I warn all that in the event of repeated cases of arson I will not hesitate to adopt extreme measures, _including the shooting of the bourgeoisie’s hostages_, in view of the fact that all the White Guards’ plots directed against the proletarian state _must be regarded not as the crime of individuals, but as the offense of the entire enemy class_. That hostages were actually shot, and not merely held under arrest, is clearly stated in the _Severnaya Communa_, March 11, 1919: By order of the Military Revolutionary Committee of Petrograd several officers were shot for _spreading untrue rumors that the Soviet authority had lost the confidence of the people_. _All relatives of the officers of the 86th Infantry Regiment (which deserted to the Whites) were shot._ The same journal published, September 2, 1919, the following decree of the War Council of the Petrograd Fortified District: It has been ascertained that on the 17th of August there was maliciously cut down in the territory of the Ovtzenskaya Colony about 200 sazhensks of telegraph and telephone wire. In consequence of the above-mentioned criminal offense, the War Council of the Petrograd Fortified District has ordered-- (1) To impose on the Ovtzenskaya Colony a fine of 500,000 rubles; (2) the guarding of the intactness of the lines to be made incumbent upon the population under reciprocal responsibility; and (3) _hostages to be taken_. Note: The decree of the War Council was carried out on the 30th of August. The following hostages have been taken: Languinen, P. M.; Languinen, Ya. P.; Finck, F. Kh.; Ikert, E. S.; Luneff, F. L.; Dalinguer, P. M.; Dalinguer, P. Ya.; Raw, Ya. I.; Shtraw, V. M.; Afanassieff, L. K. This drastic order was issued and carried out nearly a month before the district was declared to be in a state of siege. * * * * * The _Krasnaya Gazeta_, November 4, 1919, published a significant list of Red Army officers who had deserted to the Whites and of the retaliatory arrests of innocent members of their families. Mothers, brothers, sisters, and wives were arrested and punished for the acts of their relatives in deserting the Red Army. The list follows: 1. Khomutov, D. C.--brother and mother arrested. 2. Piatnitzky, D. A.--mother, sister, and brother arrested. 3. Postnov--mother and sister arrested. 4. Agalakov, A. M.--wife, father, and mother arrested. 5. Haratkviech, B.--wife and sister arrested. 6. Kostylev, V. I.--wife and brother arrested. 7. Smyrnov, A. A.--mother, sister, and father arrested. 8. Chebykin--wife arrested. In September, 1919, practically all the Bolshevist papers published the following order, signed by Trotsky: