Diary of a Russian soldier
Шрифт:
December 24th.
PCD1 is a park and business day. It's Saturday, on this day we do general cleaning. That is, we take everything out, wipe the dust everywhere, sweep it up, make foam, spread it on the floor and wipe it with brushes. Something like that.
December 24th.
Lying in bed, it seemed that there was a blizzard, frost, and snowdrifts outside. But no, the temperature is above zero, the sun. It's cool, like December, it's +8 outside.
I prepared a file for a couple of days, watched the movie "teleport". Sunday is going well. But next week will be difficult. Outfit, shooting, digging trenches, 5 km long march.
I haven't written about it yet, but Sunday is the only day off in the army. When you can have a good rest. Everyone hopes not to step into the outfit on this day, so as not to work, but really relax.
On the account of "perestroika":The guy's name is Vladimir, 18 years old. Height 175, weight 85. He was not fond of sports, likes to eat and play computer games. I was able to pull myself up 1 time after 4 days of training. I will train him for these 1.5 years and tell him all sorts of information about psychology and motivation and self-development. He's also a funny guy, with a little low self-esteem. The goal after the army is to get a regular job, play computer games and eat in the evenings.
Will I be able to change it for the better? We'll find out. Tomorrow is another holiday, a day off. We will sleep again until 7 a.m. (on weekends and holidays, we get up an hour later).
December 25th.
Day off, watching TV. I'm wearing an outfit today, but I'm not discouraged, because a normal guy comes with me. I filed, shaved, brushed my teeth, changed my socks, and repeated my duties… I'm ready to step into the outfit. At night, we cleaned the barracks quickly, before 23:40. It's 00:25, I'm standing on the bedside table, reading the regulations. I write my diary clumsily because I write on weight. My legs and head hurt. Tomorrow, my head will probably hurt again, and for the next 2 days. In general, you already need to write the next day.
(at this moment, I have 2 daily outfits on my account and I hope that I will rarely take over in them, but I do not realize that there will be 96 of them on my account, more than anyone from my draft.)
December 26.
The time is 2:08 a.m. another 40 minutes and I'm going to bed. My legs and back hurt a lot. And the feet themselves are burning with fire from the buttocks. Although I'm not standing on the bedside table, but sitting on it and I don't care that the camera is pointed at me. It's not so bad now, it will be bad tomorrow to stand on the bedside table without getting enough sleep with a headache until 5 pm.
In short, I'm waiting for 2:50 and going to bed.
I would not forget to send a New Year's letter to my family before the evening.
I woke up easily. It's like I've been sleeping for 8 hours, but I'm sleepy. The company left for the training ground and only 4 people remained. We are two day workers, the duty officer and the one who replaces him at night. You can rest for three days. I've changed out of my outfit, I'm resting. My legs hurt like hell. But nothing, everything is fine.
They gave me a mobile phone, called my family and I'm waiting for the command to hang up.
December 27th.
The day of the march that we were all so afraid of. I barely got up in the morning. My back hurt very much after the outfit. We drove for a long time, my eyes were closing and I couldn't imagine how I would run.
On the spot, we learned how to put up a tent, as well as put on the UGC. We were built and prepared to run, we ran in 2 columns. I was the first one, even though I didn't want to. Next to me, Volodya is the first in the second column. He immediately ran very fast, despite the fact that he was not running all right. I realized that we would not be able to run for a long time at this speed and asked him to run a little slower, jogging. There was a forest, hills, descents and ascents, sand. Smoke bombs were thrown next to us, blanks were fired. It was difficult to run, we rested during the commands "air", "enemy on the right / left". During these commands, you could lie down for a couple of seconds and rest. But I liked it, I felt like a fish in water. And so, running to the place, we were ordered to dig trenches for prone shooting. How to dig them? Lying down, in a gas mask, in a helmet, the machine gun should also be on the shoulder.. That feeling when you are lying in a helmet, suffocating in this gas mask and starley lights a smoke bomb under the shots of the ACS and throws it near you. That's the atmosphere. It's worth living for such moments. There's so much smoke that you can't see anything at all, not even the shovel you're holding in front of you. The gas mask stops helping with so much smoke. And you start digging harder and harder. Without digging the trench, they lifted us up and we ran back, checked if all the uniforms were in place and got into the car. Everyone went to bed right away because they were tired. And Volodya and I started chatting about all sorts of nonsense. We didn't run 5 km as we thought. And about 1.5. I liked it, I would repeat it again. It's 4:57 p.m., the sun is shining. It feels like it's March or April, there's no snow, it's dry. You can't say that the new year is in 4 days. It's +6 outside. I also received 3 letters. There is no limit to my joy.
By the way, on the march we had with us: a duffel bag, unloading, pouch, shovel, UGC, stockings and a gas mask.
December 28th.
I washed the floor in the morning, today everything seems to be in class. I slept like the dead, fell asleep quickly and got up on command. This is the first time. Still, there was a drill today, but there was nothing complicated, and I looked at the dawn. They also told how AK and Pecheneg (machine gun) work. More precisely, about why the barrel does not overheat and about the AK-12, a mixture of M4 and AK74 with high accuracy and rate of fire and lack of recoil. Today, one guy was sent to plaster the ceiling and I was with him as a helper. I'm not used to construction, I don't understand how I used to do it.
I also pulled myself up with weight, it was very difficult, the muscles had already begun to atrophy, I hadn't trained like this for a long time. Last time in civilian life.
December 29th.
The morning was easy, everything was done quickly, there was a lot of time to shave and even started writing a diary in the morning.
In general, the day is easy, no one really bothers us, we just sit and supposedly teach duties. We went to the sauna, Volodya and I swayed, I stood the bar at 3:05. So far, my record. Company stand down…
December 30th.
The morning didn't go well, in the morning my friend got sick at the construction site. They put him on a bed all white. To be honest, I was scared for him. We took him to the infirmary. There was also a foam party today, the second platoon, as always, decided who would do what. Well, we did everything quickly with our platoon. I also cleaned the belt. Initially, it was painted green, but in our department it is customary to remove the paint, immediately with a metal brush, and then with a small sandpaper. After lunch, the day is light, the barracks were decorated before the new year. They even allowed me to go to bed and sleep. The guys from the visits brought delicious food for everyone, there was even my favorite cookie. By the evening, there was some kind of awareness of the new year and with it sadness and longing.
December, 31st.
I slept well and just looked out the window for an hour and a half. We went outside, and there was snow.. It was very unexpected. Some kind of magic. It was a great day, we were given our phones and I called my family all the time. And I also sewed a couple of secret pockets in the form, for the future. So that you can secretly carry your phone with you. We are waiting for the new year…
They started preparing for the holiday. They carried tables, chairs, and set the table. The second platoon was dumb as always, but we tried. I cut up the whole sausage and a lot of other small things. I didn't want to eat on New Year's Eve itself, there were a couple of contests and skits. We went to the fireworks and went to bed at one o'clock in the morning.