He was warned in advance about Germany's plans to attack the USSR and had the opportunity to prepare the country for war. Such conclusions can be drawn from the dispatches of intelligence officers declassified by the SVR, which have been on the table of the Secretary General since 1938. Thanks to the secret archives, it also becomes clear that in those days Europe had no claims against Moscow because of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.

On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service has declassified a number of archives relating to the period from 1938 to 1941.

“All this information about the preparation of the attack for a long time lay on the table to Stalin”

The documents included in the Aggression collection, in particular, shed light on whether the German attack came as a surprise to the Soviet leadership. “This book reveals the “behind the scenes” of European politics and shows how the Soviet leadership was informed about the processes that took place in Europe . Documents dispassionately show the extent to which Soviet intelligence fulfilled its function of informing the leadership of the USSR in advance about the processes and changes taking place in the international situation, ”the compiler of the collection, retired SVR Major General Lev Sotskov, told RIA Novosti.

Dispatches got into the book Soviet intelligence officers about the plans of Germany, who came to the Kremlin from all over the world. “All this information about the preparation of the attack for a long time lay on the table to Stalin, but he did not take action. Everything was reported to Stalin, and he was aware of all events. Only already directly under the pressure of the then military leadership and personally the chief General Staff Konstantin Zhukov on the very eve of the war - on the evening of June 21 - managed to convince Stalin to put all the troops on alert, ”explains Sotskov.

According to him, the Soviet residency in Berlin informed the Kremlin in time that all preparations for the attack on the USSR in the Wehrmacht had been completed. th to June 22.

The Foreign Intelligence Service also removed the “top secret” stamp from reports on the correspondence of Western diplomats, in particular from the analysis foreign policy The Kremlin in the prewar years, prepared on September 27, 1941 by the British Ambassador to the USSR Stafford Cripps for London.

According to this document, at that time Europe had no complaints about the fact that Moscow signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with Berlin. “Modern historians will be interested to know why London was sympathetic to those steps of the Soviet leadership that today, 70 years later, cause outrage in some European foreign policy institutions,” the head of the press bureau told Interfax in connection with the publication of this document. SVR Sergey Ivanov.

The telegram from the British ambassador, for example, states that "there is no doubt that the immediate reason for the signing of this pact was, as the Soviet leaders repeatedly stated, their desire to remain out of the war." “In my opinion, the Soviet leaders never viewed the pact as anything more than a temporary remedy. The Soviet leaders were determined to use every opportunity, while there was still time, to strengthen their defenses, to strengthen their strategic positions in the event of a war with Germany, ”the message says.

Joint Statement by the State Duma and the Federation Council on the OSCE Resolution

"The document made a barely disguised attempt to put Nazi Germany on the same level as one of the main states - participants in the anti-Hitler coalition and founders of the UN - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"

The first step in this direction, the ambassador continued, was the entry Soviet troops to Poland in September 1939 "immediately after it became clear that the only alternative to their entry could be the complete occupation of this country by the Germans." just like other countries, it became convinced that a unilateral determination to be out of the war is useless if another antagonistic country intends to fight. However, the USSR did what other countries could not do, namely, they used the time won by “appeasement” to strengthen their resistance force, ”the telegram said.

IN last years Europe has repeatedly tried to reproach Russia for the fact that it was the signing of the pact that became the "trigger of the war."

In 2009, the European Union even proposed to declare the date of the signing of the pact - August 23 - a day of remembrance for the victims of Stalinism and Nazism.

Subsequently, the OSCE PA supported the initiative by voting for a resolution condemning the crimes of Nazism and Stalinism. The document, which was of a recommendatory nature, emphasized that “in the 20th century, the countries of Europe experienced two most powerful totalitarian regimes - Nazi and Stalin,” during which genocide took place, human rights and freedoms were violated, war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed. Russia sharply responded to this document. As emphasized in the joint statement of the State Duma and the Federation Council adopted in the summer of 2009, the attempt to put on the same level Nazi Germany and one of the main states - members of the anti-Hitler coalition and the founders of the UN "offends the memory of millions of people who gave their lives during the Second World War for the liberation of Europe from the fascist yoke, from the Holocaust, from gas chambers and concentration camps, so that we, the descendants of the fallen, live in a peaceful and free Europe.”

“Absolutely untenable are the calls to make August 23 - the date of the signing of the non-aggression pact between the USSR and Germany - a day of remembrance for the victims of Stalinism and Nazism in equal measure. As if the signing of the Soviet-German treaty was not preceded by the shameful "Munich Pact", which untied Hitler's hands and predetermined the direction of Nazi Germany's aggression to the east. As if the leaders of the Western powers did not ignore the efforts of the Soviet leadership to establish an anti-Hitler alliance even before the start of the war,” the statement emphasized.

Olga Gritsenko

Source: vz.ru

The profession of a nurse, which implies the provision of medical care to people, is primarily a patriotic duty. In the hottest spots, in the very heat of war, a medical worker makes his way. He does not pay attention to explosions and shots around. He has one goal - to pull out of the fire, from under the rubble, from under the very nose of the wounded enemy. Pull him out on your own from the battlefield to a safe place, and then, ignoring your own weakness, provide the necessary medical assistance. In the history of nursing, one can find thousands of examples of the courage and courage of paramedical workers. Of course, only love for the Fatherland, faith in the victory of their people over the invaders gave them strength in the most difficult moments. Therefore, first of all, a medical worker must be a patriot of his homeland. And one of the moments of raising patriotism in the soul of each of us is the study of the history of our homeland.

Rice. 1. The territory of the secondary school "Prigorodnenskaya secondary school"

The topic of my research was not chosen by chance. The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 affected every home and every family. And now, 70 years after the victory, it would seem that you can still remember? After all, so much has already been said, so much has been explored. But, despite this, we have such settlements in which the echo of the war remains to this day. The last, most relevant example - in Shchigry in August 2013, a tractor driver plowed another fascist air bomb out of the ground.

Goals of the work:

Find ways of possible movement of Soviet prisoners of war and fascist troops on the territory of the Shchigrovsky district in the period 1942-1943.

To develop a sense of patriotism among students of the Shchigrovsky Medical College by introducing them to the historical heritage of Russia.

Study:

The study was conducted in the period May 2013 - October 2013 with the direct participation of students from the Shchigry Medical College.

The first stage of our work was to retrieve some archival data:

On the presence of the 3rd army assembly point of transit (hereinafter 191 "Dulag") for Soviet prisoners of war on the territory of the Municipal state educational institution "Prigorodnenskaya secondary general education school" and the 4th army assembly point for Soviet prisoners of war;

On the occupation of the territory of Shchigry and adjacent areas (Shchigrovsky, Timsky) in the period from 1941-43. articles by V. V. Korovin “I will share your path as a faithful friend.”, Lagutich M. “Occupation and liberation” describe and document the order that was happening in the occupied zones:

About the main tank battle in the village of Prokhorovka;

as well as about the movement of the Soviet 121st Rifle Division under the command of A.M. Bushin from Voronezh towards Kursk in February 1943, when the main battles took place in the urban-type settlement of Kastornoye, the village of Sovetsky, the village of Mikhailovka (Cheremisino district ), station "Fertilizer" (settlement "Avan-gard").

