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PTB or the story of an anti-tank battery. PTB or the story of an anti-tank battery A single trench for shooting from the knee and standing

Troops X The Russian army of infantry general E. Radkevich, leaving Vilna on September 18, retreated to the east, all the while forced to slowly move back under the onslaught of the Germans.

They retreated calmly, but the regiments lacked ammunition and shells.

Supply by rail was restored on September 20 only to the station. Olekhnovichi. Masses of the population have accumulated here, the refugees blocked all the roads with their modest belongings.

General V. Gurko, adjutant of the Headquarters, wrote: “People who fought in several wars and participated in many bloody battles told me that no horror of a battle can be compared with the terrible spectacle of an endless exodus of the population, not knowing either the purpose of their movement or the place where they can rest, find food and shelter. Only God knows what suffering they endured, how many tears they shed, how many human lives brought to the insatiable Moloch of war."

By the evening of September 20, pursuing the retreating divisions of the Guards Corps, the Germans approached Soly from the west and dug in.

At 6 am on September 21, they were attacked by the 2nd Battalion of the Life Guards of the Keksholmsky Regiment. There were no patrons. The guards fought with bayonets and knocked out the Germans in succession from four rows of trenches. They took prisoners - 6 people. In the attack, the battalion lost 170 soldiers killed and wounded.

On the night of September 22-23, Russian troops began to withdraw to the Smorgon-Krevo line, and on the morning of the 24th, the regiments of the Guards Corps entered the city.

Several cobbled streets, apple orchards, green front gardens. In the center there is a square, churches, stone houses, on the eastern outskirts a new church is visible from afar.

Bending under the weight of knapsacks, the infantrymen walked, they were overtaken by the guards cavalry - hussars, dragoons, lancers, Cossacks ...

A soldier's song was heard:

“Writes, writes the German king,
writes to the Russian Tsar:
"I will smash the whole of Russia,
I'm going to live in Russia myself"

“Do not scold you, mother Russia,
We, Russian soldiers, will not give you up to anyone.
We will fall the death of the brave, but you,
Native land, we will protect from the enemy "

The few remaining residents looked out of the windows, crossed themselves: “Lord Jesus, how many of them are there and where are they going?”

And the columns kept coming and coming - here are the Life Guards of the Keksholmsky, Volynsky, Lithuanian, Petrogradsky regiments, various-caliber artillery, carts, infirmaries - the entire 3rd Guards Infantry Division of Lieutenant General V. Chernavin - best connection Russian Guard.

In the guards companies there were still regular soldiers of the pre-war conscription. Tall, tall, broad-shouldered. There are Belarusians, they considered it an honor to serve in the Guards.

The trenches were dug west of the city from the river. Vilia before railway. At railway station the Life Guards Preobrazhensky and Izmailovsky regiments of the 1st Guards Infantry Division dug in.

Guards sappers, one platoon, were attached to each regiment. Reconnaissance and surveillance in the Smorgon region were assigned to two hundred Cossacks of the Life Guards of the Cossack brigade. The divisions received ammunition and one replacement marching battalion each.

The Guards Artillery Brigade - six light batteries - and the Guards Heavy Eight-gun Battalion took up positions near the villages of Klidenyaty and Belaya, 3-5 km east of the city.

North, for the river. Viliya, the 25th and 68th infantry divisions of the II Army fought stubborn battles near Goridenyat. Here, the approaching German infantry entrenched itself on the heights, where positions fortified with barbed wire had already appeared in many places.

To the south, to Krevo, the 3rd Siberian, 5th Caucasian and 26th Army Corps took up defense.

Some divisions of these corps numbered 3-3.5 thousand fighters each, there were only one battalion in the regiments.

The night at Smorgon passed uneasily. It was beginning to get light when the reconnaissance across the river ran into the Germans. Red flares shot up into the air. "To arms! Take position!"

The morning began with an artillery cannonade. German shells were bursting along the river bank. Viliya, on the streets of the city, near the station.

The German tactic was simple - having an advantage in artillery and ammunition, "make Russian trenches Russian graves."

Under the roar of artillery fire, the German infantry went on the attack - the 31st division of Lieutenant General Berer, staffed by residents of the Saar and Lorraine, one of the best in the German army. Battle-hardened, stubborn and hardy, the infantrymen of this particular division in early February 1915, during the August operation near Grodno, moved along the Lithuanian Mariampol-Kalvaria highway covered with almost a meter layer of snow at a speed of 62 kilometers per day.

Explosions of shells, rattling of machine guns, gunfire, screams, groans of the wounded - everything merged into one continuous rumble.

