Gareth said little about his experiences while in the Soviet Union but
as soon as he reached Berlin he sent this letter home.
Berlin,
Near the Station for Saxony,
12.30. Wed. Aug. 26th, 1930
My dearest All,
Hurray! It is wonderful to be in Germany again,
absolutely wonderful. Russia is in a very bad state;
rotten, no food, only bread; oppression, injustice, misery among the
workers and 90% discontented. I saw some very bad things, which made
me mad to think that people like [I do not know who this is] go there
and come back, after having been led round by the nose and had enough
to eat, and say that Russia is a paradise. In the South there is talk
of a new revolution, but it will never come off
off, because the Army and the O.G.P.U. (Soviet Police) are too
strong. The winter is going to be one
of great suffering there and there is starvation. The government is
the most brutal in the world. The peasants hate the
Communists. This year thousands and thousands of the best men in
Russia have been sent to Siberia and the prison island of Solovki.
People are now speaking openly against the Government. In the
Donetz Basin conditions are unbearable. Thousands are leaving. I
shall never forget the night I spent in a railway station on the way
to Hughesovka. On reason why I left Hughesovska so quickly was that
all I could
