yon geen fait ba sees a Senay a Sroaee 3 aye seo EES bake eam eae seleets cs tastiete oa titers et eit a ey Ff %SS nae Airs Sinise Rebates yee ib oe aah ee hs yg Rianne Be. a aoe 9¢c8060E0X AYVYaN VINISYIA 30 ALISYSAINNrox ea oernge Ries he f seahe Ses pnts Sie e9 esis. 52 Bites ae x SCA Peer iS cpg , raat irsSpepsPes er Segter eter dapat pitts ee tease Se Tt aaa s beset. THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST Tn Hehe ss rats Or a7 A 3 - Tt talL a ster ase;WORKS BY FERDINAND OSSENDOWSKI BEASTS, MEN AND GODS *‘A book of astounding, breath-taking, en- thralling adventure, an Odyssey whose narrator encountered more perils and marvels than did Ulysses himself.”,—New York Times. “One of the most thrilling authentic per- sonal narrations of adventure ever written.’’ —New York Herald. *‘More absorbing than any fiction.’”—Pro- fessor Katharine Lee Bates of Wellesley Col- lege. “Set the imagination of thousands of readers afire.”’—San Francisco Journal. MAN AND MYSTERY IN ASIA **This is the most wonderful adventure story of the twentieth century.”’—Des Moines Mirror. *‘Each arresting episode contributes towards giving a more enduring impression of the life of the semi-civilized nomads inhabiting the vast land of Siberia.’”—New York Evening Post. “Dr. Ossendowski’s adventures rival Defoe and Verne.’’—Baltimore Evening Sun. E. P: DUTTON & COMPANYRY FERDINAND OSSENDOWSKI AUTHOR OF “ BEasts, MEN AND Gops,”’ “MAN AND MysTERY IN ASIA,”’ TRANSLATED BY FBSCZARNOMSKI NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 681 Firth, AVENUE »> ETC, THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST sragd ptesettyamessheggesaebapedsth Leta Baad HDL bobbed dt VESTA NE OT SRT TOTY HFEF PRA ee SSS Star ce att ratearal bead minke state eter epritltelmestntinetirere rete el rerene VPC DE SSEETSPE DE fi a PiesretstsiPi ae STO eee TOE eaa TET a Pacsessanestei emitters tei itressceseere ica ikts tmee i bi hw Stas He wy stilt i eh! Meets t oT aes osecel eS MeSH AHH seeps Phe Bai se hats | ease rei Sete: Rian: sb tite £3L) es ature are pes casas ansntt Pees Lie eadeaee i oearet tah. Peter) Hae - i tepenety re rash Els ff ore as Copyright, 1925, By E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY All rights reserved First Printing ~ «© Meo, 1926 Second Printing - - April, 1925 Third Printing. . . Sept., 1926 ‘rintéd, inthe! United States of America « " « €« Ce «< we reprernr ht ee" a Faeteta tty Soret ts ¢ earedINTRODUCTION S a Pole I was an alien in Russia, where I lived for many years, and I looked upon that huge country with all the detachment of an unprejudiced foreigner. I knew Russia from her Western confines right to the Pacific and the Pamir, and I think I understand the psychology of the peoples of that vast, mysterious land, where modern civilisation of the West and the ideology of Mongolian nomads, the asceticism of or- thodox Christianity and heathenism exist together in weird confusion to this very day. The Russian intelli- gentsia, spiritualised and rising to the loftiest idealism, has long ago cut adrift from the people; it could not understand the great mass and contemptuously dis- dained to notice its qualities, hostile and dangerous to mankind, which nevertheless remained. Tolstoy has cast upon the ant-heap of the country a new idea, which to his mind defined the pith of his people. He called the common people “the carriers of God,” and considered that all the qualities, the fine as well v mepaeseaesanrsi Tenors esterases sis ee ta ea ea a — setae BRRPRIOER en oo rte Cee a peeee ries ereiasl PARA EET * $9 22 oa C Leela betelvi INTRODUCTION as the terrible, were the means of searching after God and His truth. This formula appealed to the minds of the educated classes and inspired a highly poetic view of the com- mon crowd. When warning voices were raised against this ab- stract and most unreal idealism, when writers like Rodionov, Kuprin, Gorky, Chehov pointed this out with set purpose or incidentally, their warnings evoked only the indignant ire of dim-sighted dreamers. Sober reality wrote with a blood-stained hand its verdict on the visions of the intelligentsia. I hope that the same severe judge will not pass the same sentence on the Christian civilisation, which has been sapped by materialism, and is passing at present through its twilight of death or new birth, unable to rouse itself with new strength and impulse to loftier ideals. In face of the danger threatening from Russia these should be our strength and stay, for in them lies the only salvation from the peril coming up from the East, with its passion for evil and showing its true face since the mask—which deceived mankind for so long—is torn off. My sketches of the “Shadow of the Gloomy East” are an attempt to lay bare before the civilised world the true face of the Russian people, which must be enlightened, converted to Christianity, to European culture, strengthened in true morality, and then, only ¢-2 yee corre se ye weer resINTRODUCTION vii Sibi) bisa ee bl Dibba th Sh ke epee ie LB then, admitted as an equal to the great comity of nations which aims at perfection, spiritual beauty and strength. eT as Pror. Dk. FERDINAND A. OSSENDOWSKI. WARSAW, November, 1923. : i i hs : > a <, a i 3 = es am 3 e4 + ef —_ = Hy = : + C3 Ba B My o4 3 oo Bi 3 iis ESC PETES Steet CST Tt pe 37) aseise belie he ae mrs rica: rar Poe ae SE Ter Seat at reat hed Telly Beda hebebeltatd ts teh 2 esbab besarte genta +}- shrethid} mest sesbats ter TTT eye Beet Gt Parse yi +e pecore 7 Ff 4 tials eee ih gt Patton Rotate) es baat saseee rasta paseo SERCO eet Pe Sens Pe rr and TERT : a re at ort +haE st Shoah boas bed 3 oad i at et Cae si pag ITH Peet hehiod fr aad bietareis ates! eli h stilts THs titetigy (Seay + On vorers se 93 on i atelater eros 8h$r 3) + thet re eee rarer pareeart Vorek TUSCHAPTER I. THE Il. THe III. THe IV. THE V. THE INTRODUCTION Masks CONTENTS Face LAmw BARE ‘ SHADOWS OF THE VILLAGE TREASURE POISONERS VI. HEATHENISM VII. WitcHcraFt . : : EcHo oF THE DIM PAST 30LD INDUSTRY . : X. THE Lords OF THE SEA XI. In THE DUSK OF THE PALACES VIIl. THE 1X. THE XII. Brack SHADOWS - : XIII. PHANTOMS OF THE APOCALYPSE HUNTERS XIV. ASCETICS VERSUS ANTICHRIST XV. FACTORIES OF IMMORALITY . ‘ XVI. WoMAN AND THE CHILD. : XVII. DEATH OF THE ROMANOVS AND THE MYSTICAL MENT XVIII. Brack RAVENS XIX, Otp Gops IN CHRISTIAN WoRrRSHIP ° . + - XX. THE SIMPLEST oF ALL Gops XXII, THE Devyiw’s FEAST XXII. Witte, STOLYPIN, AND GOREMYKIN XXIII. THe Last oF THE MOHICANS XXIV. FETISHISM OF THE WorRD ..., XXV. CHAOS ce ig CoNCLUSION . INDEX . * ~ 2 . * * PAGE oc ie as eae : II a4 ee 44 of AT, : 51 55 . 59 <2 ae 00 69 . 74 AOS fog e OO vo eek Oe ‘ . 100 ; 116 Move- : 123 130 cy ar gt GU «4d ; . 148 ‘ . 160 oo. eS ; a 187 poe LOL > ew 205 199 SONS aL lke ae 2 eel re ei wre lgel4Giakeh be tadebeiets a beatebeitoberiycbeneteTen tnssinemee etersw ay ey A a ipdrinerer tates sti ‘ ATE 5 rtd oe oo ae a Balai ese etetptr ee tote st Frelergd btetetedee med co Ser et Peep eise peoase ise nnitto tarsi Sree sth! ea ait thee Heese) ee eed bd cots Fs bbese seit Soha eases} aeerriiliiteiers Pea Se eo O rt ies ean ae septs tert ses eager eras pesntecy Re Detiee lepstetiiters [elese, title ta te erat LJ bea71 3 Rea ed ot) let oe rei oh beet tr Tk) reeset] Peyarel fers lee suse sree Sere MITT: eo ieaese rots -pafed tte aie ¥ Se SHAS Sle pao baste to od ire bea) tak ee 4 ease ae a all a abteds andi deh dertedetneanend aed tty estas eae tea ntl Re) Peep eae abe e+ wink naw enrneeeeen re ee) Sheet eciths HH Ses} : con c pase aes Sefefes pee Peper he Ml - -* = ee < “+ ~~ ad ‘ St Se TOT - Sa Sah pabor wba bestis See tatas ao Erites es ered oy pee bterdpet ds reese! eos Ht Perna THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST {seine 1 Ree Ee Scare eStats sede . peta letde Pare res tren te ase yeas tie ae rer Bed mb THR debate} 5 cpt eset Jabs ithe sat} + eet RABAT Seb rs peroeeeten Pppacseaeaeiesn et eet =)F bee 1 asc Pads tytetest re by 2 | Pb Sry 1 - 3 eee tbe pes Aestiricpttetat Perera seit be . Sea reras bograrbeneie ats TSR £32 $4 Fe} Titayeety PIT 3aT ph FS2 LEE binwee rete cH te oa ead aie 5 is i brs is moti oe pord paraeel Parse ete a Petokss Pots d-hocrsraparepsralipetetipet ety he breed eeaesaete UG esis pid absnede- erteee te ord yey Papers Ps es! ear Ds ree Soyer eee ties as Peer Ss Ss aot are nearer ted . : 2 o> a eerhr ers cS oes coe be 2 era et re se rem MESS ed bg hte ad) "THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST CHAPTER I THe MASKS HE civilised world knew Russia by those of her representatives who were deservedly admired and respected in Western Europe. The spiritual, refined culture of the highly educated Russian class and aristocracy, the genuine idealistic impulse of Russian arts, the piety and asceticism of the higher clerical hierarchy, the general very high level of education and intelligence of the middle classes; the profound learning of the most prominent scientists, the true heroism and high courage of mili- tary officers in the most aristocratic of Russian units, the zesthetic life and thought of the nobility—all these were eloquent witnesses soliciting the sympathies of the world for the Russian nation. Why, the favourite subjects of the lofty and rap- turous orations of the Russian intelligentsia which cap- tured the ears of Europe were freedom and self- government for the oppressed peoples of Russia, “~~ os NS a Tae al eee st Coal ————_ baa He enon SiS ib eek bh a eS artrats] il pebeer eset ass Pes eeittT: _——— — eg a TREO DRTT ST Cease Ss rea Set a he2) AHE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST emancipation of women, the education of the masses of the common people, and called forth the enthusiasm of even the most critical political thinkers and philoso- phers acquainted with Western culture. But these superficial declamations were but a passing fashion of good breeding, scenery, masks, underneath which lay a mean reality. Unaware of the liberating forces which gathered strength within the masses, unconscious of the impor- tance and power of the protesting classes, the aris- tocracy and the higher plutocracy, and alas! the higher middle classes were thronging the Imperial Court as of old, hunting for favours, honours, positions, basking in the sunshine of the Imperial presence. This lustre, like the radiance of the sun, blinded the vision of those who should have been the strength and stay of Russian society to the seething movement, to the threatening murmur of the human ant-heap down there, in the dark hovels of the “‘common brute.” And at the time when the whole of Europe knew that a very decisive and dangerous moment in the history of Russia was approaching, the aristocrats and their set were forming the “black hundreds,” dragging in the university youth, throwing them together with the scum of the large towns, filling them with reactionary political views, which led to every crime. The picked regiments of the Guards were murdering the helpless populations of Warsaw, Petersburg, and Moscow; and delicately manicured hands of aristocrats: the Golit-THE MASKS 3 sins, the Krapotkins, the Wyrubovas, the Ortov- Davidovs, the Shirinski-Shihmotovs, were counting out gold into the unwashen hands of a motley gang of ruffans—for the provocation of pogroms, for the com- missions of the murders of a Yottos, a Herzenstein, a Goldstein, Stolypin, and others. At the time when Europe was listening in rapture to the anthems on freedom, equality, and brotherhood, or to the enthralling mystical preachings of the Rus- sians abroad, the very visitors and preachers had taken or were taking a hand in the greedy, tyrannous and iniquitous measures of their Government. The war with Japan, the aggressive policy towards Finland, the harsh and overbearing attitude towards Poland, the policy in the Caucasus and the Ukraine, the persecution of Catholicism, the wrecking of popular education, opposition to all efforts of the more clear- sighted politicians, who counselled certain conciliatory offers to the Socialist groups as well as to the protests of educated men—such was the policy of what is now the ancient regime. At the same time the aristocracy, servile towards the Tsar, and cultivating truly byzan- tine forms of adulation, was debased and descending into ever lower depths and separated itself from the other classes of Russian society. Descendants of the Ruriks kissed—for the Tsaritsa’s gracious smile sake—the hands of the horse-thief, Grishka Rasputin, “the court saint” of the Palace of Tsarskoye Selo. ere te hg si eae? Lhe es Silt) ibaeash od ete bboas etl ee cenentlntgse rth. re i rey fegeropsy i ae AE cL Tei bdepeteqees a eetease apa ress SS rarer ne an i tt Tm aati ne FSPERRESR RS COREE PATS S EMSC BSS eae oe it ei tiet "wrerti lies oi rarer nets russe) e NEES see snare es 2) ates4 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST The crawling servility of the great nobles before the face of the Siberian peasant availed them little; they, the “‘salt of the Russian earth,”’ were treated as so much chaff and trash! A Prince Putiatin acted as the “court prospector” of candidates to canonisation, of miracles and sacred relics. Why, after the canonisation of Serafim Sadov- ski, he proposed to the Tsar and to the Tsaritsa six more newly discovered saints! It was only the great costs which drew from the Tsar the impatient exclama- tion: “It is our pleasure that there shall be no more saints after Serafim !” The aristocrats were amusing themselves while serving at Court, unconscious of the tragic events that were about to be enacted and of the accounts to be set- tled. Outside the Court the representatives of the highest families lived their picturesque, sparkling, profligate life. True, there was no need to cringe be- fore an evil-smelling peasant or other fortune-tellers, prophetesses and charmers, who were permanent guests at the Court of the Romanovs. They kept their “odd Thursdays,” ‘secret Mondays,” in dainty palaces, gar- coniéres, or in the recesses of Villa Rodé, whose owner, M. Alfred Rodé, made the most exquisite preparations and watched over the proceedings of his guests with the mysterious smile of the Sphinx. He is the man to write the secret history of the last year of the Romanov dynasty and of the fall of the 39 66THE MASKS 5 Russian aristocracy. He exercised a strange, silent influence on the set of the Court of Tsarskoye, for he knew how to make use of Rasputin, who was a stand- ing client of the Villa, and Rode himself was seated in the cabinet of his restaurant at the side of the Grand Duke Dimitri, Count F. Sumarokov-Elston and M. Purishkevich, when the assassination of the spiritual director of the Court was planned. Now that is all gone! It would require the exu- berant imagination of a French novelist to describe what the mirrored walls have seen at Cuba’s, Medved’s, Constant’s, Donon’s, Pivato’s! To relate the scenes enacted in the luxurious apartments of the high-class dressmakers, milliners or corsetiéres, and count up the names of the titles and honours of the grandees. It would be instructive to learn how much the Imperial police was glad to restrain the Press and the Courts from interfering with those pastimes and frolics. A whole series of marriages contracted by great nobles shows to what this society had come to, and into the oldest families descended from the Romanovs, the Ruriks, and Shuyskis, there entered gipsy-girls, variety stars, ballet dancers, and common prostitutes. And all the while the “striving brute,” who had been for years straining at his chains and waiting for the hour to strike, saw all and weighed the forces of his opponent and master against his own. They that were above him heeded not the warning a \ 3 ca \3- co a ATS PaTay br ot ae tenes PTrrnyrhiestndstienerseeteeitirecttrsre diet sell ee een Tiga a ene IO pps Seersrer er Tara a oy Oe ne a A econ ti HESGTOTRRICSERST ESM STATES OSES aaa a Teitatel bite tetitatinkd talet-Lietstedeaisatitetatatae BeRiiet estate ees oa ara abybat py pmeTS ley Tereev ease sestesssere ys tty,6 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST voices; in the midst of their orgies they gave no thought to the morrow, to the necessity of pulling themselves together and taking measures of protection against the coming storm. For the coroneted ladies and gentlemen with their friends of the plutocracy and higher bureaucracy were engaged in shadowy drawing-rooms and perfumed boudoirs, “searching” the secrets of spiritism, occult- ism, buddhism, or mysticism. A multitude of doubtful personalities flitted phantomlike through these cush- ioned recesses as media, occult practitioners, brahmins, yogas, epileptics, hysteromaniacs, hallucinating vision- aries, prophets; some were on the list of the German secret service, or agents of the police, the “Okhrana,” or had “letters of introduction” to Rasputin. Thus Spake Zarathustra was their favourite book. Nietzsche’s bombastic, cynically immoral and frenzied phrases were always on their lips, and it seemed as though this Slav renegade had written to the order of the Prussian King a book full of moral poison, which could have its full effect only on a Muscovite. This seemed a moral poison gas invented especially for the benefit of the Russians, considerably in advance of the material products discovered by Dr. Luther and other Teutonic chemists. The “ivory-white bones” of Russian aristocracy, kept alive by the “blue blood,” insensitive to the change in the political atmosphere, were dancing their last waltz upon the edge of the gaping grave.THE MASKS 7 And the dance was mad and gay, nor could piles of glossy carpets deaden the stamping of whirling feet. The lawsuit of Wonlarlarski, the “noblest Roman of them all,” closely allied with the best blood of Russia, startled public opinion. The Seigneur, but yesterday intimately received at Tsarskoye Selo, was proved to have forged Prince Oginski’s will. The owner of im- mense concessions in Kamtchatka seemed to have been occupied in defrauding the savage inhabitants and in stifling their complaints. “A scandal!’ people whis- pered. But when the Press learned that the civilising activities of the great landowners in Kamtchatka had caused the deaths of hundreds of native families and wild hounds were devouring their corpses in the deso- late “chumas,” people exclaimed “It’s a crime!’ But their only fear was lest the scandal should not be hushed up. The Commissioner of Police, von Waal, the Min- ister of Justice, Shcheglovitov, and the Governor of Kamtchatka were acquainted with the facts; indeed, the last-named official was suspended. But a few cheques drawn, a few dull echoes in the press which died away, and silence reigned supreme— the lull before the storm. The Japanese War, which ended in Russia’s defeat, in the awakening of Asia and in the dishonour of the Imperial throne, was really but an episode in the “dancing high-life’’ of the Courtmaster of the chase, M. Bezobrazov, who, in connection with German tt] i: 3 4 2: [ = ehh apetbys felatenitstesf +) lea na EIT iain - eet TT eee et et hea Lage epetapersgendaig egeg sions SepeessrT ee nr lens lO: rca fps Sevras tres ss Seto ats “Tagtyspiald ig a teadb ie speed bo bested tens een trance it ann mn st Aa tii .8 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST diplomatists and bankers, had been arranging for tim- ber concessions in the valley of the Yalu, on the Korean-Chinese border. Japan and China took offence, and the results were the fall of Port Arthur, the defeats of Wafangou, Mukden, Laoyan, and ultimately the sinister tragedy of Tsushima. Bezobrazov’s enterprise had enjoyed the gracious financial and moral support of the Romanov family! Count Witte could say: “I have built a railway round Asia, I have conquered China by peaceful means and opposed Japan; whilst they have lost China and are defeated in the eyes of the Asiatics for ever, even before cutting down a single tree.” Such was the deep-rooted corruption and depravity of the higher Russian classes. And the bureaucracy followed in their footsteps. It was as if a malignant and venomous parasite had chosen for its nest the huge body of the people of 140 millions, sinking ever lower its deadly roots. Its influence made itself felt in the political thought of the nation. This power was not connected with the nation at large by any common link. Neither com- prehending the purport and the gloomy soul of Russia, nor on the other hand being understood itself, it de- scended like an octopus to the darkest depths in order to form and fashion the lowest instincts. Upon such a background of political aspirations was it possible for such sinister figures to appear as the priest Gapon, theTHE MASKS 9 provocator Azev, the Member of Parliament and police-spy Malinovsky, Rasputin, the Bishop Pimen, the monk Heliodor, and a whole gang of native and foreign adventurers and pirates of words and thoughts. It was with their help that bureaucracy, in a presenti- ment of the approaching Day of Judgment, tried to reach the core of national life, to gauge the dimensions of the threatening danger, to capture the foes and to compel the mind of the nation to enter the old kennel of dog-like servility towards the official, the priest, the lord, and the Tsar. None thought of the necessity of directing the awaking popular sense towards the firm ground of nationhood. And if even such men arose, like the authors of the October 17 1905 manifesto, Count Sergius Witte, or the Prime Minister, P. A, Stolypin, they had to meet conspiracies and engage in a life and death struggle for their very existence. The war, then, had to be fought upon two fronts: against the awakening masses of the nation which were drifting ever nearer towards the revolutionary camp and against those of their own kind, who in their saga- cious efforts at the progress of civilisation, desired the State to seize upon the thoughts and energies of the rising nation and to turn them to good account. On both the fronts the self-same weapon was used, the most dastardly of all—provocation—the practice of conjuring up disturbances during which leaders and participants could be seized. Of those arrested the most depraved were seduced into the service of the * a ae weeded} -o—b5b~b-bnb~ ——— pas ~~ Bs : eg : . Sores Coes rt ee Se hk bi os it gg ca ean re ~- wae vce tert ee REI Teri Ten ISRESES TSet a oo e l14 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST organisers; they took over the management of mine and factory, reducing them within three years to a state of utter bankruptcy; they were giving away mil- lions of national money to a multitude of swindlers or jesters for the setting up of factories for the manufac- ture of bread from sawdust, sugar from straw, soap from turf, etc.; they were the men who, during the Soviet rule, took a bloody revenge, annihilated morality and faith, introduced inquisitorial tortures, and wel- comed the unknown author of the imaginary decrees on the “nationalisation of women” and on the “Free- love Sunday” with a roar of applause. If Gorky walks on stilts when describing characters equipped with general human psychological traits, his talent blazes up with magnificent fire when the heroes are types from Malvina or The Barefeeters . . . bare- feeted . . . bare in the direct meaning of the word and transferred in their attitude to society and nation- hood. The barefeeters are the outcasts of society not because they are criminals, terrorists, or anarchists. No! they are neither petty pickpockets nor slothful parasites produced as well by the town as by the village. What is there terrible in them? Such types fill at best the nightshelters, at worst prisons. We know them from the works of Chehov. Some of them are drunken dreamers, generally harmless, though some- times given to smash windows or the faces of those with whom they disagree; others are suicidal dreamers, who brood over the unhealthy passages of their livesTHE FACE LAID BARE 15 with souls and brains corroded with