The city was on fire. Local residents rushed about, trying to find shelter, someone had one or two goats on ropes, a bag tied behind their shoulders, small children were nearby ...

The guards met the Germans with rifle salvos and machine-gun fire. The Life Guards Keksgolmsky Regiment of General A. Kuznetsov rose to the counterattack. A bayonet skirmish began. The Germans retreated back to their trenches. Behind the forest, near the mill, grenade explosions and shouts of “Hurrah!” were heard.

These were the soldiers of the Life Guards of the Lithuanian Regiment fighting off the enemy. The Germans mowed down their ranks with machine guns, artillery hit with shrapnel. The German "hoh" and the Russian "cheers" merged into hand-to-hand combat. The battle flared up more and more, bitterness grew in the ranks of those who fought.

The guards fought to the death.

Russian artillery burned the bridge across the river. Viliya. The Germans began to cross the river on rafts and rubber boats. On the shore they were met by the Volynians of Colonel B. Tishevsky - they drowned in the river, stabbed with bayonets. The Germans raised their hands: “Rus, my captivity, kinder zwei, dry!” There was no mercy. The cries and groans of their wounded called for revenge.

Local residents did their best to help the wounded - they brought water, took them to the dressing stations.

The Germans intensified the onslaught, persistently demonstrated the "iron spirit of the attack." Their reserve brigade attacked along the river. Vilia, trying to surround the city from the north.

The Life Guards Grenadier Regiment of the 2nd Guards Infantry Division came to help from the corps reserve and stopped the Germans (its battle banner was preserved, and in 2003 it was transferred from the UK to the Hermitage of St. Petersburg).

To the south, near the railway station, the 2nd battalion of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment was personally led into the attack by its commander, Lieutenant Colonel A. Kutepov, later a well-known general of the White Movement. The Preobrazhenians marched like they were in training - in a battalion column, with open ranks, in step, with officers in the field, jumping over the trenches and again falling into the foot. Under shrapnel artillery fire, people fell in dozens, but the rest closed in and kept their alignment and foot. Ahead of the battalion, at a statutory distance, walked a small stature, with a dark beard, a lieutenant colonel. From time to time he turned around and counted: "left, left!". The German infantry turned back. For this feat A. Kutepov was promoted to colonel and awarded the St. George weapon.

The guards carried out the order "Not a step back" - selflessly and staunchly defended the city and held the Smorgon positions.

The Germans were repulsed by artillery fire and counterattack in all directions.

At night, the city was lit up by the glow of fires. The groans of the wounded were heard everywhere - Germans there, Russians here. They began to collect them in ambulances, the dead were buried in mass graves.

From under the rubble of the destroyed Smorgon church, the bodies of several dozen soldiers, five officers and three generals were taken out. At the observation post of the division, which was located on the bell tower, in the midst of the battle, a blow from heavy German artillery hit.

The commander of the brigade, General N. Mikhailov, the commander of the Life Guards of the Petrograd Regiment, General K. Koshkarev, and the commander of the Life Guards of the Engineer Battalion, General V. Lapin, died.

In the morning a white flag appeared over the German trenches. The Germans asked for a truce on a four-kilometer front near the river. Vilia to collect the dead and wounded.

Everyone looked at General A. Kuznetsov, who took command of the division - he stood in the trench without a cap, the wind stirred his gray beard. In front of him was a battlefield littered with the bodies of Russian and German soldiers. The orders demanded to speak with the enemy "only by means of a bullet and a bayonet." But hundreds of their wounded were crying out for help...

The general took responsibility. The proposal of the enemy was accepted (subsequently, this fact of negotiations became the subject of proceedings in the Senate Court. General A. Kuznetsov and the commander of the 1st Battalion of the Life Guards of the Keksholm Regiment, Colonel Prince V. Nedumov, who participated in negotiations with the Germans, were removed from service. Only in May 1916 they were acquitted and returned to the front.In relation to the company commander, holder of five orders, Captain Z. Zbitkovsky, who was a truce from the Russian side, they limited themselves to a strict reprimand).

The four reserve battalions of the division, without weapons, and the entire fleet of ambulances collected the dead and wounded until 6 pm.

During the armistice, 3,800 fallen Russian soldiers and officers were buried. The Germans were handed over 5,500 dead. Among the dead were 150 local residents.

In the following days, the fierceness of the fighting did not subside.

On October 1, the Germans went on the offensive against the settlement of Borovoy Mlyn on the northern outskirts of Smorgon, and after a night battle at 5 a.m. on October 2, they occupied it, going into the rear of the Life Guards of the Lithuanian regiment.

