On the eve of February 23, we remember our only, according to Alexander III, allies - our army and navy. The blog of Transenergostroy LLC devotes this article to unique troops that have no analogues in any army in the world.
Despite the upheavals of the last two decades, our country still has an army and a navy, which cannot but please sane fellow citizens. Every year on February 23rd we celebrate the existence of the Armed Forces Russian Federation. We pay tribute to the memory of the fallen defenders of the Motherland and tribute to the hard work Russian soldiers who today serve in military units of Russia. In this work, our soldiers have many assistants - tanks, planes, ships, tractors - everything that is called military equipment and requires fuel. Fuel is the blood of war, and, thanks to the Soviet Army, we have the means to supply the armed forces of the Motherland with this blood. I'm talking about the pipeline troops.
Pipelines were laid back in the Great Patriotic War. In addition to the “Road of Life” along the ice of Lake Ladoga to besieged Leningrad, our troops also built a pipeline of life - under the ice. Fuel was delivered through it to Leningrad. During the entire period of its operation, neither the enemy Air Force nor the Navy were able to disrupt the supply of fuel, the pipeline was not discovered and operated uninterruptedly as long as the situation required it.
Construction of a pipeline along the bottom of Lake Ladoga. Spring 1942
A few years after the end of the Great Patriotic War, on January 14, 1952, a directive was issued by the USSR Minister of Defense, Marshal Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky on the creation of a separate fuel pumping battalion - a unit that has no analogues in any army in the world. This date became my birthday pipeline troops. The pipeline warriors have many glorious feats behind them, both military and those accomplished in peacetime in emergency situations.
A unique operation to lay a field trunk pipeline to provide fuel to a limited contingent of Soviet troops was carried out by the SA pipeline troops in Afghanistan. For fuel delivery military units and connections, field trunk pipelines PMTP-150 and PMTP-100 were deployed in two directions with a total length of more than 1,200 km. They made it possible to provide more than 90% of the troops' needs for diesel fuel and kerosene, and 35% for motor gasoline. Now one can only imagine what kind of heroism, what kind of effort was required to maintain the operation of these pipelines in combat conditions, day and night - almost 5 million tons of fuel were delivered through these pipes Soviet troops for 9 years of war. According to the creators of the recently released film “Afghan”, the most military awards in history Afghan war It was not the paratroopers and special forces who received it, but the trumpeters.
Republic of Afghanistan. "Trumpeters" are working
After Afghanistan, pipeline warriors showed their worth both in Chernobyl and in Armenia immediately after the 1988 earthquake. Elimination of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident is a separate page in the history of the pipeline troops. It was necessary to supply large quantities of uncontaminated process water to the liquidation zone. It was used to decontaminate roads, buildings, concrete during the construction of a protective sarcophagus over an emergency reactor and for other purposes. The daily need for water was more than 4 thousand cubic meters, and it had to be collected from sources located outside the infection zone. The best remedy The solution to this problem was field trunk pipelines. For almost three months, the personnel of a separate pipeline company ensured an uninterrupted supply of water through a pipeline with a length of about 40 km to special treatment points in the accident zone. The task was completed.
Pipeline troops were involved in extinguishing large forest fires and fires of peat bogs in a number of regions of the country. PMTs were used most extensively to eliminate fires in 1972, which, due to their size and consequences, could lead to a national disaster. Five pipeline crews were urgently mobilized to supply water to disaster areas. Military pipeline workers deployed about 300 PMT lines with a total length of about 1,300 kilometers and supplied more than 4.5 million cubic meters of water through them, thanks to which they managed to fight the fire over an area of 44 thousand hectares.
Unlike pilots, tank crews or artillerymen, who have at their disposal formidable weapons that shoot and destroy, military personnel of the pipeline troops build and create, they are “armed” with pipelines, complex pipe-installation equipment and other means of mechanizing work, in addition, they have at their disposal a solid fleet of vehicles and modern means of communication.
