“A text message! Svetlana has wished me good luck!”, said Alf, showing Frank the display of his cellphone. Frank yawned and crawled out of his sleeping bag.
“That's really nice!”, he muttered sleepily.
Around them, the other soldiers of the Varangian Guard slowly woke up, while bright sunlight was breaking through the dirty windows of the gym hall, awaking even the last of the men.
“It is 6.40 o`clock now!”, said Frank, stretching his aching back.
Tonight he hadn`t lain all too comfortable. Alf made some pushups and Kohlhaas looked with admiration at his big upper arm muscles. A few minutes later, the general did the same and tried to warm up too.
Shortly afterwards, the Varangians lined up outside the gym in rank and file. Their leader inspected them and explained the details of today`s mission in Russian. Tschistokjow had finally given his elite soldiers a heavy task - they had to conquer the House of Justice and to arrest or kill Theodore Soloto, if they had the chance.
So they got into their trucks and drove to St. Petersburg in a long convoy. At the same time, several regiments of the Volksarmee and thousands of other Rus tried to invade the metropolis.
Artur Tschistokjow wanted to lead his followers to the Palace Square in the heart of the city, and he hoped that his organization would be able to mobilize the masses on this important day. There wouldn`t be a second chance, if the takeover failed today, as Tschistokjow meant.
“The soldiers of the Volksarmee and the armed troopers will occupy the main administration building and the other strategic goals. We will concentrate our forces on the collectivist scum. Today, we will smash the CASJ!”, shouted Frank at some of his Russian soldiers.
“We will kill them all!”, growled a young Varangian who was screwing a bayonet on his rifle. The other men in the hold of the truck answered with a thunderous battle cry.
Kohlhaas beheld the soldiers around him. Some of them were brawny, brutal-looking guys with petrified faces. Others were still young, tall, athletic and full of fiery idealism. He felt comfortable among them. With one or the other Varangian, he had already become friends and he asked himself, how many of them he would see again, at the end of this day.
Next to him was Alf, his faithful friend. Frank loved him like a brother. He could always count on Bäumer, and also today he was glad that the giant from Dortmund was there. Kohlhaas clapped him on the shoulder with a smile and stared then silently at the ground.
“There is no reason for bad mood, buddy”, he said.
Bäumer shook his head. “I'm not grumpy, just tired. I think I should make a nap...”
Bäumer yawned and closed his eyes. Frank wondered once more, how Alf could have the nerves to sleep in a situation like this. He just shrugged his shoulders and had to chuckle in the next second. That was Bäumer - his best friend. Today, the tall German behaved as always, Alf was a constant in this otherwise so fickle world, thought Kohlhaas. The truck convoy came closer to St. Petersburg. It should become a hell of a day.
But the collectivists had not been unprepared. They knew that their enemies would try to take over the city today and so they did everything to prevent it. Nevertheless, they did not know how many Rus would invade St. Petersburg. So they had already occupied some important buildings the night before. Moreover, the had taken over the local television and radio stations, that were now sending appeals to the people since the early morning hours. The citizens of St. Petersburg should gather under the red-black flag in the city center, proclaimed the CASJ. Now, Theodore Soloto put everything on one card too, giving his men the order to conquer St. Petersburg for collectivism.
All the conflicts in the previous months could not be compared to the street fights that were now waiting for the Rus. This was already real civil war.
Tschistokjow`s followers came by train, by car or by truck. Thousands of them streamed into the city from all sides.
Meanwhile, the St. Petersburg chapter of the freedom movement had called their members and supporters together in the southern suburbs of the city. And the Rus had, as well as the collectivists, armed themselves with everything they could get. Those who had no firearms, had grabbed a club or something else.
The Varangian Guard reached the city at 8.00 o` clock in the morning and immediately became embroiled in a skirmish. Some collectivists had shot at the truck convoy in a side street, but this did not stop the advance of the Varangians. After a short shoot-out, the CLJ troopers retreated and the trucks drove on towards the inner city.
Several units of the Volksarmee followed them and occupied some important buildings in the outskirts. Then they tried to invade the city center too.
