Maid of Baikal: A Novel of the Russian Civil War

Musical Theme: Jazz Suite No. 2, 6. Waltz II, by Dmitri Shostakovich

LATE JUNE, 1919, OMSK

The day after cabling her after-battle report from Uralsk to the Stavka, Zhanna received a telegraphed summons from General Lebedev to report to Omsk for consultations. A separate message announced the reorganization of Siberian forces along the Southwestern Front, placing Zhanna’s volunteers under the authority of a new Southern Army, to be led by General G. A. Belov. Though the army’s headquarters was to be at Uralsk, Zhanna and her volunteers would be posted to Orenburg, outside of General Tolstov’s operational area and far from any possible action on the Volga.

Tolstov took this as a gratuitous slap in the face, not just to himself, but also to the Maid, and to the entire Ural Cossack Host. In private with Ned, Ivashov likewise expressed indignation at Lebedev’s actions. Even more baffling, neither Tolstov nor the Maid received a congratulatory message of any kind from Omsk, but only a request to confirm Chapayev’s cause of death. Zhanna’s laconic reply consisted of a single telegraphic line describing the Red commander’s demise as “death by misadventure.”

On Ned’s return to Uralsk from Yershov, he drafted a post-action report for Colonel Barrows and Colonel Ward. The report emphasized the strategic significance of Zhanna’s raid on Buzuluk and of her subsequent annihilation of Chapayev’s punitive expedition. To exploit the Maid’s victories in proper fashion, Ned proposed joint action along the lower Volga by Belov’s reconfigured Southern Siberian Army and Denikin’s AFSR.

Barrows sent a coded message back, urging Ned to return to Omsk and commending him for his first-person reports. These had proven invaluable to the Allies in assessing Siberian prospects at Ufa and the Maid’s role in the actions at Uralsk, Orenburg and Ufa. But at the same time, Barrows warned Ned to avoid becoming too closely associated with Zhanna in the eyes of the Stavka, as she had flagrantly disregarded Lebedev’s orders and generated heated controversy within the Omsk government.

* * *

Zhanna, Paladin, Ned, and Ivashov slept most of the way from Iletsk to Omsk aboard a decrepit Russian munitions train. Even the garrulous Paladin was uncharacteristically silent. Upon arriving at Omsk Station, Zhanna and the two captains went their separate ways, each having been summoned by a separate authority. Ned went directly to the British Military Mission and found Colonel Ward in his office, preparing for a meeting later that day with Kolchak and Dieterichs to review Allied military support for the Siberians. As usual, Ward sat erect in his chair with a stack of briefing papers before him, his facial expression one of intense concentration.

He rose to greet Ned and extended his enormous hand for an enthusiastic handshake.

“Capital job of reporting from Ufa,” Ward offered. “Bloody close call for our side, I’d say. Hats off to the chap who dropped that mortar round on Frunze. Had he missed, things might have turned out differently on the Belaya, eh?”

“Hard to say,” Ned replied, choosing not to reveal how he had distributed Frunze’s photographs and offered a bounty in gold for his death, lest it offend the Briton’s sense of fair play.

“Yes, such things are among war’s imponderables,” Ward mused. “Fortunately, Admiral Kolchak seems to have taken a lesson from his brush with disaster and has ordered Dieterichs to conduct an investigation into how the spring offensive turned into such an utter fiasco.”

“One needn’t look very far for the source of the problem,” Ned observed. “One word, or rather one name, would suffice.”

“Precisely. And of late, General Lebedev has sought to escape all blame by deflecting it to the Minister of War, in hopes of usurping that title for himself, no less. Even worse, he has shoved Khanzin aside as commander of the Western Army in favor of his protégé, Sakharov, a lightweight and a notorious monarchist. Yet Kolchak allows the useless devil to hang on…”

“After Ufa, surely Lebedev’s failings can’t have gone unnoticed,” Ned suggested hopefully.

“Dieterichs understands, of course, and I expect he will say as much in his report on the matter,” Ward noted. “Kolchak’s field generals, like Wojciechowski, Kappel, and Pepelyaev, would most likely agree, if only in private. Dieterichs is one of very few men willing to confront the Supreme Ruler with unpleasant truths. Rumors circulate that he has already proposed purging the Stavka from top to bottom, but the Admiral opted for delay. But even with Dieterichs on our side, I fear Lebedev will be exceedingly difficult to dislodge.”

“Have you given up then on making him see reason?” Ned pressed.