Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1919, Russia

861.00/4967

The Intelligence Officer with the American Expeditionary Forces in Siberia (Lieutenant Colonel Eichelberger) to the Director of the Military Intelligence Division in Washington³⁷

[Extract]

[Vladivostok,] March 31, 1919.

. . . . . . .

4. In Eastern Siberia the situation is much more complex. We find here for instance, in the city of Vladivostok at the present time: (a) General Horvat, Director of the Chinese Eastern Railway, called the “Supreme Representative of the Kolchak Government in the Far East”; (b) Major General Ivanoff-Rinoff, who under Admiral Kolchak is Commander of all the Russian troops in Eastern Siberia; (c) Ataman Semenoff with headquarters at Chita, who is, in effect, a dictator for the Chita district; (d) Ataman Kalmikoff; (e) Colonel Butenko, Commandant of the Fortress of Vladivostok—recognized last fall by the Allies as the de facto head of the Russian troops in this city.

(a) General Horvat: He is in many ways, a better type than General Ivanoff-Rinoff, Ataman Semenoff or Ataman Kalmikoff. He is a man of education and refinement; but has no control over Ivanoff-Rinoff. He will possibly be made the figurehead of any government that may be established in Eastern Siberia. Some months ago General Horvat was ordered by Admiral Kolchak to proceed with his troops to Chita, and to arrest Ataman Semenoff and although this order has never been countermanded, we find him last week, in Harbin, in conference with Semenoff.

(b) Major General Ivanoff-Rinoff: This officer is the most important Russian leader in Eastern Siberia. I believe him to be absolutely unscrupulous and to be dominated completely by the Japanese.

(c) Ataman Semenoff: He has refused up to the present time to recognize the authority of Admiral Kolchak and has ruled practically as dictator at Chita. He robs the Chita banks, the custom house at Manchuria Station, and ships in supplies to Chita, in military trains, without payment of freight or duty and later sells these goods to the civilian population in Chita in “Semenoff Stores”. His officers go further, and when in need of funds, rob the Chinese merchants and obtain money in other illegal ways. He is a man of about 29 years of age. He is accustomed to carrying his hand thrust in his coat in the manner supposed to be characteristic of Napoleon Bonaparte, and is said to always carry Napoleon’s “Maxims” in his pocket. He is dominated to a large extent by his mistress, upon whom he spends hundreds of thousands of roubles.

(d) Ataman Kalmikoff: in his relations to the American Expeditionary Forces is important enough to warrant treatment in a separate paragraph below.

5. I wish here to cover briefly, in a general way our relations with Ataman Kalmikoff.

(a) Since last fall he has been in charge of the Russian troops at Habarovsk. His actions there would have been considered disgraceful in the middle ages. He has murdered, robbed and executed without trial. His actions last fall, became so bad that General Graves recommended to General Otani that Kalmikoff be warned that if he did not cease his illegal arrests and executions, that American and Japanese troops would hunt him down and turn him over to the civil authorities in Vladivostok for trial. General Otani replied, at that time, that Kalmikoff had promised to cease these illegal arrests and executions, and the matter was dropped.

(b) Kalmikoff’s actions towards the men under him were almost as bad as his conduct towards the civil population. There were floggings and executions among his own men and this finally culminated, on January 28, 1919, in about 400 of his men marching around the city of Habarovsk for some time, and then surrendering themselves to Colonel Styer, in command of the 27th Infantry at Habarovsk, by whom they were disarmed. About 200 scattered in all directions, and about 200 apparently, remained loyal to him. Kalmikoff at once demanded that these 400 men be turned over to him; and the Japanese Commander, General Oi, submitted a questionaire to Colonel Styer asking what we intended to do with these men.

(c) A representative of the Japanese Headquarters, called on General Graves and stated that the arms surrendered by the Kalmikoff troops belonged to the Japanese and requested that these be returned to them. General Graves answered that he would turn these arms over to the Japanese provided, they would put this request in writing, which has since been done. The arms will probably be returned to the Japanese.

(d) This affair created a storm of protest in the reactionary papers throughout Eastern Siberia and in the Japanese press. (The reactionary papers are the only type that can be printed in Eastern Siberia at this time). At the same time, delegations and proclamations came to American Headquarters from Cossacks, imploring that these Cossacks who had surrendered to Colonel Styer, be protected by the Americans, and not turned over to Ataman Kalmikoff to be shot.

(e) The “Kalmikoff Incident” has been closed by the fact that all but about a dozen of the deserters under charge of Colonel Styer, have returned individually to their homes. These men were at no time considered by the Commanding General as prisoners, but were only disarmed and protected from murder by Kalmikoff.

(f) In addition to the great amount of proof which had previously been gathered concerning the operations of Ataman Kalmikoff, I am in constant communication with a Cossack officer, belonging to the Judge Advocate’s Department of Kalmikoff’s Detachment, who is nearly dead of tuberculosis and syphilis in our Evacuation Hospital No. 17, at Ulysses Bay, near Vladivostok. I am obtaining from him piecemeal, statements of the murders committed by the Kalmikoff Detachment, most of which he was personally mixed up in, and have even obtained the names of the officers who personally committed these murders.

(g) The principal murders committed by this detachment, such as that of the Swedish Red Cross representatives, are being committed to writing, and sworn to by this officer, in the presence of the Expeditionary Judge Advocate. This statement will eventually be forwarded to the War Department by the Commanding General, and it will only be after reading this account, that one can appreciate the full significance of the open support of a man of Kalmikoff’s type by the Japanese Government.

(h) In speeches and letters containing expressions of mutual respect and esteem, which passed back and forth between the various Japanese commanders and Ataman Kalmikoff, the Japanese openly acknowledge him as their friend. When they believe the time fitting, they acknowledge him as an ally, but when called upon by Colonel Styer to restrain the murderous remnant that Kalmikoff has left in Habarovsk, they state that they have nothing to do with his actions.

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R. L. Eichelberger

37. Copy transmitted to the Department of State May 19.