It had been three months since Bruno sent Ludwig home. During this time, the Volga region was cleansed of the Red Menace that had infected it. The result of which was tens of thousands of casualties. Primarily civilians were affected, as those remnants of the Red Army that cowardly hid in the Volga region did so while taking up residence in towns and holding the civilians inside at gunpoint.
It was a hostage situation to put it simply, but Bruno did not negotiate with rebels. And quite frankly, he felt unusually bad about the deaths that occurred after shelling the Red Army and their positions within the innocent villages.