RUSSIA’S SECRET POLICE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20292, 28 December 1927, Page 11

RUSSIA’S SECRET POLICE.

ESTONIAN’S EXPERIENCE. KIDNAPPED AT STATION. FORGERY OF DOCUMENTS. The trial in Reval of the former Estonian Foreign Minister, M. Birk, for alleged treason when he was the Estonian diplomatic envoy in Moscow in 1926, haa been marked by many remarkable passages (says the Riga correspondent of The Times). M. Birk related to the court how he fell into the hands of the Ogpu (Cheka). He declared that two agents of the Ogpu kidnapped him in Leningrad Station dming the momentary absence of the viceconsul, with whom he was travelling to Finland, and conveyed him by motor car outside the town, where he was held a prisoner. Later he was transferred to the environs of Moscow, then to the Crimea and the Caucasus and finally taken back to Moscow. During his captivity the Soviet Government’s official organ, Izvestia. published several letters and articles in M. Birk’s name, but M. Birk told the court that none were genuine or of his composition, although, under compulsion, he signed some composed by Okpu agents, after members of the Ogpu had terrorised him into a state of nervous collapse. M. Birk further stated that when he was taken back to Moscow, Litvinoff, the Soviet Assistant Commissar for Foreign Affairs, received him in February, 1927, at Litvinoff’s private dwelling in Moscow, and persuaded him “ voluntarily ” to remain in Soviet Russia nd publish his memoirs, in which he must particularly emphasise British intrigues in the Baltic States.” On March 2M. . hrk managed to escape to the Norwegian Consulate in Moscow, where he remained many days and nights, until his return to Estonia was arranged. However incredible M. Birk’s story may seem, the correspondent adds it received striking corroboration in the written evidence of Opperput. a notorious agent of the Ogpu, who came to Helsingfors in 1926, later returned to Soviet Russia, and was officially reported shot by the Ogpu of the Smolensk Province in June, 1927. Opperput’s affidavit described - secret organisation called the “ Lcganda,” which purported to Pc actively anti-Soviet, but was really the instrument of the Soviet Secret Police. The. “ Legcnda’s ” chief ourpose was deceive the general staffs and foreign representatives of neighbouring countries by supplying them with false documents specially prepared by the Ogpu’s “ Disinformation Bureau,” with an occasional genuine document to secure their confidence. In 1924 the “ Legenda ’ received instructions from Dzerzhinsky (who w.s head of the Ogpu) to “ get into '.he Ogpu’s power some more or less important members of the diplomatic staff of one of the Baltic States as an instrument with which to counteract British influence. The ‘‘Legenda" concentrated its efforts on M. Birk, and by a series of subtle moves got him into the Ogpu net. In the course of his narrative M. Birk gave many names of places and persons, and. in spite of the fantastic character of his testimony, many minor points wore | confirmed hv distint crested witnesses.