# XIV: On the Latvian Border explained — The Bolshevik Myth

> Chapter companion for The Bolshevik Myth by Alexander Berkman.

## What happens

The narrator travels toward the Latvian border with a commission to meet American deportees, encountering a Chekist named Drozdov who boasts of the Cheka's brutal methods. The train is held up near Sebezh due to military activity, and the narrator negotiates with Drozdov to avoid searching the deportees at the border. In Sebezh, the narrator visits a Jewish home and speaks with peasants who express deep resentment toward the Bolsheviks, the Cheka, and the economic hardships under the regime.

## Themes in this chapter

### Terror and Violence

Drozdov's detailed accounts of Cheka methods, including summary executions and torture, highlight the institutionalized violence of the regime.

### Economic Collapse and Survival

Peasants and townspeople in Sebezh describe starvation, requisitions, and the collapse of the currency, resorting to barter and black market trade.

### Distrust of the Masses

Drozdov's suspicion of the deportees and the peasants' fear of informants reflect the pervasive distrust between the Bolshevik authorities and ordinary people.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown Narrator

The narrator travels to the Latvian border as Chairman of the Reception Commission, negotiates with Drozdov, and converses with locals in Sebezh.

### Tovarish Drozdov

A young Chekist who boasts about Cheka methods, advocates summary executions, and initially insists on searching the deportees.

### Tovarish Karus

An examining magistrate of the Petrograd Cheka who travels with the commission and shows antagonism toward Jewish members of the Plenbezh.

### Moishe

A red-bearded Jew in Sebezh who acts as a middleman in the black market, supplying provisions to the narrator.

## Key lines

> The Cheka is the very soul of the Revolution.

Drozdov claims that the Cheka is essential to the Revolution's survival.

_Drozdov justifies the Cheka's brutal methods as necessary for revolutionary success._

> We were treated like cattle before... and it was in the name of the Little Father. Now they speak to us in the name of the Party and the proletariat, but we are treated like cattle, the same as before.

A peasant says that under the tsar they were treated like cattle, and under the Bolsheviks they are treated the same way.

_The peasant expresses disillusionment with the new regime, seeing no improvement in their condition._

> God is high above and Ilytch far away.

A peasant paraphrases a saying to indicate that Lenin is distant and inaccessible to the common people.

_This reflects the peasants' sense of abandonment and the gap between Bolshevik leadership and rural reality._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/chapters/xiv-on-the-latvian-border
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/chapters