VIRTUAL, PRISONER

Taranaki Daily News, 4 September 1935, Page 6

VIRTUAL, PRISONER

YOUTH ESCAPES FROM RUSSIA. SON OF BRITISH PARENTS. A remarkable story of his life in Russia and of being kept virtually a prisoner for 14 years was told at London recently by a young man who has just returned to England. He is Mr. Robert Greenfield, Perivale, who has been a member of the Young Communists’ League, an officer in the Red Army cavalry, arrested as a spy, and tried for his life. Taken to Russia by his parents in 1921 when he was a boy of 14, Mr. Greenfield found that it was impossible for hun to leave the country, says the Sunday Chronicle. “It has taken me 14 years to get out of Russia," he told an interviewer, “and during the whole of that time I have outwardly, at any rate, been as ardent a Communist , as anyone. But my one idea was to get out, and once- out, never to return. “When we first went to Russia conditions were almost unbelievable. Food was so scarce that a pound of bread was worth thousands of roubles. Clothes wore unobtainable, and people dressed in vermin-infested sarks. “Our month’s rations were alb. of blacx bread, 2oz. of tea and 61b of salt herr.rgs. Butter was so hard to get Chat 1 exchanged a valuable gold fountain pen for a pound of rancid butter. If you saw anyone wearing decent clothes you could be certain that they had been looted from large houses. The police did nothing to stop this looting. “No one dared to speak against the revolutionary party. People kept their mouths shut through fear of the execution squad at Peter Paul’s fort. “There was no compulsory education. Children pleased themselves. We had to live Like cattle until I joined the Young Communists’ League. Then things changed as ‘if by magic. “I was given good educational facilities which enabled me, after giving a false age, to get a commission in the Red Army cavalry. Life then became a bed of roses. I had as much food as I wanted. My people got an extra allowance. “Most of my colleagues were muchmarried men. It cost 4s to get married and 4s to get divorced, and either partycan divorce the other three weeks after

the marriage on political or temperamental grounds. “I did not get married myself because I disliked the system and always hoped for the time when I could get out of the country. Finally I summoned up enough courage to apply for my British passport. I was instantly thrown into gaol and accused of being a spy. “My life hung on a thread. After months of uncertainty and rough usage in prison I managed to convince the authorities that I was not a spy. I was released on condition I left Russia for ever.”