Fifty-seventh installment from the diary of my great-grandfather’s sister Alise, written during the First World War. When the diary starts, she is living just a few miles from the front lines of the Eastern Front, and is then forced to flee with her husband and two young daughters to her family’s house near Limbaži as the war moves even closer. Her third child, a son, was born there in February 1916. The family has now relocated (again) to a home near Valmiera, and the Russian Revolution is in full swing. For more background, see here, and click on the tag “diary entries†to see all of the entries that I have posted.
If there is mention of a recognizable historical figure and event, I will provide a Wikipedia link so that you can read more about the events that Alise is describing.
January 18, 1918
I was in town for a Bible study. Pastor Beldavs was earnest in his prayers to God. I know a strong place, where I can feel safe, even when the world is collapsing around us, I know what stands strong. And now – the revolutionaries want to forbid such study classes, this is their only way to try and divide people from the books they hold dear. They do not want to let people pray to God!!!