CHAPTER XXXIII

A PREHISTORIC MONUMENT—MY DEPARTURE FROM KARA—LIFE IN STRETYENSK—MY TRANSFERENCE TO BLAGOVESTSHENSK—THE MASSACRES OF JULY, 1900

During my sojourn in Kara I took part in an expedition, the object of which was to discover the whereabouts of a curious relic of ancient times. One of our comrades, Kuznetsov by name, who by reason of his arch?ological researches was rather a noted personality in Siberia, had written to me on this subject. According to the testimony of various people, there was in the neighbourhood of Kara a monumental stone covered with ancient characters inscribed in some red colouring matter. This had been mentioned long before in the proceedings of the Geographical Society of Irkutsk, but had never been described in detail; and Kuznetsov—who himself lived at a considerable distance from Kara—was anxious that I should search for it and copy the inscription.

I gladly undertook the mission, and early one spring day I set out on the quest, accompanied by two friends, following the meagre clue we had been able to obtain. We only knew in a general way the direction and distance of our object, which was supposed to be near the banks of the River Bitshoug, about thirty-five versts away. There was no road, and we were obliged to go on foot across a very boggy bit of country, leading the horse which carried our provisions and other necessaries.

324We started at dawn, reached the river towards evening, and there camped out for the night. During the next few days we explored the locality, but in vain, and we were at last obliged to return from our fruitless errand. I then made further inquiries about the stone among the inhabitants of the place, many of whom were hunters, and therefore well acquainted with the surrounding country, and I promised a reward to anyone who could guide me to it; but it was not until nearly two years later that I heard a report of how two peasants from a neighbouring village had seen something of the kind. This rumour proved correct; and a gold-digger of my acquaintance undertook to guide me to the object of my search, making the expedition by sledge, as it was then winter.

The monument with the red inscription turned out to be not far from the spot where I and my friends had previously looked for it, but the dense forest undergrowth had hidden it from us. It dates undoubtedly from a very early period, and consists of a smooth perpendicular surface hewn in the rock, whereon curious signs and characters are drawn.

We made a careful sketch of the monument, and a photographer who happened to visit Kara subsequently took separate photographs of the whole stone and of the coloured characters. These I sent to Kuznetsov, with a detailed description, but I have never heard whether the meaning of the inscription has been deciphered.

When, in consequence of the imperial manifesto, I passed from the category of convict into that of exile, the change only affected my circumstances in that it deprived me of the right to an allowance from the State. Henceforward I was thrown entirely on my own resources, and the task of supporting myself was no light one. The population of Kara diminished steadily, and among others the family whose children I had taught for several years removed from the place. It was absolutely impossible to find any other 325remunerative occupation; my relations at home were sending me no money, and my affairs got into a very unsatisfactory state. I had a host of debts, and could expect assistance from no one.

THE COSSACK VILLAGE OF STRETYENSK

To face page 324

Just then began the work in connection with the construction of the railway in the Stanitsa of Stretyensk, some hundred versts distant from Kara. I decided to migrate thither; and, the Governor having given me the necessary permission, I left Kara on the 20th of May, 1897.

The Stanitsa of Stretyensk, situated on the banks of the large and navigable River Shilka, was at that time the scene of much activity. The population had increased to between four and five thousand; there were some good shops and several business firms. The ordinary inhabitants, besides the Cossacks, were chiefly Jews; but the railway works had brought all kinds of people to the place—officials, clerks, contractors, etc.—so that Stretyensk had taken on more the appearance of a thriving town than of a mere Cossack village.

I soon found a post, and a comparatively good one, on the railway; my duties being to draw up the various orders, advices, and circulars, and to copy them out. But the yearning for a fuller life possessed me here even more than at Kara, partly induced by the more bustling life of the busy little place, partly by the total absence of any congenial society. In Kara I had had comrades with whom I could converse on every kind of topic; but in Stretyensk, though I knew nearly everybody at least by name, there was no single person to whom I could talk about anything beyond the most everyday matters. The principal, and almost the only, subject of conversation was money. The flow of capital into the country on account of the new railway had aroused in the inhabitants an almost incredible greed and a feverish desire of becoming rich. There were numbers of people who recoiled at nothing in the pursuit of this aim—cheating, dishonesty, 326even downright theft, were all in the order of the day; and the irresponsibility and arbitrariness of officials which prevails throughout Russia, and especially in Siberia, greatly assisted in undermining the morals of the population. Many large fortunes were made in an extraordinarily short time.

