—— Red Army Sniper ——208‘My colleague was upset that he didn’t have his camera with
him. He has it with him today and he’d like to photograph you as
a memento,’ said Yevgeni Alexandrovich.
A while time later I received a letter from my former regimental
commissar Ivan Ilyich Agashin in Leningrad.
‘Why aren’t you writing anything about yourself? One has to
find out from New Zealand journalists where you are and what’s
happened to you.. .’ Agashin wrote that, as a participant in the
Civil War and the Great War for the Fatherland, he was asked to
meet a journalist from New Zealand, who had come to Leningrad.
While talking about the siege of Leningrad, Agashin mentioned
the snipers’ movement and my name.
‘I met Mr. Yevgeni Nikolaev in Sochi,’ said the journalist.
It happens...
Several months later I received a parcel from Moscow. Inside
was a letter, two clippings from a foreign newspaper, and two
photos.
Dear Yevgeni Adrianovich! I am sending you two
articles published in the New Zealand Herald following
conversations with you in Sochi. The two photos will
remind you of it. Thank you for your fraternal assistance.
With best wishes, Yevgeni Pozdnyakov.
The articles were translated for me. One of them was entitled
‘Russian’s amazing story’, in which he outlined our conversation in
Sochi. Everything was correct, with no distortions or fabrications.
The second article was devoted to Agashin and the amazing
coincidence that we knew each other.
Well, I would have to fulfil my promise and send my own book
to New Zealand as soon as it came out. Let them know there how
we defended Leningrad against the Nazis, how we withstood the
900 days of the blockade, and what effort and sacrifices it cost us.
May they too fight for peace throughout the whole world...