The retreating Russians left Divin open for occupation by the Austro-Germans. The situation for the people who remained in Divin was dire:
Thus, on the 27
th of August (14
th by the old-style calendar), 1915 almost the entire population of our Divin withdrew from their homes and fled {
45} deep into Russia. We were refugees. On the next day, August 28 (15
th), Divin was occupied by Austro-German troops. Part of our residents did not flee the Germans. The entire Jewish population and the residents of Polish descent remained in Divin. As well, not more than 50 peasant families remained.
Life for the residents remaining under the occupation turned out to be joyless. The occupiers tried in all possible ways to squeeze the juices out of the peasants. They used many different taxes and other levies. Peasants were sent to remote areas to cut down forests and log drive timber to Germany. They worked on repairing roads and other objects of military importance.
The situation of the refugees was even worse than the rest of the population. Some of the refugees did not have their own transport, for the movement of their families and the meager belongings they kept. These families continued their sad journey on foot and they carried all of the absolute necessities they could on their shoulders. The path to becoming a refugee was a long one. Many family relatives tried to stay together, one following the other, but this did not always work. This is why many relatives and even members of the same family were lost. What didn’t these poor disadvantaged people have to live through in their escape? They suffered from hunger and the cold, while continuing to irrigate their way with sad, bitter tears. They had endured intense heat and heavy rain, spent the night in the open field under the open sky in the woods near smoky bonfires. They had to lie on the wet ground and shiver from the cold for the entire night in their sweaty, shoddy peasant clothing.
Many of them were never again to see their homeland, which had been captured and enslaved by the enemy. The refuges abundantly watered their difficult journey to the East with their tears. They marked this path with crosses on the graves of lost relatives: their fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, various relatives and friends, all of those killed of disease and hardship along the way.
There are no words that could express all the things faced and endured by these poor people, who were driven by the fear and horror of war.
The Russian nation and its people hospitably welcomed and sheltered their Western blood brothers, who had suffered in the war. Various provinces and regions of great Russia provided help to Belarusians, Ukrainians, Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, Jews, and others persecuted in their native land by the fear of war. Our brothers the Great Russians [Russians from Russia proper, land native to Russians] did not turn away any of the affected refugees from shelter, food and clothing, or anything else. They tried to help and comfort all the affected and disadvantaged refugees by any ways and means.
In autumn of 1915 the Russian army was able to contain the enemy and fortify on the Pinsk-Dubno line, Dvinsk to Riga. This allowed them to stop the further advancement and invasion of the Germans.
But this type of front line again split our native Belarus into two parts.
The Russians succeeded initially, but Belarus was split, leaving the western portion occupied.
{
46} Our Divin, as many other towns, villages, and cities of western Belarus, was in occupied territory. In all these places the brutal German regime was introduced, the effects of which were joyless.
The news of the February Revolution in Russia, having faced various barriers and obstacles, still leaked out. The inhabitants of the occupied territories of Belarus found out about this very late.
1917: Revolution!
The year 1917 came; this was the year of great and historic worldly events. It was the second year since the time that we, the refugees, left our native land. It was the second year since our land was under the yoke of the German invaders. We lived far away from home, in a foreign place and impatiently looked forward to the hour when we can once again return to our liberated homeland.
But the war continued. News from the warring army was cheerless. There was a big shortage of weaponry. Sometimes they did not even have enough rifle cartridges. A mobilization was started again: the refugees were beginning to be recruited. Some of the refugees, to avoid the Army, found work in the plants and factories, working for the defense of the country. These people were freed from the army’s mobilization.
The weakness of the Tsarist government was becoming fully exposed:
The existing royal government had fully exposed its negligence, disorder and corruption. All of this was being paid for by the blood and lives of our fathers and brothers. The protracted war spent up all the scarce resources of Tsarist Russia. The lack of foodstuffs and other essential items was felt throughout all of Russia: in the big cities and the villages, deep in the rear and in the central cities.
The people began to openly say that the king is underdeveloped, and the queen – a German spy. Treachery, betrayal and corruption were firmly established and utilized by the Tsar's court. The court was ruled by an "impudent, illiterate charlatan of Siberian peasant descent", Gregory Rasputin. He rose to the role of mentor to the German Queen. Through his advice, ministers were even appointed and dismissed.
Various crooks set themselves up in warm and comfortable place within the imperial palace. After all, the annual maintenance of the house of Romanov cost 70 million rubles in gold.
People close to the royal court openly expressed their dissatisfaction with the government of Nicholas II, which was ruled by the Germans and various crook-careerists.
People began conspiring against the Tsar's court. In December 1916, a group of conspirator-monarchists led by Duke Yusupov murdered Rasputin, having invited him to come and visit. Rasputin's corpse was lowered into an ice hole on the Neva River at night. All of this was done to save the Romanov dynasty.
Revolution was in the air.
But this did not prevent the fateful achievements of the revolution.
