MY CAMPAIGN
I held my first meeting in the repairing shop at Irkutsk at 3 P.M.,
March 4. It was a big crowd of working men and women. The Russian women
work on the railways in such employments as carriage and wagon cleaners,
snow and ice shovellers, and even repairing gangs on different sections
of the line have a sprinkling of the fair sex.
This audience listened to an explanation of the rise of the trade union
movement in England with the greatest attention. The large majority
accepted the proposition I tried to expound, that no question could be
settled by the disputants merely killing each other off; but there were
present about half a dozen members of the International World Workers,
slouch-hatted, unshaven, and exactly true to type as seen at meetings in
East London, Liverpool or Glasgow. These were not workmen employed on
the railway; one kept a barber's shop, one was a teacher, one a Russian
doctor, and one a Russian solicitor; but they were the officials of the
only form of union that exists in Russian Siberia, a revolutionary
circle composed of the very worst elements in the towns, bound together
by one common purpose, the spoliation and assassination of every decent
man, whether bourgeois or workman, who refuses to support a policy of
anarchy. These five or six determined ruffians formed a kind of Blood
Brotherhood, and behind a veil of anonymity issued mandates to, and in
the name of, the Russian workmen, which, backed up by a system of
murderous terrorism, the workmen were powerless to resist. It was quite
a usual thing to find each morning dead men of all classes in the
streets who had been murdered during the night by members of these
circles. There was no system of law or police; every vestige of justice
was uprooted, and these crimes went unpunished. The irony of it was that
these acts were avowedly done in the interest of progress and reform and
in the sacred name of Labour!
The Irkutsk Circle asked questions which were not calculated to elicit a
single fact connected with labour, either in Russia or England, but were
just the usual clap-trap monkey business, such as:
"Why should we be satisfied with half, when we have the bourgeoisie down
and can take all?"
"Why should we allow law to be re-established, which was always used by
the few to rob the many?"
"Surely it is less unjust to allow the many to continue to rob the few?"
"In destroying the landlord and capitalist are not the Russian
proletariat merely taking back its own property?"
"Is it not a fact that the more systematically and effectively we
annihilate the bourgeois and landlord class, and all the institutions
belonging to them, the easier it will be to erect the new order?"
These are all very subtle and difficult to answer briefly at a meeting
of Russian workmen, not one of whom can read or write. It was wonderful
foresight which placed Madame Frank, the editress of the _Russian Army_,
as correspondent for this labour mission. She fastened on to each
question in turn and gave instance after instance of how the suggestions
they contained had worked out in practice, to the total destruction of
all that was good and honourable in Russia. Then with magnificent play
on the words "the new order" in the last question, she drew a picture of
this _new order_ as exhibited in practice in that part of Russia under
Bolshevik control. The influence of this little lady upon these simple
Russian workmen was really remarkable. It was quite evident that the
workmen would prefer the old régime to the new if Bolshevik tyranny is
the only possible outcome of the new order.
Our next stop was Imokentievskaya, where the head of the works looked as
though he would have preferred execution rather than take part in a
workmen's meeting. The professionals had been left behind, and the
audience was composed entirely of the railway workers. They presented
many characteristics of the average English workmen and hungrily
received information relating to the methods of the best organised
English trade unions. They had no idea of the things we had done and the
progress we had made in bettering the working conditions of labour
generally. Their professional leaders had disposed of the British
movement by describing our organisation as "bourgeois trade unions," and
always referred to our trade union activities as though we were
organised and internally managed by the capitalist. They were surprised
to learn that we were the only exclusively working-class organisation in
the world; that the officials must have worked at the trade whose
society they managed; that we did not, like themselves, allow doctors,
lawyers, and mere politicians to manage our affairs, but insisted upon
having our trade unions in our own hands. One real old "Russky"
engine-driver asked: "If the English workmen found it so advantageous to
keep their organisations exclusively working-class, why did not the
Germans do the same?" I answered, "When a movement starts wrong it is
very difficult to put it right; that outsiders all over the world
struggle for a place in the trade unions, and if once they get in they
either break themselves or the union rather than get out, and those who
can't get in hang on outside like limpets and refuse to be kicked off;
that the Russian workmen in organising their trade unions must start
right and keep them free of every element except the working class."