Notice

Mountains _________________

village ______________________

We hereby inform you that you have been recruited without fail to work

to Germany, and therefore we offer you __________________ to 8 us. in the morning to come to _________________

medical examination, and by _________________ be ready for shipment to Germany.

Petty officer __________________

Volost clerk ______________________

Given to a citizen of the village of Sokolya Plot, Timsky district, Kursk region, Nina Timofeevna Bulgakova, in that her cat is registered with the Sokolsky Starostat and a tax in the amount of 20 rubles. paid.

Warden ____________________________ (signature)

Scribe______________________________ (signature)

But along with this data surfaced interesting fact the presence of prisoner-of-war camps located on the territory of Kursk and near the lying regions.

These are the transfer and sorting camps "Dulag", located in Kastorny, Kursk and Belgorod, "Stalag" - a prisoner of war camp for privates and sergeants in Orel

			Current location	State
		Belgorod	Belgorod region		August 1942
		Castor	Kursk region

Rice. 2. “The road from the village. Suburban in with. Falcon"

In contrast to them, army collection and transit points carried out the task of quickly transferring prisoners of war to camps located in the rear.

From this follows the conclusion that the inhabitants of our occupied city and the surrounding areas could have witnessed the departure of Soviet prisoners of war to the aforementioned transit and sorting camps.

The next stage of our work was the search for information confirming our guesses. From the article "In the years

of the Great Patriotic War” by D. Sundukov, A. Brusentsev, published on the website “narod.ru” in the historical section: “.On July 4, 1942, German troops occupied Kastornoye. For seven months they ruled our land. Despite the established "new order", the population sabotaged the instructions of the German commandant, evaded deportation to Germany. Our Komsomol members worked underground: Shura Shmykova, completed courses radio operators, Natasha Lemberg, who had just graduated from high school and knew German well, French, who worked as a translator in the economic commandant's office. Lena Demidova, Maria Rykunova, who crossed the front line twice, kept in touch with them ... "

Collecting data on the transit and sorting camps, members of the circle came across information about the state of the Kursk-Belgorod railway, according to historical data, in the period 1942-1943, subversive work was periodically carried out on this section by partisan detachments, from the article “Belgorod during Great Patriotic War - 1941 ":" For two days - October 23 and 24, 1942 - five kilometers from Belgorod, near the suburban village of Streletsky, Soviet soldiers fought a stubborn battle with superior enemy forces. The last echelons left the Belgorod station. A steam boiler house was blown up in a steam locomotive depot, a span of a railway bridge collapsed into the Seversky Donets. , from the book of I. G. Ehrenburg War. 1941-1945: “The Kuryans not only waited. The Kuryans fought against the invaders. Railway workers blew up German locomotives. The girls were carrying weapons. The partisans killed the Germans. . This historical reference and the study of the railway map of Kursk and Belgorod regions, gave us the idea that the movement of troops and prisoners could take place along the Voronezh-Kursk highway, with access to the village. Besedino, and through it to the 39th railway km and further, already by echelons towards Belgorod. But then there should be an additional and as short as possible exit from Shchigry to the Voronezh-Kursk highway.

Studying satellite and topographic maps terrain, we came across a barely noticeable country road leading towards the village of Tim, it is much smaller in its distance, hidden from the human eye by landings, that is, it is convenient enough for the transfer of troops and prisoners of war. This road leading from the village of Prigorodnee to the village of Sokolye has access to the Voronezh-Kursk highway and passes through several settlements - the village of Avdeevka, the village of Morozovka, the village of. Falcon.

After interviewing several residents of these villages, we found out that in these places in spring and autumn in their gardens, they dig up a large number of cartridge cases from the times of the Great Patriotic War.

From the memoirs of Alexei Stefanovich Vorobyov, a native of the village of Lezhenki, who lives in the village. Sokolye, together with his family for 70 years, who fought on the Belorussian front in 1944-1945 and was wounded near Mozyr (Belarus) in April 1945: “In the summer of 1942, my fellow villagers and I were taken prisoner by the Germans . There were 12 of us in total - 8 girls and 4 guys. We were driven to pave the road from Shchigry to Kursk, through the field and plantings. We lived in Sokolye, in the cellar of a destroyed house, which was not far from the dam. We were treated very harshly. We were fed once every three days. Water gave half a bucket for everyone. Once we were pulled out to be driven to work, and we saw our soldiers across the pond, tried to break through to them. A skirmish ensued between the Germans and our soldiers. So we escaped from captivity.

The words of Aleksey Stefanovich about the ill-treatment not only with prisoners, but also with the villagers are confirmed by the announcement of the Hungarian fascist command, published in the article by Lagutich M. “Occupation and Liberation”:

From the announcement of the Hungarian fascist command:

“During the investigations that were conducted against persons committing a deliberate explosion on railways, it was established that this subversive work is being carried out with the help of the population of the nearest villages.

The elders of the villages, policemen and peasants made a big mistake when these cases were not reported to the nearest military commandants or the sentries did not pay attention to this.

Therefore, I draw the attention of the population to the need to immediately report any impending conspiracy or sabotage. In the case of detection and concealment of such actions, every tenth person from the places closest to the incident will be executed, regardless of gender and age. This fate also awaits all those who hide the conspirators or supply them with food or have information about this ...

At the same time, I inform the population that if someone leads us on the trail or shows the location of partisans, paratroopers or saboteurs, they will receive a reward: money, a plot of land, or satisfaction in any request.

Hungarian military command".

The conversation with Aleksey Stefanovich served as the basis for conducting an exploratory study. We surveyed the area with a total area of ​​500 square meters. meters along the perimeter of the planting strip at the intersection of the Morozovka - Bogoyavlenka and Morozovka - Dubrova roads, as well as a freshly plowed field in the village of Avdeevka near the Prigorodnaya - Sokolye road (Fig. 2). Even without making excavations in this territory, traces of the Great Patriotic War were found. Under a layer of autumn foliage, we found shells from cartridges of various calibers, further detailed study of which confirmed the information about the presence of Hungarian troops in the occupied territory, since among the shells of the Mauser cartridge there were also Hungarian-made cartridges.

Rice. 3. "Plowed shell for the 88-mm Flak anti-aircraft gun in the village of Avdeevka."

Rice. 4. Students of the Shchigrovsky Medical College with Vorobyov A.S.

Rice. 5. "Mauser cartridge cases" on a plowed field. D. Morozovka.

A ravine was also discovered and examined, obviously not of natural origin, according to our assumptions, a German trench. The basis for this theory was found along the perimeter and in the center of the ravine: cartridge cases for the Parabellum pistol and the Mauser rifle, barbed wire along the edge looking towards the road. As well as several tin cans, on one of which we managed to make out the inscription USSR, P126E7 and the release date 10.01. 39., it was not possible to establish the exact manufacturer (presumably the Leningrad region, the city of Slantsy). These banks allow us to conclude that in this place the location German troops was long enough.

Rice. 6. “Instead of mushrooms, Mauser shells grow here. Landing d. Morozovka "

Rice. 7. “Trench with German bullets. Landing d. Morozovka.

Rice. 8. "Barbed wire around the perimeter of the trench."

Rice. 9. “Tin can. Trench".

