THE RED TERROR

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 155, 28 December 1918, Page 2

THE RED TERROR

PRISON LIFE IN RUSSIA

ENGLISHMEN'S SUFFERINGS

OVERCROWDED AND STARVED,

The Petrograd correspondent of the Daily Chronicle reveals a terrible picture of the sufferings of Englishmen flung into prison by the Bolsheviks. Under date of sth September he writes:— On Friday, 30th August.. Untsky, Commissioner of the .tiiterior, was murdered, and the same evening Mr... Woodhouse, the British Consul, was arrested, hb were the member's of the English Club who were present at the time the murderer was supposed to have tried to hide there. ' . '.- Although the Club is called "English," there is no single ;' member an Englishman, but it was originally founded in 1770 by an Englishman; The father of the murderer, Kannigisser, Was also arrested, according to the Chinese fashion. The following day all the Bolshevik papers made, great capital out of the English Club, and stated that the English tirid French had directly engineered the murder. On the Saturday after* noon a mass of arrests took place, and a company of* Red Guards -Were Sent to the British Embassy. There an exchange of shots took place, the result of which was that two Red Guards were killed and one wounded, and Commander Croinie, who distinguished himself so in the Baltic as commander of the British submarine flotilla, -Was killed. The Bed Guards Were so violent after the death of their comrades that for a time there was. considerable danger of the members of the consulate being lynched offhand. However, they wer4 taken to the old Prefecture of Police, which is now the headquarters ;df the Bolshevik police, and there detained. Among those nrrested at the consulate were Mr. Mackie, the vice-consul; Mn Dobson, the Times Correspondent j Mri Lombard, the. British chaplain; and others. On the Stinday the arrests continued, arid Mr. Marsden, of the Morning Post; Mr. Bnrkmyrej of the Daily Express, and myself were also arrestedi CONFINED WITH MURDERERS. We were taken .to t the Prefecture, where w<S were examined, our money taken from us, excepting about 100 roubles, and we were then placed in ai large rdfltti, ill Which 6vei' 130 were finally confined. These included British and French subjects, together with Russians, among Whom were, murderers, burglars, pickpockets; cocairie merchants, and speculators. . • . ■. There were 36 beds in the. room,; so the majority slept where they could»s6frte 6ii the floor and on forms. 1 personally slept on the table,' a.nd was a good deal tormented by. "visitors." There was a regularly elected h&ad of jthe room^a Unyyer who had been ar-. riiiei fflr" accepting payineht for his services, and through him We were able to pm-chase cigarettes, raspberry tea., ginger bread (24 roubles a pound), che6£e, stamps, etc. In addition, we were able to get iifewspapei's. We could write open letters to our friends, and could receive parcels from them thrice weekly -From the money taken ff6m us we were 1 permitted to receive 5(3 roubles Weekly, but that did not;go very farj and the authorities fed us Once daily, about 2 p.m., when every (nesß of five-men received-a. basin of fish soup and a .Quarter of a pouiid of dried black bread per man. We were.provided "With wbodfvn spoons,,..ajiil. sat round and . supped from „the comnion' basiii. , Hot water 1 for. tea was provided !id lib. SO, except for the fact, of the overcrowding, the insects', and some of the prisoners, we had not so much to complain of. . On Monday evening a Rang of criminals was brought in, and one of them told me a rather interesting story. A commissary came in and made some remark to this mail arid went out. This man then told me that the commissary and he were old criminals, who had been in prison together. . , ..-.'< A short timfe ago the commissary Was arrested for housebrealdhg and .was • sentenced to bo shot. He offered his. services to the Bolsheviks, and,was released on condition that he betrayed all his old comrades. So now this "gentle-, iriari rides round in a motor and arrests all Ill's own friends. He has been engaged only two weeks on this ' xrticular job, and has already arrestev. jver. 200 criminals.. The relations of the guard td the prisoners were on the Whole correct, but one commandant Was simply brutal. ■ As the room got fuller the atmosphere became more and more stifling, ' so a number of the prisoners went into the kitchen\to get a., breath of air: Suddenly the commandant came in. He demanded what they were doing there, arid on being- informed that the reason ■was that the room was so overcrowded [and-stifling, called put, "Drive them I into the room. Stifle them. That's ! what's wanted." ■ ■■ • ■ j However, the overcrowding became so' [ serious on thu Tuesday that it was 6§- | sential to take soms steps, so the. British, and French" and a ,few ( others were ordered, to get ready. We were not informed where, we would .be taken to., and th<*re was a .considerable delay , a*, at first the guard flatly refused to take us anywhere; ' MARCHED TO THE FORTRESS. Finally a guard was collected, a-rtd we were all assembled in the yard, anil then in broad daylight we were marched through, the Streets to SS. Peter'and Paul's fortress, to the evident distress of the Russians whom we mci on the, way. We went very slo\yly, as some of our party were Over 70 year's of age, with' ohe or. two cripples. On the way we passed the embassy, which seemed diverted, the flag being down.: On arrival af> the fortt'ess the <sommandant At first refused to receive Us, as the c6lls were so oVercrbwded, but he finally decided to put us in the Trubetskoy Bastion, where political; priioiiers Were formerly confined. We Were afraid at first tha,t we should be confined on the ground floor, where the cells are exceedingly damp, but wo were taken to the. first floor. There "was a foul prifcbn stencil as we went alohg the corridor^—the smell of men who had been herde.a together with little air and less com/oft. We could see pallid faces looking 6ut through the peep holes in the doors, and'oh inquiry we learned that they Were mainljr former officers, many of whom had l)eeh employfed .ih various Soviet institutions. Most of therrt had not beefi examined, aiid some had been confined fer over a month without any accusation being made against them.' ■ . • TWENTY IN CEDL FOR ONE. , \Vi Were riot long left in doubt .as. to where we were to he placed, as We were broken up into groups of eight find {nit into the already overcrowded cells. Where, under Hi 6 old regime, one pri* Softer was confined, and had. a tied to sleep, in, three liieal^ a da,y, half in hour's walk every day in the corridor and a/walk two or t-hriie times a week ill tlie garden, now no fi»\Vc!r than 20 occupy (he same cell. We sleep.on the stone floor, nil round the walls, and try to keep as far away from the latrine as possible. When we first got into the cell and the door was closed we could not see where' on earth we were going, to arrange burselves, and this was till the more ..difficult'as' thfefe J oP th* company «>ere Rfid Giisude, who ««rf. #rW»*t«fl-.flit'- #teiUmg lit SmolliV Institute, where they had been oft tttftid,

