Burning Moscow

57 Stole a Floating Life for a Half-Day

Maybe because Zhukov greeted him personally, the new uniform was delivered soon. The person who came to deliver the uniform was actually Lieutenant Colonel Kudrin, the Minister of Logistics.

He walked in with a set of khaki men’s winter uniforms in his hand, stood upright in front of Zhukov and saluted, and then respectfully reported: “Comrade General, I have brought the uniform you want.”

“Give it to Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina, the military uniform is for her.” Zhukov said without looking up.

“Yes.” Kudrin looked at me standing aside somewhat unexpectedly, but he handed me the new uniform as ordered, and then saluted Zhukov and left.

Kudrin walked for a long time, I still stood there stupidly in my military uniform, not knowing whether I should find a place to change clothes; I should wait here to see if Zhukov gave me any instructions. Maybe it was because there was no sound in the room. Zhukov raised his head and looked around. He found that I was still standing like a wooden stake. He couldn’t help but smiled and said to me, “Stupid girl, stand stupid. What are you doing there? Hurry up and find a place to put on the new military uniform. Your outfit looks really awkward now.”

“Yes.” I hurriedly agreed, and then hugged my clothes and walked out of the room.

After arriving outside the room, I asked the ensign who was on duty at the door: “Is there any place to change clothes?”

He stood up and pushed open the door of a room next to me, and said to me, “Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, this is our lounge. You can change clothes in it. Please come in!” I nodded gratefully at him. Opened the door and walked in.

The furnishings in the lounge are very simple. There is only a small wooden bed for the officer on duty to sleep, not even a table or chair. He closed the door, took off his old uniform, and put on the new uniform that he only got. Although it’s men’s, it still fits well on the upper body. From the bottom of my heart, among the military uniforms of World War II, my favorite is the uniform of the German army, especially the uniform of the SS, which is even more beautiful and messy.

I wore a brand-new military uniform without a rank, and stood in front of Zhukov again. He looked at me up and down for a long time, and finally shook his head and said: “I don’t look good without a skirt. It seems that female soldiers should still wear skirts.”

I did not answer his question directly, but instead asked: “Comrade General, I am your special commissioner sent to the Sixteenth Army. Now that I have recovered from my injury and discharged from the hospital, should I go back there and report directly?”

“No hurry, no hurry.” Zhukov raised his hand and looked at his watch, and said, “It is past one five in the afternoon. I will give you a good rest during the half-day vacation. I will report to the Sixteenth Army early tomorrow morning.”

“Yes.” I agreed very simply, then paused for a while and asked again: “Where do I live today? Also, is there a service agency nearby? I need to buy some personal daily necessities.”

“Of course I still live in the same place. I have kept your room for you. As for the military service agency, there should be one. I will find someone to take you there.” He picked up the phone again and dialed A number, first reported her name, and then said to the other party: “Who is there today for rest? Okay, let her accompany Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina to purchase some daily necessities. Also, prepare 20 rubles. All of the cash is worth one ruble.”

Putting down the phone, he said to me again: “I have already arranged. You first go back to the room and put things away, and then go to the gate of the headquarters, where there will be a female soldier named Nina waiting for you. ”

“Understood, Comrade General.” I saluted him very gratefully, and walked out of the room with the changed uniform.

I placed my things and went to the gate of the headquarters and saw a truck with a tarp parked outside. I looked around to see where the female warrior waiting for me was. Suddenly I heard a timid voice asking behind him: “Excuse me, are you Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina?”

I looked back and saw a black-haired young female soldier standing behind her. She was wearing a men’s military uniform that was obviously several sizes larger, looking at me uneasily. I quickly replied: “Yes, I am Oshanina. Are you Nina?”

“Hello, comrade lieutenant colonel.” She stood up and saluted me and replied respectfully, “I am Nina, and I am ordered to accompany you to purchase daily necessities.” Then she took out a stack of banknotes from her jacket pocket and handed it over. “This is cash for you, please tap it.”

I took the banknote, but didn’t even order it, so I put it directly in my pocket, and then took her hand and asked, “Do you know where there is a military service agency nearby?”

“Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel.” She already replied restrainedly.

“Don’t be so nervous,” I comforted her: “Don’t always call me the lieutenant colonel. Let’s call me Lida by my nickname.”

“Yes.”

“Okay, next, it’s time to take me there to buy daily necessities.”

“Lida,” Nina suggested, “There’s nothing for sale in the Military Service. If you want to buy something, you should buy it in the city.”

“Go to the city?” When she said that, I couldn’t help but hesitate. It’s so far from the city and there are no buses. How can I get there? And now it is during the war, even if there was a bus line that went here, it is estimated to be out of service now.

