THE REAL MASTERS OF SOVIET RUSSIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19205, 23 June 1924, Page 5

THE REAL MASTERS OF SOVIET RUSSIA.

* AMERICAN REVELATIONS

On May 15, 1921, 70 Communist leaders, representing the various factions of tho Communist Party in tho United States, were brought togelher by an agent of Lenin in an old inn on the top of Overlook Mountain, and, after a long conference, wore made (o compose ttreir differences and to unite in a single group. Lenin’s agent was one Charles'Scott, whose real name is Jacob Jansen, ex-Commissar for Foreign Affairs in Irkutsk. Ho had been working for two years to form the United Communist Party in America (.states “A Political Observer” in the London Daily Telegraph), and had at last succeeded in bringing the leaders of the warring factions together by tho threat that no more money would bo forthcoming from Moscow if a single front were not formed for aggression against capitalism in the United States.

The delegates wore-brought to tho Overlook Inn, situated in the wildest part of the Catskill Mountains, near Woodstock, New York-, in specially chartered automobiles. Tho whole mountain was surrounded by Red Guards, who barred all tho tracks, and whoso pickets were thrown out widely to guard against a surprise visit by tho police. The delegates were practically imprisoned in (he inn, and forbidden to go away from it further than a couple- of hundred feet, under the pain of death. They were all searched on arrival, and alt papers were taken away. Tho search was repeated twice a day, and it was forbidden to make any notes. Nevertheless, the agents of the Slate Department contrived, with their habitual skill, to be fully informed of all that happened at the old Overlook Inn. On this occasion (be American Communist Party was created with the object of controlling the activities of all tho organisations lighting against the present bourgeois society. It was to be a, secret organisation. owing full and implicit obedience to the Third International in Moscow. A? a sign of Moscow’s support the welcome announcement was made that _ 155,000 dollars had been allocated by 'the Soviet Government for the special object of bringing about ihe unification of the Communist movement in America At; present there are in the United States more than 200 organisations recognising the authority of tfie Central Committee of the Communist Party. Of the nine members of the latter, seven are aliens. A COMPLETE INDICTMENT.

The .State Department- has been carefully watching the activities of this subversive organisation, and in January of this year presented the proofs accumulated by its agents to the sab-committee of the American Senate, which, under the chairmanship of Senator Borah, charged to report in connection with a resolution proposing to recognise Soviet Russia. The State Department, supplied a remarkable memorandum, which, jointly with the oral evidence of the agents specially entrusted with the investigation, completely defeated the case put up by the senators who were in favour of the recognition of Soviet Russia. The testimony given before Senator Borah’s oommittde has been officially issued, and constitutes a document of great value and importance. Never before has the evidence against the Bolsheviks been presented in such a- complete and convincing form. The inquiry went with great detail into the question of the part played bv the Russian Communist Party in the Soviet Government and in the Third International, and into the inter-relationship which exists between these bodies. Then an illuminating picture was given of the relationship between the Russian- Bolsheviks and the revolutionary movement, in the United States. The information gathered applies also to Great Britain, and is also instructive. Scotland Yard, out of its vast fund of evidence, could certainly produce an even more complete report. Unfortunately, the policy of the Government in England is rather to hush up all the Bolshevik activities, and lo leave the public in ignorance of what.is going on. The evidence furnished to the committee and based exclusively on Bolshevik official documents proved,, first of all, the complete control exercised by the Russian Communist Party over the so-called Soviet Government. A mass of official testimony was produced to prove this, and every translation was accompanied by the original document orbv a photographic dopv. Conclusive proof was adduced that the Central Control Committee of the Russian Communist Party supervises th p so-called Russian Soviet Government. This supervision is extended even to the work of the revolutionary courts of justice. In this respect the following extract from an official report of the Central Control Committee of the party to the All-Russian Congress is significant;— “All our work is carried out in contract with the courts and with the State political administ ration, in view of the fact that often in the courts there are pending cases of members of the parly. The judicial organs inform us about the comrades in regard to whom there is judicial evidence. . . . Through the medium of competent institutions . . . we have raised the question of expediency and advisability of a pubbe trial in court less we undermine the party authorty of our comrades.” NO POLITICAL FREEDOM.

