The train flashed by with luminous windows, a long whistle of goodbye, and we were left alone with two suitcases at a dimly lit half-station. Rare lanterns, one-story wooden and brick houses with tightly closed shutters, the lights of high-rise buildings flickered in the distance ... After the regular thud of the wagon wheels, silence fell upon us.
Our independent life began.
We had nowhere to sleep. The compassionate duty officer of the hostel offered to stay in the "red corner", where a young married couple had already settled for the night. Probably, our confusion touched the heart of the unfamiliar lieutenant, because late at night, when the four of us gathered at a long meeting table covered with red staples and wondered what we should do, he knocked softly and, apologetically, handed us the key to his room. He and his friend went to sleep in the gym ...
My husband and I once studied in the same class, sat at the same desk, copied from each other, prompted in the lessons. How I did not want him to become a military man! .. Gold medal, excellent knowledge of natural sciences- the doors of all the universities of the city were open before him, but family tradition(in his family all the men were officers) tipped the scales.
When my research supervisor at the university found out that I was marrying a cadet, he urged me for a long time not to do stupid things. I studied well, received an increased scholarship, developed a promising topic that could become the basis for a dissertation. But youth and love do not care about the advice of elders, career and well-being. In addition, in self-denial, I imagined myself to be Princess Volkonskaya, going into exile to fetch her husband...
Our town was considered one of the best. Representative commissions were brought here, flying back in helicopters filled to overflowing with deficits from the military trade warehouses and modest gifts of the local nature.
Everything was in that prosperous, exemplary garrison and the cleanliness that the soldiers brought in the mornings instead of full-time janitors, and the pond, dug and cleaned by their own hands, and the flower beds, abundantly filled with water, while it did not reach the upper floors of the houses, and even a fountain with cascades. There was only the smallest thing - housing for officers.
Young girls like me besieged every day the instructor of the communal-operational unit in charge of resettlement, and she calmly shrugged her hands: “Wait” ...
But not everyone was waiting. Who turned out to be smarter and who had money, soon moved into apartments. The rest, who did not want to present expensive gifts and give bribes, or simply did not have the required amount, lived in the hostel for a long time, moving from room to room.
There, in a communal apartment, for the first time in my life I saw bedbugs. Neighborhood with blood-sucking insects was combined with the crying of a baby behind the wall, the rumble of stomping boots along a long corridor, the howling of a siren in the morning, calling officers to a drill, with the voice of a singer coming from someone's old tape recorder, or the strumming of a detuned guitar.
A year later, I was no longer surprised that at three in the morning someone suddenly needed salt or a piece of bread, or even just wanted to pour out their soul.
Those who had no problems with housing are unlikely to understand the depth of happiness of owning their own corner. One of my acquaintances, also an officer’s wife, who has spent a lot of time around the world, lived in private apartments for crazy pay, once admitted to me: “You know, when I get my apartment, I will kiss and stroke its walls ...”
We were almost the last to leave the hostel, the day before the New Year. And together with the new neighbors, they burned unnecessary trash, boxes and crates. We watched in silence as the flames licked dry cardboard, shooting out bedbugs, and it seemed to us that we were incinerating our recent past in smoldering firebrands. It was believed that this cleansing fire would forever carry away all our sorrows and hardships into the blackness of the night.
And then they returned to their empty apartment, where instead of a light bulb two bare wires hung lifelessly, and on rickety chairs with official numbers that replaced our table, they celebrated the holiday by candlelight.
It wasn't until three years later that we finally received a warrant for a separate apartment.
After work, having hastily eaten store cutlets, we went to repair our new home. They rejoiced, like children, at each painted window, the wall pasted over with wallpaper. And in rare breaks, we imagined how great it would be for us to live here. No one will wake you up in the morning with the sound of heels, no one will meet you at the door and hand over your two-month-old baby to sit. In the evening it will be possible to watch by yourself, without neighbors, a rented TV.
I don’t remember when the first well-knit box appeared in our house, but only then did they become our constant companions. Wooden and cardboard, large and small, neatly folded "just in case."
Surprising this state - temporality. It is difficult to grasp at what point it becomes dominant in your destiny, powerfully subordinates you to its laws, predetermines your desires and actions.
