as is the way in the Soviet Union, her opposition collapsed and she told me that, if I would promise to go away next day, I might have a bed in the Lenin Corner which had been turned into a temporary dormitory. I was issued with the necessary
propusk
or pass and a few minutes later I was installed in a fairly clean bed immediately under the outstretched arm of a life-sized statue of Lenin and opposite an equally imposing bust of Stalin. The fifteen other beds in the room were occupied by snoring Kazakh or Russian minor officials, all of whom woke and protested loudly when I tried to open the window.
Next morning, having been told that the impending arrival of 70 visiting members of the Communist Youth Association made my continued presence in the hotel impossible, I returned to the attack with the N.K.V.D. This time I was received almost immediately by the Commanding Officer, who was clearly unaccustomed to foreigners and seemed at a loss to know what to do with me. In the end he turned for advice to his lady secretary who told him with an air of authority, which under any other system would have been surprising, that he was to have nothing to do with me at all. I was accordingly turned politely away from N.K.V.D. Headquarters and advised to try the Dipagentstvo or Diplomatic Agency.
This, I felt quite convinced, did not really exist. In any case my experience of Mr. Stark in Tiflis made me feel certain that even if there really was a Diplomatic Agent in Alma Ata he would be worse than useless. But I was mistaken.
After a prolonged search I at last found the Diplomatic Agency which, in the absence of the Agent, who I gathered was an official of thePeople’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, was in charge of a most amiable and zealous young Kazakh who assured me that he was delighted to see me as he felt that my arrival justified his existence. In spite of the fact that he was employed in a Diplomatic Agency, I was the first foreigner with whom he personally had ever come into contact. After a brief struggle in which he was completely victorious, he brought the Dom Sovietov into line and a good single room was put at my disposal for as long as I liked. Moreover, on learning of my desire to visit the Tien Shan he provided me with a recommendation to the Society of Proletarian Tourists.
When I applied next day to the offices of that organization I was told that a car and a guide had now been found but that there was no petrol to be had as every drop was required for bringing in the harvest. I accordingly decided to make an excursion on my own. After loitering for some time round the motor-lorry base in the centre of the town I succeeded in obtaining a place on a lorry going to Talgar, a large village in the hills some forty miles to the south-east of Alma Ata.
On reaching Talgar I set out on foot into the hills followed by one of the two local N.K.V.D. men who had relieved their colleagues from Novosibirsk soon after my arrival. After we had gone some distance I allowed my new escort, to whom I had not yet spoken, to catch up with me and remarked on the beauty of the scenery. He agreed and, taking advantage of the opening, inquired whether I proposed to go on walking all day without anything to eat. I suggested that we might pick some apples off the trees. He replied that if I wanted apples and some hot food too we could stop at a peasant’s cottage, as he was a Talgar man himself and the peasants were all old friends of his. I agreed and we turned into the next cottage we came to.
The cottage, which was surrounded by three or four acres of ground, including an apple orchard, a plot of Indian corn, a plot of melons and a plot of sunflowers, contained one large room where the occupants slept and ate, a kitchen and a space under the eaves for drying fruit and vegetables. It was built of mud bricks and whitewashed inside and out. Sitting in the sun outside it we found a very old Russian peasant woman and her two
propusk
or pass and a few minutes later I was installed in a fairly clean bed immediately under the outstretched arm of a life-sized statue of Lenin and opposite an equally imposing bust of Stalin. The fifteen other beds in the room were occupied by snoring Kazakh or Russian minor officials, all of whom woke and protested loudly when I tried to open the window.
Next morning, having been told that the impending arrival of 70 visiting members of the Communist Youth Association made my continued presence in the hotel impossible, I returned to the attack with the N.K.V.D. This time I was received almost immediately by the Commanding Officer, who was clearly unaccustomed to foreigners and seemed at a loss to know what to do with me. In the end he turned for advice to his lady secretary who told him with an air of authority, which under any other system would have been surprising, that he was to have nothing to do with me at all. I was accordingly turned politely away from N.K.V.D. Headquarters and advised to try the Dipagentstvo or Diplomatic Agency.
This, I felt quite convinced, did not really exist. In any case my experience of Mr. Stark in Tiflis made me feel certain that even if there really was a Diplomatic Agent in Alma Ata he would be worse than useless. But I was mistaken.
After a prolonged search I at last found the Diplomatic Agency which, in the absence of the Agent, who I gathered was an official of thePeople’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, was in charge of a most amiable and zealous young Kazakh who assured me that he was delighted to see me as he felt that my arrival justified his existence. In spite of the fact that he was employed in a Diplomatic Agency, I was the first foreigner with whom he personally had ever come into contact. After a brief struggle in which he was completely victorious, he brought the Dom Sovietov into line and a good single room was put at my disposal for as long as I liked. Moreover, on learning of my desire to visit the Tien Shan he provided me with a recommendation to the Society of Proletarian Tourists.
When I applied next day to the offices of that organization I was told that a car and a guide had now been found but that there was no petrol to be had as every drop was required for bringing in the harvest. I accordingly decided to make an excursion on my own. After loitering for some time round the motor-lorry base in the centre of the town I succeeded in obtaining a place on a lorry going to Talgar, a large village in the hills some forty miles to the south-east of Alma Ata.
On reaching Talgar I set out on foot into the hills followed by one of the two local N.K.V.D. men who had relieved their colleagues from Novosibirsk soon after my arrival. After we had gone some distance I allowed my new escort, to whom I had not yet spoken, to catch up with me and remarked on the beauty of the scenery. He agreed and, taking advantage of the opening, inquired whether I proposed to go on walking all day without anything to eat. I suggested that we might pick some apples off the trees. He replied that if I wanted apples and some hot food too we could stop at a peasant’s cottage, as he was a Talgar man himself and the peasants were all old friends of his. I agreed and we turned into the next cottage we came to.
The cottage, which was surrounded by three or four acres of ground, including an apple orchard, a plot of Indian corn, a plot of melons and a plot of sunflowers, contained one large room where the occupants slept and ate, a kitchen and a space under the eaves for drying fruit and vegetables. It was built of mud bricks and whitewashed inside and out. Sitting in the sun outside it we found a very old Russian peasant woman and her two
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