SOVIET RULE.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17607, 9 November 1922, Page 8

SOVIET RULE.

hardships and sufferings.

A VXVH> STORY.

(SPECIAL TO "*HB rMSS -">

AUCKLAND, November 8. The hardships and sufferings of two years under Bolshevik rule and of trcy - ! ;o„rnevs through tho heart of mendous J - Siberia formea Tlirk6S wla vivid story told by the subs a General Alexander r ° f th * lonoff, a witli 3i at i ;UUe lonou arrived yoster--lUlssilul K * 1 ™ 1 ": -sk. Hriis? r sjssi the receiving tlieir the xhe revolution plunged tlio oautation. a ud excitement, J.'or Clij 'a Jrtul Ss Madam lonoff could I Sat had become of her not find rumour cot abroad tlmt «U tto n „irk iwav. It -was dangerous for any 6 women of rank to be abroad in the streets At last- disguised as a peasant woman, she readied the college and got her daughter safely away to a country town from which, with a younger daughter, she set out for the family estate m the far distant province of Turkestan. Tliev were compelled to take a circuitous'route as the main railway line was crowded with refugees and sold ery A lour days' journey down the Volga took them to Samara, followed by a six days train journey to Tashkent. Then came a ten davs' carriage drive across the o-reat Russian Steppes and so at last to their own district of Seminchie Book. "In our far away little village thousands of miles from Petrograd we felt ourselves <juito safe, 1 ' said Miss lonoff. "It did not seem as though any trouble could come to us there, but it did. 'ine lirst hint of what was m store for us was when our boxes and cases arrived from Petrograd full of stores. My father was still fighting with hie army, but we lived securely enough for a while always in hope that the old regime would be restored. But gradually the Bolshevik influence grew and spread. In 1919 our town house was taken by the Bolsheyiks for a school. Provisions began to grow scarce. At last, fearing worse things, many of us tried to escape. We drove a long way and then found that the bridges ahead had been burned. The Bolsheviks took us prisoners and kept us for a month in a C'ossack village which they plundered from end to end. Every day we were told we were to be taken out and shot, and there was always an armed guard. At last iTe were permitted to return to Semirichie, where we found all the houses had been looted, but our one remaining servant had saved some of our silver and family jewellery and otner valuables by burying it, and from time to time we managed to regain possession of these things. When we first returned the Bolsheviks seemed to have gained complete sway and were most cruel and arrogant. They imprisoned and illtreated women and children on the slightest pretext." In January, 1919, Madame lonoff and her two daughters managed to make their way into China, and after living there for two months started out on another long journey, this time for Siberia, where General lonoff was in charge of one of Admiral Koltchak'a armies. For five weeks they travelled through the great mountain ranges ot Northern China, and finally arrived at Omsk, the capital of Siberia. Here they remained until the following November, leaving, the city ten days before it fell to the Red Army. Another journey across the Continent to Vladivostok, thence to Harbin in Manchuria, and finally to Tientsin, brought this much travelled family to a secure resting place. China treated them kindJy, and they have now come to Auckland, where they intend to remain. General lonoff purposes taking up dairy farming.