Word: samsonov
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...HOUR PERIOD Alexander Vasilich Samsonov, commanding general of a disintegrating Russian Army, has a vision of an angel of death coming to carry him off, seriously appeals to God for divine intervention on the Russian side in the battle of the Tannenberg Forest, and fails to remember the name of one of his subordinate generals. Like other subjects of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's August 1914, the general smoothly slips out of the 20th century and falls into an almost insane incompetence...
...Russian Second Army, lumbering westward in the vicinity of Tannenberg, was enveloped by the Germans. More than 90,000 prisoners were taken. In a few days, despite great courage shown by many Russian regiments and officers, the Second Army ceased to exist. Its brave but confused commander, General Alexander Samsonov, committed suicide. The Russian General Staff quickly covered its own criminal idiocy by blaming him entirely for the defeat...
...takes place on the night of Aug. 29, 1914, after the rout of the Russians at Tannenberg. The Russian commander, General Alexander Samsonov (an actual historical figure), walks through the dense Prussian forests with the remnants of his staff. "He had only wanted what was good," writes Solzhenitsyn, "but it all turned out extremely badly." This is one of the novelist's principal themes?that good intentions are not enough to make the world a better place...
...fellow officers prepare for their capture by burying their documents and insignia to conceal their high rank, Samsonov at first resists. Finally, apathetically, he allows one of his comrades to strip him of his own insignia. Suddenly he feels unencumbered and free?the freedom that rises out of total despair. Now he is anxious only to rid himself of his entourage and especially his orderly, Kupchik, who sticks close to him carrying the saddle blanket that belonged to the commander's abandoned horse...
...Samsonov felt ashamed to ask his men to stop for a rest, but perhaps out of concern for him they did so every hour, and sat on the ground. Kupchik was always there to deftly spread out the saddle blanket under him. He was glad to be able to stretch out and rest his aching legs...