Entry Three

     This reading section was very good and it was a lot easier to read because I enjoyed it. At this point in the novel, I am already into the book and I feel like I personally know Lev and Kolya. Throughout the book, I compare myself with them, and I think I am a mix of both of them. I am like Kolya in the sense that I am sarcastic sometimes and I like to have fun. But, I think that sometimes I am very quiet and like to look at what's going on around me like Lev. In this novel, though, I like Kolya more than Lev. He makes me laugh a lot, and he seems to attract girls very easily. Also, he is more daring than Lev and has more determination.
     One thing that surprised me a lot was when the boy gave Kolya the last chicken. You now know that Kolya and Lev are searching for eggs for the colonel's daughter's wedding cake. They haven't found any so far because the Germans and Finns are shutting Leningrad off from the rest of Russia. They have tried to find eggs in various different places. The only two times that they got close, they didn't get any eggs. They heard that there was a man who ran a chicken coup on the roof of a building. They helped some girls carry their pails to the apartment so that they could get inside the building. When Kolya told them they were going to talk to the man about his chickens, one of the girls said, "He'll shoot you if you go up there. He doesn't let anyone get near those chickens" (Benioff 80). But, they didn't care, and they went up anyway. When the went up, they cautiously knocked on the door. When no one answered, they tried to open the door, and it opened. They yelled out so that the man wouldn't kill them, but there was still no response. When they walked a little further in, they found the man, dead, and his young grandson sitting next to him. All of the chickens were gone, but Kolya was still considerate to the boy in case there were any chickens left. The boy wouldn't respond to them, he wouldn't accept any food or water, and he wouldn't find shelter with them. But, he opened up his jacket and gave Kolya the last chicken. I was surprised that the boy would do this because it was the last chicken. It was his family's business and there was nothing left. Also, I was surprised he wouldn't accept anything from Kolya and Lev because, now, he will die shortly. But, I guess he wants to stay with his grandfather, which is very nice, too.
     When Lev and Kolya found the little house on the side of the tracks, I was delighted and disappointed. I was happy because they found shelter. They weren't going to make it to Mga (a city where Kolya's friend's uncle runs a poultry collective and they will hopefully get the eggs) because it was already dark out. As it gets darker, it becomes colder, and there was already snow knee-high outside. They would have probably died if they didn't find somewhere to go because they were at least fifteen kilometers from Mga and Kolya thinks they are going the wrong way. It was kind of stupid for Kolya not to say anything because he said that he had known that they were going the wrong way for hours. If they had turned around when he had noticed it, maybe they would have reached Mga by dusk, but they couldn't now. Also, since they found the house, they will be warm for a little while and will maybe be able to eat something. Frostbite and hunger were probably the biggest reasons for death in World War II because the Germans shut down lots of business, which cut off the people from shelter and money, and money was food.
    (World War II Interactive Map: http://www.worldology.com/Europe/world_war_2_imap.htm) The Siege of Leningrad occurred in Nazi Germany's biggest rival during World War II: the Soviet Union. During World War II, more people died in the USSR than any other country by far. Twenty-three million people died in the Soviet Union and, in second place, is Germany with seven million total deaths. This just shows how much the USSR was involved in WWII. Military deaths (10.7 million) and civilian deaths (12.4 million) are both about double the amount of the next highest amount of deaths in each category. According to the Interactive Map, about 1.1 million people died during the Siege of Leningrad. Through bombs and huge blockades, the Germany's attempt to destroy and starve Leningrad was successful from 1941 to 1945.

(Words to the speech: http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1941/11/07.htm)
     This is a video of Joseph Stalin's speech on November 7, 1941 at the Red Army Parade on the Red Square. It is really interesting that at the end of Stalin's speech, he talks about how much Germany is suffering. He is talking about how bad the enemy is doing, but he doesn't really focus on how bad Russia is suffering. The USSR is in a much worse condition than Germany because they have a much worse shortage of food and a much greater number of deaths in the war. As I mentioned before, Germany had a total of seven million deaths and the Soviet Union had a total of twenty-three million deaths! This just goes to show how different leaders can brian-wash their people. The leader who probably brain-washed his peoples the most was Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany, who was Stalin's opponent in World War II.