니콜라옙스크 사건/학계연구 및 사료 문서/생존자들의 증언

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증언
중령-MIKHAIL PETROVICH GRIGORIEV, 48세

저는 정규직입니다. 나는 1906년부터 니콜라옙스크에 살고 있었다. 나는 맨 앞자리에 있었다. 1916년에 뇌진탕으로 나는 전선에서 페름으로 대피하여 처음에는 예비 대대를 지휘하다가 나중에 예비 연대를 인수했습니다. 1917년 3월에 내가 연대를 인수했지만, 8월에 페름의 병사들 사이에서 갑자기 볼셰비키주의가 급증했습니다. 나는 아프다고 보고했고 카잔에 있는 병원으로 보내졌다. 시험을 마치고 4개월의 휴가가 주어지고 니콜라옙스크에 가기로 결정했습니다. 니콜라옙스크로 가는 길에 하바롭스크 본부에 보고를 하고 니콜스크-우수리스크에서 집단지휘관으로 부임했다. 가을에 내가 니콜스크에 도착했을 때 일행은 나를 받아들이지 않았고, 나는 하바로프스크에 돌아와서 포로수용소장이라는 직책을 받았다. 나는 1918년 3월 위원이 나에게 배정될 때까지 이 명령을 유지했습니다. 그 시점에서 나는 병에 걸리는 시간이 검증된 방편에 의지하고 첫 번째 이용 가능한 배를 타고 Nikolaevsk로 떠났습니다. 당시 볼셰비키는 니콜라옙스크에 있었기 때문에 투구르(오호츠크 해안의 샨타르 제도 건너편)로 갔다. 일본군이 니콜라예프스크에 들어갔을 때 나는 그곳으로 돌아왔다. 처음에 나는 Bunge 주지사 사무실에서 일했고 나중에 Kolchak 제독이 집권했을 때 다시 군복무를 하고 우체국의 군사 검열관으로 배치되었습니다.

Triapitsyn의 첫 번째 목표는 Kiselevka를 처벌하는 것이었습니다. 왜냐하면 Cossack 인구가 거주하는 그 마을은 완전히 볼셰비키에 반대하는 입장을 취했기 때문입니다. 도움을 요청한 Kiselevka 마을 사람들의 요청에 따라 Ivanovsky 중위가 지휘하는 소규모 파견대가 Medvedev 대령에 의해 파견되었습니다. 그 후, 토카레프 중위의 지휘 하에 또 다른 분견대가 파견되었고, 나중에 비츠 대령은 나머지 대대와 함께 트리아피친을 향해 진격했다. Tokarev는 Tsimmermanovka에서 Triapitsyn을 공격했지만 공격은 실패로 끝났고 큰 손실을 입은 후 Vits의 파견에 합류해야했습니다. 토카레프의 분리를 물리친 후 트리아피친은 더 진행하기로 결정했고 마린스코예에서 비츠의 분리와 조우했다. 이 만남은 우리 분견대에게 불행한 일이었습니다. 그 중 일부는 볼셰비키에 합류했고 나머지는 데 카스트리로 후퇴했습니다.

그 시점에서 트리아핏친은 비츠 대령을 추격하기 위해 부대를 분리한 후 니콜라옙스크로 진격하기로 결정했다. Nikolaevsk에는 약 400명의 러시아 수비대가 있었고 우리가 예상한 대로 약 800명의 일본군이 있었지만 이 수치는 일본 스스로가 크게 과장한 것으로 보입니다. 예를 들어 Fort Chnyrrakh에서 우리는 그들의 수비대가 200~300명의 총검과 100~180명의 선원을 보유하고 있다고 믿었기 때문에 이 의견을 지지합니다. 그러나 그들이 요새에서 후퇴했을 때 동상에 걸린 몇 명의 사람들을 제외하고는 아무런 피해도 입지 않은 것으로 나타났습니다. 그들의 병력은 약 150명에 불과했습니다. 러시아와 일본 합동 파견대가 마을에서 진격하여 다가오는 트리아피친과 마주쳤지만, 우리는 분리는 볼셰비키가 언덕에서 스키를 타고 돌았기 때문에 후퇴해야 했습니다. 요새의 사령관인 메드베데프 대령은 의지가 강한 사람이었지만 자신만만했고 누구의 조언도 받아들이지 않았다. 그 결과 그는 민간인이나 군대와 긴밀한 관계를 맺지 못했습니다. 정확한 날짜는 기억나지 않지만 2월 17일이나 18일에 일본 수비대가 Chnyrrakh 요새를 떠났습니다. 며칠 전에 요새와의 모든 통신이 중단되었고 우리도 일본도 무슨 일이 일어나고 있는지 알지 못했습니다. 우리는 대포 발사 소리를 듣고 일본 지원군이 [사할린에서] Cape Lazarev의 얼음 위에 상륙하여 마을을 향해 진군하고 있다고 생각했습니다(일본인은 항상 도움을 기다리고 있었고 계속해서 우리를 도울 것이라고 우리를 안심시켰습니다). 우리 중 많은 사람들은 레즈가 묻힌 자물쇠를 파냈다고 생각했습니다.

요새에는 두 명의 러시아 귀족이 있었습니다. 한 명은 일본에 재산을 양도하기 위해 파견된 정부 관리 도브로볼스키였습니다. 일본군과 함께 후퇴했으나 후퇴가 매우 급했기 때문에 따뜻한 옷을 입을 시간이 없었고 동상에 심하게 걸렸다. 다른 하나는 포병 소위인 아노카(Anokha)였다. 그 외에도 요새에는 루미예프스키 대위가 살고 있었다. 그는 일본이 우리에게 하루에 약 6시간 동안 사용할 수 있도록 허용한 전신국을 담당했습니다. 그는 일본군과 함께 떠날 시간이 없었거나 아마도 일본군으로부터 후퇴에 대한 통보를 받지 못했을 것입니다. 그는 나중에 아내와 함께 타이가로 떠났고 그곳에서 두 사람은 적군에게 붙잡혀 케이프 바세(Cape Vasse)에서 처형되었습니다.

요새를 점령한 지 며칠 후, 레즈군은 문둥병 거주지로 총을 들고 57mm 박격포로 마을을 포격하기 시작했습니다. 포격은 3일 동안 계속되었다. 박격포는 Kamora에 주둔했습니다. 최소 300발의 포탄이 발사되었습니다. 재산에 대한 포격의 영향 및 포탄의 4분의 3 정도가 폭발하지 않았기 때문에 인명 피해는 매우 미미했지만 주민들에게 상당한 공포감을 불러일으켰다.

마을의 항복에 관한 레즈와의 협상이 비밀리에 진행되었기 때문에 정확히 어떻게 시작되었는지는 모르겠습니다. 일본이 협상을 시작한 후 우리(즉, 러시아 사령부) 대표 중 일부가 참여했습니다. 이 대표는 Murgabov 중위와 Nemchinov 대위였습니다. (그런데 Nemchinov는 이전 날짜에 Vladivostok 근처 Drekalovich 정착지에서 Triapitsyn에 의해 체포되었지만 탈출에 성공했으며 이번에는 Triapitsyn이 그를 알아보았습니다.) 이 군사 대표자들은 마을 대표인 Karpenko 시장과 합류했습니다. 타운 Duma [의회], V. A. Komarovsky 및 Zemstvo 이사회 의장 Shelkovnikov.

협상이 끝났을 때 메드베데프는 회의를 소집하여 Shiromidzu 장군의 선언으로 인해 일본군이 적군과 협상을 시작하여 마을을 항복하기로 결정했으며 항복 조건이 마련되었다고 우리에게 알렸습니다. 그는 우리에게 읽어주었다. 모든 요점을 기억하지는 못하지만 가장 중요한 점은 다음과 같습니다. 러시아 분리는 항해가 열렸을 때 개인 면책과 떠날 수 있는 허가를 보장받았습니다. 일본군은 무기를 유지해야 했지만 러시아 분견대는 적군이 마을에 진입하기도 전에 무기와 군사 장비를 일본군에게 항복하는 것이었다. 또한 도시의 주민들은 완전한 면제와 평화를 보장 받았습니다.

레즈의 입장은 일요일 아침에 열릴 예정이었습니다. 그러나 레즈는 첫 순간부터 이러한 조건을 깨뜨렸습니다. 그들 중 일부, 즉 스키 분리대가 토요일 밤에 마을에 진입했고 즉시 체포가 시작되었습니다.

일요일 아침 10시에 체포되어 민병대에 보내졌습니다. Mikhin과 Pavlichenko가 거기에있었습니다. 민병대에서 나는 감옥으로 이송되었습니다. 감옥은 이미 폭도들이 포로들에게 저주를 퍼부으며 "그를 때려라! 죽여라! 찢어버려라!"라고 외쳤다. 등을 밀치고 발로 차기로 했다. 내가 있던 감방에는 이미 그날 아침이나 전날 밤에 볼셰비키에 의해 체포된 12명의 수감자들이 있었다. 그들 중에는 8~9명의 장교가 있었고, 하루 종일 새로 체포된 죄수들이 점점 더 많이 들어왔고, 우리 중 하루가 끝날 때까지 30명, 다음 날에는 45명에 이르렀습니다. 감방은 10명을 수용할 예정이었기 때문에 우리는 겨우 들어갈 수 있었습니다. 서 있거나 옆으로 눕는 것만이 가능했습니다. 제대로 눕는다는 생각조차 할 수 없었다. 내가 민병대에서 감옥으로 보내질 때 에스코트는 다음과 같은 명령을 받았습니다. "조심하세요. 탈출하려고 하면 다리를 때리세요." 감방으로 끌려갔을 때 죄수들은 그냥 끌려가는 것이 아니라 밀치고 총으로 맞아 머리 위로 날아가도록 했습니다. 이것이 엔지니어 Kurushin이 데려온 방법입니다. 문이 열리고 한 남자가 날아 들어갔습니다. 그의 모자는 한 방향으로 말았고 그는 반대 방향으로 굴러 침대 바로 아래에있었습니다. 그가 밖으로 나왔을 때 우리는 엔지니어 Kurushin을 알아보았습니다. 그는 땅에서 들릴 정도로 강한 총격으로 목을 맞았다.

저녁 식사 후 Zhelezin은 교도소에 도착하여 우리 감방에 와서 "경찰이 누구입니까?"라고 물었습니다. 우리는 밖으로 나왔다. "옷을 벗다." 우리는 옷을 벗기 시작하고 겉옷을 벗고 멈춰 섰다. 그런 다음 그는 일부 사람들에게 옷의 상태가 더 좋은 부분을 제거하라고 명령했습니다. 일부는 신발을 벗고, 다른 일부는 양말을 벗으라는 명령을 받았습니다. "우리가 입을 옷은 무엇이 남을까? 우리가 조사위원회를 만나야 할 때 어떻게 밖에 나갈 수 있겠는가?" Zhelezin은 다음과 같이 대답했습니다. "어떤 조사 위원회가 있습니까? 여러분은 모두 달에 갈 것이고 거기에는 의복이 필요하지 않습니다." 이 진술은 우리가 바로 그날 밤에 처형될 것이라는 결론을 확실히 내리게 했습니다. 그러는 동안 당파와 몇몇 사람들이 감옥에 나타나 우리를 저주하고 조롱하고 우리의 얼굴에 채찍을 휘둘렀지만 우리 감방에서는 어쨌든 채찍을 사용하지 않았습니다.

첫째날과 둘째날 밤은 비교적 조용하게 지나갔다고 생각합니다. 세 번째 밤(하지만 두 번째 밤이었을 수도 있음) 동안 우리는 소음과 고함 소리에 잠에서 깼습니다. 우리는 모두 일어나서 듣기 시작했습니다. 우리는 소음, 두드리는 소리, 비명 소리, 그리고 절대적으로 비인간적인 울부짖음, 그 다음 점차 감소하는 신음, 그리고 신음이 그친 후 몇 분 동안 더 부드러운 것을 두드리는 소리를 들을 수 있었습니다. 그 다음에는 비명, 신음, 타격 등의 소란이 뒤따랐습니다. 이것은 자정부터 새벽 3시까지 계속되었다. 우리는 사람들이 막대기로 두들겨 맞아 죽고 있다는 확실한 인상을 받았습니다. 시체는 밖으로 끌려갔다. 우리 모두는 살아 있는 것보다 죽은 것이 더 많이 거기에 앉아 있었고, 우리 차례가 올 것이라고 생각하면서 감히 조금도 움직이지 않았습니다. 아무도 우리 감방에 오지 않았고 그날 밤 아무도 꺼내지 않았지만 누군가가 문으로 와서 자물쇠를 움직이기 시작했습니다. 그 소리는 끔찍한 인상을 남겼습니다. 그러면 그들은 웃음을 터뜨리고 떠날 것입니다.

감옥에 있는 동안 사흘 밤 동안 구타가 계속되었습니다. 여자 감방은 처음에는 교도소의 다른 부분에 있었지만 나중에 우리 건물로 옮겨졌습니다. 그때부터 우리는 여성들이 우는 소리를 듣기 시작했습니다. 여성들도 심하게 구타당했다. 동료 수감자들은 친구들의 목소리를 알아봤습니다. Batsevich의 아내, Komarovskaya 노부인, 그리고 다른 많은 사람들이 있었습니다. Parusinov 중위는 극도로 심한 고문에 노출되었습니다. 25세도 채 되지 않은 청년이었다. 한번은 감방 창을 통해 그를 심문하는 모습을 본 적이 있습니다. 두 사람이 그를 이끌고 팔을 잡고 다리를 거의 움직일 수 없었고 한 팔은 채찍처럼 늘어져 있었습니다. 그럼에도 그는 용기를 잃지 않았다. 그의 베이스 목소리로 그가 사형 집행인을 저주하고 조롱하는 것을 들을 수 있었다.

며칠 후 열다섯 명이 우리 감방에서 다른 감방으로 옮겨졌다. 그런 다음 한밤중에 그들은 Usachev, Shoot, Nemchinov 및 Barmin 장교를 데려갔습니다. 원래 내 감방 동료는 Usachev 대위, Nemchinov 대위, Konstantinov 대위, Grosh, Barmin 대령, Shoot 중위 및 다음 민간인이었습니다. 특정 Komissarov, 그러나 나는 그가 누군지 정확히 모릅니다. 사령관의 중대에서 몇 명의 군인도있었습니다. 토카레와 방첩자들은 따로 수감되었다.

위에서 언급한 장교인 Usachev, Nemchinov 및 다른 사람들이 끌려갔을 때 우리는 그들이 처형될 것이라고 확신했지만 하루 뒤에 그들이 돌아와서 구타를 위해 데려갔다고 말했습니다. 그들은 방첩자들이 있는 감방으로 끌려갔고 장대에 두 번 채찍질을 당했습니다. 채찍질 후 건물에서 아무르까지 두 차례 끌려갔지만, 알 수 없는 이유로 그곳에서 본부로 끌려갔다가 다시 교도소로 돌아왔다. 두 번 모두 자신이 처형될 것이라고 확신했습니다. 죽음을 예고하는 고뇌 속에서 살게 하기 위해 끌려간 것으로 보인다. 그들이 우리 감방으로 돌아왔을 때, 그들은 거의 기뻐서 뛰놀았고, 방첩자들의 감방에 머무르는 것은 너무나 끔찍했습니다. 그들의 채찍질은 토카레프와 다른 방첩 장교들에게 일어난 일에 비하면 부차적인 것 같았습니다. 그들은 너무 심하게 구타를 당하여 주변을 의식하지 못한 사람들의 모습을 전율 없이는 기억할 수 없었습니다.

나는 감옥에서 9일을 보내고 일본 공격 이틀 전에 풀려났습니다. 나의 석방은 다음과 같은 방식으로 이루어졌다. 우리 회사에는 그가 군 복무를 하고 있던 연대의 일부인 Ivanov라는 이름의 개인이 있었습니다. 나중에 그는 나에게 질서 있는 사람으로 임명되어 3년 반 동안 나와 함께 살았다. 그는 당파들 사이에 나타나 나를 알아보았다. 그는 Triapitsyn에게 매우 영향력이 있었고 그의 오른팔과 같은 사람이었습니다. 투옥된 지 3~4일 만에 Komarov가 이 Ivanov와 함께 우리 감방에 들어왔습니다. Komarov는 내 이름을 불렀고 내가 앞으로 나서자 그는 내가 Ivanov가 누구인지 아느냐고 물었다. 나는 그를 안다고 말했고, 그는 나의 이전 부하였다. 그런 다음 Komarov는 Ivanov가 자신의 생명을 보증했기 때문에 곧 석방될 것이라고 말했습니다. 그러나 조사위원회가 과중한 업무로 인해 즉시 처리할 수는 없었지만 곧 내 사건을 조사하게 될 것이다. 풀려난 후 나는 가족들에게로 돌아가 집밖으로 나가지 않았다.

일본의 공격은 자정에 시작되었습니다. 내 아파트는 레드 본부 건물 옆에 있었고 화재가 발생하여 우리는 탈출해야했습니다. 전투 내내, 즉 3일 동안 가족과 나는 여러 지하실에 숨어 있었습니다. 밖에 나가지 않았기 때문에 일제강점기 사건을 한 번 빼고는 목격하지 못했다. 사방에서 파르티잔의 사격을 받고 있는 일본군이 일본군 본부에 접근하려고 하는 것 같았다. 그는 총에 맞았고 이미 지상에 있을 때 더 많은 총을 맞았습니다. 그가 살해된 후 일부 러시아 당파들은 그의 주머니를 수색했지만 그의 옷은 벗지 않았다. 나중에 중국 당파가 재킷을 벗었습니다. 해질녘까지 시체는 속옷에 누워있었습니다. 일본군이 공격한 이유는 무장해제와 항복을 요구한 적군의 요구 때문이라고 들었습니다.

나는 3월 16일에 집으로 돌아왔고 내 아파트가 완전히 약탈당한 것을 발견했습니다. 4월 23일까지 나는 가능한 한 집에 머물렀다. 장인. 그 당시 일을 하지 않는 사람은 음식을 거부한다는 법령이 게시되었습니다. 나는 나중에 Soyuz Rabochii Rybak(노동계급 어부 연합)으로 개명된 Rybotrud 노동조합에 가입해야 했습니다. 노동조합에서 나는 비서로 선출되었다.

5월 중순부터 일본군이 De Kastri에서 상륙했다는 소식을 듣자마자 방어 준비에 들어갔다. 공동 작업이 조직되었습니다. 여성을 포함해 16세부터 65세까지 누구나 참여해야 했지만 실제로 예외는 없었다. 노인들과 어린이들까지 강제 노동을 시켰습니다. 말을 탄 파르티잔은 집집을 돌아다니며 일하지 않는 사람을 만나거나 집에 사람이 있으면 나이를 불문하고 채찍으로 쫓아갔다. 어린 소녀들(낮은 학년의 여학생들)은 텃밭 일을 하도록 배정받았지만, 때때로 그 일을 하는 대신에 삽질을 하거나 마당의 거름을 뒤집도록 보내졌다. 모든 공식 건물에서는 건물에서 근무하는 직원을 제외하고는 모두 출근해야 했습니다. 작업은 매우 고된 작업이었고 어떤 사람들에게는 힘이 넘쳤습니다. 바지선에 돌을 싣고 장작을 싣는 등의 작업이었습니다. 작업은 아침 8시에 시작하여 때로는 밤 늦게까지 계속되었습니다. 특별한 휴식은 없었다.

공동 작업에서 교도소 소장인 Sopliakov를 만났고 대화를 하는 동안 우리 중 30명이 거의 들어갈 수 없는 감방에 현재 60명의 죄수가 있다는 것을 알게 되었습니다. 직장에서 나는 또한 현재 조사 위원회에서 일하고 있는 전직 수사관 Paradoksov를 만났고, 나는 그에게 내 상황이 얼마나 안전한지 물었습니다. 그는 조사 위원회에서 내 이름이 전혀 언급되지 않았다고 나에게 안심시켰다. 그러나 그날 저녁 10시에 당파가 내 아파트에 도착하여 나와 함께 묵고 있던 Churin and Co.의 사장인 Tutrin을 체포했습니다. 우리는 옷을 입고 그들을 따르라는 명령을 받았습니다. 처음에는 그들이 내 아내도 체포하려는 것처럼 보였습니다. 어쨌든 그들은 그녀에게 옷을 입으라고 명령했습니다. 그들은 일본 공격 동안 우리가 소유한 모든 것이 약탈된 후 우리의 돈과 친절한 사람들이 우리에게 준 모든 것을 가져갔습니다. 그러나 마지막 순간에 당파들은 어째서인지 아내를 불쌍히 여겨 머물게 하였다. 그들은 우리를 조사 위원회로 데려가서 방 중 하나에 이름을 등록하고 즉시 다음 방으로 데려갔습니다. 문지방을 넘자 마자 사람들이 우리에게 달려와 내 팔을 잡고 독을 감추고 있던 모자를 벗고 손을 등 뒤로 묶고 20명 정도의 무리 쪽으로 나를 밀었다. 도 묶여 있습니다. 이 그룹에는 6명의 여성, 배급소에서 일하는 2명의 젊은 남성, 소시지 공장 Grigoriev의 소유주인 조종사 Popov, Naletov 가족(아버지, 어머니, 두 자녀, 12세 소녀, 13세 소년)이 포함되었습니다. . 아버지는 기절했고 어머니는 독약을 먹거나 심부전으로 사망했습니다. 그녀는 쓰러져 움직이지 않았기 때문입니다.

우리는 이 그룹과 함께 약 3시간을 보냈습니다. 내 마음 상태에 대해 아무도 말할 수 없습니다. 바로 그때 Ivanov가 지나갔다. 나는 그에게 소리쳤다. "이바노프, 나를 구해줘!" "즉시 풀어주겠다"고 말하고 자리를 떴다. 그 후로 그는 나에게 한 마디도 하지 않고 여러 번 지나갔다. 그가 세 번째로 지나갔을 때 나는 그에게 다시 전화를 걸었고 그는 "나는 아무것도 할 수 없습니다."라고 대답했습니다. 나는 이것이 끝이라고 판단하고 죽음을 준비하기 시작했다. . . . 바로 그때 Pavlichenko가 방으로 들어왔습니다. 그는 또한 그가 감옥에 있는 동안 그의 아내가 그를 방문하도록 허락했기 때문에 나에게 호의를 보였습니다. (아마도 1919년 일본의 개입으로 니콜라예프스크의 짧은 볼셰비키 통치가 무너졌을 때 - TRANS.) 나는 단지 지시를 따랐지만 그와 그의 아내는 나에게 개인적으로 의무감을 느꼈고, 그는 나의 첫 번째 기간 동안 나를 석방하는 데 참여했습니다. 투옥. 내가 그를 불렀지만 그는 내 말을 듣지 않고 지나갔습니다. Ivanov가 다시 왔을 때 나는 그에게 "Pavlichenko에게 물어보십시오."라고 말했습니다. Ivanov는 잠시 후 "Untie Grigoriev"라는 명령과 함께 떠났다가 다시 돌아왔습니다. 호위가 칼로 뒤에서 밧줄을 자르기 시작했을 때 그는 덧붙였습니다. 완전히."

내가 풀려난 후 이바노프가 나에게 말했습니다. 나는 다음 방으로 갔다. Zhelezin, Nechaev, Dyldin, Otsevilli 및 Beliaev는 거기에 앉아 술을 마시고 있었습니다. Zhelezin은 저를 돌아보며 말했습니다. "자, 앉으세요. 끔찍해 보이네요. 자, 한잔 하세요." 그리고 그는 나에게 보드카 한 잔을 부었습니다. 나는 그것을 마셨다. "그래서 겁을 많이 드셨죠, 선배? 그런데 지금은 왜 안 쫓겨났는지 아세요?" "우리는 당신을 자유롭게 해주었지만 당신은 우리를 위해 일하기를 거부했습니다." 나는 질문을 받았다면 동의했을 것이라고 대답했지만, 전직 장교로서 분명히 의심을 받을 것이기 때문에 스스로 서비스를 제공할 수는 없었습니다. Zhelezin이 대답했습니다. st는 우리에게 모든 화이트 스컹크를 지적한 다음 Ivanov를 돌려서 추가했습니다.

우리는 떠났고 Ivanov는 나를 작은 방으로 데려갔습니다. 그곳에서 그는 한 번 더 심부름이 있기 때문에 기다리라고 했습니다. 한 시간 반 정도가 흘렀다. 갑자기 한 청년이 방 안을 들여다보았다. 나를 보고 그는 들어와서 "여기서 뭐 하세요?"라고 물었다. "호위를 기다리고 있어요." 내가 대답했다. "당신의 이름?" "그리고리예프." "장교?" "예." “그렇다면 나를 따르라.”

나는 일어서서 다른 방에 들어가자마자 다시 뛰어올라 묶인 채 거기 서 있는 다른 무리의 사람들 쪽으로 밀렸다. 내가 재판소에서 풀려났다고 아무리 설명하려고 해도 그들은 내 말을 듣지 않았습니다. "어떤 종류의 자유가 있습니까? 모든 사람의 끝은 하나입니다." 다행히 그들이 우리를 이끌 준비를 하고 있을 때 이바노프가 다시 나타났습니다. "너는 또 어떻게 왔어?" 그가 나에게 말했다. "즉시 석방하라!" 그는 호위를 명령했다. 에스코트는 항의하기 시작했고, Ivanov가 그가 복종하지 않으면 다음 날 같은 상황에 처하게 될 것이라고 위협했을 때만 나는 풀려났습니다.

Ivanov와 나는 집에 갔다. 우리가 대화하는 동안 Zhelezin이 "당신의 가족은 어디에 있습니까?" 그리고 내가 그들이 집에 있다고 대답했을 때 그는 "당신이 아는 것이 체포되지 않고 무엇을 압니까?"라고 물은 다음, "당신은 당신의 가족을 보내고 패스를 가지고 있습니까?"라고 물었다. 나는 내가 하나를 가지고 있다고 말했다. "그가 패스도 가지고 있다는 걸 알아?" 그래서 가족들이 체포될까 두려웠지만 모두 집에 있었다. 나는 새벽 3시쯤 집에 돌아왔다.

다음 날 Ivanov는 가능한 한 빨리 가족을 보내고 집에서 밤을 보내지 말라고 말했습니다. 가족을 보냈지만 출입증이 없었기 때문에 홀로 남겨져야 했습니다. 나는 Ivanov's에서 이틀 밤을 보냈다. 사흘째 되던 날 그는 더 이상 자기와 함께 있는 것이 안전하지 않다고 말하면서 늙은 간수가 살고 있는 목욕탕으로 나를 데려갔습니다. 다음 날 Ivanov는 그럭저럭 나에게 패스를 주고 나는 떠났다. 부두에서 나는 아무르 강 건너편으로 나를 데려다 준 늙은 농부를 만났고 나는 Kasyanovka로 갈 수있었습니다. 한 가지 더: 내가 감옥에 있을 때, 전 국가 안보 국장이었던 레크가 독약을 먹고 스스로 목을 매었습니다. 이 사실이 발각되자 우리는 모두 옷을 벗고 맨발로 교도소 마당으로 끌려가 약 2시간 동안 감방에서 못을 뽑고 밧줄을 모으는 중이었다.

승선을 기다리는 수많은 사람들로 북적거리다가 부두가 폭파되었습니다. 나는 다음과 같은 사건에 대해 알고 있습니다. 부두에 두 명의 어린 자녀를 둔 젊은 여성이 떠나려고 기다리고 있었습니다. 한 당파가 그녀를 괴롭히기 시작하여 그들과 함께 타이가에 가자고 했다. 그녀는 어린 아이들을 가리키며 "내가 어떻게 그들을 데려갈 수 있겠습니까?" "글쎄요, 그건 문제없어요." 남자가 대답하고, 첫째 아이를 잡고 다음 아이를 잡아 아무르에 던졌습니다.

Medvedev 대령은 다음과 같은 상황에서 자살했습니다. 2월 27일 저녁, 당파가 마을에 진입하기 하루 전, 그와 Slezkin 참모총장은 일본 본부에서 저녁을 먹었다. 그 후 Slezkin은 우리 집에 들러 저녁 식사가 끝날 때 대령이 일어서서 일본군에게 몸을 돌려 요새의 사령관으로서 이제 한 가지 선택밖에 없다고 말했습니다. 하다. 그리고 그는 떠났다. 이와 관련하여 Slezkin은 눈물을 흘리며 분명히 Aleksandr Aleksandrovich가 그날 밤 그의 삶을 끝낼 것이라고 말했습니다. 아침에 본부에 갔을 때 대령의 사망 소식을 들었다. 당직 전화 교환원은 전날 밤 집에 돌아온 후 대령이 들러서 장난을 치고 잠자리에 들라고 말했다고 한다. 그녀는 잠자리에 들었고 아무 소리도 들리지 않았습니다. 그러나 그날 아침 일찍 그는 반쯤 침대에 누워 있는 그의 방에서 머리에 총을 맞았고 침대 옆 의자에 독이 든 두 개의 약병이 있는 채로 발견되었습니다. 그의 시체는 일본군에 의해 그들의 본부로 옮겨졌고, 나중에 시체가 발견되지 않았기 때문에 그가 요청한 대로 분명히 화장되었다.

나는 Triapitsyn이나 Nina를 만날 기회가 없었습니다. 내가 말할 수 있는 것은 Triapitsyn이 군중에게 진정으로 마술적이고 거의 최면에 가까운 영향을 미쳤다는 것입니다. 약 25세의 Komarov는 분명히 교육을 잘 받은 교양 있는 사람이었습니다. 그에 따르면 그는 전직 장교였으며 그가 만든 인상으로 볼 때 충분히 가능합니다.

Otsevilli는 교육을 받지 못하고 말하는 것을 좋아하고 풍차처럼 말했지만 그가 말하는 것을 이해하는 것은 불가능했습니다. 그는 약 40세였습니다. 그는 노동 위원이었습니다. 그는 손에 채찍을 들고 두루 다니며 그들이 말하는 대로 짐승이었습니다. 32세의 Pavlichenko는 이전에 사무원으로 근무했으며 매우 교활하고 영리한 사람이었습니다.

한 가지 더: 당파가 마을에 들어온 후, 그들은 그들의 사절인 올로프의 시체. Triapitsyn의 명령에 따라 러시아와 일본 의사로 구성된 위원회가 조직되어 Orlov의 시신을 조사하고 총상 외에 다른 부상자는 없었다. (새는 귀만 쪼았지만 사후에 일어난 일입니다.) 나는 위원회에 있었던 Dr. Bobrov에게서 이것을 들었습니다.

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 1920년 7월 23일
미하일 페트로비치 그리고리예프 중령

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TESTIMONY OF
LT.-COLONEL MIKHAIL PETROVICH GRIGORIEV, AGE 48

I am a regular officer. I have been living in Nikolaevsk since 1906. I was at the front. Because of a concussion in 1916, I was evacuated from the front to Perm where at first I commanded a reserve battalion and later took over a reserve regiment. I took over the regiment in March 1917, but in August there was a sudden upsurge of bolshevism among the soldiers in Perm. I reported sick and was sent to a hospital in Kazan. After an examination, I was given a four-month leave, and I decided to go to Nikolaevsk. On the way to Nikolaevsk, I reported at the Khabarovsk headquarters and was assigned as group commander in Nikolsk-Ussuriisk. When I arrived in Nikolsk in the fall, the group did not accept me, and I returned to Khabarovsk, where I was given the assignment of commandant of prisoner of war camps. I held this command until March 1918 when a commissar was assigned to me. At that point I resorted to the time-tested expedient of becoming sick and left for Nikolaevsk on the first available boat. Because Bolsheviks were in Nikolaevsk at that time, I went to Tugur (across from the Shantar Islands on the Okhotsk coast). When the Japanese entered Nikolaevsk, I returned there. At first I worked in the office of Governor Bunge and later, when Admiral Kolchak took power, I again returned to military duty and was assigned as military censor of the postal-telegraph office.

The first objective of Triapitsyn was to punish Kiselevka, because that village with a Cossack population took an outright anti-Bolshevik position. At the request of the Kiselevka villagers for help, a small detachment under the command of Lieutenant Ivanovsky was dispatched by Colonel Medvedev. Following that, another detachment was sent under the command of Lieutenant Tokarev, and later Colonel Vits advanced against Triapitsyn with the rest of the battalion. Tokarev attacked Triapitsyn in Tsimmermanovka, but the attack ended in failure, and after suffering great losses, he was forced to join Vits's detachment. After defeating Tokarev's detachment, Triapitsyn decided to proceed further and at Mariinskoye encountered Vits's detachment. This encounter was unfortunate for our detachment: part of it joined the Bolsheviks and the rest retreated to De Kastri.

At that point, after detaching a force to pursue Colonel Vits, Triapitsyn decided to proceed to Nikolaevsk. In Nikolaevsk there was a Russian garrison of about 400 men and, as we supposed, about 800 Japanese troops, but it appears that this figure was greatly exaggerated by the Japanese themselves. I hold this opinion, because at Fort Chnyrrakh, for instance, we believed their garrison to have 200 to 300 bayonets as well as some 100 to 180 sailors. However, it turned out that when they retreated from the fort, which they did without any losses except a few frostbitten men, their forces numbered only about 150. A joint Russian and Japanese detachment advanced from the town to encounter the approaching Triapitsyn, but our detachment had to retreat because the Bolsheviks went around it on skis in the hills. Colonel Medvedev, commandant of the fort, was a man of strong will, but he was extremely self-assured and would not accept anyone's advice. As a result, he lacked close rapport with either the civilian population or the military. I do not remember the exact date, but on either 17 or 18 February, the Japanese garrison left Fort Chnyrrakh. A few days before that all communication with the fort had been interrupted, and neither we nor the Japanese knew what was going on. We heard sounds of cannon fire and thought that Japanese reinforcements had landed on the ice at Cape Lazarev [from Sakhalin] and was advancing toward the town (the Japanese were all the time expecting help and kept reassuring us that they would assist us), but many of us thought that the Reds had dug up the locks that had been buried.

There were two Russian men of rank at the fort: one was a government official, Dobrovolsky, who had been sent there to surrender property to the Japanese. He retreated with the Japanese, but because the retreat was very hasty, he did not have time to take warm clothing and was badly frostbitten. The other one was an artillery ensign, Anokha. In addition to that, there was Captain Rumievskii who lived at the fort. He was in charge of the telegraph station, which the Japanese allowed us to use for about six hours daily. He did not have time to leave with the Japanese or perhaps had not been notified by them about the retreat. He later left with his wife for the taiga, where they were both caught by the Reds and executed on Cape Vasse.

Several days after capturing the fort, the Reds brought guns up to the leper colony and began shelling the town with 57-mm mortars. The shelling continued for three days. The mortars were stationed in Kamora. At least 300 shells were fired. The effect of shelling on property and human life was very insignificant because about three-fourths of the shells did not explode, but it did create considerable panic among the residents.

I do not know exactly how the negotiations with the Reds concerning surrender of the town began, because they were conducted in Secret. The negotiations were started by the Japanese, then some of our (i.e., the Russian command) representatives took part. These representatives were Lieutenant Murgabov and Captain Nemchinov. (By the way, Nemchinov at an earlier date had been captured by Triapitsyn at the Drekalovich settlement near Vladivostok but managed to escape, and this time Triapitsyn recognized him.) These military representatives were joined by representatives from the town: Mayor Karpenko, the chairman of the Town Duma [Council], V. A. Komarovsky, and the chairman of the Zemstvo board, Shelkovnikov.

When the negotiations were finished, Medvedev called a meeting and informed us that, because of the declaration by General Shiromidzu, the Japanese began negotiations with the Reds and had decided to surrender the town and that conditions for the surrender had been worked out, which he read to us. I do not recall all the points, but the most important ones were as follows. The Russian detachment was guaranteed personal immunity and permission to leave when navigation was opened; the Japanese forces were to keep their arms, but the Russian detachment was to surrender their arms and military equipment to the Japanese even before the Reds entered the town; also, the inhabitants of the town were guaranteed complete immunity and peace.

The entrance of the Reds was to take place on Sunday in the morning. But from the very first moment, the Reds broke these conditions. A part of them, namely the ski detachment, entered the town on Saturday night, and arrests started immediately.

I was arrested at ten o'clock on Sunday morning and taken to the militsia. Mikhin and Pavlichenko were there. From the militsia I was transferred to the prison. The prison was already surrounded by a mob which greeted each of the prisoners with curses and shouted: "Beat him! Kill him! Tear him apart!" etc., which was followed by shoving and kicking. The cell where I was placed already contained twelve inmates who had been arrested by the Bolsheviks either that morning or during the preceding night. Among them were eight or nine officers, and in the course of the day more and more newly arrested prisoners were brought in, so that there were 30 of us by the end of the day and 45 the following day. The cell was meant to hold ten people and therefore we could barely fit in. It was only possible to remain standing or to lie on one's side pressing tightly against each other; one could not even think of lying down properly. When I was being sent from the militsia to prison, the escort was given the following order: "Watch out. If he tries to escape, hit him on the legs." When brought to the cell, the prisoners were not just led in but shoved and hit with gun butts, so that the prisoner would fly in head over heels. This was how the engineer Kurushin was brought in. The door was opened and a man flew in, his hat rolled in one direction and he rolled in the opposite, directly under the bunks. When he climbed out, we recognized engineer Kurushin. He was hit on the neck with the gun butt with such force that he was raised off the ground.

After dinner, Zhelezin arrived at the prison and coming to our cell asked: "Who are the officers?" We stepped out. "Get undressed." We started undressing, removed our outer clothing, and stopped. Then, he ordered some individuals to remove whatever part of their clothing was in better condition: some were ordered to remove their boots, others their socks. Some of the prisoners began to protest. "What will remain for us to wear? How can we go outside when we have to face the Committee of Inquiry?" Zhelezin answered as follows: "What Committee of Inquiry? You'll all be going to the moon, and clothing is not needed there." This statement made us conclude for certain that we would be executed that very night. In the meantime, partisans and some others appeared in the prison cursing and taunting us and waving their whips in our faces, although in our cell, at any rate, they did not use them.

The first and I believe the second night passed relatively calmly. During the third night (but maybe it was the second night), we were awakened by noise and shouting. We all jumped up and started listening. We could hear noise, the sound of blows, screaming, then absolutely inhuman howling, then gradually decreasing moaning, and then the sound of blows on something soft for a few more minutes, after the moaning ceased. Then, there was some sort of bustling, followed by the same thing: screams, moans, blows. This went on from midnight until three in the morning. We had the definite impression that people were being beaten to death with sticks and then the corpses were dragged outside. We all sat there more dead than alive, not daring to make the slightest move, expecting that any second our turn would come. Nobody came to our cell and no one was taken out that night, but someone would come to the door and start moving the lock, the clanking of which produced a terrible impression. Then, they would burst out laughing and leave.

The beatings went on for three nights during my stay in prison. The women's cells were at first located in a different part of the prison but later were moved to our building. From then on we began to hear the women crying out. Women were also beaten severely. My fellow prisoners recognized the voices of their friends: there was Batsevich's wife, old lady Komarovskaya, and many others. Lieutenant Parusinov was exposed to extremely severe torture. He was a young man not more that 25 years of age. Once I saw him through my cell window being taken to interrogation. He was led by two men holding him up by the arms, while he could barely move his legs, and one arm hung down like a lash. And yet he did not lose courage. One could hear him cursing and taunting his executioners in his bass voice.

A few days later fifteen men were transferred from our cell to another one. Then, in the middle of the night, they took the officers Usachev, Shoot, Nemchinov, and Barmin. Originally, my cell mates were Captain Usachev, Captain Nemchinov, Captain Konstantinov, Grosh, Colonel Barmin, Lieutenant Shoot, and the following civilians: the priest, Father Voetsky, engineer Krotkov, the former prison chief Mark Ivanovich Eremkin, two prison supervisors, and a certain Komissarov, but I do not know exactly who he was. There were also several soldiers from the commandant's company. Tokarew and the counterintelligence people were incarcerated separately.

When the above-mentioned officers Usachev, Nemchinov, and the others were taken away, we were certain that they were to be executed, but a day later they returned and told us that they were taken away to be beaten. They were taken to the cell where the counterintelligence men were kept, and they were twice flogged with ramrods. After the flogging, they were twice led from the building to the Amur, but for some unknown reason they were taken from there to the headquarters and then returned to the prison. Both times they were convinced they were being taken to be executed. It appears that they were taken out to make them live through the agony of expecting death. When they returned to our cell, they almost jumped for joy, so terrible was their stay in the cell of the counterintelligence men. Their own flogging seemed secondary to them in comparison to what happened to Tokarev and the other counterintelligence officers. They could not recall without a shudder the appearance of those men, beaten so severely that they had lost consciousness of their surroundings.

I spent nine days in the prison and was released two days before the Japanese attack. My release came about in the following manner. There was a private by the name of Ivanov in my company which was part of the regiment in which he was doing his military service. Later, he was assigned to me as orderly and lived with me for three and a half years. He turned up among the partisans and recognized me. He was very influential with Triapitsyn and was something like his right-hand man. On the third or fourth day of my imprisonment, Komarov came into our cell accompanied by this Ivanov. Komarov called me by name, and when I stepped forward, he[199쪽]asked me if I knew who Ivanov was. I said that I knew him, that he was my former orderly. Then, Komarov told me that since Ivanov vouched for me with his life, I would soon be released; however, it could not be done right away because the Committee of Inquiry was overloaded with work, but my case would soon be examined. After being released, I went home to my family and did not leave the house.

The Japanese attack started at midnight. My apartment was next to the building of the Red headquarters and was under fire, we were forced to escape. All through the battle, i.e., for three days, my family and I hid in various cellars. Because I did not go outside, I did not witness the massacre of the Japanese colony, except for just one incident. A Japanese soldier, under partisan fire from all directions, was apparently trying to reach the Japanese headquarters. He was hit by gunfire and was shot at some more when he was already on the ground. After he was killed, some Russian partisans searched his pockets but did not remove his clothes. Later, a Chinese partisan removed his jacket. By nightfall the corpse was lying in his underwear. I heard that the reason for the Japanese attack was the demand by the Reds that they disarm and surrender their arms.

I returned home on 16 March and found my apartment completely pillaged. Until 23 April I stayed home as much as possible to avoid encountering any partisans. At that time a decree was posted to the effect that those who were not working would be refused food. I had to sign up with the union Rybotrud, later renamed Soyuz Rabochii Rybak (Union of Working-class Fishermen). At the union I was elected to be secretary.

From the middle of May, as soon as news was received of the Japanese disembarkation at De Kastri, preparations were started for defense. Communal work was organized. Everyone from age 16 to 65, including women, had to take part, but actually, there were no exceptions. Even old men and children were forced to work. Partisans on horseback went from house to house, and, if they met someone not at work or found someone at home, they chased them with whips, regardless of age. Small girls (school girls in the lower grades) were assigned to work in the kitchen gardens, but on occasion, instead of doing that work, they were sent to shovel or turn over manure in the yards. In all the official buildings everyone had to go to work, except for those on duty in the building. The work was very strenuous and for some beyond their strength: loading rocks onto the barges, loading firewood, etc. Work started at eight o'clock in the morning and sometimes lasted until late at night; there was no specific rest break.

At communal work I encountered Sopliakov, the prison warden, and in the course of conversation found out that in my cell, where 30 of us could hardly fit in, there were now 60 prisoners. At work I also met the former investigator Paradoksov, now working in the Committee of Inquiry, and I asked him how safe my situation was. He reassured me that my name had not been mentioned at all in the Committee of Inquiry. But at ten o'clock that very evening, partisans arrived at my apartment and arrested me and Tutrin, the head employee of Churin and Co. who was lodging with us. We were ordered to get dressed and follow them. Initially, it appeared that they were going to arrest my wife as well; at any rate they ordered her to get dressed. They took our money and all that had been given to us by kind people after everything we owned had been looted during the Japanese attack. At the last moment, however, the partisans for some reason felt sorry for my wife and let her stay. They took us to the Committee of Inquiry, registered our names in one of the rooms, and immediately took us to the next room. As soon as we crossed the threshold, men jumped on us, grabbed me by the arms, knocked off my cap in which I had concealed poison, and tying my hands behind my back, pushed me toward a group of about 20 people, who were also tied up. This group included six women, two young men working for the ration board, the pilot Popov, the owner of the sausage factory Grigoriev, and the Naletov family ― father, mother, ad two children, a girl of twelve, and a boy of thirteen. The father fainted and the mother died right there either from taking poison or, more likely, from heart failure, because she fell down and never moved.

We spent about three hours standing with this group. There is nothing one can say about my state of mind. Just then Ivanov went by. I shouted to him: "Ivanov, save me!" "I'll free you right away," he said and left. After that, he went by several times without saying a word to me. When he went by for the third time, I called to him again and he replied: "I cannot do anything." I decided that this was the end and began to prepare myself for death . . . . Just then Pavlichenko came into the room. He also favored me, because I had allowed his wife to visit him while he was in prison. (Presumably in 1919, when the Japanese Intervention brought aboutnthe fall of the brief Bolshevik rule in Nikolaevsk ―TRANS.) Although I merely followed instructions, he and his wife felt personally obligated to me, and he had taken part in releasing me during my first imprisonment. I called to him, but he did not hear me and went by. When Ivanov came by again, I said to him: "Ask Pavlichenko." Ivanov left and came back a short while later with the order: "Untie Grigoriev," and when the escort started cutting the ropes in back with a knife, he added, "See that you don't cut his hands. He has been freed completely."

After I was untied, Ivanov said to me: "Come along. They asked for you in the [Revolutionary] Tribunal." I went to the next room. Zhelezin, Nechaev, Dyldin, Otsevilli, and Beliaev were sitting there drinking. Zhelezin turned to me and said: "Well, sit down. You look awful. Here, have a drink," and he poured me a glass of vodka. I drank it down. "So you had a bad fright, old man? But do you know for what reason you were not done away with just now?” I kept silent. “We set you free, but you refuse to work for us." I answered that had I been asked I would have agreed, but I could not offer my services on my own, because as a former officer, I would certainly be under suspicion. "Well, fine," answered Zhelezin, "now you will work for us, so now you must point out all the White skunks to us," and then turning to Ivanov, he added, "Take him home, he doesn't feel quite himself."

We left and Ivanov took me to a small room, where he asked me to wait because he had one more errand. About half an hour went by. Suddenly, a young man looked into the room. Seeing me, he entered and asked me: "What are you doing here?" "Waiting for an escort," I replied. "Your name?" "Grigoriev." "An officer?" "Yes.” “In that case, follow me."

I stood up, but as soon as I entered the other room, I was again jumped on, tied up, and pushed toward another group of people standing there. No matter how hard I tried to explain that I had been freed by the tribunal, they would not listen to me. "What sort of freedom? There is just one end for everyone." Fortunately, just as they were getting ready to lead us away, Ivanov appeared again. "How come you are here again?" he said to me. "Release him immediately!" he ordered the escort. The escort started to protest, and only when Ivanov threatened that if he did not obey, he would find himself in the same situation the following day was I released.

Ivanov and I went home. I might add that I was terribly worried about my family, because during our conversation, Zhelezin asked me: "And where is your family?" and when I answered that they were at home, he remarked: "What do you know, not under arrest," and then asked: "You are sending your family away and have a pass?" I said that I had one. "What do you know, he even has a pass." Therefore, I was afraid that my family had been arrested, but everyone was at home. I returned home at about three o'clock in the morning.

The following day Ivanov told me to send my family away as soon as possible and for me not to spend the night at home. I sent the family away but had to remain behind myself, because I did not have a pass. I spent two nights at Ivanov's. On the third day he told me that it was no longer safe to stay with him and took me to some bathhouse where an old guard was living. On the following day Ivanov managed to get me a pass and I left. On the pier I found an old peasant who transported me to the opposite shore of the Amur, and I managed to make my way to Kasyanovka. One more item: When I was in prison, the former chief of state security, Lekh, took poison and hanged himself. When this was discovered, we were all taken out to the prison yard undressed and barefoot and held there for about two hours while they were extracting nails and collecting ropes, etc., in the cell.

