On the death of the ship "Lenin"

 

                                                                                                            Time walks on stilts.

                                                                                                            In due course of meetings,                                                                                                           

                                                                                                            And, as in the honor guard,

                                                                                                            The mournful years stand.

                                                                                                            V.A.  Makovsky

 

A. Sunday, June,in the morning of 1941 all those problem which  feeling persons and which  do not give a person peace: petty jealousy, worldly resentment, laziness, suddenly lost sense. They yielded to the distraction and the fear. The war began! The war is the worst thing that can be for the people. War captured all people by suddenness. After the agreement of friendship with Germany the scaring messages and the atrocities  of the German troops in the occupied territories  disappeared from the newspapers.

Else recently at the citizens who coming from Germany, assaulted with questions:

-Whether the sun is shining over Berlin? Can bask in its rays are not  Aryans? Opened a restaurant? Whether they served pork chops?

-Sun is shining over Berlin only for the Germans, chops now prepare from Jews because the pigs go to the secretaries!

-Where is the famous German writers?

-They are at the Berlin panel, but the prostitutes work in the Ministry of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels.

After the pact of  Molotov-Ribbentrop signing such jokes could have deadly cost to the blabbermouth.

People forgot about the German threat. Summer was in full swing. In Odessa, on the beaches of the warm sea human herd slug.

Suddenly ... Suddenly the alarm, real, and not training, air strike, fires, continuous rain of ash over the city, blindly bright glowing lighters on the roofs, human bleed, killing women, children, relatives, friends and acquaintances. Mobilization is declared. Mobilization snatched the men from the home comfort and tore the invisible thread, where women painstakingly tied men to the house. All in clueless: after all, from the Black Sea to the Northern seas  the Red Army is the harder of all7 Why the Nazis decided on the war?

 But happily grinning "disfranchised": soon we will show to the Jews and Communists, where crabs spend the winter. Many believed that raised internatsionalistov, but it turned out that even with both feet tied to prejudice. Man is like a crystal. Worth beam to illuminate one facet, as it sparkle inner light, but is worth the same crystal cover for another, as he put out, as if we have a quite different stone.

Odessa is surrounded by enemies. In the city there is no water. Red Army come in heavy fighting for the pump house. Inhabitants look on the blue smooth sea horizon with fear. There, beyond the blue horizon, salvation. Bulk carriers, packed with residents of Odessa cut open the blue silk of sea.

 Mrs Zina got only two stamp permit evacuation: to his mother and himself. Her sister Manya was unable to obtain such a card. Madame Zhorno decided to take her little son Mari with herself  in the evacuation.

Wharf, landing place. Little boy in a dark red coat and a crimson beret sits on squat at the edge of a wooden deck. Before him stood, a huge steep board dry cargo vessel "Kliment Voroshilov".

In the narrow stretch of water between the dock and the vessel's side  the dead sprats floated, shiny silver belly. Kid tries to catch their with a twig. In his childhood pail already lies two sprats, which he picked up on the shore. He was interested by fishing and he does not turn attention on colored party crowd of the people, wchich were dressed in the way: with suitcases, bags, backpacks. The mother rushed to the baby.

Marc, throw away this carrion from the pail. Remember that you  can not move off your grandmother. Give me a kiss. See you else?

This Manya came  to see out his mother, sister and son in the evacuation. Simon and James have already make war. Communication with them quickly broken. A moment of painful separation. The ladder people frantically searched for white stamp permit evacuation, tried to smuggle relatives, but the captain helper strictly followed the landing and did not allow violations. People still did not know that this wooden ladder is the bridge between the death and the life.Passengers on deck,  finding the eyes of relatives, friends, remaining on the dock, pulled to them  his hands, crying and asked:

-Please, see for my mother, visited her every day!

- Check  I locked the door of the apartment?

-I have in the pantry pickled watermelon, you can take them.

- Wait, we will be back shortly! Mara, do not you dare flirt with the soldiers!

-Nahum, does not go without a scarf!

