[烛光生存狂]-【卫国战争老兵回忆】阿尔谢尼耶·尼古拉耶维奇·扎诺夫

翻译完成，为了保持完整性，将马蹄莲完成的部分也一起发出，请注意

Arsenij Nikolaevich Zonov was born in 1925 in a peasant family living in the village of Balezinschina in the Bakhtinskij (now Kirovskij) District of the Kirovskaja County. Upon his graduation from the Factory Worker School No. 42 in the city of Kirov, from winter of 1942 until the summer of 1943 he worked as a machinist in a repair shop at a factory. In the summer of 1943, he was drafted into the Red Army; after graduating from the 32nd Tank School in Kirov, he served as a SU-76 gunlayer in the 1201st Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment, a T-34 loader in the same regiment, and a motorcycle section commander in the 94th Separate “Hingan” Motorcycle Battalion of the 7th Mechanized Corps. In total, he fought in the Ukraine, Rumania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and China. He was decorated with the Order of Lenin, Order of Glory III Class, two Medals of Valor (“Za Otvagu” – Transl.), the Combat Achievements Medal (“Za Boevye Zaslugi” – Transl.) and the Order of Honor. In 1950 he became employed at the “Krin” factory, where he works through the present day and where he earned the honorific of “ExpertMachine-builder of the Russian Federal Socialist Republic”.

阿尔谢尼耶•尼古拉耶维奇•扎诺夫出生于基洛夫斯卡娅州巴克廷斯基耶（现在的基洛夫斯基耶）地区巴列津契纳村的一个农民家庭。在从基洛夫城的第42技工学校毕业后，从1942年冬到1943年夏他在一个工厂的维修车间当工人。1943年夏，他应征入伍。在从基洛夫的第32坦克学校毕业后，他曾经是第1201自行火炮团的一名炮手，同一个团的T－34装填手，第7机械化军Hingan独立摩托车营的一个摩托车排排长。总之，他曾经的乌克兰、罗马尼亚、匈牙利、捷克斯洛伐克和中国作战。他曾荣获列宁奖章，三级荣誉勋章，两枚勇敢奖章，两枚战功奖章和一枚荣誉勋章。从1950年起他在“克林”工厂工作，并一直工作到现在，在那里他获得了“俄罗斯社会主义联邦共和国生产能手”的荣誉。

A.B.: At the tank school did they immediately begin to train you as a loader?

在坦克学校他们从一开始就训练你做装填手吗？

No, I was being trained as a gunlayer, and successfully completed that course. Then we started to drive out to practice shoots at a firing range near the Bahta village – and the problem was that I was too short. I was a good student in the classroom, but in the vehicle itself I had to stand on my tiptoes just to try and reach the gunsight. The shoots were early in the morning, too, I didn’t really see the target at all – sent all my three practice shells into the empty sky (laughs – A.B.). The assault gun commander was a veteran tanker, fought in T-70s, came to us straight from the hospital. When I finished, he nearly cried, and told me: “son, what am I going to do with you once we get to the front? The assault gun exists to fire at tanks over open sights – if we can’t shoot, we’ll just be a practice target for them.” I was very disappointed too – it was a bad practice shoot. But then, during my first battle, near Odessa, we ran straight into German forces and I was right on the leading edge. In my first combat I destroyed an armoured transporter, one gun and a lot of enemy infantry. The Germans and the Rumanians were retreating, and we formed up right in their path – that’s the kind of battle that was. For that fight I was awarded the Medal of Valor – the first in my regiment!

不，一开始我接受的是炮长训练，理论学习部分我表现得很好。之后我们离开学校来到了Bahta村附近的一个靶场进行实弹射击——我太矮了。在课堂上我是个好学生，但在车上我掂起脚尖才刚好能够得上瞄准镜。在早晨的射击训练中，我根本就没看到目标，三发炮弹全都打了水漂（笑）。突击炮车长是个老兵，之前在T-70上服役，负伤从医院归队后就来到了我们这。在我完成射击后，他都快哭了，他走到我面前说道：“孩子，上前线后我还能和你一块干什么？突击炮是完全暴露在敌坦克视野下开火的——如果我们无法命中，那么就会成为敌人的活靶子。”我也非常的失望——真是一次糟糕的实弹射击。不过之后我参加的在敖德萨附近的第一次战斗中，战斗中我位于前锋的右翼边缘，直接冲向德军阵地。交火中我击毁了一辆装甲运输车，一门火炮和很多敌军。德国人和罗马尼亚人正在撤退，我们排成突击阵型紧追其后——打仗应该就是这个样子。那次战斗我赢得了“勇敢奖章”——这是我们团所获得的第一枚这种勋章！

How did I manage to fire the gun? Before that first fight we did have some run-ins with the Germans, some long-range firing but nothing more substantial. During that time I rigged up an empty ammo crate to serve as a platform on which I could stand while firing the gun. The regiment’s commander later nicknamed me “gunner with a lectern”.

我是怎样开炮的？在第一次战斗之前我们确实也和德军进行了几次小冲突，我们曾在远程对敌军目标进行过射击，但这就是全部了。期间我找了个空的弹药箱垫在脚下解决了问题.我们团长后来给我起了个绰号圣经桌上的炮手

I got my second Medal of Valor – for destroying a German tank – in another battle later on. We were behind the Dniester River, when that bridgehead was already somewhat enlarged. The assault guns were standing in prepared positions, then the infantry told us that there are German tanks in such and such a place. We moved out, I let off a few shots and hit him in the side, I think. Then I heard shouts “he’s burning up!” It’s like this – you move out, then you start maneuvering. The assault gun commander moved us forward, I fired my shots and he immediately moved us back and to the side as he knew that the Germans would aim at the spot from which we had opened fire. In any case, I was credited with a kill – meanwhile, I’m still not really sure whether it was my target that was burning back there.

在另一场战斗中,我击毁了一辆德国坦克--获得了第2枚英勇勋章.我们跨过了聂斯特河,此时的桥头堡已经有了些许扩张.突击炮进入预设阵地,之后步兵会来告诉我们在这或那有德国坦克.开了几炮了,我认为打中了他的侧面.然后我就听到了喊叫声:它开始烧起来了!然后我们开始机动.突击炮车长带领我们向前,在我开炮之后,他就立刻让车向和侧面机动,因为他知道德国人会对我们刚才开火的地点进行瞄准.不管如何,我获得了一个击毁记录-同时,我仍旧不能确定我瞄准射击的目标是否真的被摧毁了

A.B.: How many shells did you fire?

你发射了多少发炮弹？

I can’t say exactly. It’s like this – typically, you start by firing a few aiming shots with high explosive shells – once you’ve zeroed in on the target, then you hit it with an armor piercing round. You have to fire aiming shots first though. On the other hand, if you’re firing over open sights and can actually see the target in front of you, then you can use an armor piercing shell straight away. We were also issued specially made sub-caliber shells, 5 per combat load. I only ever got to fire one of those, for some reason they all had to be accounted for. Now regular high explosive or armor piercing rounds – they gave us lots of those.

这个我可说不清。通常是这样的——你需要首先打几发高爆弹——直到你的炮弹命中了目标，然后再使用穿甲弹向目标射击。另一方面，如果你能够在视野开阔的地方射击，并且能够清楚的看到你前方的目标的话，那么你可以直接使用穿甲弹。我们同样也接收到了一些特制的次口径穿甲弹，每个弹药基数配备5发。我仅仅打过1发这种炮弹，因为所有这种炮弹的发射必须事后打报告说明理由）。但我们现在有大量的高爆弹和普通穿甲弹。

A.B.: Were you trained in indirect fire from the start?

从一开始你们就被训练间瞄射击吗？

Well, you see – on the firing range we took practice shots after gunnery classes mainly to get used to the sound of the gun firing. I mean, that’s how I understood it at the time – everything was different at the front. At the front, you’re firing on a live target. Artillery is an interesting and fairly simple discipline. They did train us in both direct and indirect fire, how to use the various instruments. Indirect fire training was fairly simple: you have your observer, but you yourself can’t see the target. So you aim the gun and fire, then the observer gives you a correction: “too short”. But then at the front, I never had a chance to fire at something indirectly, from fixed positions. When you’re right on the leading edge, you’re always firing over open sights – that’s the only kind of targets you get. That’s precisely what small caliber artillery is intended for. The 45mm guns are anti-tank weapons, while assault guns are used to engage the enemy forces directly. War is war, and different equipment serves different purposes.

是这样的——当我们的炮术理论课程结束后，我们要在靶场上进行实弹射击，这种练习的主要目的是让我们适应火炮开火时的巨大声响。我的意思是说，这就是我当时对“实弹射击”的理解——但在前线所有的东西都不相同。在前线，你需要瞄准真实的（活动）目标开火。炮兵实际上是一种非常有趣而且相当简单的学科。他们确实把直瞄射击和间瞄射击都教了，以及如何使用多种不同的设备。间瞄开火训练是相当简单的：你通常会有一个射击观测手（在前方），但你自己无法看到所要射击的目标。所以你用火炮瞄准开火，然后前方的观测员给你修正弹道的指令：“太近了”之类的。但是在前线的时候，我根本没有机会从预设阵地上朝着那些我看不到的目标射击。

A.B.: How were your assault guns used tactically?

突击炮的战术是怎么样的？

An assault gun isn’t meant to go in with the main attack like the T-34 tank – the tanks have armor, while our guns are completely open from the rear. This one time, at the village of Grigor’evka near Odessa, HQ ordered us to go in with the tanks. Fortunately, my battery didn’t participate in that attack – a lot of the assault guns from my regiment burned up. Just imagine – a SU-76 has two engines working on high-grade aviation gasoline. That thing could blow up from the tiniest spark, which is what happened near Dniester when I almost burned up. That was the one instance of when we went into the attack like that, and several people burned up. Seems that’s how HQ wanted the attack to be conducted.

突击炮可比不上作为进攻主力的T-34坦克。坦克有着装甲防护，我们的车辆后部是完全敞开的。一次，在敖德萨附近的格里戈里耶夫卡，司令部命令我们象坦克般发起进攻。幸运地是，我们连没有参加那次战斗，我们团的大量突击炮都损失了。试着想象一下，一辆SU-76装了两个发动机，由高等级的航空汽油作为燃料推动。只要有微弱的火星就会发生爆炸，在德涅斯特河附近我就因为这差一点就被烧死了。

The Dniester was forced in May, and we wound up on a small bridgehead about one kilometer deep and half a kilometer wide. If you can picture the steep shore of the Vjatka River – that’s how it was at the bridgehead, with a serpentine road leading up from the river. So 6 of the 21 assault guns in my regiment went up the serpentine and deployed to defend the bridgehead. Of course, the Germans tried to push us back into the river, but the will of our soldiers was stronger than the Germans.

我军是在五月突破德涅斯特河的，我们从一个大约纵深一公里，宽约五百米的小桥头堡阵地过河。你能想象维亚特卡河两岸的那种峭壁么—这桥头堡的地貌就跟那差不多，有一条崎岖的小路在河边。接下来我们团21辆自行火炮的6辆通过那条小路完成在桥头堡展开并组织防御。当然，德国人企图将我们赶回河对岸，但是我军的战斗意志比德军更旺盛。

A.B.: What other shortcomings did the SU-76 have, in your opinion?

在你看来SU-76有什么缺点呢？

It was open-topped, for one. When you’re in a T-34, you feel protected. Not in the SU-76. Of course, the fact that it lacked an enclosed crew compartment could be a good thing – one time, an explosion threw me clear of the vehicle. If it hadn’t, I might have died then and there – as it were, my greatcoat was cinged and my face burned all over, but I got clear. The assault gun just continued to burn and eventually the shells inside detonated and blew it apart. And after all that I had to come back to the vehicle…Actually, it was an interesting event. I did a very dumb thing – well, maybe I did the right thing, who knows. The SU-76 gunner serves as the machine’s second-in-command and has the right to issue orders to the driver independently of the crew commander, because sometimes the commander might not notice something important. You issued orders through a visual intercom system. The system had three lights – white, green and red. Certain combinations of lights, for example if you pressed red and green, translated into different commands for the driver: “start the engines”, “forward”, “back”. An assault gun is more limited than a tank, which can rotate its turret 360 degrees. A tank can point its body in one direction while firing entirely elsewhere, while an assault gun’s main weapon can move 15 degrees right or left, no more than 30 degrees up, if I remember correctly, and 5 degrees down. Very limited.

开放式顶篷是一个，你乘坐T34的时候会感到很安全。不像在SU76里那样。当然，事实上没有顶篷这个特点有时候也可能是好事—有一次，我被爆炸的气浪抛起来正好甩出了车外。如果SU76不是这个结构的话，我可能当场就死掉了—我的大衣被烧坏了（原文cinged似乎为误拼写—译者注），脸也被烧伤了，但是我至少还算完好无损。自行火炮则还在燃烧，之后弹药殉爆，整个车体都成了碎片。而最后我还是得去驾驶自行火炮战斗……这事其实挺有趣的。我做了件傻事，不过也许是对的，谁知道呢。SU-76的炮长实际上算是自行火炮里的二把手，可以直接向驾驶员下达命令而无需通过车长。因为有时候车长的精力也有限。炮长可以通过一个可视的联络系统来发布命令。这个系统由三个灯组成。—白灯、绿灯和红灯。你可以用几种灯配合在一起传令，比如说按下红灯和绿灯，就可以向驾驶员传达不同的指令“启动”“前进”“后退”。自行火炮的射界比坦克要有限的多，坦克炮塔可以旋转360度。可以随意指向任何一个方向，而自行火炮主炮的射界只有左右各15度，总共30度。如果我记得不错的话，高低射界也就5度，非常有限。

There was this one battle when we were in the Dniester bridgehead. Our assault guns were deployed in a fan formation, it’s a kind of artillery tactic. All our vehicles were fairly close to the river bank, and positioned close together so that the firing sectors of neighboring assault guns overlapped. All dug in, that was mandatory. That’s the main thing – we were in dug in positions. When we dug out an emplacement, we always left a small cell under the vehicle to rest in. There is no place in the vehicle itself to rest when you’re in defensive positions. So as the gunner, I would keep watch, the driver would be in his seat, and the rest of the crew would crawl into this cell.

