—— An Unexpected Meeting ——105During all the time I had free from medical procedures,
including sometimes at night, I would sit in the ward or at the
duty sister’s desk in the corridor, writing intensively. I wrote about
what I knew, what I had lived through and endured. I put down
everything, it seemed, as I knew best. I cited examples from the life
and work of our snipers – my friends and pupils. I wrote what it
took to be a successful sniper: how he should be clad and equipped
to keep him warm and make everything easy and convenient for
him. I mentioned the special booklets of cards for keeping a tally
of Nazi kills and the special passes for firing from beyond the usual
range – giving permission to rove through all of the divisional
sector when necessary. I mentioned the incorrect use of snipers
in defence, which sometimes happened, and their effective use in
battle.
When, in my view, the manuscript was ready, and had been
discussed and approved in the ward, proofread one final time
by me and reworked, and then typed up, I telephoned one of the
numbers given to me from the hospital director’s office.
Two of us set off for the Smolny together. Major Pyotr
Antonovich Glukhikh, who had been discharged from hospital by
then, was summoned to escort me to the Political Section of the
Leningrad Front. With his help at the Smolny we easily found the
man the manuscript had to be handed over to. And only then did
I sigh with relief, when I had passed it from my hands to his.
The same day in the same place, at the Political Section, I was
presented with a new inscribed watch – an exact copy of the one
found in my stomach, except that the inscription on the lid was
different: ‘From the Political Section of the Leningrad Front to
Sniper Nikolaev’. Along with the watch I received an invitation to
the first rally of frontline snipers at the Smolny.