From their
arrival, they attracted the attention and admiration of the people, many
of whom were planning an anti-Bolshevik demonstration. Every ship
commander in the harbor had his men ready for landing parties in case of
trouble. But there was no disorder on the day of the demonstration and
not till a month later did a Bolshevik disturbance give the Czechs a
chance to free an anti-Bolshevik city from its oppressors. Japanese,
Chinese, English or Americans from the war-ships could have done it. But
when the Czechs did it, a Slavic, Russian-speaking people gained
control of a city that gladly welcomed their intervention. The same idea
explains their marvelous success in Russia. Having braved death rather
than fight Russians, the Czechs can now fight oppressive Russian
elements without having their motives misunderstood or their plans
opposed.
[Sidenote: Marriages of war prisoners and peasant women.]
Siberia has afforded an interesting race study ever since the Teuton
prisoners began to arrive. From the very first, German and Austrian
prisoners mated with the sturdy peasant women of Siberia and settled to
a happy and unhampered life in the undeveloped lands of the great
plains. Some of the women had husbands at the front, but _nichevo_ never
means "never mind" to a greater extent than it does in Russian marital
affairs. A man's a man for a' that, and there was little trouble until
the two parents of different nationality and language discussed which
language the children should be taught.
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