The Next Number (No. 25) of "SOVIET RUSSIA” will be out November 22nd and will contain, among other things, 1. The Economic Significance of the Baltic Region, By O. PREEDIN. 2. The English Rule of Terror in North Russia. 3. The Kolchak-Denikin Adventure. 4. The "Free" Press of Siberia in 1918-1919. 5. More Details about the English and Finnish Piracy in the Baltic. 6. A Continuation of Official Soviet Wireless Notes. Order in Advance from Ten Cents Your Newsdealer At All News Stands Or subscribe (5.00 per year; $2.50 per half-year) direct from Soviet Russia 110 WEST 40TH STREET Room 304 NEW YORK CITY "STRUGG TRUGGLING Russia," the American organ of the Kolchak-Denikin government, in its issue of September 20th has an article on "The Jewish Problem in Russia," from the pen of Dr. D. Pasmanik, a leading Russian Zionist. The writer urges upon the Jewish people to uphold Kolchak and Denikin. He admits that it is generally supposed "that the Bolsheviki are not instigating or making any Jewish pogroms, that they secure all civic rights to the Jewish population," and "that the armies of Admiral Kolchak and General Denikin are saturated with hostile feelings towards the Jews, and will visit all sorts of disasters upon the Jewish people; pogroms, atrocities, persecutions, and the total extermination of their entire population." The writer further says that he knows from personal observation that General Denikin's army "does not love the Jews." Nevertheless he hopes that in spite of the anti-Semitic attitude of some officers and soldiers the Volunteer Army as a whole would not allow any pogroms which would sow the seeds of the dissolution of the State." Apparently that article was written before the wholesale massacre of the Jews by Denikin's Volunteer Army, and the atrocities committed by Denikin's volunteers upon defenseless Jews, as reported by the special correspondent of the Jewish Daily Forward, of New York, Mr. N. Shiffrin, in the following cablegram dated Copenhagen, October 25th: "The newspaper Kievskaya Zhizn (Kiev Life) reports that in the pogrom at Fastov, which was made by Denikin's soldiers, 600 Jews were killed and 1,200 wounded. The newspaper Minsky Courier reports details of the terrible tortures which the Jews of Fastov suffered while the Denikin hordes were there. The ruler of that city was the Cossack chieftain Bulakovich, and his attacks upon the Jews were most brutal. Every day innocent Jewish children were hung on lamp posts in the presence of Bulakovich's officers. "Three days in succession all the lamp posts of the city were 'ornamented' with innocent Jewish children, and around the posts lay the corpses of the children which had fallen from the posts and had been followed by others. "Before hanging the children the murderers treated them in the most horrible way imaginable. The children were forced to have sexual intercourse, and were themselves compelled to tighten the nooses around their own necks, and when those unfortun ate little ones hanging from the posts would kick their legs in the last convulsions of agony the murderers would catch hold of the legs and pull them downward. If a child fell, half dead, it was immediately thrown into the river. "Jewish mothers were hiding their children in cellars and attics to save them from witnessing these horrible sights, because such of the children as were fortunate enough to escape manifested signs of insanity, partly through fear, and partly through having seen such horrors." "Copenhagen, October 26. I received today official reports about the terrible pogrom which was conducted by Denikin's hordes at Fastov. So far seventy seriously wounded Jews have been taken to Kiev hospitals. On October 5th a military commision of Denikin's arrived at Fastov for the alleg. ed purpose of investigating the massacre. Several Jewish delegations, from Odessa, Kharkov, and Fastov, came to Denikin's headquarters at Rostov, to ask him to put an end to the terrible pogroms and to repeal all his orders limiting the rights of Jews, but the Cossack General ordered all these delegations out of the city. Some Christian political organizations sent delegations to Denikin to ask him to stop this terrible massacre of the Jews. These delegations presented to Denikin a great many facts proving that high military officials were involved in the pogroms. They asked him to take energetic measures to prevent the expected recurrence of the pogrom wave. Every day many liberal organizations send to Denikin resolutions of protest against the bloody pogroms on the Jews The Congress of Ukrainian physicians which was held recently, adopted the following resolution: is fully in accord with the government systems of America and France. The overthrow of Czarism was accompanied by a revolt of the Christian population against the churches. This movement is but a repetition of the revolt of the French peasantry against the church at the time of the French Revolution. The Jews had nothing to do with it. Nevertheless in the opinion of General Denikin this revolt is a valid excuse for his soldiers disobeying with impunity his own orders against pogroms upon