Non Fiction Book Review: Prisoner in the Forbidden Land
The Great War stands as a monument to the sheer scale of warfare made possible by technology and modernity. It was a clash of time and technology - a killing machine that ground down men. Most readers will be familiar with the First World War through the killing fields of France, or perhaps the disaster at Gallipoli. A few will be aware of the Eastern Front . We are generally quite well versed, at a very high level, to the nature of the conflict, of trench warfare and the terrible conditions men faced. What I know that I am less aware of is the tales of prisoners. Prisoner history in World War Two is better documented of course, it invaded our popular culture through films like Stalag 17 and The Great Escape. Of World War One prison camps and life I know very little, and I certainly knew nothing of what prisoners experience in Russia. Gustav Krists’s Prisoner in the Forbidden Land changed all that. This is an incredible journal of an Austrian soldiers time as both prisoner and freeman in the lands of the Russian Empire.
The tale Krist weaves is a lengthy and complex one and he tells it in third person as ‘Gurk’. At times it appears almost fantastical beyond belief but it is all too real. There are many fascinating parts to his 7 years in the Empire that I don’t wish to spoil here but suffice to say the twists and turns are numerous. What this book has also done however is caused me to re-evalute my own perception of the Russians, and Krist writing in his time is aware of the racial differences between the Russians and the populations of Uzbekistan/Tajikistan where he travels. The barbarism of the Soviet Union is a popular topic for those on the Right and many would have us believe it was pure ideology that led Russian man to this state. This book, for me, exploded some of those myths. The Tsarist Russian Empire was a fractured and brutal place, Krist himself notes that some of the barbarism meted out is simply alien to the European mind in his brief introduction. The violence he and his fellow prisoners experience largely came at the hands of the Tsar’s Russia, it is interesting there is a current today that venerates that regime quite as much as they do in light of this knowledge. Cruelty and savagery are indeed common to all men but it is very hard to imagine Western Europeans dishing out the kind of casual and calculated violence Krist and his fellow prisoners were subject to. Communist barbarism found a ready home in the Russian people.
That is not to say that all Russians are painted as evil, Krist regales us with many small stories of kindness from Russians during his time in captivity. The insights into the region he was in are also invaluable, a window through time that is not tainted by modern notions. The translation is well done and the reading is easy, at times I wish Krist had gone into more detail but he does have a lot of ground to cover. One could make many interesting films on the mans adventures and not even cover a half of the book. As this is told through a third person there is not that much room for introspection in the book, we are not always privy to Krist’s motivations - he at one point certainly has a chance to return home earlier but does not. As a reader we can guess at why not, but it would be just as interesting to hear him spell it out.
Agartha Publishing has done the world a great service by finding and republishing this book. It opens a door to a history that was largely unknown. It is both a swashbuckling tale and also a historical document - a small but favorite moment of mine being Krist explaining how all the Austro-Hungarian officers take to writing down lengthy memorandums for duels they are forbidden to have in their prison camp. Small details like this bring it all alive. I strongly recommend this book.
5/5
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