We stopped at Zema, the scene of a sharp encounter with armed strikers a
few months previous. The meeting in the works was a great success. It
was remarkable to find that though in my previous meeting with these
workmen I took the attitude of a military dictator, they showed no
resentment and had rigidly observed the agreement which had been entered
into at the point of the bayonet. They were delighted to find that I,
too, had performed my part of the contract in not forgetting their
interests when opportunity presented itself.
Nesniodinsk was not on my list, but a special request having been
presented for me to address the workmen there, we made the necessary
arrangements and visited this place on Sunday, March 8. It was perhaps
the largest meeting held up to that point. The official heads had caused
a special platform to be erected in a huge engine-repairing shop, and
themselves took the greatest interest in the whole proceeding. It was a
very harassing business, but if as an outcome the seed of orderly
progress was sown, the effort was entirely worth while.
Our carriage was fastened to the rear of a slow-moving train going west,
and we did not arrive at Kansk till the evening of the 10th.
Kansk is the most easterly point of the area of revolt and a fairly
large depot for the railway. Some interesting facts about the revolt
were picked up from the railway officials. The revolt began suddenly on
December 26, at the same time that it broke out in Omsk and Kolumsino,
and at first was aimed at the possession of the railway. The military
guard at Kansk consisted of one officer and fifty men. The officer
posted his sentries at different points some distance away, and the
soldiers who acted as his personal guard awoke to find their
sleeping-place and arms in the possession of half a dozen armed men. The
marauders shouted "Your officer is dead," and ordered the men to lie
still while they removed the rifles. This done, they proceeded to the
quarters of the officer, who, finding his men already disarmed, bolted
without firing a shot. The total strength of the Bolsheviks was fifteen
men, and these fifteen held the station and a town of over five
thousand inhabitants up to ransom for twenty-six hours! At the end of
that time a squadron of Cossacks approached, and the Bolsheviks left,
taking with them about 80,000 roubles belonging to the railway and post
office. During their short stay they committed all sorts of barbarities.
They murdered the railway school-mistress and tortured her husband by
stripping him and pouring cold water over his naked body, finally
driving him out into the snow, where he quickly froze to death. The
charge against their two victims in this case was that they, by their
calling, were teaching the youth of Russia to become young
_bourgeoisie_, instead of leaving all men and women equal as nature
intended.
This garden of autocracy grows some strange plants. These banditti,
known in England as Bolsheviks, are entrenched not more than 60 versts
distant, protected from Koltchak's vengeance by the deep snows of the
Siberian winter, which make it impossible to operate away from the
railway.
We held a splendid meeting of the workmen in the enormous workshop,
remarkable for the quiet enthusiasm and the evident hope of better
times. It was quite clear to me that the Russian workmen were tired of
the Revolution. They were promised an Eldorado and realised Hell
instead. They merely wanted to be shown a way out of the social
nightmare. They passed a vote of thanks to me and the English workmen
for whom I spoke.
We started for Krasnoyarsk on the 12th, and before long found it
necessary to get the machine guns and hospital equipment ready for
instant use. After standing to arms all night we arrived, at midday on
the 13th, at Klukvinah, the Russian Headquarters, and discovered that
the Government forces had driven the enemy back from the railway, and
that the remainder of our journey to Krasnoyarsk would be practically
safe. We arrived about 9.15 P.M. on Wednesday, the 13th.
Colonel Frank, Madame Frank, myself and the Czech interpreter, Vladimir,
were passing through the station on our return from the town about 12.30
midnight, when a rather exciting incident occurred. The station
commandant approached Colonel Frank and appealed to him for help to send
home a party of Serbian soldiers who had procured drink without payment
at the point of their swords and revolvers, and had stripped a young
woman passenger and exposed her for their orgies. Other bestial things
were alleged against them, but no one had so far dared to interfere to
restore order. After a moment's consideration Colonel Frank decided to
go into the buffet and ask them to go quietly home, and if they refused,
to secure force to arrest and remove them. I naturally followed.
