. . . As by a miracle that fate, which at the time befell so many of my former colleagues, was spared me, and I lived quite unmolested in Petersburg till July 1918, when I took advantage of an opportunity that occurred of quitting the capital, which was growing too hot. The Ukraine had, under German protection, declared its complete independence of Russia, and whoever had been born on the territory of this new republic was now treated as a foreigner in Soviet Russia. Thanks to the circumstance that I had first seen the light of day in Kiev, I was able to claim foreign nationality and to go with my wife to that city.
On my arrival there my first business was to look about me for suitable employment that would at least provide me with a livelihood, and I was very glad when the Hetman Skoropadsky offered me a post attached to the Kiev Court of Appeal. I thought that I had found a new sphere of useful activity and a new and comparatively assured foundation upon which to build up my life. In reality, however, my sorrows were only now about to begin.
The rule of Hetman Skoropadsky was of only short duration, for the entente Powers soon found ways and means of making difficulties for this pro-German Dictator by setting up in opposition their own tool, Simon Petlyura, who, having plenty of money at his disposal, quickly obtained a numerous following. The German troops which had, to start with, provided Skoropadsky�s main support, having by now become demoralized by the Soviet system, adopted a neutral attitude, so that Petlyura was able to enter Kiev on November 14, 1918.
If I had become in the eyes of the Russians an Ukrainian,
under this new Petlyura régime I had been turned once more into a Muscovite, and that meant not merely the loss of my position, but almost the complete withdrawal of all rights and elementary protection. All the same I waited on in Kiev, not least because I saw no chance at the moment of getting out.
But Petlyura�s rule was not to last long either. As early as the beginning of February he had to flee before the Bolshevik army of the renegade General Klembovsky. That was the end of his career in the Ukraine, and he lived thereafter in Paris, till he was murdered in the year 1926 by a Jewish fanatic named Schwarzbard.
Just before the Bolsheviks entered Kiev I managed, with the devoted assistance of a few faithful friends, to flee from the city and to make my way to the Hungarian frontier. I arrived there with nothing but the clothes I stood up in, for I had had to leave all I possessed otherwise in Kiev.
But one would have thought that I was being pursued by a relentless fate, for I had hardly settled in Budapest when the Bolshevik insurrection broke out and Bela Kun instituted his reign of terror. I was obliged to continue my flight, and this time I made for Prague, where my brother, who was then employed at the university of that town, was able to grant me temporary asylum.
Thence I went on to Berlin. After staying there for some little time I betook myself to Munich in the vain hope that the Bavarian Government, which had only a short time before overthrown a system like that of the Soviets in Russia, and was still having to struggle against Russian emissaries of that political hue, might be able to employ my services. I had been labouring under a delusion, however, and all my efforts to obtain an appointment under the Munich authorities were of no avail.