The pipeline troops are armed with special tools and equipment: field main pipelines PMTP-100, PMTP-150, PMTB-200, which allow the use of a mechanized assembly method, pipe installation machines MST-100, TUM-150, TUM-150V, motor pumping units for pumping fuel, storage tanks and much more.
PMTP-150 field main pipeline pipes in storage
The work of the TUM-150V pipe layer is a fantastic picture! The description of this “monster” in military language, as always in such cases, is prosaic: “the TUM-150 pipe-laying machine consists of a special semi-trailer with a hopper, conveyors, a hydraulic crane and an assembly device.” In fact, before us appears a huge monster K-701, in the trailer of which there is a seeming chaos of pipes, levers and cables. There is no impression that these mechanisms are capable of subtle creative work. Exactly until the moment when the capabilities of the TUM-150V are demonstrated to the observer. The machine, moving at a speed of about 3 km per hour, automatically collects pipes into a thread in its belly and carefully lays the almost finished pipeline behind it.
The catastrophe that befell our Motherland after the collapse of the Soviet Union to a large extent affected the pipeline troops. A significant part of the existing sets of field trunk pipelines remained in the former Soviet republics in the west (Ukraine, Belarus, Baltic states). The supply of new sets of field trunk pipelines has virtually ceased. The number of pipeline troops fell by more than half. Nowadays, reports periodically appear in the press about the plans of the command of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to solve technical problems equipment of pipeline troops, determine a new location for pipeline parts and connections in military organization states. Various ideas arise, even to the point of rendering paid services by pipeline warriors to various organizations. There is no doubt that the “pipemakers” will have customers - field trunk pipelines are widely used in oil fields and in other areas of industry.
Today we wish the pipeline warriors to remember and increase the glory of the “pipelines” of the past, to serve the Motherland with dignity, to be worthy of the heroes of the past - “soldiers of the highway of courage.”
Despite the non-combat name, military personnel of this unique branch of the military often perform combat missions under enemy fire. The history of the Pipeline Troops (TrV) has many glorious pages.
On January 14, 1952, Marshal Vasilevsky signs an order to create a separate battalion that will specialize in pumping fuel and lubricants. This order marked the beginning of a new branch of troops - the pipeline troops of the USSR.
Pipeline troops are special rear troops whose tasks include creating pipelines and pumping hot water for units of various branches of the military. In fact, the range of tasks of the units is much wider. TrV fighters often have to lay alternative pipelines. One of these problems was successfully solved quite recently. In the spring of 2014, units of the pipeline troops removed the threat from Crimea of being left without fresh water and thwarted the plans of the Ukrainian military.
First, an uninterrupted supply of fresh water to Old Crimea was ensured, and then other pipeline branches began to be created. As a result, the actions of the military personnel made it possible to avoid drought and save the harvest. One hundred and thirty kilometers of the pipeline became a kind of “road of life” for the peninsula.
The geography of TrV's combat operations is impressive: Afghanistan, Laos, Somalia, Cuba, North Caucasus. The activities of fighters in Afghanistan cannot be called anything other than combat operations. Under the threat of enemy fire, not only new highways were laid, but also existing branches were repaired and protected. The difficult terrain of the country did not allow the use of technology, so many tens of kilometers of pipes were installed virtually by hand.
The work of TRV units made it possible to conduct combat operations in Afghanistan. The actions of the military personnel were highly appreciated by the government:
Two were awarded the Order of the Red Banner;
two hundred and fifty-nine received the Order of the Red Star;
fifty-five – Order “For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR”;
three hundred and twenty – medal “For Courage”;
four hundred ninety-seven - medal "For Military Merit".
In the seventies, the Soviet Union helped overcome a catastrophic drought in Somalia. Similar assistance was provided by TrV units in other countries in Africa and Asia.
The most complex pipeline-laying operations were carried out by TrV fighters in the Northern Caucasus. Carrying out combat orders under enemy fire, people successfully carried out their task. Also, many purely civilian operations were carried out in the region.
