The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-08-05
lED CROSS FINDS
NEEDLE IN HAYSTACk'

1871. Siberia, June tBy mat),-Tc
nv needle in the haystack-ard for
<4 needle to be your own wife and
lily lost in the great wilderness
NJ k3le4 Siberia But here is the story,
e%8@f Russian soldier named Ntkoiai
EHE@nnafe who had been In a German
\ f4nOn camp for three years was re-
asS5G&ntly released and. with hundreds OF
S@&8Aare, shipped to Onlsk. the seat OF the
am aa-04h<rtan government. He arrived
omek ragged tired, hungry. home
- while he had been a prisoner the
L 1o1ahevtk uprising had occurred his
Rs5Haflve village had been razed ny 'he
Ma1kAA Guard, Three years before he had
Mn his brave young wife n Two
b hAAies In that village. Were they dead,
SN0r we're they refugees. feettnE before
thu horrors OF tho BolsheviStT Al
II 4ftAer thought his heart sank, To be
Sk refuxee--homaIess in the bitter cola
%Dk Siberia. hungry In a lana WhsEe
the rich could not u food. ne
y n3etured the bare toes Of the little ivan
ard no small boats TO be had IN siee-
- for the children. And then he could
NOT let himself think az it any longer.
haf started in to hunt for the three
Who belonged TO him
II 10 something Of a 3ob-searching
n theria for a family. Hundreds Of thou
aANds OF refugees. scurrying IN terror
before the Germans and solshev1hs
nike. scattering like ehaT. have either
died or beer completely lost sigh of
whole families have been wiped out.
IeayinE never a trace nor a memory
u show that such souls had been
These that survived were srrinkled
ever thousands OF square miles from
Uxa to vladivostok-
Nfkclas began hts search In Ornsk.
Moro than a hundred thousand refugees
I'VE In omsk. Nikolai tried all the Of
neial channels OF the Russian govern
Nent. but there was no record ~ his
Wife and babies. They told him to
- 70 the American Red Cross
IN the CITY of ofnsk. the American
NeA Cross handled over $4,000 refugees.
Nome live in huts and houses. some in
Uysmiyankas or dugouts scrapea out
from under the snow. others I'VE IN
Aox cars, and several thousand in bar
rAcka The Red Cross holds complete
records OF them all
Nikoiai plodded hopelessiy over the
snow to the barracks, and inquired Of
the b~yergenci (r~efugees) for his fam
5ly. No one knew Marie Ivenofa, ana
little Ivan and Olga-they were not
there. He was about To turn away
hen h saw a Red Cross worker. lie
asked her about his wife~-hts young
wife and two babies. nfd she know
wherA they were9 The Red Cross wo-
sssAn looked In the Red Cross records,
and there thev were written down,
Marie. Ivan and Olga. Yes. all were
Sifvtnx-no, not in the barracks but in
" x~yarnlyanka. The Maichik Ivan was
sick. but the American. nurse came TO
nee him every DAY. They had all re-
ceived clothes from the Fed Cross dis
tsibution rooms. The wife did sewing
for them, and earned sixty rnbles a
week--not much but enough to Keep
the liftle stomachs fall.
The Red Cross woman told him how
to md the zyemIyanka, pretending no
TO see the tears that tickle from his
{rAve Russian eyes. and dropped on
"a his shabby uniform, He thanked
her hrokenly. lips trembling, and hur-
r;ed OF to the z~yemlyanka. II was
only five minutes walk from the bar
rEcka-hve minutes after three years