Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-01

training could not solve. Then she found a
woman in camp to care for the baby.
Gen. Olga and went for a stroll through
the woods and over the meadows Soldiers
were lounging about under the trees or playing
foot ball and cavalrymen were riding over the
open fields; no one paid the slightest attention
to the girlish figure walking beside me.
II sometimes wonder what my boy will think
Of me when he grows up" she unused, a little
wistfully. do you suppose he viii be ashamed
Of his soldier motlder?" '.t
replied that quite the contrary he might
be expected to develop a mother complex espe-
cially If she maintained higher rank than
his father -...- .....
THE weather was hot and we sat down in the
shade Of a clump of bushes. noticed how
white and smooth was the skin of her bare
arms and she explained that she never burned
or tanned. Then noticed on the inside of her
delicate wrists q number Of scars as If red
hot iron had been laid across them. But when
mentioned them, she was embarrassed and
looked away.
ct am ashamed to tell you how they came
there" she said her sweet face flushing. "They
recall a moment of weakness want to forget"
But another time heard the whole story
It was during the Civil War Of I918-1919 that
Olga Minskaya, then only a young girl of II,
threw herself with passionate devotion into the
cause Of the Bolshevik, acting as a scout in the
Red forces. She displayed such courage and
such ability for leadership that, when revolu.
ton broke out in Hungary, she was sent there.
But the Hungarian Soviet Republic was Short
lived On the eve Of the counter revolution, the
Hungarian revolutionary leaders fed to Russia,
leaving Minskaya and her comrades to face the
debacle
She was captured and thrown into prison.
This was a terrible memory. She was mis-
treated, Inundated, tortured. Finally in what
she called weak moment" she felt she could
bear it no longer. There was a piece of broken
mirror in her cell and with this she slashed her
wrists, attempting to sever the veins. But
guard discovered her.
Deliverance finally came. The Soviet govern
ment offered oil in exchange for number of
prisoners, including some Hungarians as well as
Russians. Olga returned to Moscow.
1NDAUNTED by SufferingS, MinSkaya begged
to be permitted to continue her career and
her case was brought to the attention of Leon
Trotsky Trotsky was then a commander-in-
chief of the Red army and was idolized by his
soldiers. Now he is in exile and his name is
never mentioned in the ranks. Thus does the
rigid discipline of the Russian Communist party,
which for IL years has held the political power
in Russia, operate to annihiate individuals who
are not considered in harmony with accepted
party policies.
Nothing could illustrate better the thorough
ness with which the Campaign of silence" was
employed against Trotsky than the art exhibit
concentrating the tenth anniversary of the
birth of the Red army, calling itself complete
history of the Red army in paintings, portraits
and sculpture.
searched in vain through the galleries and
through the catalogue for the name and face of
Leon TrotSky, its organizer and first COM
mander. There was, however, a painting of
heroic proportions of the late Gen. Michael w.
Frunze, who succeeded Trotsky as commander
in-chief Of the Red army.
While Olga Minskaya may no longer, being a
loyal Communist and Red soldier, revere the
former commander, it was Trotsky who, struck
by. her unusual ability. arranged that she should
enter the war academy on an equal footing with
men.
His confidence in her was not unfounded. No
student in the academy has surpassed her in
scholastic standing and display of military
genius. Her professors declared that her mind
was a marvel-she seemed to learn without
effort and to master easily the most difficult
problems.
TN 1927 an American writer on a visit to Mos
:. cow wanted to meet this woman general"
invited them both to have dinner in my room
at the Lux Hotel. go
The American suggested that it would be a
lark for him to make a burberry pie-his IA
vorite recipe-perhaps wanting to show the
army. officer how democratic and versatile we
Americans are Varya, my maid, bought the
ingredients, blueberries being then in season.
When came home from work found the
American writer in the community kitchen
busy rolling out the crust, attended respectfully
by Varya, while half dozen maids gathered
about laughing and talking Their remarks
fortunately incomprehensible to him--fiew about
as thick as the. flies that came through the open
windows in .unmolested swarzns. ...'...
IN bring the general out as soon as she ar
rives," I told him, while he chuckled with de-
light at the situation 80
Minskaya came quietly into the Kitchen wear