a hereditary wild desire for disorder, who curse everything and every- body, see darkness in the rays of the sun and the abyss opening under their feet, as they stand upon the paved courtyard of their wretched, lonely, dull cottages. Such degraded souls differ from the whimpering souls of Chehov’s heroes inasmuch as their masters are “barefooted.” What then is there terrible in these specific types of the Russian proletariat? Nothing at all; they are rather tragi-comic, pitiful, or at the utmost deserving of the attention of the policeman, of the social welfare worker or the doctor. And, nevertheless . . . a perusal of the thoughts and imagination of the barefeeters fills the heart of a cultured reader with terror. There is an absolute self- erasement from the ranks of socially conscious human beings! There is a complete amorality, an utter lack of organs for the reception of intuitions and ideas, even of that primitive morality which arrived probably at the moment when two cavemen, resolving upon their troth, took their females with them, founded a family dwelling and began to live as neighbours, whilst search- ing step by step somewhere in the folds of their unde- veloped brains manifold, yet simple, principles of ethics, which have outlived ages, centuries, and civilisa- tions, and endured unto our own days. There is a hatred and disdain of morality, law, and the principles consecrated by Christianity or the history spies 3 55 Tot ward bi bas SrsTrs Tic becca ts Gs os bos rpoyeseg rey pe metrsiT rs isis oo) Te eee ek... SEIT Te rreriease sestiroraearesseesiCT HEU i oa16 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST of nations, expressed in every word, in every deed of such individuals, as seem to be bred only among the Russian people. And with all that, Russian critics, some of them very serious and exacting, have with timid servility bowed their heads before Gorky’s “barefooters” and Skitalec’s “stumps” (ogarki = degraded youths). Deliverance of thought! Unbridled nature! A pro- test against the bourgeois! were the watchwords of the various admiring critics. Yes, the bold words of those microcephalians of thought, feeling, and morality were admired, as well as the actions of shamelessly naked men. Until the “barefooter” seized power, lolled in the chair of the President of the Cheka and exclaimed with the jovial voice of a drunkard: “Let’s make the earth bare and bare the man upon it!” And it was so. The earth became bare, and upon it were ghastly pools of blood and brains beaten out from the intelligent skulls of those who but a short time be- fore had been enraptured by the comrades of the many- coloured Malvina, and the drunken idlers who in the years 1901-1906 had so greatly impressed the Russian youth. Gorky desired to point out the existence of those whom Russian ethnography has somehow not yet discovered, who formed “a state within the state,” a aumber of egotistic and irresponsible groups of men in the loosely-cemented Russian society. But Gorky, eset ee ort. pee aha TOE EL eS relsittia B. | 2 ARES ee isiehr 4 a4 Pee rerterrres ren bet) ta ies eA Se a esTHE FACE LAID BARE 17 knowing so well the turbid side of his anarchic people, solicits unintentionally our sympathy for those who shed the blood of the unhappy, hated bourgeoisie. His genius succeeded in convincing Russia of the amiability of these cavemen of Odessa and of the mot- ley crowd which thronged the public-houses of the ports. According to him they were the “eagle’s breed” whom the bourgeois reptile crawling on the ground tried to imitate with awkward clumsiness. Thus it came that all of a sudden, like the hawk upon a flight of sparrows, the “barefooters” fell upon the Russian society—drew the knife concealed in their bosom and started the slaughter for . . . there was then no policeman and no prison bar. “How many were there in all Russia?” asks the curious reader—‘“one thousand, one hundred thousand, or a million?” There is an answer to this question. The main sup- port of the Soviets are eight provinces situated round Moscow. Thirty million peasants, for a long time de- prived of land, of every tie with their native village, enjoying the “famous” freedom of wandering from factory to factory, from mine to mine, from port to port, from prison to prison... . They defeated the Soviets, created the Third Inter- national, formed the leading Russian Communist Party, and crushed Kornilov, Denikin, Kolchak—the last supporters of statehood in Russia. They were the “barefooters” living from hand to la a cl Ac inn oe Sa sia SESPEPSE SERENE SESE ESTERS SS ScRehr rere rae ae peviee Pe LeMe Brae tee ret Ia te) rarer nt trot nt 2a 08 bee iene a) 18 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST mouth like lords, feeding on the offal that fell from the table of the Russian society and State. Far truer is the word of another Russian writer, Rodionoy, who found their origin and fatherland in the village. Rodionov wrote a number of articles and novels, of which the most instructive is Our Crime. It is not even a novel, but rather a police record of village crimes: drunkenness, profligacy, unpunished murder, theft, ruin of family, disregard of authority, extinction of national consciousness—an inferno too loathsome to describe. If we read Rodionov’s revelations, we are reluctantly obliged to admit that the Russian village, to which Tolstoy looked for the rejuvenation and renascence of the nation, is not much better than a foul quagmire.CHAPTER III THE SHADOWS OF THE VILLAGE HE Russian village was celebrated in song by the greatest masters of the pen. But were Russia’s writers ignorant of their country’s village, or have they idealised it, perceiving in its shadows something they desired to see and which was not there, could not be there? Let us cast a glance on the Russian village, no matter where it is situated, whether near a great city or in a virgin forest, somewhere north of Vologda or on the shores of the Kama. Obviously, the farther from civilisation, the clearer appear its most significant characteristics. I know well the hamlets and the villages of the prov- inces of Petrograd, Olonetz, Novgorod, Pskov, as well as the Siberian villages and settlements. The chief place in these hurriedly patched-up cot- tages of thatched roofs and rough log walls is occupied by the House of God—an Orthodox church or chapel; sometimes, near by, in a deserted cottage is the village school, indefinitely attended by the children of peas- ants. There is a priest, there is a school-teacher, of 19 ne, a a PeUSTS BET peve Re alice arene na al ae a Ee + rt titet TORAH? ea ae heos a eoEsaER SED GSCOCEST SEOEOL HL SST E aFITE ELE E Ea aoe FSET SO iSitctacalaltoshtptadatetageatchabedeseeeteiens ia essa itene eneten Tet trMRL agiuchett She phates pirshe sles states siripitrtettciabaipapepetiney tt SL Fh eas beer be SEEDER Se IETS 20 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST whom the former seems chiefly occupied with getting contributions from the peasants, the latter with revolu- tionary propaganda; both add drinking to their daily work. In close neighbourhood with these leaders of religion and education, near by in some similar room live the wizards, sorcerers, and hags . . . they are the survival of primordial paganism. Their traditional school has been preserved, and their prescriptions, having lived through centuries, are handed down from generation to generation. The sorcerers are generally old people who possess the secret science of curing men and animals of dis- eases, of appeasing the house demon whenever he gets into too great a fury, of stanching blood, freeing insect- infested houses of vermin, cleaning the vapour baths— standing outside the village—of devils, who chose them as their abode, haunting people; of tracking horse thieves; of invoking the souls of the dead; of foretell- ing the future; of discovering treasures hidden under- ground and similar black arts. In reality the wizard or the witch has a good knowledge of botany, and through the dark pages of the history of the Russian village runs a sinister trait of the crimes of poisoning. I will describe some of the wizard practices from my own experience. In the province of Petrograd, near the station of Weymarn, there is a village called Manuilov. There some ten years ago lived a man called Sokolov, withTHE SHADOWS OF THE VILLAGE 21 his numerous family. It was a typical peasant house- hold in a suburban village. The daughter, Helena, served for some time as a maid in the town of Yam- burg, but was caught stealing and was sent away. Then she drifted to Petrograd, and being without oc- cupation became a prostitute. Sokolov’s two sons were factory hands, but not relishing work, they fell into evil ways and ended by committing murder, whereupon one of them was sent to prison for four years, the other to Siberia. The latter, on his return from exile, be- came the leader of a band of robbers who for a long time terrorised the neighboring highways, sharing their spoils with the local police. The head of this worthy family enjoyed great fame as a wizard; his reputation was well established over a whole countryside em- bracing several districts. He was particularly popular on account of his medical practice. I used to come often to Manuilov, invited to shoot- ing parties by the owner of a local estate, Mr. Pav- lovich. I remember once a number of patients having been brought to Manuilov from the Gdov district, amongst whom were lepers, some sick of typhus and venereous diseases. Then began the cure. The leper was put into a cask, half full of hot water, and covered her- metically with many clouts. Into this the sorcerer threw herbs, muttering incantations in which the words “nostradamus” and “shugana”’ occurred most frequently. Then he proceeded to fumigate the cask Te meee o rg scl 4 bie bl Teveitiecssretis Cr tial pe alin ARS acresesDs ITEety ted eee - sehesesesiser sca Siti ti*itortrert] biel tty thi + Las2a Sa PRES EMA TICS P The ane ba saetetisrset ttre Trae ibepeaepeeacte Saath, 22 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST with the smoke of burnt grass and herbs, drawing upon it with pitch some complicated signs. After an hour the diseased, who had become uncon- scious, was taken out of the cask; he was red like a boiled lobster; his eyes had a vacant stare. The wounds upon his lips, nose, and arms seemed to be even more horrible than they had been before. While the patient was recovering from his swoon, Sokolov made him drink a large glass of water taken from the cask in which he had spent an hour, and then took his head into both his hands, looked for a long time into his eyes, and said with a grave and commanding voice: “Go! go away, shugana, chygana of disease! The Black One wants it! The Black One commands you! Go! Go away!’ I do not know if this cure benefited the leper, but 1 heard that the Government was obliged to establish a hospital owing to the rapid spread of leprosy in the districts of Yamburg and Gdov. The same Sokolov treated the typhus patients in an equally original manner. The sick, raving with fever, shivering with alternate heat and cold, was first laid down upon the snow for a few minutes, then wrapped into new raw linen and tied up with a strong cord. He was then fed forcibly with hot, soft, black bread mixed with the powder of dried and pulverised bugs, and on his belly one after another thirteen bricks, cov- ered with secret signs and warmed to a considerable temperature, were laid amidst mysterious incantations. eye oer ate oesTHE SHADOWS OF THE VILLAGE 23 It was said that this treatment usually effected a speedy cure; in the particular case I witnessed, how- ever, one of the sick died of peritonitis, and a member of the Petrograd Academy of Medicine, Dr. Abramy- chev, who happened to be one of the shooting party, brought Sokolov before the Court. But the protocol which was taken down on the spot was lost in the offices of the country police, who, as it transpired, frequently availed themselves of the “ad- vice” of the wizard. The venereous patients were put for three to five days into a heap of horse-dung freshly brought out from the stables. Into that heap he planted seven little sticks of various lengths with rags attached to each, bearing certain signs and unintelligible words, such as =piys,, tachny, ~habdyk.” Cattle are usually cured by being fumigated, with smoke of burning grass, mixed with ashes of burnt hair, dried frogs or bats; animal wounds are treated with the molten fat of the badger or rat. All this is enacted to the accompaniment of incomprehensible words or phrases, sometimes muttered or shouted aloud. In the province of Pskov, in the district of Ostrov, I witnessed the treatment of a strange disease which had broken out among horses and women. The tails and manes of horses as well as the tresses of women became sometimes so entangled that it was impossible to comb them out in any way. Medical science knows te Thi plat aber s Clad ae) ~ “ ee er oe PSESRSESRR ESE SER Sis CF Ste ae — een: eet tee wh set hfigst tte Pete ts beth Ta Speer rpensy te eae reser SIT IPT ie eee Beene matty is Lertweet ven: erat ae eyo PYENY SevOMEES PET USC TTT ST ee Breyer ety SESE ST TALE che hies GPT RESTON SD MS ESEbLoebe ese eI ENC goad bebrae erty Apescbeprbsepiniterepeyrte a eo eteh eh tee ei eet aes evenerese veer ers ifrirerierattesalaepinerea tt tenet Par heee ai iistat L797 ets S ebetijepep-beieieprgsp enti ests oe tee eke tereatse) canes 4 ‘eats Pea ee to a Be Foe t *] Eee rE = eH Fi e i om eepeterettrei Seer rise rens behead pa tet boa ye BPs 24 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST that this symptom follows the infection with a peculiar serous bacillus and that the disease occurs in marshy localities. ‘The wizard, however, diagnosed it differ- ently in his own way. He gave it out that the “house demon at nightfall plaits the women’s tresses and the horses’ manes, twisting and jumbling them because he was angry.” To placate the demon a sacrifice must be offered. A forsaken cottage is chosen and the stove is lit, behind which are put rags and old fur coats so as to make it a comfortable place for the demon, who likes to lie softly. Then, with the blood of a black cock, a circle is drawn upon the floor, and inside the circle is put milk, honey, barley gruel and salt—a feast for the demon. This done, before the clock strikes midnight, a young girl with her hair down and her hands tied up is intro- duced into the heated and sultry room. ‘The demon must devote his time to the victim’s hair in the mean- time and leave all the others alone. According to the belief of the villager, the demon is appeased; but fre- quently the poor girl becomes hysterical or goes mad with fright and horror. By way of compensation she is highly esteemed throughout the neighbourhood as one who “has seen the demon” and feasted with him and has been treated by her uncanny host with brandy, a bottle of which was placed beside her. The wizards practise even in large cities, in Petro- grad, Moscow, Odessa, Kiev, and Charkov. It is true een ba) [ieee bee ee aye> reteTHE SHADOWS OF THE VILLAGE 25 that their clients belong as a rule to the poor and humble classes, but sometimes quite unexpectedly they appear even in the palaces of the rich. I remember a case that happened in 1897, when I was coaching the children of a high official who lived in the beautiful palace of Prince Leuchtenberg, a rela- tive of the Imperial family. One day my pupil came to me saying that the kitchen and the dining-room had become infested with bugs to such an extent that a “wizard” was called in to drive them out. We went to see the performance. The wizard, a little, rugged old man, had just caught a bug; he examined it carefully, lifted it close to his lips and began to whisper something to the insect, repeating frequently the word “ygh.” He next drew a piece of chalk out of his pocket, wrote a sign upon its back, and let it go free. The bug immediately disappeared in a chink of the dresser, the man received his rouble and went home. Next day, as my pupil told me, the cook protested on oath to having seen with her own eyes how the marked bug went round from one hole to the other, collected all his fellows into a big party, and marched them out of the palace. “Did they take their luggage and forage with them?” I asked the boy. He laughed and said: “We shall ask the cook about it . . . yes, we must ask her—she’s seen it.” retro cite ati ts oh es a — ee BSP RIESSS EW Tree rT Sto celta ce cL PERSE Ng, - Ds ebeterere tert pen res ul Fi TERETE RT eee Mphseas enteric eee te ie aaa ; Fi ——26 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST Going through Siberia in 1920, I happened to stay a night in a village. I was fatigued with long riding and covered with dust from head to foot, and I ac- cepted eagerly my host’s proposal to have a vapour bath. “T say,” said the host to his wife, “don’t let our guest go to the bath by himself. Send the boy for Maxim, that he may accompany him.” “But I shall be able to manage without assistance,” I protested vigorously. “No, sir, it can’t be. Something evil may happen to you if you go without our wizard,’ gravely said mine host. “But why?” I asked in stupefaction. “Well, you see, sir, the devils have chosen our vapour bath as their dwelling-place and frighten people,” explained the peasant in his slow way. “The other day they threw an old woman off the bench—she fell into the boiler and was scalded to death.” I was not allowed to go all alone, but had to wait till Maxim came, a giant with a veritable mane of tousled erey hair and the white beard of a patriarch. When we approached the tiny bath-shed standing at the other end of the kitchen garden, Maxim halted and exclaimed: “Fiend, satan, black devil, small or large, angry or merry, its Ll, its Ti" We entered. The bath was hot, sultry, close with the exhalationTHE SHADOWS OF THE VILLAGE 27 of charcoal. We lighted the fire under the pot, where- upon out of the darkness I saw projecting the dim shapes of various objects. The immense mass of a Russian stove, two rough benches, tubs with hot and cold water, a heap of stones, black and glowing, which served for creating vapour by having water poured over them. The faint, flickering flame of the fire was playing restlessly upon the floor, the walls, the ceiling, lighting up sometimes the bubbling surface of the water in the tubs. After a long while Maxim stripped off his clothes, picked up a little broom made of dry grass, dipped it in hot water, and seated himself in the darkest corner of the room. He commenced a conversation with someone invisible, intermingling his speech with inter- jections: “A kysh! A kysh!” and beating lightly with his little broom as if striking at somebody. The corner was of course crowded with black and grey and sometimes transparent creatures. It was to them that the old wizard was talking ; he was whipping them gently ; he would not see or understand that they were nothing but the fleeting shadows of the flickering light which darted about, flashing and vanishing away. “Now they won’t come!” said the old man at last in a tone of thorough conviction. Of course they did not come and I had an excellent bath. The passion for horse-stealing is characteristic of mince Bey ert rsies een ST i Shss Ss i oie babel td be le S-PiR EHH Bitar rrscry ie sree ET Watries *itittesi-asatatataleitititetats Haein em eet Teka cat ky a : no 3 Cstry) aTycyLiRel par yelste Page a agte bese: Eplit er-pprininiserpe nent Tera Tareleizes adesesei tigi titt tices Chg 2orhe 20305 Sere eee tet el Se ea +)> db bigie * 7 5 Oo ge ee Th ee En ay a es aS 28 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST the Russian nation. It is undoubtedly an atavistic remnant inheritant from their forefathers, the Mongol nomads and Finnish pagans. Even the criminal law was of very doubtful application in the Russian Courts in cases of horse-stealing. This is an interesting racial peculiarity. All nomads, even the God-fearing, honest Mongols of Khalcki are accomplished horse-lifters. Galloping off with your neighbours’ cattle is in their eyes a chivalrous adventure, a proof of courage and skill, for on such an expedition the galloper is thrown on his own resources, whilst he is laying himself open to serious penalties. The Mongolian prairie law, transplanted into the plains of the Volga like that of Red Indians, lays down clearly enough that horse-theft is a great felony, but the law is honored in the breach rather than in the observance, and allows the wronged to get his horse back any way he can and to punish the thief at will. The culprit, if caught, is cruelly lynched, and the State Court winks benevolently at the execition of the unwritten law. The Russian peasant, if he was unable to track the thief, would consult a wizard, who had made this his special department. The latter, having listened to the tale of theft, advised the owner to come again during night-time and to bring the bridle of the horse, some dung from the stables, and a bushel of oats. I witnessed such a performance in the district of Walday, in the province of Novgorod.THE SHADOWS OF THE VILLAGE 29 We called at about ten in the evening with the in- jured peasant on the sorcerer. We knocked at the door. He told the peasant to throw a handful of oats ‘n each of the four corners of the cottage and to strike with the bridle at the single window in the easterly wall. This done, the window was lighted and we were allowed to enter. The small, low room was hot and close. By the stove there was burning a piece of resinous wood which had been thrust into a cleft in the cracked stones and emitted a cloud of smoke. In the purple shine of the fire I beheld bridles hanging down from the ceil- ing, horsetails and skins, tufts of grass and herbs and little bags blackened with smoke. In front of the stove sat a little grey-haired man with conspiciously squinting eyes, open-mouthed, show- ing two rows of black teeth, and wearing a look of inquisitive fear. . He took the bridle, examined it carefully, smelled it, tried its hardness with his teeth, and then all of a sudden he burst into a terrific yell: “The horse was led away... driven far away ... very far... it’s a good horse... all foaming... neighing ... breaking away for home... . Tum ...here’s good oats for you...ta...ta...ta . little horse .. . come. . . come here!” During the invocation he cast upon the coals hand- fuls of oats, gazing intently into the leaping tongues of fire. —— 7s os Le, . pears eset Pees araneanl a a Wet th phities bit slbeae® Pot ees paeresty Pabst sees ere ac Gla oeConk Ine Shed at sf Sameanateser esis Pe STAIRS dors iheoceriy et Ser: aE EMee Teoh eLeks tear ee ere te BOGE etna rintineetes Ssartisties List sts 4 ree beetMasatetrerel ci iccect dase PES Sr itaioes esi bron EES 30 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST He jumped up, tore from the ceiling a bundle of grass and threw it on the coals. . . . The dry stalks and leaves twisted, stretched like snakes and burst into flame. Next the old man threw into the stove horse- dung, and as the smoke rose up, he bent over the coals and said in a whisper: dhe “horse... . the horse: . .. A broad ‘road we. a Hishway .. . three cottages . . . a ‘burnt fir- tree . . . a meadow with a blackened haystack... . A tall lean man leads a horse . . . a shaven head, a scar upon his forehead, and he limps.”’ “IT know him! I know him!” shouted the peasant. “It’s Kuzma! The gipsy from Neshetilov. He won’t escape me this time!” With these words he rushed out of the room. I went home, and a few days afterwards I learned that the peasant, with the assistance of his two sons and his son-in-law, surprised the gipsy, bound him to his own horse and dragged him back into the village. Here the crowd set on him, beat him, bruised his legs and arms, tore his hair, ordering him to say at once where the horse was hidden. The poor fellow swore by all the saints that he had not seen the horse, that he knew nothing about it, but the crowd would not believe him. Like mad, they beat him again, trampled upon him, until one of the frenzied lynchers finally finished him with a pitchfork. The body was buried in a waste field, and a pale planted on the grave by way of memorial. Pim sen de Pe mesele lose tira trite soee eeTHE SHADOWS OF THE VILLAGE 31 This is the emblem of the ancient law of the Golden Horde, which ordains that the captured horse-thief should be impaled. Such an execution, however, re- quiring too many preparations, it is easier for the crowd to beat the culprit to death, and afterwards to impale the dead body within its grave. The demon-worship or shamanism is quite compre- hensible in the vast desert of the North, where Nature unlooses a veritable inferno of multifarious and terri- fying voices; where the hurricanes, blowing from the Arctic Ocean, claim death; where the quagmires breathe plague, emit pestilence; where savage men and beasts run wild, carrying death in their despondent, hunger-glowing eyes; where the earth and the air are overcloyed with the blood, the groans, and the curses of those whom the Tsars and their intelligent bureau- cracy cast into the bottomless pit of solitary torture and death, solely because they strove for freedom, giv- ing them the freedom of the boundless desert of snow in which, like stones in the depths of an unfathomable sea, were lost without trail hundreds and thousands of tombs of martyrs! In those God-forsaken regions shamanism appears a natural phenomenon amongst the savage tribes of nomads. Still, even in Russia proper, even near the capital, its existence is revealed. I knew two instances. I was a student at that time spending my holidays aye Ol Sass eee ore bTyibs eo ta tet atatastars bla el tidete a tertieias ce teld lace sta fade ded: ARTE HSDES riaese sh rere ste rea alaeg2 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST with a doctor, a friend of mine, in the Kola peninsula. We were travelling in the province of Olonetz, and before reaching the town of Petrozavodsk we had to stay the night in a large village a few miles from the town. We went to the local inn, the usual den, not too clean, damp, and pervaded with the fumes of al- cohol. After the evening meal, we retired into our room to load cartridges for our sporting guns, as we had ex- pended our ammunition on the way. We were just beginning operations when there was a cautious knock on the door. A pale, emaciated little fellow came in; he was dressed in a long black coat, like a monastic servant. But the face of the man glowed with its huge, burning, and piercing eyes. I remember well the fear that crept upon me involun- tarily under their gaze. “What do you want?” asked the doctor, throwing a measure of powder into the husk without raising his eyes. “T came to invoke the spirits for you,” replied the visitor gravely. The measure fell from my friend’s fingers as he lifted his amazed look upon the newcomer. “Spirits?” he asked, shrugging his shoulders. “Yes, spirits,” said our guest gently. “Who are you?” asked the doctor again. “T am a ‘koldun,’ a shaman!” was the indifferent reply. “I brought this science from the Tundra ofTHE SHADOWS OF THE VILLAGE 33 Malaya Zyemla, where the nomading tribes possess the secret of intercourse with the dead and the spirits.” “How very interesting!’ interjected the doctor. “But you cannot invoke the souls of the dead or the spirits here.”’ “Yes, I can. I can do it here right away,” smiled the shaman. “It will cost you three roubles, gentle- men!”’ His voice was imploring and betrayed the fear that we might refuse his offer. “T shall pay three roubles,’ agreed the doctor. “Please begin at once!” “Immediately!” said the shaman with joy, while greedily pocketing the money. “Please sit down at the other end of the room and put the light out.” I had time enough to notice that he took from his pocket a tiny, flat piece of wood which he put to his lips. We were sitting in darkness and silence. From the neighboring cottage entered through the window the scanty light of a petrol lamp. Still we were able to see the shaman’s black figure standing immovably near the door. All of a sudden a faint, scarcely audible sound was heard like the buzzing of a fly entangled in a spider’s net. The sound became gradually louder till it seemed to fill the whole space of the room. It split into tens, hundreds of tunes, which reverberated against the panes of the window, the papered ceiling, the walls; the SADE PUT UITPNESEST DRESSES a a brerpeal tricot aera sorte ent ties tea encsea) 5 te! it PSE SESE SESS seer eter arora + ie Taretfiititetatatedtiieieedttesis ISDS TS coedry Sat heted Leone amet red bree coe seberered SPar' sie ee esto yaI a S45 Seer bret Teper: ai ee SOE Ree L CIES Rohrer Ses Ol by be oe oP Oe Se Se TE Gos? saedt ni $1 01 313138 5h erent RUPSUSE I oS pet Teeth eter date tok Bad {risepirasap ea spur lietsh se] seine eset is esael ts sktal a4) CAE SHADOW OF THE GEOOMY EASt sounds, trembling, squeaking, roaring, raced in a mad whirl through the whole room, approached my very ears and vanished again in the distance, far away until they seemed almost smothered. I was seized with a strange restlessness; incomprehensible, morbid fore- bodings began to torment my soul. The black figure of the shaman, hardly visible in the gloom, reeled, slowly at first, methodically, then with quicker passion, till his movements changed imper- ceptibly into swift jumps, twists, leaps. Standing on one leg, he started to turn round with ever increasing speed, till after a few minutes he fell to the ground exhausted and breathless, shouting with piercing ac- cents: y hey have come! = =. Whey have come! Immense multitudes of echoing sounds seemed to chase each other through the dark room, changing into a whirlwind, storm, and chaos, which one could feel with almost a physical pain. Blasts of wind waves rushed through the room. It made my flesh creep to see it lifting the papers lying upon the table. I do not know how long it all lasted. I only know that my hands became icy cold and that my brow was covered with sweat. My eyes seemed to become extraordi- narily sharp. I could see quite clearly the prostrate figure of the shaman. I could distinguish his pale, almost shining face and his wide-opened, glowing eyes. He had the same little piece of wood in his hand and with his lips called forth the various sounds. Suddenly, in the darkness, at many spots, for the Sevhtatecatitwaeuad eee oie Seer ace a pees ties sera reer e eis. het rhe er are nies BPae St Si of Bi)THE SHADOWS OF THE VILLAGE 35 twinkling of an eye, there blazed out greenish, phos- phoric flames. Then again they came and vanished. The sounds abruptly died away. A sudden blast made tongues of flame flicker up near the ceiling, and then all was dark and silent as if a heavy black curtain was drawn. The shaman remained lifeless and did not answer the doctor’s repeated questions if he might light the lamp. He did so at last and approached the prostrate figure. The shaman was lying with closed eyes and com- pressed lips, a thin streak of blood issuing from his nostrils and deep furrows round his mouth. We lifted him up and put him on a chair. He opened his eyes heavily and whispered: “Brandy!” The doctor poured out a cup from his hunters’ flagon. The shaman gulped it down, his teeth chatter- ing upon the glass, stretched his limbs, and rose from the chair. “It didn’t come off to-day. ... They came, but kept at a distance . . . and refused to approach.” After a while he left. My friend the doctor patted my shoulder and said: “Tt is better to shoot wild ducks and grouse than to invoke spirits. Set your mind at rest, my boy! This is no wizardry. Monotonous sounds and movements are all excellent devices of hypnotism. But we must hurry up with the cartridges. Open the bag with hail- shot No. 3.” This was my first encounter with a shaman-koldun. ty $e oy wo he Cs ~ ' A Stitt itis meee PSS nea pay STEED DG SS STR a ah SESE ME TET ESE SCS aT oP SHS Ser i scree eT Ee PaO ICUE RRSESE HDT UTE LSS sageiaiiecaleleead aeTp Mi feteirineclaiactciainapeeamecttsrtd f thie Stohr ee bod + eete atatele et Lethteieré sissies estilie tive bore aPar ti 43 rea Fes Hetty: ts Sree ade eee Oot ee Pores Ser protien tit: Sie Se etserd Pato tesa ese te tore Pet br LP ae ae coe be eh a oe be Rewer ee a rer bt bi ee Bie 36 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST The second took place years afterwards on the shores of the Pacific. It was at the outset of my scientific career, when I was studying the origin of the coal deposits of the Far East. The scene was on the River Tudagou in the Ussuri country. We pitched our tents in an oak and hazel forest, and in the innocence of our hearts we were making preparations for a prolonged stay, when unexpectedly arrived two mounted Orochons.t They announced that we could not remain where we were as it was an Orochon cemetery. When they saw my amazement, the natives led me to a small glade and pointed to the tree-tops. I noticed longish, black objects hanging down from the highest branches. These were the bodies of the dead. The Orochons wrap them round with buck-skins, which are covered oak-tree bark, tied up strongly with leather straps and hanged up on the branches high above the earth. Seeing me unwilling to leave my camp, the Orochons claimed a gift of brandy, in return for which they offered to bring a shaman, whose invocation would procure for us from the souls of the dead the per- mission to remain within the border of their realm. The necromancer came towards evening. He was a young peasant, his face blackened and disfigured by smallpox. His coat was made of multi-coloured rags 1The Orochons are nomads, hunters of a Mongolian tribe which is almost extinct to-day.THE SHADOWS OF THE VILLAGE 37 with straps of red and yellow painted leather hanging down to the ground. He carried a gigantic drum and a long pole with little bells, from which a fife made of buckhorn was suspended. He set to his task at once. First he began to beat the drum for all he was worth, then he blew the fife and made the little bells peal. Soon nothing was heard but the fife as he jumped and turned kicking his heels. The thin tunes of the fife were ever broken with the shrill yells and groans of the shaman. He whirled round madly, his face was swollen, his lips wide open, his eyes flushed with blood, and foam appeared on his lips. He fell to the ground at last and quivered long as if in agony. Although he uttered no more sounds, the drum still roared in the air, the little bells still pealed, the fife shrieked and piercing groans were heard, repeated by the echo of the forest in the deep silence of the warm, dreamy and overwhelming July night. When the shaman rose from the ground, we asked him if we might remain. He said yes, and taking a little salt and meat cast it to the four quarters of the world, offering sacrifice to the souls hospitable to us of the deceased Orochons. The art of fortune-telling plays an important part in the life of Russian peasants. I can truly say that I have not in the home of divination, Thibet and Mongolia, met such a widespread and general practice. afiiehlatelaitepeeey sua yereey oO ISRO Ua COM MPTOuURRSonoeee ity Sarria ch esha aT REA aac dg ebtababs be taped ob euBaA oa entean ot drena ond deote eet om ease Be ICOoU ee Trl tata htt che tatatet et pot re epee ae #.8) 0 tht ote yt hestesane ory pheseste ener ne eee msesteitte te heals hetigleinansiene niece tition cirri33h ehretanee tier eee tee) Were oer y oT ose sey OG a iiiiirsie ea itenetiet sts + SST RSL ALR ALLL TG rh ie ° rt eee Loe: 4 Perxcdteigreet! tee 38 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST In Russia fortune-telling is a “black” science, supposed to be the work of the evil spirits, while in Mongolia it has the character of a religious cult. Amongst the former it hides in solitary cottages, coming forth only in dark and stormy nights when all kinds of “evil forces” haunt the earth, and peep into the hovels of inhabitants whose souls are wrapped in even deeper gloom. No other people attach so much importance to sor- cery as the Russians. It is not only the uncouth, illiterate villager, but also the working classes, whom their leaders have taught false culture; the bourgeoisie and even the upper classes of Russian society have had recourse to fortune-tellers, often in the most seri- ous emergencies of their lives. The gipsy science of fortune-telling from cards, from seven or thirteen little stones, from horse beans or bones, was very much in vogue and had many highly skilled practitioners. In a village every old woman, every old man knew this science, nay, and practised with more or less success. The same held good for the towns, and it may be said without exaggeration that in cities like Moscow or Petersburg there was not a street without a fortune-teller of either sex, who had a numerous clientéle and a steady and considerable income. There were besides specialists who had a reputation of immense skill, in whose houses, furnished with rich oriental carpets and adorned as might be ex- pected from the dens of wizards and alchemists with bth ta eee eesee nine Ria ea Perea Deis pete ee eS eT SsTHE SHADOWS OF THE VILLAGE 39 stuffed owls and lizards, dried bats, frogs, and vipers, were met some common woman, a fat bourgeois butcher, a demi-mondaine, a Minister or a Grand Duchess. It was a mania, a disease, which had its roots deep in the nature of the people. Arabian wisdom read in coffee-grounds had also many disciples. Before the fall of the dynasty, this science was assiduously cultivated in the palace of Count Kleinmichel by a devoted crowd of those whose prosperity and magnificence depended on the grace of the throne, and who endeavoured to divine the fortunes of the “adored” Romanovs on the surface of black sediments. Once | witnessed this kind of soothsaying in the house of a high official, whose wife, a titled lady, was a devout believer in the secret arts and invited a sorceress of reputation, Irma Galesco. In the darkened boudoir, scantily lit by a shaded lamp, the Roumanian gazed for a long time on the coffee-grounds which were served in three cups. She examined it from above, then against the light, rippling the surface with a puff of her breath or touching it with a swift and professional move of a long black feather. The main items of the proceedings were the constant murmurings of an incomprehensible incanta- tion. After a prolonged inspection of the contents of the cups, the sorceress poured it all into a shallow white vase, added a pinch of herbs, and continued erate geet sted eel ey ese ey SPOS STIRS SITES rT bad wiht eH =oett sipeeseteey trithtae ti etesmtrendatadécselabhbenterkoe A stl tesomepsteitipitepepi rene te bet test ecunbnet enatlttete ies iah bate Arevat es OUT LSaTAch Stet ro toig ote regesiea* Srp ratase le lticesstititiee btele lets tact bial cacboed estat eee tecitetas 40 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST stirring it with her breath and a touch of the feather. At last she began to speak as if beholding some- thing on the dark surface or reading some secret writ- ing inscribed upon it. I looked attentively into the vase, but I could not see anything, and I was certain that in all these proceedings the cunning charlatan was adapting herself to the character of the house and flattering the wishes of her lady customer. The commonest forms of soothsaying among Rus- sian people are those which have descended from the age of heathenism. ‘These are the auguries from blood and from water. I have seen all such forms of fortune-telling in the province of Pskov, the most backward of all the provinces of Russia. There they thrive among the marshy wastes, 1n the thick forests, or the sandy shores of the River Wyelika and the banks of the Pskov Sea, the embodiment of heathen super- stitions. I shall return frequently to that province, distant only a few hours’ journey from the capital, as being the most typical of the whole Russian people. It happened in the village of Zaluzhye, surrounded by a whole net of boggy lakes and rivulets. In the neighbourhood of this village cholera raged, taking a heavy toll of the inhabitants. It was necessary to find out who had carried the pest into that God-forsaken veldt. Only a wizard could do that. An old man, who looked a centenarian, was put into a room in a solitary cottage which stood close to the woods onTHE SHADOWS OF THE VILLAGE 41 the banks of a small reed-covered lake. After sunset, a black ram and an old millstone were taken into the cottage, Before dawn, when the first cocks began to crow, the soothsayer led the ram forth, its horns and neck crowned with grass and herbs. He cut the throat of the ram, poured his blood over the millstone, and lit a fire, alternately murmuring and shouting. When the fire burned brightly and the coal set down, he pulled it out with his fingers and threw it upon the stove. The curdling blood quickly formed black clots, steam and smoke rose from the stone, and the sooth- sayer, dishevelling his hair and flowing beard and opening wide his eyes, which seemed dead with age, began to shout with a piercing yet broken voice: “T behold in the blood-red smoke and the scarlet vapours . . . open graves and terrible pale death. . Men proceed in front of her. . . . I don’t know them, they are not from our country. . . . They go forward and cast into the water of the rivers and wells, into the stables and barns, seeds of disease which ruins and kills . . . by blood only can death be defeated... . I can see it... . 1 behold it in the scarlet, blood- soaked vapours and smoke.” The peasants stood in gloomy silence and profound thought. The soothsayer himself was silent; there was the hissing sound of flames in the hearth, the light crackling of the burnt curdling clots of blood, the quicker breathing of the throng, and the rustle of the 5 Be RT es Bs hele ld al Steede fetes Dt oe Ol SO eres tite i eteestsetie rite tates tests t telat t oat ite lasing. tlds pen etae TA SNS EERIEOR HS RSISE SRS St acl cllaca PLETE tiated Spek eapoa nt apyeparse fe Denese ont STRATE REIN Ree SFO ete hares ye PUMA eT ae ect ct eal aac AL ee adsesh ueebeae eeeret es Stitt ee beaten Seotoi es sia Enea ciesre a che SERIES ESI TI Paes SE epee eens ress phate bent eS EINy Prieta [thededepejtitlinsiaetierees: BPI ihsd doers pepe paid ppp FEDS EOESeAG vost nd eae ERE SCHR SASHES DEN EEL 42 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST rushes in the lake. From afar came the chuckling of wild ducks settling down to sleep, the lowing of a stray cow, and the barking of a dog. The summer night was filled with mystery, which buries crime and every outburst of primitive passion, and it seemed to listen to the unspoken thoughts of this benighted crowd which stood flooded with the crimson glare of the open fire. My mind was involuntarily carried away, back into olden times, when perhaps on the self-same spot was raised the wooden image of the god Perkunas, while the priests, clad in white linen garments, their heads wreathed, shed the blood of consecrated beasts. The fire burning upon the altar then illuminated by its glare, just like now, the terrified crowd which, just like now, resembled a gathering of crimson-bathed phantoms. Thus proceeded the soothsaying, and a few days afterwards the peasant mob seized the doctor and his assistants who were sent to fight the epidemics, clubbed them to death, and threw their bodies into the boggy river. Police inquiries were instituted, after which new crowds of sullen peasants, whose only crime was spiritual darkness, went to prison or Siberia. Still another time, near Petersburg, in the town of Gdov, I witnessed fortune-telling by water. The diviner poured water into a glass basin and asked the client for her wedding ring. She wanted to find out what had happened to her husband, whoTHE SHADOWS OF THE VILLAGE 43 had left home for a long journey and had failed to send any news of himself. The woman handed over her ring, which the sooth- sayer dropped into the basin, uttering a conjuration and bending over the vessel. Muttering some words, the witch blew on the water, the surface of which quivered and was ruffled. For a long while we could not see anything, till at last I had the impression as if the inside of the ring were a tiny window in a little wall, behind which was a big room. I noticed all the details of the furnishing and the general plan of the room, when all of a sudden an elderly man with a quiet and smiling face entered. I saw clearly every feature of his face and his dress. Suddenly he turned pale, seized his breast, and fell to the ground. A dusk began to settle on his prostrate figure. The ring seemed now like an opening made in the bottom of the basin. The fortune-teller and her client looked pale and agitated. The witch shook her head with a wail of despair and whispered: “Bad omen, very bad omen! ... He will die... no! ... Heisdead.... There’snodoubt!.. .” By a strange coincidence the augury proved true. Next day my friend received a telegram saying that her husband had died suddenly of heart failure, after he had successfully settled his affairs and intended to leave for home the same day. states phir rites ee rae SETS SS sory SII AKA rete aldol REESE INH iA aeeetrnets EH HOI ibiulitnaaat S834 ay eliasSETRIREE Para dave er bad STatST eT af ats tise tier sot iz eit iteee Sere sesestre ras eaties e265; Bes 2 23 45 a 3 eae! = 4 ree aan Pee Sy BH = SH oh ¥} 7 CHAPTER IV Tue TREASURE HUNTERS Cee neighbourhood in Russia has its own legend of treasures hidden under the ground. And there is nothing strange about this. Many a time in the history of the country whirlwinds of war swept the land and the people hid their treasures in the bosom of mother earth. It is comprehensible therefore that a great many of these riches have remained under- ground. There were, besides, other reasons, of which the legends have a great deal to say. Many external signs indicate the spots where the treasures are hidden: the crossing of three roads, old trees planted by the way, heaps of moss-covered stones thrown up by human hands, the ruins of ancient fortt- fied castles, palaces, and tombs, steep, broken rocks on the banks of rivers and lakes, solitary islets on the seas, or tufts of trees full of lapwings’ or cranes’ nests. Any peasant who knows these sure spots could dig them out of the bottom of the earth, but the whole difficulty and danger of such an enterprise lies in the fact that each treasure is guarded by a monster, a penitent soul, or some evil “dark force.” One must 44 Perboie sa ete Re tabr re aria be sere bernieTHE TREASURE HUNTERS 45 have the means to drive this force away before getting possession of the treasure and bringing it home. And there is danger in every one of these stages. A wizard is able to spot the treasure, to indicate the means of digging it out, and to suggest measures of protection against the “dark force.” The wonderman receives first of all his fee for general advice, and some time afterwards he invites his client and reveals to him the exact spot where the biggest treasure lies, and the evil force he is about to encounter in his enterprise. Upon receiving a further instalment of his fee, he begins to prepare the bold adventurer for his encounter and combat with the devil. The treasure-hunter must not be afraid, and the soothsayer therefore washes his eyes and ears with the liquid brewed from various magic herbs; he must be proof against the poisonous bites of numerous in- sects and vipers, which, obedient to the command of the devil, gather to attack the hunter. The magician therefore prepares two ointments: one made of bear’s grease mixed with the bark of sweet willow-tree, on which some time or other some man has hanged him- self. Anointed with such an ointment, human skin does not shiver with either cold or fear. The other ointment is prepared from the grease of a badger mixed with the powder of dried frogs and spiders, and gives protection against the venomous bite of the viper. The most important function of the expedition is the driving away of the “evil force” which guards the CESARE SERESEMESE SSM SERESEUERS SST STDS Cos a pret ihl Ttatarscettstivetaterbipies tesasatatatiitire bitceldtitereley Serene Derm eesni NTS ee rot iecar EERE Raa cee heer Terral iead ac bead bal AG Geatae ST RLAT AL TTT LOL Std eed Lae Hisiintiteedttatrerlastes.citrot cite siete tecs i is Pe ee ci Y ee Dee ED ae. = Sy *. .