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The Wood Box The wood box stands empty. Evgenia Andreiova shames younger members of the community for taking the last pieces of fire wood leaving none for their elders. The wood box is very large. If filled, it would hold enough wood to supply two dozen homes for at least a month. An old Kamaz truck which once hauled Kolodnya's fire wood sits silently nearby; its dirt-caked windows stare blindly; its vacant oil-soaked engine compartment half filled with layers of snow and birch leaves yawns beneath a gray sky. Snow obscures the endless flat earth stretching beyond human vision to an unseen horizon. The village of Kolodnya ranks very low with the motor transport ministry in Moscow. The ministry's roving fleet of engine exchange trucks seldom ventures off the main highway between Moscow and Smolensk. Evgenia Andreiova is small of stature but lean and muscular. She has endured much in her lifetime. In the Great Patriotic War she was one of General Constantine Rokossovsky's laundry troops. She washed black chernozem soil and the blood of Russia's sons and daughters from field uniforms; picked torn flesh and bone fragments from shrapnel holes; and mended army tunics for the next human occupant. Now, at age seventy-nine, she asks little of her country except her meager pension and enough wood to heat and cook for herself and her husband Dimitri Ilya Andreiovich. Evgenia's husband Ilya is well known and respected in Kolodnya and nearby Smolensk. He fought his way into Berlin in 1945. Ilya was there when Mikhail Yagarov raised the Soviet flag over the Reichstag. The two old soldiers became friends and drinking companions after the war. Mikhail Yagarov rests under an eternal flame burning beside the Kremlin* wall in Smolensk; his grave is guarded by red-scarved young pioneers; Kalashnikov rifles at the ready. Eighty-four year old Ilya rests quietly in bed at home waiting to join Mikhail Yagarov in that eternal glory known only to heroes. Kolodnya's young people often turn to Ilya and Evgenia for advice and counsel. When Aloysha Semyonov was drafted into the Soviet Army for service in Afghanistan, Ilya encouraged the young man to be brave and serve his country well. Ilya assured him that a stand must be taken against Western Imperialists and their puppets on Soviet borders. America was arming and supporting the Afghan Mujahadin rebels. Ilya recalled how at age sixteen he fought American troops in Siberia. Americans spilled the blood of Red Army soldiers on Russian soil. America's President Wilson sent five thousand soldiers to evacuate the Czech Legion from Russia. The Czechs had served the Czar against Germany and Austria hoping to carve a Czech nation from their part of the disintegrating Hapsburg Empire. The allied powers wanted the Czechs to continue fighting in the Great War on the western front. British, French, Japanese, and American troops invaded Russia when Vladimir Lenin took the country out of the war with Germany in March of 1918. Ilya and his comrades were convinced that the West's real aim was to destroy the infant Soviet Union. Ilya was a loyal Bolshevik. Lara Yurikovna is a very pretty girl of fourteen. She wears a large red ribbon in her hair, so common among younger Russian girls. When Lara discovered that she was pregnant, she confided in Evgenia Andreiova. She could not talk with her own mother or father. Evgenia listened attentively. Lara explained how she believed she became pregnant. Lara Yurikovna, Anya Volodyeva, and Serge Ivanov celebrated the end of their school year in June. They walked for miles through endless fields of rye beyond the town. They talked about things which young people love to talk about; friends, music; the future. When they returned to Kolodnya late at night they climbed into the empty wood box to rest. Serge had a bottle of vodka. They drank all of it. Lara fell asleep. When she awoke Serge was sleeping close beside her with his arms and legs entangled with her own. Lara found her clothes were partially off. She felt strange. She was too embarrassed to say anything to her friends. Evgenia arranged for Lara to visit a clinic in Smolensk. A few days afterward Lara returned to Kolodnya. She was no longer pregnant. Lara got off the bus on the street near her home. The wood box stood empty; its roof covered in snow. Boris Stefanovich often