Chapter VIII: “the Pride and the Joy of the Communist Party” (2)

[41] British Parliamentary Paper, “Russia, No. 1,” p. 56. Also “Sir C. Eliot to Lord Curzon,” March 21, 1919.

[42] The _Obstchoyé Dielo_, No. 56.

[43] _Archives of the Revolution_, III, 159.

[44] In some localities it was impossible to verify numbers of victims even when the Bolshevist forces had withdrawn. Thus the Kharkov branch of the Denikin Commission, which accompanied representatives of the Kharkov town council and trades council and working women’s union to eleven prisons in the region, and discovered in those prisons two hundred bodies, had still to estimate that the real number had been at least three times as large, since exhumation of the bodies buried in and beyond the public park was impossible.

[45] “In the Shadow of Death. Report of a Red Cross Worker on the Bolshevist Prisons in Kiev,” in _Archives of the Revolution_.

[46] About a hundred yards.

[47] Published by the organisation “Der Firn.”

[48] That is to say, a “prosecuting counsel” for the Che-Ka.

[49] See also Margoulies’ book, p. 279.

[50] See “Shootings in Astrakhan,” in _The Che-Ka_, pp. 251 and 253.

[51] The _Volya Rossii_, or “Will of Russia.” The issue referred to is the issue of December 7, 1921.

[52] See _The Che-Ka_, p. 227.

[53] See _The Che-Ka_, p. 102.

[54] Presumably, the Tsar.

[55] February 15, 1919.

[56] _The Kremlin through Prison Bars_, p. 112.

[57] Under date of August 30, 1919, the French author Cachin wrote to _L’Humanité_ that, although the Terror, as such, had ended with the previous year, prisoners still were being sent to the front for execution. And, later, the Czech Socialist, Posenczka, rendered a like report. See the _Posledniya Novosty_ (“The Latest News”--a foreign-published Russian journal) of June 30, 1920.

[58] Executions at the front had been taking place uninterruptedly. Madame Reissner said when writing of events in Sviashsk during the August of 1918: “Red Guards were shot there like dogs, with twenty-seven leading Communists who attempted to desert on the Whites approaching the town--shot ‘as a warning to others.’”

[59] See the _Posledniya Novosty_ of October 20, 1919.

[60] Nevertheless, shootings ordered by the Central Che-Ka _were_ reported, and No. 206 of the _Izvestia_ issued a list of sixteen persons shot by that Che-Ka for having misused their ration cards. Amongst the victims were Doctor Moudrov, a Princess Shirinskaya-Shakhmatova, and others.

[61] Of February 18, 1921.

[62] In the issue of June 24, 1920.

[63] Certainly the British press, at that time, reported shootings of sufferers from the disease--of _child_ sufferers. And see the _Posledniya Novosty_, No. 656.

[64] In A. P. Akselrod’s book _Das Wirtschaftliche Ergebniss des Bolschewismus_ (“The Administrative Result of Bolshevism”) we find an account of a punitive train which was manned chiefly by Letts and sailors in order to patrol the Vologda-Cherepovetz line, and to halt at one or another station for the usual terrorist purposes.

[65] See the _Izvestia_ of Voronezh of August 12, 1919.

[66] The _Posledniya Novosty_ of November 8, 1920.

[67] Of March 25, 1922.

[68] See the section “Sketches of Prison Life,” in _The Che-Ka_, pp. 119 and 120.

[69] 1920, No. 14.

[70] _The Twelve Condemned_, p. 25.

[71] See No. 6 of the _Revolutsionnaya Rossia_.

[72] See No. 33 of the _Posledniya Novosty_.

[73] See No. 233 and following numbers of that journal.

[74] See Ossipov’s book, _At the Cross Roads_, 1917–1920, pp. 67 and 68.

[75] See the _Posledniya Novosty_ of December 11.

[76] See the section “The Kuban Che-Ka,” in _The Che-Ka_, pp. 227 and 228.

[77] See No. 4 of _Revolutsionnaya Rossia_.

[78] Arbatov’s reminiscences in _Archives of the Revolution_, XII, 119.

[79] See the _Posledniya Novosty_ of December, 1920.

[80] As reported in No. 9 of that journal.

[81] See No. 7 of the _Revolutsionnaya Rossia_.

