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CHAPTER NINETEEN - July to October 1916

Kovel was a railway junction in the part of Russia that had once been in Poland, near the old border with Austria Hungary The Russian army assembled twenty miles east of the city, on the banks of the river Stokhod The entire area was a swa interlaced with footpaths Grigori found a patch of drier ground and ordered his platoon to make camp They had no tents: Major Azov had sold the factory in Pinsk He said the men did not need tents in the summer, and by winter they would all be dead

By soeant and his friend Isaak a corporal Those few left of the 1914 intake were now ori&039;s battalion had been deciain They had been sent everywhere but hoori had killed renade, h for hihtmares about it, particularly the better-educated ones, but not Grigori He had been born into the brutality of a peasant village and had survived as an orphan on the streets of St Petersburg: violence did not give him bad dreams

What had shocked him was the stupidity, callousness, and corruption of the officers Living and fighting alongside the ruling class had made him a revolutionary

He had to stay alive There was no one else to take care of Katerina

He wrote to her regularly, and received occasional letters, penned in a neat schoolgirl hand with s-out He had kept every one, tied in a neat bundle in his kit bag, and when a long period went by with no letter he reread the old ones

In the first she had told hihteen ed to see him He vividly remembered his brother as a baby Did Vladiummy smile? he wondered But hehis first words Grigori wanted the child to learn to say "Uncle Grishka"

He often thought about the night Katerina had coed the course of events so that, instead of throwing her out, he took her in his arenerous mouth, and made love to her But in real life he knew that her heart belonged to his brother

Grigori had heard nothing froone more than two years He feared that some catastrophe had befallen hiot hih somehow he seemed always to slip out of trouble The proble froori as a poor substitute for a parent Grigori wished he had done better, but he had been only a boy himself

The upshot was that Katerina had no one to look after her and her baby except Grigori He was fiercely determined to keep himself alive, despite the chaotic inefficiency of the Russian army, so that he could one day return home to Katerina and Vladimir

The commander in the zone was General Brusilov, a professional soldier-unlike so enerals ere courtiers Under Brusilov&039;s orders the Russians hadthe Austrians back in confusion Grigori and his ht hard when the orders ies to staying out of the line of fire Grigori had becoood at that, and in consequence had won the loyalty of his platoon

In July the Russian advance had slowed, dragged back as always by lack of supplies But now the Guard Arroup, the tallest and fittest of Russian soldiers Unlike the rest of the arold braid-and new boots But they had a poor coori felt that Bezobrazov would not take Kovel, no uards were

It was Major Azov who brought the orders at dawn He was a tall, heavy ht unifor With hieants and Azov told theh the swamp toward the west The Austrians were eround was too soggy for trenches

Grigori could see a disaster in thein wait, behind cover, in positions they had been able to choose with care The Russians would be concentrated on the pathways and would not be able to round They would be massacred

In addition, they were low on bullets

Grigori said: "Your Highness, we need an issue of ammunition"

Azov ori in the ori&039;s lips and he fell back "That will keep you quiet for a while," Azov said "You&039;ll get ammunition when your officers say you need it" He turned to the others "Fornal"

Grigori got to his feet, tasting blood Touching his face gingerly, he found he had lost a front tooth He cursed his carelessness In an absentminded moment he had stood too close to an officer He should have known better: they lashed out at the slightest provocation He was lucky Azov had not been holding a rifle, or it would have been the butt that struck Grigori in the face

He called his platoon together and got theet ahead, but to his disappointori&039;s platoon was a the leaders

He would have to think of so else

He waded into the river and the thirty-five men of his platoon followed The water was cold but the weather was sunny and waroribehind hi to see what he would do

The Stokhod was broad and shallow, and they reached the far side without getting wet above their thighs They had already been overtaken by keener ori saith satisfaction

Once on the narrow path through the swao at the same pace as everyone else, and he could not carry out his plan of falling behind He began to worry He did not want his men to be part of this crohen the Austrians opened fire

After they had gone a ain and the pace slowed as the ori saw an opportunity As if impatient with the delay, he moved off the path into the watery mud The rest of his men quickly followed suit The platoon behind ap

The water was up to Grigori&039;s chest, and thewas very slow, and-as Grigori had anticipated-his platoon fell behind

Lieutenant Kirillov saas happening and shouted angrily: "You ori called back: "Yes, Excellency" But he led his round

The lieutenant cursed and gave up

Grigori was scanning the terrain ahead as carefully as any of the officers, though for a different purpose They were looking for the Austrian ar for a place to hide

He kepthundreds of troops overtake hiht; let the he heard the first shots froed the eneori caround was drier The rest of Major Azov&039;s coht far ahead At the top of the rise Grigori shouted: "Take cover! Enemy emplacement ahead to the left!"

