Saturday, January 25, 1919 THE REVOLUTIONARY AGE Arrest and Liberation imately one month after Rumania entry into man had to During The se who were to act, house, the sowano of May execution. the morning of the 23rd of September, aproxBy Dr. Rakovsky comrades bound to me by mutual souvenirs myself of the prison. Significant thing my name did not having participated in the Russian revolutionary the war, the police of Bucharest entered my house and after a careful search of my room, arrested order you will imprison the person accompanied by all possibility reading and writing.
appear. was referred to in these terms: By superior movement for many years took away all my calm, The most lie. police sergeant and a plain clothes agent of Commissioner Vladimir etc. Why did the governfantastic plans succeeded each other in my imaginathe secret police were posted in the hall. was abso ment conceal my name? It desired to keep secret tion.
lutely denied all communication with the outside the place of of my detention, for fear that my political But world. My wife, who was immediately expelled from friends might attempt to get me free. It wishednight Escape was not easy. was guarded day and All my movements, all my gestures were our common apartment, brought me my meals from also to outside, but was not allowed to see me. The plain watched clasely. Dur. ng my walks in the courtyard to suppress all trace of an illegal act. My arrest an agent followed right behind me. Before the winclothes was absolutely arbitrary, and the best proof is that down stairs to take from her to go what she brought me during all my term of imprisonment, which lasted dow of my one story house a policeman walked back about eight months, no accusation was formulated and forth, Besides the guards in the house there were two glancing savagely at the window every against me, and there was no examinai:on before policemen stationed, one on the sidewalk across the time he saw my face there.
street, and the other at the front door of the house.
any magistrate But nothing is more inventive, more ingenious than At Valisui had as companion in captivity a Rup with my friends. It was long and difficult.
a prisoner. managed even to consult the night the watch was more strict. was allowed to receive books and newspapers, manian second lieutenant born in Germany, son of first difficulty was to send them letters and receive but was given no opportunity to take any exercise.
the former Intendant of the royal house of Rumania.
The Intendant came to our country with Queen Elianswers. The second had to stay in my room day and night walking up was to be able to say everything zabeth and remained in the Palace for fourty three in these letters, without, at the same time, betraying and down like a beast in a cage.
years. Old Fischer became a Rumanian citizen and the details of my preparations, so that if the letters Nevertheless, there were times when could get had three sons in the army. Two of them continued fell into the hands of the police they would learn nothsome fresh air; that was when enemy aeroplanes and in the army, but the eldest was accused of espionage ing. had to adopt a figurative language, in which zeppelins appeared over the Rumanian capitol. At and thrown into prison. As much could judge my esca these times was permitted to go down stairs with this accusation rested on nothing of importance.
cited by Greek historians as an episode of the reign escape was presented as a romantic adventure my guardians to the cellar or to a sort of tunnel in They had seized copies of letters which he sent to of Queen Semiranis.
persons the courtyard. There were gathered the other tenants his fianco in Berlin before the war and the police they are ons around were all designated by names of the house, among them an army doctor with whom had completely twisted the sense of them.
passed the time in agreeable conversations. These All communication with Fischer as well as with borrowd from the history of Babylon. Maps on which promenades my room cellar took the other prisoners was forbidden me.
were marked the corner of the courtyard Hemot to zeppelins while visitedhus also appeared to the regular Secretly, the rules of the prisoh allowing only Peligious should be placed, and the street corner where an autohours usually between eleven o clock and midnight. reading matter. Noticing that my companion in mismobile should await me all that was given as part The sound of all church bells of the city, the stri fortune was downcast tried to encourage him. One of the same dent whistles of the police, announced that danger day was able to send him on a scrap of paper a These preparations, however, became absolutely approached and that the zeppelin had been sighted. German song which had just read in Romain Rol superfluous when learned that my liberation was to These moments full of anguish for others were for land Jean Christopninen schmerzen be accomplished by daylight, and by the will of the me moments joy. Auf, auf Russian Revolutionary garrison at Jassy. It was to stayed at Bucharest in my improvised prison Und sorgen sagt gut nacht take place on the first of May, as part of the until the evacuation of the city. The hostile armies Lass fahren was das Herzen Day demonstration. When one can have such a were only some dozens of kilometers away, the re Trubt und traming macht.
Ally an entire military organization escpae by the ufgees of surrounding villages already poured into From Vasslui was transported to Jassy. That aid of outlaw tricks becomes unworthy of a of a Socialist Bucharest, when one night was awakened at four took place toward the end of February. At the station hailed with joy this plan, which communio clock in the morning with the order to prepare to met a group of German civilian prisoners, kept until cated to me two or three days before its.
