El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1919-08-23
FINDS
FAMILY AFTER
THREEYE
Red Cross Restores Wife
and Family to Soldier
in Siberia.
WAS PRISONER OF
THE GERMAN ARMY
Bolsheviki Rae Village
and Leave Mother and
Babes Homeless.

IOMSK. Siberia, Aug. 2S.-To find
~ the needle in the haystack-ant
for that needle to be your own wife
and family-lost in the great wilder
ness called siberial But here is tn,
story:
A Russian soldier. Nikolia Ivanoff
who had been in a German prison
camp for three years. was recently
released and. with hundreds Of others
I shipped to Omsk, the seat Of the All
] Siberian Government He arrived in
Z Omsk-ragged, tired, hungry, home
/ less While he had been a prisoner
. the Bolshevik uprising had occurred.
I His native village had been RACED by
I the Red Guard. Three years before
{ he had left his brave young wife
I and two babies in that village We're
I they dead. or were they refugees,
: fleeing before the horrors of the Boil
I sheTik2 At either thought his heart
sank. To be a refugee-hOmeless in
the bitter cold Of Siberia, hungry in
land where even the rich could not
buy food He pictured the bare toes
OF the little Ivan and no small boots
to be had in Siberia for the children.
And then he could not let himself
think Of it any longer, but started
in 10 hunt for the three who belonged
to him.
It is something Of a job-searching
Siberia for a family Hundreds Of
thousands Of refugees, scurrying in
terror before the Germans and Boil
sheTiks alike, scattering like chaff,
have either died or been completely
lost sight Of. Whole families have
been wiped out, leaving never a trace
nor a memory to show such souls
had been. Those that survived were
sprinkled over thousands of square
miles. from Ufa TO Vladivostock.
Nikolai began his search in Omsk-
More than q hundred thousand refu-
gees live in Omsk- Nikolai tried
all the official channels Of the Rus
sian government. but there was no
record Of his wife and babies They
told him to go to the American Red
Cross
In the city Of Omsk the American
Red Cross handled over $4,000 ref
ugees- Some live in huts and houses,
some in Zyemlyankas OF dugouts
scraped out from under the snow,
others live in b0x-cars and several
thousand IN barracks The Red Cross
holds complete records Of them all
Red Cross to Rescue.
Nikolai plodded hopelessly over the
snow 10 the barracks and inquired OF
the byergenci (refugees) for his fam
ily- No one knew Marie Ivenoffa,
and little Ivan and Olga-they were
not there. He was about to turn away
when he saw a Red Cross worker.
He asked her about his wife, his
young wife and two babies. Did she
know where they were? The REQ
Cross woman looked in the Red Cross
records and there they were writ
ten down. Marie, Ivan and Olga Yes,
all were living-no, not in the bar
racks, but in a zyamlyanka- The
Malchik Ivan was sick, but the Amer
- = I'm 49,
day. They had all received clothes
from the Red Cross distribution
rooms. The wife did sewing for them
and earned sixty rubles a week-not
much. but enough TO keep the little
stomachs full
The Red Cross woman told him how
TO find the zyemlyanka, pretending
not to see the tears that trickled from
his brave Russian eyes and dropped
onto his shabby uniform