Page 7 - Excerpts from the diary

Tonight I was standing guard. At dawn a woman from a neighboring house came and secretly told me that Germans were in the village
and that she had seen them. They came at night, she said, and one of them, apparently the senior man, demanded documents from the
soldiers who were spending the night in her house. He questioned them sternly: what unit were they from, why were they not with their
units, where were they going, and so on. He asked the woman whether she served in the Red Army. When she said no, he ordered her to
put him to bed. She settled them down and then ran here to report it. All of them speak Russian badly.

23.08.1942
I wrote the articles “We Are Strong” and “We Are Ready for Battle.” I wanted to send the first to the newspaper Stalinskoye Znamya, the
second to Stalinsky Voin. I sealed them in an envelope, but I could not send them, because letters do not go now; communication with the
outside world has been cut off. I also have unsent letters to Aunt Anya and a postcard to Mother in Central Asia.

There are no newspapers either. The latest reports of the Information Bureau spoke about the Germans taking Maikop and about fighting
in the area of Mineralnye Vody, Cherkessk, and Krasnodar. And a newspaper from the tenth already speaks about fighting in the
Pyatigorsk area.

What is happening in Essentuki? Has it already been surrendered to the Germans? That is most likely now, but I want to think that
everything has turned for the better and Essentuki is still in our hands. If only I could read a newspaper soon.

I issued the fifth number of the Combat Leaflet. I wrote especially for it the poem “Big Blue Eyes.” I wrote all the articles myself, from
the leading article to the small pieces, only signing the surnames of other people, without even speaking with them—not only can they
not write or do not want to, they do not even want to talk. I also drew the cartoons and copied the articles myself.

Yesterday we fired the mortar. My crew destroyed and scattered many Hitlerites and set fire to an enemy vehicle with ammunition. The
two platoons of our company as a whole destroyed and scattered up to three companies of enemy infantry. Those are the berries. We held
back the furious pressure of the Germans, but they, with their main forces, apparently bypassed us and surrounded us in a half-ring.

Somewhere very close they are firing at us with guns and mortars. Shells and mines burst right nearby, and fragments even fly into the
trenches. Senior Sergeant Saranov was wounded in the stomach by two fragments. A horse was killed in our supply platoon.

Things are completely bad with food, and we receive only 300 grams of bread a day, and even that got wet while the supply platoon was
fleeing across the lake when the village was being shelled and bombed. The village is destroyed. Many people and horses have been
killed and are lying right on the roads. The inhabitants have scattered.

After the exchange of fire with the enemy I was completely deafened, and for the second day I hear nothing with my right ear.

03.09.1942
My diary, my dear friend! Today I drank tea made from roots! Sweet, as though it had sugar in it! It is a pity I did not save any for you.
But never mind—it is enough for you to smell the roots. Here they are, in my hands, so that you may be convinced I am telling the truth.
And why should you need sweets other than mine? You endure everything on equal terms with me, all the same ups and downs.

It is already getting dark. The roots sit deep in the earth and took a long time to dig out. I treated whomever I could from the one and a
half mugs I received, and I warmed the tea together with Gorshkov.

I did not send a letter today; there was no rider.

It appears our men have driven the Germans far away from the burned shed. I learned this from observation and from the lieutenant.

Today I read the articles I still have about Tchedushe, Pavlenko, Suleiman Stalsky, and Lermontov.

The days have become short, and now you hardly notice them ending. As for the rest [...] apparently this meat [...] thank God, the fourth
calf was captured; the one they did not manage to kill escaped. Today I do not feel very well, although I did not eat as much meat as the
others.
I have just got up. I lay for a long time, turning from side to side in the hope of falling asleep, but in vain. Flies and other vermin will not
let me sleep; they bite until I bleed.

A rider arrived this morning and brought four flasks and warm underwear. I wrote and sent letters through him to Astrakhan—two of
them—to Magnitogorsk, Central Asia, Field Post 1532, the Central Forwarding Bureau in Moscow, Leningrad, Uncle Vasily, and
Derbent.

Standing observation duty is exhausting because the heat is still intense and the sun suffocating. From now on I will drink tea every day
whether there is sugar or not. When Gorshkov received the ration, he said quite seriously—and I am sure that is exactly what he
did—“I’ll give everyone half a mug and keep the rest for myself.” Ah, he astonishes me. I would expose someone [...] People are being
recommended for decorations. For what? No one here knows. They pleased the political officer—that is the answer.

The sun has already set. Time to finish. The days are very short now; you hardly manage to grasp hold of them before they are gone.