IN BERDICHEV GAOL--THE TRANSFER OF THE "BERDICHEV GROUP" OF PRISONERS
TO BYKHOV.
Besides Markov and me, whose share in events has been depicted in the
preceding chapters, the following were cast into prison:
3. General Erdeli, Commander of the Special Army.
4. Lieutenant-General Varnovsky, Commander of the 1st Army.
5. Lieutenant-General Selivatchev, Commander of the 7th Army.
6. Lieutenant-General Eisner, Chief of Supplies to the South-Western
Front.
The guilt of these men lay in their expression of solidarity with my
telegram No. 145, and of the last, moreover, in his fulfilment of my
orders for the isolation of the frontal region with respect to Kiev and
Zhitomir.
7 and 8. General Eisner's assistants--General Parsky and General
Sergievsky--men who had absolutely no connection with events.
9. Major-General Orlov, Quartermaster-General of the Staff of the
Front--a wounded man with a withered arm, timid, and merely carrying
out the orders of the Chief-of-Staff.
10. Lieutenant Kletsando, of the Tchekh troops, who had wounded a
soldier of Lyssaya Gora on August 28th.
11. Captain Prince Krapotkin, a man over sixty years of age, a
Volunteer, and the Commandant of the Commander-in-Chief's train. He was
not initiated into events at all.
General Selivatchev, General Parsky and General Sergievsky were soon
released. Prince Krapotkin was informed on September 6th that his
actions had not been criminal, but was set free only on September
23rd, when it appeared that we were not to be tried at Berdichev. For
a charge of rebellion to hold good against us an association of eight
men at the very least had to be discovered. Our antagonists were much
interested in this figure, being desirous of observing the rules of
decorum.... There was another prisoner, however, kept in reserve and
separate from us, at the Commandant's office, and even afterwards
transferred to Bykhov--a military official named Boudilovitch--a youth
weak in body, but strong in spirit, who on one occasion dared to tell a
wrathful mob that it was not worth the little finger of those whom it
was maltreating.[72] No other crime was imputed to him.
On the second or third day of my imprisonment I read in a newspaper,
which had accidentally or purposely found its way into my cell, an
order from the Provisional Government to the Senate, dated August 29th,
which ran as follows:
"Lieutenant-General Denikin, Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the
South-Western Front, to be removed from the post of Commander-in-Chief
and brought to trial for rebellion.--Signed: Minister-President A.
Kerensky and B. Savinkov--in charge of the War Ministry."
On the same date similar orders were issued concerning Generals
Kornilov, Lukomsky, Markov and Kisliakov. Later an order was issued for
the removal of General Romanovsky.
On the second or the third day of my arrest the guard-room was visited,
for our examination, by a Committee of Investigation, under the
superintendence of the Chief Field Prosecutor of the Front, General
Batog, and under the presidency of Assistant-Commissar Kostitsin,
consisting of:
Lieutenant-Colonel Shestoperov, in charge of the Juridical Section
of the Commissariat; Lieutenant-Colonel Frank, of the Kiev Military
Court; 2nd Lieut. Oudaltsov and Junior Sergeant of Artillery Levenberg,
members of the Committee of the Front.
My evidence, in view of the facts of the case, was very short, and
consisted of the following statements: (1) None of the persons
arrested with me had taken part in any active proceedings against the
Government; (2) all orders given to and through the Staff during my
last days, in connection with General Kornilov's venture, proceeded
from me; (3) I considered, and still consider, that the activity of the
Provisional Government is criminal and ruinous for Russia, but that
nevertheless I had not instituted a rebellion against it, but having
sent my telegram No. 145, I had left it to the Provisional Government
to take such action towards me as it might see fit.
Later the Chief Military Prosecutor, Shablovsky, having acquainted
himself with the material of the investigation and with the
circumstances which had arisen around it in Berdichev, was horrified at
the "uncautious formulation" of my evidence.
