tons
of supplies and eighteen hosiptals with a total of 6,596
beds were operated."
And then remember that Siberia means the Si-
beria of Kolchak, Semionov, and the Japanese,
that Western Russia means Poland and the terri-
tories of Soviet Russia wrongfully held by that
country, that Southern Russia was lately the Rus-
sia of Denikin and only yesterday the Russia of
Wrangel, that some of the Baltic states were still
at war with Soviet Russia four months ago, and
that the report even frankly says, as far as South-
ern Russia is concerned, that the work there "con-
sisted largely in caring for refugees and in fight-
ing typhus and cholera in the Crimea."
Particularly difficult, according to the report,
was the work of the organization "in helping the
people of Esthonia, where there was no ambulance
service and little in the way of hospitals when
the Americans arrived." We quote further:
"The army was in retreat and disorganized and the
combined force of soldiers and civilians to the number
of 20,000 was described as a hungry, suffering, panic-
stricken mob. In December typhus broke out, and for
months the Red Cross workers fought the disease amid
great difficulties."
Without repeating all the details in the news-
paper report of these Red Cross activities in Es-
thonia, let us come to the point and state simply
that aid was given to every military and civil
organization outside of Soviet Russia, including
many that were at war with Soviet Russia, that aid
began to be given to Esthonia — in the very words
of the report — only when the army of Yudenich,
in retreat across that country, badly needed such
attention, and that no effort seems to have been
made — at least none is described — to carry similar
benefits of the Red Cross into Soviet Russia. For
the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic has
committed the crime of permitting the workers
and peasants to rule, and that republic is there-
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fore considered an enemy by those countries in
which the workers do not rule, and there is no
neutrality, we must assume, and not even a neutral
Red Cross organization, between the old system
and the new. At least the old will not have it so.
Generous care devoted to the people of Esthonia
will meet with no disapproval in Soviet Russia.
The people of Soviet Russia well understand how
much suffering there was in Esthonia before its
people finally forced a reactionary and pro-Entente
government to make peace with Soviet Russia. And
the people of Soviet Russia hope that Esthonia
will continue to receive gifts at the hands of the
American Red Cross in spite of the fact that they
have made peace with Soviet Russia. But the
people of Russia cannot fail to understand that
war is being waged upon them not only by treach-
erous foreign chancellories, but also by what is al-
legedly the world's greatest humanitarian organi-
zation, the Red Cross.
VI R. H. P. DAVISON, then President of the
"***-* American Red Cross Society, made, shortly
before the opening of the war between the United
States and Germany in 1917, a declaration to the
effect that it was necessary to give contributions
to the American Red Cross because that organiza-
tion was one of the most potent agencies in the
winning of the war by the United States. Whether
Mr. Davison really meant this, we do not know,
but at the time the statement was interpreted by
many persons as meaning that the benefits of the
organization would not be impartially distributed
to soldiers of both fighting groups, but that the
Red Cross was a combatant organization, aiding
one of the belligerents to "win the war." However
the case may have been in the war with Germany
— and that war is one with which we are not now
concerned — there is no doubt that Mr. H. P. Davi-
son's remarks are entirely true when applied to
Russia. For in Russia aid is given by the Ameri-
can Red Cross only to the reactionary or semi-
"democratic" republics that have there been set
up, or to out-and-out counter-revolutionaries ; and
no aid is given to the people who have dared set
up a government that is new, a government that
has overthrown the capitalists and refuses to recog-
nize as valid the claims of creditors who long ago
had lent money to its oppressors to aid them in
the prosecution of their autocratic designs against
the people of Russia.
f~\ NE of the servants of the masters is Wrangel,
^^ the Wrangel who occupied the Crimea while
the Red Cross was feeding refugees and fighting
typhus in those parts. The New York Tribune
of November 5 has the following news item con-
cerning General Wrangel's mother :
Terijoki, Finnish-Russian Frontier, November 4. —
The mother of General Wrangel, the anti-Bolshevik
commander in the Crimea, arrived here yesterday from
Russia absolutely destitute. She was cared for by the
American Red Cross and furnished with money and
by \j
*L
IC
supplies by Colonel Edward W. Ryan, of that organi-
zation. Mme. Wrangel is anxious to join her son in
South Russia.
Colonel Ryan, it will be remembered, spent a
few days in Russia this year and described condi-
tions there as far more terrible than they really
were (we spoke of his report in our editorials in
the May 22 issue of Soviet Russia). There is
no reason why a helpless old lady should not re-
ceive assistance from a representative of the Amer-
ican Red Cross, and it is fortunate that the ref-
ugees from Russia who need the attentions of the
Red Cross are members of the reactionary classes ;
but it is unfortunate for the American Red Cross
that it has few cases to point to, judging from the
Washington message of October 30, in which it has
given assistance to the persons really constituting
the population of Soviet Russia. The colony of
Petrograd children who were being transported
home across the Pacific and the United States by
the American Red Cross is the only body of per-
sons connected with Soviet Russia whom the Amer-
ican Red Cross ever aided, as far as we know, and
even then it was the intention for some time to
return the children to Russia only after long de-
lays. Their recent arrival in Finland is good news,
however, and it is to be hoped that all of the chil-
dren will soon be restored to their parents in vari-
ous parts of Russia, most of them in the vicinity
of Petrograd.
Recently we learn that Semionov's wife and mis-
tress, both of whom seem to be estimable persons,
-are now in Japan, and have been supported thus
far on funds whose ultimate origin is the treasury
of the Japanese Government. Had they gone to
Finland, their benefactor whould have had to be
the American Red Cross. But Semionov's mistress
is not entirely without all relations to the latter
body. We quote the following from the New York
Globe of November 5:
"In Chita, this woman officiated as the leader in the
distribution of the American Red Cross relief supplies
and bestowed jewels and furs on many of the girl
workers in the organization. One of her many trips to
Japan and China, when she is supposed to have brought
Semionov's wealth to places of safety, was made on an
American train. The arrival of the bona fide wife may
start a fight for the possession of these millions."
• • ♦
A^TANY guests have visited Soviet Russia since
^ A the establishment of the Russian Socialist
Federal Soviet Republic, now already in its fourth
year. The number of visitors during the third
year of the life of the Republic was much larger
than in the former years, and the number of their
printed reports has therefore also increased greatly.
Furthermore, the number of picturesque fabrica-
tions for which some of these visits serve as an
excuse is also on the increase. The latest misrepre-
senting guest is a guest indeed: he is Dr. L.
Heilen Guest, Joint Secretary of the British Labor
Delegation to Soviet Russia, and "a prominent
English Fabian Socialist" (N. Y. Tribune, Oc-
tober 31). Here is what he writes in a recent
number of the London Times :
V-m i q i n d i t ro m
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"Lenin is best understood if he is thought of as a
Central Asiatic Mahomet, sending out the cry of his
new materialist religion from his high tower of the
Kremlin in Moscow, and calling to the millions of the
Russian and Siberian peasants to work, fight, and die
for the new conception or against the errors and evils
of the western democratic world. And this 'new con-
ception* already is hopelessly old in the western world.
It is the kind of materialism that speaks of mind as
4 an excretion of the brain as bile is an excretion of the
liver.' It is the kind of materialism that expects to find
in a man's economic circumstances a complete explana-
tion of his character and beliefs. In a word, it is the
crudest kind of materialist fatalism.
" And Lenin and his helpers have all the marks of
the zealous propagandist in the missionary zeal with
which they seek to impose their views on other nations.
The conditions of adherence to the Third International
sent out lately to Germany, France, and England all
lay stress on the need of subordination to Moscow and
the need of implicit obedience. Like Mahometanism,
too, the new faith is militant — its good is to be carried
everywhere by fire and sword, heavy civil war and ter-
rific struggle. The democYatic side of Socialism, the
liberal ideas implicit in western Socialism, such as free
speech, free meeting, free and secret elections — all these
disappear in the Russian conception. Lenin declares
'liberty is a bourgeois superstition.' Demorcacy is said
to be a pretence to fool the workers. And Bolshevism
is declared to be salvation."
Of course this silly stuff will be believed by no
one that knows anything about "Western" Social-
ism, for any such person is fully convinced that
"Lenin" Socialism and "Western" Socialism are
identical, in so far as the latter is Socialism at all.
And we hold no brief for "Mahometanism". It
may be that Mahometans disseminated their faith
at one time with the aid of the sword ; it was ceiv
tainly also the case with "Western" Christians
at certain stages of their history. But it is not
necessary for "the new faith" "to be carried every-
where by fire and sword, heavy civil war and ter-
rific struggle " At least neither Soviet Russia nor
the often-mentioned "Third International" is ob-
liged to" carry out this process. There is much op-
pression in Europe — in fact oppression in some
countries has become unbearable. Ireland is in
constant rebellion and Hungary and Germany are
smarting from the wounds inflicted by the fright-
ful blows of a savage reaction. Revolution in Italy
is in progress and serious events are expected in
Greece and Poland. It is difficult to see why
Asiatic qualities must be attributed to Lenin mere-
ly because he understands the forces that are driv-
ing the peoples of other countries to revolution
and frequently writes essays describing and evalu-
ating these tendencies. The Norwegian Govern-
ment, acting under orders from abroad, refuses
to allow its fishermen to sell fish to Litvinov who
is authorized by Soviet Russia to purchase their
fish, and gives the fishermen no other means of
realizing on the products of their labor, and yet
is surprised to find disaffection growing among the
population of North Norway. Is the slant of
Lenin's eyes or the height of his cheekbones
really so very important in a discussion of revolu-
tion in Europe as to make such allusions worth
while ? Mr. Guest seems to think so :
"In a few moments a secretary came and conducted
us to a large, light room, furnished chiefly with large
byLiGOgle
desks and chairs, where Lenin stood ready to greet us.
Lenin is a short man, nearly bald in front, and his hair
is slightly ginger; his English is fairly good, but his
French is better. The face is high as to cheekbones and
the eyes are somewhat slitlike — the color of the face
is very sallow, its general appearance definitely Asiatic
Lenin smiles often, but without geniality.
'We began the interview at once by asking about
raising the blockade and getting peace.
"Lenin — It is perfectly impossible to get a capitalist
government to raise the blockade. The English Govern-
ment says it is not helping Poland, but this is not true.
English liberal newspapers acknowledge 'that help is
being given by England to Poland. The League of
Nations is a capitalist conspiracy.
"Mr. Tom Shaw and I asked for definite proofs of
help being given to Poland of a character we could
produce in this country. Lenin retorted by saying we
must turn out our government by revolution, and then
we should find the secret treaties.
"Lenin — England and France are waging war against
Socialist countries, and I hope for their defeat.
"In answer to a question, 'What kind of defeat?'
"Lenin — There is only one kind of defeat or victory.
"In answer to a question as to what was the obstacle
to a League of Nations delegation :
"Lenin — The League of Nations is France and Eng-
land waging war against us — we are not at peace.
"In answer to a question as to how we could help to
get peace:
"Lenin — More resolutions are a little help. But only
real help can come from the British revolution.
"In answer to a question as to how we could get
Socialism in England:
"Lenin — I am a pupil of English Socialism. It would
be childish to say that all our institutions must be
copied. The Left Communists in England are making
blunders because they are too much copying the first
forms of the revolution in Russia. I am in favor of
parliamentary action. We had twenty-five per cent of
Communists in the Constituent Assembly, and this was
enough for victory. In your country fifteen per cent
might be enough for complete victory.
"In answer to further questions, Lenin suggested
sending a message to the British workers (the one
already published in England). In answer to another
question :
"Lenin — I do not believe the blockade can be lifted
with a bourgeois government in power in England.
"With regard to the Terror:
"Lenin— The Red Terror has been infinitely smaller
than the White in Finland, Hungary, Egypt and Ireland.
We are firmly for the Red Terror against the capitalist
class. We are firmly convinced that the capitalist class
will use every means of violence against the proletariat."
And yet everything Lenin said to Mr. Guest,
according to the latter's own questions, was plain
speaking of a moderate and sensible type ; the sug-
gestion that the English working class should
overthrow their government might even be taken
as a little joke on the part of the Chairman of the
Council of People's Commissars, for it really does
seem rather ridiculous that two grown men should
seriously ask him for proofs of British and French
aid to counter-revolutionary generals, proofs that
everyone in England has read in English newspa-
pers. Of course Lenin has not the documents
themselves, and of course he is right in saying that
they can be obtained only from the foreign offices
of the governments that have signed such treaties.
Yet to some persons such badinage may seem so
outrageous as to be worthy of that adjective which
to them covers so much villainy — Asiatic.
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The Russian Blockade and American Cotton
[The Representative of the Soviet Government recently received a letter from the Managing Editor of
the "Oklahoma Leader", setting forth the adverse economic conditions affecting the cotton farmers of the
United States as a result of the artificial restrictions imposed upon world commerce, and inquiring as to the
possibility of Soviet Russia as a market for American cotton. In reply, Mr. Martens showed that the blockade
of Russia was depriving the American farmers of an annual market for more than 760,000 bales of their
cotton, that being the quantity of American cotton normally imported into Russia in pre-ivar years. Forty
Per cent of the cotton imported into Russia before the war came from the United States. In addition to
the loss of this normal market, Mr. Marten's letter pointed out that the American farmers were being de-
prived of an even larger demand created by the present abnormal scarcity of cotton textiles in Soviet Russia.
The Soviet Government is already negotiating for the purchase of cotton in the English market and would
purchase great quantities of American fibre if the restrictions upon trade between the United States and Rus-
sia were removed.
We reproduce this correspondence in full.]
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, October 14, 1920.
L. C A. K. Martens,
Representative of the Russian Soviet Republic,
New York City.
My dear Sir:
A situation which threatens poverty and ruin to
thousands of cotton farmers of this section of the
United States has come about. The price paid to the
farmer for his cotton has fallen below twenty cents
per pound at the end of a season in which the farmer
has been forced to pay exorbitant prices for everything
which has gone into the production of his crop. The
cotton producers state that the 1920 crop has cost from
thirty to forty cents per pound to produce.
Cotton farmers so deeply resent the injustice which
the situation imposes upon them that cotton gins over
a wide area have been threatened with destruction if
they do not cease operations until the price of cotton
rises. Numerous gins have been burned.
There has been much talk, but no constructive meas-
ures have yet been taken. It seems reasonable to as-
sume that the best way to attack the problem is by
going at causes.
It is clear that the drop in the price of American
cotton is largely due to the restrictions artificially im-
posed upon world commerce. It is manifest that if
peace were made in Europe on a basis which permitted
normal industrial activity and free commercial inter-
course the present situation could not have arisen.
I desire to have a statement from you as to whether
the government of the Russian Soviet Republic is at
this time ready to make a definite offer for American
cotton. If so, will you state the amount of the present
crop which Russia, would buy, the price and the terms
upon which it would be taken and other pertinent con-
ditions which would apply to the transaction.
I would like a statement as to what steps would be
necessary to permit shipment of any cotton which the
Russian Government might buy. The cotton farmers
have an immediate interest in knowing what are the
restrictions affecting their industry and whether the
present policies of blockade and embargo are denying
to them a large market for their cotton at a good price.
Very truly yours,
Edwin Newdick,
Managing Editor, "Oklahoma Leader".
New York City, October 22, 1920.
Mr. Edwin Newdick,
Managing Editor, "Oklahoma Leader",
Oklahoma City, Okla.
My dear Sir:
I have given your letter of October 14th most careful
consideration. The situation which you describe in the
cotton industry of America has already engaged the
attention of experts in the Commercial Department of
this Bureau. It is quite true, as you state, that the
present depression in the American cotton market, as
in many other lines of industry, is largely due to the
artificial restrictions imposed upon the normal proces-
ses of production and commerce in Europe. Of these
restrictions, the blockade and the continuous succession
of wars waged against Soviet Russia by various forces
and by counter-revolutionary bands supported by for-
eign powers are the most important and most far-
reaching in their economic effect throughout the world.
Russia has always been an integral part of the economic
system of Europe. It was impossible to withdraw the
extensive resources of Russia and the vast purchasing
power of the Russian people from contact with the
rest of the world without producing everywhere dis-
location and depression in industry. Although the Soviet
Government has been victorious in defending itself
against its foreign enemies and is at present rapidly
dispersing the last of the counter-revolutionary ele-
ments, nevertheless, the blockade is still in force, par-
ticularly as it affects trade between the United States
and Russia.
In the case of cotton, the destructive influences of the
blockade and of foreign intervention are particularly
noticeable. Prior to the world war, Russia's annual
raw cotton imports, during the period of 1909-1913
average $56,804,500, which was nearly ten per cent of
the entire value of Russian imports. Of the total
quantity of raw cotton consumed by Russian textile
mills during 1913-1914, about fifty-one per cent was of
domestic origin (from Turkestan). Of the remainder,
nine per cent came from Egypt and India and about
forty per cent from the United States through Ham-
burg, Bremen, Liverpool, and other distributing centers,
(It may be surprising to many American cotton grow-
ers to learn that such a large proportion of their crop
reached Russia. Since it was almost exclusively handled
by English and German middlemen, it was generally
included in American statistics among the exports to
England and Germany). Of the pre-war yearly con-
sumption of cotton in Russia, totalling 1,784,752 bales,
762,352 bales were of American origin. This, then,
represents the actual market of which the United States
is deprived by the blockade of Russia, assuming all other
conditions remained the same. But the potential pur-
chasing power and demand in Russia ^or cotton today is
of course vastly increased beyond this figure by many
circumstances. Through a variety of causes the Russian
textile mills have for some period been deprived of
their regular domestic supplies and have been cut off
from all foreign sources. The shortage has been sa
acute that various substitutes have been employed and
a large quantity of flax, for instance, is now being
worked into goods which normally would be made of
cotton. Moreover, because of the blockade and of the
disruption of transportation due to intervention and
civil war, production of all textiles has been greatly
curtailed in Soviet Russia. Thus, summing up the
present situation, it will be seen that Russia for several
years has been deprived of an annual import of 762,352"
bales of American cotton, and that this shortage has
been greatly augmented by the curtailment of the do-
mestic supply, and that, further, the whole production
of cotton goods within Soviet Russia is greatly ir>
arrears of norma! needs. . If to these conditions we
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add still another factor, namely, the greatly increased
purchasing power of the Russian peasant and worker
which has come to them as a fruit of the Revolution,
we see that the immediate demand for cotton in Russia
enormously exceeds that of pre-war years and will
remain very large for a long period.
I need not point out to you, nor to any American
cotton grower, the obvious relation of these facts to
the present condition of the American cotton industry.
In reply to your question as to whether the Russian
Soviet Republic is at this time ready to make a definite
offer for American cotton, I can say that it would be
ready to do so, but that unfortunately under the pres-
ent conditions no such offer can be made. Soviet Rus-
sia is most effectively blockaded. My Government is
not recognized by the Government of the United States.
There is no provision for cable or postal communication
between America and Russia. The right to travel be-
tween the two countries is withheld. The Soviet Repub-
lic is prevented from transferring any funds and from
establishing credits in the United States with which to
finance purchases of the goods which it so greatly
needs. Under these circumstances it is of course im-
possible to state the specific price or terms upon which
we would be prepared to purchase American cotton,
since so long as present restrictions remain in force
there is no possibility of our making any such pur-
chases and the question of price and terms can only
be properly determined under conditions of practical
trade and not on a merely hypothetical basis. I can of
course say, and the statistics which I have given you
show this clearly, that Russia will immediately desire
to make large purchases of American cotton as soon
as the blockade is lifted. In this connection I would
call your attention to a letter recently addressed to
Mr. Lloyd George by Mr. Karssin, the chief of the
Soviet Government Trade Delegation at London, pub-
lished in the London Daily Telegraph, October 6, 1920.
Writing with regard to the various commodities for
which the Trade Delegation is contracting in London,
Mr. Krassin says : "Purchases of Egyptian cotton . . .
could be effected soon after the conclusion of the com-
mercial treaty." To your question as to the steps neces-
sary to permit the shipment of cotton which the Rus-
sian Government might buy in America, I can reply
that the only preliminary requisites are the establish-
ment of such arrangements as ordinarily exist between
commercial nations and without which international
trade is impossible. The Soviet Government has never
demanded formal diplomatic recognition as a prelimin-
ary to trade relations. We have merely pointed out that
trade cannot be established without the necessary facili-
ties for communication by post and cable, and for travel
and for the transfer of funds. Without these facilities,
of which we are at present deprived, it is of course
impossible to resume trade.
Very truly yours,
L. Martens,
Representative in the United States of the Russian
Socialist Federal Soviet Republic.
POLAND AND SOVIET RUSSIA
By N. Lenin
The following is a portion of a speech by N.
Lenin, President of the Council of People's Com-
missars, delivered in October, at the first session
of the Russian Communist Party:
"When in January we made to the Poles a pro-
posal for peace, which was extremely favorable to
them and unfavorable to us, this proposal was in-
terpreted by the diplomats of all countries in the
following way: The Bolsheviki are very accomo-
dating; therefore they are very weak.
"Intoxicated by this claim, the Poles ventured
their great assault and took Kiev. But our coun-
ter-attack threw back the Poles and pushed them
almost as far as Warsaw. In the latest strategic
turn of events, we have again retired 100 versts.
The doubtless, rather serious position which grows
out of this retirement is not however decisive; it
is very important to know that the diplomats have
been wrong in their calculations as to our weak-
mess, that they are convinced that the Poles can-
not defeat us, and that we were not far from
achieving a victory over the Poles, and are not
far from achieving such a victory even now.
"By our advance on Warsaw, we have come into
touch with the center of the imperialistic world
system. Poland, which is the last support in the
struggle against Bolshevism, and which is abso-
lutely in the hands of the Entente, is such a tre-
mendous factor in that imperialistic system that
the fact of a serious threat of this support by Soviet
Russia has caused the whole system to tremble.
The Soviet Republic has become a factor of in-
creasing importance in world politics. The new
situation has expressed itself particularly in the
fact that the bourgeoisie of the countries in which
the Entente rules have expressed their sympathy
for Soviet Russia. The border states, whose rela-
tions to Bolshevism were expressed only in mass
persecutions of Communists, have concluded peace
and made treaties with us against the will of the
Entente. This fact has had its reverberations in
all the states of the world.
"On the occasion of our advance on Warsaw,
great excitement and commotion was produced in
Germany, resulting in a situation similar to that
brought about in our country a year ago. A fur-
ther consequence of our contact with Warsaw was
the struggle of the western powers with their own
proletariat, particularly in England. When the
English Government sent us its ultimatum it
transpired that the English workman had first to
be consulted. These workers, whose leaders are
— at least nine-tenths of them — opportunists and
turncoats, answered with the formation of a Com-
mittee of Action, which is a union of all workers
without regard to party."
by LiOOgle
WORKERS' AND PEASANTS'
Moscow, October 8, 1920 (Rosta).— Supplant-
ing the state control of the former regime, the
Soviet Government has undertaken the creation of
a live controlling organization which would look
after not only the formally correct spending of
state funds, but also the actual enforcement of all
possible abuses. To participate in the work of
this institution to be known as '^Workers and
Peasants Inspection" representatives of the work-
ers and peasants are elected. Elections are now
being held for this workers* and peasants' inspec-
tion, and the entire press points out the import-
ance of this event which gives workers and peas-
ants an opportunity to rule the country for them-
selves, and control the activities of state officials.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
489
British Capitalism Against Soviet Russia
By Lt.-Col. Cecil I/Estrange Maxone, M.P.
[The following is a portion of a speech delivered by Col. M alone in the House of Commons
as contained in the official report of the proceedings of the English Parliament.]
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T N ORDER to understand this matter, you must
* understand the financial interests which Mem-
bers on the front Bench and their friends have in
Russia. Before coming, however, to that part of
what I am going to say, I want to make a few
remarks concerning the Prime Minister's speech.
To listen to the Prime Minister's speech was like
listening to an anti-Socialist orator in Hyde Park
— and a very indifferent one, too. I do not think,
from the arguments put forward by the Prime
Minister this afternoon, that he would have earned
£5 a week which the average anti-Socialist orator
in Hyde Park is able to earn. He made several
very inaccurate statements concerning the internal
conditions of Soviet Russia.
He selected statements from certain individuals
who have been to Russia, and he took care to select
individuals whose reports favored the case he
wished to put before us. He chose the reports
of a very few individuals — two out of some two
or three dozen — who have reported to the con-
trary effect; and of those two whose reports he
selected, one has been disowned by a large section
of the Independent Labor Party. I am told that
resolutions of protest are pouring in from every
part of the country. (Hon. Members: "Name!")
It is Mrs. Snowden. The Prime Minister made
three points with regard to that, namely, that Mrs.
Snowden is alleged to have reported — I hope for
her own sake that she has not reported — that in
Russia there is no Socialism, there is no demo-
cracy, and there is no Christianity. Let me deal
briefly with those three points. With regard to
the statement that there is no Socialism, no one
has ever suggested that there is either Socialism
or Communism in Russia. It is futile to suppose
that there is likely to be Communism in Russia
in this generation. Even if they had not been
subjected to the war of intervention and blockade,
and to other difficulties which have been imposed
upon them by the Secretary of State for War and
his colleagues, it would have taken a great deal
longer than two or three years to pull down the
old capitalist system and to build up a new Social-
istic order. You have to disorganize and reorgan-
ize nearly every government department — educa-
tion departments, boards of trade, commercial de-
partments. Every department is built up on a
new system. Apart from the war which they have
been waging — and, I am glad to say, waging suc-
cessfully — it is not likely that you would have
found Socialism in Russia today. The second
point which the Prime Minister made was that
in Russia there is no Christianity. What is the
true fact about that? It is true that they have dis-
established the old Orthodox Church. Anyone who
knew the pernicious, vile political influence which
the old Russian Church held over the people in
the time of Rasputin knows what a benefit to the
Russian people the disestablishment of that Church
has been. People who have been to Russia know
quite well that religion is free in Russia today,
with this difference over the past regime, that
the clergy have to obtain their pittance from the
contributions of the faithful and not from the
taxpayer — a very beneficial change. (An Hon.
Member : "They have all been murdered !") Not
only I, but many other people have seen these
priests and bishops, and as there is prohibition in
the country I am sure they are not all ghosts. But
it is really rather ludicrous to talk about lack of
Christianity in Russia. Are we really so Christian
in this country that we can talk of another country
which has disestablished its old reactionary reli-
gion ? I believe Russia is just as religious and as
Christian as we in this country, and probably
more so.
The third point was that there is no democracy
in Russia today. But have we really got democracy
in this country today ? The Prime Minister spoke
about elections. Are our elections really free?
Are they any freer than the show of hands he
referred to? (Hon. Members: "Yes!") I do
not think so. (Interruption.) I got in by the
same method as you got in. (An Hon. Member:
"How did you get in?") What happens when an
election takes place, when great issues are before
the country — new housing conditions, better in-
dustrial conditions, and all the hundred and one
new social improvements that are required? A
great newspaper magnate, or some other great fin-
ancial interest controlling the newspapers, comes
along two or three days before the election, and
instead of the issues being real, vital issues which
are of importance to the country, what come/
before the people? Hanging the Kaiser, making
Germany pay, and all this futile rot which the
people are asked to vote for instead of the real
fundamental social basis which they should send
back to legislate for and to improve their condi-
tions. Then even if the people have the sense not
to be bluffed, what happens? Last week we saw
in this House something of the democratic legis-
lation about which the Prime Minister boasts. In
two hours last Wednesday £160,000,000 of the
taxpayers' money was voted through the House
without a single word, or even half a word, of dis-
cussion. That is the democratic legislation about
which the Prime Minister boasts. If tfnyone ana-
lyzes the electoral machinery of the country, it is
the remotest form of real democracy. Look at the
Press. Ninety-nine per cent of the Press is con-
trolled by financial interests. Only one daily pa-
per is controlled by Labor, and even that paper
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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is in a bad way because it is boycotted on the
capitalist bookstalls. It has to struggle against
The Times and the Morning Post and the great
papers which represent the financial interests.
When I hear the Prime Minister comparing the
two systems of electoral machinery I know he is
simply talking through his hat. I know he does
not mean it. I remember the time when he was
living in a little room on the third floor in the
City and he was boasting of the day when he would
come before this country and lead it to Socialism.
I wonder what he thinks of that now. I remem-
ber the conference in Glasgow in 1917 when he
was howled down and he reminded us of that,
too. He said he was going to lead the countrj
after the war to become a great Socialist England.
I do not know whether he is disguising his policy,
but if he is, he is certainly disguising it very well.
On pure grounds of industrial democracy, elec-
tion by industrial franchise is obviously and clearly
more democratic than election by Parliamentary
representation, which confuses, combines, and
mixes up hundreds of different interests 60 that
the real vital interests of the people are totally
obscured.
I will pass from that to a point which is of more
vital interest today. I want to deal with the great
financial interests in Russia — the people who are
interested in Russia — and I will not leave the
Front Bench untouched on this matter. I think
there are two causes which are operating in this
country in flavor of intervention in Russia. First
of all we have that large section of Conservatives
— perhaps I will call them the people whose
thoughts and ideas are represented by the Morning
Post, who are frankly afraid of Socialism. I ad-
mire their outspoken frankness as I admire the
outspoken frankness of the Secretary of State for
War. At least they have the courage to say what
they mean and what they want. They have a legal
right from their point of view to oppose Bolshev-
ism and to use every means in their power to fight
it, because it is quite obvious that if Bolshevism
succeeds the idea is bound to spread, and on that
ground they will be quite justified in asking us
whether or not we would spend money to fight
against this terrible menace which they look upon
as a devil from their point of view. And we of
course should vote against it, and we should also
use force outside to prevent these troops going to
Russia. From that point of view it is quite legi-
timate. But what I regret is that beyond this
there are groups of people and individuals in this
country who have money and large shares in Rus-
sia, and they are the people who are working,
scheming, and intriguing to overthrow the Bol-
shevik regime, because if Bolshevism continues,
what will happen ? Under the old regime it was
possible to get ten or twenty per cent out of ex-
ploiting the Russian workers and peasants, but
under Socialism it will not be possible to get any-
thing at all probably, and we find that nearly every
great interest in this country in some way or an-
other is connected with Soviet Russia.
I will run through one or two of the big inter-
ests. First of all I will deal with the companies,
and I will get down to specific individuals later.
First of all we have the Russo-Asiatic Consoli-
dated, Limited. That is an amalgamation of tbe
businesses which were formerly controlled by Leslie
Urquhart. This concern has interests in the Rus-
sian-Canadian Development corporation. In this
Sir E. Mackie Edgar is the controlling influence.
This gentleman is also the controlling influence
in Sperling's, which is the controlling influence
in those centers in which there has recently been
agitation — I mean in Motherwell, in Glasgow, in
Londonderry, and in Belfast. Then there are the
British and the French interests. I have been at
some pains to try to ascertain the exact extent of
British and French investments in Russia, and 1
find from the Russian Year Book of 1918 it is
estimated that approximately they amount to
£1,600,000,000. That is a very considerable sum
indeed. I should think it is composed, to about
a half, of the Franco-Russian Loans, and the
Franco-Russian Loans are largely financed by the
Rothschild Bank in Paris. I feel it my duty to
point out that the Prime Minister carries out these
conferences at the house of his private secretary,
who is very closely connected with, indeed, I think
he is a nephew of, Lord Rothschild. These facts
are very unsavory, but I cannot help drawing at-
tention to them. When we talk about M. Miller-
and and about Marshal Foch and the French peo-
ple being opposed to peace with Russia, we do not
mean the French democracy, and we do not mean
the French peasants or workers, but the French
bondholders. Let us be quite clear about that
We mean the people whose ill-earned savings con-
stitute the £1,600,000,000 which have been sunk
in Russia,
I will give one or two other corporations inter-
ested in Russia. The next concern of any extent
is the British Trading Corporation, which was the
outcome of the Farringdon Committee. That cor-
poration has two or three branches. It has a
branch in Belgrade to watch the interests in Hun-
gary. Naturally it is not in the interests of the
British Trading Corporation that Bolshevism
should spread to Hungary. It has another branch
at Batum, and it has another branch at Danzig.
It is rather curious that this great concern
should have this branch at Danzig, and
that after establishing the branch at Dan-
zig the Allies should have declared that Dan-
zig was a free port and maintained a free port
at all costs, for the sake, I suppose, of trading
relations with Eastern Europe. This same British
Trading Corporation, which controls millions of
pounds, also controls the National Bank of Tur-
key, whose headquarters are situated at Constan-
tinople, and here again we find that Constantino-
ple is in the hands of the British military. There
is hardly a single headquarters of these big finan-
cial interests which are not being protected by
British soldiers and British blood. The next thing
is the Turkish Petroleum Company at Mosul, an-
L,, VERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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November 13, 1930
SOVIET BUSSIA
491
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other outpost of Bolshevism which we have to
protect. That company is controlled jointly by
three companies — the British Trading Corpora-
tion, the D'Arcy group and the Shell Company.
The Shell Company has vast interests in Russia.
These are some of the interests which the Shell
Company, with a nominal capital of £23,000,000,
has in Russia — the Ural Caspian Oil Corporation,
the North Caucasian Oilfield, the New Schibareff
Petroleum Company, Limited, and many others.
It is quite obvious to any common-sense individual
that these great financial interests are going to do
everything they can to fight against Bolshevism.
It does not matter what the Prime Minister says
here. The War Minister and his organization is
supreme, and whether or not he comes to the
House and tells us he wants peace, every effort
will be made openly or secretly to carry the war
on, even if they have to use black troops from
Madagascar or elsewhere. When you have
£1,600,000,000 invested in Russia it is not likely
that Hon. Members opposite, who largely control
it, are going to risk losing it. I bring this point
out so that people may know the influences that
are behind the present movement; so that they
may know what is going on, and why the people
who are sitting here cheer anti-Bolshevik action.
Does the House imagine that Hon. Members be-
hind the Prime Minister who cheer his rhetoric,
who cheer his Socialist bosh, do so with any feel-
ings of humanity in them ? Do they want to save
life, do they want to have peace in Eastern Eu-
rope ? No, they want to save their bonds and their
dividends in their pockets. (Hon. Members:
"Names!") If Hon. Members want names they
can look at the directors of these companies. The
book of directors is a cheap book to purchase. The
British Trade Corporation might form an interest-
ing study in other parts of the world. A study
of its ramifications in the Levant Company, in
which it holds large stocks, and in Syria and the
Balkans might also provide useful information as
to many of our commitments, naval and military,
in different parts of the world.
The case before the country today is whether or
not peace is to be established in Eastern Europe, or
whether these dividends are to be made up again.
Those are the alternatives. Is peace to return to
Eastern Europe or are the profiteers who support
the government to continue to get their profits out
of the Russian workers? What I do object to,
and what I do think is despicable, is that any
member of the government should be connected
with this business; that a member of the govern-
ment should have financial interests in Russia.
(Hon. Members: "Name!") I have already spoken
about the Shell Company. I know it is a very
delicate matter, but this is a very serious business,
and it is very necessary that the people should
know all the facts about the Russian business. Let
us put all the cards on the table. Let us know
all the facts, and let everybody in the country
know exactly who is getting money out of Russia.
I find that in the Shell Company the Prime Min-
ister's secretary holds 9,861 £1 shares. (An Hon.
Member: "Lucky dog!") In connection with an-
other person, whose name I need not mention, be-
cause he is not a Member of this House, he also
holds 11,500 shares. There are distinguished naval
and military officers whose names also appear on
this list, but I am going to observe the ordinary
courtesy of this House — which I must say is not
always extended to me — by declining to give the
names. I will read out the names of the gentlemen
who control the British Trading Corporation, the
Supreme Council which dictates its policy, the
people who control hundreds of millions of pounds.
(An Hon. Member: "What has that to do with
it !") It has this to do with it, that if these men
do not look after their interests they ought not to
be there. There is Sir Vincent Caillard, who is
one of the chief directors of the largest armament
concern in this country, Messrs. Vickers, and its
associated companies. Naturally a big firm like
that are not disinterested in a little war in a coun-
try like Russia. There is Sir Dudley Docker, who is
chairman of the Metropolitan Wagon Company,
and also, I believe, chairman of the Federation of
British Industries. This shows that all these big
interests are interwoven one with the other. They
are all interested in keeping the war going with
Russia. Not a single one, with the exception of
a few trading companies and a few exporting com-
panies, are really interested in stopping the war.
Behind these interests and behind the financiers
who sit on the other side of the House are the
newspapers and the other influences which go to
make up public opinion in this country. In addi-
tion to the directors mentioned, there are in the
British Trading Corporation Sir Hallewell Rogers,
of the Birmingham Small Arms Company, Mr.
J. H. B. Noble, qf Armstrong, Whitworths, Sir
J. Hope Simpson, and Sir Algernon Firth, Presi-
dent of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of
Great Britain and Ireland. That shows how the
big interests are concerned in keeping the war go-
ing with Soviet Russia.
Murder of Baku Commissars
[A report of the execution which was published
in the Socialist press of the Trans-Caucasus and re-
printed in the Vladivostok "Krqsnoye Znamya".]
As has become generally known in Baku and
far beyond it, in September, 1918, a group
of commissars who had come to Krasnovodsk from
Baku completely disappeared, under puzzling cir-
cumstances, on the territory of western Turkes-
tan (in the Trans-Caspian region). A number
of contradictory, grewsome stories originated in
connection with the disappearance of these men,
who had been officially arrested by the Trans-
Caspian authorities when they landed near Kras-
novodsk and were afterwards locked up in the
local jail. There were rumors that all twenty-six
commissars had teen ttken to India; or that they
had been killed during an attempt to escape; or
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SOVIET BUSSIA
November 13, 1920
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finally, that these men, as adherents of the Bol-
shevist rule with all its peculiarities and extremes,
had been sentenced to death by an unknown trib-
unal and that the sentence was carried out.
Despite all the horrors of the implacable in-
ternal war which has dulled the senses of the
people, there was no end of surmises and suppo-
sitions.
In reality the hideous action of cold-blooded
decision concerning the life or death of over a
score of people, and their removal and murder oc-
curred in the following manner :
1. About the middle of September, 1918, the
representative of the British Miltiary Mission at
Askhabad, Captain Beginald F. Tig-Jones, hav-
ing been informed of the capture of twenty-six
Bolshevist commissars on the Krasnovodsk banks,
communicated with the head of the Trans-Caspian
Criminal Bureau, Semyon Lvovich Druzhkin and
with some members of the Regional Executive
Committee, stating that, in accordance with the
plans of the British Mission, he would like to have
these commissars in India.
2. Fully agreeing with the reasons which Begi-
nald F. Tig-Jones advanced in favor of the removal
of the Baku commissars from Krasnovodsk to
Meshed, and thence to India, S. L. Druzhkin, on
his part, urged upon some the members of the
Executive Committee of the Trans-Caspian re-
gion the necessity of assisting the execution of
the plans and designs of the chief of the British
Military Mission.
3. At the same time, however, Tig-Jones and
Druzhkin informed the said members of the Exe-
cutive Committee that they considered the removal
of the commissars to Metshed and to India insuf-
ficient in many respects, and that all the commis-
sars should be shot on the journey from Krasno-
vodsk, which was also fully in accordance with
the designs of the British Military Mission in
Askhabad, but that it should be arranged with
certain "formal guaranties".
4. Specifically, Tig-Jones' and Druzhkin's plan
provided for a fictitious receipt stating that the
Baku commissars had been turned over to the
British military authorities at Meshed, though in
reality they were to be shot during the journey
on the railway, between the stations Krasnovodsk
and Askhabad.
5. The receipt of the British military authori-
ties at Meshed to the effect that the twenty-six
Baku commissars had been turned over to them,
was intended, according to Tig-Jones and Druzh-
kin, to explain to the public the disappearance of
the commissars, and so to put an end to all rumors
of their death, murder, or escape.
6. However, assuming naturally that some pub-
lic organizations, or the relatives and friends of
the victims would sooner or later demand that
the ultimate fate of the removed commissars should
be ascertained, Captain Tig-Jones told Druzhkin
— who in his turn told the members of the Exe-
cutive Committee who had been informed of the
plan on foot — that in due time official certificates
would be issued at certain intervals of the death
of the twenty-six commissars, to which effect "any
required medical certificate can be obtained."
7. All these reasons and the "formal guaran-
ties" of Tig-Jones and Druzhkin convinced the
members of the Executive Committee who had
been taken into their confidence, and who at first
were undecided, that the murder of the twenty-six
Baku commissars was practicable, expedient, and
necessary, and as a result they gave their consent
to the plan and to its immediate execution.
8. To effect this plan, the aforementioned mem-
bers of the Executive Committee and some other
persons arranged to go to Krasnovodsk, and in
the evening of September 19 a special train ar-
rived at the Krasnovodsk station for the purpose
of removing towards Askhabad the commissars
who were to be shot.
9. Late in the night of September 19 they
applied at the Krasnovodsk jail to take the twen-
ty-six commissars to India through Meshed, and
the jail administration gave its consent without
any particular formalities.
10. The same night, the special train left Kras-
novodsk with the commissars, the persons in charge
of the removal, a guard, and continued on the
way toward Askhabad for about seven hours, with
but few stops.
11. At about 6 A. M. the train, having run 200
versts, stopped on the road between the stations
Pereval and Akcha-Kuima.
12. Here those in charge of the removal and
the execution informed the twenty-six commissars
of their fate and began to lead them out of the
car in groups of eight or nine.
13. All the comissars were overcome by the
announcement of their fate and were absolutely
silent, with the exception of one sailor, who ex-
claimed loudly: "I am calm. I know that I am
dying for freedom." To this one of the men in
charge replied : "We know that we too will sooner
or later die for freedom. But we understand it
differently."
14. After this a group of the commissars were
led out of the car into the morning twilight and
were at once shot. The second group when led
out — apparently noticing the character of the lo-
cality which is covered with gray sand mounds,
and which may have aroused in them some hope
of finding cover from the shots — made an attempt
to escape, but were riddled by the bullets from
repeated volleys. The last group made no at-
tempt to escape.
1 5. After shooting all the commissars, and mak-
ing sure of their death, the executioners hastily
buried the corpses in the sand (about 200 feet
from the railroad bed) and burned a part of the
belongings of the victims there- Most of their
belongings were burned in the train itself.
16. After this the train went back to the place
from which it had started.
Such, in brief, is the story of the execution of
the twenty -&ix Baku commissars.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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Wireless and Other News
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THE COTTON CAMPAIGN IN SOVIET
RUSSIA
A recent issue of Pravda reports very satisfac-
tory results for the last cotton campaign. Th$
cotton spinneries of the Moscow district are now
supplied by Caucasia, Persia and Turkestan, by
way of Astrakhan and Samara. From August 20
to September 20, 1,000 carloads of cotton were
loaded for Samara alone. Since the beginning of
this year 2,000,000 poods of cotton have passed
through Samara on their way to the spinneries.
The Russian cotton spinneries are now supplied
with cotton in sufficient quantities to enable them
to work without interruption for one year.
RADEK ON FRENCH IMPERIALISTIC
POLICY
Moscow, October 17 (Rosta). — In Izvestia
Badek outlines a series of attempts by French im-
perialists to create an anti-English outpost all
over the world and thus secure for itself a position
of European hegemony. One instance follows:
The Franco-Belgian military convention was con-
cluded outside of the League of Nations. Other
instances are : The German policy pursued by
France, the aggressive measures in regard to Lith-
uania, and the alliance with the Hungarian Gov-
ernment of Horthy. In the Near East France
not only supports Kemal Pasha, but is deliberately
creating an Assyrian kingdom headed by a French
general.
CZECHO-SLOVAK DELEGATION IN
MOSCOW
Moscow, October 15 (Rosta).— Part of the
Czecho-Slovak Delegation of Trade Unions has left
Petrograd for Moscow. Their aim is to study the
Russian labor movement. The delegation will also
inquire into the conditions for the admittance of
Czecho-Slovak trade unions into the Moscow Labor
International Councils and the Communist Inter-
nationale.
Moscow, October 17.— The Czecho-Slovak
Trade Union Delegation arrived in Moscow on
October 15. At the same time representatives of
the Roumanian labor movement, headed by Popo-
vitch. Green, Secretary of a Chicago Labor
Council, also arrived.
PROGRESS IN RECONSTRUCTION
WORK
Moscow, October 15 (Rosta). — An electric
train invented by Engineer Makhonin arrived in
Mioscow on the evening of October 12, having left
Petrograd at, eight o'clpck that morning. It ran
one hundred and fifty versts without interruption
and covered the whole distance from Petrograd
without recharging, thus beating the world record
as German electric trains can only travel three
hundred and fifty kilometers without recharging.
The first Russian vessel of reinforced concrete
was launched at Samara a few days ago. Such
vessels will gradually replace the wooden barges
of the Volga fleet.
VOLUNTARY LABOR
Moscow, October 17 (Rosta).— Moscow fac-
tories, shops and individual artisans are frequently
applying voluntary increase of working hours, be-
sides extra Saturday afternoon labor to prepare
clothing for the Red Army.
ADDRESS TO RUSSIAN WOMEN
Moscow, October 3, 1920 (Rosta) .—Pravda
publishes an address by Clara Zetkin to Russian
working and peasant women. The concluding
words of the message follow:
"Your example inspires us. Our victory wiU be
your victory too, for the union of Soviet Russia
and Soviet Germany will make both proletarian
states invincible, and will immeasurably facilitate
our common task of creating a new economy and
culture. All hail to you, Russian working and
peasant women. Your struggle is our struggle,
the struggle of world revolution against worid
counter-revolution, and we proletarians of the
world shall prevail."
POLES DESTROY BRIDGES
Moscow, October 6, 1920 (Rosta) .—According
to careful estimates the number of bridges de-
stroyed by the Poles in their retreat reached the
total of 109, large and small. This considerably
exceeds the number of bridges destroyed by the
Germans in 1914, and by the bands of Denikin,
Petlura, and other counter-revolutionary leaders
that have held sway over the southwestern part of
Russia.
ECONOMIC SITUATION
Moscow, October 17 (Rosta) .—Provision work
in Central Russia, as well as in the western prov-
inces is proceeding successfully. Passenger train
traffic in Russia is rapidly approaching normal.
At present direct fast trains are run: Moscow to
Kharkov, 24 hours; Moscow to Archangel, 50
hours; Moscow to Omsk, 119 hours; Moscow to
Saratov, 23 hours; and Moscow to Petrograd, 15
hours.
PEAT PRODUCTION
Moscow, October 7, 1920 (Rosta).— Official
statistical data show that the peat production pro-
gram in the Ural peat works will be fulfilled al-
most to the full amount of the proposed output
" , °"' '^iM^ICHIGAN
494
SOVIET RUSSIA
November 13, 1920
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FLAX PRODUCTION
Moscow, October 7, 1920 (Rosta) .— Flax pro-
duction in the current yeaT is estimated to amount
to four million poods. It is about half of the
normal output. The government proposes to in-
troduce premial system of rewards to increase the
productivity of lint culture.
zhensky and Bukharin welcomed the congress on
behalf of the central committee of the Communist
Party.
PRESS LIES REPUDIATED
Moscow, October 5, 1920 (Rosta). — Rumors
about alleged revolts in Russia are absolutely false.
The spirit of the people is most resolute for de-
fence. In these days, every town and every vil-
lage in Russia shows an extreme readiness to help
the Soviet Government in its struggle for free-
dom and peace. Strikers on the northwest rail-
ways and in Semionov's factories, who are falsely
reported to have killed commissars do not exist.
Rumors as to the wounding of Trotsky are also
false. The temper of the Red Army is magnificent
and a campaign is in progress behind the front to
supply troops with enough materials to finish with
Wrangel during the winter.
Moscow, October 8, 1920 (Rosta). — In view of
the malicious anti-Soviet propaganda abroad al-
leging unrest and uprisings in Russia, and par-
ticularly among sailors in the port of Petrograd,
Chicherin, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs
issued today the following statement: "Petro-
grad is absolutely peaceful as is the rest of Soviet
Russia's territory. There is no unrest among sail-
ors, on the contrary their morale is excellent, and
fancy stories spread in western Europe giving re-
volts and unrest among them only provoke mirth.
The internal position of Soviet Russia is unshak-
able. As a result of the determined stand of peas-
ants in southern Russia in favor of the Soviet Gov-
ernment the initiative on Wrangel's front is get-
ting into our hands. Wrangel's rear is badly har-
assed by green partisans. A symptomatic incident
is that Makhno has come over to our side and is
now operating under our command. In the Kuban
district unrest which first arose in conjunction
with Wrangel's offensive has entirely been done
away with. Stories abroad alleging weakening of
Soviet authority are unmitigated lies calculated
to confuse the situation in order to prevent the
establishment of peace with Soviet Russia.
CONGRESS OF COMMUNIST YOUTH
Moscow, October 3, 1920 (Rosta).— The Third
All-Russian Congress of Communist Youth
opened at Moscow. About 600 young workers and
peasants came from all parts of vast Soviet Rus-
sia as delegates to this congress. Lfenin, greeted
by stormy ovations addressed the congress, dwell-
ing on the task of upbuilding the new Communist
life. After the conclusion of the address, Lenin
answered a series of questions put by the delegates.
Lunacharsky greeted the congress in the name of
the Commissariat of Public Instruction. Podvoi-
sky explained to the congress the aim and signi-
ficance of military training of youth. Preobra-
ALLIED IMPERIALISM AND UKRAINE
Moscow, October 3, 1920 (Rosta). — Izvestia,
in a leading article points out the important role
played by Ukraine in revolutionary plans of all
imperialists ever since the establishment of Soviet
Russia. First German imperialism supported Sko-
ropadsky and occupied Ukraine in order to deprive
Soviet Russia of this fertile land and its rich re-
sources. Then the Entente did the same support-
ing Denikin. Now France does the same in openly
supporting Wrangel and covertly inciting Poland
to come to terms with Petlura. France hopes to
kill two birds with one stone, namely kill Bolshev-
ism (one word out) to French imperialism and
capture Ukraine's rich stocks of raw materials.
After peace with Poland the South Russian front
will remain the only front of the world bourgeoisie
against Soviet Russia. There the long battle be-
tween Soviet Russia and world capitalism will
come to a final issue.
PROLETARIAN CULTURE
Moscow, October 8, 1920 (Rosta)*— In yester-
day morning's session of the First All-Russian
Congress of "Proletcult" (meaning proletarian
culture establishments) Chairman of the Congress
and the Central Executive Bureau for Proletarian
Culture, Lebedev Poliansky made a report which
stated that in spite of manifold unfavorable con-
ditions of work, proletarian culture estab-
lishments had increased in number and now
amount to three hundred. They are scatttred
throughout the central regions of Siberia, Ural,
Ukraine; the Caucasus, and even Georgia, The
"Proletkult" idea is spreading even in Western
Europe and now notably there exists an interna-
tional board of "Proletkults". Russian "Prolet-
kults" did great work in the army on various fronts
having organized concerts, meetings, lectures,
theatrical performances, etc. In the domain of
art "Proletkults" actively struggles against cubism,
futurism, and other morbid forms of bourgeois
art. The working class of Russia has already its
own musicians, composers, sculptors, and painters
as well as writers and poets.
Moscow, October 7, 1920 (Rosta) .—Yesterday
the Second All-Russian Conference of the Prole-
tarian Culture Association opened in Moscow.
There are more than 100 delegates representing
one half million associated workers of 350 sections.
The elected chairman is Lebedev Poliansky, vice-
chairman, Member of the International Bureau for
Proletarian Culture, John Reed.*
SPANISH SOCIALIST DELEGATION
Moscow, October 8, 1920 (Rosta).— The Span-
ish Socialist Party is sending a delegation to Mos-
cow to study the economic and political situation
in Soviet Russia. . .
Original from
{J
November 13, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
495
A Letter to Lloyd George
The following letter from Krassin to Lloyd George, in regard to trade with Soviet Russia, is taken from
the "Daily Telegraph", London, October 6, 1920:
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Sir.— The Russian Trade Delegation arrived in Lon-
don at the end of May of this year, and for over four
months has been endeavoring to come to an agreement
with the British Government as regards the funda-
mental conditions which are to govern the resumption
of economic and trade relations between the two coun-
tries. During its stay in Great Britain, the Russian
Trade Delegation, with the help of its experts for
various branches of trade and industry, has acquainted
itself with the position of the English market, and has
planned out a number of definite transactions and trade
contracts, which could be carried out immediately after
the conclusion of a commercial treaty between the two
governments. The theoretical anticipations as to the
extensive orders which it was thought could be placed
with the British trade, have now become a definite
assurance borne out by the knowledge of the British
market, which knowledge has been secured as the re-
sult of direct communications with various mill and
factory owners, and the visits paid to some of the larg-
est industrial undertakings in this country.
The preliminary negotiations have established the pos-
sibility of exporting from England to Soviet Russia
finished locomotives for the Russian railways, this be-
ing conditioned only by comparatively slight modifica-
tions in the present organization of locomotive works.
Having regard to the fact that Russia's demand for
new locomotives will grow on an ever-increasing scale
with the economic rebirth of the country, and that this
demand for new locomotives can be fully satisfied only
in- the course of several decades, the placing of orders
for a considerable number of new locomotives of the
same type with English producers should, it would seem
to us, be of especial interest to those producers, and
particularly to those amongst them who are now in-
terested in making full use of the powerful plants which
were erected during the war for the production of
munitions. Certain locomotive and engineering firms
in England have shown interest also in the work of
repairing Russian locomotives, for which a special or-
ganization is proposed, so as to bring over on specially-
fitted steamers the locomotives in need of repair, and
to carry from England to Russia on their return jour-
ney those repairs which have already been completed.
The annual demand of Soviet Russia in materials for
railway transport (tires, pipes, forgings, boilers, etc.),
which is estimated at the sum of over £10,000,000,
could also in its greater part be satisfied in England,
as the metal works here have sufficient stocks of metal
and a large margin of unused productive capacity. There
is also a possibility that in the near future the Russian
railways will place orders for carriages and sets of
wheels, particularly of the newest types, with a* greater
lifting capacity, as well as for special carriages with
automatic fittings for unloading coal and ore.
As regards the general engineering trade, orders
could be placed for heavy lathes for metal work and
complete outfits for locomotive and railway repair
shops. A special department is engaged in drafting
orders for electrical appliances, varying from complete
turbo-generating sets for the equipment of electric
power stations, to ordinary standard types of motors
and dynamos, measuring instruments, telegraph and
telephone installations, etc.
The delegation has already entered into negotia-
tions with large English firms with regard to orders
for motor trucks, and these orders could be actually
given in the shortest time possible. Orders for chemicals
and medical supplies on a small scale have already
been placed by the delegation, but they could be con-
siderably increased with additional orders, such, for
example, as for aniline dyes could be given as soon as
normal trade relations between both countries are es-
tablished. Various metal articles, steel for tools, files,
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
drills, various tools fQr metal and wood work, 'are ob-
tainable here in large quantities, and could be delivered
within the shortest possible time. Orders for a quan-
tity of such articles have already been placed by the
delegation, but considerably bigger purchases could be
made in the near future, provided regular shipments
could be secured.
Soviet Russia, on account of the limited paying re-
sources which will be at its disposal during the next
few years, cannot become as great a purchaser of Eng-
lish cloth and textiles as would be commensurate with
the actual needs of Russia and the size of its population.
But already the Russian Trade Delegation has received
instructions from its government to place orders for
textiles amounting in value to several million pounds,
and has actually done so with regard to some orders;
whilst with regard to others negotiations are being car-
ried on with a number of textile firms. Soviet Russia
stands in need of considerable quantities of raw ma-
terials and semi-manufactured articles required by vari-
ous branches of the Russian industry; orders for such
materials could also be made in London, which is the
world market for goods of that kind. Purchases of
Egyptian cotton, rubber, Colonial products, such as cof-
fee, tea, and tanning extracts, could be effected soon
after the conclusion of the commercial treaty.
The Russian Trade Delegation during its stay in
London has been conducting negotiations, and partly,
has actually signed agreements with a number of Eng-
lish firms with regard to the export of goods from
Russia to this country. Preliminary agreements have
been entered into for export from Archangel and Petro-
grad of timber to the amount of several tens of thou-
sands of standards, and also for the delivery of two
million sleepers for the English railways. An agree-
ment has been concluded, and is already being carried
out, for the delivery of various kinds of plywood, more
especially as material for manufacturing boxes. Soviet
Russia could make immediate deliveries of considerable
quantities of fine sorts of wood, and particularly of
oak for cabinet-making and carpentry. The export of
flax, hemp, leather, fur, carpets, peasant "kustar" pro-
ducts, bristle, hair, tobacco, manganese ore, and certain
other goods is held back solely owing to the impossibil-
ity of free sailing between Russian and British ports,
as well as conducting regular trade operations, until
an agreement between the two countries to this effect
has been arrived at.
A very important and immediate part in the export
trade of Soviet Russia could be played by naphtha,
kerosene, benzine, lubricating oils, and other products
of naphtha, the stocks of which, both in the Baku and
the Grozny districts, are very considerable, viz., about
two million tons.
The above brief enumeration of various branches of
the import and export trade shows that even before the
navigation season is over, a considerable exchange of
goods could be effected, thus serving to relieve the grave
economic situation in which Europe has found itself
since the conclusion of the world war. The Russian
Trade Delegation regrets to state that the best part of
the navigation season of this year has been lost for the
resumption of trade relations with Russia which could
have supplied considerable quantities of raw material.
This delay in the resumption of trade relations between
Russia and Western Europe is to be all the more re-
gretted as it would seem the principles which were to
form the basis of the agreement between Russia and
Great Britain in the main outlines have been fixed in
the negotiations which during the last four months have
been taking place between the representatives of both
countries. There seems to be every reason also to as-
sume that no irreconcilable differences of opinion exist
between the two governments with regard to the details
UNIVERSITY0F MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
November 13, 1920
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of the trade treaty. It may be considered, therefore,
that nothing actually stands in the way of bringing the
negotiations to the speediest issue embodied in a trade
treaty, so as to make possible the carrying out of the
proposed transactions for mutual exchange of goods
before the present navigation season is over.
In bringing the above to your notice, I beg to add
that I have received instructions from my government
to take all such possible measures as would lead to the
speediest conclusion of the trade negotiations, and, as
far as possible, the immediate signing of the proposed
agreement. — I am, Sir, yours faithfully.
(Signed) L. Krassin.
BRITISH AND RUSSIAN PRISONERS
A Note forwarded to Lord Curzon by Mr. Kras-
sin deals exhaustively with the exchange of prison-
ers. In this Note Mr. Krassin states that he is in-
structed by his Government to state that the Rus-
sian Government is prepared to start immediately
the exchange of prisoners and is in a position to
deliver the English prisoners very soon across the
Finnish frontier, for which purpose the British
Charge d'Affaires in Finland should be instructed
to act on behalf of the British Government.
Instructions have already been sent to the Rus-
sian Government representative at Tiflis to deal
with the question of the repatriation of the Baku
prisoners on the lines agreed to by Lord Curzon
in his Note of October 9. With reference to the
Russian prisoners in England, the Russian Gov-
ernment expects the delivery of Mr. BabushMtfs
party to meet the first consignment of British
prisoners on the Finnish frontier, and expects the
delivery of Russian prisoners in Egypt and Con-
stantinople, and especially representatives of trade
unions arrested by the British military command
at Batum during their occupation of Batum-
Allegations are made in this Note that a Rus-
sian citizen at Constantinople was kept in a wooden
cage for two months, badly fed and maltreated and
that the prisoners' trade union leaders at Batum
are kept under bad conditions, not sent to hospitals
when ill, maltreated when refusing to work, not
supplied with underclothing, and kept with ordi-
nary criminals.
The Russian Government, the Note adds, expects
that the British Government will carry out its un-
dertaking to release its citzens suffering in such a
way, not only in the letter, but in the spirit of
Lord Curzon's Note of October 9. Meanwhile,
the evacuation of British citizens from Russia is
going to be carried out without delay. — The Man-
chester Guardian, October 16, 1920.
THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. Japanese Intbiguks and Pkopaganda, by Max M. Zip pin,
2. Nationalization of Women, by Leon Trotsky. An interesting exposure of the false-
hood of the nationalization decree attributed to Soviet officials-
3. Norwegian Delegates on Soviet Russian Conditions. Report of the Norwegian Metal
Workers recently returned from Russia.
4. Last Instalment of Moscow in 1920, by Dr. Alfons Ooldschmidt. Among other interest-
ing topics Dr. Ooldschmidt describes the following: the Supreme Council of National
Economy, the Textile Central, the German Consulate, and the Return Journey.
5. Interesting Book Reviews, by A. C. Freeman. A review of several interesting anti-Bol-
shevik books, exposing their misrepresentations and exaggerations.
6. Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt-CoL B. Roustam Bek.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make all checks payable
to L. C. A. K. Martens.)
110 West 40th Strreet
SUBSCRIPTIONS CECE2VED BY
SOVIET RUSSIA
(Room 304)
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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
CD
/
irffc* — ■*
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Japanese Intrigues
SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, November 20, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 21
Issued W«kly at 110 W\ 40tb Street, New York, N. Y. Ltidwig C. A. K. Marten^ Publisher. Jacob Wittmer Hartmann, Editor.
Subscription Rate, $5.00 per annum. Application for entry as second class matter pending. Changes of address should reach the
office a week before the changes arc to be made.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PACK
Norwegian Delegates on Russian Conditions
{Report of Norwegian Metal Workers) 497
PAGE
Japanese Intrigues and Propaganda, by Max
Af. Zippin . ...... 510
Military Review, by Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek. , , 499 The Food Policy of the Soviet Government,
Moscow in 1920, by Dr. Alfons Goldschmidt {Last
by A. Svidenky ..*..t,... ............ 5 13
(Instalment) . .. ........ 501 Wireless and Other News . . 517
Editorials '. » . 508 Books Reviewed 518
Norwegian Delegates on Russian Conditions
Christian!;!* October 10.
T^HE delegation of the Norwegian Metal Workers
has made a report on its journey in Soviet Rus-
sia, The statements were made at the plenary ses-
sion of the Norwegian Trade Unions by the two
delegates Kristensen and Langseth, members of
the Norwegian Workers' Delegation :
"It was already clear at our reception in Mur-
mansk that we were in a country whose social
basis was no longer capitalistic. It seemed as if
capitalism had been swept away in Russia by the
wind. Everything has been simplified and clari-
fied, and even the uneducated workers can under-
stand. The members of the delegation were per-
mitted to go about every where j although special
permits were required for the war zone. To be
sure, prices have been raised immensely when goods
are obtained by speculation, but otherwise all
goods are distributed equitably and all speculation
is disposed of in the most stringent manner, par-
ticularly if the guilty ones are Communists,
"I was particularly touched," said Kristensen,
whose remarks are being quoted, "by the care for
children, 1 am a member of the Christiania City
Council, and I know what we have done for the
children, and I must admit that it is a disgrace for
us to consider how far behind Soviet Russia we
are in this respect The Russians give the children
the best of everything. When the rations of adults
between 25 and 50 years of age were reduced, those
of the children were increased.
"It was difficult to explain the new order of
things to illiterates. The eight-hour labor day
was divided into two parts: four hours in the work
shop, four hours at school. Ideal continuation
schools were founded for instruction in practical
matters and industrial arts* Parents were not
obliged to deliver their children to the school
homes, and yet the homes were overcrowded, Chil*
dren were taken away only from those parents who
were incapable of bringing them up themselves.
The same was done in the case of those families
who made their children peddle things in the street.
Every adult person who is able to read and write is
obliged to impart this knowledge to two persons
heretofore unable to do so. This is the explana-
tion for the small number of illiterates in the
cities.
At the Places of Work
"In the workshops and factories the conditions
vary considerably with the various parts of the
country. In the western parts, for instance, in Pet-
rograd, you have about the same conditions as in
Scandinavia. Farther to the east the situation be-
comes far less advanced. In the Ural regions, for
instance, labor is by no means very intensive, for
up to January of this year this was still a theatre
of war. The Kolchak soldiers destroyed innumer-
able machines and inundated the mines. One of
our interpreters had formerly been a director of
an enterprise that employed 30,000 workers.
This man is no Communist, but according to his
view the present form of society will restore Rus-
sia industrially, which no other form of society
could do. The form of management in the various
localities is also different. In many enterprises
there is a single trustee at the head, in others there
is a workers' council; in some a director or an
engineer. Wherever we went, the burning question
was what is the best form of management.
The Founding of Garden Cities
"Housing conditions also vary considerably. In
Pctrograd there are enough dwellings; in Moscow
TVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Novembtr 20, 1*28
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there is a lack of sufficient facilities. Great plans
for the construction of houses have already been
worked out, according to which the most beauti-
ful garden cities of the world will be constructed
in Russia within five years. The question of rent
has been eliminated. Formerly there were often
strikes. When we asked the workers, on this trip,
.whether there are still strikes, they answered:
'Whom have we to strike against?' The people
know very well that every product is being dis-
tributed justly, and once they know that, there is
no trouble about their remaining at work." Kris-
tensen closed his speech with the remark that only
volunteers are now being sent out as soldiers, and
that there are nevertheless so many soldiers that
not all can be assigned to military work.
Haavard Langseth had a large amount of printed
matter which he had brought back to Norway with
him, all of which was confiscated by the Norwegian
Government, and only a small portion was later
returned. He discussed the economic changes that
had taken place in Russia. "We live too much in a
capitalistic frame of mind and can therefore little
understand what is going on in Russia. In the
year 1905 Russia was nothing else than an eco-
nomic colony, but after 1907 there developed, in
consequence of Witte's economic program, a very
rapid industrial growth, with the result that the
production of raw materials could hardly keep pace
with the demands of industry. This unnaturally
rapid development had brought forth a great eco-
nomic crisis, so that only a revolution could save
Russia. In consequence of Germany's invasion,
industry had to be withdrawn more and more from
the west of the country to the center and to the
east. Not only were the machines transplanted,
but also the class-conscious revolutionary workers,
which had an advantageous influence on industry.
Unemployment was imminent and production go-
ing down, but the greater part of the bourgeoisie
was making great profits, as in other countries.
The decline of production was the chief cause of
the Russian Revolution. At the end of 1916 and
the beginning of 1917 the workers in many places
already were demanding the control over produc-
tion in many factories. Councils of factory work-
ers were being formed, in spite of the indignant
resistance of the capitalists. The Mensheviki, who
at first were the majority in the workers' councils,
were unsuccessful in their work, and therefore the
power over these councils passed into the hands of
the Bolsheviki.
"The November Revolution made possible the
completion of the necessary economic readjust-
ment, so that there is already a certain activity in
economic life. Organs were established for the
control of the entire industrial production. The
sabotage of the bourgeoisie involved an accelera-
tion of the processes of socialization, which it had
been originally intended to prosecute rather slow-
ly. Foreign capital also began to become rather
restive. In the midst of the most bitter struggle
with the bourgeoisie, production had to be speeded
up. A strong centralized leadership of production
Digitized by L*t
was required. This centralization, which saved
Russia, is a different thing from the trustification
of capitalist society, because it may be supervised
by the workers themselves. Russia is still suffer-
ing under the economic pressure, which is however
only a consequence of external attacks. This is the
manner in which we must understand the economic
situation of the Bolsheviki, the institutions that
gave them their strength, and that they will sus-
tain with all their might. They recognize that they
have made mistakes, but such mistakes can be reme-
died, for the system is a good one. We shall see
Western Europe pass through the same transforma-
tion as Russia. Therefore we must learn to grasp
the decisive and purposeful policy of the Bol-
sheviki in the economic field. For this policy is
what has enabled Russia to stand until the present
time."
Langseth further reported how economic life in
Russia was being administered. "At the head is
the Supreme Council of National Economy, con-
sisting of 68 members, 10 of whom are from the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee, 31 from
the trade unions, 10 from the local economic coun-
cils, and two from each People's Commissariat.
The trade unions have great influence all over. They
are the representatives of the people in productive
life; three great economic combines have been
formed, and there are three different systems of or-
ganization: a collective (workers' council) admin-
istration, a financial administration (director),
and finally, a private administration. The indus-
trial councils represent the direct interests of the
workers in the factories; they have supervision
over each man's actual work, they control the
dwellings, the hospitals, etc. Through the trade
unions they also have influence on the administra-
tion of industry. Together with the People's Com-
missariat for Labor, they determine the various
workers' tariffs, etc.
"The great problem of production can only be
solved gradually. .For the electrification of Russia
a unified plan has already been worked out: in
course of eight years it is to be carried out. In
Petrograd alone there are 70 electric stations.
These are being united into a great single gigantic
whole, which will supply the whole city and its
environs with electricity. The question of fuel is
one of the most difficult ones. In the central por-
tion of the country it has been nevertheless pos-
sible to gather 50,000,000 cubic meters of wood.
After the occupation of Baku, the exportation of
naphtha began immediately and was continued
throughout the summer — 6,000,000 poods were ex-
ported."
The speaker reported also on transport condi-
tions and foodstuffs, and stated that nutrition in
Russia was better than it had been in Germay dur-
ing the war. He denied that there was any minor-
ity rule in Russia, since the whole centralized sys-
tem is under the control of the working-class. "It
is the only possible transition form, the capitalist
tendency is becoming weaker and weaker, for cen-
tralization Involves voluntary self-discipline. .Th§
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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November 20, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
499
Russian Communist Party had to unite all the
energies of the working class, and thus secure the
victory of the Russian Revolution. The trade unions
are maintaining peace within and protecting the
cities against any possible spasmodic efforts of
capitalist restoration."
The reports of the two delegates were received
with the greatest enthusiasm.
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
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TIT'OULD the liquidation of the Crimean front
* * put an end to the bloodshed in Soviet Russia?
My answer is in the negatived
As things appear to me from a purely strategical
standpoint, there is no chance for peace in Europe,
in general, or in Russia in particular, as long as
the capitalistic coalition of world imperialism does
not desire peace.
We have many proofs of the peaceful attitude
of the Soviet Government, and it is not necessary
to repeat them here. Soviet Russia wants peace.
The aim of Russian strategy is to force the numer-
ous enemies of the Soviet Republic to conclude
definite peace with the Russian workers and peas-
ants; while the strategy of the capitalistic coalition,
on the contrary, is based on a determination to de- •
stroy the established regime in Russia. In view
of this state of affairs, there is nothing for the
Russian people to do but to fight those who attack
them.
Now let us calmly review the situation in Russia.
The time has come when the truth must be told
without fear of criticism by those who dwell in
the morass of lies and calumnies so generously
spread throughout the world concerning Russia.
At the present moment the Red Army of the Soviet
Republic for the sixth time in its three years of
fighting against enemies armed and strongly backed
by formidable capitalistic powers once again has
completely defeated its southern foe, and we hear
nothing in the capitalistic press of the superhuman
sacrifices of the Russian people and the Red soldier.
Let us recall the Great War, the "heroism"
of the Belgian bourgeoisie, which fled in panic be-
fore the Kaiser's legions. The Belgian "hero" man-
ufactured by the capitalistic press of England is
popular to this day among the ignorant classes,
while the Belgians are now being chosen for a newly
planned "pacification of Russia", and on a greater
scale than in the past. Let us mention also the
Serbian landowners who were turned out of their
own country by the force of German militarism, in
spite of all support of the Allies, and who have
finally sold out entirely to British capital and have
now been sent to fight the Russian workers and
peasants. We know what a high tribute was paid
the "brave little Serbians" who are recorded by
bourgeois historians of the Great War and of the
armed intervention in Russia as a heroic nation.
And what about Russia? — the Russia which, now
destitute, starving, crucified, tortured and bleeding,
the Russia which sacrificed on the altar of western
"democracy" seven million workers and peasants,
and is now entering her fourth year of fighting
a more formidable and cruel enemy than Germany,
and is still strong and victorious!
Does it not deserve admiration — this heroic
struggle of the Russian workers and peasants for
the sacred right to organize themselves in the
way they think is right? But the bourgeoisie of
the world hates their bravery, hates their self-sac-
rifice, hates their ideals, and inflicts upon them
a systematic destruction by means of starvation,
epidemics and murder. Now that there isn't any
doubt that the whole Wrangel adventure is a com-
plete failure, now that his bands have abandoned
to the victorious Reds their strongest strategical
positions south of Perekop and in the Chongar
Peninsula, with all their artillery, stores, concrete
fortifications, and other booty, I find in the New
York Globe, of November 10, a report from a
"disinterested" military observer at Sebastopol, who
says that "the recent retreat of General Wrangel's
army into the Crimea was accomplished with nota-
ble success, it was said at the French Foreign
Office today." "The morale of the troops," the
report declared, "remained extremely high, and
General Wrangel was represented as confident that,
with proper, material, he could reorganize his forces
and maintain his position without great difficulty.
It was the overwhelming number on the South
Russian front which precipated Wrangel's retreat,
the general asserted." The readers of my military
reviews may insist that the final victory will be
with him who has a superior number of fighters.
"La victoire est aux gros bataillons." That is my
motto, and the western military organization, with
all its destructive technical means, inspires me with
no doubts as to the final victory of the Red Army,
because Soviet Russia, while defending her gigan-
tic battle- fronts, will always be numerically su-
perior to her enemies.
In order to understand the absurdity of the
above quoted statement by the French Foreign
Office in Sebastopol, it is necessary to study the
latest operations of the Red Army which has fought
its way into Crimea. As we know, the last stand of
the fragments of the beaten Wrangel forces was in
the west, south of the town of Perekop. Here had
been prepared several lines of modern trenches,
protected by a wide belt of barbed wire en-
tanglements. This narrow fortified front was
closely watched by the Allied navy from the Gulf
of Perekop in the west, and by Wrangel's flotilla
from the so-called Sea of Sivash in the east. Sev-
eral powerful batteries of siege artillery were
placed behind these pompon?, which were in com-
a new-
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ly constructed narrow-gauge railroad. French mili-
tary experts considered these positions as impreg-
nable. East of the Isthmus of Perekop, almost in
the middle of the Sivash Sea, is situated a penin-
sula, Chongar, connecting with the mainland, and
called u the bridge", because the Simferopol rail-
way passes over it from MelitopoL This penin-
sula is the northeastern gate of Crimea, and was
strongly fortified by reinforced concrete construc-
tions and numerous armaments of the modern type.
The French General Staff made every effort to
arm the Chongar forts and batteries in such a way
that they they might definitely bar the entrance
to Crimea. Besides this, the sandy Tongue of
Arabat protects the Sivash Sea and consequently
Crimea from the east; and it was said that Wran-
gel had at his disposal a strong detachment of
destroyers and an armed flotilla in Arabat Bay,
in the Sea of Azov. The eastern extremity of
Crimea was protected by the fortifications of Kerch.
The southern shores of the peninsula are guarded
by the Allied naval forces, thus permitting Wran*
gel to get supplies and reserves without being men-
aced by his adversaries.
From a military point of view, the position of
the anti-Soviet forces in Crimea may be considered
as very strong; they could have offered' resistance
to an attack of an enemy of at least three times
their strength, had Wrangel remained on the de-
fensive.
But unfortunately for Wrangel, the French stra-
tegists interfered and made things easy for the
Reds. A study of the reports from Moscow on
the last victory of the Red Army in Crimea, leads
us to conclude that General Mangin suggested to
Wrangel absolutely the same tactics as were used
by General Weygand at Warsaw. At the end of
October, after a series of tactical defeats in the
north, Wrangel, it seems, has determined to pass
the winter in Crimea, under the protection of his
strong advanced position at Perekop and Chongar.
It may be that the hasty retreat of his hordes from
his two northern fronts to the Crimean peninsula
was partially due to the interference of the French
command, which had in view a repetition of the
mistake the Reds had made during their swift
march on Warsaw. In fact, the advance of the
Red Army from Alexandrovsk to Crimea was very
quick and caused some anxiety. There already
were some signs that the Red forces had not
brought to the battle-line all the necessary reserves,
for certain successes of the Wrangel bands, as
shown by the number of prisoners taken, seem
to indicate that Wrangel had seen a favorable open-
ing somewhere.
A strong counter-attack by a mass of freshly
concentrated reserves, having in their rear some
such fortified position as was at WrangeFs disposal,
might easily have ended in a victory over an enemy
whose operative lines extended over a rather long
distance, and suffering a shortage of railway com-
munications as well as of mechanical transport.
Therefore two big counter-offensives were plan-
ned by the French command against the Reds, who
had already occupied the town of Perekop and in
the northeast were in possession of Salkovo and
Genichi, thus being at the gates of Crimea.
According to the military communique from
Moscow, of November 8, which was sent from Lon-
don to the Christian Science Monitor, "in the Pere-
kop region, enemy attacks on Bolshevist positions
east of Perekop were successfully repulsed." Later
on it became known that the famous entrenched
lines south of Perekop, after a stubborn fight,
were broken through by the Reds, and WrangeFs
demoralized bands were forced to fall back in
complete disorder, being menaced from the rear.
This was the result of the failure of a second
counter-offensive which Wrangel undertook to a
northwesterly direction from Chongar.
"The enemy," says the same dispatch, "forcing
his way toward Salkovo and Genichi, was ener-
getically pursued by Bolshevik troops, who on
November 3, as a result of a rush attack by cavalry
and infantry, captured the station of Rykovo and
Novo-Alexeievka, and further developing their
successes, broke into the Chongar Peninsula, over-
coming strongly fortified positions near Dzhinbu-
luk station and near Chongar." "On November
4," this dispatch continues, "Bolshevist light caval-
"ry detachments (the Red Cossacks), continuing
their advance, were forcing their way into Sivash.
In the course of November 3 and 4 the Bolsheviki
captured a large number of prisoners and booty.
Of the latter, 22 guns, three armed trains and
40,000 shells have so far been counted." It is
very characteristic that the British censor carefully
omitted to allow the fact to pass through that
WrangeFs troops were defeated by the Reds, nor
is it explained in the dispatch what kinds of guns
were captured, and how many Whites were made
prisoners. After having crossed the narrows be-
tween Chongar and Crimea by the Simferopol rail-
way, the advance Red detachments took, some of
them, the direction of Shankoi, a strategical rail-
way junction of the Perekop-Kerch and Simferopol-
Melitopol railways and particularly, westward in
order to cut off from communications with their
rear the troops which fought the Red attack di-
rected against the entrenched positions of Perekop.
As far as I know that last movement decided the
fate of WrangeFs Perekop front which has finally
collapsed.
But rejoicing in this important victory of the
Red Army we must not be too optimistic. We
understand clearly that even the complete defeat
of the forces of the Crimean Baron, and even his
death or his reported retreat to France on a French
warship will not put an end to the sufferings of
the Russian people.
There is another bloodthirsty bandit in the west
who has already started a new campaign against
the Soviets, a campaign which like those in the
past is being carefully planned by the Entente.
Balakhowich in company with Savinkov, Guchkov,
and other traitors are ready to try a new march on
Moscow. There is no doubt that energetic concentra-
tion of th* Polish forceo on the Russian frontier
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is in full progress. The appearance of the Belgian
troops in Lithuania proves that the capitalistic
coalition has not abandoned its aim to crush the
proletarian republic of Russia, and is organizing
a new combination for a new sudden attack.
The support from the Polish shliakhta, which
the bandit Balakhovich is enjoying in Minsk, as
well as the fact that the Polish Government is
helping Simon Petlura, the Ukrainian usurper, to
join Wrangel's bands, sufficiently prove that the
present Polish rulers are prepared to use the arm-
istice with Soviet Russia as a blind to prepare for
a new war. I do not trust the Polish shliakhta, the
most chauvinistic, most ambitious and bellicose
class in the world, and a peace signed with a pro-
letarian republic by their representative they will
always consider a scrap of paper to be torn to
pieces at the first order from London or Paris.
A real peace with Poland, I repeat once more,
can be established with Soviet Russia only if the
Polish people liberate themselves from the yoke
of imperialism.
Moscow in 1920
By Dr. Alfons Goldschmidt
(Eighth and Last Instalment)
Krzyzanowski
The office of the Electrical Section is in a street
on the other side of the Moskva. There is no
bustle, no bee-like activity (from the outside) in
these rooms. It is much quieter here than in the
building of the Textile Central or in that of the
Supreme Council of National Economy, which is
one uninterrupted swarming mass. Here Krzy-
zanowski works, Lenin's friend. He is an elderly
man, perhaps even an old man, in years, perhaps
sixty. Hardly of medium height, slight of build,
somewhat the privy-councillor, somewhat professor.
But he is a man that still has fire, a man who
burns, a man with cerebral muscles. A practical
man, sublimated by theory, a man who plans on
the largest scale.
I had two heart-moving experiences in Moscow,
as I have already mentioned: My session with the
Factory Committee of the Prokhorov establish-
ment, and my visit to Krzyanowski.
He is a friend of Lenin. He has a direct tele-
phone wire into the Kremlin, into Lenin's office.
I believe Lenin takes his advice on economic mat-
ters, and he is not making a mistake in doing so.
For this man, as it were, is a Stunkel raised to the
highest degree. He is more sinewy, more brilliant.
He is older than Stunkel, not so obviously ener*
getic, but his brain is much more delicately
articulated.
He had an interpreter with him, an electro-tech-
nician who had studied in Germany. Krzyanowski
speaks German too, but not well enough for all
purposes.
They were both enthusiastic about Germany.
Both hoped for the organizing assistance, the tech-
nical assistance of Germany. Both were trained by
association with the plans of Klingenberg (of the
General Electric Co., Allgemeine Elektrizitaets Ge-
sellchaft). But, as Krzyzanowski says, the plans
cannot be carried out under capitalism; they must
be carried out under Socialism. For electricity is
the power of Socialistic society, while steam is the
power and was the power of capitalistic society.
The new era of electricity has come.
He then outlined his plans for me. He gave
me a map, which I shall publish later. For it is
not only a map showing the transformation of
Russian economy; it is a map showing the altera-
tions in world economy, if its lines are prolonged
to cover the rest of the world. It is a wonderful
map, and you may well have high hopes for it. He
developed his plans before me. Russian industry
traveled, settled down, was transplanted, went from
the north to the south, to the east, to the Urals,
to Siberia. Electricity drove it on, drew it, en-
circled it, enflamed it, gathered it, organized it.
Riches of which I had no suspicion rose before
me. The master key had been found. Minerals
were pressing their way through the crust of the
earth, gigantic yellow fields of grain extended be-
fore us. Immense power stations shot their cur-
rents through a systematic web of wires. I under-
stood the sense of rational distribution of points
of vantage, the sense of new shifting. This was
really a new economy.
He spoke of the nitrogen plans, of the phos*
phate deposits, of a Siberian region that offers
nourishment to 40,000,000 people; a Canada of
the East was revealed. He spoke of investigating
commissions who are examining Russia's riches.
He wielded, as it were, an immense divining rod,
a Paradise opened before me, an orderly paradise,
with well-equipped trees, with neatly-stoned roads,
with well-fed people, people with lots of time, peo-
ple who idle in God (to use an expression of my
friends Matthias and Dengel).
He said: "Now the economic errors of the old
era are coming out, the errors of extravagance.
Now these things that were hidden by the old era
are becoming clear. The never revealed is assum-
ing form, the never raised treasure, the forgotten
Paradise."
He was full of enthusiasm. He had his doubts,
he knew how long it would take. He knew the dif-
ficulties, he longed for help. But he was all en-
thusiasm, full of courage. The designs could never
be lost again. They had been conceived even be-
fore the war. But their practicality, their definite
formation, their concretion is the problem of to-
day. It has nothing to do with politics. It is
non-political, non-partisan, free from party strife,
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world, the new world. It is the beginning of the
new world.
Palaces glittered, the homes of the people glowed
with a new light, potash poured from the mines,
piled up, vitalized the fields, and made the sap rise
and swell the heart of the grain. Life became a
swarming ant-hill, the golden age had come.
I became breathless, my breath ran short in my
attempt to absorb so much new material. Here
was a strategist completely different from the stra-
tegists at the front, or from the political strate-
gists. This was the new peace strategist, the
power directing strategist. I think there are such
strategists in Germany, too. Happy the people
who are being guided by such strategists. For
guidance of this kind is the basis of the new era.
No partisan croakings, no violent slaps in the face,
no mud-throwing, no disgusting crimes and penal-
ties, no sitting in judgment, no stale legal quips,
but the new era, with its peace, its joy of life, its
clear vision of a definite goal. May our children
enjoy it.
PlavnUc
Glav-Textile (Textile Central) was formerly a
sub-division of the Chemical Department of the
Supreme Council of National Economy. It is now
an independent department; for the textile industry
is one of the greatest industries of Russia.
Plavnik is a member of the presidium of the
Textile Central. He is in charge of the financial
bureau, of the accounting, of the treasury of this
giant combine. He is a man 34 years old, tall,
narrow-cheeked, with very quick move: ents. On
holidays he wears a white Russian blouse with red
embroidery.
I worked with him every day for four weeks. Or
rather for four weeks he gave me a daily lecture,
for my benefit, on the organization of the Russian
textile industry. It is to be the main chapter of
my book on the industrial organization of Soviet
Russia.
He showed me the beginnings of the Soviet tex-
tile industry, its development. He showed me the
conflicts^ the difficulties, and their successful elim-
ination, showed me the compulsory labor system
and its application.
He explained the system of state control, of so-
cialization. I began to comprehend through him
the production system, the new budget, the Socialist
budget, the budget that is no longer based on a
capitalist money system, on the profit system. I
learned to comprehend the universal moneyless sys-
tem, the currency system without currency, payment
without means of payment, the universal system of
accounting. The socialist system of accounting
which is so different from the accounting under the
system of private property.
He had sketches made for me illustrating the
system of socialization of industries, and statistics
showing the control of production. He explained
to me the financial sheets and the proof sheets. He
took me through the different sections and depart-
ments, and through the offices of the textile union.
Plavnik is not unknown in Germany. He was in
Germany in 1918. He was on the staff of the
Russian Soviet Embassy in Berlin, and occupied
previously one of the most important administra-
tive posts in the German textile industry.
Plavnik is appreciated as a man of clear intel-
ligence. He is an energetic man, a man of quick
decisions, a busy man. He has other duties besides,
for men, leaders, are scarce in Moscow, and the
individual is overburdened with offices and respon-
sibilities.
He longs to be in Germany, he would like to
work there negotiating and promoting Russian in-
dustrial affairs. He has the necessary qualifica-
tions, there is no doubt of that.
I became acquainted with the entire system of
state owned industries. Managers from factories
in the provinces came and submitted their wants,
orders were issued to employes, disciplinary meas-
ures were arranged, tests were made with the help
of charts, and proofs taken.
Very often there was a veritable attack upon the
office in the great trust building, by complainants,
men with new projects, people ready to explain
budgets, and people demanding budgets. They were
quickly dispatched. A small, red-globed electric
lamp was behind me. If it was alight it meant:
I am busy. But this did not keep all the intruders
away. I have already mentioned the abominable
Russian custom of breaking into a conference.
The telephone was never at rest. Often Plavnik
worked with two telephones at once, both with the
inter-office 'phone and the outside wires. Apparent-
ly, here was organization, present and in the mak-
ing. The Russian textile industry is almost entirely
nationalized, almost completely socialized. It is
hemmed in by organization, it cannot escape any
more. That much has been accomplished, and is
an irrevocable fact.
Plavnik is a master of German. He is also a
master of Hebraic scripture. He is one of the
foremost writers of Hebrew in Russia. If I re-
member rightly he edits a Hebrew periodical. I
promised him an article for this magazine, but I
lacked the time to keep this promise.
He is a shrewd man, an efficient business man, a
business man of the new order, a business man with
ideas. Socialist industry, too, needs business men.
Not business men for profit, not business men
trained to the scent of competition, not dealers
or salesmen, but business men of a different type.
Plavnik is such a business man.
Landa
Landa is a blond Jew, 26 years old. Perhaps a
little older, but not much. I have already spoken
of him, of his leather suit, of the toes surrounded
by Moscow air, and of his Everclean.
But that is not the most essential part of Landa.
The most essential thing about him is his almost
incredibly clear comprehensive vision of the whole,
his fabulous gift of summing up, his unparalleled
penetration.
In May, 1920, he was head of a department in the
Foreign Office of the Supreme Council of National
Economy. He worked ivith me daily, often for
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many hours together. He explained to me the or-
ganization of the local Soviets. He explained to
me, further, the nature and the organization of the
Russian retail industry, and many other things
besides.
He had been head of a government Soviet in the
Ukraine. He knew the economic psychology of
the Ukraine like a leather pocket. Through him
and through his pointing out the details to me, 1
began to realize why it was that the Poles were
bound to lose the war.
In May, 1920, he was living in a dark room of
the Metropol. He is a man with few wants. He is
almost unbelievably modest. He is satisfied with
everything. His room is so dark and scantily fur-
nished that he is forced to work on a bench in the
little garden in front of the Metropol.
One finds many Landas in Russia; Landas hid-
den away from the beaten path, overmodest but still
fiery of soul. People who do not know themselves,
with the strength to move mountains, but who sit
in unfurnished rooms from sheer diffidence.
I do not know whether this fine man, this man
of almost universal knowledge, is an administrative
head. But at the time I was there he was in the
wrong place. Such people have to be pushed, their
eyes have to be turned inward. They do not know
themselves, they have to be forced to self-study, so
that their forces may be turned to advantage. There
are many such Landas in the world. They are full-
blooded violets, people who dissipate their strength
here and there, timid and shrinking. They become
beasts of burden when they should be leaders of the
herd.
I know such a Landa in Germany. What became
of him? Just now he is a Democrat. But he is not
yet lost completely. Perhaps he will be shoved to
the front some one of these days; when he looks
around he will realize that his place has always
been at the front.
A Woman
A woman wished to see me. A Jewess. In
Landa's dark room in the Metropol. A solid
woman, they told me, solid of mind, unyielding.
She talked with me about the German revolution,
about the level of development of the German
revolution, about the problem of leadership, and
other important points.
I do not remember her name. She is considered
somebody in the party, they told me. She must be,
for she is a solid rock.
I struck out, I analyzed, I pulled, I tried to
mould, it was of no use. She interrupted my flow
of language only seldom, but she hurled heavy
rocks, giant boulders when she spoke.
I had never met such a woman. Charming be-
sides. Her dark head with the parting of hair
gleaming down the center was slightly lowered
toward me. There was no wrath, but a stony suf-
ferance, a rock patience, a smiling rock.
That was a woman in politics, a woman with a
mind, and a woman at the same time. I never
knew before that there were such women. Women
in politics had been night-mares to me. I never
went to hear women politicians speak.
This woman, in the dark-room of Landa's in
the Metropol, was a politician. A lovely rock, who
spoke square boulders. I am still surprised that
such women exist.
She was no Rahel, or a Frau von Stein, but an
entirely different type. Her words were solid rocks
and she was lovely at the same time. A marvel, a
wonderful miracle.
In the Office of the Supreme Council of National
Economy
Formerly there was much drunken revelry in this
place. It was the Siberian Hotel. An immense box
of a place. Here the champagne bottles crashed
against the mirrors, the gipsy fiddle and the gipsy
girls whirled on and on, and the traders piled up
millions. Of course there were establishments in
Moscow where the art of mirror crashing was a
science all its own, and where drinking champagne
was a sacred duty. I have already mentioned that
one of the greatest of these revelry palaces is now
being used as a prison for profiteers and specula-
tors. A convent has also been turned into a prison.
A beautiful convent. A guard is stationed in front,
and barbed wire threatens the intruder. Here, too,
they tell me, speculators are imprisoned.
The giant box is a primitive ark. Very sober and
staid. Everywhere partition walls of rough boards.
It is plain to be seen that it was built in a hurry.
The small vestibules speak of better days. The
sofas have toned down, the chairs do not curve so
boldly. Here and there a larger hotel mirror re-
mains.
It is like a beehive. A constant stream from the
street to the upper story never stops. The cnain
is broken. For here the industrial forces of Russia
meet, here the national economy is administered,
this is the center of apportionment of the national
income. This administration of national economy
is the most important function in a country where
national economy is so sorely tried. But the peo-
ple who come for concessions and to submit claims
are not the same as formerly. They are no longer
pot-bellied dealers and traders, the thousand ruble
note barons. They are for the most part Soviet
workers or Soviet officials, wearing the simple cap
with the Soviet emblem, which is worn by all Soviet
employes.
Through a roughly-boarded partition one gets
to the Central Office. Here is the office of the
President of the Supreme Council of National
Economy. At the time of my visit Milyutin was
substitute chairman of the committee. Rykov, the
chairman, was in Baku at the time. Baku is now
a very important place, it is now the naphtha cen-
ter of Russia, and naphtha is the principal food
of Russian industry and of Russian locomotives.
The naphtha reservoirs of the Prokhorov factory
were empty. Most of the reservoirs in the vicinity
of Moscow were empty. It was necessary, there-
fore, for an authority, like Rykov, to go to Baku.
They told me that the naphtha supply reaches as
far as Orel now. But that is not sufficient, Baku
must send streams of naphtha through the whole
"wiVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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of Russia; Baku must relieve the transportation
sysiem, must fill the naphtha reservoirs. Baku is
the great hope. (However, coal must not be for-
gotten. )
Milyutin is still a young man, with great black
eyes and a small black mustache. A telephone ex-
change is in his office. It is used sometimes by
him, and sometimes by his secretary, a man with
sharp eyes, wearing a Russian blouse. It is a great
corner-room with many windows. There is a con-
stant stream of papers being deposited upon Mily-
utin's desk for his signature. There is an atmos-
phere of respect, of reverence. Just like the atmos-
phere in the office of a cabinet minister, or of the
head of a great industrial plant. Perhaps a bit
livelier, not so secluded.
Milyutin (possibly 40 years of age) did not
begin as a national economist. There is a certain
look of astonishment in his eyes. I had a vivid
interview with him, with the help of an inter-
preter. We spoke of the emigration of German
workmen to Russia, of my studies of the Russian
economic system, of the impressions I had gathered
in the light of these studies. Discipline, he sup-
plemented, after I had enumerated for him the
main basic factors. There was an air of great
respect in this office, nor was there any breaking
of threads, only orderly sequence.
In front of Milyutin's office there is a crowd of
claimants, during the entire office day. Two girls
with short hair flash back and forth: from the
reception room to Milyutin's office, from Milyutin's
office to the ante-room. Next to the ante-room is a
small room, where the flitting girls rest, and where
tea is made. For tea is still being served in Rus-
sian offices. Burning hot tea in burning hot weather.
Boiling hot tea. A ghastly thing for a stomach
from the tempered zone, which on red hot days is
accustomed to imbibe cold water with syphon-like
rapidity, or absorbs cooling seltzer or lemonade;
that sips ices and longs for cold showers. In Mos-
cow they drink boiling hot tea under a broiling
sun. A ghastly affair. But they tell me that it is
the best thing against the summer heat. Sasha
laughed at me when I diluted the boiling tea with
cold water.
There are long corridors with numbered doors,
just as in European bureaus. But no arm-chairs
in the offices. Only here and there a great chair
with a comfortable back. For the rest simple
wooden chairs before simple desks. It is no place
for people from the war benefit societies, or for
a moving-picture director. The finance depart-
ment where I worked with a very intelligent man
is a mere shack, from the standpoint of a war
benefit society. If the seat of the government were
located in Petrograd it would be more comfortable.
Moscow is no city for government offices. There
are no government buildings, no office buildings.
The hotels of the city had to be used for the pur-
pose, adapted, rearranged, reorganized. But even
so, they will do, with the help of frequent shifting,
u ith board partitions and a little good- will.
All the ante-rooms are constantly occupied. Oc-
cupied by people with all sorts of desires. Girls
who act as office boys are stationed in all the ante-
rooms, and often brew the official tea also. In
every office there is a Russian calculating machine;
it belongs to the Russian like his blouse. They
are in every store, in every private house, every-
where. The little balls jiggle back and forth, they
arrange themselves in a jiffy under the quick fin-
gers. Revolution: excellent; mental arithmetic:
poor, thought I.
A guard stands in the main entrance. A guard
shouldering a rifle as in front of all government
offices and all hotels. But this guard is milder,
than for example, the guard in the Commissariat
for Foreign Affairs, or perhaps the Kremlin guard.
The Kremlin guard is the most severe of all the
Moscow guards. The guard before the building
of the Supreme Council of National Economy will
not ask to see your Propusk. The stream passes,
unhindered, divides in the various stories, flows
into the corridors, and trickles into the offices. It
does not whirl in confusion, there is no disorder.
It is a giant stream, but everything runs smoothly.
Already this stream runs back and forth more
smoothly than the national economic system. De-
signs, statistics, drawings, and descriptions of the
economic condition are hanging in every office.
They are debit drawings, debit statements, . . :
credit drawings and credit statements are unfor-
tunately still lacking. But they are in the making,
and some day credit and debit will balance.
In the Glav-Textile
One day Plavnik asked me into his office, in
order to show me the office administration. From
here we made the rounds through the Central offices.
It is an immense building, a former textile store-
house. It had belonged to one of the textile kings,
one of the cotton kings of Russia.
First we go through the accounting center. It
gives the impression of a bank. Here over two
billion rubles are paid out or handled per month.
Most of the payments are made by check on the
government bank. A woman bookkeeper showed
me the ledger, the check forms, the process of pay-
ment and accounting. Everything proceeds very
businesslike, everything runs smoothly, quickly
and promptly. I believe that the moneyless system
works faster than the currency system in Germany.
The German banks, the German savings-banks
operate with maddening snail-like slowness. There
is a clumsy form worship, a silly red tape timidity.
No courage, no telephonic presence of mind, but
a sticky rotation of bookkeeping gestures. The
officials have no choice, they are chained to the
system. Such a capitalist bank is about the most
idiotic piece of machinery imaginable. A meaning-
less mechanical device, a magnetic power, which
draws business without soliciting it, with a board
of directors which scribbles signatures and draws
profits. At the same time there is an atmosphere
of pompous importance, auto-speeding and fat-
necked indulgence, of marble stairs, overbearing
manners and overstuffed armchairs, to fairly make
it hum.
'-i 1 1 1 ti i 1 1 ■_' 1 1 1
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
November 20, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
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Thfs kind of thing has been nationalized out of
Russia. No more overbearing officiousness, or lol-
ling in overstuffed armchairs, exuding pomposity
and absorbing profits. There is no more busy un-
productive laziness, no more bluffing with bankers
meetings and moral lies. One has to work now,
has to fit in, one is a tiny wheel now rather than a
democratic trumpet. It was a lightning change.
In one day the lordly tones had vanished. No
greater fraud, no more disgusting fraud has ever
been practiced on the defenseless world than the
fraud of the national banks, of the great savings
banks, the banks sapping the life of the communi-
ties, and the pennies of the poor and making
usurer's profits from them. Germany will only be
able to breathe when these secret pocket-books have
been closed. It is a glorious sight to see the empty
bank buildings in Russia, the beautiful dust on
plate glass windows in the buildings of the great
banking institutions of Russia. They have already
become chambers of horrors from the middle ages,
chambers of torture for the tourists to visit. Ger-
many will not be happy until the rude and over-
bearing pocket-book has been shut up. They will
not be happy until they have eliminated this slink-
ing fraud, this technically cunning fraud, this cir-
culating fraud, this patented and goverment pro-
tected fraud.