Rice. 10. “Sleeves from German lighting cartridges. Landing. village Morozovka»

Rice. 11. "Button from German underwear, soldier"

This fact is also confirmed by some other finds, already in the search perimeter - aluminum shells from German lighting cartridges, which indicates the location of stationary Nazi posts along the road and round-the-clock duty at key points on the road (forks, intersections);

- unusual metal buttons, very small concave inside, with four holes inside for fixing - such buttons were used in German soldier underwear.

With regards to weapons, in total, we found more than 50 shell casings from the Second World War, in varying degrees of preservation. Below is a list of those cartridge cases and cartridges, the series and numbers of which I managed to consider:

Sleeves and cartridges found in a field near the village of Avdeevka.

1. Sleeve length 25 mm - P131s 7 - D.W. M. A. G., Werk Berlin-Borsigwalde, Berlin 7.63x25 mm Mauser pistol cartridge
2. P25s* 3 37 - manufacturer not identified
3. P25s*1 36 - manufacturer not identified
4. P25s*11 36 - manufacturer not identified
5. P131s* 3 39 - D.W. M.A.G., Werk Berlin-Borsigwalde, Berlin
6. P131s* 8 39 - D.W. M.A.G., Werk Berlin-Borsigwalde, Berlin
7. P131s* 4 39 - D.W. M.A.G., Werk Berlin-Borsigwalde, Berlin
8. P120s*18 35 - Dynamit A. G., Werk Hannover-Empelde
9. P69s*49 36 - The trading company Sellier & Bellot traditionally holds a key position in the production of ammunition and is one of the oldest engineering companies in the Czech Republic, which is also one of the oldest in the world.
10. P69s* 83 37 - Sellier & Bellot, Czech Republic
11. P249 s* 12 38 - Finower Industriewerk GmbH, Finow/Mark,
12. P249s* 2 36 - Finower Industriewerk GmbH, Finow/Mark,
13. P340s* 2 38 - Metallwarenfabrik Silber^tte, St. Andreasberg, St. Andreasberg
14. Non-integral sleeve length 53mm - 1735 - A blank rifle cartridge, also used for throwing a VPGS-41 rifle grenade. On the bottom: factory - 17 (Barnaul), year of manufacture - 35 / or a cartridge for the Mosin rifle, made at the Podolsk cartridge factory No. 17
15. Cartridge length - 75 mm (code not defined) - It is somewhat rarer than the 7.92 mm German rifle cartridge. It was used by the German army and the Soviet militia for firing from French Lebel rifles and Hotchkiss heavy machine guns.

Sleeves found in the field and plantings of the village of Morozovka

1. Sleeve aux*15 40 - Polte Armaturen und Maschinenfabrik A. G., Poltestr. und Fichtestr., Werk Magdeburg, Sachsen
2. Ps*8 37 - Polte Armaturen-u. Maschinenfa-brik A. G., Werk Magdeburg, Sachsen
3. P28s*10 38 - DeutscheWaffen-u. Munitionsfabrik A.G., Werk Karlsruhe. G.Durlach
4. P186s*6 37 - Manufacturer not identified
5. P 131 s*38 38 - D.W. M.A.G., Werk Berlin-Borsigwalde, Berlin
6. P131 s*8 39 - D.W M. A.G., Werk Berlin-Borsig-walde, Berlin
7. Sleeve * 42 * - Chepelsky arsenal, g. Budapest, Hungary
8. Pk 67 dz 40 - Wytwornia Amunicji nr.2, Poland
9. P316 S*22 36 - Westfalische Metallindustrie, Westfalen.

4 of them were from Parabellum pistol cartridges, judging by the code located on them - "aux" - the cartridges were made in Germany at the Polte Ar-maturen und Maschinenfabrik A. G., Poltestr. und Ficht-estr., Werk Magdeburg, Sachsen ", were used during the Second World War as a weapon of a limited standard by ordinary and non-commissioned officers (who were supposed to have pistols according to the state) in the technical arms of the German armed forces, in the police and troops SS. As for the other shell casings found, it is noteworthy that in some places of the landing strip they were located in the ground at a distance of 2 m - 4 m from each other and practically on the same longitudinal line. The cartridge cases were the same type, but with different inscriptions. An analysis of these cartridge cases showed that the live cartridges were for the Mauser rifle models 98, 98a, 98k with a range of 2000m, since the caliber of all cartridges is 7.92. The inscriptions on the cases told their own unique story.

Each sleeve has 4 alphanumeric marks that are responsible for certain characteristics: manufacturer's code, material code, batch number and year of manufacture.

For example, the case we found 36 P316 22 S, said that it was released in 1936, made of brass, batch number 22, factory code P316 (Westfalische Metallindustrie, Westfalen), this is a classic non-German-made rifle case "Mauser").

But, the sleeve 40 Pk 67 dz, made us delve into the literature and find its history, this sleeve (40 Pk 67 dz), was produced in the city of Rembertov, 15 km from Warsaw in 40, for the Mauser rifle and has a brass coating.

The article “Cartridges of Poland”, published in the September issue of the magazine “MASTERRUZHIE” for 2006, helped us in this: “In February 1921, the Polish Ministry of Defense opened the first state factory for the production of rifle cartridges, including the production cartridge 7.92x57 "Mauser". After the occupation of Poland in 1939, the company for the production of Polish cartridges Zaklady Amunicyjne "Pocisk SA", located until 1935 in Rembertov (15 km from Warsaw) was renamed in 1939 to Wytwornia Amunicji nr.2. This factory designated the cartridges with the letters Pk.

An interesting and unusual find was a sleeve with the coding *42*

In the course of the analysis, it was found out that such cartridge cases were produced for arming the Hungarian army with the Csepelsky arsenal in Budapest for the G.98 / 40 rifle. This rifle (also known as puska 43M) was developed at the Hungarian arms factory FEG in Budapest in 1941, by order of the German Army, chambered for the standard German rifle cartridge 7.92x57 Mauser. To save time and resources, the rifle was created based on the design of the Hungarian 35M rifle. In parts of the German army, this rifle had the index Infanterie Gewehr 98/40 or briefly Gew.98/40 or G.98/40. In 1943, the G.98 / 40 rifle with minor cosmetic changes was adopted by the Hungarian army under the symbol 43M.

During the identification of cartridge cases and cartridges found in the area of ​​the villages of Morozovka and the village of Avdeevka, two cartridges were found that can be attributed to the cartridges of the Soviet army. This find, may be confirmation of the presence of a reconnaissance or partisan Soviet detachment advancing from the village of Tim. Since in this settlement, based on the maps of the military situation of the Soviet and German fronts, the front line passed. this is also confirmed by the story of M. A. Bushin, commander of the 121st rifle division, about the operation to liberate the city of Shchigry in February 1943: ““ The division headquarters at that time was five kilometers east of the city at the fork of the road Cheremisinovo - Tim ... "

The results of the search work, the presence of a large number of shells from German cartridges, a shell from the non-German 88-mm Flak anti-aircraft gun, the testimony of an eyewitness and participant in the events of that time A. S. Vorobyov confirm our guesses about the position of German troops on the Shchigrovsky border and Timsky districts in the period of 1942, about possible relocation prisoners of war for their further transfer to the transit and sorting camps "Dulag", and then in an unknown direction.