It was May 4, around 4 o’clock in the morning. It was still dark, but the Germans lit up some houses. Someone brought me a map of the area after the war, and I couldn’t find the village where all this took place. I kept looking for something named Sherpen’, but the actual name of that village was Sherpeny, a neighbor of mine was from Moldavia and she set me straight. Anyway, the Germans open fire and commenced an attack from the village graveyard. I decided to get our SU-76 out of its emplacement, since we couldn’t fire at the Germans from where we were. Just as I got it out and tried to turn it around, the thing got stuck. All the other crews were in a basement of a half-ruined hovel, only the men on watch were in the assault guns. So when the shooting started, they ran to their vehicles but the commander of a neighboring assault gun mistook my SU-76 for his own. Just at this time my commander jumped out, and a German shell or a mine went off right on top of my vehicle, my teeth clacked from the explosion. So the other commander helped me bandage ours up. Meanwhile, the shrapnel knocked off my gunsight, and my commander is signing to me – run, it’s no use, the assault gun is stuck where it is and the Germans are already advancing.

在德涅斯特桥头堡我们有一次战斗。自行火炮成扇面展开，这是炮兵战术的一种。所有的自行火炮都在河岸附近部署，而且还将队形靠拢以使和临车的射界叠加组成交叉火力。当命令所有车辆挖掘掩体的时候，主要的事情就是在阵地上挖土。在挖好了车辆的掩体之后，我们通常会在车体底下挖一个小坑在里边休息。因为在防御阵地上的时候车里是没有可供休息的空间的。而作为一个炮长，我观察目标，驾驶员也会在驾驶位置，而其他的车组成员就会到坑里休息。

在5月4日，大约在凌晨4点左右。天还没有亮，但德国人的屋中已经亮灯。有个人帮我拿来了战后的当地地图，我已经找不到战斗过的那个村庄了。我一直在找一个叫“谢尔平”的地方，但是那个村子实际上叫谢尔佩尼，最后临车有一个来自摩尔多瓦的人，帮我纠正了一个错误。最后，德国人向我们开火并且从小村的墓地里发起进攻。我决定将SU76从掩体中驶出，因为我们在现有位置没法还击。正在我把自行火炮开出来并转向的时候，麻烦来了。这时候几乎所有成员都在一间半荒废的屋子的墙角里休息，只有对敌观察的乘员在车上。所以战斗开始的时候，所有人都跑出来奔向自己的战车，但是临车的车长把我在的这辆车误认为是他的座车，而我的车长则跳了出来。恰在此时一枚炮弹或者是地雷在我们战车的上方爆炸，把我的牙都炸的噼啪乱响。那个车长帮我进行了包扎。后来我知道那是颗榴霰弹炸坏了我的瞄准具，而我的车长给我树立了一个教训—跑是没用的。自行火炮应该在现有的阵地上抵抗德军已经发动的进攻。

I started to jump out of the vehicle, there was a pair of small doors in the back for that. All I’ve got is a revolver. A gunner is supposed to have a revolver, the loader gets an SMG and the driver and commander each get a revolver. So three revolvers and an SMG, plus a few grenades. So first I went to grab a grenade from an ammo storage compartment, put in my pocket, grabbed my revolver – it was attached by a chord to my arm – and started to jump out. Just as I grabbed the doors, I was blown clear by the explosion. What happened? When my commander told me to get out, I thought to tell the driver. When I bent down towards his station, I saw his hatch was open and he’d already split. That’s when a shell hit us and blew up. The assault gun has ventilation grilles on top of the engines, flames burst through those and burned my face. I shut my eyes, turned around, grabbed the doors and that’s when the assault gun exploded. I was thrown clear for maybe five meters. Somehow I managed to turn to avoid getting hurt by the fall, and still had the revolver in my hand, although its chord was torn. At first I didn’t feel anything from the adrenaline rush, and meanwhile the place is covered by a net of tracer rounds, and enemy shells are exploding everywhere.

我跳出了战车，在车后头有两个小门。我有一支左轮手枪。炮长的制式武器是左轮手枪，装填手是冲锋枪而驾驶员和车长也都是左轮手枪。整车的全部轻武器就是三只左轮手枪，一支冲锋枪，加上一些手榴弹。所以我一开始就从武器柜里抓了一枚手榴弹放进了口袋，然后抓着左轮手枪—枪用枪纲系在我的胳膊上—跳了出去。正当我跳出车的时候，突然被爆炸给击倒了。发生了什么？当指挥员让我弃车的时候，我想要叫驾驶员。而等我向前看的时候，就发现他的位置舱门已经打开，而他已经被扯碎了。这时一串炮弹飞向我们并连续爆炸。自行火炮的发动机上方有一个通风口，从那里边窜出的火苗烧伤了我的脸。我闭上眼睛，转身去抓门，正在这时自行火炮爆炸了。我被甩出了大约五米。不知何故我尽量避免被摔伤，但同时仍然抓着我的左轮手枪，尽管枪纲已经断了。最开始我由于肾上腺素的分泌而没有伤痛感觉，战场上交织着曳光弹组成的火网，而敌人的炮弹就在各处爆炸。

Then I saw some soldiers running behind the hovels – if these were Germans, I would have run straight into their hands. But these were ours. I was completely disoriented, but finally got to a hovel where our soldiers gathered.

My greatcoat was all cinged, my neck and face were burned. I saw my commander there, we went down to the river and I took him to the medical station. He was a good commander – Lieutenant Aleksej Ivanovich Dylev. He was my second commander, actually, the first was Aleksej Ivanovich Dernov. Both were “Aleksej Ivanovich”, and both from Saratov. Dernov was wounded in the arm, while Dylev got it in the cheek.

我看到一群士兵从小屋的后边跑过来—如果他们是德国人，那我肯定会落入他们手中。但是那是自己人。我当时已经神志不清了，但是还是想办法逃进了友军集结的那个小屋中。

我的外套全都烧坏了，我的脖子和脸也被烧伤了。我在那看见了我的车长，我们撤过了河，之后我把他送去了医疗战。他是个很好的车长—阿列克谢伊万诺维奇德耶列夫中尉。他是我的第二个车长，其实第一个车长叫阿列克谢伊万诺维奇杰尔诺夫。这俩人的名字和父名都是阿列克谢伊万诺维奇，而且都是萨拉托夫人。杰尔诺夫是胳膊受伤，而德耶列夫则是伤在了脸颊。

The German attack was repelled in the end, but there was only one assault gun left out of the six that were there. When I got my commander to the medical station the sun began to rise, and our IL-2 Shturmoviks began to arrive. I decided I had to go back to my assault gun – I had no right to leave the frontline. I thought – if I were to go back to the rear areas, they’d ask me what was I doing there. So I went back to my assault gun.

My vehicle had completely fallen apart, I only remember the gearbox; it had been thrown clear and was burning with a blue flame. Our assault gun was on one side of the street, while right across from it stood a German tank. With a tanker half-fallen out of one of the hatches. My crew told me: we were standing right there, the German tank came up and got hit right in the side at point blank range, at most from 10 meters away. So that’s what happened in the Dniester bridgehead.

德军的进攻最终被打退了，但是在河对岸的六辆自行火炮中只有一辆还在那。我把车长送去医院的时候太阳升起来了，IL2斯图莫维克强击机飞抵战场。我决定回到我的自行火炮那去—我没有权利离开前线。我觉得—如果我跑回后方地域的话，一定会有人问我在前线都干了些什么，所以我决定回到我的自行火炮那去。

There was this one episode I want to talk about. On the white wall of one ruined hovel someone wrote with a charcoal: “Tankers and assault gunners, don’t let us take you prisoner, we’ll cut you to pieces while you’re still alive.” And right nearby we found the bodies an assault gun commander, Lieutenant Rjazantsev, his gunner Karataev – a kid from Vjatka, we were in the tank school together – and his driver, forgot what the guy’s name was. The commander had a star carved into his forehead, the arms were broken, his eyes were gouged out and his member was cut off and stuffed into his mouth. Karataev was stabbed to death with a bayonet, while the driver was apparently shot execution-style. Don’t know what happened to the loader. They were all from the same crew – we buried them in the nearby orchard under an apple tree and made an oath to avenge them. And we kept that oath.

我想说一个战斗中的细节。在一段白色的残垣上有一段用炭写的字：“坦克兵和自行火炮手们，千万不要落到我们手里，如果活着落到我们手里的话，我们会把你撕成碎片。”在那附近我们找到了几具尸体，车长梁赞采夫中尉，炮长卡拉塔耶夫—一个来自维亚特卡的孩子，我们曾经是坦克学校的同学—还有他的驾驶员，忘了那个兄弟叫什么名字了。车长的前额上被刻上了一个星，胳膊被打断了，他的眼珠被挖了出来，而他的器官被切下来塞进了嘴里。卡拉塔耶夫被刺刀刺死了，而驾驶员则显然是被用枪执行了处决。不知道装填手遭了什么罪。他们都是同一个车组—我们把他们埋在了附近果园的一棵苹果树下，并且发誓为他们报仇。而我们则一直记着这个誓言。

A.B.: Do you think it was the Germans or Vlasov’s men? [Russian soldiers fighting on the German side – Transl.]

你认为会是德国人或者是弗拉索夫分子了？（弗拉索夫分子是在德国阵营下作战的俄国人—原译注）

Vlasov’s men, they were at the place around that the time.

弗拉索夫分子当时确实在附近。

A.B.: Did you see any of them?

你看到过那些人么？

We didn’t see them since the whole thing happened at night. Plus you have shells exploding, all sorts of noise. [Laughs – A.B.] During combat, during heavy fighting, you can never tell who is who.

我们没看到过因为战斗发生在晚上。加上你周围到处都是炮弹爆炸和各式各样的声音（笑—访问者）在战斗中，尤其是激战的时候，你可分不出来谁是谁。

A.B.: When you were in a SU-76, what was your most frequent opponent – infantry, artillery or tanks?

你在驾驶SU76的时候，最常见的敌人是什么呢，步兵、大炮还是坦克？

You know, since I was a tanker I had to view enemy tanks as an obvious threat. Later on, when I was a scout, all threats were equally dangerous – when you’re on patrol, you are not protected from anything, not bullets, not shells, not bombs. But when you were in a tank, you didn’t care about, say, a machine gun burst, or someone advancing towards you. It’s when you’re outside, you might as well be naked, and you have to work to make yourself invulnerable.

你知道，因为我是个坦克手所以我认为敌人的坦克是主要的威胁。稍后，当我成为侦察兵之后，所有的威胁对我来说都很危险—当你巡逻的时候，没有任何东西能保护你，没有子弹，没有炮弹也没有炸弹。但如果你在坦克里，就不必担心这些，比如或机枪子弹或者其他什么的会伤着你。而当你暴露在外边的无遮无拦的时候，你就小心点才能让自己不受伤害。

A.B.: What happened after your assault gun unit was destroyed?

在你们那支自行火炮部队被摧毁之后又发生了什么？

Well, my face was all burned. Our regiment’s commander, a man named Makatsuba, he was a good man – a frontline soldier, wounded many times. Well, he left the regiment soon afterwards, and his replacement was our chief of staff Dobretsov. His name really did describe the man. [The root word of Dobretsov is dobro or kindness – Transl.] So Dobretsov ordered that I am not sent to some hospital, but rather that the medics would treat me while I remaind with the regiment. “The only decorated crewman in the regiment” and so forth. And that’s how I managed to stay with my regiment.

嗯，我的脸被烧伤了。我们团的团长，他叫马卡苏瓦，是个好人—一个前线军人，曾经多次受伤。之后不久他就离开了这个团，继任者是参谋长多布列佐夫。他的名字很好的诠释了他的性格。（多布列佐夫这个名字的词源dobro，俄文为добро，意为良好的或者善良的—译者注）所以多布列佐夫命令我可以不去医院，但是要在团里接受卫生院的治疗。作为“团里的闲人”或者诸如此类，而这也是我为了留在团里而想的办法。

We were withdrawn to the rear for reconstitution, and that’s where we were given T-34 tanks. We also got a new regiment commander, Colonel Muhin. Also a very good man, very good to the soldiers. Somehow I’ve always been lucky in life with meeting good people, having good friends. My wife always told me “you know Arsenij, it’s just a pleasure when your friends come over.” And come to think of it, I never had any bad ones – always people with whom you could have a decent conversation. Colonel Muhin was like that, a very good man.

