The first mass cessation of hostilities on both warring sides, spontaneously initiated by military personnel, occurred during the First World War. The command did not approve of fraternization with soldiers of other armies, because this process most often had a corrupting effect on military discipline.
The reason could be religious holidays
According to a study by Sergei Nikolaevich Bazanov, a leading researcher at the Center for Military History of Russia at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the first mass case of fraternization between military personnel of opposing sides in the First World War occurred back in December 1914 - on the initiative of Pope Benedict XV, a temporary truce was arranged by English and German soldiers at Christmas time . Moreover, contrary to the order of the command of both armies, the Pope made a similar request to the governments of Great Britain and Germany, and did not receive support.
The first fraternization between Russians and Germans happened on Easter, in April 1915.
Both the Russian and Anglo-French high military command sent circulars to the troops about preventing cases of fraternization with the Germans. But local officers did not know how to stop the spontaneous manifestation of such “friendship,” so they never developed any serious methods of punishing the fraternizing during the First World War.
What happened during such “friendly meetings”
Celebrating the holiday, the Germans and the British, after a mutual spontaneous cessation of hostilities, first sang Christmas songs together (the positions of the opposing troops were nearby), and then several groups of soldiers from both sides in the no man's land began to give each other Christmas gifts. In addition, opponents organized general services for funeral services for fallen soldiers and officers. There were cases that during fraternization, the British and Germans even organized joint football matches.
The Russians exchanged food from the Germans for alcohol - Prohibition was in effect in the Russian army. There was also an exchange of personal belongings - pouches, flasks and other small items necessary for a soldier.
According to S.N. Bazanov, often an invitation to fraternize ended in captivity for soldiers of the opposing army. For example, during one of these Easter “friendly meetings” in 1916, the Germans captured over 100 Russian soldiers.
By the end of the war the process had become widespread
According to S.N. Bazanov, fraternization between Russians and Germans during the First World War to a certain extent contributed to the collapse of the Russian army, already affected by anti-war sentiments. After the February Revolution, Germany and Austria-Hungary on the Eastern Front specifically initiated mass cases of fraternization between soldiers of their armies and Russians. Among the fraternizers were German and Austrian intelligence officers who “quietly” agitated the Russians about the need to overthrow the Provisional Government.
Judging by historical documents, V.I. Lenin, who was in Switzerland during the First World War, actively and publicly supported fraternization, believing that they were the forerunner of a civil war, which in turn should contribute to the final overthrow of the ruling classes. Upon his return to Russia, Lenin published an article in Pravda, “The Meaning of Fraternization.” Subsequently, the main press organ of the Bolsheviks published about two dozen publications in support of fraternization.
How they fraternized during the Great Patriotic War
During the Great Patriotic War, if they fraternized, it was with the civilian population, which was not encouraged either by the command of the Red Army or by senior officers of the Allied armies. Eisenhower expressly forbade American soldiers and officers from establishing informal ties with German civilians. However, these prohibitions were violated everywhere. Examples of “fraternization” during the Great Patriotic War were expressed mainly in the mutually voluntary cohabitation of military personnel with female representatives in the occupied territory.
The most famous case of fraternization of allies is the so-called “meeting on the Elbe” in April 1945, when troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front met with soldiers of the 1st US Army. This historical event was widely reflected in documentary and feature films.
On June 22, 1941, at 4 o’clock in the morning, Nazi Germany treacherously invaded the USSR without declaring war. This attack ended the chain of aggressive actions of Nazi Germany, which, thanks to the connivance and incitement of the Western powers, grossly violated the elementary norms of international law, resorted to predatory seizures and monstrous atrocities in the occupied countries.
In accordance with the Barbarossa plan, the fascist offensive began on a wide front by several groups in different directions. An army was stationed in the north "Norway", advancing on Murmansk and Kandalaksha; an army group was advancing from East Prussia to the Baltic states and Leningrad "North"; the most powerful army group "Center" had the goal of defeating the Red Army units in Belarus, capturing Vitebsk-Smolensk and taking Moscow on the move; army group "South" was concentrated from Lublin to the mouth of the Danube and led an attack on Kyiv - Donbass. The Nazis' plans boiled down to delivering a surprise attack in these directions, destroying border and military units, breaking through deep into the rear, and capturing Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv and the most important industrial centers in the southern regions of the country.
The command of the German army expected to end the war in 6-8 weeks.
190 enemy divisions, about 5.5 million soldiers, up to 50 thousand guns and mortars, 4,300 tanks, almost 5 thousand aircraft and about 200 warships were thrown into the offensive against the Soviet Union.
The war began in extremely favorable conditions for Germany. Before the attack on the USSR, Germany captured almost all of Western Europe, whose economy worked for the Nazis. Therefore, Germany had a powerful material and technical base.
Germany's military products were supplied by 6,500 of the largest enterprises in Western Europe. More than 3 million foreign workers were involved in the war industry. In Western European countries, the Nazis looted a lot of weapons, military equipment, trucks, carriages and locomotives. The military-economic resources of Germany and its allies significantly exceeded those of the USSR. Germany fully mobilized its army, as well as the armies of its allies. Most of the German army was concentrated near the borders of the Soviet Union. In addition, imperialist Japan threatened an attack from the East, which diverted a significant part of the Soviet Armed Forces to defend the country's eastern borders. In theses of the CPSU Central Committee "50 years of the Great October Socialist Revolution" An analysis of the reasons for the temporary failures of the Red Army in the initial period of the war is given. They are due to the fact that the Nazis used temporary advantages:
- militarization of the economy and all life in Germany;
- long preparation for a war of conquest and more than two years of experience in conducting military operations in the West;
- superiority in weapons and numbers of troops concentrated in advance in border zones.
They had the economic and military resources of almost all of Western Europe at their disposal. Miscalculations in determining the possible timing of Hitler Germany’s attack on our country and the associated omissions in preparation for repelling the first blows played a role. There was reliable information about the concentration of German troops near the borders of the USSR and Germany’s preparations for an attack on our country. However, the troops of the western military districts were not brought to a state of full combat readiness.
All these reasons put the Soviet country in a difficult situation. However, the enormous difficulties of the initial period of the war did not break the fighting spirit of the Red Army or shake the fortitude of the Soviet people. From the first days of the attack, it became clear that the plan for a lightning war had collapsed. Accustomed to easy victories over Western countries, whose governments treacherously surrendered their people to be torn to pieces by the occupiers, the Nazis met stubborn resistance from the Soviet Armed Forces, border guards and the entire Soviet people. The war lasted 1418 days. Groups of border guards fought bravely on the border. The garrison of the Brest Fortress covered itself with unfading glory. The defense of the fortress was led by Captain I. N. Zubachev, regimental commissar E. M. Fomin, Major P. M. Gavrilov and others. On June 22, 1941, at 4:25 a.m., fighter pilot I. I. Ivanov made the first ram. (In total, about 200 rams were carried out during the war). On June 26, the crew of Captain N.F. Gastello (A.A. Burdenyuk, G.N. Skorobogatiy, A.A. Kalinin) crashed into a column of enemy troops on a burning plane. From the first days of the war, hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers showed examples of courage and heroism.
lasted two months Battle of Smolensk. Born here near Smolensk soviet guard. The battle in the Smolensk region delayed the enemy's advance until mid-September 1941.