I was absolutely sure that even the most severe administrator would not resist my honors diploma, optimism and energy, and I would find a job for myself without much effort. It wasn't there! At first, everything really went wonderfully (a pleasant smile, a friendly tone), but as soon as I announced that I was the wife of an officer ... At first, it was even curious to observe the drastic change that was taking place with my employers. Where did their administrative enthusiasm, friendliness, sympathetic intonations go! The answer followed immediately and in a categorical form: there are no vacancies and are not expected in the near future.
I continued to knock on the thresholds of the institutions until the military family instructor patiently explained to me that there was a long and hopeless queue for every place in the town. And you have to get out yourself if you want to work. The only thing she could offer me at that moment. - the position of the administrator in the hotel. And yet I was lucky. Something touched the heart of the elderly editor local newspaper, and he accepted me as a correspondent with a monthly trial period, thus insuring himself against further obligations.
On Defender of the Fatherland Day, it is customary to congratulate all men without exception and age discounts. Man? Congratulations! So he deserved it. But only a few of them know what service is. An experienced wife of an officer tells about how the military live and serve.
To become the wife of a general, you need to marry a lieutenant and wander around the garrisons with him. But a rare bird will fly to the middle of the Dnieper, which means that with a successful combination of circumstances, you will meet old age with your husband-colonel. Or you won’t if you run away earlier, unable to withstand all the hardships and hardships of military life.
C - Stability
She just doesn't exist. You will never know how long you will live in one place and where you will then be sent. Most likely further away. The more remote the place of its location, the higher the chance that you will go there.
Every time you need to start all over again and be prepared for the fact that the water is in the column, and the amenities are on the street.
T - Patience
We need to find its inexhaustible source. And draw liters from there - one glass on an empty stomach for prevention, and in advanced cases, increase the dosage until the symptoms disappear.
About - Communication
With anyone, but not with her husband. Sometimes he leaves in the morning, as usual, for service and returns not even at night (this, by the way, is excellent and consider yourself lucky!), But two weeks later, simply because the Motherland said: “We must!”. The voice of the wife is deliberative, but by no means decisive.
D - children
At first it’s hard with them, grandparents are far away, there is often no one to help, you can only rely on yourself. But children grow up and become like cats! That is, they walk on their own. In a closed area where everyone knows each other, nothing bad will ever happen.
F - pity
Forget! First, you will learn not to spare yourself, otherwise you will not survive, because the whole life is on you, and there is no time for your husband - he has a service. Then stop feeling sorry for others. And if you see that someone is not conscientiously fulfilling their duties, just do not remain silent. And it is right!
Seryoga was given the rank of major. Previously, he did not have such a title, but now he does, he sits, does not know what to do. Until the very evening, he was tormented by the question of whether to drink for him to celebrate, or not to stain the honor of a senior officer, at least on the very first day. The worst part is that I don't feel like drinking anymore. Terrible things the army does to people.
Serega came home from work, Olya opened the door for him, looks - her husband is standing, sober, thoughtful and already a major. A life officer's wife full of surprises, in the morning you wake up next to the captain, and in the evening the major rushes into the house. It is not clear how to feel like a decent woman. Olya let Seryoga into the house, touched her forehead, and said:
Why are you so sober, aren't you sick?
The wife of a Russian officer is easily frightened, she quickly gets used to the fact that her husband is disciplined and predictable. Sobriety without a reason is an alarming symptom, it will make anyone nervous. Serega, of course, is a decent person and drinks little, but everything has its limits.
The life of an officer's wife has never been easy. There are many examples in history. Some Parisians from medieval Paris must have gathered sometimes for a bachelorette party and complained to each other about their husbands.
Can you imagine mine, - one said, - yesterday I had a fight with the guards of the cardinal! I washed the blood from the camisole until night, and then sewed up more holes. I tell him: “Can you be more careful with the camisole? I could try not to bump into every sword. What do you care, lie down and go fight again, damn duelist! And what am I, a seamstress to you?
And her friends nodded in understanding, saying to her:
What is he?
What is he?
And what is he? .. He lied some nonsense, for chickens to laugh. Secret, they say, task, state secret! Bullets whistled overhead! .. As usual, everyone around the scoundrel, he is one d'Artagnan. Then I rummaged through his pockets, and you know what? .. Diamond pendants, that's what! I'm telling you exactly, girls - I went to the woman.
The girlfriends then sympathetically shook their heads and pitied the officer's wife.
