The Fortune Teller of the Don
In December 1942, during Operation Little Saturn on the Don front, the Soviet soldier Lev Ivanovič Zhdanov found a wounded Italian Bersagliere among the dry sunflowers and did not shoot: that face reminded him of Caravaggio’s The Fortune Teller. Beside him in the snow lay a prayer book printed in Bergamo – a story of war, art and humanity that survived hatred.
