REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3385, 29 January 1919, Page 19

REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA.

BOLSHEVISTS EVACUATE PETROGRAD.

ALLIED ARCHANGEL FORCE

RETIRE.

(By Cable)

BOLSHEVIST FINANCE

Petrograd advices state that the Bolshevist Budget forecast for 1919 totals an expenditure of- 400,000,000,000 roubles. The deficit . will be enormous. _ For example, the postal and telegraphic expenditure exceeds the revenue by over 1,500,000,000 roubles. A wireless Russian message states that the Bolshevists are imposing a levy on the propertied clases and bourgeoisie; also a revolutionary tax of 10 milliards of marks, nominally representing £1,000,000,000. They declare that taxation is necessary to enable the Government to exert all its strength in defence of a Russian and universal revolution. BOLSHEVIST TYRANNY. Before evacuation the Dorpat Bolshevists shot 225 men and 80 women, including the Bishop of Esthonia and four Lutheran pastors. Advices from Finland state that the Bolshevist Commissioner Uritisi signed over 8000 death warrants, and his successor Boiki) was dismissed because he could not maintain the same average. Russian Red Guards are attacking and pillaging on the Finnish frontier. Mr Jeffries states that refugees from Petrograd say that the Bolshevists are conducting an atheistical campaign. Fifty churches have been closed, and the churchgoers are being heavily taxed. All religious teaching is prohibited. An antireligious newspaper has been established entitled the Red Devil. STRIKE LN PETROGRAD. Sixty thousand workmen in Petrograd have been on strike since the 16th. All supplies have been removed from the city. Trotsky has removed his headquarters to Novgorod. The Red Guards, who invaded Karelia and Suojervi, were beaten off, and are now in full retreat, suffering from a shortage of food. BOLSHEVIST DEFEAT IN ESTHONIA. General Hjalmarson, head of the Swedish Military Mission, has returned from Esthonia. He saya the Finnish volunteers practically 6av'ed Esthonia. The Bolshevists recently held half the provinces ; now they hold only one-sixth. The Bolshevists committed unspeakable atrocities. The Esthonians claim the capture of Narva (or Ivangorod), with immense Bolshevist booty. Trotsky, on witnessing the defeat of his forces, fled. An Esthonian official communique states that the advance towards Narva continues. The Bolshevists are retreating in disorder after daylong fighting on Friday. Further progress was made. on Saturday, when 500 prisoners were taken. The successful advance of the Esthonians towards Petrograd is an important defeat of the Bolshevists, due partly to trouble in Petrograd and partly to a disaster at Perm. The British have handed to the Esthonians captured torpedo boats, which are being used against the Bolshevist flank. BOLSHEVISTS EVACUATE PETROGRAD. The Morning Post's Stockholm correspondent states that, according to Helsingfors telegrams, Trotsky has telegraphed to the War Minister as follows :-=-" Bolshevists are compelled to evacuate Petrograd without fight, chiefly owing to their last defeat on the northern front, when the whole army, with its general, deserted." Trotsky's statement in reference to the desertion of the whole Bolshevist army refers to 60,000 men on the Narva front, who had gone over to the Esthonians. The evacuation of Petrograd was necessitated by a heavy Bolshevist defeat at Perm.

The British cruiser Royalist and three torpedo boat destroyers have left for Libatu

NEWS FROM OMSK,

Despatches from Omsk state that Admiral Kolchak has proclaimed' that a

national election for a Constituent Assembly "will be held at the earliest possible date.

Despatches also state that Omsk is receiving daily wireless communications from Lyons (France), and will soon be able to send out wireless messages throughout the world.

