The train was stopping often and there many soldiers boarding. There were document checks at every stop. “The flight from Northern Russia, where conditions were growing steadily worse, had already begun.” (Page 358)
Marie would tremble with fear at every stop with the document checks. The conductor would give different reasons to the checkers so that Marie, her husband and his brother were never checked. En route, Marie learned that “forty sailors, were traveling on the same train, sent by the Soviet of Petrograd to verify documents in Orsha, as there were too many people passing over the frontier without permits.” (Page 358) They were on the train for 2 nights and a day. Early August 4, they arrived in Orsha. The most dangerous part of their travel had yet to begin.
The sailors were heavily armed with ammunition and ready to kill. The soldiers were asking for documents at the train station, and Marie was alone when two soldiers came to Marie to ask for documents. Marie was able to assuage them from pursuing just in time before her husband and his brother arrived back at Marie’s side.
Now the task was to find the Jewish office as some well wishers in Petrograd had recommended that this group may be able to assist them to get to the frontier. As it turned-out, they were no longer able to help with documents as the frontier was heavily guarded. So hopes on that option was dashed. What to do? They went to find for place to stay overnight. The sailors from the same train where filling these hotels and Marie thought a safer place would be in a private home where they rent out rooms. They decided to instead, sleep in the open. It seemed safer than place oneself “in the hands of the owners of those houses.” (Page 360) As it turned-out, typhus and dysentary were rampant among the refugees who were often in crowds. “Moreover , we were likely at any minute to be apprehended by the Bolshevist patrols verifying documents.” (Page 360) Now the decision lay of what next. They could not stay in Orsha nor could they go back to Petrograd. Marie suggested they go to the frontier themselves and “try our luck there.” (Page 360) So they agreed on that plan and got into a cab headed for the frontier. Before leaving the cab, they observed “the rough, dusty road under a scorching sun and the endless carts filled with Ukrainian refugees, peasants returning home.” (Page 360) In addition, they realized they would be going into the “Lion’s den.” (Page 360) The cab dropped them off close to the fence where the other side was considered the frontier.
The man at “an unpainted wooden shed,” was dressed so differently and Marie was not sure how to approach him. She had no choice to face this situation head-on. She was trying to speak, paused, and once had control of herself, she began. Marie went on about a story that in the end, she was told by this man that she and her companions must have a permit of the local Soviet of Orsha, plus a Ukrainian visa. He also asked for her identification papers and documents. Marie’s husband presented the paper issued by the Pavlovsk Soviet with unreadable signature and a seal. The guard stated that he still could not let them go through. Marie went on with a story. She then was trying to bargain with her husband’s brother minding their baggage while Marie and her husband go through the frontier.
They passed through doorway into a second room. Then, they were on the “other side of the Bolshevik fence.” (Page 362) “Before us lay a stretch of no man’s land, perhaps a quarter of a mile wide, separating us from the German side.” (Page 362)
“The Ukrainian refugees whom we had passed on the road gathered on this narrow strip of land into an immense and compact crowd. It was evident they had been there for a long time.” (Pages 362-363) Marie writes descriptively what she saw. They got through the crowds and got to the German gate. There Marie pulled out from her soap her document. Then she was trying to get the attention of the German officer walking along the fence. She was having difficulty remembering German due to stress of it all. The young man stopped. She then spoke with “more boldness.” (Page 363)
“Owing to a stroke of luck, we have succeeded in passing the Bolshevist frontier, but we have no papers, no passport, no permit, no Ukrainian visa. If you refuse to let us in we shall have to return to the Bolsheviks. My husband and his brother are with me; they are both officers of the Guards. The Bolsheviks have just begun to persecute officers and we cannot remain in Russia. In the name of God, let us in.” (Pages 363-364)
The officer spoke while looking at Marie’s husband. “You are an officer of the Guards? And where is your brother? I don’t see him.” (Page 364) Marie explained they had to leave them at the border with their luggage. The Guard spoke saying he did not know what to do with them. Marie then handed the guard her Swedish Legation paper. He then ask that the gates be open. Then they were to go to the Ukrainian commissar. Marie wanted to speak a local authority. They let them wait until dusk and then her husband was told by the local commander that they must go through the Ukrainian commissar for a visa.
“We left. A desperate lethargy seemed to envelop me. Our situation was now, it seemed, completely hopeless.” (Page 367) The tiredly walked toward the Frontier. It seemed they would have to go back to Orsha to the Bolsheviks. As it was past dusk, from the German outpost, the German officer from the fence, was back. He said they should have listened to him to begin with. He went to speak the Ukrainian commissar before he left. Then the officer gave them water food from the German officers’ guardhouse. Marie began to feel more alert again. Then they were ready to speak with the Ukrainian commissar.