the Jews. The same special correspondent of the New York Jewish Daily Forward, Mr. Shiffrin, published in the issue of that paper of October 30th, a dispatch taken from an official statement by General Denikin. The statement contained an admission by Denikin that his soldiers had participated in the pogrom in Fastov and in Nyezhin. "But," says the General, "I expelled from the army the officers who were guilty of the pogroms; and I have sent an investigating commission to Fastov and also pamphlets and proclamations." "We protest against the endless horrible pogroms and massacres which are being perpetrated on the peaceable Jewish population. These psychopathic, bestial, Saddistic acts find support among various dark pogrom elements of different sections of society. All these dark forces pretend that these horrible actions are caused by a desire for revenge on the Jews, but in reality revenge has nothing to do with this. The true causes of the pogroms are simply bestial passion and the lust for plunder. The Murder of Mrs. Efimenko by Petlura's These vile acts must be stopped, and we appeal to the conscience of Russian society." General Denikin did not remain ignorant of the murderous deeds of his army. His attitude to the pogroms appears from a cable to the New York Jewish daily, The Day, from its London correspondent, Mr. Podruzhnik, which appeared in the issue of that paper on October 15. (It is to be remembered that the policy of The Day is outspokenly anti-Bolshevik.) Says Mr. Podruzhnik: "From reliable sources I am informed that Denikin sent a cable to London with regard to the pogroms which occured on the territory occupied by his troops. In his statement he says that he has issued stern orders against pogroms. This, however, has been of no avail, because the soldiers on entering the cities find that the churches have been destroyed, and Christians murdered, while the Jews and their synagogues are undamaged. This enrages them, and it is impossible to stop them from venting their anger on the Jews." Thus General Denikin admits in the first place that pogroms against the Jews are made by his soldiers, and that he is unable to enforce sufficient discipline in the army to make his soldiers obey his orders. In the second place, the excuse is characteristic of the old pogrom policy of the Czar. ist regime. Because Christian churches are alleged to have been destroyed, the Jews are murdered by the soldiers. It is not alleged that the churches have been destroyed by the Jews. It is a well known fact that the established church, under the Czars, was a part of the government machinery. The Soviet Government has proclaimed the separation of the church from the state. This Thus, according to General Denikin, expulsion from the army is an adequate punishment for army officers who were found guilty of wholesale murder. Hordes BLAME PLACED UPON THE BOLSHEVIKI-AS USUAL (From Folkets Dagblad Politiken, Stockholm, Sept. 19, 1919) Helsingfors Telegraph, (Rosta).—The Russian counter-revolutionary paper, Ruskaya Zhizn, which is published here, has recently printed a very signi ficant "correction." Some time ago this paper published a statement that a well-known professor in the highest school for women in Petrograd, Mrs. Efimenko, has been murdered by Bolsheviki, at Kharkoff. This information has just been denied, by a Mr. Elkin, who states with proof, that Mrs. Efimenko was murdered in Kharkoff in the latter part of December, 1918, or early in January, 1919, when there were no Bolsheviki in Kharkoff. She was murdered by the troops of Petlura, in trying to defend two daughters from the attacks of soldiers under the leadership of Neklyudoff. Thus did Petlura's counter-revolutionary troops kill other Ukrainian counter-revolutionists, and, as always, accuse the Bolsheviki of crimes they themselves had committed. The Russian Soviet Government Bureau does not object to the reprinting in other periodicals of articles taken from SOVIET RUSSIA. It asks, however, that in return for the privilege of reprinting, editors extend the courtesy of sending a marked copy to SOVIET RUSSIA of each of their issues containing a reprinted article. The War THE capture of Omsk by the glorious Soviet army did not surprise us at all; we expected it at any moment. It was sufficient to read the cable of Robert Wilton, the well-known war correspondent of the London Times, in order to understand that Kolchak scarcely would be able to save his capital. In his dispatch of November 7 about the desperate situation of the White armies, Robert Wilton confesses: "The failure of our Cossacks to justify the hopes and promises made by their leaders entailed the collapse of the left flank of the third army compelling the abandonment of Petropavlovsk.' The correspondent admits that the Reds now "are in a position to continue operations against Omsk." Describing the attacks of the Reds, Robert Wilton says that they are attacking in close forma tion "recklessly, desperately and courageously." The Kolchak staff decided to remain in Omsk in spite of advices of the Commander-in-Chief, General Dietrichs, who very wisely insisted