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    One Hundred Twenty Five
    One Hundred Twenty Five
    One Hundred Twenty Five
    Ebook123 pages1 hour

    One Hundred Twenty Five

    By Ernest Kaukhcheshvili

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    About this ebook

    Being swamp by the Second World War at the age of 23 years Ernest Kaukhcheshvili, at that time a fifth-year student at the Leningrad Technological Institute of Refrigeration Industry, shares his memoirs of the tragic events of the siege of Leningrad (Soviet Union).
    The first day of the War was associated with the canned crabs for Ernest as all shops were piled with them. But no one could have imagined that soon bread coupons would be more precious than the gold, that students would be making a soup out of the leather belt and that they would remember the number One Hundred Twenty Five forever...That was the daily bread ratio in grams per person Leningrad, the lowest ration ever.
    Together with the recollections Ernest meditates about the fate; the politics of that time; the fine lines between life and death, as well as weaknesses and strengths of the human beings during such severe events as wars.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEvgeniya Djosovna
    Release dateMay 22, 2014
    ISBN9785600001855
    One Hundred Twenty Five

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      Book preview

      One Hundred Twenty Five - Ernest Kaukhcheshvili

      Copyright 1988 Ernest I. Kaukhcheshvili

      Drawings by Nikolay E. Kaukhcheshvili, Copyright 1988

      Translation by Evgeniya Kaukhcheshvili

      Published by Evgeniya Kaukhcheshvili at Smashwords

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      Thank you for downloading this eBook. This eBook remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this eBook, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

      Table of Contents

      Start of One Hundred Twenty Five

      Prologue

      June, 21, 1941

      June, 22, 1941

      June, 24, 1941

      First days of July, 1941

      August, 25, 1941

      September, 1, 1941

      September, 2-6, 1941

      September, 7, 1941

      September, 9, 1941

      September, 25, 1941

      September, 30, 1941

      October, 3, 1941

      October, 6, 1941

      October, 15-16, 1941

      October, 20, 1941

      November, 7, 1941

      November, 10, 1941

      November, 20, 1941

      November, 30, 1941

      November, 30, 1941 (evening)

      December, 2, 1941

      December, 1941

      December, 3, 1941

      December, 5, 1941

      December, 9, 1941

      December, 15, 1941

      January, 3, 1942

      February, 1, 1942

      February, 9, 1942

      About the Author

      Connect with Evgeniya Kaukhcheshvili

      Prologue

      This year marks 45 years since the first breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad.

      Below are the memoirs about the first, short, but perhaps the most dramatic phase: from the beginning of the Great Patriotic War until February 1942. There are deviations from this period into the past and into the future where necessary.

      Moscow 1988

      June, 21, 1941

      You know, I could have never thought! What a happy coincidence That you witnessed the blockade of Leningrad.

      (From an appeal of admiration of a young man of the Eighties to his coeval of the Forties)

      Twenty first of June, 1941. In the middle of the white nights I passed the final exam. In my student ticket it was stamped Transferred to the fifth year at the Leningrad Technological College of Refrigeration Industry, the signature of the dean and a stamp.

      As of twenty third of June there were holidays. I had to postpone them for a long time: the rainbow bridge between 21 and 23 exploded on June 22, 1941.

      Deviation One. For everyone who survived that time, the first day of the War is connected with something. It is personal or public, or it is connected with some event, some object, or some person. For me it is being associated with…the canned crabs. And not just from somewhere, but the crabs from the window of the fish shop on the corner of Nevskiy Avenue and Rubinstein Street. This is just two steps away from the theater Titan. Surprisingly, but both of them, the fish store and the cinema, not only withstood the siege, but also the post-war period of local Soviets, trade officers, as well as all of the current reforms and restructurings. The shop has survived, though canned crabs quickly switched into the super-delicacy and they completely disappeared from the shop’s assortment. The Reader will soon know how they were connected with the first day of the War which was later called the Great Patriotic War.

      June, 22, 1941

      Twenty second of June, 1941. The message from Molotov about the beginning of the War was not accepted as something tragic by many of the students’ colony living in a dormitory of Zhukovka (about a kilometer away from Elektrosila). It seemed that the incident would be agreed, settled and eliminated in the next few hours.

      Deviation Two. As it turned out a few decades later, the future Generalissimo thought exactly the same as we did on June, 22nd. Was it a striking unity of views on the polar sides of the society or a fantastic primitivism in assessment of foreign policy by the supreme leader of the nation? Neither. Our faith of inexperienced politicians in the force of the non-aggression pact was understandable. The pact was a reality. But the faith of our Leader was based on an entirely different thing. By this moment in history He finally came to believe not only in his own genius, but also in its infallibility. All his words were treated as a revelation, were considered as teaching.

      That believes were followed by another one: that he outwitted Hitler. Therefore, there could be no information which was opposed to his adopted concept. He perceived the June, 22nd not as the greatest tragedy of the Country, but as a personal shock: he was thrown from the throne of clairvoyance, infallibility and genius. It was this purely personal tragedy that apparently was the reason for his ten-day time-out, during which none of the events of the real life interested him.

      What this man could think of during these ten days with no one talking to him, without inquiring any information? He might have thought only of the following: which psychological ladder must be built in order to reach the previous level of infallibility? After all, he longed not for the real and absolute power (which he already had in his hands and no one disputed that, especially in those days). He longed for spiritual power. He knew he had it until June, 22nd, but he understood what happened or could have happened to it that day. He longed for the faith, absolute, infinite faith. And all subsequent tactic (after his first performance on the radio on July 3rd) really let him gradually reach that goal by 1942. His Genius was restored after successful military actions near Moscow. Infallibility? But more about this a bit later.

      That's why that Sunday, June 22nd, we did not hesitate to take a traditional walk along Nevskiy Avenue, from the Moscow Railway Station to the Admiralty. Slowly sauntering

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