During the Civil War the Soviet government began issuing daily international wireless communiques on events, conditions, and revolutionary work in Soviet-controlled territories. Becoming an irregular feature of ‘Soviet Russia,’ the New York-based publication of the Friends of Soviet Russia, the reports are a unique record of the period. A dozen or so notices each day, often just a paragraph or two, and covering items from epic battles of the Red Army to a small village’s lecture on astronomy—valuable and compelling–a delight for students of revolution to read. Here is the broadcast’s published debut for the First of October, 1919.

‘Official Soviet Wireless of October 1, 1919’ from Soviet Russia (New York). Vol. 2 No. 5. February 7, 1920.

We begin herewith a series of striking wireless messages, of the type sent out daily from Moscow and most promptly suppressed in foreign countries, concerning many phases of Russian internal and international activities. These paragraphs are always modest and trustful, and we are sure that readers, after going through this message, will be eager to see the rest.

Military Bulletin of the Russian Soviet Republic for October 1, 1919

WEST FRONT. Region of Dvinsk. The enemy’s attempts at attack were repulsed by our fire. Regions of Borissov and Bobruisk. The conflicts now in progress are favorable to the Red troops. SOUTH FRONT. In all sectors we are repulsing enemy attacks, which are supported by armored trains and armored motor cars. Region of Ust-Khoper. Enemy attempts to cross the Don completely unsuccessful. TURKESTAN. Region of Tsarev. Incursions of enemy cavalry have been repulsed. Region of Uralsk. Powerful enemy attack southwest of Uralsk went to pieces against counter-attack of the Red troops. EASTERN FRONT. Region of Tobolsk. Red troops took possession of several hundred prisoners and of immense stores of materials. Along the Ishim railroad, we are continuing to roll back the enemy in spite of his savage resistance. To the north of the railroad line we have taken several localities.

Communist Saturdays

At Yarensk the Communist Party organized two Saturdays for work, and the Executive Committee of the district decided that the employees of the Soviet institutions of the city should take part in these Saturdays. At Pugachev, the fifth Communist Saturday had eight hundred participants. At Kostroma, the second Communist Saturday assembled two hundred and fifty workers, who gathered in more than four thousand poods of vegetables in the municipal truck gardens. Everywhere even persons without political affiliation are taking part in these Saturdays.

More About the Communist Saturdays

At Morshansk, the Communist Saturday has yielded splendid results. In the city, as well as in the whole district, hundreds of new members have been enrolled. It was decided to open the party meetings to all persons, even to those not Communists, if they were interested in politics, and these meetings are now attracting great numbers of persons without party affiliations, who tentatively follow the expositions of the Communist program and the speeches of the orators.

Compulsory Education

At Kostroma, the Proletkult has undertaken a comprehensive project for carrying out obligatory instruction. One of the schools in question has already been opened, in which the workers work for six hours a day, for their normal pay. The program includes not only reading and writing, But also the elements of geography, literature, anatomy, hygiene, singing, and politics. Simultaneously with the Proletkult, the Section for Public Instruction is opening a series of evening courses for adult workers.

The Provinces and the Attempted Crime at Moscow

The crime of the White Guards at Moscow first aroused the revolutionary sentiments of the masses. At Saratov, immense processions marched through the city, with banners flying, calling for the death of these enemies of the people. At Nevel, more than a thousand soldiers and workers gathered at a meeting who unanimously passed a resolution calling upon all to engage in the implacable struggle, under the banner of Communism. The bomb that exploded at Moscow has unleashed our energies.

Meals and Hygiene

On the demand of the Conference of Doctors, the Section for Meals, of the Moscow Consumers’ League, proposes to open in all quarters restaurants that will enable the public to comply with the diet that may be medically prescribed. These restaurants are to be particularly installed for children.

Fine Arts

The Fine Arts Section of the Commissariat for Public Instruction is opening courses at Moscow to prepare lectures on the history and practice of the Arts. The program includes: An Introduction to the Theory of the Arts, History of Esthetic Doctrines, Architectural Problems, Culture, Painting, Graphic Arts; the Study of the Various National Arts, such as, the Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, etc., down to those of the present day.

The Political Movement in the Provinces

In the entire Government of Nizhni-Novgorod, elections to the village and cantonal Soviets have taken place. All parasitic elements have been rigorously excluded from the Soviets. In the Soviets are included about equal numbers of middle peasants and poor peasants, including a considerable group of Communists and of enrolled sympathizers.

The Situation Under Petlura

The Directorate is established at Vinnitsa. In this city, a regular fight took place between the mobilized soldiers and the former Petlurians. The chief kernel of the Petlurian troops consists of Galicians; the commanding officers are Russians, and the chief of staff is a German officer. It is admitted in this city that troops occupying a city or village are given the right to pillage for three days. Jewish prisoners are shot; others are flogged while naked, and imprisoned.

