Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-11-04
Terrible Tragedy of KaeU

STA under the boishevik control may be gained
from the following account of conditions found
at Kieff after that city was evacuated by the
"reds" before the approach of the anti-bolshe-
vik army. 1t is written by q correspondent OF
the London Times, under date of September u,
two days after he had entered the city with us
deliverers:
have reached Kief by air, having
flown from Lutsk in one Of the two aeroplanes
of the French squadron stationed there, whicn
established the first contact between the Poiisn
forces and the Russian volunteer army, passing
over some ESQ miles of country occupied partly
by the bolshevists and partly by the Ukrainian
troops.
in Kieff was unknown and it was rumored that
the anti-bolshevist troops which had occupied
it had again withdrawn A. preliminary recon
naissance over the city showed that life there
was apparently normal. There was plenty. OF
people in the streets, the trains were running;
there was activity in the railway station, and
was also discernible. 1t was, however. with
somewhat an anxious feeling that we planed
down towards the aerodrome. We were reas-
sured BY the sight Of mechanics in British uni
forms running out from a hangar to meet us
"a sure sign that the volunteer army was. in
occupation since considerable portion of it
is now clothed in khaki, and even wears the IA
miliar buttons of the British royal arms.
Kieff today is city of horrors. do not
know whether in any other town in which they
have ruled the bolshevists have left such
CHASTITY traces of their fendish work as they
have here The Ukuainian government was
driven out in January last, and for roughly 200
days from then the bolshevists were in occu-
patton. y-0n every one of these 200 days ex-
ecutions took place by order of the "chrez-
vechaikas" Commissions for combating the
counter revolution).
No one knows how many persons persisted.
Popular gossip, puts the number at 10000 to
100000 This is obviously an exaggeratlon, but
reckoning by the number of bodies which were
found (buried or unburied) at different points
about the city, there must have been at least
1000 victims
There were few men of any education among
the Kieff commissaries. This, and charac-
teristc disrespect for any humane feelings, may
account for the horrible way in which they
left the bodies of their victims partially or en-
trely unbured. The anatomical theater OF the
ecued dead and the volunteer army when
they entered the city found about 200 corpses
lying there in a state of horrible putrefaction
In room in private house l40 more were
found, locked up and left to rot.
Even today fortnight after the delivery, a
terrible odor, which chloride only partially
stiles, invades ones nostrils continually in Ger.
tain parts of the town. Among the sights" of
Kieff are the houses where the two chrez-
vechaikas, the one for Kieffs the other for the
Ukraine held their<sittings and tortured their
victims. either to wiring information from Them
or, as it appears in many cases, simply from
fendsh pleasure in human sufferings.
The Kieff chezvechaika which was &C
counted the most cruel sat in a house in the
street of Sadowa gloomy by-road darkened
by the thick foliage of chestnut trees. Behind
it is a small garden in which is a shallow pit
not taken
bodies of 124 persons who were murdered a
few days before Kieff was captured-one nights
work Many of the bodies were fhutilated by
having pieces of skin i'll the shape of epaulettes
cut from their shoulders and strips from the
thighs in imitation of the stripes an officers
trousers. 4
At one side of the garden is a garage or
coach house This was used as the place of
execution. The walls are pitted with revolver
bullets and splashed with red stains; the floor
is still g1utinous; the smell makes one turn
away sckened after very short inspection. An
English governess, Miss Billingsley who lives
in this street has told me of the awful shrleks
which could be heard coming from this house
night after night. The house itself is Uttered
with an almost comic collection Of objects, ap-
parently looted by members of the. committee
from private houses There is furniture of all
kinds clocks, toys, brd-cage, photographs,
gramophones books heaped together anyhow.
The first volume picked at hazard from big
pile proved to be a Tauchnitz copy of Mark
Twain's THE Innocents Abroad."t
The house of the Ukraine committee has a
similar slaughter house, also a garage: This is,
if anything. worse than the other. There is an
inspection pit. which was used as drain; from
it there comes up the horrible reek of blood; "a
common chopping block beside it is soaked in
it. An old bayonet lies on the floor near by.
Twelve Bodies were found in the garden here,
stuffed anyhow into pit and barely covered
with earth.
Kieff somehow manages to bear all this hor
ror lightly; the people seem to have thrown it
from their minds like nightmare The streets
summer white; the picturesque figures Of the
Cossack officers catch the eye at every turn. As
one walks in the gardens above the Dnieper
and looks on the beauty OF the moonlit stream,
and listens to laughter and the tlnkle Of pianos
from houses hidden by the trees it is ,hard to
believe that the whole story is not dream
Prof /Florinski,, professor of Slav philology
at Kieff university, was shot by woman called
Rosa Schwartz, while the chezvechaika was
still sitting. as he was in the middle of philip
pic against boshevst rule. This woman, Rosa
Schwartz, is commonly spoken of as a member
executed people regularly herself Whether
this was so seems doubtful. She was tried,
condemned to death, and shot few days after
the capture Of the city. At her trial evidence
was produced to show that she was prostitute,
a favorte of severalmembers of the committee.
who was used by them as a decoy to entrap and
denounce persons who professed views un-
favorable to the government. This much, and
the fact of her murder of Prof Florniski, seems
to be established. say this because the figure
vechaika committee is becoming legendary.
There was Jewess at Vinnitza who shot per-
sons with her own revolver; there was another
at Minsk who signed death warrants. Did they