[82] Before the Lausanne Tribunal the well-known writer, Ivan S. Shmelov, stated that he reckoned the slain in the Crimea to have reached 120,000.

[83] “The Helm,” a Berlin-published Russian journal. The above refers to its issue of August 3,1921. See also No. 392 of the _Posledniya Novosty_.

[84] This woman is said later to have been caught and put to death by the Greens, the rebel soldiers of the South.

[85] See also the _Posledniya Novosty_ of August 10, 1921.

[86] See the _Obstchoyé Dielo_ of July 10, 1920.

[87] Whips of horsehide.

[88] See No. 221 of the _Posledniya Novosty_.

[89] The _Dielo_ of January 13, 1921.

[90] The same of November 9, 1921.

[91] No. 148 of the same, and also the _Posledniya Novosty_ of August 16, 1921.

[92] The _Dielo_ of December 11, and other journals.

[93] See the _Roul_ of December 11.

[94] See the _Dielo_ of December 8, 1920.

[95] See the _Dielo_ of December 24, 1920.

[96] See the issue of August 31, 1921.

[97] The Bolshevists’ telegraphic agency in the Crimea.

[98] See the _Dielo_ of August 23.

[99] See No. 81 of the _Pravda_.

[100] See the _Posledniya Novosty_ of October 14.

[101] Green Book, _A Record of the Peasant Movement in the Black Sea Provinces_, by N. Voronovich.

[102] In this connection, see No. 11 of _Revolutsionnaya Rossia_.

[103] See the _Posledniya Novosty_, No. 572.

[104] See the _Posledniya Novosty_ of September 18.

[105] See No. 217 of the _Izvestia_.

[106] See the _Dielo_ of September 22 and October 7.

[107] See the _Posledniya Novosty_ of December 21.

[108] See the _Roul_ of September 30.

[109] See the _Roul_ of December 7, and the _Frankfurter Zeitung_ of about the same period.

[110] Of April 19, 1921.

[111] See the _Posledniya Novosty_ of August 30.

[112] See the _Dielo_ of February 16, 1921.

[113] At present my store of Siberian data is incomplete, but I shall hope later to complete and produce it.

[114] The _Dielo_ of March 22.

[115] Other shootings of the kind took place earlier. In 1919 some Boy Scouts were shot in Moscow, and in 1920 the same fate (for “espionage”) was meted out to the members of a tennis club. Other cases also occurred.

[116] See the _Revolutsionnaya Rossia_, Nos. 12 and 13.

[117] Two other, but smaller, groups were shot later.

[118] See the _Posledniya Novosty_, No. 281.

[119] See No. 8 of _Revolutsionnaya Rossia_.

[120] See the _Posledniya Novosty_ of May 13.

[121] See _Archives of the Russian Revolution_, XII, 132.

[122] Well-to-do peasants--peasant capitalists or factors.

[123] See the _Segodnya_ (“To-day”) of April 25, 1921.

[124] In the _Vestnik_ (“Messenger”) of March, 1923, pp. 28 and 29.

[125] There is a pun in this, since _mogilev_ also means a tomb.

[126] See the _Posledniya Novosty_, No. 729.

[127] In _Archives of the Russian Revolution_, XII, 145.

[128] As announced by the Warsaw journal _Za Svobodou_ (“For Freedom”), to which the deceased had been a contributor.

[129] See the _Dni_ of March 13, 1923, and No. 5 of the _Sotsialistichesky Vestnik_, 1923.

[130] See the _Sotsialistichesky Vestnik_, No. 15.

[131] See the _Izvestia_ of February 27.

[132] See the _Izvestia_ of February 29.

[133] See the _Dni_ of January 24, No. 395.

[134] See the _Dni_ of March 4.

[135] See the _Novoyé Vremya_ of August 3, 1923.

[136] See “Reminiscences of Sub-Lieutenant Hefter,” in _Archives of the Russian Revolution_, X, 118.

[137] See the _Roul_ of August 3, 1923.

[138] In an at once lucid and accurate series of articles on Russia, published in the Edinburgh _Scotsman_, Professor Sarolea gives the following table of classified totals:

“Bishops, 28; ecclesiastics, 1219; professors and teachers, 6000; medical men, 9000; naval and military officers, 54,000; naval and military men of the ranks, 260,000; police officials, 70,000; intellectuals and members of the professional classes, 355,250; industrial workers, 193,290; peasants, 815,000.”