The pier was blown up when it was crowded with a great many people waiting for embarkation to leave. I know about the following occurrence: there was a young woman with two small children on the pier waiting to leave. A partisan began to pester her, saying that she should go with them to the taiga.[203쪽]Pointing to her small children, she said, "How can I possibly take them?" "Well, that's no problem," the man answered and, grabbing first one and then the other child, threw them into the Amur.

Colonel Medvedev committed suicide under the following circumstances. In the evening of 27 [February], the day before the partisans entered the town, he and Chief of Staff Slezkin had supper at the Japanese headquarters. Afterward, Slezkin stopped by my house and told me that at the end of the supper, the colonel stood up and, turning to the Japanese, said that as commandant of the fort he now had only one option ― to do what their samurais used to do. Then he left. Relating this, Slezkin wept and said that obviously Aleksandr Aleksandrovich would end his life that very night. In the morning, when I went to the headquarters, I learned about the colonel's death. The telephone operator on duty told me that the night before, after returning home, the colonel stopped by, joked with her, and told her to go to bed. She went to bed and did not hear anything. But early that morning he was found in his room half lying on his bed, shot through his head and two vials with poison on the chair next to the bed. His corpse was taken by the Japanese to their headquarters and, apparently, cremated by them as he had requested, because the corpse was not found later.

I did not have occasion to meet Triapitsyn or Nina. I can only say one thing-that Triapitsyn had a truly magic, almost hypnotic, influence on a crowd. Komarov, a man of about 25 years of age, was a cultured person who obviously was well educated. According to him, he was a former officer and, judging by the impression he created, it is quite possible.

Otsevilli was uneducated, loved to talk, and talked like a windmill, but it was impossible to understand what he was saying. He was about 40 years old. He was Commissar of Labor. He went about with a whip in his hand and was, as they say, a beast. Pavlichenko, 32 years old, formerly a military clerk, was a very sly and clever man.

One more thing: after the partisans entered the town, they found the corpse of their envoy, Orlov. At Triapitsyn's orders, a commission of Russian and Japanese doctors was[204쪽]organized which examined Orlov's corpse and established that, other than the gunshot wounds, there were no other injuries. (Only the ears had been pecked by birds, but that happened posthumously). I heard this from Dr. Bobrov who was on the commission.

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 23 July 1920
Lieutenant-Colonel Mikhail Petrovich Grigoriev

---

Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 193~204쪽

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세르게이 데멘티에비치 스트로드, 22세

나는 Reds가 마을에 들어오는 것을 환영하기 위해 출발했지만 서둘러 집으로 돌아가서 연설은 듣지 않고 그들이 들고 있는 포스터만 보았습니다. "러시아 소비에트 공화국 만세", "죽음에 수도" "국제적 약탈자들과 함께 타도" "장교들에게 죽음" "관료들과 함께 타도" 등 나는 다음과 같은 상황 때문에 서둘러 집으로 돌아갔다. 나는 이전에 우리의 다양한 정치적 견해 때문에 끊임없는 논쟁을 했던 볼셰비키를 확인했습니다. 그는 또한 저를 발견하고 기뻐하며 소리쳤습니다. "기억하십시오, 세르게이, 당신은 러시아에 소련 정부가 없을 것이라고 말하곤 했습니다!" 나는 겁에 질려 서둘러 떠났다.

당파가 도착한 바로 첫날, 내 형 Petr Ivanovich가 체포되었습니다. 그는 1918년 그의 활동 때문에 체포되었습니다. 그는 주립 은행에서 보조 출납원으로 고용되었습니다. 1918년 Kalmanovich가 Nikolaevsk에 와서 은행에 있는 금을 제거하려고 했을 때 내 동생은 Nikolaevsk에서 모든 것을 외국 시장에서 구매해야 하기 때문에 금이 필요하다고 지적하면서 항의했습니다. 그 당시 Nikolaevsk의 노동자 및 군인 대리인 소비에트가 그와 동의했고 Kalmanovich는 금없이 떠나야했습니다. 거의 동시에 Nikolaevsk에서 소비에트 통치가 무너지기 직전에 요새 사령관이었던 Pavlichenko는 은행에서 50 만 루블을 인출하려고했지만 내 형제는 수표를 존중하지 않았습니다. 파르티잔이 마을에 들어오던 날, 내 형은 그가 사령관이었던 소방대 부대와 함께 적군을 맞이하는 임무를 받았다. 그가 소방서에 들어가 자마자 Pavlichenko는 그를보고 "이 수탉을 잡아야합니다"라고 말하면서 그를 체포하도록 명령했습니다. 그는 민병대에 끌려가 그곳에 항상 갇혀 있었습니다. 3월 11일 나는 조사 위원회에서 그가 아무 혐의도 받지 않았기 때문에 하루나 이틀 안에 석방될 것이라고 안심시켰다. 그러나 3월 12일 밤 일본군이 공격했고, 3월 13일 그는 포로 총살 중 사망했다.

Reds의 도착과 위에서 설명한 만남 이후, 나는 가능한 한 적게 외출하려고 노력하면서 항상 집에 있었습니다. 우리는 당파의 방문과 수색을 끊임없이 기대했지만 아무도 오지 않았습니다. 아버지가 다른 나와 남동생이 성이 달라서 Strod보다 Tolstikov를 검색했기 때문이라고 생각합니다. 3월 14일, 집에서 발견되면 전투에 참여하지 않는다는 비난을 받을까 두려워 레드 병원에 갔다. 내가 병원에 ​​있는 동안, 제 학교 친구인 Cadet Andrei Adamovich가 상처를 입고 입원했습니다. 그는 모든 교도소 수감자들을 학살하는 동안 26개의 총검을 입었고 그 중 하나가 그였습니다. 그는 상처 때문에 기절했고 죽은 자들과 함께 도살장 뒤의 쓰레기장으로 끌려갔다. 그곳에서 그는 의식을 되찾고 길을 기어가다가 그를 불쌍히 여겨 병원으로 데려간 일부 당파들에게 발견되었습니다. 그가 병원으로 옮겨졌을 때 부상당한 당파 중 한 명인 15세 소년은 이렇게 선언했습니다. "여기 죽지 않은 또 다른 백인 쓰레기가 있습니다." 나중에 Adamovich는 어쨌든 처형되었습니다. 그 당파의 얼굴이 낯익은 것 같아서 나는 그에게 다가가 음악대원이었느냐고 물었다. "아니요. 당신은 내 사촌을 생각하고 있습니다. 그 백인 쓰레기는 Tokarev를 위해 방첩 활동을 했고 15,000개의 채찍을 맞았습니다[?]. 그를 쏘고 싶었지만 기회가 없었습니다."

일제강점기에는 여성과 어린이까지 무자비하게 죽임을 당했습니다. 우리 이웃은 두 명의 일본인 여성과 두 명의 어린이가 아무르로 끌려가는 것을 보았다고 말했습니다. 3월 15일에 Reds에 의해 새로운 병원이 조직되었고 나는 그곳에서 병참장교로 임명되었습니다. 일본의 공격 동안, 적군은 약 100명의 병사를 잃었고 55-60명의 부상자를 냈고, 그 중 훗날 보급 위원이 된 네차예프가 있었다.

3월 16일에 나는 수로에 누워 있는 시체 더미에서 형의 시신을 찾기 위해 아무르로 갔다. 시체 덩어리가 있었습니다. 첫 번째 더미에는 30구의 시신이 있었는데, 대부분은 일본인 남성과 여성이었고 러시아인은 한 명뿐이었습니다. 이 더미를 살펴보고 형을 찾지 못한 후, 나는 약 350-400개의 시체가 들어 있는 거대한 다음 더미로 갔습니다. 내가 그것에 접근했을 때, 나는 내가 목격하고 있던 것에 대해 정신을 잃을 것이라고 생각했습니다. 그 공포는 이루 말할 수 없습니다. 시체들 사이에서 나는 내가 아는 많은 사람들을 보았다. 나는 노인 크바소프를 알아보았다. 시체가 말라 쪼그라들고 쇠약해진 엔지니어 Komarovsky는 아래턱과 코가 탈구되었기 때문에 심한 고문과 구타를 당했음이 분명했습니다. 두 Nemchinov 형제; 무용수였던 비슈네프스키(Vishnevsky) 손이 뒤로 묶이고 가슴이 총검 상처로 덮인 주립 은행 직원. 두 명의 Andrazhevsky 형제, 그 중 한 명인 Mikhail은 머리를 박살내서 얼굴은 거기에 있었지만 머리 뒤쪽은 없었고 두개골 내부가 긁힌 것처럼 보였습니다. 일본 군인은 네발로 누워 있었고 그의 혀는 실에 걸려 있었다. 선주인 나사로프는 눈을 찡그린 채 빙긋 웃는 얼굴로 시체 위에 똑바로 서 있었다. 일부 시체는 성기가 제거되었습니다. 많은 여성들이 성기에 ​​총검 상처를 입었습니다. 한 여성이 가슴에 태아를 안고 누워 있었습니다. 나는 이 더미에서 형의 시체를 보지 못했다. 이 더미의 가장자리에 이마에 총상을 입은 공증인 Kozlov를 놓으십시오. zemstvo 타이피스트 Pluzhnikova의 시체와 Kukhterina와 Klavdia Meshcherinova의 시체처럼 많은 여성의 시체가 완전히 알몸이었습니다. 어떤 여성은 속옷만 입고 있었고 어떤 여성은 속옷만 입었습니다. 내가 거기 있는 동안 그곳에서 일하는 중국인들이 얼음에 구멍을 뚫고 굉음과 큰 웃음을 지으며 다리로 시체를 얼음 구멍쪽으로 끌고 던지고 막대기로 얼음 아래로 밀어 내리기 시작했습니다. . 약 75~100구의 세 번째 더미에는 E. S Lury 여사, 엔지니어 Kurushin 및 기타 지인의 시신이 포함되어 있다고 들었습니다. 그러나 나는 그 더미에 도달하지 못했습니다. 그때쯤이면 100명에서 150명 정도의 꽤 많은 사람들이 친척의 시체를 찾기 위해 얼음 위에 모였습니다.

갑자기 당파들이 마을 사방에서 우리에게 달려와 "여기서 뭐하는 겁니까?"라고 소리쳤습니다. 보복이 두려워 나는 다른 사람들과 함께 달리기 시작했습니다. 내 뒤에서 "그만, 멈춰!"라고 외치는 소리가 들렸다. 이어 여러 발의 총성이 들렸지만 멈추지 않고 무사히 병원에 도착했다. 같은 날 나는 병영에서 항복한 일본군이 병원 창밖으로 끌려가는 것을 보았다. 여성 7명을 포함해 115명이었다.

나는 3월 22일까지 병원에서 일을 했고 실제로는 아무 일도 하지 않았습니다. 그날 나는 호아피탈을 떠나 일자리를 찾기 시작했다. 이전에 일했던 Zakusbyt에 지원했습니다. Karpenko는 나를 받아들이기로 동의했지만 Zhelezin은 이 일을 알게 되자 그곳에서 아무 일도 하지 않았다고 소리치기 시작했고 나를 Katsub 동지의 처분에 따라 신발 작업장에 배정했습니다. 3일 연속으로 캣츤을 찾았지만 작업장에서는 찾지 못했다. 마침내 4일 만에 그곳에서 그를 찾았습니다. "누구세요?" 그는 나에게 발행된 바우처를 언제 그에게 건넸는지 물었다. "저는 은행 회계사입니다."라고 나는 말했습니다. "악마에게 당신이 필요한 이유가 무엇입니까? 당신을 여기에 보낸 바보에게 돌아가십시오." 나는 Zakusbyt에 가서 그곳에서 일하기 시작했습니다. 나는 4월 15일까지 그곳에서 일했다. 그날 저는 전화로 공공부조 위원회에 즉시 출두하라는 명령을 받았습니다. 그것은 Cape Vasse의 한 마을에서 온 농부인 Esipov가 감독했습니다. 나는 나를 소개했다. 그는 나를 커미사리아 사무국의 관리자로 임명한다고 말했습니다. 나는 그에게 내가 은행원이고 사무에 대해 아는 것이 전혀 없기 때문에 그런 책임을 맡을 수 없다고 말하며 나를 석방해 달라고 부탁했다. "알았어, 가자. 하지만 내일까지 내가 다른 사람을 찾을 수 없다면 네가 그 일을 맡게 될 거야."

일주일 후 Zakusbyt는 Zhelezin과 Aussem이 숙소에 필요했기 때문에 건물에서 대피했습니다. 우리는 Tsenrosoiuz가 점유한 건물로 옮겨졌습니다. 그곳에서 우리는 자리가 없었고, 더군다나 Zakusbyt가 국유화될지 여부도 알 수 없었기 때문에 거의 1주일 동안 아무 것도 하지 않았습니다. 4월 27일에 나는 공급 위원회의 무역 부서에 배치되었습니다. 징집란을 정리하라고 했는데, 영수증이나 지출에 대한 문서가 하나도 없었기 때문에 이 일을 하는 것은 절대 불가능했다. 문서는 "접시 바구니" 또는 "이런 곳에서 징발된 신발 한 자루"였다. 근무 시간은 8시에서 2시, 5시에서 7시로 정상이었습니다.

공동 작업은 5월 15일에 시작되었습니다. 서브봇닉(Le., 자원봉사 무급노동의 날 - TRANS)이라고 했지만 매일 했다. 16세에서 55세 사이의 남녀 모두가 참여해야 했습니다. 나는 Alekseevsk Pier에서 바지선에 암석을 싣는 일을 했습니다. 작업은 극도로 고된 작업이었고 지식인에게는 절대적으로 지구력을 초월했습니다. 첫날에는 특별한 감독이 없었지만, 다음 날에는 거의 쉬지 않고 계속 재촉했다. 잠시 앉아 있으면 즉시 "왜 앉아 있습니까?"라는 소리가 들렸습니다. 모든 감독관은 소총과 고무 곤봉으로 무장했으며 사용하지는 않았지만 끊임없이 우리를 위협했습니다. 작업은 매일 계속되었습니다. 전체적으로 w 12개의 철제 바지선과 여러 척의 나무 바지선을 싣습니다. 이 작업은 5월 28일 또는 29일까지 계속되었습니다. 그런 다음 우리는 많은 준설선을 분해했습니다. 작은 부품은 아무르 해운의 창고에 보관하고 사슬과 닻은 물에 던졌습니다. 선체는 나중에 Langer 모터보트에 의해 강 아래로 견인되어 침몰되었습니다. 바로 그때 일본 비행기가 마을 위로 날아갔다. 그날 저녁 비행기가 등장한 후 케르비로 떠나는 사람들의 승선이 시작되었고 55세 이상의 모든 사람들에게 마을을 떠날 수 있는 출입증이 발급될 것이라고 발표되었습니다. 5월 24일 이후에는 대량 체포와 학살이 시작되었기 때문에 집에서 잠을 자지 않았습니다. 5월 24일에서 29일 사이에 위원회 직원들은 사라지기 시작했습니다. 가장 먼저 사라진 사람들은 사회주의 혁명가인 베르호보드와 데그티아레프였다. 소문에 따르면 다음 날 크로파초프와 고등학생인 그의 아들은 퇴근길에 체포되어 같은 날 둘 다 살해당했다고 한다. 그런 다음 전 공급부 국장인 Vasiliev와 독일 전쟁의 장애 퇴역 군인인 Losev를 포함한 공급 부서의 많은 다른 사람들이 체포되었습니다. 그들 모두는 살해당했다.

체포될까봐 집에서 잠도 못자고 계속해서 위원회에서 일을 하고 낮에는 공동작업을 했다. 5월 24일 나는 어머니와 누이를 마고로 보내고 63세의 아버지와 레드 지역 본부의 타이피스트였던 형의 아내와 함께 마을에 머물렀다.

언제든지 체포와 죽음을 예상하고, 우리 모두는 체포의 경우에 그것을 가져갈 독을 손에 쥘 수 있었습니다. 나의 아버지는 의사의 조수이고 손에 독이 강한 약을 가지고 있었다. 그는 나에게 "디오닌[?]" 1그램을 주었습니다. 나는 이것을 4개의 가루로 나누어 옷의 여러 부분에 숨겨서 하나를 찾으면 다른 것들과 함께 독살을 가할 수 있었습니다.

5월 28일 자정에 누군가가 우리 집으로 다가오는 소리를 들었습니다. 나는 아버지를 깨우며 "음, 아빠, 그들이 우리를 위해 왔어요."라고 말했습니다. 간신히 깨어난 아버지는 다이오닌, 모르핀, 아편 등 독이 섞인 약병을 들고 옆에 있던 병을 움켜쥐고 비웠습니다. 독은 즉각적인 효과가 없었고 그가 나에게 아무 말도 하지 않았기 때문에 나는 그가 한 행동을 알지 못했다. 다행히 단계가 줄어들었습니다. 나는 내 방으로 돌아갔다. 새벽에 나는 밖에 나가서 덧문을 열고 아버지의 방에 들렀다. 그는 나에게 다가오기 시작했지만 즉시 침대에 쓰러졌다. 나는 그에게 달려갔습니다. "무슨 일이야, 아빠?" 그랬더니 독약을 먹었다고 합니다. 나는 며느리를 깨웠다. 아버지는 이미 의식이 없어 우리를 알아보지 못했다. 우리는 그에게 우유를 주기 시작했고, 이를 꽉 깨물고 있는 그의 입에 그것을 아주 어렵게 부었습니다. 그러는 사이 시간이 늦어지고 있었다. 시누이와 나는 모두 출근해야 했습니다. 왜냐하면 우리의 부재는 가장 확실하게 알아차리고 우리 모두에게 재앙을 초래할 수 있기 때문입니다. 의사를 부르는 것도 불가능했습니다. 우리는 돌아가신 아버지를 버려야 했습니다. 우리는 밖에서 문을 잠그고 직장으로 달려갔다. 물론 나는 아무 일도 할 수 없었다. 나는 동료 직원들에게 아버지가 갑자기 병에 걸렸다고 말했고 어떻게 하면 벗어날 수 있을지 상의했다. Nechaev 위원에게 허락을 구하는 것 외에는 다른 방법이 없었지만, 그는 이미 나를 방해꾼으로 생각했기 때문에 감히 그렇게 할 수 없었습니다. 운이 좋게도 이날은 내가 하루 종일 위원회에서 근무해야 하는 날이었기 때문에 나는 머물 수밖에 없었다. 저녁 식사 시간 동안 나는 겨우 탈출했고 다행히 아버지가 의식을 되찾았고[210쪽]해질녘이 되자 완전히 회복되어 일어날 수 있었다. 같은 날 나는 그에게 통행증을 받았고 다음 날 나는 그를 마을 밖으로 보냈습니다.

나는 그날 밤을 부기노프의 집에 있는 마을 변두리에서 보냈습니다. 저녁 10시경, 만지거나 빼지 말라는 지시와 함께 등유 한 캔이 그곳으로 옮겨졌다. 나는 등유를 유통하는 사람을 알고 있었고 그에게 집에 가지 말라고 요청했습니다. 그는 집을 건너 뛰지 못하게 하는 리볼버로 무장한 두 명의 당파가 그를 호위하고 있었기 때문에 거의 불가능할 것이라고 대답했습니다. 5월 31일 아침에 모든 사람에게 출입증이 발급된다는 소식을 듣고 나는 급히 공무관으로 향했습니다. 일이 진행되고 있지 않았고 직원도 거의 없었습니다. 그곳에는 네차예프 위원과 카차예프 장관만이 있었다.

나는 후자에게 호소했지만 그는 나를 Nechaev로 보냈습니다. Nechaev는 내가 공중 보건 위원회에 그곳에서 검사를 받도록 요청서를 작성하도록 허락했습니다. 나는 그 위원회를 어디에서도 찾을 수 없었지만 Realschule에서 그 위원회의 의장인 하바롭스크의 Pokrovsky 박사를 찾았습니다. 나는 그에게 내 병에 대해 말했다. 급성 빈혈을 앓고 있는 또 다른 청년 Filippov가 나와 함께 왔습니다. 우리를 진찰한 후 의사는 다음과 같이 썼습니다. 우리가 가벼운 일을 하기에 적합하다는 우리의 요청의 반대입니다. 나는 내가 매우 아프다고 그에게 설명하기 시작했다. "그럴 거에요." 그가 말했고, 내가 내 주장을 계속하자 그는 소리쳤습니다. 확실하게 말할 수는 없지만 "그렇지 않으면 즉시 귀하를 제거하겠습니다"라고 덧붙인 것 같습니다. Realschule에서 놀라운 일이 벌어지고 있었습니다. 파르티잔들은 모두 술에 취해 있었고 홀에는 압도적인 바니쉬 냄새가 났고, 파르티잔들은 말 그대로 그랜드 피아노 위를 타고 바닥을 뒹굴고 있었다.

학교에서 우리는 위원회로 돌아갔지만 이미 그곳에는 아무도 없었습니다. 우리는 패스를 요청하기 위해 본사에 가기로 결정했습니다. , 거기에서 나는 나이 때문에 합격을 거부당했습니다. 나는 내가 아프다고 항의했다. Shinkerman은 저에게 소리를 지르기 시작했습니다. "그동안 어디 있었어? 왜 공중 보건 위원회에 지원하지 않았니?" (Shinkerman은 직업이 제화공이다.) 우리는 서둘러 떠났고 나와 함께한 친구는 감히 지원조차 하지 않았다. 그 당시[211쪽]루빈스타인 제재소와 강 상류의 어업은 이미 불타고 있었다.

우리는 집에 갔다. 집에서 나는 가구, 거울, 그리고 다른 물건들을 부엌 정원으로 끌고 가서 말린 빵, 붕대, 약간의 의료 용품을 가지고 집을 잠그고 옆집에 있는 Filippov의 집으로 갔다. 함께 탈출하기로 했습니다. 며느리는 5월 30일에 패스를 받고 카시아노프카로 떠났습니다. 저녁 5시경, Filippov와 나는 Kuenga 강 너머에 있는 한국식 트럭 정원으로 갔다. 그곳에서 우리는 지하실에 우리를 숨기기로 동의한 한국인을 만났습니다. 한국 사람과 배낭을 놓고 집에 돌아가 베개를 가져오기로 했습니다. Kuenga를 가로지르는 다리 근처에서 나는 두 명의 당파가 나를 향해 오는 것을 보았습니다. 나는 멈춰 서서 아무렇지 않게 주위를 둘러보며 휘파람을 불며 서 있었다. 나는 머리에 치석 두개골 모자가 달린 누더기 옷을 입고 면도를 하지 않았습니다. 그들은 나에게 탔다. "왜 여기 서 있는 겁니까, 동지?" 나는 재빨리 "네차예프가 우리 모두에게 직원을 보내 싣을 말을 찾도록 보냈고, 나는 말이 숲에서 나올지 기다리고 있었습니다."라고 대답했습니다. "말이 있어요." 그들이 근처에 서 있는 말을 가리키며 말했다. "못 봤어?" 나는 그것을 눈치채지 못했고 아마도 숲에서 막 나온 것 같다고 말하고 말을 향해 갔습니다. 그들은 나를 바라보며 잠시 서 있다가 마을을 향해 질주했다. 그러면서 나도 집이 있는 방향으로 갔다. 그러나 나는 그것에 도달할 기회를 얻지 못했다. 한 블록 정도 떨어져 있을 때 우리 집에서 총성이 들려서 돌아섰습니다. 트럭 정원으로 돌아와 지하실에 숨었습니다. 나는 막 안으로 들어갈 시간이 있었는데, 세 명의 당파가 말을 타고 와서 한국인에게 러시아인을 본 적이 있느냐고 물었다. 한국인은 주변에 러시아인이 없다고 대답했다. 그들은 집 안으로 들어가 살펴보았지만 지하실은 신경쓰지 않았습니다. Filippov는 한 시간 후에 달려왔습니다. 우리는 지하실에서 밤을 보냈습니다. 자정이 되자 나는 출격해 집 옆에 있는 등유 통 세 개를 주워 내 집도 포함해 통에 구멍을 뚫고 집을 불에서 구하겠다는 희망을 품고 등유를 쏟아 부었다. 도심은 이미 불타고 있었고 폭발 소리가 들렸다.

6월 1일 아침 6시에 두 명의 중국인이 감자를 가지러 한국 정착촌에서 나왔고, 동시에 일부 당파가 도착하여 중국인들에게 지하실. 우리는 문 뒤에 숨는 시간을 가졌습니다. 중국인은 지하실에 내려가서 주위를 둘러보고 사람이 없다고 소리치고 감자를 들고 떠났다.(지하실은 사실 집 바닥 아래 공간이었고, 경첩을 들어 올려야만 내려올 수 있었다. 부엌 바닥에서 ―TRANS) 당파들도 떠났다. 그런 다음 Filippov는 더 이상 거기에 머물지 않겠다고 말하고 지하실을 떠났습니다. 10분쯤 후에 나왔지만 그는 더 이상 거기에 없었습니다. 그가 숲에 갔다고 생각하고 나도 거기에 갔다. 나는 Filippov를 다시는 보지 못했고 그가 죽임을 당했다고 확신합니다.

10편 정도를 덮고 하루 종일 숲 속에 있었다가 저녁이 되자 다시 마을로 갔다. 내가 왜 이것을 했는지는 그것이 숲에서 으스스하다는 것을 제외하고는 설명하기 어렵습니다. 내가 숲에 접근하고 있을 때, 나는 트럭 정원에서 두 당파를 보았습니다. 나는 배낭을 버리고, 쓰고 있던 스컬 캡을 가지고 있던 중국산 모자로 바꾸고, 반대 방향으로 중국인 정착촌을 향해 출발했다. 정착지에서 나는 다시 일부 당파를 만났지만 거리에 서 있는 한 무리의 중국인과 합류할 시간이 있었고 당파는 나를 알아차리지 않고 지나갔습니다. 정착지에서 나는 어떻게 든 탈출을 희망하면서 강둑에 갔다. 해안에서 나는 무엇을해야할지 모르고 그의 소지품과 소와 함께 거기 앉아있는 처남 Zaitello를 보았습니다. 내가 고정시킨 빨간 활을 든 나를 보더니 그는 그것을 찢어 버리며 소리쳤다. "이 쓰레기를 왜 붙이셨어요?" 해변에서 나가라고 하고 지인이 있다고 하는 발전소로 가자고 했다. 그의 충고를 받아들이고 떠날수록 그의 고함소리가 무서워서 더욱 그랬다. 당파의 관심을 끌 것입니다. 발전소에서 나는 내가 합류할 수 있을 것이라고 생각하는 일련의 수레가 형성되고 있는 Filippov의 집에 가자고 제안한 아는 사람들을 만났습니다. 위원회의 동료 직원들은 내가 그들과 합류할 수 있도록 준비했고 나는 그곳에서 밤을 보냈습니다. 그 당시 대성당은 이미 불타고 있었고 도시 외곽은 불타기 시작했습니다.

새벽에 말에 짐을 싣고 레알슐레로 가라는 명령이 내려졌다. Second Street에서 나는 재무부와 Realschule 사이의 도시 전체가 화재로 파괴된 것을 볼 수 있었습니다. 우리 집만 그대로 남아 있었다. 우리는 Realschule 옆 광장에서 하루 종일 보냈습니다. 정오쯤 발전소가 폭발했다. 당파들은 모두 바니시를 정제하지 않고 후추만 뿌려서 마신 상태였다. 그들은 완전히 취한 채 연기에 휩싸인 거리에서 말을 타고 깃털이 달린 숙녀용 모자를 쓰고 안장에 살아있는 거위를 묶고 나타났습니다. 6월 2일 밤, 매우 강한 바람이 불었습니다. 온 마을이 불길에 휩싸였습니다. 광장에서 우리는 연기에 질식했습니다. 불타는 집에서 폭탄과 포탄이 계속 폭발했고, 분명히 주민들은 상당한 양의 무기, 폭탄 및 포탄을 숨길 수 있었습니다.

6월 3일 아침, 트리아핏신은 즉시 리치 방향으로 마을을 떠나라는 명령을 내렸습니다. 나머지도 같이 갔습니다. Kamora에서 우리는 Realschule을 폭파시킨 폭발을 들었다. 재와 불타는 종이가 우리가 있는 곳까지 날아갔다. 동시에 우리는 총소리를 들었다. 술 취한 당파들이 말을 죽이고 있었다. 리치 강 너머에서 우리는 Triapitsyn, Nina, Zhelezin 및 기타 약 30명에 의해 모두 말을 타고 추월되었습니다. 니나는 가죽바지, 가죽자켓, 가죽모자를 입고 있었다. 정오쯤 우리는 휴식을 취하기 위해 멈춰 섰다. 여기에서 나는 당파들이 탈출에 성공한 사람들과 제거 할 기회를 얻지 못한 사람들에 대해 이야기하는 것을 들었습니다. 그들은 Rzhepitskii 가족과 Tolstikov의 형제, 즉 나에게 이름을 지었습니다. 탈출이 필요했지만 주변에 둘러싸여 있었기 때문에 당장은 할 수 없었다. 나는 계속해야 했다. 그날 저녁 9시경에 우리 일행은 포병을 위한 길을 비우기 위해 언덕 위로 먼저 보내졌습니다. 우리 분견대를 지휘하던 Otsevilli는 눈이 먼 술에 취해 거의 말을 할 수 없었습니다.

새벽 2시경, 주변에 있는 말을 모두 쏘고 즉시 짐을 꾸리라는 명령을 받고 타이가로 향했습니다. 내가 이해한 대로 총은 자물쇠가 제거된 후에 버려졌습니다. 아침 8시쯤에 나와 함께 탈출하자고 설득했지만 아무도 감히 감히 우리가 죽임을 당하겠다며 당파들이 도사리고 있었다. 그런 다음, 나는 혼자 떠나기로 결정했습니다. 나는 더 일찍 말을 버렸다. 나는 점차 뒤처지기 시작했고, 맨 끝에서 소를 몰고 있는 사람들과 합류했다. 당파 중 한 명인 블라디미르 치즈(Vladimir Chizh)는 내가 빈손인 것을 보고 휴대할 소총을 주었습니다. 나는 나 자신이 덜 무력하다고 느꼈다. 차츰차츰 멀리 뒤로 물러나더니 붉은 활을 쏘고 소총을 든 남자가 앉아 있는 것을 보았다. 나는 그와 합류했다. 우리는 이야기를 시작했습니다. 알고보니 가족을 버리고 하바롭스크에서 파견된 우체국 직원이었다. 서로를 알게 된 후 우리는 반대 방향으로 향했습니다. 이틀 동안 우리는 타이가를 돌아다니다가 마침내 길리악 마을 바이다에 나오는 길을 발견했습니다. 그곳에서 우리는 이미 일본군이 점령한 마고(Mago)로 갔다.

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 1920년 8월 13일
세르게이 데멘티예비치 스트로드
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TESTIMONY OF
SERGEI DEMENTIEVICH STROD, AGE 22

I started out to greet the Reds entering the town but hurried to return home, so that I did not hear any of the speeches and only saw the posters which they were carrying: "Long live the Russian Federated Soviet Republic," "Death to capital," "Down with the international plunderers, " "Death to the officers," "Down with the bureaucrats," etc. I hurried to get back home because of the following circumstance: among the marching partisans I saw an old acquaintance, a confirmed Bolshevik with whom I formerly had constant arguments because of our divergent political views. He also spotted me and shouted gloatingly: "Remember, Sergei, you used to say that there would never be a Soviet government in Russia!" I became frightened and left in a hurry.

On the very first day of the arrival of the partisans, my brother, Petr Ivanovich, was arrested. He was arrested because of his activity in 1918. He was employed as assistant cashier in the State Bank. In 1918, when Kalmanovich came to Nikolaevsk and wanted to remove the gold which was in the bank, my brother protested, pointing out that the gold was needed in Nikolaevsk, because the town had to purchase everything from foreign markets. The Soviet of Workers and Soldier's Deputies in Nikolaevsk at that time agreed with him, and Kalmanovich had to leave without the gold. At about the same time, just before the fall of Soviet rule in Nikolaevsk, Pavlichenko, who was then commandant of the fort, wanted to withdraw five hundred thousand rubles from the bank, but my brother did not honor the check. On the day the partisans entered the town, my brother was assigned to greet the Reds with the band of the fire brigade, of which he was the commander. As soon as he entered the fire station, Pavlichenko saw him and, saying "this cockerel must be taken," ordered him to be arrested. He was taken to the militsia where he was kept all the time. On 11 March I was reassured at the Committee of Inquiry that he would be released in a day or two, because he had not been accused of anything. But on the night of 12 March, the Japanese attacked, and on 13 March he was killed during the general massacre of prisoners.

After the arrival of the Reds and the encounter described above, I stayed at home all the time, trying to go out as little as possible. We were constantly expecting a visit from the partisans and a search, but no one came. I believe this was because my brother and I, having different fathers, had different surnames, so they searched for Tolstikov rather than Strod. On 14 March, fearing that if I were found at home I would be accused of not taking part in the fighting, I went to the Red hospital. While I was at the hospital, my schoolmate, Cadet Andrei Adamovich, was brought in covered with wounds. He had 26 bayonet wounds inflicted on him during the general massacre of all the prison inmates, of which he was one. Because of his wounds, he fainted and, along with the dead, was taken to the dump behind the slaughterhouse. There, he regained consciousness and crawled onto the road where he was found by some partisans, who felt sorry for him and took him to the hospital. When he was brought to the hospital, one of the wounded partisans, a 15-year-old brat, declared: "Here's another White scum who wasn't killed off." Later Adamovich was executed anyhow. The face of the partisan seemed familiar to me, so I went up to him and asked him whether he had been a member of the musicians' unit. "No," he replied "you are thinking of my cousin. That White scum worked in counterintelligence for Tokarev and got 15,000 lashes [?]. I wanted to shoot him but did not get a chance."

During the Japanese attack, even women and children were killed without mercy. Our neighbor told us that he saw two Japanese women and two children being taken to the Amur. A new hospital was organized by the Reds on 15 March, and I was assigned there as a quartermaster. During the Japanese attack, the Reds lost about a hundred men and had 55 to 60 wounded, among whom was Nechaev who was later the Commissar of Supply.


On 16 March I went to the Amur in the hope of finding my brother's body in the piles of corpses lying there in the channel. There was a mass of corpses. In the first pile there were 30 bodies, mostly of Japanese men and women, and only one Russian. After looking over this pile and not locating my brother, I went over to the next pile which was huge, containing some 350 to 400 corpses. When I approached it, I thought I would lose my mind from what I was witnessing. The horror of it is beyond description. Among the corpses I saw many people I knew. I recognized the old man Kvasov; engineer Komarovsky, whose corpse was dry, shriveled up, emaciated, and it was obvious that he had been terribly tortured and beaten, because his lower jaw and nose were dislocated; two Nemchinov brothers; Vishnevsky, who used to be a dancer and later an employee of the State Bank, whose hands were tied in back and his chest covered with bayonet wounds; two Andrazhevsky brothers, one of them – Mikhail ― had his head smashed so that the face was there, but there was no back of the head, and it seemed as if the inside of the cranium had been scraped out; a Japanese soldier was lying on all fours and his tongue hung out on a thread. The ship owner Nazarov was standing upright on top of the corpses with his eyes put out and with what seemed to be a grin on his face. Some corpses had their sex organs removed; many women had bayonet wounds on their sex organs; one woman lay there with a fetus on her chest. I did not see my brother's corpse in this pile. On the edge of this pile, lay the notary Kozlov with a gunshot wound in his forehead. Many of the female bodies were completely naked, like the corpse of the zemstvo typist Pluzhnikova, and those of Kukhterina and Klavdia Meshcherinova. Some women had on only an undershirt, some only underpants. While I was there, the Chinese who were working there finished cutting holes in the ice and with whooping and loud laughter began to drag the corpses by the legs toward the holes in the ice, throwing them in and pushing them down under the ice with poles. The third pile of about 75 to 100 corpses, I was told, contained the bodies of Mrs. E. S Lury, engineer Kurushin, and some other acquaintances. But I did not manage to reach that pile. By then quite a crowd of people, about 100 to 150, had gathered on the ice looking for the corpses of their relatives.

Suddenly partisans rushed out at us from all directions in the town, shouting: "What are you doing here?" Fearing reprisal, I started running along with the rest of the people. Behind me I heard shouts: "Stop, stop!" Then, I heard several shots, but I did not stop and reached the hospital safely. That same day I saw the Japanese who had surrendered in the barracks being led somewhere from the hospital windows. There were 115 of them, including 7 women.

I was employed at the hospital until 22 March, actually not doing any work. On that date I left the hoapital and started looking for work. I applied at the Zakupsbyt where I had worked previously. Karpenko agreed to accept me, but Zhelezin, upon learning about this job, began to shout that no work was done there anyway and assigned me to the shoe workshops at the disposal of Comrade Katsub. For three days in a row, I kept looking for Katsub but could never find him at the workshop. Finally, on the fourth day I found him there. "Who are you?" he asked me when I handed him the voucher which had been issued to me. "I am a bank accountant," I said. "What the devil do I need you for? Go back to the fool who sent you here." I went to the Zakupsbyt and started working there. I worked there until 15 April. On that date I was ordered by telephone to appear immediately at the Commissariat of Public Assistance. It was supervised by Esipov, a peasant from a village on Cape Vasse. I presented myself. He said that he was appointing me to be the manager of the commissariat business office. I told him that I was a bank accountant, that I did not know anything about office work, and that, therefore, I could not take on such a responsible position and asked him to release me. "Well, all right, go, but if by tomorrow I cannot find anyone else, you will have to take on the job."

A week later Zakupsbyt was evacuated from its building, because Zhelezin and Aussem needed it for their quarters. We were transferred to the building occupied by Tsentrosoiuz. There, we spent about a week doing nothing at all, because there was no room for us and, furthermore, we did not know whether Zakupsbyt was going to be nationalized or not. On 27 April I was assigned to the trade section of the Commissariat of Supply. I was told to put the requisition section in order, but it was absolutely impossible to accomplish this task, because there were no documents whatsoever either about receipts or expenditures. The documents were something as follows: "a hamper of dishes" or "a bagful of shoes requisitioned at such-and-such a place." The working hours were normal ― from eight to two and from five to seven.

Communal work started on 15 May. It was called subbotnik, (Le., a day of voluntary unpaid labor ― TRANS) but it was done everyday. Everyone, men and women aged 16 to 55, had to take part. I worked at the Alekseevsk Pier loading rocks onto barges. The work was extremely strenuous and for the intelligentsia absolutely beyond endurance. During the first day, there was no special supervision, but on the following days we were constantly urged on with hardly any rest allowed. If one sat down for a moment, a shout was immediately heard: "Why are you sitting?" All the supervisors were armed with rifles and rubber truncheons with which they constantly threatened us, although they never did use them. The work continued every day. Altogether, we loaded twelve iron barges and several wooden ones. This work continued until 28 or 29 May. Then, we took apart a number of dredges ― the small parts were stored in the warehouse of the Amur Shipping Co., while the chains and anchors were thrown into the water. The hulls were later towed down the river by the motorboat Langer and sunk. Just then a Japanese plane flew over the town. That evening, after the appearance of the plane, the embarkation of people leaving for Kerbi began, and it was announced that all those over 55 years of age would be issued passes to leave town. After 24 May, I stopped sleeping at home, because wholesale arrests and massacres started at that time. Between 24 and 29 May employees at the commissariat began to disappear. The first to disappear were Verkhovod, a Socialist Revolutionary, and Degtiarev. During the following days, according to rumors, Kropachev and his son, a high school student, were arrested on the way home from work and both killed that same day. Then followed the arrest of Vasiliev, the former Commissioner of the Ministry of Supply, and many others from the supply department, including Losev, a disabled veteran of the German war. All of them were killed.

Not sleeping at home because I was expecting to be arrested, I continued to work at the commissariat and carried on the communal work during the day. On 24 May I sent my mother and sister to Mago and remained in town with my 63-year-old father and my brother's wife, who was a typist at the Red regional headquarters.

Expecting arrest and death at any moment, we all had poison at hand to take it in case of arrest. My father is a doctor's assistant and he had some strong poisonous medication on hand. He gave me a gram of "dionin[?]," which I divided into four powders and concealed them in different parts of my clothing so that, if one was found, I could still poison myself with the others.

At midnight of 28 May, I heard someone approaching our house (one constantly listened very intently). I woke up my father, saying, "Well, papa, they have come for us." Barely awake, my father grabbed the vial containing a mixture of poisons ― dionin, morphine, opium, and I believe, borts[?] ― which he had next to him and emptied it. The poison did not have an immediate effect, and because he did not say anything to me, I was not aware of what he had done. Fortunately, the steps receded. I went back to my room. At dawn I went outside, opened the shutters, and stopped by my father's room. He started to come toward me, but immediately fell back on his bed. I rushed over to him: "What's wrong, papa?" Then, he told me that he had taken poison. I awakened my sister-in-law. My father was already unconscious and did not recognize us. We started giving him milk, pouring it with great difficulty into his mouth through his clenched teeth. In the meantime, it was getting late. Both my sister-in-law and I had to report to work, because our absence most certainly would be noticed and could cause disaster for all of us. It was also impossible to call a doctor. We were forced to abandon our dying father. We locked the door from outside and ran to our places of employment. Of course, I was unable to do any work. I told my fellow employees that my father had suddenly taken ill and consulted them as to how I could manage to get away. There was no other way than to ask Commissar Nechaev for permission, but I did not dare do that, because he already considered me to be a saboteur. As luck would have it, this was the day for me to be on duty all day at the commissariat, so I had to stay. During the dinner break, I managed to escape and fortunately found that my father had regained consciousness,^[210쪽]and toward nightfall he recovered completely and could get up. That same day I managed to obtain a pass for him, and on the following day I sent him out of town.

I spent that night at the edge of town in the house of Buginov. Around ten o'clock in the evening, a can of kerosene was brought there with instructions not to touch or remove it. I knew the man who was distributing the kerosene, and I asked him to skip my house. He replied that it would be hardly possible, because he was being escorted by two partisans armed with revolvers who would not let him skip any house. On the morning of the 31 May, I heard that passes were being issued to everyone and I rushed to the commissariat. There was no work going on and hardly any of the employees were around. Only Commissar Nechaev and Secretary Kachaev were there.

I appealed to the latter, but he sent me to Nechaev. Nechaev allowed me to write a request to the Commissariat of Public Health to be examined there. I could not locate that commissariat anywhere, but at the Realschule found the chairman of that commissariat, Dr. Pokrovsky from Khabarovsk. I told him about my sickness. Another young man, Filippov, suffering from acute anemia, came with me. After examining us, the doctor wrote on the reverse of our request that we were fit to do light work. I started explaining to him that I was very sick. "That will do," he said, and as I persisted in my argument, he shouted: "I said go, so get out of here or else . . . ." I cannot say for sure, but it seems to me that he added "or else we'll do away with you right away." Something incredible was going on at the Realschule. All the partisans were completely drunk, there was an overpowering smell of varnish in the hall, and the partisans were literally riding around the floor on top of the grand piano.

From the school we went back to the commissariat, but already there was no one left there. We decided to go to the headquarters to ask for a pass. , There, I was refused a pass because of my age. I protested that I was ill. Shinkerman started yelling at me: "Where were you all this time? Why didn't you apply to the Commissariat of Public Health?” (Shinkerman is a shoemaker by profession). We left in a hurry; the fellow with me did not even dare to apply. At that time the Rubinstein lumberyard and the up-river fisheries were already burning.

We went home. At home I dragged out to the kitchen garden the furniture, mirrors, and other property, took some dried bread, bandages, and a few medical supplies, locked up the house, and went over to Filippov's house next door. We decided to escape together. My sister-in-law had obtained a pass and left for Kasyanovka on 30 May. Around five o'clock in the evening, Filippov and I went to the Korean truck gardens beyond the Kuenga River. There, we met a Korean who agreed to hide us in a cellar. Leaving my knapsack with the Korean I decided to go back home to fetch a pillow. Near the bridge across the Kuenga I noticed two partisans coming toward me. I stopped and, nonchalantly looking around, stood there whistling. I was dressed in rags with a tartar skull cap on my head and was unshaven. They rode up to me. "Why are you standing here, comrade?" I was quick to answer "Nechaev sent all of us employees to find horses to load up, and I was waiting to see if a horse might come out of the forest." "There's a horse," they said, pointing to a horse standing nearby, "Didn't you see it?" I said that I had not noticed it and probably it had just come out of the forest, and I went toward the horse. They stood around for awhile watching me, then galloped off toward the town. Then, I also went in the direction of my house. But I did not get a chance to reach it. When I was about a block away, I heard shots coming from our property which made me turn back. Returning to the truck gardens, I hid in the cellar. I just had time to get inside, when three partisans arrived on horseback asking the Korean if he had seen any Russians. The Korean answered that there were no Russians around. They went inside the house to have a look but did not bother with the cellar. Filippov came running an hour later. We spent the night in the cellar. At midnight I made a sortie into town, picked up three cans of kerosene standing by the houses, including mine, and puncturing the cans, poured out the kerosene in the hope of saving the houses from fire. The center of town was already burning and one could hear explosions.

At six o'clock in the morning of 1 June, two Chinese came from the Korean settlement to fetch potatoes, and at the same time some partisans arrived and ordered the Chinese to see if there were any Russians hiding in the cellar. We had time to hide behind the door. The Chinese climbed down into the cellar, looked around, yelled out that there was no one there, took the potatoes, and left.(Cellars were actually a space under the floor of the house, and one could get down only by lifting hinged boards in the kitchen floor ―TRANS) The partisans also left. Then, Filippov said that he was not going to stay there any longer and left the cellar. I came out some ten minutes later, but he was no longer there. Thinking that he went into the woods, I also went there. I never saw Filippov again and am certain that he was killed.

Having covered about ten versts, I stayed all day in the woods, but toward evening I again went toward the town. Why I did this is hard to explain, except that it was eerie in the forest. As I was approaching the forest, I saw two partisans in the truck garden. I threw aside the knapsack, changed the skull cap I was wearing to a Chinese hat which I had with me, and started out in the opposite direction toward the Chinese settlement. In the settlement I again came across some partisans but had time to join a group of Chinese standing in the street, and the partisans went by without noticing me. From the settlement I went to the riverbank in the hope of getting away somehow. On the shore I saw my brother-in-law, Zaitello, who was sitting there with his belongings and his cows, not knowing what to do. Seeing me with the red bow I had pinned on, he tore it off, shouting: "Why did you stick this trash on?" He told me to get away from the beach and advised me to go to the electric power plant where, according to him, there were some acquaintances of ours. I took his advice and left, the more so because I was afraid that his shouting would attract the attention of the partisans. At the electric plant I did meet people I knew who suggested that I go to Filippov's house where a string of carts was being formed which they thought I might be able to join. I went there and encountered several fellow employees from the commissariat. They made arrangements for me to join them and I spent the night there. At that time the cathedral was already burning and the outskirts of town were beginning to burn.

At dawn orders were given to load up the horses and to proceed to the Realschule. From Second Street I could see that the entire section of town between the Treasury and the Realschule had been destroyed by fire. Only our house remained intact. We spent the entire day on the square next to the Realschule. Around noon the electric power plant was blown up. All the partisans were drunk from drinking varnish without purifying it, just shaking pepper into it. They emerged on horseback from streets engulfed in smoke, completely drunk, wearing ladies' hats with feathers and with live geese tied to their saddles. During the night of 2 June, a very high wind arose. The entire town was in flames. On the square we were choking from smoke. Bombs and shells kept exploding in the burning houses, apparently the inhabitants did manage to conceal a good amount of arms, bombs, and shells.

On the morning of 3 June, Triapitsyn issued orders to leave town immediately in the direction of Lichi. I went along with the rest. At Kamora we heard the explosion which blew up the Realschule. Ashes and burning paper blew up to where we were. At the same time we heard shooting; the drunken partisans were killing horses. Beyond the Lichi River we were overtaken by Triapitsyn, Nina, Zhelezin and others, about 30 people altogether, all on horseback. Nina was dressed in leather pants, a leather jacket, and a leather cap. Around noon we stopped to have a rest. Here, I heard the partisans talking about people who managed to escape and whom they did not get a chance to do away with. They named the Rzhepitskii family and then Tolstikov's brother, that is, me. It was necessary to escape, but it was not possible to do it right away, because I was surrounded. I had to go on. About nine o'clock that evening a group of us were sent ahead up a hill to clear the way for the artillery. Otsevilli, who was heading our detachment, was blind drunk and could hardly talk.

