Evening star., 1919-09-21
LSHEWST RULE
IN CONQUERED K|EV
Terrors of Period Covering
Revolution of 1917 and
Z. Changes That Followed.
by EDWARD PRICE BELL.
: Cable to The Star and Chicago
Daily News, Copyright, 1919.


- - Daily News, Copyright. 1919.
Stanley Graham Larminic, an Eng
iish teacher. who went to kiev in
the early part of 1917 to learn the
Russian language, has returned to
England with an extremely low opin-
ion of the bolsheviki ss political ce-
1txerers. Mr.. Larminic lived in kiev
living lessons in English. from just
after the outbreak of the revolution
until last June. He saw the OolShe-
Wiki come and go and come again.
He saw the bolsheviki and ukranians
At first cooperate and then quarrel.
He was in Kiev under two lombard
ments. and when severe fighting took
place in the streets.
,n "One of the first acts of the boil
aheviki in Kiev." said he to me, was
the slaughter in cold blood of sew
efaI hundred Russian officers, whose
Only crime was that they were 'bour-
Geois' and had fought for their coun-
try. These officers, who had no love
TOR the Ukranian chauvinists. had
not taken any part in the defense
OF Kiev against the bolsheviki. 1t
was said that 600 of them perished,
actual number. l myself saw num-
bers Of their bodies in a public park
where they had been shot.
,..;;'Going -; about the streets was dan
much as possible. Arbitrary arrests
tpok place. continually. The shops
were sacked and private houses were
broken into for loot by armed bolshe.
Wiki. Their will was their only law.
Finally they evacuated the city in
troops behind them. The Germans
ousted out the more or less demo-
cratic Ukpanians and put Hetman
Skoropadesky in power. They re-
nained until late in the autumn of
1918. causing the town to become gay
with. open shops, cafes and restau-
rants, all of which were crowded. Per-
feet order was kept and every German
soldier was on his good behavior.
German officers said openly that they
had made bolshevism following the
xtmistice. However. the German
troops became restless and were with
drawn from Ukrania.
..,'"rhen the Ukranians returned and
attempted to institute a system of
semi socialism, showing themselves
4rdently nationalistic and ordering all
shops to change their Russian signs
and names into Ukranin equivalents.
Vodka was reintroduced. every adult
neceiviEg a bottle a month for Is
Fubles $3.50. In February. 1919. the
Ukranians evacuated the city before
tie advancing bolsheviki. These COM
Wandered buildings, conscripted men
Htr the red army and sent bourgeois
DYER the military age to dig trenches
around the city. General demoraliza-
ton ensued. It 10 said of the bolshe-
vikf in Kiev nat If they won their
vay to the Black sea it would dry up.
Before the bolsheviki. really got into
their stride in Kiev the peasants and
Wofkmen welcomed. them, expecting
sreat advantages from their rule. All
6ouseholders. for instance, were ex-
pecting 5000 rubles ($2.500) each
Neil 81 avr1n orxyiff p
~. So unpopular did the bolsheviki
become that no unarmed man dared
openly declare himself to be one.
They prevailed solely. and because of
their arms.
Bolshevist Rule Defined.
.-Bolshevist rule is military die
taforshfp Of the crudest kind. They
carried out house-to-house searches
fSr firearms until nobody could
fight them except with bare fists.
They helped themselves to every
thing available and let the civilian
population go without; They The .dnS not
only In sSsT TSs PSsoms Suppressed o all
Newspaper but their own. and all
free speech except bolshevist free
speech.
Leon Trotsky. however, had a
lively time in Kiev while addressing
the workmen. They heckled him and
made him very angry. On leaving ne
said the town was like radish-red
outside. but white inside. BEFORE
the bolsheviki came food was dear,
but obtainable. The newcomers put
=; ring of troops around the town and
.tohibited any one from bringing food
axcept for them. They closed all the
shops, took over the hotels and forced
the restaurants to shut up. except
those reserved for people with DOL
shevist food cards.
s.Tn q word. bolshevism in Kiev
meant everything for the bolsheviki
and nothing for any one else. II
pod were holshevist, they loved you;
81 you were not. they murdered you.
8 No candidate was eligible in soviet
election unless his bolshevism were
beyond dispute. They would not call
. free parliament because they knew
that, 1t would be overwhelmingly
against them.
Sahot without Shadow Of Reason.
mot only Russian officers. but other
people were arrested and shot for no
understandable reason. A nephew OF
the Swiss consul. whose house over
looked the courtyard of the ex-
traordinary commissions headquarters.
heard shooting again and again at
night and told me that in the morn
ing he found the courtyard coVeIeo
with blood-always, of course, the
blood of political prisoners. These
were kept at place outside the town
and brought in to the extraordinary
commission to be executed Ordinary
criminals were shot offhand. Every
bourgeois was compelled to pay fine
OF anything between 1000 and 100000
rubles (s500 and $500.000). Since the
banks were not paying checks were
valueless. yet the penalty for inabil-
ity to pay was arrest
Like everything else the bolsheviki
touched. industry and transportation
went to pieces. have never before
seen or imagined such social confu-
sion, prostration and misery as boil
shevism brought to Kiev. And 1t can
not be borne in mind too sharply that
the bolsheviki owe their strength in
Kiev, and wherever they WELD
strength. not to the active support of
the people and not even to the apathy
Of the people, but solely to the bayo-
rets Of their standing armies"