A Prisoner of Trotsky's

[SONER TRQTSKYS ANDREW KALPASCHNIKOFF I I 111 iili! n Will i I! !! il! I A PRISONER OF TROTSKY'S A PRISONER OF TROTSKY'S BY ANDREW KALPASCHNIKOFF k< cv-v~ i WITH FOREWORD BY DAVID R. FRANCIS AMERICAN AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1920 COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN CONTENTS PAGE FOREWORD . , vii INTRODUCTION xiv CHAPTER I. FROM JASSY TO PETROGRAD 3 II. BEFORE THE TEMPEST 18 III. MY ARREST 44 IV. THREE DAYS BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH 59 V. A GLIMPSE AT THE HISTORY OF THE FORT- RESS 84 VI. KERENSKY IN THE FORTRESS .... 104 VII. PAVLOV'S INTRIGUES 118 VIII. A GLOOMY CONVERSATION AND A TRAGIC NIGHT 135 IX. "THE GERMANS ARE COMING" .... 153 X. PURISHKEVICH AND RASPUTIN .... 174 XI. WE ARE DISCOVERED . 199 XII. ANGELS OF OUR CAPTIVITY AND COMRADE DERZHINSKY 218 " XIII. DARIA GETS BUSY 228 i XIV. 1 LIBERATED BUT NOT FREE .... 246 XV. IN THE HANDS OF THE GERMANS. 260 j XVE, \WHAT THE FORTRESS HAS TAUGHT MB 274 419354 FOREWORD I HAVE been asked by the author and by the pub- lishers also to write a foreword for Colonel Kal- paschnikofFs book "A Prisoner of Trotsky's" and as I am familiar with the occurrences resulting in his arrest and five months' imprisonment, have con- sented to do so. Colonel Kalpaschnikoff was in America when I ar- in in lec- rived Petrograd April, 1916 ; he was delivering tures in this country and soliciting funds for the purchase of motor ambulances for the "Siberian Regiments American Ambulance Society," of which he was Commissioner-General. He returned to Rus- sia immediately after the first revolution and on the same vessel from which Leon Trotsky (Bronstein) was taken at Halifax, and did some interpreting in connection with the detention of Trotsky. Upon arriv- ing in Petrograd, Kalpaschnikoff visited the American Embassy several times. I remember receiving him on one or two occasions, also meeting him at several social functions. He told me that he had made' an arrangement with the American Red Cross Mission to Rumania, of which Colonel Anderson of Virginia was the head, to transport to Jassy, the temporary capital of Rumania, seventy-two motor ambulances and eight light trucks enroute from America. This statement was confirmed later by Roger Griswold Per- vii viii FOREWORD kins, connected with the American Red Cross Mission to Rumania, when he came to Petrograd enroute to America. On or about December 10, 1917, I received a telegram from Colonel Anderson at Jassy, sent through the American Minister at the Rumanian capital, in the code of the diplomatic service. The telegram was a request from Colonel Anderson to advance to Kalpaschnikoff 100,000 rubles and draw on the Red Cross Organization in America for whatever portion of the 100,000 rubles Kalpaschnikoff requested. There was another telegram addressed to Kal- paschnikoff in care of the American Embassy, saying he should bring his automobiles to Rostov on Don. This telegram, which was also in code, was deciphered at the American Embassy and a paraphrase thereof sent to the headquarters of the American Red Cross Mission to Russia, which were located in Hotel ' d Europe. Kalpaschnikoff did not call at the Ameri- can Embassy until several days after said telegram was received ; I asked him if he had received the telegram and upon his replying in the negative, ordered that a copy of the paraphrase be given to him. Only two copies of this paraphrase were ever made. The original is in the files of the American Embassy which have been moved to the State Department at Washington one copy was delivered to the Ameri- can Red Cross Mission to Russia, of which Raymond Robins was at that time the chief, and the other copy was given to Kalpaschnikoff. On the morning of December 20, 1917, Kal- FOREWORD ix paschnikoff was brought to the American Embassy by the Naval Attache, Captain Crossley. He told me he had loaded his automobiles on a special train and had a permit from the Soviet Government to transport them through to Jassy, Colonel Anderson having changed his instructions from Rostov on Don to Jassy, and that he would not require any money. After giving Kalpaschnikoff a letter stating that he was in charge of motor ambulances for the use of the American Red Cross Mission to Rumania, I bade him goodbye, cautioning him, however, not to attempt to move his automobiles and ambulances out of Petrograd without a permit from the Soviet Government, which he assured me he had secured. I met him the same afternoon at a tea in the apartment of Mrs. Crossley, wife of my Naval Attache. He told me that he would start his special train contain- ing all of the ambulances and motors loaded thereon for Jassy the next morning at eight o'clock. The