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In his hand he cradles a glass of Mother’s homemade plum wine. “It is often forgotten that the Civil War was more than a simple matter of whites against reds. ” a short history of tractors in ukrainian 47 I am in the kitchen cutting up vegetables for soup, listening with half an ear. “The Ukrainians were led by former Cossack atmans or grouped under the anarchist banner of Makhno. ” The secret of my mother’s fabulous soup was plenty of salt (they both suffered from high blood pressure), a big knob of butter (they didn’t worry about cholesterol), and vegetables, garlic, and herbs fresh from the garden.

A short history of tractors in ukrainian 45 Mitrofan Ocheretko seems to have been a brilliant soldier: fearless and prudent, he loved life but respected death. Unlike officers drawn from the nobility, who hardly considered the peasants to be human, Ocheretko was mindful of the troops and careful with their lives, only taking risks when there was something to be gained. From the mud and slaughter of the Great War, he emerged covered in glory. His great moment came in 1916, on the Eastern Front, when he took a bullet in his thigh at Lake Naroch crawling through a bog to rescue the Tsar’s cousin, who had become trapped as the spring thaw turned the shores of the lake into miles of churned-up mud.

I have been in correspondence with him—even spoken to him on telephone. ” There is a smug lilt in his voice. The soon-to-be-ex-husband will fax divorce papers to the Ukrainian Embassy in London. In the meantime, my father will make arrangements for the wedding. ) “Well, if she has to go back, then we will be married when she returns. ” I notice that I has become we. I realise that this plan has been developing over quite a long time, and that I have been permitted to know about it only in its very latest stages.