Attack on the Red Army soldiers at the village feast

The attack on the Red Army soldiers at the village feast turns a local gathering into a direct confrontation between the regiment and nearby villagers. Four soldiers are killed and others wounded; the immediate military response is to remove the injured and prohibit contact with the hostile local population. The event also marks a personal rupture for Mitka, who reacts to the dead in silence and struggles to return to routine afterward.

Background and Circumstances

The soldiers had attended a feast in a nearby village. The account gives a specific motive for the attack: drunken peasants had become jealous of the soldiers’ relationships with local women. The attackers outnumbered and disarmed the soldiers, turning a social occasion into a lethal assault. The report establishes this motive, but does not explain the villagers’ wider circumstances or present the feast as part of an organized campaign.

The Attack and Its Immediate Aftermath

A commotion at the camp draws the narrator outside. Mitka rushes out, pulling the narrator with him, and other soldiers run toward the guard line. There, several wounded men gather around four motionless bodies. Their fragmented account identifies the attackers as peasants from the village and describes how the soldiers were overwhelmed. The deputy commander arrives with other senior officers, listens to a wounded soldier’s report, and orders the injured taken to hospital. Some are able to walk only slowly, supporting one another as they go.

The dead include Vanka and Lonka, along with two soldiers whose faces are no longer readily recognizable to those present. Mitka crouches near the bodies, staring in silence. When an ambulance arrives and the dead are taken away, he grips the narrator’s arm in anger. The narrator’s view of the event is shaped by this close, immediate scene at the guard line: the report of the attack is followed not by an abstract account of casualties, but by the assembled soldiers’ encounter with the dead and wounded.

Military Response and Consequences

That evening, the attack is included in the regiment’s report. The men listen as new orders prohibit contact with the hostile local population and forbid actions that could further worsen relations with the Red Army. The directive converts the assault into a matter of military policy: beyond punishing or treating the immediate casualties, the regiment seeks to prevent further confrontation. The account does not describe a subsequent reprisal or identify what happened to the attackers.

Mitka and the Event’s Significance

The deaths have a distinct aftermath for Mitka. That night he mutters to himself, strikes his head with his fist, and then sits in brooding silence. In the following days, regimental life resumes: the men speak less often of the dead, sing again, and prepare for a field theater. Mitka, however, remains unwell, and someone else takes over his training duties. The contrast between the regiment’s return to routine and Mitka’s continued distress makes the attack more than a reportable breach of order. It shows how violence persists in the reactions of those who survive it, even as collective life moves on.