War Photographer's Notebook

On the third day after arriving in this small polar village, when the hungover Wei Ran woke up from his sleep on the small bed beside the fireplace, the sky outside the window was still filled with the aurora that was rarely seen elsewhere, and the dog Beria was lying under the bed. Also snoring comfortably.In another room, there was also a faint noise coming from Saveli and Zoya, a young couple who were busy making humans.

The weather is almost polar night, and the network signal is extremely slow. After seeing enough aurora, there is really nothing else to do except drink and make people.

Without getting up at all, Wei Ran, who was lying on his back, took out his cigarette case, took out a cigarette, put it on the gold cigarette holder and lit it. He took a few puffs to suppress the craving for cigarettes that he had been trying to suppress these days, and then immediately put it out and put it back in. In the cigarette case.

The movement next door was still going on, and it was really not the right time to get up at this time. He simply dug out the box cannon and the can of rust remover from the box at the end of the bed. After spraying it, he took out the can Use a screwdriver to carefully remove the grip patch, and then disassemble the pistol bit by bit.

Spraying rust remover on these parts again and waiting for a moment, he took out a towel, wiped them carefully one by one, and reassembled them together.

Trying to pull the machine head and pull the trigger, Wei Ran nodded with satisfaction. Except for the wooden grip patch that was severely corroded and the magazine supply spring that had lost its elasticity, the other parts of the gun had other problems. It's not too big and can still function normally.

He waited for more than ten minutes while playing with this outdated weapon. Hearing that the neighbor finally stopped, he put the pistol back into the plastic storage box and closed his eyes again.

Fortunately, before he could get up, the door of the small courtyard was banged by someone from outside. Immediately afterwards, Saveli walked out of the warm wooden house while Wei Ran got up and got out of bed and clothes. Leng house.

When the door opened, the noisy greetings made Wei Ran realize that Professor Alexei was here.

When the door opened again, the cold fog and cold air rushed into the room. Professor Alexei, who was drunk, and Uncle Pasha also walked in, along with a middle-aged man with a Mediterranean hairstyle.

"Professor, you're here?" Wei Ran, who had already changed his clothes, asked unexpectedly, grabbing Beria's collar with one hand.

"What nonsense are you talking about? Of course I'm coming."

Professor Alexei, who smelled of alcohol, waved his hand dissatisfiedly, then patted the middle-aged man with Mediterranean hair on the shoulder, and introduced with a proud face, "Let me introduce, this is my son-in-law Victor. He is already a somewhat famous historian. Victor, this is Nikita, Saveli’s father.”

"Hello, Uncle Nikita." Wei Ran shook hands with the other person politely.

Zoya, who had just gotten to know each other here, was wearing pajamas and her face was full of facial cleanser foam. She also walked out of the room and said hello to everyone, apologetically saying that she was washing her face or something like that.

When the girl who was busy washing her face returned to the room, Wei Ran immediately invited everyone to see the things he discovered yesterday, and also took on the role of explanation.

"You found another body? Where is it? Take me to see it quickly!"

When Professor Alexei heard Wei Ran talk about the second corpse, he immediately sobered up a little. He put down the box cannon that had been initially maintained not long ago and urged him hurriedly.

Looking at Saveli, who still had a few hickeys on his neck, they looked at each other and walked out of the room together, leading the three middle-aged uncles to the edge of the two ice cellars.

First, they examined the corpse of the "German elite". When Professor Alexei, who found nothing, saw the second corpse, the old guy immediately made a judgment, "This is a guerrilla member."

"How did you know?" Uncle Pasha, who was also slightly hungover, asked in confusion.

“If you’re not a guerrilla, how can you still be a naïveté?”

Professor Alexei replied matter-of-factly. At the same time, he carefully opened the frozen animal skin coat of the corpse. After putting his hand in and groping carefully, he finally found only a handful of clothes and clothes around his waist. Antler-handled knife frozen together.

"Nikita, why don't you take us to visit your friend?" Professor Alexei said while taking off the rubber gloves on his hands.

"What is he looking for?" Saveli leaned close to Wei Ran and asked in a low voice.

"Identity Capsule"

Wei Ran replied in a low voice, "If you have an identity capsule, you must be a regular army. If not, your identity as a guerrilla may have increased a lot."

"Oh--"

Saveli nodded as if he had a sudden realization.At the same time, his father Nikita also burped and said, "Saveli, please drive us there, we have all drank a lot."

"How did you get here?" Zoya, who had already washed her face and changed into a set of clothes, stood at the door and pinched her waist and asked dissatisfiedly.

"Of course I came by taxi," Pasha said and also burped.

He and Wei Ran looked at each other helplessly. In the end, Saveli could only ask him to help cover the two ice cellars tightly, and then took him and Professor Alexeich into the van in the yard and left. They left the village, leaving only Zoya, the dog Beria, and Pasha, who was staggering when walking, at home.

After driving through the snow-covered frozen forest road all the way to the town, Saveli parked the car at the bottom of a tube building less than 200 meters away from the railway line. There were already people at the door of the building. An old man with a beard has been waiting for a long time.

After pushing the door and getting out of the car and exchanging pleasantries, Uncle Nikita, together with Uncle Sergey who was waiting for them, led Wei Ran and others into the third floor of Tongzi Building and got into a small room that was only sixty square meters at most. .

“I actually don’t know much”

As the uncle Sergey, who smelled of cigarette smoke, took out a photo frame from the drawer and placed it on the table, "I only heard my father mention it when I was as young as these two guys. My grandfather was a lineman guarding the railways during World War II, and this photo is also a relic left by my grandfather.”

Hearing this, Wei Ran and Professor Alexei immediately looked at the long photo frame.In this photo frame is a group photo of at least a hundred people. The background of the photo seems to be a train station, with the signboard clearly saying "Kandaraksha Station" in Russian.

"Kandalaksha station?"

Alexei frowned first, "That city more than 200 kilometers away, next to Kandalaksha Bay?"

"It's there"

Uncle Sergey nodded, "Our family moved from there to Murmansk after the war, probably around 1965. When I was very young, I would take the train to Kandalaksha every summer. I'm spending the holidays at my grandfather's house.

To tell you the truth, I fell asleep on the train once, and when I woke up, it was already docked in Mo."

"Uncle Sergey, do you know anything about these people in the photo?" Wei Ran interrupted the other person's childhood memories slightly impolitely. "I only remember my grandfather saying that he was also in that photo, but I can't remember which one is my grandfather. There are too many people in this photo and too small."

Sergei spread his hands and added, "But I remember that my grandfather once told me when he was alive that the railway from Murmansk to Moscow, especially the section from Murmansk to Kandalaksha , many people died, and even those who survived were disabled. For example, my grandfather, one of his legs was frozen at that time."

"Where are the guerrillas?" Nikita Tri asked, "Didn't you say on the phone that you knew about the guerrillas?"

"About the summer of 41, a comrade from the Ministry of Internal Affairs selected some people from the linemen along the way to form a guerrilla group and took the railway to Murmansk, but those people, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs The comrade never came back."

After Sergey finished speaking, he spread his hands and said, "That's what my grandfather told me at the time. He also wanted to join the guerrilla group, but he was not selected because of his poor shooting accuracy."

"No more?" Professor Alexei waited for a moment, and then asked in shock when he saw that Sergey did not continue.

"That's all I know"

Sergey clicked on the photo frame with his hand, "I remember when I was young, my grandfather told me who in this photo was selected and taken away by the guerrillas, but I no longer remember. "

"Uncle Sergey, have you ever heard of the name Igor Augustevich Petrov from your grandfather or his peers?" Weiran asked politely.

"Petrov?"

