Alex M. Lochwitzky: a Russian nobleman's story of Siberian escape and exile

              A Russian Nobleman's Story
of Siberian Exile and Escape
3311 Columel Ave c/o Mr. Oxteel


Recent Experiences
OF
A Russian Nobleman in Exile
Synopsis of Lectures

Compiled by I. E. OAKLAND

1912 INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA





Figure


Sincerely Yours,
Alex. M. Lochwitzky




PREFACE
SINCE the memorable expose of the intrepid man, George Kennan, whose books and lectures about Siberian exiles created such a tremendous sensation in America and Europe, there has not been presented to the American people anything more vivid or thrilling and heart-stirring than the lectures by Alexander M. Lochwitzky, the Russian refugee and Siberian exile.

A nobleman by birth, Lieutenant-Colonel in the army, a linguist, a man of high educational qualities, and a lover of the common people of his country, he is easily the most promising recent accession to the lecture platform of America.  He has come to us with letters of the highest recommendation from Mr. George Kennan, also the English Vice-Consul, Mr. Edgar Salis-Schwabe, Dr. David Starr Jordan, and Mr. William Helm of the Tokio Y. M. C. A.

It is with the hope of being of service to his countrymen in exile, of making the people of America realize, understand and believe the horrors of the Siberian exile system, that Colonel Lochwitzky has taken the lecture platform and tells of his experiences, tragic life, and innermost thoughts and feelings.

Having passed through great sufferings—having lost all in the world that was dear to him—father, home, wife and children—he feels that tender sympathy for mankind such as only those know who have undergone the severest trials of humanity.  Every trial gives efficiency to character; the trial leaves the soul richer in sympathy and purer in thought, and loftier in ideals.  Character is forged in the furnace of affliction.

Firmly believing that it was the hand of Divine Providence that has guided and preserved him through all of his
 trials—believing that it was for some definite reason that Providence aided him in his escape, he stands a willing disciple to good for his brother-men.

George Kennan says in one of his books: The unpardonable crime in Russia is the crime of thinking.

In Russia, as we can easily gather from the experiences of Colonel Lochwitzky—even now in the twentieth century—the less a Russian subject thinks, the more secure is his personal welfare.

Advancing years have brought the Russians but little more freedom in thought and action.

In Japan, just before sailing for America, Col. Lochwitzky met and exchanged views with Mr. George Kennan.  This conference disclosed the fact that the conditions which existed about thirty years ago, are still the same.

To us, a free and liberty-loving American people, the horrors of the Siberian exile system seem almost incredible; but there is an old proverb that Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

With such great sincerity does Col. Lochwitzky narrate his life story and the sufferings of the country of his birth, that the imagination of his audience is carried far away across the seas, to that land where martyrdom, ignorance and cruelty reign supreme.

The echoes of those drums of doom fill their ears and they are 'at one-ment' with the speaker.

Having heard many people express a desire for a memento of the lecture, and also for the benefit of those who have missed the opportunity of hearing it, I have decided to write a brief synopsis, which I now offer to the kind consideration of the public.

I. E. OAKLAND, P. O. Box 8, Indianapolis, Ind.

January 1, 1912




Recent Experiences of a Russian Nobleman in Exile
Colonel Alexander M. Lochwitzky was born forty years ago in St. Petersburg, Russia.  Left motherless at birth, he never knew the charm of being clasped lovingly and tenderly in a mother's arms.  The sweet joy of confiding his childish troubles to the mother, who passed away, was never his.  When a child of four years, his father married and brought to him a step-mother who although a lovely woman, seemed to lack that indescribable something which only the real mother possesses.

At that time, his father was a general in the war office, and one of the right-hand men of the secretary of war—the famous Count D. S. Milutin who reorganized the military schools.  Both of them were liberal minded Christian gentlemen, fifty years in advance of their time.  His father was a Christian in the fullest sense of the word.  He never missed an opportunity to attend church; he distributed alms secretly and liberally.