Lithuanians - 5 companies and 5 machine guns - fought their way to the south with bayonets and stopped the enemy.

German artillery, including heavy artillery, fired day and night on the Russian trenches and the city, along the Smorgon - Belaya road. The all-Russian newspaper "Boevye Novosti" wrote in those days: "In the Smorgon region, on the front southeast of Vilna, there are widespread battles, often reaching great tension."

North, for the river. Viliya, under the blows of the troops of the II Army, the Germans retreated to Dubatovka - Lake. Vishnevo.

The Konigsberg Landwehr Division constantly attacked. The 8th Siberian division withdrew 3.5 km, having lost more than 2,000 people in battle.

German artillery thwarted Russian counterattacks. But the Germans could not withstand the night strike of the 2nd Finnish and 7th Siberian divisions. The front has been restored. The losses of the Siberians were great. So, the 10th company lost 109 soldiers out of 119 killed and wounded, and the 11th company lost 51 soldiers out of 60. “The infantry burned in battles like straw on fire” - lines from the report of those days.

The Consolidated Foot Border Division of Major General F. Trankovsky fought heroically, which was advanced from the reserve to help, and with its regiments closed the gap in the front (it was called "white blacks"). Not a single officer remained in some border hundreds. The 4th Neman Border Regiment, Major General V. Karpov, especially distinguished himself. For the battles near Smorgon and Kreva, the regiment was awarded silver trumpets and St. George buttonholes. All battalion commanders - Captain A. Belavin, Lieutenant Colonel V. Makaseev, Staff Captain K. Zhelikhovsky and Lieutenant N. Zhukovsky, as well as the head of the foot scout team, Staff Captain A. Muromtsev became St. George Knights.

From a newspaper report:

“In the area of Smorgon - Kreva, the intensity of the fighting does not weaken. In many places they take a protracted character. The most successful battles for us were on the western bank of the river. Spyaglitsy, in the area of Semenka - Nefeda, south of Lake Vishnevsky.

On October 4, with a night attack by the Life Guards, the Lithuanian regiment went on the offensive on the northern outskirts of Smorgon and occupied the enemy's trenches. But the Germans had already fortified the second line by setting up a wire fence from two to six rows. The attacks were stopped. Both the Russians and the Germans went on the defensive.

In early October, the guards strengthened the Smorgon positions. A second line of trenches was dug 200-300 paces from the first. Their labyrinths increased every day, and the quality of defensive structures improved. Artificial obstacles were erected - "hedgehogs", gouges, "wolf pits". Shelters from artillery fire were built - dugouts in 4-8 log reels.

Communication moves stretched to the rear for 3-5 km. They looked like pedestrian streets three to five meters wide, deepened three meters into the ground, camouflaged from above from German aviation and observation balloons.

In the rear of the Smorgon positions, near the village of Belaya, a second defensive line of trenches and trenches was equipped.

The Life Guards Engineer Battalion built a bridge across the river. Viliya and began work on the third defensive position near Zaskovichi. The forces of the army and front command built the fourth line of defense near Molodechno and the fifth - near the town of Krasnoye. Army engineering work squads and Zemgor engineering and construction squads were involved here at the rate of up to 10,000 workers and up to 1,000 carts. In the rear of the Smorgon positions - in Belaya, Zalesye, Zaskovichi - additional medical institutions were deployed - dressing stations, infirmaries and hospitals. The routes of the lightly wounded were equipped with nutrition and medical stations.

The guards received reinforcements to make up for losses. And they were big. Thus, the 1st Guards Infantry Division out of 10204 soldiers lost 3306, in the 2nd Guards Infantry Division out of 7388 4876 remained. From October 10, the guards regiments began to transfer their positions to units of the 26th Army Corps.

The last to leave Smorgon was the 3rd Guards Infantry Division. Her Life Guards Keksgolmsky and Lithuanian regiments received reinforcements that arrived by train from Petrograd at the station. Zalesye, 10 km east of Smorgon.

Suddenly, German shells hit the bivouac of the regiments in the village of Belaya (by the road to Molodechno, pits from dugouts for 250 people are still visible). The artillery raid was short, but accurate.

“And in the reserve death is chasing us,” the guardsmen said. The shooting was not accidental. Intelligence sent to the nearest forest discovered a group of Germans in their rear and captured a prisoner in battle with them. A field telephone was also found there, by which the Germans corrected the fire of their artillery. From the prisoner it became known that the enemy was preparing to use chemical shells against the Russian troops.