Another type of civil operation is the installation of pipelines into forest fire zones, to burning peat bogs. Such operations are carried out quite often in the Moscow region, Siberia, Far East. The actions of TrV make it possible to extinguish fires in the absence of bodies of water within a radius of tens of kilometers.
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant became a glorious and tragic page of TRV. The fighters, despite the radiation, laid out pipeline branches to pump water and fuel. The created water supply allowed the cement plant to operate and, as a result, to erect a sarcophagus over the emergency reactor. The actions of the TRV military personnel made it possible to avoid dire consequences this disaster.
On this day we express our gratitude to everyone who served and is serving in these special rear troops, for their courage and bravery, for their work, unnoticed, but no less necessary.
Pipeline Troops
pipeline army lubricant
Pipeline troops are a formation (special troops) of the armed forces designed to provide fuel and lubricants (fuels and lubricants) to formations of the armed forces, deploy field trunk pipelines and supply fuel through them to warehouses of associations and formations of the armed forces and perform other special tasks.
Pipeline troops are part of the Home Front Armed Forces Russia of the Soviet and modern periods of Russia (Central Directorate of Rocket Fuel and Fuel of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (TSURTiG of the Ministry of Defense of Russia)), and their formations are part of the rear of fronts (military districts, fleets) and associations of branches of the armed forces.
Russian pipeline troops, if necessary, can lay 16 thousand kilometers of field trunk oil pipelines
WITH moment of appearance regular armies in Europe (XVII-XVIII centuries), the role of logistics support for troops increased significantly. In most armies, not only quartermaster services began to emerge (supplying the army), but also separate types of troops and services that were used for both military and peaceful purposes (construction, disaster relief). Their main task is to provide the active army with all types of necessary support.
The division of labor in the army rear reached its peak in the 20th century. IN different countries such units are called in their own way: in the USSR they were called technical troops; in the USA - by troops combat support; in Germany - support troops. IN modern Russia this part of the armed forces is called the rear of the RF Armed Forces. It includes a unique type of troops - pipeline troops.
They perform tasks related to the continuous delivery of petroleum products throughout the country and in the zone of possible military operations. At the moment, they include technical means that make it possible to build a network of oil pipelines over 16 thousand kilometers.
For the first time, pipeline units appeared in the Red Army during the Second World War, although they were not allocated to a separate branch of the military. In October 1941, a 21-kilometer pipeline was laid along the bottom of Lake Ladoga and an 8-kilometer pipeline along the shore. All this was done in 50 days under enemy fire. From October 1941 to February 1943, about 45 thousand tons of petroleum products were delivered to besieged Leningrad.
After the Red Army occupied the oil regions of Romania, rapid delivery of fuel was established to the front line receding to the west.
After the end of the war, the Soviet command adopted the doctrine of a quick massive tank strike on enemy territory, which required a large amount of fuel and an uninterrupted supply of it to active units. Another key challenge that led to the emergence of pipeline troops was the need to quickly deliver rocket fuel.
In the early 1950s, Stalin gave instructions to create a new generation of field trunk pipelines. On January 14, 1952, the USSR Minister of War, Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky, signed a directive that prescribed the creation of a separate fuel pumping battalion. This marked the beginning of the creation of the pipeline troops of the Soviet Union.
Similar units exist in the special forces of other countries of the world, but only in the USSR, and then in Russia, do they exist as an independent branch of the military.
Gradually, the first units of the pipeline troops turned into regular troops, and by the end of the 80s, the world's best field prefabricated main pipelines were installed. Currently, the pipeline troops are part of the Central Department of Fuel and Fuel and have no analogues in foreign armies. Over several decades, designers, engineers, pipeline warriors, and workers have created, developed and put into service various sets of field main pipelines that have no analogues in the world, machines for their installation and mobile pumping equipment. Today, the main “weapons” of the troops are pipelines, pipe-installation equipment and other means of mechanization of work, as well as special vehicles and communications equipment. And their main task is to ensure continuous delivery of fuel over long distances.
