THE CHEKA'S RECORD.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 52, 2 March 1929, Page 10 (Supplement)

THE CHEKA'S RECORD.

BLOOD AND TERROR. ORGANISATION OF MEDIEVAL CRUELTY. COMMUNAL MASSACRES. (By T. C. LONERGAN.) Communal massacres, wholesale murder of political suspects without the mock ritual of accusation, much less of trial, countless deaths from unusually severe imprisonment conditions, and atrocities of revolting nature contributed to the Red Revolution a quota of victims in lurid excess of that ever exacted by the revolutionary frenzy of other peoples. The cause of this gluttonous slaughter is to be found, not so much in the deliberate policy of terrorism adopted by the Soviet Government, but rather in the unlimited and brutal control exercised by the Cheka, or secret police—the instrument devised by the Bolsheviks for the suppression of counter-revolutionary activities. Although in some instances the central headquarters of the Cheka at Moscow may not have sanctioned the fearful indiscretions of its local branches, not, because of great distance and broken lines of communication, have been cognisant of the crimes contemplated, as in the case of the tragic assassination of the Czar and his family, until after their consummation, nevertheless it cannot disown complete responsibility by such

pleas. The story of the Cheka system with its terrifying ramifications is astounding in detail. Against its internal foes, the bourgeoisie, White Guardists, and all unsympathetic political parties alike, and as a preventive measure against local and lapse of discipline in the army, the Bolshevik Government created, immediately after its assumption of power, a powerful instrument of medieval cruelty —the Chrezvaichaika, or Cheka. "They Must Be Crushed." In a pamphlet, entitled "Two Years' Struggle on the Home Front," M. Y. Latsis, himself a member of the collegium of the Cheka, sets forth its procedure. "In order that we might not be beaten it was necessary to crush the enemy. . . . The Soviet Government created a special organ, the AllRussian Extraordinary Commission for Combatting Counter-revolution, Speculation and Sabotage, The need of this organ was the more acutely felt as the Soviet Government had no apparatus for the spiritual education of the people in communistic ideas. Thi old schools remained as before. . . . The masses of the people were still imbued with the old spirit . . . hence the necessity for an apparatus for compulsion and purification. . . . Those must be crushed who crush us. ... It was

necessary to anticipate the outbreak of counter-revolutions in order to preserve the lives of our comrades and the Soviet organisation. . . . Only Pharisees j and blockheads can deny the necessity for combatting counter-revolutions, although such denials have been all too frequent." The extreme measures to be pursued against persons arrested are outlined in the "Red Terror," No. 1, of November 1, 1918. This was a weekly journal of the Clieka published at Kazan by Latsis. "We are no longer waging war against individuals, we are exterminating the bourgeoisie as a class. Do not seek in the dossier of the accused for proofs as to whether he opposed the Soviet Government by word or deed. The first question that should be put is to what class does he belong, of what extraction, of what education and profession. These questions should decide the fate of the accused. Herein lies the meaning and essence of the 'Red Terror.'" A Merciless Struggle. Under the direction of Dzerzhinsky, who was Commissar or Minister of Home Affairs at the time, the Cheka was organised into several departments. There was the first, the Osoby Otdiel, which was charged with "the merciless struggle against wholesale speculation in goods, against offences committeed in the State service, against looting, theft, and false pretences. " Branches of the Osoby Otdiel were set up in the armies at the time of their reorganisation for the fight against Denikin and Kolchak, partly to keep check on the large number of former officers whose services were utilised to drill and train the new forces, and partly to punish insubordination and desertion among the troops. The functions of these branches were to combat espionage, military, White Guard conspiracy, and every form of counter-revolutionary activity in the army, in the contral military department, and at the front. There was, secondly, the Sekretono-Operativny, or secret police, presided over by Latsis. There was, thirdly, an interdepartmental commission presided over by the Lettish lawyer Stuchka, who had succeeded Latsis as president of the Riga Cheka at the time that city was still in the hands of the Bolsheviks.

It was through the activities of the Osobv Otdiel branch more than the other that "the Cheka acquired its enormous power in Russia. Its authority extended over all the fronts and embraced the civilian population as well as the soldiers within those zones. It had its own special revolutionary tribunal which was to "be guided in its judgments exclusively by the interests of the revolution," and was "not bound by any form of legal procedure." No Appeal. There was no appeal from Its findings. Although the Cassation Department of the Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal was instituted to examine appeals from "all tribunals" cf the Federated Republic, yet no opportunity for redress was ever granted to those sentenced by the Cheka. Arrest by the Cheka was usually nipiie at midnight or in the early morning. This custom was a survival of the Cz-ar's regime. The Russian dines at a late hour. Midnight was most likely to find him returned to his Lome. Suddenly awakened from sleep, the victim was subjected to an immediate examination. Under the pressure of fear and nervous terror his mental confusion was such that he often admitted guilt to the alleged charges which had prompted his apprehension. Not only threats, but often false promises were made to the dazed prisoner to secure the necessary evidence. The arrest was frequently accompanied by violence and even by robbery and theft. The 'louse ard rooms of the suspect were ransacked. Papers,

