Beasts, Men and Gods | Page 4

Europe to the heart of Asia. There in the depths of
the still Siberian winter I was suddenly caught up in the whirling storm

of mad revolution raging all over Russia, sowing in this peaceful and
rich land vengeance, hate, bloodshed and crimes that go unpunished by
the law. No one could tell the hour of his fate. The people lived from
day to day and left their homes not knowing whether they should return
to them or whether they should be dragged from the streets and thrown
into the dungeons of that travesty of courts, the Revolutionary
Committee, more terrible and more bloody than those of the Mediaeval
Inquisition. We who were strangers in this distraught land were not
saved from its persecutions and I personally lived through them.
One morning, when I had gone out to see a friend, I suddenly received
the news that twenty Red soldiers had surrounded my house to arrest
me and that I must escape. I quickly put on one of my friend's old
hunting suits, took some money and hurried away on foot along the
back ways of the town till I struck the open road, where I engaged a
peasant, who in four hours had driven me twenty miles from the town
and set me down in the midst of a deeply forested region. On the way I
bought a rifle, three hundred cartridges, an ax, a knife, a sheepskin
overcoat, tea, salt, dry bread and a kettle. I penetrated into the heart of
the wood to an abandoned half-burned hut. From this day I became a
genuine trapper but I never dreamed that I should follow this role as
long as I did. The next morning I went hunting and had the good
fortune to kill two heathcock. I found deer tracks in plenty and felt sure
that I should not want for food. However, my sojourn in this place was
not for long. Five days later when I returned from hunting I noticed
smoke curling up out of the chimney of my hut. I stealthily crept along
closer to the cabin and discovered two saddled horses with soldiers'
rifles slung to the saddles. Two disarmed men were not dangerous for
me with a weapon, so I quickly rushed across the open and entered the
hut. From the bench two soldiers started up in fright. They were
Bolsheviki. On their big Astrakhan caps I made out the red stars of
Bolshevism and on their blouses the dirty red bands. We greeted each
other and sat down. The soldiers had already prepared tea and so we
drank this ever welcome hot beverage and chatted, suspiciously eyeing
one another the while. To disarm this suspicion on their part, I told
them that I was a hunter from a distant place and was living there
because I found it good country for sables. They announced to me that

they were soldiers of a detachment sent from a town into the woods to
pursue all suspicious people.
"Do you understand, 'Comrade,'" said one of them to me, "we are
looking for counter-revolutionists to shoot them?"
I knew it without his explanations. All my forces were directed to
assuring them by my conduct that I was a simple peasant hunter and
that I had nothing in common with the counter-revolutionists. I was
thinking also all the time of where I should go after the departure of my
unwelcome guests. It grew dark. In the darkness their faces were even
less attractive. They took out bottles of vodka and drank and the
alcohol began to act very noticeably. They talked loudly and constantly
interrupted each other, boasting how many bourgeoisie they had killed
in Krasnoyarsk and how many Cossacks they had slid under the ice in
the river. Afterwards they began to quarrel but soon they were tired and
prepared to sleep. All of a sudden and without any warning the door of
the hut swung wide open and the steam of the heated room rolled out in
a great cloud, out of which seemed to rise like a genie, as the steam
settled, the figure of a tall, gaunt peasant impressively crowned with
the high Astrakhan cap and wrapped in the great sheepskin overcoat
that added to the massiveness of his figure. He stood with his rifle
ready to fire. Under his girdle lay the sharp ax without which the
Siberian peasant cannot exist. Eyes, quick and glimmering like those of
a wild beast, fixed themselves alternately on each of us. In a moment he
took off his cap, made the sign of the cross on his breast and asked of
us: "Who is the master here?"
I answered him.
"May I stop the night?"
"Yes," I replied, "places enough for all. Take a cup of tea.