The Capture of Samara.
The following account is taken from a Moscow paper, The Zizn, of June 15th, 1918. It is from the Bolshevik point of view, but it gives a graphic picture of the way in which the Czechoslovaks occupied the city which has since been the main base of this army in their campaign in European Russia, and of the reconstruction measures undertaken by the liberated Russians.
The fighting around Samara between the soviet armies and the Czechoslovaks, who were proceeding east by way of Syzran, commenced on Sunday, June 2nd. Cannonading went on continuously from that day, until in the night between Tuesday and Wednesday it grew very loud and caused a panic among the people of Samara. A report that the Czechoslovaks had captured the station of Ivaščenko was very depressing to the party of workingmen (namely Bolsheviki) and caused indignation against the incapable element in the Red Army. At the same time the official announcement of the soviet stated that the voluntary mobilization was going on very successfully, although everyone realized that the volunteers, lacking discipline and training, were at a disadvantage in their fight with the Czechoslovaks.
News that the members of the executive committee of the soviet went down the River Volga called out angry expressions from among the workingmen, who looked upon their departure as flight.
On June 5th about four o’clock in the morning the prison was attacked by a considerable body of armed men, who bombarded the prison with machine guns; the guards surrendered, some of the bandits got into the prison and liberated more than 450 inmates. At the same time the office and guard rooms were destroyed, the vaults plundered, etc. Czechoslovak shells were bursting over the Grain Market and over the elevator of the Imperial Bank. One house caught fire from shelling. Bombardment was not stopped until darkness came.
The soviet official organ, “The Volga Truth”, spoke of coming re-inforcements and promises that the enemy would be smashed, but few people manifested confidence.
At three o’clock in the morning of June 8th, machine guns started to rattle. Bullets were flying over the Saratov and over the neighboring strets. Shortly afterwards heavy cannonading commenced. The Czechoslovaks employed trench mortars against the city artillery stationed near the elevator, and showered shrapnel over the trenches on the Ural street.
At four o’clock the noise of the guns ceased and Czechoslovak battalions started to march across the railroad bridge over the Samarka. The soviet detachments retreated at half past four in the morning. At five o’clock an armored locomotive appeared on the bridge and shortly after came a train with fifteen cars. The Czechoslovaks continued to throw shrapnel at the retreating Red Guards.
At nine o’clock Czechoslovak patrols appeared on the streets along the Samarka, asking everyone: Where are the Red Guards? Any Red Guard caught was shot on the spot. Among those who were shot was a woman Red Guard named Wagner, a Lett by race, because she resisted when ordered to surrender her arms.
The Bolshevik club was destroyed by artillery fire from the railroad embankment. The Bolsheviks who had their headquarters in the club surrendered, when Maslenikov came out with a white flag.
A commissioner for the requisition of grain and cattle from Ufa was killed at the depot because he would not allow himself to be disarmed.
Then the population started to execute summary judgments against the Bolsheviki. The following men were killed by the crowd: Vencek, chairman of the revolutionary tribunal; Styrkin, chairman of the committee on housing; Šulc, organizer of Red Guards; B. J. Šadrin, chairman, and Romanov, secretary of the requisition bureau. Several other representatives of the soviet government who offered resistance were also shot.
The Czechoslovaks were particularly merciless toward Germans and Magyars who were fighting in the ranks of the Red Army.
A number of fires broke out in the city. On the banks of the Samarka, flour mills and storehouses of oil were burned. The elevator sustained much damage from artillery fire. The Kazan church also suffered—one shot went through the cupola of the church and another hit the wall. The section beyond the Samarka River was not affected at all.
Order was promptly re-established in the city. The Czechoslovak military committee
