Red Moscow

"Major, thank you for your kindness." Sokov shook his head and rejected Vasergov's kindness: "I have no interest in flowers and plants. After spring, I plan to plant something else in the yard."

"Plant something else?" Vaserigov asked curiously: "Comrade General, what are you going to plant?"

Sokov thought for a while and replied: "For example, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and cabbage."

After hearing this, Vaserigov felt a flock of crows flying above his head. He asked Sokov dumbfounded: "Comrade General, is it a waste of such a good yard for you to use it to grow vegetables?"

"Misha, Misha!" At this time, Asiya's cheerful shout came from the house: "You are back!"

Sokov opened his arms, hugged Asiya who rushed over, and said with a smile: "Yes, I'm back."

"I thought you were leaving for at least a month." Asiya asked curiously, "Why are you back so soon?"

"I couldn't help it. It was too cold there. I couldn't bear the cold, so I came back."

Asiya raised her hand and punched Sokov on the shoulder, then laughed and cursed: "Nonsense, with your physique, you are still afraid of the cold."

Sokov let go of Asiya and said to her: "Asiya, I brought you a friend."

"Friend, what friend?" Asiya said, looking carefully in the crowd, trying to see clearly who Sokov was talking about. Soon, her eyes were locked on Seryosha, and an expression of disbelief suddenly appeared on her face: "Seryosa, are you Seryosha? Are you still alive?!"

"That's right, Asya!" Seeing that Asya recognized him, Seryosha seemed very excited. He took two steps forward and said with a choked voice: "I really didn't expect that I would be able to do this in my lifetime." See you again."

After Asiya stepped forward and gave Seryosha a hug, she turned to Sokov who was standing next to him: "Misha, what is going on? Didn't it mean that Seryosha had died in the battle? He is now Where did it come from?"

"It's too cold outside, let's go back inside and talk."

After Sokov's reminder, Asya also realized that it was not appropriate to stand in the yard chatting, and quickly called out to Seryosha: "Seryosa, it's cold outside, you'd better go inside and sit quickly. Have a drink of hot food. Tea helps your body warm up quickly.”

When everyone came to the room, Asya asked Seryosha to sit down, and immediately brought him a cup of hot tea and said enthusiastically: "Are you hungry? How about I give you something to eat?"

"We haven't eaten anything today." Before Seryosha could reply, Sokov rushed to say: "Asia, let the chef cook something delicious for us, we are almost starving."

Asiya agreed, turned around and went to the kitchen to arrange the meal.

Seryosha was a little surprised and asked Sokov: "Misha, you have a chef in your family now?"

"Yes." Sokov nodded and explained to him: "There are many people at home now. If Asya cooks alone, she will definitely be too busy, so I asked Major Vasseligov to help I found a good chef.”

Seryosha nodded and asked casually: "Misha, you and Asya have been married for many years. When do you plan to have children?"

Sokov's smile froze on his face, and he didn't know how to answer this sad question. Fortunately, Vaserigov said in time: "Seryozha, actually Asya was pregnant once, but because of a car accident, although the adult was able to save her life, the child was lost."

After hearing what Vasergov said, Seryosha realized his recklessness and quickly apologized to Sokov: "I'm sorry, Misha, I didn't know about this, please forgive me."

"It's okay, it's okay." Sokov waved his hand and told Seryosha: "You must not mention the child in front of Asya, otherwise it will bring back her sad past."

"Don't worry, Misha." Seryosha nodded and assured Sokov: "I will take care of my mouth and never say anything I shouldn't say again."

Half an hour later, the chef and Asiya came to the living room carrying trays and placed the food on the plates on the table one by one.

The chef put away the tray and said to everyone: "The food is all here. Please use it. I wish you a good appetite!" After saying that, he bowed slightly and turned back to the kitchen.

"Seryozha," Asya asked Seryosha curiously: "Others thought you died on the battlefield. How did you survive?"

