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Show 015" x On the left, a recent photograph of Je. Mme. Anastasia Suvorina, the t- J&fHH On the right, beautiful Donna J'l , ' .,.JHH9HHbi V$S Flavia Potcnski, who served as ' ' '--tMBBfiKKS'' a private in the Women's Bat- 2flHLj. lalioo of Death, and had ''HfeftMk V many narrow escapes from 'jFjjS B SVtjiK ;:BpH!lV the Bolshevik i ii& l flHR Below, Mme. Kolontai, who was for X SvlM -m a lorn?; time one of Lenine's y UK" A ifr trusted advisers, but who fled WmKr? ' to Sweden with a handsome Bfci HHp,,, young sailor when the i TPgi Er' f ' ""Xwim i ... .SBHHBBr vym HsHBeW Bolshevists undertook to f 'H J By Mme. I Anastasia Suvorina I (The Russian Bernhardt ) Copyright, 1022 I Chapter V A " I T GAINING their dictatorial power over the ignorant masses the Bol-sheviki Bol-sheviki were greatly helped by playing play-ing to the galleries. Their first sensa- J sational steps were to promise to the j hungry populace the most impossible I things putting an end to the war, equal I distribution of all wealth and land, abo- lition of all the national and municipal I institutes and the establishment of those I made for the people by the people, j Equality, liberty and communistic con- 1 trol of all industries were the watch- 1 words of the movement Russia became I a motor car dashing drivcrless and un- I controlled down a steep hill, and no- I body thought what would happen at the bottom of the hill, when it would j be necessary to pull the engine up the f hard road of reconstruction. B , The peculiar effect of the first days of the Soviet rule was seen in the in- I difference of the intellectuals and so- I ciety classes for to-morrow. Evervbody seemed to be living only for to-day. Since the old regime was wiped out of I existence, I thought :is many other con- HlIbj servatives did, that there was no use : in swimming against the current We stood idly by while the crowds in the streets shouted: "Moiv power to the. I Soviets!" No one realized that we were I entering a cleverly woven net, winch h the simple pulling of a string could be I at any time closed about our feet like II a magic cobweb This net was the j! Soviet system Hpffj j The fact was that the Soviet leaders it&l' came to power ami accomplished fl their plans without the slightest idea 4 as what would replace the old order J of things in the country. Of course, ijj tHe miniature Soviets had been worked HBfj out by the exiled Socialists some fif- HHih teen years ago in the cafes of Paris, 4 Genca and Berlin But to ell prac- tically minded persons these paper sys- terns were only childish dreams, jl The first practical Soviet of the Bol- 1 shevik leaders was modeled after the 1 'Mir, the original town council of the '1 peasants. It meant a breaking up of ai the empire into thousands of small in- . a. dependent states, which could be com- I M pellcd to manage their affairs normally a only by means of force. The weakness I ft of these small rural communities bc- ' J f ame the desired strength of the Soviet . m government and its new institutions. One of the first sensational proclama- tions of the communistic government was the promise of a rule of moujiks, working men and women. It was all too vague, and I, myself a woman, wondered won-dered what would be the first practical steps in ths new order of things I heard stories that women with college degrees and of radical tendencies could get easy positions in various departments of the Soviet government, so I bean to investigate to try to find out how those rosy promises were working out in actuality. One of the most outstanding new Soviet institutions was the People's Tribunal, which took the place of th old law courts. The judges of the People's Peo-ple's Tribunal were appointed by tin-county tin-county Soviet, and it was made a rule that of the three judges two should be men and the third a woman. They were to be guided in their decisions by the few new commandments of the communistic com-munistic party and their own consciences. con-sciences. All the huge volumes of old laws, the records of the Senate and the Council of Ministers were simply cast into the waste basket. As I did not aprree with the doctrines of the new regime I remained, like a majority of the Russian intellectuals and the middle class, a passive observer of the movement. Before I had an opportunity to observe the Soviet court I was accused of resisting the orders of the government govern-ment and brought into the. . district court now called the Third People's Tribunal. The commissar of the health department had ordered me to co out to the cemetery and dig graves for. the victims of the revolution. This I was unable to do, as my mother was sick in bed and I was nursing her, 1 was liable to be punished for this with six months of compulsory labor for the government. Two Red Guards uppeared at my house and gave me a dirty slip of paper on which was an incorrectly written summons demanding iny appearance