The Tsar's Lost Gold

One of the many things I like about writing historical-fiction is the ability to connect my characters to even the most obscure historical events.  Such is the case of the Tsar's lost gold.  Supposedly, during the Russian Civil War a train load of Tsarist gold was lost somewhere in Siberia.  There have been books, articles and television shows speculating on the whereabouts of the treasure.

A 15 ruble gold coin from the reign of Tsar Nicholas the Second

Since the gold was lost in Siberia and Slogans: Our Children, Our Future takes place in that region, it was not much of a stretch to have my characters involved.  Much of the story revolved around a military organization know as the Czech Legion, a unit composed of Czech and Slovak prisons of war who fought in the Russian Army during the First World War. To tell the story of the Legion I created a character named Domek Pazaryk.

* * *

By himself Domek Pazaryk frightened no one.  Even in his native Moravia, a region of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire not known for powerful giants, he was a considered a small, frail man.  By the spring of 1918, however, Vladimir Lenin, new head of the Soviet government, had good reason to fear Domek Pazaryk and the 45,000 like him.  Domek Pazaryk was a rifleman in strongest, best-disciplined fighting force now threatening Soviet Russia―The Czech Legion.

* * *

Members of the Czech Legion

The story of the Czech Legion is an epic in itself.  After Russia signed a truce with Germany in 1918, the legionnaires were labeled deserters by the victorious Germans and sentenced to death.  Rather than face firing squads, the Legion commandeered armed Russian trains and attempted to escape Russia via the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

The Czech Legion aboard a captured Russian train

The Legion's first battle occurred outside the city of Chelyabinsk.  In my novel it was during this battle Stepha protected Vanya from the bombardment.  Later in the story Kataya witnessed the battle's effects.

* * *

For a moment, Florence held her breath.  “These men,” she said sweeping her arm across the wounded, “are coming from Chelyabinsk.”

“Who …?  What happened?”

Doctor Farnsworth knelt down next to a stretcher and lifted a bloody bandage to reveal a festering wound.  “The Czech Legion and Kolchak's Whites.  These men were to disarm the Legion and this is the result."

* * *

As the Legion's train traveled east past Chelyabinsk, Private Pazaryk made an history changing discovery.  There in a forested siding, he and his rail clearing crew discovered several abandoned boxcars.

* * *

Private Pazaryk placed his bar into the first car's lock and pulled.  It took three attempts before the straining bar snapped the door open.  The car's inside was stacked a third of the way to its roof with small crates.  Private Pazaryk hoisted himself into the car and studied one.  It looked like an ordinary military hardware crate but was too small to contain rifles or ammunition.  Running his fingers across the top he felt rather than saw the embossed emblem of Imperial Russia.  Putting aside his bar, he attempted to lift the crate and nearly sprained his already tired back.  It felt like a crate full of lead or maybe…?

* **

Abandoned railway engine

The Legion used the gold to buy safe passage from the Bolshevik and reached the safety of Vladivostok.  How much of the gold remained behind is still the subject of the mystery.

My research into the Czech Legion brought me full circle to my hometown of Joliet, Illinois.  A news report from the 1918 Joliet Herald told of a Canadian military officer recruiting local Austrian-Hungarian men who had been interned after the United States entered the First World War.  The men, primarily young, unmarried Slovaks from Joliet's east side, were to be part of the Czech Legion being organized for action on the Western Front. 

Newly formed Czech Legion in France

The article did not say how many, if any, of the young men enlisted.  If they did, there was a good chance they would have seen duty in Murmansk, Russia as part of allied intervention in the Russian Civil War.  But that's another story.

American Relief Agency

Mention the name Herbert Hoover and Americans conjure up images of Depression Era breadlines.  But a decade before, Hoover was the champion who saved Europe from starvation.  As the head of the American Relief Agency, he oversaw the distribution of American provisions to millions starving from the result of war, revolution and famine. Among them may have been my family.

President Herbert Hoover

Hoover's workers, known as Hoover's Boys, were idealistic young men who fought hunger with the same zeal they had shown the Great War. My research into Russia during the period of the 1921 famine, turned up an excellent book on the subject by Bertrand M. Patenaude, The Big Show in Bololand.

A definitive account of American aid to Russia's during the 1921 famine

While Patenaude's sweeping account of American aid is inspiring, his vivid accounts of the famine and the accompanying photographs of its victims are not for the faint of heart.  It is difficult to imagine the suffering people must endure.  I choose to incorporate the exploits of the ARA in my novel, Slogans: Our Children, Our Future on both sides of the Atlantic.  In the United States, Massey reads a newspaper article describing the amount of food that can be sent to their families in Russia, and recuits his friends for the cause.

Ten dollars worth of relief

* * *

“It doesn't matter who gets our food,” Massey said and jabbed his finger at the words.  “What matters is, we contribute.  Have you seen the newspapers?  Every week they publish a list of those giving to the ARA.  Schools, churches, unions.  All kinds of groups are raising funds.  Last week the Rockdale school children raised over twelve dollars.  The only ones not listed are Russians.  How can we expect Americans to help feed our families if we don't give something?”

* * *

While some of compatriots suspect the ARA of not really helping Russia, Massey witnessed an incident showing  he was correct.

* * *

Three weeks later, Massey took his break on the mill's loading platform and watched a seemingly endless line of Santa Fe grain hoppers rumble east toward Chicago.  It wasn't until the caboose disappeared into the gathering darkness did he understand what he had witnessed.  There spread across the caboose's railing was a tattered and soot stained banner declaring, “Nebraska Corn for Russia.” 

* * *

On the other side of the Atlantic, American aid reached Akulina and her children.  Thanks to the ARA, the villagers were provided with a glimmer of hope.

Children fed by ARA

* * *

Less than three weeks earlier Stepha was sure he had been saved.  The lady doctor and the strange speaking people gave him milk from a tin cow and dusted him with white powder so he stopped itching.  The watery kasha they ladled out did not taste like that Mati made, but it eased the cramp in his stomach.  The following day they brought white bread and potatoes and allowed him several bites.  After he finished his meager feast Mati said they soon would have soup with noodles and real black bread.  But the soup never came.  Instead, Stepha learned he was going to be dead.

* * *

The ARA may be only a footnote in history, but the organization's drama  is what brings historical fiction to life.