War, Not Politics

A Russian-born U.S. merchant seaman just back from Murmansk said last week:

"Bombs fell night & day. Night & day men and women worked, unloading ships. One afternoon a bottleneck developed at one of the docks. A bomb had wrecked both derricks. Just after dark a Red Army company marched up, faces drawn. All night they worked, officers and men. In the morning the ship was unloaded and the company fell in and was taken back to the front, about 30 miles away. Their 24-hour leave for rest was ended.

"There was no difference between Communists and non-Communists in Murmansk. All were fighting the Germans. Now there is no politics; now there is war.

"The people in Murmansk make no distinction between Nazis and Germans. One used to hear: 'The German people will revolt against the Nazis.' Now one hears: 'The Germans will perhaps revolt when we Russians have killed them all. Then there will be no need to revolt.'

"Villagers near Murmansk told me how a German plane bombed their huts. Then the plane was shot down and the pilot bailed out. First he began shooting at us. Then he saw we were too many, threw away his gun and held up his hands: 'Kamerad. Kamerad.' When we took him by the throat he was not a Nazi. He was a German.

"In Murmansk there was no tea. Butter and milk were only for children and for the sick. There were 1,000 wounded Englishmen in the hospital. They got milk. The men & women in Murmansk were lucky to get bread.

"Everyone asked about the second front. 'We will go on fighting, but we need help.' they said.

"Many times, when people found I was American, they asked how I liked being bombed from Finnish bases sometimes by Finnish planes, while the American Government was friendly with Mannerheim. I did not know how to answer."

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