The only relaxations from this constant working and striving after riches were drinking and card-playing. Not only was there no library in the Stanitsa, but there was not even a school for the children of those who were not Cossacks, i.e. a greater part of the inhabitants. When I of necessity entered into the society of the place I felt myself in a world entirely strange to me, and utterly uncongenial. It was hardly possible for any, even intelligent, young man to escape being driven to drinking or gambling in such an atmosphere.

It is true that here I had the advantage of more freedom of movement than in Kara, and that I could go further afield. During the two years of my stay in Stretyensk I frequently made long excursions in different directions; and on these expeditions I became more closely acquainted with local conditions, and learned to understand the life of Siberia much better than would be possible from any amount of mere reading up the subject.

In the spring of 1899, while travelling, I met with a comrade of my own way of thinking, who had been exiled by “administrative methods.” It was the first time I had met a Social Democrat newly come from Russia, and my delight may be easily imagined. We talked nearly all through the night, and I learned for the first time from him how great had been the expansion of our movement among the working classes during the last ten years, and how quickly the idea of Social Democracy had taken root in Russia. I was especially impressed by his account of its development among the Jewish workers in the western provinces.

Under the influence of the feelings aroused by this 327intelligence, my longing to return home sprang up with redoubled strength. This thought had been kept in the background during the last few years; but now it forced itself upon me with urgent insistence. What were the possibilities of the case? This question was hard to answer with any certainty. I had now been fourteen years in Siberia, and it was fifteen years since my arrest in Freiburg; in accordance with the terms of the last imperial manifesto, by which I was to benefit, I might go home after another seven years,[114] and this term might conceivably be further shortened by some fortunate concatenation of circumstances. Once more to see European Russia, where I had not been as a free man for twenty years, was the most fervent wish of my heart; yet what warrant had I for supposing I should be still alive in another seven years? or that, being alive, I should actually be granted the privilege of returning to Russia? Life in Siberia became each year more irksome to me. I found it well-nigh impossible to remain in Stretyensk, and I determined to go further east, to the comparatively large town of Blagovèstshensk. After exerting myself for some time to obtain permission to do this, I at last succeeded, and in the autumn of 1899 I quitted Stretyensk.

I found myself much better off at Blagovèstshensk; I soon got employment on one of the two local newspapers, and the work was far more interesting than that to which I had hitherto been condemned. The society here, also, was much more agreeable, for the town contained many cultivated people, and also several comrades in our movement, political exiles like myself. The town possessed schools, a public library, a theatre, a telephone service—in short, so far as outward civilisation went, Blagovèstshensk stood in no way behind European towns of the same size, and was even in some ways more advanced. During the last few years the place has attained an unenviable notoriety from the occurrences there at the time of the 328war with China in 1900. I thus became an involuntary witness of that terrible series of events of which the Russian Government gave such a lying version to the world. In the interests of truth I will here relate the particulars from my own experience as an eye-witness of much that occurred.[115]

First of all let me give some details about Blagovèstshensk. It is the chief, and was formerly the only town in the Amur province, which covers a considerably larger area than many a European state. Blagovèstshensk is situated on the flat left bank of the Amur river, which for a long distance forms the boundary between Russia and China; before the war it contained 38,000 inhabitants. Most of the houses are of wood, and there are no fortifications.

On the right bank of the river, exactly opposite the town, was the Chinese village of Saghalien.[116] There was constant intercourse between the dwellers on either bank, carried on in summer by means of boats and junks, in winter over the ice; for the Chinese and Manchurians were the chief purveyors of supplies to the inhabitants of Blagovèstshensk, especially of meat and vegetables. Until the spring of 1900 relations between the two settlements had been uniformly peaceful; but after the murder in Pekin of the German ambassador, von Ketteler, and the decision of the Russian Government, on January 24th, to mobilise the Siberian army, constraint and tension began to make themselves felt. On the Chinese side of the river military exercises took place every evening; the beating of the tattoo sounded, and the firing of cannon was heard, which had never been known to happen before. To the inquiries of the Russian authorities as to the meaning of all this, the Chinese answered that a small detachment of 329soldiers had been quartered there for the summer. This reply entirely satisfied the administrators of Blagovèstshensk, but not the inhabitants; many of them opined that the Chinese were not having gun-practice for nothing, and telescopes further showed that earthworks were being constructed in the neighbourhood of Saghalien. The representations of people who had observed this only elicited from the Russian military governor of the Amur province—General N. R. Gribsky—the assurance that these were trifles, and need disquiet no one.

