, 1923-03-04
The Ravine Swallows It's Victims:
fSpurlos Versunkt.' These Ships

As soon as the snow melts relatives
and friends of the victims. in groups
and singly. glancing around furtively,
may be seen wandering to his ravine.
At first people used to be arrested on
h spot for such pllgrimages. but
there were so many Of them coming
i'm spite of all arrests, Spring floods.
washing away the soil. have disin-
TERED the victims Of the Communist
terror. Below the little bridge which
spans the ravine corpses may be seen
piled up in heaps for n height of forty
TO fifty fathoms. How many are there2
There is hardly a person who could
tell that. Even the Cheka itself does
not know 1t. During 1918 and 1918
there were shot. according to lists and
without any lists, about 1900 persons.
But the victims used to be taken to
this ravine in summer and fall only,
others being shot elsewhere during
the winter.
1t is a narrowing and CHASTITY thing
10 look at the bottom of this dreadful
ravinel And yet the people who come
here do not shrink from looking at 1t.
peering intently, seeking at laast some
token by which the corpse of a beloved
JIG might DE lutDtlleO.
Here are two girls coming down the
slope. 1t seemed TO them as IL they
had recognized the remains of a
brother. A third sister stands above
with tear dimmed eyes, Don't. don't,
don't u him. l can't bear it, she
cries out TO the other from above. AT
the opposite bank n peasant who has
walked over from the adjoining field
leans over the preclpice. Relatives
you are looking for? Or friends 90
Brother was shot"
And, do you know. misses, I spent
that night out here. under the wagon.
1 was hurrying to finish my strip OF
land. 50 l remained in the field. It
must have been around . o'clock In
the night when automobiles with Ian
terms drove up here. They stopped
yonder, on that side. Then they un-
loaded them. Then they stripped their
clothes off. And they led them across
this bridge over here. Well. and here
they stood them up on the brink OF
this gully and shot them. They kept
rolling down here all the time. Then
these people. I mean those who did
h shooting. went down to the bot
tom Of the gully ana kept moving
about with their lanterns. and shoot
ing again. Must have been finishing
them off. And their groans I could
hear. too. oh. and / remember 1
found at that time here some broken
eyeglasses. They must have hit some
body in he right eye"
Here, again. is another group also
Of m Mama, mama" a little
girl is asking OF her sobbing mother
"Auntie was not buried here. was she?
She hasn't died. has she? ?" Yes.
darling. yes. h has died." But Won
were saying all the time auntie was
only in prisoni ... Aunt Zlna is
dead. Shot >" the little
girl keeps whispering. clinging close
10 the mother.
And each succeeding week this
ravine is getting to be dreaded more
and more by the people Of Saratov. IL
goes on swallowing mp more and more
victims After ench execution a strip
OF the ov%erhanging bank is tumbled
down to cover tho corpses. and the
gully Keeps growing wider and wider.
But every spring the water uncovers
the latest victims of the execution.
Many are the secrets this sinister
ravine keeps buried at it's bottom. and
It was this the Saratov Cheka agent
relied upon when he denied the prac-
tiec of torture at tho Provincial Ex-
traordinary Commission. To be sure.
no one has yet succeeded. nor will one
scarcely ever succeed. in unearthlng
the secrets that lie buried at the bot
tom OF h q gully. But these secrets
have beer carried back to the Cheka.
frequently getting to be n matter OF
common knowledge among the pris-
oners.
In this way Il was learned how
fsndlEhiy Ivan Iyanoyieh kotov,