Artur Tschistokjow beheld the numerous troopers in their gray shirts and black pants, while cheering citizens came out of their houses, waving Russia flags and joining the growing crowd. The Belarusian president, Peter Ulljewski and many of the leading functionaries of the freedom movement had already met at dawn in the west of St. Petersburg.
“Do you think we can make it today?”, asked Artur his oldest friend.
“Chapter leader Lebed says that the collectivists seem to be well prepared. They have already occupied some buildings, including the media district”, answered Ulljewski and appeared nervous.
“We are still waiting for more men. If everyone has arrived, we will march towards the inner city”, explained the leader of Rus.
Peter nodded and disappeared in the crowd to look for the leaders of the trooper units. Today, any mistakes could be deadly.
”Attention! Attention! Citizens of St. Petersburg! This is Theodore Soloto of the CASJ! Today, Tschistokjow`s fascist hordes try to take over the power in our city! Help us to fight back! Join the collectivist revolution here in St. Petersburg! We will bring you freedom and justice! Join the CASJ! Come to our mass demonstration! Today, at 13.00 o`clock in the summer garden!”
Frank turned off the radio and looked at Alf with concern. “This won`t be a blitz anymore.”
“Damn!”, grumbled Bäumer and clung to his machine gun.
Suddenly the truck convoy stopped, as a barricade blocked its way. Frank peered across the street and saw some red-black flags behind a big pile of boards and rubble.
“Get out of the trucks! Swarm out!”, he shouted into his radio.
The soldiers got out of the transport vehicles and took cover. Some of the trucks sped away and turned into a side street.
In the distance, a hand grenade detonated and screams were heard, while the Varangians opened fire. A few minutes later, several trucks appeared behind the collectivists and 200 Varangians immediately encircled them.
“Come on!”, shouted Frank, and his soldiers attacked the collectivists from the front. Now there was no more escape for the surprised enemies.
The shoot-out did not last long. After a few minutes, most of the CLJ troopers behind the barricade had been killed or heavily wounded.
“This was just a small squad”, remarked Kohlhaas, looking at his men who were destroying the barricade, that was still blocking the street.
Shortly thereafter, the passage was free. About a dozen dead CLJ troopers lay between debris and planks, the soldiers dragged the bodies to the sidewalk. Then the truck convoy drove away to take position in a nearby park.
Tschistokjow`s followers had gathered in the west of St. Petersburg. Soon, their mass had already grown up to 30000 people. This time, women and even children were among the demonstrants in great numbers. Many people cheered enthusiastically, when they recognized the Belarusian rebel in the crowd. Everybody tried to shake his hand, while some women even brought him flower bouquets to express their admiration.
The leader of the Freedom Movement of the Rus itself, however, was bad-tempered. The fact, that Soloto`s men had occupied several important radio stations and were now constantly sending their propaganda appeals, made him more than angry. Nevertheless, he tried to hide his bad mood in front of his supporters as good as he could. Finally, the mass started to move. Loudly chor
using, the Rus marched through the streets and more and more people joined them.
”Artur Tschistokjow! Freedom for St. Petersburg!”, shouted the Rus at the top of their lungs and waved their dragon head flags.
Meanwhile, it was 10.21 o`clock. Everywhere in the city, the men of the freedom movement were gathering on squares or in the streets and it had already come to first clashes with the collectivists.
In the inner city of St. Petersburg, Theodore Soloto had meanwhile mobilized an even bigger crowd and the number of the people, who followed the red-black flag on this day, was still growing. When the Rus had already reached downtown, they suddenly came across several hundred Russian policemen.
Artur Tschistokjow immediately gave his followers the order to stop, while his troopers took their rifles from the shoulders. A police officer came nearer, waving his hands and trying to calm down the armed troopers, who still appeared sceptic.
“Do not shoot!”, shouted the man. “We want to help you!”
Artur Tschistokjow came out the crowd, stared at the police officer and perked his eyebrows up. “What?”