He always had for everyone that word of kindest sympathy, hope and good cheer, that awakened in people—fallen even to deepest degradation—that sparkle of light, love and good, that often redeemed them and brought them to Jesus Christ.  He taught me to look upon every man as a brother.  My father would help a cripple or an aged, poorly-clad person to cross a crowded fashionable thoroughfare, to the amazement and disapproval of passersby.  He also would say to me, 'Remember—Duty is the great mountain road to God; doing nothing for others is the undoing of ourselves'.

Colonel Lochwitzky endeavored to follow the object lessons in humanitarianism of his father, but as he grew older, he became more and more attached to the things of the world, and to the false teachings of society.


At that time he was an officer of a crack cavalry regiment—having graduated from two military colleges, after receiving the A. B. from a civil college.  He had plenty of money, and was spoiled by everyone, and he says:

I was, as I see it now, a 'little Czar' in my own small social world.  I was not a very 'bad boy.'  I thought I was even better than the other officers, for I had never struck a soldier or a non-commissioned officer during drill.  While riding in my carriage, I never failed to throw alms to some beggar—but I had no time to question them, to enter into their wants, into the lives of the 'other half' of the Russian people.

At last, however, his eyes were opened.  As if God had it so willed, he became associated with some noble minded people, who caused the scales to fall from his mental eyes and enabled him to see how the other half of the Russian people lived, how they suffered from the pitiless rule of tyranny, cruelty and greed.  Seeing this, he became a most unhappy man.  He was unable to sleep, to eat delicacies when he knew that the Russian peasants were starving—living under the terrible oppression of the cruel, unscrupulous officials, in ignorance and wretchedness.  These officials forgot that evil cannot be overcome by evil, but by good.

I felt, says Colonel Lochwitzky, that I was a part of the 'Great Order of Brotherhood of Man.'  I understood that to live is to work for the liberation of mankind, and I resolved to consecrate my life to the unselfish services of my fellowmen, irrespective of race, sex, color and creed, seeking the riches of Heaven and sharing them freely with others.  I resolved to wage a fierce battle, against the evil powers of cruelty, graft and sin in Russia, and ever since, I have felt that hungry longing to help, the strong desire to comfort and aid, to redeem and to save; and there was and is a great field in Russia for it, for think: only two men out of every one hundred of the rural population can read and write!

Colonel Lochwitzky was eager to give his mite.  Freely
 ye receive; freely give became his slogan.  Therefore, with the hope that education would make the new generation happier, he opened a free primary school for the children of the poor peasants, on a strip of his land near a village adjoining his estate.

The majority of schools in Russia are government schools, private schools being scarce and those few are under the supervision of priests—one to a school.  It is their duty to teach the Greek religion to the students and keep an eye on the professors themselves, so that free ideas should not be taught in the schools, nor anything that could undermine the prestige of the Greek church.

He engaged a capable instructor for the school.  To its opening, he invited two officials, who were banqueted and they seemed to be perfectly satisfied with proceedings.

The night of the death of his father-in-law, the Count of Luxemburg, Col. Lochwitzky was seized in his home and arrested as a government suspect.  His home was entered by gendarmes; everything was searched for papers which would convict him.  As he states:

The house was searched from top to bottom: I was obliged to stand by and watch the gendarmes rip with their knives, the upholstering of my elegant furniture, the stuffing of which they sifted carefully through their fingers in the endeavor to find some hidden paper, whereby they could arrest and convict me.  My wife and children were not at home, being at the fashionable seaside resort, Oranienbaum.  When they came to the bedrooms, the beautiful beds and linens were all treated in like manner; they slashed open the lace-trimmed pillow-cases—everything was in disorder.  Dear me—I was wondering what my wife would say at such a state of affairs.  Time was passing; I became weary and asked just what they were looking for.  Papers, came the reply.  I immediately took out my keys, led them to my desk, unlocked it and turned the contents over to them.  Each paper was examined separately, nothing could be
 found.  The chief lost patience; finally one letter was opened—a letter from a student and a friend, asking for the loan of a book.  As girls sometimes do, just why I really have never been able to discover, that young woman simply signed her initial, 'M.'  Seeing this, the official pounced upon that one letter, demanding why the full signature was not given, and whose it was.  Knowing that this girl would receive the same treatment as I had just received, and fearing that I should bring trouble to her and her old parents thereby, I declined to give her name.  This angered the official beyond endurance; he said that under the word 'book' might be a hidden meaning—some code word, for example, a 'dynamite bomb;' that a man who opens a school under the very noses of the officials was a very dangerous person politically and should be arrested.

