Red Moscow

After ten o'clock in the evening, there was a knock on the door. Sokov thought that Yakov was here again, so he said loudly without raising his head: "The door is not closed, you just come in."

But as the visitor appeared in front of him, Sokov realized that he had made a mistake. It was not Yakov who came, but Eisenstein. He quickly put down the pencil in his hand and greeted him politely: "Sergey, you are here! Please sit down quickly."

After Eisenstein sat down next to Sokov, he saw the notebook full of words on the table and asked: "Misha, is this the new novel you wrote?"

"Yes, Sergey." Sokov pushed a book full of words in front of Eisenstein and said to him: "This is the new novel I wrote, but it is not a story about snipers. , but about a group of female soldiers.”

"Oh, a story about a group of female soldiers?" Although Eisenstein had heard Yakov say before coming here that Sokov was not writing a novel about snipers, but was writing another book, but Hearing what Sokov said now, he couldn't help but ask: "I wonder what the content is?"

"The main characters in the novel are a group of female anti-aircraft machine gunners who stand at the concession stand." Since Eisenstein was interested in the novel he wrote, Sokov introduced the general content of the novel to him: "One day, among them A female soldier discovered that two German paratroopers appeared near the station. She guessed that they must be preparing to go to the rear of our army to cause sabotage, so she rushed back to the station to report to the commander. The commander who received the report took five people to pursue these soldiers. Two German paratroopers tried to eliminate them. Unexpectedly, after a long journey, they arrived at the enemy's only route to ambush in advance, and found that the enemy was not two people, but sixteen people. After a fierce battle, five people were killed. All the female soldiers died heroically, and the surviving commanders went through untold hardships and finally eliminated all the enemies and shattered their attempts to cause sabotage in the rear of our army."

Eisenstein picked up the notebook full of words, but did not open it immediately. Instead, he asked thoughtfully: "Misha, can you tell me that the plot of your novel was completely made up by you? Or is it adapted from a story told by someone else?”

"Of course I listened to the stories told by others." Sokov said to Eisenstein: "I once heard others say that five soldiers of our army sacrificed their young lives to prevent the German army from entering Lake Warby. The prototype of the protagonist of my novel was originally a male soldier, but I deliberately changed the male soldier to a female soldier in order to enhance the tragedy and appeal. Someone once said: 'Women's mission is to give birth and extend life. Not war, not death.’ My purpose in writing this novel is to express my love for life and reverence for women, my yearning for peace and my hatred for war.”

After listening to Sokov's words, Eisenstein nodded slightly, then opened the book and began to read what Sokov had written.

So far, Sokov has written nearly 5,000 words, and the framework of the novel has been laid out. Therefore, after reading it, Eisenstein nodded repeatedly and kept saying: "Yes, yes, this novel is well written. Misha, to be honest, I always thought that as a military commander, you might be the one to command operations." Your strengths are, but when it comes to writing novels or scripts, you are not good at it. Even if you write something, if you want to adapt it into a movie, I am afraid it will require repeated revisions by a senior screenwriter before it can be made into a movie. Script. But the novel you wrote completely subverted my understanding. I didn’t expect that your literary skills are so solid and you can write such a wonderful novel."

Hearing Eisenstein's praise for himself, Sokov just smiled faintly. Such a result had long been expected by him. He knew very well that after the novel written by Boris Vasiliev was published, it received high praise and was adapted into plays and operas. In 1972, director Rostotsky and Vasilyev collaborated to bring this novel to the screen. In 1975, Vasilyev also won the first prize of the All-Soviet Children's Literature Award and the Soviet State Prize for this book. This work successfully portrays the image of female Soviet soldiers. Critic Novikov commented that it is a model work that perfectly combines realism and romanticism in Soviet literature.

But Sokov had only written five thousand words at this moment. Eisenstein, who was still not finished, asked: "Misha, I wonder how many words you plan to write in this book?"

"At least two hundred thousand words."

"Two hundred thousand words!" After Eisenstein repeated these words, he continued to ask: "I wonder how much time it will take you to write it?"

Sokov calculated in his mind that although he had written 5,000 words today, his hands hurt from writing. In the next period of time, he might not be able to update more words than today, so he responded euphemistically: " I think it will take at least a month and a half.”

"What, it will take another month and a half." But Eisenstein shook his head and said, "No, no, one and a half months is too long. Can't you speed it up?"

"No." Sokov replied simply: "Sergey, you should know that I am not a pen person, and my writing speed cannot be compared with that of professional writers. Writing five thousand words today is already my limit. , it is impossible to improve. And in the next few days, the number of words I create will decrease."

"Well, you make sense. You are indeed not a professional writer, and your writing speed is definitely not as good as others." After Eisenstein frowned and thought for a while, he tentatively asked Sokov: "Misha, what if I Can you shorten the creation time by sending two people to assist you?”

Eisenstein's words aroused Sokov's curiosity: "Sergey, can you explain a little more clearly? How do the people you send plan to assist me in my creation?"

"I plan to send a stenographer and scribe to assist you." After Eisenstein said this, he carefully asked Sokov: "Do you know these two professions?"

"I know." Sokov nodded and said in a positive tone: "The stenographer is the person who takes notes during the meeting. The scribe is the person who is responsible for transcribing the meeting minutes."

"Yes, you are right." Eisenstein said: "With their assistance, can you speed up the update?"

Sokov secretly thought to himself that if there were really stenographers and scribes to assist, then there shouldn't be much problem in updating the content of ten or twenty thousand words a day, so he nodded and said: "Sergey, I think we can give it a try." Try it and see how it works.”

