HEAD OF RUSSIAN FLEET RELEASED FROM PRISON AFTER GLENNON'S ADDRESS TO MUTINOUS SAILORS—AFTER MISSION TO WASHINGTON, BECAME HEAD OF OMSK GOVERNMENT—KILLED BY BOLSHEVIKI—UNITED STATES VESSELS IN NORTHERN AND WESTERN RUSSIA—KNIGHT AT VLADIVOSTOK—MC CULLY AT MURMANSK AND ARCHANGEL. When revolution swept Russia in 1917, the sailors of the Baltic Fleet mutinied, assassinated their commander-in-chief, and murdered a hundred officers. The Black Sea Fleet for the time remained loyal, but in June revolted and deposed its commander. The American mission headed by Elihu Root, of which Admiral James H. Glennon was the naval representative, had just arrived in Petrograd. The sailors at Sebastopol on June 20th voted to remove Admiral Kolchak, send him to prison and elect a commander-in-chief from their own ranks. When the Admiral was notified, he appeared on the quarter-deck of his flagship and addressed his men. Appealing in the name of Russia and the cause for which she was fighting with the Allies, he urged them to remain loyal. But the sailors refused. They were bent on taking control. There was nothing for the Admiral to do but to give up his command, and leave the fleet to be managed by a committee. They demanded his sword, but he would not give it. Drawing it from its scabbard, he saluted the Russian flag, and threw the shimmering blade into the sea. Turning upon his heel sharply, the former commander-in-chief came down from the quarter-deck, climbed over the side of the flagship into a waiting boat, and was taken to Sebastopol, where he was put in prison along with Smirnoff and other officers. Kolchak might have met the same fate as the commander-in-chief of the Baltic Fleet. Unaware of the serious situation that had developed, Admiral Glennon set out for Sebastopol to visit Kolchak and the Black Sea Fleet. With him went Admiral Newton A. McCully, naval attachÉ, a master of the Russian tongue and a great admirer of the Russian people, whose affection and confidence he has held through all events. The first intimation the American admirals had that they were about to face unusual circumstances was when, on reaching the station in Sebastopol, they found a reception committee awaiting them composed wholly of workmen and sailors. There were no officers. Kolchak was not there, nor had he sent any members of his staff to greet them. Glennon and McCully were quick enough to catch the significance of this unexpected welcome, and to accommodate themselves to its peculiar character. "They wore no swords," said Admiral Glennon, "so the American officers left their swords in the train." The American officers were taken to the flagship, from which Kolchak had been deposed the day before. Standing on the quarter-deck, where Kolchak had stood in his final appeal, Admiral Glennon spoke to the sailors on the meaning of democracy. He paid a generous tribute to their ships. He spoke of Russia's bravery, and urged the sailors to stand by the cause for which the Allies were fighting. Referring feelingly to the cordial relations which had always existed between Russia and the United States, he made much of the argument for the continued friendship and coÖperation of these nations, now the two biggest republics in the world. But not a word did he say of the deposed officers. Admiral Glennon is a big man, of commanding appearance, but with a kindly and genial bearing. His speech made a deep impression on the sailors. Evidently they talked over the things he had said and decided to show their appreciation in some way. When the American admirals and other officers were boarding their train to return to Petrograd, representatives of the sailors came on board and told Admiral Glennon that they had voted to restore the arms to all the deposed officers except Kolchak and Smirnoff. These two, they said, they would probably keep I had a chance to see a good deal of Kolchak while the mission was here. He was said to be of Tartar descent. Of medium height and very dark complexion, he had piercing eyes and a determined expression. He admired Farragut greatly, and made a special trip to his tomb to place a wreath upon it. He was also a great admirer of our Arctic explorers, probably because of his own Polar service. I remember the dinner Admiral Kolchak gave at a Washington hotel to the Secretary of the Navy and prominent naval officers just before he took his departure in 1917. It was about the gloomiest, most funereal occasion I experienced in all my eight years in Washington. News had just arrived of a German victory over the Russians in the Baltic. The Kerensky government was in a perilous position. The depressing situation was reflected in the solemn faces of the banqueters. I did my best to cheer Kolchak, predicting a wonderful future for a democratic Russia when the Allies and America had won the war. "Do you really believe Russia can again have peace?" he asked me, and the tone of his question spoke his own despair. The premonition of tragedy must have been in his soul. At the end of October he sailed from San Francisco, intending to re Gathering together the forces opposing Lenine, he became leader of the anti-Bolshevik movement in Siberia. In the spring of 1919, when the Admiral was head of the Omsk government, the world thought he was going to succeed in his great effort to overthrow Lenine and Trotzky. Then the tide turned. He was driven back. His retreat became a rout. When he reached the region of Lake Baikal, his forces disintegrated and fled, leaving him alone. One day in January, 1920, a revolutionary group raided the village of Innokentieskaya, near Irkutsk, and found Kolchak. They took him prisoner, and turned him over to the Bolshevik commissairs. There was a perfunctory court-martial, which passed the predetermined sentence of death. In the early dawn of February 7, he was led from his cell to the courtyard of a building in Irkutsk, where