265- 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
 *B hE b27 
 
lhe 
 
 Case of Russian Labor 
 Against Bolshevism 
 
 (Facts and Documents) 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE 
 
 Russian Information Bureau in the U. S, 
 
 WOOWORTH BUILDING 
 WW YORK CITY 
 
The 
 
 Case of Russian Labor 
 
 Against Bolshevism 
 
 (Facts and Documents) 
 
 a • '» • » » 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE 
 
 Russian Information Bureau in the U. S. 
 
 WOOLWORTH BUILDING 
 NEW YORK CITY 
 
PRESERVATION 
 COPY ADDED 
 ORIGINAL TO BE 
 RETAINED 
 
 9 1S94 
 
 •••••:• 
 
 • • • • 
 
 • • •• • . 
 
Introduction 
 
 The Russian situation at this moment may be summed up 
 as follows: While the Bolsheviki are still able to control, 
 through armed force, a part of Central Russia, the people of 
 Russia, led by the greatest Russian liberal and revolutionary lead- 
 ers, are waging an open war against the Bolshevist usurpers. 
 When we speak about the people of Russia we have in mind, 
 as far as social classes are concerned, not only the Russian middle 
 class, but also, and especially, the Russian peasantry and work- 
 ingmen who are constantly rising against the Bolshevist tyranny. 
 
 As far as the Russian political parties are concerned, not only 
 the liberals, the Constitutional-Democratic Party, but also the 
 People's Socialists, the Social-Democrats Mensheviki and the 
 Party of Socialists-Revolutionists are engaged in open war with 
 the Bolshevist usurpers and will not cease this war until political 
 liberties and democratic institutions are reestablished in the 
 country. The people of Russia, guided by such leaders as Cath- 
 erine Breshkovsky and Nicholas Tchaikovsky, will not cease their 
 efforts to break the new tryanny and to bring about, through an 
 All-Russian Constituent Assembly, the rule of democracy in 
 Russia. 
 
 As Catherine Breshkovsky The "Grandmother of the Rus- 
 sian Revolution/' said in her wonderful "Message to the 
 American People," "The demand for a Constituent Assembly 
 was one of the main aspirations of the Russian Revolution. 
 It was on the eve of its realization when the Bolshevist 
 revolt, in November, 1917, tore out of the hands of the people 
 the beautiful possibility to make laws for themselves, to trace 
 the path for their future, to construct a new life in accordance 
 with the interests of the masses, to strengthen peace and insure 
 the common welfare." 
 
 The Constituent Assembly, which convened in Petrograd in 
 January, 1918, was elected by the entire Russian people on the 
 basis of universal, direct, equal and secret suffrage, with women 
 and soldiers participating in the voting. The elections took place 
 after the Bolsheviki had come into power, but, in spite of the 
 fact that these elections took place during the honeymoon of the 
 Bolshevist rule, when their promise of an immediate, general and 
 democratic peace had not yet resulted in a shameful, separate 
 peace with the German militarists, and the promise of bread had 
 not yet resulted in a general starvation, Russia as a nation repu- 
 
 3G52 
 
dj^tfd ;th^r Bolshevist t fule^ and the majority in the Constituent 
 Assembly Was h^d-by^the^'Socialists-Revolutionists. The results 
 are well known. The Bolsheviki dispersed the parliament of the 
 Russian people with bayonets. 
 
 Since then Russia is not free. A great part of our country 
 is ruled by a group of usurpers who camouflage their terrorism 
 and tyranny by democratic phraseology. In the name of the 
 "proletariat" they have suppressed not only the Liberal, but also 
 the entire Socialist press. In the name of the "working people" 
 they have filled up the prisons with workingmen and peasants 
 and have proclaimed "enemies of the people" not only the Con- 
 stitutional-Democratic Party, but also the Party of Socialists- 
 Revolutionists and the Social-Democrats Mensheviki, that is, 
 the parties of the Russian peasantry and proletariat. 
 
 The Bolsheviki came into power by violence and they have 
 sustained themselves in power by violence and terrorism. Their 
 main support, the so-called Red Army, are well paid and well fed 
 while thousands are daily dying from starvation in the cities and 
 towns of Russia. "Flooded with tears and blood, Russia moans 
 and cries out to the world," says Catherine Breshkovsky. "She 
 is a living body, and her tortures cannot be looked upon cold- 
 bloodedly as an extraordinary, never-before-witnessed experi- 
 ment in social evolution. She is alive, and every pore of her 
 body is shedding blood." 
 
 Every pore of her body is shedding blood. She is struggling 
 for her existence and freedom. Those who struggle for democ- 
 racy in Russia will defend her against the red reaction of Bol- 
 shevism as well as against the possible black reaction of Tzarism. 
 The Russian democrats struggling against Bolshevism stand for 
 the establishment in Russia of a government of the people, by 
 the people and for the people. Here, as in almost everything 
 else, the present generation of Russia agrees with the dear 
 "Grandmother," who says: "Our greatest, deepest, most imme- 
 diate need is the creation of conditions under which the Russian 
 people will be able to convoke an All-Russian Constituent As- 
 sembly. Russia will never be quiet and satisfied until her repre- 
 sentatives, freely chosen by the entire population, will establish a 
 Constitution for the State, will lay the foundation for a stable, 
 democratic government, insuring laws that accord with the will 
 and desires of the Russian people." 
 
 A. J. SACK, 
 Director of the Russian Information 
 
 June 10, 1919. Bureau in the U. S. 
 