During the Battle of Smolensk, the Red Army thwarted the enemy's plans. The delay of the enemy offensive in the central direction was the first strategic success of the Soviet troops.
The Communist Party became the leading and directing force for the country's defense and preparation for the destruction of Hitler's troops. From the first days of the war, the party took emergency measures to organize resistance to the aggressor; a huge amount of work was carried out to reorganize all work on a military basis, turning the country into a single military camp.
“To wage a war for real,” wrote V.I. Lenin, “a strong, organized rear is needed. The best army, the people most devoted to the cause of the revolution will be immediately exterminated by the enemy if they are not sufficiently armed, supplied with food, and trained” (Lenin V.I. Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 35, p. 408).
These Leninist instructions formed the basis for organizing the fight against the enemy. On June 22, 1941, on behalf of the Soviet government, V. M. Molotov, People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, spoke on the radio with a message about the “robbery” attack of Nazi Germany and a call to fight the enemy. On the same day, a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was adopted on the introduction of martial law on the European territory of the USSR, as well as a Decree on the mobilization of a number of ages in 14 military districts. On June 23, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution on the tasks of party and Soviet organizations in war conditions. On June 24, the Evacuation Council was formed, and on June 27, the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR “On the procedure for the removal and placement of human contingents and valuable property” determined the procedure for the evacuation of productive forces and the population to the eastern regions. In the directive of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated June 29, 1941, the most important tasks for mobilizing all forces and means to defeat the enemy were outlined to party and Soviet organizations in the front-line regions.
“...In the war imposed on us with fascist Germany,” this document said, “the question of life and death of the Soviet state is being decided, whether the peoples of the Soviet Union should be free or fall into enslavement.” The Central Committee and the Soviet government called for realizing the full depth of the danger, reorganizing all work on a war footing, organizing comprehensive assistance to the front, increasing the production of weapons, ammunition, tanks, aircraft in every possible way, and in the event of a forced withdrawal of the Red Army, removing all valuable property, and destroying what cannot be removed. , in enemy-occupied areas to organize partisan detachments. On July 3, the main provisions of the directive were outlined in a speech by J.V. Stalin on the radio. The directive determined the nature of the war, the degree of threat and danger, set the tasks of transforming the country into a single combat camp, comprehensively strengthening the Armed Forces, restructuring the work of the rear on a military scale, and mobilizing all forces to repel the enemy. On June 30, 1941, an emergency body was created to quickly mobilize all the country’s forces and resources to repel and defeat the enemy - State Defense Committee (GKO) led by I.V. Stalin. All power in the country, state, military and economic leadership was concentrated in the hands of the State Defense Committee. It united the activities of all state and military institutions, party, trade union and Komsomol organizations.
In war conditions, the restructuring of the entire economy on a war footing was of paramount importance. At the end of June it was approved “Mobilization national economic plan for the third quarter of 1941.”, and on August 16 “Military-economic plan for the IV quarter of 1941 and 1942 for the regions of the Volga region, the Urals, Western Siberia, Kazakhstan and Central Asia" In just five months of 1941, over 1,360 large military enterprises were relocated and about 10 million people were evacuated. Even according to the admission of bourgeois experts evacuation of industry in the second half of 1941 and early 1942 and its deployment in the East should be considered among the most amazing feats of the peoples of the Soviet Union during the war. The evacuated Kramatorsk plant was launched 12 days after arriving at the site, Zaporozhye - after 20. By the end of 1941, the Urals were producing 62% of cast iron and 50% of steel. In scope and significance this was equal to the largest battles of wartime. The restructuring of the national economy on a war footing was completed by mid-1942.
The party carried out a lot of organizational work in the army. In accordance with the decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree on July 16, 1941 “On the reorganization of political propaganda bodies and the introduction of the institution of military commissars”. From July 16 in the Army, and from July 20 in the Navy, the institution of military commissars was introduced. During the second half of 1941, up to 1.5 million communists and more than 2 million Komsomol members were mobilized into the army (up to 40% of the total strength of the party was sent to the active army). Prominent party leaders L. I. Brezhnev, A. A. Zhdanov, A. S. Shcherbakov, M. A. Suslov and others were sent to party work in the active army.
On August 8, 1941, J.V. Stalin was appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces of the USSR. In order to concentrate all the functions of managing military operations, the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief was formed. Hundreds of thousands of communists and Komsomol members went to the front. About 300 thousand of the best representatives of the working class and intelligentsia of Moscow and Leningrad joined the ranks of the people's militia.
Meanwhile, the enemy stubbornly rushed towards Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv, Odessa, Sevastopol and other important industrial centers of the country. An important place in the plans of fascist Germany was occupied by the calculation of the international isolation of the USSR. However, from the first days of the war, an anti-Hitler coalition began to take shape. Already on June 22, 1941, the British government announced its support for the USSR in the fight against fascism, and on July 12 it signed an agreement on joint actions against fascist Germany. On August 2, 1941, US President F. Roosevelt announced economic support for the Soviet Union. On September 29, 1941, the conference of representatives of the three powers(USSR, USA and England), at which a plan for Anglo-American assistance in the fight against the enemy was developed. Hitler's plan to isolate the USSR internationally failed. On January 1, 1942, a declaration of 26 states was signed in Washington anti-Hitler coalition about using all the resources of these countries to fight against the German bloc. However, the Allies were in no hurry to provide effective assistance aimed at defeating fascism, trying to weaken the warring parties.
By October, the Nazi invaders, despite the heroic resistance of our troops, managed to approach Moscow from three sides, while simultaneously launching an offensive on the Don, in the Crimea, near Leningrad. Odessa and Sevastopol defended themselves heroically. On September 30, 1941, the German command launched the first, and in November - the second general offensive against Moscow. The Nazis managed to occupy Klin, Yakhroma, Naro-Fominsk, Istra and other cities in the Moscow region. Soviet troops conducted a heroic defense of the capital, showing examples of courage and heroism. The 316th Infantry Division of General Panfilov fought to the death in fierce battles. A partisan movement developed behind enemy lines. About 10 thousand partisans fought near Moscow alone. On December 5-6, 1941, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive near Moscow. At the same time, offensive operations were launched on the Western, Kalinin and Southwestern fronts. The powerful offensive of Soviet troops in the winter of 1941/42 drove the Nazis back in a number of places to a distance of up to 400 km from the capital and was their first major defeat in the Second World War.
