other, and so enjoy the favor of both hostile camps. I took up this job from the first of June. At first this work was slow to progress, and I gave it all my energy. On the 14th the sergeant-major said to me the following: “Filatov, the whole unit is
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starting to come together, the former hostilities are no longer heard. Everyone is counting on you.” He had a lot of other things to say, too. On July 1st we will have more elections. I think I’ll ask to be relieved of this duty and go off to the trenches for a rest, because it’s difficult to feed the wolves and have to answer for the safety of the sheep. Here you need a head as tough as a horse, I figure. The entire distribution of uniforms is my responsibility. All this time I’m up to my neck with things to do. In addition to that, there is often the desire to be at meetings and gatherings. I’d like to take a look with my own eyes at the head of the Minister of War, Kerensky1 and see how he governs Russia in this troubled time. You know, Olga Valerianovna, when I’ve heard all I can of the various stories of the terrible unrest in Russia, I think that Russia can’t take it any longer, if it goes on like this, Russia will not be able to endure, and all will be lost.
All is well at our front. Everyone is prepared to die for freedom. Only we have some deficiencies. The matter is as follows. Some sorts of diseases of malnutrition and heart palpitations from walking uphill have recently appeared along the front. We are fed well and I don’t understand where this malnutrition comes from. These illnesses are thinning our ranks little by little, and there are no reinforcements. Few troops are coming up from the rear. Throughout our entire division, one no longer observes any hostile feelings towards the gentlemen officers, everywhere you can see friendly relations between soldiers and the officers. Twice I managed to be at the regimental deputies’ meeting. I saw and heard how the officers address the soldiers with all sorts of questions, and how they light up
For now, Olga Valerianovna, good bye, be healthy, give my greetings to your mama Olga Petrovna. I wish you the very very best.
—N. Filatov
25th day of June
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
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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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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
