Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/273

Rh The orders providing for the removal of thousands of people from the war zone, issued by the military authorities, made it imperative for these unfortunates to leave within twenty-four hours. Terror-stricken and utterly helpless, they were compelled to sell all their property, or simply leave it behind them, as they rushed to follow every available road that led to the nearest place of safety. Thousands of women, children, and old men lost their lives in this flight, which usually proceeded amidst conflagration and deafening cannonade. Parents lost their children, husbands became separated from their wives; the confusion was endless. The rich and the poor became converted into one crowd of ragged, hungry refugees, almost wild with suffering and privation. It is impossible to describe the horrors of the hasty preparations for leaving, and the flight itself. Neither the government, nor the people were prepared for this misfortune, which suddenly overwhelmed the country. The orders concerning the evacuation were absolute and permitted no delay; yet along the routes of the flight there were no sanitary or provision stations. Many of the refugees went mad, and a large number of them died on the way. In the course of a short time, several carloads of infants were brought to Moscow. They were picked up along the roads traversed by the fugitives and belonged to mothers who could not be found.

The territory from which these refugees came was quite considerable in extent. Not only the governments actually occupied by the Teutonic troops, but also those which were merely threatened with invasion, gave their quota of refugees. To the first class belonged parts of Galicia, Poland, the governments of Grodno, Vilna, Kovno, Courland, the western part of Minsk, Liefland, and Volyn. The second class comprised the governments of Podolia, Bessarabia, Vitebsk, Pskov, and parts of Kiev. Quite apart from the others is the southern part of Transcaucasia and Turkish Armenia, which furnished a considerable number of refugees. The United Committee of the Municipal and Zemstvo Unions, the work of which is devoted to the problem of the distribution of the refugees, has estimated that by November, 1915, the number of people who had already settled down reached 2,267,274. Of this number, 328,819 settled in large cities, while the rest were distributed through the rural sections and the smaller cities and towns. Some of the governments contain enormous numbers of refugees. Thus, the government of