The “Volksguard” of Salisburg
In the spring of 1906 the revolutionary movement had so far progressed in the Baltic Provinces that independent states were declared by the people in several places. In Salisburg the officials of the independent government and the People’s Guard were so confident of continued independence that they had themselves photographed. Later the troops of the Czar stamped out this revolt and a copy of the above photograph fell into the hands of the police who, through it, were enabled to run down all of these revolutionists and wholesale executions followed.
However, at Pebalga the troops shot 20 men and burned 10 estates.
At Bausk the dragoons shot Messrs. Blankenstein, Pitz, Rassman, and Friedman. They had orders to shoot in all 16 men, and hang a woman dentist, Rachel Wolpe. Not finding her at home the dragoons destroyed all her property. When they did not find Mr. Michelson, they tortured his wife. The latter took her baby in her arms and declared that she was prepared to die, but the dragoons left her alone and came the next day to torture her again for hours. However, they could not force the unfortunate victim to tell them where her husband had hidden himself.
And so on, through a column, sometimes through two columns.
Especially significant telegrams were daily pouring in from the Caucasus. There the wildfires of revolutionary activity were fiercely sweeping from the Black Sea to the Caspian; there the Cossacks—the bulwark of czarism—were in constant action.