However, this is merely by the way. I had to
let off steam, I was at the boiling point.
There are many imbecilities, stupidities and per-
versities left in Russia, but there are no more na-
tional banks. Imagine a country without national
banks, without the disgusting paper swindler and
speculation tricks, without the usage-sanctioned
pompous brokers' fraud. That alone is a glorious
fact to contemplate.
I had to repeat myself, my blood boiled up
once more.
Plavnik took me through all the offices. Through
the office for the distribution of raw materials,
through the department of statistics, where one of
the most famous of Russia's statisticians has his
office. (The Lord punish those statisticians!) Then
through the office of the presidium, the office of the
general presidium and of the sub-presidium.
Through the textile exhibition, which is in the
Central buildings, and is very diversified. He
took me to the door of the technical training-
school. There the most expert faculty on textiles
is training textile workers, aspirants to managerial
posts, men and women. Entire Russia is to be techni-
cally trained. Technical training-schools are every-
where. The Commissar of the Supreme Council of
National Economy has charge of a technical scien-
tific training department. It is a center from which
exhibitions of new inventions, exhibitions showing
the possibilities of production in Russia, new in-
stitutions and organizations for Moscow and the
country at large are constantly being sent out like
rays of light. This is only a beginning, like almost
everything else in Soviet Russia, but it is a begin-
ning at least. I saw Russian soil there, Russian
acids, mineral products, substitute materials. Every-
thing merely a beginning, but one must begin some-
time.
And then Plavnik took me through the offices of
the industrial union. I had an interview with the
leaders of the textile union. They explained to me
the tariff system, especially the bonus wage system.
There is a long table of bonuses. The various
points of efficiency are being rewarded by measure,
so to speak.
In the agricultural department of the textile
union the cultivation of the factory ground is being
regulated. In the Prokhorov factory I saw and
heard an agricultural meeting. An expert gave a
lecture to the men and women there, just before
they went out to the grounds, on potato planting.
The people had the implements already at hand.
In a large shed the seed was piled up. Everything
was ready to begin, but first there had to be expert
instruction.
Plavnik led me further, through the editorial
room of the trade union paper The Textile Worker,
and from there into the department of working
clothes distribution. The garments are furnished
to such workers who are engaged in occupations
damaging to their clothing.
There is order, exactness, a sense of proportion.
A love of order, a love of regulated activity. There
is no doubt of that.
In the German Council
In Moscow there is a Hungarian Council, an
Austrian Council, a German Council, etc. They are
concerned mainly with affairs of prisoners-of-war,
and of travelers returning home.
The German Council has a neat office and a neat
home. Telegrams, statistics, pictures are hanging
in the vestibule of the office building. Above is a
large office where the typists are busy, and adjoin-
ing it is a spacious administration office.
This office slaves until late at night. There is
much to do. The returning travelers are constantly
passing through Moscow now, come to the German
Council, register there, and are taken care of in
the hospital of the German Council.
It is very clean in the German Council. The
meals are excellent. I still think with delight of a
dish of lentils, a glorious dish of lentils, and with
equal delight of a dish of mashed potatoes with
brown gravy and roast beef.
Home-Going Travelers
Just before a departure of a shipload to Ger-
many there is a festive meeting. There are speeches,
music, and songs. The announcement is made in
the Rote Fahne, the weekly paper of the German
Council.
The chairman asked me to speak at one of the
home transport meetings. I spoke to these com
rades who wanted to hear about Germany; reliable
live and interesting news. People who krtew very
little of Germany recently. Many of them had not
seen their home for over six years, and still re-
tained their old ideas of Germany. Others did not
506
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November 20, 1920
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understand the present Germany. I told them of
the German national economy of the present. They
stood still, men and women, for women who had
married their husbands in Russia were going to
Germany. One and a half hours I spoke, until
dus k k fell. But they remained quiet, absorbing
Germany of today, the new science. They stood
transfixed, they were deeply shaken. It was no
longer the old Germany, which they saw now. It
was a different Germany, a difficult Germany, a con-
vulsed, a deeply suffering Germany. I had to show
them German conditions as I see them, and as they
undoubtedly are. It is no good lying to these people
drunk with the longing for home, giving them
bright colors. They had to see the country as it is.
It is no good telling untruths. There never was any
good in that. Why should I lie to these poor
people?
I passed through groups of people in the assem-
bly garden at the German hospital. I passed through
groups of many colored uniforms. All the various
regiments of peace times were represented. There
were hussar braidings, lancer's jackets, light-blue
dragoon cloth, dark-blue infantry coats with red
collars, medium-blue transport uniforms. Only
a few in service gray. They were almost all sol-
diers who had been captured during the first
months of the war. At last I began to realize the
full meaning of the thing. Human beings are
caught, put in cages, fenced in, guarded and spied
on, treated like a herd of cattle. People are de-
prived of their freedom. So long as it is permitted
to catch human beings, so long is the world in
bondage. To capture human beings is to hunt them!
to flog them, to imprison them. All that is an out-
rage to humanity. We still belong to the middle
ages, to antiquity, to barbarism. We are not yet
in the new era*
I spoke to a German soldier whom I met in a
Moscow street. He was returning home from Tash-
kent. We spoke, not of hunger, not of lack of food.
There are other hardships that beset a man, which
are more horrible than the pangs of hunger.
One hears hundreds of diverging opinions as to
the treatment of prisoners. Some of them had be-
come contented colonizers in Siberia, others had
been dragged from one prison to another, were
starved. Many thousands died of epidemics, of un-
dernourishment. Since the November Revolution the
prisoners ceased to be prisoners. They were free.
But even things were not always as they should
have been. For the will of the Soviet Government
did not yet influence every individual brain. There
were still camp troubles and grounds for com-
plaints. But since November, 1917, the prisoners
were prisoners no longer. I spoke to no one who
did not gratefully acknowledge* this fact. Many
worked hard and earned much money. 'In Moscow
many German workers, who had been former pris-
oners of war, had made good money.
Wherever I could I spoke to the home-going
prisoners. In Moscow on the streets, in the offices
of the German Council, and on the return journey
even, in the prison camp at Narva.
>gie
In the prison camp at Narva, a building sur-
rounded by the thick walls of the German monas-
tery, I talked with returning prisoners for hours.
They represented all kinds of human beings: the
good-humored and the quick-tempered, the melan-
choly, the modest and the self-important ones, all
were represented. I got the impression: Russia is
large, and since Russia is so large, since Russia is
such a giant country with so many and varied con-
ditions, and so many and varied types of human
beings, no two people will have had the same ex-
perience or the same reactions. Some of them
mourned their dead comrades, others told of the
horrors of epidemics, especially the typhus epi-
demic with cold-blooded indifference. They told me
of acts of unfairness, they scolded and grumbled,
they recalled pleasant memories. They told me of
their acclimatization, of how they adapted them-
selves to the new living conditions. They told me
how they built their own houses, how they be-
came peasants, tradesmen, speculators. They com-
plained of the high prices, or praised the low prices
of the district where they had lived.
But they were all longing for home, they thronged
together with a glad feeling for home. Many had
almost ceased to believe in the reality of it, and
were inclined to take the ship which was to take
them tomorrow away from Narva as a fairy tale.
They wanted to stand with both feet on their home
soil before they would believe that they were home
again. Mothers awaited them, wives were waiting,
children were waiting. *
It was a depressing thing, a heartrending thing.
It was hard for one who had just arrived from
Germany to come before these poor people. There
was grey hair, there was white hair among them.
Bright soldier caps rested on a father's brow, sol-
dier caps sat on white hair, and on bald heads.
These last stragglers, who had been detained by
"diplomatic negotiations" and suchlike stupidities,
who really were not human because they were not
allowed to leave as free men, these ragged ends
remaining from the world war, were a sorry sight
and a warning. This bestiality must not be re-
peated, never again shall the diplomatic heroes
capture men and drive them to prison, never again
shall these organized man-hunts be perpetrated.
This beastly business will at last have to come to an
end. This hullabaloo, this flag-waving madness,
this trumpeting and manly bosom mania will have
to stop.
To have been three years, four years, five years,
six years in a country against one's will! Every
man has the right to live where he wants to, and
that mania for pigeon-holeing is unspeakable pre-
sumption.
Say what you will about Soviet Russia, but it
must be acknowledged that from the day of the
revolution there were no more prisoners, only free
men. Human freedom, freedom from bondage was
proclaimed on that day. I know what you would
say against that, I know that too was only a be-
ginning. But the Russian revolution has begun.
That remains to lis undying credit.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
(1>
November 20, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
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How can you hold back, even for* one day, peo-
ple who do not want to remain in your country,
who want to return to their home? How can you
bear to force people to remain in a prison camp
even for one day longer? Can you bear to breathe,
eat and drink while men are still lying in prison
camps?
We want the free man, the man whose home is
the world. Wherever he goes there shall be his
country, and should he desire to return to the place
of his birth, he should not be held back for a
moment. You have no right to shackle human
beings. Only the gods have the right to shackle
them. And there are no gods.
Return Journey
At the Nikolai depot officials from the Commis-
sariat of Foreign Affairs took leave of the members
of the English delegation, Shaw and Turner. I
believe they brought also a farewell note from
Lenin. I believe it was not a very flattering letter.
It was a curious farewell note, a Lenin farewell
note, with some blunt unvarnished language. Per-
haps the English told their people of this farewell
note on their return home. It was not a polite note.
But it is Lenin's conviction that in times of such
impetuous world upheaval one cannot be polite,
one must be truthful. To be truthful is to be simply
as one is, is to say what one thinks. To be truth-
ful, therefore, means not to be a diplomat, quite
the contrary. Lenin is not without diplomatic
ability, and yet he is no diplomat.
Again our journey passed by the wooded slopes, %
the green domes, a thousand villages hidden among
the oaks, passed by the pine forests and the beech
wood, by the green pastures, the miraculous pas-
tures between Moscow and Petrograd. Again we
drank milk at 125 rubles the pint, again we slept
in the Soviet car, in the comfortable government
car furnished with a bed and table, and without
being in a constant driving hurry. Again we made
about 20 to 25 kilometers per hour on the way
toward Petrograd.
But now our tempo changed. For we were
coupled to an express freight. A parlor car was
added, and we sat, talked and drank tea with Rus-
sian railroad workers. One of them was a member
of the Central Executive Committee of the Russian
Railroad Workers' Union. He sent greetings to the
German comrades. I hereby deliver these greetings
from the Russian colleagues and comrades to the
German railroad workers.
After a seven hour journey we reached Yamburg.
There our troubles began, pass troubles, vise-
troubles, officious troubles, political red tape
troubles. Our passes were not in order, and the
Esthonians would not admit us into their country.
The local Soviet in Yamburg consoled us with a
sumptuous dinner, and one of the railroad workers
served us potato pancakes. But we wanted to go
home, we stamped the ground, we were tired of the
sleeping car. I wanted sea air, I wanted to begin
work at home, I wanted to get away from the East.
I wanted to leave the East because I had indi-
gestion. Not from the meat diet or the kasha diet,
but it was a mental indigestion. My nerves were
overworked. I was too full of material, was ready
to burst, I had to get out of the East. I wanted
to be delivered, I wanted to bring forth book chil-
dren. It was high time.
At last we got through. In the port of Reval
our good ship was waiting for us. It had a new
captain, Kolbe was his name, the name of the
sailor through mines and dangerous cliffs. Mamsh
is the name of the head Stewart; Mamsh is his
name, but he isn't like that. He is a fanatic about
cleaning silver, he is an expert in the art of bal-
ancing, he is an artist with the dishes, a magni-
ficent provider. We sailed via Helsingfors to Stet-
tin under Kolbe and Mamsh. The English sailed
via Stockholm. They were in a hurry. They wanted,
without loss of time, to submit their demands for
Russia to a great congress of workers, they wanted
to have a resolution passed, and to persuade the
government to show its colors. But I sailed with
Kolbe and Mamsh via Helsingfors to Stettin. Filled
to the brim with knowledge of Russia, pressing for
home, already in labor, pawed and sniffed over at
Helsingfors. Again there are some curious ship
companions and several adventurers, of whom I '
will write later.
We sailed through white nights.
We sailed through the white nights of the cliffs
of Finland. Do you know the white nights of
the cliffs of Finland?
They are not nights, they are miracles of gauze,
they are eternal light, it is a milk light, a very
delicate opaque window light. A gull, one single
wide-winged gull is hovering over the foamy trail
of our ship. The stillness becomes more still. You
lose yourself, you cannot remember whether the
ship is going forward or back. There is a murmur-
ing ripple against the ship's sides as though the
ship were standing still. All around, in the straits,
beyond the straits, thickly huddled or strewn afar,
now in the sea, now in the bays, in canals and in
the by-streams, there are the miracles of stone, and
pine, placed there by a long forgotten builder's
art. With silent white stones, silent dwellings, and
silent pilot flags.
But now the sun shoots up out of the cliffs. It
does not rise, it shoots up like a giant glowing
red finger. It is there, all at once, with a sudden
jerk. It surprises you, suddenly the ship's trail
has become a long trembling path of gold. And
now the sun rises slowly, the red sun rises at last
out of the crags of Finland.
Thus I sailed through two white nights of Fin-
land, two glad nights, world-forgotten nights, deli-
cate opaque nights, warm northern nights. Twice
I saw the great glowing finger, the glittering golden
path in our wake. Twice I saw the seagull, the
wide- winged seagull, the slant-swaying seagull, the
proud white seagull, saw the delicate white veil
of the Finnish night edged with red as the sun
flared up.
And then I had another vile case of denunciation
to face, in Stettin, and then I wrote this book.
THE END
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
(L>
508
SOVIET RUSSIA
November 20, 1920
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the .
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised.
"D ED CROSS organizations seem to take sides
AV rather vigorously as soon as they come into
contact with Soviet Russia, in spite of the much-
vaunted and long-observed political neutrality of
such bodies. It will be remembered that Danish
Red Cross officials had to be expelled from Soviet
Russia because they had developed counter-revolu-
tionary activities rivaling even those of the Danish
Consulate General in that country, and that long
after their expulsion from Soviet Russia they con-
tinued to act in a manner extremely hostile to citi-
zens of that country who happened to fall into
their clutches, which was particularly observable
in their treatment of the unhappy Russian war-
prisoners who had been entrusted to their care in
Vienna. But not only do certain Red Cross organ-
izations refrain from giving any assistance to citi-
zens of Soviet Russia — while others, like the Danes,
make life in Soviet Russia as miserable as pos-
sible by extending aid to counter-revolutionists —
but no assistance is given to the Soviet Govern-
ment to repatriate and thus ease the lot of the
many former war-prisoners of the Russian Empire,
citizens of countries once hostile to Russia. As
the conditions among the prisoners in Siberia really
need attention, and as the Soviet Government is
being permitted to do nothing to aid them, we
herewith bring the matter to the attention of our
readers by printing in full an editorial that ap-
peared on this subject in The Japan Chronicle,
Kobe, Japan, October 14. The editorial runs as
follows:
"It is now just upon a year since we published an
account of the sufferings of 200,000 prisoners of war in
Siberia. The facts were news to most people, and to those
with any human feelings came as a shock. It is true* there
were such cases as that of a lady of Allied nationality in
Japan who wrote and said that it was very difficult to
know what conditions really were in Siberia, and that any-
how she really could not feel particularly distressed about
the condition of Huns and Turks. We believe that some
of that sort of feeling has evaporated by this time, but
although the matter has got as far as questions in Parlia-
ment, practically nothing is done. In our daily issue of
the 7th instant* we published a report written only in
July last by a lady who has been working through Siberian
horrors for the Swedish Red Cross. It is to be observed
that she gives the same number — 200,000 — as the approxi-
* But wo arc quoting from the Weekly Chronicle. — Editor,
Soviet Russia.
Digitized by ^OOQlt
mate total of the men still suffering destitution and exile.
Probably our previous account gave an underestimate of
the numbers, for some have been taken away since last
year and many have died, yet there is still this appalling
amount of unrelieved misery. The representative of the
Swedish Red Cross describes in eloquent terms to which
it would be idle for us to add anything, the terrible con-
ditions of the forgotten prisoners. These conditions have
been known to all the world for the past year. Yet what
has the world been doing? It was months before the
Powers allowed anything to be done and then there was
talk of American ships, but the talk came to nothing.
There was not even talk of British ships. It was hurriedly
announced that Japan had no ships to spare. But we were
told of camps taken charge of by the Japanese military
authorities and of the great gratitude of the prisoners
therein. At last Germany was permitted to do something,
and the German Red Cross has managed to charter a few
ships, at enormous expense, and do a little repatriating.
"It appears from the Swedish letter that the continu-
ance of the present trouble is partly due to the con-
fusion and destitution in Siberia. The Allied attacks on
European Russia have left the Soviets with neither time
nor resources to see to the welfare of prisoners in Siberia,
though apparently in European Russia the prisoners are
in a position to look after themselves. There are constant
attacks on the Russians on the Siberian front, and intrigue
for power occupies the exclusive attention of the military
authorities of all parties to the exclusion of humanitarian
considerations. Had Siberia never been invaded the
troubles of the prisoners would have been long since al-
leviated, and the Allies who organized the invasion of
Siberia are as directly responsible for the continuance of
the sufferings of the prisoners as though they had .de-
liberately inflicted them. Confusion is purposely main*
tained, so that it is impossible for the German Red Cross
or any other body to negotiate for the removal of the
prisoners. As for the Japanese Red Cross, with its boasted
millions in membership and funds, it is a purely military
body and has never thought about this need. Perhaps if
it tried the Russians would refuse to negotiate with an
auxiliary of the army that has invaded their country and
inflicted such awful sufferings on it. Yet if any organized
Western body, provided with funds, made a serious at-
tempt to rescue the prisoners, there would be only easily
surmountable difficulties in the way. The Swedish letter
calls for ships, and ships, and more ships. But ships lie
idle by dozens in Japanese harbors and nothing is done
by way of using them for the benefit of the prisoners.
There are ships to carry Sunday School delegates to Jap-
anese picnics, but none to repatriate men who have been
parted from their families and all that home means for
six years. There is ample money to build halls and make
bonfires for visiting foreigners whose goodwill may have
some political value, but there is none to rescue the dying
in Siberia's wastes. Yet another winter is coming on and
nothing will be done. Men will die in filth and starvation
and madness and despair for want of the money and ships
and food and trouble expended on holiday-making/'
From what is said above concerning the Japanese
Red Cross it would appear that it is a belligerent
organization, observing no neutrality between coun-
ter-revolutionists and partisans of the Soviet Gov-
ernment, in which respect it strongly resembles
those other national Red Cross bodies that still re-
ceive and entertain representatives of the Czarist
Red Cross, representing no country at all, and re-
fuse to negotiate with officials of the Red Cross of
Soviet Russia, now representing — since the capture
of Crimea — the whole population of Russia, except
the border-states, whose autonomy Soviet Russia
recognizes. But then, the present government of
Japan, and its various belligerent and propagandist
organizations, can never be friendly or neutral
toward Soviet Rnss'a.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
November 20, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
509
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T-TOW refreshing it is to turn from pseudo-neu-
tral organizations to frankly hostile ones !
At least Mr.Elihu Root is not neutral. Mr. Root
belongs to a society called the "American Central
Committee for Russian Relief", which held an an-
nual banquet at the Buckingham Hotel, New York,
on November 11. This organization is not a neu-
tral Red Cross Society; it is frankly an organized
form of opposition to Soviet Russia, as Mr. Root,
who was the presiding officer at the banquet, ex-
plained in his speech (quoted by the N. Y. Times) :
'The original idea of the society," said Mr. Root, "was
to give relief in non-Bolshevist Russia — that was the ob-
ject named in the charter. The extension of power of the
Bolsheviki soon became, however, so great that there was
little field for relief in the territory of Russia. Sending
supplies was attended by too great a probability that they
would go to supply the Bolshevist Army. But as the Bol-
sheviki spread out, the people for whom the relief was
originally intended were gradually pushed out of the coun-
try into the Baltic provinces, Poland, Serbia and Turkey,
and all along the borders of Russia there came to be
hundreds of thousands of these people, destitute. Un-
doubtedly many valuable lives have been saved and much
terrible suffering has been alleviated by the work of this
association.
"How important it is that there shall be saved the valua-
ble lives of Russians who are waiting for the opportunity
to return to the services oftheir country — that is what we
are doing. We are saving the seed corn which will bring
forth the future harvest of real freedom and security and
peace and prosperity to Russia.**
An "Assistant Red Cross Commissioner to Eu-
rope" (including Soviet Russia?) was also present.^
and so was Mr. W. W. Bouimistrow, "Russian Red
Cross Commissioner." But the latter did not rep-
resent Soviet Russia.
For the information of those of our readers who
may wish to know the , latest guess as to the
probable duration of the Soviet Government, we
quote that of Mr. Root, made at this banquet:
"The end of Bolshevist rule in Russia is approaching.
There is merely a question as to how much longer the Bol-
sheviki can continue. I think it is only a matter of a
comparatively short time."
Mr. Root's prophecy is fortunately not too defi-
nite. And, geologically speaking, there are epochs
by the side of which the lifetime of the Soviet
Government will appear "comparatively short".
\ MERICAN Red Cross workers were recently
^** reported in the American press as having
been killed by "Bolsheviki" in Southern Russia.
As the later denials of these killings were hidden
in most of the papers in spaces affording a sin-
gular contrast to the heavy headlines that had
heralded the original fabrications, and as many
persons have therefore seen the charges and not
the denials, we reprint for their benefit the state-
ment that appeared in th N. Y. Globe on Novem-
ber 12:
Paris, Nov. 12. — Washington reports that Captain Emmet
Kilpatrick, an American Red Cross worker in South Rus-
sia, was not killed by the Bolsheviki, but is being held
a prisoner, were confirmed by a telegram received at the
Paris branch of the American Red Cross from Sebastopol
today. The telegram was filed in Sebastopol on Nov. 8.
"pIRE accidentally destroyed the "highly valua-
A ble stores of the American Red Cross at Sebas-
topol" (N. Y. Times, November 16) when the
Soviet troops were entering that city, while "a por-
tion of the goods of the American Foreign Trade
Corporation and other foreign firms was saved."
This news will make the record of the American
Red Cross in Soviet Russia more than complete.
Had the fire not occurred, Soviet Russia might
have been enabled, by the fortunes of war, to come
into possession of at least some quantities of Amer-
ican Red Cross supplies, — supplies which the
American Red Cross was using to alleviate the lot
of counter-revolutionary refugees from Soviet Rus-
sia, and of counter-revolutionary armies attacking
Soviet Russia. But the fire occured, and even
accident prevents the American Red Cross from
giving involuntary aid to Soviet Russia.
W!
'RANGEL is more than disposed of. The
former procedure with counter-revolution in
the South was to drive it so far back that it had
only a small foothold, and to devote the military
energies thus released to the resistance against in-
tervention in other parts of European Russia or
Siberia. But this plan was pursued less because it
was a plan than because it was a necessity. Had
ike complete elimination of all outside counter-
revolutionary forces from Ukraine been possible
under then prevailing circumstances in Russia, there
is no doubt this elimination would have been car-
ried out. But the fact now is — and it is a serious
cause for congratulation — that such elimination is
entirely possible, and Wrangel has accordingly
been not only defeated, but driven completely off
the map. The situation of Russia implied in this
accomplishment is therefore immensely better^ than
it has ever been before. For the first time in the*
history of intervention, Soviet troops have been
engaged on one front only, and have been able to
pursue their hard- won victories without apprehen-
sion as to the fate of other fronts. For on every
other front, intervention is now quiescent to sucn
an extent that no blows of any kind can be ex-
pected for some time. The Polish front, until re-
cently a grave danger, because of the apparent de-
termination of Allied statesmen to push Polish
troops far into Russian territory, has ceased to be a #
front for the present. No doubt Allied influences
will again attempt to throw Poland, as they are
now working to throw Lithuania, into the unequal
conflict with Soviet Russia. But increasing misery
and decreasing production will be rendering the
Polish population less and less exploitable in ag-
gressive warfare, while Soviet Russia will enjoy
peace — not enjoy it in the sense that hor popu-
lation will be consuming great plenty, but in the
sense that the undisturbed work of reconstruction
will make it possible to prepare means for pro-
ducing more foodstuffs ond munitions when the
nex, ii»EsMMMfi" ced " pon u "
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SOVIET RUSSIA
November 20, 1920*
Japanese Intrigues and Propaganda
by Max M. Zippin
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Q N OCTOBER 13 there appeared a Washington
^"^ correspondence in the Public Ledger, signed
by Mr. William Wile, raising a cry against the
Chinese local authorities in Manchuria for their
"playing into the Bolshevists' hands in a manner
that may shortly call for international protests."
It goes on to tell that "reports current for some
time, to the effect that Russian officials and officers,
who had taken refuge on Chinese soil from Bol-
shevist terrorism and persecution, were being de-
livered up to the Reds, have just received confirma-
tion in one important and specific case"; the im-
portant and specific case being that of a "distin-
guished" Russian naval officer, Captain Besoir, and
that of the Russian Consul at Kirin, who were al-
legedly smuggled out of Kirin, "in the dead of
night," and sent toward Blagovieshchensk, that is
into the very hands of the Reds. The correspond-
ence adds that Mr. Roland" S. Morris, American
Ambassador to Japan, who is still at Washington
"cooperating with Secretary of State Colby," has
cabled instructions to officials in Manchuria to co-
operate with their foreign colleagues in the matter.
On the same day all the newspapers carried an
Associated Press dispatch from Tokio, announcing
that "the Japanese Government had proposed to the
powers joint action to check the rise of Bolshevism
on the Asiatic continent" because of the repeated
, raids of numberless bands of bandits and "Red"
bodies in Manchuria, as well as because "there is
an apparent tendency for public sentiment in the
north of China to become infected with Bolshev-
ism." Also because "moreover, Eastern Siberia
has been completely converted to Bolshevism, and
the presence of a Japanese army there is useless."
Now let me state at the outset, on the strength
• of the Siberian press, that this "playing into the
hands of the Bolshevists by the Chinese Government
that may call for international protests," which is
merely an allegation, and the bandit raids to over-
come which the Japanese Government is asking the
powers for concerted action, which is a gruesome
fact, are two parts of the same Japanese conspiracy,
a conspiracy to despoil both China and Russia.
Because at the hands of the Chinese Government,
and likewise that of the Vladivostok Government
— the most timid, amiable, and anaemic little gov-
ernment on earth, which is actually eating out of
the hand of the Allied governments from under
the hills fortified by Japanese militarism — there
has been accumulated an enormous mass of evi-
dence of this conspiracy.
First, as to the specific case of the "distinguished"
Russian officer and the Russian consul at Kirin.
On September 7, the Siberian press carried two
telegrams from the Japanese Kokusa agency, dated
Peking and Mukden, where the story is related in
an altogether different light. The notorious bandit
chief Kalmikov, after being defeated by the Russian
partisans, sought refuge on Chinese territory, where
Digitized by vjh
he continued his activities, committing, with his
bands, a number of robberies and murders in
China, whereupon he was arrested by the Chinese
authorities and confined in the Kirin prison to-
await trial.
On the night of September 4, a band of Russian
officers organized a jail delivery, freed Kalmikov
and hurried him to the office of the Russian consul
at Kirin for "diplomatic" safety, but the Chinese
authorities surrounded the office, and rearrested
Kalmikov, who, while being led to the railway sta-
tion to be transferred to a Peking prison, wounded
two of his guards and was killed by a third. The
governor of Kirin then telegraphed to the Peking
government for instructions and received orders to
deport the Russian "diplomat" together with the
Russian officers who had taken part in the jail de-
livery. The names of the officers are not given
in the dispatches, but it stands to reason that the
"distinguished" Besoir was one of them.
The whole specific proof that the Chinese au-
thorities play into Bolshevist hands simply reduces-
itself thus to a case of deporting, and not smug-
gling out, a band of jail deliverers and bandit
conspirators. Concerted action by powers and in-
ternational protests in such cases is a thing not
.uncommon in international "policy" in the Far
East. International opium smugglers and white
slavers are thus always enabled to continue their
illicit traffics. But the United States has always
kept aloof from this contemptible business, and
one can only throw up his hands when he reads
that Ambassador Morris has instructed the Ameri-
can officials at Manchuria to cooperate with their
colleagues in this matter.
As to the "robber bands" and the "rise of Bol-
shevism on the Asiatic continent," against which the
Japanese Government is seeking joint action by the
powers: For the last few months the Siberian
press of all political shades has been overfilled
with this "story", which turns out to be a plain
Japanese conspiracy to grab all of Manchuria, to-
gether with the Chinese Eastern Railway, for the
protection of which President Wilson had once sent
something like ten thousand American soldiers and
officers. And the "robber bands" are the substra-
trum of this conspirative plan, since by them the
Japanese militarists proposed to show that the
Chinese Government was too weak to stop the
"tide". Furthermore, the Russian officers and of-
ficials that "take refuge from Bolshevist terrorism
and persecution on Chinese soil" are brought into
Manchuria by the Japanese militarists to organize
these bands, and to "organize' 'themselves into such
"bands".
The story of this conspiracy is being printed not
only in the Russian press of the Far East, but also
in such reliable Chinese newspapers in the English,
French, and Chinese languages, as Journal de Pe-
king, Peking mid Tientsin Times, Peking Daily
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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November 20, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
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News, Go-Di-Boo, and many others. Certifications
as to truthfulness are given by Mr. Simpson, an
adviser to the Chinese Government, the Director-
General of the Chinese Eastern Railway, the Gov-
ernor of Kirin, members of the Vladivostok Gov-
ernment, and many other prominent Chinese and
Russian officials, as well as American observers.
Among the documents published to prove the con-
spiracy and intended to be secret, are the following:
1. A telegram in code sent by the Japanese
Commander at Vladivostok, General Takenake, to
the head of the Japanese military staff at Harbin,
and dated May 20, where the whole plan of seizing
the Chinese Eastern Railway for Japan, with the
help of the Russian "nationalists", through an or-
ganized system of raids by robber bands, is "laid
bare". "In accordance with the instructions of
Commander Modji," reads one passage, "we here-
with advise you that the designated plan can be
executed successfully." After saying that Khun-
khuz bands have been already organized at Dairen
and other places in Southern Manchuria, and that
they are being scattered all along the Chinese East-
ern Railway, the telegram states: "You will have
to inform yourself on the activities of these bands
and call the attention of the Chinese officials to
them. On our side we shall flood Peking with pro-
tests against the unsafe state of the road until we
shall be admitted to the administration of the
road."
2. A telegram received by the Chinese Govern-
ment from its officials in Manchuria, stating that
a considerable number of Semionov officers have
been sent to Harbin, on direct orders from Japan,
for the purpose of arresting all the members of
the conference of labor and democratic organiza-
tions there, but the local Chinese authorities in
proper time prevented the accomplishment of this
plan.
3. A telegram sent by a well-known Japanese
general to Semionov, which reads: "The Japanese
Government will, in the interests of humanity, con-
tinue to pursue its policy without taking note of
the opinions of other governments. The Japanese
Government will never suffer the establishment of
an independent government in the Far East, will
never recognize the Vladivostok Government, but
will always support your 'staff'. And with your
help, our Chief Commander, Suzuki, will be able
to continue the war against the Bolsheviki for the
purpose of guarding the borders of Mongolia and
Manchuria."
4. A telegram sent by the Japanese War Min-
istry to the Japanese Commander-in-Chief, Suzuki,
ordering him to advise Semionov that the latter's
proposition to organize newly formed volunteer
corps for Manchuria has met with the approval of
the ministry. The new volunteer corps, the tele-
gram states, must be organized secretly and held at
certain strategic points, ready to invade Manchuria
at a moment's notice, while the following signifi-
cant advice is given by the Japanese War Ministry
to Semionov, "We entreat him to take all necessary
precautions and to admit to these corps only ex-
perienced and trustworthy officers and soldiers."
5. A document proving that under the direct
tutelage of Japanese officials, a Russian "nation-
alistic" headquarters was established at Harbin for
the purpose of organizing the "volunteer corps"
as well as the Khunkhuz robber bands. Twenty-
four Russian brigadier generals and fifty staff of-
ficers were sent out to various stations of the Chin-
ese Eastern Railway, and from eight to nine hun-
dred officers, in civil clothing, were assigned like-
wise to enter diverse services in the stations, mostly
as agents, but frequently as plain watchmen.
-6. The plan, which is, in short, thus: The Khun-
khuz bands, together with the Semionov "volun-
teer" bands, are to start their activities at the very
moment the Japanese Government begins to evacu-
ate its forces from Transbaikalia. These forces
are to take passage on the Chinese Eastern Rail-
way, and the bandit bands must put all kinds of ob-
structions in the way of their movements, by attack-
ing the military echelons, by invading the stations,
by assaulting and robbing the population near sta-
tions, and, lastly, by blowing up railway bridges
and beds, and derailing the trains. Some of the
Semionov officers are to allow themselves to be
caught and arrested and to "confess to being Reds,"
since a "perfect case" against the Reds is to be
established. The Japanese military echelons thus
being detained, the Japanese Government is to de-
mand of the Chinese Government the right to repair
the roads (the plan calling for the slowest possible
progress of the repair work) with its own men,
and also, that the policing of the road be given
over to the Russian volunteer corps, since the
Chinese are "unable" to give proper protection.
Having accomplished the removal of the Chinese
guards and officers from the whole of the Chinese
Eastern Railway territory, the robber bands are
to continue their "assaults" for a short while, in
order to "compel" the Japanese Government to take
the territory and the road under its protection, "in
the interest of humanity, etc., until the Bolshevist
tide will be stopped."
7. A telegram from War Minister Tanaka to
the Commander-in-Chief at Vladivostok, dated
July 14, instructing the latter to place a sufficient
number of Japanese military telegraphists on the
Chinese Eastern Railway for the purpose of taking
possession of the telegraph stations at a moment's
notice.
8. Another telegram from the same source, dated
July 19, instructing the Japanese authorities at Har-
bin to send in daily telegraphic reports of the move-
ments of Chinese military forces in the given ter-
ritory together with their exact number.
9. A telegram from the Director-General of the
Chinese Eastern Railway to his Government at Pe-
king, stating that he had received an ultimative
demand from the Commander of the Japanese
armies; (a) that he allow the enlargement of Jap-
anese forces in the territory; (b) that he permit the
placing of Japanese gendarmerie on the stations;
and, (c) that the war against the Khunkhuz bands
LTNTv ER5ITT" OFMTlHIGAN
512
SOVIET RUSSIA
November 20, 1920
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be made a joint affair. And an answer by the
Chinese Government that it rejects all these de-
mands.
The Japanese Government had decided upon the
evacuation of its forces from Transbaikalia, as the
official explanation goes, because the Czechoslo-
vaks have left Siberia and there was no longer a
need of protecting them. But the real reason for
this will be found in a saying that has become very
popular now in Siberia. "Siberia is too large,
the summer too short, and the population too demo-
cratic."* Which, in actual figures, gathered and
disclosed by American and other Allied represen-
tatives, amounts to this: Out of a Japanese exr
peditionary force of about forty thousand, there
were killed on battlefields six thousand, while seven
thousand died of wounds and sickness, with an un-
revealed number of wounded, likewise of "lost",
that is those Japanese soldiers that took to the
Russian hills. The Red Army stopped at the west
shore of Lake Baikal, by orders from Moscow, and
has never as yet met the Japanese in open war-
fare, but the local Russian partizans were there
with the above-mentioned results. No wonder the
Japanese Government finds now that "Eastern Si-
beria has been completely converted to Bolshevism,
and the presence of a Japanese army there is use-
less."
As far as the success of the "plan" goes, it will
be sufficient to state that at several stations such as
Imanpo, Manchuria and others, there are regular
"regiments" of Chinese Khunkhuz robber bands,
consisting of from 2,000 to 3,000 men, officered
by Russian "nationalistic" officers, tutored by Jap-
anese officers, and full armed, even with machine
guns, armored cars, and a number of big guns, all
of Japanese make. And so far the only ones to
suffer from the hands of these pseudo "Reds" were
the Russians. Russian stores and houses are looted,
Russian businessmen are being kidnapped and made
to pay millions of rubles in "contributions"; Rus-
sian passengers are assaulted and robbed of all
their belongings, and Russian officials are brutally
murdered.
Just a few instances out of a great number on
hand, by way of illustration:
The peace delegation of the Vladivostok Govern-
ment, consisting of Utkin, Grazhevski, and Kagoda,
is held up on the way back from Vierkhnieudinsk,
at the station Iman, by thre members of the "bandit
bands", all Russian officers, robbed, stripped naked,
and then brutally murdered in burning daylight.
Robbed and murdered in the car belonging to the
Commander of the 14th Division, General Sirooda,
under whose protection they traveled. A similar
fate was met by the Vladivostok Government repre-
sentatives, also traveling under the protection of
the Japanese military authorities, Andreyev and
Kustavinov.
The editor of the labor newspaper V period of
Harbin, a young student by name A. Chernyavsky,
is murdered in "international" quarters of that city
on a crowded street at noon{
A service train with Russian workingmen is de-
railed near the station Silinche and fifteen mur-
dered.
The Chairman of the Railroad Union of Czit-
zikar, Trofimov, is taken off a train, killed and
his body thrown under a speeding train.
Eighty-seven Russian railroad workers are ar-
rested by the Japanese authorities at Nikolsk and
sent as prisoners to a camp near Vladivostok. Near
the camp the train is held up by "robber bands",
all eighty-seven men stripped naked, then stood up
against a wall, and shot.
The Chinese Government — the Chinese Govern-
ment and not the local Chinese authorities in Man-
churia, as Mr. Wile would have it — are doing their
best to overcome this newly created allied "dif-
ficulty", and to undo the Japanese-Semionov con-
spiracy. All the Semionov officers "evacuating"
in the tail of the Japanese forces from Transbai-
kalia, are disarmed as soon as they cross the border,
and those of them that are caught in the act of rob-
bery, spoiling the road, blowing up bridges, etc,
are deported, but only to be befriended across the
border by the Japanese, again armed and equipped,
and sent back to help in the successful attainment
of the "big plan".
The Japanese Government is organizing the bri-
gand bands in Manchuria, and by all logic should
propose to the powers joint action against . . .
the Japanese Government.
In all his official declarations on the Siberian
policy in the Diet, the Japanese foreign minister
has assured the members of that body that all the
actions of the Japanese Government in Siberia are
in strict accordance with the united policy of the
Allied governments. The most proper thing for
the Japanese Government to do would then be:
to propose to the powers joint action . . . against
the powers.
Bound Volumes for 1920
Volume II, of which a number of copies,
splendidly bound, are still to be obtained by
persons desiring them, is sold at five dollars.
Check or money order should accompany
order. Volume I {June-December, 1919) is
sold out and will not be reprinted. Volume
III will be bound, with title-page and index,
as soon as the issues have all appeared (Jan-
uary 1, 1921). Readers may place orders
now for Volume III, and should send the cost
of the volume — five dollars — with their
orders.
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 W. 40th St. New York, N. Y.
Original from
VtKSllVOh MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
513
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The Food Policy of the Soviet Government
By A. Svidersky
(Continued from Soviet Russia, October 30, 1920)
The chief attention of the People's Food Com- occasions in the war areas of the Urals and the
missariat and \ls organs is the collection and con- gubernias of Ufa and Orenburg is to be excluded,
centra tion of food and other products. Of the it will appear that in the twelve gubernias in which
products which the organs of the Commissariat are the supply is chiefly being carried on, namely in
endeavoring to obtain, the most important is, of the gubernias of Voronezh, Viatka, Kazan, Kursk,
course, grain, which is obtained on the principle Orel, Penza, Riazan, Samara, Saratov, Simbirsk,
of state monopoly. Tambov, and Tula, altogether there was stored
The 6tate monopoly has evoked sharper criticism 99,980,000 poods, ,of which 69,514,000 is grain
than any other economic measure of our revolu- proper, the remaining 30,466,000 forage. The fol-
tfonary epoch. That is, of course, quite obvious, lowing table indicates the manner in which the
The bread monopoly shakes the economic basis of plan drawn up for the storing of the different kinds
bourgeois society, and affects strongly those social of grain has been carried out by the People's Food
groups which build their welfare upon speculation Commissariat,
at the expense of the starviBg population. ta „ f « r(jl ^^ obtained <5&S3
The bread campaign of 1918-1919 began under an thou*, of poods)
most unfavorable circumstances. On the one hand 8™ n ta £d p fl X; ; ; ; ; ; ; 15 J#g 6 J;g| #• J
starvation in the capitals and in the large indus- ?^^; ^uk:::::::::::" iltfoo £lK Iz.l
trial centers had reached its height, and to ap- Food grain and forage 260,100 99,930 38.4
pease the starving population it became necessary Thus in 1918-1919 the food organs succeeded
to permit the free purchase of sixty pounds of in obtaining more than one-third of the grain sur-
flour, which was carried out by the system of each plus, both for provision and for forage, as regards
man making his own purchase; this of course was groats and pulse the full amount was obtained,
ruinous to the whole activity of the food organs ; The following table represents the percentage
on the other hand the 1918 harvest began just at of the food obtained in the individual gubernias :
the time When the Eed Army Suffered a Series Of Gubernia Percent Percent Percent
defeats On the Various fronts With the result that Voronm . grain levy forage levy obtained
. ,., . . , . . .. n . . Voronezh 21.1 50.2 31.4
many fertile gubernias were lost to the Soviet viatka 29.4 19.9 24.7
Republic. The comparatively small territory over Kursk '//////.l'.'.'.''.'.V.'.'.'.Y.Y. 22!? 33 253
which the rule of the Workers' and Peasants' Gov- g™> ia ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; I02 9 4 55 28?
eminent extended was expressed in the modest fig- R»a*an ' .' '.'.'.'. — — 6i!s
ure of 667,807,000 poods of grain collected whilst |;™Sv 7.7.7.7.7. 7. ! 7. .' ! '. Hi isl HI
the annual needs of the 'population even for the Simbirsk 57.9 20.2 39.1
... 1- . 1 ii lambov 49.9 29.2 39.5
supply at a hunger ration was not less than Tula 84.i 31. s 38.3
706,661,000 poods; an obvious shortage of 40,- The People's Food Commissariat is not in pos-
000,000 poods of grain. session of exhaustive figures relating to the food
At the outset the storing of grain gave rather campaign for 1917-1918. According to the incom-
insignificant results : August gave just a little over plete data it succeeded during the ten months of
one million poods, September a little over 6,000,000 1917-1918 in obtaining only 30,000,000 poods of
poods. Further, in October, as a result of the various kinds of grain. Considering the above-men-
military position changing in our favor and the tioned figures relating to the 1918-1919 food cam-
consequent consolidation of the Soviet Government paign the conclusion may be drawn that during its
in the localities, the grain storing rose to 24,000,- second year of existence the food organs of the
000 poods ; it maintained the same level in Novem- Soviet Government were much more successful, al-
ber and only in the subsequent months, which are* though they have by far not fulfilled all that was
generally months of poorer supply, the storing of expected; this in its turn proves that under the
bread began to decline giving only 14,000,000 present conditions the Soviet food policy is the
poods in December, and ten and a half million only rational one, and that the extremely complex
poods in January, 1919. An improvement was apparatus which has been established for the stor-
justifiably expected in February, but was not rea- ing of bread has justified itself. If we draw our at-
lized, as a result of our defeats on the eastern tention to the data characterizing the current food
front; during the following period from February campaign (the unfinished campaign of 1919-1920),
to August the decline was perceptible. For all we shall be forced to the conclusion that the im-
that, in accordance with incomplete data in the provement of the Soviet apparatus is fully con-
possession of the People's Food Commissariat the firmed. Out of the plan for the year for the stor-
fertile gubernias alone of the Soviet Republic rea- ing of 296 million poods, 160 million poods, that
lized a grain-storing amounting to 110,000,000 is to say, more than a half, has already been
poocls. obtained. During the remaining months before
If all the grain which had been stored on various the realization of the new harvest it is likely that
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November 20, 1920
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not less than 20 to 25 million poods more will be
obtained, so that it is presumable that the whole
quantity will amount to 180 to 185 million poods
or 60 to 61 per cent of the whole amount re-
quired for the year.
As to the conditions which facilitated a more
successful development of the grain campaign for
the current year it is particularly necessary to
point out the method of storing adopted in 1919-
1920, namely, the method of raising by levy the
exact amount established by the organ of the Food
Commissariat of the grain to be transferred by
the village population who are possessed of a sur-
plus, into the hands of the state. This method
of extracting the grain surplus has proved most
acceptable to the peasant population which is con-
sidering it in the light of loaning grain to the
state to supply the hungry workers of the town
population, which loan will be repaid by the state
with manufactured goods as soon as the workers'
government, having withstood and defeated
its various enemies, will be in a position to devote
itself entirely to work upon the economic front.
The difficult conditions under which the food
organs had to carry on their past campaign was
unfavorably reflected also upon the output of other
agricultural products. The food organs succeeded
in obtaining for the whole year 20 million poods
of vegetables and greens, or approximately one
fifth of the amount needed by the population. The
small amount of potatoes and vegetables obtained
is, apart from the general conditions, due to the
weakness of the food organs, and it became neces-
sary to permit various organizations to procure
these products in accordance with the decree of
the 21st of January, 1919, concerning the supply
of non-controlled products.
The comparative success of the grain levy sug-
gested to the Soviet Government the application
of the same method to other products impos-
sible to purchase for ready cash owing to the
extreme devaluation of money. A recently issued
decree has established a levy on potatoes, meat,
eggs and dairy produce. In order to make de-
livery of these products not oppressive to the rural
population, the food organs have established a
standard of levy which is far less than the amount
of food exported in the pre-war period. It may be
stated with confidence that henceforth the sup-
ply of products will be more successful, thanks to
the measures adopted, and that therefore the pop-
ulation will be assured of provisions as far as
possible under the circumstances.
The result of the supply of meat and fats was
also far from being satisfactory. The food organs
have supplied only the following quantities of
meat: October, 1918, 35 per cent; November, 26
per cent; December, 25 per cent; January, 1919,
16 per cent; February, 13 per cent; March, 22
per cent; April, 15 per cent; May, 11 per cent.
The results of the butter and oil supplies are still
poorer. It is obvious that under the conditions
there can be no question of a regular supply to
the population of meat and fats. The amount ob-
tained hardly sufficed for the needs of the hospitals
and the Eed Army.
More favorable results were obtained from the
1918-1919 fish campaign, although the fish indus-
tory of last season showed a decline in compari-
son with the preceding season. Unfortunately
even the stock of fish which was at the disposal
of the food organs could not be utilized owing to
the transport difficulties in consequence of which
it was equally impossible to supply the population
with fish regularly. One of the reasons which
hindered the supply of the population with fish
is, of course, the disorganization of transport which
was the result of the absence of fuel, so that, fin-
ally a quantity of fish amounting to over five mil-
lion poods accumulated in Astrakhan, whence it
could not be removed.
It is essential to note especially the supply of
the population with articles for general use* In
this regard the following are the tasks with which
the state is confronted : (1) the realization of goods
exchange, (2) the supply of the population with
both monopolized and uncontrolled goods. The
goods reserve which is at the disposal of the state
organs consists of goods manufactured and pro-
duced by the nationalized enterprises, as well as of
goods which the food organs purchase either inde-
pendently or through the cooperative organiza 1
tions.
The principal goods at the disposal of the state
in 1919 were textile manufactures. In drawing np
the plan for 1919 the People's Food Commissariat
took into consideration the stock of manufactured
textile goods and the 800,000,000 yards of cloth
which were to be manufactured during the current
year, and the population of Soviet Russia num-
bering 80 million persons. This gives us a stand-
ard of ten yards per person which quantity is to
be increased for the workers (sufficient for a
worker's suit) and decreased to some extent for
the agricultural population in view of the latter
possessing homespun goods. According to Ibis
plan the whole textile reserve was to be exhausted
by the end of 1919.
In reality, however, the People's Food Commis-
sariat had not expended the whole of this reserve.
This was due to various reasons: in the first
place, to the inadequacy of the distributing ap-
paratus and the disorganization of transport; sec-
ondly, to the fact that in some districts, oc-
cupied or threatened by the enemy, textile goods
were not dispatched, and finally because the actual
reserve of textile manufactures was greater than
was generally calculated. It does not, however,
follow that the state has at its disposal any con-
siderable reserve of textile goods; figuratively
speaking, Soviet Russia is wearing out its last
textiles.
As regards other goods, the state reserve of these
was still smaller. In accordance with the stock at
hand the ration of matches was one and a half
boxes per head for the civilian population with five
boxes per head for the army, a quarter of a pound
tobacco per mont'h or 240 cigarettes for every
IVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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smoker; and twenty pounds of salt per person per
annum. All these rations were constantly de-
creased during the last year.
We had at our state depots seven million poods
of sugar at the beginning of the year ; out of these
iour million poods were distributed prior to the
autumn season; the remaining three million were
left for the sugar season.
The supply of the population with foot-wear
and leather was in a bad state. There was an
abundance of 6oft leather, but the reserve of hard
sole leather and India rubber soles was exhausted.
Therefore, although it was proposed to supply
the population during the year with four million
pairs of boots, in reality it was only possible to
deliver two hundred pairs monthly. The greater
part of the foot-wear manufactured went for the
needs of the army.
The distribution of galoshes was to be in the
ratio of one pair to every three men of the town
population and one pair for eight men of the agri-
cultural districts. Actually here also the supply
was far more modest as, due to the lack of fuel,
the output of the factories was inconsiderable.
There was also a shortage of agricultural imple-
ments. Only one-third of the requirements could
be satisfied by the goods in stock.
The stock of glass at the disposal of the state
is rather small. Eecently it became necessary
to decrease greatly the supply of glass to the pop-
ulation in view of the great demand for glass by
the military authorities. As regards glassware the
stock was in a most satisfactory state, though the
supply was impeded by the transport difficulties.
In a mcflL'e critical state during the last year
was the supply of the population with lighting
materials. In 1919-1920 owing to the complete
lack of paraffin and petroleum, the supply of
lighting materials to the population had to be
suspended entirely.
To sum up, the supply of t the population with
goods during the preceding and the current year
was obviously unsatisfactory. The chief reason
for this was not so much the shortcomings of the
distributive apparatus as the lack of goods re-
serves at the disposal of the state. The general
perspective of the supply graphically is as follows :
until the present time we lived exclusively on the
old stock and to some extent on that of the future,
and it is only now when our forces are no longer
expended on the needs of the war forced upon us,
that we are beginning once again to create ma-
terial values.
As regards the second important task with which
the People's Food Commissariat is confronted, viz.,
the exchange of goods with the fertile gubernias,
unfortunately, the People's Food Commissariat
does not possess all the material needed for deal-
ing exhaustively with this question. In addition
to the above-stated decrees and acts defining the
system of exchange of goods, the following may
be added: altogether during 1918-1919 goods to
the amount of a little over one milliard rubles were
sent to the fertile gubernias for the agricultural
population; that is to say that during 1918-
1919 about 55 to 60 per cent of grain which was
received for the starving population through the
state organs of supply, was paid for by an exchange
of goods. Altogether during the existence of the
Soviet Government goods amounting to not less
than four to four and a half milliards of rubles
have been dispatched to the agricultural districts.
The question now in conclusion is : did the Peo-
ple's Food Commissariat and its organs prove
equal to the task with which they were confronted ?
From the*foregoing it is apparent that the task of
supplying the population with food products and
articles of prime necessity remains unsolved. The
state organs of supply have proved so far incapable
of giving to the population even a minimum of
what it requires and without which a more or less
normal existence is unthinkable.
In considering the activity of the Food Com-
missariat and its organs the fact should not be
overlooked that on the whole the food problem de-
pends upon a number of questions without the ac-
tual solution of which the proper organization of
the supply for the population is an absolute im-
possibility. The four years' world war and the
proletarian revolution of 1918 had shaken the
basis of the former economic relations; and so
long as a new social edifice is not built up on the
ruins of the old capitalist world, there can be no
question of the full supply of all the needs of the
population.
Unfortunately this aspect of the question is in-
tentionally overlooked by the enemies of the Soviet
Government and often also by the adherents of the
proletarian revolution. The fact is overlooked that
the problem of supplying the population is being
dealt with by the People's Food Commissariat and
its organs at an acute moment of blockade, at the
moment when Soviet Russia represents a besieged
fortress, cut off from the sources of grain and of
fats, under conditions of tormenting travail, of so-
cial beginnings in production, under the natural
decline of production of labor in all branches of
production and under conditions of extreme dis-
organization of transport.
The activity of the state food organs is in some
way explained by the data regarding fhe organs
of supplying the public feeding which were given
by Comrade Popov in the article entitled "The
Consumption of the Town Population of Soviet
Russia", published in the second supplement of the
Economicheskaya Zhizn (Economic Life) for
1919. On the basis of a whole number of budget
forms from Petrograd and Moscow and of almost
all the gubernia towns and some of the uyezd
towns Comrade Popov comes to the following con-
clusions : For nine producing gubernias at an aver-
age consumption there was 1.44 pounds of bread
per person or what is the same 1.30 pounds of
bread per adult. The People's Food Commissariat
and its organs provided 52.4 per cent of the ra-
tioned bread. In the consuming gubernias in
which it became necessary to bring bread from
other districts the supply cf the Commissariat was
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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much weaker. In 75 toWns and settlements and in
20 consuming gubernias on an average there was
1.02 pounds of bread peT person (fluctuating from
0.75 pounds per day for the gubernia of Cherepo-
vetz to 1.28 pounds for the gubernia of Nizhni-
No vgordd) ; in other words one and a tfyird pounds
of bread for every adult per day. The Food Com-
missariat and its distributive organs supplied the
population on an average of 40 per cent, reaching
to 71.74 per cent for the Cherepovetz gubernia and
95 per cent for that of Olonetz. In Moscow the sup-
ply of the People's Food Commissariat reaches the
above mentioned figure of 38 per cent; it may be
mentioned that the industrial workers and the
railwaymen received 41 to 42 per cent while em-
ployes and others including bourgeois elements re-
ceived 36 per cent.
The figures quoted speak for themselves. They
prove that if the Commissariat does not supply
the full ration of bread in its organization of
public feeding under the existing difficult condi-
tions it supplies at least a formidable quantity.
The 40 to 50 per cent of the whole quantity of
bread consumed which is supplied by the Food
Commissariat would never have fallen into the
hands of the workers and the poor had the popu-
lation been driven to buy it at the existing ex-
orbitant prices in the open market.
It is therefore not possible to look upon the
activity of the Food Commissariat as unimpor-
tant. It is equally impossible to regard the Soviet
food policy as incorrect and not answering the
interests of the working masses. In the present
transition period the main tasks of the state or-
gans of supply is to give the workers and the poor
at the expense of the rich the little that the state
has at its disposal. From the above, apparently
means of solving this question have been found;
but they would not have been found had the
government food policy been abandoned.
It is essential to mention a few measures in the
sphere of food supply undertaken by the govern-
ment. Being fully aware of the insufficiency of the
goods supplied to the population, the state organs
of supply assist the population in other ways.
Thus, for instance, the decree dated March i7,
1919, establishes the principle of free feeding for
children ; this measure has so far been introduced
in Moscow, Petrograd and 14 gubernia towns;
by virtue of this decree the products supplied by
the food organs are free to all children who have
not reached the age of sixteen. In addition to
this, in August, 1919, the decree followed, estab-
lishing an additional ration for those families of
Red Army soldiers receiving pensions. Finally
the state is taking energetic measures for the or-
ganization of public feeding, which are to improve
public feeding at the account of economy effected
in the products and materials expended.
The practical significance of the measures men-
tioned may be gathered from the data concerning
the organization of free child feeding and of public
feeding. Towards the end of 1919 Moscow chil-
dren's dining rooms catered to 300,000 children
Digitized by vj i
and Petrograd to 260,000 children; the half-
yearly estimate for the second half of 1919 for
child feeding amounts almost to three milliards of
rubles. Moscow had public kitchens to serve
320,000 persons, Petrograd 822,464 persons;
in other words Petrograd was in a position to feed
the entire population in public kitchens.
During the present year the principle of free
feeding generally, and of children in particular,
has widened extensively. According to the state
estimate for 19*20 the annual expenditure of the
labor government for the organization of free feed-
ing of children, infants as well as of all homeless
children, amounted to 51,306,100,000 rubles. In
addition to this in the month of March the organ-
ization of free public feeding for all workers and
other persons of Petrograd and Moscow was begun.
The increase of the food resources at the disposal
of the food organs is to be explained by the suc-
cesses of the Red Army, by the improvements of
the state supply apparatus as well as the general
consolidation of the Soviet Government; all this
made it possible to put forward a number of im-
portant questions in the sphere of public supply.
In the first place the questions have arisen of the
improvement of the food position of mental work-
ers and secondly of increased rations for workers
employed in the more important state enterprises.
The latter measures which are necessarily only
taken gradually are already giving results, which
take the form of an undoubted increase of the
productivity of labor — both physical and mental.
Starvation has not yet been overcome in Soviet
Russia. To defeat starvation it is necessary to
break the resistance of the bourgeoisie and to
build up the political and economic life of the
country on new communist lines. The approach-
ing victory over starvation depends upon the ex-
tent to which in spite of all the difficulties, Soviet
Russia is achieving her aims.
With regard to the present difficult period which
is continuing to demand, though less than former-
ly, ever fresh victims, it is permissible to put the
following questions : What other government, with
the exception of the Soviet Government, which
has realized the dictatorship of the workers and
the peasants, could possibly give to the workers
and the poor that which the supply organs of the
Soviet Government have given them ? Would not
any other kind of government have deprived the
toilers of the little that they receive in order to
enrich at the expense of these people all the para-
sitic elements and the bourgeoisie ?
You Have Friends
who would subscribe to Soviet Russia if they
knew of its existence. You know best how to
get new subscribers for us. One way is to send
us the names of persons who might like to learn
about us. We shall send them sample copies of
Soviet Russia.
SOVIET RUSSIA
110 W. 40th St. Room 304 New York, N. Y.
VERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
517
Wireless and Other News
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NEW LIES DENIED
Repeatedly it is necessary for periodicals desii>
ing to restore some sort of truthful balance, in
view of the flood of lies circulating about Soviet
Russia, to print contradictions of individual mis-
representations. Social-Demokraten, of Christiania,
Norway, prints in its issue of October 11 an item
that is of interest in this connection:
Bourgeois papers today again print "sensational"
telegrams concerning the "collapse of the Soviet
Army" and a "serious conflict between the army
and the Executive Committee." It was from jhe
correspondent of Dagens Nyheter in Reval that
these revelations came.
We have this day received the following official
denial of these lies:
"Rica v October 10. — Deny all absurd communi-
cations concerning mutiny in Red Fleet and other
places. Likewise all reports of Soviet peace offer
to Wrangel. This counter-revolutionary rebel shall
share the fate of Kolchak and other traitors of the
people." (Signed) Krichevsky.
SOVIET RUgSIA AND ARMENIA
Moscow, October 26, 1920 (Rosta). — Informa-
tion about alleged menacing ultimatum of Russia
to Armenia is erroneous. Soviet Russia is pursuing
a policy of peace and is using its influence in the
Near East for the purpose of establishing peace.
Russia is not connected with any movements or
eventualities of a military character. The Turkish
advance on Armenian boundaries was in no con-
nection with the Soviet Government's policy as the
latter has no control over the Turkish Government.
The Soviet Government is in full sympathy with the
Turks 9 fight for independence against imperialism,
but is not responsible for every movement of the
Turkish troops. The latters' advance upon the
Armenian border was an independent act of the
Turkish national government. The Russian Gov-
ernment can do no more than propose mediation,
but in this case it can expect from Armenia com-
mercial facilities and the cessation of its partici-
pation in the aggressive anti-Russian policy of the
Entente. Soviet Rusia nurtures the most friendly
feelings for the Armenian people, and is sincerely
desirous of helping it towards a better future and
toward establishing peace in the Near East.
BIG RUSSIAN PRINTING ENTERPRISE
Stockholm, October 14. — A Russian publication
house has been opened in Stockholm under the
literary supervision of Professor Lundell of the
University of Uppsala, and Professor Lyiatskin,
who is one of Russia's most prominent literary his-
torians. A long time ago the first books resulting
from the activities of the publishing house came
out, and in the last few days an additional series
of books were furnished by the Stockholm com-
pany. In one year great preparations have been
made in Sweden to provide Russia, as well as the
numerous emigrants who are scattered all over
Sweden and the rest of Europe, with Russian books
in the Russian language. The books that have
thus far appeared are , a volume of stories by
Chekhov and a few primers, and in the last few
days there came out a large work of literary cri-
ticism by Professor Liatskin on Gontcharov, also
a collection of old Russian popular epics, and a
volume of Russian folk legends, etc.
MURDER OP RUSSIAN PRISONERS IN
CRIMEA
Authentic news from Bulgaria has come to hand
that 40 Russian prisoners, fully authorized by the
French representative, left Varna for Odessa on
the motorboat "Christo Botief" on June 22, but in-
stead were brought to the Crimea and delivered to
Wrangel. Thirty-two were shot, eight are still
in prison in Sebastopol. This barbarous act of the
most reactionary of governments, the French usurp-
ed government, deserves pillory.
TESSEM AND KNUDSEN
Some time ago Soviet Russia printed a short
message from the Commissar of Foreign Affairs
to the Norwegian Foreign Department, announc-
ing that information had been received at Mos-
cow of the death of Tessem and Knudsen, two
sailors who had been left by Amundsen's ship,
The Maude, at a point in northern Siberia, and
who seemed to have perished at some subsequent
date.
Social Demokraten of Christiania, Norway, Sep-
tember 11, 1920, now prints an account which
seems to indicate that the Soviet Commissariat for
Foreign Affairs has information tending to dis-
prove its former communication. The item fol-
lows :
The Foreign Department (the Norwegian For-
eign Department), as would be recalled, some time
ago wired to the Russian Government for inform-
ation concerning the report of the death of Tes-
sem and Knudsen, as there was a possibility that
this report might be the result of a confusion of
these two names with two members of the Mili-
kizky Expedition.
The Foreign Department has just received a
telegraphic communication to the effect that the
Russian Government has taken the necessary steps
to obtain information on this subject. The Rus-
sian local au thorites have furthermore received or-
ders to grant all possible facilities to the Nor-
wegian relief expedition.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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November 20, 1920
Books Reviewed
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The Bolshevik Adventure. By John Pollock. E. P.
Dutton and Company, New York.
Intimate Letters from Petrograd. By Pauline S. Cross-
ley. E. P. Dutton and Company, New' York.
Anti-Bolshevik books pass out of style very
rapidly. The fictions of 1918 will not pass mus-
ter in 1919; the lurid tales seem pale and empty
in 1920. It is easy to imagine how silly the New
York Times weekly budget of propaganda, gravely
marked "special dispatch from Washington", will
seem in 1921. So Mr. Pollock's publishers have
done him a very doubtful service in bringing out
an American edition of his work, which was writ-
ten and published in England in 1919.
Mr. Pollock is an Englishman, who spent some
time in Russia during 1917 and 1918, ostensibly
engaged in looking after a children's home in Pet-
rograd. For some reason, not clearly explained
by the author, his alleged charitable activites
brought him into disfavor with the Soviet authori-
ties, and he lived for some time under various dis-
guises and false identities, finally leaving Russia
surreptitiously by slipping across the Finnish bor-
der. His book is a truly extraordinary collection
of wild and fanciful falsehoods about the Russian
Revolution. He asserts that the Bolsheviki were
German agents; that the nationalization of women
was an accomplished fact in Soviet Russia; that
people in Petrograd died at the rate of a hundred
thousand a month (by this computation the city
would have long ago passed out of existence) ;
that the Soviet Government was maintained entire-
ly by Germans, Letts and "Chinese mercenaries";
and that the aforesaid "Chinese mercenaries" did
a thriving business in the sale of human flesh for
food.
In fact, speaking with proper reserve, and taking
full account of the fierce competition in the field,
one is driven to the conclusion that Mr. Pollock's
work contains more lies about Soviet Russia than
any publication which has yet made its appearance
in this country. In the very beginning we are given
this definition of "Bolshevik":
"The word means a man who wants the big
share, who will not be satisfied, one might say,
with less than all the lot."
This rather extraordinary translation presum-
ably indicates Mr. Pollock's degree of familiarity
with the Russian language.
From the start to finish the book is filled with
confident prophecies of the impending downfall of
the Soviet Government, together with frantic plead-
ings for Allied intervention. The author sets down
every reactionary canard with absolute credulity.
He gravely asserts that the peasants desired nothing
so much as the return of Czarism. Kolchak, Deni-
kin, and Wrangel have testified, to their cost, the
accuracy of this theory. According to Mr. Pol-
lock, all classes of the Russian people yearned for
the arrival of British troops "to restore order."
The humane, altruistic, beneficent government of
Lloyd George, Curzon and Co. in Ireland and India
is certainly calculated to inspire the workers and
peasants of free Russia with an ardent desire to
become subjects of the British Empire. This ques-
tion has also been put to a very practical test—
the Archangel and Yudenich fronts. By this time
even Mr. Pollock must be" convinced that British
troops in Russia will be received not with flowers
and speeches of welcome, but with the bayonets
and machine-guns of the Red Army.
The author cannot be denied credit for distinct
originality. He suggests that "the greatest blow
against the Bolsheviks would be to send an aero-
plane to bomb the mint at Petrograd." Apparently
he does not realize that, whatever may be the case
in capitalist countries, the center of power and
prestige in the Russian workers' republic does not
lie in the mint, nor in a stock exchange, nor in any
similar institution.
Like many reactionary critics of Soviet Russia,
Mr. Pollock is a violent anti-Semite. Like the
amiable General Sakharov, aide to the late Supreme
Ruler Kolchak, he complacently anticipates a great
pogrom as the first step in the "liberation" of
Russia from Soviet rule. Unfortunately for the
predictions of Mr. Pollock and General Sakharov,
the Russian people show no desire to overthrow
lhe only government in eastern Europe which has
kept itself quite free from the stain of racial and
religious persecution.
Mr. Pollock's work is so full of gross misinform-
ation and prophecies which have been definitely
and completely disproved by the subsequent course
of events that it is rather difficult to understand
why the publishers should have decided to present
it to American readers. Perhaps they wished to
impart a vivid object lesson in the unreliable na-
ture of anti-Soviet propaganda; and, upon this
hypothesis, they are entitled to high praise.
The case of Mrs. Crossley is both simple and
pathetic. The wife of an American naval attache,
she set out for Petrograd in 1917 in high hopes of
enjoying the brilliant society life of the Russian
capital. Her journey was marred by the constant
intrusion of uncouth soldiers who boarded the
train in large numbers and occasionally spat sun-
flower seeds on the floor. But she experienced her
supreme tragedy upon arriving in Petrograd. Let
her tell her woeful tale in her own words:
"Think of a country, a capital, in which it is
unwise to appear on the street well-dressed. I
suppose the war has made a difference in most
countries, but it is a fact I have not seen a man
wearing a silk hat in this large capital of a large
country."
Of course something was radically wrong with
a government whose officials did not make a prac-
tice of attending diplomatic functions garbed in
immaculate silk hats and evening dress. Mrs. Cros«-
ley soon discovered other damaging facts about
the Soviet regime. Soldiers no longer showed ter-
l,, YEK>ITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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vile respect to their officers. A sailor and a work-
man actually participated in a reception to her
distinguished husband at Sebastopol. The country
was being ruled by plain workers and peasants, by
men with no blue blood in their veins. When she
cannot think of any more concrete accusations she
imitates the exquisite wit of her Russian aristocratic
friends by calling the members of the Soviets
"Dogs' Depuities".*
Mrs. Crossley recounts a great many second-hand
atrocity stories; but she is compelled to admit that
she was never subjected to any personal molestation
during the winter of 1917-1918, although her house
seems to have been a sort of unofficial headquarters
for counter-revolutionists.
In view of the hopes which were so cruelly
dashed by the absence of silk hats on the Nevsky,
one may readily forgive Mrs. Crossley her harsh
words and her numerous misrepresentations, es-
pecially as the latter may be partially ascribed to
her abysmal ignorance of Russian life. One can
only feel pity for this fragile flower of capitalistic
civilization, so unkindly exposed to the rude blasts
of a proletarian revolution.
MexaHHqecKoe ^epqeHHe h JJeTaxH Mamee, cocTaBHi Ilpe-
DojaBaTejb TeiHHqecKoft IDkoih Pocchjickhx Mexa-
hhkob, HnjKeHep C. KaHTop, npa coTpyftHHiecTBe H.
Jloniaxa h HnaceHepa )K. Jlayxca. Mechanical Drawing
and Machine Details, by S. Kantor, M.E., New York;
published by the Technical School of Russian Mechanics,
1920.
It is gratifying to observe how much enthusiasm
is being shown by persons and organizations sym-
pathizing with the people of Soviet Russia in the
work of reconstructing their country. Not only
have we had occasion recently to note with pleasure
the fact that many persons are actively working
to gather funds to be spent in the purchase of medi-
cal supplies and surgical instruments, but also that
large groups of Russian workers are devoting all
their spare time to perfecting themselves in their
various trades so that, when an opportunity is af-
forded to return to Soviet Russia, they may be able
to be of real and efficient assistance to the people of
that country, and to its government, in the great
work of rebuilding that will require the application
of so much skill and energy in the years to come.
The present little volume is issued by such an
organization of workers who are preparing them-
selves for the new work that will be theirs after
their return home. It is a series of instructions
in Mechanical Drawing, accompanied by excellent
illustrations and a clearly formulated text, together
with useful tables to be used in the conversion of
weights and measures from one system to another.
No space has been wasted by inserting tables of
too difficult a character for the use of common
draughtsmen and workers, and some of the tables
are particularly good for their simple and direct
usefulness, such as the tables converting milli-
meters to inches, and vice versa. The illustrations
that are intended to convey an idea of the concep-
tions of geometry, perspective, and projections that
underlie the practice of Mechanical Drawing are
calculated with great pedagogic skill and taste, and
executed with neatness and due subordination of
minor details. Altogether, this is a book that every
Russian mechanic should possess, whether he in-
tends ultimately to go to Russia or not.
* Co6ain« A«nyTaTix, instead of paCo^ne aenyTBTM.
The "Red East" Train
The propaganda train "Red East" began in Au-
gust its second tour to Turkestan. The following
appears in Izvestia on its first tour:
"In January the first propaganda train was sent
to Turkestan, which only in July, that is half a
year later, returned to Moscow. The area of Tur-
kestan is f^ur times that of France, but it is very
thinly populated, four persons to each square
verst. For this reason, our efficiency has had to
be increased as well as methods of work better
developed. Sixty-eight lectures with 7,453 attend-
ants; 334 meetings with 106,080 Russian and
124,605 Mohammedan participants were held; 173
cinema productions were given, the number of those
present being 153,330. Members of the political
divisions conducted four conferences and took part
in 14 party and trade meetings and conferences.
The train visited 49 districts and 95 villages. In
the internal parts of the country, work of instruc-.
tion was carried on in five districts, 14 counties
nnd 12 smaller localities. In the Board of Com-
plaints, 938 cases were examined and sentence
passed in 433 cases. Out of the book stock 3,073
libraries were provided with 186,431 volumes,
58,171 leaflets, 37,390 newspapers and 5,598 post-
ers. 125,000 leaflets and 9,000 newspapers were
distributed free. The "Rosta-Division", attached
to the train, carried with it 24,500 copies of the
publication The Red East, in the Russian language,
12,900 in the Tartar, Kirghiz and Sart languages;
besides, 76,000 leaflets in Russian and 111,350 in
Mohammedan dialects; 7,000 pamphlets in Rus-
sian; 4,600 appeals and placards in Russian and
4,300 for Mohammedans. There was also pro-
vided in the train a sanitary exhibition, which was
visited by 34,767 persons.
These are only figures. The chief task of the
train was to lay the foundation for a great and
effective activity and to afford the working people
a practical support in their struggle for their na-
tional independence and their right to self-determi-
nation. Thus far the Soviet organizations in Tur-
kestan have reached only the preparatory stage, for
as vet there is an absence of a unified plan and of
a clear view of the tasks that should \>e performed
in a country that was for decades a colony of
Czarist Russia. For a year and a half or longer,
a colonization policy has been pursued here, ac-
cording to a Socialist plan, under the protection
of the Soviet power. The Russian population was
considered to be the sole support of the Soviet
power, while the poorer classes of the Khirghiz,
Usbek, and Turkestan population are suffering con-
siderably from the depredations inflicted by the
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most varied classes of adventurers, under the guise
of requisitions and confiscations. We can speak
to the population in their own language. Wherever
there are no railroad lines the political section of
the train sends its members into the remotest vil-
lages, often situated from 10 to 100 versts from
the railroad line. Thousands of persons assemble
who are eager to learn something about the real
nature of the Soviet; in masques, workshops,
market places, and out on the steppes meetings
were held; everywhere where the working people
could be reached. The Red East has carried out
not only a great labor of agitation and construction
but also has gathered a large amount of technical
material on Turkestan, as well as undertaken the
inspection of thousands of Soviet institutions. This
material and other labors carried out by the per-
sonnel of the train will later doubtless become a
basis for estimating the Soviets and the work of
education carried on by the Communist Party in
Turkestan.
NORWAY FISHERMEN SELL TO
RUSSIA
Yesterday negotiations which had been in pro-
gress between Litvinov and Manager Lorentzon of
the North Norway Fishermen's Union, were ter-
minated. Litvinov bought the fish now in the
union's warehouses — 200,000 kilograms at a price
of 55 ore for dried fish and 45 ore for frozen fish.
The minimum price of the Norwegian state are
45 and 37 ore respectively. Simultaneously Lit-
vinov promised to purchase fish which the unions
may be able to supply later in the winter for de-
livery in May, 1921. These negotiations concern
800,000 kilograms. These fish also will be paid
for at the rate of 55 and 45 ore, but Litvinov has
consented to raise this rate of compensation if
the price of petroleum should rise during the
winter.
Finally, both the parties have agreed on nego-
tiating a series of fresh fish deliveries from East-
ern Finnmarken to Archangel during the summer
season of 1921.
The fish to he delivered will be paid for in cash
as soon as commercial relations between Norway
and Russia have been established. — From Social
Demokraten, September 4.
INSPECTION
Moscow, October 8, 1920 (Rosta). — In number
113 of Burtzev's Obshtsheye Dielo Colonel Pora-
delov makes the allegation that Trotsky had been
in Eastern Prussia in military consultation with
Prussian officers. In answer to inquiries Trotsky
makes the following statement: "There is not a
word of truth in it. I was not in Eastern Prussia
or in any other place. But I must say that, at
any time, I am ready to hold conversations with
any sensible and honest German officer who would
offer his services for the fight against French im-
perialism which robs and oppresses Germany."
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4.
5.
THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
The Work of the Commissariat of Education, by A. Lunacharsky, People's Commissar
for Education.
Three Russian Notes to the British Government. Notes addressed by Krassin to Lord
Curzon of Kedleston, protesting England* s acts of hostility against the Soviet Govern-
ment.
The Third Session of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Reports by
Chicherin, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs; Brukhanov, Assistant People's
Commissar for Provisions, and Lunacharsky, People's Commissar for Education.
Items of Economic Importance. (Including the following: Vanguard Factories, The
State Industry, Moscow District Coal Output, Textile Industry, etc.)
Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
(Make all checks payable
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks,
to L. C. A. K. Martens.)
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, November 27, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 22
Issued Weekly at J 10 W. 40tb Street, New York, N. Y. Ladwi* C. A. K. Martens, Publisher. Jacob Wittmer Hartmann, Editor*
Subscription Rate h $5.00 per anciusn. Application for entry an second class matter pending. Changes of address should reach the
office a week before the changes are to be made.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PAGE
The Work of the Commissariat of Education,
by A . Lunachar&ky ..•...«,»*. «»••••«., * 521
Military Review, by Ll-CoL B. Roustam Bek* . 525
Interview With Yoffe {Chairman of the Russian-
Ukrainian Peace Delegation) ,.,.•*»»*•*•■■« 528
The Ukrainian Peasants. * , , 529
Russia's Executive Body in Session , , ♦ 530
Editorials .*.«. , 552
Four Notes to the British Government,.*,, 535
"Nationalization of Women", by Leon Trotsky 537
Economic Reports from Soviet Russia..* 538
Wireless and Other News . . . 541
The Work of the Commissariat of Education
By A* LUNACHARSKY
(Report to the Central Executive Committee by
T^HE work of popular education, from the very
moment when it was called into being by the
November Revolution, was immediately confronted
with great difficulties* which can be classified into
three most important groups* In the first place,
a radical transformation of the old school was an
imperative necessity, For the old school was a
political school, definitely dominated by the cul-
tural and political spirit of the bourgeoisie and
gen try , of czar ism and the clergy, This was the
first difficulty, since there are very few works on
the Socialist school in world literature. As far
as theory is concerned, we had to deal in this case
with an almost unexplored field. What source
of light did we have to guide us on the untrodden
paths? A page and a half written by Marx in his
youth for the Geneva Congress, and a few scattered
phrases! Instruction in the old school had, of
course, something in common with education, but
the school was founded on principles which aimed
to give this education with a mixture of pseudo-
education, with subjects harmful in so far as they
were useless but consumed a great deal of time, or
with clear corrupt subjects, such as religious in-
struction. While in the secondary and higheT
schools the minds of the students were poisoned
with distorted science, the teachers in. the ele-
mentary schools were torn between two incompat-
ible tasks — to teach literacy and yet to leave the
pupils in complete ignorance. We undertook to
eradicate these vices, and we put forth the idea
of the general school.
We instituted the single labor school which was
to lead everyone, irrespective of origin, through
all the school grades. And we made the schools
popular, within reach of alL This meant not only
free tuition, but also breakfast and lunches at the
A. Lunacharsky, Commissar of Education.)
school* free school supplies* etc. We had to go
even further, to furnishing shoes and clothing. We
wanted the people to know what the Soviet power
was bringing. For we have a reply to all super-
ficial attacks, that we "promised this or that, but
did not fulfill it. 1 * We reply: we w r ou!d have ac-
complished it if we were not diverted by the at-
tempts to strangle us. Formally, the school net
of Russia is growing rapidly. The old school
buildings are in horrible condition, are badly in
need of repairs* Many school buildings in the
cities have been taken over for hospitals or mili-
tary institutions. As soon as we have a sufficient
number of schools we will immediately make school
attendance obligatory.
The single school does not mean a uniform
school. The single school is one which gives
equal entrance rights to all, and equal rights after
graduation. But we proposed at the same time,
that the schools, particularly the secondary schools,
should be of different kinds. We deemed it pos-
sible, and even recommended that the higher classes
of the secondary schools should have two or three
divisions, so that the pupils could choose one or
another specialty according to their inclinations.
Owing to the categorical demand of our economic
commissariats we were compelled to allow pupils
over 14 years of age to transfer from a general
school to a trade or technical school* We have
these trade and technical schools, in addition to
the schools of general education. Along with this
we improved the schools by eliminating the use :
less subjects, such as ancient languages and reli-
gious instruction, by doing away with separate
schools for boys and girls, and, lastly, by abolish-
ing the old school discipline
B „t the mfi^fgfcm.fr of oat
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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cultured comrades do liot yet fully comprehend,
is the principle of the so-called school of labor.
This term was in many cases completely misun-
derstood. It was taken to mean that theoretical
instruction and books should be completely ex-
cluded from the school, and that they should be
replaced by productive toil in form. In reality
we did not at all intend such a transformation of
the schools. Essentially, the principle of the labor
school includes two main ideas. The first contends
that knowledge should come through toil, that the
children should through their own activity dis-
cover and reproduce what they learned from books.
Using at first the play instinct, the games should
be made more and more serious, and, finally, the
pupils should be familiarized with the subjects of
their studies through excursions, observations, and
so forth.
In this way may be learned the whole history
of human toil. In connection with this, the tech-
nical side, say, of the organization of a factory,
may also be taken up, starting with the delivery
of fuel, of raw materials, of the basic types of
motors, etc. It would also be possible in this way
to introduce the principles of labor discipline. We
can thu^ ignore the nature of the erstwhile capi-
talist System and turn directly to the present sys-
tem. We have never given up this idea, for the
school of labor of the industrial type is the only
communist school.
And now for the elementary schools. Most of
the elementary schools are situated in the villages,
and productive toil in these must be of a somewhat
different character from that in the secondary
schools. There should be moderate self-service in
these, for instance, keeping the school in order.
With regard to these schools I feel that we must
welcome them, and in the villages we must also
see to the development of their agricultural aspect.
With respect to this we have already taken ener-
getic steps, and have tried to come to some under-
standing with the Commissariat of Agriculture in
regard to the mobilization of agricultural experts,
of whom we have but a small number, to provide
instruction in agriculture for the village school
teachers, the majority of whom have no such
knowledge.
Our village school teachers have absolutely no
knowledge of agriculture. At present steps have
already been taken to improve this condition. Every
fall and spring, new schools and lecture-courses
for teachers are opened to instruct them in the
principles of toil in elementary schools. In this
respect the Commissariat of Education has already
some achievements to its credit. We have data
showing that the mass of our teachers, with very
few exceptions, have become adherents of the
Soviet power, have renounced sabotage and are
working with the Soviets. At all the congresses of
school teachers you will find just as much enthu-
siasm as in our factories and workshops. They are
eagerly following the instructions and directions
coming from the center.
I will quote to you some figures which illustrate
the school situation in a general way. In 1911, the
last year for which complete statistical data are
available, there were 55,846 elementary schools.
In 1919 we had 73,859 such schools, that is, we in-
creased their number almost 50 per cent. And for
the present year their number has increased to
about 88,000. These schools take care of about
60 to 65 per cent of the total number of children
in Russia. The actual school attendance was not
high, owing to the terrible conditions last winter,
but on the whole it extended to 5,000,000. The
number of pupils increased very rapidly. The
schools under the czar could only take care of
three and a half million children, while our schools
take csfre of five and a half million.
The number of second grade schools increased
very little, because we cannot open new schools.
The total number is 3,600. We have about half
a million pupils in second grade schools, which is
only seven to eight per cent of the total number
of children of this age. In this respect the situa-
tion is extremely bad. Even if we would exclude
all the children of the bourgeoisie and petty bour-
geoisie, even then, the vast majority of the children
of the workmen and peasants woul J be left outside
of these schools. It is disgraceful, anjd we must
candidly admit it; we are forced to open two-year
schools for children to give them at least some
education, so that this generation may not be con-
demned to utter ignorance.
The figures on the training of a teaching-staff
are very eloquent. Immense energy was displayed,
but it must be remembered that we can not rapidly
increase the number of teachers, even though we
have drawn into this work a large number of per-
sons who were excluded from this profession under
the czar. There were 21 higher pedagogical schools
under the czar, while we have 55y The total num-
ber of schools increased considerably, and the
number of students rose from 4,000 to 34,000. I
can tell you that of these 34,000 — under present
terrible conditions when people are condemned to
starvation, and when such studies can be under-
taken only by those who have not been coddled
and have not been drawn into service in some other
Soviet institution — we have 10,305 persons who
are so completely and diligently devoting them-
selves to school-work that they have proven them-
selves deserving of social insurance (scholarship),
which is given under the strictest control, and can-
not be obtained by those who do not merit it We
have thus achieved a certain degree of success in
this respect. But we must accomplish a great deal
more than this. We need an enormous army of
teachers. We have 400,000 educational workers,
and we need more than a million.
Besides we also have kindergartens. Colossal
efforts have been made in this direction, and we
are inclined to be proud of this. It should, how-
ever, be mentioned that under the cxar nothing had
existed in the field of pre-school endeavor. I do
not speak here of the few kindergartens, model
homes for children, of a certain number of charity
institution ivhich were established in large cities
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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by rich merchants, and several schools of the
Froebel type for children of the rich.
In 1919 we had 3,623 kindergartens and about
1,000 kindergartens are being added every year.
I shall now turn to the higher schools. These
present an even more difficult task than the sec-
ondary schools. For some time the professors were
with our enemies. The students took part in in-
surrections against us, and the professors partici-
pated in all kinds of plots. Every time that the
Whites appeared at Samara or Saratov the profes-
sors were their main support. They sent state- %
ments abroad villifying us. And when we came
to them they hid in a shell. But the professors are
indispensable, and we are confronted in this re-
spect by a problem similar to that presented by
the military department. Comrade Trotsky was
right when he said that no army was ever be-
trayed as much as the Red Army. But the Red
Army was nevertheless successful. This is also the
case in the higher schools. A change is already
taking place, and not solely through the appoint-
ment of new men. I could mention a large num-
ber of distinguished men — I do not speak here of
our splendid friend, the deceased Timiriazev,
whose clear views and perspicacity were amazing
— I could mention a score of scientists who have
really become Soviet adherents. In Petrograd the
effect was soon 'visible. The scientific life of Pet-
rograd has risen. The same effect occurred among
the students. Petrograd sets the pace. The first
students conference was held there, and after listen-
ing to a brilliant report by Zinoviev, a definitely
"red" resolution was adopted by an enormous ma-
jority.
And now for the labor colleges! At present we
manage them in such a way that they are open
only to workers *Avho are recommended by labor
organizations. We take them into the school, and
to a certain extent we subject them to rigid dis-
cipline. The students of a labor college have no
right to miss any lecture without serious causes,
and they must pass examinations to prove efficiency
in their studies.
At present the standard of the labor colleges is
quite high, and they are already very promising.
But our experience with labor colleges taught also
a great deal with regard to the universities in gen-
eral. _ Under pressure from the economic commis-
sariats the department of technical and trade edu-
cation proposed raising the educational level of
the workers. With this end in view, a large number
of night courses for workmen were opened. Simul-
taneously, we took the question of the necessity
of increasing the number of middle and higher
engineers. We inquired about the number of engi-
neers necessary, and the Council of National Econ-
omy made very serious demands upon us. Accord-
ing to its calculations the schools must give 3,600
new engineers each year. To satisfy this need of
the country, the Department of Technical Education
decided, first of all, to obtain the right to free
engineering students of the last two years from all
outside work, to provide them with rations, and
to feed their professors, but at the same time to
place them under military discipline and punish
them as deserters if they did not attend to their
work. These measures are of course extraordi-
nary, but they are dictated by present conditions,
and thanks to them we graduated over 3,000 en-
gineers this year. We know that we need physi-
cians as well as other specialists, and we have
therefore also decided to assure food to all the
collaborators in the medical colleges, with the re-
sult that the number of students has increased
threefold.
The czarist government looked upon the univer-
sities as explosive centers, but we have nothing to
fear from them, and we go on opening new uni-
versities. Thus we have already 21 universities in-
stead of 15. Of the new universities, three or four
may be considered to be functioning normally. The
Turkestan and Ural universities, which are still in
the process of organization, will, in the near future,
be in a position to do effective work. We have,
just as before the Revolution, four medical univer-
sities and three archeological universities. Of vet-
erinary institutes we have six instead of two. The
number of professors has increased to 1,644, be-
cause we have promoted all the lecture-instructors
to the rank of professors. *+>**
I will now speak of the ..work outside of the
•schools, which is of vast importance. All of you
know that we can not at present do much in the
publishing field. In library work we make use of
old books, enriching the school libraries and the
general libraries* from the stock that we have ob-
tained from the book-stores and from the liquida-
tion of the landlords 9 libraries, which were practic-
ally useless. The number of libraries in Russia has
greatly increased, and they grow with incredible
rapidity. In the Tver Province, for instance, there
are over 3,000 libraries. Some provinces have
over 1,000 libraries. The total number of libraries
in 30 provinces was 13,5000 in 1919, and in these
same provinces we now have about 27,000 libraries,
not including reading rooms. The increase in the
number of libraries is astounding, and I might
add that the library attendance, considering pres-
ent conditions, is no less astounding. However,
in the matter of supplying the libraries in the fu-
ture we are up against great difficulties.
One of the greatest of the Soviet decrees is the
decree* on the liquidation of illiteracy. In the
province of Cherepovetz 58,000 persons have al-
ready passed through the schools for illiterates, in
Ivanovo- Voznessensk, 50,000 persons. In the city
of Novozybkov there are no more illiterates above
the age of 40. In Petrograd also there will soon
be no illiterates. We have not enough reading
primers. However, at present 6^ million primers
have already been printed or are on the press.
A special resolution which I proposed two years
ago at the Eighth Congress, and which was then
adopted, stated that the People's Commissariat of
Education should, under the present conditions,
be an organ of Communist education, and that the
(^nunis^,.^^^^!^ arty should
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be closely connected, since this Commissariat is an
organ of education and since education must mean
Communist education. And to the extent to which
the Party carries on propaganda and agitation it
should make full use of the apparatus of the
People's Commissariat of Education. But we made
very slow progress in this direction, and the Com-
missariat of Education suffered thereby. Vladimir
Ilyich (Lenin) has many times pointed out the
plain duty of the party to attract the teachers, as
they come nearer to us, to educational and political
work; and to compel those teachers who do not
come nearer to us to read the decrees and to spread
our literature. A good start was then made by
the extra-mural division. The extra-mural division
was instructed to organize, conjointly with the pro-
vincial party committees, courses on the struggle
with Poland. This was an absolutely new thing,
because the extra-mural teachers had to undertake
work of a new type in cooperation with the Party
and under the direction of party members, to pres-
ent the history of Poland, the present social order
of Poland, the causes of the war with Poland, etc.
In this respect we had considerable success which
proves that when the Party supports us we can
accomplish a great deal of work, considerably
more work than without such support. Indeed,
in this work we made a discovery. In 29 provinces,
in each of which we opened a school, we passed
2,381 agitators in one month, specialists on the
Polish question, and all these agitators were as-
signed by the Party to the front or for work in the
interior. As a further illustration of my thought,
I will point out how energetically the sub-divisions
of the Commissarait of Education work when they
have the support of the Party. Thus, for instance,
when it was decided to open new educational insti-
tutions in honor of the Third Internationale, when
this slogan was issued with Comrade Kalinin's and
my own signature, the results exceeded all our ex-
pectations. We were able to achieve unprecedented
results in the sense of opening new educational in-
stitutions. We had demanded that these institu-
tions be situated in equipped buildings and that
they be provided with school supplies. And we
now have 23 schools, 164 homes for children, 20
kindergartens, etc. In short, 316 educational in-
stitutions sprang up like mushrooms. They all
bear the name of the Third Internationale, and this
has immense propaganda value.
I shall mention another important step. In the
first place, we have just now been entrusted with
the food campaign. We ourselves offered to carry
on this campaign by means of placards, theatrical
performances, literature, and agitation of a scien-
tific character. We threw our extra-mural and
school forces into the mass of the peasantry, and
have thus helped the Commissariat of Food in its
struggle for the grain quotas. We have achieved a
number of concrete results in this respect. But
one of the most pleasant results is the fact that we
now have textbooks which will be a great help in
the work of training agitators. With the aid of
the Central Committee of the Party a book of 200
lized by LjOOgle
pages was written* set in type, put on the press and
printed — all in eight days. This shows what we
can do if we but will it
One of the brightest aspects of the activity of
the Commissariat of Education was manifested in
the care of art monuments and museums. In par-
ticular, amazing work has been done in the field
of repairing antique buildings. There has been a
large increase in the number of museums. At
present there are 119 provincial museums, as
against 31 of the old regime. Even the museum
experts declare that they are amazed and fascinated
by the eagerness to collect and to preserve an-
tiques which is shown by the mass of the people
of Soviet Russia and by all the organs of the Soviet
power. The Ermitage has been enlarged to one
and a half times its previous size.
Then comes the division of music. The number
of schools has remained the same, but the schools
were reorganized, and the number of students has
increased. About 9,000 persons above the age of
16 are now studying music.
In the theatrical field we have accomplished
great work, but to breathe in new life means to
get a new repertoire. The new theatre will be
created by new dramatists. In this respect the
only thing to do is to write new plays. For the
present we have removed from the theatres the
objectionable elements.
I once asked Comrade Guilbeaux how many
peasant theaters there are in France. In all of
France there are only 113 peasant theaters, while
in the province of Kostrorha alone we have 400
peasants theaters and throughout Russia there are
3,000 peasant theaters.
The entire People's Commissariat of Education,
with its teachers and educators, is at present in-
spired by a strong desire to work, and is on the
right path for this work. Therefore, if the Com-
missariat is given support great activity will be
shown, and I am sure that the work will not be
worse than in any other department. I hope that
this report will mark a turning point. If we
prove that under such difficult conditions the Com-
munists, the Soviet power, does not overlook the
work of education, and that we can even effect im-
portant achievements, I assure you that this will
mean a colossal victory against our enemies and
among our friends. In the field of education we
must therefore display the maximum effort, and
I hope that you will not reject my proposals —
Izvestia, October 5, 1920.
We have just published
THE LABOR LAWS OF SOVIET RUSSIA
New edition of these important laws, translated from
the official Russian text
With a supplement on The Protection of Labor in
Soviet Russia, by S. Kaplun, of the Commissariat
of Labor.
93 pages, bound in heavy paper covers, price 25c.
ADDRESS
SOVIET RUSSIA
110 West 40th Street New York Gty
. s . ...... ^— " =
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
November 27, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
525
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
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XJLT E ARE so poorly informed of the fate of
* * those officers of the old regime who joined
the Red Army that it would be interesting to make
some mention of this matter, especially since I
have just received from Moscow an interesting
pamphlet by Comrade Zinoviev, containing a lec-
ture delivered by him to an assembly of military
specialists, numbering 3,000 officers.
Dealing with the army and the people in general,
Comrade Zinoviev, openly and frankly, expresses
his view to the officers of the late Czarist army
concerning their position as the commanding ele-
ment in a -proletarian army of the workers and
peasants.
With extraordinary sincerity he touches upon
the most delicate question — the morality of those
who, once enemies of the workers, suddenly became
not only their comrades, but even, in many cases,
their commanders, namely, leaders at the most cri-
tical moment of their existence.
Can the army be kept out of politics? asks
Zinoviev, and he gives a positive answer, "no", to
this question. "Many members of the army, many
cultured and well-informed men among the com-
manding officers, are to this day profoundly con-
vinced that the army should stand outside of poli-
tics. The idea has permeated their very flesh and
blood. Nevertheless, there never was a greater mis-
take than this. Never for one instant has any army
stood outside of politics; ever since the existence
of armies founded on the principle of universal
military service, they have been used to serve a
definite political aim; possibly they have not al-
ways been conscious of the fact." As an example,
Comrade Zinoviev calls the attention of his audi-
ence to the years 1848-49, when the army was sent
to* Hungary with a purely political aim, to defeat
the Hungarian Revolution, and the soldier serfs in
those days certainly did not understand the crime
they were committing in killing their brother serfs
who were fighting for their freedom. Did the
Russian soldier understand, during the Russo-Jap-
anese War in 1904-1905, that the war grew out of
a political conflict, and that the Czar and bour-
geoisie deliberately brought about this war? Did
even the officers know the real cause of that war?
"In short," says Zinoviev, "our army in the
Russo-Japanese War carried out a well-defined poli-
tical task; it did not stand outside of politics. And
the moment you turn to our internal conflicts, it
will of course become all the more clear to you
— vividly clear — that our army never for an in-
stant stands or has stood outside of politics." In
order to confirm this fact the lecturer recalls the
punitive military expeditions which were so well-
known throughout the country. "How then?" asks
Zinoviev, "was not this, too, politics? Was the
army then standing outside of politics?"
• Army and the People .The Sorbet Government and the Mili-
tary Officers, by G. Zinoviev, Pctrograd, 1920.
by v^
Touching upon the position of non-partisans in
the Red Army, Comrade Zinoviev says: "It is
possible that in our army, both in the rank and
file and in command, there may be many men who
do not approve of our policy, and would wish to
follow another; nevertheless, we do not hide in the
bushes. Although, from the standpoint of our
immediate interests, it might be of advantage to
say that the army stands outside of politics, this is
just where our government differs from others, in
that it is not guided by momentary interests. Its
policy is dictated entirely in the interests of right
and truth. And were we to say that our army,
stands outside of politics, it would be profound
hypocrisy on our part, and humiliating to the Soviet
power."
"The bourgeoisie never for one second admitted
this honestly," continued Comrade Zinoviev, "but
administered a pill to the ignorant people in order
better to deceive them, as the workers are fooled
by the Non-Partisans. The Non-Partisans do not
say to the worker: 'Go join a bourgeois party %
because they know that no worker will do it. But
they do say to him 'Be of no party', and with that
hook they angle for the people. Just so with the
army."
Recalling the first revolutionary outbreak in Rus-
sia in fa-or of the republic against monarchy, the
lecturer outlined that movement arising from the
officer class. "I refer to the December rising of
ninety-five years ago. We have never forgotten,
nor will ever forget, that side by side with the
reactionary crimes which the officer class has com-
mitted against its own people in the past 91l and ia
committing at present in the White Guard ranks,
stand the names of those great men^who, a hun-
dred years ago, headed the December insurrection.
"Scores of officers perished at the time, many fam-
ilies were ruined, but such names as Pestel, Ryleyev,
Muraviov, Kakhovsky, etc., shine' as stars in a dark
sky. Our people must know that, out of the ranks
of the privileged classes, the wealthy aristocrats
of a hundred years ago, rose a whole constella-
tion of champions, officers, depending on the Peters-
burg regiments, who attempted to overthrow Czar-
ism, and intended to establish a republic. This
attempt failed, the people were too ignorant." Com-
rade Zinoviev gives very interesting information
concerning the division of the officer corps at the
time of the November Revolution. During the
war with Germany, he estimates, the total number
of officers in the Russian Army was half a million.
About one hundred thousand of these officers are
now numbered in the ranks of the Red Army, "and
of these an immense majority are serving in the
Red Army, not from fear, but from conscientious
motives." , He believes that about two hundred
thousand scattered all over Russia, both Soviet Rus-
sia and the portion held by the White Guards,
"are neither one thing nor the other, and are trying
*L
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in every way to escape the civil war, or remain
outside of it all." About two hundred thousand
are serving with the enemies of the Soviets. Com-
rade Zinoviev distributes the officers of the old
regime in several strata. "There are," he states,
"officer landlords, and plain officers. The officer-
landlord defends his privileges; he wants, at any
cost, his thousand dessiatins of land (about 3,000
acres) ; he wants to preserve his orchard, his noble
family, home-nest; the other former officers re-
ceived under the Czar a salary of not quite 100
rubles a month, lived poorly, came from the sphere
of government officials, and, in reality, their inter-
ests were more closely connected with those of the
working population than with those of the land-
owning class."