Around two o'clock in the morning, orders were given to shoot all the neighing horses and to pack immediately, and we then went toward the taiga. The guns, as I understood, were abandoned after the locks had been removed. Around eight o'clock in the morning, I tried to persuade some people to escape with me, but no one dared to take a chance, saying that we would get killed anyway, because partisans were all around. Then, I decided to leave alone. I had abandoned my horse earlier. I began to fall behind gradually and joined the men who were driving the cattle at the tail-end. One of the partisans, Vladimir Chizh, seeing that I was empty-handed, gave me a rifle to carry. I felt myself less helpless. Gradually, I fell behind a good distance and saw a man with a red bow and a rifle who was sitting down. I joined him. We started talking. It turned out that he was a postal clerk sent from Khabarovsk, where he had left his family. After getting to know each other, we turned in the opposite direction. For two days we wandered around the taiga and finally found the road which emerged at the Giliak village Vaida. From there we went on to Mago, which was already occupied by the Japanese.

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 13 August 1920
Sergei Dementievich Strod

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 204~214

TESTIMONY OF
YAKOV GDALIEVICH DOBISOV

I am the son of a merchant, 39 years old, and an employee of Lury Brothers Trading Company. Upon entering the town, the partisans immediately declared themselves to be complete masters. First of all they occupied all the official buildings and banks. On the second day they declared that all the employees were considered to be mobilized and should remain on their jobs. But, in fact, this could not be accomplished, because all the offices and institutions had been occupied by the partisans and it was not possible to carry on work. At any rate, when I and the other employees entered our office, it was impossible to get near the desks, let alone do any work. The office had been occupied by a detachment of Chinese partisans under the command of a certain "Gromoboy."

Arrests started on the. very first day. People were arrested without any apparent reason following denunciations by the newly arrived partisans, as well as some of the residents. People were arrested without any warrants or written orders. If someone wanted to arrest you, you were taken in; if someone else wanted to free you, you were let go. The arrests included not only the bourgeoisie, the intelligentsia, and high-ranking officials, but everyone without distinction. Low-ranking post office and telegraph employees,[215쪽]as well as customs workers, clerks, and workmen, were arrested. The entire commandant's detachment was arrested along with the military telegraph and telephone operators. We were not aware of the executions until 10 [Marchl, but on that date I learned from a partisan that on the night of 9 March, 33 officers had been shot. I witnessed myself how the corpses of officers were being mutilated. The officers were Slezkin and von der Launits, who shot themselves when the partisans entered, and Andreev, shot by the partisans in the back. Swearing and blaspheming, the partisans kicked, cut with swords, and stuck bayonets into the dead bodies. One of the commanders, Leodorsky, was particularly vicious and later, during the Japanese attack, killed the notary Kozlov and old Mrs. Veinerman.

On the night of 11 March, the Japanese made a sortie. On 10 March there were already rumors in town that Triapitsyn had made an offer to the Japanese command to accept a surrender of their arms, in view of the fact that the Japanese government had declared its complete neutrality and because up to that time not one Japanese subject had been injured and they were guaranteed that no one would suffer in the future. When the partisans had entered the town, they were extremely angry at the Japanese, so that later, even though the Japanese were very courteous in their behavior with the Reds and even seemed to be trying to gain their favor, it was nevertheless obvious that the Reds were full of animosity toward them. According to rumors, the Japanese replied to the offer to surrender their arms that they must convene an army council to discuss the offer. On the night of 11 March, Naumov, who was then chief of staff, called Ishikawa and told him very sharply that the time agreed upon had expired and that if the arms were not surrendered by eleven o'clock on the following day, 12 March, he would take necessary measures. I heard this story in the partisan headquarters.

The Japanese sortie started at three o'clock in the morning. We were awakened by the sound of shots and the explosion of hand grenades; we could see a red glow. I assumed at once that the Japanese had attacked. At dawn some partisans stopped by our house to inquire if we had any Japanese ― military or civilian ― on the premises. They searched everywhere: in the cellar, in the attic, etc. The[216쪽]partisans came by several times. They made us feed the ones who had lost contact with their kitchens. I heard later that many Russians were killed by the partisans on the pretext that they had offered asylum to the Japanese and that shots had come from their homes. They entered the homes of peaceful Japanese civilians, demanded valuables, and then killed them. The Japanese civilian population not only did not take part in the attack, but did not even know about it. Had the military command warned the Japanese colony about what was to happen and armed them, none of what happened later would have occurred. In that case the partisans could not possibly have held out, because all the prisoners in the prisons, the militsia, and the guardhouse, amounting to over 800 people, would have been released. But as it happened, the entire Japanese colony was killed, including women and children. All the prisoners were killed, some at midnight on 11 March before the Japanese attack started. I myself saw many of the prisoners being taken somewhere and then heard shots, blows, and screams. Others were executed on the night of 13 March. At that time I was at the hospital where the partisans were bringing their wounded and through the window saw two groups being led from the prison-one group of about 30 to 35 women, and the other of about 60 men. They were all stripped to their underwear. The first group was taken by at about 12:30 A.M. and the second at about three o'clock in the morning. A few hours later fifteen carts filled with corpses were taken by in the same direction. At the hospital one of the wounded partisans, Laptev, a peasant from Brovtsynka village, showed me a silver cigarette case and gold-rim eyeglasses and told me that he had taken these things from the body of Major Ishikawa.

The treatment of prisoners was extremely cruel. As soon as the arrested people were brought to prison, they were stripped to their underwear, and the partisans divided their belongings among themselves. The prisoners were cruelly tortured: the engineer Komarovsky and his mother, a woman of 50 to 55 years old, endured terrible beatings; Lieutenant Tokarev was tortured to such an extent that he was reduced to a bloody mass and, losing his mind, ate straw; the local merchant Eremkin, Grosh, and a woman by the name of Maria Nikolaevna (I do not know her last name), who had presumably worked in counterintelligence, were given equally cruel treatment. Komarovsky was beaten by the prison head,[217쪽]Dzhomaitis. People were terribly mutilated ― some, like Polosukhin, to such an extent that they became unrecognizable. I learned all this from the partisans and also from prisoners who later managed to get free. The beatings were done with ramrods, whips, rubber [strips], and fists. My renter, an army telegraph operator who himself was pro-Bolshevik and had greeted the arrival of the partisans with joy, was beaten to death with wooden sticks in the prison yard. He was arrested on the third day after their arrival while he was away from home; afterward they came to search his rooms. All his belongings were divided among the partisans; his clothing was used right away, valuables were pocketed. Like all military telegraph operators, he had in his room a piece of rubber about a 3 1/2 feet long, 1 3/4 inch wide, and 7/8 inch thick. They took it. "What do You need this for?" I asked. "It will come in handy on someone," answered the partisan.

I left Nikolaevsk on 23 May, because I had been warned that my name was on a list of people to be arrested. For two days I hid myself in a Chinese laundry. Then, a Chinese friend helped me to get into Chinese clothing, took me to a boat, and transported me to Mago where my family had already been taken. The Chinese military authorities did nothing to save the town or rescue its inhabitants. That the town was to be burned down I already knew, because the partisans told me that Triapitsyn, in his speech when the first echelon was being sent to Tyr, had declared: "Do not worry about the rear. After me, there will be nothing left but ashes, and I will get even with the local White skunks, the White Guards, and the counterrevolutionaries."

Women were raped. I know for a fact that Ryzhev, the commander of the Korean company, raped the daughter of the fisheries owner Raitsyn and on the following day she was forced to sing at a concert. (Later this girl and her entire family, including small children, were thrown into the Amur from a barge to drown.) They also raped the teacher living at the leper colony. Many girls were coerced into living with the partisans through threats. For instance, when the notary Kozlov had been murdered and his wife tried to poison herself, one of the partisan commissars, Streltsov, who had been courting Kozlov's daughter, a girl of 16 or 17, told her that he would help to save her mother if she would agree to live with[218쪽]him, and she was forced to pay this price to save her mother. (Kozlov was killed in the following manner: Leodorsky picked him up at his home, led him a few houses away into Raitsyn's barn, and shot him there.)

The information supplied by Triapitsyn does not correspond with actual facts. His claim that their envoy Orlov was tortured to death and that this had been established by the international commission is a pure lie. On the contrary, the commission consisting of Russian and Japanese doctors examined Orlov's corpse and testified that, except for several gunshot wounds, there were no other injuries. I recall that Dr. Bobrov was one of the Russian physicians on the commission. Triapitsyn was very displeased with the doctors for this conclusion and did not publicize the report of the examination.

One more thing: During the Japanese attack, many Russians were killed by the partisans on the pretext that they were concealing Japanese in their homes or that shots had been heard coming from their homes. I heard about this and know it for a fact myself. Among the victims were old man Eltsov, a clerk in Vzaimopomoshch [Mutual Assistance Companyl]; his son, a young 17-year-old; Raznochintsev, the forester; a couple of workmen whose names I do not know; the notary Kozlov; and many others.

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 22 July 1920
Yakov Gdalievich Dobisov

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 214~218

TESTIMONY OF
ABRAM MONASHIROVICH AVSHALUMOV

I spent three and a half years in the Russo-German war. Two of my brothers were killed [by the partisans]: Pavel and Solomon. Pavel was killed at Nalevo and Solomon in De Kastri. I was arrested on 23 May. Four armed partisans arrived at midnight asking who was the owner of the house. "Does a kike live here?" I said, yes. "We have to make a search." Asked me to show them the room. Began the search. First of all they went through the pockets of my jacket. There, they found a silver cigarette case with the monogram "A. A."[219쪽]and an inscription, "Na pamiat',"('A standard inscription on gifts meaning "to remember me by" – TRANS.) papers, receipts, and my passport. They opened the chest of drawers and began to rummage through it. Our belongings were tied up, because I was planning to send the family to Mago. When they went through the baskets,(Used as suitcases in traveling ―TRANS.) they did not take any of our clothes but did take six sables, two otters, three good garden-spiders[?], and 63 thousand in Siberian money. In addition, one of the men put on my new overcoat. After taking all this, one of them asked their superior, "Shall we give him a receipt?" "No, he will come with us," was the answer. I asked: "Where are you taking me and why?" "We are taking you to be interrogated." My wife began to cry, begging them not to take me. "What are you crying about? We are not taking him to be killed, are we?"

They led me along the street. On the way I met others being escorted by partisans. I was brought to the Committee of Inquiry located in the Russian-Asiatic Bank building and taken to the director's office, where they started the interrogation. Eleven people were sitting there; Zhelezin was conducting the interrogation.

Question: "Do you have any brothers?" Answer: "I have one brother, but he left for Sakhalin." Question: "Don't you have any information about him?" Answer: "There were rumors that he was killed." Zhelezin began to describe how my older brother was killed and said that he was killed with the thirteenth bullet.

Question: "Did he carry a lot of money?" and Zhelezin explained that he had 385 thousand on him. Question: "What do you think about your brother's execution?" I could not say anything, but my eyes filled with tears. After that, Zhelezin asked me: "You don't want to die, do you?" "Death is not frightening if it is for the right cause. If I am guilty, I am at your disposal, but if I am innocent, then I do not want to die." Further questions were: "What is your occupation? Do you own your house?" and after my answers, Zhelezin concluded: "An[220쪽]exploiter; made money from our labor." I did not answer. They began to talk among themselves. "If a Russian is arrested, he goes with pleasure; if he's a kike, he breaks into tears." "Why bother interrogating him; let him join his brother," Zhelezin said. Then, he asked me: "Who among our people knows you?" I answered that Comrade Morozov knows me. They telephoned to the prison, but were told that Comrade Morozov was "on shore duty" (meaning attending to executions). Zhelezin gave orders to take me out. I was taken to the waiting room. I was guarded by two men armed with Brownings.

More interrogating followed. Question "Where do the rest of the kikes live?" Answer: "There are no more kikes; they have all been arrested." Question: "If the men were arrested, where are the women and children?" Answer: "I do not know." Question: "Who lives near you? Which houses belong to kikes?" They wrote down the answers. No one was in the houses. "Let's go," they said and took me to prison. On the way one of the men kept asking me if I had a watch and where it was. They took me into the office. I noticed that Morozov peeked in through the concealed window and disappeared. I was handed over to the prison warden Sopliakov. The turnkey took me to the cell. We crossed the yard. I stumbled over the body of a dead woman. There were two women and one man lying on the ground. I was taken to cell No. 3, which was overflowing. Many acquaintances were there.

It was difficult during the first night. But the second night was terrible. We were told that many were killed from all the cells. Usually, the stabbing and beating would go on from nine o'clock in the evening until two in the morning.

Around ten o'clock the lock was rattled. We all jumped up from our bunks and everyone went crazy. The door opened and four armed partisans entered, while several men remained in the corridor. All the partisans were drunk. They had a list from which they started reading.

"Pochinsky, come out." He went out of the cell into the corridor. He was ordered: "Undress." He got undressed and was left only in his underwear. "Come on, let me have the rope. What are you dawdling for?" A piece of rope was[221쪽]produced and his hands were tied. The cell door was open all that time. He was pushed through a door. Terrible screams were heard, shouting, and moaning. Someone said that he was bayoneted.

When we heard the moaning, we were all half dead. Some of the prisoners lay on the floor in a faint.

Twelve more people were taken out after Pochinsky. They were tied up and taken away, but what was done to them after that I do not know. Of those taken I remember the three Kurbatov brothers, Karpenko, Khaimovich, and, I believe, Verkhovod was among them. About two minutes after these men were taken, the cell door was closed. There were eleven of us left. Among us was Marimant, who kept knocking on the door and begging for mercy. We tried to persuade him to stop knocking and suggested that perhaps he is not even on the list. He would not listen to us. At one point the door was opened, and partisans came in and said: "And you, kike, are still in a funk," and took him away. I do not know what fate befell him. That happened about two o'clock. After that, the assistant warden came and said: "Well, now you can go to bed in peace." But we were all terrified, awaiting death at any moment. No one could say a word.

We survived until morning. In the daytime we felt a little better. The atrocities did not take place during the day. Around noon we heard some sort of commotion in the corridor and female voices. Some of us wanted to know who was brought in. I knocked on the door and asked the turnkey's permission to go to the toilet. The door was unlocked; several people went out. We asked: "Are these prisoners?" The wife of the officer, Andreev, had been arrested and had poisoned herself. Women were looking after her. She was lying in a cell. I noticed the Varzhin family (mother, daughter, and daughter-in-law), the little old lady Lamakina, and many others. In sign language I asked if my wife was there. They answered me, also in sign language, that she was not there. The turnkey locked us up in the cell.

About ten or twelve minutes later we heard someone wheezing in the cell. The teacher Grigoriev was lying down and we thought he was resting. We rushed over. Yellow foam[222쪽]was coming out of his mouth and he had convulsions. Some of the inmates thought we should try to bring him to, but others said that it was better to let him die this way than to be tortured to death. In about five minutes he was dead. We knocked on the door and the turnkey unlocked it. We told him that one of the people had taken poison and that he should send for a doctor. The turnkey came in, looked at the man, and said: "Where can one find a doctor at this time? There aren't any to be found." He went out and locked us up. Two minutes late the turnkey came in again. "Look at him! He croaked, did not want to die his natural death." He was taken out; we did not know where to. After this, we began to feel even worse. All ten of us discussed how to do away with ourselves. Grigoriev's coat was left behind. We searched through the pockets for poison, but there was none. An hour later, two of the men were taken out to fetch the dinner. As they were taken out, the assistant warden was saying: "Take the shoes off that one, and the coat off that other one (that was me). They are going to be knocked off today anyhow." The man who was ordered to remove his shoes, a telegraph office employee, took them off and handed them over. I said that I would not give up my overcoat, because I used it for a bed. "After I am killed, you can take it." For about two hours, during the dinner, the door to our cell remained open. The warden and his assistant kept coming in. Finally, the prison warden took a piece of paper and began writing down our names. He turned to me and asked who had arrested me. I answered that I did not know their names, but that I could identify them on sight. He left. On 25 May at one o'clock in the afternoon, the prison warden came in and, turning to me and Porev, said: "You may leave. You are free."

When I was brought to the office, I noticed that Morozov, Nisin, and Makarov were standing on the steps. They said to me: "Go to the Committee of Inquiry where you will be given a certificate indicating that you have been released from prison." I fainted and do not remember how I was taken out of the prison. I regained consciousness on the other side of the fence. Morozov said to me very quietly: "Escape as soon as possible." I do not recall how I managed to get home. I only remember that when I saw that the windows of the house were shut I fainted. I thought that everyone at home had been killed. I do not know how long I lay there in a faint. I came to when two people approached me and called me by my name.[223쪽은 사진 두장][224쪽]children could stay behind. "If you don't come back, we will take three of the children, but will leave the little one. Before they are five years old, they can forget, but the older ones may want to revenge themselves." She went with them, and so did Mrs. Kirillova and her daughter. After leaving Tarakanovka, they walked for about a verst and a half, then they were placed in a rowboat and taken to Kukla,[A fishery ―TRANS] where they spent the night waiting for a cutter from town. The partisans taunted the women and kept swearing all through the night. The cutter was delayed for some reason and did not arrive until four o'clock in the morning. One of the partisans announced: "It's your luck that the cutter did not arrive in the night. You would have been done away with, but in the day time we cannot – we can only do it at night." My wife was half dead. She was taken to the Committee of Inquiry and asked what her husband's name was and what was his occupation. One of the partisans picked on her, because her coat was different from his wife's coat. They kept saying what did she need her husband for, that she could find another one, and so forth. After sending my wife off to Mago, I succeeded in getting a pass from Morozov. With great difficulty I managed to move my children to Mago. I returned on the day after the arrival of the Japanese.

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 18 July 1920
Abram Avshalumov

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 218~224

TESTIMONY OF
ANATOLY PAVLOVICH AVSHALUMOV, AGE 17

I am the son of a fisheries owner; I was in the next-to-last year of high school. During the Nikolaevak events, I lost my father. On 23 January my father left for My(A village on the coast below the estuary of the Amur ― TRANS.) in order to deliver a letter to A. M. Lury. Communication with Mariinskoye had been interrupted, and we had no news of the detachment that had been sent there, in which A. M. Lury was serving. My father wanted to travel up the Amur, but Major Ishikawa would not give him permission. Therefore, my father decided to go[225쪽]via My and from there, with the help of the Tungus, to Lake Kizi and then proceed to Mariinskoye. At that time it was not yet known that partisan detachments were already operating in the lower reaches of the Amur. At Nalevo he was captured by Sluchainyi. In searching him they discovered that he was carrying 385 thousand in cash and some goods. They kept him under arrest until 1 February and on that day they executed him. Slavin, an employee of Lury who was with my father, was killed at the same time and place. We learned all this later from a certain Kozhevnikov, who was traveling behind them. He was also seized, but because nothing was found on him, he managed to escape death. Besides my father I also lost an uncle and a cousin. My uncle, Solomon Avshalumov, was shot in De Kastri and my cousin, Isai Avshalumov, was mobilized by the Reds and sent to the front and later executed near Mariinskoye.

Arrests began on the very first day that the partisans entered the town. One of the first to be arrested was my uncle, the private attorney I. S. Kaptzan. By 12 March all places of detention were overflowing. The funeral of the victims of the revolution was to take place on 12 March. The night before, on 11 March, according to what the Japanese reported, Triapitsyn proposed that the Japanese command surrender their arms to the Reds, to which Ishikawa replied that he would think about it. At two o'clock in the morning of 12 March, we were awakened by shots and saw flames. The Kaptzan house, directly across the street from us, where the Red artillery was stationed, and the Nobel house, in the opposite direction, where the Red headquarters was located, were both on fire.

Apparently, the Japanese colony did not know about the attack, or at any rate not everyone was informed. A Japanese dentist, Suyama, was living in my uncle Avshalumov's house next door to us. Partisans burst into our house and asked if any Japanese lived with us. We replied that there weren't any. They went next door to my uncle's house and opened fire. Answering shots came from the house. Then, the partisans ordered the owners of the house ― my uncle's family ― to go over to our house and began throwing bombs. Getting no results after three bombs, they laid hay all around the house, poured kerosene over it, and set the house on fire. I watched all this through the window. When the house was set on fire,[226쪽]it turned out that, besides the dentist and his wife, there were also three wounded Japanese military men who had run into the house. This happened during the day on 12 March. The three Japanese jumped out through the flames and were killed. The dentist was beheaded, apparently by the explosion of one of the bombs, and his wife burned to death. At the gate of A. M. Lury's house, I saw the corpse of their Japanese nurse. The Chinese partisans jeered at the corpses of the Japanese, broke their skulls with gun butts, and so forth.

Budrin's mining detachment arrived on 15 or 16 March. We were not at home when they arrived, but when we returned home we saw a sign indicating that the house had been occupied by Budrin. My mother and I went to the Executive Committee. There, we found the detachment commander Budrin, who announced that he had occupied our house and that if he found a single rifle or even one bullet, we would be executed on the spot. Then, at my request Budrin sent some partisans with me to search the house. On the following day the detachment moved into our house. Budrin came with the rest of the men. Upon arriving he went into the kitchen and said that if he found the food or water poisoned, our entire family would be killed. At my mother's request, one room was left for our use; mother locked the room up, and we left. When we returned home, we found the room unlocked, the chest of drawers emptied of everything, and some peasant women making themselves at home in the room. It turned out that the room had been given to the partisans' cooks. At that point we left the house for good, abandoning all our belongings, and went to my uncle's.

During the Japanese attack all the prisoners in all places of detention were killed, 1,200 to 1,250 people altogether. On 1 April the funeral of the victims of the revolution and of those killed during the Japanese attack took place. Triapitsyn was wounded during the attack and attended the funeral, riding in a sleigh with a pink silk quilt over his legs. On one side next to him sat Nina and on the other, Gubanov. Many speeches were given; one by Otsevilli among others. The tenor of the speeches was a call for vengeance and the threat of annihilation. I attended the funeral with my class, because it was obligatory. The Congress of Peasants, Workers, and Red Army Deputies opened after the funeral. The[227쪽]Ispolkom was elected, and life seemed to become calmer. Arrests continued but were less frequent.

Mizin, the chief of the militsia who had opposed the executions and Triapitsyn's actions in general, was arrested during that period. Mizin's arrest caused commotion among some of the partisans. A meeting was called in the garrison hall. It was attended by Nina and heads of detachments, but Triapitsyn was not there. To the question why Mizin was arrested, Nina answered that it was because of a telegram from Khabarovsk. When people at the meeting demanded to see the telegram, Nina answered that she did not have it and they should address Comrade Triapitsyn on that subject. A delegation was sent to him. I do not know what answer Triapitsyn gave to that delegation. Mizin was released. A few days later Budrin and his son were arrested. After this arrest, there was a meeting at the Realschule, which was attended by Triapitsyn himself. In his speech he began to blame Mizin, posing a question: "Why did Mizin not go to the front with Comrade Gorelov? I searched for him for 24 hours and could not find him. I telephoned all over the place, sent messages to him, but he was nowhere to be found. Yet in Mariinskoye when I told him to get started, he was ready in half an hour." Mizin justified his refusal to go to the front by the fact that Lapta was there. "Lapta killed my father, why should I go? He would kill me, too." Before that, as far as one could tell by the conversation among the partisans, very many sided with Mizin and supported him, but when Triapitsyn posed the question: "What about Mizin? Who will speak up for him?" not one voice was heard, not one hand was raised. Mizin was arrested on the spot at Triapitsyn's orders. Also arrested were the people siding with him, as pointed out by Triapitsyn. Lubatovich was among them. Eventually, they were all executed. At the same meeting Triapitsyn announced that Budrin was arrested, because he had organized a conspiracy against the commander of the army. He proclaimed: "Conspiracies are organized and partisans are encouraged to revolt at a time when freedom is in danger and complete unity is needed." It was decided to express confidence in the Military Commissar (i.e., Triapitsyn) and to leave the decision concerning Budrin's fate to the Committee of Inquiry and the [Revolutionary] Tribunal.

[228쪽]


At the same meeting it was decided to print lists of those arrested in the newspaper Prizyv, indicating the reason for the arrest and sentence. But this was carried out only for a short time. Arrests increased starting around 20 May, Among them were Barmin, Kropachev, and several other fifth-year students at the Realschule, as well as the sixth-year student Bruner (he was arrested on 19 May). After learning about these arrests, I decided to escape, because I worked with Barmin in the Student Union. Furthermore, we had been warned by a Chinese friend that we should leave town as soon as possible. This Chinese led my mother and myself, together with the family of the late I. S. Kaptzan and several others ― 28 people altogether ― to a Chinese house on Fourth Street. We stayed there a week but had to change our hiding place three times. At first we stayed in the main house. Then, the Chinese took us to a small, abandoned house in the same yard. But we had to leave that location, too. Partisans appeared and demanded that he open up the small house where we were hiding. The Chinese told them that he did not have the key, that the house was occupied by a captain who had left for Mago, and that he did not dare break in without the owner's permission. When the partisans left, the Chinese broke a window pane, helped us to crawl out, and took us to a third location ― the attic of an abandoned shack behind the same house. We had barely got in when the partisans returned and began to search the house which we had just left. Not finding anything, they questioned the Chinese and left. When we started to move into the shack, the younger Kaptzan child began to cry. The frightened Chinese, who already saw the partisans approaching, shouted: "If he no die, all 28 people die." Hearing this, Mrs. Kaptzan threw some sort of a string around the child's neck and began to choke him. By the time we reached the attic, the child had stopped breathing and there was no pulse and the women had a hard time reviving him.

We suffered terribly during our hideout. At times there was not enough water, because the Chinese brought only a can of water once a day and not every day at that. The partisans were all over the place, searching every nook and cranny. I started asking the women to let me go, but they would not allow me to leave, fearing that if I were caught, they would also be exposed. On Saturday night we heard a humming noise, which turned out to be, as we suspected, the noise of an[229쪽]airplane. On Sunday morning, I do not recall the exact date, I saw black smoke over the town, which began to penetrate the attic. Going down into the yard and looking around, I discovered that all the houses around us were on fire. I rushed upstairs and yelled that everyone should get out, because we would perish anyhow.

The women hesitated, but when sparks began to fly into the attic, they came out. I went ahead with two children in my arms; the others followed. Peeking out of the gate, I noticed a partisan standing nearby with a can of kerosene in his hands. Luckily, I had time to step back quickly, and he did not see me. We went in the opposite direction through another gate. On the way we met partisans on horseback. We asked them: "Is it possible to get through to Telegraph Pier?" They answered that it was possible. We reached Telegraph Pier. Here, we divided up. My mother and I found a rowboat and left for Mago.

The entire family of Wolf Raitsyn perished: mother, two daughters, 19 and 15 years of age, one son aged 25, and another one 11 years old, and a granddaughter, 9 years old. In the Yakov Raitsyn family, son David was killed. Their murderers were captured in my presence when I was on my way from Nikolaevsk to Khabarovsk. When the ship stopped at Sofiisk, some peasants came aboard saying that they had captured a partisan by the name of Ostrovsky. He was brought to the ship, and when he was interrogated in my presence by the Japanese officer Hagesuka, he confessed that he had killed David Raitsyn and Yakov Drebentsky. He had on him Raitsyn's watch, which I recognized and which he admitted taking from Raitsyn.

By accident I happened to learn how the news published in Prizyv was put together. The Red headquarters staff provided it, partly using old newspapers and partly simply inventing whatever suited them at the time.

After the official funeral, the following inscription(The original is in rhymed verse ― TRANS.) in black letters on red cloth was placed on the gate to the public park: "Sleep, glorious fighters, above the sound of the river;[230쪽] new fighters are coming to replace you to sweep away the enemies."

Before the funeral, I do not recall the exact date, my mother and I went to the Ispolkom, which was located in the home of A. M. Lury. Commissars Zhelezin and Sluchainyi, who were presiding in the former Lury bedroom, began to interrogate my mother. They asked her how much money her husband had. Mother said that she did not know. Then, Zhelezin said: "How come you, the wife, do not know how much money your husband had?" Then, he asked, "Where was your husband going?" She said that he was on his way to buy furs, but he interrupted her, saying: "What's the use of talking as if you don't know that he was on the way to save Lury." And Sluchainyi added: "Why does Comrade Zhelezin bother to interrogate her about that scum? He's been executed and that's that."

Among the first to be arrested was my best friend, the sixth-year student Petr Tokarev. One day at school, I was walking in the corridor during a free period and approached a bench near the doors to the headquarters where some partisans, former peasants, were sitting, who apparently knew me. One of them turned to me and said: "We sent your father to enclose the fish traps,"(An expression used by the partisans meaning to kill someone and throw the body into the river ― TRANS.)
but another partisan corrected him mockingly, saying, "No, we sent him to clean the seines," while the third man looked at me and said, "Drop it, fellows. Why talk about a dead man? He was executed and that's all." A. M. Lury's furniture, a table, couch, and armchair, stood in the headquarters and were used by Nina Lebedeva.

Student in the sixth year of the Nikolaevsk Realschule,
Anatoly Pavlovich Avshalumov

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 224~230쪽

TESTIMONY OF
ANNA NIKOLAEVNA BOZHKO

My husband, Taras Vasilievich Bozhko, was employed as bookkeeper at the City Bank. In addition, he held power of attorney[231쪽]for Lavrov and Veinerman and also owned a fishery. On 6 March partisans came to our home, arrested my husband, and took him to the Committee of Inquiry and then started searching the house, looking for gold, but took away our personal belongings and almost our entire stock of food supplies, butter, sugar, ete., leaving only a very small amount, Inquiry my husband was taken to prison. I was not allowed to which lasted less than two weeks. From the Committee of visit him and was told: "There is no one to visit here. Only White skunks are held here, all of whom have to be destroyed." The prison was constantly surrounded by the rabble which greeted all the prisoners brought with shouts: "Beat them! Kill them!" The food which we brought for the prisoners was taken from us but not delivered to them. Frequently, we were taunted. If we came in the morning, we were told to return at noon; if we came at noon, we were told to return in the evening. No one was allowed to go outside, so that, in order to catch a breath of fresh air, the prisoners argued as to who would take out the bucket of night soil. The prisoners were kept in only their underwear and hardly got any food. On the night of 13 March, my husband was led barefoot and in his underwear to the Amur where he was killed. On 16 March, during the Japanese attack, or, to be exact, when it had almost ended and the Japanese were holding out only in their barracks, some partisans burst in shouting that shots had been fired from our house. They made us light some candles and take them through the entire house, holding revolvers to our heads.

The executions in the prison were done at Triapitsyn's orders. I heard from a company commander that "an order has been issued to execute all the prisoners." Before entering the town, Nina Lebedeva had promised the Chinese that they could have the wives of the officers. It was rumored and the partisans themselves confirmed that there was a plan to issue permits to the Chinese to take possession of all the women whose husbands had been killed. However, this plan was not carried out, because the Chinese consul protested. I heard that a lottery was organized at which lots were drawn for the women.

On 6 May a friend came to see my sister and warned her that some neighbors had gone to inform against me; I left home and went to my sister's. On 7 May, while I was there, a[232쪽]partisan who was living in our house came to get some cigarettes ― my sister had a cigarette-making shop ― and seeing me, he asked if I would be going with them to Kerbi. I answered: "I will, I will." My sister told him that there were rumors afloat that I was to be arrested and asked him to protect me. Then, he gave me a note stating that such-and-such a family was not to be touched and, if additional information was needed, to contact Kopchenyi. Later, a Chinese merchant whom we knew came over and warned us that we should leave. My sister was married to a Korean, and she knew that the Korean colony had decided to leave, pretending to go in the direction of Kerbi, but intending to turn off to a different destination. A Korean friend took me to a boat, passing me off for his wife. When we were already in the boat, Kopchenyi arrived, asking: "Is Anna Nikolaevna here?" He was told that I was there. Then, he said that he brought a permit for me to go to Kerbi and that I could leave.

During the search, they took 20,000 in old money, all of my husband's clothing, and, as I mentioned above, all of our food supply.

Triapitsyn came to Nikolaevsk with the slogan: “Kill all the officers, the bourgeoisie, and the Jews.”

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 17 July 1920
Anna Nikolaevna Bozhko

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 230~231쪽

TESTIMONY OF

EVGENY IVANOVICH VASILEVSKY,

Former Tax Assessor in the Nikolaevsk District

On 14 or 15 February 1920 the insurgents occupied Chnyrrakh and from there they started firing at the town, having moved the guns from Chnyrrakh to the leper colony. More than 150 shells were fired. They did not cause much material damage and very few lives were lost, but the firing created panic among the people. The partisans sent truce envoys to the Japanese in the town, demanding surrender of the town and disarmament of the Russian detachment. At first the Japanese, after questioning the envoys, passed them on to the Russian command where, on orders of Colonel Medvedev, one of[233쪽]them, Orlov, was executed. Later, however, the Japanese sent their own envoys to conduct negotiations. These envoys were accompanied by chairman of the Town Duma, Komarovsky, and the Town Mayor, Karpenko. The partisans showed them telegrams with the news that the Kolchak government had fallen, that the rule of the Soviets was recognized everywhere, and that Nikolaevsk was the only place opposing them. The Japanese were also shown a telegram from Shiromidzu stating that the Japanese were to remain neutral. Returning from there, Komarovsky called a meeting of the Town Duma at the Public Hall open to the general public. After opening the meeting, he suggested that everyone should stand up and after describing his impression of the partisans, he proclaimed: "Long live the Soviet government." This was greeted witlh shouts of "Hurray!" and then, at his suggestion, a delegation was elected and immediately sent to the Japanese command with a request to surrender the town as soon as possible. The conditions drawn up for the surrender were as follows. The Japanese forces were to keep their arms, the Russian detachment was to be disarmed by the Japanese before the entrance of the partisans, all Russian guards were to be replaced temporarily by the Japanese, and the fate of the military was to be determined by the laws of the Soviet government, whereas the civilian population was to remain free of any repressions, although this last item was expressed more in the form of a wish.

The partisans were to arrive at noon on 1 March. As decreed by the Duma, they were to be greeted by the townspeople with a demonstration, which did take place with red flags carrying appropriate inscriptions. The general mood of the people was, if not completely at ease, at any rate not hostile, while among the lower classes, that is the stevedores, coopers, and some of the small house-owners, it was even joyful. But a partisan detachment of about 300 men entered Nikolaevsk ahead of the set date, that is during the night preceding 1 March, and immediately began arresting military and civilians according to a list prepared ahead of time. Among those arrested were private attorney Ilya Semenovich Kaptzan, Province Administrator Bunge, Justice of the Peace Chukashev, engineers Krotkov and Kurushin, and many others ― about 100 people altogether. Upon the arrival of the partisans, the administration of the town was immediately transferred to a[234쪽]temporary Executive Committee, which did not include any of the townspeople and which had been organized ahead of time. The head of the committee was Zhelezin, a teacher from Bogorodskoye village. The secretary was Sluchainyi, a completely unknown person. The Commissar of Provisions was Ded-Ponomarev, who, according to his own words, had been employed in the textile department at Churin and Co. in Blagoveshchensk. The Military Commissar was Triapitsyn, a former worker at some Petrograd factory and a completely illiterate person. The Commissar of Finance was Bich-Buzin, a teacher from one of the villages below Khabarovsk, Troitskoye village I believe. The manager of the town and district economy was Korenev, who in 1918 was Commissar of the Fishing Industry in Khabarovsk.

Zhelezin and Sluchainyi began the rounds of all institutions, where they gathered together the employces, and after delivering a threatening speech, questioned them about higher ranking personnel. This led to slander and accusations. Anyone who, in his own opinion, had been offended in any way or at any time could bring it up, and all those against whom any complaint was expressed were arrested and sent to prison. On 2 or 3 March Zhelezin ordered all institutions to report by 5 or 6 March about the functions of each and to outline the changes that must be introduced to comply with the spirit of Soviet rule.

A provincial Congress [of Soviets], consisting of one representative for every 50 peasants and one for every 50 workers, was called for 10 March. The congress was to open on 12 March after the funeral for Orlov, whose body had been located by the partisans, as well as that for Slepov and Bebenin, the Bolshevik commissars of 1918 who had escaped and engaged in brigandage until they were caught and executed. Arrests were continuing all along. All the military were arrested (all members of the commandant's office and counterintelligence, including the lower ranks, were arrested) and a large number of civilians. There were many prisoners: about 250 people in the prison, 40 at the guardhouse, and 77 in the militsia.

The Japanese attacked the partisan headquarters around two or three in the morning of 12 March. The attack was[235쪽]preceded by persistent rumors, originated by the partisans, concerning a decree to disarm the Japanese forces and by a series of provocative and defiant acts toward the Japanese, such as forcing those who came to the partisan headquarters on business to pin on red bows. The Japanese attacked the headquarters and apparently threw bombs, which set the building on fire. Triapitsyn was wounded and Naumov, the chief of staff, received a mortal wound. The fighting continued until 16 March, when the surviving Japanese surrendered. During that time, the Japanese consul and his family perished, and the consulate burned down. The entire Japanese colony, including women and children, was massacred regardless of whether they did or did not take part in the attack. People were plucked out of bed and killed. A Japanese watch repairman was killed in this manner next to my house. The behavior of the Japanese civilians made me think that they were not informed at all about the pending attack, which came as much of a surprise to them as to the rest of us.

The massacre of the Japanese made a very bad impression on the peasant members of the congress. Even though the partisans proclaimed that the Japanese attack was completely unprovoked, the congress appointed a committee of inquiry to investigate all that had occurred, but this committee did not have a chance to conclude its investigation and ceased its activity with the closing of the congress.

The congress approved all proposals: the nationalization of all enterprises, even the cooperatives (with the exception of Zakupsbyt and Tsentrosoiuz, which were nationalized later), and the formation of commissariats to replace all the former government offices. The congress also elected commissars, including some from Nikolaevsk, although no one from among the large property owners or the intelligentsia. The members elected were primarily Bolshevik activists who were living in Nikolaevsk in 1918. Dyldin, a semi-literate person, was elected as Commissar of Justice. His agent was the barrister Norkevich, who was to be in charge of the Marriage Bureau. A Town Soviet was elected to replace the Town Duma, and former secretary of the Duma Petr Vasilievich Olenin was elected to be the chairman. But this Soviet did very little and certainly was of no significance.

[236쪽]

All the prisoners arrested before 12 March were killed during the Japanese attack, or to be exact, when the attack was already under control on 13 or 14 March. Prisoners kept at the guardhouse were executed there: two of them, Genrikhsenov and Governor Bunge, were taken out by Lapta, head of one of the detachments, and shot by him personally right there in the guardhouse building. In prison people were kept in their underwear and hardly given any food. Undressed and barefoot, they were taken out on 13 or 14 March and led to the Amur, where they were killed with bayonets. Only two prisoners escaped death by chance, because they managed to conceal themselves in the prison. The bodies of the prisoners shot and killed with bayonets were piled onto a sledge and taken to the dump while some of the prisoners were still alive. Two of these survivors, the port motor-mechanic, Prutkov, and Cadet Adamovich, regained consciousness at the dump and made their way back to town. Prutkov managed to stay alive, but Adamovich, who had been picked up and taken to the hospital where his 26 bayonet wounds were treated, was then taken outside and shot on Triapitsyn's orders

After those two days of executions, some calm was restored. The arrests continued, but not on such a large scale. There were also executions, but only following a court sentence, which was made public indicating the charge and the type of sentence. This calm was due to an internal struggle which began just then. The trouble started first among the peasants over 35 years of age, who were being released and demanded to keep their arms. Then, the Chinese and the Koreans began to complain, because they had not received their pay. In addition, some of the commissars became very critical of Triapitsyn and of his mistress, Nina Lebedeva-Kiashko, who was originally in charge of the Korean and Chinese detachment but was now the chief of staff at the headquarters. Dissatisfaction was openly stated in meetings. There were plans to arrest the leaders ― Triapitsyn and others ― and hand them over to the Japanese, thus atoning for their own guilt. At that time Triapitsyn was still confined to his bed with his wounds. But he was carried to the last meeting where he made a speech to the effect that new enemies of the Soviet government had appeared who must be destroyed, and he ordered their arrest on the spot. Although the men who protested had great influence, Triapitsyn had such amazing powers of persuasion that he almost hypnotized his[237쪽]subordinates, and his orders were carried out. Those arrested were: Lubatovich, Budrin and his 17-year-old son, the stevedores Berezovsky, Ivanenko and Artemviev, head of militsia Mizin, several artillerymen, and peasants, including Pavel Lukianovich Dubrovin, a peasant from Charbakh. They were all killed before the evacuation, even though according to the court edict, they were sentenced to various types of punishment, as for instance, to be exiled from the province.

All this was happening around 20 April. An inventory of everybody's property was being conducted at the same time, and everything except bare necessities was being confiscated. This was brought about because of the demands of the partisans, who were clamoring for more and more, in spite of the fact that they had already pillaged huge amounts. This inventory also applied to the partisans. But this measure did not provide any protection for the population. There were occasions when some partisans, particularly the Chinese, encountering a passerby wearing a good suit or shoes, would force the person to remove his shoes or clothing and send him on his way barefoot or undressed. None of this activity was punished. Delegates who came from Khabarovsk attempted to persuade the leaders not to continue their intense activities and to follow the political line established in Vladivostok, but the attempt had no effect.

Toward the end of April, telegrams concerning the advance of the Japanese began to arrive, and measures for defense were taken. The detachments were reinforced and they began to train the Koreans. Incidentally, an agreement was concluded with the latter, according to which, in exchange for their assistance, they would be allowed to form and train an army on Russian territory, and they were promised help in obtaining the independence of Korea later. At the same time the entire population was mobilized. Killing and shooting continued, although on a slightly reduced scale, and sentences were announced before execution.

Navigation on the Amur opened on 10 May. The various commissariats were still functioning and all the employees kept their posts. It was decided at that time finally to organize the commune. Private trade no longer existed anyhow. By 22 April the partisans had purchased with gold all the goods of the[238쪽]Chinese merchants at 1914 prices and also sent buyers along the Amur. They gave gold to the Chinese in exchange for letters of credit. Detachments were sent to Mariinskoye and families of the insurgents were evacuated. All men and women aged 16 to 55 and some younger and older, if they were strong enough, were mobilized into a labor army. The main work was to load rocks onto barges to be used in blocking the channel. The work was strenuous and was done under supervision of guards with whips. The treatment was terrible, the workers being constantly threatened with whips and gun butts. The Commissar of Labor was Otsevilli, a brute who had spent ten years in the Nerchinsk hard-labor prison (which he claimed was for political reasons). He never went anywhere without his whip. They began moving valuables from the State Bank to Amgun, as well as property from the cooperatives: gold, furs, goods, flour, and, later, cattle.

The first to be evacuated were the wives of the partisans and then the families of townspeople. They sent those who wished to be evacuated, but there were rumors in town that all who stayed behind would be killed and therefore everyone tried to get away. Under pressure from the Revolutionary Headquarters (consisting of Triapitsyn, Kiashko, Aussem, Zhelezin, and Peregubov), which had replaced the Soviet when navigation was opened, the Union of Unions passed a resolution concerning the evacuation. In order to leave one had to obtain three permits: one from the commandant, one from the Committee of Inquiry, and one from the person in charge of the evacuation. But on occasion those with permits were taken off the boats and killed. That was how the Netupsky family perished.

Killing of civilians started again. Triapitsyn lived up to the statement he had made earlier ― to wit, "Some skunks have managed to settle in our institutions, but we need them now and we will do away with them later." All the Japanese who had surrendered were killed, then entire families of townspeople were taken without trial or inquiry and killed on the way to prison, or taken to the Amur on motorboats and drowned.

The remaining population began to scatter to wherever they could ― to villages, to Mago, or straight into the taiga. I[239쪽]sent my family to Mago on 24 May. I must say that the local civilian Koreans were very sympathetic and helpful. I left on 30 May. On the night of that date, while I lay hidden in a boat, I heard and saw three people on shore, saw something in white fall into the water, and then heard a shot and shouts: "Help, I am drowning," then another shot, and silence. I did not see the town burn, but I saw the fisheries on fire.

Nikolaevsk―on―Amur, 13 July 1920
Evgeny Ivanovich Vasilevsky

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 231~239쪽

TESTIMONY OF
SERGEI IVANOVICH BURNASHEV

From 23 December until 27 March, I was in Nikolaevsk, but on 27 March I left for the Orsk mines, where I remained right up to the arrival of the Japanese in Nikolaevsk. The first days of Christmas were spent worrying about the disturbing rumors from the Mariinsk front, which everyone was concerned about. During the early part of January (new style), a joint Russian―Japanese detachment left Nikolaevsk to assist the detachments that had been dispatched earlier. It reached Kakinsk Bay, about 30 versts [19.9 miles] up the Amur. On 9 January (old style), this detachment retreated and returned to town, having lost a cannon. It was forced to retreat under constant partisan fire. Vasily Kobyliatchenko, one of the participants in this march, related that when they were retreating, the Reds pursued them, and after circling around them on horseback and skis through the hills, they took up positions in fisheries Nos. 9 and 12, so that the Russian detachment had to dislodge them. The town was declared in a state of siege, and no one was permitted to leave.

Before that a meeting of Nikolaevsk householders was held with regard to organizing a people's patrol to defend the town. Only two people signed up as volunteers: Mikhail Slavin and another man whose name I do not recall. The rest of the people remained unresponsive, so that nothing came of this meeting. But when the Japanese and our units returned after being forced to retreat, several people close to the Russian command initiated the idea of organizing a town patrol. The Russian military authorities welcomed this initiative. The[240쪽]initiators indicated the individuals whom they considered suitable and who were then called up and assigned to a watch. The purpose of this patrol was announced. It was to perform guard duty only.

Later, a special platoon for military action, consisting of hunters, was formed within the patrol; it was nicknamed "the wild platoon." As a result, I became part of the patrol and, eventually, of the "wild platoon." The patrol had three shifts of guard duty: they stood guard one day and had two days off. The special platoon had the day free but had to spend the night in the barracks and report during the day in case of alert. Men joining the special platoon were issued rifles and cartridges, while the patrol members were armed with Berdans issued only during guard duty. The patrol was primarily quartered in the court building, but later 50 men, and eventually 30 more, were assigned to guard duty in the barracks, which relieved the soldiers who were already on active duty. The general mood remained cheerful and no one thought of surrender. Only hunters were admitted to the special platoon and only on the recommendation of those already serving in the platoon.

In the meantime, the Reds had surrounded the town. Their headquarters was at Lichi, and their outposts were on the numbered fisheries. They had penetrated the lower fisheries after establishing a line of communication along the right bank of the Amur. For its part the town was also cordoned-off, partly by Japanese and partly by Russian soldiers. There was a curfew from 5 P.M. to 7 A.M. To enforce the curfew, three groups patrolled the town: one from the special platoon, one from the regular patrol, and one from the commandant's troops. Hunters were also accepted into the commandant's forces ― for instance, Zinkevich, Krasnokutsky, and Aleksandr Chemerzev. It was decided to create a mounted detachment. Horses were gathered, and the following men became part of it: Ilmen-Dubovich, Kogan, Raitsyn, Tsukanov, and several others whose names I do not know, all from the special platoon. The purpose of the detachment was to carry out patrol duty.

I do not recall the date that orders were issued to set fire to the living quarters opposite the town at fishery No. 4 in order to prevent the Reds from settling there. This assignment was given to the "wild platoon." Twenty or twenty-two men set[241쪽]out, supported by a line of 40 Japanese. Having crossed the Amur without a shot, the Japanese line, as well as part of the Russian detachment, remained on the ice, while seven men proceeded to No. 4 on skis. After we had burned down the living quarters and had begun to set fire to the icehouse because it also could be used for housing, the Reds opened fire. We finished our job and retreated, at first returning the fire but then abandoning it as a waste of cartridges, and returned into town safely without any losses.

