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Title: On leaving Russia Author: Mollie Steimer Date: January 1924 Language: en Topics: Russian revolution; Soviet Union; Bolshevism Source: Retrieved on 8th November 2022 from https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/bk3k2h Notes: First published in Freedom, January 1924. Reprinted in Cienfuegos Press Anarchist Review, #4 (1978). Introduction by Freedom.
The name of Mollie Steimer, we trust will be recalled, if only very
dimly, by some of the workers into whose hands this article may fall.
Mollie Steimer came as a child to the United States from Russia. When
she was quite a young girl her rebellious spirit brought her into the
real class struggle just at the time when the revolution in Russia broke
out; and as a consequence of her activity with a number of other young
workers who dared to denounce the action of the United States government
in sending American soldiers to Siberia, she was brought before a United
States court. Defiantly she stood up for her ideas. For this she had to
spend two years in an American prison, after which she was deported to
Russia.
But almost as soon as she stepped foot on her native soil, where a
self-styled government of the workers ruled supreme, she found herself
again in difficulty. She found the prisons of Bolshevik Russia filled
just like those she had left behind. No, not with Grand Dukes and
Czarist generals, but with working-men and women. They had dared to do
in Russia what she had done in the United States — they had criticised
the government — or were at least suspected of dissatisfaction.
For protesting against this, and for endeavouring to alleviate a little
bit the suffering of these prisoners and of their families, she was
thrown again into prison and finally deported from the land of her
birth.
The capitalist government of the United States and the Communist
government of Russia proved alike — that there is no real difference
between one government and another no matter upon what pretensions it is
founded. The Anarchists have all along contended that in the event of a
Socialist state materialising it would prove not one iota less despotic
than a capitalist one — nay, that by the nature of its position and its
programme it was bound to prove even more ruthless in its suppression of
all who dared to be dissatisfied or to demand real freedom from economic
or political slavery. The “Dictatorship of the Proletariat” in Russia
has only borne out that prediction.
How far the working masses of Russia are from that real freedom can be
judged from Mollie Steimer’s letter, following:
---
Among other things it has been stated in the American press that I was
very happy to leave Russia, and that I preferred exile in Germany to
freedom in Russia. This statement attributed to me, is a deliberate lie!
It is true that the hypocrisy, intolerance, and the treachery of the
Bolsheviks arouse in me a, feeling of indignation and revolt, but, as an
Anarchist, I have no admiration nor defence for any government of any
land, and the statement that I prefer exile in Germany rather than
freedom in Russia is ridiculous and false.
I made it very clear to the press correspondent with whom I spoke that
in spite of all the difficulties with which I had to put up with in
Russia, I was deeply grieved when I was forced to leave that country.
This was not true when I left America. Although I have my entire family,
good comrades and many dear friends in the U.S.A. Yet, when I was
deported from there by the capitalist government, my heart was light. It
was not so in the case of Russia. Never have I felt so depressed as
since I have been sentenced to exile from Russia. My love for Russia and
its people is too deep for me to rejoice that I am an exile, especially
at a time when they are undergoing extreme suffering and most severe
persecution. On the contrary, I would prefer to be there, and together
with the workers and peasants, search for a way to loosen the chains of
Bolshevik tyranny.
I regard the Bolshevik government as the worst foe of Russia. Its system
of espionage is perhaps worse than anywhere else in the world. Espionage
overshadows all thought, all creative effort and action. Despite tales
to the contrary told by foreign observers who have spent a few weeks or
months on Russian soil under Bolshevik guides, and despite the
statements of those who receive money from the Bolsheviks for their
services, there is NO freedom of opinion in Russia. No one is permitted
to express an opinion unless it be in favour of the ruling class. Should
a worker dare say anything at a meeting of his factory or Union which is
not favourable to the Communists, he is sure to land in prison or be
booked by the agents of the G.P.U.(the new name for the Tcheka) as a
counter-revolutionist. Thousands of workers, students, men and women of
high intellectual attainments, as well as undeveloped but intelligent
peasants, are languishing today in Soviet prisons. The world is told
they are counter-revolutionists and bandits. Though they are the most
idealistic and revolutionary flower of Russia, they are charged with all
sorts of false charges before the world, while their persecutors, the
“Communists” who exploit and terrorise the people, call themselves
revolutionaries and the saviours of the oppressed. Behind revolutionary
phraseology they hide deeds which no capitalist government on earth
would be allowed to commit without a protest arising from the whole
world.
