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I’ve been to Leningrad front till March of 1942, even including March. Later the dislocation started, they sent our company to Astrakhan [big city in the lower reaches of Volga], and they supposed to send the eighth and ninth grades, which made second and third companies, to Siberia. So it happened so that they picked us to Ladoga Lake [famous lake in outskirts of Leningrad] to the Road of life [16] by train, and then we had to cross those forty kilometers. We were walking on the ice; it was forty degrees of cold. You walk on the ice and see all those dead bodies of evacuated Leningrad inhabitants and Soviet soldiers under the ice. Thanks to God, Germans didn’t throw bombs. And we were lucky because cars and tracks went to Leningrad with wheat and stuff, and they came back absolutely empty, that’s why we passed by car some part of the way, to Gikharevka station [railway station not far from Leningrad]. And there we reached the so-called Big Land. In Gikharevka they gave us some food for the first time, and it was important that they gave us only a small piece of sausage, nothing else and didn’t permit to eat anything during two hours. And then we understood why they didn’t let us to eat more: we saw thousands of dead people, stacks of dead people; all those people ate bread and something else at once and died from volvulus [some kind of stomach disease], they died because they were so weak that their organisms were not able to take food. To stay alive they had to eat very little, but nobody told them it about it. We all were dystrophic, and when you are coming out from the dystrophy, the diarrhea begins, because your organism can’t get the food.
Then they drove some echelons, put us into sanitary barriers, where they washed us, and helped to feel normal. Then they took us to those echelons and to wagons and drove somewhere. That happened for almost forty days. We passed Volkhovstroy [small town on the river Volkhov], Kirov [today that is Vyatka, big town in the Middle Povolgi], Molotov (it’s how they called Perm in soviet times); everywhere they had lights on, it looked like people don’t know about the War. So throughout Ural steppes, from the opposite side, we arrived to Astrakhan and we’ve been there for couple of months.
Soon the story started: planes fly, throw the bombs, after all that was year 1942, Stalingrad struggle [17]. We helped, do whatever they ordered: guarded, helped to loading. Then we’ve got an order to go to Baku [capital of Azerbaijan, city on the Caspian Sea]. Germans approached; and we, on the special ships, called ‘seiners’ [fishing ships, which were given to Soviet army], crossed the Sea, because Caspian Sea from Astrakhanian coast isn’t wide, it is narrow, and big ships can’t come to the bank. Anyhow, the military ship stood on the road, we reached it and in two days we finally came to Baku.
In Baku there was a military naval college. There they broke up us. Some were left in Baku, and some (and me among them) were sent to Lenkoran [town in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea], to the military naval college of waterside defense, in the department of connection. We lost about thirty people by the way. So we’ve been to Lenkoran for some time, which was almost on the Persian border. Germans went to Caucasus; they gave us infantry uniform and supposed to send us to the frontline. But then Soviet troupes stopped the Germans, and just in this infantry clothes they put us on the ship and drove to Krasnovodsk [small town on the Caspian Sea], now it is situated on the territory of Turkmenistan. And only from this place through Alma-Ata [capital of Kazakhstan, today is called Almaty] to Baikal [the largest lake on the territory of the USSR, it is situated in Siberia], from plus twenty degrees by Celsius to minus twenty degrees by Celsius, and we didn’t have nothing warm, neither gloves, nor coats, nothing. So they allowed us to warm up the hands in the pockets. We spent there awful half a year. We lived their in barracks, which were left from those, who were banished here. Unfortunately, I can’t tell more about our trip to Baikal, because I don’t remember any more stories.
Then they sent us for practice to the Far East and put us into the Pacific Ocean College. That college was built before the War, according to all necessary rules. So we were there for three months, so it was almost a Heaven. Then they put us to the so-called sixth kilometer and during next two months we were busy with painting the walls, built something and so on. There it was very cold; life was much more hard and unpleasant.
Then they drove some echelons, put us into sanitary barriers, where they washed us, and helped to feel normal. Then they took us to those echelons and to wagons and drove somewhere. That happened for almost forty days. We passed Volkhovstroy [small town on the river Volkhov], Kirov [today that is Vyatka, big town in the Middle Povolgi], Molotov (it’s how they called Perm in soviet times); everywhere they had lights on, it looked like people don’t know about the War. So throughout Ural steppes, from the opposite side, we arrived to Astrakhan and we’ve been there for couple of months.
Soon the story started: planes fly, throw the bombs, after all that was year 1942, Stalingrad struggle [17]. We helped, do whatever they ordered: guarded, helped to loading. Then we’ve got an order to go to Baku [capital of Azerbaijan, city on the Caspian Sea]. Germans approached; and we, on the special ships, called ‘seiners’ [fishing ships, which were given to Soviet army], crossed the Sea, because Caspian Sea from Astrakhanian coast isn’t wide, it is narrow, and big ships can’t come to the bank. Anyhow, the military ship stood on the road, we reached it and in two days we finally came to Baku.
In Baku there was a military naval college. There they broke up us. Some were left in Baku, and some (and me among them) were sent to Lenkoran [town in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea], to the military naval college of waterside defense, in the department of connection. We lost about thirty people by the way. So we’ve been to Lenkoran for some time, which was almost on the Persian border. Germans went to Caucasus; they gave us infantry uniform and supposed to send us to the frontline. But then Soviet troupes stopped the Germans, and just in this infantry clothes they put us on the ship and drove to Krasnovodsk [small town on the Caspian Sea], now it is situated on the territory of Turkmenistan. And only from this place through Alma-Ata [capital of Kazakhstan, today is called Almaty] to Baikal [the largest lake on the territory of the USSR, it is situated in Siberia], from plus twenty degrees by Celsius to minus twenty degrees by Celsius, and we didn’t have nothing warm, neither gloves, nor coats, nothing. So they allowed us to warm up the hands in the pockets. We spent there awful half a year. We lived their in barracks, which were left from those, who were banished here. Unfortunately, I can’t tell more about our trip to Baikal, because I don’t remember any more stories.
Then they sent us for practice to the Far East and put us into the Pacific Ocean College. That college was built before the War, according to all necessary rules. So we were there for three months, so it was almost a Heaven. Then they put us to the so-called sixth kilometer and during next two months we were busy with painting the walls, built something and so on. There it was very cold; life was much more hard and unpleasant.
Period
Location
Russia
Interview
David Levin
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