我们团撤退到后方地域进行休整补充，在那我们接收了一批T34坦克。我们的新团长也到任了，穆辛中校。也是很棒的人，一个很出色的军人。不知何故我总是能很走运的碰到出色的人，交往中总能碰到很好的朋友。我妻子也总是跟我说“你知道的阿尔谢尼，你和你的朋友们交往会是一件很快乐的事情。”而且我在我记忆中，我从没有一个损友—在我周围的人都很正直。穆辛中校就是这样的，一个好人。

A.B.: What was the most memorable part of the Jassy-Kishinev Operation for you?

雅西—基什尼奥夫战役在你的记忆中有什么比较深刻的印象？

Here’s why it was interesting. The defense lines were practically on the Romanian border. Stalin launched ten big offensive, and so this was number eight. We, soldiers, didn’t really know all that much, but I think our commander was Tolbuhin. The mission was to break through the defense line in a couple of places, link up behind enemy lines and create a cauldron – that was the point of the whole thing. We went in south of Bendery, practically in the enemy’s rear area. We were driving forward while the fighting was still going on behind us – our mobile units like tanks and assault guns just tore forward.

是有些趣事，敌人的防线实际上就是罗马尼亚的国境线。当时有斯大林的十次打击的说法，而这就是第八次。当然，我们这些士兵不会知道那么多，但是我们的司令员托尔布欣（时任乌克兰第3方面军司令员—译者注），任务就是在多个地段突破敌人在该地域的防线，并在敌人后方的纵深会合并建成一个大沸锅—这就是全部问题的关键。我们运动到宾杰里以南地区，实际上就是敌人的后方。我们向前推进的时候在我们背后实际上战斗还在持续。—我们这些坦克和自行火炮组成的机动部队会向敌方纵深突击。

A.B.: At the start of the offensive did your regiment go in as a separate unit or were the SU batteries detached in support of other troops?

你们团在发起进攻的时候是作为独立部队或者没有后勤单位进行支援么？

No, it was like this. First, you had the antitank minefields – they were mostly cleared by sappers, but the terrain didn’t allow them to get at most of the anti-personnel mines. So the order came down – as soon as the tanks and assault guns go through, the infantry will follow in their tracks. The shrapnel didn’t really do anything to these vehicles, the mines just exploded harmlessly. Now, after the infantry went through the minefield, it could begin its attack and so was left behind while we surged forward. We broke through the defense line quite easily, actually, there was virtually no resistance. The artillery preparation must have lasted at least an hour – a veritable curtain of fire from all sorts of guns. Our jump-off point was in a clearing of some wood, and so by the time we drove out in the open space we just saw the “Katyushas” firing on enemy positions. It was quite a spectacle. The Germans hunted them, tried to figure out their firing positions as soon as the first salvo landed. “Katyusha” units had to fall back to the rear as soon as they finished firing, because the Germans would start to pound their position with mortars and artillery, even with aircraft.

不，实际上是这样的。首先进攻地域有反坦克雷区—当然大部分都被工兵扫除了，但是地形不允许工兵清除大部分反步兵地雷。所以这样的命令就下达了—坦克和自行火炮前进的时候要伴随有乘坐卡车的步兵。榴霰弹无法杀伤车辆中的人员，而地雷也没法杀伤人员。而在步兵通过雷区之后，就可以展开发动进攻，而我们机械化部队则向前继续突破。我军会很容易就突破敌军防线，事实上，简直就跟毫无抵抗差不多。这时候炮兵准备一般已经到了最后一个小时—用各种火炮组成的一副弹幕。我们的进攻出发阵地是在一片树林里，现在则冲向开阔地，冲击的时候我们会看到喀秋莎火箭炮向敌人阵地射击的场景。那场景太奇妙了。德军也会进行侦测，试图在第一次齐射的时候就标定我军火箭炮的射击阵地。喀秋莎火箭炮部队会在射击后很快后撤到后方地域，这是由于德军会使用迫击炮和炮兵轰击他们的射击阵地，甚至还有空军。

This one time, when we were marching along the main roads, we ran into a German column. These were reinforcements moving up to the front, either didn’t have radio contact with anyone or just got lost or some such. We caught them completely by surprise, took several thousand prisoners and left them with our supporting infantry. The Germans didn’t expect us at all. I remember, we grabbed one of their officers near the Parizhi village, the guards fell asleep and he escaped, but before he did he told us that from the German perspective the offensive was very sudden and unexpected, like a bolt of lightning.

这一次，我们在沿着主要交通线前进的路上，遭遇了德军的一个行军纵队。这部分敌军是奔向前线的援军，但是可能没有和任何友军进行无线电联系或者干脆就是迷路了或者其他的原因。我们在该敌完全无准备的情况下进行了突袭，俘获了数千名战俘并且让我们的伴随步兵看管。德国人完全没有预料到我们会在这里出现。我记得在Parizhi镇附近我们俘虏了一名德国军官，他后来趁看守睡觉的时候逃跑了，但在此之前他跟我们说了德国人对这次进攻的看法，那就是非常的出乎意料，就像遭遇了一道闪电。

When I got transferred to the T-34 I became the loader, while the tank commander worked the gun. I spent the entire the Jassy-Kishinev operation on the T-34. Of course, I didn’t have any combats where I got to fire the gun, like I did on the SU-76. Our entire regiment, in fact, didn’t really run into any heavy resistance, so my tank commander, named Isaev, also didn’t get to do any shooting. Interestingly, they didn’t change the regiment’s name even though it had T-34s at that point. When we were holding the line near the Dniester we got the honorific “Ismailovskij” – you know where Suvorov fought? [Generalissimo A.S. Suvorov had famously captured the impregnable Turkish fortress of Ismail in Bessarabia towards the end of 1790 – Transl.] I actually got to visit Ismail after I got out of the hospital, but I won’t bore you with all of my biographical minutia.

我在换到T34坦克上之后成为了一名装填手，就是和炮长一起操纵火炮的乘员。我在整个雅西—基什尼奥夫战役期间都是T34乘员。当然，像在SU76上服役的时候一样我并没有在任何战斗中像任何目标开火。事实上我们全团都没有遭遇什么像样的抵抗。所以我们的车长，叫伊萨耶夫，他也没进行过火炮的射击操作。有意思的是，在换装了T34之后团的番号还和原来一样。当抵达德涅斯附近的时候我们团获得了荣誉称号“伊斯梅尔洛夫斯基”—你知道么，那是苏沃洛夫曾经战斗过的地方。（1790年年底，苏沃洛夫元帅在比萨拉比亚的伊斯梅尔地区攻占了土耳其军队据守的坚固要塞—原译注）我实际上是伤愈之后到伊斯梅尔又旅游了一圈，当然如果你在我的回忆采访记录上如实记述，我也不会生气。

I became a scout after I got out of the hospital. Since I had been a tanker, when I got to the 94th Separate Motorcycle Battalion I was in full tanker uniform, including the helmet. The battalion had some T-34s, and I told the CO that I’m a tanker and wanted to serve in a tank. And he then says to me:

我从医院伤愈之后成为了一名侦查员。后来我成为了一名坦克手，当我调到了第94独立摩托化营的时候，穿上了全套的坦克兵制服，包括头盔。这个营拥有一部分T34坦克，并且我告诉军官，我是一个坦克手，希望能够继续驾驶坦克作战。之后他告诉我说

- All of our tank crews are at full strength. If that ever changes, we’ll look you up, but until then you’ll be a tank rider.

Well, then I guess I’ll be a tank rider. This was in December of 1944, in a Hungarian town of Bichki. So – instead of staying a tanker I wound up in a scout unit. We actually didn’t have any motorcycles at that point, so we were basically general infantry. I was a sergeant then; one day, they call me into the HQ in a village named Chabli and told me:

—我们所有的坦克成员组都满编了。如果需要补充的话，我们会通知你，但是在此之前你得作为坦克搭载兵作战。

我早就猜中了可能让我作为坦克搭载兵作战。在1944年12月，地点是在匈牙利一个叫比奇基的小镇。在那我被从坦克搭载兵调到了侦察部队。我们实际上当时没有任何摩托化车辆，所以跟步兵差不多。当时我是一名中士；有一天，指挥部设在在一个叫查比利的小镇里，上边告诉我说：

- Sergeant, take this soldier, - mind you, this was about two or three o’clock in the morning. Half the village was German, half – ours. – Take this soldier and get him to the forward edge, you know the way. Get the password and a written pass, and take a prisoner.

中士同志，带着这名士兵，提醒你一下，现在的时间是凌晨2点到3点。这个镇的一半在德国人手里，一半在我们手里。带着这个士兵到前沿去，你知道路。你的任务是弄回来口令和通行证，还得抓一个舌头。

- Yes sir, - I said, and went off on my way.

At that point I didn’t really know anything about being a scout – in the reserve regiment near Slobodskoe all they trained us in was infantry tactics: defend a position, fire at the target. How to attack: short step, long step, run forward, crawl forward. That’s it. Plus, I used to be a tanker – completely separate from the whole infantry business. Later on I understood that this particular mission was a test, of sorts. They were trying to see what I could do, what I was capable of. So – I got to the forward edge, right to the sentry post, and told them – “we’re going to get a prisoner”. They looked at us as if I said something absurd – some teenage small fry going after a “tongue” (laughs – A.B.). The other soldier was also pretty small, Vlasenko was his name. So me and Vlasenko crossed into no man’s land without really knowing where the Germans were, where anything was.

—尊令，首长，我说，然后就上路了。

直到这会儿我对于执行侦察任务的技巧还是一无所知—在斯洛博茨科伊附近我接受的是步兵战术的训练：阵地防御，武器射击。如何进攻：小步慢走、大步快走、跑步前进，匍匐前进。都是这些，再加上我之后成为了一个坦克手—完全和步兵的战术没有任何接触。之后我了解到这次任务实际上是各种各样的尝试之一。上边想测试一下我究竟能执行什么任务，能干些什么—我到了前沿，经过岗哨的时候告诉他们—“我们去抓个舌头回来“他们看我们的眼神就像我在说笑话一样—几个十几岁的菜鸟居然打算去抓”舌头“（笑-采访者）另外一个士兵年纪也不大，他叫弗拉先科。我和弗拉先科在还不知道德国人在哪，我们应该干什么的情况下，穿过无人地带上路了。

It was night. I said to Vlasenko: “You know, we have no idea what’s here or here the forward edge is – let’s just go this way.” So we went down a gulley – it was wintertime and there was a lot of snow on the ground – towards a nearby grape orchard, these usually had bunkers converted out of wine cellars. We saw something on the ground near the bunker and figured that maybe it was a German, though I said to Vlasenko: “Maybe he’s just dead…I mean, how are we going to snatch anyone if we don’t even know where the Germans’ forward edge is?” In any case, we crawled towards the bunker past what we thought was a hostel – turned out it was just a big heap of straw. The bunker’s door was half-open; I started to open it with my SMG barrel, and it squeaked – if anyone had been inside, they would surely have started shooting. So I said: “Cover me, just in case.” Opened the door and went in – I didn’t go in firing though, so as not to “light up” as a target. Vlasenko went in after me. I told him to shut the door, and then I lit a match – there were some steps leading down for a couple of meters, and a body of a dead German. I thought: “Well, he probably went up to the door and got shot, then tumbled back down the stairs.” Then I told Vlasenko to give me some light and searched the German’s pockets – he had some matches on him, a handkerchief, a torn newspaper and something resembling a letter. He also had an automatic cigarette maker, it’s like a little box, you put in some tobacco and cigarette paper and a cigarette comes out the other end. Anyhow, I grabbed all his stuff, figuring that even if we didn’t get a live prisoner, at least we had proof of some contact with the Germans. When we came back out of the bunker, the sun was already starting to come up. I told Vlasenko: “Listen, if we just crawl back to where we’d left our pass, we’re not going to make it before dawn. It’s almost half a kilometer. Let’s just walk normally, there don’t seem to be any Germans around anyway.” And so we went, but a patrol noticed us before we could pick up our pass.

天还黑着，我跟弗拉先科说：”你也明白，我们对前沿的状况还没搞明白，—我们只能走这条路。“我们低姿匍匐前进。—当时是冬天，地面上覆盖着大量的积雪—前进方向上靠近一个葡萄园，通常这种地方都有用酒窖改造的仓库。我们看到在仓库旁有什么东西，根据轮廓判断可能是德国人，然后我跟弗拉先科说：”这家伙有可能刚刚死…..我的意思是，我们俩连德国人的前沿在哪都不知道，怎么去捕俘呢？”无论如何，我们还是匍匐前进向那个仓库接近，经过了一个好像是旅馆的建筑物，门打开着，里边有一堆稻草。仓库的大门虚掩着，我用冲锋枪的枪管把门打开，门打开的时候吱吱作响—里边一个人都没有，这个地方是个很高的射击位置。我说：“掩护我，以防万一”然后就打开门走了进去，我没有向屋里开枪以免惊醒目标，弗拉先科紧随在我的身后，我让他关上门，然后划着了一根火柴，看到里边有几级向下延伸几米的台阶，台阶上有一具德国人的尸体。我当时想：“他估计是往门外冲的时候中弹，然后就翻下了台阶。”然后我让弗拉先科给我照着点亮，我去翻翻德国人的口袋。—这家伙口袋里有几根火柴，一块手帕，一张报纸和一些看上去像信件的东西。然后我还找到一个卷烟器，就是一个小盒子。往里塞上一些烟草和烟纸，另外一段就能出一支卷好的香烟。总之我拿走了他所有的东西，因为一旦我们没法抓一个活的俘虏回去，至少能找到点和德国人有关的东西充数。等我们往外走的时候，太阳已经隐约可见了。我告诉弗拉先科：“听着，如果咱俩还是匍匐着回去的话，那不等到我们爬回去天就已经亮了，这段路差不多有500多米，我们得跑回去，这附近似乎并没有德国人在周围。”然后我们就开始往回跑，但是正好被一个巡逻兵撞见了。

- Who goes there?

