Russia in the Far East

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 236, 6 October 1938, Page 12

Russia in the Far East

TALES OF A FUGITIVE Nothing has done more to calm Japanese anxiety about the Soviet menace than the reported voluntary surrender on June 13 to Manchukuo frontier guards of Third Class State Protection Agent (Major-General) Genlich Samoi- 1 rovitch Lyuchikov, Soviet Commissioner of the Interior in the Far East (writes the Tokio correspondent of the Times). The Japanese have been impressed by his “revelations” ot the methods of Josef Stalin and of widespread unrest among the leaders of the regime. They have been still move impressed by the simple fact that such a high officer should deliberately surrender himself into foreign and traditionally enemy hands. “We have nothing to fear,” a high military officer told me, “from a nation whose leaders go over to the enemy, whatever the roason.” Soon after his arrest General Lyuchikov made personally a statement to the foreign Press which disposed so far as possible to the legend that the whole incident was invented, and more or less confirmed the official Japanese version of events. Lyuchikov received in May an official reprimand from Marshal Vassilly Bluecher, Commander of the Far .Eastern Army. I received notice (Ins own statement read) that I should be summoned soon to a post m Moscow. Shortly after, Stazevitch, Secretary of the Far Eastern Communist Party, received a telegram summoning him to Moscow. By that time, Grekonuravov, Chairman of the Soviet Executive Committee of the Far East, had been called to Moscow and placed under arrest. The recall of an official to Moscow means arrest and executioß these days ... I quickly sensed my peril. Thus I made up my mind to escape, and I succeeded by pretending ,to go on an inspection tour of the border region. ** Concocted Conspiracies. ’ ’ He also made arrangements for his wife, who was then in Moscow, to escape into “some European country.” .Just before leaving Habarovsk he had received a telegram from her: “I send my dear husband a kiss,” an arranged indication that her safety was ensured His statement goes on: “Why then have 1 chosen Japan to flee to? . . • geographically I had no enolce.” The justifications follow: — I had come to realise that Leninism is no longer the fundamental policy of the Communist Party in the ►Soviet Union. This conviction began to dawn on me at the time of the Kirov assassination. I was then in Leningrad, and participated personally in the investigation of the case . . . connected with the terrorist headquarters case at Leningrad early in 1935, the assassination plot against Stalin at the Kremlin in 1935, and the Trotsky-Zinoviev parallel headquarters case of August, 1936. With full responsibility for what I say before world opinion, I declaro that these alleged conspiracies have no ground in reality, but were entirely concocted by the Kremlin leaders. Zinoviev, Kamenev, Tomsky, Rykov, Bukharin, and many others who were killed as “enemies of the people,’’ wbre only enemies of t*:e policies of Stalin. Their weakness lay in the fact that instead of calling on the discontented elements in the Communist Party in order to wage decisive warfare with the Stalin regime and organise the masses against it, they debated the matter among themselves within a narrow confine. Consequently they had no outsido support whatever . . . How is it that such seasoned political leaders testify to such unbelievable lies with such determination? The question is very easy to

answer. When a political leader is arrested he is subjected to such torture at Lubianka prison as to make him confess to any statement the authorities see fit to put in his mouth. This last statement is corroborated by tho first communique, which gives tho alleged text of a letter written in blood by Lieutenant-General A. Y. Lapiu, commander of the Far Eastern Air Force, who killed himself in prison after being arrested in the Stalin purge. It was addressed to the Central Committee of tho Proletarian Party in Moscow, but was found in the possession of General Lyuchikov when he surrendered. According to the communique, it reads in part:— Under torture, I falsely testified to matters of which I know nothing, and under tho constant menace of new tortures, I affirmed everything imputed to me ... I am not a counterrevolutionary, and have had no connection with such elements whatever. The Far Eastern Army. General Lyuchikov’a statement goes on to allege that Stalin has consistently tried to divert public attention from the failure of liis domestic policy by concentrating on war preparations, and that many of the charges of espionage against prominent Soviet citizens have been made with the double purpose of getting rid of a political rival and arousing national sentiment against the alleged machinations of foreign Powers. Of that section of the statement which deals with military preparations and foreign policy some parts bear tho stamp of truth and others that of familiarity with the Japanese official thesis. The statement continues: — The Far Eastern army alone has 250,000 officers and men with 20 sharp-shooter divisions. If the armies of the Zabaikal district and the Commissariat of the Interior under my command are added the numbers reach 400,000 troops and 25 sharpshooter divisions east of Lake Baikal alone. There are nearly 2000 warplanes concentrated along the border, and more than 90 submarines at Yladivostock, Naodoka, Oliga, etc. This colossal military monster also had its weaknesses. Most of the commanders of the military districts, army corps, and divisions have been arrested . . .The same is true of tne Commissariat of the Interior . . . One may bo sure that such methods on the part of the Stalin regime are affecting the psychology of the masses most acutely. Discontent is steadily rising, despite the unheard-of persecution and tortures.

The effect of Lyuchikov’s arrest on the Japanese public has been tremendous, although, in. fact, there is nothing in it that has not been heard here many times before. Among the Japanese, of course, there are those who doubt its authenticity. But the general public

takes it as gospel and is profoundly impressed simply by the identity of the new teller of the old story. The average comment one hears among ordinary people is: “We can push on vigorously with the China war without worrying about those people.” That is, of course, what the new Government, and particularly the new directors at the War Office, think. It is a happy concordance of opinion. Meanwhile, there are rumours that some 300 senior Soviet officers, have since taken tae path of General Lyuchikov across the Manchukuo border.