Gora, Dirk
Stories
1
Chapters
46
Words
30.3 K
Comments
0
Reading
2 h, 31 m
We have now reached the stage which I foresaw. There is no physician to be called upon. Both are dangerously ill, and we fear that they will never get up again. With us at home, everybody is sick, except Marguerite and myself. One thing which I am very much alarmed about now is the growing difficulty in obtaining fuel for heating the house. I am doing things which seem almost a sacrilege: I felled trees in the orchard. I can think of no fuel but this. Some people cut wood out of their houses, chop…- 30.3 K • Completed
- A new pitiless enemy has arrived. We all are lost. The “Black Death” is about. No pity where he takes hold. At first the Anarchists were taken ill. They were lying in the houses, and the inhabitants of our town took care of them. Now the contagion has spread to us: Spotted fever! I questioned doctor H. He confirmed the report that in most of the cases it had been the spotted fever, in some others it was the so-called intermittent fever. I never had heard of that. This illness, after about two weeks,…
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- No help in sight! Deepening of the distress! Many Anarchists are falling sick of camp-fever. Little wonder! These men observe no rules of hygiene whatsoever. But we all arc becoming a prey to this contagious malady. And we have no means of prevention. We have no soap, no change of underwear. Even combs and razors are lacking. We look like savages, with unkempt hair and neglected beards. I, however, possess a razor which I keep hidden, but it is impossible to use it because if I should appear clean…
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- We all have our own peculiar fate. There hardly can be found another family, it seems to me, which has had to endure so many tragic blows as the family W. I learned to know those people during the first enslavement. Their house is not far from ours, so one can go over without passing through the street. After I had been there once they asked me to call often. I understand that. Every one of us feels the need of looking into the face of somebody who is not an Anarchist. We all wish to confess our…
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- Our commander told me today that the irritation of the Anarchist against us had diminished. Probably they consider their fighting position more favorable now. The last days the telephone calls were seemingly very exciting. Today they do not speak so much. Yesterday I heard them asking about the city of Yekaterinoslav, whether it was still in their hands or not. Although we prick up our ears we dare not inquire directly about their fighting situation, so as to give them no excuse for suspecting our…
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- A terrible event has happened. We learned about it two days ago, but we did not believe the rumor. Today we received the surest confirmation of the facts. The village Dubovka does not exist anymore. This colonist village is only twenty miles away from here. Many people of our place had relatives and friends there. The history of that village ended the 18th of October, 1919. The 17th of October, at night, a band of horsemen surrounded the village and divided themselves in such a way that all farms could…
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- We feel as though condemned to death now, and that there is nothing left but to wait until the executioner comes. Those who are not yet apathetic are thinking of escape. But the Anarchists have announced that whosoever will be found three steps from the house after sunset would be shot without signal. Indeed, there are always so many armed horsemen that an attempt to flee would be surest death. And besides if one should flee, his family, remaining behind, would be endangered. And then, where to go? I know…
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- How terrible! The tall Cossack was here today, he had been in our house already a few days ago. He announced that it had proved impossible to tolerate any longer the pretended neutrality of these Western farmers. The fight had reached its climax and they had now decided to act upon the idea, “He who is not for us is against us.” We must now decide whether we want to be on their side and fight against their foes, the Whites. Should we refuse to do so, they would draw the conclusion that we were…
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- Our telephone division, eight men in all, has been with us for three weeks. They are more decent than others, if one may speak of decency in connection with these people. Among them there are some non-peasants, and even some idling students who never could make good. Gradually they become tame in our house. So far we have been able to appease their desires, above all their gluttony; and now they draw in their claws as beasts of prey in similar cases would do. Our yard has little to attract them, for it…
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- For some time I have been writing the notes of my diary in the French language. It is getting to be very dangerous. Makhno has given orders to his spies to do away, pitilessly, with everyone who has hostile opinions about him. In order to excuse their own cruelty before us, the bandits bring all kinds of invented stories into circulation. Today our so-called commander came home—well, it is their home now more than ours—and worked himself into a state of great excitement. He told us with satisfaction,…
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