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A WINDOW TO THE WEST
AFTER Alexander left, Tatiana wrote to him every day until her ink ran out When her ink ran out, she went across the street to Vania Rechnikov’s apartment She had heard he had ink he lent so table He had put his head down on the letter he had been writing and died Tatiana couldn’t pry the pen froers
Tatiana went to the post office every day in hopes of hearing from Alexander She couldn’t take the silence in between the letters Alexander wrote her a stream, but the stream would come in a flood instead of a steady trickle The da and practiced her English During air raids she read her a, as sick and alone
One afternoon the post her not only his letters but a bag of potatoes, too, in return for so from her
She wrote to Alexander about it, afraid that none of his future letters would get through
Tania,
Please go to the barracks and ask for Lieutenant Oleg Kashnikov He is on base duty, I think fro and can’t fight anya Ask hi in return Oh, Tatia
Also, give hi theo to the post office
What do you a is alone? Where is Stan?
Why are you still working such crazy hours? The winter is getting harsher
I wish you kneof you not too far froht to corad, butDid I mention that ere promised ten days off after we broke the blockade?
Ten days, Tania!
I wish until then there were a place you could be co on until then
Don’t be worried abouttroops and munitions in for our assault on the Neva sometime very early in the new year
Wait till you hear this! I don’t even knohat I did to deserve it, but I’ve received not only another ht about e to turn even a defeat into a victory, don’t kno
We’re testing the ice on the Neva The ice doesn’t seeh It’ll hold up a man, a rifle, maybe a Katyusha, but will it hold a tank?
We think yes Then no Then yes Then one general engineer who had been designing the Leningrad subway gets the idea to put the tank on a wooden outrigger, flat wood boards on ice, sort of a wooden railroad, to distribute the pressure from the treads evenly The tanks and all the arht, we say