BLAGOVèSTSHENSK

To face page 328

Meanwhile there were but few soldiers in Blagovèstshensk—two or three regiments of infantry, a regiment of Cossacks, and a brigade of artillery—and by order of the Governor-General Grodekov even these were almost all withdrawn on July 11th and sent down the Amur to Habarovsk, while only one company of soldiers, a hundred Cossacks, and two guns (one of which proved later to be totally useless) were left behind in the town. Besides these there were about two thousand reservists, who had been called out in accordance with the mobilisation order; but in view of the entire lack of arms and ammunition, these reservists were of little use, and certainly could not count as any efficient protection to the town.

The departure of the military, for which many steamers and barges were needed, took place with much ceremony, and was watched by an immense crowd of people. This could not fail to be observed by the Chinese inhabitants of Saghalien, who were thus made aware that the Russian town was left almost defenceless.

Further down the river, about thirty versts from Blagovèstshensk, is the little Chinese town of Aigùn. When the Russian soldiery came to this place on July 12th, the Chinese allowed the boats to pass without hindrance until all but the last steamer had gone by, and then opened fire upon this last boat, which contained the ammunition, forcing it to return to Blagovèstshensk. The news of this attack spread through the town on the evening of the next 330day, and aroused great uneasiness among the inhabitants, even the administration at last becoming alarmed. By order of General Gribsky, the military governor, a meeting of the Town Council was called for the morning of the 14th, and this conference was attended, not only by all the town councillors, but by many of the more important residents, by various officials, directors of the bank, etc., and I myself was present as the correspondent of a local paper.

Colonel Orfenov spoke in the name of the military governor; and after he had explained to the assembly how scanty were the means of defence available to the military authorities, he proposed that he himself should undertake the organisation of affairs. Though it had been known that after the departure of the troops there could not be many soldiers left in the town, nobody had supposed that their number was as small as now appeared from Colonel Orfenov’s account. His frank statement made a great impression on his audience, and alarmed them considerably. Many turned pale or showed other signs of emotion, and the voices of the councillors, whose speeches followed, trembled with excitement. After a short discussion it was decided to call for volunteers. The town was at once divided into military districts, and a chief with two assistants appointed for each. Thereupon some members of the Council repaired to the military governor to inform him of their decision and to consult with him upon the situation.

As I was afterwards informed by one of those who spoke then with General Gribsky, he thanked the town’s representatives for their readiness to undertake the duties of defence, and tried to quiet their apprehensions of danger from the Chinese. When asked if he did not think it necessary to take steps with regard to those Chinese who dwelt in great numbers in Blagovèstshensk itself and its neighbourhood, he declared that in his opinion any such special measures would be unnecessary and inadvisable, as 331war had not been declared between Russia and China. The General further informed the deputation that he had already been approached by representatives of the Chinese in the town, with the question whether it would not be better for Chinese subjects to withdraw betimes from Russian territory. Whereupon (and this was his own account of the matter) he had told the delegates to inform their compatriots that they might remain where they were without anxiety, as they were on the soil of the great Russian Empire, whose Government would never allow peaceful foreigners to be molested. Finally, the governor stated to our representatives that he himself, with the remaining detachment of soldiers and the hundred Cossacks, would go on the following day to Aigùn, in order to free that place from the Boxers, to occupy it, and so to ensure free passage on the Amur for Russian vessels. This latter plan, however, was never carried out; for the active hostility of the Chinese towards the people of Blagovèstshensk manifested itself earlier than anyone had expected.

On that very same afternoon, when a great number of people of all classes had assembled at the municipal buildings to enrol themselves as volunteers, the noise of gunshots suddenly resounded from the Chinese shore; and from the windows of the town-hall, where I was myself, we saw people hurrying in crowds from the shore, crying, “The Chinese are firing! the Chinese are attacking us!”

The volunteers in the town-hall believed, when they heard these cries, that the Chinese were attacking the utterly defenceless town, and an indescribable panic ensued; some rushed into the street, others hurried to the armoury of the hall (where, as everyone knew, some hundred old guns were stored), crying, “Arms! give us arms!” The number of these weapons was of course insufficient to arm all the volunteers, and many, chiefly the poorer people, then rushed to the shops—which, as it 332was Sunday, were closed—broke in, and possessed themselves by force of any weapons they could lay their hands on. The entire community was overcome with terror. Numbers of the inhabitants packed up their valuables and fled from the town on foot or on horseback; or took refuge with friends who lived at a greater distance from the river and in stone houses, which could afford better protection from shot or shell. The idea that the Chinese might crowd into the defenceless town, set it on fire, and practise all manner of horrible cruelties on the inhabitants, drove many people into a state of positive desperation.

