—— Red Army Sniper ——68for her interesting lessons, plays in German produced with her
assistance on the school stage, and reading outside class, would
I know German as well as I do now? How handy it came in on
reconnoitring missions! And it wasn’t just the German – everything
I picked up at school, how useful it turned out to be at the front!
I’ll go back to Tambov after the war and the first thing I’ll do is go
back to school and bow at the feet of my teachers – Rosa Izaakovna
Zilbergolts in chemistry, Natalia Porfiryevna Ignatyeva in maths
and physics, Serafima Petrovna Gavrilovskaya in literature and the
headmaster, Vladimir Vsyovolodovich Khorkov, who served in the
Soviet–Finnish War. And Professor Yaroshevsky in history. How
attentive and observant he taught us to be! He would ask: ‘You’ve
been coming to this school for many years, so how many steps are
there on our staircase? How many windows are there along the
street front?’ And we didn’t know. But it would be good to come
to school with a medal ‘For Valour’ like Headmaster Khorkov
... If I could only snuff out that bastard over there. Where is he?
Fallen through the earth, has he? Is he going to show up? Or is he
counting on me freezing before he does? No, enough tomfoolery!
I’ll stop thinking of other things. I’ve heard that’s how people
freeze, daydreaming... No more pleasant thoughts! I need to get
angry now, so I don’t freeze! And I’m getting angry, angry at that
cautious bandit who has once again not taken a single shot today.
Has he sensed something, perhaps? Is he scared? But the winter
day is short...
I had long been clenching and unclenching the fingers of my
right hand; they had frozen and didn’t want to bend. And it was so
quiet, as if the entire defence force knew about our duel and was
keenly listening to find out who would fire first. And the German
must be looking for me. I had not taken a shot for over a week and
he had noticed that and was being careful. I didn’t have time to
complete my thought, when something seemed to prod me in the
very heart: ‘Watch out!’
And with good reason: the head of a Nazi had appeared from
out of a trench above the snowy covering. All at once I felt hot.