A Russian in Japan

On 8 February 1904 the Japanese attacked the Russian fleet in southern Manchuria, beginning the Russo-Japanese War.
Many letters from Russian prisoners-of-war in Japan ended up in the archive of the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party (PSR) and are now kept at the IISH.
Soldier Makar Ivanov writes this colorful letter to his superior: "Your Honor, I am very grateful to those people who taught me how to write and hold a pen. I spend my time writing and reading.... Your Honor, our life is very dull. An hour seems to be a day and a day seems to be a week.... no matter where you look, it is bad everywhere...."