Irina Kobak “We will not stand behind the price” (Great Patriotic War through the eyes of a guard corporal)"

The history of our country poses many questions to us. One of these questions is about the cost of victory over fascism. We don’t know everything about the Great Patriotic War and will never know, because the whole war is, in addition to it general structure, course and meaning, the fate of every person who survived (or did not survive) it. The story of each such life adds something to our knowledge of the war.

In literature we can find many examples of heroism Soviet soldiers and the civilian population, confirming that the war was a people's war, sacred, that the people fought courageously and deservedly won. This is certainly true. But along with the manifestations of selflessness and heroism of the people fighting the fascists, there was cowardice, betrayal, indifference, and cruelty... War is extreme situation, in which character traits, both positive and negative, are unusually clearly manifested. At the same time, war is essentially mass kill. Under these conditions, can the moral level of the people as a whole be maintained and not decline? Can a person remain human and not cross the line beyond which immorality and betrayal begin? Not always and not everyone succeeded. In the story of Nikita Mikhailovich Gerngross, an interlocutor chosen virtually at random, I found bright ones confirmation. However we'll talk not only about lowering the moral standards of specific people. Some facts from Nikita Mikhailovich’s story suggest the inhumanity and immorality of the entire system and the system that called itself the best, and show how this manifested itself in extreme conditions war.

Meeting N.M. Gerngross
His military fate cannot be called typical, but before the war it was similar to the fate of hundreds of thousands of teenagers who had one thing in common: their parents were repressed. Thus, his biography from the point of view of the “competent authorities” turned out to be “tarnished” even from adolescence. Ultimately, it was this fact that played a huge, if not decisive, role in military fate Nikita Mikhailovich and, perhaps, paradoxically, saved his life. However, this will be clear from his story:

“For each participant, the war had its own face, which in no case was probably the same. Therefore, each memory is a grain that complements the larger overall monument. It should also be remembered that the outlook of an ordinary soldier is rather narrow, he does not know much and therefore is not able to build a coherent picture of events. In addition, an ordinary soldier could witness facts that, until recently, could not be mentioned in any literature. During the war, I kept a “soldier’s diary,” but the front-line situation left no opportunity detailed description events, so the diary gradually took on the form of a brief listing of events.”.

Nikita Mikhailovich Gerngross was born in May 1924 in Leningrad. He was a teenage schoolboy when, in early December 1937, his father, Mikhail Fedorovich Gerngross, who worked as an economist at the Krasnaya Zarya plant, was arrested, and he and his mother, Valentina Nikolaevna, were sent to Orenburg region, V district center Kashirin, which was soon renamed Oktyabrsk. In 1941 he graduated from school with honors, on June 14 he was prom…

Again I turn to “Memoirs”:

“Life went on as usual. In June 1941, I graduated from the 10th grade with an excellent student certificate. On June 14th there was a graduation party, on the 22nd the war began, on June 28th my mother was arrested. She was taken from work. Childhood is over."

Work on the collective farm
Nikita Mikhailovich had a “white ticket” - exemption from military service - due to severe myopia, therefore, unlike most of his classmates who received summonses in the first days of the war, he was not subject to conscription into the active army.

Here is what Nikita Mikhailovich himself said about his life at the beginning of the war:

“When my mother was arrested, I, a city boy, was somewhat confused, because I had not worked anywhere and was not fit for anything. And at this time, the district authorities announced a recruitment of high school students and graduates to harvest the harvest of '41, and the harvest was very large. I also joined this and went to the “New Sargul” collective farm. Such a small collective farm, about fifteen yards. I worked there for a month. And when they found out about my uncertain situation, they offered me to stay and work there. I returned to Oktyabrsk, settled my affairs, namely: I sold the dugout, I sold the goat... In general, I bought the necessary clothes with the proceeds and moved to the collective farm. The work there was real: in the spring you had to plow, harrow, sow - it was work with two horses; in the summer we mowed wheat with a reaper - the most difficult of field work; in the fall we transported grain, and all winter I went for hay or straw to feed livestock.”

The reason that the urban, initially inept young man was offered to stay on the collective farm is clear: a shortage of men.

The war was somewhere far away, information about what was happening at the front was scarce and contradictory. Collective farmers learned about the progress of military operations mainly from the lips of soldiers returning after being wounded.

Nikita Mikhailovich worked on the collective farm for quite a long time - until March 1943.

Fit for non-combatant duty
Nikita Mikhailovich continues his story.

“...Apparently, the country has already run out of people. And on March 3, 1943, I received a summons. They brought us to Orenburg, then it was called Chkalov. The entire team of recruits was kept in a grove beyond the Urals, where such summer houses stood. Like pavilions for entertainment, something like that, summer. And it was March, and, in general, it was still not hot... We lived there for a little over a month, and we were building a dam there to protect the railway bridge across the Urals. The work was decent: carrying stones, stretchers with earth, logs, sleepers. We all had our own, as they called them back then, “sidors.” “Sidor” is a bag with a supply of food. These reserves gradually ran out, which, in general, we already began to feel. It was at this time that we were all gathered together, loaded onto a train and sent off. This is what I remember about this train. The food we were given there was not so great. We were given a loaf of bread for two days, a little sugar and a piece of herring. We ate the loaf, of course, on the same day, well, young, gluttonous... And then - our teeth were on the shelf. And that's what we did. It was the end of April, spring was raging all around and vegetable gardens were being planted. The train stops at the station, we jump out and about five or six people run to the nearest houses to hire out to dig the garden. We run up to some owner: “Come on, we’ll dig up the garden, and you give us two buckets of potatoes.” We dig and look at the train: is it leaving or not? Because if he leaves, then we may turn out to be deserters and receive a full court martial. It was crazy work. I don't remember ever working so hard. Sometimes we managed to get a couple of buckets and run happily to our heated house, bake potatoes or boil them. But there were times when halfway through the task we had to drop everything and run to the train, which had begun to move. They brought us to the Oryol region, to the Russky Brod station. It was the end of April - beginning of May..."

Here he received " baptism of fire" This is how Nikita Mikhailovich describes the first bombing in “Memoirs”:

“Finally the train stopped at the semaphore of the Russky Brod station, in Oryol region, and almost immediately there was a sound: “Air!” The people began to run away different sides, when explosions and machine gun fire thundered at the station. The Germans bombed the station. Our train passed this fate, but when we arrived at the station, the picture for a new recruit seemed terrible. The trip was over, we continued on foot. We walked all day and all night, stopping for five minutes every hour. In the morning we reached the place, many fell on the grass and immediately fell asleep... By 12 o'clock we reached our destination - the village of Mokhovoe. It was, of course, very difficult to walk, especially at night, we fell asleep while walking, tripped over the person walking in front... Well, these are details, little things. Everyone was exposed to the hardships of war...

And there we were divided into platoons, we received a tool - a simple shovel and a shovel for each - and went to dig trenches. We were not given any uniforms, except for boots with wooden soles (to help us dig better)..."

On the Oryol-Kursk Bulge
It so happened that recruit Nikita Gerngross from the deep rear ended up at the Oryol-Kursk arc, formed during the winter-spring offensive of the Red Army, to the area where it was planned to organize an offensive and, having developed success, complete a radical turning point in the course of the war.

