1
In the spring of 1942, our unit received an order to once again “level the defense line.” That’s what they shamefully called retreat back then. It was necessary to retreat to the indicated line quietly and without panic. The difficulty in carrying out this order was that in front of us, on an unnamed high-rise, Lieutenant Timofeev’s company had successfully secured a foothold. During the last week, this company fought heroically, saving us more than once with machine gun fire, and therefore we could not leave it so easily now. And the field telephone cable stretched to them has long been broken in several places. Nobody believes in signal flares because the Germans often play with them. Все основные войска отходят… Как известить Тимофеева, чтобы он не попал в окружение? The field is completely covered by enemy machine gunners and snipers. The nearest trench of the forward company is about one hundred and twenty meters away. Three messengers have already been killed...
– We need a happy soldier! - Lieutenant Colonel Agafonov says worriedly to his assistants. -Who should I send? There is so little time left!
But seeing three corpses in front of them, no one wants to die anymore. The first messenger was a convinced communist and a volunteer, but his faith in the CPSU(b) did not help him. The second was simply ordered to flee, he was a soldier of a penal battalion, but the desperate courage brought from the colonies of the North did not save him. The third was “offered to try,” he was a religious man, he wore the 90th Psalm sewn into his lining, but the mug of barely diluted alcohol he drank before the dash made him heavy, and now he lay motionless on the ground, pierced by bullets, having not even run half the distance, next to two other daredevils.
– We need a happy soldier! - Agafonov insists. - Immediately find me: even a communist, even a non-party member, a Jew, a Mohammedan, a defrocked priest, a devil with horns, just so that he flies these damned hundred meters like a pigeon and notifies our heroic comrades that it is ordered to retreat...
But some kind of paralyzing fear gripped all the soldiers. None of the promised rewards were encouraging. Once again, ordering someone to run away with a package with such a loss of spirit was clearly an unpromising activity. It took someone's brave desire to accomplish a feat, but how to awaken this desire? And then senior political instructor Kozlyuk gave birth to a wonderful idea in a Bolshevik way:
- Or maybe we should bring some nimble private in front of the line - I have material on many! - as if for execution, and then instruct him to atone for his guilt before the Motherland - to deliver a package to Timofeev’s company? And what if you die anyway, it usually inspires people to heroism...
Lieutenant Colonel Agafonov, an experienced military man, looked sourly at the young political instructor - he had no doubt that he had “material” on his own commander - and reluctantly agreed to this performance. Something had to be done anyway. Kozlyuk excitedly brought several neatly prepared files of “candidates for the feat”:
– Private Khabibullin, machine gun company, scolded collective farms, made ambiguous hints about Comrade Stalin...
- Which one is this? – Agafonov frowned. – Black and tall? No, this one is too slow, they will kill him right away... Who else?
- Private Prasolov, one of the artillerymen, is not confident in the sufficient power of the Red Army to defeat the Nazis... Such a red-haired bastard, with glasses, remember, I showed him to you?
- It won’t work, this one has bad eyesight. If he loses his glasses, he may run past the trench, but the gunner is good, let him fight some more!
– Private Levin, Egorov’s company, a fanatical sectarian, prays at night, is suspected of shooting in the air during battles... I still don’t have time to check him!
- Is it really true? And how do you know everything? I remember Levin from the very beginning of the war... By the way, he is small and puny, it’s not easy to get into someone like that, perhaps he’ll suit us. Only he needs to trim his overcoat a little so that he doesn’t stumble in it.
- Well, it won’t take long to fix this...
2
“Private Levin, as an element alien to the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army and an irreconcilable Baptist who refuses to shoot at the enemy, is sentenced to be shot. The sentence will be carried out immediately!” – with skillful indignation in his voice, senior political instructor Kozlyuk read out the accusatory text he had just scribbled in pencil in front of the formation of Yegorov’s company. Lieutenant Colonel Agafonov and other officers stood nearby with expressionless faces. Private Levin was taken aside by two grinning “Voroshilov riflemen.” Rifle bolts clanged. Levin covered his face with his hands and began to pray out loud, thereby indirectly confirming his guilt. However, the shots never came...
