Leon Kozłowski

 “The Garden of Torture”

“I would like those who take this book into their hands to have the courage to read it carefully.” This is what the Russian historian S. Melgunov1 writes in the preface to his book entitled Red Terror in Russia (Krasnyj terror v Rossii), which has recently been published in print. Indeed, it takes a lot of courage to read this short but horrifying book until the end. It stands out from the extensive literature on the Bolshevik terror as a work of a learned historian who systematized the facts testifying to the Bolsheviks’ inhuman cruelty as a system of governance. And this work is even more striking because its author not only collected materials on the terror, but had had direct contact with this phenomenon. He lived for five years under the Bolsheviks’ rule, and of those five years he spent three in Soviet prisons. He saw horrible things and listened to stories of people who did not leave the Cheka dungeons alive. It is also noteworthy that the author is not an enemy of socialism and revolution. A socialist and democrat by conviction, he did not doubt his ideals even after the terrible experience which Russia had gone through. He brings his indictment not against revolution but against barbarism and the Bolshevik degeneration.

“Those who consciously or unconsciously,” he says, “refuse to see the horrors of political terror are taking culture back to the past era of barbarism. It is the greatest crime against humanity, a crime against socialism and democracy.” With his book, the author wishes to open the eyes of those socialists and democrats who find words of understanding and justification for the criminal Bolshevik system.

“Our social conscience demands an answer to the question of how humanity and philanthropy can accept the violence taking place in Russia, the human blood flowing before the eyes of the whole world, not in a war, but at the hand of the executioner!”

Oh, if only there was only the bloodshed! But even more horrible things are happening there. Appalling violence and sophisticated torture are part of the system of governance where death has become too common to frighten anyone. There is literally a “Garden of Torture!” Let me pick just a few “flowers” from this garden.

The Hot Dungeon. It is a windowless cell, three steps long and one and a half wide. Eighteen people are locked inside. They are squeezed so tightly that it is impossible for everyone to stand at the same time, so some are standing and others are hanging in the air by pressing their hands against the shoulders of their neighbors. The air in the cell is so [stuffy] that the lamp immediately goes out and a match will not light up. The prisoners are locked in this cell for two or three days, without food or an opportunity to leave it even for a moment. At times women are locked together with men.

The Cold Dungeon. It is a deep pit into which a naked prisoner has to descend down a ladder. The ladder is then removed and cold water is poured on the prisoner. This is practiced even in winter during frost. There have been instances where eight buckets of cold water were poured on prisoners.

The Chinese Cell (used at the Kiev Cheka prison). The tortured person is tied to a pole or wall, with one end of an iron pipe fastened to the their side. A rat is put inside the pipe. The second end of the pipe is blocked with a wire mesh so that the animal cannot escape. That end is then heated with fire. The rat, maddened with fear and pain, is trying to get out through the body of the tortured person, tearing through their skin and guts. The torture continues until the victim’s death.

The Measuring of the Skull. The head of the interrogated person is wrapped around with a cord and a stud is put in between the cord and the head. As the stud is twisted, the cord becomes more and more tightly wrapped around the head. After a while, the skin and hair separate from the skull. Scalping was a specialty of the Kharkiv Cheka, who also “removed prisoners’ gloves” (that is skinned people’s hands), about which a lot had already been written.

I shall not continue my description of the sophisticated tortures. Compared to them, hitting someone with an iron bar or an iron glove, burning them with fire, and other uncomplicated ways in which the Cheka “interrogates” their victims seem ordinary. Are these methods an overuse of local authorities for which the central government is not responsible? The central government not only must have known about the torture used in Moscow itself but it had recommended it. We know this from the circular letter sent by the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission quoted in Mr. Melgunov’s book. The states that should the normal methods of investigation prove unsuccessful, the local Chekas are to use the “old tried and tested methods.”

The local Chekas had their masters of torture, who were not satisfied with “old tried and tested methods.” They came up with new and more sophisticated tortures. Among those torturers were sadists and degenerated criminal types. Their degeneracy and debauchery can explain these and other methods of torturing people. But torture, as a universal phenomenon, was a logical consequence of the Bolshevik system, which knows no other argument than terror.

For those “flowers” that blossomed in the “garden of torture” responsible is Lenin — the garden’s main host. We should bear this in mind today, when the civilized world expresses its condolences on account of his death.