Russian Dispatch

THE FORGOTTEN WAR
By Stephen Wilson


(Moscow, Russia) - First World war graves are all too absent!  Where on earth have they gone?

            Today, on the first of August, almost a century ago, the Germans declared war on Russia.  What followed was unanticipated carnage and staggering losses for all sides. All the over-optimistic predictions of a war over by Christmas soon melted in the slogging, slippery thick mud of endless trench warfare.The glamour of marching on parade, beautiful uniforms and impressing women, was later replaced by the rat infested trenches, trench foot and trying to fend off unlimited  lice ...Soldiers died en-mass but the lice lived on!

            The historian A.J.P. Taylor wrote that, 'There had been no war between the Great powers since 1871. No man on the prime of life knew what war was like. All imagined that it would be an affair of great battles, quickly decided. It would be over by Christmas.' The war dragged on for four years and officially ended with the signing of the treaty of Versailles..(this is why you continually see graves describing how soldiers fell in the war between 1914-1919 and not till 1918 where a ceasefire took place. The heavy losses stunned people. My grand uncle joined the army by lying about his age. He barely survived."

            His older brother, a teacher, was less lucky. He was shot dead by a German Sniper.

            Of all the powers involved in the war, the Russians loss the most men. In fact, it is fair to guess that they lost around 5 million men which even exceeds the casualties of the French (one and a half million), the Germans (one and a half million) and the British empire (one million) and the Americans (88,000) put together.
            
            So you might be forgiven for believing Russia has a lot of memorials and graveyard plots granted to the fallen.

            After all, in Britain, practically every village has a memorial to the dead of the First World War. There are more memorials to the first than the second world war! Surely, there should be some memorials in Russia. Unfortunately, few exist and they are difficult to find! As Russian journalists lamented today 'This is a forgotten war'.Why is this the case? Maybe the Great Patriotic War has overshadowed it? Maybe it is just too long ago! ' or 'Did  people just grow indifferent?'

            A couple of years ago, I and Jim Vail were walking around a very beautiful park full of friendly squirrels and pigeons flocking to you for food. The park was in the north east of Moscow within the Sokol district.  It seemed such a pleasant and peaceful park where families walked with their children and old people gathered to warmly chat away. We noticed a lot of monuments and wondered what their purpose was. We were surprised to find that those monuments had been erected to remember the soldiers and nurses who had died during the first world war. It took us a long time to establish the name of the park. It turned out to be called 'The Memorial Park Complex to Heroes of the First World war.' and was 'A former Moscow City Borotherhood Graveyard'. 

            Jim and I had been accidentily been walking over the bones of dead First world war soldiers and nurses! This graveyard had been established by an order of Princess Elizabeth Fedorova, who genuinely felt great sorrow for the dead and their families. She insisted a plot of land be allocated to build a graveyard where the families of the fallen could gather to lay flowers, grieve and pray for the souls of their dead children. So on the 28th of February 1915, the graveyard was opened. 

             Thousands of graves were dug! This became a huge cemetery. However, when the Bolsheviks gained power in 1917, this graveyard was neglected, and by the 1950's it has been practically bulldozed out of existence. The government erected a square, and even a 'Leningrad Cinema ' over it.

            I returned again and again to try and find a single grave. I looked and looked, but found only one grave! The grave is dedicated to a geography student of Moscow State university called Sergei Shlikhtera, who was wounded at the Battle of Baranovicha on the 20th of July 1916, and died five days later. So all the graves were just destroyed and desecrated. A metro station and a highway were also built over parts of the graveyard.
            
            Of course, some people still remember. Today I noticed fresh flowers had been placed by the memorial by a representative of the Duma. If you believe hearsay and reports by some locals, this is not much consolation to the dead. All kinds of rumors and stories circulate of ghosts haunting the nearby metro, an unusual number of car accidents within the vicinity of this former graveyard and strange sightings.  For instance, a traffic policeman operating in the area near the cinema thought that a huge fire had erupted in the park one evening. When he took a closer look, he noticed the park was full of lit candles being held by people. Then the lights all faded when dawn came the next day! What could have happened? Are the dead themselves lighting candles for themselves? There are a lot of  stories of nearby newly built apartments being troubled by poltergeist activities, and inexplicable damage arising in buildings such as cracked walls...

            Workers employed by the Moscow Metro have reported seeing the ghosts of wounded soldiers walking around the platform of the Sokol station in the early hours of the morning. Whenever you visit this station, you get the feeling that somebody is watching you...

            If people in 1914 forgot about the horrors of previous wars, we can't be so complacent! It is already over 60 years since the second world war has ended, and many people have forgotten about just how horrible it was.  The recent war in Iraq reminds us that some people either don't remember, don't want to, or often could not care less! That is the real pity of war.  It is too soon forgotten.