The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-01-15
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

THE executions in Russia as retaliation for
l. the murder of Kirof end as protection
against further plots against the Soviet govern
ment have furnished the occasion for another
| of the periodic outburs.s of criticism of Russia
/ in the conservative press of our country. Russia
has been portrayed bathed in blood by a
brutal bureaucracy because, to take the figures
Of the enemy press, some 1T persons have been
put to death as the penalty for a plot which
threatened the integrity Of the Russian social
and political system.
Now, as civilized person, naturally prefer
a social system where nobody is put TO death
for political crimes and I regret the execution
however necessary, of a single person in Russia
or elsewhere. But only sheer ignorance, deliber-
ate malice or both, could dictate any special
criticism of the recent Russian severity in the
light of the policies universally followed by
states for milleniumS when their integrity has
been placed in jeopardy.
Take the French Revolution, for example.
The situation of Russian island Of COM
munism in vast oceans of capitaliSn-iS highly
comparable to the situation of France during
the Reign of Terror-an oasis of revolution in
a desert of reaction. What happened in civilized
France the pride of European culture in that
era? Professor Leo Gershoy describes the s1tua-
ton in authoritative fashion:
Summary punishment [deathl without even
the semblance of a trial brought the figures to
the high total of 10000 for all of France. Aside
from all exaggerated accounts, the butcherieS,
as they actually were, were horrible enough.
"TN LYONS Fouche and Collot Communicated
detachment of the revolutionary army and
embarked upon a senseless and odious butchery
of the populace that nothing can justify, that
shocked every principle of justice and humanity.
In the Vendee, the worst OF human pas
sions were aroused and military columns syS-
tematically ravaged the country, making IL a
yeritabe desert. At Nantes occurred frlght1uI
massacres whose ferocious cruelty SURPASSED
even the horrors at Lyons. Yet the SITUATION IN
Nantes was scarcely worse than elsewhere IN the
Vendee where the record OF mans lnhumanlVy
to man is unparalleled"
Turning to the history of pre-Soviet Russia
the record of the Tsars is one of almost unre-
leved barbarism in the cruel and summary way
in which they met any uprisings Take. Tor IN
stance Peter the Greats retaliation When the
"Stretsky" or royal bodyguard rebelled IN 1893
Says Professor Balm:
From the middle of September to the mid
die of October 1898, banquets and orgies alter
mated with torturings and executions, in which
the Tsar and his favorites played the parts OF
inuuisitors and headSmen During these lew
weeks no less than a thousand OF the captive
'Strelsky' we're done to death with every refine
ment of cruelty" Or, as Professor PareS oe-
scribes it:
There was a series of terrible executions,
sometimes of hundreds in one day, in which
Peter struck down (beheaded) the first five OF
the condemned rebels, and compelled MS prln-
cipal lieutenants each to kill given number.
The executions were preceded by prolonged
torture"
IF some complain that it is unfair to go back
L to the end of the seventeenth century for
comparisons let us turn to the twentieth.
On Sunday, JAM 9, 1905-"Bloody Sunday
a delegation of workers, known by the Tsar and
his generals to be unarmed and peacefully in
clined came to the winter palace to present
netition of grievances to the TSar.
The authorities knew of the proposed assem-
bly, and made deliberate plans for the massacre
in advance The marchers were lured into the
palace square under every impression OF safety.
Then, suddenly and without warning the
bugle sounded, and the troops opened fire. The
killed and wounded fell in hundreds The hu-
man crowd was so dense that the fire could not
miss its mark" Such was the temper and policy
of the Tsarist regime which the American con-
servative papers now defend either directly or
by implication.
Nor should we forget the wholesale nlassacres
in Rumania, Yugoslavia and Venezuela since the
World War as we'll as the murders and cruel
Imprisonment of his critics by MuSsolini-Who
has had the incredible effrontery just now to
criticise the Russian executions as acts of bar
barSm.
The Russian executions may be regrettable,
but neither the White Russians nor our mod
ern governments are in any moral position to
cast the first some in their criticism.