- Friendlies!

- What friendlies?

- Scouts…

- And where’s your pass?

Pass, what pass, we just came back from a reconnaissance. So they sent us back to their HQ under guard. When we got there, we told them we were scouts from such and such unit, they called our own HQ and verified that two scouts were in fact sent forward on a snatch-and-grab. That’s when they finally let us go.

—谁过来了？

—自己人

—什么自己人？

—侦察兵……

—那你从哪回去的呢？

—回去？什么回去？我们当时刚结束侦察任务，然后他们就把我们送到了戒备严密的指挥部。在路上我告诉他们，我们俩是某某部队的侦察兵，他们和我们部队的指挥部通了电话，在核实了确实派出了两个侦察兵去搜集情报和补俘的情况之后，他们最终让我们走了。

A.B.: Did you ever carry any identification on a mission?

—你在执行任务的时候不带什么证明文件么？

No, of course not. You had to leave all that at the HQ, even your medals. Physical evidence. And at that point, there weren’t even Red Army IDs like we have today, they just gave out a written document saying that I serve in such and such unit. Anyhow, after that patrol, I reported to HQ, gave them everything I found on that German, and went back to quarters. A couple of days later they called me back in, and ordered myself and two other men to go forward and verify where our forward edge is. So we went along all our sentry posts, making sure they were where the map said they should be. Finally, we – myself, Vlasenko again and another soldier whose name I forget – got to the street where we were picked up the other night, it was right at the edge of the village, and very well covered by the Germans’ mortars and machine guns. It was dawning again, and so I said to Vlasenko:

不，当然不会。你必须把所有这些东西都留在指挥部，甚至是勋章。所有的可以表明身份的东西。在这方面，连像今天所说的红军的识别标志也要摘掉，他们只是给我们写一个证明材料上边说某人服役于某某某部队。然后，在任务结束以后，我想指挥部做了汇报，把从德国人身上弄来的所有东西都上交了，然后回到原部队。几天之后上边又把我叫去了，命令我和另外两个士兵去前沿检查一下。然后我们就沿着前线走遍了所有岗哨，确保所有士兵都在地图上标注他们应该在的位置。最终，我们—我，弗拉先科，另外一个人的名字我忘了—走到了我们在另外一晚曾经检查过的街道前进，正好在小镇的边沿，这个地方很有容易被德军的迫击炮和机关枪进行火力封锁。这时候又是黎明，我跟弗拉先科说：

- I’ll make the first run, then you follow. – So I ran across, then waited for Vlasenko. He ran up to me and I asked him:

- Where’s the other guy?

- He ain’t there.

- What do you mean he ain’t there? Why not?

- He was there one minute and wasn’t there the next.

—我第一个跑，你跟着我。然后我就往前跑，等了一会弗拉先科，他跑过来的时候我问他

—另外一个兄弟呢？

—他不在那了

—不在那是什么意思？怎么回事？

—他一分钟以前还在，然后一转眼就不见了。

- All right, wait here, I’ll be back, - and I ran back across the street, looking for this other soldier. I mean, I couldn’t get back to HQ without finding out what happened to him – they’d ask me what happened, and I’d be held responsible as his commander. So I’m looking for him, calling out his name, and then I hear a muffled “I’m down here” coming from something that looked like a brick doghouse built next to a hut.

—好吧，在这等着，我回去—然后我又跑了回去，找那个士兵。我这么做是因为我不可能丢了这个一个大活人，这没法向指挥部解释。—他们肯定会问我到底怎么回事，而我目前担负着他的指挥官的责任。还好我找到了他，叫他的名字，之后我听到压低的声音：“我在下边呢”声音好像是从屋子底下的狗窝之类的地方传过来的一样。

What are you doing in there?

- I’m afraid! – He was fairly young, too.

- What are you afraid of?! Run!

Meanwhile, mortars and shells are bursting all over the place – of course the kid was afraid. Vlasenko and me – we were veterans, we knew that if you could hear a shell, then it’s not meant for you. You never hear the one meant for you, if you can hear it, you can always dodge away or drop into cover. So I told him: “Come on, don’t worry – just watch how I run across, then do the same.” Then I ran across, and he followed.

—你在那干什么？

—我害怕了—他还是个年轻人呢。

—你他妈怕什么啊！冲啊！

这时候，迫击炮弹和炮弹正在周围爆炸—当然这小伙子会害怕了。弗拉先科和我—我们都是老兵，我们知道你听到炮弹响的话，就意味着根本伤不着你。你可能从来没听说过这种话，如果你能听到什么射击声，那你就能躲开或者找到掩体。所以我就冲他喊：“快点，别犹豫！看着我怎么跑过去，照我的样子做！”然后我跑了过去，他跟在我后边。

When I reported back to HQ, I didn’t mention this incident. Why knock on a guy for getting a little scared? And after that, I finally began to feel like a real scout. Then we went after a “tongue” for real. Here’s how it’s done – first you have the observation team root around for about three days, figure out where the enemy is, what his patterns are, where his weakest link is. Then you send forward a capture team and a covering team.

当我回到指挥部报告的时候，我没有提到这件事。为什么要因为有点害怕就打一个兄弟的小报告呢？从这之后，我终于开始感到我喜欢当侦察兵。之后我们真的抓了个“舌头”回来。想知道怎么办到的—首先你得有三天以内的观测分队的情报作为参考，大致估计敌人的位置，其大致的情况，薄弱点在哪。然后就要派出一个捕俘分队和一个掩护分队。

A.B.: Which team were you on that time?

I was on the observation team, we watched the German positions through binoculars. The village was split in two – our positions were on one side of the village hostel, the Germans were on the other. We crawled up into an attic and watched them from there. I think they’ve managed to spot us somehow. There were three of us – myself, Victor Jacenko and another guy. We’d move the shingles aside and watch. There was this knocked out German medium tank next to one of the houses on their side of the village. All of a sudden, a German with a Panzerfaust came out, leaned against the side of that tank and aimed straight at us. We were gone in an instant, I mean, he blew half the shingles off the roof. [Laughs – A.B.] Clearly we gave ourselves away somehow, and then had to find another position.

—你那时候在什么分队？

—我是在观测分队，我们通过双筒望远镜观察德国人的阵地。小镇被一分为二，我们的阵地在小镇旅馆的这边，德国人的则在另外一边。我们爬进阁楼里，然后就从这监视敌人。我想他们可能不知用什么方法发现了我们。那有三个人—我，维克多雅森科还有另一个兄弟。我们趴在铺满了瓦片的屋顶上观察。在德国人那边紧挨着几间屋子旁有一辆被打坏的重型坦克。突然，一个德国人和一辆装甲车跑了出来，斜靠着那辆坦克的一边直接瞄准我们。我们马上就逃之夭夭了，还踩掉了屋顶上的半片瓦。（笑—采访者）无疑我们得离开那，然后换了另外一个阵地。

A.B.: Later on, did you ever go on a prisoner capture mission behind enemy lines? Did they give you special training as a scout?

A.B.:那你之后是否参加过在敌后捕俘虏的行动？你是否接受了特殊的关于侦查行动的训练？

No, no special training. Usually, during a break in the fighting our commander would just march us out of our positions and tell us – let’s say the enemy is deployed over there, go capture a prisoner. That was all the scout training we had. We had that in Hungary a few times, but it was a real joke, we didn’t even use training rounds, just whatever live ammunition we had on us.

Remember that guy I didn’t report for getting scared under fire? Well, here’s what happened to me and him one time. There is a town called Sekeshfehervar in Hungary, the Germans kicked us out of it twice after we’d captured it. And there was a canal connecting Lake Balaton and Lake Velency. It was January 18, 1945, 20 degrees Celsius below zero, and we were falling back from the town. HQ gave the order to our sappers to wait until all the heavy vehicles had crossed the canal, then blow the bridges. The sappers, of course, went across first and then blew the bridges without waiting for anyone – leaving all of our heavy equipment on the wrong side of the canal.

So I wound up having to swim across. By the time I got across I had to ditch my SMG and my greatcoat, and I still couldn’t lift myself out of the canal. Suddenly that very soldier turns up and shouts: “Zonov – give me your hand!” I gave him my hand, he pulled me out, I was shivering badly (shows just how badly – A.B.), but when I looked up literally a few seconds later he was gone. To this day it’s a mystery to me – the place was completely open, no cover around at all, where could he have gone?

没有什么特别训练。通常，在战斗训练的时候，我们的首长就会把我们从阵地中集合起来然后告诉我们说“根据情报敌军在某某地展开，现在的任务是去抓个舌头回来”这就是我们接受的全部侦查训练。我们在匈牙利进行了几次训练，但是那几次真是搞笑，我们甚至没有什么训练场地，不过是带着实弹而已。

你还记得我说过的，那次侦察任务的时候害怕的那个兄弟么？有一次就是我跟他出的事。那是在匈牙利境内的一个叫塞科舍费尔瓦尔的小镇，德国人已经两次把我们从里边赶了出来。那有一条沟通巴拉顿湖和韦伦采湖的运河。那是在1945年1月18日，气温是零下20摄氏度，我们从那个镇子退了出来。指挥部命令我们的工兵在所有车辆都过河以后就炸掉桥梁。结果工兵反而首先过河，在没有等任何人的前提下就炸掉了大桥—结果所有的重武器都落在了运河的另一边。

此后我凫水渡河。为了过河我不得不把我的冲锋枪和大衣找个地方埋起来，但即使如此仅靠我自己也没法过河。当时正好有一个士兵发现了我并且冲我大叫：“扎诺夫，把手给我！”我把手伸给他，他一把将我拽了上去，我当时发抖的厉害（表演抖得究竟多么厉害—访问者），但在数秒钟之后我的情况有所好转，那个兄弟就走了。那天发生的事情我至今还不明白—那个地方完全没有遮蔽，周围一望无际，他是从哪走的？

A.B.: What was the most terrifying moment or incident for you in the war?

The whole war was terrifying. I guess my test for toughness was that canal and what happened afterwards. After I got across, I walked for about 5-7 kilometers down the main road. At the time, we were moving fresh reserves to Sekeshfehervar, units from the Karelian Front. When the fighting in Karelia ended, they reformed those units and threw them to help our forces near Budapesht. Anyway, I walked up to a hamlet where we had either a field hospital or a medical station – I saw wounded being carried out of the huts and loaded on carts. The Germans were advancing, so the wounded were being evacuated. It was very cold, and I didn’t have my greatcoat – so I asked them for one. They told me they didn’t even have enough for all the wounded. So I went back to the main road, and that’s when a “Willis” jeep and a couple of supply carts drove up. We always called these things “hoofers”, basically horses pulling peasant carts with rations or ammunition. So the “Willis” pulled up to me and stopped, a colonel came out in a fur coat and hat and asked me:

A.B—你在战争中经历的最可怕的时刻或者事情是什么？

整场战争都很可怕。我想我经历的最大的考验就是在那个运河及以后发生的事情。在我渡过河之后，走了大约5-7公里抵达一条大路。那时候我军通过这条道路将从卡累利阿方面军补充而来的新部队送往塞克什白堡（Sekeshfehervar—塞克什白堡，匈牙利语为Székesfehérvár）。当卡累利阿附近的战斗结束之后，该方面军将部队进行整编并转移以支援在布达佩斯附近作战的我军。总之，我走向一个小村庄，村子里有一个不是野战医院就是救护站的单位—我看到他们把伤员从屋里抬了出来，塞进了大车。德国人开始进攻了，所以要把伤员疏散到后方。我感到非常的冷，因为没有大衣，所以我问那些人要一件大衣穿。他们告诉我连伤员都不够穿的，所以我回到了大路上，正好有一辆威利斯吉普和好几辆运输物资的大车驶过。我们称这些车队为“踢踏舞队”，因为他们往往靠骡马拉着乡下常见的大车，载着补给品或者弹药。之后那辆威利斯吉普赶上了我并停了下来，一名穿着皮衣戴着皮帽的中校从车上下来问我：

- Where are you coming from, Sergeant? – And I was just dying from the cold at that point.

- From the other shore.

- What other shore, - he asked?

- Just keep driving down this way, Comrade Colonel, and you’ll see for yourself! – The colonel then called a soldier over.

- Come here soldier! – The soldier came over. – Stand guard over this one – I’m going to drive up to the head of the column, line everyone up and have him shot for panicking.

- You know, Comrade Colonel, - I said, - you can shoot me right now if you want. I’m not going to just stand here and freeze.

—你从哪来，中士？—当时我他妈都快要冻死了！

—从河的对岸过来

—从哪个对岸？他问到

—沿着这条路一直走下去，中校同志，您自己就能看见了—之后这名中校开始集合点名。

—战士们，集合!—士兵们集合列队—看着这个人—我会走到队列前头，命令所有人列队站好，然后枪毙了这个家伙以杀鸡儆猴。

—中校同志，您看看—我说—如果您愿意的话您现在就可以毙了我。我要是再这么下去的话就会冻成冰块了。

He got back into his “Willis”, but just as he was driving off some German aircraft appeared and blasted everything to bits. His car was flipped over, his carts were smashed, the horses were running wild. So I just kept going. Understand, I was walking and counting my steps, waiting for a shot in the back. I was under guard, you see. But at one point I looked back at my guard, and saw him leaning against a cart casually holding his carbine. [Laughs wryly – A.B.] So I managed to walk away. By that point, it started to get dark. I was walking across a wood in some gulley when I saw a man approach wearing a captain’s insignia.