1. — The Arrest of the Labor 
 Conference 
 
 The economic and financial policy of Bolshevism has resulted 
 in a crushing fiasco, and the agonies of starvation, instead of the 
 promised paradise, have turned the Russian workingmen and 
 peasants against the Bolshevist regime. The following appeal, 
 issued by the Workingmen's Delegates arrested by the Bolsheviki 
 and kept in the Tagansky Prison in Moscow, fully reflects the 
 sentiment of the masses of the Russian proletariat since the spring 
 of 1918: 
 
 "We, the members of the Labor Conference, representing 
 independent working-class organizations of various towns of 
 Russia (Petrograd, Moscow, Tula, Sormovo, Kolomna, Kulebaki, 
 Tver, Nizhni-Novgorod, Vologda, Orel, Votkinski Savod), having 
 been arrested at our second meeting, on the 23rd of July, 1918, in 
 'Cooperation Hall/ feel it our public duty to protest before all 
 citizens of Russia against the false and calumnious reports pub- 
 lished by the Bolshevist Government press on July 27 and 28. The 
 Bolshevist government takes advantage of the fact that it has 
 muzzled the whole independent press and that we, members of the 
 Labor Conference, are locked up in prison under incredible con- 
 ditions. 
 
 Our conference was not 'a secret counter-revolutionary plot 
 organized by well-to-do people and intellectuals/ etc., but a public 
 conference of delegates of working-class organizations, which was 
 beforehand known to and discussed by the whole press, including 
 that of the Bolsheviki. 
 
 The delegates were sent to the Conference not by 'Menshevik 
 or Social-Revolutionary groups/ as falsely stated in the Izvestia,* 
 which desires to deceive workmen who have not yet deserted the 
 government, but by assemblies of delegates from works and fac- 
 tories having tens of thousands of electors behind them. The 
 adopted general basis of representation was one delegate for 5,000 
 workmen. The Izvestia goes so far as to state shamelessly that 
 
 ! 
 
 * An official Bolshevist publication. 
 
Russian Labor Against Bolshevism 
 
 the delegates, Polikarpoff and Pushkin, sent by the Tula work- 
 men, were elected by 60 to 160 men, whereas they were sent by 
 the Tula assembly, which consisted of delegates elected by the 
 majority of Tula workmen. At places where independent work- 
 men's organizations could not yet be set up, delegates to the Con- 
 ference were sent by individual big factories. 
 
 Having calumniously described the delegates as impostors 
 who represent nobody, the Izvestia — with the insolence character- 
 istic of the organs of the Tzarist regime — did not stop at giving 
 false information about things found on the arrested delegates 
 in order to cast a shadow on their characters. Thus, it is reported 
 that Comrade Berg was found to be in possession of 6,000 roubles. 
 As a matter of fact he had only 590 roubles. Comrade Leikin is 
 stated to have had 160 roubles, and he had in fact 1 rouble 65 
 kopeck. The Izvestia further states that on Leikin the following 
 things were found: a ring, diamonds and a gold watch, whereas 
 all his 'jewelry' consisted of an ordinary gun-metal watch, which 
 it did not occur even to the prison warders to take away. 
 
 The Bolshevist government has to resort to stupid, shameless 
 lies to justify the preposterous arrests of the workmen's delegates 
 who dared to show some independent organizing initiative. 
 
 The Conference of workmen's delegates was convened to 
 make arrangements for the convocation of an All-Russian Labor 
 Congress, and had held two meetings. The agenda of the Con- 
 ference included the following items: measures against the dis- 
 integration of the working-class movement ; what can be done to 
 effect a concentration of its forces and its proper organization ; 
 arrangements for the All-Russian Labor Congress. But the 
 Communist Government, just as its Tzarist predecessors, does not 
 tolerate any symptoms of an independent working-class move- 
 ment which constitutes a menace to its power. In this movement 
 they see a reflection of the food crisis, and, incapable of solving 
 the State problems which they have before them, they resort to 
 repressive measures directed against the leaders of the working- 
 class movement. Workmen's organizations are subjected to 
 unheard-of persecutions ! 
 
 Long live the working-class organizations ! 
 
Russian Labor Against Bolshevism 
 
 Long live their independence, their revolutionary and organ- 
 izing initiative ! 
 
 Signed: A. N. Smirnoff, workman of the Cartridge Factory, 
 delegate from Petrograd; N. N. Glieboff, workman at the Pouh 
 tiloff Works ; J. S. Leikin, delegate of the Assembly of Delegates 
 of the Nizhni and Vladimir districts ; D. V. Zakharoff, secretary 
 of a trade union ; D. I. Zakharoff, Sormovo ; V. I. Matveev, Sor- 
 movo ; A. A. Vezkaln, carpenter, member of the Executive Com- 
 mittee of the Lettish Social-Democrat Party ; I. G. Volkoff, turner, 
 member of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Union of 
 Metal Workers; A. A. Chinenkoff, Nizhni; S. P. Polikarpoff, 
 Tula ; N. K. Borisenko, Petrograd Tube Works ; V. G. Chirkin, 
 turner, member of the All-Russian Council of Trade Unions; 
 Berg, Electrical Works ; D. Smirnoff, Arsenal, Petrograd ; Victor 
 Alter, delegate of the Executive Committee of the 'Bund' (Jew- 
 ish Socialist Party) ; Pushkin, workman of the Tula Small Arms 
 Factory, etc., etc." 
 
 In connection with this affair, the following cable was sent 
 by the Central Committees of the Russian Social-Democratic 
 Labor Party of the "Bund" (Jewish Socialist Party) to the 
 Executive Committees of all Socialist parties of Europe and 
 America. 
 
 "Forty delegates, elected by workmen of various towns to 
 a conference for the purpose of making arrangements for the 
 convocation of a Labor Congress, have been arrested and com- 
 mitted for trial by the Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal, created 
 to pass death sentences without the ordinary guarantees of a fair 
 trial. They are falsely and calumniously accused of organizing 
 a counter-revolutionary plot. Among the arrested are the most 
 prominent workers of the Social-Democratic Labor Movement, 
 as, for instance, Abramovitch, member of the Central Executive 
 Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party and of 
 the 'Bund/ who is personally well known to many foreign com- 
 rades; Alter, member of the Executive Committee of the 'Bund'; 
 Smirnoff, member of last year's Soviet delegation to the Western 
 Countries ; Vezkaln, member of the Executive Committee of the 
 Lettish Social-Democratic Party ; Volkoff, chairman of the Petro- 
 grad Union of Workmen's Cooperative Societies; Zakharoff, 
 
8 Russian Labor Against Bolshevism 
 
 secretary of the Petrograd Union of Workmen of Chemical Fac- 
 tories; and other prominent workers of the trade union and 
 cooperative movement. 
 
