We are back in Riga. We stopped at a hotel near the square where the monument to the Latvian Riflemen is located, who played a grim role in our revolution and civil war.

By the time of the October Revolution, the punitive detachments of the Latvian Riflemen numbered 40,000, and by 1918 their numbers had doubled. It is worth noting that the first commander of the Red Army was Joakim Vācietis, the first head of the Gulag was Theodor Eichmanns, and the deputy of Dzerzhinsky in the Cheka was Martyn Lācis (Jan Sudrabs). During the civil war, the division commanders were Y.F. Fabritsius and P.Y. Aven (the grandfather of banker Petr Aven). Why do I pay attention to the Latvian Riflemen, who carried out executions in Russia during the height of the 'Red Terror'? After all, there were many maniacs, punishers, and murderers of the civilian population during the Civil War. But for me, this story is special. The fact is that it was the Latvian Riflemen who, in September 1918, executed more than a thousand people without trial or investigation in my 'small homeland' in the town of Kurmysh in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Among the executed were the canonized priest Mikhail Voskresensky from the village of Bortsurmany and priest Stefan Nemkov from the village of Deyanovo (both villages are near Kurmysh). And what is a thousand men in a small town with a population of ten thousand? This is practically all the conscripted population. It is clear why a town with eight churches, schools, and factories turned into a village a few years later.

What was the guilt of these men? That they spoke out against the conscription of young boys into the Red Army at a town meeting. This act was called a 'rebellion.' That is the whole story.