Tatiana L. Dubinskaya was a schoolgirl who ran away from home and
served on the Eastern Front from 1916-17 as a soldier in the
Russian army during World War I. She later became a writer and in
1930 recounted her personal experiences as a soldier in an
autobiographical novel, called In the Trenches, published in
Moscow. In 1936 she revised and republished a shorter version of
her story under a new title, Machine Gunner. Both versions of her
novel had much in common. Most of the characters and much of the
storyline remained essentially the same, but there were a few
notable exceptions, which included the addition of more
revolutionary zeal to the main characters in Machine Gunner, which
likely gave it greater appeal in Stalinist Russia. This revised
edition of In the Trenches has been edited using select portions
from Machine Gunner to provide greater clarity and context to
Dubinskaya's original story. In the Trenches received critical
acclaim when first published, being favorably compared with Erich
Maria Remarque's 1929 classic World War I novel, All Quiet on the
Western Front, which portrayed the stark realism of life in the
trenches through the eyes of a young German soldier. Dubinskaya's
character, Zinaida "Zina" Kramskaya, had similar experiences. In
the Trenches was significant as it marked the first major account
of a female soldier from World War I to be published in Russia. In
April 1930 the United Press International reported that an American
publisher had acquired the rights for an English edition of In the
Trenches, but it never went into print. Russian censorship may have
stopped the English edition. In the novel, Zina develops close ties
to her brothers in arms, endures the hardships and stresses of war,
is exposed to the undercurrents of revolutionary thinking in the
ranks, and comes to grips with the disruptive effects of the czar's
abdication in March 1917, which led to the wide-scale spread of a
socialist revolution in the army. After returning home for a visit
with her family, she wrestles with remaining and returning to a
normal life. Eventually, she is drawn back to the theater of war.
Back at the front in the wake of a revolution that overthrew the
czar and the Romanov dynasty, she sees widespread changes sweeping
across the army. The revolution has brought a provisional socialist
government to power whose new policies cause havoc in the army.
Soldiers' committees emerge to challenge traditional authority from
the officers, and in some cases disgruntled soldiers summarily
execute unfavorable officers without facing any repercussions.
These sudden changes cause a massive destabilization in the army
that leads many soldiers to desert and return home, including
Zina's regiment. Although she was exposed to revolutionary
propaganda, she is not an ardent revolutionary. Her story ends
abruptly in the summer of 1917, several months before the November
1917 Bolshevik revolution.
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