The Diamond Eye

Mila’s retrospective narration stresses that while her official memoir will emphasize the glory of battle and feature “thoughts of the motherland and Comrade Stalin,” her actual battle experiences were more gruesome (68). She recalls a day on the Odessa battlefields: Another soldier catches her attention because he props up his rifle with a copy of War and Peace, Tolstoy’s famed chronicle of Napoleon’s war with Russia (69). She watches Romanian troops advance on their much smaller numbers, led by a chanting priest. Her new comrade quotes the novel and compares its plot to their current situation, and Mila realizes he is right—this is another invasion by foreigners, one that must also end in victory. She is soon struck by mortar fire.

Mila awakes in the hospital to her friend Lena cataloging her injuries, which include eardrum damage and a concussion. Lena asks about her tally of sniper kills, and Mila reluctantly explains that the total might be higher or lower, as only some of her kills have accompanying documentation. When Lena explains she is hiding from an amorous officer, Mila reflects that she strives to appear as an “honorary male” with her enlisted comrades. Senior officers regard sexual access to soldiers as their prerogative (74). The two silently acknowledge that the war is going badly, afraid to speak the subversive truth.

Mila reads letters from her family and friends, stunned by how distant the civilian world seems. As a nurse helps her procure and identify leaves from the trees outside for her son’s science lessons, Mila reflects that she had to be “the mother and the soldier both” (77). Mila returns to her regiment, newly promoted to corporal. Her captain’s reminder of her new responsibilities helps her compartmentalize and prepare for a return to battle.

Mila and Lena have a rare moment of leisure after a successful attack, going into a steam bath, or banya, together. There is a man already in the bath; he leaves without complaint but lingers outside. Mila will later learn that he is an officer, Lyonya Kitsenko, but at this point she assumes he is a local civilian assisting the soldiers with the terrain.

Nude steam bathing followed by exposure to cold water is a popular Russian tradition. Lena urged the steam bath because Mila is slightly injured, having fallen out of a tree after eliminating a group of German machine-gunners. The man whom they evicted from the bath asks who Mila is and then passes her gifts from grateful soldiers who see her as a rescuer. This cheers Mila up as she often dwells on the destruction she wreaks rather than the benefits to her comrades.

Mila explains to the man that the local village was settled by Germans and thus bears the name of Gildendorf, though Lena teasingly suggests it is dangerous for her to discuss history with an unwitting audience. With their bath concluded, Lena kisses the man for giving them his turn in the steam. The man asks Mila for a kiss, which she gives, assuming he is a civilian and grateful for the appreciation. Lena urges her to find a sniper partner to avoid any further mishaps.

Mila is assigned to train new sniper recruits, only a few of whom possess any skills. A large man, Fyodor Sedykh, assumes Mila is their local medic and flirts with her. Only one man complies with Mila’s orders immediately: the man she saw using War and Peace to prop up his gun in battle. She learns his name is Kostia Shevelyov.

Mila’s narration then attempts to describe the typical sniper attack, admitting “every successful hunt is successful in its own way” (88); this wording is a reference to Anna Karenina. To explain, she recalls the nighttime raid, her first with Kostia, the man she came to trust more than any other: They build a hidden trench together, hiding in it until dawn. They fire successfully on a nest of officers. Mila assures Kostia that his total will improve as he adapts and that their work is “intimate” in a way regular combat shooting is not (91). She teaches him to improve his camouflage skills and asks him to be her partner.

One of the more emotional battles of Mila’s war occurs near a village called Tatarka. Her squad is sent to a nearby farm, a former German command post. They meet the farm’s owners, whose youngest daughter, Maria, hardly speaks in the aftermath of a violent gang rape by German soldiers. Mila asks Maria to name plants for her to send to Slavka. Mila reflects that anyone who finds her wartime conduct alarming or unsettling should have to answer to Maria and her pain.

Maria blesses Mila for her work, which she does not argue with, though she is an atheist. Kostia tells her he believes in friendship and reassures her that war will never make her unrecognizable as long as she discusses her dissertation with fervor. She feels that Kostia’s lack of interest in his own kill count proves that she chose her partner well. Soon afterward, Mila is wounded by mortar fire again and wakes to Lena’s voice in the hospital.

Mila is relieved to learn Kostia also survived the mortar attack, even as she grieves for other comrades. She tries to insist she can return to the fight, but Lena says, “You can still be killed, Lady Death” (102). Mila is stunned by the new nickname, a reference to Russian folklore. Lady Death is an attendant to the witch Baba Yaga. Mila is relieved when Kostia tells her that his fur-trapper father reminded him of the legend of Father Frost (Morozko in Russian). He takes her hand, clearly indicating his growing feelings for her. He accepts her quiet refusal; she fears that intimacy would jeopardize their work and endanger those who depend on them.

The next day, Mila tries to take refuge in her copy of her thesis but finds she cannot focus, thinking only of death. Her rumination is broken when the regional commander, General Petrov, arrives and recognizes her. He informs her Odessa is being abandoned but that she will leave for Sevastopol by ship and fight there. During the retreat, Mila recognizes her friend Vika, who tells her Grigory and Sofya are dead and that only winning the war matters.

On the ship, Mila is filled with impotent rage at the loss of the city. On the deck, she is stunned to hear a familiar voice: Alexei declares, “Little Mila […] look at you” (109).