Page:Ossendowski - The Shadow of the Gloomy East.djvu/195

Rh Eastern Chinese railway, was mentioned and dropped. There were no men in Siberia suitable for such high and difficult tasks. Just at that time there arrived in Omsk, the residence of the Siberian Government, one of the former members of the Duma, S. W. Wostrolin. He started an agitation on behalf of Admiral Kolchak Thanks to him the Admiral first became the Minister of War, and later the head of the Siberian Government.

I remember when, after taking the oath before the Senate, the Admiral entered the hall where a banquet was held in his honour, he said in his grave tone:

"A moment ago I signed my death sentence!"

His vision was fulfilled in less than a year and a half.

From the very first he had to struggle against overwhelming odds. There were not enough men to go round. Siberia never had a numerous educated class, and the refugees from Russia were mostly traders and bankers who were on their way to the countries with a stable exchange, Japan and America. Thus all those entirely unknown, young, inexperienced, and party-ridden Ministers: Michaylov, Gine, Telberg, Pietrov, and Gudkov, with the "Prime Minister," the provincial banker Wologodski—an old gambler and profligate—at their head, were unable to direct the politics and the life of the country in a clearly defined direction. Everything went wrong, without any plan and purpose, while the Government drifted with the current till it