Evening star., 1950-06-11


Among 8 million refugees in
Western Germany there are a
large number Of Soviet Russian
men and women, deserters from
the Red Army and Soviet civil ad-
ministration in Eastern Germany.
At one time they were arriving
in the Western zones at the rate
of several hundred a month. de-
spite Soviet restrictive measures
and propaganda as to the un-
happy fate awaiting them. The
flow continues.
While the Soviet authorities
call them "deserters," Western
officials have a variety of names
for "non-returners," "po-
litical refugees" and escapes. /"
Most of them are intellectual
workers.
The escapes" risk their lives
to flee. They have no certainty as
to how they will be received in
the Western zones. Up till 1947,
the Western Allies faithfully full
filled the Yalta agreement, and
turned thousands of refugees back
Only two or three out of every
10 who try to escape are believed
to get through.
Failure is Fatal
The fate of those who fail can
be imagined. With great luck it
means Siberia. Without luck, a
parade in chains before the
prisoners unit, the reading of a
sentence for treason and then
shooting. Another deterrent is
fear of SMERSH Death to Spies
Soviet underground organization
operating in Western Germany.
Some are officials in trouble,
like Leonid. who was an officer in
the MVD in Berlin. He screened
White Russians from France who
elected to return to Russia as
Soviet citizens. A friend warned
him that the authorities frowned
on his too friendly social contacts
with these repatriates. Leonid
fed and bought his way across
the border with part OF his stock
of looted watches.
Some are political prisoners
who. toward the end of the war,
were released from concentration
camps to fight for Mother Rus
sia. After fighting Loyalty they
learned that other ex-prisoners
who had gone back to Russia had
been made to serve out the rest of
their sentence.
There is the fugitive who mar
ried a German girl and does not
want to live in Russia.
A fourth and fairly common
motive is the attraction of the
Western way of life. Twenty-Five
year -old Alexander, skilled
worker from Siberian tractor
station, met a former Soviet
prisoner of war who had been re-
leased from a camp In Germany
by the Americans and somehow
got to the United States. This
man had been sentenced to Is
years free settlement" in Siberia,
because of the dangerous ideas his
American contact might have
given him. Alexander listened
only half -credulously to tales OF
the free and easy life in America
Soviet newspapers give a very
different picture. When he was
sent to Germany in the army. he
saw that the German peasants
seemed to live much better than
his own people at home. At the
first opportunity he escaped.
Hatred of the Soviet regime
and hoplessness of any brighter
future under it accounts for the
largest number of escapes. Twen-
ty-eight-year-old Feodor. a Com
munist Party member, had beer
sentenced to three years concen.
tration camp in North Russia fol
: returning late from leave to his
army unit. The savage sentence
and the inhuman sufferings of the
people in the labor camp shattered
his illusions. AS soon as he wa.
released and drafted to Germany
he escaped
Waited 22 Years
Vladimir, another of this class
had been an engineer. The re-
gime had never done him any
material harm, but the contrast
between the idealistic pretentions
. and practical brutality of Stain
ism. particularly since the cam
paign to collectivize the farms
had caused him moral suffering
Drafted to a post in Germany
he had been given good quarters
plentiful food and servants. But
his quarters were surrounded by
a six-foot fence and he and his
: fellow-engineers were not allowed
to go out singly. They were for
hidden to mix with Germans. He
; took the first. chance of escape
that offered itself. I'D been wait
ing for an opportunity to escape
from the Soviet system for %
years." he told me.
If any one could be called an
ordinary person, it was little Ari-
. adna Fedorovna. She said she
was 46 but was probably over so
She was neither ugly, nor pretty
neither short nor tall, you did not
recall whether she was thin OF
fat. because you did not notice
her.
| What led her to take the prodi-