HORRORS OF RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 January 1920, Page 11

HORRORS OF RUSSIA.

THE BOLSHEVIK REGIME. WOMAN'S TERRIBLE STORY. Writing in an English paper a Russian woman tells a terrible story of life under Bolshevik rule:— When the Bolsheviks seized power I was on the way to the Caueusus. While 1 was at Uiatigorsk the banks were nationalised, capital was'confiscated, and a line was imposed on the town in the manner of the German army in Belgium in 1914.

Edicts were published forbidding the possession by any individual of a sum exceeding 500 roubles. Anybody keeping in his home of handing to the Soviet) jewels, plate, scrip, papers, etc., which he might possess was shot on the spot without trial. And be it noted that things deposited with Die Soviet were irremediably lost. The Bolsheviks published a law depriving all persons other than manual workers of the right to obtain food. ■ They obliged the inhabitants of the town to live nine in a moderate-sized room; if a family were less than nine, strangers were put in, often Red Guards. Two young married people, M. and Mme. Ribinzoff, found their apartments invaded, and three Red Guards in their little bedroom. They attempted gentle protest, and got the sneering reply: "Don't be afraid; you won't be in our way."

The originality of the Bolsheviks is marked in their ideas with regard to property. In fact, "property no longer exists."

A RUSSIAN'S HOUSE NOT HIS OA'STLE. Householders, nine times out of ten, Were expelled from their own houses and put into the street. A committee was established for each house from which the owner and all his family were expressly excluded; it consisted of tenants of apartments in the house, their servants, and the servants or employees of the owner. Sums due for rooms are decided by this committee, and the owner of the house was never given the right to claim one farthing of what was due to him. A word of complaint from any member of the committee was enough to get the owner of the house thrown into prison.

At 14, Avenue de la Liberte, at Piatigorsk, the owner of the house, M. Zipnloffert, was imprisoned, with his wife and hi.', two sons, and it was only by a miracle they escaped being shot. They paid over 25,000 roubles to the Bolsheviks, and all their furniture was confiscated.

Half-way through the summer the Bolsheviks imposed a fine on all houseowners, traders, and all other persons who appeared still to be in possession of anything.

Thousands of roubles were extracted fr6m shopkeepers and fruit-sellers. Three days were given for payment of fines, after which, if means were lucking, the defaulter was put in prison. A poor milk-aeller-—a woman with several young children—was imprisoned for inability to pay 5000 roubles.

MARRIAGES FOR SHORT PERIODS. Children were nationalised in several towns. Facilities were given for divorce, and religious marriage was abolished. Marriages are now arranged for three months, and occasionally for a year, but eeldom for a longer period. In any case, however, divorce is made extremely easy. At a later date the Bolsheviks circulated a new edict. Within three'jdays several thousand shirts, sheets, towels, boots, etc., were to be raised' for the Eed Guard. If the required number of articles were not furnished in a given time, every third person among the inhabitants was publicly shot. Apart from this, general searches of a most minute nature were ordered in every house in the town, and anyone found to have more than the authorised allowance was shot on the spot without trial. These authorised allowances consisted of one pillow, two sheets, two shirts, two suits, one overcoat, and one pair of shoes. It was forbidden on pain of death to accumulate foodstuffs. The result was that the Red Guards and all manner of bandits had everything in profusion, while the inhabitants went short.

Tiu> train was about to enter Kaikazknia Station, when the passengeftj were warned to be prepared for any eventuality, as horrible happenings were expected. The following is what occurred. The Red Guards, in hordes, had broken into the State depots of wines and spirits near the station, and the pillage and debauchery were nearing their climax. Crowds of the neighbouring population were pressing round tlie enormous tanks with buckets and jugs, fighting with fists and feet, and being thrust back by the bayonets of the Red Guard. Dead and dying wei'e trampled in the mud, and for kilometres round the groans and howls' of this infernal orgy coyld be heard.

INDESCRIBABLE SCENES. The Red Gaurds were, of course, the stronger, and had the better of it. An idea occurred to them; they placed planks across the top of tanks, jumped on them, and drank from there. Stones wc-re thrown at thein, with lio effect. Finally, someone dropped a matoh oil the spirits, which took tire. Nobody worried about this, .but the fire underneath caught the planks, and more than 40 Red Guards fell into the burning spirits. No one thought of attempting to help them, although to help them would have been difficult. But this horrible incident did not prevent the i;est of the crowd from throwing fresh planks across the tanks, and climbing on these and continuing to drink. The (lames spread to the other tanks; men caught fire and burned to death, running about in flames. . . . The scene was horrible and indescribable. Then some of these madmen seized a number of cattle that were at pasture' in the meadows behind the station, poured spirit of wine over them, and set fire, to the herd. Nothing can give any idea of the spectacle presented by these enormous living torches, uttering hallowing ,c v iBS in their agony