Edited
by Boris Gorelik
Jonathan
Ball Publishers, Jeppestown, South Africa 2022
ISBN
978-1-7761-9136-9
ebook
ISBN 978-1-7761-9137-6
‘I will have to kill these people, even though they did not
cause me the slightest harm!’
Not the best thought with which to enter a war perhaps, but
that was the reaction of a Russian as he encountered a friendly Englishman who
had just rescued his pith helmet from the waters of the harbour at Lourenco
Marques, Portuguese East Africa in January 1900.
The Russian was Yevgeny Augustus, a proud officer of the
Imperial Russian Army. Yevgeny was one of a few thousand volunteers who
travelled thousands of miles to southern Africa to join the two Boer republics
in their war against the Imperial British Empire.
Yevgeny wrote about his experiences and these have been
translated into English (done well by Lucas Venter) and expertly edited by
Boris Gorelik. Yevgeny’s memoirs were spread across a book and newspaper and magazine
articles that have been expertly combined into one. A portion of Yevgeny’s memoirs were published by Boris in 2016.
Yevgeny writes well and honestly providing an insight into
his motives, the effort of getting to southern Africa and then his war experiences;
no one escapes criticism. One is left with a question; “Why did he go to war
for countries and a people he had no stake in, no future with, nothing to gain
and everything to lose?”
Yevgeny’s honestly consider his motives; the Boer fight for “freedom
and very existence” appealed (although he was not a republican and remained
committed to Imperial Russia until his death in battle, Boris concludes he was “a
staunch monarchist”) and “there is an opportunity to smell gunpowder not on the
training ground..but..in mortal combat”. He was bored of peace time soldiering.
The war in southern Africa was a convenient opportunity for Yevgeny “to go off
in search of another field of activity if the close confines of everyday life
oppress him”. It is easy to reach the conclusion that if there had a been a war
in Europe, closer to home, he would have fought there. The Balkan Wars of the
1870s attracted about 4,000 Russian volunteers, 10 times more than travelled to
southern Africa.
From the moment Yevgeny left Russia in December 1899 the
journey to South African Republic (SAR) presented moments of reflection,
insight and new information as to what lay ahead. With fellow volunteers they travelled
to Brussels to SAR’s representative in Europe, Dr WJ Leyds, to get papers that
would allow him to cross into the SAR. Dr Leyds explained, he himself felt
unable to directly recruit volunteers in Europe out of respect for Belgium’s
official position of neutrality over the war. One theme sustaining the Boer
fight was the false hope Europe (including Russia) would intervene on their
side tipping the military balance in their favour. Clearly, this was always a
slim prospect.
From Brussels they travelled to Marseilles to board a ship
for Lourenco Marques via Madagascar and Beira. In Beira he met many Englishmen,
“who had abandoned their affairs in Rhodesia… They all struck me as prime
candidates for the gallows.. After I got to know them more closely, I spent several
pleasant moments in the company of these gentlemen, who had lived through all
manner of trials and tribulations.” The power of honest conversation. There
were many Europeans there, like the English, seeking a fortune one way or
another from gold mining in Rhodesia and the SAR.
One such entrepreneur, a German from Alsace, gave Yevgeny
the benefit of his experiences through his brother who, “was also stupid enough
to go fighting for the Boers as a volunteer, and now I got his last letter in
which he says that the Boers give the foreigners the cold shoulder, look down
upon them, that’s how dizzy their recent victories have made them. You have to
pay out of your own pocket for your kit, shoes, clothes and provisions, and I
doubt if you have a lot of money left after your partie de plaisir’
[pleasure cruise].”
