After rummaging for a while, Victoria found a newspaper clipping book and said to Sokov: "Misha, fortunately I checked carefully, otherwise I would have forgotten the newspaper clipping book made by my great-grandmother. This is her treasure."
"Can you show it to me?"
"Of course." Victoria said, "When we get outside, I'll show you the newspaper clippings."
After returning to the living room of the villa and sitting down, Victoria handed the newspaper clipping book in her hand to Sokov: "Misha, this is a newspaper clipping book collected by my great-grandmother. You can see a lot of important historical information in it."
Sokov took the newspaper clippings and opened it. The first briefing he saw was about the blockade of Berlin.
"In January 1947, the United States and Britain merged their respective occupied areas into 'double-occupied areas' without authorization, and openly claimed: 'The two occupied areas should be regarded as unified territory for the purpose of all economic purposes.'
'The purpose of the two governments is to establish a self-sufficient economy for this territory by the end of 1949.' In March 1948, the United States, Britain, and France held a meeting in London to further expand the "double-occupied area" of the United States and Britain.
It is the 'triple occupation area'.
In response to these actions by Western countries, the Soviet occupation authorities were immediately ordered to fight back. After taking countermeasures, they prohibited Western representatives from going to the Soviet area in Berlin to attend various political rallies held by the Germans. They also announced that they would hold a meeting in the Soviet area on June 22.
New currency was issued. On April 1, the Soviet Union began to impose ten-day traffic restrictions on the city of Berlin. On June 19, the Soviet Union further tightened the comprehensive ground traffic blockade imposed on Berlin. On June 24, Berlin and Western countries
All land and water transportation was completely cut off by the Soviet Union.
Due to the ground blockade, West Berlin encountered an extremely serious crisis. At that time, West Berlin's food stocks could only last about 36 days, and its coal stocks could only last about 45 days. Serious shortages of drinking water and other daily necessities also began.
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 air transportation to West Berlin through the "air corridor" to solve the urgent needs of people's lives and strengthen West Berlin's defense capabilities;
On the other hand, they tried to negotiate to get the Soviet Union to lift its ground blockade of West Berlin.
On May 12, 1949, after repeated negotiations, the Soviet Union finally reached an agreement with the United States, Britain, and France and announced the official lifting of the ground blockade of West Berlin. At 0:00 that day, Western vehicles were allowed to pass through the occupied areas.
Border lines, a large number of reporters also poured into West Berlin, and the Berlin blockade that lasted for nearly a year came to an end."
Turn to the second page, there are two photos on it.
Under a photo of a painter squatting on the ground painting a white line, it was written: "On August 21, 1948, West German painters were painting the border line between the British and Soviet occupied areas in Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, and next to them were British military police maintaining
order."
Another photo shows a soldier carrying a gun jumping over a barbed wire fence. The following is written: "On August 15, 1961, 19-year-old Konrad Schumann, an East German border guard, risked being killed by his own side.
At the risk of being shot, he jumped over the barbed wire into the French-occupied zone of West Berlin."
Looking at the photo of jumping over a barbed wire fence, Sokov remembered a post he had seen, which said: "Two days before the photo was taken, that is, on Sunday, August 13, the Berlin Wall began to be erected, with cement slabs and barbed wire fences.
Spread out along the "white line", with armored vehicles supervising from a distance. The barbed wire divides this world city into two. When the border was just sealed, people tried to escape to the west, and people in the west cheered. This scene looked more like
It's a track and field competition.
By August 15th, part of Bernauerstrasse had been paved with concrete slabs. It can also be clearly seen in the photo that Schumann crossed the barbed wire fence that divided East and West Berlin. This 3-foot-high barbed wire fence was very important to this area.
The big boy had no difficulty, but betraying his motherland was not that easy. In other words, on that day, he did not think about betrayal, but he felt the people's dissatisfaction with him guarding the borders of the motherland.
