SLAVES OF THE SOVIET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21030, 14 November 1931, Page 2 (Supplement)

SLAVES OF THE SOVIET.

LABOUR CAMP HORRORS. ESCAPED PRISONER'S STORY. CUTTING TIMBER FOR EXPORT. TASKMASTERS' BRUTALITIES. The horrors of life in a Soviet slavelabour camp are graphically described by one of the few men who have endured them and escaped to tell the tale. Days cf terror' and nights of wretchedness in indescribable filth; brutality, semi-starva-tion, murder, and constant spying—these are the conditions under which Russian timber is produced to be dumped at cufthroat prices in Great Britain and other countries. " i have escaped from a Bolshevikconcentration camp, but there are still 40,000 men and women in it, and I want the world to know what they are suffering." That is what an intelligent young German, who has recently got out of Russia, said to the Berlin correspondent of the Daily, Mail before beginning to describe what he had seen and heard in two camps of slaves who are forced to work for the Bolsheviks. How this young man came into the clutches of the Bolsheviks is a long story, and it- must suffice to say that he was Arrested at Archangel in the summer of 1930 on suspicion of being a spy for Britain. " There was not a word of truth in tlia charge," he said, but I was kept in prison for nine months, questioned night, after night, and then, without trial, nent to the first concentration camp in which I lived, some 25 miles from Archangel." 1000 Men Sleep in Shed. The narrator told the story of his experiences as follows: —-"I was taken in a boat up the River Dvina with three criminals, and landed, in the middle of the night, on the island of Bakaritza, on which were some 16,000 prisoners. These were people of every class, but chiefly peasants from the Ukraine, employed in preparing timber to be shipped to England and other countries. " I shali never forget the horror with which' I saw the barbed wire fence of the camp in the middle of the island, Tvith wooden towers at intervals on which stood sentries armed with rifles. " 11 was at once led to an enormous ihed with four rows of hunks, one above another: A thousand men slept in it. The floor was earth and the place was filthy. The stench was unbearable. " Prisoners who were not asleep quickly surrounded me and asked, ' How many years is your sentence V They were all in rags and all had beards. A couple of hours later I was tciken to the office by. one of the guards and told that I was to work in the statistical bureau. I had. to begin at once. ." Breakfast consisted of a cup of boiling water —there was no tea in the camp —and' there was no bread for me, because nobody was given bread until he had earned it, and I had not earned mine until evening. People work because if they do not they are given no food. . Prisoners as Sentries. " Each prisoner in the camp was given a 21b. loaf of bread every day, but he did not get it until the foreman of the gang in which he worked certified that he had done his task. He had to hold up his loaf of bread to show the cook before he was given his portion of soup for supper. If he had no loaf it showed that he "had not- done his work and he got nothing. Xo plan could he simpler. The Bolsheviks have the secret of combining simplicity with extraordinary effectiveness in managing men. " The most remarkable thing about the camp and its branches at various points along the banks of the river was that it was controlled by one free man alone. The sentries and guards were prisoners. The elaborate system of espionage was carried out by prisoners. " The Bolsheviks have a wonderful system of ruling by terror. "Men and women are induced to act 'as spies by the promise that their term of imprisonment shall be shortened. I remember a case of two men who agreed to make an attempt to escape together. One betrayed the other because he was afraid that the other would betray him. Both were shot.

" The guards •were not political prisoners but criminals, and no guards could have been more efficient. They had 3, uniform, better food, and the promise of liberation before their sentence had actually expired. They obeyed orders absolutely, and if necessary shot down other prisoners, because they knew that they would be shot if they disobeyed orders. Father Shot by Son. " Once a peasant woman came to the camp. She had come all the way from the Ukraine to try to see her husband. She had managed to land on the island and inquired about her husband of a gang of men who were leaving the camp for work. Somebody found him, and he started toward the gate, although it was the rule that nobody should go within ten yards of the barbed-wire fence. " The guard on the tower shouted to him to keep back. But the guard was his son, so he shouted back, ' It's only me,/Vaska,' and went on. The son raised his rifle and shot him dead. It was that incident that made me realise that revolt was impossible.

