Today is Gustav’s story - the daily account of a grandfather living on the German homefront during World War I. While the glorious war starts as “the greatest time of my life”, he worries about his son Ludwig fighting on the front.

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Picture from Gustav’s diary: Ludwig Schlott.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Marshall von Hindenburg. Translated by F.A. Holt. Out of my Life. Cassell and Company, ltd. 1920

Gustav Schlott memoirs. Deutsches Tagebucharchiv, DTA Reg.Nr. 3768, 1 translation by Robyn Thompson.

Today we continue our conversation on life during the Russian Revolution and the Bolsheviks' ambitions for the country. Our primary account comes from Elfriede, a young woman living in Odessa, Ukraine when the revolution came. She describes the conflicts between the Reds and Whites, her stint as a typist for the infamous Cheka (secret police), and her eventual escape through Bulgaria.

Bibliography

Elfriede Becker memoirs, Deutsches Tagebucharchiv, DTA 4710-1, translation By Robyn Thompson

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Earliest flag of the Soviet Union, 1922-1923

Gütersloh 1975, ISBN 978-3-570-01591-9, Public Domain

What would you do if you woke up one day and suddenly found yourself an "enemy" of the people with whom you had grown up? In this episode, we follow the story of Anna's family - bourgeois Germans caught in Russia during World War I and the Russian Revolution.

Bibliography

"Anna's Memoirs", Deutsches Tagebucharchiv, DTA-368-1-2, Reg NR 418,1-2, Translation By Robyn Thompson

"Who Needs the War? Alexandra Kollantai: Selected Articles and Speeches" Progress publishers, 1984. First printing 1915.

"Apostles into Terrorists: Women and the Revolutionary Movement in the Russia of Alexander II." Vera Briodo, Maurice Temple Smith, 1977.

"A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924", Orlando Figes, Penguin Books, 1988.

"The Communist Manifesto", Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, 1848

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Imperial Russian Railways series Б (B)
Public Domain