The atmosphere that night behind the Belarus' military base... now become same as the atmosphere they had enjoyed at Moscow. They laughed at Vasily's humor... enjoyed all the food Vadim had secretly brought from the cafeteria... discussion with Alexei, who always had a good grasp of the Soviet Union's developments from the people's perspective... and listened to Dmitry's comments, which were always on point but true. They chatted for who knows how many hours, until finally, after the sausages were finished, they began drinking Vasily's homemade vodka together.
"Vasya! How do you make this vodka?" Vadim asked.
"It's easy! Just mix vodka with water, then ferment it in the soil for three days. But for flavor, I added wild berries found along the steep roads nearby this base," Vasily said, clicking his tongue. Everyone nodded, then suddenly Dmitry burst out laughing. Caused Vasily to surprised, "Dima, don't tell me you've been poisoned by my vodka!"
"No, no. I just remembered a joke I once heard... But a forbidden one," Dmitry laughed, which gave Alexei an idea.
"Hey, how about we have a humor contest before bed? It has to be forbidden humor! The funniest and most offensive one wins!" Alexei said while rubbing his hands together, as if preparing for the humor contest.
"Let's go! Okay, Dima, since you inspired Lyosha... now you tell the story!" challenged Vadim. Dmitry cleared his throat, then let out the joke that had made him laugh earlier.
A Soviet judge had just left the courtroom, laughing loudly and nonstop.
His friend, who was watching, asked, "Why are you laughing?"
"I heard a great, very funny joke!" the judge laughed.
"Really? Tell me!"
"No, no! I just sentenced a defendant to five years in prison for that joke!"
Vadim, Vasily and Alexei laughed loudly at Dmitry's joke. Alexei and Vasily clapped while giving thumbs up to Dmitry.
"Oh! Oh! I have one! I have one!" Vadim suddenly exclaimed. Then they listened to Vadim's joke.
One day, a teacher was taking his students for a walk in the park. There, they found a baby rabbit. Since the students had never seen a rabbit before, they asked the teacher.
"Come on, kids. How come you never knew? He's a character we often read about in books, and we often sing songs about him at school..."
Then a student stepped forward, saying, "I knew it!" and hugged the baby rabbit, saying, "So you're like this, huh... Grandpa Lenin!"
"Huh, why is it Lenin...?" Vasily said, slightly confused.
"What? You never read kids books back at school?" asked Dmitry while chuckled.
"I don't have time for that as a kid. But now I know Lenin is far popular than bunnies," defended Vasily with clicking his tongue and finally laughed. Eventually the atmosphere lightened up, and it was Vasily's turn to tell the story. He rubbed his hands together, preparing for his humor.
Do you know why we still have to have Pravda and Izvestiya newspapers, even though they both come from the Communist Party?
In Pravda, we don't find news.
In Izvestiya, we don't find truth!
This strangely made Vadim, a Pravda fan, laugh the loudest of all. Vasily then said to Vadim, "How unusual are you to badmouth Pravda? Usually, you're the most avid readers like Fedya!"
"Now I realise, Pravda has bad news too. But remember what Dima said? Keep reading, but use it for toilet paper!" Vadim retorted, and then high-fived Dmitry.
"Okay, now I have the most forbidden joke I've ever heard in Leningrad. Get ready!" Alexei cheered.
When Stalin celebrated his 50th birthday in 1929, he delivered a speech:
"I am ready to give my blood to the working class, drop by drop."
Then a small piece of paper was written with a message from an audience member: "Comrade Stalin, why drop by drop? Why not all the drops at once?"
Vadim, Dmitry, and Vasily were knocked over by Alexei's forbidden joke, which caused Alexei to fall from his seat and roll around laughing uncontrollably. Suddenly, footsteps were heard in the distance, causing the four of them to cover their mouths, still giggling at the joke. Unfortunately, it turned out to be one of the sergeants who usually being a difficult audience for the ensemble! They immediately stood up straight, and the junior sergeant looked down at them when he saw a bottle of vodka behind Vasily.
"Ha! It turns out the purist ensemble artists who makes vodka here. I knew it, when I saw the hole behind my office, and it was shaped like a bottle. You need to know, I also know how to make mixed vodka, comrade!" said the sergeant with a winning smile. Then he circled the four of them, kicked one of the empty vodka bottles, then smelled the smell from the bottle.
"And now I know that YOU ARE THE ONE WHO STOLE THE BERRIES IN MY WILD GARDEN!!!" shouted the corporal. Vadim, Dmitry and Alexei glanced at Vasily, to which the dwarf young man only answered with a shrug of his shoulders.
===
"And we were punished for stealing the sergeant's berries, not for illicit humor or vodka," concluded Vadim while giving narrowed glare to Vasily.
"Just be glad he promised not to report to Alexander Vasilyevich!" hissed Vasily.
"I don't mind with the father. But soon we will be killed by Boris and costume crew," exhaled Alexei. Dmitry can only huffed in disappointment.
The four of them are now in the weapons room, and are cleaning the rifles which are clogged with lubricating oil. Their hands were full of black stains because of the lubricating oil, and without realizing it, their gymnastyorka was also exposed to these stains. Alexei sighed, having to dodge the black oil spray several times. But eventually, they laughed again, remembering the humor they and their friends had told. Although this time should have been used for rest... they still had dozens of other weapons to clean, and they would surely nod off during ensemble concert tomorrow.