Ðàññêàç âàëåðèÿ ìàñëîâà îïåðàöèÿ òðóáà íà àíãëèéñê

               
                OPERATION "PIPE"   
               
     Ïåðåâîä÷èê Petr Pinkhas Frizen. Dortmund, Republik Deutschland

   On that foggy March morning, Private Sergei Gromov, hiding with a group of soldiers, awaited the order to carry out a military operation. He recalled in detail the conversation with him at the headquarters of the troop group.-
   “Private Gromov! Call sign 'Miner,'” - the chief of staff, a tall, stately colonel, addressed him solemnly. - “You, as part of a special group of soldiers, are being called upon to carry out a top secret state mission. Much depends on how this mission is carried out, in order to quickly liberate the territory captured by the enemy. Our people—peaceful civilians dwellers —are eagerly awaiting this!” The colonel leaned over the table, picked up the sheet of paper in front of him, and said with satisfaction:
   - “Well, congratulations: you passed all the tests with flying colors! Excellent marks. You don’t suffer from claustrophobia. But most importantly, you scored very high on the psychological assessment! You’ve already been briefed on the upcoming operation in general terms, and you’ve signed the military secrets non-disclosure agreement. And yet, I must ask again: are you prepared to travel fifteen kilometers in a former gas pipeline in cramped conditions, often crawling and half-crouched? In a confined space, in complete silence and isolation, without a phone or light? Perhaps for a whole week?” - “Yes, comrade colonel! I come from a miner’s family; I worked in confined underground spaces at a depth of one kilometer. My father is also a miner, fighting on another front in the North Caucasus Military District. In the mines, both he and I had encountered various extreme situations, which we've learned to handle. So, I'm ready to carry out the mission.”
   - “Well done," you report quickly and clearly! Now we'll see how you handle the pipe march dive, son,” - the chief of staff concluded, his voice casual and tired, no longer solemn as at the beginning of the conversation. Apparently, he had long been in similar extreme field military conditions himself.But suddenly, as if answering the soldier's silent question, he said clearly and firmly:- “Why do you think they're talking to you at such a high level? Because you'll be going first! The soldiers in the special forces that follow you will have it easier – they'll take your experience into account. And you, consider yourself pioneers: there was, admittedly, a similar case of using abandoned pipes during the Special Military Operation (SVO): soldiers near Avdiivka spent three days non-stop delivering ammunition and evacuating the wounded through a four-kilometer underground pipe. But this is a special case—I think your example will go down in the history of world-class military operations. These words came as a surprise to Private Gromov. But he instantly overcame his excitement and reported clearly:- 
   “Comrade Colonel! As a miner, a specialist in my profession, I've come up with a few, as they say now, 'life hacks' that might come in handy along the way. And I've also decided to keep a diary of our progress in the pipe.”- “That's good!” - the chief of staff approved. - "Resourcefulness has always helped a Russian Soldier to be victorious! And your 'smart' cart was also well received by the specialists preparing the operation. And the diary could become a real sensation in military affairs—perhaps they'll study it in military academies.”The chief of staff rose from the table, shook the soldier's hand, and patted him on the shoulder in a friendly manner. - “I can handle this," - Gromov muttered silently. - “I definitely can!” But out loud he asked: -”Permission to go, Comrade Colonel?”
   - “Go ahead!” Gromov, of course, was no stranger to the front lines; he'd been fighting for three years now. He himself was from Donbass: born and raised not far from where the Special Military Operation (SVO) had begun. He knew the terrain, the peculiarities of itstreacherous climate, when a beautiful spring day could quickly give way to downpours and bad weather.And the morning, like today, would be dawning with such thick fog that no "Quadcopter" could detect you.- “Probably,” - he thought, - "that's why I was chosen from among many other applicants to carry out such an important state task.”- As he later heard in the media, -”To implement the approved plan of the General Staff of the Rossijskaja - Russian Army.”And yet, Sergei now felt uneasy. They had been in the shelter for a long time, awaiting the order to begin the operation. Despite the spring, it was cold and dank. Somewhere in the distance, dogs were barking. Overhead, as if in collusion, a large flock of black crows circled, croaking shrilly and loudly, as if foreshadowing trouble.
