Vladimir Petrushevsky

An Archive

August 30th, 1916

Полковой праздник. Дивная погода. Сперва был молебен и парад. Принимал парад начальник нашей дивизии генерал Нилов. Было много гостей. Потом был завтрак, а с 4 часов начались состязания: барьеры для гусар, рубка и уколы пиками, потом офицерская «лисичка», и наконец джигитовка. Все было очень хорошо. В «лисичке» принимало участие 25 офицеров, из которых 7 упало с лошадьми, так как местность была болотистая, а скачка за призами была резвая. Корнет Готовицкий порядочно разбился в лесу, полковник Скуратов упал на болоте на барьере. После состязаний вечером был обед, поданный очень хорошо, так как повар был из Риги, было много вина и много наливок, типа «Окопной», «Утешительной», «Гусарской» и т.д. Всего на обеде было 86 человек. Корнеты поднесли полку кубок, а командир полка – чарку. Приз за рубку взял унтер-офицер 2-ого эскадрона Пономарев, а за джигитовку – гусар Исаев.

The regiment held a festival. The weather was marvelous. First there was a service and a review. The leader of our division, General Nilov, led the review. There were many guests. Then there was a breakfast, and the competitions began at 4 o’clock: hurdles for the Hussars, spear cutting and stabbing, then officer “fox hunting,” and finally trick riding. Everything was very good. 25 officers participated in the “fox hunting,” and 7 of them fell off their horses, since the ground was marshy and they were galloping very fast for the prizes. Cornet Gotovitsky got fairly badly injured in the woods, and Colonel Skuratov fell over a hurdle into the bog. In the evening after the competition there was a lunch that was served very well, since the cook was from Riga; there was much wine and liqueur, of the “Trenches,” “Comforter,” “Hussar” variety and so forth. There were 86 people total at the lunch. The cornets presented a goblet to the regiment and a charka [1] to the regiment commander. The non-commissioned officer Ponomarev from the 2nd Squadron won the prize for spear cutting, and the Hussar Isaev won the prize for trick riding.

[1] A charka is a traditional Russian vodka cup dating from the 16th century.