Early in February, at about ten o'clock in the evening, Lieutenant Korshavets, head of the commandant's company, came running in great excitement into the quarters of the special platoon asking for two men. Terentiev and Kozlov were designated and left with arms, having received instructions from him. They returned about two hours later and told us that two soldiers from the commandant's company had deserted their listening post located on the town bay and gone over to the Reds, taking with them over 200 cartridges and a number of revolvers, while leaving behind their sheepskin jackets to make it look from the trenches that the listening post was still manned. I might add that the bay of the Amur was illuminated by searchlights located on top of the Realschule, on the ship Murom, and on top of one of the houses in the center of town (directed toward Kuenga).

The surrender of Chnyrrakh astounded all of us. About two days before the surrender, we heard artillery fire. There were many rumors circulating in town. It was reported that the Japanese were firing at the Konstantinovka village, but it turned out that the Reds were firing from an upper sector at the mine field where the Japanese were stationed.

On the third day after this firing, early in the morning at dawn, the Japanese detachment marched into the town. At that point there was a misunderstanding ― because of heavy fog, it was difficult to distinguish the flag, only the red color being visible. The outposts mistook the detachment for Reds and opened fire. According to one version, there was one soldier killed and two wounded; according to a different version, there were two killed and three wounded.

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To our questions whether any guns, shells, or radios remained, our officers replied that, yes, the guns were left behind because the Japanese did not blow them up, but that these guns were useless, that the government radio station had been burned and the military one blown-up, and that the capture of Chnyrrakh was not a victory for the Reds, since it did not give them any advantage. There were more rumors circulating in town, and a notice even appeared in the newspapers that Japanese navy ships had passed Aleksandrovsk and that a landing of Japanese troops was expected in De Kastri. On the other hand, from the moment the Japanese retreated from Chnyrrakh, Chinese flags appeared over all Chinese houses and stores.

Around 20 February a reconnaissance party was sent out with the mission to capture someone from among the Reds. Nemchinov (a postal-telegraph official), Terentiev, and Kirillov from the special platoon, Bushmakin, Lieutenant Chernykh, and one other man from the commandant's company whose name I do not recall took part in this reconnaissance. They left at two o'clock in the morning. The weather was very severe. After crossing the Amur, they stopped at No. 3, opened the winter cabin, and settled in. They did not wait very long because they were suffering from cold, and Kirillov had frostbite. Finally, a horseman appeared, but Chernykh was too hasty, fired too soon, and missed. The man escaped, and they had to return empty-handed.

For some time after capturing the fort, the Reds did not show any activity from that direction but then began to fire at the town from the leper colony, using the six-inch guns. The firing started at around eight o'clock in the morning and continued until about two o'clock in the afternoon. Most of the shells landed in vacant areas. On the second day one of the shells hit the watchman's quarters in Netupsky's house, but no one was hurt. Another shell hit the Chinese restaurant Sun-Shu-Tai, where two people were wounded. This firing caused great panic among the population. In our platoon there was great dissatisfaction with the lack of activity by the authorities. People were saying that it could not go on like this and asked Lieutenant Tokarev to see the Japanese and request permission to make a sortie and attempt to recover the guns. Major Ishikawa did not give permission. I do not remember[243쪽]whether it was before the shelling or just after it that we were given two 57-mm guns, about 40 shells, and one machine gun from the Chinese gunboats. Chinese sailors were patrolling the town during that period but only in the daytime.

Just then there occurred a confrontation between our special platoon and the commandant's company, which was quartered in the same building. It was caused by a remark made by one of our men, who said: "You people up there are not a commandant's company, but a tavern." As a result, we were transferred to the barracks.

Firing at the guns of the Reds was attempted from our two Chinese 57-mm guns and from one small three-inch gun, but it did not produce any results. From our observation point the battery, their trench-digging, and the road which they had built along the plateau from Lichi to Chnyrrakh were all clearly visible.

After our transfer to the barracks, there was a rumor that our special platoon was to be disbanded and assigned to the companies. This disturbed us because the battalion was considered to be unreliable and should we be distributed in it, we might get killed singly, whereas now we represented a thoroughly welded together fighting unit. After the shelling of the town began, the special platoon took turns in having a day off, while at night we all slept fully dressed and armed. We were all issued "shrouds" (white robes worn over the Sheepskins in order to blend with the white surface of the snow and not be noticed by the enemy), the number of live cartridges was increased, and we adjusted the range of the guns. No one gave any thought to surrendering the town. The battalion soldiers were not very friendly toward us.

Around 26 February we heard that peace negotiations had begun. Lieutenant Murgabov was the first to go to the Reds on behalf of the military authorities. He was followed by Captain Nemchinov, Mayor Karpenko, Komarovsky, and Lubatovich. They came back with the comforting news that all that happened in the past was forgotten and that the partisans would enter the town not as enemies but as friends. Everyone was particularly surprised by Shiromidzu's statement that the Japanese would not object to the transfer of power as long as it[244쪽]was without bloodshed. The Japanese agreed to a truce, while the Russians were required to lay down their arms. According to the conditions of the surrender, the Russian detachment was to surrender their arms to the Japanese before the arrival of the partisans, and the patrols were also to be taken over by the Japanese. All those who took part in the struggle against the partisans were guaranteed complete immunity.

The night before the surrender of arms there was a terrible feeling of despondency in our platoon. On 28 February at ten o'clock, we surrendered arms to the Japanese, turned in all the government issue we had, and went home. On 29 February the partisans entered the town. The ski detachment had come in the night before. Arrests began the moment of their arrival. First of all they occupied the battalion barracks, the law court building, the militsia, the public hall, and the prison. The majority of the laborers, especially the port Workers, the stevedores, and the coopers, welcomed the arrival of the partisans with enthusiasm. Triapitsyn's speech at the meeting, peppered with such expressions as "White skunks" and "White scum," produced a depressed mood among knowledgeable people, while exciting the lower classes. I have to add something I did not mention earlier. A few days after the retreat of the joint Russian-Japanese detachment, the partisans sent a truce envoy with a letter addressed to the Japanese command. He was interrogated by the Japanese, then handed over to the Russian command where he was executed.

Arrests started on 1 March. First of all were the more important people among the merchant class, all the officers, and people occupying high public positions. There were no executions at the beginning, or if perhaps there were, they were not publicized. Over 400 people were arrested at that time. There were at least 800 inmates in the prison and about 35 individuals at the guardhouse. All the best houses were taken over by the partisans. Incidentally, the 1st Company of the 1st Anarchist-Communist Regiment, consisting primarily of some 113 to 117 Chinese, was quartered in the office of the business firm of Lury Brothers. The commander of this company was a man by the name of "Gromoboy," a former sailor in the Vladivostok port, who was killed during the Japanese attack. The government was taken over by the Executive Committee, organized by the partisans earlier and brought in by them. The[245쪽]chairman was Zhelezin; commander of the Red Army was Triapitsyn; Commissar of Supply, Ded-Ponomarev; Commissar of Municipal Economy, Korenev; Chief of Staff, Naumov; Commissar of Education, Artemiev. The propaganda organizing committee became active and was headed by Lekhov, who confiscated the presses of the Amursky Liman [Amur Estuary] and of the Ust-Amur Cooperative [Mouth of Amur Cooperativel]. Arrests and confiscation of property continued up to 12 March. The funeral for the victims of the "White terror," eleven bodies having been found, was to take place on 12 March. There was a persistent rumor in town that the Japanese were told to surrender their arms by eleven o'clock that day, i.e., 12 March.

On 11 March I attended a meeting of the Union of Clerical and Office Employees at the Town Duma, where for the first time I saw Lekhov and Nina Lebedeva. My impression of Nina Lebedeva was as follows: her face typically Jewish, of medium height, and about 23 to 25 years of age. Since she did not say very much, I could not form any opinion about her character or intellectual ability. Lekhov spoke about the candidates for the Town Soviet, and it was clear that the propaganda division had the right to reject candidates.

Returning home at eight o'clock, I went to bed. There had been rumors in town that executions were to take place that night, so that the first shots which I heard around two or three o'clock in morning I took for the first shots of the executions, but soon I heard the crackle of a machine gun, which indicated that some military activity was taking place. Various thoughts came to mind: maybe a Japanese attack or maybe just an encounter between drunk partisans. Hard drinking was widespread, especially among the leaders, although an order had been issued to the partisans and the townspeople that anyone encountered in a drunken state in the street would be executed. Around four o'clock in morning, I heard voices below the windows of my flat (I was living near the cemetery), but I did not dare go out. Around six o'clock we heard a faint knocking, which was repeated several times. Someone in the house went out to see who was knocking. It turned out to be partisans drawn in an extended line along our street. They came in to get warm and asked us to heat a samovar. We learned from them that the Japanese had attacked, that they had set the headquarters on fire, and that[246쪽]a battle was taking place in the center of town. The gun and machine gun fire did not cease for a moment. Around seven o'clock a partisan, apparently one of the superiors, came in and ordered us to prepare a dinner for fifteen people. During the three or four days of the battle, partisans were drawn in a line along the streets, and the townspeople had to supply them with food. They would ask if provisions were available, and if not, they brought them but gave orders to have the food prepared. A big fight went on near the pharmacy and the militsia.

On the second day, 13 March, there was an attempt to get the Japanese out of the consulate. I heard that sailors from the Chinese gunboats helped to accomplish this. I cannot confirm that this was true, but there was a persistent rumor to that effect. The Japanese were chased out of the consulate, the consulate was set on fire, and the Japanese inside the building were either killed or burned to death. The only Japanese left were in the barracks, where they barricaded themselves and continued to hold out. The Reds set up a mortar, but because of the short distance, they could not hit the barracks. They were getting ready to move the mortar when peace negotiations began. I do not know who initiated them, but the Japanese surrendered, gave up their arms, and were taken to prison.

During the battle, several people in town were arrested and executed. For instance, the notary Kozlov was executed and Iudalevich was arrested. They were accused of shooting from their homes. Iudalevich succeeded in proving that the accusation was false and was released, but many others were less lucky. During the night of 12 March, all the prisoners, of whom there were 33 at the guardhouse, 77 at the militsia, and not less than 300 in prison, were killed. There were many women among those killed. Among the partisans, Chief of Staff Naumov was killed, staff Secretary Chernyi burned to death in the headquarters, and Triapitsyn was wounded. Some members of the Japanese colony may have been informed about the pending attack, but the majority did not know a thing. Many were even demobilized by then. Japanese civilians, including women and children, were snatched out of bed in their homes and either killed on the spot or taken out into the street to be killed. A few were taken to prison only to be killed there. One Japanese soldier managed to make his way to Kukla but was killed there by the peasants. Seven were killed in the winter[247쪽]hut at Zubarev Ravine and four in the Korean truck gardens on the way to Iska. After the battle, the partisans began to prepare for the funeral of the victims of the attack. A committee was elected to supervise the preparations for the ceremonies. The funeral took place on 1 April. The townspeople were expecting more horrors, but the day went by peacefully.

After that I left Nikolaevsk for the Orsk mines. Even though there were Bolsheviks at the mines, no one knew me there, and so I felt somewhat safer.

When I arrived at the mines, I encountered a young man about 15 years of age who asked me whether I had seen any prisoners on the way. I told him that I had not. Later, I learned that he was inquiring about the Orsk mines bookkeeper Afanasiev and the mine employees Leonov, Kuznetsov, Pirogov, and one other whose name I do not know, all of whom had been arrested the day before my arrival and executed that same night. They were all arrested as counterrevolutionaries. The former chairman of the Orsk Mines Collective, Elisafenko, was executed at the same time. He had received a letter, later proved to be fake, that he was wanted in town on an assignment in connection with construction of a radio station. He left but at the very first stop was arrested and shot.

During my entire stay at the Orsk mines, Zhuravlev and Chernov, members of the Cheka, were there with mandates from Triapitsyn to make arrests, searches, and executions. The people mentioned above were executed at their orders. So was Shapovalov, the doctor's assistant in Kakorma village, who was also given a fake letter asking him to replace the mine doctor, who presumably had fallen ill. While he was still chairman of the collective, Elisafenko had started confiscating gold and Romanov money from the Chinese laborers in the mines, leaving them only 40 rubles and one pood of flour each. At the same time many of them were beaten. After Elisafenko's execution, Zhuravlev and Chernov continued to rob the Chinese, and on their orders several of them were beaten. An order was issued by the Orsk collective at that time to surrender arms. The arms had been originally issued by Zhuravlev and Chernov only to trustworthy people. All of these events created great dissatisfaction among the Chinese and they dispatched several[248쪽]men (secretly, of course) to Nikolaevsk with complaints to the Chinese consul. A committee consisting of representatives of the partisan headquarters and the Chinese consulate arrived at the mines to investigate the matter. Zhuravlev and Chernov managed to put all the blame on the already executed Elisafenko, and the committee left without any action. The same happened with the second investigation committee.

Nevertheless, Zhuravlev and Chernov began to fear that they might be executed. With the last trip on the winter route, Komarov and a 17-man Korean detachment arrived at the mines and left for the Okhotsk coast to burn down the fisheries and the Giliak settlements from Point Langer up to the village of Kol. Komarov was accompanied by two Russian partisans ― Ivanov and a very well educated young man, Zmeo. With the arrival of Komarov, Zhuravlev and Chernov began to oppose him and started spreading rumors among the laborers that Komarov was a provocateur, a former White officer, etc. An open conflict erupted in the building occupied by the collective. There were about eight people in the room ― some members of the collective and some strangers like myself. Suddenly, Zhuravlev, with a pistol in his hand, accompanied by Voroshchenko, one of the laborers, burst into the room, both of them very drunk. Zhuravlev began to swear, using unprintable language, shouting that Komarov wanted to disarm them and that he had taken a gun away from Voroshchenko. At the same time he kept pointing his gun at one or the other of the people present. Finally, he demanded that a general meeting be called for the next morning and immediately telephoned the dormitory ordering all the laborers to attend the general meeting at eight o'clock the following morning with a threat that all those absent would be executed. At that moment Komarov entered the room, unarmed but accompanied by several armed Korean partisans. Seeing Komarov, Zhuravlev moved into a corner of the room, pointing the gun at Komarov but not shooting. Komarov said very calmly: "Well, shoot, but remember that if you shoot, not one person will leave this room alive." Then, going up to Zhuravlev, Komarov talked to him briefly and, apparently calming him down, left the room.

The following morning there was a general meeting at which a reprimand of Zhuravlev's and Chernov's behavior was submitted along with a resolution that arms must be[249쪽]surrendered to the collective and to consider the incident closed. However, that evening, the chairman of the collective, Grigory Voitin, and his assistant, Burlov-Lipskii, made a statement to the effect that Zhuravlev and Chernov had suggested to them that they burglarize the safe of the collective and escape with the gold and money, that the plot was still alive, and that several laborers were involved. An investigation was conducted which confirmed the accusation. Zhuravlev and Chernov were disarmed and arrested. A general meeting was called at which all the facts were presented. It was decided to send a delegation with a report to Triapitsyn, who responded with instructions to execute those who were most guilty and to punish the rest at Komarov's discretion. Zhuravlev and Chernov were executed, and the laborers Nosikov, Korostelev, and Revenikov were flogged with ramrods.

The second investigation committee, which had come earlier, upon its return to town took along the American manager of the mines, Dyer, who was put under the protection of the Chinese consul. Some time after his departure, a detachment of armed Chinese arrived at the mines. These were not regular Chinese forces, but Chinese laborers armed by the Chinese authorities. This detachment escorted the rest of the Americans who still remained there from the mines and also offered to move them to Mago, where the Chinese gunboats were stationed. Following the visit of these Chinese laborers, I, along with a few other people, also decided to escape. Several times we happened to encounter the Reds and lived through a number of very unpleasant moments, but finally, we reached Mago safely.

A legend circulated among the partisans, which I heard from many of them, about a Cossack from Kiselevka village ― an old man of about 68 years of age, of tremendous height, built like Hercules, and with a huge white beard. The Bolsheviks had captured him, took him to the Amur, and fired several volleys at him, but he remained standing. When they came up to him, they saw that he was shaking bullets from his shirt, while he himself was unharmed. They started attacking him with cold steel, but no wounds appeared. Then, they decided to drown him and threw him into a hole in the ice, but he would not drown. Then, they started to push him down by force, and only when the water was up to his shoulders, uttering the[250쪽]words, "We perish although we are innocent, but all of you will perish, too," did he disappear under the ice.

Several partisans ― Stepan Otsuga, a peasant from the village of Kol, and Ivan Zakharovich Soskin, a foreman from the mines who had been a Bolshevik since 1918 ― described the last moments before the death of E. S. Lury, Tokarev, and other officers, which they witnessed because they took part in the execution. All the prisoners were brought to a hole in the ice on the Amur. They were ordered to undress. Esther Semenovna undressed and asked permission to say a prayer in Hebrew. "Pray as you wish, only make it fast." After saying her prayer, she asked to be killed right away, not to be tortured. Then, one of the partisans killed her with one shot. Tokarev did not wait to be killed; he threw himself into the hole and went under the ice. One of the officers, whose name I do not know, had his ears, then his nose, then his hands cut off by partisan Fedotov, who only then cut off his head.

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 20 July 1920
Sergei Ivanovich Burnashev

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 239~250쪽

TESTIMONY OF
FILIP TERENTIEVICH PATURNAK, 34 YEARS OLD

In 1918 I was a commissar of labor with the regional Executive Committee of the Soviets in Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. After transfer of power to the Siberian and then the Omsk governments, I abandoned public life and political activity and became involved in the fisheries. On arriving in Nikolaevsk in the autumn [of 1919], I was arrested by counterintelligence and was kept in prison for sixteen days. The reason for my arrest was my former activity as a Soviet official, but when the investigation proved that my involvement was limited, I was released. I was treated very decently both in prison and by counterintelligence as well as by Lekh, chief of state security. The Office of Public Prosecution frequently inquired about the condition of the prisoners and visitors were allowed. The political prisoners in prison with me were Zhogolev (a road technician), Ivanenko (who came from Khabarovsk and was in charge of the struggle against counterrevolution in 1918), and Budrin's son. They told me that when they were held by[251쪽]counterintelligence, they were tortured during interrogation, but after being transferred to the prison, they had no complaints.

Shortly before the town was occupied by the partisans, I was arrested again and was detained at the militsia for supposedly spreading propaganda but was released after several days when it was discovered that the counterintelligence reports were false. While I was free after the first arrest, a man by the name of Gorelov, a member of the stevedore union who at that time was an active assistant to Lapta in Lichi village, came to see me early in February. He brought three parcels addressed to the Chinese consul, the commander of the Chinese gunboats, and the Chinese Society and asked me to deliver them. I categorically refused to do this, because I was constantly under surveillance and because I did not trust Gorelov, who was carrying on reconnaissance in town for the partisans. Furthermore, I came to the conclusion that if such shady characters as Gorelov were active among the partisans, then it was quite clear that all the talk about the advancing partisans being regular Soviet forces and units returning from the French front was sheer invention and the town could not expect anything good from these forces. As far as I know, there were no revolutionary organizations among the workers in town, and I heard that only the coopers union had contact with the partisans.

On 26 February I attended the meeting in the People's Hall where a large crowd came to hear the reports by the town delegates, engineer V. A. Komarovsky and Mayor Karpenko, about the results of their negotiations with Triapitsyn, the commander of the partisans, regarding the surrender of the town. Komarovsky, who appeared to be in a state of excitement and elation, opened the meeting by exclaiming, "Long live the United Russian Federated Soviet Republic." Then, in all sincerity he began to report that, indeed, a regular army, held together by strict discipline and headed by a man of strong will, had arrived, that he personally had seen radio information about the complete defeat of groups fighting against the central government, that Semenov's band and others had been liquidated, that extensive social and economic development was taking place in Soviet Russia, and that, at long last, Russia was being unified under the rule of the Soviets.

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All this created a mood of elation among the people, and everybody joyfully began to prepare to greet the partisans. However, as one of the organizers of the official greeting committee, I was surprised to see in the streets on the morning of 29 February patrols of skiers, who had entered the town the night before. Among them were the former secretary of the Executive Committee of 1918, Tsyganok, and another man I knew, a peasant from Vlasievo village (Iska). I was greeted with: "Oh, Paturnak, you are still alive! Well, since the Whites did not execute you, we will do it." Then, they escorted me to the militsia where I was taken to Pavlichenko, who was with me in the regional Executive Committee as a military commissar in 1918. The latter began to taunt me, calling me a saboteur and a Japanese hanger-on. To this I replied: "Shame, comrade, we were so eager for you to arrive, but you act like oppressors against the very people who fought for the Soviets and were exposed to persecution by the enemies of the Soviet government."

When they learned that I was one of the organizers of the greeting for the partisans, I was temporarily released. However, I was already convinced that these were not people of ideological principles, but rabble who were bringing hostility and oppression to society instead of peace. I was finally convinced of this when Triapitsyn, at the head of the partisans, did not respond with a polite greeting to Mayor Karpenko's welcoming speech, but said: "You did not want our detachments to enter the town until now. On the contrary, all our appeals to you remained unanswered, our envoys like Comrade Orlov and the others were tortured to death, and now your expression of joy is forced, because you have no other way out." Following this he entered the town.

More speeches were then made from the platform erected next to the town park. Here, Triapitsyn mounted the platform and, swinging his whip, said: "We have occupied Nikolaevsk, but our struggle for Soviet power is not yet over. We still have to take Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, where the zemstvo people continue their treacherous policy of conciliation with the tsenzouiki[Qualified property owners ― TRANS.] and the Japanese, and we must destroy them. We[253쪽]must continue our struggle against the world predators, the imperialists in Shanghai, Tokyo, and other places, until the time when the name World Soviet Republic triumphs. Here, our Comrade Orlov suffered violence, and I hereby declare that in revenge I shall destroy a thousand White scum."

After Triapitsyn, other orators from among the partisan activists spoke, and all their speeches carried the threat of a pogrom, which immediately produced depression and fear among the population. Mass arrests followed immediately among the military, counterintelligence, intelligentsia, industrialists, employees, and other citizens. Among those arrested were Komarovsky, Shelkovnikov, Kolmakov (Commissar of Udsk county in 1918), regional chief Lopolov, and others.

Since I considered myself to be a Soviet worker, I was given a job in the information-propaganda division at first, where I started organizing the professional unions and later took part in preparations for the election of deputies to the Town Soviet. But at the pre-election meetings I was frequently moved to express sharp criticism of the activities of certain members of the Revolutionary Headquarters (Lekhov, Otsevilli, Nina Lebedeva), because they removed under various excuses the candidates they found undesirable in order to propose their own candidates and thus create a union subservient to themselves and which did not include any class-conscious or politically balanced workers. Because of this, almost all the technical workers ― as for instance, Zavialov from the Zakupsbyt, Markevich, a bookkeeper from the Town Duma, the university student Shmuilovich, Stepanov-Susanin, and others who had earlier defended the principles of Soviet rule ― were rejected. Nina Lebedeva declared to me that such counterrevolutionaries were definitely not acceptable.

On election day for the town Executive Committee and delegates to the regional Congress of Workers of Sakhalin oblast, I was in charge of registering the elected representatives of the unions and of checking the credentials. At the opening of the meeting, I was instructed to announce the list of people who had credentials, which I did. However, this did not include a list of the representatives from the various parties, which I did not register because there were no organized parties in Nikolaevsk and no such elections were[254쪽]held, whereas credentials had been issued directly by the Revolutionary Headquarters primarily to the close co-workers of Triapitsyn. Zhelezin and Triapitsyn had credentials from the Anarchist Party, Otsevilli from Communist Maximalists, Lekhov from the Bolsheviks, Nina Lebedeva from the Anarchist Maximalists, etc.

Immediately after the meeting, I was arrested and escorted under strong convoy to prison. This happened on 6 March. In the prison I was undressed down to my underwear and shoved into a cell which already contained over 60 prisoners. Among them were Shelkovnikov, Komarovsky, Lupolov, engineer Kurushev, Krotkov, Batsevich, Archdeacon Chernykh, assistant prosecutor Shumilin, Ignoratov, fisheries owner and businessman V. Ya. Miller, Meerovich, Eremkin, Zatonsky, Mozgunov, and many others ― all of them in the same half-naked condition. The cell was intended at the most for 30 inmates, so that the prisoners were forced to lie under the bunks and on the floor.

Even before my arrest many of the prisoners ― for instance Eremkin, Mozgunov, and several others ― had been exposed to severe beatings, and during the first night of my incarceration, I lived through moments of horror. Starting at eleven o'clock at night, people were taken out of the cell and the beating and whipping began. It was done with ramrods and rubber strips, with gun butts, or just with fists. The prison became filled with inhuman screams and moans. The women would utter a piercing squeal and then one could hear only the clang of the strokes. Then, one could hear the sound of bodies being dragged along the corridor and being thrown inert into the cells and new victims being taken out. In our cell Komarovsky, Shelkovnikov, and Eremkin were tortured most severely, the latter being forced to admit where he had hidden gold and money.

This went on until 10 March when the first group of prisoners was released ― about 30 people out of a total of 300 inmates in the prison. The same night, 10 March, the first group, also up to 30 people, was taken to the Amur. Two men― Borshavets, chief of the commandant's unit, and Malevsky, a low-ranking member of the unit ― were from our cell. During that night, the tortures reached a climax. The entire prison[255쪽]was in a state of terror, and the corridors were filled with the wild, inhuman howls of the victims, interrupted by the drunken swearing of Lapta, the leader of the executions. Everyone was shaking in terror, some fainted, many were weeping, because it was too much for their nerves. An exchange of shots started in the night of 11 March, but it was impossible to obtain any information from the wardens, who just muttered angrily that we ourselves should know what it was about.

Personally, I thought that the peasant partisans, indignant at the cruelty of the Red leaders, had started an armed uprising, but it soon became known that it was an attack by the Japanese, who had, it seems, been faced with a demand to surrender their arms. This measure was taken on the advice of Slepukhin, who had persuaded Triapitsyn and others that on 12 March, the day of the funeral of Orlov and other victims of counterrevolution, the Japanese would attack the partisan detachments, taking advantage of their strategic position. (The location of the funeral ― the town park ― was right between the Japanese headquarters, the Japanese consulate, and Shimada's store, presumably where numerous machine guns were stationed that could destroy in a single blow the main force of partisans which was assigned to take part in the funeral.)

In the night of 12 March, a detachment of about fifteen partisans appeared in the prison and began to take the prisoners out of the cells into the yard, half-naked as they were. There, they were tied together in parties of twenty, hit on the head with a blunt instrument, and, as they became unconscious, finished off with bayonets. Then, they were thrown onto carts and taken to the Amur, where they were dumped in a pile on the ice. I learned this from one of the victims, the port mechanic Prutkov, who had survived. After being dumped on the ice, he regained consciousness and crawled up to the port, where he was picked up and later taken to the hospital.

On the night of 13 March, our cell was the next in line. Upon entering the cell, the partisans first of all demanded that everyone remove the silver and gold crosses from their necks, which was done without protest. Then, they counted off groups of twenty people whom they took out into the corridor. After the first party had been taken out, I climbed on top of the stove, which was in the cell, in the vague hope that I could[256쪽]escape the common lot. The orphaned boy Zholosukhin, who had been Lieutenant Tokarev's errand-boy, was also trying to climb up, but when he could not get a good grip with his small hands, he pleaded: "Uncle, help me," which I did. The son of the gold miner Akkerman also tried to climb up, but I talked him out of it, because he would have to lie on top of us, which could be noticed from below, and all three of us would perish.

The last party to be taken out included Komarovsky, Shelkovnikov, Shumilin, Zatonsky and a few others. Before being taken out, many were praying and humbly submitting to their fate while shedding silent tears. However, when the old man Shcherbin (an employee in the commercial port) was being taken out, he fell on his knees, begging the partisans to spare him, saying that his son, somewhere far away, was fighting for the Soviets just as they were and that he was not guilty of anything. To which Shumilin remarked: "What are you asking for, old man? Forgive them and God will forgive you. Let's go." Akkerman's son asked to be taken along with his father but was rudely shoved aside and taken out with another party.

After all the prisoners had been taken out, the guards searched thoroughly under the bunks in the cell and left, closing up the building. In the morning Chinese partisan guards came in, and while rummaging around for any belongings left by the prisoners, noticed us on top of the stove and started talking to each other: "Two man on stove." When I heard this, I jumped down and scared the guards, who ran out into the corridor, but then started aiming their guns at me. I told them to call Kotsuba, the head prison warden. When he arrived, I explained to him that I wanted to have an inquest as to why I had been arrested. I was soon taken to a solitary confinement cell and the partisans were informed about it. When they came to the cell window, I asked them to tell my wife that I would probably be executed that night and that she should take urgent measures to have me released. After her efforts, Triapitsyn issued orders that I was not to be executed without a preliminary inquest. An inquest was held on 17 March, but I was held in prison until 30 March awaiting my fate.

During that confinement, I was completely isolated from the world and forbidden to receive any food or clean clothing[257쪽]from outside. As a result, my old underwear rotted away, giving off a foul stench, and I was covered with lice. During that period, the cells again became filled with prisoners. Among them, the Amgun gold miners Zabirov, Masiukov, Zefenkov, Mark Akkerman (the older son), Eremkin's son, and two technicians working with engineer Pilin's crew building a road to Kerbi were brought in almost beaten to death. There were twelve of them altogether. Some had been beaten with ramrods so severely that the skin in many places had been broken and was festering, having turned to reddish black. Many could not make the slightest move without moaning. Within a week they were all killed.

Around 17 March the remnants of the Japanese detachment that had surrendered, some 117 soldiers, were brought to prison. They were placed in vacant cells. Half an hour later a poorly clad detachment of Korean partisans arrived and changed into the uniforms of the Japanese prisoners, leaving the latter in underwear and sheepskin vests. Members of the Revolutionary Headquarters came to the cell to deliver speeches to the Japanese, telling them that they had nothing to worry about, because they also belonged to the working class and the partisans were certain that when they returned home in the spring, they also would begin a struggle against their bourgeoisie and militarists.

After release from prison, I was offered a job in the Commissariat of Labor, but when I did not report for duty, they sent for me twice with a warning that should I continue to stay away, I would be tried according to wartime rules. Having lived through all the horrors, I felt ill and completely incapable of doing any kind of work, but the circumstances and constant threats made me accept the job of supervisor of the statistics division in the Commissariat of Labor. Later, I was transferred to the Bureau of the Labor Army, where I was told to prepare lists of all the employees, indicating their exact addresses. This made me suspect that new arrests would follow in connection with preparations for the evacuation of the administration and the population to Amgun. I advised Karpenko, who was also working at the bureau, as well as Pozdeev, Neverov, and some others, to leave town, because we would all perish. But they did not want to believe me and later were all killed.

[258쪽]

One day on returning home from the commissariat, I felt some premonitions and suggested that my wife and family should get ready to leave, although I personally did not have a permit to leave. I decided to spend that night in the attic, fearing arrest. The partisans did come, and learning from my wife that I was not at home, they broke the door and searched the whole house. Then, I heard them say that they were going to search the yard and then the attic. Seeing that the house was surrounded by guards, I took a chance, quietly came down the stairs, and, together with my dog Nero, climbed over the fence to my neighbor's, where I hid in the hay. In the morning when my wife came outside, I called to her and asked her to see if there were any partisans around, and being assured that they had left, I quickly got ready and left for the taiga in the direction of Chardbakh, where I stayed together with Kalita until the Japanese arrived. I learned later from our neighbors that after my escape, the partisans returned and for two days tried to get information of my whereabouts from my wife, who wept bitterly and asked to be taken to the pier. What happened to my family after that I do not know. Many people told me that my family was killed, but others told me that she was taken to Amgun.

Stolypino, 29 August 1920
F. Paturnak

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 250~258쪽

TESTIMONY OF
PETR YAKOVLEVICH VOROBIEV

I left Kerbi on 27 August when Bezdnin was already in Kerbi. Bezdnin actually came from Blagoveshchensk. In 1918 he was a sailor on the gunboat Smerch. I escaped in the following manner. At my request I was assigned as captain of the cutter Mukomol on which I went as far as Udinsk, where I went ashore and continued farther in a rowboat. I was assisted in my escape by some partisans whom I knew. They removed the guards accompanying the Mukomol and replaced them with their own people. The reasons which prompted me to escape I shall discuss later.

During Triapitsyn's trial, in which I took part as assistant chairman, the following facts were ascertained. In[259쪽]order to become a commissar in Triapitsyn's service, one had personally to kill at least eighteen people. Lists of individuals to be annihilated were compiled by unions, which indicated that such-and-such "skunks" were to be removed, and by the commissars, who received a special order from the Revolutionary Headquarters in this connection. We were not able to determine the purpose for the pits dug in Kerbi, but the pits in Gorelovo, 18 versts [11.9 miles] from Kerbi, were meant for the miners, who were expected to advance there and for whom a poisoned dinner was to be prepared. Lists of Amgun people to be killed were compiled after the arrival in Kerbi. Such lists were found on Gorelov, Konstantinov, Molodtsov, and Kharkovsky. Kharkovsky was also in possession of warrants signed by Triapitsyn and Nina, which only had to be filled in with a name of the person to be executed. If the partisan to whom he issued the warrant for execution should refuse to carry out the order, he could just write in the name of that partisan, who would then also be killed. When Triapitsyn was asked at the trial why and for what crime the Japanese civilians had been murdered, he replied: "You should know better. You did the killing," and to my question: "But did you not issue orders to that effect?" he answered: "No." But in the meantime, a document with his and Nina's signatures was located, which was made out to the commander of the 1st Ust-Amgun Regiment with orders to kill the entire Japanese population without exception.

We did not succeed in determining definitely Triapitsyn's identity. He continued to repeat that he was Triapitsyn and would remain Triapitsyn. It was rumored that he was formerly an ataman in Siberia, where he put down peasant revolts. Some people recognized him and asked him whether he remembered certain people from Omsk, and at one point he slipped up and said: "I do,"but immediately caught himself and answered, "No, I do not know.'"

Because I was the son-in-law of a man who used to be wealthy, I was considered to be burzhui, and since from the very beginning I was advocating a return down the river, I was nicknamed "president of the skunks." After Dneprovsky's telegram with the information that evacuation up the river was impossible because access to Ekimchan, Sofiisk, and Stoiba were blocked, that the area was suffering from cold and hunger,[260쪽]and that the people were dying from epidemics of typhus, erysipelas, measles, and cholera, the workers in the Water Transport Union passed a resolution on 22 or 23 August to fight for evacuation down the river and to send delegates to Nikolaevsk.

About two days later Bezdnin learned about this resolution and announced that those who wanted to return were throwing themselves into the arms of the Japanese with intent to carry on separate negotiations. Just then I happened to see Andreev and asked him to give me a permit to go to Vladivostok. "Are you joking? You know that we don't issue permits to anyone to proceed beyond Udinsk, and you are asking for Vladivostok!" When I answered that I was not joking and repeated my request, he said: "Don't be in a hurry, comrade, soon all this will be cleared up."

The following day Bezdnin arrived at the Tsentroflot [Fleet Center] and ordered everyone to line up. Then, he said that he knew that only a few individuals were trying to confuse the rest and that he could not even imagine that all of us were traitors and started stomping his feet and shouting at us. Finally, he ordered those who wanted to go down the river to keep their places, and those who wanted to stay with him to go to the right. Everyone went to the right. Only Magon, Platats, and I kept our places along with a few other men, women and children. Since none of us were armed partisans, we felt that his order did not concern us. Then, he demanded that the leaders and instigators be named. "We will send them to the Blagoveshchensk Nursing Home where they will be cured." Then, Nakladov, a former machinist from Petropavlovsk, announced that all this trouble was stirred up by the Lury employees. (I might add that the Lury employees were persecuted and mistreated all the time on the basis that if they worked for Lury, they must be Whites.) Barmin was going to speak next, but seeing me, he became embarrassed and did not say anything. Bezdnin then ordered everyone to think it over and those who were named should be arrested and taken to the headquarters. Andreev was standing nearby reading some telegrams that had just arrived. I went up to him and asked to see the messages. One of them had the information that Lechitsky had been made commander of land and sea forces in the Far East and that Semenov, with all his force, had placed[261쪽]himself under that command and was now working for the Soviets. Another message announced that Germany had concluded a military, economic, and political alliance with Soviet Russia. The third message contained the information that England had recognized the Soviet government on conditions to be announced later and that, although these conditions were difficult, the Soviet government had accepted them. The last message announced that a Japanese mission had left for Moscow.

After Bezdnin and Andreev left, it was decided not to betray anyone, since the resolution had been passed unanimously, but to hand over the record of the meeting. In the evening our union chairman told me that Bezdnin had asked that another meeting be called to go over the resolution and rescind it, so that without this evidence no one would be persecuted. But I decided to get away. By the way, the Union of Medical Workers had also supported our resolution.

There is no doubt that women and girls were being raped; one can say that all of them without exception were raped. On 24 May, when I had stopped sleeping at home and spent the night with my relatives, the Chemorzovs, there was a knock on the door at two o'clock in the morning. When the door was opened, Morozov, accompanied by another partisan, Barmin, came in and asked if the young lady was at home. When told that she (Niura) was there, Morozov gave orders to wake her up, saying that she was wanted for questioning at the Committee of Inquiry. I must add that Morozov knew this family. Niura was awakened and just then I woke up, too, and questioned Morozov as to what sort of interrogations were being held at night, but he answered that it was in connection with the Budrin affair. This statement by Morozov carried a hint and a threat to me, because I took part in the Budrin plot and Morozov suspected this. I had to shut up. Niura got dressed and was taken away by the two men. The house was in turmoil, everyone was weeping and saying that she was taken away to be killed, and I myself was certain of it, because at that time there was only one road from the Committee of Inquiry ― straight to the Amur. Oh, yes. Before leaving, Morozov asked where the gold was that had been left by their brother and father, who were killed earlier. But when I said to him: "Are you crazy, or what? What gold are you talking about, when you[262쪽]have searched all over ten times and even dragged out all the potatoes stored in the cellar." He did not insist and they left. After they left, I ran out wanting to go somewhere to intercede, but decided that I would not have time to save Niura, and returned back home. I wanted to shoot the rest of the family to save them from falling into the hands of the partisans (a revolver was always with me) but could not force myself to do it, thank the Lord. I ran out again in the direction of the Committee of Inquiry (in the Russian-Asiatic Bank building). I looked all over but did not find Niura anywhere. When I opened the door of one of the rooms upstairs, I saw some 50 to 60 men, women, small boys, and small girls stripped of their clothing with their hands tied behind their backs. It is well-known where these people would be taken. They would not be shot because execution by shooting was forbidden (such an honorable death was reserved only for Mizin), but like all the rest they would be hacked to death.

At about five or six o'clock in the morning, Niura was brought back home in our own two-wheel buggy, which Morozov had taken from us. She related the following story. After they left the house, Morozov demanded that she tell him who her girl friends were, and when she named Grinberg and Gusev, he ordered her to show them where they lived. All the girls were taken to the Committee of Inquiry. When they got there, Morozov locked Niura up in a storeroom, where she stayed about an hour. Then, Morozov took her to a room and announced to her that if she wanted to avoid the fate that awaited her, she must surrender to him. When she asked him what was the fate that threatened her, he showed her the room that I had seen and described above. Then, she agreed to his demands. When she was leaving the building with Morozov, another member of the Committee of Inquiry came up and asked Morozov: "Well, was she chaste?" And having been given an affirmative answer, he said: "We'll have to keep her, but I had to do away with the other two, they turned out not to be chaste." Then, she told me that Morozov had ordered her not to say anything to me about what had happened, warning her that otherwise I would be killed that same day and that Morozov would return later in the day. She was weeping and saying that she had saved us, but that now she would have to live with Morozov. I tried to calm her down but did not really know how and in what way I could help her. Morozov did show[263쪽]up at two o'clock in the afternoon. I was not at home and he was told that Niura was out also. He left orders for her to report to the Committee of Inquiry at eight o'clock that evening. I turned to the partisans who were lodging with us for help. They replied that there was not much they or I could do and reminded me of the Perevalov case, when the two partisans by that name tried to protect their sister in similar circumstances and were both killed. I went to the headquarters, but there was no one there. I was advised to appeal to Vidmanov because he alone could save the girl, but probably on condition that she marry one of the partisans of the expeditionary detachment.

Vidmanov was nicknamed "chopper" because he hacked to the right and left of him. I had not known him personally, so I appealed to Slavin, commander of the 2nd Company of the Expeditionary Regiment. He was a peasant from Pronge, whom I had known since we were children. Slavin gave me little to hope for, but just the same he telephoned Vidmanov and asked him to come over. When he arrived, I told him the entire story and asked for help. While telling him the story, I said that perhaps Morozov did not force her and that perhaps she consented on her own. To this Vidmanov replied: "We know all about this consent business. This is all very bad. I will not allow this sort of thing to continue. We are fighting for freedom, and they are soiling us." I asked what was to be done, since it was almost eight o'clock. Then, he telephoned our house and told the family that the young lady was not to obey anyone but him and told me that if anyone should come I was free to shoot them. I returned home and soon there was a telephone call. Morozov was calling to find out "if the young lady had left." I said to him: "Come on over. We'll settle the matter." He said nothing and hung up.

I went out and on the way back met a partisan, whom I did not know, who said to me: "Know what, Vorobiev? Take the young lady and get out of the house." I said: "Whatever for? Vidmanov promised to protect us and allowed me to shoot. Only two or three of them will come and I can manage." To which he replied: "Vidmanov promised, but they all belong to the same gang. He promised, but at the same time issued orders to kill. It will not be two or three, but twenty to thirty who will come. They will surround the house and cut the[264쪽]wires." Then, I decided to act as follows. I sent Niura to my house while I climbed up to the hay loft, where I hid and waited. And, in fact, everything happened just as the man predicted. At about midnight the house was surrounded on all sides, the telephone wires were cut, and the men burst inside. They turned everything upside down, but not finding us, they left without touching the rest of the people in the house.

Alekseevsk Pier was burned, not blown up.

The motive for destroying the town was to prevent the possibility of a government being formed. The reasoning was as follows. If the inhabitants remained in town, they most certainly would organize a government under the protection of the Japanese, but if there was no one in town, the Japanese would not stay for the winter and would leave.

There was a tremendous amount of irritation against Triapitsyn and Nina, both among the townspeople and the partisans. The building where the trial was conducted was surrounded by huge crowds and everyone demanded their immediate execution. Triapitsyn was less bloodthirsty than Nina. That one constantly demanded blood: "Comrades, blood, more blood, we must eradicate everything," she kept saying. But Triapitsyn also promoted those who excelled in cruelty; those who carried out the greatest amount of cruel punishment and killings became inner members of headquarters. Everyone in the headquarters drank heavily, especially toward the end, and Nina also drank a lot. At the trial she declared that she had nothing to do with anything, that she did not know anything, and that she was just a simple typist. They were all terribly worried at the trial, and it was obvious that they were great cowards.

Toward the end, killing was done by anyone who wished to do it. Zhelezin said outright that it was permissible and necessary to kill anyone who just looked askance. And in fact they did kill all those whose glances bothered them.

Children were also killed. Once, on 22 or 24 May, Sasaro-Fedotov brought a girl of seven or eight years of age to the Revolutionary Headquarters. Zhelezin asked the members whether she was to be considered for or against our[265쪽]government. All unanimously answered: "Of course she's a skunk and should be killed," and the little girl was killed. One of the reasons for killing children under eight years of age, among other things, was the need to conserve milk. It was said that there was already a shortage of milk and that it would be needed for the wounded. Then, it was said that during the march, the partisans would be handicapped by children. This was being said in Nikolaevsk also and even earlier, before the town was captured.

The prisoners in the police station and the guardhouse were killed on 13 and 14 March when the uprising had already been crushed. There were more than 500 prisoners altogether there, and the prisons were so over-crowded that people had to stand up.

In Kerbi on the day of the revolt, which occurred on the same day that Triapitsyn was supposed to leave Kerbi, 101 families were designated to be annihilated in addition to the miners, whom I mentioned earlier, who were going to be poisoned during the march. One of their aims in killing off the inhabitants, among others, was to economize on bread, of which there was a shortage in Kerbi. Terrible killings went on in Kerbi. They were looking for my mother-in-law. She was a very stout, heavily built woman. They would kill a woman in the night and discover in the morning that she was not the one they wanted. The next night they would start searching through the tents and taking away fat women, only to discover in the morning that they again made a mistake. In this manner they killed six women without finding my mother-in-law.

Delegates came to Kerbi several times. At one time five representatives of different parties arrived: Communists, Anarchists, Bolsheviks, Maximalists, and others. I had a talk with one of them, a former Austrian prisoner of war. Among other things, he said that we would have to answer for executing Triapitsyn and Nina, because they were Soviet workers, even though they had deviated to the left.

Blagoveshchensk refused to accept anyone from Sakhalin Province. Only 200 people managed to get through, but then Blagoveshchensk detachments were stationed at Bureika and[266쪽]Selemdzha to prevent anyone from getting through. A telegram was sent to Blagoveshchensk asking for help and assistance with evacuation. There was no answer right away, but three or four days later the following telegram arrived: "Send as soon as possible printing presses and equipment, as well as printer's ink, printing-press workers, and gold. The matter of evacuation will be decided later." There were rumors that Blagoveshchensk had sent 80,000 poods of flour, but the delegate to whom I talked said that it was not true.

The revolt organized by Andreev and the partisans was not guided by pity for the victims of Triapitsyn's terror, and not because they were upset by it, but out of fear for their own hides. When mountains of corpses were lying along the Amur, they were not indignant ― these were burzhui, so they deserved it. They were not indignant either, when, even before capturing the town, not less than 300 peasants were killed in Chnyrrakh. There, ten to fifteen people were killed daily in the course of one month and for no apparent reason. One day someone would complain that so-and-so had borrowed his fishing net the previous year and returned it damaged ― the accused man would be killed. The following day a third individual would inform on the first plaintiff that he stole ten fish three years ago ― the accused would be killed. They were comparatively calm when corpses of partisans would occasionally float down the Amgun. But when they began to recognize members of their own families evacuated to Amgun among the corpses, they became agitated, fearing for themselves. Andreev, whom Triapitsyn was trying to get and who was worried about his own safety, took advantage of this situation and organized the revolt.

At this point Andreev has no role to play. The leader is a certain Slepak, a well educated man of about 30 years of age and an emigrant from America. He knows five languages and has spent some time in Sakhalin. In 1918 or 1919 he was condemned to life imprisonment by the Vladivostok court. Dr. Pokrovsky is leaving for Blagoveshchensk. Despite the mistrust of him expressed about twenty times both by the unions and at the garrison meeting, he retained his position at the headquarters and had tremendous influence. According to Dr. Silnitsky and Dr. Ginsburg, it has been confirmed that he personally killed the old cashier of the Commissariat of Public Health, who refused to walk to kerbi.[267쪽]

In his Nikolaevsk office Triapitsyn had direct wire connections with the radio station and with Khabarovsk, through which he communicated directly with Lenin in Moscow. Before capturing the town, Triapitsyn received a telegram from the Moscow Soviet. After taking over the town a few days after the events in March, he received a telegram from Moscow in which Lenin appointed him to be commander of the Soviet Far East forces. This communication with Moscow continued until Triapitsyn quarreled with Ianson and Vilensky, who demanded that he should follow their instructions, to which he replied that he did not want to talk to such fools. Then they declared that he had no need to talk to Lenin, either. Triapitsyn's answer was that Lenin was just as big a fool and that when the local population was ready for anarchy, he thought up that idiotic idea of a buffer state. And communication with Moscow ceased.

During the trial, the following document was found ― Triapitsyn's orders to Lapta which is given here almost literally: "With regard to those delegates from Vladivostok that you do not know what to do with, if possible send them to Nikolaevsk. If not, bump them off on the spot."

Very many partisans, including eyewitnesses, told me the following story. When a group which included Father Chernykh was brought out to be executed, he began to conduct a service and then, it seems, it suddenly became as bright as daylight and the heavens opened up. This made such an impression on the partisans that they, one and all, refused to carry out the execution, so that Koreans had to be called to do away with this group.

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 14 September 1920
P. Vorobiev

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 258~267쪽

TESTIMONY OF
FATHER SERGEI VASILIEVICH LEPORSKY,
Priest of Mago Village

I am submitting my essay on the conditions leading to the creation of Triapitsyn's detachment, its advance toward[268쪽]Nikolaevsk, and the capture of Nikolaevsk. In addition, I testify as follows.

