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SIBERIA TO-DAY
SIBERIA TO-DAY
SIBERIA TO-DAY BY FREDERICK F. MOORE LATE CAPTAIN, INTELLIGENCE DIVISION, GENERAL STAFF A. E. F. SIBERIA AUTHOR OF “THE DEVIL’S ADMIRAL” ILLUSTRATED D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK LONDON 1919 Copyright, 1919, by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Copyright, 1919, by THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE COMPANY Copyright, 1919, by LESLIE’S WEEKLY PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA...
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PREFACE
PREFACE
The attitude of mind with which a writer approaches his subject is the core of his book. My purpose in recording my observations and impressions while serving in Siberia is to tell such citizens of the United States as may be interested some of the things they may want to know about the Siberians. This is not a “war book,” nor an account of thrilling deeds, nor a history of our expedition in Siberia, but a book in which I have attempted to bring to the public a realization of the difficulties un
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I EXILED TO SIBERIA
I EXILED TO SIBERIA
“ Let me see your palm!” A smiling major thus accosted me in the offices of the Military Intelligence Division of the General Staff of the army in Washington the latter part of July, 1918. The weather was hot as Billy-be Hanged—hotter than I had ever known it in the Philippines, or so it seemed. It was hotter than the roadstead of Singapore, hotter than the mud-baked streets of Suez City, hotter than Malacca Strait. In former times of tropical soldiering, I had seen commanding generals working i
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II THE SECRET “GETAWAY”
II THE SECRET “GETAWAY”
Crossing the continent in our special car, we began to study Russian, to scan maps of the Russian Empire, to talk of strategy, and to go on learning how to be as secret as possible. This last was accomplished by crowding fifteen officers into one of the drawing-rooms, and holding in this sweat box, what the young officer who had taken upon his shoulders the weight of the Russian campaign, called “conferences.” These conferences did no particular harm, and so far as I could see, no particular goo
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III JAPAN TO VLADIVOSTOK
III JAPAN TO VLADIVOSTOK
Our transports put in at Hakodate for coal. From San Francisco, something had been wrong with the Logan’s engines. What it was, she would neither tell by wireless, nor signal by wig-wag. We heard everything from a story that German spies had tangled fish-nets in her propeller, to a yarn that bearings for her engines had been forgotten on the dock. But the result was, that the Logan , which had been armed especially to protect us, lolled behind, at times dropping below the horizon, and we slopped
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IV TOWARD KHABAROVSK
IV TOWARD KHABAROVSK
When morning dawned, we found ourselves rolling along at about ten miles an hour over a plain, with wooded hills in the distance. The fields were brown and sere, for it was then the first week in October, and the air was feeling the first chill of winter. About nine o’clock we reached Nikolsk-Ussuri, where the railroad splits, one track, the Chinese Eastern, going across Manchuria to the Siberian border, and the other, the one we were to follow, proceeding to the north through the Maritime Provi
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V BOLSHEVISTS AND BATHS
V BOLSHEVISTS AND BATHS
The slow progress of our train gave me many opportunities to talk with Siberians who had been to the United States. Compared to the natives who had never left home, they were highly intelligent, but much of their mental agility put them in the class of people described by Artemas Ward as “folks who know a lot that ain’t so.” All those who had been to the United States with whom I talked, said the United States was “No good—a capitalistic country.” I frankly asked them why they thought so. They h
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VI HETMAN OF THE USSURI
VI HETMAN OF THE USSURI
Khabarovsk is a city of probably sixty thousand population, and picturesquely situated in a sweeping bend of the Amur River, its streets being laid on a bench of land overlooking the river. The barracks occupied by the American and Japanese forces are on still higher ground arranged on a plateau, with the dull reds and browns of the city roofs shining below. It is a provincial capital, the most important north of Vladivostok, and the chief center of the Ussuri Cossacks. The first thing to catch
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VII FROM KHABAROVSK TO USHUMUN
VII FROM KHABAROVSK TO USHUMUN
A glance at the map shows that a wedge of Manchuria runs up into Siberia. Khabarovsk is at the northern point. The Amur, flowing in a general westerly direction, bending southerly along the northern boundary of the Manchurian province of Tsitsihar, and then turning to the north sharply as it comes in contact with the province of Kirin, runs up the westerly side of the wedge, and from Khabarovsk flows almost due north, where it empties into Amur Gulf, near the Siberian port of Nikolaievsk, opposi
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VIII ON THE BACK TRAIL
VIII ON THE BACK TRAIL
The train which had brought us to Ushumun pulled out to the east, leaving me sitting on my bedding-roll smoking a cigarette in the frosty morning, while my interpreter went to the station restaurant to ask if they had any eggs, and if they had, would they please fry them “sunny side up.” Physically and mentally, inside and out, I was flat. My love for Siberia and the Siberians was at its lowest ebb—I would have sold the whole country to the Cossacks at a bargain price, if I had owned it that mor
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IX A RED SWEATER AND THE GENERAL
IX A RED SWEATER AND THE GENERAL