And the wives of the Pechenegs had even worse. Some Pecheneg lieutenant easily dragged another young wife from abroad. He brought her to the house, and said to his first wife:
Meet, dear, this is Masha, she will live with us.
Better suspension, honestly.
Now, of course, it's easier. The officer now went balanced, reasonable. Give him a pension for service and an apartment from the state, and all sorts of Londons with pendants did not give him up for nothing. On weekends, the officer goes to the theater, and when he is given a major, he already thinks: to drink for him to celebrate, or to make a pleasant surprise for the liver.
Serega came into the house, kissed his wife, walked the dog, ate dinner, then called me. He told how he and Olya went to the theater on weekends to see Romeo and Juliet. A very instructive story, by the way.
People do not lie, there is no sadder story in the world. Romeo seemed to be high, muttering something under his breath, staring stupidly at his beloved Juliet, as if he could not decide whether she had plucked her eyebrows or whether she had last time had a hooked nose. His ardent love was so unconvincing that the public suspected an intrigue, whether the director had decided to make Alphonse and a marriage swindler out of Romeo. By the second act, this Romeo had so tired everyone that when he finally died, the audience shouted "Bravo!" and demanded to die for an encore. It was the only moment in the performance that everyone wanted to remember.
Some kind of junkie, not Romeo, - said Seryoga. - Ears splayed, eyes run. We would call him into the army, we would make a man out of him here. Maybe even to the rank of captain.
Of course, no Capulets would have dared to contradict a military officer of the Russian army, they would have given Juliet as a wife, like pretty ones. He would have taken her somewhere to Kaluga or Kaliningrad, to the place of service. On weekends, they would go to the theater, wait for an apartment from the state. Juliet would settle down, go to work as an accountant at the Central Department Store, and get a dog. At times, of course, she would complain about Romeo:
My yesterday, after the service, again went to the tavern with friends. He came after midnight, the whole tunic was wrinkled, a button was torn off somewhere. What am I, a seamstress, to fix his tunic every time? ..
But still, where would she be without him? An officer's wife will not leave her officer. She loves him.
One thing is bad, sometimes you wake up next to the captain, and in the evening the major comes to you.
And how to feel like a decent woman at the same time? ..
Unclear.
From this pre-war photo, the deputy commander of the 84th Infantry Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Yakovlevich Gribakin (born 1895), his wife Nadezhda Matveevna (born 1898), and their daughters Natalia and Irina are looking at us from this pre-war photograph.
They met the war in Brest. Here is the story of Nadezhda Gribakina about the beginning of the war.
The first time I read it, I couldn't help crying.
And even now, re-reading, I can not.
The war started, we were sleeping. The husband got up very quickly and began to dress. He only said:
Well, the war is waiting.
Artillery shelling and bombing began. We lived in the fortress itself. The husband dressed and left, went to his unit. Then he couldn't get through. He returned to us and told us to go to the city now.
After 10-12 minutes, a fragment hit the house. My mother and I were hurt. In one underwear they ran out into the street. Fragments and bullets were flying everywhere. We met some commander who ordered us to hide in the house. We hid in some ruins, a small house. They were there for three hours. The bombardment continued, and artillery shells flew. When we fled, a wounded man was crawling into this house. We ran past him. When they stayed in this house, the eldest daughter says:
"Mom, I'm going to bandage him."
I didn't let her in, but they both broke loose and ran. He had a broken leg. There was nothing to bind. Daughter says:
- Gain strength and crawl to the medical unit.
“Comrades, help, there is a wounded man here.
Rifles were immediately pointed at us. They were already Germans. We were so frightened, because we betrayed ourselves and did not expect that in some two or three hours the Germans would be here.
After a while, a rifle appears in the window, and a German looks out cautiously. When he saw that there were women, children, there was one old man, he did not pay attention to us. One of the women addressed him in German to let him go home to get dressed. He says:
- Sit here. Soon everything will calm down, then go home. He asked us where the road to the highway was. We showed him.
After a while we hear Russian voices. The commander enters and asks if the Germans were here. We say we were. He does not believe, asks in which direction they went. We said. There were four of them, one of them was wounded. Natasha, the eldest daughter, bandaged him. He's asking:
- What do you think we should do? Protect?
I say:
- What will 30 people do, you need to get where ours are.
Another says:
And we will destroy them. We will start shooting, the Germans will hit us.