he was stood with his back to the wall. It was too dark to see his face distinctly, the stories that came to us stated; so a soldier held a lighted lamp near it to guide the firing squad. When the command to fire was given, the squad failed to obey. Angered at their soft-hearted reluctance, the Bolshevik commissair who was supervising the execution pushed the squad aside, strode up to Kolchak, and shot him down. Thus the famous Russian admiral met his fate. The debacle in Russia profoundly disturbed America. It was due primarily to the failure of communication and transportation. Russia was shut off at the Dardanelles by the Turks and at the Danish Sound in the Baltic by the Germans. When the Kerensky government was organized there was hope by the oldest republic in the New World for the success of the newest republic in the Old World. The coup d'etat of the Bolshevists, who soon made the treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Germans, gave pause to the Allied forces, who felt it necessary to take steps on what had been the "Eastern front" to prevent the use of Russian man-power against them. Fifty million dollars of These dangers drew Allied forces into Northern Russia. In May, 1918, the U. S. S. Olympia, which won fame as Dewey's flagship at Manila Bay, arrived at Murmansk with Lieutenant General Poole, of the British army, and a small detachment of troops. They drove off an attack at Pechenga. A small group of Russian naval officers, who could not reconcile themselves to Bolshevik rule, spent the winter on a sealing trip. They believed themselves safe when in sight of the Murman coast with their cargo of skins worth $35,000. Without warning a German submarine came up alongside and sank their vessel, few of the crew escaping. The Murmansk Soviet could not retaliate because, by the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Russian navy could take no further part in the war. So they turned over their navy, consisting of three destroyers, one to the British, one to the French, and one to the Olympia when she arrived. I dare say few people, even in the Navy, knew that we possessed a destroyer named the Karitan Yurasovsky. Its crew was half Russian and half American. It was a queer sort of arrangement, but Admiral McCully, in command of Naval Forces in Northern Russian Waters, said "It worked remarkably well, there never being the least sign of friction, and the destroyer always ready for duty." Not much has been heard of the U. S. flotilla on Lake Onega. When the Allied forces, including a small detachment from the Yankton, were on the line of march within 300 miles of Petrograd, there was need of water transportation. Our small naval contingent was equal to the emergency. Two motor boats, each with a short one-pounder in the bow and a machine-gun on the beam, were transported by rail down to near Lake Onega, then hauled miles through the woods, and launched in the lake on May 27, 1919. Three times they were engaged with Bolshevik gunboats at long ranges. In June, 1918, the Olympia sent a detachment 150 strong to Kandalaska to assist in guarding that point. When the Mur The Asiatic Fleet, under command of Admiral Austin M. Knight, coÖperated with the Japanese and other Allied forces in the Far East, and the flagship Brooklyn or some other vessels were almost constantly at Vladivostok, where Admiral Knight took a prominent part in the conferences and operations to check enemy and hostile activities. In June, 1918, Vladivostok and nearly all of Siberia fell into the hands of the Bolsheviki. Assisted by German and Austrian prisoners of war, they were resisting the advance of the Czecho-Slovaks who, fighting their way for thousands of miles through Russia, were endeavoring to reach the eastern coast, where Allied vessels might take them home. Vladivostok was their destination, but they had hard fighting before they could enter. On June 29 they took the city after a three-hour battle with the Bolsheviki. There were 12,000 of the Czecho-Slovaks, but only 2,500 of them were armed and equipped. The city was still in an uproar, with desultory firing at various points. In the afternoon Admiral Knight ordered ashore Marines and sailors to guard the American consulate, and to act as part of a patrol force composed of British, Japanese, Chinese and Czecho-Slovaks who patrolled the city, preventing destruction and preserving order. Marines from the Brooklyn in July guarded the German and Austrian prisoners of war on Russian Island, five miles from The United States Asiatic Fleet performed a valuable function in the Far East. Guarding American interests and coÖperating with the Allied forces, its vessels operated from the Philippines to the Russian coast. They exerted, as always, decided influence in China, supporting the Chinese Government in its stand with the Allies. Though the Japanese had long before taken Kiao-Chau, the German stronghold, and the Teuton strength was broken, constant efforts were required to prevent the German propaganda and agitation from causing trouble. A sharp lookout was maintained for German raiders. One, the famous Seeadler, sank two American vessels in the Pacific. But after it was run down and disposed of, no more raiders appeared. Our vessels in the Pacific were of material assistance to the Army when American troops were sent to Russia to protect the Siberian railway, and again when they were being returned from Russia. Admiral William L. Rodgers succeeded to the command of the Asiatic Fleet in the latter part of 1918 and continued until late in 1919, when he was succeeded by Admiral Gleaves. Some of our vessels were at Vladivostok practically all the time. One of the first suggestions made by the British when we entered the war was that we maintain our force in Asiatic waters, and while the vessels were few in number, they performed excellent and necessary service. |