Overwhelmed by the sudden turn affairs had taken, I informed the gendarmes that I had invited the officials to the opening of the school; that they had been present.  I was then told that I should have sent out printed announcements.  This I had neglected to do.  Without delay, I was arrested as a government suspect and thrown without trial into the fortress of St. Peter and Paul.  It is permitted the prisoner on his arrest to send a postal to his nearest relatives.  This was denied me until after the elapse of two weeks, so that my father, my wife and friends supposed me to have been murdered.

Imagine with what consternation Colonel Lochwitzky took in at one glance the four walls of his narrow cell, the walls that shut out that life of ease and luxury which had been his from infancy.  Think how humiliating to be told to obey—to do this and to do that—he whose right it was to give orders, now had to obey them.  He whose body had known nothing but the touch of finest garments, was now in chains.  He was driven in a closed carriage, with curtains drawn, to the frowning fortress, and through the gloomy portals past the barracks.  Then he was blindfolded and led through a maze of passages, past the patrols into the corridor, and from that into the
 gloomy damp cell or rather vault.  The door of his cell had scarcely closed when he heard a gentle tapping.  Being on the point of a nervous collapse, he could not quite take in the situation; as he says:

I was well nigh out of my senses and could not by effort remember the alphabet.  There was yet another thing that got on my nerves.  In the door was an oval piece of glass with an outside leather flap.  Through this, the warder could silently and without warning, observe any motion of mine.  Keeping my eye fearfully upon this oval disc, and noticing that it had a mercurial, mirror-like look, I concluded that there was no one watching me, and I stepped upon a stool in the corner whence I thought I heard sounds.  Just within my reach was a grating over the hole communicating with the stove outside.

One stove heated two cells, and the pipes communicating with them joined and became one before reaching the stove.  It was therefore possible for sounds to pass through from one room to the adjoining.

Listening, and keeping my eye upon the oval glass, I caught some indistinct sounds.  At first I could not understand, but by degrees I made out the question, 'Who are you?'  I replied: 'I am Alexander Lochwitzky.'

After great trouble, I learned the occupant of the next cell was a young girl named Taisia Yakimova, nineteen years of age.  She was accused of having been found with proclamations in her possession.

Only a few sentences had been uttered, when Col. Lochwitzky saw the eye in the door upon him.  A panel in the door opened; a soldier stuck in his head and said: Say, don't you understand it is forbidden to talk?  The next day the young girl was removed to a different cell.  Col. Lochwitzky did not know what had become of her, but learned later that after spending five years in the dungeon, she was transported for life to the far-distant oblast of Yakutsk.

Colonel Lochwitzky was kept in that cell for sixteen months, during which time he had no communication with the
 outside world, and was subjected to the third-degree tortures of the gendarmes, who were looking for further incriminating evidence.

Mr. George Kennan tells us in his book on Siberia and the Exile System, that there is a form of punishment that is known in Russia as exile by administrative process, which means the banishment of an obnoxious person from one part of the empire to another without the observance of any of the legal formalities that, in most civilized countries, precede the deprivation of rights and the restriction of personal liberty.  The obnoxious person may not be guilty of any crime, and may not have rendered himself amenable in any way to the laws of the state, but if, in the opinion of the local authorities, his presence in a particular place is 'prejudicial to public order,' he may be arrested without warrant, may be held from two weeks to two years in prison, and may thereafter be removed by force to any other place within the limits of the empire (Northern Europe or Siberia); and there put under police surveillance for a period of from one to ten years.  He may or may not be informed of the reasons of this summary proceeding, but in either case he is perfectly helpless.  He cannot examine the witnesses upon whose testimony his presence is declared 'prejudicial to public order.'  He cannot summon friends to prove his loyalty and good character, without the great risk of bringing upon them the same calamity that has befallen him.  He has no right to demand a trial or even a hearing.  His communications with the world are so suddenly severed, that sometimes even his own relatives do not know what has happened to him.  He is literally and absolutely without any means whatever of self-defense.

