Being Noble and Treating Others as Nobles Will Revolutionize the World
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Lord Westover: Nobility Training for Dummies - A Book That Will C...
Lord Westover: Nobility Training for Dummies - A Book That Will C...: The Vast Estate is pleased to announce that His Grace, Lord Westover has published, Nobility Training for Dummies a new E book to change th...
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Our Marriage is Now Equal and The Whole World Knows It!
By Robert Hudson Westover
My husband and I knew something incredibly unusual for us was unfolding after the Marriage Equality ruling was handed down last Friday by the Supreme Court. We were there, outside the imposing white marble facade of America's most iconic building of Justice with the words carved in marble above it's giant bronze doors: Equal Justice Under Law.
The general consensus was that a ruling wasn't supposed to be handed down until Monday, June 29, or the high court's last day in session for the year. This is how the other landmark Gay Rights rulings had been handled in the past (see my previous blog post on the End of DOMA ruling in 2013).
But I had a premonition that it would happen on Friday and told Tom we needed to get to the Court in the morning, before 10 AM (the time that rulings for the day are handed down). Fortunately, we both work walking distance from the Supreme Court, so we rendezvoused at about 15 minutes before the rulings of the day would be announced.
Tom and I ten minutes before the Marriage Equality Ruling. |
Would I be right?
Our hearts beat rapidly in anticipation as we hoped and prayed that for the first time in our lives, the statement Equal Justice would be met out in its totality. Would this day bring us unfathomable joy by changing our lives forever and making our marriage, our love, truly equal under the law? Or would it be yet another half measure of dignity handed out to us like ravaged prisoners hoping for the full pardon that would someday open our cell doors and free us--forever--from the jail house of second class citizenship?
We knew this ruling was going to change the lives of millions...Tom and I just two of those millions.
And when that crowd shouted out LOVE HAS WON! we jumped for joy, broke into tears and just held each other.
A picture taken of US by CBS News moments after the ruling. |
It took 15 years to get Equal Justice in our marriage.
Many, many more years for many others.
Many, many more years for many others.
"What do you think of the swiftness of the change?" One reporter asked us. Tom replied "Swiftness? It's been over 50 years since WE started our fight for equality. It hasn't come fast enough... We love you Justice Kennedy!"
"Kiss your husband!" a reporter asked, so I did! |
And then many other reporters started asking us questions, taking our picture and filming us. This had happened the last time a great barrier of bigotry had fallen: DOMA. In fact, the reporters were asking lots of us, lots of questions. We were more than thrilled to respond. Maybe some young person, struggling under the weight of oppression might hear our story and be inspired to love themselves, feel sorry for their persecutors and look forward to a life in a community of kindred hearts.
But, to our amazement, that day, our ripple in the pond of outreach was beyond anything we could have imagined. We knew this when a text arrived from a friend we hadn't heard from in ages telling us to look at CBS New's Twitter page. There we were, in full embrace--our devotion and love--for all the world to see.
And the world did see, read and hear from us! On six continents!
And the world did see, read and hear from us! On six continents!
As the day unfolded, and into the night, the texts and Facebook messages kept coming: Saw you in the Huffington Post! One friend wrote from LA. Then the PBS News Hour reporter who had interview us texted to tell us we'd be featured at the top of the hour as the Network's lead story.
Three days later and we're still blown away. Think of how many millions of LGBTQ folks have seen that, "Yes, it does get better."
From the Huffington Post. |
But, sometimes, like what happened for us, the spotlight turns and there you are. As Christians we believe that God does work in mysterious ways. We don't always understand it, but all things can (and often do) work together for those who have faith. So many words and expressions are timeless and this quote from Psalms really says it for us--for what happened on that momentous day "This is the Lord's work and it is marvelous in our eyes..."
***
Below are links to some of the worldwide media coverage our voice received.
***
Below are links to some of the worldwide media coverage our voice received.
North
America:
Lead
story PBS News Hour
Yahoo
News
The
Huffington Post
CBS
News Twitter
International
Pick Up
South
America:
Africa:
Australia:
Asia:
Middle
East:
Europe:
http://www.newsjs.com/us/its-reason-to-live-here/Friday, June 26, 2015
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
The Last Knight of JFK’s Camelot has Died
A tribute to Hugh D. "Yusha" Auchincloss III
By
Robert Hudson Westover
I believe the course of history changed one summer
evening over steak and daiquiris at the Auchincloss family estate,
Merrywood, in northern Virginia. That was the night Hugh D. “Yusha” Auchincloss
III entertained, with his stepsister, a young Congressman from Massachusetts.
