The Hussar’s Smile

A thousand pardons, ladies and gentlemen. If you decide to bestow your noble attention upon my life story, which is here presented for your judgment, I wish to inform you in advance: this work was written by me, Lieutenant Belsky of the Akhtyrsky Hussar Regiment, with the aim of immortalizing the glorious events that happened to me at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and at the request of my friend Helen, who for some reason prefers to answer to the nickname “gothess.” I wish to warn you beforehand that in my writings you will find neither Sodomite abominations, which nowadays are called political correctness, nor any kindly attitude toward Russia’s enemies, labeled cosmopolitanism and tolerance. Therefore, I express the hope that my memoirs may interest you. I have the honor, gentlemen. Lieutenant of the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Division of the Akhtyrsky Hussar Regiment, Count Arkady Nikolaevich Belsky.