The presence of a large number of combat cartridges of the fascist troops in the area of ​​​​the intersection of the roads "Morozovka - Bogoyavlenka" and "Morozovka - Dubrova" tells us not only about the good weapons of the fascist army, but also about the possible defensive position taken in relation to such strategic objects of that time like roads. This is especially true for the section of the road we are studying, leading to the Voronezh-Kursk highway. This road was important for the Nazis as a possible reserve for retreat and for receiving reinforcements during the winter of 1942-1943. Since this section of the road connects the exit to Besedino, and hence the approach to the railway track, with the occupied Shchigrov region, bypassing such locality like Tim, on whose part an offensive operation of our troops was planned in December 1942 in order to liberate the Kursk region from fascist occupation. This fact is confirmed not only by a map of the situation on the Soviet-German front in December 1942, but also by the memoirs of E. Krestikova, a former communications officer of the division: ““The 297th artillery regiment was part of the 121st division. It consisted of three divisions. The third division interacted with the 705th rifle regiment. After heavy fighting for Voronezh, Kastornoye and other points, we did not count many artillerymen. Especially heavy losses were in the seventh battery. When approaching Shchigry, many girls from other units expressed a desire to replace the retired fighters, to become artillerymen.

The division commander allowed the girls to stand up to the military gun. By the end of February 2, 1943, we occupied a settlement near Shchigry. A fierce battle ensued for the city.

Our girls fought off enemy counterattacks all day long. The fascists equipped observation posts and loopholes on the roofs of houses, from where our advanced positions were clearly visible and shot through. For two days they fought fierce battles near Besedino, then for the villages - Klyukva, Lebyazhye, Kolpakovka and then for Kursk. .

As the collected historical and literary information shows, from the side Soviet soldiers in February 1943, everything was done to isolate the non-German troops stationed in the Shchigrovsky region and push them back towards Belgorod. From the article “Belgorod during the Great Patriotic War - 1941”: ““After the glorious victories won in the battle on the Volga and the offensive battles of the first half of 1943, the troops of the Bryansk, Central and Voronezh fronts wedged deep into the enemy’s location west of Kursk. The front line here formed the shape of an arc, on the southern ledge of it was Belgorod, on the northern - Ponyri. On July 12, near Prokhorovka, the largest tank battle in the history of wars began, in which one thousand two hundred tanks operated simultaneously. The enemy was stopped, suffered huge losses, and then, after several stubborn battles, was thrown back to Belgorod. .

Conclusion: The information obtained at this stage of the research revealed many new facts about the occupation of Shchigry. Of course, so far we have not been able to carry out more detailed research in the area of ​​the village of Morozovka, which is due to the seasonality of search work, as well as the need for the direct participation of employees of the Kursk Museum of Local Lore in organizing further archaeological activities. Therefore, we transferred all the historical data and artifacts obtained during the study to the Shchigrovsky branch of the Kursk Museum of Local Lore for detailed study, and we hope for further joint cooperation in this direction.

The road leading from the village of Prigorodnyaya to the village of Sokolye with access to the Voronezh-Kursk highway could be an important strategic object both for transporting prisoners of war to the transit and sorting camps of Kursk and Belgorod, supplying the fascist army, and its retreat to February 1943.

Active search and research activities in the field of the historical heritage of their homeland contribute to the development of feelings of patriotism, respect and love for their Fatherland among students of the Shchigrovsky Medical College.

Kopylovich Malvina Vitalievna, teacherOBOO SPO Shchigrovsky Medical College» (Kursk region)

From the collection “Historical Research: Materials of the II International. scientific conf. (Chita, December 2013)”.

Literature:

1. R. Kolosok. Article "In Shchigry, a tractor driver discovered a German air bomb."
2. Military-patriotic page "Memoirs of the participants in the battles for Shchigry", gas. District Bulletin No. 10, 01.02.2013
3. Alexander Gfüllner, Aleksander Rostocki, Werner Schwarz "List of fascist POW camps".
4. D. Sundukov, A. Brusentsev. Article "During the Great Patriotic War".
5. Railway map of the Kursk region.
6. Map - scheme of the Kursk region.
7. Satellite map of the Kursk region.
8. Summary table of Mauser design rifles for smokeless powder.
9. Hallmarks and codes of German case manufacturers until 1945.
10. A. Bortsov "Cartridges of Poland" Magazine "Masterruzhie" No. 114, 2006.
11. Article "Belgorod during the Great Patriotic War - 1941".
12. Map Battle of Kursk. Defensive battle in July 1943
13. Camps of Soviet prisoners of war in Belarus, reference book, Minsk - 2004
14. Ehrenburg I. G. War. 1941 - 1945. M., 2004. S. 366-381.
15. Map "The situation on the Soviet-German front in December 1942".
16. S. Monetchikov. "Parabellum": If you want peace, prepare for war "J. BROTHER" for special forces, No. 8, 2006
17. Map "Counteroffensive near Moscow and the general offensive of the Soviet army in the western direction on December 5, 1941-April 20, 1942".
18. M. Lagutich. Article "Occupation and liberation".
19. Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation - 417, op. 9855, d. 2, l. 96; op. 27266, d.4, l.100
20. Modern small arms of the world.
21. Cartridges for pistols of the Wehrmacht. Magazine "Arms" No. 10 2000
22. Archival materials of the local history museum of the Lomonosovsky district of the Leningrad region.

Tank riddles of the Great Patriotic War

To this day, there is a popular misconception that at the beginning of World War II, the German army had a significant superiority in the number of available tanks. The latest research by researchers, as well as previously hushed up and now known eyewitness accounts, refute this. But first things first.

The first reason to think about the tank theme arose immediately after the start of the spring campaign of 1942, when, despite heavy losses, superiority in tanks was finally achieved. The Kharkov operation of 1942 is one of the most dramatic events of the Great Patriotic War. Of the three Soviet armies, who were surrounded, only 20 thousand soldiers managed to get out. The reader, who ponders over the reasons for such a tragedy, is the first to think about, again, the military-technical advantage of the enemy. However, the facts say otherwise. The chief of staff of the ground forces of Nazi Germany, Franz Halder, described the actions of the tanks as follows:

May 14. Supported Strong Attacks a large number tanks; 3–5 tank divisions and 4–6 tank brigades operate south of Kharkov, 3 tank brigades operate east of the city; over 50 tanks destroyed.

May 25th. The successes of our troops in the fight against enemy tanks deserve attention. As the reader understands, we are talking about Soviet tanks.

Starting the Kharkov operation, the front had two tank corps against two German tank divisions. Thus, we had almost a thousand tanks, that is, several times more than the enemy. However, after five days the initiative on the Barvenkovsky ledge passed to the Germans. In less than a week, the superiority in tanks evaporated in an incredible way: either it didn’t exist at all, or they couldn’t dispose of it properly ... Stalin, among other things, answered the requests of the Military Council of the front for help: “If you don’t learn how to manage troops better, you won’t enough of all the weapons produced in the whole country. So, "from above" the cause of tank failures was then seen in poor command and control of troops.

On July 8, 1942, the previously mentioned F. Halder wrote down the following: “Out of 600 enemy tanks, 289 were knocked out.” In August, he noted that "the Russians suffered heavy losses in tanks." On September 11, when the German headquarters was counting our losses, Halder wrote down: "The enemy lost 600 tanks" - and added that no more than a third of them could be sent for repairs. But on September 20, he suddenly noted in his military diary: "In Stalingrad, the fatigue of the advancing troops is gradually beginning to be felt."