Comrade Zinoviev does not consider the officers
of the old army as one compact, homogeneous,
black reactionary mass. "There are officers and
officers," declares Zinoviev. The White Finn, Man-
nerheim, for instance, a former Russian officer, or
such as Denikin, Kolchak, Yudenich . . . On the
other hand, "the names of many officers who came
from the people, and who have served the people,
shine forth with great brilliancy; it is enough to
mention Lieutenant Schmidt, or General Nikolayev,
who perished in Yamburg, hanged by the White
Guards. With the rope around his neck, he cried:
'Long live the Red Army! I declare that to my
last breath I have served the workers and peas-
ants.' There are, indeed, there are such individual
examples, such heroes in the ranks of the Red
Army Command. Glory to them!"
Analyzing the psychology of the cficers during
the first stage of the Revolution, Comrade Zinoviev
finds that the officer-class played, on the whole, a
rather inocuous part. "Its attitude was distrustful,
cool, it stood aside," It was the soldiers who
acted in those days, not the officers. This was be-
cause the officer did not believe in revolution, he
waited for events to develop. x
The November Revolution was met by the officers
in a more hostile spirit. The November Revolu-
tion raised the question: to whom should the land
belong, to the gentry or to the peasants? Here
begins the division of the officers into different
strata, and when those who were standing at the
cross-roads fully realized what the present revolu-
tion means, that it is not a big plundering job,
but a great popular movement, not a string of
watchwords, produced from nowhere by some
chance party, but a truly great revolution, then a
great majority joined the workers and peasants.
Touching upon a very important question — the
relation between the officer class and the Soviet
rule, Comrade Zinoviev describes how fiercely the
officers and cadets fought against the revolution
in November, 1917, both in Petrograd and Moscow.
"Still," he says, "on the morrow of our victory, our
Government did not take vengeance, did not have
recourse to repression, but on the contrary, imme-
diately offered all these elements an honorable
peace- — nay more than that, offered them definite
work, a chance to utilize their faculties."
by LiOOglC
Comrade Zinoviev points out as an example
Krasnov, one of the most conspicuous of reaction-
ary generals, who fought the Reds near Petrograd,
was taken prisoner and brought to Smolny, the
headquarters of the Bolsheviki. "I saw him with
my own eyes," says Zinoviev. "Well, not a hair
fell from his head, nor was any insult offered him;
he left Smolny a free man, after pledging his
honor not to fight us any more ..." and did
Krasnov keep his word of honor? He certainly
did not.
The Moscow workers did not even take vengeance
on the cadets who fought against them, but let them
go free, even returning their arms.
From the first moment of the formation of a
Red Army the Soviet Government addressed the
officers in frank and friendly terms, saying to
them: "There is room and an honorable position
for anyone who is willing to support the Work-
ers' and Peasants' regime."
At that time there was no bitterness among the
peasants and workers against the specialists in
general and against the officers in particular, and
if such bitterness exists now, it is due to the de-
plorable events of the civil war, which brought
reprisals among the families of these specialists.
"This may not always be just, but officers should
understand the reason for it," declares Zinoviev.
"In truth, while there are such men as Yudenich,
the organizer of a league of assassins like Bala-
khovich, who after gaining the confidence of the
Red Army, went over to the Whites and sold dis-
tricts of the province of Pskov to the Esthonian
bourgeoisie, men like Kolchak who flogged the
peasants in all the townships and districts, in all
the provinces occupied by him, until their groans
reached Petrograd and Moscow; and as long as
there are such figures as Nekliudov, such an at-
titude is inevitable. I made Nekliudov's acquain-
tance when I was at Krasnaya Gorka, when he
was commandant. When I met him I could easily
account for his being in the Red Army. He was
still a young man, from a fine old family which had
had several liberal members under Alexander II
and Alexander III; he had taken part in the build-
ing of the fort, and it seemed to me that he loved
every stone in it. Under the Czar he was of very
little account, kept down by the old officials, who
were generally distrustful of the ability of young
men, while the Soviet Government placed him in
full control of the fort; he could give full play
to his capacities. It was said that he was a great
specialist, a learned artillerist, very fond of his
work: one would think he had been given a suf-
ficiently wide field of action; he was placed, like
the majority of officers, under comparatively toler-
able material conditions. How r could we expect
treason from him? Yet you know what that man
did! He sold the key of our city! And to whom?
To the Finnish bourgeoisie, which is sitting on a
mound of corpses of Finnish workers, which about
two years ago shot a hundred Russian officers, not
because they were Communists, but simply because
they were Russians."
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"Now, although we were the first to recognize
their independence, the Finns throw bombs into
Kronstadt, fire on our frontier, mock their own
people. And yet a Russian officer, entrusted with
the key of that important place, at a decisive mo-
ment presents it to that same Finnish bourgeoisie.
Nekliudov sent a radio to Bjorko, to the Finnish
authorities and English there, saying to them:
'Krasnaya Gorka is at your disposal. Come and
take possession! 9 "
"Is this not a great ignominy? Is it not the black-
est page in the history of the Russian officer-class?
Why, comrades, had our people even thrice erred,
had they committed the greatest follies, they would
still be our people, our worker and peasant masses.
To go against them with French speculators, Rou-
manian landlords, Finnish White Guards, with Wil-
helm, the Japanese and anybody at all, is that not
the greatest crime? And yet this crime is contin-
ually being committed."
Comrade Zinoviev, dealing with the position of
the commissars in the army, suggests that gentle
measures are best, and recommends to the com-
missars a respect for the dignity of the man "who,
though issued from another sphere of life, of dif-
ferent breeding and education, yet comes to work
with us with a stone in his bosom, and assists with
his knowledge not a party, but the people, Russia
— that Russia which, just now destitute, starving,
crucified, is still our very own, beloved Russia."
I have before me some very curious documents
issued recently by Colonel Nikolaiev, the military
attache of the "Russian Embassy" in the United
States of America.
In connection with the complete collapse of
Baron WrangeFs adventure these documents may
be of considerable interest to the public.
All Russian officers of the Czarist army residing
in the United States received in October, 1920, an
invitation letter signed by Colonel Nikolaiev, the
military attache of the "Russian Embassy" in the
United States, to join the Crimean forces of the Cri-
mean Baron. These letters were accompanied by a
copy of instructions received from Paris and issued
by the chief plenipotentiary (r.iaBHOynOJinOMOMeH-
HLltt ) of the Commander-in-Chief of all Armed
Forces of South Russia, military as well as naval,
dated October 2, 1920, No. 1209, and signed by
Lieutenant-General Miller, the same officer who
succeeded in escaping from the North Russian front
when Archangel was taken by the Red Army in the
beginning of 1920. According to these instructions
the generals are invited by personal call. Lieuten-
ant-Colonels and Colonels — only those not more
than 50 years of age. The officers of lower rank
not more than 43 years of age, and the men of not
more than 38. All persons who wished to join the
Crimean Army were allowed to take their families
with them.
It was stated that those officers and men fit for
military service who refused to go to the Crimea
would be dismissed, and a special order of the day
would announce that they had been retired(?)
Retired from what?
The, most amusing part of these instructions is
item 4, in which Lieutenant-General Miller informs
all Russian officers and men that "in case of the
misconduct of officers he is authorized to degrade
them, even Colonels, to the rank of private, accord*
ing to the decision of a "court of honor" which
would be appointed by General Miller for the pur-
pose. Colonel Nikolaiev is also instructed to sub-
mit to his chief a list of those officers who might
refuse to go to the Crimea.
In his explanation attached to the letter, Colonel
Nikolaiev informs the Russian officers that they
will be allowed a sum of money, equal to third-
class fare when traveling by rail, and to second-
class fare by steamer, as well as 30 French francs
per day on land and 15 francs on the sea. The
terminal points indicated are: Constantinople or
Belgrade (Serbia), where Generals Lukomsky* and
Artamonov are instructed to look after these volun-
teers until their departure for the Crimea.
Such mobilization of a military force is being
conducted openly in the United States by the offi-
cials of a "government" without a country, and
possibly at the expense of good American money,
though it would seem, enough was spent for the
latest adventures of both the old and semi-old
Russian regimes.
We cannot pass by in silence the fact that dur- .
ing the period of the Kolchak-Denikin-Yudenich
invasion of Russia the same Colonel Nikolaiev
issued a series of orders to the Russian officers
residing in this country in which he threatened
them with court-martial and other punishment. In
general the Russian officers of the late regime in
political education are in a state of absolute in-
fancy, and being oppressed economically and mor-
ally by representatives of the so-called "Russian
Government", many of them, against their will,
were forced to join one or another of the Russian
adventurers, finally either to perish or to be taken
prisoner. Now Colonel Nikolaiev is trying to
mobilize the reactionary forces of Russia.
Wrangel has gone from Russia, but his third
"army", represented by Balakhovich, Avalov-Ber-
mondt and others, is still alive, and is cooperating
with the White Ukrainian bands of Petlura; and
this army also needs officers and men.
But in spite of all the efforts of these traitors to
the Russian people, their plans are falling to
pieces one after the other. According to an official
statement of November 15 from Moscow via Lon-
don, the Red Army is "successfully advancing in
the Minsk region", which means that Balakhovich's
advance was checked and the Reds have gained the
initiative. The same official communique informs us
that "in the Proskurov direction, fierce fighting is
proceeding along both sides of the railway on a
front of 33 miles, with the balance in our favor",
while in the Kamenetz-Podolsk direction, "during
* General Lukoms'cy, «?3 we irs infw-med, was dismissed by
irai Buimov was appointed in his place.
Wrangel and Admiral
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the capture of Novo-Uzhitsa on November 14, our
troops reached the River Uzhitsa." This means
that the White Ukrainian bands of Petlura have
been met by the Red Army, and the rumor which
was recently spread about the capture of the town
of Kamenetz-Podolsk may be a fait accompli.
In my former article I foresaw that the liquida-
tion of the Crimean front would not bring peace
to Soviet Russia, and I was right. Just at the
moment of the greatest victory of the Red Army
over Wrangel, the military operation on the west-
ern front has begun to develop. The situation is
aggravated by the fact that the Polish imperialistic
government is being forced by France to back the
Russian and Ukrainian bandits, and this is con-
firmed by one of the most important of WrangePs
captains.
I have just received a copy of Poslednyie Novosti
(of October 30), a reactionary newspaper issued
in Paris, in which General-Makhrov, former Gener-
al Quartermaster of General Brussilov's staff during
the Great War, and later Denikin's and Wrangel's
assistant, published his point of view on the Polish
situation.
Now General Makhrov, appointed by Wrangel as
Commander-in-Chief of all Russian forces in Pol-
and, after his meeting with Pilsudski in Warsaw,
returned to Paris for a short time. This general,
in very definite terms, states that the Polish Govern-
ment is absolutely ready to cooperate with Wran-
gel; that the armies of Balakhovich and General
Peremykin (again a new one!) are well-equipped
and fed and Savinkov has been appointed to or-
ganize their rear (where, in Poland?).*
According to General Mahrov the Poles do not
believe in peace with Soviet Russia, and Pilsudski,
General Mahrov says, had personally assured him
that "the Poles are expecting the establishment
of a democratic Russia with which alone Poland
may be on real friendly terms." This was said
when all Europe believed in Wrangel's victory with
the coming of spring. In the same issue of the
Poslednia Novosti, the "world famous" military ex-
pert, Colonel K. Shumsky, supporting his British
and French colleagues, definitely considered that
the Red Army had lost its Crimean campaign. "Five
armies of the Soviets," he says, "concentrated
against Wrangel are in a deplorable situation."
"The 13th Red Army is completely defeated . . .
the new 6th and 2nd armies lost in their fight along
the left bank of the Dnieper about 13,000 prison-
ers ..." and so on . . . According to Colonel
Shumsky's strategical combinations Baron Wran-
pel's set-back is a skilful manoeuver to annihilate
his enemy entirely! . . . "The situation remains
favorable for Wrangel," continues this military au-
thority. "The Reds certainly will collect their
forces in great number, but history having an-
nulled the formula of Clausewitz,* has brought
forth, especially during the latest period of war, a
new formula of another strategist (?) who is an
• The latest news tells us that three armies of the bandit Pet-
lura were routed, and the Red Army is successfully advancing
in the Minsk direction, namely against Balakhovich. Thii
may turn the Polish imperialists to reason.
enemy of the theory of number. "This strategist''
(I presume that it is Colonel Shumsky himself)
"supposes, and not without reason, that any sound-
minded man would believe that ten sheep are in-
ferior to one lion."
Who are the sheep and who the lion in the mind
of Colonel Shumsky, it is not difficult to under-
stand, but that he is wrong is proved by the fact
that the "lion" instead of being in Moscow is now
in Constantinople. I hope that Colonel Shumsky
will at least agree to this.
Interview with Yoffe
[During the Russian-Polish peace negotiation*
at Riga, a well-known Jewish journalist of War-
saw, Mr. N. Shvalbe, interviewed the chairman
of the Russian-Ukrainian Delegation, Comrade
Adolph Yoffe. The interview was in the form of
written questions, to which Comrade Yoffe gave
written replies, and was published in the Jeirish
daily, "The Day".]
Question: In view of the fact that the
Third Internationale is based on a program of
world social revolution, but that, on the other
hand, the peace between Russia and the border
nations will insure a state of non-interference in
the internal affairs of these nations and will re-
inforce the barrier between Russia and Germany,
— the question arises : how will the Soviet Govern-
ment, after the conclusion of peace with Poland,
be able to pursue a policy that will be in accord
with the revolutionary program of the Third In-
ternationale ?
Answer: The functions of the Soviet Govern-
ment should not be confused with the functions of
the Third Internationale. The Soviet Government
is a state organization and not an executive organ
of the Third Internationale, which directs the
Communist movement and the agitation in the
individual countries. The Soviet Government has
no intention and does not need to plant or spread
Communism in other countries. Communism arise?
and spreads in those countries spontaneously, be-
cause like causes lead everywhere to like effect*.
The causes are these: the ruin entailed by the
war, the organic incapacity of capitalism to estab
lish a real peace, the high cost of living, etc. And
no barrier will be of any use in this regard. Peace
with Poland will not halt this process.
Question : As far as we know the majority of
the Polish Communists expressed firm opposition
against an advance of the Russian army into the
boundaries of Polish territory. How then should
be interpreted the actions of the Red command
which had not confined itself to purely strategical
operations, but attempted to force a Soviet system
• Rightly it should be the formula of Napoleou— the «U* :!
cance of krg"t£| t^Af P
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upon Poland, in contradiction with the principle
of national self-determination?
Answer : The Polish Communists, both in Rus-
sia and in Poland, hold that the emancipation of
the Polish workers from their capitalist yoke must
come through those workers themselves. In ac-
cord with this, Comrade Marchlewski offered a cor-
responding resolution at the last all-Russian con-
gress.
The strategy of the struggle for peace and the
necessity to put an end to the military aggression
of bourgeois Poland demanded that the Soviet
army invade the territory of Poland. The Red
Army was welcomed by the working masses of
Poland as a liberator. The Soviet Government
was defending itself against the Polish attack, and
to make a repetition of the attack impossible it
had to strive not only to repulse the enemy but
also to shatter his forces, if need be on the ter-
ritory of Poland. The organization of the revo-
lutionary rule in Poland was of a provisional char-
acter. There can be no question about forcing a
Soviet system upoii the working masses of Poland,
since in the regions which had been occupied by
the Soviet troops, workers' councils of villages and
cities and organs of Soviet power sprang up spon-
taneously. Workers' councils are not new in Pol-
and. They already have their traditions. The
Soviet army would anyhow have retreated from
Poland after the conclusion of peace. She did not
go into Poland with aggressive designs, as was the
case with the Polish military. The Soviet power
has not for one moment betrayed the principle of
national self-determination.
The Ukrainian Peasants
The peasantry is the weak spot of Soviet
Ukraine. In all the periods of Soviet power in
that country, the greatest difficulties were found
among the Ukrainian peasants, who were largely
under the influence of the rich peasants and the
Makhnovists.* Class differentiation did not appear
at all in the Ukrainian villages, in spite of the
large number of poor peasants.
To obtain a firm foothold among the Ukrainian,
peasants, the Soviet power had, first of all, to win
over the village inhabitants, freeing them from
the influence of the rich peasant elements. It
was absolutely necessary to destroy the mainstay
of banditism and Makhnoism in the Ukrainian
villages.
]i was hard to accomplish anything in this di-
rection by force of arms. At any rate, the methods
of armed struggle alone were insufficient. There
was only one choice left: to carry out in the
Ukrainian villages the experiment with the com-
mittees of the poor peasants, which had produced
good results in its day in Central Russia.
A recapitulation of the progress in the organi-
zation of Committees of Poor Peasants in eight
* Partisans of the Ukrainian leader Makhno who, according
to recent reports from Moscow, has declared his allegiance to
the Strict #» r em anent.
Ukrainian provinces for the period July 1 — Sep-
tember 10, which we have before us, gives
eloquent testimony to the fact that class align-
ment has commenced in the Ukrainian villages,
and has already produced visible results, leading
to the entrenchment of the Soviet power in the
very midst of the Ukrainian peasantry.
The following figures show the number of Com-
mittees of the Poor (on September 10) : in the
province of Kharkov, 945 committees; in the
Donetz province, 1,139; in the Poltava province,
1,280 ; in the provice of Yekaterinoslav, over 200 ;
in the province of Chernigov, 237 ; in the province
of Kiev, 869; in the province of Odessa, 442; in
the province of Nikolaiev, 1,000. The total num-
ber of Committees of the Poor in Ukraine is 6,510.
These data are far from complete, but they are
enough to show the growth of class consciousness
among the poorest Ukrainian peasants. Not only
have committees been formed, but, in many cases,
they carry pn active work to strengthen the Soviet
power. Thus, the above-mentioned report men-
tions, for instance, that in the Kupiansk county
two conferences of the Committees of the Poor
have already been held, accompanied by splendid
revolutionary enthusiasm; the second congress de-
clared itself mobilized as a body for the Wrangel
front. In the Izum county the delivery of grain
for the quota increased under the influence of the
Committees of the Poor. The Committees of the
Poor in the Bogodukhov county give aid to the
families of the Red soldiers, and take part in the
confiscation of the property of the rich peasants.
A large number of congresses of the Committees
of the Poor adopted resolutions showing whole-
hearted support of the Soviet power and determi-
nation to fight the rich peasants. In the Priluki
county the Committees of the Poor are taking the
lands of the rich peasants and are distributing
them among the poor peasants. In the Bogdanov
volost (township) of the Pavlograd county, the
Committees of the Poor divide all the goods that
are received from the city among the poorest
peasants. And so on.
Of course, in many localities, these Committees
of the Poor have to deal with the hostility of the
rich peasants; in some places the extensive bri-
gandage hinders the organization of Committees
of the Poor. There are also cases where the poor
peasants have been terrorized by the rich peasants
and are afraid to form committees. But on the
whole the Committees of the Poor will play an
important part in the work for a class alignment
in the Ukrainian villages, and will create a firm
foundation for Soviet construction in Ukraine. —
Izvcstia, October 2.
You Have Friends
who would subscribe to Soviet Russia if they knew of its
existence. You know best how to get new subscribers
for us. One way is to send us the names of persons
who might like to learn about us. We shall send them
sample copies of Soviet Russia.
SOVIET RUSSIA
110 W. 40th St. Roc it 304 New York. N. Y.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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Russia's Executive Body in Session
[The following is an account of the Third Session of the All-Russian Central Executive Com-
mittee, the highest executive body in Soviet Russia which holds four sessions yearly.]
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On the 23rd of September, the Third Session of
the All-Russian Central Executive Committee
opened in Moscow.
Comrade Chicherin read a report on the interna-
tional position of the Soviet Republic. Dealing in
detail with the course of negotiations with England
and Poland, Comrade Chicherin pointed out that
on the whole, for the last three months, the attitude
of the European empires toward the Soviet Re-
public was one which indicated that the latter
looked upon Soviet Russia as a first rate power.
Comrade Chicherin's report gave rise to lively
discussions as a result of which the All-Russian
Central Executive Committee passed with a major-
ity of votes the resolution regarding the proposal
of peace conditions to Poland.
Second Sitting
Comrade Brukhanov, the Assistant People's Com-
missar for Provisions, read a report regarding the
food situation in Soviet Russia.
Comrade Brukhanov pointed out that the Peo-
ple's Commissariat for Food will be under the ne-
cessity of surmounting great difficulties this year,
in view of the bad harvest in the central provinces.
With regard to the work of the People's Commis-
sariat for Food, Comrade Brukhanov quotes the
following figures:
From October, 1917, to the 1st of August, 1918,
the People's Commissariat for Food prepared 30
million poods of grain. In the period of 1918 to
1919, 110 million poods of grain were obtained.
In 1919 to 1920 the intended levy of grain was pub-
lished to amount to 327 "million poods. The actual
quantity of the grain obtained amounts to 220
and a half million poods. These figures are evi-
dence as to the correctness of the road taken by
the People's Commissariat for Food upon the sec-
ond year of its activity. For the present year the
People's Commissariat for Food intends a levy of
grain for the entire territory of the Republic to
amount to 454 million poods.
In view of the fact that the provinces of Central
Russia suffered a bad harvest the main task of the
People's Commissariat for Food at the present time
is the collection of as great a quantity of grain as
possible in Siberia where for the last five years
great reserves of grain have been accumulated. A
mobilization of harvesting detachments, numbering
20,000 men, has been declared for the purpose of
having this grain ground and despatched to the
center.
At the present time full information regarding
the collection of grain for the month of August
has not yet come to hand for all the provinces.
As regards individual provinces for which informa-
tion is at hand 16,200,000 poods of grain have been
collected for the month of August, while in 1919,
tizedbyt^OOgl
in the same month, 4,000,000 poods only were col-
lected. It must be mentioned by the way that for
the ten days of September, 500,000 poods of grain
have been collected only in the consuming prov-
inces, and the prospects for the future collection
of grain are improving.
In regard to the exchange of goods between town
and country Comrade Brukhanov points out that,
for the last year, we have supplied the country
(the agricultural districts) with 1,000,000 poods
of paraffin, etc., and that for the present year, as
the result of the success of the Red Army, we sup-
plied the said districts with 7,200,000 poods of
such material. Instead of the 3,000,000 poods of
salt with which the agricultural districts have been
supplied for the last year, we shall be able to give
from four and a half to five million poods of salt.
This indicates that the least improvement of our
resources of goods is utilized by the People's Com-
missariat for Food in the first place in the inter-
ests of the agricultural districts.
In regard to the distribution of food products
we have abandoned the former principle of equal
distribution of products amongst the entire work-
ing population in favor of the complete supply in
the first place of the group of workers whose activ-
ity is of the utmost importance in connection with
our general plan of production. This has been
carried out in complete contact with the trade union
organizations. One of the first groups in question
is our Red Army and the military and transport
workers. The second group is represented by a
number of other factories of serious State import,
the third group is represented by other factories
and works that are also supplied with a guaran-
teed ration. The first pioneer group was supplied
fully 100 per cent, the second group up to 80 per
cent, and the third group up to 50 to 60 per cent.
In conclusion, Comrade Brukhanov once more
dwells on the difficulties with which the work of the
Commissariat for the present year is faced. He
says that thanks to the method of collection, and
under the tension of all forces, the Commissariat
for Food expects to be able to cope with its ques-
tions and to attain better results than last year.
Third Sitting
The Third Sitting of the Session of the All-
Russian Central Executive Committee was devoted
to the question of public education.
Comrade Lunacharsky described the work of the
People's Commissariat for Education in a long
and detailed report.*
After lengthy discussions the All-Russian Cen-
tral Executive Committee passed the resolution pro-
posed by Comrade Lunacharsky.
• We printGtatqtftdl ifr&Hliii this issue of Sovirr Ruwa.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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Mrs. Snowden in Russia
Upon the immense and wide river, between ver-
dant islands, long files of barges charged with wood
and cereals, tankboats carrying precious oil, our
boat the Belinsky sails smoothly and lightly. The
freshness of the water tempers the unbearable heat.
From time to time we can see on the bank the
humped back of a slow and clumsy camel.
On the deck, full of ecstasy and langor, there is
the figure of a woman in a tight-fitting blouse of
green. The lips painted violent red a*nd the face
disguised under a heavy layer of powder. When,
now and then, the active energetic Comrade Sverd-
lov, the acting Commissar of Means of Communi-
cation, appears above, she affects smiles and
twitches, and loses herself in pathetic and mono-
syllabic eulogies. When the heat grows heavier
and the ices are served at the instance of Comrade
Sverdlov, who, in spite of the formidable task im-
posed upon him by his high position and his im-
portant mission, does not forget for an instant to
minister to the slightest needs of his British guests,
Mrs. Snowden, calling him by name, falls into
something like a fit, crying languidly, "Oh, tha~V
you Mr. Sverdlov." When she deems insufficu
for the stomach of an idealist the copious rep* -
served her, she asks for eggs and for fish, and h ;
wishes are realized immediately. When she coi
plains of the mosquitos importuning her fine coil
tenance, the windows are immediately shut and a
white nluslin of close texture is spread over the
window of her cabin so as to protect efficaciously
the representative of the British proletariat against
the invasion of insects. When the boat draws up
alongside some landing-stage Mrs. Snowden, fati-
gued by her long and tiresome voyage, graciously
permits herself to be driven in a carriage or motor-
car uttering fussy and interminable thanks.
However, when remaining alone with her col-
leagues of the Trade Union Delegation, she ex-
presses freely and without any moderation her
opinions: Russia is a "dirty' 9 country and the
Russians are a "dirty" people. And she never goes
to bed before having prayed to the God of her
fathers to save her from all dirt and inflictions
heaped upon revolutionary Russia.
Thus Mrs. Snowden, who so admirably repre-
sented during the war five o'clock pacifism, ad-
heres now to five o'clock Socialism. She came to
Russia to bring the greeting and the encourage-
ment of the British workers, and to study the new
creations of Soviet Russia. She had come to Rus-
sia with the mind of a middle-class woman who
condescends to pity the masses of workers and
peasants; with the soul of an insular puritan con-
vinced in advance that Russia is inhabited by a
people of barbarians; with manners of a sea-side
lady who has only one quality strongly ingrained
in her, namely hypocrisy.
Oh, gentle lady and pacifist, you are at liberty
to express any opinion you like upon Russia, upon
the Revolution, upon the Soviets, upon Commun-
ists, but do take off your mask, — I do not mean the
paints and the powders of which you make ample
use, but your hypocrisy. I very much doubt that
the English workers will have, later on, that pa-
tience and benevolent indulgence, which you have
shown during your sojourn in Russia to the
representatives of a great people, who whatever you
may do, think or speak, will rid the world of the
parasitic elements which insinuate themselves into
the labor movement in order to corrupt it.
Henry Guilbeaux.
Russian Press Review, October 15, 1920.
BUYING GERMAN LOCOMOTIVES
Berlin, October 22. — As is reported in the
Chemnitz Allgemeine Zeitung from Essen, the con-
clusion of a big contract between Soviet Russia and
the German Government — a contract that will be
very important for the developmer ^ German
economy — is rapidly approaching,
the contract is the ordering of Rus >.■••
in Germany, which was ir»f»r* ? '.-«
'^ct of
i. i
'. ! 1 c ■
♦.•>■ • til :;*<• -f-.ij' 0v/
,! . •-, Aiv>*cver, m >'J'.' :
that it is not actually tr
until the Russo-Polish cov . i
The contracts have b"-i
and are now only awai f r t..
moneys have already ! ■ -i •.
banks, which will op < v
ernment for purchr ..t
terials.
The execution r t: >
be carried *mt i .>! o*'
1 y Liv. provision
:• J as final
!.• disposed of.
<; .' in all details
J n . The Russian
i «i in two foreign
J \e German Gov-
t's and raw ma-
firms, conM
ard Hartir
(Muncher
sel).
The pr- r
orders wi;
undertake
They w*
ment, *■
Societ'
tempt
the mil
of fine
ficultit
motiv*
taken \
i Russian order will
* German industrial
^ng concerns: Rich-
jrsig (Berlin), Maffei
and Hentschel (Kas-
great
sia n
nego
cont .
of
sigr
ma' ■•
r the placing of Russian
r locomotive industry were
vne beginning of this year,
id by the Russian Govern-
ed the German Locomotive
jr, on its part, made an at-
German concerns engaged in
ocomotives. As the difficulty
/as increasing — and these dif-
\. i-K particularly felt in the loco-
ce many outside factories have
jfacture of locomotives — these
v • : emed about to come from Rus-
■ ■ : < •■ med considerable interest. The
had been begun in Berlin, were
. ^ holm, and we learned from one
ir;. •'.-..« sts in the negotiations that the
delivery contracts is probably a
«'• it immediate future.
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of
the Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well
as by friends and supporters of Soviet Russia.
Full responsibility is assumed by the Bureau only
for unsigned articles. Manuscripts are not soli-
cited; if sent in, their return is not promised.
"DOURGEOIS critics may speak with disdain of
-*-* the "brutal" doctrine of Marxism in matters of
revolution or class struggle, they may deny the
proletarian philosophy that underlies the Soviet
Russian Government as a teaching that is based
on brute foroe and has an eye only to "the main
chance", but they will have to look very care-
fully through the acts of the proletarian state,
either in Russia or in the past experiments else-
where, before they find anything to parallel the
sordid snatchings at momentary alterations in the
...iEtemflli/ii&i 1 oil uation that are displayed even by
such powerful and firmly established capitalist
governments as I 'hat of Great Britain. It will be
remembered that l*ast July the Soviet Government's
representatives in JLondon were waiting to sign an
agreement with th<* Government of Great Britain
on the subject of th e opening of foreign trade be-
tween the two count ries. But it will also be re-
called that the rout oi ? the Polish troops before the
advancing Red Army was halted by military aid
suddenly thrust in, in the form of French colored
colonial troops who had been withdrawn from
their kindly offices in Germany, and that the Bri-
tish Government, which had been moved by the
breakdown of the Polish buffer-state to begin to con-
sider very favorably the pea^e offers of the Russian
Soviet Government, thereupon immediately took a
more haughty stand and the negotiations according-
ly came to a stop. Threats aga: : n began to be heard
to "deport" from England the representatives of
the Russian Socialist Federal Sc viet Republic, and
things really did begin to look at* if once more the
great gulf separating the Russian and British peo-
ples had widened, to the great disadvantage of both
sides.
Now again the situation of counter-revolution is
poor. Wrangel has been driven into the sea, Bala-
khovich and Petlura are moving off the map, and
the sending of League of Nations troops into Lithu-
ania to supervise the Vilna plebiscite cannot im-
mediately threaten to result in the formation of a
new anti-Soviet front, in spite of the 1. ct that this
may be the intention of the sending of ^he troops.
And the alteration in the attitude of Great Britain is
not sjow to follow the changed situation; if the
Soviet Government is going to be victorious, why
not make sure that the negotiations will at least
move fast enough to anticipate any other similar
transactions of the Soviet Government with other
powers? The New York Times of November 18
is accordingly constrained to print the following
news item:
London, November 18. — Premier Lloyd George stated
in the House of Commons today that the Cabinet had
decided that a draft of an agreement to carry out the July
arrangements for trade with Russia should be prepared
for submission to the Russian Government in a few days.
The Premier said the agreement would not be entered
into until Great Britain was satisfied that the undertaking
given by the Soviet Government regarding the release of
British prisoners was being carried out.
An authorized statement has been issued denying that
the British Government contemplates evacuating General
Wrangel's forces or stores. The statement says the Bri-
tish ships have been engaged solely in removing British
subjects from the Crimea and a small party of Russian
children from a hospital at Sebastopol.
It is also denied that Great Britain had any intention
of seizing Batum or other ports on the Black Sea.
Now that the Soviet Government is about to con-
trol the Black Sea, of course the innocent British
Government disclaims every intention of every kind
of aggression in those regions. Meanwhile, how-
ever, it would be unfortunate if Great Britain should
allow Italy to open trade with Soviet Russia, and
accordingly an occasional Italian ship, laden with
goods for that country, is seized by British cruisers
in the Black Sea, and held until Great Britain's
own ships may succeed in getting some sort of
priority in this trade. And when an American suc-
ceeds in making a serious commercial arrangement
with the Soviet Government, there is at least one
government in the world — namely, that of Downing
Street — which is eager to find out what he has
really done and to communicate the information to
its great merchant class. As Mr. Washington D.
Vanderlip, who has a contract with the Soviet
Government in his pocket, is now in London, why
shouldn't the American Embassy be notified that
"he will be closely questioned by the Intelligence
Department of Scotland Yard if the present plans
of the police are carried out?"
"The interrogation will not necessarily be made with
the view of taking action against Mr. Vanderlip's presence
in England, it was stated, but with the intention of as-
certaining exactly what his activities had been in Russia in
view of the many conflicting reports published in London.
Such interrogation, it was pointed out, would be in con-
formity with the recently adopted attitude of the British
Government of discouraging travel between Russia and
England.
"W. D. Vanderlip was in Stockholm up to a few days
ago. He recently returned from Moscow and gave out a
statement, asserting that he had secured a concession for
400,000 square miles of land in Siberia, including Kam-
chatka, for a syndicate of Americans." — New York Times,
November 19, 1920.
It is not the first time that the British Govern-
ment has violated the principle of the secrecy of
business privilege, which is one of the rocks on
which the capitalist system is founded.
* * *
•YffHO was it that wanted Wrangel to Win? Even
counter-revolutionist in the world, of course.
But, more specifically, a corporation which Mr.
Walter Duranty calls (Special Cable, /Veil? York
Times, No. 16) 'The Russo-French Society of Ex-
ploitation of Scutri Russia and Crimea*, while
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Mr. Jerome Landfield, of the "Russian-American
Chamber of Commerce" (letter to New York
Times, issue of Nov. 17), calls it "The Russo-
French Society for Commerce, Industry and Trans-
portation." The name doesn't matter. The object
does, and Mr. Duranty says this about the object:
"Now that Wrangel's effort has failed, it will do no
harm to tell the real genesis of the Crimean movement.
Wrangel was not a supporter of the old regime nor, at
he outset any way, did he intend unlimited action against
le Bolsheviki. He was associated with a powerful busi-
i *s organization with headquarters in Paris, in palatial
. ices in the Avenue Marceau.
This company, called the Russo-French Society of Exh
itation of South Russia and Crimea, was formed at the
. -nning of the year with a capital of 12,000,000 francs
i group of Franco-Russian financiers and industrials,
horn Mr. Kamenka of the Banque du Nord was the
prominent. They included the principal shareholders
* iron mines of Krivoirog, southwest of Yekaterino-
nd of Russia's most valuable collieries in the Donetz
« southea? *>f Kharkov.
comp*
and
he*
ight in France very large stocks of
f -*r Wrangel's army, intending to
the sale of grain and other
Later, they hoped to continue
,; . .-.. A iron and coal. They actually
\ie shiploads to Marseilles, which
.. •(-. ; c
:"■■;»; jy called the tune and insisted that
ernment be established in the area
' K In accordance with their policy, his
ed toward Yekaterinoslav and further
; i ion of the Donetz Basin. Unfortunately
,ss to control the reactionaries from Con-
cted by their general's successes."
.0 above is uninteresting, and the in-
the French corporation on democratic
:ven delightful.
\ * s : H. G. WELLS is writing a series of articles
~ ' on present conditions in Russia, which is
>■;, aring in the Sunday issues of the New York
*es. On the whole Mr. Wells, in the first two
.icles — we have not read the third article, dealing
ith Communism proper — is fair, sensible, and in
places even flattering in speaking of the accom-
plishments of the Soviet Government. It is grati-
fying to behold the sensitive Mr. Wells — who only
two years ago wrote a very scurrilous note (with
pen and ink illustration) to Mr. Upton Sinclair
on the subject of Nikolai Lenin (and Mr. Sinclair
reprinted the note in facsimile in Sinclair's Maga-
zine) — now admitting that while there is much
discomfort and even misery in Russia, it was
brought about not by the Soviet regime, but by the
Czarist order which preceded the November Revo-
lution. From the Wells who wrote the sensational
short stories on popular science topics in the 80's
and 9(Ts, and the romantic and semi-social novels
of the first decade of the new century, and the
wild war-culture-and-reconciliation stuff of the sec-
ond decade, we had hardly expected the relatively
objective and sober statements he now writes about
Russia. But Mr. Wells, whose eye is splendidly
trained for seeing everything that is on the surface,
could not help observing that after all, in spite of
all the denunciation that he has read against the
Bolsheviki and the Soviet Government, there is
nevertheless a "group of salvage establishments",
for the nursing of those scholarly persons that were
once shining lights in Russian science and letters,
and that one of these "salvage establishments" is
the "House of Science in St. Petersburg, in the
ancient Palace of the Archduchess Marie Pavlova",
while "parallel with the House of Science is the
House of Literature and Art", which is a refuge
for literary men and other artists, whom the Soviet
State desires to keep alive and healthy. Particu-
larly decent is Mr. Wells' comment on the activity
of some of the writers in the House of Literature
and Art in connection with the new project of pub-
lishing a complete W eltliteratur for the masses in
% the Russian language:
"Writing of new books, except for some poetry, and
painting of pictures have ceased in Russia, but the bulk
of the writers and artists have found employment upon
the grandiose scheme for the publication of a sort of
Russian encyclopedia of literature of the world.
"In this strange Russia of conflict, cold, famine and piti-
ful privations, there is actually going on now a literary
task that would be inconceivable in the rich England and
the rich America of today. In England and America the
production of good literature at popular prices has prac-
tically ceased now. Because of the price of paper the
mental food of the English and American masses dwindles
and deteriorates, and nobody in authority cares a rap. The
Bolshevist Government is at least a shade above that level
In starving Russia hundreds of people are working upon
translations, and the books they translate are being set
up and printed — work which may presently give the new
Russia such a knowledge of world thought as no other
people will possess. I have seen some of the books. Of the
work going on I may write with no certainty, because,
like everything else in the ruined country, this creative
work is essentially improvised and fragmentary."
So much we must quote from Mr. Wells, to show
how fair and reasonable he can be when you bring
him face to face with an actual institution, an
actual accomplishment. A "House of Science", or
a "House of Literature and Art'Y or a "Library of
World Literature" — these ar«3 tangible things, things
Mr. Wells can understand; has he not himself been
for years outlining just *uch projects as these in
his Modern Utopia, his In che Days of ike Com,et,
his Mankind in the Making, his Research Magnif-
icent, his New Worlds for Old?
But Mr. Wells is not unaware that while it was
suffering and hardship that forced the Russian peo-
ple to accept the leadership of the Bolsheviki and
the establishment of the Soviet Government, those
being inevitable steps in rescuing them from such
suffering and hardship — they are still accepting
suffering and hardship, cold, hunger and hostile
bullets for other reasons than in order to establish
institutions so admirably adapted to preserving the
lives of noted scientists and artists that they draw
acclaiming voices from all who visit Russia! The
Russian people, and their most class-conscious lead-
ers, the Russian proletariat, accept all this misery
because they are building a future society, because
they know that out of their present terrible con-
dition there will grow a system that will far out-
shine all past systems in the accomplishments of
peace, intellect, and good will. It is here that Mr.
Wells fails to unde^ar:d— fr is here that he most
lament »/*ifTOfk^.^ te hiM again:
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'In regard to the intellectual life of the community, one
discovers that Marxist communism is without plans and
without ideas. Marxist communism has always been a
theory of revolution, a theory not merely lacking creative
and constructive ideas, but hostile to creative and con-
structive ideas. Every Communist orator has been trained
to condemn utopianism; that is to say, has been trained
to condemn intelligent planning. Not even the British
business man of the older type is quite such a believer in
things righting themselves and in muddling through as
these Marxists. The Russian Communist Government now
finds itself face to face, among a multiplicity of other
constructive problems, with the problem of sustaining sci-
entific life, of sustaining thought and discussion, of pro-
moting artistic creation. Marx, the prophet, and his sacred
book supply it with no lead at all in the matter. Bol-
shevism, having no schemes, must improvise, therefore,
clumsily, and is reduced to these pathetic attempts to sal-
vage the wreckage of the intellectual life of the old orders
and that life is very sick and unhappy and seems likely to
die on its hands."
We have already suggested the reason for Mr.
Wells' mistake: he is essentially an artist for the
idle and superficial — we admit that we have en-
joyed much of his past work — and hates the burden
of hard study that must b«» borne by one who would
really understand the Russian Communist, the
Soviet Government, and their Marxian postulates.
In a quick trip through Russia, his swift and
eager eyes pass searchingly over all his physical
surroundings: he registers rather faithtfully his
impressions of a great and varied panorama, much
as he described the American surface in The Future
in America (1906) . But his view of history is still
a vulgar and childish one; he writes An Outline
of History (1920) not as Marx or Mehring would
have written it, but in a series of fascinating and
personal, but detached and unconvincing sketches,
much in the manner of August Strindberg's His-
torical Miniatures. Like Strindberg, he is still
a slave of the "great man" and "great epoch"
theory of history.
How can Mr. Wells therefore know anything
about the real nature of the preparations in pro-
gress toward a Communist society in Russia? He
really thinks it true that "Marxist Communism has
always been a theory of revolution, a theory not
merely lacking in creative and constructive ideas,
but hostile to creative and constructive ideas." Marx
is not well described, nor would his disciples
Lenin, Trotsky, Lozovsky, Radek, be well described
by this characterization. There are many persons
who have read enough of Marx to know what an
inclusive and exhaustive system of philosophy he
devised, and how perfectly he drew not only the
picture of bourgeois society, but of the forces that
would bring about a change. And those persons
also know what prodigies of energy Marx was
accustomed to expend in planning the political or-
ganization and the political acts that would be
necessary to accomplish the transformation. Lenin
also cannot be said to be exactly a planless or
thoughtless person. In fact, the very uppermost
impression in our reading of every new article that
appears from the pens of persons who have really
studied Russian conditions is that planning and
building for the future have become the absorbing
occupation of every official and unofficial body in
Russia. Let the reader turn back over the pages
of his file of Soviet Russia, let us say through
the eight instalments of Dr. Alfons Goldschmidfs
Moscow in 1920, and let him there note what Dr.
Goidschmidt has to say on Krzyzanowski, on Stun-
kel, on Landa, and on other prominent organizers
in Soviet Russia. These are men who live in the
future. Their present privations and miseries are
such that only their firm intellectual faith in the
future of their country and of the world could
keep them up in the face of constant imperfection
and disappointment.
And — leaving the leaders for the present — the
Russian people themselves, who have accepted a
program more sanely idealistic than any ever fol-
lowed before by so great a number: are they plan-
ning and working for the future, or are they merely
living in the present? Who built the waterways
that linked the Caspian Sea with the Black Sea and
the Baltic? Who outlined, discussed and promul-
gated the great "Code of Labor Laws" that lays th*~
basis for a society of working men and women:
Who, willingly accept starvation and want for th*
adult workers, in order that the children may be
fed and a generation of real men and women ma*y
be made possible? Who willingly, nay enthusi-
astically, devote extra days and hours of toil to th,* e
tasks of sanitary and industrial reconstruction?
Who is it that, after his day of toil is over, imparts
instruction in reading and writing to two persor^
not possessing this ability? This is the duty of
every literate worker in Soviet Russia. And let u*
not ask who it is that flocks to join the proletariat
hosts that are crushing the counter-revolution, with-
in and without, so that the future may live and not
die. Mr. Wells sees some things, but it takes big-
ger to men to see others. One of the distinguish-
ing marks of real genius is the power of seeing
forces rathen than phenomena.
• ♦ »
X-J EDDA GABLER loved a warm nook and took
A A a safe and sane provider, but her recognition
and affection for real genius proved her undoing
in spite of her. Dear old George Tesman was a
ticketed and certificated scholar, who was quite
an authority on the domestic industries of Brabant
in the Middle Ages; and he was able to support a
wife. His interest in life was in its past. But
while Ejlert Lovborg was a scamp and profligate,
he was interested both in the past and in the future.
Only one of the two volumes of Ejlert's "History of
Civilization" dealt with the past; Volume Two was
to be the History of Civilization in the Future. No
wonder Hedda was interested. The men who made
the Russian Revolution, and their great predeces
sors who outlined its theory before it came, ar
contributors to the Second Volume. Mr. Well
belongs to Volume One, no matter how bulky hi
Outline of History may be. And yet Mr. Wei
was once an assiduous recorder of much of tl
merely physical environment in which the men ai
women of the iuture seemed destined to live!
"IVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
November 27, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
535
Four Notes to the British Government
The Russian Trade Delegation has issued the text of four notes sent by Krassin to Lord
Curzon of Kedleston, protesting against British acts of hostility toward the Russian Soviet Govern-
ment. The text of the notes is as follows :
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128 New Bond Street, London, W.I.
October 19, 1920.
Mr. Krassin presents his compliments to Lord
Curzon of Kedleston, and begs to inform him that
he is instructed by his Government to acknowledge
receipt in Moscow, of the British Notes No. 256,
of the 26th of September, and No. 266, of the 2nd
of October.
The Russian Government can only express its
deep regret and surprise at hearing that orders
have been issued to British warships to attack at
sight, and without warning, submarines of the Rus-
sian Soviet Republic in the Black Sea and the
Baltic.
In the first place, it is not quite clear what are
the legal grounds upon which the British Govern-
ment thinks to justify such an extreme measure.
The reference in the note of the 26th of September
to the declaration alleged to have been made by
prominent Soviet representatives to the effect that
the Russian Government considers Russia to be at
war with Great Britain, is evidently based upon
some misunderstanding. The Russian Government
has never declared war on Great Britain, and it is
unaware of any declarations made by responsible
representatives to the effect that Russia is at pres-
ent at war with Great Britain. On the contrary,
the Russian Government persistently continues to
make offers to Great Britain for the conclusion of
a stable and lasting peace, and stringent orders
have been given to all warships of the Russian
Republic, including submarines, in no circum-
stances to take any hostile action towards ships
flying the British Flag. Such orders as those is-
sued to the British Fleet cannot, therefore, be jus-
tified on the ground that a state of war exists be-
tween Russia and Great Britain.
The Russian Republic has the right enjoyed by
every sovereign state to employ for the defence
of its frontiers and shores all available means
introduced by the development of the technique
of modern warfare. It was not the government
of the workers and peasants of Russia who intro-
duced the submarine into the navies of the world.
Submarines, like all other weapons of mutual de-
struction of mankind, are indispensable instru-
ments of a capitalistic state of society. Only by
the aggressive policy of capitalist governments has
the Russian Soviet Government been forced to re-
sort to employ all the weapons at its disposal, in
order to protect its independence against foreign
attacks. But if the British Government were to
take the initiative towards securing a general agree-
ment of all the capitalist governments, not to use
such inhuman weapons of warfare as submarines,
aeroplanes, poison gases, etc., the Russian Soviet
Government would support such an initiative. If
such an undertaking were reached, the Russian
Government would join the other governments in
prohibiting the use of such weapons of warfare
in its armies and in its navy.
The threats to attack at sight and without warn-
ing the submarines of the Russian Government are
in contradiction to the peaceful declarations re-
peatedly made by the British Government, and are
evidently not conducive to bringing about the gen-
eral peace so ardently longed for by the whole of
Europe. They may lead to grave misunderstand-
ing and to untoward events, as in the open sea it
is not very easy to discern the nationality of a
submarine. No doubt the British Government
would be very much concerned if a sudden attack
by British warships were to result in the sinking
of submarines belonging to General Wrangel, to
France, or to some neutral power having submar-
ines, for instance, in the Baltic.
In view of the peace which has now been con-
cluded by the Russian Government with all the
border states and with Finland, and of the armis-
tice signed with Poland, the war operations of
the Russian submarines will be limited in the
Black Sea only against the ships of General Wran-
gel and against any ships of his allies which may
participate directly in any hostile action against
Soviet Russia.
No doubt the British Government is aware that
in the Black Sea the armies and ships of General
Wrangel, openly supported by France, are attack-
ing Soviet Russia. The Russian Government would
esteem it a great favor if the British Government
would inform it whether the British Navy received
orders also to attack without warning all sub-
marines sighted in the Black Sea, which General
Wrangel or France sent against the ships of the
Russian Government or against ports and inhabited
places along the Black and Azov Seas.
In the Baltic, Russian submarines constitute no
menace whatever and put to sea, not for operations
of war, but for the ordinary instruction and other
peacetime work which every navy carries on.
The Russian Government considers that the best
means of preventing any naval conflicts whatever
in the Black Sea and in the Baltic would be the
removal from those seas of warships of all nations
who have no possessions along the respective
shores.
The Russian Government expects, therefore, that
the British Government will withdraw its orders
given to the British Navy, to attack Russian Gov-
ernment submarines.
Lord Curzon of Kedleston,
10 Down*, SgWWIlllCHIGffl
536
SOVIET RUSSIA
November 27, 1920
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II
October 28, 1920.
Mr. Krassin presents his compliments to Lord
Curzon of Kedleston and begs to place before him
the following matter.
Information has been received by the Russian
Government that the Italian merchantman Ancona,
bound for the Russian port of Novorossiysk with
merchandise, was stopped at sea by British war-
ships, and taken to Batum.
On October 21 the Ancona left Batum, but was
overtaken by British warships, fired upon, and
compelled to return to Batum, where she now lies
under the guard of British destroyers.
Mr. Krassin feels that it is scarcely necessary
to point out to Lord Curzon that, if this informa-
tion is correct, the commanders of the warships
concerned have been guilty of an illegal and high-
handed act, directed both against the Russian Re-
public and against the Kingdom of Italy.
The Russian Soviet Republic has never declared
war on Great Britain; no blockade of the Russian
Black Sea ports has been proclaimed; indeed, re-
sponsible British ministers have explicitly and
publicly stated that no blockade exists.
There can, therefore, be no justification whatever
for any interference by British warships with a
merchant vessel of a friendly nation bound upon
lawful occasion to a Russian port.
Mr. Krassin therefore requests Lord Curzon to
institute immediate inquiry into the circumstances,
and to communicate to him as soon as possible the
British Government's version and the explanation
of the facts.
Mr. Krassin feels sure that, if the information
given to the Russian Government is confirmed, the
British Government will at once order the release
of the Ancona, will express its regret for the action
of its subordinates, and will give to the command-
ers of its warships instructions that will prevent
any such incident occurring in the future.
Lord Curzon of Kedleston,
10 Downing Street, S.W.I.
Ill
October 28, 1920.
Mr. Krassin presents his compliments to Lord
Curzon of Kedleston, and begs to draw his atten-
tion to the conditions now obtaining on the western
frontiers of the Russian and Ukrainian Soviet Re-
publics.
Treaties of peace have been signed with the
Republics of Finland, Esthonia, and Lithuania. An
armistice, preparatory to peace, has been signed
with the Republic of Poland. The Governments
of the Russian and Ukrainian Republics had hoped,
by the signature of these treaties and of this armis-
tice, to bring to an end the war that has devastated
their borders for over six years, and to secure
peace for all the peoples of these countries.
Unhappily that hope has not been realized. War
has ceased between the established governments,
but a state of war still prevails. In White Russia
and in Western Ukraine, armed marauding forces,
subject to no government, are still engaged in hos-
tile actions against the citizens of the two Soviet
Republics. These forces, commanded by Bala-
khovich and Petlura, are equipped and munitioned
with supplies provided by the Entente Powers
through Poland; and those Powers are, therefore,
to no small extent, responsible for the prolongation
of suffering and bloodshed caused by their oper-
ations.
The Governments of the Russian and Ukrainian
Republics will take all necessary measures to free
their countries from these disturbers of the peace,
and to put an end finally to their lawless depre-
dations.
The Russian Government, therefore, trusts that
in this task of restoring peace and of defending
its citizens and territories against lawless aggres-
sion, it will be subjected to no interference, direct
or indirect, by the British Government or its allies.
It would be glad to receive assurances that the
British Government will in no way give aid or
countenance, material or moral, to the acts of Pet-
lura or Balakhovich, of their associate Savinkov,
or of any others who may cooperate with them.
Only by the destruction, disbandment or surrender
of the forces of these marauders can peace be re-
stored; and the Russian Government asks assurance
that the British Government* will in no way inter-
vene to relieve them from the consequences they
have deliberately challenged, or to hinder the com-
pletion of the establishment of peace and order.
IV
October 30. — In the course of negotiations with
the British Government regarding the release of
prisoners at Baku, the Soviet Government always
called the attention of the British Government to
the fact that Azerbaijan is an independent State
whose actions cannot be determined by the Russian
Soviet Government.
Your Note of October 28 still fails to recognize
this fact. However, the Soviet Government earnest-
ly urged the Government of Azerbaijan to meet
the wishes of the British Government in regard to
Baku prisoners, and now again in view of your
complaint of delay, is renewing its representations
at Baku trusting to reach a favorable result.
Your allegation of our non-compliance with the
agreement is rather misplaced, in view of the fact
that, regardless of altogether unnecessary delay
on the part of the British Government in the mat-
ter of the repatriation of Babushkin and his party,
the British Siberian Mission, Britishers sentenced
to prison for grave offences, and many British
civilians are being delivered today to representa-
tives of the British Mission in Finland at the Fin-
nish border. Other Britishers will be rapidlv
brought to the same border.
Steps have been taken to meet transport an-
nounced by you as bringing Russian prisoners from
Egypt and Constantinople to Odessa, and the Azer-
baijan Government has been informed of our ur-
gent wish to have the release of the British prison-
ers in Baku and their delivery to the British rep-
resentative to synchronise with the arrival outside
Odessa of the British transport.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
(L>
November 27, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
537
u
Nationalization of Women 5 '
By Leon Trotsky
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[The tale of the nationalization of women has now been circulating in newspapers hostile to
Soviet Russia for several years. It is difficult to see how any intelligent person can believe such
absurd lies 9 yet it is interesting to look into their origin. The matter becomes still more interesting
when we recall that vile misrepresentations are received by Kautsky with enthusiasm and that he
gives them space in his "theoretical" works on Soviet Russia. In his book "Against Kautsky", Trot-
sky, Commissar for War in the Soviet Republic, has the following interesting exposure of the false-
hood of the nationalization story.]
T N ORDER to give the men and women who are
**■ his pious adherents a proper conception of the
moral level of the Russian proletariat, Kautsky
quotes the following order on page 116 of his
book* which is allegedly issued by the Workers'
Soviet of Murtsilovka:
"The Soviet herewith gives Comrade Gregory Sarayev
the power, according to his own orders, to commandeer
for the use of the artillery division garrisoned at Murtsi-
lovka, district of Briansk, 60 women and girls of the class
of the bourgeoisie and speculators, and to* assign them
to the barracks. September 16, 1918.*' (Originally pub-
lished by Dr. Nathaniel Wintch-Maleyev, "What Are the
Bolsheviki Doing", Lausanne, 1919, page 10.)
Although I have not the slightest doubt that this
document was a forged one, and that the whole
story was a lie from start to finish, I nevertheless
had an investigation made of every phase of this
matter, in order to learn what facts and episodes
were at the bottom of this invention. A carefully
conducted investigation gives the following results:
1. In the district of Briansk there is no place
named Murtsilovka. Nor is there any such place
in the neighboring districts. The name most simi-
lar to it is that of the village of Muravievka, in
the district of Briansk. But there never was an
artillery division in that place, nor did anything
happen there that could be connected in any way
with the "document" quoted above.
2. I also tried to trace this matter by following
up the various artillery divisions. We have not
succeeded in finding anywhere even an indirect
indication of any event that has the slightest simi-
larity, to that indicated by Kautsky, from the source
which inspired him.
3. Finally, my investigation also went into the
question as to whether there might not be rumors of
such an event circulating in Muravievka. Abso-
lutely no information could be obtained of any
such rumors. And this should not surprise us.
The whole contents of the forgery are in gross
contradiction with the morals and the public opin-
ion of the leading workers and peasants, who con-
trol the Soviets, even in the most backward regions.
This proves that the document is a forgery of
the basest sort, capable of being circulated only
by the most malicious sycophants of the yellowest
journals.
At the time when the investigation referred to was
going on, Comrade Zinoviev sent me an issue of a
Swedish newspaper (Svenska Dagbladet) dated
November 9, 1919, in which the facsimile of an
order was reproduced, which ran as follows:
ORDER
"The bearer, Comrade Karasseyev, is granted the right
to socialize . . . (number effaced) girjs, aged 16 to 36,
in the city of Yekatrinod . . . (obliterated), to be de-
signated by Comrade Karasseyev. Signed — Commander-
in-Chief Ivashchev."
This document is even more stupid and insolent
than that quoted by Kautsky. The city of Yekat-
erinodar (in the center' of the Kuban region) was
in the hands of the Soviet troops for only a short
time.* The author of the forgery, who is abso-
lutely not at all versed in revolutionary chron-
ology, took the pains to efface the date of his docu-
ment, so that it might not unexpectedly transpire
that the "Commander-in-Chief Ivashchev" had so-
cialized the women of Yekaterinodar at a time when
that city was in the hands of the Denikin soldiery.
It should not surprise us that this document might
deceive a stupid Swedish bourgeois, but to the
Russian reader it is absolutely clear that the docu-
ment is not only forged, but forged by a foreigner
working with the aid of a dictionary. It is very
interesting that the names of both these socializers
of women — Gregory Sarayev and Comrade Karas-
seyev do not sound Russian at all. The ending
eyev occurs very rarely in Russian family names,
and then only in certain definite combinations. But
the name of the unmasker of the Bolsheviki himself,
the author of this English pamphlet quoted by
Kautsky, just happens to end in -eyev (Wintch-
Maleyev). It is quite clear that this English-Bul-
garian police creature, living in Lausanne, creates
socializers of women literally after his own image.
THE WEEK OF THE CHILD
Petrograd Izvestia reports the following: The
working and peasant women of Petrograd and the
Petrograd province have decided to introduce a
"Week of the Child", the aim of which is first,
propaganda for Socialist education, secondly, the
attracting of wide masses of working and peasant
women to the work of education. Automobiles
with propagandists and physicians are to deliver
popular lectures in the villages on child hygiene.
A campaign will be instituted under the slogan:
"The working woman for the peasant woman — the
peasant woman for the working woman," during
which the women in the city will collect toys and
books for the peasant children, while the peasant
women will collect foodstuffs for the proletarian
children.
• Terrorism** und Kommunismus, Berlin, 1919.
)gle
* This article must have been written early this year; Yekater-
inodar has been in the hands of the Soviets since the over-
throw of Denikin. Oriqir
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
558
SOVIET RUSSIA
November 2T, 1920
Economic Reports from Soviet Russia
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VANGUARD FACTORIES
At a sitting of the All-Russian Central Executive
Committee Comrade Rykov gave the following data
regarding the activity of the Transport Factories.
Out of the complete number of 4,600 locomo-
tives, the repair of which is to be fully completed
towards the beginning of 1921, the Metal Section
of the Supreme Council of National Economy is re-
sponsible for 600 locomotives of which 100 are
new, 250 requiring general repair and 250 minor
repair. The Metal Section is also responsible for
the entire production of metal, as well as of re-
serve parts required both for the locomotives issued
by the Metal Section factories, as well as for the
repairing depots of the People's Commissariat for
Ways and Communications. In addition to this,
the Metal Section intends to issue 620 new locomo-
tives and 6,600 repairs.
This program has been distributed over about
70 works. Twenty-one of these factories have been
organized into a special group known as the van-
guard. Measures have been taken to supply all
vanguard factories with provisions, labor power,
fuel, and all other requisites. The vanguard fac-
tories have been selected with a view to distribut-
ing among them the greater bulk of the most im-
portant part of the work. The strongest factories
have been selected for this purpose, or such as are
particularly adapted for the manufacture of special
locomotive parts or appliances.
Of the twenty-one factories in question, fourteen
are in the central district, the remaining seven be-
ing situated in the Ukraine.
The vanguard factories turn out 60 per cent of
all new locomotives, whilst 40 per cent is allotted
to the remaining factories. The finer reserve parts,
such ds forms, axles, pipes, brakes, levers, etc.,
with a few exceptions, are entirely distributed over
the vanguard factories. In regard to the reserve
parts for carriages, as well as the supply of certain
sorts of material, these are manufactured to the
extent of 50 to 70 per cent at the other factories.
The general activity of the factories may be
characterized as follows:
The factories began work only in July, according
to the orders given, and in view of the fact that
a majority of them were either completely at a
standstill or working only part time, the factories
could not possibly develop their full output during
the first month. A certain period is required until
the factories are able to work at full speed. Dur-
ing July the output of the factories amounted to
only 50 per cent both of the repairs as well as of
the manufacture of reserve parts which were to be
produced for the month. In regard to August, de-
tailed information is to be had in connection with
the factories of Central Russia. Here in the work
of the factories, great improvements are to be ob-
served; these are to be observed in individual
spheres of production, where, for instance, in the
case of locomotive repairs and of reserve parts an
Digitized by dOOg IIC
increase of 25 per cent was effected over the month
of July. It must be stated that certain articles,
such as a number of brass parts and other parts,
began to be manufactured only in August.
The increase of productivity is still more con-
siderable if the individual factories are taken into
consideration. It is interesting to mention the
Kulebak factory; here productivity of bands and
rollers has, for the month of August, almost
reached the usual pre-war output.
The increase of production would have been
much more noticeable had it not been for certain
external reasons; of such may be mentioned the
fact that in July there was a shortage in supply
of fuel, and there were occasions when the factories
of the Omsk District stopped entirely for lack of
fuel. At the present time the supply of fuel is
fully organized and regular: there are no inter-
ruptions in view. In connection with the food
question, the position is as follows. During the
first month of the work in question, the supply
was rather irregular and only in the month of Au-
gust did the factories receive, with a few exceptions,
the full amount of provisions.
On the whole it may be said that the factories
of the vanguard group of the Central District are
at the present time engaged in wholesome product-
ive work, which is constantly on the increase, and
they strive to carry out the entire 100 per cent of
their task and to secure the revival of transport,
being fully conscious of the duty which has been
laid upon them by the Soviet Republic.
RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION
Writing in the Moscow Pravda, Comrade Larin
gives interesting figures regarding railway con-
struction in Soviet Russia.
Since the days of the revival of railway con-
struction during the Witte period, namely in the
nineties of the last century, the number of versts of
wide gauge railway constructed in Russia never
exceeded that of the present time. For the three
years ranging from 1918 to 1920, about 5,700
versts have been constructed and at the present time
about 2,000 versts are about to be laid down. The
rails and other accessories for these are in stock
and the whole work is expected to be concluded by
1921. It is interesting to note that during these
years in question the territory of Soviet Russia
was smaller than that of pre-war days.
One trait of Soviet railway construction worthy
of note is the domination of the productive prin-
ciple, in other words, that all construction of rail-
ways is carried on in connection with immediate
problems of production.
A considerable part of the newly-built and about
to be concluded railways open now wide areas for
production. This will be the basis for the future
growth of the timber industry, a basis which was
hitherto lackita
I I L| I l*f a I I I ■ _'
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
November 27, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
539
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In the number of such lines is included that of
Nizhni-Novgorod-Kotelnichi. This line is 353 versts
long, of which 300 versts have already been laid
down. The line will make a new and shortest cut
between Moscow- Viatka and the city of Perm. An-
other line is that of Mga-Ovinischey, altogether
405 versts almost completed. The line extends
from the suburbs of Petrograd to the borders of
the Gubernia of Yaroslav, entirely through forests.
And finally there is the Orsha-Ounecha, altogether
240 versts, more than half of which has already
been laid down. This line cuts through the famous
stretch of hundreds of versts of the "black forest".
The second group consists of a number of lines
and branches which connect various industrial cen-
ters in a railway network. The first among these
is that of Sarapul — Yekaterinburg. This line ex-
ceeds 400 versts in length, all of which have been
laid; and that of the end of the line of Sarapul-
Kazan and Shikhrany-Arzamas about 700 versts
long. This line constitutes a new and shortest
route between Moscow and Siberia, through the
very heart of the Urals. It is now transporting
Siberian grain to the center. There are two great
lines of industrial importance. These are not fin-
ished yet. One of these lines extends from Turkes-
tan to Semirechinsk, and will serve to increase the
supply of bread to Turkestan which will in its turn
help to reestablish cotton-growing on a large scale.
For the present only 285 versts of this line have
been constructed, in addition to this there is a sup-
ply of rails for 150 versts, bringing the line close
to the bread district. It is now possible to consider
the desert separating Semirechinsk from Turkestan
as eliminated. The other line is that from Krasny
Kut near Saratov to the Emba petroleum district
on the northern shore of the Caspian Sea. Over
160 versts of this line have so far been laid. In
addition to this there is a stock of rails for another
250 versts to extend as far as the Urals. From the
Urals to Emba there is a temporary petroleum
duct of 200 versts, for which over 50 versts of pipes
have already been delivered. The Emba as well
as the Semirechinsk lines will be completed in the
first half of the coming year.
It is also necessary to note the great development
of short industrial branches connecting some of the
largest industrial enterprises in a railway network.
In places these lines cut through a deeply popu-
lated industrial district which sees a locomotive
for the first time. An instance may be given in the
branch counting over 50 versts from Nizhni to
Bogorodskoye, and Vorsma which is a well-known
leather center, and as well as Pavlovo, famous for
its metal industry.
SWITZERLAND FOR TRADE WITH
RUSSIA
Berlin, October 31, 1920 (Rosta, Vienna). —
Under the firm "Aruwag Aktien Gesellschaft"
(Stock Company) there has been founded in Zurich
a stock company with a capital of 80,000 francs
to begin with, which has already been paid in, in
full, and this entirely by men of big industry lin
Digitized by vjQOQ IC
Switerland. According to information coming from
Zurich, the aim of the new undertaking is to bring
about the resumption of trade relations with Soviet
Russia and to carry on export into that country, as
well as to import from Russia on a large scale.
RESUMPTION OF TRADE NEGOTIA- .
TIONS WITH FINLAND
Petrograd, October 31, 1920.— In consequence
of the conclusion of peace and the resumption of
trade relations between Soviet Russia and Finland,
the customs stations at Byeloostrov has been opened
again.
CONSTRUCTION OF FUEL LINES
For the purpose of a speedier and timely delivery
of fuel to the railway station the Supreme Council
of National Economy is constructing 298 special
fuel lines of an intended total length of 3,645
versts. The results achieved by August 1 amount
to the following figures: 107 versts of ordinary
and narrow gauge grounding have been constructed
and 825 versts of rails have been laid.
MOSCOW DISTRICT COAL OUTPUT
The numerous strata of coal in the Moscow Dis-
trict Basin, their proximity to the consuming areas,
and the fact that they are situated outside the
sphere of civil war has compelled the Soviet Gov-
ernment to pay special attention to this source. A
great amount of work has been carried on for the
last two years, the result of which is most far-
reaching.
The output of coal for the last few years is ex-
pressed in the following figures. The figures rep-
resent the annual output in millions of poods.
1914 18.9
1915 28.2
1916 41.1
1917 43.1
1918 24.4
1919 24.9
1920 for 9 months only 24.9
These figures show a sharp increase, in compari-
son with the preceding years. From the figures
given for the past eight and a half months, it is
reasonable to expect an output of 34,000,000 poods
for the present year.
Judging by the state of the preliminary work,
the number of workers, and all other technical de-
tails, the output for 1921 will approximate
60,000,000 poods.
It is the opinion of specialists that if the general
speed of work is maintained the output of coal for
1924 will amount to 200,000,000 poods. This is
a figure which was not even dreamed of in former
years.
PETROLEUM TRANSPORT
According to the information received from the
Chief Administration of the Ways of Communi-
cation the total quantity of petroleum products de-
livered to Astrakhan from the beginning of the
navigation season to September. 17, amounts to
103,364,000 poods r jgj na |f rom
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
November 27, 1920
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PROVISION PROSPECTS
Moscow, October 19. — In spite of all bourgeois
misrepresentations, the foodstuffs questions in
Soviet Russia is much more favorable than last
year. While in the first year of the dictatorship
30,000,000 poods of grain were gathered, and
110,000,000 in the second and 300,000,000 in the
third, the harvest this year will be 400,000,000
poods. The best provisioning will of course be
that of the Red Army and the cities. The Central
Russian harvests have been afflicted by somewhat
of a drought, but the extraordinarily prolific yields
of the Caucasus and Siberia will more than make
up for the effects of this drought.
TEXTILE INDUSTRY
For the first half year of 1920 there were on
an average 21 factories with 406,285 spindle looms
at work.
The following figures give the amount (in
poods) of the yarn manufactured:
In January 42320
" February 52,175
" March 55,622
" April 21,635
" May 17,474
" June 18,266
Total 207,688
The amount of cotton at all the factories
amounted to 492,830 poods, including 340,852
poods in stock at the group of pioneer factories.
In January, 1920, there were altogether 229,158
poods of cotton. Thus it may be seen that the sup-
ply of cotton has improved, but is as yet far from
being satisfactory.
For the six months 44,352,537 arshins of coarse
fabric have been manufactured.
Various trimmings have been manufactured to
the extent of 1,238,181 aTshins.
and petty industry is concentrated by this decree
in one organ, that of the Chief Administration of
the Kustar Industry. This administration is
charged with the registration and distribution of
orders as well as of raw material. It also deals
with the regulation of the question of awards for
the craftsmen employed in this industry, their regis-
tration and control.
With the introduction of this decree the Kustar
and petty industry will be brought in line with the
Soviet policy.
DECREE ON THE KUSTAR (HOME)
INDUSTRY
The All-Russian Central Executive has investi-
gated and confirmed the decree regarding the Kus-
tars. The decree divides the entire petty industry
into two groups: that which does not make use of
hired labor and the industry which exploits such
labor. The first is called by the decree "Kustar
Industry", and is endowed with a number of privi-
leges; the second, on the other hand, is limited in
its rights and is placed under the strict control of
the Soviet institutions.
The decree introduces important changes in the
sphere of administration of the Kustar and petty
industry. Until the present time the Kustar in-
dustry was under the administration of a number
of government organs. Under such conditions a
proper regulation of the Kustar industry was im-
possible. The decree liquidates this abnormal sit-
uation and the entire administration of the Kustar
THE SLATE INDUSTRY
The slate season has ended quite successfully.
The output intended for 1920 for the entire terri-
tory of the Soviet Republic amounted to the gen-
eral figure of < 7,956,112 poods. The actual amount
obtained was 82,990,167 poods, i. e., 5,034,055
poods over and above the program and 15,951.197
poods over and above the 1919 output.
In the mining of slate in 1920 1,308 carts of 60
persons each and 887 machines were engaged.
by t^
*L
IC
RUSSIA'S FOREIGN TRADE
Economic Life writes: The imports through
Esthonia from April 18 to September 8 of this year
amounted to 1,704,785 poods, as follows: Food
and similar necessaries, 913,281 poods; animal pro-
duct manufactures, 74,284 poods; timber products,
41,227 poods; chemicals, 87,339 poods; metals and
products thereof, 340,542 poods; writing materials,
229,076 poods; miscellaneous, 18,381 poods.
Among the metal products are included: agricul-
tural machines, locomobiles, telephone and tele-
graph apparatus, tools, — things Russia has been
greatly in need of. Among "chemicals" are medi-
cines and raw materials for the leather industry and
chemical industries. Writing materials comprise
chiefly print paper, a great demand for which has
long existed in Russia. Although the volume of
imports was 'slight, foreign trade has begun to de-
velop and to assume the character of regularity.
Before June, imports were rather sporadic. Neces-
saries imported in July exceeded those of a year
ago by 54 per cent; leather goods, 1,098 per cent;
chemical products, 36 per cent; writing materials,
90 per cent. The imports in August reached
117,808 poods: 22,602 poods of animal products,
7,443 poods of chemicals, 41,557 poods of metals,
30,714 poods of writing materials. New objects
of imports for the month of August included tele-
graph, telephone and laboratory apparatus, parafin
and footgear. In the first week of September must
be mentioned, above all, agricultural machinery
(28,664 poods), — harvesters, mowers and rakes.
Exports are just beginning. In the first place there
must be mentioned veneers, flax and santonin.
(Economic Life observes that foreign trade is af-
fected by the war more than any other branch of
commerce.)
Original from
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CULTURE PROSPECTS
The People's Commissar for Education, Comrade
Lunacharsky, recently read a report in the "Press
House", in Moscow, on the "Problems and Pros-
pects of the Coming Winter."
Pointing out the difficult political and economic
position of Soviet Russia, Comrade Lunacharsky
expressed the opinion that during the next year a
closer contact would be brought about between the
vanguard of the proletariat, i. e., the Russian Com-
munist Party and the vanguard of the intelligen-
tsia, i. e., all those who are engaged in educational
and cultural spheres. This contact will produce a
most wholesome influence on the two camps.
The extreme shortage of paper resulted in a
wide development of clubs, lectures, discussions,
readings, and all kinds of conversations.
In the theatrical sphere, the process of revolu-
tion in regard to the repertory of the theatre, as
well as the growth both in quality and quantity
of the theatre is very marked.
The serious interest of the working masses in
music and art is undoubted.
As regards education generally, the forthcoming
winter is expected to afford a more systematic and
careful realization of the principle of the Single
Labor School than it did previously.
Generally speaking it is the opinion of Comrade
Lunacharsky that the present cultural term will
make a healthy impression upon the whole of
Soviet Russia, and upon Moscow in particular. It
should be kept in mind that Western Europe has
suffered a great spiritual impoverishment, and ac-
cording to the opinion of western authorities the
spiritual center of the world has been transferred
to hungry, freezing Moscow.
In conclusion, Comrade Lunacharsky spoke of
the growth of the interest and sympathy with Com-
munism of extensive masses of the intelligentsia
as well as of the great work in the sphere of culture
that is going on not only in the capitals, but also
in the provinces, and even in outlying districts.
LIBRARIES IN SOVIET RUSSIA
The libraries of Soviet Russia are in charge of
the Extra-Scholastic Section of the People's Com-
missariat for Education. At the present time this
section is working under most unfavorable condi-
tions. The impoverishment of the book market
which was the result of the six .years' war and of
the three years' blockade, as well as the absence
of an experienced staff in this branch, of course had
a great influence on the state of our libraries. Yet,
in spite of these unfavorable conditions the results
which were achieved in this direction are quite
considerable, and are an indication of the continual
growth of the network of libraries in Soviet Russia.
The total number of libraries for 42 gubernias
amounts to 32,166. These do not include the li-
braries belonging to cooperatives, trade unions,
and so on.
In 1919, 32 gubernias had 13,506 libraries; the
same gubernias in 1920 counted 26,278, that is the
number had doubled.
The number of libraries is especially large in
the following gubernias:
1 J r 7 e \ 879 libraries plus 2,150 reading rooms 3,029
2 Viatka « « 3 02Q
•JPenn 1.887 " - 211 2 ;008
4 laroslav ... « « i«28
5 Saratov .... 835 " "930 " " 1 765
6 Smolensk .. « « 1625
7 Samara 478 " " 702 " " i'i80
8 Kostroma ..1,171 " " 936 " " 2,107
9 Kaluga .... « 1008
PUBLIC EDUCATION IN PETROGRAD
Stockholm, October 5, 1920.— Izvestia reports
as follows on the work of public education that has
been accomplished heretofore: The attacks by the
White Array have somewhat retarded the complete
success of the work, but nevertheless the results
achieved are considerable. First of all, statistics
were compiled showing the number of adult ele-
mentary students in the provinces. Great care is
taken in the preparation of teachers. So far five
pedagogical institutes have been started. But un-
fortunately there is a scarcity of teachers. The
regular work begins in the fall, when four schools
in all will be opened in the province, for adult
elementary students. Besides this there are ten
courses in progress. There are five clubs for ado-
lescents, 25 for adults, and 175 reading clubs.
There are 72 stationary and many itinerant libra-
ries; six public schools were founded in the prov-
ince, where 180 lectures have been held and 128
outings and excursions arranged for. At the pres-
ent time there are 1,886 schools, 102 homes for
children and 96 kindergartens in the Petrograd
province. 404,362 children attend the schools of
this province, and 3,794 teachers are active in these
schools. 12,000 children were taken in by the chil-
dren's homes, and 7,580 children by the children's
clubs. Very gratifying results are reported from
pupils of continuation school age: the attendance
in 43 such schools is 5,544 students, and 88
such clubs have a membership of 53,503.
DENMARK FOR TRADE WITH RUSSIA
Danish business organizations have written to
Krassin expressing their willingness to resume busi-
ness with Russia. They propose to send business
attaches to Moscow and Petrograd, and ask that
Russia in return send representatives of the co-
operatives to Copenhagen. The director of the
Danish-Russian clearing-house in Copenhagen left
.for London to confer with Kraayin.
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TREATY WITH AZERBEIJAN
A treaty has been concluded in Moscow between
the Soviet Republic and the Azerbaijan Socialist
Soviet Republic, a military economic alliance being
formed. The governments of the two respective
republics undertake to effect the following alliances
in the shortest possible period: (1) of military or-
ganization and command, (2) of the organs in
charge of Production and of Foreign Trade, (3) of
the organs of Supply, (4) of Railway Transport
and Post and Telegraph Administrations, (5) of
Finances.
This treaty comes into force at the moment that
it is endorsed by both governments. No special
ratification is required. — Russian Press Review,
October 15.
MAKHNO AGAINST BARON WRANGEL
The following communication was published by
the Revolutionary War Council:
Recently a crisis was observed among the Makhno
troops who showed irresoluteness in their attacks
against the Red Army. It became evident that the
rank and file of the Makhno troops were greatly
dissatisfied at being sent to fight the Soviets and
the Peasant Governments, and thus to strengthen
and consolidate the power of the landlord Baron.
With Baron Wrangel's progress into the heart of
Ukraine the consciousness of the rank and file
soldiers of Makhno grew to the effect that their
interests are common with those of the peasants
and workers of Ukraine and of Russia who are
fighting against the Baron.
Finally under pressure of the fermentation
among his troops and their urgent demands Makhno
submitted a proposal to our South Front Command
to stop all military operations against him and to
allow him to fight along with the Red Army against
Wrangel.
Makhno promised to give definite guarantees to
the effect that he would carry out his promises faith-
fully and would not betray his peasant soldiers,
that he recognized the Soviet Government and
would fully submit to the Command of the Red
Army.
Makhno's proposal was accepted by our South
Front Command and he was entrusted with a mili-
tary task against Wrangel. Three representatives
were despatched from the Makhno groups to our
military authorities. All sick and wounded in the
Makhno troops were taken in charge by our sani-
tary department.
It is needless to exaggerate Makhno's forces as
that has been done by the European imperialist
press, which stated that Makhno took town after
town. The fact, however, of Makhno's submission
to the Soviet Government is very symptomatic. It
bears witness to the fact that even the upper stratum
of the peasantry has sobered under the influence
of the successes of the Wrangel bands and has
now turned its weapons against the counter-revolu-
tionary Baron.
CHINESE MISSION IN MpSCOW
A Chinese Military-Diplomatic Mission, headed
by General Tchkhan-Sy-Lin, has recently arrived
in Moscow.
The aim of the mission is to form an acquaint-
ance with Soviet Russia, and to establish friendly
political and trade relations between Russia and
China.
In order to discuss these questions a few sittings
of the mission had taken place in conjunction with
the Collegiate of the People's Commissariat for
Foreign Affairs, Comrades Chicherin and Kara-
khan.
On October 2, the president of the Mission, Ge-
neral Tchkhan-Sy Lin, was given, for delivery to the
Chinese Government, a memorandum containing the
basic principles for a political agreement between
the Chinese Republic and the Soviet Republic.
On October 6, a conference took place between
the Chinese Mission and the People's Commissar
for Foreign Trade, Comrade Lezhava, at which the
principles for the renewal of trade relations be-
tween the two republics was established. — Rus-
sian Press Review, Oct. 15.
ARRESTS IN EASTERN GALICIA
Lemberc, October 4, 1920.— Vpered reports that
after retaking districts in Eastern Galicia, the Pol-
ish authorities proceeded to arrest great masses of
Ukrainians. Thus great masses of peasants were
taken prisoner in Radiziekhow and in the district
of Dolina. All these prisoners will be tried by
court-martial and condemned to death.
COMMUNICATION BETWEEN POLAND
AND WRANGEL
Warsaw, October 4, 1920. — According to the
Kuryer Warsawski, a special delegation was dis-
patched to General Wrangel a few days ago by the
Polish Government.
CONFERENCE OF TRADE UNIONS IN
SIBERIA
Moscow, October 13, 1920.— At the conference
of Trade Unions which opened at Krasnoyarsk,
107 delegates, with a representation of 15,000
trade union members, took part. The greatest feel
ing of confidence was manifested in the dictator-
ship of the proletariat at the meeting, where the
remarkable development of the trade union move-
ment in Siberia was brought out.
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND EX-
PLORATION IN SOVIET RUSSIA
We take the following from a Moscow report
of October 13, 1920: An expedition, headed by
the Engineer Nalivayka, has just returned from
an exploration of the district up to Indinga Bay
and to the mouth of the Pesha River. During a
period of fourteen weeks the party collected much
valuable material in the fields of geography, ethno-
graphy, and economics. The district is very rich
in fish and other useful marine life.
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WRANGEL SELLS FLEET
The Russian Steamship Company, founded in
Paris, is systematically withdrawing steamships
from Russian waters and selling them to foreign
countries. This has produced dissatisfaction and
unrest in the Crimea. The White Guard Crimean
paper Krymsky Vestnik reports interesting details
concerning the transactions of the Russian Steam-
ship Company.
"This company," says the paper, "has cleared
four steamers, Vampoa, Vityaz, Cherwomov, and
Ruslam, with the object of withdrawing them from
Russian waters. Where these steamers now are
we do not know, but it is assumed that they are in
a French port. — Rosta.
LIGHT ON THE RECENT POLISH
OFFENSIVE
London, October 17, 1920.— The Warsaw cor-
respondent of the Times states: The forces of
General Balakhovich, which are acting independ-
ently of the Poles, see their efforts crowned with
success. At the conclusion of the armistice, all
Russian anti-Bolshevist elements were required to
evacuate Polish soil on October 19. These forces
would not unite with Wrangel, but would cross the
line of demarcation and establish a base in White
Russia whose independence, with Minsk as its capi-
tal, would shortly be proclaimed. The joint Rus-
sian forces on this front number about 50,000 and
operate under Generals Petlura and Balakhovich.
The former will submit to General Wrangel, and
his detachment will form a part of Wrangel's army.
It is hoped that Permikin will cooperate with the
Ukrainians, with whom Wrangel will frequently
affect a junction. General Balakhovich will take
orders from the Russian political committee that
is now leaving Warsaw, and will independently
push northwest in the direction of Minsk and
Vitebsk.
AN ENGLISH MILITARY LEADER IN
WRANGEL'S ARMY
London, October 18, 1920.— 77u? Daily Tele-
graph announces that the English General Town-
shend is in the Crimea and will join Wrangel's
forces opposing the Bolsheviki. Townshend was
the English commander-in-chief in Mesopotamia
against the Turkish armies at Kut-el-Aamara.
TROTSKY ON FRENCH POLICY
Trotsky sent the following communique from
his train on October 11: Our train daily inter-
cepts French radiograms. They are so silly, bom-
bastic and mendacious as to be utterly harmless.
It is harder to find an earnest or important word
in them than a pearl in a dungheap. They reflect
faithfully the picture of the prevailing system in
France: provincial politicians in the service of
bankers, who now, after victory, deem themselves
rulers. The telegraph brings daily extracts from
two or three speechs of Millerand or his ministers.
These discourses are all of the same stripe, stupid
and lying. France is exhausted; she has won a
victory only because England and America willed
it so. Capitalist France is being pushed farther
into the background. Yet France seeks to better the
work with phrases and declarations that are mere
twaddle, devoid of political significance and his-
torical perspective. At the head of France today
stands the old classical type, created by Moliere:
the snob, the upstart who for two hundred years
strove to become an aristocrat and now, arrived at
power, seeks to impose his will upon the world.
France is exhausted, yet daily the telegraph brings
tidings of its phenomenal restoration and recon-
struction. To believe these despatches, France since
the armistice has been thrice reconstructed. Eng-
land rules the world. The United States is com-
peting with England. France is being more and
more exhausted and retreating farther into the
background. In view of this process phrases, ges-
tures and lies are as powerless as the gables of sup-
port to Poland and recognition of Wrangel. Shame-
less and arrogant, French imperialism is still cap-
able of doing harm to Soviet Russia, but the harm
thereby inflicted upon France is far greater. It
is also clear that the French bourgeoisie cannot
escape, its doom.
SIDELIGHTS ON THE PETLURA-
WRANGEL AFFAIR
Paris, October 13, 1920.— The negotiations be-
tween Petlura and Wrangel have come to an ab-
rupt end. The representative of Petlura in Paris
delivered a note to Millerand, wherein he complains
that Wrangel, in spite of the negotiations with Pet-
lura, had convened the newly formed Ukrainian
National Committee, which contains people who
are connected with Skoropadski, in the Crimea.
THE RESTORATION OF THE PORT OF
PETROGRAD
Berlin, October 15, 1920.— "The Syren" learns
from Russia that the work of clearing the port of
Petrograd has begun. No less than 700 vessels
have been sunk in the basin and the canals; the
Neva canal had been made impassable by the
sinking of two steamers; the unloading facilities
were unavailable; the docks were destroyed; the
depth of the Neva Canal was reduced from 29
feet to 23 feet. Zinoviev states that all this has
been altered during the last six months and that
now 40 ships can be taken care of at once. In
fact, according to the above-named journal, all the
wrecks have been removed from the basin and the
approaches, so that 45 ships (1,000 to 3,000 tons)
can anchor in the harbor. The railroad has been
rebuilt, coal-pockets partially restored, 2,000 square
meters of pier repaired, the electric cranes refitted.
About 30 per cent of the floating material is us-
able, so that eight vessels can be loaded or un-
loaded simultaneously, though not without difficulty.
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DEATH OF A COMMUNIST WOMAN
WORKER ^
Moscow, October 3, 1920 (Rosta) .—CoifixjLie
Krupskaya in Pravda warmly praises Ihe^work
of a noted leader of women in the Commdnist
movement, Inessa Armand, who died recently in
the Caucasus. She was an organizer and col-
laborator of the journal The Communist Woman,
and took an active part in the second congress of
the Third Internationale.
Readers of Soviet Russia will recall the inter-
esting article "Women in Soviet Russia", which
appeared in our issue for August 21, 1920. The
author of this article, Helen Blonina, is identical
with Inessa Armand.
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY DURAS-
SOVITCH IN CONSTANTINOPLE
The Posledniya Novosti reports that Prosecuting
Attorney Durassovich, who played a leading role
in the Beilis case, is now in Constantinople as head
of the Russian press bureau in that city.
PETROGRAD'S POPULATION
The latest census in Petrograd fixes the
population at 889,000, of which 385,000 are wom-
en. The population of the whole province, includ-
ing the capital, is 1,000,000.
H. G. WELLS IN PETROGRAD
The well-known writer H. G. Wells, who is at
the present moment in Petrograd, said the follow-
ing in a conversation which he had with a repre-
sentative of the Russian Telegraph Agency:
"I came here to see personally what this Soviet
Russia presents. The amount of untruth that has
been spread in England is so great that it has been
quite impossible to form a correct impression.
Actually very little is known in England regarding
Russia. I spoke to Krassin and I took his tip
when he said to me: 'If you want to know what
is going on in Russia, go and see for yourself/
"And I came here. But, at present, it is difficult
for me to speak of my impressions. I have seen
too much in these few days; impressions followed
one another in such rapid succession, I am rather
bewildered and have formed no opinion as yet So
far, I have seen the schools, dining rooms, workers'
universities, and finally I have walked along the
streets watching life around me. I had every op-
portunity to examine, and to see whatever I desired,
and I must say that I was treated with every atten-
tion on the part of representatives of the Soviet
Government.
"I am going shortly to Moscow. There I hope
to make the acquaintance of Comrade Lenin and,
still better, to become acqainted there with the poli-
tical and educational work of Soviet Russia."
Russian Press Review, October 15, 1920.
THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. Ukraine, by Michael Pavlovich 9 People's Commissar for Public Works.
2. Peace Treaty Between Soviet Russia and Lithuania.
3. How I Saw the Red Dawn, by M. Philips Price.
4. France 1798, Russia 1920, by Mager Dooliule. (An interesting comparison of the French
and Russian Revolutions based on Coleridge's poem, "France: An Ode.")
5. Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks,
to L. C. A. K. Martens.)
SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVED BY
SOVIET RUSSIA
110 West 40th Street (Room 304)
(Make all checks payable
New York City
I
mportant
International
Documents
The next issue of Soviet Russia (December 4) will print the complete text
of the Peace Treaty signed last summer between Soviet ^olsia and Lithuania.
A carefully prepared translation has been made especially for Soviet Russia.
The issue after that (December 11) will contain the text of the Preliminary
Peace signed last month between Soviet Russia and Poland. The Polish leil.
as it appears in an official Polish publication, has been translated for Soviet
Russia and will be accompanied by an interesting introductory article.
by^_
.jl
IC
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, December 4, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 23
Tttucd Weekly at 110 W, 40th Street, New York, K. Y. Ladwi* C. A. K. Martens, Publiibcr. Jacob Wittmer Hartmami, Editor,
Subscription Krnte, $5.00 per annttm. Application for entry n aecond class matter pending. Changes of address »bould reach the
office a week before the changes are to be made.
FACE
Ukraine, by Michael Pavlovich . - ■ - 545
Two Interviews 548
Russian-Rumanian Peace . 549
Military Review, by Lt.-CoL B* Roustam Beh*.* 550
How I Saw the Red Dawn, by M. Philips Price. * 552
The School in the Woods, by W. McLmne 553
With the People or Against Them . ♦ . . 554
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
FACE
France 1798, Russia 1920, by Mager DootUiU... 555
Editorials . , 556
O'er the Russian Lapland, by J&hn 5, Clarke.., 559
Peace Treaty Between Soviet Russia and
Lithuania 562
Former Leaders of the Cooperatives on Trial. . 565
Wireless and Other News 567
Ukraine
By Michael Pavlgvich
[The following article by the People's Commissariat for Public Works is one of a number of
important contributions to an understanding of the importance of Ukraine. Next week we shall print
K, Rakovsky y s article, "The Mutual Relations of Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine"]
1. The Ukrainian Obsession
T^HE world war of 1914-1918, which destroyed
many millions of human lives, and annihilated
tremendous resources that had been accumulated
in all countries by decades of peaceful labor, was
fought, on the one hand, for the possession of
sources of raw materials, foodstuffs, and fuel, and,
on the other hand, for the control of the great rail-
road and maritime routes in the regions that were
rich in such raw materials and fuels.
Ukraine, with its endless natural resources T its
remarkable geographical position — it lies half way
on the route from Western Europe to the Caucasus*
which has great mineral wealth and huge deposits
of naphtha, daily gaining in importance in the
economic life of nations, and farther on, to Tur-
kestan, with its cotton plantations, to Persia and all
of Central Asia — necessarily had to become the
object of the cupidity of all the imperialistic coun-
tries of the world*
Immediately after the peace of Brest-Litovsk the
German imperialists threw their troops not into
Soviet or Central Russia, not against Moscow or
Petrograd, but into Ukraine* In attempting to bow
discord between Soviet Russia and Ukraine, the
German diplomats were pursuing the object of
weakening Ukraine and thus making it possible for
Germany to annex that country and chain it to the
victorious chariot of the German Empire,
When the German revolution overthrew the Ho-
henzollerns in November, 1918, and the German
troops of occupation went back home, new con-
querors appeared in the place of these helmeted
aggressors, After the downfall of the Hohenzol-
lerns and the crushing of Germany, Ukraine be-
came the object of the lust of French and English
by Google
capitalists. If Krassnov and Skoropadski were
agents of German imperialism, working for the
erection of a German hegemony in Ukraine and on
the Don, Denikin and Wrangel, on the other hand,
were tools for realizing the plan of conquest of
Anglo-French imperialism, particularly with re-
gard to Ukraine, And Denikin, as is well known,
after he had occupied Kharkov and Tsaritsin, and
had issued to his troops the famous order to march
on Moscow, nevertheless did not immediately take
the direct route to the old capital. He again
deviated into Ukraine and occupied Yekaterinoslav,
Poltava, Kiev. Only toward the end of September,
three months after the above-mentioned ordeT was
issued, did Denikin'a operations begin to move to-
ward Voronezh and Kursk. Apparently Denikin
was hastening to complete a definite occupation of
Ukraine, in the interest and under the instruction
of his superiors, the English and French bourgeoi-
sie. But, while he was putting in three months in
conquring Ukraine, both of the left and the right
banks of the Dnieper, he was weakening his fight-
ing powers and thus accelerating his defeat in the
struggle with his formidable opponent— Soviet
Russia.
After Denikin was annihilated, Ukraine apparent-
ly was saved from the firm embrace of Western
European imperialism. But behold— in place of
the black reactionary Cossaekdom and the gold-
braided officers, there appears as a pretender to
Ukraine the Poland of the shliakhta* Pilsudski's
manifesto most tangibly exposes the cards of the
ruling class of Poland. His manifesto leaves no
doubt as to the real objects of the Polish shltahkta
in the struggle with the two federative republics
of Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine, This object
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is: occupation of Ukraine by Polish troops, com-
plete seizure of Ukraine.
And again we see that instead of taking the
straight route by way of Smolensk to Moscow, and
thus offering battle to their powerful opponent on
the fields of Soviet Russia, the troops of the shli-
akhta proceed along the same route that had been
followed by Charles XII, by the Germans, and by
• Denikin. So powerful is the attractive force of
Ukraine, of the Ukrainian hypnosis, which has been
working upon all the opponents of the Soviet power
and has apparently befogged their reason! What
*is it that makes Ukraine the object of such pas-
sionate desire on the part of the hirelings of capi-
tal; what is the source of this Ukrainian obsession,
of the attraction exercised by this country, which
appears to have such an irresistible effect on all
the opponents of the Soviet power?
2. The Former Russian Empire in World Economy
In the period preceding the world war, the
former Russian Empire, with its 200,000,000 in-
habitants, with its infinite expanse of territory,
making up more than one-seventh of the surface of
the globe, with its agricultural products, its wood,
its flax, etc., played a tremendous part in world
economy. This part was not a superficially ap-
parent one, as it was more or less veiled in the
exchange of goods by the form of money used.
The great volume of Russian export, its profound
significance for world economy, was to a certain
extent masked by its extremely low exchange value,
as the Russian wares were exported to foreign coun-
tries in the form of raw materials that had not
yet been worked upon, that had a comparatively
low value; and the total figure for Russian exports
expressed in money — rubles, francs, pounds ster-
ling, — was very small when compared with its ac-
tual importance in world economy. On the other
hand, many objects of Russian export, which were
returned to Russia in a fabricated form, such as
goods made out of Russian wood, Russian leather,
Russian ores, etc., were sold in our country at
prices that were often ten or a hundred times as
high as the original price of the raw materials.
The former Czarist Empire was one of the richest
lands in the world, not only by reason of its natural
resources — the most important point was that this
empire possessed the most essential means of pro-
duction: cotton, manufactures of which are the
basis of the entire textile industry; coal, iron,
without which not a single factory can be made to
move; finally, the chief elements in the nutriment
of the human organism: grain, sugar, fats, meats,
salt. Present-day Germany, for instance, has no
cotton at all and only comparatively little coal,
iron, and grain. If the capitalist order prevails,
Germany is doomed to destruction, to die out, to
degenerate. It is threatened by a worse fate than
the fate of Spain, which was transformed from one
of the most flourishing industrial lands of Europe
into Europe's poorest region. Germany can only
continue as a capitalist state if it again seizes
. Alsace-Lorraine and the Saar region from France*
and onc*e more occupies Ukraine — in short, if it
succeeds in winning a new world war, far more
senseless and audacious than that of 1914-1918.
Even France and England, in spite of their great
Annexations of territory, are by no means in a
position to maintain themselves without some sup-
port on the part of Ukraine and Soviet Russia, in-
cluding the northern regions rich in forests, the
cotton of Turkestan, the naphtha of the Caucasus,
etc. There is in all the world only one capitalistic
country that can survive without the resources of
Ukraine and Soviet Russia, but this single country,
the United States of America, lies on another con-
tinent; it has grain, coal, iron, and cotton, too, in
sufficient quantities, and the American bourgeoisie
is therefore less interested in the overthrow of the
Soviet order in Russia, as well as in Ukraine, than
are the French and English bourgeoisie.
Immediately after the termination of the world
war, when a great lack of the most important food-
stuffs was beginning to make itself felt, for instance,
in grain, meat and sugar, as well as in raw materi-
als: Russian flax (Russia covers 80 per cent of
the world demand in flax), coal, ores, building-
wood, hides, fats, etc., the unexpected elimination
of such an important link in the chain as the former
Russian empire, from the system of capitalistic
states, turned out to be a terrible blow for these
states. In the course of four years of war, hu-
manity had literally shot into the air, through the
guilt of the exploiters, milliards of tons of iron,
coal, cotton, grain, hides, which were used exclu-
sively for war materials, and now, when the inter-
national bourgeoisie is particularly interested in
the most stringent exploitation of the Russian em-
pire, in its final transformation into a colony of
theirs, this goal turns out to be more distant than
ever.
European bourgeois scholars, who have under-
stood that the old cannot be restored again, that
it is inconceivable to bring back the former eco-
nomic relations of a slavish dependence which once
existed between the former Russian Empire and
Western European states, no doubt fully under-
stand how necessary it is to cease the armed war
against the Russian Federative Soviet Republic.
The only means Western Europe has against eco-
nomic decay, against hunger and material demoral-
ization, is, in the opinion of these bourgeois eco-
nomists and statesmen, a rapprochement with
Soviet Russia.
The decision taken at the London Conference
for Combating Hunger, as far as the section re-
ferring to Russia goes, reads as follows: "The
conference is of the opinion that the restoration
of world industry cannot be realized before Russia
has the possibility of reestablishing its economic
life and placing its immense supplies of raw ma-
terials and foodstuffs at the disposal of other coun-
tries. The first steps along this path must be taken
in the direction of a cessation of every possible
intervention, both secret and public, in Russian
affairs, by foreign powers."
But a considerable number of the statesmen of
bourgeois coon tries will not give up this inter-
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vention by force in Russian affairs. The Polish ad-
venture is the best proof of this.
3. The Ukrainian Natural Resources. Ukraine* s
Position in World Economy Before the War
Among the other parts of the former Russian
Empire, Ukraine occupied but a relatively incon-
siderable area. This area was only 14.3 per cent
of that of European Russia, or equal to the area
of the Governments of Kovno, Grodno, Vilna, Cour-
land, and Archangel. As compared with Western
European countries, however, the 45,000,000 des-
siatins of Ukraine make it a great state, hardly
second to Germany, France, or Spain, with their
46 to 50,000,000 dessiatins of area.
