How Russians Get News of War

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 306, 28 December 1939, Page 7

How Russians Get News of War

“LIKE A FILM SCENARIO” LONDON, Dec. 5. Russia ’a propaganda machine, which is hiding the true nature of the attack on Finland from the Russian people, is dealing with the reporting of the war as if it were handling r giant film scenario. A corps of official writers, including the official dramatist, M. Virta, is already at the front. Reporting this Russian way of liberation, M. Virta writes: “They lay landmines and shoot from trees. Our Red soldiers cry: ‘Shoot, you filthy snakes,' as they bring them toppling down.” Like all other “literary collectives,” officially reporting the war, M. Virta is lyrical about the w’ay in which the Finns are “annihilated by hurricanes of metal.”

Another Soviet author jocularly describes Russia’s aerial bombs as “ Yoioshiloff’s telegrams which rained down on the heads of the enemy as soon a> the Finnish staff was starting off. ’ The Moscow correspondent of the Daily Telegraph states: “These writers are not reporting the real war. The Russian public is still left in u4er ignorance of Finland’s ready, national resistance. They are led to believe that the Red Army, for the sake of th< Finnish people, is liquidating a petty gang of Finnish militarists who dared to provoke ‘mighty Russia.'

“They believe that there is a vu't popular movement of revolution against the Helsinki Government led by the Red Government set up by the Kremlin under the guns of the grim island fort ress of Kronstadt.”