It was a big stone-floored room with the door at one end and a long bar
at the other. The alleged Serbian soldiers were seated in a cluster on
the right in front of the bar at the far end of the room. Colonel Frank
advanced to them and said, "Brothers, you have had enough to drink, you
are keeping all the attendants from their proper rest; it is time for
you to go home." It was like an electric shock. About a dozen of the
ruffians sprang to their feet hurling every possible Slavonic epithet at
this brave Russian officer who was merely performing a public duty. One
dark-visaged Serb cavalryman drew his sword and tried a lunge at the
colonel across the table, and while the colonel watched this infuriated
aborigine a Serbian officer close behind Frank tore the epaulette from
the colonel's uniform and trampled it underfoot, shouting, "Death to
this officer of the old régime!"
I picked up the epaulette just as the other Serb, sword in one hand and
revolver in the other, edged round the tables to the centre of the room
for his attack upon my liaison officer. I did not think of drawing my
own weapon, and so far it was man to man. Colonel Frank kept his eye
fixed upon his antagonist, and now advanced towards him, ordering him to
put down his arms and leave the room. But the Serb was out for blood and
made a slash at the _polkovnika's_ head, the full force of which he
evaded by ducking, though the sword severed the chin strap and button of
his cap and carved its way through the thick band before it glanced up
off the skull, helped by his right hand, which had been raised to turn
the blow. At the same instant Colonel Frank fired point blank at the
man's face; the bullet entered the open mouth and came out of the cheek,
which merely infuriated the man more. Up to this moment the man had only
used his sword, but now he began to raise his revolver. Before he could
raise it hip high, however, the colonel shot him through the heart.
Though the revolver dropped from his helpless hand, he crouched for one
instant and sprang, clutching at the colonel's face, while four or five
of his fellow Serbs attacked the colonel from behind. The foremost of
these ruffians, a Serbian officer, fired at the back of the colonel's
head and missed, but his second shot struck Colonel Frank on the left
temple at the moment his real assailant had made his death spring, and
down they both went, apparently dead, the Serbian on top. The other
Serbs sprang forward to finish the Russian officer with the usual ugly
dagger which Serbian robbers always carry. The body of the dead Serb,
however, formed a complete shield, and this, coupled with the fact that
we all thought the colonel dead, saved him from mutilation.
I was not quite an idle spectator, but the fact that at the critical
moment I discovered I had no weapon except for my cane reduced me to
helplessness so far as dealing with this gang of murderers was
concerned. Directly the fight began every Russian, including the armed
militiaman who was supposed to keep order at the station, bolted from
the room, leaving the women and children to look after themselves.
Madame Frank went to the assistance of her husband and covered him as
only a woman can, and as she grasped her husband's revolver the Serbs
slunk back a pace, while I lifted his head and signed to the Serb
officer who had fired at the colonel from behind to lift the dead Serb
off the colonel's body. This he did and then proposed to the band
surrounding us that they should kill us all three. Their knives
glistened and a small automatic revolver was making a bee line for me,
when a voice like the growl of a bear came from the direction of the
door. The whole band instantly put up their weapons. I had stood up to
receive my fate, and over the heads of our would-be murderers I saw a
tall dark-bearded stage villain in a long black overcoat which reached
to the floor, stalk across to the group. He looked at the body of the
dead Serb and then at the prostrate Russian officer who at that instant
began to show signs of returning consciousness. "Ah! Oh! Russky
polkovnik," he roared, drawing his revolver. "Our dead brother demands
blood."
I could not stand and see a wounded friend murdered before my eyes, not
even in this land of blood. I stepped over both bodies and placed myself
between this monster and his victim. I raised both hands and pushed him
back, saying, "I am Anglisky polkovnik, and will not allow you to murder
the wounded Russian officer." He answered that he was "Serbian
polkovnik," and I said "Come into the other room," and by strategy got
him away. His friends, however, told him something which sent him back
quickly to finish his job, but as he re-entered the buffet he
encountered about a dozen British and Czech soldiers with fixed
bayonets, and it was not so difficult now to convince him that it was
not quite good form to murder a wounded man.
We carried the Russian colonel to the British hospital, and as the
leader of the Serbs had declared a blood feud, extra guards were placed
on my wagon and the hospital. These ruffians were armed from our
supplies under the direction of French officers. Directly the Russian
military authorities began their investigations to bring this band to
justice they, through the Czech commander, received orders from General
Ganin, the French Allied commander, to move to Novo Nikoliosk out of
Russian jurisdiction.