When the partisans appeared in Mago, they searched my home, and after confiscating the most valuable part of my clothing, they announced that I was mobilized to serve in their detachment. In spite of my strong protest, they seized me and appointed me to be a cook in the 3rd Company. However, I stayed with them only as far as Sakharovka, a village four versts [2.7 miles] from Mago. In Sakharovka the peasants, and especially the peasant women, demanded my release and obtained it, so that I returned to Mago that same day. On 1 April the partisans appeared again and, arresting me, took me to Nikolaevsk, where I was imprisoned. I remained in prison until 8 April. There were no accusations against me and I was not even interrogated at any time. On 8 April some peasants arrived in town and declared that they would not leave the Committee of Inquiry until their priest was freed. This was reported to Triapitsyn, who ordered me released, adding: "You can let him go. We'll get him later." Fortunately, the season of bad roads, which started then, and the arrival of the Japanese later did not give them a chance to do that

Among the Nikolaevsk clergy the following were killed by the partisans: Archpriest Father Serapion Chernykh, abbot of the cathedral, Father Rafail Voetsky, military priest, and his brother, Father Nikolai. Father Ivan Kaiukov was taken by the Bolsheviks to Amgun. Father Serapion was arrested for a sermon that he gave before the partisans entered the town, in which he appealed to everyone to assist the authorities and take part in repelling the Bolsheviks' attack on the town. As for Father Rafail, he was the victim of a false and ridiculous accusation that he took part in the interrogation and torture, presumably in disguise, of the Red envoy Orlov. This rumor was invented and spread by the partisan leaders for the special purpose of turning the peasants against the clergy and thus undermining the few remaining moral principles. In prison Father Rafail was exposed to cruel mockery ― he was forced to dance while singing sacred psalms. He was also cruelly tortured. Both priests were killed on the night of 12 March. I was told later that Father Rafail was beheaded by Lapta. Father Serapion offered a short sermon and read an all- forgiving prayer before being stabbed to death on the Amur.[269쪽]None of the Russian partisans dared raise a hand to kill him, and he was stabbed by a Chinese.

I was in prison during the period of comparative calm when the partisans seemed to be quieting down, but even then I saw prisoners who had been severely whipped before being brought to the prison.

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 20 July 1920
Priest Sergei Leporsky

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 267~269쪽

TESTIMONY OF
NIKOLAI KONSTANTINOVICH ZUEV

I am 16 years old and this year I graduated from the Realschule.

During the Japanese attack on 12 or 13 March (most probably 12 March) at ten o'clock in the morning, partisans came into the Lamakin's house, where six Japanese were living. They were not soldiers, just peaceful artisans, but they were all cut down with swords. At about four o'clock in the afternoon, two of these Japanese, a man and a woman, regained consciousness and, covered with blood and with their fingers cut off, managed to get over the fence into our yard and dashed toward our house, apparently seeking safety. Some partisans were living downstairs in our house, and before the Japanese had time to get inside, they rushed out with guns. The Japanese fell on their knees, crying: "Do not kill. We will tell everything." But this plea did not stop the partisans. They shot the woman, holding the revolver so close to her head that the front sight got tangled in her hair, and then shot the man. The corpses lay in the yard for three days. In the evening one of the partisans, a Chinese as far as I can recall, took the trousers off the Japanese but, seeing that they were old and worn, threw them down.

A day or two later I saw several carts going by piled with corpses, mostly of Japanese soldiers. Many of the corpses were absolutely naked; some were in underwear. Arrests began from the very first day of the arrival of the partisans. The first to be arrested were the officers, then the civilians. Crowds of[270쪽]rabble stood outside the prison, greeting each new prisoner with shouts of "Beat them! Kill them!" and rushing at them ready to attack, so that the guards had trouble protecting them. Inside the prison gates the prisoners fell into the hands of the wardens and partisans who beat them in sight of everyone. They were beaten with whatever was at hand, be it a piece of firewood or iron, and the beating was merciless. Everyone was undressed down to their underwear, Shoes were taken off, and all the clothing was divided among the partisans right there.

In our school there were over 350 students, but not more than 50 remained alive. What happened to younger boys I do not know. Those who were not killed were supposedly taken to the Amgun. Out of the senior class, in which there were seven students, only two survived ― Rumarchuk and myself. Of the junior year, in which there were thirty-one students, not more than fifteen survived.

I worked for seven days for the Public Works, two of those in town. We cleaned the barracks and cleaned up the barracks yard, which was terribly dirty. The other five days I worked on the other side of the Amur, loading rocks and logs. In town the work hours were from eight A.M. to six P.M. with an hour break for dinner. On the Amur, however, counting the time to get there, the work went on from 8 A.M. until 11 P.M. and sometimes even until two o'clock in the morning. The dinner break was only half an hour. The work was very strenuous. It was done under the supervision of partisans directed by Otsevilli. They were armed with rifles and carrying whips, with which they constantly threatened us, but neither I nor anyone in my presence was ever beaten. Otsevilli took shots with his revolver on the least provocation. If during the break someone went up the hill looking for the first spring grass, he immediately would start shooting in their direction. Luckily, no one was wounded when I was there, although he aimed straight at them.

We lived in constant fear, expecting someone to come at any minute to arrest us and lead us away. We managed to get out of Nikolaevsk to Tarakanovka on 26 May, and for that reason I did not witness the last days of Nikolaevsk, although I heard that something incredible was going on. No one was[271쪽]certain what would happen at any hour. People were grabbed and shot, or killed in some other way, in broad daylight.

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 22 July 1920
Nikolai Konstantinovich Zuev

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 269~271쪽

TESTIMONY OF
PAVEL SEMENOVICH EPOV, 38 YEARS OF AGE,
AND
PAVEL PETROVICH NALETOV, 23 YEARS OF AGE

I am Epov, a local resident and the assistant chairman of the first labor cooperative society for the fishing industry in the town of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur.

I am Naletov, a student at the Forestry Institute.

We confirm the testimony of the Nikolaevsk tax assessor, Evgeny Ivanovich Vasilevsky, which was made available to us, but we consider it necessary to point out certain inaccuracies in his testimony and to make the following additions.

The envoy Orlov was sent before the insurgents had occupied the fort, not after that. When the Japanese surrendered the town, an agreement had been negotiated that no one, either among the military or the civilian population, was to be arrested and that no retribution of any kind was to take place.

Even though the committee elected by the Congress [of Soviets] did hardly any work, it did pass a resolution, which was publicized in the newspapers and filled with abusive language with regard to the Japanese, who were blamed for everything. At the meeting held immediately after the Bolsheviks entered the town, Triapitsyn proclaimed that they had come to establish Soviet rule and would convene a congress to elect Soviets and that they would then go to Khabarovsk to help accomplish the same thing there. Then, they would go on to Vladivostok and to Tokyo. At the meeting he welcomed the Korean Society, represented by its secretary. At that same meeting the secretary from the Chinese consulate read a speech from a piece of paper in which he said that the Chinese[272쪽]government welcomed Soviet rule and wished to live in peace with them.

A large part of Nikolaevsk's population received the partisans calmly and even joyfully. An indication of this is the fact that when Colonel Medvedev had called for volunteers to fight the Bolsheviks, only 25 people registered, which forced him to impose compulsory mobilization. On the other hand, when the Bolsheviks asked for volunteers to register after entering the town, up to 200 people responded, although most were laborers.

Upon entering the town, the partisans immediately occupied all the best houses, at first permitting the owners to keep one or two rooms, but later simply chasing them out of the house or even taking them to prison.

There were cases of violence against women, especially by Chinese and Koreans. There were persistent rumors that Nina Lebedeva had promised the Chinese and the Koreans that women from the bourgeoisie would be at their disposal, and when the Chinese demanded that she live up to her promise, she issued warrants for that purpose. But these rumors were denied by the Bolsheviks in the press. The following game took place at the Realschule during a social gathering organized for the Chinese and the Koreans: all the ladies present at the gathering were issued tickets, the numbers of which were distributed among the Chinese, each of whom was entitled to the woman whose name was written on the ticket. It is true that most of the women present were from among their own milieu, because women among the bourgeoisie avoided such gatherings and, when possible, refused to attend. This special privilege given the Chinese and Koreans led to complaints from the rest of the partisans and so, it seems, social gatherings of this nature were not repeated. But there is no doubt that there were individual cases of violence.

Naletov: The Bolsheviks killed my 58-year-old father, who was a clerk in the Mutual Insurance Company, my 48-year-old mother, and my 12-year-old brother. They were arrested on 25 May. I had escaped on 23 May. On the night of 24 May, partisans came to search the premises, apparently looking for me, and remained there until noon of 25 May. I was told later[273쪽]that my father went to the Committee of Inquiry to report our disappearance ― that is, mine and and that of my three older sisters, who escaped with me. That evening at five o'clock, my parents and my brother were arrested and taken to the Committee of Inquiry, where, after a short interrogation, their hands were tied, and they were taken out of town and killed together with a group which was already there. I learned this from Grigoriev, who was in that group and was saved by his former orderly. Because the guns were aimed high during execution, the adults were killed, but my brother and sister remained untouched, whereupon they were stabbed with bayonets.

Recently, when walking along the riverbank and examining the corpses cast ashore, we saw the terribly disfigured body of a boy 14 to 15 years old.

On 16 March after the Japanese attack, I encountered twenty sledges with corpses on my way to work at the zemstvo. The carters were Chinese partisans. I asked them whom theywere carrying, and their answer was: "The rich people, who were imprisoned at the militsia." All the corpses were naked and hacked to pieces. One headless corpse was hanging over the edge of the sledge.

Epov: I was told by members of our society, the draymen who were also ordered to carry the bodies of dead prisoners, that the carts were sometimes loaded with people who were still alive and moaning and that some of the partisans would laugh when throwing them on the cart saying: "Look at that! He's wheezing."

My father-in-law, Pavel Fedorovich Vasiliev, employed in the Amgun Company mines, was arrested by Budrin in Kerbi. He was badly beaten there and then brought along with other prisoners to Nikolaevsk. Budrin kept torturing him and demanding valuables, gold, and money. He was brought to Nikolaevsk half dead and was placed in the prison hospital. When all the prison inmates were being killed after the japanese attack, he also was killed along with all the patients in the hospital (the wounded Japanese and Russians in the prison), and his body was taken to the Amur.

[274쪽]


In the beginning, after the Bolsheviks entered the town, all the partisans and laborers had access to the prisoners whom they tortured and beat savagely.

Before the Bolsheviks entered the town, three officers in counterintelligence, von der Launits, Andreev, and one other whose name I do not recall, committed suicide. When the partisans entered the town, they and their women and children stood around these corpses and committed all sorts of outrages, as for instance cutting off the epaulets and shoving them into the mouth of the dead.

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 15 July 1920
Pavel Semenovich Epov
Pavel Petrovich Naletov

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 271~274쪽

TESTIMONY OF
GEORGY BAGRATOVICH VACHEISHVILI, 41 YEARS OLD

I have lived in Nikolaevsk for sixteen years, and I am engaged in the fishing business.

Negotiations about the surrender of the town began on 24 February. The Chinese consul intended to take part in the negotiations. I personally saw the people going to the negotiations in Chnyrrakh. There were three Japanese, three Russians (Mayor Karpenko, Chairman Komarovsky of the Duma, and Captain Nemchinov), and the Chinese consul. The Chinese consul was turned away by the partisans at the leper colony and he went back to town, while the rest of them were blindfolded and led to Chnyrrakh. Just at that time I was standing watch as a member of the "wild platoon" not far from the place where they met.

The partisans were supposed to enter the town on Sunday (28 February or 1 March) at noon, but they entered during the preceding night. According to the agreement for the surrender, they were not supposed to touch any of the citizens, either civilians or officers, except for three individuals: Colonel Medvedev, Lieutenant Tokarev, and Cornet[An old rank- TRANS] Parusinov, who were[275쪽]subject to an investigation. Otherwise, there was not supposed to be any arrests and in general no acts of vengeance. Contrary to the agreement, arrests began as soon as they entered the town. Officers were arrested on the very first day and civilians from the second day on. Furthermore, the arrests followed a list compiled earlier.

In the night of 8 March, the partisans executed 93 people after taking them from prison. I personally saw the corpses on the ice opposite Kuenga. The following day, 10 March, the Japanese distributed leaflets stating that, under the conditions of the surrender, the Bolsheviks were not to arrest anyone and that they, the Japanese, would take action against any violation of these conditions, such as "destruction of the people" by Red executions. (A similar leaflet was issued earlier before the Reds entered the town.) Nevertheless, the arrests continued in constantly increasing numbers. On the evening of 11 March, the Reds invited the Japanese command to attend a meeting at which they informed them that the funeral of the victims of the revolution was to take place the following day, 12 March, and that the Japanese should surrender their arms by noon of that day.



Shooting started around two o'clock in the morning of the same day, 12 March, when the Japanese attack started. The Japanese civilians took no part in the attack, and it is doubtful that they even knew that it was planned. Nevertheless, the partisans burst into their homes, dragged them from their beds, took them outside, and killed them like so many sheep while looting their property. A Japanese barber and a watch repairman and their children lived across the street from my home. At about eight o'clock in the morning, they were taken from their homes and led past my house. Their four children, ages twelve to fifteen, managed to run away, and I saw Chinese partisans chase after them and shoot them down. Not far from my house was Kawaguchi's dry goods store. Toward evening on 12 March, Chinese and Korean partisans broke down the door, looted the store, and killed the four clerks living on the premises. The battle with the Japanese soldiers and the looting and killing of peaceful Japanese civilians continued for four or five days. During all that time, the partisans demanded to be fed by the townspeople, forcing them by threat of arms to prepare food and wait on them. On 12[276쪽]March all the prisoners in the prison, the militsia station, and the guardhouse were killed by the partisans. I cannot say for sure how many prisoners there were, but I believe that it was over one thousand. After the Japanese attack ended, daily arrests and executions without any trial or inquest began anew. The piles of corpses on the frozen Amur grew larger and larger. This continued right up to the day of departure of the Reds from Nikolaevsk. The killing increased just before their departure. Previously, arrests took place only in the night, but now they began to seize people even in the day. Victims were dragged out of their homes or caught on the streets and killed. No charges were ever made.

Compulsory public work was announced. According to the official announcement, everyone between the ages of 15 or 16 and 55 was supposed to report for work, but in actual fact people were forced to work without regard to age. The work was very strenuous. Rocks and firewood were to be loaded; fish was to be cleaned and dried. The work was not assigned by one's specialty but at random. Furthermore, anyone considered to be a burzhui was assigned the hardest work. The people were treated very roughly and even cruelly. People were beaten on the slightest pretext; foul language and threats of being whipped were heard constantly. It was announced that anyone who did not evacuate with them to Kerbi would be killed on the spot.

About two weeks before the arrival of the Japanese, the evacuation was announced, but not everyone was issued a permit to leave. I was refused a permit and stayed in Nikolaevsk until 29 May. On 28 May I went once more to apply for a permit. According to my age (over 35), I was entitled to a permit, but after looking at a list, the people in charge refused to issue it, or rather, they did not refuse, but said: "Come tomorrow." Then, I went to the pier where work was going on. As soon as I got there, some partisans appeared and called out my name. I did not answer and someone told them that I had gone home. The partisans, who did not know me personally, left. I was advised to escape right away. I thought about it and decided to do just that. And right away, without stopping at home (I had sent my family away earlier), and just as I was, without any provisions, I went into the taiga. Luckily, I came across several other people there who had[277쪽]escaped and had some dried bread. We stayed in the taiga until the arrival of the Japanese.

I am a Georgian and belonged to the "Union of the Caucasus Nationalities" which had been formed in town. Red headquarters asked us several times whether we sympathized with them and whether we would join them. We replied that even though we shared their views, we could not offer them any active support. To this their answer was that "even though Georgia is independent, it is on friendly terms with Soviet Russia, and therefore you must help us. Furthermore, you are now living within the borders of Russia where nationalities are not recognized, and there can not be a state within a state. Therefore, you must perform public work, and your property will be nationalized."

After 1 May and until I left for the taiga, I stopped sleeping at home. Instead, I spent the night in different stables and barns. During that period, people were not yet arrested in the daytime but only at night. After I left for the taiga, my 65-year-old father-in-law remained behind. As I learned later, the partisans who came to get me, not finding me at home, demanded that he tell them where I was hiding. Since he did not know where I was, he, of course, could not give them any information. They gave him until 1 June to tell them where I was and came again on 30 May, threatening to kill him if he did not supply the information. On 1 June they came, took him outside, and killed him. When I returned from the taiga, I found his corpse near the cemetery.

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 26 July 1920
Georgy Bagratovich Vacheishvili

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 274~277쪽

TESTIMONY OF
VALENTINA NIKOLAEVNA KVASOVA

My father, Nikolai Trofimovich Kvasov, 60 years of age, had lived in Nikolaevsk for 25 years and owned a fishery, a bathhouse, and a kvass brewery. Our family consisted of my mother, Anna Romanovna, 59 years of age; my sister Anastasia, 21; my sister Anna, 16; my brother Ilya, 11; and myself. Anna and I were students at the Gymnasium, and my brother was in[278쪽]the secondary school. My widowed sister, Ekaterina Nikolaevna Kudriavtseva, 28 years of age, with her daughter Galina, and my sister Klavdia Nikolaevna Ivanova, with her three children aged 4, 3, and 1½, also lived with us. We lived in our own house on Fourth Street.

Early in December (old style) a battalion was sent from Nikolaevsk to Mariinskoye. It encountered the Reds in Tsimmermanovka, where a battle took place. During the battle, some 20 to 30 Whites were killed and many were wounded. When the wounded, among whom was Lieutenant Tokarev, were brought back to town, a medical detachment was organized. The function of the detachment was to set up feeding stations on the way to Mariinskoye through which the Whites were to pass. I joined the detachment, along with my sister Anastasia and another sister, Maria Nikolaevna Stepanova, whose husband was in Mariinskoye. We left town on 24 December (old style) toward the bay. When we rode onto the bay we stopped. My destination was Denisovka village, to which we were to travel by post horses part of the way and then by local hires. As we were getting ready to leave, Lieutenant Tokarev arrived with the news that he had been sent from town to take over the command from Grosh, whose detachment had been sent to assist the first detachment. I went to Denisovka with Tokarev. Upon arrival there we were struck by a very unpleasant picture ― all the soldiers were drunk and exhibited great hostility toward our unit. We went to the postal-telegraph office where we found Staff Captain Grosh and Lieutenant Riabchenko. Lieutenant Tokarev inquired what had happened and why he had been summoned. Staff Captain Grosh reported that after passing Voskresenskoye, he encountered the Reds and had to retreat in confusion. He lost a great amount of provisions, cartridges, and grenades and did not have time to stop at Voskresenskoe and Brovtsynka to warn the carters about the retreat. Grosh was in a hurry to get back to town and left that same day. Tokarev posted guards in Denisovka and established order among the soldiers. Two days went by quietly. On the night of 27 December, Tokarev received a telephone call from the partisans in Voskresenskoe with an offer to surrender, to which Tokarev replied: "We'll see about that." "Well, then, we'll argue it out," said Triapitsyn and hung up.


[279쪽]

The following day a letter arrived from Triapitsyn and Buzin demanding surrender. It was brought by a peasant, Sorokin. Before delivering the letter, Sorokin gathered together peasants and soldiers and told them about Triapitsyn's demands, advising them to surrender voluntarily. M. G. Komarovskaya saw the gathering and notified Tokarev. Sorokin was arrested and sent to Nikolaevsk. After that, Tokarev issued orders to retreat to town. On the same day, i.e., 29 December, nurse Murzichi, Viderov, and I left for town. The first medical unit was sent back, but Komarovskaya and my sister Stepanova stayed behind in Denisovka. Tokarev's detachment returned on 8 January. On the way back it was surrounded and fired at by the Reds. During the first part of January, a small Japanese detachment was sent to assist Tokarev.

On 10 January the Reds began to approach the town, but the Whites opened fire and apparently scared the Reds, who then began to retreat toward fisheries Nos. 10 and 12. Then, they began to retreat toward fisheries Nos. 1 to 6, and about 50 of them captured Fort Chnyrrakh, because there were very few Japanese soldiers there. They captured it by a ruse without any gunfire. As soon as the Reds took over the guns, the Japanese escaped into town, and the Reds began to shell the town. The Japanese had not been able to use the guns, because they did not have the gunlocks and did not know where they were, while the Reds knew that the locks were hidden under the guns. Were it not for this blunder Chnyrrakh would not have been captured and the horror of Nikolaevsk would never have occurred. The shelling caused three deaths, and three people were wounded, and some buildings were damaged. The Reds also fired from Kamora. Colonel Medvedev issued orders for the patrol forces to assemble.

Soon the Reds invited the Nikolaevsk garrison to surrender. A meeting of civilian, not military, representatives was called at the Town Council. On Thursday, 27 February, a Japanese delegation with Lieutenant Murgabov was sent to Chnyrrakh to find out what government was in power in Russia and what were the demands of the Reds. They replied that the Soviet government was in power everywhere in Russia and that they were coming to establish Soviet rule. On Friday a second delegation, consisting of military and civilian representatives,[280쪽]was sent to Chnyrrakh. It included Karpenko, Komarovsky, Captain Nemchinov, and some others whose names I do not recall. The terms of surrender were drawn up at Chnyrrakh. According to these terms, only Medvedev, the counterintelligence, and Chief of Staff Slezkin were to be arrested. All the civilians and all the property was to remain untouched. The terms of the surrender were posted all over town. The delegation returned that same day at four o'clock. At a meeting of the Town Council, it was announced that Soviet government had been established all over Russia and the Far East and that it was decided to surrender the town to the Reds, and terms of surrender were read. About seven or eight o'clock that same evening, the local Bolsheviks arrested officers of the counterintelligence and the National Guard and imprisoned them. When the prisoners were brought to the prison, it was already surrounded by the local rabble demanding that they should be handed over to the people "for retribution." Part of the Reds entered the town on Saturday. A special ceremony was held on Sunday to celebrate the arrival in Nikolaevsk of the Red forces headed by Triapitsyn. The people greeted them joyfully, men stuck red bows on their chests, red banners and flags were everywhere, and everyone seemed to be in a happy mood. Speeches were given from the stand near the town park followed by a speech by Triapitsyn, but I was so disgusted that I could neither watch nor listen. The partisans had a terrible appearance. There were Giliaks, Chinese, Golds [Nanai], Koreans, and Russians among them, My elder brother, Aleksei, who did not live with us and whose house remained intact during the fire, was arrested on that day. Someone had informed on him, and he was taken to prison. Many others were arrested at the same time.

From then on, the partisans began to behave like true anarchist terrorists. Upon entering Nikolaevsk they refused to be quartered in the barracks but impudently seized private homes. Be it said that in some cases they were met with open arms, such as for instance in the Rzhepetsky, Pozdeev, and a few other households. Most of the time I spent the night at the home of my married sister Stepanova. One night seven partisans arrived. They demanded to have supper prepared, and when they were served only fish and potatoes, one of them said that Soviet rule had proven that anywhere and anytime one can obtain anything one wants.

[281쪽]

On the third day I witnessed a startling picture: a partisan on horseback with his girlfriend, probably someone's maid servant. The following day, when I was at home, three partisans, heavily armed and carrying rubber whips, came in as if planning to visit and sprawled out in the drawing room. They began questioning whether I was a student at the Gymnasium and didn't my sister and I go around Denisovka with whips frightening the peasant women. I replied that it was not true and said: "You have it all confused," to which one of them sitting behind me with his whip remarked: "You are the ones who are all confused." They began to question my father. "What did you think when we were approaching the town?" I do not remember what my father said. Then they asked: "What would you wish for in life?" To this my father answered that it would be wonderful if one could leave something valuable in front of an open window and it would remain intact. "You may be sure," they said, "that in a year or two we will achieve such conditions." Then, they left.

The above happened on 4 March. On 7 March my sister Anastasia, employed at the Town Council, was arrested. She was arrested by six partisans, one of whom was Kazitsyn from counterintelligence, and taken to prison. According to Nimnin, the reason for the arrest was a note scribbled by Chief of State Security Lekh, which was found in his files. It read: "A. N. Kvasova wears a grey coat. Not bad, quite cute." We were not allowed to visit her. The food which we took to prison was accepted but not given to her. On 9 March my father was arrested while attending a meeting of the parents' committee at the Gymnasium. There was no warrant for his arrest. I mentioned this to my brother-in-law, Zheleznikov. He asked Komarov who was in charge of issuing arrest warrants, and it turned out that there was no such warrant. They promised to look into it and release my father in the morning. In the evening I called Naumov, who was present during my conversation with Komarov when the latter told me that there was no warrant. I asked him what was going to happen to my father. Naumov replied that the arrest warrant had been found and that my father was under arrest. I asked for what reason. He answered that it was because my father had contributed money to the Whites who were against the Reds and hung up. In prison my sister was made to scrub floors.


[282쪽]
On 10 or 11 March they began to cut holes in the ice on the Amur. The Cheka informed us that there would be a general amnesty on 12 March during the funeral of the victims of White torture. At two o'clock in the morning of 12 March we heard cannon, machine gun, and rifle fire. Everyone spent a sleepless night, and in the morning we learned that the Japanese had attacked as a result of demands by the Reds that they surrender their arms. At noon some partisans came to our house and told us to prepare dinner for fifteen people, but thirty of them arrived. They behaved well, but kept badmouthing the prisoners and the Japanese. On 13 March we learned that all the inmates in the prison, the militsia, and the guardhouse had been stabbed to death with bayonets. Among them was my father, my sister, and my brother (killed on 12 March at four o'clock in the afternoon). All the corpses were taken to the Amur and eventually thrown into the holes that had been prepared. One of the Reds told Mmes. Zinkevich that when he killed Kvasova, it did not matter since she was just a young girl, but when he was stabbing Esther Lury, it was sheer pleasure. I do not know his name.

On that same date, 13 March, Gilev, one of the partisans, came to our house and ordered us to go to work at the Red Cross. My sister and I went there. For twenty-four hours we had to perform many difficult tasks. The women were particularly unpleasant, making fun of us and saying how wonderful it was that all the burzhui had been thrown under the ice. I just did not know how to break out of this whirlpool. My sister Stepanova, who had spent two years at the front, volunteered together with the wife of Lieutenant Garf to work at the hospital located in the home of Dr. Kosh. In the night a commissar rushed in asking who she was. She identified herself. Then, he telephoned Pavlichenko, asking him: "Is it acceptable for such people to look after our wounded?" Receiving a positive answer, he nevertheless said: "In my opinion, it is not possible," and ordered them in the middle of the night to get dressed immediately and leave. He wrote a permit to leave and shouted as they were going out that next time he would write a permit which they would long remember.

On 14 or 15 March we went to Komarov to ask for permission to bury our dead, but not finding Komarov at home, we went to see Triapitsyn who lived in Belashchenko's house. There, we learned from his retinue that a common grave would be dug to bury everybody. Even though we knew where the bodies were, no[283쪽]one was allowed to go there. Quite by accident, Komarov gave permission to the mothers of Bukharkina and Surova to pick up the bodies of their daughters. They told us that the bodies of the girls were covered all over with bayonet wounds. My sister was killed at the same time as Esther Semenovna Lury. My sister had three wounds on her face and about 24 wounds on her chest. She was lying in her underwear, while Mmes. Lury was completely naked and was also covered with bayonet wounds.

On 23 May (new style) the Chinese took my mother to the gunboat. My sisters, Stepanova and Ivanova with her husband and children, my brother's wife with her daughter, and I remained in town. At 12:40 in the night, three partisans from the punitive detachment arrived to arrest my sister Stepanova. They kept inquiring whether she had any gold or money. She was in a state of shock, and I answered for her, saying that their home had burned down and they had lost everything. Then one of the men pointed a revolver right at her face and told her to get dressed immediately. They took her out of the house and killed her, but I do not know where exactly. My brother's wife was also arrested and killed that same night. They came looking for my mother, but I told them that she had left for Kerbi. They kept looking for her. Morozov even went to Mago trying to find her but did not succeed. Luckily, they did not bother me. After my mother's departure, the partisans confiscated all our possessions, leaving only the bare necessities for me. One of the partisans advised me not to sleep at home. I followed his advice and spent nights in different places.

On 29 May Japanese airplanes appeared, dropping proclamations of a reassuring nature. On 30 May I left town for Denisovka. The fires had already started when I left. The Rubinstein lumberyard was the first to catch fire, then the hospital, and then the fire spread. Before I left I saw cans with kerosene placed in front of many houses, and toward the end the partisans openly declared that they would burn the town down. The day I left my brother-in-law Zheleznikov was killed. When I returned to Nikolaevsk on 4 June, I found that our house had burned down.

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 26 July 1920
Valentina Kvasova

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 277~283쪽

[284쪽]

TESTIMONY OF
IOSIF RAFAILOVICH BERMANT, 46 YEARS OF AGE,
Owner of a Sawmill and Brick Works

The shelling of the town started after the capture of Chnyrrakh. There was not much damage and very few lives were lost. Three people were killed and several wounded, but this did not create a panic. Many people in town believed that they were not gangs but people who had come to establish law and order, even though it would be under Soviet rule. This led to unrest.

The Reds sent envoys ― at first Orlov, then an old man from Chnyrrakh ― with offers to accept surrender. Orlov was shot at Medvedev's orders. Upon entering the town Triapitsyrn appointed a joint committee of Russian and Japanese doctors and of representatives from among the inhabitants. The committee definitely established that except for the gunshots, there were no signs of other wounds or torture on Orlov's body. I heard this from the members of the committee ― Derzhavets, who represented the Jewish population, and Dr. Bobrov. But this did not stop Triapitsyn from continuing to repeat the rumor he had started earlier that Orlov had been tortured to death.

Finally, it was decided to enter into negotiations with the Reds. Mayor Karpenko, the chairman of the Duma, Komarovsky, Captain Nemchinov, and the Chinese consul went as envoys. When, after crossing a certain point, the envoys were to be blindfolded, the Chinese consul refused and returned to town. The delegates returned directly to the People's Hall where a Duma meeting was called. Komarovsky suggested that everyone should stand up, and then he proclaimed: "Long live the Russian Socialist Federated Republic." Komarovsky was known for his anti-Soviet views and for his numerous, open speeches against them; therefore, this pronouncement of his created a strong impression. Then, Komarovsky reported on the telegram from General Shiromidzu concerning the decision of the Japanese not to intervene in Russian internal affairs (which made it clear to us that we could no longer count on help from Japan) and also informed us that the Soviet government was in place all over Russia.

[285쪽]

The Duma elected a delegation to see Major Ishikawa to consult him about the surrender of the town and to find out the attitude of the Japanese command to the conditions of surrender that had been agreed upon by the delegates. Next morning Komarovsky reported that the Japanese command had immediately agreed to accept Triapitsyn's conditions, having obtained the right to safeguard the interests of their own citizens and of others, including the civilian Russian population. The conditions were as follows: before the arrival of the partisans, the Russian forces were to hand-over their arms to the Japanese and the Japanese retained the right to keep their arms, to maintain their own patrols, and to guard their buildings.

The entry of the partisans was set for 29 February. A ceremonial reception was planned, but part of the ski detachment came in the night before. In the morning all the townspeople came to greet the partisans, who entered with banners reading: "Death to the burzhui," "Death to all officers, " and we understood with whom we were dealing. Komarovsky and Karpenko greeted them with speeches. Triapitsyn responded. Among other things, he said: "All these scum, the burzhui, have to be destroyed. Our goal is not just to capture Nikolaevsk or Khabarovsk but to go on to Tokyo, and if necessary even to New York, in order to destroy capitalism and its representatives the world over." Arrests began at once ― at first the officers in the counterintelligence and the commandant's unit and then the wealthier civilians. Many young women were arrested, being accused of working for counterintelligence. A sufficient cause for arrest could be the fact that they were seen in the street walking together with an officer. People were arrested after being denounced, and the most ridiculous complaints could bring about an arrest. "For Orlov's death,” Triapitsyn said, "I will repay a thousand times. How dared they do this to a sacred person, an envoy." All the prisoners were kept in the prison, the militsia, and the guardhouse. There were about 800 of them. They were in prison until 12 March.

At five o'clock in the evening on 11 March, the manager of the Shimada factory, Mori, a Japanese citizen, called me on the telephone and asked me to come over. When I got there, he told me that he had just been informed by Tatsuoka that[286쪽]according to military sources, Triapitsyn had demanded that the Japanese surrender their arms and machine guns by noon of 12 March. I asked him: "What will happen?" "In my opinion, the Japanese command cannot surrender their arms," he said, "but what will happen I do not know."

About two o'clock in the morning, there was a telephone call with an order: "Call the superior immediately" (28 partisans were quartered on my premises). After answering the telephone, the superior came out shouting: "Get dressed, get dressed," and all the partisans rode away in a hurry. The big mistake the Japanese made was not to cut the telephone wires. I know that many Japanese civilians did not know anything about the attack. All the stories about Japanese women shooting at partisans are not true. I heard from partisans that the Koreans and Chinese were particularly vicious in killing the Japanese, including women and children, although some of the Russians were not far behind. Many of the partisans boasted of their deeds, but there were also many who talked about it with indignation. During that same night, all those imprisoned were killed. Some were killed in the night of 11 March, the others on 12 March. In the morning of 13 March, corpses were being carted out like so much firewood. Forty Japanese surrendered in the garrison meeting hall and were killed on the spot. One hundred and thirty men and six women managed to reach the stone barracks of the former Japanese headquarters and held out for several days, but finally they had to surrender and were all taken to prison.

After this, things seemed to quiet down a bit. Some arrests did occur, but they were mostly their own people who had expressed opposition. The Commissar of Agriculture, Lubatovich, was arrested; so were the chief of militsia, Mizin, the head of the 3rd unit, Koriakin, and the Perevalovs, brother and sister. These arrests caused ferment among the partisans, especially the artillerymen. The Union of Unions also demanded open trials and an explanation of the reasons for arrests. But this protest did not bring results. The reasons for arrests and the types of sentences were made public for awhile but only in certain cases, and then all publicity stopped.

About two days after the arrival of the partisans, I learned from Lubatovich that all plants would be nationalized.[287쪽]I owned two plants, a sawmill and a brick works with 82 workmen. Even sooner, that is immediately upon entering the town, the Bolsheviks took over the banks and stopped their operations. I had 500 sacks of flour [as collateral?] in the Siberian Bank. They stopped issuing flour to me, and my workmen remained without provisions. I went to the headquarters to inquire. There, I had to talk to Lekhov. I explained my problem and asked to know if I could start working. "Go ahead and work, but just the same the plant will be nationalized." To my question whether I could participate in the work and receive the share due me, he said: "That will depend on the workmen." My workmen gave a favorable opinion of me. I wanted to organize the business as a cooperative with the workmen and mentioned this to Lekhov. "No," he said, "you won't get away with that. All the cooperatives will be nationalized also. For your work you will get a salary." On 8 April a decree was passed that my plants, the Rubinstein sawmill, and the Filippov plant were nationalized and consolidated under the management of a general collective. I was elected to be the president of the collective. We started work and it continued until 12 May. Payment was made through the Accounting Bureau in which Aussem was in charge. In spite of the fact that we were working, the bureau would not issue food products to us. I went to obtain an explanation from Aussem and insulted him in the course of our talk. He gave orders to have me arrested "for disobedience and inciting people against the Soviet government," but I managed to reach Triapitsyn, who called Komarov and told me to go back to work. I escaped arrest, but I paid dearly for this argument later.

On 22 May at eight o'clock in the evening, Vorfolomeev came to see me and reported that the woman doetor, Pustovalova, had just been arrested. She was an exceptional person and, as a physician, had been extremely helpful to the partisans. This arrest made me realize that we should all be extremely careful. After the man left, my 16-year-old son said to me: "Papa, it would be better if you did not sleep at home but went somewhere else." I thought about it and hid in the hayloft.

Before I had time to fall asleep, I heard footsteps and knocking on the door of our house. I stopped worrying,[288쪽]thinking that the partisans not finding me at home, had left without even searching. But a few minutes later my wife came to the hayloft in tears to tell me that they had taken Lienia, our 16-year-old son. I never thought this could be possible. He took no part in politics, and there was absolutely no possible reason for his arrest. My wife related what happened. Learning that I was not at home, the partisans turned to my son and said: "Perhaps you can come with us to testify." "Let's go," he said. "Are you not afraid, young man?" "What should I be afraid of?" My wife began to weep. "Don't worry, we wil just interrogate him and will bring him back right away." They took him away and we never saw him again.

Early next morning my wife and I rushed over to see Zhelezin. "Calm down," he said, "I will call the Committee of Inquiry." Then he said: "Beliaev is not there yet. Go to the Committee of Inquiry, and I will warn them." We rushed around all day long and appealed to everyone but to no avail. On the night of 22 May, I again did not sleep at home. That night they took my 84-year-old father and my 79-year-old mother. My mother was released, but my father was kept by the Committee of Inquiry, and I never saw him again, either.

On 24 May my wife and I went to see Triapitsyn. We had trouble getting to him. Zhelezin was with him. We appealed to them. "My father is an old man, 84 years old," I said. "My son is only 16. Ask anyone and they will tell you that neither one of them has ever hurt anyone. If I am to blame for something, take me instead." My wife begged them: "Take him to be a partisan, let him be a partisan, but don't kill him." "You should have thought about this sooner," Triapitsyn said to my wife, and to me he said: "The Committee of Inquiry will investigate the matter, and as for you, your turn will come." We left and decided to escape as soon as possible.

For my wife and six children, I managed to get a permit in her [maiden] name, Yurova. I had no doubt that I could never personally obtain a permit, so I sent a note to Morozov, a peasant from Denisovka village whom I had known for a long time, asking him to help me. He answered that he would come at two o'clock. He did not come, but sent a Korean who came to the plant with a seal, which supposedly needed fixing, but actually to find out if I was there. The Korean turned out to be[289쪽]a nice person, and he warned me that we should escape as soon as possible, because orders had been issued to arrest the entire family. My family left for Mago. My mother absolutely refused to leave while my father was still in prison, so we did not get a permit for her. Without a permit, she was refused access to the barge and remained in town. I do not know even to this day what happened to her.

A man by the name of Bekkerman and I found our way into the taiga where we remained for sixteen days. Drukis, the manager of my sawmill, witnessed the treatment administered to the remaining Japanese. On 24 or 25 May about fifty of them were brought to the Amur, where the partisans started beating them. The Japanese kept pleading: "Russ, shoot! Russ, shoot!" but they were stabbed with bayonets, chopped with swords. How horrible it was one can judge by the fact that many of the partisans hid behind some lumber lying there so as not to witness it.

On 25 March my employee Borisov informed me that three half-clad, almost frozen, wounded men were hiding in the abandoned cooper's hut at the sawmill. It turned out it was Akkerman, Eremkin, and one other man, whose name I do not know, who were not finished off during the execution. At this late hour in the morning with partisans all over the place, it was absolutely impossible to try to conceal them. Borisov and I thought it was best for them to get to the hospital, which was close by, while we would try to speak on their behalf to Budrin. However, they were already spotted by some youngster, who reported to his mother. She told the partisans and the men were seized. They were all shot the next day.

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 29 July 1920
Iosif Rafailovich Bermant

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 284~289쪽

TESTIMONY OF
ANNA ILYINISHNA LURY, AGE 60

I lived with my son, Abram Moiseevich Lury, and my daughter-in-law, Esther Semenovna. When my son, who was on military duty at the time, was sent to Mariinskoye to deliver a packet to Colonel Vits, my daughter-in-law and I remained[290쪽]alone in the house with the two children, my grandson aged seven and my granddaughter, aged five. There were no men in the house. On the very day that the Bolsheviks entered the town, several armed partisans came to our house and declared that they would be staying there. As we learned later, these men were the leaders ― Zhelezin, Ded-Ponomarev, Korenev, Sluchainyi, and Sasov. When I saw them, I left the house and went to the home of my married daughter [Mrs. L. M. Kaptzan], but after thinking it over, decided to return. I found the men sitting around the table drinking tea. I greeted them. One of them, Korenev, said to me: "Grandmother, we took over your room." I was made to share a room with the children's nurse. Of my four pillows Korenev let me take two and kept the other two. They also took over my son's study. My daughter-in-law tried to object, saying that she needed it to conduct business and that the telephone was there. But they answered her, "You'll manage without. As for the telephone, we need it ourselves." We had to give in, and they occupied the entire house, leaving only three rooms for our use.

A few days later they ordered us to get out of the house and move over to the small house in the yard, which was occupied by Mrs. Bunge, whose husband had been arrested on the first day. My daughter-in-law began to argue, but Sasov pointed a revolver at her, yelling: "When I give orders, you are to obey and not talk back." We wanted to collect some of our belongings and asked permission. More yelling: "No belongings. Take your bedding and clear out." At that point they searched the house, took all the money, all the valuable gold items, and even made my daughter-in-law remove her rings and a brooch she was wearing. From the very first day, they announced that we were under house arrest, and we were guarded by armed partisans, who were peasants from Mikhailovskoye whom we knew. When we were forced to move to the small house, the guards followed us.



On 9 March my daughter-in-law was called in for interrogation. She was taken away by two of our guards. In a few hours the men returned. "Where is Esther Semenovna?" I asked. "She will be back soon," they answered, and then turning to the other guards, they said, "Let's go. The arrest has been canceled." I waited for my daughter-in-law's return but all in vain. It became clear to me that she had been[291쪽]imprisoned. Three days went by. I never left the house. My daughter took food to the prison. During the night of the fourth day, we were awakened by gunfire. The shooting continued for two days. On the morning of the third day, Sluchainyi and Zhelezin stopped by. "How are you getting along here?" Zhelezin asked me. "Poorly," I said, "we were almost killed." "You see what those scoundrels are doing," said Zhelezin. And when I asked him who was doing the shooting, he answered: "How come you don't know who is shooting? It's the Japanese." Before that, on the first day of the shooting, some partisans had stopped by asking us if we had any Japanese in the house. When Mrs. Bunge told them that we had none, they left with a threat: "Watch out. If we find any we'll kill you, too." After they left, our coachman, who knew that the children's Japanese nurse was with us, came in to see me and said, "Grandmother, I feel sorry for you. Chase the Japanese woman away at once," and turning to her, he said: "Come on out." Having no recourse, she came out and was pushed from the yard into the street where she was killed. I might add that this Japanese nurse was noticed at the very beginning. As soon as they arrived, Zhelezin said: "Why do you keep a Japanese nurse? Let her go and take a Russian."

About two days later when everything calmed down and the surviving Japanese soldiers had already surrendered, several armed partisans came to the house at about ten o'clock in the evening asking for Mrs. Bunge. When she came out, they arrested her and led her away together with her 17-year-old son. Next morning, Zhelezin came by again with the same question: "How are you getting along, Grandmother?" "Very poorly," I said. "I am here all by myself. The stoves have to be lit, but I don't have the strength. Let me have a small room somewhere." "Where am I going to find a room?" he said. "Look for one yourself. You must have some relatives." Then, he turned to Sasov, who was with him, and said: "If she finds a room, harness a horse and move her things." I went to see my brother Maremant and decided to move in with him. I was provided with a horse, but of our belongings I was only allowed to take the children's clothing and their small beds, and I could only take my mattress but not my bed. I was also allowed to take three spoons, three cups, and three plates, and foodstuffs to last for about two or three days. I was not allowed to take anything else.

[292쪽]

That my daughter-in-law had been killed I learned from Zhelezin himself. One day when he stopped by after the Japanese attack he said, "See what the Japanese have done? Because of them, we had to kill everyone in the prison." Then, turning to the children who kept crying: "We want our mama," he said, clapping them on the shoulder, "Why do you need your mama? I'll be your papa." I understood then that my daughter-in-law had been killed, which I suspected earlier because I had heard rumors that everyone in the prisons had been executed. Mrs. Bunge, who had been arrested after the Japanese attack, was released together with her son twelve days later.

I stayed at my brother's home without ever leaving the house. Just once, I went out to go to the public bathhouse and later heard that the partisans who saw me said: "That's a bourzhouika.[A bourgeois woman-TRANS.] She should be killed." I must add that on the day that my daughter-in-law was taken to prison, Zhelezin and Korenev interrogated me at home. They kept asking what happened to the gold and money which I had when my husband was alive. I told them that I was widowed very young with small children and spent everything raising them. After that, they left me in peace.

Having learned about the death of my daughter-in-law, I wanted to leave and take the children out of town together with my daughter, whose husband had also been executed. But we were refused a permit. Around 25 May some Chinese merchants whom we knew and our former Chinese cook offered to take me and the grandchildren out of town, but I was afraid to go without a permit. Also, I did not want to leave my daughter and her children, but the Chinese could not take all of us. Finally, my daughter decided to take her children to the Chinese quarter and hide there with some Chinese she knew. I did not dare accompany her with my very nervous grandchildren, for fear that they might start screaming and give everyone away. My daughter left and I remained alone. When my brother decided to send his family away and they went to get permits, I asked my niece to get one for me, too. When the niece returned a while later, she said that I had been[293쪽]ordered to apply in person. I went to the Committee of Inquiry with the children, whom I never left out of my sight. When I arrived, I was told to go to a separate room. After a while, a young man accompanied by two armed partisans came in and asked me: "Do you have any relatives left besides these two children?" "No," I said. "All right," he said, "we cannot give you a permit, but we will take you out of town in two days." With that I returned home. My brother said that we could not possibly remain in the house. He, too, had been refused a permit and was afraid to spend the night at home. I had heard that the Children's Orphanage was being evacuated and decided to go there to ask them to take us along. I dressed the children, took some bread, and went there. When I arrived, the director of the orphanage said that without permission and a pass she could not possibly take me along. What to do, where to go? It was already seven o'clock in the evening. I remembered about a pilot's sick widow whom I knew. She lived in a small house with an old watchman. I spent that night safely. In the morning I had no idea what to do. I went to the pier. Crowds of people were there waiting for a chance to get away. I spent the night on the pier. On the third day I decided to go ask for a permit again. The former examining judge, Paradoksov, was in charge. I told him that I had been instructed to come back on that day. "Who told you to come back?" he asked. I said that I did not know the name of the man and gave him my name. "Wait a moment," he said. He took care of the other people, then softly called my name. When I came up, he gave me a pass for Mago. Having received the pass, I wanted to stop by my brother's house but luckily met an acquaintance who warned me to stay away, because my brother and an old Jew living in the house had been arrested and that the partisans were asking for me. I later learned that both my brother and the old man had been killed. I went back to the pier and this time a Korean took pity on me and took me and the children to Mago in a small boat.

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 21 July 1920
Anna Ilyinishna Lury

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 289~293쪽

[294쪽]
TESTIMONY OF RAISA YAKOVLEVNA MILLER

At about five o'clock in the evening on Sunday, shortly after the partisans entered the town, 25 armed men appeared at our house and announced that they would be quartered with us. They occupied the living room, the dining room, and the study. They declared that if we were concerned, we could put away loose items but that it was really not necessary, because they were very strict about stealing. For the first few days they lived completely at our expense, but later they started bringing their own meat, although the rest of the supplies were ours.

During the first two days, the behavior of the partisans and their attitude toward us was fairly decent. But then it .. started. Accordions appeared, someone was strumming on the piano all day long, there was a lot of drinking, and they went down to the cellar on their own to fetch canned food and wines. Knowing that my son was in the detachment which had retreated from Mariinskoye to De Kastri, they constantly brought up the subject, laughing and taunting me. They said that during the siege they knew absolutely everything that was going on in the town, that they received newspapers from town, that they came into town ― even going to the movie houses ― and that they obtained all they needed in town. For instance, when my daughter asked them how come they had such a big supply of red cloth, they answered that it came from the town.

On Wednesday, 4 March, Mikhailovsky, a member of the Committee of Inquiry, appeared accompanied by an armed boy of about 15 and declared that they came to make a search. (I recognized the boy from seeing him as a youngster at all the charity events, where he would get under foot staring at the food with greedy eyes, and we would always give him something.)