“Do not shoot, Mr. Tschistokjow!”, shouted the man again. “The St. Petersburg police is on your side! We want to help you to drive the collectivists out of our city!”
The rebel leaders shook the police officer's hand and answered: “I'm glad to hear this! We have never been your enemies! At last, you have finally realized who destroyes this country and also your future!”
“We have already recognized this months ago, but we had our orders from above. You know what I mean, Mr. Tschistokjow.”
“Absolutely!”
”At first, we had the order to fight against your movement - to be one day replaced by the CLJ troopers of the CASJ. Our masters have betrayed us, from the beginning!”, said the police officer.
“Today, this madness will end! Welcome to the freedom movement!”, returned the Belarusian president and the crowd behind him started to cheer.
“Do you still have some of your anti-riot tanks?”, Artur wanted to know then.
The police officer grinned. “Yes, but only five, the rest has already been scrapped at the behest of our bosses. We can give them to you, so that you can clean up the streets!”
“Sounds good...”, said the rebel leader. “I will remember you offer, my friend.”
Around 500 Russian policemen eventually joined the Rus. Most of them had brought along their own weapons, and some of them even wore their heavy body armor, what made them look very formidable. Shortly afterwards, the Rus marched on towards the inner city.
Frank`s radio was crackling continuously and the general tried to conceive the situation, even if it was hardly possible. Artur had just informed him, that his crowd had already grown on to about 40000 people.
“The city center has become a cauldron. I have heard of over 200000 collectivists in the summer garden. Furthermore, the House of Justice is protected by over 4000 CLJ troopers and thousands of ordinary CASJ members. And the day is still young...”, said Kohlhaas and swallowed.
“The number of our supporters will grow too in the course of this day, don`t worry, Frank”, calmed him Alf.
“Yeah sure! Just wait and see...”, came back.
“What shall we do now, general Gollchaas?”, asked a Russian behind Frank`s back.
”We stay in this park and wait”, answered Bäumer before Kohlhaas could say anything.
In the eastern part of St. Petersburg, the soldiers of the Volksarmee met the collectivist troopers, who had entrenched themselves behind barricades or in houses. It came to fierce gunfights in the streets and soon the eastern suburbs of the metropolis turned into a battlefield.
This time, Tschistokjow`s soldiers even used some small, mobile mortars to drive the enemy out of his fortified positions. Soon, a bloody battle was raging for every street corner, and the Volksarmee suffered great casualties within only a few hours.
At 13.00 o`clock, about 60000 people were led by Tschistokjow. In return, Soloto had gathered not less than 350000 followers and the heart of St. Petersburg was shaking under the voices of countless people, who were ready for everything.
Soloto preached them what they wanted to hear. Today, as he declared, collectivism would also liberate St. Petersburg and save its people from poverty.
“But at first, we must destroy the enemies of equality, the murderous hordes of the capitalist exploiters! We must break the spine of Tschsitokjow`s reactionary and fascist movement. And we will break it today - in the streets of St. Petersburg!”, shouted the CASJ functionary, while the crowd answered him with a deafening noise.
Artur Tschistokjow and his followers marched through Vasilevsky Island, a district west of the Palace Square, and finally encountered the first CLJ troopers, who immediately opened fire. The armed troopers shot back in return, and stormed against the barricades. The armored Russian policemen followed them to support their attack.
Then Tschistokjow also gave the giant crowd behind him the signal to charge. Screaming and yelling, over 60000 people surged through the streets like a forceful wave, dashing against the positions of the collectivists.
The first attackers were mowed down by machine gun fire, while their comrades jumped over their dead bodies, climbed on the barricades and drove the CLJ men back. It was another bloody chaos, but finally the mass of the Rus made it to chase the collectivists away, so that the demonstration could go on. The troopers destroyed or burned the barricades and the crowd marched in the direction of the university-terrain, where they were already awaited by even more opponents.
The CASJ members welcomed them with Molotov cocktails and clouds of cobblestones, but the raging Rus did not hesitate and stormed forward again, while thousands of students, who had gathered under the red-black banners, tried to hold them back.
