The Young Broz 11
near Oulu and sent back to Petrograd, where he languished for three weeks in
the dank cells of the Petropavlovsk Fortress.^23 Only when the local authorities
established his identity did they decide to send him back to the Urals, but
he managed to escape again before reaching Kungur, jumping from the train as
it stopped at a station. Although one of his former guards, whom he met by
chance, recognized him, he was able to hop onto a train for Siberia without a
ticket and slip away. He was fortunate to choose a day when the conductors had
other things on their mind—the day before, Lenin had taken power in Petro-
grad. It was an eventful journey, full of violence, since the soldiers traveling in
the same direction rebelled against their officers, throwing them off the train.^24
When Broz reached Omsk, he joined the International Red Guard there and
worked as a mechanic from autumn 1917 until summer 1918. It was still not clear
who would win the civil war raging in Russia between the Reds and the Whites.
In the village of Mikhailovka, not far from Omsk, where he was again working
in a steam mill, he met Pelagiia D. Belousova (also known as Polka), a girl of
thirteen or fourteen, who became his wife. This was the first of his five mar-
riages, none of which featured a storybook ending.^25
In 1918, he applied for Soviet citizenship and for membership in the Com-
munist Party, but received neither. His personal dossier in the Comintern
archives suggests that he was not accepted into the party because at the time
there was no Yugoslav section. Shortly thereafter, Omsk was occupied by Gen-
eral Aleksander V. Kolchak’s White Guards, who imprisoned all potential
political adversaries. Broz found refuge in a Kirghiz aul (a fortified steppe vil-
lage) fifty or sixty miles from the city, finding work on the farm of a rich peas-
ant, Isaia Diaksenbaev. But Czech legionnaires, former Russian prisoners who
collaborated with Kolchak, reached even these remote places. They wanted to
arrest Broz, suspecting that he was in contact with the Omsk communists. It
is not clear whether Diaksenbaev hid him or whether the villagers came to his
aid by testifying that he was not a deserter but had been among them since 1915
as a prisoner of war. In any case, he succeeded in avoiding imprisonment as well
as more fatal possibilities. The fact is that the Kirghiz liked him and considered
him a brave young man, quick in his decisions and with an extraordinary feel-
ing for animals.^26 This latter characteristic would remain with him throughout
his life. The following episode is revealing: some friends gave him a gift of a
falcon. He cared for it, fed and stroked it lovingly, and the bird learned to perch
on his shoulder. When it grew up and spread its wings, Josip decided to free it.
Two days later, the falcon returned and settled on his shoulder, calmly waiting
to be fed. When sated, it flew away, to return once more two days later. It was
only after the fourth time that the bird was not seen again. All those who heard
this story said: “Every living being has to love a man like Broz.”^27