BRITISH NURSE AT WARSAW

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27, 2 February 1915, Page 9

BRITISH NURSE AT WARSAW

THE FEARLESS RUSSIAN SOLDIER. "Nichevo!" (nothing, no matter). It would be difficult to find an equivalent in English (writes a British nurse who recently returned to London from Warsaw). In French it would be best translated by the Frenchman's expressive shrug of the shoulder. "Nichevo" expresses perfect indii/erence, and I heard the word first en the lips of a Russian soldier in tho First Red Cross Hospital at "Warsaw, The doctor had explained to him that it was necessary to take off his hand. "Nichevo l .' replied tho soldier, whose head was swathed with bandages The word was constantly on the lips of men broken beyond imagination. I had previously seen many terrible cases at the King's Palace in Brussels, but the condition of some of the Russian soldiers brought in from Lodz and the neighbourhood was infinitely worse. The reason was explained to me by a Russian doctor. "We have to deal with worse cases," he said, "because our men are more difficult to kill. Our soldiers are the hardest in the world. Many men brought in here ought to be dead. If they were German, or even French or English, they would have succumbed to their wounds." A Siberian — these troops are the hardiest of the lot — was brought into the hospital with both legs and one of his arms badly broken by shrapnel. It was necessary to amputate all these limbs. A little after the operation I spoke to the man. "Give me back two legs, one arm will do, and I will go back to fight for the Little Father," he said. The Russian soldier, with all his hardiness, has the heart of a child. This | same man, who had faced great agony without flinching, cried like a child later when shown some little kindness. Tears come to the men very easily, but never as the result of pain. Their tears are the result of deep emotion — and this combination of hardness and deep feeling is surely one of the most extraordinary traits in the Russian character. The wounded found on the field of battle are usually lying on their backs, their faces turned to heaven. The reason was explained very simply to me by a wounded Siberian. "You see," he said, "we believe God is on our side, and we like to die facing Him So when we are badly hit and we feel that all is up we try to fall on our backs." Anyone who has visited Russia in these days cannot fail to be inspired with confidence. When I left Petrograd, less than a fortnight ago, throughout the day and night there passed one endless stream of men with their transport, the countless shaggy little Siberian ponies and their rumbling carts making a pretty spectacle This everlasting passing of men impressed one with the mightiness of the Russian resources. Jn Petrograd 1 and three other nurses were welcomed by the Dowager-