
Поезд прибыл в Тифлис ночью. Ходить по городу было невозможно, и мне пришлось дождаться утра в вокзальном буфете. Вся станция была забита солдатами, дезертирующими с кавказского фронта. Многие были пьяны. Всю ночь на платформе перед окнами буфета шли «митинги», принимались какие-то резолюции. Во время митинга состоялись три «военных суда», и здесь же, на платформе, были расстреляны три человека. Появившийся в буфете какой-то пьяный «товарищ» объяснил всем, что первый был расстрелян за воровство; второго расстреляли по ошибке, приняв его за первого, а третьего — тоже по ошибке, приняв его за второго."
"In two days I left Petersburg. Russia with "no authorities" presented a very curious spectacle. It felt as though everything was existing and holding together simply by momentum. But the trains still ran regularly and at the stations the sentries turned a deeply indignant crowd of ticketless travelers out of the carriages. I was traveling for five days to Tiflis instead of the normal three. The train arrived at Tiflis at night. It was not possible to walk about the town. I was obliged to await the morning in the station buffet. The whole station was crammed with soldiers who had returned from the Caucasian front on their own account. Many of them were drunk. "Meetings" were held throughout the night on the platform facing the windows of the buffet—and resolutions of some sort were carried. During the meetings there were three "courts-martial" and three men were shot there on the platform. A drunken "comrade" who appeared in the buffet explained to everyone that the first man had been shot for theft. The second was shot by mistake because he had been mistaken for the first; and the third was also shot by mistake because he had been mistaken for the second."