When the autumn stars rose in all their beauty over Mashuk and the dark, somnolent Pyatigorsk, Sorokin's bodyguard noiselessly entered the homes of Rubin, Chairman of the Central Executive Committee, and of Vlasov and Dunayevsky, two of its members, of Kraini, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council, and of Rozhansky, Chairman of the Cheka. Forcing them out of their beds, they drove them at the bayonet's point out of town, to the railway line, and shot them down without a Word of explanation.
Sorokin was standing on the step of his railway carriage at the Lermontovo railway station while this was going on.
He heard the shots—five bangs in the stillness of the night.
Then he heard someone's heavy breathing— the chief of his bodyguard approached him, passing his tongue over his dry lips.
"Well?" asked Sorokin.
"Liquidated!" answered the chief of the bodyguard, naming all the victims.
The train left.
Now the Supreme Commander was flying at full speed to the front.
But news of his unprecedented crime arrived before him.
Some Communists from the Territorial Committee, warned by Gimza the day before, left Pyatigorsk by car before Sorokin.
On the thirteenth of October they called a military conference at Nevinnomysskaya.
And so, just as Sorokin, magnificent as an Eastern potentate, with his hundred-strong guard, his buglers sounding the alert, the banner of the Supreme Commander carried in front, made his appearance before the troops, the army conference at Nevinnomysskaya was proclaiming him an outlaw, to be arrested immediately and brought to Nevinnomysskaya for trial.
The men of the Taman army shouted the news to him from the open doors of their goods vans.
Sorokin returned to the station, and summoned the commanders of the columns.
No one came.
He waited at the station till dusk.
Then he ordered a horse, and galloped off into the steppe, accompanied by the chief of his bodyguard.
The three remaining members of the Revolutionary Military Council in Pyatigorsk were at a loss what to do: the Supreme Commander had disappeared in the steppe, and the army, instead of going on with the offensive, was demanding his trial and execution.... But a strong human machine of a hundred-and-fifty thousand men is not so easily halted once it has begun functioning.... And on the twenty-third of October the Taman army began its attack on Stavropol, the Whites simultaneously beginning their counterattack.
On the twenty-eighth all commanders reported that they were short of shells and cartridges, and that if supplies were not forthcoming, on the morrow, victory was not to be counted on.
The Revolutionary Military Council replied that there were no more shells and cartridges — "Stavropol must be taken at the bayonet point...." On the night of the twenty-ninth two shock columns were formed.
Under cover of the artillery, which was using up its last shells, they approached the village of Tatarskaya, some ten miles from Stavropol, where the White front now extended.
An enormous copper-coloured moon rose over the steppe — in default of rockets it served as a signal.... The guns ceased fire. The Taman lines, marching towards the enemy's trenches without firing a shot, rushed into them.
At once the bugles of the military bands blared out, and the drums rolled, while to the accompaniment of music which was their only substitute for bullets and hand grenades, the two «hock columns, overtaking the musicians in dense waves, surged forward, falling by the hundred under enemy machine-gun fire, and hurled themselves upon the enemy's main line of defence.
The Whites fell back on the hills, but even these heights were seized in the irresistible onslaught of the Reds.
The enemy fled towards the town, pursued by Red Cossack units.
On the morning of the thirtieth of October the Taman army entered Stavropol.
The following day Supreme Commander Sorokin was seen riding down the principal street of Stavropol, his chief of the bodyguard beside him. He seemed quite calm, but he was pale, and kept his, eyes on the ground.
Seeing him, the Red Army men gaped and backed away:
"Is it a devil from the nether regions?"
Sorokin dismounted in front of the house of the Municipal Soviet, on the door of which still hung a half-torn notice, bearing the inscription:
"Headquarters of General Shkuro." The surviving deputies and members of the Executive Committee were gathered inside, but Sorokin went boldly up the stairs, inquiring of the startled soldier on duty where the plenary session was being held, and appeared in the hall in front of the table of the presidium. Raising his head proudly, he addressed the amazed and perplexed assembly:
"I am Supreme Commander, lit was my troops which routed Denikin's bands and reinstated the Soviet power in the town and district.
An unauthorized military conference at Nevinnomysekaya has had the impertinence to declare me an outlaw.
On whose authority did they do this?
I demand the appointment of a commission for the investigation of my alleged crimes.
Pending the findings of this commission, I shall not resign my post of Supreme Commander."
With this he left the hall, intending to mount his horse again.
But six Red Army men of the 3rd Taman Regiment fell upon him on the staircase, twisting his arms behind his back.
Sorokin struggled in fierce silence; Vislenko, the commander of the regiment, hit him over the head with the handle of his whip, shouting:
"This is for shooting Martinov, you cur!"
Sorokin was taken to prison.
There was perturbation among the troops, who feared lest he somehow get out of prison, and escape justice.
When, at the interrogation which took place the next day, Sorokin saw Gimza in the chair, he realized that all was over with him.
But his boundless appetite for life awoke in him, and for the last time he banged on the table with his fist, shouting, with terrible oaths:
"It is for me to pass judgment, you bandits!
This is obstruction of discipline, anarchy, latent counterrevolution!
I shall deal with you as I have dealt with that scoundrel Martinov...."
Vislenko, who, as one of the judges, was sitting next to Gimza, turned as white as a sheet. Thrusting his arm behind him, he pulled out a large automatic pistol and emptied its contents into Sorokin.
Further advance from Stavropol to the banks of the Volga was checked by the "wolves'" cavalry of Shkuro which had fled to the rear, cutting off the Taman army from its base in Nevinnomysskaya.
Denikin was concentrating his forces for the encirclement of Stavropol.