RED REIGN OF TERROR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 27 September 1927, Page 7

RED REIGN OF TERROR.

RUSSIAN WOMAN’S ORDEAL. SEVEN YEARS OF MISERY. In a. weatherboard house in Soutn -wenj-ourne, sure.bug uimugn cue ua\ auu car into tne ingot lor meagre money, lives Madame Anna Surjeimo, me wire 01 a lormer Russian commissioner oi police, ©nice me coming ol me DoisUeviKs to Sumara, on the \ olga itner, in i'J2U, tier liie lias been a misery. lYiadamo Surjenko, who is slight ot build and dark-haired, nas suliered m Bolslievik prisons and in the snow of Liberia. Her husband has been killed. She has been separated from all her children, except her son Nicholas, who is 16, and a motor mechanic in a South Melbourne gaiage. in broken English Madame told her story recently, she illustrated it with a pile of photographs of her family and relatives beiore and alter the beginning of the red reign of terror. On her head she wore a lace cap tied with purple ribbon. She had lived in a big house at Sumara, where her husband was commissioner of police. When the Bolsheviks came Surjenko was immediately arrested. He stood lor law and order. Bolshevism stood for chaos.

Madam© Surjenko saw lier husband only once during tli© 15 months he was imprisoned at Sumara, and even then was not allowed; to speak to him. Suddenly he was taken to another prison, and no one would tell her which. A diligent search was rewarded—but what a reward. The man who told her the name of the new prison also told her that Surjenko had been executed five days before. Madame thought her cup of bitterness was full, but she: had reckoned without the days and nights of horror to follow. Scarcely .a week had passed before her house was burned to the ground and its contents destroyed. Then she was sent to Siberia. On the way to VTadivostock with three other women in charge of a train carrying 40 children, she was subjected to horrors at the thought of_ which she shudders still. The only piece of jewellery she had left at the time was a diamond ring. It Avas filed from her finger. In Vladivostock Madame opened a restaurant, and made a satisfactory living until 'her enemies hounded her down and made: her leave the. shop. A woman who then employed, her in household work was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for doing so. Seven times she was thrust into prison.

The months that followed: found Madame first in China and then in Japan. Five months ago friends made it .possible for her to come, to Aus. tralia, where they said she would’ be able to make a good living dressmaking. She had £65 when she arrived in Melbourne. Her capital is now gone. She. said the money she had rereNed for making dresses, lamp shades and other things had barely paid for the materials. “To-day I luTve a letter from my son Alex'” said. Madame Anna. “He is at school in China. He wants to come to me. but lie cannot. I have no money.” There are several cabinet-size: photographs of Madame’s 18-year-old daughter Sonic —a beautiful girl. The mother spoke sadly of her. She dens not know whereabout in .China Sonie is, nor does the girl know that her mother has come to Australia. “My life is behind me,” Madame said tragically. “I have lost everything. T do not know wliat.. I shall do.” In the hone that in Australia she will be helped to help herself she keeps on stitching