before the People's Tribunal. As there was no chance of escaping or postponing postpon-ing the ordeal, I surrendered myself and walked like a criminal to the court. The courtroom was empty, as it was early morning. Instead of three judges there were only two. One was a middle-aged woman, evidently the wife of a janitor or of a tailor, who busied herself her-self alternately with knitting or preparing pre-paring tea and paid no attention to the court proceedings. The man judge, evidently evi-dently a crank or a Bohemian poet, who had never been able to make his success, was solemnly seated behind a table covered with red clojh. He was apparently writing poetry, while his pet, a small kitten, was playing with a ball on the table. He paid no attention to me and mechanically asked the guards: "Who is she and what's her case?" "Anastasia Suvorina. Disobedience of the orders of the Health Commissar." was the laconic reply of the guard. Then, turning to me with a wave of his hand, yet without a single look, he continued in the same tone: "And now, prisoner, what is your explanation?" ' I was nursing my sick mother," I replied shortly. "What's your profession?" he went on. "Actress," I replied. At that moment the cat saw a sparrow spar-row thioutfh the open window and jumped after it. As if hit by a thunderbolt, thun-derbolt, the judge rushed after the cat. The sparrow flew away and the cat ran after its shadow to the roof of the adjoining house. The judge, in pursuit of his cat, leaped out on the roof of the veranda. The guards looked puzzled, and one of them ran after the judge, askinj? : "Judge, what shall we do with the prisoner?" "Curse your prisoner! First catch my cat." By this time the cat had jumped down into the courtyard of the next house and was racing toward the back yard. The judge had been able to follow fol-low the cat to the next roof, but there it was too high for him to jump down, and he suddenly grew afraid to return to the courtroom by the way he had come. Waving his hands desperately to the pruards, he shouted: 'Good heaven, can't you get me down from here?" H "But we have the prisoner here. What about her?" answered the guards. "Tell her she's discharged and can go. But my kitten I have , lost my dear, sweet kitten! Curses J on this judicial position and all the prisoners! My kitten is worth more than all the. richer of this town. I must find my dear pussy, no matter what it costs. It's the only inheritance from my family," Safe said the judge to the guard, who by this time had climbed up to v help him back On hearing his dismissal of me, I rushed out of the courtroom and raced to the courtyard of the next house, where I had seen the kitten disappear from view. There I found the little cat playing with a bunch uf hay. I caught it, brought it to the c cXrtroom and gave it to the excited judge. The courtroom by this time was Idled with people; there were a number of serious political prisoners accused of having plotted against the Soviet regime. The judge took the cat with as much joy as if I had presented In in with unheard of ric hes and began to kiss it. Then, taking me by the hand. ' lie addressed the motley crowd" that filled the courtroom. "Comrades, this lady is a real heroine. hero-ine. She 1 a charming actress, clever to the tips of her beautiful fingers. Since she caught for me my cat, which I had lost, every prisoner to-day is discharged." dis-charged." Such was the state of affairs in the Soviet court of Petrograd in the early days of the revolution. It wa3 so sad and funny to see the newly appointed judges and functionaries of other departments de-partments at their duties. Like helplei children the newly appointed Soviet ofti-. ofti-. ialfi tried to manage the public: affairs, hut failed. The reason for this failure lay in the fact that the so-called middle class, having hav-ing been deprived of its private property prop-erty and the possibility of earning its living in the normal way, went on strike and refused to take any part in the communistic Utopia. The result was that the leaders of the commune were compelled to appoint butlers, waiters, maids and adventurers to important public positions in which they were unable un-able to accomplish anything except blunders and jokes. The newly appointed ap-pointed judges, professors or engineers of a Soviet department, who had been formerly half illiterate moujiks, faced the problems of their new positions in a way that made them the object of public ridicule and brought about the ultimato ; V. A young ,'. woman Cossack '" who eluded the clutches of the Bolshevists in the Crimea and escaped to the United States on an American steamer collapse of the government machine. What interested me most of all were the People's Tribunals, or the law courts, and the conspicuous role they played in the early days of the revolution. It seemed that of all Russia's institutions the only two that were functioning were the People's Tribunals and the Church. Here is