| ron et D e: Ea ‘S53 ve EESHEPe eerie CEST ti tats MENGES eeee ETE NS 46 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST treasure, and the assuring of a safe retreat after the conquest of the treasure. The first task is solved by the magician giving the client a bunch of magic flowers, which the latter has to burn at the decisive moment and to smoke the devilaway. The second task is more difficult, because the daring adventurer, who is gen- erally illiterate, has to learn by heart a long and com- plicated formula of incantation. The peasant has to repeat the magic formula all over again and again every seven steps, and before shutting the door of his house he has to pronounce its last words. The cautious soothsayer commands the treasure- hunter to recite a formula of considerable length be- fore leaving him, and if the enterprise fails, the sooth- sayer simply states that obviously the first or the last formula was not delivered according to his instruc- tions and express advice.CHAPTER V THE POISONERS HE drama of life has its own laws everywhere. In the palaces of princes and bankers and in the thatched cottages of the peasants. Hatred, treason, revenge, betrayed love, criminal instincts are not con- fined to the towns; they are to be found in the little villages, lost in the wilderness, the mountains or marshes. There still remain visible traces of dark paganism or Mongolian psychology, of a nomad, of the destroyer and annihilator who exterminates for the sake of extermination and destruction. More often than not the drama ends with a stab of the knife or a hit with an axe or club. But this method of settling accounts causes police intervention, court inquiry and sentence, and the man breathing with vengeance employs other means: he invokes the as- sistance of the ‘“‘viedunya,” an old woman who boasts expert knowledge of all kinds of poisons. These Russian village Locustas are excellent botan- ists, and the science—gradually falling into desuetude —of the various peculiarities of different grass leaves, herbs, flowers, and roots, is being carefully preserved among the “‘witches.” These women roam the fields, 47 ee Crepes trie heat ey SS cots oa pes ete amare EU eGR REET eat ater irinet Fp Lestenrezers torprorse rar erat at IO ITE ERS TOT TF Hag LST Lae eT Hess Hie eee Paaabeiema etait rmrerrstss isnot Sk id aiae “IE 30h Petits baer ere ror i Phe Seah 7 Se lhidijereet ates Ess iaseeeseent tearsiak benesnne ST Ose peatabanteange orate iiiv st res ttstt seat stsserstane rye re:48 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST deserts, and forests the whole year round—except per- haps during the most severe winter months—gather- ing the healing or death-dealing plants and those re- quired for various practices of witchcraft. Such vegetable poisons as strychnine, conine, nico- tine, atropine, or morphia, the poison of putrid meat (cadaverine, putrescine), the poison of special viper glands, spiders, frogs, the poisonous germs of tetanus and other bacteria, parasites of the sylvan plants or bogs—all these are known to the “viedunyas,” the heirs of pagan lore. The science of poisoning is kept a most profound secret, and handed over as a tradition from one witch to the other, usually her nursling and pupil. It often happens—sometimes it seems almost a necessity—that the witches are deaf and dumb, either from their birth or rendered so by the “viedunya,” who either kidnaps a child somewhere, or obtains it from some poor illiterate peasant family for the horrible profession. The poisoners employ besides for their practices human hair, powdered glass, or bovine or piscatory gall. The poison is administered in food or drinks, or else a knife is poisoned, with which the victim is acci- dentally cut; or the victim is drugged in his sleep, the pillows having been sprinkled with venomous liquid, or the deadly plant is introduced into the pillows and acts through its vapours. When, during the first Russian Revolution, I wasTHE POISONERS 49 sentenced to imprisonment for two years, which I spent in Siberia, I saw a woman poisoner who had been condemned to fifteen years’ hard labour for a series of crimes. She was an elderly, lean, black- haired, sinister-faced hag, with her eyes always cast down. Her movements were slow and lazy; there was something of a wild animal in the cautiousness of her gait and the manner in which she turned her head. It was only rarely that she lifted her eyes, but when she did so, I was struck with the heavy, immovable glare of those black pupils which pierced into the very soul. The woman’s name was Irene Gulkina. How many agonies of human beings, tossed in pain and fear, slain by her terrible and sinister science, had been looked upon by those apparently calm eyes? What thoughts rested in that head, so gravely and deliberately moving upon the long thin neck? She was a grand criminal. The courts discovered twenty victims killed by this “viedunya”’ in various districts, for the poisoners naturally cannot remain in one place, but after each crime move away somewhere else, appeasing the suspicious with money and gifts. All of a sudden the news spread throughout the prison that a new crime committed by this woman had been detected. One of the courts in Southern Russia proved that the heirs of a certain rich proprietor en- tered upon their heritage with the benevolent assistance of Gulkina, the proprietor and several direct heirs having been put out of the way. Further develop- ctraiis seed elite nie RBE TH etal iat aoa eee reeeae ad oR meer a irscarstitifeats: tetistittehitatattes Wtrustseirtinre temas eaey Se it? SETES ITAA SUPA SE TENE TESEIC HEIRS EGR DG EFSPLEE) GOK TST LERTRETLILSLITORSLS SESE SR SHE ILDL ALAS GL TEESE ST acest dtl brath este tele teiest iti peated altiaiectard Sidi bieielatetardretales es $e isrseag el Phi tene gt. Piha sesh ee SE aeons ei ek eh rhe Pr TOMIT IR Re se Pee cok ee esas sete bree coed os a itrti ttc soe e ae Cte Er a CILd PoawantatbGrakaree Sick be ol Seamed meaaedee Sisieseitsitdedth islets tpt tieese ieee shebeeaatapicay trip iren tet recsresisigieccsibbnigeeringmpe titi terre tinetinit Sea Peaaysea tr hanes sts bots Gas HisULT ULB OG AADee Heit tot 50 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST ments followed quickly, till one day an order reached the prison authorities demanding that the woman be sent back from Siberia to the South of Russia. Her manner seemed to become even more profound, grave, and slow. She ceased lifting her eyes altogether and to address anybody. The other inmates of the prison cell understood that Gulkina knew that she would be condemned to death. Meanwhile she spent all the day in the prison yard, walking with her head downcast and gazing obsti- nately upon the ground. “She is being tormented by a mortal terror,” the prisoners explained to me. “It’s always the case with those who know they are going to be hanged.” At last the day appointed for her removal to Russia approached. The night before the “viedunya’’ fell ill; bathed with sweat and writhing with pain, she quickly lost strength and fainted. She was brought round and fell asleep. Atan early hour of the morning the guard noticed that she was lying in an unnatural position. The prisoner was dead. The great criminal had inflicted upon herself the just penalty of her crimes with the aid of some poison grass she discovered while walking in the prison yard and scouring the ground. A few leaves of this were found in the little knot twisted together in her hand- kerchief.CHAPTER VI HEATHENISM MONG European peoples all actual traces of pagan worship vanished long ago, and it is found only in museums through archeological search. Indeed, would it be possible to imagine and to be- lieve that some hundred miles distant from Berlin people are sacrificing holocausts to the god Thor, or that in France people offer nocturnal prayers to the souls of the brave fallen on the Marne or at Verdun? Of course not! But if this applies to the whole of Europe, Russia forms an exception. That land of “impossible possibilities” even now conceals among the lower orders a living pagan worship which has out- lasted ages, thriving peacefully side by side with the Orthodox Church and twentieth-century civilisation. I do not speak at all of such tribes, included in the population of Russia, as the Finn or Mongolian Wol- yaks, Chuvashes, Mordvins, or the Kalmuks and: Ost- yaks, who, under the influence of certain ethnographi- cal and historical-cultural reasons, have remained in a state very much akin to prehistoric paganism. I am speaking of the Russian people who were long ago in possession of the “window upon Europe’’—Petersburg 51 mitetilet Sp st ere ars re : SPEBSESD MS CMTE StS SESE Sora vesEO SSNS SCI OSS MEDS ee eaterssitititetitetttaeataeibiesield tot phir atcactetetla eecasitnnenaedett Persie OT port User ese me nd Ee too ban arar Ot LE#5 Re Ba + Ty ae = bh arg PB id $s SS ee ae eS = te bie =o <> ee = £5 +t Ae oy i 2 Coe ae ie 2 det ais ee 52 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST —of Christianity, great scientists and scholars, inspired poets, anda. . . police defending till quite lately the rights of the throne, civilisation, and church. I could give many instances of heathen psychology and pagan customs familiar to the Russian people, but I think it will be most instructive if I describe what I saw personally in the Pskov, and several years later in the Black Sea province. Pskov was visited by extremely heavy rainfalls. Immense areas of fields and pastures were turned into vast lakes, which joined the numerous marshes and pools. Rivers flooded the roads, and the villages were cut off from the outer world. The crops were totally destroyed. The peasants were threatened with famine. The Masses celebrated in the villages brought no help. The rain continued for days and days. The elder men in the village began to throw out hints that the “ancient gods were wroth with the people, which had forsaken them,” and that the time had come when they should be implored to relent. Then the cottages hummed with mysterious murmurs. It was evident that the peasants were making ready. It was at the end of July or the beginning of August. One evening crowds of the older peasants with their womenfolk were seen moving along the bank of the marshy river in the direction of the forest which cov- ered the surrounding hills. I joined them, having taken advantage of the invitation extended to me by my host, the old Justice of the village of Plochova.HEATHENISM 53 The downpour continued. It seemed as if the clouds, which were crawling slow and heavy over the ground, were streaming down veritable rivulets of tepid water. At last we reached our goal, soaked to our very bones. An aged peasant, clad in white linen trousers and shirt, was already waiting at the appointed place. The spot itself was very uncommon indeed. In the centre of a little glade surrounded by tall pine-trees stood the giant trunk of a mighty but long since decayed tree. Near by lay a blackened and moss-covered rock. My host explained to me that this was the trunk “of the god Perkunas’ tree,” and the rock served as an altar upon which of old sacrifices were offered to that ter- rible god of the Slavs. The night was as black as despair. I heard nothing but the splash of the falling rain, the shuffling of legs over the softened, slippery ground, and the low whisper of a score of human beings assembled around the altar of Perkunas. “Light the fires!’ commanded the old man, and in several spots at once flashed through thick smoke the kindled bark of the birch. After a few moments two large fires were blazing, defying the rain. Then the greybeard unmade the bundle lying beside the rock, took out of it a black cock, placed it on the rock, and cutting its throat, smeared the stone with its blood, crying out: “O ancient gods! Perun,; Volos, god Daidj! Help gE RR HREBHEHEIN aire ster iter res beetmn nn Pa REISS LYCSERES ENTE ESOT ITT THT EE ee eta ee BavemiemseceireeMstehtrt CL eet aaary DH SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST your people, still the downpour, ordain the waters to retire into their bed. We offer you our prayers, we invoke your help!” The men and women thronged closer to the old man, just in the same way as they did the day before, when they bowed their heads before the priest with the cross. The dotard dipped his fingers in the blood and sprinkled it over the heads of those twentieth-century heathens. This happened in Pskov. The same ceremony was repeated later on in my presence in the Black Sea province. On the Volga and Kama one can observe to this very day in the cottages of the peasants, mostly Mord- vins and Chuvashes, little figures made of wood and clay, representing the old pagan gods standing by the side of holy ikons and crosses in the so-called “red corner,” that opposite the entrance door. True, the peasants who often turn to the “old gods” for help, offering them sacrifices, will sometimes, if the gods disappoint their expectations, pitilessly besmirch their faces with all manner of filth, or flog the little figures with whips. Times have changed the psychology of worship. Thus paganism and its spirit has outlasted the long era during which mankind advanced on the road of civilisation and perfection. This fact can be particu- larly observed in the medieval belief in witches or hags betrothed. to the devil. < ‘CHAPTER VII WITCHCRAFT means a PERSTESEIST RSERESISE SESS SE IE MYT ESTES er a ITCHES form a distinct caste, very small in number, which is kept and guarded with great secrecy. A witch is trained from infancy to her pro- fession. The young novice, who must not be baptised, is adopted by some adept in the black art and brought up in her lair, a dilapidated cottage or a cave in the forest; there she is kept from all contact with other people. Her mistress does not allow her to see any- body, nor to go to the neighbouring village. During her solitude the young girl learns a multitude of magic formulz, incantations, soothsayings; she studies the properties of herbs and grasses; she is worked up into a state of almost continuous excitement, mystical ter- ror, and nervousness, which in an immature child may PSE SESE EAI TTS OR SUSU EE Fe Tees ee Toes See MEE eo TSIEN aaa cause acute neurasthenia or even epilepsy. When the pupil reaches her fifteenth year the teacher arranges her “betrothal with the devil.”” The bride is dressed in a flowing white linen robe adorned with wreaths of water-lilies, on her front is placed a magic sign of Beelzebub, and she is left all alone, fettered, her dowry at her side, in a secluded spot, somewhere on a reedy bank of a lonely lake, in a jungle, or amidst 995 4 Hie Itty eet ee eeat ty ayabesseaeycset § beater shri ri je! eer eee Toye yest Soret races Poe aeatret trees. Peryr) Sb EES HATING USES ehise MC aRNS REIT eae toe Ne 4 ets eras be bs thet tite: peer rege. 56 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST naked rocks. ‘The dowry consists of a broken cross, a jug filled with the blood of a black ram or lamb, the skin torn off a black cat which had been hanged, and a bottle of brandy. While awaiting in dire terror the sudden apparition of the bridegroom, she cries, shouts, wails, and sobs, till at last she becomes half insane or faints, and is often attacked with epilepsy. Upon the morning, at dawn, the old witch arrives, frees the unfortunate one from her fetters, wakes her up out of the swoon by pouring brandy down her throat, and salutes her with a magic formula, no doubt as old as the Slav world. From that day the girl has become a witch, and starts her own practice. The old woman fears no longer that her young disciple will escape, as the news of her hav- ing been betrothed to the devil has already reached the village, and if the latter dared to appear there, she would find certain death at the hands of the supersti- tious peasant women. From the day of betrothal the witch begins to learn LO} alye Forensic medicine, the history of religious worship, researches of the fathers of the Christian Church, and the great Leonardo da Vinci throw light upon this matter. It happens that the witch prepares a special ointment, which is a mixture of grease and herbs, rubs her body with it before nightfall, falls quickly into a sleep, and in her dreams receives the familiar impression of fly-WITCHCRAFT 57 ing. Enraptured and excited with the uncommon experiences and sensations, she knows how to tell her dreams vividly and impressively, establishing thus her reputation of a “flying witch,” who rides on a broom or a squab. Her fame now travels far and fast, although it is studiously concealed from the priest and the police. Her usual occupation is to cure women or to help them in their love affairs. She procures love-philtres, finds sweethearts, or gets rid of hated, drunken, brutal hus- bands. True, these magic arts often lead to the green table of a criminal court, where clients appear in the dock. For the hag tells fortunes, conjures the soul of a given man in his sleep, soothsays and manufactures all kinds of mascots, lucky things, and teaches how, by the intense exertion of will, it is possible to hasten an- other man’s natural demise. She is a past mistress of hypnotism. Living a simple life surrounded by wild nature, in constant fear of the authorities, the priests, and the people, she be. comes observant and suspicious and an excellent psy- chologist. But she is careful to hide natural phe- nomena under the mask of magic conjurations, charmed formule, demonology, witchcraft, and other arts of black lore. It is only rarely and under the pressure of sheer necessity that the weird hermit leaves her solitary shelter to get food or clothing in the village. Usually she steals at night into the house of a devoted client tS is Poiia Ts - i] ‘al PERSRESEST POPES SG ESSE Pr oERERENSRE SST INSETS ELEY Se cea stat hear eres orci erd cues 7 BAG Pai at a) tier re tiitieti a a ta lasthitite ibatethiearse 4 Menem entre uMes Cnty eR Uaeeee et Pate Pee eee eee Ese N iy res HN tethirepttee terete inhisptteratiel ties: LIS s pte thee PERE ee ML Eh De CIES ESE PE rte! Bist erases are te eeee eer iieet (rem rE NT istcecet ter evel er art era rmr a Hisense iii nities 58 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST and requests her to do the shopping. The witch her- self is not allowed to appear in the street. If she were not seized at once by the police or priest, she would fall into the hands of peasant women. Every one of them turns to her in case of need, bringing rich pres- ents or money, but every one of them knows that all misfortunes befalling the inhabitants of the village are the result of demoniac curses. And should the peasant women behold the poor, friendless old hag in the street, they might pursue her in a crowd, surround her and beat her, beat her womanlike with gradual, pitiless, tor- menting torture. Pulled out hair, scratched out eyes, knocked out teeth, or broken bones, are nothing much to them. In their superstitious fear and rage women have torn the witch to pieces, burned the ragged rem- nants of her body to ashes, and blown them to the “dry woods, to the empty fields.” Sometimes they will drag her to the river and throw her down into the water with a stone around her neck. Such are the witches, and such is the fate of “the devil’s betrothed.”CHAPTER VIII THE ECHO OF THE Dim PAST N Russia everywhere and always meet: the West and the East, civilisation and primitive nomad, 3) Church and “‘old gods,” romanticism and crime. For instance, in a village a branch of the “People’s Varsity” is established, and the local authorities over- reach themselves in eloquence in front of an almost empty classroom of the local school. In the meantime the peasants, for whom the gates of education are thus being thrown open, are all assembled on the ice of the frozen river engaged in the traditional “combat of the fists,’ an indigenous kind of boxing. Two villages are competing with each other in vig- our of fists, in endurance of skulls, jaws, and teeth. This is a kind of tradition, knightly tournament, medizval romanticism. I witnessed such a combat at Omsk, in Siberia. The competitors are divided into two parties equal in number. The combat begins with the fight of little boys, who break each other’s noses. When hosts of striplings advance to battle, the little boys scatter aside like sparrows. The striplings scatter similarly at the decisive moment of the combat, which is fought out by gsTOWN-uUps. 59 sare eee? vit ree ytd bd ar ee tert) AMAL Ts Lotatadettt be peers lasts oy idsicac bald teaecaln Rea ean nee EA eee EMM Mairi rete nernes en entesn onsPetey re et At srabeconiabbineterdes https starener renin ttt? tree re Dia f a is +: re 60 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST The combat lasts long; it is contested with great stubbornness, and often ends with maiming and kill- ing, as some peasant with a piece of lead or iron hidden in his gigantic fist dashes the skull of his opponent to pieces. Such battles on the ice give some of the fighters the opportunity to reveal their natural abilities, uncommon strength of fists, courage, endurance, and even strate- gical talents, as victory must be won upon the entire front. Let us remember the history of Russia. During the times of the independent existence of Free Cities like Novgorod or Pskov, before the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the inhabitants of towns resolved all political disputes by a combat of fists, fought out between the adherents of one or the other of the political parties. On a lesser scale this habit has existed until our times. Such combats, however, are not always the romantic echo of ages gone by. Sometimes they become a struggle for existence. The Tartars and the Russians, the older inhabitants or the recent orthodox and sectarian colonists settled by the Government in Siberia, often settle their per- sonal, tribal, or religious quarrels with the collective force of fists. Another relic of olden times, to be exact of nomadic times, is the so-called ‘“‘yamshchina.” This is a huge organisation of peasants of Siberian descent, thirstingTHE ECHO OF THE DIM PAST 61 for freedom, who during the winter form gigantic caravans of sledges drawn by a pair or three horses for the purpose of transporting goods on long, thou- sands of miles long, distances. Twenty years ago such caravans travelled from Kyakhta, on the frontier of Mongolia, to Kazan or Moscow; nowadays they make shorter routes from the Mongolian border or from the Altay to various points on the Siberian railway. The “Yamshchina” is gradually disappearing, but some few years ago it was still a vigorous organisation possessing its own unwritten law. Only the strongest, healthiest, and most persevering peasants engaged in this work, which was by no means easy. It was some- thing of an effort to carry a heavy load of valuable goods, tea, furs, porcelain or silk from China to Mos- cow during the long Siberian winter, exposed to frost, hunger, blizzards, and to attacks of numerous bands of criminals who had escaped from Siberian prisons and lay in wait for the caravans. Many brave and rich traders started like those Siberian peasant drivers: for instance, the Kuchtierins or Korolevovs and others, who after the construction of the Siberian railway founded the largest transport companies, owning fleets of steamers, barges, and