Survival

(Source)

Batal'onnyy Komissar¹ Valerian Vitalievich Konnikov walked out of the battalion commander's hut and shook himself at the shock of stepping into the cold after being next to a hot stove. He should have taken his greatcoat off when he had been inside. The temperature had to be well below freezing.

He was on his way to the line being held by the 2nd Company, they had sent out a patrol the day before and out of twelve men, only three had returned. Konnikov was determined to find out what had happened, he personally suspected cowardice on the part of the three men who had returned. He was quite sure that they had run away and that the other nine men were still in the field.

Konnikov was university-educated and had been a dedicated Communist for as long as he could remember, it was his job to educate these simple peasants on their duty to the Party and to the State. Which in his mind were synonymous.

Starshy Leytenant² Lubomir Gennadiyevich Pashin saw someone approaching as he looked past Krasnoarmeyets Kharzin. Damn it, it's the battalion commissar. No doubt come to save the Soviet Union by having one or more of the Rodina's³ fighting men shot or sent to the Gulag.

"Thank you Sasha, your story matches that of Tsvetnov and Puzanov. You may return to your platoon."

As Kharzin left, rather in a hurry as he had seen the commissar as well, Pashin took a deep breath, he was tempted to have a cigarette but no doubt the Commissar would disapprove. This party functionary disapproved of everything

"Yes Comrade Commissar, what can I do for you on this fine day?"

"I am here to speak with those men who ran from the front."

"I have already spoken with them, they are going to go out with another patrol, a stronger patrol, in fifteen minutes. It seems the Finns are getting active in our sector again. I am leading this patrol myself, would you like to accompany us?" Pashin said that knowing full well that Konnikov would find an excuse to have to go back to battalion rather than get anywhere near the front.

"I will have to return to headquarters and get my gear, but then there is a meeting with the other political officers this afternoon, so no, I can't go on the patrol. What is your plan for disciplining those cowards?"

"What cowards are we speaking of, Comrade Commissar?"

"The men who came back without the rest of their patrol, you know who I mean."

"I shall take care of them Comrade Commissar, you need not worry about them."

Konnikov walked away, he was fuming but there was little he could do about this arrogant lieutenant. His own superiors would no doubt frown upon his casting aspersions on a man twice decorated with the Order of the Red Star⁴.

"We are close Comrade Lieutenant, at the edge of these woods is a small valley with a gulley running diagonally across it. We used that to get to the other side, when we emerged the Finns opened fire on us." Krasnoarmeyets Sergey Yegorovich Puzanov would never forget pulling his squad leader out of the line of fire only to discover that the man was dead.

Starshy Leytenant Pashin had the men spread out into a skirmish line, when they were within ten meters of the clearing, he had them stop and take cover. He gestured for Puzanov to follow him. When the two men reached the edge of the wood, Pashin pulled out his field glasses and scanned the other side of the small valley, perhaps a hundred and fifty meters away.

The recent snow had covered the ground, he guessed that another 30 centimeters of the white stuff had fallen since the day before. If there were bodies on the other side of the valley, he couldn't see them. So he continued to scan the forest on the other side. He was a patient man so he took his time doing so. He saw no indications of the enemy, but that meant nothing, the Finns were very good at hiding.

"Do you see anything Comrade Lieutenant?" Puzanov asked.

"No, but that doesn't mean nothing is there Comrade Puzanov, this snow has covered everything. We shall need to cross the valley. Are you sure this is the right place?"

"Yes Comrade, do you see that pine tree, the one which has been snapped in half?"

Pashin nodded, he did see the single tree, probably hit by lightning in the past summer, half of the trunk was canted off to one side, the other half stood upright and still lived.

Pashin left half of the patrol back on the edge of the forest, he had told the Starshina⁵ to take charge of those men and to provide covering fire should his element run into any trouble. They had made it across the valley and had entered the shallow gully which ran up and out of the valley.

Puzanov had pushed forward, Pashin thought to stop him but then realized that the man had seen something. When Puzanov dropped to his knees and began brushing snow away from a hump in the terrain, Pashin joined him.

Puzanov sat back and sighed when his efforts revealed the outline of a frozen corpse. He sat there on his haunches for a long moment, then he spoke.

"It is Yakimenko, Comrade Lieutenant. This is where I pulled him after he had been shot. You can see where I undid his coat to check his pulse."

Pashin did indeed notice that. He had the men uncover a number of other mounds, within minutes they had uncovered another eight men, all dead from what appeared to be shots to the head, that sort of damage couldn't be concealed even when frozen. It seemed that only Yakimenko had not been hit in the head.

"Yakimenko was shot in the chest you say?" Pashin asked.

"Yes, Comrade Lieutenant, he lived for a few minutes after he was shot. I tried to help him but with the other men dying ..."

"Honestly, Comrade Lieutenant, I panicked a little. When the snow started coming down harder and the wind picking up, I knew that our only chance was to run. So I yelled at Kharzin and Strelnikov to follow me. We got away. Barely, the snow had started to slow down just as we reached the other side of the valley. That's when I noticed the broken tree and the man in white."

"The man in white?" Pashin asked.

"Yes, he was on skis, only a single man."

"Probably one of their scout/snipers. We have been using this gulley for a week now to scout the other side. No doubt the Finns noticed. You learned an important lesson yesterday, Sergey Yegorovich."

"What lesson is that, Comrade Lieutenant?"

"In order to survive, you have to sometimes run away. I am giving you Yakimenko's squad, can you handle that?"

"There are only three of us left!" Puzanov protested.

"Then it should be easy, Comrade."

¹ Battalion Commissar, the political officer responsible for a battalion.

² Senior Lieutenant

³ The Rodina, the Motherland, i.e. Russia

⁴ A Soviet decoration awarded for many reasons, in Pashin's case for bravery. Twice.

⁵ First sergeant