A peaceful few hours’ sleep at the partisans’ safe house is interrupted dramatically as the guard on patrol announces that the Germans are coming. They run through the woods and snow, and Lev witnesses the death of Korsakov and other partisans. After running for 20 minutes and hiding behind a tree, he is overcome to see Kolya, Vika, and another partisan called Markov coming toward him.

The relief is short-lived when they see a whole company of German soldiers, the Gebirgsjäger, coming their way, marching scores of Russian prisoners. Knowing they cannot hide, they distract the Germans with a grenade and then infiltrate the group of Russian prisoners. Unfortunately, one of the prisoners recognizes Markov as a partisan who recently stole food from him. He denounces him to the Germans, and Markov is shot dead. Lev, Kolya, and Vika stoically carry on, having blended into the group of prisoners without being noticed.

The prisoners are taken to an old Bolshevik schoolhouse, now inhabited by the Nazis. Given a newspaper each, they are told that those who can read one paragraph will be given comfortable office jobs and three meals a day, while the illiterate will be sent to the steel mills in Estonia.