Nikita Mikhailovich says:

“The norm was ferocious: six meters of trench, seventy meters deep, seventy meters below, ninety meters above. This entire volume of earth had to be taken out, leveled, a parapet made and disguised with turf. It was a difficult job, only a few managed it, mainly those who had been released from prison and worked on earthworks. Thus, we prepared the second and third echelons of defense on the Oryol-Kursk Bulge. I must say that this spare defense belt of ours was not useful. Hitler went on the offensive on July 5 and advanced… I don’t know, maybe twelve kilometers, or more, but he didn’t reach our line. And on July 12, ours already went on the offensive and left these lines far behind.

We were then threatened: if you don’t meet the quota, you won’t get dinner. I really don’t know of anyone not getting dinner. I personally did not fulfill the quota. But the platoon commander saw that I was such a city person, frail, but I was trying, so he didn’t deprive me. But there was one guy from Western Ukraine. In general, the people in this construction team were like this: from Western Ukraine, from Western Belarus, from prison, people like me, children of “enemies of the people” - that’s what the “rabble” was like. So, one guy flatly refused to work there. Categorically. He was of average height, strong, dense, with a black beard. I don’t know, they fed him, didn’t feed him, put him somewhere, didn’t sit him down, but he never took a shovel. This showed how we are treated in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.”

Military transit points
Nikita Mikhailovich continues his story:

“So, we spent the whole June digging trenches, preparing a backup line of defense before Hitler’s attack. Yes, I must say, the food was disgusting, there was a “second ration”. The second ration is 600 grams of crackers, for two days, I don’t remember. Well, there was a weld there, but it was very, very poor. And the work, as you can see, was grueling. Some began to swell and went to ask the population for help, but the local residents lived poorly and were unable to help us. I also became swollen, looked for some kind of grass, ate it... It ended up that I had a trophic ulcer on my leg, I couldn’t dig, then the bleeding started. I was sent to the medical battalion.

So, they sent me to a field hospital in Dubki. I was on the table, the doctor looked, my leg was in a cast... And I ended up in the hospital, where everyone was slightly wounded: with a leg, with an arm, some with crutches, but not seriously wounded. In mid-July, I, along with a group of slightly wounded people, were sent by car to the city of Yelets to an evacuation hospital, then by ambulance train to Ryazan and further to Kazan. I spent three months in Kazan, and then in mid-October it came interesting point. You have to sign out and go to the commission. And the commission looks like: “Are your arms and legs intact? Come on, take a walk!” I walked around. “Come on, wave your hands! Bend your hand! Fit for combat.” But I have myopia, I have a “white ticket”! It was until I gave it up when I was drafted into the army. And they wrote to me: “Fit for combat.” I almost became a guardsman right away...

After that I ended up at a military transit point in Gorky. We looked there - oh, ten classes! There weren't very many of them, by the way. All my tenth grade classmates were taken away literally in the first days. They sent me to the 62nd separate reserve radio regiment, in Gorky. The radio regiment trained radio operators of various specialties. And I was sent to a company that trained radio operators for front-line and army radio stations. The radio station was called RAF (army and frontline radio station). I studied there with pleasure, they lived normally, like in a reserve regiment... I studied there almost until March 1944 and was going, like everyone else, to take the exam to become a 3rd class radio operator. And suddenly the political officer calls me. Well, first there were questions, like, who was their nationality and where they lived... And then the question was asked: “Where are the parents?” I was a boy, so honest, and I answered: “Father is sitting, mother is sitting.” A couple of days later they kicked me out of there. It was the end of February."

After the exam, novice radio operators were assigned to serve at army headquarters. Information transmitted and received by radio operators, as a rule, secret and top secret, amounted to military secret, so it is not surprising that a special department carefully checked all graduates of this radio regiment. A man with a German-sounding surname and even with repressed parents could not help but arouse suspicion.

“And I again ended up at the same military transit point in Gorky. The surname is noticeable: not Ivanov, not Petrov - memorable, Gerngross, there were no more like them. They looked and decided to send me to an iron foundry near Murom.”

It can be assumed that officials from the WFP, sending Nikita Mikhailovich to the iron foundry, decided to play it safe. If the SMERSH counterintelligence decided that this person cannot be used in a job related to information containing military secrets, then the safest thing is to send him to a job that is guaranteed not to be associated with any secrets - this was probably the line of thought of these officials.

“I arrived at the plant in mid-March, settled in a dormitory, and began working as a stropper. The plant produced cast iron ingots as big as sleepers; they had to be loaded onto platforms, unloaded, and moved. I was working with a crane. The crane had pliers, I applied these pliers to the blank, lifted it, carried it, and placed it. But I didn’t work for long, about a month. One night, during the night shift (and we worked twelve hours, then rested for twelve hours), a blank fell on my leg, although not directly, there was no fracture, but the bruise was severe, and I spent several days in the hospital. And then the thought began to torment me: rather than get a disability or something else at this unfortunate plant, it would be better if they were killed or wounded at the front. When it was necessary to register - for military registration, by the way, I was still liable for military service - I came to the district military commissar and said that I wanted to join the army. He was so happy (they demand people from him, there are no people) and says: “Oh, come on! Where you want: in the infantry, in the artillery, in tank unit? I say: “Wherever you want.” And I came for the third time to the military transit point in Gorky. Can you imagine how these officials were scratching their heads about what to do with me now! What they came up with was completely unpredictable. They sent me to the Czechoslovak army. It was in April 1944.”

I first heard about the existence of the Czechoslovak Army on the territory of the USSR from Nikita Mikhailovich. This fact is interesting if only because this was not the first Czechoslovak army in Russia. The First Army (more precisely, the Czechoslovak Corps) was created during the Civil War. This second army was created in 1943 on the initiative and under the command of Ludwig Svoboda.

Probably the third appearance of the military-bound Gerngross on this runway in six months led officials to despair and forced them to make a completely ridiculous decision regarding the “unreliable son of an enemy of the people.”

“So, as part of a team of three Czechs, real Czechs who spoke Czech, I was traveling, the fourth one was a Russian soldier. We went to Buzuluk, where the headquarters of the Czechoslovak Army was located. There were no fools at headquarters. They ask: “Are you Czech?” - "No". - “Is your father a Czech citizen?” - "No". - “Is your mother a Czech citizen?” - "No". - “So why the hell did they send you to us?” And they sent me to a Russian military transit point, but not to Gorky, I didn’t end up there, thank God, but ended up in Tula. Tula twisted and twisted and in the end assigned me to the 42nd separate educational tank regiment self-propelled artillery, which was stationed near Moscow (Kosterevo station). The regiment trained crews of the SU-76 self-propelled guns.”

Beginning of combat service
“I arrived there around May 1944. You see, I've been hanging around for a year now. I arrived there, began to study, and they began to train me to be a gunner. With my vision. No one knows this, and no one cares. And these self-propelled guns SU-76, with a 76-mm cannon, were popularly called “Farewell, Motherland!”, and another name was “Thunderstorm to Hitler, Death to the Crew.” They were called that because the thin armor, the top of the tower was covered with a tarpaulin, ran on gasoline. Imagine, the driver is sitting, on the left is a gasoline engine, on the right is a tank of gasoline. They burned like candles, even when hit by a small caliber shell. So, I studied there until August... The training shooting began. It’s funny to think: I’m a gunner, I go to a firing position, the instructor says: “Look for a target, shoot.” I search and search, but I don’t see a damn thing. And there the time is standardized! He lost patience, pushed me away and said: “Wait, I’ll do it myself.” I shot myself. Now I think: what would I be like if I had been released by a gunner, with my eyesight? This is certain death for the entire crew.

