New-York tribune., 1919-01-30
Mothers Hold Up Infants 40
BE Seen and Touched by
Returned Siberian Exile.
Here to Preach Faith in
Her Coun,ry's Salvation
In Broken Accents She Re.
tells Tragic Story of Ma
tive Land, Where Promise
of Freedom Made People
Happy Gas Bird Can Be"

Catherine reshkovsky, Russla's "Ba-
boushka.' the Little Grandmother of
the Revelation" reached the Grand
central Terminal yesterday on the 10Th
Century Limited She is seventv-1ve
gears old, this returned Siberian exile
and her mission IN the New World is
70 preach her faith IN Iussia-not the
Russia of Trotzky and Lenine. but the
Russia Of "Babouska -"
Beneath the turmoil and the blood
shed OF Red Russia the Russia Of pa
poushka' still lives, and for its sue
cor she has traversed wildernesses and
seas and reached yesterday the high
Vauited gateway of the greatest city
Of the West.
ln accordance with her wishes no
formal reception had been arranged.
But the Russians of New York-of "Ba-
boushAas" Russia-werc at the ter
minal TO meet her. They brought with
them children to whom she was but Il
legend and grandsircs who remembered
with her tie Russia tina thad existed
Vnder the surface in the Cars time
as it did in Trotzky's.
Crowd Bulges Ropes
When the limited pulled in. at 9:2O
a. m, and the gates were opened they
sWarmed forward, bulging the ropes
ana tipping the standards set up to
Keep an aisle open for the passengers.
Every eye was scanning the motley
throog that poured through the gate
way and shout of greeting went up
when they espied the squat figure OF
Rah ncl lyc ~
They surrounded her with incohercnt
cries and mothers held infants up to
see and be touched. General konstan-
tin N. Oberucheff. one of the official
welcoming party, at last obtained or
der, and the women and men and chill
dren formed a double line stretching
iromthe train gate to the Forty second
Street door, through which "Baboush-
ka' walked, her face beaming. She was
taken to the Henry Street Settlement.
Its head, Miss Lillian d. Wald was a
member ofthe welcoming committee
Other members were Alice Stone Black
we'll, editor of The English version of
Nine Breshkovsky's (thc authorized
spelling of her name) letters, and A. }.
Sack, head of the Russian Information
Bureau.
When she reached the settlement she
spoke Of her mission.
People Are Bcggared.
1--WE are beggarcd," she said. eve
have nothing. All our riches are under
/ ground, and there arc none to work
With the Boshevki we live under
military dictatorship. Force rules all,
and there is no freedom, and no bread,
and no clothes, and no industry, and no
education above all. there is no cdu-
cation"
A,,l 4
slow, difficult English, she retold the
tragic tale of Russia--of how when
the revolution first came with its prom
ise of freedom call over Russia we
were all so happy as only bird can
be- only to have that hoppiness sud
denly turned into black despair by the
Bolshevist rise.
Basically, Nine. Breshkovsky ex-
planned, it was upon the ignorance
and unreason of the Russian peasant
mass that the Bolshevist power was
built. In those weary days when all
the land was sick Of war, the Leninc-
Trotzky forces made their appeal upon
q peace and bread" plea During the
period when this plea was sweeping
all before it and preparing the way
for Kerensky's eclipse all the arms
and munitions and military power Of
the nation, came into Bolshevik hands.
To-day when, she declared, the great
ma jority of the Russians have turned
against the Bolsheviki, and hold them
selves cheated and betray by the
Lenine programme, it is Nih these
same arms that the prolst ran die
tators enforce their power and per
petuate theAr own ascendency, sweep
ing all opposition aside as ruthlessly
as did any of the Cars hirelings un-
der the old terror.
Joined by Chinese Coolies
"Thcy let the criminals out of the
jails,' she said, "and they took over
the gendarmes Of the old C1&r, and
they have been joined by the Chinese
collies, who used to he employed on
large landed estates, and it is with
these men that they are to-day holding
the country in their grip"
The Germans are helping in the
work, too, she stated. Not only the
German prisoners in Central Russia
where, "Baboushka" explained, in con
trast to the rest Of the country. food
still may be obtained, but by German
officers from the outside.
Everywhere there is Soviet, and
wherever there is Soviet there is
little German general directing its
movements" was the way she put it.
"And everywhere, everywhere she
went on, "thcre is corruption. Boil
shcvism breeds it, lives on it. And on
war. They came promising us a para
disc, and instead we have to- day a
country torn throughout by civil war,
with $4,000 fighting fronts forever ac-
tive"
She told little personal tales Of hur-
ried fights, breathless horseback rides,
miraculous escapes. She lived to see
revolution accomplished only, with the
accession of Bolshevik power She be
came once more hunted creature,
outcast and prosecuted.
Refugees Fill Stations
At present, she said, in the country
where no factories operate no land is
titled, and trains are almost scarce as
comets, all the railroad stations are
filled with shivcrng refugees. fleeing
from before the Bolsheviki
She told Of thee Czecho Slovak ad
vance, when the Bolsheviki abandoned
the town, taking out all the food
stores. The peasants, with the entry of
The Czccho- Slovaks, despite their ies-
pcrate condition, held fcsAval.
dancing in the streets
Russians do not, she afirms, want
armed Intervention on the part Of the
Allies, unless they ca nbc absolutely