There were no means of protection against gases in the regiments of the division. The request for help went to Headquarters immediately. The mood in the trenches was subdued.

At dawn on October 12, a flurry of artillery fire fell on the positions of the Life Guards of the Petrograd and Life Guards of the Volynsky regiments on the western outskirts of the city. Shells fell to the ground, there was a bang, and whistling clouds of green-yellow gas escaped into the air.

Tears welled up in my eyes, and my throat was choked with suffocation. It was scary and creepy. The gases dissipated, and the German infantry became visible from the trenches, going on the attack in gas masks, without bending down, in full growth.

Reserve battalions arrived from Belaya and, together with the surviving Petrograd and Volhynians, the guards rose to the bayonet. The Germans were driven back, prisoners were taken.

The victims of suffocation were urgently sent to the rear. The dead were buried in mass graves.

Soon, the division received N. Zelinsky's anti-chemical protection kits (goggles, a gauze mask, two bottles of liquid for wetting).

On October 22, in the early morning, a gentle wind blew in the direction of the Russian positions. The advanced secrets saw how, one after another, three waves of gray-yellow gas were moving towards Smorgon, slowly creeping above the ground, rising above the ground as tall as a man.

Anxiety! To arms!

The soldiers jumped out of the dugouts into the trenches. Bustle. The young replenishment was confused - fear, tears ...

Platoon non-commissioned officers shouted: “There are no moms here! Wet your masks, breathe easy, put on your goggles! To the loopholes! Do not open fire without a command!

The gas cloud is getting closer. I can not see anything. A bitter smell made its way through the mask, tickling in the throat. It still needed to be moistened. I wanted to take off the mask...

The platoon leaders shouted: “Wet with liquid! If it runs out, then with your urine!” They ran from soldier to soldier. Swearing.

Thank God everyone is alive...

The enemy failed to take the guards by surprise.

Suddenly the wind turned to the west, towards the German trenches. The gas waves dissipated. The German attack failed.

The next three days were quiet. Occasionally, machine gunners and arrows from received rifles with new, "sniper" optical sights fired at the enemy.

On October 26, the 3rd Guards Infantry Division was the last to depart near Vileyka to the reserve of the Commander-in-Chief.

Notes:

Zemgor is a joint committee of the Zemsky and City Unions, created in July 1915 to assist the Russian army.

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Section 4 Engineering equipment positions

§ 3.4.1. Protective properties of the terrain

Fortification equipment of positional areas (positions, lines, dispersal areas, etc.) is carried out in order to ensure stable command and control of units and subunits, increase the effectiveness of the use of weapons, reliable protection of personnel, weapons and equipment from weapons of destruction, as well as strengthen security and defense disposition of troops. The equipping of positions and troop deployment areas is achieved by the arrangement of convenient and well-camouflaged firing positions, the construction of barriers and protected communications.

All these engineering structures that ensure the performance of a particular combat mission (fire, maneuver, surveillance) under enemy fire or protect their forces and assets from enemy weapons are called fortifications.

In any battle, it is necessary to make maximum use of the protective and masking properties of the terrain and local objects, both from conventional and nuclear weapons. When using the craters available on the ground from shells, recesses, ditches, embankments, reverse slopes, ravines, the damaging effect of conventional weapons and shock waves is weakened nuclear explosion.

In open areas, it is better to be located behind the reverse slopes of the hills. Narrow, deep and winding ravines, hollows, quarries located perpendicular or at an angle to the direction of shock wave propagation are more reliably protected. However, when located in ravines, pits, behind reverse slopes of heights, it must be borne in mind that sheltered slopes in soft soils can collapse, so they should be fixed.

Protective properties terrain can be enlarged by deepening natural cuts, by arranging special cuts into the slopes of heights, into the slopes of ravines, into the steepness of hills, etc.

The forest area weakens the impact of the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion. However, with the deployment of troops in the forest personnel and equipment should be protected from the impact of falling branches, debris and tree trunks by the device of the simplest shelters. When performing tasks in a wooded area, it is better to use clearings, clearings and clearings covered with bushes.

§ 3.4.2. The choice of the location of the trenches and their disguise

The location of the trenches must satisfy the following basic conditions:

admit good review and shelling ahead of the lying terrain at a distance of at least 400 m, review and shelling of the approaches to neighboring trenches;
contribute to the camouflage of the trench, due to which the effectiveness of enemy fire is significantly reduced;
provide the most covert communication with the rear and with neighboring trenches;
favor the production of work on the device and equipment of the trench.

