The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1921-11-10


had some chance of recovering it, per
haps already full of typhus-carrying
lice If the coat were in good condi-
ton, his chances of seeing it again
were practically nil. 1t was the same
with our horses; for the most part we
never saw them again. Sometimes,
however, we received them back in a
weeks time, but generally starving,
and so sick as result of neglect that
we were obliged to shoot them.
''By the middle of the winter of
1920 we were almost entirely without
grain ourselves, and numbers of US
were sick and scrofulous as result
of living almost exclusively on camel
sausage"
'+Camel-sausage! exclaimed,
smiling at the adaptability of the Vol
ga German.
''Yes," went on the doctor, camel
sausage is very good with sauerkraut.
But we sickened as a result of living
on meat without cereals or vegetables.
"Our distress was aggravated by
fuel shortage. If a peasant went to
town to sell his clothes in order to buy
straw for fuel, he ran the risk of hav-
ing his sledge cnfiscated, and of being
thrown into prison himself for specu-
lation."
''And did the V1oga Colony submit
tamely to its fate?" asked.
REVOLT IN DESPAIR
''In January of 1921 the despair of
the peasants burst into last flicker
of revolt-the seed grain revolt The
movement was led by a man named
Vakulin, with a nucleus of troops
formed by a mutin6us regiment.
These troops were joined by great
numbers of peasants, and also of Red
Army deserters who had been hiding
in the villages. Women, too, joined
the ranks. The battle-cry of revolt
was Give US back the seed grain for
the next harvest The Rayprodkom,
l must tell you, had stored the grain
wrung from the peasants in go-downs
along the railway line, pending its
trasport to the industrial towns These
gO-dOwns were, for the most part. in
such a state of disrepair that the
grain rotted with the damp. This
waste naturally still further infuriat-
ed the peasants"
"And did the insurrection meet
with any SUGGEST" asked.
Eyes, at first the peasants were
successful all along the line; the grain
depOts were recaptured and the
grain was redistributed. Everywhere
the local Communists were turned out
of Office, and in many cases were put
to death. In their place Vakulin
established Councils of Five com
posed of village elders. Before long,
however, Red troops arrived from
Astrakhan in armoured trains and
Vakulin was surrounded. He sent
delegates to the Red army commander
to attempt to negotiate terms of hon
durable surrender. These delegates
were at once shot by the sailors who
formed the backbone of the Red force
and Vakulin was duly informed of
their fate. This action so Infatuated
the insurgents, that they pulled them
selves together and not only fought
their way out, but also succeeded in
capturing five hundred of the Red
sailors, whom they shot in their turn.
Then a Regular army was sent down
to put down the revolt, and Vakulin,
- ill-equipped and hopelessly outnum-
bered, was obliged to retreat to the
Caucasus
''The German Volga peasants paid
terrible penalty for this last flicker
of revolt against their fate. First
the Red army passed through the vii
lagos, shooting in each hundred or
more inhabitants. Then when they
had gone, and we thought that the bit
terness of death was past-came the
Extra ordinary Commission and the
Revolutionary Tribunals; where the
Red army shot one hundred men and
women, they shot three hundred, and,
crazed by terror, neighbours, friends,
relatives denounced each other in a
mad instinct of self-preservation.
about this time we were subjected
to another visitation. The colony was
ravaged by Red army bands, Tequisi-
tioning our last horses. The arrival
of such bands was generally notified
from neighbouring villages, and then
the peasants would leave everything
and go into the steppes with their few
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