They That Take The Sword

Nicholas Kalashnikoff is a Siberian living in this country, a citizen since 1930. They That Take the Sword, his first novel, is based upon intimate first-hand knowledge and follows in part his own experiences. Like his hero, Sergei Kuskov, he enlisted in the revolutionary movement when little more than a boy and participated in the 1905 rebellion. For this he was later exiled by the czarist government to the Arctic. With the outbreak of the World War he volunteered for service with the Russian Army and rose to the rank of captain. In the civil war that followed he played a role of considerable prominence. He commanded the People's Army of Siberia which in 1919 defeated the combined forces of Admiral Kolchak and the notorious Ataman Semenoff at Irkutsk. Finally, when the Bolshevik victory destroyed the hope of the moderate, democratic faction with which he was allied, he was forced to flee the country. During his residence in the United States he has worked variously as a grocery clerk, a presser of women's coats, an insurance agent, and an assorter and salesman of furs. His articles of political and literary comment have appeared in numerous Russian periodicals.