Darya Vladyevna Mihailov is one of the first female soldiers of the Russian army. She chose this for numerous reasons: her family, once proud and wealthy was made poor by Russian industrialization, necessitating another source of income; her brother was conscripted although a cripple, making it such that another of his family must go in his stead; lastly, as a child she was something of a tomboy and had always dreamt of the valor in arms, so she jumps at this chance to experience it. In a letter written home to her brother, she describes her experience in the trenches. After a short trainging period (where she notes that many of the men are little better in war than she), her regiment is sent out as one of the many heading towards Austria-Hungary. The campaign is successful and they push well into the A-H region named Galicia. Still, she observes that their numbers are greatyl reduced and that in defense they are more likely to crumble. Nonetheless, they hold their position and continue forward march, but are headed of in the Battle of Tannenburg. In this time she begins to recount the horrors of modern warfare, and her anger towards the monarchs that they are not better prepared as a force. For this she blames the monarchy. She now wishes that she hadn't joined the army, not necessarily because she is afraid (which they all are), but because she recognizes that in the modern world, a victory cannot be won through valor, but only through strategic use of death machines. Her place, she now feels, is Petrograd. In the ranks she hears news of Lenin from his supporters and begins to see what he has to say as the hope of a better future. At the termination of her letter she encourages her family to go out to protest the monarchy and fight for revolutionary ideals.
Nationalism evidently plays an important role in her life as it pushes her to become a soldier, despite prejudices of the time. Furthermore, this experience completely changes her perspective on government, changing her from nuetral to strongly opposed to the monarchy which she believes has brought them down.
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I'm really interested in reading your piece now. I'd love to see how she deals with realizing that the "valor" was not as it had been made out to be and her shift of belief against monarchy. Not only is this a comprehensive description of the horrors of World War I, it seems to show an extremely realistic picture of life during the war accompanied by a natural conclusion in terms of your character's beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Robby. I would really like to read your letters. To see her views change when she realizes what war is really like must be interesting. I think the "strategic use of death machines" is an interesting and true way to describe how war is.
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