On the same day, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army, Stalin, summoned to the Headquarters the leadership of the newly put into reserve tank army: commander P. Romanenko, member of the Military Council S. Melnikov (he described this technique), as well as the head of the Main Armored Directorate of the Red Army Ya. Fedorenko. The immediate cause of Stalin's "tank reception" could have been the failure of the Soviet command to win Battle of Stalingrad at its very beginning with one powerful tank strike (150 tanks). The Supreme Commander drew attention to the “shortcomings in the actions of tankers” noted in the order for the army: insufficient maneuverability, poor use of firepower, and low fire efficiency. Such characteristics, in fact, meant failure.

And then it turned out that Stalin, most likely, invited tank practitioners along with a tank manager because he received data on the "survivability" of German tanks. It turned out that Soviet combat vehicles can withstand from 1 to 3 attacks, while German ones - at least 5, or even 15! That is 5 times more! Despite the massive use, the Soviet tank forces were dwindling, not bringing the expected success.

Absolutely logical questions arose: why do our tanks "live" less? Are they inferior to the German ones in quality? Or is the reason something else? How can there not be a suspicion that the bet on the new T-34 medium tank is wrong? But the tank commander rejected this hypothesis and expressed his opinion: "Our drivers are worse trained." He also explained the reason for this: “They get driving practice from 5 to 10 hours, after which they go into battle.” And in order to learn how to drive a tank, it was necessary, according to Fedorenko, to practice for at least 25 hours! It was a bold phrase, because in response to the question of the Generalissimo: “What prevents you from better training driver mechanics and spending more hours on their training?” - I had to answer that, in accordance with the order of Stalin himself, it was forbidden to spend more than 10 hours on training (and in fact they didn’t even give that)! No, the Supreme Commander did not cancel his order, but ... forbade it to be carried out: soon a new order was received, which forbade saving motor resources in the process of combat training. Unity of command across the country made it possible both to implement ridiculous decisions with tragic consequences, and to quickly annul them.

The following year, 1943, with its major tank battles, including the largest tank battle in history near Prokhorovaya on the Kursk Bulge, again gave rise to reflections on the same topic. In the West, they say that the Red Army lost several times more tanks near Kursk than the Wehrmacht.

When the Battle of Kursk died down, another tank commander, Pavel Rybalko, thought: “I want to understand why we lost so many tanks. Is it only from enemy fire or ... "S. Melnikov recalled a conversation with the Supreme Commander about the survivability of tanks: "Let's convene a conference of driver-mechanics." But they began to talk not only about "their own": intelligence is poorly conducted; management is not always clearly organized; the crew often does not know the task, in best case the tasks of the hull are known, therefore, if the lead machine breaks away, the rest are lost and fall far behind; signaling means are not used; due to factory imperfections, tanks sometimes fail at the very beginning of an attack; replacement drivers make serious mistakes due to lack of experience; some crews do not know how to fire on the move. The army commander agreed with everything noted and ordered to eliminate the shortcomings.

So the causes of tank problems were both "above" and "below". They were eliminated not in a month or a year. We had to pay for technical backwardness not only with materiel, but also with the lives of tankers. It is no coincidence that Marshal G. Zhukov's book "Memories and Reflections" does not provide comparable data on tanks at the time of the attack on the Soviet Union. On the Soviet side, only the number of heavy and medium tanks is given, on the enemy side - all, and even plus self-propelled artillery mounts. But the secret edition of 1958 "Operations of the Soviet Armed Forces in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945." gave an exact figure for the ratio of tank forces in the border area.

The ratio of German and Soviet tanks at the time of Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union was 1: 4.9, that is, superiority Soviet Union was obvious. From G. Zhukov's book we learn that, among others, we had "a significant number of light Soviet tanks of an outdated design." But the enemy also had light tanks. And then, near Prokhorovka, not only medium “thirty-fours”, but also light tanks went on the attack on heavy “tigers” - flying at breakneck speed and shooting at tracks ... It is impossible to explain the tank advantage by the surprise of the first strike, since three hours before the attack districts received a directive to bring troops to combat readiness and disperse. And if the soldiers Brest Fortress at the time of the outbreak of the war were lying in bed, then this is the fault, first of all, of the command!

In the memoirs of Hermann Goth, the former commander of one of the German tank groups, one can read that it was the counterattacks of the tank units that stopped the advance of the German troops in Ukraine, frustrating the plan for a swift breakthrough to Kiev. At the time of the attack, the enemy had less than 4 thousand tanks and assault guns (the latter, after all, could not fight tanks on equal terms). This was a great force, but even greater was the psychological effect of the German tank attacks. Marshal Zhukov recalls a conversation that took place on June 24, 1941 with the commander of one of the armies (a very experienced general who received good practice in the battles at Khalkhin Gol), who reported that his army was being attacked by up to 2 thousand tanks, but this is half of all combat vehicles of this type that the enemy had on the entire vast front!

With time Soviet tankmen also learned how to create "appearance". The author of the German doctrine of tank warfare, Heinz Guderian, writes in his memoirs that on October 6, 1941, a large number of Russian T-34 tanks were thrown against one of the divisions of his tank army, causing significant losses to our tanks. As a result, "the planned rapid attack on Tula had to be postponed for the time being." The estimate of losses is correct: tanks alone - 43! The appearance of a “large number” was created intentionally in order to hide from the enemy a very impressive discrepancy of forces: with the German tank division a brigade fought in which there was only one battalion of "thirty-fours". The enemy had 20 times more tanks! And how could one not believe it, if only a group of Lieutenant Dmitry Lavrinenko, consisting of four T-34s, destroyed 15 enemy tanks without suffering losses, as well as two anti-tank guns and four motorcycles to boot. For a month of fighting, only the combat vehicle of Lavrinenko himself chalked up 52 tanks, several guns, a dozen cars, a mortar battery.

So, in terms of their combat qualities, Soviet tanks, such as the T-34, were not inferior to the German ones. Even crews without much combat experience were able to perform miracles on them. Evidence is the fact that when the rifle units drove the Germans out of Przemysl (on the first day of the war!), 13 "thirty-fours" held back 50 German tanks on the outskirts of the city, knocking out 14 of them. "Thirty-fours" departed in full strength. The English tank historian Douglas Orgill, in his book on the T-34, notes: “The Russian command now (in the summer of 1941) found that the possession of a weapon is a decisive factor only when the owner knows how to use it ... The T-34 in the hands of the Headquarters ... was still a rapier in the hands of a novice." So it was necessary to learn not only ordinary tankers, but also marshals! By the way, D. Orgill cites the data of the German command in the book, and without questioning them: on the other hand, the “agonizing summer” of 1941, the Red Army lost 18 thousand tanks - that is how many, apparently, resisted the invaders on June 22.

It is not known how the military events would unfold, and with them, perhaps, the whole world history, if Mikhail Koshkin and his design bureau in Kharkov had not made the T-34 high-tech and highly maintainable. German intelligence was unable to find out, so on July 4, Hitler declared: “It is good that we defeated the Russian tank ... forces at the very beginning. The Russians will never be able to restore them again.”

We started talking about tanks by no means in order to hang another label on someone. After all, you can't bring back the past. It should not be ashamed or hushed up. But to learn a lesson - military, managerial, political, economic - is necessary. And it consists in the fact that everything in a war is decided not by numerical advantage, and not even by technical advantage in itself, but by the level of mastery of technology.

