by Väinö Linna
Finally, he also admitted to being the leader of the kidnapping mission. But as soon as the interpreter started asking questions about things over on the Russian side, the man fell silent, saying only that he had been sent on this mission and knew nothing whatsoever of his own side’s state of affairs. Of his own squad he offered more information. The man whom Rokka had killed with the back of the pistol had been an NCO specially trained for the task. He was the one who was supposed to capture the prisoner. The failure, the Captain explained, resulted from the fact that Rokka had heard them coming and so had managed to turn around.
‘Lissen, that ain’t why it failed. You tell ’im straight out it was ’cause Antti Rokka here happen’na be standin’ guard. But you tell ’im they did one hell of a job plannin’ that trick. You tell ’im I know their whole plan. They been spendin’ lots a nights watchin’ how our patrol squad comes ’n’ goes, plottin’ their whole operation off a that. First they set the cannons goin’ so the guards would take cover. And meanwhile the fellas crawl along through the reeds … He’s still wet from it too. Then they thought, the guard’ll think it’ssa patrol squad comin’. That’s what I thought, anyway. I’d thought about takin’ that same route myself, cuttin’ through the reeds over to their side. That’s why I thought it might be them. You remember, Koskela, how I said we oughdda put more guard posts along the shore? You’re a right sensible fella, that’s for sure. I’m gonna make you a cuppa tea. Then in’na mornin’ when there ain’t nobody sleepin’ no more, I’m gonna play you “Yokkantee”. Then you and me’s gonna head over to the command post together. Fellas’ll git’ta do their official inquiry on us both!’
Rokka was happy as a clam. He hummed along as he boiled his water for tea, and, drinking it with his prisoner, chatted on about the merits of the world, none of which his companion understood in the least. Then Rokka ordered his prisoner into the bunk to sleep. The man went to the bunk, but he didn’t sleep. Rokka, on the other hand, dropped off as before – instantly, without so much as rolling over onto his side. The guy on fire-watch kept an eye on the prisoner, and all the weapons were removed from his reach. They were perfectly aware that he was not the type of man to let even the slightest opportunity pass him by.
III
Rokka awoke the next morning in splendid spirits, though his prisoner’s mood was even more dour. He drank the tea Rokka gave him, but the playing of ‘Yokkantee’ he endured only because he had ears through which he had to. Rokka, on the other hand, threw in a couple of spins as he danced along, at which even Baranov’s scowling eyes betrayed the tiniest trace of a smile.
‘Lissen now, you cheer up, hear! We’ll head off to prison together. We won’t have no worries there. We’ll make lamp-stands. I’ll teach you how. You might’ta tried’da knock me down with the butt a your submachine gun, but you got a boot in’na face for it too.’
Rokka had been ordered to appear at the command post at nine o’clock, and a few minutes before nine he turned up with his prisoner in tow. Lammio was there, as well as some ensign who had been given the task of taking the minutes. Rokka’s case was so important that Sarastie himself had chosen to attend the interrogation.
Sarastie’s bunker was rather modest, as he didn’t share the front-line architectural aspirations of the other officers. Rokka stepped inside, bringing Baranov with him, and in place of the standard military greeting, declared with a natural chipperness, ‘Mornin’! Here I am! Koskela mentioned somethin’ about me bein’ called over here.’
The officers’ moods underwent a small revolution. They had just been engaged in a stone-faced, ‘scientific’ discussion about the importance of discipline at the current time, as morale was sinking very low. And into this general atmosphere now popped the much-discussed problem child, with his ‘Mornin’!’ greetings and – on top of that – a prisoner, about whom they had received no information whatsoever.
‘Whaa— Who is this?’
‘This fella here? Why, he’s the Baranov boy!’
Sarastie was quick enough to realize that Rokka was up to something, but suspected it would be revealed to him soon enough. The Major couldn’t help laughing as he gazed at Rokka. The latter stole a glance at the officers as if weighing the impact of his entrance. Otherwise he was entirely nonchalant, as if there was nothing exceptional in the least about the situation.
‘The Baranov boy,’ Sarastie repeated. ‘May I ask why you brought him here?’
‘I took ’im prisoner last night, then I thought that if we were doin’ this here inquiry, we might git his over with at the same time. I heard you might be threatenin’ me with some kinda prison sentence, so I thought maybe the two of us here could go together. Two birds with one stone like.’
The prisoner was so important that the officers paid no attention to Rokka’s jibe and just asked how the prisoner had been taken.
‘Fellas came to take me off to Russia! But I told ’em that it wasn’t gonna work that way, on accoun’ta I gotta go to this court martial, see. Three of ’em died in the scuffle, but I held onto this fella here. Good lookin’ guy like he is. I done spoiled ’im a little with that kick in the jaw, but he’ll git over that all right. Baranov here’s a big fish. He’s a cap’n.’
Sarastie was increasingly interested. ‘How do you know that?’
‘Sotti questioned him over in’na bunker already. He’s from Salmi, see, so he knows Russian. Oh, he’s a cap’n all right. He was chief a the commando.’
