AS THE BALTIC REPUBLIC FELL.

NZ Truth, Issue 117, 14 September 1907, Page 7

AS THE BALTIC REPUBLIC FELL.

A Russian Revolutionary Episode.

(By JOHN N

The winter of 1895 was an unusually, severe one m Central and Western Russia. Snowfalls were heavy, and the snow frequently covered' the e;ixmnd to a depth o[ more than five. fee,t. Even short journeys from one * village to another were rendered extremely dangerous, for the sledges would literally bury themselves m snow. Distant journeys of forty or fifty miles were next v to impossible. Early m the morning of a stormy February day, Stephen Dunaeff, a peasant from the village of Tuma.nDvka, was returning home, on foot, 'rom Mog-liicleff. the capital of a province of the same name. His village lay at a distance of some forty miles from the capital. It was difficult to walk m the, deep snow that fell the. night before. A cold, icy wind blew incessantly all the morning, and it was not until noon that the peasant felt a little comfort from the scanty rays of the cheerless February sun. Dunaeff's , breast heaved with* a sie-h of relief as he approached a small, wayside inn ; he was worn out with continual walking since six o'clock m the morning. It was noon-time. Fearing \o he caught by nightfall on the road (he had made only fifteen miles of his journey) he did not stay at the inn veiw -lonf. but hurried out as soon as. he had warmed up his half-frozen limbs. " And well might he hurry on ! The storm increased, and the snow threatened to bury everything on the surface of the earth m one mighty white ocean. Dunaeff became more and more frightened as he left behind him the little village and faced the wide and lonely tract of land that lay between this and the next village. "No, I won't lose a whole day, and, perhaps, two," thought Dunaeff, as the idea of returning to and spending the night at the inn occurred to him, "the- wife must hear the. good news to-day." And good news, indeed, it was that he had to tell his wife. v He, Stepan, a common wheelwright of Tumanovka. to have a son enter the liiirh school, where none but children of the "nobles" go ! Wasn't this something to make even a "wealthy" mujik proud of. And yet he_was poor, and his own son has suscectfed m winning, over a number of competitors, a free scholarship ! "Dunaeff was thus musing as he scrolled on, and his thoughts carried the poor peasant far into the realm of those happy dreams which only the" humblest human, beings indulge m. He, m his visions, saw his son rise m the world, and become a great personage, a judge, for instance,; and himself elevated to some enviable position m his own native Tumanovka. He "beheld himself livins: m plenty, and no longer, fearing a bad harvest, at the end of a labor ous summer, which might imperil his existence and that of his whole family. Th the meantime, the wind increased-. Stepan soon felt that the fingers of his left arm were staff and numb : he tried to lift both ; neither would move. Suddenly though .^Ktill preoccupied with his wonderful dreams, the thought struck him, like a'- lightning- stroke, that he was being overtaken "by that dreadful drowsiness. which, to a snowbound man. meant eternal sleep. He started to run. For a while he felt as if the exercise refreshed him a bit. Soon, however, he suddenly felt a hot wave sweep over Ms whole body, perspiration was dripping from under his heavy cap. and, freezing, struck his moustache and cheeks. His dreams again took hold of him. Then he. Sell, while fcnce-deepi m. snow, and. m another instant, he disappeared beneath a soft, white hill.' -; The horror-stricken family of Stepan, his wife. Daria. his sixteen-year-old son, Ivan, another fourteen-vear-old boy. Mishka. and the youngest son Alexis, received the dreadful tidings of the death of their breadwinner with the mute, but elocment. grief of those poor whom tne spectre of starvation greets the first day they lose their care-taker.

