Early in the summer of 1922 a Kronstadt sailor who, by chance, had remained alive escaped from the Kholmogory camp. He succeeded in making his way to Moscow, where he used his former connections to obtain an audience of the "Vtsik"[[12]] (All-Russian Central Executive Committee), and said to Kalinin:
"Do what you like with me, but turn your attention to the horrors in the northern camps!"
At this time 90 per cent, of the prisoners had already been done to death. Communist humanity had been sufficiently proved, and the Vtsik, exchanging anger for clemency, lent a gracious ear to the escaped sailor's prayer. At the end of July, 1922, a commission started from Moscow for Kholmogory to inspect the Kholmogory and Portaminsk camps. Its president was one Feldman.
Feldman himself could not conceal his horror at what he saw and heard at these places. He had the camp commandants shot, and sent their assistants and the rest of the personnel to Moscow, nominally to be tried. All the Tchekists, however, were pardoned and placed in positions of responsibility in Gpu offices in Southern Russia. Fully understanding that the "White House" and its scores of thousands of corpses were a burden on the conscience of Moscow, Feldman determined to wipe out the traces of all that had happened there. He therefore ordered the place to be burned down.
Feldman's commission had been empowered by the Vtsik to amnesty the prisoners in both camps. Only the ordinary criminals, the shpana, however, received their liberty. None of the "counter-revolutionaries" were amnestied.
In August, 1922, the remaining "K.R.'s" were sent under a reliable guard from Kholmogory and Portaminsk to the Solovetsky Islands, via Kem.
[11] On the Dvina, 46 miles S.E. of Archangel.
[12] Vserossisky Tsentralnyi Ispolnitelnyi Komitet.
CHAPTER II
FROM MONASTERY TO PRISON CAMP
The Famous Solovetsky Monastery — Its Wealth and Economic Strength — The Bolshevist Invasion — Destruction and Pillage — Organisation of the Solovky — The Camps and their Rulers.