“I haven’t finished reading yet,” Kozlyuk unexpectedly continued his speech with a smile, “and then it says: “But given the combat situation and the sincere repentance of Private Levin (the political instructor added the latter solely for the sake of a catchphrase), he is allowed to atone with blood for his guilt before the working people and, under enemy fire, deliver an urgent message to Lieutenant Timofeev’s company.”
After these words, the father-commanders no longer hid their feelings and surrounded the confused Levin, patting him on the shoulder encouragingly, handing him a secret package and unequivocally pushing him in the direction of the parapet.
“Okay,” Levin answered them with difficulty, to whom the ability to think had finally returned, “I’ll run, just let me pray to God properly first!”
“Well, pray,” the communist commanders allowed, “this is a good thing...
Then Levin stepped aside so that no one would interfere, fell on his knees before the Heavenly Father and fervently begged Him to strengthen Him from above, to grant him the strength to endure the test that was too much for a person, which had so suddenly befallen him. “My life is in Your hand,” Levin passionately whispered, “for the sake of the glory of Your name, disgrace these atheists!..” And no one from the company laughed, seeing him kneeling, because there, at the top, were lying three dead men, recent messengers, and everyone understood well that the sectarian Levin was entrusted with the honorable task of lying next to them, the fourth...
When Levin got up from his knees, he resolutely refused the traditional “one hundred grams” and “farewell roll-up cigarettes” that were prepared for him. The commanders tenderly saw off the soldier in a fatherly manner, as if they weren’t even going to shoot him half an hour ago. “Don’t bury me ahead of time, the Lord is merciful!” - Levin told them goodbye, easily climbed onto the parapet and, bending down a little, ran across the field to Lieutenant Timofeev.
It cannot be said that the Red Army’s machine guns fired less than the enemy’s; in an effort to cover the messenger, they did everything possible. But, obviously, the enemy considered it a matter of honor for himself to take down yet another crazy Russian, running along the German positions at full height in the light of day. And therefore, after the first few seconds required for aiming, a barrage of fire from all types of small arms fell on Levin. Hundreds of eyes watched him intensely from both sides. Levin fell twice. And every time everyone thought that he would not get up again. They even saw how bullets hit his overcoat... But for some reason he got up again and continued to run nimbly, twisting like a hare, until, under the approving roar of rude Russian speech, he dived into the coveted trench of the leading company. The German side could not calm down for a long time because of the insult inflicted on it and took out its anger by randomly firing at Timofeev’s positions.
3
“Nothing is impossible for a Soviet soldier who, at the call of his heart, defends his great socialist Motherland!” – describing the feat of Private Levin, senior political instructor Kozlyuk wrote inspiredly in the regimental newspaper the next day. His extensive article went on to report how this “remarkable soldier” had completed a seemingly impossible task with honor. Thanks to his courage, Lieutenant Timofeev’s company promptly and with minor losses reached the new line of defense assigned to it, along with all units. A high state award soon awaits the hero...
- Well, you’ve gone too far about the award to Levin! – Lieutenant Colonel Agafonov grounded Kozlyuk, pointing his tobacco-yellow finger at the newspaper. “Yesterday we took him out in front of the line to shoot him like an inveterate Baptist!”
The political instructor sadly scratched the back of his head.
- Indeed, it turns out ugly... And if they presented him to the order, our unit would thunder. And we are the commanders who raised the hero... Who would have thought that he would remain alive?
Agafonov and Kozlyuk tried and tried and finally came up with the already printed edition of the newspaper “Death to the Enemy!” hold it until the first enemy bombing... And regarding Levin they ordered: to express verbal gratitude to him, give him a new overcoat and transfer him out of harm’s way to serve in one of the medical units.
And only in Lieutenant Timofeev’s company, Levin’s old overcoat, pierced in three places, and Levin’s riddled duffel bag (who was never scratched by a single bullet!) were carefully shown to everyone for a long time, like church relics...
2002
