Red Moscow

After rummaging for a while, Victoria found a newspaper clipping book and said to Sokov: "Misha, fortunately I checked carefully, otherwise I would have forgotten the newspaper clipping book made by my great-grandmother. This is her treasure."

"Can you show it to me?"

"Of course." Victoria said, "When we get outside, I'll show you the newspaper clippings."

After returning to the living room of the villa and sitting down, Victoria handed the newspaper clipping book in her hand to Sokov: "Misha, this is a newspaper clipping book collected by my great-grandmother. You can see a lot of important historical information in it."

Sokov took the newspaper clippings and opened it. The first briefing he saw was about the blockade of Berlin.

"In January 1947, the United States and Britain merged their respective occupied areas into 'double-occupied areas' without authorization, and openly declared: 'The two occupied areas should be regarded as a unified territory for the purpose of all economic purposes.' 'The purpose of the two governments is to establish a self-sufficient economy for this territory by the end of 1949. 'In March 1948, the United States, Britain, and France held a meeting in London to further expand the "double-occupied area" of the United States and Britain. It is a 'triple occupied area'.

In response to these actions by Western countries, the Soviet occupation authorities were immediately ordered to fight back. After taking countermeasures, Western representatives were prohibited from going to the Soviet Union in Berlin to attend various political rallies held by the Germans. It also announced that new coins will be issued in the Jiangsu District on June 22. On April 1, the Soviet Union began to impose traffic restrictions on Berlin for ten days. On June 19, the Soviet Union further tightened the comprehensive ground transportation blockade imposed on Berlin. On June 24, all land and water transportation between Berlin and Western countries was completely cut off by the Soviet Union.

As a result of the ground blockade, West Berlin encountered an unusually serious crisis. At that time, West Berlin's food inventory could only last about 36 days, and its coal inventory could only last about 45 days. Serious shortages of drinking water and other daily necessities also began to occur. In order to get rid of this crisis as soon as possible, the United States, Britain, and France quickly adopted two countermeasures: on the one hand, they stepped up air transportation to West Berlin through the "air corridor" to solve the urgent needs of people's lives and strengthen West Berlin's defense capabilities; On the one hand, it tried to negotiate to get the Soviet Union to lift its ground blockade of West Berlin.

On May 12, 1949, after repeated negotiations, the Soviet Union finally reached an agreement with the United States, Britain, and France and announced the official lifting of the ground blockade on West Berlin. At 0:00 that day, Western vehicles were allowed to pass through the dividing line of the occupied areas, and a large number of reporters also poured into West Berlin. The Berlin blockade that lasted for nearly a year came to an end. "

Turn to the second page and there are two photos.

A photo of a painter squatting on the ground and painting a white line was captioned: "On August 21, 1948, West German painters were painting to mark the border line between the British and Soviet occupied areas in Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Next to them were British military police maintaining order."

Another photo shows a soldier carrying a gun jumping over a barbed wire fence, with the following note: "On August 15, 1961, East German border guard 1 Schumann risked being shot by his own personnel. Jumped over the barbed wire into the French-occupied West Berlin.”

Looking at the photo of jumping on a barbed wire fence, Sokov remembered a post he had seen, which said: "Two days before the photo was taken, that is, on Sunday, August 13, the Berlin Wall began to be erected, with cement slabs and barbed wire fences. The barbed wire fence was spread out along the "White Line" and supervised by armored vehicles in the distance. When the border was first sealed, people tried to escape to the west. People in the west cheered. This scene was more like this. It's a track and field competition.

By August 15, cement slabs had been laid on part of Bernauerstrasse, and it can be clearly seen in the photo that Schumann crossed the barbed wire fence that divided East and West Berlin. The 3-foot-tall barbed wire fence presented no difficulty to the big boy, but betraying his homeland was not that easy. In other words, on that day, he did not think about betrayal, but he felt the people's dissatisfaction with him guarding the borders of the motherland.

Konrad Schumann was leaning against the wall, smoking, gun slung over his shoulder. The young men on the other side of the barbed wire were about the same age as him, but they saw him as an antagonist. At this time, the group of young protesters suddenly became quiet, and someone shouted: ‘Come here! ’

Whether it was encouragement or hesitation from young people, no one knew. Schumann, who heard the shouting, did not go over.