One of them sits in a corner. I will remember this picture for a long time. He sits, thoughtful, tears in his eyes and looks, looks. I thought he had a letter. I look - a party card in my hands. His friend says:
- Must be destroyed.
They pulled the sink away from the washbasin and stuffed the party card deep into it. The second tore the ticket and also put it down into the sink. The third, apparently, was non-partisan. The fourth looked at the ticket for a very long time, turned away, smiled and even kissed this ticket and also tore it up.
Then the commander shouted to leave, lay around in the bushes.
The Germans reappeared. I tell them:
- You hide.
They ask fearfully:
- Where? - very confused.
I say:
“Let’s open the doors, and you stand between them.”
The Germans entered. They took out rifles, stuck them out the windows, then they themselves went in and told us:
- Get out.
We went out and carried out the wounded. Ask:
- Who else is there?
We say there is no one. And those in the corner. I don't know what happened to those four people. Fragments fly, bullets fly. We got lost. They are screaming at us. They took me across the road. Forced to carry a wounded officer. The rest of the women were placed in single file to cover them. The woman who spoke German says:
“We are afraid, they are shooting there.
They answer:
“Your guys won’t shoot at you.
They carried this officer. They carried this officer. Then we were led past our house. This woman asks to let me get dressed, opens my coat and shows that I am naked. He shakes his head, says no. Brought to our house from the opposite side, set. I ran out in a shirt. Natasha grabbed my coat and carried it after me. I wrapped myself in a blanket. When we were placed against the wall, I feel how this blanket pulls me down. I can't stand. I get down on my knees. I look ahead, and rifles have already been pointed at us, a platoon of soldiers is running. Then I realized that we were set to be shot. I quickly got up, I think that they will not kill me, and I will see how my girls are shot. There was no fear. Suddenly, some officer runs down the mountain, says something to the soldiers, and they lower their rifles. Then I already found out that they were shooting until 12 o'clock, and then there was an order not to shoot. We were taken away without any three minutes 12.
We were taken somewhere else. 600 women gathered. They led to big house, laid on the ground, ordered to lie down. The firing is incredible, everything flies into the air. The house in front of us is on fire.
So we lay until evening. There were many wounded among us. Natasha worked like a real doctor, doing dressings. She performed an operation on one of her sisters with a simple knife, took out a bullet.
By evening, the shooting had calmed down a bit. I say:
- Let's go to the house.
By evening, our guards took the men who can walk, forced them to carry guns and took them somewhere. Only seriously wounded men remained with us. By evening I say:
- Let's go into the house, there we will be calm even [if only] from the fragments that fly and injure people before our eyes.
Some say that the house may collapse. I say:
- As you wish, I'll go.
There was another woman with me baby and a Polish woman who spoke German. Her husband served as a janitor in the fortress.
Little by little it got quiet. They began to run from house to house, looking for someone to dress, someone to eat. I say:
- Take everything that is white for dressing.
They brought towels and sheets. Immediately began to make dressings.
Everyone is afraid to go to the second floor. Everyone is thirsty. They got water, gave a sip only to the wounded and children. At night, the bombing began again. I stood leaning against the wall of a huge three-story house, and felt the walls literally shaking.
We stayed in this house for three days. Children are hungry, crying, screaming. On the fourth day it became quieter, but we hear voices all the time. Women scream, start arguing, quarreling over seats: I sat here, you sat here. I had to talk to them a lot, even hoarse. I say:
- Hush, hush, death is above us, and you are arguing over some place.
Then the women became bolder, saw a well across the road, began to run there, carry water, give to the wounded, to children, and to others in a small sip. On the fourth day, a German appears and says in Russian:
- Get out.
We leave. Lead. We passed the fortress. We were led somewhere very far. They led us to a huge ditch and told us to hide there. My mother is old, they dragged her in her arms. We can hardly go. It began to calm down a little in general, and there was no such bombing. They raised their heads up, the machine gun was pointed there. Some were with things, things were thrown. Already completely said goodbye to life. Then some officer and two soldiers come down, leading the men separately, us separately. There were a lot of men, soldiers. They were already taken somewhere far away. We don't hear them. Then they tell us to go upstairs. We had a sister with us, wounded in the stomach. At first she stuck. She had a suitcase. She ran out with him, could not find her part and stayed with us. We never knew her. She says to Natasha:
- I beg you. Take my suitcase. Maybe they'll take me to the infirmary, I'll look for you. You're naked, take what you have there, leave me a pair of underwear.