Main result Moscow battle was that the strategic initiative had been wrested from the hands of the enemy and the plan for a lightning war had failed. The defeat of the Germans near Moscow was a decisive turn in the military operations of the Red Army and had a great influence on the entire further course of the war.
By the spring of 1942, military production had been established in the eastern regions of the country. By the middle of the year, most of the evacuated enterprises were set up in new locations. The transition of the country's economy to a war footing was basically completed. In the deep rear - in Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Siberia, and the Urals - there were over 10 thousand industrial construction sites.
Instead of the men who went to the front, women and youth came to the machines. Despite very difficult living conditions, Soviet people worked selflessly to ensure victory at the front. We worked one and a half to two shifts to restore industry and supply the front with everything necessary. The All-Union Socialist Competition developed widely, the winners of which were awarded a challenge Red Banner of the State Defense Committee. Agricultural workers organized above-plan plantings for the defense fund in 1942. The collective farm peasantry supplied the front and rear with food and industrial raw materials.
The situation in the temporarily occupied areas of the country was extremely difficult. The Nazis plundered cities and villages and abused the civilian population. German officials were appointed at the enterprises to supervise the work. The best lands were selected for farms for German soldiers. In all occupied settlements, German garrisons were maintained at the expense of the population. However, the economic and social policies of the fascists, which they tried to implement in the occupied territories, immediately failed. Soviet people, brought up on the ideas of the Communist Party, believed in the victory of the Soviet country and did not succumb to Hitler’s provocations and demagoguery.
Winter offensive of the Red Army in 1941/42 dealt a powerful blow to Nazi Germany and its military machine, but Hitler’s army was still strong. Soviet troops fought stubborn defensive battles.
In this situation, the nationwide struggle of the Soviet people behind enemy lines, especially partisan movement.
Thousands of Soviet people joined partisan detachments. Guerrilla warfare developed widely in Ukraine, Belarus and the Smolensk region, Crimea and a number of other places. In cities and villages temporarily occupied by the enemy, underground party and Komsomol organizations operated. In accordance with the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated July 18, 1941. “On the organization of the fight in the rear of German troops” 3,500 partisan detachments and groups, 32 underground regional committees, 805 city and district party committees, 5,429 primary party organizations, 10 regional, 210 inter-district city and 45 thousand primary Komsomol organizations were created. To coordinate the actions of partisan detachments and underground groups with units of the Red Army, by decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on May 30, 1942, a central headquarters of the partisan movement. Headquarters for the leadership of the partisan movement were formed in Belarus, Ukraine and other republics and regions occupied by the enemy.
After the defeat near Moscow and the winter offensive of our troops, the Nazi command was preparing a new major offensive with the goal of capturing all the southern regions of the country (Crimea, North Caucasus, Don) right up to the Volga, capturing Stalingrad and separating Transcaucasia from the center of the country. This posed an extremely serious threat to our country.
By the summer of 1942, the international situation had changed, characterized by the strengthening of the anti-Hitler coalition. In May - June 1942, agreements were concluded between the USSR, England and the USA on an alliance in the war against Germany and on post-war cooperation. In particular, an agreement was reached on the opening in 1942 in Europe second front against Germany, which would significantly speed up the defeat of fascism. But the Allies delayed its opening in every possible way. Taking advantage of this, the fascist command transferred divisions from the Western Front to the Eastern Front. By the spring of 1942, Hitler's army had 237 divisions, massive aviation, tanks, artillery and other types of equipment for a new offensive.
Intensified Leningrad blockade, exposed to artillery fire almost daily. In May, the Kerch Strait was captured. On July 3, the Supreme Command gave the order to the heroic defenders of Sevastopol to leave the city after a 250-day defense, since it was not possible to hold Crimea. As a result of the defeat of Soviet troops in the region of Kharkov and the Don, the enemy reached the Volga. The Stalingrad Front, created in July, took on powerful enemy attacks. Retreating with heavy fighting, our troops inflicted enormous damage on the enemy. In parallel, there was a fascist offensive in the North Caucasus, where Stavropol, Krasnodar, and Maykop were occupied. In the Mozdok area, the Nazi offensive was suspended.
The main battles took place on the Volga. The enemy sought to capture Stalingrad at any cost. The heroic defense of the city was one of the brightest pages of the Patriotic War. The working class, women, old people, teenagers - the entire population rose to defend Stalingrad. Despite the mortal danger, workers at the tractor factory sent tanks to the front lines every day. In September, battles broke out in the city for every street, for every house.
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To this day, the soldiers who defended our Motherland from enemies are remembered. Those caught up in these cruel times were children born in 1927 to 1941 and in the subsequent years of the war. These are the children of war. They survived everything: hunger, death of loved ones, backbreaking work, devastation, children did not know what scented soap, sugar, comfortable new clothes, shoes were. All of them are old people for a long time and teach the younger generation to value everything they have. But often they are not given due attention, and for them it is so important to pass on their experience to others.
Training during the war
Despite the war, many children studied, went to school, whatever they needed.“Schools were open, but few people studied, everyone worked, education was up to 4th grade. There were textbooks, but no notebooks; the children wrote on newspapers, old receipts, on any piece of paper they found. The ink was soot from the furnace. It was diluted with water and poured into a jar - it was ink. We dressed for school in what we had; neither boys nor girls had a specific uniform. The school day was short because I had to go to work. Brother Petya was taken by my father’s sister to Zhigalovo; he was the only one in the family who finished 8th grade” (Fartunatova Kapitolina Andreevna).
“We had an incomplete secondary school (7 grades), I already graduated in 1941. I remember that there were few textbooks. If five people lived nearby, then they were given one textbook, and they all gathered together at one person’s house and read and prepared their homework. They were given one notebook per person to do their homework. We had a strict teacher in Russian and literature, he called us to the blackboard and asked us to recite a poem by heart. If you don’t tell, then they will definitely ask you at the next lesson. That's why I still know the poems of A.S. Pushkina, M.Yu. Lermontov and many others" (Vorotkova Tamara Aleksandrovna).
“I went to school very late, I had nothing to wear. There was poverty and a shortage of textbooks even after the war” (Alexandra Egorovna Kadnikova)
“In 1941, I graduated from the 7th grade at the Konovalovskaya school with an award - a piece of calico. They gave me a ticket to Artek. Mom asked me to show me on the map where that Artek was and refused the ticket, saying: “It’s too far away. What if there’s a war?” And I was not mistaken. In 1944, I went to study at Malyshevskaya secondary school. We got to Balagansk by walks, and then by ferry to Malyshevka. There were no relatives in the village, but there was an acquaintance of my father’s – Sobigrai Stanislav, whom I saw once. I found a house from memory and asked for an apartment for the duration of my studies. I cleaned the house, did laundry, thereby earning money for the shelter. Before the New Year, food items included a bag of potatoes and a bottle of vegetable oil. This had to be stretched out until the holidays. I studied diligently, well, so I wanted to become a teacher. At school, much attention was paid to the ideological and patriotic education of children. In the first lesson, the teacher spent the first 5 minutes talking about events at the front. Every day a line was held where the results of academic performance in grades 6-7 were summed up. The elders reported. That class received the red challenge banner; there were more good and excellent students. Teachers and students lived as one family, respecting each other.” (Fonareva Ekaterina Adamovna)
Nutrition, daily life
Most people during the war faced an acute problem of food shortages. They ate poorly, mostly from the garden, from the taiga. We caught fish from nearby bodies of water.
