—— Red Army Sniper ——116only just been created in besieged Leningrad. And she repeated
every song twice, in response to calls for an encore. We would not
have let her off the stage if the conductor, Vladimir Koralli, had
not announced: ‘Don’t worry, comrades! Klavdia Ivanovna will
sing some more, I give you my firm promise. But in the meantime
you are invited into other premises, where we will continue our
festive evening.’ Everyone rose regretfully and went into the ‘other
prem i s e s’.
On the way we, the group from the 21st Division, were
apprehended ‘for a minute’ and invited into one of the other halls.
There we were lined up and a command was read out: ‘The Political
Department of the Leningrad Front awards military weaponry,
inscribed snipers’ rifles, to Comrades.. .’ And we, snipers Dobrik,
Karpov, Rakhmatullin and I, were presented with inscribed snipers’
rifles with a metal plate on the butt and an engraved inscription.
I read the one on my rifle: ‘Presented to Nazi exterminator, sniper
Nikolaev, Y. A., from the Political Department of the Leningrad
Front, 22. 2. 42’.
‘We serve the Soviet Union!’ we responded in chorus to the
greeting of the Political Department representative. Kneeling
down and holding the rifles with our arms outstretched, we kissed
them and swore that from these weapons we would target the
Nazis accurately and in large numbers – until complete victory
over the hated enemy was achieved.
Excited by what we had just experienced, we headed for the
mysterious ‘other premises’. They turned out to be a huge hall
where music was thundering out.
‘Comrades, you are invited to the table!’
Indeed, to hear such a phrase during the siege was something
you could only dream of. In the large hall, from wall to wall, long
tables had been set out in the shape of a trident and covered with
snowwhite tablecloths. And on the tables! Plates of real red beet,
cabbage and potato salad at two or three spoonfuls per head.
Two slices of bread spread with sprats and black caviar. Bread,
chocolates, cigarettes, bottles of vodka, beer and lemonade –