File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎369r] (385/1080)

Transcaspia. —The incidence of snow and extreme cold is limiting the
number of arrivals from the North. Those who do accomplish the
journey over the passes have little to talk about except the conditions of
extreme misery they have left behind them in Soviet territory.
For a reason which is’ not apparent but probably connected with some
political manoeuvre, certain refugees who have taken up their abode in
Northern Persia have been written to by their connections in Askhabad and
entreated to return there where all prospects are cf the best. So far as is known
the invitations have not been accepted.
Askhabad, a young town, was planted out with trees up to the time of the
entry of the Bolsheviks Now none remains, all having been reduced to fire
wood, and of all other fuel there is a famine. So short a time ago as the end of
November . the troops in posts on the Persian frontier, many such over
6,COO in altitude, had not received an issue of winter clothing and were
selling their sugar ration for bread. The broth which is served to them
often contains no meat but is thickened with coarse rice and bran. Indeed,
meat sells at 16,000 roubles a pound—not that that conveys anythin^
for the rouble, in units of thousands even, now fails to suggest any standard
of value. At Merv the Kran-rouble rate has lately stood at 1 kran to
10,000 roubles. Taking the present value of the kran at five pence the cost
to the Soviet Government for imprinting ten 1,000 rouble notes must be
in excess of their international exchange value! Hence, the reasons for
inviting persons to resume domicile in Transcaspia remain obscure.
Faced by the impossibility !of keeping up the process of rationing it 8
adherents and civilian employes owing to the lack of food materials,^ th e
Soviet Government appears to have resorted to the expedient of raising wages
with an in junction to recipients to fend for themselves, though it is °not yet
certain if this arrangement is partial or universal. Thus, some have risen
to a paper affluence of one and a half million roubles a month, but "when meat
is costing 16,000 roubles a pound such figures mean little.
Nevertheless, speeches against capitalists and imperialists continue, also
exhortations to maintain and to promote unity while awaiting the happy days
to come. . That these follies of rhetoric can persist, that a thinking populace
can continue to listen to them, must largely find an explanation in the fact
that Russian territories are completely shut off from the outside world. Few
are allowed in and few out except Communists to whose interest it is that these
things endure. Hence, for the Russian public there is no comparison
possible of the lot of mankind under Soviet domination with that under the
saner councils of other countries. Adhere are no newspapers from abroad,
no illustrations, no news except what a controlled press is permitted to
publish. And this last is so distorted or dressed up that the Russian public
is deceived into believing itself far better of than the unfortunate “ proletariats ’*
of other countries, bled white by capitalists, exploited by imperialists, and
perpetually on strike. That is the picture of the outside world the Russian
peasant and workman are shown, and probably accept, as a true comparison
with their own more favoured lot. Could they but be shown the truth they
would not suffer the blight of Communistic rule for another day.
Khica. —There is some talk on the frontier of another rising in Khiva but
nothing definite has come through. A reference in the previous Summary to
an absence of all mention in the local press of Khivan matters would seem
to denote that all was not well there. A traveller from Khiva city mentions
the arrival in the beginning of November of an addition of 1,000 troops with
guns to the garrison. Another from Kagan states that on the 10th November
he * saw 600 “troops—mounted, foot, and guns—entraining at Kagan for
Khiva via Charjui.
The first narrator stated that the Bolsheviks were talking of operations
on a large scale for the purpose of stamping out Juneid Khan once and for
all. He added that the Bolsheviks are hated by Khivans and Yomuts
alike who would prefer a return of their old Khan, even at the price of his
pillaging and propensities for extortion.