861.00/3622b: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Commission to Negotiate Peace
165. For your information, for Secretary of State and repeat to London. Following is summary of report from American Military Observer at Ekaterinburg in the Urals.
“I have just returned from Perm having left here December 27 and returning January 3rd. In the capture of Perm, the Siberian Army took 20,000 prisoners who were a poor lot of men, badly fed, most of them young and forced to fight. Perm itself appears deserted. The population are still cowed and stay indoors or else have been taken away by the Bolsheviki. Could find no evidence of actual atrocities. Very few appear to have been executed. Population for most part being terrorized by threats into submission. The city has been governed wholly without reference to Moscow or the will of the population but absolutely at dictation of the Bolshevik Commissaire. The Siberian Army captured about 20,000 prisoners, a large number of railway cars and 260 locomotives, 100 of which are in bad order. Very great problem is presented by this large number of prisoners who will probably be sent into Siberia. Russian prisoners of war coming through Ekaterinburg apparently from Germany and Austria, are telling of a big revolution in Europe and making a serious impression on the laboring classes.”
The Department regards the last sentence as another indication of the unrest which is being created by the Bolshevik movement.