AMERICAN ADMIRAL SAVED KOLCHAK
HEAD OF RUSSIAN FLEET RELEASED FROM PRISON AFTER GLENNON'S ADDRESS
TO MUTINOUS SAILORS--AFTER MISSION TO WASHINGTON, BECAME HEAD OF
OMSK GOVERNMENT--KILLED BY BOLSHEVIKI--UNITED STATES VESSELS IN
NORTHERN AND WESTERN RUSSIA--KNIGHT AT VLADIVOSTOK--MC CULLY AT
MURMANSK AND ARCHANGEL.
When revolution swept Russia in 1917, the sailors of the Baltic Fleet
mutinied, assassinated their commander-in-chief, and murdered a hundred
officers. The Black Sea Fleet for the time remained loyal, but in June
revolted and deposed its commander.
The American mission headed by Elihu Root, of which Admiral James H.
Glennon was the naval representative, had just arrived in Petrograd.
The sailors at Sebastopol on June 20th voted to remove Admiral Kolchak,
send him to prison and elect a commander-in-chief from their own ranks.
When the Admiral was notified, he appeared on the quarter-deck of his
flagship and addressed his men. Appealing in the name of Russia and
the cause for which she was fighting with the Allies, he urged them
to remain loyal. But the sailors refused. They were bent on taking
control. There was nothing for the Admiral to do but to give up his
command, and leave the fleet to be managed by a committee.
They demanded his sword, but he would not give it. Drawing it from
its scabbard, he saluted the Russian flag, and threw the shimmering
blade into the sea. Turning upon his heel sharply, the former
commander-in-chief came down from the quarter-deck, climbed over the
side of the flagship into a waiting boat, and was taken to Sebastopol,
where he was put in prison along with Smirnoff and other officers.
Kolchak might have met the same fate as the commander-in-chief of the
Baltic Fleet. "Execution by order of the Sailors' Soviet" is quite as
deadly as assassination.
Unaware of the serious situation that had developed, Admiral Glennon
set out for Sebastopol to visit Kolchak and the Black Sea Fleet.
With him went Admiral Newton A. McCully, naval attaché, a master of
the Russian tongue and a great admirer of the Russian people, whose
affection and confidence he has held through all events.
The first intimation the American admirals had that they were about
to face unusual circumstances was when, on reaching the station in
Sebastopol, they found a reception committee awaiting them composed
wholly of workmen and sailors. There were no officers. Kolchak was
not there, nor had he sent any members of his staff to greet them.
Glennon and McCully were quick enough to catch the significance of
this unexpected welcome, and to accommodate themselves to its peculiar
character.
"They wore no swords," said Admiral Glennon, "so the American officers
left their swords in the train."
The American officers were taken to the flagship, from which Kolchak
had been deposed the day before. Standing on the quarter-deck, where
Kolchak had stood in his final appeal, Admiral Glennon spoke to the
sailors on the meaning of democracy. He paid a generous tribute to
their ships. He spoke of Russia's bravery, and urged the sailors to
stand by the cause for which the Allies were fighting. Referring
feelingly to the cordial relations which had always existed between
Russia and the United States, he made much of the argument for the
continued friendship and coöperation of these nations, now the two
biggest republics in the world. But not a word did he say of the
deposed officers.
Admiral Glennon is a big man, of commanding appearance, but with a
kindly and genial bearing. His speech made a deep impression on the
sailors. Evidently they talked over the things he had said and decided
to show their appreciation in some way. When the American admirals
and other officers were boarding their train to return to Petrograd,
representatives of the sailors came on board and told Admiral Glennon
that they had voted to restore the arms to all the deposed officers
except Kolchak and Smirnoff. These two, they said, they would probably
keep in prison and bring to trial. Admiral Glennon saw his chance.
Manifestly these sailors wanted to please the Americans. They were a
little afraid of Kolchak and Smirnoff, so they felt obliged to keep
them in prison, but probably, if the Russian admirals were to leave
Sebastopol and the region of the Black Sea, the sailors would be
satisfied. So Admiral Glennon, smiling down from his towering height
upon the shorter Russians, made a proposal. In effect he said: "Release
Smirnoff and Kolchak, and we will take them to Petrograd with us."
Petrograd was far away. Moreover the authority of Petrograd was still
recognized, so the sailors agreed. Kolchak and Smirnoff were taken from
prison and put on board the train with the Americans. For them it was
deliverance from almost certain death. It is little wonder that Kolchak
regarded Glennon with the greatest affection and gratitude. A few weeks
later he came to the United States at the head of a Russian naval
mission, and his renewal of acquaintance with Admiral Glennon was like
the meeting of brothers.