property, money, and jewels were seized. Seldom, if ever, were these returned to the prisoner upon release, except in the rare cases of foreign nationals. Even then the restitution occurred only through the intervention of some high Government official. Occasionally a hasty inventory of household effects was taken to serve as the basis for later confiscation. Official examination of the prisoner was invariably carried out at night. As a rule the physical torture was not employed. The affair, however, was of a brutal and callous nature. The officials bullied their victims, not in the manner of the "third degree," but terrified them with threats of death by shooting. Cruel mental torture resulted—especially for those whose vitality had been lowered by lack of food, crowded, filthy and verminous prison conditions, ond by the high nervous tension produced through the repeated sight of fellow prisoners led to death. Months Without Trial. Ia many instances the prisoners were arrested without definite charge. Their relationship to former White Guardists and partisans of the Czar's reign was sufficient reason. In particular the wives and children of Russians who had fled to join the White armies were arrested, released, rearrested again and again on the pretext of alleged espionage. It was not uncommon for prisoners to remain months and months in the jails without specific accusation or investigation. When charges were brought against the accused, an attempt was made to establish guilt under one of seven categories of capital offences.

For counter revolutionary activities the ?enatly was usually death. In the aook "Two Years' Struggle on the Home Front," Latsis describes some thirty :ases of alleged counter-revolutionary ictivity. One of these deals with the issassination of Uritsky and Voladarsky ind the attempt on the life of Lenin. Fhese were charged against the Eight iving of the Soviet Revolutionary party, rhe Cheka reported that it had nn;arthed this conspiracy which had for ts object the extermination of all communists holding responsible positions in :he Government. Latsis in writing of -he attempts of the Eight Social Revolutionists under Boris Savinkov, forner Assistant-Minister of War in the ierensky Government, 6tates: "Sa'.'incov himself set to work. The master showed his hand. Voladarsky and Uritsky were torn from the ranks of foremost warriors. Savinkov ispired higher. He wished to kill the eader of the world's proletariat, 'Comrade Lenin.' But the murderess, the ivsterical Kaplan, missed her aim. The Extraordinary Commission exacted a leavy toll for these murders. In l'etoro»Tad alone, 500 persons were shot in inswer to the shots fired at Comrades Lenin and Uritsky. Those who dreamed )f killing a revolution by the murder of ts leaders, seriously wounded themselves, and a whole year passed before the wound dealt them by the proletariat tvas healed." These bloody measures of the Cheka furnish a further answer to the query constantly raised: If the Russian people as a whole were not Communists, why. did they not throw olf the yoke of Bolshevism? Punishment for Speculation. For speculation in goods, food, clothand jewels the punishment was varied, and depended upon the gravity of the offence. Death by shooting, heavy and light prison sentences and fines were pronounced in the different cases. For proven crimes in the Government service, such as gross neglect of duty, bribery and theft, death was usually meted out. The peasant revolts in the villages were overcome by the Cheka with troops. The insurgents were fired upon and the leaders when captured were shot. For desertion, which had increased rapidly in the armies at the front, the penalty during the earlier periods was death. This was inevitably so in the interior, where the deserters formed themselves into bodies of roving bandits, and under the leadership of counterrevolutionaries began to incite armed opposition against the Government and to promote pogroms in the Ukraine.

The prisons of the Cheka were terrible. They were crowded and filthy beyond description. No attempt was made to classify the prisoners. All were herded together. Deserters, brigands, robbers, assassins, bourgeoisie suspects, and frail hostages—the wives, mothers, sisters, daughters of those that had joined the White armies—all were driven without segregation into the stifling pens of the barracks. The dialects of strange people were mingled In these places of despair. Mongols front the Kirgliis, Tartars of the Golden Horde from Kazan, deepthroated peasants from the Bushkir, sibilant voiced Russians from the Volga, Jews from the Ukraine, Cossacks from the Crimea, nomads from the Astrakan

steppes, and Kurds from the Pre- I Caucasus contributed to the queer melange of tongues. The fooil was no bettor than the prisons. The semi-star\ati<in that prevailed throughout. Kns.-ia tl'ul not justify the insufficiency and the inierioritv of the ration. It generally consisted of a little warm water and an issue of black bread which varied from one-half to one pound per person per day. From time to time this was supplemented by a thin watery soup, prepared under the nt"~t objectionable conditions, and served at noon. On rare occasions a portion of horse flesh was distributed. Diseases spread contagiously amongst the weakened prisoners. The physical and mental suffering caused by such conditions made death preferable and even desirable. The constant pressure of this environment eventually reduced the finer sensibilities into degraded resignation or else excited them to a hysterical state of mental derangement. Brutality of Speech. The prison officials rarely beat the prisoners. They confined their ill-treat-ment to brutality of speech and efforts to stun by the loudness of their tones the mentally weakened victims. They mocked and laughed at the plight of these unfortunates. The bourgeoisie prisoners were compelled to perform the filthiest work.

A prisoner who was to be shot was not informed when he was to be executed. The method generally followed was simple. The prisoner was ordered to leave the cell and to take his effects with him. This was intended to give the impression to those who remained that he was being freed or transferred to another prison. As he passed down the corridor the executioner followed him, in the guise of a guard. At the end of the corridor the condemned man was ordered to enter a certain room. The guard closed the door quickly and shot him in the back of the head. Often in order to muffle the executioner's shot the Cheka resorted to an ingenious device. Just before the execution was to take place a motor was started in the courtyard of the prison. During the noise made by the engine the fatal ehot was fired. Sometimes the motor would miss. The subterfuge was quickly disclosed to the other prisoners. Thereafter the sinister "whirring" noise during the stillness of the early morning added to their torture. This is the story of the Cheka, a narrative of the rule of the proletariat.