Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1921-04-12
BY SIR PAUL DUKES.
Late Chief of British Secret IntelIi-
gence Service in Soviet
Russia.

Russia IS the land of contrasts, Of
the impossible! In what other coun-
Try OF the world could you imagine
so rapid, so lightning transtigura.
tlon from the pomp and splendor OF
an Imperial Court to the drab, col
llaGleSs= naonetony of "a Feminist
Soviet?
Or In what other country could a
political camarilla, numbering a few
hundreds, or at most thousands, in
a population of hundred and fifty
millions, re-estabish the rule OF
czarism in all its features except the
picturesque-eve basing their civil
power on the re-enlisted czarist po~
iice-and yet masquerade to an ig-
norant and beWildered world as a
government of workers and peas
ants?
Or where else could a regime
which denies free speech, free met
ings, and free elections, which sup
presses independent trade unionism,
which eXterminates free co-opera-
ton, pose as the Dictatorship of the
PrOletariat"?
The Russian people, the Russian
workers, call it among themselves
the dictatorship over the proletariat.
They say it is "czarism inside out"
Truly is Russia the country where
the impossible is not only possible,
but happens!
He will be daring prophet who
ventures into the realm of prognos-
tication with regard to things Rus
sian. l have lived in that country
IL years, have known people of
every class from the court to the
peasantry, when the czar fell | was a
revolutionist with the revolutionists,
| have seen two years of revolution
ary rule, yet l would consider my
self intrepid indeed if l dared to
predict with exactitude what the
future of Russia will be.
| leave that to tourists with no
knowledge of the Russian language
and as little of Russian ways and
customs, who accept Bolshevik hos
pitality for a week or two and then
come back and write books about 1T.
But since the new year there have
been one or two developments in the
Russian situation which are of sig
nificance and which throw some
light on the possibilities of the i'm
mediate future.
There was recently serious pop
ular revolt in Petrograd (the con-
tinuation of a long series) when an
attempt was made to compel the
Communists to alter their regime
and grant the liberties now denied to
Russian citizens.
The revolt was suppressed (aS
such revolts always will be) because
it was premature and because the
means of coercion, in the form of a
and unscruplous
police system, with regiments of for
egin hirelings, are all in the hands OF
the Government, whiel the one In
Russia is allowed to bear arms un-
less he be a professed Bolshevik.
But this outbreak, shortllved
though it was, compelled Lenin to
make a public declaration surren.
dering the fundamental principle of
the Communist dogma, the right OF
free trading between individuals.
The first principle of Communism
is the suppression of all private en-
terprise, individual initiative, and
personal ambition in business. This IS
the policy which Though it has
never been fully enforced) has re-
duced Russia to starvation. I
Lenin now even talks of conced
ing a small measure of independence
to the Cooperative Societies. that
GREAT democratic institution hated
by he Bolsheviks as being "capitaliS-
tic" but beloved of the people be-
cause it used to provide for their
needs chaaply.