—— An Unexpected Meeting ——99every button till it shone. And now everything was ready. We went
down to the exit.
A black GAZM1 saloon car from the Gorky automobile works
was standing there. The back door opened and somebody called
out, ‘Get in, please. We’ve been waiting for a long time.’
I struggled to climb in and sat down. Beside me sat the two
colonels already familiar to me. We greeted one another like old
acquaintances. ‘Let’s go,’ one of them ordered the driver. ‘Step on
it, but don’t shake the car too much.’
Darting off, the car sped confidently along the snowbound,
frozen streets of Leningrad. As is customary for a scout, I looked
out the side windows along the way and tried to remember some
distinctive landmarks. ‘Please may I ask, where are we going’
‘What a curious fellow! But don’t you worry. You’ll soon find
out everything.’
The car stopped. Everything around was under a camouflage
net. ‘When have I been here? When did I see this before? Why
do I know, but don’t remember?’ These thoughts ran feverishly
through my head. ‘Two pavilions, so simple and expressive in
form, of excellent proportions... It’s the front entrance to the
Smolny Palace!’
‘It’s the Smolny, comrades!’ I blurted out with relief. ‘I remember
this building from pictures and films. It’s the Smolny.’
‘What, you recognised it? Well done! Have you had occasion to
visit it before?’
Both colonels smiled, seeing me embarrassed and pleased at
the same time.
‘No, Sir. Never before. But here, in front of the façade, there
ought to be a statue of Lenin. Where is it?’
‘Covered with sandbags, protected from artillery fire. As soon
as we get the Germans out of Leningrad, we’ll bring him out again!
Let’s go, comrades.’
Climbing up the broad staircase, we went past the duty officer,
who saluted us, and two Red Army men who were standing with
machine guns by the entrance to the building.