War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 715 Gifts and Stories

The drinking party in the office is still going on, but the topic is changed to something that Wei Ran is interested in.

"Gusen, Zhuoya and I have a small gift for you." While speaking, Mikita winked at the female nurse Zhuoya sitting opposite.

Without waiting for Dr. Gusen to respond, Zhuo Ya put down the cup, opened the door and walked out, stood at the door of the opposite ward to light a cigarette, and paid no attention to the locked push-pull anti-theft not far away. Door.

Inside the office, Mikita glanced at Wei Ran, then at Dr. Goosen, reached out with a smile and picked up the portable flagon with medals from the desk next to it, opened it, and put the spout of the flagon against the enamel. The wall of the glass of the jar poured out all the wine inside.

At the same time, Wei Ran and Gu Sen also clearly heard some rattling noises coming from the jug.

Putting the enamel jug full of wine aside casually, Mikita pinched the remaining slices of ham on the plate and threw them into the plate with pickles, then moved the jug over and shook it.

Immediately afterwards, four small green stones the size of soybeans shook from the flagon onto the plate.

This was not over yet, Mikita put the flagon aside, turned around and fetched a tube-shaped hand warmer on the desk.

After he opened the inner liner of the hand warmer and pulled out the cotton inside, he shook out a green stone the size of half a peanut.

"These are five of the purest gemstones recently recovered from that mine"

While speaking, Mikita stuffed the cotton ball soaked with kerosene into the inner tank of the hand warmer, then picked up a revolver from the desk, and said while withdrawing the bullet, "Gusen, wait for you After returning to Kazan, when you are not busy, you can take time to visit my father in Omsk. You know his address, and you must also know that my father used to be a jewelry craftsman, and he taught me my craft."

"Do you need me to bring these small stones to him?" Gu Sen took a sip from his glass and asked.

"certainly"

Mikita nodded, and said self-consciously, "Let him help you use the largest stone and two smaller ones to make a necklace for my sister Sasha, and use the other two to make a wedding necklace for each of you." Quit."

Having said that, Mikita also ejected three bullets from the pistol.Immediately afterwards, he took out a screwdriver the size of a finger from his pocket, and easily unscrewed the bullets of the three bullets.

Gently picking up a bullet head that obviously grew a lot, Mikita whispered, "Gusen, this bullet head is made of gold, enough for each of you to make the main body of the ring."

"Where did you get the gold?" Gu Sen asked in surprise.

"Before you came, I went to a mine to suppress the rioting German prisoners of war. There was gold in the associated mine there. I made this bullet with great effort."

While explaining in a low voice, Mikita had already screwed the gold bullet back onto the shell.Then, he picked up four small green stones the size of soybeans from the plate, and stuffed them into the casings of the other two bullets in groups of two.

After reloading them with bullets, Mikita turned around and brought another brand new Nagant revolver on the desk. In front of Wei Ran and Gusen, he skillfully removed the handle and The wooden patch was inserted, the stone the size of half a peanut was inserted into the gap between the trigger reeds, and the patch was reinstalled.

Looking up at the direction of the office door, Mikita stuffed the bullet with the gold bullet into the cylinder, and then stuffed one of the bullets with two jewels into it.

This is not over, he also took out a box of countersunk bullets from his pocket, and reminded while loading them, "These are real bullets, in other words, the first five bullets are real, and the last two are real bullets." fake."

Handing the pistol loaded with bullets to the strange-looking Doctor Goosen, Mikita took out another leather rope from his pocket, passed it through the small hole drilled in the only bullet left on the table, and put it together with the The pistol was handed to Goosen together, "I engraved your favorite quote from Comrade Stalin on this bullet. After you go back, give it to Selsey as a gift."

"How long have you been preparing these things?"

Dr. Goosen took the pistol, looked at it, put it back on the desk, and then took the bullet casing with the leather strap on it. As expected, a famous quote from Stalin was engraved on the bullet casing——"Thoughts are more powerful than weapons , we do not allow our enemies to have weapons, so why should we allow them to have minds?"

Seeing that the other party hung the bullet casing necklace around his neck, Mikita smiled proudly, "Since I knew that Comrade Political Commissar was applying for the medal for you, I started preparing it, and even the revolver was made by me and Commissar Commissar." I propose to reward you."

"You knew I would leave?" Goosen asked, stuffing the bullet casings into his neckline.

"From your application to send my sister to Kazan for delivery, I guessed that you would also leave here."

Having said that, Mikita took out from his arms a copy of the Soviet Medical Encyclopedia that Wei Ran is very familiar with and handed it to Gu Sen, "I asked you to borrow the book at that time, sorry, Victor borrowed it and read it A few days, and then he accidentally damaged a few pages."

"How much was broken."

Dr. Goosen grinned after opening the book, how could it be that a few pages were damaged, a big hole was dug out in this good book, and there were 14 bullets with the primer fixed in it .

Seeing Gu Sen looking at him, Wei Ran quickly spread his hands and accepted the scapegoat with an innocent face, "Sorry, I really broke it accidentally."

"Forget it, thank you for the gift."

Dr. Goosen shook his head helplessly, picked up the pistol on the table again and put it into the groove dug out in the Medical Encyclopedia, "Mikita, Victor, are those gemstones you got secretly going to be just like this?" Ship it out little by little? This way, it will be discovered sooner or later."

"We're not going to ship those gems out"

Mikita explained in a low voice with a hint of excitement, "During the time you went to Kazan to give a report, I heard from the exploration team that the iron ore in Mine No. 52 will soon be exhausted. From next winter at the latest, production will be gradually reduced here, and those two-legged animals will be transferred to an aluminum mine on the west side of the Ural Mountains to continue working. At that time, we will go to that mine together to continue working .”

"So this place will be abandoned soon?" Gu Sen asked in surprise.

"The magnetite here will definitely be discarded after being dug out," Mikita replied affirmatively.

"Then the associated mine you discovered"

Before Dr. Gu Sen finished speaking, the door of the office was pushed open, and Zhuo Ya leaned against the door frame and whispered, "Comrade Comrade Commissar is here."

"In short, if you have a chance to go back before Christmas, you must remember to send us photos. I can't wait to see what Selsey looks like now." Wei Ran raised his voice slightly, and changed his face at the right time. chat, and by the way, put the plate with the smell of kerosene under the desk.

Mikita patted Wei Ran's shoulder approvingly, and said in a slightly louder voice, "And my sister Sasha, bastard Gusen, if you let me know that you dare to bully my sister, I will definitely send you to the mine." The cave will be closed for a whole month!"

"Which bastard dared to send our Dr. Goosen into the mine?"

Before the words were finished, a man in military uniform and the rank of captain walked into the office carrying a wine bottle.

"Comrade Commissar!" Mikita stood up faster than Wei Ran and saluted, "It's me!"

"I knew it must be you bastard"

The political commissar returned the salute perfunctorily, sat down on the seat originally belonged to Zhuo Ya and asked, "It seems that I am late? I thought I would be the first one to come to see Comrade Gu Sen for a drink to celebrate."

The female nurse Zhuoya who was still leaning on the door frame said with a smile, "Unless you drive the two bastards Mikita and Victor out of the No. 52 mine, no matter what day, you will never be the first to find them Dr. Goosen's drinker."

"Then I'm counting on you, Comrade Zhuo Ya"

The political commissar who seemed to be easy to talk said while unscrewing the wine bottle, "When you and Mikita have children like Gusen and Sasha, I will definitely find a way to send you back to the civilized world."

Zhuoya rolled her eyes, went to the table and picked up her own cup, and let the political commissar pour herself half a glass of vodka, "Forget it, instead of that, I might as well be in this world full of beasts Worked until retirement."

"Since that's the case, Mikita shouldn't even think about leaving this ghostly place."

The political commissar smiled, and poured wine for Wei Ran and the others without airs, and finally raised his glass, touched everyone, and drank with his head up.

"Comrade Commissar, do you know when Gusen will leave Mine No. 52?" Mikita asked with concern.

"I'm here for this"

The political commissar put down his glass and said, "Comrade Gusen, you should prepare recently and leave with the transport team on January 1, so that you can reunite with Sasha and your children before Christmas."

"So early?" Dr. Goosen raised his eyebrows.

"Your receiving unit has just sent a cable, and they want you to report after Christmas."

While speaking, the political commissar took out a telegram from his pocket and handed it to Gusen, "Considering your contribution in the medical field and your family situation, your wife Sasha has also been assigned a new job. It's the ticket inspector on the passenger railway platform."

"This is really good news worth a drink!" Mikita happily picked up the wine bottle on the table.

"Looks like I can't spend Christmas with you guys anymore." Dr. Goosen picked up the cup as he spoke.

