HORRORS OF KHARKOFF

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 186, 7 August 1919, Page 5

HORRORS OF KHARKOFF

BOLSHEVIK INQUISITION. FIENDISH MUTILATION. HUNDREDS DONE TO DEATH. »By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyriglit.) (Received 5.45 a-.m.) LONDON, August G. Reuter.'s special correspondent at Rostoff, ou the Don, cabling on 31st July, states that the horrors perpetrated at Kharkoff by the Chrescychaika, §or Bolshevik extraordinary commission, are irrefutable. After occupation of the city by Denikin's troops hundreds of victim? of Bolshevik cruelty-were disinterred in the presence of medical authorities, representatives of trades unions, and responsible foreigners. Photographs were taken of some oi: the devices for torturing the victims of th,e Bolsheviks' fiendish ingenuity. One, called the glovemaker, -was utilised to strip the skin from the hands of living victims. Several pairs of these gloves were found and photographed. Every conceivable form of mutilation was perpetrated in the Chresvychaika slaughter house. Hands, feet, andbrcasts were cut off, jaws were smashed, eyes gouged out, victims were disembowelled or tortured, and boiling water was poured over them. Maiiy were thrown alive into wells and mineshafts, others were heaped in huge holes in the ground. In the underground galleries several layers of corpses were discovered. The commissaries nightly made merry while Bolsheviks. Chinese, and other ghouls were revelling in a more ghastly manner. Arrests were made on farcical charges. Some of the arrested were shot for possessing verses satirising the Bolsheviks. Among favourite questions of the inquisitors was: "Have, you ever abused Trotsky as a Jew!" The repressions and atrocities redoubled after the visits of Trotsky to Kharkoff. The inhabitants deliriously welcomed the Cossacks. Practically all the workmen are now bitter against the Bolsheviks, as also are the peasants of the surrounding country, and the workmen, the latter openly deriding the Bolshevik posters, which circulate ridiculous lies.— (Reuter.)