“War is declared!” First World War.

"Our company is in reserve." “Our age? we are all of different ages. Our regiment is a reserve; he was consistently replenished with reinforcements, either personnel units or militias. ” “Where are we from? From different areas. We came from everywhere. ” “What did we do? Yes, whatever you want. Who were we at the marked times, when we still had some place in our life, when we had not yet buried our destiny in these holes, where rain and buckshot were pouring on us? Mostly by farmers and workers. ” "Among us there are no people of free professions." “Teachers are usually non-commissioned officers or orderlies,” “the lawyer is the colonel’s secretary; a rentier is a corporal who manages food in a non-combatant company. ” "Yes, really, we are different." “And yet we are alike.” “Connected by a common irreparable fate, reduced to the same level, involved, against our will, in this adventure, we are becoming more and more like one another.”

"You always wait in war." “Now we are waiting for the soup. Then we will wait for letters. ” “Letters!” "Some have already settled down for writing." “It is during these hours that the people in the trenches become again, in the best sense of the word, what they once were.”

“What other news? The new order threatens severe punishment for looting and already contains a list of perpetrators. " “A vagrant vintner passes, pushing a wheelbarrow on which a barrel sticks out with a hump; he sold a few liters per hour. ”

The weather is terrible. The wind knocks down, water floods the earth. "In the barn that was given to us in the parking lot, it is almost impossible to live, damn him!" "One half of it is flooded, rats are swimming there, and people are huddled together in the other half." "And now you stand, like a pillar, in this pitch darkness, spreading out your hands so as not to stumble on something, you stand and tremble and howl from the cold." "Sit down? Impossible. Too dirty: the ground and stone slabs are covered with mud, and the straw litter is trampled on with shoes and completely damp. ” "There is only one thing left: to stretch out on the straw, wrap your head in a handkerchief or towel to hide from the assertive stench of rotting straw, and fall asleep."

“In the morning” “the sergeant is vigilantly watching”, “so that everyone leaves the barn”, “so that no one evades work”. “In the continuous rain, on a blurred road, there is already a second compartment, assembled and sent to work by a non-commissioned officer.”

“War is a mortal danger to all, untouchable.” "On the edge of the village" they "shot a soldier of the two hundred and fourth regiment" - "he decided to dodge, did not want to go into the trenches."

"It was rubbed - originally from Suchet." "Ours knocked out the Germans from this village, he wants to see the places where he lived happily in those days, when he was still a free man." “But the enemy constantly fires at all these places.” “Why do the Germans bombard Susha? Unknown. " “There is nobody and nothing left in this village”, except for “hillocks, on which grave crosses blackened here and there, driven into a wall of fogs, they resemble the landmarks of the Way of the Cross depicted in churches.”

"On a dirty wasteland overgrown with burnt grass, the dead lie." “They are brought here at night, clearing the trenches or the plain. They are waiting - many have long been - when they will be transferred to the cemetery, to the rear. " “Letters fly over the corpses; they fell out of their pockets or pouches when they laid the dead on the ground. ” "The disgusting stench is blown by the wind over these dead." "Hunched people appear in the fog," "These are orderlies porters loaded with a new corpse." “From everything it blows universal doom.” "We're leaving". In these ghostly places, we are the only living creatures.

“Although it's still winter, the first good morning announces to us that spring will come again soon.” “Yes, the dark days will pass. The war will end too, why there! The war will probably end at this beautiful time of the year; it already illuminates us and caresses with its blows. " "True, we will be driven into the trenches tomorrow." “There is a dull cry of indignation: -“ They want to finish us off! ” "In response, it also sounds muffled: -" Do not grieve! "

"We are in an open field, among vast fogs." "A puddle instead of a road." "We move on." "Suddenly there, in the deserted places where we are going, a star flashes and blossoms: it is a rocket." “Ahead there is a cursory light: a flash, a roar. This is a shell. ” "He fell" "into our lines." "It shoots the enemy." "Shoot a runaway fire." “There's a devilish noise around us.” “A storm of thunderous blows, hoarse, furious cries, piercing bestial cries rages over the ground, completely covered with shreds of smoke; we buried around the neck; the earth rushes and sways from a whirlwind of shells. "

"... But a piece of green cotton wool sways and melts over the firing zone, spreading in all directions." "The captives of the trench turn their heads and look at this ugly thing." "These are probably suffocating gases." "The meanest thing!"

“The fiery and iron whirlwind does not cease: shrapnel bursts with a whistle; large high-explosive shells rumble. The air condenses: someone's heavy breathing cuts through it; all around, deep and wide, the rout of the earth continues. ”

“Clear the trench!” March!" “We are leaving this patch of the battlefield, where rifle shots are again shot, wounded and killed by the dead.” "We are being driven into the rear cover." "The rumble of global destruction is abating."

And again - “Let's go!” "Forward!"

“We are going beyond our wire barriers.” “Along the line, from left to right, the sky tosses shells, and the earth - explosions. A terrifying curtain separates us from the world, separates us from the past, from the future. " "The breath of death pushes us, lifts us, sways us." "The eyes blink, watery, go blind." "Ahead a blazing collapse." “They shout behind us, push us:“ Go to hell! ” “The whole regiment is following us!” We do not turn around, but, electrified by this news, "we are advancing even more confidently." "And suddenly we feel: it's over." "There is no more resistance," "the Germans took refuge in holes, and we grab them like rats or kill them."

“We are moving further in a certain direction. Probably, this movement was conceived somewhere there, by the authorities. ” “We step on soft bodies; some still move, moan and slowly move, bleeding. The corpses piled along and across, like beams, crush the wounded, strangle, take their lives. ” “The battle quietly subsides” ...

"Poor countless toilers of battles!" “German soldiers” - “only poor, infamously fooled poor people ...” “Your enemies” are “businessmen and traders”, “financiers, large and small businessmen, who locked themselves in their banks and houses, live in war and prosper peacefully in years of war. " “And those who say:“ Peoples hate each other! ”,“ War has always been, it means there will always be! ”They distort the great moral principle: how many crimes they have elevated to virtue, calling it national!” "They are enemies to you, wherever they are born, no matter what their name, whatever language they lie." “Look for them everywhere! Get to know them well and remember them once and for all! ”

"The cloud is getting dark and is approaching disfigured, exhausted fields." “The earth gleams sadly; the shadows move and reflect in the pale stagnant water that has flooded the trenches. ” "Soldiers begin to comprehend the infinite simplicity of being."

“And while we are going to catch up with others in order to fight again, the black stormy sky is quietly opening slightly. Between the two dark clouds there is a calm gleam, and this narrow strip, so mournful that it seems thinking, is still the news that the sun exists. ”