leave in two hours for an unknown destination. then in an improvised prison in Police HeadquartOn the eve of the event a circumstance occurred which almost ruined the whole affair. discovered During the first week of December, after a trip ers, who were returning to Germany: at least that of several days in the midst of retreating troops, and is what they told me, for personally was skeptical, that in the morning, during the daily report which supposing it more likely that they were being sent to took place in the office of the Chief of Police, al in cars so crowded that we were obliged to stand up, agent had declared that the Russian soldiers were arrived at Vallsui, capital of one of the Moldavian preparing my liberation. This agent even gave cerdepartments, situated on the Foscany Jassy railroad greetings to my German Socialist friends, but it was impossible to continue the conversation. At Jassy There in a foul prison, in a dark cell where on the tain details. Immediately it was ten o clock in the evening side the alarmided to communicate to those out three months. The prison keeper was an inveterate repulsively dirty, with a chair as bed. After th:s they th news. even expected that night drunkard and witnessed savage scenes between hin; missioner, where they improvised a prison like the to be transported to in when. ing woke up in the same room my joy was his subordinates and the prisoners, whom he cursed one at Bucharest. was guarded by secret agents extreme. immediately sent a courier to communiwho slept in my room.
cate this to my friends and to tell them to continue his night orgies. In the same prison were some Hungarian dancing girls who used to be invited by the At Jassy was again able to receive newspapers their work. They answered that all preparations keeper to to his private room, separated from my cell and books. small detail but very important for were made, and that they had not even had time to by a thin wall, where, in the company of officers and a prisoner: was allowed tor the first time to go out report to the Russian Revolutionary Committee the rumors in the Police Department.
local civilias officials, he passed the night in gambling for a bath. The prison at Vassui had had no bath and drunken bestialities.
was refused permission to take one in They gave me final instructions. My liberation the city.
would take place in the afternoon between four and In the prison of Vallui suffered a good deal beThe proclamation of the Russian Revolution, howfive o clock. The signal was the International, sung cause of my complete isolation and the absolute lack the soldiers as by as they approached my house. At this ever, brusquely modified the liberal treatement was news my mother and my family, who remained receiving in Jassy. They commenced by suppressing moment should try to reach the courtyard.
in occupied territory. was still a prisoner at Bucharest alarming news reached me, brought by my newspapers, the agents who guarded me had The first of May seemed to me the longest day of a colonel of the Rumanian Army, that bandits had indeed to speak with me at all. severe orders not to give me any political news, or all my captivity. believed the victory half won by friend of mine, a the fact that the police did not take any special meas Senator of ures. But at three o clock in the afternoon, suddenly months later when was a free man in Petrograd the Government party, were not allowed to see me. at my door appeared the Chief of Police. He came to invite me to a little automobile trip around the beauwhich had a presentiment at Vallui. My mother Having learned that one could communicate with the tiful and interesting suburbs of Jassy. To make the occupied parts of Rumania through the Red Cross, was dead and my two nephews had been arrested wanted to telegraph my family, but was refused.
party more agreeable he brought his two children the outbreak of the war, one of them thrown into The guard was also reinforced. Four secret agents and his brother in law, a doctor.
jail, the other interned in a concentration camp in instead of two alternatel day and night at door my northern Moldavia. They are there still. And while Ah! All my plans dstroyed. My dream of liberty we three, the umanian authorities the armies of males of the family, were Two policemen were stationed on the sidewalk be vanished. Perhaps it was my last chance. had to were perse fore the windows of the house. An cuted by the Inspectos out.
make a superhuman effort. must make an offensive of excuses and polite words. must at all costs reinvasion had frequently to see that orders were strictly destroyed everything on The to go, but not betray my intentions. For whole Dobrudja. Immense provisions of grain, horses and The government cattle, expensive agricultural implements, a threshing the few militant Socialists who were not the Russian Revolution was reviving the courage of hour the Chief of Police remained in my room, using nch all his eloquence to convince me. For reasons unknown machine, and other things all that became war booty.
the e Even my books were packed in cases and shipped no in Without occupied territory. They had reasons to susone knew where.
doubt he was not certain that the Russians intended pect that my friends were communicating with me, to do anything. Probably he was not certain that he In the eyes of the Rumanian authorities had two and that even knew of the violent attacks on the in the columns of the most na was convinced by my attitude. pretended to be a faults which made me a criminal: was a militanttionalistic Published: of Rumanian Journals, La Racc. Rounaine, little indisposed. The comedy must have been well Socialist, and had been born under the Bulgarian organ of Professor Jorga.
enough acted, for after an hour of discussion the Aag before Dobrudja was annexed to Rumania in inspector went away.
1878. To the Bulgarian authorities also was a danWhat the government feared above all was my Four o clock it was time. Scarcely a quarter of gerous because a militant Socialist. So on me, and cealed nervousness of the agents who guarded me. My an hour later a distant roar, scarcely perceptible, came by consequence on my family, the blows fell from two sides.
impatience was growing. accommodated myself to my ears. More by intuition than through my very badly to forced inactivity, isolation and monot senses knew the crowd was near. With one leap When the Police Commissioner from Bucharest ony but since the Russian Revolution my captivity crossed the empty hall and burst into the courtyard.
arrived with me at Vallsui, by chance was able ahd become almost insupportable. could not sleep. The agents were there parleying with group of five to read the confidential order directed to the keeper An insane desire to be over there among all those Continued on page savan next mornroom, and of When at came police saw es, or