He also freely offered his opinion and advice, “Remember
never to believe the newspapers when they accuse the British of everything and
depict the Boers as some Old Testament patriarchs. Once you get there, you’ll
understand things better and change your convictions. You’ll realise that this
war was caused by the Boers’ hatred of all other nations and their fear of
losing their oligarchic form of government in their struggle against new and
alien elements. On both sides you’ll see the most unbridled greed and
narrow-minded egoism conceivable. But in any case, my sympathies are with the
English, because they and they alone brought the light of culture and
civilisation to these shepherds, who spend all their time singing psalms and
reading the Bible…I feel sorry for you, young man, so take my sincere advice:
go home before it’s too late”.
Yevgeny ignored this man’s advice and travelled on, crossing
the border at Komatipoort. The Boers he encountered there were “very unkindly,
to tell the truth”. At Lourenco Marques there was confusion whether they would
need to pay their train fare to Pretoria. Yevgeny decided not to trust the
rumour and bought a second-class ticket. At Komatipoort, some French volunteers
claimed a free ticket. Yevgeny complained to the station master and was offered
a free upgrade to first-class. Further down the line at Waterval Boven the
station master there refused to recognise the upgrade and demanded eight
shillings from a frustrated Yevgeny promising him the fare would be refunded at
Pretoria by the director of the railway. At Pretoria the director explained
there was no such refund policy.
Finally, Yevgeny arrives at the Natal front in late January
and attaches himself to the Krugersdorp Commando. His first battle experience
is that of Vaalkrans in early February. Travelling
through northern Natal he notes the destruction wrought by the Boer invaders in
Newcastle, which had not been defended by the British; the town “seemed
completely lifeless. Everything around us bore the signs of ruthless, senseless
destruction: ruins, the heaps of rubbish and bricks, the oppressive silence of
the deserted streets and squares, recalled the darkness of the Middle Ages,
when wars were characterised by savage hostility between peoples, when it was
considered inadequate merely to rout the enemy in an open field and every
victory was accompanied by looting, destruction and the wreaking of violence
upon peaceful, unarmed civilian”. Betraying a naivety born out of an idealistic
view of the war fostered in European coffee houses and bars, also surprising
for a professional soldier, he pondered how such a state of affairs could exist
“in our age of civilisation and progress”.
Now Yevgeny’s narrative turns to warfare and it is apparent
the foreign volunteers, like Yevgeny, who thought their professional training
would be of use, begin to question what they can contribute beyond simply
adding an extra rifle to the firing line. Not the role for a European trained
officer. The Boers needed no lessons in military engineering, especially their
ability to dig concealed trenches “as though guided by some deeper instinct”.
However, he had reason to doubt the commitment of Boers and foreign
volunteers to a fight to the finish. In the desperate battles on the Tugela
Heights he felt many Boers “had probably dispersed, believing that the cause
was lost”. On the final day, February 27th, he counted seventeen of
the Krugersdorp Commando still present. The retreat north was dispiriting, Yevgeny
found some Hungarians who had fled the Tugela Heights before the final battles,
nicely set up “the owners of a squat little tent and a wagon with all sorts of
goods – canned food, saddles, blankets and the like.”
Amidst the chaotic retreat of the Boer forces in Natal, the
foreign volunteers began to think of forming their own units to conduct guerrilla
operations at which they felt they could excel. Once again lofty ideals did not
materialise, the “Russian Corps” failed due to a lack of Russians, so they became
36 Europeans. For some ego was primary, of the two Germans, a Prussian officer
was given command of a German Baron on the promise that German and Dutch recruits
would be placed under his command. It was not the foreign volunteers who would
shine but the Boers, “the flawless guerrilla operations of De Wet, De la Rey
and Botha will make their way into tactical handbooks.”
Yevgeny was wounded and captured in the defence of Pretoria
in June 1900. Spared from being sent to a POW camp in Ceylon by the intervention of the Russian military attaché with the British
forces he was back on duty
with the Russian Army in August 1900.
These memoirs are an invaluable addition to the literature on
the war. Yevgeny provides many insights on the complete journey, physical and
mental, of a foreign volunteer. His honest assessment and opinions shine a
light and make obvious the complexities of a war keenly debated today.
