SUMMARY:

This is the introduction to the publication of a diary started by a young Muscovite in October 1940 as he was drafted into the Red Army to serve in the border-guard force in southern Georgia, on the border with Turkey. Since this armed force was subordinated to the infamous Soviet security service – the NKVD – when the Soviet-German war started in 1941, he continued service in the NKVD troops, seeing combat for the last time in May 1944 in fighting Ukrainian resistance. Klimentii Fedevich purchased this document two decades ago by chance at an estate sale; it is published without revealing the author’s identity due to the sensitivity of its content. The text contains two intertwined narratives: one is sustained by a detailed record of actions and events, and the other by verbose discourses about personal relations and political ideals. Combining ethnographic details and fiction, the diary opens a window on the worldview of a young Soviet man from a privileged family.