But although Ukraine occupies only 14.3 per
cent of the area of European Russia, even before
the war it already played a prominent part in for-
eign trade, in the export of many extremely valu-
able objects of Russian barter. It is precisely
from Ukraine that almost all the wheat, rye, barley,
cattle, flour, sugar, salt, and many other goods were
exported, which were the annual toll of Czarist
Russia for foreign export before the war. Partic-
ularly in the production of sugar the importance of
the Ukrainian soil is indicated by the circumstance
that of the total of 294 coarse and granulated sugar
refineries which existed in Russia in the period
1914-1918, Ukraine had 198.
It is clear how great was the importance of
Ukrainian grain in the feeding of the population
of Western Europe before the war. Ukrainian rye
went to Germany, Ukrainian wheat to England, and
in part to Italy.
Ukraine produced chiefly grain, particularly
wheat and barley. According to the data of pro-
duction, export and import, the mean net excess
in the years 1909-1913 in the nine Ukrainian prov-
inces amounted to 180,000,000 poods of wheat and
211,000,000 poods of barley. A distant third is rye,
yielding an excess of 32,000,000 poods, and finally
comes oats with 9,000,000 poods. Altogether, the
average excess for export of all four cereals to-
gether amounted in this period to the enormous
figure of 432,000,000 poods annually. It goes
without saying that the productivity of the fruitful
Ukrainian soil, with the progress of cultivation,
will be immensely increased, and Ukraine will be
able to furnish an immense excess of cereals for
the supply of other countries.
In addition to grain, Ukraine also exported cat-
tle, but in incomparably smaller quantities. Accord-
ing to data furnished by railroad statistics, the
average export from the nine Ukrainian Govern-
ments in the period of 1910-1914 was 231,000 head
or 6,000,000 poods. Of course Ukraine will be
capable of a considerable intensification of cattle
breeding, and will therefore ultimately be able to
export much greater numbers of cattle to other
countries. The manufacture of sugar played an
important role in the Ukrainian economy before
the war. In the 1913-1914 season there were about
200 coarse and refined sugar factories in Ukraine,
which produced an average of as high as 67 mil-
lion poods per annum from 1911-1914.
by Google
The manufacture of alcohol in the nine Ukrainian
provinces from 1909-1914, produced an average
of 50,000,000 liters (24 per cent alcohol) only 61
per cent of which was used up in Ukraine; the
excess was exported to Great Russia, the Caucasus,
and to foreign ports.
Before the war, Ukraine was one of the most
important purveyors of eggs in the world market;
thousands of car-loads of egjgs went to foreign
markets.
Even this hasty review of Ukrainian exports of
agricultural products before the war shows how
important is the question of properly exploiting^
Ukraine, and, if necessary, imposing forced exports
of grain, cattle, etc., to Western European coun-
tries as soon the war had been in progress for
a few years and hunger and want began to be felt
all over the world, particularly in Europe. It is
not a source of surprise that the German imperial-
ists, the day after the conclusion of the treaty of
Brest-Litovsk, did not throw their troops against
"hostile" Russia, but against "friendly" Ukraine.
As Comrade Rakovsky recalled in his report at
the Fourth All-Russian Congress of Soviets, on
May 18, 1920, the Ukraine of Petlura, according
to the treaty that was signed between the Ukrainian
"People's Republic" on the one hand, and Germany
and Austria on the other, was to deliver by June
1, 1919: 75,000,000 poods of cereals; 11,000,000
poods of live cattle; 30,000 sheep; 2,000,000 fowl;
45,000 poods of fats; 2,500 carloads of eggs;
2,500,000 poods of sugar, 20,000,000 liters of al-
cohol, etc.
The problem of Ukrainian coal and iron ores has
played an important part in our civil war. The
Donetz Basin, which occupies the first place among
all the industrial regions of Russia and Ukraine,
became a basis of support, through its wealth in
coal and iron, both for our internal counter-revo-
lution, as well as for that which was of interna-
tional origin, in their struggle against Soviet Rus-
sia and Ukraine. The Krassnovs, Kaledins, Deni-
kins, and their European masters, dreamed of
chaining the two Soviet republics by cold and hun-
ger, by cutting off the Donetz Basin from Russia
and Ukraine, and thus completely crippling the
railroads in Russia and Ukraine, and bringing
about a complete cessation of economic activity
all over the country, resulting in mutinies against
Soviet Russia on the part of a population mad-
dened by hunger and cold. On the other hand,
foreign capital was too strongly interested in the
Donetz Basin to leave this region to the Soviet
Republics without a struggle, and to give up the
immense incomes yielded to European capitalists
by the exploitation of the Donetz Basin.
It will be remembered that imperialistic Ger-
many, on the day after the conclusion of the Brest
Treaty, began moving to seize the Donetz Basin,
and the. German imperialistic press devoted many
columns to a description of the resources of that
region. It was calculated in much detail what
quantities of coat metals and ores might be taken
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from this region by German industries and German
occupational troops in the interest of German man-
ufactures.
When the German troops were forced to leave the
Donetz region, the latter became the object of the
covetous desires of the Entente powers. As far
as the coal and iron of the Donetz Basin are con-
cerned, it is correct to say that our coal and our
iron before the world war were exported to foreign
countries only in very small quantities, but on the
other hand — and this is of much greater import-
ance from the standpoint of the interests of inter-
national imperialism and counter-revolution — the
Donetz coal and iron were the magnet which at-
tracted great quantities of European capital to the
Donetz Basin, English, French, and Belgian indus-
trialists have put in enormous sums in the metal-
lurgical enterprises and mines of the Donetz Basin,
and, as a matter of fact, the whole metal and coal
industry of the Donetz Basin, before the November
Revolution, lay in the hands of English-French-
Belgian capital. Shortly before the war, in the
year 1914, of the 3,600 coke ovens in the coal
mines of the Donetz Basin, producing 173,000,000
poods of coke, there were 3,150 ovens, with a pro-
duction of 153,000,000 poods in the hands of stock
corporations having foreign capital exclusively;
as far as the metal industry is concerned, foreign
capital before the war had also been completely
predominant in* it. Thus, for instance, the well-
known metal trust "Prodamet", which had concen-
trated into its hands 80 per cent of the total metal
production, was chiefly a syndicate of Belgian and
French capitalists, and its chief administrative cen-
ter was in Paris.
The foreign capitalists invested enormous sums
not only in the metal mines, the factories, and coal-
mines of the Donetz Basin, but also in the tramway
lines, the electric power staions, the railroads, and
in other industrial enterprises throughout Ukraine,
and they were b\ no means inclined to renounce
these sources of income without a struggle. When
the Germans left Ukraine, Petlura, who had once
sold out to William II, went to Odessa to call on
the French General d'Anselme, in order to sign
with him a new treaty selling out Ukraine. By
this treaty all railroads and customs offices of
Ukraine were to pass into, the hands of the French
Stock Exchange.
As for imperialistic England, the latter is in-
terested, as far as the Ukrainian question is con-
cerned, not so much in the economic conquest of
the coal and metal regions of the Donetz Basin,
and of the concessions of Ukrainian railroads, cus-
toms offices, electric power stations, etc., as in the
problem of the conquest of Ukrainian grain.
The important English bourgeois paper, the
Daily Telegraph, in an article appearing in August,
1919, during Denikin's advance, said the follow-
ing: "The harvest in Ukraine is satisfactory and
may be sufficient to cover the needs of all Europe
if only sufficient work is put in." Comrade Sokol-
nikov quotes from the English "White Book" con-
cerning the Bolsheviki a very characteristic report
Digitized by v^ 1
of an English agent to Lord Balfour: "Europe will
suffer a serious need of foodstuffs so long as the
fields of Russia are not sufficiently utilized to en-
able Russia, the granary of Europe, to supply all
the European states with its exports of grain"
(Pravda, May 12, 1920).
This consideration supplemented by the data
above quoted, as to Ukrainian exports to foreign
countries before the war, sufficiently show why the
capitalist powers are attempting at any price to
destroy the Soviet power in Ukraine and to reduce
the country to a slavish dependence on the interna-
tional capitalist market. This data also makes it
clear why international capitalism, in undertaking
campaigns against the two sister republics of Soviet
Russia and Soviet Ukraine, always throw most of
the military forces at their disposal against Ukraine.
In the present catastrophic position of the entire
capitalist world, in view of the acute necessity of
obtaining at the earliest possible moment — today,
not tomorrow — an extra million poods of cereals,
sugar, salt, etc., just there is the basis for the fever-
ish attempt of the German, Denikin, and Polish
troops, to occupy precisely Ukraine. Here is the
motive of that "Ukrainian obsession" which is so
evident in all the war-like opponents of the Soviet
power. History has many examples of sacrifices
of important strategical plans and considerations,
in war, to political motives, dynastic interests, re-
sulting in the loss of the object of the campaign.
In the case now under consideration, the heavy
weight in the scales is the burning question of the
stomach, the acute inexorability of the need for
the Ukrainian flour bag, the Ukrainian sugar bag,
and this has forced the strategists who were con-
ducting the campaign against the Soviet Republic,
to choose for their advance on Moscow not the
shortest way, but without question the route by way
of Kiev and other Ukrainian cities.
Two Interviews
The Riga correspondent of Kuryer Polski, War-
saw, Mr. Linski, had two interviews with the rep-
resentatives of the Russian Delegation, Manuilski,
representing Soviet Ukraine, and Obolenski.
We quote from these interviews — together with
a short description of the two Russians — the most
significant points.
Manuilski is about forty years of age, of medium
height, dark-complexioned, with bright eyes and
a sympathetic smile. He speaks very quietly,
without a trace of the demagogue, and delicately
takes pains not to hurt any nationalistic feelings.
When once unwillingly he used the phrase polshiye
pany (Polish lords) he began to beg my forgive-
ness. Obolenski, a descendant of an old aristo-
cratic family, a grandson of a famous "dekabryst",
looks like a Russian professor, with a blond
goatee and a kind face.
We talked with Manuilski about the question of
Soviet Ukraine.
Question: What is the relationship of Soviet
Ukraine to Russia i?f rorn
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Answer: We are in the closest alliance on mili-
tary, political, and economic matters, and for this
reason, we have joint commissariats in those de-
partments.
Question: Why is there no Ukrainian emis-
sary in Moscow, and vice-versa?
Answer: Bourgeois conception . . . We are
on such friendly terms that there is no need of
emissaries. Instead of diplomatic relations in the
coming Communist government, international
solidarity will rule. The question of White Rus-
sia, Mr. Manuilsky says, is analogous to that of
Ukraine, and therefore settled.
Question: Poland considers the question of
Eastern Galicia also settled?
Answer : Oh, as to that, no ! The Soviet diplo-
mat defending himself adds : This would not har-
monize with our principle of "one undivided
Ukraine." Numerically, the Ruthenians are very
strong there.
Question: Therefore, a plebiscite?
Answer: Fundamentally we consider this meth-
od the best to regulate ethnographical entangle-
ments. This, however, does not settle the point.
Nevertheless, I know that we don't intend to have
Eastern Galicia separated from the rest of
Ukrainia . . .
Question: While Poland cannot consider hav-
ing Lemberg and Przemysl wrested from her?
Answer Very illogical of you. You have striven
to attain unity of the three parts and other terri-
tories of Poland; Ukraine also aims to unify all
the lands inhabited by Ukrainians. However, we
will consider this in the future.
Then I spoke with Obolenski on general topics-
He said among other things :
Our peace proposals remained the same, but we
will be glad to make several considerations, and
we are waiting impatiently for your counter-pro-
posal.
Question: What about disarmament?
Answer : It is necessary to differentiate two
moments : political and technical. When peace
will come, disarmament must follow, and its pro-
e>rtions will be decided upon by the authorities,
isarmament is a guaranty which we demand to
safeguard peace.
Question: But, do you, gentlemen, sincerely
desire peace, peace with a capitalistic state?
Where is the struggle for the International and
your other ideals ?
Answer: At the present time we are entering
a period during which we will abandon revolu-
tionizing the world ; it will be a period of the co-
existence of two different systems of governments.
It was so during the French Revolution. At the
present time we aim to establish political and eco-
nomic relations with Poland and the West in gen-
eral.
This statement, undoubtedly very sensational,
was entirely confirmed by Manuilski; and prior to
this it was stated in the same way by the Secretary
of the Soviet Delegation, Lorenz. In the course
of further conversation I learned from Mr. Obo-
lenski that the Polish Communists, in organizing
"rewkomy" — Revolutionary Committees — during
the Bolshevik occupation, were doing this of their
own initiative and on their own responsibility. The
Moscow "Sovnarkom" tolerated their action of ne-
cessity, not extending its approval.
by Google
PEACE WITH RUMANIA
Moscow, October 24. — The People's Commissar
for Foreign Affairs, Chicherin, has addressed the
following radiogram to the Rumanian Government:
"With profound satisfaction the Soviet Govern-
ment takes note of the wish expressed in your radio
of October 8 that peaceful relations may be es-
tablished at the earliest possible moment between
Rumania and Russia, on a permanent basis. The
Russian Government, on its part, has unalterably
pursued this goal, and it is not the fault of this
government that such relations between these two
countries have not sooner been taken up. And just
because our wish is to bring about such friendly
relations between Russia and Rumania on a firm
and permanent basis, the Russian Government con-
siders direct negotiations to be the only means
calculated to lead to the goal, in view of the fact
that the interests of the two countries can be repre-
sented with greatest advantage for both parties if
no foreign influence shall retard or disturb the
realization of this our honest desire. As for the
juridical side of the international relations between
Soviet Russia and Rumania, this question can only
be taken up in the course of such communications
as we now have in view. There can be no doubt
for the Rumanian Government that the relations
thus far existing between the two countries are by
no means normal relations, since a whole series
of questions, touching on the one hand Rumania,
and on the other hand Russia and Ukraine, can be
solved only in the course of actual negotiations
between the governments of these countries. The
Rumanian Government shares our desire to escape
from the present situation and therefore to enter
into negotiations, that is, to hold a peace confer-
ence of the three governments. The basis on which
the Russian Soviet Government intends to conduct
negotiations with Rumania is a strict observance
of the rights of the states and peoples concerned,
and we are convinced that an understanding can
easily be reached on this basis. The object of the
approaching conference must be the solution of all
disputes and questions between us, and the bringing
about of permanent relations of peace and friend-
ship. As soon as the Russian Soviet Government
shall have obtained a final answer from the Ru-
manian Government on the immediate opening of a
peace conference, it will communicate to the Ru-
manian Government the names of the delegates
appointed by the Russian Government for partici-
pation in the conference. It is desirable that we
should learn whether the Rumanian Government
accepts the place recently proposed by us as the
seat of the negotiations, namely, Kharkov."
Original from
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Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
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T^HE capture of Crimea by the Reds, the estab-
"** lishment of Soviet rule in the Caucasus, and the
occupation by the Red Army of the port of Batum,
together with its recent victorious offensive against
Petlura in northwest Ukraine, has brought the
whole northern and northeastern and most of the
eastern shore of the Black Sea under the complete
control of Moscow. Besides this, the Nationalist
Turks, holding more than two-thirds of the south-
ern shore-line of the Black Sea, are, as far as we
are informed, acting in harmony with the Soviet
Government. The best and most powerful ports
of the Black Sea, as well as numberless bases for
submarine warfare, are at the disposal of the Soviet
military and naval command. Here also are situ-
ated a great number of very excellent bases for
naval aviation both for the Russians and the Turks.
The inexhaustible sources of petroleum in the
Caucasus, the rich reserves of coal in the Donetz
Basin, the enormous deposits of iron ore and man-
ganese all along the snores of the Black Sea, as
well as the Caucasian copper mines, together with
the superhuman energy and activity of the Bolshev-
iki who have awakened the spirit of all the Russian
people, will certainly induce and enable the Red
Command, in a comparatively short time, to free
the Black Sea from foreign invaders just as they
cleared the territory of Russia from their numer-
ous enemies.
More than that, I feel that the Bolsheviki will at
last unite in a real family of brothers all the many
nations which were held together for centuries by
the brutal force of the autocratic rulers of Russia
and will then have access through the historical
straits to the warm seas.
After the collapse of Russian czardom, these na-
tions became independent and started their own
existence in the way that each considered right.
They enjoyed free existence only for a very short
time. The imperialistic capitalists of the west, like
a flock of hungry crows, rushed upon them with a
common aim, to put them under a new and more
terrible slavery than that under the Czar — namely,
under the yoke of the most powerful, most pitiless
tyrant in the world — Capital.
After a short period of "independent existence"
the Caucasian tribes, the Ukrainians in the south,
the Lithuanians in the west, and the Esthonians
and Letts in the northwest, as well as the Finns
in the north, fully realized that from a purely
military standpoint they would be unable to de-
fend themselves from the invasion of this terrible
enemy. They understood that the new Russia,
Soviet Russia, has a quite different policy from
that of Czarist Russia or of the Russia planned
by the so-called Russian "Socialists". They also
realized that in order to gain for their people a
real independent existence they had to be physi-
cally strong first of all. But how could they gain
by Google
military strength without the assistance of the great
powers, who offered them military and naval sup-
port, and financial aid — in exchange for their giv-
ing up their economic and political independence?
Even their bourgeois leaders realized the ap-
proaching danger and hesitated. The time had
passed for capitalistic imperialism to triumph. For
during this period the new government of Russia,
the Soviet Government, was beginning to be
understood by its neighbors. They gradually be-
came acquainted with the real political aims of
Moscow, and gradually lost their fear of Bolshevik
Russia, which they finally approached.
Their economic dependence upon Russia became
quite clear to each of the small nations which had
detached itself from the gigantic body of the former
empire. Trusting Soviet Russia, and realizing the
growing danger from the west, they were not afraid
to make peace with the great Federal Socialist
Republic.
Contemplating the fast growing power of the
proletarian republic, the capitalistic coalition, after
the complete failure of its aggressive policy towards
Soviet Russia, turned to a policy of prevention.
In the north, namely in the Baltic Sea, the most
important strategical naval bases fell under the
control of the Entente. In the south they captured
Constantinople from the Turks in order to control
the Dardanelles, and completely cut off the Russian
mercantile fleet from outside waters, thus control-
ling all Russian foreign trade. Could Soviet Rus-
sia reconcile herself to such a situation? Will
Ukraine or the Caucasus tolerate this restraint upon
an independent economic existence? Naturally
not, and they have decided to act accordingly. The
capitalistic coalition is anxiously watching the Rus-
sian movement in the Near East. The Dardanelles
must be under our control, say their diplomats.
These gates must be guarded by us in order to keep
Bolshevism from spreading throughout the world.
"With the fall of Constantinople to the Reds no-
body would be able to save Europe and the world
from revolution," I read in the Morning Post, one
of the most reactionary newspapers in England.
First of all this is wrong, and wrong entirely,
because Soviet Russia is not aiming at Constan-
tinople at all. Soviet Russia needs a free passage
through the straits, which are important to her ex-
istence just as they are important to all nations
with whom Russia must come in contact. Soviet
Russia has absolutely no thought of controlling
these straits. Russian strategists are clever enough
to understand that control of the Dardanelles can
not be gained by brute force, that to capture and
occupy Constantinople and become master of the
Bosphorus would not be sufficient; that it would
be more difficult, in fact impossible, to hold this
position, which from a purely military standpoint
is Utopian. The Russian Bolsheviki know well that
Original from
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the route through the Sea of Marmora is a univer-
sal international route, and that therefore, it can-
not be possessed or controlled by any one nation,
nor by a powerful coalition of large nations.
The AlUes are now trying to accomplish their
aims by the same methods of aggressive strategy
which the Russian Czars in the past fruitlessly tried
in regard to the Dardanelles; they also thought
that by defeating the Turkish army and seizing
the Ottoman capital, they would once for all cut
this Gordian knot. The present opponents of Soviet
Russia on several occasions fought the Czars 9
armies in order to prevent this dangerous step
by the Russian autocrats. They succeeded. Their
naval and military force was stronger than the
army of the Czar, and the international universal
route through the Sea of Marmora remained in the
possession of the Turks, who controlled it as guar-
dians of capitalistic imperialism of the west. At
that time there was no Bolshevism, and the military
strength of a nation was estimated by its army in
the field and its navy on the seas. The people were
not taken into account and, strange to relate, Rus-
sia with her 60,000,000 people was beaten in
1854-55, during the Crimean War, by a compara-
tively small expeditionary force of the allies. Rus-
sia with an army twelve times as large as that of
Japan lost the war in Manchuria in 1905.
Now the situation is quite different. Now all Rus-
sians fit for military service are taking arms in
order to open connection for themselves through
the blockade by which the enemies of humanity
liave decided to starve the Russian people.
The Russian policy is aiming at the Dardanelles
— that is a truth that cannot be concealed from
the world. The strategy of Soviet Russia has to
carry out this political aim. But how different
the tactics employed by the Bolsheviki in carrying
out this strategical task from those used by the
Czar's satraps in the past! The strategy of the Soviet
Republic with regard to the near eastern cam-
paign is not aggressive. It is based on sincere,
friendly relations with their eastern neighbors, the
Turks, the historical enemies of the Russian na-
tion, strange to say. Now both peoples are not
only friends, but almost cordial allies. They both
suffered injustice from western imperialism, they
were both robbed, oppressed, and menaced by the
slavery of world capitalism; and both shed their
blood for their independence. It brought them
together, it inspired them with full confidence in
each other. The Turkish proletariat stretched its
hand to the Russian proletariat in an appeal for
help — and they got it. The Red Army is ready
to aid the Turkish "nationalists", assisting them
to clear their country of invaders, the capitalistic
bandits of the west; and this is a purely tactical
support of an oppressed proletariat. They know
well that the fate of the straits will be determined
by forces that make aggressive Soviet Russian ac-
tion unncessary, and the final triumph of those
forces is a matter of time only.
From a purely military standpoint the position
of the Allies in Turkey is deplorable. The sud-
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den turmoil in Greece which resulted in the col-
lapse of the government of Venizelos, the puppet
of the Entente, will certainly lead to grave conse-
quences. There is no question that the Greek army
in Asia Minor is on the eve of complete demorali-
zation, while the Russian victory in Crimea, Geor-
gia, and Armenia, naturally would increase the
spirit of the "Nationalist" Turks reinforced by the
active aid of their Soviet allies.
I have already mentioned that to capture Con-
stantinople and seize the straits is one thing, and
to hold them, another. Many months ago in the
New York Call, as well as in Soviet Russia, I
prophesied that the general collapse of the Allied
invasion of Turkey was imminent. Well, we are
now on the eve of it. The condition of the Anglo-
French navy in the Black Sea cannot be considered
brilliant, and its base, the Sea of Marmora, is now
more likely to be a trap than a real naval base
for serious naval operations.
The defeat of the armies of the Crimean Baron
caused the Entente a great deal of trouble. One of
the most important strategical and poltical centers
in their Russo-Turkish campaign, namely Constan-
tinople, entirely lost its military importance. It
was already overcrowded with Russian refugees,
all kinds of "volunteers", and troops of various
nations; now it is a veritable tower of Babel, a nest
of all kinds of international adventurers. Accord-
ing to the local press, as well as the information
which we occasionally receive from trustworthy
sources, no one power in the world will be able to
bring order into the crowd which is flooding the
capital of the Ottoman empire. Murder and crime
rule in this so-called "main rear" of the Allied
forces operating in Turkey. It is sufficient to say
that a new Russian Government, yet without title,
also has headquarters in Constantinople, and this is
sufficient to understand the kind of surprises ex-
pected by brainless western strategists.
Kolchak, Denikin, and other White generals, all
of them nursed the idea of leading the Russian
armies upon Constantinople, and finally to get con-
trol of the Dardanelles. Wrangel succeeded, and
he is there. Who can guarantee that he will not
change his mind, give up being a pretender to the
throne of Russia, and play a new part in the East-
ern tragedy as a savior of Turkey from Bolshevism?
But let us hope that the collapse of the Crimean
Baron will bring the Allies to reason. In the
Black Sea they have at their disposal very few well-
equipped and solidly-protected ports to shelter
their navy in an inner sea, which the Black Sea
really is. Besides Constanza in Rumania, Burgas
and Varna in Bulgaria on the western shores of the
Black Sea, where it is doubtful whether the Allied
navy will find bases for their operations, there are
no more good ports in existence either to the west
of the Bosphorus or to the east of the Bosphorus
up to Sinope. We must not also overlook the fact
that the current from the Black Sea into the Sea
of Marmora is very strong, and that there is, there-
fore, great danger from floating mines for warships
anchoring close to the straits of the Bosphorus.
Original from
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The British knew that well when they tried to force
the narrows of the Dardanelles. A very small
detachment of submarines with a crew determined
to win or perish would be able to force the in-
vaders to clear the Black Sea; and once the Black
Sea is free from the naval forces of the Entente
it would not be a very difficult task to force them
to abandon Constantinople and start home through
the Dardanelles.
Everybody knows that the Russian Black Sea
shores were almost unfortified; there were not in
existence such modern fortifications as could be
considered real strongholds against foreign inva-
sion. But in spite of this the Russian proletariat
defended their shores with great success, and suc-
ceeded in clearing them of invaders, supported by
the most formidable navy in the world, and now
holds such seaports as Odessa, Novorossyisk, Mari-
upol, Berdiansk, Kherson, Batum, and others.
Would a sound-minded man believe that if the
Allies had had the least power to prevent this from
happening, by means of their naval forces, that
they would not have done so?
They were powerless to fight the Russian revolu-
tionary army in spite of their steel monsters. The
Red artillery held them a respectable distance from
land. The Red Navy, with submarines and other
armed boats attacked them, everywhere, surprising
their warships even when it was considered ab-
solutely impossible to be attacked. The Red sea-
planes, though imperfect, bombed them, and made
many marvelous raids on their bases. And this
was accomplished when Soviet Russia was in need
of everything, when the rich Wrangel supplies were
not yet at its disposal; when Russia, Soviet Russia
was fighting alone on several fronts. Now the sit-
uation has changed — the Soviet Republic is no
longer alone in opposing the attacks of the capi-
talist world.
How I Saw the Red Dawn
By M. Philips Price
[The following lines are taken from Chapter IX
of a book on the Russian Revolution, which will
probably be published shortly by Allen, Unwin
and Co., London.]
November 7, 1917
It was the evening of November 6, and I re-
paired to the Smolny Institute, where the Execu-
tive of the old Menshevik Soviet had its offices.
Roars of cheers were coming from the great hall.
The Petrograd Soviet was sitting, and Trotsky was
making a rousing speech to the delegates arriving
for the Second All-Russian Soviet Congress. All
was bustle and hurry, and a look of confidence was
on everyone's face. "Demos" was arising from the
depth, crude and defiant. Representatives of "revo-
lutionary-democracy", sitting in the old Menshevik
Executive upstairs, seemed strangely isolated from
realities.
Trotsky was in the chair, and on the tribune now
m *.
by V_
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IC
rose a short, bald-headed little man, whom I had
seen six months before, leading the tiny insignif-
icant Bolshevik group in the First Soviet Congress.
It was Lenin, without his moustache, which he had
shaved off in order to change his appearance dur-
ing the period of his forced concealment, now
drawing to a close. He spoke of the coming Soviet
Congress as the only guarantee for bringing peace,
land and workers 9 control to Russia. Then some-
one whispered into my ear that news had just ar-
rived that the Bolshevik Military Revolutionary
Committee, with the aid of Red Guards from the
factories and a part of the garrison who had occu-
pied the Winter Palace, had arrested all the Min-
isters, with the exception of Kerensky, who had
escaped in a motor car. I went to the Bolshevik
Party Bureau on the lower floor. Here I found a
sort of improvised revolutionary intelligence de-
partment, from which delegates to all parts of the
city were being dispatched. Upstairs in the hu-
raeu of the old Menshevik and Socialist-Revolu-
tionary Executive the silence of the grave reigned.
A few girl typists were sorting papers, and the
editor of the Menshevik Izvestia, Rozanov, was still
trying to keep a steady countenance.
On the following day (November 7) the great
hall of the Smolny was filled with delegates from
every part of North and Central Russia — from
those parts, in fact, where the poor half-proletarian
peasants, land-hungry soldier-deserters, dominated
the village and skilled artisans the urban Soviets.
Upon the platform rose Lenin. His voice was
weak, apparently with excitement, and he spoke
with some slight indecision. He seemed to feel
that the issue was still doubtful and that it was
difficult to put forward a program right here and
now. A Council of Peoples' Commissars, he said,
was being set up and the list of names would be
submitted to the Congress. The Council would pro-
pose to the Congress resolutions dealing with an
immediate armistice at the front, with the rights
of the Peasant Land Committees in the temporary
possession of the landlords' latifundias, and with
the control by Factory Workers' Committees over
all operations of employers and managers. "We
appeal to our comrades in England, France and
Germany to follow our example," he concluded,
"and we believe that the people, who gave Karl
Marx to the world, will not be deaf to our appeal.
We believe that our words will be heard by the
descendants of the Paris Communards, and that
the British workers will not forget their inheritance
from the Chartists."
About ten o'clock at night I passed out of the
Smolny Institute. In the street outside a group
of workingmen and Baltic Fleet sailors were dis-
cussing the Congress over a log fire. I passed along
the banks of the Neva, already beginning to freeze
in the shallows near the wharfs. A raw November
fog was blowing up from the Finnish Gulf. Oppo-
site the Vassily Ostrov lay the light cruiser Aurora
and a destroyer with guns trained on the Winter
Palace. "Stop!" shouted a voice, and I recognized
a cordon of Red Guards across the road. I was
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near the Winter Palace, which was now the seat of
the Military Revolutionary Committee. "Where
are the Ministers of Kerensky?" I asked one of the
guards. "Safe across the river in the Petropavlosk
Fortress," came the laconic reply. "You can't pass
along here," said another.
I crossed the great Neva Bridge and approached
the Petropavlosk. The Red Guards were standing
round the gates and the Red Flag was flying from
the tower of this "bastille" of Czarism. Yester-
day Kerensky's Government of doubting Thomases
in the Winter Palace was directing the fortunes of
a crumbling social order. On this night its mem-
bers were in this fortress, where they had but yes-
terday "kept the Bolshevik leaders. The wheel of
fortune had gone round and the Caliphs of the
hour had passed. With their passage the Russian
Revolution had entered upon a new phase. The
Soviets of workmen, peasants, and soldiers had at
last come into their own.
The School in the Woods
By W. McLaine
Russia has been at war for six years. Russia
lost more men in the European War than all the
Allies put together, and has gone on losing men
since that war ended — if it has ended. Russia has
been blockaded for three years. Russia was bank-
rupt as a State long before the Revolution. If the
Communist Government of Russia had done noth-
ing but carry on, it would have been wonderful,
but they have done more than just carry on; they
have done a large amount of new reconstructive
work.
In their educational work they have performed
miracles. Let me describe a memorable evening
at a school.
On Tuesday, July 6, we sailed out of Samara
at about 7 p. m. to visit what I have called "The
School in the Woods." As our boat approached the
landing stage where we were to disembark, we
heard chidren's voices singing the "Internationale"
and saw on the bank some two or three hundred
children arranged in a group to welcome us. As
we approached them they cheered vigorously, and
waved their flags, pine branches, and bunches of
flowers.
When we reached the group, a young boy of
about thirteen years stepped forward with a great
red standard, and in a remarkable little speech,
bade us welcome. Every delegate present was
hoping that he would not be called upon to reply.
All were so affected that speaking would have been
almost impossible. However, an Italian comrade
managed to speak for a moment or so, then we all
moved through the wood in the direction of the
school. The children clustered round us, and hand
in hand children and delegates walked in the cool
of the evening, singing, and wonderfully happy in
each other's company.
The school was once a bourgeois residence. What
thoughts that brings to our minds. The great
houses of the old corrupt Russian families now
turned into schools for hope of the world.
We looked over the school. Everything was
clean and orderly. We found there, Russian chil-
dren, Polish children, Yiddish children, children
of known reactionaries, children of officers known
to be fighting against the government, and so on*
But in Russia there are no reactionary or other
different kinds of children. There are only chil-
dren.
The children wanted to know if our town chil-
dren were taken away into the country for the
summer months. They wanted to know if they were
as happy and jolly in their school life as these boys
and girls from Samara. Alas! We had to say
that they were not One boy with great pride told
of his work, the fitting up of electric lamps in the
school. He was twelve years of age. So we talked,
and as we talked we laughed from sheer pleasure
at the sights and sounds around us.
At midnight our boat sailed away. The twilight
was merging into such darkness as that part of
the world has. The children gathered on the bank
and sang until we were out of hearing. Most of
us had tears in our eyes. We did not want to go
away. All of us had in our minds the thought:
"Good-bye, little brown-faced happy boys. We
leave you to your work and play, to your swimming
in the river. Good-bye, little girls, graceful and
sweet and smiling. We shall never see you again;
maybe our government will be responsible for the
murder of your parents, maybe for your death."
Yes, it may be so, but it will be no use blaming
the Churchills or even the Labor Party. We are
responsible for the lives of these children. This
winter, many must die from cold and hunger —
and British labor will allow great Christmas and
New Year feastings in the London hotels and man-
sions. Nay, British labor will prepare, provide,
and serve them.
"Little Russian boys and girls. British labor
will be sorry for you, as it is for the boys and
girls of Austria and elsewhere, but British labor
is a giant asleep or drunk."
"&4U citizens able to work have the right
to employment at their vocations. "
Section 10, Article II, of the Code of Labor Laws
of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic.
THE LABOR LAWS OF SOVIET RUSSIA
New edition, translated from the official Russian
text, with a supplement on The Protection of
Labor in Soviet Russia, by S. Kaplun, of the Com-
missariat of Labor.
93 pages, bound in heavy paper covers, price 25c.
ADDRESS
SOVIET RUSSIA
110 West 40tb Street New York City
UN I Vblb ll — =—
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With or Against the People
The Petrograd edition of Pravda prints an ex-
traordinary article by the academician Bekhteryey.
This scholar, who is a well-known psychiatrist, even
outside of the boundaries of Europe, attached him-
self to the Soviet Government from the very start
and recently issued an appeal to Russian scholars
living abroad, in which he calls upon them to re-
turn home and to devote their energies to the
Russiau people. His appeal has had the opposite
effect among many of the Russian intellectuals
who had fled to foreign parts ; among these intel-
lectuals is, for example, Professor Rostoftsev, who
protests in a Russian newspaper printed in Paris
against Bekhteryev's appeal. Bekhteryev now
prints the following reply to this protest:
"The object of my article was to support the
appeal of the Russian student youth, in which they
call upon our scholars, professors, and students,
living abroad, to return home. In my letter I ex-
pressed the great urgency of devoting one's intel-
lectual creative forces to our own country, and
declared that scientific work was entirely unpoli-
tical, since the scholar must be permitted to work
without limitations, without taking part in poli-
tics. Unfortunately I am not intimately acquain-
ted with Rostoftsev^s article, but to judge by what
the Petrograd Pravda communicates of it, I am
represented in Rostoftsev's statement as calculating
my appeal in a manner hostile to our country. It
would follow that those scholars who remain at
home performing their scientific labors are com-
mitting a crime against their country. It seems
as if Rostoftsev is making another attempt at the
so-called "intellectual sabotage" which he tried
once before, but which ended rather soon because
those who had proclaimed this sabotage were the
first to stop it. There is nothing of this kind in
Russia any more, but it is possible that some Rus-
sian scholars living in foreign countries may still
boast of sabotage. Professor Rostoftsev is probably
able to labor abroad, and as he imagines that it
would be a sin to cross our boundaries, let him
work abroad in peace. But there are other Rus-
sian scholars of whom I know, for instance, that
they are making a living in Finland by giving
mugic lessons. To be sure they now receive some
aid from the American Red Cross, but it is my
opinion that such a condition ie unworthy of a
scholar, especially at a time when there is a great
lack of professors and scholars in Russia. I ask,
without any thought of personalities: Would it
not be better to work together with our people at
home, without taking part in politics, to instruct
them or produce scientific workers? When our
native country is passing through a severe crisis
it is our duty to help and not to go abroad. It
will not harm Professor Rostoftsev to learn that
there are Russians abroad who fought against us
not only with phrases but also with weapons for
the sake of their political principles and who have
yet been brought to admit that they must return
home, in order to work there. In April I received
from Pjuchtiza (Esthonia) the following tele-
gram: 'A group of former Yudenich officers and
soldiers, not sympathizing with the party, would
like to return to Russia, not to become soldiers, or
to participate in politics, but in order to live for
Russia and work for peace. We need your help.
It is above all necessary to organize those abroad,
who left Russia and now are eager to return
home/ I immediately applied to the People's
Commissar for Foreign Affairs and the matter was
disposed of at once. I therefore think that instead
of Professor Rostof tsev^s saying so firmly : 1 will
not have anything to do with them!' he should
rather put before him this alternative: 'Either
one works with the people or against the people F"
COMPOSITION OP THE RUSSIAN
DELEGATION AT RIGA
The Riga correspondent of the "Robotnik", or*
gan of the Polish Socialist Party (P. P. S.), writes:
The chairman of the actual Delegation Com-
mittee, that is of the so-called "close few", is Mr.
Yoffe, a physician by profession. Besides him there
are Mr. Manuilski, a composer and musician, I be-
lieve, Representative of Soviet Ukraine; Mr. Obo-
lenski, professor of social economy, and Mr. Kisor,
secretary of the "four", evidently an authority on
Polish affairs, who is to arrive within a few days.
At the head of the actual committee of authori-
ties is Professor Bogolyepov, an economist and
statistician; the vice-chairman is Mr. V. J. Pite-
chele (Finn), professor of social economy. In
this committee there are also General Novicky, for-
merly commander of a corps in the Czar's army,
and General Polivanov, former Minister of War
in Schturmer's cabinet, and J. B. Rozenblat, Editor
of the Ekonomicheskaya Zhizn.
All the delegates and authorities, with the ex-
ception of the two generals, belong to the Bolshevik
Party. The generals, although not Bolsheviks, are
nevertheless, according to the assurances of the
Bolshevik secretaries, so loyal towards the Soviet
Government that they were invited to the Riga con-
ference; and that there is no fear that they will take
advantage of the situation and betray Soviet Rus-
sia, escaping to France or to Wrangel.
The general secretary of the delegation is Mr.
J. L. Lorenz, an alderman from Lodz, in what was
formerly Russian Poland, son of a factory official,
educated in a local gymnasium of the city of Lodz.
Mile. Lizowska (Polish) was assigned to the
post of chief interpreter. The director of the bu-
reau of interpreters is Mr. Waclaw Panski, a Pol-
ish Communist. Mr. Rozenberg is the chief of the
publicity staff.
Altogether the Bolshevik Delegation numbers
about sixty persons, who have brought along a
variety of technical equipment, several automobiles,
etc.
NEXT WEEK.— Special ^2-page issue, with text */
Polish tiv.apj ami iniwiar. unities.
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France 1798, Russia 1920
By Mager Doouttle
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Does history repeat itself? I refuse to believe it.
I refuse to believe it because I am not a pessimist;
because I have faith to believe that through the
ages an increasing purpose runs. Yet I admit that
one's faith receives a severe jolt in the presence
of so staggering a resemblance as exists between
the international situations created respectively by
the revolution in France in 1789 and in Russia
in 1917. I know that I am speaking platitudes. But
they are lugged in here merely as an excuse to in-
troduce an interesting poem by Coleridge. Its
name is "France: An Ode." Coleridge isn't known
nearly so well as he is admired. He was not a
voluminous poet, to be sure, but he did write some
things besides "The Ancient Mariner." And
"France" will be appreciated by those fortunate
ones who have the knack of reading mankind's
story in its literature.
Coleridge early came under the spell of the revo-
lutionary mutterings in France; and indeed his
career as a student at Cambridge was hopelessly
marred thereby, for he became too much preoc-
cupied with visions of social regeneration to be
able to focus his mind on mere academic pursuits.
What happened when triumphant democracy reared
her head in France, striking terror to the hearts of
the powers ranged around, and Coleridge's own
spiritual reaction to the events of the day, are
powerfully depicted in the following lofty verses.
Read them thoughtfully, with one eye on what is
going on today, and let your amazement grow:
When France in wrath her giant-limbs upreared,
And with that oath, which smote air, earth and sea,
Stamped her strong foot and said she would be free,
Bear witness for me, how I hoped and feared!
With what a joy my lofty gratulation
Unawed I sang, amid a slavish band:
And when to whelm the disenchanted nation,
Like fiends embattled by a wizard's wand,
The monarchs marched in evil day,
And Britain joined the dire array;
Though dear her shores and circling ocean
Though many friendships, many youthful loves
Had swoll'n the patriot's emotion
And flung a magic light o'er all her hills and groves;
Yet still my voice, unaltered, sang defeat
To all that braved the tyrant-quelling lance,
And shame too long delayed and vain retreat!
For ne'er, Liberty! with partial aim
I dimmed thy light or damped thy holy flame;
But blessed the paeans of delivered France,
And hung my head and wept at Britain's name.
"And what," I said, "though Blasphemy's loud scream
With that sweet music of deliverance strove!
Though all the fierce and drunken passions wove
A dance more wild than e'er was maniac's dream!
Ye storms that round the dawning east assembled,
The sun was rising, though ye hid his light!"
And when, to soothe my soul, that hoped and trembled,
The dissonance ceased, and all seemed calm and bright;
When France her front deep-scarr'd and gory
Concealed with clustering wreaths of glory;
When insupportably advancing,
Her arm made mockery of the warrior's tramp;
While timid looks of fury glancing,
Domestic treason, crushed beneath her fatal stamp,
Writhed like a wounded dragon in his gore;
Then I reproached my fears that would not flee;
"And soon," 'I said, "shall Wisdom teach her lore
In the low huts of them that toil and groan!
Ami conquering by her happiness alone,
Shall France compel the nations "to be free,
Till Love and Joy look round, and call the Earth their own."
But when from the fires of the revolution there as-
cended the spirit of Napoleon, and France em-
barked on a career of unprecedented imperialism,
the shock was terrible, and the bitterness of Cole-
ridge's soul poured itself forth in these lines:
Forgive me, Freedom! O forgive those dreams!
I hear thy voice, I hear thy loud lament,
From bleak Helvetia's icy caverns sent —
I hear thy groans upon her blood-stained streams!
Heroes, that for your peaceful country perished,
And ye that, fleeing, spot your mountain-snows
With bleeding wounds; forgive me, that I cherished
One thought that ever' blessed your cruel foes! ....
France, that mockst heaven, adulterous, blind,
And patriot only in pernicious toils,
Are these thy boasts, Champion of human kind?
To mix with kings in the low dust of sway,
Yell in the hunt, and share the murderous prey:
To insult the shrine of Liberty with spoils
From freemen torn; to tempt and to betray?
However, he accepts the inevitable, and in rather
conventional British fashion thus expresses his
opinion of the French:
The sensual and the dark rebel in vain,
Slaves by their own compulsion! In mad game
They burst their manacles and wear the name
Of Freedom, graven on a heavier chain! ^^_ ^
We (Jo not agree with Coleridge that the imperi-
alistic temper of the French people, perhaps partly
induced by the victories of the Revolution, and
utilized by Napoleon in his campaigns of aggres-
sion against Europe, represents a permanent char-
acteristic of the French race, or that the French are
"the sensual and the dark" any more than other
peoples at moments when they are misguided. Nor
do we believe, we may add, that the present imperi-
alistic attitude of France, particularly toward Rus-
sia, will be forever tolerated by the French people.
Napoleon himself explained his success in exploit-
ing the French for military purposes by alluding
to their love of glory, and of a leader who had
acquired glory. As a matter of fact, such mental
conditions may make a people exploitable for a
short period, but they are necessarily of temporary
nature. There is no doubt that imperialistic tend-
encies might similarly inspire the Russian people if
intervention should be pressed with sufficient vigor
against them. But such military campaigns, disas-
trous though they may be to the intervening powers,
will not indicate any real and permanent charac-
teristic of the Russian people, but will be merely a
necessary answer to the military interference by
those powers. Soviet Russia will attack only her
enemies — and it would therefore be well for those
states that have been actively supporting intervene
tion to desisl from doing so.
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of the
Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well as by
friends and supporters of Soviet Russia. Full re-
sponsibility is assumed by the Bureau only for un-
signed articles. Manuscripts are not solicited; if
sent in, their return is not promised.
C OVIET RUSSIA seems at the moment to be not
^ so much misrepresented in the American press
as was the case a month or so ago. Editorials ap-
pear in some of the daily papers that suggest a
belief that the Soviet Government will not be im-
mediately overthrown, and an apparent desire to
have some sort of dealings with the new social sys-
tem. Even the New York Times has softened its
editorial venom on the subject of Russia, and only
a week ago today completed the printing of a series
of interesting and by no means unfavorable articles,
in the form of a diary of Mrs. Clare Sheridan, who
left Russia November 7; the New York Globe is
still printing a series of instalments by Mr. Ben-
jamin Schlesinger, President of the International
Ladies Garment Workers Union, giving his impres-
sions of Russia at a somewhat earlier period. Al-
together, it would seem as if an angel of peace
had ventured into the not unsullied editorial pre-
cincts and left behind some feeling of kindliness
in some rather hardened hearts. Or does it seem
more as if some powerful government, — say that
of England — had instructed its organs in other
countries to be more cautious in their comments
on Soviet Russia, because their employer might
soon be disposed to enter into trade relations with
the new order? Even France, by the way, was
reported by the usual "well-informed circles" to
be almost ready to consider a lifting of the ban
against Soviet Russia, and to be emitting only low
growls of persistence on the subject of a reimburse-
ment for her loans to the Czar when he needed
money to hold down the approaching revolution.
And yet, while we should like to be optimistic,
and while we know that those who wish the new
government and the new system well are persons
of idealistic temper who like to believe that even
England, France, and other countries are well-dis-
posed, we cannot refrain from cautioning friends
of Soviet Russia against being too sure that the
present weakening of the current of hatred against
that country is of permanent or genuine nature, or
that it will necessarily lead to serious and lastingly
satisfactory results. There are many forces, un-
fortunately, which have strong financial interest
in preventing Soviet Russia from really undertak-
ing the needed work of reconstruction, and it is
difficult to believe that these forces, in France, Eng-
land, and other countries, will consent to let any
opportunity slip by to launch another counter-
revolutionary onslaught against the proletarian
state.
It is not impossible, therefore, that further de-
lays may arise in the signing of the Commercial
Agreement between Soviet Russia and England.
This signing has been awaited at earlier dates and
has already been several times delayed. Thus, on
November 16, the Daily Herald, London, announced
that the Russian Trade Agreement, the signing of
which was expected at any moment, would prob-
ably not be signed "this week." And, needless to
say, the agreement was not signed that week. By
the way, the reason assigned by the Daily Herald
for that failure to sign the agreement is interesting:
A much more serious claim is that made by the British
purchasers of Russian property — land, factories, timber,
etc. — from Russian emigres.
It is said that a gamble on a vast scale has been going
on in this kind of property in financial circles, and these
claims the Soviet authorities, quite naturally, refuse to
consider.
The situation is regarded as very delicate, and it is now
no secret that, as announced in the Daily Herald yesterday,
there is strenuous opposition in the Cabinet to the Prime
Minister's policy.
• « •
^CO flickers through darkness and hunger,
^ the thin flame of the Russian mind," — is tie
comment of The New Republic (November 24) on
the passages it has quoted from H. G. Wells' second
article on Russia, an article to which we paid our
respects editorially, by the way, in our last issue.
Mr. Wells' articles are prolix and diffusive, and,
like all the long productions of the "impartial lib-
eral spirit," they mean many things to many men.
It is interesting that to The New Republic they
mean that the lot of the intellectual in Russia is
hard, and that much must be done in all countries
to safeguard and shelter the gifted scientist and
litterateur so that they may have the comfort and
high spirit necessary to produce their valuable
work. With apparent approval The New Republic
quotes Mr. Wells' sentences: "Science, art, and
literature are hothouse plants, demanding warmth
and respect and service. The collapse of the Rus-
sian Imperial system smashed up all shelters in
which such things could exist." Of course, neither
Mr. Wells nor The New Republic would wish that
Czar ism should be restored in order to reerect the
shelters in which such things as science, art, and
literature could exist, but both seem to think that
the Soviet Government, with its "crude Marxian
philosophy", neglected the flower of intellect and
art until, in the composite words of The New Re-
public editorial:
Too late, perhaps, the Communist Government awoke t»
find science, art, literature dying on its hands, and its
efforts to keep the spark alive are clumsy, since "Mart
the prophet, and his sacred book supply them with no lew
at all in the matter." The hero of what salvage is being
made of intellectual men and women is Gorky, who "b*j
a passionate respect for the value of western science inj
culture . . . and has found a steady support in Lenin-
Between him and "the more creative intelligence in the
Bolshevist Government" have been organized the Howe
of Literature end Art in Pefrograd — and, more developed
the House of Science, which feeds rations to some 4,Wi
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SOVIET RUSSIA
557
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scientific workers and their families, and provides them to
a small extent with hospital conveniences, baths* clothing."
We know that the Soviet Government is doing
all it can to secure life and the opportunities for
labor and research to the many scholars and artists
in the population, but we nevertheless feel con-
strained to point out to the school-bred and univer-
sity-sheltered intellectual that the importance of
affording special conditions of life to those who
have had the privilege of a better intellectual and
artistic training than their fellows is capable of
occasional exaggeration and over-statement. The
nursing of a special artist and scientist class is
sometimes very useful, but as often as not the
race that sacrifices itself for such persons is cherish-
ing a serpent at its breast. Perhaps some of the
misery to which the Bavarian people were subjected,
in order that Richard Wagner and Ludwig II
might have sufficient funds and leisure to live and
create — and dissipate — was transformed into im-
mortal music, but the mass of evidence presented
by the experience of Bavaria and the rest of Ger-
many would make it seem just as well to have
the scholar and the artist, and the privileged folk
generally, put themselves more closely in contact
with the trials and discomforts of the rest of the
population. We are thinking of the ninety-three
German intellectuals who signed an "Appeal to the
Civilized World" in October, 1914, in defence of
the imperialistic war that the German Government
was then waging against Russia, France, and Eng-
land. Ninety- three of the most sheltered and pam-
pered brains in Europe were found able and willing
to sign a statement, obviously intended to secure
favorable attention to German propaganda in for-
eign countries, in which all the claims of the gov-
ernment of the Hohenzollerns — that it was waging
a war for German Kultur, that Germany was beset
by cruel, implacable foes who would not let her
live in peace, and that the war that had been
"forced upon" Germany must be won by her in
order that she may again pursue the arts of peace
undisturbed — found full support and loud asser-
tion. And thousands of additional signatures to
this document might easily have been obtained in
Germany, if it had not obviously been the intention
to strengthen the effectiveness of the document by
having it emanate from the highest circles only,
of art, science, and literature. These ninety-three
men, those of them that are still living, are now
pitiably preparing declarations admitting that they
had subscribed to errors in their statement of six
years ago. Perhaps Entente scholars will have
mercy now and send them some food.
Were these men all liars, or did they not know
any better? We shall not presume to judge, al-
though we cannot fail to recognize the hypnotic
power of a nationalist idea that has been inculcated
by frequent repetition, for years, in the heads of
the successful intellectual bureaucracy of a very
successful commercial civilization. But whether
their support of this document was honest or dis-
honest, it was a terrible mistake, and served to aid
the German Government in holding the support of
the less learned and more easily influenced portions
of the population. And that is precisely what the
ninety-three picked men of Germany should not
have done. Anyone who is acquainted with con-
ditions in the university world of Germany before
1914 — and in Germany, more than in any other
country, the noted scholars and artists had been
provided with professorships in the universities —
will recall how much was done for these men in
the form of emoluments, privileges, royalties, social
status, general adulation. Every chance to develop
their minds, to withdraw themselves from the rude
efforts of other men— had been afforded to this
chosen band. Special opportunities to study and
to sharpen their wits were given them, and for the
artists even a special morality was proclaimed.
And when the great hour of fate arrived, when the
intellectual celebrities of the German people should
have given proof that they had not only intelli-
gence, but also courage, when the people looked to
them to speak proud words of disdain and dis-
avowal to the butchers that were driving the Ger-
man people like cattle to the slaughter — those cele-
brities stripped themselves of the medals they had
received from British and French academies, and
sent back their doctors 9 diplomas to the foreign
universities !
It was but poor service the German people got
from their "great men" when they needed it.
But the German people found — and had always
found — other champions. The German university
faculties never produced any historian who was the
equal of Franz Mehring, nor an uncompromising
proclaimer of truth to equal Karl Liebknecht, nor
an economist to equal Karl Marx — to the audacious
task of shaving whom Mr. Wells announces he is
about to raise his fastidious lance. These men
were nursed by conditions far less favorable to
comfort and abstract thought than those of the
German professors, but they turned out to be bet-
ter men and straighter thinkers. In Germany, as
in other countries, a few lone scholars held out and
refused to sign such documents as the above, or
even actively opposed the autocracy; but they were
men to whom their office seemed to involve a duty
in return for all the privileges it had brought them.
Most of the learned and the artistic in all the coun-
tries of the world had come to regard themselves,
however, as individuals who must be preserved no
matter what might be the fate of the civilization
that had produced them.
The "thin flame of the Russian mind" is not flick-
ering. There is darkness and hunger, but more
thought has recently come out of Russia than out
of any other country. The forms of life are chang-
ing, the ancient ruins crumbling, and the new life
that blossoms from the fragments will not fail to
assume shapes that are lovely, or impressive, or pro-
found, as the case may be. Perhaps there will be
fewer expert specialists in certain fields, but then
this may be an era in which the production of great
philosophers and tUatesnien is more important than
that of in.ovel.hts firid technologists,
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T^HE same issue of The New Republic that ap-
*** provingly quotes Mr. Wells' words on the "Bick-
erings of the thin flame of the Russian mind" also
has a little editorial passage which may come to
Mr. Wells' attention, if Mr. Wells admires and
reads The New Republic as much as it admires and
reads him. Here are two little sentences from this
passage:
For thousands the present industrial depression means
frugality in the use of luxuries, and perhaps the necessity
of living on their capital. But for hundreds of thousands,
who have no capital, and no luxuries to give up, it means
less bread and butter, patched clothes, pale children, cold
jobless months with the breadline at the end.
Will Mr. Wells still maintain in his victorious
persiflage with Zinoviev, Chairman of the Petro-
grad Soviet, that the interpretation which Soviet
Russian officials put on western European condi-
tions is based upon a blind following of the teach-
ings of Karl Marx, and will be — provided he really
takes seriously the picture drawn by The New Re-
public — still insist that there are not less than 200
social classes in England?
• * *
T N Mr. Wells' third article, the last to which we
"*• shall have time to devote any attention in these
columns, the former head of the German Depart-
ment of the British Foreign Propaganda expresses
two opinions as to the relative stability of the
various governments in Europe that should not
have escaped the pen of so astute an official. But
perhaps they are careless verdicts, which the hasty
journalist, who has to turn out such an article
every week, had no time to revise or adapt to each
other. We give them as they stand; the former
occurs rather early in the article (N. Y. Times,
November 21), the latter near the close:
1. "Today the Bolshevist Government sits, I believe, in
Moscow as securely established as any government in Eu-
rope, and the streets of Russian towns are as safe as any
streets in Europe."
2. "We may drive what will remain of Bolshevist Russia
to the steppes and the knife if we help Baron Wrangel to
pull down the by no means firmly established government
in Moscow under the delusion that thereby we shall bring
about representative institutions and a limited monarchy."
The only way to reconcile the two statements is
under the assumption that no government in Europe
is stable, and so able a propagandist as H. G. Wells
could not have meant to say that.
J-J N. BRAILSFORD is also writing a series of
• articles on Russia. The first appeared in
The New Republic of November 24, the same issue
that printed apparent approval of H. G. Wells'
sayings. But no observers of Russia could be far-
ther apart than H. N. Brailsford and H. G. Wells.
Wells goes to Russia overflowing with apt sayings
and smart repartee; to Zinoviev he audaciously de-
nies that there are any less than 200 social classes
in England; he undertakes blandly to expand the al-
legedly growing sense of futility and non-perform-
ance in Russia; his brilliant mind demands proof
that the Civil War in Ireland is a class struggle,
and his adroit fingers itch not only to turn out the
well-selling world-solving serial, but also to attack
the irritating, wilderness of Karl Marx's beard
Uppermost in the bright Mr. Wells' mind was al-
ways to tell somebody something; in Russia, when
he suspected men of feeling that perhaps the revo-
lution was not going well,
"I tried to assist in the development of this novel nai
disconcerting discovery, and also I indulged in a little
lecture on the absence of a large class-conscious prole-
tariat in the western communities.**
Mr. Brailsford didn't go to Russia to teach, but
to learn. And his conclusions are therefore worth
reading. How different, are his observations from
those of Wells. In the little manufacturing town
of Sobinka, near Vladimir, on the Moscow-Nizhni-
Novgorod railway, he finds huge cotton-factories,
and carefully studies what might have been the
causes leading to the establishment of such an in-
dustry in such a God-forsaken place, without trans-
portation, without fuel close at hand, without the
raw-material (cotton), and finds that the reason
why capital had determined to take a chance here,
under the Czarism, was simply the presence of a
large number of poor laborers who could be em-
ployed at a very low wage. Mr. Brailsford's re-
marks are not those of the sensational artist, of
the journalist writing acceptable stuff for a shal-
low reader, but those of a careful student who pre-
sents his conclusions at the end of a convincing
array of facts, arranged very much in the order of
the premises and conclusion of a syllogism. Mr.
Brailsford has sympathy for the millions of Rus-
sian workers who are trying to solve the greatest
economic problems in history, but his sympathy
does not prevent him from attempting seriously to
determine what are the causes that have made the
task a difficult one, and in this study he chooses
carefully the regions best exemplifying certain con-
ditions and then proceeds to analyze them with
clearness and thoroughness. It is a real student of
conditions who places before us the interesting fact
that on the whole the appearance of city populations
in Central Europe is physically less favorable than
in Russia, and then shows how far below Western
European food standards the Vladimir proletariat
is nevertheless obliged to live. (Always concrete
in his treatment, Mr. Brailsford, when he gives
statistics, tells where he got them, and to what
town they apply, instead of picturing a fabulous
East creeping insidiously westward over the Rus-
sian steppes.) We believe that these six articles
of Mr. Brailsford in The New Republic will he
worth reading. There are still five to come. Read
Wells for amusement and Brailsford for inform-
ation.
Marx and Russia's Beards
An article on this subject, suggested by Mr. H. G.
Wells' irritation over the beard of Karl Marx, has
been prepared by Dr. Isaac A. Hourwich, and will
appear m our next issue (32-page number).
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SOVIET RUSSIA
559
O'er the Russian Lapland
By John S. Clarke
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(COMRADE CHRISTIANSEN of the Murmansk
^^ "excise" department is a tall, broad-should-
ered, fair-haired, fresh-complexioned Finn. He
speaks English very well, is good-natured, and soli-
citous for the welfare of all friends of Russia. He
guided us from our boat to the "customs house",
took charge of our few belongings, prepared water
for our ablutions, a bed for our weary bodies, and
gave us "the freedom of the city." Elsie Varsten
made dinner for us of cabbage soup (in which
floated a piece of pork fat), raw anchovies, and tea.
Afterwards we wandered all over the settlement,
went where we liked, did what we liked, and photo-
graphed anywhere and anything we liked.
It was a Saturday, and the "subotnik" or volun-
tary labor was in progress. Scores of men were
engaged in digging foundations and trenches for
railway buildings.
No cigarettes. Imitation tobacco rolled up in
pieces of newspaper. A diet that would cause a
British clerk to faint with fatigue when he lifted
a pen. Rags and tatters. Mud and misery. Such
was life at Murmansk. But — smiling faces, light
hearts, breasts filled with hope, and minds with
vision.
And out of it all the song, the song of hard toil
for Freedom.
Shovels and picks plied ryhmically, piled the
earth up "in ridges above the heads of those who
dug. A huge locomotive puffed and grunted back
and forth. Up and down the slippery bank went
the pony carts, drawn by mountain ponies, hog-
maned, fat and well-groomed, and driven by
ancients with flowing beards. Grinning Mongolian
faces passed by, their owners giving us a wel-
coming "cheero", and going mad with delight at
the gift of a real cigarette. From the hillside a
woman came toward us. A ragged skirt reached
to her calves, which were bare; she was shod in
a pair of soldiers' "bluchers", and the upper por-
tion of her attire consisted in the darned and
stitched remnants of a man's jacket. Under her
arm she carried a tin bowl half-full of wild bil-
berries, which she insisted on our sampling, pour-
ing them into our hands. We tried to thank her,
and, with merry laughter at the two "Tovarischi"
from a land whose people were responsible for
her country's martyrdom, she walked away hum-
ming with a prick-eared mongrel trotting at her
side.
Around a building near by, a group of prosper-
ous looking children played hide and seek, while
two little boys "rather more grown", as Ingoldsby
would say, made valiant efforts to drag a protest-
ing fluffy-haired puppy along with a piece of string.
"Kids", I said sententiously to Gallacher, "are
the same the world over." With which piece of
not very remarkable wisdom we went in to bed.
At four forty-five p. m. next day we departed for
the south. An enormous locomotive piled high
with wood fuel drew our formidable looking trail.
The passengers, with few exceptions, were soldiers
of the Red Army en route for the Polish front,,
the exceptions being railway workers, and in one or
two cases the wives of some of the soldiers. Our
compartment was a nightmare in yellow wood and
two storeys. The broad wooden seat of the Russian
train folds up like a bed couch, and when opened
out joints the seat opposite to it, making sleeping
accommodation for two. Likewise the "back" lifts
up, and by a rod and socket arrangement another
plank bed is supported above, on which two more
travelers may sleep, provided their anatomy is
sufficiently elastic to permit them doing so.
After the customary hand-shaking we climbed
up the ladder and were soon moving along the
sandy track. For some distance we followed the
gulf, losing sight of it now and then through the
obtrusion of scrub-clad banks down which were
scattered thousands of tons of boulders and pebbles,
fallen trees, and war-time debris.
On either side, lamentable to behold, every form
of rolling-stock lay in ruin, half submerged in
morass or smashed up beyond hope of repair.
Everything we looked at on this dejected track
seemed symbolical of destruction. The very herb-
age was black, burned up by the fires set ablaze
by the myriad sparks blown from the engine fire-
box. Everything, too, was so painfully discernible,
for speed is admittedly not the strong point of the
Murmansk train service. Two trains per week
leave on their thousand mile journey, and the speed
varies between five and fifteen miles per hour.
The first stop is at Kola itself, an old, very
small village situated at the extremity of the gulf,
where it is joined by the torrential rivers Kola
and Talom. Over its rock encumbered bed the
water rushes cataract-like, not with the song of
poetic fancy, but with the noise of distant thunder
accompanied by the hissing of ten thousand fiends.
The roar is greater in the immense ravines where
the current is swifter, and where the splash of a
hundred cascades, falling like avalanches of silvery
feathers down the rocky sides, augment the dis-
turbance.
The sandy bed is stirred by the agitated torrent
which hurls over every boulder in its path a mass
of reddened spray and yellow foam. The spray
does not sparkle during its dance in the air, for
the gigantic granite walls shut out the sun's beams;
but to glance down into the gloom where the
patches of spray leap amid the devils' orchestra
of the rushing waters is to catch a momentary
glimpse of the Inferno's own dark river.
Crossing this we arrived at Kola, and drew up
at the pine wood building which does duty as the
station. In the distance the tiny church, the in-
evitable village landmark, stood conspicuously with
its tower and cupola dwarfing the wooden houses
nearby. KolLi is ail ancient village. It was once
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Russia's- "farthest north", being the earliest settle-
ment known to have been made by Novogorodian
emigrants on the Murman Coast, and mentioned in
the chronicles as early as 1264 A.D.
In 1550 Ivan the Terrible fortified it during his
wars with the Swedes and renamed it Citadel of
Kola, from which time until one hundred years
ago it was used as a place of exile for political
prisoners. Kola was destroyed in 1855 by the
English.
The buildings of the recent British occupation
stand on the ground immediately adjoining the
railroad. On my return to Kola with the Russian
Labor Delegation I made investigation among the
simple trappers and fishermen who inhabit the set-
tlement, and learned of JFurther brutalities per-
petrated by the British officials. After hypocriti-
cally alleging that their military base at Kola was
for "defensive" purposes, i. e., to protect these un-
concerned people against Bolshevism, the British
CO. requisitioned houses, wood, produce, and la-
bor belonging to the civil population, who, when
they protested, were told their settlement was now
under martial law, and that future complainants
would be severely punished.
These half-savage children of the frozen tundra,
living the most peaceful of lives up to that moment,
had no more idea of the significance of British
martial law than their sledge-dogs had. They con-
tinued therefore to protest against the wanton de-
struction of their property, the invasion of their
sacred privacy and unwarrantable interference with
their economic life. The British democraey-savers,
liberty-lovers, and small-people protectors therefore
stopped the "grousing" by sentencing to death
and executing five inoffensive villagers, leaving
their dead bodies to rot in the swamps. I stood
beside their graves, marked by the little white
painted Greek crosses, in that melancholy far away
Arctic land. Beside me stood a group of wonder-
ing muzhiks and trappers in sheepskin coats tied
by ropes, huge boots, and enormous "bonnets".
Their eyes glittered like beads that peeped from a
shaggy mass of hair that grew all over their faces
and drooped beneath the peaks of their caps; their
huge knarled hands hung listlessly at their sides,
and their whole bearing was one of patient, un-
complaining resignation. My eyes wandered from
these to the little railed-off enclosure where five
of their fellows lay beneath the shadows of the
holy crosses with their one-time sturdy hearts pene-
trated by British bullets, and my mind flew off
to London, to the garden parties at Buckingham
Palace, to the oily eloquence of number 10 Down-
ing Street, and the lisping lunacy of the Dundonian
baboon, and I felt there was more honor, more
truth, and more manhood in the little finger of a
slit-eyed, squat-faced Eskimo or Samoyede of the
Arctic steppes than in the entire carcass of a Bri-
tish "gentleman".
After leaving Kola the train crosses the entire
peninsula from the Arctic Ocean to the inner
reaches of the White Sea. The peninsula is about
443 miles (English) from west to east and 266
miles from north to south. The line winds un-
evenly across the country owing to the number
of obstacles this land presents. From Kola in the
north to Kandalaksa at the southern end the jour-
ney is through the forbidding forest zone and oyer
the moss-grown wilds covered with bogs, swamps,
and lakes. Huge stretches of dreary wastes called
by the geologist "tundra", overgrown with mosses
and lichens, with here and there in more favorable
spots a sprinkling of dwarf birch and willow-scrub.
Bordering this and intermingling with it, but never
wholly absent from it, is the forest wild. Thous-
ands of miles of it, making a coniferous ring
around the top of the globe with the ice-capped
center called the polar regions lying like a monk's
tonsure on the top. Pine, fir, larch, birch, and wil-
low are the chief growths of the forest zone, in-
habited by characteristic fauna of the tundra-
lemmings, Arctic foxes, mountain hares, reindeer,
and in the summer weasels, wolverines, wolves,
and brown bears.
Here once roamed the lordly mammoth fighting
his unequal fight with the parsimonious, blizzard-
ridden north, and here he succumbed, as unfitted
to survive in such conditions as a White Army in
a Red land. The crawling train wriggles along
through the slender trees until Lake Lmandra is
reached. Here the forest vanishes on the right
(on the downward journey) and beyond the lake,
which we were more than a day in passing, the
Hibinski mountains with their peaks veiled in per-
1>etual snow rise 1,000 feet above sea level. One
ooks upon, also, Mount Bozia (or God's Hill),
where the ancestors of the Lapps offered up sacri-
fices to their gods. These mountains are honey*
combed with caverns, studded in parts with crys-
tals of transulcent quartz and amethyst In the
ground, untouched as yet by man, there is known
to be "riches beyond the dreams of avarice" — min-
erals of highest quality. Silver, lead, iron, copper,
zinc, gold, platinum and precious stones. Ihe
forest timber alone is estimated at £100,000,000.
Pearls have been discovered in the rivers.
To look upon the dismal landscape — dismal ex-
cept where the tree-clothed hills relieve the view,
or when over a wooden bridge we crawl cater-
pillar-like over an angry cataract, and to follow
the old rotting military road through the bogs and
over the rock-strewn mosses, one marvels at the
endurance, the heroism, and the industry of the
men and women who, only a few years ago, laid
out the track for this desert railway line.
The ghostly-looking trees, the limitless expanse
above, the awe-inspiring silence, and — visions of
the Nevsky Prospect, the Nicolskaya, and the
International Congress. The lines of the Russian
poet, Nekrassov, crept into the mind:
"There is noise in the capitals, the orators thunder,
The war of words rages;
But there, in the depths of Russia,
Is the silence of centuries.
Only the wind gives no rest
To the tops of the pine trees along the waste. 1 *
ulW^tTW ^k^ ted 8hout from ^
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lacber draws attention to a majestic dragon-fly,
which like a miniature monoplane, only infinitely
more beautiful, sweeps from its marsh and vibrates
above our heads, an epic in gauze and gold.
Every few hours the train draws up at a wooden
pump house, which supplies the engine with water
drawn from a lake nearby.* At the same spot
wooden logs cut from the forest are piled up ready
to be thrown on to the tender for fuel. At some
of these lonely places a "boiler house" is estab-
lished for supplying travellers with hot water for
their tea, and as the train stops an eager crowd
bolts along the permanent way with billy-cans and
metal jugs, each member of it endeavoring to grab
the coveted prize first.
It was unanimously decided by our small party,
which now numbered seven — three Finns, an Amer-
ican, Gallacher, myself, and our courier — that Gal-
lacher, being the greatest tea-drinker, should be
the principle hot water diplomat, and right well
and worthily did he carry out the trust "imposed"
upon him.
At first, of course, he sometimes conveniently
forgot to grab his tin in time, but learning by
bitter experience that the inexorable law of Soviet
Russia is: "He who does not hop it quickly neither
shall he drink," William accepted the "discipline",
and did some magnificent sprinting when the oc-
casion demanded it.
His efforts, however, to learn the results of the
Red advance on the Polish front by talking Scotch
to Russian-Finns were not so brilliantly success-
ful. He would first grab a soldier in the corridor,
who was as well acquainted with Paisley Scotch
as a cabbage is with the philosophy of Bergson,
and the conversation would follow on these lines:
W. G.— "Poles, Poles, are they defeated?"
Soldier — "Ne uponymio!" (I don't understand).
W. G.— "Poles— defeated?"
Soldier — "Ne uponymio!"
W. G— "Poles— beaten— defeated— beaten?" (a
little fistcuff display).
Soldier (stoically) — "Ne uponymio!"
W. G. — "Poles beaten ! y'ken beaten — washed oot
— up the pole?"
Soldier (with loud guffaw) — "Ne uponymio!"
And so on, ad infinitum.
When halts were made for fuel replenishing, the
duration of the stay was anything from half an
hour to an hour, and on these occasions we wan-
dered into the fringe of the forest and plucked
bilberries which literally carpeted the rocky and
swampy earth. These were delicious to eat, but
they dyed the tongue and lips a deep blue, giving
them the same appearance as a chow-chow dog's.
At several calling points the few workers who
• 0« Lake Imandra, many hours' journey from Kola, the
train in which I travelled back to Murmansk stopped for water.
The train from Murmansk passed us at this spot, or rather it
drew up and travellers dropped out of both trains on to the
track to greet one another and exchange news. I had climbed
to to a gigantic rock to watch the approach of the new train,
and as it slowed up I descended and stood exactly opposite
a compartment, from the window of which I saw the excited
and smiling face of Helen Crawfurd staring at me. I was
dressed Russian fashion, and was quite alone at the time, which
snade her think it was a ghost she looked at. We were both
dMigated at this strange meeting in a strange land.
felled the logs, and fished in the streams for their
daily food, would visit the train with bowls of these
berries, which they bartered with us for bread or
sugar. In these little transactions there was an
entire absence of "haggling". At the gift of a
handful of loaf sugar, which we had purchased
in Norway, their childish gratitude knew no bounds,
and for a piece of bread they literally wept their
thanks.
I gave a woman some sugar at one hamlet, and
placed one lump into the mouth of her child, a
boy of three years. The mother anxiously endea-
vored to extract this piece of wealth from the
"wean's" teeth. He had evidently never in his
short life experienced such delightful sensations
as the taste of sugar was giving him, and his
little teeth closed like grim death upon it, until
the effort to remove it had to be abandoned.
Gallacher made frequent and furtive expeditions
back to the train, returning each time with sugar
for some of these forlorn and tragic-looking peo-
ple, who, we were assured, had an abundance of
food, but of a monotonous kind.
It must be remembered that these people are
the inhabitants of a most peculiar country. The
entire population, including the Lapps, is so scarce
that it hardly works out at one person to the
English- square mile. For over six months in the
year the ground is covered with deep snow and
the river are all frozen. Hunting, reindeer breed-
ing, felling and floating timber, preparing char-
coal and tar are the only real occupations. Agri-
cultural pursuits are simply impossible, and earth
cultivation is limited to the production (in fortun-
ate circumstances) of a few potatoes and a very few
turnips. The ground for these is artificially made
by burning immense quantities of brushwood, tree
branches, and dead leaves, and the mixing of ashes
with the sand.
For hundreds of miles we did not observe one
solitary patch of cultivated land nor yet a plant
of any description that had been planted by the
hand of man. Nothing but the tundra and dreary-
looking forest enlivened here and there by patches
of pink alpine flowers.
Hour after hour sped by until the trees on our
right became less dense, and through them we
could see the still blue waters of the White Sea.
Soon we arrived at the little town of Kandalaksa,
having crossed the whole of Russian Lapland, and
were in the land of the Pomors and Karelians.
You Have Friends
who would subscribe to Soviet Russia if they
knew of its existence. You know best how to
get new subscribers for us. One way is to send
us the names of persons who might like to learn
about us. We shall send them sample copies of
Soviet Russia.
SOVIET RUSSIA
110 W. 40th St. Room 304 New York, N. Y.
by L^OOgle
-■i i '-| 1 1 1 a i
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
{J
562
SOVIET RUSSIA
December 4, 1920
Peace Treaty Between. Soviet Russia and Lithuania
[The following is a translation of the treaty of peace signed at Moscow on July 12, 1920, between representative*
of the governments of Soviet Russia and Lithuania.]
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Lithuania, on the one hand, and Russia, on the other,
having firmly resolved to establish their future mutual rela-
tions on the basis of righteousness and justice to the end
that peace and good-neighborly relations be secured be-
tween both nations and their inhabitants, have decided
to open negotiations, and have appointed as their pleni-
potentiaries:
The Lithuanian Democratic Republic:
Thomas Naruszewicz,
Peter Klimas,
Simeon Rosen baum,
Joseph Vailokaitis, and
Vylantas Raczkauskas.
The Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic:
Adolph Abramovich Yoffe,
Julian Iosephovich Markhlevsky, and
Leonid Leonidovich Obolensky.
After a reciprocal exchange of credentials which were
found to be in the proper form and in good order, the
.above-mentioned plenipotentiaries have come to an agree-
■tent on the following:
ARTICLE I
In accordance with the declaration of the Russian Social-
ist Federal Soviet Republic of the right of all nations to
-free self-determination, Russia recognizes without reserva-
tions the independence and sovereignty of the Lithuanian
State, with all the juridical implications of such recogni-
tion, and renounces forever all sovereign rights to Lithu-
anian territory.
The former sovereignty of Russia over Lithuania shall
not imply any obligations toward Russia on the part of
(the Lithuanian people or their land.
ARTICLE II
The frontier between the states of Lithuania and Russia
shall be as follows:
Starting at the point where the Grbdnyanka River falls
into the Bobr, two versts to the east of the village Cher-
nolyes, the frontier shall follow the Grodnyanka River
between the villages Khmelniki-Khmelevka and Levki-
Olsha; from this point the frontier line shall continue by
land to the southern side of the village Vesselovo, thence
along the nameless tributary of the Kamena River to the
point where this tributary falls into the Kamena, about one
■verst along the Kamena River, continuing by land to the
village Nerastnaya up to the source of the nameless trib-
utary of the Sidra River; then along this tributary to the
point where it falls into the Sidra, within a distance of
■one verst from the village Siderka; thence along the Sidra
River, between the villages Sheshtan and Siderka, past the
town Sidra, between the Villages Urashi and Ogorodniki,
past the villages Beniashi and Litvinka, between Zhverany
and Timany, and to the village Lovchiki; thence by land
to the southern side of the village Valkushi and further
to the northern side of the village of Chuprinovo; then
into the hills, to the trigonometrical point within one
verst's distance from the southern side of the village
Novodielo; further along a line about one verst toward
the north from the village Tolchi, thence to the southern
side of the village Dubovaya, then along the river Indura;
past the village Lushki, past the villages Prokopovichi and
Beliayevo; then along the Lasha River, past the village
Bobrovniki, to the point where the Lasha falls into the
Svisloch River. Thence the boundary line follows the
Svisloch River to the point where it falls into the Nieman,
then by the Nieman to the Berezina, then by the Berezina,
Isloch, and Volozhinka, along the western side of the
city ef Volozhino and the northern side of the villages
Brilki, Burmoki, and Polikshchiuchizna; thence in a
northeastern direction toward the villages Melashi and
Gintauchizna, within one verst's distance from them, then
m a northeastern direction toward the town Kholkhle,
by Google
one verst 's distance from its western side; then along the
western side of the village Sukhanarovchizna, within about
one verst from the village. The frontier shall then turn
to the northeast and follow along the western side of the
village Beresovtsi, one verst distant from the village, then
along the western side of the vilage Vaskauchi, along the
western side of the village Lyalkovchizna, one verst dis-
tant from it; turning there toward the north it shall fol-
low along the western side of the village Kuliavchizni
and further between the villages Dreni and ZherloTki;
thence toward the northwest along the eastern side of
the village Garavino and along the western side of the
village Adamovichi; then toward the village Mislevichi,
then along the eastern side of the village Bukhovshchizna to
the station Molodechno, running through the latter in each
a way that the Vilna-Molodechno-Lida railway line shall
remain on Lithuanian territory and the Vileika-Molodechno-
Minsk railway line— on Russian territory; thence aloof
the Bukhovka River to the point where it falls into the
Usha, then by the Usha River to the village of Ush; then,
turning toward the northeast, along the western side of
the villages Slobodka, Dolkoye, and Prenty; then by the
Naroch River and, turning within about one vent's dis-
tance from the village Cheremshchytsa toward the north,
along the eastern side of Lake Bliady; within a verst from
this lake it shall run northward, intersecting Lake Miastro,
and then by land along the western side of the village
Pikolchi and the eastern side of village Minchyalri, then
northward within a distance of about one verst from the
village Volochaki; then northward through Lake Mejiol
toward the western side of the village Pzhegrod, to within
about one verst from the village; then along the Mejiol
River to the point where it falls into the Disna, then by
land toward the northeast to the western side of the village
Borovoye, to within about a verst from the village; thea
northeast through Lake Mikalishki, then along the Niah-
chanka River to Lake Oziraichi, to the western side of
the farm-settlements Repishchi and Zamoshi, through Lab
Zelva, along the Zelva River, through Lake Drivyaty to
Tzno, and through Lake Nespizh; then northward throngb
Lake Nedriavo, then along the Druya to the point where
the latter intersects the boundary of the Kovno province,
and, finally, to the Western Dvina River at the Shaftanofs
estate.
Note 1. The Lithuanian frontiers with Poland tod
Latvia shall be determined by agreement with the two
latter states.
Note 2. The surveying: and setting-up of frontier
signs between the Lithuanian and Russian States shall
be carried out by a special mixed commission, with as
equal number of members from both sides. In determ-
ining the boundary-line where inhabited points will be
involved the aforementioned commission shall make its
decisions on the basis of the economic and ethnographic
features of such places, vesting them, in their entirety
if possible, with one or the other of the two States. Is
cases where the boundary line goes through rivers, lakes,
or canals, it shall run through the middle of the riven,
lakes, or canals, unless otherwise provided in this treaty.
Note 3. The artificial diversion of water from border
rivers and lakes which would cause the lowering of
the average level of water, is prohibited. Rules »»«
regulations regarding shipping and fishing in these rWeri
and lakes shall be determined by special agreements;
in fishing, only such devices shall be used as do sot
result in the extermination of fish.
ARTICLE m
The conditions "with regard to guarding the frontier*,
also the question of custom-houses and other question!
relating to same, shall be settled by a special treaty be-
tween the two contracting parties after the territories which
are now under occupation, separating Russia from Lithu-
ania, will have been freed.
ARTICLE IV
Both contracting parties bind themselves:
1. To prohibit the formation or existence On their ter-
ritory of any government, organization, Or group aiming
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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to wage an armed struggle against the other contracting
party; also to prohibit within their territories recruiting
and mobilization for any army by such governments, or-
ganizations, or groups.
2. To prohibit to states which are actually at war with
the other contracting party, and to organizations, and
groups aiming at armed war against the other contracting
party, the use of its ports or territory for the transaction
#f anything that might be used to attack the other con-
tracting party, such as; armed forces, military equipment,
technical appliances of a military nature, and artillery,
quartermaster's, engineering, or aviation supplies of such
states, organizations, or groups.
ARTICLE V
Russia, on her part, agrees to recognize the neutrality
•f Lithuania after the other States will have recognized it,
and to share in guarantees to insure this neutrality.
ARTICLE VI
Persons who, on the day of the ratification of this treaty,
live within Lithuania's boundaries and who themselves, or
whose parents, were registered in the records of the vil-
lage or town communes, or of the estate (class) bodies,
•f the territory now constituting Lithuania, also persons who
have lived in Lithuania, having permanent employment,
for not less than ten years before 1914, with the exception
•f those who were in the civil or military government service
and their families, shall be considered as Lithuanian citi-
zens.
Persons of the same category who, on the day of the
ratification of this treaty, live within the boundaries of a
third country and have not been naturalized there, shall
likewise be recognized as citizens of Lithuania.
However, within one year from the date of the ratifica-
tion of this treaty, all persons over the age of eighteen,
living within the boundaries of Lithuania, shall have the
right to renounce their Lithuanian citizenship and to
choose Russian citizenship; their citizenship shall be
shared by their children, and by their wives, unless there
is a definite agreement between husband and wife to the
contrary.
Also, persons who, according to the definition contained
in the first clause of this article, would be considered as
Russian citizens, shall have the same right to choose Lith-
uanian citizenship, during the same period and under the
same conditions.
Persons who have announced their wish for such option,
as well as those who share their citizenship as stated
above, retain their title to chattels and real property in
accordance with the laws which are in force in the coun-
try in which they live, and in case they should be leaving
the country they have the right to sell or to export their
property.
Note 1. To persons living in the Caucasus or in
Asiatic Russia, the time limit mentioned in this article
shall be extended by one year.
Note 2. The right of option as defined in the pres-
ent article shall extend also to those citizens who lived
within the boundaries of one of the contracting parties
until the World War of 1914-1917, but who at the time
of the ratification of this treaty are living within the
boundaries of the other contracting party.
Refugees shall have the same rights in regard to their
property which they could not export on the basis of
the agreement on the repatriation of refugees of Tune
30, 1920, as are provided in this article for citizens
with the right of option, provided the refugee can prove
that the property belongs to him and that it has been in
his actual possession during the repatriation time.
ARTICLE VII
Refugees of both contracting parties who desire to re-
turn to their country, shall be given the opportunity to
return within the shortest possible time.
The order and conditions of return shall be determined
by the governments of both countries.
ARTICLE VIII
Doth contracting parties reciprocally renounce all claims
that would arise from Lithuania's former connection with
Russia, and recognize the various state properties on each
country's territory as the property of that country alone.
The title for Russian state property which was removed
by Google
from the territory now constituting Lithuania to a third
country since August 1, 1914, shall be transferred to the
Lithuanian State.
To the Lithuanian State shall be transferred all financial
claims of the Russian Treasury against properties within
the boundaries of the Lithuanian State, also all claims
against Lithuanian citizens, provided these claims have not
been liquidated by counter-claims presented at the set-
tlement of accounts.
Note. To the Lithuanian State shall not be trans-
ferred the rights of claims against small holders-peasants
based on their indebtedness and default of payments
to the former Peasants' Agrarian Bank of Russia, or
to other agrarian banks now nationalized; these debts
shall be considered null and void. Also, the indebted-
ness of the nobility to the former Noblemen's Agrarian
Bank of Russia, or other agrarian banks now national-
ized, shall not be claimed by the Lithuanian State but
shall be considered null and void, if that land has been
S'ven to the small holders-peasants or to agricultural
borers.
The Russian Government shall turn over to the Lithu-
anian Government all documents and acts which sub-
stantiate the rights mentioned in this section, provided
these documents and acts are in the actual possession
of the former. If within a year from the day of the
ratification of this treaty this has not been done, these
documents and acts shall be declared lost.
ARTICLE IX
1. The Russian Government shall return, at its expense,
and hand over to the Lithuanian Government the libraries,
archives, museums, art productions, school equipment, docu-
ments and other similar property of educational, scientific,
religious, governmental and public institutions or of insti-
tutions of the estates, if these materials were removed
from Lithuanian territory during the World War, and
actualy are or will come under the jurisdiction of the
governmental or public institutions of Russia.
As to the archives, libraries, museums, art productions,
and documents which have an important scientific, artistic,
or historical value to Lithuania, and which were removed
from Lithuanian territory to Russia before the World War
of 1914-1917, the Russian Government agrees to return
these to Lithuania, insofar as their removal will not cause
substantial damage to the Russian archives, libraries, mu-
seums or art galleries in which they are kept.
The questions arising in connection with such removal
shall be settled by a special mixed commission with an
equal number of members from both contracting parties.
2. The Russian Government shall return, at its expense,
and hand over to the Lithuanian Government all court and
'governmental records, and all court and governmental ar-
chives, including the archives of the senior and junior
notaries, the archives of the title and land offices, the
archives of ecclesiastical departments of all creeds, the
archives and plans of the departments of land surveying,
land organization, forestry, railroads, highways, post and
telegraph, etc., which were removed to Russia from Lithu-
anian territory during the World War of 1914-1917; also
all plans, drawings, maps and in general all material from
the topography bureau of the Vilna Military District re-
lating to the territory of the Lithuanian State; the ar-
chives of local branches of the Noblemen's and Peasants*
Banks, of branches of the State Bank and of other credit,
cooperative, or mutual insurance institutions; likewise the
archives and records of private instiutions of Lithuania;
provided the above-mentioned materials are or will come
under the jurisdiction of the governmental or public in-
stitutions of Russia.
3. The Russian Government shall return, at its ex-
pense, and hand over to the Lithuanian Government, to
be turned over to those to whom they belong, all docu-
ments bearing on property rights, such as: bills of sale,
mortgage certificates, rent contracts, promissory notes, etc.,
also accounting books, papers, and documents, and, in
general, documents which are of value for the ascertain-
ing of property rights of Lithuanian citizens, if these
materials were removed from Lithuania to Russia during
the World War of 1914-1917; provided that these materials
actually are or will come under the jurisdiction of the
governmental or public institutions of Russia. If such
documents have not been returned within two years from
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SOVIET RUSSIA
December 4, 192ft
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the date of the ratification of this treaty, they shall be
considered as lost.
Russia shall turn over to Lithuania the materials in the
•rehires and records of her central and local institutions
which have a direct bearing on districts within the boun-
daries of Lithuania.
ARTICLE X
1. The Russian Government shall, at its expense, return
to Lithuania the property of social, charitable, cultural
and educational institutions which was removed to Russia
during the World War of 1914-1917, and also the bells
and property of churches, and prayer-houses of all creeds,
if these objects actually are, or will come under the juris-
diction of the governmental or public institutions of Russia.
With regard to saving deposits, securites, and other
money deposits made with the former governmental or
judicial institutions, insofar as such deposits and moneys
belong to Lithuanian citizens, likewise with regard to
deposits and various securities placed with the local
branches of the former State Bank or other credit insti-
tutions now nationalized or liquidated, insofar as such
deposits and moneys belong to Lithuanian citizens, the
Russian Government binds itself to allow to Lithuanian
citizens all rights that were formerly allowed to all Russian
citizens, and will therefore permit Lithuanian citizens who
could not exercise these rights because Lithuania was un-
der occupation, to exercise them now. In meeting these
claims, the Russian Government shall make allowance in
favor of Lithuanian citizens for the depreciation of Russian
currency between the date of the last occupation of Lithu-
ania — September 1, 1915— and the day of payment.
In regard to valuables and properties which were kept
in the rooms of banks or in their safes, if such valuables
and properties belong to Lithuanian citizens, the provisions
of the first part of this clause shall be applied.
The money, valuables, and property mentioned in this
article shall be handed over to the Lithuanian Government,
to be turned over to the owners.
3. The Russian Government shall return, at its expense,
and hand over to the Lithuanian Government the funds
which provided for scholarships in the schools of Lithu-
ania or for Lithuanian citizens studying in Russian schools.
4. With regard to reinburscment for Russian govern-
ment bonds or bonds guaranteed by the government, or
for private stocks and bonds issued by corporations and
establishments whose enterprises have been nationalized by
the Russian Government, which are in circulation within
the boundaries of Lithuania; likewise with regard to the
settlement of claims by Lithuanian citizens against the
Russian State or against nationalized institutions, Russia
binds herself to grant to Lithuania, Lithuanian citizens,
and institutions all those rights and privileges which,
directly or indirectly, Russia has granted or may grant to
any third country or its citizens, associations, or institu-
tions. If the stocks or bonds, or property deeds, are not
on hand, the Russian Government, in applying this sec-
tion of the present article, is willing to recognize as the
holders of bonds, etc., those persons who will furnish proof
that the securities belonging to them were evacuated dur-
ing the war.
ARTICLE XI
1. The Russian Government shall return to the Lithu-
anian Government to be turned over to the owners, all
property of Lithuanian cities, societies, or juridical and
natural private persons, insofar as such property actually
is in, or may come into, the possession of Russian govern-
mental or public institutions.
Note. This article shall not apply to funds, deposits,
and valuables which were kept in the branches of the
State Bank or private banks, credit institutions, and
saving funds within the territory of Lithuania.
2. With regard to the telephone, telegraph, and railway
equipment which was evacuated to Russia from Lithuania
during 1914-1915, likewise with regard to the equipment
•I railway shops, Russia agrees to return to Lithuania as
Much of it as is required for the actual needs of Lithuania.
A mixed commission formed on the basis of equal
representation shall determine in detail the amount of
equipment which must be re-evacuated.
Note. Rolling stock, telegraph, and telephone equip-
ment as well as railroad shop equipment, that will be
apportioned for that part of Lithuania which is under
occupation, shalL be delivered only after the occupation
will have ended.
3. For the enforcement of the provisions of articles
VIII, IX, X, and XI of this treaty, the Russian Govern-
ment shall be bound to give to the Lithuanian Govern-
ment all the information and data bearing on these, and
shall render every assistance in the recovery of property,
archives, documents, etc.
For the settlement of all questions' a mixed commission
shall be established on the basis Of equal representation.
ARTICLE Xn
Taking into account the fact that Lithuania was almost
completely ruined during the World War, and that the
citizens of Lithuania are deprived even of the possibility
of reestablishing their enterprises and particularly of re-
building their destroyed and burned buildings owing to the
destruction of the Lithuanian forests, the Russian Govern-
ment declares its willingness:
1. To free Lithuania from responsibility for the debts
or any other liabilities of Russia, including those incurred
through the issuance of currency, treasury notes, and bonds,
Russian treasury series and certificates to various establish-
ments and enterprises, and through the guaranteed loans
of the latter, etc. All such claims of Russia's creditors,
in the part which would fall upon Lithuania, shall be
directed against Russia alone.
2. To grant to the Lithuanian Government the right
of felling timber in forests on an area of 100,000 dessiatins
in districts close to the Lithuanian border and as close
as possible to navigable rivers and railways, the forest
areas for wood-cutting to be gradually assigned in the
course of twenty years in accordance with the plans of
Russian forestry. The determination of further conditions
for timber cutting shall be entrusted to a mixed commis-
sion with an equal number of members from both con-
tracting parties.
3. To pay to the Lithuanian Government three million
rubles in gold within a month and a half from the date
of the ratification of this treaty.
ARTICLE XIII
1. The contracting parties agree to open negotiations
regarding the conclusion of commercial and transit treaties
within the shortest possible time after the ratification of
the present treaty.
2. The commercial treaty shall be based on the prin-
ciple of the most factored nation.
3. The transit treaty shall be based on the following
principles:
a) Goods passing in transit across the territory of one
of the contracting parties shall not be subject to any cus-
toms duties or taxes.
b) The freight rates for goods in transit shall not be
higher than the freight rates for the same kind of goods
for local destination.
Note. Until the advent of normal conditions, the
mutual transit relations between Russia and Lithuania
shall be regulated by the same principles. The other
transit terms shall be settled by special provisional sjret-
ments.
4. The Russian and Lithuanian merchant fleets shall
mutually make use of the harbors of the contracting parties
on equal rights.
5. The property left after the death of a citizen of one
of the contracting parties within the boundaries of the
other contracting party shall be entirely turned orer to
the consular or other authorized representative of the na-
tion to which the deceased belonged, to be disposed of
in accordance with the laws of that nation.
ARTICLE XIV
Diplomatic and consular relations shall be established
immediately after the ratification of the present treaty.
After the ratification of the present treaty the contraclinf
parties shall take steps for the conclusion of a consular
convention.
by Google
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ARTICLE XV
After the ratification of this treaty, an amnesty shall be
granted by the Russian Government to Lithuanian citizens
and applicants for Lithuanian citizenship, and by the Lith-
uanian Government to Russian citizens and applicants for
Russian citizenship, military persons or civilians, for all
political and disciplinary offenses. If sentence has not
yet been passed on such offenses, the cases shall be dis-
continued.
Persons who will have committed such offenses after
the ratification of this treaty shall not be subject to this
amnesty.
Persons condemned in criminal court for offenses which
are not subject to this amnesty shall be returned to their
country after serving their sentence. If, however, sentences
in such cases are not passed within a year placing the
defendant under charges, the . defendant shall, after the
lapse of this time-limit, be turned over to the authorities
of his country together with the records of the case.
Simultaneously, both contracting parties shall also grant
an amnesty to their own citizens for offenses committed in
the interests of the other contracting party before the
ratification of the present treaty.
ARTICLE XVI
In the deliberations upon the present treaty both con-
tracting parties took into account the circumstance that
they have never been in a state bf war with each other,
and that Lithuania, serving as a field of war operations
during the World War of 1914-1917, has particularly suf-
fered from the latter. Therefore the terms of this treaty
can in no case serve as a precedent for any third country.
On the other hand, should one of the contracting parties
grant to a third country or her citizens any privileges,
rights and advantages, such privileges, rights, and advan-
tages shall without any special convention be extended to
the other contracting party or her citizens.
Note. The contracting parties shall, however, present
no claims for advantages which one of them may grant
to a third country bound to the former by a tariff or
some other alliance.
ARTICLE XVII
The settlement of legal questions of public or private
aspect that may arise between citizens of the contracting
parties, likewise the settlement of some specific questions
between the two states or between one of the states and
citizens of the other, shall be charged to a special mixed
Commission with an equal number of members from both
contracting parties which shall be instituted immediately
after the ratification of the present treaty, and whose
composition, rights, and duties shall be defined in the in-
structions by agreement of both contracting parties.
ARTICLE XVIII
The 'present treaty is drawn up in the Russian and Lith-
uanian languages. For purposes of interpretation both
texts shall be considered authentic.
ARTICLE XIX
The present treaty shall be subject to ratification.
The exchange of the certificates of ratification shall take
place at Moscow.
Wherever there is reference, in the present treaty, to the
time of the ratification of the treaty it shall be understood
to mean the time of the reciprocal exchange of the cer-
tificates of ratification.
In confirmation of which the plenipotentiaries of both
contracting parties have personally signed the present treaty
and countersigned it with their seals.
The original in two copies was drawn up and signed in
the city of Moscow, July 12, 1920.
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The Former Leaders of the Cooperatives on Trial
T^HE trial of the leaders of the cooperatives
A started in September before the Supreme Revo-
lutionary Tribunal, Ksenofontov presiding.
Before the bar appeared the eminent coopera-
tors Korobov, Lavrukhin, and Kuznetsov, two
former ministers of the Provisional Government,
Nikitin and Gvozdev, and a number of authorized
agents of the Centrosektsia and Centrosoyuz,
charged with activity meant to undermine the eco-
nomic policy of the Workers' and Peasants' Gov-
ernment for the purpose of preparing the ground
for the expected arrival of Generals Denikin and
Yudenich in Petrograd.
The case originated in the following way : In
the course of an investigation of the activity of
"cooperators" who were suspected of having en-
gaged in speculation, the Petrograd Extraordinary
Commission, during a search and examination of
the safe in the office of the Centrosoyuz, found
that, besides the official treasury, it contained also
a secret treasury in which were discovered 3,000,-
000 rubles in Duma and Czarist currency, in
stocks, and in foreign currency.
The extremely confused and contradictory ex-
planations of the treasurer Krokhmal led the in-
vestigators to believe that it was a much more
serious case than ordinary speculation, and it was
decided to search KrokhmaPs residence. The search
led to the discovery of a number of communica-
tions and letters from London which showed defin-
itely that the activity of all the offices of the Cen-
trosoyuz, located in districts which were in the
hands of the counter-revolutionists, was directed
by Berkenheim through the London office, the chief
foreign office of the Centrosoyuz.
One of the letters said that from the moment
that the Petrograd office would lose connection
with the Moscow office, in other words, when Pet-
rograd was occupied by the bands of Yudenich,
the Petrograd office would be placed among the
offices which were under the jurisdiction of the
London office. In expectation of this event the
latter had already issued eighteen communications
with instructions, some of which had be< n received
in Petrograd, and the others were to be scut in a
few days. The contents of these documents show
definitely, first of all, that at the most critical
moment, during the expected occupation of fam-
ished Petrograd by the Whites, the London office
of the Centrosoyuz was making preparations to
ship food there, and was definitely advertising
the advantages of the regime that would come
along with Yudenich and with the restoration of
the bourgeois capitalist order.
The disclosure of the aforementioned docu-
ments, as well as the presence of large sums of
money in Duma and Czarist currency, bonds, etc.,
in the Centrosoyuz, made absolutely clear the ac-
tivity of the leaders of the cooperatives, which car-
ried on through ficticious persons large purchases
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of all kinds of commodities and materials. Fur-
ther investigation of this case led to the transfer
of the center of gravity of the inquiry from Petro-
grad to Moscow, involving chiefly members of the
Central Council of the Union of Cooperative Or-
ganizations.
Searches made at the residence of members of
the Governing Board gave unexpected results. At
the residence of the members of the Governing
Board, Korobov, Lavrukhin, and Kuznetsov, num-
erous documents were found definitely revealing
the nature of the activity of the organs of the
cooperatives and their attitude to the Soviet power.
