red moscow

Chapter 2687

Victoria searched for a while and found a scrapbook. She said to Sokov, "Misha, I'm glad I checked it carefully. Otherwise, I would have forgotten the scrapbook made by my great-grandmother. It was her treasure."

"Can you show it to me?"

"Of course," Victoria said. "I'll show you the clippings when we get outside."

After returning to the living room of the villa and sitting down, Victoria handed the clipping book in her hand to Sokov: "Misha, this is a clipping book collected by my great-grandmother. There are many important historical materials in it."

Sokov took the clipping book and opened it. The first briefing he saw was about the blockade of Berlin.

"In January 1947, the United States and Britain arbitrarily merged their respective occupation zones into a 'double occupation zone' and openly declared: 'The two occupation zones should be regarded as a single territory for all economic purposes.' 'The goal of the two governments is to establish a self-sufficient economy for this territory by the end of 1.' In March 1949, the United States, Britain and France held a meeting in London to further expand the US and British "double occupation zone" into a "triple occupation zone."

In response to these actions of Western countries, the Soviet occupation authorities were immediately ordered to retaliate. In addition to taking countermeasures, Western representatives were prohibited from going to the Soviet-controlled area of ​​Berlin to attend various political rallies held by Germans. It was announced that new currency would be issued in the Soviet-controlled area on June 6. On April 22, the Soviet side began to impose a ten-day traffic restriction on the city of Berlin. On June 4, the Soviet Union further tightened the comprehensive ground traffic blockade on Berlin. On June 1, all land and water transportation between Berlin and Western countries was completely cut off by the Soviet Union.

Due to the ground blockade, West Berlin encountered an extremely serious crisis. At that time, the food inventory in West Berlin could only last for about 36 days, the coal inventory could only last for about 45 days, and drinking water and other necessities of life began to be seriously short of supply. In order to get rid of this crisis as soon as possible, the United States, Britain and France quickly adopted two countermeasures: on the one hand, they stepped up the air transport to West Berlin through the "air corridor" to meet the urgent needs of people's lives and strengthen West Berlin's defense capabilities; on the other hand, they tried to negotiate with the Soviet Union to lift the ground blockade of West Berlin.

On May 1949, 5, after repeated negotiations, the Soviet Union finally reached an agreement with the United States, Britain and France to officially lift the ground blockade of West Berlin. At midnight on that day, Western vehicles were allowed to pass through the demarcation line of the occupied zone, and a large number of journalists also poured into West Berlin. The Berlin blockade, which lasted nearly a year, ended.

Turn to the second page and there are two photos.

A photo of a painter squatting on the ground painting white lines was captioned: "On August 1948, 8, West German painters painted the border between the British and Soviet occupation zones at Potsdam Square in Berlin, with British military police next to them maintaining order."

Another photo shows a soldier with a gun on his back jumping over a barbed wire fence, with the caption: "On August 1961, 8, 15-year-old Conrad Schumann, an East German border guard, risked being shot by his own men and jumped over the barbed wire into the French-occupied zone of West Berlin."

Looking at the photo of jumping over the barbed wire, Sokov recalled a post he had read, which said: "Two days before the photo was taken, on Sunday, August 8, the Berlin Wall began to be erected, with concrete slabs and barbed wire spread along the "white line", and armored vehicles supervising from a distance. The barbed wire divides this world city in two. When the border was just blocked, people tried to flee to the west, and people in the west cheered. The scene was more like a track and field competition.

By August 8, part of Bernauer Strasse had been paved with cement slabs, and it can be clearly seen in the photo that Schumann crossed the barbed wire that divided East and West Berlin. The 15-foot-high barbed wire was no problem for the big boy, but betraying his motherland was not so easy. Or rather, on that day, he did not think of betrayal, but he felt the people's dissatisfaction with his guarding of the motherland's borders.

Conrad Schumann leaned against the wall, smoking non-stop, with a gun hanging on his shoulder. The young people on the other side of the barbed wire were about his age, but they regarded him as an opponent. At this time, the group of young protesters suddenly became quiet, and someone shouted: "Come here!"

