Page:John Feoktist Dudikoff - Beasts in Cassocks (1924).djvu/75

 knew whether he was in hiding or left the town. Finally, in April, Hetman Skoropadsky captured the city with the aid of German troops. Friends told me they had seen Platon entering the city together with the troops. Indeed, a few days later, I saw Platon at the Sofia Place. Large crowds were assembled there. German soldiers, fully armed, were everywhere; on the roofs were machine guns. Apparently everything was in readiness to fire at the people



at the very first signal. With difficulty I made my way through the crowd, and saw Metropolitan Platon in full regalia, with a cross in his hands, surrounded by priests and German soldiers. It was just after the thanksgiving mass for the liberation of Kiev from the Bolsheviki. Platon was preaching to the people, but good