Terror Over soviet Russia

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23009, 9 April 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

Terror Over soviet Russia

Stalin Working Toward Creation of an Entirely New Ruling Class

"MORE DANGERS THAN IN TSARIST DAYS"

RUSSIAN State trials have a monotonous similarity. In each ' case the most unlikely defendants are charged with most unlikely accusations. They plead guilty, outvie each other in denouncing the causes to which they have devoted their lives, and are then shot within twenty-four,, hours. Strange as the procedure may seem to us, it is nothing new in Russia. It is just the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible over again; just the twentieth-century Version of the happenings described by Anthony Jenkinson, the first English traveller to Russia. Bat why do Soviet leaders positively gibber in their frantic confessions? Here is one of the psychological mysteries of the age, until we remember that we are dealing with Russians. Some eye-witnesses say that the prisoners are drugged, others that they are hypnotised, still others that they have ' been so maltreated that their spirits Wo broken. A better explanation is that they realise that, for them at least, the Kanio is up,' and they might as well accept the end with that Slavonic spirit of fatalism that looks on death as Negligible. The, Inner Council The present position in Russia is unbelievable. Stalin no longer pretends to I believe in the doctrines of international Socialism. He is a dictator, ruling a •ixth of the /world's surface by the aid a ruthless minority of the people, i'Effective power comes back to the fea despots in the inner council known 48 the Politburo. Their weapon is the j Secret police under Yezhoff, and the j

symbol of their power the dread Judge Ulrich, who has presided over all the State trials, even those in which the generals were accused. The ever-growing list goes back to that wintry day in December, 1934, when a deluded neurotic murdered Kirov, one of the inner circle. This was the signal for a "smelling-out" that has gone on ever since, and that resembles only the fantastic efforts of some Zulu-witch doctor in Cetewayo's days. The summer of 1936 was the worst. Two of tho old stalwarts, Zinovieff and

By PROFESSOR S. H. ROBERTS, Challis Professor of Modern History, University of Sydney-

Kameneff, were publicly tried, and tlie net also caught Radek, piatakoff, and more than a score of others in its toils. All were condemned for "Trotskyism," and Stalin threw Russia back into the Middle Ages by their mass executions. After that, it was said that not even the ten favoured ones in the Politburo itself were safe. The police terror descended over everything, and Stalin showed that he had nothing to learn from the records left of Robespierre and Marat. Ogpu Chief Yagoda, the dreadful man who was in charge of the Ogpu, fell in disgrace; tind after that the older men caustically said that membership of the Communist Party in Stalin's Russia carried with it even more dangers than in Tsarist days.

Last July, the grim hand came down on the generals. Marshal Tultachevsky, a former Commissar of Defence and the man who had done more than anybody else in building up the Red Army, was taken from his palace, summarily condemned by the übiquitous Ulrich and shot like a dog. With him were despatched seven other generals, all of them in keyposts and all of them (even the most bitterly anti-Nazi) accused of treason in the interests of Germany. In this case, not only did the doomed men confess their "full guilt"; their wives even testified against them. All that summer, Yezlioff found revenge for his own physical sufferings (ha is a tubercular patient) by weeding out malcontents. He had disposed of the group gathered round Radek and Piatakoff in the previous winter; now his agents went out to the furthest Uzbek camps gathering in Buspects. Oddly enough, a strong feeling developed against scientists, and wo heard stupid (though official) stories about laboratories being used to send out germs to poison livestock. Even

the scientists in the Polar expeditions had to undergo rigorous examinations, and the acts of terrorism would have been dismissed as fantastic and unbelievable if they had not been admitted and gloated over, by the Soviet authorities. The grim list continued to grow. In October last there was a cleaning-up of the Leningrad militia, the regions on the Finnish border, and the entire republic of Karelia. In each case the offence was described as "nationalist bourgeois delusions." Next month the list reached an unprecedented length. It included three Soviet ambassadors in important foreign countries and most of those unfortunates who were butchered a few weeks ago to make a Stalinist holiday.

It was against this background that tho first "free elections" took place on December 12, and a hundred and sixty million people decided in favour of "progress" in Russia against "reaction" abroad. Firing Squads Faced One wonders if the electors thought for a moment that practically every surviving leader of the Old Guard of Bolshevists (the men who had made the revolution of 1917), many departmental chiefs, the main generals, and the leaders of many of "the associated independent republics" had faced firing squads in the previous few months.

The November list had included Karakhan, an ambassador to many countries, and one of the most successful post-war diplomats; the little Jewish cripple Larin, who had become a famous economic historian; and Yenukidze, tho former secretary of the Central Executive Committee (Stalin's job), as well as five highly placed regional administrators. The strange point about that batch of executions was that tho victims be-

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longed to entirely difffrent groups and could not liave had any contact -with each other. The trials which ended on March 12 last were even more spectacular. Twenty-one of the senior statesmen of Russia were standing in that grim dock where they had seen so many of their friends and enemies pass before them. They had to stand, because the dock, hedged around with a low wooden trellis and guarded by four immobile sentries with fixed bayonets, will only provide seating accommodation for twelve persons. An Amazing Group The accused formed an amazing group. It was just as if some malignant foreigner had chosen the most unlikely persons and had staged a travesty of a .Russian State-trial. Yagoda was there, the gross debauched figure who terrorised Russia for so many years and who made the Ogpu a byword of disgust throughout the world. With him stood Alexi RykofF, Lenin's successor as chairman of the Council of Commissars. On© of the oldest Bolshevik politicians, ho escaped last year's purge by the skin of his teeth, but, caught onco more, he was accused of anti-Stalinism.