I say:
“Natasha, don’t take it, it’s not known where they are taking us.”
She says:
- I'll take.
They took out this wounded sister, a German officer was standing, speaking Russian. This sister turns to him, asks:
- Sir, what will happen to me? I am badly injured. Will they put me in the hospital or will they leave me here?
He doesn't say anything. She turns a second time and cries. He speaks:
- Drop me.
But Ira and I took her by the arms.
Until the night they led us. They took me to the barn. They beat him with a beat. We had the wounded with us. One tanker was wounded. Burnt face, terrible burns. He moaned so. It was so creepy that I couldn't look at it. Natasha patiently approached him, listened to him. He says he can't understand anything. Finally, she realized that he was thirsty. We had a kettle. They took water. She rolled up a paper straw and gives him a drink. He strokes her gratefully. At night he died.
In the morning they took us out, they say:
Officers' wives, come out.
Everyone is silent, afraid. Then he comes out with a list and reads. I read surnames 20, says:
- Go to this barn, your husbands are there.
He did not read my last name, but I followed him. There are tears. It turns out that they have already been taken prisoner. One says:
- Will we live, they will probably kill us, you take care of the children. There was no way to escape from the fortress.
I see one is sitting on the straw. I go up to him and ask:
— You don't know Captain Gribakin? He says:
- I do not know. Everyone is saying goodbye to their wives, but my wife is not here. Allow me to say goodbye to you.
We kissed him. He warns:
- Tell all women not to say that their husbands are political officers. Then they will die themselves and we will be extradited.
I cried with them, went out and quietly told the women about it.
Then they took us again. The next night we again spent the night in a barn somewhere. Then we were led through the Bug. The bridge was not yet completed. When they left us to settle down in the evening, they said:
- Go get dinner.
Who has children, immediately ran.
— Into what? they ask.
- Go, they will give you dishes there.
We didn't go for some reason, as if I felt it. Women run there, there is such laughter, they laughed so much. First they gave everyone mugs. Some took even more than they needed. And then they start laughing and say:
- Go to Stalin, he will feed you.
The women return with tears, but they did not leave the mugs, and one took 4 mugs and gave them to us.
We were taken to the bridge. The wounded sister is coming with us. Suddenly a cart drives up and takes away the wounded. This sister said goodbye to us. Natasha is dragging her suitcase, Ira is bringing her grandmother, but I can't go. We walk on the sides, and in the middle of the bridge there were men. Suddenly I see someone picks me up and to the men. It turns out that one military man saw that I couldn’t walk and said:
“Come with us, or you will fall.”
Went under escort, however, a little. Passed the bridge. The command is given. The women stopped and the men were led on. Here the women abandoned everything. Natasha left our suitcase. Somehow we got over this bridge. Again such a situation. There were no wounded with us. There were lightly wounded who were silent that they were wounded. It was already the eighth day.
When they led us past our house, after they wanted to shoot us, a Pole woman, the janitor's wife, picked up a bag of sugar near my apartment. In the morning, at noon and in the evening she bit off half a piece with her teeth and gave it to us. We didn't have anything else.
In the morning, the order is given to leave. We get up. Natasha doesn't get up. I thought she was fast asleep. I touch her, her head falls, she is unconscious. I got scared. I think they won't wait for us. Gathered the last strength, I say to Ira:
- Let's carry her in our arms.
Some German comes up and says:
— What, kaput?
I say flu. Asks:
- Mother?
- Yes talking.
He singles out two Poles, says:
- Bring it.
I didn't let them carry it. I gave them the suitcase.
Again we were brought to Brest through the fortress. It's a terrible picture. A lot of our dead sat crouched. I saw one tanker. He sits crouched, his face completely burned. A terrible picture. Horses are rolling, people. I almost had to walk along them, because they were being driven in formation.
Then we go further, two people in our uniform sit opposite each other and look at each other. Turns out they are already dead.
They took us to the fortress. The smell is terrible, everything around is decomposing. It was the eighth day, the heat. Feet with corns, almost all barefoot.We passed the fortress, the bridge. There were bodies all over the city. When we were led along 17 September Avenue, we were photographed endlessly. I turned away all the time. So they laughed at us. Oh how they laughed. Shout:
Officers' wives! Officers' wives.