他回去爬上了他的吉普车，但就在他倒车的时候一队德国飞机出现然后扫荡了一切，他的吉普被打翻，车队和骡马也四散奔逃。结果我还得接着走下去。明白了么，我得接着走，按着我的步点，随时等着背后可能给我一枪。你看，我一直被看管着。但是某个时刻我回头看了一眼看押我的士兵，看见他斜靠着一辆大车，卡宾枪随便放在一旁（笑—访问者）然后我就瞅准一个机会跑了。那个时候正好天色开始变暗。我穿过了遍布沟壑的一片树林，结果看见了一个佩带着上尉军衔的人走了过来。

- Who goes there?

- Friendlies, - I answered. He came up and looked me over – and I had nothing, no coat, no weapon. He then said:

—谁！

—“自己人”我答道，他走过来打量了我一番—当时我一无所有，没有大衣，没有武器，他接着说道：

- Listen, sergeant, don’t waste time talking, go past the wood and there’ll be some sheds. Go through the furthest door in the shed at the end, we’ve got a bakery there. Tell them captain so-and-so, - I forget his name, - directed you to them, they’ll warm you up.

—听着，中士，不跟你废话了，穿过这片树林，那有一排木棚。走到最远的那间棚子门口。我们在那有个面包店。你就跟他们的军官这么这么说—我忘了他名字了—跟他们直接说，他们会让你在那暖和暖和。

I did what he told me. There were some men sitting inside the bakery, I remember one of them, a red-haired soldier with a moustache, said to me:

- Oh, sonny, looks like you’re gonna be a real live one! - not quite sure why he said that. All my clothes were completely frozen. I wanted to take a leak, but couldn’t get my hands to work and so wound up wetting my pants. When I got inside the shed, towards the warmth, pain shot through my hands and arms – that’s how you know you’re starting to warm up. They told me to take off my uniform – but I couldn’t. So they did it for me, and it was so frozen up that it came off looking like a church bell. They hung my clothes above the stove and they began to steam. So – they undressed me, put me in a warm place, gave me some hot milk and fresh bred. Then, after they’d caught a hare, they gave me some of that. Long story short – I woke up in the morning, dried out my clothes, got dressed, then saw some commotion. I asked them what happened, they told me – during the night, a few more half-drowned soldiers showed up, and they’d stolen their last greatcoat as well as their carbine. Probably lost their own gear just like I did. So – I tucked my uniform into my trousers, put on a hat and went outside. Right into the morning frost, it was so cold! As soon as I came outside, I immediately wanted to go back inside (laughs – A.B.). But then I thought – what am I going to do here, I need to find my unit. I asked them:

—我照着他说的去做了，在那间屋子里坐着不少人，我记得里头有个红头发，留着小胡子的士兵跟我说：

嘿，兄弟，你看上去真的像个活人一样—我不太明白他为什么这么说。我所有的衣服都完全结了冰。我想撒尿，但是手却不听使唤，还把短裤弄湿了。我走进棚子的时候，当周围暖和起来的时候，手和胳膊开始钻心的疼。—这标志着你开始感觉到确实暖和起来了。他们让我把军服脱下来—但是我已经脱不掉了，只能由他们代劳，脱下来的衣服完全冻成了冰，活像是教堂里的钟。他们把我的衣服挂在炉子上，散发出阵阵整齐。然后他们把几乎精光的我弄到了一个暖和的角落，给我喝热牛奶和新鲜的面包。然后他们还捕到了一只野兔，又给我吃了一些兔肉。长话短说吧—我第二天早上醒过来的时候，把已经烤干的衣服穿上，看到外边一阵骚乱。我问他们出什么事儿了，他们告诉我—在夜里一群淹的半死的士兵经过这里，结果把他们的大衣和卡宾枪都偷走了。这帮人也许是和我一样丢掉了自己的衣服和装备。我把军服的下摆塞进裤子里，戴上了帽子走出木棚。正好赶上了寒冷的早晨，太冷了！我刚一出门就立刻想回到屋里去（笑—采访者）。但是我当时想，我得从这出发，去找我的部队，我问那些人：

- Did you get bombed here?

- Don’t know, could be bombs, could be heavy artillery. Lots of explosions, but everything missed the shed.

I went out on the road and decided to go back to the other end of the gulley. Then I came upon a big village with some troops inside. I couldn’t tell whether these were “ours” or the Germans, at first, but then I saw a tracked APC and figured out these were friendlies. As I came up to the village, I heard some soldiers shout:

—你们在这挨过炸弹么？

—不知道，可能是轰炸机，也可能是重炮，爆炸此起彼伏，不过都没能碰着木棚的边儿。

我走出去到了大路上，决定往回走，到另一道沟渠的尽头去。在那我正好发现了一个住着不少部队的大集镇。我在第一时间没法判断这些部队到底是“自己人“还是德国人，但是当我看到了装甲人员输送车的时候就看出来镇子里的是我军。等我走进镇子的时候，就听到几个士兵大喊：

- Zonov, good thing you showed up. The CO is in that house there. – You know, my heart almost stopped when I heard that. The other day a colonel nearly had me shot, and here I show up at HQ without my weapon. Our scout battalion was Captain Kravchenko. I went into the house, and saw Kravchenko and some others sitting at the dinner table with a pitcher of wine and a big pan of fried potatoes. In Hungary, there was as much wine around as we had kvas back home. [Kvas – a popular low-alcoholic Russian beverage made of fermented bread – Transl.]

—扎诺夫，你终于出现了，太好了！连长的房子就在那—你知道么，我听着道这句话的时候心跳几乎停止了。前一天一名中校差点枪毙了我，而现在我把武器丢掉了而且还出现在了指挥部附近。我们侦察营的营长是克拉夫琴科大尉。我走进那间房子，看到克拉夫琴科和其他一些人正围坐在餐桌旁，上边有一大罐葡萄酒和一个装着油炸土豆的平底锅。在匈牙利，当地到处都是葡萄酒就像我们的祖国到处都是格瓦斯一样（Kvas，格瓦斯—一种非常流行的俄国低度酒精饮料，由发酵的面包制成—原译者注）

- Comrade Captain, - I reported, - sergeant Zonov reporting for duty. Was forced to ditch my SMG and greatcoat in the canal.

—大尉同志—我报告道—中士扎诺夫向您报告，我被迫将武器和大衣埋在了运河岸边。

- Don’t worry about it, I’ll give you so much “iron” to carry around you won’t be able to move. Lukashenko, didn’t you have a spare greatcoat in your APC? – Now this name I do remember. – Go get it, would you? – They brought be a big greatcoat and the captain said to me: Good thing that you made it out alive, sergeant. I need a machine-gun loader, so you’re with me from now on.

—别担心那些玩意儿，我以后给你的”铁家伙“肯定能多到让你都走不动道。卢卡申科，你的那辆车上还有多余的大衣么？—现在我还记得这个名字—去弄一件来，明白么？—他们拿来了一件大号的大衣，然后大尉告诉跟我说—你能活着回来真是件好事，中士，我正好需要一个机枪副射手，所以你从现在就跟着我吧。

But I never got to be a machine-gun loader, because our unit wound up being encircled. We spent the entire night wandering around, trying to get to our lines. I remember those days very clearly, January 18 to January 22, 1945. After that episode, we got to this big village of Djomry near Budapesht – there’s also a town called Kishhunhalash nearby – and that’s where we got our motorcycles, “Harleys”. These got us to Prague and then back east, to the Great Hingan in Manchuria. We had either 104 or 114 Harley Davidson motorcycles in all. We also had a mobile recon element – a tank company with 10 tanks, two APC companies. One company was on American wheeled APCs, and the other was on half-tracks, with rubber tracks. Plus we had an anti-tank battery of 4 guns. That was the 94th “Hingan” Separate Motorcycle Battalion. Even though it was on motorcycles, it served as the reconnaissance unit for the 7th Mechanized Corps. The Corps commander was General Katkov. Our unit was fairly strong, we could even engage small enemy groups. We could also engage enemy aircraft, our half-tracks – M17s, if I remember right – had turrets each with four 14mm AA machine-guns. I commanded a motorcycle section, 4 motorcycles with sidecars. A platoon had 4 sections, each sidecar had a Degtjarev machine-gun. I think each company had two platoons, plus a 12 RP radio. These were small, mobile units, while the half-tracks had really powerful radios, very good communication.

但是我之后并没有成为机枪副射手，因为我们部队当时被包围了。我们整晚都在四处运动，试图回到本方战线。我对那几天的日期记得非常清楚，是1945年的1月18日—22日。在这段经历之后，我们在布达佩斯附近的一个叫Djomry的大集镇里驻扎。那附近还有个小镇叫Kishhunhalash。我们在那得到了摩托车，”哈雷“牌。我们骑着这些摩托车最终抵达了布拉格，然后又骑着向东前进，在满洲的大兴安岭（应为Great Hinggan—译者注）。我们总共有104要不就是114辆哈雷戴维森摩托车，我们也有机动侦查单位—一个有10辆坦克的坦克连和两个装甲运兵车连。一个连用的是美制装甲运兵车，另外一个连则装备着半履带车，半履带车使用的是橡胶轮胎。加上一个拥有四门反坦克炮的炮兵连，组成了第94”兴安岭“独立摩托化营。即使是一支摩托化部队，这个营还是作为第7机械化军的的侦查单位作战。军长是卡图科夫将军。我们营的实力非常强劲，甚至可以和小规模德军部队进行正面交战。我们甚至能执行防空作战。半履带车—M17s型—如果我记得不错的话—车上有四联装14毫米防空机枪的炮塔。我指挥一个摩托车分队，拥有四辆挎斗摩托车。一个排有4个分队，每辆车的挎斗上都有一挺捷格加廖夫轻机枪。我记得每个连有两个排，加上12部无线电。这是一个很小的机动作战单位，当时半履带车上都有功率很强的无线电，非常棒的联络设备。

A.B.: What can you say about your motorcycles? Were they good?

They were great, except for one flaw – the engine was too loud. It was very noticeable on the move, you can’t say the same about the M72. We got the M72s in China. The Harley is a good, reliable machine, a V-type engine protected by a fender, chain transmission. But the wheel is just stuck to the axle like with a bicycle, no shock absorbers whatsoever. The M72 had shock absorbers, etc. But then, the Harley had a leather seat on springs, that dampened a lot of the hits. The sidecars were all ours, of course; Harleys were shipped as stand-alone motorcycles.

A.B：你能谈谈你们用的摩托车么?他们的优点是什么？

那些摩托车确实很棒，除了有一个缺点之外—发动机太响了。在跑起来的时候很容易被发现， M72摩托车就不是这样了（乌拉尔M72，苏制挎斗摩托车—译者注）我们在中国的时候骑的就是M72。哈雷摩托车很棒，机械可靠耐用，V型引擎由挡泥板遮蔽着，传动方式为链式传动。但是其车把和车轴就像自行车的一样，没有什么减震装置。M72就有减震等装置。但是即使如此，哈雷有一个安着减震弹簧的皮质座椅，缓冲了大部分震动。当然，这两种摩托车都是我们所装备过的。哈雷摩托车确实是一种很卓越的车型。

A.B.: Could you use German gasoline in your bikes?

We never had to try. I must say – by that late in the war, there was an abundance of weapons and supplies. I remembered recently a conversation I had with the guys about this. SMG rounds came in black tar-paper boxes, probably 500 each. And you know, you take the rounds, load up the magazines and then just dump the box in the trench. No reason to carry it around anymore. We had plenty of fuel for our vehicles, too, the supply services were very good.

A.B：你能给你的摩托车加德国汽油么？

我们从来不这么干，我必须得说的是—在战争末期，武器装备和补给品都非常充足。我记得最近我和一个什么人谈过相关的话题。我们的冲锋枪子弹装在填有黑色柏油纸（一种防潮纸张—译者注）的盒子里，大约每盒有500发子弹。而且你应该知道，我们会把子弹取出来，把弹夹装填好，盒子就随手扔在战壕里了。没有理由回收再利用。我们的车辆也是如此，有充足的燃料，后勤保障工作很出色。

A.B.: What tactics did your scout battalion use?

One of the most dangerous tactical ploys was the so-called combat reconnaissance. They used it when they didn’t know where the enemy’s weapons and firing nests were, what strength did the enemy have. So they would send a group of infantry and vehicles towards the enemy positions as live bait, to get him to open fire on a live target.

A.B：你所在的侦察营一般采取什么战术？

最危险的一种战术被称为战斗侦查（或称之为威力侦查—译者注）。在不知道敌人的火器配备和火力点在何处的或者敌人具备怎么样的实力的时候，一般就会采取这种战术。这时候上级就会把一部分步兵和车辆摆在敌人阵地前沿作为活的诱饵，引诱敌人开火。

A.B.: First, the motorcycles and then the tank company?

No – the key was to make it seem like there is a real breakthrough, a real offensive. For instance, if they know that somewhere in a certain direction there is German artillery. The Germans keep firing at our forward edge – a few shells, then nothing, then a massive bombardment, basically wears you out – and our guys can’t get their exact coordinates. So a decision is made to get the guns to reveal their positions by sending a combat reconnaissance. You don’t send the troops straight at where you think the guns are – a bit to the side. So our infantry and vehicles move forward, and oftentimes it’s not just our battalion, we’d be reinforced by other scout units or even regular army forces.