The regiment commander was replaced and a new one appeared. In his “throne” speech, he said: “I will lead the regiment to the forefront, I will drive out all drunkards, truants and other suspicious individuals.” As a result, they began to pass the entire regiment through a special department. Ivanov arrives. They ask him: “Were you in the occupation?” - "Was not". - “Were you in captivity?” - "Was not". - “Was you in prison?” - “I didn’t sit.” - “Go.” Gerngross arrives. Well, as far as it comes to the parents, that’s all.”

This is not the first time Nikita Mikhailovich had to answer representatives special department to questions about his parents, and such conversations never promised anything good (remember how his studies as a radio operator ended). It would seem that war equalizes everyone, everyone is united by one goal - victory. However, from Nikita Mikhailovich’s story we see that this is not the first time (looking ahead, one might say, and not the last) time he has been recognized as a “second-class” person, not trustworthy, not very reliable.

A lot has already been said about the moral level of the repressive system created by Stalin, and I will not repeat it. I will only note how this level manifested itself in war conditions: a person is humiliated with mistrust only because he has German surname(although he, like his parents, lived his entire life in the Soviet Union) and his parents were repressed (it doesn’t matter that when his father was arrested, he was not yet fifteen years old).

“Me and several other people from this regiment were sent to Vladimir, no one knew why, they said it was to a marching company. It was the end of July. Finally, at the beginning of August 1944, I found my final refuge: the 354th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled artillery regiment reserve of the main command. From that time on I began to fight for real. But this was already 1944. Can you imagine? For a year and a half these officials dragged me around. Thanks to them for maybe saving my life.

So, in this regiment there were heavy 122-mm self-propelled guns, with thick, good armor, the Germans were very afraid of them. And I was assigned there to a company of machine gunners. I came there with a team of ten people. We arrived, and the commander was away there. They tell us: “Wait, there’s no one to write you down in the book, we’ve just come from near Minsk, and the clerk of a machine gun company was killed.” We waited and waited, then I said: “Let me write it down.” I took the book and wrote everyone down properly. And then the company commander appeared, looked and said: “You will be my clerk in the company.”

I started submitting drill notes, study plans - in general, paperwork. At the regimental headquarters they saw that my handwriting was neat and good, and they took me to the regimental headquarters for operational work. What did this work involve? It was necessary to glue topographic maps in the direction of our expected advance for each battery commander. And the regiment had twenty-one self-propelled guns: four batteries of five self-propelled guns each and one commander’s battery, which means that all battalion commanders had to be provided with maps, plus the chief of staff and the regiment commander. So I glued these cards. Then the duty was this: when the regiment moves, at the new place I have to make a cutout from the map, draw it and send the regiment’s location to the corps headquarters. We were subordinate to the 1st Panzer guards corps, this was our command. I quickly learned to type on a typewriter. Well, all sorts of soldier’s affairs, of course, and above all, digging trenches in a new place...

We were standing in Latvia (Radziwiliški), suddenly an order: “Urgent!” We were alerted. We were then preparing an offensive in Latvia, everything was quiet, camouflage, no cigarettes, no fire, nothing, no movements. But the Germans got wind of this. And twenty kilometers from our location they went on the offensive. The fighting lasted for two days. Our regiment knocked out thirteen tanks, and the Germans calmed down, and we repulsed the attack. But they still knew that we were going to attack.”

Nikita Mikhailovich's story is the point of view of a private who knows only what is happening next to him. And here’s how Marshal A.M. writes about repelling attacks near Dobele on September 18, 1944 in his book “The Work of a Whole Life.” Vasilevsky: “On the 18th I reported to Headquarters: “On the front of the 6th Guards Army of Chistyakov southwest of Dobele, the enemy launched an offensive in the morning of September 17 east direction by forces of the 5th, 4th tank divisions and motorized division “ Greater Germany" In total, about 200 tanks and self-propelled guns took part in the battle. Before the necessary tank and anti-tank weapons approached the area of ​​operations from our side, the enemy managed to wedge 4 to 5 km into our defenses. Further enemy advance has been stopped. During the day of the battle, up to 60 enemy tanks and self-propelled guns were knocked out and burned... From 10.00 on September 18, the enemy resumed the offensive. Until 13.00 all his attacks were repulsed.". The German attack near Dobele was repulsed. The war continued...

On a self-propelled gun
“Then it went according to the plan that ours learned from the Germans: concentration of forces on the sly, strong artillery barrage, infantry breaks through a section of defense - 3, 5, 7 kilometers wide - and immediately an avalanche of tanks, tanks, tanks, self-propelled guns, motorized infantry into this section... Just like the Germans fought with us at the beginning. The Germans, of course, ran well, because they were terribly afraid of being surrounded, and as soon as we got a little to the rear, they immediately fled.

At the end of January 1945, a change occurred in my destiny. The fact is that one day a representative of a special department from the corps arrives at the regimental headquarters and comes to the headquarters. He asks: “What kind of soldier is this?” - “Yes, they hired me for operational work.” - “Okay, let him help, just let him write an autobiography and fill out a form.”

You know what kind of questionnaires there were back then. I wrote, filled out and two days later the order: for self-propelled guns! And the self-propelled gun, it was supposed to have a squad of machine gunners, five people (in fact there were three, no more). And these five people should be literally chained to the self-propelled gun, not one step away from it. She goes on the attack - we ride on the armor behind the tower. She stopped - we hit the ground. And to guard it day and night, to prevent it from being thrown with grenades or set on fire with a Faustpatron. From that moment I began to fight for real, not at headquarters.

I kept a diary until they put me on a self-propelled gun. There was no time for diaries anymore. All this was preserved in memory as night marches, fires, shelling, bombings. I remember how we were advancing: you enter the city - there are no Germans, the electricity is on, the houses are open, on the tables warm lunch, take what you want... Ours, of course, took trophies whoever could. What will the soldier take? He has a duffel bag over his shoulders and nothing else. Tankers were strictly forbidden to take any trophies on self-propelled guns. Therefore, what they basically did was take a box of cognac and a box of canned food and tie it behind them - these were their trophies. Everyone was allowed to send parcels home with trophies, eight kilograms per month. Here whoever knew how. Someone doesn’t send, so the officers ask him to send on his own behalf, that is, they could send two or three parcels. Who was near the car (for example, we had a company technical support), they could accumulate as much as they wanted in their car.”

In general, trophies are an integral element of any war, but it should be remembered that there are both military (banners, weapons, etc.) and non-combat trophies, which should include the property of the civilian population. Taking non-combat spoils involves some form of robbery. The moral level of Soviet soldiers can also be judged by how shamelessly they devastated houses in captured cities. East Prussia. From Nikita Mikhailovich’s story it is clear that, unfortunately, not everyone was able to resist and not cross the line beyond which real barbarism begins. An example from Nikita Mikhailovich’s “Memoirs”:

“Not far from us, behind the station, there was an abandoned landowner’s house, which our guys discovered. A campaign was immediately organized there for mirrors, mattresses, paper folders and similar rubbish. I also took part in the hike and found several English magazines and witnessed an ugly incident. There was a piano in the hall, and one of the junior officers sat down at the piano and began to hit the keys with his feet. I was amazed at the manifestation of such savagery.”

