Crítica
- A FIREDAMP EXPLOSION OCCURRED IN A COAL MINE IN THE CAPE
- THE COMMUNIST PARTY WILL PUNISH TROTSKY, ZINOVIEV AND PIATAKOV
- A RUSSIAN REBEL WAS SENTENCED TO DEATH
Crítica's front page of 9 October 1926 carried foreign news in short Associated Press cables. From London came word, relayed from Cape Town correspondents, that a gas explosion at the Durban Navigation Company's colliery had sealed the shaft and trapped four white men and 116 African miners; rescuers held out little hope and eleven bodies had been brought up. From Moscow, the paper reported that the Communist Party's Political Bureau had condemned Trotsky, Zinoviev and Piatakov for criticising the leadership before factory workers and would send their case to a plenum on the 20th for exemplary punishment, leaving Moscow readers asking what would become of them. A third cable from Saratov reported a death sentence for Dimitri Suvorov, a former imperial officer and descendant of General Suvorov, for leading a 1920 counter-revolutionary movement, while his elderly father received three years.
Translation
A FIREDAMP EXPLOSION OCCURRED IN A COAL MINE IN THE CAPE
The entrance to the shaft was completely blocked, burying inside one hundred and fifteen miners, four of whom are white and the rest natives
ELEVEN BODIES HAVE BEEN RECOVERED
(Associated Press) LONDON, 9. – The Cape Town correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph agency reports that, as a result of a gas explosion inside the coal mine of the Durban Navigation Company, four white men and 116 natives have been trapped inside it. The explosion was so strong that the entrance to the shaft was completely destroyed. The rescue personnel have little hope of finding the unfortunate workers alive, since the presence of gas in the mine has hampered the work throughout the night.
Eleven bodies have been recovered
(Associated Press) LONDON, 9. – The Reuters agency's correspondent in Cape Town announces that eleven bodies of the miners buried in [?] mine of the Durban Navigation Company have already been recovered. The correspondent adds that the smoke and flames produced by the explosion could be seen from as far as two miles away.
THE COMMUNIST PARTY WILL PUNISH TROTSKY, ZINOVIEV AND PIATAKOV
The party's political bureau will request disciplinary measures against the named oppositionists, for having violated the basic principles of communism
THE NEWS CAUSED A STIR IN RUSSIA
(Associated Press) MOSCOW, 9. – The motion approved by the Political Bureau of the Russian Communist Party indicates that disciplinary measures will be applied against Trotsky, Zinoviev and Piatakov for their recent statements containing criticism of the party's principal leaders. The motion adopted describes the attitude of the recalcitrants as a "flagrant, unprecedented violation of the basic principles of party life." It also declares that statements of this kind, made by Trotsky, Zinoviev and Piatakov to the workers of the aircraft materials factories, constitute a threat to the very unity of the Communist Party. The motion adds that the Political Bureau is resolved to submit this grave breach of party discipline to the plenary session that the Central Executive Committee and the Central Control Commission of the Party will hold on the 20th of this month, with the aim of imposing exemplary punishment on those who have committed this grave offence.
The proposed measure has caused a sensation in the government
(Associated Press) MOSCOW, 9. – On learning this morning from the newspapers that the Political Bureau of the Communist Party had considered the case of the statements made by the oppositionists with a view to applying a punishment, all the readers were asking: "What will happen to Trotsky and Zinoviev?" The motion approved by that Bureau, describing the recent attempts by the party's leftist leaders to reopen discussion of the problems of the party and the Government as a "flagrant violation of the circles of the government and constituted the ty", has caused a sensation even in Government circles and was the obligatory topic of the day.
A RUSSIAN REBEL WAS SENTENCED TO DEATH
Dimitri Suvorou, accused of leading the counter-revolutionary movement of 1920, will be executed
THE ACCOMPLICES
(Associated Press) SARATOV (Russia), 9. – Accused of having led a counter-revolutionary movement in the year 1920, Dimitri Suvorov, a prominent member of the imperial army and a direct descendant of Russia's most famous strategist, General Suvorov, has been sentenced to death. The sentence was handed down by the Court after a hearing that lasted three months, during which Dimitri's father was also convicted of the same crime; because of his advanced age, he was sentenced to only three years
Context
The final toll of the Durban Navigation Colliery explosion
The explosion that Crítica reported on 9 October was a methane explosion at the Durban Navigation Colliery on 8 October 1926, and it eventually killed 124 miners; it is described as the worst mine explosion in South Africa's history. A year chronology for 1926 records the same date and the same toll of 124 coal miners. The cables printed in Buenos Aires therefore reflect the first day of the rescue, and their figures do not even agree with one another: the subheading speaks of 115 men buried, while the London dispatch counts four white men and 116 natives, or 120. The final figure of 124 is higher than any number in the paper, which bears out the rescuers' reported pessimism about finding anyone alive. The later records cited here give the overall death toll but not the division between white and African miners, so the paper's breakdown remains an early cable estimate.
The United Opposition and the ban on factions
The men named in the Moscow cable belonged to the United Opposition, formed in early 1926 when Zinoviev and Kamenev joined forces with Trotsky's Left Opposition in order to strengthen resistance to the Stalin-led Centre of the party. The motion's language about a threat to "the very unity of the Communist Party" draws on a rule the party had adopted in 1921, when factions were banned at the 10th Party Congress in the name of party unity; speeches to factory workers outside the leadership's control could thus be framed as factional activity. The forum the Politburo chose to judge them also had a recent history: the United Opposition had first emerged openly at a joint plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission. The cable's "Central Executive Committee" appears to be a rendering of that Central Committee, and the joint body it names is the one that would now be asked to punish the opposition leaders.
