New-York tribune., 1922-04-11
tContinued from pape one1

powers of Russia have been dissipated.
so have its human resources and
powers. Three million refugees fec
into Poland and the Baltic states.
Hundreds of thousands of refugees.
called cmgres. of the better class arc
in Constantinople Prague and Berlin.
BY the peace of Brest- -Litovsk the Rus
SLAMS lost one-thre OF their population
and one sixth Of their European area.
Before the war the present area Of
Russia had l50,000,0Oo inhabitants. To-
day it has less than 12O.o0o,o00.
Millions have been lost from typhus,
cholera and starvation. In 1921 Mos
COW registered $4,000 births and 10000
deaths In some places and at some
times infant mortality reaches 95 per
cent Deaths by famine arc said to be
10000 week. Any figures on such
subject are mere gucsses. The fact re-
mains that the population Of Russia is
disappearing.
But the most significant movements
Of these times are not physical move
ments from place to place They are
social movements from class to class.
They arc not horizontal but vertical
movements. In 1918. when foodstutfs
were hard to get, when rations were in
sufioien and it was Illegal to buy
many of the more clever members of
the middle classes broke away from the
city and moved to the country. These
constitute the "new peasant classes"
about which some proud claims are
made. Those who held large estates
took peasants cottage on the estate
and with their children speedily settled
down to tho peasants standard of liv-
ing.
We drive into village twenty versts
away from a provincial capital. The
chairman of the delegation that meets
us is a former professor in the uni
versty at the capital With him are
dozen others. some writer's. some
clerks. They have returned to the
soil. With the human movement to-
ward the country from the city there
has taken place a companion move
ment in the form Of export to the
country of city furniture, pianos, sew
ing machines These have found their
way to the peasants cottages in return
for bread.
This human movement downward
is matched by another current upward.
| To-day the population OF Russia is di-
vided into two classes only the hard
and the soft. All other classes have
been done away with The soft die or
settle downward; the hard tend to rise
to the surface. The new aristocracy Of
Russia will be made up of hard Rus
SLAMS, spectators, protiteers, commls-
sars, procurers, those who can prosper
in thorny ground.
Middle Glasses Scattered
To Four Winds by Terror
When I went to Russia | had list
of 200 names and addresses to look up
as test Of the fixity of the popula-
ton. Of this number eight We're found
at the addresses given, living in one
about forty had gone abroad; thirty
had gone down in the world but were
found More than half had disappear red
without trace
How the middle classes started on
their way downward is reported in a
journal kept by Russian friend of
mine during the days Of terror:
| about six hundred men and women
came to work to-day A group of three
city lawyers, one priest and one old
| land owner under the guard were sent
to clean the city toIels. A group o.
women belonging to the class of bour-
geosie was sent to wash the barracks
where the Reds are staying. The other
group Of women was sent to the bar
racks. where each of them received a
| bag with soldiers dirty clothes. They
were ordered to take the clothes home,
wash them. dry them, and bring them
back in three days
Such are the changes that take place
| by easy stages. Last year a writer
in library; this year a peasant in a
| log hut. Last year a smuggler of
eggs from the country and this year
q dealer in rugs and furs. Such dramas
are so common in Russia to-day that
they fail to excite comment. More
picturesque than these spiritual read
| justments are the snapshots of those
'cross-country crusades which, start
| ing at every point Of the compass, have
made q network Of migration over
! Russia.
A sleigh hauled by man and woman
power across the snow desert, the
horse being dead; hundreds Of boxcars
| loaded with human freight snowbound
on the Orenburg Tashkent line, the
snow drifting to the caves of the cars
g stream of half-naked, swollen belled
children deserted by their parents,
driven into the collection houses
these are the poignant scenes of a
shifting drama of folk migrations in
Russia.
But the story is not told when phys-
cal movement and class readjustment
are accounted for Everywhere these
movements are accompanied by dis
ease. The diseases of crowdins, of
malnutrition. of cold and the preyine
germs that attack weak organisms are
running like plaques over Russia. As