By "good shelling" is meant the absence of dead (not shelled) spaces within the shelling sector.

The best view and shelling of the approaches to the position is given by the location of the trench on the slope of the hill facing the enemy. When the trench is located at the sole of the slope, the fire is flattened, in which targets are hit throughout the entire flight of the bullet. The location of the trench at the topographic ridge usually opens up a view over long distances, but shelling without dead spaces, as a rule, is possible only at the shortest distances.

From the point of view of shelling, the combat crest is considered the most convenient location for the trench. Combat crest called the line on the front (facing the enemy) slope of the hill, from which shelling is possible to the sole of the slope without dead spaces.

The camouflage of trenches is usually achieved by skillful placement of them on the ground. The trench is well and easily camouflaged when it is located in the bush, in tall grass, in places that are poorly visible to the enemy and not visible from his ground observation posts.

However, in order to achieve a camouflaged location of the trench, it is necessary to strive to ensure that the conditions for fulfilling the assigned fire mission are not complicated, that the shelling of the area in the given zone does not worsen.

One of the main ways to camouflage trenches is turfing. If there is not enough turf to mask parapets, it is additionally harvested to the side or in the rear of the trench and brought on a stretcher to the place of work. It is better to prepare sod in those places where the construction of false trenches is planned. The area from which the sod is removed should be similar in shape and size to an ordinary trench.

§ 3.4.3. Excerpt and camouflage of single trenches for firing from various positions (lying, kneeling, standing)

For firing, observation and protection from weapons, the personnel in their positions first arrange single trenches for firing while lying down, then deepen them for firing from the knee and standing. Before opening a trench, each soldier is applied to the terrain, positioning himself so as to have a good view and fire in a given sector and not be visible to the enemy. Then the soldier breaks off a single trench for prone firing and clears his view and fire if he is interfered with by local objects.

Pit for prone shooting

A single trench (Fig. 4.1) is a recess with an embankment in front and on the sides, providing convenient placement of weapons and a soldier when firing and protection from enemy weapons. In a single trench for prone shooting, a recess is made 60 cm wide, 170 cm long and 30 cm deep so that the soldier is completely hidden in it. For the convenience of shooting, a threshold 25-30 cm wide is left 10 cm above the bottom of the trench in front of the recess, providing support for the elbows. The earth taken out during the passage is thrown forward (towards the enemy) and forms an embankment, which is called parapet . When firing from a trench towards one of the flanks, the height of the parapet of the trench from the side of the enemy (from the front) is 20 cm higher than in the firing sector.

The volume of excavated soil is 0.3 m 3 . The device requires 0.5 man/hour.

Rice. 4.1 Single trench for shooting from a prone machine gun

A fragment of a single trench for firing while lying under enemy fire is performed as follows (Fig. 4.2):

lying in the chosen place, the soldier puts the machine gun to his right at arm's length with the muzzle towards the enemy;
turning on his left side, he pulls the shovel out of the case with his left hand by the tray, grabs the stalk with both hands and cuts the turf or the upper compacted layer of the earth with blows towards himself, marking the boundaries of the excavation in front and from the sides;
after that, he intercepts the shovel and turns the turf away from himself, puts it in front and proceeds to excerpt the trench.

Rice. 4.2 Excerpt from a single trench for firing while lying under enemy fire

During work, you should:

cut the shovel into the ground with the corner of the tray not vertically, but obliquely;
chop thin roots with the sharp edge of a shovel;
to form a parapet, throw the turf and earth forward towards the enemy, leaving a small area between the edge of the recess and the parapet, called a berm, 20-40 cm wide;
keep your head closer to the ground, without stopping observation of the enemy.

When the required depth is reached in the front of the trench, the soldier, moving back, continues to cut the trench to the required length to cover the torso and legs. At the end of the excerpt, the parapet is leveled with a shovel and disguised as the type and color of the terrain with improvised material: grass, branches, arable land, etc.

Each soldier, without waiting for the commander's orders, deepens the trench for prone firing, creating a single trench for firing from the knee, and then for firing while standing at the bottom of the ditch.

Single trench for kneeling and standing

A single trench for shooting from the knee and standing is arranged by extending the depth of a single trench for shooting from the prone, respectively, up to 60 cm (Fig. 4.3) and 110 cm (Fig. 4.4).

Rice. 4.3 Single trench for firing from a machine gun from the knee

Rice. 4.4 Single trench for standing machine gun fire

When a trench is opened, the soil is thrown forward and to the sides, creating a parapet 40–60 cm high. In the firing sector, the height of the parapet decreases to 30 cm, forming a recess with gentle slopes - an open loophole.

