The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 5, 1925, Page 13

Comrade Frunze By A. VORONSKY. E is well known to the workers, peasants, red army men and citi- zens of the Ivanovo-Voznessensk in- dustrial region, He is not only well known from our days of revolt, but * he is also well remembered from those days which have already receded far into the realm of the past. In January 1907 on the outskirts of the town of Shui, a group of under- ground Bolshevik revolutionaries en- countered by chance a police-sergeant by the name of Prelov a devoted blood- hound of that section of the gendarm- erie whose work it was to exterminate internal enemies. One of the group observed that it would be a good thing to remove the police sergeant or something similar. At that, another got down on one knee, drew’ out a: Mauser and fired. The bullet missed fire. The sergeant turned round quickly and also opened fire. The comrade who -had fired at the gendarme was unable to return the charge as the cartridge jammed in his Mauser so there was nothing for it but to bolt. The one who fired went under the nickname of Arsenia. He was a young student. He had ra- diant eyes and limped with one leg because in 1905 he was lassoed during a pogrom and dragged for one verst by savage drunken Cossacks, It could hardly be said that the shooting of this police sergeant had been seriously thought out. All the more so as the firer was far from being a terrorist, and belonged to the “Bolshevik social-democrats and parti- cipated in mass political work. On March 24th, 1907, one of those whom the gendarmes and police had so long sought for was arrested in a conspirative apartment in the town ' of Shui. He was arrested with two Mausers in his hand; he had wanted to fire, but decided not to as there were children and other people in the house. He was called Arsenia, but Tonioda te a udonym; his real hie unze, How deep this young underground worker was to the Shui workers may be gathered from the following. The news of the arrest of Arsenia spread over the whole town in a flash. “The factories came to a standstill. The workers left off work and huge crowds went to the prison and demanded the liberation’*of Arsenia. The terrified police inspector was only able to ap- pease the crowd by cunning and false promises and afterwards dispatched Arsenia te Vladimir in great haste. This incident was an interesting pic- ture. The cold steel of bayonets of a whole company of soldiers flashed. File aftor file of the grey ranks swung by in measured steps.. They -were ac- companying the one and -only— Mikhael Frunze. He was worth a guard of honor. 2 After a few months during a cer- ’ tain trial, the police sergeant, Prelov, who was there as a witness chanced to meet Arsenial, who was also a kind of witness in the court, and thereup- on announced that this was the man who had fired at him. They recorded the deposition and Frunze was faced with the death penalty. Frunze mean- while was imprisoned. . In prison. he continued assiduously to study the It- alian language, and the syndicalist movement. ... The trial came off, and the death sentence was pronounced. The Ital- ian lessons ended but he began study- ing English, I believe. Who knows, perhaps it may soon be necessary to. go to England of Italy? Is it worth While for a young eager student to go to Italy or England? Of course it was, very much worth while. ... The sentence was commuted. The prosecution protested. Once more the article on the death sentence, again a trial. And the police sergeant tried hard. According to a witness V. G. Korolenko (“Russian Wealth,” No. 10, P, 134) he had a witness brought from Shui to Vladimir at his own personal expense and personally conducted him to the prosecutor of the Vladimir court. He was very zealous in destroy- ing sedition-mongers. _ The sentence was again commuted. Once again the plaintiff protested . . . And thus time went by. This affair dragged on for not less than two a” years. For two years his fellow prison- ers saw the strong young form, for two years unwillingly they were en- grossed in him, and for two years this vile strangulating noose hung over him, For two years he supposed that it would be necessary to go to Eng- land or to Italy. But what kind of a jotrney abroad would it be without understanding the languages? What great foresight on the part of those who study languages prior to going abroad? ‘Among people condemned to death two types may be distinguished it is extremely difficult to look at the one, while with regard to the others feel- ings are more involved and the senti- ment of pain is replaced by proud consciousness that they know how to die bravely. To this latter ‘type Frunze belonged. His trial ended in exile. For~ six years he had to sit in the Vladimir Central Penitentiary. Under these deadening, damp, gloomy and hermit- like conditions, Mikhael aroused the thoughts of his comrades, did not let them pine for human sympathy, and brought assuagement into this