Over its 62-year history, the pipeline troops managed to take part both in combat operations and in eliminating the consequences of natural and man-made disasters.
During the war in Afghanistan (1979-1989), pipeline troops deployed 1,200 kilometers of field trunk pipelines. During the fighting, over 5,400,000 tons of fuel were supplied, which amounted to 80% of the total volume of fuel and lubricants supplied. Pipeline troops were involved in eliminating the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (1986), the earthquake in Armenia (1988), as well as to extinguish forest fires and peat bogs in subsequent years.
Units of the pipeline battalion of the logistics brigade (MTO) of the Western Military District (ZVO) have completely completed the assembly of a 5-kilometer section of the pipeline and have begun supplying fresh water drinking water from an artesian well to the city of Stary Krym in the south-east of Crimea.
The pipeline supplies about 2 thousand cubic meters of water every day. At the same time, the assembly of main pipeline branches to other cities and settlements.
In total, field trunk pipelines with a total length of more than 125 km and a capacity of more than 9 thousand cubic meters of water per day will be deployed on the peninsula.
The decision to involve logistics units to deliver fresh drinking water to populated areas in the south-east of Crimea was made in early May by Russian Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu.
The Russian pipeline troops carry out tasks to ensure the continuous delivery of fuel over considerable distances. The main armament of the troops consists of prefabricated field main pipelines, pipe fitting equipment, other means of mechanization of work, as well as special vehicles and communications equipment.
The diverse capabilities of the troops have been repeatedly confirmed in peacetime when eliminating the consequences of emergencies of a natural and man-made nature: extinguishing large forest fires and peatland fires, eliminating the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and the earthquake in Armenia (1989).
A serious test of the combat readiness of the pipeline troops was their participation in hostilities in Afghanistan, where field trunk pipelines with a total length of more than 1.2 thousand km were deployed, through which 5.4 million tons of fuel were supplied, which amounted to 80% of the total supply volume . Pipeline troops were also involved in the counter-terrorism operation in the North Caucasus.
As the head of Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, notes today, department employees are monitoring drinking water, its quality does not cause concern.
On January 14, 1952, on the basis of the adopted Resolution, the Minister of War of the USSR, Marshal of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky signed a directive that ordered the formation of the first separate fuel pumping battalion. It was the date of signing the directive that became the birthday of the pipeline troops.
The pipeline troops reached their peak in numbers and technical equipment by the end of the 1990s: they included 20 pipeline brigades, six separate battalions, two companies and eight platoons -- total number more than 5 thousand people. Today the number of this type of troops has fallen by half. There are now 2,900 km of pipelines in constant operation, through which fuel is supplied from stations (ports) to district, naval, airfield bases and warehouses.
#troops #history #pipelinetroops#Russianarmy #pipes
Pipeline Troops Since their formation, they have been used to support combat operations and carry out peaceful missions, to provide measures in emergency situations.
Pipeline Troops were involved in extinguishing large forest fires and peatland fires in a number of regions of the country. PMTs were used most extensively to eliminate fires in 1972, which, due to their size and consequences, could lead to a national disaster. Five pipeline crews were urgently mobilized to supply water to disaster areas. Military pipeline workers deployed about 300 PMT lines with a total length of about 1,300 kilometers and supplied more than 4.5 million cubic meters of water through them, thanks to which they managed to fight the fire over an area of 44 thousand hectares.
To meet the fuel needs of troops in the territory Afghanistan were deployed field trunk pipelines (FMP) on two directions with a total length of more than 1200 kilometers. In combination with warehouses and automobile fuel supply units, a unique pipeline-transport-warehouse system for supplying units and units with a limited contingent of fuel was formed and operated stably for 9 years.
In particular, 5.4 million tons of it were pumped through the PMT - 80% of the total volume supplied. The experience of using PMTs in Afghanistan has once again convincingly confirmed their extremely important role and place in the troop support system. If not for our pipelines, then the shock and army aviation The 40th Army did not fulfill the tasks assigned to them.
