Tag #114562 - Interview #95784 (Boris Pukshansky)

The documents appeared to be very important, they played great role in planning full-scale offensive of our armies. For that operation I was awarded a Medal for Bravery [6]. The army commander himself arrived to present us (we were 8) with medals. Besides medals we all were granted leaves of absence. It was unprecedented happiness, but (alas!) not for me. I had nobody to go to. I knew nothing about my relatives, except what Korolev told me that terrible February day in Liozno. I was sure that nobody from my family had survived. Later I got to know that it was not absolutely true. In a word, I refused to go home and they sent me to a recreation house. If I found myself on the other planet or in paradise, I wouldn’t be shocked more: there I slept on bed sheets! You see, in fact I had already forgotten what a pleasure it was. I had 3 hot meals a day! And I spent there 10 days. To tell the truth, at the front we did not starve, and scouts received 100 gr of vodka every day. I did not drink it and used to give my portion to comrades. There were a lot of persons interested.