Evening star., 1930-06-22
HIDDEN HAND OF MOSCOW
TERROR OF SOVIETENEMIES
kidnapping of Gen. Koutiepov in Paris
Five Months Ago Follows Exposures
Causing Near Break.
BY ALExANDER I. NAzARoFF.

tered facts reported from
various corners Of the world
- by the European press again
have called to life the old
and much debated question of the Sc
cret activity Of the agents Of the Third
International and Of the G. p. o., the
political Soviet poliee, outside of Rus
STA. AS, somewhat mechanically,
the editor of a leading Paris daily puts
it, "after an intermisSion of a year
or two the hidden hand of Moscow
again makes itself felt In the world"
This secret hand" we are told, re-
vealS itself in dissimiliar ways. The
violent Communist riots in Berlin and
Hamburg in the Fall of 1929 and the
charges made by Grover Whalen while
he was police commissioner of New
York City, accusing American Com
muniSts of organizing labor demonstra-
tions in New York in keeping with the
orders received from, and with the
money supplied by, Moscow--such is
facts of an entirely different and Of a
more sensational nature, too.
Two years ago some Of the Russian
anti-Soviet newspapers published in
Paris and Berlin asserted that one
Traikewicz, Polish national, had been
lured into the Soviet embassy in War
saw and killed there.
Few paid any attention to this state
ment; the thing seemed too fantastic
to believe, but a year later some wit
nesses testified at a political trial in
Berlin that they knew of cases when
various persons were murdered in the
| Soviet embassy In that city. The tes-
timony of these witnesses was checked;
| the government Of the Reich apparently
was unwilling to start a scandal, but
two Berlin newspapers came out with
| articles repeating and reafflrming the
charges. Moreover, they added that q
real secret branch of the Moscow G.
P. U. regularly functioued in this en-
extraterritoriality which it afforded.
Mysterious Disappearance.
Yet the most mysterious case of the
series occurred just five months ago.
1t was the disappearance in broad day
light in the streets of Paris of Gen. A.
Koutiepov, an outstanding Russian
White" emigre who resided in France.
The French police worked day and
| night trying to solve the riddle of his
| disappearance. Finally 1t was estab-
lished that he had been kidnapped. taken
| in an automobile to a desolate shore in
Normandy and transported to foreign
| steamer which was lying not far of in
| the sea. The steamer Immediately
started of for an unknown destination.
The police learned even more, and al
| though they have not yet caught the
offenders, they have made 1t clear that
these offenders are agents Of the
| q. P. U.
"L'Affaire Koutiepov" has stirred the
French public opinion to the pitch Of
| Indignation; a number Of influential
dailies, such as lie Matin and lie Temps,
keep demanding from the government
the severance Of diplomatic relations
with the Soviets. Indeed, at moments
the animosity in Paris has run so high
that break between the two countries
has seemed imminent.
What did the Soviet government
answer to all these charges? When 1t
came to accusations in propaganda, 1t
answered that which for years it had
| answered in such cases. It's spokesmen
declared approximately this: "Our gov
| ernment never has INDUCED in any
subversive propaganda in foreign coun-
tries. The Third International does
carry it on, but the Third International
! is just a private organization, an inter-
| national union of Communist parties of
the world, which happens to have its
| headquarters in Moscow. We cannot
! check it and are not responsible for its
actions" AS for the alleged assasSina-
tionS in Soviet embassies, the Soviet
| SpokeSmen and newspapers blankly-
and angrily-denied them as merely
"capitalistic lies and calumnies" G. p.
| O., they declare, exists only within the
boundaries of the Soviet Union and its
| agents never are sent abroad. With
stin greater indignation they denied the
participation Of the Soviet government
in the kidnapping Of Koutiepov.
FIees Own Embassy.
Yet the value of these denials is seri-
ously undermined by evidence coming
| from an important and authoritative
source
In October, 1929, a sensational diplo-
matte scandal occurred in Paris. G.
Bessyedovsky, the charge d'affaires of
| the Soviet government in Paris, had to
flee for his life from his own embassy.
On a rainy night pale, excited gen.
tleman, In a we'll tailored but torn suit,
ran into Paris police station and de-
clared:
at am the Soviet charge d'affaires.
| Please send Immediately force to the
| embassy and iberate my wife and child.
They are arrested by the agents of the
G. p. U. I myself hardly managed to
escape"
After his wife and child were lib
Grated he explained how it all had
happened. He long since had begun to
! disagree with the present policy of
/ Stain. He had told only his best friends
about it, yet the C. P. U. got wind of it
and sent its inspector, Roisenmann, to
Paris. Appearing in the embassy,
| and when he, in a heated speech, dared
to criticize Stain, the inspector, indig-
| nant, shouted: you are arrested! You
Immediately will start with me to Mos
COW to be tried there" Paying no
attention to Roisenmann's words, he
rushed to the door to call a taxi and
leave the embassy and the Soviet service
forever. But two obscure employees of
the embassy pointed their revolvers at
him: "On Comrade Roisenmann's order
you are arrested"
Later Mr.. Bessyedovsky wrote in lie
Matin:
"It was evident that I was trapped.
I understood that they were
going to kill me and perhaps my family.
suddenly remembered that early that.
morning two enormous trunks for heavy
luggage had been received at the en-
baSsy. These trunks would easily
accommodate three human corpses
which would be shipped to Moscow as
diplomatic luggage
"He feigned submission. But, as
though going back to his room, he
sneaked into khe garden of the en-
bassy, quickly Climbed a fence and ran
to the police station.
What was striking In Mr.. Bessye-
dovsky's story was that he spoke of
the presence of secret G. P. U. agents
in Soviet embassies, which was denied
with such vehemence by the Soviet
government as a matter of course.
Still more striking was the fact that
he, the acting Ambassador, feared
death by their hand within the prem
ises Of his own embassy. Why did
Roisenmann try not to let him go?
While they were arguing he told Mr..
BeSsyedovsky quite frankly: I'VE can
not let you go; you know too much!"