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This chapter describes the period leading up to WWI, and the war years in Divin.
We learn about pre-WWI life, including the position of the Jewish population in Divin as mainly artisans and tradespeople. The non-Jewish peasants were mainly farmers in grains. Many families had vegetable gardens.
Peasant life was difficult. The climate was difficult. Harvessts were small. They had only primitive farm equipment, home furnishings, and clothing. The life of the peasants was one of hard work. Schooling was minimal. Peasant women suffered the most. Marriage partners were generally chosen by parents, without consultation with their children. Disease was rampant. The danger of fires to wooden homes was constant and severe. Peasants were generally quarrelsome.
Diviner peasants were very religous. Superstition, deeply rooted, only slowly died out.
Diviner peasant homes were very primitive.
The harsh life drove some to emigrate.
Schooling was minimal.
The local estate left the hands of landlord Yagmin, and –in 1911– land reforms made it available to purchase by peasants. But the process left the best land in the hands of the wealthy and the process was interrupted by WWI.
We learn more about the educational system through detailed memoranda connected with the destruction of the existing school by fire.
WWI halted a project to replace the school.
The war came, and many Diviners became refugees. Some served in the military, loyally defending their homeland, but in fact their service and sacrifice was mostly in service of the wealthy of the region.
Initially, the Russian side succeeded, but after about a year, the Russian army was significantly weakened and was forced to retreat.
The Germans occupied Divin.
The refugees were welcomed by the native Russians to the east, who did their best to help them in difficult conditions.
The Russian revolution came in 1917, the full liabilities of the Tsarist government were made clear, and control was turned over briefly to an interim government. But soon, the Bolsheviks took over and a new era for Divin began.