I had a chance to see a good deal of Kolchak while the mission was
here. He was said to be of Tartar descent. Of medium height and very
dark complexion, he had piercing eyes and a determined expression. He
admired Farragut greatly, and made a special trip to his tomb to place
a wreath upon it. He was also a great admirer of our Arctic explorers,
probably because of his own Polar service. I remember the dinner
Admiral Kolchak gave at a Washington hotel to the Secretary of the Navy
and prominent naval officers just before he took his departure in 1917.
It was about the gloomiest, most funereal occasion I experienced in all
my eight years in Washington. News had just arrived of a German victory
over the Russians in the Baltic. The Kerensky government was in a
perilous position. The depressing situation was reflected in the solemn
faces of the banqueters. I did my best to cheer Kolchak, predicting a
wonderful future for a democratic Russia when the Allies and America
had won the war.
"Do you really believe Russia can again have peace?" he asked me, and
the tone of his question spoke his own despair. The premonition of
tragedy must have been in his soul. At the end of October he sailed
from San Francisco, intending to return to European Russia by Siberia.
When he reached Japan he found the Bolsheviki had seized power and
Kerensky was a fugitive. The Bolshevik government offered him and
his officers safe journey to Petrograd, if they would recognize its
authority and swear allegiance. Kolchak refused.
Gathering together the forces opposing Lenine, he became leader of
the anti-Bolshevik movement in Siberia. In the spring of 1919, when
the Admiral was head of the Omsk government, the world thought he was
going to succeed in his great effort to overthrow Lenine and Trotzky.
Then the tide turned. He was driven back. His retreat became a rout.
When he reached the region of Lake Baikal, his forces disintegrated
and fled, leaving him alone. One day in January, 1920, a revolutionary
group raided the village of Innokentieskaya, near Irkutsk, and found
Kolchak. They took him prisoner, and turned him over to the Bolshevik
commissairs. There was a perfunctory court-martial, which passed the
predetermined sentence of death.
In the early dawn of February 7, he was led from his cell to the
courtyard of a building in Irkutsk, where he was stood with his back
to the wall. It was too dark to see his face distinctly, the stories
that came to us stated; so a soldier held a lighted lamp near it to
guide the firing squad. When the command to fire was given, the squad
failed to obey. Angered at their soft-hearted reluctance, the Bolshevik
commissair who was supervising the execution pushed the squad aside,
strode up to Kolchak, and shot him down.
Thus the famous Russian admiral met his fate.
The debacle in Russia profoundly disturbed America. It was due
primarily to the failure of communication and transportation. Russia
was shut off at the Dardanelles by the Turks and at the Danish Sound
in the Baltic by the Germans. When the Kerensky government was
organized there was hope by the oldest republic in the New World for
the success of the newest republic in the Old World. The coup d'etat
of the Bolshevists, who soon made the treaty of Brest-Litovsk with
the Germans, gave pause to the Allied forces, who felt it necessary
to take steps on what had been the "Eastern front" to prevent the
use of Russian man-power against them. Fifty million dollars of
their supplies were piled up at Archangel, which the Bolshevists were
undertaking to confiscate and move into the interior. The Germans were
seeking a submarine base on the Murman coast in order to gain access to
the sea which they had been so long denied.
These dangers drew Allied forces into Northern Russia. In May, 1918,
the _U. S. S. Olympia_, which won fame as Dewey's flagship at Manila
Bay, arrived at Murmansk with Lieutenant General Poole, of the British
army, and a small detachment of troops. They drove off an attack at
Pechenga. A small group of Russian naval officers, who could not
reconcile themselves to Bolshevik rule, spent the winter on a sealing
trip. They believed themselves safe when in sight of the Murman coast
with their cargo of skins worth $35,000. Without warning a German
submarine came up alongside and sank their vessel, few of the crew
escaping.
The Murmansk Soviet could not retaliate because, by the treaty of
Brest-Litovsk, the Russian navy could take no further part in the
war. So they turned over their navy, consisting of three destroyers,
one to the British, one to the French, and one to the _Olympia_ when
she arrived. I dare say few people, even in the Navy, knew that we
possessed a destroyer named the _Karitan Yurasovsky_. Its crew was half
Russian and half American. It was a queer sort of arrangement, but
Admiral McCully, in command of Naval Forces in Northern Russian Waters,
said "It worked remarkably well, there never being the least sign of
friction, and the destroyer always ready for duty."
