For many years my father had been a foreman in the iron works, and resided all the time in the Sissert Iron Works. This was also my birthplace. I did not complete my studies in the Sissert school, and attended classes only during three years. It was very difficult for me to learn; at the same time my father got sick and took me away from school. At first he placed me in the blacksmith’s shop of the factory, so that I might learn the trade. I was instructed by Vasily Afanasievitch Belonosoff. I left after I had worked for about a year in the shop: this work was too hard for me. My eldest brother found me a position in the Palais Royal Theatre where I began to study for a position of electrician. I stayed there for about a year, learned something about electricity and started in a business of my own--installing electric wires in town. Later I got a position in the central electric plant in Yekaterinburg. I worked there for about a month and, before Easter 1918, went home. I remember quite well that on May 9th I met in the bazaar a friend of mine, Ivan Semenoff Talapoff. He told me that a certain commissar, Mrachkovsky, had started recruiting amongst our factory workmen for a special detachment that was intended to guard the czar. Personally, I did not see Mrachkovsky. I heard only that he was in command of some troops fighting against Dutoff--from whence he had come. I related to my father Talapoff’s words. Both my father and my mother advised me not to enlist. My father’s words were: “Philip, don’t go, think it well over.” I was anxious to see the czar so I ignored my father’s advice and on the next day enlisted. The enlistment took place in the house of Vasily Erkoff, which is on the Tzerkovnaia Street, close to the soviet. The enlistment was conducted by one of our Sissert workmen, Paul Spiridonoff Medvedeff. Medvedeff told me that we should be paid four hundred roubles per month, that we should have to perform sentry duty, but that we should not be allowed to sleep while doing so! Such were the conditions explained to me, so I enlisted at once. I heard at the time that thirty Sissert workmen altogether had enlisted. Later, some of them withdrew, but the number of those who did so was small and they were replaced by others, also workmen from our factory. Eleven of these first thirty men, as I was told, belonged to the Bolshevik communist party. In the second half of May we arrived altogether at Yekaterinburg. At first we were all quartered in the new “Gostiny-Dvor” (bazaar house), where the soldiers of the Red army also were located. We stayed there a few days without doing any work. At the end of May we were transferred to the Ipatieff house, where the czar’s family lived. We were placed in the rooms of the lower floor.