The Washington herald., 1922-05-02
|SoyIETS SLOWLY
RETURN SOME OF
SEIZED PROPERTY
Peasants Must Fight
Maze of Red Tape to
Get Valuables.
LAND STILL HELD
Man Finds SiIverware But
Government Puts it in
Museum
LAND STILL HELD

MOSCOW. Fay Il Restitution
Of certain kinds of personal prop
erty to the former owners has been
/ begun on a limited scale by the
Bolshevik government.
As vet no other property-houses
or. Iand-has been restored Wheth-
sr they will be. or II so to what
extent, Is still the theme Of con-
lecture in Moscow.
The property which is being
handed back includes:
Household furniture which has
only utilitarian and no historical
or artistic value. In the latter
case Il is retained for exhibition
in museums Some families for
merly living in Petrograd or Mos
COW have got back some of their
table silverware. chairs and tables.
Pianos Returned.
Personal documents-birth GER
tihcates. deeds, manuscripts, fam
ily relics.
Pianos in cases where, the orig
inal owner can show need of the
instrument to continue musical
stndies or for professional pur-
poses
To what extent this restitution
has gone is impossible to say
Government statistics are not yet
| available. owing to the general
lack Of coordination of the vari-
Gus official departments throughout
|
eral families who have regained
part of the possessions enumerated
above.
Red Tape Holds Effect.
Before these can be recovered.
however. the owners are obliged to
pass through a long and discouraE-
ing process. First. they must ac-
tualiy locate their furniture. in
itself no easy task When all
property was attached by the
Soviet. houses were entered pro-
miscuOusly. chair removed for use
In one Soviet institution. a table
taken to another. and a bed TO still
another. Nor was the furnitlfre
sure Of remaining where first put.
some government departments
| poNed as many as two or three
times year taking either part or
All their office fixtures with them
one OF my friends hunted two
months before tracing a set of par-
lor furniture to its ultimate rest
| ing place. 1t took her another
month to get permission to have
,he things taken out and hauled to
her room.
Finds Property stolen.
Another friend came from Petro-
grad to gather up a set OF tab1a
shverware and other small house-
hoid objects which he hadr heard
mad oeen brought to Moscow when
the government moved here
AIter three weeks Of daily ran
Sassing he discovered the siIyar-
ware had been stolen. BY dint ~
Iurther sleuthing. he exposed m
tnieves. eight government or,-
pioyes being arrested as q resu,t or
MS charges. The loot was forrd
concealed in chimneyplaces ana mn
der beds. anu "H-
In the end. he didn't GET his
tninSs back. after all his n,in.
me authorities ruled they were
uSoie as historical specimens
u them placed in a museum
Houses Are Held.
Aithough the government hos
sald II would restore certai,,
houses to thur former ownars
Of this. Ia nee
is understood, however. that
the department Of justice is work
on some scheme for titles 70
oulIdlngs both in cities and in the
ountry. and perhaps some stems
VIII De taken when its labors are
completed. al
The authorities have said tbo,,
would return to each family in
MOSCOW its old house Or apart-
ment' provided it was not consid =
sred necessary for state use This
latter class would include tho ~
rhy of the finer residences in
oscow. now occupied by yarions
fViet departments. The A. r a
IA also using four Of the finest