Written: Unknown date, by Degtyareff
First Published: Moscow Pravda, June 20, 1920
Source: The Living Age, October-December, 1920.
Translated: Unknown
Transcription/Markup: Brian Reid
Public Domain: Soviet History Archive 2005. This work is completely free.
THE western part of the government of Poltava, particularly the counties of Pereyaslav, Priluksk, Piryatinsk, and Zolotonosha, which I recently had occasion to visit, represent a territory, as yet untouched by political work. There are no newspapers here. Rumors are all one gets. The ideas about the Communists are most indefinite. For example, in the hamlet Chisteysheye a boy asks his mother:
'Mamma, how is it that you are not afraid to stay at home?'
'Why should I be afraid?'
'The Bolsheviki are coming.'
'And aren't you afraid of them?'
'They can't see me, because I am in the field all day and they are not there.' In the village Baryshevka, when the Red army soldiers organized a 'Children's Day,' in one of the villages the mothers who sent their children to the fete were assured that 'the Communists will brand the children.'
How great was the astonishment of the mothers, when, instead of being branded, the children were treated to games, music, a performance, tea candy, and a bag of sugar each. parents were thoroughly enrage those who deceived them.
The agrarian law is not applied at all. In many counties it has been put away and not even read. The divison of land proceeds on the principle of 'seizure.' In some places the poor peasants received land. In one village the landed estates were divided 'justly': those who had ten dessatines, received ten more; those who had received two, received two more. But there are places where the poor peasants got nothing at all. In the village Lisniaki, the president of the local executive committee, who is a former police official, collects the taxes in home-made whiskey. In Pereyaslav the president of the revolutionary committee is a flour mill owner. Recently he decided to raise the charge for grinding the grain. Needless to say the extra money does not go into the public treasury. His case is now being investigated.
In the whole Pereyaslav county the agrarian law has not been read to the peasants at all.
The question of education has not been touched. There are old teachers everywhere. The tuition fee has not been abolished, but even raised in some places.
In some villages there are even secondary schools. In Baryshevka the tuition fee is 1250 rubles in Kerensky money and seven poods of flour for each pupil. In Berezan it is 1000 rubles, one pood of flour, 10 poods of potatoes, and 10 poods of fat.
The pupils of the Borispole gymnasium recently took part in an uprising in favor of Petljura's bandits.
The general attitude of the peasantry toward the Soviet authority is good, but, as I have said, politically there is no consciousness. In the village Kovalin, when our detachment of the Red army reached it, the peasants at first refused to give us any horses and wagons. But a day later, learning from a neighboring village that the Red army soldiers treat the population well, they called a meeting and made the following decision, which they communicated to us:
'To the commander of the troops of the Red army: We, the peasants of the village Kovalin, learning that you are the Red army, that is, the Soviet authority which we recognize and not the Commune, apologize for the disturbance that was created and have decided to give you the wagons in any number that you may need.' And they sent a special messenger to us with the wagons over a distance of 20 versts.
Once, when our detachment was in the village Erkovtsi, a peasant suddenly appeared, mounted on an unsaddled horse, and holding in his hands a letter addressed to the commander. This letter read as follows:
'To the commander of 174th Brigade: I beg to report that according to he information furnished by the peasants of the village Yachniki, a detachment of French, German, and Polish troops of unknown strength entered this morning the village of Rzhischev. The Poles have built a camp and say that they will not go beyond the Dnieper, and that Petljura's troops will go instead of them. Please send your instructions.'
Under the letter was the signature of 'a citizen of the village of Devichki.'
This information proved to be exact. When this 'citizen' was found, he was directed to make up a peasant reconnoitering party, which he did inside of a half hour.
There is a great difference between the peasants of the governments of Kieff and Poltava. In the former there is banditism. The peasants there never asked: 'Is the Red army the Soviet authority?' The wagons were driven far away at the first sight of the approaching detachments of the Red army.
Why is it, that in Petrograd it is forbidden to start new enterprises or trades because of the lack of workmen, while those at Ribinsk are busy only two or three days a week?
Here in Poltava it is different. When we began to dig trenches and asked the peasants to help us, they came willingly.
Thanks to our political work, we have been able to gather through voluntary contributions, 10,000 poods of bread, not to speak of buckets of milk and thousands of eggs gathered for us daily for the use of the sick and the wounded.
The attitude toward the Poles is hostile. The attitude toward Petljura is still indefinite. And this is because there has not been any political work.
In many places you feel the power of the 'kulak.' In Yagotin the workmen are driven out of the estates almost everywhere. The sugar refinery located there has been robbed several times. The peasants from the surrounding country would break in and take away the stocks of sugar and particularly of molasses, which they use for making home-made liquor. And the workmen are powerless to do anything, although it is most important for them to keep those stocks for the purpose of exchanging them for grain.
The sugar refinery workmen are indeed crushed by the despotism of the 'kulak.' When I explained to them what the Soviet government was, they said it was the first time they had heard that the Communists were for the workmen.
All the peasants praise the Red army soldiers. 'We have never yet seen such Communists,' they say.
After my lecture at the village Baryshevka on the subject, 'Can Soviet authority exist without Communists?' the peasants said to me, 'Why didn't they come to us before?'
In many villages we have begun organizing Communist groups. In Berezah we already have thirty-eight candidates.
Concerning the work in gathering grain one can judge by the following: the Pereyaslav county was expected to yield 2,000,000 poods, but it has actually yielded 2000 poods. The local Communist organizations follow the principle, 'We are not to be touched either from above or below.' They cannot bear outside interference.
The 'collegial' system and 'democracy' are in complete operation. Here is a protocol of the Yagotin Communist group. In the order of the day are such questions as, 'Find the meeting place,' 'Find the means,' 'Concerning the piano taken from the theatre,' 'The hours of attendance at the Commissariat.' No doubt all those questions were decided after heated discussions.
One of the questions in the order of the day was marked, 'The current moment.' A report was presented by Comrade Klementieff, and the decision was, 'Make note of the report.'
An instructor was sent from the nearest centre, but after working for two months, be was asked by the coin munity to take a vacation, and the following decision was adopted:
'Concerning the work of the party, Comrades Klementieffand Potapenkoa spoke at the meeting. In view of the fact that Comrade Drofa sent here from the Ouyezd centre has not done anything, but has merely disorganized the party, be it resolved that a Presidium be elected, from which productive work should be required.'
Perhaps, it was better so.