8 Mayıs 2019 Çarşamba

TNT Matchbox Diary: A Turkish POW in Russian Prison Camp (1915-1918)/Part LIX

//Ed. Note: the previous chapter was erroneously marked
as 'Part LIII' - it should have been 'Part LVIII'.

On the eve of 1917, police are reinforced in Vetluga to
stem 'muzhik' (peasant) unrest.  Fuad Bey gets news 
about the war, bakes bread, starts a German dictionary
and an inmate newspaper.//

russian muzhik 1917 ile ilgili görsel sonucu



The Russian Police Sharpen Swords

26 December 1916 Tuesday
The weather is still bad, cloudy, bitter cold. News: the Russian 
newspapers are talking about Cemal Paşa’s execution. The supposed 
reason was that he usurped the wide authority given to him. But I 
don’t know. God forbid such things should happen at a this time. If 
it’s true then that’s very bad…

//Ed. Note: Cemal Paşa was assassinated in Tbilisi in 1922//

...the Russian police here are said to be sharpening their swords and 
twenty more police are being brought here.  The reason is that the 
Russian government is scared of the mujiks’ rebellion. The stupid 
government knows that its people want peace and that peace would 
be good for it, as well. It’s still duping its people.  Today the only thing 
I did was have Franz correct a few words. I went to bed an hour after 
midnight. The other fellows in the room went to bed later than me.

27 December 1916 Wednesday
The weather is quite nice, cloudless, sunny…not very cold either. 
Taking full advantage of this I spent a lot of time outside. News: the 
American government has sent a note to all the combatants. In the note 
it states that come what may peace will be made and with rather 
threatening words says America  will work against those parties that 
don’t accept this…Çerkes Mehmet gathered us all together at night. 
He said he had spoken with the Lieutenant Colonel at the kazarma 
(main barracks)  and passed along to us his advice, which was that we 
should avoid any and all situations that would compromise our honor 
while in captivity. He went on at length about this. At night we joked 
around wth Mustafa a bit. We had a new German lesson today but we 
couldn’t understand the basis of it very well.

28 December 1916 Thursday
The weather is still rather nice but toward evening the sky began to get 
cloudy. The cold is still not very bitter. I went out in front for a stroll a 
couple of times. News: Switzerland informed the combatants that it has 
accepted the American note. Again, I heard about a vile incident, as 
follows: Captain Kır Mustafa  (Tahir’s relative) who lives in the 
Lieutenant Colonel’s house (Lebedof) wanted  to molest one of the 
Austrian soldier-servants there but was stopped from doing so. The 
soldier was prevented from making a complaint about it and the 
Russians were kept unaware. I’m very regretful about vulgarity like this. 
This man is 40-50 years old. It’s one thing if this shameful act were 
restricted to him but it reflects on all of us, the nation, the government
…for that reason it’s a stain. Today I didn’t spend too much time on my
lessons. I went to bed rather early.

29 December 1916 Friday
The weather has gotten bad. Quite a storm about. A lot of snow has 
fallen.  Anymore snow covers everything. It’s bitter cold, too. News: a 
respose will be given to the ote on the 25th of the month. Süleymen  
Efendi got out of jail today. Kazim went to jail tonight. Today another 
vile and regrettable incident: Major Mehmet Bey and Captain Mustafa 
Efendi, who live in Malaşova, made a lewd proposal to an Austrian 
soldier. If it’s true, what a scandal…what a horrible scandal! After the
evening meal we worked on German and then I listened to Çerkes 
Mehmet who was talking about the Commander and some things he 
had done. It makes me mad that he’s always talking and thinking about 
the Russians.

30 December 1916 Saturday
The weather is bad, really bad, snow falling continually. The wind is 
cold enough to freeze a person. It’s bitter cold. We weren’t able to go
outside. News: the Germans have sunk two English submarines. War 
again in Romania. The Romanians have retreated. We didn’t have a
lesson today. There are three kinds of bread here. One is black, one is 
middle and one is white. The black one is very dark and heavy. It’s 
difficult to eat. A funt (12 oz./409.5 grams) costs eight kopeks. The 
middle one is neither black nor white. This used to be made well but
not anymore.  Both of them are like half-cooked. The white one is quite 
good, it’s cooked well. The middle one costs 10 kopeks per funt and the 
white one is 15 kopeks. Since it’s cheap and, thinking that we might as 
well eat a more pure and clean bread, we gave it a try yesterday by 
buying a small sack of flour. We baked it in the oven in our kitchen. 
Since it was the first time it came out salty and not very well cooked.
Nevertheless, we got an idea about Russian bread. Day by day as
captivity drags on, it’s more aggravation and distress.

A Serious and Comic Newspaper Named 'Sunrise'

31 December 1916 Sunday
The weather is still bad. Snow is continually falling. The wind is as it 
has  been. Toward evening the snow and wind died down. We strolled 
around down below a bit. The cold has eased somewhat.  News: 
supposedly France and England have responded to the note as follows:
‘We want to be of service to humanity. We want to make peace. But 
we cannot accept that our enemy be victorious and we have the means 
and provisions to fight o for a few more years.’ – along with some other
statements… the defeated still make claims of victory. Today again we 
baked bread in the oven in our kitchen. This time it came out quite well.  
It cost 12 kopeks per funt. On the outside it costs 18 kopeks now. Let’s 
see if we can eat nice, clean bread by buying flour, if we don’t run into 
too much difficulty. Today we heard that four soldiers who were taken 
prisoner in Galicia came here.  I planned today to make a German 
dictionary comprised of about 3,000 words and got started.  Up to three 
o’clock at night, European time, I worked to write the words starting 
with the letter A in the dictionary. Süleyman agreed today to the 
proposal I made to him about giving lessons. Also today we decided to 
write a newspaper with both serious and comic articles named 
'Gündoğan' (Sunrise).

//END of PART LIX//


Hiç yorum yok:

Yorum Gönder