Page:John Feoktist Dudikoff - Beasts in Cassocks (1924).djvu/82

 without clenching my fists, without gnashing my teeth. … My lips, in spite of all my efforts for control, whisper curses to the assassins … before my eyes my two babies were slashed to death with swords—two infants, who as our Saviour said, are alone worthy of beholding the image of our Heavenly Father. … A number of people rushed into the room as if by miracle, and I was rescued from the Gendarmes and succeeded in making my escape and hiding myself. Late at night, I climbed in through the window, took my children’s bodies to the basement, put them both into one coffin, brought by my relatives, and buried them. … But I had been watched even more vigilantly than before. The very next night, my apartment was broken into, I was arrested and taken to jail. This was in May, and in September I was assisted to escape. In October, 1918, Kiev changed hands once more—this time the city was again captured by the Soviet Armies.

Since I was no longer with the active army, I was appointed manager of the factory, which had formerly belonged to my uncle, M. A. Dudikoff, in the district of Lipovetz, Government of Kiev. A couple of weeks later, in the same month of October, Kiev was recaptured by Petrula and the Poles. Governments came and went at the rate of almost three a day. I worked at the factory all the time, most conscientiously. In Janray, [sic] 1919, I was taken ill with spotted typhus and spent six weeks in the hospial. [sic] One day, Platon's friend Lubinsky and Siemashkevich came to the hospital. They passed my cot, transfived me with their glance, but did not stop, apparently in order not to give themselves away. At about two or three steps from my cot. Lubinsky said to Siemashkevich: "That's he." Both of them had also found positions with "Sovnarchoz" (Council of People's Economy). I understood that Platon's men were following me.