pertur- bed, nerveracking atmosphere of these joyless prison days... Those days were the hey day of all kinds of outrages and illtreatment of political exiles. At one time the head of the Vladimir Central Penitentiary was a certain Gudims. To use Hugo's expression, this was a man with the face of a corpse and the soul of a devil. He was a_ disgusting fat butcher, with sleek flabby skin, a foul breath and eyes like beads. He was a mixture of an enraged mediocrity a jesuit and a hangman... He had a particularly strong desire to subject Comrade Frunze to bodily punish- ment. . . When some important state official or other visited the prison they always asked: “Oh, say, you have got M. Frunze here haven’t you?” And the important one was con- ducted into the cell where he could feast his eyes a fpr . lo him up and d curi When fights, quarrels or scandals arose among the political prisoners, they always turned to Comrade Mikhael. But such a fellow as this never gives one*a chance to whip him or to truss him up. But let us once get hold of him... and then we'll give him something to think about. Nevertheless, even this butcher, this mixture of mediocrity, jesuit and hangman, never found an appropriate occasion for.carrying out his inten- tions. He sought for such a chance persistently and stubbornly. . . but the opportunity never came. Years of imprisonment, and exile. Illegal work in Siberia, an attempt at a new arrest, flight, illegal life. . . They were forever on his track. . . CROSS the far-off Volga Steppes the Ufa division of the black admiral lay stretched but in fighting columns. They were sure of them- selves. They were marching on Moscow. These were the best troops, the hope and support, the well-tried royal bodyguard. On the other side of the lines came wagon loads of young tepopgeat a new army but still weak, Some of the new soldiers wore eap-helmets with big red stars similar to the helmets of the Normans and the ancient heroes. These warriors, however, came from starved working class districts. And the workers of the Volga rallied to them. They came from a country encircled by a huge ring of fire, a country which seemed to be suffocating in a dealth-like em- brace of cold... Now they are en- tering the final death struggle... They swept on and the Ufa division was smashed. Glory to the young army. But we do not forget its com- mander, Comrade Frunze, who al- though never having passed thru ‘military staffs or academies, showed his distinguished talents as a red mili- tary leader. The helmets with red stars have al- ready flashed by Ufa. The black ad- miral plays his trump card, he sends forward the Kappel regiment, The Kappelites marched forwerd... The Kappel regiments know no de- feat... The Kappel regiments are marching on Moscow: their wagons bear the inscription: Kurgan-Ufa-Mos- cow... They have with them. the most experienced military specialists of the old army, Again an encounter, The Kappelites are smashed. HIS is an episode from the battle. . A regiment with helmets with red stars was crossing a river. The enemy fired volleys of shells. . . The detach- ments were making ever stronger and more audacious gteps to break across. The people in the helmets were becoming disconcerted, .. One detachment became shaky, another melted away... . Comrades, this way... Not one pace backwards. Follow me. For- wards Your .commander-in-chief is with you A man runs forward limping, with a rifle in his hands. “Forward, forward.” The commander of the division, the unrestrained and fearless Chapaev, cries out: “Comrade commander-in-chief, Go away from here. This is no place for you.” “Forward with me. I am taking over command of the regiment.” “Comrade commander-in-chief, it is I who am commander of the division here, and you have no right to com- mand these troops.” A shell bursts. . . Confusion. . . ‘WO years of imprisonment under a death sentence, six years exile and other wanderings, are not capable, fortunately and to the pride of human- ity, of extinguishing the radiant energy from eyes, or building their fresh glitter, of depriving a man of his audacity—these things do not al- ways” clip a man’s wings, or make him soft, feeble and dull. Honour and praise to humanity and to the party in whose ranks such people fight... Om the Orenburg steppes, thanks to the skilful commanding on the part of this —— red army leader, and th: ybed on a = sixty nd c It seems that he was nny only able to defeat the enemy in the open struggle, but also make them sur- render without bloodshed; and this is a particular talent. On the Ural steppes Comrade Frunze stormed the army of General Tolstoy, a talented and clever black- hundredite. In distant Turkestan the Caspian Sea is cleared under the leadership ‘of Comrade Frunze, . . I hope the diplomats will excuse me, but I think that the brilliant activity of the Bukhara revolutionaries, which ended with the Emir, being deposed, were not entirely unconnected with the activity of our red general... Comrade