RUSSIA AS IT IS

Evening Star, Issue 17923, 20 March 1922, Page 3

RUSSIA AS IT IS

AN ALL-POWERFUL POLICE REGIME. FEMININE FOLLIF.S AND FOIBLES. [By TV. R, VANnF.ni.ir, in the Chicago 'Tribune.'] The Tche-ka. or Secret Police, of the Communist regime is a special body, .subject only to the Council of the People's Cumrnissiares. At the beginning of the revolution this organisation, .n order to smell out and destroy the enemies of the new legime, reverted to savage terrorist methods, executing of tho proscribed in Moscow alone in the hitter part of 1918 and of the early part of 1919. In the second part of 1919 only about 500 went to their death by on',.- of this secret police. The head of tho Tche-ka ie Deilinsky, who spent sixteen years m military confinement in Siberia. He is known" throughout Russia as "The Man of Sorrows." "He is finely educated, cold, unemotional, and apparently wholly impersonal in his decrees. 1 was to'.d that he never convicted anybrdy out of vindictivencss. but only on tie record of the accused. I formed the conclusion that, on the whole, tho Tche-ka has not been vindictive, but that it carried out its terrorism from the point of view that all enemies of the Soviet, were traitors to the people and obstacles to the general restoration of peace and normal life. Derlinskv has the power to order the arrest even" of Lenin himself. Lenin is to-day plunged into a s'r.iggb with this extraordinary Communism. I surmise that he finds tins bodv a hindrance and an obstacle to the liberalising plans he has on his mind. What the outcome of the struggle botwM'-: Lenin and this Frankenstein = of the IVd Revolution will be it is not easv to conjecture; but, I, for one, believe "that Lenin will triumph. EXECUTION'S TAPERING OFF.

Since 1920 executions in Russia have been ordered in extraordinary cases only. In the summer of 1920 a eenous plot against the Go\crnmcnt was unearthed. A ieasue had been formed and called "The " National Centre." Among its leaders wcie .three of Kenensky's former Ministers. Tlm.-e men were ail convicted of plotting against the Government and of treason, yet they are all alive, and are merely serving prison terms in a building more au-uratcy culled a house of detention than a prison. When I was in Russia, in Sep'ember, 1920, my firvt visit to the country, the Cneka was .still all powerful. One never knew where to look for its agent. One did know, as a matter of comintn sense, that the Cheka had its spies wherever people congregated, particularly in the eating-houses, in tho railroad stations, in the street crowds, and in the meeting halls. At that time tho people sill moved in fear of the spy system, which had its net thrown o*?r Russia—over the world, for that matter, because the Cheka has its representatives in every civilised country. Now'that the civil war is about over, the Cheka is practically engrossed with detecting such enemies o: the Government as iiiteitc.ro with the development of industry. It maintains a special organisation lor apprehending secret agents of the foreign nations that are still intriguing in Russia.

Lenin now believes that the danger of revolution is ended, and that the Cheka is unnecessary and even a menace to the development "of the nation. I interpret this as another sign of progress and another indication of Lenin's gradual swing to the right. The greatest fear of Lenin's life is not that he will be assassinated by Tsarist agents or reactionaries of the old school, but that he. may he killed by fanatics of the left, the extreme zealots among his own followers. A well-known professor in the University of Moscow, a graduate of the University of Berkeley, discussed Communism and the present Government with me one night when I dined at his home. He was not a Communist—he was not, in fact, a sympathiser—but he was lecturing at the Government Control University, in order to get his daily food ration and the allowance, for his family. His words to mo wore :•