One could argue: the Germans committed such atrocities in the occupied territories of the USSR that the behavior of our soldiers looks like an act of just revenge, but I cannot agree with this. Revenge is not a creative, but a destructive and, therefore, immoral feeling. And it’s very sad that our soldiers behaved like invaders, and not like liberators in relation to civilian population East Prussia.

However, Nikita Mikhailovich continues the story:

“And I kept looking for boots to get rid of the wraps that the soldiers called “boots - forty times around the leg.” But the damned German boots did not climb. I tried about ten pairs - none of them climbed. The guys also said that their climb was kind of stupid - it was very narrow. Well, these are all little things...

As part of the 43rd Army, we liberated Tilsit and received the name “Tilsit Regiment”...

Then we fought in East Prussia.”

Assault on Konigsberg
For participation in the assault on Koenigsberg, Nikita Mikhailovich was awarded a medal"For the capture of Koenigsberg."

Details about the preparations for this assault are written in “Memoirs”:

“But then April 1945 came, and we received orders to occupy starting positions. When we were driving to the indicated place, I was amazed by the huge amount of fire equipment. Almost every ten meters there were cannons, or mortars, or rockets, and a few to the side were Katyusha rockets. The assault was about to begin.

I have one of these vivid memory: I stood guard at some warehouse before the assault. There are lilacs all around, nightingales are singing... I stood and thought: will I survive this assault or not. They scared us pretty much, that is, they told us that the forts there were impregnable, there were ditches with water, that nothing trophy could be taken there - everything could be poisoned. Maybe that was the case, but I only know that on the eve of the assault, a company of penal soldiers went into battle and a few hours later the Soviet flag hoisted on the fort. Penalties, you understand, they have no choice. And then, it means, we stormed them. That is, how they stormed: self-propelled guns fired, and we sat next to them and guarded them. It didn’t come down to hand-to-hand combat, of course. But we were the first to be shelled, because the favorite targets for shelling were tanks and self-propelled guns... I remember how Koenigsberg was burning, especially burning. And here's why: our people come into the house - and the assault took place on April 6, and it was still cool - they will build a fire on the floor, warm themselves, cook food and leave, the fire remains. The house caught fire.

At the beginning of the assault there was one incident that quite... shocked me, or something. A new commander of a platoon of machine gunners arrived, a boy from the junior lieutenant course. The first time I went to the front after training, I was very young. And we once walked with him, checked the houses next to the self-propelled gun. And then we enter one house, a figure stands up, raises his hands: “I am a Pole, a Pole!” And myself in German uniform. The lieutenant says: “What a Pole you are, let’s go!” He took him out to the rear and shot him. So simple, no way. It seems to me that this boy wanted to see what it was like to kill people. There was no need, and he had no right to shoot like that. Because he had to take him to the regimental headquarters, they would sort it out there. What could I say? He is a commander, I am a soldier, I am silent..."

This episode, narrated by Nikita Mikhailovich, shocked me too. It has two aspects: legal and moral. The first one is clear. The junior lieutenant violated the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of July 1, 1941, prohibiting “cruel treatment of prisoners of war.” Prisoners were supposed to keep their personal belongings - from uniforms to orders and medals; provide all the wounded and sick with the necessary medical care; provide prisoners of war with food and other supplies in accordance with generally accepted standards . From my point of view, the second aspect is no less important, determining the price of victory in one small episode of a big war. It would seem: what does the death of one German mean in a war in which millions and tens of millions of lives were counted? It's not about the German, but about the young junior lieutenant. What moral shift had to occur in his mind so that he would kill an unarmed enemy in battle, fulfilling his military duty, not a bandit in self-defense, but kill out of passion, amazed by the death of friends or relatives before his eyes (then this could be called lynching ). He killed “just like that,” violating the order that prisoners should be taken to headquarters. IN Peaceful time he, most likely, would not have taken the life of a person even unpleasant to him, and would not have crossed the line that he crossed so easily in the war. Perhaps he was guided common expression“The war will write off everything,” perhaps he was afraid that the war would soon end and he would not have time to personally destroy a single fascist. But be that as it may, his action is immoral.

"We have no prisoners..."
“After that we went to the Zemland Peninsula, which was still in the hands of the Germans. This is north of Koenigsberg. And here, too, there was one incident that shocked everyone. We were driving along some highway. A column of captured Germans is coming towards them. They were brought closer - it turns out that they were Uzbeks in German uniforms. Our people were ready to tear them apart, but the convoy would not let them near them. Can you imagine what this is? Bastards, excuse the expression."

There is no need to talk about the moral character of traitors, traitors. At all times they were despised. However, one cannot judge all captured soldiers by those who began to collaborate with the fascists. The problem of prisoners had another side. Here's how Nikita Mikhailovich talks about it:

“Those who were captured, who were freed by ours, our own, then went to the camps as traitors. As they began to say, “we have no prisoners, we only have traitors.” I don’t know what word to call this meanness for the people, for the people. The man fought, endured so many hardships, was perhaps wounded, and then ... "

Of course, people were captured different nationalities, but at the same time, feats were performed by people of different nationalities. However, at the very difficult period war, fearing treason and going over to the side of the Nazis, Stalin carried out the deportation of individual peoples: in August 1941, 950 thousand Germans were deported (among them 500 thousand Germans from the Volga region), thereby, as it were, he branded whole people as potential traitors; As the Caucasus was liberated in October 1943 - March 1944, about 700 thousand inhabitants were deported North Caucasus. The consequences of this Stalinist “national policy” affect the life of our country to this day. It is in the North Caucasus that the “hottest spots” of our life today...

Stalin's decision to deport entire peoples naturally aroused in these peoples a feeling of embitterment, a thirst for revenge, which in essence is not a moral feeling.

“And they fought superbly, especially the Ukrainians, Tatars, Georgians, and Armenians. For example, when we drove the Germans out of Lithuania, they submitted award documents for the title of Hero to the self-propelled gun commander, an Armenian. Soviet Union, but a few days later, during a night march, his self-propelled gun overturned and there were casualties. They immediately called off the call. Well, everything happened in the war..."

Victory!

ABOUT last days Nikita Mikhailovich remembers the war like this:

“Advancing along the Zemland Peninsula, we came to a spit cutting off the Curonian Lagoon, at the end of which was the German naval base of Pillau... The spit was covered with a pine forest, of which only split stumps and fallen trees remained. The fact is that the Germans evacuated their troops to Germany through the port of Pillau, and all units awaiting departure fired continuously at the spit. In addition, mutually perpendicular clearings were made on the spit, which greatly interfered with tanks and self-propelled guns. As soon as the self-propelled gun leaned out at the intersection of the clearings, it immediately received a blank or a Faustpatron charge on its side. In addition to all, German ships They also fired at the spit from the sea. As a result, only one self-propelled gun remained in our regiment when the order came to withdraw from the battle. The self-propelled gun, which I was riding in, went to the rear and carried the gunner of one of our self-propelled guns, burned by the Germans, on the armor. The gunner, named Lopatchenko, was terribly burned, but we all hoped and passionately wished for him to remain alive.

After leaving the battle, the regiment without combat vehicles was withdrawn to the rear and stationed in the city of Gumbinnen. The service went on without any particular difficulties, when suddenly one night we were awakened by heavy shooting. We jumped up, thinking that some German unit coming from our rear had come upon us, but when we went out into the street, we saw that the entire horizon was sparkling with multi-colored rockets, and people were shouting “Victory!”, dancing and rejoicing. We took the box of rockets and the flare gun out into the street and took part in the general rejoicing.”