Everyone was sad, but people always believed in a better future. Many person told about the atrocities of the Nazis, but the wise old men who remembered the German occupation of Ukraine,mistrustfully swung by their heads:: - "Nonsense, we Germans know, this is a cultural nation. And what we have done them wrong, On the contrary We can speak with them, because our language- Yiddish is a dialect of German. We  lived under Communism power, now we will live under German power:, will trade,  handicraft. The tiger is not dangerous for the dragonfly"

-Manya! I think, if you must move, instead of me. I will ask the captain to allow the substitution. There he would separate his little son with her mother.

-Mama, I'm not ready to start, because I did not collect anything to way. I have not even a change of underwear. I come to you later!

Manja remembered how a gallant courting Austrian officer gallantly looked at her sister Zina in the occupied city Balta. Secret thoughts to nest in her head. And suddenly .. she will find the good friend between German officers.

-Mom, we have decided that I would wait till the father return back  from Moldova. His sister Feiga recover. He must come from the day of the day. We later received the evacuation coupons and catch up with you.

-What will happen later is unknown, but now you must go immediately. Young woman, and around the soldiery. On my father's care. I'll remain at home!

Madame Zhorno went to Captain Pyotr Andreyevich Grigorashenko. He stood near ship's ladder and evidently something expecting anxiously glance at the sky. Captain rebuffed Madame Zhorno in her request. It was something very concerned and he does not listen of the woman.

Suddenly, a black faucet of the radio came an excited voice:

- Citizens Air alarm! Air alarm! You must go in a bomb shelter! Everyone must  leave the ship. It is a target for the enemy plans!

The crowd on the dock froze, stopped, quieted down, shuddered and rushed to the nearest bomb shelter. In the dimly-lit basement of the people clung to each other. They were looking at the concrete beams with the reliable. The dull thud goes off in the silence.  People feel the odor of the burning wood. In the cellar corner the small girl begin to cry.

-Mama, I'm afraid. I'm afraid!

It was terrible to all. But upstairs became quietly, and the announcer's voice declared: "Retreat! Retreat!"

All were glad to understand this yet unusual word, rushed from the basement  to the deck of the ship. Now nobody did not required the evacuation  tickets, and the ship  boarded  all the mourners. Overcrowding was unusual. The passengers gradually quieted down, rested and they have begun to settle. At the lower bunk was easier than on the top bunk, and their possession were in dispute: the elderly people required the lower bunk to yourself.

Someone stumbled on a three-liters glass jar of jam. The jar slipped and crashed by the metal ledge.The odor of strawberry get around in the air. The sweet brew flowed on narrow entry and it was smashed  in the shadows  on the stairs. All cursed, because their foods glue to the floor. The old woman, the mistress of the sweet confiture, wept bitterly. She has just lost  her house, lost loved ones, but the jar of jam was the last drop in a bitter cup of her life. Or we have lost the guidance on the scale of grief?

The unimaginable noise of a multitude of voices sounded on the steamship: in the southern city people are not shy about each other and willingly share by sadness, and joy. They are  splashing  the sea of emotions.

Suddenly a familiar figure holder of  captain appeared in the doorway. His sharp voice resound from the captain megaphone: "The enemy is near to us! He auditions the sea by the sound locator. If he hears your sound, then we can fall. Please, watch for the observance of peace and tranquility! "

All  people calm down immediately. They remembered ready at hand why they were on the ship and quickly take seats. After they left the airless hold and rose up on the deck.

Manya decided that without clothes and in a crowded travel impossible, and  she rose to the deck in order to go ashore without the consent of the her mother, but the bank was no longer visible.

The steamship, without the traditional farewell whistle, left Odessa. The tender sea, which  beckoned to itself from childhood  Odessa's inhabitants, now seemed to them the dark abyss awaiting victims. The sea was covered with very thin dark-green cloth, which easily ruffled the waves. The sea was secretly calm, but it seemed lying in expectance of a prey.

