CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA
Conditions In Russia Personal Letter Giving Intimate Observations On Present Affairs of Russian Government The writer of this letter is a trained investigator, able, impartial and trustworthy. I...
...I was at the opera the other night...
...The transportation of the enormous army which has been raised limits the number of cars which can be used for food...
...all equally fail to find many supporters in Petrograd...
...Petrograd, March 27, 1919...
...Those with whom I have talked recognize that smother revolution, did it succeed in developing a strong government, would result in a White terror comparable with that of Finland...
...The children, some 50,000 of whom have been provided with homes, are splendidly taken care of and except for the absence of milk have little to complain of...
...Begging has decreased...
...I commend his statements to the confidence of our "readers.—Editor...
...The English situation is the same...
...Today Petrograd is an orderly city...
...Situation is Bad AT present the situation is bad...
...Food conditions have improved recently due to the suspension of passenger traffic and the retaking of Ukraine where food is plentiful...
...At night there are automobiles, sleighs and people on the streets at twelve o'clock to a much greater extent than was true in Paris when I was there in January...
...There is poverty but it is scattered and exists among those of the former poor or the former rich who have been unable to adapt themselves to the conditions which require everyone to do something...
...Absolute separation from the rest of the world combined with the chaotic conditions which Russia has passed through since the 1917 revolution, plus the sabotage, which until recently was quite general among the intelligent classes, including engineers, has resulted in a decrease in rolling stock...
...It may seem somewhat inconsistent for the Russian bourgeoisie to oppose Allied intervention and at the same time to give whole-hearted support to the present government...
...I have asked to be taken to the poorest parts of the city to see how the people in the slums live and both the communist and bourgeoisie have held up their hands and said "but you fail to understand there are no such places...
...They justify this attitude on the grounds that when the two great problems of food and peace are solved the whole papulation can turn itself to assisting the present regime in developing a stable efficient government...
...The cutting off of Siberia, Finland, the Baltic provinces, and until recently the Ukraine, made it necessary to establish new lines of food transportation...
...it was horrible in the last year of the Czar's regime...
...Another group of English men oppose this attitude and look favorably upon the Soviet government...
...The horrible massacres planned for last November were first learned of in Petrograd from the Helsingfors papers...
...Foreign intervention would unite the population in opposition and would tend to greatly emphasize the present nationalist spirit...
...I have seen not a disreputable woman since I went to Petrograd and foreigners who have been there for the last three months report the same...
...In Helsingfors we have an American consul who has taken a firm stand that the present government is not representative and that recognition should be postponed until a new government can be formed...
...Some Sort of Recognition...
...I am dragging this out much longer than I expected to and I want to add a few lines about the situation in Helsingfors, which seems to me to be worse by far than that in Russia...
...I feel personally that Petrograd is safer than Paris...
...That the army is efficient is demonstrated by the present location of Soviet forces who have contended with the Russian White Guard supported by enormous sums of money, munitions and even soldiers from the Allies...
...I have met Tchitcherin, Litvinov and most of the important personages in the communist government of Petrograd...
...Russia is straining every nerve to raise an army to oppose the encircling White Guards...
...Whatever food exists is fairly well distributed and there are food kitchens where anyone can get a fairly good dinner for 3.50 roubles...
...They point to the numerous changes which have already been introduced by the present communist government, to the acknowledgment that mistakes have been made, to the ease of securing introduction of constructive ideas under the present regime...
...Most wonderful of all the great crowd of prostitutes has disappeared...
...For money one can still obtain many of the luxuries of life...
...100,000 seriously ill in hospitals or at home, and another 100,000 with swollen limbs still able to go to the food kitchens...
...However, my conclusions are based on conversation with not only communists but also many opponents of the communist government, members of the aristocracy, business men and foreigners, and I am persuaded that a large majority of the population of Petrograd if given a choice between the present government and the two alternatives, a counter revolution or foreign intervention, would without hesitation take the present government...
...H. H., Oakland, Cal...
