Slutsk, Belarussia, March 18th., 1921Cpt. Janusz Lewandowska Nowak found his men crowded around the regimental quartermaster and his 'goulash cannon' (it was said that the mobile kitchens used by the army bore a resemblance to the breach-blocks of heavy guns, though Janusz never saw the resemblance himself, though the expression 'felt right', and so he often used it in a soldierly way). The quartermaster, Lt. Tadeusz, was a mousey man, gun-shy (the slightest shelling was liable to turn the 'mobile' kitchen into a pillbox, and food would often reach the men cold a a result of it being too far from the frontlines) - these flaws in themselves did not ingratiate him with most of the company, but he was a true 'army clerk', and particularly tight-fisted when it came to the distribution of rations, unmoved by threats or bribery. The smell of food in the air had enticed Janusz away from under the boughs of an oak tree, where he had been writing in his diary, and seeking support and something solid to rest on from the great roots of the old oak, which had thankfully been spared shelling - though here and there great tears and gouges marred the ancient bark of the tree, and small spatters and straggles of shrapnel often remained in these perforations.
A dispute had arisen - they often did where Taduesz was concerned, however, in this particular instance, it had arisen between Tadeusz and all of the men, all at once. It was a comical scene, but one Janusz inserted himself into to resolve.
Their company had taken a drubbing in the fighting for the town - they had marched in with one-hundred and seventeen men on March 8th. Janusz had marched in as one of the company's two lieutenants, under Captain Danilovski - both of his fellow officers had died in the fighting. His fellow officer, a young whippet of a man, Josif Korwin, had his jaw ripped off with a shell fragment, and 'walked away from the stretcher party carrying him to the dressing station. Their captain, Danilovski, had been hit in the stomach by a bullet on the 15th., which had been the last day of any real fighting before the Reds had finally broken out of the town under bombardment - he hadn't died all at once, and several times Janusz had received orders from him that day, propped against a piano in the house that had acted, with a pistol in one hand, and the other resting over his wound. When the Russians had begun their shelling to cover their withdrawal, Janusz had attempted to retrieve his Captain, only to find a shell had found the house first. He consoled himself with the thought that it had been most likely that the old badger had finally succumbed, rather than being buried by a shell - though he wouldn't be the first, or the last to suffer that fate. They had marched in a company of one hundred and seventeen, with a captain and two lieutenants. They had marched out with sixty-seven enlisted men, and one officer (Janusz himself), who had since been raised to acting Captain of his company (the 3rd. Company of the 118th. Infantry Regiment, 10th Infantry Division).
Tadeusz, ever gun-shy, had spent most of the final days of the battle in the rear, and as a result, was unaware of the drubbing the company had taken in the fighting. Naturally he had drawn rations for a company of nearly one-hundred and twenty men - instead he was faced with closer to seventy. The arguments that had broken out had only arose when Tadeusz, who had been quite liberal at least with food that day, had been quizzed about rations of tobacco and other luxuries that had been posthumously issued. When he had refused to issue the extra rations to the living men of the company, many had felt this was unfair. Janusz resolved the argument by ordering Tadeusz to issue the provisions anyway, '''These have drawn rations for the 3rd. Company? Well, we are the 3rd. Company - as its acting Captain you have my commission on it, those are your orders!'' - Tadeusz had grumbled, but relented - he would quarrel with common soldiers, but he was too much a creature of army bureacracy to challenge officers. He abandoned the kitchen to have its contents emptied by the men, who greedily filled canteens and plates with a sausage and haricot bean stew, covered with a thick film of flavorful grease. Double-rations meant that for once, each man ate enough.
When Tadeusz returned with the company's rations of tobacco, liquor, and so on, each man found he had nearly ten extra cigarettes, as well as an extra pint of beer. Janusz had not acted purely out a duty to pre-empt any disciplinary collapse, and to ensure his men recieved their fair share of rations - he laid claim to the particularly luxuriant (as army rations went) rations drawn for himself and his fellow officers - he pocketed thirty cigars, three bottles of Hungarian wine, and at least six-ounces of chocolate. He magnanimously presented each non-commissioned that remained to the company with a gift of two of the cigars each, and left his men to enjoy their meal, while he would return to the oak tree, enjoying his supper with a smoke, and some wine.
Belarussian Government Returns to Minsk, 20th March, 1921Parading down the streets, members of the Belarussian Rada return, lined by troops of the Polish-sponsored Army of Belarussian National Liberation.With the news of the final capture of Slutsk, and the reports of pro-Polish local uprisings that took place, it was finally announced on the 17th. of March that the Rada of the Democratic Republic of Belarus would relocate its operations to Minsk. This was confirmed when the first members of the Rada arrived the following day, and the first meeting of the Rada to take place in recaptured Minsk taking place on the 20th, where a unanimous vote was taken to express the official thanks of the Belarussian government and people to the people and Army of Poland, and there, ''Fierce, indomitable fighting spirit, and their sincere love for freedom.''.
Public response in Minsk was lukewarm, with many lining the streets to witness the spectacle - key support, however, has come from former supporters of the Kadets, Social Revolutionaries, and other political groups now particularly maligned under Soviet rule. The greatest support for the Poles in Belarus, somewhat ironically, has come from many of the leftist factions now opposed to Bolshevism. In a joint effort with the Belarussian government, the Polish government has begun an effort to collect and publish evidence of Soviet repression - the primary flair of most low-brow Polish newspapers has been for sometime the publishing of the most sordid of these stories. Within the left of Polish politics, many of the revelations relating to the extent of Bolshevik political and social repressions, have triggered a crisis of conciousness. While most of the PSP were already marginally opposed to Bolshevism, which was viewed as overly extreme, and more dangerous due to its open 'Great-Russian Chauvanism' (i.e, the Socio-Political prominence of Russians, or particularly the 'Moskali' European Russians), than for anything else. The damage, however, that Bolshevism could do - not only to Poland or its own people - but to the cause and reputation of the cause of the workers' revolution, and of socialism - is becoming obvious. Rosa Luksemburg, the leader of the PSP, has begun to reach out to fellow socialist leaders across the world, to organise the meeting of Fourth International, one free of 'crypto-reactionary' Bolshevik influences.