what I saw of the Soviet court which I visited a few weeks later. In the building of the former Supreme Court I entered the courtroom of general -ion-; and found it transformed into People's Tribunal No. I. The Soviet court is very simple; it had no law books, no lawyers, no district attorneys. Behind Be-hind a long table covered with red cloth I beheld three judges seated. The first was a man of fifty-five years, with shaggy, t;ray beard, long, lean face and long, gra hair He reminded me of the pictures on the Byzantine ikons. His deep-set eyes were penetrating and stern and his features betrayed more a religious fanatic than a demagogue socialist. His name was Parfen. He looked so serious that a glance was sufficient to intimidate an accused per- son or curious onlooker o one knew jV where he camo from or what was hii past. He never spoke of politics, con- fl sequent ly one did not even know Ma whethei he was a Bolshevik, a raon- H archist or a democrat He spoke of I truth and eternal just.ee with a dep, rumhling voice that seemed to com from the Dark Ages. The second judge, Comrade Doahly, 1 was a quite different type. Hi? thick, J f oiack hair, oiled and combed oft'j w nne fide; his simple but well fit 1 tmcr clothes and his carefully twisted long mustache betrayed tns M overaml union labor leader, flj His red.lish, fat face, cynicj lips and flat forehead spoke 1 of the demagogue, cunning J and dangerous, Doshly hid l k been formerly a foreman in I the Nevsky spinning mills 1 where he was feared for bis, M physical strength and envied J for his luck. He was vara ! superficial, arrogant and 1 stupid, yet he occupied ths j i position of chief justice, sat f between his two colleaguef-B and tried to look very ia 1 ; portant. The third judge was Comrade S! Darya, woman of middle age, m who' sat on the left of the chief 1 justice. She wore a red woolen J scarf thrown over her shoulders. 1 Her heavy, blond hair wa3 combed j straight back and twisted into a i larse knot. Her face was Pj and round like a full moon. HeTj 1 heavy, auburn eyebrows were-J 1 painted black and her thin, capn- ,,,lU, hps were set firmly to- gether. She hardly looked liW J a woman of to-day. She had ap-.m pcared with Parfen in the "P' , nno knew who she nao m been before. She hated being a won K and behaved herself as if sne trying to show that it was not her J. fauIt. She had deliberately killed aU W femininity in her soul and s ho wed her s,orn of all that suggested a woffl.ni nature. She was considered lan rth V ity on socialistic theories. Whether shS WL educated, ipor.nt or a ana M one knew, but she was a typ'1 " of the Russian Terror. f a, When I arrived in the hall of tM J 1 People s Tribunal the judges were J , ing the last ease On a U 1 I between th- Ked Caard sat cused of being "bourgeois or obs on,st? of the Soviets. They I in former days members of high ocie W They were, according to the "fflPJJ J rule, of the new regime, dangeroOS ennunals and faced mentl either hard labor for life ishment with the Ush or ejJ Most of the accused m the cenoj had bceJ) sentenCed to -c Comrade Parfen was sign-ng de.t warrants with the steady hand of V fanatic. ,,.;-. his df 1 Comrade Bodily was J I nature to the warr.nts with a bored ontxnued on next page) If ( the Sev7ttiLvdt- o- MussiL.) ranger Than Fiction, the Fascinating True Story of hat She Saw with Her Own Eyes of the Thrilling ; yents That Followed the 3 Overthrow of the Czars j ieutd frotn P'tccdtiifj page) tf tnd to get a glimpse of the 1 of h-5 victim. LjjParya signed her name with- . - '" " 4.' - ,i. I jntlf in an importan; ami re-1 re-1 Ei position saving Russia yes, j f tfce rhole world from being ft I Uky capitalism .'coartyard was heard the clatter I l tjaits of the prisoners nnd the I Lfpf voic of the guards. The I f the court, eager to leave, were j ti3 to gather their papers, when j a ncw prisoner was n j I Ntmoncr was a man f thirty, , face, long, blond hair I Ifct sustache. After glancing in-Ljr in-Ljr around the courtroom from Hit'sat stiffly on a bench between Hpi:L, he fixed his eyes on the BfL icon evident that there were mnii of accusation for thi pris-Hai pris-Hai the clerk were puzzled that J jx.;! Is;c been brought in with ri M'Zt documents. 1 lex!? Doshly, bored by the for-I for-I Beef the trial, gesticulated with lie: x the air and ?aid 'lain no difference. He ia evi-1 evi-1 I cse of the notorious Whites I piiEcrihern front. He does not i ji tzy records. Add his name to 1 lit be executed to-monow and I rl! f U the bill. Comrades, do you I irth me?" he asked, turning to I h aTt the same to me," stammered b Omade Darya nodded her ill IBlIKCt I Ifrisoner jumped up from his jl loccked hi3 fist and, turning to jN jts cried- 1 lib the voice of the Russian peo-i peo-i -if rox populi, vox Dei or is it j 6t of Satan? -1 your nonsense!" shouted 1 k lid motioned to the guards to II lb out of the courtroom. I kkt 0f the young man took on I Kj pallor. Darya sank back in 1 r lie one paralyzed and began j ber face, confused. As the Talked out she turned to 5TCi asked him nervously . 