It would in truth have cost a disciplined army of small proportions but little trouble to destroy Blagovèstshensk in a few hours, but luckily for its citizens the Chinese were very bad marksmen; most of their shells never reached the town, but fell into the Amur, or else they failed to explode. Thanks to this there were only between fifteen and twenty of the townspeople killed and wounded during the whole bombardment.

On the second day of the siege Blagovèstshensk presented a forlorn appearance—shops closed; windows and doors fast shut; no horses and hardly any foot-passengers in the streets, people who had ventured out keeping close to the walls, and hurrying over the crossings for fear of stray bullets; all business at a standstill.

We had already organised a garrison of volunteers. All along the river bank, for a distance of several versts, shelters were dug out hastily and by night, in which volunteers of all ages and classes were posted to observe the Chinese on the opposite shore and so render a surprise almost impossible. Many people, however, saw danger in quite another direction, namely, from the Chinese quarter of the town itself. Here dwelt Chinese and Manchurians in considerable numbers—merchants, tradesmen, day-labourers—whose work had been most useful to the whole community. Industrious in the extreme, and modest in their requirements, these Chinese subjects had never given 333the smallest cause for complaint; honesty and conscientiousness were their leading attributes, and in many shops and commercial houses, and also in private dwellings, entire trust was reposed in them as employees. By many Russian families with whom the young Chinese were in domestic service they were looked on as friends; often they were taught the Russian language, which they would study with the greatest diligence. But by the lower and less cultivated classes of the Russian population the Chinese had never been regarded with favour; they were looked upon as foreigners who obstinately refused to amalgamate with the Russians, for the Chinese never, with the rarest exceptions, alter their customs or their outlook on life. The workmen saw in them dangerous competitors, for it is well known that before the Chinese came to the Amur wages were higher, (though, on the other hand, after the war, when cheap Chinese labour disappeared, many articles that had been within the means of the poorer classes became prohibitively dear).

From these causes, and also from sheer brutality—for coarse and cruel elements are to be found in every nation—it happened that even in peaceful times the Chinese were often maltreated by Russians when they met in the streets, hustled or knocked about, or their pigtails pulled. Some more flagrant instances of oppression of the humble, timid Chinaman even found their way into the columns of the local press; and there were further instances of this sort after the mobilisation order, when numbers of reservists, called in from their employments in the country districts, filled the streets, and would often (especially when drunk) fall on any Chinese they encountered, beat them unmercifully, and call after them, “It’s your fault, you dogs, that we’re taken from our work and our families and sent to our deaths!” In the eyes of the ordinary European the Chinese were not human beings, but “cattle,” “beasts”; and the state of things engendered by this feeling had caused the military governor to issue a proclamation, 334threatening with punishment those who molested peaceful Chinese subjects.

Trusting in the assurances of the highest local authority, the Chinese and Manchurians of Blagovèstshensk and its environs, to the number of several thousand souls, had remained on the spot. They were soon bitterly to rue having done so. Even on the 14th of July, when firing from the Chinese shore was in progress, and the frightened crowd was in panic-stricken flight, one could see how as they ran they would turn upon and maltreat any unlucky Chinaman who happened to be in the way. Chinese and Manchurians fled through the town in a most pitiable condition, seeking some safe corner in which to hide; and on the evening of the same day cases were reported of their being murdered in the open street. Persons whose word could be trusted asserted that the police officials themselves had advised citizens to kill any Chinese abroad in the town that evening; for many feared that those on Russian territory might come to the assistance of their compatriots by setting fire to the town. It was also supposed that there might be supporters of the Boxers in the town, and to this fear had been due the first suggestions of its being advisable to take measures with regard to the native population. The more temperate and reflecting thought it would be sufficient if those Chinese for whom Russian citizens would be surety—and of these there would be many—were left to the care of their European protectors, and if the rest were assembled together in one place and put under proper supervision. But it turned out that the local authorities were of a different opinion.

On the second day after the commencement of the bombardment Cossacks both mounted and on foot might be seen, together with police, going round to every house and inquiring whether there were any Chinese inmates. If asked what was wanted with them, they replied that all Chinese in the town were to be brought together and placed under the charge of the police. Suspecting that nothing 335good was intended, many people sought to conceal the Chinese who were with them, hiding them in cellars and attics; but often the neighbours informed the police of this, and then the Cossacks would insist, with threats and even with drawn swords, on their being delivered up. This process of arresting the Chinese lasted over several days.

