The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1917-08-09
$4,000 SPIES KEPT
RUSSIA In TURMOIL
Amazing System of state Provoca-
ton To Crime Revealed by The
Reyolution-Held Gar Terr0riEeA

Zttf stifit' iSti!
] Ietrograd, June 80. (Corresp pond
ence of The Associated Press. -
: Thirty-three long lists of spies. in
/ formers, and agents proyocateurs in
! eX-Emperor Nicholas pay have been
/ published by the Commission for Sc
curing the New System Of Govern
ment appointed by the Provisional
Government Immediately after the
revolution. Fifty more lists may be
expected. The total number of these
secret DICTIONARIES of autocracy is eX-
pected to reach 10000. Those whose
guilt is beyond doubt have ebeen put
| in jail; but it is not yet settled whe-
! Their they will be tried and punished
! or merely kept in Jail until all peril
! of 4 reactionary cOunter-reyolution
has passed.
| The commiSsion's reports depict
precisely the same system OF espion
! age and state prOvOcation to crime as
| tiOurished in Turkey under Abdul
! Hamid ii. The distinction is that
Abdul Hamid ran his spy and pro-
vocation system directly from the
! YildiZ Kiosk, whereas Nicholas in
! trusted his system to the notorious
-1khLannoe- Qtdielenie. ;, or -Securi-
| y Department, which occupied & Dig
btilding in the Basil Ostrov district.
! The first act of the triumphant
reVolutionarieS was to seize the Sc
! curity Department 5 secret papers.
Many of these were burned in bon
fires outside the building. The more
precious documents, especially those
relating to the State organization of
crime, had been kept in safes, and
they escaped destruction. The reyo-
lutionaries also seized tens of thou
sands of secret records in the depart
ment's provincial offices, and from
| these, backed by confessions of i'm
prisoned spies, are being compiled
the lists. The lists will be followed
by tiVe-volume official History OF
Espionage Under Nicholas H."
As revealed by these inquiries, au-
tocracy'S spies and informers were
much less picturesque ana romantic
than they appear in the typical Nj
hilist novel" Most belonged to the
more intelligent working class or to
the minor bourgeoisie They were
paid badly, the average wage for or
ganizing political crime or betraying
accomplices being $40 a month The
spies were usually instructed to be-
come members of secret revolution
airy or terrorist organizations, among
these being the Social Democratic
Party, the Social Revolutionaries
with their Fighting Committee, 'the
Popullst Socialists, and the MaXimal-
lists. On nearly every newspaper was
at least one spy. The spies took part
IN committee meetings, melted to
breach of the political repression
laws or TO actual crime, and kept the |
Security Department we'll informed. |
Every spy had a 'klitchka," or !
nickname, by which he was known /
TO the police. The departments rec |
ords bristle with such nick-names as !
Fatty, Longnose, Sunday Boy, Ele- |
plant. and Arsenic. The spy had al !
so two CT three faxed Surnames, and /
he often changed his town and name
when he fell under the revolution
aries suspicion. Many spies and in
formers (ike the famous Father Ga
pom, whose treachery on Bloody Sun |
day. 1905, led to his being hanged by |
a revOlutiOnist engineer were at |,
one time genuine reVolutiOnarieS and /
became later hetrayers and inform
arS. (,
Some seem to have served both
sides honestly and earned the ap-
prevail of both, and some do not seem
o have known which side they sym
oathized with. a notable case is
Trukhanoff real name Nikitin.
nickname "Perky''-who aroused /
he suspicion of his terrorist com
AIDES. was threatened by them with
execution. and 10 rehabilitate him
self was obliged 10 kill the gendarme
officer Wit hwhOm he collaborated.
The murder of Grand Duke Sergus in
Ioscow in 1905 was due to the same
motive.
In violation of the Ninlllst mover
tradition, very few women were EN-
loyed as spies or informers, but a
eW noted cases have been exposed.
n Moscow three sisters named Palit-
in betrayed scores of workmen. af-
er getting confessions from them by s
love
The commissions lists show that
he department was a hard taSkmas-
ar In addition to paying its spies
ably, it spied upon them Every
ecurity Department record contains
note of the spy's history Some are i
escribed as moderately good" 9th
rs as indifferent" others as having n
betrayed many reVolutionaries. -"
theirs as energetic, but unreliable" y
nd others as doubtful, should be n
atched." n