    - “What if, in the pipe, in the dark underground pipeline, I'm caught off guard by some unexpected event that I can't handle and let my comrades down? I may be a miner, like everyone else in Gorlovka, but by vocation I'm more of a humanities person than a techie: I like to read and write poetry. The boys have often chuckled when they saw me, not staring into my phone like them, but with a book in my hands. And in the colonel's voice, I detected a barely perceptible note of doubt about my readiness to “get over the pipe.” But no matter: as Tvardovsky's character, Vasily Tyorkin (Âàñèëèé Ò¸ðêèí), said, "No, guys, I'm not proud... I'll agree for the medal!” Having encouraged himself with this joke, Gromov confidently pushed away thoughts of the involuntary comparison between the difficulties of a forced march in full combat gear at the training camp and the upcoming fifteen-kilometer journey in a half-bent bodily position. “And what about the Kursk civilians who are awaiting liberation?! What about revenge for my friend, whom the vsu - âñó "crests" captured, strapped a grenade to his chest, and blew up? What about the genocide of women and children in that basement?”Sergey instantly recalled the scene of the liberation of the basement of the house where mothers and children had hidden. His platoon was clearing buildings in the liberated village of the remnants of the “vsu - âñó”- shniki. They were moving quickly, briskly, "in major key" since those who saw Russian military men most often surrendered.Besides, there were no enemy troops in this entryway or on the four floors of the building. But suddenly he heard a faint knock from somewhere below, in the basement. He approached, saw the lock on the iron door, and was about to leave, when one detail caught his eye: the closed door was welded shut from the outside!“Something's wrong here!” - he thought, and shouted loudly:- “Anyone alive?” A weak female voice immediately answered:- “Help...”Gromov immediately radioed:- “We need a blowtorch: the basement door is welded shut!”As soon as the soldiers opened the iron door to the basement, they smelled a strong cadaverous odor. A terrifying scene greeted them: people were trapped in the semi-darkness, without light. Several elderly women were hiding under rags of clothing. In the far corner, a girl of about six was stretching out her hands towards them, unable to utter a word. Sergey quickly shone his flashlight to see everyone hiding in the basement, and only then realized where the cadaverous odor was coming from: one of the women was holding the body of a small dead doggy. The girl was the first to be carried out of the basement. Then they began to free from the basement enslaving captivity those, who still could be standing on their feet. After that, he approached the woman with the dog. Sergei was just about to take the body from her when she suddenly burst into tears, saying, - “They killed my little girl!” When those beasts told us to evacuate from the village, I refused. Then one of them snatched Julka from my arms, threw her to the ground, and shot her. They herded us here, dumped my dead little girl, and told us, damned Muscovites, that we would all rot here along with this dead dog.”- “And they welded the door shut from the outside! We’ve been here for ten days already…”
- Sergei’s lips turned white at the memory of the enemy’s atrocities. - “These beasts must be destroyed!” - he said aloud. - “Seryoga,” - the quiet voice of the special forces commander interrupted his reminiscences. - “Are you asleep and delirious?”- “Not at all!” - Gromov answered cheerfully. - “Although the soldier sleeps, and the service duty goes on!” And then the deathly, oppressive, depressing silence that had fallen over the group, like a thick blanket, was broken by a burst of laughter. Everyone perked up, whispering among themselves, the intense tension of the long wait seemingly lifted. Only the commander remained dissatisfied:- ”What, guys, are you trying to reveal the special forces unit to the enemy?”- “Comrade Commander!” Gromov defended the men. - “It's my fault!”- “Yes, I know you, a joker and a merry fellow! But we can't forget about disguise and camouflage either!”- “Exactly! "We go into battle not for glory, but for life on earth: this is our Sacred Military Operation – the SVO!”- “Sacred?” - the commander asked. - “Exactly: both Special and Sacred!”- “Now that's our style! By the way, an order came from above rewarding you for inventing special carts used by technical services to prepare for this operation “Pipe”. I didn't know you could not only scribble poetry but also prepare technical machinery equipment!”