"They [the warring powers] were shouting for victory all over Europe—praying for victory to the same God. My task—the …"

"The Party looked to the conscript peasants. Most of them were in their first good pair of boots. When the boots wore …"

"Happy men don't volunteer. They wait their turn, and thank god if their age or work delays it."

"Even Comrade Lenin underestimated both the anguish of that nine hundred mile-long front, and our cursed capacity for …"

"I told myself it was beneath my dignity to arrest a man for pilfering firewood. But nothing ordered by the Party is b…"

"That was the first time I ever saw my brother. But I knew him. And I knew I would disobey the Party. Perhaps it was t…"

"But if people love poetry, they love poets. And nobody loves poetry like a Russian."

"No doubt they'll sing in tune after the revolution..."

"And don't delude yourself this was rape. That would flatter us both."

"In bourgeois terms it was a war between the Allies and Germany. In Bolshevik terms it was a war between the Allied an…"