“We were mainly fed by the taiga. We collected berries and mushrooms and stored them for the winter. The most delicious and joyful thing was when my mother baked pies with cabbage, bird cherry, and potatoes. Mom planted a vegetable garden where the whole family worked. There wasn't a single weed. And they carried water for irrigation from the river and climbed high up the mountain. They kept livestock; if they had cows, then 10 kg of butter per year was given to the front. They dug up frozen potatoes and collected the remaining spikelets on the field. When dad was taken away, Vanya replaced him for us. He, like his father, was a hunter and fisherman. The Ilga River flowed in our village, and there was good fish in it: grayling, hare, burbot. Vanya will wake us up early in the morning, and we will go pick different berries: currants, boyarka, rosehip, lingonberries, bird cherry, blueberry. We will collect, dry and sell them for money and for storage to the defense fund. They collected until the dew disappeared. As soon as it’s okay, run home - we need to go to the collective farm hayfield to rake hay. They gave out very little food, small pieces just to make sure there was enough for everyone. Brother Vanya sewed “Chirki” shoes for the whole family. Dad was a hunter, he caught a lot of fur and sold it. Therefore, when he left, there was a large amount of stock left. They grew wild hemp and made pants from it. The older sister was a needlewoman; she knitted socks, stockings and mittens” (Fartunatova Kapitalina Andreevna). 
“Baikal fed us. We lived in the village of Barguzin, we had a cannery. There were teams of fishermen, they caught various fish both from Baikal and from the Barguzin River. Sturgeon, whitefish, and omul were caught from Baikal. There were fish in the river such as perch, sorog, crucian carp, and burbot. The canned goods were sent to Tyumen and then to the front. The frail old people, those who did not go to the front, had their own foreman. The foreman was a fisherman all his life, had his own boat and seine. They called all the residents and asked: “Who needs fish?” Everyone needed fish, since only 400 g were given out per year, and 800 g per worker. Everyone who needed fish pulled a net on the shore, the old people swam into the river on a boat, set the net, then brought the other end to the shore. A rope was evenly selected from both sides and the seine was pulled to the shore. It was important not to let go of the joint. Then the foreman divided the fish among everyone. That's how they fed themselves. At the factory, after the canned food was made, they sold fish heads; 1 kilogram cost 5 kopecks. We didn’t have potatoes, and we didn’t have any vegetable gardens either. Because there was only forest around. Parents went to a neighboring village and exchanged fish for potatoes. We didn’t feel severe hunger” (Vorotkova Tomara Aleksandrovna).
“There was nothing to eat, we walked around the field collecting spikelets and frozen potatoes. They kept livestock and planted vegetable gardens” (Alexandra Egorovna Kadnikova).
“All spring, summer and autumn I walked barefoot - from snow to snow. It was especially bad when we were working in the field. The stubble made my legs bleed. The clothes were the same as everyone else’s - a canvas skirt, a jacket from someone else’s shoulder. Food - cabbage leaves, beet leaves, nettles, oatmeal mash and even the bones of horses who died of starvation. The bones steamed and then drank salted water. Potatoes and carrots were dried and sent to the front in parcels” (Ekaterina Adamovna Fonareva)
In the archive I studied the Book of Orders for the Balagansky District Health Department. (Fund No. 23 inventory No. 1 sheet No. 6 - Appendix 2) I discovered that there were no epidemics of infectious diseases among children during the war years, although by order of the District Health Department of September 27, 1941, rural medical obstetric centers were closed. (Fund No. 23, inventory No. 1, sheet No. 29-Appendix 3) Only in 1943, in the village of Molka, an epidemic was mentioned (the disease was not specified). Health questions Sanitary doctor Volkova, local doctor Bobyleva, paramedic Yakovleva were sent to the site of the outbreak for 7 days . I conclude that preventing the spread of infection was a very important matter.
The report at the 2nd district party conference on the work of the district party committee on March 31, 1945 sums up the work of the Balagansky district during the war years. It is clear from the report that the years 1941,1942,1943 were very difficult for the region. Productivity declined catastrophically. Potato yield in 1941 – 50, in 1942 – 32, in 1943 – 18 c. (Appendix 4)
Gross grain harvest – 161627, 112717, 29077 c; grain received per workday: 1.3; 0.82; 0.276 kg. From these figures we can conclude that people really lived from hand to mouth. (Appendix 5)
Hard work
Everyone worked, young and old, the work was different, but difficult in its own way. We worked day after day from morning until late at night.
“Everyone worked. Both adults and children from 5 years old. The boys hauled hay and drove horses. No one left until the hay was removed from the field. Women took young cattle and raised them, and children helped them. They took the cattle to water and provided food. In the fall, during school, the children still continue to work, being at school in the morning, and at the first call they went to work. Basically, the children worked in the fields: digging potatoes, collecting ears of rye, etc. Most people worked on the collective farm. They worked in the calf barn, raised livestock, and worked in collective farm gardens. We tried to remove the bread quickly, without sparing ourselves. As soon as the grain is harvested and the snow falls, they are sent to logging. The saws were ordinary with two handles. They felled huge trees in the forest, cut off branches, sawed them into logs and split firewood. A lineman came and measured the cubic capacity. It was necessary to prepare at least five cubes. I remember how my brothers and sisters and I were carrying firewood home from the forest. They were carried on a bull. He was big and had a temper. They began to slide down the hill, and he carried away and made a fool of himself. The cart rolled and firewood fell out onto the side of the road. The bull broke the harness and ran away to the stable. The herdsmen realized that this was our family and sent my grandfather on horseback to help. So they brought the firewood home already after dark. And in winter, the wolves came close to the village and howled. They often killed livestock, but did not harm people.
The calculation was carried out at the end of the year by workdays, some were praised, and some remained in debt, since the families were large, there were few workers and it was necessary to feed the family throughout the year. They borrowed flour and cereals. After the war, I went to work on a collective farm as a milkmaid, they gave me 15 cows, but in general they give 20, I asked that they give it like everyone else. They added cows, and I exceeded the plan and produced a lot of milk. For this they gave me 3 m of blue satin. This was my bonus. They made a dress from satin, which was very dear to me. On the collective farm there were both hard workers and lazy people. Our collective farm has always exceeded its plan. We collected parcels for the front. Knitted socks and mittens.