I can hardly describe the consternation of these unhappy people when told they must go to the police office. Hastily collecting their belongings, they followed the Cossacks with faces of unspeakable dismay; and when taking leave of their European friends they gave them their money and goods to take care of, in many cases begging them to discharge some debt, or even giving them the free disposition of their effects—perhaps houses and shops full of valuable property. Foreseeing their tragic fate, many asked on the way, “Will they behead us?”

They were not mistaken in their fears. Murder in cold blood awaited them; and only during the Middle Ages, at the time of the Inquisition and the persecution of heretics, Jews, and Moors in Spain, have such inhuman proceedings as now followed been equalled.

Some versts above Blagovèstshensk, on the left bank of the Amur, there is a Cossack settlement. Thither before sunrise several thousand Chinese, among them old men, cripples, invalids, women, and children, were driven by the Cossacks and police. Those who for sickness or fatigue could not get so far were stabbed on the road by the Cossacks. One man, a representative of the great Chinese firm Li-Wa-Chan, refused to proceed, demanding to be taken to the governor, who had promised the Chinese delegates safety for all who remained on Russian soil; but for answer the Cossacks killed him then and there. The deputy-prìstav, Shabanov, was present, and uttered no word of protest against this iniquitous deed.

When the miserable Chinese had been driven down to the shore of the Amur, they were commanded to go into 336the water. Means there were none for reaching the opposite Chinese shore; the river at this point is more than half a verst (about one-third of a mile) in width, and flows with a strong current. One can picture what terror seized on the poor creatures at the water’s edge. Falling on their knees, with hands raised to heaven, or even crossing themselves, they implored to be spared such a death. Many vowed to become Christians and to be naturalised as Russian subjects. But the only response vouchsafed to their prayers by the merciless fulfillers of official orders were bayonet-thrusts, and blows with the butt-end of rifles or with swords, to drive them into the river-depths; any who still continued to resist were simply murdered on the spot.

Persons who by chance were eye-witnesses of this wholesale drowning and massacring, which proceeded on several successive days before the rising of the sun, tell of frightful and heartrending scenes. One Manchurian family that was driven into the water consisted of father, mother, and two little children. The parents each took a child, and tried to swim across the Amur, but all were soon sucked down by the current. In another family there was one child; the mother besought the murderers and the bystanders at least to take the little one and spare its life, but no one would do so. She then left it on the bank and herself entered the water, but after a few steps returned, seized her child, and carrying it went back into the river, then again returned and laid down her precious burden. Here the Cossacks intervened to end her vacillations, stabbing both parent and child. The tortures of this wretched mother and of all the victims thus driven to their death can be imagined by everyone not dead to all human feeling. Even the above-mentioned police officer, Shabanov, declared that he could not remain to the end of this scene of horror.

ON THE AMUR NEAR BLAGOVESTSHENSK—THE SCENE OF THE MASSACRE

To face page 336

But very few of that immense multitude, and those only the strongest swimmers, succeeded in getting anywhere near 337the Chinese shore; yet even of these but a small number survived. When the Cossacks saw that they were likely to save themselves they sent a few well-planted shots after them; and Chinese marksmen, too, posted in trenches on the opposite side, fired on the swimmers—either because they took them for Russians, or because they considered as enemies all Chinese who had remained in a Russian province after, as was asserted, a proposal had been made to them that they should return to their homes long before the beginning of hostilities.

When, on July 17th, great numbers of corpses became visible floating down the Amur it was clear to everyone in Blagovèstshensk that these peaceful unarmed Chinese inhabitants of the town, whom the governor himself had advised not to return to China, but to trust in his promise of protection, had been done to death. Scarcely two days after the guarantee had been given, General Gribsky had faithlessly broken his word, by giving the verbal order to “send back the Chinese subjects to China.”

Indignation and horror filled the minds of all right-thinking people when they learned in what manner that order had been carried out. The dreadful story was told with tears and shuddering; many longed to protest, and express their burning wrath at the barbarous treatment of the poor harmless Chinese workpeople, but how was that possible in Russia? Besides, on the 17th itself, Blagovèstshensk and the entire province of the Amur had been put under martial law; consequently anyone who dared to protest would have been instantly dragged before a court-martial. Some of those who compassionated the Chinese tried at least to prevent the continuance of the reign of terror. A few instances occurred where people who had managed to conceal Chinese servants or guests in their houses, went to the local authorities with urgent petitions that they might be allowed to offer personal surety for these survivors of the massacre; and some who had exceptional influence succeeded in saving 338one or two. But such cases were rare, and nearly all who were preserved in this way had to remain in custody of the police throughout the siege.