Despatches from Omsk cay that General Janin has been given the supreme command over the Allied troops en tho Siberian front. ALLIED FORCES RETIRE. Despatches from Archangel say that the Siberian. army has captured Laping, and is Hearing a junction with the Archangel Government- troops. A message dated January 23, 12.30 a.m., from Archangel, states that the Bolshevists are heavily shelling the American and Russian armies in the Ust Podenga region. There is heavy lighting. General March announces that the Bolshevist attacks on the Archangel front compelled tho retirement of the Allies, whose losses, however, were small. THE BALTIC PROVINCES. According to telegrams from Libau the Bolshevists are nearly cleared out of Esthonia and Northern Livonia. It i 3 reported that Trotsky has been taken prisoner and valuable booty secured. The Bolshevists at Riga are now threatened from the rear. Recent Bolshevist outrages in Courland include the murders of several clergymen and leaders of the Social Democrats in Mitua, the chief town of Courland. POSITION IN CAUCASIA. Troops have been sent to Caucasia to keep open the communications with the Indian troops in Trancaspia. y There is a large number of German and Austrian prisoners in Trancaspia who still do not believe that the Central Powers have been defeated and who say that German submarines in the Caspian recently drowned 30,000 British troops. The Turks also remain truculent and do not appear to realise the defeat. They continue their old oppressions, exterminating the Armenians. THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY. Despatches from Vladivostock state that, the Americans will control the TransSiberian railway from Porgraniohana to Omsk, under an agreement for international control, and the British from Omsk to the battlefront, while tho French will control the Khabarovsk section, and the Japanese from Blagovestchensk to Chita. Dispatches from Tokio state that members of the Lower House of Parliament are opposed to control by the Chinese of the Eastern Trans-Siberian railway. It is said that American control disregarded Japan's special position in the Orient. The New York Times Washington correspondent says: According to -the terms of the international control of the TransSiberian and Chinese Eastern Railway, submitted to the United States by Baron Ishii (Japanese Ambassador), AmericanJapanese control of the line will end when a stable and recognised Russian Government is established. STRENGTH OF THE BOLSHEVISTS. The Daily Chronicle's Geneva correspondent states that a Swiss professor named Phillippe -Jeannere has arrived from Russia. He was a traveller from Kazan to Moscow with Bolshevist, Staff officers, who were mainly Letts. He expressed surprise at seeing the trains full of soldiers, guns, aeroplanes, and ammunition. The officers Teplied that the Bolshevist Government had great plans for revolutionary conquest, and was raising an immense army to carry. out these plans. The officers added: " We have a million men to-day, and will double our strength in six months' time. The Hungarians will soon join us, for Hungary is ripe for proletarian revolution. Then the Red Flag will be carried into Austria. As soon as we cross the German frontier the greater part of Germany, and certainly Prussia, will rally to the Bolshevists, in order to escape the Allies' crushing peace terms. We shall then have millions of trained German soldiers at our disposal. There will be no difficulty in organising an army of five million men, with which to overwhelm Western Europe. We have plenty of money, and are confident that we can realise our aims owing to the disorganisation and confusion prevailing in Europe." Professor Jeannere admits that the officials were boasting and intended to impress him, but the military preparation he witnessed bore out many of their statements. He (the professor) expresses the opinion that the Allies should occupy Livonia if they wish to strike a mortal blow at Bolshevism, for most of their strength is drawn from there. The Letts had practised horrible cruelties in Kazan, including the imprisonment of 250 men, women, and children in a cellar, where they were left to starve. - - ECONOMIC CONDITIONS. The Manchester Guardian's correspondent, who was engaged on the Friends Relief Mission to Russia in 1917 and 1918, gives an interesting review of economio conditions in rural Russia under Bolshevism. He says that the co-operative societies have now secured a virtual monopoly of trading, and are putting the small traders out of business. These societies got credit (in the financial sense) from the Soviets, and are regarded by the railways as a Government department. The profits are reduced to a minimum, and are devoted to education, including classes in modern languages, history, and bookkeeping. The Bolshevists commenced with an ambitious educational programme, and aimed at establishing a school in every village} but this project was abandoned owing to lack of teachers, Instead of it. the Rolsheviats started training colleges for

teachers, and are financing these colleges. This immense enthusiasm for education was the great Bolshevist asset. The Boy Scout movement was also flourishing. The Soviets control most of the factories and forests. The Bolshevist leaders for,

a time gave tie Soviets control of sections of the railways, but this scheme soon failed, and complete disorganisation followed, so national control of the railways was resumed. ! Regarding the ownership of land, there

is a difference of opinion. The Bolshevist leaders desire to manage the large estates through their own experts, but the peasants do not desire nationalisation, but village ownership. The Bolshevists have secured taxes by levies on capital—from which no one is exempt—and by commandeering stores and selling them at high prices. Justice was secured by the election of older men as magistrates. The Red Guards sometimes overrode the magistrates, but on the whole reliable law courts resulted, which were more just than the police administration of the old regime. There was no blackmailing in connection with illicit vodka stills. The Bolshevists simply confiscated every still, and deprived the maker of supplies of grain. BOLSHEVISTS IN SWITZERLAND. The New York Evening Telegraph's Geneva correspondent reports that, according to a despatch from Lausanne, several German and Russian Bolshevists, armed with passports to Paris, have been arrested, because they plotted to compass the death of M. Clemenceau, President Wilson, anu' J .r J .r Lloyd George. The Russian Bolshevists have notified Switzerland that they will arrest and shoot 30 Swiss residents in Russia unless the Rolhevists arrested in SAvitzerland for the revolutionary movement are released. LONDON BOLSHEVISTS. The London Workers' Union called a conference on the subject of " Hands off Russia," the object being to prevent the sending of British troops to Russia. The meeting was quiet throughout, and was attended by both men and women. The press was rigorously excluded. The newspapers describe the meeting as one of " secret Bolshevists." THE ROMANOFF FAMILY. The Daily Telegraph's correspondent at Copenhagen interviewed an official of the ex-Czar's Court who escaped from Russia. He states that the ex-Czarina and her children are safe, living in retirement in Russia. It is untrue that the ex-Czar is alive. The Dowager Empress and other royalties took refuges in the Crimea.