WATCHED BY O.G.P.U.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1933, Page 18 (Supplement)

WATCHED BY O.G.P.U.

HARDSHIPS IN RUSSIA FEAR OF “BLACK CROW.” AUSTRALIAN WOMAN’S ORDEAL. Her eyes still reflecting the terrible hardships endured for two years, in Russia, Mrs. S. Hrutzky, an Australianborn. woman, who married a Russian, was the happiest person to leave the P. and O. steamer Ballarat on its arrival at Brisbane recently. She was accompanied by her husband and three daughters. Mr. Hrutzky, who went to Queensland about 20 years ago, felt the urge to return to Russia about two years ago, and left with his wife and children. They lived in Leningrad, where he was engaged as a cabinetmaker. The standard of living in Leningrad, according to Mrs. Hrutzky, was very low and the cost very high. Her husband was receiving 200 roubles a month, or about £lO English money, but even that was not sufficient to keep the family in the ordinary comforts of life. Meat was 15 roubles a lb, and most of the time this was horseflesh. Sugar was equivalent to 7s per lb, and white bread, such as was known in Australia, was never seen. The brown bread that was sold was neither palatable nor sustaining. SCARCITY OF CLOTHING. Clothes, said Mrs. -Hrutzky, were sold at prohibitive prices, and although she had searched the city she had been unable to purchase a pair of silk stockings. Hundreds of communal houseshad been erected in Leningrad, and in these the people had to live, bound by strict laws that were rigidly enforced. Failure , to observe these meant instant eviction. ; The houses were four to five storeys high and each accommodated about 1000 people. She and her husband and three children were allowed two rooms and a communal kitchen, and for this they had to pay 75 roubles a month. | When Mrs. Hrutzky first arrived in Leningrad she was looked upon with the greatest suspicion and treated with con- ' tempt, and for many months was un- | able to obtain rations, because she was I not a Russian. After intervention by i the British consulate she was permitted j

by the authorities to purchase 600 grammes of bread a day (about half a loaf) and one pound of macaroni a month, and even then there was no certainty of receiving that meagre fare. REPORTING TO THE OGPU. Mrs. Hrutzky was forced constantly to report to the Ogpu, and that organisation never for an instant ceased to watch her movements while she was in Leningrad. The Ogpu had a habit of forcing people they did not wish to be in certain neighbourhoods to leave at midnight. Any criticism of the officials of the Ogpu was certain to bring about a visit of the “Black Crow,” the name given to the conveyance used by the Ogpu to transport people from place to i place. I It was stated by Mrs. Hrutzky that she had seen husbands dragged away from their wives and wives from their husbands, and no one knew or would ever know where they had -gone. Raids of this nature were as sudden as they I were unexpected and none dare defy the Ogpu. Mrs. Hrutzky said that she and her husband would settle in ’ Queensland. '