Toll sailor picked up child Marc o his hands, and, turning toward the shore, quietly began to sing:

                                                 Farewell, beloved city!

                                                 We must go to the sea today...

                                                 In the brutal and dangerous crusade....

The passengers knew this song. They caught its in a low voices. The song spread on the ship deck  easy and free The song acting on the people restfully. They run  from his native city recently and the bitterness of bye  burn their  hearts.

The song is sung. A gray-haired man singing another song:

                                                    No more strength to bear this yoke,

                                                    Shame and torment the people!

                                                    Desperate heart sick calls:

                                                   "It is time for the outcome!

                                                   I do not know the best  words:

                                                   I am home! I'm home! Freedom!"

No one knew this song, did not understand the meaning of its words. The old man sang it in complete solitude.

Suddenly the noise of the engine room abruptly collapsed, the ship has reduced its course, the passengers became agitated. The captain announced: "It broke one of the steam engines. We are currently working in the establishment of an accident, an accident is small. Please keep quiet, not crowded around the machine hall, not give advice, will calm! "

But  Odessa's inhabitant how can be calm if the this ship have only two steam engines, and one has already broken? They  listened to the dimensional clatter of pistons and smelled the fuel oil odor from the engine room.                                                               .

Someone of the passengers  has noted a large white spot on the horizon, which increased, and soon the passengers realized that their sloth ship catch. But whose?

 The command: - "All go on the deck! We caught up with the flagship of the Odessa Shipping Company ship " Lenin".

It was a beautiful snow-white, the pride of Odessa Shipping Company. Ships come close to each other. Passengers began to talk. Many have found their friends, relatives. They rejoiced at the unexpected meeting. Meeting gray-haired old man, who was on board the " Lenin" with his daughter and grandchildren, who  joged on cargo ship "Kliment Voroshilov", attracted the attention of many people. The ship " Lenin" was much more comfortable than a hastily converted freighter.

  His daughter with children moved to the flagship boat with the help of passengers. The old man thanked a long time helped them passengers.

The snow-white, handsome soon added the course and disappeared into the darkness coming night.  The third day of the sea journey is completed. The twilight have approached. The shades of the sea went out, it was black, but the stars shone blindingly bright, illuminating the ship  treacherously. Passengers went to bunk, the excitement of meeting with fellow country men  reduced. A dream creep up!

The powerful explosion thundered in the night silence. "What is it?"- the passengers throw a fit. The alarm ! Soon they  heard the cries of people, full of mortal terror, hopeless despair. On the sea water sounds  heard  remarkably far. In the doorway appeared the figure of the captain's  holder: - "Will  cool-headed! Everything is in order! We are o'key! Sinks " Lenin". I received a telegram from " Lenin". We are going to help them. We are preparing for launching rescue boats. You can help us too. Throw in the water all thinks that is visible from a distance and can sail on the sea surface at least a few minutes. Suitable even pillowcases. The sinking try to keep for a straw. He should not lose faith in the salvation. We will able find and  help to sinking person!. Now, July and  water is warm! " 

Soon it was possible to make out individual pleas for help: - "Open the door!Children are in cabin! Give your child a life preserver! Save, sink!

Old men, women and children in the water: confused, miserable. They quickly lose the last heat in the vast inky darkness of the night sea. A sea is unruffled: a little more, and it will as cool as a cucumber.The last gasp, but instead of life-giving air, a deadly liquid, causing vomiting, gut-wrenching soul. The body brings twitch, and  the brain goes out from the pain. Thirty minutes later, the cries stopped, came deathly silence. The passengers realized what it means. Save managed a few persons. The wet, half-naked they were shaking from endured mortal terror and the grief bereavement. With timid hope they searched  among survivors their relatives and finding none. A dark  mountains of water absorbed the last traces of the tragedy which happen  near cozy the Crimean coast.