motor cars. The Yamshchina produced strong and powerful men, but also taught the half-savage peasants to be indifferent to destruction of human life. At Tomsk, in Siberia, there still lives one of the last Cj ipa sd a4 btn bbcnd bo everett) Ee fefyisengedepe estate gt aes beta ela CEE bE RR BE aH RM Seb ie ita elfen sree a ferataleliTidtineaitistdiachitatatelatates sudseatatecdlenieies Ry itor tee mies sErS anc Ie SUC — ee pergEE — ? ? - ey eee 4 Se ae Bh rr ray ee rf 721? Aner e eet ToD ent hobs er pee Tt ttt lesh e)2 rate STE TT SARA PSSTET iPad bese sends te Rt ~e cee pas i fers | +t a ae | orm erery +! ie ae fe AF co)62 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST yi great “Yamshchiks” who remembers those old days of Vis freedom, that heroic epos, that struggle for existence and money in the dusk of the icy and snowclad Siberian desert. His name is Innocent Kuchtierin. Once he told the following story in a narrow circle of friends: “Thad at that time three hundred of my own sledges, each drawn by a team of three horses. The ‘Yamsh- chiks’ were all wonderful fellows. I never engaged one who could not walk a mile with a sack weighing 400 pounds on his back. This was my test. I had Yamshchiks who could carry as much as 1,000 pounds. They are no more nowadays. We drove a load of tea from Kyakhta to Kazan. The winter was severe. A frost of 40° R. set in and kept up for a month. The horses, and the men wrapped in their furs turned inside out, marched like white ghosts. I had to deliver the goods at the appointed time. We marched day and night, and only rarely halted in a village for a longer rest. “Near Kansk we had to pass the high-road cut through a virgin jungle. The trees, white with snow, sparkled in the light of the moon. The road was strewn with crystals burning with multi-coloured fires. Volumes of vapour soared over the caravan as the horses and men were fatigued. Suddenly, through this slowly descending mist, I noticed in the snow aside something suspicious. ‘To be exact, I noticed nothing vo + rey a r yea p ert : Leb h " FAR ESD OS a aes a SSCS ERIM ATSDR ARO EO BSS iitlbebinster days ITs Rehr te Sete tr oy St! ptetateteTHE ECHO OF THE DIM PAST 63 —TI felt it. All round it was silent, and only the horses were panting and neighing. The Yamshchiks marched beside the sledges, running from time to time to get warmer. “Everything seemed to be in order and just as usual, and still I could not lift my eyes from the snow upon which I noticed a great many large spots. They were white, a little darker or a little brighter than the snow perhaps, but they captured and held my eyes. “At last I called two of the nearest drivers and went to see. No sooner did we leave the road than the spots moved violently. “T knew we were attacked by bandits. “The bandits and deserters from prisons and Saghalien, a ‘shpana,’ as we called them in Siberia, lie hidden by the road, dressed in white cloaks over their fur coats. If we had been asleep on the sledges the bandits would have stolen near us unnoticed and cut the ropes holding the loads on the sledges. One by one the boxes of tea would have dropped noiselessly into the deep snow. We shouldn’t have found it out till possibly the next halting-place, and of course much too late to get them back, as the ‘shpana’ would then have gathered our goods and decamped in safety. “But seeing themselves discovered they attacked. We were fired at. Two of my men fell dead, five were wounded. All the others followed me against the attackers. Yamshchiks always carry their weapons with them. A long knife stuck into the leg of the “ efitIitIN Vow eee re rt br Poe Coe DeSR Pee itntheneoy peat eevee iors et Hee telco ere ac ee Sry LE Tired EGUIT PSE SES PAT TT ea THF ID Tetatataters Hahevesee pas griey feast soaitestere eee mentee OLE aT are Ute pe ee tee ieee tt ities reenter Eat TE Be a 5 Soeshabistleiceping Probe ister de sour or ses Por or eC Lae et ota ke PF or ET artes ret eee MTT rerl essereereeertT Lene VeTe eiaES Pere eT Ty rseerete Te Ee FTE TET Te SCOT err eee rete : se TES EGERSCHEPSES COGS a razec i $coehZS CORES RNG Phe SR EOE ES CSRSESED EE OS Dk pens NG STs a7 BONUS Coach heat SESE SE TUTTO bd bbe eas FeeyS SIS ooibe OT SCESK Des POTS eSeaE ety Laat hah pe?! ror Ph Phe Sie res be be TED DE MIR NES ST Seed Eke OLIE RENE ME SECEDE IONE SESE SE TEPRS Se be meat CstE Seto se se uete ete a tat eee) eberereaee seat eas arte! speteietetepebsicegracepicdt i; st Sees oLaristr ee tesa it tiene ss 64 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST ‘fima,’ a felt boot, or a heavy iron ball attached to a strong leather strap.” Kuchtierin took a deep breath and concluded his story. “That frosty night we killed twenty-three of the ‘shpana,’ and the two leaders of the band, Wanka Chromy and Kurzina Bezrodny, we caught and hanged on the pine-trees by the road. On the trails of the fleeing ‘shpana,’ we reached the village Kudjeyarova. We had a real good time. The peasants of that thiev- ish village paid dearly for the shelter they gave to the ‘shpana,’ who dared to attack the Yamshchiks. We spent three days there in mortal revelry in our fashion. Sure, the children’s children of those peasants will remember us!” Such a man was the old Yamshchik Kuchtierin. His spartan life developed in him a kind of a savage, over- whelming romanticism. He was in love with nature, and knew her as one knows a book read a hundred times. He knew the habits and voice of every beast and every bird. He knew how to imitate indistinguish- ably the strains of the nightingale and the bullfinch, the belling of the deer, the roar of the enraged bear, and the howl of a pack of wolves. During one of his wanderings, being still an ordinary Yamshchik, only with a single pair of horses and a sledge, he met somewhere in the inn of a little town the innkeeper’s wife, and fell madly in love with her. Saving little by little, and accumulating money withTHE ECHO OF THE DIM PAST 65 simply incredible thrift, working like a slave, he col- lected enough to buy that woman from her husband. She was a truly Russian beauty. When Kuchtierin rose to the dignity, first of an Alderman and then Mayor of Tomsk, he dressed his wife in gowns i1m- ported from Paris, surrounded her with fabulous luxury and pomp, and loved her as only the savage nomads of old used to love. When drunk, he would thrash her with mad and pitiless jealousy, and then roll at her feet imploring forgiveness, love, and happiness. .. . The life story of famous Yamshchiks is as romantic as it is gloomy and savage. The Siberians love to tell such stories, often with rapture, sometimes with horror. These men often robbed rich travellers whom they encountered on the road, attacked the mails, wiped out official convoys transporting money, plundered vil- lages and towns, leaving behind them carrion and trails of blood. Many of them waxed exceedingly rich, earned honours and general esteem, silencing the courts with heaps of gold, with brilliant feasts and receptions. Nobody shuddered at the sight of these men, and no one shunned them. Had they not risked their own lives to earn riches and honours? The heroes of the endless Siberian great road knew how to disarm the world. opts dt ped qitsetn sa pete sp eyeg hoy eet erel er ern seart rari 53 bas bated bh season freee per STM isan TEN NSS caterer Ta ESICTE TEESE CIOMTtPesEe alee) esi foie Hse frame ayesce rococo Se td ales pe mesede escent ser geese meter Ta 0 ae SPCC TI Es Oe TE eben es semrege te. tires eit EBESCC ST Steric HH hebes tobe Ree, reais 235 tite + aks af hata ee bP ered be 49 0) SPSS S6.sc 5c SaESES ES ORES COPEE HOSES te os gigignksateceseeinbins reg ETE STG he bead Teh tb eseiticasasiedelticalee sirkpinitesiqetepeorien ted recta eat ita pw O11 roi Sere Sie eee Aes if et [ - _ TS, ee So 6 eS ee Se CHAPTER IX THE BoL_p INDUSTRY HERE is another “free profession” of the same kind pursued to this very day in the Far East of Russia. In former times—some twenty or twenty-five years ago—many men were actively engaged in it, who now, or whose sons, belong to the richest classes of the cities of the Far East. In the early spring numerous bands of Koreans and Chinese travel from Korea and China to the countries of Ussuri and Amur. These are the poorest of the poor inhabitants of the “‘country of the sad dusks” (Korea) and the Sun State (China). Some of these newcomers obtain work in the local coal or gold mines, others as dockers in the ports of Vladivostok and Nikolayevsk on the Amur, some are engaged as labourers by the peasants and Cossacks of Ussuri and Amur. Buta certain number of the most enterprising and the most energetic men who thus find themselves thrown upon their own resources in the virgin forests where the Amur tiger reigns supreme, search for gold and precious stones in the unknown beds of the moun- tain rivers and streams, or wander over the hills of the Sihota-Alin mountains searching for the priceless, 66THE BOLD INDUSTRY 67 miraculous medical root, Jensheng, which is paid its weight in gold. Sometimes the enterprising roamers succeed in trapping a few beautiful, almost black sables, martens, or even beavers, which have still their settle- ments in the rocky folds of the mountains. In such hard work, in perpetual danger from the savage crim- inals who escape from hard labour in Saghalien, or the tiger, lord of the wilderness, passes the life of the Chinese or the Korean. The summer and half of the autumn gone, the yellow guests begin the return home. Their paths are as well known as the course of the migratory swans and storks who flit before the winter comes. And all the roads trodden by the yellow travellers, who are burdened with their booty, are infested by Russians. The migrants are usually clothed in white, the Korean colour, which helps to conceal them in their surroundings of snow. The Russians go in for “the daring industry” or the “white swan hunt’ armed with rifles. A bullet finds the traveller in his disguise. The robber escapes un- punished, leaving the dead body of his victim a prey to wild beasts. Nor does the thought disturb him that on the far-off Eastern coast there is a family awaiting the return of a husband or father, on whose courageous searches for gold or Jensheng in the mysterious and dangerous wilderness of the mainland depend their life and existence. A great number of men in the Far East enriched themselves in this way. At present the “white swan peeheretberer aarti em sttee Miter ne est Clee Citas ae 34 BSCR Rae baer aert sees eees eyTIPS TESEICIL? epiatesrieteses bet erent dl Maptoe? eet tisesi beet at eu if te oe hen dien te SEIT, ae Tr) Peeee bis tye}: ReSESEaGSEEG HaTTTesPHESTHTSeSENESLE FITTS SIGE ss e271 919) wgesse tt roe SESE be? arataeas ieee oper prsssti HOS cies iT OOO, of wrbfoiecotest eee seed CSR aehee ashe he teas tes yer tates ar rely a tis iS =: | oe al aa oe § SS ed Em = : s Ss & a b Sh 68 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST hunt” is being pursued by the peasants near the lake Chanka, which is the junction of many converging paths of the yellow prospectors, who usually go down the river from Sungach to the frontier of Mongolia. Besides the peasants, the Cossacks indulge in this un- punished crime as a matter of profession.CHAPTER X THE LORDS OF THE SEA ae life of the Eastern borderland of Russia has brought forth other still more sinister, more wildly romantic characters: buccaneers. Five and thirty years ago piracy was carried on by foreigners and Russians, who subsequently became opulent traders and proprietors of immense urban areas within some of the larger cities. Now they have vanished and their traces have gone. A few died, others left for strange lands. They were men familiar with the sea. Having built stout and swift sailing brigs, they manned them with criminals picked out of the refuse of the ports, and cleared off for action. This action consisted in running down Japanese, American, and Chinese sailors in the Caribbean, the Chinese Sea, and in the open Pacific, in killing off the crew and finally scuttling the vessel. The spoils of conquest were sold as merchandise in the shabby shops of the seacoast towns. ‘The profits were enormous, and became the basis of future for- tunes and honours. The practical adventures of these buccaneers in the Far East live still in memory and 69 Fr CS eS ered i ota ke bs coersstd sts aee oe) BROS SL HT TROND ESE SGT HSE LENE HE STRCZE RY BES gC sl whe aruee bate Leinied- SESS PSST rae IL ee Tear tritititars eresesenes ts : Sate OEMs ire Umer St ers iy: pe ay iets » ’. Ee at i bar = eat 2: Bt oe ed a Pa 5 Pe hs a Fe bh te e; Lm 4 < ED b a specrytaistap erat inettipe srrsititlicelahipemsedeg tl ibieiipey me pies y CaaE ceeererets Teer tase es ayn et rn aa Heseac ers eee ceases as nett fi Hs che a SPLSESREUES Fag sch Irs He tT Ea i paehdest farbaad WiSeREST tar 37 ste Sobes oi ae yi ties btehe ise S25 5s Titer a sit sta diel SeEDESESG se lee othe: Pe 70 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST legend. Theirs was an international league of genuine conquistadors, composed of Russians, a Finn, a Dutch- man, a Swede, a few Germans, and a Jew. All over the Pacific the brigantines of these terrible bandits were familiar, setting upon the foreign mer- chantmen on the high seas, raiding the colonies of Russian settlers which were then being established near the seacoast. Commandor Islands, round which remained numer- ous herds of seals under the protection of the Peters- burg Government, were often the scene of armed con- flicts between the pirates and the handfuls of soldiers detached for guard. The pirates were usually vic- torious, and destroyed without pity hundreds of these animals, which became increasingly rare, their skins being sold to America or Germany. On the seas of Okhotsk and Bering the bands sur- prised, pillaged, and killed the unprotected settlers from Japan and Alaska, who carried on barter trade with the natives of Kamtchatka, Anadir, and the Chukotsk peninsula. The waters of the seas hid for ever the victims of the terrible tragedies, the principal actors of which were members of the bandit association. After clean- ing the coast of foreigners, they usually penetrated deeper into the interior of the country and rifled the Mongolian nomads of gold, furs, precious stones, and everything else of value. In the little gulf north of Vladivostok they had theirTHE LORDS OF THE SEA 71 headquarters. Here the spoils were divided, packed, and transported to Vladivostok to be sold to foreign, mainly German, ships, which maintained regular busi- ness relations with them. The Russian Administration and Vladivostok port authorities knew of the activities of the association, which had, however, a long purse, and could afford to pay the police a high percentage of the profits. Everybody knew of it, and many reports went up to Petersburg, whereupon the higher officials were even- tually removed from their posts; they did not, how- ever, leave the city, where they had acquired land and houses and led a festive life. Vladivostok was most conveniently situated for the medizeval practice of buccaneering. It was a frontier city of military type exposed to Japan, and it was gradually fortified. Some thirty years ago the journey from Moscow to Vladivostok took three months, and the town then seemed a hope- less hole. The civil and military officers were fre- quently men with a past of an enterprising and occa- sionally criminal character. The life of the town was curious. Its most aristocratic body was the ‘‘Associa- tion of Lancepups.” Iam ignorant of the origin of the word, but I know well the aims and objects of the society. To be quite exact, it was a society of hopeless drunk- ards, fortunately an “exclusive” club, numbering not more than fifty members. The usual drink was either — os : bo a veered Lia peeera sess tt rere sb cor ites tiae ss Os es ok se) a7 PREORERIEEDD FPTPNEa Shea Seg Seno Su TTD ES sere soy) Toth aitad| Naser rarest rE SEIC IE OT MITT THIS SISTERS ae SPENT Pyne ss SO tees Tite bees ee asa rate tr YEsG) ee TT It) 5 PUTA se eeP SPS PASS? OC SeaE eG Pee Gshe D UREGRE Bs ah at phaesnaeeerer Th seebeh tee ee ie dat atitits pelts iret ease perceys °) se bteehe Paty Preyre sass Serre) rae ye rstirenpenenatttewirininist ESEs7 tears Si eretise ea bfobecodosepigstypiertidifebeseiere Prey Coad Fare eet re Te eteoo es * erst SSeS SN HED ASG Say SPIES ENS kraty a Scan CERI NSPS VESLIRHESE I SAS nna ra 2 a . a pel a =: ey fy = ‘*. ay a - rar) ce 72 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST pure alcohol or the strongest arrack, which was served in large glasses like tea. The drinking proceeded auto- matically on signals given by an alarm clock wound up every five minutes by a Chink boy. Between the rounds of drink bits of dry bread were consumed. Sometimes it was resolved to drink after every bark- ing of a dog, after every rattle of a passing carriage, after every sound which penetrated from the street, and as the club was situated in the only street of the city, the Svetlanka, there were frequent and easy sig- nals. Needless to say, the club ended in madness, delirium tremens, complete bestiality, suicide. Such were the exciting pastimes of pirates, who, as time went on, became veritable “lords of the sea.” When at last the courts in the Far East were re- formed and real judges and officials were appointed, the danger of energetic prosecution threatened for a time these vikings, who thought it wise to give up their profession, and they became very active citizens in various border towns. The public prosecutor of the Vladivostok Court, Bushayev, opened an investigation of the case of the pirates, He collected all the evidence of their nu- merous crimes, he set about writing the case for the prosecution and preparing the summonses to be issued against the culprits, amongst whom anxious rumors circulated in Vladivostok as well as in other towns. Then one day, Bushayevy, who was a passionateTHE LORDS OF THE SEA 73 hunter, was invited by the local sporting society to take part in a deer hunt. It was held on the Island of Askold, situated thirty miles off Vladivostok, in the gulf of “Peter the Great.” The hunt proved a great success and thirty-two stags were killed. The bugle was blown to call the hunters back to the steamer. When the company assembled on deck, all were there except the public prosecutor. He was found with a bullet in his head. He paid with his life for his zeal. Serre tr areal ial ub oes Be harks felpelalatalasce Hegetedstaty eens ease tltealetea seine torts Ps OWrsea ses ae pnpeee cs ery ere ESET CITES a eaat CSP silabecjasitoahiecaleleledastibahatice briestia bee ntamelnloneadtitane tt tiles et 7. oistbeetsctes rm tat, 9 yee L Q ele teres tet ties eter ip eee feed Ff ere siyt) 5 ett ft} esos behue: iin re etite iets! Ex Bt + Eas ye 7 Pes 35) =: ee Es jo sat 5 oa th aH £5 ig + x bn Es Pa 85 bt 3 ss fe fs oo a es Bs ee as Peds ci | EH ! i os) ira 2 CHAPTER XI IN THE DUSK OF THE PALACES ETURNING from the borderlands, from the semi-savage Russian villages and settlements, let us look into the magnificent palaces, often of historic character. The palace of Tsarskoye Selo, the abode of the stricken Tsaritsa Alexandra of Hesse, the palaces of Princess Yuryevska, Count Sumarokov-Elston, Prince Orlov, Countess Ignatieva, Prince Putiatin, Countess Kleinmichel, Prince Golitzin, Prince Bielosielski- Bielozierski, even those of some of the Grand Dukes, concealed behind their thick walls and magnificent crystal windows interesting and somewhat uncommon happenings. Crowds of unknown individuals, some with a doubt- ful past, had a free entrance within their gates. Vagrant monks and nuns from distant monasteries and convents, brought for show to the curious and for prayer to the pious, wonderful relics, similar to the “piece of the ladder’ which Jacob saw in his sleep, according to an anecdote from the time of Paul I, or the “legs of the holy martyrs Boris and Gleb.” They 74IN THE DUSK OF THE PALACES 75 kept telling of wonderful miracles on the graves of many, not yet canonised, saints, they celebrated masses according to an unknown rite, perhaps of some non- existent monasteries and churches. There were epi- leptics and hysterical women who, during the attacks of illness, foretold future events and tendered political advice. Just like the famous “klikusha” * Daryushka, an agent of Rasputin, Prince Putiatin, and the Com- mander of Imperial Headquarters, General Woyeykov, warned the Tsaritsa against the Minister of Education, Count Ignatiev, who was an opponent of German policy, and against the famous lady-in-waiting, Mrs. Wasilchikova, the author of the notorious letter to the Tsaritsa, reminding the Princess of Hesse that she was Empress of all Russia. The well-fed, white-bearded, bald monk, “Ivanushka the Barefooted,” with his red legs and his toes always carefully pedicured, amazed and piqued the educated public of Petersburg, when seen bare-footed, in a black cassock, with a distaff adorned with a gold ball set with precious stones, walking slowly and majestically along the Nevski Prospect, topping the crowd by a head and evoking general amazement by his athletic shoulders and bull’s neck. But when the news spread that Ivanushka was a fre- quent visitor of the Tsaritsa, and that he was ver} intimate with the house of Countess Kleinmichel, where mysterious nocturnal services were held, during 1 Epileptic Woman. perce be Sear eee ag 1 rane rh) whe bs a 4 _ inte tes SERRE DE De as ex eee se TTT XCD ST eos eas Sa doperaqeseriyitics suis SREORPET PIRPIRSESE REESE EATERS FETCHES SE acs se o3oa a r “i ox YUILIG ws SERIA RI RIENNOUE ae CORSET TED GIGS Pays ee ee Pyeee reserve rte reat ge te Mstseert te nere Lee SIGS Tah acs pebbere reset tte baa asbecoaah Peet ritied ee .