On To China

April the 15th we got to Nikolsk where we showed to shows. Leaving here we were to make a long trip over 600 miles to Harbin, Manchuria, China.

Our cars were put on a freight train and we started over the main line of the Trans-Siberian Railway which is single track from here to Manchuria City, Mongolia, China over 1200 miles across the Gobi Desert.

Imperial Russian Belt Buckle

George brought back two belt buckles from his time in Siberia. One he gave to his son, one to his grandson. This is a picture of one of the buckles. After some limited research, I have concluded this buckle is an Imperial Russian Belt Buckle. From what I can gather it seems as though the buckles were probably used by the Cossacks. Otherwise, I'm not sure where George would have gotten them. the story is that he took them off of two dead bodies, a pretty macabre thing, but definitely not uncommon in war time.

Maybe someone out there knows more about this...

In Siberia Podcast: Episode 1

The first episode of the In Siberia podcast is now available. At this point in time you can access the first episode on the show's official blog. Soon, it will be available on iTunes so you can subscribe to the show and automatically download new episodes.

The photo on the left is of Vladivostok. It is part of George's photo album chronicling his time overseas.

The Train

I recently acquired some of George's old photos and postcards from his time in Siberia. Many of them will be posted to this blog soon.

The picture on the left is of a train. No caption or other information was provided but with the recent talk of trains in the postings of George's journal I thought it was appropriate to post this photo.

Back on the Train, Stuck in the Rain

We were to leave at noon but we had to wait for another train which did not show up until five o'clock and it was an American train with ten tons of dynamite. They said it was all quiet at Shkotovo and that the Bolsheviks were making it further up north. We left at six o'clock and as luck would have it I had to guard the train back through Shkotovo. This being the third night that I did not have a wink of sleep, at Razdolnoye the engine broke down and I walked up to the engine and the oil pipe leading to one of the cylinders was off and I had to help fix it and it sure was raining. I got grease all over my raincoat and still have it up to this day, which always reminds me of that wonderful night.

The In Siberia Podcast

It is my great pleasure to announce the upcoming In Siberia podcast. The first episode of the podcast is currently in post production and will be complete and available next week (fingers crossed).

I have also set up a blog specifically for the podcast that will be uploaded with information relative to each podcast episode. The format of the podcast will revolve around a reading from George Voegeli's journal and some conversation about the contents of each episodes journal entry. More info on how to get a hold of the podcast coming soon.

World War I Veterans of Bangor

I came across this picture (actually it came to me thanks to Google alerts) of the WWI vets from Bangor, Michigan taken in 1921. You can see George (kind of) in the middle row, last man on the right. He stands out because the direction of his face and head is different than the majority of the men. He is slightly turned in instead of looking straight forward. The link listing the names of all of the men can be found here.