Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich

Name: The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl
Author: Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich

The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (1916)

Summary

“The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl”, published in 1916, is a work by Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich. It explores elements such as fugitives, Roslavl and horses.

Quotes from The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich)

Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich, The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (1916)

“ So we can still count ourselves human beings! Still peasants!
—And if the money be all spent, and the peasant cease to be a peasant. What then?
The last thing that connects him with the past, the last thing that binds him to life.
Along the main street of Roslavl from earliest morning till the darkness of night without interruption, without ceasing, go two processions, one one way, the other the other.
On one side of the road come an endless series of grey carts, one after another endlessly—and pass away towards that stretch of the road where yesterday we saw innumerable camp bonfires. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich, The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (1916)

“ Are you someone from the Government or a Relief Committee?
—Our little children are just freezing to death, says another fugitive.
And at this market where horses and people are crushed in one compact mass where from the heat of bodies and the smell of horses it is difficult to breathe, if any one is cheerful, it is only the purchaser.
The fugitives have not much to say for themselves, and that in a low voice. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich, The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (1916)

“ Neither do the horses pay attention.
They stumble upon people.
In the peasant huts occupied as relief points bread is taken in at the back door, cut up there, and handed out from a little window in the front.
So from morning to night bread flows in an uninterrupted stream.
Sentries keep the order of those who are waiting for bread.
In front of the bread windows range endless ranks of fugitives.
Thousands and thousands of people.
One person moves an inch, another person moves an inch, and from the midst is heard wails.
—You're suffocating me! Oh, suffocating.
People fall unconscious. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich, The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (1916)

“ The hungry crush the hungry in order that they may squeeze into a better place in the line and receive their bit of bread sooner.
The women, the children, with wide staring eyes, with deathly pale faces. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich, The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (1916)

“ Quietly and silently the fierce and cruel struggle goes on.
All around the people swarm like flies.
A man in a uniform has only to appear, or even a gentleman in civil attire, and the fugitives swarm about him. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich, The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (1916)

“ From hand to hand! says a tall, dark peasant with a long beard, standing beside a cart to which are tied six horses, all skin and bone.
He says in a contemptuous tone:
—You see the horses. A red note for each. Altogether. Take them. It will mean money. Without money there's no doing anything.
I say to a fugitive:
—Don't you know that in Muchin yard, beyond the town, they're buying for the Government. There you would get a fairer price.
The fugitive does not succeed in answering for himself.
Once more the crowd of people with quick movements and feverish eyes. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich, The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (1916)

“ Down below, under the cliff, is an immense marshy meadow, and there, what a wild, what a strange picture . . .
At that point I thought of the late V. V. Verestchagin.
Only he with his grey tones could have painted the grey horror of this life, only he could have painted the dreadful picture in all its horror.
For several acres the whole meadow was covered with abandoned and broken carts. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich, The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (1916)

“ Going farther into the forest I come upon a crowd.
A priest is explaining to them how and where to go that their horses may be properly inspected and priced, how to go to Muchin yard, sell their horses, and receive the money; how to go to the railway station and wait their turn for a seat in the train, how much will be given to each man for food. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich, The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (1916)

“ Grey carts, carts, carts. Horses, horses, horses, fugitives wandering like shadows, horses, children's coffins, and again horses, horses, horses.
The head turns giddy looking at the endless movement. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich, The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (1916)

“ To sell their horses.
They sell them in the market-place, in Muchin yard, to "Northern-Help," to the Government, fkaznu, as they say.
Then they are already "not muzhiks"; they wander over from this camp to the camp near the railway station.
And whilst they are encamped in the wood they go backwards and forwards between the relief points of "Northern-Help" and the Municipal Alliance.
I ask the fugitives about the relief points.
Some answer:
—Those that can help are half-hearted. They can't do much. There is a mass of people, and always more coming, and more coming. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich, The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (1916)

“ In front of Muchin yard there is a crowd.
There's no making one's way through the carts.
And—a detail . . .
The horses are theirs no longer. They have been inspected, the price has been fixed, and the peasants await their money.
But to-day is cold and overcast, and all the horses are in some way sheltered from the cold.
The last service to "their" horses.
The last little care.
In all this there is a gentle and silent farewell.
The great yard is full. The solid mass of horses is almost motionless. There are a few cows. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich, The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (1916)

“ Great Russian, Russian with Little Russian accent, with Polish accent.
—Panitch! Do you want horses? You can buy them very reasonably. Ah, so reasonably! A horse that cost a hundred roubles, you can buy for twentyfive. Do you wish to buy?
—Wait for me, wait for me. I'll take you to the horses.
—Mr. Squire, Mr. Squire, here are horses. Farm horses! And cheap! Cheap! I'll bring them to you.
There's no getting through the horses in the market—no possibility of penetrating through.
There stands one great solid crowd.
Quick people even slip about under the horses. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich, The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (1916)

“ One party has hardly been sent off when from Muchin yard comes out three times the number of these "horseless ones."
The crowd does not melt away but increases.
Here it is cold, here there is no forest.
And the fugitives press together closely, family to family.
Only warming themselves in the smoke of their bonfires.
There are bonfires day and night.
Wandering women go from house to house in the neighbourhood. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich, The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (1916)

“ He had managed to bring away all his cattle. And four horses.
He had gone a long way.
But in Minsk province, where a continuous marsh extends for tens and tens of versts, an order had come to clear the high-road, and the cattle had been driven on to the marsh.
—My little son—said he, who had gone on in front with the cattle, ran back to meet me at a turn of the road, crying, "Daddy, Daddy, the cattle are all drowned in the marsh." I ran to him. The herd of cattle were twisting and writhing in the bog. Bellowing. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich, The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (1916)

“ Roslavl is overwhelmed; the tide rises above its head.
The reason?
—The railway.
Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people will remember with horror:
—The desolation of Roslavl.
Here is enacted a dreadful scene,
"The completion of the process."
—The fugitives giving up their horses.
First they were as "gipsies," but now they have turned into a Khitrof market. [1]
Numbers of the fugitives, the great majority of them, having exhausted their last strength and reached the railway:
—Have the last thing to do as peasants.
They sell their horses. ”

Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich

Summary

Quotes from The Way of the Cross — The Desolation of Roslavl (Vlas Mikhaĭlovich Doroshevich)

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