RUSSIA TO-DAY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 12 November 1924, Page 8

RUSSIA TO-DAY.

BOLSHEVISTS’ REPRESSION OF OPPONENTS.

The London Times lias received froth a responsible contributor, who is familiar with Russia and has recently returned front, there,, the following account of developments in Moscow-: With the apotheosis of Lenin, the curtain fell upon the split in the Communist Party. The outside world knew nothing beyond such inferences as it could draw from the absence of Trotsky from Moscow;, the new elections of the House Committees and the cleansing” of the universities,’ sure symptoms of-, the predominance of the extremists. .Very characteristic of Bolshevist methods were the elections of the Domopravlenia, or House Committees. As th*e material position of the labouring class was the reverse of improved since the Revolution, the authorities decided to pamper the proletariat political]}’’. Ari apportnnitv was afforded by the election of new 7 House Committees, which came due in April. Every house oV block of flats is administered by a committee of residents annually elected. In 1923, a substantial number of educated men and women Were serving on those committees. Tins,, of course, was most distasteful tb the Soviet authorities, and consequently the .lists were revised shortly before the elections, arid the names of all who were not proletarians were erased.

. The remaining minorities, qualified Dy being proletarians, promptly elected their ow r n committees, with chairmen and other officials, and took over the management, which thsy signalised by taking away from the “bourjui” members much of the minute space left to them. The disqualified 1 ‘bourjui ’ ’ appealed to the Courts, which, doubtless to uphold the honour of the Soviet Government, promptly ordered the restoration of the erased names. Thus was justice satisfied. But the elections Wore not quashqd, t and to-day every Domoplavlenie in Moscow 7 consists ejxciusiv.ely of proletarian members, or at least Communists.

Another characteristic, but more tragic, symptom was the “cleansing” of the : universities. A commission of Communists interrogated every student of both sexes and weeded out all who could not prove proletarian or peasant origin. It was not right, they said, that any “bourjuf, ” or non-prdletariab, should enjoy the benefits of education. Consternation reigned throughout the country; the Western w 7 orld can have' but a faint conception of the sacrifices and struggles 6f Russian students in .their ambition to BecuTe. a diploma. To the vast majority, if not to all, it. whs the one object left- in life. For if they had worked ten hours a- day, or even more, for three, five or seven years, keeping body and soul together on ,a meagre ration of coarse bread aiid salt herring, sleeping huddled together in bare rooms, attics and cellars. But the machine was remorseless, and on the very eve of attainment of their single ambition in life upwards of 5000 students of both sexes found themselves . expelled, With but the street and starvation before them. This was followed by bloodshed in Petrograd—now, in its ruined condition, not inappropriately called Leningrad—-and an epidemic of suicides; over 60 cases were reported in Moscow in one week.

The position of the teaching staffs is only less precarious because they are for the moment indispensable, but they all feel that their days are numbered. Their own students rep'ort upon them to the political authorities, and their least anxiety is the constant anticipation of a fortnight’s notice. Even the pittance that they earn, about as much as they paid their domestics before the war, was recently paid them with but half in cash, the other half in the form of a promissory this iri a city where the cost of living is about double that of London. In no city in the World can there be so many cripples, beggars, and maimed as in the streets of Moscow, some exhibiting horrible monstrosities and mutilations, others Well dressed, speaking with an educated voice, an,d often addressing foreigners .in good French. But there is still a substantial population of “boufjUi”—schoolmasters, officials, engineers and others. Sometimes these endeavour to repay themselves for the loss of all their possessions af- v fhe expense, of the State, but the Soyiets have, a short method with such cases. In orie night eleven architects, found or reported guilty of misappropriation in connection with Government works, were taken from their beds and shot. It is this ruthless efficiency which has cleared the streets of Moscow arid Leningrad of the bandits who made an evening stroll unsafe but a short time ago. .Still, it is the leaven of experienced officials who have survived from the old regime which enables the machinery of State to function. And yet the Brass, which, of course, is synonymous With the Government, openly rejoices When it records the “clcansirig” out of trained and competent riven from the public service and their replacement by “good” Communists and proletarians. Even yet there are enough “bourjui” to feel a corporate hatred for the Bolshevists, and it is by no means only the “bourjui” that feel it.

Neither has religion been stamped out. True, the great Cathedral of St, Saviour has been closed, but at Easter it was hard to find standing room in any of the numerous, tiny, quaint, medieval churches with which Moscow abounds. This irritated the Bolshevists, and .their retaliation was characteristic. Through the Gosmoloko, or State Milk Trust, they forbade the sale arid! stopped the supply of tvoreg or curds, with which to make that delicious Easter c-ake, the paskha, Which means more to the Russian than does plum pudding at. Christmas to the Englishman. “Why should the opinionated Christians enjoy their Easter?” And so on Good Friday they arrested a batch of old Imperial generals. After the mutilated beggars the visitor to Moscow is. perhaps most struck With the blatant, and perpetual propaganda which assails his eyes on every side. It is worse than a polling day in England, but, of course, there is only one party. On every side, in every, ebop, on tramcars, on hoardings, there are busts and jtor traits of Lenin arid Karl Marx. On the wrapper of every little purchase you make, on your very crockery in the restaurants, are proclamations of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

And in the few remaining restaurants, including the Luxe, on the Tverskaia, where the foreign Communists foregather, including English girls, with cropped hair, arm in arm with Mongols and Chinamen, the walls , are placarded with appeals to the waiters not to accept tips “for tea.’ > “To take tips is to accept bribes from the ‘bourjui’ “Whoso taketh tips is unworthy to be a member of his Profsovuz (trade union)”; “It is unworthy

to pick up the crumbs that fall from the rich man’s fable”; "A tip is an insult to an honourable proletarian.” Yet no one has yet stated that he lias met a waiter who admitted that he was fit ,to be a member of Ins Profsoyuz, and all waiters eagerly look for an ‘/insult” under the coffee cup.