Let me give a few examples of how the proletariat is treated by the
co-called revolutionists:
On March 5, 1923, the Central Government Clothing Factory in Petrograd
reduced the wages of its employees 30 per cent, without giving notice or
making any explanation to any of them. When the salaries were handed
out, each of the workers was under the impression that it was a clerical
mistake, and went for an explanation to the office, with the result that
1,200 employees went simultaneously to ask why so much of their Pay was
missing. To this the factory director replied that the people ought to
be satisfied with what they get and ought to thank them (the directors
and the government) for supplying them with work at all. Amazed at such
an answer and boiling with indignation, they decided not to resume work
until they got a satisfactory explanation. Union representatives were
thereupon called, but those officials refused to come until the workers
went back to their machines. The factory manager told them also that if
they dared to strike, all of them would be considered
counter-revolutionists and dealt with accordingly. Immediately the
workers called a meeting. While they were discussing their grievances,
the union representatives entered. But instead of sympathising with the
workers, one of these “defenders of labour” pounded on the table with
his fist and called in a thundering voice: “I order you back to work.”
Naturally, such behaviour only aroused all present to the highest pitch
of excitement. The order was bitterly resented and the meeting
continued. An old workingman got up and related the conditions under
which he and his family were forced to live, and asked how on earth he
could keep from starvation with the miserable wages he received. The
description of his own life being the very mirror of the life they all
led, resulted in the most pitiful scene. Everybody suddenly burst into
tears. Young and old, men and women, all were crying, and several in the
audience fainted.
A few hours after this came several chiefs representing the G.P.U., the
Union and together with the head director of the Petrograd Clothing
factories, announced that the wages would be reduced only 18 per cent
instead of 30 per cent. The workers, thereupon decided to resume work
and quietude prevailed in the factory. But at the end of the next week
120 workers, who were considered to be more outspoken and determined
than the others, were discharged from the factory, thrown out of the
Union, and put on the blacklist; that is, on their passports were
written: “Citizen … discharged from the Central Government Clothing
Factory for mutiny against the Workers and Peasants Government, with the
purpose of taking over the factory.”
Thus, because these proletarians of the “Communist” state protested
against a reduction in their wages, they were thrown out of the Union,
and consequently they can no longer obtain work. What is still worse,
they are registered by the G.P.U., as counter-revolutionists!
Now, let us take the case of Skorokhad factory. In June, 1923, the
Leather Makers Union and the Communist Committee of the Skorokhad
factory decided, without consulting the workers, that a club house of
the district should be repaired at the expense of the Skorokhad workers
(about 3,000 in number). Each of the various departments were told that
it must work eight hours overtime to cover the expense of the club, and
that “the other departments have already agreed to do so.” All
departments without knowing about each other, indignantly refused on the
following grounds; 1. That the club is not a workers’, but a Communist
club, only Communist lectures are delivered there, and no other are
permitted. 2. That even if they would agree in principle to working on
behalf of the club, they resented the action of the Union officials and
the “Communist” Committee, in having decided for them, as if they were
so many cattle to do the work.
The workers demanded a meeting of the entire factory. This the Union and
shop committee (which usually consists of Communists or Communist
sympathisers) refused to grant. On that day no one remained working
overtime. The next day, when this refusal was repeated, the doors of the
factory were locked, and the customary passes that permit the workers to
leave the factory were not given out. About half the workers then
returned to work — the other half stood waiting until the two hours were
up and the gates opened. Each evening of that week the same thing was
repeated. The doors were locked and the passed not issued. Yet it was
only under the threat of being discharged that the rest of the workers
submitted. As usual, a week later, those workers of the various
departments who did not act like cattle, but who showed character and
spirit were discharged.
In the same month — June, 1923, — the workers of the Putilov factory and
shipyard went out on strike, demanding an increase in their salaries and
the discontinuance of the practice of deducting high taxation from their
weekly pay. Out of the small wages that the workers receive in Russia,
the Government orders — without consulting the workers, of course, — a
certain amount be deducted for various purposes, such as the Red Army
invalids, the Red Army and the Red Aeroplane Fleet, “Cultural” work,
union dues and other countless things; because of these deductions, the
workers, at times, get no more than half of their wages.
After a three days’ strike of the Putilov workers, the wages were
increased. But their second demand was declined, and the employees
nevertheless returned to work. However, as a result of this strike,
about 400 workers were discharged and 100 arrested. The most tragic part
of all this is that the Union and Shop Committees, of course under the
Communist management, participated in these discharges and arrests, in
co-operation with the factory administration and the Government
Political Department, for there is a law in Soviet Russia that no
workers can be discharged without the consent of the Union and Shop
Committee. But the Government solves this problem by placing their own
agents as officials in the Unions and Shop Committees.
It happened that I was kept in the same prison where those 100 Putilov
workingmen were detained. When asked why they were imprisoned, I
received the answer: “They charge us with counter-revolution. God knows
what they meant by it.”
The above mentioned facts concern only Petrograd; but there are
thousands of similar cases all over present day Russia, and yet the
Bolsheviks are continually publishing stories about the glorious
conditions and the free — living in the shadow of the G.P.U., cannot
tell the truth to the world. Should he try it, or should he even try
defending his own rights within Russia, he will find himself listed as a
counter-revolutionist or a bandit, liable to arrest at any moment.
No, I am NOT happy to be out of Russia.
I would rather be there helping the workers combat the tyrannical deeds
of the hypocritical Communists
Mollie Steimer
Berlin, November 1923.