ATTACK ON SOVIET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21450, 25 March 1933, Page 8

ATTACK ON SOVIET

DAUGHTER OF TOLSTOY MURDER OF INNOCENTS "I CANNOT BE SILENT" Twenty-five years ago Tolstoy, the greatest literary figure of Russia, published his famous article, "I Cannot Be Silent." It protested against the proposed execution by the Tsarist Government of 20 revolutionaries. In a letter printed below, addressed to the editor of the London Morning Post, Tolstoy's daughter protests against the murder of thousands and the torture of millions of defenceless people by the Soviet.

Alexandra Tolstoy was her father's youngest daughter and favourite child. She followed him and accepted his new doctrine when he left home. Her letter is as follows: —

"When, in the year 1908, my father, Leo Tolstoy, read about the proposed execution of 20 revolutionaries by the Tsar's Government, his immediate reaction was to write 'lis famous article, 'I Cannot Be Silent.' And the Russian people took up his outcry in a common protest against murder. Now, in the year 1933, when in the Northern Caucasus a dreadful slaughter is going on, when thousands of people are shot and exiled daily, and my father is not here to protest, I feel it is my duty to raise my weak voice against this wholesale murder. 'r: Persecution of Workers "For 12 years I have worked in Soviet Russia, trying to serve the people in the spirit of my father's teaching. The terror was progressing under my very eyes. But the world was silent. Millions were exiled, died in prison, in labour camps in the North of Russia. Thousands were executed. The Bolsheviks began by persecuting class enemies, religious people, old priests, scientists, professors. Now the turn has come for the working classes, the peasants. And yet the world is silent. "For 15 ye§rs, the Russian people have suffered slavery, famine." The Bolshevik Government has- been robbing the people, taking away their bread, their food, and sending it abroad. The Soviets need currency not only for buying machinery, but for their world-wide campaign of propaganda. If the peasants protest, if they hide the bread for their own family, if any refuse to till the soil, they are punished—sometimes shot." "The Russian people cannot suffer it any longer. Here and there revolts are starting. Confronted with death, crowds of famished peasants flee from the Ukraine^a country which formerly was the granary of the world. Whole Families Executed "How does the Soviet Government respond to this ? It issues decrees, banishing one-third of the Moscow population from the city; subdues the revolted peasants and workers by bullets and gas. Since the times of Ivan the Terrible Russia has not seen such terror. Now, when the population of Kuban has risen in protest, the Soviet Government has taken the most terrible revenge. Whole families are executed, and 45,000 peoplewomen and children are driven out of their homes and are sent by Stalin's order into Siberia to labour camps to meet with rertain death.

"Is is possible that the world will still be silent ? Is it possible thate Governments will still continue to make.trade pacts with the Bolshevist murderers, strengthening the Soviet Government and undermining their own countries ? Will, the Le'ague of Nations go on discussing questions of peace and disarmament with the representatives of a Government whose chief method of work is terror? "Will such idealists as Komain Rotland, who has so subtly grasped the souls of the greatest pacifists of our time, or writers like Henri Barbusse, Bernard Shaw, and others continue to sing the praises of the Socialist paradise? Don't they really understand that,- by Associating themselves with the Soviets they ar« responsible for their activity ; they are responsible for spreading the contagiun of Bolshevism, which threatens the world with ruin and destruction. * "Is it possible, that there are still people who believe that the cruel dictatorship of a small group, whose aim v is to destroy the world's culture, religion and morals, is Socialism ? Torture of Millions "Who is going to proclaim: "I Cannot v be Silent' ? Where are you preachers of love, truth and brotheThood ? Where, are you Christians, true Socialists, pacifists, writers, social workers ? Why are you silent ? Do you need proofs, testimonies, or witnesses, figures and statistics ? Do you not hear the shouts for help ? Or perhaps you still believe that human happiness f may be attained by murder, violence and slavery ? "This appeal is not addressed to those whose sympathies for the Bolsheviks hava been bought"with money robbed from the Russian people. I am addressing all those who still believe in a brotherhood of men —religious people, Socialists, writers, social workers, mothers and wives. Open your eyes. Unite in a common protest against the tortures of a hundred and sixty millions of defenceless Russian people!"