The Great Patriotic War is one of the most tragic periods in the history of our country. For some this is already distant history, but for people who survived the war, it is the border between life “before” and “after”. The people who survived it, especially those who fought, retained in their memory the years of the most difficult trials for the rest of their lives. The story of Nikita Mikhailovich Gerngross made me think about something that I previously knew only abstractly, without connecting it with specific people. From those who fought at the front, from ordinary people with their advantages and disadvantages, the war required maximum effort of all forces, physical and mental. The victory, so necessary for every Soviet person, country, and entire world, came at a very high price. The war did not write off anything. She left terrible wounds on the bodies and souls of people... But in a war there are always two sides, and it is merciless towards both: both the aggressors and the liberators. War subjects people to a severe test; with all its weight it falls on the moral prohibitions that exist in each of the people. It devalues ​​human life and sometimes forces people to be unjustifiably cruel. It makes people do things they shouldn't be proud of. This is the immorality and immorality of war.

In addition, the state itself turned out to be ruthless towards its citizens, expanding during the war the categories of people subject to repression.

I want to end with the words of Nikita Mikhailovich Gerngross:

“It was a holy war, you can’t say anything. It's scary to think what would have happened if Hitler had won. We defeated fascism, but not “with little blood, with a mighty blow,” as the song sang..."

How to establish the fate of a serviceman who died or went missing during the Great Patriotic War

3. Special cases.

3.1. Search for information about military personnel who were admitted to the hospital.

3.1.1. If it is established that the serviceman has left for the hospital, then a request should be sent to the Archive of Military Medical Documents of the Military Medical Museum of the Russian Defense Ministry. (“Addresses of departmental archives” on the website SOLDAT.ru).

A request to the Archive of Military Medical Documents should also be sent to in that case, if no information about the serviceman has yet been found: it may turn out that he was wounded and is listed in the file cabinet.

3.1.2. If the date and place of the soldier’s injury are known, then you need to try to establish the number of the hospital to which he was sent. To do this, according to the inventories of the rear departments of the army and the front, one should find rear reports, as well as reports from subordinate units and institutions about the location, current work, movement of wounded patients, evacuation routes, etc. documents that may contain information about deployment. From these same documents, it will probably be possible to establish the numbers of hospitals subordinate to the front and army rear services departments. After establishing the hospital number, you can request its reports on losses, as well as burial books, from the 9th department of TsAMO. ("Directory of hospital locations" on the website SOLDAT.ru).

3.2. Search for information about military personnel who were in German captivity

3.2.1. German personal cards for prisoners of war who died or died in captivity are stored in TsAMO (the incomplete card file contains 321,000 cards of ordinary personnel). The cards, which did not indicate the fate of the prisoner of war, were transferred to the regional departments of the MGB in 1946-48. for current work.

3.2.2. Military personnel liberated by Soviet troops from German prisoner-of-war camps were sent to NKVD testing and filtration camps (PFL). In the camp, investigators from the Smersh counterintelligence department found out the circumstances of the captivity and the conditions of detention in the prisoner of war camp.

Of course, the statements of modern journalists that all military personnel released from German captivity were sentenced to 10-25 years and sent to Soviet concentration camps. In cases that did not require a detailed check, a filtration file was not even opened, only a card was drawn up, and the serviceman was usually sent to an army reserve rifle regiment, and these were the overwhelming majority. In other cases, former prisoners of war could be sent to penal companies. The period of stay of former prisoners of war in the PFL usually did not exceed a month or two.

In the archives of the FSB of a regional or republican center in the region of a serviceman’s place of residence or birth, there may be a filtration and verification file on him. Information about the availability of a case can be obtained by telephone. The files may be given to relatives for review and making copies. To do this, you should send a request to the archive or contact the local FSB department, which will formalize the request, receive the file from the archive and familiarize the applicant with it.

In half of the regions, filtration and inspection files were transferred from the FSB archives to the state (regional) archives. TsAMO does not have these files, but there may be a German “Personal Camp Card”. Files on those born before 1910 could be destroyed in the FSB archives after the expiration of the storage period (75 years).

3.2.3. If a serviceman was convicted of collaborating with the Germans while in captivity, then the request should be sent to the Main Information Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation through the internal affairs agency at your place of residence.

3.2.4. The International Tracing Service, created after the Second World War, initially searched only for missing Germans. Now the scope of its activities has expanded somewhat: they are still looking for missing Germans here, but the search service also finds free documents about prisoners of German concentration camps of 1933-1945, about foreigners who disappeared on German territory, about those who were deported to this country, and about the missing children of all these people in Germany. The address of the International Tracing Service is: Grosse Allee 5-9, 34444 AROLSEN, Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Phone: (0 56 91) 6037. http://deutsch.its-arolsen.org/

3.2.5. A request should also be sent to the International Red Cross. ("Address and sample application form" on the website SOLDAT.ru)

3.3. Search for information about convicted military personnel.

Information about convicted military personnel is stored in the 5th department of TsAMO. If it is known that a serviceman has been convicted, then 3 different requests should be sent to TsAMO: one about his fate, the second about awards, and the third about his conviction. They will all go to different departments of TsAMO. In the last request, you should indicate that the serviceman was convicted, and ask for the number of the military unit in which he served before his arrest, and send a copy of the verdict of the military tribunal.

3.4. Search for information about military personnel of divisions people's militia.

In the first years of the war, several rifle divisions of the people's militia (sdno) were formed from among volunteers. If TsAMO does not have information about a militia member, then it is recommended to look in the archives at his place of residence for the funds of the organization in which he worked before enlisting in the people’s militia. Orders for organization must contain a record of assignment to a people's militia division or to the disposal of the RVK. In this way you can establish the division number or the name of the military registration and enlistment office. Further search is carried out in TsAMO in the division fund, and if the order for the organization does not indicate the division number, then you should first find out the division number in the RVC.

3.5. Search for information about military personnel who fought in penal companies and battalions.

Penal companies and battalions were created by order No. 227 of July 28, 1942. Penal battalions were formed on each front in numbers from one to three; officers convicted by military tribunals were sent to them, according to the verdict of the tribunal, in those cases where they were not deprived of their officer rank.

Penal companies existed in combined arms armies (up to ten penal companies), they were sent to:

a) officers convicted by military tribunals, in cases where, by the verdict of the tribunal, they were deprived of their officer rank;

b) privates and sergeants convicted by military tribunals, according to the verdict of the tribunal;

c) privates and sergeants who have committed a disciplinary offense, by orders of commanders military units(from the regiment commander and above);

d) prisoners from among civilians(men only), for whom serving imprisonment in a camp was replaced by service in penal battalions.

Tank and aviation armies did not have their own penal units; penal soldiers from these armies were sent to penal units combined arms armies and fronts.

Military personnel were sent to penal units for a period of 1 or 2 months, and for prisoners, the period of service in penal companies was calculated depending on the term of punishment to which they were sentenced by the court, according to the following scheme: up to 5 years in prison - a month, 5-8 years - two months, up to ten (this was the maximum sentence at that time) - three months.

After any injury, military personnel of penal units were released from further serving their sentences and were sent to a medical battalion, and after recovery - to a reserve regiment. Military personnel who served the prescribed period were considered exempt from punishment and were sent either to their unit or to a reserve unit. rifle regiment army, and the officers were restored to their previous rank and position.

