The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1922-02-06
SKULLS WILL LITTER
RUSSIA in SPRING
Shows Now Cover Bodies Of
Thousands Killed by
Starvation.
STEPPES A GRAVEYARD
Peasants Wander in Vain
Search for Bread Until
They Fall.
STEPPES A GRAVEYARD

UFA (Voiga Regior1). Russia, Jan. Z
ASSOCIATED Press) When the SHOWS
melt next spring the Russian steppes
will be strewn with skeletons. They
will resemble the high prairies Of the
American cow country in the days
when big cattle outfits had insufficient
lay to carry their stock through a
hard winter.
But among the skeletons of cattle
and camels there will be the bones Of
hundreds of thousands of men, women
and children who fell exhausted in
their quest for bread; who lived the
simple lives their peasant ancestors
lived for centuries and lad little con-
ception of the political upheaval which
made this famine more terrible than
that of 1891.
They wandered and millions OF them
are still wandering. There was pothing
70 eat In their homes SO they started
on the trek for bread. Some dvffted
westward to the Volga and found death
in tho typhus ridden railway cente.s
or among the horrors OF refugee camps
along the Volga: others started for
Turkestan; still others moved eastward
toward Siberia. the land of gold and
wheat. which has always been SO allur-
ing to the Russian mujk, who heard
little of its vastness. It's hardships and
it's heartlessness.
The peasants knew nothing of modern
ways. They were unable to buy tickets
on the railways, unable to get permits
10 ride on trains burdened with the
Red army and food for Moscow and
Petrograd. When their animals dropped
dead the families walked on. always
hoping that food lay over the next
knoll.
But the country districts have no
grain. or IL peasant families have a
small supply they conceal y in the ef-
fort to prolong their own lives until
another crop is harvested. In the larger
towns there Is food for sale at fabulous
prices. but the starving refugees have
neither money nor goods TO exchange
and can only sit down to await death
or trudge on till they sink from ex-
liaustion.
The bodies which lie along the rail-
roads arc collected on cars and hauled
TO centers where they are piled in frozen,
snow covered heaps to await burial.
Freezing refugees remove all garments
from the dead, so the frozen bodies are
nude when the scavengers collect them.
Families drift apart and wander aim
lessiy on to their inevitable fate. HUI
man instincts are lost and they become
little better than beasts. The city and
town populations are so hardened TO suf-
ferng that they are little moved by the
misery which lies all about them. Death
seems more mcrciful In the country for
the refugees-they sink into the white
covering of the endless plain ana wolves
strip their bones.
From Perm and Ekaterinburg to the
Caspian Sea death Is stalking over the
steppes. Russians, Cossacks. Kalniucks.
Klrghiz and Tartars alike are meeting
their end with hopelessness and patience
begotten OF centuries of unequal seug
gle against political extortion and unfa-
vorable climatic conditions. made worse
by ignorance of scientific methods OF
tilling the soil.
Entire village populations have died
In the provinces east OF the volga, and
the animals which survive are so weak
Il Is impossible to get adequate horse
power to deliver food to tho thousands
of snowbound destitute settlements far
from food stations.