Frunze conducted the mili- tary operations on the southern front against Wrangel —with remarkable persistance and audacity. The capture of Perikop and Sivash represents one of the most brilliant pages in the history of our revolution. The most experienced French generals had been at work on the fortifications of the Isthmus. Comrade Kameney who in- spected the southern front on the eve of the attack,.on returning to “Moscow gave an indefinite reply to a question as to the possibility of taking Perikop and Sivash. In this connection Steklov, in a leading ar- ticle, also expressed rather wavering hopes, UT the red lava was already flow- ing on the Crimean Peninsula. A Marxist, terrorist, agitator, under- ground worker, was commander-in- chief on the front. Was it not true that he had the warm heart of a boy, the personal courage of a terrorist and rare talent? But how did he come a strategist and military leader? He certainly did not sit with folded arms, but learned, read, took lessons from old specialists, tested his steps, but in the long run who can trace the complicated, mysterious and torturous path, this mest miraculous laboratory in the woe@@ called the brain, which produces a famous artist from a ragamuffin, and a military leader and the just pride of the new army from an underground agitator? Who knows? (An Appreciation of the Late Commissar of War of the Soviet Unio written at the time of the overthrow of Baron Wrangel in the Crimee: Comrade Mikhael knowsg-aow to ral- ly people around him and to choose the right men. All those who have ever worked with him know that. His vic- tories are the victories of a great organizer. His comrades loved him, and specialists respect him. He “knows how to manage things.” He makes people obey him by the force of his own personality, his words are simple, but command obedience better than official orders. He is obeyed because of his personal charm, but not only because of this. A certain acquaintance remarked in a conversation: “Comrade Frunze is a very kind man.” But another one who had been to- gether with him in the Vladimir Central Prison replied: “You do not know him. He is gentle, it is true in his personal rela- tions, but you do not yet understand that he is as. hard as stone inwardly. He has tremendous will power and a strong heart.” This is more in keeping with the truth. He also commands obedience because his staunch heart and strong will make themselves felt. A considerable role in making him a talented red military leader is play- ed by the fact that in his spare mo- ments he was always ready to amuse himself. by playing about with fire- arms, cleaning them, taking them to pieces, assembling them again.... During these moments, he is just like a child playing with his toys. N. Tolstoy divided people up into *two categories: those in whom masculine attributes dominate, and those in whom feminine attributes dominate. In his opinion with the first category, actions are a result of the activity of the mind and are determined by the mind; with the second category the activity of the mind is directed at attaining aims evoked by emotion or at justifying actions caused by emotion. I do not believe Frunze belongs to either of these categories; with him his thoughts do not justfy emotions and acts, be- cause he is inwardly veracious; never- theless, his emotions are not sup- pressed -or violently restrained, he does not make them obedient silent helots of reason. There are some people with whom the synthesis of mind and feelings have now already attained a relatively high degree of harmony in a so inharmonious century as ours, In my opinion Frunze is one of these, We Bolsheviki are astonishingly lavish. Just look at our rivals and opponents, How carefully they collect and preserve in their minds every- thing worthy of note. With what love have they pictured Kalaev, Bal- manoyv, Gershuni, not to mention the Cadet leaders . . . We are frantically lavish, But after all is Comrade Frunze a less important figure than Kalaev, Gershuni and the others; just look at the wealth of color in this man, Agitator, Marxist, terrorist, ‘a man condemned to the gallows; a commander-in-chief, fighting in the front line with rifle in hand. ... No, it is of real value to note these attributes if only because it will once more prove that the party of the re- volutionary proletariat, despite all bloodshed by the allies and the most difficult of conditions, still has powder in the magazines. To the Ivanovo-Voznesensk district Comrade Frunze is bound with ties of blood both in the past and in the present. In drawing attention to his distinguished qualities and services, we associate them above all with the red textile workers of our province, for it is with them that he fought on the Volga, at Ufa, Orenburg, in the Urals, by the shores of the Caspian Sea and in the Crimea. Instruction in English Foreigners and others wish- ing to improve. Georgiana Bonita, 1843 Lincoin Ave. Tel. Diversey 6089. that?~"Comraile j .