aie atigued, hungry and drenched m the rain and mist we de- td to enter the village. We ared at nightfall. Rain was ting down and there was not oul in the streets. assing two shattered huts, we eked on the third, where we 'a steaming stove. A middle- d woman opened the door. Who lives here, Mother?’ TI lek Russians,’ she answered. jad old man with a long eray. ed appeared from behind a ition. Greeting us he Said, ind is 15 the villase Bolshoi Osiny I am its elder.” fong and painful pause fol- :d. Involuntarily the thought asted in my mind: “%Kil] him | or later?” pparently the old man divined confusion. Yever mind,’ he said, “set jeselves warm and dry. Mother, ready their soup. We will later. Don’t be afraid. This tm out-of-the-way place. The | Mans rarely come here, and jainly they are not to be ex- ed’ in this weather.” : i e & decided to stay there. Two ef my comrades, a partisan Our navigator slept, while IT ained on guard. : didn’t ask you who you are,” the old man. “I can see for™ fJelf. I look like a hermit. but as not this in real life. All i have was given me by Soviets. Don’t look so star- remember: everything has | everything died with the ing of the Germans. jhe fence was breaking—we £ collapse, the barn Slopes ya, we let it rot. We sowed no }>. dug no potatoes. This isn‘t _ Wo one any longer finds joy fe. Was a collective farm chair-— | I have been and still remain xvant of Soviets. When the nans came, the peasants told ‘You will be the elder.’” a: @ UNDERSTOOD: The’ next mornine we cleared a land- field. Thereafter Soviet planes ed there every night. The +, Filimonych kept up appear- S and never came te meet Planes of to watch them =. In the nighttime he carted what was delivered by the es. f@ a2 whole fortnight the Ger- #5 were unable to locate the 7fome. But one day I didn’t the signal lights in the ap- ted place .. . *GERMAN sentry had acci- 3 dentally found a flare-bomb [-yig near the village. fow did it come here,” the Gan commandant asked the Tho knows,” answered the old jou are lying. There has been ane. Speak!’ : lave a heart, mister! We have #& seen much machinery in lives,” the elder replied. le German officers canvassed village house to house but of the villagers admitted ae heard the din of the motor ight or having seen the bon- Signals. The roundup pro- d no results. : = True Short Story _ A Patriot Dies By I. BULGAKOV — 47 Y PLANE had made a forced landing and could not rise. Germans with. police dogs surrounded the forest. See- that resistance was useless we set the plane afire and with- *w with the partisans. We spent three days looking for a vy landing ground, certain that we would be looked for,. but possible landing fields were controlled by the Germans. Finally, after a long tramp through the woods we reached outlying village consisting of some fiften small households. ar the village we noticed a flat ground suitable for landing. ee HEWN they again turned to the elder. Shaking the old man by his beard, the officer shouted, “Tell me where this came from?” “How can TI tell what the boys pick up? Recently, remember, they dragged a damaged cannon from the woods. Tf reported to you about it a4 At the officer's orders, German Soldiers rounded up women, chil- dren and the aged near the Srounds where the plane landed. The peasants were divided into families, and then the execution- ers arrived. In the. midst of the dense forest stood the handful of Russian women, children and aged. Surrounded by numerous German officers, they did not yield. The people kept silence. Then the soldiers pushed old Filimon- yeh. his wife, his daughter-in-law and her five children to the cen- ter. The’ first to be flogged was the _ old woman, who uttered heart-rending cries under ‘the whip. The frightened children clung to their mother. The old Man held his little grandson in his arms. After flogging the Standmother, the mother and the children, the Germans turned to Filimonych. Savage flogging began, but the old man didn’t utter a word. Then an officer bent down and hit Filimonyeh on the head. His family was drageed aside and throughout the day the Germans flogged family after family. Bleeding old men, grief stricken mothers and children numbed with horror lay on the ground but none spoke a word. HAT night the village went up in flames. Under strong convoy the peasant families were taken ‘to a neighboring village and locked in a barn. There they were kept three days without food and water. Many children and old people died. But again not a word escaped the lips of the sufferers. On the fourth day a guerilla detachment derailed a German troop and gasoline train nearby. Some two hundred Germans per- ished. The infuriated Germans again drove their prisoners from Bolshoi Isiny onto the field. In front of everybody they Singled out the families of Filimonych and of the clerk Kozheynikovy, eleven persons in all. Kozhevnikov’s wife had two youngsters on her arms. Wiping off her tears, Filimonych’s daugh— ter-in-law pressed her infant against her breast. The old man himself stood erect his hands on the shoulders of his wife and his twelve-year old grandson. Filimonych was brought down by the first bullet. He died quiet- ly without uttering a word. The ten others died in the same way. Lying before the horrified -vil- lagers were the bodies of the vic- tims, some still moving. A Ger- man soldier kicked the body of the infant in the arms of the daughter-in-law and fired at it. This is how the Russian pa- triot, Filimonych, collective farm chairman of the village, Bolshoi Osiny, died, together with his kin, Sacrificing his life for his coun- try, for the sake of the common struggle fer victory. SUE HIS is a photo taken in Russia. But for the Soviet people and their Red Army, it might have been taken here. The bodies lying on the frozen earth are those of Russian men, women and children. They were murdered by the Germans who burned their village. But they could have been the bodies of members of your own family, or the family next door. Fhe Red Army men in the background have just reoccupied the region and liberated the living from Nazi slavery. For the dead, victory came too late. They died for freedom — their freedom and yours. Throughout the month of January, Canadian Aid to Russia is carrying on an intensive Campaign to raise $1,000,000. The citizens of British Columbia, through their local committees, have pledged themselves to raise $100,000. This money will buy warm coats, woollen underwear and blankets for the women and children of Russia, who have gladly sacrificed everything they own — even the clothes they wore — to make it possible for the men of the Red Army to continue fighting our war. REMEMBER — he who gives quickly gives twice. CANADIAN AID TO RUSSIA FUND ROOM 906 - ROYAL BANK BUILDING é 675 West Hastings St., Vancouver, B.C. (This space donated by The People) 2 = ene es Peas rane Se eg SSOP TE: