The Columbia evening Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1920-1923, 1922-05-31
Government Forced to Return
10 Firing-Squad Method
Used i'm 1919 to
Stop Banditry.
DEATH LEGAL PENALTY
Many Crimes Ascribed to Hun
ger, Others to Return of
Free Circulation
of Money.

hOldups. has made the streets oil MOscO'
unsafe after nightfall for the first tim
in three years.
So serious has the situation becom
that the government has been obliged &
return TO the methods used in 1919, whel
il succeeded in stamping out street ban
diiry by means of the firing squad. Dur
ing the first three months of that yea
more than 300 robbers were executed.
Twenty highwaymen were shot in thu
death corridor" in one week. Polio,
officials say they intend TO keep on shoot
ing. as in 1919, until the stick-up mer
decide TO obtain their livelihood in somt
other way.
Death is the legal penalty for stealing
in Soviet Russia.
A woman was murdered and robbed
few blocks from the headquarters Of
the American Relief Administration, re.
Gently. about midnight on her way home
from a friends Her husband who had
fingered behind, found her body, on a
dark, unfrequented street. 1t is be-
lieved she tried to run and the bandit
shot
Pedestrians and drotshky drivers avoid
empty, winding streets when possible.
Timid people remain indoors at night.
MONEY The LURE
Drawn out from their three years hi
bernation, either by actual hunger or by
the quantities Of money now circulating
openly in Moscow for the first time
since the Revolution, the criminal ele-
ments have renewed their open warfare
agains, established order, and the peas
ant militia boys, with their sheepskin
caps, long Khaki overcoats, and even
longer rifles, now have something more
to do than saunter sleepily through the
streets at night.
How much this recrudescence of crime
is ascribable to actual hunger and how
much to the fact that money has once
more been endowed with ready value
is doubtful. Certain it was that during
the last three years there was not the
same temptation to steal money. Food
and clothing were doled out in rations,
and opportunities for using money were
far less numerous. No stores were open.
Theaters were free. Also people did not
have quantities of cash about their per-
sons. And the terrible memories Of
1919 and Red Terror we're still fresh
in the minds of the public and outlaws
alike.
The temptation lay rather in the di. |
rcciion OF housebreaking, a far more
hazardous undertaking than the holdup,
or food stealing. This, however, the !!
Kremlin succeeded in discouraging pref
ty effectively by means of the firing squad |
and orders to Red Guards to shoot pill |
sgers on the spot.
The new economic policy, however, re-
introduced free circulation of money.
Shops opened bringing opportunities to
convert cash easily into other objects.
The new economic policy also brought
back the unemployment problem, and |.
this latter has been making itself in.
creasingly felt as the winter advanced.
All factors combined TO induce the
crooks to come out from cover.
SHOT on SIGHT
Formerly robbers were often shot on
sight without trial. They are now given
open and public hearings in court. The
SEINE principle is followed against graft
crs, namely, that the greater the publ.
city the greater the object lesson. The
courts of Bolshaya Lubyanka are work
ing overtime.
How the robbers are caught is not al
ways clear. Blu there seems to be plenty
in the prisoners docket and plenty more
waiting in Jail. The police get them,
somehow, from somewhere. Perhaps the
crowd now being tried represents an ac.
cumulation Of several months, suddenly
produced en- masse and put through as
big object lesson.
Also. the manner OF execution has been
changed. Prisoners are no longer stood ].
w dSdhhSt d wall Dcioft d squdu L Eey
are shot singly. their executioner dis
charging a revolver into the back Of
heir heads as the two walk down
corridor in the Cheka, known as the +,
death corridor"
A prisoner never knows exactly when
lc is 10 make this last walk. A guard I,
appears at his cell door and summons i,
iim TO pass before him. 1t may be
in ordinary transfer TO another cell. Ii q
nay be death.
The Bolshevik authorities say they con- r
idcr this method more humane. par
icularly in the case Of political prison. :
rs, who in the past have seldom even
'een informed of their sentence to death. 4
he entire trial being conducted in secret
n the Cheka and the vrdict not being
'ublished. r
In the case of bandits, however, the &
rials now in progress are open and the a
entences formally announced, being full. \
lied within "a or 48 hours. E
Since the abolition Of the Cheka near +.
y two months ago. trials of political
risoners should also theoretically be
N The oman Ttus far ko,.-.. II |