You can imagine what we looked like. Natasha put on a nice silk dress, but what has it become? Of course, we looked terrible, funny and miserable, and they laughed a lot.
They lead us, we don't even know where. It's quiet and there's no one but the Germans. I put my mother in a steam room. They held her by the arms. But here we were carrying Natasha, and mother was left alone to the mercy of fate. I will ask my friends:
“Look where my mother is.
She is already lagging behind, walking last, and there a soldier pushes her with a bayonet. One very good woman Anoshkina saved my mother.
Then we were taken to the Brest prison. They let us out into the yard - and whoever wants where. Then we were lined up in a semicircle. 12 Germans came. One, apparently a senior officer, also appeared, and with him an interpreter, then a doctor. Immediately they said: the Jews should go out separately. Many Jews hid, did not come out, but then they were betrayed. Then the Poles and Russians were ordered to leave. They got out. Then we, the Easterners, were ordered to stand separately. So we were divided into groups. The Jews were immediately taken out of prison. The locals were told: "Go to your homes."
We were left in prison, and the interpreter began to go to one, to another:
- Tell me who is a communist here, a member of the Komsomol.
Nobody, of course, said. Then one of ours stands out. I don't know her last name, I never did. There were a lot of Eastern ones. She whispered something to him. He approaches one. She is a Komsomol member with a child. Asks:
Where is your party card?
When we spent the night, she tore it up and left it. This woman saw, ours, an Easterner, and she probably told him. Ta says:
“I don’t have a ticket,” she turned terribly pale. He didn't really get on with her, though.
- And where is the Komsomol ticket? " She says:
- I'm not a Komsomol member.
- And what ticket did you tear up? She quickly found, says:
- Trade union.
— Is the trade union card also red?
- Yes, red.
He turns to me and asks:
- Do you have a red union card too?
I say:
- It depends on what, they were blue and red.
This woman got lost between us, but then we found her.
We were left in prison. Take whatever room you want. Our group occupied a small room. The floor was wooden in the room, and everyone was climbing towards us. We crowded about 50 people. When we went to bed, everyone fought for a place.
Natasha and I are messing around, we don't know what's wrong with her. We do compresses for her. There was no medicine. Anoshkina, another fighting woman began to climb all over the prison. There were no Germans, only sentries remained at the gate. They find a pharmacy, there are a lot of medicines. They took it all away, found streptocide, Natasha was given it. She later had angina. Why angina, I can not understand. This streptocide, then Anoshkina got chocolate, and with this they saved Natasha. She began to come to her senses.On the fifth day, a commission came to us, lined us up in the yard, each was given a ration in hand. One speaks good Russian, one is a doctor. I say that my daughter is sick, I don’t know what kind of illness, maybe she can be taken to the hospital. Doctor says:
- Hardly.
He spoke Russian well. He speaks:
“I will give you a note and ask you to be admitted to the hospital tomorrow morning. They gave us our biscuits, crackers each, a little bit of cereal and tea. Here they laugh again and say:
- You will receive every day. Stalin sent this to you. It turned out that these stocks remained in the prison.
I went to the sentry with this note. The sentry misses. I'm going to the hospital. Silence in the city. I'm going to the hospital. I hear a thud. The Germans are coming, all in cars, on motorcycles, on bicycles, everyone is beautifully dressed, and there were so many of them that [avenue] on September 17 was all filled with troops. I think: where now ours will win. There were a lot of them, and, most importantly, everything was mechanized.
I enter the hospital. There's not a soul there. I pass one room, the second, the third, there is no one. The beds are standing, no one is there. They gave us rations later, and then we didn't eat anything. I see a piece of bread on the table. It looks like someone bit him. I look at this bread, so I want to grab it. I think: "This is theft." I try not to look at him. I cough, I knock with my feet, no one comes out. I can already smell this bread. I think: "Well, I'll steal it." I grabbed this bread and did not have time to swallow it, my sister comes out. I think, "She saw me take it." She asks:
- What do you want?
I have tears in my eyes. I show her the note. She says:
Under no circumstances will you be released. I will give you some of the medicines, but no one will put you in the hospital. Try to take her to the city hospital.