[139] See _Archives of the Revolution_, VII, 164.

[140] See _The Twelve Condemned_, p. 21.

[141] British Parliamentary Paper, _Reports on Bolshevist Russia, Abridged Edition, Russia, No. 1_, pp. 42 and 54.

[142] See the already quoted British Parliamentary Paper, p. 53.

[143] In a diary compiled by A. Boudberg, and included in _Archives of the Russian Revolution_, we find the total of slain at Blagoveschensk given as 1500.

[144] From reports and other documents contained in the State Papers of Czechoslovakia, 1919, Vol. LIII.

[145] See _Archives of the Russian Revolution_, IX, 190.

[146] See his book _The Kremlin from behind Prison Bars_, p. 177.

[147] See “For the Soviet Power” in S. M. Pougachevsky’s _Diary of a Participant in the Civil War_, and his _Materials for a History of the Red Army_, I, 406.

[148] See p. 54 of the British White Book cited.

[149] That is to say, a member of the _Oprichnina_, or corps of police-lifeguardsmen, which Tsar Ivan IV (“Ivan the Terrible”) maintained during the sixteenth century.

[150] _A propos_, a report from a local Che-Ka included the query: “What are we to do with people who would celebrate the downfall of the Peasants’ and Workers’ Power by holding thanksgiving services?” See No. 4 of the _Weekly_, p. 25.

[151] See the _Revolutsionnaya Rossia_, No. 12.

[152] The _Znamya Trouda_, No. 3, 1920.

[153] See a letter of June, 1920, quoted in _The Kremlin from behind Prison Bars_.

[154] See the _Posledniya Novosty_ of September 21, 1921.

[155] See No. 1 of the _Za Narod_ (“For the People”).

[156] See “Report of the Trial of some Left Social Revolutionaries on June 27 and 28, 1922,” in _The Days of the Revolution_, p. 296.

[157] One provincial executive committee brazenly admitted to having ordered villages of from 6,000 to 10,000 inhabitants to be burnt to the ground for tearing down official proclamations.

[158] See the _Znamya Trouda_, No. 3, September, 1920.

[159] Gan received this item from an eye-witness.

[160] Pp. 56–61.

[161] A slang term (literally, an “insolent jowl”) for an official such as Gogol has immortalised in his play _The Inspector-General_.

[162] From Steinberg’s book.

[163] From No. 15 of the _Izvestia_, 1919.

[164] See Margoulies’ book in this connection.

[165] See the _Znamya Trouda_, No. 3. _Cf._ also the Ekaterinodar shootings of industrial workers already described.

[166] See the Left Socialist Revolutionists’ Party’s _Bulletin_, No. 4.

[167] See the journal _Kharkovskaya Svezda_ (“Star of Kharkov”), of June 7, 1919.

[168] See the Kievan _Izvestia_ of July 24, 1919.

[169] See the _Nachalo_ (“Principle” or “Guide”) of July 19, 1919.

[170] See the _Narodnaya Vlast_ (“Rule of the People”) of January 24, 1919.

[171] See the _Nachalo_ of July 24, 1919.

[172] See the _Posledinaya Novosty_ of April 25, 1922.

[173] See the _Posledniya Novosty_ of November 24, 1920.

[174] From data collected by the Denikin Commission.

[175] Possibly, in this execution the orgy of Bolshevist injustice reached its apogee.

[176] See the _Rabochy Krai_ (“The Workers’ Realm”) of October 19, 1919.

[177] See the _Posledniya Novosty_ of November 6, 1920.

[178] See the same journal of November 6.

[179] This girl of seventeen was shot ostensibly for petty theft; but there is reason to suppose that her real crime had been that she had called Steklov a “Jew.”

[180] See Vishniak’s _Sovremenniya Zapisky_ (“Contemporary Notes), I, 227.

[181] See the _Obstchoyé Dielo_ (“The Common Cause”), No. 126.

[182] Lane or alley.

[183] The British White Book already quoted, p. 43.

[184] The _Riazanskaya Izvestia_ (“Riazan News”) of September 7, 1919.

[185] In the _Volya Rossii_, No. 4, 1922.

[186] From _Six Months in Prison_, p. 65.

[187] See _The Che-Ka_, section 108, and Chap. iv. of the Memorandum issued by the Social Revolutionary Party.

[188] See _The Che-Ka_, pp. 230 and 231.

[189] Report of the Denikin Commission.

[190] See No. 476 of the _Dielo_.

[191] In its issue of June 27, 1921.

[192] Materials collected by the Denikin Commission.

[193] See the materials collected by the Denikin Commission, and also Madame Kourakina’s reminiscences in No. 5 of the _Rousskaya Lietopis_ “Russian Chronicle”), p. 201.

[194] See the _Rabochnaya Zhizn_ (“Working-Class Life”) of May, 1918.

[195] Related by A. Nikolin in No. 9 of the _Kazachyi Dumi_ (“Cossack Opinion”).

[196] These details are taken from the instalment of the Denikin materials published at Rostov-on-Don.

[197] In _The Kremlin from behind Prison Bars_, p. 187.

[198] He was the well-known Social Revolutionary Karelin.

[199] These details are taken from the foreign journal, _Brihwa Seme_. If I have quoted the title of the journal wrongly, the fact is due to my having been able to make but a hasty extract from it whilst I was still living in Moscow.

[200] From the Appeal issued by the Georgian Social Democrats on July 5, 1923, as reprinted in No. 15 of the _Socialistichesky Vestnik_.

[201] The then British Consul in Petrograd.

[202] The article is to be found in the _Weekly_ of October 6, 1918.

[203] They were issued on March 3, 1919, as confirmed by P. Mayer’s reminiscences of his former service in the Commissariat of Justice.

[204] Of December 7, 1920.

[205] Of December 12, 1923.

[206] And, if I am not mistaken, rewarded with “the Order of the Red Flag.” See Digest No. 344 of the digests compiled by Denikin’s Staff.

[207] See _The Che-Ka_, pp. 242, 243.

[208] And published in No. 2 of the _Revolutsionnoyé Dielo_.

[209] See the _Ponti Revolutsyi_ of April 9, 1922.

[210] In an issue of the _Rabochy Listok_ or “Workers’ Sheet” we find mention of the Petrograd Che-Ka putting prisoners into fetters _pending inquiry_, whilst No. 5 of the _Socialistichesky Vestnik_ tells of prisoners being sent to lunatic asylums for confinement with dangerous maniacs.

[211] In _The Che-Ka of Odessa_, published at Kishinev in 1920, p. 30.

[212] The pair of “gloves” in question are still to be seen in the Great Palace of the Kremlin. They figure in Edouard Herriot’s book, _La Russie Nouvelle_.

[213] See Averbuch’s _The Che-Ka of Odessa_, p. 36.

[214] _Archives of the Russian Revolution_, Vol. VI.

[215] See Odette Kun’s _Sous Lenine, Notes d’une Femme Déportée en Russie par les Anglais_, p. 179, and also No. 3 of the review _Na Chouzhoi Storonyé_. Odette Kun had begun by being deported from Constantinople by the British authorities, who suspected her of carrying on Communist propaganda.

[216] See this author’s _My Memoirs_, p. 263.

[217] See Z. U. Arbatov, in _Archives of the Russian Revolution_, XII, 89.

[218] Short for the slang expression “_Raskhod_,” equivalent to “to be killed,” or “dispatched.”

[219] Of March, 1922.

[220] In the same connection see the _Posledniya Novosty_ of July 17, 1921.

[221] Of March 25, 1922.

[222] This was before she became Kedrov’s wife.

[223] See the _Golos Rossii_ of January 27, 1922.

[224] See the _Posledniya Novosty_ of March 2, 1921.

[225] _Der Blutrausch des Bolschewismus_, p. 19.

[226] See the section “A Year in the Butyrka” in _The Che-Ka_, p. 146.

[227] See the _Novoyé Russkoyé Slovo_ (“The New Russian Word”) of New York, of February 19, 1924.

[228] See the _Dni_ of March 7, 1924.

[229] Other instances of this kind of phraseology are given by Kartzevsky in his _The Speech of Warfare and Revolution_, Russ. Univ. Edition, Berlin, 1923.

[230] See _Archives of the Revolution_, VIII, 153.

[231] In that journal’s issue for April 1919.