on removing the headquarters from Omsk to Irkutsk. General Dietrichs, the former chief of the CzechoSlovaks, is an experienced general and certainly must have realized the danger for the main general staff of Kolchak to be cut off, thanks to the increased activity of the Red "guerillas" around Krasnoyarsk in the rear. The disagreement between Kolchak and Dietrichs attained such an acute form that the latter resigned and has been replaced by General Sakharoff. The reputation of the latter is by no means brilliant. During the Russo-Japanese war, as well as during the Great War, he was very frequently censured, and finally, was appointed as a chief of intelligence service, in short, kept as far as possible from the battle field. In his speech in the House of Commons, of November 13, Premier Lloyd-George admitted that the Bolsheviki were rapidly approaching Omsk, and that the fate of the place would only be decided as the result of the battles that might be fought shortly in front of the city. We have also before us a cable from Tokio of November 9 (exlusive cable to the Universal Ser vice and the London Daily Express by Hugh Ryas): "Open rebellion has broken out in the army of Admiral Kolchak," says a message just received direct from Omsk. "Kolchak's soldiers are killing many of their officers while retreating. Those officers who are spared are arrested (?) and dressed as privates." Omsk is situated on the eastern bank of the river Irtish which, if Kolchak had a considerable army, would present very useful positions for the passive defense of the town, or to meet the enemy's attacks on the eastern banks of the river. But Kolchak neither had in his possession the necessary number of troops, nor was his tactical position strong in Russia enough to check the enemy's advance, even by assuming passive defense tactics. Being in possession of the town of Tobolsk, situated on the middle course of the river Irtish, the Reds could easily send their barges with troops and with artillery and might penetrate even in the rear of the enemy, or at least seriously threaten the northern part of the Omsk defence sector. On the other hand, the town of Tomsk, which is, as has been reported, in the hands of the Reds, lies in a N. E. direction from the town of Novo-Nikolayevsk, one of the nearest intermediary bases recently created by the Kolchak army, and it is certain that the Reds of this region did not lose an opportunity to support the main Soviet forces in that way. The strong Red army which is occupying Semipalatinsk, situated on the upper Irtish, S. E. of Omsk, certainly did not remain inactive, and being connected by railway-line with Barnaul and Novo-Nikolayevsk, as well as with Omsk, by the river Irtish, probably had undertaken a rather dangerous operation for Kolchak, threatening his communications with the rear even by means of comparatively small forces. We must not forget that from Semipalatinsk the troops have to move down the river and could cross it at any desired place. The fall of Omsk has a very great political importance for the Soviet Republic at the moment when England is intriguing to break down the possible peace arrangements with the Baltic States and Poland, and when Finland is still hesitating. Strategically, Omsk did not present to the Red General Staff a very great importance because, as we have always repeated, the strategical aim of the Reds is the annihilation of the army of the enemy, and if the Reds will be able to annihilate the retreating Kolchak by means of an energetic pursuit, the battle of Omsk will be of real strategical significance, while now it is simply a great tactical victory. We must not neglect the fact that in Eastern Siberia considerable forces of the Japanese are concentrated, which certainly will hurry up in order to cover the fragments of the Kolchak army, thus preventing their complete annihilation, but taking into consideration the long distance which separates the Kolchak battle front from the Japanese and the revolutionary spirit of the Trans-Baikal Cossacks as well as the Siberian, Ussuri and Amur Cossacks, half of which are inclined to join the Reds, we venture to prophesy that the annihilation of the whole Kolchak army may be possible even before the Japanese can intervene. In any case, by capturing Omsk the Soviet army has again proved to the world its titanic military strength. On the other hand, it has inflicted a mortal blow on Kolchak's prestige in Asia and in the eyes of the neutrals. The victory in Siberia becomes very important thanks to the considerable successes obtained by the Soviet armies in South Russia, where Denikin's army is in a most critical position. This is not admitted by the New York Times, which, in its Sunday Magazine of November 16th published a photogravure of General Denikin "Advancing on Moscow from the Southeast of Russia, Commanding Victorious Cossack Troops." Let us remember that the "Victorious" Kolchak was greeted in the same way by the same New York Times, of whose prophecies about Russia not one has been realized. Of a quite different opinion, in regard to the Denikin situation, is the British