By September 1st Iordansky was already reporting to the War Ministry
that the Committee of Investigation had discovered documents
establishing the existence of a conspiracy which had long been
preparing.... At the same time, Iordansky, man of letters, inquired of
the Government whether, in the matter of the direction of the cases of
the Generals arrested, he could act within the limits of the law, _in
conformity with local circumstances_, or whether he was bound to be
guided by any _political considerations_ of the Central Authority. In
reply he was informed that he must act reckoning with the law alone and
... _taking into consideration local circumstances_.[73]
In view of this explanation, Iordansky decided to commit us for trial
by a Revolutionary Court-Martial, to which end a Court was formed of
members of one of the Divisions formerly subordinated to me at the
Front, while Captain Pavlov, member of the Executive Committee of the
South-Western Front, was marked down for public prosecutor.
Thus the interests of competency, impartiality and fair play were
observed.
Iordansky was so anxious to obtain a speedy verdict for myself
and for the Generals imprisoned with me that on September 3rd he
proposed that the Commission, without waiting for the elucidation
of the circumstances, should present the cases to the Revolutionary
Court-Martial in groups, as the guilt of one or other of the accused
was established.
We were much depressed by our complete ignorance of what was taking
place in the outer world.
On rare occasions Kostitsin acquainted us with the more important
current events, but in the Commissar's comments on the events only
depressed us still more. It was clear, however, that the Government was
breaking up altogether, that Bolshevism was raising its head higher and
higher, and that the country must inevitably perish.
About September 8th or 10th, when the investigation was over, our
prison surroundings underwent, to some extent, a change. Newspapers
began to appear in our cells almost daily; at first secretly,
afterwards, from September 22nd, officially. At the same time, after
the relief of one of the Companies of Guards, we decided to try an
experiment: during our exercise in the corridor I approached Markov
and started talking with him; the sentries did not interfere. From
that time we began talking with one another every day; sometimes the
sentries demanded that we should stop, and then we were silent at once,
but more frequently they did not interfere. In the second half of
September visitors also were allowed; the curiosity of the "comrades"
of Lyssaya Gora was now apparently satisfied; fewer of them gathered
about the square, and I used to go out to walk every day, was able
to see all the prisoners and exchange a few words with them now and
again. Now, at least, we knew what was doing in the world, while the
possibility of meeting one another removed the depression caused by
isolation.
From the papers we learned that the investigation of the Kornilov case
was committed to the Supreme Investigation Committee, presided over by
the Chief Military and Naval Prosecutor, Shablovsky.[74]
About September 9th, in the evening, a great noise and the furious
shouts of a large crowd were heard near the prison. In a little while
four strangers entered my cell--confused and much agitated by something
or other. They said they were the President and members of the Supreme
Committee of Investigation for the Kornilov case.[75]
Shablovsky, in a still somewhat broken voice, began to explain that
the purpose of their arrival was to take us off to Bykhov, and that,
judging by the temper which had developed in Berdichev, and by the
fury of the mob which now surrounded the prison, they could see that
there were no guarantees for justice here, but only savage revenge.
He added that the Committee had no doubt as to the inadmissibility
of any segregation of our cases, and as to the necessity of a common
trial for all the participators in the Kornilov venture, but that the
Commissariat and the Committees were using all means against this. The
Committee, therefore, asked me whether I would not wish to supplement
my evidence by any facts which might yet more clearly establish
the connection between our case and Kornilov's. In view of the
impossibility of holding the examination amidst the roar of the crowd
which had gathered, they decided to postpone it to the following day.
The Committee departed; soon after the crowd dispersed.
What more could I tell them? Only, perhaps, something of the advice
which Kornilov had given me at Moghilev, and through a messenger. But
this was done as a matter of exceptional confidence on the part of the
Supreme Commander-in-Chief, which I could in no case permit myself to
break. Therefore, the few details which I added next day to my original
evidence did not console the commission and did not, apparently,
satisfy the volunteer, a member of the Committee of the Front, who was
present at the examination.
Nevertheless, we waited with impatience for our liberation from the
Berdichev chamber of torture. But our hopes were clouded more and more.
The newspaper of the Committee of the Front methodically fomented the
passions of the garrison; it was reported that at all the meetings of
all the Committees resolutions were passed against letting us out of
Berdichev; the Committee members were agitating mightily among the rear
units of the garrison, and meetings were held which passed off in a
spirit of great exaltation.
