Page:Albert Beaumont - Heroic Story of the Czecho-Slovak Legions - 1919.djvu/73

 barracks. They fired a salvo into the windows, which startled the Bolshevik troops from their sleep. The Bolsheviks jumped out of their beds and appeared at the windows, making signs of surrender. In a quarter of an hour all three barracks were in our possession, and the whole Bolshevik garrison was taken prisoner and disarmed. We next took possession of the town of Cheliabinsk, which has about 70,000 inhabitants.

In the barracks we found 12,000 rifles and thirty guns and a good supply of ammunition. The people in the town held public rejoicings. Delegations from the inhabitants came to congratulate us and to thank us as their deliverers. They had already had enough of the Bolshevik terror and of the Red Guards. The town had been living in privation and misery ever since it was occupied by the Bolsheviks. No provisions arrived by train, and the peasants ceased bringing their products to the town because they were invariably plundered by the Red Guards. Many of our soldiers, on merely showing themselves in the streets, were embraced, and for days there were rejoicings. We obtained all the supplies we needed from the country round about, and even more than we wanted, simply in return for the protection we offered. The peasants again came into town with carts loaded with provisions, the shops and markets reopened, and Cheliabinsk once more assumed a prosperous and happy aspect. This was the instant transformation in all Russian and Siberian towns whenever we occupied them. The people everywhere received us as deliverers.

On the same day (May 26) our troops occupied the station of Poletaievo, some sixty kilometres west, and the next day the station of Myash, 100 kilometres west Cheliabinsk, on the border-line between Russia and Siberia. Most of our echelons had received their orders before Moscow was aware of what was happening. Only a fev of our echelons were attacked by the Bolsheviks before they got information from our messengers, and in each case they defended themselves successfully. We immediately extended our occupation over other railway lines, among them the line to Perm and Ekaterinburg. We also took possession of the second Siberian line running down from the north to Omsk. The Moscow Government before long found itself completely cut off from all Siberia by rail or telegraph, and its only means of communication was by wireless, but it could not reach some of the most important points by that means. At all events, whatever orders it sent necessarily also fell into our hands.

Our echelon at Zlatoust, more than 150 kilometres by rail west of Cheliabinsk, was attacked by a strong Bolshevik force of about 2,000 men. Our men were in their train at the time the attack was