 We demand the immediate intervention of all Socialist parties 
 to avert the shameful and criminal proceeding." 
 
 The above-given is not the only appeal of Russian working- 
 men coming from behind the walls of a Bolshevist prison. The 
 well-known revolutionist, Vladimir L. Bourtzev, in his paper 
 "Obscheye Dyelo" (Common Cause), now printed in Paris, has 
 published the following appeal : 
 
 "To all workmen, to all citizens : 
 
 We, twelve prisoners in the Tagansky prison in Moscow, 
 twelve captives of the Bolshevist government, who are consid- 
 ered 'an extraordinary commission fighting the revolution,' we 
 appeal to you, comrades and citizens, from behind the prison walls 
 and bars of our solitary cells, into which we have been thrown 
 by the Lenine government. 
 
 We, laborers and old fighters for the Revolution and partici- 
 pators in the proletarian movement, we prison inmates under the 
 Tzar's regime, we socialists, are deprived of our liberty by a gov- 
 ernment of 'workmen and peasants,' a government of 'a socialist 
 republic.' H 
 
 The appeal describes the way meetings of the peasant depu- 
 ties in Moscow have been dispersed and arrests made. 
 
 "After being searched," the appeal reads, "all of us, 58 people, 
 including 50 laborers, representatives of the proletariat of Mos- 
 cow, Petrograd and Tula, were driven in automobiles to Loo- 
 bianka,* to the well-known Extraordinary Commission. We were 
 locked up in an ordinary cell and given nothing to eat until the 
 next morning. During the night each of us, separately, was taken 
 away to be questioned. Our cross-examiners were rough and 
 ignorant people who allowed themselves to ridicule and make fun 
 of some of the laborers and even to threaten them. Some of them 
 asked us whether we recognized the Soviet government. They 
 tried to detect suspected Czecho-Slovaks and seemed very much 
 interested in their movements. At the cross-examination we were 
 accused of nothing. The nature of the institution before which 
 
 • A street in Moscow. 
 
Russian Labor Against Bolshevism 
 
 we were brought for cross-examination, however, betrayed itself 
 in the kind of questions put to some of us. We were asked 
 whether we conducted any propaganda or tried to find comrades 
 among the other prisoners while waiting for a hearing. (Per- 
 haps they had suspected rebellion?) Comrades D. C. Kuchin, K. 
 Srausky and C. G. Rogov, a mechanics' shop worker, were kept 
 in isolation until the next morning, because of suspicion. The 
 general atmosphere of the proceeding was that of the most corrupt 
 espionage. 
 
 The chambers of that building in Loobianka were filled with 
 people of most different standing and ages. There were children 
 as well as old people who had been in seclusion for weeks without 
 a hearing and without any accusation. Comrades and Citizens! 
 The government commits the greatest follies. Workmen who are 
 looking for a solution of their difficulties and for help are being 
 subjected to the worst degradation. The government treads upon 
 everything the people have wrung from the Revolution, upon 
 everything that it needs as urgently as it needs air to breathe. 
 The laborers are being deprived of their most sacred right, free- 
 dom of assembly, and thus are rendered helpless. 
 
 Our prison slips are marked: 'guilty of counter-revolution- 
 ary attempts.' The very fact that we have been arrested and our 
 labor meeting in the socialist club has been dispersed, is proof 
 enough of the fact that the present government falsely bears the 
 name of 'government of workmen/ Moreover, tens of similar 
 arrests and dispersions of labor meetings, accompanied by shoot- 
 ings, have taken place. 
 
 As time goes on, this government finds more and more people 
 of the labor class, curiously enough, guilty of counter-revolution- 
 ary activities. As a result, the prisons are filled with workmen- 
 socialists as in the times of the old regime. 
 
 The labor class is in danger! The government of the com- 
 missaries is opposed to the interests of the proletariat, the demo- 
 crats, and that of the whole country. We, the twelve captives of 
 the Bolshevist government, who are responsible workingmen- 
 leaders of proletarian organizations and socialist parties, declare 
 that we herewith rightfully protest against our arrest and the 
 atrocious infringement on the laborers' rights to organize — acts 
 
10 Russian Labor Against Bolshevism 
 
 committed by the agents of the present counter-revolutionary gov- 
 ernment on June 13. We protest against the cruel procedure in 
 dealing with the labor class, which, on the brink of the precipice, 
 is clamoring for the rescue of Russia and the laboring classes. We 
 hope that our voices sounding from the prison will be heard by 
 wide circles of the labor class and democrats! 
 
 (Signed) Labor representatives: T. I. Ivanov, from the plant 
 'Duks,' President of the Labor Convention of June 23; V. S. 
 Strakhin, of the factory 'Liman' ; P. P. Pomakhin, of the printing 
 establishment 'Zadrooga'; laborer from the mechanics' shop of 
 Nesmieyanov, S. G. Rogov ; laborer of the plant 'Bromley/ Y. V. 
 Matrieyev (a miller) ; President of the Smelters' Branch of the 
 Professional Union of Metal Workers, deputy of the laborers 
 from the plant of Briansk, and member of the Briansk Council of 
 Workmen deputies, K. D. Ulyanov ; secretary of the All-Russian 
 Labor Union of printers, M. S. Kamermakher-Kef ali ; member 
 of the central committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Party, 
 A. R. Troyanovski ; member of the Constitutional Assembly and 
 of the central committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Party, 
 G. D. Kuchin ; member of the executive committee of the Moscow 
 Soviet of Workmen's Deputies and Secretary of the Moscow 
 committee of the Social-Democratic Party ; B. V. Malkin ; member 
 of the Social-Democratic organization 'Yedinstvo' ('Unity'), A. D. 
 Borodulin; member of the Social-Revolutionary Party, L. V. 
 Freifeld." 
 