There weren't enough matches or salt. Instead of matches, at the beginning of the village, the old people set fire to a large log, it slowly burned, smoking. They took coal from her, brought it home and fanned the fire in the stove.” (Fartunatova Kapitolina Andreevna).
“The children worked mainly in collecting firewood. Pupils of 6-7 grades worked. All the adults fished and worked at the factory. We worked seven days a week.” (Vorotkova Tamara Aleksandrovna).
“The war began, the brothers went to the front, Stepan died. I worked on a collective farm for three years. First as a nanny in a nursery, then at an inn, where she cleaned the yard with her younger brother, carried and sawed wood. She worked as an accountant in a tractor brigade, then in a field crew, and in general, she went where she was sent. She made hay, harvested crops, cleared fields of weeds, planted vegetables in the collective farm garden.” (Fonareva Ekaterina Adamovna)
Valentin Rasputin's story “Live and Remember” describes similar work during the war. Same conditions (Ust-Uda and Balagansk are located nearby, stories about the common military past seem to be copied from the same source:
“And we got it,” Lisa picked up. - That's right, women, you got it? It's sickening to remember. On a collective farm, work is okay, it’s yours. As soon as we remove the bread, there will be snow and logging. To the end of my life I will remember these logging operations. There are no roads, the horses are torn, they can’t pull. But we cannot refuse: the labor front, help for our men. They left the little guys in the first years... But those without kids or those who were older, they didn’t leave them, they went and went. Nasten, however, did not miss more than one winter. I went there twice and left my kids here with my dad. You will pile up these forests, these cubic meters, and carry them with you in the sleigh. Not a step without a banner. Either it will carry you into a snowdrift, or something else - turn it out, little ladies, push. Where you will turn it out and where you won’t. He won’t let the wall be torn down: the winter before last, a praying little mare rolled downhill and at the turn couldn’t handle it - the sleigh landed on one side, almost knocking the little mare over. I fought and fought, but I can’t. I'm exhausted. I sat down on the road and cried. The wall approached from behind - I began to roar like a stream. — Tears welled up in Lisa’s eyes. - She helped me. She helped me, we went together, but I just couldn’t calm down, I howled and howled. — Succumbing even more to the memories, Lisa sobbed. - I roar and roar, I can’t help myself. I can not.
I worked in the archive and looked through the Book of Accounting of Workdays of Collective Farmers of the “In Memory of Lenin” Collective Farm for 1943. It recorded the collective farmers and the work they did. In the book, entries are kept by family. The teenagers were recorded only by last name and first name - Nyuta Medvetskaya, Shura Lozovaya, Natasha Filistovich, Volodya Strashinsky, in total I counted 24 teenagers. The following types of work were listed: logging, grain harvesting, hay harvesting, road work, horse care and others. The main working months for children are August, September, October and November. I associate this time of work with making hay, harvesting and threshing grain. At this time, it was necessary to carry out cleaning before the snow, so everyone was involved. The number of full workdays for Shura is 347, for Natasha – 185, for Nyuta – 190, for Volodya – 247. Unfortunately, there is no more information about the children in the archive. [Foundation No. 19, inventory No. 1-l, sheets No. 1-3, 7,8, 10,22,23,35,50, 64,65]
The decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated September 5, 1941 “On the beginning of collecting warm clothes and linen for the Red Army” indicated a list of things to be collected. Schools in the Balagansky district also collected things. According to the list by the head of the school (last name and school not established), the parcel included: cigarettes, soap, handkerchiefs, cologne, gloves, hat, pillowcases, towels, shaving brushes, soap dish, underpants.
Celebrations
Despite the hunger and cold, as well as such a hard life, people in different villages tried to celebrate the holidays.
“There were holidays, for example: when all the grain was harvested and the threshing was finished, the “Threshing” holiday was held. During the holidays they sang songs, danced, played various games, for example: towns, jumped on a board, prepared a kochulya (swing) and rolled balls, made a ball from dried manure. They took a round stone and dried the manure in layers to the required size. That's what they played with. The older sister sewed and knitted beautiful outfits and dressed us up for the holiday. Everyone had fun at the festival, both children and old people. There were no drunks, everyone was sober. Most often on holidays they were invited home. We went from house to house, since no one had much food.” (Fartunatova Kapitalina Andreevna).
“We celebrated New Year, Constitution Day and May 1st. Since we were surrounded by forest, we chose the most beautiful Christmas tree and placed it in the club. The residents of our village brought whatever toys they could to the Christmas tree, most were homemade, but there were also rich families who could already bring beautiful toys. Everyone took turns going to this Christmas tree. First, first-graders and 4th-graders, then 4-5th graders, and then two graduating classes. After all the schoolchildren, workers from the factory, shops, post office and other organizations came there in the evening. During the holidays they danced: waltz, krakowiak. They gave gifts to each other. After the festive concert, the women held gatherings with alcohol and various conversations. On May 1, demonstrations take place, all organizations gather for it” (Tamara Aleksandrovna Vorotkova).
The beginning and end of the war
Childhood is the best period in life, from which the best and brightest memories remain. What are the memories of the children who survived these four terrible, cruel and harsh years?
Early morning June 21, 1941. The people of our country sleep quietly and peacefully in their beds, and no one knows what awaits them ahead. What torment will they have to overcome and what will they have to come to terms with?
“As a collective farm, we removed stones from the arable land. An employee of the Village Council rode as a messenger on horseback and shouted “The War has begun.” They immediately began to gather all the men and boys. Those who worked directly from the fields were collected and taken to the front. They took all the horses. Dad was a foreman and he had a horse, Komsomolets, and he was also taken away. In 1942, dad’s funeral came.
On May 9, 1945, we were working in the field and again a Village Council worker was riding along with a flag in his hands and announced that the war was over. Some cried, some rejoiced!” (Fartunatova Kapitolina Andreevna).
“I worked as a postman and then they called me and announced that the war had begun. Everyone was crying in each other's arms. We lived at the mouth of the Barguzin River, there were many more villages further downstream from us. The Angara ship came to us from Irkutsk; it could accommodate 200 people, and when the war began, it collected all the future military personnel. It was deep-sea and therefore stopped 10 meters from the shore, the men sailed there on fishing boats. Many tears were shed!!! In 1941, everyone was drafted into the army at the front, the main thing was that their legs and arms were intact, and they had a head on their shoulders.”
“May 9, 1945. They called me and told me to sit and wait until everyone got in touch. They call “Everyone, Everyone, Everyone,” when everyone got in touch, I congratulated everyone, “Guys, the war is over.” Everyone was happy, hugging, some were crying!” (Vorotkova Tamara Aleksandrovna)
The cultural life of the country during the war years was influenced by new factors. The material base of cultural institutions has sharply decreased due to the cessation of their funding. Many centers of Soviet culture were located in the western and central regions of the country, which were occupied for the first time during the months of the war. A number of scientific and cultural institutions were evacuated to the eastern regions, but many cultural and scientific values fell into the hands of the enemy and have not yet been returned to the country. Cultural and scientific workers were forced to look for new forms of existence in wartime conditions. They gave lectures and concerts at the fronts, in hospitals, factories, factories, etc.