First of all they demanded firearms. We told them that · we had handed in all of our firearms after the official
announcement. During the search, they found a small old revolver and a few cartridges for guns of a different make in one of the desk drawers. They examined these for a long time and in spite of our argument that the cartridges did not fit the[295쪽]gun and had been lying around for over ten years, they took everything saying, "They will figure out over there whether they fit or not."

They asked if we had any gold. We said that we had no gold but had gold currency. They opened the safe and the desk drawers. I brought a sack at their request, into which they shoved all the money. My daughter remarked that they had taken all the money and did not leave anything for our expenses. Then, Mikhailovsky took pity on us and spilled out on the floor a pile of half ruble pieces ― about 700 rubles in all. They also went through all the books, pulling them off the shelves, throwing them all over the floor, and walking on them. They went down into the cellar, where they collected all the wines, liquors, and champagne, and announced that all this would be taken to the dump to be destroyed, because drinking of alcoholic beverages was forbidden among them. Mikhailovsky took the sack with the money and the wines with him personally and rode away with the driver who was waiting for him. We did not get a receipt for any of the things confiscated, although originally they promised to give us one.

During the search, they told my husband, Veniamin Yakovlevich Miller, that he was to be arrested, but when they left, they must have forgotten and did not take him with them. My daughter said to him: "Papa, why don't you go with them? The sooner you go, the sooner you will get back," but my husband did not go. A little while later a telephone call came for "the young mistress," i.e., my daughter, and she was told, "Your papa can stay free for the time being."

On Saturday we received orders to make a list of all the men's clothing. We asked: "What shall we do with it? Take it to the headquarters or some other place?" and the answer was: "No, we will come over and pick out what we want." On the same day at about three o'clock in the afternoon, three armed partisans arrived, declaring that they came to search through the clothing. They did not have a search warrant. I told them that we had made a list according to orders and that therefore a search was not necessary, and then I called the headquarters, because the men insisted on making a search. At the headquarters I was told to ask the name of the men. Then, one of the men took the telephone, and after a conversation of a few[296쪽]minutes, announced that they would search anyway. But since I would not give in and wanted to call the headquarters again, he said: "All right, I will go over there and clear up the matter," and they all left. At noon on Sunday, they came back again to take away the things. They began to examine the clothing, making remarks like: "Just look how much clothing you have ― mountains of it ― while we went about half-dressed in the forest." There was some discussion among them. One would say, "Leave it. What do we need it for?" referring to starched collars, for instance, and another one would contradict: "We'll find some use for it." We were forced to pretend to be willing to give anything away. I kept saying, "Well, of course, if this is needed for the good of the people, please take it."

They searched through everything, then went out into the next room and had some sort of a discussion. When they returned, they asked us — that is, my husband, my nephew Iosif Rumarchuk, a seventh-year Realschule student aged 16, and myself — to go into another room. We did so, and as soon as we were there, they locked us up. About ten minutes later they opened the door and declared: "Get dressed. You are under arrest." I think that they did not have an arrest warrant with them and had to telephone to get permission. I asked permission to send the children to a friend's home. "All right, send them there," I was told. I sent the children to Model's home, because some Japanese were living there and there were no partisans. To my question as to where we were being taken and why we were arrested, they answered: "To prison, and as for the reason, they will look into it over there."

Having put us under arrest, they searched us. They removed my husband's watch and rings and took my wedding and diamond rings. Along with us they took Rumarchuk. I asked them to leave him behind and that he was just a high school student and did not take part in any political activity, which could be checked with the school principal, but they insisted. Just as we were leaving the house, my daughter returned home. Seeing us coming out of the door surrounded by armed partisans, she asked in a frightened voice: "Where are you going?" "To prison," we answered. The partisans who were escorting us (they were the ones living with us), seeing my daughter, shouted to the men in the house: "The daughter came home. Are there any instructions concerning her?" The[297쪽]answer was that there were no instructions and she was left alone.

In the prison my husband and I were taken to different cells. In the women's cell I found almost all of Nikolaevsk: the wives of three engineers (Kurushin, Batsevich, and Komarovsky); the telephone operator from the telephone station; an old woman of about 60 who was the wife of a minor port employee by the name of Grosberg and who was arrested , because she sold a pair of felt winter boots to the Whites; old lady Viderova, arrested when she brought dinner to her son in prison; the typist from the Town Council, Kvasova; the niece of the priest Voetsky, arrested because she was mistaken for his wife in spite of all assurances to the contrary; and some others ― 22 inmates in all. On that same day I was taken to the prison office to be interrogated. The interrogation was conducted by the same Mikhailovsky. He wanted to know where we were in 1918 during the Bolshevik reign in Nikolaevsk, whether we knew anybody in counterintelligence, whether any officers frequented our home, did we send any gifts to the front, did we contribute any money for the front. I answered all the questions and this ended the interrogation. Then I asked, "Comrade Mikhailovsky, tell me why I have been imprisoned." "We will look into it soon." "There must be a reason," I said. "After all, it would never enter my mind that I could ever be put in prison." "Don't worry, you will soon be released." I returned to the cell. Before leaving his office, I asked Mikhailovsky to call my daughter and let her know that we were all right and that conditions were not too bad and to send us some food. He carried out my request.

At about seven o'clock in the evening, there was a lot of noise in the corridor and the clanging of the lock to our cell. Then, the door opened and someone was literally thrown in. It turned out to be the mother of engineer Komarovsky, a woman of 45 to 47 years of age. Her arrival produced a terrible panic. She was shouting: "What right do you have to beat me?" "Shut up and get undressed!" shouted the men who brought her. The partisans standing in the corridor kept removing and inserting their ramrods, which produced terrifying sounds. About ten seconds went by. Finally, one of the partisans yelled: "Comrades, drag her out into the corridor, there is not enough room in here." They grabbed her and pushed her so hard that[298쪽]she fell. The beating started. At first we heard screams, then an inhuman howl, and, finally, gradually decreasing moans and the sound of blows. The door was opened again and she was thrown in. She remained lying on the spot where she fell. We picked her up and put her on a cot. This was not the first beating. She had been beaten earlier at the militsia. I spent four days in prison, and two beatings took place while I was there. ·

In the evening Maltsev and Slepukhin came to the prison and said: "We will release you soon." They read the list, but my name was not on it. I said: "How can it be that my name is not on the list? Please write it in." They put it in, and on the following day I was released together with twelve others.

Triapitsyn and Nina and the other leaders frequently came to the prison to examine the prisoners. One day Mikhailovsky arrived. "Let me see Maria Nikolaevna," he said. Maria Nikolaevna, accused of working for counterintelligence, was a very pretty woman who came out proudly, her head high, and hands behind her back. "You wish to see me?" "Ah, here is the bird," said Mikhailovsky. "And haven't you seen such birds before?" answered Maria Nikolaevna disdainfully. There were three other women in our cell, who were probably prostitutes. When partisans came in, the women turned to them, saying: "We're bored, bring us some sunflower seeds at least." "What sunflower seeds? You'll soon be sent to fence in the fish traps," the partisans would answer. Only much later did we understand the meaning of this enigmatic phrase. It meant that one would soon be thrown into the Amur under the ice.

Once a commissar came into our cell and started asking questions about incidents of violence. Mrs. Viderova told him that the partisans who arrested her demanded that she remove from her finger a ring which she had not taken off for so long that, as the saying goes, it had grown onto her finger. She tried to prove to the man that she could not possibly remove it, try as she might. Then, he tore the ring off together with the flesh. I saw her injured finger myself. Of course, this questioning and this complaint did not produce any real results.


[299쪽]


I never saw my husband again. After leaving the prison, I moved with my children to Model's house.

Before the partisans entered the town, Nina had promised the Chinese partisans that Russian women would be handed over to them, and in fact, some Chinese were given warrants for women, but the Chinese consul protested, and the warrants were taken away. At meetings Triapitsyn kept saying that all White skunks and their offspring would be shoved under the ice. He said that he kept them for the time being while they were needed, but when the right time came he would shove them all under the ice or take them to Kerbi to "a deep place." One was not allowed to mention those who had been killed, because according to them, "they never killed anyone. The White skunks had managed to escape and that was why none of them were around." Rumarchuk's son, who was arrested together with us, was released at the same time as I was.

The destruction of the town and the annihilation of all the inhabitants had been discussed earlier, and at the end of May, measures began to be taken. Men arrived in the night, and later even during the day, seized people, and killed them as soon as they reached the prison. ."Bullets must not be wasted on White skunks," they said, and so they killed people with axes or with bayonets, or they took them to the Amur on a boat and threw them in the water after knocking them unconscious with a gun butt. Dr. Bruner-Pustovalova, her brother Ruvim Bruner, a Realschule senior, the wife of Tokarev, the wives of Garf and Nazarov, the Kramer family, and so many others were killed in this manner.

Our Chinese friends began to tell us that we must leave. I went to see the Chinese consul to ask him to find room for me on a gunboat. The consul said that he felt terribly sorry for us and that he would like to help but that he could not take us on a gunboat, because it was not in his power. Then, my daughter expressed her thought out loud: "What a pity that Captain Mau is not here." "Do you know him?" asked the consul, and when she gave an affirmative answer, he said: "Wait a bit." In a few minutes he returned with Captain Mau, who had just arrived from the gunboat. After talking to us and asking if we could keep a secret, Mau called several sailors, who took us to[300쪽]a secret location. In a little while, two sailors arrived. When we wanted to leave together, they explained by signs that only the two little ones should go. We did not want to let them go. Then, one of the sailors ran off somewhere and in a few minutes returned smiling and informed us that the children would be taken first and then we would follow. And in fact, we all reached the gunboat and were saved.

I cannot finish without saying a few words about our Chinese cook who showed rare affection and sympathy and such devotion as would be difficult to match. When we were arrested, he wept like a baby. When we were deprived of provisions, he stole for us and made purchases with his own money. One day he came and after sitting a while, took out his purse and, emptying all the money, handed it over to me saying: "Here, buy yourself some cigarettes." When I tried to persuade him to stay for dinner with us, he would never agree, saying that he could always eat with the Chinese while we did not have enough food for ourselves. Noticing that my son's shoes were falling apart, the next morning he brought his own shoes, which he had cleaned up. "What are you going to do without shoes?" I asked. "No matter, I Chinese. Can go barefoot. But Yasha?" At one point I was thinking of sending my younger son with him to Khabarovsk and was begging him to go, but he answered me simply with perfect sincerity: "I live, Yasha live; me no more — not know what happen."
Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 22 July 1920
Raisa Yakovlevna Miller

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 294~300쪽

TESTIMONY OF ALEKSEI AFANASIEVICH MELNIKOV

I am a retired government official and for some time now have been employed by the business firm of Lạry Brothers as manager of the financial section and the cash.

The partisans entered the town at eleven o'clock on 29 February, although some of them came during the night before. I did not witness the reception given them personally, but according to my daughter, the laboring masses greeted them joyfully and actively participated in the ceremonies.[301쪽]
At six o'clock on the evening of 1 March, our office was occupied by a company of 120 Chinese partisans under the command of a partisan called "Gromoboy." He was about 28 to 30 years of age, and according to him, he was a sailor from Vladivostok. As a person, he created a most favorable impression, and during all my encounters with him, he never said anything unpleasant and never implied that he carried a grudge against us or was planning to take revenge. He was, without doubt, a kind person.

They occupied the entire office without leaving a single room available to us. I was summoned immediately, and "Gromoboy" demanded that I should hand over all the money. I called in the cashier, opened the safes, and offered to count the money. They counted the money thoroughly and checked all the documents. Everything was taken over by "Gromoboy" with his assistant and a certain Communist-Anarchist. Among the documents there were many promissory notes as well as blank notes bearing the signatures of Kashin and Sedov, the agents for the trading company of Ivan Stakheev & Co. There were also some duty stamps and completely blank promissory notes. I asked "Gromoboy" to give me a receipt for all that they took, which he did, except for the promissory notes. As my witnesses during the surrender of cash, I invited our cashier, Shipova, the manager of the household section, Sakke, and one of the bookkeepers, Portniagin.

After counting the money, "Gromoboy" demanded that I hand over the cashbook, and taking his revolver out of the holster, he came up close and said to me: "If the cash that you handed over does not correspond with the records in the cash book, here is the witness (pointing to his gun) that will settle the matter." He then returned the money and the documents to the safe and after locking it, handed the keys to me, saying that he would post a guard at the door and that I was not to enter the room with the safe. The following day the keys were taken away from me. At that point I asked "Gromoboy" to give me a detailed list of the documents that they had taken and he told me not to worry, because the Committee of Inquiry would take care of the matter. When I arrived three days later planning to ask again for a receipt, I found that the room where the safe was kept was empty; everything had been removed. To my request for a list of[302쪽]documents, "Gromoboy" repeated the same thing: that everything was in the safe and that the Committee of Inquiry would look into it. He was very polite and invited me to have dinner with him. He was killed on 11 March during the Japanese attack.

After that, I went in twice to see "Gromoboy's" assistant, asking for a list of the documents, but he told me that he did not know anything. I became convinced that I was to be executed and that I was free for the time being because they still needed me to hand over the current accounts in the banks. About two weeks later, an order of the Executive Committee appeared in the newspapers to the effect that all the money removed from the bank accounts during the period from 1 January to 1 March was to be returned immediately. (I must add that immediately upon arrival they began to publish the newspaper Prizyv, in which all their orders were announced and which everyone was required to read.)

During that period, I had withdrawn over a million in cash from the bank account to pay for expenses in connection with the business and I could not possibly return that money. Since I did not comply with the order, I was put under strict surveillance about a week later. All the commissariats had been organized by then. I went to the Commissariat of Finance to clear the matter and presented a written report, in which I explained that I could not return the money to the bank account because it had been spent for business purposes, that I had a power of attorney, but my principal, A. M. Lury, was not here, and that there were records covering the money spent. The Commissar of Finance was most unresponsive and dismissed me, saying, "I will report to Comrade Triapitsyn." About five days later I received an official communication to the effect that Triapitsyn's instruction on my paper read: "Money or documents." After receiving this communication, I again went to see the Commissar of Finance to explain that I did not have the money and that they had all the documents. : Commissar of Finance Gardanov answered, "We have no time to talk to you and our decision is simple ― either the money or · · ·," and making a suggestive gesture, he added, "good-bye," and left the room. From then on the surveillance was increased; a trusted partisan was lodged in my home, who watched every step I took. I expected to be arrested at any moment. Just then an order[303쪽]was issued stating that all saboteurs would be deprived of food rations. To avoid this, I was forced to work for them and was employed at the division of food rations and supply.

Evacuation of women, children, and men over 50 years of age to Kerbi was announced at the beginning of May. The chairman of the commissariat. Nechaev, issued orders up lists of families of all the employees of the commissariat. I requested that my name be put on the list because of my old age. He agreed. But when the permits were received, the typist Kuchina and myself were denied permits without any explanation. I insisted that I was entitled to a permit, since I was 65 years old and ill. Then, he announced that I would have to undergo a medical test by the committee. I was examined by two doctors, a doctor's assistant, and a partisan, and I was found to be weak and sickly. The certificate was to be sent to Nechaev that same evening. But when I'inquired the following morning, the certificate was not there. I went to the Committee of Public Health, where I had been examined, and was told that the committee had been disbanded and all the material had been handed over to the Committee of Social Security. I went there and was told that this committee had also been disbanded and their affairs were now handled by the Bureau of the Labor Army. That bureau was also disbanded. Then, I went back to Nechaev and told him about all this. He said that he would give orders to find the papers. The secretary found the list of people who had undergone medical examination, but my name was not on it. At that point Nechaev began shouting at me: "What stories you are telling me! I will arrest you and have you executed!" But after a while, he relented and said: "I will give you a permit to leave, taking your word for it, but if your story turns out to be false I will shoot you myself," and he gave me a permit to leave for Kerbi. When I took this permit to the man in charge of evacuation, he told me that he could not let me go because they still needed me and that they were short of transport facilities. As I continued to insist, he said: "Wait until tomorrow." I left and in the evening hid under the sidewalk, where I remained two days (the sidewalk was a wooden deck). During the day, I came out cautiously looking for a fellow traveler. Then, I spent one night under the bridge and another at the jetty. Finally, I encountered an old man, and we found a small rowboat and[304쪽]left. We reached Mago, where I found my daughter who had escaped earlier. On the way we witnessed the town burning.

Kuchina was refused a permit to leave. I think it was because she was to be executed so as not have any witnesses, since her entire family had been done away with. I do not know what brought on the Japanese attack, but I believe it was the terror instituted by the Reds with the daily arrests, brutalities in the prison, and nightly executions.

In the prison people were tortured mercilessly. All were subject to beatings, but I was told that particularly cruel treatment was administered to engineer Krotkov, engineer Batsevich and his wife, Lieutenant Tokarev, the priest Voetsky, E[sther] S. Lury, and engineer Komarovsky. People were flogged with birch rods and whipped with rubber truncheons and heavy whips. People were struck on the face so as to knock out an eye. Men would argue: "You don't know how to hit. Do it so that the eye is knocked out right away." This was followed by a demonstration. People were whipped until they lost consciousness. The beating was repeated. As soon as the victim would regain consciousness, he would be beaten again. The beating was done all over the body, so that a person was turned into one bleeding mass. The faces became unrecognizable after the beating. Many people reported this. I also heard some of it directly from one of their particularly brutal executioners, Goman.

As soon as the issuance of permits to the families of employees in our commissariat was announced (there were about 140 employees), the older employees began to disappear. This treatment was administered not only to the bourgeoisie and intelligentsia, but to the laboring class, as well as low status functionaries, middle class employees, and even workers.

After the Japanese attack on the evening of 12 March and all day of 13 March, hired Chinese collected corpses all over town and took them in their sledges to the Amur. I counted over fifty such sledges loaded to the top go by my house. All the bodies were almost naked and terribly disfigured. The port mechanic Prutkov, who had suffered ten or eleven bayonet wounds, regained consciousness at the place of execution and crawled back to town. He managed to survive.[305쪽]Akkerman's son was less fortunate. He managed to get to Bermant's sawmill and asked for help, but someone denounced him to the partisans, who finished him off.
Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 19 June 1920
Melnikov, Retired Councillor of State

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Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur : an episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920 ,Kingston, Ont, Fairbanks, Alaska, Limestone Press, 1993, 300~305쪽

TESTIMONY OF RAISA SEMENOVNA AKKERMAN

I came to Nikolaevsk on 24 March. Until that date my husband and I lived at the Utesnyi gold mine, which belonged to our family, in the Amgun gold mining area, a hundred versts 66.3 miles)= from Kerbi. On the morning of 28 January, we heard loud knocking at the door. We jumped out of bed, but we hardly had time to get dressed before 28 armed partisans rode up to the house. Upon entering the hallway, they pointed their guns at both of us and demanded: "Hand over your firearms! Give us the gold!" My husband asked them to come inside. They followed us, continuing to hold the guns at our heads. When we came into the inner rooms, they again demanded gold. "If you don't give it up, we will rape your wife before your eyes and kill you!" My husband handed over the keys to the safe, and they rushed over to open it. The safe had a combination lock which they could not manage to open. Curses and threats ensued. While trying to open it, they damaged the lock so that my husband could not open it either. Whereupon they took the safe outside and drove off with it to Kerbi. Eighteen of the men remained behind to "visit" with us, as they put it. They demanded that I hand over the keys to the cellars and entertain them.

The partisans brought out the wines and started drinking. "Why are there so few women here?" they asked me. (There were only four women at the mine — the wife of the office clerk, two maids, and myself.) "Call them," they ordered, "you will play the leading role with us!" I told them that I could not do anything because I was not feeling well. "Well then, sit still and don't leave," they said.

I forgot to mention that before leaving with the safe, the partisans said that for the time being the mines were not being[306쪽]nationalized and that we should continue to work them and hand the gold over to them. They said that a weekly register was to be kept and every week the gold with the register was to be delivered to Kerbi, where the Executive Committee was located. When my husband protested that business could not be carried on in that way, that we did not have the means because they had taken away all the money, and that the workmen had not yet been given their New Year bonuses, they replied calmly: "Well, that will be taken care of somehow, but now we need both the gold and the money."

Before they left, they questioned the workmen about my husband's attitude and treatment of them, and because the
plies were favorable, he was not arrested. They also questioned the maids about me. Just as they were leaving, they told the maids to give us the following message: "They are lucky that they have an icon hanging in the house." "Why?" asked the servants. "Because we are killing all the kikes," was the answer.

Shortly after this, in spite of the announcement that the mines had not been nationalized, workmen began to appear, taking over the prospecting shafts and washing gold for themselves. Partisans took over the buildings and some even . settled in the kitchen of our house. Life became impossible. They would not let us use the kitchen stove. If I asked the maid to bring in the samovar to serve tea, they declared: "We are going to drink tea now. They've had their turn before."

On 14 February a messenger arrived from Kerbi asking my husband to attend, without fail, a meeting of the [Executive] Committee in Kerbi on 16 February. We left immediately.

In Kerbi I heard from a Tartar who had just returned from attending a meeting of the Executive Committee that all the gold miners had been arrested. But I soon saw my husband and for the time being felt relieved. The following, people were arrested at the meeting of the committee: Kuzma Ivanovich Zabirov; Gavril Fedorovich Popov, the manager of the Eltzov and Levashov mines; Mikhail Mikhailovich Tyrkov, the manager of the chief mines of the Amgun Mining Company; Osip Osipovich Vintsiun, manager of the road division; Anton[307쪽]Ivanovich Butarevich, manager of the Niman mines, and his assistant, Masiukov. There were some others whose names I do not recall.

On that day my husband was not arrested because his coachman and several of the Kerbi workmen intervened on his behalf, but he was ordered to appear on the following day. He remained free until 19 February. On 18 February Budrin arrived in Kerbi with his partisan mines regiment. Around eight o'clock in the evening three armed partisans barged into our house (we were staying in a small house quite isolated from other living quarters and surrounded only by Chinese fanzas [native huts]). They announced that at Budrin's orders they were to take over one of the rooms. They demanded that supper be served. During supper, they began to brag about their feats and, among other stories, related with great satisfaction and laughter how they succeeded in getting even with that "bloodsucker" Lury and how they killed him. When they began to describe the details of the murder, how they tied the poor man to a pillar and how each partisan would approach and take a shot at him, and how some could not forego the pleasure of sticking him with a bayonet, I fainted. "What's the matter with her?" they asked. They did not know that I was a relative of Lury.[Her sister, Esther Semenovna Kaptzan, was married to Lury - TRANS.] My husband explained that I was sickly and weak in general. "Oh, well, the burzhui tend to faint. It comes from eating that (white) bread, but now eating our common people's bread she will get better," they said. After supper, they asked for the beds to be prepared. I offered to let them sleep in our bedroom on our bed. After making difficulties and taunting us, they announced. "Well, newlyweds, go to bed. We will sleep here in the dining room.

Finally alone with my husband, I could weep freely. Before that, it was impossible to cry. My husband, also weeping, tried to calm and console me. But at the same time he said: "Now that Budrin is here, it is the end of me." The whole night was spent in tears. In the morning a partisan rushed in and announced that the platoon commander was on the way. Then, the platoon commander came in shouting that[308쪽]Comrade Bogoliubsky was coming. At that point something huge in a luxurious fur coat, a tall fur hat, a revolver in one hand, and a metal whip in the other burst in with much noise and clanging. Pointing the revolver at us, he shouted: "Stay where you are!" "Who are you?" he asked. "Akkerman," my husband replied. "Gold miner?" "Yes." "You are under arrest; take him away." I rushed over to my husband, crying: "Take me with him." "Don't worry. In due course your turn will come, but for the time being I need you." I said goodbye to my husband and he tried to console me while kissing me. Bogoliubsky continued to make mocking remarks. My husband was taken away. "Show us what you have," I was told. I showed what I had, surrendered all the jewelry I had with me, and explained that there was not much because we came here only for two days and that all my things were at home at the Utesnyi mine, "How sincerely you tell all this. And where is the gold which you buried?" I answered that we had not buried any gold, that I had given them my two nuggets, and that the rest of the gold was at the mine or with my husband. "Where does your husband have it?" "In his wallet." Then, he began to go through my things. My rings he put on his fingers and · continued to taunt me. Stretching one of my silk stockings on over his hand, he announced, "Only a burzhuika can reach such shamelessness," and so forth. Then, he announced that he would search me. I told him that I had given them all I had with me, that they could kill me, but that I would not be searched. "You forget that you are entirely in my power," he said. Then suddenly, "To hell with the search! Serve the dinner!" he pronounced. I had to sit down to dinner with them. They brought in from somewhere a great quantity of vodka, khanzha [Chinese alcoholic drink], and all sorts of wine. They started getting drunk. Bogoliubsky drank all the time but hardly ate anything. As he got drunk, he became more aggressive. "It's a pity to arrest such a cutie. I've been around and I've seen a lot, but never expected to find anything like this here at the mines. Be nicer to me. Come over ånd sit closer. A great deal depends on me," and so on in the same vein. "What pretty women these foul burzhui have." I sat there huddled in a corner and, finally, when he became too obnoxious, I shouted: "You can kill me, but you won't get any satisfaction out of me." "Is that right? How about it. comrades, shall I cast lots as to who among you will get her?"


[309쪽]
"You are under arrest," I was told. I said, "Fine, take me to my husband." "No, this is house arrest." I said, "No, take me to prison." "Don't trouble yourself. Even if not under house arrest, you won't get to see each other, because you will be in different cells in prison." With this he went out, leaving two partisans to guard me. These two were just youngsters. As soon as Bogoliubsky left (I learned later that he was a convict from the Khabarovsk prison), they rushed over to the table and began drinking. I am sitting there bawling, while they pay no attention and continue drinking. Finally, I went up to them and asked them to take me to see my husband. At first they just stared at me, then gave up and said, "Let's go." We had hardly made a few steps when some partisans we met told my guards that they were taking the prisoners from Veselaya Gorka (near Kerbi) to the Main Mine. My guards immediately took me back so that I only saw my husband through the window. The young partisans again began drinking. Night came. At ten or eleven o'clock Bogoliubsky appeared again completely drunk and again began to pester me. "I am now on my way to execute your husband. Now everything depends on you. If you want to save him, then ..." I said: "Kill me; kill my husband. He will never accept such a sacrifice anyway." I do not have the strength to repeat everything that went on. Finally, he shouted: "I will be back in ten minutes. Wait for me. You will be mine, will be mine." He left. A dreadful night followed. Bogoliubsky did not return, which meant that he was executing my husband. He never showed up. The following day about six o'clock in the evening, a young man came and announced that by a decree of the committee I was now free.

My maid, Vera, ran up to me and revived me.[* Apparently, she had fainted at the news — TRANS.] I learned from her that after hearing of my arrest, she came to Kerbi and managed to see Budrin from whom she obtained my release. The partisans finally agreed to leave me alone and went away.

After that, I started trying to obtain permission to see my husband but could not obtain it. Then, I decided to appeal directly to Budrin. When I entered his office, he met me with[310쪽]the words: "So, it is Mademoiselle Kaptzan who wishes to see me. In what way can I be of service to you? How do you happen to be in this God-forsaken hole?" I told him that I was married to Akkerman and wanted to know why I had been arrested. "Akkerman ... I'll check in the books," he said, although most certainly nothing was recorded and there were no books to consult. A couple of seconds later he returned and told me that I had been arrested, because my "education was paid for with money obtained by exploiting the working people."

During my conversation with Budrin, Getman-Gaponenko came into the room.: "How do you do? What are you doing here?" he greeted me. "I got here the same way as everybody else," I said. "I can see that you are not one of the locals," he remarked, and turning to Budrin asked: "Well, Ivan Aleksandrovich, what do you intend to do with this person?" "She had been arrested but is free now because her maid vouched for her. Of course, as a burzhuika she should be given a lesson," was Budrin's answer.

"That's it," said Gaponenko, "Give her twenty-five lashes." Budrin suggested that I sit down. I sat down and asked him why my husband was arrested. "And who is your . husband?" "What do you mean who? The gold miner Akkerman." "That, Raisa Semenovna, is the answer." "I did not know that gold miners were such criminals. Otherwise, I would not have married him," I said. "And, in addition to that, for taking an active part in the struggle against the Bolsheviks in 1918." Then, he added: "You are probably interested in the fate of Mr. Lury, so I will tell you that he was killed. If you want more details, here they are: you see, he tried to escape somewhere near Sakhalin; our partisans surrounded him. Then he took out of his pocket two million rubles, offering the money in exchange for his freedom, but our partisans are not mercenary-minded ― they did not want Mr. Lury's money; they wanted his head." And then, looking at me he said: "I can see what an effect this news has produced. Your beautiful face has turned completely white."

[311쪽]
Fedor Germogenovich Khudiakov was a clerk in the Amgun Company.[Relevance of this sentence is not clear — TRANS.] Budrin used to be employed at the post office. He was imprisoned for embezzling funds. After his release, he was a clerk in the mining district police office. Then, he was arrested again and kept in the Nikolaevsk prison. From that prison he escaped with other commissars ― Bebenin, Pavlichenko, and Slepov ― and they hid all that time at the Mironov mine.

My husband and the other prisoners were kept for seven days at the Main Mine. They were kept in the house of arrest. The situation of the prisoners became more and more terrible each day. One day Budrin appeared there and began to get acquainted, as he put it. "Oh, Mr. Akkerman, you are also here. That's good, because a friend of yours has been expecting you in Kerbi for some time." "Who?" asked my husband, "I do not know anyone." "Eremkin, with whom you were hiding at Shimada's in 1918. But it is no longer '18, and time has come now for all of you to fence the fish traps."

When I saw my husband after this visit, I did not recognize him. He looked drawn and his hair had begun to turn white. He kept repeating one thing — that soon he would be executed ― and he said to me: "Just ask them to make it quick." I should add that the prisoners were deprived of their clothing and left only in their underwear. That they were to be sent to Kerbi I learned by accident only a few hours before they were to leave. Budrin kept it secret. I ran to see him. "Is it true that the prisoners are being sent to Kerbi?" "It's true." "But how can you take them? They are completely without clothes." "That's all right. They won't freeze." I managed to get a fur coat for my husband from a Chinese. The rest left as they were. On the way they all got terribly frozen and some even lost their hands from frostbite.

After much hesitation, Budrin allowed me to follow my husband to Kerbi. My money and horses had been confiscated, so I got to Kerbi only with the help of a peasant. Budrin did not let me see my husband. I began to petition to expedite the[312쪽]inquiry. Budrin kept postponing it and finally set the date for 13 February.

The Committee of Inquiry consisted of Budrin, GetmanGaponenko, Kuznetsov (an employee of the Amgun Company), and Silin. The committee session was set for eight o'clock in the evening. A dance was to be held at that same hour at the People's Hall, and all the Kerbi residents, especially the wives of the prisoners, were obliged to attend. My husband asked for permission to give his answers orally. Budrin agreed. The session started. Eremkin, who had submitted his answers in writing, was set free. When he was brought in, Budrin said to him: "If you want to save your life, write down who were the active Bolsheviks in 1918." Eremkin wrote down several names, including that of my husband. "Well, you can leave. You are free, but Akkerman will be sent to fence the fish traps." My husband was brought in. Budrin attacked him right away, shouting: "Even here you are just as stubborn." My husband wanted to say something, but Budrin interrupted him: "Shut up! I do not want to listen to you! You are convicted. Sign here!" My husband
signed and was taken away. He was the first to be convicted. · [Budrin said:] "You will not see him again." "Will he be executed?" "Comment is unnecessary. I told you that you will not see him again." I left, went home, and stayed in bed for two days.

On 19 February the prisoners were taken away from Kerbi. They were escorted by the 1st Company of Budrin's regiment. Gaponenko, who remained as next in command, at first refused our request to bid farewell to each other, saying that it was an "unnecessary luxury," but later gave us permission, saying "make it fast and without tears." I had time to whisper to my husband not to worry, that they would be taken to Nikolaevsk unharmed.

The prisoners had reached Lichi at the time of the Japanese attack. Learning about the attack, the commissar ordered everyone executed. Fourteen men were brought out, although only eight, including my husband, had been convicted in Kerbi. The others had been freed and were simply being taken to Nikolaevsk under supervision. All were taken to a high cliff. The prisoners were preparing to die. Suddenly one of the partisans said: "Why are we executing fourteen men when we are supposed to execute only eight? Let's take them back." He was saying all this quite[313쪽]calmly while smoking his pipe. They were taken back. I heard this from Dolgopolov who was among the fourteen. Budrin then gave orders to take everyone to the Realschule in Nikolaevsk. I learned later from some partisans that all the men were savagely beaten there. No one got less than one hundred strokes with the ramrods. After the beatings, the prisoners were taken from the school directly to prison. Later, some partisans, who saw my husband after the beating, told me that his body was black all over and that his hair had turned completely white, although he was only 26 years old. On 23 March he was taken with all the others to be shot. But my husband and several others. were only wounded. Three of them — my husband, Eremkin, and Zemenkov - waited until the executioners left and then crawled up to Bermant's sawmill and hid there. A commissar happened to catch sight of them.

They were again seized, taken to prison, and placed in a well, where they were kept for 24 hours. When they were called to come out for dinner, according to what I was told, my husband said: "We will not come up to eat dinner. We hope we can manage to get to the Amur without it." They were executed in the evening of 24 March by a Korean detachment and the Koreans were given orders to torture the prisoners for three to four hours should they attempt to escape. I arrived in Nikolaevsk on that very day, 24 March, and I immediately rushed over to see Budrin to get permission to see my husband. My sister had told me that he was ill, not having the courage to tell me that he had been executed. Budrin sent me to the Committee of Inquiry. There, I was told that I would get permission to see him after they studied the case. The following day I went to the prison, and there the warden said to me: "Your husband is far away. Don't look for him, but better take this package." The package contained my husband's shirt, his towel, his hair, and a letter.

Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, 24 July 1920
Raisa Semenovna Akkerman

---

Gutman, Anatoli i I Akovlevich, Wiswall, Ella Lury 옮긴이, Pierce, Richard A 편집, The destruction ofay line before us. Here it was that I heard for the first time the words.

[269쪽]
"civil war" and heard the weird and terrible words about no prisoners being taken. The war was without mercy; on each side volunteers fought for their ideas. It was not until then that I understood quite clearly what kind of a "volunteer” I was and what the ideas were for which I was supposed to fight. I considered myself lost, and involuntarily I began to recall to mind the recent days of my life in my family circle, in my parents' house; and tears streamed from my eyes. Here I was in some devil's circle, so that no matter which way I tried to escape, death would be waiting for me. It surely was so: should I run away from the ranks of this “People's Army' and be caught, that would mean death as a deserter. Should I run away and be caught by the Red Army, also a People's Army, that would also be death, because I had been a "volunteer” in the army against which they fought. Wasn't that a devil's circle?

After the fight at Iglino our detachment, numbering about three hundred, went in marching formation from one village to another "to liquidate Red Guard detachments” until we came to the town of Birsk (Ufa Gubernia), where some other “People's Army" units were also stationed. Our detachment received orders to stop for a prolonged rest. From Birsk a group of us—about ten or twelve menwere sent on some kind of “commission” to the city of Ufa. At Ufa we were placed under the orders of the commander of the First Russian-Czech Volunteer Regiment. Here everything was arranged differently. The commander of the regiment and commanders of companies and platoons were Czechs; there were also many Czech soldiers in the ranks, but the majority were Russians. Discipline was strict. New volunteers came every day, most of them people also with education. As a general rule people in the regiment addressed each other as “brother," including the commander of the regiment. No rank insignia were worn except a piece of white and red ribbon on the cap. I still don't know the meaning of these colors. In November 1918 our regiment went to the front. While still at Ufa, all the soldiers in the regiment were in a fighting mood. There was assurance of victory, the more so since a few days before our departure for the front a huge, long-distance gun arrived at the station at Ufa. It stood on a flat car. Here the fighters rejoiced and said that this was “help to us from the loyal Allies.” This meant Allies in the struggle with the Reds whom the fighters in our regiment considered as accomplices of the Germans in the ruin of Russia, and the conviction was absolutely such: either victory or death! From[270쪽]the plain soldier up to the commander of the regiment all said that we fought for the convocation of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly. The slogans were “For the people and for free Russia.” I never once heard from the soldiers that we fought for the Tsar. Hatred among them for the Tsar's régime was not any less than for the Bolsheviks. This is a fact. There were cases where one called the other “brother soldier" and the other replied, "Yes, I am a soldier-revolutionary.” While we were at Ufa where our regiment was being formed, soldiers and commanders, in speaking to each other, felt themselves to be absolute equals. I have already said that there were no rank insignia other than the white and red ribbon on the caps and there was no saluting either. When we were in formation we received the command, "Attention,” and then, if the unit was a company, the commander of the company shouted in Czech “Nazdar, brothers." In reply there was a loud “Zdar.” In Russian this meant that he greeted us with the words, "Health to you, fellows," and our reply meant "Health to you.” The other orders were all given in the Russian language.

And so in November 1918, the First Russian-Czech Volunteer Regiment found itself at the front. The regiment was infantry. All were armed with rifles (Russian .25 caliber rifles) and nearly everyone had one hand-grenade. There was also one machine-gun company.

The line of the front was not defined. Our scouts reported that the Reds were located in such and such a village or that such and such a railway station was occupied by them. This was along the Volga-Bugulma Railway within the Belebei Uezd of Ufa Gubernia. One morning our order read that we should soon march out against the neighboring village of Nikolaevka, which was occupied by Reds. In full fighting order, and to the song, "Fly My Falcons Like Eagles," we marched out. The village of Nikolaevka was situated some seven or eight versts from our camping place. The location was hilly, with stretches of woods here and there. Our advance scouts reported that the Reds were entrenched beyond the village, awaiting our attack. Soon it looked as if the advance. scouts had got into a skirmish. We received orders to scatter in open order and advance. We reached the woods, which served to conceal us. From the side of the enemy the‘machine guns opened a storm of fire. The bullets whistled through the woods. In my detachment wounded men began to sink to the ground. The order sounded, “Lie down and then run[271 쪽] ahead.” In a short while we came out of the woods in open formation. A short distance ahead we saw Nikolaevka. We lay down, and the battle began. Then our Czech commander said, “Enemy cavalry on the left, fire on it all at once." Under heavy machine-gun fire the Red cavalry turned back. Then we had orders to make ready for a bayonet attack. With a furious fire the enemy entered Nikolaevka and from there again renewed the fighting. We received orders to entrench. Toward evening the fighting ceased, and when night came scouts reported that the enemy had left the village. Our units did not occupy Nikolaevka but also retreated, leaving sentries posted. The next day our company occupied one of the railway stations which had been previously abandoned by the enemy. The platoon to which I belonged went to the neighboring Tartar village. The enemy had left it recently. There was panic among the village population. They were in a whirlwind of events which they could not understand. After that we continued to occupy one village after another, with fighting.

IN THE ARMY OF ADMIRAL KOLCHAK

Several days passed thus; then one morning the commander of our company called us out and announced that a political overturn? had taken place in the city of Omsk, that a certain Admiral Kolchak had taken full power into his hands, and that all military units should remain in their places and carry on their duties, and so forth and so on. The order further said that Kolchak and his government stood for the idea of preserving Russia from dismemberment. But right here one could notice that something was wrong. The commander of our company—a Czech-after dismissing the company, approached us privately and said: “Brothers, this is nothing very fine. I heard that in Omsk many members of the Constituent Assembly have been arrested by Kolchak, and you know that our idea is to fight for the Constituent Assembly. Does the whole thing simply mean, then, that Kolchak, a former Admiral of the Tsar, is trying to restore monarchy in Russia ?” These words made such a deep impression on the volunteers that many began to say right then and there: “Well, now our song is sung. Our idea has been trampled under foot. Now we no longer know what to fight for.” Discord began among them: some said, on the contrary, that just the same we must not forget that Kolchak wanted to fight the Reds, that we shouldn't abandon this immediate goal but could wait and see what happened. About this time army units composed exclusively of Russians came up from the[272쪽] rear, infantry and Cossack cavalry. We all noticed at once that every one of them wore epaulets. Since their uniforms were very shabby, these epaulets, made from new stuff, stood out very noticeably. In these units everything was different. Saluting was obligatory, even when out of ranks. The commanders kept apart from the men. Our way of treating our commanders in a brotherly manner was obviously not at all to the liking of officers in the newcomer units and their soldiers approached us and asked in a low voice: "Say, how nice it is in your unit. Couldn't we come over and serve with you?” It turned out that they had already been mobilized by the new Kolchak Government, supplied with uniforms in a hit or miss way, and sent to the front. All of them were soldiers of the so-called 23d Miass Regiment. It was December, snowy and cold. Our regiment continued, so to speak, independent of the commanders of the new government. Our commanders said to us that our regiment was exclusively under the orders of the Czech staff. We were all very well satisfied with that. We remained on the front, but most of us had one desire: to go to
Our military spirit was broken.

Soon after this the Reds took the offensive. We received orders to keep ready. As we heard later, some cavalry units and the 23d Miass Regiment had been sent to help us. Fighting began and lasted from morning until late in the evening. In the night we received orders to retreat. Stopping at some village, we found that, in the fighting that had taken place the day before, the 23d Miass Regiment had been on our left flank and during the fight some of its soldiers had surrendered to the enemy and others had deserted. "Well, there you have Admiral Kolchak and his army.” Soon our fighters

“This came about at Belebei, A famous affair, my friends. The whole 23d Miass, Ran away on that occasion. The commander, a fine hero, Sat still twelve versts away; He gazed out the window, And dreamed about decorations. And we—we were so few, We of the Russian-Czech regiment But for twelve hours we held The terrible foe in fear.[273쪽]

Here's your Kolchak army ! Here's your new Russian regiment ! As they deserted at Belebei So they will do again.”

This song was sung in a very challenging manner with the intention of being heard by everybody around. And everybody did hear. The commanding officers of the other units tried their best to prohibit that song and asked who had composed it. In response they were only laughed at. Time passed. Under pressure from the Reds, troops of the "new government” were rolling back toward Ufa. Our regiment continued to remain a separate combat unit under exclusive Czech command. Soon Ufa fell. We rolled back to the Urals. There we had a rest. There were rumors that the front was still being held by our units.

In January 1919 our regiment received orders to go far into the rear for a rest and to be re-formed. We all rejoiced, everyone secretly nursing his own thoughts. We went to rest in the village of Talovskoe in Orenburg Gubernia. This village was situated not far from the Trans-Siberian Railway. In places where everything had remained quiet, the population knew only from rumors that somewhere beyond the Urals the Reds and the Whites were fighting. Seeing us soldiers without epaulets and hearing us call each other brother, the peasants asked: “Who are you, White or Red?” The soldiers replied that we were neither White nor Red; we were all volunteers and fought for Russia, for a Constituent Assembly. Then the peasants asked: “Who is that man Kolchak or whatever his name is, and what does he want? The soldiers have told us that he was against the Reds, but he wants Russia to have a Tsar again.”

Our relations with the peasants were most friendly. We were billeted in their houses, several men in each. They were certainly all against monarchy. In this they were supported by their fellow-villagers, soldiers who had returned from the German front. These peasants may not have known, or perhaps they did know, that we were fighting the Reds. But they did not speak to us of their convictions; however, as for the Tsar, they did not want him under any conditions. The following happened with the Czech commanders and soldiers : on our retreat we made a prolonged halt in the Asha-Balashovsky plant in the Urals. One fine day our commanders lined us up in the square and said that on orders from the Commander-in-Chief of[274쪽]

Czech troops, all the Czechs were recalled from our regiment and we were requested to maintain order among ourselves and await further orders. In taking leave of us they suggested that we give temporary command over ourselves to a certain brother Vladimirsky, who at that time was machine-gun instructor in our regiment, which we did. All this was very unexpected to the volunteers and, of course, brought some confusion into their ranks. We didn't know what to do. The next day, Vladimirsky, too, declared that he resigned his authority. (In some manner he succeeded in remaining with the Czechs, and going with them as a common soldier.) Others among us who asked to be taken into their Czech regiment were not accepted. At this point, two men were found in our midst, Yarovoi and Burmistrov, who took command over us and led us to the village mentioned for a rest.

We stayed there all winter without any drill practice, not knowing who we were or what. It was only in name that we remained a regiment. As a matter of fact, we numbered not more than three or four hundred. We had our regimental kitchen. Apparently the Czechs left some money with us when they went away, but I don't know for sure about the source of our funds. As most of the peasants in that village were well-to-do, many of us who were billeted in their houses were fed by the peasants willingly. So it went on until the beginning of March 1919. At that time new orders came to us, to the effect that the former Russian-Czech volunteer regiment was to be added as a combat unit to the First Volga Army Corps which was being formed and which was named in honor of General Kappel. New persons appeared, officers with brilliant epaulets and cockades. They looked at us more as the remains of some gang than as soldiers. We were told to gather in the church square, with our arms. We were lined up, and the officer called us to attention. Just then two military men in brilliant epaulets stepped out of a sleigh drawn by a pair of horses. As we found out later, they were a general, whose name I don't remember, and Colonel Alyshevsky. The general told us that he was commander of the First Division of the Volga Army Corps; that Colonel Alyshevsky commanded the 11th Singilei Regiment of his division; and that the Commander-in-Chief of the former RussianCzech volunteer regiment had ordered the latter to join the 11th Singilei Regiment. He said further that it was our duty to fight, and so on. His principal idea was that “the fight for Russia, one and indivisible, should be carried to the end." Colonel Alyshevsky pre[275쪽]sented himself to us and declared that beginning with tomorrow we would "start a radical reorganization.” That ended our review. We were told to go home, and as soon as the general and the colonel had left with the same pair of horses the volunteers started discharging their rifles into the air and loudly protesting against what they had heard. From this moment on, the quiet of our rest in the village was broken. Something was felt to be wrong. The peasants who had become friendly with us during our stay asked us, “What has happened among you, something new?” And that new something did come in another two or three days.

From somewhere an “expedition [punitive] detachment” came to the village for the purpose of purging it of “Bolshevik elements.” Many villagers were arrested as Bolsheviks. The detachment had its headquarters in the house of the volost board or else in the schoolhouse, I don't remember which, and there they must have held the preliminary examination of the simple "muzhiks” they had arrested. An uproar began. The families of the arrested men crowded in front of the place, wept, and begged the chiefs to set free their fathers, husbands, or sons. So far as I could observe the volunteers, most of them at that time didn't know what was happening. To our questions, the soldiers of the expeditionary detachment replied that they were arresting Bolsheviks. Our soldiers replied: "What kind of Bolsheviks are they? We have been here all winter and we know them. We can vouch for them.” The end of all this was that dozens of villagers were arrested, the detachment requisitioned carts right there in the village and took all the arrested away somewhere. There were rumors that they were first taken to the station, Mishkino, some forty to forty-five versts distant. In the evening, at supper in the peasant house where I was billeted, the head of the house spoke thus on the subject of what had happened: “So this is how things stand; for nothing at all they will arrest muzhiks and take them away, God knows where; and then they say that they will recruit village people for Kolchak, and it is his epaulets the soldiers wear, and I'm telling you there won't be any more epaulets on us. We have had enough of that. You just wait till the Bolsheviks come, and we'll see who is the strongest.” Then he said, turning to me: “Yes, Anton, over there at Kurtamysh”—that was a big village some sixty-five or seventy versts south of Talovskoe—“they had a rebellion among the peasants against Kolchak rule; they say many people were killed over there.” After these events in the village, many of the volunteers[276쪽]said, "It seems that there is more justice on the Bolshevik side.” Some two days later the one-time volunteers were summoned to the volost board, where some military commission that had arrived was in session. One after another we were questioned, were told to show the documents we possessed, and then, according to the age of each, were told that such and such of us that came within the draft were recruited into the troops, while the youngest and more aged were left free. I found myself among the recruits. Once more we were told that we were now soldiers of the 11th Singilei Infantry Regiment which was being formed and whose staff was at the railway station, Mishkino, where we would be sent the next day.

This was the beginning of April 1919. On arriving at Mishkino we were distributed among the different companies and platoons. By the time spring arrived our winter uniforms were of no use, as they were what was left of the Russian-Czech regiment equipment; but we were not given any summer clothing. We would come out for drill in whatever we found to put on. Through puddles of mud and water we would have to walk in felt boots made to wear in snow. Having no change of linen we were covered with lice. Spotted typhus began to spread; every day one or two of us were taken to the cemetery.

