War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 337 The Only Insider

"Have you seen it?" Wei Ran's tone was filled with just the right amount of surprise. He intended to see if the other party could recognize these photos, but he didn't expect the process to be so easy.

"Where did you find this negative?" The old man turned his head and asked.

Wei Ran paused for a moment, and replied in a flat tone, "I found it by accident while investigating something, how about you? Where did you see these photos?"

"A Legacy of My Father"

The old man put all the photos and negatives that had just been developed into a paper bag and handed them to Wei Ran, and then he took the initiative to invite, "If you are interested, you can go upstairs and have a look with me, maybe I have misremembered. "

"Of course I'm interested." Wei Ran simply nodded and accepted the other party's invitation.

"Come with me!" the old man said, and he reached out and opened the wooden door of the darkroom.

Following the other party out of the darkroom, Wei Ran did not hide the surprise on his face as he walked slowly up the creaking wooden stairs to the second floor.

In this not-so-big room, there is a particularly conspicuous glass cabinet facing the stairs and against the wall. There are several cameras of various models in this cabinet, including a Leica camera body, even There is also a bullet, and beside this camera, there is even a harmonica with a German trademark printed on it.

"Most of those are my father's relics"

The old man opened the glass cabinet on his own, and took out a plastic leather book that was almost exactly the same as the photo album in Wei Ran's hand.

Seeing that Wei Ran had been staring at the camera with bullets in the glass cabinet, the old man smiled and explained, "That's the camera my father used when he participated in the Battle of Rzhev, if it didn't help block a bullet , my father probably never lived to the end of the war."

"Is he a war reporter?" Wei Ran asked as he sat on an old sofa with the other party.

"No"

The old man shook his head, "He's just an ordinary soldier who likes to take pictures. Even before World War II, he was a member of the choir."

Having said that, the old man took out a pair of reading glasses from his jacket pocket and put them on, opened the photo album in his hand, and said while searching, "The photos in this photo album are all given to him before he was wounded and left the battlefield. It was taken by comrades in arms. After the war, he sent a copy to everyone according to the address. When I was young, I often heard him tell me the stories of his comrades in arms.”

"Tony took it?"

Wei Ran frowned secretly, these photos were obviously taken by himself, how could they be taken by Tonya?But when I think about it, the film used to take these photos was provided free of charge by Tonya, who has the title of artist. These photos are taken by the other party, which makes sense. I just pressed the shutter for him a few times.

Reluctantly convincing himself, Wei Ran went up to take a look, and then found that the photo album in the old man's hand was not much different from his own, only that the film corresponding to each photo was missing.

"found it"

Just as he was distracted, the former had already stopped what he was doing, pointed to the fixed photo on one of the pages and said, "It seems that my memory is not bad, young man, take out that photo of yours."

Opening the paper bag that he had been holding all the time, Wei Ran took out the newly developed photos and put them on the album. These two photos, one new and the other old, may have been separated by more than half a century, but the frozen pictures in the photos The Soviet Red Army soldier was just as young.

"Where are the negatives of these photos?" Wei Ran asked knowingly.

"I don't know that"

The old man returned the photo developed not long ago to Wei Ran, and asked again, "Where did you get that negative?"

"Rzhev"

Wei Ran happily replied, "I found it in an abandoned wooden house on the outskirts of Rzhev."

"Only one negative?"

The old man asked suspiciously, and then put on reading glasses again to look at the address recorded in the photo in the album. Unfortunately, the address is far away in Yekaterinaburg, and the distance from Rzhev is far away. One hundred and eight thousand miles in general.

After hesitating for a moment, Wei Ran shook his head, and replied smoothly, "Actually, what I found was also a photo album, the same as the one in your hand, and every photo in it has a corresponding negative."

"And what?"

Wei Ran spread his hands, and said with regret in his expression, "And there was a note with the address of this camera shop in that photo album at that time. Unfortunately, that note could not be preserved. I actually follow the I found it at the address on that note."

"No wonder"

The old man took off his reading glasses again, and asked with a smile, "So young man, what are you looking for here?"

"I want to hear the story behind that album." Wei Ran paused, then continued, "I also want to ask some questions."

"Just for these?"

Seeing that Wei Ran nodded, the old man sighed, "Look at my age, you should know that my father passed away a long time ago."

Wei Ran hesitated for a moment, picked up a pen from the table in the middle of the sofa, wrote on the back of the paper bag containing the photos and said, "I'm looking for stories about these three people, they are Daniela, Lano and Revley."

After receiving the paper bag with three names written on it, the old man leaned on the sofa and thought for a while, and finally said, "When I was young, my father Tonya told me a story more than once. Maybe this story can tell you some clues."

Seeing that Wei Ran was listening attentively, the old man said leisurely, "In my father's story, after he was injured on the front line, he was sent to the emergency station behind the position for rescue. In the days, he once heard the doctor who helped him treat his injuries and a wounded person who was also injured.

There was a nurse named Lano, and her fiancé, a sniper named Daniela, with the help of a postman, oh, the postman seemed to be called Ravri.In short, the nurse, her fiancé and the postman escorted an artillery spotter named Andre to infiltrate the German positions and wreak havoc. "

The old man paused when he said this, picked up the photo album on the table and looked through it, pointing to the photos of Dr. Pasha and the soldier named Boris, and said, "Every time my father talked about this, , would open the photos, point to these two people and tell me that the story was heard from the two of them.”

"What happened next?" Wei Ran asked calmly, turning the phone with the recording turned on upside down on the table.

"There is no later"

The old man closed the photo album, "At that time, I asked my father more than once, but he said that although the first aid station where he was recuperating was not far from the artillery position, he only heard those artillery firing once. Before those people came back, he was sent to the rear field hospital to recuperate.

But when he was in the field hospital, he also met the younger brother of that nurse Lano.But whether Nurse Lano and his fiancé, the postman, and the artillery spotter came back in the end, he didn't know. "

Having said that, the old man looked at Wei Ran and asked, "What about you? Where did you hear these names?"

Wei Ran pointed to the envelope that the other party was still holding, "Just near the wooden house on the outskirts of Rzhev that I mentioned just now, I found the tombstones of those three people, and the tombstones I just mentioned. Photo albums and the address of this camera store."

"That's all I know"

When the old man said this, he stretched out his hand and added the belated self-introduction, "Sergey is my name, and my father is Tonya. During World War II, he was the 31rd Regiment of the 220th Division of the 673st Army of the Soviet Red Army. an ordinary soldier."

"Victor" Wei Ran held the opponent's hand and announced his name, "Temporary consultant of the Great Patriotic War Museum."

"I thought you were an earth-digger," Sergey said with a smile.

"Mr. Sergey, can I use the story you told just now as the information I have investigated?"

"There aren't many people who remember those poor guys, so go ahead and use them."

Sergey generously let go of his hand and said generously, "Also, remember to take away the washing fee you paid later."

Wei Ran smiled, ignored the question, and asked instead, "Mr. Sergey, how is your father's life in his later years?"

"not bad"

A look of reminiscence appeared on Sergey's old face, "The war crippled one of his legs and hurt his throat, making his voice as ugly as hitting glass with a stone. But anyway, at least he survived. After the war, my father became a photographer, not very well known, but did some pretty good work."

"Like those in the darkroom?" Wei Ran asked with a smile.

Grandpa Sergey nodded, "The photos in that darkroom are almost the most satisfying works of my father and I in our lives."

"That photo album may be his most satisfying work."

"The photo album?"

Sergey shook his head insignificantly, "That photo album may only bring him regrets, the people in that photo album basically died in that battle, my father is one of the few survivors .”

"At least I survived," Wei Ran muttered to himself, and then changed the topic to this old man named Sergey.

To his surprise, the old gentleman's life experience was much richer than the dry record in the metal book, and he did briefly work as a reporter for Komsomolskaya Pravda.

But during that time, the kind-faced old man in front of him and his colleagues reported the whole process of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.However, in the evaluation of the old man, there were actually more reporters than athletes in that Olympic Games, and he was just the most inconspicuous one of them.

But even so, Wei Ran couldn't help but sigh secretly. This incident started in the ring-shaped apartment built for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Olympic reporter.This may be just a coincidence, but he would rather believe that this is a small but not funny joke played by the so-called fate.

More than half a century has passed by, and I still remember those few people at that time. There is only one child who was born after the war and only listened to stories from his father. The child has now become a dying old man.

But he, besides Wei Ran, may already be the only person in the world who knew about the death-like mission at that time.

(End of this chapter)