* ees ERE SE VET R erat ete si at Pi eae ork pa ae ae siz litt Eepalpbeiaisetd le telactetetstq-pabedeielt —-, Cywtb ree te) it Meaere TEC ASE IG CRIS: ah be ee Teie ses ; dt} sti areuey Pheseng heer aoe Sue “ati oad a az F > Par 2 aay ee » a ReListttete mittee ee emer Pyerese prrererere , eee noe SE pee Sortt ie habe $, Rept daae te a irl chindd bead Mas Loner ar at el at eenrr y Vespense - ae aC SEAGER USE EU Boies sarks WOM tine tii: shies hearbdt Srereh eT UT Li oi n PEPE OEPRT bITa eae Lea rashes oe MUSA eed ME ESRD ITIE ETO TIE 76 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST which “Christ appeared,” the indignation in the capital was so intense that the gluttonous monk was obliged to disappear from the hospitable banks of the Neva. In the year 1910 there appeared in the capital an old wanton who, with skilful impudence, advertised her- self as “the incarnate mother of God,” claiming a hus- band, Joseph, and a son, Jesus. Crowds flocked to the Madonna, who healed the sick and comforted the dis- tressed, sprinkling them with the water of the Neva or merely touching them with her hand. People kissed her feet and her robes, and contributed rich offerings, which the thrifty old woman saved up to buy land and houses in the provinces. A campaign which the clergy and some organs of the press launched against her was suddenly stopped. The police, the censor, and the Holy Synod explained to the zealous popes and editors that an attack on the “Mother of God’ is unseemly because . . . she was honoured with an audience of the Empress in a private house! For several years afterwards the “Madonna” con- tinued her activity unhindered, till one of her visitors, a person of some standing, was robbed. Police in- quiries proved that “the hand lifted up to bless” had taken an active part in the theft, together with that of the husband, Joseph. The case was not brought be- fore Court, but the religious adventuress was obliged to withdraw from the capital. Another illuminating instance was furnished by theIN THE DUSK OF THE PALACES 77 Prior of the Orthodox cathedral of Kronstadt, Ivan Siergieyewich Kiyin, known as Ivan of Kronstadt. I met him several times. He was a cunning, nervous, and clever priest, who knew how to enthral the masses with his prayers and preachings, to sway those who turned to him for advice with his word or a glance of his eyes. He was a master of hypnotism, of suggestion, and could submit to his will single individuals as well as whole multitudes. He would have remained a goodly spiritual father and a zealous priest, but for a bigoted and crafty old woman, the wife of a wealthy merchant, Gulayeva, the friend of Pobedonoscev and of several officials of the Imperial Court. She succeeded in rousing the interest of powerful members of the Court camarilla in the young priest, and soon she proposed to Ivan a deal. Gulayeva was to become the manager, Ivan—perhaps unconsciously —the actor; he was to employ his talents as a priest and preacher; she was to exploit the gullible public. The enterprise was launched successfully, After a year had passed people were talking everywhere of the “Miraculous healings,’ revelations, prophecies, and “resurrections”’ of the dead wrought by Ivan of Kron- stadt. Money, honours, high connections and influence were the reward of these mighty deeds. “The Holy Man—the Prophet of God,” was pro- claimed aloud. | —s 2 + c 3 cy Al fEgsitseebpcedgondsterededa fotribeetete riresarses ars biatraay Ciermees seat sree nr se Tetec te baase Te Proves cs Siac CR Ear et et oad San acal He) eats uF E EGR LPT a ane, ao = ae Vea mesienewe ie Oem ress ire mE acs LAE i a % ~ a *Peleititieit RA ee Speabdbat ny tectt eres Mtttions tase tosearstanertsee 44 ‘ st bbehe seseresE seis Git beeper erect aree et ites) paateasesen ee! > * Ee) poerere rater arerererer te sett rere! sae ris eet rer Peet Sarat Eb se SUE Seed be esate ets ETE SE TED toes tet {hai raat Ayperrreiale > - itt: Pye see e - " Se ISGSES MSG kets at SLs UO ERG PAs HOSES PSUS eSc Sa On ONES 342 BN obeeuE a i ur 78 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST The objections and jealousy of the clergy were over- ruled by Tsar Alexander III, who worshipped Ivan, and on his death-bed sent for him to receive the bless- ings and to kiss the hands of the wonder-worker in pious ecstasy. When, after the Tsar’s death, Gulayeva tried to en- large her business by raising the rank of her client and spread abroad that Ivan was the “Messiah,” who for the second time had descended upon the earth, the clergy rose against such blasphemy, and it was only the protection of the Dowager-Empress that saved him from any other punishment than being relegated to Kronstadt, and enjoined to mind the business of the cathedral, not to work miracles, and not to claim kin- ship with God. Soon afterwards he died, and the untiring Gulayeva began to advertise the miracles wrought upon the grave of the saint. This new enterprise was carried on until October 1917, when the Bolsheviks put an end to her trade by destroying his grave and casting his remains into the sea. Numbers of the nobility had considered it a great honour to receive the “holy father” in their palaces. For this privilege they paid Gulayeva a fee of five hun- dred roubles, and waited sometimes months for their turn to enjoy the blessing of his presence. Such was the Russian fashion of “Christian mys- ticism,” while at the same time close by was celebrated the “feast of the fiends.”IN-CTHE DUSK OF THE PALACES 79 It was an obsession of secret worship, a diseased enthusiasm for “black and white thaumaturgy,” and neither an innocent diversion nor a scientific investiga- tion. The most realistic political game or the most vital intrigue on a grand scale was often played behind the scene. There was nothing of pagan rite in it. I mentioned once before that I was coaching the son of an official of the house of Prince Leuchtenberg, a cousin of the Tsar. I met there many high dignitaries of the Imperial Court, and one of them invited me to his home. A newly-arrived Paris celebrity was to be there—the famous king of occultists, “Professor” Papus. The séance was not a success. Some vague glim- mers of light, some murmurs and noises, some cold touches—that was all that this “Mahatma” could achieve. I saw many much more interesting phenom- ena in the occult and spiritist circles in Paris, and later on in Central Asia. But after a few days I learned many sensational things. In the palace of one of the most influential of the Grand Dukes, and in the presence of the Tsar and the Tsaritsa, Papus conjured up the apparition of the spirit of one of the dead Tsars, who called upon his successor to embark on a policy hostile to Berlin, to make war on Germany, and to be on his guard against the policy of Count Witte and the influence of an “unknown” but peat ra ae “a es 3 RIP Heritenr resem nents iet any arate eaten ie Nees fenitettirect etary at taisirest ns tteitec tote tse cag eg tebeb 8 Sani plikhuldeecteeeenee pobiccbrsere sepesesusesbosatoey sates cmt ot scutes Sethi Eag CanTifelebsis tote |+ jee mitrisies ee ot EN TH ebetinrsizat icc bepeerreeestatithheniserssj bt —_ iiss neice mth tcc ited ieee ttt eT a. PSRPS Pere thos sta ete MEEPS EES se eet: RTE ia $ 53 eesti tt tas ear al aE Se oe Ss: =: ae es &: rs os a e are : es a nl S Bs Fa ee | | ag ie ex. 80 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST powerful and beautiful woman, in whom all the people present saw... the Princess of Hesse, Empress of Russia. After this bold, and even for Russia too obvious, intrigue, Papus was obliged to leave the country in great haste, never to return. After him came other Buddhist and masonic agents, and continued the policy of their master on a smaller scale, in a more cautious manner. Equally mysterious, though less influential, was one Onore, for some time an obscure Siberian official, who had studied several years the shamanism of the Altay natives, and finally started his own practice, which con- sisted of nothing but personal and collective hyp- notism. Soon the fame of his miraculous cures of nervous diseases reached the larger Siberian towns, and numer- ous parties of patients came to consult Onore. The latter grasped quickly that Siberia was too small for him, and he went to Petersburg. Here at first he healed the poor from charity, as it seemed, and he made himself a great name. After a time he received wealthy people who paid him high fees. Then the Medical Council interfered, and prohibited his practice on the ground that the hypnotist had no medical educa- tion. However, this intervention had little effect, and he exercised his remunerative gifts among ever in- creasing circles without fear of the authorities, al- though several accidents dangerous to the health andIN THE DUSK OF THE PALACES 81 even the life of patients occurred in his consulting- rooms. For the usual thing happened. Some personages of the Imperial Court, who were always quick to exploit the Tsaritsa’s interest in mysticism and the secret sci- ences, engaged him just as they had Rasputin, Papus, Daryushka, “Klikushka,’’ Ivan the Barefooted, and other “‘godly men.” Onore was introduced into the Rasputin group, the leader of which was Countess Ignatieva, and the guide into the apartments of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace was the untiring “‘specialist on saints and fiends,” the Prince Putiatin. From this moment Onore became the welcome guest of the most reactionary drawing-room sets in Tsar- skoye Selo, where he hypnotised the Tsaritsa, and at- tended to her during her nervous attacks, In Petersburg and Moscow several people were known as priests and priestesses of the “devil worship” (Diabolism). Amongst them were two Orthodox priests, several men of letters, three variety artistes, and a General Shuman. Strange tales were told of the abomination of the “black mass” and of the diabolic orgies of the Satanists, similar to those recounted about the “Club of Sixty-nine Ladies,” the intimate rendez- vous of ladies and gentlemen on Odd Thursdays or “innocent Mondays,” about a whole series of psycho- logical and psychic groups, clubs, societies, and gather- ings. 2 et . ett TH 5 TEs oir Reis < sescirn inten rst a arene srs en ire nose Minott ie fie cht tase eis ag ts SI SPHERES TEASE STONED SRO M MEDERMA EMH T ages orn at - - - Beverages se errr TIT THIELE PS TST ERG aseaeneinee we irietpaat ste itre MCT Ortaca ta Vs J 7 be ae a —_— ar: AP rer rrr ss tere AAT AH Le POE SeRE ashe seereeee eet TT TW AU TE sasenen ep retyt rytHlitebedetetsinleiewtsti mielele tele ele etl tee ein ereye pein passe tea otst ata ESS ERSSUSH ES SSUES SSG TTA eae SESE TL? etrerieti atti re r Pye tte n , sided esele ee ee peree meat ee ee Steere ete SSeS SESE Hs SPESESES SRNL DENG STDS BPS OSEE CSC TES Gg gaLSGME PURE SaDCOS SD Lata ed SENET LL Sebi beret SF be 3 CUPRA Ss Poy sd oo ae Dek ores ESE es be ees tte ef! trtstjies eoeP eps PESO zat Pephetsestis 2 s + hes i; $i re re a A Ete 3 ry EE co Ho bi ao ie 7 i 82 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST Opium, hashish, cocaine, alcohol were all indulged in; religion was the worship of spiritual disease, as it is before the downfall of nations and empires. The mad “feast during pest’? was held secretly in magnificent palaces, and with each year it became ever more obvious that a tremendous catastrophe must en- sue, with all its terrors. The crash came on October 17, 1917, when the people, the soldiers, and alien agents fell upon the nobles. The mad hatred of the mob then turned against the intelligentsia, which passed away without a trace, leaving the Russian people deprived of its moral leaders.CHAPTER XII BLACK SHADOWS USSIA, the immense country, the ant-heap of one hundred and forty million human beings, the political chaos where a reactionary Government and a violently protesting revolutionism always marched to- gether, where ignorance and mental haziness, divergent psychologies of different classes formed an excellent hunting-ground for the most obscure and ignorant ele- ments, both in the reactionary and revolutionary camps. The procedure in the two camps differed as to method, but had the same results. The reactionaries employed the system of provoca- tion, the revolutionaries that of destroying the founda- tions of the State by awaking the passions of the Russian mob. The results were the same: contempt of law and complete demoralisation of the nation. On a background thus prepared were thrown such terribly dark shadows as Pobedonoscev, Kurlov; and appeared such living characters of the Middle Ages as Grishka Rasputin, the Bishop Pimen, the monk Helio- dor. These were of the reactionary camp. The other 83 _ pee yO zp | SsayOt eee He pearsear se oer CI PSHIEAET SRC shee eM ieeas sate teees areca a esa EMOTE THITSO TT FESS Paes seat hesti Ee PSC tee ieee enero cerca rok aba perer sts 7 ° eet ER ICNP peepee Pe meeo cc Sra art ee , inde) TI Ae rt ifs A SEBEL GUle APRS ESP RE Sey ESE se Reacts re SETI Sel aot bens ese saa teer ti oe NEE te eerie i yeetetsthi3e3 Peete Parertatares| bee habeata tetra eagheer seatorit er: ve ye aeiisi oti arava ie IGS Pebergrse tt ites cr eeti tito lth te ser otal: aerense ee Bia eon tn qesepbaephnenec te TEN Tat ere en epee ninitinietnntite ee rite SSEUESEE ESE rath eee teats eit tats SUT RO EP Ae eu te ae te teg gM TEMES toeeee SLM a reese ptt iat frre tt 2 Fe ih aed as i 2 coe Fes 2 Ee oa Ht nd ; PE fs asc) i: pF id ye 84 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST side could produce such figures as Azev, Maria Spiri- donova, Borys Savinkov, Kerensky, Malinovsky, and others. The famous revolutionary publicist, Burtsev, made secret investigations and inquiries into the internal con- ditions of the revolutionary parties, and published in the French and Russian press a series of articles prov- ing that these parties were rotten to the core, infested by agents of the Government, who, under various pre- tences, acted as spies, as informers, and succeeded in disorganising and demoralising the ranks. I mentioned already the ex-Oberprocurator of the Holy Synod, Constantin Pobedonoscev. He was the dark and evil genius of Russia, the man who led the bureaucratic thought of the Government on the path of the most extreme repression for the purpose of keeping the nation perpetually in intellectual darkness and humility under the triple yoke of the Tsar, the Church, and officialdom. Pobedonoscev crushed many a budding flower of healthy, enlightened political thoughts and led many of the most distinguished men to ruin. It was he who issued the decree of the Synod expelling Tolstoy from the Orthodox Church, and compelled several of the greatest men of science to leave their mother country. He fully deserved the name “Grand Inquisitor.” The Metropolitans, the Bishops and Priors trembled before the man, who succeeded in making the Ortho- dox Church an annex of the secret police, destroyingBLACK SHADOWS 85 its influence, and rousing the wrath of the people against the clergy. Beside this Inquisitor stands the appalling figure of General Kurlov. As chief of the gendarmerie and vice-Minister of the Interior, General Kurlov was the head of the secret political police, the “Okhrana.”’ The corruption of members of revolutionary parties, and their recruiting into the ranks of the agents of the “Okhrana”’; the staging of terroristic attempts on those high political personages of more liberal views, the torturing of political prisoners, numerous death sen- tences, the organising of pogroms of Poles, Letts, Finns, and Jews; the persecution of the national leaders of peoples living within the Russian Empire; spying, suppression of the freedom of the press and of educa- tion—these are among the deeds of the Chief of Police, General Kurloy. He was “immortal,” as all changes of Government and of political tendencies left him always unaffected. He always remained head of the police, the greatest power in Russia, able to destroy Ministers of State. The chancery of the “Okhrana” had a special depart- ment which exercised strict control over the utterances and actions of Ministers and dignitaries, even of the Grand Dukes. The disfavour which befell the family of the well-known poet and President of the Academy of Science, the liberal-minded Grand Duke Constantin, and the distinguished historian, Grand Duke Nicolai < tanita ted es JOH eee oer SaneHeae Titi alstitrshaatitt Arbre R IT ailled npc PT ER ASCE nansT ys SHIEH ICE ETE Sas ete eS ee hoa se ae ecblethtelalditie cate iatplebbeteaietye tt SN settewss tT PETE TET aU SPR ESE MES NEIC Tae PE Bapaomeneiie ie een itm mster tire ear Okra eS ciaaretoracatit oe titi stocatstets Portas beh ta ieee eee ese pene preter yee Seep e ial —, sata tsbaigiceeetepiai giana iaiginiaiais atest OR MIL Se sRePSToKTT ST Wt Sere syaaesasettae Sretthetie i: et tee ets: eiei terran Sete he! foeeeeetitierin inca teoretaaaipiniaties SE bese CL Cicoe SENSS ESE er oe feat, roe e tees + 7 H + bl itiie $rdadedes IE SEs hae Tenth irireciabadacogapipinanebetest sy ends tevepatrpbsiisipiptenaite a eeest Persea s: Srelasss Siese,s elsiesels tiie tite +s Y ran rea Pa) er Le Sea a ‘3 oy De BS ie} Bhs . a] ar 5 Tyibrea im eese! 86: THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST Nicolayevich, were the doings of Kurlov and his secret police. Kurlov conceived the plan of smashing the revolu- tionary groups and organisations with the help of dis- tinguished members of the party, whom he bribed. He knew how to compel them to hand over to him com- promising documents which made them his instrument. The traitor could never escape Kurlov’s clutches, and added crime to crime, knowing that sooner or later he would fall into the hands of the Secret Revolutionary Tribunal. The Director of the Police Department, Lopuchin, tried repeatedly to make Kurlov understand that such a policy was fatal, since it demoralised the whole ad- ministrative system, and exposed the police itself to the temptation of accepting bribes from the enemy. He pointed out to him that revelations of the activities of the secret police transpiring into the foreign press would make the worst possible impression on Russia’s allies, and have a very prejudicial effect on Russian politics generally. Lopuchin protested particularly against Kurlov’s relations with Azev, who, acting as an agent of the “Okhrana,” was at the same time a distinguished and influential member of the Russian and foreign revolu- tionary organisations. He feared international com- plications, as Azev’s activity extended into the sphere of foreign political affairs. But Lopuchin was dis- missed, and soon afterwards there appeared in theBLACK SHADOWS 87 French and Russian press sensational revelations, un- masking Azev. The scandal was astounding, but it came too late, for the revolutionary parties were ut- terly crushed by the arrests due to Azev’s informations, still more by the mutual distrust and suspicion engen- dered by these denunciations. Just at that time there appeared a new faction which changed the internal organisation, and several years later came to the surface of the international stage as Bolshevism first and Communism afterwards. The famous leader of the workmen in the revolu- tionary period of 1905, the priest Gapon, was also a tool of the secret police; for it was he who led the enthusiastic masses to implore the Tsar to grant a Con- stitution, and to be massacred before the gates of the Winter Palace in Petrograd by General Trepov’s troops. The priest Gapon, preacher, socialist, and god of the working classes, was Kurlov’s agent, and for Judas’s silver delivered to death hundreds of defenceless work- men who put their trust in him. The “Okhrana” helped him to escape to Finland, but the Revolutionary Tribunal tracked him to his hiding-place, and the en- gineer Ruthenberg carried out the sentence and hanged him in a solitary hut in Teryoki. Side by side with these ghouls of reaction there worked amongst the same people very different men— the revolutionary agents. There were many, but I shall mention only those who were not regarded as - . 5 Ph peer cs reescs HEE NITES cae ap apr nrarsie se sti ricyerrit) PETS ray aida ts seeds Ea foetshedebolsig nl cede ladal Pepin Sen HStos eT ict re sere Sesece tease ad at + aaa SC PTSET TT SSCL PEI > sty <7 -” A SPSISPIE Forts (ree ese re rose te nese Tara cin eect aa ST PEe SEA Coty Ceara ree 107 Spee Pest reese sere moor davai yahrivieesgauswks Brat tineseettets SaLIEsiMSReeAa Sees op i * " Loi "we Toh e stetieatritichcereaeinia tennant siete rset jefe lets oe) Bie eeeahitaee Tt The biti! Tiss riaei ‘ r PEt i rT is ae ET aust a tae ce ht! at shel SE ay! pitesisrenstias we Seeet 3 poet Ser tetl tese! Pe tizse ste Pl ischrateend ne te Ciiead Abanth BidL bLeceawee ol bt bie? MTs ot SPESCOSESED CHES eH ricar ga tesa SER USESE ED DR URSRTSOEL EHH SaSaSuNEG Safe eas az Re oad a) so 7 ; ty AD ir 88 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST such, and were received by those who plotted for the destruction of their own camp, the “powerful” Kurlov himself putting in an appearance from time to time. There was the old philosopher, anarchist, sceptic and cynic, Solncev, who figured in several Russian novels as a most sympathetic character. He expressed with- out reserve his extreme radical views; but their exag- geration made him appear a crazy dreamer, and no- body paid attention to his vapourings. I met Solncev several times at M. B. Glinski’s, the editor of the Historical Courier. ‘There he delivered himself of such anarchic opinions, and made such boasts of cynicisms in social and religious questions, that the nicknames “crazy fellow,” “Diogenes,” seemed to be fully justified. Great was the astonishment when, in the Revolution of 1917, this “Diogenes” appeared at the head of a well-organised army of anarchists. Under his leader- ship were taken by storm the Leuchtenberg Palace, the Durnovo Palace, and the palace of the dancer, Krzesinska, and the police and military were helpless against his bands. Then in December 1918 Solncev proclaimed the Bolsheviks as reactionaries and de- clared war on them. In Moscow detachments of an- archists, equipped with artillery, held the city for two days, but at last were obliged to compromise and to come to terms with the Soviets. Solncev’s real name was Bejchman. Another unknown apostle of Bolshevism was theBLACK SHADOWS 89 rich and highly educated publisher of sociological, his- torical, and psychological works, Mr. W. Bonch- Bruyevich. The brother of this revolutionary, who is now chief of the Chancery of the Soviet Cabinet, was a General of the General Military Staff, and for a time Commander-in-chief of the Russian army during the first revolutionary Government. Bonch-Bruyevich was a welcome guest in the best Petersburg society, in circles of higher military officers, and of the best educated classes. He knew all and everybody, he seemed a true gentleman of old family, well educated, amiable. At the same time he was the secret leader of extreme socialist factions, bordering on anarchism. It was he who during the 1905 revolution sheltered the present dictator of Russia, Trotsky, then Vice- President of the Workmen and Soldiers’ Council, and who, remaining invisible, directed the work of Chrus- talov Nosario, the President of the Council, pushing him in the direction of Maximalism, and all the time organising the Bolshevik party. I was told that it often happened in Bonch- Bruyevich’s house that the host, smartly dressed, enter- tained in his luxuriously furnished drawing-room the flower of Russian society; while in his study and library, the unwashed crowd of future dictators, breathing fire and smelling rank, discussed the means of destroying Tsarist, bourgeois, and socialist Russia. £2 m& ee A s ig - cs 3 ” cH = ‘ PESTS ESSE CD SSHeTTO CERT Sat asast Pee R Hg nda ledaitenis ei ISESISECA IST SPHTSESEST SHSSIEN MIM EEN SESE PT Fue eta Secon oS ad Seng te EUROS Dane eos toot Santa aos Pe SSCS Ls Pe eee ea atetheate. ES prot yEMt SU sea mene yest Stones ics oe = 3 rea Ss Kaas ee — : Ba ‘J r= ee pe as ciPUD Sea Rin TAs $5 hehe be at Beery Nee cried recor Misti ts coe wegeMtSt Sats SLT CH iP baee ee eecce steed behest 7 t= larad cat Pres bs to Sy Pee , ey re a pan cost p ond + as 3 ee oa} sd Fie ras ‘ a Pee aoe al es As et iS ae 2 be a ee Pry cs = a + sh hens) Lea - cn as :er pes pars rei as #2 5 Ts! Be rey “fet prey pa * toed - St eSCH SLSR RESTS ESL S peat peta cents beet sao oH ete testers erator res renner tetas aT caT PTT Tseicinentie ls eareettiae eats Simro etes CHAPTER XIII PHANTOMS OF THE APOCALYPSE URING the fiery, obstinate struggles of the re- actionary forces with those of the revolution, in which both reaction and revolution overlooked the arrival of a new common foe—Communism—there appeared on the political horizon of Russia phantoms which one would think could be born only in the imagination of the creator of the Apocalypse. One of the first was the former horse-thief, drunk- ard and profligate, Grishka Rasputin. The very name of Rasputin, which means “profligate,” seemed, how- ever, to contradict the part which the mysterious ad- venturer played and with the by-names which he soon acquired, such as “the holy old man,” “spiritual father,” “wonder-worker,” “‘giver of bliss,” etc. An illiterate peasant from the province of Tobolsk, a habitual drunkard, Rasputin engaged with a band of gipsies in horse-stealing, and was many a time pur- sued by the peasants and police. At last one day, after an unsuccessful expedition, he was nearly captured, but escaping at the last moment, he hid in a secluded mon- astery, whose Prior was the severe ascetic, but psychi- cally abnormal Pimen. While in the monastery Brother Gregor learnt a goPHANTOMS OF THE APOCALYPSE gI little curing and writing, but was not admitted to priesthood because of his lack of all education, and also because of his unrestrained habits. Veritable legends were told of the romantic excur- sions Rasputin undertook into the neighbouring vil- lages, of his success with women, and of his genius in addressing different people in a different and most impressive manner. When the Prior Pimen felt the