TERRORISM IN RUSSIA

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1931, Page 8

TERRORISM IN RUSSIA

INCREASING HARSHNESS. “THE GOOD OF THE CAUSE.” Conditions in Russia under the Soviet Government are described in the first series of articles to reach Sydney written by a Greek journalist, Mr. D. K. Svolopoulos, who was engaged by the newspaper Acropolis, of Athens, to investigate conditions in Russia. “The bloody terrorism of the revolution continues with increasing ferocity,” says Mr. Svolopoulos. “The Gepeon (secret police) spy on everyone, and incarcerate and kill■ for the good of the cause. Food is scarce, misery rampant, and comfort non-existent.

“Of the 150,000,000 souls in Russia only 2,700,000 are Bolshevists; but these few slave-drive 147,300,000 non-Bolshe-vists. The hateful conditions of the Tsarist regime have not been improved under Bolshevism, and Siberia still receives her compulsory guests, driven thither by the whip and the boot. It is not easy to see Russia. The Government arranges for visitors to be guided about, and the currents of unrest, suspicion and misery are not plumbed by them.

“In the new Soviet one feels more secure in the streets than in one’s home. In the home no one is allowed more than one room for three persons. Thus he is seen, heard, and even shadowed, because in every building there is. a manager, who is agent for the secret police, and has powers so wide that he may . even prevent one from seeing a friend whom he dislikes.” Describing his train journey to Moscow, Mr. Svolopoulos ■ says: “A door opens and a crowd of strange people emerges. What a sight! Caps made from skins, furs from sheep, long boots or cloths wrapped round their legs, boots of their own make —if one may call them boots—tied with coloured strings, and beards and hair abandoned to themselves. Dirt and misery! I have seen peasants in the Balkans and Asia Minor, but the Russians are worse than all. Now and then we sec a few small grass huts, so small that one wonders how a man can enter them. The temperature is 24deg. below zero. “In substance, family life in Russia does not exist. Home has gone, with its binding ties.' This has been one of the main objects of proletariat Russia. The family unity, strength, and beneficial effects were a bulwark against the new ‘religion’ and had to go. Easy marriage and divorce contributed, and school newspapers, in which children denounced their parents for their words, thoughts, and deeds, accelerated the fall of the family. There are only two public holidays, but every fifth day the worker must rest. ■ This is universal and compulsory. Thus, when the husband rests the wife works, and vice versa. The workers are kept on the move by overseers, regulations, ' and plans. Add to this the misery and the scarcity of things, the wretched house, the lowering of the morale by hard, never-ending work, and you have the reason why there is no family life in the Russia of the Soviet.

, “There are tragedies in all homes, but there is always the hope of restoration, of redress, except in Russia. There is no hope. The effect may be seen on the gloomy faces, the suffering bodies, the untimely ageing of girls and women. People exist because they had the misfortune to be born.

“I have spent a whole morning wa .ching workers ■ spend their ‘day of rest’ trying to! obtain', provisions—men, women, labourers, clerks, solicitors, doctors —all in the one queue. Sometimes, after spending the day thus waiting in ISdeg. of frost, the people are informed that the provisions are- exhausted, and their ration tickets for that day are useless. ■

•‘To complain may involve an accusation of revolutionary tendencies, the penalty for which is sudden removal to Archangel and dreaded compulsory labour. There are no complaints; there is only suffering. “The most horrible tragedy occurs when anyone becomes ill. There are many doctors—a year at the university qualifies them as experts in all diseases and surgery—but the State must choose the man —a Communist, of course. He may arrive immediately or some, days after, when perhaps the patient is beyond his ‘expert’ aid. “Only two chemist shops stock the ingredients for • even the commonest medicines, and the callous indifference of the authorities for the health of the people is shown in this. There is a heavier mortality among the Russians than among the Chinese of the hinterland. But they die happy in the knowledge that they, are thus escaping other miseries. Tuberculosis, dysentery and typhus take heavy toll.”