and who had a plentiful stock of undesii'able guests. So thov got a wide berth arid.a larger space than they deserved. However, the others made us kindly welcome, lumped together a little closer, and we arranged our belongings on t,he floor, after which we sat on the bed, as many as could, told the latest news, gave eaoh man a cigarette from our scanty supply, and learned the routine and rules of the little commune in which we found ourselves, as well as the traditions of our cell. BAD FOOD. Our first anxious. inquiries were as to whether we'could communicate with tlie outside world, and receive parcels and food. Officially there was ho communication, but it could be effected by vari: ous ways and means. Parcels, we were toldj were-accepted by the commandant twice weekly, and were handed to the prisoners after inspection. As they had very jlittle chance of inspecting them properly, parcels were received only after four or five days, by which time most of the food was rotten and had to be flung out. The official ration was in a much worse state, and, although we were supposed to receive bread and soup daily; owing to the ab^ice of proper appliances the prisoners Were fed only twice a week. The last time.' they had been fed was on Sunday at. 11 p.m., and the soup was so rotten hardly anyone.could e&t it. All Tuesday we received nothing, on Wednesday there were rumours regarding both fond and parcels. . Tile latest arrivals who had a little food and money Werd ' not so badly off, but some of the officers were literally and absolutely starving. Towards evening, when ' the ap'petiten got keener, the sentries along the corridors were badgered by a> flood of questions: "Will they give us food to-day?" "What about our parcels?" The sentries gave what answers they could and our hopes -Were raised by receiving a ration of a quarter of a pound of dried bread. IN THE DARKNESS. At i.2 midnight the light went out, and as the poor chaps sat in the dark, depressed, hungry, wo could feel the hell they were going through. We could not help, because the little supplies we had Would hardly hay? made a mouthful all round. They tried to sleep* but front time to time one would get up and stare anxiously through the peephole, straining his ears for the clank of the, soup cans. One o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock— at last a distant clank.. We all roused Up. We asked is it the food?—to receive glad ahd oven for us welconie reply— "Yes." At last the great minute arrived, and the cell door was flung open. They brought us in three'ditty 'wooden basins' of fish soup with cabbage in it. This was scrupulously divided, first the liquid d • next the "thick," as it was called.. All received abdut three glasses full, and it Was rather painful to see men who had eaten almost nothing from 11 p.m. on ■ Sunday till 4 a.m. the following Thui-s, dajl tryihg to conceal their hunger: Personally, it wes one' of the great minutes of my lifetime—6rie impossible to forget.- Oiife candle on the table, iiiiieteeli men sitting round the Walls, drinking but of all sorts of vessels, thanking God that they had only waited four days for the food instead of longer. After eating all we could get, we had one cigarette, and then the candle was. put out, and we settled ourselves for the night. To-day we may receive parcels, so we live in hopes, and great will be our. pride if we get One. Perhaps 1 shall. get a towel and soap, A few -ci^et-tesjiijrtoy^Kr a few lumps of .sugar: I'liave'eVeii ftopeS' of getting a book.. But. one. must not be too optimistic, one may. receive nothing. * • ■ . . \ - ■ ■ However we have' three* moments in our day. At 12 "midday the" gun goes, off; at' 7 p.m. the electric light goes'on,' ■ntid at 12 midnight it goes out. At other times we get hot water; then the cell is a. busy scene: we fill everything-we can with hot water, and we drink some tea—; the minority-—generally a foul decoction, known as raspberry or'strawberry.tea. Those who have anything eat a little, those who haven't look- on enviously. God help theni ! ■ There is one Englishman in, my cell, also the president of .the English Club, an ex-actor, who tell 3us funny stories. We even play t domihoes (made Of cardboard), . cards likewise. At -other* times we have discussions on the political situation, the present Government, and the present and past state of Russian literature* So we sit, nineteen in a cell for cue. ■.'■'■ . -1 ■. , We try ndt to think too much. We try to, interest ourselves in something, and soiriehow" ,the time passes.