Maid of Baikal: A Novel of the Russian Civil War

Closer to the station, baskets of fish caught in Lake Baikal, fresh meat and game, and jars of milk and butter were laid out on snow-covered ground where crowds of people from all walks of life haggled over prices. As the droshky pulled up at the station, Ned identified many of the porters as former Austro-Hungarian POWs who were stranded in Siberia owing to the lack of repatriation arrangements between Russia and the collapsed Austro-Hungarian Empire. And in tumbledown wooden shacks near the station, he spotted seedy cafés where coffee was served at all hours, and darkened gambling shops where patrons could also buy a woman or a boy.

Ned paid the driver, dismounted with his rucksack, and entered the station in search of someone who could direct him to the Red Cross train. Though the station possessed an impressive façade, its interior was badly decayed and stank from the hordes of refugees huddled around their bags and bundles, ill dressed, dirty, and tired. Men, women, children, and babies, all in varied stages of discomfort, stood in long queues to fetch hot water or hung around stalled trains begging for bread.

Ned found a Russian railway official in an office at the rear of the station who recognized the RRSC insignia on Ned’s uniform and escorted him to the siding where the Red Cross train was unloading cargo. The official then summoned the train’s Russian conductor, a man of haughty bearing dressed in an immaculate blue uniform and peaked cap, who fetched the passenger list and, to his apparent surprise, found Ned’s name duly inscribed there.

As several Red Cross staff members had disembarked at Irkutsk, Ned learned that he would have a sleeper compartment all to himself. This was an incredible piece of luck, as sleeper cars had become rare in Russia since the war and were available now only to the wealthiest passengers or to certain high-level officials. Even better, the Red Cross train boasted all-new locomotives and rolling stock, including newly built Pullman coaches, sleepers, and even restaurant cars.

Not long after Ned settled into his compartment, a steam whistle blew, electric lights lit up the interior, and he felt a sudden jostling as the locomotive coupled more cars onto the rear of the train. Minutes later, it gathered speed, heading west out of the station.

Ned employed this moment of privacy to re-read a letter from Corinne Buckner that he had received at the Irkutsk consulate. At one point during his recent stay in the U.S., he and Corinne had been close to announcing their engagement. He realized now that she had been counting on him to leave the army and take a job with the DuPont Company rather than return to the Philippines. His decision to accept deployment to Siberia had upset her plans and left her sad and confused. Though Ned had already read Corinne’s letter once at the girls’ school, hastily and by poor light, now he took it in again, word by word.

“Dear Ned,” the message began. “I hope that this letter finds you in good health and reasonably good spirits, considering the hardships that you must face in a Russia at war. I have read of the terrible influenza and typhus outbreaks there and urge you to guard your good health above all else.

“On a brighter note, Father and I were delighted to hear that Germany and Austria have each sent notes to President Wilson requesting an armistice, now that the Allies have cracked the Hindenburg line. An end to the war in Europe seems imminent now, and many here feel this bodes well for an early peace in Russia, as well. I sincerely hope so, not only for your sake, but because every day the newspapers serve up dreadful reports about the Red Terror in Petrograd, where thousands are imprisoned or executed for having been born into the nobility, earning a higher education or owning property. I can only imagine what might happen to families like yours and mine if a Red revolution were ever to break out in America.

“Thus I pray that the Allied intervention will help the Russian people to realize a just form of government. But even if this happened and the Expeditionary Force were recalled tomorrow, I realize it might be months before you could leave Russia, and even then you may be sent to Manila rather than to a base here in America. In any case, I urge you to consider whether you intend to remain in the army as a career or return to civilian life, and whether the former would be conducive to married life and raising a family.

“That is why I returned your gold signet ring with the du Pont family crest on the eve of your departure. It was not out of any lack of affection, but out of a profound respect for the barriers of time and distance that separate us. For despite what my father might suppose, my heart will not break, no matter what choice you make. I simply want what is best for both of us, and I am confident you desire the same.