\For - eicht long years the peasant's wretched family struggled desneratelv on, p.nd it was not until the lads grew un and became mature men, powerful sons of toil that relief appeared m sicrht of the sufferers. Then -another blow awaited them. -jTho "Little Father," Nicholas 11., m- his "wise" and "paternal" care for "his holy" Russia, deemed it indispensable to the welfare of "his" Empire to annex to it a third of China, the whole of Corea, and something else if possible. But while the Russian generals and, admirals were spending most of their days and -nights m saloons and "harems," at. the expense of the army's budget,

LANBERG)

the Japanese were preparing for real war. The "merciful, Little Father" was, evidently, not merciful enough to spare Stepan's unhappy widow her two elder sons, Ivan and Mishka, and they were both drafted to the colors. Ivan was shipped directly to the seat of the war ; and he was blown to atoms on one of the many foolhardy sallies which his regiment made while m that hell called Port Arthur. Mishka was carried off to the Baltic provinces, and, later, when the Baltic Republic was inaugurated, m Riga, his regiment was the first sent out. under the personal command of Orloff, to "pacify" the rebels. > Stepan's third son, the eleven-year-old Alexis, .whose greatness the poor peasant saw m a vision before his death, had been received, as a free scholar, m the Moghieleff High school. When the boy learned of his father tragic end, his grief knew no bounds. His aunt (an old dishwasher m a noble house, m whose care. Stepan had left Alexis), could not prevent escape home, m company with a friendly peasant, where the little felllow daily, for several weeks, visited his fathers- grave. There, the poor child remained, sometimes with has mother, often alone, for hours, praying and weeping, ever repeating to himself that he was the cause of his ; father's premature death. The boy could hardly be recognised now. The child of eleven grew serious and melancholy. When brought back to school he threw himself into his studies with an eagerness and passion which astonished his instructors and class mates. The result was that, when he was graduated, with honors, seven years later, he was sent, m 1902,. at the expense of friendly students and sympathisers, to the famous Yurieff University. This university is situated within a few hours ,of Riga, the scene of . a long series of blood?' dramas enacted during the great Russian railroad strike,-, less than two years ago. .

Martial law was proclaimed over the whole country. The fire of rebellion inflamed the entire nation, outraged, oppressed, starving. Massacre followed massacre, assassinations became daily occurrences, and robberies and wholesale destruction of life and property trans formed thai) miserable land into a veritable hell. Nobody was .safe ?. neither the powerful, rich official, the banker, the police sergeant, ' nor- the street peddler. A merciless, irrespressi'blc civil war had begun its ravages and annotations. The direful nightmare of death encompassed strangled Russia, over which a certain Nicholas Romanoy still rules .supreme. History repeated itself. The slaves found courage . to, rise. And they rose ; untrained, though not without organisation, undisciplined, but resolute, great m numbers, weak m resource, they assailed the throne of their oppressor. The combined forces of the Empire, as might have been expected,, crushed the mutineers ;.• they were butchered m cold blood, Moscow, Petersburg, Warsaw, Odessa, and Kiefi being the chief slaughter fields. The Baltic province alone was not yet subdued. Against these were launched the Autocracy's most merciless military miscreants m . picked companies. ..' . . Then a dozen of these companies would surround a German or Lithuanian village that lav m the neighborhood of the advancing army's route. After this the search would begin. Every house was ransacked from cellar to roof, every box of drawers emptied, door locks knocked off,.... valuables and whatever might be turned into money carried away. The slightest interference or protest ,on the part of the owner or tenant of the house would result m instant death. And woe to him who had the t-s---session of a boole, newspaper, magazine, or leaflet bearing the fatal single inscription SOCIALIST or SOCIAL DEMOCRAT; terrible vengeance was dealt out to each member of the family. Father, mother, son, grown children, and even little babies, were handcuffed, flung into a specially constructed booth, and.' later, placed upon a large military waggon, and driven off to the outskirts of a near-by forest, where thfiv were summarily shot down, without even the farce of a drum--Jiead court martial. Their- quivering, feileeding corpses which often still showed signs of life, were then hurled into 'one great trench. Blood-curdling stories have been narrated of the domes of Orloff. In some villages, for instance, he would, order the school teachers to be strip-

