After the remnants of Admiral Kolchak’s Russian White Army had been swept away and the whole of Siberia seemed to be quiet, a new insurrection broke out in Western Siberia in 1921, unexpected and unplanned, but exceeding all operations of Yudenich, Denikin, Kolchak, in strength and efficiency; this, at least, was Lenin’s judgement on the revolt. Without entering into details, we draw the reader’s attention to the fact that, since this insurrection was thwarted, the Soviet government in Moscow has not dared, up to the present, to introduce restrictions of Civil Rights and to exert terrorism in Siberia to an extent similar to that in the European territories of the U.S.S.RV. The population of Siberia, for example, is not bound to contribute to the public loan. The conditions of labour are much better there. The obligatory quotas for agricultural products have been considerably modified. Hunting and fishing are not controlled. There has always been a wealthy peasantry. In 1942 in Rostov, I had a talk with a prominent Siberian official. He said: “ We removed all formerly wealthy peasants to Siberia after their property had been confiscated. In Siberia however they came into wealth again and we got rid of them here“ (in the Don district).
Siberia has its own law and its own customs.
As little as the tsarist government cared about Siberia, so the Soviet government aims to gain the Siberian’s sympathy and bind them to Moscow. The Siberian territory is being industrialized at all speed; plants are being built, the creation of a huge “ Siberian Lake“ (of about 100,000 sq.ml.) has been planned, the Ural-Kuznetsk Combinat (factory) is being enlarged, a bridge across the Tartaric straits and bases in the North of Siberia with strategically important railway connection are supposed to be built. Not all the projects are practicable yet they are of psychological value:
It is easier for Moscow to claim that it does not care about Siberia. The truth, however, can be seen from the following passage in the newspaper “Trud“ (“Labour“) of November 5, 1953:
“ Vladivostok, November 4, — The two refrigerating ships “ Dnyestr“ and “ Kuldin” have left the port of Vladivostok, in order to bring plenty of fresh meat, sausage, and vegetables to the population of Sakhalin and Kamchatka. On return, they will bring frozen salmon, smoked and fresh herrings, and salmon caviar, back to Vladivostok.“
I know those far-off regions very well and can testify that at the time of the First World War, no meat imports from the Continent or from San Francisco to Sakhalin were necessary. Many herds of cattle were grazing in the valleys and on the meadows on the mountainside. When being dried, the succulent Siberian leek was a sufficient fodder supply for the winter. The Japanese procured great quantities of agricultural products from the Southern part of Sakhalin, which belonged to her.
But now meat is running short there and, no doubt, not only there, otherwise the course of two refrigerating ships would not have been mentioned in organs of the central press.
The population, forcibly deported to Sakhalin, thinks of nothing but returning home. Nothing can overcome this unappeasable desire. Those people — and they are predominant in Siberia — can not but hate Moscow.
Thinking of Lenin’s words “ controlling Siberia means controlling Asia“, Moscow docs everything to keep Siberia in its power and to gain the sympathy of its population. But nature remains inexorable and creates separatists regardless of the momentary state of mind of the population.
After the revolt in Western Siberia mentioned above, Marshall Bliicher’s list of conspirators was discovered; that man, who wanted to separate the Far East from Moscow. This was prevented chiefly by the Japanese who disliked an independent Siberia for several reasons. There is no apparent separatism in Siberia today, but nobody knows what goes on in the taciturn soul of a half-Asian Siberian. There is no reason to believe that Siberia has been thoroughly Russified and her spirit has been benumbed in the Soviet Union’s embrace.
It might be of some interest to quote a passage from the book “Siberia“ by Oswin Cornelius Pfeiffer, edited by the Safari-Verlag. It runs: “ We are living in a world of strained relations. Wherever you look, the old ground is breaking with fermentation. Old systems renounce or are ousted and the new mark their ways with blood. New knowledge has risen on the horizon. Its shadow falls alarmingly on the frightened world.
The rays of new suns have worn out the fetters of century-old obligations. Now they fall off, brittle and rotten. Yet relations arise. It must be noticed: the national frontiers are in a state of dissolution.
A boom is on for map drawers. The face of our earth, petrified for generations, begins to move and its features change overnight.“
Klym Pravdyc
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Archive of OUN. - Library, - Not periodicals. - ABN.Correspondence 1954. - 1/2/ - P.11.
