dominated Fuad Bey's diary in late January 1917.
Although Vetluga is not in Siberia, the cold was Siberian -
in the negative 30s.//
26 January 1917
Friday
The weather is
clear again but it’s bitter cold. At night it was 35 degrees
below zero and 30
below in the morning.
Another problem: this morning
Franz told me that the guard ustarşi was sending him to the Kazarma
(main barracks). I asked why. Finally I found out that Hikmet had sent
a letter via Franz who gave
it to a German child to pass to a German girl.
?Sadaldat? saw this and gave it to the ustarşi.
The ustarşi pressed them
and got the letter. He have it to the Commander. We asked the ustarşi
to
leave it here and we got his word on this. This Hikmet is such an
unfeeling, vile fellow. He
was scorned for this before, too. But nothing’s
changed. News: ın England a
giant factory was
destroyed in a great
explosion. This caused such great damage that the nearby
area
and places in a
100 square kilometer area were in complete and utter
confusion. There were quite a lot of
casualties and much damage. I got
a paper from Şerif in the morning. He
asked who it was that was
talking
badly about their house and wrote asking me to help to prevent gossip
such as this by
defending them when such talk arises. Ismail came about
this, too. We talked a bit. The
response to Halis’s telegram came tonight.
It said that his family had gone
with the refugees to Sivas.
He was glad
about this (that they weren’t in enemy hands but, nevertheless,
he couldn’t free
himself from being captive of certain thoughts. I tried
for quite a while to
console him. Franz got
sick at noontime, he had a
very high fever. We couldn’t have a lesson.
27 January 1917
Saturday
The weather is
still cold. Clear though. I didn’t go outside. Franz was
ill again today so
again we couldn’t have a
lesson. The Commander
came in the afternoon. He asked Yaroslav what should be done
about
Hikmet but he still had not gotten a reply. After the Commander left
some rumors
circulated about us moving to another house so everyone
was very interested in this. But there
was no basis for it. Again today
I’m sad and aggravated. My environment is still the nasty
environment
of captivity…I’m lost in thought. A person cannot be saved from
grief. I’m angry
at and cross with my fortune, that in life I’m always
marooned in these
painful, aggravating
circumstances. I had a dream at
night: Halis and I are at school. It’s time for
class and although all
the
other fellows are ready, both of us are late. A duty officer approached
us
and asked why we were
neglectful. Just then, he smacked Halis twice.
He was going to hit me too but I said ‘please
stop! It would be bad.’ At
this point, I awoke amid discomfort.
28 January 1917 Sunday
The weather is
still not very nice but the bitter cold has eased. I felt
aggravated until
about noon. After that it went
away but Halis got sick.
A little later everyone went for a walk. Only three or
four people
remained in
the whole house. I shaved at this time and after that the
fellows came. I seemed to catch
some of Halis’s illness so I lay down
until evening. We had the evening meal.
Halis said ‘I’m cold.’
Right
away I put my blanket and my coat over him. First the poor fellow’s
chest
was hurting and now he
has a terrific headache. He didn’t eat
dinner this evening. A bit later he
again started to say
‘I’m burning.’
but I didn’t take anything off him. I told him that he would be
uncomfort-
able but the
illness woud pass quickly. I asked him to be patient and bear
up. I had him
take asprin and antipyrine a
couple of times. It was around
midnight and I was continually at Halis’s
bedside. Everyone else went
to
bed but I couldn’t sleep at all…Zühdü gave me a thin blanket. I went to
bedquite late, without taking my pants off. In fact, I
slept with my jacket
on. I still couldn’t sleep as I kept an eye on
Halis and covered him up as
soon as his blanket came off. This went on like
this till morning. I always
wish for good health for Halis. Franz felt better today. We didn’t have a
lesson. I sent my German
notebook as a gift to a Turkish youth named
Sergeant Mehmet Sayıd of Bukhara, from the Kazarma
(main barracks),
who is going to study German. He wants a primer that is
required
for this to be
written. It’s understood from his writings that he’s very
interested in the
Turk-Turan issue.
