The Russian Century: A Hundred Years of Russian Lives

Greatly respected Olga Valerianovna, I send you my greetings and well wishes. I have read only little of your books, and I have to read aloud, because I am asked to do so. For the most part I read about land issues, because issues

Nikolai Filatov, A Soldier’s Letters

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about land are the most crucial for us tillers of the soil. I don’t need to teach and explain things to you, Olga Valerianovna, you know full well what we need, and because I have to read the same booklet 3 or 4 times and forever stop and explain things. I have to define every foreign word, which is a problem because I don’t know many of them myself, without an encyclopedic dictionary, it’s very difficult. I myself am superbly educated: up until age 18 I knew neither how to read nor write, and books on political issues are not the same as the tales of Pushkin or Krylov.

Nothing exceptional has occurred at the front, everything is the same. The most diverse bits of information reach us from Russia. People return from leave and say that soldiers don’t want to go to the front, that mass-meetings are held everywhere and speeches given that conclude with the words “down with the war.” The rumors reaching us from Russia are more alarming by the day. I’m losing hope for Russia’s salvation, now I think that all is lost, we will be crushed and that the monarchy will reign again. Our soldiers say that Kerensky is bloodthirsty, a second Napoleon. True, I adore Napoleon, I think he was a genius among geniuses. In difficult moments I always remember your words: “I fear for Russia, but I hope she will endure.”

Good bye for now, Olga Valerianovna, be healthy, I wish you all the very best, give my greetings to your mama Olga Petrovna and my wishes for her good health. All the best.

Respectfully yours N. Filatov.

5. ACTIVE ARMY, ROMANIAN FRONT

6/VIII/1917

How do you do, much-respected Olga Valerianovna. I send you my greetings and wish you good health. From your letter I learned that you still have not lost hope, you believe that Russia will endure, but I no longer hope for the salvation of our homeland. Our only possible salvation is peace, and the further continuation of war will be our doom. The best and brightest people in the upper command ranks are leaving, they flee and abandon us to the tyranny of fate. Newspapers shamelessly describe the failure of the revolution [of February 1917], and even the disorder in the active army—this in my opinion exacerbates Russia’s pain. No matter what sort of disturbances there may be in Russia, anything could be at work behind our back, and when riots broke out at Tarnopol [in western Ukraine] there was a new scent in the air and everyone became alarmed.

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Chapter Twelve

From the 16th of July we began a slow retreat, surrendering every hill with a battle. Our Second Corps had just one road to take. The Germans really wanted to cut off our retreat, they charged drunk into an attack, and we treated them properly to machine-gun fire. The 25th of July Germans, Aus-trians and Turks launched attacks 8 times, we killed whole heaps of them. We suffered no losses on our side, and we practically have no soldiers anyhow. We’ve had no reinforcements since September of last year, we capture and maintain our positions with machine guns, and at night the company soldiers take up posts ahead of the machine guns and go back to the reserve for the day. And in the trenches machine guns always stand ready, very many of them. Besides these, we have extra machine guns at hand, at the slightest alarm these extra guns are placed on the front line. Sometimes we have three machine guns aimed at a single target: be our guests, Gentlemen Germans, Austrians or Turks.

We have withdrawn towards the rear about 20 versts, but covered nearly 100 versts in the process. During our dislocation, that is retreat, we knew no hunger, everything was distributed in advance, we were issued tea and sugar before the retreat. Nothing was left behind for the enemy, not as it was before, with the old government. I received your two packages of books, during our retreat I handed the books and my field office to the transport unit. Misfortune struck and my field office was lost, so I have only a single pen, quill and inkpot, and paper and envelopes I borrowed from my comrades. I will have to cease correspondence for a couple months. We are now in position, with no action thus far. The mood is happy. I read everything I can get my hands on. We spent 3 days constructing ourselves a sturdy, comfortable, winter dugout. Yesterday at 2 in the afternoon a 3-inch shell danced off our dugout, causing no harm. Our dugout can protect us from six-inch shells.