Denikin’s True Countenance

The invasion of Mamontov has been definitely liquidated. Nevertheless, certain details of his campaign offer an interesting view of the political ideas of his immediate superior, Denikin. In the region of Medovka a doctor was shot by the cossacks, because he was considered to be a Jew, in spite of the fact that he was not at all interested in politics. In the region of Orlovka, the physician of the insane asylum was shot because he was a Jew. As to the agrarian policy of Denikin, there is very interesting information in the instructive document enumerating the losses of the proprietor Chugayevski, of the Government of Voronezh. No sooner had his former possessions fallen into the hands of the Whites, than this landed proprietor hastened back to his lands and presented to the victor an account of the losses he had suffered under the Revolution. He includes in his total even the harvest of 1917, also trees cut down by the peasants, debts still due from them, harvests not turned into the proprietor. In addition, he includes objects sold by him, since they constitute a loss when compared with the possible price he puts upon them if he had been able to sell them under favorable conditions. The total is thus brought up to 151,940 rubles, which this patriot asks his beloved country to return to him. At Yelets, the White Guards were not able to prevent themselves from symbolizing their political sympathy in their mad chase for the banknotes of the former empire. There is a regular speculation in progress with these banknotes. Finally, in one locality of the Ostrogorsk district, a document was found, asking the authorities of each canton to turn in one-third of all their harvests to the former proprietors, and only then to set aside the quantities for future seeding and for the inhabitants. Besides, there is hardly any need to prove a desire to restore the monarchy on the part of any army that has reintroduced as its national hymn the “God Save the Czar,” and in which the orders are written on stationery with the letterhead of the Russian Monarchy League.

In the Country Districts

At present an extremely interesting phenomenon is taking place in the Morshansk district. On the occasion of the last elections to the Soviets, the peasants, permitting themselves to be deceived, had allowed a number of profiteers and rural bourgeois to enter the Soviets. After six months of experience, the middle and poorer peasants found out who were their true friends. The Soviets of the wealthy used up the cantonal finances, allowed the mills to go to rack and ruin, and speculated with the products in the warehouses. At present, the peasants themselves have taken decisive measures against the exploiters and have decided to elect none but Communists to Soviet positions. The sympathy of the peasants is already indicated by their forwarding large quantities of excess harvest.

In Turkestan

The Commissariat for Justice of the Soviet Republic of Turkestan, after the last session of the Soviet Congress, carried out a reform of the entire judicial system; as a consequence the Republic is now covered by a net-work of popular courts. The prisons have been changed into workhouses, in which trade schools have been opened.

Astronomical Lectures

The Section for Public Instruction of the Moscow Soviet in October offers a series of free popular lectures on Astronomy in the Observatory of the Central] Institute of Physics.

One of the Quarters of Moscow

The Sokolniky Quarter has three clubs for adults and six for adolescents, in addition to a circle for the Young Lovers of Nature. The polytechnic courses opened last year now have about three hundred auditors. In the near future there will be inaugurated for adult workers four schools of the first class. Lecturers are sent to the various enterprises, and always have large audiences. Five libraries at various points in the quarter serve the populace. In the Rogozhski quarter, there were created in the course of the summer fifteen dining rooms for about three thousand children. One hundred excursions have been organized in the environs. Twenty of these were to the factories, and twenty-five were sight-seeing trips in Moscow. A new school of the second class has just been opened in this quarter.

Municipal Life

The Moscow Soviet has just put in two machines of six hundred and seven hundred and fifty horsepower respectively, as an addition to the three that have hitherto served the drainage system. There have also been concluded a series of experiments for purifying and aerating the waters of the sewers.

Improvements in the Kremlin

The Kremlin in Moscow is a veritable city, including an entire civil and military populace, occupying many buildings. After the month of February it was decided to make of these buildings model structures as to hygienic features, which might be imitated in the rest of the city. Disinfection chambers, booths, mechanical laundries, have been installed. A furnace has just been put in for the destruction of garbage, the caloric energy of which is to furnish hot water for the baths, the laundries, and the inhabitants of the Kremlin.

Soviet Russia began in the summer of 1919, published by the Bureau of Information of Soviet Russia and replaced The Weekly Bulletin of the Bureau of Information of Soviet Russia. In lieu of an Embassy the Russian Soviet Government Bureau was the official voice of the Soviets in the US. Soviet Russia was published as the official organ of the RSGB until February 1922 when Soviet Russia became to the official organ of The Friends of Soviet Russia, becoming Soviet Russia Pictorial in 1923. There is no better US-published source for information on the Soviet state at this time, and includes official statements, articles by prominent Bolsheviks, data on the Soviet economy, weekly reports on the wars for survival the Soviets were engaged in, as well as efforts to in the US to lift the blockade and begin trade with the emerging Soviet Union.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/srp/v1v2-soviet-russia-Jan-June-1920.pdf