my ma.
My ma is starving.
And my sisters are starving.
Our father's been killed.
And my brother, too.
And when we got the notice
of my middle brother's death,
my ma lost the use of her legs.
She can move around the house,
but otherwise...
I thought...
...l'd send them the soap,
to exchange for bread.
They got nothing to eat,
Comrade Lieutenant.
I...
I feel sorry for you,
Krynkin.
And I feel sorry for your family.
But you...
stole it.
You stole it from
your comrades.
I stole it.
That's right.
I wanted to send it to my ma.
I thought they'd buy some bread.
Please forgive him,
Comrade Lieutenant.
I know about hunger.
When your ma is hungry,
you might steal not only soap...
- Forgive Krynkin.
- Keep your advice to yourself.
Then I'll say it was me who stole it.
Let them put me in a penal battalion,
anywhere, but I want to fight.
You haven't been under the Germans,
and I have, ploughing under them.
Ploughing!
I'll say it was me who stole the soap,
not Krynkin.
Don't you see?
He's weak.
And I'm very angry.
I'm not afraid of anything.
- So either it's me, or...
- Or what?
Or what?!
Shall we put that soap back,
under the plywood?
Come on, say it, Glebov.
Take this soap
to the post office
and send it to Krynkin's mother,
from our entire platoon.
- No, don't.
- Yes, we should.
We should!
So that you remember
how to steal from your comrades!
All right.
Go, Krynkin.
Yes.
Don't tell anyone yet.
I don't understand you, Glebov.
I don't understand.
Well, actually...
On the other hand...
But it's unpedagogical.
Do you understand?
Unpedagogical.
Comrade Lieutenant...
You don't know what it means to starve.
You don't know it.
Is this a reading room or what?
Guys, did you meet each other?
Well, we seem to have...
I'm Myatnikov.
- He's a singer, a People's Artist.
- We know, we watch television.
Yuri Saiko.
Professor,
Doctor of Sciences.
- Lyonya Lavkin, engineer.
- Myatnikov.
- Yuri Ivanovich.
- Konstantin.
Lyonya Lavkin. No academic
degrees. Yet.
How about a drink, guys?
Lyonya, everything
in its own good time.
Ines Habarbekova.
- A soldier's daughter, mother of 3 kids.
- Nice to meet you.
And these are the Krynkin sisters.
Hello.
Glebov.
A nephew.
The chief engineer opens up cans, and
you're chewing the fat. Get to work!
- Guys, I can run for a bottle...
- As you were.
Don't rush things. We were told:
Everything in its own good time.
No, no, wait.
I don't understand.
Time for us,
or we are for time?
That's the problem.
You see, for those who drift with
the tide, the water doesn't change.
For those who swim against the tide,
it's always new.
If you drift with time,
you become its slave.
- But if you overcome time...
- Everything flows, everything changes.
Or as my mate says
when he's asked to fix a faucet,
if it leaks, let it leak.
No problems.
Folklore.
That's how it is.
And we had been sent soap.
Right after
our mother died.
We received a parcel that very day.
You know...
We wanted to have a piece,
a tiny remnant of it as a keepsake.
But we lost that soap
when moving into a new house.
Yes...
Those were the men...
It was war...
Hunger and death.
But they remembered everybody.
They were thinking of everybody.
What great men they were.
You're going to the front line.
Remember.
Most important in battle
is the soldier.
He's having it the hardest way.
He'll be the first to go to death.
If he outsmarts it, he's lucky.
If not, eternal glory to him.
If the soldier doesn't know anything,
it's not his fault.
It's the commander's.
You'll be answerable for all,
lieutenants.
For all.
We entrusted the soldier
with our land,
and you with the soldiers, the most
precious thing we have.
Nothing can be more precious.
Who is the commander of
the platoon where a corporal
destroyed a model of the tank
with his first grenade?
Junior Lieutenant
Suslin.
3rd Komsomol Platoon
of anti-tank fighters.