rel="nofollow" href="#note24" type="note">24! You write that Comrade Stalin’s report has poured new strength into you there. Well, there’s no need to talk about us! Now our army is really becoming professional – we have learned to fight! And we have learned hard! Be sure – we will soon chase the German bastards. Yesterday I learned that England had declared war on Finland25. Nice event!
Here also Grandfather Frost26 is fighting hard with the Germans. I saw myself how German sentries run to the post in a tunic, and there they take off quilted jackets from other sentries and put them on. In boots, overcoats, and garrison caps in frost of -35°C you can’t do much. They don’t even have camouflage coats. Sentries wear white aprons – as he turns, the back is black. And he can’t not turn, he has to perform the German dance “Frost on the Skin”. We, dressed in sheepskin coats, felt boots, hats, and mittens, only laughed. I was lying in a white camouflage coat ten steps from a German sentry and smiled at his dance. Now he no longer dances…
Well, bye, be happy. Greetings to Lida and Vadya and to all of you. Did you receive my message about the death of Zhenya Khapulin and Nedro? Kissing hard, Yasha.
14.
25 December 1941
Hello Mom!
Day is breaking. The frost slightly stings the face and legs. Skis slide in deep snow. We’re going to class. The path lies through a wild forest, through frozen swamps and lakes, through steep high hills. The greatest pleasure is given by a frantic descent from high mountains – not along a clean slope, but between trees, through branches whipping in the face, through fallen trees and ravines. Maneuvering through all these obstacles is rather tricky. A minor mistake, and you continue to descend on your back.
This ride is a tremendous pleasure. I seem to be becoming a ski lover. It’s good when you ride like that. But yesterday I learned a lesson. They ordered the offensive with a rifle in one hand and sticks in the other, i.e., move quickly and lay down. I looked like a kitten on ice. Complete helplessness. Fun! Well, nothing, we’ll master it soon.
In 10—15 days, I have tests. I’ll hand it over and go to the front line.
Yes, here we have a story: when God made the light, he did not have enough material, he got angry and spat – it turned out to be Finland. Hilarious!
Yesterday I received a letter from Aunt Nadya, dated the 27th of November. Thanks. I do not understand where Lyalya works. She writes that she works a lot at night?! You write that there are often alarms. Now they are probably less common. The Germans are running away from Moscow. We gladly listen to every news of the events on the western front. OK, soon we will chase them here. It is our turn to laugh. Well, let’s take revenge at once. And we will take revenge so that we will drive them to death.
Then bye. Say hello to everybody.
I kiss you hard, Yasha.
15.
1 January 1942
Hello Mom!
Happy New Year!
Yes, a year has passed – a year that for all of us was a year of hard ordeals and hardships. For me, this year was a year of great fundamental changes in my life. After school, I was a person on duty at a crafts school and the head of the drama club, and then the director of the House of Pioneers. Then civil life ended. The military life began. A construction battalion – a long working day, knee-deep [torn of], 100 wheelbarrows a day, the harsh Soviet Arctic, tundra, the North Sea. Then – the reserve regiment. Hastily mastering military science, then training soldiers for the front. Then I went to the front myself. There were heavy battles and great ordeals here. Seven days of hunger, death of friends and comrades. Then a brutal winter. Instead of a full day, a complete arctic night. Night – in which you stand at the post and all, to the last muscle, strained fully. Then school. And now I am no longer a Red Army soldier. Now I am a cadet.
This is the end of 1941, the year in which we learned about our great sacrifices, but on the other hand we saw our greatest victories over the enemy.
What will the new 1942 bring us? Of course, a victory. I will conquer it already as a sergeant. My strength will increase. Instead of two hands, I will beat the enemy with a whole squad.
In the new year, Hitler will have to think and think hard. Or maybe he won’t be able to think? However, this entirely depends on us. Well, we will try!… In general, we will execute Stalin’s order, we will exterminate every single one of the Germans who have climbed into our territory as its occupiers.
How did you celebrate the New Year there? Really curious.
Well, I met it well yesterday. I’ll tell you a secret: I didn’t drink my 100 grams for five days, and yesterday at 12 o’clock I celebrated the New Year with half a liter of Moscow wheat vodka. And today the command sent an order – a New Year congratulation. It turns out that we also fought here for a reason. We killed up to ten thousand Germans and White Finns during the war. Well, bye.
Happy new year, year of victory!!!
Regards, Yasha. New Year’s greetings to all Nogintsy27!
PS Sorry if it’s awkward – my head hurts after the New Year.
16.
12 January 1942
Hello Mom! Today I received Aunt Nadya’s postcards for the 9th and 12th of December. She writes that there are no letters from me. They should be because I wrote more or less regularly.
17 January 1942
Because of tests that began at school, I am finishing my letter only today.
These last days I was not so worried about the tests as I was enjoying the flavor of the tests so memorable to me from my studies in Noginsk. My studies are over! During my studies, I learned how to shoot well, and I am very pleased with this. Now I do all the exercises with my rifle perfectly. Three days ago, I went to the bathhouse. By the way, about the bath. A real “Russian” bathhouse or, more precisely, “Finnish”. The bathhouse itself is hot and stuffy and painful in the head, and you have to undress and dress outside. As soon as you jump out of it in Adam’s costume, and the frost outside is – 20 to – 30°C (the usual temperature here), well, the frost penetrates to the marrow of your bones. But when you get dressed, it is a great pleasantness that takes apart you. Yes, it is good to wash in the local bath, although when I wash, I remember the Noginsk bath with pleasure. Well, so I went to the bathhouse. I went into the forest for firewood, I looked at the tracks. I went up, from under my nose the white partridges would jump out of the snow, and I was stupefied. I ran after them [torn off] I ran for two hours up to my waist in the snow, but [torn off] could not shoot: they are white, and you can’t see a damn thing of them in the snow. Suddenly I saw that a wood grouse flew and sat down on a tree. I crawled to him no worse than in battle, took aim, and the wood grouse fell. He weighed as much as 6—8 kilograms. Huge! That was a snack! 100 g of vodka and wood grouse fried in oil! Bliss!
Now about the tests. Of course, I passed them safely. I studied the weapon to the smallest screw. Tomorrow there will be a report from the commissar about our studies at the club. Then the order on the conferring of ranks will be read, then there will be a concert and a movie. Tomorrow I’ll go to the unit. There I will have to train fighters. Our unit is now studying because it is on vacation, not far from here. Well, that seems to be all.
Write how you live there.
Hello to everyone, everyone. Hello to Aunt Nadya!
Regards, Yakov
PS The hardest