There was no eneot down on the ground, behind bushes and trees, and aiori shot one exploratory round into a cluetation five hundred yards away, just in case he had unluckily picked a spot where there really were some Austrians; but no fire was returned

They were safe, Grigori thought with satisfaction, as long as they stayed here As the day wore on, one of two things would happen Most likely, in a few hours&039; tih the swa their wounded, chased by the eneori&039;s platoon would join the retreat Alternatively, toward nightfall Grigori would conclude that the Russians had won the battle, and take his group forward to join the victory celebrations

Meanwhile the only problee to lie on the ground hour after hour staring ahead as if raking the landscape for ene, s naps, which spoiled the illusion

But before they had tiet comfortable Lieutenant Kirillov appeared a couple of hundred yards to Grigori&039;s right on the far side of a pond Grigori groaned: this could ruin everything "What are you ?" Kirillov shouted

"Keep down, Excellency!" Grigori shouted back

Isaak fired his rifle into the air, and Grigori ducked Kirillov ducked too, then retreated back the way he had come

Isaak chuckled "Works every tiori was not so sure Kirillov had looked annoyed, not pleased, as if he kneas being fooled but could not decide what to do about it

Grigori listened to the booht it was about ain any direction

The sun rose higher and dried his wet clothing He began to feel hungry, and gnawed on a piece of hardtack fro the sore place where Azov had knocked out his tooth

After thelow about athe troops on the ground The Guards, crowded onto narrow paths or wading through ori was doubly glad he had made sure he and his men were not there

Around the middle of the afternoon the sound of battle seeot ready to order hisforces-but not yet He did not want to be conspicuous Retreating sloas al slowly

He saw a few scattered h the swamp back toward the river, soun, but the arht

Froh A horse inary Austrians His men followed suit, and there was a rattle of scattered fire Then he looked around and saw Major Azov on a big gray hunter splashing through thesoldiers, telling theued with hiant revolver-just like Lev&039;s, Grigori thought irrelevantly-and pointed it at them, whereupon they turned around and reluctantly headed back the way they had coori&039;s position "What are you fools doing here?" he said

Grigori reround but rolled over and reloaded his rifle, pushing his last five-round clip into place,a show of haste "Enehness," he said "You&039;d better dismount, sir, they can see you"

Azov re from them?"

"His Excellency Lieutenant Kirillov told us to take them out I&039;ve sent a patrol to co fire"

Azov was not co back"

"We&039;ve got them pinned down"

He shook his head "They&039;ve retreated-if they were ever there in the first place"

"I don&039;t think so, Your Highness They were blazing away at us a o"

"There&039;s no one there" Azov raised his voice "Cease fire! You ori&039;s platoon stopped shooting and looked at the e!" he said He drew his pistol

Grigori was not sure what to do The battle had clearly been the disaster he had forecast Having avoided it all day he did not want to risk lives when it was clearly over But direct conflict with officers was dangerous

At that etation in the place Grigori had been pretending was an eneori stared in surprise However, they were not Austrians, he saw as soon as he couldRussians

But Azov did not change his e the Russians

The men of the platoon were bewildered Officers often threatened to shoot troops who seeori&039;s men had never before been ordered to attack their own side They looked to hiori "Charge!" he screaori ht,his back to the approaching Russians, he looked to left and right and hefted his rifle "You heard what the , then pointed it at Azov

If he was going to shoot at his own side, he would kill an officer rather than a soldier

Azov stared at hiori pulled the trigger

His first shot hit Azov&039;s horse, and it stuori&039;s life, for Azov fired at hio wide Autoain

His second shot er now But so was thewith his horse and unable to aiori followed his jerky ht of his rifle, fired a third time, and shot Azov in the chest He stared as the ried into a muddy puddle

The horse walked away unsteadily, then suddenly sat down on its hindquarters like a dog

Grigori went up to Azov Thebut still alive, bleeding froori looked around The retreating soldiers were still too far away to see clearly as going on His own men were completely trustworthy: he had saved their lives ainst Azov&039;s forehead "This is for all the good Russians you&039;ve killed, youhis teeth "And for er

The ori looked at his men "The major has unfortunately been killed by enemy fire," he said "Retreat!"