Bukharin, a former president of the Communist International, and one of the best-known Communist theorists abroad, was in the same boat. Exambassador Rakovsky, so well known when he was in charge of the Embassies in London and Paris, was also on trial for his life.

But, to any student of Russian affairs, the real puzzle is provided by the others. Kreistinsky was a member of the Central Executive Committee and really directed Russia's foreign policy while Litvinoff was careering over the surface of Europe. Then, with four other former commissars, ho stood in the dock. In the same group were several doctors and scientists, some of them world-famous.

Twenty of the twenty-one admitted thoir guilt. Krestinsky alone made some kind of a 1 fight for his life, although even his evidence remains artificial. If he wcro guilty of the charges against him, and if ho knew that he were going to die, he could have shaken the peace of the world by the rovelations he could mako. Too Good to Miss He was accused of plotting for Germany, together with Besenoff, a former member of the Embassy in Berlin. But, if this is so. why did not Stalin confuse the world, when ho was getting so much publicity for his trials, by revealing Germany's Eastern schemes? _ If Stalin means what ho says, this should havo been too good an opportunity to miss; but the trial came to an end without such revelations. A fantastic note was introduced to tlio trials, by tho accusation of espionago in British interests, and we were treated to stories of British wiles to obtain possession of various secluded regions in Central Asia, which no statesman in hiii proper senses would take if thev were offered to him with money to run them. Tho story is too ridiculous; on ft par with that of tho Communist who was shot in November for having been a Japanese spy for twenty years. The only explanation of the whole sordid story of terrorism is_ thhi Stalin is working toward tho creation of a new ruling class. Trotsky directly accuses

him of this in his new book, "Tho Revolution Betrayed," which, although written before the trials of Zinovieff and Radek. accurately forecasts what was about to happen. In achieving this goal, Stalin is using the methods of the tribesmen of Georgia, where he was brought up. As he does not know the outside world, these are the only methods he understands.

clemency. 1 am happy that our conspiracy was crushed before more horrible crimes were committed." Chernoff admitted that he was a German spy and did not deserve clemency, but he wanted his life spared in order to purge his crimes. Ivanoff halfheartedly appealed for mercy. The verdict was delivered in ft crowded Court. The prisoners, led by

Some time ago, when asked how long he was going to use such purges, he casually retorted, "As long as it may be necessary." They seemed to require no apology from him, not even an explanation. In his eyes they were a normal concomitant of government. Mystery Remains Still, with all this explanation, the mystery remains. Take the case of Rakovsky. Ho knew enough about Soviet intrigues to shock the world. A Bulgarian by nationality, he was well known for. his obstinate firmness of character and for his skill in debate. Why did such a man plead guilty and cringe in the witness-box, if, as admitted by observers, no physical torture was used? Every witness speaks of the dreadful feeling of nervous tension at such a trial; why, therefore, does not some excitable Slav allow his nerves to snap and give way to a torrent_ of denunciation against Stalin, revealing what he knows against the regime? Instead, they bare thoir throats for the executioner's bullet and to plead for haste in their own demise. The only consolation is that each of them, in their time, has vigorously defended such terrorism, and most of them havo proven personal adepts xn murdering their opponents.

[At tho conclusion of the treason trial in Moscow last month Rakovsky was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment, Plennoff and Besenoff to 25 a<id 15 years respectively, and the remaining 18 o£ the accused were sentenced to death.

lii addressing the Court the prosecutor, M. Vishinsky, had demanded 25 years' imprisonment for Rakovsky and Besenoff, and death for tho other 19. Then followed the last words of the prisoners. Gringko, speaking without a trace of fear, said: "I am a traitor. I admit all my crimes, I do not deserve

Bukharin, all looked pale and sleepy* They stood while Judge TJlrioh read the sentences and all took the verdict calmly except Rykoff, who had en* terecl the Court weeping, and con-* tinued to sob. Rakovsky and Besenoff escaped deatH on the ground that they had not organised any terrorist acts, and Plennoff because the Court found that he had acted under compulsion by Yagoda. The Judge stated that all the pro* perty of the accused would be confiscated to "the State. The condemned men were allowed to appeal for clemency to the president of the Supreme Council within 72 hours. Appeals against the death sentence were lodged by the 18 condemned. The appeals by Bukharin, Rykoff, Yagoda and 14 others were rejected. All who were sentenced to death, including M. Rosengoltz, wh6 a did notj seek clemency, were killed by shots in the back in Lubianka prison.]