With the "Die-Hards" in Siberia eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 251 pages of information about With the "Die-Hards" in Siberia.

With the "Die-Hards" in Siberia eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 251 pages of information about With the "Die-Hards" in Siberia.

While examining the damage done during the street fighting at Perm we encountered a mob of the Red Guard who had marched over their own lines at Glashoff and surrendered to General Gaida.  They were drawn up four deep in the market-place for a roll call.  I studied their faces and general appearance, and came to the conclusion that if the progress of the world depended upon such as these the world was in a very bad way.  They were Kirghis, Mongols, Tartars, Chinese, mixed with a fair sprinkling of European-Russian peasants, workmen and others mostly of the lowest type, but with just enough of the “old soldier” element to make them formidable.  A strange idea struck me that I would like to speak to these men.  The proposition, made almost in jest, was taken up seriously by my liaison officer, Colonel Frank, who interviewed the commandant of the station, Colonel Nikolioff, upon the subject.  He at first took up a hostile attitude, but when he gathered the substance of my proposed address he consented, and arranged the meeting at the camp for 6 P.M. the following evening, April 22.  Of all the meetings it has been my privilege to hold, this was the most unique.  The Bolshevik soldiers stood to attention and listened to me with great interest.  One or two were sailors, and some others could understand a little English, as could be seen by the way they conveyed in whispers the points of the speech to their neighbours.  Madame Frank translated, and in beautiful Russian drove home each point.  Hers was a magnificent performance.  As she repeated my word-picture of their untilled fields, destroyed homes, outraged women, and murdered children, not the ravages of an alien enemy, but the work of their own hands, Russian against Russian, tears trickled down their war-scarred faces.  Clearly these men felt they had been deceived, and would willingly endeavour to rectify the injuries of the past.  Some volunteered their services at once to help their Mother Country to recover from the ravages they had made and administer justice upon those who had led them into madness, but Colonel Nikolioff asked them to remember that their crimes had been very great, and nothing but time could heal the wounds and soften the bitterness their conduct had created.  Some asked that it should be remembered that they were not Bolshevik in principle, but had been forced to become soldiers in the Red Army, from which they could not desert until their villages were captured by the Koltchak army, as their whole families, held as hostages for their good conduct, would have been massacred.  This they asserted had been done in numberless cases where the families were in Bolshevik hands.

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With the "Die-Hards" in Siberia from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.