The author witnessed these events with his own eyes:
I cannot ignore the stormy historical time of revolutionary events in our country. At the time I was sixteen year old guy. I had completed my education at a five-grade school. I was living as a refugee in the central Russian city of Tula. I worked as an orderly at the Pasteur station in the Tula Province. In accordance {
47} with my upbringing and education, at that time I could not write about the historical events in the center of Russia, to which I was a witness. But I understood that I am a witness to the global historical change in the country. Even then, I had the idea to keep records for memory, for myself, about that glorious past.
In October of 1918, I returned from being a refugee to my homeland, Divin. Life, worries and various grief created by fate, had banished from my memory the events of the past, that last joyous time.
After nearly half a century, I started to think again about the recordings. I began to write a memoir. I was hoping that not all had yet vanished, that something was preserved in my memory.
But here I had to turn to reading books, written by historians about the events of 1917. Therefore, my memoir contains excerpts from these books that have helped me to transcribe my memories.
From the 2nd to the 3rd of March, 1917, Tsar Nicholas II signed the abdication from the throne. He did not give up his monarch post of his own free will, the Russian people overthrew him. The struggle against the autocracy spanned centuries and, in the end, the people managed to free themselves from despotism. But the Russian bourgeoisie seized power in their hands, creating a Provisional government. At the head of this government was Prince G.Y. Lvov, and it consisted of big capitalists – A.I. Gutchkoff, A.I. Konovalov, M.I. Tereshchenko, G.N. Milukov.
Democratically, SR [Socialist Revolutionary party member] A.F. Kerensky entered the government. This was a government of the bourgeoisie and the landlords.
Soviets [political councils] of both workers and soldiers’ deputies, organs of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry, were created at the same time. They also controlled some of the power. Thus dual-power was formed in the country, which could not be lasting and sustainable.
We get a personal glimpse of a key participant in the interim government, Alexander Kerensky:
The Provisional government put forward A.F. Kerensky for the position of leader.
Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky was of noble descent, from poorer nobility. He graduated from high school and obtained the highest education at university. By trade he was a lawyer. He led, for the most part, political processes and was considered a very capable lawyer and a good orator. His appearance was not exactly attractive. He had red hair that stuck out in all directions. He was of small stature, but had a large-sized head. This created the impression that his head is out of proportion with his body. His face was always pale, skin flabby. This gave off the impression that he was an unhealthy person. In 1917, he was 36 years old. Before the war, he off appeared at political marches.
During this time he gained a lot of popularity in social circles.
Back in 1912, he was selected as a member of the State Duma, where he was noted for his eloquence. He was smart enough for his profession, but was not smart enough to be at the helm of the country.
{
48} After the February Revolution, Kerensky was appointed Minister of Justice. Two months following, he became War and Marine Minister, and in August of the same year he already becomes Minister-Chairman and Commander in Chief. His judicial eloquence and his ability to deliver speeches gave him such popularity.
Kerensky’s speeches were uttered, as they say, "from the heart,” he invested in them nervous ascent, which usually lights listeners up. At the same time, like an artist, he used different gestures and theatrical techniques: he could speak softly, almost in a whisper, or shout jerky phrases. The popularity of Kerensky’s name is, in the memory of contemporaries, even more closely tied to paper money, which was released by the Provisional government at the time. The money was known as "Kerenki" everywhere. Kerensky was in power for only one hundred and ten days, until October 25
th, 1917. This is a memorable day, when power was passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks, thanks to their energetic action. Then, Kerensky decided to flee the country. He dressed in a woman’s Sister of Mercy costume and fled from the Gatchina palace (near St. Petersburg).
After some time, Kerensky appeared in Prague, where he lectured on the fate of Russia. Then he settled in Paris, where he worked in journalism and wrote reports. Currently, he is 86 years old and lives in the United States.
Contemporaries were mistaken in Kerensky's poor judgment, as he turned out not to be so poor abroad, but instead a very wealthy man. An amount of 350,000 in gold was discovered in his account at an international bank. He indeed foresaw his fate in the long-run.
In the month of October 1917, the Bolsheviks along with the workers and peasants, under the leadership of their chief V.I. Lenin victoriously carried out the Great October socialist revolution. This revolution opened a new era in the history of all progressive mankind.
And so began a new era for Russia:
The Bolsheviks, having come to power, began to rebuild Russia. The young Soviet government was created to replace the old Russian monarchy. At the head of this state was a dictatorship of the proletariat. In the revolutionary whirlwind, all the old foundations held for three hundred years by the house of Romanov collapsed. In that turbulent time a new power was created on the ruins of the old. This power was the power of the Soviets, the power of the working people.
Many of our Diviner-refugees and veteran soldiers fought with weapon in hand for the strengthening of the young Soviet republic. At the urging of the leader V.I. Lenin, they fought against the enemies of Soviet power in the Civil War and against the foreign interveners.
