Anton was delighted to be standing in front of real soldiers who had actually taken part in combat. ‘Hey! You’ve fought before. How was it?’
From the look on Leo and Vlad’s faces, Anton’s question was one that they had been about to ask too, and were now hugely grateful, for once, that Anton had beaten them to it.
Leyosha spat as he kept digging, saying out of the corner of his mouth, ‘Please, friend, don’t ask silly questions.’
They worked steadily for the next two hours, with no visits from ‘Gerry’. The boys were very grateful on hearing it was time to eat. They put down their shovels and joined Leyosha and the others, as they took their places on the ground to eat the dinner of bread and boiled potatoes.
Leyosha took the opportunity to introduce his friend Maksim, who seemed a lot older than him. After shaking their hands, he stretched himself out on the ground, supporting himself on his elbows. He chewed his bread and threw out a question: ‘Do you know what they say about the Volga?’
Vlad shook his head.
Maksim answered his own question, ‘They say it mirrors the Russian soul.’
Having yet to see the Volga River, and feeling rather inadequate about life in general, Vlad could only smile politely at this. Still, he liked how it sounded.
Leyosha said rather proudly, ‘Maksim is a poet’.
Before the boys could react to this, Maksim put up one hand in protest. ‘Used to be. Used to be.’ He grinned. ‘Unfortunately, writing poetry doesn’t put food on the table so, now I’m a farmer.’
Leyosha winked and leant forward to whisper loudly, ‘His wife insists, you know. She slapped the poetry out of him, good and proper.’
Maksim laughed and put up his fist, pretending to be insulted, before explaining, ‘It’s his lovely sister I’m married to, for better or worse.’
Misha thought for a moment and then put two and two together: ‘You’re brothers-in-law.’
The two men beamed at him, Maksim saying, ‘Full marks to the red head!’
Sergeant Batyuk passed by with the corporal, deep in conversation. Amidst all the laughter, eating and chatter from the different groups around the area, each soldier found himself glancing at the two men, wondering what they were talking about. Anton sat up a little straighter, perhaps hoping that he would stick out from the crowd, as a soldier with great potential.
‘So,’ said Leyosha, ‘this will be your first time to do battle?’
Four heads nodded, though Anton’s nod wasn’t as obvious as the others. Vlad added, ‘To be honest, it will be our first time to see Stalingrad too. Have either of you been there before?’
It was Leyosha’s turn to nod. ‘Yes, I was lucky enough to work for a time in one of the factories. I’m telling you, comrades, you’ve never seen the likes of it. Imagine the most elegant apartment blocks stretching high into the sky, all painted pure white. Everywhere you look there are trees; they line the widest streets in the world. I’ve stood behind visitors and heard them remark on the huge amount of trees, flowers and grass, an unexpected sight for a large industrial city. In the centre is the Park of Sculptures, where I used to sit on my favourite bench to eat my lunch and watch the pretty girls walk by.’ He stopped to remember more. ‘I saw the most beautiful buildings, the universities, the opera house, the libraries – I mean, I was never the bookish type yet there was something about the city that made you feel better about yourself.
‘But you know what I loved the most about Stalingrad? It was such a mixture of all sorts of people, from ordinary workers, like myself, to all these fancy students, who would take the best tables in the cafes and sit for hours over their coffee, books all over the table, debating some philosophical or mathematical question.’
Maksim flicked bread crumbs off his trousers. ‘Sounds like the perfect place to be a poet.’
‘Well,’ sighed his friend. ‘You’ll find out soon enough, I suppose.’
Leo spoke, ‘We heard about the Luftwaffe bombing the city for two weeks solid.’
Leyosha swallowed the last piece of his bread. ‘I can’t picture an entire city in flames, and certainly not one as busy and modern as this one.’ He sniffed the air. ‘But that’s what we can smell as we sit here.’
The boys looked puzzled.
‘The smell of burning in the air?’ shrugged Leyosha. ‘That’s Stalingrad.’
TANYA LECTURES YURI
Tanya’s mother was a little bit strange. When Tanya introduced her to the two boys, she burst into tears and flung her arms around Peter, who looked very uncomfortable in her grip. Neither Yuri nor Peter had any idea how to make her let him go. They waited for Tanya to do something, say something, but she was busy gathering together the little bits of food they had. Fortunately, though, even she could not ignore the whimpering sounds her mother was making. Eventually she looked over and groaned, ‘Oh, Mother, for goodness sake, you’re choking him!’
Mrs Karmanova finished off the long hug with a great, smacking kiss on Peter’s left cheek, before finally freeing him to return quickly to Yuri’s side. Yuri was scared he was next, but all she did was stare at him for a few uncomfortable seconds and then turn to see what Tanya was doing.
The place was bigger than Yuri expected. The way Tanya had described their basement ‘home’ made him think it was no bigger than the coal cellar. There used to be an apartment block on top of it, but that was gone now. They had to climb up and around lots of broken bricks and then step down into what looked like nothing, only to find an opening big enough for them to squeeze through, one at a time. When they got through that, there was a rickety staircase that led down into the basement. The room was full of odd bits of furniture, with lots of small chairs, a few tables and even a couple of wardrobes.
‘Unfortunately,’ Tanya said, as he and Peter gazed around them, ‘there are no beds. Mother and I just stretch out on the floor, but there are plenty of blankets.’
Yuri was impressed. ‘It’s great, almost like a proper apartment.’
Tanya tilted her head. ‘Well, except for the fact there’s no kitchen, bedroom or bathroom. Really, it’s just one big living room.’
Yuri shrugged his indifference for what was missing; for him this room of assorted chairs was enough. ‘How did you find it?’
‘We were on way back from the market when the planes came. One moment the street was full of people strolling in the sunshine and ten seconds later everyone was running as fast as they could. Do you remember, Mama?’
Mrs Karmanova nodded, with a look of sadness on her face.
Tanya continued, ‘Well, we ran too. All I could think about was getting indoors. I’m sure we looked like terrified mice to the Nazis, as we pushed one another out of the way.’ She shivered a little. ‘I saw an old woman fall and nobody stopped to help her up again. Mother and I had to fight to get to her; people were trampling all over her, in stupid panic. Somehow I pulled her to her feet, just as Mother saw that the front door to this building was open. Only I couldn’t get the woman to come with us. She kept shouting about her dog, or maybe it was her cat. It was impossible to hear her, what with the sound of the planes, the explosions and the screaming. So I just grabbed Mother’s hand and we made for the door.’
Gesturing to the boys to choose a chair, she brought over a plate of dry bread, torn into small pieces and handed it to Yuri to share them out, while she curled herself up into a tatty old armchair. She was in the mood to talk. ‘The noise was ferocious; I thought I was going deaf. Actually, I thought I was going blind too, but I think that was just fear.’ She reached over for a piece of bread. ‘We’ve talked about this at work, you know, that fear is the strongest emotion. It’s more powerful than happiness, sadness or even anger. Do you agree? I believe it can make a heart stop beating.’