Read Online Burying the Sun by Gloria Whelan - Free Book Online Page A

was known that if the Germans got any closer, the plant would be blown up.
    General Zhukov threatened to kill any soldier who retreated an inch. No one knew where the front was, because where it was a minute ago was not where it was now.
    Little by little we learned the truth. The great ship Marat had been sunk, but most of the rest of the fleet survived at Kronstadt, their guns aimed at the Germans on the Finnish shore. Pushkin, only fifteen miles away from Leningrad, had been taken by the Germans. This news was terrible for Mama. Pushkin was the name given to Tsar’s Village, where Mama had lived in the Alexander Palace, and nearby was the magnificent Catherine Palace, which had been turned into a hospital during the Great War. It was said the Germans were using the Catherine Palace as a stable for their horses.
    When she first heard what had happened, Mama said, “Show me, Georgi, what they taught you of hand-to-hand fighting.” Mama had a furious look inher eye. “I have a mind to go to Tsar’s Village myself and strangle those barbarians.”
    There was an air raid nearly every evening now. The raids were especially dangerous because the Germans were so close to Leningrad, there was little time to get to the shelters. One minute things were peaceful, and the next moment the planes were dropping their bombs on us. You had to decide if you wanted to take the trouble to go to a shelter. It was miserable squeezed in with a lot of other people. It was too dark to read and too noisy to sleep. Just as the all clear was sounded and you climbed out of the shelter, there was another air-raid warning and back you went.
    After a while I just kept on with what I was doing. It was the same with others. If you had been standing for an hour in the bread line at a bakery, you wouldn’t want to lose your place. Yet all around you buildings were going up in flames. Walking was always accompanied by a sickening crunch of broken glass.
    One day a government building was bombed and all the official papers burned. There was so muchpaper that the fine ashes drifted over the city for hours, shutting out the sun. Viktor laughed. “I always said the government was all paperwork.”
    Mama was more serious. “Let’s hope they were the records of the next wave of poor unfortunates about to be arrested by the government.”
    One evening in late September Dmitry pounded on the door. “Come at once—there’s a huge bomb near the Erisman Hospital. They’re defusing it.”
    My heart was in my throat. Mama was working late at the hospital that night. I ran after Dmitry, sprinting across the bridge to the Petrograd side, where the hospital was located. When I saw how near to the hospital the bomb was, I could scarcely get my breath. Though I knew the danger, I could not keep from drawing close to watch the men defusing the bomb. Dmitry and I climbed under the rope meant to keep people away. The huge bomb was fifteen feet into the ground.
    Someone said, “There’s a soldiers’ barracks nextto the hospital, full of ammunition. If the bomb goes off, the hospital and everyone in it will go with it.” He looked around and smiled. “And ourselves as well.”
    Dmitry kept pulling on my shirt and urging me to move away, but I was too wrapped up in watching the men to pay attention. When he gave a tug so hard I nearly fell over, I looked up.
    â€œOver there,” he said, pointing to the hospital entrance. The hospital was being evacuated. Nurses and orderlies dressed in white were helping patients to leave. I ran over, looking for Mama. When I couldn’t find her, I went up to one of the nurses. “I’m looking for Ekaterina Ivanova Gnedich.”
    The nurse pushed me out of her way, saying over her shoulder, “Ekaterina Ivanova is staying in the hospital with the patients who are too ill to move.”
    It was nearly time for the curfew, and Dmitry tried to get me