Rokka explained the incident in greater detail, and Sarastie phoned Koskela. Putting down the receiver, he looked at Rokka for a moment, considering him carefully, and then asked with a smile, ‘What kind of man are you, anyway?’
‘Who, me? Don’t you know me? I’m Antti Rokka. Farmer from Kannas. These days, poster boy for Tikkakoski Tommy Guns.’
The ensign assigned to take the minutes endeavored to keep a straight face, as he didn’t dare laugh before a major, but seeing that Sarastie himself had lost it, the Ensign burst into laughter as well. Only the two captains, Lammio and Baranov, remained straight-faced. Rokka himself was quite earnest, though slyly, vigilantly keeping tabs on the situation. He had evidently decided to relish the ordeal as much as possible, hopefully getting out of the threat of the court martial without being humiliated, and maybe even doing some humiliating himself.
‘How did you manage this? Really.’
‘I shot, hit, head-butted and kicked, that’s how. They were some tough fellas, lemme tell you. I almost didn’t make it to this here inquiry for the court martial.’
Sarastie turned to the Ensign. ‘Take the prisoner out and send for the interpreter. That man is valuable. We’ve been after him a long time.’
The Ensign and Baranov left. Rokka called after them, ‘I don’t think you’re gonna git much outta that fella. He’s tough as nails. I sure seen that all right. Good thing I heard those fellas comin’! Who knows what might’ta happened with this here court martial if I hadn’t? That’s the way it is with these things in wartime, see, just dunno what’s gonna come at you one hour later. Everythin’s always gittin’ mixed up with the regulations and such. Downright irritatin’, ain’t it? But whadda you gonna do?’ Rokka lifted his hands and shrugged his shoulders, as if to lament the whole state of affairs.
Sarastie thought for a moment. He was having some difficulty reaching a decision on the issue, as it aroused too many conflicting impulses within him. He couldn’t help marveling at this man and being amused by his sly, calculating glances. The Major had already gleaned what Rokka was up to. He could actually see the situation with greater cla
rity than Rokka himself. The Major knew that Rokka had backed him into a corner. In Sarastie’s mind, the case had broader implications than it did in Rokka’s reckoning. Rokka experienced it as an isolated event, but the Major saw the conflict of opposing principles within it. And Sarastie was hardly without his own personal motivations, either. He felt personally insulted, even if he would have insisted that this feeling was exclusively derived from his conviction that discipline had to be maintained no matter what.
‘Tell me seriously, what makes military discipline so onerous to you that you feel obliged to oppose it at every turn?’
‘I don’t know a damn thing about military discipline. Never had any need for sumpin’ like that. And I ain’t opposin’ anythin’ but this here order sayin’ I’m supposed’da go put rocks along somebody’s walkway. I already told Lammio here all I gotta say about it. This fella here’s the cause of all this!’ (Rokka pointed his finger at Lammio.) ‘He’s been pickin’ on me ever since I turned up! It’s always sumpin’. But he ain’t never said anythin’ to me that wasn’t downright trivial. It ain’t never anythin’ important. It’s always just some stupid whim a his. I’ll tell you all one more time. I was happy to come fight this war. I wanted’da go back to Kannas. And it just so happens that I’m the kinda fella ain’t none of you ever gonna equal. And I’m tellin’ you, you put any other fella out there last night and he’d a been a goner. What more do you want from me, gaddamn it? It’s not that I’m tired a curtsyin’ to you all, it’s just that it ain’t no use out here, so I don’t do it. Lissen, I ain’t out here because a you. I got a wife and kids and you want me to jump like a dog whenever you say hup? What for? It ain’t gonna change nothin’! Look, I done figgered out we’re gonna lose this war. And the closer it gits, the stupider the shit you clowns come up with. You send me to the court martial, but believe me, you sure ain’t gonna see me kowtowin’ to them bosses. We’re half a million fellas out here. And you think that’s why we’re here? So that there’s always somebody standin’ in front a you with his heels together blabberin’ “Yessir, Yessir …”?’
Rokka fell silent and began staring out of the window, as if to underline the fact that anything said from here on out made no difference whatsoever. Sarastie sought to invest his voice with severity as he said gravely, ‘No, that is not why. But this act you refer to as “kowtowing” is an external sign of discipline, and its absence signals an absence of discipline. And an absence of discipline means that those half a million men out here are powerless to carry out the task they have been brought here to perform, namely, the defense of Finland. And you might keep in mind that they are not all like you. There are countless other pig-headed Joe Blows out there who possess only your faults. And that claim of yours, that the war has been lost, is not true. No war is won without setbacks. Because of their lack of expertise, men in the ranks have a tendency to come to conclusions on matters whose significance they do not understand. Nothing decisive has happened yet.’
Rokka heaved his shoulders and laughed with cutting bitterness. ‘Don’t understand! When you throw hundreds of thousands of men into a encirclement to die, there ain’t much to understand, that kinda sign speaks for itself. You think we’d a done that if there was anythin’ else we could’da done? It’s done. I known that a long time now. But about arrangin’ those pebbles.’
