'You're a scoundrel,' said Darensky. He saw the colonel take a step towards him. Forestalling the man's angry threats, he shouted: 'My surname's Darensky. Lieutenant-Colonel Darensky – inspector of the Operations Section of Stalingrad Front Headquarters. I'm ready to repeat what I said to you before the commander of the Front and before a military tribunal.'
In a voice full of hatred, the colonel said: 'Very well, Lieutenant-Colonel Darensky. You will be hearing from me.'
He stalked away. Some prisoners came up and dragged their comrade to one side. After that, wherever Darensky turned, he kept meeting the eyes of the prisoners. It was as though something attracted them to him.
As he walked slowly back to his jeep, he heard a mocking voice say: 'So the Fritzes have found a defender!'
Soon Darensky was on his way again. But they were held up by another column of prisoners being marched towards them, the Germans in grey uniforms, the Rumanians in green.
Darensky's fingers were trembling as he lit a cigarette. The driver noticed this out of the corner of his eye and said: 'I don't feel any pity for them. I could shoot any one of them just like that.'
'Fine,' said Darensky. 'But you should have shot them in 1941 instead of taking to your heels like I did.'
He said nothing more for the rest of the journey.
This incident, however, didn't open his heart. On the contrary, it was as though he'd quite exhausted his store of kindness.
What an abyss lay between the road he was following today and the road he had taken to Yashkul through the Kalmyk steppe. Was he really the same man who, beneath an enormous moon, had stood on what seemed to be the last corner of Russian earth? Who had watched the fleeing soldiers and the snake-like necks of the camels, tenderly making room in his heart for the poor, for the weak, for everyone whom he loved?
29
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The command-post of the tank corps lay on the outskirts of the village. Darensky drove up to the hut. It was already dark. They'd obviously only recently moved in: soldiers were unloading suitcases and mattresses from a truck and signallers were installing telephones.
The soldier on sentry-duty reluctantly went inside and called for the duty-officer. He came reluctantly out onto the porch. Like all duty-officers, he looked at the new arrival's epaulettes rather than his face.
'Comrade Lieutenant-Colonel, the corps commander's only just got back from visiting one of the brigades. He's having a rest. He can see you later.'
'Report to the corps commander that Lieutenant-Colonel Darensky has arrived. Is that clear?'
The officer sighed and went back into the hut.
A minute later he came out again and called: 'This way please, comrade Lieutenant-Colonel.'
Darensky climbed the steps up onto the porch and saw Novikov coming to meet him. For a few moments they just looked at one another, laughing.
'So we meet again,' said Novikov.
It was a good meeting.
Two intelligent heads bent over the map, just as they had in the old days.
'I'm advancing as fast as I once retreated,' said Novikov. 'Even faster on this bit of the course.'
'And this is winter,' said Darensky. 'Just wait till the summer!'
'I know.'
It was wonderful to study the map with Darensky. He grasped things immediately and he was interested in details that no one except Novikov ever seemed to notice.
Lowering his voice, as though he were about to come out with some personal confidence, Novikov said: 'Of course we have scouts in the zone of operations. Of course we have a co-ordinated system of reference points for the terrain. Of course we liaise with other arms of the service. But the operations of every other arm are subordinated to one god – the T-34. She's the queen!'
Darensky was familiar with the maps of the other military operations then in progress. He told Novikov about the campaign in the Caucasus, the contents of the intercepted conversations between Hitler and Paulus, and about the movement of General Fretter-Piko's artillery units.
'You can already see the Ukraine through the window,' said Novikov. He pointed to the map. 'I think I'm nearer than anyone else. But Rodin's corps is right on my heels.'
Then he pushed the map aside and said: 'Well, that's enough tactics and strategy for one day.'
'How's everything else?' asked Darensky. 'Still the same?'
'No,' said Novikov, 'very different indeed.'
'You haven't got married, have you?'
'I'm expecting to any day. She should be here soon.'
'Well, well,' said Darensky. 'Another good man gone. But I congratulate you with all my heart! As for me, I'm still single.'
'How's Bykov?' asked Novikov abruptly.
'Bykov? He's surfaced with Vatutin. Doing the same job.'
'He's a tough bastard, isn't he?'
'A rock.'
'To hell with him,' said Novikov. He shouted in the direction of the other room: 'What's up, Vershkov? Have you decided to starve us to death? And you can call the commissar. We'll all eat together.'
There was no need to call Getmanov. He opened the door, looked sadly at Novikov and said: 'What's all this, Pyotr Pavlovich? Rodin seems to have overtaken us. You watch it – he'll beat us to the Ukraine yet!'
He turned to Darensky.
'See what a pass things have come to, Lieutenant-Colonel? Now we're more afraid of our neighbours than of the enemy. You're not a neighbour, are you? No, I can see – you're an old comrade.'
'You seem to be obsessed with the Ukrainian question,' said Novikov.
Getmanov reached out for a tin of food and said in a tone of mock threat:
'Very well, Pyotr Pavlovich. But remember this! I won't marry you and your Yevgenia Nikolaevna till we're on Ukrainian soil. The Lieutenant-Colonel's my witness.'
He held out his glass towards Novikov. 'Anyway, let's drink to his Russian heart!'
'That's a good toast,' said Darensky in all sincerity.
Remembering Darensky's dislike of commissars, Novikov said: 'Yes, comrade Lieutenant-Colonel, it's a long time since we last met.'
Getmanov glanced at the table. 'We've got nothing to offer our guest – only a few tins. The cook barely has time to light the stove before we move our command-post. We're on the go day and night. You should have come round before the offensive began. Now we only stop for one hour in every twenty-four. We'll soon be overtaking ourselves.'
'You might at least give us a fork,' said Novikov to his orderly.
'You told us not to unload all that,' he replied.
Getmanov began giving his impressions of the newly-liberated territory.
'The Russians and the Kalmyks are like day and night,' he began.
'The Kalmyks danced to the Germans' tune. They even got issued with green uniforms. They roamed over the steppes, rounding up our men. And just think of what they've been given by Soviet power! They were just a crowd of ragged, illiterate, syphilitic nomads. But it's no good -you can't change a leopard's spots. Even during the Civil War the vast majority were on the side of the Whites. And just think how much money we spent on all those weeks dedicated to the friendship of nations. We'd have done better to spend it on building another tank factory in Siberia. I met one young woman, a Don Cossack, who told me what she went through during these months. No, there's no doubt about it – the Kalmyks have betrayed the confidence of the Russians. That's what I'm going to say in my report to the Military Soviet.'
He turned to Novikov.
'Do you remember what I said about Basangov? My intuition as a Communist didn't let me down. But don't you be offended, Pyotr Pavlovich. That's not meant as a reproach. Do you think I've never made mistakes in my life? But you can't overestimate the importance of nationality. That's what we've been taught by the experience of the war. And you know the name of a Bolshevik's best teacher? Experience.'