RED REGIME IN RUSSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19762, 8 October 1927, Page 2 (Supplement)

RED REGIME IN RUSSIA.

DESCRIBED FROM WITHIN. STIRRING APPEAL TO WORLD. "AS FROM A DUNGEON." SMUGGLED OVER THE BORDER, A remarkable letter, signed "A Group of Russian Writers," ' and dated from "Russia; May, 1927," which has been published in France and England, contained a damning indictment of the tyranny of the rule of the Soviet. The letter was received from Russia by the editor of the Russian newspaper Yozrozhdenie, published in Paris, and reprinted in *hc Manchester Guardian on August 6. The names of the authors cannot be divulged for obvious reasons, but there is no doubt of the letter being genuine (savs the Guardian). A few days before its publication by this paper it was said in Polish papers that active search is being made by the Russian authorities for the authors of the letter and the person who smuggled it across the frontier. The letter is as follows: . "We appeal to you, writers of the •world. How is it that, with all your insight into the human soul and the spirit of epochs and nations, you take no heed of us Russians, whose free speech is utterly suppressed ? You have been brought up on the works of great masters, some of whom were of our race—how is it, then, that you say nothing when the literature of a great country is being stifled ? "Don't you know' about the Communist censorship of 'Socialist' Russia ? We are afraid you don't. ,iut why did not MM. Duhamel and Durtin, and other writers who visited our country tell you about it ? Were they not interested in the condition of the Press ? It pains us to think that the clinking of glasses filled with Government champagne to which foreign writers were treated in Russia deacened the clanking of the chains with which our literature and the whole Russian people are fettered. Where Idealism is a Crime. "Listen, and w« will tell you. Idealism, •which is so characteristic of Russian literature, is considered a crime. Our classics that have an idealistic tendency are eliminated from public libraries. This fate is shared by the works of historians and philosophers who are opposed to materialism. Special instructors make raids on public libraries and bookshops and confiscate pre-Revolutionary juvenile literature and folk-lore. Modern writers suspected of idealism have no chance of ever seeing their works in print. "These writers are treated as enemies and destroyers of the present social order, are dismissed from every post and deprived of the means of earning their living. Every manuscript which goes to the printer's must first of all be submitted to the censor in two copies. Proofs ready for press must again be returned to the censor for a second reading and verification. There were cases when because of a single sentence, word, or even letter — for instance, capital 'G' in the word •God'-—overlooked by the censor in the first instance, the whole edition was ruthlessly suppressed at the second reading. The All-Powerful Censor. "Nothing can be published without the approval of the censor, not even works on chemistry, astronomy, and mathematics. No. subsequent corrections in them can be made by the author except with the special permission of the censor. Without it the printer has no right to make the slightest alteration in the test. One cannot have, a Visiting card printed, without making a special written application with State stamps affixed and waiting for days till the overworked censor finds the slip of paper with one's name ana gives his permission. MM. Duhamel and Durtin could easily have seen that even theatre notices, such as 'Smoking is prohibited,' 'Emergency exit,' etc., bear at the bottom the sacramental seal of the censor. "A special permit is required to start a ' publishing business. No one, not even the firms that specialise in purely scientific works, are given more than two years' permit. Permits are not easily obtaiivd, and private publishing firms are scarce. Their activities are limited to a programme approved by the censor. The firms are obliged to submit to the censor six months ahead a complete list of the works they intend to publish, accompanied by detailed biographies of the authors. Nothing outside these lists, in so far as they are approved by the censor, may be published by the firm. "In Our Gloomy Prison." "Under such conditions only that which is certain to be approved by the Communist censor is accepted for publication, and only that is published which does not deviate from the universally binding Communist doctrines. No other works, however talented or remarkable, can be published; they have, indeed, to be concealed. Their discovery during a domiciliary search may lead to the banishment or even the execution of their author. Professor Lazarevsky, one of the best Russian authorities on jurisprudence, was shot solely because a draft scheme of a Russian Constitution was found in his Sat. "Do you know all this? Do you realise the horror of our position ? If you do know, why are you silent? We have all heard your loud protest against the execution of Saceo, Vauzetti, and other writers. But the death penalty and the persecution of the best of the Russian people who do not even try to spre.ad their ideas, knowing that propaganda is impossible, seem to leave you cold. In our gloomy prison we have never heard your voice raised in protest or indignation or any appeal on your part to the moral feelings of the peoples. Why? An Appeal to Writers. "Writers, you who are the ear, eye and conscience of the nations, respond! It is not for you to sav that 'there is no power that is not from God.' You will not taunt us with the cruel words that a people has the Government it deserves. You know that in the case of despotic power the harmony between a nation and its Government can only be achieved in the course of aces, but that during brief epochs in the life of a people the two may be tragically at variance. Think of the years that precedetLour revolution. "Our public organisations—the Duma, the local self-government bodies, even individual Ministers—implored, appealed, urged the Government to turn from the path leading to perdition. The Government remained deaf and blind- Recollect —whom did you sympathise with then ? With the little band of Rasputin's follow- 1 ers or with the people? Which did you condemn, and to whom did you give your moral support ? On whose 'side are you now ? ; "We know that you cannot help either ns or our people except by giving your sympathy and moral support to those who wort for freedom and by expressing a - moral condemnation of the most cruel lgf '

tyranny that has ever existed. We do not expect anything more, but all the more passionately do we want you to do that which is possible; do your utmost to unmask before the whole world the artful h3 r pocrisy of the terrible Communist rule in Russia. We are powerless to do so. Our sole, weapon—the pen —is wrenched from our hands; the air by which we breathe—literature—lias been taken from us; we are fettered. "It is- not only for us in Russia that your voice must lie raised. Think of yourselves. With diabolical energy, the full scope of which we alone are able to realise, your own nations are being pushed on to the same path of blood and horror to which in a fatal moment of its history our people, worn out by war and the policy of Tzarist government, was driven 10 years ago. We have trodden this path to the Golgotha of the nations and warn you of it. "We are perishing. The coming dawn of liberation is not yet in sight. Many of us are a . longer capable of passing on to posterity the terrible experiences we have lived through. Learn the truth about us; write of <t, you who are free, that the eyes of the present and coming generations may be opened. Do this —and it will be easier for us to die. "We are sending this letter as from a subterranean dungeon. At great risk we are writing it; it will bo carried across the border at the risk of life We do not know whether it will ever reach the free Press. But if it does, if our voices from beyond the grave bo heard by you, we hid you listen read Mi in!; of what we say.'*