Здогаднїк реґрута
The Journal of a Conscript

Summary/Abstract: “The Journal of a Conscript” – Records, or notes of a conscript, is a kind of diary kept by Osif Kolosnjaji, a tailor from Ruski Krstur, first as an army soldier of the Kingdom of Serbia, and then as a military reservist of the army before and at the beginning of the Second World War. His description of the life of the army and the reservists is a testimony of a bad organization, military education, discipline, armament and material base of the Army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The military unit in which O. Kolosnjaji was based departed from Sombor and, after a ten-day “march” it was captured by German SS troops and all were taken to German camps. In June 1941, those from Hungary and Hungarian Occupation Zone returned home from the camps. Osif recorded very precisely, both on his departure and on his return, the places they had passed through, giving only sporadically short comments. He gave brief descriptions of the everyday life of the inmates, without giving out his personal feelings, attitudes about the war, life in captivity. He mentions many people who were with him, especially Ruthenians from Ruski Krstur and other Ruthenian places, which greatly enriches the database on the participation of the Ruthenians in the Second World War. After his return from German camps, he was mobilized twice, as a reservist of the Hungarian occupying army, and then, at the beginning of 1944, he was sent to the Eastern Front as a Hungarian soldier where he took part in many military operations. He kept recording with great precision the details of the places through which they passed and where operations were conducted, especially the names and surnames of the Ruthenians with whom he was or whom he at least met. The horrors of war can only be guessed between the lines of his telegraphic notes. “The Journal of a Conscript” is a significant document that testifies to the “path” that O. Kolosnjaji passed first as a soldier of the Army of the Kingdom of Serbia, a German camps inmate, a Hungarian soldier (honvéd) on the Eastern Front, then a war casualty and again as a Hungarian soldier, and at the end as a captive of the Red Army, which makes a huge part of Europe. Such, or similar, path was experienced by many other Ruthenians who were mentioned here, as well as others who were not mentioned in these records. The journal is also a significant source for the history of the Ruthenian language and orthography.

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