Despite some confusion by biographers and journalists, the dinner
party was Yusha’s idea (or so he told me). His stepsister, Jackie, was
attempting to win over the heart of a man she had met a few months prior but
was getting nowhere with him romantically.
His name was John F. Kennedy.
After that fateful dinner party
a match was made and shortly thereafter Jaqueline Bouvier would become Mrs. John
F. Kennedy and play a role in history that would put both her and her husband
in the pantheon of the unforgettable personages of recorded civilization.
Yusha Auchincloss (left) with Robert H. Westover Hammersmith Farm, Newport, RI 2013 |
Years later, at another dinner party, at yet another
Auchincloss estate, Hammersmith Farm, in Newport, Rhode Island, Yusha had this
to say about the couple he’d helped to match make, “First, Mr. President, I want to congratulate
you. You’ve been a very good president. I’m glad you had your wedding here in
Newport. I’m glad you’re celebrating your wedding anniversary here with Jackie.
But I have to remind you: if you hadn’t gotten engaged to Jackie, my
stepsister, neither one of you would have been in the White House. And I
wouldn’t have had a chance to stay in the White House. So I have to thank you
for that!”
What Yusha left out in his now famous toast was that
without him, JFK’s Camelot would possibly have never existed.
I call Yusha a knight of Camelot because he not only
facilitated that decisive evening at Merrywood, he also became an important adviser to the future President on Middle Eastern issues right up until JFK’s assassination.
But most importantly he was a man both JFK and
Jackie could confide in and never worry about a tell-all-book-deal. The First couple
was not mistaken in relying on this thoughtful, gentle man. He never betrayed
them. He never revealed to the press so many of their secrets. Because of this,
few know that Yusha spent many an hour at a sickly John Kennedy’s bedside
reading or watching TV with the future President. And, few know that it was Yusha who Jackie
considered her dearest friend until her dying day. “You know how much I love
you…” she wrote to him just before her death in 1994.
My relationship with Yusha developed in the twilight years of his life. His beloved aunt, a former Russian countess, Olga C. Morgan, was a dear friend of mine and someone I was so close to that I referred to her as my “honorary godmother”. Yusha and I would sit and listen to tapes that I had recorded of Olga, who had passed away in 1991(to read more about my relationship with Olga see previous blog postings below). We became instant “family” and he let me call him “uncle” because “a lot of people call me that…” he jovially commented in his charming wit that only those who knew him could understand.
I will greatly miss my uncle Yusha and only regret I had not spent more time with him. He was the embodiment of a true Noble spirit. If the world were full of Yusha Auchincloss’ we’d have a much better place to live and, now without him, the world has one less living example of honesty and kindness.
The aspect of his passing I'm comforted by is knowing that he died peacefully at his beloved home on Hammersmith Farm—the home of his ancestors. “Behold the upright man, for the end of that man is peace.”
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
The Ghost of a Civil War Veteran’s Legacy Home in Old Town Manassas
Celebrating the 150 Anniversary of the Ending of the Civil War
By Robert Hudson Westover
By Robert Hudson Westover
With the 150th Anniversary of the ending of the
Civil War just around the corner (April 9, 1865 - with Lee's surrender to
Grant or May 9, 1865 via official Congressional declaration) my husband, Tom, and I are
honoring Union Army Officer Lieutenant George Carr Round.
After moving into our new home in Old Town Manassas, Virginia, we discovered that its purported builder, George Carr Round, had quite an illustrious history. In fact, Lt. Round was a hero of both the Civil War and the years of reconciliation that followed.
After moving into our new home in Old Town Manassas, Virginia, we discovered that its purported builder, George Carr Round, had quite an illustrious history. In fact, Lt. Round was a hero of both the Civil War and the years of reconciliation that followed.
Among Mr. Round’s many efforts to bring
reconciliation to the emotional wounds caused by the horrific fighting between
the armies of the North and the South (which lasted for generations after the
war) was the 1911 Manassas National Jubilee of Peace*.