A.B：先是摩托车上阵然后是坦克连么？

不，关键是要让这次行动看上去确实像一次真正的突破，一次真正的进攻。比如，要让我军确定某个地方有德军的炮兵。在进攻时德国人会向我军的前锋持续开火—如果是零星炮击，那就没事，但如果是大规模的轰击，这么一番折腾基本上你的部队就打光了—而且我们的友军也没法标定敌军炮兵的准确坐标。所以在下定进攻的决心以前要使用战斗侦查来诱使德军暴露自己的阵地位置。不是说将部队在敌军炮兵可能所处位置的正面展开—而是在侧翼小规模的行动。步兵和车辆向前运动，这种行动基本我们营是不参加的，我们会通常加强给其他的侦查单位甚至是战斗部队。

A.B.: What other missions did you carry out?

Other missions? I’d say that reconnaissance units didn’t have complex tactical missions – but I can’t really say for sure, since I wasn’t in the HQ. My company’s missions varied – reconnoiter a road, find a side road. They’d look at a map and say – we need to verify that this side road branches out here, and whether heavy vehicles can pass. Or there could be a river, and we’d have to find out if there was a ford, if there were bridges, what load could those bridges take.

A.B：您还参加过什么其他的行动？

其他的行动？我之前说过，侦查单位基本不参加没有什么复杂的多兵种合成战术行动—但是我不能很肯定的这么说，因为我从来没在指挥部呆过。我所在的连的任务是五花八门的—在道路上进行侦查，寻找一条迂回的道路。上边会看着地图然后命令道—我们需要检查这条小路通向哪，重型车辆是否能够通过。或者那有条河，我们得弄清楚这条河是否能够徒涉，如果有桥梁的话，得弄清楚桥梁的通过能力。

A.B.: How would you determine that if there weren’t any signs near the bridge?

Well, I wasn’t the one who made that call, but it seems pretty clear that if a bridge is built for carts or pedestrians, it probably won’t take heavy tanks. Most of the time we just looked for a ford, because then you know – all the vehicles can pass across. And that was more for sapper units, anyway – the scouts’ job was to get there and get across, while the sappers handled the actual logistics like building crossings and getting other units through them.

A.B：如果桥梁附近没有任何标志的话你们如何标定其位置呢？

这样，我并不是制图人员，但是一座桥梁似乎通常会很清楚的标识出是否是允许通过大车和人员，可能不允许重型坦克通过。大多数时候我们都会寻求徒涉，原因你也知道—这样的话所有的车辆都能通过。不过更多的工作是由工兵来干，总之—侦察部队的工作是运动到目的地并且通过那个地方，而工兵则要干一些后勤方面的工作比如疏通道路，使得其他部队得以通过。

A.B.: What were you feeling when you went off to war?

A.B：在战争进行其间你有些什么感受？

When I worked at the factory, most of the time you just felt the cold and the hunger. Even though my ration was 800 grams of bread a day, and that was the biggest ration category. My sisters, with whom I was living at the time, also got that ration, but we worked for 12 or more hours a day, and on occasion we didn’t leave the factory floor for days at a time. You know, when they’d say “Everything for the Front! Everything for Victory!”, and let the machines run non-stop. I was a repairman, and we kept a log where you’d write down which machine came offline, when, for how long, what work was performed. God help you if you were slacking off, everything and everyone had to work at maximum capacity all the time. Plus you have the hunger and all that. So there were a lot of volunteers for the army, and when I got in I thought: “Thank God!” Because life in the rear areas was very hard. I mean, I did volunteer for the army because it was my duty, but it’s a fact that soldiers were fed a little better. And then, when I finished my training to become a tanker-gunlayer, and got into a combat vehicle, I felt that I was clad in armor, that I was invincible.

当我在工厂做工的时候，大多数时间都是觉得寒冷和饥饿。即使是我每天都能得到800克定量面包配给的情况下，这种配给已经是最大的定量了。我的姐妹们，当时和我一起生活，配给也是这个定量，但是我们每天要工作12小时个甚至更长时间，有时候我们可能好几天都没法离开工厂。你知道，当时的口号是“一切为了前线！一切为了胜利！”，要让机器不停的运转。我当时是一名修理工，要记录工作日志，那部机器运转失灵，什么时候，多长时间，然后什么时候修好的。当你偷懒的时候神也会帮助你，任何人和任务物资都要尽可能的发挥最大的作用。加上当时非常的饿以及其他的事情。所以那时候有很多人支援参军。当我入伍的时候我就想“上帝保佑”因为在后方地区的生活是非常艰苦的。我的意思是，我志愿入伍确实是因为要履行职责，但是实际上士兵的补给要好很多。于是，当我完成了训练成为一名坦克炮手投入战场的时候，我感到就像自己披上了铁甲，所向无敌。

My second disappointment was when I got to the forward edge and saw the wrecked vehicles, the whole meat grinder, complete with explosions. Then I felt like all that armor was nothing more than some plywood or a sheet of paper. The third disappointment was this – when all you see around you are dead bodies, blown up vehicles, destroyed houses, when all you hear are screaming bombs and shells, machine-gun bursts and all sorts of gunfire, you think to yourself – this is Hell on Earth. You want to run away from it, but you can’t. Sometimes you look up at the clouds in the sky and think – “if only I could lie down and float away like that.” For some reason, they always flew n the right direction, to the east, to where home was. Or sometimes you saw birds – also flying away from the front, to the east. And you think to yourself – “if I were a bird, I’d fly away from here.” Those feelings passed after about a month. Fortunately, there wasn’t any heavy fighting at first, I got to the front in February but combat operations didn’t really get underway until March-April. For the first couple of months, the body just couldn’t get used to war. It was very hard, there was just this strange feeing of dread. But – and I’ve always said this, then and now – I was very afraid to show any fear. If someone had called me a coward, I think I would have shot myself right then and there, I swear to God. That’s how I was. However bad things got, I always tried to carry myself as if I weren’t afraid. You’re really afraid, but you look like you’re not. That’s the sort of thing that you dealt with on the inside.

之后当我在前线看到了那些车辆的残骸的时候就失望了，整个战场被剧烈的爆炸一个绞肉机。这时候我感到无论什么装甲都比一块木板或者一张纸强不了多少。最后让我失望的是环境—当你看到周围遍布着尸体，车辆的残骸，打烂的房屋，当你听到周围满是炸弹和炮弹的尖啸，机关枪设计的声音以及各种各样的炮火轰鸣，你就会自己想—真他妈是个人间地狱。你想立即逃离，但是却无能为力。有时候你会仰望着天空上的云朵想：“我要是能躺下以后像云一样飘走该多好”不知何故，它们总是向着一个方向，向东，向家的方向飘去。或者有时候你看到了鸟儿—也会飞离前线，飞向东方。这时候你又会想“我要是一只鸟的话，就会立刻飞离这个鬼地方。”这样的想法在我的脑海中徘徊了大约一个月，而身体也没法适应战争生活。确实是非常艰苦，这就是陌生的死亡感觉。但是—我总是说，无论过去和现在—我总是很怕表露出任何的恐惧。如果有人叫我胆小鬼的话，向上帝发誓，我可能会立即羞耻的干掉自己。这就是我所想的。不管遇到什么糟糕的事情，我总是试着让我自己不那么恐惧。你确实会害怕，但是看上去不怎么害怕。这就是当时你的内心活动。

A.B.: What did you feel during combat – fear, excitement?

I’ll tell you this. There is such a thing as, if it’s the right way to call it, “battle-lust”. When you’re in combat, you’re not really controlling anything, you’re not really feeling anything – not even fear. You just start shooting, doing your job – sometimes you have to stand up and expose yourself, but you’ve got a job to do so you ignore the danger. After it’s over, then you ask yourself: “why did I do that?” I had put myself in grave danger. Battle-lust dulls the self-preservation instinct, you lose control over yourself. I wasn’t the only one who felt it, and maybe someone else can describe it more accurately – but this is my subjective definition.

A.B：你在战斗中的感觉是什么—恐惧，还是兴奋？

让我来告诉你吧。确实有这么一种感觉，如果用一种恰当的说法的话，那就是“战斗欲望”。当你置身于战场的时候，你确实没法控制任何事情，也无法感知任何事情—甚至连害怕都感觉不到。你就是在那一直开火，做应该做的—有时候战斗中可能必须要站起身并暴露自己，但是因为身在其中而忽视了危险。而当战斗结束的时候，你会问自己：“我为什么会这么干？”我曾经置身于死亡的威胁之中，由于战斗欲望的存在使得人类自卫的本能变得迟钝，甚至会失去自控能力。我并不是唯一一个有此种感觉的人，也许其他人对这种感觉的描述会更准确—不过我当时的感觉就是这样。

A.B.: Why did you fight?

A.B：你为何而战？

为了祖国。

For the Motherland.

A.B.: What does that mean?

It means a lot. It means that I live in this land, that I have loved ones who must feel peace and calm and not have to suffer the horrors that I am going through. Maybe it sounds brash, but I think every one of us was a true patriot and felt that it was his duty to fight. Some yelled: “For the Motherland! For Stalin” during battle – I wasn’t in the infantry, never fought hand-to-hand, so never heard anyone shout these things. There weren’t any slogans on our tanks, but you saw them on other tanks, gun barrels. It truly was the Great Patriotic War; when we were in the rear, the slogan was: “Everything for the Front! Everything for Victory!” Consequently, we fought to win. That’s it.

A.B：为了祖国，意味着什么？

意味着很多，意味着我生活在这片土地上，我爱这里每一个人，希望他们能够安静和平的生活，而不需要像我一样经历那种恐惧的过程。这话听上去可能比较直白，不过我想每一个参战的老兵都是个真正的爱国者，都感受到我们的责任就是为祖国而战。在战斗中士兵们会高呼口号：“为了祖国！为了斯大林！”—我并不是步兵，并没有和敌人面对面的交过手，所以也没听见过任何人这么喊过。在我所在的坦克上没有任何标语，但是可以看到其他的坦克，炮管上看到。这场战争确实是一场“伟大的卫国战争”；我们在后方的时候，可以看到标语：“一切为了前线！一切为了胜利！”因为，我们是为了战争的胜利而战，就是这样。

A.B.: When you were escaping from the encirclement near Balaton, was your faith in Victory shaken?

We would not have won without faith in Victory. We strove to break out and survive, and if you manage to survive then you must strike back at the enemy. And that’s it.

A.B：当你在巴拉顿湖附近突围的时候，对胜利的信心动摇过么？

如果没有信心的话那我们在战争中就没法获胜了。我们在包围圈中奋战并得以生还，如果你想要突围的话那就得在敌后战斗。就是这样。

A.B.: How did you view the Germans?

A.B：你对德军怎么看？

Maybe it’s just my own philosophy, but I felt that the Germans were people like us. Many of them didn’t have a choice in fighting us. I was very negative towards the Germans that committed atrocities – all of us hated those. But even though some of them were like that, most were treated just like regular human beings. I’ll tell you this. After the war was over, we were near Prague. We, the scouts, were detailed to guard the German prisoners. There were some German colonists who had lived in Czechoslovakia, families, children. The Czechs threw them all out of their houses, called them “Schwabs”. Effectively, these people were living like refugees in occupied territories, even though the war was over. We saw these women and children, and went to local bakeries asking for bread. The Czechs asked us: “Bread for whom? The Schwabs?” We told them no, it was for us. Our units are quartered here and here. But really, it was for these kids, we would bring the bread and hand it over. Our feeling was: it’s not the women’s fault, it’s not the children’s fault. When we had to march them all off to some place, you could see their bodies on the roadside. I was driving along on the motorcycle, and there was this red-haired German standing by the road, I remember his face as if it were yesterday. He was there on his knees, signing that he was hungry. I tell my driver – a Bashkir named Juldashev, “hey, stop the bike. See that German there is asking for some food.” I had bread and other foodstuffs in the sidecar. So I took about half a loaf of bread, came over and gave it to him. Juldashev said to me: “We ought to just shoot him!” And I told him: “What, you haven’t done enough shooting yet? Shoot him for what? Let him eat!”

这可能是我的个人观点，但是我认为德国人跟我们的民族一样。他们中的许多人和我们战斗是因为别无选择。我并不同意德国人作恶多端这种观点—无论我们还是德国人都痛恨这种行为。即使是德国人中有一部分人在作恶，但是大部分的行为还是和一般人一样。跟你这么讲，在战争结束之后，我们在布拉格附近驻扎。作为侦察兵要特别注意看管德军战俘。当地有一些居住在捷克斯洛伐克的德国侨民，拖家带口，还有儿童。捷克人把他们从家里赶了出来，称呼他们为“Schwabs”。显然，这些德国人的处境就像被占领国土的难民一样，即使战争已经结束了。我们看见那有不少妇女儿童，就去当地的面包店打算买一些面包。捷克人问我们：“给谁吃？Schwabs？”我们说不是，我们自己吃。我们的各个单位确实到处都有住处，但实际上，我们确实买这些面包是给那些孩子的，后来把面包分给了德国侨民。我们觉得：女人并没有罪，孩子也没有罪。当我们从当地开拔的时候，能够看见路边的德国人。我当时坐在摩托车上，看到有一个红头发德国人站在路边，我现在还清楚的记得他的脸，就像昨天还看见了一样。当时他跪在地上，表示他非常饿。我告诉驾驶员—他是一个叫尤达谢夫的巴什基尔人，“嘿，停车，去看看那个乞讨的德国人。”我在挎斗里装了一些面包和其他吃的。我拿了半条面包，过去给了那个德国人。尤达谢夫说：“我们应该毙了那个人”我说：“你在战场上还没打够么？把他毙了能怎么着？给他点吃的就行了”。

I gave the German the bread, and he was crying. His tears were leaving tracks in the dust covering his face. He was trembling when he took the bread. I turned and walked away, and he was making the sign of the cross at me. He was still doing it when I drove away. That’s what it was like – the war was over. We fought until May 11, some general near Prague had refused to surrender. Then on May 13 my legs suddenly gave out, had to do with scouting operations, and I got a letter from my sister. She wrote me that my older brother had been killed, he was born in 1918. I was…I think, had we been guarding any Germans then, I would have taken an SMG and just executed them all right then and there. That’s what I felt – grief for my brother. But it all passed, it was just a moment, a flash almost. And later I thought – had I actually done that, I would have committed a great sin.

