In the Trenches: A Russian Woman Soldier’s Story of World War I. Tatiana L. Dubinskaya. Lawrence M. Kaplan, ed. Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2020.
In 1930, Tatiana L. Dubinskaya wrote In the Trenches, a work of fiction based on her real-life experience as a soldier in the trenches on the Eastern Front during the World War I.[1] Now, published in English for the first time, we can read Dubinskaya’s combat and cultural experiences in the build up to the Russian Revolution and World War I.
Dubinskaya’s book deals with topics like combat, class struggles, predatory sexual-harassment, and the daily ins and outs of Russian soldiers marching and fighting on the Eastern Front during the First World War. The book is accessible for the general reader. Prior knowledge of the Russian Revolution, which occurred simultaneously with the First World War, is helpful for reading, but not essential. Readers wanting a well-written and carefully-researched book on the Russian involvement in the First World War should read The Russian Origins of the First World War by Sean McMeekin. Layered over these topics from the point of view of a young middle class volunteer woman, the reader embarks on a journey to a truly unique and compelling story.
Dubinskaya’s book takes place largely around the front lines of the Eastern Front from early 1916 to roughly October of 1917. While the book depicts several graphic scenes of combat, there are small moments between combat where Dubinskaya writes of the class struggle that was steadily building in Russia. All the enlisted soldiers we meet in the book, with the exception of the main protagonist, are conscripted against their will. The author sketches three classes: the poor-land laborers and conscripted soldiers; the middle class, which consisted of doctors, lawyers, scientists, and the Russian Army officers; and the aristocracy. The aristocrats were born into their wealth. Their family names and land holdings granted them their positions. Dubinskaya’s character is middle class.
Dubinskaya’s book is comparable to All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Remarque’s book was written about the German experience during the First World War. Both books are fiction based on the authors’ real-life experiences. In contrast, Dubinskaya's book maintains an attitude of a child-like curiosity, while Remarque’s book maintains a constant hopelessness.
Readers that choose Dubinskaya’s book based solely for the scenes of combat will be fascinated by the depth of storytelling. A strength of the book was her attention to detail about her combat experience. In one of the first major battle scenes, Dubinskaya described the Russians and Germans fighting hand to hand and the Russians counter-attacking. Dubinskaya illustrated:
The Germans hesitated, but in half a minute they ran towards Russian lines. In one second, the swords were crossed. Their artillery fire was directed towards our reserves. From the Russian line sounds of ‘ugh’ and ‘hooray’ were heard. The enemy fought in silence. Our soldiers fought, making as much noise as if they were chopping down trees. The Germans fought with careful, thought-out moves. Their face looked blue under their black helmets.[2]
When Dubinskaya describes the German soldiers’ face as blue, it is as chilling a statement as the retelling of the battle. Another example of the book’s attention to detail is when Dubinskaya relates the poor state of the Russian flare gun and how it never works due to water damage. She further states that the German flare gun always works and illuminates the front line. She describes the illumination as “blue and green and fell ever so slowly.”[3] The color of the enemy’s face and the second-rate equipment soldiers carry into battle are the types of storytelling delivered by Dubinskaya. These small elements make the reader feel as if they were on the same battlefield bearing witness to the blood and violence of the Russian front.
The violence of combat Dubinskaya describes includes sexual harassment and unequal treatment from Russian officers. Some of the officers simply treat Dubinskaya’s character differently by giving her candy or her own sleeping hut, things other soldiers of the same rank did not receive. Dubinskaya tells readers the story of an officer named Zambor who continuously pursues her in an alcohol-fueled rage.[4] He describes how Zambor tries and fails to recruit an enlisted soldier to hold Dubinskaya down in an attempt to rape her. In almost every encounter with Zambor, he is drunk and stalks Dubinskaya’s character. In the end, Zambor is killed by his own troops, put down like a wild dog in the street.[5] Honestly, the sections of the book that deal with sexual harassment and drunken rage were difficult to digest. However, these sections are important to read. Dubinskaya describes a Russian army divided between officers and enlisted soldiers, quite literally good versus evil.
Women's Regiment from Petrograd (Library of Congress/Wikimedia)
Class struggles and the divide between the conscripted soldiers, land laborers and middle class, and the aristocratic class fills in the moments between combat and constitutes much of the dialogue among the soldiers. For this reviewer, the most enlightening point of the book is when Dubinskaya and another soldier are at her family’s home with other affluent citizens from her hometown.[6] The dialogue between the soldier and a few aristocrats in the room is a microcosm of the class problems facing the Russian society. It is powerful, yet simple and easy to follow. Dubinskaya tells the readers that each time a person came to the house to visit and talk they came through the front door. However, when the soldier comes to the house, he comes in through the backdoor where the kitchen is and is announced only when Dubinskaya escorts him into the room. Dubinskaya’s use of symbolism is woven seamlessly into the narrative. The simple yet powerful use of the front door and backdoor of the family house symbolizes the class divide and speaks to the cultural divide driving the revolution of the Russian citizens.
While Dubinskaya’s book was engaging, it is rather choppy and does not flow evenly. The book gives dates, but the editor was unsure which calendar the author used. Furthermore, there is a plethora of individuals with little to no character development. This sometimes makes the meaning of a passage unclear. However, in order to combat the issues of chapter flow, the editor wrote a small paragraph at the beginning of each chapter to help the reader follow the coming events. While this book did present combat scenes, the point was to tell the story of the brave, everyday Russian soldier during the war. Dubinskaya’s book is a work of military fiction that could easily fit in a college course on 20th century Russian literature or military fiction during World War I.
Dubinskaya wrote a book based on her wartime experience during World War I from a unique point of view. Being a woman volunteer soldier, she has left future generations a story from a corner of World War I that English-speaking readers don’t always get to experience. The topics dealing with sexuality were difficult but important, because female soldiers issues are not given an equal platform for public debate. The issues of revolution and class struggles were quite brilliantly written. Dubinskaya’s book is unique because its character had no bias for the revolution and lives and works with the soldiers as a volunteer. Due to her education, she was able to leave future generations her account of the First World War from a soldier’s point of view.
David Retherford Has an undergraduate degree from the University of Florida and a masters degree from Birmingham University. David is currently working on a second masters with a focus on research on American intelligence gathering during the First World War.
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Header Image: Soldiers of the Battalion of Death (Imperial War Museum)
Notes:
[1] Tatiana Dubinskaya, In the Trenches: A Russian Woman Soldier’s Story of World War I (Potomac Books: Nebraska, 2020).
[2] Ibid., 49.
[3] Ibid., 26.
[4] Ibid., 69-70.
[5] Ibid., 171.
[6] Ibid., 81.