The ruling party set new tasks for the intelligentsia, which were dictated by wartime conditions. It was supposed to instill in Soviet people such necessary qualities as patriotism, socialist internationalism, loyalty to duty, oath, hatred of the enemy, etc. Such propaganda was carried out, and it was quite effective.
Soviet cultural figures began to turn to the historical past of the Russian people, make films, stage theatrical productions, and write works of fiction about the figures and events of pre-revolutionary Russia. Cooperation with the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition allowed them to turn to the work of Western writers and artists and promote it in our country. During the war years, many Soviet people first became acquainted with the achievements of world culture.
During the Great Patriotic War, the life of Soviet people radically changed. Almost all of them changed their living conditions. The male population was mobilized into the army, the number of which reached 11 million people. Women, children, yesterday's peasants came to industrial production. Their work during the war years was hard, with long working hours, practically no days off or vacations. In order to secure the support of the peasantry, the government was forced to abolish some restrictions introduced during the period of collectivization. This, by the way, was influenced by the desire of the Germans in the occupied territory to carry out decollectivization. A major concession to the Soviet peasantry during the war was the reliance on their personal interests. Personal subsidiary plots were allowed in the village, and peasants received a certain freedom in selling products from subsidiary plots. In addition, it was for the peasantry that the resulting freedom of religion was most relevant.
Already in July 1941, the population of Moscow and Leningrad was transferred to rationing. In 1942, 62 million Soviet people were served with cards, and in 1945 - 80 million. The entire population of the country, according to the level of consumption, was divided into several categories depending on labor and military contribution, while the norms of their supply with cards fluctuated significantly . Throughout the war, collective farm markets functioned in the country, where food products could be purchased at high prices. However, not every person could do this, because in the Urals 1 kg of meat cost more than what a worker received per month. From April 1944, a system of commercial shops and restaurants was introduced.
During the war, there was severe inflation in the country. Despite the fact that highly productive work was well paid, real wages in 1945 were 40% of the 1940 level. But even this money could not be realized, and it accumulated in savings books, especially in the countryside. In order to withdraw money from the population that was not backed by goods, the state introduced a system of special taxes, forced loans, froze cash deposits, organized “voluntary” subscriptions for planes, tanks, etc.
The Great Patriotic War is not just history. This is a concrete, priceless spiritual asset that does not age, does not become everyday and ordinary. Over the years, interest not only in the large-scale epic of the war, but also in its individual pages, has not waned, but has grown.
Despite the abundance of literature on war, it lacks an analysis of the role of social psychology of the masses. There are many works on ideological work during the war years, but they, as a rule, come down to listing the actions of political agencies. Their authors practically do not try to show what folk traditions and mentality traits they relied on, what determined this activity. The totalitarian regime managed to level the individual, suppress independence, sow fear of harsh authoritarian power, replace religiosity and Orthodox spirituality with atheism, and give patriotism a new idea - the idea of social liberation.
The war for the freedom and independence of the Motherland, for the salvation of world civilization and culture against modern barbarism, was a leap in the development of personality, a turn in the mentality of Russians. This was manifested not only in heroism, but also in people’s awareness of their strength, the disappearance of fear of power to a large extent, growing hopes for the expansion of freedoms and rights of citizens, democratization of the system, renewal and improvement of life.
The war began the process of rethinking values and called into question the inviolability of the Stalinist cult. And although official propaganda continued to associate all successes and victories with the name of the leader, and failures and defeats were blamed on enemies and traitors, there was no longer such complete, unconditional trust in the previously unquestioned authority. And if now Stalin’s repressive apparatus snatched away his brother-front-line soldier, the former bold pre-war belief that “the innocent are not imprisoned” gave way to bewilderment and indignation. The clichés collapsed when they came into collision with real life experience, which was forced to think seriously about the war, which turned out to be so different from the “mighty, crushing blow” promised by propaganda, “with little bloodshed”, “on foreign territory”. The war made me look at many things differently. In a short period of time, truths were comprehended that humanity had been moving toward for centuries. The new features that appeared in the mentality of Soviet people: the transition from a position of expectation to a position of action, independence, the disappearance to a large extent of fear of power - had a colossal consequence for our historical development.
The peoples of the former USSR owe to the front-line generation not only their independence, but also the first spiritual and political assault on totalitarianism. The years of the Great Patriotic War opened a new page in the history of relations between the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church. In fact, for the first time since the formation of the socialist state, the authorities made an attempt to move from a policy aimed at destroying the Russian Orthodox Church as a social institution to a constructive dialogue with it.
For the Orthodox hierarchs, this was a chance to revive the ruined and humiliated Russian Church. They responded with pleasure and gratitude to the new course of Stalin's leadership. As a result, during the war the Russian Orthodox Church was able to significantly improve its financial situation, train clergy, and strengthen its authority and influence in the country and abroad.
The new church policy was positively received by the majority of the country's population. A sign of the times has become overcrowded churches on Orthodox holidays, the possibility of performing religious rituals at home, the ringing of bells calling believers to service, and solemn religious processions with large crowds of people. The craving for religion increased significantly during the war years. Faith gave strength for a life of work in conditions of constant hardship.
The war provided a chance for the revival of Orthodox spirituality, a return to the pre-revolutionary traditions of Orthodoxy. This had a negative consequence. The change in the situation in the religious sphere during the war years objectively “worked” to strengthen the existing regime and increase Stalin’s personal authority. In the context of the actively asserting ideas of statehood and patriotism, the restoration and strengthening of the Orthodox Church as the traditional bearer of these ideas served as an additional source of legitimacy for Stalin’s power. The spiritual turn also manifested itself in a change in emphasis in patriotism. There was a shift from the great-power Comintern attitudes to a growing sense of a “small homeland” that was in mortal danger. The Fatherland was increasingly personified with the great house of the Soviet peoples.
It was not the idea of bringing communist liberation from exploitation to the working people of other countries, which was propagated by propaganda before the war, but the need to survive that united the peoples of the Soviet Union. During the war, many Russian national traditions and values, which had been anathematized by communist ideology for more than two decades, were revived. The leadership's assessment of the nature of the war as the Great Patriotic War turned out to be politically subtle and ideologically expedient. The specificity of socialist and revolutionary motives in propaganda was muted, and the emphasis was on patriotism.
Patriotism is not our monopoly. People of many countries love their Motherland and are ready to do great deeds for it. However, the sacrifice of the Soviet peoples during the Great Patriotic War is still unparalleled. The standard of living of the population of the USSR was immeasurably lower than in any of the countries at war, and nowhere was the state’s attitude towards the price of human life so careless. People put up with this and willingly made sacrifices.
It is worth recalling that the top leaders of the Reich themselves recognized the presence of a high patriotic spirit of our people. Even such a master of falsification as Goebbels admitted: “If the Russians fight stubbornly and fiercely, this should not be attributed to the fact that they are forced to fight by agents of the GPU, who allegedly shoot them if they retreat, but on the contrary, they are convinced that they are defending their Motherland.” .
Thus, the war made significant changes in the public consciousness and mentality of Soviet people. A special generation took shape, distinguished by its moral and psychological qualities and the strength of their manifestation. All these changes did not pass without leaving a mark on the state. The origins of our changes today have deep roots in the hard times of war.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the program planned by the 18th Party Congress for introducing seven-year universal education and developing general secondary education in the country was interrupted. The public education system withstood severe tests during the war years. Tens of thousands of school buildings were destroyed, the number of teachers was reduced by one third, and many children were deprived of the opportunity to study. The supply of textbooks and writing materials to schools became more difficult. All this led to the fact that during the war the total number of schools decreased by more than half, and there was a large dropout of children from secondary schools.
The rapid transition of the economy to a war footing and success in fulfilling front-line orders were achieved at the cost of incredible efforts and the selfless labor of those who replaced engineers and career workers who went to the front.
I don’t remember the day the war started, but I heard a story about it from my parents. In order for the child, that is, me, to breathe fresh air, our family went to the dacha in the summer. Family is not entirely accurate. Grandfather Ivan Gasparovich believed that there was no need to go to the dacha: “Turn off the electricity and water supply in the city, go to the restroom on the Field of Mars, and go to the Moika for water, here’s your dacha. And the air in our area is already fresh - the Mikhailovsky Garden, the Field of Mars, and the Summer Garden are nearby.” Dacha is also not entirely accurate. In 1941, my parents rented a room in the attic in Third Pargolovo. Then there were two villages - Starozhilovka and Zamanilovka. We lived in Starozhilovka, not far from us there was a large lake (they called it Chertovo), and a little further away there was Shuvalovsky Park.
Living in a closet in the Pargolov attic, going up and down steep stairs without railings many times a day, the parents were happy. They loved nature, went to the field to watch sunsets (dad since childhood loved to look at the sky, especially in the evening and at night), swam in the lake, walked in the park, where they knew every corner - shady alleys, a pond, which had a triangular shape and was called " Napoleon's hat. The hill, as dad said, raised by the serfs of Count Shuvalov, bore the resounding name “Parnassus”. After the war (until I was 14 years old, while we were still living in a house on the Griboyedov Canal), my dad and I went for a walk to this park on tram No. 20 (it went there for about an hour straight from our house, its loop was on Konyushennaya Square). In the park, dad loved to announce solemnly: “You and I are on Parnassus!” Then, in my ignorance, I did not understand why he considered it so important to be on Parnassus, because this hill was very low.
Sofia Ivanovna, Alexander Ivanovich and Natasha Gruzdev, 1939
But let's go back to June 1941. It was a warm sunny day, mom stayed at the dacha, and dad went with me, almost four years old, to Shuvalovsky Park, and we played Indians there. When we returned home along the country road, kicking up as much dust as possible to make it more fun, we wore “Indian” burdock hats on our heads. Then dad put me on his shoulders, we walked and loudly sang the recently appeared song “Three tankmen, three cheerful friends, the crew of a combat vehicle!” Instead of “crew,” I loudly shouted “anipazh,” which greatly amused my dad. A woman came across us, she looked at us in surprise and said: “Don’t you know - the war has begun.” Dad didn’t immediately understand what she was talking about, war seemed so impossible on such a sunny and carefree day. “What war?” - “With Germany, they announced on the radio.”
From that moment on, life was split into “before the war” and “during the war.” “After the war” was still very far away, and how many did not live to see it!
Summer 1941
On June 23, 1941, as usual on Mondays, the Academic Council met at the Herzen Pedagogical Institute, where dad defended his dissertation on the work of Mamin-Sibiryak. They often talked about this writer at home, and I called him Papa-Mom’s Sibiryak. The degree of Candidate of Sciences exempted them from mobilization to the front (Candidates of Sciences were given, as they said then, “reservation”). But dad didn’t hesitate for a minute: he volunteered for the war and fought near Leningrad until he was seriously wounded in the winter of 1944.
Ivan Gasparovich Gudzyuk, 1932
It was more difficult to decide what to do for the rest of the family. It would seem that we need to leave Leningrad. But grandfather Ivan Gasparovich categorically refused to leave. He said that men should not leave the city when they are threatened by the enemy: “At least I won’t just let a German into my apartment.” And he began to sharpen his saber (or saber - I don’t know exactly), left over from the time of his service in the tsarist army. It was useless to dissuade him. He was always taciturn and very stubborn, my mother said: Lithuanian, what do you want. At the family council, they decided that my mother would stay with my old father, and that I should be evacuated with the kindergarten of the Academy of Sciences; my mother then worked at the Academy. For some reason, it seemed that the war would not last long and that by the fall the kindergarten would return to Leningrad.
Mom began to embroider marks on my clothes. I remember the black coat in which I was sent to kindergarten, and in which I went to school three long years later. Why was it still good for me? Probably, he was bought for growth, and during the war years I grew up little. I will note that in my school years, children rarely wore clothes that fit them - at first they were too big, and then short and tight. On the black silk lining of my coat, my mother embroidered with bright blue threads: “Natasha Gruzdeva. Leningrad, Griboyedov Canal, building 2a, apt. 6".
The kindergarten was evacuated to Valdai. My first memory: my teacher and I were huddled together under a lonely tree, and a plane was flying straight towards us, howling. A trail of black smoke trails behind him. It’s very scary, the children are screaming and crying. The plane flies over us and falls into the lake, instead of a black plume there is a fountain and white steam.
I was tormented by the question for a long time: why were the children not immediately evacuated away from the front line? Only then, in haste and panic, were they transported to the Urals; not all the children lived to see the end of the war; many parents for years did not know what happened to their children or where to look for them. A friend answered this question; she recently read that evacuation plans were developed for the Finnish campaign, and they were followed.
The Germans were rapidly approaching Valdai, and in Leningrad it was still relatively calm, only air raid sirens sounded from time to time. And my mother decided to bring me home. She sent a request for this with a driver from the Academy of Sciences (official cars often went to the camp in Valdai), and he brought me back.
I must say that from birth I was very nervous and impressionable. This time it turned out that I was terrified of the air raid signal. As soon as the siren was turned on, I fell to the ground and began to sob uncontrollably. Ivan Gasparovich sternly told his daughter: “Take Natasha away, this won’t end well.” And my mother and I went to the Vologda region to visit my parents’ college friend Valentina Zaslonovskaya (Aunt Valya), and my grandfather remained in Leningrad and died of exhaustion on April 4, 1942.
