THE REAL BOLSHEVISM

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 177, 22 April 1919, Page 5

THE REAL BOLSHEVISM

BY ONE WHO HAS BREATHED ITS

ATMOSPHERE

POWER BY STARVATION

fin the following -.article, "D.," in the "Westminster Gazette," gives what is pi'obably the best picture to date of the Russian Bolshevik machino in operation, and how Lenin and Company maintain thomselves in power.] .

There has lately arrived in England .1 witness of the intornal condition of Russia whose testimony is, we ■ believe, more veracious mid impartial and likely to have more weight with the mass of people in this country than any official {statement or any account given by middleclass Russians who have cscaped from the country.. -This is Mr. H. V. Keeling, who alone proluibl.y of Englishmen has Been the Bolshevik movement from within, and can report from his own knowledge what tho Russian working class think of it. Air, Keeling went to ltiiaBia five years ago to teach workmen in a Russian firm which had acquired British patents certain .new processes in the lithographic and printing trades. For twenty years previously he had 'been a member of a British trade union (the ■Lithographic' Artists, Designers, Engravers, and Process-workers ), and took (in active part in'the movement for raising wages in his own trade. After being in tho service of the Russian firm for one year, he undertook certain agoncies for British firms, and in order to keep in repair machines which they had sold became a fully qualified mechanic in the printing trade, and as such' was admitted to membership of -the, Russian Printing Trade Union. • Ho ; thiis spent practically all his time a? d workmanamong workmen. In 1918 he went into the country and opened up a littlo workshop for repairing all sorts of . things, from .steam mills to boots, walking and cycling in -pursuit of this .business, and getting intimate experience of conditions in the country. In these ways he made himself so useful—not to. say indisoensal>!"—that the Soviets insisted on his remaining in the country, and even gave him a snecial invitation to sit on a Soviet himself." In October last he was appointed to the position' of diVf r>lintnt"\'>n!ier.-.to to the Committee of. Public Education,' presided over by M. Lunacharski, whom lie describes as an amiable visionary, with eyes shut to the. rsfilities of the Bolshevik regime. Ho was in Russia during 'tiiu whole of the . period of the revolution 'till January fl of this year, -and during all'this, time he associated with the working'people in town and country, and' was in a unique position to hear their views and judge their real opinions. .He had, in-fact, many friends in the Soviets who 1 treated liini with the utmost confidence and showed him tho whole working of the'machine. Having l»en in this position, and knowing; as ha believes. the-full truth-of the Russian 'situation. Mr. Keeling is now anxious to fepeak to the British people) and especially the working people, that they niny fully understand what is, ■and what its results are. before they form Any hasty opinion about it. 11 have" spent many hours with Mr. Keeling, and. with his consent I will try to summarise*-his talk, putting what he ■said'to' me as far as possible in his own language. He is still a young man,' and, .though his experiences have bitten deep into him, he has been carried throughthem by a remarkablo vitality and intelligence, which nivo force and colour to his narrative.. He sneaks with a singular imparHalitv of what he has seen and heard, ' admitting frankly that, hs was attracted by the Bolshevik idea, and hoped at one-time that it might be gooc* for Russia, if not for the ' world in. general. He uses few epithets,', and has little or nothing to say about the chief actors in the drama. He describes the thing as he. saw it. und leaves iudgment oil the chief actors to others. What in-, .terests and moves him, and what.he is anxious to make known, is not the political theory of-Bolshevism, but its results ...upon the. actual life, of a great, people. .. Now to talk. \ ; . The Secret of Bolshevism,. "What/ 1 1 asked, "has-happened to the Russian people? Is Bolshevism as black as it is painted, and if it is, how can a whole nation submit to it?" "The answer," he said, "is that'the Russian people .are''starving, and when you are starving you don't think about other atrocities. You think about nothing except just to scrape together enough food to keep yourself alive. You don't trouble much whether,'you are going to be shot yourself or whether other people are being shot. You are collect--■ing food like an animal. I -left Russia six weeks , ago. lint even now L can't B&t - over the habit of thinking about my food, and' every day I find myself v.'onderinir where the next meal is to come from."

Mr. Keeling expanded this idea, and as he spoke I seemed at last to get into •the atmosphere of Bolshevik Russia—on the 'one side millions of .people-too r.b6orbe I d*with the ravening thought of 1-ow to get food for. themselves. and their wives and children to think of anything beyond the moment, and too exhausted to resist; on the other a favoured few relatively woll fed and prepared for any violence and cruelty to save themselves from losing their privilege and slipping into the vortex of famine. For.whatever may have been the original idea nf IV.shevisin, its secret now, as Mr. Keeling, explained it, is simply that it confers.unon some and denies to.others.the privilege of eating, and that all its other Heeds of violence and cruelty are ns nothing to the shpreme cruelty of withholding, food;

