Page 55 - The Mirror of My Soul. Vol. 1

Nicolai Levashov. The Mirror of My Soul. Vol. 1. Born in the USSR

after the fire. The value of the station was several million roubles; it is hard to imagine

what would have happened, if the fire had not been extinguished in time. We, the station
commander and I, managed to write off some damaged equipment as being worn out,
but some of it had to be paid for out of our own pockets. The “hero” only received several
extra duties.

After this no one allowed him even to approach to the equipment. He was assigned
to serve in a boiler room, where he again “distinguished” himself after almost blowing
up the heating boiler. He again fell asleep and when he was found the temperature on
the thermometer was up to the red area, a little more and the boiler would have blown
up; together with the sweetly sleeping soldier. It was a great relief to me knowing that
this soldier had served his second year and I did not have to observe his “ingenuity” for
another one.

* * *
My brother visited me several times. He liked Ilichevsk and Odessa very much and
decided to live and work there. Thus, the second room, as well as the whole flat I rented
came in very handy to him. Besides, I spent about seventy percent of my time on duty,
and the rest of the time fell mainly at evenings and nights when I preferred to rest.

As well as other officers and ensigns off duty, I came home at eight o’clock in the
evening and sometimes even later. I prepared supper, did necessary household things,
like laundering, ironing my uniform and cleaning my boots and shoes; otherwise the unit
commander would make censorious remarks for crumpled trousers or dusty footwear.
The trousers were considered to be crumpled if there were no clearly visible creases. The
rest of the time I read a lot. I was lucky—an ensign of my platoon had a very good
library. I read a lot also on night duties when I had to “stand guard” over the telephones
ready to answer any call immediately.

After ten o’clock in the evening almost all telephones “fell asleep” until six o’clock
in the morning. Books were true salvation in this situation. However, after several hours
of reading my eyes began to close independent of the content of the book. Strong coffee
or tea did not help much and I had to put the book aside and come out to the headquarters
porch to keep awake and to refresh my sleepy brain a little with a sea breeze. It helped

for some time, but I had only to sit down at the officer’s duty desk and look at silent
telephones and the drowsiness returned very quickly. Another trick to battle it that
helped a lot was a check-up of those on guard duty. It allowed me to feel refreshed for
thirty to forty minutes, and then the sleep again slowly sneaked up from behind. The
fight against it is far from pleasant. One must not sleep, but it was almost impossible to
stay awake sitting at night, in full silence, especially if one has to be on duty next day or
every second day.

In fact, I was accustomed to sleeping in complete silence since I was a child; I could
not fall asleep at once if I heard TV set working in the next room, even with a low

volume. I also liked to sleep in a dark room; the slightest light prevented me from falling
asleep. Being a student, I “adhered” to those habits. So, it is easy to imagine what I
thought of the situation, when I had to rest behind thin plywood partition accompanied
by the sound of telephones and “quiet” orders of the commander and other officers.

I had to learn to rest in any conditions. Thanks to such “comfortable” conditions
for rest, I learned to disconnect myself from everything in almost any situation.

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