It is not very clear at present why the French gave their protection to
these and similar disturbing elements in Siberia. Perhaps the reason
will show itself later.
Krasnoyarsk is a huge railway depot with building and repairing shops
employing about 3,000 workmen. To get at both shifts it was necessary to
hold two meetings, one for the inside and the other for the outside
staff. The first was a very silent, interested crowd, who listened to my
address as though they understood its meaning and purport. The gallant
"Russky" _polkovnika_ with bandaged head and hand translated the first
part, Madame Frank the second. The impression created by this brave
woman, who had herself commanded a company in the trenches before
Kerensky destroyed the army, was very great. There was no mistaking the
effect of her words as these oil-stained workmen raised their _papahas_
to the message from the English trade unionists which she delivered.
This town was the centre of international intrigue. There was an Italian
battalion about 1,500 strong, the Czech 12th Regiment of about 200, and
the British Middlesex Regiment, 220. To maintain their prestige the
French were arming the Lett revolters as fast as the Russian General
Affinasiaff could defeat and disarm them. The Italian soldiers were in
very bad favour with the inhabitants and the local Russian civil and
military authorities. Robberies and assaults were of almost daily
occurrence, and at last the authorities made definite official
complaints to the Allied Headquarters and asked that the Italian
soldiers should either be kept under proper discipline or removed from
the country. The main complaint, however, of the Russian officials was
based on the open hostility of the Allied officers led by the senior of
them to everything Russian.
It is such an easy matter to make friends with the Russian people that
this attitude of her alleged helpers was very saddening. When I landed
at "Vlady" my orders were to remember that we English had come as
friends to help Russia on to her feet, and I always tried to keep that
in mind. I often wondered what instructions could have been given to my
Allied colleagues.
The next call was at Bogotol, where, under instructions from Consul
Peacock, I inquired into the imprisonment of an Australian subject named
Savinoff. The authorities produced the _dossier_ of his case, which when
translated proved him to be a Bolshevik leader and second in command of
an armed band that had attempted to murder the local authorities. His
trial took place shortly after, with that of Titoff, his chief, who was
one of the Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet who ordered the murder
of hundreds of the naval officers of the old régime.
The meeting maintained the usual standard of interest, and the chief of
the works, whose face bore traces of the tortures inflicted upon him
under Bolshevik rule, was delighted with the new hope we had brought to
himself and his workmen.
Our next meeting was at Taiga, and it was quite a great event. A
special platform had been erected in the big workshop, around which
swarmed nearly two thousand workmen. The people looked upon the meeting
as the new birth of Russian life. No meeting had been held for two
years, except the underground gatherings of conspirators. I appealed to
the men to discard disorder and take a hand in the orderly
reconstruction of the new Russian State, in which they were now
guaranteed a place. Madame Frank's translation made a profound
impression upon these toil-worn men and women. It was clear that the
people were tired of the horrors of revolution and yearned for peace and
quiet.
I here interviewed General Knox, who was on his way to Omsk on important
matters which had been brought to my notice.
We arrived at Novo Nikoliosk on the morning of the 23rd, and proceeded
to make arrangements for the meeting to be held on the same day. I
visited the various commands, as usual, and held long consultations with
General Zochinko, from whom I gathered much information as to the
situation in this important district. It was interesting to hear some
news of our old friend, the _Voidavoda_ of the Serbian band. He and his
gang had arrived from his excursion to Krasnoyarsk on the day that a
banquet was held by the newly-formed Polish regiment. As chief of his
band he was invited, and delivered an oration of a particularly
patriotic character which had won all Polish hearts. He was in a great
hurry to get away next morning, fearing that we were following behind.
He said nothing about our encounter, and the Russian officials became
suspicious of his anxiety to get away. They brought a squad of soldiers
to examine his trucks, and found an enormous amount of loot from
Krasnoyarsk, as well as contraband goods upon which he had to pay duty
to the amount of 130,000 roubles. Having squeezed this toll out of the
"bounder," they gave him a free way to Ekaterinburg, where things are
very scarce, and where he would be able to sell out at a good figure.