The Soviet power had to consider as its para-
mount task the implacable struggle against the
free market and chiefly against speculation in
manufactured goods. Despite their clear duty to
aid the Soviet power by their economic apparatus,
the cooperative organs continued basically to work
"as of old", employing the former methods of buy-
ing and selling. Drubin's testimony showed that
certain merchants, unable to sell £he goods which
they had concealed from registration, offered to
sell them to the Centrosoyuz under assumed names.
The investigation established that Berkenheim*
was sent to the United States to obtain there
machinery and tools for the Supreme Council of
National Economy, but he ultimately turned out
to be in London where he took charge of the of-
fice of the Centrosoyuz, whose activity has now
become clear. The members of the Governing
Board, Selgheim and Lenskaya, weTe sent tc
Switzerland for their health, but thev went to
* other countries, and Selgheim took charge of the
Stockholm office of the Centrosoyuz, and sent goods
to Denikin.
Selgheim's reports addressed to Korobov, a copy
of which was found in Kuznetsov's residence, con-
tains the following statement : "Have received an
inquiry from Berkenheim as to whether I would
advise him to buy from the American quarter-
master 25,000,000 dollars worth of underwear,
shoes, pants and raincoats. I cabled to him to be
very careful, to take only goods for which there
may be a demand among the Russian peasants, and
suggested that he ask our offices at Omsk and
Rostov for advice." It is clear that the purchase
was intended for Kolchak and Denikin.
The Sentence
After considering the evidence disclosed by the
investigation, and the testimony of the witnesses
and defendants, the Supreme Revolutionary Trib-
unal of the All-Russian Central Executive Com-
mittee passed the following sentences:
Citizen Krokhmal, who was guilty of buying
goods whose sale had been prohibited and of not
informing the authorities of unlawful transactions
with speculators, — to three years confinement in
a concentration camp ; but in view of his acknowl-
edgement of his errors, and the absence of wilful
* Alexander Berkenheim was in the United States in 1919.
His mission, that of opening trade between the United States
and the Russian Cooperatives on the ground that the latter
were independent of the Soviet Government, was unsuccessful,
and Berkenheim left for London — Editor Soviet Russia.
intent on his part, the First of May amnesty shall
be applied to him, and the sentence shall Dot be
enforced. Citizen Arishtam, for complicity in
speculative transactions, and Citizen Mordukho-
vich, for not informing the authorities, — to three
years confinement in camp ; but in view of miti-
gating circumstances, the amnesty shall be applied
and the sentence set aside. Citizen Obolensky,
Mosdorf and Shisko, for not informing the au-
thorities and for protecting speculators, to five
years confinement in camp, with the sentence sus-
pended. Citizens Sharoto, Alexander Mordukho-
vich, and Drubin, the first for complicity in giving
a bribe, the second for complicity in the specula-
tive transactions of his father, and the third for
buying goods prohibited from sale and for pro-
tecting speculators, — to ten years confinement in
camp. Citizens Rosen, Korobov, Lavrukhin, and
Kuznetsov, the first for buying goods prohibited
from sale, for protecting speculators and for re-
ceiving commissions from them, and the other
three for sending abroad, to Kolchak and Denikio,
their partizans whose activity aimed to undermine
the economic policy of the Soviet power and to
give all possible support to the Russian counter-
revolutionary movement, — to 15 years confinement
in camp. Citizen Nikitin, for active support to
the counter-revolutionary government of Denikin
— to be shot, but in view of his repentance, the
sentence shall be replaced by 15 years confinement
in camp. Citizen Berthold, for receiving money
under an assumed name and for giving a bribe to
the investigator of the All-Russian Extraordinary
Commission, — to be shot, but the sentence shall
be replaced, in view of mitigating circumstance?
and of the First of May amnesty, by 15 years con-
finement in camp. Citizen Adolph Bordukhovich.
for wilful speculation, — to be shot, the sentence tc
be replaced, in view of his age, by life imprison
ment. Citizens Pruss, Sakharov, and Smetenio
were acquitted.— Izvestia, September 5.
Bound Volumes for 1920
Volume II, of which a number of copies*
splendidly bound, are still to be obtained by
persons desiring them, is sold at five dollars-
Check or money order should accompany
order. Volume I (June-December, 1919) «
sold out and will not be reprinted. Volume
III will be bound, with title-page and index,
as soon as the issues have all appeared (Jan-
uary 1, 1921). Readers may place orders
now for Volume III, and should send the cost
of the volume — five dollars — with their
orders.
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
HOW. 40th St. New York, N.Y. j
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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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Wireless and Other News
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CONFERENCE OF SOVIET REPRE-
SENTATIVES OF MOSCOW PROVINCE
Moscow, October 18, 1920.— Sixth Session.
Chairman Sorokin, of the Committee of Provision-
ing, reported on the food situation in the govern-
ment of Moscow. Sorokin pointed out that crop
failures in many Volga and central provinces this
year created a situation which can be remedied
only by complete obligatory delivery of grain to
the provisioning agency of the state. Even the
Czar's Government had applied this remedy in years
of bad crops, but in such manner that the delivery
was compulsory upon peasants, whereas the big
farmers and landowners were enabled to export
their grain at exorbitant prices. Only by abolish-
ing private property and private commerce and by
nationalizing industry can the monopoly of farm
products be eliminated. In this case, the burden
of compulsory surrender falls not on the poorest
but on the more affluent element of the peasants.
With statistics in hand, Sorokin demonstrated the
correctness of the Soviet policy in the matter of
feeding the masses, and affirmed that the peasantry
comprehended the situation better, so that now in
harvesting, the interference of armed force was sel-
dom required. In 1917 there were 130,000,000
poods of grain gathered in Russia; 110,000,000
poods in 1918; 265,000,000 poods in 1919. In
1920, out of the 450,000,000 poods that had been
expected, 400,000,000 poods wer,e actually deliv-
ered. In 1918, 26,000,000 poods of potatoes were
obtained; in 1919 (after the establishment of the
monopoly) 43,000,000 poods, while 117,000,000
poods may be expected this year.
THE ACTIVITIES OF THE LABOR
ARMY IN THE CAUCASUS
Ekonomicheskaya Zhizn writes that the General
Committee of Labor has now received the reports
covering the activities of the Labor Army in the
Caucasus for the month of June.
In the field of naphtha production, much pre-
liminary and preparatory work had to be per-
formed, as the storage tanks, etc., were in deplor-
able shape. In comparison with the last few
months the naphtha production is gaining. During
the first ten days of June, 204 storage tanks per
day were shipped, and during the last days of
June the number had risen to 256. A total of
6,700 storage tanks was shipped during the month
of June. Thfe prescribed number was 4,500 tanks.
In addition to this, over a million poods of naphtha
were shipped to Petrovsk by pipeline, and 600,000
poods by steamer. 1,731 qualified railroad work-
ers and 42,124 unskilled railroad workers have
been actively engaged. In addition, 260 qualified
railroad workers were employed in the railroad
stations. Particular attention was called to the de-
velopment and enlargement of statioji facilities at
Grozny,
THE WORK OF THE FIRST LABOR
ARMY
Ekonomicheskaya Zhizn reports that the results
of the First Labor Army from January 1 to June
14 have just been made public. The following
data have been published by the Labor Committee
for the Urals:
Regarding work in the forests, a total of 660,160
days of labor has been expended during the past
five months, and 106,596.65 cubic sazhens of wood
have been cut. 88,807.85 cubic sazhens of wood
and 2,295 pieces of timber have been shipped, and
17,399.08 cubic sazhens have been sawed and split.
101 dessiatins of forest land and 21 dessiatins of
marsh land have been cleared for agricultural pur-
poses. During a total of 166,905 working days
121,434 pieces of lumber and timber were made
ready for shipment, in addition to 5,280 poods of
peat and 858 poods of charcoal.
In the Urals, during 1,639 working days, 523,853
poods of coal were mined.
In regard to the railroad system, the following
figures are available: During 37,547 working
days, 248 locomotives and 435 freight cars were
repaired, and 3,556 repair parts were manufac-
tured in 2,965 working days. A distance of 1,002
versts of railroad tracks was put in complete work-
ing order in 45,317 working days, besides which
18 bridges were repaired. In 77,688 working days,
73,924 cubic sazhens of wood, 671 pieces of timber
and lumber were loaded for transportation, and
10,158 cars of all kinds were shipped and trans-
ported. In 52,446 working days, 2,668 cars were
unloaded, in addition to 595,008 cubic sazhens of
wood and 14,057 timber and lumber; 1,459 versts
of telegraph and telephone wire were tested and
repaired in 7,842 working days, and 103 versts of
telegraph cables were installed-
RAILWAY CAR REPAIRS
The planned number of cars to be repaired dur-
ing August for 24 railway lines amounted to 6,630.
The actual number repaired was 10,084 cars, in
other words 3,454 cars over and above the number
intended. The output of repairs of cars is gradu-
ally increasing and gave for August a surplus of
52 per cent, i.e., approximately 22 per cent above
that of July. The record was broken by the Vladi-
kavkaz railway line which repaired 1,388 cars in-
stead of the intended 540.
A NEW ALLIANCE AGAINST THE
EAST
London, Ostober 13, 1920.— The Helsingfors
correspondent of the Daily Telegraph has been in-
formed that there are negotiations in progress be-
tween Finland, Poland, Hungary, and Roumania
for the purpose of forming a defensive alliance
-against possible attacks from &e East.
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December 4, 1920
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THE ENTRANCE TO THE BIGHT OF
NOVOROSSIYSK
Moscow, October 19, 1920. — At the recommen-
dations of the port-commander of Novorossiysk, the
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs notifies the
governments that the following regulations will
apply to all vessels arriving at Novorossiysk with
war prisoners. All such ships must communicate
beforehand, to the General Staff of the Bight of
Novorossiysk, the date and hour of their arrival,
their nationality, tonnage, draft, character of the
ship, the call and wave-length of their radio, by
means of which they will communicate with our
coast station whose standard wave-length is 4,000
meters. All these ships must approach the entrance
to the Bight so that they will reach the harbor be-
tween sunrise and sunset at a speed of six knots.
At the latitude of 44°30'N ships must notify Novo-
rossiysk of their name, position, and hour of arriv-
al. They will receive no reply but will be met by a
boat with a pilot's flag, which will conduct them
into the harbor. The pilot's flag must be raised
on the incoming vessel. If the pilot's boat does
not appear within three hours, the foreign ship
must proceed to the Bight of Dzhubga and commu-
nicate directly with the Post, whereupon it will
receive appropriate directions from the General
Staff of the Bight. The General Staff refuses to be
responsible for any consequences due to disregard
of the above regulations.
THE FUNERAL OF INESSA ARMAND
Moscow, October 18, 1920.— Moscow saw today
the funeral of one of the oldest champions of the re-
volutionary movement of the proletariat, Inessa Ar-
mand (Helen Blonina). Her burial, which took
place at the Kremlin, where all the bravest cham-
pions of the Revolution lie buried, presented a
magnificent spectacle. Delegates from all prole-
tarian organizations of Moscow came to pay their
last respects. The funeral speech was made by one
oT the most important workers in the Russian
women's proletarian movement, Alexandra Kol
lontay. Lenin and many other leaders of the Rus-
sian proletariat were present at the funeral.
MAILS WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES
Russia has now succeeded in obtaining postal
relations with Norway and the rest of the world,
since there is now a regular postal service between
Norway and Russia carried on by Russian motor
boats plying between Vardo and Archangel twice
a week. Mails now also go from the countries of
Europe to Russia by way of Norway. The mail?
to Russia are sent to Christiania, and thence for
warded to Vardo. At Vardo Russian mails are
sorted and placed on board the boats. — Social-
Demokraten, Christiania, Norway, October 29.
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THE NEXT ISSUE
SOVIET RUSSIA
Will Consist of 32 Pages and will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. Pro Barb a, by Professor Isaac A. Hourwich. A playful yet serious study by the head of
the Legal Department of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau in New York, to be
read in connection with Mr. //. G. Wells 9 objections to the beards of revolutionary phil-
osophers.
2. Preliminary Peace Treaty and Armistice Between Soviet Russia and Poland.
3. Important Recent Notes to the British Government from the Russian Soviet Government.
4. In the Heart of Karelia, by John S. Clarke.
5. Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine: Their Mutual Relations and Destinies, by K. Ro-
kovsky, Chairman of the Council of Peoples Commissars of the Ukrainian Republic.
6. Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt.-Co. B. Roustam Bek.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks,
to L. C. A. K. Martens.)
110 West 40th Street
SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVED BY
SOVIET RUSSIA
(Room 304)
(Make all checks payable
New York City
_j
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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Special 32-page Issue
SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, December 11, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 24
!*?'*.*&""£* 49 Xf- 40tli Street, New York, N. Y. Liidwi* CL A. K, M&rtem, Publiiker. Jtcab Wittmer Hartmi
sanienpfion Bate. $5.00 per mum Application for entry u Brand clan matter pending. Channel of iddresi ihoal
office a week before the changes are to b* made.
irinn h Editor.
should reach the
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Pbo Barba, by Isaac A, Hourwkh 569
Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine, by K.
Rakovshy .. ., 570
Lenin's Reading at Geneva 573
MrLiTARY Review, by Ll-CoL B* Roustam Bck.. 574
Lrrvinov , . 577
Trade Unions in Ukraine 578
The Red Army in Congress Poland. 583
PACK
Editorials , . # . , 584
The Preliminary Peace at Riga 586
Appeal to the French People , . . 590
Preliminary Peace Treaty With Poland 591
Notes to the British Government 594
Kamenev on Lloyd George 596
A New Conspiracy 597
Wireless and Other News..,, 59a
Pro Barba!
By Isaac A, Hourwich
(An historical inquiry into the causes of the popularity of Karl Marx's beard in Russia.)
MR. H. C. WELLS in his recent contribution
to the New York Times has touched upon a
question that must interest every Anglo-Saxon mind*
He tells us that he had never wasted his time upon
the abstruse speculations of Karl Marx until they
were forced upon his attention during his stay in
Russia, where the whiskers of that closet savant ob-
truded themselves upon his gaze wherever he went.
The frame of mind of the great British novelist
has brought back to the present writer memories
of the early days of the Russian immigration to the
United States, some thirty years ago, when the 100
per cent Anglo-Saxon dwellers of the Water Front,
especially of the younger generation, gave expres-
sion, in various vigorous ways* to their aversion
to the beards of the newcomers. We are tempted
to paraphrase the familiar physical law by sug-
gesting one of our own creation, to wit: "Anglo-
Saxon nature abhors a beard."
These preliminary reflections have led us some-
what astray from the subject of our inquiry, "Why
the beard of Karl Marx is so popular in Russia?"
Mr. Wells is unfortunately unaware of the close
connection of whiskers and politics in Russian his-
tory. Prior to the reign of Peter the Great, all
adult Russian males were bewhiskered. That Rus-
sian revolutionary monarch, after returning from
his voyage to the western lands, decreed that all
his subjects of the upper classes were to shave off
their beards. This decree aroused great discontent,
which led to conspiracies upon the life of the mon-
arch as well as to open rebellion* The heard was
sanctified in the minds of the disaffected by the
observation that all saints of the Creek Catholic
Church had worn beards. The decree directing the
subjects of the great Czar to shave their beards
was one of the counts in the popular indictment
charging him with being the "Anti-Christ".
The act of Peter the Great remained in force for
more than a century and a half, Shaving was obli*
gatory for the nobility and the office-holding class-
Even in private life the discharged soldier was ad-
monished **lo shave his beard and to beg no alms,"
There were two styles of shaving prescribed by
the law, one for the civilians, another for the army.
The civilian was required by law to shave his mus-
tache and chin, the military man was permitted to
retain his moustache, but he was required to shave
his chin. Whatever the critics of Czardom may
hold against it, it is an historical fact that in the
enforcement of that particular statute a certain
amount of reasonable freedom was left to individu-
al taste. The civilian was at liberty to wear side-
whiskers without restriction of size, — either of the
British banker style, or like those of the late John
Stuart Mill, and of course he enjoyed the privilege
to exhibit to the world a smooth- shaven counten-
ance. The army man was likewise at liberty to add
side whiskers to his moustache, or to confine him-
self to a moustache of the Anglo-American style,
as exemplified by the picture of Mr, Wells himself.
In the fifth decade of the nineteenth century, a
strong movement in fiver of whiskers developed
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among the Russian intellectuals of that period. The
remarkable feature of that movement was that it
succeeded in uniting on that one issue the two war-
ring factions of the intelligentsia, the "Occidental-
ists" and the "Slavophiles". The latter, who con-
demned the tendency of the St. Petersburg period
of Russian history to imitate the ways of "the rot-
ten west", affected the old Russian style of clothes
and defiantly wore whiskers. The Occidental ists,
who studied in German universities, came under
the influence of "Young Germany", which repudi-
ated the ways of the Prussian Police-State and fav-
ored the return to Nature. The principal charac-
ter in one of the novels of Zschocke, a popular
writer of that day, argues in favor of the beard as
the masculine weapon with which Nature has en-
dowed man to captivate the heart of woman. All
Russian writers of that period wore full beards, —
vide Herzen, Bakunin, Turgenyev, Byelinsky, etc.
This seditious tendency, of course, could not es-
cape the eyes of the government. Emperor Nicho-
las I (penned by Count Leo Tolstoy under the
name of Nikolai Palkin), on one of his visits to
Germany, ordered the Russian students of the Ber-
lin University to present themselves to him. One
of them had the hardihood to appear before his
sovereign with a moustache on his face. The Em-
peror directly ordered him to shave off that ap-
pendage, which was the privilege of military men
only.
The enforcement of that law was relaxed under
the benign rule of his son, Alexander II, the Czar-
•Liberator. An inspection of the pictures of the
writers of that generation would reveal to the dis-
gusted gaze of Mr. Wells a series of bearded faces.
The one exception known to the present writer is
Chernyshevsky, who before his exile to Siberia
had a smooth-shaven face, although he had reached
the age at which he was physically capable of
growing a beard. But even that exception soon
yielded to the spirit of the time. He returned from
his twenty-year exile in the wilds of Siberia with a
fairly long beard, which he retained until his
death (1889).
Liberal high school teachers of that "epoch of
great reforms" dared grow moustaches and chin
beards, and the principals, falling in with the pre-
vailing spirit, would wink at that exhibition of
license. But whenever the Curator of the Educa-
tional District (an official representing the ministry
of education) would come on a tour of inspection,
the teachers would report with their moustaches
and chins duly shaved.
At last even in Russia the government had to
yield to public opinion. Alexander HI, shortly
after ascending to the throne of his fathers, re-
pealed the law regulating the shaving of male faces.
This must by no means be construed, however,
into a concession to Liberalism. Alexander III
was a strong Nationalist, and his enabling act per-
mitting his loyal subjects to wear beards was a be-
lated tribute to the old Slavophiles. It is the
tragedy of history that ungrateful posterity has
quite forgotten this act of Alexander III, — indeed,
tie only liberal reform enacted by that monarch.
A useful lesson may be drawn from this brief
essay of a history of beards in Russia. So long as
the wearing of beards was prohibited by law, the
spirit of sedition delighted in showing an unshaved
face, as it were, to law and order. Directly after
the repeal of the anti-whiskers legislation, diversity
of barber styles freely displayed itself among the
Russian intelligentsia. Every student of Russian
literature knows that one of the most popular Rus-
sian writers, Maxim Gorky, shaves his whiskers and
wears only a moustache, even as the author of
"New Worlds for Old." Such are the beneficent
effects of liberty.
Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine
THEIR MUTUAL RELATIONS AND DESTINIES
By K. Rakovsky
T^HE socialistic revolution not only transforms
the internal economic and political structure
of states, but also fundamentally alters the rela-
tions between them. The relations between the
Soviet states are essentially different from the re-
lations between bourgeois states. The bourgeois
statehood is distinguished from the proletarian
statehood even in its rudimentary principles. The
proletarian statehood does not fit into any of the
classifications that have been set up by the political
economists of the old world.
The general presupposition of all forms of ad-
ministrations — the aristocratic, the democratic, the
absolute monarchy, the constitutional monarchy, the
republic, etc. — was the exclusiveness, the segrega-
tion, of the state organism. The most democratic
of the democratic republics put their own citizens
into a sort of opposition to foreigners. In the
most democratic republic the foreigners are not
admitted to the political life of the country. The
political life was a privilege of the national classes
concerned, or at best, of the citizens of the state
in question. In the constitution of the Soviet na-
tions on the other hand, both of Russia and
Ukraine, one fundamental principle is precisely
the abolition of all racial privileges; thus for ex-
ample, paragraph 20, section C of the Constitution
of the Ukraine Socialistic Republic states: "For-
eigners belonging to the working class or the peas-
ants actually working as such, enjoy the right of
suffrage". Such a constitutional provision is com-
pletely incomprehensible to the bourgeois jurist
who customarily begins by assuming the opposition
of his own sUite towards other states, of its citi-
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zens to foreigners. But this provision is a logical
result of the most fundamental quality of the pro-
letariat.
What is the main difference between the prole-
tarian and the bourgeois state in their different
economic bases, which are entirely exclusive.
The bourgeois state as well as the forms of state
organs which preceded it, is based on the principle
of private property in land and in the means of
production. The whole so-called bourgeois law,
regulating relations between the private owners, is
based on this principle. The state as a whole, with
all its institutions, its military, administrative and
economic organisms — together with its church —
likewise constituted such property, but of course
not the property of the possessors of the means of
labor, but the property of the entire possessing
class, of the bourgeois landed proprietors or slave
holding classes. The object of each private owner
is the extension and enlargement of his holding.
Competition is a means for obtaining this goal.
The outcome of the law of competition is destruc-
tion or at best subjection of the less wealthy and
the less skilled owners to those owners who have
greater means, greater capital, and greater ability.
The same law controls also the development of
the bourgeois states. They constitute precisely such
organisms, competing among themselves, and the
outcome of this competion is the same, — the com-
plete destruction of the weak states or at best their
subjection to the strong states. The principle of
bourgeois statehood is expressed precisely in the
creation of these individual mutually hostile na-
tional states. Between these states, there may be
concluded commercial treaties, postal, telegraph
and railroad agreements; as the international situ-
ation varies, there may be defensive and offensive
alliances between them, but such arrangements are
temporary, fortuitous and incomplete in character.
Such arrangments cannot eliminate the peculiar and
profound antagonism existing between these states
and in the entire capitalist order of society. As
soon as the danger uniting various countries, or
their temporary coincidents of self-interest are
passed, struggle and hatred once more blaze
up between them with increased force, for such
conflict grows out of their very nature. Particu-
larly characteristic in this connection is the history
of the coalition of the entente states and of their
allies before and after the imperialistic war. The
ideology of bourgeois statehood is nationalism.
Diplomatic intrigues, "spying" of every kind, mu-
tual deception, are the regular devices of the bour-
geois power. When Marx, in the first manifesto of
the International in designating the foreign policy
of the capitalist states, held up to them by contrast
a policy that should be based on the laws of human
morality, he of course did not mean that the social-
ists in bourgeois society should support the Chris-
tian morality as opposed to this policy of the
state: "Do not do unto others what you would not
have them do unto you.*' He called the attention of
the proletariat to the fact that only through the vic-
tory of a proletarian revolution could the condi-
tions for honest and straightforward relations be-
tween all nations be brought about. As opposed
to the bourgeois statehood the proletarian state-
hood, which rejects private property as a means of
production, simultaneously defies private property
as an attribute of the state itself. In the socialistic
state the normalizing principle is not the interest
of the private exploiter, but the interest of the
entire working-class. The boundaries separating
socialistic states will no longer have a political
character, but will be transformed into simple ad-
ministrative limits. Likewise there will disappear
the frontiers between the individual private pro-
ductions which are regulated only by the law of
competition. Instead of the chaotic, capitalistic
economy, in which the most voluminous produc-
tion of manufactures and the most intense exploi-
tation of the worker alternate with industrial crisis
and unemployment, there will be an oganized na-
tionalized production, rationally developed accord-
ing to the general needs on a nation-wide plan, and
not only on a national scale but also on an inter-
national scale. The tendency of socialistic revo-
lution is political and economic centralization, pro-
visionally taking the form of an international fed-
eration. Of course, the creation of this federation
cannot be effected by a stroke of the pen, but is
the result of a more or less extended process of
elimination of particularism, provincialism, demo-
cratic and national bourgeois prejudices, which will
result from mutual accjuaintance and from mutual
adaptation.
The above principles, which were already an-
nounced by the first workers' International, were
naturally the cases for the relations between the
already existing Soviet republics, particularly be-
tween Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine. From the
first moment of the joint existence of these repub-
lics, Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine began lay-
ing the bases for economic and political relations
along federative lines. Although during this phase,
which extended up to June, 1919, both republics
had independent commissariats for all branches of
their national affairs, there was nevertheless already
a connection and a joint plan of work existing
between these commissariats. In the course of time
these two republics found their organized expres-
sion in the creation of common central organs. In
June, 1919, the Central Executive Committee of
the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic adopted
a resolution on the necessity of uniting a number
of the commissariats of the two republics, namely,
the Commissariats for Army and Navy, Transporta-
tion, Finances, Labor, Postal and Telegraph, and
the Supreme Councils of National Economy. This
resolution was ratified by the Central Executive
Committee of the Russian Soviet Republic, and in
1920 the First Congress of the Workers' and Peas-
ants' Soviets of Ukraine also approved, on its part,
the decision of both Central Executive Committees
in a modified resolution. A precise constitution
of the federative organs, that is, of the organs
uniting the Ukrainian Commissariats, has not yet
been worked out. T,V.i<; Central Executive Commit-
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tee of Soviet Russia, in its February session, pro-
posed a list of members of commissions which were
to occupy themselves with the elaboration of the
federative constitution. But because of the fact
that the responsible members of these commissions
were assigned to military and political duties out-
side of Moscow, it has not been found possible to
undertake the discharge of this task, and the fed-
erative relations are still regulated for each case
separately, by immediate agreements between the
two republics.
Such an agreement was made in January last
year, concerning military affairs. In uniting the
army apparatus, this union also provided for a
creation, in the immediate future, of separate cadres
for the Ukrainian Red Regiments, with the Ukrain-
ian language used in commands. For this purpose,
the creation of a school for Red Ukrainian com-
manders was provided, and this has been already
realized. In Kharkov the founding of a central
school for Red commanders has been already un-
dertaken. Already in this agreement the creation
of a military section in the Council of People's
Commissars of Ukraine provided for the purpose
of maintaining permanent liaison with the military
and administrative apparatus in Ukraine, which
is immediately under the revolutionary military
council of the republic, which is simultaneously
a revolutionary military council of the federation.
There still remain separate, in the two republics,
the People's Commissariats for Agriculture, Educa-
tion, Internal Affairs, Social Welfare, Popular
Health, Provisions, Workers' and Peasants' Inspec-
tion, as well as the Extraordinary Commission for
Combating Counter-Revolution. The Ukrainian
Council of Pepple's Commissars at present consti-
tute the People's Commissars of the Ukrainian So-
cialist Soviet Republic, and the authorized pleni-
potentiaries of the United Commissariats. The
latter have the same suffrage right as the Ukrainian
commissars.
This system of federative relations may not be
considered as either complete or perfect. We did
not approach the question of the federative rela-
tions in a dogmatic spirit, for we were never of
the opinion that national relations, particularly the
relations between Soviet republics, could be regu-
lated on the bases of abstract provisions. The fed-
erative constitution of the Soviet republics was
dictated by necessity itself, and fully considered
the acquired national experience. The particular
relations in which Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine
stood toward each other considerably facilitated
the task of a swift creation of close federative rela-
tions between them. The proletariats of the two
states were, historically, closely connected through
their past, through their common struggle against
Russian Czarism. Besides, Ukraine and Great Rus-
sia were united by a common economic life. After
the November Revolution, Soviet Russia became the
national support for the struggle of the workers and
peasants of Ukraine against the Central Rada,
against the Austrian-German occupation, against the
Hetman authority, against the Denikin government,
Digitized by Lt<
and now, finally, against the Poles. The Ukrainian
workers' and peasants' revolution naturally had to
guide itself by Soviet Russia, which was the only
Soviet center. The Communist movements in
Ukraine and in Russia "were already historically
connected through their common past. The party
of the Bolsheviki organized the working class with-
in the entire former Russian Empire. In Ukraine,
this task was made easier by the fact that the city
proletariat in that region is, to an overwhelming
extent, of Russian origin.*
But the various Ukrainian petit bourgeois "so-
cialist" parties, which put the national element in-
to the foreground and sacrificed the social revolu-
tion of the working class, evinced a tendency from
the very earliest days of the revolution, already in
February, 1917, to split the working class in
Ukraine, to put up the Ukrainian workers, and
particularly the Ukrainian peasants, in opposition
to Russia. During the Provisional Government of
Kerensky, they concealed their national policy be-
hind the slogans of federalism, for they beheld in
this government a petit bourgeois government very
much like their own, a policy related to their own.
They were led to sacrifice even their national
policy.
After the November Revolution, these national-
istic parties openly set their course toward a com-
plete separation of the Ukrainian working-class
and peasantry from the Russian working-class and
peasantry. In the peace negotiations at Brest-
Litovsk, they definitely entered the camp of the
Austrian-German nationalists. From this moment
• In the thesis elaborated by the Central Committee of tke
Communist Party of Ukraine, concerning national relations
between Russia and Ukraine, these views are developed under
points. 8, 9, 10. We herewith present the text of these points
in full:
8. The independence of the Ukrainian working masses, their
right to enjoy the fruits of their labor and the resources of
Ukraine — land, mines, factories— can only be secured by i
true workers' and peasants' power, the Ukrainian Socialist
Soviet Republic. All the efforts of the Ukrainian workers
and peasants must be directed toward solidifying the Socialist
Soviet power. But experience has shown, in Hungary, Bavaria,
and Ukraine itself, that counter-revolutions can easily dispose
of all Soviet republics which cannot offer the necessary military
resistance, because of the smallness of their, territory and their
population, or because of the absence of a sufficiently organixed
military and civil apparatus, as well as of accumulated political
experience.
9. Of all the Soviet republics that have thus far existed.
only Soviet Russia has been able victoriously to resist tbe
international and internal counter-revolution, and to deal smash-
ing blows to its opponents. Soviet Russia alone holds tbe
geographical conditions, as well as the economic and political
resources (extent of territory, hugeness of population, richness
of resources, millions of individuals constituting a revolutionary
industrial proletariat, an organized military and civil apparatus,
accumulated political experience), which make of it an jo-
pregnable fortress against all the attacks of international im-
perialism. In consequence of the circumstances that have inter-
vened, Soviet Russia is the leader and organizer of the inter-
national proletariat in the struggle against international-imperi-
alism. Each new Soviet republic, impelled by the instinct of
self-preservation, will seek support and aid from Soviet Russia.
And effective alliance with Soviet Russia is the revolutionary
duty of every new Soviet state.
10. Aside from the interests of defense, a close alliance
of the Ukrainian Socialist Republic with Soviet Russia is dic-
tated also by a number of circumstances which all arise out of
the indissolubly related historic destiny of these two Soviet
states. The Russian and Ukrainian workers and peasants were
already united by the struggle against the Czarist yoke and
the Great Russian imperialism. They are related by
larity of language, by a similar mixed population, by a 001
economic life. A complete separation of these two Soviet
is merely an artificial process, in contradiction with the entire
past and future struggle of the Ukrainian workers and peasants.
A complete national separation of Ukraine will inevitably lead
to an internal national struggle within Ukraine, and to tbe
magnification of the economic demoralization both in Ukraine
and in Rufsnv ■ ■ ■-. ^ I + iv-i iti
■■-■ I I L| 1 1 I '.1 1 I I '_• I 1 1
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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on, the Ukrainian Social-Nationalists adhered de-
finitely to the western orientation, that is, the ori-
entation of imperialistic counter-revolution. For
two and a half years Ukraine was a theater of civil
war, not only between the workers and peasants,
on the one hand, and the landed proprietors and
capitalists, on the other, but also between the class-
conscious portions of the working class and the
peasantry and the unawakened elements, which fol-
lowed in the wake of the petit bourgeois Ukrainian
National-Socialist parties, and actually supported
the Russian and the international counter-revolu-
tion. We may say that the civil war in Ukraine
has now in both these phases arrived at its con-
clusion; the proletariat has now finally defeated
not only the White Guard counter-revolution, but
also the petit bourgeois nationalist counter- revolu-
tion. The Ukrainian national socialistic parties
have fallen to pieces. Their best elements have
already entered the Communist Party (Bolsheviki)
of Ukraine, which is at this moment the only poli-
tical representative of the proletariat and of the
revolutionary peasantry of that country.
Lenin's Reading at Geneva
Lenin, before he began to assume the leading
position in Russia which he now holds, and while
he was still a marked man abroad, lived for a num-
ber of years in Geneva. Soviet Russia in its issue
for September 27, 1919, prints an account by
Siegfried Bloch of Lenin's private life while living
in another Swiss city, Zurich, and on February 21,
1920, Soviet Russia had Charles Rappaport's ar-
ticle, "Recollections of Lenin", which also describes
some of Lenin's studies in Switzerland.
Now we learn from an article contributed to
Comoedia, a French dramatic magazine, by M. Guy
de Pourtales, just what were the books that Lenin
asked for while a member of the Circulating Li-
brary at Geneva during the years 1905-1908.
Among Lenin's readings, there are many books
that are of purely literary nature. The name of
Maupassant recurs frequently in his book-slips, so
frequently as to indicate a systematic study. In
1905 he reads: line Vie, Bel Ami, La Maison Tel-
lier, La Main gauche, Le Horla, Y telle; in 1908
he asks for Claire de Lune. Of Victor Hugo, he
read in 1905: Quatre-Vingt-Treize; in 1908: Les
Miserables, La Legende des Siecles, Les Contempla-
tions, Les Travailleurs de la Mer, in other words,
Hugo's novels and long poetic works. Zola ap-
pears only once, in 1905, with La Tcrre, as one
might imagine. On other occasions he asks for
Contes de la Montagne. of Erckmann-Chatrian, and
Tartar in sur les Alpes by Daudet, Corneille's works,
a history of the short story in France, and Lan-
son's Manuel de la Litterature Francaisc; also vari-
ous books by the Goncourts, Flaubert, Bourget, Bal-
zac, Sully Prudhomme, UAiglon by Rostand. He
also reads Bailly's Style, some analytic book by
Albalat, and, among a number of other philoso-
phical works, the Grammaire raisonnee of Gaston
Paris.
His readings in German, apart from the works of
Hegel, which he asked for in 1908, include only
political books, Das Deutsche Parteiprogramm by
Salomon; Volkspolitik of Menger, and a Future
of Russia, Die Zukunft Russlands, by Martin.
His historical-geographical readings are import-
ant. They include Das Weltbild by Snyder and
books on Korea and China, on Japan and on the
XIX century; before all however, and constantly,
he reads writings about the French Revolution
and commune: Quinet, Aulard, Lissagaray, Hamel,
Mignet, Fetes et Chansons de la Republique of
Tiersot.
There also appear a treatise on mechanics and
a psychological annual, the treatise of Henri Poin-
care on The Value of Science and Hume's Human
Nature. Among the 1908 readings, are L'Educa-
tion de la Volonte by Payot. This education of the
will is an art that had to be practiced much by
that young Russian who quietly came to the rooms
of the Geneva Crculating Library in which he was
registered as 'publicist", born in 1870. His name,
Vladimir Ulyanov, then seemed destined to ob-
scurity and even today it is hidden behind that of
"Lenin" which has become famous all over the
world.
M. de Pourtales points out the fact that French
literature and the Revolution seem to have been
Lenin's favorite subjects. Perhaps Lenin did not
distinguish much between the two. The taste for
Corneille was very common among the men of
1793; that for Maupassant with his clear concrete
vision of reality is quite consistent on the whole
with the character of the great revolutionist of
our days who in his (Jeneva days of 1905-1908 was
preparing by such preparatory studies to lead men
and to rule people.
Once more we behold a man of action forming
his mind slowly through books, a statesman from
afar, so different from our so-called "civilized
statesmen", who never feel during their life of
action how necessary it is to read.
SCIENTIFIC CONTACT WITH THE
WEST
Moscow reports as follows on October 13, 1920:
A special committee from the Petrograd Academy
of Science has proposed a plan to the Academy,
whereby a closer contact between the scientists of
Russia and those of Western Europe is to be
achieved.
by L^OOgle
FOOD STUFFS
Moscow, November 2. — The transportation of
grain from the Kuban district exceeds all expecta-
tions. The Kuban Cossacks are delivering from
their settlements more flour than it is possible to
load on the cars." Many settlements have delivered
more than 150 car loads.
For the present year the potato supplies amount
to 110,000,000 poods already under shelter before
the coming of the frost.
Original from
UNIVERSITYOF MICHIGAN
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December 11, 1920
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
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ARMENIA has become a Soviet Republic. The
Armenian revolutionists, supported by the
Red Army of the Azerbaijan Tartars, have com-
pletely defeated the military force of the reaction-
ary Erivan government and have joined the Tur-
kish army of Mustapha-Kemal. This occurred be-
tween the tenth and thirteenth of November, just
at the moment when the victorious Russian Soviet
forces broke into the Crimean peninsula.
The Armenian Government was compelled to
sign an armistice with Soviet Russia and with the
Turkish Kemalists on three points: (1) The with-
drawal of the Armenians to the western bank of
the Arpachai, thus giving up the Zangazour and
Karabagh district and opening up a corridor for
communications between the Turks and Soviet Rus
sia; (2) the Turks to occupy Alexandropol and
a radius of ten kilometers, pending peace negotia-
tions; (3) the Turks to take responsibility for the
maintenance of order and the security of the in-
habitants. These terms imposed on the Armenians
were fully carried out and greatly strengthened
the military position of the Red Caucasian Army,
which speedily established its control along the
Poti-Baku railway, as well as that of the Turks
who became masters of Alexandropol, a railway
junction of the Tiflis-Alexandropol-Kars and Tulfa-
Alexandropol railways.
The Armenian population did not lose their op-
portunity and a revolution broke out which ended
by declaration of Soviet rule in Armenia.
These events produced a great impression in
Georgia, the puppet state of Great Britain. Sur-
rounded by the Reds on the north and east, and
on the south and southwest by the Kemalists, the
Georgian bourgeoisie had either to capitulate to
the Reds or yield to their own revolutionary move-
ment. As far as we can see they have chosen the
latter alternative, as the appearance of a Red
Georgian garrison in Batum seems to prove.
The development of the political situation in
Asiatic Turkey has strengthened the strategical po-
sition of the Reds in the Caucasus and in Central
Asia. The Alliance between Turkey in Asia and
Soviet Russia has removed the Caucasus from any
danger of a new attack by the imperialistic coali-
tion headed by Great Britain. Furthermore, the
Red Army has now seized the initiative in the Asi-
atic theater of war, forcing the Allies to use a
strictly defensive strategy in Asia Minor and Meso-
potamia, and compelling England to defend herself
in South Persia and along her Indian borders.
If we will look on the map we will understand
that the revolution has spread through the Middle
East in the regions of the Black Sea, the Caspian
Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea;
namely, throughout the Caucasus (Kuban and Te-
rek, Azerbaijan and Georgia), in Persia and in Tur-
key, except its northwestern part which is still in
by V^
*L
the hands of the European invaders. This sudden
transformation of the map of Asia, which is one of
the most important events of the day, has seriously
alarmed England, who fears the vengeance of the
oppressed nations.
The Russian people, the peasants and workers of
free Soviet Russia, have brought upon Great Bri-
tain this retribution. The long and ruthless mur-
dering of the workers of Russia by the British im-
perialists and their allies forced the Russians to
seek sympathy among the Eastern peoples likewise
oppressed and robbed by the merciless Entente.
The Entente remained deaf to the repeated ap-
peals for peace. The slaughter of the Russian
workers and peasants continued. The plans for
the dismemberment of Turkey went forward, ac-
companied by a vigorous propaganda based upon
the Armenian massacres. The Armenian bourgeoi-
sie living in Europe and America, with plentiful
capital at their disposal, supported this propa-
ganda. The businesses and welfare of these Ar-
menians depended chiefly upon their relations with
the governments of the countries in which they re-
sided, and they supported these governments in their
attempts to submit Armenia to the control of west-
ern capitalism. They knew perfectly well that the
Allies had not declared themselves the protectors
of the Armenian people either for the sake of the
beautiful eyes of the Armenian women or because
of the "commercial ability" of the Armenian busi-
ness men.
Knowing the country and its population I can
say positively that the agricultural clement of the
Armenians, as well as the Armenian proletariat, al-
ways lived on the best terms with the Turkish pop-
ulation, #nd were, as well, on the most friendly
terms with the Azerbaijan Tartars and the other
Mohammedan peoples. I saw, myself, during my
travels through Afghanistan and Persia many Ar-
menians serving in the Afghan and Persian armies.
I saw the Armenian workers toiling together with
their brother Tartar workers at their hard tasks
in the Baku oil fields. And in Turkey was the
fate of the Armenian workers worse than that of
the Turkish toilers themselves?
The massacre of Armenians by Turks and of
Turks by Armenians was due solely to an artificial
incitement of one race against the other by the so-
called Armenian patriot-capitalists whose aim was
to provoke an armed intervention of the Great
Powers. That the Russian Czar's Government in
a most shameless way incited both the Armenians
and the Tartars to slaughter each other is an es-
tablished fact.
Victorious Soviet Russia, from a purely stra-
tegical standpoint, was unable to permit the estab-
lishment of a capitalistic Armenia as well as an
imperialistic Georgia under the domination of
Great Britain, France and other powers.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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December II, 1920
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The successful revolutionary movement among
the Tartars, Georgians, Persians, Turks, and Ar-
menians has spoilt the plans of capitalistic imperi-
alism. These events, moreover, freed a large part
of the Red Caucasian and Turkestan armies. The
newly created states are naturally in possession of
their own military forces. They need, and these
only for the early period of their existence, some
Russian specialists instructors, and a comparatively
small body of soldiers to protect their newly elected
revolutionary authority. Thus the Red military
command was enabled to undertake a serious stra-
tegical manoeuver in Central Asia.
As it was recently reported, General Sokolnikov,
the Chief Commander of the Soviet forces in Tur-
kestan, was instructed to move his army of 150,000
men towards the Afghan frontier of India. This
movement, if it is not an invention of the British
press bureau, is of extraordinary significance.
Some time ago I understand that Great Britain was
concentrating her Indian Army along the north-
western frontier. Taking into consideration that
the relations between Afghanistan and Great Bri-
tain have been seriously ruptured for about three
years since the British army tried to break through
Afghanistan with the intention of invading Persia
and Russian Turkestan, it may be that the Afghans,
in order to protect themselves from a new British
invasion, have appealed to their new ally, Soviet
Russia, for military support. Otherwise, it is diffi-
cult to interpret the news that General Sokolnikov
is to occupy certain strategical points along the
Afghan-Indian frontier. It would have been im-
possible for the Red Army to penetrate to this line
without the permission of the Afghans, who dis-
pose of a strong and well-equipped military force.
This short dispatch, twice repeated in the American
press, only confirms the fact that Soviet Russia
is becoming the leader of all the oppressed peo-
ples of Asia.
A year ago, discussing the situation in Turkestan,
I published in the New York Call of November 7,
1919, a warning to England that her aggressive
policy towards the Soviet Republic in the West
might be met by the Russians in the East. On
several occasions I said that the British Govern-
ment was obstinately incurring a very serious men-
ace to India, and that only peace with Soviet
Russia could postpone the catastrophe which,
sooner or later,, was imminent. I said that the mili-
tary pressure which Great Britain so energetically
and so shamelessly continued to bring upon the
Russian workers and peasants would only shorten
the time when that catastrophe would come. I
pointed out that the military and political situa-
tion in Turkestan was very satisfactory. "This
vast region of Central Asia," I said in the New
York Call of November 7, 1919, "is in complete
control of the Soviets. The natives of the Fergana,
Syr-Daria, Samarkand regions as well as of Khiva
and Bokhara are in full sympathy with the' Bol-
sheviki, as are also the populations of Afghanistan
and India." . . . "Russia," I continued, "is a semi-
Mongolian country. She was respected i n Asia
under the Czars. Free Russia, Soviet Russia, may
be a leader even more respected by the peoples
of the East. Let England keep that in mind!"
When, early in 1920, Comrade Trotsky said in
one of his interviews with an American journalist
that the Russians are good linguists and could eas-
ily learn Hindustani there was much scorn in the
British press. At the end of June, 1920, it was
reported that Kuropatkin was appointed Command-
er of the army which was to undertake a manoeuver
towards India. In reply to this, Great Britain with
her allies increased their hostilities against the
Soviet Republic, and the Polish War as well as
Wrangel's adventure were in full swing. In Sep-
tember came the Congress of Mohammedan nations
at Baku.
. The resolution of the more than one thousand
representatives who attended this historical con-
gress, unanimously accepted, was "war to the death
against world capitalism" — which for the Moham-
medans means a war. against Great Britain. This
caused several interpellations in the House of Com-
mons. British strategy in the Near and in the
Middle East was instructed to prevent by means
of arms the possibility of any kind of union be-
tween the Mohammedans and the Soviet Republic.
France and Greece were to cooperate in a newly
planned campaign. At one time even Wrangel was
ordered to undertake a perilous manoeuver in order
to land a part of his band in the Kuban district,
which he accomplished under the protection of the
British navy. (As we know, his Caucasian expe-
ditionary forces never returned to the Crimea. They
were entirely defeated, thus considerably weaken-
ing the main "army" of the Crimean Baron.) Euro-
pean Turkey with Constantinople, part of Anatolia
as far as east of Ismid and east of Smyrna, was
annexed by the Allies and principally by the
Greeks.
Several times since the outbreak of the civil war
in Russia, Great Britain succeeded in penetrating
into the Caucasus and Transcaucasia and, being
pushed back by the local population, finally at-
tempted to control the ports of Poti and Batum
on the Black Sea. French detachments meanwhile
operated in Syria and the British in Mesopotamia,
still hostile to the invaders.
All the efforts of Great Britain to weaken the
growing moral power of Moscow and to restore the
vanishing prestige of London amongst the Asiatic
people were in vain. The strategy of the Soviet
Republic in the East was quite different from that
of the Allies. It was based not upon military force,
but on sincere and friendly relations with the peo-
ples through whose country the Red Army had to
pass in order to protect these countries from the
threatened invasion. Once the invaders were de-
feated, the Red forces were immediatly withdrawn.
This happened first in Persia in 1918-1919. Not
an inch of the Persian territory was annexed by
the Soviet forces. Such a policy created the great-
est sensation throughout all Asia. The same hap-
pened in Turkestan, in the Khanate of Bokhara, in
Khiva MMffi^f*fe,f- The9ame
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SOVIET RUSSIA
December 11, 1920
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is happening now in Armenia and may happen
in Turkey and elsewhere. This is the real strength
of Russian strategy in Asia, a strategy which capi-
talistic states can not adopt without radically alter-
ing the political structure of their countries and
abandoning the principles of national imperialism.
Do the western military thinkers understand that
the proletarian army of the Soviet Republic, dur-
ing its occupation of a country, will be strengthened
by the people of the latter because the Red Army
does not fight peoples but is hostile only to the
bourgeois capitalists? An army of the imperialis-
tic invaders, on the other hand, "melts like snow
in the spring," as Napoleon always repeated. Real
deliverers, and conquerors camouflaged as humani-
tarian "protectors", are two different things, and
are always easily distinguished by the people.
The fallen Armenian bourgeois republic com-
prised the district of Erivan, a southern part of the
Tiflis region, the southwestern part of the re-
gion of Elizavetpol, and almost all the region of
Kars, except that part of it situated north of Orda-
han. The representatives of the Armenian bourg-
eoisie were pledged at the Peace Conference to ex-
tend Armenian territory from the Black Sea to the
Caspian Sea, thus including a part of Azerbaijan
with its rich oilfields. Similar claims were also
put forward by the Georgians. Naturally the Tar-
tars became alarmed, and realizing that the Ar-
menians and Georgians had the support of Great
Britain they joined with the Turks. The struggle
then began between the Armenians and Georgians
on the one hand and the Tartars and Turks on
the other, a purely territorial conflict led by the
representatives of the capitalistic class. It would
have resulted in endless bloodshed in Transcau-
casia had the revolutionary forces not come into
power and put an end to the quarrel.
Transcaucasia is thickly populated. An area
of about 100,000 square miles, the greatest part
of which is mountainous, has a population of
7,500,000. The territory comprised six govern-
ments and three provinces under the Czarist regime.
In this small region situated between the Caucasian
Mountains and Persia and Turkey and the Black
Sea on the west and Caspian Sea on the east there
are about sixty separate races, Mohammedan as
well as Christian. In Daghestan alone there are
58 different tribes, distinguished by their national
dresses, customs, and religion. Could such diverse
populations be brought together by any regime in
the world except the Soviet regime? When these
peoples, accepting the theory of "self-determina-
tion", under the influence of their bourgeois lead-
ers, began to seek independent existence as separ-
ate republics, their respective bourgeoisies at once
started a series of permanent wars and flooded the
country with paper money.
The majority of the natives of the Caucasus and
Transcaucasia are uneducated and lead the most
primitive existence. Even the most progressive ele-
ment of Transcaucasia, the Armenians, are for the
most part illiterate. The wealthy landowners have
exploited the peasants in the same way as in other
countries and have so prepared the ground for a
general uprising. It is a greate mistake to judge
the Armenian people by those Armenians whom we
are accustomed to meet in Europe and America.
They are as unrepresentative as were the Russian
intelligentsia of the past who in no way repre-
sented the real Russia of the workers and peas-
ants. Generally the Armenians are a clever people,
with great physical and mental abilities, advancing
Vapidly in their education whenever they have an
opportunity. The Armenians were always consid-
ered in the old Russian army as good fighters.
The moment has approached when western capi-
talism, led by Great Britain, has to meet the op-
pressed peoples of the East under the inspiration
of free Russia.
RUSSIANS IN FRANCE
We have just received interesting information
referring to the Russian troops placed at the dis-
posal of France by the Czarist and Kerensky Gov^
ernments.
This information reached us through a Russian
military man who has just returned from Paris.
There were in France the following Russian in-
f sniffy regiments, namely, 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th
regiments of 5,000 men each; four reserve com-
Sanies of 600 men each, and the 2nd Artillery
Irigade of 800 men. All these forces, 23,200
fighters, were engaged on the Verdun sector of the
French battle-front, under General Lokhvitsky.
Besides this, on the Salonika battle-front an-
other Russian division, constituted of 3rd, 40th,
7th, and 8th infantry regiments and of four re-
serve companies as well as of the 2d Artillery bri-
gade, was active under General Saraille. In addi-
tion to these forces, already during the Kerensky
rule a battalion of 800 engineers arrived, making
the entire Russian Salonika forces 24,000 men.
The total of all Russian fighters in the French
Army is 47,200 men.
During the latest period of the Great War the
French captured from the Germans about 70,000
Russian prisoners engaged by the Germans to work
on the battle-front. Thus the number of Russian
soldiers in France increased to 117,200. The addi-
tional military staff, namely Red Cross men, com-
missariat, and differeht clerks and employes of in-
ferior rank could be estimated at about 30,000
men, which gives the number of 147,200 men in all.
On January 14, 1918, these Russians were divided
into three categories: (1) the volunteers who de-
sired to enter the forces of the reactionary Russian
general; (2) the volunteers who refused to fight the
Bolsheviki, but were willing to engage themselves
in work for the several White Russian governments,
and (3) those who refused to take any engagement
and demanded an immediate return to Russia. At
first the third category was most numerous, but
due to severe repression its numbers decreased and
finally 1,000 men of that category were dispatched
to Africa and placed in Souk-haras in Tebessa and
Creider in Algeria. Their condition is deplorable
and the Ctiiekjj ol the trench beyond description.
"VERSITV OF MICHIGAN
(L>
December 11, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
577
Litvinov
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m
TN the light of many lying reports which have
been published by the bourgeois and Social-
ist press of the right about Litvinov, as well as
about the other Bolshevist leaders, the following
biographical data which have appeared in Nor-
wegian Socialist papers will no doubt be of great
interest to the public. These stories demonstrate
further how unfounded these fake reports were
with which it had been attempted at the time to
explain Litvinov's failure to carry out his pro-
jected trip to England.
Maxim Litvinov was born in 187C, of a bour-
geois family. He had hardly finished his studies
and his military service when he joined the Rus-
sian Social- Democratic Party in 18QS — the year in
which that party was founded. At that time a
eocial-democratic party could not exist openly and
legitimately, but wns forced to develop and foster
its activities il legally, and its members weTe in
constant danger of being imprisoned and sen-
tenced. He was hardly twenty-two years old when
he was arrested on the ground of being a member
of the sub-committee of a Socialist party, and al-
though there was no evidence against him, he was
kept behind the bars for almost two years, and
was then sent to Eastern Siberia for six years, on
the mere order of the Minister of the Interior,
and without a regular judicial sentence. However,
even before this last term of imprisonment could
begin he was able to make his escape, He there-
upon went to Switzerland, where he became a
member of the United European-Russian Social-
Democratic Executive Committee, a committee
whose other two members were Leo Deutsch and
the wife of Lenin. After the split of the Socialist
Party, Litvinov, together with Lenin, joined the
Left Wing, whose leader at that time was Flekh-
anov.
After a short stay in Switzerland Litvinov re-
turned secretly to Russia in 1903 > although he
ran the risk of imprisonment and death, especially
as he was on an important mission for the party.
Several times he acted as a delegate to party
congresses in Western Europe, and was also a
delegate to the Congress of the Second Interna-
tional* During this period he fell repeatedly into
the hands of the police, but he always succeeded
in making his escape*
Immediately after the Revolution of 1905 he
founded, in cooperation with Erassin and Gorky,
the first Socialist daily paper which was not
printed underground, but was published openly.
This was the well-known Novaja Zhizn which
was, however, suppressed after a few months of
existence, Litvinov came very near being arrested
then, but was able to flee from Petrograd just in
time. After 1908, however, the secret service of
the Czar kept a sharper lookout for him, so that
he was unable to return to Russia, He emigrated
to England, and was delegated to the International
Socialist Bureau as a representative of the Left
Wing, The Mensheviki were represented by Axel-
rod. Shortly after the famous November Revo-
lution he was appointed diplomatic representative
in London by the Soviet Government. Notwith-
standing the reports which the bourgeois press
continued to spread about Litvinov, and the of*
ficial lie by Lloyd George in the Lower House,
the truth of the matter is that Litvinov was not
banished from England, nor were any proceedings
brought against him for propagandist activities
during his stay in England*
The real facts are as follows : When Lockhart,
the English diplomatic representative to Russia^
was arrested on account of having taken part in
a conspiracy against the Soviet Government and
Lenin, the English authorities entered the home
of Litvinov and searched his house, and looked
over and took possession of all his diplomatic
papers, although this was in direct violation of
diplomatic immunity, Furthermore, instead of
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
578
SOVIET RUSSIA
December 11, 1920
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banishing Litvinov from England, he was pre-
vented from leaving until Lockhart was freed by
the Soviets. It will be remembered, the exchange
of Lockhart and Litvinov took place thereafter in
Norway.
After Litvinov's return to Russia, Chicherin ap-
pointed him his assistant, and he took charge of
the division for Western European affairs in the
Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. Furthermore,
he became a member of the Commissariat for
State Control, where he organized a Central Bu-
reau of Complaints. In November, 1919, he went
to Dorpat, where he began the peace negotiations
with Esthonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Thereafter
he went to Copenhagen, where^he negotiated with
O'Grady regarding the exchange of Russian and
English prisoners of war. It is one of the secrets
of history, and wholly inexplicable, why England
failed to permit Litvinov to accompany the Rus-
sian Trade Delegation to London. Every one knows
that this stand taken by England was the cause
of months of delay in the negotiations. Later on
Lloyd George became aware of the fact that his
position was untenable, and when he invited Rus-
sia to take part in the peace negotiations, he de-
clared that he would make no attempt to influence
the selection of Russian delegates, which likewise
disposed of the Litvinov matter once and for all
Trade Unions in Ukraine
The Trade Union movement in Ukraine is
at the present time laboring under most unfavor-
able conditions. The repeated change of govern-
ment, the disorganization of industry resulting from
the three years of civil war naturally had a great
effect upon the trade union organizations. In spite
of all this the Ukrainian Trade Unions have car-
ried out a great deal of work during the last eight
months in regard to the organization of industry
as well as in strengthening the union apparatus.
With the first days of its work under new con-
ditions the Ukrainian Trade Unions were faced with
the necessity of taking the most radical measures
for the purpose of reorganizing production.
One of the measures undertaken in this direction
was the formation of the Ukrainian Labor Army.
The representatives of the trade union movement
took an active part both in the work of the revo-
lutionary council of the Labor Army, and in that
of the Ukrainian Industrial Bureau. The result of
these united efforts was that the total of the coal
output, and the productivity of labor generally, of
each vvorkingman increased considerably. The
average output per man for the month of April was
V21 pounds; in July it reached 217 pounds.
During this period the trade union movement
made great progress. Trade union organs have
been established in a number of places, and there
is a universal prevalence of adherents to Commun-
ism. Many provincial trade unions have grown so
strong that they can work on a far larger scale than
inany of the trade unions of Central Russia. In
tlrs connection it is interesting to mention the
Digitized by GOOglC
Trade Union Council of the Odessa province. This
trade union was composed of 128 to 130 thousand
workingmen. The result of the Provincial Congress,
which took place at the end of May, was a sharp
predominance of the Communists. Similar con-
gresses took place in the other provinces. Here,
also, the result was a victory of the Communists.
At the time of the Wrangel offensive the Ukrain-
ian trade unions undertook to mobilize five times
the number of men that had been originally al-
lotted to them. There is information at hand to the
effect that this mobilization has been most success-
ful. In addition to the mobilization at the front
a considerable mobilization is taking place for work
in connection with the supply of provisions.
The Ukrainian trade union movement takes a
great interest in the general work of the Soviets.
The Odessa Council of fyade Unions supplies inter-
esting figures characterizing the above:
Number of trade unionists delegated by trade
union organizations to Soviet institutions from Feb-
ruary 1 to July 1, 1920, were:
Name Number
6f Institution of Delegates
Council of Public Economy 235
Labor Department and Social Maintenance 100
Provision Organs 234
Land and Housing Department 107
Other Institutions 556
Total 1,232
These figures show that the trade unions have
passed the most difficult period of organization and
have grown fairly strong.
ORIENTAL STUDIES
Moscow, November 2. — Oldenburg, President of
the Academy of Sciences at Petrograd, reports that
the academician Berkhtold has discovered Syrian
inscriptions of historic importance in the vicinity
of Sama in Turkestan.
The academy has assumed control of the extra-
ordinarily important archives that were once the
possession of the Emir of Bokhara.
"oAll citizens able to work have the right
to employment at their vocations. "
Section 10, Article II, of the Code of Labor Laws
of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic.
THE LABOR LAWS OF SOVIET RUSSIA
New edition, translated from the official Russian
text, with a supplement on The Protection of
Labor in Soviet Russia, by S. Kaplun, of the Com-
missariat of Labor.
93 pages, bound in heavy paper covers, price 25c
ADDRESS
SOVIET RUSSIA
110 West 40th Street
New York City
UNIVERSITY0F MICHIGAN
December 11, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
579
In the Heart of Karelia
By John S. Clarke
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MR. J. R. &ACD0NALD, writing in the For-
ward, October 23, gives an account of a
labor meeting addressed by him in Georgia. "Sure-
ly never," says he, "had British Socialist so strange
an audience as this."
From his description of the affair, I can pretty
safely aver that it was a commonplace happening
compared to an experience of my own on the bar-
ren coast of the White Sea.
The topographical setting my readers ought to
be fairly familiar with ere this. Imagine a deso-
late stretch of tree-clad swamp-land, bordered on
the west by a miniature' mountain range, the peaks
of which, though no higher than one thousand
feet, are yet capped with perpetual snow. On the
east, an almost rippleless blue sea with a slight
haze hovering above it and terminating in a low-
lying rock-strewn shore. Upon the shore itself stand
one hundred and fifteen peculiarly constructed
wooden houses, housing the modern descendants
of an ancient people. Such is the village of Kan-
dalaksa, or Kandalax, on the southwest corner of
the White Sea. To the north, the precarious track
upon which the railway is built makes a semi-cir-
cular bend to the east and follows the coast line for
some miles.
At the center of the loop the "station" — two or
three wooden buildings — stands between two scrub-
clothed embankments.
Here the most unique experience I ever had in
the movement occurred. I was with the Russian
Labor Delegation, and four of us (Alexis Lozovsky,
Feodor Sergheiev, Diimitry Antoshkin, and myself)
were having breakfast when the train stopped. An
attendant came into the compartment and told us
that the townsfolk of Kandalaksa had marched out
en masse to the train, and were demanding
speeches. Sergheiev, who knew English very well,
and who had already interpreted three speeches of
mine, insisted on my addressing them in English.
We left the train and beheld what can only be
described as an amazing spectable. Abour four hun-
dred men and women were drawn up in military
formation, the men clothed in tattered uniforms
and odd-looking garments and the women mostly
in "national" dress — the "sarafan" of striped or
printed calico with a smock frock partly covering
it. The men wore every variety of clothing imagin-
able. Soldiers' great-coats, tunics, jerseys, leather
and sheepskin jackets open or tied with rope, top-
boots, ski-boots, puttees, peak-caps, fur-caps, and
old-fashioned forage caps. The women, curiously
picturesque, wore the typical kerchief tied around
the head, and were shod in as many varieties of
footgear as the men — though one or two were quite
barefoot. Some held children by the hand, and
some carriecf them in arms giving them suck at
ample and fully exposed breasts.
A huge red banner carried by two of the men
bore in golden lettering "Long Live the Soviet Re-
public."
As we passed they stood at attention. The wom-
en walked over to the sandy embankment and seated
themselves in front of the makeshift platform — a
pile of fuel-logs; the men then grouped themselves
behind. Their immobile staring faces were a study.
Clean-shaven or whiskered, it was impossible to
penetrate behind that pacific empty stare. Sergheiev
stood before them and spoke for fifteen minutes.
He was followed by Lozovsky, who evidently in-
dulged in periodical quips of humor, for every
now and then a grin would spread itself over the
faces, and at times a roar of hearty laughter was
provoked. But Alexis was very serious at the end.
His bearded face with the fire-flashing, penetrating
eyes gave him the appearance of a biblical prophet,
and his words were drunk in with avidity. At
length he pointed his finger at me and stepped
down. It was my turn. I climbed the logs and
looked down upon my tatterdemalion but pictur-
esque audience, now augmented by curious travel-
ers from the train. The silence was deathlike, not
even the buzz of a fly could be heard, and the mot-
ley-arrayed crowd appeared to have been turned
to stone, so motionless was it. A brilliant morning
sun, with no heat in it, blazed on high in a per-
fectly cloudless sky, and not a movement could be
detected in the atmosphere. It was an ideal day
for an outdoor meeting. I smiled but received a
grim and stony stare in return. The men were
expressionless, the women and children more so.
A small, sandy-colored mongrel began to exhibit
some little excitement — over a flea — and I began to
speak. "Tovarischi!" They pricked up their ears,
but dropped them again when I continued in Eng-
lish. I waxed poetical, rhapsodical, and augmen-
tative. I told them Pushkin fables; told them of
the Polish defeat and the Wrangel advance; leath-
ered Lloyd George and Churchill; and destroyed
the British Empire root and branch. They listened
to my verbal cataracts unmoved. Invective, how-
ever bitter, sarcasm however withering, rhetoric
however passionate, and humor broad or dry, left
them as indifferent and unresponsive as before.
The reason, of course, was obvious — they didn't
know what I was talking about.
Their open-mouthed, statuesque countenances
were the nearest approaches to absolute vacuity I
have ever seen. It was not a "fed-up" look, mind,
for I was told they thoroughly enjoyed themselves,
though I was very doubtful at the time whether the
tremendous applause I received was due to "popu-
larity" or because I had dried up. In this wilder-
ness of weeds and rock, where picture houses, thea-
tres, and music reigns unchallenged, the people are
passionately fond of speeches. Anyone who can
orate to them is almost worshipped, for by the
spoken, not the printed- word have their minds
and hea
IftiftSsfl
fluenced
MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
December 11, 1920
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I stepped from my log platform and was ac-
corded at last some beaming smiles and military
salutes. Sergheiev came up to me and whispered,
"You have gave me one hell of a job!" "I'm
very pleased," I replied; "you asked for it!"
But Feodor did the job well, judging from the
delighted faces I watched while he delivered the
speech over again in Russian. Even then, there
were many there who could not understand the
Russian of Sergheiev, for among them w**re natives
of the district who understood only theii Karelian
tongue.
Karelia and Pomoria, in the old days, formed the
district of Kem, which stretches from Kandalaksa
to the foot almost of the White Sea. This district
was 36,000 square versts in area, or about
10,000,000 English acres. The entire population of
this enormous district — about as big as Ireland —
is only 36,368, of which 14,000 are Russians.
The Karelians, a Finnish tribe, were dominant
on the lower White Sea coast till about the 14th
century. They began then to penetrate eastwards
towards the Northern Dvina, where the Karelian
Monastery of St. Nicholas still stands, and to set-
tle on the western coast, where they intermingled
with the Russians. The older people, the Lapps,
were driven more and more to the north, until
today they are confined practically to the Kola
peninsula.
The Karelians are mentioned as far back as the
9th century. King Erik Edmundson in 833 marched
into their country, while Harold Harfarger's chief,
Torolf Koeldufson, the viking, routed them in bat-
tle in 897.
Karelia proper consists of the western part of
the district of Kem, bounded on the north by Lap-
land; on the northeast and east by Pomoria; on
the south and southeast by Olonets Province; and
on the west by Finland.
The rivers form a seemingly continuous chain
of lakes, which the train follows for hundreds of
miles, the chief being the River Kem flowing from
the Finnish frontier. The land is swampy and
stony. It is puzzling, in fact, to see so many huge
boulders and smaller stones lying in such profu-
sion, until one remembers the proximity of the
sea. The climate is bleak and raw, and in the
autumn, foggy. The villages are connected only
by footpaths over the rocks and swamps. There
are no cart roads anywhere to be seen. In some
cases communication is maintained by boats on the
various lakes, but many rapids have to be shot
and difficult channels negotiated during the voy-
ages.
Agriculture is carried on on a very small scale,
such pursuit being a continual struggle with na-
ture. Catch crops of potatoes and turnips are ob-
tained, but only about one-third of the grain requi-
site to feed the population is produced from the
unyielding, half-manufactured soil.
Timber felling and river and sea fisheries are
the chief occupations of the people, though some
engage in trapping the fox and squirrel and hunt-
ing the brown bear.
The Karelian house is erected on a kind of per-
manent scaffolding. A ladder leads to the door.
On the ground floor the sheep pens and cattle byres
are placed. In the kitchen the stove, moulded from
clay, stands on a hearth of cobble stones, for bricks
are quite unknown in JCarelia. Benches stand
around the walls; the sleeping couch, made of
wood, is near the stove, and the ikons or sacred
pictures hang exactly opposite — perhaps in order
to permit them being seen by anyone lying sick.
There is a crockery cupboard and a few chairs,
a kettle, samovar, and wash tub. I could see noth-
ing else in any of the houses.
The logs with which the house is built are fitted
into one another by a kind of mortice process, and
the interstices are packed with paper, down, and
sheep's wool. Most of the windows are double
to keep out the intense cold.
The Karelians are not unlike the rustic Russians.
Mostly blue-eyed, with reddish or brown hair,
usually unkempt and hanging below the ears and
across the eye-brows. Their voices are somewhat
monotonous, especially when singing. After our
propaganda meeting everyone closed up into a
crowd, placed the flag in the center, bared the head,
and sent up to 'the clear blue sky, in which the
brilliant morning sun smiled down upon an other-
wise dismal place, the strains of "The Internation-
ale."
As already mentioned, the train follows the coast-
line for a considerable distance after leaving Kan-
dalaksa. It runs through the whole of the district
once called Pomoria until it reaches Kem, then it
continues in a more southern direction. Evidences
of the Allied "occupation", as the politician de-
scribes the devastating activities of an invading
army, are to be seen everywhere. The repeated de-
struction of the railroad has made it very unsafe
in parts, and the wreckage encumbering the per-
manent way is an ever-intruding eyesore through-
out this route. But this is not the worst aspect of
the journey by any means.
Reminders of the bloody deeds committed bv
representatives of civilization and "democracy" are
to be observed in these backwoods of the north in
the shape of lonely mounds of weed-covered clay
crowned with wooden Greek crosses. They are the
lonely graves of workmen who were butchered bv
the British because they "might" be sympathizers
with Bolshevism. Many a time I sprang from
the train, miles from any village, and photographed
these melancholy heaps.
Sometimes one solitary, half-decayed cross would
be seen through the trees, sometimes two, but sel-
dom more than two. Hunters, following their cal-
ling, captured by an advance column and absolute-
ly incapable of understanding the situation. No
useful information could be obtained from such,
but they might give warning if liberated. Military
expediency demanded their death, and they were
brutally murdered and left in the woods without
burial. Some villages were almost stripped of the
male inhabitant* .in ih'w way. The snow alone was
their r>hroud and its drift theu grave. Such was
(L>
December 11, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
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British mercy in Northern Russia. These simple,
ignorant souls were Pomors, and the reader will
appreciate better the childlike guilelessness and
simplicity of these people if I relate an anecdote
I heard respecting two of them, who, when at
Archangel, were asked to sign on as log-hut build-
ers with the Jackson-Harmsworth Polar Expedition
of 1894.
They went to the Governor of Archangel and
asked him for passports. "Where are you going
to," he asked. "We are going to the North Pole,
and the parish officials say that the Pole is not in
Russia, therefore they cannot give us passports."
"Well," said the Governor, "the Pole is not
abroad but as much in the province of Russia as
anywhere else, therefore passports won't be neces-
sary. Besides, there are no policemen at the Pole."
The two Pomors were staggered to hear of a
place where there were no police, but they simply
couldn't trust the Governor, and insisted on having
passports to avoid trouble at the Pole.
"It's all right so long as you have got a pass-
port," they said, so the Governor gave them a cer-
tificate authorizing the "authorities" at the North
Pole to permit them to pass without hindrance, etc.
Now imagine such people being seized suddenly
by the highly civilized and intelligent know-it-alls
of the British army. What coherent statements
could such people make to satisfy a British Jack-
in-office?
Other Pomor villages we passed through were
Keret, Pongam, Lap in, Soroka, and Niukots, and
each had its story of woes suffered at the hands af
alien oppressors.
Pomor means "coast dwellers", and the habits
of life and nationality of the Pomors are quite
distinct to those of the Karelians. They are the
descendents of the Novgorodian emigrants and free-
booters who settled here in the 11th and 12th cen-
turies, and who gradually broke away from the
overlordship of Great Novgorod and established
separate small kingdoms with distinct rulers. They
are, consequently, Russian stock, not Finnish, but,
of course, the two peoples intermarry and are slow-
ly becoming one. They are one of the hardiest sea-
faring people on the globe, and their fisheries are
remarkable for the ingenuity displayed in conduct-
ing them. When cod-fishing, for example, the
Pomor scorns the Finnish or Norwegian method
of small lines and hooks. He launches forth into
mid-ocean, and plays out his "garus" (great line)
miles in length and studded with thousands of
hooks. In all weathers he just rolls about in his
smack until sure of his haul, and when he lifts
it, it means enrichment for weeks to come. We
found them very hospitable and easily amused, as
most Russians are, and strong supporters of the
Soviet regime.
In this respect it is as well to note that "Pom-
oria" practically does not exist now, and that
Karelia is no longer confined to its old boundaries.
I append here a statement prepared for me by the
representative of the Third Internationale on the
latest development of this interesting mixed popu-
lation. They are developing, in short, an autono-
mous Soviet Republic, which will embrace every
district from the River Svir to the Arctic Ocean)
I give his statement intact:
"The Karelian Commune extends from the River
Svir in the south across the Lake Onega to the
White Sea and round the Kola peninsula to the
Norwegian frontier and again southward for a
thousand miles along white Finland. The highly
important Murmansk railway runs entirely through
this territory. This vast area contains but a small
population, a quarter of a million or so. Conse-
quently its rich natural resources are as yet prac-
tically undeveloped. Iron, copper, and zinc ores
are found in various parts, but the most important
mineral is the valuable lead deposits on the Kola
peninsula. Agriculture is not well developed ow-
ing to the rigorous climate, but the southern parts
are capable of great daily production. The Mur-
man coast is due to one of the richest fishing seas
of the world, the Arctic Ocean, which now is con-
nected with the vast markets of Petrograd and Mid-
dle Russia, yet the most important industry of the
Karelian Commune will be the exploitation of its
tremendous forests and water powers. The timber
is worth well over £100,(1)0,000, the utilization
and export of which will bring the republic into
commercial relations with Western European coun-
tries. Besides, sawmill products, boards, etc., tur-
pentine, tar, wood spirits, pulp, cellulose, paste-
board, and paper can be produced in abundance.
Thanks to the great water power, this industry
will be largely independent of foreign coal supply.
Also it is probable that it will play a highly im-
portant part in the subsequent electrification of
the North Russian railways.
The towns are few and small. The capital, Pet-
rozavodsk, has only 24,000 inhabitants, but Mur-
mansk will soon develop into a great and very im-
portant port. It has an excellent harbor, and is
the only real ocean port of Russia, free from ice
all the year round. The Murmansk railway, com-
pleted only in 1916, has made this "window" to-
wards the deep seas, America and Western Europe,
available for all North and Middle Russia, includ-
ing Petrograd, which is ice-bound for months every
winter.
^ The most interesting feature, however, from a
Socialist point of view is that utilization and de-
velopment of all these riches will begin, not by a
ruthless exploitation and imperialist expansion,
but will start from the beginning on Communist
lines in systematically building up a free, classless
community. It will be an experiment, but there
are all probabilities of its success because of the
backing up and friendly neighborhood of Great
Communist Russia.
The present leader of this great undertaking is
a highly capable man, a former member of the
Red Finnish Government in 1918 (Dr. Edward
Gylling). He is an equally experienced Socialist,
scientist, and practical statesman, having been for
many years one of the leaders of the formerly
powerful Finnish Social Democracy, professor of
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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economics in the university in Helsingfors, and one
of the most active members of the parliamentary
group, a finance expert of the Bank of Finland.
During the Finnish Revolution of 1918 he acted
for a short time as chief of the Red General Staff.
It is, moreover, very remarkable that this Red
Karelia will be built up to a great extent by Fin-
nish workers and Red Guards, who, after the Revo-
lution, fled to Russia in thousands, forming colon-
ies of their own, and Red regiments, which played
an important part in the defense of Petrograd.
Karelia, which by climate and nature is very
similar to Finland, will provide them with a new
and free home on the threshold of the old one, wait-
ing for its liberation.
In the constitution of a Communist country many
skilled workers will be required. Many factory,
transport, and agricultural workers are there al-
ready. Many, more will come, bringing with them
tools and machinery from persecuted White Fin-
land.
They may have to defend themselves against the
aggression of the Finnish imperialists, but they
will do it with the Red Workers' Army and the help
of Soviet Russia.
The creation of this Karelian Republic means
also the creation of a new Scandinavian country,
a link between Scandinavia and the Russian Soviet
Republic. North Norway and Finland especially
will feel the influence of the new neighbor. Its
evolution will certainly be keenly watched by the
workers in those countries, and by Socialists all
over the world. In a sense it means a renewal
of the old idea to construct an "ideal state" out
of more or less virgin conditions — the idea of old
Plato, Thomas More, Fourier, Robert Owen, and
many others — except that the possibilities are now
immensely more real than in those days."
Litvinov and the Norwegian
Government
On October 6, Litvinov and his assistant, Piati-
gorsky, left Christiania where they had been en-
gaged, on the invitation of the Norwegian Govern-
ment, in an effort to complete negotiations with
that government with the object of establishing
commercial relations between the two countries.
Doubtless the obstacles placed in the way of these
negotiations by the Norwegian Government did not
originate with the latter, but were due to definite
instructions obtained from more powerful sources.
Piatigorsky, on the very day he and Litvinov de-
Sarted from Christiania, sent a letter to Social
^emokraten, a well-known Socialist paper in that
city, which appeared in its columns of October 19.
This letter was sent in Russian, but the text from
which the following translation was made was
necessarily Norwegian:
To the Editor of Social Demokraten.
Dear Sir:
In connection with fhe article entitled "Commercial
Camouflage", which appears today in Morgenbladet* 1
take the liberty to request you to print the following in
your newspaper. For Morgenbladet draws certain definite
conclusions from facts which are by no means as indicated
in their article. It is quite conceivable that Morgenbladet
might present a number of facts in more or less distorted
form.
In reality tlie case is as follows: Lawyer Schultz, who
was in the habit of paying visits to me with his Russian
interpreter applied to me with the proposal to purchase a
quantity of young lambskin leather in our country. He was
undertaking purchases for firms in this country. The price
he offered was low, namely, 36 Norwegian crowns per
piece. In accordance with data we had at Archangel, the
market price in Iondon had recently been as high as 60
shillings per piece. As the difference in price was so
great as to make it impossible to agree to furnish the
leather at the lower price, I promised Lawyer Schultz to
ask London and let him know the answer. The fact really
is that when I came back from Bergen, I was approached
not by Schultz, but by his interpreter, to disclose the
result. I informed him that I had not yet received any
answer and added that, in view of my departure, which
would take place the next day, it would be impossible for
any real business to be done in importing Russian goods
into Norway. It was not until this conversation took place
that the interpreter expressed the opinion that the price
named by me would presumably be understood as the price
per kilo and not as a price per piece. For my own part
I said only that I could not give a definite price as I had
not obtained any precise data from London.
To draw the inferences which Morgenbladet draws in
its article "Commercial Camouflage** is absolutely without
foundation in fact, and, in my opinion, extremely un-
businesslike. Such an act, as a matter of fact, is an out-
come of a desire to twist all the negotiations which have
taken place between us and the Norwegian firms.
I do not for a moment doufftt that in view of the ex-
treme gullibility of the editorial office of Morgenbladet,
additional reports of a similar fabricated character will
appear in that paper concerning the commercial negotia-
tions with us. And no doubt more such gentlemen will
appear who have in reality had no negotiations with us,
and they may be quite sure that the editorial office will
swallow everything they are offered without asking any
proofs.
In order to show how all the actual facts concerning us
are distorted in the press, I shall take the liberty to dwell
for a moment on the negotiations concerning the purchase
of fish. Immediately after my arrival at Vardo, the Secre-
tary of the Norwegian Fishermen's Association, Lorentz,
came to me with an offer of a certain quantity of fish at
the price of 1.10 crowns per kilogram. I remarked al-
ready at that time that it was difficult to judge prices from
Vardo, as that place is not a market. I hope Morgen-
bladet will not find any reason for rebuking us for the
fact that we did not want to pay more than the market
price. After we all had come to Christiania, the same
Lorentz, acting for the same organization offered us the
same fish for 0.55 — 0.45 per kilogram, and I may add that
such exorbitant demands occurred in all the offers made by
Norwegian firms.
May I ask the editors of Morgenbladet whether it was
our duty humbly to accept at once every offer even if the
price was more than twice as high as the real price, as was
the case with Lorentz's offer? And is that any proof thai
we have not come to do business? The space I am taking
in this note does not give me an opportunity to enter into
details concerning all the negotiations which would clearly
prove the opposite of the conclusions drawn by Morgen-
bladet^ and the desire on the part of this and other papers
purposely to distort the facts concerning our negotiations.
Respectfully yours,
PlATICORSKY.
Christiania, October 6, 1920.
by^jGOgk
A capitalist}^ jfyjf | -^.wspsper appearing
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Christiana
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December 11, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
583
The Red Army in Congress Poland
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THE whole bourgeois public is shouting with
indignation over the shameful "treason" on
the part of the farm workers and estate hands. Just
imagine, they have been aiding the Bolsheviki!
They have been aiding the Bolsheviks instead of
defending with their own blood the rule of the
native knout.
The governor (wojewoda) of Lublin, Moskalew-
ski, makes the fallowing statement in the Gazeta
Poranna of September 8:
"... having heard for many months from the
Bolshevik agitators, of the Bolshevik benefactions
to the poor, the landless peasant population has
been waiting with impatience for the invasion of
the Bolsheviks into the confines of the Republic.
"Entirely different was the behavior of the pos-
sessing class in the villages. . . The farm owners,
in a predominant majority, awaited the Bolshevik
attack with an undisguised fear which eventually
proved altogether well-founded.
"On the other hand, particularly in the counties
of Radzyn and Sokolov, the farm workers and es-
tate hands, sufficiently agitated by the Bolshevik
instigators and sympathizers, not only awaited with
impatience the arrival of the Red armies but, after
the invasion, hailed with joy, and — what is most
characteristic — took an active part in the "rev-
koms" (revolutionary committees)."
The President of the Agrarian Union, Stecki,
interrogated by the correspondent of the Gazeta
Warszawska (of Septmber 6) tells of the behavior
of the farm hands as follows:
" — It is hard to say anything final in the matter.
There is no doubt however that this has been the
only class in Poland which had been planning for
themselves various luxuries as a result of the Bol-
shevik attack.
"I do not wish by these words to accuse the union
of agricultural workers. At all events, there is no
doubt that agitation by a number of functionaries
of this union has had a very bad influence upon the
farm hands. It became evident that in many lo-
calities those functionaries had belonged to the
Polish Communist Party and had .implanted in the
souls of the farm hands the principles of Bolshev-
ism. They also had put themselves in many locali-
ties at the head of the Bolshevik committees or or-
ganized the "Cherezvychaikas" (extraordinary com-
mittees for the combating of counter-revolution).
"Almost on every estate the farm hands hailed
with joy the organized committees or created such
themselves because of an order to that effect."
Gazeta Warszawska of September 5 reports as
follows:
"From the neighborhood of Plock and Plonsk,
from the neighborhood of Sierpce and Ciechanow
— in a word from many localities which the Bol-
sheviks were overrunning, there is a flood of re-
ports that the Mongolian barbarian hordes, despite
their cruelties and acts of violence, were received
with sympathy by the farm hands. This is emphat-
ically stated in the report on the tour of Premier
Witos and Foreign Minister Skulski over the parts
of Masovia liberated from the Bolshevik invasion.
Our estate workers and farm hands, these bred-in-
the-bone Masovians, these 'Polish countrymen, Pol-
ish people, the hereditary tribe of Piast," have most
often been coming out as the allies of the invaders,
greeting them sympathetically in their land, giving
them any requested information, and receiving from
their hands the mandate for the exercise of the
local rule. Here and there — as for instance in
Mokro (the estate of Karol Grabowski) and in Les-
zczyn (the estate of Machinski) in the province of
Plock — the estate workers even erected triumphal
arches to greet the enemies of the Fatherland!. . ."
But the police and the military are busy "put-
ting things down." Executions of farms hands are
the order of the day. In Mlawa alone thirty dele-
gates of farm hands were shot. .
Gazeta Warszawska of September 14 reports as
follows in a correspondence from Bialystok:
A manifesto "To the Agricultural Workers" pub-
lished in Bialystok by the Communist Labor Party
of Poland calls upon the farm workers to introduce
a new order in agricultural relations. It proclaims
that the Polish land shall become from now on the
property of the entire people, and that the farm
workers shall become its administrators. The es-
tates must not be divided but kept whole. If land
should be divided to be owned, every farm hand
would get only a few acres of land and there
would not be enough bread for all, considering
the fact that in our country the estates feed the
cities. The manifesto calls for the creation of
farm hand committees who, together with admin-
istrators sent by the revolutionary committees,
would administer the estates. The land-owner — if
he has not fled— must be arrested immediately, and
brought to the nearest city to be handed over to
the local revolutionary committee. In the city at
demand must be presented for an instructor in ad-
ministration who, together with the elected farm
hands' committee, shall administer the estate.
Gazeta Poranna (No. 235) contains these lines:
"The attempts at the creation of a "Revkom" in
Lipno have failed. At the head of this organ was
put a local carpenter, Zaborowski, a well-known,
and for unknown reasons, tolerated Communist.
The forest guard, Perkowski, became the command-
ant of the rural militia. The first of the dignitaries
created by the enemy has fled together with the
Bolshevik armies.
"In the villages, the Bolsheviks met often with
distinct sympathy on the part of the farm laborers,
whom the Commissars, after the occupation of War-
saw, Lodz, and Wloclawek, were supposed to make
happy with all kind of benefactions at the cost of
the burzhuis of the city and the country." — Swit,
Vienna, September 24, 1920.
bydC
■ i i '-| 1 1 1 a i
UNIVERSITY Of MICHIGAN
584
SOVIET RUSSIA
December 11, 1920
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
331
This weekly will print articles by members of the
Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well as by
friends and supporters of Soviet Russia. Full re-
sponsibility is assumed by the Bureau only for un-
signed articles. Manuscripts are not solicited; if
sent in, their return is not promised.
ANEW line of buffer-states may soon be es-
tablished against Soviet Russia. The old
line, Finland, Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,
Rumania, has gone over to the other side: all those
countries have either already signed peace with
Soviet Russia or are about to do so. In several of
those countries the revolutionary movement, in-
duced by prolonged Allied abuse of their resources
in men and materials, is so strong that Bolshevik
processions are frequent in the streets on election
days and other state occasions, as was the case in
Esthonia last week. Similar tendencies are reported
from Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, the first
line of buffer states to the south of Russia; one
New York Times correspondent (message dated)
Paris, November 29) goes so far as to say that
"the situation, therefore, from the Armenian point
of view is more hopeful than it has been, but if
events turn out as expected it is more likely to be
Soviet Russia than the League of Nations which
will be the savior of Armenia."
The Allies accordingly must erect a new wall of
states against Soviet Russia. Feeble attempts to
mediate between the Turkish nationalists and Ar-
menia are perhaps the first indications of a west-
ward tendency in the choice of southern buffers,
but we seriously doubt whether Turkey can be used
for this purpose. The European continent likewise
presents few opportunities for military exploita-
tion against Soviet Russia, and not a single country
on the continent fails to recognize the immense
benefits it might attain through trade with Soviet
Russia, thus making it impossible for the Allies to
continue a sort of vicarious blockade after they
have been obliged to desist from their own criminal
attempts in that direction. But there is still left
a small group of countries that have not yet been
made to feel the worst consequences of the Euro-
pean War, because they did not themselves^ parti-
cipate in it and were not subjected directly to its
military operations. This group of former "neu-
trals" has the at present enviable distinction, in the
exchange quotations of the New York market, of
having its monetary unit quoted in American money
at about one-half its mint par, while the standards
of most of the former belligerents have gone down
to various figures from about one-thirtieth to about
one-third their pre-war value. The plan of induc-
ing Sweden, Norway, and Spain to send troops to
by Kj
*L
IC
Lithuania, for the purpose of policing Vilna when
Zeligowsky goes (but what will they go to Lithuania
for, if the Soviet Government has really announced
its intention of again occupying Vilna, with the
purpose of restoring that city to Lithuania?)— if
go he ever does — will bring Spain, Norway, and
Sweden at least as close to the brink of desperation
and revolution as the marginal states of Russia
now all are. Already the mutterings of protest
in the Spanish press have become loud indeed, and
the Swedish and Norwegian press will not fail to
be heard from, if the plan is really persisted in.
Apart from Spain, which lies at the end of Eu-
rope and is, like Italy, dependent on the general
situation in that continent, as far as any progress of
the revolutionary movement in that country is con-
cerned, the proposal to use Sweden, Norway, or
other European countries of the central belt would
appear to be part of a new plan to build up buffers
against "Bolshevism", or Soviet Russia, or what-
ever may be the form assumed by the vague but
frightful fears in the minds of French and English
statesmen. This new belt of buffers, beginning
with Norway and Sweden in the North, consists of
Bavaria, Hungary, and Austria in the center, and
Rumania in the South. Reports have already ap-
peared in New York newspapers, describing a
meeting held in Paris on November 27, in which
the plan is said to have been discussed of a general
offensive by powerful armies from certain Central
European states, to be launched against Soviet Rus-
sia about the middle of March. Among the nations
mentioned as prepared to participate in this of-
fensive is Poland, although we must say that the
present eagerness of Poland to make peace with
Soviet Russia seems quite genuine, and we have
little reason to believe that any Polish Government
could be constituted that would undertake -the
hazardous task, in view of the present ugly mood
of the Polish people, of again plunging that coun-
try into war at the behest of France. It is also
not without interest to note that while Kerensky,
who appeared at the Paris meeting as the main
spirit of the new plan, had just returned from a
trip through Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, and Ru-
mania, he mentioned only two of those countries
as participating in the new offensive: even Keren-
sky seems to have observed that the Czechs have
been so mortified and outraged already by their
forced counter-revolutionary activity that no power
on earth could move them to continue or renew it
It will also be recalled that Rumania's recent notes
to Soviet Russia have been very friendly and in-
dicate a desire to return to a state of complete
peace with the Republic of the Workers.
Let us assume, however, that it is possible for
the Allies once more to plunge a new group of
impoverished peoples into the task of furnishing
troops for a new attack on Soviet Russia. Let us
suppose the initial protests, which would not fail
to rise all over the afflicted belt, should be ignored,
and that the armies should actually be formed and
forwarded to Soviet Russia. We need not outline
too precisely what would be the result. In reac-
• UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
December 11, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
585
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tionary Bavaria, in Hungary, in German Austria,
industry would perhaps be stimulated a little. The
decimations of the male population would continue,
and great disaffected groups of relatives would be
produced, offsetting the temporary prosperity in-
duced among other groups, working in munition
and uniform factories. The worst effects would be
in the unhappy countries, France and England
among them, that would be obliged to make their
populations pay for the raising of these Central
European armies against Soviet Russia, and we are
certain that the peoples of Western Europe .will
not forever tolerate the sending of money and
munitions and ships to help putting down a gov-
ernment merely because it has been established
by the people, and seems to be uncommonly suc-
cessful in distributing the good things of life to
all its population. And, in addition, the new of-
fensive would probably be beaten back and the
Soviet Government turn out to be as victorious as
ever.
Kerensky is reported to have said that his new
invading army is to consist of 690,000 men, includ-
ing 260,000 from Poland, 150,000 from Hungary,
and 280,000 from Rumania (the latter also includ-
ing 70,000 of the troops of General Wr angel, who
is expected in Paris, which are at present encamped
in Dalmatia, "at the disposal of the French Gov-
ernment"). Needless to say, none of these con-
tingents are unaffected by Bolshevism, and none
can be used with certainty and confidence. But
France may have confidence in Kerensky. How
well the Liberal always is prepared to eat out of
the hand of reaction ! Kerensky would not now be
half so useful a tool in the hands of the French
Government, if he had not for years been busy
spreading rumors to the effect that he was opposed
to intervention, that he was for a "revolutionary"
government in Russia. Some few persons at least
will have the impression that Kerensky has again
become convinced of the sacredness of the Allied
cause, or of the benefactions intervention promises
for Russia. He who appears to be a more recent
convert is always more useful in the hands of the
press agent. But then the press agent should have
suppressed the information that there were present
at the Paris meeting of November 27, besides
Kerensky, and forty members of the former Duma,
also "many Russian nobles and generals, as well
as General WrangeFs ambassador, whose presence
is considered particularly noteworthy in view of
the fact that this representative, only a few days
ago, declared to the French Foreign Ministry that
Wrangel's army of 70,000 men was now in Dal-
matia, at the disposal of the French Government."
Kerensky is at last appearing in his true colors.
It now matters little to the Russian people that
he was once "opposed" to intervention. When he
was "opposed" to intervention, he did little to op-
pose it, but now that he is for intervention, he
leads armies against Soviet Russia. There are
some "friends" who merit little attention while they
are friendly, and only begin to be interesting when
they are frankly hostile.
by L^OOgle
\X7"HAT do League of Nations statesmen mean
▼ ▼ when they express fears lest troops which
they may send to Lithuania be exposed to hostili-
ties by Soviet forces, or, in the words of the New
York World of December 1, "whether a Red army
is likely to start a westward drive that would im-
peril an international army shortly to be sent to
Vilna"? It is a dangerous game that the Allies
are now playing. Their situation is desperate, how-
ever, and only dangerous games can help them.
They know perfectly well that they cannot use their
own troops for a new invasion of Soviet Russia, for
their own troops are already so unwilling to he
used in warlike enterprises as to make them useless,
or worse, for such work. In addition, both Eng-
land and France need all their white troops for
home tasks; England needs them in Ireland; France
needs them in Alsace-Lorraine and Africa. And
Colonial troops have a surprising faculty of de-
veloping sudden revolutionary tendencies, as has
already been the case with some of the colored
troops used by France in Germany. It would be
interesting if this Geneva message of Lincoln Eyre,
to the New York World, from which we quoted
above, should simply be a means of preparing the
minds of newspaper readers for news that troops
belonging to the "League of Nations" have been
attacked" by the Red Army, and that it is neces-
sary for the "League" to send reinforcements, from
the military man-power of the socalled "major**
nations, to rescue the "neutral" troops assigned
by the "League" to the innocent task of policing
Vilna as an aid to the population of that city, in
the determination of its allegiance, by plebiscite.
This would be a desperate game indeed.
• # *
JV/f AXIM GORKY is again being exploited by
- LVX enemies of the Revolution as having re-
cently written letters appealing to intellectuals in
foreign countries for assistance in preventing the
Soviet Government from "maltreating" intellectuals
in Russia. We have already pointed out that Maxim
Gorky is at present working with the Commissariat
of Education, but of course that would not pre-
clude the possibility of his arriving at, and cir-
culating, an erroneous judgment of the treatment
of intellectuals in Russia. However, we must re-
mind our readers of two facts: (1) the New York
Tribune last year reprinted as recent attacks by
Gorky many articles that he had written in 1917,
when he really did actively criticize the Soviets;
and (2), Humanite, of Paris, points out in a re-
cent issue that forged letters alleging to come from
Maxim Gorky are again in circulation, containing
expressions calculated to give the impression that
Gorky is now hostile to the Soviet Government.
No man will be more mortified over this whole
procedure than Gorky himself. For months— two
years, to be more accurate— he has now been zea-
lously supporting the Soviet Government, but the
capitalist press will never reprint anvthing he
says to favor it; his hostile works will share what-
ever immortality the capitalist press possesses.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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586
SOVIET RUSSIA
December 11, 1920
The Preliminary Peace at Riga
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ON October 11 and 12 there was signed at
Riga a preliminary peace treaty and armis-
tice agreement between Soviet Russia and Soviet
Ukraine on the one hand, and Poland on the other,
which was later ratified at Libau on November 2.
The complete document is published in the present
issue of Soviet Russia. The protracted negotia-
tions, as well as the carefully worked out terms
of the treaty, bear witness to the fact that on both
sides the necessity was felt to bring the negotia-
tions to a successful conclusion, and to obtain not
merely a temporary suspension of hostilities, but
also a way for the establishment of peaceful neigh-
borly relations between the two countries so far
as the general unsettled world conditions and the
highly unstable political situation of Poland per-
mit.
This unstable political situation of Poland, due
among other things to an exceptionally embittered
strife bet wen the factions in the Polish governing
classes, has almost frustrated the work of the Pol-
ish Peace Delegation some of whose members were
working at cross purposes with the majority of
the delegation, and particularly with the responsible
head, Mr. Jan Dombski. Happily, however, the
majority of the Polish delegation realized perfectly
well what the return of the delegation without
achieving peace would mean for the immediate fu-
ture of Poland, and — to use the words of Yoffe to a
correspondent of the Manchester Guardian — "was
more conciliatory than those with a knowledge of
Polish character expected to find." "It is fair to
state," says Yoffe, "that they never pressed too
hard for conditions which they knew would cause
a break in the negotiations."
TTie foreign press — particularly the French — has
hailed the Riga peace as a tremendous victory for
Poland and a sign of a complete Soviet Russian
collapse, notwithstanding the fact that the same
press, reflecting of course the sentiments of the
French Government, was doing its utmost to wreck
the negotiations, fearing not without ground that
the "collapsed" Soviet state would soon pay its kind
attention to the other French counter-revolutionary
puppets, Wrangel, Balakhovich, and Petlura.
As to the Polish victory. If compared with the
Polish situation as it was in July when the Poles
were suing for peace through the mediation of the
Allies and had to submit to England's terms at
Spa, the results achieved at Riga are undoubtedly
a remarkable victory for Poland, However, a vic-
tory in war cannot be considered from the stand-
point of shifting military advantages but from that
of the initial stakes at issue. We must not forget
that Poland went to war — so far as Pilsudski's and
not the Allied designs are concerned — in order to
create capitalistic buffer states of White Russia and
Petlura's Ukraine, and completely to cut off Russia
on its border from western Europe, and, thanks
to Poland's geographical position and comparative-
ly great military strength, to gain a predominant
by LiOOglC
position in a buffer combination that was to include
Finland, Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and
also Rumania. Owing to Soviet Russian diplo-
macy, Poland had to abandon during the war any
idea of linking these states, while in the peace nego-
tiations she was compelled — much against her lik-
ing — to recognize the sovereignty of Soviet Ukraine
and the independence of the now forming Soviet
state of White Russia. Polish diplomats endeavered
for a time to reply to the Soviet demand for deal-
ing with a united delegation of the two Soviet Re-
publics with a counter move attempting to get re-
cognition for some Petlura agents whom they had
at hand, but they received an energetic answer from
Chicherin after which they abandoned the Petlura
game, and cared only to bargain out for them-
selves as much of Ukrainian and White Russian
territory as the situation would permit.
There is no doubt that the treaty of Riga repre-
sents on the part of Soviet Russia and Soviet
Ukraine great concessions, which were made in or-
der to avoid the prolongation of the war into the
winter and to enable the two Soviet countries, after
disposing in a short time of the counter-revolu-
tionary bands of Wrangel, Balakhovich, and Pet-
lura, to devote their vital forces to the work of
economic reconstruction. Against the assumption
of the liberal London Nation (October 14) to the
effect that "Marxians" do not worry much over the
cessation to the enemy of tens of thousands of
square miles of territory, the Soviet delegation con-
sented to the concessions after a hard struggle and
— to use again the words of Yoffe — "the slightest
demand over what was conceded would have made
peace a sheer impossibility."
Poland acquired a territory of 135,319 square
kilometers, which is more than half of her ethno-
graphic area of 251,300 square kilometers. She
gets an additional four million population to her
twenty-three in a country with a thin population,
to which she may be able, under favorable circum-
stances, to direct a part of the Polish landless peas-
antry. Russia had to consent to let Lithuania set-
tle her frontier line with Poland without Russian
interference with the result that Lithuania is being
pocketed now by Pilsudski's agent, General Zeli-
gowski. Russia had to permit, also, the slicing of
White Russia, part of which remains with Poland.