Not much has been heard of the U. S. flotilla on Lake Onega. When the
Allied forces, including a small detachment from the _Yankton_, were
on the line of march within 300 miles of Petrograd, there was need
of water transportation. Our small naval contingent was equal to the
emergency. Two motor boats, each with a short one-pounder in the bow
and a machine-gun on the beam, were transported by rail down to near
Lake Onega, then hauled miles through the woods, and launched in the
lake on May 27, 1919. Three times they were engaged with Bolshevik
gunboats at long ranges.
In June, 1918, the _Olympia_ sent a detachment 150 strong to Kandalaska
to assist in guarding that point. When the Murmansk government broke
with the Bolsheviki, Allied troops landed in Murmansk. In August a
detachment from the _Olympia_ under Captain Bierer took part in the
successful expedition against Archangel. This same detachment under
Lieutenant Hicks bore their share in the pursuit of the retreating
Bolshevists to the interior, having some hard fighting. Under Colonel
G. W. Stewart, the 339th Infantry Regiment and 310th Engineers, about
5,600 men, having just completed their training at Aldershot, reached
Northern Russia September 4th, and they remained all winter. They were
immediately put in the front line, doing practically all the fighting
that was done, and during this time losing more men in action than all
the other Allies combined. The small detachment of Navy men privileged
to fight with their army brethren in Northern Russia, regard them as
among the noblest of all fighting forces.
The Asiatic Fleet, under command of Admiral Austin M. Knight,
coöperated with the Japanese and other Allied forces in the Far
East, and the flagship _Brooklyn_ or some other vessels were almost
constantly at Vladivostok, where Admiral Knight took a prominent part
in the conferences and operations to check enemy and hostile activities.
In June, 1918, Vladivostok and nearly all of Siberia fell into the
hands of the Bolsheviki. Assisted by German and Austrian prisoners
of war, they were resisting the advance of the Czecho-Slovaks who,
fighting their way for thousands of miles through Russia, were
endeavoring to reach the eastern coast, where Allied vessels might
take them home. Vladivostok was their destination, but they had hard
fighting before they could enter. On June 29 they took the city after
a three-hour battle with the Bolsheviki. There were 12,000 of the
Czecho-Slovaks, but only 2,500 of them were armed and equipped. The
city was still in an uproar, with desultory firing at various points.
In the afternoon Admiral Knight ordered ashore Marines and sailors to
guard the American consulate, and to act as part of a patrol force
composed of British, Japanese, Chinese and Czecho-Slovaks who patrolled
the city, preventing destruction and preserving order.
Marines from the _Brooklyn_ in July guarded the German and Austrian
prisoners of war on Russian Island, five miles from Vladivostok. Our
Navy had a radio station there. Men from our ships formed a part of
the force of British marines, Japanese and Chinese blue-jackets and
Czecho-Slovak soldiers organized to guard the Russian navy yard at
Vladivostok, and prevent disorder in the city.
The United States Asiatic Fleet performed a valuable function in the
Far East. Guarding American interests and coöperating with the Allied
forces, its vessels operated from the Philippines to the Russian coast.
They exerted, as always, decided influence in China, supporting the
Chinese Government in its stand with the Allies. Though the Japanese
had long before taken Kiao-Chau, the German stronghold, and the Teuton
strength was broken, constant efforts were required to prevent the
German propaganda and agitation from causing trouble. A sharp lookout
was maintained for German raiders. One, the famous _Seeadler_, sank two
American vessels in the Pacific. But after it was run down and disposed
of, no more raiders appeared.
Our vessels in the Pacific were of material assistance to the Army when
American troops were sent to Russia to protect the Siberian railway,
and again when they were being returned from Russia. Admiral William
L. Rodgers succeeded to the command of the Asiatic Fleet in the latter
part of 1918 and continued until late in 1919, when he was succeeded by
Admiral Gleaves. Some of our vessels were at Vladivostok practically
all the time. One of the first suggestions made by the British when
we entered the war was that we maintain our force in Asiatic waters,
and while the vessels were few in number, they performed excellent and
necessary service.
[Illustration: EAGLE BOATS AT ANCHOR IN THE ICE OF THE WHITE SEA
Insets: Rear Admiral James H. Glennon (left); Admiral Kolchak.]
[Illustration: THE HALF-WAY HOUSE
The harbor of Ponta Delgada, the naval base in the Azores. Inset: One
of the 7" guns at Ponta Delgada manned by U. S. Marines.]