EXPLOITING THE FAMINE
Late in the summer of 1921 there came the harrowing news of the famine.
To those who had kept in touch with inner affairs the information was
not quite unexpected. We had learned during the early part of the summer
that a large proportion of the population was doomed to death from
starvation. At that time a group of scientific agriculturists had
assembled in Moscow. Their report showed that, owing to bureaucratic
centralization, and corruption and delay in seed distribution, timely
and sufficient sowing had been prevented. The Soviet press kept the
report of the agricultural conference from the public. But in July items
began to appear in the _Pravda_ and the _Izvestia_ telling of the
terrible drought in the Volga region and the fearful conditions in the
famine-stricken districts.
Immediately various groups and individuals came forward ready to
coöperate with the Government in coping with the calamity.
The Left Wing elements--Anarchists, Social Revolutionists, and
Maximalists--offered to organize relief work and to collect funds. But
they received no encouragement from the Soviet authorities. On the other
hand, elements of the Right, the Cadets (Constitutional Democrats), were
received with open arms. Kishkin, Minister of Finance under Kerensky,
Mme. Kuskova, Prokopovitch, and other prominent Conservatives, who had
bitterly fought the Revolution, were accepted by the Bolsheviki. These
people had been denounced as counter-revolutionists and repeatedly
arrested and imprisoned, yet they were given preference and permitted to
organize the group known as the Citizens’ Committee. When the latter
refused to work under the guardianship of the Moscow Soviet, insisting
upon complete autonomy and the right to publish its own paper, the
Government consented. Such discrimination in favour of reactionaries as
against those who had faithfully stood by the Revolution could be
explained only in two ways. First, the Bolsheviki considered it
dangerous to grant the Left elements free access to the peasantry;
secondly, it was necessary to make an impression on Europe, which could
be effectively done by means of the most conservative group. This became
clear even before the Citizens’ Committee began its relief work.
In the beginning the Committee received the entire support of the
Government. A special building was assigned for its headquarters and it
was granted the right to issue its own paper, called _Pomoshtch_
(Succour). Members of the Committee were also promised permission to go
to Western Europe for the purpose of arousing interest and getting
support for the famine stricken. Two numbers of the paper were issued.
Its appearance caused significant comment: it was an exact reproduction,
in size, type, and general form, of the old _Vyedomosti_, the most
reactionary sheet under the former régime. The publication was, of
course, very guarded in its tone. But between the lines one could read
its antagonism to the ruling Party. Its first issue contained a letter
from the Metropolitan Tikhon, wherein he commanded the faithful to send
their contributions to him. He assured his flock that he was to have
complete control of the distribution of the donations. The Citizens’
Committee was given _carte blanche_ in carrying on its work, and the
fact was heralded by the Bolsheviki as proof of their liberality and
willingness to coöperate with all elements in famine relief.
Presently the Soviet Government entered into an agreement with the
American Relief Administration and other European organizations
regarding aid for the Volga sufferers, and then--the headquarters of the
Citizens’ Committee were raided, the paper suppressed, and the leading
members of the Committee thrown into the Tcheka on the usual charge of
counter-revolution. Now it was reasonably certain that Mme. Kuskova and
her co-workers were no more counter-revolutionary when they were
permitted to organize Volga relief than they had been at any time since
1917. Why, then, did the Communist State accept them while rejecting the
assistance of true revolutionists? For no other reason than propaganda
purposes. When the Citizens’ Committee had served that purpose it was
kicked overboard in true Bolshevik fashion. Only one person the Tcheka
dared not touch--Vera Nikolayevna Figner, the venerable revolutionist.
Great humanitarian that she is, she joined the Citizens’ Committee and
devoted herself to its work with the same zeal that had made her so
effective as one of the leading spirits of the _Narodnaya Volya_.
Twenty-two years of living death in Schlüsselburg had failed to destroy
her ardour. When the Citizens’ Committee was arrested, Vera Nikolayevna
demanded to share the same fate, but the Tcheka knew the spiritual
influence of this woman in Russia and abroad, and she was left in peace.
The other members of the Citizens’ Committee were kept in prison for a
long time, then exiled to remote parts of Russia and finally deported.
Except for the foreign organizations doing relief work in Russia, the
Soviet Government could now stand before the world as the sole dispenser
of support to the starving in the famine district. Kalinin, the
marionette President of the Socialist Republic, equipped with much
propaganda literature and surrounded by a large staff of Soviet
officials and foreign correspondents, made his triumphal march through
the stricken territory. It was widely heralded throughout the world, and
the desired effect was achieved. But the real work in the famine region
was carried on not so much by the official machine as by the great host
of unknown men and women from the ranks of the proletariat and the
intelligentsia. Most devotedly and with utter consecration they gave of
their own depleted energies. Many of them perished from typhus,
exposure, and exhaustion; some were slain by the power of darkness
which now, even more than in Tolstoi’s time, holds many sections of
Russia in its grip. Doctors, nurses, and relief workers were often
killed by the unfortunates they had come to aid, as evil spirits who had
willed the famine and the misfortunes of Russia. These were the real
heroes and martyrs, unknown and unsung.