It happened that I wanted to get off at a little station, called Bira. And I understood that the Japanese troop-train would stop there to feed and water, making a sufficient stop for me to visit the company of American soldiers quartered in box-cars on a siding. But we whisked through Bira at an early hour, and we were well down the line toward Khabarovsk, before I learned of the change of plans of the train commander. But I planned to leave the train the next morning, and double back, visiting
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X OVER THE AMUR RIVER ON HORSEBACK
X OVER THE AMUR RIVER ON HORSEBACK
When I left Bira for Khabarovsk, I was without an interpreter, for my soldier had gone on to Khabarovsk from Popperoffka, ill. The train was so crowded that there was no room for me in any of the cars, and all I could do was load my heavy bedding-roll and grip on between the cars, and then stand outside with it. The trip took all day, and till two the next morning. The weather was too cold for comfort, despite my heavy sheepskin coat. But a provodnik insisted that I share his compartment. Except
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XI THE MACHINE THAT SQUEAKED
XI THE MACHINE THAT SQUEAKED
I found Headquarters in Vladivostok seething with secret turmoil. It seems that the Staff resented the fact that fifteen Intelligence officers had been sent by the War Department for duty in Siberia. At least the Intelligence officers got that impression, and they claimed that everything was being done to discredit them, and upset the general plan of studying the Siberian situation in detail if for no other purpose than to watch the Intelligence machine work. Although we did not know it, there h
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XII AN ARMY IMPRESARIO
XII AN ARMY IMPRESARIO
For a week or two after my return to Vladivostok, I familiarized myself with the Intelligence organization at Headquarters. So far as I could see, we had no authority over anybody who happened to be suspected of enemy activity, or actually guilty of some act against the American or Russian laws. When we found a man who had come in under a fraudulent passport, and had in our files data which proved him to be a Bolshevist agent, or sympathizer, we could take no action, other than hold his American
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XIII AWAY TO TRANS-BAIKAL
XIII AWAY TO TRANS-BAIKAL
Our Red Cross Train left Vladivostok just before midnight, December 11, 1918. It consisted chiefly of box-cars full of medical supplies and clothing bound for Omsk; there was an International sleeping car for some twenty Red Cross nurses, Russian women doctors, American missionaries from Japan serving as refugee workers, dentists and physicians. Some of the men had just arrived in Siberia from Manila, and some of the women from Japan, and knew little of travel on a Siberian train. There were two
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XIV THE CITY OF CONVICTS
XIV THE CITY OF CONVICTS
My first impressions of Chita were good. It had an excellent though dirty station, and the buildings were substantial, most of those in the business district being of stone or brick. There were two big Russian churches, a synagogue, and a Mohammedan mosque, two local newspapers being published intermittently, banks which did not at that time boast of their assets, trade-schools, high schools, and a school conducted by the clergy but which was temporarily closed, its building having been commande
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XV ATAMAN SEMENOFF
XV ATAMAN SEMENOFF
It will be remembered by the reader that the officer whom I relieved at Chita, feared assassination. I have no reason to believe that he did not have good grounds for his fears. Naturally, I assumed that I was taking over his dangers, when I took his post. And despite the presence of Semenoff’s army, and his armored train in the railroad yards, there was a feeling of uneasiness in the city. Sentries were posted in the centers of the streets, and kept their little fires burning every night. There
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XVI FAMINE IN CHITA
XVI FAMINE IN CHITA
There had been much discussion at home in the newspapers about famine in Siberia, and in Vladivostok this fear of famine was uppermost in the minds of diplomats, military chiefs, and civilian relief agencies. In fact, there was every evidence in Vladivostok that the inland cities of Siberia were already suffering from hunger, and with a severe winter ahead, there was much apprehension for the country people. The refugees pouring into Vladivostok, clamoring for food, depicted a state of starvatio
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XVII NEW YEAR WITH THE JAPANESE
XVII NEW YEAR WITH THE JAPANESE
New Year’s Day, 1919, began for me at fifteen minutes after midnight, with a thunderous knocking at the glass door of my room. This was rather disconcerting, for there had been rumors the night before that the Bolshevists were going to rise in the city, and slay. The glass door, with its colored paper stuck in the panes, was not ideal for siege purposes; but it had certain advantages, in that I could shoot through it while the Bolshevists were breaking it in. I got out of bed without making any
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XVIII DIPLOMACY AND—MICE
XVIII DIPLOMACY AND—MICE
In a previous chapter I mentioned Captain B——, a Russian serving in Semenoff’s forces, who had his room in the Hotel Select full of food. This officer, and his wife, a frail little woman who had been desperately ill and was still in the convalescent stage, became my closest friends in Chita. Every afternoon at four I was in their room for tea, and Mrs. B——, who was an accomplished musician, played Russian operas and sang. The piano had been borrowed from the wife of a Russian doctor living in th
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XIX NEW FRIENDS, PRISONS, AND OTHER THINGS
XIX NEW FRIENDS, PRISONS, AND OTHER THINGS