General Zochinko told us some funny stories about the French Staff's
attempt to form a powerful counter force to Bolshevism from the German
and Austrian war prisoners. In Novo Nikoliosk the Allied Commander,
General Ganin, had released some hundreds of Austrian and German Poles
from the prison camps and formed them into regiments. In his haste to
get these units complete he forgot to inquire into the antecedents of
the officers chosen to command them. So careless, in fact, were the
French that the Russian authorities awoke one morning to find one of
their most dangerous prisoners, a well-known German officer spy, von
Budburg, in full command of this alleged Allied force. Von Budburg had,
like a true patriot, taken care to choose his subordinates from men of
the same type as himself.
Later on the French Staff became aware of the nature of their handiwork
and sought help and advice from the Russian military authorities about
disarming their new German Legion. A sudden descent on their quarters by
another Polish unit, with some new Russian units standing by to render
help if necessary, ended in these French protégés being disarmed and
got back safely to their prison camp.
Allied help to Russia is like a jig-saw puzzle, a mystery even to the
man who devised it. A straight-forward recognition of the Omsk
Government would have been an honest hand for honest work, but where
would Allied diplomacy have come in? Diplomacy is only necessary when
there are ulterior objects than mere plain, unambiguous assistance to a
helpless friend. What are these hidden objects? The Allies had better be
cautious how they proceed in the diagnosis and dismemberment of this
great people or they may find themselves on the operating table with
this giant holding the knife. In spite of the Biblical legend I prefer
England to be a pal with Goliath!
We arrived at Barabinsk on the morning of March 26, and after
arrangements for the meeting were completed, took a walk round the
market. A Russian market is a thing of joy and colour. There are no
buildings: just a huge space in the centre of the town where thousands
of shaggy, ice-covered horses stand each with an ice-covered sledge. The
peasants, men and women, in huge fur coats which reach to the
snow-covered ground, harmonise perfectly with the cattle they control.
Their fur coats form a study in colour--patchwork coats from calfskins
which combine every shade from white to rusty red; goatskins, from long
straight black to white; curly bearskins from black to brown and brown
to polar white; wealthy peasant women, with beautiful red fox furs
hiding neck and face, their eyes glistening through the apertures which
served the same purpose for the first and original tenant. The sledges
contain everything--wheat, oats, potatoes, onions, rough leaf tobacco,
jars of cream, frozen blocks of milk, scores of different types of
frozen fresh-water fish from sturgeon to bream, frozen meats of every
conceivable description, furs--in fact, the finest collection of human
necessities to be found in any one place in the world. Prices were very
high for home produce and simply absurd for foreign or distant
productions. Colonel Frank was in need of a small safety pin (six a
penny at home), and found that the price was seven roubles--14s. 3-1/2d.
old money, and 3s. 6d. at the rate at which the British Army are paid.
Everything else was in proportion.
A very fine meeting was held in the works, and much good done in
securing the confidence of the workmen in the efforts of the Supreme
Governor, Admiral Koltchak, to create order out of chaos.
We arrived at Omsk on the morning of the 28th, and on the 29th I gave a
lengthy report to Admiral Koltchak, who expressed his hearty thanks and
impressed upon me the necessity of continuing my journey to the Urals.
He had received from the official heads of departments reports stating
that the effect of my mission had been to improve the general attitude
of the workmen all round. And he was most anxious that this effort to
enlist the workmen's interest in an ordered State should be pushed
forward with vigour.
A further discussion upon general affairs, especially the policy of the
French command in Siberia, took us through tea. I have absolute
confidence in the character of the admiral, but the pigmies by whom he
is surrounded are so many drags on the wheels of State. There is not one
that I would trust to manage a whelk-stall. They have no idea of the
duty of a statesman. Little pettifogging personal equations and jobs
occupy the whole of their time, except when they are engaged upon the
congenial task of trying to thwart the Supreme Governor. The patriotism
of the front officers and soldiers, and the medieval chivalry of the
Cossack are the only things left upon which to rebuild Russia. This
naturally limits the architectural features of the new edifice, but the
pioneer is always limited to the material at hand.