The poor and the rich are treated in like manner—to illustrate—there was the arrest of Prince Alexander Kropotkin, who was not, according to Kennan, a nihilist or a revolutionist, nor even an extreme radical.  He was, however, a man of impetuous temperament, of a high standard of honor, and great frankness, and directness of speech.  These
 characteristics were perhaps enough to attract to him the suspicious attention of the Russian police.

Prince Kropotkin was arrested the first time in 1858, while a student in the St. Petersburg University, for having in his possession a copy in English of Emerson's 'Self Reliance,' and refusing to say where he obtained it.  The book had been loaned him by one of the faculty, Professor T_____, and Kropotkin might have perhaps justified himself, and escaped unpleasant consequences by simply stating the fact; but this would not have been in accordance with his high standard of personal honor.  When his instructor heard of Prince Kropotkin's arrest, he went at once to the rector of the University and admitted that he was the owner of the incendiary volume; the young student was thereupon released.

I have cited the above incident to show the reader that such an arrest as Col. Lochwitzky and Prince Kropotkin suffered is by no means an unusual proceeding and as it happened then, so does it now.

But to continue with Col. Lochwitzky's story—for I have left it for a space—I will say that at the end of sixteen months' imprisonment in St. Peter and Paul, he was transferred to the Saghalien Island, off the coast of eastern Siberia.

To reach this island meant a journey of fifty-five days, on a steamer on which were 994 exiles, murderers, robbers or both, from whom he was kept apart so as not to corrupt them.

These steamers make but two trips a year—in the Spring and in the Fall—the result of which is overcrowding.  At the beginning of each journey, they are thoroughly cleaned and fumigated, but this condition of cleanliness does not remain so for a great period of time, owing to the terrible overcrowding.  The boats are only used for the criminal convicts.  If they are disposed to mutiny and are riotous, hot steam is turned on them, and they are cowed into order.  The men and women are separated from each other only by means of bars.  This being the case, it is necessary for them to dress and undress in the presence of each other, which is indeed most humiliating.


It is a dismal looking island, this isle where yearly about 2,000 convicts are landed.  In length, it measures 590 miles and is from 17 to 100 miles broad, with an area of 29,336 miles, or a little less than that of Scotland.  The population numbers 25,000 convicts, 3,000 troops, 2,000 officers and their families, and 5,000 natives, aborigines of the island.

Mr. C. H. Hawes, of Trinity College, Cambridge, England, describes in his well-known book, In The Uttermost East, Saghalien as being a mountainous country, with a long backbone or ridge running from north to south, keeping near the western coast; and three spurs running to the south.

Mr. Hawes writes: though situated in the temperate zone, Saghalien, certainly in its northern half, has a climate similar to that of Lapland and Southern Greenland.  Winter lasts long and for nearly six months the land is covered with a white pall.  The summer heat is considerable; hence a great range of temperature is experienced.

On arrival of the steamer at Saghalien, Col. Lochwitzky, who was ill from the effects of the rough voyage, and with many others in like condition, was taken to the hospital.  Here again was overcrowding.  There were beds and accommodations for only sixty patients, but instead of that, 135 were crammed into one room.  Patients were dying for want of medical help, with not even a friend to cheer their last moments, to whisper a word of hope and faith into their ears, but hearing only curses and profanity in that supreme moment.

The doctor made his visits of as short duration as possible, fearing to become infected with some contagious disease.  He would even place his handkerchief over his mouth and nostrils to prevent breathing the same air.

In order to escape such an obnoxious place as this hospital, Col. Lochwitzky feigned his physical condition to be such that he was able to go about his work—whatever it was to be.  Therefore he left the hospital to take up his new life on the third day after his arrival there.


His first position was that of secretary to the director of the Insane Asylum—Dr. Landau—and in that capacity he had to collect statistics about the insanity among the criminals.  Later on he was appointed to be principal and only teacher of a village school twenty-two miles from the city, where, without books of any kind, he was told to teach school.  At the same time he was made doctor to 300 men, women and children; during the period of three years, as Col. Lochwitzky proudly states, not one of his patients died.

