New Britain herald., 1922-02-07
:GR|N DEATH REAPS . :.. HARVEST IN RUSSIA
 Ny
Hundreds Of Thousands Fall Dead in Quest Of Bread

s@h ufa, Volga Region, Russia, Feb. '
 ...,-( Associated Press )-When the
 SHOWS melt next spring the Russian
 { sttppesWiI be strewn with skeletons
 aThey will resemble the high prairies
 E'Ofs the American COW country in the
 days when big cattle outfits had in
 Sufficient hay to carry their stock
 through a hard winter
 .sp, But among the skeletons of cattle 2 and camels there will be the bones of atHhundreds of thousands of men, wom- ; ,en and children who fell exhausted sfsfn their quest for bread; who lived sethe simple lives their peasant ances- %7tors lived for centuries and had little SS SS,conception of the political upheaval EsWhich made this famine more terrible
 than that of 1S91N
 "3s+ @ They wandered, and millions of na'them are still wandering There was ssrothing to eat in their homes, so they ,%started on the trek for bread Some e"Sarlfted westward to the Volga and ss1ound death in the typhus-ridden rail- % way centers, or among the horrors of 1rsfefugee camps along the Voga; oth- t, CTS started for Turkestan, still others moved eastward toward Siberia. the asIand Of gold and wheat. which has al x ways been so aluring to the Russian n V mujik who heard little of it's vastness Its hardships and it's heartlessness. s,ss . The peasants knew nothing of re modern ways. They were unable to sr buy tickets on the railways unable to get permits to ride on trains burdened
 with the Red Army and food for Mos s COW and Petrograd When their ! animals dropped dead the families
 walked on, always hoping that food 2 lay over the reXt knoll -
 # But the country districts have no {. grain or if peasant families have a v small supply. they conceal it in the % effort to prolong their own lives until
 another crop is harvested In the :. larger towns there is food for sale at essgfabulous prices, but the starving refu- sygees have neither money nor goods to ., exchange and can only sit down to ,, : await death or trudge on till they sink < eof exhaustion.
 ..k The bodies which lie along the rail T roads are collected on cars and hauled s1eto centers where they are piled in < frozen, snowcovered heaps to await 4 burial Freezing refugees remove all ;. garments from the dead so the ' ! scavenger5 collect them.
 . Families drift apart and wander 7 aimtessly on to their inevitable fate.
 Human instincts are lost, and they 7 become iittl,, better than beasts. The city and town populations are so !, hardened to suffering that they are li,tlc moved by the misery which
 slies all about them. Death seems e1nore mcrcifu in the country for the . .rcfugecs; they sink into the white z towering of the endless plain and - fwolvcs strip their bones. a.s From Perm and Ekaterinburg to
 the Caspian Sea death is stalking over .sthc steppcs. Russians, Cossaclls, kal- ! g~sSruclis, Kirgliiz and Tartars alike are Nlneeting their end with the hopeless ssaness and patience bcaotten Of centur- s,ies of uneuua! struggle against politi- l
 cal cxtortion and unfaNorabc climatic ! made worse by ignorance | :. Of scientific methods of tilling the | < soil.
 se American corn will be too late to sfave many Of these wanderers <. Through the stcppes. us well as the | aifa antics who have elected to make ! s@thcr fight in their villages remote l pfron tho railways rather than endure 'tfhc iiarlshps and death thcir neigh 1 ,sshors have suffered along Che main e.lines C: transportation.
 ,e.4n. Entire village populations have