One of them shot at Artur Tschistokjow in the chaos and failed his head just barely. The bullet hit the shoulder of a trooper behind the politician.
Now, the rebel leader was raging too, while his followers slammed into the mass of the students, beating everyone down they could get. Many of the Rus, who had grown up in poverty, hated these often arrogant young academics more than anything else. Many of the students had already taken leading positions in the CASJ and so a lot of members of the freedom movement attacked them with sheer frenzy.
After the street riot near the university of St. Petersburg, about 20000 people joined Tschistokjow`s crowd. Now the Belarusian revolutionary lead more than 80000 people through the streets.
The demonstrators marched across the Neva river, where it came to the next clash with a huge mass of collectivists at the other shore. Meanwhile, they had almost reached the Palace Square.
”Let`s advance to the city center!”, shouted Frank and the truck convoy began to move with roaring engines.
The big transport vehicles raced across a long bridge and finally through the streets of the inner city. Some smaller groups of collectivists crossed their path and were immediately welcomed with gun-fire.
Shortly afterwards, the trucks broke through a half-finished barricade south of the metro station “Moscow” and the Varangians gunned down the CLJ troopers behind it. Then the heavy transporters unerringly rolled towards the Ulitsa Nekrasova.
In the meantime, Theodore Soloto had ended his mass rally and was now leading the huge crowd to the main administration building of the city, in order to occupy it with his men. But Artur Tschistokjow and his Rus were already there, waiting for their rivals.
Frank was sweating and tried understand the excited babble that came out of the radio.
“We shall come to the Palace Square?”
“Yes, the collectivists are attacking us! I have never seen a crowd like that, Frank. Hurry up, help us!”
“What`s about the House of Justice and...?”
“Forget it! We need you here! Don`t waste time, come on!”, screamed Peter Ulljewski`s panicky into Frank`s ear.
Artur`s best friend
was right in the middle of an unbelieveable chaos. All around him, bullets, bottles, stones and firebombs flew through the air, while cars and even houses were set on fire. This time, the number of the collectivists was far too big to hold them back anymore.
But the Varagians did everything to reach the Palace Square as fast as possible. They raced through the streets at breakneck speed, breaking through barricades and all kinds of other barriers, to drive across a bridge near the Pushkin Theater. Finally, they reached the giant mass of their enemies.
”Get out of the trucks!”, yelled Kohlhaas and hundreds of Varagians jumped on the asphalt. They had appeared right on the flank of the hostile crowd.
The collectivists were confused for a moment, and CLJ men were rapidly called together to repel the attack of the Varagian Guard. A bazooka blew up one of the trucks and killed several men. Frank and Alfred hit the dirt and crawled into a doorway.
Suddenly, several hundred Russian policemen stormed out of a side street and opened fire on the collectivists. Three anti-riot tanks follwed them and the terrible sound of heavy autocannons filled the air.
Soloto`s horrified men were moved down by a murderous volley and bloody clouds sprayed up between the red-black flags. Kohlhaas clenched his fist.
“God bless the Russian police!”, he whispered grimly.
Then he gave his men the order to attack. The Varangians pounced on their opponents, who were meanwhile seized with sheer panic.
At that moment, a deadly hail of bullets came over Soloto`s collectivists, cutting down whole swarms of them. Finally, the elite soldiers jumped right into the middle of the turmoil and unleashed a bloody melee. Frank tore a hatchet from his belt, which he always carried for situations like this, and hacked down a CLJ trooper with a well-aimed strike. Then he speared another with his bayonet. Bäumer also raged like a madman, pumping his bullets into the body of every collectivist in his way.
The unexpected arrival of the Russian policemen and the furious onslaught of the Varagian Guard totally outfaced Soloto`s followers.
Now even the ordinary Rus started a counterattack and charged the wavering foe. With everything their fists could grab, they beat, stabbed and shot down their red-black rivals.
Finally, Soloto`s followers run away, and retreated back towards the summer garden. Nevertheless, Artur Tschistokjow had been hurt and was holding his thigh.
“Occupy the administration building!”, he yelled at his troopers, squirming with pain.