We left for the city of Totma in a hurry; it was the very end of July, the Germans were already very close to Leningrad. Mom took very few things - everything fit into one small suitcase. We went to Vologda by train; the train that was going ahead of us was bombed, and our train stood for a long time - we waited until the rails were repaired. We traveled from Vologda by boat. When we were approaching the place where we were to live for three years, I, according to family legend, asked: “Is this village called the city of Totma?” And only many years later, having visited this amazing city, she asked him for forgiveness for her “metropolitan” childish arrogance.
In Totma there were many old two-story wooden houses with Russian stoves; Aunt Valya’s family lived in one of them on Belousovskaya Street. Her husband Vasily was some kind of district commander, and at first he was not drafted into the army. They had four children: two daughters (7- and 4-year-olds) and two sons (2-year-old and infant).
Mom rarely talked about how we lived in evacuation, and only after she was gone did dad give me a thin school notebook with her diary entries.
Totem life
We spent three war years in Totma, but I hardly remember the city - only the Sukhona River and the cobblestone ascent from the pier to the steep bank. In winter they used it for sleigh rides.
It’s strange that the famous Totem churches did not remain in my memory, apparently because our house in Leningrad stood next to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood (emphasis on the letter “i”), and the church silhouettes seemed ordinary to me. But I remember Aunt Valya’s two-story wooden house where we lived for the first two years well - I recognized it when I arrived in Totma more than half a century later. Even now it’s easy for me to imagine a large room with a whitewashed Russian stove, near which stood grabbers of various sizes. Opposite the mouth of the stove, near the windows, there was a table and benches made of wide thick boards; the floor in the room was also made of planks, covered with colored rugs. I was surprised by how they washed the tabletop, benches and floor - they scrubbed them with a broom made of twigs, it was called a golik. I remember how in the spring they made lark buns from dough. We children also participated in this; a small piece of dough in our hands quickly became gray, and the birds turned out crooked, not as beautiful as those of adults.
Aunt Valya and her husband, their four children, and my 27-year-old mother lived with me, 4 years old, in a house with a Russian stove. During the first year of the war, my mother was busy with housework; having grown up in a big city, it was very difficult for her: water from a well, full buckets on a rocker, a Russian stove with grips and cast iron pots. For some time, my mother and I had our own goat. Mom bought her in the village and brought her to Totma by boat. The goat did not want to go ashore, and the mother did not know how to deal with it. Someone advised her to drag the goat back to the ship, and the goat, out of stubbornness, went down the gangplank. When we didn’t have our own goat, my mother bought me, as she said, “for my father’s certificate” (apparently for an officer’s salary) a glass of milk a day.
A year later, in September 1942, my mother went to school to work as a teacher of Russian language and literature. Vasily, Aunt Valya’s husband, strenuously sought to be taken to the front. He was drafted into the army in April 1942, letters from him stopped arriving in December, and it soon became clear that he had died. After the death of Uncle Vasya, two young teachers were left with five children in their arms.
From my mother's diary: “New Year's Eve 1943. Valya is already a widow, her children are orphans. There have been no letters from Sasha (my dad - N.G.) for a long time. Am I really a widow?.. I sit alone and cry - bitterly and inconsolably. It seems that everything is over for me too. I looked through his photographs and filled them with tears. It's all over now. For Valya, life is over. We must live so that our children do not die - that’s all the harsh logic. Maybe it would be better if no one interfered with dying - for me it is so. Is not it? Too cruel and cold, heartless and selfish confession.
Things aren't going well at school. The guys are students, they hate each other, mock each other, hate teachers, school, studies, books, knowledge. Nothing is sacred to them. I don't know if I can handle it.
When will the torment end and will there be life at all? When I’m full, my feet won’t freeze, and when will my heart stop hurting and my eyes stop swelling from crying? Or will it all end here?”
In the summer of 1943, my mother agreed to become the director of another Totem school, not the one where she and Aunt Valya taught. In this school, behind the teachers' lounge, there was a large room where my mother and I lived. In our room there was a stove coated with chalk, similar to the Russian one in Aunt Valya’s house, only smaller and without a bench on top. There was a small stove on the stove, on which we put a pot, where we boiled water and boiled potatoes. We grew potatoes ourselves, and the school was given land for them. Our room also had a small table, chairs and one bed. An electric light bulb without a shade hung from the ceiling of our large room. When it was dimly lit (this happened often, although the electricity, as far as I remember, was not turned off), my mother would put a chair on the table and check her notebooks somewhere high, high in the sky, and I would look at her, falling asleep. My mother and I slept together, in winter we did not undress at night, but, on the contrary, put on all our clothes, even a coat.
There was little firewood; teachers (and my mother too) collected it in the forest in the summer. When we went to bed, my mother would put thin logs on top of the blanket. She told me that it was for weight, for warmth (our blanket was thin), but in reality she didn’t want to scare me. At night, fat rats came running into our room and started running in circles, head to tail. We had no food, they didn’t even look for it. What was the point of their round dances? Mom was afraid that they would attack us and bite me to death. Therefore, from time to time she threw a log into the corner of the room, fearing that she would accidentally hit some animal and anger the company. The noise caused the rats to scatter for a short time, then their endless round dance resumed.
Life at school was not easy. Mom wrote: “September 18, 1943. How hard it is for me! Few people live like /I/. The broken joints of my fingers hurt from chopping wood, and my last pair of shoes will soon fall off my feet. I haven’t been to the bathhouse for 3 weeks - the bathhouse is not working. There are lice in the head. Damp firewood does not heat a small pot for 2 hours, and we live from hand to mouth. You spend whole days doing every task. (I remember this: we wandered from office to office and stood there for a long time in queues in dimly lit corridors. - N.G.). There is no light at school, and I can’t get anything for 3 weeks. God, the school year is just around the corner. And the whole school - tears, tears come to the throat. Shame awaits me ahead. Will this terrible life ever end? There is no soap. There is nothing to wash in. God, and no one knows it. But school, work - no, it’s all terrible.”
Some of my first memories date back to this time. I didn’t have such a tragic feeling of life as my mother did, perhaps because I had nothing to compare with: I didn’t remember peaceful days. In addition, in childhood, joys and sorrows are not at all the same as in adulthood.
And my mother coped with the work of the director quite successfully, she was respected by the teachers and loved by the students. I will retell one incident from my mother’s words. Once entering the classroom, my mother noticed a commotion in the back desk. The lesson began, and suddenly a dog appeared in the aisle between the desks. The class froze, waiting for the “performance”. Without interrupting the story, mom opened the door, and the dog, yearning for a leash, happily ran out. The lesson continued. This happened in the last year of the war, when dogs appeared in Totma again.