The Ruthenian Insurrection

[Ikhan]

(NOTE: This post is in the perspective of a soldier in the Austrian Army at some point in the future, thus certain details will be missing)

 I still remember their cries... their terrible cries... As if it were just yesterday. To think, it was so many years ago... In September of 2025, an insurrection led by one Mikhail Borysov began in the province of Galicia-Lodomeria. In response, Kaiser Franz-Josef, long may he live, ordered for a military intervention to take place within the province. While it was officially preformed to restore order in the region, we all knew that it was really to further incorporate the region under Austrian authority. As many now know, it did not originally go to plan, with our forces winding up bogged down in the region for over a year due to a period of extreme rain followed by a severe winter, leading us to have to dig in for a time. Of course, that wasn't the only problem, with Borysov hiring what could only be described as an army of highly trained mercenaries as well as militias harassing us at any chance they could get. Eventually, in July of 2026, we managed a breakthrough at Chernivtsi, however, the cost of human life, whether combatant or civilian, was far to great. It is my belief that all who fought in that battle and survived in the city lost a key part of their humanity in the process. In the end, nothing was left of us, we were lost from the world, our lives changed forever. By September of that year, we had captured Mikhail Borysov, and with it, the rest of Galicia-Lodomeria was ours, and yet, in exchange for the territory, we lost ourselves. But such is war, I suppose... The physical scars heal while those to the mind will never quite heal.
-Pvt. Johan Adler
September, 2076