I go back, I think: why did I eat bread, I could give everyone a piece. I come, pick up Natasha and drag her on my back. I come to the city hospital. She was not accepted there either. I'm dragging her back. At this time, a polka, the janitor's wife, was walking, saw us, was delighted, said that she came several times, brought bread, but the sentry did not let us through. She helped me drag Natasha, gave us bread, sugar, a piece of butter, a scallop. We all have a lot of lice in a week.
She brought Natasha again, but she felt better. After her, her mother fell ill, she has dysentery. We dragged her every minute to the restroom. Soaps cold water, caught a cold. Then she got a little better.It's been 3 weeks. We were told that one of the family could go and ask for bread and clothes. I went to the wives of one Captain Shenvadze and Commissar Kryuchkov. They received me very badly, asked me to leave, because they had Germans. Came to the wife of a lieutenant. She helped us a lot, gave us linen, gave us food, gave us some pillowcases, towels. We left her with a big bundle. She says:
- If you are released, come to live with me.
Then we were told: whoever has an apartment can leave. We came to this Nevzorova. Then the room was vacated. The owner of this house, a Polish woman, allowed us to live, and then our independent life began. When we came from prison, everyone became interested in us. Most of the locals lived there. Everyone ran to look at us like we were wild animals. Some brought soap, some to eat, some a towel, some a blanket, some a pillow. They brought us beds. There was a woman there, doctor Geishter, who terribly hated the Soviet regime, but she helped us. There was a Jewess there, the head of the pharmacy Ruzya, this one also helped us.
So we started living there. Every day they will not bring us food. Our women went to beg in the villages. Most of our women walked through the villages. Who lived in the city, went to ask in the villages. They helped a lot in the villages, I couldn’t even believe it. The girls were afraid to walk for the first few days, it was scary. I couldn't walk either. I cried for the first few days. My mother will put on a gas mask bag and go to the village, and then the girls go to meet her. They gave bread, cucumbers, and when they started to go far, there was lard, white flour, and eggs. They fed us, literally, until 1943. There were those who both scolded and sent to Stalin, but the majority helped, especially near Kobrin, 50 km. My girls went there. There is nothing on the legs in winter, and we sewed from rags, we will wind up something. Mom used to bring this bag. I am sitting at home. Let's share these pieces of bread. You don't see if they are dirty or not. We had no shame. There were these two mugs that they gave us.
The girls began to go far to the villages, to collect with one woman, but they never asked. This woman holds a child in her arms, she asks, the girls are silent, but they give them too. They went once every two weeks. They brought it so that they came, literally bent over with this burden. For 30 km they no longer carried potatoes, but bread, beans, onions. Milk was given as much as you like, but how to carry it.
Then I see that it is not possible to live like this. Just a friend comes with a bathrobe, how to sew it. We took a pattern from this dressing gown and began to sew. There was no car, we sewed by hand. Then relatives of Irina's friend say: "Come to us to sew," and we went to the 4th Brest - it's far away. So they lived until 1942. In 1941, women entered the workforce. Those who did not work were taken to Germany. True, Ira got a job at a laborer's factory, and Natasha worked in the fortress, peeling potatoes.
The Poles insisted that we be singled out in the same way as the Jews in the ghetto. There was one lawyer Kshenitsky here. He especially insisted on it. He was a big boss. For some reason, the Germans did not agree to this. If someone came and reported that this was the wife of a colonel, this one was a commissar, then she was taken to prison, and then shot. Those who managed to escape, the Germans did not use anything against them. I wasn't called. Only when we had a search [on] the first day, they asked me who the husband was. I was saved by the fact that until 1939 my husband was in reserve, he worked on the railway. For some reason, his passport was in my bag, and Natasha grabbed this bag. It was obvious that he was a railroad worker. I told everyone: I came here to visit relatives, and Natasha came to practice. Her husband was not here, and as proof she showed her passport.
Archive of IRI RAS. Fund 2. Section VI. Op. 16. D. 9. L. 1-5 (typewritten text, copy).
* * *
And you know what?
They all remained alive.
Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Yakovlevich Gribakin, together with his unit, retreated to Kobrin, served in the field administration of the 13th Army, and reached Berlin. Awarded with the Order Patriotic War I and II degrees and the Order of the Red Star.
Nadezhda Matveevna, together with her daughters, lived to see liberation. On December 21, 1944, in Brest, she was interviewed by members of the Commission on the History of the Great Patriotic War F.L. Yelovtsan and A.I. Shamshin.
