ANDREY PLATONOV
575
congealed. The men must have rued from inner exhaustion when they
were smashed against the ground for the first time; there was nothing left
in them for their breath to hold on to. The fascists, however, continued this
execution of corpses, wishing its educational meaning to be brought out
to the maximum benefi t of the living.
Gershanovich quietly made his way toward the Germans who were sit–
ting on the bench. The now-exhausted traitors also went up to them and,
standing at attention, requested the adrutional food rations to which their
services entitled them.
The Germans said nothing and grinned; then one of them answered
that there would be no more extra rations: partisans had attacked a supply
convoy and they first had to get the bread back from them. "Go and join
our punitive corps," said the Germans, "and get the bread back from the
partisans; then you'll have enough to eat. There's no bread for you here."
Beneath the skirt of his coat Gershanovich pulled the pin of a grenade
and from close range, accurately, hurled the grenade into the middle of the
four enemies.
The grenade burst furiously into flame, as if screaming out with a
human being's last voice, and the enemies of mankind, after going utterly
still for a moment, fell to the ground.
Last time, at the other entrance to this same camp, Gershanovich's
grenade had not gone off; he had merely smashed in the head of one
enemy with it, as if with a dead piece of metal, but this time he felt glad
and he ran off with a satisfied soul.
The sentry in the hut, however, remained alive; he began to shoot at
Gershanovich and into the air.
Five armed guards appeared from a pavilion where refreshing drinks
had once been sold and, with a lot of noise, shouting at one another so as
not to feel afraid themselves, fell on Gershanovich and disarmed him.
Osip Gershanovich was taken to the district commandant's headquar–
ters, where he had already been once before. Down in the cellar men were
shot in groups of six-one bullet to each group; it was imperative to save
ammunition. The Germans stood the men close behind one another,
equalizing their heights by placing thick volumes-somebody or other's
collected works-beneath the feet of the shorter men.
Gershanovich was asked at the commandant's whether he was going to
say anything in order to stay alive. He answered that, on the contrary, he
was going to say nothing, since he wished to die, and that there was no
point in beating him up, not because this was wrong, but because it would
waste the strength of the field police; better to leave intact inside them the
mutton and noodles they ate at the state's expense.