我把面包递给那个德国人，他看到了面包痛哭流涕。眼泪在他满是灰尘的脸上留下了水痕。他捧着面包微微发抖。我转身离去，而他则向我划十字。当我骑上车离开的时候他还在划十字。这就是当时的实情—战争结束了。我们一直战斗到5月11日，德军在布拉格附近的一些集团拒绝投降。而5月13日我突然被派出去，执行侦察任务，那天我正好收到了妹妹的来信。她在信中写到我的哥哥被杀了，他生于1918年。我当时….我想，如果我还有机会看管德国战俘的话，我会抄起冲锋枪立刻把他们统统毙掉。当时我因为哥哥的死悲痛欲绝。但是最终还是都过去了，这个念头就是一瞬间，一闪念而已。后来我想—如果我真这么干了，肯定就闯下了大祸。

A.B.: Aside from the Germans, did you fight against any other nationalities?

Besides the Germans? Romanians, Magyars. When we crossed the Romanian border, they immediately came over to our side. Antonescu had ordered the Romanians to the Caucasus. I can’t say what the difference between Germans and Romanians was, we never really ran into any.

A.B：除了德军，你和其他国家的军队交过手么？

除了德国人？罗马尼亚人，匈牙利人。当我们穿越罗马尼亚国境的时候，罗马尼亚人立即就倒戈投向了我们这一边。安通内斯库以前还曾经下令罗军向高加索地区攻击。我也说不上来德军和罗军的区别在哪，赶上谁打谁吧。

A.B.: How would you compare the vehicles on which you fought – assault gun, tank, motorcycle?

I wouldn’t compare them, really. I liked machines in general, and I knew that I wasn’t fighting on foot, that the machines would carry me around. Well, some of them also had powerful guns. So, in general, I always loved all sorts of machines, and will continue to love each in its own way.

A.B：你怎么比较曾经驾驶过的战斗车辆——突击炮，坦克，摩托车？

我没做过比较，真的。总的来说我比较喜欢机械，我知道我不是在徒步战斗，而是机动车辆载着我跑来跑去。恩，其中一些车辆拥有威力强劲的火炮。总的来说，我喜欢各种战斗车辆，直到现在一直如此。

A.B.: What were the diversions at the front?

Just imagine – there’s a lull in the fighting, and all the performers come out to liven up the scene. Not the state performers, just talented soldiers. Two or three of them would usually band together and say – ok, let’s do our act. They’d gather troops around, tell stories – not just about Vasja Terkin [A fictional soldier, the subject of a number of well-known humorous tales – Transl.], all sorts of stories. They’d sing some really bawdy couplets, tell jokes, tell war stories. It just helped everyone unwind a bit.

A.B.:在前线你们有什么娱乐么？

可以想像一下—在战斗的间隙，所有的演员们都钻了出来活跃舞台气氛。当然并没有什么演员，而是多才多艺的士兵们。通常会有两三个人一起然后说—好，让咱们乐呵乐呵吧。大家会围成一圈，讲故事—不光是瓦斯佳特尔金（一个虚构出来的士兵，是许多著名的笑话里的主角—原译注），而是各种各样的故事。士兵们也会讲一些荤段子，开玩笑，谈谈战争中的故事。这种方式能让大家都感到放松。

A.B.: What was the favorite activity? Sleep, food, singing, dancing?

A.B::那有什么是你们最喜欢干的呢？睡觉、吃饭、唱歌还是跳舞？

To tell you the truth, sleep is what you wanted the most. These days, oftentimes I go to bed and can’t fall asleep at all, but back then, the moment you found any suitable place, you were out cold. This one time, when I was on an assault gun – before my commander was wounded – there was a two-day battle near the Dniester River. You were constantly on alert. This was after the bridgehead, when I got my second Medal of Valor. We were dug in, and as I’ve already told you there was this little space underneath the assault gun. I was dead tired after the battle, falling asleep while holding the gun. My commander told me: “Lie down and rest a bit, sonny!” That was in the evening, and so I literally fell into that little space and went into a deep sleep. Then, in the morning, I woke up from someone shaking my foot.

说实话，睡觉是我们想的最多的事情。那些日子，我经常是上床以后却没法入睡，但是反过来，有时候会发现任何一个地方都能睡着。有一次，那时候我还在自行火炮上附议—在我的车长手上以前—我们在德涅斯特河附近战斗了两天。那时候时刻都绷紧了神经。当时我们在桥头堡的后方，我获得了第二枚勇敢奖章。我们在自行火炮下边挖掘掩体，我已经跟你说过，车下边的空间有限。我在战斗之后累得要死，当时正睡得很熟。车长跟我说：“躺下睡一会儿，小伙子！”当时是下午，我就钻了进去，很快就睡得很死。然后就是第二天早上，有人晃我的脚把我叫醒了。

- Are you alive or not? – My greatcoat was covered over with earth. I wiggled my leg out of someone’s grasp, and they shouted:

你还活着么？—我的大衣被埋在了土里。我把被那个人抓住的腿抽了出来，他们大喊：

- He’s alive!

他还活着！

- Why wouldn’t I be, - I asked.

我活着怎么了？我问道

- Just look around!

看看周围吧!

Apparently, a bomb went off about five meters away. The crater was almost big enough for our assault gun to fit into. And I slept through it. Then my commander said to me: “Hey, there’s something wet in the combat compartment, see what it is.” I crawled into the compartment, checked the gun, and saw that a piece of shrapnel went through the side armor and sliced right through the recoil mechanism, so all the hydraulic fluid leaked out.

很显然，一枚炸弹在五米开外的地方爆炸了。弹坑大的几乎能把自行火炮盛下。而卧就睡在炮车底下。车长跟我说：“嘿，好像有什么东西把战斗室弄湿了，看看怎么回事。”我爬进战斗室，检查火炮，看到了是由于弹片打穿了装甲，击中了后座装置，所以液压系统里的液体都流出来了。

Then, when I opened the breach, I saw that the gun barrel was bent. Another piece of shrapnel hit it from the side. Later on they told me that the entire vehicle almost flipped over, that the blast wave literally picked it up off the ground and dropped it back into the dugout. And I didn’t hear a thing. If I’d been up on top, I would at least have been shell-shocked. Now that’s some nap. But besides that – we didn’t have any films or any concerts. After the war we finally got a jazz orchestra. When we were in Mongolia, they’d always start with “The Waves of the Danube”; later on, when we passed the Great Hingan, they switched to the waltz “On the Hills of Manchuria”.

之后我打开了破口，看到火炮已经歪了。一枚弹片从另外一边击中了炮身。后来别人告诉我整个自行火炮几乎被炸翻，冲击波掀起了自行火炮然后把炮车抛到了掩体的后方。而我则丁点声音都没听到。如果我当时在上面睡觉，至少会被冲击波伤害。现在可以打几个盹了。但是除了这些之外—我们既没有看过电影也没有开过舞会。直到战争结束我们才最后看到过爵士乐队的表演。当时我们在蒙古，他们总是演奏“多瑙河之波”，然后当我们翻越大兴安岭的时候，他们又开始演奏华尔兹乐“在满洲的崇山峻岭间”。

A.B.: What was the most difficult time of the year for you?

Winter, of course. I’ll tell you this – as scouts, we had to crawl all over no-man’s land for weeks on end, not an iota of warmth. In Hungary, you get a little bit of heat during the day, but then the nights are very cold, the climate as a whole is quite wet. Your feet are always freezing, you had to carry two sets of leg wraps. One set is around your body, so that when the ones you’ve got on your feet get cold or wet, you can switch them around. And then about a half hour later, your feet are freezing again. I thought to myself – if I survive this and get home, I’ll wear warm winter boots even in the middle of summer! [Laughs – A.B.] Yes, winter was the most difficult. When it’s raining or snowing, you have no place to warm yourself up, dry your clothes. I always dreamed of having some sort of a rubber cape, just to keep dry. Of course, in wartime any time of the year is difficult from a mental standpoint; but winter is the most physically challenging. So.

A.B.:那些年中你遇到的最大的困难是什么？

当然是冬天。这么跟你说—比如说侦察兵，我们必须连续几周在无人地带匍匐前进，浑身冰凉。在匈牙利，白天的时候还能感到有些暖和，但是晚上非常冷，总的来说当地的气候很潮湿，你得不断的活动活动才行。但是在大约半个小时后，就会感到又被冻僵了。我当时想—我要是能挨过去活着回家的话，以后就算是三伏天我也会穿着冬季的长靴出门！（笑—访问者）是的，冬天确实是非常的困难。如果赶上下雨或者下雪，你还没有地方取暖和烘干衣服的话。我总是想要是有一个防御披肩就好了，起码能不被淋湿。当然，在战争期间任何时候精神上都是紧绷着的。但是冬天确实是让人身体上最难受的时候。

A.B.: How would you characterize your relationship with your senior commanders?

For some reason, I always lucked out with my superiors. After the war as well. Seriously.

A.B.: 你和你的上级指挥官的关系如何？

可能是某些原因，我总是能遇到一些很好的上级。战争后也是如此。

A.B.: How would you define a “good” commander?

A.B.: 你是怎么定义一个“好”的军官的？

Well, first, a good commander treats you well and understands you. He has to be able to give you sensible orders, in a way that you can understand them. There were all sorts of commanders. Some were very flaky, though most of them were good people. Sometimes you even pitied a commander who had made a mistake. Our scout battalion CO was a man named Ivan Dmitrievich Lustin. When we fought in the West, he performed just fine, but then at the Great Hingan he made a mistake. The scout battalion must be at the head of the Corps. Lustin didn’t read either the map or the terrain correctly, and got the Corps a bit off track. It wasn’t bad, but Corps HQ figured out that he led us the foothills of the mountains instead of where he was supposed to lead us – and for that, he was relieved. That’s when we got another commander – Nikolaj Nikolaevich, don’t remember his last name – but we really felt for Lustin. He had replaced Kravchenko after we broke out of the encirclement near Balaton.

首先，一个好的军官会善待你并理解你。会向你下达比较明智的命令，你可以充分的理解命令。军队中有各种各样的军官。有的确实与众不同，尽管大多数军官确实是好人。有时候你甚至会同情那些犯了某些错误的军官。我们侦察营的营长是个叫伊万德米特里耶维奇卢斯金的人。我们在西线作战的时候，他的表现很好。但是他在大兴安岭作战的时候出了事。侦察营当时要为一个军做先导。卢斯金既没有看地图也没有察看地形，然后在路上给后续部队留下了一些路标。其实这件事做得并没什么错，但是军部判断他带领我们走的是山地丘陵路线，而不是先前预定的哪条路线—因此他被撤职了。之后我们迎来了另外一任营长—尼古拉尼古拉耶维奇，我不记得他的姓了。—但是我们确实很尊重卢斯金。他是在我们在巴拉顿湖附近突围以后取代克拉夫琴科成为营长的。

I’ll tell you this – when I was with the HQ as a “drafter”, I had to work very closely with my commanders. I’d go out on reconnaissance with them, draft the maps, track the battle as it developed. So I was lucky, everyone treated me well. It depends on discipline, I guess; if you’re self-disciplined enough, and carry out your orders, your commanders treat you well. It’s a two-way relationship. Just because he might have a higher rank than you doesn’t mean he’ll pull it on you every time. During exercises we were practically equals, within the bounds of unit subordination. Everyone had his place in the chain of command.

这么说吧——当我在指挥部当“文书”的时候，我有机会近距离的和指挥官接触。我和他们一起出去进行侦查，绘制地图，根据战局的发展描绘部队的运动轨迹。我是很幸运的，司令部的每个人对我都很好。我猜这是与业务能力有关。如果你自己的能力足够，很好的贯彻了命令，你的指挥官就会善待你。这是一种双向的关系。并不是说他的级别比你高，就要时刻的用级别压着你。在实际操作中我们实际上是平等的，当然是在等级制度的范围之内。每一个在指挥系统里的人都有自己的位置。

A.B.: Are you familiar with terms like “REMF”, “HQ rat”, etc.?

You heard them in conversation. Soldiers felt that way about certain officers, but I personally never really encountered this. It happened, of course. I don’t know what the cause would be; I think I would have found it insulting to be referred to in this way.

A.B：你熟悉那些“后方司令部里婊子养的”“司令部里的老鼠”之类的人么？

你是从士兵们的谈话里听到的吧。士兵们会用这种称号评价某些军官，但是我个人从来没有遇到过类似的人。当然，这样的事情是存在的。我不知道为什么。我想如果我被这样谈到的话，会觉得受到了侮辱。

A.B.: How would you appraise the role of alcohol at the front?

