ISLES OF THE LOST

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1930, Page 6

ISLES OF THE LOST

f ' . • CONVICT SETTLEMENT?. ‘ SOVIET ENTERPRISE. ;. ' The reported formation by the Soviet Government of an autonomous ‘‘Republic of the Condemned” in the Solovetsky Islands, in the White Sea, was'-first proposed several years ago, but was vehemently opposed at the time by the Chief Procurator (Public Prosecutor), - Krylenko, says the Daily Mail. The islands, turned into a penal concentration .camp, have been populated since 1920 with political prisoners composed chiefly of ■Social Democrats and Anarchists. Only the? strongest and healthiest are still alive. Nearly every well-known Socialist and Radical politician of pre-war Russia was deported there, and they were soon joined by large numbers of friends and adherents. ■;'■"/ .' ’ : In many cases whole families, including babies in arms, were - deported, and for at least four years were entirely neglected by the Soviet authorities. Food was supplied only- for the guards, the majority of whom were the most brutal-

ised Soviet .adherents' that equid i be recruited for the work by the then Chief of Djerjinski. • ■•. ;.;;/ . . <■ The. Anarchists—male . and female—were.at first interned in; one of the smaller islands, where, they:.were permitted to lead , an “anarchistic”' life, and, with the exception-of a certain amount of “public' and social” work, were at liberty to do as they, liked.- . , As the death rate in the islands is the highest in the world, the Soviet found 'them exceedingly useful as ;a;‘ place of I deportation for'- heretic Communists, a considerable number of. whom were sent there every, year, with the usual consequences. ... The.history of the islands since 1920 is full?;of horrible tragedies and revolting atrocities. Men and women have been flogged to ;death at-the whim of brutal commanders,; and hundreds 'are known to have been-stripped and allowed; to freeze to death. , ‘ . Thousands of Russia’s pre-war intelligentsia have been driven to suicide. Among-the “lost” - are scientists, artists, and. members of every learned-profes-

sion whose powers of endurance gave out under the barbaric conditions. ■ ■ With hUUIOU < r ,th ! +hZ nanjed these islands: islSds of ;the=hightirigales• are islands - with practically; no bird, lite and certainly' without