The rich young merchant Yun-Tcha-San (a man with a European education, speaking both Russian and French) succeeded in escaping in this manner, by heavily bribing the officials; but he is reported to have said that had he known what frightful humiliations he would be subjected to, he would rather have perished in the river.

A lady well known in the town, Madame Makeyeva, went to the governor, with whom she was personally acquainted, to beg that her young Chinese servant, who had been five years in her house, might remain with her. This servant had been of the greatest value to the family; if anyone were ill he nursed and tended them, watching by their bedside day and night. But when General Gribsky found that it was for a Chinese Madame Makeyeva was entreating, he cried, “A Chinaman!” and drawing his hand across his throat, added, “That’s how we shall treat them all.” And when Madame Makeyeva persisted in her entreaties, explaining further that the man in question had long wished to become a Christian, the governor merely answered, “I do not issue orders for either the imprisonment or the release of these people, it has nothing to do with me”; following up this with the declaration of his intention (which he subsequently carried out) to lay the whole blame of the drowning and slaughtering on the shoulders of his subordinates, Batarèvitch, prefect of police, and Captain Volkovinsky.

The same lady had a similar reception from the highest spiritual authority of the place, the Bishop of the Orthodox Church. When Madame Makeyeva begged him on her knees to baptise her Chinese servant, this apostle of Christian love told her drily that she should not intercede for Chinamen, that it was not right to have them about one; finally recommending her to go to the civil authorities, whose business it was. The worldly power sent her to the 339spiritual, and the latter back to the former; but after much difficulty she actually succeeded in gaining her end. Few were so persevering in their efforts as she; I only found a very few instances of Chinese being successfully interceded for by their Russian employers, although I made very careful and exhaustive inquiries on the subject. The Chinese and Manchurians of the native quarter found no such advocates, and they were all drowned or otherwise murdered without exception.

Apologists for the massacre were found even among people of culture, who argued that even had there not been the danger that the Chinese would set the town on fire, we were not called on to strengthen our enemies by sending their compatriots to reinforce them, or to waste our own provisions by keeping them under guard and so having to feed them. As to the former excuse, the natives could have been rendered perfectly harmless by being massed together in one place; and as for the latter, the Chinese had ample provision for their extremely modest needs in their own shops, which after their death were plundered by Cossacks, police, and others.

In the attempt to justify their brutal action a false report was spread by the police that arms, gunpowder, and even dynamite were found in the Chinese shops and houses; and though this was never confirmed in any way, many persons were only too ready to believe it. As a matter of fact, the possibilities of loot, as well as the repudiation of debts owed to Chinese creditors, played a large part in causing both the massacre and the justifying of it. When the Chinese were arrested the Cossacks and police took their money and ransacked their dwellings; and not only the lower but the higher officials enriched themselves considerably by this means, the booty that this or that police officer or member of the local administration had obtained for his share being discussed quite openly. Many debtors of the Chinese profited by the terrible end of their unfortunate creditors, as it is not customary for Chinese 340business men to keep written memoranda; their methods are based upon personal trust, and their own honesty is proverbial. If in any instances such memoranda did exist, care was taken that they should disappear, in case any claim should afterwards be made by heirs possibly existing in China; while on the other hand Russian creditors of the Chinese repaid themselves a hundredfold, with the connivance of the police. It would take too long to relate all the examples of the wholesale looting that was carried on by “respectable” merchants and others; but one or two typical instances may be recorded.

