Tsar's Secret Service Unmasked.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 8 November 1917, Page 1

Tsar's Secret Service Unmasked.

Thirty-three long lists of spies, informers, and agents provocateurs in exEmperor Nicholas's pay have been published by the commission for securing the new system of government, appointed by the Provisional Government immediately after the revolution. Fifty more lists may bo expected.

The total number of these secret legionaries of autocracy is expected to reach 80,000. Those whose guilt is beyond doubt have been put in gaol, but it is not yet settled whether they will be tried and punished or merely kept in gaol until all peril of a reactionary counter-revolution has passed. The commission's reports depict precisely the same system of espionage and State provocation to crime as flourished in Turkey under Abdul Hamid 11. The distinction as that Abdul Hamid ran month. The spies were usually instructed to become members of secret revoluliis spy and provocation system directly betraying accomplices being 20dol a from the Vildiz Kiosk, whereas Nicholas entrusted his system to the notorious "Okhrannoe Otdielcnic," or security department, which occupied a big building in the Basil Ostrov district. SECRET PAPERS SEIZED. The first act of the triumphant revolutionaries was to seize the security department's secret papers. Many of these were burned in bonfires outside the building. The more precious documents, especially those relating to the State organisation of crime, had been kept in safes, and so escaped destruction. The revolutionaries also seized tens of thousands of secret records in the department's provincial offices, and from these, backed by confessions of imprisoned spies, the lists are being compiled. The lists will be followed by a live-volume official 'History of Espionage under Nicholas 11. > x\s revealed by these inquiries, autocracy's spies and informers were much less picturesque and romantic than they appear in the typical "Nihilist novel." Most belonged to the more intelligent working class or to the minor bourgeoisie. They were paid badly, the average wage for organising political crime or tionary or terrorist organisations, among these being the Social Democrat party, the Social Revolutionaries with their "Fighting Committee," the Populist Socialists and the Maximalists. On nearly every newspaper was at least one spy. The spies took part in committee meetings, incited to breach of the political repression laws or to actual crime and kept the security department well-informed. NICKNAMES FOR SPIES. Every spy had a "klitcha" or nickname by which he was known to the police. The department's records bristle with such nicknames as "Fatty," "Longno.se," "Sunday Boy," "Elephant." and "Arsenic." The spy had also (wo or three faked surnames, land he offen changed his (own and names when, he fell under the revolutionaries' suspicions. Many spies and informers —■ like the famous Father Gapon, whose treachery on "Bloody Sunday," 190.1 led to his being hanged by a revolutionist engineer—were at one time genuine revolutionaries, and became later betrayers and informers. Some seem to Save served both sides honestly and earned the approval of both, and some do not seem to have known with .which side they sympathised. A notable case is "TrukhanonfF," real name Nikitin, nickname "Perky," who aroused the suspicion of his terrorist, comrades, was threatened by them with execution, and to rehabilitate himself was obliged to kill the gendarme officer with whom he collaborated. The murder of Grand Duke Sergius in Moscow in February, 1905, was due to the same motive. The organisation of crime, with the aim of discrediting non-terrorist political associations and frightening Nicholas into repression went on on a great scale. For blood money of 150dol a mechanic was hired by the department to fire at General Djunkowsky, Governor of Moscow, but lie was instructed to be sure to miss. He executed his instructions precisely, but through carelessness killed a passer-by. PEW WOMEN EMPLOYED. In violation of the Nihilist novel tradition ,a few women were employed as spies or informers, but a few noted cases have been exposed. In Moscowthree sisters named Palitsin betrayed scorcs of workmen, after getting confession from them by means of simulating love. The commission's list showthat the department was a hard taskmaster. In addition to paying its spies badly, it spied on them. Every security department record contains a note on the spy's history. Some as described as "moderately good," others as "indifferent," others as having "betrayed many revolutionaries,'' others as "energttic but unreliable," and others as "doubtful, should be watched."