The Washington times., 1936-07-04

nave elIutE Dtcu lOICCu VI cay
surrender their papers and to
Many. others lived in America
AS immigrants for Is or 20 years
without becoming naturalized.
The plight of these men and
women who have been besieging
the American consulateS in Soviet
Russia in the hope Of finding some
means of readmiSSion to the
United States offers unique teSti'
mony to the conditions Of life
under the Soviet regime.
Gives Typical Case
The case Of Kuderenko is typi-
cal. He was born in the Ukraine,
emigrated to America, where he
lived for nearly 20 years. He went
to Soviet Russia with reentry
permit good for / year.
Kuderenko joined the Russian
Communist party in the first rush
Of enthusiasm and became So
Wet citizen. Immediately his
status underwent striking
o., change. He was forced to work
and live under the same cond1-
tons as the Russian workers.
Now, living like the Russians
was the horror of all foreigners
working in Soviet Russia! Kude-
renko regarded himself as an
American. At first he was given
. book of food cards on the
1nSnab-foreigners' supply store.
When the Soviet government
did away with the Insnab, Kude.
renko wanted to pick up his tools
and 90 back to the United States.
But it was too late. He was vir-
tually a prisoner, for ordinary
Russians cannot leave the coun-
try. When such permit is
granted by the Soviet in excep-
.tional cases the cost Of the visa
and passport runs to about $500.
Put On Blacklist
From recent arrivals I have
secured data on many similar
cases of ex-Reds now trapped in
the Stain utopia. There is the
case of Slobodian who came to
America at 10, learned a trade
and then went back to Russia.
Although he was member OF
the Communist party, he "oon
found himself blackliSted by the
GP.U. because Of his frequent
protests against intolerable con-
GitionS.,
Slobodian was then framed by
the G. P. o., denounced as a coun-
ter-revolutioniSt, expelled from
the party, and consequently re-
= duced to dire circumstances. lie
has been clamoring in vain to
get out of the Soviet Union.
Perhaps the SaddeSt case is that
Of Knish, formerly a resident OF
the United States and Canada.
He is a man of high education,
and he gave his time and knowl-
edge freely to the Russians. He
was deeply respected by all tn e
foreigners.
The G. P. q. framed him as
q counter revolutioniSt. So shock
ing was this frameup that even
the last of the American StaliniSt
stalwartS in Russia, Bill Ander-
son, was forced to stand up and
defend Knish as an ideallSt.
None Can Leave
None of these people can leave
the Soviet Union. All of them
are branded as counter-revolution.
lists. Once a criticism is uttered
in Russia the person who voices
1t is usually stamped as a Trostky-
iSt and to be classified as Trot-
skyist under Stain is even more
dangerous than being marked as
Q CZariSt.
: Following the assassination OF
Kirov by a young Communist in
December, 1884, the Stain oil
garchy carried out series OF
purgeS Of would-be TrotSkyiStS.
This reign of terror also engulfed
many of the American workers
IN the Soviet Union.
In q recent issue Of the New
Essnn.,hlic," the well-known liter
ary critic, Edmund Wilson. who
went to Russia as a Communist
sympathizer, wrote:
when anything goes wrong
there is likely to be an orgy Of
informing, each accusing his
neighbOr for fear Of being i'm
pEcated. The KirOv shooting
was. followed by 5000 depOrta-
items.
My sources Of information, de-
rived from ex-CommunistS who
have returned to the United
States, indicate there were at
least 100000 deportations as a
consequence of the Kirov episode.
The reign of terror reached
Kharkov where the remaining
Americans were suspected Of being
Trotskyists.
Offered Asylum
Perhaps the tragedy Of the
trapped Americans is not as great
as that of the 700 Austrian Social
tst refugees, the "Schutzbundlers,"
who in February, 1884, fought
their historic battle against the
Austrian FaSciStS. They escaped
into CzechoSlovakia.
The Soviet government then as
sumed the role of a protector of
the victims OF capitalism and Of
fered asylum to the TOO refugees.
IT uyoS q GRAND OoSk11Po