and all the forest.
And where is the proof, where are the concrete facts?
What will happen to me?
You yourself admit you were captured?
I was.
Now this is a concrete fact.
And you have read Comrade Stalin's order number 227?
I read it.
So now you see who you are?
You are an enemy of the people. You have betrayed the homeland -- you follow?
...which is, at this moment, in danger.
Now think, what should be done with you.
I came back to my own side.
That depends on where you're looking from. You went to your own or to the other.
Maybe you were sent back on a spying mission.
And everything else is just a beautiful tale.
Executed, remained alive.
Came back to your own side.
So you'll shoot me again?
That depends on you, Tverdokhlebov.
Confess, tell the whole truth, bare your soul,
you'll do a stretch in chervonets
But be a stubborn mule,
shlepnem, soul for miles.
Do you realize how many tale-tellers come through here??,
Tens so of thousands.
A river of people.
And you, flea, write them all up as traitors?
What did you say?
Kopytov!
Work him over some.
Then you'll cooperate.
Och, they've knocked your conscience out of you.
They tried.
Careful.  Head.
Easy, easy.
What happened next?
And what next? We got out of the encirclement.
"We" who?
Whoever was still alive,
Fomichev was with me the whole time,
Kobylko,
Yes.  Out of the whole regiment, less than a hundred were left.
Who can confirm this?
The same Fomichev and Kobylko
Others bailed out on the road back.
Many were killed when we broke through the front.
Alexei Loshilin,
Ignat Boiko,
Ivan Stekolnikov,
Can't remember them all.
That's enough.
But in his testimony Loshilin writes that
you encouraged Red Army soldiers to surrender into captivity.
It was over, you told them, the war was already lost,
continuing to resist would be too expensive.
Who, Loshilin?
Yes. That can not be.
Here. Read.
Here's creation.
Well, that Dubinin?
Are we going to tell the truth, or tell some more tales?
Burykin
Give your tale how you fell prisoner.
We fought to guard the battalion.
Holding our position, the Germans came down on us.
I was knocked flat.  Came to with three automatics pointed at me.
And what did you do?
What would you have done, with three rifles in your face?
And if there weren't three Germans, but a whole company, what then?
What then?
You were ordered to protect the battalion,
and you hid quietly -- the Germans would have easily wiped out half the battalion from your position.
You should have screamed, "Germans!".
Warned your own.
And then they'd have massacred me.
Massacred, of course.  But you would have warned the battalion?
But you're a coward?
I'm no coward,
but to think for a few seconds?
But should you think if you are a Red Army soldier?
Who are you then?
You are a coward and a traitor.
So you'll write all of them up as enemies of the people? Sychev?
Well, what kind of enemies of the people are they, goddamn it?
Spies, saboteurs.
Here's this Tverdokhlebov, also a saboteur?
He lies expertly, Comrade Major, spins a fine yarn.
Piss off.  I'm saying what actually happened.
Are the wounds still on your body?
Yes indeed, they are, two bullets.
Like I said, just what happened.
The front is catastrophically lacking men -- you understand this, Sychev?
Yes Sir, Comrade Major, I understand.
The fuck you understand.
All people have flaws.  Before the Soviet Government,
anyone might commit a crime, but an insignificant crime.
And you want to have them all shot.
I tell you, we need people on the damn front.
So let them redeem their guilt before the motherland
with blood, on the front.
Do you get me, Sychev?
Perfectly, Comrade Major, I do.
It took long enough.
Like talking to a giraffe.
Well now, Citizen Vasily Stepanovich Tverdokhlebov?
How are you feeling?
Your wounds have healed?
Thank you
I'm ready to be shot now
Why do you say that?
The authorities not only punish, but also