Hearing my worries, she comforted me and said: “You don’t have to worry about transportation, we can take a ride to the city.” Then she took my hand and walked out and went straight to the door. In front of the truck outside.

Seeing us approaching, the door of the cab opened, and a tall male sergeant with a baby face jumped out from it, and said to us a little impatiently: “Hey, I said the two ladies, can you Can’t hurry up, if it’s late, it will be dark in the city.”

“Got it, talkative guy.” Nina replied, pulling me into the cab.

The car started moving. The driver glanced at me and asked Nina, “Who is this girl? I haven’t seen it before. Is it your new female colleague?”

“Yes, my name is Lida, I am Nina’s new colleague.” I saw Nina was about to introduce my identity to him, and I hurried to answer first, and secretly grabbed her hand and shook it gently, beckoning not to Tell the driver of my true identity.

“Well, yes, she just came today.” Nina was very cooperative to help me lie.

“Are you also an operator?” The driver asked again. Hearing what he said, I realized that Nina turned out to be a telegraph operator in the headquarters. I have only heard of female telegraphers in the front army headquarters, but because they have been working in the basement communication room, and I have not had the opportunity to enter such a confidential place, I have never met them.

“This is a military secret, I won’t tell you.” Nina’s tone contained a spoiled element, and people could guess that they were lovers at first glance.

The driver held the steering wheel with one hand, and reached out to me with the other hand, and proactively introduced myself to me: “My name is Agefu, a Moscow native, and I am glad to meet you.” I politely reached out and gave him a gentle touch. Hold it and let go.

On the next journey, the two have been flirting. This light bulb of me is very interesting. I looked at the two people who were standing by and smiled, then tilted their heads to one side, and began to close their eyes to rest. I didn’t expect to fall asleep unconsciously after a while.

I don’t know how long it took, the car stopped, and Nina shook me up and said it was somewhere. I asked in a daze, “Where is this place?”

“This is Yugaza Batnaya.”

“Yugaza Batnaya?” I was stunned when I heard this familiar place name. Didn’t I say to go shopping in the city? Even if I didn’t go to Arbat Street or near Pushkin Square, how could I run to the red line subway? Is the terminal coming? You know, even in later generations, this place can only be regarded as the fringe of the city, not to mention that it is still in the early forties.

I pushed the car door reluctantly and got out of the car first. When Nina got out of the car, Agifu said loudly to her: “I’ll go to the warehouse to get supplies first. Two hours later, I will wait for you here.”

“I know, I know. When did you become so long-winded, go and feed it.” Nina waved to him, then came over and took my hand and said, “Go, I’ll accompany you to buy it. Daily necessities.”

The snow on the ground is very thick. Several cleaners are shoveling snow under the sidewalk trees. The high snow piles separate the motorway from the sidewalk. We walked slowly along the sidewalk, chatting as we walked.

“Nina, where are you from?”

“I am from Kiev.”

“Kiev?!” I said in surprise: “So you are Ukrainian! Kiev has been occupied by German devils, are your family still there?”

“Yes, my parents and a younger brother have stayed in that city. I don’t know when we can call back.” When it came to this, Nina couldn’t help but look sad.

Seeing that Nina’s tears were about to fall, I regretted that I shouldn’t talk about asking her family. I quickly patted her on the shoulder and comforted her: “Nina, don’t worry, your family will be fine. . I assure you that at most two years, we will drive the German devils out of our borders.”

“Well, Lida, you are the commander, I believe what you said.” Nina wiped away her tears, sniffed loudly, and suddenly asked, “What daily necessities are you planning to buy?”

I was taken aback for a moment, and then came back to my senses immediately, and said quickly: “I want to buy toothpaste, toothbrushes, towels, soap, and needles and thread.”

“There is a lack of material in Moscow nowadays, and there are some short-selling goods that you can’t buy even if you have money. But now that we are here, we can only try our luck.

We walked along the sidewalk that had just been shoveled through the snow, paying close attention to the shops on the side of the road. Along the way, most shops had their doors closed and sandbags stacked on the windows, some were full, and some were half exposed. After finally seeing a shop with the door still open, Nina stepped forward and pushed the door and walked in. I hurriedly followed and entered.

This shop is quite big, with more than 100 square meters, and half of the counters for daily necessities and food are sold. There are many people shopping inside, and there are long lines on both sides.

Nina looked at the wall clock on the wall, and then said to me, “Lida, it’s late and the shop is about to close. Let’s stand in a row, otherwise, we won’t be able to buy anything.”

“Well, okay.” I thought for a moment, and said, “I’m queuing at the food court, and you go to the daily necessities to queue.”

“Understood,” she agreed, and ran to the back of the department store line to queue. I was also honestly standing on the side of the food area, behind a short old lady.