WHAT AX " TXTELLECTUAL " SAYS. "We have had enough of revolution in Russia. Progress in our Government must now be by evolution, and .1. firmly believe that Leniii is our only hope. Every morning when I wake I dread that I may hear of his assassination, because I absolutely know that the killing of Lenin would plunge our country into tho horrors of another revolution. Ido not agree, and never have agreed, with any of his policies, or with those- of the Communist Party; but I am absolutely 'sure that, Leniii is at the head of the party that is turning to the right. We are suffering in all ways from tho incompetent and inefficient methods of the Government. This morning my wife, who is fifty-five years of age, left the house at 7 o'clock to get a place in line before the,food distributing store, which is three miles from our house. It was 10 o'clock before ehe reached the door, as many people had been waiting there all night. At 10 o'clock she reached the window, received her monthly allowance thirty-six pounds of flour, and had to carry it home upon her back, resting at every block. I could not get it for her, because I had to go to the university to earn the right for her to get it." I myself have fcen hundreds of people standing all night in the cold and wet to hold their places in these bread lines of the Communistic experiment. It is merely an instance of the unbelievable inefficiency/of this strange experiment. It is an experiment which will gain for Russia in the end, 1 make bold to predict, certain spiritual assets that some other nations have sweated and bled through whole generations to obtain —an impulse toward education, toward national unity, among them Russia is passing through a sore and bitter trial, and is suffering intensely. The people are deprived of almost all of the little comforts and luxuries of life that make life worth while for us. Their deprivation in such things astounded me when I fisrt came into contact with it. When I left America I took with mo a great many articles that I suspected were scarce in Russia., and that I thought might bring a little happiness and a little pleasure to the friends I hoped to make. I carried in my boxes and bags a large supply of toilet articles, tooth powder and tooth brushes, and such things. At my quarters one afternoon I gave a tea to a rather mixed crowd, made up of artists, musicians, the loading actress from the Art Theatre, two oE Russia's leading scientists, and some former business men.

FASHIONS BEFORE FOOD. As they were leaving I asked them, almost in embarrassment, if they would think me rude if I offered them some soap and tooth powder. They simply shri-sked their delight and pleasure. I simply cannot describe the exhilaration and excitement that my suggestion evoked. They crowded around me like children as . I broke open a large box and distributed, with something of the air of a Santa Claus, I suppose, these little commonplaces of our own daily life. They told me then that, although there is plenty of soap in the magazines maintained by th commissaries, the process of getting it was so tedious and nerve-racking that many people would rather go without. First, they were required to stand in line, possibly for several hours, and, after having walked a long distance, to find the commissar of the district, who could give them a paper entitling them to draw soap from the Communist store. The ©tore- itself was apt to be miles from the commissar's office, and often when they reached it they would find that the soap supply for that day had been exhausted. Usually they would be told that there was no certainty as to when a new supply would be issued. And all this trouble for a single cake of soap such as sells at ten cents in America.

.Suppose that some of you American women had been deprived for six years of about everything you are used to, and that your comfort and delicacy require in the way of toilet articles and wearing apparel—intimate things—l wonder if you would have made tho same request to rno

that my two secretaries, Russian women, made last November, when I asked them what I could send them in return for their many kindnesses. You would never guess. Simultaneously they shouted, " Fashion books!" THE UNIVERSAL PROVIDER. Let me tell you the story of a, little girl and' Iter dress, for,the all-powerful, allpervading Soviet Government presumes even to clothe the little children of Russia according to its rigid standards. From the cradle 10 the grave it seeks out the objects of its minute authority. Every dnv as I left the guest-house for a stroll"I saw to children who lived in the neighborhood—an eight-year-old girl and her six-year-old brother. I made their acquaintance gradually and after a while, when I had won their confidence, | they walked a way with me every day, usually to a corner, where sometimes apples 1 were obtainable. Through the children I I got to know their parents, and sometimes II looked in at their home for a chat. One afternoon, while visiting these friends, a motor truck stopped at their door. A man jumped oil' the truck carrying a bundle, loafed across the sidewalk, _and threw tho bundle carelessly into the doorway. The mother went to tho door, picked it up. and read the ticket which was attached.

"This is the semi-annual dress tho Government furnishes for Natalie," Natalie's mother said, rather sadly. I examined the dress and noted that, while the material was fairly good, though coarse, the stitching and buttonholes looked as if they had been made by a ten-year-old child. This was one of a thousand examples of communistic inefficiency that were thrust under my eyes—slovenly, stupid inemeiency, individualism gone mad.

Unfortunately for my little friend Natalie, she was unusually tall for her age. I was present when she tried on the dress and paraded it before the assembled family. It was pitifully short, hardly coming to her knees. The poor mother was in despair. I asked her why she did not return the dress to the magazine or" children's clothing and change it for a frock that titled. She said :

" No, that would be impossible. I would mere be told taht my daughter should not be so tall for her age."

" What, then, will you do?" "Oh, my friend, after several days of inquiring in tho neighborhood 1 shall certainly lind some child who is too short for her age. She and Natlie will simply exchange dresses.' So, you see, Communism fails to take into account the most: ordinary manifestations of Nature Most of mankind, learning wisdom by the hard knocks of thousands of years, understand that man's ways and decrees must, after all, conform to Nature's, to her laws and lied whims. The Communists go blindly forward in the delusion that man can command Nature in all things, and that, if mistakes are made or somebody suffers in the process, it is Nature's fault, not man's.