“There goes Botchkareva!” I heard a man cry out.
“Ah, Botchkareva! She is for the old régime!” another fellow replied, apparently one of the Bolshevik soldiers.
There were several of them and they shouted threats and insults at me. I did not reply but returned home with a heavy heart. Even in my own home I was not safe.
“My God,” I prayed, “what has come over the Russian people? Is this my reward for the sacrifices I have made for my country?”
I resolved not to leave the house again. Surely this madness would not last long, I thought. I spent most of the day reading the Bible and praying to Heaven for the awakening and enlightenment of my people.
On the 7th of January, 1918, I received a telegram from Petrograd, signed by General X. It read:
“Come. You are needed.”
The same day I bought a ticket for the capital, bade farewell to my family, and set out. I removed the epaulets from my uniform, thus appearing in the garb of a private.
About this time the Germans, to the profound shock of the revolutionary masses, began their sudden advance into Russia. It had an almost miraculous effect on the Bolshevik sympathizers. The train was as usual packed with soldiers, but there was a noticeable difference in their expression and conversation. All the braggadocio had been knocked out of them by the enemy’s action. They had been lulled into the sweet belief that peace had come and that a golden age was about to open for them. They could not reconcile that with the swift advance of the Kaiser’s soldiers toward Petrograd and Moscow.
It was refreshing, exhilarating to listen to some of the men.