MOSCOW LIVES ON

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 6, 8 January 1942, Page 9

MOSCOW LIVES ON

CALM AT MOST FATEFUL

HOUR

SOCCER AND MOVIES

"Although the greatest military force in all history is battling desperately towards its gates, Moscow has not lost its placid calm. When one wanders about this sprawling capital it is sometimes difficult to realise that one of the most vital conflicts of all time is raging not too far to the west, or, indeed, that the war is going on at all." On October 13, the date the above was dispatched to America from Moscow, thousands of persons turned out for' the finals of the national Soccer football series, with the Dynamo and Torpedo teams vicing for the title at Sokolniki Park. Hundreds of others visited the latest Soviet movie, "The Artamonoffs Business," based on Gorki's novel about three generations of wealthy families and life before the revolution, or the revival of Chekov's "The Three Sisters" at the Moscow Art Theatre. Soldiers and students, and their girls, strolled along the embankment of the i Moscow River at the Park of Culture i and Rest. Workers on their day off took their families to the zoo. MEETING OF SCIENTISTS. At 4 o'clock the previous afternoon a group of leading scientists held a political and anti-Fascist meeting. Restaurants were full. Thousands of men and women wandered quietly about the streets, on shopping tours (most stores are regularly open on Sundays), gazing idly at the newest poster displays or waiting in queues outside newspaper kiosks and some food shops. The regular construction programme continued, as in any large city. New water mains were being laid. One or two streets were being widened. Big stores were stocking up with winter goods. Museums were open. Scientific institutes continued laboratory studies. Official cars still moved up to the Soviet offices.

"This is not a normal city, to be sure," the report said. "Moscow has been making ready for battle since the outbreak of the war with Germany. Millions of sandbags are piled alongside the street-level windows of most buildings. Small shacks are being erected to protect fire-bomb watchers from the cold night winds.

"Many evidences of war have become commonplace: soldiers marching along, chanting with their fine Slav voices; convoys of trucks rumbling across the city; posters exhorting the people to heroism and sacrifice, posters showing women nursing the wounded under shellfire, posters showing Hitler ranting at Goebbels or Stalin gravely reading communiques. MORE AND MORE TROOPS, "More and more soldiers and fewer and fewer children are to be seen. There are soldiers in small groups with families; soldiers bearing guns and field kits; soldiers with bandages; soldiers •in brand-new uniforms walking with their girls; old soldiers and young, soldiers; soldiers in long greatcoats, soldiers in sheepskin jackets, soldiers in quilted uniforms, soldiers with grey squirrel hats and earmuffs, soldiers with white fur kalpaks; soldiers in helmets, soldiers with spiked forage caps, soldiers with the usual kepi topped with red, blue, and green, or with field 'khaki; soldiers with spades, soldiers with automatic rifles; soldiers with newspapers, or suitcases, or bundles of food wrapped in paper. "Some of the soldiers, obviously unused to big cities, wander about and stare curiously at all the sights. Others sit quietly drinking tea. Two with bandages around their heads sit in a corner of a cafe and exchange a few curt words. There are four, at a street corner, looking at a copy of 'Croeo^dile,' Moscow's humour magazine, and laughing at the latest joke. The magazine shows a big Red army private supporting a German prisoner on his left arm and standing at attention as he reports to his commander. '"What happened to the prisoner?' the officer asks as he looks at the terrified Nazi. " 'I do not know, Commander,' says the private. 'He was cheerful and healthy all day long, but when I told him he would find it just like home here, he suddenly fainted.' PLASTIC, SURGEON BUSY. "Many schools have been made into hospitals. In one a famous plastic surgeon restores the faces of tank drivers whose features have been shattered by grenades and shells. Other schools' have become blood transfusion centres, i These are directed by Dr, Andrei Bogdasaroff, head of the Soviet Central Institute of Plood Transfusion —an enormous trust with hundreds gi branches, "This trust specialises in studying blood conditions and is now able, under special circumstances, to conserve blood from donors for transfusion more than a month later and, under even worse conditions, to ship blood to the front

for use as much as three weeks later. Large cans of this blood, as well as emergency plasma—dried blood that resembles brown sugar in consistency —are being sent to front-line hospitals to save the lives of wounded men.

"A strange stillness seems to fill Moscow during the evening and night. One can walk through Red Square past Lenin's tomb, or past onion-shaped church turrets. A few passers-by fumble through the darkness. There js only the silence of night—and the sound of a fighter patrol droning through the clouds to seek out enemy bombers.

"There are no signs of panic and H8 signs that the city is in any way threatened—except for the evacuation of women and children, which is a normal. precaution. But Muscovites are fully aware of potential dangers, and it is fair to say that their calm does not result from ignorance of the situation. Their newspapers tell them that things are critical and that the country depends on their example.

"Everyone here knows that the Germans are aiming at Moscow. 'Red Star' sums it up: 'Death or victory—no other option.'" .