" The daily task of every man was to prepare eight cubic yards of wood. Women did the same work, but were only required to prepare five cubic yards. Work began at eix in the morning, and the prisoners had to go on until they had finished their task. There were a few who got back to the camp between four and six, but most took far longer to do the work and had not finished until eight or nine or even eleven at night. " The thousands of trees which had to be dealt with had been floated down the river roped together in gigantic rafts, and the workers had to get them out of the water before beginning to cut them up. The work was extremely hard, especially for men and women who were entirely unaccustomed to manual work. Some would get back to the camp so exhausted that they would lie down at once without even getting supper. Dying for their Faith.

" You can imagine what such work in for a woman of gentle birth or for a professional man or an old priest. There were a number of clergymen, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant, in the camp. They were not allowed to have even a book of prayers. " The Bolshevik hatred of religion is so .great that even the crosses, which, as you .know, all Russians wear round their necks, were taken away. A row of newcomers would be made to take their shirts off to see if they had crosses, and then' they were taken away. For a Russian there is nothing worse than to loso his baptismal cross. "We had in the camp six men and two women who belonged to a sect which is opposed to all war. I do not know what the sect was called, but if you asked one of them he simply said: '.l am a child of Jesus.' Now these people refused to work because the camp was under what they considered military control.: They // ■

declared that they would face death rather than go against conscience. Xhev were put in the isolation camp, where the prisoners were given only 300 grammes (about lOoz.) of bread a day. Even this punishment would not make them yield, so they were all shot.

" The martyrdom of these poor men and women took place four days after the visit, of Krylcnko, the Commissar for Justice, who declared that people who did not work should he killed.

" The prisoners were very glad when they heard that the Commissar, injustice was coming. Many thought that their wrongs would be redressed as soon as he knew about them. There must have been at least a thousand people who wrote out petitions or got, others to write petitions for them to give them to him. They were bitterly disappointed for Krvlenko is a man- without a heart. « There was a peasant who went to the Commissar and said: Ido not know why I. am here. I only had one horse and ono cow. I was not a kulak (rich peasant).' ' Kvylenko looked at him and said: 'ft is not worth wasting food on men like you. You ought to be shot,' •and turned away.

" Many foreign ships came to Bakaritza for wood. The strictest orders were given to the prisoners who were employed in carrying the wood on board that they were not to speak to the sailors.

" Once some sailors on a British ship seemed to realise that the workers were prisoners. They put white bread in a ,>ack and threw it. on shore among a group of men. They fell on it and ale like hungry animals. They were, however, observed and punished.

*' In January last every camp near Archangel was suddenly liquidated. This was done in such a hurry that it seemed as if the rumour that an American commission was coming must be true. " The prisoners marched in long columns to the distant railway station. We were put into trucks and did not know where we were being sent. The journey lasted five days, and wo got at last to the camp at Piniug, near Viatka. Here we were divided into companies of from 400 to 600 men, women, and children. " The company in which I was had to trudge through the snow to a small camp about 50 miles away. It was intensely cold, and we took three days to make the journey. No Americans were likely to get to this place. " I was lucky, because I was the only technical engineer in the camp and was made manager. We were ordered td provide 6540 cubic yards of wood monthly. This was easier said than done, for most of the people had never been in such an impenetrable forest and had never felled tAes. " Dread of hunger and Jin extension of sentence, however, forced them to give their last ounce of strength, and somehow the work was done. " I thought that the wood was wanted for building stations along the line to Siktivka. I was wrong. I was ordered to stamp the wood for export and to deliver it to Severoles, the northern assembling organisation. I was in this camp until June, and then managed to escape and get to Petrograd, where the German consul helped me to leave the country."