The volume of excavated soil when equipping a single trench for firing from a machine gun from the knee is 0.8 m 3; the device requires 1.2 man/hour.

The volume of excavated soil when equipping a single trench for firing from a machine gun while standing is 1.4 m 3; 1.5 people / hour are required to make this trench.

Trenches from aerial surveillance are masked with a camouflage fabric with grass, branches and other improvised material woven into it.

§ 3.4.4. Fulfillment of standard No. 1 - "Excerpt and masking of trenches"

The location of the excerpts of the trench is indicated by the squad leader. The main parameters of standard No. 1 "Extract and camouflage of trenches" are given in table 4.1.

Name of the standard	*Separation and masking of single trenches for firing from an assault rifle, machine gun, grenade launcher (flamethrower) and anti-aircraft weapons*
Conditions (order) for fulfilling the standard	A fragment of the trench is made by a small infantry shovel (MPL) or a large sapper shovel (BSL). The trench is camouflaged with improvised materials. Time is counted from the command of the commander " To the excerpt of the trench - proceed!» before the report « The trench is ready to fire».
Category of trainees	Soldiers and sergeants
*trench view*	*Estimated time spent (minutes)*
*trench view*	*Excellent*	*Good*	*Satisfactorily*
Prone shooting trench	25 (MSL) / 18 (BSL)	27 (MSL) / 20 (BSL)	32 (MSL) / 24 (BSL)
Kneeling trench	55 (MSL) / 40 (BSL)	60 (MSL) / 45 (BSL)	70 (MSL) / 55 (BSL)
Standing trench	90 (MSL) / 65 (BSL)	100 (MSL) / 70 (BSL)	120 (MSL) / 75 (BSL)

Strugatsky

"Monday Starts Saturday"

History first. The fuss around the sofa

Leningrad programmer Alexander Privalov travels by car during his vacation and heads to the city of Solovets, where he has a meeting scheduled. On the way, he picks up two employees of NIICHAVO (Research Institute of Witchcraft and Magic) and brings them to Solovets, where they arrange for him to spend the night in the museum of the institute - IZNAKURNOZH (Hut on chicken legs). Little by little, Privalov begins to notice unusual phenomena - the similarity of the museum caretaker, Naina Kievna Gorynych, with Baba Yaga, a talking mirror, a huge cat reciting fairy tales and songs, a mermaid on a tree and a flip book in which the content changes all the time. In the morning, Privalov catches a wish-fulfilling pike from a well. He thinks that all these unusual things must fit into some kind of system.

Walking around the city during the day, he finds an irreplaceable nickel and begins to experiment with it, buying various things with it. This experiment is interrupted by the police. Privalov ends up in the department, where he is forced to compensate for the damage, and the nickel is confiscated and exchanged for a regular one. At the same time, the policemen are not at all surprised by this strange object.

Returning to IZNAKURNOZH to rest, Privalov discovers the loss of the sofa, which was in place in the morning. Then strange personalities come to Privalov one after another, who demonstrate incredible abilities: they fly, become invisible, pass through walls, and at the same time, for some reason, they are interested in the disappeared sofa. In the meantime, Privalov learns that in fact the sofa is a magical translator of reality. He was abducted by one of the employees of the Institute Viktor Korneev for research work, since it was not possible to officially demand it from the museum due to the bureaucracy of the administrator Modest Matveyevich Kamnoedov. In the morning, the scandal with the kidnapping of the sofa becomes uncontrollable, and Roman Oira-Oira comes to the aid of Privalov, whom he threw to the city. He persuades the programmer to go to work at NIICHAVO. Privalov agrees - what is happening interested him.

The second story. Vanity

The second part takes place about six months after the first.

On New Year's Eve, Alexander Privalov, head of the NIICHAVO computer center, remains on duty at the institute. He accepts keys from all heads of departments. Before him passes a series of bright characters - magicians Fyodor Simeonovich Kivrin and Cristobal Khozevich Junta, hacks and opportunists Merlin and Ambruazovich Vybegallo, director of the institute Janus Poluektovich Nevstruev, who exists simultaneously in two incarnations - as an administrator A-Janus and as a scientist U-Janus, and other. Then Privalov makes a detour of the institute, starting with the vivarium located in the basement of the building, where magical and mythological creatures are kept, through the floors of the departments of Linear happiness, the Meaning of life, Absolute knowledge, Predictions and prophecies, Defense magic, Eternal youth, Universal transformations. The detour ends in the laboratory of Vitka Korneev, who is still working. Privalov is trying to expel Korneev from the laboratory, but he cannot cope with a practicing magician who is passionate about his research. Leaving Korneev's laboratory, he discovers that the institute is full of employees who, instead of meeting New Year at home, chose to return to their laboratories. The motto of these people was "Monday begins on Saturday", and they saw the meaning of their lives in work and knowledge of the unknown. Having met the New Year, they continued their research.

