THROUGH REVOLUTION

Hokitika Guardian, 17 July 1931, Page 6

THROUGH REVOLUTION

TRAGIC DAYS IN RUSSIA

ENGLISHWOMAN’S EXPERIENCES

Personal impressions of life in Russia before and during the revolution were given by Miss L. Honiss, an English music teacher, at a meeting of the Catholic Students’ Guild, AucklandThe Rev. Dr. L. Buxton presided. Miss Honiss, who arrived in New Zealand recently from New York, said that she went to Petrograd in , 1913 from Rome, where she had been studying music. She secured a position as teacher of languages and music to the daughters Russian families. In Petrograd ' met the Czarina and her four daughters on a» number of occasions. ■ She frequently saw the Czarevitch, a very delicate boy, playing in the palace gardens. The wealthy led a gay but generally cultured existence. It was the custom of society ladies to sleep a day and spend the long nights at musicales, dances, the theatre, and other social functions.

On the outbreak of the war in August, 1914, M iss Honiss returned from a summer holiday on the coast to asist in hospital work, and found that the Empress and her daughters had joined the nursing staff in Petrograd. At the end of 1916 revolution was inevitable, and the middle classes openly supported Kerensky in the rising of 1917 when the Czar abdicated. So far everything had passed fairly quietly, tile aristocracy being too apathetic to unite in opposition. Miss Honiss soon after went to Moscow. By this time the army was revolting on the Eastern front, and civil war threatened. Early one morning in November, 1917, she saw an armoured car pass down the street, and soon after fighting broke out in the city between the bourgeoisie and the Bolsheviks, who were rapidly gaining ground. The city resounded with the crash of shells. Buildings were burnt, shops were destroyed, and the tramway service was wrecked. The Bolshevik victory resulted in the flight of the moderate Kerensky. The Bolshevik regime had begun. A great food shortage set in, but the people showed a wonderful faith in the Bolsheviks. The class system was reversed. The. nobility were sent to be employed on the public works, and the people took charge of their coaches and carriages. .

Mass Honiss took the first opportunity to leave Russia. The food shortage ha-d become so bad in Moscow that she felt she could no longer accept her friends’ hospitality. She joined an American official party which was leaving for the East. The train journey across Siberia took nearly a month. Good food was available m the country districts, but the carriages were terribly over-crowded, and other facilities were bad. During a stop at one station a skirmish took place between some recruits and the Red Guards, and bullets crashed through the carriage windows. The passengers sought safety by crouching on the floor. The party were glad when they finally reached the picturesque port of Vladiivostock and found that a cruiser was due to leave for Hongkong.