for them had they consented, they very naturally refused to be 
     
     repatriated. Then the French offered to take them, via Siberia 
     
     and America, to the Western Front, to fight their hereditary 
     
     German enemies there, the Bolshevists ( at that time at peace 
     
     with the Allies) promising to provide transport. The journey 
     
     began, but the conveyance of a force equivalent to several 
     
     divisions over 6000 miles of railway is a slow and tedious 
     
     business, even in a country less disorganized than Russia. 
     
     There were long delays and broken journeys. An atmosphere 
     
     of intense propaganda, surrounded them, and the pressing 
     
     instances of Bolshevist preachers urged them to join their 
     
     cause. They became impatient and suspicious. Was Trotsky 
     
     repenting of his agreement, perhaps under pressure? Might 
     
     he not be in the pay of the Germans and be deliberately 
     
     retarding their journey to France. These ideas, and the 
     
     irritability caused by their monotonous existence, caused a 
     
     tense and explosive atmosphere. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The men were ripe for trouble when, in the month of 
     
     May, 1918, a disturbance occurred at Penza (about 400 miles 
     
     south of Moscow), which led to open conflict in which they 
     
     seized a great depot of arms and ammunition. They surprised 
     
     the Bolshevist guard at the bridge over the Volga at Sysran 
     
     and established themselves at Samara. The revolt spread to 
     
     all the other Czech detachments scattered at great intervals 
     
     along the railway. Trotsky became alarmed. He issued 
     
     orders that all who resisted disarmament should be shot on 
     
     the spot. 
     
    
   
   
    
     53