With this political commissar joining the wine bureau, the content of the chat at the wine table has also changed.Most of the time, it was the political commissar who humbly asked Dr. Gusen about the management of prisoners of war.

When the original half bottle of wine on the table was drunk, the female nurse Zhuo Ya also took advantage of the opportunity to quit the drinking game, and staggered out of the office filled with the strong smell of alcohol.Immediately afterwards, Mikita and Wei Ran also left, leaving room for conversation between Dr. Goosen and the political commissar.

Untraceable was two steps slower than Mikita, and Wei Ran, who followed behind, also recognized it after leaving the office. This place seemed to be the second floor of the abandoned hospital in later generations, because it was not far in front of them and was close to the stairs. There is also a sliding anti-theft door painted with silver-white paint.

Following Mikita down to the first floor and out of the hospital, Wei Ran's eyes widened in shock at the scene in front of him.

As far as the eye can see, the most conspicuous thing is the two two-story-high statues surrounded by surrounding buildings in the center. Around the statues, there is a circle of lights emitting beams of light.

Looking beyond the lights, passing through the barbed wire and sentry towers erected on the edge of the trench, Wei Ran can still see the dim yellow light bulbs hanging on the light poles at the entrances of those shacks, and the chimneys in the forest emitting smoke under the surging aurora group.

It can only be seen from the on and off status of the street lights and whether the chimney is smoking, that the shack where the prisoners of war lived was divided into two parts, the left and the right.

In the half where the light was on, there was an endless line of prisoners of war lined up under the street light, as if they were receiving food from a passing truck.As for the half that was not lit, it was extraordinarily quiet at this time, and even the chimney was obviously in a state of shutdown.It is obvious that the prisoners of war here are working in shifts.

However, when Wei Ran focused his attention on the end of his line of sight, he found something was wrong. At the foot of the mountain, there were five mines lined up in a row, and the entrances of each mine were brightly lit. You can see mine carts pulled by trucks going in and out of those mines.

"Mikita, how many prisoners of war do we have here?" Wei Ran looked back and asked Mikita who was walking in front.

"I remember that there are more than 2600 people left in the statistics before the polar night." Mikita hiccupped, "Why do you ask this?"

"I just suddenly wanted to count how many people died." Wei Ran replied flatly.

"If it's just this year, not many people died."

Mikita slowed down a little, and replied with a little pride, "I remember that there were only more than a hundred people shot to death, and less than two hundred died of illness and freezing. This is all thanks to Gu Sen. After the mine adjusted its management method according to his suggestion, a lot of people have died, and the work efficiency has also increased a lot.”

"One dies a day," Wei Ran muttered to himself, and then echoed, "That's what I want to say, those prisoners of war will definitely thank him."

"Did thank him"

Mikita said as he walked, "Now they only need to work 12 hours a day to rest, which is 4 hours less than before. What are the two-legged animals not satisfied with?"

“The treatment is really good”

Wei Ran twitched his lips. In fact, don’t look at how those unscrupulous marketing accounts in later generations are talking nonsense. Back then, there were only 50 devil prisoners of war, and only how many thousand were left. In fact, the Soviet Union’s policy on devil prisoners of war at that time was really good. .

From 1945 when World War II ended, the Soviet Union implemented an 8-hour working day for this group of free laborers. By 1947, these prisoners of war even had wages to receive.

The most important thing is that in theory, they are not too different from the food standards of Soviet soldiers.Prisoners of war engaged in heavy physical labor, in theory, have already received 3000 calories of staple food per day, while the average intake of the citizens of the devil country at the same time is less than [-] calories.

In other words, in a sense, these prisoners of war are actually much better than returning to China. After all, devils are so nasty. After they go back as prisoners of war, they will probably be forced to perform a seppuku program. of.

Of course, of course, of course, what I just said is theoretical.And there is always such a small gap between theory and reality.

In fact, in the years after the war, the Soviet Union itself was not really rich. Their soldiers and citizens were still hungry and full. It was too difficult to provide food for the prisoners of war in accordance with the regulations. Since everyone is not full, there is no other way, so we can only starve together.

On the other hand, even if you think about it with a skin swallow, you know that suddenly a full 500,000 people were thrown into Siberia like dumplings, even though these people have been split into dozens of shares due to the needs of various industries. , and almost split each share into a group of about 500 people, but for the wilderness of Siberia, it is far beyond the capacity it can accommodate.

