Tatiana L. Dubinskaya's autobiographical novel of life in the Russian
army marked the first major work published by a female World War I
soldier in the Soviet Union. Often compared to All Quiet on the Western
Front, Dubinskaya's stark and unsparing story presents a rare look at
women in combat and one of the few works of fiction set on the eastern
front.
Zinaida, a Russian schoolgirl, runs away from home to join the army.
Sent to the front, she endures the horrors of trench warfare and the
hardships of military life. Undercurrents of revolutionary thinking
filter into the ranks as morale begins to crumble. Zinaida must come to
grips with the havoc unleashed by the czar's overthrow and the new
socialist government's attempts to impose revolutionary reforms on the
army. Destabilization and desertion follow, and her regiment joins the
chaotic mass retreat of the Russian army in the summer of 1917.
In addition to Dubinskaya's original novel, this edition includes
selections from her 1936 autobiographical work, Machine Gunner, which
she rewrote to satisfy Stalinist censors.