WOMAN'S ORDEAL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 599, 2 August 1933, Page 7

WOMAN'S ORDEAL

watched by ogpu and forced constantly to report FEAR OF "BLACK CROW." Her eyes still reflecting the terrible hardships endured for two years in Russia, Mr. S. Hrutzky, an Austra-lian-horn woman, who married a Russian, was the happiest person to leave the P. and O. steamer Ballarat on its arrival at Brisbane recently. She was accompanied by her husband and three l daughters. Mr. Hrutzky, who went to Queensland ahout 20 years ago, felt the urge to return t0 Rftssia about two years j ago, and left with his wif e and childj ren. They lived in Leningrad, where he was engaged as a cabinetmaker. The standard of living in Leningrad, according to Mrs. Hrutzky, was very low, and the cost very high'. Her husband was receivingA.200 rouhles a month, or ahout £10 English money, hut even that was not sufficient to keep the family in the ordinary comforts of life. Meat was 15 rouhles a lb, and most of the time this was j horseflesh. Sugar was equivalent to I 7s a lb, and white bread, such as was j known in Australia, was never seen. j The hro'Wn bread that was sold was I neither palatahle nor sustaining. Scarcity of Clothing. j Clothes, said Mrs. Hrutzky, were I sold at prohibitive prices, and although | she had searched the city she had ; been unable to purchase a pair of silk stockings. Hundreds of communal houses had been erected in Leningrad, and in these the people had to live, bound hy strict laws that were rigidly enforced. Failure to observe these meant instant eviction. The houses were four to five storey high and each accommodated about 1000 people. She and her husband and three children were allowed two rooms and a communal kitchen, and for this they had to pay 75 rouhles a month. When Mrs. Hrutzky first arrived in Leningrad she was looked upon with the greatest suspicion and treated with contempt, and for many months was unable to obtain rations, because she was not a Russian. After intervention by the British Consulate she was permitted hy the authorities to purchase 600 grammes of bread a day (hout half a loaf) and one pound of macaroni a month, and even there wa.s no certainty of receiving that meagre fare. Reporting to the Ogpu. Mrs. Hrutzky was forced constantly to report to the Ogpu, and that organisation never for an instant ceased to watch her movements while she wasl in Leningrad. The Ogpu had a habit of forcing people they did not wish to he in eertain neighbourhoods to leave at midnight. Any criticism of the officials of the Ogpn was eertain, to bring about a visit of the "Black Crow," the name given to the conveyance used hy the Ogpu to transport people from place to place. It was stated hy Mrs. Hrutzky that she had seen husbands dragged away from their wives and wives from their husbands, and no one knew or would ever know} where they had gone. Raids of this nature were as sudden as they were unexpected and none da.re defy the Ogpu. Mrs. Hrutzky said that sh'e and her husband would settle in Queensland.