PBC0088: political alienation

PBC 88 conveys the dejection of nationalists in the wake of political and military defeat during the Civil War. Soldiers fleeing across Siberia “cut a gravestone to White Russia,” now alienated from everything and without a country (W204). Others wonder aloud “why don’t I love you anymore, Rus’?” giving up home for a knapsack (W108). These works are written near the end of the Civil War period, and their sentiment reflects nationalists’ failing hopes for recovering Russia.