...While there I was told there had been a robbery the previous night in which a man lost 5,000 roubles, that this was the first robbery in several weeks...
...They have the warmest affection for America, believe in President Wilson, and are certain that we are coming to their assistance, and together with our engineers, our food, our school teachers, and our supplies they are going to develop in Russia a government which will emphasize the rights of the common people as no other government has...
...Briefly my opinion of the Russian situation is as follows: In Petrograd I presume the present communist government has a majority of the working men obeying it but probably less than half of the total population are members of the communist party...
...All these facts have persuaded many of the thinking people with whom I have talked to look to the present government in possibly a somewhat modified form as the salvation of Russia...
...On the other hand representatives of the Food Control, army officers, etc., are persuading Mannerheim that the United States gov...
...Revolution would result in chaos...
...In this time of the high cost of everything this is about the only money spent that I get full value for.-J...
...I admire your brave fight you fought with ycur back to the wall, but you have fought it out bravely...
...I am convinced of the necessity for us taking a step immediately to end the suffering of this wonderful people that I would be willing to stake all I have in converting every ninety out of every hundred American business men whom I could take to Petrograd for two weeks...
...Of the population of a million 200,000 are reported by the Board of Health to be ill...
...All this is happening at the same time that the new parliament is meeting, with 80 socialists out of 200 members...
...Kolchack, Denikin, Yudenvitch, Trepov, the despicable hordes of Russia emigress who haunt the Grand Hotel, Stockholm, the So-cithans House, Helsingfors, the offices of the Peace Commission in Paris, and squabble among themselves as to how the Russian situation shall be solved...
...For months there have been no executions I am told and certainly people go to the theatre and church and out on the streets much as they would in any city of the world...
...In Finland our Consul has a record of 12,500 executions in some fifty districts out of something like 500 districts by the White Guard...
...Yours sincerely...
...Cordially yours, Enclosed find money for renewal of my subscription...
...J. K., Ossian, la...
...ernment is back of him and that we as a people are absolutely opposed to the Socialists, of whom Mannerheim has executed so many, and to the communist government across the boundary to the East...
...The truth must and will prevail and the truth will make us free...
...probably the only city of the world of its size without police...
...Your magazine is the greatest periodical out, for it tells us the truth and gives us the inside of the political machine...
...The policy of the present government has resulted in eliminating throughout Russia, I am told, this horrible outgrowth of modern civilization...
...It is needless for me to tell you That most of the stories that have come from Russia regarding atrocities, horrors, immorality, are manufactured in Viborg, Helsingfors or Stockholm...
...In Petrograd I have been repeatedly assured that the total Red executions in Petrograd and Moscow and other cities was at a maximum 3,200...
...There is nowhere a group of Russians in whom the people I have talked with have confidence...
...From 60 to 100 carloads of food have ar-rived in Petrograd each day since February 18...
...Wishing you God speed in your honest and sincere stand, I beg to remain...
...PERHAPS it is futile to add that my solution of the Russian problem is some sort of recognition of the present government with the establishment of economic relations and the sending of every possible assistance to the people...
...No More Executions TERRORISM has ended...
...However, the reports of people dying in the streets are not true...
...I have been treated in a wonderful manner by the communist representatives, though they know that I am no Socialist...
...Dear Senator: I have been several weeks in Petrograd...
...Naturally transportation is inefficient...
...Consequently there has been great suffering in Petrograd...
...Part of the Englishmen are bringing pressure to bear on General Yudenvitch with the help of Russians to invade Russia or the Finns to do likewise...
...Enclosed find check for $2.00 for two years' subscription to your valuable magazine...
...That anybody could even for a moment believe in the nationalization of women seems impossible to anyone in Petrograd...
...There is a power in Finland more important than that of the foreign office and the civil power, and that is the military government of which Mannerheim is the head...
...In the public schools free lunches are given the children and one sees in the faces of the younger generation little of the suffering which some of the older people have undergone and are undergoing...
Vol. 11 • May 1919 • No. 5