What happened to Trotsky and Zinoviev after the motion
The question Moscow readers asked, according to the cable, was answered within weeks. In October 1926 Stalin's supporters voted Trotsky out of the Politburo, and by the same month Kamenev and Zinoviev had also been removed from it, Zinoviev losing his post as head of the Comintern. The motion reported by Crítica on 9 October was thus an early step in a sequence the paper could not yet see. The struggle continued for another year: in November 1927 Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Communist Party itself. The longer consequences were far heavier than the "exemplary punishment" the motion promised: Zinoviev and Kamenev were sentenced to death and executed at the end of a show trial in 1936.
Crítica and its use of wire-service news
Crítica was founded in 1913 by the Uruguayan journalist Natalio Botana, who is regarded as a pioneer of sensationalist media in Argentina; the paper gave wide coverage to crime, focusing on information rather than opinion, and became the most widely circulated newspaper in Latin America, published until 1962. This page shows how that formula handled distant events. All three stories are credited to the Associated Press, and the two mine cables are London relays of reports filed in Cape Town by Exchange Telegraph and Reuters correspondents, so Buenos Aires readers received South African news at third hand. The paper added no commentary of its own; instead it stacked capitalised headlines and dramatic subheads over the cables, stressing buried miners, an "exemplary punishment" in Moscow and a death sentence for a descendant of General Suvorov. Soviet political conflict and repression thus reached readers in the same compact, event-driven form as a mining disaster.
Original
HUBO UNA EXPLOSION DE GRISU EN UNA MINA DE CARBON DEL CABO
HUBO UNA EXPLOSION DE GRISU EN UNA MINA DE CARBON DEL CABO La entrada al pozo quedó en teramente obstruída, sepultando en su interior a ciento quince mineros, cuatro de los cuales son blancos y el resto indígenas HAN EXTRAIDO ONCE CADAVERES (Associated Press) LONDRES, 9. - El corresponsal de la agencia Exchange Telegraph en Ciudad del Cabo, informa que a consecuencia de haberse producido una explosión de gas dentro de la mina de carbón de la Durban Navigation Company, han quedado encerrados dentro de la misma cuatro hombres blancos y 116 indígenas. La explosión fué tan fuerte, que la entrada al pozo quedó completamente destruída. El personal que se dedica a la tarea de salvamento tiene pocas esperanzas de hallar con vida a los infortunados obreros, por cuanto la presencia del gas en la mina ha dificultado, durante toda la noche, los trabajos. Han sido extraídos once cad áveres - (Associated Press) LONDRES, 9. - Anuncia el corresponsal de la agencia Reuter en Ciudad del Cabo, que han sido extraídos ya once cadáveres de los mineros sepultados en [?] mina de la Durban Navigation Company. Agrega dicho corresponsal que el humo y las llamaradas producidos por la explosión podían ser distinguidos hasta dos millas de distancia.
EL PARTIDO COMUNISTA CASTIGARA A TROTZKY, ZINOVIEF Y PIATAKOF
EL PARTIDO COMUNISTA CASTIGARA A TROTZKY, ZINOVIEF Y PIATAKOF La oficina política del partido pedirá medidas disciplinarias contra los opositores nombrados, por haber violado éstos los principios básicos del comunismo LA NOTICIA CAUSO IMPRESION EN RUSIA (Associated Press) MOSCU, 9. - La moción aprobada por la Oficina Política del partido comunista ruso, da a entender que se aplicarán medidas disciplinarias contra Trotzky, Zinovief y Piatakof, por sus recientes declaraciones conteniendo críticas contra los principales dirigentes del partido. La moción votada, califica la actitud de los recalcitrantes, como una " flagrante violación sin precedentes de los principios básicos de la vida del partido ". Declara también que manifestaciones de la índole hechas por Trotzky, Zinovief y Piatakoff a los obreros de las fábricas de materiales aéreos, constituyen una amenaza para la misma unidad del partido comunista. Agrega dicha moción que la Oficina Política está resuelta a someter esta grave violación de la disciplina del partido a la sesión plenaria que celebrarán el 20 del actual, el Comité Central Ejecutivo y la Comisión Central de Contralor del Partido, con el propósito de imponer un castigo ejemplar a los que han incurrido en esa grave falta. Ha causado sensación en el gobierno la medida propuesta - (Associated Press) MOSCU, 9. - Al enterarse esta mañana, por intermedio de los diarios, de que la Oficina Política del Partido comunista había considerado el caso de las declaraciones formuladas por los opo sitores con el propósito de aplicar un castigo, todos los lectores se preguntaban: " ¿ Qué les ocurrirá a Trotzky y Zinovief? La moción aprobada por dicha Oficina, calificando a las recientes tentativas hechas por los leaders izquierdistas del partido, de reanudar la discusión de los problemas del partido y del Gobierno, como una " flagrante violación de los círculos del gobierno y constituyó el tido ", ha causado sensación hasta en los círculos del Gobierno y constituyó el tema obligado del día.
FUE CONDENADO A MUERTE UN REBELDE RUSO
FUE CONDENADO A MUERTE UN REBELDE RUSO Dimitri Suvorou, acusado de dirigir el movimiento contrarrevolucionario de 1920, será ejecutado LOS COMPLICES (Associated Press) SARATOV (Rusia), 9. - Acusado de haber dirigido un movimiento contrarrevolucionario en el año 1920, ha sido condenado a muerte Dimitri Suvorov, destacado miembro del ejército imperial y descendiente directo, del estratega más famoso de Rusia, el general Suvorov. La sentencia fué dictada por el Tribunal después de una audiencia que se prolongó por espacio de tres meses, durante la cual fué también declarado convicto del mismo delito el padre de Dimitri, que, a causa de su avanzada edad, sólo fué condenado a tres años
Source: Source: Internet Archive / Biblioteca Nacional de la República Argentina