A.B.:你觉得酒在前线扮演着什么角色？

When I was in the scouts, and since I was still a kid, I did try wine. But I never indulged in any of the strong stuff. I was very negative towards that, and the army vodka ration was given out very rarely – on the founding anniversary of the Red Army, maybe, or the anniversary of the October Revolution. On holidays, in other words. They never distributed it to us as part of our daily ration, though there was plenty of hard drink around if you wanted any. But you know, when you’re out on a mission…they say – a drunk feels that the sea only comes up to his knees. You can easily lose control, and lose your head. A drunk can get too careless, and so I was very negative towards drink. And the rest of the guys, they weren’t really drinking much. From time to time, of course, but I didn’t see a single man drinking during combat.

我在侦察部队服役的时候，当时还是个孩子，我曾经尝试过白酒。但我从来都不是重度酗酒者。我不是很喜欢喝酒，而军队内的伏特加配给非常的少—仅仅在红军节的时候才分发，也可能是在十月革命节的时候。另外，在假日，上边从不是按照我们的日定量分发伏特加，尽管如果你想喝酒的话，周围有很多口味不怎么好的。但是你知道，如果是去执行任务的话….他们就会说—一个醉鬼会觉得海洋才能没过他的膝盖而已。喝醉了以后很容易就会不能自制，然后丢了性命。醉鬼非常的粗心，所以我很讨厌喝酒。而其他的那些家伙，也不总是喝得很多。当然有时会喝一点，但是我从没见过谁在战斗中喝过酒。

They always gave us three days to rest between combat operations. You have refits, replacements, inventory of supplies and ammunition. We’d then usually be a few kilometers behind the front, and everyone starts to unwind. They find some alcohol, or even make some moonshine. Especially the older guys, from the Ukraine, we had a lot of them in our unit. A couple of days of this merriment go by, and then on the third day, the camp is quiet. Everyone becomes focused, gets himself ready for going back into battle. It’s very sudden – two days of hanging loose, and then everything gets serious again.

在两次作战行动之间我们通常有三天时间休息。你得利用这段时间休整、补充兵员，储备补给品和弹药。我们经常在前线后方数公里处休整，一般这时候大家都很放松。他们有时候会搞到一点酒精，或者甚至是自酿的酒。特别是那些来自乌克兰的老兵，部队里有不少这种人。一般来收头两天大家都会放松嬉戏，到了第三天宿营地就会安静下来。所有人开始集中，做重返战场的准备。一切都非常突然—放松了两天，而现在一切又开始紧张起来。

A.B.: Was it the same way in assault gun units?

Yeah, with everyone, with infantry as well…Well, assault guns weren’t really withdrawn to the rear that often. They still sent assault guns and tanks back for some R&R, just more rarely than other kinds of troops. But with scouts – you go on a mission, and then you always get a couple of days of rest.

A.B.:在自行火炮部队的时候也是这样的规律么？

恩，对于步兵部队的每个人来说是这样。呃，自行火炮部队并不会经常撤退到后方地域。当然上边也会将自行火炮和坦克部队撤到后方进行休整补充，但是比其他兵种的部队要少得多。但是侦察兵就是这样—执行一次任务，然后会有两天休息。

A.B.: Do you believe in any omens or soldier superstitions?

A.B.: 你相信在战斗中的一些先兆或者士兵们小小的迷信么？

I never really thought about these things, but I will tell you this: on May 9 we were approaching Prague and they said that the Germans had capitulated, we heard the announcement by Levitan [the wartime Soviet State Radio anchor – Transl.] over the APC radio. Cheers went up, and one soldier named Menchikov took out an accordion and began to play. And we had one soldier named Veselov [literally – “Cheerful-ov” – Transl.], a father, in his forties. He was with the HQ, mostly repairing boots making new pairs. When word of victory spread, he asked to be let off to be with us, soldiers, with his friends. So he just was sitting there in a motorcycle sidecar, while everyone else was up celebrating. I went up to him and called him by his name, I can’t remember it now:

我真的没有想过这些事情，但是我可以告诉你：在5月9日我们抵达布拉格的时候，得知德国人已经投降了，我们是听到列维坦在APC电台广播里宣布这个消息的（战时的苏联国家广播电台播音员—原译注。）当时大家都非常振奋，一个叫米契科夫的士兵弹起了手风琴。另外一个叫韦谢洛夫的士兵（按照俄语的字面意思就是“快乐的人”—原译注），他已经四十多，是个父亲了。他当时在司令部，把靴子擦得就像一双新的一样。当战争胜利的消息传来的时候，他获准和我们这些士兵们，他的朋友一起放松一下。当时所有人都在一起清楚，他就坐在一辆摩托车的挎斗里。我过去叫他的名字，具体的对话现在记不太清楚了：

- Listen, why are you just sitting there? You’ve got a cheerful last name, why don’t you have any cheer? – And he just sat there.

I went off to the side, but my heart told me – something is going to happen to him. I’ve always believed in premonition, things like that. Anyway, we moved on. The driver on Veselov’s bike was an NCO named Kasperskij, he was also from HQ, a master watch repairman. They were driving along, when they came up on a German heavy prime mover with a little crane in a field near the road. Kasperskij stopped the motorcycle and ran towards the prime mover, while Veselov stayed in the sidecar. Turned out there was a German officer still in the vehicle, according to another motorcyclist who was there. Kasperski went: “oooooh”, and the German just shot him dead, right in the forehead. Veselov opened fire with his SMG, but the German shot him too. Both shot dead. The other motorcyclist brought Veselov’s body to us but had to leave Kasperskij. And that’s how Veselov died.

—嘿，干嘛一个人坐在那？你的姓可是“快活的人”啊，怎么你一点也不快活呢？然后他就坐了过来。我转身走开，但是我的直觉告诉我—他的身上可能会发生什么事。我总是相信有些事情的发生会有先兆。就这样，我们继续行军打仗。韦谢洛夫坐的那辆车的驾驶员是个叫卡斯佩尔斯基的士官，也是从指挥部来的，是个高级钟表修理工。他们在一起行进的路上，看到了路边有一个带着一台小型起重机的德制重型牵引车。卡斯佩尔斯基关掉了摩托车跑向那台牵引车，而韦谢洛夫坐在车兜里。结果跑过去的时候发现车里仍然坐着个德国军官，而且还有另外一个成员坐在里边。卡斯佩尔斯基“啊”的叫了一声，被那个德国人打死了，子弹正好打在前额上。韦谢洛夫立即用冲锋枪还击，但是德国人也朝他开枪。两个人都被打死了。战友们把韦谢洛夫的尸体抢了回来，但是卡斯佩尔斯基留在了那。这就是韦谢洛夫阵亡的过程。

There were a lot of omens and superstitions at the front, lots of talk about them. For instance, it was always a bad omen when a soldier began to get nervous. The enemy starts to bomb you or shell you (and I noticed this in myself, too), you’re lying in some piece of cover and it just seems that the ditch in front of you is a couple of centimeters deeper. You start thinking that you just have to make your way to that other ditch to survive. But I knew from veteran soldiers that under no circumstances should you break cover. You take cover where you can and stay down until it’s over; if you start looking for a better spot, you’ll just find your own death! In that first combat where I got my first Medal of Valor, they started to bomb us and we bailed out of the assault gun. I managed to roll into some small slit trench, but then curiosity almost got the better of me. I wanted to see how a bomb falls to the ground (laughs – A.B.). So I watched a bomb separate from the aircraft, and just then my commander screamed at me: “Get down!” Then I went prone. There was a saying at the front: when they’re bombing you, nail your arse to the ground. And it’s true, when a bomb explodes nearby, the earth shakes a little, you feel as though someone is pressing at your back. My CO told me afterwards not to stick my head out like that. Well, what can you do – I was still a kid. But yeah, we had omens.

前线有很多所谓的征兆和迷信，很多都是别人告诉我的。比如说，如果一个士兵赶到很不安的话，那就往往是凶兆。敌人会向你轰炸或者炮击（我也曾注意到过类似的情况），你可能当时躺在某个掩蔽所里，赶到这条前线离你就几厘米那么远。你想到别的战壕里去躲躲。但是我从老兵们打听到的是绝不能从隐蔽处跑出来。躲在你现在呆着的地方，直到敌人的轰击结束。如果你开始找一个更好地用隐蔽点，那就会把性命丢掉。在我获得第一枚勇敢奖章的战斗中，敌人开始向我们轰炸，我们从自行火炮里跳出来。我想法跳进了一个散兵坑，但是好奇心驱使着我去找个更好的位置。我打算看看炸弹是怎么掉下来落地爆炸的（笑-访问者）。我看到炸弹从飞机上被扔了下来，就在那时我的指挥官大叫着：“卧倒！”，接着我就趴下了。部队里流传着一句话：“当你们被敌机轰炸的时候，得把屁股钉在地上”。实情确实如此，当炸弹在附近爆炸的时候，你会感到大地在颤抖，就好像有人从后边推你似的。后来我的指挥官告诉我说千万不要那样把头伸出去。那又能怎么样呢？我还是个孩子呢当时，不过幸好的是，我们可以预测吉凶。

A.B.: Were you religious during the war?

Yes. I always kept my faith. My mother and sister were very religious, they passed their faith on to me. I just believe, I don’t know a lot of prayers. I just believe that there is something there above us.

A.B.:你在战争时期有宗教信仰么？

是的，我一直是教徒。我的妈妈和妹妹非常的虔诚，她们用她们的那种虔诚感染了我。但我只是信而已，并不了解太多的祈祷仪式。我只是相信确实有那种超越人类的力量存在。

A.B.: Did you ever pray at the front?

Silently, yes.

A.B.:你在前线经常祷告么？

默默的祷告

A.B.: Did it help?

Probably. Who else could have prayed for me to survive the war and to live for all these years? Thank God he is still with me, and I’m still needed here. If not for God I’d already...that’s just how I feel.

A.B.:有什么帮助么？

可能吧。有谁会祈祷我能从战争中幸存，并一直活了这么久呢？感谢上帝仍然与我同在，我仍然需要信仰。如果没有上帝的话我可能已经…..这就是我想说的。

A.B.: Do you recall the reaction back home when you returned from the war?

A.B.:你还记得当战争结束回家的时候的感受么？

I have two brothers and two sisters. All my life before the war they were never rude to me, always treated me kindly. When I came back, my one brother had five children, the other – just one son and one daughter. I lived with my brother, he was our “elder”. Petr served in Stalingrad, among other places, had been wounded several times and demobilized from the army. He is a good smith, both my brothers are skilled workers.

我有两个兄弟和两个姐妹。在战前的岁月里他们从未对我发过脾气，总是很和善的对待我。当我回家的时候，我的一个哥哥已经有五个孩子了，另一个—只有一个儿子和一个女儿。我和我的哥哥，我们的“老大哥”一起生活。彼得曾经在斯大林格勒以及许多其他地方附议，多次受伤后从军队复员了。他是个很出色的铁匠，我的兄弟们都是熟练工人。

Petr worked for a whole year, and got only 20 kilograms of grain. Everyone in the village said – your brother is about to come home from the army. In the olden days, I would have taken a plot of land for myself, something from my inheritance. But then, when I came back, I took a look at him, gave him my last greatcoat and said to him: “Petja, you have helped me so much in my life. Let me raise one of your sons for you, give me your eldest. I’ll take care of him.”

彼得辛苦工作了一年，才收获了二十公斤粮食。村里的每个人都说—你的弟弟要从军队里复员了。过去，我曾经打算弄一块属于自己的土地，就好像是遗产那样。但是现在，我回到了故乡，我注视着哥哥，把我的大衣送给他，说：“彼佳，你在我的生活中帮了我这么多，我应该帮你养一个儿子，把你的大儿子交给我吧，我会好好照顾他的。”

So I filled out the forms, as I’d already bought a house of my own, sent him to school and told him: “until you finish your 10 classes, I won’t let you get married.” He listened to me, finished school, got married, had a son of his own. Quite unfortunately, something was wrong with his lungs, and he died at the age of 29. I grieved as if he were my own son. In general, my brothers and I were very close. I did not know my father, and my mother died when I was 15.

所以我在相关部门办理了手续，买了一栋属于自己的房子，把孩子送去上学并且告诉他：“除非你完成十年纪学业，否则我不会让你成家的”。他很听我的话，最终毕业并成家了，然后还有一个儿子。十分不幸的是，他后来染上了肺疾，才29岁就去世了。我当时就像自己的亲生儿子死了一样伤心。总的来说，我和我哥哥的关系很好。我并不记得我父亲，我母亲则在我15岁的时候去世了。

When I came home, the first thing I did was go to my parents’ graves. I cried my eyes out, and then said: my brother made these two small crosses for you, and I’ll give you full headstones. I made them from metal, then replaced them with marble headstones. Then replaced them with new ones, and put up ones for my brothers and sisters – they’re all buried together. It’s good for me here.

当我回到家的时候，第一件事就是到我父母的墓地去看看。当时我哭着说：我哥哥只给你们立了两个小十字架，而我会重新修葺你们的墓地。我把十字架换成金属制作，并且用大理石重修了墓地。把墓地整修一新，而且还给我的哥哥们和姐姐们留了位置—死后会葬在一起。对我来说这就是我力所能及的事情。

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