Beyond Chez Vicalle: the Volunteer

Book excerpt: A young Kuban Kazachka named Marina Orlova, must find a way to survive after wandering into World War I, and later the Russian Civil War. When a motion picture maker is hospitalized in a small Wisconsin town, hes asked to make a movie about events that took place in Imperial Russia during World War I and the Russian Civil War. The crux of the action begins when a young Kuban Kazak maiden named Marina Orlova wanders into the midst of World War I on the Armenian front. There, she suffers a serious leg wound, and struggles to recover. With the Russians advancing on Sivas, Turkey, Maria becomes a truck driver for a Red Cross unit helping the Imperial Army evacuate the wounded from the Persian front. Eventually, Maria is injured again, this time quite seriously. As she moves from hospital to hospital, she witnesses the developing Russian Civil War, and in Kazan, by a fluke of battle, becomes a soldier in the White Army. Join Maria as she finds the courage to navigate through a key period of world history, traveling from Kazan to Omsk, to Irkutsk, to Mukden and beyond in Beyond Chez Vicalle: The Volunteer.