LAND DESPOTISM

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXVIII, Issue 199, 18 August 1933, Page 6

LAND DESPOTISM

IN RUSSIAN EMPIRE OFFICIAL COMMITS SUICIDE RIGA (Latvia), July 18. As the outcome of disagreements over the Soviet’s despotic land policy, Skrypnik, an 'Old Guard” Bolshevik, has committed suicide. The death of Skrypnik, who assisted Lenin in the foundation of the Soviet Union, has profoundly agitated the Soviet, which celebrated his sixtieth birthday in 1932 with State honours. Skrypnik was one of Lenin’s few friends. The central authorities had resented Skrypnik’s recent attempt to alleviate the autocratic methods of Postysheff, a leading official, in connection with agricultural policy in the Ukraine. Postysheff declared that Skrypnik was allied with ‘‘foreign wreckers,” and threatened to “give his back a good scrubbing,’ but Skrypnik, unlike Zinovieff and Kameneff, refused to confess his heresies and publicly seek forgiveness. Skrypnik was a member of the Executive Committee of the Third Internationale and of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. He also held a seat on the Praesidium of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union. Zinovieff and Kamaneff belonged to the opposition, led by Trotsky and including Radek and Rakovsky, members of which were expelled from the Communist Party and banished between November, 1927, and January, 1928. All except Trotsky and Rakovsky have repented and have been forgiven.