Decisions

Forest
Ivan Shishkin

Telitsyn sat on a stump, smoking his last Belomorkanal¹, watching the sun gradually bring life to the forest.

"It's chilly this morning," he thought as he drew his threadbare uniform closer about him, "we need supplies, including winter clothing, if we're to have any hope at all of surviving the winter."

Through circumstance and combat his little "battalion" was now down to just forty-seven men. Many of them were nursing minor wounds and other various ailments due to sleeping in the rough and not eating a proper diet. He had thought about surrender briefly, then quickly dismissed the idea as the word was spreading, even to isolated units such as his, that the Germans were treating their prisoners horribly.

Thousands of men crammed into open enclosures, no shelter, no sanitary facilities, nothing to protect them from the elements. Worst of all, with only rare exceptions, the Germans were not providing the prisoners with rations.

So the only options were to fight through to regain friendly lines, or stay in place and harass the Germans as best they could. As winter approached, the second option seemed hard to sell to the men. As it was they were using mostly weapons they had captured from the Germans they had killed. German clothing was also much in evidence, the men knew that the German clothing would prove inadequate when winter came.

Food was also a problem, the Germans watched over the farmers, stealing what was produced for themselves. The occasional German supply convoy did provide some rations, but not nearly enough. Also, once the snow fell, it would be difficult to move about, nearly impossible to do so undetected. As one of the men had quipped, "Even a German can track you in the snow."

"Comrade Major, good morning." Efréĭtor Kazankov had come upon the major in his early morning reverie, so quietly that Telitsyn had nearly jumped out of his skin when the man spoke.

"Damn it, Ustin Rodionovich must you sneak about like that?"

"Sorry Comrade, but in the forest, silence is life."

"I'm guessing you learned that in Finland?"

"But of course."

That afternoon, Kazankov's two Ukrainians came in with a third person, a man claiming to be a commissar parachuted in from Moscow to advise Telitsyn's unit.

"Antonyuk, Petrenko, who is this fellow? He certainly looks well-fed." Telitsyn was in a foul mood, seven men had deserted since the morning. They had left word that they were going foraging for food in the nearby villages, but Telitsyn didn't expect to see them ever again.

"Comrade Major, allow me to ..."

"Shut up, I asked my men, not you. Valerian Dmitrievich, if he speaks again without my leave, kill him. Use your knife, we can't afford the bullet. Or the noise."

Krasnoarmeyets Valerian Dmitrievich Berezhnoy grinned from ear to ear, one of the Ukrainians, Antonyuk he thought it was, (he was bad with names) shoved the stranger towards Beriya. The man started to protest but remained silent when he saw Bereznoy's hand go for his knife.

"Comrade Major, we found this fellow wandering the fields near the village of dead cows." No one knew the names of the places in the area, so they named them after some distinguishing feature. The Germans had killed all of the cows in one village, so ...

Petrenko continued, "His uniform looks too clean to be one of the 'left behinds.' Then he claims he's a politruk!"

Turning to look at the stranger, Telitsyn asked, "Is this true, how did you get here? What is your mission?" The words snapped out of Telitsyn's mouth as rapidly as bullets from a German MG 34.

"Comrade Major, this is true, I am a political officer. I was dropped by parachute last night. My mission is to arrange communications between your unit and Moscow. Arrange supplies, ammunition, that sort of thing."

Telitsyn, for the first time since the morning of the 22nd of June felt a faint hope stir in his breast. "So you're a liaison man, from Stavka²?"

"Yes, Comrade Major." The newcomer had learned to answer Telitsyn's questions precisely and without embellishing. Berezhnoy's knife reinforced that.

"I see. Your name Comrade Captain?"

"Kapitán Lavrentiy Alesnarovich Rabrenovich, Comrade Major."

"Combat experience?"

"Ten days hard fighting around Brest. Then they pulled a number of us out."

"Political connections I suspect." Telitsyn grumbled.

"Yes Sir, I believe that to be the case."

"Very well, Berezhnoy, put your knife away. From now on you are the Comrade Captain's orderly, you will not let him out of your sight."

"Gladly, Comrade Major." Berezhnoy offered a wolfish grin, which made the political officer grimace.

"Now, Comrade Politruk, where do we start?"

"I have a radio hidden not far from where your men picked me up."

"Then let us fetch that for you." Telitsyn stood.

Rabrenovich started to protest, then thought better of it. He told the Major, as best he could, where he had hidden the radio. Telitsyn sent three of his men to recover it and bring it back to camp.

That night Telitsyn went to bed a happy man. Now his small unit had a mission and a means of being supplied. He thought it was probably hopeless and that they would still all die out here in the forests of northern Russia. But it was better than doing nothing.

Besides, the politruk had brought a carton of Belomorkanals, one of which he'd smoked before sunset.

Telitsyn chuckled as he wrapped a blanket around himself. Perhaps there was hope yet?

And the seven men he had written off as deserters? They had returned, with food and blankets, including the one keeping him warm. For the moment Telitsyn felt as happy as if had just been named Czar of all the Russias.

Perhaps now they could really hurt the Fascists!

¹ Belomorkanal is a Russian cigarette brand first introduced in 1932. The name commemorates the construction of the White Sea–Baltic Canal, also known as the Belomorkanal. It is an example of a classic Russian cigarette-type known as papirosa (папироса) which is typically an unfiltered cigarette attached to a cardboard tube used to hold the cigarette. (Source)

² Stavka was the Main Command of the Armed Forces of the USSR, in Russian - Stavka Glavnogo Komandovaniya Vooruzhennykh Sil Soyuza SSR) (Ставка Главного Командования Вооруженных Сил Союза ССР)