ped of their clothing and tied up to trees, and, by means of fiendish torture and threats of instant death, compel them to accuse whomever Orloff wished to get rid of. In one village, a few miles from Riga, this "pacificator," angered at the refusal of the principal of a Girl's High school to falsely accuse innocent pupils: surrounded the building with a company of Cossacks, and, , m imitation of his worthy colleague, Alikhanov of Caucasia, gave the helpless school girls, with their female teachers, to the beastly and vodka-crazed Cossacks. In another instance, a student was stopped m the street by an officer and shot down within two yards of his father, m spite of the heartbreaking and agonised cries of the latter that his son was not a disguised revolutionist as the drunken officer claimed. This cruel work of extermination was mostly carried on m the dead of night. That the victims might be wiped out with as little disturbance as possible, they were gageed and. secretly hurried out of town. In this manner scores of villages were desolated. If some town attempted a show of resistance to "authority." the whoie was burned and razed to the 'ground.

The van of the scourging column of Orloff's marauders rapidly approached Riga. There stood, half a mile from the rebel capital, a hideous, mediaeval gaol, m which over 300 "political offenders" awaited execution. Here the column halted. The soldiers were drawn up m a semicirclar line, which made them a living wall, bristling with glittering bayonets. "Lead out, the rebels!" yelled the hoarse, deafening voice of the captain m charge of Grishka's company. A tall, pale youth, calm and defiant, was brought up, handcuffed, his feet fettered with iron chains. "Rebel dog !" roared the captain, like a madman, shaking his clenched fists at the nrisor.er, "tell me where your accomplices are and you'll go free!", "Long live the Russian Revolution !. Long live !" . . . He did not end. At the officer's command of "fire" two-score bullets pierced the prisoner's body, sending him to the ground without a groan. The second pri&oner met his death as fearlessly as the first did : the third shared a like fate ; the fourth the same ; then the fifth, sixth, seventh,- and-, eighth. . . The captain, cursing, glanced over the list of those awaiting their horrible doom. There was a brief pause, during which the soldiers removed the dead. Then he called out again : — "Alexis Dunaeff ! He's next, bring him here !" Danacff was dragged out. bound hand and foot, a fit tarset for fresh bullets. He was calm and serene. "You wrote the Appeal to the Peasants?" thundered the officer. "I did," was the laconic reply. "You organised a military expedition and routed a regiment of lids Majesty's cavalry ?" was the next question. "I did," was again the reply. "You sent arms and ammunition to the peasants, of Saratov?" queried the captain. "I did," was the answer of the prisoner. "Did you organise the Students' Auxiliary Fighting Group 1" asked the officer. "I did." "Did you write the Appeal to the Army. tellir~ the soldiers to shoot down their own commanders instead of the Japanese ?" thundered the officer, furiously. "I wrote it," was the reply. The captain heard a disturbance behind him and turned round ; somebod^ was coming up to him. It was Grishka Dunaeff, bareheaded, pale, and haggard. "Your honor, he's my brother, I'm his own brother, spare him, your honor!" murmured the poor wretch, trembling. 1 The officer retreated a few steps, and unsheathed his sabre. He raised it. but lowered it again hesitating. Orloff was telephoned to for orders. This message came back : — "It will inspire your company to a more faithful performance of their duties when Dunaeff the Soldier will himself execute Dunaeff the Revolutionist." When the order was read aloud, Dunaeff the Soldier, breathless and shivering, drew himself up. m readiness, eagerly and resolutely facing Dunaeff the Revohrtioniist. A fieroe determination shone m his " eyes. Cold sweat was dropping down his cheeks. The scene presented was a terrible one. Even the bloodthirsty hamgonan of Orloff's personal selection tremfoleld. "Fire!" commanded the officer. Dunaeff made a quick turn m the direction of the commander. There was a flash and a loud report, and the captain himself fell dead, cut down b"- the fatal bullet which was destined for a brother.

V.An hour later the two brothers, chained together, stood before General Orloff. "One rope with two nooses >!' —and the "pacificator" motioned towards a tall pine tree. The brothers kissed each other. Then, a guttural, rattling, inhuman voice, coming from one of the million victims of "one StrangVer, cried out :— "Long live the Russian Revolution !"' . „ - The next flav witnessed the fall ot the Baltic Republic.