Comrades KOLOGRIV and LINCHEVSKY have been doomed to a new term of exile. Kologriv had returned from America to Russia in 1921 to devote his services to the welfare of the Russian masses. He secured work on the freight station of the Kiev railroad line, and his ability and efforts soon won for him the respect and friendship of his co-workers. But Kologriv was an Anarchist, and it did not fit in with the purposes of the G. P. U. that a non-Bolshevik, an Anarchist at that, should enjoy the good-will of the workers and have influence among them. Before long he was accused of appropriating several pounds of sugar! The workers at the place, who knew that Chekist hatred was the cause of the accusation, took our comrade’s part. An investigation fully proved Kologriv’s innocence. But the G. P. U. had marked him for their victim.
Before a few weeks passed Kologriv and his comrade David Linchevsky were called for military service. The authorities knew very well that because of their convictions the two Anarchists would refuse to join the army, and that was just the opportunity they needed. Our comrades had indeed the courage to declare that they will not kill other workers, either in their country or those of any other country, and forthwith the G. P. U. ordered them into exile in Archangel.
Kologriv’s wife and the wife and three small children of Linchevsky were left in Kiev without any means of subsistence. Linchevsky had been working in a bakery, and that bakery offered to give work to his wife, but the local Communist organization forbade her employment, and now the wives of our comrades and their children are left to starve.
The fate of two other comrades, KUMANOV and KORDAO; is even more tragic. Kumanov has suffered Bolshevik persecution almost uninterruptedly during the last 10 years. He has spent five years in the Soloviki. Kordao, has been tortured 10 years in the same place and is now a complete invalid. Now both Kumanov and Kordao have been confined in some distant prison again, and the place of their imprisonment is kept secret.
One might ask, for what fearful crime are these comrades treated in this manner? What are they charged with? The crime charged against them is exchanging a few letters with friends in Europe!
From: Guillotine at work p600, reprinted from "The International Workingmen's Association (Syndicalist International) Russian Fund, January 1933; Haarlem, Holland.".