BRAVE RUSSIAN'S FATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20982, 19 September 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

BRAVE RUSSIAN'S FATE.

DEATH FOR LOVE OF COUNTRY. MAN WHO WOULD NOT RUN AWAY .A brave Russian has just died for love of his country. His life was a shining example of the highest kind of patriotism, a patriotism that had nothing to do with the rattling of sabres, but belonged to the true love of mankind and the world, says the Children's Newspaper. Valerian Munivieff was the charming and brilliant sou of a Minister of Justice who was beloved for the reforms lie instituted in the penal code and afterwards became Ambassador to Home. The boy who was bred in such fortunate surroundings soon proved that he had exceptional gifts, and ho was employed in the Foreign Office until the war came. Then Valerian joined the army. Afterwards came the revolution, and he was thrown into prison by tho Bolsheviks. He had committed no crime, but hundreds of people were executed because they had once been rich, and Muravicff expected the same fate. To his astonishment he was released. lie had so greatly impressed one of the Soviet officials that the man had said: "Let us release him; wo shall gain more by converting such a man than by killing him." Most people would have left Russia after such an escape, and Ihe way was made easy for Muravicff, who had many rich and influential friends in foreign lands. But he would not run away. He did riot want to live at ease in an alien land while Russia was suffering. So the ambassador's son became a street-cleaner. With tho brain that had so impressed his enemy he could have made money ahd lived in luxury if he had not believed it to be his duty to stay in Russia. One day, he thought, he might have an opportunity to serve her. Again and again ho was taken off to prison and released. In time he was given work at a scientific institute. Suddenly Muravicff was arrested and sent to work in one of the dreaded timber camps of North Russia. Such a sentence is a recognised punishment for political offenders, but Muravicff had taken no part in politics, and his only crime was his birth. In that frightful camp he contracted typhus and died. Yet to the end lie did not loso faith in Russia.