2. — The Suppression of the 
 Labor Press 
 
 The Russian workingmen and peasants and the Russian 
 democracy in general, which fought the Tsar's regime in the name 
 of liberty, are fighting and will fight the Bolshevist tyranny in the 
 name of the same sacred principle. In endeavoring to fight the 
 "bourgeoisie," the Bolshevist rulers have suppressed not only the 
 liberal, but the entire Socialist press as well. And here is an 
 appeal issued in Petrograd and signed by the following organiza- 
 tions : Committee for the Defense of Freedom of the Press ; Cen- 
 tral Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party; 
 Central Committee of the Party of Socialists-Revolutionists; 
 Central Committee of the Councils of Peasant Deputies and the 
 All-Russian Union of Typographical Workers. 
 
 "Comrades and Citizens! The wicked work of violating 
 democratic rights becomes daily more disastrous, both for the 
 further development of the Revolution and our freedom won by 
 it. Civil War has inflamed the whole country. Cities are being 
 destroyed. The war of brother against brother is consuming the 
 strength of our revolutionary democracy. The cannon, secured 
 to guard the conquests of our Revolution, shatter monuments, 
 homes, and shrines of art. The cities of Russia fall at the hands 
 of her own citizens. 
 
 "Workmen and Soldiers ! The Revolution took place in order 
 to secure and preserve the rights of the people. However, in their 
 blind madness, the irreconcilable fanatics destroy both the achieve- 
 ments of the Revolution and the country. The democratic activi- 
 ties of the laborers are being suppressed. The nation is being 
 driven towards ruin. The people are deprived of all liberties won 
 by the Revolution. Those who claim to be the 'Rulers' have 
 enough to hide. Therefore, they make you keep your mouth shut 
 and stifle the Revolution, which clings to the ruins of destroyed 
 cities, propitiated by the blood of murdered brothers. The press 
 has become an illegal organ. Freedom of the press is now the 
 privilege of only one party, i.e., the Bolsheviki. The Revolution- 
 
12 Russian Labor Against Bolshevism 
 
 ists do not have the floor. As in prerevolutionary times, we are 
 made to believe that Russia prospers, for the people 'do not com- 
 plain.' 
 
 "In these days, when only a small group of exploiters an- 
 nounce the approach of a socialistic state, the stifled Revolution, 
 bled to exhaustion in the civil war, uses the last drop of its strength 
 to proclaim 'Hail, the freedom of the press V 
 
 "To be sure, there is no need for a truly democratic power 
 to fear criticism and public opinion. Only those who represent 
 the minority and are anxious to persist in power, have to have 
 recourse to such measures as repression. 
 
 "Freedom of the press has been won by the people and for 
 the people. The printers appeal to all proletarians and citizens 
 to support them in their fight for freedom of the press, not because 
 they want to protect their professional interests, but the demo- 
 cratic rights of the whole nation. 
 
 "During the dark days of the counter-revolution in June, the 
 printers stood firmly for freedom of the press. During the first 
 months of the great Russian Revolution, the efforts of the print- 
 ers, in pointing out the demands of the Revolution, brought light 
 to the dark masses. Now, when the new regime with its singular 
 laws builds supports for a counter-revolution, we unfurl again 
 the banner of the fight for freedom of the press. We beg and 
 demand, and hope to be supported by all democrats." 
 
3. — Curbing the Activities of the 
 Trade Unions 
 
 In the Bolshevist publication, the "Northern Commune," of 
 September 13, 1918, we find the following decree regulating the 
 right of public associations and meetings : 
 
 "(1) All societies, unions and associations — political, eco- 
 nomic, artistic, religious, etc. — formed on the territory of the 
 Union of the Commune of the Northern Region must be regis- 
 tered at the corresponding Soviets or Committees of the Village 
 Poor. 
 
 "(2) The constitution of the union or society, a list of 
 founders and members of the committee, with names and ad- 
 dresses, and a list of all members, with their names and ad- 
 dresses, must be submitted at registration. 
 
 "(3) All books, minutes, etc., must always be kept at the 
 disposal of representatives of the Soviet power for the purpose 
 of revision. 
 
 "(4) Three days' notice must be given to the Soviet, or to 
 the Committee of the Village Poor, of all public and private 
 meetings. 
 
 "(5) All meetings must be open to the representatives of 
 the Soviet power, viz., the representatives of the Central and Dis- 
 trict Soviet, the Committee of the Poor, and the Kommandatur 
 of the Revolutionary Secret Police Force. 
 
 "(6) Unions and societies which do not comply with those 
 regulations will be regarded as counter-revolutionary organiza- 
 tions and prosecuted." 
 
 The first document shows that even those publications the 
 tendencies of which meet with the approval of the Bolshevist 
 leaders, are permitted to exist only until the requirements of the 
 population "are adequately met by the Soviet publications." As 
 a result there are now only Bolshevist publications in existence 
 in Soviet Russia. The second document, signed by the notorious 
 Zinoviev, is of special interest because its contents and even its 
 style bring to mind the decrees of the days of the Tzar. 
 
4.— The So-Called "Dictatorship 
 of the Proletariat 55 
 
 The organ of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party, 
 "Rabochy International" (The Workmen's International), of 
 August 7, contains an interesting resolution passed by the Execu- 
 tive and Petrograd Committees of the Russian Social-Democratic 
 Labor Party in July 27, 1918. The following are some extracts 
 from it: 
 
 "The imaginary dictatorship of the proletariat has definitely 
 turned into the dictatorship of the Bolshevist Party, which at- 
 tracts all sorts of adventurers and suspicious characters and is 
 supported only by the naked force of hired bayonets. Their 
 sham Socialism has resulted in the complete destruction of 
 Russia's industry, in the country's enslavement to foreign capital, 
 in the destruction of all class organizations of the proletariat, in 
 the suppression of all democratic liberty and of all organs 
 of democratic State life, thus preparing the ground for a bour- 
 geois counter-revolution of the worst and most brutal kind. 
 
 "The Bosheviki are unable to solve the food problem, and 
 their attempt to bribe the proletariat by organizing expeditions 
 into the villages, in order to seize supplies of bread, drives the 
 peasantry into the arms of the counter-revolution and threatens 
 to rouse its hatred towards the town in general, and the prole- 
 tariat in particular, for a long time to come. 
 
