Sunday, 12 January 1930

Russia:  

The Soviet government kills or sentences to death 23 more of its citizens, the first in 1930.  All were charged with various forms of counter-revolution.  In Berditchev, 13 people charged with plotting against the government under the leadership of a former Imperial army officer are shot.  In Dniepropetrovsk, four former white guards are sentenced to death after it is discovered they served as executioners during recent civil unrest, killing as many as 140 communists.  And in Solonki, six kulaks are sentenced to death, charged with terrorism that resulted in the deaths of communists and poor peasants. 

Elsewhere: 

The Hague:  

After a day of grueling and sometimes bitter negotiations, the delegates to the Second Reparations Conference agree to the organization and leadership of a Bank for International Settlements, which will facilitate Germany’s war debt payments to the Allies.

Washington:  

R.M. Stephenson, Chief, European Section, U.S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, releases a report stating that 1929 was Europe’s best year for economic prosperity since the World War (reflecting, obviously, conditions mostly measured before the U.S. stock market crash).

Germany:  

But more bad economic news here: a new report from the steel industry shows no signs of improvement, and over 1.7 million unemployed in Germany’s industrial sector.