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At the Beginning of the War
Day and night we took down machine tools and lubricated, covered, and
packed everything that we could into cases.We marked, inventoried, and loaded
them. My comrades and I managed, in spite of the protests of the special train staff,
to pack and load all of our AC machine models.The heated goods wagons were
equipped with plank beds, iron stoves, and firewood.
Mama tried to abandon us all and run away to work at any hospital to care for
the wounded. Father restrained her.
I managed to get my family to Khimki in time. On 20 October, Moscow and
the areas adjacent entered a state of siege.Traffic on the streets was placed under
strict control. A State Committee of Defense resolution stated: “Violators of the
order shall immediately be called to account before a military tribunal, and agents
provocateurs, spies, and other enemy agents calling for the violation of the order
shall be shot on the spot.”
We coupled an “air-defense flatcar” into our train. On it we mounted the same
aircraft machine guns and guns that Isayev wanted to use for the guerrilla war. My
family was in the heated goods wagon, together with the Mishin, Chizhikov, and
Buzukov families. During the trip everyone was provided with white bread, butter,
and groats. In “our” wagon, having pooled all the stores, we were convinced that
we would not go hungry in the next two weeks.
Our special train was one of the last to evacuate the factories of the Moscow
suburbs. On 25 October, the special train left Khimki and slowly chugged across
the Moscow-Volga Canal bridge.The forward German units were located that day
on the Kalinin-Yakhroma-Klin line and were approaching Tula and Kashira.
Before our departure, I had conversations with the pilots from our combat airfield
who had a better view from above. I got the impression that the Germans were
played out and that the offensive was on the verge of being halted.
We moved eastward very slowly, always yielding the way to trains heading the
other direction. Special trains carrying Red Army soldiers, well outfitted in lightcolored
knee-length sheepskin coats, were moving westward. “Where are you
from?” we asked them at stations where we were getting boiling water.“Siberian
troops!” the soldiers cheerfully responded. These were real warriors, unlike the
Muscovite home guards.
The stations were full of factory personnel being evacuated to the east. Families
were traveling with the bare necessities, while also carrying all the machine
tools and supplies from the factories.We encountered many acquaintances on that
trip. It seemed that all of Moscow would move to the east to colonize the Urals,
Siberia, and Central Asia.
Streaming toward us heading west were flatcars filled with tanks and guns of
various calibers.They gladdened us and gave us hope. Our special train made its
way east during those rare windows of opportunity that opened in the stream of
weapons and troops rushing westward on a green light to Moscow.
We did not make it to Kazan until 1 November. Here we finally heard the latest
news about the course of the battle for Moscow.“It seems that the offensive against
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