 "In continuing the struggle against the Bolshevist tyranny 
 which dishonors the Russian Revolution, Social-Democracy pur- 
 sues the following aims: (1) To make it impossible for the 
 working class to have to shed its blood for the sake of main- 
 taining the sham dictatorship of the toiling masses or of the 
 sham Socialist order, both of which are bound to perish and are 
 meanwhile killing the soul and body of the proletariat; (2) To 
 organize the working class into a force which, in union with 
 other democratic forces of the country, will be able to throw 
 off the yoke of the Bolshevist regime, to defend the democratic 
 conquests of the Revolution and to oppose any reactionary force 
 which would attempt to hang a millstone around the neck of 
 the Russian democracy." 
 
5. — The Socialists-Revolutionists of 
 the Left Against the Bolsheviki 
 
 The well-known Russian revolutionist, Vladimir Bourtzev, 
 in his paper "Obscheye Dyelo," published in Paris, in the issue 
 of April 30th, 1919, quotes the following proclamation issued by 
 the Petrograd Committee of the Socialists-Revolutionists of the 
 Left, who, until the Brest-Litovsk Treason, supported the 
 Bolsheviki. The proclamation was issued, in the middle of 
 March, 1919: 
 
 "Shame to the Bolshevist Violators, Liars, and ' Agents 
 Provocateurs f 
 
 "The Petrograd Soviet does not express the will of the 
 Workmen, Sailors, and 'Reds.' 
 
 "The Soviet was not elected. The elections were either pre- 
 tenses, or held under threats of shooting or starvation. This 
 terrorism completely suffocated freedom of speech, the press, 
 and meetings of the laboring .classes. 
 
 "The Petrograd Soviet consists of self-appointed Bolsheviki. 
 It is a blind tool in the hands of the 'agents-provacateurs/ hang- 
 men and assassins of the Bolshevist regime. Let this fraudulent 
 Soviet before the laboring classes of Russia and the whole world, 
 without reserve or excuses, honorably answer the following ques- 
 tions : 
 
 " 'Where is the dictatorship of the proletariat and working 
 peasantry? It has been supplanted by the dictatorship of the 
 Central Committee of the Bolshevist Party, governing with the 
 assistance of a swarm of extraordinary commissions and puni- 
 tive detachments of imported soldiers. 
 
 " 'What has become of the authority of the Soviets ? There 
 is no authority now in Soviet Russia. 
 
 "'Where are the promised rights of the electors? At the 
 factories and the mills, on the ships and on the railways, sit self- 
 appointed Bolshevist commissaries (all until recently members 
 of the Black Hundreds), crucifying the workmen and the peas- 
 ants at their own sweet will. The Revolutionary Government of 
 the masses has been seized by the Bolshevist agents. 
 
16 Russian Labor Against Bolshevism 
 
 " 'What has become of freedom of speech and of the press, 
 particularly the press of the peasants, soldiers and sailors? 
 
 " 'The laboring classes are not allowed to congregate. They 
 are not permitted to publish their own newspapers, and they may 
 not utter a word against the Bolsheviki under penalty of being 
 arrested and shot. 
 
 " 'Where is the promised workmen's control over the fac- 
 tories and mills ? It has been replaced by self-elected Bolshevists' 
 agents; the Government is afraid to trust the workingmen. It 
 has tied them down to their work and has established a new 
 form of servile labor. 
 
 " 'Where is the promised socialization of the land ? 
 
 " 'What has become of the pledge to abolish the death pen- 
 alty ? It is now in full force, at the front and at the rear, not for 
 the bourgeoisie, but for the poor. 
 
 " 'The Bolshevist party, in their struggle with the workmen 
 and the peasants, are supported by the hired bayonets of Letts 
 and Chinamen, under the traitorous leadership of certain Russian 
 officers who are now better off under Lenine than under the 
 Tzarist regime. 
 
 " 'Comrades — At the present moment, of all the wonderful 
 edifice of freedom inaugurated by the November revolution, 
 there remains not a single stone, only lying words and tyranny.' " 
 
6.=Russia as Seen by a British 
 Trade Unionist 
 
 A picture of conditions in Russia, by an English working- 
 man who was in Russia from the time of the outbreak of the 
 Revolution until last January, is given in the Westminster 
 Gazette in an interview, entitled "The Truth About Russia." 
 The article was cabled to the Philadelphia Public Ledger and is 
 reprinted herewith by special permission. The Westminster Ga- 
 zette says: 
 
 "There has lately arrived in England a witness of the in- 
 ternal condition of Russia. This is H. V. Keeling, who alone 
 probably of all Englishmen has seen the Bolshevist movement 
 from within and can report of his own knowledge what the 
 Russian working class thinks. 
 
 "Mr. Keeling went to Russia five years ago to teach the 
 workmen of a Russian firm which had acquired British patents 
 of certain new processes of the lithographic and printing trades. 
 For twenty years previously he had been a member of the 
 British Trade Union. He was admitted to membership in the 
 Russian Printing Trade Union and thus spent all his time as a 
 workman among workmen. 
 
 "In 1918 he went about the country opening workshops for 
 repairing all sorts of things. In this way he made himself so 
 useful, not to say indispensable, that the Soviets insisted on his 
 remaining in the country. In October last he was appointed to 
 the position of Chief Photographer of the Committee on Public 
 Education, presided over by Lunacharsky, whom he describes 
 as an amiable visionary with his eyes shut to the realities of the 
 Bolshevist regime. How Keeling finally got out of Russia and 
 the extraordinary adventures and hairbreadth escapes he had at 
 the frontier of Finland cannot be told yet. The main fact is that 
 he was in Russia for the whole period of the Revolution until 
 January 9 this year. Mr. Keeling speaks with singular impartial- 
 ity of what he has seen and heard. 
 