During the liquidation of the consequences of the accident at Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986, it was necessary to supply large quantities of water to the emergency recovery area. The daily need for technical water was 3.5-4.0 thousand cubic meters. Moreover, it had to be taken from rivers and reservoirs located outside the 30-kilometer zone of the nuclear power plant. To deliver this amount of water daily, about 250 tanker trucks with a capacity of 5 cubic meters each were required. Calculations have shown that it is more rational to use PMT to solve this problem. It was carried out by a separate pipeline battalion and three separate pipeline companies, which in total supplied hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of water to the site.
The next test for the pipeline troops was the devastating earthquake in 1989 in Armenia, as a result of which Spitak city found himself without water. To ensure its supply, by decision of the country's leadership, a pipeline brigade was mobilized to the Transcaucasian Military District. Military pipeline workers in a short time, in difficult mountainous conditions, deployed 8 PMTP-100 lines and pumped water non-stop.
The transport capabilities of the Soviet Army of the 60s - 90s of the last century were significantly lower than those of the potential enemy. Only in Western Europe did a system of stationary pipelines make it possible to supply troops with NATO fuel up to 60% of their needs. In our case, this direction was covered by stationary oil product pipelines by no more than 20%; the remaining volumes of fuel were planned to be supplied by rail, water and road transport. In order to increase the sustainability of the supply of troops in the Western European theater of military operations, the concept of creating a unified pipeline and storage system participating countries Warsaw Pact, which made it possible to supply up to 20 thousand tons of fuel to the western borders of the USSR every day over a distance of over 800 kilometers, which is adequate to the volume of work of 120 automobile battalions.
Pipeline troops are used in the interests of the Russian economic complex
In areas with insufficiently developed transport infrastructure, especially in Siberia and the Far North, a wide field for their application has been found. Civil organizations purchase PMT kits sold for conversion and successfully pump oil through them. In the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), seasonal (in summer months) operation of PMTP-150 with a length of 110 kilometers. Through it, using standard pumping means, oil is supplied from the remote taiga (Talakan field) to the terminal on the Lena River, from where oil is delivered by tankers to various points of the republic. By the end of 2001, 600 thousand tons of oil were pumped through the pipeline. In the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, a temporary Musyurshor-Sandivey oil pipeline with a length of 50 kilometers is operated year-round. In the direction Zabaikalsk - Manchuria, a system of five lines of the PMTP-150 pipeline with a length of 12 kilometers was built for the export of petroleum products to China.
And perform other special tasks.
Pipeline Troops capable of delivering thousands of tons of fuel and lubricants (and more) over long distances in a short time.
Story
In connection with the mass motorization and mechanization of the USSR Armed Forces, the design of prefabricated field pipelines for the Red Army began in December 1933 by order of the Fuel and Lubricants Supply Directorate of the Red Army. In 1937, the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army conducted exercises during which an experimental laying of a pipeline across the Suifun River was carried out.
We also gained experience in the combat work of special forces in pre-war years on Lake Khasan, on Khalkhin Gol and in other conflicts, the state of the system for supplying troops (forces) with fuel and lubricants was checked in major maneuvers and exercises near Kiev and Kharkov.
For the first time in the world, pipeline units (at that time not yet troops) were massively used in the USSR as part of the rear of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. In October 1941, to supply fuel and lubricants to besieged Leningrad, a 21-kilometer and 8-kilometer (along the shore) pipelines were laid along the bottom of Lake Ladoga. All this was accomplished in 50 days under fire from Wehrmacht troops. From October 1941 to February 1943, about 45,000 tons of petroleum products were delivered through them. The positive unique experience of the USSR Armed Forces predetermined the creation of these special forces.
In the early 1990s, the USSR Armed Forces had 24 separate pipeline brigades (OPBR), 6 separate battalions (OPB), three separate companies and 8 separate platoons, numbering over 5,000 people. Today the number of these special forces has decreased by half.
