—— Red Army Sniper ——100‘The major’s on his feet! There’s something up... But it’s not
surprising now that the general staff of the Leningrad Front is here.’
The colonel said something to the duty major and presented a
document. The other nodded in assent.
‘I’ll go and report,’ said one of ‘my’ colonels and went up the
stairs somewhere.
‘We’ll go too, Senior Sergeant. We’ll wait for a bit in the
reception room. They’ll soon call us in,’ said the other colonel.
We waited about seven minutes, no more.
‘Well, let’s go, Nikolaev,’ said the colonel. I got up, smoothed
down the creases in my tunic behind the belt, patted my hair down
somehow, and stepped through the wide open door.
We found ourselves in a spacious office. I took a look around.
Between two windows against the far wall stood a large desk
covered with green cloth. On it lay a massive malachite writing
set. Along the walls were glass shelves filled with books and above
them portraits of Marx, Engels and Lenin. By the table were two
leather armchairs and, between them, a small polished table.
The occupant of the office stood leaning over the table and
carried on writing something on a pad. He looked at us, silently
beckoned us to come closer and at the same time, without
discarding his pen, which continued to write, he clearly indicated
that we should wait a second and keep quiet. Having finished his
writing, he straightened up, placed his pen on the black inkstand
and said, ‘Do excuse me. I’m finished now. So, you made it.’
‘Yes, sir! Your order has been carried out, Andrey Alexandrovich.
Have we your permission to leave?’
‘Yes, thank you, Comrade Colonel. You are excused.’ Then,
turning to me, he said calmly: ‘Well, greetings, Comrade Nikolaev.
Have a seat here and make yourself comfortable.’ And he extended
his hand to me.
I shook it and suddenly, quite inappropriately, I stood to
attention and blurted out:
‘Greetings! Thank you, Comrade.. .’ and I stopped short,
not knowing what to say further. I did not have the right to call