In the Days of Defeats and Victories

“Moscow.

Pyatnitskaya, 48.

Below the nailed-on red star, the inscription: “9th Soviet Command Courses of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army.”

In the courtyard, Sergei was immediately surprised by the crowding and talk. Cadets were running around, hauling boards and tables onto trucks. They were dragging straw-stuffed mattresses somewhere, while against the wall they piled up an enormous heap of wooden platforms…“