Thus Poland was able to cut off Lithuania from
Russia, and to create a "corridor" connecting her
with Latvia with which she is now arguing about
political concessions in Letgalia and particularly in
the city of Dvinsk. Furthermore, by gaining direct
communication with the eastern Catholic territories
of Latvia she gets into direct contact with the small
but influential Polish element of large landowners
and thus obtains a political influence upon the ter-
ritory. The "corridor" will acquire, after the con-
clusion of final peace with Poland, a great import-
ance as a transit route to Latvian sea-ports, and
French capitalists, who regard Poland as their ex-
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elusive field of operation, are already devoting to
it their eager attention; but it will deprive Russia
of transit through the Lithuanian lands, thus cutting
her off from a convenient land route to Germany
and greatly hampering her in trade communication
with Germany and the rest of Western Europe. In
the south, Poland establishes a common frontier
with Rumania at a sacrifice on the part of Soviet
Ukraine of a large part of the Volhynia province
with over a million of purely Ukrainian popula-
tion, and of its claim to a union with Eastern
Galicia. Moreover, the concession to Poland of
the railroad points of Sarny, Baranovichi, and Rov-
no deprives Odessa of a convenient route to Petro-
grad, which will hamper the economic intercourse
between the northern and southern part of the
Federated Soviet Republic.
Compared with the advantages secured by Poland
in article 1 of the treaty, other advantages are of
a minor significance as are also the articles them-
selves. Article 2 is of little importance to Poland,
but of great importance to Rusisa as it deals with
the security of Russia from counter-revolutionary
Russian or Allied activities in Poland. As a result
of this point in the treaty, Poland must not tolerate
on her territory any organizations that intend to
wage war on either of the Soviet republics. This
means that Poland must break completely with her
till now allies, Savinkov, Balakhovich, Petlura, and
others who had their headqarters in Warsaw, and
who were receiving up to the last active aid from
Poland or rather from France through Poland.
It is more than probable that the Polish governing,
and particularly military, circles viewed this stip-
ulation as something that could be circumvented
one way or another, at least for the immediate fu-
ture. Knowing well of the coming Soviet campaign
against Wrangel, who was threatening the Donetz
Basin, they decided to use the time for their own
purposes. General Zeligowski occupied Vilna with
Polish regulars, permitting the formations of Gen-
eral Balakhovich to occupy White Russia and to
move toward Minsk and Homel. He expected thus,
besides taking Vilna from the Lithuanians with
the express aim of incorporating the province to
Poland, to form, together with Balakhovich, a link
which could easily serve to harass the Soviet forces,
and which, so far as the Poles were concerned,
might be used to extort better conditions in the
expected peace negotiations. A similar policy was
thought of in the south, in Ukraine, where Petlura
was helped to occupy as much of Soviet Ukraine
as he possibly could. Some Polish diplomats, as
for instance, Leon Wasilewski, member of the Riga
peace delegation, had the insolence to declare that
the Riga agreement did not bind Poland to refuse
recognition to Petlura, and that Poland would con-
tinue its relations with him, although during the
peace negotiations the Poles themselves admitted
that the army of Petlura was a component part of
the Polish army. However, this condition of affairs
could not last long. The increasingly stronger pro-
tests of the Soviet Government against the hostile
acts of Poland, the last of which came at the time
of Wrangel's complete defeat, have compelled the
Polish Government to take heed. At present, judg-
ing from the news coming from Poland, it is safe
to assume that the Polish governing circles will
take care not to engage actively in any counter-
revolutionary plots by whomsoever conducted, an
order for the disbanding of Russian counter-revolu-
tionary military formations having been issued
shortly before the ratification of the treaty. More-
over, the trend of political events in Poland seems
to indicate that the Polish ruling classes do not
want to tolerate any semi-independent creations in
the form of Zeligowski's "middle Lithuania' 9 or
Petlura's "People's Ukraine", but are determined
to incorporate these regions as administrative parts
of Poland, as may be judged from a recent debate
and resolution in the foreign committee of the
Diet. By such act, however, they assume a greater
responsibility for the actions committed on these
territories and the adjacent neutral belts for which
they are equally responsible. Russia thus will ac-
quire, in virtue of article 2 of the treaty, a measure
of security from counter-revolutionary plots on
Polish territory, which is not little if we consider
the fact that Poland has become the center of all
counter-revolutionary activities against Soviet Rus-
sia and Soviet Ukraine. (We shall at present
leave out of consideration the possible international
complications resulting from the action of General
Zeligowski's occupying Vilna by military force,
which also may involve Soviet Russia, as we shall
deal with that problem at some other date.)
Of articles 3 to 9, dealing with the reciprocal
rights of citizens, exchange of prisoners, war costs,
etc., article 4 is of importance to Soviet Russia
and particularly to Soviet Ukraine. It grants to
Polish citizens of Ukrainian ( or Russian) race the
rights of minorities in regard to cultural and reli-
gious matters. One must not forget that millions
of Ukrainians will remain under Polish sovereign-
ty. On the part of Soviet Russia or Soviet Ukraine
the same rights granted to their citizens of Polish
race do not demand any change in their gen-
eral policy. Not so with present day Poland whose
intolerance in matters of culture or religion has
already become proverbial. To us it is a puzzle as
to how the Polish Government is going to live up to
this stipulation except that it will be under con-
stant pressure from the Soviet Government. Al-
ready the fact that the medieval Polish constitution
which is now being adopted, provides for an es-
tablished Catholic Church conflicts with the idea
of religious equality, not to speak of other admin-
istrative practices which deprive people of Ukrai-
nian race not only of their cultural rights
but of their livelihood as was the case with the
Ukrainian railroad men thrown out of work in
Galicia because of their race.
The final articles of the treaty beginning with ar-
ticle 10 concern matters of economic importance to
both contracting parties. Most of the provisions
are to be worked out in detail during the final
peace negotiations that are taking place now. The
Poles had to content themselves with general stip-
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ulations with regard to compensation from the
Russian gold reserves, considering it a gain that
the settlement of reciprocal accounts promises to
take into consideration the active participation of
Congress Poland in the budget of the former Rus-
sian empire, as it is their contention that Russia
had been drawing out of Congress Poland about
forty million rubles in gold yearly. However, the
problem is rather complex, and these figures will
still have to stand some scrutiny. Less value is
attached on the Polish side to the advantages from
the Russian renunciation of any claim to compen-
sation resulting from the fact of Poland's former
subjection to Russia. The Poles know that what-
ever may be the actual meaning of such renuncia-
tion — as it stands at present it leaves open the
question of Poland's responsibility for the foreign
loans of the Czar's Government — Poland's friends,
the Allies, will not be slow to reap the advantage
thereof, as has already been the case with France,
which to our knowledge extracted from Poland the
obligation to pay four and a half billion marks
as part of the Russian debt
Of immediate vital importance to both parties
are the articles referring to the reestablishment of
commercial relations between Soviet Russia and
Soviet Ukraine, and Poland. Rusisa needs com-
munication with the West, while Poland will gain
enormously from the Russian transit and will re-
vive her trade which is now merely serving the
exploiting interests of France, and is almost com-
pletely dead. Still more advantages may accrue
to the industries of both countries. It must be re-
membered that the industry of Congress Poland
constituted a large integral part of the total Russian
industry, that in many lines, particularly textiles,
it depended completely on the Russian market, and
' that Polish industrials and business men are splen-
didly acquainted with the nature and needs of the
Russian market. According to some reports an
understanding has already been reached with re-
gard to immedate exchange of goods as well as in
regard to industrial activities (the running of some
sugar refineries) while the New York Globe reports
that brisk trade is going on between Russia and
Poland. It is unnecessary to point out the obvious
advantages to Soviet Russia from such trade. But
in Poland, also, the dissolution of Polish industry
compels Poland to a closer economic union with
Russia as only in this can she find a way of im-
proving her highly demoralized economic situation.
We come to the question of the stability of the
Riga peace arrangements. In discussing the gen-
eral character of the Riga peace the London
Nation of October 14, in an article entitled "An-
other Punic Peace", characterized the Riga peace
as another scrap of paper of the same nature as are,
in the opinion of that paper, all the peace agree-
ments signed by the powers since Armistice Day,
chief among them being the Treaty of Versailles.
The liberal paper expressed further the belief that
it "will require war, a very big and bitter war, to
destroy the settlement of Riga."
There is no denying the fact that the Riga peace
is, on the part of Poland, an imperialist peace par
outrance. However, international complications
excluded, we do not think that it will require a
"war", and a "very big and bitter war", into the
bargain, to destroy the pernicious consequences of
this peace. The Nation's belief (and, so far as we
know, it is also the belief of many other liberal
papers) is formed, it seems to us, by two false
impressions. One is that the Russo-Polish war was
a war between two powers with conflicting tenden-
cies of expansion, a war in which Poland came
out victorious by virtue of her victory in the field;
second, that only a new war, started apparently
by Russia, can bring a change in the Russian-
Polish relations.
The Russo-Polish war was not a war between
"two" powers with conflicting tendencies of eco-
nomic expansion. It surely was not such a war
on the part of Russia, who was only defending
herself, as is conceded by the whole world, even
by -the enemies of Soviet Russia, except perhaps
by the Polish imperialists themselves. But even on
the part of Poland, this war was not a war dictated
by the economic interests of the capitalistic Polish
state. It was merely a military adventure, due,
first of all, to counter-revolutionary pressure from
without; and also to the fact that, in the chaotic
situation in which the Polish state finds itself now,
there is not a single bourgeois party — we include
the Polish Socialist Party in this list — which rea-
lizes clearly that the interests of Polish economic
development are not in the east but in the west,
and that expansion to the east may be in the inter-
ests of the conservative agrarian elements which
unfortunately dominate the country, but that it
will hamper rather than further the economic de-
velopment of Poland, and what is more, that it may
bring Poland to a complete breakdown sooner than
it is expected. Poland has escaped this complete
breakdown for the present, thanks to the peace con-
cluded at Riga. The favorable outcome of the
Riga negotiations was due, first of all, to the strong
desire of Soviet Russia to avoid the terrible hard-
ships of a new winter campaign, but also, in large
measure, to the fact that Poland sent her peace
delegates not to get a respite but to conclude peace,
strange as this may sound in view of the constant
Polish intrigues with the Russian counter-revolu-
tionists. Not that the military situation of Poland
at that time was such as to demand an immediate
cessation of hostilities. The Polish army was no
doubt in a highly demoralized state, but its worst
moment had passed, and besides, the blockade of
the western European proletariat was losing its ini-
tial momentum and Poland was again in receipt
of arms and ammunition from her western
"friends." Furthermore, Polish military and gov-
erning circles knew that Wrangel was developing
at that moment his campaign into southern Russia
— in fact this campaign helped the Polish military
operations immensely. From the military stand-
point, therefore, Poland needed only to work out
a common military plan with Wrangel, and, by
holding her awn, to tie up on the westrrn front
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Border Line Established at Riga
(From a Polish newspaper)
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sufficient Russian forces to permit
Wrangel to develop his campaign,
leaving to him the greater burden
of the war. They also knew that
the first consequence of an armis-
tice would be the transportation of
large Soviet Russian forces to the
Wrangel front, with the proba-
bility of his complete defeat
(which has in reality been accom-
plished) which would eventually
liberate again the Russian Red
armies for pressure on Poland.
When Poland, nevertheless, de-
cided upon peace it was because
there was no other way out. The
economic situation of Poland was
desperate, — although we do not
consider that even this factor de-
cided Poland in favor of peace.
Bad as it was, and how bad it was
and continues to be only those can
know who are well acquainted
with the country, the Polish gov-
erning circles could not see any
economic relief in concluding
peace. To some extent the situa-
tion after the war would, as they
guessed, become even worse. After
concluding peace, Poland at once
was denied the credit which she
enjoyed during the war, without
which it is inconceivable that she
can exist even for a short period.
The reason for making peace
lay then not so much in the im-
mediate military or economic sit-
uation, but in the internal and ex-
ternal situation that developed as
a consequence of the war. With
regard to the first we know now
that the wide masses of the Polish
peasantry and of the city labor-
ers were eagerly awaiting the ar-
rival of the Red armies in order
to overturn the existing govern-
ment and the old order of things,
and introduce one of their own
choice and liking. We are pub-
lishing this week an extract from
the Polish paper Swit, appearing
in Vienna, which has collected ma-
terial relative to this matter (we
have ourselves abundant material
from newspapers arriving here
from Poland proving this phase
of the situation). Now a popula-
tion with such spirit cannot be too
much depended upon to support
ad infinitum the sufferings of a
war conducted against its own
vital interests. Besides, the Pil-
rj.dski g cvernment was endangered
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from the right. From that side there was brewing
a dangerous coup d'etat, a conspiracy, a putsch
of the Kapp pattern, in which the leaders of the
National-Democratic Party took part, with Roman
Dmowski as the political head, while the Posen
regiments of General Haller were expected to be
its military executioners; to which end Dmowski
established his headquarters at Posen, in the most
reactionary part of Poland. The plot broke down
before it started to take shape, but Pilsudski and
his entourage became very much alarmed.
But the strongest reason for peace with Russia
was the fact that Poland had become alarmed at the
developments on her western border, and in Danzig.
For Poland had to pay dearly, and for that mat-
ter is paying still, for the "friendship" of her allied
prptectors. In the time of her greatest stress Eng-
land and France were determining, to Poland's
great disadvantage, her claims in the west. Teschen-
Silesia, with its rich coal fields, was allotted to
Czecho-Slovakia, and in a meeting at Spa in July,
Poland had to submit to English plans with regard
to Eastern Galicia and Danzig. England was ob-
viously also working against Poland's getting the
rich upper Silesian coal fields, while France ex-
torted a trade agreement with Poland by virtue
of which she was able to dump into Poland ammu-
nition and unnecessary luxuries, such as wines,
while Poland was under obligation to export the
raw materials she herself needed. Besides, pres-
sure was brought to bear upon Poland not to take
anything which the Russian counter-revolutionists
in Paris considered as the Russian "paternal heri-
tage." This turn of events brought the result that
all of Poland had become sick of Allied "protec-
tion" and intrigues, and decided to make peace in
order to take care of the situation in the west. It
is our opinion that Poland is at present, and will
be for some time to come, averse to any new era-
broglio in Russia, and that she will try to make
the best of the Riga terms.
As for Soviet Russia, we think that however dis-
advantageous the Riga terms are to the economic
life of Russia, she will not go to war in order to
get better conditions. For Soviet Russia has a
powerful advantage over her enemies in that his-
tory is working in her favor. Poland will not
remain very long the country it is now, while Soviet
Russia can afford to wait.
Appeal to the French People
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Com-
rade Chicherin, made the following appeal to the
French Government and to the French people:
"The Russian Workers' and Peasants' Govern-
ment has once more proved its unchangeable love
for peace by repatriating the last French citizens
remaining in Russia, without awaiting the return
of the last transports of Russian citizens from
France. In spite of this the French Government,
imbued with an irreconcilable hostility towards the
Russian working masses and towards the revolu-
tionary gains which represent the fruit of the
heroic struggle of the latter, — stubbornly continues
the formation of new projects and the preparation
of new attacks upon the liberty and even upon the
very existence of Soviet Russia. After the French
Government has been for three years striving to
drown the Russian Revolution in a sea of blood,
it is now doing everything to make a new attack
upon Soviet Russia. Having formally acknowl-
edged the criminal General Wrangel, this tool of
German imperialist reaction, who has rallied every-
thing that has been left of the old regime so hate-
ful to the Russian people, the French Government
now renders armed assistance to this counter-revo-
lutionary rebel, who has risen against his own
people, and against its Workers' and Peasants' Gov-
ernment. The French Government sends arms and
ammunition continually and renders him every
kind of support in order to assist him to attack
Workers' and Peasants' Russia, and to menace it
with the horrors of bloody counter-revolution. In-
formation is received from all neighboring coun-
tries exposing the feverish activity of the represen-
tatives and agents of the French Government, which
is directed towards inducing new enemies to attack
Soviet Russia and to call out new wars directed
against the independence and existence of this re-
public. Notable representatives of French Govern-
ment circles have undertaken a special journey for
that particular purpose of causing new bloodshed
and forcing the workers and peasants of the neigh-
boring countries against their Russian brothers.
Numerous French troops are concentrated at Con-
stantinople where they are evidently awaiting the
moment to join the Crimean counter-revolutionary
rebels against Russia and Ukraine. Finally,
at the present moment, the French Naval Forces
in the Black Sea are obviously getting ready for a
new attack upon Russia and Ukraine. French
war vessels are not far from Odessa and every-
thing points to the fact that their arrival is a har-
binger of new aggressive intentions of the French
Government in these quarters. Soviet Russia vigi-
lantly guards the inviolability of its territory. It
will render every possible aid and necessary sup-
port to its ally, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Re-
public. The Russian Soviet Government, which
represents the will of the working and peasant
masses of Russia, protests with indignation against
the hostile operations and attacks of the French
Government. It appeals to the fraternal working
and peasant masses of France to fight at all costs
against the counter-revolutionary attempts of their
government directed against Russia and Ukraine
and the renewed intervention in the internal affairs
of these countries. Soviet Russia hopes to obtain
the fraternal support of the working masses of
France to put a stop to the aggressive operations
of the French Government against the working
masses of Russia and Ukraine.
A very interesting interview with Sereda, People's
Commissar for Agriculture, by W. McLainc, will
appear in the next issue of Soviet Russia.
Qe
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591
Preliminary Peace Treaty with Poland
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PRELIMINARY PEACE TERMS
Drawn Up and Signed at Riga ion October 11, 1920
The Republic of Poland as the party of the first part
and the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic and the
Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic as the parties of the
second part, animated by a desire to put an end as soon
as possible to the bloody war that had arisen between them,
as well as to work out the conditions that are to serve
as a basis for a durable and honorable peace, based upon
mutual understanding, have decided to enter into negotia-
tions with the view to concluding an armistice and as-
certaining the preliminary terms for peace, and have ap-
pointed as their delegates:
For the Government of the Polish Republic:
Jan Dombski, Norbert Barlicki, Dr. Stanislaw Grabski,
Dr. Witold Kamieniecki, Dr. Wladyslaw Kiernik, General
Mieczyslaw Kulinski, Adam Mieczkowski, Leon Wasilewski,
Ludwik Waszkiewicz, Michal Wichlinski,
an< l
For the Governments of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet
Republic and the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic:
Adolph Yoffe, Serghey Kirov, Dmitri Manuilsky, Leonid
Obolensky,
who, after reciprocally presenting their credentials, which
have been found to be satisfactory and in the required
form, have agreed on the following:
Boundary
Art. 1. In accordance with the principle of the self-
determination of nations, both parties to the agreement
recognize the independence of Ukraine and White Russia
and resolve that the eastern boundary of Poland, that is,
between Poland on the one hand and Ukraine and White
Russia on the other, is to be the line along the Dvina
River (Western Dvina) from the boundary point between
Latvia and Russia up to the point where the boundary of
the former Vilna province meets the boundary of the
former Vitebsk province; further, the boundaries of the
former Vilna and Vitebsk provinces up to the village and
railroad station of Oryekhovo, which remain with Poland,
thence again the eastern boundary of the former Vilna
province up to the point where the three counties (uyezds)
of Disna, Lepel, Borytfov, meet; further, from this point
up to the village of Mala Chernitsa, situated on the White
Russian side; thence in a south-westerly direction across
the lake on the Berezina River to the village of Zaryechitsk,
which remains with White Russia; further southwest to
the Vilya River up to a point east of Dolhinov; further
the Vilya River up to a highway running to the south
of Dolhinov; thence further to the south to a river (the
name of the river is not marked on the map), (then)
down the Vilya to the point of its confluence with the
Rybchanka River, the township of Vilya remaining with
Poland; (then) the Rybchanka to the south, up to the
railroad station of Rodoshkovichi, the station and the town-
ship remaining with White Russia; further to the east
from the township of Rakov, the villages of Volma and
Rubiezhevichi, up to the railroad line Minsk-Baranovichi,
at the locality of Kolosbvo on the Polish side ; further, to
the south, half way between Niesviezh and Timkovichi;
further to the south, half way between Kletsk and Tim-
kovichi; further, to the south of the Warsaw-Moscow high-
way to the east of Filipovichi; further, the shortest road
to the Lan River, near the village of Chudin, leaving that
village on the Polish side; further, along the Lan River,
up to its confluence with the Pripyat River; further, along
the Pripyat River, seven kilometers to the east, thence to
the south to the Stviga River, at its most westerly point,
and thence up-stream along the Stviga to the point where
the river crosses the boundaries of the former Minsk and
Volhynia provinces; from there along the boundary line
of the two provinces up to the boundary of the two coun-
ties of Rovno and Ostrog, and along that boundary of the
counties up to its intersection with the railroad line to the
west of the railroad station of Okhotnikovo and the town-
ship of Rakitna; further to the south, up to the Lva River
to its source, and thence to the confluence of the Korchik
River with the Sluch River, further, up the Korchik River,
leaving the township of Koryets with Poland; further, to
the southwest, leaving Kilikiyev with Ukraine, up to Mily-
atin, which remains with Poland; further, to the south,
across the railroad line Rovno-Shepetovka and the Horyn
River up to the Vilya River, the town of Ostrov remaining
with Poland; further, up the Vilya River to Novy Stav,
which is with Ukraine; thence in a southerly direction, in
general, across the Horyn River near La no vt si, which lo-
cality is left with Poland, and continuing up to the
Zbruch River, leaving the locality of Byelozyerka with
Poland; and then the line of the Zbruch River up to its
confluence with the Dnyester River. In defining a boun-
dary that runs along a river, the course of the main bed
is understood in navigable rivers, and the mean line of the
widest branch in unnavigable rivers.
The above boundary is described according to a Russian
map ton a scale of 25 versts to one English . inch, which is
appended to the present treaty and marked with red color
(the appendix and the map). In case of differences be-
tween the text and the map, the text shall be decisive.
Russia and Ukraine abandon all claims and pretensions
to territories lying to the east of this boundary.
The detailed determination and drawing up of the above
state boundary in the localities (on the spot) as well as
the setting up of frontier marks is left to a special mixed
boundary commission, which shall be convoked immediately
after the ratification of the present treaty.
Both contracting parties are agreed upon that insofar
as within the territories lying to the west of the above
marked boundary line there should fall lands which are in
dispute between Poland and Lithuania, the matter of the
apportionment of these lands should belong exclusively to
Poland and Lithuania.
Non-interference in Internal Affairs
Art. 2. Both contracting parties guarantee to each other
mutual regard for the state sovereignty of the other and
to withhold from any interference into the internal affairs
of the other, both signatory parties being resolved to place
in the peace treaty an obligation to the effect that they
shall not form nor support organizations whose aim it is
to wage armed struggle against the other signatory party, in
order to abolish the political or economic order of the other
party, threatening actively its territorial integrity, as well
as organizations assuming the role of the government of
the country of the other party. With the ratification of the
present agreement both contracting parties oblige them-
selves not to support foreign military activities against the
party of the other part.
Citizenship
Art 3. Both signatory parties assume the obligation
to place in the peace treaty regulations regarding the free
choice (option) of Polish, Russian or Ukrainian citizen-
ship respectively, with the understanding that persons us-
ing their right of choice shall have without exception all
such rights as are bestowed upon the citizens of both
parties.
National Minorities
Art. 4. Both signatory parties oblige themselves to place
in the peace treaty regulations guaranteeing on the one
hand to persons of Polish nationality in Russia or Ukraine
all the rights that safeguard the free cultural development
of the language as well as the observation of religious
ceremonies that shall be secured to persons of Russian
or Ukrainian nationality in Poland, while on the other
hand guaranteeing to persons of Russian or Ukrainian
nationality all the rights that safeguard the free develop-
ment of the language as well as the observation of reli-
gious ceremonies which shall be secured to persons of
Polish nationality in Russia and Ukraine.
Indemnities
Art. 5. Both signatory parties reciprocally renounce all
claims to the repayment of their wage costs, that is state
expenditures for ihi carrying on of the war between them
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as well as indemnities for the war losses, that is, losses
•that had been inflicted during the period of the present
war on them or their citizens within the field of military
operations, and that were caused by military operations
•or orders.
Prisoners, Hostages, Amnesty
Art. 6. Both signatory parties oblige themselves to
install in the peace treaty regulations regarding the ex-
change of war prisoners and the repayment of the actual
costs of their maintenance.
Art. 7. Mixed commissions are to be convoked as soon
as the present agreement is signed, for the immediate hand-
ing over of hostages and the immediate exchange of civil
prisoners and interned persons and as far as possible also
war prisoners as well as for the organization of the return
of exiles, refugees, and emigrants. Said commissions to
have the right of supervision and assistance to war and
civil prisoners,, interned persons, hostages, as well as exiles,
refugees, and emigrants, in order to regulate the questions
connected with the immediate return of hostages and civil
prisoners.
Both signatory parties oblige themselves to issue, imme-
diately after signing the present agreement, orders neces-
sary for the suspending of legal, administrative, discipli-
nary, or any other prosecution, started against civil prison*
ers, interned persons, hostages, exiles, emigrants, war pris-
oners, as well as the immediate suspension of the execution
of all punishments meted out to such persons by any legal
procedure. The suspension of the execution of the pun-
ishment may not necessarily cause the freeing of the per-
son, but in the latter case such persons must be immedi-
ately handed over to the authorities of their state, together
with all papers. If, however, such person should state
that he does not wish to return to his native country, or if
his home authorities should not consent to accept him, such
person may be again deprived of liberty.
Art. 9. Both contracting parties obligate themselves to
install in the peace treaty regulations in the matter of
amnesty, to wit: Poland for the Russian and Ukrainian
citizens in Poland, Russia and Ukraine for the Polish
•citizens in Russia and Ukraine.
The Settling of Mutual Claims
Art. 10. Both contracting parties assume the obligation
to install in the peace treaty regulations relative to recip-
rocal settlement of accounts and liquidation and to base
the same upon the following principles: (1) Poland shall
bear no obligations or burdens that would result from the
fact that a part of the territories of the Republic had
formerly belonged to the former Russian Empire; (2) both
signatory parties renounce reciprocally all claims to the
state properties that are contained in the territory of the
other party; (3) in settling the mutual claims and liquidat-
ing the accounts, the active participation of the lands of
the Polish Republic in the economic life of the former
Russian Empire; (4) both contracting parties oblige them-
selves reciprocally, upon the demand of the owners, to
reevacuate and return in kind, or in a corresponding
equivalent, respectively, the movable property of the state,
connected with the economic and cultural life of the coun-
try, the movable property of self-governing bodies, insti-
tutions, physical and juridical persons, taken or evacuated
by force or voluntarily, beginning with August 1 (new
style), 1914, with the exception of war booty; (5) the
obligation shall be fixed regarding the return to Poland
of all archives, libraries, works of art, historical war
trophies, relics, and the like articles of cultural achieve-
ment, exported from Poland into Russia since the time of
the partition of the Polish Republic; (7) an obligation
shall be fixed in the peace treaty on the part of Russia
and Ukraine, securing to Poland and its citizens the great-
est privileges of restitution of property and indemnifica-
tion for the losses of the revolutionary period and the
civil war in Russia and Ukraine. Both contracting parties
are agreed that the above points do not cover all details
relative to the settling and liquidation of accounts.
Establishment of Relations
Art. 11. Both contracting parties oblige themselves im-
mediately after signing the peace treaty to enter into nego-
Digitized by Lt<
tiations relative to an agreement on commerce and navi-
gation, sanitary means of communication, and postal and
telegraph conventions, as well as with regard to com-
pensatory exchange of goods.
Reciprocal Transit
Art. 12. Both contracting parties agree to install in the
peace treaty provisions giving the right of transit to Poland
through the territories of Russia and Ukraine and to Russia
and Ukraine through the territories of Poland.
Armistice
Art. 13. Both contracting parties simultaneously con-
clude a special agreement with regard to an armistice,
which constitutes an integral part of the present agreement
and possess an equal obligatory power (Appendix 2, 'The
Armistice Agreement").
Art. 14. Russia and Ukraine declare that all obligation*
assumed by them as to Poland as well as the rights ac-
quired by them in virtue of the present agreement apply
to all territories situated to the east of the frontier line
as determined by Art. 1 of the present agreement, which
territories had constituted a part of the former Russian
empire, and in concluding the agreement, were represented
by Russia and Ukraine.
Art. 15. Both contracting parties oblige themselves im-
mediately after signing the present agreement to start ne-
gotiations pertaining to the conclusion of a peace treaty.
Art. 16. The present agreement is prepared in the Pol-
ish, Russian, and Ukrainian languages, in two copies. In
interpreting the agreement all three texts shall be con-
sidered authentic.
Ratification
Art. 17. The present agreement is subject to ratification
and becomes valid with the exchange of the ratification
documents. Insofar as the present agreement, together
with the appendices, does not contain a different provi-
sion, the exchange of the ratification agreement and the
preparation of a corresponding protocol shall take place
at Libava (Libau). Both contracting parties oblige them-
selves to ratify the present treaty, at the latest, within
fifteen days after it is signed. The exchange of the rati-
fication documents and the preparation of the protocol
shall take place, at the latest, within six days after the
expiration of the term provided for the ratification. Both
contracting parties make the reservation that the armistice
agreement (Art. 13) loses its obligatory force if within the
period provided for the exchange of ratification documents
and the preparation of the corresponding protocol, such
activities shall for any reason not be accomplished; bat
the resumption of military operations may in such case
take place not earlier than 48 hours after the termination
of the said period. Wherever in this agreement the time
of the ratification of the present agreement is mentioned,
this time means the time of the exchange of the ratification
documents, in confirmation of which the plenipotentiaries
of both parties have attached their signatures and affixed
their seals to the present/ agreement.
AGREEMENT ON ARMISTICE
Drawn Up and Signed at Riga on October 12, 1920
In accordance with Art. 13 of the peace preliminaries
the following agreement on armistice has been concluded:
1. After the expiration of 144 hours from the moment
of the signing of the peace preliminaries, that is, at
24 o'clock, Central European Time, on the eighteenth
day of October, of the year nineteen hundred and twenty,
both contracting parties are obliged to suspend all mili-
tary operations on land, water, and in the air.
2. The armies of both contracting parties shall remain
in the positions occupied by them up to the moment of
the suspension of military operations in accordance with
§1, with the exception, however, that the Russo-Ukrainian
armies must be situated not nearer than 15 kilometers from
the stabilized line of the Polish front at the time of the
suspension of military operations.
3. The belt thus created, of 15 kilometers width, shall
represent a neutral zone, in the military sense, which shall
be under the administration of the party to whom said
territory should belong by virtue of the peace prelimini-
naries.
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4. In the sector from the Nyesvyezh region up to the
Dvina River the Polish armies shall occupy the line of
the national boundary fixed in Art. 1 of the peace pre-
liminaries, the Russo-Ukrainian armies taking positions
15 kilometers to the east of that line.
5. All movements of the armies resulting from §§2 and 4
must take place with a speed of not less than 20 kilo-
meters a day and shall begin not later than 24 hours after
the suspension of military operations, tRat is, not later than
24 o'clock, Central European Time, of the nineteenth day
of October, of the year nineteen hundred and twenty.
6. After the ratification of the peace preliminaries, the
armies of both contracting parties shall be withdrawn to
their national territory, with a speed of not less than 20
kilometers a day, and shall take up positions not nearer
than 15 kilometers to each side of the national boundary
line; the belt thus created of 30 kilometers width shall con-
stitute a neutral zone in a military sense and shall remain
under the administration of that party to whom the par-
ticular territory belongs.
7. Within the neutral zone, pursuant to §§3 and 6, no
military detachments may be maintained, with the excep-
tion of Polish troops necessary for the occupation of the
territory as provided in §4. The strength and location of
these detachments must be brought by the Polish com-
mand to the knowledge of the opposite side.
8. Detailed regulations in connection with the execu-
tion of the present agreement are issued by commands
representing both sides, of not lower rank than division
commands, wherever necessary and after mutual agreement.
To that end, immediately after the signing of the armistice
agreement and the peace preliminaries, they shall mmd
liaison officers with the necessary personnel to the division
commands of the army of the opposite side. Both sides .
guarantee to the officers as well as the personnel diplomatic
immunity, personal security, freedom of movement and
communication with their authorities. In order to control
the execution of the present agreement, as well as to set-
tle possible conflicts and regulate other necessary matters*
a mixed military commission shall be established, whose
composition, place of functioning, competence, and execu-
tive organs, shall be fixed by mutual agreement of the high
commands of both sides.
9. In vacating the occupied territories, in accordance
with §§4 and 6, the armies must leave untouched all pro-
perties found in the place, such as government, public,
and private buildings, railroads, and the entire rolling
stock found in such places, bridges and station appurten-
ances, telegraphs, telephones, and other means of communi-
cation that are not the property of the particular army,
grain stores on the fields and in the granaries, live stock
and industrial and agricultural inventory, all kinds of raw
materials, etc., which are the property of the state, self-
governing bodies, as well as of juridical or physical per-
sons. In withdrawing the armies no hostages must be
taken, nor civil population evacuated, nor is it permitted
to use against said populations any means of repression,
expropriation, requisition, or forceful redemption of its
property.
10. For the duration of the armistice, all communication
by land, water, or air, between the two warring parties,
is suspended; exceptions shall in special cases be determ-
ined by a mixed military arbitration as established by §8.
11. Military detachments and persons transgressing the
regulations of the present agreement shall be considered
as war prisoners.
12. The present armistice is concluded for 21 days, but
each side has the right to recall it on a 48 hour notice;
if before the expiration of the armistice term neither side
should cancel it, the armistice is automatically prolonged
up to the time of the ratification of the final peace treaty
and each side has the right to recall by giving 14 days'
notice, without regard to the above regulations, and in
accordance with Article 17 of the peace preliminaries.
The present armistice shall lose its obligatory force if
within the period prescribed for the exchange of the rati-
fication documents and the preparation of a corresponding
protocol, these acts should for any reason not be per-
formed, but the resumption of military operations may take
place not earlier than 48 hours after the expiration of the
term for the exchange of ratification documents.
13. The present armistice constitutes an integral part
of the peace preliminaries, in confirmation of which the
plenipotentiaries of both parties have attached their own.
signatures to it.
NEW RUSSIAN-JAPANESE
AGREEMENT
The Vladivostok Volya of September 26, 1920^
contains the following news item:
Vladivostok, September 25. After considering
the situation created by the coming evacuation of
the Khabarovsk district, the Japanese command ancP
the Vladivostok authorities arrived, on September
24, at the following agreement, which is supple-
mentary to the Russian-Japanese agreement of April
29 of this year.
1. After the evacuation of the Japanese troops-
from Khabarovsk and the surrounding district, the
Russian armed forces shall not advance farther
south than the river Iman.
2. The guarding of the railway and telegraph to-
the south of the railway station Ussuri (including
the latter) shall be left to the Japanese command,
and from Ussuri to Iman to the Russian railway
militia.
3. The telegraph lines installed by the Japanese-
to the south of Khabarovsk and up to the station
Ussuri shall be turned over by the Japanese to-
the Russian authorities, without compensation, as-
a token of friendship, but on condition that the
Russian authorities guarantee free and prompt com-
munication to the Japanese military mission in
Khabarovsk, and without any charges.
4. The Russian authorities guarantee the safety
of the lives and property of Japanese subjects, both
military and civil, who may remain in Khabarovsk
and its environs, or farther south.
5. The details concerning the railway and the
telegraph lines shall be settled by the management
board of Japanese military communications and the
Council of Means of Communication.
Bound Volumes for 1920
Volume II, of which a number of copies,
splendidly bound, are still to be obtained by
persons desiring them, is sold at five dollars.
Check or money order should accompany
order. Volume I (June-December, 1919) is
sold out and will not be reprinted. Volume
III will be bound, with title-page and index,
as soon as the issues have all appeared (Jan-
uary 1, 1921). Readers may place orders
now for Volume III, and should send the cost
of the volume — five dollars — with their
orders.
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 W. 40tb St.
qinal from
New York, N. Y.
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SOVIET RUSSIA
December 11, 1920
Notes to the British Government
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Copy of Radio to Krassin from Chicherin, November 14,
1920. Note to Curzon from Chicherin, November 13, 1920.
Foreign Office, Earl Curzon of Kedleston, November 13.
Answering your message of November 3, which con-
tained a reply to the Note of the Head of our Trade Dele-
gation, Krassin, dated October 19, you pass completely
under silence the fact that Mr. Krassin categorically de-
clared that the Russian Government does not consider it-
self as being at wax with Great Britain at the present time,
but you refer instead to some unknown declarations of a
Soviet Minister whom you refrain even from naming. This
person is presumed to have declared that he hoped that
our submarines in the Black Sea would sink an Entente
vessel. In view of the absence of any precise indications
of the person, place and time referred to, we are unable
to verify how far the information on which your allega-
tions is based is correct. Seeing that the British Govern-
ment did not ask us for any explanation concerning this
alleged speech of the Soviet Minister we cannot refrain
from expressing our astonishment that the British Govern-
ment puts forth this allegation as a ground for naval
action against Russian submarines. The second ground
put forth in your message is the alleged reference in Mr.
Krassin's Note to the possibility for a Soviet submarine
commander who Would desire, to torpedo a British ship
on the excuse of mistaken identity. As a matter of fact
Mr. Krassin's Note spoke of the possibility of a warship
not recognizing the nationality of a submarine, but
did not contain the least reference to the possibility of
a mistaken identity of a British warship. The principle
argument by which your message seeks to justify hostile
action against our submarines is the declaration that they
are engaged in acts of open hostility aaginst British inter-
ests, in the Black Sea. The Russian Government is at
a loss to understand what British interests are referred to,
seeing that no British possessions or protectorates are sit-
uated on the shores of the Black Sea; at any rate the
British Government never notified us that any of these
regions had ever become a British possession. In reality
the only forces against which the Soviet army and navy
are engaged on the Black Sea are the forces of Wrangel
whom the British Government declared it would not support
any more after his offensive against Soviet Russia. In view
of your message of November 3 the Russian Government
is compelled to ask the British Government whether Wran-
gel's interests are to be henceforth considered as being
British interests. In case of a negative answer the Rus-
sian Government must consider your declaration concern-
ing our submarines as being based upon a misunderstand-
ing, and confidently expects that the British Government
will cancel the order referred to 'in your message.
(Signed) Chicherin.
II
Copy of Radio Received November 11, dated November
9, 1920.
November 9. The Russian Soviet Government begs
to draw the attention of the British Government to the
utterly unsatisfactory state which the negotiations for
the renewal of commercial intercourses and the reestablish-
ment of normal relations between the two countries have
now reached.
More than ten months have now elapsed since the Allied
Supreme Council issued its invitation to the Russian Soviet
Government to enter into negotiations for the resumption
of economic relations, and it is now more than four months
since a formal agreement initiated by the British Govern-
ment itself laying down the conditions upon which trade
was to be resumed and peace negotiations begun between
Great Britain and Russia, was reached by an exchange
of notes. Throughout this time Soviet Russia acted with
a promptitude and in a spirit of accomodation and loyalty
which clearly demonstrated its sincere desire for peace and
peaceful work. Atacked, harrassed. and conspired against
by the Allied Governments ever since its accession to
power just three years ago, the Russian Soviet Govern-
ment nevertheless was ready to give peace and opportunity
for reconstruction, not only to its own hard tried country,
but also to the rest of Europe and Asia, exhausted after
the inhuman devastations of late wars. Although Russia
was being attacked by enemies furnished with weapons
and funds and morally supported by Great Britain, who,
moreover, found no effective word of rebuke for them,
while actually negotiating with the representatives of the
Soviet Government, the latter continues to exercise every
forbearance, and to show in a practical manner the con-
ciliatory spirit with which it was animated.
To its utmost regret, the Soviet Government has to record
the fact that it was not met with the same spirit on the
part of the British Government; it has, on the contrary,
seen every imaginable obstacle put in the way of the
smooth proceeding of the negotiations, and has been
made to feel on numerous occasions as if the British Gov-
ernment, so far from being anxious to reach a satisfactory
settlement of the questions at issue, was seeking a
pretext to protract or to break off the negotiations entirely.
The last mentioned point finds its illustrations in the
hectoring tone of many of the British Government Notes;
in the habit, absolutely unprecedented in the history of
diplomatic negotiations between two sovereign powers, of
serving ultimatums upon the Soviet Government in and
out of season; in the many attempts made to influence
the choice of the Russian delegates and to eliminate from
the delegation all political representatives of the Soviet
Government, in order to place it at a disadvantage in
all political discussions which the British Government
itself was constantly introducing into negotiations orig-
inally meant to be, in the first stage at any rate, entirely
economic.
The obstructionist character of the policy of the British
Government has been exhibited also in the numerous at-
tempts made to delay the negotiations on every imaginable
pretext. The first considerable delay was caused by the
extension, quite noyel in the practice of international law,
by the British Government, in the case of Mr. Litvinov,
of the conception of persona grata to trade and peace nego-
tiations. Then delay was caused by the introduction into the
economic conversations of a number of entirely irrelevant
political questions, such as exchange of prisoners and
political propaganda as to which the head of the truncated
Delegation, Mr. Krassin, had either no information or no
powers. Although a basic trade agreement had been
concluded, the question of Poland, a wholly political ques-
tion, was suddenly brought up and made the pretext for
postponing all further economic conversations and even
for preventing from returning to England Mr. Rothstein.
a member of the Delegation, who had gone to Moscow with
the approval of the British Government to report on the
state of negotiations. The language used at that time by
the British Government was one of ultimatum and threats,
and had absolutely nothing to do with the objects for
which the Soviet Delegation had been invited to London;
yet, when the Soviet troops had evacuated Polish territory,
and the conclusion of a preliminary peace between Russia
and Poland was imminent, the economic negotiations were
not resumed, and instead, the Chairman of the Delegation,
Mr. Kamenev, was asked to leave England on the baseless
charge of interfering in the internal affairs of the coun-
try. While continuing the blockade of Russia by with-
holding export licenses for goods destined for Russia, and
even by seizing steamers with cargoes bound for Russian
ports as in the case of the Italian steamer Ancona, the
British Government nevertheless demanded from the Soviet
Government the fulfilment of its obligations in the matter
of the release of prisoners and of the cessation of propa-
ganda, obligations which were to enter into force only after
the conclusion of a trade agreement, and on the completion
of the political negotiations which have unfortunately been
broken off by the British Government with the exclusion of
Mr. Kamenev from England. The British Government went
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even so far as to suggest to the Soviet Government the
coercion of the independent Republic of Azerbaijan for the
release of some British prisoners for whose detention the
Soviet Government has no responsibility. The Soviet Gov-
ernment has since, by using its good offices with the
Azerbaijan Government, succeeded in obtaining the release
of these prisoners but so far has heard nothing about the
resumption of the negotiations for carrying into effect the
trade agreement concluded as far back as July 7. In-
deed, some recent statements in the House of Commons by
British Cabinet Ministers leave the impression that new
pretexts may be sought for further delaying the fulfilment
of this agreement.
It is in no mere spirit of recrimination that the Soviet
Government has thought fit to bring all these facts under
the notice of the British Government. Now, as before, the
Soviet Government is solely animated by a desire to re-
store peace to its own country, to the entire East of Europe,
and to Asia, and in enumerating the above-mentioned in-
cidents, it is only anxious to show that it bears no re-
sponsibility whatsoever for the monstrous delay in coming
to an economic and political agreement with the British
Government, whose duty it would now at least seem to be to
prove to the Soviet Government, to the British people, and
to the world at large, whether or not it is sincere in its
professions of peace and economic reconstruction. Having
taken all pains to meet the wishes of the British Gov-
eminent on various questions, having exercised great pa-
tience in the face of numerous acts of provocation, having
lastly incurred the expense and inconvenience of sending
to and maintaining in London for nearly seven months a
Delegation whose members are urgently needed in Russia
itself, where work of utmost importance demands the de-
voted energetic cooperation of every single Russian citizen,
the Soviet Government considers that matters can no longer
be allowed to drag on in the manner in which they have
dragged on these last ten months, and that unless the Bri-
tish Government is prepared to enter into negotiations for
a complete trade agreement, it will have regrettably to
admit that its protracted efforts in spite of all its good will
have failed this time as completely as they did on pre-
vious occasions, and will draw the necessary conclusions.
It therefore asks the British Government to give a straight
and prompt answer to the question whether it is prepared
to accede to its suggestion for immediate negotiations for
the above-mentioned objects. In view of the great issues
at stake, the Soviet Government hopes to receive a satis-
factory reply, and further expects that the trade agree-
ment will be immediately followed or accompanied by
negotiations for peace and restoration of normal relations
through properly constituted bodies of fully authorized
delegates appointed by each side at its own discretion,
and that the British Government will agree that the con-
ference should meet in London or some neutral city sel-
ected by mutual consent.
(Signed) People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs,
Chicherin.
Ill
To Lord Curzon from the Russian Government per the
Russian Trade Delegation, dated November 9, 1920.
In Lord Curzon*s Note to the Russian Government, dated
October 9, the British Government insists on an immediate
cessation of all alleged hostile actions and propaganda
directed against the British Empire in the East, and bases
this demand upon the understanding proposed by the Bri-
tish Note of June 30, and greed to by the Russian Govern-
ment in its Note of July 7. At the same time, the Briitsh
Government declared that they "will hold the Soviet Gov-
ernment faithfully to a redemption of this pledge," and,
that for their own part, "renew their own allegiance to the
reciprocal obligations simultaneously entered into by them."
In order to avoid every possible misunderstanding, the
Russian Government deems it necessary to repeat that the
coming into force of the understanding of the notes of
June 30 and July 7 is inseparable from and dependent upon
the conclusion of a trade agreement between the Russian
and the British Governments. This is made clear by the
very text of the British Note of June 30, in which the
British Government demands a categorical reply from the
Russian Government as to "whether Russia is prepared
to enter into a trade agreement with the British Empire
and other Powers on the following conditions," after which
the Note proceeds to specify the conditions referred to, viz:
a mutual cessation of hostile action and propaganda, an
exchange of prisoners, etc.
It is plain, therefore, beyond all possibility of doubt,
that the British Government itself, in its Note of June 30,
regarded the obligations stated therein as contingent upon
the conclusion of a trade agreement, and therefore con-
sidered that the clauses relating to propaganda, hostile
actions, prisoners of war, and the recognition by the Rus-
sian Government of a certain class of private debts, were
to be regarded as operative only if and when the trade
agreement between the two countries should be concluded
and should come into force.
Such was also the Russian Government's point of view
to which it continues to adhere. Desiring to accelerate
the coming into force of the conditions set out in the
British Note of June 30, the Russian Government, in its
Note of October 6, which was sent to Lord Curzon by Mr.
Krassin, asked the British Government to fix the time
for the resumption of trade negotiations, and at the same
time declared its willingness to set free all British sub-
jects detained in Russia, even without waiting for the
conclusion of a trade * agreement, though, as a matter of
fact, it was under no obligation to do so.
The British Government has already declared, — and now
repeats that it is willing to accept the understanding of
June 30 and July 7 in its entirety and to carry it out with
the utmost care and precision. The Russian Government
further declares that it considers the aforesaid agreement
to become actually operative only in its entirety, i.e., upon
the conclusion of a trade agreement. The Russian Gov-
ernment does not consider that the British Government
has at present, (i.e. before the signature of a trade agree-
ment) any right to base upon the agreement of June
30 and July 7 any protest against actions or policy of the
Russian Government in the East to which it may take
objection. The Russian Government, for its part, could
also submit numerous proofs of extremely unfriendly policy
on the part of the British Government towards the Russian
Republic during the last few months: but, it refrains from
doing so pending the conclusion of the trade agreement.
The Russian Government is firmly convinced that the
final removal of causes of mutual complaint and protest
is possible only by further developing and translating into
more concrete forms the clauses of the agreement of June
30 and July 7 which refer to abstentation by both sides
from hostile action and propaganda.
The Russian Government aims at the establishment of
complete clearness in its relations with the British Govern-
ment and at the removal of all possibility of ambiguous
or incorrect understanding or interpretation of the obliga-
tions assumed by both parties.
However, the work of rendering these undertakings into
concrete form cannot be carried out by the exchange of
notes, but necessitates personal formal negotiations between
plenipotentiaries and experts appointed by the two govern-
ments. '
Unfortunately, the Russian Government is forced to point
out that the carrying into effect of the agreement of June
30 and July 7 has been delayed by the action of the
British Government in evading and postponing the neces-
sary negotiations, by raising objections to the personnel
of the Russian Delegation, and by insisting on the with-
drawal or objecting to the admission of certain of its mem-
bers. But, animated by an unchanging desire to secure
the speedy establishment of stable and friendly relations,
the Russian Government again proposes to the British Gov-
ernment that immediately upon the conclusion of the trade
agreement they should commence the necessary negotia-
tions with reference to the above-mentioned points concern-
ing political agreement. The Russian Government does
not doubt that these negotiations will lead to the results
which are desirable for both sides, and is ready for this
purpose to despatch a political delegation to England or
to any other place which may be mutually agreed upon.
by LiQOglC
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IV
Note to Cur ion
London Foreign Office, Earl Curzon of Kedleston, October
16. We understand from wireless messages of the British
press service that the occupation of Batum by British
forces is under consideration. The Russian Government
is compelled to draw most earnestly the attention of the
British Government to the serious consequences which would
necessarily arise in case of the adoption of this measure,
which would be considered by us as a direct menace to the
security of our ally, the Azerbaijan Soviet Republic, and
of Russia herself. It would be impossible for us not to
see in the occupation of Batum by Entente force an at-
tempt to create for us a new front in the south and a
first step towards kindling a conflagration in the Caucasus
which would once more divert the Russian working people
from their peaceful labor. Seeing that the Russian Gov-
ernment in such case will be compelled to have recourse
to all the measures which can be adopted in order to avert
such eventualities we express the hope that the British
Government will refrain from such a fatal step, the con-
sequences of which would wholly fall upon its responsi-
bility. Chicherin.
Kamenev on Lloyd George
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J/ RASNAYA GAZETA prints a complete report
-*** submitted by the Chairman of the Russian
Delegation in London, Kamenev, to a conference
of the Mocow Soviets and the representatives of
the Moscow Workers' Delegation. The report takes
up the political negotiations with England.
"Shortly before our arrival in England, 9 ' said
Kamenev, "the British War Minister Churchill pub-
lished a letter containing the following declaration:
"We hated Germany, our hatred against that
country was great, but more still we hate the
Red Army with its Communistic flag. We must
exert all our strength to destroy it."
This was the mood of the imperialistic ruling
class of England.
Lloyd George received us with the observation:
"There is no such thing ad a preliminary peace.
Your army is crossing the ethnographic borders of
Poland. Orders have been given to send out the
English fleet and the transportation of munitions
to Danzig has already begun." And then he added:
"But we shall wait. In a week I shall speak in
Parliament. Within this week our government will
follow the advances of the Red Army."
After leaving Lloyd George, I said to Kamenev:
"That is a declaration of war. But they have not
the force with which to wage this war; otherwise,
if they had, they would not wait."
Two days later Lloyd George again summoned
me to him, and said: "Things look bad. Your
army is only fifty versts from Warsaw." Simul-
taneously he proposed that we inaugurate armis-
tice negotiations.
"If you want peace, then stop supporting Pol-
and," I said. The English Prime Minister then
became quite frank. "You ask for demobilization,
but Poland has no munitions, no arms, and even
if it should gather together all its soldiers it will
nevertheless be helpless without our weapons and
our munitions.
I answered: "Even if England renounces its
support of Poland, this would not necessarily mean
that France would do the same." "The French
Prime Minister Millerand will not sign such a
treaty," answered Lloyd George, "until he has first
consulted us on the matter."
"What would happen if France, in spite of the
fact that our conditions are accepted, will not cease
supporting Poland?" "Even if France does not
approve our treaty," answered Lloyd George, "Eng-
by kj
*L
land will nevertheless wage no war against Soviet
Russia, and will not support Poland either."
Then the Commander-in-Chief of the English
Army, Field Marshal Wilson, arrived, and Lloyd
George left with him, in order to work out the arm-
istice conditions.
Lloyd Gejorge at that time was diligently working
to put himself before the English Workers' Party
as an European peace apostle. To my question when
the armistice negotiations would begin he said, as
he would speak Monday, it was desirable that the
armistice should become effective on that day.
I pointed out that being a civilian, without the
advice of a military expert, I could not assume
the responsibility for a step that involved the fate
of the Red Army.
"How long will it take for the armistice order
to reach the front?" I asked the English General.
"At least four days."
Lloyd George changed color: "But that is time
enough for them to take Warsaw!" he blurted out,
and he replaced the word "Warsaw" in his draft
of the armistice conditions with the sentence: "that
the Polish Government may remain in Warsaw."
So undecided was then the attitude of the English
Government!
Then Lloyd George consulted the French Prime
Minister. I informed the latter in a note that our
Government was waiting for the Polish representa-
tives in Minsk and that their proposals and armis-
tice conditions were therefore without any import-
ance.
When Lloyd George appeared in Parliament, he
took a somewhat different line: "The Russians are
at the gates of Warsaw," he said in his speech,
"which means a threat to the peace of Versailles,
Europe must not be idle. We have given orders
to our fleet to sail for Helsingfors and our fleet
in the Black Sea will also hold itself in readiness."
After this speech Lloyd George was handed our
armistice conditions. After he had read them and
consulted the Ministers, he communicated them to
Parliament and declared that the conditions had
created a new situation and that England would
refuse to render active help to Poland.
A telegram had also been forwarded to Warsaw
advising that the conditions be at once accepted.
Simultaneously, a telegram to the opposite effect
arrived from the French Government, saying that
Wrangel was recognized the legal regent of South
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Russia, and calling upon Warsaw to abstain from
any negotiations.
The Entente was having bad luck. Our negotia-
tions cut a breech in the common policy of Eng-
land and France. We had sown discord between
them.
Simultaneously a crisis arose in the English
Workers' Movement. At the congress of all the
workers' organizations of England, a Council of
Action was elected, which set up, for the first time
in England, a question that has already been solved
in our country: Parliament or Soviets. And then
there were transactions concerning the question of
a war with Russia.
H«w the struggle of the Council of Action will
develop it is now difficult to say, but the Council
exists and when it held a secret vote among the
mine workers on the subject of the strike it re-
corded a million votes in favor and only 200,000
votes against this strike.
Later, when our army was withdrawn from War-
saw, the tension between France and England re-
laxed. Lloyd George's views underwent a change.
The fact that Lloyd George has banished me from
England is only one episode in his struggle against
the working class organization. He had chosen a
moment in which he calculated that our failure
would make the English workers waver, and he will
again shift to our side when the parallelogram of
forces changes.
A New Conspiracy
Moscow, October 26.— To "Freiheit", Berlin;
"Rote Fahne", Berlin! and to All!
One of the lessons of the latest Riga scandal,
which is occupying the entire public opinion of
Latvia at present, is that foreign diplomacy is con-
tinuing to labor at effecting a secret alliance with
agents of the counter-revolution. The latter are
attempting everywhere to recruit soldiers for
WrangePs army.
It is reported from Libau that on September 26
letters had been found in the possession of Count
Pahlen — a not unfamiliar name, as he is a well-
known agent of Bermondt — bearing the address of
the political commission of Wrangel at Warsaw,
which letters were confiscated. The Political Com-
missioner in question is named Savinkov. The
letter is signed by a certain Derenthal, who states
that he is a secret agent of Savinkov in the Latvian
Government.
Among other things, Derenthal says that sol-
diers are being recruited in Latvia for Wrangel's
army, and are being transported on steamers from
Latvia to Memel, under certificates as Polish civil
refugees? Derenthal further recounts in his letter
that Savinkov's representatives had a secret con-
ference at Riga with representatives of the Latvian
Government and with the Commander-in-Chief of
the Latvian Army, at which the Latvian Prime Min-
ister Ulmanis, the Latvian Minister for Foreign
Affairs, Mejerowicz, and the representative of the
Staff Command, General Radsin, were present.
Savinkov made an agreement with the Latvian Gov-
ernment to wage war against the Soviet Government
jointly with Wrangel. For these services Wrangel
promised to recognize the independence of Poland
and Latvia, while Esthonia, Lithuania, and Ukraine
are to have only autonomous administration. It is
well known also that the original documents that
had been taken from Pahlen and sent to the Staff
Command, to General Radsin, have been destroyed
by the Higher Military Command and the agents
of Savinkov, in order to wipe out all traces of the
matter.
In the night preceding October 16, a certain Fal-
kowsky, employed by the Latvian Minister for For-
eign Affairs in the Section for Foreign Information,
crossed the German boundary. Falkowsky,
a former spy of the Czar's government, car-
ried with him sealed packages, bearing the seal
of the Latvian Government. These packages were
addressed to Savinkov. Falkowsky also carried with
him a communication of the Latvian Government
to Savinkov, which was signed by the Ministry
for Foreign Affairs and by the Commander of the
Border Guards, in order to eliminate any inspec-
tion of the packages at the border.
These events led to the following resolution in
the Latvian National Assembly:
"Does every individual among the members of the Gov-
ernment know about the above facts, and does the entire
Cabinet 'of Ministers accept the responsibility for such a
policy? We insist on a publication of the secret corre-
spondence that has been removed from Count Pahlen's
possession. We likewise demand a precise and exhaustive
answer to the National Assembly.
(Signed) Rudewitz, Ulias, Ralwinsky, Sellbns.
In connection with this communication, a series
of articles appeared in the Riga press. This un-
paralleled scandal will probably result in a min-
isterial crisis.
In an article in lzvestia, dealing with this scan-
dal, Steklov says that such events illustrate com-
pletely the internal corruption and decomposition
of the foreign bourgeoisie. Such a treacherous mode
of action, aimed at preventing a peaceful neighbor-
liness between Latvia and Soviet Russia could only
rebound to the disadvantage of the present Min-
ister of Latvia.
Send Us A List
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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
December 11, 1920
Wireless and Other News
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FORMER HUNGARIAN COMMISSAR IN
PETROGRAD
Petrograd, November 4. — The former President
of the Hungarian Council of People's Commissars,
Varga, has just returned here from an investigat-
ing journey in Central Russia. He succeeded in
escaping from Austria with a consignment of Rus-
sian prisoners of war. In a conversation with a
representative of Krasnaya Gazeta, Varga reports
concerning the horrors which followed the fall of
the dictatorship of the proletariat in Hungary.
Murder, robbery, extortion, are the order of the
day. All the prisons are overfilled. Regardless of
the terror, there is nevertheless a workers' move-
ment, even though it is weak. There are illegal
Communist organizations. The situation of the
workers is extremely hard. Varga has already
traveled through a number of sections of Soviet
Russia, in order to make himself acquainted with
the life of the Russian proletariat. In Petrograd
he is engaged in the study of the trade union or-
ganizations.
COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY •
THREATS
The Petrogradskiya Izvestia says the following:
"While the Western European press is continuing
to spread all possible kinds of lies concerning
Soviet Russia, the agents of foreign imperialism
are preparing a 'new campaign against the Soviet
power. Thus the leader of the Social-Revolution-
ists, Chernov, recently declared that now that there
was peace with Poland there would be a new as-
sault directed against the Soviet power under the
banner of democracy. The Soviet Government has
for three years withstood the imperialistic attacks
and will await the new blow of its enemies with
equanimity. There is no doubt that the Soviet
Government will once more frustrate the plans of
its opponents. Meanwhile discipline and vigilance
are necessary. All obstacles in the way of reaching
the final goal of the proletarian revolution must be
removed."
INSURRECTIONS IN MOSCOW
FICTITIOUS
(Rosta Official). — An NCP telegram from Co-
penhagen to Stockholm newspapers on the subject
of mutinies among the soldiers in Moscow, in
which connection the Soviet Government is alleged
to have arrested six or seven thousand people, is
without any foundation. This report, brought by
travelers in Riga, is one of the countless false
alarms that are being spread by Russian counter-
revolutionists, with the object of convincing the
world that the Soviet Government is about to fall.
In reality, as Rosta is in a position definitely to
affirm, on the basis of direct information from Mos-
cow, there is absolute quiet in that city.
CONDITIONS IN GEORGIA
Rosta. — In an article appearing in Pravda Radek
gives an account of the trip to Georgia recently
accomplished by members of the Second Interna-
tional, with Kautsky, Renaudel, and Shaw at their
head. He characterizes this expedition as a new
political manoeuver on the part of English imperi-
alists in the Caucasus. This visit paid by members
of the Second International to Georgia was coin-
cident with the negotiations between England «and
the Georgian Government on the subject of a loan
to Georgia. As security for this loan England de-
manded that Batum be given up to be used by her
as a basis of operations against the Turkish revo-
lutionists, thus hoping to get the Caucasus, includ-
ing Baku, into her hands, in order by this means
to cut off Soviet Russia from its supplies of naph-
tha. This far-reaching manoeuver had to be pre-
pared politically, and the practical carrying out
of this plan was attempted with the aid of the
Second International. The Second International,
which has assumed a position that is hostile to the
dictatorship of the proletariat, sees nothing wrong
in supporting the attacks of the bourgeois de-
mocracy.
by Google
THE TRUTH ABOUT GEORGIA
Moscow, November 2/1920. — Ramsey MacDon-
ald is defending the Republic of Georgia in the
London Nation, while the counter-revolutionary
Government of Georgia is oppressing the working
masses by the use of violence. The secret govern-
ment police of Georgia permits itself the most cruel
violence on the persons of all revolutionists. Com-
munists are either shot or thrown into prison.
Southern Osetia has literally been razed to the
ground by punitive expeditions, because it had in-
troduced Soviet institutions. Oppressed nationali-
ties, such as the Adjanians and the Abkasians, are
murdered in great numbers. At the very time that
MacDonald was in Batum, a number of workers
were arrested because they had wanted to organize
a demonstration for the Third Internationale. The
demonstration nevertheless took place and was only
put down by force by the police, while Macdonald
and his companions were being royally entertained
by the Government. In Tiflis all demonstrations
against the government and against Macdonald's
party were put down by the most emphatic use
of force, while Macdonald's presence was con-
cealed.
Macdonald now openly demands that English
soldiers be sent to the Caucasus, and surely he
means that they are to be used against the Soviet
Government. He demands that the English Gov-
ernment shall help Georgia, shall bring about an
alliance with the Trans-Caucasian Republics, which
would be equivalent to the suppression of the Azer-
baijan Republic by the imperialistic powers.
V-m i q i n d i rroiTi
UNIVERSITY OF'MICHIGAN
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FREE CHURCH IN SOVIET RUSSIA
hvestia reports that the Archbishop of Penza,
Vladimir, has proposed to the Executive Commit-
tee of Soviet Russia the plan of a free People's
Church.
The plan states among other things: The former
church was only a means for stupefying and ex-
ploiting the people. The new church must take
up the struggle against lies and exploitation. Chris-
tianity, to be sure, aims to attain eternal peace
without bloodshed. But it recognizes the existence
of the various classes and therefore also the class
struggle. There is only one means of preventing
wars in the future, a union of all workers under
one flag. Let that be the basis of the free People's
Church.
COMMMUNIST TEXTBOOKS IN
SOVIET RUSSIA
The Central Committee of the Russian Commun-
ist Party has decided to instruct several well-known
Communist writers to prepare elementary text books
for the schools of Soviet Russia. So, for example,
Bukharin is to write on the materialistic conception
of history and political parties during the prole-
tarian revolution; Bubnov, on the history of the
Communist Party; Styeklov, on the history of the
labor movement in Western Europe and Interna-
tional; Stalin on the principles of Communist tac-
tics, Vorovsky is to write a history of literature,
Tomsky on industrial organization, Milyutin on the
organization of economy in Soviet Russia, and so
forth.
TOBACCO INDUSTRY IN SOVIET
RUSSIA
Moscow, November 3. — Ekonomisheskaya Zhizn
says the following on the tobacco industry: In
the last few years Russia was supplied with tobacco
goods chiefly by the makhorka* factories. These
factories got their raw materials from the provinces
of Tambov, Riazan and Samara. In the spring of
1920 the tobacco stocks of all the Soviet factories
amounted to 50,000 poods. In that season, the
Kuban district was reconquered by the Red Army
and communications were opened with the rest of
Russia. In the year 1915 the Kuban district sup-
plied more than one-half of Russia's needs of to-
bacco. The tobacco production of Crimea supplied
eight per cent and Bessarabia six per cent. In the
Kuban there have been accumulated stocks at the
present time which have been yielded by the har-
vests of several seasons. Supplies at Yekaterino-
dar, Maikop, Novorossiysk, as well as in the Cri-
mea, now amount to 2,000,000 poods. Since the Ku-
ban district has been open for communication with
Soviet Russia, there have been transported to Petro-
grad 120,000 poods of tobacco, covering the needs
of six months; 500,000 poods have been trans-
ported north. The remaining stocks of raw tobac-
co may be exported.
REPORT ON RUSSIA
Berlin, November 7. — The Berlin Trades Coun-
cil delegation which visited Russia last summer has
just returned and made a report to the Central
Council.
Their report is another proof that when real
working men, and not intellectuals of middle-class
training and origin, go to study Soviet Russia on
the spot, their reports in the main are favorable.
Thus, if Dittmann and Crispien, of the Right Inde-
pendents, have their counterparts in certain I.L.P.
members of the British labor delegation to Russia,
Rusch, Czerni, and Schumacher have their counter-
parts in the British trade union members of that
delegation.
Rusch, in his report, was careful to point out
that the hunger and the fall in production were due
to the constant mobilizations which the Soviets were
compelled to make to beat off the international
bandits let loos? by the Entente on Russia. He
gave evidence, however, that the lowest point was
reached in the summer of 1919, and since then there
had been a gradual rise in production in many in-
dustries.
The feeding of workmen in industries is being
solved by allotting the land around factories to be
cultivated by the workers.
He said he went everywhere without hindrance.
He warned against a general emigration of Ger-
man workers to Russia, saying that Russia needed
not men and material, but a certain number of
skilled artisans and technicians, which Germany
could supply.
Schumacher in his report said that Russia had
timber and wool ready for export, and that this
winter the Russian cities were fairly well supplied
with fuel, thanks to the opening of Baku oil and
the improvement in the navigation of the Volga.
—Daily Herald, November 10, 1920.
REVOLUTIONARY TURKISH MISSION
Grozny, October 30. — A mission of the revolu-
tionary government in Turkey has arrived at Groz-
ny, at the head of which stands Begir Sari. The
mission made itself acquainted with the results of
the activity of the Caucasian Labor Army and was
immensely impressed with what had been accom-
plished. Begir Sari said that the Turkish people
might be proud of possessing such friends as it
had in the Caucasian Labor Army and the Georgian
proletariat.
KAMENEV RETURNS FROM THE
SOUTHERN FRONT
Moscow, November 2. — The Chairman of the
Moscow Soviet, Kamenev, has returned to Moscow
from his visit to the southern front.*
• Makhorka,
Old Regime.
a coarse tobacco smoked by the poor under the
by LiOOglC
• Mrs. Claire Sheridan, an English sculptress who visited
Soviet Russia this fall and whose articles givin* her impres-
sions on Soviet Russia -appeared in The New York Times in
six instalments, beginning Monday, November 22, repeatedly
mentions Kamenev's visit to the southern front and his return
from that front.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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December 11, 1920
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SOVIET RUSSIA
in 1921 will attempt to place before its readers even more interesting material than it has been
printing during 1920. All the regular features, such as Weekly Military Review, Editorials,
Wireless and Other Notes, will be retained, and at least one will be considerably expanded,
namely, "Books Reviewed". The latest official and unofficial articles of Lenin, Trotsky, Luna-
charsky, Sereda, Zinoviev, and other statesmen and specialists in the various organs of the
Soviet Government, will be printed as soon as they are received and translated. Also, as far
as space permits, Soviet Russia will print the latest accounts by Americans and foreigners
who have set down their observations of travel or work in Soviet Russia.
Among the other materials of all kinds that we have already arranged to publish in
early issues. of Volume IV, which begins January 1, 1921, are these:
Alfons Goldschmidt, Collapse and Reconstruction in Russia.
A masterly analysis of the economic crisis that was one of the causes impelling the Soviets in
November, 1917, to seize control, as well as a review ol the course taken by Soviet control
of industries.
Maxim Gorky, The Literature of the World.
This important essay was written by the famous Gorky as an introduction to the new series of
translations to be issued at low prices by the Soviet Government.
Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek, Chemical Warfare and the New Attack on Russia.
The Military Reviewer of Soviet Russia predicts that savage methods will be used in the next
military attack on Soviet Russia.
Alfons Goldschmidt, The Structure of the Soviet System in Russia.
A clear summary of the outline of the administrative and political system in Soviet Russia, with
definite statements of all interrelations.
Art Under Communism,- by the Editor of Soviet Russia.
Pierre Pascal, Impressions of Soviet Russia.
Ivan Olbracht, A Sociological Study of Present-Day Russia.
Bohumir Smeral, Conversations With Russian Leaders.
We have not yet increased the price of Soviet Russia, in spite of the very much in-
creased costs in printing and production. But it is not certain how long we can continue hold-
ing down our prices of subscription and single copies, and we therefore advise all who ar*
thinking of subscribing to Soviet Russia to do so at the present low subscription rates: They
are: for one year, $5.00; for six months, $2.50; for ten weeks, $1.00.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks,
to L. C. A. K. Martens.)
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, December IS, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 25
Weekly it 110 W t 40th Street. New York, N. Y. Ludwi* C. A. K. Mtrtem. Fubliilier. Jtcob Wittmcr Hartmanri, Editor.
Subscript too R»te, $5.00 per in a urn. Application for entry m pecond clan matter pending. Changei of addrcH pfaould reach th*
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Will the Blockade Be Lifted? by /, E. I one..
Military Review, hyLt.-Col. B, Houstam Bek. . . .
Interview With Sereda, Cow miss ah for Agri-
culture, by W. McLmne
The Peace With Finland ,
Civilization and Savagery in Russia, by A. C.
Freeman • *
page pace
501 Russian Trade Union Delegation at Christians 611
604 Editorials , 612
Sowers in Seedtime, by John C, Clarke 615
607 Kalmykov's Last Days 618
60g In Revolutionary Russia, by Clara Zethin..*.. 620
Chicherini A Silhoutte . ... 621
610 Wireless and Other News 622
Will the Blockade Be Lifted ?
By J. E. Jotte
[The prospects of a possible relaxation or even an entire lifting of the blockade against Soviet
Russia which are opened up by the announced intention of Great Britain and Italy jointly to take
up trade with tliat country have again raised hopes that Soviet Russia may soon find herself in com-
plete communication with all the countries of the world, and that her great population may thus be
aided in their restoration to normal forms of life. This prospect has been offered before, and has
been several times destroyed. Nearly a year ago, when Great Britain had signed a treaty with the
Soviet Russian Government on the question of the exchange of prisoners between the two countries
(February 10, 1920), it seemed very likely that this agreement would be followed by additional
arrangements of great importance in the economic life of the two peoples. A Russian writer living
in Germany at the time t J. E. Jotte* contributed the following article on the subject of the blockade
to the February number of "Sow jet", a monthly then appearing at Vienna (but since transferred to
Berlin), The mention of cooperative organizations in this article are not so much of importance now
in connection with the impending trade with Russia, but are nevertheless illuminating as to the char*
acter of the new cooperative organizations in Soviet Russia. The attitude of the foreign powers which
are mentioned in this article is, however ; practically the same now as it was then. The great step in
advance is the direct negotiations by Great Britain and Italy with the representatives of Soviet Russia,
instead of with the representatives of the cooperative organizations. This implied recognition of
the Soviet Government indicates that all hopes of weakening the government's action in Russia by en-
couraging separatist tendencies on the part of the cooperatives has been finally dropped. We print
the following article as one view of the prospects of the blockade situation, and will in later issues
publish further considerations* from other angles , of the same subject*]
r I^HE Allied poweTs, concealed by a barrage of
continuous asseverations that they remained ir-
reconcilable toward Soviet Russia have neverthe-
less inaugurated a material change of position: the
Supreme Council, unexpectedly and suddenly* has
begun to prepare public opinion for the lifting of
the blockade.
A few weeks ago the official press was spreading
confident effusions as to the continuation of the
Russian campaign which had, so to say, been re*
cently agreed upon between Clemenceau and Lloyd
George. The destructive defeat of Kolchak, as well
as the thorough settlement of accounts by the Red
Guards with the no less hated Czarist Denikin.
probably was the immediate motive underlying the
tiger's anxiety as lo the ultimate fate of the French
moneys that had been invested in Russian bonds.
His trip to London was very largely intended to
move England to drop negotiations with Litvinov
at Copenhagen, But, while they were temporarily
broken off, their resumption followed almost im-
mediately, in the guise of conversations (not to be
binding) on the mutual exchange of prisoners, and
now the Allies have, at the eleventh hour, discov-
ered that their heart is warm, and that — as the
official wires pathetically declare— they intend "lo
contribute to the i.lleviation of the terrible situa-
tion in which the people of central Russia find
themselves, and to ^ake up certain commercial re-
lations."
If we compare with this desirable change of af-
fairs those voice** that hive for some time been
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loudly demanding in the English trade unions that
Soviet Russia be allowed to regulate its internal
matters without interference, we may without dif-
ficulty detect in the decision communicated by the
general mouthpiece of the Supreme Council the
dominating undertone of the demand of the Eng-
lish workers 9 parties, translated into diplomatic lan-
guage.
If, furthermore, the Supreme Council takes ref-
uge in the very transparent statement that these
measures will involve no alteration of its policy
toward Soviet Russia, we may consider such a state-
ment as without any importance and receive it with
a smile of understanding. In spite of all contra-
dictions, we are facing a not very skillfully masked
but nevertheless real recognition of the Russian
Revolution, of the de-facto Soviet Government,
which must to be sure have caused the Supreme
Council much pain, but which could not be longer
avoided in view of the comfortable attitude of their
trade unions at home.
Of course it would be hasty to assume that the
external symptoms of the English standpoint —
et c'est le ton anglais que fait la musique des allies
— would necessarily justify an assumption that they
really reveal its inner content. The fact that Lloyd
George had to consent to this solution of the Rus-
sion question proves, to the contrary, that he will
not fail to break it as soon as he can. But if he
should simply ignore the insistence of the trade
unions, should push it aside with platonic assur-
ances, he would be faced immediately with a dan-
ger of the very uncomfortable consequences in-
volved in a shift of the internal political paral-
lelogram of forces to the left, an accelerated trans-
formation of the national opposition into class op-
position. The demand of the hour is therefore to
avoid such a change by making tangible conces-
sions to the trade unions on the Russian question.
Since, as everyone knows, diplomatic adornments
are the most indispensable paraphernalia of bour-
geois capitalistic secret chancelleries, he is first of
all concerned to veil the defeat he has suffered as
neatly as possible; the impression must by no
means prevail that any friendly relation is being
taken up with the Moscow "terrorists". The sav-
ing subterfuge is therefore chosen of dealing
through the consumers' leagues, who are still
credited, owing to their far off past, with a wel-
come anti-Bolshevik character. This saves appear-
ances and while the trade union shouters are thus
silenced, English products are provided with a very
advantageous commercial monopoly, thus killing
two birds with one stone, without being obliged to
relinquish the struggle against Soviet Russia by
the mercenaries of foreign power*. But this is just
the crux of the matter. For as long as England
will be able to make use of the services of the
Poles or even of the reactionary Prussian junker-
dom which is now yearning for spurs and swords,
it will spare no means of subordinating these ready
instruments to its objects and sending them into
combat against Soviet Russia* The Janus-counten-
ance of the English bourgeoisie will not be hidden
frtm the Russian comrades. These machinations
may be intended to have some influence on the
course of events in Russia, but their influence will
bring to their instigators a surprise that will be
but little edifying.
Kecalling the character of the consumers'
leagues, which appealed to the English as being
hostile to the Bolsheviki, we are tempted to ask
why the Allies did not long ago try, through an
extensive support of these bodies, to drive the fate-
ful wedge between the Russian peasants and the
Soviet Government which they now expect to see
inserted. It seems very probable that influential
circles only arrived at this view very recently, after
having only a moment ago expressly rejected every
exchange of goods with Russia, for motives of di-
rectly opposite nature. Under the pretext that
the nationalization of foreign trade and the prole-
tarian class organizations of the Russian people
would not offer any guarantees for a "just" — as
they term it — distribution of goods., and that these
goods would primarily go to that class of society
which is supporting the Bolshevik state, the Allies
refused to make any use of the repeated offers of
the consumers' leagues to act as intermediaries in
the trade. The contradiction of this situation is all
the more aggravated in that every one who knows
the conditions is absolutely aware that there is no
such thing as an opposition between the consumers'
leagues and the Soviet Government. To be sure
the former did at first vehemently oppose national-
ization, and succeeded in bringing about pronounced
fiictions between the peasantry and the govern-
ment. But we must never fail to remember that
this disagreement goes back to the bourgeois period
of the Russian Revolution, when the peasants, not
yet split by latent class differences, were fighting
by the side of the city proletariat, against monarchy.
against the landed proprietors. The political and
economic power then lay undivided in the hands
of the wealthy big and middle peasants who, sup-
porting the consumers' leagues by investing their
capital in them, resisted nationalization with all
their strength. But conditions have changed en-
tirely since then. The class struggle has been car-
ried to the villages and the founding of the Com-
mittees of the Village Poor and their exclusive
authority in the exercise of political power has also
been very successful in laming the opposition of
the reactionary middle peasantry, who were repre-
sented in the consumers' leagues, in overthrow-
ing the bourgeoisie, and in laying the foundations
of the Socialist society by unification of all rights
and duties. All private property was thus expro-
priated and transferred to the wealth of the work-
ers, and this has eliminated the consumers' leagues
as institutions exploiting the proletariat and prac-
ticing usury, and stamped them as the executive
organs of the government, whose activities leave no
further regulations of economic life to other au-
thorities.
In this connection we must point out hat Rus-
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sian trade, both internal and foreign, has been
nationalized — subjected to state control — and con-
ducted, through the system of consumers' stores
which are spread over the whole country, like a
net, for the collection of finished products from
the producers and for their distribution to the con-
sumers. Membership in these consumers' organi-
zations, within the district having jurisdiction, is
obligatory. The distribution of products is car-
ried out through these organs, on the basis of the
quantities on hand, with the object of distributing
equal quantities to each worker. Within the limits
of the production yield that has been obtained, the
government has thus far been unfortunately not
in a position to attain the normal requirements of
the individual, not to say exceed it. Because of Rus-
sia's backward industrial development, factory pro-
ducts of every kind are lacking, but there is an
enormous supply of grain and fodder, hemp, and
other products of the field. Agricultural products,
in as far as they are not needed for satisfying the
requirements of the peasants or for the feeding of
the cities, are gathered by the government and ac-
cumulated for exchange of commodities with for-
eign countries by barter. The counter-revolution
forces Soviet Russia to turn its attention chiefly to
the armament industry, and devours 75 per cent of
the industrial production. It cannot surprise us
that in this complicated situation it has been dif-
ficult to supply the private needs of the whole peo-
ple. If the counter-revolution is to be put down
finally, the economic rebirth, the provisioning of
the population with peace commodities, must be
subordinated to the manufacture of military neces-
sities.
It must not be denied that this difficulty has made
some of the peasants sullen and hostile to the grain
monopoly, as the latter cannot yet give them any
complete compensation for their deliveries. Here
the dictatorial power of the Soviet Government
must intervene ruthlessly, declaring that exception-
al wealth, in face of the poverty of the mass, is
not permissible, and that every one should be
obliged, in the interest of the general improve-
ment of the public welfare, to submit to temporary
restrictions and to deliver his surplus to the gen-
erality. As soon as imports from abroad will make
up for the insufficiency of Russia's own industry,
and it becomes easier to furnish the peasants with
agricultural implements, textiles, and other utili-
ties, in sufficient quantities, this temporary dissatis-
faction will collapse of itself.
In this sense, the commercial relations between
Russia and the Allies will afford an influx of new
blood into the Communist organism. It is an
empty imagining to suppose that there will be any
parasitic enrichment of individuals or a booming
prosperity for private trade within the cooperative
societies or the peasantry, under the present insti-
tutions of the political superstructure, whose ef-
fective supervision will involve a severe control of
imports and exports, on the basis of the laws made
for the benefit of the whole. The centralized co-
operatives will discharge their function as commis-
sioners of purchase, as sub-sections of the Soviet
Government, under the jurisdiction of the Supreme
Council of National Economy. They are branches
of the government and their official designation is
therefore: Purchasing Section of the Supreme
Council of National Economy (3aKyno*iHHft OTfleJi
COBeTa HapOflHOro X03flfiCTBa). Much confusion is
caused in foreign countries by the fact that the
branches of the Novo-Nikolayevsk (Siberian) union
Zakupsbyt, and the Moscow Centrosoyuz are still
doing business under the old firm names, but the
reasons for such continued activities are to be found
in forces easily understood as concomitants of the
revolutionary process.
Let us leave to those who hate Communist Rus-
sia the short-lived joy of gloating in the alleged
impermanence of the revolutionary accomplish-
ments, in their conjectures as to the weakness of
the Communist idea, and particularly, of the Rus-
sian Communist organizations. Those of us who
have learned from our own experiences how tena-
cious and determined are the Russian comrades,
should return again and again to the task of soberly
singing their praises with the firm conviction that
this will serve truth best.
NEW NOTE TO LLOYD GEORGE
November 24, 1920.
Mr. Krassin presents his compliments to the
Prime Minister, and desires to remove what ap-
pears to be an unfortunate misunderstanding.
Mr. Krassin observes from the Parliamentary
Debates (Volume 135, No. 143, Column 14), that
on Monday, November 22, the Prime Minister,
questioned by Commander Kenworthy as to the
reason for the delay in handing the draft trade
agreement to the Russian Delegation in accordance
with the decision announced by him in the House
of Commons on Thursday last, replied that "the
fault is by no means so one-sided as the honorable
and gallant gentleman seems to imagine."
From this it may be understood that in Mr. Lloyd
George's belief the Russian Government or the
Russian Trade Delegation is placing some obstacle
in the way of the immediate presentation of the
draft agreement.
Mr. Krassin can only presume that Mr. Lloyd
George has been misinformed on the point, and
therefore hastens to assure him that, so far as the
Russian Government and the Russian Trade Dele-
gation are concerned, there is no reason for any
further delay whatever.
Mr. Krassin has been expecting to receive the
draft agreement ever since the Prime Minister's
statement of last Thursday. He is ready to receive
it now, and he must make it perfectly clear that
the entire responsibility for any further delay in
its presentation and for any consequences that may
arise from that delay, must rest entirely upon the
shoulders of Mr. Lloyd George and his colleagues.
The Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George,
10 Downing Street, S.W.I.
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Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
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THHE brilliant victory of the Siberian Red Army
A over the bandit Semionov at Chita, between Oc-
tober 20 and 25, has completely changed the situ-
ation in Eastern Siberia.
On the night of October 21, the local revolu-
tionary forces of the Verkhne-Udinsk and Amur
districts, in cooperation with a part of the Soviet
Army, concentrated east of Lake Baikal, suddenly
attacked Semionov's headquarters in Chita, from
three sides, namely from the north, west, and south;
and finally defeated his forces under the com-
mand of General Kappel, the well-known leader of
a part of Kolchak's army. As is well-known, Semi-
onov himself fled to Japan. This was a decisive
and final blow to the last Russian reactionary
stronghold in Siberia, and since then communi-
cation between Eastern Siberia and Moscow has
at last become possible.
Eastern Siberia includes all Siberian territory'
east of Lake Baikal, and before the revolution con-
sisted of five provinces, namely: Transbaikalia,
The Amur Province, The Maritime Province, Kam-
chatka, and the northern part of Sakhalin. Later
on, under the pressure of political events in that
part of Russia, this geographical division was con-
siderably altered. Transbaikalia was divided into
two separate districts, namely: The Chita District
where Semionov established his government with
the help of Japan, and the Verkhne-Udinsk District,
where a form of government in structure similar
to the Soviet form of government was established.
The Amur Province remained unchanged, and Bla-
govieschensk became the headquarters of the revo-
lutionary government of this Eastern Siberian Re-
public. The Maritime Province, which now includes
Kamchatka and the northern part of Sakhalin, is
administered from Vladivostok by a government
which, though looking towards Moscow, is of "de-
mocratic" character, due to the influence of Japan,
whose army practically invaded the whole prov-
ince.
Hoping to keep the Red Army from penetrating
farther east in Siberia, by means of Semionov's
armed hands, the Japanese imperialistic govern-
ment used every effort to support the Vladivostok
cabinet in order to establish in the Maritime Prov-
ince a Russian democratic republic which would
grant to Japan all concessions in North Sakhalin,
as well as in Kamchatka. This was the political
objective of Japanese diplomacy, which Allied
strategy had to support.
The presence of Semionov's bands in Chita, and
the Japanese troops in the Maritime Province and
Manchuria, prevented the Russian Soviet Govern-
ment from consolidating the new-formed Eastern
Siberian republics into one body. Chita is situated
just east of Karimskoie, the railway junction of
the Trans-Amur railway and the Chinese Eastern
railway. Therefore, holding Chita, Semionov made
it practically impossible for the delegates of the
Verkhne-Udinsk Republic to reach Blagovies-
chensk and Vladivostok. On the other hand, the
delegates of the Government of the Amur Republic
were barred by the Japanese, who were holding
the Ussuri railway; they were also unable to come
in contact with the Vladivostok Government. It
is not necessary to explain why, under such cir-
cumstances, military cooperation of these Russian
republics was out of the question. Finally, in
order to put an end to this abnormal state of af-
fairs in Eastern Siberia, which made it impossible
to continue the struggle against the eastern in-
vaders, the Soviet Government decided at all costs
to crush Semionov's armed forces, and finally to
capture Chita. All the delegations of the Eastern
Siberian Government, which reached Moscow after
a long journey through Pekin, expressed the desire
of the population to create a Far Eastern Republic
which should work in full harmony with the Soviet
Government.
Already in June, 1919, the prestige of Semionov's
Government amongst the local cossacks and native
population was completely destroyed. His quarrel
with the Japanese authorities permitted the Red
Army to inflict upon his bands a series of import-
ant defeats; but he was still able to hold Chita,
hoping with financial and moral support from
Wrangel to resume his military operations as soon
as the Crimean Baron was victorious in South Rus-
sia. It is true that before Semionov recognized
Wrangel's government, he tried on several occa-
sions to approach Moscow, offering to submit to
the Soviets in exchange for the recognition of his
government, but naturally all his efforts were in
vain. The Russian Soviet Government could not
negotiate with a Semionov. His fate had to be that
of Kolchak and the other leaders of Russian re-
action.
When Semionov's rule in Transbaikalia was
brought to an end, the military forces of the Amur
Province were greatly strengthened by joining the
advancing Red Army. We must not overlook the
fact that the numerous partisan detachments, which
were the main cause of the general destruction of
Kolchak's army, and practically forced the Allies
to abandon their plan of armed intervention in
Siberia (the Allies started their evacuation of Si-
beria on April 20, 1920), after the unfortunate
revolution in Vladivostok in December, 1919, and
February, 1920, had retired to the hills, cutting
their way through the numerous fronts of the Jap-
anese into Amur Province, where they formed a
large and strong Red Army.
The situation became dangerous for the Japan-
ese. The Vladivostok Government, under Japan-
ese control, became inactive, and could not under-
take any decisive movement to the north to protect
and establish cm aJmitirstration in the northern
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part of the newly enlarged Maritime Province, in-
cluding Kamchatka. The Vladivostok authorities
frankly told the Japanese that they could not count
upon their own army, which was in sympathy with
the Soviets, and therefore, the Government of the
Maritime Province was unable to guarantee con-
cessions, should they be granted to Japan, es-
pecially in the most remote part of the republic,
Kamchatka, for instance. On the other hand, the
Japanese being practically the masters of all the
territory of the former Maritime Province, as it
was under the Czar, were also unable to send their
expeditionary forces so far away from the Ussuri
railway and Nikolaievsk on the Amur became the
extreme northern point of Japanese occupation.
If they had moved farther north, they would have
been easily cut off and annihilated by the par-
tizans of the Amur Province. On the other hand an
invasion of Kamchatka, without being granted con-
cessions by the Russians, could hardly be under-
taken by Japan, which knows that such a movement
would not be approved by the Allies.
Since the complete failure of Semionov's efforts
to establish a buffer state between Soviet Siberia
and Eastern Siberia, Japan has realized that the
days of her sojourn even in the Maritime Province
are numbered.
The hope that a strong "democratic" government
designed in Tokio, could be established in the
Russian Far East, was abandoned even by the most
optimistic Japanese statesmen. There was now at
their disposal only a very reactionary group of
Russian Czarist officials, who had established a
sort of government in Harbin, under the dictator-
ship of General Horvath, and his assistant Ustru-
gov. General Horvath, for many years the head of
the Chinese Eastern Railway, had a very strong
financial standing, and acted independent of the
Japanese, thus taking a hostile position to the lat-
ter, especially when Semionov was openly sup-
ported by them. On the other hand, the existence
of the Harbin reactionary government was very
uncertain. The great number of workers and lower
employes of the Chinese Eastern Railway, already
at the beginning of 1919, showed their pro-Soviet
tendencies, and under the leadership of Comrade
Pumpiansky, they practically represented a very
solid revolutionary body ready to act at the first
favorable opportunity. Besides this, the Soviet
Government officially informed the Chinese Govern-
ment that it had annulled all* treaties existing be-
tween the old government of imperial Russia and
China, and consequently the Chinese Eastern Rail-
way and the whole zone of Russian influence in
Manchuria, still occupied by reactionary Russian
generals and Japanese, was to be returned to China.
It was no secret that the workers' organization in
Harbin was trying to establish a close connection
with the Vladivostok and Verkhne-Udinsk govern-
ments, and that the overthrow of the Horvath dic-
tatorship was only a matter of time. Therefore
the Japanese military command considered it use-
less to try to establish friendly relations with Gen-
Digitized by ^OOgle
eral Horvath, and preferred to annex the Chinese
Eastern Railway by force, in which they almost
succeeded. This required a great military move-
ment of Japan and ended in a strong concentra-
tion of Japanese troops along the whole line of the
Chinese Eastern Railway which, in the presence
of an uprising in Korea against the invaders and
the very confusing political situation in China, as
well as the continued state of revolution in the
occupied Maritime Province, aggravated the inner
political situation in Japan and finally caused seri-
ous troubles for the Tokio Government. The Jap-
anese military party, which drew up a plan of an-
nexation of the Shantung Province of China, as
well as of Korea and all Eastern Siberia, as far
as Lake Baikal, was now confronted with such an
impenetrable wall that it had to admit that the
scheme could not be realized. An army of several
million men would have been required to accom-
plish such a project, and even then Japan might
have found herself in a dangerous position, escape
from which would scarcely be possible. On the
other hand, the Japanese strategists, when they
helped the present Vladivostok Government to es-
tablish itself in the Maritime Province, expected
that that government, like Semionov's government,
while financed by Japan, would be a blind tool
in Japanese hands, thus protecting the important
military and naval base into which the Japanese
command expected to transform Vladivostok; but
the members of the Provisional Government of
the Maritime Republic were not so easy a prey to
Japanese bribery as was Semionov, and this greatly
disappointed the invaders. Mr. Medvedev, the
president of the Russian Cabinet in Vladivostok,
supported by a group of determined assistants, like
General Boldirev, Mr. Vinogradov, Zimmerman,
and Nikiforov, though far from having Bolshevist
tendencies, nevertheless understood the significance
of the Russian Revolution and with all their might
tried to consolidate all the Eastern Siberian repub-
lics into one federative state, with the idea of free-
ing the Maritime Province from the Japanese yoke,
and then submitting to the Siberian political center
— Irkutsk — which, as we know, is under the full
control of the Soviets. This wise decision was the
result of a clear understanding of the fact that
Eastern Siberia cannot exist as an independent
' political entity, fully depending, economically and
strategically on Western Siberia, and, consequently,
on Russia. There was no other choice for the
Provisional Government of Vladivostok than that
between bearing the Japanese "protectorate", and
joining the Soviet Republic as a federate state,
and, quite naturally, they chose the latter.
The consolidation of the republics of Eastern
Siberia and the connections which lately were es-
tablished from Verkhne-Udinsk with Mongolia and
China by Yourin and Krasnoshchokov, and finally
the appointment of Comrade Litvinov as accred-
ited representative of the Sovit Government in Pe-
king, only confirm the fact that the policy of Soviet
Russia in Siberia and 'he Far East is becoming
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more and more determined, and that we may expect
some very important events there with the coming
of spring. The Russian Siberian Red Army, after
its liquidation of all the remaining fragments of
the counter-revolutionary organization left by Kol-
chak, and now united with the Red Amur Army,
as well as that of Transbaikalia, and being in close
connection with the Mongolian tribes of China and
possibly on the eve of an actual Russo-Chinese
alliance, represents a very important military force,
which the Japanese cannot neglect. This force,
without any support by, special reserves from Eu-
ropean Russia, would be able to free the Maritime
Province from the Japanese, even in case of later
eventualities on the Polish and Rumanian fronts.
The Japanese know this well, and the best illus-
tration that this is the case has come in the form
of an opinion expressed by one of the most relia-
ble Japanese statesmen, Baron Magata, of the dele-
gation to the League of Nations, now in Geneva.
His statement appeared in the New York Evening
Post, of December 8, and is of great significance.
I know the Japanese too well to suppose that a Jap-
anese official of important standing would publicly
express thoughts which would contradict the policy
of his government, specially at a time like to-
day, and let us not overlook the fact that Baron
Magata in reality is one of the chief authorities of
his country on economic and financial questions.
"I don't know about the Armenian suggestion," he said,
"but Russia now is rapidly improving and has been do-
ing so for the last year ... If this keeps up at the present
rate, the League of Nations at the next session will be
justified in asking Russia to join.
"Russia is organized like an army for other than r,r!i-
tary matters. For example, she is educating herself, she
is fighting illiteracy. If in a village of one hundred peo-
ple ten can read and write and ninety cannot, one of the
ten fortunate ones must take nine illiterates and teach
them. That sort of thing is going on all over Russia.
It is organized on a basis of military discipline. Those who
can read must teach those who can't. It is not left to
chance.
"Japan has been criticized for aiding Admiral Kolchak
and trying in other ways to stabilize Russia, especially
Siberia. It is vital to Japan that Siberia become tranquil
and settled and we simply have been striving to find some
tangible center in that country with which responsible
dealings could be had.
"The lamentable fact has been that the Czarists have
forced themselves into association with the Kolchak and
other movements, thus bringing them into disrepute in the
eyes of the outside world. Japan has no interest in the
restoration of the Czarist regime. We are ready to recog-
nize and deal with any government that can maintain itself
on sound principles. There are many Russian diplomatic
agents in Japan today. We simply recognize them as
representing Russia without knowing or caring under what
particular regime they are sent to us.
"I am convinced no attempt at miliary intervention by
outside powers will help solve the Russian problem. Rus-
sia must settle her own problem and she is beginning to
do that. Other nations must devise ways of helping that
the Russians themselves will not resent. She canot pay
her foreign debts now. She can do nothing now that re-
quires money until she can work and organize herself.
French and other creditors must wait some years, but I
believe they will be paid. Except for such part of it as
has been sent abroad to make purchases, Russia's specie
is intact. I don't know where it is, but it is hidden safely
somewhere. Th)p specie can't be destroyed. But Russia
must have tranquility before she can pay.
"It is a mistake to insist upon her paying before being
willing to render such feasible aid as she can accept with-
out hurting her sensitiveness."
I am not prepared to discuss this statement of
the Japanese Baron, which I simply offer to the
readers of Soviet Russia as a characteristic ex-
ample of a complete change of Japanese policy
towards the Soviet Government, which we may ex-
pect in the near future in case such a new feeling
exists in the ruling spheres in Japan. But this
change is due entirely to the recent successes of
Soviet strategy in Europe, as well as in Asia, and
to the supremacy of Moscow diplomacy over its
western and eastern enemies.
In short, I see that Japanese diplomacy has al-
ready capitulated to the Soviets; the normal con-
sequences of such capitulation would be the peace-
ful withdrawal of the Japanese troops from the
Maritime Province and an early recognition of
the Soviet Government by Japan, if Baron Magata
is sincere in stating that "it is vital to Japan that
Siberia become tranquil and settled." And the
sooner this happens, the better it would be, not
only for the Russian people, but for the Japanese
themselves, as well as for the rest of the world.
[Soviet Russia in its next issue will reprint from
a European newspaper a map of the present ter-
ritories ruled by the Soviet Government, as well as
of all the neighboring states. This map will aid
the reader in forming an idea of the various re-
gions mentioned in Col. Bek's military articles.}
RUSSIAN DELEGATION AT BRUNN
Brunn, October 20, 1920 (Rosta).— The dele-
gation of Russian labor consists of Lebedev, mem-
ber of the Central Body of Textile Workers, and
Kulikov, member of the Pharmaceutical and Sani-
tary organizations. These men came seeking in-
formation in Brunn. They undertook to study the
Czech methods of organization and welfare of the
working class. The labor element in Brunn took
the occasion to demonstrate their full sympathy to
the Russian delegation. On the railway station,
in spite of the late hours, were gathered 150 depu-
ties of the workers' council which had just been
in session.
Send Us A List
of those of your friends who might be inter-
ested in receiving sample copies of Soviet
Russia. We shall supply the copies and the
postage if you give us the names.
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 West 40th Street, New York, N. Y
by {j
*L
IC
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
(L>
December 18, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
607
Interview with Sereda
People's Commissar for Agriculture
By W. McLaine
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\JLf HEN we found Comrade Sereda in his office
in the Agricultural Commissariat, we ex-
plained to him that we wished to have as complete
a statement as he could give us — within the limits
of an interview — about the agricultural program
of the Soviet Government. This he declared him-
self quite willing to do. He was a little tired —
partly because of the fact that the previous day
an Italian deputation had been closeted with him
for six hours — but he was nevertheless very glad
to see us and answer our questions. Having — in
response to my query — told us that he was an agri-
cultural statistician before the revolution, he be-
gan his story.
"For Russia, the agrarian question is fundamental
because the mass of the people are peasants. It
was the important question during the revolution,
and indeed it decided the revolution. The Bol-
sheviks needed the support of the peasants and by
they cry of 'Peace and Land' they secured that
support. All the revolutionary parties at that time
were saying: 'The land for the peasants,' including
Kerensky's party, but the latter took two landown-
ers into his cabinet and in addition, wished to wait
until the Constituent Assembly had formally de-
cided for land nationalization before any action
should be taken. The Bolsheviks said, Take the
land now, and the law that is promised will simply
confirm your acts.' The peasants did not accept
the Bolshevik view at once, but the Kornilov rising
helped them to decide. From that time they began
to support the Bolsheviks in great numbers.