On the eve of the celebration of Victory Day, the standard set of “myths about the war” again pops up on the network. Well, those where "Stalin is worse than Hitler", "the USSR - and was the initiator of the war", "filled up with corpses" and other "millions of raped German women", as well as "whitened in the US war, and the Soviet Union only slightly participated".

These myths do not change from year to year, and knowing that this information wave will again rush through the expanses of the network, it is worth once again exposing the most popular of them. Good historical research there are many on this topic, and you just need to convey this information to the widest possible audience.

It must also be remembered that all this talk about the Second world war, they are only partly about the past. Mostly all these myths about our present and future. Undermining our glorious past, the titanic efforts and sacrifices of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War, Russophobic propagandists are simply trying to show that Russia is a monster. It was in the past, it will be eliminated now and it will be so in the future. A country incapable of anything but massacres and looting. Which itself also provoked Hitler.

Therefore, in fact, it is necessary to expose this mythology every year as it appears in the current information agenda.

So, one of the popular tales in the liberal, opposition environment is the myth of the friendship between Stalin and Hitler, and that German weapons were "forged in the USSR." A number of historians have already spoken on this subject. For example, relatively recently, the researcher of the Second World War Evgeny Spitsyn in his interview once again spoke about who and how exactly “forged the weapons of the Millennium Reich”.

And it was during the period of "interbellum", between the First and Second World Wars, that the United States and Britain with France and other "European democracies" turned out to be economically interested. Which, in fact, until the very end of the 30s were much more afraid of the USSR than Germany and fascism. Actually, it was the Europeans who supported, for example, the separation of territories from Czechoslovakia. And in general, the campaign of Germany "to the East."

As for the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the active indignation of the “progressive public” about this, Spitsyn explains: “Stalin simply beat European geopoliticians in one click. In fact, by signing the pact a week before Hitler's attack on Poland, he brought down the entire multi-pass and construction that had been born in their heads a few years before. They were simply in indescribable horror. The winners of the diplomatic battles of the 18th, 19th, 20th centuries believed that they would fool anyone. Don't circle!

Hitler signed the war plan against Poland, codenamed "Weiss", in April 1939, that is, 4 months before the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Hitler attacks Poland. It is clear that he will not stop in Poland. Where should he go next? According to the plan of the strategists in Paris and London, further Hitler was to move east. She herself wrote about the "living space" in the East. And they were already sitting in anticipation, for this they brought him to power. What is Hitler doing? He signed an agreement with the USSR and moved his hordes to the west. And we know well how it ended for the European countries.

That is why the pact evokes burning hatred among members of our liberal public. Stalin defeated European diplomacy and strategy even before the start of the war.

Similar information about how the West “moved” Hitler’s Germany to the East, how it provoked a war with the USSR, was given in 2016 in an article by historian Alexander Chausov: “The year 1925 is coming, in which the Locarno Conference takes place.

By and large, it was she who determined the advancement of the Third Reich, primarily to the East. For example, in the point that Germany undertakes to respect the territorial integrity of the Western European powers. But oh Eastern Europe everyone somehow forgot. The second point - the Locarno agreements in a very streamlined form recognized the right to "consolidate all Germans in a single sovereign state."

And, what is especially important, now the aggressor state was the one that was the first to attack precisely another Western European state. In 1933, Hitler came to power in Germany, and, in fact, the first thing he began to do was to put the Locarno agreements into practice in the way he understood it.

It looked something like this: the Reich seized yet another territory, violated another clause of the Versailles Accords, carried out another militaristic initiative, and then declared that "Germany's interests are completely satisfied with this." And the European allies “believed” this. Well, people are going to the East, it doesn’t bother us too much.”

In other words, the West fed and nurtured the fascist monster, and entered the war with it only when it turned out that this monster did not intend to obey the West and act in its global interests.

One way or another, but the USSR was attacked by Germany. And won for our country was very heavy. We have suffered millions of losses - and in connection with this there are also several "myths". Firstly, about "filled up with corpses" and that the entire Red Army was captured by the Germans. Therefore, Germany won the United States and the allies. Who fought during the last stages of the Great Patriotic War and entered Berlin is not very clear in this case. But where propaganda myths are created, logic does not seem to matter.

In this regard, the historian Yevgeny Spitsyn again gives the answer: “For example, the same prisoners who were taken in the first months of the war were said that almost the entire Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army was taken prisoner in the first months of the war - there are 3-3 .5 million people. This is a lie that some people are posting now. Serious historians have been specially engaged in this calculation - in the first weeks of the war, about 500-550 thousand were taken prisoner. Near Kiev, too, the number of prisoners went to hundreds of thousands, but not 650 thousand, as liberal historians say, about 430 thousand. This, of course, is a lot, but it is not three million people.”

At the same time, the researcher emphasizes, “the most important result of the border battles, the battle of Smolensk, the battle for Kyiv, etc. was that Barbarossa's plan had collapsed. They put Hitler off the charts. lightning war did not happen, and Hitler lost the war already in 1941. It was clear to everyone. The only question was the time when Hitler's back would be finally broken. Therefore, to all those who fought specifically in 1941, we must give the lowest and most holy bow for the fact that, with their lives, in fact, they predetermined our victory in May 1945.

But that's not all. Those who "wade" through the "heaps of corpses" and the "valor of the allies" stumble upon the notorious German women. In the amount of two million rapes. These figures, as it turned out last year, were invented by Anthony Beevor, a British Sovietologist, and, logically, a fierce Russophobe. He deduced two million rapes from nine (!!!) known cases of violence. By the way, all the guilty Soviet soldiers went to court. Yes, unfortunately, such deplorable things happened, but the perpetrators suffered inevitable punishment, and there were vanishingly few such cases.

In parallel with the rapes, the Western and our liberal public are telling absolutely ridiculous things about “bicycle theft”. Allegedly, a certain Soviet soldier tried to steal a bicycle from a resident of Berlin and was captured on camera doing this. As it became known back in 2010, the soldier bought a bicycle. At least the explanatory note to this photo says exactly this: “Russian Soldier Tries to Buy Bicycle from Woman in Berlin, 1945.”

And finally, we are “treated” with a phrase that is attributed either to Zhukov, or Voroshilov, or Stalin, or in general to Peter I or Apraksin, about “Do not feel sorry for soldiers, women still give birth” - which is a typical propaganda craft without reference to primary sources. But nevertheless, it is in use with our "liberal public", which thus shows "all the inhumanity of the Soviet system."

In general, all this, of course, is sad. And the fact that on the eve of Victory Day one has to write not about the outstanding feat of the Soviet people, but to expose the dirty tricks that pour on this feat from all sides is the sad reality of today. It is also sad that in the USA and Europe very few people already know the outline of those historical events. But there the case of anti-Russian propaganda is put on stream.

The main thing is that we, in Russia, remember everything correctly, and understand that we are alive thanks to the huge sacrifice of our ancestors.

As for the "myths", the wind of history will dispel them too.

on the book of memoirs of Nikolai Nikolaevich Nikulin, a researcher at the Hermitage, a former font specialist. I strongly recommend to all those who sincerely want to know the truth about the Patriotic War to get acquainted with it.
In my opinion, this is a unique work, it is difficult to find the likes of it in military libraries. It is remarkable not only for its literary merits, which I, not being a literary critic, cannot objectively judge, but for the descriptions of military events that are accurate to the point of naturalism, revealing the disgusting essence of war with its brutal inhumanity, filth, senseless cruelty, and criminal disregard for the lives of people by commanders of all ranks. from battalion commanders to supreme commander in chief. This is a document for those historians who study not only the movements of troops in the theaters of operations, but are also interested in the moral and humanistic aspects of the war.

In terms of the level of reliability and sincerity of the presentation, I can only compare it with Shumilin's memoirs "Vanka company".
Reading it is as hard as looking at the mutilated corpse of a person who had just stood nearby ...
While reading this book, my memory involuntarily restored almost forgotten analogous pictures of the past.
Nikulin "drank" in the war disproportionately more than I did, having survived it from beginning to end, having visited one of the bloodiest sections of the front: in the Tikhvin swamps, where our "glorious strategists" laid down more than one army, including the 2nd Shock. .. And yet I dare to say that many of his experiences and sensations are very similar to mine.
Some statements of Nikolai Nikolaevich prompted me to comment on them, which I do below, quoting from the book.
The main question that arises explicitly or implicitly when reading books about the war is what made companies, battalions and regiments resignedly go towards almost inevitable death, sometimes even obeying the criminal orders of their commanders? In numerous volumes of jingoistic literature, this is explained in an elementary simple way: inspired by love for their socialist homeland and hatred for the perfidious enemy, they were ready to give their lives for the victory over him and unanimously went on the attack at the call “Hurrah! For motherland for Stalin!"

N.N. Nikulin:

“Why did they go to death, although they clearly understood its inevitability? Why did they go, although they did not want to? They walked, not just fearing death, but terrified, and yet they walked! Then there was no need to think and justify their actions. It wasn't before. They just got up and walked, because it was NECESSARY!
They politely listened to the parting words of the political instructors - an illiterate transcription of oak and empty newspaper editorials - and walked on. Not at all inspired by some ideas or slogans, but because it is NECESSARY. So, apparently, our ancestors also went to die on the Kulikovo field or near Borodino. It is unlikely that they thought about the historical prospects and the greatness of our people ... Having entered the neutral zone, they did not at all shout “For the Motherland! For Stalin!”, as they say in novels. A hoarse howl and thick obscene language were heard over the front line, until bullets and shrapnel plugged the screaming throats. Was it before Stalin when death was near. Where, now, in the sixties, did the myth again arise that they won only thanks to Stalin, under the banner of Stalin? I have no doubts about this. Those who won either perished on the battlefield or drank themselves, overwhelmed by the post-war hardships. After all, not only the war, but also the restoration of the country took place at their expense. Those of them who are still alive are silent, broken.
Others remained in power and retained their strength - those who drove people into camps, those who drove them into senseless bloody attacks in the war. They acted in the name of Stalin, and they are now shouting about it. Was not at the forefront: "For Stalin!". The commissars tried to hammer it into our heads, but there were no commissars in the attacks. All this scum ... "

And I remember.

In October 1943, our 4th Guards Cavalry Division was urgently moved to the front line in order to close the gap that had formed after an unsuccessful attempt to break through the front by infantry. For about a week, the division held the defense in the area of ​​the Belarusian city of Khoiniki. At that time I worked at the divisional radio station "RSB-F" and I could judge the intensity of hostilities only by the number of wounded people riding in carts and walking to the rear of the wounded.
I am receiving a radiogram. After a long cipher-tsifiri in plain text the words "Change of linen." The encoded text will go to the headquarters cipher, and these words are intended by the corps radio operator for me, who is receiving the radiogram. They mean that the infantry is coming to replace us.
And indeed, rifle units were already walking past the walkie-talkie standing on the side of the forest road. It was some kind of battle-worn division, withdrawn from the front for a short rest and replenishment. Not observing the formation, soldiers walked with the floors of their overcoats tucked under the belt (there was an autumn thaw), which seemed humpbacked because of raincoats thrown over knapsacks.
I was struck by their downcast, doomed appearance. I realized that in an hour or two they would be at the forefront ...

Writes to N.N. Nikulin:

“Noise, roar, rattle, howl, bang, hoot - a hell of a concert. And along the road, in the gray haze of dawn, the infantry wanders to the front line. Row after row, regiment after regiment. Faceless figures hung with weapons, covered with humpbacked capes. Slowly but inexorably they marched forward to their own destruction. A generation going to eternity. There was so much generalizing meaning in this picture, so much apocalyptic horror, that we acutely felt the fragility of being, the pitiless pace of history. We felt like pitiful moths destined to burn without a trace in the hellish fire of war.

The dull obedience and conscious doom of Soviet soldiers attacking fortified positions inaccessible to a frontal assault amazed even our opponents. Nikulin cites the story of a German veteran who fought on the same sector of the front, but on the other side.

A certain Mr. Erwin X., whom he met in Bavaria, says:

What kind of strange people? We laid a rampart of corpses about two meters high under Sinyavino, and they keep climbing and climbing under the bullets, climbing over the dead, and we keep hitting and hitting, and they keep climbing and climbing ... And what dirty prisoners were! Snotty boys are crying, and the bread in their bags is disgusting, it is impossible to eat!
And what did yours do in Courland? he continues. - Once the masses of Russian troops went on the attack. But they were met with friendly fire from machine guns and anti-tank guns. The survivors began to roll back. But then dozens of machine guns and anti-tank guns hit from the Russian trenches. We saw how rushing about, dying, in the neutral zone of the crowd of your soldiers distraught with horror!

This is about detachments.

In a discussion at the military-historical forum "VIF-2 NE "None other than V. Karpov himself - a hero of the Soviet Union, in the past ZEK, a reconnaissance penitentiary, the author of well-known biographical novels about commanders, said that there were and could not be cases of shooting retreating Red Army soldiers by detachments. “Yes, we would shoot them ourselves,” he said. I had to object, despite the high authority of the writer, referring to my meeting with these warriors on the way to the medical squadron. As a result, he received a lot of offensive remarks. You can find a lot of evidence of how courageously the NKVD troops fought on the fronts. But about their activities as detachments, it was not necessary to meet.
In the comments to my statements and in the guest book of my site ( http://ldb1.people. en ) often there are words that veterans - relatives of the authors of the comments categorically refuse to remember their participation in the war and, moreover, write about it. I think the book of N.N. Nikulina explains this quite convincingly.
On the website of Artem Drabkin "I remember" ( www.iremember.ru ) a huge collection of memoirs of war veterans. But it is extremely rare to find sincere stories about what a comfrey soldier experienced at the forefront on the verge of life and inevitable, as it seemed to him, death.
In the 60s of the last century, when N.N. Nikulin, in the memory of the soldiers who miraculously survived after being at the forefront of the front, the experience was still as fresh as an open wound. Naturally, remembering this was painful. And I, to whom fate was more merciful, was able to force myself to take up a pen only in 1999.

