The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1922-10-19


Of Modern Russia-ConfiscatIo OF
Church Treasures 10 Cause OF
TroubIe-WItnesses Who Came to
Give Evidence for Accused Arc Ar
rested-Eriends Are Shut Out.
The trial and execution of Arch
bishop Benjamin, metropolitan or
! Petrograd, is a red page In the history
Of modern Russia. 1t is not every day
that an archbishop is hailed to prison,
tried as a criminal and shot as con-
Wet. | was, so far as l am aware,
the only foreign writer in Petrograd
at the time of the trial. Here Is the
story as | learned and saw it, writes
| f. A. Mackenzie in the Chicago Daily
! News:
The archbishop and large number
| of his advisers and supporters were
arrested in May, and brought to open
trial in the hall of the old Mobiles
club In Petrograd, the trial starting
on June IL.
Among the prisoners were the arch
mandrite Sergei the bishop of Kron-
stadt, the deans Of Petrograds three
cathedrals, st. Isaac's, Kazan and the
Troitsky, Prof. Novitsky, a famous
lawyer and chairman of the church
council, the Rev. Prof. Ognieff Shein,
former member of the duma and some
three-score others Altogether as dis
tinguished a group of men as you
could find, even in Petrograd the intel
lectual capital of Russia.
Resisted DEGREES Of Soviet
The prisoners had conspired to re
sist the DEGREES of the soviet govern
ment When the authorities Informed
Monsignieur Benjamin that the church
treasures were to be taken for famine
relief he replied In q formal docu-
ment in which he asked three things
Q) proof that the money could not
be raised in any other way, (2) guar
antees that the money should not be
used for any other purpose than fam
inc relief, and (3) that the consent
of the patriarch In Moscow should be
obtained. He added to his offense by |
at once publishing this document.
He was summoned to the SmOlny in |
stitute, the headquarters of the Mos !
COW soviet. He came attended by his |
counsel. He withdrew his first and |
"Give us assurances that our money |
will really go for famine relief" he |
insisted On his return home he issued |
still another appeal to the people. I
Let me describe what followed in
the words of one of his bolshevist ac-
cusers. GAS result of this, restless
mob demonstrated on March Is, at the
Kazan cathedral, a mob beat the mill !:
tia In Sennaya street on March 10,
and the soldiers had to be called out
Stones were thrown at the soldiers at
the church of Rozhdestvo on April
ID, there being alarm, violence and
mob rule, the mob also throwing
stones at the officials who were col
lecting the church treasures. Similar
violence took place at the Putilov Zas-
tava April 81 and on May f."
The Putilov Zastava is In the midst
of one Of the greatest working-class
districts In Petrograd, so perhaps the
had some cause for alarm
Trial Before Tribunal.
The trial lasted for nearly month,
not ending until early July. The au
thorities attempted to prove that Ben
jamin and his supporters were really
antirevolutionaries, that they were in
-ouch with the antibolshevists outside
Russia who had summoned the Karls-
)erg conference. and that they were
plotting to overthrow the government
The chief judge of the revolutionary
tribunal was Nakovchenko. a techni-
al engineer
1t was a wearisOme trial. The great
audiences that listened day after day
we're carefully drawn from the fac
cries and government Offices Few Of
he friends of the prisoners could OBJ
ain admission. SO they assembled
utside, and when the prisoners were
rought In each morning and left each
light they found crowds Of churchmen
inging hymns. praying and asking {
heir blessing. One night cavalry
lade their appearance, surrounded :
very way out, and made prisoners OF {
II the crowd.
Reform Priest Hit by Stone.
There were some dramatic moments.
n the opening day when one reform U
REST. Vedensky. was leaving the IL
,urt. woman threw stone, struck
IN on the head and nearly killed him.
edensky was supposed-falsely, as 81
: afterward assured me-tO have in
igated the trial of the archbishop u
Three witnesses had come to give p
'idence in favor of the prisoners III
hey were then arrested. The friends e
the prisoners complained that this 81
shook the nerves Of the other wit 81
sses that they could not say what =
ey would. The tribunal was not
mpathetic to the accused When & -
nsidered that It had heard enough, =
refused to hear moro. 1t refused
EN- the right to consult certain ma "
rial documents they demanded. DC
At last the ordeal drew to Z Close. re
le hour had come for the accused