The Russian Executions The number of persons executed in Russia
in connexion with the alleged murder plot of which the assassination of Kiroff was a feature is now given as 117. The number of sentences to exile—a fate awarded to Kameneff and Zinovieff—is unknown. Comparisons in mass-slaughter are not particularly instructive, but Russia appears to have fallen short by a good deal of the record created by Herr Hitler in the shootings of June 30th, and it might be claimed that at Moscow there was some semblance of a trial. But the whole affair proves once more that the Soviet Government has taken over in all their undiminished brutality the methods of intimidation and repression to which its Imperial predecessor un- hesitatingly resorted. The resolution of condemnation passed by the Trade Union Congress and the Labour Party has naturally not been allowed to appear in the Russian papers, and there are no means of knowing what impression they have made on the Soviet leaders. No doubt the average citizen is far less interested in the mass-executions than in the fact that he can buy black bread (at about ls. a pound) without bread-cards for the first time for six years.
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