EVENTS IN RUSSIA.

Evening Star, Issue 18101, 17 October 1922, Page 4

EVENTS IN RUSSIA.

Sixes the fall of the Kerensky Government in 1917, and the accession to power of the Bolsheviks, it has been difficult to follow with any degree of accuracy the events that have taken place in Russia. The nows has been conflicting and confusing, A veil of secrecy was drawn over the country with much success, and the efforts of various investigators to pieroe the veil have been for the most part unsuccessful. ‘Even those who went out prepared to bless raw only the things which it was intended they should see; but that was sufficient to bring disillusionment and a fading away of the desire to penetrate further into the working of the Communist regime. In the worst days of the famine this year, when the Americans were giving relief with a lavish hand, the American Administration proposed to send over a mission of investigation, but this plan was denounced by the Soviet, and it had to be abandoned. A few facts stand out clearly, however, and they are sufficient to make the mass of the people in civilised countries recoil from the idea of having Communist rule established within their borders. Russia has seen a welter of bloodshed and a reign of terror beside which the excesses of tho French Revolution are as nothing. Famine on a vast scale and economic chaos are a-lsq to be attributed to the new rulers ol Russia. The position, to-day is anything but clear, but there is little to suggest that the country is winning its way to financial and economic stability. A more premising outllook in the famine regions, however, was indicated in the report lastmonth by the president of the United States Groin Corporation and controller of tho American Relief Administration-, who, in the course of an interview in London, after a month’s inspection of the famine regions, expressed the opinion that Russia will have enough food until tho next harvest if it is properly distributed. Ho described the crops as Jookjng excel-,

lent. This suggests some sort of organisation "On the part of the Soviet to prevent a . repetition of the conditions that have recently prevailed, though no information can. bo gained to indicate tho scope of the operations or the methods that have been employed. Tho Soviet has felt tho necessity of entering into alliances with other countries, and Britain, Franco, Italy, and the United States have all been approached in vtlrlons ways; but an unrepentant executive, winch refused to recognise the' obligations of the past, and whose avowed object is the destruction of the present ordered system of government, was hardly likely to be successful in its desire, and in each case the negotiations broke down. Mr Lloyd George at Genoa tried to find a way out of tho impasse, but it soon became, clear that the position was impossible, and the conference ended without any tangible result. The Rapallo Treaty, arranged between Russia and Germany on the eve of the Genoa was regarded in Moscow with satisfaction, and hopes of joint action in a military direction soared high; but sinoo then Germany has ostensibly cooled oft towards her neighbor in the East. Tins can be understood easily enough, for the German Government must regard with considerable misgivings, in the present disturbed state of tho Fatherland, a too close association with tho makers of the present Bolshevik system. In one direction the Moscow Commissars seem to be making some progress, and that is in the federative movement. The aim appears to he to bring the smaller independent States which have affinity with Russia, and which for the most part were former Russian territory, into ono great federated republic, each conducting its own domestic affairs, but acting together with Moscow at the head in matters of defence and foreign policy. This explains the Soviet s tenderness to Lithuania, Latvia, and Esthonia, each of which is now independent, and, notwithstanding its comparative significance, free from Soviet aggression, There are fifteen republics, not including tho Baltic States mentioned, carved out of the territory which was formerly the Russian Empire, hut each one is bound to Moscow by treaties of varying degrees or by informal working arrangements. Meantime attempts arc being made to build up a strong Red army. Compulsory military sendee has been .established, and from time to time wo read of purchases having been made in tho way of aircraft and other requisites which are employed by a modern army. What this portends it is not possible to predict. Its object may be offensive, or merely defensive; hut one thing is clear, and that is that the ideas which were hold by Lenin and Trotsky when they took office, though they may bo modified in some directions, are still the motive power behind the Government of Russia, and the destructive propaganda goes on wherever the portunity occurs. The recent Near East crisis may be cited ns a case in point.