To The Workers Of The World
Once more we appeal to you, workers of the world! In the name of revolutionary solidarity and humanity we call upon you to take a stand against the unheard-of barbarities of the Communist Government of Russia. Only your powerful intercession can save the lives, the honor and the human dignity of the Russian revolutionists.
Russia, bled almost to death by war and hunger, now lies prostrate at the feet of despotism that pretends to be a government of and for the proletariat. The Russia of the workers, revolutionary Russia, is helpless. Without your fraternal help, workers of the world, the oppressed and persecuted there cannot defend their rights and liberties.
We lack the power to describe to you the horrors being perpetrated in the prisons of the Bolsheviki. Let the letter recently received from the Archangel concentration camp, the authenticity of which is above doubt, speak to you.
LETTER FROM ARCHANGEL[1]
On January 28, 1922, a group of Anarchists in the Kisselnaya Prison, in Moscow, declared a hunger strike. They demanded either to be given an open trial or to be permitted to leave the country. On the third day of the strike, on January 30, these Anarchists were transferred to another prison, on which occasion they were subjected to physical violence. Three of their number (G. K. Askareff, the Secretary of the Russian Section of the Anarcho-Universalists and editor of their journal, the "Universal"; S. A. Stitzenko and M. V. Simtchin) sentenced to two years concentration camp in Severo-Dvinsk, were taken to Archangel, together with 17 other Anarchists who did not participate in the hunger strike and who had been sentenced to the concentration camp and exile in Archangel. Askareff, Stitzenko and Simtchin declared that they would continue their hunger strike, which they did. The guards accompanying them telegraphed several times en route to the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (the Veh-Tcheka), informing the latter of the situation, Arriving in Archangel the prisoners were sent to the headquarters of the Tcheka of the Province (Gub-Tcheka) where an examination of the accompanying official papers disclosed the fact that there had been filed two sentences against each of the three hunger strikers (Askareff, Stitzenko and Simtchin). The Veh-Tcheka had sentenced them to the concentration camp in Severo-Dvinsk, while the M-Tcheka (the Moscow Tcheka) had at the same time ordered them to be sent to the Archangel camp. It was already the ninth day of the hunger strike and the men could hardly stand on their feet. They were thrown into a sleigh, with the thermometer showing 25° frost, and sent to the "distribution point" (which is also the concentration camp) and there left for hours in the cold. For some reason the Distribution Point refused to receive them, and they were ordered back to the Gub-Tcheka, where they were again left out in the cold (mo less than half an hour). Then they were sent to the hospital. Within a few hours, upon the refusal of the men to accept medical aid, they were again put in the sleigh and returned to the Gub-Tcheka. The next day they were taken in the same sleigh to the concentration camp and there placed in the general barracks. Within two days they were again transferred to the concentration camp hospital.
On the sixteenth day of the hunger strike Simtchin was attacked by convulsions. The Commandant came then and stated that he had received a telegram from the Superintendent of the Veh-Tcheka concentration camps, a certain Katznelson, of Moscow. In his telegram Katznelson offered the men to terminate their hunger strike till his arrival, in view of the fact that he had been given authority to settle the whole matter to everybody's satisfaction. The men consented conditionally, but demanded that the Camp Administration put Katznelson's offer in writing. It took from the evening till 1 P.M. of the next day before the paper was prepared: on February 13, on the seventeenth day of the hunger strike, the latter was terminated. The medical staff of the hospital exerted themselves in a touching manner in behalf of the men, gave them the best of care, and soon they began to improve.
When Superintendent Katznelson arrived he did not show himself to the prisoners, and when called upon by them he pretended to know nothing of the matter. Upon being faced
- ↑ Published in No. 15 „Sotzialistichesky Vestnik“, Berlin, bimonthly journal of the Russian Soc. Dem. Labor Party.
