A Russian Invasion - One Century Ago

 

Does One Hundred Years Make a Difference?

During the early days of Russia's 2022 invasion Ukraine a captured young Russian soldier was interviewed on social media.  He stated that he expected to greeted as a liberator.  Instead the Ukrainians met him with force. bloodied his regiment and captured him.  The poor kid looked shakened and confused.  His image and story was just what I had imagined for my character after a battle that occurred over one hundred years ago.

Ukraine - 2022

Does history repeat itself? Apparently so.  One portion of my novel Slogans: Our Children Our Future, deals with the Russian-Polish War.  In this chapter, young Igor Garous is captured by Polish army during the Battle for Warsaw.  In this scene, Igor realizes he had been lied to and he was not on the side of the righteous.

***

Igor ducked his head in time to dodge the flying chunk of feces. The man sloughing behind him was not so fortunate.

“Death to you Russian pigs,” the children yelled in halting Russian as they prepared to fire another volley into the hapless prisoners. Their words were the least vile of the many taunts and insults hurled at him since his capture. Igor was still haunted by the old woman who leapt from the crowd and shook her fist in his face. “Bastard.” she screamed. “Filthy bastard. You killed my son.” Some of the words hurled by the Polish peasants were not familiar, but Igor got the message.

Igor continued to trudge along with his head down and his shoulders bent. This was not how he envisioned his entrance into Warsaw. Instead of the oppressed masses waving flowers and cheering him as a liberator, the crowds lining the route pelted him with insults, trash, and the occasional horse turd.

The More Things Change

Like the captured Russian in Ukraine, Igor is faced with reality.

***

Before the battle the political commissar had preached the Polish rulers were hated aristocrats profiting from the sweat of the masses. He assured Igor the workers and farmers would rise up and aid the Red Army in its righteous conquest. Instead, the poor had flocked to the defense of their nation. Before the defeat, Igor had never doubted Communist cause, but now his faith was cracking like a frozen lake in early May.

It is often said the first casualty of war is truth.  So true.