Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-06-16
BACK FROM RUSSIA
Woman Journalist Has Remarkable
Adventures In Red Land.
She WENT In "BY The BACK DOOR"
Mrs. Margaret E. Harrison Spent
Eighteen Months In the Country,
Ten Of Them In Prison--Tells Story
of Actual Conditions In Land of the
Ill

Bolsheviks. -,..sa I.s5 d.
When in July, 1921, certain Ameri-
can prisoners were released from the
Soviet prisons as Hoover sine qua
non of American relief measures, there
stepped forth from the NovensSi Dris-
on in Moscow the curious figure, of, a
woman-her Sex scarcely discernible at
first glance She was clad in an ex-
ccedingly dirty khaki suit, in mans
pongee shirt, a cap made from the tan
of the same shirt, and pair of mems
shoes retrieved from a Red Cross con-
Il ibution. 1t was Mrs. Marguerite e.
Harrison, American newspaper woman
and representative of theHAssociated
Press, who had grape vined her way
across the Polish frontier into 1.-the
heart OF Russia some eighteen months
previously for the purpose of Studying
first hand the workings of the Soviet
government and it's social order, and TO
try to find out and tell the world the
truth about conditions there as they
might be disclosed TO the eyes OF
trained journalist with no axes to
grind and no political or sentimental
propaganda to peddle.
1t was a remarkable undertaking FOR
woman to venture upon, in the mid
die OF Russian winter, alone. and
without official protection from her
own >country-though the latter per-
haps would have availed her little. But
she accomplished her purpose-wo-
mans wit and American audacity car
lted her through. Officially. she had
been repeatedly admonished that the
thing couldn't be done, so she did 1t.
She saw the machine and the gods OF
the machine. She saw where the
heels were going around and where
they stopped. Ten months she spent in
Soviet prisons, where she had rare op-
portunitics of studying the social fab
ric from beneath as we'll as it's super
structure She suffered unimaginable
contacts and privations, but came out
Of il all with no resentments, no per-
s.ons. Her job was to see things and
she saw what was to be seen and she
brought to her day'c work, wherever
she was, an observation that was wide
and acute and femininely intuitive.
Her story told in a volume recently
published by George H. Doran conpa-
ny, New York, under the title Ma
rooned in Moscow" is merely as rec
ord Of human experience, intensely
dramatic and as a record Of sociolog-
ical studies, impartially and penetFa-
lively made, unusually Informative
and of fascinating interest.
In her book Mrs. Harrison. makes no
defense of anyone or anything-neith-
er does she attack either man or instl-
tLtions. She tells merely what she
saw in that Kaleidoscope blur Of social
and political elements through which
the Russian people are struggling to-
wards still haZy ideals Of representa-
tive government. After her expert
eLces, 81 believe" she writes, that /
know the heart Of Russia, and no one
in these troublous times Of transition
can ever know it unless he lives with
the Russian people both in and out OF
prison. l had gained 4 just perspect-
i've and | felt that understood all that
is good and all that is bad and all that
is historically inevitable in the great
upheaval which is in spite of every
thing, undermining Russia" At the
end of her story she adds chapter OF
her own conclusions, which she leaves
to the reader to accept or reject in the
light of her narrative. E
In "By the Back Door," ~ 9.Ht
Her mode of entry into Russia was
simple in its boldness. She went in, as
she says, "by the back door" Reach
ing Warsaw in midwinter, at time
when a state Of war was existing be-
tween Poland and Russia, she was re-
fused a permit to cross the border,
talked n tentative permit out Of anoth-
er division officer who warned her OF
the great risks she was taking, and
then-here is the way she tells tt
passed through the Polish lines into
No Mans Land and gave myself up to-,
the first Red Army patrol. BY this
means | succeeded two weeks later, IN
reaching Moscow, where / stayed for
eighteen months, during which l was
twice arrested by the Checka, living
for six months under surveillance and
for nearly ten months in prison"
Even in this border war zone she en-
countered the efforts of the Soviet gov
ernment to function, in n school and
hospital. In the school there were
three class rooms with about thirty
pupils. The benches had been knock
ed together from boards, with log sup
ports. The blackboards were home B.
made and the pupils were doing their
exercises on sheets of wrapping paper,
cut the required size, with pencils that
had been divided into three to make
them go around. In the hospital, a
we'll arranged building with light, airy
wards, each containing twenty beds,
there was not a piece Of linen, a yard
of surgical dressing, a pound Of soap.