Komsomol card
When school started in the autumn Shura said to me: "Now I see that our class respects Zoya. There are some others preparing for the Komsomol too, and they are always coming to her with questions. The Komsomol committee could not have given her a better character: conscientious, reliable and trustworthy, and anything else you like. And at the general meeting, very solemn it was, Zoya came out and told them her biography. They asked her all sorts of questions, and then they began to consider her application. And everyone, every man jack of them, said she's honest, straight, a good comrade, does all her social work, helps those who are behind…
I remember when she wrote her autobiography, Zoya got everything in on one page, and was very worried.
"I've got nothing to write about," she cried. "I was born, went to school, now I'm studying…But what have I done? Not a thing!"
That day, I think, Shura was no less excited than Zoya herself. I had never seen him in such a state before. He waited for Zoya outside the District Committee. There were a lot of applicants, and Zoya was called in near the end. "I could hardly wait!" Shura told us afterwards.
I, too, could hardly wait. I kept on looking out of the window to see if they were coming, but night was closing in, and I could not make anything out.
Then I went out into the street and walked slowly in the direction of the District Committee. I had taken not more than a few paces before they rushed up to me, panting and excited.
"Accepted! Answered all the questions!" they shouted with one accord.
We went back to the house and Zoya, blushing happily, began to recount everything that had happened:
"The Secretary of the District Committee is so young and cheerful. He asked me a lot of questions: what is the Komsomol, then about the events in Spain, then he asked me what works of Marx I knew. I said I had only read the Communist Manifesto. And near the end he asked, 'What, in your opinion, is the most important thing in the Regulations?' I thought and said, 'The most important thing is that a Komsomol member must be ready to give all his strength to his Country and, if necessary, his life.' That is the most important thing, isn't it? But he said, 'Well, and what about studying and carrying out your Komsomol duties?' I was surprised, and answered: 'Well, that goes without saying.' Then he pulled back the curtain, pointed at the sky and said, 'What's up there?' Again I was surprised, and replied, 'Nothing.' 'But do you see how many beautiful stars there are? You didn't even notice them at first, and all because they too go without saying. And remember one other thing: everything that's good and big in life is made out of things that are small and insignificant. Don't you ever forget that!' That was well said, wasn't it?"
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| Zoya Kosmodernyanskaya's Komsomol card |
"Very!" answered Shura and I in one voice.
"Then," Zoya went on, "he asked whether I had read Lenin's speech at the Third Congress of the Komsomol. 'Of course!' I answered. 'And do you remember it well?' he asked. 'By heart, I think.' 'Well, if you know it by heart, tell me the most memorable place in it. And I said, 'And so, the generation which is now fifteen years old, and which in ten or twenty years' time will be living in communist society, must approach all their tasks in education in such a way that every day, in every village and in every town, the young people shall engage in the practical solution of some problem of common labour, even though the smallest, even though the simplest.'
"Zoya, do you happen to remember the first time you heard what Vladimir Ilyich said at the Third Congress?" I asked, almost certain that she would not be able to answer me.
But I was wrong.
"It was in the summer camp," answered Zoya without hesitation. "By the campfire…
Then we sat and drank tea, and Zoya kept on recalling more and more details of the day. And when we wen going to bed she said, "I feel as if I had changed in some way and become somehow different, a new person."
"Well, in that case let's introduce ourselves," I said unable to hide a smile, but by Zoya's eyes I saw that just now she was in no mood for joking, and I added: "I understand, Zoya."
Next: The House in Staropetrovsky Street
