SOVIET PRISON SYSTEM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23133, 3 September 1938, Page 4 (Supplement)

SOVIET PRISON SYSTEM

Nightmare Experiences

By L.B

A BOOK that will haunt the reader long after he has laid it down is that written by Julia de Beausobre, "The Yi oman Who Could Not Die." It is a tciiifying description of life in a Russian prison under the Soviet penal system. The courage and fortitude of. the woman whose experiences form the theme make it even nioie terrible, for it is a record of mental torture at its worst. Always it was the effect on the mind of. the prisoner that was aimed at, not by the gaolers (for they showed sparks of humanity at times), but by the heads of the prison system.

Madame de Beausobre and her husband were Russians of the educated class who were suddenly arrested by the secret. police after working loyally for the Soviet State for many years. Tliev were separated and the writer herself was interned in the Inner Prison in Moscow for nine months, three of which were spent in solitary confinement. She (Inscribes t.lio lisill—livstci*ic«il, lialf-self-controlled thoughts that passed through her mind during those three months, and how. in her ellorts to keep sano, she throw hex' mind back to the happy times before the Russian Revolution, when Russia was tree of such tortures as are practised to-day.

Spied Upon Even the electric light in her cell was so arranged that it struck full on her eves until it became an agony and there' was always the perpetual consciousness that she was being spied on

through the slits in the door of her cell. Later she was moved to another prison and found herself in the company of women thieves, murderers, prostitutes, and drug addicts. Almost every day prisoners were told to "get ready" and were taken off to be examined by the authorities. Their examination was in reality nothing morn nor Ws than a long, drawn-out third degree to make each ono betray a husband, a brother, a lover or a son. To read some of the pages is to gain some understanding of the "confessions" that are made by the prisoners in the notorious Moscow trials. ' There is no need for physical torture or for strange drugs in such a system as that described by the writer. After nine months in the Inner Prison, Madame de Beausobre was transferred to another place where at least she had company, even if it were the company of the Russian underworld, Her work in this prison camp was that of nursing. At another time she was secretary to the Educational Combine and later consulting artist to the Master of the Workshops. # British Friends

In the end Madame de Beausobre was sentenced to five years' penal servitude and ultimately released. Although set free she yet received no papers permitting her to live in any other part, which meant that she was hunted from town to town until British friends were able to arrango for her transfer to England. The hook illustrates the arbitrary way in which authority deals with individual rights in Russia to-day. On charges of which sho was given no inkling the author was arrested, separated from her husband, thrown into prison and left entirely ignorant, until released. of his fate. She then learnt that he had been shot. In spite of almost unbearable, hardships, however, there is no tinge of self-pity in her narrative. She even invented names for her gaolers and her examiners in the third degree methods. Nothing could break the invincibility of .soul in which she was clad as with a garment, and in such a nightmare world she yet found men and women whose sympathy and kindliness no cruelty embittered. "Tlio Woman Who Could Not Die," by Julia do Beausobre. (Clintto and Windus.)