The tragedy of the honest Russian emigration from the very beginning was that in its desire to directly fight the Soviet regime, it was, by the force of space, deprived of a point for the application of its force.
Only a few heroes could make their way into the country, who by no means found there, like previous revolutionaries, “under every bush there was a table and a house”: they made short forays and died or returned, having accomplished a separate feat and bringing information. But that's all.
All attempts to act secretly through agents of the GPU-NKVD invariably ended in tragic failure: gullible emigrants trusted professional traitors, professional traitors “agreed”, “promised” and then they deceived and betrayed the gullible emigrants, whom personal valor did not save, but led to a sacrificial but useless death.
In-depth reconnaissance of the brave men who made their way into the Russian regions occupied by the Germans during the war provided a lot of valuable information and some limited propaganda capabilities. But that's all.
The shots of Conradi and Koverda had the meaning of Russian national protest and warning for the whole world. The main thing is that no central struggle emerged from all this. Heroic excesses were integrated into the general propaganda tactics, which remained the main business of the emigration.
"Old" The emigration realized this long ago and set itself the task of acting by demonstrably proclaiming the truth about Soviet communism, and in this its merits are enormous and undeniable.
Now this truth about Bolshevism and communism has become the property of all governments of Western and Eastern powers. However, the opinion of the peoples themselves is very far from the correct understanding of the truth. Proof of this is the elections in Italy (up to 8 million votes for the combined bloc) and in France, the seething in Latin America, fermentation in India and the civil war in China. The world press is far from up to par in its judgments about Soviet affairs: it continually reveals the inadequacy of its knowledge of Russia, its understanding of the Russian revolution, a lack of vigilance, independence and simply honesty. Here for the Russian emigration there is a great field of action. But we must remember that success comes not only from sensation (Kravchenko), but mainly from evidence and quality, that great political tact is required and that without persistent organizational efforts nothing can be achieved.
The second task of emigration, without which the first one is insoluble, is a careful study of the processes taking place inside Russia. We must test our knowledge and understanding with the living and recent experience of the new emigration. We must conclusively reveal to world public opinion what is happening in the Soviet Union: the anti-national policy of the communists, destructive for Russia, the un-Russian nature of Soviet imperialism, the spiritual absurdity and destructiveness of party tyranny, the essence and goals of Soviet totalitarianism, the sham and deceit of Soviet “democracy”, the moral consequences of terror, the fate of the Russian intelligentsia, the eradication of independent (best) characters among the people, the temptation of the Soviet-church compromise, the economic hopelessness of a centralized economy, the collapse of socialism, the struggle of the peasantry with communism, the general standard of living, the position of the working class, the position of fooled and humiliated national minorities, the state of industry and weapons, the reorganization of the army and the mood in it, the creation of a new privileged caste in the country and the attitude of the people towards it.
The publication of appropriate books, brochures and collections of articles in foreign languages will complete this matter.
The tasks of the national Russian emigration do not end with this, but this is where they begin.