No one knew whether it was encouragement or the young people's booing. Schumann did not go over when he heard the shouting.

An hour later, a West Berlin police car drove up, stopped not far away, and opened the back door.

At this time, the voices shouting "Come here! Come here!" became louder and louder. Schumann, wearing a helmet and long boots, suddenly threw away the cigarette butt in his hand, ran quickly to the barbed wire and jumped over.

The moment of jumping over the fence was captured by the young photographer Peter Rebbin. This historic photo was published on the front page of the German Bild newspaper a few hours later and then appeared in the media around the world.

Schumann was not a hero, in a sense he was a reckless boy, a reluctant rebel. But he was the first "defector" to jump over the Berlin Wall, and this photo captured a historic moment. Within a few dozen hours after Schumann crossed the concrete slab and barbed wire, another nine border guards jumped over the barbed wire.

Seeing that Sokov had been staring at Schumann's photo, Victoria asked, "What do you think will happen if Schumann jumps to the other side of the wall?"

Fortunately, Sokov had read the introduction about Schumann, so he told the truth: "Schumann successfully integrated into West German society, married a West German girl, and worked for Audi for 20 years. When the Berlin Wall fell, Schumann found that although he could travel freely between the East and the West, he was an unwelcome person in his hometown. In the eyes of East Germans, he was just a betrayer and a pawn of imperialism. Because of his defection, he could no longer drink beer with his friends and talk about the past years. He would never be one of them again. The years when the Berlin Wall was built also built a high wall between him and his relatives and friends. On June 1998, 6, he hanged himself in his own orchard in Bavaria."

"What a pity." Victoria shook her head and said, "If he had stayed in East Germany, he might still be alive and well now." After that, she raised her hand and looked at her watch. "It's getting late. Let's go back."

"Well, let's go."

After locking the gate of the villa, Sokov drove towards the city.

On the way, Sokov asked curiously: "Vika, judging from the current situation, I'm afraid you won't have many opportunities to come here in the future. What are you going to do with this house?"

"If it doesn't work out, we'll have to sell it." Victoria turned her head to look at the house that was gradually moving away, and said, "One of my colleagues sold his country villa for between five thousand and eight thousand dollars. It shouldn't be a problem to sell a house like my great-grandmother's for a similar price."

If this country house was located closer to the market and Sokov didn't have a house, he might consider buying it. But now that he had already bought a house in the city, buying one in the suburbs would be a bit redundant, so he remained silent and did not express any opinions.

When the car approached the traffic police checkpoint, Sokov saw a traffic policeman standing in the middle of the road from a distance. He was worried that he would be stopped again, and he couldn't help but turn his head to look at Victoria.

Victoria noticed his worry and waved her hand, saying, "Don't worry, Misha. I'm here. The traffic police won't give you any trouble."

Just as Victoria said, the traffic police standing in the middle of the road saw the car driven by Sokov coming, just glanced at the license plate, and walked aside without any intention of stopping the car.

Seeing this, Victoria smiled and said, "These traffic police are quite good. They even memorized your license plate. I thought I would need to take out my ID again."

After the car entered the city, Sokov asked tentatively: "Vika, where are you going next, home or to the police station?"

Victoria thought for a moment, then said, "Take me to the police station." Sokov nodded and drove towards the police station where Victoria worked.

Unexpectedly, when they were still a few hundred meters away from the police station, a police car suddenly rushed out from the side and blocked Sokov's car. If he hadn't braked in time, he would have been hit directly.

After the police car stopped, a police sergeant got out of the car, came to Sokov's car, put one hand on the window frame, and said nonchalantly: "Your passport!"

Sokov quickly took out his passport and handed it over.

Unexpectedly, the other party took the passport, put it directly into his pocket without even looking at it, and then waved at Sokov and said, "Get out of the car and follow me!"

"Misha, what's going on?" Victoria, who was sitting in the passenger seat, witnessed the whole process and asked with a frown, "He was checking your passport, but after you gave it to him, he didn't even look at it and just put it in his pocket. What's going on?"

