Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XX. War sufferers
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reconstruct a new Russia, mighty, glorious and respected,
before all the nations of the world?
I shall not live long enough to see the future God has
in store for you. Too many things have gone for ever, too
many vanished loved ones are calling to me, for me even
to wish to await the final verdict on events that are now
being evolved. But something tells me that the awful
external aspect of my country is but temporary darkness,
but a passing nightmare. It is impossible for me to
believe that sacrifices such as those made during this
war by Russia, that the brilliant courage and heroic
resignation of millions of her sons who faced death on
the battlefields, that the martyrdom of those poor men of
the people that I described just now—that all that should
be lost and obliterated from the pages of history. These
dead, these heroes, these martyrs, are the seed sown
which must germinate, and which will germinate, so that
one day there shall be a glorious harvest in the fields of
Russia, and so that peace shall reign in town and village,
in the conscience of the people, and in the hearts of
men!
The officers who passed through in the ambulance
trains appeared to us, generally speaking, to be less
interesting than the men. Having undergone great
suffering, humiliated by captivity and bad treatment, shy
by nature, they were very reserved, and besides appeared
to be much worried by their piteous appearance and
shabby clothes, by the very fact of having been defeated
and made prisoner. There were, however, some
exceptions. We were often questioned, and with impatient
curiosity, about the events of the war, about the real
state of affairs in Russia and among the Allies, a state of
affairs which the German gaolers took pains to describe
to our officers as being absolutely compromised. Some
of these officers owed their repatriation to deeds denoting
iron energy, to subterfuges placing a strain on all their
faculties for months at a time. Others showed proof of
supreme contempt for their condition as invalids and in
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