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. 26^th, 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