Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1919-07-03
REDS scoURGE RUSSIAN TOWN.
Burn and PllIase For Days; Citizens
Murdered In Cold Blood.


Bielebei, European Russia, May 10,
via Vladivostok. June 2.-The reign "
the bolsheviki passed over the people
Of Bielebie like n scourge. The boil
sheviki occupied Bielebei for several
months. -.n
The correspondent of the Associated
Press visited the town within a fort
night after their evacuation. The peo-
pie were just beginning to readjust their
domestic and governmental affairs.
Refugees were returning to view the
wreck Of their homes. They were
veritable wrecks for the bolsheviki had
occupied all vacated houses and had
carried away or destroyed most OF their
contents. An elderly Judge of the dis
trict court, Professor Paul Blumenthal,
long a resident of the United States,
VINO left upon approach OF the bolshe-
Wiki, was so overcome with grief over
the fate Of his native town that he
wept.
Many persons had disappeared and 1t
was we'll known that many had been
murdered. The corpses of victims are
being discovered. The correspondent
followed a stream Of men, women and
children which flowed out across the
fields toward the edge Of a scraggly
wood. There, under the overhanging
bank on the edge OF gravel pit, they
we're lying, tangled heap &c Bodies,
apparently as they fell or had been
thrown, with no attempt at burial.
The bodies were mostly those OF
young or mIddle-aged workmen. From
each the boots and most of the outer
clothing had been removed. OF some
the skulls were crushed, Of others the
faces were disfigured as tho by gum
shot at close range.
The crowd on the bank above the
grewsone pile appeared fascinated.
They silently made way for a group Of
Americans, including Consul Enlbry,
from Omsk. and two correspondents,
and watched with interest while they
photogra pied the victims.
A nicely dressed woman and little
girl walked into the pit to get better
look at the figure of blond young
girl which lay partly uncovered close
under the bank.
The body was perfectly preserved by
the cold and lay with arms bare and
crossed as tho the girl might have been
sleeping. The face which was not dis
figured, was that OF an intelligent,
pretty girl. Toward dusk the body was
removed by relatives who had come
from Ufa. She was high school girl
from that town who had been abducted
by the bolshevik commissar when Ufa
was evacuated. Close by was the body
Of another woman.
When the bolshevih entered Bielebei
the government Of the town was taken
over by Revolutionary Committee Of
Communists" There was formed q
Committee Of Investigation" under
the presidency Of one Welt, Lett. One
Of the first acts of this committee was
TO shoot the president of the former
local county zemstvo as a counter-rev-
dictionary. The latter was i'll at the
time and had to be carried out to his
death in a chair. Twenty men were
shot and in addition many Mohamme-
dan priests. A member Of the Investi-
eating Committee boosted that he shot
one priest because he was too long over
his prayers. while the committeeman
waited to take him
Hugh school boys and girls and
priests were compelled to clean the
streets, Women Of the 'intelligentzia"
were made to clean the floors and walls
of barracks occupied by bolshevik
| troops.
Nine. Koshnevikoff, owner of the
most imposing residence in the town,
was arrested. Her daughter. seeking
her release. was told that the charge
against her was a secret. After
month In Jail she was released. 1t de-
veloped that all they had against the
| woman was that on a previous evacua-
ton of Bielebei she had served such
fine meal to the bolsheviki that some
Of them narrowly escaped capture by
the whites" because of tarrying over
their dinner.
More than eighty hostages were talk
en- when the bolsheviki evacuated.
In Russia, bricks made of coal dust,