SOVIET RUSSIA

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 130, 29 November 1919, Page 8

SOVIET RUSSIA

A DANE'S OBSERVATIONS

DISTRUST OF KOLTCHAK

" THE WHITE TERROR."

A comprehensive survey of the political situation in Russia was given to Reuters correspondent recently in a long conversation with Dr Camillo Martiny, who has just returned home after three or four years' stay in Russia, during the last twelve months of which he has been head of the Danish Red Cross there. lii that capacity Dr. Martiny has had the duty of protecting British and the subjects of all the principal foreign Powers, and has come into close contact with members of the Soviet Government and all circles of the people. His picture of the situation may be summed up as follows -.—

"Recognising the terrible failure of their policy, Lenin' and his associates decided to abandon terrorist methods and the policy of immediate socialisation, and for tho first few months of the present year this moderate programme pre-' vailed. But the moderate .policy of Lenin and his associates failed to. secure for the people the peace they were longing for, and early in April last it looked as though the whole Bolshevik fabric was collapsing. It was then that, in view of this failure, the Bolshevik followers turned from Lenin and his comparatively moderate policy to Peters and Dershinsky with their extreme policy, which is to make no peace until Europe and the world is Bolshevised. The majority in the Soviet bodies went over to these extremists, and for the past three months th.y have been the real Government, only the shadow of power remaining in the hands of Lenin and the other people's Commissaries. "Not only Lenin, v Trotsky, and others, but even Peters and Dershinsky, are, in my opinion—and I have come" into frequent close contact with them—wellmeaning men. They aro simply idealists whose fanaticism goes to the point of madness. Moreover, strict discipline is maintained by them. If officials even indulge in cocaine or strong drink they are liable to death. On the other hand, the terrorist method is adopted on principle. The houses of a whole street are suddenly searched, and the whole of tha inhabitants marched off to prison on not even the semblance of a charge, and left lying in terrible conditions tliere for .weeks, or perhaps months, awaiting examination, when they may calmly be sent back home again. Not many are actually executed. "The successes against Koltchak are largely due to the generalship of Kameneff, who was a colonel under the Tsarist regime, and is a very able soldier. His policy of an offensive against Koltchak having prevailed over the defensive policy of the Soyiet for war, and having proved successful, all military power lias now passed into his hands."

This Danish _ observer has evidently little, if any, faith in the ultimate success of Koltchak and Denikin, at any rate unless something can be done to remove the fear and suspicion with which they are at present regarded even by the bourgeoisie, or intelligentsia, in Russia. He remarked that the opposition to them there increases the more territory they occupy. This is largely due to the fact that it is alleged, and believed, that their entry into any town means the advent of the White Terror;..that not only are Bolsheviks who have committed crimes put to death, but all who, though by no means Bolsheviks, have been compelled by the terrible pressure of circumstances to serve under their regime, in the army or otherwise, suffer a like fate. The advent of the White armies is, therefore, feared even by the bourgeoisie. Asked what Russians outside Bolshevik circles thought of British action in North Russia and elsewhere, Dr. Martiny said it was warmly welcomed. The intelligentsia wished for nothing better than British and American or Allied intervention. He considered that if the British withdrew from Archangel the people of Russia were likely to give up all idea of salvation from outside, and that the other parties would then in course of time be forced into some sort of co-operation with the Bolsheviks. When Dr. Martiny left there were some 70 or 100 British prisoners of war interned in Moscow, and a few were coming in daily, so that the number would now be larger Both officers and men were quite well treated. As regarded' civilians', there were some 200 British in Petrograd and Moscow, and, perhaps, 300 French. The latest news was that their internment was- planned.