"Okay." Eisenstein continued: "I will send them over to you tomorrow to help you speed up your creation. But..."

Sokov saw the sudden troubled expression on Eisenstein's face, and immediately guessed what the other man was thinking, and quickly said: "Don't worry, Sergey, this story is all in my head. As long as there is With the help of stenographers and scribes, I can turn it into words in the shortest possible time.”

"Okay." Eisenstein stood up and extended his hand to Sokov: "I'm looking forward to reading the content of your next novel soon."

Early the next morning, while Sokov was still sleeping, he was awakened by a rapid knock on the door.

He got out of bed sleepily, came to the door and opened the door.

There were two strange men standing outside the door, both wearing casual clothes. One of the bald men asked tentatively: "Is this General Sokov?"

"Yes, I am Sokov." Sokov looked at the two strangers in front of him, frowned and asked, "Who are you?"

"Hello, Comrade General, my name is Agni and I am a stenographer at the film studio. His name is Grudit and he is a scribe." The bald man politely introduced himself to Sokov: "I am in accordance with Xie Comrade Eisenstein's instructions to assist you in writing your novel."

After learning that the two people in front of him were the stenographer and scribe sent by Eisenstein, Sokov quickly greeted them warmly: "Hello, comrades, I didn't expect that you are here so early. Please forgive me. I'm disheveled. Please come in and sit for a while. After I finish washing, we can start working. Please come in, comrades, and don't stand at the door."

Ten minutes later, Sokov, who had finished packing, began to dictate the content of "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" to Agni. Agni can be regarded as an excellent stenographer. Although Sokov's speech speed is a bit fast, he can still keep up with the other party's speaking speed and quickly finished writing a page.

After writing a full page, he immediately handed it to Grudit next to him, who transcribed the contents of his shorthand in detail.

After Sokov dictated a chapter, he said to Agni: "Comrade Agni, let's rest for five minutes before continuing." Seeing Agni put down his pen, he picked up Grudit's transcribed text again. Read the content carefully to see if what you recorded is exactly what you said.

When Sokov was checking the manuscript, Agni smiled and said to him: "Comrade General, don't worry, Grudit is the best scribe in our movie, and there will never be anything in what he transcribed. mistake."

Although Sokov agreed with his statement and felt that the stenographers and scribes sent by Eisenstein must be the best, he still carefully checked what Grudit had transcribed. After confirming that there was no mistake in any punctuation mark, he nodded slowly and said with satisfaction: "Yes, yes, Comrade Grudit is really a serious and responsible transcriber. The content he transcribed is completely consistent with the plot I dictated. "

After the test, Sokov was very satisfied with the two's abilities, and continued to dictate the content of the novel while watching them write quickly.

At noon, Sokov and the others had just finished their meal and were about to start writing when Eisenstein ran over.

As soon as he entered the door, he couldn't wait to ask: "Misha, how is your novel going?"

"Not bad." Sokov picked up the thick stack of manuscripts on the table, handed it to Eisenstein, and said approvingly: "Sergey, these two comrades you sent are simply great. There are With their help, I completed tens of thousands of words in one morning. If I work harder in the afternoon and evening, I believe I can finish about 30,000 words today, so that it only takes a week to complete the entire novel."

But after hearing this, Eisenstein asked with some surprise: "Is the quality of the novel guaranteed if it is written so fast?"

Sokov understands his doubts very well. Novel writing is a very time-consuming task. It is common for a good novel to take several months, half a year or even one or two years to write. Now that he said he would write a novel of 200,000 words in one week, Eisenstein naturally had to worry about the quality of the novel.

"Don't worry, Sergey." Sokov said with a smile: "Although the writing time is a little short, the content of this novel has long been in my mind. Now it is not just about converting it into words. Quality is guaranteed.”

"Then you go ahead." Eisenstein took the stack of manuscripts, sat by the window, and said to Sokov, "I'll take a look at what's written first."

Sokov was very confident in the quality of this novel. When he waited for Eisenstein to start reading the manuscript, he said to Agni and Grudit: "Comrades, let's continue working. If you feel tired , just tell me, we can stop and take a rest first."

"We are not tired, Comrade General, we are not tired." The two said in unison: "Let's continue working."

Although it took a whole morning to write more than 10,000 words, Eisenstein only spent more than ten minutes reading these contents. After reading it, he stood up and said repeatedly: "It's good, it's very well written. Misha, I feel like I really underestimated you. If this novel is published, it will definitely win an award."

Eisenstein put down his manuscript and walked toward the door. But not long after he left the house, he stepped back again and asked cautiously: "Misha, can your writing speed be faster? I'm eager to see what's behind."

"Sergey, I'm afraid this won't work." Sokov spread his hands, shrugged and said, "You have also seen that Comrade Agni and Grudit have tried their best. If they want to write It may not be that easy to produce more content. Moreover, they have worked all morning and are already very tired. Their copying speed may slow down in the afternoon. It is difficult to complete 30,000 words in a whole day. They want to speed up their writing. Speed ​​is impossible."

There was a disappointed expression on Eisenstein's face, but he hesitated at the door for a while, and then decisively made a new decision: "Misha, if I send you two more people, can you shorten the creation time?" time?"

"Send me two more people?"

"Yes." Eisenstein nodded and said, "I plan to use shifts. Agni and his team will help you write in the morning, while the other group will help you write in the evening. In this way, your writing will be improved. The speed will definitely be greatly improved.”