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Hi Shurik!

First of all, treat the pieces of paper I write on with respect. They went through combat, I was saving them, but then a crisis with paper occurred and I decided to use them. There is a trace of a German shell fragment on the bottom. *

I received your letter from September 25th. Many thanks to you that you regularly respond to my letters.

I'm writing to you, Shurka, in a most disgusting mood. I already wrote you that my life is ... and I [cannot] remain in this condition ... for long, sitting in one spot, somewhere God knows where, when at the same time great events happen around us. But then, it also concerns the fairer sex.

The thing is that throughout my short life I avoided girls and didn't have any intimate relationships with them. But right before the war I started paying attention to one very nice girl in my school. No, I wasn't in love with her, ... (erased by the author) I simply liked her a lot as a girl who was a good student, well developed, and, well, not bad looking. She also treated me well, and I, in turn, helped her compose essays, helped solve math problems. Basically, our relationship was very nice, Soviet, and, believe me, I didn't have any crude intentions toward her.

And so, when I was taken into the army, at first she replied to me, wrote letters, but since some time ago, maybe a month or more, ... letter to me, and since then ... [neither] a word nor a phrase. I sent her several [let]ters, it can't be that she didn't receive them, but she's not responding. Because of this I got into that disgusting mood. This might seem characterless because at the times of such great events that we're living through, it's wrong to pay attention to business like mine, but still, it spoils my mood a lot, because she treated me like shit, the slut, oh well - fuck her, I'll survive without her. All this made me think that I need to do something, not just sit in one place. And so, I decided. To hell with these monster machines of the radio station! I want to serve in a recon detachment with a small radio, especially since. I do have some experience, so I put in a request to the superiors, in which I directly said that despite it being the second year of the war, I cannot completely answer the question: "What have you done for the destruction of German occupiers?", and asked to be sent to the frontline, especially since there are rumors that they want to dispatch several men as radio operators to partisan bands. That's where the life is! In short, I will certainly write about how things develop further.

Well, it's time to wrap up. Write me, I'm waiting. Maybe there will still be time to receive your reply. Oh yeah, thanks for the envelope, I'll save it until the rainy day. Yurka 03.10.42 (March 10, 1942)
Excuse my handwriting. It's a horrible pen, but I don't have anything better.

Comments by Yuri Koriakin

* I don't remember the episode with this shelling at all. I only remember that the satchel was all shredded, but there wasn't a scratch on me. Well, since there were constant problems with paper at the front, I had to use these sheets.

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