4 THE REMNANT OF ISRAEL
This is the second of a series of articles on Russia
written by A. Hiehle of this city who was born in Odessa
and whose insight into conditions affecting his native land
are not biased, except in so far as he wishes well for the land
of his birth.
Lack of understanding prompted the allies to refuse
Kerensky the financial support he so urgently needed for the
reconstruction of the young state, and this fatal error was
quickly followed up by Germany, which liberally financed
Lenine, the soul of the extremist left, the bolsheviki, and
thus destroyed the allies’ most faithful friend. The coup
d'etat of November, 1917, made Kerensky a fugitive and
Lenine took his place.
The war had given him the chief power. He quickly
perceived that his best weapon was the disorganization
of the army, and in this policy the soviet played readily
into his hands.
In an unrestrained mass movement the extremists have
the great advantage. They are most reckless, unscrupulous
and destructive in their methods. They make the most for-
cible appeal to the coarser instincts of the mob. The bolshe-
viki proved themselves masters in combining the presenta-
tion of a clear cut, simplified social ideal with a very power-
ful appeal to the impulses of suspicion and hate. Their aims
were clear, their purpose definite. To secure control over
the masses they had to ferment class feeling, to attack the
bourgeoisie, and discredit the aims of the true patriots, the
moderate parties of the revolution.
Led by the cold and stubborn fanatic Lenine, and the
clever adventurer, Trotzy, the bolsheviki solved the problem
of power in a reckless and simplified manner of their own.
They attracted the soldiers, weary and broken in spirit from
the uneven fight, by the promise of immediate peace; the
peasants by the promise of immediate socialization of land,
and the working men by the promise of immediate estab-
lishment of labor control in the factories.
This was the reason why the bolsheviki, although in a
minority, gained control over the proletariat. The idea of
the “triumph of the masses over the exploiters,” over the
“bourgeoisie,” spread like an epidemic through the land
and for a time rendered f utile every attempt at resistance.
They did, for a time, lull the peasants and workingmen into
the belief that all property, personal and real, private, social
and state, all had been stolen from the proletariat, and, con-
sequently, it was quite in order to ‘‘rob the robbers!”
This bolshevist propaganda, at first financed and print-
ed in Germany, was carried in millions upon millions of
copies along the fighting front and among the garrisons
in the rear, and as a result, the so liers deserted the trenches
by the thousands. Leaving their equipment and arms behind,
they made for their homes, from which they had so cruelly
been separated for three long years, and with which they
had not even been allowed to communicate. Little wonder,
that they welcomed the bolsheviki as liberators; the anxiety
for their families let them ignore any reasoning of their
officers. All the attempts of Brusilov, Kornilov and Alexeiev
to restore discipline and obedience were fruitless and the
treaty of Brest Litovsk opened the frontiers to the German
hordes.
They flooded the country carrying away with them
everything of value. Enormous territories, previously un-
touched by the war, were thus looted and stripped, and
where the population showed any resistance their homes
and villages were burnt to the ground. Soon Russia's
wealthiest provinces in the south took the resemblance of
battlefields, and misery, famine and distress spread broad-
cast. Too late, the soldiers saw their mistake, unarmed
they were unable to resist the invaders.
Before the army had dispersed, Lenine seized the op-
portunity to create a practorian guard of his own, the
nucleus of his present red armies. It consisted of idlers, ad-
venturers and former German and Magyar prisoners, rein-
forced by hired hands of Chinese and Letts. They were
thoroughly equipped, and led and instructed by German
officers. The food control which Lenine assumed at once
furnished him the bulk of his army, since the needs of the
soldiers were always considered first; no matter how scanty
the rations of the civilian population were, the soldiers lived
in plenty.
This will be more clearly understood when one reviews
the methods of the food dsitribution in “Sovdepia.”” The
civilian population was classified for this purpose into four
categories, and the rations regulated accordingly on the
basis of a card system. To the first class belonged the work-
ing men engaged in manual labor, to the second, employees
of institutions, chiefly of the soviets, doctors and those en-
gaged in lighter forms of manual work. These two divisions
represent the privileged citizens of bolshevist Russia, the
“Proletariat.” The intellectuals in general, the clergy and
members of the professions were given cards of the third
class, but worst of all was the lot of the fourth category
which included persons living on their independent means,
proprietors of factories, theaters, etc. These two latter class-
es represented the hated ‘‘bourgeoisie.’”” The rations for
them were not only insufficient to sustain life, but the unfor-
tunate holders of these cards were under constant suspicion
as enemies of the soviet government and subject to seach,
arrest and even death sentence without trial.
However, with all their schemes, the bolsheviki were
unable to regulate the supply from the country into towns
and thus were forced to reduce even the rations of the first
two classes to a minimum. As a result famine is raging every
where and the despair is daily driving thousands to the
ranks of the red army, many of whom are opposed to
bolshevism. These are the ‘‘volunteers” of the communist
armies while the remainder is recurited by force. Some
American papers are pointing out to these ever increasing
numbers of Lenines soldiers as a proof of his popularity
and that of bolshevism, but carefully omit to explain who
is making up their members.
Once master of the situation, Lenine proceeded to
carry out his social experiments; he cared little for Russia,
for his plans are not restricted to this unfortunate country
alone—his aims are to bring about a world revolution, to
desroy by force the present social conditions, no matter
by what means. According to his ideal, present civilization
must be rooted out before popular will can create a new
world, without capitalism or class, without war and ha.
tred—eternal happiness!
Russia, naturally, was his first object. This state once
so powerful, today lies in ashes, disintegrated and dis-
membered. The impressive folk songs which in pre-war
times greeted the visitor whenever he touched Russian
soil are silenced and, instead, desolation and the moans of
an unhappy people mark the wake of terrorism that is
sweeping Russia's vast territories. Her villages and cities
are burning and her people are decimated in cruel, fratrici-
dal war. Her children are dying by the thousands, without a
drop of milk to moisten their parched lips, under the dead-
ened and dull stare of their mother.s No human power or
words can describe the afflictions and horrors of the Russian
tragedy of today. One-half of its educated class has been
massacred, women have been violated and dishonored and
children mercilessly butchered. Famine ad epidemics are
raging and in the absence of medical aid and the most in-
dispensable articles of food, clothing and linen, whole
families are perishing by the thousands. This is the result
of Russia's “Heaven of Socialization!”
When all the destroying wave of bolshevism was pour-
ing over the whole of Russia, the orderly Don and Kouban
territories stood out, solitary islands in a heaving ocean of
disorder and anarchy, they became the destination of hun-
dreds of refugees who were fortunate enough to escape the
delight of soviet regime.