The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1921-11-10
sovIET's wANToN WASTE
German COlOny's Death Agony
VOlga Horrors
Riga. Oct. Is.

hlBds OCI- To-
When the Bolshevist Commissioned,
Kalinin, returned to Moscow after his
recent visit to the famine area, he re-
ported that the population of the Ger
man Volga Colony was amongst the
hardest hit. This week 1 have been
able to see a good deal of number of
newly arrived refugees from this col
Ony, and to hear from them the story
of the great disaster which has come
upon them. l talked with Volga Ger
man peasants, priests, schoolmasters
and doctors. These men, and some
hundred thousand of their German
feHOw-colOnists, were called to the
Russian colours in 1914 and in the
following years, and so, curiously
enough, were our Allies in the Great
War. e@
We have grown used to tragedies
which befall whole nations, but when
all the suffering of the century is
chronicled, the martyrdOm of the Ger
man Volga Colony will deserve a
chapter to itself.
eve don't know much about this
colony in England" 1 said to Ger
man doctor from Weimar by the
VOlga. Il for one had no idea that
there was little town called Weimar
not far from Astrakhan! Tell me,
how did you all get to that part of the
world in the first placer"
cover a hundred and fifty years
ago." said the doctor, "our ancestors
were invited by Katherine the Great
to go to the Volga country and till
the local steppes! They went and did
very well indeed at this new job of
steppe-farming. In the middle of
last century a second colony was
formed, and when the war broke out
we numbered pretty nearly million
souls"
What did you do during the
war;" asked
Fear of Expulsion
1--WE did what we were told, and /
went where we were told, just like all
the other subjects of the Tsar. We
fought shoulder to shoulder with our
Russian comrades for three years. 1t
is true that We were looked upon with
good deal Of suspicion in some quar-
tiers. There was tendency to send
us to the Caucasus TO fight the Turks
rather than to the Austro-German
front. Towards the end of the war
Russian national feeling ran pretty
high, and there was a rumour that we
were all to be driven away to Turk
estan, and that our fertile land would
then be divided up between Russian
peasants, who, as soldiers, had earned
the st. Georges Cross"
''Such rumours must have made
you very anxious" l said.
Eyes, indeed. You see," went on
the doctor, 1.-The peasants had been
keen on owning land themselves for
long time, and there was a strong
movement in favour of rewarding
those who had shown special merit at
the front, and of rewarding them at
our expense. OF course the Tsarist
Government was 10th to take away a
single dessiatin of land from Russian
landowners. Our land, too, was
peculiarly desirable. Things were
looking rather black for US when the
Kerensky Revolution came"
''How did the Kerensky Revolution
affect you German colonists,' asked.
AT first, we were inclined to look
upon it as the browning mercy of
God" said the doctor. 'To begin
with, there was no more talk of ex-
pulsion; then, too, self-determination
was now the order of the day, and
our colony became practically autono-
nous. We rubbed our hands, and
elected our delegates for little Ger
man Constituent Assembly at Saratoff
which at once began to legislate as to
the manner born. The German Ian
gauge was introduced into our schools
law courts, and public offices. Every
thing was going swimmingly, but IN
October the Bolshevist Revolution
came"
"And what happened them"
''Wen, We rose to the occasion, and
determined to take on the colour Of
our surroundings in a supreme at
tempt to preserve our newly-found
autonomy. Nothing daunted we set
up a Soviet which elected Commit
tee of rather scratch COmmonists.
We then at once sent delegates to
Moscow, and finally secured our
recognition as q German Workers
Community to promote Socialist Gull