 "Mr. Kealing says : The population was originally divided 
 
18 Russian Labor Against Bolshevism 
 
 by the Bolsheviki into four categories which exactly turn upside 
 down the social classes of other countries. These are first, man- 
 ual laborers; second, clerical workers, provided they employ no- 
 body; third, everybody who has employed anybody from a small 
 householder employing one servant to a manufacturer employing 
 a thousand hands ; fourth, all former idle rich, princes, aristo- 
 crats, landowners and courtiers of every description. 
 
 " The penalty for failing to please the Bolsheviki is to be 
 degraded from the class in which you get some food to the class 
 in which you get scarcely any. In the last few months there has 
 not been anything like enough for the first class and scarcely 
 anything for the others. Class IV, the former rich, I should say, 
 has disappeared. They have either got out of the country or 
 been starved to death or shot or have turned themselves into 
 workmen in order to get food. 
 
 " 'I cannot tell you more, for nobody knows. Other 
 classes are those that get some food and those that get 
 hardly any officially. To get food you must be in with the 
 Bolshevists, and then they put you into the first class. 
 It is very difficult to get there and very easy to get out. They 
 degrade you for slight reasons which you cannot discover and 
 then you starve. Whole trade unions have been degraded be- 
 cause they opposed the Bolsheviki or offended them somehow. 
 
 " 'One has cards and coupons, but all private trading is 
 forbidden and nearly all the shops in Petrograd are shut. There 
 are a few hundred municipal shops, and you are supposed to 
 receive half a pound of bread a day. Potatoes, butter, meat 
 and sugar are fixed at reasonable prices ; but as a matter of fact 
 for a long time past nothing has been sold but bread, and even 
 that failed for seven days in December. 
 
 " 'I have been six days without bread, three days without 
 anything to eat except the so-called public dinner, which con- 
 sisted of watery soup, a small piece of salt fish and one-eighth 
 of a pound of bread. Sometimes they offered me oats, as if I 
 were a horse, when there was no bread. All children are in the 
 first-class, for the Bolshevist idea is that all children should be 
 charges of the State while their parents go to work, but the 
 children are starving in great numbers. 
 
Russian Labor Against Bolshevism 19 
 
 " 'If you are not in the first class or are degraded from it 
 you have to prowl about and try to get food secretly; but this 
 is a punishable offense, for which sometimes people may even be 
 shot. People go to the country, taking anything they think the 
 peasants will take in exchange for food and get a bag of flour 
 or a few potatoes. But it is illegal to go out of town without a 
 permit or to try anything when you get there, so the Red Guards 
 stop them and search them as they come back, and if they find 
 anything confiscate it and often arrest the people and carry them 
 off. 
 
 " 'I saw a woman who had gone to the country and got 
 thirty pounds of flour from her own native place for her chil- 
 dren, who were starving. She was seized by the Guards at 
 the station when she was trying to get back, and they took it 
 from her, although she fell on her knees and implored them 
 with sobs to let her keep only a few pounds. 
 
 " 'Then when she found it was no use she threw herself 
 under a train and was killed. 
 
 " 'It makes it worse that you have quantities of money in 
 your pocket but can buy nothing. I have had rubles worth 
 £600 ($3,000) in my pocket and have not been able to buy a 
 piece of bread. You don't trouble about money. You pay 5 
 shilling ($1.25) for a lump of sugar if you can get it. A work- 
 man's wages are £100 ($500) a month at the old value, but 
 though he can still buy a watch for £5 ($25) he cannot buy a 
 loaf of bread for £50 ($250). People who have food will not 
 sell it for rubles because they are worth nothing and there is 
 nothing to buy with them, so the Bolsheviki cannot get food 
 though they are trying to and having fights with the peasants 
 in consequence. 
 
 " 'I believe myself there is enough food in Russia to keep 
 everyone alive, for the last harvest was good, but it cannot be 
 got and it is all being hoarded and concealed. 
 
 " 'Nine-tenths of the people who keep in with the Bolsheviki 
 have to pretend to like them and would do anything to get rid 
 of them if they knew how, but you have to remember the 
 Bolsheviki are clever, feeding the people who are likely to fight. 
 Every man who joins the Red Army is sure of his own food, also 
 
20 Russian Labor Against Bolshevism 
 
 gets food for his wife and children. The army is fed before 
 anyone else and out of all proportion to the other classes. Even 
 workmen get nothing until the army has had enough, so large 
 numbers of men join the army for the sake of getting food and 
 then have to keep at it for fear of losing their food. Besides 
 if they try any tricks they not only are punished and shot them- 
 selves, but their wives, families and parents are starved. 
 
 " 'A man will stand almost anything rather than see his 
 wife, children and parents starved to death, and the use they 
 make of this kind of coercion is devilish. Soldiers have to be 
 careful, for there are lots of spies among them. Then besides 
 the regular Red Army there is a special picked army, which gets 
 everything it wants, food or anything else, and all these men 
 know if they don't fight they will starve, so they fight to save 
 their own food and to prevent their wives and children from 
 starving. That is their way of keeping alive.' 
 
 "How can men at the top, Lenine, Trotsky and the rest, — 
 Lenine at all events is supposed to have some intelligence and 
 humanity — sit there and let this go on? Are they devils or 
 maniacs?" Keeling was asked. 
 
 "I suppose you would say they are quite sane according to our 
 notions, but as things are they cannot help themselve and could 
 not stop it if they chose. They have made monstrous areas help- 
 less. Bolshevism is, in fact, become a vested interest for its 
 privileged class, and Lenine and Trotsky are obliged to go on 
 feeding a few, starving the many and shooting objectors." 
 
 Asked how men could be found who would go on day after 
 day administering this diabolical system with this spectacle of 
 helpless misery under their eyes, Mr. Keeling said: 
 
 "Most of them are quite young, some notorious bad charac- 
 ters, many mere boys whom we should call hooligans. One boy 
 of 17 I knew was a commissary with the power of life and death 
 over forty villages. He goes about with a pistol, and one day 
 thrust it in my face, threatening to shoot me on the spot. I 
 knew how to deal with him, but the Russian peasants do not. 
 As seen, such lads are terrorizing whole districts." 
 