For combat operations, penal units were transferred to operational subordination to divisions. Information about penal units should be sought in the funds of the corresponding armies and fronts, and information about their activities may be in the funds of the divisions to which they were assigned. TsAMO also has numerous funds for storing documents of penal companies and battalions, which any researcher can familiarize themselves with.

3.6. Search for information about military personnel who went to the front as part of marching companies.

3.6.1. Sometimes a search in the military registration and enlistment office gives only the date the team was sent from the recruiting office, but the address of the destination is missing. But even if the address is specified, then upon further search it sometimes turns out that the team did not arrive at the specified address. As mentioned above, military teams and marching companies were sent:

a) to the reserves rifle regiments(zsp) and brigades (zsbr) of armies and fronts;

b) to transit points (PP) of the army or front;

c) directly to combat units.

3.6.2. Reserve rifle regiments and brigades were part of combined arms armies, fronts and military districts. The following categories of military personnel were sent to the ZSP and ZSBR:

1) conscripts called up for military service;

2) recovered military personnel from hospitals;

3) military personnel who have lagged behind their units and commands;

4) military personnel released from German concentration camps and checked by the NKVD;

5) military personnel who arrived from reserve rifle regiments of internal military districts;

6) military personnel who arrived from military educational institutions;

7) citizens newly called up in the liberated territory;

8) personnel of disbanded units, etc.;

9) newly conscripted persons who have not previously served in the army.

In the reserve regiments, training was carried out, marching units were formed and sent to the front to active units in their specialty. The time a serviceman spent in a reserve regiment usually ranged from several days to 5-6 months.

It is necessary to distinguish between permanent and variable composition of the reserve regiment. Everything said in the previous paragraphs refers to the variable composition of the reserve regiment. The rifle battalions of the regiment were staffed with a variable composition, training battalion, a convalescent battalion, a school for junior lieutenants and some other units. But the reserve regiment also had a permanent composition, which included company and battalion commanders, regimental headquarters, auxiliary units and regiment services (medical unit, separate company communications, engineer platoon, household. platoon, etc.). For permanent personnel, the reserve rifle regiment was the place of permanent service.

Information about reserve regiments and brigades should be sought in the funds of the troop manning departments of the corresponding armies, fronts or military districts (the directory of the deployment of reserve and training regiments is on the website SOLDAT.ru).

3.6.3. Transit points were created to quickly resolve issues when moving teams, supplying food, uniforms and weapons. Using the documents of the transit point, you can determine the further path of the team in case of a change in destination, and you can also find a list of the team there.

Cases of transit points should be sought in the funds of the troop manning departments of the corresponding armies, fronts and military districts.

3.6.4. If the date the command was sent to the front is known, but the final address is unknown, then you can try to trace the route of the echelon:

a) according to documents from the headquarters of the military district of dispatch (these documents have not yet been declassified);

b) according to documents from the Military Communications Directorate (VOSO) of the GShKA (also not declassified);

c) according to documents from the staffing departments of front headquarters;

d) according to documents from the archives of the Ministry of Railways (may not be declassified).

Documentation in VOSO services was carried out very strictly and punctually, all of it should be preserved, but, unfortunately, almost all documents are still secret.

It should be borne in mind that in wartime conditions average speed train traffic was small, therefore, when calculating arrival dates, it is necessary to take into account that a distance of, for example, 300 km, a military train could cover both in 10 hours and in 5 days.

3.6.5. And the most unpleasant result of the search may probably be the establishment of the fact of negligent or criminal failure of commanders of military units to fulfill their duties in registering military personnel. There are cases when marching reinforcements were immediately brought into battle upon arrival, even without being included in the unit’s lists. War...

3.7. Search for information about military personnel ski battalions.

Separate ski battalions (ski battalions) were formed in reserve ski regiments of internal military districts in the fall and winter of 1941-1942. There were spare ski regiments in the Arkhangelsk, Moscow, Ural, Volga and Siberian military districts; they were disbanded in the winter of 1942, but before that they formed and sent to the front almost 300 ski battalions with a staff strength of 570 people each.

Conscripts born in the second half of 1922 were drafted into the Red Army in the fall of 1941, so most of them were sent specifically to the reserve ski regiments that were being formed at the same time.

The ski battalions were armed with PPSh machine guns, light mortars, and light machine guns. Therefore, they were used at the forefront of offensives, and in connection with this, the number of casualties was very large. The vast majority of ski battalions were disbanded within 2-3 months after arriving at the front. By the time of disbandment, there were usually 40-80 fighters left in the ski battalions. Funerals were rarely sent home, registration documents personnel and combat documents were often lost, because the headquarters of many battalions were destroyed. For example: out of 44 ski poles that reached the Volkhov Front in December 1941 - March 1942, TsAMO has documents for only two ski poles.

The affairs of individual ski battalions should be sought in their funds, as well as in the funds of the formations to which they were assigned.

3.8. Search for information about demobilized military personnel.

When a serviceman was demobilized at the unit headquarters, he handed over his Red Army book, after which he was issued a passage certificate (travel document), usually to the place from which he was called up. After arriving at the place of conscription, when registering for military service at the military registration and enlistment office, the serviceman had to pass a passing certificate, receive a military ID, and only after that could receive a passport.

If it is known that a war participant was demobilized either after the end of the war, or during the war after being discharged from the hospital, you should look for information about him at the military registration and enlistment office. The archives of the military registration and enlistment office contain the registration card of the military reserve, which contains information about his military service and about his places of work after demobilization until deregistration. When changing the place of residence, the registration card and personal file were sent to the military registration and enlistment office at the new place of residence and are now stored in the military registration and enlistment office in which he was deregistered.

If it is known that a war participant received a disability pension, then you should contact the pension department - the personal card may indicate the number of the hospital that issued the disability certificate. Further search information should be produced in the Archive of Military Medical Documents of the Military Medical Museum of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. (“Addresses of departmental archives” on the website SOLDAT.ru). It is recommended to send two requests to the archive: one for a search in the general file cabinet, and the second for a search in the funds of a specific hospital. The answer to the request may be negative, because Many hospitals did not archive their files after the war.

3.9. Search for information about military personnel killed and missing in battles against the White Finns in 1939-1940.

"Name list of military personnel Soviet army, killed and missing in battles against the White Finns in 1939-1940." is stored in the Russian State Military Archive (RGVA) (fond 34980, year 1939-1940, inventory 15). It includes 126,875 people killed in battles, missing without to report those who died from wounds in hospitals.

3.10. Search for information about partisans.

Information about partisan detachments in the temporarily occupied territory of the Soviet Union is stored in the Central Headquarters fund partisan movement at Headquarters Supreme High Command in Russian State Archives socio-political history (RGASPI).

As reported by the ELAR corporation, which is engaged in the technical implementation of this nationwide project, 15 million records of the places of death (disposal) and primary burials of the defenders of the Fatherland have become available on the portal - with such places linked to modern maps of the area. Behind last year more than 3 million additional records were added from digitized documents of military transit points and military commissariats. Additionally, it has been made public electronic view more than 250 thousand documents (war and post-war), clarifying losses.

In total, by this day, the portal has collected and made available information about the primary burial places of more than 5 million soldiers and officers who died in battle or died from wounds and illnesses in hospitals and medical battalions, Maxim Bayuk from the ELAR Projects Department gave RG a clarifying certificate. - Relatives and friends, having learned the address of the primary burial and finding this place on historical and modern maps, will be able to expand their ideas about battle path father, grandfather or great-grandfather...