- “So, Comrade Commander, I'm the miner! I know what needs to be done and how to act in the deepest deep of the mine: there, every little detail can save a life in a critical situation.”- “Ah, indeed, it is true,” - the commander confirmed. - More than half of the recruited group members were former miners. They are people of a special kind! And that was the end of the conversation: military men are serious people, they don't like to talk for long. Especially when you're expecting the order to begin a combat mission at any minute! And suddenly, completely unexpectedly, as always happens when you've been waiting for something for a long time, the order came - “Forward!” Sergei, along with the other soldiers, bending under the weight of their shoulder packs, mindful of the pipe's small narrow size, and occasionally forgetting it and banging his helmet on the pipe's steel, moved forward step by step, approaching their goal. He followed closely behind the commander, rightly assuming that he was surely aware of all the difficulties ahead. But, as the saying goes, “Man proposes, God disposes.” The first, and completely unexpected, obstacle arose at the second kilometer. On the headquarters map, the gas pipeline was shown as a straight line. Moreover, its scaling didn't take into account or indicate depressions—after all, for gas, a pipe one or two meters below a straight line wasn't an obstacle. For the man in the pipe, however, it was a different matter. It had been abandoned, uninspected and neglected for a long time, allowing groundwater to enter. And now, in this recessing depression, the soldiers' path was blocked by accumulated water. - “What are we going to do?” - The commander asked Gromov, turning his head slightly in his direction. - “The water's shallow, but we can't ask command to pump out the water. It would give us away and ruin the entire operation. You've encountered flooding in mines, of course?”Sergei began to free his hand to scratch his head, as was the Russian custom, but couldn't think of anything. Then he remembered his trolley cart, the design of which had precisely took into account this coal mine's specific feature.- “Comrade Commander!”- he began cheerfully.- “So, we could lie on my trolley, one at a time, and cross this swamp! We wouldn't even get wet—it slides forward and back...”- “Are you kidding me?!” - the group commander demanded indignantly. - “Remembered a trolley we don't have right now? Or have you already gone nuts?” - “Sorry,” - was all Sergei could mutter in his own defense. - “Yes... The pipe is bad for your psyche.” - He ordered, “We're walking through the water, it's only a few meters from here. And then we'll stop right after that, and dry off there.” There wasn't much water along the way. And the group made it through this section safely. When they stopped and settled down on the cold "belly" of the pipe, smeared with fuel oil, the commander suddenly felt something was missing. Something that usually brightened up the hardships of camp. And he realized: he hadn't heard the voice of the cheerful Sergei.- “Well, why are you so down?” - the commander turned to soldier Gromov. “Read us something. Perhaps one of your own?” - “You couldn't say it better than Anna Akhmatova's 'Oath':And she who today farewell valedictory to her beloved waves, - Let her pain into strength her liquate.We swear to our children, we swear to our graves,That no one will force us to them subjugate!” - “And she wrote this during the most terrible and difficult time for our Motherland – in July 1941.” - “Let's rest, lads,” the commander concluded the “literary” pause. - “Many difficulties still await us. But now we know we have someone to follow as an example!” The soldiers perked up, settled in more comfortably, and soon the chimney became quiet. But Sergei couldn't fall asleep right away. He took out a notebook and pen and began quickly writing something—he hadn't forgotten his promise to keep a diary along the way. But, as the saying goes, "trust in God, but don't be lazy". Trouble came from an unexpected direction. And although the specialists preparing this operation had anticipated the possibility of residual toxic gases escaping through an unused main pipeline and amassing in it, their concentration in the air was becoming increasingly noticeable. Even gas masks were of little help, and wearing them for hours on the move was becoming increasingly difficult. One of the soldiers couldn't bear it any longer, tore his respirator off his head, and shouted: - “That's it—I can't take