"The peasants wanted the land to be sub-divided,
but the Bolsheviks did not. The peasant wished to
realize his age-long desire for a plot of land, but
the Bolsheviks wanted up-to-date methods of large
scale farming. However, as it was evident that
the peasants did not appreciate the importance of
new methods it was considered best to compromise
and wait until the peasant was educated on the
matter and did appreciate it.
"The land was taken and justly divided. It was
not nationalized from above, but allocated by
means of land Soviets formed in the villages by
the peasants themselves. The result was that the
peasants formed a camp against the bourgeoisie.
They joined the army and they helped to determine
the course of the revolution. They formed their
village Soviets — Soviets with a definite task to per-
form — and so became acquainted with the practical
working of the Soviet system.
"It was soon seen that the economic interests of
the workers and peasants were identical. Together,
they had control of the means of production, dis-
tribution, and exchange. The smaller bourgeoisie
came in and supported the government, and every-
thing was completed.
"The class war did not show itself in the villages
during 1917. The great mass of the peasants were
Digitized by LiOOgl C
semi-proletarians and those with little land, and
large numbers of these were at the front. Taking
advantage of their absence, many of the richer peas-
ants began to take more land and stocks for them-
selves, but with the ending of the war the soldiers
began to return and a new mass movement began.
Soldiers' Councils were formed in the villages, and
land and stocks were redistributed. The Bolshev-
iks supported the movement because it was of no
value to break down the domination of the bour-
geoisie in the towns and see a new bourgeoisie
grow up in the country. The unjust land division
made the food crisis worse. The rich peasant had
stocks of food and wished to retain them, but a
general corn tax order from the center — a tax
claiming all over and above what was needed to
support the producers — eased the situation. The
struggle in the villages was of course reflected in
the politics of those who took part in it. The rich
peasants sided with the Social Revolutionaries and
cried 'Down with the Bread Monopoly and with
the regulation making the government the sole
agent.' They were against the Brest Peace, against
the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, and against
Soviets.
"The poor peasants formed Committees of the
Poor, and organized and defeated the rich peasants.
"The old system had left four grades of peasant :
(1) those who were practically landless agricul-
tural laborers; (2) the small peasants; (3) those
with a little more land; (4) the rich peasants. The
Uniform Soviet that came into being as a result
of the victory over the rich peasants was composed
of the representations from what had been the first
three sections.
"The Soviet Government, from the first, desired
to socialize agriculture, and propaganda work for
this was soon commenced. Quite early, there was
a movement in the direction of cooperative farm-
ing, mainly on the part of those peasants who were
near to the towns and were more familiar with
collective ideas.
"The peasant is by nature and heredity an indi-
vidualist, so that when a peasant voluntarily agrees
to cooperate with his fellows it is no less than a
complete reversal of his life philosophy. We have
already done much to popularize the communal
idea. We send out our experts to teach and to lec-
ture, we issue posters showing how crops should be
sown and how land should be cleared of trees or
of stubble; schools have been opened, and model
farms show by actual practical demonstration how
agriculture should be organized. 'From each ac-
cording to his ability' is to be our guiding motto,
but until we are really free to develop our re-
sources, 'to each according to his needs' must serve
as our working philosophy.
"We have given seeds and machines to the vari-
ous kinds of peasant organizations, and we recog-
I I a I T I .'
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
608
SOVIET RUSSIA
December 18, 1920
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nize that the essential thing is to get production
increased. To this end we have been, and are, pre-
pared to recognize any kind of cooperative organ-
ization — provided that there is no exploitation of
the workers or in the sale of the product.
"All private property in land has been abol-
ished. The land has been divided to standards
varying in different districts according to the
amount of work required to develop it. Anyone
can have land.
"Our policy is determined by two desires; first,
a desire to raise the productivity, and second, a
desire to secure collective working.
"The old large estates are being turned into
Soviet farms. On these the workers are really em-
ployes of the state. Experts are trained and the
farms become centers of education for the sur-
rounding district. Some one and a half million
dessiatins of land are now being cultivated in this
fashion, though of course the war has hindered our
progress.
"The workers on these estates are interested in
productivity. They had no stimulus under the old
system, but premium bonus systems have been ar-
ranged, and propaganda amongst them convinces
them of the importance of their work to the state.
There are foremen and managers on the estates,
and workers' committees participate in the manage-
ment.
"Another method of agricultural organization
that is popular is that of the commune. This is
different from the Soviet farm, in that the peasants
agree to come together to work in common, and
share the product in common. All land is not the
same, and if a commune is established it does away
with any possibility of one peasant having a better
piece of land than another. The communes have
very largely been organized by town workers who
have gone to the country.
"The artel is not so much a cooperative under-
taking as the commune proper — it is a commune
in the making. The artel is usually — though all
are not the same — an association of consumers
rather than of producers. It enables seeds to be
secured in bulk, and machinery to be used in com-
mon. In our 33 governments there are 3,000 com-
munes and 3,500 artels. All communes are under
political control, and any doubtful ones are dis-
persed. Some communes have become nationalized
and are now state farms. The workers in the com-
munes are taught to regard themselves as national
trustees, and a National Union of Communes and
Artels fits in the work with the national scheme.
"The land laws apply equally to foreigners who
come to settle in the country, as they do to Russians.
A group of German workers have come and are
working communally, and a body of Italians are ex-
pected to come. A special department of the party
has been organized to work in the villages, to dis-
tribute literature and to organize meetings. Free
advice and assistance is given to all.
"Technically, the revolution found Russian agri-
culture in a very bad state, corn was thin and
short in stalk, stocks were poor, and the three field
Digitized by ViOOgfC
system was in general operation.* We have tried
— and to large extent succeeded — in improving the
methods of cultivation by all kinds of means. We
have divided the country into districts and put each
district into the control of agricultural scientists;
we have abolished the three-field system, we have
opened machine centers for the loaning of machin-
ery, and we have our Soviet machine repair shops
where farming machinery is repaired free of
charge. Several exhibitions have been organized
at which the farmers may see, and hear about, trac-
tors, machine ploughs, harvesters, etc. All thorough-
bred stocks have been nationalized and have been
placed in special breeding stations to which the
peasants may bring their animals. The number of
thoroughbreds has been decreased because most of
them were in the south, and many were killed by
the counter-revolutionaries. Special attention is be-
ing paid to cattle-breeding and horse-breeding, and
recently a mission was sent to Tashkent to bring
back thoroughbred horses for breeding purposes
for agriculture and the army.
"We are also encouraging dairy farming and bee
cultivation by the peasants, and home industries,
such as weaving, woodworking, bonework, etc.
"We require great quantities of agricultural ma-
chinery. Before the war, these came from Italy,
America, England, and Germany. Now, some is
coming from Sweden. We hope to get a great deal
from Italy because the production of war muni-
tions in that country has developed the engineering
industry to such an extent that it can supply much
more than is required for Italian use or for the
ordinary pre-war Italian export trade.
"In several districts we have electrified agricul-
ture, by using peat for fuel, and many villus are
now fitted with electric lighting. The peasants
eagerly support us in this work and greatly appre-
ciate the value of the new lighting methods. In
Siberia and in the Urals we have organized great
bonanza farms with electric tractors.
"In conclusion, I think that what we are doing
for agricultural development here will be of great
importance to the world. As more and more coun-
tries become industrialized, those that still remain
largely agricultural will have to be the sources of
supply for an increased number of people, and in
that capacity Russia must function for many years
to come."
THE BESSARABIAN QUESTION
Bucharest, October 20, 1920 (Rosta).— The Ru-
manian Government has received a new radiogram
from Chicherin. The Soviet Government proposes
a free plebiscite in Bessarabia. The Rumanian Gov-
ernment has as yet made no reply. Take Jonescu
had declared that a de facto plebiscite had taken
place in the last two parliamentary elections in
which the entire Bessarabian population had par-
ticipated. It is expected that this time the Ru-
manian Government will answer Chicherin's note.
• The "three field" agricultural system was the form o( i agri-
culture used in Britain during the middle ages. It c 001 "^
to exist until the agrarian revolution of the mid 18th century
swept it aw-a>ng|r
UNIVERSITY0F MICHIGAN
(L>
December 18, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
609
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The Peace with Finland
In an interview given by Kerzhentzev, a member
of the Russian Peace Delegation in the negotia-
tions that terminated in the conclusion of the peace
with Finland, to Krasnaya Gazeta, Kerzhentsev
said among other things the following:
"The peace negotiations between Russia and Fin-
land lasted altogether four months. Both sides
were operating with the utmost caution. The Fin-
nish Delegation had already put in two months
before the peace negotiations, working at Helsing-
fors as a special commission. To this commission
there belonged a number of functionaries of bour-
geois society, among them two former ministers of
state, the former minister of war, and the former
minister of finance, together with a number of other
specialists on questions that were to be taken up
during the peace negotiations.
"At times the negotiations were in a fair way to
be broken off. The change for the worse in our
military situation on the western front made the
Finnish delegation particularly hostile to any con-
cessions and aroused in Finland a veritable cam-
paign against the conclusion of peace. In general,
the conditions we obtained in the peace negotia-
tions, in spite of the fact that we were forced to
make certain material concessions to Finland, may
be considered as satisfactory for us. At any rate,
the peace is founded on an agreement that binds
both sides, and therefore Finland will doubtless ob-
serve it honorably, and really fulfill its conditions.
"The chief point of contention was in territorial
questions. Finland wanted to have the Pechenga
region, up to the Murman Railway, two communes
in Eastern Karelia (Repola and Porajarvo), and
also desired a plebiscite in all of Eastern Karelia,
to decide whether the Karelians wished to attach
themselves to Finland. In all, Finland obtained
an increase of territory amounting to nearly 70,000
square versts.
"By the treaty of peace, we relinquished to Fin-
land a small portion of Pechenga, whereby Fin-
land obtained access to the Arctic Sea, but wt
ceded less than we had previously offered to Red
Finland. Simultaneously we secured for ourselves
free right of transit through this region, as far as
Morge, together with the fishery rights on that por-
tion of the Arctic Coast that was assigned to Fin-
land.
"On the other hand, the Finns dropped their de-
mands as to Eastern Karelia, and returned to us
the two communes, which had for two years been
occupied by Finnish troops. Similarly, Finland
consented to limit its territorial waters and to recog-
nize the Russian territorial waters in the tract of
Kronstadt to the extent of considering the southern
channel into the Finnish Gulf as belonging to Rus-
sian territorial waters. Furthermore, Finland agreed
to neutralize all the islands in the Finnish Gulf, to
dismantle the batteries at Ina and Pumala, as well
as to limit the coast defences in the immediate vicin-
ity of Kronstadt. Economic conditions have been
regulated on the basis of the status quo, in other
words, the two states have agreed mutually to re-
linquish their credit and other demands on each
other. The property of the Finnish State in Rus-
sia passes to Russia, and vice versa. We are not
obliged to pay anything to Finland.
"For a resumption of economic relations, meas-
ures have been planned to regulate commercial in-
tercourse as well as connections between the rail-
way and telegraph systems, the transit of goods
from Finland, etc.
"Among the legal points, our proposal for am-
nesty, which was planned to include a rather con-
siderable number of the Finnish comrades as well
as Communists who had fled from the country,
aroused particular attention.
"Finland agreed to resume diplomatic relations
with us at once."
These are in a few words the general outlines of
the main points in the peace treaty. Among the
points that are of special interest to Petrograd
Kerzhentsev mentioned the article in which Finland
bound itself to facilitate the passport, railroad, and
other conditions on the Karelian ness, which will
make it possible for inhabitants of Petrograd to
enjoy the advantages of the Finnish villa country.
He also called attention to the article which places
half of the accomodations in Halila Sanitarium
at the disposal of the inhabitants of Petrograd and
the environs.
"From the impressions I received from conver-
sations with the Finnish representatives," said Ker-
zhentsev, "I gathered that Finland will be very
glad to take up commercial relations with us very
soon. It has great supplies of paper and agricul-
tural products, while Finland, on its part, needs
grain and raw materials. I believe that Petro-
grad will receive the greatest benefits from orderly
and neighborly relations with Finland. The peace
that has just been concluded will of course be of
immense importance for the prosperity of Petro-
grad;"
"oAll citizens able to work have the right
to employment at their vocations. "
Section 10, Article II, of the Code of Labor Laws
of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic.
THE LABOR LAWS OF SOVIET RUSSIA
New edition, translated from the official Russian
text, with a supplement on The Protection of
Labor in Soviet Russia, by S. Kaplun, of the Com-
missariat of Labor.
93 pages, bound in heavy paper covers, price 25c.
ADDRESS
SOVIET RUSSIA
110 West 40th Street
New York City
ial from
TJNWEHSITT1JF MCTIGfflT
{J
610
SOVIET RUSSIA
December 18, 1920
Civilization and Savagery in Russia
By A. C. Freeman
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T F anyone really wishes to find out what the
^ Soviet Government stands for and what its ene-
mies stand for, he should by all means look up
The New Republic of December 8 and The Nation
of the same date. And there he will find the con-
trast between the new Russia and the old presented
with truly dramatic vividness. The Nation con-
tains an account of pogroms in Poland and Ukraine.
The New Republic contains Mr. Brailsford's
brilliant description of the social, educational, and
cultural achievements of the Soviet Government.
The Poles, as they like to tell us, are a romantic
people. They are fond of envisaging themselves
as the bulwark of western civilization against ori-
ental barbarism. Just how well they acquit them-
selves in this role is indicated by the following
instances of the treatment which they mete out to
the helpless Jewish population within their own
borders and within the parts of Russia which came
under their power:
"At Drohiczin the Jews were hunted into the river and
about fifteen shot in the water. At Vyskov the local
Christian population had been asked to massacre all those
Jews against whom they had any complaint to make. Near
Lukov, twelve Jews from Miendzyrzece were shot without
trial and before their death were ordered to dig their own
graves. At Vlodava Jews were buried alive. At Boim
near Kaluczin sixteen Jews who were entering the town
were shot and had to dig their own graves before death."
Even these exploits of the self-appointed cham-
pions of civilization and Christianity are surpassed
by the atrocities committed by Denikin's troops
in the Ukrainian town of Fastov, and described
with appalling realism by a doctor who witnessed
them. Denikin, it will be remembered, was hailed
as a great democrat and patriot who was to deliver
Russia from "Bolshevik tyranny." He was given
the Order of the Bath by King George and gener-
ously outfitted with tanks by the British Govern-
ment. This is what his troops did in Fastov:
"After the departure of the Bolsheviki the Cossacks came
back and then began the torture of the Jews, terrible at-
tacks, robbery and massacres. In many houses they made
the children sing while they beat the parents to death.
"Sometimes the Cossacks forced the parents to kill their
own children. This was the case with Meyer Zabarock.
In some cases the Cossacks took the young girls out into
the gardens or woods and after the most bestial humili-
ations finally murdered them. Many of the girls who sur-
vived received venereal infections caught from the Cos-
sacks.
"I know a young woman who was raped by a Cossack in
the same room where her murdered father and husband
were lying and while her little baby was crying in its
crib. I have been told by people worthy of belief that
they saw people forced to set fire to their own homes and
then driven with rifle butts into the flames. The names
of some of these families were Volkensky, Volodarsky,
Zaviroucha, Meisenberg, Bendarsky.
"I had the opportunity of making the acquaintance of
many Denikinists. They told me quite frankly that there
were two groups in the army. One held that it was neces-
sary to kill all Jews in Russia in order to extinguish
Bolshevism, for Bolshevism was based on the Jews. The
others were of the same idea, but held it inexpedient to
massacre all the Jews because of public opinion in Eu-
rope. They thought it better to kill off the adult sup-
porters of the families and leave the rest to die off by
starvation and disease.'*
In this whole horrible recital of bestial savagery
there is a single redeeming note:
"In conclusion I wish merely to acknowledge the fact
that the attitude of the Soviet authorities has been most
correct and that the Soviet authorities have been most
generous in the help they have given: the food, the medi-
cine, and the money and means for the burial of the
corpses."
It should be observed that the tender mercies
of the Poles and the Russian counter-revolutionists
have not been reserved for the Jews. Russian work-
ers and peasants have been slaughtered just as
ruthlessly in every district which has been unfor-
tunate enough to be invaded by their marauding
bands.
From these outbursts of ferocity, deliberately
instigated by leaders who enjoyed the full "moral
support" of the Allied governments, it is a relief
to turn to Mr. Brailsford's inspiring account of
what the Soviet Government has accomplished in
the fields of art and education. Here are some of
his most significant observations:
"To my mind the most inspiring thing in Russia is that
the Socialist revolution, instantly and instinctively, began
to realize the ideal of universal education, which the in-
terests and prejudices of class have thwarted in the rest
of Europe. Every fair-minded observer has given the Bol-
sheviks credit for their prompt efforts to send an illiterate
people to school. Their ambition is much bolder. They
intend that none of the comforts, none of the pleasures,
none of the stimuli, which awaken the powers of a child
born in Europe in a cultured middle-class home shall be
lacking to the children of the humblest Russian workers.
"I saw near Petrograd a big boarding-school formerly
reserved for the children of the nobility. Today about
three in four of its inmates are the children of manual
workers. They were, in their bearing and manners, as
refined as the children whose parents belonged to the 'in-
telligentsia', as eager to study, and as keen to enjoy the
pleasures of art and knowledge to which an admirahle
staff of teachers introduced them. They were learning
handicrafts as well as sciences and languages, and whether
they exercise a trade or a profession when they leave
school, they will be cultivated men and women, capable
of disciplined thought and aesthetic pleasure.
"The guiding idea of the Soviet Republic is to give the
children a preference in everything, from food and cloth-
ing to less tangible things.
"I saw two of these 'children's colonies', in the Sokol-
niki Park outside Moscow, and in Tsarskoe Selo, the Rus-
sian Windsor, now known as Dyetskoe Selo (children s
village), outside Petrograd. In the former the children
were housed in the wooden pleasure villas built by Mos-
cow merchants as summer residences in this big park,
much of which is unspoiled forest. Many of the villas
were assigned to ailing or tuberculous, children, and these
latter, sleeping more or less in the open even in the winter,
make wonderfully rapid cures.
"It may be honestly claimed, I think, for the Soviet
administration that it has a better record in its relations
to art and culture, generally, than any other government
in the civilized world. Let me mention as one characteristic
touch, that in my many wanderings on foot in dilapidated
Moscow, I noticed only two buildings which had been
"1VERSITY OF MICHIGAN
December 18, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
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renovated and repainted: one was the university and the
other a workmen's college. Artists, musicians, dancers,
authors, actors, professors and scientists do not suffer, save
mentally, from the class feud, and all of them, who have
any recognizable qualification, receive rations and salaries
— subject doubtless to the usual irregularity.
"What struck me most was the universal popularity of
music and the theatre. Every club and trade union cen-
ter has its own entertainments, sometimes musical, some-
times theatrical. The proletariat is a lavish and exacting
Maecenas. Walking up the Tverskaia in Moscow one warm
Sunday evening, when windows and doors were open, I
seemed to hear music everywhere. Now it was a brilliant
performance of a Chopin nocturne. A little further on I
recognized a familiar theme from one of the later Beet-
hoven quartettes. Next a choir was singing some unknown
Russian chorus, and across the way I watched the crowd
streaming in to a play of Andreiyev's in a trade union club,
Sitting one evening at an excellent concert in the former
Noble's Hall at Vladimir, a working man turned to me
and said in his picturesque way, 'We used to live in the
scullery and the drawing-room door was shut. We never
knew what was behind it. The revolution broke down the
door; and now all this glory is ours.' That is one reason
why starving Russia endures in patience."
Of course, as Mr. Brailsford points out, the
Soviet Government has been able to realize its pro-
gram very imperfectly. It would like to build and
equip more schools and hospitals; to print more
books; to give the children of Russia more and
better food. It has been prevented from doing
these things solely because of the blockade and
the wars which have been forced upon it. What
it has already done in the face of almost insuper-
able difficulties is a forecast and a guaranty of
what it will do when it is left free to carry on its
beneficent work in peace. Even its present record
of achievement, in the education and care of chil-
dren, certainly challenges comparison, in broad
humanity and farsighted wisdom, with the best that
has been accomplished in other countries.
These powerfully contrasted pictures of life in
Soviet Russia and life in Denikin's Russia make the
issue involved in the struggle between the Soviet
Government and the counter-revolutionists abso-
lutely clear. It is the issue of civilization against
savagery. Compare the hideous shambles of Fas-
tov with the colony at Dyetskoe Selo (formerly
Tsarskoe Selo), where all Russian children, with-
out distinction of race or class, are given an equal
opportunity to develop, morally, intellectually,
physically, and are taught the ideals of brother-
hood and internationalism.
In the light of these articles it is not difficult to
see why Soviet Russia has survived and triumphed
in the face of economic pressure ten times greater
than that which shattered the mighty German Em-
pire. The lot of the Russian proletariat has not
been easy during the last three years of war and
blockade; but, even if it had been much harder
the revolutionary workmen of Moscow and Petro-
grad would never have given up their trade unions,
their concerts and theatres, the schools and kinder-
gartens of their children, all the symbols and re-
sults of their new liberty, — and bowed th^ir heads
beneath the yoke of a Denikin and a Kolchak. In
theory and practice the Soviet Government repre-
sents the best ideals of generations of heroic revo-
lutionists, just as its counter-revolutionist enemies
have emulated the worst crimes of Czarism.
Trade Union Delegation in Norway
Social Demokraten, Christiania, Norway, of
Thursday, September 2, prints a photograph of
the Russian Trade Union Delegation taken as it
arrived at the Christiania railway station. The
news item accompanying the photograph ran as
follows :
The Russian Trade Union Delegation- consisting
of fourteen members, representing various trade
unions, arrived at Christiania on the train from
Trondhjem. At the station there had gathered
among others the members of the Central Com-
mittee, Tranmael, Scheflo, Stang, Chr. H. Knud-
sen, in addition to Secretary Knut Engh, chair-
man of the Christiania Workers' Party, Christian
Aamodt, and the chairman of the Joint Trade
Union Organization, Edward Mork.
Immediately after their arrival the delegation,
accompanied by a number of Norwegian comrades,
drove to "Gimle" (a prominent restaurant in
Christiania), where lunch was served. In the aft-
ernoon a reception dinner was held at Ekeberg.
The delegation consists of the following persons:
Theodore Sergeyev, head of the Delegation, and
member of the All-Russian Union of Transport
Workers.
A. Lozovsky, a member of the Presidium of the
All-Russian Committee in the Council of Trade
Union Organizations.
A. Anselovitz, president of the Petrograd Trade
Union Council.
N. Lavrentyev, member of the Central Com-
mittee of the All-Russian Organization of Metal
Workers.
N. Lebedev, member of the Central Commit-
tee of the All-Russian Trade Union of Textile
Workers.
D. Antoshkin, member of the Central Committee
of the Trade Union of Government Employes.
A. Kiselev, president of the All-Russian Miners*
Union.
Bound Volumes for 1920
Volume II, of which a number of copies ,
splendidly bound, are still to be obtained by
persons desiring them, is sold at five dollars.
Check or money order should accompany
order. Volume I (June-December, 1919) is
sold out and will not be reprinted. Volume
III will be bound, with title-page and index,
as soon as the issues have all appeared (Jan-
uary 1, 1921). Readers may place orders
now for Volume HI, and should send the cost
of the volume — five dollars — with their
orders.
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 W. 40th St. New York, N. Y.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of the
Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well as by
friends and supporters of Soviet Russia. Full re-
sponsibility is assumed by the Bureau only for un-
signed articles. Manuscripts are not solicited; if
sent in, their return is not promised.
A RMENIA is declared by the Allied press to be
^^- in need of help. The newspapers speak of
the necessity of foreign diplomatic mediations be-
tween Armenia and the Turkish Nationalists, al-
though a New York Times correspondent, as pre-
viously quoted in these columns, had already indi-
cated that Armenia was more likely to seek her sal-
vation by applying for mediation to Soviet Russia,
than to expect it from the Allies. Yet the talk
continues of rendering aid to Armenia, against the
Turkish Nationalists. There has even been men-
tion, in the American press, of a suggestion to the
American Red Cross that it make preparations to
spend twenty million dollars in Armenia, and
twenty million dollars is a sum which certain of-
ficials of the American Red Cross declare it is im-
possible for the organization to spend. Georgia is
aided by England directly, with a loan to be ad-
vanced on the recommendation of J. Ramsey Mac-
Donald, Thomas Shaw, and other Second Interna-
tional Socialists. There is evidently to be "some-
thing doing" in Armenia, and that pretty soon, for
while various hostile agencies have been prepar-
ing to organize Armenia into a basis of military
operations against Soviet Russia, the people of Ar-
menia have taken the matter into their own hands
and declared their country to be a Soviet Republic.
Georgia and Armenia will therefore probably be
the next countries to suffer — as Esthonia, Poland,
Lithuania, Finland, Latvia, White Russia, have al-
ready suffered — because the Allies feel that they
must use small buffer-states as sources of man-
power and as "sanitary" zones against any nation
in which the working people have cast out the ex-
ploiters and set up a dictatorship of the proletariat,
and the Allies will try to sit with particular vigor
on small states that have established Soviet repub-
lics of their own.
Armenia for several decades has been the scene
of much suffering. Situated astride a peculiar
mountainous plateau, between Transcaucasia on the
north, Asia Minor on the west, Mesopotamia on the
south, and Persia on the east, its population of
about four million (occupying a territory of about
80,000 square miles — about equivalent to the area
of the State of Kansas) have had the dubious pri-
vilege of dwelling at the very crossroads of the
paths of military glory that were pursued by Great
Britain, Russia, and Germany. The world knows
to what this condition has exposed the Armenians.
They have been the catspaw for every international
plotter in Europe. Under the guise of defending
these unfortunate people in the practice of their
Christian religion, every big commercial intrigue
in Europe, for decades, moved its government to
advance "assistance to Armenia" as the means of
blocking the similar efforts of rivals in other great
imperialistic nations. The Czarist Government
made itself the "protector" of the Christianity of
Armenia's inhabitants, although the Armenians
have a church of their own, quite distinct in its
practices from the Russian Orthodox Church, and
therefore excluding the Armenians from the pro-
tectorate claimed by Russia over the Orthodox
Christians of the Ottoman Empire (a protectorate
that could extend, in church matters, only to the
Greek Christians in Turkey, who felt no kinship,
however, with the Russian neighbor across the Black
Sea). Great Britain vigorously resisted this Russian
claim; Russia's "protection" of the Armenians
would prevent Great Britain from extending simi-
lar "protection", and thus Great Britain might be
kept back from at least one of the approaches to
Turkestan and the Caucasus. Furthermore, if the
Turkish massacre of Armenians could assume large
enough proportions to justify annexation of Tur-
kish Armenia to the Caucasus, such complete occu-
pation of Armenia by Russia (which already held
fully half of the Armenian population in the South-
ern Caucasus, "Russian Armenia") would have en-
abled Russian armies, in case of need, to pour freely
all over Asiatic Turkey and break a path to the
Mediterranean, giving Russia a valuable warm-
water naval base at the port of Alexandretta. The
unfortunate situation of the population was further
aggravated by the fact that, in addition to being
wedged in, without a seacoast, at the intersection
of the lines of imperial ambitions, it straddled the
boundaries of three of the most backward and un-
developed countries in the world: Russia, Turkey,
and Persia, for Armenia, like Poland, was not a
political entity, but a "divided" area, with Armeni-
ans living in Turkey (1,500,000), Russia (1,200,-
000), and Persia (50,000). To further her design
to capture all Armenia for her military needs,
Czarist Russia had already, in her exactions from
Persia, obtained the actual rule over the Armenians
living in that country, although theoretically they
remained subject to Persia. England had, in "the
strangling of Persia", unwillingly consented to
grant Russian primacy in the Armenian field. But
England was by no means eager to see Turkish Ar-
menia in Russian hands, since this would have en-
abled "an imperialistic Russia to conquer Mesopo-
tamia and Syria, thus threatening both the Persian
Gulf and the Suez Canal. The same dangers to
England would have been involved in an Armenia
forming part of a German-controlled Turkish Em-
pire."*
For the German Empire also had its finger in the
pie. The Berlin to Bagdad (and beyond, to the
by LiOOglC
* Lathrop Stoddard and Glenn Frank, The Stakes of the War.
N>w York. "Origin^ f rom
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Persian Gulf) Railway was a project that could
only be secured from a frustrated realization by a
Turkey that was strong and undivided, and terri-
torially large enough to enable armies to operate
to the north against possible Russian invaders. It
was therefore very desirable, from the standpoint
of the Kaiser's Germany, that Turkey should retain
Armenia as a zone of defense on the north. Had
Germany succeeded in retaining her supremacy in
Turkey after the "end" of the World War, Armenia
would have continued subject to the Ottoman Em-
pire, and exposed to whatever massacres Turkish
fanatics might desire to inflict on its population,
which would then not have needed to be stimulated
by uprisings fomented in Armenia by agents of
the Czar's Government.
But a worse fate seems to be in store for Ar-
menia than conquest by a single great power. Ar-
menia may have beeen singled out for the attentions
of the "League of Nations" in its efforts to find a
new wall against Soviet Russia.
~C*ROM a hall in Geneva where frequent speakers
•*■ are applauded by many delegates, comes news
that the "democratic" governments in the "League"
(London Daily Herald, November 23) are express-
ing as much concern for the "fate" of Armenia as
was once simulated by the diplomats of those great
"autocracies" that have now for the most part dis-
appeared. Even lesser nations send representatives
who are interested in Armenia. A Serbian delegate
on November 22 "proposed to telegraph to all the
governments of the world, which would, no doubt,
politely express profound sympathy." Lord Robert
Cecil and M. Lafontaine joined in a sympathetic
discussion, and the French delegate omitted all
mention of efforts being made by his government to
win over the Turkish Nationalists, estranging them
from Soviet Russia, at the price of granting them a
free hand in Armenia.
The Soviet Government sent out on November 10
from Moscow the official information that it had
offered to mediate between Turkey and Armenia.
The Turkish Nationalists had already been so suc-
cessful in establishing their rule all over the east-
ern end of Asia Minor, that Armenia was very
hard pressed in its efforts to assert some sort of
national independence. So critical, indeed, had the
situation of the little country become, that an in-
tercession on the part of the Soviet Government,
with its powerful neighbor, the Turkish National-
ists, was quite necessary. In its official message
of November 10, the Soviet Government further
points out that it had not the slightest intention
to annex Nakhichevan, Zangezur, Juffa, and Kara-
bag, but was sending out its armies to those border
regions, merely in order to protect them until the
various questions at issue between Armenia and
Azerbaijan might be settled. For, like all new
states, both Armenia and Azerbaijan regard all ter-
ritories concerning which there is the slightest
doubt, as their own.
This was by no means the first cotorfl un * cat * on
which the Soviet Government was obliged to ad-
dress to Armenia, in order to emphasize its desire
for peaceful and permanent relations in that part
of the world. To guarantee free communications
with the Turkish Nationalists, communications vital
to the welfare of both the Soviet Government and
the Turkish Nationalists, the Soviet Government
had already been compelled, on October 25, to send
to the Armenian Government an ultimatum demand-
ing the following concessions: (1) that the Ar-
menian Government grant to the troops of Soviet
Russia, of the Azerbaijan Soviet Republic, and of
the Turkish Nationalists, free utilization of the
Armenian railroads; (2) that the Armenian Gov-
ernment refuse to recognize the Sevres Treaty and
break off diplomatic relations with the Entente
powers; (3) that Armenia submit its dispute as to
boundaries with Turkey, to the Soviet Government;
(4) in case of an acceptance of this ultimatum,
and a fulfilment of its conditions, the border ter-
ritories of Zangezur and Karabag, at present occu-
pied by Soviet troops, should be ceded to Armenia.
It was at first reported that the Armenian cabinet
had rejected these conditions, but there is now
every reason to believe that, with the exception of
certain inconsiderable border strips, the entire ter-
ritory of Armenia has set up a government of the
Soviet type, and that this government will not
only be ready to accept mediation with its neigh-
bors, as offered by the Soviet Government, but will
form an open alliance with the Soviet Government,
following the example set by the Soviet Govern-
ment of Azerbaijan.
Meanwhile, as Armenia has set up her own Soviet
Government, and as the League of Nations officials
have faith in the truth of the report to that effect,
the newspapers print Geneva dispatches explaining
how very difficult it would be, under the altered
circumstances, to continue the negotiations with
Arabunian, Armenian representative at Geneva, for
admitting Armenia to the League of Nations. Ar-
menia is now ready for a real solution of its na-
tionality question. As a Soviet Government, there
will be no reason for its government to oppress
any but the oppressors; the Armenian people are
now engaged in the process of eliminating their
exploiters. No arrangement of the League of Na-
tions, no balance of power "protection" of a
"Christian people" could have attained this end.
\J\7E mean to keep our promise not to make f ur-
* * ther mention of Mr. Wells' articles on Soviet
Russia, but do not assume that our readers will
insist that we omit to deal with the lucubrations
of Mr. John Spargo in his voluminous answers to
Mr. Wells. Very characteristic of Mr. Spargo's
method is the manner in which he quotes — in his
article "H. G. Wells in the Russian Shadow", The
New York Times, December 5 — from the columns
of Soviet Russia. He excerpts the following,
which he considers particularly damaging to the
Russian experiment in Communism, from the arti-
cles of Dr. Aliens; Goldschmidt, which, as our
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readers will recall, appeared in Soviet Russia in
eight instalments, ending last month:
There i9 at any rate no Socialism at Moscow as yet.
There also is no communism. * * * There is but the
Communist Party. * * * The people are exhausted by suf-
fering. There are plenty of beggars. Hope for happiness
in this world seems to have gone. Religious feeling is
growing. People expect happiness in the future, in heaven.
The churches are filled from morning till night. Religious
processions are often to be seen. * * * The factories are
idle. Industries are dead. The workmen are hypnotized
and they are waiting for something to happen."
Our readers will remember the general tone of
Dr. Goldschmidt's articles, and may judge for them-
selves whether this method of quoting detached sen-
tences, as if they were all from one paragraph,
is an honest method. Not long ago Mr. Spargo
used this same peculiar mode of securing apparent
support from the lips of those favorable to the
Soviet Government by quoting what seemed to be
words of sharp criticism against that government,
from a book called "Bolshevik Russia", by Etienne
Antonelli. Mr. Harold Kellock, reviewing the
Spargo book containing the "quotation" from An-
tonelli, pointed out in The Freeman not long ago
that Mr. Spargo had carefully refrained from quot-
ing the sentence immediately following, in Anton-
nelli's book, which completely reversed the seem-
ingly hostile statement to one decidedly favorable
to the Soviet Government. Far be it from us to
ask Mr. Spargo to revise his literary method:
changes of this kind would perhaps require him to
work more slowly and to turn out fewer volumes.
They succeed each other now with such rapidity
that it is impossible to keep track of them, and it
almost begins to look as if Mr. Spargo expected
to be rewarded more for the quantity than for
the quality of his books.
TPHE October-November issue of the Russian
A Cooperator, published in London, has come to
hand. This publication of the former officials of
the Russian cooperative organizations complains of
the decrees of the Soviet Government concerning
the nationalization of cooperative societies. Such
complaints coming from advocates of cooperation
pure and simple would be quite intelligible; coming
from persons, however, who claim to be Socialists,
these grievances betray a misconception of the po-
sition of a Socialist republic towards cooperation.
Under the capitalistic system, consumers' and
producers' cooperative societies have been viewed
as steps in the direction of socialization of trade
and industry. In a socialist republic, however,
such as Soviet Russia, cooperative organizations
represent a remnant of the individualistic economic
system. A consumers' cooperative society is noth-
ing but a joint stock company composed of a large
number of shareholders. As far as the outside
public is concerned there is no difference between
a department store owned by a corporation consist-
ing of a hundred stockholders and one owned by
a million shareholders. In either case it is not a
public, but a private business, for the benefit of its
owners. The Soviet Government, having set itself
the task of socializaton of industry, quite consis-
tently with its general policy decreed the national-
ization of a chain of a few scores of thousands of
department stores and mail order houses operating
throughout the vast territory of Russia, — for that is
what the All-Russian Cooperative Society actually
was before its nationalization by the Soviet Govern-
ment. From the point of view of an advocate of
private ownership in industry this decree was in-
defensible, but if one accepts the Socialist prin-
ciple underlying the socialization of banks, rail-
ways, express companies, and other distributive
agencies, what objection can there be to the social-
ization of a widely ramified system of retail stores?
The decree of the Soviet Govrnment by which the
cooperatives were nationalized extended to every
member of the community the benefits which had
formerly been the privilege of those of its mem-
bers only who were shareholders of the local co-
operative society.
• • *
T^HE following item in the characteristically
*■■ pregnant style of the Japan Weekly Chronicle
is taken from the November 4 issue of that paper:
The Chugcd Shogyo tells an extraordinary tale of nirj
Bolsheviks attempting to capture the Russian Volunteer
Fleet steamer Simbirsk at Nagasaki. The Japanese police
were called in, and the Bolsheviks were compelled to
"withdraw." There are now thirty Japanese on board.
It might be a parable in miniature of Russia.
A NOTHER item, from the same issue of the
•**• same weekly, proves that rumors circulate
as swiftly and as irresponsibly in Japan as else-
where:
Five famous Bolshevik statesmen, at present holding:
high positions under the Soviet Government of Russia, will
be visiting Japan in a few days, states the HochL, which
claims to have learnt this news from a semi-official source.
According to the paper, the Soviet statesmen left Vladi-
vostok for Tsuruga a fortnight ago. The police, states
the paper are keeping a strict lookout for them, but they
have not yet been located. They are supposed to be aboard
a steamer at either Tsuruga or at Shimonoseki.
"C^ILMS of recent events in Russia would probably
**■ be just as interesting to American movie-fans
as to the same class in other countries. Mr. Wells
says he brought back to England with him a five-
reel film of ceremonies and events in connection
with the Baku Congress but that he intends to ex-
hibit it very discreetly and to hardened audiences
only. We confess we have heard of many reels
of Soviet Russian films that have been brought to
America at various times during the last two years
— in fact, we know of some — but have never had
an opportunity to see any on the screen. It natur-
ally makes us envious of Norwegian theater-goers
when we read this advertisement in a Christ iania
daily :
"Great Russian Meeting, Park Theater, Sunday, Novem-
ber 7th, 10.30 A. M. Music, Lecture by Karl Johanssen,
and Projection of thf well-known Film from Soviet
Russia."
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Sowers in Seedtime
By John S. Clarke
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"What is that you are whistling?" I asked, "a last
verse of The Internationale'?"
"No," he replied with a wry smile, "a new verse of
the Red Flag."
We were curious and he obliged us with the words:
The people's flag is palest pink,
It's not so red as you might think;
We've been to see, and now we know
They've been and changed its color so."
— Mrs. Philip Snowden on Russia.
Over-confidence, vanity, an exaggerated self-im-
portance and love of power are defects of character
which mark the Britisher, and especially the Bri-
tish militarist, as distinct from other men. Often
they lead him along those paths "where angels fear
to tread," with the result that if that same "prov-
idence" which safeguards drunkards and "weans",
permits him to "muddle through" to the goal he
is after, he gets the credit for qualities of mind
and character which he doesn't possess. More often
than not, however, he only succeeds in making a
fool of himself. The Britisher is, par excellence,
Shakespeare's :
"Man, proud man, dressed in a little brief authority!
Most ignorant of what he is most assured —
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As make the angels weep!"
One cannot help remarking while living in Rus-
sia that whatever the clever educated Bolshevik
thinks of the men of other nations, he is fairly
satisfied on one point — that the Britisher is, nine
times out of ten, a hopeless clown.
At Petrozavodsk I was shown the natural stage
setting of a neat little comedy enacted there some
few months before. About two miles westward
from the station the ground rises abruptly, and on
the crest of the rise there is a wood. Behind this
wood the army, advancing on Petrozavodsk, bivou-
acked one eventful night, and its British and White
Finnish commanders gazed through their glasses
upon the peaceful looking little town sloping down
to the clear blue water of Lake Onega. As they sat
at a boxing match, "everything was up bar the
shouting" ; the prize was before them, there was no
reason to worry or to hurry. They sent word,
accordingly, that the "official entry" would take
place on the following morning. Instructions were
given to the effect that the church bells were to be
rung, and that a respectful order had to be observed
by the populace during the triumphal entry. Alack-
a-day! Petrozadodsk was never taken. Something
went "agley" with the attackers' best laid schemes
— the "something" being the stupid obstinacy of
the Red Army reinforcements already entrenched
to the north and south, and occupying every stra-
tegic position in the town itself.
God's Englishmen and Scotchmen, with their Fin-
no-Ru&ian allies, consequently were, by obvious
malice aforethought on the part of their stubborn
enemies, denied their little circus, for instead of
entering the town they re-entered the wood and
began to run, and, for all I know to the contrary,
they are running yet. The "taking" of Petroza-
vodsk is one of the humors of the North Russian
campaign.
On the station platform there stands, mounted
on a pedestal, an aerial torpedo, brazenly embel-
lished with British broad-arrows. It was dropped
on the spot, but proved itself to be a most disap-
pointing "dud". It stands there a perpetual re-
minder of the perfidy of a people who fought a
war in the cause of "self-determination". Gallant
men lost their lives, certainly, in the defence of
their town, and their bodies now rest at the head
of the main street in a little railed-off enclosure.
The graves are kept neatly trimmed, and the names
of the fallen are inscribed in white lettering upon
scarlet pennons which droop o'er the sward above
them. Petrozavodsk is very old, but it is clean
and its wooden buildings are arranged upon a
definite plan, forming streets, brutally paved and
tiring to both man and beast. There are stone
buildings, too. One very conspicuous with its high-
walled, high-gated quadrangle, stands upon a knoll
overlooking a stream, and commands the most ele-
vated part of the town. This is the grey- walled,
red-tiled prison. Many years ago, Telsiev, the revo-
lutionary, comprised in the trial of Niechayev, was
imprisoned in this building. This was long before a
railway from Petersburg was even thought of. In
those days escape from the dungeon itself was the
least embarrassing difficulty a prisoner had to con-
tend with. Many, many versts of wild, inhospit-
able country had to be traversed before safety and
civilization were won, and with hunger, fatigue,
cold, and danger of recapture with its flogging and
chain-wearing penalies, as constant companions,
Telsiev succeeded in escaping from prison, and
the man who engineered his escape was the poet-
revolutionary, Demetrius Clemens.
The story as told by Stepniak is as follows:
"Clemens went there with false papers, as an engineer
employed to make certain geological researches in Finland.
He presented himself to all the authorities under the pre-
text of asking for the necessary information, and succeeded
in fascinating all of them. For a whole week he remained
at Petrozavodsk, and was the town-talk, people rivalling
each other in entertaining him. Having quietly organ-
ized the escape of Telsiev, he departed in company with
him, so as not to subject him to the risks of travelling
alone. Notwithstanding this, Clemens played his part so
well that no one at Petrozavodsk in the least suspected
that he had anything to do with the matter. A year after-
wards, in fact, one of his friends was passing through the
same town, and the Ispravnik asked him whether he knew
a certain engineer named Sturm (Clemens' false name),
and after having told the most marvelous stories respecting
his stay at Petrozavodsk, added: * A very worthy man. He
promised to pay us a visit when he returned from Finland,
but we have not aeen him since. More's the pity. Per-
haps he returned by sea.* "
erhaps he didn't!
And, we might add, perhaps he __
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The present occupants of the more comfortable
apartments of the prison are soldiers of the Red
Army; of the cells— counter-revolutionaries and
"speculators", but not many of them.
I spent two whole days at Petrozavodsk. The
first occasion was with Gallacher, our American
friend, and courier. We were all famished for
want of food, and it was impossible to buy even
an apple. We begged the courier, a Russian Finn,
to find where the local Soviet offices were, but
when it eventually dawned upon him that it was
food we were after he became a trifle shamefaced.
Doubtless he boggled at the idea of soliciting food
for visitors in a town where food was so fearfully
scarce. Accordingly we wandered about for hours
before anything was done, our stomachs mean-
while sagging further and further inwards. At last
I struck the office of the local Communist newspa-
per, and Gallacher dragged the courier upstairs,
and with his assistance, supplemented by the pre-
historic gesture- language in which weird manipu-
lation of the mouth and stomach played the chief
part, we made known our wants.
There was plenty of merry, musical laughter at
our predicament from the comrades male and fe-
male, but in less than no time we were given a note
requesting the officials at the Communal Eating-
house to provide us with dinner.
Once outside the newspaper office Gallacher,
whose crustiness all morning unfortunately had
been of the inedible kind, looked purple-faced at
the courier, and informed him in most emphatic
diction that as an authority on Bolshevism he might
be a creditable asset to the Russian State, "but as
a grub-finder," said he, "you're a God-damned
failure!"
The courier, not being able to understand a word
of the harangue, took it as a grateful man's com-
pliment and smiled delightedly, which made the
unreasonable William grow purpler.
Reader, have you ever lived in the desert for two
weeks on stale bread and margarine with periodi-
cal nibbles at a piece of cheese to give a touch of
variety and piquancy to your appalling monotonous
diet, and, after dreaming at night and visualizing
in daytime scenes of "glorious banquets spread,"
in which roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, mince
pies and haggis, potatoes and greens, ham and
eggs, etc., danced on the table before you, have you
then been handed a note authorizing a cookshop
to give you a "dinner"? Perhaps you are not a
"gross materialist". Perhaps you are a vegetarian.
We were not, and when we ravenously followed our
guide through the streets an onlooker might have
noticed upon our faces "the smile that won't come
off."
And it didn't come off, either — till fact once
again exploded the fancy created by a golden anti-
cipation. Alas! my poor brother Gallacher! His
sweet smile haunts me still.
On entering the restanurant we were handed a
metal check, which had to be givjn up on receipt
of the meal. This consisted of very watery fish
soup; hideously black bread of pudding-like con-
sistency and which, judging from the flavor, ap-
peared to have been immersed in Epsom salts' solu-
tion; and boiled rice with a portion of evil-smell-
ing fish. We did not eat it, for our hunger dis-
appeared after the first few mouthfuls. When it
was learned that we were British an excited, inter-
ested crowd of diners hastened to our table and
engaged us in a kind of rag-time conversation. A
young woman of marked refinement acted as inter-
preter, and plied us with question after question
concerning the attitude of British Labor on Rus-
sia, the possibilities of a French military alliance
with Poland, and the comparative class-conscious-
ness of British and French workmen. To the best
of our ability we told them the blunt, cruel, heart-
rending facts — that there was no immediate possi-
bility of a social revolution in either France or
Britain, but that British labor, quiescent as it was,
was much more militant than French labor — the
French proletariat being more under the influence
of the Chauvinists. A painful episode occurred
during the interrogation. A Bolshevik propagan-
dist entered, and, seating himself beside me, began
to question me in halting broken English on the
conditions of life in Britain. "Have you real white
flour?" he queried, "and sugar? — and meat? — and
jam?" At each affirmative reply his eyes appeared
to protrude a little further from their sockets, un-
til they welled up and exuded the glistening tears of
longing and hope deferred. Then he smiled and
embraced me, and said without one trace of emo-
tion, "Some day you will not have these — for a
time — but you will have freedom, then you will
come to us."
Picking up his portfolio he went away — to
spread the gospel in village and farmstead, out
under the open sky, with an enthusiasm born of
unselfishness and nourished on victory, walking
mile after mile to do it, unwearyingly and gladly.
Welcomed? Yes! for the peasantry of the north
love the orator. Never before have they been
treated with such distinction as to have sent to them
— to themselves, peasants, muzhiks — trained, edu-
cated, and gifted orators whose impassioned words
stir the soul and invest it with a new-born dignity.
Potent indeed is the propagandist of the north,
for here, above all other districts of Russia, have
the imaginative qualities of the people been pre-
served — fostered by the tumultuous elements that
breed unorthodox gods. Here still flourishes Domo-
voi, the demon of the household, never seen except
by the biggest liar in the village; Ovinnik, the
demon of the barn, who sits in the darkest corner
and bides his time to set it afire; Leshi, the demon
of the wood, who is taller than the tallest tree, yet
hides himself under a leaf in order to seduce the
virgins; Polevoi, the field spirit, who comes forth
at midday and breaks the tools for sheer mischief;
Vodianoi y demons of the waters, who haunt the
lakes and swamps to drown evil persons who for-
get to wear the cross, and whose companions in
mischief are the Roussalki — female "fairies" who
tear the fishermen's nets, and who are really beau-
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crossed in love. Folklore in plenty is picked up in
Russia, but most of all in the north. Slowly but
surely such superstitious fancy, encouraged by
parasites and aided and abetted in the old days by
vodka, is being displaced by the equally charming
but more truthful pictures of science and its myriad
wonders. For monsters who break machinery and
tools, knowledge of how to care for and thus pre-
vent accidents to, and of how to repair them is be-
ing substituted. For grovelling superstition —
practical science; for pious fear — self-reliance;
for primitive parochial Communism — the World
Revolution and World Communism. Such is the
titanic task of the propagandist — but he is winning
all the time.
Miserably wretched indeed was the lot of the
Russian peasant under the old regime. He has been
the theme of hundreds of story-writers, essayists,
poets, dramatists, and itinerant journalists. His
disgusting appearance, his pronouncedly objection-
able smell, his verminous condition, his immeas-
urable stupidity and sordid ignorance, have been
labored by sympathetic and unsympathetic observ-
ers alike. The most abandoned aborigine living in
that never-never land beyond the tangled jungles
of the Congo, the Niger, or the Zambesi is better
off economically, physically, and morally than was
that poor deluded famine-stricken beast of labor
the Russian muzhik under Czardom.
Here is a pen-picture of his izba or "biggin" by
Dr. Kennard, who, during a medical career prac-
ticed in Russia visited over fifteen hundred peas-
ant patients:
"There lies the door, a massive piece of timber four feet
high, surmounted by a solid beam; a triangular piece of
iron the handle. Pushing this door open, we step over
the threshold, at the same time bending low for fear that
our brains shall be dashed out against the lop-sided trunk
overarching the narrow entrance. Clang goes the door
and we find ourselves . . . enveloped beyond ankles in
farmyard slush . . . Between our legs rushes in head-
long flight some animal we take to be a pig, while others
and a terror stricken goat and alarmed fowls scatter them-
selves this way and that. Puddles of insanitary messes
reflect a dull light while from the same pools of filth rises
an unutterable stench.
Wait! — that door at the side leads apparently into an-
other apartment, if we can speak thus respectfully of this
insanitary den. We push and push again at this solid
wooden structure, rather larger than the corresponding
outside one; but our efforts are of no avail till aid from
the inside is afforded us, and the door bursts open, ex-
posing us to such an atmosphere that drives us back into
the darkness of the outside room — rolls of vapour; im-
pregnated with the most unutterable odors; superheated,
dense, vitiated, unventilated streams of air rush through
the outlet afforded by the open door, enveloping us in such
an indescribable stench that we can do nothing more than
gasp in horror, and cover our noses with our hands in
vain attempts to shut out the evil smell! We are per-
meated through and through by the death -laden gust of
abomination, and are filled with a feeling of unutterable
repulsion that temporarily deprives us of power and cour-
age to proceed."
Such is only one aspect of the life endured by
these children of the Cimmerian night of unbridled
autocracy. The mortality from disease spread by
the loathsome body- vermin was enormous; the
drunkenness appalling — and studiously encouraged
by \j
*L
by the State, which derived a tremendous revenue
from the sale of its monopoly vodka — and the il-
literacy lamentable to contemplate. Only from two
to four per cent of Russia's eighty-eight millions of
peasants could read or write.
The propagandists of the Russian Communist
Party, veritable evangelists of the light, for "there
is no darkness but ignorance," are altering all this
as surely as the blackened skies are put to flight
by the blood-hued "hunter of the east."
Illiteracy is being driven forth like an Ishmael
for every man's hand is against it as the most
sinister enemy of the human race. I have before
me, as I write, a dozen posters carried by the
Communist missionaries, each containing but a few
words addressed to all who are able to read them,
and making an appeal that is not made in vain.
Free translations of some of them read: "Illiteracy
is the sister to destruction!" "Nobody must be ig-
norant!" "Literate! It is your duty and obliga-
tion to teach the illiterate!" "Education is the
road to Communism!" and so on.
Special schools and universities have been opened
by the Soviet Government for peasant instruction,
not only in the three "R's" but in domestic hy-
giene, agricultural science, and social refinement.
I have a photograph of an old peasant student at
work in his own room at the Moscow college for
peasants which speaks volumes for the righte-
ousness of the old proverb, "It is never too late to
mend!"
Very large and graphically illustrated posters
teaching correct methods of agriculture, soil pre-
paration, manuring, crop-rotation, bacteriology,
etc., are carried to every isolated farmstead and
village community by the propagandists. The speci-
men before me has excited the admiration of sever-
al British printers for its exquisite colored-litho
work. Compare such pictures, freely distributed
by the present government, with the type of pic-
ture (not counting the ikons) scattered broadcast
by the Czarist Government. Kennard, himself, de-
scribes two of them:
"Pictures adorning the walls of a peasant izba invariably
include an old dust-begrimmed, moth-eaten representation
of Alexander II, the Emancipator of the Serfs, and also
a cheap engraving, distributed broadcast throughout Rus-
sia by the government of the reigning Czar. Sometimes
may be seen great flaring, vulgar designs, generally in
brilliant red, depicting the devil dealing out judgment to
peasants after death for all their sins, those sins being
generally pictorially represented. Another will show a
room, on the wall of which hangs a large portrait of the
Czar. In front of this kneel in reverent attitude peasant^
crossing themselves, a mass of peasantry, but one — the
Wicked One — will be seen standing in an attitude of defi-
ance. What is the result?
"To the right of the picture will be seen another dread-
fully impressive scene, which does not fail to have its due
effect on the unfortunate Russian peasant. In that picture
is seen a large foaming cauldron, by the side of which
stands the devil in brilliant red, holding a long three-
pronged fork in his hand. With this he is prodding some
unfortunate object which sits in the cauldron being slowly
boiled; the object is seen to be the unfortunate muzhik,
while a legend in large letters reads 'eternal fire!' These
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pictures, too are distributed by an eulightened (?) Gov-
ernment."
We saw the products of such "teaching", scores
upon scores of them; the look of low cunning and
animal fear still lurking in their eyes; the round
shoulders and shuffling gait marking their submis-
sion to an authority accepted without question; the
brand of the savage fetish-worshipper stamped up-
on their dull and unintelligent brows. Human be-
ings bred to degeneracy and wedded to misery by
a deliberate and calculated system of government
bureaucracy, wielded by the medieval and bloody
autocracy — that Mrs. Snowden spends an entire
chapter of her book in pitying because its blasting,
pestilential breath has. been strangled from its rot-
ten body. They spoke of the peasantry as the
"dark people", and dark people they were, living
a dark existence in the twentieth century which to
them was darker than the dark ages of Britain.
The warped and twisted minds mechanically re-
flecting the ideology of fourth century barbarians
are being treated by the physicians of a twentieth
century Marxian science. The eagerness with which
they snatch at the minutest crumbs of knowledge,
and the visible improvement already manifested
through the recognition of the earth-foundation
facts which are displacing sky-haunting phantoms,
are auguries of the ultimate success of such treat-
ment.
So this augean stable is being cleansed; sys-
tematically and thoroughly the pestiferous filth
which, bred by and accumulated under a yicious
and degrading despotism of a thousand years, per-
verted the mind and distorted the body of the Mus-
covite peasant, is being destroyed by the harbing-
ers of a glorious futurity. All honor to them!
Not theirs the privilege to labor in capitals where
the thunder of their oratory and the miracle of
their deeds are spoken of by the multitude until the
uttermost ends of the earth hear of them. Nay,
theirs to toil in obscurity with the spectres of want
and depression stalking forever by their sides, kept
at bay by the godly jewel of an unselfish optimism
cherished by them in their inconquerable hearts.
Their flag is pink, pale, pale pink. Wonderful that
it is so! They found it a sickly, treacherous,
Kerensky yellow, and in three short years by
herculean toil, rapt endeavor, and incomparable
devotion to Right, they have changed its color to
pink, nor will they rest until by indefatigable ex-
ertions they have made it red — red as the noble
blood they are ever ready and willing to shed for it
"All that they have done but earnest of the
things they shall do," for they are but the sowers,
sowing in a cataclysmic seedtime, in a soil cor-
rupted by bad husbandry of past ages and rank with
inherited weeds, but they know, and the knowledge
is their priceless reward, that from the noble seal
they scatter shall spring, and grow, and blossom
the sacred trees from which all humankind shall
one day pluck the now forbidden fruit of Freedom
Kalmykov's Last Days
(From a recent issue of a Siberian newspaper.)
TPHE Russian mission at Peking, which has now
*** been abolished by a presidential decree, issued
a collection of interesting documents relating to
Attaman Kalmykov's stay on Chinese territory after
his flight from Khabarovsk. Although the docu-
ments were apparently selected with a view to
clearing the mission as a whole of any suspicion of
complicity in the last deeds of Kalmykov, never-
theless the whole story, the circumstances surround-
ing it, and the part played by the Kirin Consulate,
are not at all uninteresting.
The documents depict as follows Kalmykov's
sojourn in China and his death.
On February 19, the Kharbin Consul Popov in-
formed Kudashev, on the basis of a report from
the border commissar Kuzmin, of Kalmykov's
flight from Khabarovsk to Chinese territory. In
connection with this telegram Kudashev wired to
the diplomatic official Kurenkov, at Vladivostok,
that "Kalmykov's arrest could take place only at
the request of the judicial authorities, and docu-
ments corroborating the charge would have to be
presented." Kudashev added the following remark:
"Of course, the case must bear a purely criminal
aspect and not a political one."
The impression is then conveyed that the mis-
sion had no other documents relating to Kalmykov,
before April 28. Only on that date the consul at
by Google
Kirin, V. A. Bratzov, wired to Peking, to Kudashev.
that "Attaman Kalmykov and Kolchak's adjutant,
second rank Captain Bezuar, are in Kirin under
arrest, a fact which is kept secret by the Chinese.
In reply to Kudashev's suggestion to ascertain
the facts of the case, Consul Bratzov sent a long
report on May 2, from which we quote the most
essential parts:
"The Commissar for Foreign Affairs informed
me that the arrest took place by order of General
Bao-Gui-Tsin. With the permission of the chief
of staff of the troops, I met the prisoners yesterday
in the local headquarters of the gendarmerie. 1
found that the prisoners were: Major-General of
the Ussuryi cossack troops, Ivan Pavlovich Kalmy-
kov, and Captain of the first rank of the Russian
Navy, Vassili Viktorovich Bezuar. The circum-
stances of their arrest, as they told them to me, are
as follows. After the retreat from Khabarovsk,
Kalmykov crossed the Chinese border with his
force, and arrived, on February 27, at Fugdin.
where he voluntarily surrendered his arms to the
Chinese authorities. He met with a very friendly
reception. On March 7 Kalmykov was informed
that he had permission to leave for Kharbin, and
on March 8 Kalmykov, his adjutant Klok, General
Sukhodolsky, and Bezuar, received an invitation
from the commander, General Li, to a dinner
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which, as Kalmykov understood, was being given
on the occasion of their leaving..
"About 3 o'clock in the afternoon these invited
guests arrived at the residence of the commander,
who did not receive them, and were shown into
an empty room, without any sign whatever of a
coming dinner. A few hours passed, and no din-
ner was offered them. During this time General
Li came in for a minute, greeted them coldly, wrote
something on a piece of paper, and left at once.
About 8 o'clock in the evening, Chinese gendarm-
erie came in and began to search the "guests". On
Kalmykov's inquiry: "Are we under arrest?" the
gendarmerie replied in the negative, explaining
that they were only being guarded. At 9 o'clock
General Li came and stated that by orders from
Kirin, Kalmykov and his companions must be de-
tained, owing to a request from the Bolsheviki.
Kalmykov explained to General Li that an account
for the gold which he carried away would be given
to the Russian ambassador at Peking or to the All-
Russian Government, or, if necessary, to an inter-
national commission. According to Kalmykov, he
had buried the gold in a safe place. On March
25, General Li announced to the prisoners that
they would be sent to Kirin. A few days before this
— on March 21 — General Sukhodolsky died of an
acute mental derangement. On March 27, Kalmy-
kov and Bezuar were sent under guard to Kirin,
whither they arrived on April 16. The prisoners
were placed under extremely harsh discipline, very
much more severe than the regime in concentration
camps. As to Kalmykov's force, a part of it melted
away, and the other part was sent to Lakhasusa and
turned over to the Bolsheviki."
In a report to Kudashev, of May 16, Consul
Bratzov, among other things, states that "Kalmy-
kov's state of health, particularly his nervous sys-
tem, is very feeble. He is always in an excited
state, which takes such an acute form that he posi-
tively cannot stand the sight of a Chinese." On
May 22 Kudashev, quoting the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, informed Bratzov that the Chinese con-
sider Kalmykov as an interned combatant who has
taken refuge in a country which has declared its
neutrality toward Russia. As to Captain Bezuar,
the Chinese promised to release him, "since this
will not place the Chinese in so difficult and dis-
agreeable a position as would the release of Kal-
mykov."
While Prince Kudashev began taking steps to
obtain the release of the prisoners, he received the
following statement from the Norwegian ambassa-
dor at Peking, dated July 9:
"In 1918 the Swedish Red Cross despatched an
expedition to Siberia, on whose staff, among
others, were the Norwegian subject Dr. Obshaug
and the Swedish subject Dr. Hedbloom. In the
month of May these persons were placed under
arrest by order of Kalmykov, but they were later
released at Kharbin, and 273,000 rubles were then
taken away from them. In October of the same
year Kalmykov once more put them under arrest,
charging them with espionage, toolc from them
bydGOgle
1,600,000 rubles which belonged to the Swedish
Red Cross, and after this they were hanged by
order of Kalmykov in the same car in which they
had been held under arrest. The order for the exe-
cution was handed to the guard of the prisoners by
Ensign Salamakhin and Corporal Evreyinov. The
execution was carried out by a Serbian (a deserter),
whose name was Ulenek, one of the guard, and
by another person whose name is not known.
The corpses were carried away in an automobile,
and some distance away they were thrown into a
ditch near the road and the ditch was filled up.
The automobile was driven by Military Cadet Kazy-
Girey, of Khabarovsk, who it is said, is now at
Vladivostok." The Norwegian Consul stated fur-
ther that he had taken steps to have Kalmykov
punished.
Apparently, the action of the Norwegian Consul
much complicated Kalmykov's case, but on July
16 Consul Bratzov sent to Kudashev the following
telegram: "Kalmykov disappeared while he was
visiting the consulates. The Chinese demand his
surrender. The consulate is surrounded by troops.
Gendarmes have been placed in the consulate.
Please send instructions to Kuanichentzy."
In his reply to this telegram, Kudashev among
other things stated: "I have just succeeded in per-
suading the Chinese Government to leave Kalmykov
at Kirim, instead of surrendering him to the judi-
cial authorities of Vladivostok, where he might
also be persecuted on many other charges, and
besides under the present tense state of mind it
would be hard to guarantee his personal safety even
for the short period before his surrender to the
judicial authorities."
In a communication to Kudashev, of July 21,
Consul Bratzov stated that "Kalmykov's hiding
place is not known to the consulate." Kalmykov's
disappearance was narrated as follows in the report
of the Dutzun of Kirin: On the 13th (of July)
Kalmykov asked permission to visit the Russian
Consulate. He was accompanied by an adjutant,
a diplomatic official, and gendarmes. Because Kal-
mykov stayed too long in the toilet, Chinese of-
ficials entered it, but they found no one there. In
reply to a report of this occurrence an order was
received from Peking to do everything to find Kal-
mykov, and to kill him if he should offer resist-
ance.
It should be noted that Kalmykov and Bezuar
visited the consulate every week, where they en-
joyed the orchard, "drank tea", took away books,
and in general were well looked after.
On July 29, Consul Bratzov, in reply to an in-
quiry from Kudashev, sent him a detailed report
of the circumstances of Kalmykov's disappearance.
This report is a masterpiece of pretense and in-
solence. From this standpoint, the report is inter-
esting in itself, but we shall quote from it only the
part which has a direct bearing on our subject.
Speaking of the attention shown to Kalmykov
and Bezuar, the Consul, among other things, writes:
"Your Excellency will perhaps kindly bear in mind
that / had no reason whatever to consider Kalmy-
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kov and Bezuar as criminals, and I had therefore
treated them with corresponding attention, follow-
ing to the letter your instructions to mitigate the
fate of Kalmykov (and hence also of Bezuar). Of
course, had I known that Kalmykov was a serious
criminal I would not have received him in the
consulate."
Then Consul Bratzov and Vice-Consul Luchich
— who, by the way, was a friend of Bezuar — spread
a story that Kalmykov was taken away by the Jap-
anese. The Chinese did not believe this story, and
apparently were not very friendly to the consulate.
Thus, in a telegram dated July 22, Consul Bratzov
writes: "The position of the consulate is humiliat-
ing. I have been placed under a house arrest. I
beg you to take immediate steps for our protec-
tion."
Kudashev, however, acted very cautiously. He
sent the Mukden Consul Kolokolov to investigate
the whole affair. In addition to the official investi-
gation, Kuclashev requested Bratzov to come to
Peking for a personal explanation. But Bratzov
was forced to reply: "The Chinese do not allow
me to leave. The consulate is completely cut off,
as if it were blockaded."
The memorial of the Chinese Ministry of For-
eign Affairs of August 10 mentions, among other
things, that before Attaman Kalmykov went to the
consulate it was falsely asserted there that Bratzov,
who was absent from Kir in, was sure to be back
by the time of Kalmykov's visit to the consulate.
When Kalmykov, on July 13, left for the consulate,
the Vice-Consul had just received a telegram from
Chanchun from the Consul, which stated that he
"will return today and commissions (the Vice-
Consul) to receive the guests for him." Yet, after
looking up the telegram and after a personal exam-
ination of the consulate's interpreter, Mr. Luby,
Consul-General Kolokolov, it was ascertained that
the telegram was sent on the 11th. Thus, Consul
Bratzov first claimed that he would return, arrang-
ing thereby that the attaman's visit to the consul-
ate should take place, and then tried to disclaim re-
sponsibility, pleading the excuse that he had not
returned. In addition it was ascertained at the
telegraph office that Bratzov had sent from Chan-
chun the following telegram: "Will arrive tonight
with money. Please take measures to help unhin-
dered leave."
This telegram, it seems, definitely convinced the
Chinese of the complicity of Consul Bratzov and
Vice-Consul Luchich in Kalmykov's disappearance,
and for this reason both were held at Kirin for
trial.
On August 30 the consulate at Kuan-chen-tsi sent
to Kudashev at Peking the following telegram : "In-
formation received that Attaman Kalmykov was
arrested by the Chinese authorities in the building
of the consulate at Kirin. All Chinese employed
at the consulate were subjected to an examination
and a beating for their complicity." Bratzov him-
self reported on August 30 as follows: "On Au-
gust 25, Chinese troops entered the consulate. The
same day they found Kalmykov in one of the con-
sulate buildings. The activity of the consulate ha9
been suspended by the Chinese authorities, and the
keys taken away. Luchich and myself have been
placed at his residence under surveillance of Chin-
ese officers and soldiers."
Bratsov further asked what he should do. On
September, he received the following reply from
Kudashev :
"Your criminal negligence in not carrying out
my categorical orders has led to your present situ-
ation. You compromised the whole Russian repre-
sentation in China, you have put in a hole every-
one connected with you. Of the consequence you
will J earn in due time."
This ends the documents. A special postscript
adds that according to reports from Chinese
sources, "Kalmykov was killed on the way to Chan-
chun by the soldiers who accompanied him while
he was trying to escape. Captain Bezuar is still
at Kirin." — Novosti Zhizn, of Kharbin, October,
21, 1920.
In Revolutionary Russia
By Clara Zetkin
{From a recent issue of "Die Rote Fahne", Vienna.)
T^HE most gigantic revolution known to history
is taking place in Russia today. Only the very
innocent in politics can conceive a possibility of
the overthrow of capitalism and the first steps in
Communism, without error and confusion, without
missteps and mistakes, without experimenting and
groping in the dark. It would be against human
nature if even the proletarian masses did not grum-
ble and find fault, and sharply criticize on occa-
sion some of the measures undertaken by the So-
viet Government, if they did not severely condemn
some of the happenings and phenomena under the
Soviets. However, this is the significant thing: The
most cruel cares and hardships have not destroyed
the firm faith of the Russian proletariat as a whole
in the great work of the Revolution, in the supen-
ority of the Soviet regime, or shaken their most
exalted and devoted trust in the great leaders. The
Russian proletariat does not blame the Revolution
or the Soviet regime, nor "the aims and methods
of the Tartar 'Pseudo-Socialism'," for all its suf-
fering. Quite the contrary: they are consciously
bearing this suffering as a part of the inevitable
sacrifices in their revolutionary struggle for free-
dom from the yoke of capitalism. They know that
they are not suffering privations under the scor-
pions of capitalist exploitation, that their hunger
and toil is not making the rich richer, but is lift-
ing a new, great world, free from slavery and ex-
plotation, out of the seething chaos of today.
It is this conviction which gives to the Russian
working masses their unexampled historic great-
ness, their creative force. It is not a weary, slavish
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resignation, not a thoughtless yielding, not an in-
different spirit of lassitude. It is the suffering and
enduring of action, martyrdom which consciously
becomes heroism. It is the revolutionary fighting
spirit, the revolutionary spirit of resistance. Those
hundreds of thousands of workers and peasants
who rally to the defense with every new mobiliza-
tion, are proving it beyond a doubt, as they wil-
lingly undergo new privations, hardships, and dan-
gers in order to defend Soviet Russia against a
world of enemies. It is the highest revolutionary
spirit of embattled self-assertion, which makes the
Russian proletariat grit its teeth and desire: Soviet
Russia shall live, even though we die for it.
What pathetic wooden souls those shrewd scien-
tists and ripe old experts are who were able to pass
through revolutionary Russia without being touched
in the slightest by the revolutionary spirit which
made of the Russian masses the militant vanguard
of the disinherited millions of the whole world.
This spirit not only pervades the streets and squares
of Moscow and Petrograd, when the masses, men,
women and children, unite in jubilant demonstra-
tions, under the flowing red banners and to the
strains of the Internationale ; but to all who are not
willfully blind this spirit is visible in every mani-
festation of the people which speaks of their de-
termined and enthusiastic struggle to build up a
free Communist Russia.
There is, for example, the Field of Mars, where
the victims of the Revolution and the veteran revo-
lutionaries killed by the counter-revolution, Volo-
darski, Uritzki, and others, lie buried. A great,
wide field. For the last May Day celebration the
ground was tilled and planted with 60,000 trees
and shrubs, voluntarily and without remuneration,
by the Petrograd proletarian men and women, who
had suffered all the horrors, the hunger and the
cold of the frightful defensive battle against
Yudenich. The Mars Field is to be a beautiful
park. There is not a cipher too many. I mean
literally sixty thousand trees and shrubs, planted
as a voluntary work of love for a park, whose
cooling shade, soothing green and merry twitter
of birds will some day benefit the children and
grandchildren of these enthusiastic May Day work-
ers. Such large scale plans and large scale deeds
can only be carried out by a people certain of their
future, filled with the revolutionary spirit and the
highest idealism, not by an apathetic mass, yield-
ing to brutal terror, nor a clique of exploiters and
robber barons, whose motto is: After us the de-
luge.
And what unbending, iron revolutionary will
speaks through the Communist Saturday and Sun-
day work! This voluntary, unremunerated work
which soon came to be regarded as due to the party
as a matter of course, and matter of party honor,
was inaugurated by thousands of the best and
staunchest Communists. Today uncounted thous-
ands all over Russia devote their Saturdays and
Sundays to work in the factories, the hospitals and
public institutions, or they go out into the forests
to assist in the cutting and transportation of lum-
Digiiized by dOOglC
ber. This voluntary mobilization of a workers'
army has no parallel in history. What strength
and joy emanates from these workers is apparent
from the jubilant tones of the Internationale, which
is sung in shops and yards, at work and on the
street, by groups of workers returning home. Proud
and glad, they stride along, these men and women:
"The women so frank and the men so free,
As though of a royal race."
And they are a royal race, returning from self-
imposed tasks. A race that has written its own
brief of nobility with a firm strong hand in the
struggle and work of the Revolution.
Ghicherin: A Silhouette
Luciano Magrini, the well-known Italian cor-
respondent, spent several months in Soviet Russia,
studying its organization and relations* He is
publishing in the Milan daily:"Secolo",a num-
ber of lengthy articles, containing pertinent and
realistic descriptions of the Soviet system; also
characterizations of persons holding the executive
power of the Bolshevik state. Among others he
gives a sketch of Ghicherin :
Two men, writes Magrini, both Bolsheviks, but
of entirely opposite temperaments, are occupying
the highest offices in the Commissariat for Foreign
Affairs. Chicherin, a model of simplicity, is busy
with foreign politics: while Karaldian^ a refined
and elegant gentleman of Armenian birth, devotes
himself to foreign politics related to internal af-
fairs.
Chicherin, a man of austere and unbending
faith and strict principles in politics and morals, is
an unswerving Communist. A few years ago he
rejected the right to a considerable inheritance
in order to remain true to his principles. He
dresses very moderately, and washes his own dishes
after a frugal meal. It is not new to see him on the
steps of the ministerial building, carrying papers
from one bureau to another, only because he does
not want to be served by others.
Chicherin can be seen at his work at all hours
of the night in the Commissariat of Foreign Af-
fairs. All the officials in that department are
compelled to follow the example of the chief,
and work at night. During the day Chicherin
sleeps; he works regularly from 6 in the evening
to 9 in the morning. He carefully notes every-
thing that is going on in the world, preparing his
numerous notes with unusual political skill. If
any one asks for an interview with him, it is set
for two or three o'clock in the morning.
Magrini interviewed Chicherin in his office at
2 A. M. It is a large room, containing three tables
littered with paper and newspapers. During the
conversation, a rat appeared in the middle of the
floor and began to play with a paper. Chicherin,
turning, noticed the frightened fleeing rat, and
continuing his talk, said with a kindly smile:
"Poor animal, it abc has the right to live 1"
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Wireless and Other News
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NOTE ON SUPPORT TO PETLURA
Riga, October 31 (Rosta).— The Chairman of
the Russian-Ukrainian Peace Delegation, Obolen-
ski, has sent to the Chairman of the Polish Peace
Delegation, Wasilewski, a note in which he points
out that Petlura's troops are continuing hostilities
after the signing of the armistice agreement. The
Polish armistice commission at Berdichev, in the
session of October 23, admitted that Petlura's
troops constitute a portion of the Polish army which
is under Polish command. The Polish Commis-
sion refuses to answer the question put from the
Russian side as to whether the Poles would under-
take to have Petlura's troops withdraw within Pol-
ish boundaries, and, should Petlura's troops not
consent to this measure, force them to do so by dis-
armament. The Polish Peace Delegation further
refuses to indicate the whereabout of Petlura's
staff, which is was necessary to come into
contact with; the Polish Peace Delegation
made the statement that it did not know the
place to which the staff had recently been trans-
ferred. Since the Peace Delegation immediately
thereafter received instructions from the Polish
Supreme Commander, which declared that Petlura's
front was not to be included in the armistice con-
ditions, Poland was thereupon asked whether
this answer implied a breaking up of Poland's re-
lations with Petlura and whether Petlura had
ceased to be an ally of Poland. The Polish Colonel
Boldeskul refused to answer this question. Obo-
lenski declared that all this made the carrying out
of the armistice conditions and the determination
of the neutral zone impossible. Russia and
Ukraine must therefore make the Polish Govern-
ment responsible for any harm that may accrue to
the interests of Russia, Ukraine and White Russia,
and pointed out how unreliable was the attitude
indicated in this evasive method of answering ques-
tions touching upon the execution of the armistice
conditions upon which the destinies of peace de-
pend.
Obolenski protested against this state of affairs
and demanded that appropriate measures be taken.
WORKERS FOR SOVIET RUSSIA
The following little items show that French and
English workers support Soviet Russia:
Paris, October 21, 1920 (Rosta, Vienna).— The
executive committee of the United Syndicates of
the Seine has resolved at a meeting to oppose the
furnishing of weapons and munitions to the enemies
of Russia.
London, October 21, 1920 (Rosta, Vienna).—
The Workers' Council of Action has just issued a
manifesto declaring that only resumption of trade
with Soviet Russia can put a stop to rising prices
in England. The Council will do everything to
effect peace between Russia and Great Britain.
Digitized by G*
NOVEMBER SEVENTH CELEBRATION
Moscow, November 9. — On November 8 there
was held in Moscow a reception of foreign diplo-
mats, which was inaugurated by the People's Com-
missar for Foreign Affairs, in connection with the
third anniversary of the Revolution. In the Peo-
ple's Commissariat the following representatives
of foreign powers appeared: Hilger, representative
of the German Government; Bekir-Ami, representa-
tive of the Turkish Mission; Minhaverol-Memalek,
Persian Ambassador; Mamed-Balf-Uhan, Minister
from Afghanistan; Mokhadze, Commissioner from
the Georgian Government; Wesman, Lettish Minis-
ter; Baltrunchaytis, Lithuanian representative; Dr.
Pohl, representative of the German-Austrian Gov-
ernment; Skala, representative of the Czecho-Slo-
vak Government, and many other members of for-
eign governments. The People's Commissar for
Foreign Affairs, Chicherin, greeted the foreign rep-
resentatives, and in his speech expressed the wish
that by the time the fourth anniversary of the Rus-
sian Revolution should take place, all the nations
of the world might be ready to show more under-
standing of the peaceful policy of Russia.
"WHITE" CONSPIRACY IN SIBERIA
Stockholm, October 19, 1920 (Rosta, Vienna).
— In Siberia an extensive White conspiracy has
been unearthed having for its object the blowing
up of bridges, mills, and railways, and to practice
terror against the Bolshevik administration. A
similar plot was discovered in the Urals among
men formerly belonging to Kolchak's army.
EXPLOITATION OF BATUM?
Moscow, October 21, 1920.— The British Govern-
ment, in a note to the Government of the Georgian
Republic, demands the right to use the city and
harbor of Batum for an indefinite period.
NEW PHILOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
Moscow, October 21, 1920.— A philological in-
stitute for western languages was inaugurated in
Petrograd.
ALL RUSSIAN LITERARY CONGRESS
Moscow, October 21, 1920.— The first All-Rus-
sian congress of proletarian writers was opened
yesterday. The delegates were welcomed by the
famous poet Valery Bryussov and by Poliansky,
chairman of the International Bureau of Prole-
tarian Culture.
AIR FLEET BUILDING IN RUSSIA
Stockholm, October 21, 1920.— According to
Pravda the Soviet Government is expediting the
rapid construction of the air fleet. Aviation plants
are accorded precedence in raw materials and in
labor supply.
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RUSSIAN FOREIGN TRADE
Moscow, October 21, 1920. — On account of the
imminent resumption of commerce with the west,
and the pressing need of raw materials, the Soviet
Government has established a department of timber
export with Lieberman at its head. Lumber will
be a staple export in the near future.
Stockholm, October 20, 1920 (Rosta).— Sven-
ska Dagbladet is informed from Helsingfors that
the Commissar of Foreign Trade considers the fol-
lowing wares can be exported in the first place:
bristles, tobacco, quantities of horse-hair, horse-
shoes, leather, iron and manganese ore, tanned
horse-hides, sheep-skins, rye, ox-tails, wool and
rabbit-skins.
November 2. — Since the beginning of August the
following additional quantities of gold have been
shipped from Reval, according to data furnished
by the Soviet Government, for its account: To Swe-
den (for transmission in Sweden and to other coun-
tries) : 2,500,000 crowns on August 1; 2,600,000
crowns on August 2; 2,000,000 crowns on Septem-
ber 2; 2,500,000 crowns on September 9; 8,000,000
crowns on September 23 (5,000,000 of which were
for America) ; 10,000,000 crowns on September 30
(all for America) ; to France, on September 17,
17,000,000 crowns; on October 4, 15,000,000
crowns. Negotiations are still in progress with
England on the subject of the sale of the (lax now
still stored at Reval. A consignment of 200 tons
should already have been sent to England. In ad-
dition to the already reported consignment, fur-
ther consignments have already been sent to Eng-
land. On September 2 also, 2,751,000 poods of
santonin in 40 cases left for Sweden, apparently
destined, not for England, but for America. Fin-
ally, about 300 carloads containing 800 poods each
of veneers have been sold by Russia to England
and are being forwarded to that country by way
of Reval.
Stockholm, November 4. — In connection with
the commercial treaty concluded with England by
Krassin, in accordance with which Russia is to re-
ceive woolens to the value of 2,000,000 pounds
sterling, two great firms in Yorkshire have been
established as large stock corporations under Eng-
lish law: The All-Russian Cooperative Stock Com-
pany, and The Russian Company, Ltd. On Kras-
sin's suggestion the English Government has de-
posited in the Reval National Bank 250,000 pounds
sterling for these two firms.
UKRAINE AND GERMANY
Berlin, November 9. — The Deutsche UkrainUche
Zeitung, appearing in this city, reports that the
Government of Soviet Ukraine, in view of the fact
that all of Ukraine is now under the control of
the Soviet Government, and that Porsch, the repre-
sentative of the Petlura Government, can therefore
not be considered as the representative of Ukraine,
has decided to maintain a permanent Embassy in
Berlin. As has already been reported* ^ e new
representative is Mazurenko.
FOR THE RED ARMY
Omsk, November 2.— The "Week of the Red Sol-
dier" has been a complete success. Many gifts
have been received; in money alone 5,500,000
rubles; 300 women have reported at the Omsk
Hospital as voluntary nurses.
The Moscow Pravda reports that on October 10,
a collection for the Red Army was held at Moscow,
the results of which were very satisfactory. There
were received 10,400 shirts, 4,565 undergarments,
4,752 sweaters and leather jackets, 1,546 half pelts,
4,305 pairs of socks, 2,518 pieces of linen, besides
spoons, teapots, cups, etc.
Smolensk, November 8. — Workers of the Tail-
ors' and Shoemakers' shops have voluntarily pro-
longed their labor already by two hours per day.
During their working hours they are engaged ex-
clusively in turning out winter clothing for the
Red Army.
CHEMICAL .MANUFACTURES
The Collegium of the Commissariat for Public
Welfare has elaborated a plan for the erection of
a number of factories to produce superphosphates,
as the collegium recognizes the urgent necessity ot
improving the productivity of the soil by supply-
ing it with fertilizers. Professor Zamoskav has de-
termined that Russia possesses immense deposits
of the necessary minerals for producing super-
phosphates. It is reported that superphosphate
factories are already established in Petrograd, Nizh-
ni-Novgorod, and Kineshna. It is now proposed
to build several factories for the production of sal-
peter. One of these is approaching its completion
and a yield of 10 to 14,000 poods of potassium
nitrate is expected. The lack of dyes has led to the
decision to erect a small factory in which the ochra
supplies in the district of Kuznietsk (Government
of Saratov) are to be used.
ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION
Moscow, ffcvember 2. — After having been idle
for two year^ the Martin furnaces at the Izhorski
Works in Petrograd have again resumed their ac-
tivity. The first 900,000 poods of steel are to be
ready by November 10.
EXTENSION OF TANNERIES
Moscow, November 2. — The tanneries in Petro-
grad have recently extended their activities consid-
erably. The staff of workers has been increased
by 5,000.
by L^OOgle
WORKERS OF ORENBURG FETED
Moscow, November 2. — The All-Russian Central
Executive Committee has given to the workers of
Orenburg a flag of revolutionary honor for their
heroic defence of the city in the spring of 1919,
when the workers of Orenburg organized their own
regiments and saved the cr.ty from Kolchak.
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SOVIET RUSSIA
December 18, 1920
THE POOD SITUATION
Stockholm, October 22, 1920 (Rosta).— It is
reported from Moscow on October 22 that the Rus-
sian peasant has learned the difference between Kol-
chak and Denikin and the Soviet Government. In
the Kuban region Wrangel's recent invasions have
won over the cossacks to the Soviet Government.
Hence the food campaign of Russia proper has been
characterized by a great advance over the pre-
vious year. The reports for August and September
indicate this. The provisioning act has just gone
into effect; yet in the past month 30 million poods
have been delivered, i.e., about four times as much
as last year. Why then, one may ask, these urgent
appeals of the Communist Party and of the govern-
ment, why this mobilization? Simply because it
takes a great many people to gather 400 million
poods. Besides, it has been decided to intensify
provisioning to the highest degree, and to terminate
it by December, so that all the means for complet-
ing the program of victualing are on hand in time.
Finally, the problem of provisioning is made more
difficult because this year, for the first time, the
country can supply not only grain and potatoes,
but also butter, vegetables, eggs, cheese, honey, and
poultry. The state, growing in strength, is fast
becoming the sole purchaser. This is the real
cause of our mobilization and our appeals which
our enemies allege to be signs of our weakness,
but which actually indicate our power and strength.
COTTON CROPS
Moscow, November 6. — The last cotton harvest
is satisfactory, so that the cotton spinneries around
Moscow will be sufficiently supplied with raw ma-
terials from the Caucasus, Persia, and Turkestan.
From August 20 to September 20, 1920, about
1,000 car-loads of cotton were discharged to
Samara. Since the opening of the year over two
million poods of cotton have been transported by
way of Persia and Turkestan to the spinneries. At
present Russian spinneries have enough cotton for
one year.
RESULTS OF OVERTIME WORK
Pskov, October 19, 1920 (Rosta, Vienna).—
By voluntary overtime work the Communists and
non-partisans of the Pskov railroad shops have, in
the course of the last three weeks, repaired and pirf
in running order eleven locomotives.
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will place before its readers even more interesting material than it has been printing during 1920. All the
regular features, such as Weekly Military Review, Editorials, Wireless and Other News, will be retained, and at
least one will be considerably expanded, namely "Books Reviewed". The latest official and unofficial articles
of Lenm, Trotsky, Lunacharsky, Sereda, Zinoviev, Kamenev, and other sttaesmen and specialists in the various
organs of the Soviet Government, will be printed as soon as they are received and translated. Also, as far as
space permits, Soviet Russia will print the latest accounts by Americans and foreigners who have set down
their observations of travel or work in Soviet Russia.
Among the other materials of all kinds that we have already arranged to publish in early issues of Volume
IV, which begins January 1, 1921, are these:
Alfons Goldschmidt, Collapse and Reconstruction in Russia,— Maxim Gorky, The Literature of the
VTorld.~hT.-CoL. B. Roustam Bek, Chemical Warfare and the New Attack on Russia.— AhFOhs Goldschmidt,
The Structure of the Soviet System in Russia.— Art Under Communism, by the Editor of Soviet Russia.—
Pierre Pascal, Impressions of Soviet Russia,— Ivan Olbracht, A Sociological Study of Present-Day Russia.
Bohumir Smeral, Conversations With Russian Leaders.
Ten Cents at all News Stands
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half Jot; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make all check* payable
to L. C. A. K. Martens.)
subscriptions received by
SOVIET RUSSIA
110 West 40th Street (Room 304) New York City
o
JANUARY FIRST NIIMRFR SovlET RusslA for January 1, 1921, will have a special eight-page supple-
Jttnunni fllUl nUWlDLR ment on glazed paper> wUh picture8 o£ the dcst niction wrought in South-
ern Russia by Denikin, together with the results of constructive work by the Soviet Government. In several
cases, the photographs, some of which were taken by Professor Lomonossov, formerly of the Soviet Bureau
in New York, show the ruined bridges left by Denikin, side by side with DT kCV YOUR 0RM?R NAWf
the temporary structures built by Soviet engineers to take their places. ■ lift^E 1 VUA VIU/ER IWff .
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau
Ten Cents
Saturday, December 25, 1920
Vol. Ill, No. 26
Issued Weekly at lit) W\ 40th Street, New York, N. Y, Ltidwig C. A, 1C Martens, Publisher* Jacob Wittmer Hartmann, Editor.
Subscription Kate, $5,00 per annum. Application far entry as second class matter pending. Changes of address should reach the
office a week before the changes arc to he made.
FACE
Problems of Peaceful Reconstruction, by Lenin 625
Military Review, by Ll-CoL B> Roustom Bek, . . , 630
Russia, Ukraine, and Poland: Continuation of
the Negotiations at Rica 633
The Break With Litvinov 635
Map of Soviet Territory , , 636
Vanderlif Concessions (Bureau Statement) 638
And a Four Page Supplement,
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PACE
Editorials 638
Note from Chicherin to Lord Curzon 641
Correspondence With the Norwegian Goveik-
ment 642
Statement of the Bureau on the Deportation
Decision . , ,♦...,* 645
Wireless and Other News .,.,...**. 646
Decision to Deport Mr. Martens", reprinted from the official document released bj the
U. S, Department of Labo
Problems of Peaceful Reconstruction
By N. Lenin
[The following is a speech delivered by Lenin at a trade union congress, early in 1920, at a
time when hope awakened in Soviet Russia that the country would be permitted to take up its peace-
ful tasks of reconstruction* Although apparently dealing with several Russian problems, it never-
theless develops one chief idea, namely, the necessity for the working class of Russia to cope not
only with the political problems of the Russian state, but also, if not mainly , with the tremendous
economic task of putting the country on a sound economic basis* This is the standpoint from which
Lenin discusses the aims of trade unions in Russia, showing the complete fallacy of those who do
not see beyond the immediate moment, and who would apply old, obliterated standards to the
trade unions in Russia. With his remarkable ability of combining the sense for actualities with his*
torical perspective, Lenin points out that only the working class of Russia can develop the neces-
sary unity of purpose and solidarity of action, and that the trade unions are the agency destined to
work in this direction, putting aside all " particularistic™ aims and purposes* By so doing, they will
easily overcome the contradictory tendencies in the Russian peasantry and make them also an ele-
ment working for the benefit of Soviet Russia.]
(COMRADES: Permit me first of all to greet, in
^^ the name of the People's Commissars, the
Third All-Russian Congress of the Trade Unions,
Comrades: The Soviet Government is just now
living through an especially important moment in
many respects* for there stand before us complex
and most interesting problems. And just this par-
ticular moment imposes upon the trade unions very
responsible tasks in building up Socialism, I
should like, therefore, to dwell no' less upon the
single resolutions of the conference just concluded
than on the changes of the Soviet policy which
bring the activity of the trade unions into special
connection with the work of Socialist const ruction*
Comrades: The specific character of the present
moment is the transition from war, which up to
now has been taking up undividedly the care, at-
tention, and strength of the Soviet Government —
to peaceful economic construction.
At this point I must emphasize the fact that the
Soviet Government, and* together with it* the Soviet
Republic, is living through such a period not
for the first time. It is the second time that we
by Google
are obliged to place peaceful economic work fore-
most. The first time in the history of Soviet Rus^
sia that we experienced such a moment was at the
beginning of the year 1918, After the short but
violent attack of German imperialism, while the
old capitalistic army was in a state of complete
dissolution, and we had no army nor could we
create any at a moment's notice, the Brest peace
was forced upon us. Then also, at the beginning
of 1918, it seemed as if the war problems would
recede and we were to go over to peaceful economic
const ruction. At that time I rendered a report be-
fore the All-Russian Central Executive Committee,
and on April 29, 191*3 — almost two years ago — the
Central Executive Committee adopted in connection
with my report a number of theses. Among those
theses there were also such as dealt with labor
discipline. In general this period was similar to
the present. To insist that the decisions of the
Communist Party and the Soviet Government a«
but a consequence of the present debates is a gross
mistake, and such an opinion would be apt to throw
a false light upon the whole activity, the decisions,
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and the relations of the Communist Party, as well
as of the Soviet Government, to this problem. It is
useful, therefore, in order to understand the merits
of the question and properly to approach its solu-
tion, to make a comparison between the situation
in the year 1918 and now. At that time, after the
short war with German imperialism, there stood
before us the problem of peaceful economic crea-
tion. Civil war had not yet begun. Thanks to
German aid in Ukraine, Krasnov was putting in his
appearance in the Don region. We were not at-
tacked in the north, and the Soviet Republic was
in possession of a tremendous territory, as it lost
only what the Brest peace had torn away. The
situation was such as to call forth an expectation
of a long period of peaceful economic construc-
tion. It is under such circumstances that the Com-
munist Party put, on the order of the day, exactly
the point which the All-Russian Executive Com-
mittee emphasized in its resolution of April 29,
1918: propaganda, earnest admonition, and putting
greater stress upon the necessity of labor discipline.
It is also to be noted that dictatorship, even of a
single person, is not contradictory to Socialist de-
mocracy. One must bear this in mind in order
rightly to understand the decisions taken at the
party conference, and the problems that stand be-
fore us in general. Not only does this solve the
questions brought forth now, but it is intimately
connected with the very foundations of the present
epoch. Anyone who doubts this, should draw a
comparison with the situation two years ago; he
will understand then that the moment compels us
now to turn all our attention to the problems of
labor discipline and the labor army, although two
years ago there was yet no talk of a labor army.
In drawing this comparison we come to the right
conclusion that trifles have to be disregarded and
only what is fundamental and of general import-
ance must be emphasized.
The whole attention of the Communist Party and
the Soviet Government should be concentrated on
the work of peaceful economic construction, around
the problem of dictatorship and individual admin-
istration. Our experiences during the two years of
bitter war demand of us authoritatively a decision
on the question which we already raised in 1918,
when we had as yet no civil war or any experience.
For that reason not only the experiences of the
Red Army and the victorious civil war, but some-
thing immeasurably deeper, closely connected with
the dictatorship of the working class, have com-
pelled us now, after the civil war, just as was the
case two years ago, to concentrate all attention on
labor discipline, which is the corner-stone of the
whole economic structure of Socialism, a touch-
stone at which our conceptions of the dictatorship
of the proletariat part. After the overthrow of
capitalism, every day of the revolution removes us
fundamentally farther from that obsolete concep-
tion of the former internationalists who, petty bour-
geois through and through, thought that a decision
of the majority as to a retention of private proper-
ty with regard to the ownership of land, means of
Digitized by Lt<
production, and capital, a decision of a majority
within the democratic institution of bourgeois par-
liamentarism, could decide the question itself,
where, as a matter of fact, only a bitter class strug-
gle can bring a decision.
The significance of the dictatorship of the pro-
letariat, its actual practical implications, began to
unfold before us at the time when, after the con-
quest of the power, we turned to practice. And at
this point, it became apparent that the class strug-
gle had not come to an end, since the victory over
capitalism and the land-owners had not destroyed
this class. It struck it to the ground, but it
did not destroy it. I shall point only to the inter-
national solidarity of capital, which is much
stronger and more firmly entrenched than that of
the working class. Capital — if one considers it as
an international power — is even now not only in a
military way, but also economically, stronger than
the Soviet Government. This fact should be taken
as a starting point, and it must not be overlooked
The forms of the struggle against capital change;
at one time they bear an open international char-
acter; at another, they are confined to one country.
The forms change, but the struggle goes on and the
fundamental law of the class struggle, as it was
brought forth in former revolutions, finds its con-
firmation in our revolution. The more sacrifices
the proletariat makes in the overthrow of the bour-
geoisie, the more the working class learns, and the
revolution grows directly during this struggle. The
struggle does not end even with the overthrow of
the capitalists, and only after this overthrow in one
country has been fully attained, does it achieve
practical importance for the whole world. Did not
indeed, at the beginning of the November Revolu-
tion, the capitalists consider our revolution as a
curiosity? "What do we care about their Asiatic
perversities," was said in an apparently derisive
way. In order that the revolution attain its world
historical importance, it was necessary, that in one
more country a revolution should take place. Only
then did the capitalists, not only the Russian, who
at once called together their entire clique, but also
those of all countries, convince themselves
that this was a problem of international signifi-
cance. Only then did the opposition of internation-
al capitalism develop its highest strength, only then
did civil war break out in Russia, and all the
victorious countries come to an agreement to ren-
der aid to the Russian capitalists and land-owners.
Not only did the opposition of the defeated class
grow after its overthrow but it even drew new
strength from the relation of the proletariat to the
peasantry. All who have studied Marxism ever
so little, who base Socialism upon the international
working class movement as the sole scientific foun-
dation of Marxism, know that Socialism means
doing away with the classes. But what does that
mean? Not only must the capitalists be overthrown,
but it is incumbent upon us also to remove the
class difference between the workers and the peas-
ants. The peasantry consisted of toilers who for
decades and centuries had been kept under the
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
(1>
December 25, 1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
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yoke by the landowners and capitalists, and who
therefore cannot forget for a long time to come
that they owe their liberation from this servitude
to the workers. One could discuss this matter for
decades and write great tomes about it, and this
has been the reason for the formation of many
party groups. But now we see that these differ-
ences of opinion had to yield to the force of facts.
The peasants remain property owners with the
retaining of the commodities system. Every in-
stance of free sale of bread, of clandestine trade
and speculation, means restitution of the commo-
dities system and consequently of capitalism, so
that with the overthrow of the capitalists we simul-
taneously freed also the peasantry.
But the overthrow of capital as such was op-
posed by the petty bourgeois class, which in Rus-
sia was undoubtedly in the majority. The peas-
antry remained in their production as property
owners and are creating new capitalistic relations.
These are the fundamental traits of our economic
situation, and hence originates the unwise talk of
equality, freedom, and democracy, by those who
do not understand the actual situation. We are
conducting a class struggle, and our aim is the
abolition of classes. So long as there are work-
men and peasants, Socialism cannot be realized,
and an uncompromising struggle develops at every
step. We must consider in this situation, how, with
the aid of only a single class, with support in the
government, one should manage such an enormous
apparatus as the power of the state with all its
compulsory means; how to attract, under such cir-
cumstances, the peasant workers, and overcome their
resistance or make it harmless.
Thus the class struggle continues and the dicta-
torship of the proletariat appears to us in a new
light. It appears here to us less as an application
of the compulsory resources of the entire state ma-
chinery, or as exploitation. This must be stated
beforehand. To be sure, those are right who main-
tain that we shall not get far upon such a basis.
B::t we have besides another aim wherein the
role of the proletariat stands out as that of an or-
ganizer who carries out the capitalistic discipline.
We must be able to place economy upon a new
and higher foundation, and to appropriate for our-
selves all the achievements of capitalism. Other-
wise we shall be able to construct neither Social-
ism nor Communism. Not exclusively by means of
state compulsion can we attract to our side the
peasant when he took the field against his old
we have an aim of an educational and organiza-
tional nature, but we are conscious of why it is
much more difficult than the military aim. The
military aim we are able to solve in some respects
more easily, namely, by strenuous effort and self-
sacrifice. It was easy and comprehensible for the
peasant when he took the field against his old
hereditary enemy, the land-owner. He did not need
then to reflect upon the connection between the
power of the workers and the necessity of abolish-
ing free trade. It was easier to overcome the Rus-
sian White Guardists, the land-owners and capital-
ists, with their supporters, the Mensheviki. But
this victory will be difficult for us, for economic
tendencies are not to be overcome in the same man-
ner as are military tendencies. A long road opens
here before us, which must be conquered step by
step. Here are required the energies of the prole-
tariat as an organizer; here it is possible to win
only after the proletariat has brought to realiza-
tion its dictatorship, as the highest organized moral
force for all toilers, also the toilers of the non-
proletarian masses. In the measure that we have
successfully solved and shall further on solve the
first and most important aim: the destruction of the
exploiters who openly aim at the overthrow of the
Soviet Government, in that measure shall we be able
to turn also to the other complex aim, namely, to
bring to completion the task of the proletariat
as an organizing force. We must organize a new
work, we must create new forms of attracting to
work, of submission to labor discipline. Even capi-
talism had solved this aim for decades. The great-
est mistakes are made here at every step. Many
of our adversaries show, on this question, a com-
plete lack of understanding. They declared us to
be Utopians when we maintained that it was pos-
sible for us to take hold of the power. On the
other hand, they demand of us now that we com-
plete the organization of labor in a few months.
That is nonsense! One can, in a favorable political
moment, supported by the enthusiasm of the work-
ers, maintain power, perhaps in spite of the whole
world. We have proved that. But the creation of
new forms of social discipline is a work of decades.
Even capitalism needed thirty years in order to
transform an old organization into a new one. If
one expects of us, and talks it into the workers and
peasants, that we can rebuild the organization of
work in a short time, this is theoretically complete
nonsense and practically very harmful, for it pre-
vents the workers from clearly understanding the
difference between the old and the new aims. This
new aim is first of all one of organization, and in
that we are weak, considerably weaker than any
great power. The ability of organization develops
during a period of heavy machine industry. There
exists no other material historical basis. There is
no harmony between the interests of the proletariat
and the peasantry. Here the difficulty starts for us.
On the other hand we have the moral aim to
prove to the peasantry that it has no other way
out: either it must resolutely march together with
the workers and stand by the proletariat, or it will
come again under the old yoke. There is no mid-
dle way, except only for the Mensheviki, but their
downright folly is spreading everywhere, includ-
ing Germany. The theory and the experience of
the Second and Third Internationals offer the peas-
antry no understanding for this. These masses, who
number millions, can comprehend it only as a
result of their own experience and daily life. It
was of fundamental importance that the peasants
should understand the victory over Kolchak and
Denikin. Only ita conti&dicdon made it clear to
them what tbo cUctatornhip of th\ proletariat meant,
SOVIET RUSSIA
December 25, 1920
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with which one has been frightening the peasantry
and purports to frighten them even today. You
may notice even now that the Mensheviki and the
Social-Revolutionists scare the peasantry with
it. But the peasants cannot in fact occupy them-
selves with theory. They only see that both lie,
and they see the struggle which we are carrying
on against speculation. It must be admitted that
the Whites also, and the Mensheviki have made
some progress in agitation, which they owe to the
political division of our armies. The peasants
saw the banner upon which was written, not "Dic-
tatorship of the Proletariat", but "Constituent
Assembly, Democracy", etc. But in practice they
saw that the Soviet Government was better for them.
And here is our second aim: the dictatorship of the
Eroletariat must be a moral influence, there must
e no compulsory methods with regard to the peas-
antry. This question will be solved by the eco-
nomic antagonism within the peasantry. The two
years of civil war have welded the workers to*
gether, they are consolidated, while the peasantry
is falling more and more apart. The peasants can-
not forget the capitalists and the land-owners, they
know whom they once had to deal with. On the
other hand, the present-day peasantry is of such
nature as to draw the interests of its various strata
apart; it is not compact. For not every peasant
lives under good conditions, and there exists there
in no way the right of freedom and equality. The
peasants are half workers and half owners; but the
realization of our aim demands a uniform will,
in order that in every practical question all may
work together as one man. The uniform will must
not be merely a phrase or a symbol, we demand
that it become a tact. The uniform will found its
expression during the war in the fact that every one
who put his interests, the interests of his village, or
those of his group above those of the community
was stigmatized as a coward and shot, and such
judgment was justified because of the moral con-
sciousness of the working class that it must obtain
victory. We spoke of such executions quite open-
ly; we said that we did not hide the compulsion,
that without compulsory means against the retro-
gressive part of the proletariat we could not get
out of the old social order. This was a uniform
will which in practice had shown itself in the pun-
ishment of every deserter, in every battle and dur-
ing every march in which the Communists
marched ahead, as a good example. At present it is
necessary to carry out this uniform will in labor,
in our industry, in agriculture, at a time when we
dispose of an immense field with numberless fac-
tories. By compulsion alone we cannot carry out
this aim, and in the face of such a gigantic pur-
pose it becomes clear to us what a uniform will
means in everyday work. Take, for example, the
writes brochures and affixes a signature, in order
to become known. The thing must be thought over,
it must be carefully weighed, what this slogan
means in everyday work. Take, for example, the
year 1918, when there was not yet such a spirit.
Already then there was apparent the necessity of
individual administration, of recognition of the
dictatorial plenary powers of one person for the
carrying out of the Soviet idea; therefore all man-
ner of talk about equal rights is nonsense. We
conduct the class struggle not on the basis of equal
rights. The proletariat wins because it consists
of hundreds of thousands of disciplined men, who
are animated by a uniform will.
The proletariat can overcome the peasantry, which
has not the single will that welds together the
proletariat of the factory. The peasantry is eco-
nomically split, because it is composed in part of
workers and in part of owners. Their property
binds them to capitalism. "The dearer I sell the
better." "And if for that reason hunger visit the
land, I shall sell still dearer." The peasant work-
er, on the contrary, knows that the working class
freed him from the yoke of the landowner. We
have to do here with a struggle of two souls, gen-
erated by the economic situation of the peasantry.
This must be emphasized: that wei can win only
if we follow a steady course. All who work will
always be workers to us. But the peasant owners
we must combat. If we have struck down gentle-
men so highly educated as the controllers of in-
ternational politics, such highly experienced and
rich men who have a hundredfold more cannons
and dreadnoughts than we, it would be ridiculous
if we should not be able to solve the aims of our
class and those of the peasantry. Here discipline
and true, strong soliditary will win. The will of hun-
dreds of thousands can be embodied in one person.
The Soviet system creates this uniform will. No
other country in the world knows so many con-
ferences of workers and peasantry. In this manner
class consciousness develops. No empire could in
generations give as much to the people as the
Soviet Government has already given. And upon
this broadest possible basis rests the Soviet consti-
tution and the Soviet power. Based upon the
strength of the workers and peasants, its decisions
assume an unheard of authority. But this clone
does not suffice us. We are materialists and do
not allow ourselves to be content with mere au-
thority. No, first of all exert yourselves to bring
such decisions into reality. But here we see that
the old bourgeois element is stronger than we. We
must admit this openly. The old middle class
habits of shifting for oneself, of free trade, all these
are stronger than we. The trade unions originated
out of capitalism as a means for the development
of a new class. The class is an idea which forms
itself during the struggle and by development. One
class is separated from the other not by walls; no
Chinese wall separates the workers and the peas-
ants. When the proletarfat became a class it was
strong enough to take hold of the whole machin-
ery of the state and to challenge the whole world
to a fight and to conquer. Thus, all craft and
trade organizations became backward. There was
a time, even under capitalism, that the union of the
proletariat advanced beyond the old craft and trade
organizations.
It \m\ f; prOjjresalvfc movement: the proletariat
25,1920
SOVIET RUSSIA
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could not unite otherwise. It is absurd to think
that the proletariat can unite at once to become a
class. Such a process of uniting may take de-
cades. No one opposed such sectarian, shortsighted
views as bkterly as did Marx. The class grows under
capitalism and at an appropriate moment it seizes
the power of the state. All craft and trade organ-
izations then become reactionary; they have played
their role, they lead backward, not forward. Not
because there are there, as it were, particularly
bad men, but because bad elements and opponents
of Communism find here a basis for their propa-
ganda. We are beset with people of the petty bour-
geois class who permit free trade and the capital-
ism of small husbandmen and owners to be born
anew. Karl Marx opposed energetically the old
Utopian Socialism and demanded a scientific treat-
ment of the matter. "Learn on the basis of the
class struggle how the class grows and aid it in
maturing." The same Marx opposes those leaders
of the working class who fall into these errors. I
spoke recently of the movement in England in the
year 1872. The United Council censured his state-
ment to the effect that the English leaders were
bought by the bourgeoisie. Marx naturally under-
stood this not in the sense that these or other
persons were traitors. That is nonsense. He
speaks of the bloc formed by a certain portion of
the workers of a certain union with the bourgeoisie,
the latter supporting the workers directly and in-
directly and aiding mem, so far as legal forms are
concerned, assisting their press and bringing the
workers into Parliament The English bourgeoisie
did in this respect accomplish veritable miracles,
surpassing all other countries. Marx and Engels,
from 1852 to 1892, for forty years, exposed this
bourgeoisie. For the bourgeoisie must everywhere
seek coalition by more or less new methods; but
it is active in all countries. Everywhere in the
world the transition of the trade unions from slav-
ery to a creative role is revolution. Our workers
cried: the increase of the work output is for us
a burden, you are fleecing us. They not only
maintained this, but it was their innermost convic-
tion. We have been existing already for two years
and what is the meaning of it? It means hunger
for the working class. This has been statistically
proved. In the years 1918 and 1919 the industrial
workers all over the country received only seven
poods of bread, while the peasants of the prov-
inces, rich in grain, got seventeen poods yearly.
The proletariat has won, and thanks to this victory
it suffers a greater hunger than the peasant, who
under the Soviet Government has much more than
under the Czar, and also much more than he needs.
Under the Czar the peasant had at most sixteen
poods of bread; under our government he has
seventeen poods. This we all know; statistics show
it Every one knows what it means when the worker
hungers. The dictatorship of the proletariat con-
demned the latter to two years of hunger, but this
hunger has proved that the worker can sacrifice
not only his trade interests but also his life. And
if the proletariat has been able to bear this hunger
for two years, it is for the reason that it has found
support in all the toiling classes, and that it has
assumed these sacrifices for the sake of the victory
of the power of the workers and peasants. To be
sure, the division of the workers along trade lines
has continued, and there are many of the trades
which were necessary for the capitalists which we
cannot use. But we know that the workers of
these trades suffer a greater hunger and that this
cannot be changed. Capitalism is destroyed, but
Socialism has not yet been built; this situation will
continue for a long time, and at this point we
must face all those misunderstandings which are
not mere accidents. They are the outcome of the
historical contradiction between the trade unions
as a means of uniting along trade lines in the
time of capitalism and the class union of the
workers who seized the state power. Such workers
take all sacrifices upon themselves because they
vaguely feel and even give expression to the fact
that the class interests are above the craft inter-
ests. But the workers who are not equal to such
sacrifices are in our opinion traitors and are ban-
ished from the midst of the proletarians.
This is the basic problem of labor discipline
and individual administration, with which the
party management has been dealing. All its de-
cisions are certainly known to you, and you will
hear more details from those who address you.
They all agree to the fact that the working class
has grown and become strong, that it has seized
power and is fighting against all, and that this strug-
gle is now more difficult than it was before. Dur-
ing the war the struggle was easier, but now it
behooves us to organize and to educate morally be-
cause the proletariat in our country is not very
numerous. The war has effaced it. As a result of
our victories the administration has become more
difficult. This should be understood by all. When
we speak of dictatorship, it is not a mere whim
of centralists. One must admit that it is harder
for us now to rule. The proletariat has decreased
in numbers, while the territory conquered by us
has, on the contrary, become larger. We have con-
quered Siberia, the Don territory and Kuban. There
the proletariat represents only an infinitesimal
percentage of the population. We must face the
workers openly and talk to them plainly. We need
more discipline, more individual administration,
and more dictatorship. Without this we should
not even dream of a great victory. We have an
army of three million and the 600,000 of whom
I spoke should be but a vanguard for those three
million, who must march forward unshaken. We
shall try out this labor army and the trade unions,
and shall learn at every step by experience. But
it must be understood that we have no other army
for victory. Six hundred thousand vanguard troops*
and an army of three million, in which there are
many Kulaki (village sharks), but few proletari-
It follows therefrom that a new relation mu9t
ans.
be created between proletarians and non-proletari-
ans. The new airne nre ret to be solved bv com-
pulsion, but through organization and authority*
{J
630
SOVIET RUSSIA
December 25, 1920
This is the basis for the firm conviction expressed
at the party conference, which I wish to emphasize
here once more. Our slogan is: to approximate
individual administration, more labor discipline,
strenuous effort, work with military resolution,
steadiness, self -sacrifice, and the sacrifice of one's
group, craft, and individual interests. Without that
we shall not win. But if we carry out as a man
the decisions of the party with three million work-
ers, and later on with many millions of peasants
who feel the moral strength of men who have sac-
rificed themselves for the victory of Socialism, we
shall then, together with them, be decidedly and
most certainly unconquerable.
Military Review
By Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek
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CEVERAL days ago I noticed in the press an
^ order issued by Comrade Sokolnikov, the
Chief Commander of the Red Turkestan Army, in
which he directed a part of his troops to occupy all
the passes of the Plateau of Pamir along the bor-
der of Afghanistan.
This new movement of the Red Army closer to
India has a great political and strategical signifi-
cance, and though it passed almost unnoticed in
this country, it produced not only a great sensa-
tion in Great Britain, but even caused real alarm
among British statesmen. For they know what it
means !
It must be noticed that the Plateau of Pamir, the
highest plateau in the world, rising 12,000 feet
above sea-level, and situated in the southern part
of the province of Fergana, in Russian Turkestan,
lies just between Tibet, India, and Afghanistan.
This part of Russian Turkestan is sparsely popu-
lated. No more than 30,000 nomads of the Kirghi-
zian race live in the valleys of Pamir, and usually
at the end of the summer they move for the winter
into the valleys of Alai. For nine months Pamir
is cut off from the rest of the world by snow.
Almost without vegetation, rocky and sandy, sur-
rounded by the highest mountain chains, covered
with eternal snow, which reflect their dreamy sum-
mits in numerous lakes sparsely bordered by yel-
low-green grass, the Pamir appears a dead, stony
desert, with the wind the only master, and rightly
bears the name given to it by the nations: "Bam-i-
Tuniah", which means the "Top of the World".
This part of our globe became known to the
civilized peoples of the west through the celebrated
Italian explorer, Marco Polo, who in 1254-1323
A.D. crossed the whole continent of Asia. Hence-
forth, Pamir was the object of many explorations,
especially by Russians. Kostenko, Fedchenko,
Svertzov, and the two brothers, Groom-Grzimailo
Potanir may be placed in the first rank among these
explorers. The Russian Geographical Society also
encouraged foreigners to develop the exploration
of that mysterious country, and a German orien-
talist, Mittendorf, as well as the Swedish explorer,
>Sven Hedin, and the British Lord Berdmore were
allowed to work in the Pamir.
In 1891-1895 the Russians annexed Pamir entire-
ly, and established on the banks of the river Mur-
gab a fort with a permanent garrison. With the
outbreak of the revolution in 1917 this fort was de-
serted by its original garrison and was occupied by
the natives, thus opening the gates into Russian
Turkestan to the British Indian army, which was
in readiness to take that route from Kashmir simul-
taneously with their prepared movement through
Afghanistan, debouching from Khayber pass as
well as penetrating into Transcaspia from Persian
territory. This plan failed completely, thanks to
the friendly relations which Moscow succeeded in
establishing with the Afghans. In the middle of
1919 the Afghan Army defeated the British ag-
gressors, and stopped them along the whole line
of the Afghan frontier, thus protecting the Soviet
Turkestan Republic, which was at that time busily
organizing its civil administration and military
force. Finally, part of the Turkestan garrison was
dispatched to the Pamir, where they reoccupied the
abandoned stronghold; and the Red banner of
the Soviet Republic waved over the "Top of the
World", reminding the oppressed people of India
of the proximity of the workers' republic
The alliance of Afghanistan with Soviet Russia
brought about the complete liberation of the Af-
ghans from the British "protectorate". This was
admitted by Lord Curzon on October 12, 1920, in
his official statement at the annual dinner of the
Central Asian Society, of which he is President
"We must face the fact that the expansion of the
British Empire in Central Asia is at an end and
rightly at an end," said this British statesman, but
he did not dare complete his thought by stating that
Great Britain was approaching the end of her des-
potic rule in Asia altogether.
The rapid growth of the prestige of Moscow
among the Asiatic peoples forced the British
diplomats to change their policy in Asia, and
change it radically. Less than a year ago, England
was on the offensive in Afghanistan, Tibet, Persia,
and Turkey. Now we see that she is keeping strict-
ly to defensive strategy in all these parts of the
vast continent, and her diplomacy is attempting to
establish "friendly" relations with those peoples of
Asia whom it so recently was ready to put under
its yoke by means of armed force.
Was this change due to the good intentions of
the British rulers, or was it a result of the un-
believable consolidation of the oppressed Moham-
medans of Asia with the young but powerful Rus-
sian Soviet Republic, whose good faith towards the
Asiatic nations was understood and appreciated
from Tibet to the Pacific, and from the Himalayas
to fbe Mian Ocean end the Persian Gulf?
(L>
December 25, 1920
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The great victories which were so brilliantly
won by the Red Army in Europe and Asia have
strengthened the confidence of the proletariat of
Asia in the regime newly introduced by the Rus-
sian workers and peasants; most of the Asiatic con-
tinent is now seething with agitation and burning
to establish some new form of government, if not
exactly the form which helped the Russian people
to free themselves from their oppressors and in-
vaders, then at least some revolutionary govern-
ment which may return to them their lost inde-
pendence and prosperity.
Great Britain suddenly understood that her
mighty navy and her army, splendidly equipped
and abundantly supplied, would be powerless to
meet the Russian proletarian masses, supported by
the oppressed masses of their Asiatic allies. It
is now apparent that for the last twenty-five years
the people of Central Asia have not only de-
veloped mentally, but also, to a great extent, have
become educated politically; and that the country
has ceased to be a land of mystery, and has become
a land of acute political problems. These prob-
lems, when they take definite shape, have to be
met immediately, and require strategical support,
and such support cannot be independent of a regu-
lar army. There is never an army in an agricul-
tural country, in a country of peaceful laborers;
there cannot be officers and men who have the neces-
sary training for this purpose; there are no bril-
liant strategists. There is only one method of strug-
gle, which is the strongest in the world, and creates
its own strategy, mobilizing a most powerful, en-
thusiastic army, which gives birth to genuine lead-
ers — that method is revolution.
Everything is ready to serve a revolution when
it comes. Revolution looks upon the armaments of
its enemies as its own, it considers the rich supply
of the counter-revolutionary armies also as its own.
it considers even the fighting units of its adver-
saries as its future allies, temporarily forced by
their tyrannical authorities to fight their brothers,
and in this lies the incomparable strength of the
revolutionary forces, no matter how badly armed
and poorly supplied with ammunition and food-
stuffs they may be.
This, at last, was understood by the British, and
they began to talk to the rebellious people of
Asia in a new and softer tongue. The real menace
threatening India brought some of the British states-
men to reason, and peace negotiations were recently
carried on with the Afghans. According to The
Christian Science Monitor of December 14, 1920,
the following announcement is made by the Gov-
ernment of India:
"As is known, the recent conversations at Mussoorie
were intended to clear the ground for final negotiations
between the British and Afghan governments for a per-
manent treaty of friendship. The Afghan delegates re-
turned to Kabul at the end of July to lay the results of
these discussions before the Ameer.
"Recently the Ameer, after full consideration of the
reports of his delegates, wrote to the Viceroy in the most
friendly terms, inviting a British mission to Kabul for the
conclusion of a treaty, and His Majesty's Government
of India to accept this invitation. The n^ion will con-
by LiOOgle
sist of Mr. Mobbs, Nawab Sir Shads Shah, Mr. Pears,
Lieutenant-Colonel Muspratt, and Mr. Acheson. It is
hoped that the mission will be able to cross the frontier
in the last week of December."
In view of the fact that an alliance already exists
between Afghanistan and Soviet Russia, and that
part of the Russian Red Army was permitted by
the Afghans to enter their country, and that the
Soviet mission for a long time enjoyed the hos-
pitality of Kabul, this news is of great importance,
proving the recognition by British diplomacy of its
own weakness with regard to its powerful oppon-
ent in Asia — the Soviet Republic of Russia.
It is well-known that the state of affairs in Af-
ghanistan is such that at any moment the establish-
ment of Soviets through the country may be ex-
pected. The Amir has practically lost his auto-
cratic power over the people, and the annual Dur-
bar, the general popular meeting of the people
with their ruler, since the assassination of the late
Habib-Ullah-Khan, was attended with a great deal
of trouble. A kind of constitution was granted
to the people by their new sovereign, but still the
people are not satisfied and are asking more . . .
The army in Afghanistan has reached the number
of almost half-a-million men, is well-equipped,
well-trained, and has a brilliant cavalry and a
powerful artillery. Having been reorganized by
instructors of the Red Army, the military force
of the Afghans may be considered formidable, es-
pecially for a war in the mountains. We must not
overlook the fact that 6,000,000 of the Afghans, the
women as well as the men, are of an extremely
warlike nature. I became intimately acquainted
with the people during my expedition to Pamir in
1891-1892, and I had an even better chance to ob-
serve them when I crossed Afghanistan in 1901,
taking the route Kelif-Balkh-Bamian-Kabul, reach-
ing Peshawar (India) through the famous Khay-
ber pass. The Afghans are the most freedom-lov-
ing people in Asia, but like the Russians, though
revolutionists at heart, they have borne with ex-
traordinary indifference the burden of their des-
potic rulers. This type of oppressed people is the
most sensitive to revolutionary influence; therefore,
the Afghans cannot remain indifferent to the fate
of their brother Mohammedans of Turkestan, Per-
sia, Transcaucasia, and Azerbaijan. They are
anxiously watching the growth of the new revolu-
tionary movement in Asia, and they have to fol-
low it. It is a fact that the people themselves
forced the Afghan Government to approach Soviet
Russia. A series of uprisings of the warlike tribes
of the Amirate became so menacing to the exist-
ence of the Amir that he hurried to appease his
people and sent his mission to Moscow.
There is no newspaper at the disposition of the
nomads and other primitive people of Central
Asia; the news about the atrocities of the Bol-
sheviki, issued to the press by British propa-
ganda, could not penetrate into Afghanistan. The
Afghans are still unacquainted with the dispatches
of the Associated Press or others similar to them.
All the news which the native population receive
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is that of eyewitnesses, spread from one bazaar to
another, with remarkable rapidity. This news knows
no censorship, is extraordinarily accurate, and can-
not be killed by the kind of propaganda which the
Allies used to spread among the natives of Asia
and Africa. The information which the popula-
tion of Afghanistan received from their own coun-
trymen or from the natives of Russian Turkestan
was similar to the information which later reached
their country from Soviet Russia, in the form of
printed matter in their own language, and they
accepted any news, any appeal from the Soviet
Government with full confidence and respect.
Even at that time, as far back as 1901, during
my sojourn in Afghanistan, I noticed among the
Afghans a feeling of sympathy for the suffering
Hindoo population. How often seated in their
Chai-Khanas in a bazaar and talking politics (the
Afghans are great at talking politics, especially
in connection with Russian and English affairs)
was I struck by the note of hostility directed by
most of them against England. "The time will
come," an old experienced Afghan major often
said to me, "when we and the Russians will free
India from its oppressors." Only one thing
troubled this old warrior: that Russia might swat-
low his country together with India. For a new
Russia, he certainly could not even dream of.
Now the time has come when the Russian work-
ers and peasants are glad to see that their friends,
the workers and peasants of Afghanistan, are ready
to help their Hindustan brothers in achieving an
independent and happy existence, and there is no
menace for them from Russia either of conquest
or of annexation.
There is a real reason for Great Britain's state of
anxiety over India, which is to the British Empire
what his vulnerable heel was to Achilles. Anti-
British propaganda, the new method of warfare
introduced by/ the German General Staff in the
Great War, became a powerful weapon of Eng-
land's enemies in Asia, against which British tanks
and poison gas, as well as bombardment from the
air of defenseless towns and villages are so many
useless toys. The cruelty of the great murder in
Punjab, by General Dyer, whose wholesale slaugh-
ter of the Hindoo population was approved by the
House of Lords, which raised a large purse for
him in England, while lavish praise was heaped on
the Civil Governor, Sir Michael O'Dwyer, "whose
iron rule in the Punjab made the iron enter into
the soul of the people of that province," not only
produced its due effect on the population of India,
but also spread with lightning rapidity throughout
the Mussulman world. The Hindoo nationalist agita-
tors exploited these events with great success and,
finally, in India the British Government for the
first time frankly confessed that, in case of war
with the Afghans, or worse, with the Soviet armies,
there was great doubt whether the native Hindoo
regiments would remain faithful to the crown. The
situation was aggravated by the fact that there was
no way to reinforce the Indian garrison from the
home country, or to direct troops from Canada or
by Google
Australia to Hindustan. The concentration of a
strong British army in India at the moment re-
quired would be, in view of the situation in Ire-
land, in Asia Minor, in Egypt, and in South Africa,
an absolute impossibility; and without strong re-
serves the local Indian army would be far from
sufficient to occupy the Turkish-Armenian front,
the Transcaspian front, and the Afghanistan front,
to operate in Pamir and in Tibet, where the politi-
cal atmosphere every day is becoming more and
more gloomy for Great Britain.
The British strategists certainly understand this,
and they firmly insist that their diplomats will find
a way to settle affairs m Asia in a peaceful man-
ner, because British strategy is absolutely powerless
to support its diplomacy, whose political plans are
becoming too complicated to be carried out by
British arms, even if supported by the Allies.
It is a remarkable fact that the most competent
military experts of Great Britain, like General
Maurice, Colonel Repington, and others, expect
the clique surrounding Winston Churchill, all ad-
vocate a complete cessation of hostilities in Europe
and Asia, and the establishment of peace with
the Soviet Government, because without it there
is no hope of peace, at least for a decade; they
know that this would result in a social revolution,
not only throughout Europe, but also in Asia, which
would be surely followed by a loss of all the Bri-
tish colonies, as well as of the colonies of all the
European nations. The situation is desperate, and
it is rather difficult to guess how Great Britain and
her imperialistic Allies will liquidate the chaos
into which they have plunged the whole world.
The more I study die present conditions in the
Eastern hemisphere, the more I am convinced that
the old civilization of Western Europe, having at-
tained the highest level of its cultural progress, has
misused its gifts for destructive purposes, sacrific-
ing the interests of the majority to the materialistic
prosperity of the minority. There is no doubt,
also, that in the East — in Russia — a new civilization
has been born, and is growing rapidly. TTiis new
civilization, it seems to me, must supplant the old
one, must enlarge the culture of the old effete
civilization, nursed for centuries by imperialistic
capitalism. Once it has been acquired, it has to
be applied properly, namely, for constructive pur-
poses only, and this will put an end to the. pos-
sibility of future wars.
The peace which the imperialistic coalition has
tried to establish in Europe and Asia is merely a
compromise on the part of weakened and de»
feated imperialists, and will be of short duration.
As soon as the economic condition of the world
returns more or less to its normal state, wars will
break out in different parts of the world.
Soviet Russia is willing to make peace with all
the world. If the world has been so imperfectly
organized by the League of Nations as to make
the outbreak of new wars a certainty, Soviet Russia
will not share the responsibility for such events,
even though she be ready to live at peace with the
disordered handiwork.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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Russia, Ukraine, and Poland
Continuation of the Negotiations at Riga
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Riga, November 16. — On November 13, a conver-
sation took place between the Russian and Polish
Delegation, in which Yoffe pointed out that ques-
tions that had appeared solved and determined by
the treaty, now seemed to be still open. The most
important paragraph, paragraph 6, which deals
with the armistice, had thus far not been fulfilled
by Poland. There could not of course be any
transactions on the proposal of Poland with regard
to the Volhynian sugar factories, and on a final
peace, until the armistice conditions were complete-
ly carried out. This was a cardinal question. The
failure to withdraw the Polish troops to the line
that had been set was a direct violation of the
treaty. In spite of the armistice, Russia and
Ukraine were obliged to continue military action
^against troops that were organized on Poland's ter-
ritory, with Poland's aid and equipment, and which
were attacking Ukrainian and White Russian terri-
tory. The present condition at the front could
only involve a renewal of the war of Russia and
Ukraine with Poland. The military actions of the
Red Army against the White Guard troops, in con-
sequence of the sojourn of Polish detachments on
Ukrainian and White Russian soil, to the east of
Poland's national boundary, might make collisions
with such troops inevitable. During the armistice
negotiations, both sides aimed at securing a real
peace; but now feeling had manifestly changed, as
was declared in the Polish press, which was
writing about the inevitability of a new war with
Russia, and also in the expressions of Polish states-
men; besides it was evident in the special treaty of
peace between the Polish Government and Petlura.
In spite of the treaties signed on October 12 with
Soviet Ukraine, the Polish Government evidently
considered it proper to recognize another Ukrainian
government also, and to conclude treaties with
this other Ukrainian government. The ques-
tion had to be finally decided as to whether Pol-
and was really intending to renew the war,
for the armistice treaty had been violated. Dur-
ing the negotiations Poland expressed fears that
Russia might not ratify the peace after Wrangel
was defeated. Wrangel was completely defeated,
and yet Russia and Ukraine were still willing to
carry out an honest and complete fulfillment of all
the conditions of the treaty signed with Poland.
They were ready to consider favorably the ques-
tion proposed by Poland with regard to the pro-
tection of Polish interests in the Volhynian sugar
production, and were generally convinced that the
restoration of economic and commercial relations
would be the best guarantee of peace. On the other
hand, Poland had created a serious and extremely
dangerous front situation, which mi^ht lead to a
renewal of war conditions. Should Poland desire
this, let it say so openly, as was provided in that
article of the treaty which requires a fourteen-day
notice.
Digitized by \j009 Ic
Dombski replied that he could not agree with
Yoffe on the question of a change of attitude on
the part of Poland toward Russia and Ukraine.
Polish public opinion, he said, was still in favor
of peace; he knew of no organs of the press that
were working for a renewal of the war with Rus-
sia; Article 6 of the armistice treaty did not pro-
vide for an immediate withdrawal of troops. To
withdraw the troops at once, in view of the hoof
and mouth disease which was raging, would be
connected with great danger. It was neces-
sary to set the time when the Polish troops should
be withdrawn. Poland was ready to fulfill all its
obligations, but must first create the neces-
sary sanitary and technical conditions. Further-
more, Dombski mentioned article 11 of the treaty,
and pointed out that Poland had fulfilled all its
provisions. If the troops of Petlura, Balakhovich,
and others, had been pushed back on Polish terri-
tory, Poland would undertake to disarm them. More
could not be asked of Poland. Dombski was con-
vinced that collisions between Russian-Ukrainian
and Polish troops would not occur. At least Pol-
and did not desire collisions, for it considered the
war with Russia to be finally ended.
Yoffe declared he did not doubt the candor of
the Polish Delegation. Yet it was clear, he said,
that the attitude at the signing of the armistice
conditions had been quite different from now. Yoffe
recalled the occupation of Minsk by the Poles on
October 12. To be sure, the Poles soon evacuated
Minsk, but not at the command or order of the
Polish Supreme Command, but rather because the
Polish soldiers did not wish to be considered as
having occupied territory that belonged to Russia
by treaty. The change of attitude in Poland was
unquestionably perceptible. For instance, the no-
tion of buffer states was again making its appear-
ance. The Russo-Ukrainian Delegation had proofs
that the basis of operations of troops now proceed-
ing against Soviet Russia was on Polish territory.
In boundary questions, Russia and Ukraine had
met Poland more than half-way, and yet Poland
continued the occupation of White Russian terri-
tory and Ukrainian territory to the east of the
boundary line. Sanitary reasons would not serve
as a sufficient basis for this action. All this lead
one to believe that Poland desired to continue the
war, if not openly, then at least under the flag of
Petlura, Balakhovich, etc. Russia and Ukraine
would not, however, permit themselves to be de-
ceived. They wanted either an open peace or an
open war. In view of the present situation on the
front they could not tolerate a further advance and
reenforcement of White Guard formations. Even
if Poland should not help these troops — although
it can hardly be assumed that parents would not
be willing to aid their offspring — the posi-
tion of the Polish army was nevertheless impeding
actions of the Bed Anny against the White Guard
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troops and thus conjuring up the danger of a new
war. Yoffe again emphasized the fact that epidemics
and the question of the sugar factories did not
justify a continued occupation, and that the Russo-
Ukrainian Delegation, in view of the violation of
article 6 of the armistice conditions, and in view
of the inevitability of collisions between the Polish
troops and the Red Army, must insist upon a with-
drawal of the Polish troops.
Riga, November 15. — The Chairmen of the Rus-
sian and Polish Peace Delegations, Yoffe and
Dombski, agreed as a result of their sessions of
November 13 and 14 that the withdrawal of the
Polish troops to Polish national territory, in all
cases where this withdrawal had not yet been ac-
complished, should take place immediately, not
later than November 19, in accordance with article
6 of the armistice treaty. In these sessions, Yoffe
and Dombski signed another protocol on the sub-
ject of the guarantee of Polish interests in the
sugar factories of the Volhynia province. To
compensate for Poland's expenditures in the sugar
crop of 1919-1920 in the occupied region, where
Polish armies are still stationed, Soviet Ukraine
is to deliver 70 per cent of the sugar obtained to
Poland.
Riga, November 17. — Today at five o'clock the
plenary session of the Russo-Ukrainian-Polish
Peace Conference was opened. After Dombski's
opening speech, Yoffe expressed thanks for the hos-
pitality of Riga and emphasized that he had never
doubted the benevolence of the Lettish people to-
ward the people of Russia and Ukraine. Yoffe
further said:
"Finally peace negotiations with Poland are be-
ginning. The Russian-Ukrainian Peace Delegation
notes with satisfaction that all the frictions and
misunderstandings that permitted doubts to arise
as to the genuineness of the Polish desire for peace
have now disappeared, and welcomes the declara-
tion that has just been made that the Polish Peace
Delegation has the object of pursuing the attain-
ment of a final peace, with the same determined
will that has characterized their work in the pre-
liminary peace treaty. Russia and Ukraine, on
their part, have given no cause to doubt their gen-
uine desire for peace. If Russia and Ukraine are
obliged to state categorically that they will in no
way tolerate any attempts to circumvent the peace,
and always will prefer an open war to a war that
is waged under pseudonyms of various kinds, they
nevertheless state with equal definiteness that their
policy will not be influenced by the war map, and
that at moments of success as well as of reverses
it will remain true to its obligations. Now that
the last powerful enemy of Russia and Ukraine,
Baron Wrangel, has been finally destroyed and
forced to capitulate, now that the Red banner is
waving triumphantly over Simferopol and Sebasto-
pol, now that the hour of the final annihilation of
the mutinous bands of Petlura, Savinkov, Bala-
khovich, Peremykin, and others is approaching, the
peace negotiations will be conducted on our part
with the same magnanimity with regard to the legal
and normal requirements of our Polish brothers
with which we conducted such negotiations in the
armistice treaty and the preliminary peace period
Welcoming the categorical statement that "Poland
conducting an independent policy cannot be turned
aside from the pursuit of peace, and will make
every effort to make the peace a permanent one,"
I expressed the optimistic feeling that in view of
the already obtained understanding in the prelimi-
nary peace treaty as to all fundamental questions,
we shall surely be able to reach an agreement on
economic questions, and this agreement will mean
a still greater strengthening of the independence
of the Polish policy, and thus very much improve
the general peace situation.
"Finally the fact that the peace negotiations are
being conducted on the Polish side by the same
respected chairman, who in the first period of the
negotiations, in spite of war conditions, succeeded
in producing an attitude that made an understand-
ing possible, the Russian-Ukrainian Peace Delega-
tion is filled with the hope that the negotiations
may proceed smoothly and swiftly, and we there-
fore frankly and candidly share the plea of the
esteemed chairman of the Polish Delegation that
our work of peace will have beneficent effects.
THE EIGHTH CONGRESS OF SOVIETS
The Central Executive Committee of Soviets re-
ports that the order of the day of the Eighth All-
Russian Congress of Soviets, which opens December
2, at Moscow, is the following:
1. Reports of the Central Executive Committee
and of the Council of Peoples' Commissars, on the
internal and external situation;
2. Immediate tasks of reconstruction of national
economy ;
3. Reconstruction of industry;
4. Reconstruction of transportation;
5. Expansion of agricultural production and
advancement of peasant economy;
6. The struggle against bureaucratism;
7. The election of the new Central Executive
Committee.
Bound Volumes for 1920
Volume II, of which a number of copies,
splendidly bound, are still to be obtained by
persons desiring them, is sold at five dollars.
Check or money order should accompany
order. Volume I {June-December, 1919) is
sold out and will not be reprinted. Volume
III will be bound, with title-page and index,
as soon as the issues have all appeared (Jan-
uary 1, 1921). Readers may place orders
now for Volume III, and should send the cost
of the volume — five dollars — with their
orders.
SOVIET RUSSIA
Room 304
110 W. 40th St. New York, N. T.
Orininal frnni
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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The Break with Litvinov
The official organ of the North Norway Fisher-
men's Association, a non-political organization, has
the following to say on the failure of the negotia-
tions between Litvinov and the Norwegian Govern-
ments. {See Documents, pp. 642-645 of this issue.)
It is difficult at this moment rightfully to judge
who is guilty in the failure of the negotiations
with Litvinov, in which the people of North Nor-
way have been placing such high hopes. There
has been altogether too much secrecy in the matter.
The general public — with the exception of a few
of the initiated — were not informed concerning the
questions under treatment.
The onlookers were kept in a position in which
they believed that everything was ready for a suc-
cessful termination of the negotiations. The con-
tracts concerning sales had been concluded and the
people believed that the government would show
so much understanding as to find a basis for the
solution of the remaining questions, but this has
not been the case.
It has been often pointed out that commercial
relations with Russia — as conditions are now — are
a question of life and death for North Norway. It
is unnecessary for this reason to point out this
phase of the matter again. Let us simply call
attention to the fact that it will now be a long
time before the negotiations on exchange of goods
can be concluded.
But while the Norwegian Government permits
the negotiations with Litvinov to come to a halt,
press messages from other countries indicate that
there are no longer any essential obstacles to a
resumption of the trade with Russia. The block-
ade is therefore broken and free commercial agree-
ments are about to be consummated.
It is therefore unfortunate that the government
should assume a brusque and hostile attitude.
The demand of the executive of this organiza-
tion that this matter should be placed before the
public in full is a demand that should be more
than met. If the government can present reasonable
proofs that a breaking off of the negotiations was
justified, well and good, if not, its mode of action
should be subjected to further and more profound
scrutiny.
As far as we can see from what has leaked out,
the break was the result of political negotiations.
The government from the very outset seemed to
object to the personnel of the Russian Commercial
Delegation. It must be that the terror of "Bolshev-
ism" has once more been the decisive factor.
We know nothing about the men who hold the
highest offices of this land, and it is therefore
quite possible that they may be such weak souls
as feel obliged to draw their night caps over their
ears and creep in under their conjugal quilts in
order not to fall victims to temptation. Even
though this should be the case, it is nevertheless
not proper to attribute such qualities to the whole
Norwegian people. The people are healthy and
sound and are not afraid of free exchanges of
views. They will not permit themselves to be mis-
led by demagogues.
But economic collapse might force the people to
do things that are desired by no one.
It is not impossible that the government's meas-
ures will have an effect contrary to their intention.
by L^OOgle
NOTE OF PROTEST TO FRANCE
Moscow, October 30. — The People's Commissar
for Foreign Affairs, Chicherin, on October 27 sent
the French Prime Minister as well as Foreign Min-
ister Leygues the following note:
The Russian Soviet Government notes with re-
gret that the serious desire for complete peace be-
tween Russia and Poland with which Soviet Russia
is animated, as is also the overwhelming majority
of the Polish people, is being repeatedly frustrated
by outside influences which constitute a hindrance
to an immediate and effective peace in eastern Eu-
rope. A preliminary peace and armistice treaty
has been signed between Poland on the one hand,
and Russia and Ukraine on the other, and these
last-named powers therefore bad a right to hope
that hostilities would immediately and absolutely
cease in accordance with the agreement that b§4
been concluded. But the facts have unfortunately
not corresponded with this hope. Petlura's troops,
in spite of the fact that they constitute an integral
portion of the Polish army, and are under the or-
ders of the Polish Military Command, have not
subjected themselves to the armistice agreement,
and still continue, in violation of the agreement, to
wage war against Russia and Ukraine. As these-
troops, as well as the bandits of Balakhovich and
Savinkov, are not able to maintain themselves
armed and equipped out of their own resources,
and have not sufficient financial resources of their
own for the waging of war, it is manifest that the
French Government, which in spite of its repeated
assurances has continued to supply the Polish army
with military heads and instructors, up to the pres-
ent moment, has also supplied these bands with
munitions and weapons to fight against Russia; and
has assigned the necessary credits to Poland with
this object in view; and is continuing to support
Petlura and his consorts and thus is maintaining a
state of war in eastern Europe and preventing the
realization of peace. The French Government,
which egged Poland on to begin this war against
Russia — a war that has cost the Polish people un-
heard of sacrifices — and which has done every-
thing in its power to prevent the reestablish-
ment of peace between Russia and Poland, seems
now to be pursuing the object of continuing to
prolong the sufferings of the working classes in
eastern Europe. In protesting with indignation
against this criminal procedure on the part of the
French Government, which is the cause of the dis-
tress and misery prevailing among the nations of
eastern Europe, the Soviet Government expresses
its hope that the great masses of the French people
will soon put an end to this policy with its bale-
ful consequences for humanity and to the criminal
role played by their government.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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C>\. TU R KESTAN I
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.•'AFGHANISTAN JT
f INDIA .-*
Map of Territory
as well as of the Allied Soviet Republics, showing also some of the neighboring countries «
included in the Federdtiifn arei Aterbaifa% Bashkiria, Bukhara t Khiva, Karelia ; Kirgizia
square kilometers, holding more than 120,000,000 inhabitants. This map was prepared c*
to follow the geographical references in the weekly Military Reviews by Ll-CqI* B* Rov
by Oc
Ic
Original from
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
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in Soviet Russia
del Russia. The heavy dotted line indicates the limits of Soviet territory. The countries
Talaria t Turkestan 9 Ukraine, White Russia. The total area of this territory is about 13,000,000
udine recently published in tl Kommunismus*\ Vienna. Our readers should now find it easier
by Google
Original from
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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SOVIET RUSSIA
Official Organ of the
RUSSIAN SOVIET GOVERNMENT BUREAU
110 West 40th Street New York, N. Y.
This weekly will print articles by members of the
Russian Soviet Government Bureau as well as by
friends and supporters of Soviet Russia. Full re-
sponsibility is assumed by the Bureau only for un-
signed articles. Manuscripts are not solicited; if
sent in, their return is not promised.
Statement of the Russian Soviet
Government Bureau
on the Concession to be Granted to Mr. Washington
B. Vanderlip
New York, December 13, 1920.
Mr. Washington B. Vanderlip called at the Rus-
sian Soviet Government Bureau at 110 West 40th
Street this morning to discuss with Mr. L. Martens,
Representative of the Soviet Republic, the details
of the negotiations conducted by Mr. Vanderlip, on
behalf of a syndicate of Pacific Coast financiers,
with officials of the Soviet Government at Moscow.
As previously announced by the Soviet Govern-
ment Bureau, the concession granted to the Vander-
lip syndicate comprises a sixty year lease of Si-
berian territory east of the one hundred and six-
tieth meridian, including Kamchatka, an area of
400,000 square miles, with exclusive rights to ex-
ploit coal, oil and fisheries. The granting of this
concession was confirmed in a cablegram received
by Mr. Martens from Mr. George Chicherin, Com-
missar for Foreign Affairs at Moscow, on October
26. In addition to the concession for the exploita-
tion of natural resources in Siberia, Mr. Vander-
lip's negotiations at Moscow included another ar-
rangement whereby the same syndicate is to become
the fiscal agent of the Russian Soviet Government
in America, financing all purchases made through
the Soviet Government Bureau. These two arrange-
ments are wholly separate and ununited.
Mr. Vanderlip will have further co lferences with
Mr. Martens and officials of the Commercial De-
partment of the Soviet Government Bureau, after
which he will leave for the Pacific Coast to report
to his associates and arrange for the further de-
velopment of their plans.
"Y^AKUTSK is a region in the extreme east of
*- Siberia, long cut off from the world. A few
months ago, the Central Bureau of Siberian Co-
operatives began the work of opening up this coun-
try. A steamer was equipped and sent out along
the rivers of the district, carrying manufactured
product?. The district possesses immense resources
in skins, as well as various raw materials, which
the population, in their great lack of manufactured
articles, are eager to exchange for the latter. From
by v^
it
IC
the ports of Ayan and Okhotsk, the goods are
transported across country to the Maya, a tributary
of the Aldan, which, in turn, flows into the Lena.
The distance between the Ayan and the Lena is
more than two hundred miles, without roads. The
whole region is covered with dense forests, with
trails known only to the hunters and natives. More
than 100 reindeer are therefore to be used in trans-
port work. This portion of the work is said to
be the most difficult, but the cooperatives have done
everything to secure completely successful opera-
tion. From the Maya, the goods are transported
down the Aldan, and from its confluence with the
Lena they go down the latter river to Yakutsk.
The necessary river tonnage is assured through the
cooperation of the Yakutsk cooperatives. Ayan and
Okhotsk, as well as all the territory surrounding
Lake Okhotsk, are extremely important. They are
famous for their boundless supplies of fish and
skins. Years ago, efforts were already made to
develop these industries, and now again traces of
a reawakening are to be felt in these regions so
long neglected. The Siberian cooperatives, well
acquainted with the needs of the country, are in-
troducing new methods of catching fish and pre-
paring skins. Several depots are to be established
along the coast, between Kamchatka and the Amur,
provided with the necessary employes and supplies,
for the purpose of negotiating with the hunters and
gathering game from them. These depots will
also supply the population with tools and manufac-
tured products.
The Yakutsk region is one of those covered in
the great concession that has just been granted
to the corporation represented by Mr. Washington
B. Vanderlip, of Holleywood, California, who
called at the Soviet Government Bureau, after his
return to America, on Monday, December 13.
R 1
ED CROSS officials have recently been endeav-
oring, through reports spread to newspapers
in various parts of the United States, to give the
impression that Red Cross organizations are not
permitted to work in Russia, that they were ordered
out of the country by tne Soviet Government.
The fact is, the American Red Cross was ordered
out of Russia, but not By the Soviet Government or
by any other authority inside of Russia. It was
ordered out from at home, not from Russia. Any
Red Cross official who really worked with the
American Red Cross in Russia before it left that
country can corroborate this statement. A number
of such individuals have recently, however, been
attempting to produce a contrary impression, and
one of them at least had his statement printed in
a recent issue of the Davenport (Iowa) Daily
Times (November 22). This was Mr. Walter
Davidson, mentioned in the Davenport paper as
"acting manager of the central district headquar-
ters of the Red Cross at Chicago.'' Among other
things he said: "The Red Cross organization was
operating in Russia when it was ordered out of the
country. It was maintaining hospitals, doing re-
Ulllal I I .' I 1 1
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lief work, administering to the millions of suffer-
ing people, when the Soviet Government obtained
control." He was answering a statement of Mr.
Isaac McBride, made at a lecture given in that
city, to the effect that the American Red Cross was
consciously assisting every counter-revolutionary
army attacking Soviet Russia, and neglecting to
furnish any medical aid to the military forces of
Soviet Russia.
Mr. Allen Wardwell was the last American Red
Cross supervisor to leave Soviet Russia. When
Mr. Wardwell returned to the United States, he
gave frequent interviews to American newspapers,
in which he pointed out how fully the American
Red Cross had met with the cooperation of the
Soviet Government. We shall not quote from any
of these now rather old interviews, but reprint
herewith a few short passages from a speech de-
livered by Mr. Wardwell, on October 16, 1920, at
the Twenty-ninth Luncheon Discussion of the
League of Free Nations Association, at the Hotel
Commodore, New York. The subject of the Lunch-
eon Discussion was "Peace or War With Russia?"
'It is now nearly two years since the last of the Ameri-
can relief organizations leff Russia. ConHitions then were
bad enough. Most of us wlio were in relief organizations
have been much occupied in our own affairs since and
perhaps have not been able to follow closely all of the in-
formation which came from Russia, and to compare it pro
and con. None the less, I think those who saw conditions
in the summer of 1918 and can grasp some of the things
that have been passing since, can make a fair picture of
what must be the conditions there today."
After speaking of sanitary and provisions con-
ditions in Soviet Russia, which he believes to be
very bad, Mr. Wardwell continues:
"Naturally the question arises in everybody's mind, why
under such conditions as that, with America taking the
lead or aiding in relief in every other country in the world,
and in other parts of Russia, should we neglect Soviet
Russia? I should have thought that the mere statement
of the conditions that exist there would have been enough
to urge us on to some relief work of that kind, but I am
told that that is largely sentimental bosh, and that I, as
a lawyer of the New York Bar for a considerable number
of years, ought nof to consider such things as that."
And later, after suggesting the fact that political
differences in Russia and elsewhere make persons
in foreign countries desire to give no medical or
other aid to Soviet Russia:
"It is this contest then, that has made people fearful
of sending relief to Russia, fearful that it would aid what
they considered to be the center of this propaganda, this
effort to overthrow their own government. In that I be-
lieve they are wrong.. It seems to me that if this chal-
lenge sent forth from Moscow is a class challenge, then it
is one that is equally on in Moscow. And we must as
much refrain from giving to the Bolsheviks weapons for
their own usefulness there as we would if they were here.
I think the withholding of relief from Soviet Russia, and
particularly the large cities, have given them a weapon
which they have used to the greatest advantage at home.
"Nor do I believe that the people of anti -Bolshevik ten-
dencies—bourgeois, as we call them, who still live in Rus-
sia — would agree that relief should be withheld.
"I have heard the statement made that they are the first
to say, 'We would rather suffer than see help sent to us
from the outside, which would help the Bolsheviks'. I cannot
credit it. I know many of them. Take the medical men
— bourgeois almost to a man. Haven't they stayed in Rus-
Dig j by CTOOglC
sia and done their work? Take the head of the great
Orthopaedic Hospital in Petrograd. I never heard a man
use worse language in secret (Laughter) against the Bol-
sheviks than he did and yet he operated his hospital under
them and never gave any suggestion that he wanted to
leave. He worked on, working under the spur of the most
bitter kind of attack from Bolshevik authorities. I under-
stand that today he is in wha* used to be Tsarskoe-selo
or the Czar's Village, now the Children's Village, working
with the children who live in the former palace of the
Czar. If they can stay there and do that, can't we help
them? (Great Applause.)
"But, 'Oh', they would say, 'there are lots of other rea-
sons why we should not do it. They will take your food
away from them. They won't let you distribute it. You
cannot get it in. They will steal it. They do all sorts of
things.' That is pretty old talk to me. That is exactly
what they said when we were there."
Mr. Wardwell then proceeds to tell a clear story
of honest and just distribution of food, of non-
interference by Soviet authorities. We could quote
it all here, but our readers, should they wish to
read Mr. Ward well's whole speech, can obtain the
stenographic report of the entire Luncheon Dis-
cussion from the League of Free Nations Associ-
ation.
Our object in quoting from Mr. Wardwell at all
is simply to show that Mr. Wardwell, who, being
the last American Red Cross official to leave Soviet
Russia, would certainly know of any ordering out
of the country by the Soviet Government, says not
a word about it, and rather suggests that the fail-
ure of the American Red Cross to continue opera-
tions in Soviet Russia was due to causes nearer
home. It is none of our business whether the Red
Cross sends aid to Soviet Russia or not — we do
not ask charity — but we cannot permit the Ameri-
can Red Cross to "get-away" with its partiality
to counter-revolutionary forces with the statement
that they were "ordered out" of Soviet Russia. They
may have been "ordered out", but it was not by the
Soviet Government.
Thus the Red Cross is indirectly continuing to
spread the impression that it is a "neutral" organ-
ization, interested in securing the advantages of
medical attendance and general relief work to all
the peoples and armies of the world, when as a
rnatter of fact, it is a belligerent body supporting
counter-revolution everywhere.
« • •
TN THE discussion that followed the various
■*■ speeches delivered on the above occasion, a
questioner, apparently convinced that the Soviet
Government was preventing food from reaching
non-Bolsheviks while the Red Cross was still in
Petrograd, provoked an answer from Mr. Wardwell
that must have set his doubts at rest. We cannot
refrain from quoting, again from the stenographic
report, both question and answer:
Question: I should like to ask a question of Mr. Ward-
well.
I have an affidavit in my office, sworn to by an American
soldier who was in charge of the supply and warehouse
of the Red Cross in Petrograd in 1919, in which he states
that an American clergyman, the Rev. George A. Simons,
Methodist minister for fifteen years in Russia, went to the
Red Cross headquarters and was refused food for parishion-
ers of his and for Christian!? generally who were not Bol-
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sheriki who needed assistance. The food waa reftued be.
cause they said they had none. Now, I have a sworn
statement in my office, which I can produce in a moment
for anyone to see, from Lieutenant Hetzel, who works for
the American Can Company on 36th Street, in which he
says that there were hundreds of thousands of dollars ef
supplies in the warehouse of the Red Cross at the time the
Rev. Dr. Simons could not get anything, but that the Bol-
sheviki got supplies, and that they were for sale at the
Nevskyprospekt for weeks and for months afterwards.
Mr. Wardwell: I don't know that this is a question.
It is rather an assertion. I have no doubt that Dr. Simons
if he went direct to the warehouse in Petrograd was refused
food. But Dr. Simons subsequently came to me, and I
gave Dr. Simons food. I gave it for his parishioners. I
have his signed receipt and his letter of thanks in my pos-
session. (Laughter and great applause.)
/^J.EORGIA will probably be thrown by the Allies
^* into an unwilling war with Azerbaijan and
Armenia, both of which are Soviet Republics allied
with Soviet Russia, in order to make of this whole
region a new operating basis for counter-revolution-
ary armies attacking Soviet Russia. A loan is to
be advanced by England to Georgia, and Wrangel
is to be transferred to conduct military operations
on the new scene. A Warsaw dispatch of Novem-
ber 20 tells us that the following has appeared in
Rzeczpospolita, of that city:
"Reports from Russian counter-revolutionary circles at
Warsaw indicate that Wrangel intends to launch new
operations against Soviet Russia in the Caucasus. The
backbone of the new enterprise is to be furnished by the
20,000 men who sought refuge on Entente ships. The same
very well-informed counter-revolutionists also say that the
Georgian Government, which, as is well-known, is Social-
Democratic, had already agreed, before Wrangel's defeat, to
permit him to conduct operations against Soviet Russia with
Georgia as a base."
That is to say, the Social-Democratic Government
of Georgia, acting against the will of the majority
of the population, who desire an alliance with
Soviet Russia, consents to hand over the country to
Wrangel, to use it as a base against Soviet Russia!
Whether France is again to be the chief sponsor
of the new enterprise, is not certain, but a Paris
message of November 21 is not without interest in
this connection:
"Maklakov, the leader of the group of Czarist Russians
who are conducting anti-Bolshevik propaganda from the
Russian 'embassy' in Paris, yesterday had a conference
with the French Prime Minister, in which he made effort
to learn the intentions of the French Government with re-
gard to the defeated Wrangel. It is reported today that
Leygues' answer did not reassure the "Russian Ambassador*,
and that no hope was offered of any new military enterprises
on the part of France, either now or later. But France's
disinclination to give renewed support to adventurers op-
posing the Red Army must not be interpreted as a real
desire for peace. There is reason to assume that the
French Government will make new attempts to crush Mos-
cow. It is already stated that a well-known general of the
French Staff is preparing plans for a military expedition
against Russia, in which among others French troops would
take part in great numbers."
T^WO weeks ago (in the issue of December 11)
* Soviet Russia suggested editorially that voices
would not be lacking in Spain, Norway, and Swe-
den, which would protest against the proposed
sending of troops, in even the smallest numbers,
k
to Vilna for the purpose of "polking" the city
during a plebiscite. We then indicated the pro-
bability that this proposed "policing** was simply
a means of preparing for the erection of a new
line of buffer states, to consist chiefly of the Scan-
dinavian countries. We are now in a position to
provide our readers with direct statements from
newspapers of the countries concerned, protesting
against any such attempt to involve them in the
war which the Allies have not yet ceased to wage
against Soviet Russia. From Social Demokraten
of Christiania, Norway, issue of November 25, we
take the following editorial:
When the fundamental pact of the League of Nations
was under discussion, the published statements indi-
cated that one of the most disputed questions waa whether
the League of Nations should be equipped with any special
armed forces. France was very anxious that such should
be the case. But the outcome of the matter was that
moral authority was to be considered aa sufficient. The
League did not obtain permission to conscript troops.
Let us therefore at the very outset state, whatever may
be the form of the summons to the Norwegian nation,
Norway has no duty, by the pact of the League, or any
other treaty, or any other documents, to put a single man
at the disposal of the League of Nations.
And let us make an additional statement. No Norwegian,
no Norwegian soldier, is bound to obey a possible order to
stand guard at Vilna. These services fie entirely out-
side of the conscription law.
The Norwegian Government, the Norwegian Storthing,
the Norwegian soldier have therefore full freedom in dis-
cussing whether we are to send 100 men to stand guard at
Vilna during the impending plebiscite.
The thing looks very innocent. Only one hundred men!
And only for an extremely peaceful and proper enterprise.
It may look that way. But we should know how easily
complications may arise either between the Lithuanians
and the Poles or between the various classes and parties
within the country. In fact, it will be inevitable that
"the guard" will be drawn in, and before we know it, we
shall be embarked in a most dangerous adventure. For
we also have a "military honor" to defend.
But there is also another side to the matter, more
ominous and more questionable stilL
What are France and England going to do with the
wretched 300 Scandinavian troops? They could of course
Erovide them easily themselves. Is it to confer a special
onor upon Norway, Sweden, and Denmark? Certainly
not. No, it is with the object of pushing the Scandina-
vian countries into a definite policy of warfare against
Russia. The thing has been tried before without much
success. The new method may perhaps be better.
The relations between Lithuania, various classes and
currents in Lithuania, and the Russian Government are
not clear. Western Europe regards the Soviet Govern-
ment, with customary arrogance, as an entirely negligeable
quantity in this combination. That is not the view, how-
ever, of the Russian Government. It is easy to see there-
fore, that it is possible that frictions may arise. Should
the western powers succeed in creating a single Scandi-
navian front against Russia, they will obtain something
that must mean a great deal in their eyes.
Government circles have said that eventually "only
volunteer troops'* would be sent. But whether they are
volunteers or not these troops woud he ^eunipped by the
Norwegian state, and their .acta and destinies would bo a
responsibility for the Norwegian state.
Norway must choose between two paths. That which the
League of Nations wants us to follow leads into the abyss.
A later issue of the same periodical advertises
a great protest meeting against the sending of
Norwegian troops to Vilna, to be held on Wednes-
day, December 1, in the Great Hall of the Chris-
tiania Woilkisjjr^tfa society, which was to be ad-
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dressed by Karl Johanssen and Martin Tranmael.
We have not yet received details of this meeting.
On October 6, Litvinov, Soviet Russian Repre-
sentative in Norway, left that country, after the
negotiations he had been conducting with that
country's Department of Commerce had been
broken off by that Department. Evidently the
powers that made the Norwegian Government send
Litvinov home (see Soviet Russia for December
11, 1920, as well as the documents printed in this
article), intend his expulsion to be only the begin-
ning of a Scandinavian participation in the coun-
ter-revolutionary war.
r\ N THE following day, November 26, Folkets
^-* Dagblad Politiken, of Stockholm, printed an
editorial similarly opposing participation of Swe-
den in this "police" duty. From this article, which
is signed l}y Z. Hoglund, we take the following
paragraphs:
"The time has come. The Council of the League of
Nations has decided to summon the Scandinavian nations
to take part in the maintenance of the police duty in the
plebiscite district at Vilna. Each one of these states will
be asked to send a detachment of 100 men. In the strug-
gle between megalomaniac White Poland and nationalistic
Lithuania, Sweden and the other Scandinavian states are
to have the dubious honor of intervening with so-called
"order police', which to be sure is declared to function
only in connection with thd plebiscite in this region, and
which is to have a very limited size, but who will guar-
antee that this will be the end, if once we have embarked
upon the adventure? It is quite probable that the demand
will gradually be increased when it turns out that the
enterprise requires bigger forces than it was considered
desirable to suggest in advance. The Entente imperialism,
thinks, in other words, to impose upon the neutral states
a portion of the military and economic burden which their
own insane and criminal policy in Eastern Europe has laid
upon them. And this is being done under the false pre-
tence of an honorable international commission, conferred
by the League of Nations!
"The matter becomes all the more questionable in view
of a simultaneous expression by 'a representative of one
of the Great Powers* to an NPC correspondent, in which
the latter asks: *Why is Scandinavia doing absolutely
nothing for Armenia? If Scandinavia should send to
Vilna even a very small contingent, it would show that
it is in principle not opposed to making sacrifices in order
to consolidate international peace.' The thing sounds very
well, but actually the meaning is probably this: if we can
only fool you into sending 100 men to Vilna, getting you
thus to recognize in principle your duty to take part in
the warlike enterprises of the Entente, under various dis-
guises, we shall be satisfied. For once you have begun you
will keep on of yourself. We will begin with Vilna and
later there will be Armenia, and then Persia, India, China,
Italy, and Russia — for where does the Entente not need
a little troop of serfs to 'maintain order'. And why should
not Scandinavia be out fighting for the continuation of the
capitalist world order, which is the real task of the League
of Nations?
These are the fruits of the right wing Socialist Entente
policy, which axe now beginning to mature. Sweden's
workers, the majority of whom have good naturedlv fol-
lowed this policy through thick and thin, are now obtain-
ing a very tangible and uncomfortable lesson of what it
costs to dance blindly to Branting's whistle. It would of
course be foolish to expect that the Government now in
•ession will refuse to obey the new order. Hut the work-
ing class of our country should absolutely refuse to accept
the questionable honor of taking part in the Entente's inter-
national notice guard. Let them do it thenitelves,'
We have not gone through the Danish news-
papers to find similar expressions of disapproval
of the effort to include Denmark in the new mili-
tary zone to be erected against Soviet Russia. But
can our readers doubt that the verdict of the Dan-
ish press would be similar to that voiced in Norway
and Sweden?
Ghicherin to the British
Government
The following radio was sent on November 26, for
the London Foreign Office to Earl Curzon of
Kedleston:
Answering your number 103, the Russian Gov-
ernment protests against the eventuality of a Bri-
tish occupation of Batum as suggested by wireless
messages of British stations* have led the British
Government to assumption that this place, which
is part of independent Georgia, is in some danger.
The above-mentioned British radio telegrams prove
that it is really threatened by the danger of being
occupied by Entente forces. As for the insinuation
made by the British Government that the safety of
Batum and, in general, the independence of Geor-
gia is allegedly threatened by a danger from the
Russian Government, this allegation is dictated by
the same misinformation of the British Government
as to Caucasian affairs which was shown by the
British Prime Minister during his conference with
the Russian Trade Delegation on June 7, when he
expressed surprise at learning that a treaty had
been concluded between Soviet Russia and Georgia
on May 7. Otherwise the British Government would
have known that the Russian Soviet Government
was the first to recognize (in June) the independ-
ent Georgian Government, this recognition being
still withheld by the Entente's Governments which
try to demonstrate such interest in the fate of Geor-
gia. As a matter of fact the whole policy of Soviet
Russia in the Near East is dictated by her desire
to preserve peace, and to render possible to every
people to determine its own fate. There has been,
on the part of the Russian Government, no act
which would even remotely infringe the independ-
ence of Georgia. It has recognized its indepedence
in the same treaty which stipulates that no alien
forces shall reside at Batum, and it is loyally ob-
serving this treaty by which its action in the ques-
tions concerned is determined. A hostile occupa-
tion of Batum would mean violation of the above
treaty, and from the point of view not only of its
own safety, but also of the defence of this treaty
against any violation, the Russian Government
would not be able to remain indifferent to such
eventuality. In every case, however, the Russian
Government will always faithfully adhere to the
recognition of Georgia's independence, and will in
no case violate its sovereign rights either by occu-
pation of Batum or otherwise.
jy Google
• The text it evidently defective and should probably read,
beginning with the word "Batum** in line 3: "at has been
suggested. Wireless messages of British stations have led the
British Government to iht wnmitfre thrt," eta
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Correspondence with the Norwegian Government
[On November 18 the following correspondence passing between Litvinov and the Norwegian Department o\
Commerce was submitted to the members of the Norwegian Storthing as a printed document. We translate this docu-
ment from the Norwegian in its entirety and publish it below because of the intrinsic interest attached to each of
the diplomatic messages contained in it. For the present it is not necessary for us to make any comment on the
nature of t/ie documents, beyond pointing out that those emanating from the Norwegian Department of Commerce
repeatedly emphasize the desire of that Department to have a veto power as to the person of the official appointed
by the Soviet Government to conduct commercial negotiations with the Norwegian Government. It is unfortunate
that insistence on this point by the Norwegian Department of Commerce should have led to the refusal by that
Department in the last of the documents printed below, to continue its negotiations with the Soviet Government,
represented by Litvinov. Litvinov had, however, before the negotiations were broken off, yielded to the Norwegian
Department of Commerce on this point. The inability of the Norwegian Government to undertake any step that
might appear to involve a recognition of the Soviet Government is particularly interesting (see No. II) ; who is
behind it? Litvinov left Christiania with his secretary, Piatigorsky, on October 6.]
/. Draft of Agreement Proposed by Litvinov to the Nor-
wegian Foreign Department on September 8
Impelled by the desire to eliminate all obstacles in the
way of a resumption of trade relations between the two
countries, the Government of the Russian Federative So-
cialist Soviet Republic and the Royal Norwegian Gov-
ernment have agreed as follows:
1. In anticipation of a resumption of normal diplomatic
relations the contracting parties have agreed to erect a
Russian Commercial Bureau at Christiania, and a Norwe-
gian Commercial Bureau at Moscow, controlled and con-
ducted respectively by one— or, not more than two — rep-
resentatives of the Russian People's Commissariat for For-
eign Commerce, or by any other institution that may repre-
sent it, and by the Norwegian Commercial Department,
respectively.
2. The contracting parties guarantee free access to their
respective countries to not more than fifteen Russian and
Norwegian citizens, respectively, who shall constitute the
personnel of the commercial bureaus mentioned in para-
graph 1. The heads of the bureaus may, however, also
employ citizens of their own or of any other nationality
dwelling in Russia or Norway respectively.
3. The Commercial Bureaus shall have the right to
appoint agents in the northern parts of Russia and Nor-
way.
4. The official representatives (not more than two for
each of the contracting parties) of the Commissariat for
Foreign Affairs, and the Commercial Department, respec-
tively, and their secretaries (one for each representative)
and agents (see paragraph 3) shall enjoy in full the cus-
tomary diplomatic rights and privileges, including that of
extra-territorial ity.
5. The Commercial Bureaus shall have the right to send
to their governments through couriers sealed packages not
exceeding 10 kilograms in weight for each courier.
6. Telegraph and radio messages forwarded by the Com-
mercial Bureaus and their agents shall take precedence in
both countries over private telegrams.
7. It is understood that the contracting parties guarantee
fully that the respective representatives shall abstain from
any propaganda directed against the government, institu-
tions, or social and political relations, in Russia and Nor-
way, and from any participation in the political or social
conflicts that may take place in these countries, and that
they will not accept commissions for governments, persons
or commercial firms other than those of their respective
country.
8. The commercial representatives and their agents will
be granted the right to exercise all customary consular
acts and functions.
9. The Royal Norwegian Government consents to recog-
nize as valid and legal all official documents, identification
passports, certificates, grants, powers of attorney, protocols
and documents of every other kind drawn up or certified by
institutions and departments of the Russian Soviet Govern-
ment.
10. Both the contracting parties consent to the reestab-
lishment of postal communications between their two coun-
tries.
by Google
11. The Royal Norwegian Government consents to per-
mit free transit through Norway of goods from and to the
Russian Soviet Republic on the same condition as to and
from other countries. Such goods shall, whether they are
being transported through Norway or stored in Norway to
be reexported, be free from all taxes.
12. The Russian Commercial Bureau as well as any
other institution, organization or person belonging to the
Soviet Republic shall enjoy the right to appear before the
Norwegian Courts as plaintiff or defendant, in accordance
with the country's laws. The Norwegian Commercial Bu-
reau, Norwegian institutions, and Norwegian persons in
Russia shall enjoy similar privileges.
13. Russian ships shall have access to Norwegian ports
and Norwegian ships to Russian ports on the same condi-
tions granted to ships of other nationalities and they shall
likewise be permitted to make use of ports, quays, channels,
and transportation routes, pilots, cranes, and warehouses,
to the same extent to which these facilities are granted in
general trade.
14. The present agreement shall go into effect imme-
diately after it has been signed by the representatives of
the contracting parties, and may be abrogated by either
side on giving six months' notice.
In affirmation of which the representatives of the two
countries have signed the present agreement and have af-
fixed their seals.
//. Communication of the Norwegian Department of Com-
merce to Mr. Litvinov, September 11
The Foreign Department has transmitted to this Depart-
ment, which has jurisdiction in negotiations on subjects
touching upon trade and industry, the draft formulated
by you as a regulation of the commercial relations between
Norway and Soviet Russia.
The present Department has the honor to inform tod
that the provisions suggested by you cannot be approved
by the Norwegian side, for the reason, among others, that
this would actually involve a recognition of the Russian
Soviet Government. As you have been already informed,
the Norwegian Government does not consider itself able
to grant this recognition.
The Department considers that it would be sufficient to
advance our mutual trade as far as it may be established
between commercial individuals in the two countries, that
access should be afforded to the two countries for a pro-
visional and experimental exchange of commercial com-
missioners. Their number should be limited to ten fox
each country, including secretaries and other assistants.
Their distribution to the various localities within the coun-
try should be undertaken after a detailed agreement be-
tween the Chairmen of the Commissions and authorities
appointed in the respective country for the regulation of
such matters.
The authorities of the respective country appointed for
such matters are given access to the commissioners as well
as to the power to approve them or to revoke the approval
already granted, should their mission not lead to the de-
sired or intended results, or should they in any way carry
On or participate in any propaganda which is not associ-
ated with the object of their sojourn as commercial
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missioners, or should their sojourn in the respective coun-
try be considered undesirable for other reasons.
The authorities of the respective country shall afford
opportunity to these commissioners to conduct the postal
and telegraphic correspondence that may be necessary in
the prosecution of their activities, including the right to
receive and forward radio and other telegrams in cipher.
They are also granted an opportunity to receive once a
week by a special courier, to be approved in advance and
to have no diplomatic quality whatever, without inspection,
as well as to send out from the respective country, docu-
ments in sealed packages weighing altogether not more
than three kilograms. This consignment of papers is to
be supplied in each case with the necessary legitimating
certificates by the authorities of the respective countries.
Contracts concluded between the parties concerned shall
be subject to Norwegian law, and disputes which may arise,
shall, unless it is definitely provided otherwise, be adju-
dicated by Norwegian courts. With this object in view,
the Russian commissioners are granted the right to bring
suit and appear in court to answer suit in this country, so
long as their activities remain legal. They must for this
purpose be supplied with the necessary powers Of attor-
ney to answer suit on their part before Norwegian courts.
For the purpose of undertaking such exports of goods
as may result from the above commercial activity, Russian
ships shall have access to Norwegian ports and shall be
placed on an equality with the ships of other nations, pro-
vided that Norwegian ships obtain corresponding free ac-
cess to Russian ports.
Attention is called to the fact that the trade which will
be of particular interest to our country is the export of
fisheries products.
It is understood that the regulation that may be adopted
with regard to questions here touched upon will not in
any way prejudice the demands on Russia for indemnifi-
cation of the Norwegian nation or of Norwegian citizens.
We take the liberty to anticipate your early communica-
tion as to whether you find yourself able to accept such an
adjustment.
P. S. This communication has been delayed as a con-
sequence of a telegraphic statement from the Norwegian
Consulate at Archangel to the effect that certain Nor-
wegian citizens had been denied permission by the ap-
propriate Russian authorities to leave the city mentioned
in order to return home to Norway. This matter has now
been regulated.
Christians, September 16, 1920.
///. Communication from Mr. Litvinov, September 16
I herewith acknowledge with thanks the receipt of your
letter of today containing certain alterations and additions
proposed by the Royal Norwegian Government to my draft
agreement.
I regret that I am not in a position to understand what
provisions in the draft agreement, should this agreement
be accepted, could in the opinion of the Norwegian Gov-
ernment involve recognition on its part of the Russian
Soviet Government. It may be observed in this connection
that representatives of the Soviet Government living in
Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland and other countries
that have not formally acknowledged this government, have
been granted more comprehensive rights and privileges than
those that were asked by me.
If, as seems to me to be the case, objections are made
to the wording of certain provisions, this matter could easily
be adjusted.
I note with satisfaction that your government accepts
the principle of exchange of commercial representatives.
It is immaterial to me wHether these representatives are
to be called commercial delegates, or commissioners, as
you propose. I have no objection to having the permanent
staff limited to ten for each country, since any increase
that might be found necessary would be provided for by
further mutual agreement.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Government cannot under any
conditions accept any restrictions in the choice of its rep-
resentatives. Let me emphasize the fact that any repre-
sentatives that may be appointed will be obliged to carry
out the instructions of their government, and that there*
fore there cannot be any question of personal responsibility.
Each of the two governments shall, however, have the right
to ask the recall of any representative who may be found
guilty of meddling in the internal affairs of the country in
which he is stationed, or of violation of its laws.
To judge from my experience as a member of the Rus-
sian Commercial Delegation abroad, I believe that sealed
packages weighing only three kilograms would be found
insufficient for commercial documents, specifications, draw-
ings, etc., such as are commonly exchanged with Russia.
Permit me therefore to propose that the weight be in-
creased to at least five kilograms. It may also become
impracticable to have parcels sent by only one courier.
Each government should therefore have the right to change
its couriers or to forward its parcels by any person what-
ever who might be able to obtain the necessary visas from
the commercial representatives in the respective countries.
As to the legal position of the Russian Commercial Com-
mission, it should be empowered to carry on trade not
only in the name of the Russian Government, but also in
that Of other Russian institutions, and to participate in
Norwegian private corporations.
I observe that nothing is said in your communication
concerning paragraphs 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 14, of the
draft agreement, and I therefore assume that they are ap-
proved by the Norwegian Government. Should this not be
the case, I take the liberty to make the following observ-
ations upon the subject:
The commercial commissioners should, being the sole
representatives of their government, be put in a position
to maintain their prestige by being secured against moles-
tation on the part of local authorities, since such molesta-
tion may become a source of constant friction and mis-
understanding. Such immunity is enjoyed by the Russian
Commercial Delegation in Great Britain, Sweden, and
other countries. But I have no objection to having this
privilege limited in its application to the head of the com-
mission, to his assistant and secretary, and to his agents
in seaport towns.
In the absence of regular diplomatic and consular em-
ployes a portion of their work will naturally have to be
done by the commercial commissioners, such as passport
visas, certification of documents, etc., which are drawn up
by public institutions in the country in which they are
stationed.
The importance of establishing postal communications
between the two countries is so manifest that it requires
no comment.
Any purchase in Norway will involve the Russian Gov-
ernment in a series of commercial transactions that may
last for several months. The Russian Government can of
course not enter into any such negotiations, or remit money
or property to Norway, unless it has been assured that the
relations that have been established will not be suddenly
terminated. The agreement must therefore remain valid
for a period to be determined in advance, since its nul-
lification would require at least six months* notice from
either side.
I also note that Norway is chiefly interested in the ex-
port of fisheries products. The numerous offers I have
received from Norwegian firms seem to indicate that great
stocks of other goods are also available within the country,
which might be bought by Russia, and that Norwegian fac-
tory products are also of interest to Russia. And on its
part, Russia expects to be able to forward its own goods
for sale in or through Norway. As I assume that such
commercial operations would have mutually advantageous
results, I am unable to look upon the reestablishment of
commercial relations between the two countries as a mere
experiment.
Finally, I take the liberty to state that I am at your
disposal if you should share my opinion as to the practica-
bility of a personal conference to regulate the above-men-
tioned differences of view.
IV. Communication of the Department of Commerce to Mr.
Litvinov, September 18
The Department acknowledges receipt of your commu-
nication of the 16 instant concerning the proposed regula-
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don of a mutual exchange of commercial commissioner* in
Norway and Russia, and takes note that the Russian Soviet
Government will not under any circumstances accept any
limitations in its choice of representatives.
Since, however, the Department on its part considers that
it must insist, as an absolute condition, on the fact that
the appropriate authorities of the two countries should
reserve the right to have access to as well as to recognize
the commissioners that have been sent out, and, if need
be, to revoke the recognition already granted, it would
appear useless to continue the negotiations as to a regula-
tion such as we have discussed, unless the Russian Soviet
Government, after a renewed and early consideration of the
matter, could find itself in a position to share the Depart-
ment* view.
Under these circumstances the Department considers it
unnecessary for the moment to take up a discussion of
the remaining points proposed in your communication,
which, as we understand, are to be considered as desiderata
on your part, and not as absolutely final conditions. We
only take the liberty to observe that the draft regulation*
contained in the Department's communication of the 11
instant is intended as an exhaustive basis, and that there-
fore, in the above-mentioned communication, the Depart-
ment has only approved those of your proposals that are
actually taken up in the Department* draft regulations.
We take the liberty to await at the earliest possible mo-
ment such expression on your part as may be suggested
by the present communication.
V. Communication from Mr. Litvinov, September 20
I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your com-
munication of the 18 instant, which I did not receive until
this evening.
I note with regret that your Department denies the Rus-
sian Soviet Government the right to send commercial agents
of its own choice. A personal objection from the Nor-
wegian standpoint to any future commercial agents is all
the more difficult to understand when I consider that Soviet
Russia has not yet had any representatives in Norway, so
that there is no means of conjecturing upon what consid-
erations such objections may be based.
I further observe that you decline to discusi every point
of departure between the two propositions for the agree-
ment, and insist that I absolutely approve your proposal*.
You will doubtless understand me when 1 say that if I
had foreseen that your government would be ready to re-
sume Commercial relations with Russia on what I can only
designate as dictated conditions I should not have con-
sidered it necessary to come to Christiania, since a mutual
exchange of ultimata could just as well have been effected
with the assistance of the mails.
Not desiring to assume the responsibility for the serious
consequences to both countries which would be involved
in a rejection of your proposals, I have sent a radio mes-
sage to my government, submitting all the details, and I
am now awaiting final instructions, which I hope to re-
ceive in the course of the next few day*.
VI. Communication of the Department of Commerce to Mr.
Litvinov, September 22
The Department acknowledges receipt of your honored
letter of the 20 instant and regrets the misunderstanding
which seems to be at the bottom of your conception of our
earlier correspondence.
As you will recall, you said in your communication of
September 16, 1920, among other things: "The Soviet
Government cannot under any conditions accept any restric-
tions in the choice of its representatives.**
You will observe that you made it an absolute condition
for the sending of commercial commissioners that your
standpoint on this subject should be accepted. This the
Department has been unable to do. The Department doe*
not intend to deny the Soviet Government the right to send
out commercial commissioners of its own free choice. The
Department simply wishes, in pursuance of those reserva-
tions that are customary in such cases, to reserve to itself
the right to acknowledge the persons that may be appointed
by the Russian Soviet Government as its commercial com-
missioner*, [J
The Department in it* communication of the 18 instant
called attention to the fact that insofar a* the Russian
Soviet Government should not be able to take the Depart-
ment's point of view into a renewed and speedy considera-
tion, the Department considered it not necessary for the
present to discuss the other points of your communication.
The observation of the Department to the effect that hi
draft was intended to be an exhaustive basis, had the ob-
ject of removing any impression on your part that certain
of the various expressions of your draft had been tacitly
approved on the Norwegian side; compare your c orn muni -
cation of the 16 instant.
VII. Communication from Mr. Litvinov, September 29
In our conference of September 21 I had the honor to
place before you certain proposals that I hoped would eli-
minate the discrepancies between my draft agreement and
your counter-proposals. I left the conference with the
impression that my proposals would be submitted to your
government for consideration. Up to now I have not, how-
ever, had the pleasure of receiving any communication con-
cerning your government* decision on this point.
Meanwhile I have obtained certainty concerning the
views of my own government, which coincide fnOy with
my proposal*. As I am eager to bring the negotiations to
a decisive stage, I should be much obliged for your
speedy answer concernin* these questions, or for another
early interview, should Your Excellency believe that such
an interview might accelerate the consummation of the
object mentioned.
VIII. Communication of the Department of Commerce to
Mr. Litvinov, October 2
From your favor of 29 ult. 1 learn that ran
expect an answer from this Department on the
n to
proposals
submitted by you in the conference of September 21, 1920.
This Department considered its letter of the 22 uh. at
an answer to your proposals and has bean expecting your
detailed communication with regard to your statement in
your letter of September 20 ult. in which you point out
that you have submitted to your government all the details
and are awaiting its final instruction*.
In your letter of the 29 ult you point out that yon have
obtained certainty that the views of your government co-
incide fully with your proposals. Your proposals, include,
among other things, the demand that no restrictions be im-
posed in the choice of representatives; compare yoar com-
munication of September 16, 1920.
The Department on its part finds that it must retain
the demand that the authorities in the respective countries
shall have the right to approve and revoke an approval
already given.
The Department must therefore observe that the nego-
tiations do not appear to promise to lead to any result.
IX. Communication from Mr. Litvinov, October 4
I acknowledge receipt of your communication of Oc-
tober 2. I regret to be compelled to Hate* that your gov-
ernment apparently has decided to break off negotiation*
for the resumption of trade relations between Russia and
Norway. To avoid misunderstandings with regard to the
real grounds for this breaking off of negotiations I con-
sider it my duty to state that in our conference of September
21, I had conceded that the Russian Government, which in
principle denies the right to foreign governments to impose
any limitation on the choice of Russian commercial repre-
sentatives abroad, nevertheless understood that its represen-
tatives and the members of their staff could not in practice
come to Norway without the consent of the Norwegian
Government. I therefore proposed that the present Rus-
sian Delegation in Norway — in order that an agreement
might be speedily concluded and put in practice before
the port of Archangel should be closed— Should be put
in a position to begin trade, while the question of the
consent to the arrival of the first Russian commercial
commission in Norway should be kept open.
I further expressed my readiness to make concessions
to the NcrwegjaF* Gw f rwoant* wishes with regard to other
points in my draft agreement, against which objection* had
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made. In my letter of September 20 I indicated that
my government had agreed to these concessions.
It will be clear from the above review of the facts as
tHey have taken place* that I have done everything in my
power to remove the obstacles to an understanding, and
that responsibility for the unfortunate consequences to the
peoples of both countries, from a possible failure of the
negotiations, cannot possibly be placed at the door of the
Russian Government.
X, Communication of the Department of Commerce to Mr.
Litvinov, October 5
The Department has received from you a communication
dated 4 inst. which, by the way, is unsigned. We assume,
however, that this is due to an oversight.
As the matter now stands we consider that we may limit
ourselves to the following statement:
We must first state that it is clear from your communi-
cation that you will not be able to take up in the near
future the unconditional demand made by this Department
that the Russian commercial commissioners who, as a con-
sequence of the proposed commercial agreement, might be
sent to Norway, should be approved in advance by the
Norwegian authorities. Under these circumstances to con-
tinue the negotiations as to such an agreement appears —
as we have repeatedly informed you before — to be unneces-
sary.
STATEMENT OF THE BUREAU ON
THE DEPORTATION DECISION
New York, December 17, 1920.
Mr. L. Martens, Representative of the Russian
Soviet Government, today issued the following state-
ment regarding the decision of the Department of
Labor in the deportation proceedings:
I have communicated the terms of the decision
to the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs at Moscow.
My action will be determined by the instructions
I receive from my government.
The decision of the Secretary of Labor is plainly
a political decision, dictated by the policy of the
present Administration toward the Soviet Govern-
ment. The order for my deportation is not based
upon any alleged activities of mine, but upon the
simple fact that I am the representative of the
Soviet Government. The decision completely con-
firms my contention that I have never conducted
any propaganda against the United States Govern-
ment Secretary Wilson says:
'There is no evidence to show that Martens has per-
sonally made any direct statement of a belief in the use
of force or violence to overthrow the United States, nor
is there any evidence that he has ever distributed or caused
to be distributed any literature containing propaganda of
that character."
The Secretary of Labor also states plainly that
the decision is not based upon any alleged mem-
bership in any political party or organization. The
decision says "He (Martens) is not a member of
or affiliated with the Russian Communist Party or
the Third International .*'
Thus the ground for deportation is placed square-
ly upon the fact that I am the accredited represen-
tative of the Soviet Government. It has always
heen my contention, and it was the contention of
my attorneys in the deportation proceedings, that
a decision of this gravity, affecting as it does the
foreign relations of the United States Government,
was a matter for the Department of State and not
for the Labor Department. The Department of
o
State, however, preferred to evade the issue and
has never even acknowledged the many communi-
cations in which I set forth the nature of my mis-
sion in this country and the desire of the Soviet
Government to enter into commercial relations with
the United States. Instead, the responsibility for
this grave step has been put upon the Department of
Labor, which I had never supposed to be the body
to determine the foreign relations of the American
Government. In effect, the decision means that
so long as the present policy of the Administra-
tion prevails, no representative of the Soviet Gov-
ernment will be allowed to enter the United States
for the purpose of establishing friendly and profit-
able commercial relations between the Russian and
American peoples.
Of course, I do^not believe that this precedent
will be allowed to stand, or that it will prevent
the ultimate establishment of trade relations be-
tween the United States and Soviet Russia. These
relations will be established, as they are now being
established between Russia and the countries of
Europe. No temporary prejudice or hysterical
policy will be allowed to interfere with the natural
interests of the American people. The vast Rus-
sian market for manufactured goods of all kinds
is the obvious remedy for the period of industrial
depression and unemployment into which America
is now entering. I am confident that the American
people will demand a sensible reconsideration of
the whole question of Russian-American relations.
The reader is referred also to the four-page Sup-
plement accompanying this issue of Soviet Russia
containing the text of the Department of Labor's
decision.
WATER TRANSPORT IMPROVED
Pravda, Moscow, reports that transport by water
has considerably improved in comparison with the
year 1919. This is apparent from the following
tables :
(The following waterways are here considered:
The Volga, North Dvina, and the Maryinsky Canal
route.)
The transportation amounted to (in thousand
poods) :
1919 1920 Increase
of%
Saline earths 6,899 17.227 150
Salt 8,093 14,214 75
Firewood 82,086 151.618 85
Lumber 23.485 47,387 102
Raw naphtha 5,923 30,017 407
Petroleum 9,984 16,739 67
Various materials 22,478 36,559 63
158,948 333,761 97
This increase of 97 per cent is an accomplish-
ment of the labor army, which has untiringly
worked in order to improve the means of water
transportation. And if there had not been so heavy
a drought in the summer, which increased the dif-
ficulties in using the waterways, the result would
have been even a mcitj favorable one.
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Wireless and Other News
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RELATIONS WITH LATVIA
Moscow, November 18, 1920.— The Latvian
Consul, Taube, having arrived at Petrograd, in a
conversation with a newspaper correspondent has
indicated Latvia's desire to establish most friendly
relations with Russia. Latvia grants Russia the
right of transit for necessary foreign goods. Very
soon direct train service between Riga, Petrograd,
and Moscow will be established.
TWO SOVIET NOTES
Moscow, November 18, 1920. — On November 17
the Russian Government addressed two notes, one
to the British and the other to the Georgian Gov-
ernment concerning the information contained in
British radios that the occupation of Batum by
the forces of the Entente is under consideration.
The Russian Government most earnestly calls the
attention of the British Government to the serious
consequences which would necessarily arise in case
of the adoption of this measure, which would be
considered a direct menace to the security of the
allied Azerbaijan Soviet Republic, and of Russia
herself. In the note to Georgia, the Russian Gov-
ernment points out that the removal from Batum
of the Entente forces, which menaced the security
of Russia and Azerbaijan, was a fundamental con-
dition of the peace treaty between Russia and Geor-
gia. Both notes point out that the creation of a
new menace to the Soviet republics arising from the
occupation of Batum by Entente forces would com-
pel Russia to adopt the most effective measures of
protecting the security of these republics. This act
on the part of the Entente would mean the attempt
to create a new front in the south, and to kindle a
conflagration in Caucasia. The Russian Govern-
ment expresses in these notes the hope that the
British and Georgian governments will give up such
a fatal step, the consequences of which would fall
entirely upon their responsibility.
KAMENEV'S NEW POST
A recent issue of Pravda, Moscow, reports that
Kamenev after his return from the southern front
to Moscow again took up his position as Chairman
of the Committee for the Defence of Moscow. It
will be recalled that Dzerzhinsky occupied this
post during Kamenev's absence. Kornyev was
elected vice-chairman.
SEMIONOV 9 S TROOPS IN CHINA
Moscow, November 16, 1920. — After the liquida-
tion of Semionov's troops in Eastern Siberia, the
remnants began retreating into the territory of the
Chinese Republic. Chinese troops unable to cope
with these bands have entreated the Red troops to
help them expel the invaders. Thus, the Red Army
is compelled to enter the territory of the Chinese
Republic. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs,
Chicherin, has informed the Chinese Government
that Red troops sent into Mongolia enter there as
friends of the Chinese people, and will withdraw
immediately after destroying the White Guard de-
tachments.
POLES IN PETLURA'S ARMY
Moscow, November 18, 1920. — Polish officers and
noncombatant soldiers are streaming in masses into
Petlura's army. The middle-class element of the
Polish army has found satisfaction for itself since
the signing of the armistice, and is seeking such
satisfaction by going into Petlura's army. All tht
most typical representatives of the class interests
of Polish landlordism in the Ukraine are joining
Petlura's cause. These elements are thus contin-
uing their struggle against the Ukrainian working
masses. Let them know that the Soviet Govern-
ment of Russia and Ukraine will consider the Poles
who are found in the ranks of Petlura's army as
the most malignant foes of the workers, foes who
under every condition will fight for the defense
of the cause of the exploiters, and they will be
treated as such.
RUSSIAN WAR PRISONERS
Pravda writes as follows: What profound under-
standing of the economic needs of the Soviet father-
land is shown by the former Russian war-prison-
ers can be judged from the fact that a transport
returning from Germany has brought back with it
medicaments collected by the soldiers and put at
the disposal of the Commissariat for Public Health.
The amount of the medicaments brought in was
of course very small, but this is beside the point.
This touching care for the needs of Soviet Russia
is very characteristic of the sentiment among the
prisoners suffering in foreign concentration camps.
REPATRIATION OF RUSSIAN PRISONERS
Moscow, November 16, 1920. — Two hundred
and forty-five Russian citizens liberated by the Eng-
lish in exchange for Belgians, French, and British
detained in Russia, arrived in Odessa on English
transports under the guard of English warships.
The majority of these repatriated citizens had spent
nineteen months in jails and concentration camps
at Constantinople, Egypt, and elsewhere.
PROTEST TO GERMANY
Berlin, November 9. — Victor Kopp, Soviet Rep-
resentative in Germany, has sent a protest note to
the German Government on the subject of a visit
paid by an inter-allied investigating commission
to the Soviet ship Subbotnik, at Hamburg.
MURDER OF PERSIAN DELEGATES
The Petrograd Pravda reports: Two Persian dele-
gates who were returning to their homes from the
Congress of Eastern Nations, were murdered by
Persian gendarmes on the Persian border.
PETROGRAD LABOR EXCHANGE
Moscow, November 18, 1920. — During last
month at the Petrograd Labor Exchange, the de-
mand for labor power was 75,000 workers; the
supply only TjDOQ.
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PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES
Moscow, October 21, 1920 (via Stockholm).—
According to the Viestnik, extraordinary precau-
tions are being instituted in Moscow. The reason
for this is the growing activity of secret entente
agents in Russia. The campaign of lies in the west-
ern press goes on undiminished, daily featuring new
canards about so-called mutinies. This is but one
token of the pernicious works and plans promoted
by the great powers. The sinister factory of the al-
lies sends its spies to Russia. But the toiling people
of Russia are vigilant. The organs of security here
are on the alert. The secret agents of the Entente
are at the end of their hopes and those who pro-
moted their activities will have to bear the cost of
their failure. To thwart these plans strenuous
measures have been taken, and the situation has
been made clear to the citizens by the government.
PROPAGANDA TRAINS
The following remarks are published by Pravda
on this subject: Two years ago a basis was laid
for agitation by means of propaganda trains. Since
then this arrangement has developed and spread,
and now it is being used for other purposes also;
for instance, for the support of local and party
organizations, while they have also been perform-
ing instructions and control service. Four such
trains in operation at present (the fifth was made
ready a short while ago) bear the following names:
Lenin, The November Revolution, The Red East,
Soviet Caucasia, and one propaganda steamer, The
Red Star. In the work of these trains during these
two years 200 responsible Soviet or Party func-
tionaries participated. Within the period from
January 12 to October 1 of this year, the trains and
the steamer made altogether 18 tours during which
they visited 30 provinces. There were held, al-
together, 1,815 mass meetings with 2,665,364 par-
ticipants; 1,008 lectures with an attendance of
25,533 persons, 1,232 meetings of functionaries and
1,865 motion picture shows with 2,113,798 specta-
tors were arranged. Of literature there were dis-
tributed 1,103,500 circulars and books sold for
1,103,500 rubles and 75 kopecs.
NEW MONUMENT IN PETROGRAD
Moscow, November 18, 1920. — A great monu-
ment to the Third Communist Internationale is be-
ing erected in Petrograd. The idea of the mon-
ument is to create a new type of monumental work
combining creative principle with practical pur-
poses. Trie monument will be built of glass and
iron, and consist of three large glass buildings to
contain offices for the Third Internationale. A
model of the monument exhibited at the Arts Aca-
demy is extensively visited by the population.
BALTIC MERCHANT FLEET
Moscow, November 18, 1920.— In the Baltic mer-
chant fleet, 322 ships need capital repairs, and 433
need ordinary repairs. These ships will be re-
paired before spring, partly at shipbuilding yards
and partly in the harbors.
by L^OOgle
SOVIET RUSSIA'S FOREIGN TRADE
Helsincfors, November 15. — The Director-Gen-
eral of the Finnish railroads, Vuolle, says in Dag-
ens Press: "If the transit trade with Russia really
begins to function, the Finnish railroads can daily
transport as much as 3,000 tons from west to east.
New railroad cars are being continually built."
He further expressed his hope that the transit trade
would go by way of Finland and emphasized how
important it would be to extend the loading facili-
ties of the ports. Should the trade become very
active, the tracks of the Aabo-Toijlala line could
be doubled.
AMERICAN COAL CARGOES
Bergen, November 17 (Private communication
to Social Demokraten, Christiania, Norway). — Ac-
cording to the information of Arbeidet, a Bergen,
newspaper, 40,000 tons of coal are now en route
from America to Russia. The cargoes are carried
by eight ships, including several Norwegian. One
of them, Torbjorg, stopped at Bergen yesterday.
Another is the stranded Bergen steamer, Morgana.
Further information printed by the newspaper
states that great cargoes of coal in America are
destined for northern Russia and will be sent out
in the course of the winter.
THE URAL METAL WORKERS
Moscow, November 10. — The mf^l workers in
the Ural region have begun to coLt : -^*v for
the Hungarian workers suffering u > "■ *
Terror. The workers of the Sm
working one hour overtime for th«
Hungarian workers and give besi'
of their earnings for the same purpo..
ers of Cherno-ICholunitsk have already gi\w
contribution in the form of one day's wages anu
besides they are working one hour overtime daily
for the benefit of the Hungarian workers.
GRAIN AND GOLDFIELDS
Moscow, November 1, 1920. — According to
Economic Life, grain deliveries in Omsk have now
exceeded all estimates. The daily arrival of grain
in Ufa averages 100,000 poods.
Important new goldfields have been discovered
nearHCheliabinsk.
ELECTRICAL STATION OPENED
Moscow, November 16, 1920. — The first elec-
trical station opened in the remote district of
Zaraisk was constructed by local workers with-
out outside help or technical means.
HEMP, WOOL, AND FLAX
Moscow, November 16, 1920. — In November,
nine provinces alone furnished 43,000 poods of
hemp, 23,000 poods of wool, and 1,000 poods of
flax.
PUBLIC FEEDING
Mbscow, November 16, 1920. — By a decree of
the Council of People's Commissars free feeding
at all restaurants and public institutions has been
established at Moscow.
UNIVERSITYOF MICHIGAN
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OUR SPECIAL ILLUSTRATED JANUARY 1st ISSUE
OF
SOVIET RUSSIA
will Contain, Among Other Features, the Following:
1. Echoes of Rasputin in the North, by John S. Clarke.
The English correspondent convenes with a Russian comrade, who tells him the interesting tote
of the priest-conspirator.
2. Collapse and Reconstruction in Soviet Russia, by Dr. Alfons Goldschmidt.
The brilliant author of "Moscow in 1920*' analyzes the course of the nationalization movement
in Russia. There will be two instalments of this article.
3. Workers' and Peasants' Universities in Russia.
Statistics showing what classes take advantage of the educational opportunities of the Sotiet
Government.
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Q.
4*:
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4. New Buffers for 1921.
Discussion of the prospects that Sweden, Norway, and Denmark wUl be drawn into the counter-
revolutionary war.
5. The Educational Work of Soviet Russia, by W. McLaine.
An interview with Lunacharsky, People's Commissar for Education.
6. Regular Weekly Military Review, by Lt.-Col. B. Roustam Bek.
AND AN EIGHT-PAGE PICTURE SUPPLEMENT ON GLAZED PAPER,
CONTAINING REPRODUCTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING
NEW PHOTOGRAPHS
(1) An interior view of a power-house blown up by Denikin; (2) Railroad station
wrecked by Denikin; (3-7) Railroad bridges blown up by Denikin and reconstructed
by Soviet engineers; (8) Portrait of N. Ryazanov, of the Trade Union movement; (9) A
girls' class in free-hand drawing; (10) A kindergarten class, with new toys; (11) A read-
ing circle on the "Island of Rest"; (12-14) Portraits of Yoffe, Kamenev, and Podvoisky;
(15) A general group of delegates to the Fifth Congress of Soviets; (16) Portrait of
Muryalov, on the Red Square, Moscow.
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Ten Cents at ail News Standi
Subscription Price: $5.00 per year; $2.50 per half year; $1.00 for ten weeks. (Make all checks payable
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