On irony of fate, the old man, who invited his daughter and grandchildren to his ship, rescued. His daughter and children perished. The old man wept. His grey head with the calvity blackened on the sun, swung rhythmically: - "I'm a murderer, help me kill myself, I'm a murderer!" I invited them to this dead ship! "

Rescued persons pale as the belly flounder, perch and eyes, a storm washed ashore. The passengers placed them on the lower bunks and wrapped in shawls and blankets.

The latter miserly heart trembled at their look.

 Cargo ship was crawling on the sea front and forward. Its passengers every minute waiting repetition the recently tragedy. Concealed in a sea of enemy U-boats, mines were  dangerous. Inventories of products coming to an end. The doctor's lecture very little inspired them: "person can be without food for a week, and the sea air is very helpful".

Finally, "Kliment Voroshilov" safely entered Tsemesskaya bay. Passengers withdraw on the quay of Novorossiysk. The sea was restless. Waves knurled on a coast, moved back off, rustling sand.

Wind was strong. Soon on the crest of waves whirled seething foam, as a meat bulone. Began shtorm. How long were people standing on the coast, still not believing that it dismissed them from the captivity. Their ears were  vocal cries of drowning. The joy of salvation marred by bitter loss. From black faucet of radio, attached to the wood pile, came the  fearsome new march:

Let knightly fury

Boils, like a wave!

There is people's war,

Holy War ...

Rotten Nazi wickedness

Drive the bullet in the forehead.

the rubbish of mankind

Knock together a strong coffin.

Tall sail man seceded forward. He sang a song on his hands with Mark.when ship moved off: - "Comrades! Tears do not return the dead. The wounds poured by iodine, but not tears. My obliged to take revenge on the enemy for the death of our loved ones. We swear eternal hatred for the enemy, we swear that he never will know us for mercy, swear that for a ruined life, he paid thousands of their lives. It is the terrible oath, but the equitable vow, because  the enemy laid hands on the defenseless! "

-We swear! - flashed ominously over the crowd. And the withering fury seized the people.

Now  the drivers can find  in the place of the ship "Lenin"ruin on the Black Sea bottom bodies of children, women and old men. It is said that  a hydrogen sulfide, which accumulated on the Black sea bottom is a good preservative. It is the water museum " Yad Vashem" The souls is not dead! They will rest after the execution of the oath of vengeance will accomplished.s and which  do not give a person peace: petty jealousy, worldly resentment, laziness, suddenly lost sense. They yielded to the distraction and the fear. The war began! The war is the worst thing that can be for the people. War captured all people by suddenness. After the agreement of friendship with Germany the scaring messages and the atrocities  of the German troops in the occupied territories  disappeared from the newspapers.

Else recently at the citizens who coming from Germany, assaulted with questions:

-Whether the sun is shining over Berlin? Can bask in its rays are not  Aryans? Opened a restaurant? Whether they served pork chops?

-Sun is shining over Berlin only for the Germans, chops now prepare from Jews because the pigs go to the secretaries!

-Where is the famous German writers?

-They are at the Berlin panel, but the prostitutes work in the Ministry of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels.

After the pact of  Molotov-Ribbentrop signing such jokes could have deadly cost to the blabbermouth.

People forgot about the German threat. Summer was in full swing. In Odessa, on the beaches of the warm sea human herd slug.

Suddenly ... Suddenly the alarm, real, and not training, air strike, fires, continuous rain of ash over the city, blindly bright glowing lighters on the roofs, human bleed, killing women, children, relatives, friends and acquaintances. Mobilization is declared. Mobilization snatched the men from the home comfort and tore the invisible thread, where women painstakingly tied men to the house. All in clueless: after all, from the Black Sea to the Northern seas  the Red Army is the harder of all7 Why the Nazis decided on the war?

 But happily grinning "disfranchised": soon we will show to the Jews and Communists, where crabs spend the winter. Many believed that raised internatsionalistov, but it turned out that even with both feet tied to prejudice. Man is like a crystal. Worth beam to illuminate one facet, as it sparkle inner light, but is worth the same crystal cover for another, as he put out, as if we have a quite different stone.

