Zweibund — the Dual Alliance — Germany and Austria-Hungary united, were the core of the Central Powers, and here join hands. The bars of Germany's flag border the top left, and those of the Habsburg Austrian Empire and ruling house the bottom right.
Schulter an SchulterUntrennbar vereintin Freud und in Leid!'Shoulder to shoulderInseparably united in joy and in sorrow!
"The third delegate is Madame Bizenko, a woman with a comprehensive past. Her husband is a minor official; she herself took an early part in the revolutionary movement. Twelve years ago she murdered General Sacharow, the governor of some Russian city, who had been condemned to death by the Socialists for his energy. She appeared before the general with a petition, holding a revolver under her petticoat. When the general began to read she fired four bullets into his body, killing him on the spot. She was sent to Siberia, where she lived for twelve years, at first in solitary confinement, afterward under somewhat easier conditions; she also owes her freedom to the Revolution. This remarkable woman learned French and German in Siberia well enough to read them, though she cannot speak them, not knowing how the words should be pronounced. She is the type of the educated Russian proletariat."
Excerpt from the entry for December 20, 1917 by Count Ottokar Czernin in his In the World War, describing Anastasia Bizenko, one of the Russian delegates to the Brest-Litovsk peace conference between Russia and the Central Powers. Adolf Joffe, who had been freed from Siberia by the Revolution, and Lev Kamenev also represented Russia at the conference which Leon Trotsky, brother-in-law to Kamenev, later joined.
In the World War by Count Ottokar Czernin, page 244, copyright © 1920, by Harper & Brothers, publisher: Harper and Brothers, publication date: 1920
1917-12-20, 1917, December, Brest-Litovsk, Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Bizenko, Anastasia Bizenko
