Maid of Baikal: A Novel of the Russian Civil War

At this the girl abruptly put down the cards and looked up at Ned with an expression that took him by surprise, for it seemed to combine notes of disappointment, resentment, and resolve.

“Thank you, but I could not accept it. Not from either of you.”

“And why not?” Ned inquired.

“Because I have a mission to fulfill. And so do you,” the girl replied with the mature demeanor she displayed when discussing with her divine mission. “So long as we both remain faithful to our duty, all will remain well for us.” But for a brief moment, her earlier note of disappointment showed through. “And you must mind your duty to the other woman to whom you are attached. Each of us makes his choices. And now we must carry them through.”

Before Ned could reply, Paladin and Ivashov returned to the table and no further opportunity arose to revisit the topic. Had Yulia spoken to Zhanna about him? Or had Madame Timiryova? He considered asking one of them if she had, only to conclude that doing so might only make things worse. For while Zhanna seemed to have accepted his affair with Yulia, the latter was not likely to give up her jealousy toward the Maid.

* * *

After the evening spent at Zhanna’s flat, one day passed after another without a word from the Supreme Ruler about the assignment she had expected since their meeting more than two weeks earlier. During that interval, Zhanna continued to win devotees in Omsk, both through her frequent mingling with the public and through daily newspaper articles that hailed her story and spun drama about her every word and action. As in Irkutsk, the well-to-do scoffed at the notion that a young girl might help the Whites win the war. But the common people, citing Yermak’s prophecy, clamored for the Maid to be sent to the front, if for no other purpose than to bless the troops and keep up their morale.

Even at the Stavka, as Ivashov had confided to Ned, Zhanna attracted admirers who saw her appeal as a welcome counterpoint to the public’s growing pessimism about the war. These staff officers urged General Lebedev to exploit the Maid’s popularity, either by sending her to forward bases as a sort of celebrity chaplain, or by employing her on recruiting missions in the rear. They stopped short of suggesting that she lead her new recruits to the front, however, for even they conceded that Zhanna was no soldier and could not be allowed to take any action that might disrupt the army’s planned spring offensive.

As Zhanna’s enforced idleness extended into late March, the much-anticipated spring offensive had not yet been launched, owing to extremely cold weather that had immobilized both Red and White armies since February. Trotsky used the interval to rebuild his badly mauled Third Red Army in the north and to tighten the Bolshevik grip on Ufa and Birsk, at the front’s center, and on Uralsk and Orenburg to the south. While Admiral Kolchak was extremely keen to open his attack, he left the detailed planning and management of the war to General Lebedev and the Stavka. To the extent that Ned comprehended Lebedev’s offensive plan, it seemed to call for a strategic breakthrough at the front’s center, before the Red Army could mount its own offensive on the Siberians’ southern flank.

Ned had exerted considerable effort over the winter to gather intelligence about Lebedev’s offensive strategy. But despite his eagerness for a White victory, Ned considered the Stavka’s scheme ill-conceived, and set down his reasons in a coded dispatch to Colonel Barrows at the end of March: