CONFLICT WITH OGPU

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 67, 6 April 1937, Page 6

CONFLICT WITH OGPU

LONDON, April (. The Daily Mail's Eiga correspondent Bays tho Eed Armyg conflict with the Ogpu (the notorious Soviet secret police) continues. The General- Staff refused to permit Yezhov, commandei; of the Ogpu, to arrest a number of officers on a charge of Trotskyjsm, declar* ing that they could not be desc'ribed asj Trotskyites because they admired the * German military organisation. The General Staff appealed to M. Voro* ihilov (Minister of Defence) demanding] the dismissal of Yezhov, which thusi far has* been refused. L'ast September, M. Yagoda Wa* r»-( lieved of his post as People 'm ComJ missar for Internal Defencei (the former O.G.P.U.) in which he was succeeded by M. Yezhov. M. Yagoda had succeeded MM. Dzerzhinsky and Menxhinsky as head of tlie Enssian State Political Police. At the same time M. Eykov was released from his post as Oommissar of Communications and M. Yagoda succeeded him in this post. An interesting anticipation was poi* lished by the London Daily Express in May, 1934. Will Stalin presently have to embark on a Hitler "purge" of the Soviet 's forces? asked that journaL It is said that the Captain Roehm of the Eussian drama is .Yagoda, Who aspires to be the Ogpu leadler. .The Moscow correspondent of the newspaper wrote: Stalin, dictator of Soviet Eussia, is trying desperately to get the Ogpu, the dreaded secret police force, abolished. But he is unlikely to succeed. Hie motive is fear. The rumours that, now that Eussia no longer has enemies to fear, the Ogpu is lo go have been revived by Stalin since the death of Menzhinsky, the Ogpu chief. Here in Moscow, however, the men in power expect Yagoda to carry on the reign of terror. And Yagoda, the only higH Government official not on good term«{ with the dictator, is the. man whom( Stalin fears. Menzhinsky was thtj pcwer behind Stalin. He signed 35,0001 death warrants. But men say he wan less bloodthirsty than Yagoda. Yagodv is "loeum tenens" Ogpu chief. Till recently he was vice-president. ,Twic« during the past two years Stalin had him "sacked." Twice he came back, strong as ever, proving ;hat tho Ogj-u is stronger than the General Executive Committee, for their orders not to r«n instate Yagoda were ignored. Each time Yagoda was removed from officn disturbances broke out among the Ogptuj Even Menzhinsky was unable to sup-j pTess them. Now Yagoda is again oni top, and Stalin knows it. Yagoda is the "strong man" of the moment. And Stalin does not like strong men., He fears them. Son of a political exile iu Siberia, who was banished by tha Tsai'isfc Secret Police, Yagoda wai| brought up as a 100 per cent. revolu-' tionary terrorist. To stop him from bccoming head of the Ogpu, Stalin ancf Ihe Central Executive Committee bava worked out a plan for its reorganisaUon — if they fail to get it dissolve4»