Mr: Keeling went on to explain the system, describing it without 'colour/or emotion,-as if, living in that world, he had come to tiike its horrors for granted. The Four Categories. "The. population," lie said, "wero originally divided by the Bolsheviki into four 'categories,' which exactly turn upelds down the social. classes of other countries. These are (1) manual labourers; (2) clerical workers, provided they employ nobody; (3) everybody who has employed anybody, from tho small householder employing one servant to the manufacturer employing a thousand hands,- (4) all the forijier-idile rich, princes, aristocrats, landowners, courtiers, and rentiers of every description. The penalty for failing to please the Bolsheviki is to he degraded from a class in which you get some food to a class in which you get scarcoly any. The rations for these classes are, or were, on a descending scale, and eveh (ho lowest class was supposed to- get enough Ip keep alive. But jn the last few. months there hasn't been anything like enough for (he first class, and scarcely anything for the others. Ciass IV, the former rich, I should say, has disappeared. They have got out of . the country, or been starved to death, or been shot, or turned themselves into workmen in order to get food. 1 can't tell you more, for nobody knows. The 'other.'classes have got sorted' into two classes, those that get some food and those that get hardly any officially. To get food yoji must be in with tile- Bolsheviki, and then they put you into the first eta. It is very difficult to get there, .aitd very cas\ to get out. They degrade you ■ for slight reasons which you can't discovei, and then you starve. Whole trade unions have ten degraded because they opposed the Bolsheviki, or offended them somehow.". , '

"But what is this official lood system, and how does it. work?"

"You have cards and coupons very much as here, but alb private tro'ling is forbidden, and nearly j'll the shops in Pptrograd. are shut'. ' To' take their place" there are a few hundred municipal shops, and you have, (o, lie registered at one of these, and take your coupons Ihere, if you are in the feeding clai-s. 'You are supposed to receive half a pound of bread a day, awl potatoes, butter, meat, and sugar, at fixed and reasonable prices; but. as a matter of fact, for a long time past nothing has, been sold but bread, e/'d ev" thn f failed for seven days in December. I have been six days without bread, and three days without anything to eat except tho so-called public dinner, which consisted of watery soup, a small piece of very salt fish,"and one-eighth of a pound of bread. Sometimes they havo offered me oats, as if I were a horse, when there was no bread. All the children are in the first class, for the Bol<=WiV idea, is that aJI the ohildreu

Bhould be the oharge of the State while itheir' parents go to "work. But the children are starving all the same in great numbers," ■ v

Food Outcast and His Fato. "But, if you are not in the first class or aro degraded from what happens. "Then you have to prowl about and try, to get food 6ecretly.. But this is a-punish-able offence for which sometimes people may even bo shot. People go into tho country taking with tlicni anything tnat they think the peasants will take in exchange for food, and get a'bag of flour or a few potatoes. But it is illegal to go out of the town without a permit or to buy anything when you get there, so the Red Guard stop them and search them as they come back, and,' if they jvncl anything, confiscate it and very often arrest the people, and carry them off. X saw a woman who had gone into the country and got 301b. of flour from her own native place for hor children, v<ho wero starving, seized by tho guard at a station when she was trying to get back. Tliev took it from her, though she fell on her knees and implored them with sobs ! to let hor keep only a few pounds. Then when she found it was no use, she throw herself under tho train and was killed." "It makes it worse, Mr. Keeling went on, "Wiat you have quantities of money in your pocket, and.can buy nothing. I have had roubles worth «£6OO, according to old values, in my pocket, and not h ee n able to buy a piece of bread. You don t tronblo about money; you pay Ave shillings for a lump of sugar, if you can get it. A workman's wages are ,£IOO i month in old values, but, though he «n still buy a watch for five pounds, re can't,buy a roll of bread for fifty, lhe people who have the food won t sell it for roubles, becauso they aro worth nothing, and there is nothing to buy with them. So. the Bolsheviki can't get the food, though they are always trying to, and having fights with the peasants in consequence. I believe myself there 18 ■ enough food in Russia to keep everyone alive., -for last harvest was very good; but it can't bo got, and it's all being hoarded and concealed."

Well-Fed Army. But again I asked, "Why do the Russians stand it; why don't they rovolt aiid smash the whole thing?" _ "I don't quite know," said Mr, Keeling; "the Russians aren't, like other people. They have been used to tyranny and have a sort of snbinissiveness which makes/them accept things. I can assure you they are sick to death of it, and that nine-tenths of tho people who keep in with tho Bolsheviki, and have to pretena to like them, would do anything to get rid of them, if they knew Mw. But you have to remember that tho Bolsheviki are very clever in feeding the people who are likely to. fight. This is how it's done. Every' man ivho joiijs the-Red Army is sure of his own food and also gets food for his wifo and children. The Army is fed before anyone else, and out of all proportion to tlie other classes. Even the workmen get nothing till the Army has had enough. So large numbers of men join the Army for the §ake of getting food, and then, when they are in, thiey have to keep at it for fear of losing their food. Besides, if they try . any tricks they are not only punished, i.e., shot, themsolves, but toeir wives and families and parents are starved. A -man will stand almost anything rather than see his wife and children and parents starved to_death, 'end the use they make of this kind of coercion is devilish.; The soldiers have to be pretty careful,- for'there are lots or spies among them, who instantly report any suspicious case, and when go into action thero areV'always machineguns behind them. .(Then, besides the regular Red Army,; there is a special picked army, -which' gets everything/ it wants of food and anything else. And all these men know, that if they don't fight they'll starve'; so they fight, to save their otri food and to prevent their wives and children starving.. . That's their , way of keeping alive." ■ The thing straightened out a little. One saw this privileged, 1 ' relatively well-fed class struggling to keep, itself from falling into the pit,, and its hand against all. the others. They-were like men on a raft in .mid-ocean, v throwing their weaker. comrad?3 overboard to keep themselves afloat'and make the rations po a, little longer '"- '■* ' \ :- :