The Letters of An Austro-Hungarian Soldier 1917-1918

Abstract

The article deals with the feelings of a Slovene soldier from the First World War which can be discerned from a number of his preserved letters. They reveal the feelings of anxiety that prevailed in the front lines of battle. Nature in the soldier's letters is diametrically opposed to the man-slaughter on the front lines. It endures and is the only thing in his surroundings he speaks of in superlatives. The fil rouge of the letters, however, is the love declared by soldier Leo Mežan (the hero of this story) for Miss Joža Kobal, whom he kept up a correspondence with. Leo was a very emotional man whose love of life was to be admired. Yet he was not destined to survive the fall of the state for which he had fought for so uprightly and which demanded of him the ultimate act of self-sacrifice. He died in July, 1918.