need of monetary succour he usually sent Rasputin to the rich and God- fearing Tobolsk and Tartar merchants. Rasputin al- ways knew how to persuade them into munificence, and this made the profligate “little brother” highly es- teemed with the claustral community, who employed him as their diplomatic envoy to the world without. However, stories of Grishka’s ebriety, gambling, and profligacy arrived from all quarters. People spoke of unheard-of orgies arranged by the “little brother” after every successful diplomatic enterprise for money for the monastery; people spoke of his share in the bold incursions of burglars beyond the Urals. One day the news came that during one of his love excursions in a village a fight ensued, and that Grishka knifed one of the peasants. After this he did not return to the monastery, but in the disguise of a monk wandered a long time in Siberia, till he reached the Volga. Here he soon acquired fame as a “saint,” “God’s man,” among the elderly women devotees of the rich merchant class. ba eS = gt | stitatetetgiel ebeledls rbra Ter Treas eaT rere a fm SESEOOREST HRESERESE SEPT OE MEDC LESESESE? FPC7 FRE TT Sayg Se eas EdD ooST Bad Os ce SE oA t Beret eamer itr ieice ero aa Gee S75 Corse R LP See IO) beets Nee - 7iba! eee: Pritt a stabs Tarte titties be hehehe Po ieee Ls c Sintinnneniyyntee bas! exirtemete Sipeetheetzisctetetsieeeene shia iP PE) oa! bEStT has Ces Coy SeTET SEETTE ITH ae: iierth TET ipet ate trrsy redline ladpbersenpeperhd ful (Psi sere) rere eer SRST SESESOOR aah t$nSZD VERSA SADDENS SEE SET IS SE ory a 3 Fa IY od a +i “I io Lae : a Bisa 92 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST Of course, it was impossible to deny that this man possessed some extraordinary powers, his wild, cat- like, glowing eyes seemed to pierce into the brains of men, to enter into their very souls. He could size up every man at the first glance. He had an intuitive insight into human beings, their char- acters, psychology, and desires. Besides, he was a powerful hypnotiser, had an irresistible power of sug- gestion, and exercised his influence equally upon indi- vidual persons as upon great assemblies. He had the force of authority and conviction in his voice, a dull- sounding, threatening voice resembling the gloomy murmur of a virgin Siberian forest, in which he spent his romantic and stormy youth. I remember boarding a tramcar in Petersburg. It was early in the morning, and there were only few people about. I was immersed in my newspaper, when all of a sudden I felt almost physically something like a strange blow on my head. I looked up quickly, and I met the eyes of a tall, lean man with an ascetic, immovable face. He was richly dressed in a magnif- cent sable fur coat and cap, but the fashion of his dress was strange, and looked like a cassock. I was at a loss as to his identity, seeing that he had top-boots, and under the fur coat I noticed, when he opened it to draw out a handkerchief, an ordinary Russian shirt of red silk. Again I felt compelled to look into the eyes of the strange man. Suddenly I noticed with a beating heart that those eyes vanished, and in theirPHANTOMS OF THE APOCALYPSE 93 stead crossed and shot forth radiant beams, concealing his eyes and a part of his face. Suddenly his eyes appeared again, and round his lips played a disdainful, scoffing smile. I understood that he tested his hypnotic power on me. I decided not to look at him any more, and I succeeded in my resolve. Leaving the car, I had to pass the stranger. He touched my arm and said: “I know you’re a journalist. And you don’t want to look at me? Why? Iam Rasputin, Gregor Ras- putin, the ‘man of God.’” Such was my first encounter. The second was semi- mystical. There was an exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts in Petersburg, where crowds were thronging and pressing in front of a sad, unfinished picture of the well-known Russian painter, Nicolai Rayevskti. The picture represented the portrait of a tall, lean man in a black, semi-ecclesiastical habit, a thin, emaciated face, with long black hair falling down the forehead, and a dishevelled black beard. The picture was marked in the catalogue: “No. 144. The Portrait of an Unknown Man.” But the attention of the crowd was riveted, not by the habit, the face and the black hair, not even by the undefined mysteriousness of the portrait. One and all were looking into the black, piercing eyes, vivid and watchful, like the eyes of an animal preparing for a sudden and dangerous assault. When in turn I looked, approaching the portrait, the eyes vanished behind the a = a IS TEES aT oD iO OES CE SE Sei eset elias TEETER SERENE HIATTEMSE MESSE TREES HST ERSTE Sage eat eat ose oa os cee BRR aad — Se SEMIE PGT CSP LE OTE IESE PATE ERT TEEPUT EP FETE TR ETE DE eae LIED EDEN IE PE ieee temo iussenn nr Det esl wie a ew ATION es HATA rae eas : eaesenge eater MDE Sy Preec sects ec see ht bapeat ste a yrs if ib ai VS: elect al Pe eon el Tate eee ae Pat test seas piensoHace brat Stab sea per ee ot UE TE oa Je eek peers Not ie Tie estes TST i oe beseqeieresyarit ese ieS tN Tyee rete pleat < itt ies daa boar eat st Se etiteseet toes eee tat eer ts Ot deste as eases Cg ptste ets ie Testa ae a ti aaretee at nre ee en peeee eter Tei sive cee wens es one SH SSE nay asc DOG DBNBS MARRS BOS ay os" ror ar) on is ins oe t pe Bre) Ley te poe) HbA H 94 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST radiant veil which emerged from the mysterious black profundity of those piercing pupils. “Tt’s not a man, it’s the devil,” said someone among the spectators. “It’s Rasputin!” explained another. “What do you want?” “The impure power,” whispered a pious lady. “The powerful, holy man of God!’ protested imme- diately several voices. The crowd dispersed. New visitors took their place. My third encounter with Rasputin was amidst fatal circumstances. A reporter of the paper which I edited telephoned through to me that Rasputin had been killed, and that the authorities were searching for his body. After a few hours I learned that the body was found. I went to the spot at once. Just before I arrived the corpse was lifted through a hole cut in the ice on the Little Neva River. He was dressed in a magnificent fur coat and a black silk shirt; on one leg I noticed a high jute snow-shoe upon a patent leather boot. His head was bare. His face was smashed, one eye injured, and his throat bore signs of strangling fingers. He was the victim of political, perhaps personal vengeance, sprung on him by the Grand Duke Dimitri, Count Sumarokoy-Elston, and the Deputy to the Duma Vlad- imir Purishkevich. The artist Rayevski, who painted Rasputin—at the request of the Empress Alexandra, his portrait wasPHANTOMS OF THE APOCALYPSE 95 removed from the exhibition on the first day—was very interested in the mysterious personality, and told me a great deal about the “man of God.” It was clear from what he said that Rasputin must have exercised an irresistible charm on women. ‘That ruthless man managed to penetrate into the boudoirs of the most distinguished titled ladies in Petersburg with the same facility with which he philandered in the modest apart- ments of the elderly widows of the merchant class, or with the variety stars in the Villa Rodé. He could be enrapturing, fiery, overwhelming. He used often to Say: “Woman is created for the pleasure and glory of man!” Pious people asserted that Rasputin had an un- matched talent for prayers. He said his prayers in simple, uncultured words, but with burning passion, poetry, and inspiration. It seemed as if he would behold the very face of God, to Whom he was speak- ing in human, simple, and comprehensible words. The nervous shivering of his shoulders, the spasmodic voice, the facial mimicry full of pain and penetrating imploration, the fire, and the tears of his eyes made a terrifying impression on the pious, mystically moved spectators. The dull, threatening voice of the old thief rose to such a power of tune, resounded with such passionate force that it seemed as if by the lips of this man somebody else, pure and full of bliss, was uttering life-saving words of Eternal Grace. As Eedebelyiniebiteseyt PETE THOTT 5 . ETE ee Te VEALED TIE WPA FLIES a jieldieltit-eititslsiatieis is ad aia gl eres ea THIS IED BEE SETTER NEESER TOTS PTI TT TEM SEH See SS oe ei SoS Re LO ec aac iF} ri tie: teal unde ah CRA eS OEE TE SCORSESE SCOR eDivlbaahebebiree ee eiadad HAAS para rf Benen teeta eT Ao hee Foon TOA B ‘ Cares xeeT TATE psalEb Bebaypbaianietd feteTerao ee > tee EON ei eieies oP otit oa adi Li lidsspetitiegtecesegisretict rare eestesstreveteceraretets ie SeLebeey best icetegeit ey gigtegiaigias Rootes | (at37574 aL IRILIL OE Or reror bese ees rakrtyi 1 ee ag “ee 3 be ; = Se ee <. 3 2 = Ri Fe: E = y — a} aad ol » a stiiettititinas ots tgs si4ie Stic oa ¥ es aes Pyery 14s e yee ee eee ys Te peel Pure yy yes pb bo L0 bd empdne & Poe dias eeteetet temeiiitnterintitit imi Q che ee ea ae ee ees? tsk * PSEPee Eee ee edhe tI LIE thr oes PTEhsaF' Rae ee EET eae cs foes ork tipenis-acscerecsiagsnite PeeBeTO cu acoteeyed te he =. + e4 st 96 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST He turned from time to time towards the Holy Pic- ture, outstretched his hands, and spoke in tones im- ploring and commanding: “Turn Thine eyes upon us and give a sign that Thou hearest me!” And the man praying seemed to perceive the eyes of the Holy Image moving and gazing upon the crowd. Rayevski told me that one afternoon when Rasputin was sitting for his portrait, a well-known nobleman drove up in his car to the painter’s studio, and rushing in, fell on his knees in front of Rasputin with the words; _ ‘Father! My brother is dying! Help!” Rasputin got up at once, and forgetting his fur coat, ran down the staircase murmuring: “Lord! Oh Lord! Creator of all life, grant me to atrive in time!” Arrived at the palace, Rasputin found an elderly man in a terrible state of asthma, which was still fur- ther endangered by a heart attack. The sick man had already lost consciousness. Rasputin looked a long time into his face, and then exclaimed, or rather howled like a terrified dog in a winter’s night: “Why dost thou not call for help to our Lord? Why dost thou not ask Him: “Deliver me from my disease, and give me, O Creator, the strength to praise Thy name in glory?’ Awake, and repeat these words of my prayer! Awake!” “Can you imagine,” said Rayevski, “the CountPHANTOMS OF THE APOCALYPSE 97 actually moved, opened his amazed eyes, pressed his hand to his heart, and repeated the short and not quite common prayer word for word. I was really aston- ished!” Another of my Russian friends, the well-known poet and critic, A. A. Izmailoy, told me his own experience once. “T succeeded with great difficulty in getting at Ras- putin; I wanted to interview him, but I was careful to tell him through the servant that I wanted to speak to him about our mutual friends from the Volga. When I entered his room he was seated in a com- fortable chair. He measured me with an inquiring eye and with a forbearing smile, said: “A journalist! Why do you try to deceive me?’ “He stopped short. I kept silent, knowing his hatred of journalists, who had annoyed him much in the past. Besides, his words had embarrassed me strongly and I could not say anything. ““T shall not talk about any of my affairs to you,’ said Rasputin after a long while, ‘but I want to speak of you. Death passed over your head when you were eleven years old. I can see it plainly. Tell me how it happened.’ “Of course,” related Izmailov, ‘“when I was eleven I went with my brother to try to shoot a hare. My brother was to do the shooting and I was to do the beating. I had scarcely entered the garden-bed when I tumbled over a root and fell to the ground. ‘This a ay oe ys as es 3 my + bn ‘Seo ; —— SessTei ash tata ales bRssuSgcasisppalaebadacbucchdbdabdctegedob brindtaededeaebedsodntttetoePobsehltcfteen sala egg stun ttt toto pi fois lato Ae TEs Hee Brite ere bea SCALDEDSZS TESTS PSTD ESTE LESS ESR eae TT SRENSE Soe t urat sere treree Wome mecriet tes esis ces fatesrat er eteterbele itat treet statics cs recht eee brerts see aat: iat reevy ie m Pewnrs MSU St ater Tei rn hi es Sr avtd S11 bi sadaods ol tt ayer El or 52 COKa Eom aa aah ee TEE ee Seek ie od Sharnana eee) ei atest: Dias Beteieh ties bears ees a esepebapeyepeet seetas Hprre Sesh sti bs ed! abe ead 37 be 1 SEE ETE eee ped} i Pee ETS Haahd esis aE eee tact ocr, babe ee te ee te ETE) sous Peet vere pag | * oe - 7 oF t ag ree taupe eStN ort rs Bec hinepebestat st taie Fe yg =D 98 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST saved my life, for at the very moment the hare jumped up; my brother fired, and the shot went over my head, which was protected by the high bed. “When I finished my story, Rasputin said: ‘“ “Beware of a narrow street in which stands a house of red brick and two turrets. Remember it and go now.’ ”’ I don’t know if Izmailov heeded the warning or not. I lost sight of him when he remained in Soviet Russia, and it is quite possible that he perished in its bloody whirl. Alfred Rodé, the owner of the notorious villa, and some officers of the late Imperial Guard told me of the orgies arranged by Rasputin, of their lasciviousness, cynicism, and vulgarity. He often let himself go, offending his guests, laughing at their opinions and their manners. Once, whilst boasting of his intimate relations with the Imperial Court, he showed his richly embroidered silk shirt, and chuckling with laughter, said swaggering: “It’s Shashka’s work.’ Shashka being the Em- press’s pet name. There followed a great scandal. One of the officers jumped at the “man of God,” and in the free fight which ensued wounded him with a bottle. Rasputin was reputed to be aware of the attempts contrived against him; he escaped several of them, and he knew that a sudden end awaited him, and he lived in mortal fright. Once, in an attack of that terriblePHANTOMS OF THE APOCALYPSE 99 longing which befell him in the expectancy of death, while sitting at the bedside of the Empress, who, sur- rounded by her daughters, was writhing in pain, he called out in ecstasy: “Not a hair of yours shall fall to the ground as long as my pictures and dress shall be with you!” It must have been true, because about the middle of 1916, after an attempt on Rasputin, the photographer Ocup received the order to call on him and to make seven large portraits of the “Old Man’”—the Tsar’s family consisted of seven members—to perform all the operations in the presence of Rasputin’s secretary to whom the plates were also to be handed over. At the same time news spread from the Tsarskoye Selo Palace which amazed everybody. One learnt that after a long conversation with the Empress and her daughters, Rasputin left the apartments of Alexandra in tears, and went into his room, where he changed his dress, to return afterwards carrying his black silk shirt torn into seven pieces. His power rested upon mysticism, the exploitation of momentary moods, forebodings of an impending debacle, and the skilful handling of situations as they arose. In Siberia, where Grishka was hated, to-day already, during the Bolshevist regime, people whisper: “Rasputin was a dog, but a strong, supernatural man. He foretold the Emperor Nicholas’s black days that should follow his own death, and so it happened. Tuts bags bpanbe}eceds da bodotstetebedo ebslas4dedy cadsudasen fond Mt taLatosoge es tots fot fa fotbnd iodo drs tle TCL eine RoE A eyttg mes th3 5 it EPC HEIR PLIES Grae es TITS Bstsgesseatestea seveea siete vena ceseys sieve aot estjvot esatsenbcs si] NICE MS EL Go was co Pyke SE MIE Eesti etlelgre a PRET rh een eet JeMtioseaseseroechy ici tot ltietesesssesamestsnerse orcs scat _ 2) aeSreteneerty pepe indy cqerestinteineetstd tte i bea ines ty " CLSSTLMS STL he testa idle eierethrsts (ereialer ai sieie ties bie seit rte t otal ore eaeih oes ] ‘ ba tsb 7: i aeheed SEL ET ae EEE pads Se aE rete oe behets OTL AIT Te Leds or be ertetr tances hreaad ce eee tatataty sleleselatageledelt ea rh he Phebe betes] esc ecoe ee te sth C rere thert ate Paeyes iit te ote: , ™ MRETP OE IETLS COLAC AC Sad ee ba Labenae Phe ee Seed Pies teres Sith Srhinithtip ests Uae SEY foseeeowend Seer ty eratees . ee shri Seasecscze Shshehes Pac tyarbeerbeRt iat SST tebe ee sere lp pei tite slot si iie ie iwi sieieie) ¢ Pa eE3 ai ipidccak te ete ee al el | Tenet saidctrrzarrciziaeesipapinener bres tentiait ierarantrirstinietas reshetre ry ees , horses eee e Pes LRT ies}: or rns us oF) i > , +4 a os oe v; eas + ae ory aa “To NET On eee ee a > Ti - - 100 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST He foretold that the Romanovs would live as long as they should have with them his pictures and bits of his shirt—and they lived until the Commissar Yurovsky took all this away from them, when they were mur- dered. Strong, uncanny was Grishka! Antichrist! The servant of the devil!” Several attempts were made on Rasputin’s life, but without success. Two of them were most dangerous. One in Siberia, when the monk, Heliodor, sent a half- demented peasant woman, who inflicted several wounds on him with her knife. The wounds were rather seri- ous, but Rasputin lived. Another time, when he travelled in sledges from Petersburg to Tsarskoye Selo together with Madame Wyrubova, the Empress’s lady-in-waiting, the sledges were upset by an unknown motor-car, which suc- ceeded in effecting its escape. Madame Wyrubova was seriously hurt, but Rasputin only slightly bruised. At the head of the organisation which combated Rasputin were the Moscow Metropolitan Makar, the Bishop of Samara Pimen, and the monk Heliodor, supported by a band of influential and rich men be- longing to the Nationalist circles. After the last and successful attempt on the life of the spiritual director, the despondency of the Empress and her daughters was limitless. They even went into mourning for him. The body was buried in a mag- nificent chapel erected for the purpose in the Park of Tsarskoye Selo. Daily pilgrimages of the Tsar’s fam-PHANTOMS OF THE APOCALYPSE to1 ily to the “Old Man’s” grave proved the genuine and profound sorrow for the “holy father,’ whose life was so mysteriously bound up with the fate of the dynasty. Speaking of the mysterious ties which existed be- tween the Romanov dynasty and Gregor Rasputin, I remember a legend which was very popular in old Moscow and particularly alive during the war of 1812, after Napoleon’s conquest of the Kremlin. When the Romanov dynasty, in the person of the youthful Tsar Nicolai Teodorovich, was elected to the Russian throne, the solemnity was held in the Ipatiev Monastery, built by the Ipatiev, a rich family of traders in Kostroma. During the procession one of the epi- leptics of the name Grishka became mad and started to shout prognostications: “The house of Romanovs will reign long centuries over us. It will attain glory and power. It will perish under the Ipatiev roof after ‘Grishka’!”’ The history of the dynasty corresponds with this augury, which was at first incomprehensible to its con- temporaries. The dynasty reigned for more than three hundred years, achieved glory and power, and perished after Grishka (Rasputin) under the roof of the Ipatiev’s in Yekaterinburg, where the descendants of the founders of the Ipatiev Monastery were removed from Kos- troma. In 1812 there appeared in Moscow a “prophet” .- ee . * ns ot = 3 eI Soa awe eT ee ai fiesta pT ees FeszSESE SESS eis a MSIE ICE SE Sra STO ESE TST eee ESE Se STS ra aESR a sana EN esas eS ee Poser aos ax ae PRPC litelslitititc diteltitsalstislsleieittecblalate. PieeIeO OTT Lect a Le Sci tea dae —ih ot Beat port At stele yes er teeess ie; a oad 4 STEM Dep LT it rat et ate ere pt cg laphitreeeptesteh ith hhid teers pepe pe USER Dastrh tC retaret cith iil Geraeteade e Se UTERUS Sperteespieeptitnecr it, ‘si Se SE STSESR EL ML ptLaph te rte eae ae: Rie arti te ee SESE tT) faseetes el be OF rnent eyes eat rate epee eT oeeTs ieee: seiner! PTET ETS Te iT a ts rat yA SESE SU MESES ESL ALS but ot Lae be! C fesee eset pee ibd tee ee eel Sib breier a a ge a bles tie we Brag ele eo) Free era: nt bd ¥}* re ry obese se tetas boa shsed bes PSsbt4y ay arse stele treat ttt et telere a lelecielelecdie , APMED TEA a CILIESE TEAM TEATS RE Saar oc Sy Ne ES DET ES The eR PCI RIE ESE R TEE chats rh se rth ge TN tet > ~ ne, = 102 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST Grishka, who foretold the fall of Russia and the Im- perial dynasty. It was then that people remembered the legend, all the more as Russian troops retreated in the presence of the Tsar in part towards Kostroma. The Police Commissioner of Moscow, hearing of Grishka’s prophecies, had him captured and flogged to death. Grishka’s prophecy of a “God’s man” and “epilep- tic,’ pronounced two centuries earlier, were revived for more than a hundred years, only to become true in a more terrible and sinister manner after Grishka, a “God’s man” according to the beliefs of the Court and some Russian aristocrats of the twentieth century.CHAPTER XIV ASCETICS versus ANTICHRIST HE ascetic Prior of the Tobolsk monastery, the monk Pimen, did not forget “little brother” Gregor. When the latter came to the surface of politi- cal life in Russia, and when his star shone forth upon the horizon of the Imperial Court, Pimen went to the Moscow Metropolitan Makar and the Kiev Metropoli- tan Vladimir and informed them who exactly Rasputin was. Pimen’s revelations, who at that time was already Bishop of Samara, made an overwhelming impression. The Metropolitans began to act in various ways, but soon received peremptory instructions to abstain from this agitation if they desired to retain their mitres. They desisted and started to plot secretly against Rasputin. Bishop Pimen, who expected to find in the Metro- politans energetic and determined allies, wrote them very sharp letters, and engaged in the struggle single- handed. The threats of the provincial Governor and gendarmerie and the instructions and reprimands of the Holy Synod made no impression on him. He acted with vigour and skill. 