An hour later, a West Berlin police car drove over, parked not far away, and opened the back door.

Then shout ‘Come here! come over! ' The sound became louder and louder. Schumann, who was wearing a helmet and boots, suddenly threw away the cigarette butt in his hand, quickly ran towards the barbed wire fence and jumped over.

This moment of jumping over the fence was captured by young photographer Peter Rebin. This historic photo appeared on the front page of the German newspaper Bild a few hours later and then appeared in media around the world.

Schumann was not a hero, but in a sense a reckless boy and a reluctant rebel. But he was the first 'defector' to jump over the Berlin Wall, and this photo freezes the historical moment. In the dozens of hours after Schumann crossed the cement slab and barbed wire fence, nine more border guards jumped over the barbed wire fence. "

Seeing that Sokov kept staring at Schumann's photo, Victoria said: "What do you think will happen if Schumann jumps to the other side of the wall?"

Fortunately, Sokov read the introduction about Schumann and said truthfully: "Schumann successfully integrated into West German society, married a West German girl, and worked for Audi for 20 years. When the Berlin Wall fell During the war, Schumann found that although he was free to travel east and west, he was persona non grata in his homeland. In the eyes of the East Germans, he was just a traitor and a pawn of imperialism. He can no longer drink beer and talk about the past years with his friends. He will never be one of them again. The years when the Berlin Wall was built also created a gap between him and his relatives and friends. High Wall. On June 20, 1998, he hanged himself in his orchard in Bavaria."

"What a pity." Victoria shook her head and said, "If he had stayed in East Germany, he might still be alive and well now." After saying that, she raised her hand and looked at her watch, "It's getting late, let's go back. "

"Well, let's go."

After locking the door of the villa, Sokov drove towards the city.

On the way, Sokov asked curiously: "Vika, judging from the current situation, I'm afraid you won't have many opportunities to come here in the future. What do you plan to do with this house?"

"If it doesn't work, we have no choice but to sell it." Victoria turned her head and glanced at the house that was going away, and said, "One of my colleagues sold his country villa for a price ranging from five thousand to eight thousand dollars. There is no big problem if the house like my great-grandmother’s is sold for the same price.”

If the location of this country house is relatively close to the market, and Sokov does not own a house, maybe he will consider buying this house. But now that he had already bought a house in the city, buying it in the suburbs would be a bit superfluous, so he remained silent and did not express any opinions.

When the car approached the traffic police checkpoint, Sokov saw a traffic policeman standing in the middle of the road from a distance. He was worried about being stopped again, so he couldn't help but turn his head and glance at Victoria.

Victoria noticed his worry, waved her hand and said, "Misha, don't worry, I'm here, these traffic police won't cause you any trouble."

Just as Victoria said, the traffic policeman standing in the middle of the road saw the car driven by Sokov approaching. He just glanced at the license plate and walked aside without any sign of stopping the car.

When Victoria saw this, she smiled slightly and said, "These traffic police are quite powerful. They actually memorized your license plate. I thought I needed to get my ID again."

After the car entered the city, Sokov asked tentatively: "Vika, where are you going to go next, home or the police station?"

Victoria thought for a while and then said: "Send me to the police station."

Sokov nodded and drove towards the police station where Victoria worked.

Unexpectedly, when he was still a few hundred meters away from the police station, a police car suddenly rushed out from the diagonal and stopped in front of Sokov's car. If he hadn't braked in time, he would have hit it directly.

After the police car stopped, a police sergeant got out of the car, came to Sokov's car, put one hand on the window frame, and said casually: "Your passport!"

Sokov quickly took out his passport and handed it over.

Unexpectedly, the other party took the passport and put it into his pocket without even looking at it. Then he waved his hand to Sokov and said, "Get out of the car and follow me!"

"Misha, what's going on?" Victoria, who was sitting in the passenger seat, witnessed the whole process and asked with a frown: "Didn't he check the passport? Why didn't he even look at it after you gave it to him? Put it in your pocket. What's going on?"