Another very characteristic quotation is from the official “Izvcstija-,” which shows that in certain cases the debates on financial policy, instead of being held in the plenary stwion of the Congress of the Soviets, were transferred to the meeting of the Russian Communist Party. The influence of the party in all spheres of aJlm inis trail on is paramount, so that its political bureau can lie. said to be the real master of the Soviet Government. And as the Communists are the only party legally permitted in Russia, they are the masters of the country, in this respect the following extract from a speech by Zinovieff is intereating (“Pravda,” April 2, '19221 : “We are the only legal parly in the country, and have in this wise, as it were, a monopoly of legality. Let us speak clearly —we do not g»,mt our opponents political freedom, wo do not give the possibility of legal existence to those who pretend to compete with us.” What 7-eallv is this Russian Communist Parly which wields such autocratic power? The Bolshevik official documents prove (for example. “Pravda,” April 1. 1922) lhat the ■membership is not even 403,000, and , that of these a group of Communists who had joined (he parly before 1917 possess a real monopoly of power. It is also shown that the party is governed not by delegates freely elected by the members, but by a council of ni7n carefully chosen by the Central Committee. Naturally this packed council leaves all business to the Central Committee, which, in its turn, has surrendered its power to the small Political Bureau. On (his point the evidence _of Benin himself is conclusive (March 6, 1925, an article in the “Izvestija”) : “The idea that it is impossible to unite a party institution with a Soviet- institution is an incorrect one. Does not the Political Bureau discuss from a party point of view many small and large moves on our part in answer to moves of foreign countries? ... I think that it has justified itself and strengthened us in our foreign policy, and has become customary, so lhat there is no doubt in that regard." • This proves conclusively that, the foreign policy of the so-called Soviet Government is in reality the policy of the Political Bureau of the Russian Communist Party. Incidentally, in view of the interest of the particular question, it may be remarked, that in the “Izvestija” of March 31, 1921, we ’find a notice to members of the party reminding them of their duty to carry on anti-religious propaganda under paragraph 13 of the Constitution. Another quotation from a suoceh by Lenin to the eleventh congress of the party (“Pravda,” March 29, 1922) is illuminating;— “I must touch upon the practical side of the question of our highest institutions and the relation of the party to them. There lias grown up among us an -incorrect relation between the parly and the Soviet institutions. ... I have pointed out already how specific small matters drag along into the Political Bureau. Formally the solution of this problem is very difficult, because the only legal party controls the Government . . . therefore everything is dragged along from the Soviet of Peoples Commissars to the Political Bureau." The Political Bureau is designed to deal with important matters, and we find Lenin protesting against its being troubled with little tl’iugs. The confirmation of this is signified bv a speech of Kamencff (“Pravda.” April 20. 1923), where the following sentence occurs: —

“Yes, because in the Political Bureau at a given moment there is concentrated for a short period of time the political mandate of (he working class.” THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL.

No wonder that the Third International is proved to be an instrument of the Political Bureau. This part of tho evidence is important. The Soviet Government has caused repealed denials of the mtime connection which exists between at and the International. But as both these institutions are really the creatures of the Russian Communist Party.and the obedient instruments of tho latter’s Political Bureau, these denials are not worth anything. In theory the Russian Communist Party is a

member of the 'Third International. But the latter is so constituted that the delegation of the Russian Communist Party is all-powerful, and its Political Bureau, decided ail important questions. Her© we havee, for example, Radek giving the show away “Pravda,” March 29, 1920): — ?; “The Third International is the child <JI the Russian Communist Party. It was founded here in the Kremlin upon the initiative qf the Communist Party or Russia. In our hands is tho executive committee of the Third International, and therefore . . . . the congress of the Communist Party is the right place at -which it is proper to sum up the results of the wortt of the Third ■'lnternational..** The actual control of file Third International is entirely in the. hands of the Russian Communist Parly, and therefore in the hands of tho Political Bureau. The report of the second congress in 1920 says

“The central .committee of tho Russian Communist Party and the comrades which have been specially delegated for this work have been obliged to - charge themselves with nearly all the current work of the executive committee. ...” _ ■ Tlie representatives of the foreign Com* munislg have violently opposed this autocracy of the Russians in the International, ae is proved by numerous extracts freon, the shorthand reports of the But tho constitution of the International gives such a preponderance to the R(l»siaus that, all foreign opposition is crushed.

Tho ultimate proof of the dependeitee of the Third International on the Soviet Government, and in the last instance on. Political Bureau of the Russian Communist Party, which lords it over oil, lies in the fact that tho International has, no finances of its own and is entirely supported by the Russian Communist. PartyJ Tho American investigators have mpsi carefully brought toether every possible scrap of evidence, and they even produced to the committee Ihe Petrograd djrectoiy for 1922, where the address of the Northern section of the International is given ana the old convent of Srnolny, i.a, the building where all tho administrative offices to be found.

Thd evidence produced by the American State Department establishes tho following essential facts; —(l) The unity of the 4blshevist organisation ‘known as the Russjan Communist Party, of the so-called So-ySefc Government, and of the Third' International, which are all three controlled by the small group technically known as tho Political Bureau of the Russian Communist Party; (2) the spiritual and organic connection between the Moscow group and it.s_ agejjt, tho American Communist Party, which PIS ft complete slave c.f the Russians; f 3) the complete control from Mpsoow of tho (subversive activities of all the revolutionary cr-'anisations in America.

The result of the inquiry of SonpSor Borah's committee has been that the question of recognition has been shelved for Jan indefinite period. ;|i