Premier Lloyd-George; he considers it a "very difficult" one. "General Denikin," the premier pointed out "was holding with a small army a front of 1,300 miles, with marauding bands in his rear-a territory of such vastness that Denikin was unable to administrate it properly." Well, this was known at the very beginning of the armed intervention, and Lloyd-George, we are perfectly well informed, was several times warned by experienced military experts that Denikin would be powerless to accomplish his task without an army at his disposition of at least a million men, and even if he should have such an army, there was a great doubt that the local population would welcome the invaders. The British, French and Russian reactionary strategists, before starting their military operations, it seems to us, had to calculate their own forces as well as the strength of their enemy, and if they did so, of which we are very doubtful, they accomplished it very superficially. The results are proving it. We have just received a very interesting statement published in Le Journal, of Paris, in which Mr. Wendziagolsky, the General Commissar of the Russian army under Kerensky, and a personal friend of Boris Savinkoff, describes the situation in Russia. Wendziagolsky is a Pole and came to Paris to form a Russo-Polish army; he is an ardent enemy of Germany, reaction and the Bolsheviki-he is one of the advisors of Kolchak and Denikin. In his interview with a representative of "Le Journal" Wendziagolsky bitterly attacks his comrade Prince Lieven, the Commander of the Russo-German army, which is a part of the Von der Goltz forces. He openly denounces Lieven as a German agent, an Anti-bolshevik of German origin. According to the statement of Wendziagolsky, there is in Berlin one "All-Russian Government" more, under the title of the Western Russian Government. This government exists on German money, and sits under the presidency of Mr. Belgrad (we think it is Mr. Belgardt). The members of the cabinet are: Messrs. Lutz, Denitchenko, Antonoff, a member of the late Duma; Generals Biskupsky and the famous Skoropadsky, the fallen Hetman of Ukraine, decorated by the Kaiser, and Colonel Zielenievsky. The aim of this govern ment is to crush the Bolsheviki, but in order to accomplish this, it must first crush Kolchak, Denikin and Yudenich. The most curious thing is this, that Prince Lieven has also just arrived in Paris and in the next issue of Le Journal we notice his interview, in which he is defending his Russian origin. We know well that Lieven belongs to an old Baltic German family. Lieven, as he says, is a partisan of the Russo-Polish Entente, which he considers as inevitable sooner or later, therefore he is ready to enter into Poland with the German troops! at once He gets his recruits from the President of the Western Russian Government in Berlin, Mr. Belgrad, who at the same time is the president of the Commission of Repatriation of the Russian Prisoners. What a real dramatic position for those poor Russians who are forced to enlist in such an army as that of Lieven, under the conditions: "either starve or join!" Only by such means are they able to return to their motherland, after a long and unbearable slavery. And this method is called by the Allies "the salvation of Russia." The coming peace between England and Soviet Russia fully depends on the military successes of the Red armies; therefore we are very hopeful that it will come sooner than the world expects, because the strategical position of Soviet Russia is a brilliant one. The renewal of negotiations, in which the Baltic States, Poland, Ukraine and Soviet Russia are taking part, for an armistice to begin November 18, and to be followed in December by a peace conference at Dorpat in Esthonia (Springfield Republican of November 12), to which the Allied powers would be invited to send representatives, proves that England has lost the initiative not only in her strategy against Russia, but also politically. The great powers, which tried fruitlessly to convoke the Prinkipo Conference, now have been invited to come to Dorpat. The initiative comes from Moscow and is supported by a coalition of several states of Western Europe, which have decided to stop the bloodshed so obstinately supported by England and France. The events of the nearest future will show what will happen, but it looks as if the coalition of the small nations, together with powerful and victorious Soviet Russia are stronger than the Big Four in their fruitless effort to establish peace in Europe by means of a most illegal and savage warfare. The self-determination of the small nations, in spite of all the intrigues from London and Paris is a fact which has to be realized, thanks to the superhuman sacrifices of the two-year old Soviet Russian Republic. In order to discourage the honestly thinking people of the interested countries, the British Press Bureau has again started its campaign in the American newspapers. So, for instance, the New York Times of November 14 pathetically declares "Yudenich army again advances." The Associated Press still has the courage to inform America that |