Evening star., 1933-02-07
PEASANTS EX|LED
AS GRAIN IS seized
Virtual Martial Law Rules
Villages of Kuban Co.'S
sack Country.

BY Gable to The Star
ROSTOV-ON-DON, u. s. s. r., Feb.
ruary Virtual martial law rules tn,
villages of the Kuban Cossack countr,
today after three-month period char.
| acterized by mass exiles of the peas.
antry and day and night grain raids or
the villages, by means of which the de-
moralized peasantry has been stripped
OF every kernel of grain that could bt
| found.
AS this is being written the peasants
are still being herded out Of the vii.
| lages on the way to exile and grain
raids are continuing.
| In railway stations throughout the
district bordering on the northeast
coast of the Black Sea, roughly clad
Communist riflemen are reinforcing the
regular police force.
Soviet Halts Survey.
A first-hand view of this dramatic
situation was obtained by this CORE
spondent and another American news
paper man on a 450-mile train, auto
mobile and wagon trip lasting six days
and covering 10000 villages. The jour
ney was finally interrupted when the
authorities ordered us out Of two vii
lages-Medyyedovskaya and Timoshez-
skays-and prohibited further travel
until we should receive special permis-
sion from the North Caucasus authori-
ties and from Rostov.
Before our departure from Moscow
the Soviet foreign office had assured us
no such permission would be necessary.
The peasantry in the Kuban, one of
Russ:a's richest grain regions, have been
without bread for the last three months.
Taking revenge on the peasants for
their refusal to SOW, harvest and deliver
grain according to expectations, the au-
thorities have instituted regime Of
exile and incessant raids, taking not
only the grain needed by the peasants
for their daily bread, but in many cases
even the seed needed for planting.
No Collective Resistance.
AS far as can be ascertained, there
has been no collective resistance to these
measures, although several individual
raiders have been killed by peasants.
Reports of pitched battles in the
neighborhood of Tickoretskaya, printed
in the anti-Soviet Russian press in
Paris, are entirely unfounded. The
number of those exiled to Siberia for
failure to deliver grain cannot be given
exactly, but the following data is avail
able:
Comrade Grcza, one Of the chief So
Wet officials in the North Caucasus,
stated in a special interview that citi-
zerS of the village of Poltavskaya alone
were affected and that only the ring
leaders were exiled. He made this state
ment after learning that was the only
town of those reported affected to which
we had gained admittance
Personal observations render this
statement preposterous. According to
residents of Poltavskaya, 1000 persons
were exiled from that stanitza, or vii
senfeldt and Ivanovka-300 persons were
exiled the day before we arrived there.
At Slavyanskaya we saw 80 Kulaks
and their wives being herded onto a
train. At Rostov 80 men were under
guard in the baggage room. One per-
son who had an excellent reason to
know what was happening stated, on
condition that we kept it q dead secret.
that 10000 men, as well as their fami-
lies had been exiled from the villages
and Pavlovskaya, indicating a total of
mayevskaya, Urupskaya, Umanskaya
and Pavlovskaya, indicating a totaal of
between 5000 and 10000. While fami-
lies accompanied most of the exiles, q
woman in Rosenfeldt stated several chill
dren had been left with neighbors on
the previous day.
Grain Issued, Then Seized.
In two rather widely separated localf-
ties peasants testified the very grain
which had been issued to them by COL
lective farms at the end Of the harvest
had been confiscated, leaving them with
nothing but vegetables for food.
In Ivonovka these raids have become
a regular feature of the peasants daily
life, three having been carried out IL,
two days recently. In some cases heavy
lines were arbitrarily given to the peas
ants for failure to produce the rrain
they did or did not have, and failure to
pay resulted in their Punishment to the
North.
Whether or not the peasants really
have grain hidden, as the Soviet au-
thorities insist, it is a fact that no bread