Odessa is surrounded by enemies. In the city there is no water. Red Army come in heavy fighting for the pump house. Inhabitants look on the blue smooth sea horizon with fear. There, beyond the blue horizon, salvation. Bulk carriers, packed with residents of Odessa cut open the blue silk of sea.

 Mrs Zina got only two stamp permit evacuation: to his mother and himself. Her sister Manya was unable to obtain such a card. Madame Zhorno decided to take her little son Mari with herself  in the evacuation.

Wharf, landing place. Little boy in a dark red coat and a crimson beret sits on squat at the edge of a wooden deck. Before him stood, a huge steep board dry cargo vessel "Kliment Voroshilov".

In the narrow stretch of water between the dock and the vessel's side  the dead sprats floated, shiny silver belly. Kid tries to catch their with a twig. In his childhood pail already lies two sprats, which he picked up on the shore. He was interested by fishing and he does not turn attention on colored party crowd of the people, wchich were dressed in the way: with suitcases, bags, backpacks. The mother rushed to the baby.

Marc, throw away this carrion from the pail. Remember that you  can not move off your grandmother. Give me a kiss. See you else?

This Manya came  to see out his mother, sister and son in the evacuation. Simon and James have already make war. Communication with them quickly broken. A moment of painful separation. The ladder people frantically searched for white stamp permit evacuation, tried to smuggle relatives, but the captain helper strictly followed the landing and did not allow violations. People still did not know that this wooden ladder is the bridge between the death and the life.Passengers on deck,  finding the eyes of relatives, friends, remaining on the dock, pulled to them  his hands, crying and asked:

-Please, see for my mother, visited her every day!

- Check  I locked the door of the apartment?

-I have in the pantry pickled watermelon, you can take them.

- Wait, we will be back shortly! Mara, do not you dare flirt with the soldiers!

-Nahum, does not go without a scarf!

Everyone was sad, but people always believed in a better future. Many person told about the atrocities of the Nazis, but the wise old men who remembered the German occupation of Ukraine,mistrustfully swung by their heads:: - "Nonsense, we Germans know, this is a cultural nation. And what we have done them wrong, On the contrary We can speak with them, because our language- Yiddish is a dialect of German. We  lived under Communism power, now we will live under German power:, will trade,  handicraft. The tiger is not dangerous for the dragonfly"

-Manya! I think, if you must move, instead of me. I will ask the captain to allow the substitution. There he would separate his little son with her mother.

-Mama, I'm not ready to start, because I did not collect anything to way. I have not even a change of underwear. I come to you later!

Manja remembered how a gallant courting Austrian officer gallantly looked at her sister Zina in the occupied city Balta. Secret thoughts to nest in her head. And suddenly .. she will find the good friend between German officers.

-Mom, we have decided that I would wait till the father return back  from Moldova. His sister Feiga recover. He must come from the day of the day. We later received the evacuation coupons and catch up with you.

-What will happen later is unknown, but now you must go immediately. Young woman, and around the soldiery. On my father's care. I'll remain at home!

Madame Zhorno went to Captain Pyotr Andreyevich Grigorashenko. He stood near ship's ladder and evidently something expecting anxiously glance at the sky. Captain rebuffed Madame Zhorno in her request. It was something very concerned and he does not listen of the woman.

Suddenly, a black faucet of the radio came an excited voice:

- Citizens Air alarm! Air alarm! You must go in a bomb shelter! Everyone must  leave the ship. It is a target for the enemy plans!

The crowd on the dock froze, stopped, quieted down, shuddered and rushed to the nearest bomb shelter. In the dimly-lit basement of the people clung to each other. They were looking at the concrete beams with the reliable. The dull thud goes off in the silence.  People feel the odor of the burning wood. In the cellar corner the small girl begin to cry.

-Mama, I'm afraid. I'm afraid!

It was terrible to all. But upstairs became quietly, and the announcer's voice declared: "Retreat! Retreat!"