"What else could it be?" Sokov said with a wry smile, "He just wants me to get in his car so he can blackmail me." After saying that, he pushed open the car door, bent down and got out.

As soon as he got out of the car, he saw Victoria getting out from the other side.

She walked straight to the police car and said to the policeman, "Sergeant, according to relevant regulations, except for solving a case, the police are not qualified to check other people's IDs. Do you know that your behavior is illegal?"

Unexpectedly, the sergeant just glanced at her and said disdainfully: "Who are you to make irresponsible remarks? I warn you, stand away, otherwise I will take you to the police station for obstructing public service."

"Really?" Victoria said coldly, "Then I want to see how you bring me to the police station. I remind you that I am from Moscow and I am not afraid of you."

The sergeant ignored Victoria and turned to ask Sokov who was walking over: "Friend, is she your girlfriend?"

Sokov glanced at Victoria and saw her staring at the sergeant with a frosty face. He said with a smile: "Yes, she is my girlfriend."

"My friend, I know you are a Chinese who is here to do business." The sergeant became much kinder when he learned that Victoria was Sokov's girlfriend. He even said to Sokov in a negotiating tone: "Look, you drive such a nice car, which shows that you are very rich. But look at me, I am just an ordinary policeman. My usual income is not enough to support my family. Can you give me some money so that I can buy bread and beer for my family?"

Blackmail like this often happens near the market, but this is the first time Sokov has encountered blackmail so far away from the market.

He turned his head to look at Victoria and asked with a smile: "Vika, tell me, what should I do?"

Victoria didn't waste any words. She took out her red ID, unfolded it, and handed it to the police sergeant: "I'm Major Victoria from the previous police station. If you don't mind, come with me to the station."

The police sergeant never dreamed that he had just set his sights on a prey and had not yet made any profit. A person whom he could not afford to offend suddenly appeared next to the prey. He suddenly became flustered: "I'm sorry, Major, I didn't know he was your boyfriend. Please forgive my recklessness, I won't do it next time, please forgive me this time."

Victoria knew that the salaries of the police had always been low, otherwise there wouldn't be so many black policemen who made a living by extortion around the market. Seeing the sergeant in front of her, it was obviously the first time he had done such a thing. She planned to leave it to Sokov to decide how to deal with him: "Misha, how are you going to deal with him?"

Sokov didn't want to cause any more trouble, so he said to calm things down: "Vika, forget it, let him go."

"Show me your ID."

Hearing Victoria say this, the police sergeant did not dare to delay and quickly took out his ID and handed it to Victoria.

Victoria unfolded it, quickly read the contents, and then handed the certificate back to the other party: "Since this is your first offense, I will forgive you. If you do it again next time, I will definitely not forgive you. I am very familiar with your director. If I say hello to him, you may have no choice but to take off this skin on your body. Do you understand?"

"Understood, understood." The sergeant asked in a panic, "Can I leave now?"

"Please return my passport to me first."

The sergeant took out the passport from his pocket, returned it to Sokov, got into his car, and left quickly.

"Misha, do you usually encounter such police officers?" Victoria asked.

Sokov nodded and said truthfully, "Yes, this kind of situation is very common around the market. It is said that some police officers from other police stations learned that they could make money near the market, so they gave gifts to their superiors in the hope of being transferred to work in a police station near the market."

"Okay, I understand." Victoria responded calmly, "I'm very close to the police station. I can walk there in a few steps. You can go back to the market first. I'll contact you if there's anything."

"Okay." Sokov returned to the car, waved to Victoria, and prepared to drive away.

Unexpectedly, not long after driving out, he saw Victoria waving at him through the rearview mirror, and even shouting something. He quickly backed the car back, looked up and asked, "Vika, do you have anything else to say?"

Victoria handed over a cell phone: "Your cell phone is still here with me."

When Sokov saw the phone, he immediately remembered that when Victoria was in the suburbs, she borrowed his phone to make a call because her phone had no signal, and she never returned it to him after the call. He reached out to take the phone and waved to Victoria: "Vika, goodbye!"