Page:Ossendowski - The Shadow of the Gloomy East.djvu/194

 CHAPTER XXIII

HE most prominent figure in the history of the Great Revolution in Russia was Admiral A. W. Kolchak, a man whose name has become familiar in Western Europe and America. By calling him the most prominent figure I do not mean to say that he was a man of genius. Not at all!

I was very near to the Siberian Government, and I knew Kolchak well. My opinion of him can be stated concisely: he was an excellent admiral, but a very poor politician, a man possessing all the characteristics of the misty and hesitating Russian nature.

How is it then that he undertook the heavy task of creating the Republic of Siberia, and afterwards of attempting the liberation of the whole of Russia from her Bolshevik autocrats?

I remember well the time when the Siberian Government was looking for a leader, whose name should resound through the whole world.

The name of the Grand Duke Nicolai Nicolaievich was put forward, but the Duke refused the honour; the late Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Sazonov, was invited, but he likewise refused. For a time General Horvat, who ran his own "government" round the