"By and for Disabled Veterans": An Alternative History of Russia's Great War and Revolution

Abstract

Georges Grosz’s paintings of wounded flesh and absurd machinery have become part of our collective imagination, and filmmakers, even in the former USSR, long ago helped establish the disabled veteran as one of the archetypes of the Great War era.1 Two of the war’s great combatants—France and Russia—stand out, however, for the relative lack of attention paid to their disabled veteran communities.2 Indeed, compared to the rich historiographies on veterans in Germany, Great Britain, the United States, Italy, Belgium, and Australia, the contrast is striking.3 That has led to the unfortunate overshadowing of the experience of more than 1.14 million ex-servicemen of