“Another miracle. He proved to be the nephew of someone we had known well and for a long time. We could tell him everything and if by a magic wand the situation changed. The commissar gave my husband a pass and a visa for the unfortunate Aleck, who had been waiting the whole day, with the suitcases, at the Bolshevist frontier gate. Two soldiers were dispatched with my husband to bring the luggage. I stayed on the porch of the little house and the commissar and our rescuer tried to keep my thoughts diverted while my husband was on the Bolshevist side.” (Pages 367-368)
“Now that we were safe, we had to think of where to go. The next train for Kiev did not leave until the day following. The Ukrainian commissar offered us for the night in his carriage which stood on a siding near by. He conducted us there and had dinner sent to us from the German officers’ mess. In my whole life I have never eaten anything better than the thin bean soup splashing at the bottom of those enamel pans.” (Page 368)
A feeling of rebirth. They did not sleep much and found themselves with quite a few insect bites in the morning. With their visit with the Ukrainian commissar in the morning, they learned “the crossing the frontier had just become impossible by the Bolsheviks.” (Page 369) While waiting for their train the next day, they were to remain in the commissar’s carriage, just as a measure of security and protection, until the train arrived. They boarded the train at night and went to Zhlobin. There they would change for Kiev. The train carriages were 3rd and 4th class. As it turned out, they went into a 4th class carriage. They ended up sleeping on above shelving. It was overcrowded and designed not for comfort. Marie lit a candle until benzene poured onto her hand and she immediately extinguished the light from the candle. The carriage had been hit. So they had to get off and found their way onto the German officers carriage. They had been drinking and directed Marie, her husband and his brother, to back compartment. Such an improvement to the 4th class carriage experience.
They arrived in Zhlobin the next day. There they enjoyed good food and felt they were back in an environment where people were “polite and cleanly dressed.” (Page 372) They felt like a new breath of life for them, as they had been through such traumas and difficulties. Later that night, they left on a train for Kiev.
Arriving the next day in Kiev, Marie’s husband recognized an “old acquaintance, who at once invited us to her house. And that day also, like a blind person suddenly has seen the light, I rejoiced in everything. Everything seemed new and wonderful - the hairdresser’s where my hair was washed and curled, the attractive confectioner’s where, like a schoolgirl, I ate twelve pieces of pastry one after the other. Lord, what a day that was!” (Page 372)
They brought their luggage to their friend’s home. Also Marie purchase white flour and had it sent for her father. Later on she understood it had been received.
“Now began an unreal, camp-like life, in which was no stability, no real peace. Live had been saved by the Germans, yet it had at the same time been conquered by them. The Ukrainian government issued orders, made decisions, yet one knew always that its very existence depended on the Germans, who used it as a sort of mediator between the inhabitants and themselves.” (Page 373)
“The Germans behaved like conquerors, but without them the country would again have been in the power of the Bolsheviks. Both the refugees from the Northern Russia and the higher classes of the local population who had gone through the horrors of the Bolshevist regime now relaxed in body and in spirit; here was food, gaiety, security; and yet one could not believe that it would last. A nervous tenseness was in the air. Fantastic rumors circulated. Suddenly, for instance, I heard on every side that my brother was in Kiev. He had been seen, I was assured here and there. I was even told the names of the people who had met him. At first I laughed, but later the tales became so convincing that hope was born in my heart. I had been for many months without news from Dmitri; the times were such as to make possible the most incredible things.” (Page 373)
“I began to make inquiries which led me from source to source, until my meeting with Dmitri was all but arranged; then the whole thing collapsed, as one might have expected. Evidently some adventurer had been using my brother’s name.” (Page 373)
Where they had been staying seemed to now be overcrowded, as the hostess was helping others as well during this time of great change. At the dinner table, there would often be 15 or 20 people. It was feeling time to make a move but the question to where? Marie felt that it would be wise not to stay in Kiev very long. She was feeling ill at ease for some reason. There seemed to be too much instability with the West and with the future of Ukraine. Odessa came to mind where they could visit with some close friends of Marie.
Another rumor was making the rounds, which was Marie’s father had been arrested again and imprisoned. She also kept hearing about the Bolsheviks cruelty. Marie had received a penciled thank you note from her father for the flour.
Once Marie had become a refugee in Rumania which was months later, she learned that her father had been arrested only 10 days after she, her husband, and her husband had departed. He was in a state prison for 6 months - in and out of the infirmary there. Princess Paley tried to get him released. His release had been promised, yet on January 30, 1919, he was moved from the state prison to the Fortress of SS. “Peter and Paul, and, without further torture, shot.” (Page 375)