Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War appears in the book’s historical framing of Defender of the Fatherland Day: the holiday originated during the Russian Civil War and later acquired its current name. That brief reference gives the conflict a continuing public presence, as a past war whose legacy remains embedded in a modern commemorative calendar.

Historical reference

The explanatory note identifies Defender of the Fatherland Day as a holiday celebrated in Russia and several other former Soviet republics, but not in Ukraine. It traces the observance back to the Russian Civil War and notes that it was formerly called Red Army Day and Soviet Army and Navy Day before receiving its present name in 2002. The entry thus connects the war not to a narrated battle or personal recollection, but to the later naming and political life of a public holiday.

War and competing accounts

The Russian Civil War reference sits within a novel where accounts of the contemporary war are mediated and contested. In a television scene, commentators describe Ukraine as being held together by financial support from America and Europe; a separate broadcast shows a Ukrainian deputy defending her right to express her views after being splashed with green dye. These are presented as fragments of televised political discourse, not as a direct historical account of the Russian Civil War.

During a border interview, Sergey Sergeyich begins to describe the forces on either side of the grey zone, naming Ukrainians and Russians. A young crew member interrupts and instructs him to repeat himself without mentioning Russians; Sergeyich then substitutes separatists. When he recounts that his car was attacked by a shell-shocked man at a wake for a soldier killed by Russians, the interviewer stops the live interview and redirects the crew to film the bees and the damaged hive. The exchange shows how present-day accounts of responsibility are edited, while the holiday’s historical background shows how older military memory is retained through official commemoration.

Commemoration and memory

The book’s references to historical memory also include Sergeyich’s family photographs, which span his father’s life after the Second World War and his own life before the current war, and his recollection of a village funeral for a man returned from the war in Afghanistan. Those episodes are distinct from the Russian Civil War reference, but together they place individual and community memories beside the public history represented by the holiday. The Civil War’s presence is therefore concise but consequential: it marks a historical origin that continues to shape how military service and national identity are commemorated.