Siberian Red

visible crossing the snow-covered pond. In the trees on the other side, Gramotin could just make out a group of men standing beside a fire.
    As quietly as he could‚ Gramotin slid back the bolt of his gun.
    *
     
    Unable to wait any longer, Tarnowski waded into the flames, scattering the burning branches and emerging seconds later with two shovels. In their years beneath the ground, roots had taken hold of the handles. Now they clung like skeletal hands to the wood.
    Kolchak reached out for one of the shovels.
    With a smile, Tarnowski held it out of reach. ‘Allow us, Colonel.’
    ‘By all means, gentlemen!’ Kolchak stepped aside.
    Tarnowski and Lavrenov, each now armed with a shovel, marched into the smoke and began chiselling out clods of earth still crystallised with frost. Lavrenov’s shovel, weakened by its years under the earth, broke almost immediately. But this did not slow him down. Grasping the metal blade of the shovel, he dropped to his knees and attacked the frozen ground.
    Now that the two men were occupied with digging, Kolchak turned to Pekkala. ‘Walk with me,’ he said.
    They strolled out on to the surface of the frozen pond.
    ‘How does it feel to be free?’ asked Kolchak.
    ‘I’ll tell you when I know,’ said Pekkala.
    ‘There is something else I wanted you to know as well. Even though that gold is almost in our grasp, our work is not yet done.’
    ‘Yes, we have to get across the border.’
    ‘I am talking about more than that. What I mean is that you and I still have important roles to play in the shaping of our country’s future.’
    ‘Once we cross the border, this will not be our country any more.’
    ‘That is precisely why we will be staying only as long as it takes to acquire weapons. We will then be returning to Russia and, within six months, my uncle’s dream of an independent Siberia, which he died trying to fulfil, will be a reality.’
    Pekkala was thunderstruck. Kolchak has gone completely mad, he thought to himself. ‘An independent Siberia? With what ghost army are you planning this invasion, or are we to manage this just by ourselves?’
    ‘Not ghosts, Pekkala. Refugees.’ Kolchak’s voice was trembling with energy. ‘Just across that border there are over 200,000 men who fled Stalin’s Russia. They are soldiers and civilians who had made lives for themselves in Siberia, but who were forced to flee into China during the Revolution, rather than surrender to the Reds. I am talking about the Izhevsk Rifle Brigade, the Votkinsk Rifle Division, the Komuch People’s Army, and my uncle’s own Siberian Provisional Government Troops. Some of them took their families with them.’
    ‘And haven’t they made new lives for themselves?’
    ‘Of course, but they have kept alive the dream of returning to their native country. They all want the same thing, Pekkala – to return home to the richest land in all of Russia.’
    ‘Even if what you say is true,’ replied Pekkala, ‘and these refugees were prepared to fight, what makes you think you could defeat the Red Army?’
    ‘The Russian military is busy in Poland. Soon, if the rumours in Shanghai are true, it will be defending its borders against Germany. They will have neither the time nor the resources to stand up to us.’
    ‘And suppose you did take Siberia, what then?’
    ‘Then we form an alliance with Germany. The land west of the Ural Mountains will belong to them, and everything to the east will belong to us.’
    ‘What makes you think the Germans would agree to this?’
    ‘They already have,’ explained Kolchak. ‘Their diplomatic representatives in China have promised to recognise us as a legitimate government as long as we can reclaim Siberia, which means that Japan will automatically recognise our new frontier as well.’
    ‘And which country is providing the weapons for this adventure?’
    ‘The men I’m speaking of are not concerned with politics.’
    ‘You mean you are dealing with gun runners.’
    ‘Call them whatever you want, Pekkala. Even as we speak, there are two ships moored in a cove in the Sea of Okhotsk, loaded with rifles, machine guns, even a few pieces of artillery. All we have to do is pay for them. And when we get across the border into Russia, what we do not have – more guns, food, horses, whatever the gold has not bought – we’ll take from those who try to stop us.
    Even though Pekkala had now recovered from his initial shock, he was still astounded at the audacity