Communism -- Soviet Union; Mongolia -- Description and travel
Before long we struck the road which we had travelled coming north and
saw again the kindly rows of chopped down telegraph poles which had once
so warmly protected us. Over the timbered hillocks north of the valley
of Tisingol we wended just as it was growing dark. We decided to stay
in Bobroff’s house and our companions thought to seek the hospitality of
Kanine in the telegraph station. At the station gate we found a soldier
with a rifle, who questioned us as to who we were and whence we had come
and, being apparently satisfied, whistled out a young officer from the
house.
“Lieutenant Ivanoff,” he introduced himself. “I am staying here with my
detachment of White Partisans.”
He had come from near Irkutsk with his following of ten men and had
formed a connection with Lieutenant-Colonel Michailoff at Uliassutai,
who commanded him to take possession of this blockhouse.
“Enter, please,” he said hospitably.
I explained to him that I wanted to stay with Bobroff, whereat he made a
despairing gesture with his hand and said:
“Don’t trouble yourself. The Bobroffs are killed and their house
burned.”
I could not keep back a cry of horror.
The Lieutenant continued: “Kanine and the Pouzikoffs killed them,
pillaged the place and afterwards burned the house with their dead
bodies in it. Do you want to see it?”
My friend and I went with the Lieutenant and looked over the ominous
site. Blackened uprights stood among charred beams and planks while
crockery and iron pots and pans were scattered all around. A little
to one side under some felt lay the remains of the four unfortunate
individuals. The Lieutenant first spoke:
“I reported the case to Uliassutai and received word back that the
relatives of the deceased would come with two officers, who would
investigate the affair. That is why I cannot bury the bodies.”
“How did it happen?” we asked, oppressed by the sad picture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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