"What else could it be?" Sokov said with a wry smile: "He just wants me to get in his car and blackmail him." After saying that, he opened the door, bent down and got out of the car.

As soon as he got out of the car, he saw Victoria getting out of the car from the other side.

She went straight to the police car and said to the police officer: "Sergeant, according to relevant regulations, except for solving cases, the police are not qualified to inquire other people's documents. Do you know that your behavior is illegal?"

Unexpectedly, the sergeant only glanced at her and said disdainfully: "Who are you, and what qualifications do you have to make irresponsible remarks? I warn you, stay away, otherwise I will charge you with obstructing official duties." Take you to the police station."

"Yes." Victoria said coldly: "Then I would like to see how you brought me to the police station. Let me remind you, I am from Moscow, and I am not afraid of you."

The sergeant ignored Victoria, but turned to ask Sokov, who was walking over: "Friend, is she your girlfriend?"

Sokov glanced at Victoria, and when he saw her staring at the sergeant with a cold face, he said with some laughter and tears: "Yes, she is my girlfriend."

"Friend, I know you are a Chinese businessman." When the sergeant learned that Victoria was Sokov's girlfriend, his attitude became much kinder, and he said to Sokov in a consultative tone: "Look, you Driving such a good car means you are rich. But look at me again. I am just an ordinary policeman. My daily income is not even enough to support my family. Can you give me some money so that I can buy bread for my family? and beer.”

Extortion like this often happens near the market. This was the first time Sokov encountered extortion in a place so far away from the market.

He turned to look at Victoria and asked with a smile: "Vika, tell me, what should I do?"

Victoria didn't waste any words, took out her red ID, unfolded it and handed it to the police sergeant: "I am Major Victoria from the police station in front. If you have no objection, come with me to the station."

The police sergeant never dreamed that he had just set his sights on a prey and had not yet made any profit. A person whom he could not afford to offend appeared next to the prey. He suddenly became flustered: "I'm sorry, Major, I didn't know he was your boyfriend. Please forgive my recklessness, I won't do it next time, please forgive me this time."

Victoria knew that the salary of the police has always been low, otherwise there would not be so many black police who make a living by extortion around the market. Seeing the sergeant in front of her, it was obviously the first time for her to do such a thing. She planned to leave it to Sokov to decide how to deal with him: "Misha, how are you going to deal with him?"

Sokov didn't want to cause trouble, so he said to calm things down: "Vika, forget it, let him go."

"Show me your ID."

Hearing Victoria say this, the police sergeant did not dare to neglect it, and quickly took out his ID and handed it to Victoria.

After Victoria unfolded it, she quickly read the contents on it, and then handed the ID back to the other party: "Since this is your first offense, I will forgive you. If you commit the same offense again next time, I will never forgive you. I am very familiar with your director. If I say hello to him, you may have to take off this skin on your body. Do you understand?"

"I understand, I understand." The sergeant asked in a panic: "Can I leave?"

"Please return my passport to me first."

The sergeant took out the passport from his pocket, returned it to Sokov, got into his car, and left here quickly.

"Misha, do you usually encounter such policemen?" Victoria asked.

Sokov nodded and said truthfully: "Yes, this situation is very common around the market. It is said that some police officers from other police stations, knowing that they can make money near the market, specially gave gifts to their superiors, hoping to be transferred to the police station near the market."

"Well, I know." Victoria replied lightly: "I am very close to the police station, just a few steps away, you go back to the market first, I will contact you if there is anything."

"Okay." Sokov returned to the car, waved to Victoria, and prepared to drive away.

Who knew that just after driving a short distance, he saw Victoria waving at him through the rearview mirror, and even shouted something, so he quickly backed the car, looked up and asked: "Vika, do you have anything else to do?"

Victor handed over a mobile phone: "Your mobile phone is still here."

When Sokov saw the mobile phone, he immediately remembered that when Victoria was in the suburbs just now, because her mobile phone had no signal, she borrowed his mobile phone to make a call, and she never returned it to him after the call. He reached out to take the mobile phone and waved to Victoria: "Vika, goodbye!"