Year 1918 - The Road to Calvary Trilogy 2 by Alexei Tolstoy. The year 1918 raced like a wild whirlwind over Russia. The water was dark in the gloomy autumn clouds. The front was everywhere: in the far north, near the Volga at Kazan, in the lower Volga basin near Tsaritsyn, and in the North Caucasus, on the borders of the areas occupied by Germany.

For thousands of miles, the trenches stretched. The advancing autumn brought no joy to the fighters' hearts, and many thought, as they gazed at the clouds coming from the north, of their villages where the wind tore the straw from the roofs, nettles grew in the yards, and potatoes rotted in the vegetable gardens. There seemed to be no end to the war. The future was filled with dark nights, the old promise of light shining in the homes where families awaited the return of fathers and sons who did not come back, and stories about terrible events made children cry as they lay on shelves above the stoves.