"Asiya, you were also on the battlefield. You should know very well that after many commanders and soldiers fell on the battlefield, the medical staff responsible for battlefield rescue went up to check. After finding that they were not breathing, they gave up rescuing them and turned to new wounded people. " Seryosha explained to Asya: "In this case, mistakes will inevitably be made, and the rescue of some wounded people will be abandoned, causing them to die on the battlefield or become prisoners of the enemy. I had already sacrificed my life, so I gave up my rescue, and as a result, I became a prisoner of the German army.”

After figuring out the reason why Seryosha was captured, Asiya continued to ask: "Seryosa, since you are still alive, why don't you contact us?" When she said this, she took a special look. Next to him, Sokov said, "You know, Misha and I both felt sad for a long time when we learned about your sacrifice."

"It's not that we don't get in touch, but that we can't get in touch." Seryosha quickly added: "After I was rescued from the prisoner of war camp by our military commanders, I wrote many letters to Misha, but I didn't get any reply. Then I was sent to a labor camp in Siberia. After being imprisoned for half a year, I was given the chance to be released and was assigned to work in a local food processing factory. As luck would have it, I was on my way back from work one day. , happened to be seen by Misha, he immediately mobilized his contacts and started looking for me everywhere. Later, with the help of Lieutenant General Lu Jin, he finally found me. "

"What are your plans next?" Asiya asked.

Seryosha thought for a while and replied: "I plan to go to the place where I used to live tomorrow. If my house is still vacant, I will go back there to do it. But if the house is occupied by someone else, I can only I’m staying with you.”

"That's a good relationship." Asiya glanced at Sokov again as she spoke: "You and Misha are good friends. Even if you stay with us permanently, it's okay."

Just as he said this, a guard suddenly ran in from outside in a hurry, looking extremely panicked.

Upon seeing this, Vaserigov immediately stepped forward and asked, "What happened?"

"Comrade Major," the guard said in a panic, "Comrade Khrushchev is here!"

Vaserigov's pupils contracted violently: "Who did you say is coming?"

"Comrade Khrushchev!"

Because the guard spoke louder, Sokov also heard it. He stood up and said in an unbelievable tone: "Is it really Comrade Khrushchev who is here?"

"Yes, Comrade General." The guard nodded and said in a positive tone: "I have seen him before, of course I can recognize him."

Since Khrushchev came to the door in person, Sokov and others could not stay in the house, so they rushed out of the house and went outside to greet Khrushchev.

Khrushchev was standing at the door with his hands behind his back, looking at the courtyard curiously. When he saw Sokov coming with a group of people, a smile suddenly appeared on his face.

"Hello, Comrade Khrushchev!" Sokov came to Khrushchev, raised his hand to salute him, and said: "Welcome to be our guest!"

"Misha, I heard that you moved to a new house, so I came here to have a look." Khrushchev said with a smile: "Now it looks like this house is really good. I want to move in."

"It's my honor that you can move nearby." Sokov said, "I can ask you for advice at any time if I need anything in the future."

After everyone returned to the room, they all knew that Khrushchev went to the Three Treasures Hall for nothing. This time, he must have something important to talk to Sokov. So after Asya poured a cup of hot tea for the two of them, everyone disappeared from the living room, leaving only Sokov and Khrushchev.

"Comrade Khrushchev," seeing that he and Khrushchev were the only ones left in the huge living room, Sokov did not beat around the bush, but asked directly: "Do you have anything important to do when you come here today? ?”

"Misha, your observation skills are very keen." Khrushchev nodded and said: "I did encounter some difficulties recently. I just heard Zhukov said that you were back from Siberia, so I came here to see you. There is indeed something very important here.”

Sokov looked at Khrushchev intently, waiting for him to reveal his true purpose today.

"In the Great Patriotic War that ended last year, our country sacrificed nearly 30 million people and destroyed 1,710 cities in exchange for the new master of the world. Moscow, the capital of the world's proletariat , after four years of war, the failure of the Academy of Fine Arts has not been wiped off the face of the earth, and it is still standing. The tall factories, wide streets, green trees, and soldiers with medals in the city are all signs. Telling the world: Our country will become the master of the world!”