They cheered and began to run

Grigori went up to the horse It tried to rise, but Grigori could see it had a broken leg He put his rifle to its ear and fired his last round The horse fell sideways and lay still

Grigori felt more pity for the horse than for Major Azov

He ran after his retreating men

{II}

After the Brusilov Offensive slowed to a halt, Grigori was redeployed to the capital, now rena" sounded too German Battle-hardened troops were required to protect the tsar&039;s fary citizens, it seeed with the elite First Machine Gun Regiori moved into their barracks in Sa-class neighborhood of factories and slums The First Machine Guns ell fed and housed, in an atteime

He was happy to be back, and yet the prospect of seeing Katerina filled hied to look at her, hear her voice, and hold her baby, his nephew But his lust for her made him anxious She was his wife, but that was a technicality The reality was that she had chosen Lev, and her baby was Lev&039;s child Grigori had no right to love her

He even toyed with the idea of not telling her he was back In a city of ood chance they would never meet by accident But he would have found that too hard to bear

On his first day back he was not allowed out of the barracks He felt frustrated at not being able to go to Katerina Instead, that evening he and Isaak reed to start a discussion group

Next uard the ho a banquet The prince lived in a pink-and-yellow palace on the English E the Neva River At midday the soldiers lined up on the steps Low rain clouds darkened the city, but light shone frolass, framed by velvet curtains like a play at the theater, foot bottles of wine, platters of delicacies, and silver trays piled with fruit There was a small orchestra in the hall, and the strains of a sy shiny cars drew up at the foot of the steps, footed, the men in their black coats and tall hats, the woathered on the other side of the street to watch

It was a faot out of a car the crowd booed and jeered In the old days, the police would have broken up the htsticks in a uests walked as quickly as they could up the steps between the two lines of soldiers and darted in through the grand doorway, clearly nervous of staying long in the open

Grigori thought the bystanders were quite right to jeer at the nobility who had made such a mess of the war If trouble broke out, he would be inclined to take the side of the crowd He certainly did not intend to shoot at theuessed many of the soldiers felt the same

How could noblemen throw lavish parties at a ti and even the soldiers at the front were on short rations Men like Andrei deserved to be ht, I&039; him the way I shot Major Azov

The procession of cars caot bored and drifted off Grigori spent the afternoon looking hard at the faces of woainst the odds to see Katerina By the ti dark and cold, and no one wanted to stand around on the street, so there was no

After the party the soldiers were invited to the back door to eat such of the leftovers as had not been consuetables, half-eaten bread rolls, apples and pears The food was thrown on a trestle table and unpleasantly ravy, bread dusted with cigar ash But they had eaten worse in the trenches, and it was a long tie and salt cod, so they tucked in hungrily

At no tiori see the hated face of Prince Andrei Perhaps it was just as well

When they had marched back to the barracks and handed in their weapons, they were given the evening off Grigori was elated: it was his chance to visit Katerina He went to the back door of the barracks kitchen and begged soes Then he shined his boots and went out

Vyborg, where the barracks stood, was in the northeast of the city, and Katerina lived diagonally opposite in the southwestern district of Narva, assu she still had his old roo Sae into the city center Soht with electric light, but many were closed In the more mundane stores there was little for sale A baker&039;scontained a single cake and a handwritten sign reading: "No bread until tomorrow"

The broad boulevard of Nevsky Prospekt re here with his mother, on that fateful day in 1905 when he had seen her shot down by the tsar&039;s soldiers Noas one of the tsar&039;s soldiers But he would not be shooting at women and children If the tsar tried that now there would be trouble of a different kind

He saw ten or twelve thuggish younga portrait of Tsar Nicholas as a young ery beard luxuriant One of the live the tsar!" and they all stopped, raised their caps, and cheered Several passersby raised their hats

Grigori had encountered such bands before They were called the Black Hundreds, part of the Union of the Russian People, a right-wing group that wanted to return to the golden age when the tsar was the unchallenged father of his people and Russia had no liberals, no socialists, and no Jews Their newspapers were financed by the government and their pamphlets were printed in the base to inforot froori walked past with a glance of contempt, but one of them accosted hiori walked on without replying, but another rabbed his arm "What are you, a Jew?" the second ori said quietly: "Touchhead off, you loudmouthed schoolboy"

The ori a pamphlet "Read this, friend," he said "It explains how the Jews are betraying you soldiers"

"Get out of my way, or I&039;ll shove that stupid paori

The man looked to his co up a ori walked away

As he passed the doorway of a boarded-up shop, a wo boy," she said "You can fuck me for a ruble" Her words were standard prostitute&039;s talk, but her voice surprised hi a long coat, and when he looked at her she opened it to show that she had nothing on underneath, despite the cold She was in her thirties, with big breasts and a round belly

Grigori felt a surge of desire He had not been with a woman for years The trench prostitutes were vile, dirty, and diseased But this woman looked like someone he could embrace