Wooden cigarette box carved by Г. САВИНСКИ (?; G. Savinskiy), a Russian POW. The Grim Reaper strides across a field of skulls on the cover. The base includes an intricate carving of the years of war years, '1914' and, turning it 90 degrees, '1918.'
ПДМЯТЬ ВОИНЬ 1914-18To the memory of the soldiers 1914-18Reverse:19141918Г. САВИНСКИ (?)G. Savinskaya
". . . Before Death came to release him, he became calmer — he was back at home, among those whom he loved. Suddenly he seized my arm and cried, 'I knew that you would come! Elena, little dove, I knew that you would come! Kiss me, Elena, kiss me!' I realized that in his delirium he had mistaken me for the girl he loved. I bent and kissed his damp, hot face, and he became more tranquil. Death claimed him while he was still in a state of tranquillity. How I longed to be able to tell that unknown Elena that her unseen presence had helped him to die in peace."
Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross, advancing through Austria-Hungary in the Brusilov Offensive, and writing on July 27 (July 14 Old Style), 1916, of the death the day before of an officer of the Vyatski Regiment who had been severely wounded in both legs. Although the surgeons had been able to amputate, gangrene had set in. In his delirium, the officer had first imagined himself on the battlefield leading his men, and he had to be restrained by two orderlies. He calmed as putrefaction advanced.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 212, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
1916-07-26, 1916-07-27, 1916, July, death, Death, Brusilov Offensive, Grim Reaper
