RUSSIA’S REVOLT AGAINST THE BOLSHEVIKS.

MOVEMENT SPREADING.

News received from Russia yesterday, though belated owing to telegraphic delays, is very interesting, particularly as showing the growth of the anti-bolshevik agitation and the spread of the Czecho-slovak military revolt. These messages demonstrate that the Czecho-slovaks are operating on a large scale at widely separated places. In addition to their expedition along the Siberian railway, where many of the principal cities are now in their hands, they have moved north-westward from this great trunk line and have entered Ekaterinburg, a town of 80,000 inhabitants on the eastern side of the Urals, where, according to a Moscow telegram via Berlin quoted by Reuter, heavy fighting is taking place. Another Reuter telegram from Moscow, dated June 18, says: The Novaya Zhizn learns from Tsaritzin that detachments of General Dutoff ’s Cossacks have joined the Czecho-slovaks some versts from Poverino, in the Government of Yoronesh, where they are preparing to make a decisive attack against Poverino-ekaterinburg line. The point about this message is that Poverino is in South Russia, nearly 1,000 miles from Ekaterinburg. Dutoff ’s Cossacks are a long way from their own country, and the fact that they have joined forces with the Czecho-slovaks at Poverino shows the widely diffused character of the present antibolshevik revolt. This feature is emphasised by a Moscow telegram, via Berlin, forwarded yesterday by Reuter’s Amsterdam correspondent, which states that, owing to the increase of the anti-revolutionary movement and hunger revolts, a state of war has been proclaimed in the Krestzy (Government Novgorod) district, the town of Perm, and the Government of Ufa, and a state of siege in Novgorod. The province of Novgorod adjoins that of Petrograd, and must not be confused with that of Nijni-novgorod. Perm is in Eastern Russia, about 150 miles from the Urals, and over 1,000 miles east of Petrograd. The province of Ufa is also in Eastern Russia, bordering on the Urals. The telegram adds The situation in the government of Saratoff is serious. The Council of Deputies has requested the Executive Council of the Saratoff Government to carry through the arming and military training of the working classes, because an organisation for self-defence has become necessary. A telegram from the Murman Railway states that 60 per cent. of the railwaymen have fallen ill with typhoid fever and scurvy owing to lack of foodstuffs..

EX-GRAND DUKE’S ESCAPE.

So far no confirmation has been received of the reported assassination of the ex-tsar by Red Guards at Ekaterinburg. The Exchange Company’s correspondent, wiring from Moscow on June 21, says that persistent rumours were then current that the dethroned monarch had been murdered, but that no official corroboration could be obtained. It was announced in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph that the Grand Duke Michael (brother of the ex-tsar) had escaped from Perm and joined the Czecho-slovaks. A Moscow telegram, received at Amsterdam yesterday (viâ Berlin), says, according to Reuter: The Moscow newspapers describe how the Grand Duke Michael effected his escape from Perm. It is stated that during the night of June 14 a detachment of troops, professing to be Red Guards, arrived, and showed a forged Soviet order for the Grand Duke’s transfer to Moscow. Then they took him off in a motor-car. A further telegram from Reuter’s Amsterdam correspondent, dated yesterday, says: Only indirect news is reaching Moscow from Turkestan, according to which the Grand Duke Michael is at the head of an anti-revolutionary movement in favour of a severance from Russia. The Grand Duke is reported to have issued a manifesto to the Russian people, adhering to his abdication and leaving the decision as to the form of government to be adopted to the Zemsky Sobor (Duma). Lenin and Trotsky continue their efforts to form a Red Army to bolster up their failing régime. Pay is to be given at the monthly rate of 150 roubles (nominally £15, but in reality about £2 10s at the present depreciated rate) for single men, and 250 roubles for men with families.