Instead of giving him half of the salary of a regular teacher ($150.00), he received only $2.50 per month to keep body and soul together; the balance was stolen by the grafting officials.

Graft—graft, says Colonel Lochwitzky, from the bottom to the top of Russia, it is graft.  And the graft is not the mild sort which you find in other countries—the kind that has to do with securing of political positions merely, or a rake-off in some big contract.  Ah, no!  In Russia, graft lays hold of a man's life, of his honor, of his family, or personal freedom, relatives, friends and fortune.  All that is dear to man is at the mercy of the 'system'—the system of bureaucracy.

After having acted in the capacity of school teacher and physician for three years—during which time it was a frequent occurance for him to go without food for days at a time, he incurred the displeasure of a drunken priest for reading the Bible to the pupils of his school, and was arrested and put into a small cell, on the outside walls of which hung instruments of torture.

It was not quite a comfortable feeling to experience—the feeling that only a few yards from reach, hung birch rods dipped in salt, and the plet or whip.  The latter has a stout thick handle about eighteen inches in length, and a six foot thong branch, divided into three.  These thongs ended in little bags filled with lead, but are now replaced with leathern knots which tear the flesh and inflict the keenest of suffering.

To be again imprisoned would have been beyond the Colonel's power of endurance.  To commit suicide was his one
 idea.  It became a wild desire to him to end all of his hardships and trials and pass into the Far Beyond.  But before committing this great sin he fell on his knees and prayed to God.  His prayer was heard.  There appeared one Mr. Charles H. Hawes, Professor of Trinity College, Cambridge, England, to whom he was appointed interpreter and body guard, going with him on many long journeys about the island.  In his book, In the Uttermost East, Mr. Hawes speaks of Col. Lochwitzky repeatedly as his Interpreter, Mr. X and his companion, without whom the investigations, necessary for the writing of his volume, could never have been made.  Mr. Hawes, having completed his investigations, left Saghalien for Vladivostock.

As his term of four years hard labor had expired, and he was permitted, in 1904, to go to the mainland (Siberia) to spend there twelve more years in exile.  There Colonel Lochwitzky became secretary to Mr. Schwabe, the British Vice-Co, and was at the same time, elected to be secretary of the Ussuri Mining Co., with a salary of $300.00 per month, and a commission from the sale of coal.  He had not held the position long when he discovered that the money, which was supplied for the purpose of erecting props in the mines to prevent accidents, was being stolen by a grafting mine engineer.  Owing to a cave in for above reasons, the miners had struck.  Col. Lochwitzky was sent to investigate the matter and he succeeded in quieting them and make them resume work, if the mining engineer would be discharged, which Col. Lochwitzky promised and brought about.  The engineer then made a friend of his send an anonymous letter to the chief of the gendarmes, accusing the Colonel of being a Socialist and that he incited the miners to riot, and advising the chief of gendarmes to have him sent to Saghalien for life.  Col. Lochwitzky found out that he was being shadowed.  Heart broken with grief, he decided he would make his escape from the country, where he had known nothing but misfortune and ill luck.

After great scheming, I managed to dodge a spy
 who had been following me for days.  I ran down to the waterway where I induced a Chinese sampan man to take me to the nearest outbound steamer so that I could make my escape.  The first boat was French—of course that was impossible.  The second was German.  I ordered him to continue; the third was Japanese.  This I climbed aboard and I was taken for a Jap.  After heavily tipping the Captain, he stowed me away in a long coffin-like box in the pilot house.  There I remained for what seemed eternity—in reality two days.  Unable to turn or move, I was in constant fear of discovery by the Russian custom house officers.  But they did not find me and so we departed for Otaru, Japan.

Landed in Japan at last, Col. Lochwitzky spent a few months in recreation and enjoyment, living as befitted one of his high rank.  He then became professor in a military school.  After having lived in comparative peace for the period of eight months, suspicion of being a Russian military spy was raised against him.  He was nearly lynched.  He therefore left Japan for China.

