SOVIET VENGEANCE

Hokitika Guardian, 18 July 1932, Page 8

SOVIET VENGEANCE

ON MEN GUILTY OF SABOTAGE. USES OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. LONDON, June 22. Soviet Russia continues to follow its declared policy of severely punishing , those'’ whose actions delay the progru s /of its industrial programme or who uo injury to the social scheme. ■ Soviet justice recently meted -put death sentences to e’ght found of; sabotage. , bringing toe total /•number of those condemned to leitli

yfor this crime tb twenty since the first ppr'lHe year.

O In .addition, pa ppumber have been '.sentenced, to death as racketeers, while'robbers who preyed on freight car cargoes received death sentences ‘and long t'erms of imprisonment. A few Weeks ago" a Sverdlovsk court feentenced three men to be. shot and forty-five others to prison for “attempting to, reduce the city to starvation’ , .by .stealing the foodstuffs of the workers. ■ '

The penalty for murder in Russia is fen years’ imprisonment, while other .acts —considered less serious in the Western world—are thus punished by th e extreme penalty. u- :- ■ ; TRANSPORT troubles.

ers is a result; of the 'Soviet’s difficult situation in regard* to the carriers. While some othbr divisions of the Five. Year Plan, Have stepped up production and made! good progress, reports indicate that she rails have not kept in iand that transportation deays have inyifiimy cases nud’-fied these production gains. .So in July, 1920. 'Railroad Commissar M. L. Rukhimovitch proposed capital punishment - fo) tho=e whose carelessness ■ oaused ; radroad wrecks; and in January, 1931, the Central Executive Committe issued ;a, decree fixing death as /thpenalty for persons convicted of malicious disorganisation of-the transportation system, and ten years’ imprisonment for those who caused train delays 'but who lacked malicious intent. ■ DRIVE FOR “CRIMINALS.” In September r 1936, the .Soviet Government, launched an intensive drive against its so-called “criminals,” and art unusual number of executions took placet in , that -month.. In-Moscow* three men ■; were' shot by--the Ogpu fdr causing fives through criminal negligence, -and two Communist farmers, brothers,,.jiyere executed for attempted murder—the intended victim having b-en an official who was .investigating their method oh, making profits. In (Moscow, !: aisp, forty-eight were shot as counter-revolutionaries plotting to create a food panic, and eight others were put ltd death- .for - .activities of different nature—hoarding, silver and gold coins and carrying qn prppaganga.. ; In'. April, 11931 . former. Soviet...offi: dials, were sentenced .to death in .connection with abuses _in the collection of grain. iVaat same mon.th ten persons received the deajtlr penalty at Dniepeniovgk.