THE UPPER HAND

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 146, 18 December 1919, Page 5

THE UPPER HAND

WitAT kbLSHEViSM: MEANS

FIENDISH TORTURE OF VICTfiIS.

The horrors.reported to have been perpetrated at. .KKarKoC. by, the Chrssyychaika, or Bolsh&vik Extraordinary Cdmrriissioji, were 'irrefutably proved after tKe <>faoupiitioti»of the oihf by General De'nikin's tWwfw (stdtS a: Press Afeobiation message to London from; Rosfoff-ciii-Ihe-Doii; published itt the Manchester Guardian). Hundreds1 .iff victims of BoN shevik cruelty were disinterred in the' presence ,oj, medical t authorities, represcrl-' tatives of the trades unions, and respSrlsib'lo foreigners. Plibtognaplis \vere taken to.be sent.to England. ... Some of thfe tleyices used by the 861----sHjSvik executioners for torturing their victims werfe fiendish in their Irlgdntiity. One was called glove-rnakrig, Jlia s'kiri of the hands, with the\nails, being stripped from.the living victims. Every coriceivIbla, for,rti of mutilation was perpetrated in the Chr6svychaika slaughter-house. TKe actual executions i were .carried put .mostly with revolver /hots. Many were thrown, still alive, into a. afiedjup well and others into a mirie shaft, at the bo'ttbm of which there, was frbrri four to five feet of water. Others,.igain, were heaped in Mire holes in the ground. There- were iljo underground, galleries where the victims . woro covei-fed with earth where they fell. In theso galleries were found. several layers of .corpses. ..

/Comrade Edward," one of tie worst'of the Kli-iilcofi: butchers, played the piano or_ man<36lin lrhilc the tortured .were Sbt&imifiß and i\&ti .were being fired. Wine v all sorts ,of:. food and sfree;ts, and quantities of valuables wore fbutid in lUifi rooms of the chiefs of tile OlrresvycTiailca. A considerable portion of those Shot arid tortured wore workmen, arid peasants. Wholesale executions took place on account of the., discovery...-of. aii monarchist, plot. Thb evidence was based on the finding of a letter from-a'.boy of 16 to a Echbol friend easing th'k-t General Dbriikih would shortly torive in Kharkbff with the volunteers, and he tt'oiiW join tip.1 The boy was a.rreitcd aiid torttered. 'into giving the riaihes of the stippoSedJ leaders of the conspiracy, all of wlioni were arrested and shot. Ninety per cent, of tha arrests wore made, oh farcical charge's. Many wctc imnris6n«l because they were photographed ten years proviously in a. group with the pblitabiaft M. Puri?hkevitbh. Others were afrfested and shot for possessmg copies of verse Eatirising- the Bolsheviks. Among the favourite questions ot the , inqjiisitoTs was, "Have you ever abused Trotsky as a Jew?" The r'epreaSJbns .and atrocities redoubled after the .fisit of Trotsky to Idiarkoff. Tho Bolsheviks, when .tlifc'y rotirtsd, cirried off.many hostages T^ith thorn:' f^eaT' VoltchanSk they shot 54J" iriclu'diiig the head mistress of the girls' ashSbt; "";