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army on a chess-board, the number of chess-men, with all kinds of
different capabilities will have to be sharply increased. Somehow, you
will need to designate tanks, anti-tank rockets, anti-tank artillery and
artillery, pure and simple, an air force including fighters, low-flying
attack planes, strategic bombers, air transport and helicopters - you just
cant list them all ... and all demand a united plan, a united strategy and
the closest possible co-ordination. Our misfortune, and the main
difference between us and the Germans, consists in our habit of counting
our bishops and pawns, with total disregard for their competent
deployment. And, you know, the Germans started the war against us with
a paltry three thousand tanks against our eighteen thousand. Now, we
propound many different versions, but we refuse to accept the main
conclusion, which is that German tactics were much
52
more flexible than ours. Mark my words - if something happens in the
Near East, we will be smashed to smithereens; they won't give a damn for
quantitative and qualitative superiority. What's the good of having three
queens, if you don't know how to play chess? And our advisers simply
cannot play, and that's a fact. Look at the Head of Faculty, Colonel
Soloukhin, just back from Syria
'But how so?' I could not refrain from asking.
The captain looked at me and then slowly said: 'It's the system itself
that's at fault.'
The answer obviously did not fully satisfy us and so he added, 'Firstly,
our chiefs are appointed on the basis of their political qualifications, they
don't know how the game is played or even wish to learn how to play it
but they're ideologically well-groomed. Secondly, our system demands
the rendering of accounts, reports, and achievements. Upon this we
stand! The reports which announced the destruction of thousands of
German tanks and aircraft during the first days of the war were so phoney
that the political leadership of the country changed to quoting territorial
indices instead, as being more convincing. This gave birth to reports of
the capture of towns and mountain tops and such like. But you just try
playing chess without annihilating the enemy's army, but by capturing his
territory, regardless of your own losses! What will happen? The same as
happened to us during the war. We won only because we showed no pity
for millions of our own pawns. If our General Staff and military advisers
take it into their heads to seize Israeli territory instead of first annihilating
their army, it will cost us very dear indeed. Of course, the Jews won't
achieve checkmate, but the annihilation of Israel by our tactics will still
cost us dear. And it will be worst of all if, God forbid, we ever come up
against China. In that case, our pawns won't help us at all because they
have many more pawns at their own disposal.'
Here the captain spat angrily and kicked an empty tin can with the toe
of his varnished boot. The can rolled along the dark pathway under the
feet of a well-oiled sapper who was making advances to a young girl. The
silent struggle in the darkness apparently reminded the captain that we
were still on patrol. He yawned and abruptly changed the subject.
'Guards Officer-Cadet Suvorov, your conclusions please about today's
patrol duty. Quickly!'
I was slightly taken aback.
'A tank commander must instantly evaluate the situation. Well? Your
conclusions?'
'Uh-h, we arrested many offenders . . . Uh-h, we have improved
discipline . . . thanks to you . . .' I tried, awkwardly, to interlace the
flattery.
'You haven't a clue, Viktor, and you a future lieutenant, or don't you
53
want to understand ... or else you are just plain cunning. Listen - but it's
only between the two of us. In a fully planned economy, terror also can
only be a planned affair, i.e. absolutely idiotic and ineffective, this is the
first point. Secondly, we have been working today according to the
methods of the second five-year-plan, that is to say the methods of 1937
and 1938, the only difference being that we didn't actually arrest or shoot
the offenders. Thirdly, if today the order were given to repeat the second
five-year-plan, then not only the organs of State Security, but every
armed man, even every ordinary Soviet citizen, would rush headlong to
carry out this order: that is how we have been trained and we are ever
ready. And fourthly . . . you and I too, Viktor, for that matter, are not
insured against these bloody five-year-plans . . . we have absolutely no
insurance ... If the order were given tomorrow, everything would start all
over again - the Berias, the Yezhovs, the NKVD, etc . . . It's just that, for
the present, we have a completely spineless General Secretary in charge .
. . but only for the moment! But supposing he's replaced tomorrow? . . .
What then? Okay, don't get upset, let's go .. . our tour of duty is over for
today.'
'Comrade Captain, maybe after all we should drive off that sapper,
otherwise he'll rape her, sure as eggs is eggs!'
'Tomorrow she'll complain, that it was a soldier, and on our patrol
route too,' added my other comrade, hoping to give weight to my remark.
'But this is still no concern of ours,' he smiled, and pointed to the
luminous dial of his watch. We smiled too - the watch showed 0004
hours.
54
Kharkov 1967.
Theatre
Before the arrival in Severodvinsk of Marshal of the Soviet Union
Grechko, the high command of the Northern Fleet decided to paint the
shore-line cliffs grey. In all, over twenty kilometres of coastline were
painted. The sailors of two whole divisions and the men of a marines
regiment laboured over this titanic work for several weeks and, in the
process, used up the whole allocation of anti-corrosion paint supplied to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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