Beasts in Cassocks: The Crimes of the Heads of the Russian Greek Catholic Orthodox Church in America/Chapter 17

by John Feoktist Dudikoff

CHAPTER XVII.

I Am Attacked, Robbed and Imprisoned.

To proceed with the story, a few months after I deposited my money at the Mission Bank, i. e., in the Spring of 1914, and after the dinner to which Platon's preists "treated me," the following took place. One of Platon's gents, disguised as a sheriff, came to see me, and to my question as to the object of his visit, said that he was ordered to deport a batch of political offenders to Russia. This interested me, and I went with him to a pier in Brooklyn from which the steamers for Libau sailed. Having arrived there, I actually saw fifteen political prisoners handcuffed in pairs and kept in the hold behind iron bars. After the steamer sailed, the agent took his leave and disappeared. I met a comrade of mine, a former Russian Army officer. We went home together. On the way we stepped into a saloon for a soda. We stayed and talked a while. After leaving the saloon we had walked by a few steps, when I was suddenly dealt from behind a heavy blow on the head. Bleeding profusely, I fell down and lost consciousness. The officer had disappeared.

When I regained consciousness, I found myself in jail, still bleeding. My money-belt was with me but empty. A few days later I was taken to Court. There I met the proprietor of the saloon and the Army officer, who had disappeared at the time I was struck down. To my question, what had happened, they both answered that the shooting had occured as soon as we left the saloon, and that they had run away for cover. They could not relate what had happened after

Ambassador Yuri Bakhmetyev.

that. I was landed in jail because a revolver was found about my person, although I had a special permit to carry one, signed by Yuri Bakhmetyev, the Russian Ambassador and his Attache, Vassilyev. This permit, together with my other papers and money, had disappeared and that it why I was arrested. Some time later Ilya Rosenthal and Victor Hartz, attorney for the Russian General Consulate, then located at Washington Square, New York, came to see me in prison. Victor Hartz issued stringent orders to me not to disclose anything about residence, my work or the machinations of the Russian spies employed by the Russian Orthodox Mission under the management of Archbishop Platon, the leader of the Mission, and in the General Consulate under the leadership of Baron Schlippenbach, General Oustinov and Mr. Rutzky. I was ordered to keep my council about all I knew. For example, I knew that on the eve of my arrest members of the Consulate and of the Mission went to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn and Governor's Island, where they took photographs of the fortifications. This they accomplished by bribing heavily the Poles, Russians and Lithuanians who served in the U. S. Army detachments, and were quartered in these forts. I knew that espionage ran rampart, but it was not clear to me for whom it was carried on. This became plain to me when I returned to Russia, only to learn that the Secret Service work of the Russian Orthodox Mission and of the General Consulate of the Russian Embassy was in behalf of the Germans. By mere chance I happened to see a few snapshots of American forts, American ammunition plants and many other photographs of military significance in the hands of the German general whose name I know. These photographs were transmitted to Germany by Archbishop Platon, who, having accomplished his task, left for Russia. This does not complete the sum total of Platon's crimes, but more of that later on.

On leaving me, Hartz told me not to worry because I would be released in a day or two. But I was not released. Instead, I was taken to various prisons, workhouses, islands and houses of detention, where I was photographed in different postures and had my fingerprints taken. This went on for exactly fifty days, after which time I was finally released.

 

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