The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1922-06-29
Woman Journalist
Back From Russia

When in July, 1921, certain Amerl-
can prisoners were released from the
Soviet prisons as Hoover sine qua
non of American relief measures
there stepped forth from the Novens-
ki prison in Moscow the curious flg-
ure of woman-her sex scarcely
discernable at first glance. She was
clad in an exceedingly dirty khaki
suit, in a mans pongee shirt, cap
made from the tail Of the same shirt,
and a pair of mems shoes retrieved
from a Hed Cross contribution. 1t
was Mrs. Marguerite E. Harrison,
American newspaper woman and rep
resentative of the Associated Press,
who had grape-vined her way across
the Polish frontier into the heart OF
Russia some eighteen months pre-
viously 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 sentiment
al propaganda to peddle:
It was a remarkable undertaking g
for a woman to venture upon, in the
middle of a Russian winter, alone,
and without official protection from
her own country..thopgh the latter
perhaps would have availed her lit
tie. But she accomplished her pur-
pose -woman't wit and American au-
dacity carrying her through. Official
ly, she had been repeatedly admonish-
ed that the thing couldn't be done,
so she did it. She saw the machine
and gods of the machine. She saw
where the wheels were going around
and where they stopped. Ten months
she spent in Soviet prisons, where she
had rare opportunities of studying
the social abric from beneath as
well as its superstructure. She suf-
fered unimaginable contacts and pri-
vations, but came out of it all with
no resentments, no personal bitter
ness, no apostolic obsessions. Her
job was to see things and she saw
what was to be seen and she brought
to her days work wherever. she was,
an observation that was wide and
ecute and femininely intuitive. Her
story told in a volume recently pub
lished by George H. Doran company,
New York, under the title "Marooned
in Moscow" is merely as record of
human experience, intensely dramat-
ic, and as a record of sociological
studies, impartially and penetratively
made. unusally informative and of
Fascinating interest.
In her book Mrs. Harrison makes
no defense of anyone or anything
neither does she attack either man
or institutions. She tells merely
what she saw in that kaleidoscope
blur of social and political elements
through which Republican peo-
pie are struggling towards still
fhazy ideals of representative govern
ment. After her experiences, 81 be-
1ieve,'' she writes, "that I 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. had gained just perspect-
i've and I felt that I 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 everything, modernizing Russia"
At the end of her story she adds
chapter Of her own conclusions,
which she leaves up to the reader
to accept or reject in the light of her
narrative.
In ''By the Back Door,"
Her mode of entry into Russia was
simple in it's boldness. She went in, as
she says, ''by the back door," Reach
ing Warsaw in midwinter, at a time
when state of war was existing be-
tween Poland and Russia, she was re-
fused a permit to cross the border,
talked a tentative permit out of an
other division officer who warned her
Of the great risks she was taking, and
then-here is the way she tells it-'I
passed through the Polish lines into
No Mans Land and gave myself up to
the first Red Army patrol. By this
means T succeeded two weeks later in
reaching Moscow, where 1 stayed for
eighteen months, during which I was
twice arrested by the Checka, living
o. -