The Jubilee of Peace was a week-long event that, for the first time, brought surviving veterans from both sides of the conflict together for a
celebration of national reconciliation. The event was deemed so important nationally, that
President Taft attended and delivered a twenty minute speech on the closing
day ceremonies.
George Carr Round (Photo: The Manassas Museum) |
Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Lt.
Round moved to Manassas shortly after the Civil War almost by accident. He had
intended to move to North Carolina, but got off the train to stay the night in
Manassas. He was headed further south because some of his family were living in the Carolinas. But aside from relatives, North Carolina held a special significance for Mr. Round. It was on the dome of the state capital building that by order of General Sherman, Round climbed to the top and set off a signal for the troops.
He nearly lost his life doing it when one of the flares exploded while he was handling it. Round survived with a minor injury and, undaunted, quickly sent off what would be the last signal message of the Civil War which spelled out in bright lights: Peace on Earth Good Will to Men.
Lt. George Carr Round as a Union Solider (Photo: The Manassas Museum) |
George Round
bought the Bennett plantation and married Emily Bennett. There is some discrepancy over the
actual date of the building of our home. The National Register of Historic Places records it being
built in 1908, but a wood plaque found while doing remodeling in the kitchen
attributed the building of the house to 1902. We have since met with the grand daughter of the original owners and she said the home was built in 1905 for the Haas family who lived there until the late 1950s.
At nearly 5000 total square feet, our home was a mansion by turn of the Nineteenth Century standards, when the average American home was only about 600 square feet. In fact it was even larger than the nearby Liberia Plantation house which once dominated the small farming community.
At nearly 5000 total square feet, our home was a mansion by turn of the Nineteenth Century standards, when the average American home was only about 600 square feet. In fact it was even larger than the nearby Liberia Plantation house which once dominated the small farming community.
During the Jubilee of Peace there’s little doubt that our home played a major role as the location for many events. The home is very close to the central activities of the Jubilee and has large and accommodating rooms and an expansive lawn for garden parties.
George Carr Round orchestrated The Manassas National Jubilee of Peace and is seated to the left of President Taft (standing center) during the official ceremony |
The North and the South meet in peace. Round (right) represents the Union Army and the man on the left is an unknown Confederate soldier. |
*It is important to point out that the 1911 Peace Jubilee did nothing to reconcile, heal or overcome the horrific and brutal pale of Jim Crow laws over which much of the South was governed until the 1960s.
(The links below lead to articles that pay thoughtful tribute to Mr. Round.)
Smithsonian Magazine: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-weve-commemorated-the-civil-war-1440764/?no-ist
The National Park Service: http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/mana/adhi1b.htm
North Carolina Histories: http://www.nchistoricsites.org/capitol/stat_cap/civwar.htm
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Downton Abbey - Russian Style: World War One (Part Two)
An interview with one of the last living Russian countesses before her death in 1991.
By Robert Hudson Westover
Part Two of a Series
By Robert Hudson Westover
Part Two of a Series
August 2014 marked one hundred years
since the start of World War I, the “war to end all wars” or more to the point
the war to launch a century of bloodshed, upheaval, more wars of horrific proportions and
the greatest rewrite of national territories since the fall of the Roman Empire
in the 4th Century.
Perhaps the most catastrophic collapse of these latter day empires was that of Russia. For more than three hundred years the Romanov dynasty had held their empire together with a supreme autocratic rule that mirrored the nation’s cultural inheritance from the Byzantine Empire. It was no accident of history that the throne the tsarina’s sat upon during the coronation of a new tsar in the Kremlin’s Annunciation Cathedral was claimed to be the very throne of the Byzantine empresses that once rested on a green marble slab on the first tier of the cavernous and magnificent “greatest church in Christendom” the 5th Century Hagia Sophia in ancient Constantinople.
Perhaps the most catastrophic collapse of these latter day empires was that of Russia. For more than three hundred years the Romanov dynasty had held their empire together with a supreme autocratic rule that mirrored the nation’s cultural inheritance from the Byzantine Empire. It was no accident of history that the throne the tsarina’s sat upon during the coronation of a new tsar in the Kremlin’s Annunciation Cathedral was claimed to be the very throne of the Byzantine empresses that once rested on a green marble slab on the first tier of the cavernous and magnificent “greatest church in Christendom” the 5th Century Hagia Sophia in ancient Constantinople.
As with so many of us, the cataclysms
of life changing events are often unexpected and we look back to our time
before the incineration of what we once knew with a strange melancholy or
sentimental fascination.
In the following interview Olga
Morgan, born Countess Olga de Chrapovitsky, looks back to her vanished world of
imperial Russia from the perspective of nearly 70 years.
Olga was destined to be connected by either blood or marriage to two of the most prominent and tragic families of the Twentieth Century, the Romanovs and the Kennedys. Part Two and Three of these interviews with Olga are something of an amazement in that any one person would be an intimate witness, per se, of both the bloody and murderous fall of the House of Romanov and the tragic event Jackie Kennedy, her niece via marriage, experienced on the on that horrible day in Dallas when her husband, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in front of the entire world.
It’s a wonderment to me that anyone, seeing
what Olga had observed from the front lines of several of humanities' most wrenching and barbarous hours, could
still hold out hope for the betterment of the species.
Robert H. Westover and Olga C. Morgan in Olga's garden, Laguna Beach, CA (April 1991) Photo Credit: Lawrence R. Westover |
Olga was destined to be connected by either blood or marriage to two of the most prominent and tragic families of the Twentieth Century, the Romanovs and the Kennedys. Part Two and Three of these interviews with Olga are something of an amazement in that any one person would be an intimate witness, per se, of both the bloody and murderous fall of the House of Romanov and the tragic event Jackie Kennedy, her niece via marriage, experienced on the on that horrible day in Dallas when her husband, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in front of the entire world.
Olga C. Morgan's nephew, Hugh D. "Yusha" Auchincloss III (left next to JFK) is pictured here at JFK's and Jackie Kennedy's wedding reception held at Hammersmith Farm, Newport, RI. |
But she did.
And her joyous and hopeful attitude, laced with her noble spirit inspired me in my darkest times and I hope will inspire the reader as well.
Note: All photographs are either the property of the author, used by permission or thought to be in the public domain.
World War I for a Russian Countess
A Compilation of Two Interviews with Olga C. Morgan
Location:
Mrs. Morgan’s villa overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Laguna Beach, California. 1983
(Dr. Richard Pierce*)/1991 (Robert H. Westover)
Richard Pierce (RP): And then the war? [World War I]
Morgan: We were still studying when the war
broke out in August 1914. I still had a year, but we refused to study German
after that; we thought it was unpatriotic.
RP: Was this suggested?
Morgan: No, no, we refused, and mother was
furious with us.
RP: When the war broke out, we were in
the country; I remember it very well. We were more or less expecting it,
because there was that murder in Sarajevo, and the whole thing which led up to
it, but we knew a lot of the military men. My step-father having been commander
of a division, all the men who were stationed in the country, in Gatchina, for
instance, had to come and call on us and leave their visiting cards, and then
some of them were invited to the house; mother knew their family or something;
she wanted us to have some kind of rapport with other people. We used to drive
to the station to see all the regiments off, and wave goodbye to them, and it
was all very heart-rending, that they were all leaving.
Robert Westover (RW): How did people look at the war?
Countess Olga de Chrapovisky with departing troops at her home in Gatchina, Russia (1914) |
RP: And then the casualties began to
mount?
Morgan: Yes, and then we were called on to
help in the hospitals. We were very young; I was 17, but we were asked. All the
young girls in town who were well bred were asked. It was not a military
hospital, but they had nobody else. I think there was one doctor for the whole
hospital, because the nurses had all gone to the front. Everything was
depleted.
RP: So although technically a nurse's
aid you were taking the role of a nurse?
Morgan: I don't even know what role we took,
because we had nothing to do with the bed making, or cleaning up or anything of
that nature. They had peasant women who did all the work, but what we had to do
was bandage, help the doctor when he was seeing patients, and sometimes stay late and wait at the door for people who would come in.
I remember one evening I was asked to
stay later, and this man came in and he said "I got off the train. I was
going to the front but I got off the train because I feel very ill." There
was nobody in the hospital except me, that is, of the staff; it was full of
patients, but they were mostly peasants. So I took him up to a room which was
free, and I took his temperature which was very, very high. "I'll leave a
note for the doctor when he comes in the morning," I said.
In the morning the doctor called me,
and he said, "Did you touch that man?"
"Yes," I said, "I took
his temperature."
And he said "You'll have to go
into quarantine because he has spotted typhus."
I had noticed when I was taking his
temperature that his chest was all covered with spots, so I was in quarantine
for two or three weeks. It was very boring obviously; I couldn't work in the
hospital; I couldn't see anyone; I just had to stay in my room.
RP: Your room at the hospital?
Morgan: No, no, at home. So I could have
given it to everybody at home, if I had had it. I think spotted typhus was
carried by lice. I don't think it came from touching a person. Well, anyway,
they didn't have a chance in my case, because I never got it, but it was very
annoying. I was completely quarantined; I couldn't go and see any friends.
RP: So you were in this capacity
throughout the war?
Morgan: Throughout the war, yes. Then,
towards the end of the war a lot of wounded began to come in, and then mother
decided to open a little hospital. We had a building, it was not very big, but
I think it had about thirty beds in it, and it was fixed up, more or less. I
don't know who took care of it or anything.
I know that we spent all our days
there, but we didn't really do anything very much except bandage. Sometimes the
bandage would fall off immediately because we didn't know how to do this thing,
but I suppose it was a morale builder, and they were not really people who were
very ill, but they were somebody, for instance, who came with a broken leg and
had to wait until the leg mended. You know, things like that; it took a little
time. They were not ordinary citizens; they were military men who were
convalescing, and then they'd have to go back to the front again.
So different doctors used to come in
every day and check everybody, and it was a little bit better taken care of
than the one we had worked in first, and mother was paying for it.
In our moments away from the hospital we used to go to a little tennis club, and that's where we had our fun. We all played tennis, and all these officers would come and be playing tennis too.
Then, during the sport, we didn't seem to have a governess with us all the time.
RP: A governess was around, then, even while you were working in the hospital?
Morgan: Oh yes! Sometimes they used to come and pick us up at the hospital and walk us home; very rarely did they let us walk in the evening alone. But at the tennis club we were free, and we met some very attractive young men there, and flirtations started.
RP: The family must have had very good
means.
Morgan: Oh, mother was very wealthy. But unfortunately
she took all her fortune out of the United States and took it over to Russia
about 1910 so it went down the drain with the revolution, completely.
RW: Did you like working in the hospital? And did it become more horrific as the casualties mounted?
Morgan: No, I didn't like it, working in the hospital, but my sister [Maya] and I were very patriotic. We had to
do it. There was no question whether the war was for the right or for the wrong; we hated the Germans and we wanted to do everything we could for the war.
Yes, things did become more difficult as the war continued. Now I assisted in operations. In the first operation I assisted in I had until that point never even seen a naked man in my life. I ran out of the room and vomited!
Yes, things did become more difficult as the war continued. Now I assisted in operations. In the first operation I assisted in I had until that point never even seen a naked man in my life. I ran out of the room and vomited!
In another operation, I was attempting to distract my thoughts, trying not to watch
what they were doing. We had no anesthetics, so they had to give the injured solider liquor as they removed his leg! Imagine
no anesthetics at all! There was a terrible shortage. And the poor man was screaming his head off. I just stood there trying in vain not to concentrate on what was going
on and then suddenly I looked down and I had this unattached leg in my arms! I fainted. But, eventually, in other operations I became less squeamish. What choice did I have? It couldn't be helped! Things were far worse in St. Petersburg, I mean Petrograd...
Countess Olga de Chrapovitsky served as a nurse during Word War One |
Morgan: Yes, but of course we had one
thing that was very difficult. My mother, first of all, her name was der
Felden [Derfelden], which was a German name, and secondly she had a terrible accent; she
spoke very poor Russian, so many people thought that she was German. She would
go into a shop and give her name and the salesperson would look at her and say
"Oh, Nemetskii, German!" So she had a very difficult time.
RP: This takes you, then, through 1916,
when things were getting increasingly difficult. Was the assassination of
Rasputin looked upon as a patriotic act, or as an aberration?
Morgan: Oh, it was considered very patriotic,
very much so. Because everybody hated Rasputin; they felt that he had a terrible
influence on the Empress, and through her on the Emperor.
RP: But a great deal of this was
exaggerated, was it not? Evidently, though, he did have a hypnotic power.