Throughout the past year, work with award documents has not stopped. 6 million new records have been introduced for medals for defense, capture and liberation of cities and territories. Taking into account the information previously entered into the electronic database of award documents, 12.5 million entries were supplemented with the place and date of the feat.

In addition to the united Internet portal “Memory of the People,” information about the victims and data on awards are available, as before, on the OBD portals “Memorial” and “Feat of the People,” respectively.

According to the Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia, General of the Army Dmitry Bulgakov, the combination of these two resources within a single Internet portal, combined with advanced IT technologies, allows users to search for information from consolidated sources using intelligent system search. On the People's Memory portal, it automatically displays a selection of data on a particular participant in the war, including information about awards, exploits, place of death or burial. In most such cases, users can also see the combat path of a war participant. Place of conscription, participation in combat operations, deployment of military transit points and military units are marked on modern map, correlated with maps from the war.

The developers of the resource recreated the structure of the Red Army on a given date and published more than 425 thousand documents from armies and fronts about 216 military operations. IN open access More than 100 thousand digitized maps of military operations have already been presented. And one more useful innovation: users can save the information found in " Personal archive" and access it from any electronic device.

Inviting RG readers to independent work with digital databases of archival documents, we want to give one practical advice. If the last name, first name, patronymic of the wanted person may allow (suggest) discrepancies in letters or their combination, try entering different options - just do it sequentially, changing one thing in one place. Start with the surname, for example: Pashentsev - Pashintsev - Pashentsov - Pashintsov - Pashentsev, etc. Name, examples: Evstafiy - Estafy - Efstafiy; Gabriel - Gabriel - Gabriel - Gabriel. Patronymic: Nikitich - Nikitovich; Methodievich - Methodievich - Methodiech - Methodiech - Mifodievich - Mifodievich - Mifodiech - Myfoditch.

Go ahead and remember: success does not come “with the first click.”

With a list of those enrolled in the course in 1935. Solomon Abramzon was enrolled in the violin class.

From the history of the Gnessin school, where in post-war years taught by Solomon Abramzon

The Moscow Children's Music School named after the Gnessins is one of the links in a large musical “integrate”, which includes a seven-year school (MDMSH named after the Gnessins), a secondary special school named after the Gnessins, music school named after the Gnessins and Russian Academy Music named after the Gnessins.

Post-war years

The Gnesin seven-year school received “autonomy” in 1948. This year, the school’s teaching staff is replenished with young musicians from the first graduating class of the Gnessin Institute. These are E. Vorobyov, E. Orlova (piano), V. Fedin (percussion instruments), and in subsequent years M. Denisova, T. Zaitseva, E. Ratinova, I. Savina, T. Freinkina, E. Estrin, N. Yurlova and A. Kantor, who graduated from the Moscow Conservatory (all in piano).

The piano department, which employed about 30 teachers, was headed at that time by N. Svetozarova; in 1953 she was replaced by E. Orlova. Senior pianist teachers (M. Avgustovskaya, S. Apfelbaum, O. Gnesina, A. Golovina, E. Krylova, V. Listova, A. Urinson) looked after the youth, helping valuable methodological advice, generously handing over your teaching experience. The manager was in charge of organizational issues educational part S. Abramzon. E. Davydova, the first director of the school after Elena Fabianovna, was an energetic person with a “broad outlook, and enjoyed the authority, trust and love of the staff.

O. Gnesina was closely connected with the school. In addition to her main work at the school, she also taught children, attended tests and academic concerts of young pianists, where her students also played, and greatly helped the team, especially the young ones, with her advice. The general artistic direction was provided by El. Gnessin. She found the time and energy not only to be interested in the affairs of the school, but also to take part in them: she attended school concerts and, together with the teachers, discussed the performance of each student, noting achievements and failures. Everyone who attended these discussions and participated in them remembers with gratitude the exacting, strict and at the same time extremely friendly and caring attitude Elena Fabianovna to both students and teachers. Many generations of teachers, communicating with the Gnesins, assimilated their principles and traditions. This is a strict attitude to the choice of repertoire for students who were brought up only on highly artistic works; searching for examples in the stream of modern children's literature; instilling in children an attentive and respectful attitude towards the author’s text, the ability to grasp character traits composer's style; studying the child's personality, his human properties, potential musical abilities. And as a consequence, setting up a pedagogical “diagnosis” and tasks - how to work with a child in order to successfully develop this individuality.

To streamline the educational process, the USSR Ministry of Culture in the post-war years reorganized the system of children's music education in the country, which was based on the principle differentiated learning. The teachers were given two main tasks. The first is to give children a general musical education, instill a love of music, develop skills in playing a musical instrument, sight reading, ensemble playing, selecting accompaniment, the ability to navigate styles and simply understand the structure of simple works so that those who graduate from music school can become cultural listeners and active participants in amateur music performances. The second task is to provide the most capable students with a special musical education, fully develop technique and artistic taste, and cultivate performing skills in order to prepare them for entry into music schools, that is, as further vocational training.

These tasks were not new for the Gnessin School. Above, the Gnesins’ attention to instilling in children a genuine love of music, the desire to give students a wide range of musical theoretical knowledge and at the same time, was noted more than once. develop true professionalism. IN music school named after the Gnesins, conditions for implementing specified tasks in life were quite favorable. Individual approach to each student fully ensured their implementation.

Consultative classes on conducting, harmony and musical literature. Thus, school graduates, familiar with the specifics of the choral and theoretical departments of the school, could quite consciously determine their specialization. Elizaveta Gnesina-Vitacek handed over the leadership of the string department to the faithful and kind hands of her student S. Abramzon, who proved himself to be a gifted organizer. Violin classes were taught by N. Dulova, S. Abramzon, V. Sokolov and the younger A. Anshelevich, V. Rabei, K. Sementsov-Ogievsky; cello classes - A. Benditsky, T. Gaidamovich, A. Georgian, A. Klivansky and graduates of the Gnessin Institute - S. Burova, N. Kuzina; the harp class was taught by M. Rubin for many years; double bass class - K. Nazarova-Vysotskaya.

Good school musical education became an ensemble of violinists, led first by Elizaveta Gnessina-Vitachek and then by Dulova. The performances of this ensemble have always been meaningful and artistically vibrant. The ensemble of cellists (led by Benditsky) worked systematically.

Under the direction of Abramzona A school string orchestra was organized, performing orchestral works and accompanying young soloists.

The NKVD authorities detained a significant number of deserters from among recovering military personnel who were being treated in hospitals of NGOs and the People's Commissariat of Health of the USSR.

It has been established that desertion from hospitals is a consequence of the unsatisfactory state of military discipline among military personnel undergoing treatment, as well as the lack of proper monitoring of the regime and order of detention in hospitals by the administration and garrison commanders. NPO Order No. 016-1943, establishing certain order and discipline in hospitals is not implemented.

Having the opportunity to leave hospitals without permission, military personnel often acquire weapons and organize into bandit and robbery groups. For example:

On the territory of Liskinsky district Voronezh region Dolzhenko’s armed group, consisting of 4 servicemen who were being treated in the Sredne-Ikoretsky evacuation hospital No. 4081, was liquidated.

The group members committed armed robberies, after which they returned to hospitals and continued to live there.

The stolen items were handed over to accomplice Korovina, who sold them.

The Aleksandrovsky GO UNKVD in the Ivanovo region liquidated Krasnoyarov’s group, which consisted of three servicemen who were being treated in evacuation hospital No. 5856.