'kwntencc finished?-m finished?-m jpiKtir.,.- on hr fto fcer with a condescending ex-said ex-said in a low voice. 1 I Did you know the prisoner?" j p him and I want to chang. she replied in an excited ; fcntrolled voice. I P impossible, absolute I I the chief justice in an I voice ' cannot change the j fvtry few minutes to suit you l",dM- It cannot be done' m looking back he left the I C,a.d Dar8 remained seated table, looking as if she saw ICfnthad aroused my curios ty E J to know more about Com-jWsnd Com-jWsnd the pale prisoner, who i r unabie to learn. I wanted I; would ho tho result, of rsi felt that IarVll was not J aW VM t0 b' Chief Jus-jo Jus-jo I made friends with KL cou,lroom- simple I t' who "as putting out l.ti7CSr,dor' 1 aPProach,d 1 lur bil1 i,,to hnJ et to find out where Com- . 1 11 i a'Ul Uh"M' j Ejw room &ud find out In C0VetUrne1 and informed f'orohovr,va. ' ' a 'u': " ' ' I' 80 t0 a '-nurch, I walked Power Now Told for the First Time by the Famous "Bernhardt of Russia" i to the Cathedral of St. Kuaji, where high mass was being celebrated by Father Amvrosy. Though the Bolshevik Bolshe-vik leaders hated the Church and feared its influence over the masses, they were IHiable to keen its fill - tending the serviccE. The imposing cathedral was tilled with worshippers. The choir was singing. sing-ing. I could see the thousand and one worshippers kneeling before be-fore the ikons. Father Amvrosy, a dig- iXA nified old priest, came out 'tft-Sr'-of the sanctuary and be- ' ' gan his sermon: "Brethren and ja" BnX :-"ii have come hen to fiHiW? forget the sorrows of the flHA world You have come mtfp here as the last resort to fSBf ' re lieve your sufferings. V But who is to be blamed? Wc ourselves. We are trying to build a tower to reach heaven. You believe it can be accomplished through economics, through labor and industrialism. But I tell you that the only road that leads us upward is that which is built out of spiritual bricks." "The old priest is a fool," said a well dressed man next to me. "You arc a spy!" shouted an old woman to him and threatened to slap his face. I was looking scrutinizingly around and walking from place to place in order to find out whether Comrade Darya had come. As I failed to see her I walked toward the door of the small private room of the priest near the altar. There I beheld Darya standing, waiting with other worshippers for the arrival of the priest, She was one of the Inst in the line. I stood a little distance dis-tance away, as if praying before an ikon, but close enough to overhear her conrersatioh, The old clergyman's face was stern and his eyes looked penetratingly pene-tratingly at Darya as it came her turn to confess. "You are from the Soviet, aren't you?" nsked the priest. She nodded, saying: "Parfen advised me to see you. I came because I suffer." "We all suffer," commented the priest. "Sit down and tell me." She remained standing before him and her eyes looked different from what they had in the courtroom a short while before. be-fore. "Father, tell me what shall we follow, fol-low, our heart or our reason?" sh asked. The old priest fixed his eyes on the ( ikon and spoke solemnly: "Humanity has gone mad in its greed for material riches. My child, you huv sinned! Be true to yourself. In the bottom of your heart Gotl has written a living law. Build a theory of brotherhood brother-hood and religion in your heart." "Father, I don't believe in the Bibb, so it's no use to talk to me that way. , I simply wanted you to tell mc what y I shall do," she interrupted and then t she walked out of the church. 1 I looked after her for a long tipio before returning into the cathedral, ins r head full of thoughts. It was evident I that this Soviet judge was in a critical 4 ' Vi "D a r y a had signed the death sentence of An drei Vassilievich, her former fiance. When she realized real-ized she could not save him she went to the prison, entered en-tered the room of Andrei and confessed con-fessed what she had done, She shot him rTrsr then herself" situation. Tho man whom she bad sentenced to death was evidently her former lover 01 brother. Her conscience was probably-troubled probably-troubled by he havini; igned his deuth sentence. Now she wanted to change it But he was uncertain whether she could ami whether it was right or vrong. Iread rioters invading the National Convention in Paris during the French Revolution. The Bolshevist regime :n Russia ruled the people with such an iron hand that there were no such revolts as this, even vhen starvation threatened H mas the same cold-blooded functionary , lie had been the day before. Judge Parfen looked more stern and absent-minded. absent-minded. The place of Darya was occupied oc-cupied by a r.tout woman. k" . - Finding no one would reveal to me JkK tbo mystery of Darya's absence. I dc-, dc-, cided to see Conmidc Parfen and ask him about her. Casting