August 1914 by Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isaevich 1918-2008

Author:Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isaevich, 1918-2008
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Tannenberg, Battle of, Stebark, Poland, 1914
Publisher: New York : Bantam
Published: 1972-08-05T16:00:00+00:00

But Kramchatkin it was, and as he saw his oflScer he pulled himself together and tried to smarten up, banging his heels down on the paving stones, and although his legs would not quite obey him and his eyes had a wild, glazed look, he managed to make a very creditable regulation salute as he said: "Permission to report, your . . . ex . . . honor. Private Kramchatkin, Ivan Feofanovich, reporting . . ."

But the momentum of his arm as he saluted made him keel over, and his cap rolled away as he fell flat on his face on the pavement.

And this was the pride of his platoon, the man whom Yaroslav had cherished as though he were his younger brother!

Appalled, and now getting angry, Yaroslav hurried on. They had been warned that looters would be subject to corporal punishment and flogged mercilessly. Yet somehow he had always thought of "looters" as a remote category of evildoers—not as the men of the Narva regiment, and certainly not the men of his platoon.

He would order them to parade at once with rifles and full equipment in the blazing sun! Then he would reprunand them, give them the greatest dressing down they had ever had! Each man would be forced to give up whatever he had taken and throw it away!

There was the house. The gates were wide open, and in the little yard he could see a smoke-blackened cooking pot suspended on a tripod of poles, its sides lapped by the heat from glowing coals. Seated around it on bricks, on boxes, and on whatever else was at hand, were fifteen men of Kharitonov's platoon. Littered on the ground at their feet were empty tins and remnants of assorted foodstuffs. By now they had finished eating and were drinking something from the pot, which they scooped out with their mugs.

At first the thought flashed through Yaroslav's mind that there was some kind of liquor in the cooking pot and the men were drunk. But if so, why had they lit a fire under it?

The look on their faces was not intoxication but the

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