Children of Emigrants. Living Voices of the First Russian Wave of Emigration 1918-1924

About 100 years ago, the revolution and the subsequent civil war became a terrible trial for millions of Russians. Due to wars, famine, terror, and banditry, more than 2 million people left Russia and became emigrants. Tens of thousands of children - along with their families or as orphans - were also cast out of the country. This book, first published in 1925 in Prague, is a stunning testament to the tragic history of revolutionary Russia. It contains quotes selected from over two thousand compositions by young emigrants on the topic "What I Remember About Russia." The teenagers recount the deaths of loved ones from wounds, illness, and famine, the hardships of fleeing to foreign countries, their loneliness, fears, and complete lack of understanding of what deprived them of the joy of life. The living voices of compatriots allow us not only to see the history of the country through the fates of ordinary people but also to reflect on the cost of political and social crises. "The language of children's compositions is truthful to the point of shivering; it feels as if the children have had their skin stripped away, and they feel the weight of history more strongly and acutely than others. This is the only historical document of such scale." Catherine Klein-Gousseff, French historian