on me a surprised "lance he stammered: "Darya is dead. She shot fj ' herself yesterday in the I , ( prison." "Why?" 1 .nqturtd. "Iam her friend and would like ta 5 JK know." Y Parfen hesitated for a WLyf moment, but then seeing my ' v iv firmness and thinking that I J r was rcaJly one of her former vats' friends he continued: y "Darya had signed the s leath sentence of Andrio L 'J Vassilievich, her former V fiance. When she realized - that she could not save him she went to the prison, en- j terad the room of r - rirc nnil rnn- Girondists on the way to the guillotine in Paris in 1793 a wholesale slaughter that found its counterpart in Russia during Mme. Yakoleva's nend'sh persecution of counter-revolutionists i ne nexi nay i viaicea again the fa-niliar fa-niliar courtroom. I wanted to see Com-ade Com-ade Darya once more behind the red able. But the doors wero closed and was told by my friendly caretaking voman that something unusual bad "nap-icncd "nap-icncd and the judges could not come. decided to call on Darya at her home. Comrade Darya occupied an 'rgant apartment with a solemn looking butler, but-ler, but be told me his mistress had not returned since yesterday and he did not know where she was. When I visited the courthouse once more I found three judges behind the table, but Darya was not among them. Prisoners were brought in and cases wero tried as before. Judge Doshly fessed what she bad done. She shot him first then her: elf. I imagine her conscience con-science began to-accuse to-accuse her and she could not stand the strain." This tragedy wa one typical of the Soviet courts. Similar o n e 9 were happening in nearly all of them. As eagerly as the Soviet had at first appointed women to fill important im-portant positions of the government, govern-ment, so did it later oppose them. Woman, with her emotions emo-tions and keener intuition, soon turned against the extreme rad ical rules she bad at tirst advocated and been willing to accept. The women judges in the People's Tribunals during tho first dayu of their operation were far more cruel than the men. Take, for instance, the case of Mme Yakovleva, one time chief juatice of the First Dis-irirt Dis-irirt Court of Petrograd and later a leadii member of the Cheka. Who Mme. Vakovlcva was before the j 'j revolution, how she came to an almost . 1 j i'l , dictatorial judicial power nnd what , j were her political views nobody geemed i to know. She was a small, dark, rather 1 , pretty woman of about thirty years, who ! 1 , I ' W oke French, German) and a little Eng- l.sh besides her native tongue. i j H In her persecution of counter-revolutionists and monarchists she was a real tie, Sho became famous because of the reckless severity of her sentences, i i!' : most of them being executions. One . ' day she signed away the liVos of six- 'Mf teen suspected conspirators, most of h, ihem being young guard officers and ; !, f g'tth of high society. Her last victim , ' ,i was her own brother, a young student, 1 1 1 i ,'i 1 ji who was organizing a strike among the A , 1 i v munitions workers under an assumed ! 1 1; name. She recognised him only after i 'j! he !- lieen executed in the fortress. j ! This w such a shock to her that sho shot the executing Red Guards and disappeared dis-appeared from Petrograd. The most conspicuous figure of the early days of the Bolshevik revolution was Mme. Kolontai, the daughter of a rich army general and the owner of large estates, rich oil wells, trmmtm. ships, houses and other properties. Highly educated, refined and a talented speaker, besides being young and attractive, at-tractive, she made a nation-wide repu- tation. She occupied the position of a ' chief commissar in the first Leninc c Cabinet. Lenine never took any decisive step without consulting her. El I J II Her first move after gaining the unusual un-usual position was the occupation of a deserted palace of a grand duke, in which she made her office and received visitors. During the day she was dressed in a dark serge suit, similar to what your American office girls' wear, but during the evening she wore elegant eowns and entertained extensively. Mine. Kolontai maintained her position posi-tion for a long time and managed to prevent her estates and riches being nationalized. na-tionalized. Finally, one day a young and handsome sailor entered her office and announced that he was sent from tho Council of the Expropriation Commit-tee Commit-tee to seize her private propert she invited him to have dinner with her first at her palatial residence and the i ommissar accepted the invitation The next day Mme. Kolontai sent word to the department that sho was seriously ill and wished to make a trip to Finland to consult specialists. She left Petrograd with the young Commissar and never returned. Tourists arriving from abroad told later that Mine. Kolontai Kolon-tai was living like a princens in Sweden and that .the handsome sailor was her ' private secretary. (,To Be Continued Next Sundy |