Apricot Jam by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Author:Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Counterpoint Press
Published: 2011-08-28T16:00:00+00:00

ALL OUR LINES are still in operation.

Yemelyanov calls from the advance post: “Now we’re digging in right and proper. But the German’s sending up a lot of flares.”

Even back in the village, we’re being lit up by red flares and whiteand-gold ones that hang in the air for a long time.

We’ve recorded the six-barrel mortar, though not very accurately—mortars are always difficult to pick up. Then there’s a gun, target 428, probably a seventy-six, that fires a single shot. We pick it up at once and get a precise fix on it.

The equipment is in good order, all gauges showing normal. A new tape has been put on the roller. The ink in the pens has been topped up. Everyone on the new shift is rested and in good spirits. Three low-voltage bulbs light up the front part of the cellar. The white paper gleams and the shiny metal sparkles.

Also here are the two duty linesmen, telephones on their belts, carrying extra spools of cable, flashlights, wire cutters, and insulating tape. These men have it tough at night, following the cable to the break at one end and then trying to find the other end.

The far end of the cellar is dark. The children are asleep, the women have also lain down and their faces can no longer be seen. But I can hear the voice of my battery political officer there. I can’t tell where he’s found himself a place, but I can distinguish his fruity singsong:

“. . . Yes, comrades, now we’ve even let the church come back. Soviet power has nothing against God. Now we just have to liberate our motherland.”

“Do you really think you can smash right through to Berlin?” says a suspicious voice.

“Why not? We’ll give it to them over there. And all our things that the Germans destroyed, we’ll rebuild. Our land will sparkle even more than before. There’ll be a fine life for us after the war, comrades, the like of which we’ve never seen.”

The tape moves in the machine. The advance post had picked up something. And now all the posts were recording.

Then we hear it ourselves: a long, rolling volley. Right, let’s get to work!

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