Fifteenth installment from the diary of my great-grandfather’s sister Alise, written during the First World War. When the diary starts, she is living just a few miles from the front lines of the Eastern Front, and is then forced to flee with her husband and two young daughters to her family’s house near Limbaži as the war moves even closer. For the background, see here, click on the tag “diary entries” to see all of the entries that I have posted.

February 1, 1916

We are still living in the room that held the dreams of my youth… the battles are taking their horrible turns. Even around here they are gathering materials to build trenches, so it seems that the worst is yet to come, and we’ll have to flee again and leave Father’s home, everything is horribly expensive and getting even more so, even soap costs 50 kopecks already. Homes and work are also nowhere to be found. Without those, hard days come before nights. God only knows, what will happen in today’s conditions? Thanks be to God that we are still healthy. TrÅ«tiņa is a sweet and gentle girl, Dagmāra, on the contrary, is very assertive and strong. I only wish that there would be enough bread for the little ones, that would be wonderful.