Paul Scheffer Leaves Russia
Glassman, Leo M.
PAUL SCHEFFER LEAVES RUSSIA By LEO M. GLASSMAN That conditions in Russia have changed not a little since Stalin forced the redoubtable Trotsky out of the country is evident. The same Stalin has...
...His sincerity, his ability, and his sober judgment were not doubted...
...He investigated, recorded and reported with the care of a scientist who uses a microscope, and that was precisely the reason for the extraordinary significance his articles acquired in the eyes of political and economic circles...
...The Soviet authorities would have been exceedingly pleased if we had agreed to spare them disgrace in the eyes of the world by making it possible for them to say that the undesirable correspondent was not banned by them but was withdrawn by us...
...The tenor of the recent despatches from the American correspondents in Moscow indicates obviously that they resent the Soviet's action on Scheffer...
...Paul Scheffer came to Moscow in 1921 and within a short time he established a reputation as the best-informed man in Europe on the situation in Soviet Russia...
...This rule of terror wishes to pursue its fatal course without any witnesses...
...the 'inner power' and Stalin's ardent followers persecuted him mercilessly...
...After communicating with us about the situation, Scheffer left Moscow...
...among the foreign newspapermen in Moscow it was conceded that his knowledge of Russian history and of the Bolshevik revolution, and his grasp of the complicated political trends and intrigues in the Kremlin were equaled by few...
...The methods employed by the Kremlin in trying to keep Scheffer out of Moscow, the reasons for its final decision, and the fight made by the Berliner Tageblatt to secure a visa for Scheffer to reenter Soviet Russia, are told in an article by Theodor Wolff, editor of the Berliner Tageblatt, in a recent issue of that paper: "The refusal to permit Paul Scheffer to return to Moscow did not surprise us in the least...
...In Berlin there are correspondents of the Bolshevist press who denounce and ridicule everything that happens in Germany, but no one interferes with them because they are German citizens...
...The moving force in all this was the esteemed successor of the Cheka-the Gepeu, which has acquired such notoriety through its mass murders and arrests...
...The Foreign Office in Moscow ostensibly made an effort to do something for Scheffer-but it had no power against the Gepeu...
...After Paul Scheffer had for years reported to the world the various stages of Russia's development, the present ban against him shows, with the utmost clearness, what the real situation in Moscow is...
...all knew that Scheffer was the best and most honest authority on Russia...
...The severest critics of the Soviet government's policy and of the Stalin regime could not have produced a more conclusive bit of evidence of the deplorable economic situation in Russia than has been offered by Stalin himself in banning Scheffer from Moscow at this particular time...
...Scheffer had created for himself a peculiar position in Moscow...
...There could no longer be any doubt that a conspiracy was on to drive Scheffer out of Russia...
...This rule of force, which has driven out of Russia its finest and noblest spirits, relies upon the Gepeu and spreads terror through executions and imprisonments...
...Scheffer scrutinized the Russian situation with the impartiality of a research man...
...But the Soviet government, despite the fact that this was a violation of the treaty, refused Scheffer a return visa, on the ground that journalists cannot be regarded as 'residents' on Russian territory...
...With the arbitrary policy that prevails at present in Moscow no correspondent can be sure of his position there: if Scheffer is barred today, others may be tomorrow...
...But instead of showing the world the marvelous blessings that are being bestowed upon the Russian people-and that would have been the proper revolutionary policy-the Soviet government is shutting its windows, locking its doors, and trying to keep out all honest observers...
...Why was Paul Scheffer asked to make his home elsewhere...
...we will content ourselves for the present with the Sews sent from there by telegraphic agencies, because experience has shown that under the regime of force which exists there now an impartial, honest attitude has become absolutely impossible...
...one of them told me very candidly that Scheffer did not stand in with the Soviet authorities and that they would be greatly pleased if the Tageblatt correspondent should get out and stay out...
...The reason given was the difference of opinion existing between the Soviet government and Paul Scheffo...