it anymore! Help!”The commander, not expecting such a reaction from his men, proven fighters with extensive experience,seasoned veterans, was at a loss. In this situation, he couldn't help his comrade. Then Gromov stopped, took off his backpack, and pulled out an object in imported packaging. Then he turned back and asked the soldier following him to pass it to the young man without a gas mask:- “This is imported individual respiratory protection for mines,” - he explained. - “One of the Ukrainian oligarchs brought them for his enterprise in the Donbas. And when we liberated Horlivka, they were confiscated. This personal respiratory protection is highly effective – they have better filters, make breathing easier, and last much longer. My comrades didn't pay any attention to it back then – they were going to fight, not work in the mines. But I took it – I'm always interested in new products. I think it will help our Young Man!” The soldier who had asked for help took the foreign respiratory protection device with distrust and placed it on his head. But after a few moments, he raised his right thumb, indicating that everything was in order. The commander sighed with relief but didn't thank his subordinate, merely waving his hand, ordering them to move on. But suddenly, another soldier in the group, call sign Grandpa - Äåä, also asked for the same breathing apparatus. Gromov shook his head guiltily and replied that he only had one such breathing apparatus in reserve. But then he pulled his own off his head and asked to pass it on to a comrade. - “What about you?” - Grandpa began to refuse. - “I'll take yours. I'm much younger, I can handle it.” Grandpa - Äåä didn't answer, and only at the next rest stop did he finally say to Gromov:- “You, Miner, surprised me – I probably wouldn't have been able to do such a thing. Age is might be taking its toll. You're a kind man...”- “It's not about kindness. Yes, it's become more difficult for me to walk. But if I know I can do it, then the difficulty and discomfort in making a decision are not the most important thing. I recently realized that another person's happiness is my own happiness. And most importantly, we must help each other, especially in war.” Later, at another rest and sleep stop in the underground pipeline, Gromov, recalling this episode, truly realized what a difficult, mortally dangerous task they had been performing. After all, these two soldiers of different ages—Young and Old—could simply die from gas poisoning, leaving their loved ones woesomely unhappy. Even immediately before descending into the pipe, he hadn't fully grasped how dangerous this underground journey was. And now, as he settled into a semi-sitting position inside the pipe to fall asleep, he somehow remembered that conversation at headquarters.“So that's why the colonel placed such emphasis on psychological, rather than physical, training! A man can walk fifteen kilometers, even in a half-bent position. Overcoming this difficult journey without food and water is also possible. But overcoming stress, knowing there's only one way out of the pipe, that if something goes wrong, that's it... Therefore, without the mutual support of his comrades, without the faith that those above know about you and can come to your aid, it's impossible to overcome this journey. That's the most important thing!” He dozed off, but lying motionless for long in such a position was uncomfortable, and even in his sleeping bags the cold was getting to him, so Gromov quickly woke up. The rest of the sixteen-man group stirred anxiously. And Sergei, unexpectedly for himself, suddenly said loudly:“Our grandfathers had the Kursk Bulge (Äóãà - Duga), and we have the Kursk Pipe (Òðóáà - Truba)!”The soldiers burst into laughter and began to encourage each other. One told a fitting anecdote, another made a joke, and Gromov suddenly announced: Konstantin Simonov, Soviet poet, winner of six Stalin Prizes. “Motherland.” And he began reciting his poems from memory:- Touching three great oceans upon,She lies, spread out cities having pitched.Meredianic grid does donn its outreach,Invincible, broad, proud, clarion...-- “This is our Motherland and the happiness of its people that we are now fighting for! This is what we are defending! And, as our grandfathers used to say, we will not give up an inch of our land to anyone...”