At this time, in the laboratory of Professor Vibegallo, "hatched" from the autoclave "a model of a man unsatisfied with the stomach." The model, a copy of Professor Vibegallo, can only devour everything edible. Employees gather in Vibegallo's laboratory, and the professor himself appears, accompanied by correspondents. According to Vibegallo's theory, the path to the development and spiritual growth of a person lies through the satisfaction of material needs, and this model is an intermediate stage on the way to creating a model of the Ideal Man, "a fully satisfied person." The model successfully demonstrates that, satisfying its gastric needs, it is able to eat a lot - the further, the more. In the end, the model bursts from gluttony, pelting Vibegallo and the correspondents with the contents of their digestive organs. The employees disperse.

Privalov reflects on what is happening for a while, then falls asleep. When he wakes up, he tries to magically make himself breakfast, but instead he witnesses a meeting with the director of the institute, where they discuss how dangerous the next model could be. Professor Vibegallo wants to test it right at the institute, while other experienced magicians insist on field tests a few kilometers from the city. After a heated argument, the director of the institute, Janus Poluektovich Nevstruev, decides to conduct tests at the test site, since "the experiment will be accompanied by significant destruction." Nevstruev also makes "preliminary thanks" to Roman Oyre-Oyre for his "resourcefulness and courage."

Privalov manages to attend the test. The "Completely Satisfied Man Model" had the ability to satisfy all of her material needs through magic. After leaving the autoclave, the model takes to itself all the material values that it can reach with its magical abilities (including the things of people who are nearby), and then tries to collapse the space. The cataclysm is prevented by Roman Oira-Oira, who throws a bottle with a genie at the Ideal Consumer, and the genie that breaks free destroys the Vibegallo model.

History the third. Every fuss

The computer "Aldan", on which Privalov works, broke down. While it is being repaired, Privalov travels around the institute and finds himself in the Department of Absolute Knowledge, where at that moment a machine invented by Louis Sedlov is being demonstrated, on which you can get into a fictional past or a fictional future.

He goes to Roman Oyre-Oyre and sees a dead parrot in the laboratory, lying in a cup. The director of the institute, Janus Poluektovich, comes, calls the parrot Photonchik, burns his corpse in the oven, scatters the ashes in the wind and leaves. Roman Oira-Oira is surprised, because the day before he found a burnt green feather in the stove. Where it came from, if the parrot was burned today, and there were no other green parrots nearby, remains a mystery.

The next day, Privalov, together with the witch Stella, composes poems for a wall newspaper and suddenly sees that same green parrot enter the room. He flies, but he doesn't look very healthy. Other employees come and ask where this parrot came from. Then everyone gets to work, but suddenly they see that the parrot is lying dead. On his paw is a ring with numbers and the inscription "Photon". The same thing was on the paw of the parrot, which yesterday lay dead in a cup. Nobody understands what's going on. The artist Drozd accidentally puts a parrot in a cup.

The next day, the computers are fixed, and Privalov gets to work. Roman calls him and informs him that the parrot is no longer in the cup, and no one has seen him. Privalov is surprised, but then, absorbed in work, he stops thinking about it. A little later, Roman calls again and asks him to come. When Privalov arrives, he sees a live green parrot with a ring on its paw.

The parrot responds to the words of the NIICHAVO staff in other words, but it is not possible to establish a semantic connection between them. Then they begin to call the parrot the names of those gathered, he briefly characterizes each: rude, old, primitive, etc. The employees do not understand where he got such information from.

It occurs to friends that this mysterious parrot belongs to director Janus Poluektovich, a person even more mysterious. This person, one in two faces, never appears in public at midnight, and after midnight he cannot remember what happened before it. In addition, Janus Poluektovich accurately predicts the future.

In the end, scientists guess that countermotion is possible here: the passage of time in the opposite direction to the generally accepted one. If the parrot was a counter-motor, then it can be alive today, died yesterday and was put in a cup, the day before yesterday it was found in a cup by Janus and burned, and a day earlier a burnt feather was left in the stove, which Roman found.

The novel tries to explain the case of the Tunguska meteorite based on the concept of contramotion: it was not a meteorite, but a spaceship, and the aliens in it were contramotes and lived, by the standards of ordinary people, from the future to the past.

