Evening star., 1925-01-05
by n. 4. MACkENZIE.
Correspond nee Of The Star and the Chicago
Daily News

Correspond nee Of The Star and the Chicago
Daily News
LONDON, England. December Ia
Moscow, toward the end Of 1922,
presented strange sights for the
capital o. a Communist country. A
new class had sprung up like a
tungous growth. the ''uepmen" mew
economic policy meu). They were the
SPECTATORS who found in the part
revival of private business their hour
of opportunity. They took big risks,
made much money and spent freely
ono group dealt in currency, and two
Dig curb exchanges were not enough
to accommodate them. Some speculat-
Ell IN grain, others in cattle The
WlSeSt were careful promptly to
Suuggle their surplus gains out of
the country. Their oStentation and
extravaganza became a byword.
Never, even in Berlin at the end of
1924, have ! seen such fat men as in
Moscow at that time. Maybe ii was
the reaction from the days of famine
To cater to them Moscow had
several expensive restaurants. while.
t. provide for their amusement a
number Of official gambling saloons
were kept open from early evening
until or 10 o'clock i'll the morning
These gambling saloons. such as the
hermitage and the Praga, We're
among the sights of Moscow. In Il
single year the city made a profit of
100000 out of them. If there was
gold nowhere else, one saw gold in
plenty on the tables of the inner
rooms Of these gambling resorts.
How n. L. Il. Failed.
The extremists used the nepmen as
an awful example Town working
men, who are the main strength of
Russian communism, were greatly
dSCouteuted for their lot had i'm
proved very little. Did our brothers
die by thousands" they asked that
ucpmeu might grow fat stuffing them
selves in the new restaurants?'
In the mind of the Communists every
private trader became a nepman.
The extremists urged that the new
economic policy had failed in another
way One of the reasons for starting
It was the expectation that foreign
governments would thereupon recog-
nize Russia But the powers whose
recognition Russia most wanted, the
United States. Great Britain and
France, were still as coy as ever.
Attitude of Lenin.
Ienin had been the first to see the
necessity of the new economic policy.
But he was the first to decide on its
modification. When Mr.. Urquhart, the
British mining expert, obtained con-
tract for the return of his enormous
properties in and around the Urals,
with the addition of the advance of
large sum of money to enable him to
set them going again, the concession
came before Lenin for his signature.
Absurd" Lenin wrote across the
document.
This was the beginning of the end,
for the time, at least. The poIltlcal
police gradually received back their
old power, and the publication of the
famous exile decree enabled them
again to arrest and imprison whom
they pleased, without open trial,
There were months of long struggle
inside the Communist party. But the
extremists, the men led by Zinoviev
and Stain, gained ground all the
time.
They meant to revive the class war
in its most bitter form. Lentn was
dying and there was no one to con-
troll them. They resolved on two
things: First, they would do away
with the nepmen. Next, they would
open a fresh campaign against
private trade For a beginning,
resolution was passed by the Moscow
Soviet. the city council, demanding
the cleansing of the capital from
spectators.
The political police, strong IN their
renewed power, were told to take
action. Dzjerzinsky, their chief, was
longing to move. For some time he
had been watching the effect of the
new economic policy on officials and
was much alarmed. There was
wholesale corruption among them.
In some ways Dzjerzinsky may be
cruel fanatic, but he is honest, and,
in his fashion, a patriot. He had
been following with much interest
the doingS of some heads of the staff
of the navy. These men dined to-
gether night after night at different
houses, in luxurious fashion. Dzjer-
zinsky's spies brought him the menu
of each meal
Dinners Cost Too Much.
One evening these men were all
quietly led away from dinner, each
to a separate cell in Loubyanka,
Moscow's great political prison. Then,
one after another, they were brought
up for cross examination. Where
did you find the money to pay for
your dinners?" they were asked.
Each dinner had cost more than their
weeks pay. A big naval scandal was
thus nipped in the bud.
My Russian friends sometimes un
kindly ask me if America would not
like to borrow Dzjerzinsky for a
week or two.
The Empire restaurant, one of the
most fashionable in Moscow, boasted