 Keeling admits frankly that he was attracted by the Bolshe- 
 vist idea, and hoped at onetime it might be good for Russia if 
 
Russian Labor Against Bolshevism 21 
 
 not for the world in general. He was asked what has happened 
 to the Russian people. 
 
 "Is Bolshevism as black as it is painted, and if it is, how can 
 the whole nation submit to it?" He said in answer: "The 
 Russian people are starving, and when you are starv 
 ing you do not think about other atrocities: you think about 
 nothing except just food to keep yourself alive. You 
 do not trouble much whether you are going to be shot your- 
 self or whether other people are being shot. You are collecting 
 food like an animal. I left Russia six weeks ago, but even now 
 I cannot get over the habit of thinking about my food, and 
 every day I find myself wondering where the next meal is to 
 come from." 
 
 Keeling expanded on this idea. "And on the one side mil- 
 lions of people too absorbed with the ravening thought how to 
 get food for themselves, their wives and children to think of any- 
 thing beyond the movement, too exhausted to resist; on the 
 other hand, a favored few relatively well-fed persons prepared 
 for any violence or cruelty to save themselves from losing their 
 privilege and slipping into the vortex of famine. For, whatever 
 may be in the original idea of Bolshevism," as Keeling explained, 
 "it is simply that it confers upon some and denies to others the 
 privilege of eating, and that all its other deeds of violence and 
 cruelty are as nothing to the supreme cruelty of withholding 
 food." Keeling went on to explain the system, describing it 
 without color or emotion, as if living in that world he had come 
 to take its horrors for granted. 
 
 "The peasants have got rid of their landlords and 
 sat down and divided the land," continued Keeling. "They 
 have quarreled a good deal, but on the whole did it sensibly, 
 each taking a bit of the best land, then another bit of worse, 
 and so on. But, while there was plenty of land for one 
 village, there was nothing like enough in another, so 
 the distribution was very unequal and there was great 
 discontent. Instead of having the splendid time they hoped for, 
 they find there is nothing to buy and they are always being 
 worried and threatened by the Bolsheviki. They have no tea, no 
 vodka, no tobacco; they feel the loss of tobacco especially, and 
 
22 Russian Labor Against Bolshevism 
 
 seem to walk about in a dazed condition, like men used to drugs, 
 who had suddenly to go without. Peasants have implored me to 
 give them tobacco. 
 
 "Peasants work only just as much as they must to keep 
 themselves alive. The next harvest is likely to be very bad and 
 then famine, which now exists in the towns, will begin to spread 
 over the country, and one dare not think what will happen then. 
 
 "My own belief is they, Lenine and Trotzky, know the 
 game is up, but do not know how to get out of it or what to do. 
 The slightest sign of weakening and they are done. So they 
 simply go ahead, grinding out everybody they think dangerous. 
 Even the advanced Socialists are beginning to speak of Czardom 
 as the good old times. 
 
 "It is terrible to live in Russia these times. As you walk in 
 Petrograd you never see anyone laugh or smile ; men and women 
 are like shadows; little children are so wasted they seem to be 
 all eyes. All the time people are disappearing; nobody knows 
 what becomes of them. Five years ago Petrograd had a popu- 
 lation of 2,400,000; now there are scarcely 700,000. 
 
 "I have no personal animosity against the Bolsheviki. They 
 treated me as well as they could, but I am a working man, a 
 trade unionist, and I don't like to hear British working men 
 talking as if Bolshevism was a great and splendid experiment 
 to be copied by other countries, or as if they were helping the 
 working people of Russia by saying no to all proposals now be- 
 fore the Allies for dealing with it. I want to convince them 
 it is not a question of politics or theory, but just a question of 
 humanity on which we have got to do our duty and help. There, 
 is enormous suffering and misery which we ought to stop if 
 we can. 
 
 "I want to say also that it won't do the Socialists any good 
 to mix up with the Bolsheviki and make people think that if 
 Socialism is tried it must end in wholesale murder and starv- 
 ing millions of people to death, but that is what will happen if 
 the working people confuse Socialism with Bolshevism and sup- 
 pose that Socialism must support the Bolsheviki." 
 
7. — An Appeal to the American 
 People 
 
 The following appeal to the American people has been pub- 
 lished in the American press, signed, among others, by Nicholas 
 Tchaikovsky, the President of the Archangel Government and 
 the leader of the Party of People's Socialists; Vladimir I. 
 Lebedev, former Secretary of the Navy in the Russian Provision- 
 al Government, a member of the Constituent Assembly and a 
 prominent member of the Party of Socialists-Revolutionists, and 
 Alexander Titov, one of the leaders of the Party of the People's 
 Socialists and a representative of the All-Russian League of 
 Municipalities and Zemstvos; Vladimir Bourtzev, and Boris 
 Savenkov : 
 
 "All the elements of our country which are striving for a 
 new, free and democratic Russia are united in the struggle 
 against the common enemy of freedom, democracy and culture. 
 In the name of the holy war against barbarism and in the 
 name of the regeneration of our country we appeal to the great 
 democracy of the New World. Our first need is the moral 
 support of the American democracy, which cannot approve of 
 the numberless unspeakable crimes against the Russian people 
 which have been and are now being committed by the Bolshe- 
 vist despotism. • 
 
 "We rely on the support of the American people in our 
 struggle for self-government, which, as the history of our coun- 
 try and every country shows, can be obtained only through a 
 constituent assembly elected by universal, equal suffrage. We 
 rely also on your practical help in the shape of food, arms and 
 munitions, which you so largely furnished to the Entente be- 
 fore your entrance into the war. 
 
 "We have to equip and arm volunteer armies. We must 
 care for the sick and wounded, and we ask you to send us medi- 
 cal supplies and Red Cross materials. We have to restore our 
 economic life, which has practically ceased in territories occu- 
 pied by the Bolsheviki and the Huns. The reports of the Bolshe- 
 
24 Russian Labor Against Bolshevism 
 
 viki's finance ministers show that the number of cars and loco- 
 motives — woefully deficient at the beginning of the Bolshevist 
 tyranny — has been reduced by a little more than half under their 
 deadly and devastating rule. 
 
