RUSSIAN REVOLUTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 May 1919, Page 7

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION.

ATROCITIES TN PETRQGHAD. WOMEN'S EKARFOL TRIALS. Among the soldiers' wives who-landed ■in Auckland from the lonic last week were several who had themselves seen .and known from actual experience the horror of invasion and riot and bloodshed. One of these was Mrs. 0. Benge, wife of Seigcant-Major Benge, of Wellington, and daughter of General Tarbeef, of the Russian Imperial Guards. .Mrs. Benge, still in her teens, lived in •Petrograd until August, 1017, and her story, told yesterday in vivid manner and quaint, broken English, was one of thrilling interest. * Some time before the revolution, General Tarbeef had been despatched; to Salonika in charge of a Russian division there, his only son being also stationed there. The effects of the war, said Mrs. Benge, had, of course, made themselves felt keenly in Petrograd, but up to the time of the revolution nearly all commodities had been obtainable, though at high prices. Events moved afterwards with tragic swiftness, however. For a short time after the abdication of the' Tsar it seemed as though the great revolution had been accomplished without any of the awful tragedy of that of the French, but very soon the revolutionaries adopted more violent methods. All the streets were patrolled by large bodies of soldiers. "Oh, it seemed so strange," exclaimed the speaker, "the rifles, the bayonets, all pointed as you walked. So people stayed at home out of danger."

TERRIBLE MURDERS COMMITTED.

But soon rioting and bloodshed broke out in the army, and there was terrible slaughter of the Russian officers by the soldiery, who became more violently Bolshevik as the doctrines of Lenin, and Trotsky gained sway. A great number of General Tarbeefs fellow officers and Monarchist friends were killed, "and that would most certainly have been my father's fate had he been in Petrograd," said Mrs. Benge. "Our household was in great peril, but our soldier-servants were loyal, and kept us safe even when our friends were murdered. Then at last the rebels attacked our house, and we fled to Moscow, my mother and I, taking only our jewels and a few valuables."

When the Kerensky party came to power, she continued, conditions were less violent for a little while, and the refugees returned to Petrograd. They found the house utterly wrecked, furniture, doors, and windows smashed, and everything of value stolen by the Bolsheviks. Very soon signs of still worse times ahead grew terribly threatening, and every effort was made by Mme. Tarbeef and her daughter to get out of the country.

BETRAYAL OF HER COUNTRY.

All efforts proved fruitless, however, and the position grew more desperate daily. Finally, escape was rendered possible through the intervention of the French Government. Mrs. Benge's. brother had been stricken with serious illness at Salonika, and had been invalided tq Nice, Southern France. On the groirad of his serious condition, permission was granted to his mother and sister to visit him, and with an escort ,*6f three French officers they set out on their long journey, via Norway, Sweden, and England, to France. Here they were joined later by General Tarbeef, who also had been invalided from Salonika. Describing further the terrible upheaval which had swept away so many of her friends, Mrs. Benge spoke passionately of the betraval of her country by Lenin and Trotsky, "traitors in the pay of Germany!" she declared. She told of the mysterious journey of Lenin from Switzerland to Petrograd shortly after the revolution, in a "blinded" train, and the wonder of the Russians that he had been allowed by the Germans to come. The Bolshevik movement was spoken of with horror; its ideals had been hopelessly lost in the mad struggle for power and greed and blood-lust, It had cowed the whole country through fear. After the revolution, the peasants on large estates owned by General Tarbeef, in Central Russia, had seized the property, and thus became possessed of large quantities of grain and foodstuffs. They were forbidden to sell this to the people, however, and those who did so were severely punished, or even killed, as the Bolsheviks would not allow the food to reach the cities.

FAITH IN THE FUTURE. At the time of the signing of the urmistiee, said Mrs. Benge, the Russian division in France was demobilised, but the men refused to return to their country, and large numbers of them joined the Foreign Legion. But better times were in store; just before the speaker .left France a special envoy reached Pris from a Russian general fighting the Bolsheviks, for the purpose of seeking aid from the French Government and re-forming the division to return and fight their country's betrayers "We shall yet be free again," cried the Russian girl. "They cannot crush Russia, in spite of all they have done, because the true spirit some day will live again in the hearts of the people, and there is great wealth untouched."