rtartur
1940
Boris Trofimov
© Boris Trofimov, 2019
ISBN 978-5-4496-8258-1
Created with Ridero smart publishing system
Portartur
Part one
Chapter one
one
Tikhon Podkovin fun counting down the steps of the wide staircase, heading for the exit. An hour ago, the secretary of the Irkutsk Court of Justice told him:
– You can be our registrar.
The huge words on the marble plaque “Truth and mercy and reign in the courts” today seemed to him especially important.
In the evening, at the insistence of his sister, Fima, and her friend Vari Berezkina, Tikhon explained in detail how he was “produced” to the registrars.
Varya laughed loudly.
“So everything will go well,” she said. “You will be an official soon.”
– It will go… But I will not be an official. You need a higher education. I even will not reach the regular registrar.
Varya looked inquiringly at Tikhon.
“You still forget that I should go to the soldiers…”
Varya lived in the same yard with her mother-nurse and her brother in the same room.
“I never even took my hand,” the girl thought, running across the courtyard. – What is he like? Don’t you dare or not love?”
Mother Wari sat at the table and sewed.
– Tikhon registrar appointed.
– I did not doubt him. He can be appointed as clerk.
– And he says: I will not be an official. Soldatchina hurt.
– Reasonable guy. He will not marry before the end of military service.
Varya sighed heavily. Mother looked at her daughter.
– I approve Tikhon. You should not marry head-on, a lot of family soldiers have misfortunes… We will wait. He is more than a year old before being drafted…
Varya turned away and began to uneasily smooth her dark hair; her wet eyelashes shuddered.
2
Prior to entering the court chamber, Podkovin was a clerk in the fish shop of a merchant Kytmanov. He was tired of naughty lady-buyers. But in the clerical work, he did not find satisfaction.
“Two years – in the court of justice, four – in military service, – and then – to new places, to the Siberian rivers,” Tikhon often thought.
Six months ago, he met the family of merchant Rychagov. From his son, Elisha, he took books for self-education.
Shortly before this acquaintance, young Rychagov traveled to Port Arthur. It was necessary to look after a place for trading activities, and in Manchuria, new cities were being built, a railway was built.
“The Far East needs us like air,” Elisha liked to say. “We Russians must master it.”
During the conversation, Elisha often closed his eyes. He stood leaning against the wall, leaning his left hand on the back of a chair. A rant and a game with a chair jarred Tikhon.
A hanging lamp lit the table at which the Levers-Father sat. On the lean and oblong face of the old man, a grin wandered.
“If we do not fortify ourselves in Manchuria,” continued Elisha, “then the Americans or the Japanese will fit in there.”
– Japanese!.. – Father exclaimed, – Trifty country, hairdressers. Danger – from the British, but most likely from the Germans.
Young Levers leaned forward, leaning on the back of a chair.
– You’re right, dad. However, the British would elect the Japanese against us. And we will overcome them! In Port Arthur are our warships.
– Have you been to them? – asked Podkovin.
– was. And the port-arturskie forts saw. They are disguised, prepared several lines of defense. But we hardly have to fight on land. The Russian fleet will not allow the enemy to go ashore. The fortress is being built just in case… Now the emphasis is on expanding economic influence. We need a non-freezing trade port, and the port of Dalny will be such a port.
– Why didn’t you choose a place for yourself there?
– We have with you, Dad, pocket thin. To work in the Far or in Harbin, you need capital. The Chinese are first-class merchants and it is very difficult to compete with them. To look around and grow roots among them – money is required. We’ll move there for a year or two. And during this time there will finish the fortress and strengthen the fleet.
– Heather boy, – said the old man and pushed Shoe in the side. – Although, to tell the truth, this is a good deal to miss.
– In vain worried. We not only Amur region is waiting for enterprising people. And you, and especially us with Tikhon work enough.
“Tikhon must go to the soldiers,” remarked Elisha’s mother. – He will serve his term and nothing will happen to him.
– What if the war?
– There will be no war.
3
Talk about Port Arthur was often conducted in the court of justice, where Podkovin worked. One morning, the secretary of the office, Nikolai Vasilyevich Delusto, rummaged in folders and filed a signature list for the lawyers.
– Gentlemen, a cathedral is being built in the fortress of Port Arthur. Donate as much as you can.
The first on the sheet signed a young lawyer Patushinsky.
– They say our new fortress will be an impregnable stronghold. The Russian command also took into account local conditions and the latest data from the engineering of military science, he said.
– Whom will she have to deal with? – Interviewed Delyusto.
“Undoubtedly, with the Japanese,” the sworn attorney Stravinsky said, signing for a hundred rubles.
– In this case, the fortress will be idle! – Patushinsky exclaimed. – The Japanese will not be allowed to land.
– The enthusiasm is characteristic of youth, – the famous defender Zverev interfered in the conversation. – But the enthusiasm before the beginning of the case is harmful, because it does not allow to study the danger in detail. Meanwhile, Japan is growing by leaps and bounds.
“Japan likes to compare itself with the UK, but it’s a pimple,” said Patushinsky.
– Moreover, all the more… Acne is different. And you need to approach them skillfully, and then a malignant tumor can form.
– According to the latest data, more than two million rubles have been released to Port Arthur. There are several commissions from military specialists. Probably, not only we, Ivan Nikolaevich, are concerned about protecting our state interests, “said Stravinsky, who did not like Zverev and was jealous of him.
– That’s right, Rafail Sigismundovich. Your concreteness is known to all. But we must not forget that Japan is not alone. In addition, the theater of military operations will be, figuratively speaking, three steps from it and ten thousand miles