BOLSHEVISMS RUSSIA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 154, 25 March 1919, Page 8

BOLSHEVISMS RUSSIA

BOURGEOIS ELEMENTS UNOFFICIALLY

CO-OPERATING

TSAR'S OFFICERS FOR RED ARMY Tlio special correspondent' of the "Times" in Stockholm, in a recent message, (jives an account, gathered from various reliable sources, of tlio uresent situation in Russia. Ho says:— "Politically tho strength of the Bolshovifc Government tends still to grow from week to week, whilst economically tho situation becomes more and more desperate. Broadly speaking,. there seems to be no longer any serious political opposition to the Msheviki. The Terror no doubt accounts for this partially, but only partially; a much more important factor apparently is tho tendency of Russians of all classes of opinions to accept whatever appears to bo inevitable, and Lenin's main achievement is that lie has made his Government appear inevitable nnd all resistance futile. "The Social Revolutionaries of the Right, representing the more conservative and educated elements of the peasantry, although they have refrained as yet from explicit, surrender, like the Meiishevifci, have protested emphatically .'against any form of foreign intervention. At the same time there is «n ever-in-creasins; flow of middle and upper class civilians awl niiliiury men into administrative offices and the army respectively. The Red Army. "The Red Army is now almost completely under the command of officers of the old regime—at all events as far as tlio higher posts are concerned. The old General Staff has been reconstituted from such of its members as remain in Russia, and directs all operations under the nominal supervision of Trotsky. Tho Com-luauuV-in-Cuief of all the Eed Armiee on the Western front, from Reval to Ukraine, is General Tchereinisoff, who commanded the army which broke through the Austrian lines in Galicia in July, 1917, and practically all his' lieutenants are officers who once held their commissions from the Tsar. T'nder their leadership the Red Army is becoming a very serious force, important aliko in its size unci its discipline, which has improved with every victory, mid in the quality of the youthful material of which it is composed. It is difficult to believe that it will have the slightest difficulty in overrunning the Baltic Provinces," whora all its best divisions are concentrated, unless a very laree number of first-class Western troops are sent to oppose it. Whether General Mannerheim could resist- it for HUT length of time, if it were led against Finland, is, to Fay the least, doubtful. Perhaps the most 'important thing to be observed about it is that it has now grown so large that it is a Russian, rather than a Red, Army. ■' Lenin's Plans. "There are indications that Lenin, with his instinct of leadership and his profound knowledge of the liussian psychology, is not blind to certain of its possibilities, and is showing a steadily increasing inclination to move towards the Right, and, having established the Soviet system of government, to do what is possible to broaden its foundations by moderating his policy and by conciliating (tie classes whose support he requires. This inclination is reflected in tho probably quite false reports which, are now being put about as to his having been arrested and imprisoned by Trotsky. Whether he will succeed in carrying through any policy on these lines, involving the suppression or supersession of many of'his old colleagues, remains to be seen.

"His political ability appears to bo so conspicuous that one hesitates to declare him ineapuble of achieving any political object; yet the difficulties ho must face iiro onoTiuoue. Chief of these is the food difficulty, in ivhich matter a. crisis seems rapidly to Iμ approaching.. Petrograd has been literally starving for weeks. Men and vronicn die of hunger by hundreds overy day in its streets. They lie down on the pavoments to breathe their last, while even the most kindly of passing observers, having nothing to offer then), puss by on the other side.

"111 Petrograd Allied intervention, or any intervention, would bo welcomed by ninety-nine out of a. hundred persons, but Petrograd is probably unique in tins respect, as also in the respect that there the Terror has continued spasmodically without any definite intermission, ever since August. In Moscow, on the other hand, the Terror ceased threo months ago, and, as in most of tho other large towns, there is food enough still to provide a regular, if insufficient, daily ration for every proletarian. Sooner or later, however, it seems inevitable that famine will visit Moscow, and then moral will be broken there as in Petrograd. "When the position becomes actually desperate the Government will probably withdraw, leaving its troubles to 1 its successors, and bequeathing to thorn also, as it hopes and believes, the independent spirit, of self-government which, by tho institution of tho Soviet, it claim's to have created in the workmen and peasants of Russia."