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Parted red curtains; in the center, in a trench, a German soldier, eyes closed, hands in overcoat pockets, leans against one side of a trench, smoking a pipe, his rifle resting on the other side of the trench. To the right, a Red soldier, red from red fur hat to red boots, holds two rifles. To the left, a Russian soldier casts away his his hat, backpack, and rifle. Across the bottom of the stage it reads, 1918. Operett: "Trockij", Operetta Trotsky. A watercolor postcard by Schima Martos.
Postcard celebrating the fall of Belgrade, Serbia, to German and Austro-Hungarian forces under the command of Generals von Gallwitz & General Kövess v. Kövesshaza on October 9, 1915. Images of the city include the King's Palace, Terazié Square, the University, the National Theater, King Milan Street, and the city from the Save River.
A French officer charging into battle in a watercolor by Fernand Rigouts. The original watercolor on deckle-edged watercolor paper is signed F. R. 1917, and addressed to Mademoiselle Henriette Dangon.
A call to Italians to buy war bonds to help fund the powerful weapons needed for the last push to Trieste, a mere 25 kilometers from the Italian front lines. It pays 5%, after all, tax free, for an effective rate of 5.55%!
A Bulgarian postcard of Red Army soldiers at rest, with rifles stacked, and reading newspapers or leaflets.
"We heard that many soldiers of the 91st Regiment had refused to return to the trenches; some of them had left their regiment and were making their way eastwards towards Russia. Motors with maxim-guns were being sent after them, with orders to force them to return, or to fire at them on the road. It was said that certain regiments had refused to take runaways back into their ranks, and one regiment, in reserve and awaiting reinforcements, had refused point blank to accept any new recruits." ((1), more)
"Regent Alexander then used his right and commuted the death sentences passed on Colonels Milovanović, Lazić, and Tucović and on Lieutenant-Colonel Vemić to twenty years in prison, while he reduced the prison sentences of Čedomir Popović, and Vice-Consul Radenković to ten years. Dragutin Dimitrijević, Ljubomir Vulović, and Rade Malobabić were executed near Salonika at dawn on 13 July 1917.The Salonika trial was rigged, its aim having been the forcible removal of a dangerous political rival. The executions of Dimitrijević, Vulović, and Malobabić were in fact political assassinations under the cover of a judicial sentence." ((2), more)
"The Germans did indeed hold their fire through mid-July, but only because they were engrossed in actions to reinforce their troop strength in the Moronvilliers sector. Having been a subsidiary sector in April and May, this had become by mid-June a principal site of contention, and the Germans responded accordingly, moving a fourth division into a region that previously only three had manned. Anticipating a substantial German offensive, the French chose not to wait, preferring to initiate the attack. Thus, in the early evening of 14 July 1917 (a day marked in previous years by extra rations and the distribution of cheap champagne) the French stormed the German lines." ((3), more)
"In the middle of July [1917] the brigade was withdrawn for a rest. My battalion encamped between Asiago and Gallio, on the reserve line along Monte Sesemol, to carry out defensive works. We were still within range of enemy artillery fire, but well sheltered in narrow valleys. Occasionally a single enemy reconnaissance machine flew over us at a great height and was quickly chased away by our fighting squadrons from the base at Bassano. Bombing planes never disturbed our rest. So it was that the tragic days through which we had just passed were followed by others almost happy. Men who had been lightly wounded rejoined the battalion, and new arrivals, both officers and men, came to fill the gaps that had been made in the ranks. . . . One very soon began to forget. Life regained its ascendancy. My orderly, who had also been wounded, rejoined from hospital. He once more took up his study of the book on birds and I that of Baudelaire and Ariosto." ((4), more)
"According to information received from Russia, the offensive in Galicia has given rise to great indignation among the Russian people. In all major towns crowds of people are assembling in protest against the mass slaughters of Russia's sons. Anger at the British, who are considered by everyone to be responsible for prolonging the horrors of war, is steadily growing. Kerensky is quite openly being called a traitor to his country. In Moscow, where the cossacks have been sent to control the outraged populace, there have been mass demonstrations. The present situation cannot last much longer. Russkoye Slovo reports that in the last few days the state of siege in Petrograd has grown worse. In the last few weeks a large number of extreme left-wing socialists have been arrested. The paper reports that the extreme left-wing leaders have had to leave Petrograd and go far inland." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the entry for Thursday, July 12, 1917 (June 29 Old Style) from the diary of Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross. The initial success of the Kerensky Offensive launched on July 1, Russia's last offensive of World War I, was coming to a end as German troops strengthened the Austro-Hungarian line, and as Russian troops deserted or failed to advance.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 280, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(2) Dragutin Dimitrijević, known as Apis, was a colonel in the Serbian Army and leader of the Black Hand Society that had plotted the 1914 assassination of Franz Ferdinand and supplied weapons to the assassins. After the conquest of Serbia, with its government in exile and its army fighting on the Salonica Front, three factions struggled for control. One was centered on the Government of Prime Minister Nikola Pašić, another around Regent Alexander. The core of the third was Apis and the Black Hand. Those who stood trial in Salonica were accused of plotting against the Serbian Government and attempting to assassinate Alexander. Sentenced to death, Apis was executed on July 13, 1917. (In his excellent history of the war on the Salonica Front, The Gardeners of Salonika, Alan Palmer (page 137) dates the execution on June 26.) Crown Prince Alexander became Regent of Serbia on June 24, 1914 after his father, King Peter, turned over royal authority to his son.
Serbia's Great War 1914-1918 by Andrej Mitrovic, page 183, copyright © Andrej Mitrovic, 2007, publisher: Purdue University Press, publication date: 2007
(3) Martha Hanna's Your Death Would Be Mine is based on the correspondence between Paul Pireaud and his wife Marie. On July 14, 1917, Bastille Day, Paul was serving with the 112th Heavy Artillery Regiment in the Moronvilliers sector northeast of Reims. Paul's battery had come under heavy artillery fire on June 26, and he had written that the 'usual practice' of the German artillerists was to leave them in peace for two or three weeks after such a barrage, as happened in this case.
Your Death Would Be Mine; Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War by Martha Hanna, page 212, copyright © 2006 by Martha Hanna, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2006
(4) Beginning paragraph of the last chapter of Emilio Lussu's Sardinian Brigade, an account of a year fighting on the Asiago plateau, on Italy's northern border. The book closes with Lussu and his fellow officers being told they are about to be transferred to the front beyond Italy's northeast, where the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo was in progress.
Sardinian Brigade by Emilio Lussu, pp. 268–269, copyright © 1939 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., publisher: Knopf, publication date: 1939
(5) Article published in Tovarishch, 'a subversive weekly published for Russian soldiers by the German staff in Vilna,' quoted by Alexander Kerensky in his Russia and History's Turning Point. Then-Russian War Minister Kerensky was at the front as his Galicia offensive faltered. The article was dated July 16 (July 3 Old Style), the same day Kerensky read it, and the same day violent demonstrations against the pro-war government broke out in Petrograd. Although some left-wing soldiers and workers — including some Bolsheviks — were prepared to seize power, Bolsheviks leader Vladimir Lenin was not. One hundred or more people were killed, and the threatened government turned on the Bolsheviks in the coming days, with many of them arrested, some killed, and others, including Lenin, going into hiding. Kerensky found the foresight of the article suspicious. Russkoye Slovo is Russian Word.
Russia and History's Turning Point by Alexander Kerensky, page 290, copyright © 1965 by Alexander Kerensky, publisher: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, publication date: 1965
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