- “Brothers!” - Sergei suddenly exclaimed. - “But today is March 8th, Women's Day. How are they doing now without us!? Let's record our video greeting!” And then, looking into the video camera, he said:- “Dear ladies, please accept congratulations on March 8th from the pipe! Always remain as wonderful as you are. And everything will be fine with us!” These words literally inspired the soldiers. Everyone began speaking at once, calling out the names of their girlfriends, wives, and mothers. It seemed as if they had just spoken with them, received words of support from them. And, already in high spirits, the soldiers moved on. But many difficulties still awaited them, difficultiesthey had not even imagined before this underground operation began. When, on the sixth day, the group finally reached their goal – they reached the exit of the chimney – it was nowhere to be found. A half-meter layer of earth blocked the sunlight of the spring day they had so longed for. And yet, it was a victory – the soldiers had accomplished a state task of special importance. They stood briefly near the prepared ventilation holes that brought fresh air into the pipe, and then set to work digging an exit. The soldiers had deliberately gone without food or drink during this entire time underground. Even when they approached the pipe's exit, they saw no light at the end of the tunnel: the path was blocked by a half-meter-thick layer of earth that had been used to fill it. Only when they had dug the exit and emerged above ground did they begin to look at each other in amazement. They were surprised and didn't recognize each other, as if they were strangers. Emaciated, grimy from soot and masut, hungry, they nonetheless rejoiced like children, hugging each other and gasping for air. When the initial joy of realizing they had accomplished their combat mission and were already deep behind enemy lines had worn off, the commander, as if summing things up, said: - “We, under the most difficult conditions, walked and crawled fifteen kilometers, seven hundred and fifty meters, in a gas pipeline to drive the enemy away from our territory. The entire operation took almost a week: two days of marching, four days of sitting in the pipeline, waiting and resting. Now we must complete the next stage of the Operation “Pipe”. We must drive out the enemy, caught off guard, dig in, and hold out until the main forces arrive”.And the soldiers also fulfilled this task for the Motherland: the Heroes not only carried out the Motherland’s order, but also survived.And the “Miner”, Sergei Gromow, after specialists studied Sergei's diary, he kept while on the way through the gas pipeline", was sent to study at the Army Academy. It turns out they were already studying his famous diary there too, to ensure it would be of maximum practical use to SVO - the Special Military Operation. The hero of the Special Operation himself also became known. During the first days of training, when they stayed in the classroom after classes, Gromov was bombarded with questions. Sergei especially remembered the words of two of his classmates. Cadet Marina, a beautiful girl with a long braid, asked the hero:- “When you were talking about the Special Operation, you mentioned that you lost ten kilograms during the journey. But looking at you, one wouldn't notice!”- “So I quickly gained weight. As they say: if you have bones, the meat will grow!”A hearty laugh rang out in the classroom. And the girl's neighbor joked:- “It looks like Marina has her eye on you, Seryoga. You'll just have to put on a couple more pounds and you'll be ready for the wedding.”- “Always ready!" Gromov reported.- “But seriously, tell me frankly: you went through such trials there that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. And knowing about them, would you agree to repeat such a special operation again?”- “Of course! And then, it wasn't just me and the fighters in my group who participated in the dive forced march through the pipe. There were various assault groups, even the "Veterans," airborne troops, fighters from the Chechen special forces and a motorized rifle division—about eight hundred people. And I thought that I couldn't be worse, weaker than the others. That we only have one Motherland, there will never be another, and it is the sacred duty of men to defend it. It's not for nothing that the song goes, "Think about your Motherland first, and then about yourself!" Yes, and war is always a time of extreme circumstances”. ...Stealthily moving through an abandoned gas pipeline was only the first step. It ensured the surprise appearance of our troops behind Ukrainian lines. The vsu-uschniki (âñó - Ukraine troops) didn't expect this; they were overcome with fear, and they ran in panic from their shelters, still wearing slippers and shorts. So, we defeated the enemy on all fronts!