Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-02-22
Russ People, Betrayed
and Abandoned, Have
No Heart For Fighting

Petrograd, Correspondence of
The Associated Press)-Russian
soldiers who have been in the
trenches for more than three years
are no less amazed than civilians at
the rapid turn of events in Russia
and stand in hopeless confusion, un-
able to distinguish friends from enc
mics and powerless to bring order
out of chaos.
The attitude of the average soldier
is shown by the following letter,
written last month from the front
to an English Red Cross sister, who
nursed him back to life after he had
been severely wounded and gassed
and enabled him to return to the
trenches:
"1n the trenches everything is
quiet. l go out scouting every day
looking for Germans, who have re-
treated from our trenches for about
fifteen miles. Here with us the light
has gone out of everything. We are
hungry, dressed in rags and bare
footed, the food is very bad, we have
very little bread. the only meat we
get is horseflesh, and that is not
fresh. We have got IA horse of our
own. but have nothing TO feed it
with. so are thinking of eating it
ourselves. There is no help for us
anywhere. 1t is our fate to be
| thrown aside and forgotten by the
world and to die of cold and hun
ger.
Dear little sister, while l write
| wonder whether you will read my
letter, for / am n soldier. and now
every soldier is considered a traitor
and is blamed for all that has hap
pened. But dear little sister, just
think, wherein is the soldier to
blame? He is the same soldier he
was in 1914. In most cases he has
been wounded several times. has been
poisoned by gas. has suffered, and is
still suffering all the horrors of war,
and yet-he is to blame for every
thing. And why? Because our
whole Government are traitors.
Formerly the Russian soldier
was feared by the whole world, but
now that he has been betrayed no
one even remembers him. Formerly
every commander tried to cause as
many losses to the enemy as possi-
BILE and to save his own men, but
now they try to lose as many of their
own men as possible without harm
ing the enemy.
Take Riga, for example. Every
soldier was willing to give his life
for it, and many tears have been shed
=
ed without a fight, and again the
soldier was blamed. 1t was not
known that the order for the retreat
had been given and was enforced by
the threat of capital punishment in
the case of disobedience. The artil-
lery had been removed from the dis
trict where the Germans broke
through the line, and the regiments
which had been stationed there con-
sisted of old men, and boys who had
had no experience.
Formerly this district had been
guarded by the very best regiments,
! and a great quantity of artillery had
| been placed there, but just before
| the German attack the artillery had
! been removed and only one regiment
! left on guard, which was simply
swept away. Two regiments were
/ sent to reinforce it. but were mead
ed off in another direction, so that
the district was left unguarded and
the Germans walked quietly into
Riga. The soldiers who were caught
in Riga were cut off and had to make
a way through the enemy troops
with their bayonets in order to 1es-
cape from dishonorable capture.
LAS to the rumors that the SOL
diers run away from the trenches
and loot-nowadays all the scoun-
drelS put on soldiers uniforms ana
disgrace them. And as to the SOL
diers not wanting to fight any more
remember we have been in the
trenches for more than three years,
and the knowledge that we are being
betrayed on every hand and the fact
that we have lost faith in the war
finishing with victory to US makes it
impossible for us to fight any lon
ger"
w. 1f,>-o;l,, po;,, t-x-.o,,., ;,,o. A,