Diary of a Russian Lieutenant in the Russo-Chinese War
Review of book by A. K. Zinevich
The diary of a lieutenant in the Russian army who served in Manchuria when Russia used the excuse of the Boxer Rebellion to conquer that province from China.
This online edition found at the website abirus.ru is one of the few first-hand accounts of that conflict in print.
I read this book as research for an historical novel set, in part, during the Russo-Chinese War of 1900. This will be a rewrite and expansion of my Name of Hero, published 40 years ago.
I found a couple of humorous and memorable anecdotes —
- An Italian railway worker lost his wife when the Boxers struck. A few weeks later she reappeared, and he broke out in tears. She presumed those were tears of joy. In fact, he had, in the meantime, hooked up with another woman who he intended to marry.
- The Boxers captured a retreating contingent of railway workers and railway guards. The commander demanded that the wife of one of them, who was renowned for her beauty, “spend some time with him” as ransom for the contingent. In order to save the others, she agreed. When he was done with her and she was returned, she was frantic with trauma. The entire contingent was saved, free to continue back to Russia all because of her sacrifice. Her husband then sued for divorce.
The present-day editors of this online edition do an interesting political dance in their notes. They find ways to imagine that this war between Russia and China in no way negates the long-time friendship between those nations.
If you are interested in this little-known war, I suggest that you read the Russo-Chinese War by Lensen, or my novel The Name of Hero.