...Desiring, however, to clear this matter up we requested the Russian ambassador in Berlin to notify Moscow that we were waiting for a final decision on the question of Scheffer's return to Moscow...
...accurately, without equivocation, and without regard to the unjust restrictions imposed by the Soviet censorship department...
...Every foreigner who came there immediately went to see him...
...THE recent report that Paul Scheffer, the Moscow correspondent of Berliner Tageblatt, has been refused a reentry visa to Soviet Russia is unquestionably one of the most significant bits of news that has come from that country in many months of troubled politics...
...We need not tep those who have read Paul Scheffer's reports from Moscow and other parts of Russia since 1921 that in his articles there was not a trace of prejudice or hostility...
...Stalin is ignorant of the fact that conditions in the rest of the world are fundamentally different from those in Russia, and he has persuaded himself that after he has tried out the rest of the world he will also be able to conquer it...
...In September (1929) Paul Scheffer desired to go to Germany and from there to England, because he had been invited to lecture on the subject of Russia in London and Glasgow...
...The Soviet ambassador in Berlin, Krestinsky, suggested long ago that we recall Paul Scheffer from Moscow...
...The same Stalin has likewise banished many other persons, including the well-known and quite courageous correspondent of the Berliner Tageblatt...
...Paul Scheffer was assured by the Soviet authorities that their action was not intended against him personally, but that it was a matter of 'principle.' That Stalin regime, which ordinarily is so stern and drastic, did not dare this time to be frank and took shelter behind a 'principle,' whose existence became known for the first time through this incident...
...Needless to say we refused to consider the suggestion of the Soviet government, and at the same time Paul Scheffer emphatically rejected the advice of Moscow to leave Russia voluntarily...
...In Germany his fame was such that he was called "the king of correspondents...
...The censors made no secret of their hostility to Scheffer...
...What is significant is that it came after Scheffer had been tolerated for eight long years, precisely at this time when the Stalin government has launched a world-wide publicity campaign to advertise its five-year industrialization plan...
...We all knew that Scheffer was regarded with disfavor by the Soviet authorities, and that sooner or later he would be told to stay out of Russia, because of his insistence on reporting conditions in the U.S.S.R...
...There is no more convincing evidence of the spiritual decline of the Bolshevist leadership than this inability to understand the significance of its own action...
...It is convincing proof that things are not as rosy in Soviet Russia as the Kremlin publicity staff would have the world believe...
...All this, however, did not produce the desired effect...
...This brought a telegraphic reply that Scheffer would under no circumstances be allowed to return to Moscow...
...Obviously Stalin cannot afford to put his pet scheme, upon the outcome of which hangs the fate of his rule, to the scrutiny of a newspaperman like Paul Scheffer...
...The following comment by one who has been on the scene is therefore to the point.-The Editors...
...We wanted to clarify the situation once and for all-if Moscow desired to get rid of a witness who knows a great deal and likes to speak the truth, then it was necessary to establish that fact before the world in no uncertain terms...
...European journals have asked and attempted to answer this question, but so far as we are aware its significance has not yet been noticed in America...
...Seeing that their suggestion was not accepted, the Soviet officials launched on a campaign intended to make things disagreeable for Scheffer in Moscow...
...He asked the Soviet government to give him a return visa, to which, according to the agreement between Germany and Russia consummated in December, 1928, every German resident in Soviet Russia desiring to go abroad is entitled...
...During my stay in Moscow as an American correspondent from August, 1928, to May, 1929, I frequently saw Scheffer and learned to appreciate, as did all the other American correspondents, his sterling qualities as man and correspondent...
...He was a personal friend of the German ambassador in Moscow, Count Brockdorf-Rantzau and participated, on the ambassador's invitation, in many negotiations which were intended to bring about a better and closer understanding between Germany and Soviet Russia...
...As regards Moscow...
...It was naive on the part of the people in Moscow to suppose that we and Scheffer would aid them in veiling the facts...
...To those who are intimately acquainted with the situation in Moscow, therefore, the Scheffer incident did not come as a surprise...
Vol. 11 • January 1930 • No. 13