Morgan: Because he was able to cure
the young Tsarevich. And now I have read some books about the medicines in
Siberia. And there are really some very interesting herbs and things that
people still use.
Or he might have been just lucky. Or
he might have been just lucky. He was really a horrid man; everybody who knew
him thought that he was a terrible creature.
RP: Except for those in his own circle.
Morgan: Yes, his own circle. Madame Vyrubova,
who introduced him to the Empress, thinking that he might help the boy, and he
did help him, there is no denying it, but it really was one of the reasons that
there were less and less people willing to take the side of the Tsar.
But we were very far away from all
that, because you see my stepfather had already died, thank God, and we were
living in the country; we had moved out of St. Petersburg, so we had very
little contact with people there. Before that, mother had lots of friends who
lived in St. Petersburg, and she was seeing them all the time, but when we
moved out into the country we had very few people. There was the Grand Duke
Michael, who used to come to see us all the time, who never talked of politics,
obviously. And a few of the grand dukes who lived in Gatchina at that time. And
the Dowager Empress used to come and live in Gatchina at that time. We used to
see them quite a lot. And I used to play with Prince Vasilii Romanov and the
children in the palace; they had slides, indoor slides, and used to enjoy that
very much. But otherwise I think mother was very much out of touch with the
world, so when the revolution came it was quite a shock.
RP: What do you recall of February 1917? Was
the Revolution quite evident?
This picture of the Dowager Empress Marie was give to Olga C. Morgan's mother, Baroness Derfelden |
Morgan: No, not too evident at first except
that the servants got a little bit disagreeable and mother put red [Soviet] armbands
on our arms, so that nobody would stop us on the street.
Things got to be sticky, but we didn't
realize it too much until finally one night we were all awakened, and soldiers
came to the door and said "We want to see what you have in the
house!"
We had a great marvelous collection of
antiques and different kinds of firearms which my father and then my stepfather
both had collected, and they took every one of them.
RP: When did that occur?
Morgan: At the beginning of the revolution. I
can't give you the date because I don't know, but it was very, very frightening. First the knocking on the
door, and then they came in. Soon they came knocking on the door again, another
night; they wanted something else, and then suddenly mother said, "This is
going to end very badly, because everybody knows that we have a great cellar of
wines!"
So then she had a file of servants
stand, and take the bottles out of the cellar and pass from one to another.
Then at a deep ditch by the street the neck of each bottle was knocked off and
the street was running with wine for miles. After that they lost interest in
coming.
She was afraid they would come to the
house, get drunk, and rape the girls. I thought that was a very clever move.
Everybody said "She's crazy; that foreign woman is crazy, what she did,
she poured all the wine on the street, all the good wine!"
I think we saved two bottles of
Napoleon brandy, which we buried. It was very hard to do, so it must have still
been February or March, the ground was not thawed yet, because we had a very
difficult time burying those two bottles. I know where they are, but I don't
think I'll ever be able to find them!
RP: So this was probably at the outset,
in February or March?
Morgan: Yes. The Americans had already
congratulated the Russians on how clever they were to depose the Tsar and
start a new democratic life. We were absolutely infuriated by that. It was some
time after that. Before that they couldn't come knocking at your door and
coming in at night. Then there were police, but later you were on your own.
We didn't feel it in the country that
much, but then the governess was sent to St. Petersburg to feel things out, and
see what it was like, and she used to come back with lurid tales about what was
going on, so we felt we had to get out. Our name, der Felden, was a German
name, and mother spoke Russian with a very bad accent, so that everybody took
her for a German, and then all the grand dukes had visited us all the time, so
we were definitely in danger.
RW: You were in grave danger. Your mother must have been quite concerned.
Morgan: Absolutely. We were very frightened by this point. So mother went to the American embassy and asked them to help her get us all out of the country. They did so even though she had given up her
citizenship. They restored her citizenship and we were safe to leave. That is if we departed soon. The situation was deteriorating fast.
So we got on the train and went across
Siberia. We left just before the Provisional Government was ousted and the
Soviets took over on November 7, 1917. We left just before that, and not a moment too late.
It was the last train before the line was cut, Elihu Root, the last scheduled trains to cross Siberia!
The journey took two weeks.
The train was full of soldiers, who were all running away from the front, who
didn't want to fight anymore. The whole country was in disarray! We were just
very lucky to get out.
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