Separate pipeline battalions, grouped four in a separate brigade, have the ability to lay prefabricated main pipelines with a diameter of 100, 150, 200 millimeters at a rate of up to 100-120 km/day and supply a specified amount of fuel and lubricants in one or several directions (for each line from 600 up to 3,000 tons/day) over long (600 kilometers or more) distances in any weather and terrain conditions, in any theater of military operations or theater of war, under any enemy influence.
Pipeline Troops equipped with pipe installation equipment, means of mechanization of work, communications equipment, etc. In constant operation pipeline troops There are lines of field trunk pipelines with a total length of more than 2,000 kilometers, through which fuel from unloading stations (ports) is supplied to airfield and district (naval) warehouses.
Pipeline Troops were involved in extinguishing massive peat fires in the Moscow region. In the summer - autumn of 1972, five pipeline brigades and four separate pipeline battalions took part in eliminating peat fires in the Moscow region pipeline troops, providing fast delivery water to the fire extinguishing areas.
During the war in Afghanistan (1979-1989) pipeline troops 1,200 kilometers of field trunk pipelines were deployed. During the fighting, over 5,400,000 tons of fuel were supplied, which amounted to 80% of the total volume of fuel and lubricants supplied. Pipeline Troops were involved in eliminating the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (1986), the earthquake in Armenia (1988), as well as extinguishing forest fires and peat bogs in subsequent years.
Formations
Below are the formations TbV(Not all):
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Notes
Literature
- Great Soviet Encyclopedia (GSB), Third Edition, published by the publishing house " Soviet encyclopedia"in 1969-1978 in 30 volumes;
- Military encyclopedic Dictionary(VES), Moscow (M.), Military Publishing House (VI), 1984, 863 pp. with illustrations (ill.), 30 sheets (ill.);
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Excerpt characterizing the Pipeline Troops
“Yes, yes, I remember something too,” Sonya answered timidly...“I asked my father and mother about this blackamoor,” said Natasha. - They say that there was no blackamoor. But you remember!
- Oh, how I remember his teeth now.
- How strange it is, it was like a dream. I like it.
“Do you remember how we were rolling eggs in the hall and suddenly two old women began to spin around on the carpet?” Was it or not? Do you remember how good it was?
- Yes. Do you remember how dad in a blue fur coat fired a gun on the porch? “They turned over, smiling with pleasure, memories, not sad old ones, but poetic youthful memories, those impressions from the most distant past, where dreams merge with reality, and laughed quietly, rejoicing at something.
Sonya, as always, lagged behind them, although their memories were common.
Sonya did not remember much of what they remembered, and what she did remember did not arouse in her the poetic feeling that they experienced. She only enjoyed their joy, trying to imitate it.
She took part only when they remembered Sonya's first visit. Sonya told how she was afraid of Nikolai, because he had strings on his jacket, and the nanny told her that they would sew her into strings too.
“And I remember: they told me that you were born under cabbage,” said Natasha, “and I remember that I didn’t dare not believe it then, but I knew that it wasn’t true, and I was so embarrassed.”
During this conversation, the maid's head poked out of the back door of the sofa room. “Miss, they brought the rooster,” the girl said in a whisper.
“No need, Polya, tell me to carry it,” said Natasha.
In the middle of the conversations going on in the sofa, Dimmler entered the room and approached the harp that stood in the corner. He took off the cloth and the harp made a false sound.
“Eduard Karlych, please play my beloved Nocturiene by Monsieur Field,” said the voice of the old countess from the living room.
Dimmler struck a chord and, turning to Natasha, Nikolai and Sonya, said: “Young people, how quietly they sit!”
“Yes, we are philosophizing,” Natasha said, looking around for a minute and continuing the conversation. The conversation was now about dreams.
