ATTACK ON SOVIET

Hokitika Guardian, 1 April 1933, Page 6

ATTACK ON SOVIET

DAUGHTER OF TOLSTOY.

MURDER OF INNOCENTS.

Twenty-live years ago Tolstoy, the greatest literary figure.of 'Russia, published his famous article, “I Cannot lie Silent.” It protested against the proposed execution by, the Tsarist •Government of 20 revolutionaries. In a letter .printed below, addressed to the editor of the London “Morning Post,” Tolstoy’s daughter protests against tho murder of thousands and the torture of millions of defenceless people by the Soviet.

Alexandra Tolstoy was her farther’s youngest daughter and favourite child. She-/allowed him and accepted his new doctrine when he left home. Her letter is as folows :

“When, in the year 1908, my father Leo Tolstoy#, read about the proposed execution of 20 revolutionaries by the Tsar’s Government, his immediate reaction was to write his famous article, T Cannot be Silent:’ And ‘the Russian people took up his outcry in a common protest aginst murder. Now, in the year 1933, when in the Northern Causus a dreadful slaughter is going on, when thousands of people are shot and exiled daily, and mv father is not here to protest, .1 feel it is my duty to raise my weak voice against this wholesale murder. PERSECUTION OF WORKERS

“For 12 years I have worked in Soviet Russia, try mg'"'to serve the people in the spirit of my father’s teaching. The terror was progressing under my very eyes. But the world was silent. Millions were exiled, died in prison, in labour, camps in the North Russia. Thousands were executed. The Bolsheviks began by persecuting. c.-lass--enemies, religious people old priests, scientists, professors. Now the turn has come for the working classes, the peasants. And yet the world is silent.

“For 15 years the Russian people have suffered slavery, famine. The Bolshevik Government has been robbing the people, taking away their bread, their food, and - sending it abroad. The Soviet needs currency not only lor buying machinery,, hut for their world-wide, campaign of propaganda. It the peasaptsi protest, if they hide rtlte bread ’for their .own famaly, if any refuse to till sc-jl, they are punished—sometimes shot.” “The Russian people cannot suffer it any longer. Here and there .revolts. are starting. Confronted with death, crowds of famished peasants-flee from the Ukraine—a country which formerly was the granary of the world. • ,

WHOLE FAMILIES EXECUTED. “How does the Soviet Government respond to this? ‘lt issues decrees, banishing one-third ofthe -'Moscow population from the city; subdues the revolted peasants and workers by bullet and gas. Since-the-times of Ivan the ’Terrible Russia has not seen such terror. Now, when the population of KubnU has- arisen in protest, the Soviet Government' has taken The most terrible revenge. Whole families are executed, and 45,00 people— women and children are driven out of their homes and are -sent by Stalin’s order into Siberia to labour camps to meet with certain death.

“,1s it i>o.ssiblo that the world will •still be s.ilent? It is possible that Governments, will still continue to make trade pacts with the Bolshevist murderers, strengthening the Soviet Government and ; undermining their own ,countries? Will the League of Nations go on discussing questions of peace and disarmament with the representatives 'or a Government whose chief method of work is terror? “Will such idealists at Remain Ro]land, who has so subtly grasped the souls of the greatest pacifists of our tme, or writer like Henri Barbusse, Bernard Shaw, and others continue to sing the praises of the Socialist paradise?' Don’t they really understand that, by associating themselves with the Soviets they are responsible for spreading the contagion of Bolshevism, which threatens the world with ruin and destruction.

“Is, it possible- that there are still people who behove hat the cruel dictatorship of a small group, whose aim is to destroy the world’s culture, religion and morals, is Socialism ?

TORTURE OF MILLIONS

“Who is going to proclaim: ‘I Cannot be .Silent’? Where are you Christians, true Socialists, pacifists, writers, §.ocial workers? Why are you silent? Do you need proofs, testimonies, or witnesses, figures and statistics? Do you not hear the shouts for helpPOr perhaps you still believe that -human happiness may be attained by murder, violence and slavery?.

“This appeal is not addressed to those whose sympathies for the Bolsheviks have been bought with- money robbed from the Russian people. I, am addressing all those who still believe in a brotherhood of •men—religious people, Socialists, writers, social workers, mothers and wives. Open your eyes. Unite in a common protest against the tortures of a hundred and sixty millions 'of defenceless .Russian people!”