Russia in 1916 Author:Stephen Graham Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: n The Journey From The Altai Mountains To Moscow The day after the setting out of the Cossacks from their Altai village on the Mongolian frontier I deci... more »ded to follow — hiring first the post and then the zemsky horses. It was like following a reaping. Wherever I went all the ablebodied men had gone before me; there were only old men, women and children remaining. Boys of twelve and thirteen were hi charge of the Government horses, women who could neither read nor write had charge of the post-stations. Greybeards worked with girls in the haymaking fields. Outside every village hung by day the red flag of war; every night, a great red lantern with baleful light. A fine journey along the corridors of the Altai ranges, from settlement to settlement, through prairie grass, a warm wind blowing all the day, a golden moon coming up out of China to rule in the night. The heart trembled at the thought of war, but all around was the indifferent peace of a remote country. It was tantalising to look at this glowing Altai moon, so placid and perfect, and to feel that four thousand miles away thedestinies of Europe were being settled on the field of battle. How slow was my progess. After four days I got on a river steamer, packed with reservists, and started the long river journey down the Irtish to Semipalatinsk and Omsk. The cabins of the boat were occupied by officers, the deck by the soldiers, and civil passengers of whatever description were put in the holds with the cargo, the men fore, the women aft. Doctors, peasants, engineers, fishermen, Civil Servants, farmers, found themselves cheek by cheek and knee by knee, trying to sleep on sacks of rye and trusses of hay. But there was no grumbling; everyone understood that it was "soldiers first." We stayed all night at Ust-Kam...« less