Boche and Bolshevik: Experiences of an Englishman in the German Army and in Russian PrisonsPrice, Hereward Thimbleby
History
Boche and Bolshevik: Experiences of an Englishman in the German Army and in Russian Prisons
Price, Hereward Thimbleby
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, Russian
One of the strangest Bolshevik novelties was their reform of judicial
procedure. Laws, lawyers, and judges were abolished at one blow. You
might be prosecuted for treason. Your judges would be chosen from the
people to officiate for this occasion only, perhaps even they would
not be able to read or write. The prosecuting counsel would be a man
of the same type. You instructed whoever you liked to appear for you.
The court had to make law and find on the fact at the same time. Having
established what you had done, they would proceed to deliberate as to
whether it came within their idea of a crime. The public were invited
to help them, and any one who chose might speak as long as he liked.
Even schoolboys joined in. The proceedings were not so terrible for
the defendant as might appear. He usually got a real lawyer to defend
him, who could put his case skilfully. The representative of the Soviet
was no match for him as a rule. Judges were lenient except to other
Socialists and the Press. You were not always certain of being tried.
The Bolsheviks would arrest a group of people on a charge of conspiracy
and shoot them the same day. The absence of laws hit the Press very
hard. All the organs obnoxious to the Bolsheviks were suppressed one by
one. It was only too easy to convict a newspaper of sedition, if you
made up the law on the subject afresh for each case.
[SN: THE ROCK OF DESTRUCTION]
These are just a few aspects of Bolshevik rule. In conclusion, I should
like to give a concrete instance of how extreme Socialism works. A
professional man at Irkutsk had by his talents and industry attained
a distinguished position. Come the Bolsheviks, commandeer nearly all
his rooms, and threaten to turn him out on the street and supplant
him by one of their own men. When he protests, they jeer and tell
him he will still be able to work with his hands. That was not the
worst. He had a wife and family, for whom he had saved some money.
If he died, the Bolsheviks would immediately step in and take all he
possessed, including even the insurance. His wife might get some sort
of a pension; his daughters would have to stop going to school and
become servants or waitresses; his son, perhaps, would also have to
give up his education and might manage to get a job as a cab-driver.
The Socialist says how splendid! The children of rich and poor on an
equality at last! Yes, the lazy and extravagant placed on exactly the
same level as the industrious and the thrifty. Whether you spend what
you earn, or whether you save it, it is all the same for those who come
after you. On this rock the artificial restrictions of Bolshevism are
sure to split. You will never persuade a man that the State will look
after those dear to him as well as he himself can. You cannot take from
him the right of providing with the fruits of his labour for wife and
child. He will resent, with the deepest and bitterest anger of which he
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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