THROUGH SOVIET SIBERIA
After several days we started through the forest on the left bank of the
Yenisei toward the south, avoiding the villages as much as possible in
fear of leaving some trail by which we might be followed. Whenever we
did have to go into them, we had a good reception at the hands of the
peasants, who did not penetrate our disguise; and we saw that they hated
the Bolsheviki, who had destroyed many of their villages. In one place
we were told that a detachment of Red troops had been sent out from
Minnusinsk to chase the Whites. We were forced to work far back from
the shore of the Yenisei and to hide in the woods and mountains. Here we
remained nearly a fortnight, because all this time the Red soldiers were
traversing the country and capturing in the woods half-dressed unarmed
officers who were in hiding from the atrocious vengeance of the
Bolsheviki. Afterwards by accident we passed a meadow where we found the
bodies of twenty-eight officers hung to the trees, with their faces and
bodies mutilated. There we determined never to allow ourselves to come
alive into the hands of the Boisheviki. To prevent this we had our
weapons and a supply of cyanide of potassium.
Passing across one branch of the Yenisei, once we saw a narrow, miry
pass, the entrance to which was strewn with the bodies of men and
horses. A little farther along we found a broken sleigh with rifled
boxes and papers scattered about. Near them were also torn garments and
bodies. Who were these pitiful ones? What tragedy was staged in this
wild wood? We tried to guess this enigma and we began to investigate the
documents and papers. These were official papers addressed to the Staff
of General Pepelaieff. Probably one part of the Staff during the retreat
of Kolchak’s army went through this wood, striving to hide from the
enemy approaching from all sides; but here they were caught by the Reds
and killed. Not far from here we found the body of a poor unfortunate
woman, whose condition proved clearly what had happened before relief
came through the beneficent bullet. The body lay beside a shelter of
branches, strewn with bottles and conserve tins, telling the tale of the
bantering feast that had preceded the destruction of this life.
The further we went to the south, the more pronouncedly hospitable the
people became toward us and the more hostile to the Bolsheviki. At last
we emerged from the forests and entered the spacious vastness of the
Minnusinsk steppes, crossed by the high red mountain range called
the “Kizill-Kaiya” and dotted here and there with salt lakes. It is a
country of tombs, thousands of large and small dolmens, the tombs of the
earliest proprietors of this land: pyramids of stone ten metres high,
the marks set by Jenghiz Khan along his road of conquest and afterwards
by the cripple Tamerlane-Temur. Thousands of these dolmens and stone
pyramids stretch in endless rows to the north. In these plains the
Tartars now live. They were robbed by the Bolsheviki and therefore hated
them ardently. We openly told them that we were escaping. They gave us
food for nothing and supplied us with guides, telling us with whom we
might stop and where to hide in case of danger.
After several days we looked down from the high bank of the Yenisei upon
the first steamer, the “Oriol,” from Krasnoyarsk to Minnusinsk, laden
with Red soldiers. Soon we came to the mouth of the river Tuba, which
we were to follow straight east to the Sayan mountains, where Urianhai
begins. We thought the stage along the Tuba and its branch, the Amyl,
the most dangerous part of our course, because the valleys of these two
rivers had a dense population which had contributed large numbers
of soldiers to the celebrated Communist Partisans, Schetinkin and
Krafcheno.
A Tartar ferried us and our horses over to the right bank of the Yenisei
and afterwards sent us some Cossacks at daybreak who guided us to the
mouth of the Tuba, where we spent the whole day in rest, gratifying
ourselves with a feast of wild black currants and cherries.