The White Guard Quotes
"Great and terrible was the year of Our Lord 1918, of the Revolution the second."
"But in days of blood as in days of peace the years fly like an arrow."
"Go on living . . . and be kind to one another . . ."
"The time was coming when the walls would fall away, the terrified falcon fly away from the Tsar's white sleeve, the light in the bronze lamp would go out."
"We must never lose heart. Faintness of heart is a great sin."
"And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood."
"If people tell you the Allies are coming to help us out of this mess, don't believe them."
"Russia acknowledges only one Orthodox faith and one Tsar!"
"The City swelled, expanded, overflowed like leavened dough rising out of its baking-tin."
"At Maxim's cafe a plump, fascinating Roumanian made his violin whistle like a nightingale."
"The lights, shaded with gypsy shawls, cast two sorts of light - white electric light downwards, orange light upwards and sideways."
"'And what if... what if that steel cordon were to snap... And the gray hordes poured in. The horror...'"
"They hated the Bolsheviks, but not with the kind of aggressive hatred which spurs on the hater to fight and kill, but with a cowardly hatred which whispers around dark corners."
"Anyone who was not found a place in the Hetman's bodyguard was found an even softer billet by women in expensive fur coats in opulent, panelled apartments."
"The Germans were everywhere. At least, they were all over the Ukraine; but away to the north and east beyond the furthest line of the blue-brown forest were the Bolsheviks."
"In their stained gray coats, with still unhealed wounds, they arrived in the City and they slept on chairs, in their own homes or in other people's, using their greatcoats as blankets."
"'Of course I'm delighted to think that the Ukraine is under the benevolent sway of the Hetman. But I have never yet been able to discover, just exactly who is this invisible despot...'"
"The Germans will leave the Ukraine. As a result some people will have to run away, others to stay and face the City's next wave of new, unpredictable and uninvited guests."
"The apocalyptic dream charges with a clatter up to Alexei Turbin's bedside, as he sleeps, pale, a sweaty lock of black hair plastered damply to his forehead."
"For five days afterwards they lived in terror, expecting poison gas to pour down from Bare Mountain."
"'It's the beginning of the end. Once they stop being afraid of the Germans... it's the beginning of the end.'"
"Only someone who has been defeated knows the real meaning of that word. It is like a party in a house where the electric light has failed."
"Then it was as if all the devils in hell were let loose. Priests shook the green cupolas of their little churches with bell-ringing."
"Damned officers, we'll never get through that way!"
"We can't stay here, Kirpaty, we'll freeze to death, I tell you."
"Stick it out, Nemolyaka. The patrols will be out till morning, then they turn in and sleep."
"Come on, Nemolyaka, let's risk it. Maybe we can slip through..."
"The hopes of any such change are slim... I can't predict how events will develop."
"Listen: on the outskirts of this city Petlyura has an army over a hundred thousand strong."
"This morning at approximately 4 a.m. the Hetman shamefully abandoned us all to our fate and ran away!"
"In three hours' time hundreds of human lives will fall to Petlyura and my only regret is I am unable to prevent their destruction."
"I see,' said the colonel, 'that I would have made a fine fool of myself if I had tried going into battle."
"Lieutenant, in three hours' time hundreds of human lives will fall to Petlyura and my only regret is I am unable to prevent their destruction at the cost of my own life, or of yours."
"The day did not warm up; instead it showed signs of being damp, with an impenetrable veil suspended low over the whole land of the Ukraine."
"War was Kozyr's true vocation and his years of teaching school had been nothing more than a protracted and serious mistake."
"Like a burst of flame the vodka poured out of Kozyr's gray army canteen and through his veins."
"It's positively indecent to look like Onegin. Somehow you're too healthy."
"God, I'm exhausted..." With which Colonel Shchetkin sank down on to the bed.
"In his right hand was a revolver, whose open holster flapped against his hip."
"Rip off your shoulder-straps, your cap-badges and cartridge pouches and throw your rifles away!"
"Those swine at headquarters - run away and leave children to fight..."
"Run for it, you stupid boy! Run for it, I say!"
"They will eat cats, they will kill each other just as we have done."
"How amazing, absolutely amazing, that I wasn't hit. A sheer miracle."
"I swear I won't forget what you've done. Go to bed... Lie down and don't move," she whispered, "and I'll soothe your head."
"What's happened to Elena? Oh God, and Nikolka. Why did Nikolka have to die?"
"I wouldn't like to drag you into it... They may come suddenly, they'll see a revolver, blood... there in my greatcoat pocket."
"If it hadn't been for you, I would certainly have been killed."
"I killed one of them?" he asked, feeling a new weakness as his head began to spin.
"I'm not an officer," he said, "I'm just an army doctor."
"I decided you must be an officer when I saw your badge in your fur cap."
"I'm so afraid," she whispered, "that you'll get worse. Then how can I help you?"
"Don't worry, nothing's going to happen to me. Lie down and sleep."
"You hold on to me, mister, and I'll hang on to this brick and we'll be all right."
"They said Petlyura's troops were just a rabble... Some rabble."
"They'll touch the Jews all right, that's for sure..."
"But will they recognise the Orthodox Church?"
"Long may he live. Long may he live. Lo-o-ong li-i-ive..."
"For the reigning head of the family, their adored mother, was no longer with them."
"They were very noisy and cheerful. And the place was always full of people."
"I hereby forbid the scribbling of nonsense on this stove."
"He was always tossing back his hair. Like this - with his head. And he walked very fast."
"You know, of course, that after he qualified he went on to specialise in venereology."
"We and the Bulgakovs were rather like the Montagues and the Capulets."
"Who would have thought it? You see, he was so unlucky."
"I loved them for their honesty, their nobility and their bravery, and ultimately for the tragedy of their position."