Conditions in Russia.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 December 1922, Page 4

Conditions in Russia.

AFCKLAND, December 11. A review of conditions in Russia before ;uul Mine the rev*eliiti«»n was given* by General Alexander lum.lf. eoiu-maiider-in-cliiel of one of the Ru.-siuii armies in the Great War, and subsequently one of Admi;M TvoUehak s leaders in Siberia. Alter the tall o. Omsk in 1919, the general with his wife and family, who had lived lor two years under Bulslievix rule in Turkestan. settled for a short tine in China, and arrived in Auckland ivtcr.t|v from Tientsin wit)i the intention of taking up farm life here. General ten-

off has made a close study of the national 1 ito o! his country. and Ins kepi in touch with the trend of affairs, there ever since lie leit. “To understand the present sad position .of the great peasant class o'l Russia,” lie said, “one must go back to the I eginuing of the 17th. century. Russia was then pushing her great

national "'ay, progressing slowly but i along natural linos of national ovdlu- 1 tion. The governing classes, middle classes and great peasantry understood ' one another, l’ctcr the Great, by h:s 1 bold and decisive actions, changed t e .current of the national life, lnit theic was no one to follow him in his great I policy of the reconstruction of the j country and the civilisation of tire peasant people on the European model As a result this class, which represents !)o ] er cent of the people has remained at the same stage for the last 2x) years with all the old prejudices, customs and superstitions. This was not thoroughly understood hv the cultured classes who had got completely out of touch with the peasantry with the passing of the years. At the time of the revolution in T 917, the great, mnss of ; tile people of Russia wore in the same state, intellectually, as those of Ceil-. ■ tral Europe at the time of Charlemagne. Only 20 per cent of the whole population could read and write. The result of this stage of ignorance was only too plainly seen when the wave of ' revolution swept over the land. The ■ leaders preached the groat- ideal of liberty, equality and fraternity, but the people could conceive of liberty only a« 1 absolute freedom from all personal re- . straint. and thus ever since the first . day of tlie revolution the moral forces I of Russia have collapsed, and a policy i of robbery and violence lias ruled the entire country. The iirtelligcnt'n. iho 1 cultured classes, have been ruthlessly 1 swept away. With all Russia’s true • patriots fighting the Germans there was ■ no force strong enough to stem the tide ' of revolutionary violence and the grow- ; ing strength of the Bolshevik lnnve--1 nient and our great land fell victim j to these evil forces. Now the Russian . peasants, through suffering, have grown i indifferent to any form of Government. - They give to the Soviet the men dc- ■ nianded for military service because t]iev are quite unable to resist, hut far off the railwavs. and away from the towns they still fight the Bolshevik , rule, they elect their own adminis-tra-i tion and run their affairs as in the 1 old days of the Tsar.” 1 s l 1 l I i