Evening star., 1920-04-11
RUSSIAN NTELL|GENz|A.
is FACING MORAL DEATH
Continued from First Page.)

oShoOAo " hO SuDSCQuChtiy ACho ~
s1tions in good universities. In
those days his worst enemy could
say nothing bad about him and his
honor was unquestioned. His for
mer friends and acquaintances are
surprised that he is able to main
tain his old standard of living.
However, those who know him
more intimately now say: His
division disposes of monthly
credit of two millions for building
and renovating purposes. If
tenth of that didn't stick some-
where he would have to be stupid,
or else have fallen on his head as
a baby!" Another at present a
contractor in the community. had
undertaken to tear down OLD
wooden houses for firewood, and
he earned 10000 roubles with ten
workmen a month. A third, for
mer officer in the guards. brought
it up to two millions in the course
of a few months, also as con-
tractor. saving old boats.
All these people. so-called boil
shevik, have, of course. not time
to do anything to undermine the
bolshevik. although when they are
together they talk OF nothing
else And there are many of this
kind, only too many!
But fortunately they are not all
SO skillful.
The bolshevik have created an
immense machinery of state. which
they guide with great ability.
Their organizing talent cannot,
alas, be denied. In order to carry
through all their nationalizations
and Registrations they require an
army of officials. In Petrograd
alone there are now about ten times
as many officials in the different
institutions as there were in all the
departments together before the
revolution. But to take a position
as an official. even with the bolshe-
wiki, one must at least be able to
read and write and sometimes a
little law, mathematics or knowl-
edge of engineering is also re-
quired The leaders Of the or
ganization very soon realized this
and therefore the elements which
they needed were drawn upon, and
either voluntarily or forcibly drawn
into work. SO it has come about
that actually every, one having a
certain amount of knowledge ana
training is serving in the different
commissariats (including those who
are secretly speculating as a side
calling).
OF ali the inhabitants Of the Rus
sian socialist federal soviet re-
public these are the ones who are
worst off. with the exception Of the
skillful gamblers among. them.
three months, grow tremendously.
and yet they do not suffice for the
bare necessities, Three thousand
roub1es as q monthly wage, and yet
a pair of boots costs 5000 and
cord Of wood 1000 roubles! So by
degrees clothes. furniture and ef-
fects wander out Of the former
aristocratic houses to new owners.
These are the soviet employees.
They are permitted to work. but
they are not trusted. Their coun-
ter-revolutionary tendencies are
well known. Each step is watched.
There is a. commissar in every DIS
trict who has to watch the work
and occupations of every employe.
and these employees who have
changed their former mode of liv-
every day to make a new compro-
mise with their conscience. Law
yers with deep-rooted ideas of
Jurisprudence are forced to make
laws which mock at every idea of
justice. Staff officers whose hearts
are secretly longing to join the
fighters of the white army issue
DEGREES for the organization of the
red army. They do this forcedly.
but they do 1t. and they loose their
self-respect thereby; they know
that they have sunk morally, that
they have become moral cripples,
who will gather themselves to-
gether with difficulty, in order to
become creative once more. They
are sacrifice to tho demoralizing
action of the system OF govern
ment.
Il r r 4
The bolsheviki have unnerved,
and weakened the Russian intelli-
genzia by means Of hunger and
the above-pictured Decentralization.
The daily blows to which they are
subjected have stolen their belief
in their own strength. their self
respect and elemental feeling OF
manhood. What inner strength
can survive in man who knows
that any moment he may be seized
and thrown into prison, and that
he may be subjected to blows and
abuse against which he is entire
ly helpless? His house is not even
his castle, for since months every
few days the doorbell rings in the
middle Of the night and rough
hands search in the letter box and
in the beds, without troubling
about sleeping women and chill
dren.
The knowledge alone that in
the whole country there is not a
corner where one can be safe from
such incursion into ones private
life, and that the whole country
is huge prison, from which there
is no escape, Is terrible. This con-
sciousness alone robs one of the
pride Of manhood, and one must
acknowledge that the bolshe-
Wiki have understood perfectly
when such was their intention to