The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1936-07-01
ARTICLE THREE

''When 1 got back to Amer.
ica," an ex-communist told me
in Detroit, 81 wanted to carry
down the gangpIank q banner
reading:
Gust back from Soviet Russia
CURED"
He was one Of the band Of red
pilgrims dispatched to Kharkov
in November, 1881. From that
moment on their troubles began
until life in Soviet Russia became
a nightmare.
In the years that follow, they
experienced in turn the mass
famine, the campaigns Of terror,
the depreciation of the currency.
The enslavment and the increasing
exploitation of labor.
In the United States, these
would-be Soviet boosters demon
strated against the American Gov
eminent. In Russia they were
silenced.
Protest Dangerous
These rebels from capitalist
America learned soon enough in
the Soviet Union that protest is
dangerous, that they had to obey
one man-Stalin- his bureau
cracy.
Some of the more obstreperous
Marxists complained against the
cult of Stalin-worship. On every
public occasion they had to cheer,
Long live Stalin!" and offer
thanks to "comrade Stain for the
good life.''
In Boston, former Communist
interpreted for me the Stain cult
to mean:
"The Russian people now
alive must offer thanks to Stain
for letting them live"
The majority of the Red pill
grims went on struggling in the
Soviet Union, hoping against hope
that the Utopia of their dreams
would somehow emerge in the
course of years from all the suf-
fering.
But, finally, these hopes faded
in the face of realities. Then the
Americans took refuge in another
hope, the hope of getting back to
the United States. It infected the
other foreign workers who had
migrated to Russia.
Came as ShOcb
The scramble of German and
American workmen to get out Of
the Soviet Union came as a shock
to the Russian Communist leaders.
They had not anticipated such
treason"
The Soviet leaders and press
had trumpeted to the Russian
masses tales Of the misery in
Germany and America, of people
dying daily in the streets of star
walton, Of hundreds being shot
by the bosses police.
And now what would the Rus
sian workmen think of the Amer
lean exodus from the Soviet land?
These Americans clearly pre-
ferred 'bullets and hunger I'm
der capitalism to the good Sta
lin life"
Some of the local Soviet bu-
reaucrats were glad to get rid
of the Americans because the lat
ter melted the Russian workers
to protest against the slave.driv-
ing regime.
The exodus Of American work
ers and engineers from Russia
began at the peak of the depres-
sion in the United States.
BREAD LINE PREFERRED
1--WE would rather 90 in the
bread line than live under the
best conditions that Stain and
his mob can offer u.s."
That was the unanimous opin-
ion of the former radicals who
sought to return to the United
States.
Among the most recent repatri-
ates to arrive in this country are
the Kushlaks. They came back
bitterly disillusioned, but deter
mined to remain silent. Then
their daughter Olga was taken
i'll and put in a Milwaukee hos
pital. While there, early this
year, she gave an interview on
conditions in Russia.
Since then her father and
mother have been living in con.
slant fear that their daughters
husband, an Austrian refugee still
living in Russia, might fall victim
to Stains wrath.
I feel justified in referring to
the KuShlakS by name because the
interview has already exposed
them as enemies of Stalinism.
Kushlak was a member of the
Russian Communist party. He had
been a Socialist for 20 years be.
fore going to Soviet Russia.
KuShlak was determined to
make go of it in the Soviet
Union in spite of all the Difficult,
ties. He sent for his wife and
two daughters in America to join
him in Kharkov. He was un.
daunted by the mass arrests and
starvation around him.
But when his wife arrived she