The men of the 11th Singilei Infantry Regiment were a most variegated crowd. They were the mobilized population of the neighboring villages and of the railway clerks and workers. Once Colonel Alyshevsky made a review of his regiment. Half-clad and half-shod soldiers conducted themselves “indecently," as he later wrote in his order of the day. These were former volunteers of the Russian-Czech regiment who, being dispersed among different companies of the regiment, nevertheless contrived during the hours free from drill to keep company with each other and had plotted to produce this disturbance for the colonel's benefit during the review. Pointing to their boots, which were falling to pieces, and to their ragged shirts, they protested loudly. Paying no attention to the order “Attention,” they left the ranks by groups, walked up to Colonel Alyshevsky, and told him of their needs.

About the 15th or 20th of that month freight cars with the muchtalked-of English clothing came to Mishkino station. We all turned English, and if it had not been for Russian epaulets on our shoulders over our English tunics we should have looked exactly like "Allied forces.” Later, when we were at the front, the English tunics and the[277 쪽]Russian epaulets were made famous in a satirical little song which was sung to the melody of Sharaban:
“English tunics, Russian epaulets,
Japanese tobacco, and Omsk ruler.”

Our regiment was being rapidly organized and we had enforced drill. Two of the volunteers I mentioned before—Yarovoi and Burmistrov—were appointed commanders of companies in the 11th Regiment. They turned out to be former officers, and some of the volunteers who were in their companies, seeing them in glittering gilt epaulets, hated them with every fiber of their souls, calling them traitors to their faces. A certain volunteer, Sarantsev, from the Volga Regiment, narrowly escaped court-martial for “insulting the officer rank" of Yarovoi. Rumors crept about that we should soon be going to the front. At the same time it became officially known that the Commander-in-Chief of the First Volga Army Corps, Kappel, was coming. There were feverish preparations for welcoming him. He came in a special train. The troops, which were nicknamed "sons of father Kappel,” were lined up around the square. After a few brief words about "serving the fatherland,” the review was ended. A few days later the regiment entrained and was sent to the front. According to the rumors, the front was near the town of Buguruslan in Samara Gubernia. On our way to the front we were soon getting contradictory news, some saying that “our fellows" were in a successful offensive, others again that the Reds had broken our front and the Whites were in retreat. By the time we arrived, the line of the front was already in Ufa Gubernia. We reached the front positions. There were some unimportant encounters. Then the Reds commenced an attack and broke through the front. One of our regiments surrendered to them in a body. Besides, they encircled the Whites on the left to a considerable extent. Even at that time the population and the soldiers called themselves the White Army.

After this rather “decisive battle” of a kind, the regiments of the White Army rapidly rolled back eastward; Ufa was surrendered [in June, 1919]. There was panic in the army. In the Urals the industrial workers organized partisan detachments, took positions in the forest near the roads, and, at one place, on encountering some retreating defeated regiments, beat them rather badly. This was in the district of the Simsky or Miniar works — I don't remember exactly which[278쪽]At the Miass works I met my chum Volodia Potorzhinsky; we both had been in the Russian-Czech regiment. We resolved that all this was to no purpose and that we should run away, and we deserted that same night. We crept along during the nights and slept in the daytime. We dropped into that same village, Talovskoe, where some time before we had been camping at rest. Our friends the peasants gave us civilian clothes and we gave them our English uniforms. The clergyman wrote us [new] birth certificates and we set out on our way. The entire distance from the Urals to Harbin took us from the end of May to the beginning of September, 1919. In the daytime, if we happened to rest somewhere away from villages and towns, we would sing in a low voice the song which somebody had composed :

“English tunics, Russian epaulets,
Japanese tobacco, and Omsk ruler.”

When the army was in retreat, rumors began to circulate that the Supreme Ruler, Admiral Kolchak, had been overthrown. On this occasion we sang the new verse of the same song Sharaban:

"The tunic has worn out, The epaulets have dropped off, The tobacco is smoked out, and The Supreme Ruler is finished."

ON SAKHALIN ISLAND

At Harbin I fell ill with typhus. They put me in the central hospital, and Volodia went on to Vladivostok to find out what chances we had of leaving the country. According to our previously made plans, we later met at Vladivostok. We had no money to go abroad, and foreign ships would not take us on as sailors.

I went to the Vladivostok bishop, Mikhail, a refugee from Samara, and he appointed me psalomshchik at Alexandrovsk on the island of Sakhalin. There I made the acquaintance of the small claims judge, Lomakin, and accepted service as his clerk. Soon I received employment in the commercial firm, Stakheev and Company, as assistant bookkeeper under Apollon Semenovich Murogin.

While I lived on Sakhalin and worked in the Stakheev office, the employees there knew from questioning me that I was a native of Ufa Gubernia, where there had been much fighting in the civil war. They asked me how I succeeded, being a young man, in escaping[279쪽]from those places without being in one or the other of the fighting armies. I replied that I had been still too young, that neither of the fighting armies in their mobilizations had reached my class. (According to the documents I had, I was only eighteen, but I was really already in my twenty-first year.) I kept concealing the fact that I was a former soldier of the First Russian-Czech Regiment and the First Volga Corps and that I had fled from the army which in its time was called the Kolchak Army. Knowing that Sakhalin was still under Kolchak power and that there was a garrison in Alexandrovsk, the administrative center of the island, I was especially careful about remaining inconspicuous. The little town led its peaceful life and from the outside it seemed that everything was quiet, but it later came out that this was far from being so. The town of Alexandrovsk at that time had a mixed population; the majority, naturally, were Russians; next came Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese. Russians occupied all the government and public posts. There were also many small traders and all manner of artisans and plain working people who from year to year spent winters on Sakhalin and with the coming of the spring made contracts with the fishing companies and went to the fisheries, which were scattered chiefly along the northern coast of Sakhalin and around the mouth of the Amur River near Nikolaevsk-on-the-Amur. While I was working in the Stakheev office I rented a room with one such family which lived exclusively by fishing, and my friend Volodia and I lived there together. He came to Sakhalin from Vladivostok at the close of 1919 and was employed as clerk by the small claims judge, Lomakin.

Next to the Russians, the Japanese formed the largest portion of the population, most of them being traders. At that time they were subordinated to the general Russian laws and their interests were represented by the Japanese consul, a certain Takamuro Gonziro, who was at the same time a large-scale merchant, and the Stakheev firm had large business dealings with him. The Chinese and the Koreans were also mostly fishers, and in the summer months they went out to work on the fisheries together with the Russians. There were among them also free-lance gold-miners. When spring came they laid in store some provisions and other equipment and went for a long stay in the taiga in search of gold.

Living on Sakhalin Island from the autumn of 1919 to the end of April 1920, I didn't notice any enmity among all these groups[280 쪽]of population, representing three or four different nationalities. Various kinds of currency circulated there: the "Siberian” issued by the Provisional Government, Kolchak's, the "Kerenki,” and the Russian hard coin of the old régime. The Stakheev firm did business chiefly with the peasant population of the island, from whom it bought cattle, furs, and fish, giving them in exchange the goods and produce they needed. It was, in fact, a barter trade. The chief business of the Stakheev firm, however, was to work the gold-fields, the fisheries, and the oil wells, which at that time were being investigated in Sakhalin by their engineer, a certain Mr. Polevoi.

Their main office was in the house which they rented from a quite prosperous citizen of the locality named Shevchenko. Measured by the standards of that time, he really was well-to-do; such was the general opinion of all the Stakheev employees. The house in which the office was located had two stories, and back of it in the same block was another one-story house where the proprietor and his wife lived. It was said that he was a traveling merchant and in general a man with business sense. During my work with the Stakheev I never saw him working at anything. He usually appeared in the yard about ten o'clock in the morning well-dressed and in a smart sable cap, stepped out of the yard gate, greeted the friends who passed by, talked with them, then again appeared in the yard, took a walk around the office nearly every day, said good morning to us, asked what the news was, and so conversation would begin. His favorite theme was current politics. From his conversation we could see that he was half-illiterate but that he had traveled a long way in Russia.* He used to say, “It is a revolutionary struggle going on at present and the working class will be victorious.” Then he would say: "In vain does Kolchak again try to restore monarchy in Russia. That will never be.” During the midday recess I usually went out into the yard for twenty or twenty-five minutes, and there very often met him. It seemed to me that he plainly sought occasion to talk with me, and he said: "Well, good day to you, how is business? What is the news? How does your Mr. Murogin" (the manager of the firm) "feel over there?” And right away, in accordance with his custom, he again talked politics. “You know," he used to say, "I do not think that it was as easy as all that for you to get to our Sakhalin Island at this time; and then I just can't[* People in the Far East use the term "Russia" to mean European Russia. [Ed.]][281쪽]

believe by your looks that you are only eighteen; I think that you are simply a refugee from Bolsheviks! Well, wise head, look out, if you are a refugee from Bolsheviks then you may know that you are getting right back to them again.”

When he talked politics in our office to all the employees we paid no attention to it. We would ask him: “Well, what's the news ?” “Well, nothing, we are advancing little by little. Kolchak is beaten. His army is fleeing almost in panic and soon they will leave Irkutsk.” All this happened about the last days of December 1919, and according to rumors the White Army was indeed retreating, being pressed by the Reds, and was already far east of Omsk. The employees were quite indifferent to all this talk and to whatever happened over there in Siberia. In the local garrison theater all kinds of soirées were arranged, with dancing and other entertainment. The soldiers were mostly fellows mobilized from neighboring peasant settlements and were dressed in some kind of blue jackets, breeches, and caps of the same color. Later I found out that all these were uniforms taken from the stores of the gendarme units [abolished after the March Revolution]. These soldiers were quartered in large, newly built barracks in the center of the town. Their commanding personnel consisted of four or five officers with a captain at the head whose name I don't remember. The whole garrison was infantry. Apart from these, there were no army units on the island.

Mr. Shevchenko, in accordance with his steady custom, every day found an occasion to meet me. Every day he seemed to feel more aggressive. Every time he would tell me that “the Red Army is victoriously advancing," and that it was in vain for me to try to hide myself and use tricks, and that the time would come when "we" would find out who I was. More and more often he pressed me for a statement as to what my sympathies were, for the Reds or for Kolchak. Finally I didn't know how to behave towards him! I didn't know who he was ! In another couple of days I met him again, and in the conversation I mentioned that I had fled from the Kolchak Army and told him how I had been taken as a "volunteer” into the People's Army, and so forth. He was amazed. "Well, if that is so," said he, “then you are not a White bandit, but you want to help the workers and peasants to throw off the Kolchak yoke. Come out to our secret organization, and then you will prove who you are and for whom you stand!” Again I found myself in the same fix as in 1918 in Ufa with the Czechs.[282쪽]

That same evening about eight o'clock I was in Shevchenko's house. Without saying a word he put on his warm things and we went out "to take a walk in the street.” On one of the streets he quickly dived through a small gate. I followed him; we crossed the yard and found ourselves in a rather small room. Its windows were heavily curtained from the inside, and in the middle stood a mediumsized table around which people sat, deeply taken up with the papers and books they had before them on the table. The room was lighted with a candle. When we came in, the people in the room looked us over, and Shevchenko on the spot reported to them that here was "Comrade Ovchinnikov, an employee at the Stakheev office who is joining the Revolutionary Committee.” I didn't know a single one of those present. They left their occupations for a short while to make my acquaintance, calling their own names and mentioning their employment in the city. There was Comrade Girgelevich, a radio telegrapher; a teacher, Comrade Zaitsev; Comrade Samoilov, from the co-operative; and many others whose names I don't recall. I was asked to take a seat and to get acquainted with the business by listening to their reports. Conversation was carried on in a low voice; sometimes at a sign from one of them all kept still, listening intently to the silence of the night outside. Comrade Tsapko reported to the assembly that the Red Army had occupied Irkutsk, information which he had received on the radio that afternoon. An exchange of opinions followed. It was proposed to form a special Revolutionary Executive Committee which would direct the preparations for the overthrow. The Revolutionary Committee, as it began to be called, was composed of the following: Tsapko, Kolbunov, Girgelevich, Zaitsev, and Samoilov; the latter was chairman. Then they began to work out a program for the actual overturn. The number of persons at this meeting was about eighteen. The local garrison was represented by a certain Yakovlev, who reported that the soldiers had been entirely prepared by him for overthrowing the authorities, that, with the exception of the officers, who.could be easily arrested, they would go over in a body to the side of the Revolutionary Committee. Then and there it was decided to arrest the president of the municipal board and other municipal officials. The question of the local prison where political prisoners were kept was more serious, as the prison was guarded by soldiers and also by a special guard consisting of police and prison administration employees of whose attitudes the Revolutionary Commit[283쪽]tee was not certain. It was feared that an armed clash could not be avoided, and Yakovlev, therefore, said that he would take along a company of armed soldiers and settle everything. After agreeing to meet in the same place at eight o'clock the next evening, the meeting was closed, and one by one we left. The next evening, coming with Shevchenko at the appointed hour, I met there my fellow-employee at the Stakheev firm, Mikhail Rybakov, who was in charge of the Stakheev supply store at Alexandrovsk. When he saw me it seemed to me that he felt embarrassed. From his talk it appeared that he, too, came there through the mediation of Sheychenko, as he said, "just to take a look at a gathering of Bolshevik revolutionaries."

While I was talking with him, Shevchenko came up. Rybakov told him that it was time for him to go home, that his family was waiting, and so on. “No, no,” Shevchenko said; “Comrade Rybakov, you cannot do that now. Tonight the overturn will take place and it would be unsafe to walk in the streets as late as this. The meeting place of the Revolutionary Committee might be discovered.” This was [the eve of] New Year's Day 1920.

Rybakov stayed on with us saying, “Well, if that's so, nothing can be done about it! All right.” The meeting lasted until after midnight. Everyone was assigned a particular task. The number of those present was twenty or twenty-five, and there were several new persons. Everyone was given a revolver. The revolvers were of different makes. Samoilov, chairman of the Revolutionary Committee, Kolbunov, the secretary, and Yakovlev, the soldiers' representative, distributed the assignments.

REVOLUTION AT ALEXANDROVSK

I was assigned the task of disarming the policemen on duty at the police office. I received four assistants. Yakovlev was assigned the task of occupying the barracks and after that, with one or two companies of soldiers, of taking the prison. Other groups were detailed to take control of the municipal board building, the telegraph station, the post office; to arrest the chief of the municipal board, the officers, and so forth. About two o'clock in the morning of January 1, 1920, everything was ready. Samoilov, in a joking tone, wished us all a happy New Year and new luck. The municipal board building was to be the meeting-place after the overturn had been effected. We were[284쪽] given more instructions and went out quickly into the street, revolvers in hand. Each went to his assigned district. Everything in the town was deserted. Five of us approached the door of the police office, opened it, and rushed into the room of the policemen on duty. The trampling of our feet in the corridor caused a policeman to come to the doorway, and when he saw directly facing him five men with revolvers in their hands he remained on the spot like one petrified. I told him not to stir. One of us stayed with him; the rest went into the room, where there was one more policeman. We took their arms, and told them that they were for the time being under arrest until the situation was cleared up. We also declared to them that a revolutionary overthrow had taken place. When we went out into the street again I listened for shooting; but everything was quiet. After a while groups of people began to come to the police station. They were leading arrested officers, the president of the municipal board, and others. Day was beginning to break when we came to the gates of the barracks. I noticed that a huge red flag was flying over them and understood that the soldiers were on the side of the insurgents.

Here I must note that the Revolutionary Committee, in its meetings before the overturn, had prepared hand-written proclamations to the citizens of Alexandrovsk, stating the aims of the overturn; and while the overturn was actually taking place especially assigned men were pasting these proclamations in conspicuous places. These proclamations called upon the population to preserve law and order, and stated that power was to remain temporarily in the hands of the Revolutionary Committee and that government was to be handed over to the Zemstvo; but I do not recall the precise wording.

With daylight, we found that the overturn had taken place without bloodshed, that all the ranking representatives of the Kolchak Government were under arrest. They had not shown the slightest resistance. As the participants of the overturn told me later, these men were arrested "in the name of the Revolutionary Committee of Sakhalin Island.” During the occupation of the prison by the revolutionaries everything also went on very decently except that when the prison guards were being disarmed the prisoners started a disturbance and one of the common criminals took advantage of the occasion to run away. Later the Revolutionary Committee took measures to catch him, but without success. As to the political prisoners, when they were liberated they joined the ranks of the revo[285쪽]lutionaries. They numbered about fifteen and had been in prison since the autumn of 1918. They had been sent there from Vladivostok. I remember the names of some of them: Sergeev, Shcherbakov, Slepak, and Voitinsky. The last two later played conspicuous parts in the Executive Committee of Sakhalin. On New Year's Day, January 1, 1920, from early morning, the principal streets of the town of Alexandrovsk were crowded with people watching events. They crowded about the proclamationsto read them. Near the municipal building a public meeting was opened. Representatives of the liberals as well as of the political prisoners spoke, explaining to the crowd what had happened. The listeners became excited, and threatening exclamations, addressed to one or the other representative of the Kolchak administration, were heard from the crowd. They were indignant about a certain Reut, who occupied an administrative post on the island. He was arrested and in anticipation of trial kept in prison.

In general, all those who were arrested by the new administration were kept in prison. Sentries were posted in all the necessary places and next day a solemn meeting of all those who took part in the overturn was scheduled, in which meeting the former political prisoners were to take part. The speakers congratulated each other on the victory won over counter revolution. It was decided to inform “All, All, All” through the local radio station. Also it was decided to form a Provisional Executive Committee of Sakhalin until a congress of representatives from the population of the whole island could be called. Candidates were nominated and an Executive Committee chosen by open voting. Those elected were: Chairman, Samoilov; secretaries, Kolbunov and Slepak; members, Tsapko, Zaitsev, myself, Girgelevich, and others whose names I don't recall. It was decided to leave weapons in possession of all the participants of the overturn. The released political prisoners were also all armed. General command of the soldiers was left to Yakovlev until the appointment of a new commander. Thus was spent the whole day of January 1. In the evening only one member of the Executive Committee remained on duty with a guard of soldiers, and the others dispersed to their homes to take a rest; the next morning at eight o'clock they were to come to the business meeting. My employment obligated me to go to the Stakheev office the next morning. Before doing so I dropped in at the Executive Committee and stated that I must clear up the question of my further employment. I was[286쪽]late at the office. The bookkeeper, the manager, and other employees of the office were sitting in one room discussing the events. They naturally asked me about the new developments. I told them that there were many new things, that there was now a new administration headed by the Executive Committee of which I was a member. I stepped to my desk, took my revolver out of my pocket, put it on my desk, and was eager to begin my day's work. The bookkeeper, Ivan Vasilevich Galkin, seeing the revolver, told me with a smile that I was certainly in correct form. The manager, Mr. Murogin, invited me to his office, offered me a seat, and congratulated me on the post I occupied in the Executive Committee, after which he briefly said that after all this was only what should have happened; that, as a matter of fact, the Kolchak Government had not been chosen by the people; that the system of taxation it imposed on the commercial people made it impossible to conduct business normally and successfully; and that, therefore, "I greet in your person the new Russian revolutionary government and hope that the country will soon recover from disruption," and so forth and so on. He released me from work in the office, as a member of the Executive Committee who had to be present at its sessions until things were definitely cleared up. At the same time my salary was to continue.

Having taken full power into its hands, the Executive Committee of Sakhalin began to set up the political and administrative apparatus for the island. At the daily sessions of the Executive Committee the supply service of the Executive Committee was first of all organized. I do not remember who was chosen as its head. Comrade Kondrashkin, one of the released political exiles, was appointed commander of the local garrison. He evidently did not know army business, but in view of the fact that he was a former political exile, this responsible post was entrusted to him. Later I made a closer acquaintance with the comrades from among the former political prisoners: Gorshkov, a sheet-iron worker from Orenburg; Sergeev, a Black Sea Fleet sailor; Shcherbakov, also a sailor; and one man, whose name I don't recall, a Cossack from Orenburg. In conversation with me these comrades expressed dissatisfaction at the appointment of Kondrashkin as military commander, saying that while in prison he was considered not a political prisoner but a common criminal, but that during the overturn he chanced, by some misunderstanding, to get in among the group of those who were released. However, the leaders of the group of political prisoners, Voitinsky[287쪽]and Slepak, went surety for Kondrashkin, and theirs was unimpeachable authority. In this connection it will not be superfluous to mention that the captain who commanded the garrison under the Kolchak Government was not arrested during the overturn. I believe it was put to his credit that in the fall of 1919, when a punitive detachment was to be sent to Sakhalin from one of the towns of the Maritime Province in order to purge the population of Bolshevik elements, the commander of that detachment sent him a preliminary inquiry, to which this captain replied that in Alexandrovsk and on all Sakhalin Island in general everything was quiet and there was no need of sending a detachment. This fact became known at one of the Executive Committee's sessions, when the leaders of the political prisoners' group, Comrades Voitinsky and Slepak, proposed that the captain be arrested. (Now I have remembered his name; it was Nikolai Ivanovich.) It was at this juncture that the comrades Tsapko, Kolbunov, and others among the influential prisoners in the group which participated in the overthrow stood up in defense of the captain. After deliberating on this matter the Executive Committee decided to leave the captain free. Then they also discussed the activity of the other officers. One of them whose name I do not recall was believed by the political prisoners' group to be especially reactionary and the leaders, Voitinsky and Slepak, even opined that he should be shot. Such a measure was again sharply opposed by Tsapko. Kolbunov and most members of the Executive Committee said that this was not a sensible step, that the population of the island and particularly of Alexandrovsk would unquestionably be against it. Comrade Tsapko took the floor and in a long speech gave a characterization of the Sakhalin population and urgently begged the session of the Executive Committee to refrain from bloodshed and, instead, to wait for instructions from the continent. As a result everything was settled as Tsapko said.

In the same session there was a hot debate by Comrades Tsapko and Slepak on the subject of their diverging political trends. Comrade Tsapko in his speeches said that one of the further tasks of the Executive Committee should be the convocation of a general zemstvo congress for the whole island by means of universal, direct, and equal franchise, which congress would elect and establish the form of government for the island. In opposing him, Comrade Slepak said that the convocation of the congress and the elections to the Executive Committee of the island should be made according to[288쪽]directions from the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Bolshevik Party. The remaining members of the Executive Committee took no part in their debates. Soon the two contending speakers also quieted down and tackled the questions of the day which stood on the agenda; but the principal question was that of preparing for the general congress of the island. Since Alexandrovsk was the administrative center of the island, we appointed Comrade Kondrashkin as military commander, and also reorganized the militia, appointing as militia commissar a certain Comrade Dubovitsky, a political exile; we left in their places the former contingent of policemen who had served under the Kolchak Government, adding to them only a few more from among the political prisoners and exiles. The matter of reorganizing police offices in the interior of the island was postponed until the next session. Toward the end of this session, the Executive Committee received from a certain citizen, Romanov, who was secretary of the police board in the town of Rykovskoe in the Tymovsky District of Sakhalin, a written notice to the effect that he, Romanov, upon learning of the overturn at Alexandrovsk and of the fact that full power had come into the hands of the Provisional Executive Committee, had requested the chief of police, citizen Petrenko, to divest himself of his authority, which the latter did; and Romanov consequently requested the Executive Committee to give him instructions for further action. At the same time he informed us that everything was quiet in his district. Upon discussing Romanov's news, the Executive Committee sent him the needed directions by a special messenger, asking him to remain temporarily in the post of militia commissar.

The Executive Committee presently left the premises of the municipal board and began to use the house of the governor. All kinds of commissariats were organized. The population went to the Executive Committee as to the new government with all kinds of requests and litigations. Comrades Voitinsky and Samoilov worked energetically in the Commissariat of Justice, wrote reports for the local newspaper, and, making use of the radio station, transmitted the necessary messages to the center. Special attention was given to our neighbors the Japanese, and other non-Russian populations remained entirely aside, continuing in their occupations. Trade in the town went on as usual for the time being. Not until later on did the Executive Committee take measures to take stock of all available food supplies and other goods possessed by the merchants in the[289쪽]town. This was carried out when I was no longer member of the Executive Committee, and I don't know what the consequences were.

It is interesting to point out the assignment of certain persons to posts of so-called political commissars. The political commissar in the supply department of the Executive Committee was a member of the radio station personnel, and the political commissar of the radio station, a butcher by trade, a citizen of Alexandrovsk who knew nothing at all about radio telegraphy, was a member of the Executive Committee. When he reported to the Executive Committee after having spent all day at the radio station, even his fellowmembers of the Committee used to inquire of him with visible irony as to what the news was, and he, a big husky fellow, only smiled and replied that “it seems to me everything is all right, that Comrade Girgelevich has today accepted a radio message from the commander of partisan detachments near Irkutsk, Comrade Zverev. Things are forging ahead!"

Members of the Executive Committee, Tsapko, Kolbunov, and Girgelevich, who were radio telegraphers, would offer a seat to the political commissar of the radio station when he came there, and he would sit there wondering at the buzzing of the apparatus. Comrade Girgelevich in the meantime wrote papers and gave them to the political commissar for perusal.

As a member of the Executive Committee I had to call at the Stakheev office, where I was still registered as an employee. Naturally the other employees surrounded me and bombarded me with questions. The bookkeeper, Ivan Vasilevich Galkin, at once began a frank conversation : "Just the same, Anton Zakharovich, the activity of the new government does not seem clear to me. Here we have had the Executive Committee a whole week and yet the population knows nothing at all about what it does and what it decides in its sessions. Somehow, all this seems strange to me. The whole population should participate in creating the new government; otherwise there won't be any difference between this and the Kolchak Government.” I told him that the Executive Committee was preparing for the convocation of the Island Assembly which would then definitely establish the form of government, and so on. One of the employees of the office, a certain Fedor Egorovich, or Petrovich, listened to my conversation with the bookkeeper and then dropped a remark of his own: “That's all right, we Sakhalin people will build up a reshpublika here” (he said it laughing). The commercial work[290쪽]of the firm was not interrupted. Once more, in conversation with me, Manager Murogin emphasized his loyalty to the new government and his belief in the future. I always found him busy and in a genial mood. Comrade Rybakov, of whom I have spoken as a participant of the overturn, also remained in the employ of the Stakheevs in their supply store; but every time we met he would tell me, “Well, I bet our king Murogin doesn't feel very fine. This is not at all to his liking. It'll do now; the rich ones have lorded it long enough.” Even before the overturn when he met Murogin, he always told him his mind and expressed his dissatisfaction; but his conversation never went beyond discontent with the firm of Stakheev and their manager, Murogin. I never knew what his reasons really were. Rybakov was the father of three children. He lived in a good fourroom house. Before the overturn I used to visit him often and saw that he lived well—something that was still to be desired by many, even very many inhabitants of Alexandrovsk. The presence in his house of a nurse for the children and of a cook were facts to prove that Rybakov lived like "regular people."

MILITARY COMMISSION OF THE TYMOVSKY DISTRICT

The Executive Committee held sessions daily; many important questions came up. At one session, on January 10 or 11, there arose the question of the appointment of a militia commissar to the Tymoysky District. As I said above, that post was temporarily filled by Romanov. With the general consent of the Executive Committee I was chosen for the post. The majority of the Executive Committee were local people tied in one way or another to Alexandrovsk; they either had their own business there or occupied posts at the radio station, in the treasury, or in the post office, which made it impossible for them to go to the Tymovsky District, which was from sixty-five to seventy versts from Alexandrovsk. Of the political prisoners only two were suitable in the opinion of the Executive Committee, Comrade Voitinsky and Comrade Slepak. But they were absolutely indispensable at Alexandrovsk; so I was appointed. Each member of the Executive Committee gave me his particular instructions. My appointment was made formal in a document. I was handed a mandate, which I could show the population, to the effect that I represented the new Revolutionary Government and that in my person the Executive Committee directed the population to ful-[291쪽]fill all orders of the new government, and so on. I was instructed to get together a new people's militia; if the old militiamen who had served under the former chief Petrenko were not counter-revolutionary, some of them could be left in their places; and to lend me more prestige I was given two militiamen from the political exiles— Sergeev and the Orenburg Cossack.

On my way to the Rykovskoe settlement in the Tymovsky District I went through peasant hamlets and arranged popular meetings. Peasants listened with great curiosity to something that was entirely new and not very intelligible to them. They asked me questions: "See here, Mr. Chief, it has never happened before in these places that any chief has come to our village and called us comrades. Far from that! Why, we couldn't make a peep in front of our superiors.” Then, interrupting each other, they tried to tell me about the chiefs that used to be previously. One of the peasants, an old man standing in the center of the hut, turned back to face the people and said, “Yes, old men, here we are who have served our time* and are now old, and yet we have never seen such a chief. Look at him, he is still a suckling and yet a chief. Well, that's all right; God grant him a good beginning!” The old man stopped speaking, and tears rolled down his face. Others became silent. The young people who were at the meeting gathered in a close group and talked with animation. One of them, whose name I learned later was Zimmerman, turned to the old men who were gathered there, and who also were talking among themselves, and said, “Suppose you don't talk so loud”; and then he turned to me: “See here, Mr. Chief, we have heard rumors here that in Russia there is now war among the Russian people; between some that are called Bolsheviks and others that are called Whites. They say that the Bolsheviks fight for the people so that there shall be no Tsar any more and so that the land shall be taken from the lords and given to the peasants; we understand little of that. Will you tell us about it?” I told the gathering as much about the meaning of the Bolshevik program as I had been able to find out from political exiles during my stay in Alexandrovsk. I said that according to the Bolshevik program the whole land was to be given to the peasants without their paying indemnity to the lords. I said that in Russia the majority of the people were peasants, and not rich peas[39]][292쪽]ants, and that was the reason why they followed the Bolsheviks, serving in the Red Army, which was fighting for a better life for peasants and factory workers in Russia; and that the White Army, which fights against them, is the army made up mostly of people from the well-to-do class, who want everything in Russia to remain as it used to be under the Tsar.

One of the peasants said: “It would have been fine if the Tsar had given the land to the peasants. I remember that in my village in Russia in my time there used to be talk that land would be allotted any day, but we never got it." There was general animation. Everybody talked, and I could see that they thought something new had happened from which they would live better. Then I said to them, “Comrades, if you have any questions, you may ask them without being timid about it." "Yes, we have such conditions here that we can't get a thing we need. Everything is expensive and bad, and as to dry goods, why Mr. Chief, be kind; exert yourself for our sakes in this matter." Soon I declared the meeting closed. One of the local people—Pavel Bobrovsky, as I learned later—came up to me and invited me and my companions, the two militiamen, to call at his house. Villagers also came to that house with all kinds of questions and requests. One of them handed me a petition which read: "I beg you most humbly, Mr. Chief, to take me into the Bolshevik service at Rykovskoe.” All this was in the Adatymovskoe settlement of Tymovsky District.

Toward evening we came to the place where we were to serve. We drove right up to the building of the police office. Two of the old policemen came out to meet us and greeted us, asking us to come in. The building was on a square in the center of the settlement, and not far from it was the school; farther off was the volost government building and the community house named after N. V. Gogol. The town church was on the same square. Five minutes later, citizen Romanov arrived; a man of middle age, he introduced himself and asked me to follow him to the office of the chief administrator. Evening came. Romanov briefly reported to me on all the necessary matters and, after reading my mandate from the Executive Committee, said, “I now have the honor to surrender to you all the business of administering the police department.” After receiving from Romanov the same evening all the documents and accounts, I actually assumed the discharge of my duties. The whole militia staff, with myself at the head, settled down in the government[293쪽]building. The Executive Committee from Alexandrovsk allowed us funds for our upkeep. The militia was composed of old militiamen with the addition of the two whom I had brought with me. That same evening I acquainted them with the situation, explaining that the government was a new and revolutionary one and that all my orders must be carried out without contradiction. In reply I heard: “Yes, yes, Mr. Chief”; and right there I told them that they must not call me Mr. Chief, but Comrade Commissar, which custom they adopted from the first day. They had no firearms with them but only sabers. Therefore I gave them revolvers which were available in the administration store. In this manner we were all armed with revolvers. The militiamen had Smith & Wessons and I had a Nagan.

The next day I gave orders for the population to gather for a meeting in the volost government building. I sent the militiamen to tell the people about it. The premises were filled to overflowing. I came and greeted the people by saying “Good health to you, comrades.” To which they replied, "Good health to you. Welcome, welcome here, Mr. Chief.” The meeting was of the same character as that in the Adatymoyskoe village. At the end of it I said that I was the newly appointed militia commissar of the Tymovsky District and that I wished them in the future to turn to me with all their questions and needs. They asked, “And why is it, Mr. Chief, that you have on your chest a red ribbon and a five-point red star on your cap?” I explained to them the meaning of these things. It was a long time before the gathering dispersed. They kept talking among themselves.

The local rural intelligentsia came to pay me calls, one by onethe doctor of the local hospital, Dr. Babelis, a Polish citizen; the midwife; the teachers, Diuzhakov and Bezugomonov. They in their turn had questions, mostly of an economic nature, to ask me. The doctor asked me to help him settle the matter of heating the hospital, said that there was an acute shortage of hospital linen, and so forth. All this I took into account, and when all these requests accumulated I turned them over to the Alexandrovsk Executive Committee. Later, I was in touch with the Committee by telephone, which simplified my work. I telephoned to the Executive Committee about very many important questions, and received their orders also by telephone.

The townspeople, seeing the simplicity of my methods, soon began to come to the militia with their needs. They would say:
[294쪽]
"Couldn't you, Mr. Chief, exert yourself a little about getting some percale here? It is very difficult; we can't get any.” Then they came with all kinds of complaints. One villager, I remember, came and asked me to help him divide his property with his son. In a long speech he told me the story of how his son was going to take his share and leave the house, but that he wanted too much of the property and the man had still other children who must be put on their feet. Then they would come and complain that the storekeeper had a lot of all sorts of goods stored away and had even closed the store and didn't want to sell anything for any kind of money. Or they would report that Gromovik, one of their townspeople, was distilling illegal alcohol in the forest; and so forth and so on.

As a matter of fact, the whole government of the district centered in the hands of the militia commissar alone. The so-called volost administration lost its importance after the overthrow. The population was represented by an alderman, who himself came to the militia with all the questions that he considered of importance. A few days later a militiaman who used to represent Kolchak's Government in one of the far-away northern settlements came to the militia headquarters with a report that the Japanese who lived in his settlement had for no apparent reason picked up whatever they could of their property, leaving the rest behind, hired dog sleds and reindeer from the Giliaks and Orochons? and hastily left for home, that is, for the Japanese half of the island. He also declared that the Russians and the natives who were left in the settlement, seeing that the Japanese had abandoned many supplies and materials, had attempted to steal some of it, but that he hadn't let them, that he had left in his place a reliable man with an old powder rifle, and had come quickly to Rykovskoe to find out what was the matter.

It developed later that the Japanese had learned of the political overturn at Alexandrovsk and had received orders from their authorities to leave immediately, to sail along the eastern coast of the Okhotsk Sea, and to make no stops at any Russian settlement. I immediately informed the Executive Committee of all this, by telephone. They gave me orders to send three or four militiamen along with the one who came from that settlement to mobilize the natives with their dog sleighs and reindeer, to take an inventory of all the property left by the Japanese and to bring it to Rykovskoe. Two days later the militiamen came back with the property. It included[295쪽]rice, soya, canned food, Japanese biscuits, and other provisions; there were also Japanese blankets, kimonos, sandals, dry goods, kerosene, matches, benzine, and alcohol. All this was stored by me at the government building. The natives who brought these goods were paid for their work, and returned to their settlements. I again telephoned to the Executive Committee, and was told that the question of all this property was being settled with the Japanese consul, Takamuro Gonziro.

One day I had a telephone call from the Executive Committee, saying: "Comrade Ovchinnikov, you have in your district a flourishing illicit manufacture of alcohol. Take all measures to eradicate it. We are already very short of grain. Etc.” At the same time I was told to take an inventory of all the stores of goods belonging to local merchants, as well as of all the firearms. I called the people to a meeting on the question of illicit alcohol and firearms, and told them: “Here, comrades, I have information that you have many alcohol distilleries in the village”; that this was bad business; that we were short of grain anyway, flour being brought for the local population from the continent. “Therefore I am asking you, honorably, to stop this business. Otherwise, I have orders from Alexandrovsk that all who are caught in this business will have to be arrested and tried.” The villagers began to stir and said: “We don't believe that we have any distiller of alcohol among us"; and one said: "We heard rumors that Gromovik distilled a little bit, only we don't know how true that is.” I told them again that if any one of them engaged in that practice he should drop it of his own accord or else he would fare badly. Here they spoke again: “No, Mr. Chief; of course, that's bad. It's true that we did hear rumors of Gromovik doing a little bit of it.” But Gromovik, another villager, replied to them, “Did you see me do it yourself? What business is it of yours to complain?”

Then I told them that I had orders from Alexandrovsk to find out who had arms, that is, old army rifles, shotguns, new rifles, or revolvers. “And what is this for, Mr. Chief?” they answered in unison. I told them that I didn't know. Thereupon they began to talk all at once: "Of course, most everyone around here has a hunter's outfit because we do hunting in winter time, and we couldn't possibly get along here without a rifle. Sometimes bears come around in the fall, right up to the houses.” At this juncture one villager, a certain Filippov, who was head of the local post and telegraph office, addressed me in the name of his fellow-villagers. He said that, quite[296쪽]certainly, most people had arms, but that they were absolutely indispensable to them, as the people's hunting was quite a help in making their living. He went on in a joking way, saying, "We have such marksmen here that when they wanted a squirrel they could shoot it with a single shot right in the eye so as not to spoil its skin.” Then they allowed me to take down their names and the kind of weapons each one had, with the reservation, "We won't sell or surrender our guns to anybody." The same evening one of the villagers came to the militia and told me: “I know where Gromovik has his still. It is not far from here, in the forest. You cannot find it yourself, but if you won't tell anybody I'll show you the place.” I took advantage of his offer and sent three armed militiamen to the indicated place. The still was found, and Gromovik confessed. He was temporarily put under arrest on orders from the Executive Committee. A goodly number of villagers were found willing to serve, and they came to me pretty often offering to show me secret stills "somewhere not far from here in the forest.” The villagers spoke of me: “Just think; this chief, he is still a suckling, and wants to put his nose into things that aren't any of his business! We used to live here all right before, and Petrenko didn't use to do any such things.”

The problem of taking an inventory of the dry goods and other goods in the traders' stores was a difficult one. Evidently they had felt that bad times were coming and had securely stored away a considerable portion of their goods. Here, too, things didn't progress without the help of willing villagers, of whom one or another would come to the militia headquarters and tell me in a low voice: “Mr. Chief, I have seen storekeeper Makarov hide percale in his cattle yard.” When I went to them with orders from the Executive Committee to make a list of their goods, they objected in every possible way. Makarov's wife wept, and lamented that here they had earned these things by their honest labors, and so forth, and so on. The owner lost his temper and tried to prove to me that this was unjust, that it was violence and plunder. I said that I begged their pardon very much, that I was acting on orders from above. The goods were listed at Makarov's and at the place of another shopkeeper, citizen Telegin, where the same scenes took place. From the Executive Committee an additional message came by telephone that Makarov also had an automatic Mauser revolver which should be taken away from him and that part of his dry goods should be requisitioned, taken to the militia administration, and sold at current prices to those of the[297쪽]villagers who were especially in need of underwear. The storekeepers were given receipts for requisitioned goods. When we came to the storekeeper Telegin for the goods, he said with a smile: “And maybe you need some red goods for red flags, I have a lot of red percale."

Again I called a meeting to make out the list of village families and find out which of them was especially in want. The meeting this time was especially lively. Everybody knew that dry goods were being taken from the storekeepers to be distributed to the population. People said that this was something that should have been done long ago, as the storekeepers fleeced them all they wanted to and only the other day he (Makarov) and Naumenko asked one dark red fox for four arshin* of percale, to say nothing of all the tea and sugar that he has, and yet the prices are such that you can't come near them. I asked them to be quiet, and then said: “Now let us make lists, and then we shall know how many mouths there are to feed in each family and how much goods they need." I told them that, according to the order from Alexandrovsk, percale would be distributed to the poorest first of all and what was left would be distributed in equal parts to others. I said that living in the same village they should know each other. They knew whoever was in most want and therefore might tell me right away, and I would take the names down. They all named in unison one villager, and then another one. I asked for more names: “So and so, I hear, he's also in want”; and again, “No, no, Mr. Chief, that one can get along for a while. He can take what's left later on.” Some, however, raised their voices again in favor of the man, while others did not agree. It almost came to a fight. I said this wouldn't do; that I would telephone Alexandrovsk about it and they would tell me not to give anybody anything. “Of course, of course, that's quite so. Now keep still; be quiet, will you, old people.”

I made the list and distributed little tickets on the spot to those who were to come to the militia the next day. Next morning there was a crowd of men and women at the doors of the militia. I understood that not only those came who had been set down on the list of the needy the day before but others as well. With the help of militiamen we cut some percale according to two or three tickets ; but here a new misunderstanding arose: the people asked for more[* One arshin is about twenty-eight inches. [Tr.]][298쪽]sateen, and there was very little of that. One had to give them according to one's own judgment. In ten minutes I heard swearing in the street. I went out. A woman stood and waved her hands, expressing her indignation in a loud voice about another woman who was just then leaving the militia building, and said that this latter was a sly one, and that she still had linen cloth from her dowry stored away in her trunk. She then turned to me and said that we should know to whom to give things. There was a fight. I told them that for a while there would not be any goods distributed. “But how is it that the others got goods?" I told them that we should settle that later on. After dinner the local midwife came and said: “In the interests of the local population, I beg you to give your attention to the needs of the local hospital, and I beg you first of all to assure us of hospital linen.” I told her that she must first write a petition and I would on my part do anything I could. Afterward, when the hospital was assured of its needs, including fuel and lighting material, Dr. Babelis personally carne to the militia to express his thanks. He touched upon the question of the revolution, saying, “This turmoil will probably last a long time," and that he wanted to leave Sakhalin at the first opportunity and go to the United States, where he had a brother.

So the time went, until the Island Congress. During all that period I had no instructions whatsoever from the Executive Committee concerning the sending of delegates to that Congress. Therefore Rykovskoe and even the whole Tymovsky District were, as a matter of fact, represented by myself. Most of the delegates at the Congress were evidently from the city of Alexandrovsk. The leading part belonged undoubtedly to the group of political exiles with Voitinsky and Slepak at the head. From local leaders there were Tsapko and Kolbunov. I didn't succeed in finding out anything about the proceedings of the Congress, as on the very first day of its opening I had to leave for the Tymovsky District on business.
Many members of the Provisional Executive Committee were reelected at the Congress. Many of the members were new. A solemn procession was arranged in the streets of the little town. At mass meetings speakers called upon the people to co-operate in building a new life.

In March, two partisans, Comrades Krivulin and Fomin, delegates from the Amur country, came to Alexandrovsk. From their reports it appeared that the Red partisans were approaching the town[299쪽]of Nikolaevsk-on-the-Amur. Krivulin and Fomin also visited the Tymovsky District. At the meeting Krivulin made a speech in which he said: “Comrades, you have before you a true Bolshevik, a partisan who fights for the poor laboring Russian people.”
“Here, listen; he says he fights for the poor! And his coat is lined with fox fur," said the villagers afterward.
They stayed on at Sakhalin waiting for news from the Amur partisan detachments, and then, one day, a radio message came: "Nikolaevsk-on-the-Amur fallen. Partisans triumphantly entered the town occupying all military and public establishments. Commander of partisan detachments, Yakov Triapitsyn.” The Sakhalin Executive Committee called an extraordinary meeting on this occasion and, since springtime was approaching and there might have been complications with our Japanese neighbors, it was resolved to send a special delegation to Nikolaevsk for some machine guns, since the detachment at Alexandrovsk was armed only with rifles. At that time my friend Volodia Potorzhinsky was in the local armed detachment, and as he was a specialist in machine gun instruction the Executive Committee sent him to Nikolaevsk.

THE COMING OF THE JAPANESE

Between the twentieth and the thirtieth of March a report came from Nikolaevsk that the Japanese and the White Guards had come out in a treacherous attack against the partisans but that the insurrection was put down under the orders of Triapitsyn. All this was communicated to me from the Executive Committee by telephone. At about the same time two Japanese traders, on their way to Alexandrovsk, called on me at the militia office and courteously inquired about business in general. They spoke Russian excellently. “It would be fine if there were no import duty on goods, so that trade between Japanese in southern Sakhalin and the Russian people in the north would develop quickly,” they said. I never saw them again.

The news from Nikolaevsk about the Japanese attack and its suppression threw the Sakhalin Executive Committee into a state of alarm; and everybody felt sure that as soon as spring came the Japanese fleet would come to Alexandrovsk and then proceed to Nikolaevsk. About the middle of April I received a telephone message from the Executive Committee : “Warships are visible on the horizon south of Alexandrovsk. We think they are Japanese. Await[300쪽]further orders.” One hour later the telephone rang again: "Comrade Ovchinnikov, the Japanese war fleet is coming. An ice breaker is coming ahead of them.” (The Tartar Strait at that time was not yet free from ice.) "Inform the population of your district.”

A village meeting was hurriedly called. The crowd was told the news. Most of the people met it with indifference. The traders from whom goods had been requisitioned and some of those who sympathized with them were obviously glad of the coming of the Japanese. During the meeting one of them tried to tear the red ribbon from my chest. At this moment the militiaman on duty came running from the militia office saying that a telephone message was waiting for me. It was Tsapko, member of the Executive Committee, on the other end of the line:

"Comrade Ovchinnikov, a Japanese landing force has just started disembarking at Alexandrovsk. They are marching in columns toward the city. On orders from the Executive Committee, tell the population that if anybody wishes to retreat north with the detachment, they may do so. I am speaking from the radio station. The members of the Executive Committee and the detachment are preparing to march out of Alexandrovsk. A Japanese detachment is marching in the direction of the radio station. Others are entering the city. Comrade Ovchinnikov, good-by. The Japanese are breaking in the doors of the radio station. Good-by—"; sound of breaking doors, and then all was still.

I ran back to the meeting. I told them that Alexandrovsk was occupied by the Japanese. I told them once more that everyone was given free choice as to what he should do: those who wanted to come with us might do so, and whoever didn't might stay. I went to the militia office. There I found Dr. Babelis, who offered to give us brief instruction on the subject of how to help each other in case of wounds. We accepted his offer with thanks. Then he distributed first-aid materials to us. Those of us who were ready to march numbered about forty. I went to the telephone and called Alexandrovsk. In reply I heard the voice of a Japanese. All was finished. I told the detachment to take provisions along.

In Sakhalin at that time (April) the snow was still deep, and so we all took skis. Once more we said good-by to the villagers, who gathered around the militia office, and set out on our march. Members of our detachment knew the locality very well, so that when we left the village I gathered them all together and suggested that we[301쪽]shouldn't use the road, as the Japanese might come out to meet us from Alexandrovsk and finish us all, but that we should rather take to our skis at once and go cross-country over the snow, in a northwesterly direction, so as to meet the marchers retreating from Alexandrovsk. We met them toward evening of the same day. Together we halted in a hamlet to discuss further steps.

Those from Alexandrovsk said that there was no sense in retreating northward, because by the time we reached the place from which we could cross the Tartar Strait to the continent in the direction of Nikolaevsk, the ice of the Amur River would already be in motion and we should not be able to cross; also that the Japanese, knowing we had retreated northward, would try to intercept us with their fleet, and that, too, would mean our end. Here again it was decided that whoever wanted to go on might do so and those who didn't were free to go wherever they pleased. Sixty-three of us volunteered to go on northward. I was among them. Our preparations were short, and we went on. With general consent I was appointed commander of our detachment. All the forty who left Rykovskoe with me were present. Those who fell back intended to return to Alexandrovsk. Among other things I learned when we met with the Alexandrovsk detachment that Tsapko and my friend Volodia, a machine-gun instructor, had been shot by the Japanese during the occupation of Alexandrovsk. We went on skis with our provisions in knapsacks on our backs, and armed with revolvers. We proceeded in single file so that we left only a single ski track. We did that so as to confuse the possible pursuit by the Japanese by giving the impression that only one ski runner had passed there.

