Evening star., 1922-02-06
RUSSIA IS STREWN
W|THHEAPS0F DEAD
Famine Victims Cannot Be
Buried Until Snow MeIts
in Spring.
By the Associated Press.

Ds the AssocI3ted PresS.
UFA, Volga Region, Russia, Jan
uary 7.-When the SHOWS melt next
spring the Russian steppes will be
strewn with skeletons. They will re-
semble the high prairies of the Amer
lean cow country in the days when
big cattle outfits had insufficient hay
to carry their stock through hard
winter.
But among the skeletons of cattle
and camels there will b. the bones of
hundreds of thousands o. men, women
and children, who fell exhausted in
their quest for bread. v ho lived the
simple lives their peasant ancestors
lived for centuries and HI little con-
ception Of the political upheaval
which made this famine more terrible
than that of 1891.
Millions Wandering About.
They wandered and millions of
them are still wandering. There was
nothing to eat in their homes, SO they
started on the trek for bread. Some
drlfted westward to the Nolga and
found death in the typhus-ridden rail-
way centers. or among the horrors of
refuge camps along the Nolga; others
started for Turkestan: still others
moved eastward toward Siberia the
land of gold and wheat which has al
ways been so alluring TO the Russian
mouJik. who neardt little of its vast
ness. its hardships and its heartIess-
ness.
The peasants knew nothing Of mod
ern ways They were unable To buy
tickets on the railways, unable to get
permits to ride on trains burdened
a Il 60,
COW and Petrograd. When their
animals dropped dead the families
walked on. always hoping that food
lay over the next knoll.
No Grain in Country.
But the country districts have no
grain, or, IL peasant families have a
small supply they conceal it in the
effort to prolong their own lives un-
til another crop is harvested In the
larger towns there is food for sale
at fabulous prices. but the starving
refugees nave neither money nor
goods to exchange.
The bodies that lie along the rail
roads are collected on cars and
hauled TO centerS where they arr.
piled in frozen. snow-cu, cred h.aps
to await burial Freezing refugee.
remove all garments from the dead
SO the frozen bodies are nud,. wb.n
the scavengers collect them.
Families drift apart and wander
| aimlessly on to their inevitable fate
Human instincts are lost and they
become little better than beasts
Death seems more merciful in the
country for the refugees; they sink
into the white covering of the end
less plain, and wolves strip their
bones
From Peru and Ekaterinburg to the
Caspian sea death is stalking over
the steppes. Russians, Cossacks
kalmucks. kirghiz and Tartars alike
are meeting their end with hope
lessness and patience begotten of
centuries of unequal struggle agains.
political eXtortion and unfavorablr
climatic conditions. made worse by
Ignorance of scientific methods o
tilling the soil.
American Corn Too Late.
American corn Will d. too late !.
save many of these Wanderers. EntiI
village populations have died in IL
provinces east of the Nolga and til
animals which survive are SO weak
| it is impossible to get adequate hors.-
power to deliver food to the thou
sands of snowbound. destitute settle
ments far from food stations.