Russia at war 1941-1945

Ognev: Why then are they bringing up petrol at such a rate to Kolokol?

Udivitelny: I couldn't say. I suppose they are preparing for the next offensive.

They've got stores there, anyway.

Ognev: Who is in command of the Germans here?

Udivitelny: I really don't know. Before, they had that—what d'you call him; difficult sort of name; can't remember; Major-General von something-or-other. He was

replaced. Who the present Von is I couldn't say.

Ognev: What fire power have they got?

Udivitelny: Well, the usual four divisions—with a seventy per cent complement; couldn't tell you exactly.

Ognev: Have they got any ski regiments?

Udivitelny: I don't suppose so. Maybe a few small groups. Why, the Germans weren't preparing for winter.

Ognev (yelling): God damn you! What the hell do I care what you think? What I want to know is what the Germans have actually got. Answer me: do you know, or

don't you know?

Kolos (commander of the cavalry group): Volodya, please...

Gorlov: Why yell like this; this isn't a bazaar.

Ognev: You ask him why he is lying like a carpet-vendor at a bazaar. What the hell does he mean by "maybe" and "I suppose so", "That's possible", and "I don't imagine so". How can you issue orders if that's all your Intelligence produces? What data have you? With the snow-storm raging for five days, what kind of data could

you have got from your air reconnaissance? What else do you know? Nothing. And

in these five days the Germans might have done any damned thing.

Here was the official condemnation by the Party of Russia's peculiar brand of Blimps; these, in September 1942, were produced as an answer to the bewildered questions why the Germans were again, for the second year in succession, overrunning vast areas of Russian territory.

In the last act, after a hard victory has been won, and disaster averted by Ognev, despite Gorlov's original orders, Gorlov is dismissed from his post. He is bewildered, but begins to understand, and accepts his removal with good grace. In the course of the action, his son, one of Ognev's most devoted admirers, is killed. Gorlov is not treated viciously in the play, and whoever has seen The Front at the Moscow Art Theatre will remember the pathetic, almost Chekhovian figure Gorlov cuts in the last act when played by the great Moskvin.

But the play is intended to convey an optimistic message. In the end, not only Gorlov, but his whole entourage disappear; and they are replaced by other men like Ognev, who have been brought to the surface by the war itself, and who, in addition to their "academic"

training, have also learned a great deal from direct military experience. Ognev is very much the new type of the Soviet officer and, in a sense, the publication of the play in September 1942 constitutes an important link between the immediate "post-Rostov"

reforms and their logical sequel, the heightening of the officer's role in the Red Army, his

"glamourisation" through the introduction of new uniforms, and above all, the abolition of the commissars and the restoration of "sole command".