Lammio had been silent the whole time, but now he asked the Major for permission to speak. The request was entirely unnecessary, but Lammio wanted to emphasize his own willingness to comply with convention. ‘Tell me, Rokka, where do you propose to find a company commander who would tolerate as much as I have tolerated from you? Be reasonable.’
‘He he. Reasonable. As if your game had some kind a reason! Lissen, you ain’t planned things out too carefully when you started this here brouhaha. You just gone and followed your whims without any real basis at all. Don’t you start throwin’ that stuff at me! You, flatterin’ yourself about how brave you are and all those ideals you think you’re defendin’ … Git that ensign a yours! Let ’im take this all down for the record. Gaddamn it, I have had enough! My patience’s got its breakin’ point too.’
Lammio looked to Sarastie, awaiting his decision. The Major rose and said deliberately, straightening himself up, ‘The battalion can operate very well without you. No man is indispensable in a war, no matter who he is. I am granting you a pardon. More precisely, I am granting you a pardon indefinitely. Not because I think we have any obligation to pardon you, but for other reasons. And my proposal is this. You will not breathe one word of this to anyone, nor will you swagger around puffed up over how we’ve decided to settle it. And from now on, you will follow the rules just like everyone else. Now, if you go singing this in the streets, then it becomes a question of authority, and if that happens, I will set the mill to grind. I hope you understand the opportunity before you – not only for your sake, but also for my own and that of the army. I do not personally have any need to break you, but should the occasion arise in which it becomes necessary, that, too, can be arranged.’
Sarastie drew a deep breath and threw back his shoulders. Mobilizing the towering stature of his body, he felt assured of his own might, affirmed by the very fact that he could afford to grant such a pardon. He flexed his muscles beneath his jacket and expelled any feeling of defeat from his heaving chest, and so was free to grant forgiveness from on high.
Lammio did not need to engage in any body–soul affirming exercises. The issue was no longer his responsibility, and besides, it seemed to him that Rokka had been humiliated, even if he would have supported a movement by the Major to set the mill in motion immediately.
Rokka, for his part, was pleased with the whole arrangement, though he wasn’t about to sign off without conditions. ‘I already said I do what needs done in’na war. But lissen, you tell Lammio here to leave me alone. If he don’t quit those games a his, there won’t be no end to our squabblin’, that’s for damn sure.’
‘You are granted no special exemptions from the disciplinary code. As I said, your behavior will determine how your case is handled henceforth. Dismissed!’
Rokka left. No sooner had he made it out of the door than he was back to bargain. ‘Hey! I just remembered. We’re promised a leave in exchange for a prisoner. So I’m due fourteen extra days. ’Specially seein’ as I got me a cap’n.’
The Major shook his head in wonder at the man’s audacity. Rokka acted as if everything that had just happened hadn’t occurred at all. ‘Well, you’ll get it. No denying it belongs to you. Stick the request first in the pile. To be honest, I only regret that you’ve made it impossible for us to grant you a Mannerheim Cross.’
‘Well, that’s sumpin’ too, but it ain’t no humdinger after all, fifty thousand marks. I nearly made that much offa rings and lamp-stands.’
Rokka finally left for good. He hummed and whistled as he set out, happily swinging his head from side to side. After he’d gone a little way he noticed a rabbit by the side of the road, just bounding out of sight. In the blink of an eye, Rokka was after it, crashing through the thicket as he chased the creature out into the middle of it. The rabbit couldn’t run at full speed yet, being only about half-grown, so Rokka was able to keep right on its heels. ‘Don’t run away! I wanna take you to live with us in’na bunker! I ain’t gonna hurt you …’
Not understanding Rokka’s promises, the rabbit just sped up, and after running about a quarter of a mile, Rokka decided it was no use. Huffing and puffing, he returned to the path, shaking his head at the rabbit’s escape. ‘Well, I guess we woulda hadda scrounge up grass for the little fe
lla. And seein’ as I’m headed off on leave …’
His breath had evened out by the time he reached the bunker. ‘Damn near caught us a rabbit on my way back! We could a had a pet.’
‘What did they say?’
‘’Bout what?’
‘The prisoner and everything.’
‘Oh, they didn’t say nothin’. I’m takin’ off on leave. I got me a leave!’
Only to Koskela did Rokka report what had happened at the command post. Lammio was quite restrained from then on, and said nothing further about the incident – nor about a Mannerheim Cross, for that matter.
IV
Italy fell definitively over the course of the autumn. The most recalcitrant men in the battalion were rounded up and ordered to carry out drills designed to re-establish discipline. Honkajoki was amongst them, as Lammio had started following the man’s intrigues ever more closely and decided that he posed a menace to morale. Some captain was assigned to oversee the close-formation drills, but he could see from day one that he’d been given a hopeless task. What, for example, was he supposed to do with this tall hulk of a man who stood in the ranks with a bow over his shoulder and responded affirmatively, in the most courteous of terms, to everything he said, then systematically performed every single movement incorrectly? And what could he do with that thug named Viirilä, whom he had difficulty even looking at? And crowning it all was the knowledge that Viirilä, like a surprising number of these delinquents, represented the cream of the crop within the battalion.