New-York tribune., 1921-08-21
Says Aid W ont
Reach Millions
In Volga Area
DIR. Lodygensky, Non-Soviet
Director of Russian Ded
Cross, Asserts TRANSPORT
Lack VIII Prove Fatal
Disease Fells Refugees
Famine Crisis, He Declares,
Is Paralyzins Industries
Throughout the Country

fARlS, Aug. 20.-Amld the confusion
Of vague, conflicting and fragmentary
reports on famine conditions deep in
the interior of Russia, there came to-
day from DR.. Georges Lodygensky,
leading on-Soviet director Of the Rus
sian Red Cross, just arrived from Rus
sia, what appears to be one of the
sobcrest and most authentic descrip-
tions that yet has been given.
Despite the combined efforts of the
world toward relief, now being or
ganized, DR.. Lodygensky believes there
is not the slightest hope of saving at
least seven million pitiful souls making
up the hordes which are now milling
aimcssly about in the dcsert-likc Volga
, 1t is entirely matter of transporter
tion, which has irreparably broken
down SO far as these districts are con-
cerned, says this official.
Regardless of the quantities of food
which will eventually be available in
other parts of Russia, declares DR..
Lodygc cnsky, ways and means of pene-
trating this eastern area never can be
organized in time to save the great mi
grating mass, fleeing like lost man in
the woods, in circles, pursued by the
inevitable attendants Of famine
scurvy, typhus and NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
everything and leaving behind a trail
OF corpses which they do not even at
tempt to bury.
Paralyzing All Russia
The saving Of the majority of the
millions Of others within reasonable
reach of succor can be accomplished
through the prompt application cf
plans outlined in the United States
and at Geneva and Paris in the last
fortnight, DR.. Lodygensky believes
The famine crisis is paralyzing ali
Russia, Dr. Lodygensky says, and Rus
sia's terrible famine Of 1891 cannot be
compared with the ore now ravaging
her. In 1891, the Czarist government
was able in n comparatively brief time
to shit stocks of grain over the work
able railroads and by river, but not
withstanding those favorable condi-
tions the task Of feeding 10000, 900 per
sons and supplying them with seed
grain for the next planting proved
next TO impossible
This new crisis cannot be exagger-
ated, says the Red Cross official. It
covers greater area, affects larger
number of illitcrate people who fai! to
understand any element of their plight
except hunger, and wander aimlessly
IN vast masses, after the fashion of the
migrating tribes Of the Middle Ages,
which complexities the already dcsper-
a.e situation.
Hopeless Refugees Overrun Country
The country is overrun with these
homeless, hopeless refugees.
The civil war in Russia, according
to DR.. Lodygensky, coming after the
heavy, strain of the World War pre-
vented the reorganization Of the coun-
try's shattered economic system. Thus
Russia for three years has suffered
from shortage Of food and the rayaces
OF disease until it is debilitated to an
extent which could hardly be realized
even in the countries of Europe. which
were deva stated by the World War
hundreds Of thousands of starving
cmlgranta are still headed toward the
central and western provinces of Euro
peah huss'a' but it will be impossible
10 keep them there. Relief must find
them wherever they happen to be whe,,
tne relief arrives, except those in far
dlstrlcts to which aid never can como
! in time ~0'''e
lmpenetrable to Any succor
=. DR.. ,Lodygensky confirmed REPORTS
that the areas most affected by the
asmlne are the hitherto fertile regions
o. o. european Russia, mainly Samara and
H;efatov, ;n, which formerly supplied the
'noos.rlaI olstrlcts of Moscow and Pet
rograd. 1t is this area which he he-
lieves will be impenetrable to anv k;nd
OF succor ""S Ni''o
the borders OF Rumania and Poland
., put the mann bodies are unable to keen
tnelr bearings and must move in cir
clcs until death brings them down
10 feed the millions in the Volea re-
glon alone it would be necessary to i'm
poft roughly more than four billion
pounds OF food, quantity equivalent
20 % nan the Soviet acquisitions for all
Russia used to feed the Red soldiers
and workers. This will be human
lmpossibility. ''''
Industries Close Everywhere
Industries are closing down everv-
where IN Russia. The famine manic
mas brought river transport of wood
ana q, 1uel materials to standstill.
Inc railroad transport system was
~~~N ~ anu V1ltUdliy unWOrkQEia in
many districts under normal condi-
tlons. The great mining regions. in-
Guiding Donetz, together with the oil
fields Of Baku and Grozny, are slow|v
being paralyzed.
DR.. Lodygensky is a Russian intel
lectual of the old school. His do
scription of conditions is bearing moro
weight here tnan the fragmentary and
contradictory reports which have come
from Soviet sources, which paint ter
rible pictures one day and erase them
the next. DR.: Lodygensky declines to
criticize the Soviet regime for obvious
reasons. 80
Authentic reports from Poland are
that the Polish authorities who are
exporting grain into Russia are quiet
~ deporting the Russians who have
slipped into the country, allowing none
except those of Polish nationality to
cross the border
Slaughter of Masses Reported
The French press is full of sensa-
tlonai reports from Russia. For OK
ample LIntransigeant published to-dav
long dispatch from its correspondent
IN Moscow. which declared that
columns of troops, composed Of
A