After that he got used to this innocent untruth, which suited the journalists very well, for at that time Stalin was coming back into fashion and " Stalingrad " had a good ring to it. Sometimes Ivan was surprised to realize that even he was increasingly forgetful about the war. He could no longer distinguish between his old memories and the well-worn tales told to the schoolchildren and the interviews given to journalists. And when one day he was speaking of a detail that fascinated the boys: "Oh yes, our seventy-six-millimeter gun was powerful but it couldn't pierce the Tiger tank's frontal armor…" he would think: "But was it really like that? Maybe it's something I read in Marshal Zhukov's memoirs…"
The Demidovs' daughter, Olya, was growing up and going to school. She already knew the ancient story of the little mirror. To her it seemed legendary and alarming – her father lying in a frozen field, his head all bloody; her mother, whom she could not manage even to picture, choosing him from among hundreds of soldiers lying all around. She knew that once upon a time there had been a battle, for which he had received his Star – thanks to which he could buy train tickets without having to stand in line.
They had also told her about her mother's injury, which meant she was not supposed to carry heavy loads. But this did not stop her mother from lugging heavy wooden panels around, and Olya's father used to scold her for her lack of concern.