A SOVIET VICTIM

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 92, 19 April 1941, Page 17

A SOVIET VICTIM

Those who are prone to think that Soviet Russia is an earthly paradise perhaps won't, read, or at any rate won't believe, what Joseph Ameel writes in "Red Hell," which, as its title implies, paints a picture of Soviet Russia in colours far removed from those pleasant ones usually associated with paradise. The good faith and honesty of the writer cannot be doubted. He is a Belgian who was born and lived in Russia. As a timber and forestry expert he spent many years in comparative happiness under the Soviet regime, being employed as a conservator of forests and game warden in northern Russia. But at the end of 1930 he was arrested without charge and spent six months In the G.P.U. prison in Leningrad, during which time the whole of his personal properly was expropriated and his wife and children left destitute. After obtaining his release he secured employment in the lumber camps on the borders of Finland, but two years later he was once more arrested, and, after a farcical trial, was sentenced to five years' penal servitude. Later he was compelled to join the military organisation maintained by the G.P.U. for guarding their prisoners. As a result of the new persecution launched by the Soviet Government after the assassination of the infamous Kirov, Ameel's original sentence was doubled. His eventual release was due to energetic action on the part of the Belgian Government.

The author has sampled every phase 'of life under Communism, and the vivid account of his experiences deals only with facts which speak for themselves. Discussion on thorny questions of political ideologies he does not indulge in. This is one of the most objective and revealing books on modern Russia that have appeared. Published by Robert Hale, it carries a recommendation by Dean Inge.