29 January 1917
Monday
The weather is
clear and sunny. I didn’t go down at all. The other fellows
went out around
mid-afternoon. It
seemed that Halis’s illness tapered off
a bit in the morning. Most of the fever
went away. The rapid
pulse he has
eased and he began to regain his health but again he didn’t eat
his
lunch. He lay down
until evening and perspired somewhat. Unfortunately,
I couldn’t find any milk although I looked
high and low for some. In the
morning, I borrowed five rubles from Dursun, through the
intercession of
Rıfkı. I bought some tincture of iodine and five asprins.
Toward evening
I changed Halis’s
sweat-soaked clothes. He seemed to regain all of his
appetite in the evening. I
had some rice soup
cooked for him. We didn’t
have a lesson again today. Franz came to see us at
night and told us some
things about the war. We listened. We went to bed at 11 o’clock.
Knowing that
Halis has fully
recovered, I fell asleep. I woke up at
midnight, covered him up again and went
back to bed. At night Süleyman
Efendi was getting some German words from Franz. The guard ustarşi
came and
with an unruly manner
said ‘the servant has to go.’ Süleyman
said ‘why?’ and the ustarşi said in
response ‘that’s what I
want.’ There
was quite an argument. Ultimately, we complained about the usarşi
to the
Feldfebel (senior
Russian sergeant) who came to the house at night (so
he would tell the
Commander.) This man told us
that Osman Bey will go
to a warm place…
30 January 1917
Tuesday
The weather is
crystal clear. Sunny. But very cold. Again, Halis didn’t
cover himself
completely at night. So because
he had a sleepless night
he caught a bit of a cold. His pulse was racing
somewhat. He had a
fever in his
head and body again. In the morning he decided to go to
the hospital. I went
with him because of the
weakness and debility that
has arisen from his hunger over the past couple of days. I wanted to
help
him any way that I could both going and coming back. We had quite a
time getting to the
hospital and my uncovered ears got cold and froze
because of the bitter chill.
We waited for two
hours before Halis was
treated. My ears returned to normal after the effect of
the frost, because
of
the warmth in the hospital’s treatment corridor. But then they swelled
up and
got big. Halis was mad
at me because of this and said ‘why did
we come here? So that you could harm your ears?’
Anyway, he got his
treatment. On the way back Halis insisted on giving his hat
to me. So
it turned out that
instead of me helping him he was helping me. In any
event, we came to the
house. We spread some
cream on my ear and
wrapped it in cotton. Halis felt better toward evening.
Today’s coldness
was 33
below zero. In the evening the Commander and the Felfebel
came. He said that we would be able to
get lessons from Franz freely
from now on. Unfortunately, though, Franz took
ill again. In a dream
he had tonight, Halis saw Gendarmerie Captain Şevket kill me and
Halis using a revolver in his
hand…what’s that all about? Tercüman
newspaper
Came Again This Evening
31 January 1917
Wednesday
The weather is
clear, sunny. It’s quite cold, too. In spite of the clear
weather, it was 35
below zero today. After
morning tea I sent Halis to
Haydar Bey to get some medicine from him. But this man, who talks
about his royal bloodline, was didinterested and consequently didn’t
accept it, although we had
given him some medicine. Fortunately,
Artilleryman Hikmet had some yellow-colored medicine
which we
mixed with the tincture of iodine we already had. Since both the upper
and lower
parts of my ear had swelled up the doctor first used a scissors
to cut this and made the fluid
that had gathered there flow out. Then he
spread this mixed medicine and bandaged it. Again
today we couldn’t
have a lesson. Franz was still sick. Halis is completely better but some
of
the weakness caused by the illness remains. We put medicine on my
ears again at night.
Tercüman came again in the evening. It was written
that there was a clash
between a very small force
of ours and the
Russians around Kemah. Wilson has sent a second note to the
belligerants. At
night we talked about becoming rich. Then the subject
turned to this place. We talked about this
a bit. Then we went to bed.
//END of PART LXIV//
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