Shortly afterwards, the main administration building of St. Petersburg could be taken without resistance, and a dragon head flag was run up on the roof.
Meanwhile, the fleeing collectivists had been chased by the Varangians a few hundred meters through the streets and many of them had been massacred by Frank`s soldiers. And the Russian policemen had done the same. The anti-riot tanks and the heavily armored officers had slaughtered a great number of Soloto`s followers.
General Kohlhaas was holding his bleeding cheek. The steel teeth of brass knuckles had barely missed his face in the bloody chaos of the fight. Alf gave him a plaster, and Frank stuck it on the burning wound.
“What shall we do now?”, asked Bäumer.
The leader of the Varangian Guard took a deep breath and called his men together. Some of them were wounded, others were lying somewhere in the streets. Frank ordered to bring the injured soldiers to the next hospital, while the rest of his men got into the transport vehicles. Before the elite soldiers left the Palace Square behind, they met with Tschistokjow and the other Rus. The leader of the freedom movement embraced Frank and tried to smile.
“We have captured the building of administration, my friend”, he exclaimed in German.
Kohlhaas just nodded. “And now, Artur?”
“I have called for more soldiers of the Volksarmee, they will come in the next hours”, said Tschistokjow.
Frank looked down on Artur's leg. His trousers were already soaked with blood.
“What has happened?”
“They hit my leg!”
“You have to be doctored, Artur!”
“Peter will bring me to a hospital. Go to the House of Justice. You have to take it, Frank”, he moaned in German.
“Don`t worry, Artur. I`m sure that we can make it”, assured Kohlhaas confidently.
“What is about your...your...?”, asked Artur then, pointing at Kohlhaas face.
“Cheek! This is called “cheek” in German.”
“Yes, is the cheek hurting?”
“I have turned the other cheek, Artur”, returned Frank with a grin.
Tschistokjow perked his eyebrows up and looked questioningly at his friend. Kohlhaas smiled and went back to his men.
Elsewhere in the city, the street fights were still raging. In the east of St. Petersburg, the soldiers of the Volksarmee had almost reached downtown. Some important buildings, for example power generation plants and waterworks, were already in their hands.
Apart from that, they collectivists, who had retreated to the streets in the proximity of the summer garden, were now gathering at the Mesto Lenina, in order to start a counterattack on the Rus. Finally, they tried to cross one of the Neva bridges to get back into the inner city.
After Peter Ulljewski has brought his best friend to the hospital, Yuri Lebed, the head of the St. Petersburg chapter, delivered an inspirational speech and finally ended the rally. The Varangian Guard had meanwhile reached the Ulitsa Nekrasova. It was accompanied by several hundred armed troopers and ordinary Rus. Frank ordered the trucks to stop in a side street and they waited. It was now almost 17.00 o`clock.
“Collectivist troopers block all the streets around the Ulitsa Nekrasova”, explained the general, holding his bleeding cheek.
”How many are there?”, Bäumer wanted to know.
“I can`t say yet, perhaps several thousand!”
The radio croaked and interrupted them. Peter Ulljewski reported that Soloto and his followers were trying to advance to the main administration building.
“They want to expel us from the Palace Square, but the police will help us”, said the head of the Belarusian secret service.
“Damn! The collectivists edge our comrades on the Palace Square again!”, cursed Kohlhaas and stared at Alf.
“What are you waiting for, Frank? Give the command to attack the House of Justice! We are just wasting our time here!”, urged Bäumer.
“All right, but I have to coordinate the assault with our comrades from the Volksarmee at first”, answered Frank and fetched the radio.
The general contacted an officer of the Belarusian army and talked with him for a quarter of an hour. Then he positioned himself in front of the Varangians.
“The soldiers of the Volksarmee will come from the east. Together we will invade the Ulitsa Nekrasova from several sides. Moreover, the Volksarmee has also some mortars that will help us against the CLJ troopers behind the barricades!”
“Sounds good”, muttered Alfred.
“I`m looking forward for the end of this terrible day”, gasped Frank.
Decision in St. Petersburg