All were glad to understand this yet unusual word, rushed from the basement  to the deck of the ship. Now nobody did not required the evacuation  tickets, and the ship  boarded  all the mourners. Overcrowding was unusual. The passengers gradually quieted down, rested and they have begun to settle. At the lower bunk was easier than on the top bunk, and their possession were in dispute: the elderly people required the lower bunk to yourself.

Someone stumbled on a three-liters glass jar of jam. The jar slipped and crashed by the metal ledge.The odor of strawberry get around in the air. The sweet brew flowed on narrow entry and it was smashed  in the shadows  on the stairs. All cursed, because their foods glue to the floor. The old woman, the mistress of the sweet confiture, wept bitterly. She has just lost  her house, lost loved ones, but the jar of jam was the last drop in a bitter cup of her life. Or we have lost the guidance on the scale of grief?

The unimaginable noise of a multitude of voices sounded on the steamship: in the southern city people are not shy about each other and willingly share by sadness, and joy. They are  splashing  the sea of emotions.

Suddenly a familiar figure holder of  captain appeared in the doorway. His sharp voice resound from the captain megaphone: "The enemy is near to us! He auditions the sea by the sound locator. If he hears your sound, then we can fall. Please, watch for the observance of peace and tranquility! "

All  people calm down immediately. They remembered ready at hand why they were on the ship and quickly take seats. After they left the airless hold and rose up on the deck.

Manya decided that without clothes and in a crowded travel impossible, and  she rose to the deck in order to go ashore without the consent of the her mother, but the bank was no longer visible.

The steamship, without the traditional farewell whistle, left Odessa. The tender sea, which  beckoned to itself from childhood  Odessa's inhabitants, now seemed to them the dark abyss awaiting victims. The sea was covered with very thin dark-green cloth, which easily ruffled the waves. The sea was secretly calm, but it seemed lying in expectance of a prey.

Toll sailor picked up child Marc o his hands, and, turning toward the shore, quietly began to sing:

                                                 Farewell, beloved city!

                                                 We must go to the sea today...

                                                 In the brutal and dangerous crusade....

The passengers knew this song. They caught its in a low voices. The song spread on the ship deck  easy and free The song acting on the people restfully. They run  from his native city recently and the bitterness of bye  burn their  hearts.

The song is sung. A gray-haired man singing another song:

                                                    No more strength to bear this yoke,

                                                    Shame and torment the people!

                                                    Desperate heart sick calls:

                                                   "It is time for the outcome!

                                                   I do not know the best  words:

                                                   I'm home! I'm home! Freedom!"

No one knew this song, did not understand the meaning of its words. The old man sang it in complete solitude.

Suddenly the noise of the engine room abruptly collapsed, the ship has reduced its course, the passengers became agitated. The captain announced: "It broke one of the steam engines. We are currently working in the establishment of an accident, an accident is small. Please keep quiet, not crowded around the machine hall, not give advice, will calm! "

But  Odessa's inhabitant how can be calm if the this ship have only two steam engines, and one has already broken? They  listened to the dimensional clatter of pistons and smelled the fuel oil odor from the engine room.                                                               .

Someone of the passengers  has noted a large white spot on the horizon, which increased, and soon the passengers realized that their sloth ship catch. But whose?

 The command: - "All go on the deck! We caught up with the flagship of the Odessa Shipping Company ship " Lenin".

It was a beautiful snow-white, the pride of Odessa Shipping Company. Ships come close to each other. Passengers began to talk. Many have found their friends, relatives. They rejoiced at the unexpected meeting. Meeting gray-haired old man, who was on board the " Lenin" with his daughter and grandchildren, who  joged on cargo ship "Kliment Voroshilov", attracted the attention of many people. The ship " Lenin" was much more comfortable than a hastily converted freighter.

  His daughter with children moved to the flagship boat with the help of passengers. The old man thanked a long time helped them passengers.

The snow-white, handsome soon added the course and disappeared into the darkness coming night.  The third day of the sea journey is completed. The twilight have approached. The shades of the sea went out, it was black, but the stars shone blindingly bright, illuminating the ship  treacherously. Passengers went to bunk, the excitement of meeting with fellow country men  reduced. A dream creep up!