Sergey frowned and thought while lighting up a cigarette and smoking until the cigarette almost burned the filter. Then he shook his head apologetically, "Sorry, I may have never heard of this name."

"Can I take a photo of it?" Wei Ran pointed to the photo frame on the table.

"Of course." Sergey waved his hand happily, "If you like it, I can even sell this photo to you."

"How much do you plan to sell it for?" Wei Ran, who was about to take a photo, asked.

"Let me think about it. One hundred thousand, no, five hundred thousand, how about five hundred thousand rubles?" Sergey asked expectantly, extending a slap in the face.

"I'd better take a picture of it." As Wei Ran spoke, he had already pressed the screen of his phone to take a picture.

Everyone who had gained almost nothing said goodbye to the slightly greedy Uncle Sergey. After Alexei got into the carriage, he lit a cigarette and took a few puffs. Then he said, "Since Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Stalin called on the people behind enemy lines to establish guerrillas. Later, Comrade Beria also established a special group under the responsibility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs according to Stalin's instructions, and based on this, a special infantry brigade was established. This model soon became Popularized on the Soviet front.

So I guess what Sergey just said must be true. At that time, people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs must have indeed set up a special operations guerrilla force on this railway line, and they could kill Brandenburg troops. , I’m afraid it’s not something ordinary soldiers can do. "

"Is there any difference between the linemen that Uncle Sergey just mentioned and the guerrillas you mentioned?" Saveli, who was in charge of driving, asked curiously.

"The linemen are more like the traffic controllers on Lake Ladoga"

Professor Alexey made a vivid metaphor, “They are stationed on the railway line every few kilometers, patrolling back and forth to ensure the safety and smoothness of the railway line. At the same time, they are also responsible for urgently repairing the railway line and even repairing the train traction locomotive. Work."

"The guerrillas are mainly responsible for combat tasks"

Wei Ran helpfully added, "For example, conducting air defense operations, arresting traitors and spies who sabotaged the railways, etc."

"Okay, so where are we going?" Saveli, who had satisfied his curiosity, finally started the car.

"Train station," Alexei said suddenly, "take me to the train station."

"What did you do at the train station?" Wei Ran looked at him in confusion.

"Kandalaksha"

Alexey was rarely sober and serious, "I'm going to Kandalaksha to have a look. Maybe I can find some clues there."

"Should I go with you?" Wei Ran asked subconsciously. He didn't dare to let this old guy who was obsessed with drinking go to Kandalaksha alone.

"You stay here and continue to help me find clues."

Professor Alexei patted Wei Ran on the shoulder and said very seriously, "I am going to carry out a research project on this historical event as a consultant to the Mamayev Kurgan Museum. Why can I always trouble you."

Hearing this, Wei Ran was startled, then nodded and said, "In that case, then you..."

“Why don’t Zoya and I accompany Uncle Alexey to Kandalaksha!”

Before Wei Ran could finish speaking, Saveli joined the conversation, "Uncle Alex, how about letting Zoya and I accompany you to Kandalaksha?"

"You two are staying with me?" Professor Alexei raised his eyebrows, "Don't you have to work?"

"We still have almost a week of vacation."

Saveli explained with a smile, "And the ship we are working on will dock in Kandalaksha next time. The two of us are very familiar with it, and we will definitely be able to help you."

"That's fine." Professor Alexei finally nodded in agreement.

Seeing this, Wei Ran couldn't help but sigh secretly. He could see that his foreign uncle really wanted to investigate on his own this time, or to put it more bluntly, this old guy's self-esteem , which made him not want to continue to benefit from his son-in-law's academic achievements - unless nothing could be found out.

In other words, being able to follow him this time is probably an "insurance" in the old guy's mind, and he falls into the category of "let the son-in-law come if it's really not possible".

Just relying on these few clues now, can he really find out anything?Thinking of this, Wei Ran couldn't help but squeeze the square box flashlight still in his pocket.