A rich landowner, proprietor of a large steam-mill, Buyanov by name, of whom some Chinese had hired a warehouse for their goods, when the owners of the property stored there had been drowned, put up a wooden hoarding between the warehouse and the next house to it, in order that he might possess himself of the dead men’s property unobserved by inquisitive eyes. Another man of property, also named Buyanov, and a cousin of the above, made a subterranean passage from his own dwelling to the shop of a Chinaman who had lived with him, and conveyed the property of the deceased to his own premises. And a tradesman named Prikastshikov simply had the wares of a Chinaman who had hired a shop from him carried on waggons through by-streets to his own shop in a different part of the town, having made use of a duplicate key which was in his possession. These two last cases came before the courts in Blagovèstshensk, and the perpetrators of the thefts were punished; but the great majority of these instances of plunder were never revealed, chiefly because the police and the authorities were themselves interested in shielding the guilty. After the drowning of the Chinese it was decided that the police should take charge of their property till legal heirship should be established, and this proved a source of much profit to the police officials, as may be guessed when the character of our police is taken into account, together with the fact that 341in the Chinese quarter were some hundreds of shops and warehouses containing valuables worth many millions. After the war the police authorities in a few cases surrendered property (for a substantial consideration, of course, sometimes amounting nearly to the value of the goods themselves,) to Chinese who proved themselves to be the owners, having fortunately survived, or their legitimate representatives; but it depended entirely upon the ransom offered whether the police would recognise or reject such claims, not upon any legal formalities. The calm way in which high officials appropriated property left in their charge was exemplified by the case of the deputy-prìstav Shabanov, surprised by a gentleman, (a justice of the peace who had been appointed guardian of a Chinese property,) as he was in the act of removing several cartloads of the goods in question from the place where they were stored. Although this aroused considerable comment, and even came before the courts, the trial was without result, and Shabanov was not even removed from his position as deputy-prìstav.

During several successive days the bodies of the murdered Chinese went floating down the Amur in such masses as made counting them difficult, and covering a considerable expanse of the river. Yet at first no mention was made of this in the two local newspapers, nor was there any allusion to the fate of the Chinese inhabitants of the town. Only on the fourth or fifth day after the holocaust did an article appear in The Amur Province, expressing indignation at the cruel and gruesome affair. This article was copied in Petersburg journals, and thus the civilised world for the first time learned how these thousands of helpless people had been done to death. The other organ of Blagovèstshensk, The Amur Gazette, confined itself to the meagre announcement that “the Chinese residing on Russian territory had been sent away, a suggestion having been made to them that they should cross to the other 342side of the river.” Grodekov, the governor-general of the province, informed the authorities in Petersburg that “the Chinese throw their dead and wounded into the river, and forty such corpses have been counted.” Thus is history written!

With much the same amount of veracity various officials sent reports of the hostilities between the Russians and the Chinese. They told of battles that had never taken place, of countless Chinese hosts, which they pretended had been annihilated, when in reality only women and children had been seen, and so forth. In the Amur province, for example, much amusement was caused by the report sent from Colonel Kanonovitch stating that in the so-called “Pyàtaia Pad” he had overcome an immense army of Chinese, for which exploit he received a decoration. It soon transpired that in the place mentioned Kanonovitch had only encountered two Japanese women!

But to return to Blagovèstshensk. There is no doubt that the drowning of the Chinese took place not only with the foreknowledge, but by the express order—though possibly only verbal—of General Gribsky, military governor of the town. To avert suspicion of the fact, however, and in order to have a justification of himself ready if need should arise, he issued a proclamation some days after the massacre, saying that “reports had reached” him “of the rough handling and even murder of unarmed Chinese in and about the town.” “These crimes,” he proceeded, “have been committed by inhabitants of the town, peasants of the villages around, or Cossacks; and although these deeds were provoked by the treachery of the Chinese, who had first commenced hostilities against the Russians, any further instances of violence towards unarmed persons will be punished severely.” But, together with this proclamation, after the taking of Saghalien by the Russians, General Gribsky issued another, in which—as head of the Cossack forces—he ordered the Cossacks to go across to the Chinese shore and there “annihilate all the Chinese bands.” 343In other words, he told the Cossacks to massacre the helpless Chinese who were left in the place after the flight of the troops; for when once Saghalien had fallen, no armed bands were left on the right bank of the Amur.

General Gribsky carried his hypocrisy so far as to appoint a commission to inquire into “the cases of violence towards peaceful Chinese.” But as this commission would have had to report that the drowning and murder of peaceful Chinese had been carried out under his own instructions, naturally its findings could not be published. So, after the lapse of several months, General Gribsky declared that from the report made to him by the commission it was evident that the cause of the unfortunate events which had occurred had been a want of unity among the officials to whom he had entrusted the arrangement of affairs. This declaration repeats almost word for word the pronouncement of the present Tsar, Nicholas II., after the death of thousands on the plain of Hodinsky at the time of his coronation; the cause of which the Tsar also found to have been a lack of unity in the arrangements. General Gribsky evidently wished to suggest that if on an occasion of holiday-making, wholesale deaths had occurred in this way, nobody could really be held responsible for the killing of Chinese during the bombardment of Blagovèstshensk. And nobody was ever brought to book; General Gribsky and all his subordinates remained on at Blagovèstshensk in their divers positions.