The aim of the Shablovsky Commission was not attained. As it turned out
in the beginning of September, to Shablovsky's demand that a separate
trial of the "Berdichev group" should not be allowed, Iordansky replied
that "to say nothing of the transfer of the generals to any place
whatsoever, even the least postponement of their trial would threaten
Russia with incalculable calamities--complications at the front, and a
new civil war in the rear," and that both on political and on tactical
grounds it was necessary to have us tried in Berdichev, in the shortest
possible time, and by Revolutionary Court-Martial.[76]
The Committee of the Front and the Kiev Soviet of Workmen's and
Soldiers' Delegates would not agree to our transfer, despite all
the arguments and persuasions brought forward at their meeting by
Shablovsky and the members of his Commission. On the way back, at
Moghilev, a consultation took place on this question between Kerensky,
Shablovsky, Iordansky and Batog. All, excepting Shablovsky, came to the
altogether unequivocal conclusion that the front was shaken, that the
soldiery was restless and demanding a victim, and that it was necessary
to enable the tense atmosphere to discharge itself, even at the cost
of injustice.... Shablovsky rose and declared that he would not permit
such a cynical attitude toward law and justice.
I remember that this tale perplexed me. It is not worth while disputing
about points of view. But if the Minister-President is convinced that
in the matter of protecting the State it is admissible to let oneself
be guided by expediency, in what way, then, was Kornilov to blame?
On September 14th a debate took place in Petrograd, in the last "court
of appeal"--in the military section of the Executive Committee of the
Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates--between Shablovsky and
the representative of the Committee of the South-Western Front, fully
supported by Iordansky. The last two declared that if the Revolutionary
Court-Martial was not held on the spot, in Berdichev, in the course
of the next five days the lynching of the prisoners was to be feared.
However, the Central Committee agreed with Shablovsky's arguments, and
sent its resolution to that effect to Berdichev.
So an organised lynching was prevented. But the Revolutionary
institutions of Berdichev had at their service another method for
liquidating the "Berdichev group," an easy and irresponsible one--the
method of popular wrath....
A rumour spread that we were to be taken away on the 23rd, then it was
stated that our departure would take place on the 27th at 5 p.m. from
the passenger station.
To take the prisoners away without making the fact public was in no
way difficult: in a motor-car, on foot in a column of cadets, or,
again, in a railway carriage--a narrow gauge-line came close up to the
guard-house and joined on to the broad gauge-line outside the town and
the railway station.[77] But such a method of transferring us did not
agree with the intentions of the Commissariat and the Committees.
General Doukhonin inquired from the Stavka, of the Staff of the Front,
whether there were any reliable units in Berdichev, and offered to send
a detachment to assist in our move. The Staff of the Front declined
assistance. The Commander-in-Chief, General Volodchenko, had left on
the eve, the 26th, for the Front....
Much talk and an unhealthy atmosphere of expectation and curiosity were
being artificially created around this question....
Kerensky sent a telegram to the Commissariat: "I am sure of the
prudence of the garrison, which may elect, from among its numbers, two
representatives to accompany."
In the morning the Commissariat began visiting all the units in the
garrison, to obtain their consent to our transfer.
The Committee had appointed a meeting of the whole garrison for 2 p.m.,
_i.e._, three hours before our departure, and in the field, moreover,
immediately beside our prison. This mass meeting did indeed take place;
at it the representatives of the Commissariat and of the Committee of
the Front announced the orders for our transfer to Bykhov, thoughtfully
announced the hour of our departure and appealed to the garrison ...
to be prudent; the meeting continued for a long time and, of course,
did not disperse. By 5 o'clock an excited crowd of thousands of men had
surrounded the guard-room, and its dull murmur made its way into the
building.
Among the officers of the Cadet Battalion of the 2nd Zhitomir School
of 2nd Lieutenants, which was on guard this day, was Captain Betling,
wounded in many battles, who before the War had served in the 17th
Archangelogorod Infantry Regiment, which I commanded.[78] Betling asked
the superior officer of the School to replace by his half-company the
detachment appointed to accompany the prisoners to the railway station.