 "The Russian peasants not only have been systematically 
 robbed of their grain by expeditions of the Red Guards, but are 
 without tools or agricultural implements. We rely on America 
 for locomotives, cars, agricultural machinery and technical sup- 
 plies. 
 
 "Above all we rely on the American democracy to aid the 
 million Russian prisoners still starved and worked to death in 
 Germany. If they are returned to Russia they will be slaughtered 
 on the frontier or forced under the guns of Chinese and Lettish 
 mercenaries to enter the Red Army and fight against the Rus- 
 sian people. Consider the disgrace to all civilized mankind if 
 this alternative is left to those who fought in the common cause 
 of world peace. 
 
 "The first political success of the Bolsheviki was the disso- 
 lution of our first and only democratically elected Constituent 
 Assembly, which for fifty years has been the goal of all Rus- 
 sians — even of the Bolsheviki up to the moment when they 
 found it overwhelmingly against them. Then they invented a 
 new double name for their antidemocratic government: Soviets, 
 or dictatorship of the proletariat. Next they dissolved all the 
 democratic Municipal Councils and Zemstvos and proceeded to 
 take away all other liberties won by the great march of the 
 Revolution: freedom of the press, free speech and the right 
 of assemblage. All political parties, including the Socialist, 
 which opposed minority rule, were then outlawed and their lead- 
 ing members killed, imprisoned or driven into exile. 
 
 "This dictatorship led rapidly to an almost complete stop- 
 page of industry. Yet governmental expenditures increased with 
 the growing pauperization of the people. This is due to three 
 causes : first, the growing staff of utterly incompetent Bolshevist 
 officials; second, the growing army of mercenaries to keep down 
 the ever-spreading insurrections; and, third, the enormous sub- 
 sidies paid to Bolshevist workingmen regardless of the fact that 
 
Russian Labor Against Bolshevism 25 
 
 the factories are producing sometimes little and sometimes 
 nothing. 
 
 "Finally, the scheme of extending Lenine's paradise to the 
 whole world by force of arms — which, it is repeatedly pro- 
 claimed, gives the only hope of Bolshevism's continued existence 
 — necessitates other monstrous expenditures by his bankrupt gov- 
 ernment. Political and economic slavery, moral corruption and 
 starvation of millions of people, will be the results of this 
 monstrous chaos and misrule. This new Tzarism, like the old, 
 can be stopped only by deeds. We are doing our part. Every 
 democrat in Russia is ready and willing to die for the cause. 
 But we are utterly helpless without your aid. 
 
 "People of America, we appeal to you not as beggars, but 
 as brothers. Democratic Russia will repay every cent she bor- 
 rows in this time of sorrow and horror. We are not ashamed 
 to stretch out our hand under these conditions, and we can- 
 fidently expect to get not a stone, but bread. Russia must be 
 liberated or there will be no world peace. Russia must be 
 effectively helped or the League of Nations will fail. The 
 United States of America must help to create a United States 
 of Russia to link the whole world in a chain of free, demo- 
 cratic nations." 
 
8- — What the Russian Democracy 
 is Fighting For 
 
 The united democratic and labor forces of Russia that are 
 righting the Bolsheviki have adopted the following working pro- 
 gram for the regeneration of Russia. This program was formu- 
 lated by Katherine Breshkovsky, the "grandmother of the Russian 
 Revolution," and has received the unqualified support of all the 
 truly democratic and revolutionary elements of Russia: 
 
 "(1) The reestablishment of all civil liberties; (a) freedom 
 of speech, (b) of the press, (c) of assembly, (d) of association, 
 (e) inviolability of person, residence and mail, (f) freedom of 
 religion, — on the basis of the temporary laws passed by the 
 Russian Provisional Government. 
 
 "(2) The reestablishment of municipal and rural (Zemstvo) 
 self-government on the basis of the laws passed by the Russian 
 Provisional Government. 
 
 "(3) The summoning in the briefest possible time of an 
 All-Russian Constituent Assembly on the basis of the election 
 law promulgated by the Provisional Government. 
 
 "(4) The proclamation of Russia as a democratic, federated 
 Republic. 
 
 "(5) The resumption of the work of the Committees as- 
 signed to prepare the plans for the organization of regional 
 Dumas (Siberia, Ural, Northern Provinces, Southern Provinces, 
 etc.), and the renewal of the functioning of the Regional Gov- 
 ernments. 
 
 "(6) The recognition of the transition of the land to the 
 toiling masses, pending the final solution of the land problem by 
 the Constituent Assembly, and the transfer of the administration 
 of agrarian affairs to the proper Zemstvo institutions. 
 
 "(7) The recognition of the nationalization of forests, 
 waters and the substrata of the soil, pending action by the Con- 
 stituent Assembly. 
 
 "(8) The State control of industry in cooperation with the 
 Zemstvos and workers 5 organizations. 
 
Russian Labor Against Bolshevism 27 
 
 "(9) Decisive encouragement and help to Cooperatives and 
 to the Zemstvos by the Government. The immediate organiza- 
 tion of trade and industry. 
 
 "(10) Autonomy for nationalities in Russia on the basis 
 of the laws passed by the Russian Provisional Government. 
 
 "(11) The recognition of the separation of Church from 
 State. 
 
 "(12) The organization of an effective Army on the basis 
 of the soldier's retention of his rights as a man and a citizen. 
 
 "(13) The declaration as null and void of all the decrees 
 of the Bolsheviki, with the adoption of a policy of gradual transi- 
 tion from conditions under their regime to the newly moulded 
 forms, on the basis of temporary regulations to be ordained 
 either by the future Provisional Government or by the Con- 
 stituent Assembly. 
 
 "(14) Immediate amnesty to all political prisoners, if their 
 offenses have no taint of criminality. 
 
 "The time for despotism and the suppression of the ideas 
 and strivings of the people towards a decent human life is gone 
 forever. We cannot save Russia without sincere service to the 
 ideals of freedom. We are prepared to give her all freely, un- 
 hesitatingly and without fear of sacrifice." 
 
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