Non-commissioned officer V.I. Chapaev and his wife Pelageya Metlina during wound leave

**Non-Commissioned Officer V.I. Chapaev and His Wife Pelageya Metlina During Wound Leave, 1915**

In the spring of **1915**, amid the chaos of the Eastern Front, a wounded non-commissioned officer named **Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev** found himself back home for a brief respite from the trenches. Already decorated for bravery, Chapaev bore the marks of war on his body, but his spirit remained unbroken. His short leave granted him a rare moment of peace—and of love.

At his side was **Pelageya Metlina**, his wife, a strong and resourceful woman who had endured the long months of silence and uncertainty while he was at the front. Their reunion, though modest, was deeply human: they were just two souls clinging to one another in a world unraveling.

Photographs from this period, if they exist, might show a simple wooden house, a garden just beginning to bloom, and a young couple standing close—not posing for history, but simply **pausing in it**.

Later immortalized as a legendary Red commander during the Russian Civil War, **Chapaev in 1915 was still just a wounded soldier and a husband**, grateful for a few quiet days with the woman he loved before duty called him once more.

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