—— Lieutenant Butorin Has an Idea ——15The lieutenant’s reflections were interrupted by Regimental
Commissar Agashin, who turned up in the company position.
The men got up and stood at attention, having spotted their
commissar before the company commander did. Having noticed
our movement, the lieutenant looked round and, seeing Agashin,
leapt easily into a trench and hurried to meet him.
Before the war Ivan Agashin had been a commissar in a
district junior officer training school in the frontier forces of the
Leningrad military district. An experienced political instructor,
he had packed a lot of living into his fortyplus years. Solidly
built, thickset, with an intelligent and determined face, a thick
head of hair which had already grown grey at the temples with
the stresses of war, Commissar Agashin astounded us with his
bubbling energy and a youthful enthusiasm uncharacteristic of his
age. Within the regiment they were fond of him; he was modest,
laconic, relaxed and fair. What he said was always powerful and
convincing. They liked him for his honesty and personal courage,
qualities which are particularly valued in a man. The troops were
ready at any minute to follow their commissar through fire and
water. I liked the way, possibly characteristic of Pskov, in which
he pronounced the word dolzhny [must] with an extra syllable
(‘dolozhny’). And when he said it, we knew we really ‘must’ – for
the Motherland, the Party, and the people, for the sake of our
past and future life. Especially now, in times of severe ordeal.
That was how we had been brought up from childhood, from the
schoolroom.
‘Commander of the 5th Company, Lieutenant Butorin!’ he
crisply reported. ‘The company is occupied with fitting out the
dugouts. The company includes regimental scouts who have just
got back from a mission. They are recovering, as has already
been reported to headquarters by telephone. Greetings, Comrade
Commissar!’
Saluting, Agashin extended his hand to Butorin. And, having
greeted us, the commissar gestured with his hand: ‘Sit down, lads!’
and said: