The Ice March

by Peter Darman

First published 2017

Amazon

2.5(5)

Mikhail Petrov is an impoverished peasant drafted into the Russian Imperial Army when the First World War begins in 1914. Instead of the short victorious campaign promised by patriotic speeches, he encounters retreat, shortages, mass casualties and commanders struggling to control an army whose confidence in the old regime is collapsing. His own prospects improve even as Russia's worsen, and his life becomes entangled with that of a young princess whose social world is being destroyed by the same war.

Revolution sweeps away the imperial state and forces Mikhail and the princess south from Moscow toward Cossack territory. There he joins the small anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army as Red forces close in. The movement that follows is the First Kuban Ice March of 1918, a desperate winter campaign in which hunger, freezing conditions and constant pursuit are as dangerous as battle.

Mikhail's story begins with the catastrophic experience of the Russian Imperial Army on the Eastern Front, where huge losses, retreat and shortages weakened confidence in the old regime. Revolution in 1917 shattered the army and state. By early 1918 the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army was retreating into the Kuban on the First Ice March, a winter campaign of hunger, freezing weather and repeated fighting that became a foundational episode in White Army memory.

The novel keeps its focus on an ordinary soldier rather than on the generals who dominate conventional accounts. That perspective makes the collapse of imperial Russia visible through shortages, battlefield losses, desertion, political radicalisation and the simple problem of deciding who can still be trusted when institutions disappear.