N.N. Nikulin:

« Memoirs, memoirs... Who writes them? What memoirs can those who actually fought have? Pilots, tankers and, above all, infantrymen?
Wound - death, wound - death, wound - death and all! There was no other. Memoirs are written by those who were near the war. In the second echelon, at headquarters. Or corrupt hacks who expressed the official point of view, according to which we cheerfully won, and the evil fascists fell by the thousands, slain by our well-aimed fire. Simonov, "honest writer", what did he see? They took him for a ride in a submarine, once he went on the attack with infantry, once with scouts, looked at the artillery preparation - and now he “saw everything” and “experienced everything”! (Others, however, did not see this either.)
He wrote with aplomb, and all this is an embellished lie. And Sholokhov's "They fought for the Motherland" is just propaganda! There is no need to talk about small mongrels. ”

In the stories of real comfrey front-line soldiers, there is often a pronounced hostility, bordering on hostility, towards the inhabitants of various headquarters and rear services. This is read by both Nikulin and Shumilin, who contemptuously called them "regimental".

Nikulin:

« A striking difference exists between the front lines, where blood is shed, where there is suffering, where there is death, where one cannot raise one's head under bullets and shrapnel, where there is hunger and fear, overwork, heat in summer, frost in winter, where it is impossible to live, and the rear. Here, in the rear, another world. Here are the authorities, here are the headquarters, there are heavy guns, warehouses, medical battalions are located. Occasionally, shells fly here or a plane drops a bomb. The dead and wounded are rare here. Not a war, but a resort! Those on the front line are not residents. They are doomed. Their salvation is only a wound. Those in the rear will remain alive if they are not moved forward when the ranks of the attackers dry out. They will stay alive, come home, and eventually form the backbone of veterans' organizations. They will grow bellies, get bald heads, decorate their chests with commemorative medals, orders and will tell how heroically they fought, how they defeated Hitler. And they themselves will believe in it!
It is they who will bury the bright memory of those who died and who really fought! They will present a war about which they themselves know little, in a romantic halo. How good everything was, how wonderful! What heroes we are! And the fact that war is horror, death, hunger, meanness, meanness and meanness will fade into the background. The real front-line soldiers, of which there are one and a half people left, and even those crazy, spoiled ones, will be silent as a rag. And the authorities, who will also largely survive, will be mired in squabbles: who fought well, who fought badly, but if only they had listened to me!

Harsh words, but largely justified. I had to serve for some time at the headquarters of the division in the communications squadron, I had seen enough of smart staff officers. It is possible that due to a conflict with one of them, I was sent to the communications platoon of the 11th cavalry regiment (http://ldb1.narod.ru/simple39_.html )
I have already had to speak on a very painful topic about the terrible fate of women in the war. And again, this turned out to be an insult to me: the young relatives of the mothers and grandmothers who fought, felt that I had outraged their military merits.
When, even before leaving for the front, I saw how, under the influence of powerful propaganda, young girls enthusiastically enrolled in courses for radio operators, nurses or snipers, and then at the front - how they had to part with illusions and girlish pride, I, a boy inexperienced in life it hurt a lot for them. I recommend M. Kononov's novel "The Naked Pioneer", it's about the same thing.

And here is what N.N. Nikulin.

“This is not a woman's business - war. No doubt, there were many heroines who can be set as an example for men. But it is too cruel to force women to suffer the torment of the front. And if only this! It was hard for them to be surrounded by men. True, the hungry soldiers had no time for women, but the authorities achieved their goal by any means, from rough pressure to the most exquisite courtship. Among the many cavaliers there were daredevils for every taste: to sing, and to dance, and to talk eloquently, and for the educated - to read Blok or Lermontov ... And the girls went home with the addition of a family. It seems that this was called in the language of the military offices "to leave by order of 009." In our unit, out of fifty who arrived in 1942, only two soldiers of the fair sex remained by the end of the war. But “leave on order 009” is the best way out.
It's been worse. I was told how a certain Colonel Volkov lined up female reinforcements and, passing along the line, selected the beauties he liked. Such became his PPZH (Field mobile wife. The abbreviation PPZH had a different meaning in the soldier's lexicon. This is how hungry and emaciated soldiers called an empty, watery stew: “Goodbye, sex life”), and if they resisted - on the lip, in a cold dugout, on bread and water! Then the baby went from hand to hand, got to different mothers and deputies. In the best Asian traditions!”

Among my brother-soldiers was a wonderful brave woman medical officer of the squadron Masha Samoletova. About her on my website is the story of Marat Shpilyov “Her name was Moscow”. And at a meeting of veterans in Armavir, I saw how the soldiers she pulled from the battlefield were crying. She came to the front at the Komsomol call, leaving the ballet, where she began to work. But she also could not resist the pressure of the army Don Juan, as she herself told me.

And the last thing to talk about.

N.N. Nikulin:

“Everything seemed to be tested: death, hunger, shelling, overwork, cold. So no! There was something else very terrible, almost crushing me. On the eve of the transition to the territory of the Reich, agitators arrived in the troops. Some are in high ranks.
- Death for death! Blood for blood!!! Let's not forget!!! We won't forgive!!! Let's take revenge!!! - and so on...
Prior to this, Ehrenburg had thoroughly tried, whose crackling, biting articles everyone read: “Dad, kill the German!” And it turned out Nazism on the contrary.
True, they behaved outrageously according to plan: a network of ghettos, a network of camps. Accounting and compilation of lists of loot. A register of punishments, planned executions, etc. With us, everything went spontaneously, in the Slavic way. Bay, guys, burn, wilderness!
Spoil their women! Moreover, before the offensive, the troops were abundantly supplied with vodka. And it's gone, and it's gone! As always, the innocent suffered. The bosses, as always, fled ... Indiscriminately burned houses, killed some random old women, aimlessly shot herds of cows. A joke invented by someone was very popular: “Ivan is sitting near a burning house. "What are you doing?" they ask him. “Yes, the footcloths had to be dried, the fire was lit” ... Corpses, corpses, corpses. The Germans, of course, are scum, but why be like them? The army has humiliated itself. The nation has humiliated itself. It was the worst thing in the war. Corpses, corpses...
At the railway station of the city of Allenstein, which the valiant cavalry of General Oslikovsky captured unexpectedly for the enemy, several echelons with German refugees arrived. They thought they were going to their rear, but they got there ... I saw the results of the reception that they received. The station platforms were covered with heaps of gutted suitcases, bundles, trunks. Everywhere clothes, children's things, ripped pillows. All this in pools of blood...

“Everyone has the right to send a parcel home once a month weighing twelve kilograms,” the authorities officially announced. And it's gone, and it's gone! Drunk Ivan burst into the bomb shelter, fucked the machine on the table and, terribly bulging eyes, yelled: “URRRRR! ( Uhr- hours) Reptiles! Trembling German women carried watches from all sides, which they raked into the "sidor" and carried away. One soldier became famous for forcing a German woman to hold a candle (there was no electricity) while he rummaged through her chests. Rob! Grab it! Like an epidemic, this scourge swept over everyone ... Then they came to their senses, but it was too late: the devil flew out of the bottle. Kind, affectionate Russian men have turned into monsters. They were terrible alone, but in the herd they became such that it is impossible to describe!

Here, as they say, comments are superfluous.

Soon we will celebrate the wonderful folk holiday, Victory Day. It carries not only joy in connection with the anniversary graduation terrible war, which claimed every 8th inhabitant of our country (on average!), but also tears for those who did not return from there ... I would also like to remember the exorbitant price that the people had to pay under the "wise leadership" the greatest commander all times and peoples." After all, it has already been forgotten that he endowed himself with the title of Generalissimo and this title!