The Road to Calvary (part III) - post II

To a certain degree one half of the story starts to fuse with Dasha finally meeting Telegin in a makeshift army hospital. She keeps her identity secret from the wounded battery commander until she can keep it secret no longer and then their love, which both had believed to be dormant, over flows and they start to plan for the future.

Meanwhile a totally disillusioned Roshchin sets out to look for Katia and drops his allegiance to the White army. While on leave he sets out to find her and as he starts to lose hope he also starts to question he decision to fight for a cause that he no longer believes in.

Germany surrenders and starts to pull out of the Ukraine and all around the signs that the Whites and the Reds are near to an end start to disappear and the ebb of flow of attack and reprisals starts afresh.

Meanwhile, Katia has set up home with the anarchists and believing her husband is dead starts to contemplate the idea that she might have to marry the peasant who has protected her.

Will Roshchin find her in time? It is quite a testament to the style and the writing that even after a collective 500 pages of this three-part novel you can be gripped by the struggle to reunite lovers across the war zones.

More tomorrow…