Dimmer started to play. Natasha silently, on tiptoe, walked up to the table, took the candle, took it out and, returning, quietly sat down in her place. It was dark in the room, especially on the sofa on which they were sitting, but through the large windows the silver light of the full moon fell onto the floor.
“You know, I think,” Natasha said in a whisper, moving closer to Nikolai and Sonya, when Dimmler had already finished and was still sitting, weakly plucking the strings, apparently indecisive to leave or start something new, “that when you remember like that, you remember, you remember everything.” , you remember so much that you remember what happened before I was in the world...
“This is Metampsic,” said Sonya, who always studied well and remembered everything. – The Egyptians believed that our souls were in animals and would go back to animals.
“No, you know, I don’t believe it, that we were animals,” Natasha said in the same whisper, although the music had ended, “but I know for sure that we were angels here and there somewhere, and that’s why we remember everything.” ...
-Can I join you? - said Dimmler, who approached quietly and sat down next to them.
- If we were angels, then why did we fall lower? - said Nikolai. - No, this cannot be!
“Not lower, who told you that lower?... Why do I know what I was before,” Natasha objected with conviction. - After all, the soul is immortal... therefore, if I live forever, that’s how I lived before, lived for all eternity.
“Yes, but it’s hard for us to imagine eternity,” said Dimmler, who approached the young people with a meek, contemptuous smile, but now spoke as quietly and seriously as they did.
– Why is it difficult to imagine eternity? – Natasha said. - Today it will be, tomorrow it will be, it will always be and yesterday it was and yesterday it was...
- Natasha! now it's your turn. “Sing me something,” the countess’s voice was heard. - That you sat down like conspirators.
- Mother! “I don’t want to do that,” Natasha said, but at the same time she stood up.
All of them, even the middle-aged Dimmler, did not want to interrupt the conversation and leave the corner of the sofa, but Natasha stood up, and Nikolai sat down at the clavichord. As always, standing in the middle of the hall and choosing the most advantageous place for resonance, Natasha began to sing her mother’s favorite piece.
She said that she did not want to sing, but for a long time before, and for a long time since, she had not sung as she sang that evening. Count Ilya Andreich, from the office where he was talking with Mitinka, heard her singing, and like a student, in a hurry to go play, finishing the lesson, he got confused in his words, giving orders to the manager and finally fell silent, and Mitinka, also listening, silently with a smile, stood in front of count. Nikolai did not take his eyes off his sister, and took a breath with her. Sonya, listening, thought about what a huge difference there was between her and her friend and how impossible it was for her to be even remotely as charming as her cousin. The old countess sat with a happily sad smile and tears in her eyes, occasionally shaking her head. She thought about Natasha, and about her youth, and about how there was something unnatural and terrible in this upcoming marriage of Natasha with Prince Andrei.
Dimmler sat down next to the countess and closed his eyes, listening.
“No, Countess,” he said finally, “this is a European talent, she has nothing to learn, this softness, tenderness, strength...”
- Ah! “how I’m afraid for her, how afraid I am,” said the countess, not remembering who she was talking to. Her maternal instinct told her that there was too much of something in Natasha, and that this would not make her happy. Natasha had not yet finished singing when an enthusiastic fourteen-year-old Petya ran into the room with the news that the mummers had arrived.
Natasha suddenly stopped.
- Fool! - she screamed at her brother, ran up to the chair, fell on it and sobbed so much that she could not stop for a long time.
“Nothing, Mama, really nothing, just like this: Petya scared me,” she said, trying to smile, but the tears kept flowing and sobs were choking her throat.
Dressed up servants, bears, Turks, innkeepers, ladies, scary and funny, bringing with them coldness and fun, at first timidly huddled in the hallway; then, hiding one behind the other, they were forced into the hall; and at first shyly, and then more and more cheerfully and amicably, songs, dances, choral and Christmas games began. The Countess, recognizing the faces and laughing at those dressed up, went into the living room. Count Ilya Andreich sat in the hall with a radiant smile, approving of the players. The youth disappeared somewhere.
