"COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARIES"
_Hardest Labour Done by "K.R.'s" — Counter-revolutionary: a
Comprehensive Term — A Variegated Multitude — Special Persecution of the
Clergy — Prominent Clerical Prisoners._
On Solovetsky Island the "politicals and party men" live in separate
cells — hermits' caves — and on Popoff Island in a special hut. Both at
the monastery and in the Kem camp the "K.R.'s" live in company with the
ordinary criminals. The cells of the monastery and the huts of the camps
are filled to overflowing with a carefully mixed crowd of
"counter-revolutionaries" and _shpana_.
The "K.R.'s" not only do all the hardest labour, and have to keep their
own quarters clean, but are obliged to cleanse the criminals' bedsteads
of dirt, remains of food, spittle and lice. Whenever a new party of
"K.R.'s" arrive, they are compelled to clean out the huts, which the
_shpana_ have made so filthy that the task makes many of the "K.R.'s"
sick. In 1924, it took 1,500 "K.R.'s" two whole months to clean out the
camp on Popoff Island. It is sufficient to say that the criminals very
often fulfil the requirements of Nature on the spot, i.e., in the huts.
The _shpana_, of course, are not in the least grateful for having all
this done for them. On the contrary, this work of the "K.R.'s", so
utterly degrading to human self-respect, is accepted by the criminals as
a matter of course, and only exposes those who do it to fresh outrage
from the _shpana_, supported by the camp _personnel_.
For example, when we had cleansed the hut indicated by the authorities
of all the filth that was in it, the grateful _shpana_ sent us an
ultimatum, with a detailed schedule of the quantities of bread, sugar,
tobacco, tea, etc., which were to be handed over immediately to the
criminal who brought the ultimatum. If we failed to comply with the
ultimatum, we were told, we should be first beaten and then plundered in
more thorough fashion.
We had to hand over the things demanded. Ultimatums of this kind are
very fashionable among the _shpana_; the "K.R.'s" are snowed under with
them, both at the monastery and in the Kem camp.
It is very hard to give an exact account or analysis of the prisoners
labelled "K.R.'s." Their number is considerable — there are nearly three
thousand on Solovetsky Island — and they are composed of such variegated
elements that a general definition of a "K.R." is very hard to arrive
at. A division of them into groups, even an approximate one, will
enlighten the reader in a general sense as to who the "K.R.'s" are, and
why they are in the Solovky, but it is bound to be incomplete; there are
in the camps many "K.R.'s" whom one does not know where to place.
There are in the Northern Camps for Special Purposes many
representatives of the so-called liberal professions — engineers,
barristers, literary men, artists, teachers, doctors. There are many
teachers from the primary and secondary schools and from the
universities, both men and women; the latter are in a majority. There
are a considerable number of non-party peasants and workmen, artisans
and small employees. The Cossacks of the Don, the Kuban and Siberia, and
the peoples of the Caucasus, are strongly represented. Of the
non-Russians who are Soviet subjects the most numerous are Estonians,
Poles, Karelians (some of those who returned from Finland on the
strength of an "amnesty")[21] and Jews. The last-named are sent to the
Solovky, in most cases with their families, either for adhering to
Zionism, or for "economic counter-revolution," or for so-called "armed
banditism" — by which the Gpu understands anything it pleases, from
membership (even in the past) of a Monarchist party to the manufacture
of counterfeit notes.
There are many foreigners in the Solovky; I will allude to them in
greater detail later.
The largest categories of all consist of officers of the old and the new
armies, business men, pre-Revolution and of the "Nepman"[22] order,
important representatives of the old regime, the bureaucracy and the
aristocracy, and also the clergy.
At the present time there are some three hundred bishops, priests and
monks in the Solovky; to this number should be added several hundred
laymen who were sent to the Solovky along with them, generally under
Clause 72 of the Criminal Code — "ecclesiastical counter-revolution,
resistance to the confiscation of church valuables, propaganda, the
education of children in a religious sense," and so on. The clergy at
the Solovky, though more oppressed and humiliated by the camp
authorities than any other category of prisoners, are remarkable for the
submissiveness and stoicism with which they endure their moral and
physical sufferings.
Being accustomed to hard bodily labour from childhood, the clergy are
rightly considered to be the best workers in the camps, and from this
point of view are almost valued by the administration, though it
exploits them infamously. Priests are sent to do all the most exhausting
tasks. For example, whole sections of the narrow-gauge railway were laid
entirely by clerics.
All kinds of religious services, of course, are forbidden. One of the
priests in the camp on Popoff Island, a feeble old man, died. He begged
the commandant with tears in his eyes to allow the Vladika Illarion to
administer the Holy Sacrament to him. The commandant refused in abusive
terms.
Every day in the year is counted as a working day, and at Easter and
Christmas the authorities endeavour to give the clergy the most
degrading work possible — for example, cleaning out the latrines.
Among the most prominent clerics confined in the Northern Camps for
Special Purposes are the following:
The Vladika Illarion (Trotsky), head of the diocese of Moscow and the
right-hand man of the late Patriarch Tikhon. Neither when at liberty nor
in prison has the Metropolitan Illarion ever entered into conflict with
the Soviet power; but he has always been a vehement champion of pure
Orthodoxy as a counterpoise to the "living Church," which is liberally
subsidised by the Gpu. For the defence of his faith, and for his
intimate connection with the Patriarch Tikhon, the bishop was sent to
Archangel for three years and served his term of punishment under the
most horrifying conditions. He returned to Moscow and again vigorously
opposed the "living Church," took a skilful part in religious
discussions, mercilessly shattered the Communistic babble of his
opponent Lunatcharsky,[23] and was transported once more — this time to
the Solovky.
The Vladika Masuil (Lemeshevsky) directed the affairs of the diocese of
Petrograd after the shooting of the Metropolitan Venianin. Sentenced to
transportation under Clause 72 of the Criminal Code — "ecclesiastical
counter-revolution" — by which the Bolsheviks understand, _inter alia_,
the defence of Orthodoxy against the destructive attacks of the "living
Church," the bishop arrived at the Solovky in September, 1924. Six other
bishops and monks and twelve laymen were sent there at the same time and
for the same cause.
Bishop Seraphim (Kolpinsky), Bishop Peter (Sokoloff), Acting Bishop of
Saratoff, and Bishop Pitirim (Kryloff), the Igumen of the Kazan
Monastery, as well as about fifteen members of the black and white
clergy from that monastery, were all sent to the Solovky under this same
Clause 72. Hundreds of other bishops, priests and monks were
transported, not only because the religion they professed was "opium for
the people,"[24] but because they would not approve the plundering of
the churches for purposes which had nothing to do with the relief of the
famine victims, and which they denounced to the public as the work of
the supporters of the "living Church," bought by the Government.
[Footnote 21: They had taken refuge in Finland after the suppression by
the Bolsheviks of the rebellion in Eastern Karelia at the beginning of
1922.]
[Footnote 22: The term "Nepman" was applied to business men who grew
rich under the "N.E.P." (New Economic Policy), introduced by the Soviet
Government in 1922.]
[Footnote 23: People's Commissary for Education in the Soviet
Government.]
[Footnote 24: Lenin's phrase.]