IMPRISONED BY SOVIET.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20503, 3 January 1935, Page 1

IMPRISONED BY SOVIET.

One of the First Communist Leaders. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, January 2. The Warsaw correspondent of the “ Daily’ Express ” says that Alexander Smirnoff, one of the oldest of the Communist leaders, was arrested after a meeting at Moscow, allegedly for working with the Zinovieff Opposition, and was sent to gaol. Two members of the Ogpu arrived at Kiev to arrest Luplin, Chief Commissar of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. He was aware of their coming and shot them dead and escaped. The freight train carry ing Zinovieff and Kamenev has passed through Archangel. The train and the line were guarded. M. Smirnoff was one of the strongest partisans and most trusted advisers of Stalin. His resignation of the portfolio of Agriculture in February, 1928, caused a great sensation in Moscow. This decision was the sequel to the measures which the Soviet Government proposed to take against the peasants in order to force them to give up their grain and which caused much resentment in the Red Army, composed as it is for the most part of the sons of peasants. M. Smirnoff was then appointed first vice-president of the Council of People’s Commissaries. Alexander Smirnoff should not be confused with Ivan Smirnoff, who was a member of the Left Wing of the Trotsky opposition group and was expelled from the Communist party and sent into exile early in 1928.