writing at 6 am in Tula between getting up and breakfast. We haven’t been given any uniforms yet.
We will not stay in Tula. Our battalion, which is 20 times larger than the Noginsk team, is called a construction battalion, and today we will go to build something.
In the company, I am the only one from Noginsk. The other guys from Noginsk are all in another company, except for Katz, who ended up in the third one. While we were doing nothing it was terribly boring and sad. Everyone looked back, which made them look into the future, but it is unknown. Yesterday, at a closed Komsomol meeting, a committee was elected, which we call here the presidium of the company’s Komsomol organization. I was elected to be its member, and then the presidium chose me as the secretary of the company’s Komsomol organization. So now I have things to think about. To tell the truth – I am somewhat at a loss – I do not know where to start.
We get up at 5. We go to bed at 11. We eat 3 times a day. The food is good. So, I don’t know what to do with what I have in my suitcase. We sleep while not undressing on the bunk.
Our company will work on construction as concrete workers, bricklayers, and reinforcement workers.
When we arrive at the place, I will write the address.
Recently, Nadya watched a movie with a ticket that I bought for her.6 Now, apparently our service will be similar to the one shown there.
Then bye. Kisses to all. Say hello to Vasya, Horseradish, Braga, Myrta7 and other guys.
Do not show this letter to anyone except for the people to whom it is intended (see the beginning of the letter).
Regards, <signature>
2.
Hello Mom and others!
I am in Moscow in a freight car on the circle road. There are 42 of us in the car, so don’t spit or step foot. They feed us with dried bread – you won’t bite. By the way, I have two teeth hurting, which really interferes with army life. We run at the stops for buns and other food like water. We are worried because of the uncertainty of our future path.
We reached Tula safely, i.e., me, while the rest got drunk and stopped the train with a brake,8 about which, however, I learned only in Tula (I slept on the way). We were 800 people gathered. All are good fellows as if on selection: for whom the parents are sitting, who himself was sitting; in general, wicked bros. They placed us first on the floor side by side and then transferred us to an equally uncomfortable room, namely, they put us (also side by side) onto the bunks. The only difference is that the floor is easier to sweep than bunks… Hilarious!
When I found out that we were among, as Zhenya Kh.9 says, hermits, and that they would send us to construction, I immediately recalled the film “Prisoners”. I was in such a mood… oh-oh. In addition, I am the only one from Noginsk in the company – you won’t talk to anyone, you won’t even exchange a word. All the time I notice and control all my moods – that time I felt melancholy or some other devilry that pulled me to lie in the corner and cry. It was in this mood when I wrote my first letter. My tears were flowing, and I wrote such things that I tore it the next day, for which I am now infinitely happy. My “recovery” began with the election of me as the secretary of the company’s Komsomol organization: I got something to do. Now I live by daily routine, taking care of food, sleep, but the need for reading, theater, cinema is still almost non-existent. So, I haven’t recovered yet!
They wanted to appoint me as a platoon commander (there are 56 people in it). I would be their boss, for disobedience of which they will be arrested. I referred to the workload (the secretary) and safely got rid of this post. I want to experience ordinary Red Army life, and besides, it is calmer, and there is more time for club work.
They wake us up at 5 am. I wake up at the first command and get up like a robot (we are sleeping without undressing). Precisely like a robot: without thinking, without feeling, except for a great desire to sleep and severe cold (in such cases, I experience it at any temperature). Yesterday I went to the assigned work for the first time (scheduled, of course). I cleaned and washed the boiler of the field kitchen, dragged water into it (30 buckets), poured and boiled water. This all happened from 2 am. I must say that I calmly endure all the hardships. And I even get satisfaction from work.
Now I looked through what I wrote. It’s strange. I am writing in a joyful mood (after the decline), but it turns out that we have just the same hard labor here: bunks and work assignments and so on. This is how it turns out in the letter – it’s not my fault – and it’s not so bad here with us. I look closely at the guys, so in comparison with many of them, I’m just great. I have achieved the main thing in the army – I do not grumble at the commanders at any order, and this is a lot. Here, for an attempt to criticize the commander, they arrest you. What else? They took us to the bathhouse there, imagine, we… washed ourselves.
For good service and work, people will be transferred from our construction battalion to normal combat units. I hope to get through and think that the way through the secretary of the Komsomol organization is rather straightforward.
You will receive the next letter from the destination if we get there in less than a month; if a month or something like that, then, of course, I’ll write on the way.
Say hello to everyone I mentioned in the first letter; it’s boring to list everyone. Don’t show my letters to anyone, I don’t like it. To Nadya, Lyalya, that’s enough, I beg you. Then bye! Thanks for the spoon.
Prepare [illegible] a small map of the European part of the USSR.
Where are we going? If to the east or north – it’s rubbish. I will gladly accept all other directions.
Red Army’s greetings, Yashka.
I have written to Sasha. I will write to the rest when I get there.
3.
3 June 1941
Hello Mom!
I inform you that I have already sent two letters: one from Tula, one from Moscow – on the way.
In this – the third letter, I am already tired of sending greetings to “my relatives”, so convey them yourself on my behalf to Nadya and Lyalya and others.
On the 29th of May, at 11 am, we were loaded onto a train, and we moved on. We were in a boxcar on two-story bunks of 42 souls – in general, like herring in a barrel.10 During the journey, they fed us dried black bread (you can’t bite), fish – dried fish or herring (you can’t swallow), sugar (you can’t bite through), and boiling water (not enough). Well, we were not at a loss, we put dried bread into a bag (mine) and into a corner, sugar and boiling water into the stomach, with fish, of course, and at every station there were raids on station buffets. I even managed to run to the market in one place, bought buns and half a liter of milk there, which I had the honor to eat.
All the way, we were engaged in the study of our path. Arriving in Moscow, we stopped on the circle road, not the railway station, so again we could not find out anything. At night we set off along the circle road and finally learned from railroad workers that we were on the Oktyabrskaya road. But here again questions arose: to the North or to the West (Lithuania, etc.)? Looking ahead, I will say that before reaching 110 km to Leningrad, we turned to Murmansk. While we were driving along Oktyabrskaya, there were a lot of stations, the stations were interesting, but when we turned off, there were no stations, no villages.
We go to the Murmansk direction and think: where will they take us: