The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST, 9, 1937. THE RUSSIAN MYSTERY.

Evening Star, Issue 22722, 9 August 1937, Page 8

The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST, 9, 1937. THE RUSSIAN MYSTERY.

Proscriptions and arrests in Russia have not ended with the execution oi the eight generals, the men ivho caused the lied Amy to achieve its high reputation for efficiency. The process goes on unrelentingly. A list of suspects published a week ago includes what were, until this shock, some of the most revered names in politics and administration. The campaign against Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans, we are told again, has intensified owing to the approach of the elections under M. Stalin’s new Constitution. Events certainly support what was written by the London ‘ Times ’ memoirist of Marshal Tukhachevsky: “In tho present state of Russia a whisper is sufficient to bring a man to trial, and trial means almost certain death.’’ Ur as the ‘ Spectator ’ puts it; “ By now it is accepted that M. Stalin governs like an Asiatic despot, who strikes suddenly and swiftly where he will. Judicial forms are little more than a convenience. The ‘spies,’ ‘Trotskyists,’ ‘ wreckers,’ ‘ foreign Powers ’ are only metaphors for political opponents whom a dictatorship must necessarily consider as traitors.” Tho whole world has been puzzled to know how such a devoted servant of the Soviet as Tukhachevsky could • have given mortal offence. Marshal Voroshilov’s brief statement that he had conspired with Germany and betrayed military secrets could not be held convincing. It was unfortunate for the first marshal, however, that he was praised in Trotskv’s recent book. Trotsky bewailed

the increasing nationalism of the Red Army. Gone, he complained, were the days when it was to be the spearhead of the work! revolution. And he recalled that, as long ago as 1921, the “talented hut somewhat too impetuous ” Tukhachevsky had preached that the Red Army should have no contacts whatever with the ai'mies of other countries, and suggested how it should b© organised for more than national purposes. That preoccupation witii tho world revolution, which may have been revived in Tukhachevsky’s mind, would fit in with Stalin’s explanation that those executed “ desired to -wreck Russia’s alliances with bourgeois Governments. Their political conception would result in the downfall of Soviet Russia. The men were traitors, therefore I struck.” The ‘ Spectator ’ comments: “ Does support of a misguided policy justify executions? The answer to that, no doubt, is simply that Russia is Russia.” There is no doubt that the military executions and others that have followed them have weakened Russia’s influence in that society of “ bourgeois Governments ” from which, according to the Trotsky ideas, she should always have held aloof. Whether as an enemy or as a friend, they have bred new doubts of her strength which might bo encouraging to high-handedness by Japan in China or by the Fascist Powers in Spain. If tho leaders of the Rod Army, however, were at variance with the State’s policy, and that array has now been made subservient to the State, Russia may have been strengthened, and not weakened, even from a military viewpoint, by the army’s purge. But the purges that still continue are hard to explain. It is almost incredible that Bela Kun, the former Communist dictator of Hungary, who has recently been a member of the Soviet Secret Service, should bo arrested. A Hungarian by birth, Kun early became active in the affairs of the Socialist Party. A set-back to his career occurred when he became implicated in the mismanagement of the funds of a workmen’s co-operativo society, but he recovered from this disgrace, and, being captured by the Russians late in the Great War, enthusiastically espoused the cause of tho Bolshevists. Supplied with liberal funds by. Lenin, he was smuggled back into Hungary in the disguise of a Red Cross doctor, and. in the disaffection that was caused by the Allies’ hard terms of peace, formed a Bolshevist Government. His programme of socialisation went to the furthest limit; all private property above the minimum—two suits, four shirts, two pairs of hoots, and four socks—was seized by the State and bathrooms made public on Saturday nights. But the estates and factories which the Government took over went from bad to worse under its control, the peasants refused to accept its new currency, and starvation seized on the towns, while prices soared. A “Red Terror” against his opponents, which was Kun’s last resort, was conducted with such rigours as to make Bolshevism a name of horror in almost all other European countries, and when the Rumanians defeated his forces ho fled to Vienna. He was interned there in the lunatic asylum, #but, after an attempt had been made to murder him, was allowed to return to Russia. Tho total number of those who were killed by his oppressions, in Hungary and afterwards in Russia, has been stated in incredible figures. It will he interesting to see what happens to Bela Kun.