I have referred more than once in recent weeks to
th.:. revelations regarding aspects of the Soviet regime published earlier this year in the Saturday Evening Post of Philadelphia under the name of a General Krivitsky, who was said to have been chief of the Soviet Government's Military In- telligence Bureau in Western Europe. General Krivitsky's bona fides was sharply challenged by the radical paper the New Masses, but as the Post has now resumed publication of his articles it has presumably satisfied itself on the point. In his latest contribution General Krivitsky offers answers to the inevitable question why the prisoners in the various notorious treason trials confessed so volubly, and often- obviously—mendaciously. One answer is because by their own confession and condemnation they could save their families from being further assailed. The other is that the Ogpu, or secret police, claim that, given a little time, they can make anyone confess to anything. They have, in fact, occasionally failed, but very rarely. One method quoted by Krivitsky is to keep a prisoner standing on one leg for ten hours—which, in fact, must be physically impossible.
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