New-York tribune., 1919-10-20
NeW York Tribune
Foreign Press Bureau

Foreign Press Bureau
TIME reported capture of PetrograI
by the forces of General Yude-
mitch at the head of the army O
the so-called Northwestern government
Of Pskov is-if confirmed tie mos.
notable success so far achieved in the
anti-Bolshevik "crusade." 1t would
come as the climax of series of de-
feats which may cost the Soviet regime
it's very existence. On at least five
fronts the enemies of Bolshevism were
reaping victories during the last two
or three weeks, their respective ad-
vances converging toward the central
portion of the former empire now under
Lenine's sway. From the north the
Archangel troops making good progress
along the Vologda railroad in the
northwest Finnish army in strong
position on Lake Ladoga; Petrograd
menaced and apparently taken by Yude
mitch closing down from the east; the
Poles on the Dvina and in the Pripet
Marshes; finally, Denikine steam
rolling on the Orel highroad due south
of Moscow; at no time was the balance
of operations so favorable to the anti
Red forces, and the days of the Soviet
regime seem to be counted.
One gap, however, occurs in this anti
Bolshevik semicirc!e, or, rather, three
quarter circle (for the line has the
shape, approximately, of a Moorish
rather than q Roman arch). 1t is in
the South Russian governments Of
Chernigov and Kursk, where Petlura's
Ukrainian nationalist army, although
vehemently anti Bolshevik, is at odds
both with the Poles on its western and
Denikine on its eastern flank The
difficulty with the Poles consists in the
licia, awarded by the peace conference
to Poland, but claimed by the Ukrain-
lans on the basis of an overwh Ginning
racial majority in their favor. With
Denikine the outstanding disagreement
is still more vital, for the Ukranians
are convinced that the succe sful Cos
sack general is striving for the restora-
tion of a united centralistic Russia
which would mean the end of the
Ukrainian claim to independence. The
fact that Denikine holds Kiev, their
capital, hardly predsposes the Ukrain-
ians in his favor. Moreover, even if an
accord could be reached between Pet
lura on the one hand and the Poles an,
Denikine on the other, the unity of the
front would still remain incomplete
inasmuch as the Poles are almost more
afraid of Denikine than of the Bolshe-
Wiki, and certainly more afraid of him
than of the Ukrainians.
In the mean time Cronstadt-reputed
to be, with Helgoland, the strongest
naval fortress in the world-has capitu-
lated to the besieging British feet.
This is practically. if not sentimentally,
a success equal to the fall of Petro-
grad, for it brands the British domina-
tion of the Baltic, so to speak, with the
stamp OF finality.
BY taking Cronstadt the British have
undoubtedly helped the cause of Yude-
mitch ana the PsKov government 1t is,
however, d dcbatab g question whether
by taking Petrograd Yudenitch has
helped the cause OF the British or that
of somebody else, for here we are con-
fronted with one Of the most intricate
questions of the European situation
the question, Who is who in the
Baltic?
1t would seem. after all, that those
observers are right who argue that the
key to the Rus ian problem -stratcgi-
cally, at least-lies, not in Omsk or
Rostov- Don, the capitals of
kolchak and Denikine, respectively, but
in the Baltic littoral, for the Baltic is
Russia's western gate-and that means
an entrance not only for British and
American and French trade and in