Again taking up the tangled threads of his life, Col. Lochwitzky became professor of French in the Y. M. C. A. School at Hong-Kong.  Later he was appointed Professor in St. Stevens College.  During summer vacation he became a custom-house officer between Macao and Canton.  Owing to graft, he was obliged to resign.  From there he went to Shanghai, where he barely escaped arrest by the Russian Vice-Consul.  He then fled from China back to Japan.

Tired of being hounded, longing for freedom of action and of mind, Col. Lochwitzky set sail for the United States, landing in California in November of 1904.  Three days later, he took out his first naturalization papers.

And so, says Col. Lochwitzky, after more vicissitudes than are incident to the lives of most men, one day—ever delightful, ever treasured in my memory as a jewel of time—I was blessed with the privilege of landing upon American soil, of breathing
 deep air that is fraught with the spirit of freedom.  How happy is the persecuted Russian, who finds himself under the merciful protection of the Stars and Stripes.  How he admires and reveres the great hearts and minds that built and have preserved a government of and by and for the people.  For the first time in my life, I enjoyed the luxury of being able to think aloud.  For the first time in my life, I was free from the dangers of brutal, high-handed treatment by Russian officials.  I am in a land of liberty and I thank our Lord for that.

I want you to thank God for all the rich blessings of peace and freedom given to you and never to lose faith during trials and tests, but to remember to pray in your moments of heart-aches or doubt, and then you'll feel sure that He will lead you on and on—to ultimate good and success.

Draw night to God and God will draw night to you.




Indorsements
Tokio, Japan, Oct. 12, 1904.

Mr. Oscar Straus, Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Washington, D. C.

Dear Mr. Straus: Permit me to introduce to you, by means of this note, Lieut.-Col. Lochwitzky, a Russian political exile, who has recently escaped from eastern Siberia.  He is recommended by Mr. Schwabe, British Commercial Agent at Vladivostock, and carries a letter to The Outlook, from Mr. Robt. E. Lewis, General Secretary of the Y. M. C. A. at Shanghai.  As he speaks English perfectly, as well as French and German, you may be interested, as I have been, in hearing his story.

He has had a noteworthy experience, and can tell you many things about Russian affairs and methods, in the far Eastern part of Asia.

Col. Lochwitzky is anxious to obtain work of some kind in America, and you may perhaps be willing to give him such advice and suggestions as a stranger always needs in a foreign land.

Sincerely yours,
(Signed) George Kennan.


Y. HONDA, Chairman
T. MIYAGAWA, Vice-Chairman
V. W. HELM, National Secy., Tokyo
C. V. HIBBARD, Local Student, Tokyo


THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION UNION OF JAPAN.
3, Sanchome Mitoshirocho, Kanda Tokyo.
October 19, 1904.

Dear Mr. Graham:—

This will introduce to you the bearer, Lieut.-Col. A. M. Lochwitzky, whose position will be fully explained by other letters which he bears.  The Colonel passes through Vancouver en route to San Francisco, and being entirely new to America, we shall greatly appreciate any favors you are able to render him.

Yours very truly,
(Signed) V. W. Helm.

J. M. Graham, Esq., Gen. Secy., Y. M. C. A. Vancouver, B. C. Canada.



LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY
(Office of the President)
Stanford University, Cal., Jan. 28, 1905.

Lt.-Col. A. M. Lochwitzky, 977 Pine St., San Francisco, Cal.

Dear Sir: Permit me to express to you our very great pleasure in listening to the most thrilling story of your experience in Russia and Saghalien as given in your lecture at the University on Thursday night.  The story was not only intensely thrilling and admirably told, but gave a vivid idea of the viciousness of Russian officialism which one could obtain in scarcely any other way.  It was as though a prisoner of the Bastile had escaped in the time of the French Revolution and was telling his stories to sympathizing friends, who had never known anything but freedom.

Very truly yours,
David Starr Jordan.


Stanford University, Cal., April 25, 1905.

Mr. Alexander M. Lochwitzky, 1877 Sutter St., San Francisco, Cal.