We all dressed and came out into the corridor. We waited. An hour, two
hours passed....
The meeting continued. Numerous speakers called for an immediate
lynching.... The soldier who had been wounded by Lieutenant Kletsando
was shouting hysterically and demanding his head.... Standing in the
porch of the guard-room, Assistant Commissaries Kostitsin and Grigoriev
were trying persuasion with the mob. That dear Betling, too, spoke
several times, hotly and passionately. We could not hear his words.
At last, pale and agitated, Betling and Kostitsin came up to me.
"How will you decide? The crowd has promised not to touch anyone, only
it demands that you should be taken to the station on foot. But we
cannot answer for anything."
I replied:
"Let us go."
I took off my cap and crossed myself:
"Lord, bless us!"
* * * * *
The crowd raged. We, the seven of us, surrounded by a group of cadets,
headed by Betling, who marched by my side with drawn sword, entered
the narrow passage through this living human sea, which pressed on us
from all sides. In front were Kostitsin and the delegates (twelve to
fifteen) chosen by the garrison to escort us. Night was coming on, and
in its eerie gloom, with the rays of the searchlight on the armoured
car cutting through it now and then, moved the raving mob, growing and
rolling on like a flaming avalanche. The air was full of a deafening
roar, hysterical shouts, and mephitic curses. At times they were
covered by Betling's loud, anxious voice:
"Comrades, you have given your word!... Comrades, you have given your
word!..."
The cadets, those splendid youths, crushed together on all sides, push
aside with their bodies the pressing crowd, which disorders their thin
ranks. Passing the pools left by yesterday's rain, the soldiers fill
their hands with mud and pelt us with it. Our faces, eyes, ears, are
covered with its fetid, viscid slime. Stones come flying at us. Poor,
crippled General Orlov has his face severely bruised; Erdeli and I, as
well, were struck--in the back and on the head.
On our way we exchanged monosyllabic remarks. I turned to Markov:
"What, my dear Professor, is this the end?"
"Apparently...."
The mob would not let us come up to the station by the straight path.
We were taken by a roundabout way, some three miles altogether, through
the main streets of the town. The crowd is growing. The balconies of
the Berdichev houses are full of curious spectators; the women wave
their handkerchiefs. Gay, guttural voices come from above:
"Long live freedom!"
The railway station is flooded with light. There we find a new,
vast crowd of several thousand people. And all this has merged in
the general sea which rages and roars. With enormous difficulty we
are brought through it under a hail of curses and of glances full
of hatred. The railway carriage. An officer--Elsner's son--sobbing
hysterically and addressing impotent threats to the mob, and his
soldier servant, lovingly soothing him, as he takes away his revolver;
two women, dumb with horror--Kletsando's wife and sister, who had
thought to see him off....
We wait for an hour, for another. The train is not allowed to leave--a
prisoner's car is demanded. There were none at the station. The mob
threatens to do for the Commissaries. Kostitsin is slightly buffeted.
A goods car is brought, all defiled with horse-dung--what a trifle! We
enter it without the assistance of a platform; poor Orlov is lifted in
with difficulty; hundreds of hands are stretched towards us through
the firm and steady ranks of the cadets.... It is already 10 p.m. The
engine gives a jerk. The crowd booms out still louder. Two shots are
heard. The train starts.
The noise dies away, the lights grow dimmer. Farewell Berdichev!
Kerensky shed a tear of delight over the self-abnegation of "our
saviours"--as he called--not the cadets, but the Commissaries and the
Committee members.
"What irony of fate! General Denikin, arrested as Kornilov's
accomplice, was saved from the rage of the frenzied soldiers by the
members of the Executive Committee of the South-Western Front and by
the Commissaries of the Provisional Government."
"I remember with what agitation I and the never-to-be-forgotten
Doukhonin read the account of how a handful of these brave men escorted
the arrested generals through a crowd of thousands of soldiers who were
thirsting for their blood...."[79] Why slander the dead? Certainly,
Doukhonin was no less anxious for the fate of the prisoners than for
... the fate of their revolutionary escort....
That Roman citizen, Pontius Pilate, smiled mockingly through the gloom
of the ages....