After standing in line for a while, I suddenly heard Nina whispering to me from behind, and quickly turned to look at her. She asked me in a low voice, “What brand of toothpaste do you buy?”

“Just buy Colgate.” I answered her without thinking.

“What?!” She raised her voice unconsciously, and immediately met with a few old ladies around her. Then she lowered her voice and asked me: “What did you just say? I didn’t hear it clearly. Please repeat it again. .”

My cold sweat is almost gone. Although Colgate can be bought in all stores and convenience stores in Moscow, but at this time, it hasn’t come out yet. So I hurriedly concealed it and said, “Whatever brand will do, or else, just buy the “Moscow” brand of toothpaste.”

The line of food shopping was slowly moving forward. After two more people, it was my turn. Seeing the goal in sight, I felt relieved. The salesperson began to receive the old lady in front of me, and she asked blankly and mechanically: “What do you need?”

The old lady really didn’t treat the salesperson as an outsider, and she whispered a lot of things, such as 100 grams of bread, 50 grams of sausage, and 20 grams of butter. The salesperson was also very patient, took out the things she wanted from the counter, cut a part, and weighed out the same amount of food with a balance, put it in a paper pocket, and handed it to the old lady.

sent away the old lady, and finally it was my turn to stand at the counter and buy something. When the salesperson asked me with the same expression, I immediately answered: “I want a bag of rusks, two hundred grams of sausage, two eggs, and four tomatoes.”

The salesperson swiftly put the things I wanted to buy into a paper pocket, then put it on the counter, and dryly quoted me: “It’s thirty-five kopecks in total.” I grabbed a paper currency that I had already held in my hand. Passed it to her. Seeing that she was about to receive the banknotes, she did not expect the electric bell in the store to rang at this time.

As soon as the electric bell rang, the salesperson made a completely unexpected move. She lifted the paper bag on the counter and placed it under the counter, and then said coldly to me: “Comrade soldier, I’m sorry. We’re off work.” After speaking, she turned around and went back to the back room to change clothes.

I was stunned there holding a ruble bill, and cursed in my heart: It’s not too late to get off work after you take my money. But watching the people lining up behind me disperse without complaint, I knowingly did not argue with the salesperson, because I know that Lao Maozi is too rigid in his work, and he is so rigid in everything, and it is not the first time I have encountered this. This situation is somewhat experienced.

But fortunately, Nina bought all the daily necessities I need, which is a great blessing in misfortune.

We both came out of the store and walked back along the way we came. There were two young people hugging and kissing under the corner of the street. As they passed by, I couldn’t help but look back a few more times. I remember when I first arrived in Moscow in 2002, in public, you could see young couples kissing passionately everywhere. This could be regarded as a street scene. Unexpectedly, in 2003, Russia promulgated a law declaring that kissing in public is illegal. Overnight, such scenes disappeared from streets, stations, shopping malls and other public places.

Maybe I turned my head too many times, which aroused Nina’s curiosity. She also looked back and asked me: “Lida, what do you always look back at? Are you looking at the posters on the wall?”

The poster on the wall? ! I took a closer look, no, on the wall behind the young couple, there was a huge poster showing a female militia holding a rifle, and it was written in black: “You can win with two sides. Go behind the enemy and drive the enemy out of the country!”

Isn’t this the few words I said when I spoke to the guerrillas How come they appear in the posters? Nina looked at the poster and said with emotion: “These two sentences are really good, they are really level, and people will have a feeling of passion when they hear it.”

“Nina!” There was a shout from a distance. We followed the sound and saw Agefu’s truck parked on the opposite side of the road. He opened the door of the cab and leaned out to greet us.

Nina and I stepped on the snowdrift and came from the sidewalk to the motorway. When we were about to cross the road, a black car drove quickly in the distance. I pulled Nina to a stop, ready to wait for the car to pass by before crossing the road. Unexpectedly, the car stopped five or six steps away from us, and the driver in military uniform gestured to us inside, indicating that we would pass first.

I waved to the driver gratefully, took Nina and ran to the opposite side of the road. Nina opened the door of the cab and climbed up. While I was waiting for her, I looked at the black car again. The car passed by our truck. I accidentally found a bearded man in a gray coat sitting on the back seat. Although I only saw one side, I felt a familiar feeling. I couldn’t remember who it was in a hurry. .

The car started and drove towards the front headquarters outside the city. I frowned and thought hard, thinking back to who the person I saw just now, why is it so familiar? Suddenly they heard the laughter of Nina and Agifu, and the two yelled: “…for the motherland! For Stalin! Go ahead!!!”

Stalin! Upon hearing this name, I suddenly remembered who I saw just now. That’s right, that man is Stalin!