Russian Memories

by Olga Alekseevna Novikova

Then, it is indispensable to organise military detachments and contingents solely and entirely for the direction and government of the affairs of war prisoners. Numbers of these prisoners must receive a short and hasty course of training for Government national work, which courses, as also the entire administration of the army of working prisoners, can be under the direction of numbers of our brilliant officers and generals who have left the ranks crippled or otherwise incapacitated for further active service. They will be only too happy to take upon themselves responsible work for their country. Further, it is necessary to form a committee for inspection of prisoners in the Intendance department.

There is in our provinces a whole section that does not know how to occupy itself, since the closing of the vodka monopoly. Immense numbers of splendid buildings are standing empty. It seems to me that they could be without further ado turned into schools and reading-rooms with tea-rooms attached, whilst countless local Government excise clerks are entirely without occupation and would be exceedingly useful in the economic department of the larger national working enterprises.

Lastly, all the departments, especially those concerned with agriculture and land development, must be made immediately to set in motion all their sleeping projects: the making of roads and railways, the hewing of forest trees, the cutting of canals, etc., etc., all of which are lying on the shelf for no other reason than the lack of working hands. Nobody will ever persuade me of the impossibility of employing disciplined detachments of our present war prisoners on the execution of many of these projects, especially those connected with building and agriculture. It is beyond question that the labour of the prisoners would immediately cheapen and hasten their completion. Of course, contractors for these undertakings will not make fortunes, and they will certainly do their best to prove the impracticability of the whole plan—but their loss is the country's gain.

Then again, I recently happened to make the acquaintance of the administrator of one of our northern provinces. He was raising with the greatest energy and enthusiasm the question of realising an already fully worked-out project of joining the White Sea to Lake Onega by means of canals. These canals were to cover a distance of 200 versts. Again, nobody will assure me that it is impossible to apply the labour of war prisoners to the execution of this and similar tasks of immense importance to our Empire. Peter the Great dug the Ladoga canal with the hands of his Swedish prisoners—a striking reproach for our present lack of enterprise.

How often it is necessary to recall to one's mind the examples of Peter and Catherine the Great! These reminders of old times usually receive the offensive reply: "Oh, in those days there were men—now we have no more men, only pigmies!" No men? In our Russia that is seething with talented inventors? No men devoted to Russia, to her honour and her might? Indeed ... we have our eagles....

But to return to the question of war prisoners. Can it be that all I have dared to say is so obviously senseless or so excessively profound and complicated that men prefer to pass it over in silence? Or does the question I have touched upon deserve no attention simply because the Romans disregarded a woman's opinion, seeing in it only levity, especially when connected with public questions?[*]

[*] Since this was written the Russian Government has given much more work to prisoners of different nationalities.

German methods with war prisoners are vastly different from those of the Allies. The German is not content with using their bodies for carrying out his various schemes, but he strives to divert their minds from allegiance to their respective countries. It has been proved in a court of law, the witnesses giving evidence under oath, that in the case of the Irish soldiers, prisoners in Germany, endeavours were made to turn them into rebels. No form of duplicity or dishonour seems to come amiss to the German, and his methods with the Russian prisoners are not dissimilar to those practised against the Irish, and I can only hope that they will be as loyal to their country as were the splendid soldiers of our Ally.

With the Russian prisoners the German authorities occupy themselves with torturing the souls of all that fall in their hands, sowing discord and despair for future generations to reap. It is a terrible but authentic fact that the minds of Russian prisoners in Germany are being systematically poisoned by means of the propagation of atheism, nihilism, and anti-patriotism, through every variety of that pernicious literature that was always so well received and patronised in Germany. Our soldiers beg for religious and patriotic books, instead of which they receive the very opposite, their gaolers hoping thus to deprive them of their sole remaining consolation, that of an unshaken faith.

One of the most encouraging things that I have heard recently came to my knowledge only as I was going over the manuscript of this book. The British authorities have taken up the question of sending educational books to the English prisoners in Germany. Apparently the men are tired of fiction, and they want some serious study, such as seamanship, engineering and various other crafts. What particularly interested me was the fact that simple Russian grammars and text-books are very much wanted, and these are being sent out. What greater link can there be between two nations than that each should speak the other's language? Our tongue, however, is by no means an easy one to acquire. Bismarck could not understand why Greek should be learnt at all. "If it is contended that the study of Greek is excellent mental discipline, to learn Russian would be still more so, and at the same time practically useful. Twenty-eight declensions and the innumerable niceties by which the deficiencies of conjugations are made up for are something to exercise the memory. And then, how are the words changed! Frequently nothing but a single letter of the original root remains."