Pyotr Semyonovich Vavilov is a fictional character in Vasily Grossman's 'Stalingrad'.
These words were penned about him by Grossman within hours of his receiving his call-up papers to report to his local military office. Vavilov, who was in his 40s with a wife and three children, was about to join the Red Army.
Tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of the Red Army attacking the German High Command Headquarters at Zossen, south of Berlin.
On April 20, 1945, Hitler's birthday, Soviet artillery of the 79th Rifle Corps of the First Belorussian Front first shelled Berlin.
Vavilov did not make it to the German capital but his comrades did.
______________
Vavilov saw the war as a catastrophe. He knew that war destroys life. A peasant leaving his village for the war does not dream of medals and glory. He knows he is probably on his way to die.
These words were penned about him by Grossman within hours of his receiving his call-up papers to report to his local military office. Vavilov, who was in his 40s with a wife and three children, was about to join the Red Army.
Tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of the Red Army attacking the German High Command Headquarters at Zossen, south of Berlin.
On April 20, 1945, Hitler's birthday, Soviet artillery of the 79th Rifle Corps of the First Belorussian Front first shelled Berlin.
Vavilov did not make it to the German capital but his comrades did.
______________
Vavilov saw the war as a catastrophe. He knew that war destroys life. A peasant leaving his village for the war does not dream of medals and glory. He knows he is probably on his way to die.
Vavilov looked around him once more.
He had always wanted the life of mankind to be spacious and full of light like the sky today, and he had done what he could to build such a life. And he and millions like him had not worked in vain.
The kolkhoz had achieved a great deal.
He had always wanted the life of mankind to be spacious and full of light like the sky today, and he had done what he could to build such a life. And he and millions like him had not worked in vain.
The kolkhoz had achieved a great deal.
When he had finished, Vavilov got down from the roof and walked towards the gate.
He remembered the last night of peace the night before Sunday, June 22: the whole of the vast young country, the whole of workers’ and peasants’ Russia had been singing and playing the accordion - in little city gardens, on dance floors, in village streets, in groves and copses, in meadows beside streams.
He remembered the last night of peace the night before Sunday, June 22: the whole of the vast young country, the whole of workers’ and peasants’ Russia had been singing and playing the accordion - in little city gardens, on dance floors, in village streets, in groves and copses, in meadows beside streams.
And then everything had gone quiet; the accordions had suddenly broken off.
For nearly a year now there had been only stern, unsmiling silence.
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