SOVIET REPUBLIC

Grey River Argus, 26 June 1922, Page 3

SOVIET REPUBLIC

RUSSIAN EXECUTIONS. A BERLIN REPORT. BERLIN, Juno 24. A meeting of h presentatives of the Second and 'Third int erm:lionals, held here passed a resolution requesting Moscow not tu execute the Social Revolutionaries. Rosenfeld, who acted as counsel for the prisoners, declared •I i- s n<> use, as they will certainly be REVIEWi BY BERNARD SHAW. "Whatever his terrified bourgeois critics may think of Trotsky, as Arch-Com-munist-Terrorist. they must admit that when he takes his pen in his hand he is a Xailer. -Making all allowances for the effervescence of his success in cracking Koltcnak, Den-akin and Wiangel like three lusty nuts, and frightening Europe us nobody else sim-e the Kaiser has frightened it, the gaiety of his coni roversial style must com-c from a genuine gaiety ot heart. lie is a ruthless and trenchant antagonist, but not a. nasty one. When Kautsky makes a point, it catches 1 rotsky’s intellectually honest eye at once; ami he exclaims cheerfully “J.et. us see whether we cannot find a grain of truth in tiiis mass of drivel.” Like Liwsing, when he cuts off his opp meat’s head he holds it up to show Dial th-ere are no brains in it; but lie spares his victim's private character. Trotsky does not hit below the belt. He leaves Kautsky without a rag o f political credit ; but he leaves him with his honour intact. What .he Attempt on Lenin Taught. Trotsky and Lenin, until 1!»17. lived am! let live, like private men of moderate means, until one day Lenin found himself. lull of bullets, some of which have not yet been extracted. ,'lTie two then realised that Bolsh-ev-i*i . was face to face with enemies who regarded a Bolshevist as a mad dog, and Communism ns a heresy to be ruthlessly stamp'd out by the secular arm. They realised also that these enemies could not be- converted ami disarmed by kindly and cogent lectures on surplus value and cron-evolution. 'Trotsky grasped the fact that Lenin had been shot because lie had not shot lhe people who wanted to shoot him. Having the rare gift of profiting by •experience he rapidly organised his shooting resources and soon laid out the whole reaction, domestic ami foreign— Kollchak, Denekin ami Wrattgel, capitalist, syndicalist. ami anarchist—with sm-h Xapolconic energy, that all Europe lh"Ugh rod with brothers’ blood to its •elbows, was horriiied al his deplorable n:o-i on the Mount. But order reigned in Moscow; Denekin found London a safer place; and Koltchak mouldered in the grave without SOVIET DIPLOMACY. .1 was at litm-h with the Russian delegation one duv wdien Tehitcherin, I.itvir.off and Krassiu i turned from a meeting with tin' Allied ministers. The Soviet delegates walked to a table in the crowded room, in which experts, shorthand-typists, ami Italian Communists of th-o much talked-of ami highly efficient ” Rod Guard,” were all eating and (-hatting gaily. After a moment Litvinoff rose from his sent and made ■ a brief declaration, describing' the morn- > ing’s meeting. 'There was a hardly per- ■ ceptable lull in lhe clattering knives nnd forks .ami the chattering tongues; I ■ one export from G-oorgia asked a ques- j tion to which Litvinoff replied, and j ■ then .hr meal resumed its normal, tin- j i diplomatic, highly commonplace aspect, j j To me, accustom-ed to the high Avail | I of secrecy erected around both the priv- ! ate meetings and the meals of Allied I ministers, the incident was novel and i fascinating. ami w hen a Russian at my I table said livery member of our del- | gallon, however apparently humble his , duties, has the right io know what has happened during the day. for are we : not the trustees of the working class ot ; Russia I ?’’ Then I knew surely among | wh.-il people 1 hud fallen. (G. Slicombe, in the London ‘‘Daily Herald. ) aid?’) STOPPED A WAR. A MUTINY .. ... Al th* l beginning of Idl'd lhe < lo-mcm-eau Government in its blind h:»-’<* . of Soviet Russia decided 10 Send the l-'i-enrh but I leships which were then in the Bosphorus Io various Russian ports --Odessa, Sebastopol, ami others on which was waxing the red ilag cd Intcrnational Sect: lism. No vote ot cred- ! it was asked from the Chamber, m> j war of course hud been declared against I Russian. I’nder the pretext of helping | the • (.-• ailed Republic of Ukraine, , which German Imperialism had set up, ’ a sudden and I re: ( herons attack av:i a , directed against the Russian Soviet Republic. A a matter of fact it set-ms 1 that, in complicity with Mr Churchill. M. Giemem-imu was plotting a real war , in alliance with the Russian "Whites. < Bul all these plans failed because of , the quite unexpected resistance of the lower-ueck men. They found a leader in the person of ; a young engineer officer. Andre .Marty. He was chief engineer of a torpedo boat, Le Borteae. Marty found a devoted and active lieutenant in the person of Badina, a young sailor only 20 ye: is old. One afternm n, the Russians who were looking anxiously at the ‘‘enemy” Ileet, aw suddenly Hint on the battleship- the red ilag, their Red Elng” was waving. The sailors had rebelled! On each ship a sailors’ committee had been fmined demanding pence for Russia and the return of all the crews to France. The i:oin>nnnders and high officers were quite at a loss. The whole thing

i bcm done so suddenly—wit hout Laux- disorder, without any bloodshed. ! 'l’hev found themselves absolutely pow - I orie.-s beft.ro the xictorions mutineers. | Marty did not want bloodshed; he hud nut Ihe least i-b-i (in spite of what Ihe lloyali.-t ami reactionary I’ress of France has since iasinimted ) of delivering tin 1 boats io the Russians. A peace treaty was concluded hetween the : dmiral and the sailors. They xvould submit to this agreement: i he would bring them back to France, i no war xvould be continued against Kussia. no sailors xvould Im punished. ! Ila gave his xvord of honour. ' But i when the fleet came bark into Constanitinople, ami the chiefs fuliml themselves again in the sadd’e, everything was forgotten by the Lleniencean Government. Com is maitial condemned to five. BL la, ami even 20 wars of prison the daring sailors who had been considered as the leaders of the revolt. Of course, the most cruelly punished was Andre Maitv. Th ex- did not dare shoot him, bur. he got 20 years’ Lard labour. Now both Marty and B.idina have been thrice elcct.-d as ( ‘oiiimunists to the Municipal Council of Paris, and 1 thrice unseat.•<! by th.- bourgeois, but •’ |he Communists will elect them a