The Washington herald., 1919-05-06
The Amazing Story of
Maria BOtchkarepa
Leader of the Russian Battalion of Death

telegraphed to the station master of
Tutalsk. the village In which my folks
now lived. to provide a stretcher for
me-
My sister. Arina, was employed at
the station as attendant at the tea
kettle, which Is always kept boiling at
Russian railway stations. 1t was this
employment OF hers that had caused
the family to move to Tutalsk from
Tomsk. where they had no means of
livelihood whatever
When the message from the inferno
IN charge Of the car reached my sister
and through her my parents, there was
an outburst of lamentations. 1t was
three years since they had seen their
Marusia and now she was apparently
being brought home on her death-bed!
On the fourth day of the journey
from Tcheliabinsk the train stopped al
Tutalsk. My leg was badly swollen
and was as heavy as a log. The pains
were agonizing. Ny face was pallid
A stretcher was prepared for me at
the station. My sisters. my mother
and father and the station master
were at the door OF the coach when ]
was carried out. My mother shrieked
heart-rendingly. My Marusia! NY
CidSptu HtT IOWaTC
heaven and threw herself full length
on me, mourning over me as IL were
ready for burial.
Her prodigal daughter had returned
my mother walled. but in what condi.
tion! She thought that I must have
been wounded and asked to be sem
home to die. I could not talk. / could
only grasp her bony arms as a gush Of
tears and sobs choked my throat
Everybody was crying. my sister.
calling me by caressing names. my
white and bent father standing ovel
me. and even the strange station mas
ter
I became hysterical and the doctor
was sent for. He had me removed
home Immediately. promising in re
sponse to my mothers pleas to dC
everything in his power for me. I re.
mained Ill for a month. passing anC
meeting the New Year, 1918, in bed
The ZOO rubles ! had saved I gave
| to my parents. But this sum. consid
cred a fortune before the war, wa.
| barely sufficient for a few months liv
ing. It cost nearly 100 rubles to buy
| a pair of slippers for my youngest sis
ter. Nadia. who went barefoot, i
cost almost twice as much to buy hel
a secondhand Jacket at the Tomst
| tolkutchka (market of secondhand ar,
/ ticles). Manufactured goods sold at q
premium when they were to he had
| but II was much more difficult TO fint
what one needed than to pay an cx'
orbitant price for II. There was plenty
, of flour in the country. But the peas
ants would not sell it cheaply becaus,
| they could get nothing in town fol-
less than fifty or a hundred times its
| former price. The result was thai
flour sold at two rubles a pound. On.
can see how far 1000 rubles could carr!
| one in Russia.
Tutalsk had been swept by the hur'
| ricane of Bolshevism. There were
many soldiers who returned from tn,
front. imbued with Bolshevik teach
inGs. Just before my arrival the new.
ly-made heretics even burned the vii.
lage church. to the great horror OF the
| older Inhabitants. II was not an un
usual case: 1t was typical of the time
| Hundreds of thousands of BLINDED
youths had returned from the trenche
| with the passion to destroy. to tea
down everything that had existed be