Presently we entered the taiga forest. When night came we stopped for a rest, made a fire, ate a little, and, after some sleep, marched on. In about two days we reached the settlements of the Giliak natives, procured dog sleds from them, and went on. One of our dog sleds carried a supply of dried fish to feed the dogs. After a journey of a few days we came to the camp of the Orochon nomads and let the Giliaks go home with their dogs, giving them in payment some rice from our supplies. From the Orochons we obtained reindeer and went on. We reached Russian fishing settlements scattered on the Tartar Strait coast.[302쪽]

THE ESCAPE FROM SAKHALIN

The Strait was still covered with ice but there was already some water standing on it. The distance from this point to the continent was from forty-three to forty-five versts. The fishermen told us that further on toward the continent it would be more difficult to cross, since the Amur River had already begun to break up in the upper reaches. We had to make haste. We let the Orochons go back with their reindeer and again took a few dog sleds. We set out. The farther we walked the more water there was above the ice, or, more exactly, a mixture of water and snow. From the north came cold and fog. After a while the fog got so thick that it was difficult to see a man twenty paces away. Water was already knee-deep. We let the dogs and sleds go back, because the dogs had already begun to pull their sleds swimming. Soon we saw something outlined through the fog and rejoiced, thinking it was land. No, it was an iceberg. One of us, Kuznetsov, crawling out of the water sat down on this iceberg and said that he could not go on, his strength was gone. “Better shoot me down right here,” he said. We decided to take turns carrying him on our backs. But here was the land! For sheer joy our fellows took off their caps, crossed themselves, and kissed the ground saying, “Now we are saved.” We stopped at one of the fishing settlements not far from the mouth of the Amur. We were shown some quarters in which we could put up. We lived by whatever supplies could be found in the fishing settlement. It was connected by telephone with Nikolaevsk, so I deemed it necessary first of all to inform Nikolaevsk that a detachment had come across from Sakhalin. The telephonist on duty got the staff of the partisan detachment and its commander Triapitsyn on the wire.

“Commander of partisan detachments, Triapitsyn, at the telephone." I reported to him that "a detachment numbering sixty-three men under my, Ovchinnikov's, command, having crossed today the Tartar Strait from Sakhalin, has stopped at the fishing settlement, which I beg to report, awaiting further instructions from you." Triapitsyn congratulated us over the phone on the successful crossing, asked us to remain for the time being where we were, and said that as soon as the Amur and its bay were clear of ice a cutter would be sent for us from Nikolaevsk. At the same time we were told to keep watch to see whether any Japanese warships appeared in the bay.

The fishing settlement had a number of pretty good structures, all[303쪽]of wood. Farther down, nearer the bay, were huge warehouses for ice storage. Then there were structures where the fishing equipment was stored, dwellings for workers and employees, the office building; and not far away, on the top of a hill, stood a beautiful two-story house, the new home of the owners. As far as I can remember the fisheries had belonged to the commercial firm, Lurie and Company.

None of the former owners were at the fishery at that time. The whole business was managed by the local fishermen's union, which was energetically preparing for the opening of the spring fishing season. The president of the fishermen's union once invited me "to see our fishery." In the ice house he told me how the fishing of keto was done, how they cleaned, salted, and packed it in barrels, and sent it out in ships up the Amur to Russia, Siberia, and abroad. He said that until recently the keta roe had been thrown away into the sea, as nobody knew what to do with it, but now they had learned to salt it in barrels, which doubled the profits of the fishery. He also said: “But, Comrade Ovchinnikov, formerly the whole profit went into the pockets of the owners, the rich people, the Luries; and now it all belongs to ourselves, the workers, and we have put our whole strength into improving and expanding the fishing business. You know that here along the whole coast, this is the richest place, a real gold mine, especially the fisheries Petakh and Ozerpakh not far from here, and all the way up the Amur to Nikolaevsk and beyond. Now we must only try hard and work.” I could see how sincere he was in saying that.

During our stay in the fishing settlement, its workers arranged evening entertainments to which they invited us as guests. I remember that a native Giliak played fascinatingly, on a double accordion, all kinds of Russian dances, songs, and popular ditties, to which all the assembled people danced and sang. Here in the evenings Russians and natives gathered from the surrounding settlements to have a merry time.

At one such dance I spoke to a middle-aged woman and said, “How cheerful it is here, how interesting.”

She replied: "Yes, certainly they are having a merry time. You know, in former times, they didn't let you have things this way.”

In the middle of May a cutter came for us from Nikolaevsk. The cutter was small and couldn't take our whole detachment. With the help of fishery workers we built on the spot a kungas, which was taken in tow by the cutter, and so we all traveled to Nikolaevsk.

[304쪽]



ARRIVAL AT NIKOLAEVSK

We came to the wharf at about five o'clock and landed. A crowd, in summer clothes was gazing curiously at us who were so strangely dressed. It was May, but we wore fur caps, motley peasant clothing, various kinds of furred overcoats, and on our feet, instead of boots, odd shoes and chuni which many of us made from raw reindeer hides while still on the way across Sakhalin. Triapitsyn was informed over the telephone. We lined up and waited. Soon a cutter came to the same landing, pulling behind it a barge tightly packed with a crowd of men and women. As we later learned, they were Nikolaevsk people who were coming back from "saturdaying” [extra Saturday labor] on public works.

A few minutes later Triapitsyn with his staff came in an automobile. Among them was one woman; as I learned later she was Chiefof-Staff Nina Lebedeva-Kiashko. I called the detachment to attention. The new arrivals stepped quickly from the automobile. One of them, Triapitsyn, approached me limping and I in turn walked forward to meet him. After we saluted each other he stretched out his hand to shake mine saying: "I have the honor to present myself: commander of troops of the Nikolaevsk District, Triapitsyn.” I made my report to him; then the others who had come with him came up to us and greeted us. They were all smartly dressed in suits of high-grade brown leather, cut on a military pattern. Their boots and caps were of the same color. On their caps they wore the five-pointed red star on a black background.* They wore revolvers at their sides on belts of the army officer pattern.

Thereafter Triapitsyn and those who came with him-except one—again climbed into their machine and left. The man who stayed behind came to me and said, “Well, Comrade Ovchinnikov, now we shall go to the city.”

He walked ahead, our detachment followed, and I marched beside the detachment making them keep in step. We marched along the main street. On our way people stopped and stared at us with curiosity. While going down the main street I noticed heaps of half-burned wooden debrís. I found out that these were remains of places that had been burned down in the fighting during the Japanese attack. We came to the secondary-school building, where the staff of the partisan force was housed and where by that time rooms were[* The red star for Communism; the black, for Anarchism. [Ed.]][305쪽]ready for us. I, as chief of the detachment, was offered a separate room. :

Next morning a partisan from the group who stood close to Triapitsyn, an officer for special commissions, came to me and declared: “Comrade Triapitsyn wishes you to come to headquarters.” On entering headquarters, I noticed in the doorway two sentries armed with rifles. “Well, Comrade Ovchinnikov, tell us what happened on Sakhalin and how you got away from there,” Triapitsyn said to me. I made a brief report to him. There were three of them present: Triapitsyn, Chief-of-Staff Nina Lebedeva, and a certain Streltsov. All three once more congratulated me and the detachment on our successful escape. Nina Lebedeva presented me with a pair of field glasses. Then Triapitsyn told me: “Your Sakhalin detachment will be dissolved and will go to complete our Amur regiment. Also I have given orders that all of you be given uniforms; and you, Comrade Ovchinnikov, will be commander of a company.” Here I told him that I lacked sufficient military training to be commander of a company in a regular army. He said that it was not important: "You have brought the detachment from Sakhalin, and that counts greatly to your credit.” At the same time he said, "We shalt soon have to retreat from Nikolaevsk, as, according to reports I have received, the - Japanese may appear any day.” Most of the soldiers in the company which I was to command were from the Amur partisan detachments, participants in the taking of Nikolaevsk and the suppression of the Japanese attack. Most were young and armed with the most diverse kinds of weapons—Russian modern army rifles, Japanese rifles, revolvers, grenades—and many wore Japanese sabers. As to clothing, each dressed about as he pleased, and a great many had leather suits. We did no training whatsoever, either drill or oral lessons. My company used to spend whole days scattered in small groups, of which some went down town and others hung around the yard of the school building. The chief subject of their conversation was: “Now these ʻreptiles' will probably soon take Nikolaevsk again; but never mind, we know how to fight them now. Comrade Triapitsyn has got the best of them on worse occasions than this.”

So far as my command of the company went, it was only on paper. They kept away from me and chose one from among themselves, an Amur partisan, Krysikov, around whom they gathered, so that my commanding of the company never went beyond assigning the necessary number of men [to guard duty) upon the request of the com-[306쪽]mander of the garrison guards. Where my soldiers, were and how they spent their time all day long, I did not even begin to know. Later, by a regimental order, Krysikov was made commander of a. half-company in my company, and being an “ex-front soldier”. [frontovik] with German war experience he virtually commanded the company.

Every day it was more difficult for me to understand my position, and I didn't know how to behave. My battalion commander was a certain Vedmanov and the commander of the regiment was AmurovKazadaev. During all the time that we were at Nikolaevsk I never saw the entire regiment lined up in order and in fact had no idea of its numbers. It could be concluded from the partisans' conversations that other companies were quartered in the town and that some of them were in the fortress Chnyrrakh. I met the commander of the regiment only once, and on that occasion he told me: “Probably we are soon going to retreat.” There were several men in my company from my former Sakhalin detachment; I remember Pavlov, Gorshkov, Minaev, Shcherbakov, Sergeev, Pokrovsky, and Girgelevich, who was later assigned to the Chnyrrakh Fortress as a radio operator. One evening Shcherbakov and I went to the city. On our way we fell to talking. He looked around cautiously and began in a low voice to share his impressions with me: “You know, Comrade Ovchinnikov, you could vouch for it that I was sent by Kolchak to the Sakhalin prison for having Bolshevik ideas and that all of us—Comrades Voitinsky, Slepak, Gorshkov, Sergeev—fought and are still fighting for justice for the laboring people. I am a sailor from the Baltic Fleet; I have taken part in the revolution from its first days and have seen all kinds of fighting; but, Comrade Ovchinnikov, if you only knew what goes on here—it's horrible.” (He dropped his voice still lower.) “Every night whole families are killed, because, as the partisans say, they are burzhui. Comrade Ovchinnikov, this is not justice. What is this bloodshed for, and what have the women and children to do with it?”.

Girgelevich came to Nikolaevsk from the fortress. He dropped in at my room and invited me to come and see him. He was acquainted with one family in Nikolaevsk, where we went to tea. We also had something to drink. In general conversation the "current moment” was touched upon, and Girgelevich addressed all of us saying: “Listen; this is horrible. Day before yesterday partisans brought into the fortress some man from a farm, saying that he was[307쪽] a ‘White reptile’ and took him to Comrades Dubitsky and Yakhontov.” (These two were the commissar of the radio station and his assistant.) “They had been drinking, and as they tried the arrested man they flipped a coin—five kopecks—and said, “if it's heads he shall be spared; if it's tails he shall be shot'.” Then Girgelevich said to me, "By the way, Comrade Ovchinnikov, Comrade Slepak and another who was with him telephoned yesterday to the fortress and asked if they couldn't in some way be ferried across to Nikolaevsk.” It developed that Slepak and another one of those who had retreated from Alexandrovsk had reached the Russian fishing hamlets in northern Sakhalin, but since it had no longer been possible to cross on the ice they had had to wait there until the sound was cleared somewhat, and then crossed to the continent in a fisherman's boat.

One day, in the yard of the school, three soldiers from my company were sitting talking: Pavlov, Minaev, and Pokrovsky (the last two were peasants from a Sakhalin village and had marched with me in the group of sixty-three). I stepped up to them. We chatted. Minaey began to tell how he had been on duty the night before: "The burzhui were arrested, you see, and taken to the Amur to be killed. There was among them one nice young lady. Young she was. She wept and came up to me and said, 'Save my family and me. Marry me, I don't want to die.' She was a good-looking one. I went to the head guard and asked him to spare this family; but he said: 'What is the matter with you, Comrade? Do you want to marry a ‘White reptile,' a burzhui?' They were all killed and thrown into the Amur. And you know, Comrade Ovchinnikov, I used to think before-how can one kill a human being ? and now I am used to it; it's simple and doesn't mean anything.” Then Pokrovsky interrupted him: "The last time I was told to knock off a young one, a clerk or something, I guess—he wore glasses—so I took him to the river and was about to saber him down and then I noticed he had nearly new trousers of good diagonal (cloth). I said to him, 'Take them off.' He took them off; then I said, 'Go into the river.' He walked in, and when he was a little way from the shore I ran after him and hacked him down from behind with the saber" (smiling) “_he looked about seventeen or eighteen.” I said, “And weren't you afraid, Pokrovsky, to do that?" "Nichevo” (laughing). I said, “And what if your mother and your little brothers and sisters back in Adatymovskoe on Sakhalin should know what has become of you now?” “And what business is it of theirs?" was his reply.

[308쪽]Once when I was in my room on the second story I heard from below the singing of the litany, then laughter and obscene words. I went down: along the main corridor walked a procession of partisans with crosses in their hands, dressed in church vestments, shouting, singing whatever came into their heads. In front of them walked a certain partisan by the name of Volkov, in church vestment and with the incense burner in his hand.

One day I dropped in at headquarters. Triapitsyn and Nina were absent. I spoke to a certain Pavlichenko, 10 asking him to let me have several pairs of boots. He led me through the rooms of the staff. We met Zhelezin, president of the Nikolaevsk Executive Committee, who said: “Comrade Pavlichenko, come on; let us go and see how matters stand with those valuables." I stopped. “Never mind, never mind,” said Zhelezin, “come on with us.” In a room, in one corner, were heaped in disorder the requisitioned church valuables : crosses, gospels in metal covers, adornments from sacred images, candelabras, and the like.

On orders from Triapitsyn, the regiment was by that time named "the First Amur Anarchist-Communist Regiment.” The soldiers wore black and red ribbons on their chests and red-on-black five-point stars on their caps. From the day after I came with my detachment to Nikolaevsk, when I handed over my detachment, I was never in the office of Triapitsyn and his Chief-of-Staff, Nina Lebedeva, until we evacuated the town. I always received the order to "send men for guard duty" directly from the battalion commander, Vedmanov. One day he invited me to his apartment “for a glass of tea.” The place used to be some rich home. The furnishings were beautiful; there were pictures on the walls, all sorts of statuettes standing upon the chests, and the like. He asked me to step into his office. There he had a desk littered with books and papers in disorder; near by stood a huge bookcase full of books, and a globe. “Wife, heat a samovar for us and give us some kind of zakuska.” The wife was dressed in fashionable clothes, taken from the "burzhui reptiles.” Vedmanov, without taking off his cap, sat down at his desk. He wore a suit of fine brown leather, and had a revolver in his belt and a riding crop in his left hand. He took a piece of paper, a pencil, and handed them to me, saying, “Comrade Ovchinnikov, write a request for underwear to the commissary.” He was illiterate and could sign his name only with difficulty. His little daughter came to the piano and began to bang upon the keys with her little hands. “You see, Com[309쪽]rade Ovchinnikov, she already understands how to play this music―and in former times, would we have had this possibility ?”

This was about two days before the retreat. In the morning Vedmanov met me saying, “Come on.” We entered the house. It was still. On the floor were heaped in disorder clothing and various other things. “All these 'reptiles' were killed last night,” he said. Then, kicking the things with the toe of his boot, he asked me, "Do you want a drink?" I said, "No." It seemed to me the spirit of death was hovering about those rooms. I wanted to leave quickly.

We went out. Some fifteen or twenty armed partisans were walking in our direction. “Where are you going, comrades ?” asked Vedmanov. “We have orders to surround that house over there and make a search. They say some 'reptiles' are hiding in there."

The former members of my Sakhalin detachment of sixty-three who were in my company in Nikolaevsk, Sergeev and Gorshkov, would say when they met me: “Comrade Ovchinnikov, is this what we have fought for? If we had known that it was going to turn out like this, there was no use leaving Sakhalin. You know, over here plain working people call us bandits. It is terrible what's going on in town." Sergeev used to serve as machinist on a harbor tug, and Gorshkov used to be in a sappers' detachment. They both had been political exiles on Sakhalin. "Couldn't we leave on a cutter for Okhotsk and then make our way to Russia ?” Sergeev once asked me.

THE RETREAT FROM NIKOLAEVSK

On June 1 fire started in the city. Rifle shooting was heard. There was general confusion and excitement. A Japanese airplane circled over the town and flew back. It was declared that retreat was to begin next morning. At about five o'clock in the afternoon Vedmanov told me that I was appointed chief of the city guards for that day and that I should at once go to the headquarters of the fortress to see the commandant of the town, a certain Plevako. Toward evening the fire increased. It burned on all sides. Commandant Plevako said the night was going to be especially difficult. “The remaining White ‘reptiles' are sensing the approach of the Japanese and are raising their heads,” he said. “We must be prepared.”

Guards were posted in the coopers' union, in the headquarters of the fortress, and in army headquarters. I was to check up on them every hour. Riding a horse which was assigned me from the commandant's office, I made the rounds of the guard posts. Fire and[310쪽]shooting continued. I did not dare to look for the cause of this shooting. At about four o'clock in the morning of June 2 I was relieved and went at once to rest. I was awakened by a very loud explosion somewhere in the city. We received orders to march out. My company of soldiers had almost melted away. They scattered wherever they pleased and made their own arrangements wherever they could. All those who had been in my Sakhalin detachment kept together. Soldiers of all branches of arms were crowded in the square before the school building where the army headquarters was. Soon Triapitsyn appeared with his staff. He gave the brief order, “Retreat”; and the whole mass started to leave the town. A line of pack horses with sleds accompanied us. We entered the taiga. Everyone was left to his own devices. Personally, I, who was considered to be a commander of a company, did not receive any instructions whatsoever. Before we started on our retreat, the soldiers of my company laid in supplies of whatever anybody could get. Meanwhile from the city came sounds of terrific explosions. There was a rumor that we were retreating to the village Mago, some forty versts from Nikolaevsk; but soon there was another rumor that Mago had been taken by the Japanese.

Walking in the taiga during the first day, our group of Sakhalin men was joined by one of the partisans, a certain Mordvinkin, who said that he knew all the country around. “Let us walk together," he said. We went on. Mordvinkin, who undertook to be our guide, said: “Now, there is a homestead on the bank of the Amur not far from here; let us drop in and have some tea.” We went there and made ourselves comfortable. In a few minutes there was an alarm: a Japanese gunboat! All of us took to our heels and ran into the
st that covered the mountains. In that homestead, being in haste, I left hanging on a nail my field glasses, the gift of Nina Lebedeva, which she as Chief-of-Staff gave me on the day we arrived from Sakhalin. Walking in the taiga we met other retreating groups, and toward evening Triapitsyn overtook us with his staff and a group of partisans, all of them on horseback, and with one special packhorse carrying their provisions. At night we camped around a campfire in the taiga. It was said that the staff was ahead of us. In the morning we resumed our march, and so one day followed another. Our supply of provisions was running out. Finally only flour remained.

One evening, as we stopped for the night, I learned that the supply packs were ahead of us with the staff. I went there. A group of par-[311쪽]tisans were making ready to slaughter one of the packhorses. One Otsevili, dressed Caucasian fashion in a long cape, came up. He was said to have been commissar of industry (under Triapitsyn]. When the horse was slaughtered he held his camp kettle under the jet of blood that came from the horse's throat and, clearing his throat in anticipation of the pleasure, drank it avidly on the spot. My group received a share of a few pounds of horse meat. We roasted it on our rifle rods and ate it without bread or salt, then rendered the fat and, pouring it into boiling water, drank it instead of tea. The men complained that they had no strength left. As we retreated through the taiga, we saw starving individuals sitting dazedly with their backs against tree trunks. "But presently we came upon a goldfield settlement, where we found the partisans who had been ahead of us, and the staff. We found a supply of rice and salt fish at the mine. The men fed up a little and rested. I met Triapitsyn and reported that in my group everything was all right but that on our way we had seen about five people who had lost all their strength, and asked, “Couldn't we now go back and pick them up?" He said, “It doesn't matter; not important.” At this mine, it was said among the partisans that one hungry partisan while on the way took a bar of chocolate without permission from the pack of supplies reserved for the staff and for this offense Triapitsyn personally killed him with a revolver shot in the back of his head. People were indignant, but still kept cautious.

THE ARREST OF TRIAPITSYN

Toward the beginning of July, a great number of those retreating gathered in the settlement Udinsk on the river Amgun, which is a tributary of the Amur, and there rested for a few days. A steamer called "Amgunets" came from the village Kerbi and taking on all the partisans went back to Kerbi. I don't know when and how the staff had arrived at Kerbi, but this is what happened next: early in the morning, when we all were asleep on the steamer, an alarm was sounded. Orders to "come out” were shouted from the shore. The partisans jumped up, frightened, and not knowing what was the matter, grabbed their weapons and hurried to the gangplank. People were allowed to pass one by one and weapons were taken from them.
nese were put down in a heap and the disarmed men lined up at a little distance under strong guard. To all their questions as to what was the matter, silence was the answer. After disarming us all, we[312쪽]were driven back to the steamer. All sorts of rumors now crept among us, such as: “They say the trial will be short, the steamer will be taken out to the middle of the river and sunk.”

Many tried to approach the guards in order to find out what was the matter, but the guards would not let them near, and said nothing. Thus about two hours went by, and then a group of people came from the shore and went into the hold of the ship. “Is Comrade Ovchinnikov here?” I said, “Present." "Follow us." When we came out on the shore they told me that on orders from the new chief of the army I was released.

People were milling around. Boldly and openly it was being said that "the usurper Triapitsyn and his henchmen are arrested." Not far away there was a crowd of people; I approached them. The people stood on the river bank, and Andreev, the new Commander of the army, spoke to them from the barge; Anoshkin, the new Chiefof-Staff, also spoke. They appealed to all of us to stay in our places and observe silence and calm, and that we had no reason to fear for our lives, as the tyrant and torturer Triapitsyn was now arrested by the revolted people and would be handed over to the People's Court; that now everyone could speak his mind freely without fearing for his life, and the new authorities would first of all take measures to evacuate to Blagoveshchensk in the Amur Province, before the cold weather set in, all those who so desired; and that from now on we (Anoshkin speaking), who temporarily took over authority, shall write and speak to the people nothing but truth about the events that are taking place everywhere. The crowd grew. Andreev and Anoshkin went away. From the hold of the same barge, Triapitsyn was led out. He was without his cap, in a white shirt, with unbuttoned collar, and without a belt. The people who stood on the shore became noisy at the sight of him: “Death to the bandit and robber, to the vile murderer, to the brute!” He looked down and answered nothing. The armed men who accompanied him stopped. [A blacksmith?]* approached them, carrying leg chains across his shoulder. He came up to Triapitsyn: "Well, Comrade Triapitsyn, this will do now. You have deceived us working people beautifully; we trusted you as a good man and a revolutionary, and you proved to be a bandit. I am a blacksmith; I am already an old man, and I have never welded leg irons on anyone in my life; but I will weld them on you, and weld[* Subject of sentence left out in the original. [Tr.]][313쪽]them fast, so you can't wrench yourself free!” Turning to the people the blacksmith said, "He has earned them, so he gets them”; and he began to weld the leg irons on Triapitsyn. In reply Triapitsyn said something to the blacksmith, but as the crowd was noisy, his words were not heard. He was put into leg irons, which were fastened to his waist with chains, and was then taken back to the hold of the barge. The people were notified that a general meeting was to gather on the church square to which all should come. I met my old acquaintance from Sakhalin, Girgelevich, who was one of the sixtythree who had marched with me.

We were glad to see each other and exchanged impressions of our wanderings in the taiga after the retreat from Nikolaevsk. At Kerbi he was chief of the radio station. He invited me for a glass of tea with the family of his friend whom I had already visited while at Nikolaevsk. In that house, of course, conversation was exclusively about the events of the day. Girgelevich's friend said that in a few days the People's Court would assemble to try Triapitsyn and his staff and henchmen. Then, turning to Girgelevich, he added: “I have heard you talk much of Comrade Ovchinnikov. I think that he is now one of the most suitable persons for chairman of the People's Court, as one of the pioneers of Sakhalin, who led the detachment out of there, and thus saved their lives from the Japanese.” I replied that this was a very serious matter, that, as everybody knows, I came to Nikolaevsk with my detachment from Sakhalin shortly before the retreat and therefore could not see and know Triapitsyn's and his staff's activities closely; moreover, as we learned after the arrest of Triapitsyn, Triapitsyn's arrests and killings at Nikolaevsk were done upon instructions from Cheka members whom I didn't know at all. (They were all arrested at Kerbi.)

On orders from the army commander Andreev and the staff, representatives from the population were elected to the People's Tribunal. There were some partisan detachments from trade unions and the like. I represented the Sakhalin group. On the appointed day in July, I do not remember the date, all the delegates gathered at Kerbi to open the court. They gathered at the schoolhouse. The number of representatives was about one hundred. The commander of the troops, Andreev, made his speech, in which he asked the People's Tribunal, which represented the population of Sakhalin and the Maritime Province, to try the case justly and give the accused their[314쪽]due, to judge according to the dictates of revolutionary conscience, and to refrain from settling personal accounts with the accused.

The assembly began to nominate candidates for chairman, assistant chairman, and secretaries.

At this moment a mutual acquaintance of Girgelevich and me, being also one of the representatives in a group of Nikolaevsk people, rose and asked for the floor, saying: “Comrades, representatives of the People's Tribunal, we have here among us Comrade Ovchinnikov, still a young man. Few among those gathered here know him, but he is known as one of the first who organized the partisan detachment on Sakhalin, and, at the critical moment of the Japanese landing there, he led the detachment of sixty-three to the continent; and the participants of this difficult march from Sakhalin, in my opinion, are indebted to Comrade Ovchinnikov for being alive today. Otherwise the Japanese would undoubtedly have shot them all down as a revolutionary military organization. I, therefore, on my part, nominate Comrade Ovchinnikov as candidate for the post of Chairman of the Tribunal.” “Where is this Comrade Ovchinnikov?" people called. I presented myself to the gathering. Candidates were nominated: Anoshkin, the Chief-of-Staff; Vorobev,'1 a partisan; and myself. At that moment somebody spoke: “Comrade representatives of the People's Court! I am against appointing Comrade Ovchinnikov. You know he was company commander under Triapitsyn, and so he is a henchman of his. Stop and think! Shouldn't he rather be arrested and his case cleared up?”

Here I took the floor and said that this was correct; I was commander of a company under Triapitsyn, appointed by him as such after he dissolved the Sakhalin detachment at the head of which I had stood; I had also been arrested by the revolting partisans and then released at the orders of the staff and of Comrade Andreev, commander of the troops. “Most of you,” I said, “were in one way or another participants in the activities of Triapitsyn in his past struggle against the Russian Whites and the Japanese, and up to the last moment you were in fact counted among 'Triapitsyn's partisans' who carried out the orders of his staff, which staff you called yours. Comrades Andreev and Anoshkin, until the very last moment, were commanders of partisan detachments under the chief command of Comrade Triapitsyn. Furthermore, I request that my nomination be withdrawn, and if the representatives of the People's Court find me guilty of anything, let them arrest and try me.”[315쪽]A few words were spoken in my defense; one of the speakers was Comrade Slepak, former political prisoner on the Sakhalin. After this the gathering confirmed the nominations and I remained one of them. Voting began. It was open voting. The candidates for secretaries of the court sat down at the table, and taking paper and ink asked the people to vote: “And so comrades: who votes for Comrade Anoshkin as chairman, raise your hands!" Votes were counted, for and against.“Who is for Comrade Vorobev?” They counted again. “Who is for Comrade Ovchinnikov?” The one who managed the election and the voting declared the results: “Comrade Ovchinnikov has received a majority of votes ; second is Comrade Vorobev; and then follows Comrade Anoshkin." And so I was Chairman of the Tribunal; Vorobev, according to the majority of votes, was assistant chairman; and for secretaries Akimov and Usov were chosen. The assembly then requested me to occupy the chairman's place and open the court.

In the first place I thanked the gathering for their confidence in me; then, seeing that a vast majority of the members of the Tribunal were people no longer young, I told them that I was still young and my practical experience was small, and that, this case being very serious and responsible, in opening the trial I joined Comrade Andreev, commander of troops, in advising that the accused, some of whom might not be guilty, be judged fairly.

THE TRIAL OF THE PARTISANS

Upon general consent, the court sat with open doors. Crowds of people surrounded the schoolhouse awaiting the decisions. Sentries were at the doors.

As chairman of the People's Court, I ordered a special detachment of partisans to bring in Triapitsyn for trial. The schoolhouse where the court sat opened on the square across which one could see the way to the river bank where Triapitsyn was in the hold of the barge. The doors were open. Triapitsyn was being led under guard; his hair tousled, his shirt dirty, without a belt, and in leg irons, he limped slowly along (he had been wounded in the leg during the Japanese attack at Nikolaevsk) and his head hung low. The people — men, women, and children — screamed frantically as they ran ahead of the procession: "Death to the torturer, vampire, bloodthirsty beast,” they screamed from the crowd.

Triapitsyn, without raising his head or replying to the shouts,[316쪽]continued to walk, holding up with his left hand the chains fastened on his waist. He came up to the table accompanied by his guard, stopped, and looked up at the court. As chairman, I rose from my seat, turned to him, and said: "Comrade Triapitsyn, you are in the premises where representatives of the People's Court from the populations of Sakhalin and the Maritime Province have gathered to make the charge that you as Commander-in-Chief of partisan detachments, being in power, permitted a number of acts which were against the interests of the local population and that while in power you executed, if not personally, then by giving orders through the intermediary of the Cheka, many entirely guiltless citizens of the town of Nikolaevsk and did not spare even women and children; therefore, please give your testimony."

Silence set in; then, turning to me, he said: “Comrade Ovchinnikov, you were commander of a company in my Amur regiment and, therefore, you knew all that went on at Nikolaevsk. Why, then, do you question me?” At that he threw a glance around the members of the court. Assistant Chairman Vorobev took the floor. Addressing Triapitsyn and the court he said: “Your activities, Comrade Triapitsyn, were self-evident to all of us partisans. Hundreds and even thousands of people perished in Nikolaevsk and its environs—that is your handiwork. Most of the people whom you murdered were peaceful citizens who had nothing in common with those whom you call White 'reptiles. Considering you—and you alone as commander of the troops of the Nikolaevsk district-guilty of the countless killings, I request the members of the People's Court that they apply the supreme penalty to you, that is, shooting." He sat down. Triapitsyn was silent. He was obviously agitated. The members of the court spoke now to each other, now to me, enumerating the killed victims, and then began to shout loudly, "Shoot him!” I called them to quiet and order.

“Who of the members of the court has anything to say?"
“I, Comrade Chairman,” a man stood up and said. “Comrade Chairman of the People's Tribunal, what other proofs do we parti.sans need, those of us who were stationed in the mouth of the Amgun River at the front? We are witnesses that bodies of men, women, and children brutally mutilated were floating downstream. Many of the partisans recognized in those bodies their relatives and friends. While we were holding the front against possible Japanese attack, we felt sure that ahead of us our families were safe, that[317쪽]over there people were taking care of evacuating them to Blagoveshchensk; that they were being fed and clothed; and instead they were defenseless and were being exterminated by Triapitsyn's henchmen. This was not enough. I don't doubt that hundreds of people tortured to death at the will of Triapitsyn and cast into the Amur were fished out by the Japanese in the mouth of the Amur River as material proof and used to show to the Japanese people and to the whole world what were the actions of representatives of the Soviet rule. Think for yourselves now: the population of that Japan will look at all this and will they then try to overthrow their own capitalists and establish Soviet rule? No, comrades, I think that because of this bloody work of Triapitsyn's, revolution in Japan will be delayed for many, many years. Comrades, I have nothing against the shooting of Russian officers and White bandits who resisted us partisans and later went against us at Nikolaevsk jointly with the Japanese. But we must not under any consideration be reconciled to the killing by Triapitsyn and his henchmen of absolutely innocent, peaceful citizens, including women and children, and not merely killing them but ‘finishing'12 them, according to their own expression. Proofs are at hand, and I insist that Triapitsyn and his henchmen be sentenced by the People's Tribunal, which consists of the survivors of the population, to be shot. And that will be justice!” (He sat down.)

The members of the court became noisy, and again interrupted one another, rising from their seats and wishing to make supplementary statements. Through the open windows the crowd in the square shouted, “Death to him!”

I called them to order, and when the noise subsided a little I asked Triapitsyn: "Comrade Triapitsyn, you have heard the statements of the members of the court. Do you plead guilty of this, and what have you to say in your defense?"

At this moment a sharp voice of one member of the court: “What else do you want; facts and proofs are at hand. We've got to set down the sentence.—Vote!"

Triapitsyn, in a somewhat agitated voice, began: "All this, comrades, is very strange. You all accuse me alone of the mass killings of the population. You were all partisans, participants in many fights, even at the time when we were making our way to Nikolaevsk last winter. All of us together took the Chnyrrakh Fortress and Nikolaevsk and then fought with the rebel Japanese and the Rus-[318쪽]sian Whites; all of you boiled with the same hatred for the Japanese and the White reptiles and at the meetings demanded their annihilation. Now I, as commander of the detachment, appear to be the only culprit. But I was one and you are many, and if you saw that I was wrong in my actions, why did you leave me at my post of commander and carry out my orders? I alone with my few associates couldn't possibly have exterminated so many of the population. You, comrades, are also my accomplices and you are now judging me as you please.”

“The question is to be voted,” came the voice of the court. “Enough! Enough!" cries came from every direction.

Member of the court, Anoshkin (he was then Chief-of-Staff, and representative of partisans at the court) said: "Comrades, from the speeches of the foregoing speakers we can see what the charge is against Triapitsyn. Proofs are sufficient, and Triapitsyn has spoken in his turn, and therefore the only remaining thing is to pronounce a fitting sentence by vote. Comrade Chairman, please begin the voting.”

I arose and, addressing the judges, asked them: “What shall I vote?"

They shouted with anger: "What, don't you understand? Vote whether it's death for him, shooting, or whether it's life imprisonment."

And so I said turning to the court: “As Chairman of the People's Tribunal carrying out your will, as representatives of the people, the question of deciding the fate of Triapitsyn is being decided: who votes for finding Comrade Triapitsyn guilty ?”
"Guilty,” cried one of the judges.
"In my opinion the proofs against Triapitsyn have not yet been fully stated. I shall add on my part that, besides exterminating masses of people, Triapitsyn is also guilty of having given orders, before the retreat, to burn down all the fisheries in the mouth of the Amur, to burn the whole city of Nikolaevsk to the ground, and to blow up the stone structures."

By a general vote of the court Triapitsyn was found guilty. "Who is in favor of Triapitsyn being given life imprisonment?” Several voted for that. “Who is in favor of Triapitsyn being shot?” Majority. During the voting I stood at the table and watched the voting, and so did the two secretaries Akimov and Usov. One member of the court, an old man about sixty or sixty-five with a gray[319쪽] beard, stood up and said: "Comrades, I see that the chairman of the court is from the same gang as Triapitsyn. Look, most everybody voted to have Triapitsyn, this bandit, shot, and he did not raise his hand for it.” Here again there was some confusion, and then the members of the court began to look at me askance, and certain ones prepared to ask me some questions. I declared with conviction : “Comrades, on the ground of the laws of the Soviet Government, I have a full right to refrain from voting in the deciding of any questions—to vote neither for nor against—and in this case I am among those who refrain.” They calmed down, and then and there the secretary read the brief sentence: “The People's Court, in the presence of representatives from the population of Sakhalin and the Maritime Province, having heard the case of the former commander of troops of the Nikolaevsk troops, Triapitsyn, and finding him guilty of those acts, have resolved: to shoot him and to entrust the execution of the sentences to the staff of the partisan troops." Triapitsyn was silent. The judges said: “Take him back to the barge for the time being.” (He was kept there in the hold.) He was sent back to the barge under guard.

Nina Lebedeva-Kiashko was brought in under guard. On her way the crowd also hooted, calling her harlot and the like. The questions asked of her were the same as had been asked of Triapitsyn; and as his Chief-of-Staff she was found guilty. In her reply she stated that she had done only office work at headquarters and was Chief-of-Staff only on paper, and that the trial of counter revolutionaries at Nikolaevsk and their execution was carried out by the Cheka. “Consequently, if I am guilty it is only of having worked in the staff.” The members of the court in their speeches of accusation pointed out that even if Nina Lebedeva-Kiashko was more of an office worker than Chief-of-Staff, nevertheless her evidently close co-operation with Triapitsyn made her guilty of the evil deeds; that Triapitsyn and Nina always lived together in one apartment, which still more convinced the court they were all a party, one and indivisible, and that, therefore, the People's Court should apply to her the same penalty as to Triapitsyn—shooting. During the discussions, Nina stood quietly and listened to the speakers. Then the court asked to have her led away. The question of her guilt was voted. It was decided that she was guilty, and by a majority of votes she was sentenced to be shot, several persons refraining from voting[320쪽]After the noon intermission the session of the court was resumed. The following were questioned: Zhelezin, chairman of the Executive Committee of Nikolaevsk; Otsevili, commissar of industries of the Sakhalin region; Volkov, adjutant of Triapitsyn; AmurovKazadaev, commander of the Amur regiment; Getman, secretary of the staff of sharpshooters; Kurbatov, member of the staff; Vedmanov, commander of the battalion; and Kharkovsky, a partisan called “the butcher” who had distinguished himself, as people said, in executions. All those questions excepting Otsevili conducted themselves timidly and shoved their guilt back upon Triapitsyn, his staff, and the Cheka. Zhelezin, Otsevili, Volkov, Amurov-Kazadaev, and Kharkovsky were sentenced by the court to be shot. Getman, Streltsov, Kurbatov, and Vedmanov were also found guilty by the court but were sentenced “to be kept in strict isolation until they were sent to Blagoveshchensk.” When Otsevili was asked what he had to say in his defense and whether or not he confessed his guilt, he declared in a bold speech : "I know that I shall be shot and that they will shoot me for my convictions and my work as Anarchist-Communist; but I do not consider myself guilty and a moment will come when those guilty of shooting us, fighters for the people, will get the penalty they deserve. Do with me whatever you please."'14

That same evening all those sentenced to death were shot. A small detachment appointed by the staff of the troops did the shooting. The next day the court tried the cases of other accused partisans, but they were all sentenced to be sent to Blagoveshchensk and for the time being to be kept under strict guard at Kerbi.15

That same day the People's Court was dismissed. The life of the Kerbi settlement went on in its accustomed way. The population was evacuated gradually in groups to the Amur Province. Those who so desired returned by themselves to the lower Amur region. Thus one month elapsed. Once Andreev called me and said: "Comrade Ovchinnikov, you shall go as chief of convoy with a party of prisoners to Blagoveshchensk. There you will hand them over to the authorities. At the same time you will accompany the consignment of gold.”

THE REVOLT OF THE PARTISAN PRISONERS

On the appointed day we left in the morning, and by evening we reached the Veselaia-Gorka goldfield. I felt a little sick and went to bed. How the "overturn” took place I did not see or hear, but when[321쪽]I awoke I saw armed men, from among those formerly arrested, fussing around. The convoy was disarmed and partly arrested. “Comrade Ovchinnikov, you are arrested,” one of them declared to me. The former accused, Pavlichenko and Grandpa Ponomarev, who had been tried by the People's Tribunal at Kerbi came. Both had occupied important posts at Nikolaevsk under Triapitsyn; Grandpa Ponomarev had been commissar of provisions, and Pavlichenko had been commissar of army supplies.

"You, Comrade Ovchinnikov, needn't be afraid,” they said to me. “Although you were Chairman of the People's Court, that was only a misunderstandįng. As a matter of fact, the sentences on our comrades were pronounced by those ‘reptiles' (members of the court). Now we shall make ready in a real way and in the night shall go to Kerbi and catch all those guilty of shooting Triapitysn and the other comrades, and what they get will not be a little.”
And indeed, that night the detachment of partisans went to Kerbi. Part of the convoy that had accompanied them were also armed with rifles given them by the mutineers from the stores in the VeselaiaGorka gold mine. I, too, marched with them. I was told to look after two horses with supplies. The head detachment marched before us. We were under strict orders not to talk and not to smoke. The night was very dark. Suddenly ahead of us a storm of rifle fire broke out. In the dark were heard cries for help. We received orders to scatter in the woods in open formation. I tied my horses to a tree near the road. It turned out that a cordon sent out from Kerbi had been stationed at a homestead and had found out that the arrested prisoners had mutinied on the way, and it was this cordon that the mutineers had met. Shooting continued until dawn. The Kerbi men were driven out of their position. Men were killed on both sides. Pavlichenko commanded the mutineers. As soon as it was dawn he gave orders to all to make our way out to the road and retreat. We returned to the goldfield which we had left the day before. There a meeting took place and it was decided that we couldn't use the road in either direction, that Andreev's detachment would be sure to overtake us. The mutineers decided to make their way in the direction of Khabarovsk, and right then and there retreated from the mine into the taiga and started across the swamps in single file. At a little distance behind them marched five men as a protecting cordon. In this manner we marched all day. Toward night we found among the swamps a dry and elevated spot and[322쪽]stopped for the night. We decided not to light any fires. Here the mutineers gathered and discussed how to reach Khabarovsk. Pavlichenko was indignant, saying: “You know, they have shot such a proven socialist” (speaking of Triapitsyn); “revolutionaries will never forgive it.” The night passed. Early in the morning we decided to light a fire in order to have a bite and go on. I went to gather dry boughs for the fire, and here the idea shot through my head: run away! I listened to the talking. It sounded farther and farther away. I stopped, looked around, and listened; everything was still, and quickening my pace I took the direction from which we had marched out the day before. For a long time it seemed to me that I was being pursued. I fell to the ground and continued to crawl away.

Toward noon I saw that I was safe. Then I found an abundance of blueberries, ate some, and went on. Toward evening, through a little clearing in the forest, I saw three armed men; they noticed me also and stood watchfully. I took off my cap and waving it over my head walked toward them. They were partisans of the punitive expedition sent out by Andreev from Kerbi to catch the mutineers. They arrested me and led me to the goldfield, to their chief Prikhodko. Seeing me he exclaimed, “Comrade Ovchinnikov, how is it that you are here? Where do you come from?” I told him what had happened. There were many Koreans in the punitive detachment who looked at me with animosity. Prikhodko was a partisan whom I had met while at Kerbi. He sent me under guard to Andreev. Andreev, on seeing me, was also surprised to know that I had happened to be among the mutineers, and asked me in detail how it all happened. Then I was sent to the house of detention. Among the guards one day came Vorobev, former assistant chairman of the People's Court. "Comrade Ovchinnikov, how is this?” And then he added jokingly, “Judge not, that ye be not judged !"

ESCAPE

There soon came a certain Comrade Bezdnin, plenipotentiary from the Amur Province. He came to the house of detention and questioned me in detail as the former chief of the Sakhalin detachment, then as the commander of a company under Triapitsyn, as the Chairman of the People's Court which had tried Triapitsyn, and as a prisoner at present. A few days later, on orders from Andreev, I was released. At the same time I was told that I had the right to[323쪽]be evacuated in my turn to Blagoveshchensk. A few weeks later I was at Blagoveshchensk among a group of evacuated people. I went to the military commissariat, registered, and was placed as a common soldier in the Far Eastern People's Revolutionary Army (part of the Fifth Soviet Army). In the fall they sent me to the town of Nerchinsk, not far from the Chita front. At Nerchinsk I was appointed teacher of political literacy and simply teacher of reading and writing in the school for Red Army soldiers. Here I became acquainted with two Letts, Red soldiers who had been in America some time before and now wanted to go there again. According to orders from the Army Commander, they had the right, being Lettish citizens, to leave the army as foreigners. I felt very much interested in their plan to go to America, but for me, a Russian, this was impossible. But here they came to my aid.

At Nerchinsk at that time there existed some sort of international committee. It issued necessary documents to all foreigners, reinstating them in their rights. My friends the Letts suggested that I go with them to that committee and take a Lettish passport, that they would go surety for me, and so forth, which was done. I found myself to be a Lettish citizen, Julian Akmen by name. In December 1920 our unit was transferred to Khabarovsk. My Lettish friends left the army and went away. Meanwhile I also decided to act. One evening I went to the city and there, making the acquaintance of a certain citizen, offered him my military uniform in exchange for his civilian clothes. I went to the railway station to buy myself a ticket and go to Vladivostok. The documents which told of my former activities I sewed fast in my pocket. At the station they asked me to show papers; everything was all right. But here they asked me if I spoke Lettish. No, I said. Then they took me to the station commandant. He told me I should be sent to the Cheka to establish my identity. I was arrested. Upon coming out on the platform I asked permission of the two Red Army soldiers who accompanied me to go to the toilet. There I hastily took my documents from the pocket and put them on top of a cross beam, but as soon as I left the toilet one of the guards ran in there and took the papers. I asked him not to touch them, that is, not to read them. I went to the Cheka, and was questioned. I confessed as to who I was and what. The chairman read the documents, from which it appeared that I had been chief of a Red detachment on Sakhalin, militia commissar in the Tymovsky District, company commander[324쪽]of the Amur Regiment at Nikolaevsk, and Chairman of the People's Court which tried Triapitsyn. Here he laughed and said: "What, then, made you run away from the army with false documents ?” I said that I was tired of it all, that I was exhausted. Then he said, “Do you know, Comrade Ovchinnikov, if it hadn't been for these documents showing who you are, believe me, you would have been shot. But look here, we need an assistant chairman of the Khabarovsk Cheka, and I offer this post to you. I presume that you have had a good deal of experience.” At this juncture I telephoned to my army unit. From there a delegation came and presented itself as surety for me, and I went back. I refused the chairman's offer to be his assistant in the Cheka. Then he told me: “You will be given another, not less important post. We shall give you ten reliable men from the Red Army—agitators—supply you with suitable documents and funds, and send you to Vladivostok to do intel-. ligence work." I agreed. Upon coming to Vladivostok, we took up quarters in private houses. The same day I went into the city. I found out that a Chinese steamer was leaving for Shanghai. I went to the commander. He was an Englishman who could not speak Russian and with the help of an interpreter sent me to the purser. The purser proved to be a Lett, and glancing at the document which I had kept he agreed to take me to Shanghai; thereupon I was given the job of guarding the barrels of gasoline loaded on the deck and preventing people smoking from coming near them. I was glad and grateful to him. In a few hours the steamer sailed. I felt as though a heavy burden had fallen from my shoulders. This was the beginning of January 1921. In a few days I was in Shanghai, then in Harbin, then back in Shanghai, and then—the desired America, where I am alive and well to the present day.

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Fisher, Harold Henry ; Elena Varneck 편집, The testimony of Kolchak and other Siberian materials, Stanford University Press, 1935, 265~328쪽 수록.

Triapitsynhada fresh problem. The two Nikolaevsk jails were full ofRussianpolitical prisoners incarcerated since the partisan takeoverand hehad nowhere to put the captured Japanese. He solved the probleminwhat seems to have been typical fashion. George Dyer, manager ofanearby mine, provided a graphic description:
“Onthenight of the 13th-14th these people [thepolitical prisoners]weretaken from the jails by order of Trepetzin and marched one miledownon the ice of the Amur over snow-covered ground, while barefootandnaked to the waist (at this time the weather was 15 degreesbelowzero) where they were butchered. No other word can be employedtodescribe the manner of their death, as no shots were fired, allbeingkilled with bayonets, knives and the butts of rifles.[Statementof George S. Dyer, Caldwell to Colby, July 14, 1920, received August25, 1920, RDS, 861.00/7290.]”
Duringtheentire month of May, when Dyer stayed at the Chinese Consulate,he“could see, with the aid of binoculars, three mounds ofthebutchered people (taken from the jails) on the ice of theAmurRiver."

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Hackemer, Kurt. The Nikolaevsk massacre and Japanese expansion in Siberia, American Asian Review 16.2, 1998, 117쪽