Chapter 564: Life

In the gloomy forest, a Soviet Red Army soldier was holding his rifle, aiming at an armored train that was rumbling past on the railway. His eyes were firm, as if he had decided to perish together with the enemy.

“Don’t shoot! If you shoot, we’re all done for!” Beside him, a middle-aged Soviet soldier, also holding a rifle, whispered a word of caution. “There are at least 3,000 people here. If the Germans attack, we’re dead.”

The young Soviet soldier still held his rifle, its muzzle trembling slightly. He could already see the German soldiers standing on the flatcars of the train, standing in the specially designed observation posts on the armored train, the equally young faces under their steel helmets.

His heart was in turmoil. His mission told him that he should pull the trigger and eliminate an enemy. But in the forest behind him, there was a large group of Soviet soldiers. They had been trapped here for more than ten days, unable to contact their original divisional headquarters, and they had no idea how the war was progressing.

These Soviet soldiers did not dare to attack the passing German soldiers, nor did they dare to attack the later, continuous German supply lines. Because of the order to execute the families of those who surrendered, these soldiers also did not dare to surrender easily. They were just hiding here, waiting for their increasingly bleak end.

“We’ve done our best. They told us to hold our positions, and we held on until the last moment, for several days, without leaving. But they abandoned us here and retreated without even a word,” the middle-aged Soviet veteran said helplessly. “Comrade Stalin won’t let us surrender, but now we don’t even have many bullets left. What else can we do but surrender?”

They had originally been ordered to hold a nearby high ground to cover the retreat of the main force. But in the end, the entire Soviet force in the area was thrown into chaos. They had fled into this forest in the confusion and, after a few days, had gathered about 3,000 men. But most of them were wounded or deserters.

Most of the soldiers had no guns. Many were drivers, artillerymen, or even clerks and political officers. They just didn’t dare to surrender to the German army, and they couldn’t outrun the German panzer forces, so they had gathered together, hoping to survive as long as possible under these circumstances. Unfortunately, just yesterday, the food on the horse carts brought by the logistics soldiers had run out. Now they could only go to the edge of the forest to try to find something to eat.

The German advance was too fast, and there were too many encirclements, so many areas had not been cleared out. Most of the scattered Soviet units were left behind in the rear. But recently, the German army had begun to deal with these leftover problems. They were using troops to search for large-scale remnants of the Soviet army, and then either persuading them to surrender or eliminating them.

In the end, the young Soviet soldier lowered his rifle, abandoning his plan to attack the German armored train on patrol. The few Soviet soldiers beside him were visibly relieved. They were all glad to have saved their own lives. After all, an armored train was not something that a group of stragglers like them could handle.

“We can’t go on like this. We have to do something, to let our comrades in the distance know that we haven’t surrendered,” the young Red Army soldier said with a frown, having put down his rifle.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to surrender, but that he had three younger sisters and a younger brother still on the plains of Ukraine. If he were to lay down his arms here, then his family, his beloved younger siblings, would be sent to the freezing cold of Siberia, to be worked to death as laborers.

So he had always been looking for a chance to die in battle, or a chance to escape back to the Soviet-controlled area. But his several attempts had failed, and the others who had had the same idea had all died on the way. Only he alone had managed to flee back to the forest in a panic.

The current German-Soviet front line was simply too far from here. It was impossible to escape back on foot. He knew that the Soviet Union had been defeated, but he had never imagined that the defeat would be so tragic.

“What else can we do? At least those of us who came out on patrol still have ammunition. Most of the people back at the camp don’t even have weapons. Even if we succeed in attacking the Germans, it will just mean being surrounded and then all of us being killed,” a Soviet soldier said mournfully.

Another soldier kicked a stone on the ground in frustration and said angrily, “Everyone was retreating at that time, in a complete mess. We couldn’t even find the divisional headquarters. Who can prove whether we died in battle or surrendered?”

Hearing this sentence, everyone fell silent. Yes, at that time, the retreat was a complete mess. Everyone was looking out for themselves. Who could prove whether these people, who had been surrounded and had lost contact, had been killed in action or had surrendered? Since it could not be proven and could not be tallied, then how was the order to send their entire families to Siberia to be carried out?

Gulp. The young soldier who had wanted to open fire just now swallowed hard. What would happen to his family? This was the question that concerned him most now. What if he were to be counted among those who had surrendered? Wouldn’t that mean that his current persistence had all been in vain?

