ISLES OF THE LOST

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 11404, 3 January 1931, Page 11

ISLES OF THE LOST

CONVICT SETTLEMENTS

SOVIET: ENTERPRISE

Tho reported foiinatioii by the Soviet Government of an autonomous “Republic of the Condemned” in the Solovetsky Islaikls, in the White Sea, was first proposed several years ago, hut, was vehemently .opposed at tho time, by tho .Chief Procurator (Public Prosecutor), Krylenko (says the “Gaily Mail”). The islands, turned into. a.'"portal • concentration camp., have been populated since 1920 with political prisoners composed chiefly of Social Democrats arid Anarchists, Only the strongest and healthiest are still alive. Nearly every well-known Socialist and Radical politician of pre-war Russia, was deported there, and they were soon joined by large numbers of friends and adherents.' In many cases whole families, including babies in arms, were deported, and for at least four years were for tho guards, the majority of whom entirely neglected by the Soviet authorities. Food was supplied only were' the most brutalised Soviet adherents that could he recruited for tho work by the then Chief of the Cheka, the famous Felix Djerjinski.

THE ANARCHISTS

The Anarchists male and female —were at first interned in one of the smaller islands, where they were permited to lead an “anarchistic” life, and, with the exception of a certain amount of “public and social” work, were at liberty to do as they liked.

As the death rate in the islands is the highest in the world, the Soviet found them exceedingly useful as a place of deportation for heretic Communists, a considerable number of whom were sent there with the

usual consequences. The history of the islands since 1920 is full of horrible tragedies and revolting atrocities. Men and women have been flogged to death at the whim of brutal commanders, and hundreds are known to have been stripped and allowed to freeze to death.

Thousands of Russia's pre-war intelligentsia have been driven to suicide. Among the “lost” are scientists', artists, and members of every learned profession whose powers of endurance gave out under the barbaric conditions.

With grim humor the Bolsheviks named these islands “Solovetsky” or the island of the nightingales. In fact, they are islands with practically no bird life and certainly without song.