Burning Moscow

Section 26 In the days in Moscow (8)

When I returned to the hotel, it was already around ten in the evening.

When Korolev and I passed the lobby of the hotel and were about to go to the restaurant to see if there was still dinner, Lieutenant Liuda, who was on duty at the front desk, stopped me.

“Comrade Oshanina.” She trot all the way up to me and said: “The hotel has arranged a new room for you. It is a single room on the 16th on the second floor. You have no luggage, you can go directly to the new room. See if our arrangement satisfies you.”

“Are you talking to me?” I asked in a puzzled way: “The private room is for the generals. I’m just a lieutenant. Couldn’t you make a mistake?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know, this is the decision made by the hotel political commissar.” She handed me the key and smiled meaningfully, as if to let me know that she did much more than what she said now. Of these.

Korolev took my shoulders, smiled and said, “The arrangements are no better! Alright, Lida, let’s go and show me your new house.”

“Why is the hotel arranged like this?” With this question, I walked to my new room with Korolev, and he took the key in my hand and opened the door. This is a small room, but there are a lot of furniture in the room: a writing desk against the wall, a black dial phone on the desk, two armchairs in front of the desk, one covered with dark blue printed sheets There is a small round table in the center of the room, facing an electric lamp hanging from the ceiling and covered with a sky blue lampshade. The bathroom door is ajar, and when you look in from the door, the decoration inside is much stronger than that in the staff dormitory.

“Why did you suddenly arrange a single room for me?” I looked at everything in the room at a loss, and asked Korolev a little nervously, “Uncle Pavel, did they make a mistake?”

“No,” he said with a smile: “Don’t worry, the hotel political commissar will definitely not be mistaken. Let’s eat and talk.” Then he went to the writing desk and picked up the phone on the desk. Dialed a number and said into the microphone: “Hello, restaurant? I’m here on the 16th on the second floor. Give me…”

In a short while, Aksala sent Korolev’s supper on a large tray. For Lao Maozi, this dinner was very hearty: roast beef with potatoes in a metal basin lined with Herring with pointed red onions, grilled meat with shredded onions and tomato sauce, a bottle of Georgian red wine, and two tall glasses. Aksala put these things on the table, and then handed me a cotton army cap that matched the military coat. She refused our request to ask her to stay for dinner and turned away.

“Let’s take a seat now, dear.” Korolev moved the two armchairs to the small round table, and then made a gesture to me. “Okay, come on, come on! Let’s start eating.”

He opened the cork of the wine with a corkscrew, filled the two goblets in front of us, took a glass and handed it to me, saying: “There is no doubt that the hotel political commissar arranged this because he knew you were in the Kremlin. The performance on the palace podium will give you such special care. Let’s talk about it, how did you have the courage to step onto the podium? Looking back on everything at that time, I feel like a dream.”

I took the wine glass and put it on the table in front of me, and said with some embarrassment: “I just heard the dispute between Marshal Shaposnikov and Admiral Konev, and felt that Comrade General made a lot of sense and should support him. At once, he handed the slip to the podium. I didn’t even believe that the slip could be passed up… this is how things happened.”

He glanced at me, shook his head in disbelief, and smiled. “My dear, you said, you handed a note. You wrote a few words on it, that’s what it’s all about?” Seeing that I didn’t say anything, he kept asking. “No matter what your status is, did you still write a note? Maybe, people treat you as a general, right? By the way, the rank, did you say your rank?”

“There is no doubt about it. I wrote my name and rank.” Having said that, I quickly turned the topic off, “Let’s drink the bar, how about it, Uncle Pavel?” Foot glass wine glass.

“No, wait a minute!” Korolev exclaimed excitedly, and quickly reached out and covered the tall glass in my hand with his wide palm. “I just want to figure it out. If anyone tells me that Lida Musdakova Oshanina takes the soldiers to the charge, I am convinced. I have killed the German devils with my own hands. The plane destroyed the tank… I think this is also possible. But now it is… strange! You must know that there was Stalin in the hall at that time! People’s commissar! Marshals! I was surrounded by generals. Suddenly I heard Comrade Marshal Announced: Comrade Oshanina speaks, from the Leningrad Front! I was confused at first: I seem to know all the heads of the Front Army. Why did Oshanina come up again? And she was still a woman. Yes. When I looked up, I was shocked, my god! It turned out that it was Lida, you were walking in the aisle. Listen to me, I promise you that if I was standing instead of sitting There, I must be so scared about you that both legs are weak!”

I just smiled and didn’t speak.

Korolev put his hands together again, then shook his head vigorously and said, “Come on. Let’s drink the bar. I congratulate you! No, wait a minute!” He suddenly remembered, and palmed his hand again. Covered my goblets. “Let’s talk about one of the most important things first. What did Comrade Stalin say to you in the end?”

“Didn’t you hear? He said, I can get a higher military rank.” I asked in a puzzled manner. At that time, Stalin and I were in front of the microphone. Every word we said should be heard clearly in the audience. Chu is right.

“I heard it, I heard it! But it was because I heard it with my own ears that I felt a little weird. You must know that in our army’s organizational system, the highest rank of female soldiers is only lieutenant, and you have already obtained this rank. It’s impossible to go up.”

“This is something the Supreme Commander is considering. It is not our turn to worry about it. We still drink at the bar, Uncle Pavel.”

We clinked our glasses and drank them all in one fell swoop. Korolev filled the glass with wine again, then dipped a small piece of grilled meat with a dining fork, dipped the tomato sauce in the dipping dish, chewed on the onion, and continued: “Of course, if he said that on the podium Yes, then you can be promoted to captain tomorrow. Although the previous highest rank was lieutenant, maybe this time because of you, he personally ordered the removal of the military rank restriction on female soldiers. In general, you are really lucky. Gao Zhao! Let you speak at such a meeting, which attracted his attention.” When he said this, he emphasized the word “his” in a special tone. UU read www.uukanshu.com “You Look, how obvious the effect is, the hotel’s political commissar arranged really well!” He picked up the wine glass and looked around the room. “The colonels are still two people squeezed into a room. But you do have the privilege of a single room now. Come on, for your good luck, let’s have another drink!”

So we drank it again.

Korolev poured out the wine in the bottle, just enough to fill two glasses for the third time. I looked at him in such a way of pouring wine, secretly feeling sorry, such a good wine to accompany a meal, drinking it in such a way of drinking, it is simply too wasteful. According to the later petty bourgeoisie’s drinking method, it should be to pour a small half glass, then gently shake the glass, sniff the cup and smell the wine, gently inhale a sip of the wine, and savor it carefully, instead of drinking it out like us, letting The wine didn’t have time to stay in the mouth, and it passed through the throat directly to the stomach.

I fork a piece of beef and asked Korolev, who was leaning over to eat herring: “Uncle Pavel, when shall we return to Leningrad?”

“Tomorrow night.” He was eating something in his mouth, and he answered me with some slurs.

“Are you going back by train?” The Moscow railway station, at Gontsamo Nisgaya, if I want to take a train, I can just go to Katya’s family and inform her family of the news of her sacrifice.

“No, we don’t take the train.” He swallowed the fish, took the tablecloth and wiped his mouth, and said solemnly: “The situation in front of us is very serious. Leningrad is being besieged by the Germans, and other places. All land traffic has been interrupted, and the railway traffic with Moscow has also been cut off. We can only go back by plane.”