Regarding Khrushchev's boastful words, Sokov went in one ear and out the other. He didn't take it seriously at all. He knew that what the other party was going to say next was the key point.

"In a meeting some time ago, Comrade Stalin felt that there were very few 'red' buildings in Moscow, the capital of the world's proletariat! Well-known landmarks such as Basil's Cathedral and Red Square were built during the period of Ivan the Terrible The Kremlin and GUM shopping mall are also buildings from the Tsarist Russian era.

He said: 'As we win the Great Patriotic War, countless foreigners will come to visit Moscow in the future. If we don't even have skyscrapers, it will be just a listless capital, far worse than Manhattan. . "

When Sokov heard this, he couldn't help but wonder, could it be that Stalin wanted to build the Seven Sisters?

The Seven Sisters is a building that combines Baroque castle towers, medieval European Gothic style and American skyscrapers in the 1930s. It includes Moscow State University, Leningrad Hotel, Model Worker Apartments, Ministry of Heavy Industry Building, Ukrainian Hotel, Cultural People Apartments and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building.

They were called the "Seven Sisters" because of their similar appearance. They have perfectly symmetrical structures, stair-stepped podiums, exterior walls inlaid with high-grade stone, and towering red stars on the top of their towers, which are reminiscent of Gothic churches in medieval Western Europe and the magnificent Baroque of Tsarist Russia in the 19th century. It is a palace-style palace with vague shadows of the origins of modern skyscrapers such as New York's Woolworth Building and the Empire State Building. Drawing on the strengths of others, Stalinist architecture integrated all the above to form a unique new style.

Thinking of the famous Seven Sisters complex, he couldn't help but ask: "Comrade Khrushchev, does Comrade Stalin want to build a building similar to the skyscrapers in the United States?"

"Yes, Comrade Stalin believes that what Moscow lacks is skyscrapers." Khrushchev said with some embarrassment: "After he proposed this plan, we discussed and studied it and generally believed that Moscow is not suitable for building skyscrapers. In addition to urban planning factors, skyscrapers are a symbol of imperialism. After all, only the United States has skyscrapers."

"What do you think?" Sokov asked: "Although your considerations are reasonable, if you don't build skyscrapers for this reason, wouldn't it be a violation of Comrade Stalin's orders? Disobeying him You should know better than me what the consequences of the order will be. "

"Yes, that's right." Khrushchev nodded and said, "So I came to you to see if you have any good ideas."

Hearing what Khrushchev said, Sokov couldn't help but laugh and cry: "Comrade Khrushchev, thank you for your trust in me. But I'm just a soldier, not an architect, and I know nothing about architecture."

"Misha, I came to you because you are not an architect, and your design thinking will not be affected by those rules and regulations." Khrushchev said sincerely: "Can you tell me what your high-rise building looks like?"

Sokov had seen the Seven Sisters Building in his later life, and even lived in one of them. He felt that he could draw the exterior of one of the Seven Sisters and let Khrushchev go back and discuss and study with those professional designers. He picked up the paper and pen on the table and began to think in his mind. Although the appearance of the Seven Sisters was similar, which building should he draw for Khrushchev first?

After some thought, he decided to draw the exterior of the Ukrainian Hotel. This building is located at the corner of Moscow. In the open space opposite, a famous building named "White House" will be built in a dozen years.

He spent almost an hour drawing the exterior of the Ukrainian Hotel. Then he handed it to Khrushchev with both hands: "Comrade Khrushchev, according to my idea, our skyscrapers should be like this. You can take it back to the designers and listen to their opinions."

Khrushchev took Sokov's drawings, looked at them carefully for a long time, and asked some details. Then he nodded slowly and gave Sokov a thumbs up: "Misha, your design drawings are good, at least I think so. If the designers also think this drawing is good, I will arrange for them to come and talk to you, and then discuss how to build this new type of skyscraper to complete the task assigned to me by Comrade Stalin."