Konrad Schumann was leaning against the wall, smoking constantly, with a gun hanging on his shoulder. The young people across the barbed wire were about the same age as him, but they regarded him as an opponent. At this time, this group of young protesters suddenly
It got quiet, and someone shouted: 'Come here!'
Whether it was encouragement or the heckling of young people, no one knew. Schumann heard the shouting and did not go over.
An hour later, a West Berlin police car drove over, parked not far away, and opened the back door.
At this time, the voice of shouting "Come here! Come here!" became louder and louder. Schumann, who was wearing a helmet and boots, suddenly threw away the cigarette butt in his hand, quickly ran towards the barbed wire fence, and jumped over.
This moment of jumping over the fence was captured by the young photographer Peter Rebin. This historic photo appeared on the front page of the German "Bild" a few hours later, and then appeared in media around the world.
superior.
Schumann was not a hero. In a sense, he was a reckless boy and a reluctant rebel. But he was the first 'defector' to jump over the Berlin Wall. This photo freezes the historical moment. In Schumann
Within dozens of hours after Man crossed the cement slab and barbed wire fence, nine more border guards jumped over the barbed wire fence."
Seeing Sokov staring at Schumann's photo, Victoria said: "What do you think will happen if Schumann jumps to the other side of the wall?"
Fortunately, Sokov read the introduction about Schumann and said truthfully: "Schumann successfully integrated into West German society, married a West German girl, and worked for Audi for 20 years. When the Berlin Wall fell
When he was in exile, Schumann found that although he could travel freely between the East and the West, he was an unpopular person in his hometown. In the eyes of the East Germans, he was just a betrayer and a pawn of imperialism. Because of his defection,
He can no longer drink beer and talk about the past years with his friends. He will never be one of them again. The years when the Berlin Wall was built also established a bond between him and his relatives and friends.
High Wall. On June 20, 1998, he hanged himself in his 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." After saying 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 door 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 do you plan to do with this house?"
"If it really doesn't work, we have no choice but to sell it." Victoria turned her head and glanced at the house that was going away, and said, "One of my colleagues sold his country villa for between five thousand and eight thousand dollars.
A house like my great-grandmother’s can be sold for a similar price, so there won’t be much of a problem.”
If the location of this country house is relatively close to the market, and Sokov does not own a house, maybe he will consider buying this house. But now that he has already bought a house in the city, it would be difficult to buy it in the suburbs.
It was a bit superfluous, 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 about being stopped again, so he couldn't help but turn his head and glance at Victoria.
Victoria noticed his worry, waved her hand and said, "Misha, don't worry, I'm here, these traffic police won't cause you any trouble."
Just as Victoria said, the traffic policeman standing in the middle of the road saw the car driven by Sokov approaching. He just glanced at the license plate and walked aside without any sign of stopping the car.
When Victoria saw this, she smiled slightly and said, "These traffic police are quite powerful. They actually memorized your license plate. I thought I needed to get my ID again."
After the car entered the city, Sokov asked tentatively: "Vika, where are you going to go next, home or the police station?"
Victoria thought for a while and then said: "Send me to the police station."
Sokov nodded and drove towards the police station where Victoria worked.
Unexpectedly, when there were still a few hundred meters away from the police station, a police car suddenly rushed out from the diagonal and stopped in front of Sokov's car. If he hadn't braked in time, he would have hit it directly.
After the police car stopped, a police sergeant got out of the car, came to Sokov's car, put his hand on the window frame, and said casually: "Your passport!"
Sokov quickly took out his passport and handed it over.
Unexpectedly, the other party took the passport and put it directly into his pocket without even looking at it. Then he waved his hand to 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: "Didn't he check the passport? Why didn't he even look at it after you gave it to him?
Put it in your pocket. What the hell is going on?"
"What else could it be?" Sokov said with a wry smile: "He just wants me to get in his car and blackmail him." After saying that, he opened the door, bent down and got out of the car.
As soon as he got out of the car, he saw Victoria getting out of the car from the other side.
