Gora, Dirk
Stories
1
Chapters
46
Words
30.3 K
Comments
0
Reading
2 h, 31 m
It is true now: for weeks there has been a rumor of a massacre in the colonist settlement about one hundred and fifty miles west of the Dnieper river. Yes, I had the list in my hand, the list of all those who fell in that carnage. And what did I see? I cannot grasp it as I pass over the long list of names. It becomes dark before my eyes ... two hundred and fourteen men—and I know them all. It is the place where I was born and where I grew up. My father! and brothers, you? All dead? Murdered! I…- 30.3 K • Completed
- We arc strangers in this country. He who did not know that before the war has learned this lesson a thousandfold during and after the war. Our Russian neighbors look upon us as upon cursed and damned “Nyemtze” who, in their land, have become wealthy. They completely ignore the fact that our ancestors, one hundred and twenty years ago, had been invited to settle here in order to cultivate these vast steppes which lay idle at that time. They do not want to recognize that these colonists, only through…
- 30.3 K • Completed
- All is dark again! Our hope is gone. Between those brother colonists and us a fighting front line has been established. The armies of General Wrangel and the armies of the Bolsheviks continue their fight there. This is civil war. We are living in complete isolation. The trains do not come, the mail does not arrive, the telegraph does not work. By the way, there is no technical possibility of wire communication, for the Ukrainian Anarchists—the anarchism did not grow in the North—have cut down the…
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- Linen from Tauria! Grown-up men show a childlike joy over a shirt, although it is used and mended; men who before never cared about their clothes and who always had plenty of them. What a change! How much value do we attach now to an old shirt, worn and washed many times! And we would be mighty glad if every one of us had at least as much underwear as is necessary for a change. Not all are as lucky. Some have not even outer garments because the Anarchists carried off the very last ones when the owner…
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- The colonists in the Berdyansk district have sent a transport of flour and lard. We received only a part of the provisions sent. About half of them have been “confiscated” by some “Black Authorities.” We call those robbers, or Anarchists. A portion, however, has actually arrived. And surely, the givers will not stop continuing support on account of this misfortune—for what has been sent is but “a drop on a hot stone.” We are glad that the colonists there have not suffered so much that…
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- News of joy! There is help in view! The Mennonite colonists of the Berdyansk district are sending us help. It is certain. I know it through the best sources. At…
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- By the thousands the Bolshevik troops are passing through our place. Most of the time they make a stay here. They, too, have no pity, even though we tell them we have no bread. Hungry soldiers do not deal gently. They have to have food even when they eat our last bread. More than ninety per cent of our population here went through the malady. The great plague has ceased now. We, who have been left, must form a friendly alliance with life again, although it does not seem to meet us half way. In our…
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- Every day the sun comes out friendlier. We are moving toward spring. But up to the end of April the sick-rooms must be heated. We are so sensitive toward cold. The trees are almost all cut off. What shall we do? It is such a barbarity! How many years it will take for new trees to grow up! There are no woods in the steppes. There is no railway communication. The woods of North Russia—there is plenty of wood there—are as unreachable for us as the woods in Central Africa. Those few locomotives that…
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- The process of physical recuperation is very slow. It is no wonder. During convalescence the body demands, after a long time of fasting, double and triple rations. That is the reason why all who were sick, in meeting each other complain about their unappeasable hunger and praise the good old times when bread, meat, eggs, and milk were in abundance. Finally one gets crazy about that question of our future. We all, without exception, see darkness there, or—a question mark. What will become of…
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- After the first excursion I had dared to make in most unfavorable weather, I had to stay in bed again for a few days. The temperature was rising, and there were all the symptoms of inflammation of the lungs, especially there were those vehement pains which put one out of breath. Today, however, I feel better. I even got out of bed. I am disgusted with that bed; it is too short for me to stretch out my limbs. This was so uncomfortable during all those forty days of my illness. But there was no other bed…
- 30.3 K • Completed
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