Evening star., 1937-12-31

"If there are any tacks to be had in
Russia. I'd like to know where the
ZOO keepers bought them. I can't
find any"
Another friend. journalist, sent
a carpenter he had used to q diplo-
mat who wanted some work done.
He scrawled out the diplomats ad-
dress and carelessly wrote: This is
the man told you about"
The carpenter was philosophic
about the three days he stayed in
grim Lubyanka prison, where the deep
cellars muf1led the crackle of the
rifles
Il don't mind" he said. because
figure they won't hurt q simple fell
low like me. 1t was interesting, too.
I never had chance before. an il
literate man like me, to talk With such
educated men as they have down
there. Only it's pretty full and they're
awful busy and didn't want them 10
forget me-
Waits for Fatal Knock.
But there's nothing humorous when
a woman says. Il can't sleep any more
at nights. I just lie there waiting
to hear the knock on the door.
haven't done anything, but then lots
of other people haven't done any
thing. 1 just lie there at night wait
ing to hear the knock of the G. P. u
And you don't like it either when
a man is braver and says, Il keep q
razor and q tooth brush wrapped up
under my pillow. II they ever come
for me I'm going to jump from the
window and make a run for 1t. I'm
going to get away or die on the
spot. No torture for me-
Then you begin to dig and try
to get down underneath this purge
I have friends whose 6-year-old child
Is in q Russian workers school, One
of the parents takes the child to and
from school each day. They meet
and talk with . lot of people that
way-workers who are open and
friendly and delighted when theil
children are given ~ ride in the for
eigner's automobile.
These workers don't even know
that Russians aren't supposed to have
anything to do with foreigners. They
don't know there 3 . terror in the
land. They read accounts in thu
newspapers and they know that Stain
is vigilant and that the traitors ar,
being ferreted out. And . good thing
too. they tell my friends. My friends
think the purge is only affecting the
intellectuals and the bureaucracy-twc
groups the foreigners know; but that
among the masses-90 per cent Of the
population-there Is no feeling Of Z
terror in the land.
Some Foreigners Unconcerned.
Other foreigners who have livet
here . long time say the same thing
They seem to believe that there hav,
been excesses with some innocent peo
pie killed, just as in Hitler's purge o1
June 80, 1894. but that in the mair
what the bolsheviks say is right anc
that the men they shoot are guilty.
perhaps" said, but aren't ther.
killings in the collective farms, too?'
"Yes, but they are among part,
agents, G. P. U. officials and the lik,
who were corrupt or abused thei
power. They had It coming to them.
well. what about killings amonl
railway employees? I understand tina
3l1 workers on the Far Eastern rail.
ways alone have been executed IL
six months"
That's right" says 4 friend, "bu
the answer is that they were guilty
Why know . merchant who hatet
the regime. He got job as q rail.
way switchman. He waited two year
for his chance. When he threw tn,
switch he derailed a really big train
And you men believe, too, thai
Marshal Tukhachevsky and the sever
other generals were guilty? You be.
lieve that they entered into negotia'
tions with the Germans to betra,
their country in war time?"
A foreign engineer who has no brie
for or against communism, but hi,
known Russia before and since tn,
World War, answered me.
Il most certainly do," he said.
Plotting . Russian Trait?
"Why?" -...-
well, it's in the Russian character
to plot. They were opposed to thu
policies Of Stain, weren't they? Well
why shouldn't they plot his overthrow
them"
After all, you can differ with Z
man and yet plot neither to overthrow
him or betray your country, cam
you?"
Don't you know" persisted tn
engineer, that when Tukhachevsk,
visited Paris he was 30 plainly asains
the French alliance and 20 anxious t
break 1t and ally Russia with Ger.
many that 1t made . scandal?"
We'll, even II I should accep
those rumYs whieh ~ al bard