The mystery of Janus Poluektovich has been solved. He existed in the person of A-Janus and was engaged in science until he came to the idea of contramotion and understood how to put it into practice. And in the year, which is still a distant future for the NIICHAVO employees living now, he turned himself and his parrot Photon into contra-winders, began to live backwards along the time line, and now every midnight passes from tomorrow to today. In the form of A-Janus, he lives like everyone else ordinary people, from the past to the future, and in the form of U-Janus - from the future to the past. At the same time, both incarnations of Janus Poluektovich remain one person and are combined in time and space.

During lunch, Privalov meets U-Janus, and having plucked up courage, asks if it is possible to visit him tomorrow morning. U-Janus replies that tomorrow morning Privalov will be called to Kitezhgrad, so it will not be possible to enter. Then he adds: “... Try to understand, Alexander Ivanovich, that there is no single future for everyone. There are many of them, and each of your actions creates some of them…”

The weather was nasty, the temperature somewhere around zero. If at night it was wet all around, now there was solid ice on the road, and the trees on the sides of the road were covered with a continuous and thin crust of ice, and if you listened well, you could hear the quiet glassy rustle of icy branches. Despite the fact that we were driving at a low speed, it was scary to see how Bogatov's PRP was carried along the entire road. Several times the car almost fell down a slope or it was carried out into the oncoming traffic lane, where it miraculously drove around with oncoming cars. A couple of times my car also skidded, but Chudinov confidently kept on the road. After fifteen minutes of movement, a technician got in touch with me and reported that Snytko's car had begun to boil. I gave the order to take it in tow and pull it to the area where we will finally deal with the car. The first ten kilometers the road passed through the forest and we walked as if through a tunnel, where the walls were densely covered with frost and ice, frozen trees, then we left the forest. Now, on the right, the unfrozen Terek was visible all the time, and beyond the river, low hills stretched smoothly into each other. We were very often overtaken by single cars and small columns. There was also heavy oncoming traffic. Basically, these were military vehicles that were carrying ammunition, property and fuel in the direction of Grozny, and now they were returning empty. An hour later, the movement reached the village of Chervlyonnaya: while everything was going fine, although the technician with the BRDM in tow was well behind, but the connection with him was stable and I was not worried that he would be lost. From the words of the officer who accompanied us, we knew that at Chervlyonnaya we would cross the bridge to the other side of the Terek. This, he said, was the most dangerous place. The retreating militants blew up the middle of the bridge, and through this place the sappers built a narrow, two-track, iron bridge. A tank has already fallen off the bridge into the river: the crew of which died completely in the icy water, before they could get out of the tank. This worried me a lot. The speed of movement decreased and we, at a snail's pace, behind a column of other cars, approached a dangerous place. Here is the bridge itself. The reality was even worse than I imagined. A high bridge, two hundred or three hundred meters long, bubbling dark water below. The central span of the bridge was blown up and a void twenty meters wide was formed. So, through this void, two metal overpasses were thrown, each seventy centimeters wide. And if the driver is mistaken about twenty centimeters to the left or to the right, then the car flies down - into muddy, icy water. No one can escape there. But the piquancy lay in the fact that this entire overpass still towered over the rest of the bridge by one meter. And in order to get there, it was necessary to gain enough speed to overcome this small rise. I got excited. Of course, I was worried about how my car, the other cars of the battery, would overcome this obstacle, but most of all I was worried about the car of the technician who pulled Snytko in tow. Will URAL with this trailer be able to accelerate well on the bridge, on ice? Will he be able to pull the armored BRDM onto the flyover? Will the stupid Snytko make a mistake on the overpass? After all, if Snytko makes a mistake, then the BRDM will pull down and the URAL with a technician, and if the URAL driver makes a mistake, then the car will pull the BRDM down. This swarm of thoughts raced through my mind, driving me into an icy sweat as our turn to cross the bridge approached. At the entrance to the bridge there was a checkpoint, the soldiers of which watched this fight between the driver and the bridge with unhealthy curiosity and excitement. And it even seemed to me that the soldiers each time with regret saw off the car, which safely overcame a dangerous place. What can you do - stupid youth and a thirst for thrills. Here the traffic controller gave the command to the PRP to move and held me back. The PRP easily picked up speed, also easily drove onto the overpass and, after five seconds, safely slid onto the bridge from the other side. It was my turn, the traffic controller waved a dirty flag in the direction of the crossing. I mentally crossed myself and turned to Chudinov, whose face turned pale and covered with perspiration.