She went straight to the police car and said to the policeman: "Sergeant, according to relevant regulations, except for solving cases, the police are not qualified to inquire other people's documents. Do you know that your behavior is illegal?"
Unexpectedly, the sergeant only glanced at her and said disdainfully: "Who are you, and what qualifications do you have to make irresponsible remarks? I warn you, stay away, otherwise I will charge you with obstructing official duties."
Take you to the police station."
"Yeah." Victoria said coldly: "Then I would like to see how you brought me to the police station. Let me remind you, I am from Moscow, and I am not afraid of you."
The sergeant ignored Victoria, but turned to ask Sokov, who was walking over: "Friend, is she your girlfriend?"
Sokov glanced at Victoria, and when he saw her staring at the sergeant with a cold face, he said with some laughter and tears: "Yes, she is my girlfriend."
"Friend, I know you are a Chinese businessman." When the sergeant learned that Victoria was Sokov's girlfriend, his attitude became much kinder, and he said to Sokov in a consultative tone: "Look, you
Driving such a good car means you are rich. But look at me again. I am just an ordinary policeman. My usual income is not even enough to support my family. Can you give me some money so that I can buy bread for my family?
And beer.”
Extortion like this often occurs near the market. But this was the first time Sokov encountered extortion so far away from the market.
He turned to look at Victoria and asked with a smile: "Vika, tell me, what should I do?"
Victoria didn't waste any time, took out her red ID book, unfolded it and handed it to the police sergeant: "I am Major Victoria from the police station in front of me. If you have no objection, just come to the station with me.
"
The police sergeant never dreamed that he had just spotted a prey and had not yet reaped the benefits. A person he could not afford to offend appeared next to the prey, and he suddenly became panicked: "I'm sorry, Major, I can't."
I know he is your boyfriend. Please forgive me for being reckless. I will not do it next time. Please forgive me this time."
Victoria knew in her heart that the salary of the police had always been low, otherwise there would not be such rogue policemen around the market who relied on extortion for a living. Seeing the sergeant in front of her, it was obviously his first time doing such a thing, how to deal with it
, she planned to hand it to Sokov: "Misha, what do you plan to do with him?"
Sokov didn't want to cause trouble, so he calmly said: "Vika, forget it, let him go."
"Bring me your ID."
Hearing what Victoria said, the police sergeant did not dare to neglect, and quickly took out his ID and handed it to Victoria.
After Victoria unfolded it, she quickly browsed through the content above, and then handed the certificate back to the other party: "Since this is your first offense, I will forgive you. If you commit it again next time, I will never forgive you. You and I will
The director is very familiar to me. If I say hello to him, I'm afraid you will have to take off this skin. Do you understand?"
"I understand, I understand." The sergeant asked in a panic, "Can I leave?"
"Please give me your passport back first."
The sergeant took out his passport from his pocket, handed it back to Sokov, got into his car, and left quickly.
"Misha, do you usually encounter police officers like this?" Victoria asked.
Sokov nodded and said truthfully: "Yes, this situation around the market is very common. It is said that some police officers from other police stations learned that oil and water can be obtained near the market, and specially gave gifts to their superiors, hoping to be transferred to the market
Work at a nearby police station.”
"Yes, I understand." Victoria responded calmly: "I am very close to the police station, just a few steps away. You go back to the market first. I will contact you if anything happens."
"Okay." Sokov returned to the car, waved to Victoria, and prepared to drive away.
Unexpectedly, not long after driving out, he saw Victoria waving to him through the rearview mirror, and even shouted something. He quickly backed the car, raised his head and went out and asked: "Vika, do you have anything else to do?"
Victoria handed over a mobile phone: "I still have your mobile phone."
When Sokov saw the mobile phone, he immediately remembered that when he was in the suburbs just now, Victoria borrowed her mobile phone to make a call because there was no signal on the mobile phone. After making the call, he never returned it to him. He reached out to take the mobile phone and waved to Victoria: "