[232] From the _Posledinya Novosty_ of September 21,1920.

[233] From the same, No. 168.

[234] Medviedev’s and others’ evidence before the Commission has been published by Telburg in America, and in No. 5 of the journal _The Contemporary Historian_ in Germany.

[235] See _The Che-Ka_, pp. 232, 233.

[236] No. 168 of that journal.

[237] Published in the _Rousskaya Lietopis_ (“The Russian Chronicle”), No. 5, pp. 199 and 200.

[238] From _The Che-Ka_.

[239] In the tenth issue of that journal.

[240] Nos. 3 and 4.

[241] Respectively _The Workman’s Gazette_ and _Proletarian Truth_.

[242] This description is quoted from Nos. 12, 13, and 43 of _Revolutsionnaya Rossia_.

[243] See Margoulies’ _Years of Fire_.

[244] These particulars are taken from the manuscript data with relation to the Crimea which the Denikin Commission collected.

[245] Many other details of the sort are to be found recorded in the “Memorandum concerning Political Prisoners in Soviet Russia,” which the Paris Congress of the Russian Constituent Assembly drew up.

[246] See No. 15 of the _Socialistichesky Vestnik_.

[247] See Nos. 33 and 34 (1924) of _Revolutsionnaya Rossia_.

[248] The British public may be reminded that the Russian pound is equivalent only to nine-tenths of the pound avoirdupois.

[249] In addition to which it may be said that in many prisons the authorities either made food parcels common property--that is to say, divided the meagre contents of the parcels amongst a large number of prisoners--or confiscated the contents themselves.

[250] This document was reproduced in the _Izvestia_ of December 26, 1918.

[251] See the _Izvestia_ of December 4, 1918.

[252] Peasant low shoes of bark.

[253] At times the Butyrka, though built to hold 1100 prisoners only, contained over 3000.

[254] This was, of course, in addition to thousands of others who had been deported to outlying provinces, or thrown into the prisons of Tiflis and Kukais.

[255] See the _Zveno_ (“Link”) for 1923.

[256] So phenomenal, indeed, that even twelve doctors who ventured to criticise the Government’s starvation of prisoners policy found themselves deported.

[257] As complementary, of course, to the account already given.

[258] Some of the foregoing details are from a letter actually written from Solovetsky by a prisoner, and dated March 8, 1924.

[259] As an instance of this Che-Ka’s taste for drama it may be mentioned that one of the most terrible of all extant photographs of mutilated corpses is one of victims slain by this Che-Ka.

[260] Lenin’s dictum on the point was that “for every hundred decent members of Che-Kas there are ninety-nine rogues.” Yet the fact in no way depressed him. As early as 1905 he said: “Our party is not meant to be a boarding-school for young ladies. For the very reason that a rogue is a rogue he may prove the more useful.” Naturally, he knew what he was talking about.

[261] A Russian diminutive of the name Michael.

[262] See Margoulies’ _Years of Fire_, pp. 178, 179.

[263] In view of this official’s original profession, it is not without interest to note that his surname, of patronymical formation, is based upon the Russian word for “cat.”

[264] See the _Obstchoyé Dielo_ of March 1, 1921.

[265] See the _Posledniya Novosty_ of March 2, 1921.

[266] See the Che-Ka’s _Weekly_, No. 5.

[267] See the _Posledniya Novosty_ of October 14, 1921.

[268] In the _Obstchoyé Dielo_ of November 3, 1920.

[269] See the same journal in its issue of October 18, 1921.

[270] See No. 299 of the _Volya Rossii_, 1921.

[271] Published in _The Times_ in 1923, and subsequently translated into Russian.

[272] See British Parliamentary Paper, “Russia, No. 1 (1919),” p. 36, and the materials collected by the Denikin Commission.

[273] The actual term “dreadnought” was used--transliterated, of course, into Russian characters.

[274] A leading Che-Ka official.

[275] This document was reproduced in the _Golos Rossii_ of April 16, 1922.

[276] Since writing these words I have heard that a version already current is _Gospody, Pomilouy Oumershikh!_ (“Lord, have mercy upon the dead!”).

[277] Of July 13, 1921.

Transcriber’s Notes:

1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected silently.

2. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have been retained as in the original.

3. Italics are shown as _xxx_.