Early in the morning of May 18th, 1925, two parties, among others, were taken to work outside the camp. A party from the 6th company was taken to cut wood on the shore near Kem, and another — ours — to clean out the Red soldiers' barracks, on Popoff Island itself. This threatened to ruin the whole plan — it was impossible to get away from Popoff Island.
All this time a Tchekist named Myasnikoff had been keeping a particularly watchful eye on me. He sometimes said he had been a hussar, sometimes a sailor, sometimes a colleague of Dzerzhinsky; in the camp he was deputy-commander of a labour regiment. I had, under his eyes, to invent some reason for sending our party to the woods, and not the other. After a minute's thought, I went up to the party from the 6th company and said:
"You fellows'll be simply frozen in the woods with such rags on, and only bast shoes. You'd better go to the barracks."
Our men had specially mended their clothes and boots for the occasion.
Luckily for us, just at this moment Myasnikoff was called away for some reason or other. I led our party up to the guards, and said:
"Now, comrades, take us off to work in the woods."
Never has my heart beaten as it did in that minute. They gave us an escort of two Red soldiers, and took us off to work.
CHAPTER III
OUR FLIGHT: THE FIRST STAGE
An Initial Success — Covering our Tracks — Bezsonoff as Dictator — Traces of our Pursuers — A Trap.
We cut wood till 8 a.m. At that hour a goods train came from Popoff Island to Kem; it would have been dangerous to try to escape before then. When the train had disappeared, Bezsonoff gave the signal arranged long before — he turned up his collar. We flung ourselves on the soldiers from behind. We succeeded in disarming one of them immediately. The other pushed away Malbrodsky and Sazonoff, whose business it was to disarm him, and began to yell. Luckily we were nearly three miles from the camp. I gave the Red soldier a blow in the side, and he fell.