THE RUSSIAN HORROR

Hokitika Guardian, 10 January 1925, Page 4

THE RUSSIAN HORROR

A WOMAN'S STORY". (By a Student of Bolshevism in the " Daily Mail.”) One June 13 lour men sat in a back room of a boarding-house on Dorothocustras.se in Berlin and listened to a Russian woman tiding this story. She is the wife of a military engineer and had just made good her escape from Suvdepia. The others present took notes as she talked. It was not necessary for me to do so, as almost every word she littered caused me such pain and suffering that 1 knew 1 should not easily forget. It is in an effort to rid myself of the nightmare that 1 now put story on paper. Mr (). M. is a highly cultured woman. Her husband left Denekin in .162;). She remained in (liersmi with her three-vears-old daughter—Anita. For a long time no one interfered with her—she even found employment in the secretariat of the town militia. In August, 102] she was arrested. In the street, without any warning. Anita was in her arms. They wore taken to the Cheka, on the Sohoriiayaslreel. Anita had on a summer overcoat, Airs (). M. a summer costume. Three court-yards, a passage, and then a cellar. Narrow pens with wooden partitions. Sickening heat and tilth. Anita was crying; her mother did not know why she had been rounded up. She tried to he brave so that Anita should not he frightened. Weeks passed and nothing happened. The wardress, with rags round her head brought salty water and wet bread twice a day. Anita grew pale and quiet. Her mother could not get her to play. She sat still like a white mouse. A request to he allowed exercise, was refused. Nights in Cherson arc sultry. Their dirty clothing and hair were wet Iron* the damn moisture. Ain ■ .-lent uneasily. her arms outstretch- I. ic.oainng and groaning.

"And then one morning I was called up for examination. A (lu’ ist. Epstein, questioned me. '\\ here i - your husband 't lie is a White OHieer. and veil are charged with rnunter-rcvi ’u--1 ionary activities and spying.’ •' 1 But I know notliing. I have been living and working like everybody else. All I havc is Anita.’” At the second cross-examination she learned who had denounced her. Sasha Grinherg a youth belonging to the parte. Formerly lie had been a decent youngster. IBs parents had . larted to trade hut had been forced to closedown - They were starving, and Sasha decided to save them. There was hut cue way —to enter the services of the Clu-ka. For every “ plot ” unearthed by him lie would receive money, food and bools, lie denounced her. TORTURED TO “ CONFESS.” At the second questioning they told her that “ they would force her to confess.” It was Epstein again and an Estonian. They wont hack to the tilth ol their cell, and Mrs (). M. did her best to keep the flies from the eyes and lips ol Anita. The soldiers in the courtyard had told her, “ Best go and live with the Commissar, otherwise it will go badly with you.” When summoned for the third time she asked permission to sit down. This met with refusal. She then asked permission for Anita to sit, hut they took the ailing child from the room. “ We will force you to colliers.” They took her to a narrow room without windows, just a dim electric light. The air was foul. She was put in an airmehair and heavy weights were attached to her wrists. And all the time she was tortured about her child. She could hear faintly her cries of “ Mama, mama.” There were four men. Two bent her feet and two held her last to the chair. In the hands of the former were burning tapers. First they passed the flames between her toes, then along the soles of her feet, and so on upwards. She groaned in agony, but not sufficiently loud to be heard by Anita. She could hear her child sobbing even wliilo bearing the torture, but she would not add to her fright. “They wanted to know the whereabouts of my husband, and I did not know myself. ' Von are a spy,’ they yelled, lull I had only been guilty of warning ex-ollleers of their impending arrest.” And as she sat there and suffered she prayed that God might strike them down.

Nothing was left of. the flesh on the soles of her feet. But she managed to hop across the cobbles of the courtyards and corridor. During the night she picked off pieces of burned flesh which had remained hanging. OUTRAGE AND DEATH. Through the wooden partitions of these cells for women everything could he heard. She did not learn the name of the woman on her right, hilt t *' Hie left there was the daughter of Colonel Markoff

And nightly the Chekist soldiers and Chinese torturers dragged them from their cells and defiled their bodies. The woman to the right went mad and the daughter of Colonel Markoff managed to hang herself with her bedclothes. Anita became feverish and died, and while she held the dead child in her arms Mrs 0. Af. was summoned for a fourth time. This time she was led to a large room, and sitting there was an acquaintance, Nikolai Sokolovsky. He let her out, hut insisted that she should fly to the north. He would destroy the papers. He himself had to make an attempt to escape. He .succeeded, and to-day is somewhere near, in Bulgaria or Roumania. She could not leave the same day, as Anita had to be buried. But she got away and is now in Berlin, and has news from her husband.