103 ee ety pisses ah STS PSST ESP os eee et PIE 2y —— Oe Se sea eT ‘ rr res StL cease Sa a - = aa eB PUTY Sette acIeh ses cape SeSESE TUN MOF TP: inating ttt ~ eae) rere aeeeat ae SCE TE FETT PESSTS TH PLIST SEARS AE ETI POET ND PD Se EELS Eft ge Hes eH PuaE seer Hse pe ememeTis te T eS Cenacle GSE rad caldohbbeles feb i ae: es a Sterate yt 1h sera) iets Soap e rest a eae Hed 2 a ay bm Eee 3a pe $: rea 3 pe Se 2 ea = = Bs ome ha a ES - ‘a E Bg ae. + cs aE mist pa 2 104 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST He prepared his “spiritual flock” for the impending coming of Antichrist in the shape of man. “It will be possible,” he said, “to fight against this Antichrist because it will be the first, still weak incarnation of evil. On the successful issue of this fight shall depend the postponement of the terrible era of the coming of other, stronger, Antichrists and their reign on earth, which is groaning under the weight of sin and of carnal and spiritual crimes.” The austere, ascetic Bishop had an assistant, a young monk, a student, an inspired orator and preacher, Heliodor Trufanov, who went a step further and called the revealed Antichrist by name. It was Gregor Rasputin, the notorious Grishka, deserter-monk, horse- thief, profligate, and murderer. “Women and children, remember that cursed name!” exclaimed Heliodor, invoking the devout congregation. “Tf you meet him, spit into his face, throw mud at him, and the Church and the Lord will forgive those who stab him with the knife or strike him with the axe, for the knife will kill the body of a satanic serpent, and the axe will have struck down a barren and poi- sonous tree!” Various men gathered round Heliodor and Pimen, some drawn by religious enthusiasm, others by politi- cal reasons. At last Heliodor went to Petersburg to carry the struggle into the enemy’s camp. Here, however, he met with the resistance of ecclesiastic authorities, whoASCETICS VERSUS ANTICHRIST 105 were terrorised by Tsarskoye Selo; he was arrested and imprisoned, but escaped, crossed the frontier, and published abroad his pamphlet on Grishka, full of in- vectives against the Tsaritsa, of personalities, express- ing his own private views, but containing little real evidence. During his stay on the Volga Heliodor had time to organise the Siberian attempt on his enemy, and an- other attempt in Petersburg, in which he was helped by the Metropolitan Makar and some of the God- fearing Moscow merchants of the “old belief.” Notwithstanding all attempts at suppression, the ac- tivity of Pimen and Heliodor created a sensation, a general curiosity regarding the “dark secret of Tsar- skoye Selo,” provoked several speeches in the Duma, a lively press campaign, and the formation of many groups for the purpose of struggling against Anti- christ. The last embraced the Bishop of Novgorod Yevdokim, and the Bishop of Omsk Sylvester, who, later on, in 1919, initiated the all-Russian idea of Antichrist. at SOOT apts, j Seddtiacebpindedeie ni tilesedeee Pre Liathplatblele ete elghistd ca Ga Bale bse baile be besed Bade BE ag lea ala pe dE EB Pee prseq ts ates eee Sa VEN SEER FELL UIE TE ESTAS Thee See Ee area eee siblnntahidlecieiigudaicedbeibietitne heel pan men ETE Dee eaue Sea Sst E Tere Ea ra ag | cm ee re bas ape | re te oo a7 oot s rej ed rs re | = oY oy ved cy? | +a ey Ry reer 30 reses ory oo) aS rey 7 wes oe) = oe a ay ’ + + oa e= ad ro res Sot oO o ae <> me +‘ S=) oor wee . oe ry Pree Srey = 4° 35 oraey ae) eal i coat a rp + = 5 > red ee 7 + = cs ~~ ney ry ~@ +s “tT =@ . a ars ore i ve a rr = ms = 5 pers : Oe red ma rf or + red + + 4 =+-] n S 4 aheteaes ooo wy STE Lak dd ak ohh eek GA bat pram red me ot Geena aaa TESEAAEESaLEsE G SS I ASG T TES TERE EHO esOeerarient sito RNB NE ne a Oe ~ ar CHAPTER XV FACTORIES OF IMMORALITY PIRITUAL illiteracy and the home policy of the Government were the causes of endemic famine in Russia. During periods of greatest prosperity one- fifth of the village population was in the clutches of hunger, dying of starvation, of hunger-typhus. Primi- tive methods of agriculture in districts in which there were no estates belonging to the more cultured gentry, the obstinacy and fear of the peasants of any modern improvements of farming, diminished the crops from year to year and exhausted the soil. No wonder that whole families of peasants were leaving the land and moved into industrial towns to earn their living in factories. Here, very soon these families were dissolved and scattered over the whole of Russia, losing all contact with each other, never to meet again. Bereft of all moral support, with only a faint stock of religious principles, these people developed into pronounced demoralised representatives of the lowest type of the ragged proletariat, heroes in the Maxim Gorky style. The women particularly sunk to the lowest depths, perished in tap-houses or hospitals from loathsome 106FACTORIES OF IMMORALITY 107 diseases, or vanished without trace behind the walls of houses, the doors of which were illuminated by the sinister “red lantern.” The yillages even coined a special name for those who went into factories or mines. They called them “posadski,” which may mean a thief, a criminal, an adventurer, and a ragamuffin of the suburb. Sometimes a peasant family struggled hard to stick to the land. Then it sent its members, men and women, as temporary Wage-earners into the towns. Rarely, however, did such envoys return home directly. Usually they sent the money and stayed themselves for a long time in the towns. And if they cropped up in the village they brought with them customs and habits alien and hostile to the village, licentiousness of word and gesture, contempt for family traditions, and indifference to religion. With the newcomers and their “European” clothes, hats, silks, and transparent stockings, crept into the life of the villages terrible diseases, which decimated the population and reduced it soon to a state of degeneration. This was a phe- nomenon which could be observed particularly in the Central Provinces of European Russia. But really, justice demands that these poisoners of the village should not be condemned too harshly, for it is not they who were so very and exceptionally guilty. The guilt lay with the Government and society. I shall draw a few scenes from the life of those : OD OUEST nono YAY MANN ReSISeEID OTT sre estes itreoeci ter Loss sels taeb chs aed Peres on bones ae) ASRS IIE ESRC IOUS ERCED pegue eseagneseet tos jatcse sve sere estate iors roac pale ———— 4 Por mae sdisiabansivabestioete a ee ne a Set wie —_—- ree a Feels eer ore Blais Pate sPahng—iedece leet ire PIR ETU IEP Tht PeSEN TERT SSS EI TUTTE ite edd fatal PEESSE NESE ITH S Sees mre PEPE TES treba ema ea Pree Pursr ces terstass 1o2t os corct tt ac eet eah Satara batt + Pet) bee ats A a) n rerprervia. SE PAIS TRIE T OCT, Tndh eh beditaPd Cite seeet eeoedr ar ie Meee deep ta eleles ese: patstecasenge re MctCier je Ms ttiens seseresnansyseeeer corel et nooooxy ye es rad . A Us eet siete ra) An os Ee RaRS TET e epee PTE TL iets cae . Teafresiaiateeplatpeeerer treet nisi ieescr tet reripisee cont ee Be a y aed eee ee 108 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST peasant men and women, mostly young and completely inexperienced. A group of peasants arrived in a big town intending to earn their living; they walked from one factory office to the other, with servile bows begging for work. But this was no easy matter for naive, half-savage paupers, who were ready to fall at the feet of every factory- watchman, and said their prayers before every holy picture, in fact every framed picture they noticed, who wept aloud or howled in despair. Thus passed days and weeks. In the meantime the entire store of food brought from the village was consumed, the small fund spent after a few days, and so one evening the peasant boys and girls had to pass the night in the streets, hungry, and with despair in their hearts. But the streets are cold and wet, chilly and fearful, and drive the homeless man where the lights glitter from the windows of the happy “rich.” There the bands of paupers throng like moths to the light, to meet the police who are watching that “paupers shall not loiter in clean streets.’”’ The next scene takes place in the police station. After a severe passport control, the homeless vagrants are sent, by way of protection, to a night asylum. When in 1908 I visited these asylums in Petrograd, I thought I had a nightmare, so horrible was all I saw. Already at that time I felt instinctively that out of this dark and foul underworld would come forth some unknown, monstrous avengers. They have comeFACTORIES OF IMMORALITY 109 indeed, to drown Russia in blood and themselves to perish in blood. But when I described the metropolitan night asylums in one of the popular dailies and in several monthlies, the official press protested violently, and the papers which published my articles were fined. On the confines of the gigantic city of palaces and luxury, somewhere behind the cemeteries set apart for beggars and suicides, rise in several districts black, massive, prison-like structures of many storeys, void of any adornment, dilapidated, their windows broken and closed up with soiled garments, pierced by pro- jecting, crooked vent-pipes from the iron stoves. The windows are dark, although it is only nite o'clock in the evening. Over the doors only flickers the yellow flame of a lantern showing beneath the board with the inscription “Night Asylum.” A crowd of dark figures throng in front of the gates, shivering with cold, sobbing, sighing, or weeping si- lently. At last the gates open narrowly, and sturdy men admit the wretched few for whom there is still room in the asylum; however, a small coin pressed into the hand of the door-keeper will let in twice the number. The village paupers have been admitted to the asy- lum. They are marched with others through dark, mud-covered courtyards, ascend iron stairs, and enter the “office,” where their passports are inspected, and where they receive the number of their rooms. At td a a itatatasel fuacdosadpledpocegsdetpedatedebe tots dp last tebe adedea dag aval alsfobP- Ppa sgts Bsns H feabrdnecde bes glo mm POS MISOORUEI TREO PESADET FPaaatse poste a esakase tres Peeves e noel ec =— EET ALPES BS Tee ed SET Ea sintatelpiectlescaseltane} ne peleiede ltebeitineit i i RTE tS eee 7 aepeaereT TET TO ANION EET seabarsa gum Seats Levert bette Rese Seasons en eate Tt cs wate oes “3 ma Ss ree eer So; rae sy E te Bf = es ae Ce 110 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST last they are in a huge, low hall, almost dark. The narrow passage in the centre is evil-smelling, littered with boots, rags, and other footgear of those who a little earlier succeeded in gaining admission. On both sides of the passage there rise in five tiers, bunklike, wooden benches, which are dirty and bare. The air is close, foul, saturated with smoke and soot from the little iron stove, the smell of petrol from the diminutive, smoking lamp close to the ceiling, with the exhalation of dirty, worn-out, and diseased human bodies. On the benches, like so many cast-off bundles of rags or broken furniture, were lying human beings, young and old, men and women, the vicious and the virtuous, the profligate and the innocent. . . . Close to a boyish youth, still clinging to life, still able to dream dreams, without complaint and appeals for help, was dying an old tramp, who had stumbled through the last lap of a life which was as dark as this night asylum; into the ears of a young peasant girl, no more than a child, a powerful, drunken, red-faced, and red- haired brute was whispering vile suggestions; at the side of a woman, weeping silently with a sick baby in her arms, was sitting and chanting merry songs a curious character: a monk, to judge by his habit, a regular prison inmate according to his words and ac- tions, .. . And at night .. . at night... abomin: able things took place, which rotted bodies and souls, filled brains with despair, and hearts with hatred.FACTORIES OF IMMORALITY III Regularly every morning the place is raided by the police, which searches and examines documents; some of those caught there are flogged, others dragged to prison, and all terrified and tired out to death. And thus passes night.after night for weeks and months, till the unemployed peasants, with the perfect education of the night asylum, give themselves up to the employer of “black labour.” Now they have be- come familiar with the city; they know how to retort boldly and quickly, have forgotten to bow low, looking insolently straight into people’s eyes; they do not uncover their heads before holy images any more; they have a look of hatred and of resignation. Now they start the true factory life, leading either to prison or back to the village, carrying with it new customs and diseases. One of the favourite occupations of the peasants who went into the towns to earn their living was the loading of barks and ships and “burlatstvo.”’ Here it was always possible to make a bare living, and all who wasted long days and weeks in search of work, wandering in hunger and cold through the piti- less streets of the town or through night asylums, were allowed into it. This kind of work had the additional attraction that it was not subjected to law and au- thority. Man or woman was here a simple beast, like the horse or the mule, to be paid for bodily work, nothing else having any value or mattering anything. Man, woman, young children formed one straining te ae r 7 i rs a i wt 2 = ‘ord wet is i SSPSTRRUPSE RT ir teeeseot Mir tstrests Iie isr fStae a aceo ier ESL PSE SESE SS Md Bec atDE Se teot oe seh cates eee SOREL (EON OOOO CARI RATIO’ DRDERHESIais SS tients poss sevest setter a Lsareseresets - —s = ~ - md Pyrevr sr. i ’ 1; . eres ene titi piststtiasalsieislalictiiicdiaesh: ’ Peet Mian Tema oki Sache byte! =. oar cee anaes HY +i : Prtahs " bir) JES peat Ese ae esaeavecan rs TU 2bio os by: > gree ~ fadecodemdoppieytjerted pfateies«, PPT ees ee r es tieleis 1 {eMewsrtiediies treetptrted Pfs} i sere perepepsyt aphes oan eauatH SHPO shea c31 FS Rise be ssTRLSoEUPS basi sght ly tte pete. 112 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST and active throng which did work with a quick and powerful movement, almost in a frenzy, in conditions of heat, cold, physical and moral filth, for no legisla- tion has been thought of to protect this mob of occa- sional workmen, who here to-day, will probably dis- appear to-morrow. One beholds here an appalling kaleidoscope of types, a motley chaos of thought and feeling. A young girl beside a murderer, escaped from prison ; a deserter from the monastery, half monk, half vagrant, shoulder to shoulder with an ex-Government official, whom drink has led to the unloading of barks. A Tartar beside a Finn, a buddhist Calmuc beside a regular Orthodox believer, a typical, demobilised, de- praved street walker from a great city hand in hand with an illiterate young peasant, who still dreams of lakes and woods of his far-away, sad village. They load coal, firewood, logs, boards, fruit, barrels of fish or butter. Everything is permitted here except theft, which is severely guarded against. The entire working throng must be working all the time. There is one break only—an hour at noon—during which the workers can feed and rest. Here characters are shaped in their own fashion; here primitive morality is trans- formed into dissoluteness among human wrecks, one time human beings; here is the recruiting ground of future gaol birds and involuntary settlers in Siberia. The loading of barks and ships is carried on during the summer, and those hundreds and thousands ofFACTORIES OF IMMORALITY 113 men, women, and children lay out for thetnselvés a camp close to the sea or a river in wood or bush. All are crowded into one mass, where disappear all modesty and bashfulness, all respect of woman, and there remains only a sinister contempt of man for man. Against this background dramas and tragedies of life are enacted; martyred life passes hopelessly from day to day without a morrow, without a future. Maxim Gorky, Skitaletz, and a number of writers of the realistic school took their subjects from the life of this proletariat, which later on so magnificently supported the Government of Lenin and Trotsky. Thus it happened that a Frantsuzov, an ex-workman from the barks, performed the functions of Minister of Commerce and Industry in Petrograd. A still more glaring picture of human savagery was presented in the “burlaks,’”’ who boast a tradition many centuries old. “Burlak” is the homeless, outlawed workman, who, possessing no documents or identity because of his past, dares not, for fear of prison, come to town. Thus he is obliged to look for work in some out-of- the-way place, where there will be nobody to ask him for documents or to oblige him to observe the existing laws. Such places are the great Russian rivers, where the work consists of pulling the cables of the heavy river crait. Hundreds of barks go up the Volga, Oka, Kama, Dnieper, and other rivers, aed ee Bs . eo ~~] j 1 ! = NMG Hat W) FRSA OP Te oe ITER FOPRPUTRE SPST as STD SENDS CVEST EELS Soc Deaths aa Fis Soest SSSI INS erties ence ities eae ec Sea re pf ” a % ue : ess ee —- See] rene epee othe 1 ; - : ; SE IETT HP eet tf) PSOE es CH SEPELEAUENE ET) Teed Sa ten Pe eae ete eae BUR ae Pere eN | Uueeen meen MINS HENNE emote Skt +5 \- : he ( ¢ ~ ee Ue 114 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST They are pulled on long cables by teams of burlaks moving slowly along the bank. It is terribly hard work. From early spring till late autumn the burlaks march, drawing the cable of the heavy bark, which cuts into their arms, chests, and shoulders; they will march sometimes singing with hoarse voices weird lays of olden times, of the famous robbers Pugachov, Rasin, Yermak, and Kolets. Here, within the crowds of the burlaks, was born and gathered strength that unquenchable hatred of all organised society, of Law, and Church, and State. Once upon a time the brotherhood of burlaks brought forth famous leaders who became the terror of the main Russian trade route: the Volga, whom their followers, anarchists by nature, crowned with the halo of the “avengers of the people.’”’ During the Red Revolution this revenge found its executioners among those whose shoulders and chests still bore traces of the “lamka,” that cable-loop which for hundreds of years was dragged by the burlaks. The terror of it all! While all these burlaks, lords of the sea, witches, wizards, sorcerers, and pagans, who shed the blood of the black ram or cock, spread among the ignorant Russian people licence, hatred, and law- lessness, in the capitals, the Imperial Court, nobility, bankers, and higher clergy led a gay and glittering life, of which Europe knew nothing. The scientists wrote epoch-making books, Russian diplomatists at foreign courts enhanced the charm of the Russian name, learn:FACTORIES OF IMMORALITY II5 ing, art, and production, while Tolstoy, the impotent semi-philosopher and semi-romanticist, with his own peculiar Slavic psychology, proclaimed the philosophy of “not opposing evil.” Such contrasts were Russia, but none was willing or able to see them, just as at the present moment none of the civilised countries is willing to behold behind the lofty slogans of Communistic Socialism the million graves of innocent victims who were sacrificed in bloody hecatombs for the greater glory of the new faith. a eee eile tes hee bt pias Sei aDSS + come he 2 a \ sm ss ie aeSaN Oo nteaceere FFRE REPRE PSIOMEMSE STRESS ERE ETE DE Sch neoeh et i Gaus ce’ premeenrets Vearertiere ssrerirettheyi ities iagtt pepeisphroteevspescst tee soS trots ree Ranen en Bike e TE otha tah Neen Denar center» ~ ms rant : F ‘ n ; 4 <9 A 4 5 v ox toed ie a re A re) cao ie ts er) AAAS Sa ale AOS bie ee eee.oe Tae ae GHAPTER XVI WoMAN AND THE CHILD URGENIEV, Nekrasov, Pushkin, Gucharov, and Pezmantov enriched literature with wonderful types of Russian womanhood. But in the west of Europe people did not pay any attention to the fact that the women thus presented were of ancient noble fami- lies, of houses living the civilised life of the West, where French culture was supreme and even exclusive. But now, other giants of Russian literature, Feodor Dostoyevski, and the painter of the petty bourgeosie, Antony Chehov, or the apologist of peasant morality, Leo Tolstoy, draw an entirely different picture. The woman of the Russian middle class was a “‘type- less” individual. She had no place left in Russian humanity. From the point of view of civilised man she was dispossessed of wider human rights, while her spiritual needs were symbolised in the “drab fence” of Chehov’s tale as a colourless, soulless life: a drunken, or mentally demented husband, a petty provincial official, proud of his rank and uniform, her narrow- minded and old-fashioned folks, little-town gossip, lazy, bourgeois flirtations, which ended in nothing but shame and disgust, without the shadow of a drama. 116WOMAN AND THE CHILD 117 In such an atmosphere of discontent and bitterness, in vain search of adventure, which was to render that grey, soul-killing life endurable, the Russian woman had to bring up her children. What was to be their lot? We find the answer in the works of the Russian authors. The boys will grow to become “heads of families” or revolutionaries. The girls will become beings of the same “‘typeless”’ type, waiting and complaining of life—capable only of bearing beings after their own image, without will, at best women capable only of a passive protest, or mar- tyrs whose martyrdom remains unknown to anybody, and therefore passes without leaving a trace. When Dostoyevski painted this apocalyptic picture of Russia, finding in the Russian society so many “fiends” and “‘antichrists,’ he allotted to woman one role only, that of victim to man’s passion, or victim to his perverted, unbalanced, and confused endeavours and strivings. Thus the mad whirl of life carried to fathomless moral depths or to death those impotent beings dispossessed of will, who were the mothers and wives of the Russian middle class. Tolstoy, again, presents the peasant woman either as a semi-heathen enchanted with the mystery of nature’s secrets which are unknown to her, or as a benighted criminal, or as one of a million of females of a still bestial species. It may be that just this position of the Russian fea eer en RTRs tos eon OL aia “ <1 Bs Heer retaieats shideseaelat-titseeebed os tHe pee se aera rate Pal gO bi Sap eryceds PAT ye Hai Torrey eerersei tions tis Purp eseasesiepetaavess bieseaeos sts oot sess eeboeL a Serica ga SIE ET FISESTS PY PIG TET OS TOE elena Hetil Nereisbed TOT eT verte ve ree nb oboec bcos eetad se saatss aeeaatt Parti ast So4 dt oA Serhsas btarere? ST or ati pee e ives ye tit es ele 3 hy sere hfresinettrepinpey nth prea ees eee Ye oer HBSS Beteeararetss rots OER peheetehe Seetieprety 118 THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST woman drove her so often into the bloodstained, fiery embrace of revolution, into Bolshevik madness and its abominably cruel revenge, or into those extreme asso- ciations or groups which are entirely outside even Soviet law. It may be this position made the woman generally an easy prey to man, a being not desirous of tenderness of feeling, but only of excitement, and the easiest way of self-forgetfulness. The heroism, high courage, and magnanimity of the Russian woman are the instinctive protest against such enslavement, against such degradation to the position of a mere factor, an outlaw in the social and national life. At present, under Soviet rule, having obtained the rights of a “human being and citizen,” woman was torn from the family frame, compelled to hard work equal to that of man, carried away by the whirl which tossed her on the men, who more and more lose the sense of respect for the woman that becomes gradually “socialised.” “The decree on the Nationalisation of Women,” never passed by the Soviet Government, was enforced by the life created by the Soviets. For, deprived of the moral support of a father, a husband, or a brother, compelled to send her children to the Communistic asylum—because having no time and no means to keep them, she hands them over to the “children’s asylum of the Third International”’—disillusioned in her old-WOMAN AND THE CHILD 119 fashioned ideals of morality, having lost the sense of womanly dignity, she subjects herself to the regula- tions of the non-issued decree, the news of which per- turbed and revolted the whole world. And the world is still unaware that, although never passed, the decree is enforced in Russian life. In the villages the life of the peasant woman is one long round of cruel treatment at the hands of a drunken or savage husband, who uses infamous and disgraceful language, and thrashes her almost to death. The children lose their respect for their mother, they deny her all moral authority, and when they grow up they begin to insult and beat her, forgetting that all her life she was thrashed like a dog by the father, the head of the family, the lord and master. It is sure that nowhere else is the gulf separating parents and children so impassable as in Russia. If in the educated classes this may be explained by the prog- ress of learning and intellectual advancement, in the villages its cause is patent to every observer; it is the decay of morality amongst the younger generations. Having lived in Tsarist and later on in Soviet Russia, I have had the opportunity of observing such a decline of morality among the workmen and peasant youth, that I could not, without offending the ethical sense of my readers, describe adequately the terribly filthy, abominably criminal life of the Russian youth, which will replace the present generation in the social id _ oe % rar