The charge (the Russian charge)

Bellows, George, 1882-1925 · 1918

War series. (Bellows) / "The Charge" and "Sniped" (M. 66) were illustrations for "Something..." by Donal Hamilton Haines in "Collier's," July 13, 1918, a story about the troops fighting during the Great War and the effect the outbreak of the Russian Revolution had upon them. The Russian is shown as both villain and hero. In the trenches a story is related by the British "Tommies" about a Russian fighting alongside them who has attacked a French girl. The Russian captain claims that rape is nothing more than an incident of war. This same hated captain hears that evening that revolution has broken out in Petrograd and exclaims, "It means the end of seven-hundred years of darkness..." That night, the captain leads a courageous attack on the German "Bulge"--he is killed, along with most of his men, clutching the "hastily made red flag of the revolution, and his face was that of an inspired child." The title "Something..." refers to the general dislike of the Russians by the Tommies, and the feeling that there is "something" about the Russians that causes the British soldiers to wonder, "a hundred years from now--who knows?" (Mason)