Between the Covers

Softcover. Octavo. Measuring 9" x 6". String-tied paper album. Contains 17 sepia toned or black and white albumen photographs measuring between 1.5" x 2.5" and 3.5" x 4.5", with captions in Czech. Very good album with detached pages, lacking the front and rear wrappers with near fine photographs.

A modest but interesting photo album kept by a Czech soldier on the Russian Front during the First World War. The photos show soldiers posed in uniform, ruins of cities, and civilian refugees fleeing their war-torn towns. One of the photos is captioned, “funeral on the Russian Front,” and shows a crowd gathered around a grave site while the coffin is being lowered. Another image of an abandoned trench reads, “here we gave up.” Crowds of refugees are seen in two photos with the caption, “evacuation.” Crumbling bridges and other structures are photographed in some of the later pictures as well as men on horseback and an official speaking to a line of uniformed men. The Czech soldiers formed their legions voluntarily during the war in hopes that helping the Allies would ensure independence for Bohemia, Moravia, and Hungary.

A nice collection of WWI photography depicting the Russian Front from the Czech perspective.

Item #417896