ABSTRACT

Ataman Semenov may have spent the first few days of 1919 in a Chita hospital recovering from the 19 December assassination attempt, but by the end of the first week of the year he was off to eastern Transbaikalia, then on 10 January to Harbin, pursuing multiple schemes with other Cossack hosts, various Mongol groups and the Japanese. After his convalescence he was more cautious when venturing from his lair in Chita, where he was safe among his large bodyguard of OMO cadets, Serbian mercenaries and a sizeable contingent of Japanese troops who provided tight security around his residence, staff offices and the nearby Japanese divisional headquarters.1