Three British officers came to Chita to observe conditions for their government. Lieutenant-Colonel H—— of the General Staff, Major K—— of the British Indian Army, and Captain P—— who was an expert on railroad conditions and gave his attention to matters pertaining to the Trans-Siberian. This trio made my life a joy, for they were jolly chaps, keen on their work and keen on play when it was time to play, as is the Briton the world over. These gentlemen were much amused at first by my “Americanis
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XX THE SOBRANIA
XX THE SOBRANIA
The city of Chita being in an unsettled condition as the result of the Bolshevist troubles passed, and not knowing when more similar troubles might occur, the people never gave up for a single night their amusements. High schools produced amateur plays, there were masque balls, banquets, benefits, motion pictures, and theatres. The empire lay shattered, and foreign flags flew over their public buildings, marking the garrisons of foreigners doing police duty for the Siberians—they gave themselves
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XXI POLITICS AND PRINKIPO
XXI POLITICS AND PRINKIPO
All the time that I was in Chita, Ataman Semenoff and Kolchak were at odds. Kolchak, accusing Semenoff with interfering with railroad traffic at Chita and so hampering Kolchak’s “All Russian Government” in Omsk, issued his famous order in which he denounced Semenoff as a traitor. And while that order stood, Kolchak or Kolchak’s officers, asked Semenoff to send his forces to Irkutsk and other points toward Omsk to anticipate Bolshevist uprisings which were threatened. Semenoff declined to lend hi
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XXII FAREWELL TO CHITA
XXII FAREWELL TO CHITA
The routine of every day ran along about the same as ever for about a week after the Prinkipo invitation to the Bolshevists had unsettled our little world in Chita. But I noted a decided coolness from all parties, or so it seemed to me. My old stock phrases about the “friendship of the United States for a great and reunited Russia” did not ring so true when I got up at banquets to say something pleasant. And as the toasts to President Wilson and the United States at these affairs became less fre
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XXIII CHITA TO VLADIVOSTOK
XXIII CHITA TO VLADIVOSTOK
In about five days we reached Manchuria Station, also known as Mandchuli. At this station we had to change trains, for it was the end of the Baikal division of the railroad and trains for Vladivostok were made up there. This line being the Chinese Eastern, all stations had our American officers on duty, these men being railroad men serving in the Russian Railway Service. Though we had come this far in the private car of the Russian colonel bound for Harbin, it was advisable to arrange for room i
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XXIV THE PEASANTS
XXIV THE PEASANTS
The problem of Siberia is the peasant-minded population. I use this term to avoid confusion with what is the popular conception of “peasant,” that is, a tiller of the soil, a rude and ignorant farmer or farm-hand, the human being described in Russian as “ moujik .” The mass of the people is peasant-minded, whether working in cities or in the wilderness. The fact that those in the cities have acquired urban characteristics, does not to my mind prevent them from having mental calibers on a par wit
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XXV FRENZIED FINANCE
XXV FRENZIED FINANCE
Siberia is the land of Aladdins—Aladdins who can laugh at lamps so long as they possess money-printing machines. The German General Staff was the Magician who craftily suggested the use of the machines. And those first sponsors of Bolshevism, who were the creatures of the Magician, were the terrible jinns who gave their services to the financial wrecking of Great Russia, including Siberia. Said the Magician, “What you Russians want is land and money. There lies the land. Take it! As for money, p
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XXVI LEAVES FROM MY NOTE BOOK
XXVI LEAVES FROM MY NOTE BOOK
Siberia is one of the richest lands in the world in undeveloped resources. The wealth in its plains and hills, its rivers and forests, is beyond computation. Our wheat fields of the northwest in comparison to the wheat plains of Siberia are but backyard gardens. Thousands of square miles in Siberia are literally underlaid with precious metals, its great forests are filled with fur-bearing animals, its rivers teem with great fish, its bird-life offers unlimited food possibilities. Siberian butter
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XXVII THE JOKER IN BOLSHEVISM
XXVII THE JOKER IN BOLSHEVISM
The Bolshevists of Siberia hate wall-paper. After traveling in that country, I came to the conclusion that a Bolshevist operates on the theory that there can be no freedom for anybody so long as a single strip of wall-paper remains on any wall. Neither can there be any freedom while glassware is unbroken, furniture unsmashed, curtains are whole, windows intact, books unburned. And the parlor Bolshevists of the United States, if they were really consistent, would stop talking and start a little f
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XXVIII THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA
XXVIII THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA
It must be fairly obvious to the reader in following my account of what I saw and heard in Siberia that I regard the whole adventure on the part of the United States in Siberia as a failure, whether it is regarded in the light of being an attempt at international diplomacy, military intervention, a gesture of friendship toward Russia, or an enterprise in the nature of insurance against the spread of Bolshevism. Primarily, it began as a new campaign against Germany-to prevent Germany from getting
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