Not to mention Siberia, even today, suddenly 2000 people are stuffed into a small village, and the village is required to provide these people with food, drink, clothing, and housing immediately, I am afraid that there will be a lot of chaos Poor care, even let these thousands of people go hungry for a day or two, sleep for a few days, and the road is normal.

What's more, this has to be a village like Huaxia with hundreds of households and a permanent population of two to three thousand.But in Siberia at this time, the large gathering areas that the prisoners of war who were dispatched may pass through are not necessarily all in the size of thousands of people.

Most of the time, they are sent directly to the wilderness, and everyone happily plays the wilderness survival game of "born with only a handful of strength, and all equipment depends on fighting".

Don't mention them at this time, even the people who guarded them are probably still hungry.It's not normal for a hundred or eighty people to freeze to death in one night in this kind of icy and snowy ghost place.

Among the hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war who were captured, at least half of them fell directly into boxes like this.

As for the rest who failed to survive, the lack of medical treatment and medicine was the main reason, and there was no way to cure them when they got sick. Humanitarian physical relief was the kindest way the Soviets could think of at that time.

To put it simply, if you want to survive, you’d better not get sick. If you get sick, you’d better get over it yourself. If you can’t get over it, it will affect labor and production. Sorry, we Soviets don’t support idlers, let alone idle medicine.

It is precisely because of the small gap between theory and reality that the No. 52 mine, which has more than [-] prisoners of war, only makes these prisoners of war work a few more hours, which is really not unreasonable.

Besides, the descendants of this devil also have a tradition of working overtime, so they wouldn't care about it, after all. They don't even have a watch now, do they?
While Wei Ran was following Mikita's ass, making up his mind and having fun, the executioner who walked in front continued to say, "Although their rest time has become longer, the things they need to do have not decreased at all."

Having said that, Mikita pointed to the forest in a certain direction and said, "You know, logging was considered their job content before. After all, if the fireplace is not lit, these prisoners of war will definitely be killed unless they sleep in the mine. Frozen to death."

"I know shit"

Wei Ran muttered to himself, nodded in agreement, and echoed vaguely, "It's different now."

“It really is different”

Mikita spread his hands, and said with sarcasm and contempt in his tone, "They don't want to be frozen to death, so they can cut down trees by themselves after work is over. Not only can the mature trunk be replaced with more burnable coal, but the rest Branches they can also use to make beds or light fires."

"Gu Sen is such a genius, he really should have come here sooner." Wei Ran continued to compliment, and guided the topic by insinuating.

"What I admire the most is that he can persuade comrades of the political commissar"

Mikita led Wei Ran into another building closest to the trench, "Of course, I admire him even more for being able to endure my sister's bad temper. Before he came here, I never thought that my sister would marry so soon people and had children."

"Speaking of this, Mikita, I've always been very curious, how did you and your sister work in the same correctional camp?"

"She used to be the escort of Mine No. 52, and was responsible for the handover of materials and minerals."

Mikita took out the key to open a door, and said while walking in, "I was injured during the battle of Prague, a bullet from nowhere caused a small injury to my lung , It also made me lose the chance to play in Berlin forever. After the injury recovered, my sister recommended me to work here."

"So you've been working here for six years?"

Seeing that Mikita had already sat down on a single bed against the wall, Wei Ran went to the only other bed in this room and sat down.

"certainly"

Mikita rummaged to find a dirty towel and said as he walked out, "It has been six years since I came here at the age of 19. At the beginning, I was just a sentry, but soon after, there happened to be An executioner went crazy, so I volunteered for the job.

In fact, I wanted to be a jeweler like my father, but I didn't expect that my father had become a prison guard before I became a jeweler.Well, that's the end of my story, I'm going to the sauna, do you want to join me? "

"I won't go." Wei Ran waved his hand, watched Mikita walk out of the room and closed the door, until this time, he had no time to look at his clothes.

A set of Soviet military uniform plus an iconic woolen coat and thick sheepskin gloves, these are nothing unusual, the 24-hour rocket brand polar pocket watch on the wrist, and the hand warmer in the jacket pocket seem to be standard equipment here .

In addition, there is a Nagant revolver and 14 spare bullets in the waist holster.

Look at the table next to my bed, besides a Kyiv brand camera made in the Soviet Union, there are two red plastic leather notebooks, and a very familiar Wei Ran, which is specially used to hold Wooden box for bullets.

Picking up one of the notebooks and opening it, the first page reads: Mine No. 52—Victor
(End of this chapter)