He held his rifle and walked back, step by step, muttering through gritted teeth as he went, “I hear those bastards have put all the blame for the defeat on us Ukrainians. And now they want to send our families to Siberia. Do they think we Ukrainian soldiers are idiots?”

A few others followed behind him, pushing aside the grass as they walked back. They would have to walk several kilometers on foot before they would find the camouflaged camp in the heart of the forest. Over there were more of the old, the weak, and the sick, and even a few trucks and seven 122mm howitzers, as well as four T-26 tanks. Of course, most of these weapons were already out of ammunition and fuel.

However, just as they were about to return to the camp, they saw three German helicopters fly past near the camp, dropping a few black packages. Their hearts leaped in alarm, and they quickly ran towards the camp. It looked like their camp had been discovered by the Germans. Instinct told them to rush back and save some of their poor comrades.

Unfortunately, by the time they had run, panting, back to their camp, they found that many of the Soviet soldiers were cheering around the things that the Germans had dropped. It was only when they got closer that they discovered that those things were actually some photographs and surrender leaflets.

“Kiev has been occupied by the Germans? Are you kidding me?” a soldier asked, frowning as he studied a photograph from Kiev. The statue of Lenin in the street there had been pulled down, and many German soldiers were cheering beside it with their rifles raised. This photograph brought a contradictory expression to the faces of the Ukrainian soldiers around him. On the one hand, they were glad that those Russian villains could finally be gone. On the other, they were afraid and worried about Germany’s power. Who knew if, after driving out the jackals, an even more ferocious tiger would come?

“They’re lying! We should launch a partisan war behind enemy lines and defeat those German invaders!” a political officer snatched the photograph from the soldier’s hand, tore it to pieces, and threw it on the ground. “We should fight for the motherland, the Soviet Union, to the last moment!”

“Kiev has been occupied by the Germans. Our hometown has been occupied by the Germans. We have no guns, no ammunition, not even anything to eat. What are we supposed to fight the Germans with?” an elderly veteran said angrily to the political officer who was inciting the people to continue resisting.

“No more fighting! We’re going out to surrender!” Most of the people here were Ukrainian soldiers. They had never been on good terms with the Russians. Before, with the high-pressure policies holding them down, they had managed to get along. Now that they knew their hometown had been occupied by the Germans, they had no intention of being nice to the Russians who were supervising them.

“That’s right! Whoever wants to fight can keep fighting. We’re going out to surrender!” After seeing the photographs, many more had read the German surrender leaflets. At the very least, most of them believed what the Germans had said in the letter. After all, what they had dropped were packages of surrender leaflets, not deadly aerial bombs.

Clack. The political officer drew his pistol and stared at those who were echoing the decision to surrender, his face cold. “I’m warning you, if you dare to surrender, your families will definitely face the most bloody and cruel reprisal! Comrade Stalin will have them…”

Crack! The young Ukrainian soldier raised his rifle and, without any hesitation, shot the fierce-looking political officer in the head. “Don’t threaten us with our families! At least while I’m alive, you no longer have that power!”

“Well said!” a soldier shouted, raising his arm in a cheer. Soon, many others began to cheer. The few Russian officers were pale with fright, huddled in a corner and not daring to breathe.

“Let’s go! Home!” “Home!” “No more war! We’re going home!” Almost everyone began to clamor, and one after another, they began to walk out. They walked past the clear stream, past the dense bushes, past the small path in the forest, and finally reached the edge of the forest.

They saw a German patrol squad. Before the eyes of the dozen or so stunned German patrolmen, they laid down their rifles one after another. Dozens, then hundreds, of Mosin-Nagant rifles were piled up like a small mountain. And in the unseen parts of the forest, the column of Soviets seemed to have no end.

After learning that the Germans had peacefully liberated Kiev and were releasing the Ukrainian and Belarusian prisoners of war, tens of thousands of Red Army soldiers walked out of the deep mountains and old forests and surrendered to the nearby German troops.

That Soviet soldier walked out of the forest and laid down his rifle. He walked along the highway, all the way back to his home on the outskirts of Kiev. There, he saw his family.

At this moment, he looked up at the dazzling sun in the sky. Suddenly, he heard the cheerful chirping of the birds, and he also felt the wind blowing. At this moment, he seemed to have found his life again.

Published: 2025-09-06T04:22:30.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-12-30T18:35:56.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c564-life-138253912

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