The group members left without permission for the city of Strunino, committed burglaries, and sold stolen items in the mountains. Alexandrov on the market.

As a result of a survey in June 1944 of all hospitals in the Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, it was revealed that NKO order No. 016 of 1943 was not being implemented by the heads of hospitals and garrisons due to the lack of appropriate commandant groups.

In 1944, the NKVD authorities of the Udmurt ASSR uncovered a number of crimes committed by wounded patients.

Zubarev, who was being treated in hospital No. 3750, and a group of people committed the murder of the watchman Kiselev and the robbery of the warehouse of kindergarten No. 40. Before the robbery, Zubarev committed two burglaries.

Wound hospital No. 3151 Stepanenko, Lekuzhev and Glebov committed a number of thefts by breaking locks and glass in Izhevsk.

In the mountains In Sarapul, a group of patients from hospital No. 1735 (Vasilchenko, Tolstikov and others) committed 5 street robberies of citizens.

Many ranbols are engaged in speculation with vodka, train tickets, unhindered groups, in dressing gowns and underwear, go to the markets, drink vodka there, play cards, etc.

All this is the result of the fact that wounded patients have free access from hospital premises and their behavior is not controlled by anyone.

Local garrison commanders explain their inactivity in implementing NPO order No. 016 by the lack of the necessary teams to respond to the behavior of the wounded in populated areas.

The NKVD of the Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic brings to the attention of local party bodies and URALVO all revealed facts.

The situation in hospitals in the cities of the Caucasian Mineral Group is extremely serious.

For a long time, there has been a lack of order and discipline in hospitals. In Kislovodsk, Pyatigorsk, Zheleznovodsk, Essentuki, Minvody, mass unauthorized absences, hooliganism, drunkenness, brawls, beatings and banditry are widespread among wound patients. In the mountains In Kislovodsk, gambling at cards for large sums of money among those being treated in hospitals has become so widespread that local authorities are forced to conduct special raids in the park. To commit crimes, some wounded patients associate with bandits and robbers.

Servicemen Solodkov, Bykovchenko and Nezamakin, who were being treated in the Pyatigorsk hospital (sanatorium No. 1), contacted Kunashev’s bandit-robbery group and committed a number of armed robberies and murders, including the murder of pom. beginning prisoner of war camp No. 147 Kevorkova and others. After committing crimes, the bandits returned to the hospital.

During the 5 months of 1944, the Kislovodsk city department of the NKVD arrested 52 military personnel, mainly from among wounded patients, for criminal offenses.

During the same time, the Pyatigorsk GO NKVD arrested 20 wounded patients for theft and robbery.

The Essentuki GO NKVD arrested 31 people for theft of wounded patients.

When admitting military personnel for treatment in some hospitals, documents are not carefully checked, and therefore a criminal element enters there, receives a salary, uniforms, and upon discharge, the corresponding documents with fictitious officer ranks(Zamkov, Bely, Funda, Chernikov, Makeev, Grabovsky, etc.).

The lack of discipline and order in the hospitals of the cities of the Caucasian Mining Group creates a favorable environment for desertion. The Pyatigorsk RO NKVD detained 12 deserters from hospitals, the Kislovodsk RO NKVD 35, etc.

The secretary of the regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Comrade. Suslov and the command of the North Caucasus Military District.

In addition, due to the lack of proper procedures when sending recovering military personnel to military registration and enlistment offices and military units, many of them, having the appropriate documents in hand, do not show up at their destination, desert and in some cases take the path of criminal activity.

On the territory of the Novo-Bugsky district of the Nikolaev region, an armed deserter group of Erokhin consisting of three people was liquidated. After being discharged from the hospital, they were sent to military units, where they did not show up, deserted and, under the guise of counterintelligence officers “Smersh” of the 6th Guards Army, committed robberies of collective farmers.

The following items were confiscated from the arrested group members: a PPSh submachine gun, two rifles, ammunition, an official seal and various blank forms.

At the same time, some military personnel who are being treated in hospitals, taking advantage of the negligence of workers, steal various forms and seals, fabricate medical documents and according to them they receive certificates of exemption from military service from military registration and enlistment offices.

Some hospital employees issue fictitious documents to deserters in exchange for bribes.

The NKVD of the Georgian SSR revealed the criminal work of the head of hospital No. 4546 Smirnov and the secretary of the medical commission Belousov, who were associated with an employee of the commandant's department of the mountains. Sukhumi Marganiya and together with him, in exchange for bribes, gave deserters documents on exemption from service in the Red Army.

These shortcomings in the work of hospitals and criminal activity employees significantly contribute to military desertion.

In order to strengthen the fight against desertion from hospitals, the BB departments were given instructions No. 35/2855 dated June 20, 1944 to systematically reveal shortcomings and abuses in hospitals that contribute to the desertion of military personnel undergoing treatment, as well as those sent upon recovery to military registration and enlistment offices and military units, and take measures through the military command and leading party bodies.

In many cases, there is a lack of proper order and accounting of military personnel at military transit points, as well as in the composition of military commands. This makes it possible for deserters to hide with impunity for a long time and join military teams heading to their destinations. The following examples are typical:

Detained on April 15 this year. V Chkalov region Savelyev-Gritsko-Vasko testified that on May 1, 1943, he deserted from the Chkalovsky machine gun school, where he served as a company sergeant major, hid for some time in the Abdulinsky district, after which he again arrived in the city of Chkalov and appeared before the commandant of the city, by whom he was sent to forwarding point. When roll-calling the list, the team was missing one person named Gritsko. Taking advantage of this, he responded and, under this name, was enrolled as a cadet at the school of medical instructors No. 10. In October 1943, while on practice in one of the hospitals in the city of Chkalov, he deserted for the second time and until November 1943 hid in the cities of Kuibyshev and Penza. In Penza, he joined the military team, calling himself Vasko, since during the roll call there was not one fighter under this name. As part of this team, he was sent to the 7 OZLPS in the mountains. Sverdlovsk, where he served until April 9 of this year. On April 9, the command of the 7 OZLPS, consisting of 13 people. sent on a business trip to the city. Moscow. On his way from the Penza station he deserted again, met with military team, which accompanied a carriage with a faulty weapon from the front. Having become acquainted with the composition of the team, he managed to assemble a PPSh assault rifle, and he had live ammunition.

Savelyev was arrested.

The NKVD of the Udmurt ASSR uncovered major abuses in the work of the Malo-Purginsky military transit point.

The head of the point - Captain Korneev and the head of the formation Leonovich, those drafted into the army who were fit for combat service, were sent to work on collective farms, state farms and enterprises, receiving food for this. Those sent to work were content at the expense of collective farms. At the same time, they were on allowance at the point. The food allotted to the teams was stolen.

Convicted of desertion using Note 2 to Art. 28. Criminal codes were sent by Korneev for bribes to the rear units, or were kept at the checkpoint for a long time.

The registration of contingents passing through the checkpoint was started, as a result of which the desertion of military personnel and persons en route to penal units was learned after 2–3 months.

The formation of teams to replenish units was carried out formally without filtering the contingents, as a result of which persons with a criminal record were enrolled in schools and special forces units.

The economy of the point was in a chaotic state.

The work of the point was completely disorganized. This was facilitated by the lack of control over the work of the point on the part of the military commissar of the Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The culprits have been arrested.

The head of the Main Directorate of the Red Army is informed about shortcomings in the work of military transit points.