brings home pieces of old packing crates. Boris is an aircraft engine specialist at the Yakovlev Aircraft factory outside Smolensk. He hauls the wood home in his smoky Lada sedan and distributes pieces to his neighbors. Sometimes the wood is soaked with hydraulic fluid from jet engine components shipped in the crates. It makes the fire burn hotter. No one seems to mind the odor. Boris and his wife Ludmila visit with their neighbors when they share their bounty. Boris complains that the nation can supply expensive titanium for aircraft production, but not firewood to heat the homes of aircraft workers. Evgenia and Ilya enjoy a hot meal on the days when Boris brings them firewood from the factory. Sasha Semyonov, the father of Aloysha, drives a big Kamaz truck on a route which takes him to Vyborg close to Finland. He remembers seeing logs piled high beside the road in the Karelian forest. Trees are cut to feed a paper mill which is yet to be built. Wood cutters are paid to cut and pile the logs. No one comes to haul them away. The snow and rain fall. The wood rots. The people of Kolodnya are cold and scrounge for fuel. He wonders aloud how such things can happen in a planned economy. Larisa Antoneva wrote letters every week to Aloysha Semyonov. He was serving in a parachute regiment in Kabul, the Afghan capital. Larisa and Aloysha shared much. They had worked together in Moscow at the 1980 Olympic Games. They regretted that the Americans did not participate. They wanted so very much to see Russian athletes beat the Americans. It would have meant so much to them and to their countrymen. Larisa and Aloysha were lovers. They lived together before he entered the army. They planned to marry when Aloysha returned from Afghanistan. Larisa lives with Aloysha's parents while he is away. Larisa often visits Moscow. She guides foreign tourists around her nation's capital. On a recent trip to the center, as Russians call Moscow, she took her tour group to see Lenin in his tomb on Red Square. It was her first time to visit the tomb. Writing to Aloysha, she described Lenin's cadaver as looking yellow and sort of waxy. She was not sure she ever wanted to go there again. She hoped that the Intourist agency would not send her there in the future. Aloysha wrote as often as possible. His regiment saw action frequently against Afghan rebels. He patrolled the area around Kabul's airport, protecting parked Soviet aircraft. Other members of his regiment pursued the rebels into the mountains. They went in by day in helicopters and returned to their base at nightfall. He told Larisa that he lost many of his friends in those raids. He hoped that he would not have to go into the mountains chasing the Mujahadin. Soviet losses were heavier than reported in Pravda or Izvestia. The people need to know that the government is not telling the whole truth about the war in Afghanistan. One evening, as Larisa Antoneva, and Sasha and Yelena Semyonov sat down to supper there was a knock at the door. A small military vehicle was parked on the street near the wood box. Sasha opened the door and greeted two young soldiers. Their uniforms bore the familiar CA on the collar, designating them as regular Soviet Army troops. One of the soldiers held a clip board with several envelopes and an official form. Sasha signed the form and was handed a military dispatch. Sasha turned to face Yelena and Larisa. He looked pale. Aloysha had been killed in a mortar attack on the airfield. Larisa Antoneva felt a cold stabbing pain in her abdomen. She stumbled outside. Walking aimlessly she came to the huge wood box. She stood motionless, staring inside. The wood box stood empty; its roof covered in snow. In the spring Dimitri Ilya Andreiovich died peacefully in his sleep. He rests now in a section of the cemetery reserved for military veterans. He and Aloysha Semyonov lie side-by-side. Aloysha came home from Afghanistan and was buried with full military honors beside the old Bolshevik. Anya Volodyeva, Serge Ivanov, and Larisa Antoneva gather fire wood for Evgenia's stove. In summer, Lara Yurikovna brings wild flowers from the banks of the River Dnieper to grace Evgenia's table. The old Kamaz truck sits in the square with no engine. The wood box stands empty. End
*Kremlin: a fortified city wall from the period of the middle ages.
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