It came to light eventually that various authorities throughout the province had sent direct written instructions to put the Chinese to death; and that killing the unfortunate people singly and wholesale had been carried out in many villages by the peasants, and in Cossack settlements by the Cossacks. Several officials won notoriety by their instructions to their subordinates on this head—Volkovinsky (the colonel of Cossacks), Captain Tusslukov, and the stanovoi prìstav (commissary of rural police) Volkov, among others.

344Obedient to the will of their superiors, the Russian peasants and Cossacks armed themselves as they could, and began the work of destruction. I cannot undertake to describe what went on in the Manchurian territory on the Seya—a strip of land not far from Blagovèstshensk, the inhabitants of which, though living on Russian soil, were Chinese subjects and (by a diplomatic arrangement) paid taxes to China. Enough to say that altogether sixty-eight villages were burnt to the ground, that of their inhabitants, some were drowned, some barbarously murdered, that property was looted, and cattle were driven off by the Russians. In perpetrating these and other brutalities—either on their own initiative or following out instructions—our peasants thoroughly believed that they were fulfilling their duty as loyal subjects. “That is how we ought to serve our Tsar and country,” one stalwart hero concluded his narrative. Persons who in time of peace were merciful even to dumb animals were changed by those days of horror into stark barbarians. Here is an example: In one Russian village an old Chinaman had lived for years in the service of a shepherd, and all the peasants were most friendly with him. The report reached them that “all Chinese must be killed.” They therefore called a village council and consulted as to what should be done with the one Chinaman in the place; and although everyone agreed that he was a good and honest old man, it was decided that he must be put to death. When the people with whom he lived broke the news to him he humbly submitted to the decree, only begging that they would accompany him to the place where he was to die.

“I am a lonely old man,” he said. “I have neither kith nor kin. Do you replace my family and go with me to the grave, as is the custom of my people.”

The shepherd and his wife acceded to his request, and went with him to the outskirts of the village, where the peasants then slew the unresisting old man.

345After a fortnight or so of these massacres, when the thirst for blood began to be appeased, and the authorities ceased to spur the people on to deeds of violence, they began to collect together and bring into the town the few Chinese who remained alive, half-dead with hunger and mad with terror. These poor wretches, scarcely able to move for exhaustion, and those of the Chinese townspeople who for one reason or another had been allowed to survive—some few dozen persons—were all that remained of the many thousand Chinese who had dwelt in Blagovèstshensk and the neighbourhood.

It was not difficult to foresee what character the war would assume when our soldiers and Cossacks passed over into Chinese territory. Scarcely had they crossed the Amur on August 3rd and taken possession of Saghalien (from which place the inhabitants had fled betimes to the interior of the country), when they set everything on fire. During the two following nights the flames illuminated the river for a long distance; and in place of a prosperous community which supplied Blagovèstshenk with foodstuffs at very moderate rates, nothing was to be seen on the Chinese bank but blackened posts and crumbling ruins.

The entry of our army into Manchuria was not merely signalised by flaming dwellings; nothing and nobody was spared. Women, children, and the aged were pitilessly slaughtered, young girls violated and then slain. Such were the deeds of our “heroes,” as General Grodekov in his despatches called these warriors, for whose “brave deeds” he “could not find words to express his admiration”! But even some of his officers themselves told with a shudder of the bloodthirsty instincts developed by these “heroes” in a war against unarmed men, women, and children on Chinese soil. A rich and thickly-populated land was reduced in a few months to a barren desert, where charred ruins were visible here and there, and corpses were left to the wolves and vultures.

346When indignation is expressed at these atrocities it is customary to meet with the excuse, “Read the accounts of the cruelties practised by Germans, French, and English in China. If more civilised races behave so, what can be expected from us less cultivated Russians?” It is hard to answer this. The white races did indeed prove during that terrible war with “barbaric China,” as they contemptuously say, the full worth of their boasted civilisation. On the threshold of the twentieth century average Europeans showed themselves scarcely less barbarous than the hordes of Tamerlane and Tchengis-Khan.

All this shocking achievement of Russian officialdom, either directly or indirectly authorised, of course went unpunished. But no! I must let the exact truth have its way. General Gribsky held a judicial inquiry into the conduct of his subordinates (who had carried out his own orders), and the Russian newspapers shortly afterwards informed their readers that “the chief of police in Blagovèstshensk had been sentenced to three months’ imprisonment”—for the drowning, shooting, or stabbing of from ten to fifteen thousand helpless and inoffensive Chinese!