next morning about ten o'clock Raymond Robins came to the American Embassy and informed me that Kalpaschnikoff was imprisoned in the St. Peter and St. Paul Fortress, and that his apartment had been searched. I asked Robins why Kalpaschnikoff had been arrested. He replied he did not know. Where- upon I requested him to go to the Smolny Institute, headquarters of the Soviet Government, and demand his release. Robins, who was persona grata with the Soviet Government, promised me to do so. He returned to the embassy the same afternoon or the following morning and informed me that Trotsky x FOREWORD had unearthed a plot showing KalpaschnikofFs connection with Kaledin who was commanding the forces in south Russia opposed to the Soviet Govern- ment. The Petrograd papers on the next, or the second morning, contained an account of Trotsky's address at a meeting the evening before for which the word had been sent out claiming Trotsky would expose a plot against the Soviet Government in which the American Ambassador was the main figure. Trotsky read in this speech an exact copy of the paraphrase of the Kalpaschnikoff telegram from Anderson, of which I had given Kalpaschnikoff a copy and also my letter commending Kalpaschnikoff, and claimed these to be evidence that the American Ambassador was organizing a reactionary movement for the overthrow of the Soviet Government. He con- cluded this speech by saying: "At last the American Ambassador must break his 'golden silence/ In fact, he is not an ambassador but an adventurer and the heavy hand of the revolution must deal with him." I made a statement setting forth the above nar- rated facts. It was published in the Petrograd papers of the following day. I remained in Petrograd more than two months after this occurrence, and then went to Vologda, where I remained five or six months. Before leaving Petrograd, I requested Raymond Robins time and again to secure the release of Kalpaschnikoff, and his invariable reply was to the effect that he was doing all he could to effect his release. FOREWORD xi Robins was recalled about May 15th, a few days after the untimely death of Consul-General Madden Summers at Moscow, whose obsequies I journeyed from Vologda to Moscow to attend. The first week of the following month which was June, I visited Petrograd, and while there Kalpasch- nikoff, who had been released, called upon me. He was greatly changed in appearance and told me that his five months' imprisonment, from which he had been released the week before, if I remember aright had undermined his constitution and afHicted him with rheumatism. He, furthermore, in answer to my ques- tions told me that he had never been arraigned for trial, that the damp cells of the St. Peter and St. Paul Fort- ress had not only jeopardized his life and destroyed his health but were so trying that if he had not thought it cowardly he would have made away with himself. I recalled the telegram sent in the diplomatic code in care of the American Embassy and told him that he should have destroyed his paraphrase of this telegram, because the finding of it in his apartment not only was the cause of his arrest and imprisonment, but had given me a great deal of trouble, as Trotsky had read it word for word, had endeavoured to incite his auditors against me, and had threatened me with the counter revolution commission. Where- upon Kalpaschnikoff said that when he had returned to his apartment with his copy of Colonel Anderson's message, he had placed it in a secret compartment of his desk where he had found it since his release. I was very much astounded at this statement, and xii FOREWORD had him repeat it. I conclude, therefore, that if Kalpaschnikoff was not mistaken, Robins or one of his attaches must have given to Trotsky the verbatim copy which he read in the speech charg- ing the American Ambassador with being in a plot to overthrow the Soviet Government. I have made diligent inquiry from every source at my command concerning Kalpaschnikoff, and cheer- fully testify to his character. He is a patriotic Russian, possessed of courage, intelligence, and culture. If Kalpaschnikoff was connected with any movement for the restoration of the monarchy I was not aware of it and think I should have known it if he had been, as I had several talks with him on the subject. He always expressed himself as being a liberal minded Russian and regretful that the Provi- sional Government had been overthrown. Ever since he was twenty-three years of age he has been an active member of the Zemstvo, and for nine years was each year elected "Honourary Judge," which is the highest honour existing in that most important and in- fluential organization of Russia.

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