The powerful explosion thundered in the night silence. "What is it?"- the passengers throw a fit. The alarm ! Soon they  heard the cries of people, full of mortal terror, hopeless despair. On the sea water sounds  heard  remarkably far. In the doorway appeared the figure of the captain's  holder: - "Will  cool-headed! Everything is in order! We are o'key! Sinks " Lenin". I received a telegram from " Lenin". We are going to help them. We are preparing for launching rescue boats. You can help us too. Throw in the water all thinks that is visible from a distance and can sail on the sea surface at least a few minutes. Suitable even pillowcases. The sinking try to keep for a straw. He should not lose faith in the salvation. We will able find and  help to sinking person!. Now, July and  water is warm! " 

Soon it was possible to make out individual pleas for help: - "Open the door!Children are in cabin! Give your child a life preserver! Save, sink!

Old men, women and children in the water: confused, miserable. They quickly lose the last heat in the vast inky darkness of the night sea. A sea is unruffled: a little more, and it will as cool as a cucumber.The last gasp, but instead of life-giving air, a deadly liquid, causing vomiting, gut-wrenching soul. The body brings twitch, and  the brain goes out from the pain. Thirty minutes later, the cries stopped, came deathly silence. The passengers realized what it means. Save managed a few persons. The wet, half-naked they were shaking from endured mortal terror and the grief bereavement. With timid hope they searched  among survivors their relatives and finding none. A dark  mountains of water absorbed the last traces of the tragedy which happen  near cozy the Crimean coast.

On irony of fate, the old man, who invited his daughter and grandchildren to his ship, rescued. His daughter and children perished. The old man wept. His grey head with the calvity blackened on the sun, swung rhythmically: - "I'm a murderer, help me kill myself, I'm a murderer!" I invited them to this dead ship! "

Rescued persons pale as the belly flounder, perch and eyes, a storm washed ashore. The passengers placed them on the lower bunks and wrapped in shawls and blankets.

The latter miserly heart trembled at their look.

 Cargo ship was crawling on the sea front and forward. Its passengers every minute waiting repetition the recently tragedy. Concealed in a sea of enemy U-boats, mines were  dangerous. Inventories of products coming to an end. The doctor's lecture very little inspired them: "person can be without food for a week, and the sea air is very helpful".

Finally, "Kliment Voroshilov" safely entered Tsemesskaya bay. Passengers withdraw on the quay of Novorossiysk. The sea was restless. Waves knurled on a coast, moved back off, rustling sand.

Wind was strong. Soon on the crest of waves whirled seething foam, as a meat bulone. Began shtorm. How long were people standing on the coast, still not believing that it dismissed them from the captivity. Their ears were  vocal cries of drowning. The joy of salvation marred by bitter loss. From black faucet of radio, attached to the wood pile, came the  fearsome new march:

Let knightly fury

Boils, like a wave!

There is people's war,

Holy War ...

Rotten Nazi wickedness

Drive the bullet in the forehead.

the rubbish of mankind

Knock together a strong coffin.

Tall sail man seceded forward. He sang a song on his hands with Mark.when ship moved off: - "Comrades! Tears do not return the dead. The wounds poured by iodine, but not tears. My obliged to take revenge on the enemy for the death of our loved ones. We swear eternal hatred for the enemy, we swear that he never will know us for mercy, swear that for a ruined life, he paid thousands of their lives. It is the terrible oath, but the equitable vow, because  the enemy laid hands on the defenseless! "

-We swear! - flashed ominously over the crowd. And the withering fury seized the people.

Now  the drivers can find  in the place of the ship "Lenin"ruin on the Black Sea bottom bodies of children, women and old men. It is said that  a hydrogen sulfide, which accumulated on the Black sea bottom is a good preservative. It is the water museum " Yad Vashem" The souls is not dead! They will rest after the execution of the oath of vengeance will accomplished.