Sacrifice

My name is Alek Kanistikov. This is my story.

We were in Stalingrad, trying to push back the German forces. I had my Mosin Nagant 91/30 bolt-action rifle, and I was fighting along side Commissar Savin with his Ppsh-41. We were advancing towards the Volga River in Stalingrad where Germans would bring in troops on ships. Our objective was to clear the harbor of Nazi soldiers, and take the large ships scattered in the port.

We were almost to the square when a German popped up from a pile of rubble. He fired his Mp40 in our general direction. I whipped behind a brick wall, however the commissar was not so lucky. Three bullets pierced his torso. I leaned back out and shot the soldier in the chest, then dragged the commissar behind the wall. "I need you alive!" I shouted when we were both back to safety. He responded, "The German line will be tough to break. But we shall bring them down. We will hang the Soviet flag on the Reichstag."

The Russian war cry echoed throughout the streets as we all charged. "NOW!" Savin shouted. I was incredibly impressed by the fact that the bullets barely phased him. As we reached the square more Germans appeared to meet the commissar's sub-machine gun. But one managed to avoid being shot. He managed to get a shot at Commissar Savin, and hit him again in the torso. He fell to the ground. The soldier fell back too when I shot him. Looking at my wounded friend, I noticed he was breathing heavily. I bent down and saw that the bullet had pierced his lung. He started to mumble something to me. "I can go no further... Looks like you will have to take Berlin... but my sacrifice... will not go... unavenged... " He trailed off into darkness. I felt a wave of rage come over me, and I ran out into the open, screaming and shouting, forgetting all the death and danger around me. Something pulled me down into the space that used to be a small basement. It was another Russian soldier. He pushed me up against another wall and whispered, "Stay... put."

He crawled back up against a different wall, then something happened the gunfire stopped. There was no sound for a while, then a German with an Mp40 walked up right above the other Russian soldier and shot the squirming wounded Russians around me. I stayed put, playing dead. Eventually, he walked away. I opened my eyes, and the Russian that pulled me down put his finger to his lips. "Shhh. Follow me. But stay quiet. I am Sergaent Reznov."

Reznov grabbed his Ppsh-41, and we started to crawl through the halls of the roofless basement. No one else that lived was still in the basement, improving our chances of escape. The German sub-machine gunner had left the basement, and was now talking to three other soldiers. We reached the basement stairs, which just leaded into the broken streets of Stalingrad. Reznov began to speak. "Hopefully the reinforcements made it to the port, but I don't think they would last long there. Perhaps we can prevent their death. We must hurry." He pulled out a bottle of vodka and wrapped a rag around the top. He carefully lit the rag, then through it at the group of Germans. It hit one of them, and caught two others on fire. Only one remained. He turned around and started firing his rifle, completely alerting the other patrols. Reznov fired his gun and brought the soldier down. We ducked into an apartment building and figured we were safe.

We were looking at the now ruined interior when a bullet came through the window and impaled the floor. "SNIPER! GET DOWN!' We ran up