In late May , as a Japanese relief expedition approached , Tryapitsyn ordered the evacuation of all Red Army soldiers , staff , and Soviet personnel from the city , and subsequently executed all of the remaining inhabitants of the town , both Japanese and Russian , including children and the elderly , and burned the town to the ground . All Japanese still in Nikolayevsk were massacred . Being short on ammunition , one of the methods to execute the victims was to stab them with a bayonet and thrust them in a hole under the ice of the river Amur . Several thousand inhabitants of the town were killed in this fashion , many others were beaten to death with rifles . Hundreds of others were shot on the banks of the Amur . The buildings of the town were set on fire or blown up with explosives following the massacre , as well as the fortress of Chnyrra and any weapons , artillery , ammunition , medical supplies , and provisions that could not be secured by the Red Army . Following the retreating army along the banks of the Amur River , on June 3 , 1920 , Tryapitsin left with his staff
executed
Nikolayevsk incident
Yakov Tryapitsyn