Fall of Vladimir

The Gate

When I reflect upon those early days, I am filled with regret for not acting sooner. How I long for the power to change the past, that by the grace of some eternal power I could reach through the bars of time to shake my younger self and shout "Get out you fool! Grab your daughter and flee! God has forsaken this place!" Alas, even now these things are beyond my grasp. Though it gives me some small comfort to think there were some families who did exactly this.

I remember watching their wagons rolling through the streets, hundreds of them lining up to leave the city. The fear in the air was palpable then, over one-hundred poor souls laid writhing in beds around the city. The Czarina had declared that a quarantine would be put into place, and it seemed as if every soldier in Moscow had returned to their garrisons. The streets had become lawless chaos, looters were running rampant through the market stalls and there were whispers from across the city of a murdered winemaker who had refused to part with his wares.

I watched all this while peeking through the crack in my front door. Behind me Sophia played with a painted doll and fiddled with a silver chain she wore around her neck. The chain had belonged to her mother and was quite possibly the only trinket of any real value in the house. It carried a small cross which Sophia had been clutching since we witnessed the man dying the street the day before. I believe now that it must have given her some comfort to hold the cross, I had been such a devout Christian attending daily Mass and Sophia had spent most of her days with the Nuns, it was only natural for her to retreat to the safety of God's embrace when she was faced with some inexplicable evil. Again, I watched as another wagon barreled through the street carrying a family and their entire livelihood bundled upon it. I stepped out into the street to watch them drive for the city gate. I felt the fear rising in me, begging me to take my daughter and leave our worldly possessions behind. I felt the need to run. Where we would go, I could not tell you, I had no family or work prospects in other towns. I suppose I could have fled to St. Petersburg where there would be work as a bricklayer, but that city may have been descending into the same chaos as Moscow. I remembered Sophia, clutching her mother's cross and steeled my resolve. I had to get us out of the city, if for nothing else than to calm her nerves. 

I gathered what small trinkets I thought I could barter for a room at a roadside inn and helped Sophia pack. I commanded her to hold her kerchief over her nose and we made our way to the city gate. When we arrived there was a crowd, everyone was shouting at an overturned wagon. I would learn much later that a man and his pregnant wife had been driving through the gate when one of the wheels became dislodged and the wagon lurched into the ground, launching them both from the cart. The fallen wagon had blocked passage through the gate and a team of men had formed to dislodge the blockage. I had grabbed up Sophia and was about to run to the southern gate when the ground began to shake.

The soldiers had received their orders to take back the streets, and they now poured from the garrisons. I could not tell you how many thousands of them there were, only that they seemed to be everywhere. They descended upon the evacuating wagons, ruthlessly and without mercy. Those who could manage ran for their lives as the soldiers set fire to the wagons. Screams filled the air as families watched their entire life savings burn before them. When some men rushed forward to put out the fires, the soldiers cut them down swiftly, further shocking the crowd. They formed a rank that stretched from one end of the street to another, then fixed their bayonets.

I did not wait for the rifles to be raised toward the mob in the street. I did my best to shield her eyes as I pushed through the crowd and ran for our house. Behind us a chorus of gunfire echoed through the street, shattering a glass lamp just in front of us. Sophia screamed; it was clear she had seen the carnage through the cracks in my fingers. A captain shouted an order from somewhere behind the cloud of gun smoke and the soldiers pointed their bayonets at the fleeing crowd. They began to march in unison, slowly charging the streets, threatening to kill anyone who did not evacuate into their homes. Finally, I reached my front door and I fumbled with my key, cursing why I had even bothered to lock it in the first place.

"Papa! Look" Sophia tugged at me and pointed toward the soldiers.

They were continuous their slow approach and were now stepping over the lifeless bodies of the victims they had shot. On the ground before them, two small sisters clutched at the bodies of their dead parents. The soldiers had halted, towering over them. It was clear the men did not know if they were to carry out their orders to kill anyone in the street who did not comply.

"Forward!" Cried their captain, riding a stallion behind the line.

"Sir, there are children here!" One of the soldiers reasoned.

"You have your orders!" The captain replied.

The men looked at each other puzzled and froze indecisively.

"Captain! Perhaps-" The soldiers' words were cut off by the sting of a pistol shot piercing through his chest. From his horse, the captain aimed his now smoking pistol at the next soldier.

"I will not tolerate insubordination!" He said with unnerving calmness.

The soldiers nodded fearfully and turned to the girls. I had finally unlocked the door and snatched up Sophia before she could see any more. I slammed the door behind me and threw my back against it, slumping to the floor and holding a shocked Sophia. We sat in silence for a moment with me stroking her back and holding her closely.

We listened as the marching footsteps grew louder when the soldiers passed our door then grew quiet after they had moved on. Sophia had been so very quiet but when the soldiers were gone, she began to cry with heaving breaths.

I held her tightly and lied to her, telling her that all would pass. That God was watching over us.