Evening star., 1920-07-11
THE DOWNFALL
had openly gone over to the reds. we

had openly gone over. to the reds. we
entrained.
Meanwhile we had received news that
Gatchina was completely in the hands
first objective. We detrained few
miles from the city and marched upon
1t. but there was no fighting. Somehow
the red forces In Gatchina had con-
ceived the idea that "Kerensky's army"
numbered in the thousands and the city
fell without the firing of a single shot
or the loss Of a single life. Some diff
Guilty was experienced when the soldiers
were ordered to lay down their arms,
but I went amongst them In an auto
mobile and. standing on the seat, told
them briefly:
''You will turn over your arms to the
Cossacks Immediately. Otherwise we
will withdraw and fire upon you, bonn
harding the town."
This attttute had the desired effect.
The arms in great number were handed
over to the Cossacks at once. But al
ready the spirit Of pickering and arguing
had laid hold Of my own troops. Had
it not been for my sudden action they
probably would have ended then by be-
ing talked over by the bolsheviki.
Heartened by this success, we de-
cided to attack Petrograd, which city
our information showed us had at last
succumbed to the reds with the excep-
ton of the Winter Palace. where the
q
/ decided to follow my usual princi-
| pie of leaving the direction of military
operations to those experienced in such
affairs and turned the offensive over to
Krassnov.
Every One Wanted to Talk.
The result was interminable delay.
The so-called loyal troops at Gatchina
| had been consolidated with the Co.'S
! sacks. with the usual result that boil
I tutHA HAryAlp ~0rN
propaganda, and discussions of political
| questions became paramount with the
| troops. Even some Of the officers began
| to be entranced by the beautiful picture
. painted by the red orators.
| krassnov did nothing to launch the
attack against Petrograd, although we
| received messages from the remnants of
| the provisional governmet there begging
| for action and declaring it would save
the city. krassnov claimed that he
ent state Of morale.
| We were flooded with kilograms
stating that reinforcements had been
sent. but the soldiers did not arrive.
All the troops. especially the Cossacks.
began to look upon these fresh forces
as myth. The Cossacks were no
longer willing to bear the brunt of
fighting, and demanded that Russian
infantry share their burden.
| Not until 1t was too late did I fully
awake to the real cause behind the
continued delay of the reinforcements.
which. in some cases, were making
every possible effort to reach us. The
evil genius which was sitting all
efforts to send us military aid was the
central bolshevik executive committee
of the railroad unions of all Russia
commonly known by the title Of Wig
kel. which term I shall use here
after. The chiefs of the Vigkel, who
| had tried several times in vain to
wrest the power from the government
and invest it in the railroad unions
decided to seize upon this critical
moment to further their own ends.
| Under the pretext of furthering
humanity by stopping q civil war this
Vigkel assumed a role of peacemaker
in the struggle between the two
parties, which,. in it9 opinion. had an