Dear Sir: I am glad to hear the good word from you from time to time.  Speaking at Woodland the other night I found the people delighted with your talk and yet almost stunned by the revelation it gave of what absolute monarchy and bureaucracy imply.  While in Texas the other day I met President Roosevelt and he seemed very much interested in what I told him of you, but the letter which Mr. Wheelan and I sent him he did not seem to have received.  When we are ready to teach Russian, we will let you hear from us, if you are still in your present mood.

Very truly yours,
David Starr Jordan.

A. B., Harvard, 1870

LL. B., University of South Carolina, 1876

Dean Law Dept., Howard Univer., 1880–82

Civil Service Examiner, N. Y. City

Sec'y Grant Mem. Ass'n, 1885–92

Consul to Bombay and Vladivostok 1898–1906



RICHARD T. GREENER
5237 Ellis Avenue

Chicago, Ill., Dec. 5, 1908.

To Whom It May Concern:

I have know Lt.-Col. A. M. Lochwitzky since 1902, at which time I was American Consul at Vladivostok, Siberia, Russia.

I first heard of him through an Englishman, Mr. C. H. Hawes, who had been at the prison-island of Saghalien, and had been greatly assisted by L., in whom he become so deeply interested, as to work for his release.  Mr. Hawes sent L. to me on his release, hoping I might find a place for him.  Not being able to secure his valuable service, I assisted in securing him a position, first with an American merchant, afterwards with the British Consul, Mr. Salis-Schwabe.  This last position Mr. L. held with credit to himself until just before the opening of the Russo-Japanese War, when the Russian drag-net was extended to utilize all Russia's available force.

Col. L. naturally left Vladivostok about that time.  Most of the time he was at the British Consul's, he was also manager of the large mining interest of Mr. S. and, from my personal knowledge, he was a most valuable man and did much to preserve those properties, which were later lost.  I was intimate with L. during the whole period of his residence.  Although he had been and was a political exile, he yet enjoyed, to my own knowledge, the friendship of high military and Secret Service officers, on account of his distinguished ancestry.

He was then, as now, a man of untiring energy, a skilled linguist, of engaging manners, and so far as I was able to judge, a fine type of the Slavic race.  I enjoyed continuously his personal friendship; was the last person he saw on his departure; knew not at the time where he was going, (it would have ben dangerous to divulge), but am rejoiced to find he is in the United States of America.

Mr. Hawes, to whom I have referred, investigated his story, visited his relatives, before pressing the case of his permission to reside under surveillance at Vladivostok.

(Signed) Richard Theodore Greener.


During all my acquaintance with him I have found him a gentleman of high character and cultivation.  I have never heard anything to his discredit during that time, and hence freely write this letter, hoping he may have an opportunity of showing some of the horrors of the Russian pesthouse, now happily one of the things of the past.

(Signed) Richard Theodore Greener.



INDIANA UNIVERSITY (Dept. Comparative Philology)
Bloomington, Indian, November 2, 1910.

The following record of facts can best serve as testimonial to the platform work of Col. A. M. Lochwitzky.  On his first appearance at the University Chapel before the Young Men's Christian Association of Indiana University it was necessary to break the lecture at the middle to close the meeting on schedule time.  But the opportunity to hear the rest of the lecture was seized with evident avidity by practically all present.

Three Sundays later the Harris Grand Theatre was filled to hear him—and not disappointed.

Col. Lochwitzky is easily the most promising recent accession to the lecture platform of this country.

(Signed) Guido H. Stempel.



THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, JACKSONVILLE.
Jacksonville, Fla., February 11, 1911.

Count Alexander M. Lochwitzky, late lieutenant-colonel imperial Russian army, will deliver a lecture this evening in the university auditorium under the auspices of the Y. M. C. A. of Stetson.  Count Lochwitzky is a favorite at Stetson and in DeLand, and a large crowd is expected to be present to hear this his third lecture.  His subject for tonight will be Missions in China and Japan, one with which he is thoroughly conversant, having spent a number of years in exile in Siberia, later escaping to Japan and China, where he also made a thorough investigation.  He has been connected quite prominently with religious and educational work, both there and in America, holding an honorary LL. D. degree for distinguished services rendered in an educational line in America.





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