The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1922-09-22
Madame Ponafadine Will Be at
High School Hall October a
TALE or MUCH SUFFERING
Escaped to America With Two
Sons After Enduring
Many Hardships


miraculous escape from Russia,
speaks in Bennington October 4.
Her husband, Baron Peter Pona-
fadlne, was a Russian diplomat in
the Far East at various posts; his
picture shows him to have been one
OF the finer type OF Russian intellect.
ual.
ual While consul to Persia, he met and
married Miss Emma Cochran then
living there with her parents, Pres.
byterian missionaries to that country.
Upon his reaching the age limit in the
Russian diplomatic service, shortly.
before the war, Baron and Baroness
Ponafadine with their three sons set
tied down to the management OF his
vast estate of about 1000 acres which
had been in the family since the
time OF Peter the Great. There they
were when the Russian revolution
and Soviet government came. They
lived, as Madame Ponafadine says
under circumstances unparalleled in
the French revolution. Their estate
was taken by the Soviet government
and parcelled out After untold suf.
ferings, hair-breadth escapes, and
life of terror and horror under the
Soviet regime, Madame Ponafadine,
given up as dead by her friends
here, made her escape with two OF
her sons.
Her case is so we'll known that'im.
mediateiy upon her arrival in this
country " New York syndicate en-.
gagged her as public speaker.
The Atlantic Monthly and the Satur-
day Evening Post offered her large
sums for anything she would write.
AS soon as she arrived In Washing
ton last spring she was asked to
speak at the Russian embassy by the
wife OF the former secretary OF state,
Mrs. Lansing. and by General U. S.
Grants granddaughter, Princess Can
tacuzene, who had also married a
Russian. The embassy was crowded
to hear her.
Here is a cultured and brilliant
American woman who can give US
peculiarly effective and credible
testimony as to the exact conditions
in rural Russia today; who sees the
Russian question not only from our
standpoint, but also from the inside.
as she had to become a citizen of the
Soviet government. Apart from the
chance TO obtain authentic informa-
tion at first hand on one of the world
problems Of today her story is as ro-
mantle and thrilling as a novel. In
her account of everyday life under
the Soviet regime she mentions how
news Is misrepresented to Russian
citizens. She read in the daily Rus
sian press about the railroad strikes
in America, go per cent OF the rail-
roads being unable to operate be-
cause the Bolshevik workmen re-
fused to work." upon which her son
remarked, Mother, what's the use of
trying to get to America? Accord,
ing to the papers we will get there
when the worst OF the bloody reyolu-
ticn is on
In appearance she is short and
rather stout; the lovely face of her
girlhood is changed and lined with
care; and she has been through 50
much that she can no longer stand
quite erect. For nine years she did
heavy work on her estate, often stand
ing barefoot in line to get supplies
from the Soviet officials, so that the
arches of her feet are broken. In
all that time she could not reach a
dentist or an oculist. Despite her
terrible experience her wonderful
eyes and animation in speaking are.
unchanged
Her friends know her to be a clear
thinker and to have preeminently the
gift of viyed forceful talk. She
speaks with restraint and a remark
able absence of resentment; she does
not mention her deepest personal suf-
ferings, like the blindness and death
of her husband, or the murder of her
eldest son. William Lyons Phelps
comment on her speech at Yale Uni
versity says: Thrilling account of
her escape from Russia a'-"She is an
accomplished public speaker AL
though she can hardly fill her engage.
ments in larger cities, she was eager
to speak here because her former
schoolmates, Miss Jennie Valentine,
Mrs. Philip Jennings, and Mrs.
Charles Fl. Darling begged her to do
so. She does not lecture under the
auspices of any local organization.
Her letters are in the Atlantic
Monthly Of July 1918, February /,
1919 and in the July, August and
September numbers of this year
which are in the Free-Library.
The lecture will be at Bennington
High school hall Wednesday, October
4, SIS p. m. Tickets are $125 and
will be on sale at Gokays drug store
Tuesday September 26; and at the
door the evening of the lecture.
Tickets may also be obtained of Mrs.
Philip B. Jennings of Old Benning-
ton; of Mrs. Caroline Wellington of
North Bennington; and of Miss Jen.
ME A. Valentine and of Miss Helen
Thomas Of Bennington. There are