70 years ago, soldiers of the Red Army hoisted the Soviet flag over the Reichstag. The Great Patriotic War, which claimed millions of lives and broke millions of destinies, ended with the unconditional victory of the USSR over Nazi Germany... The book you are holding in your hands is an example of real Russian documentary. The author visited Germany and former Soviet republics ah, I met with participants and eyewitnesses of the terrible events of 1941–1945 to show both sides of this monstrous war. This is a story about heroes and traitors, about ordinary soldiers and officers, about pain and mutual assistance. What did the enemy believe? How did the German propaganda machine work and how difficult was it to fight it? What price are we still paying for this great victory? After all, more than half a century has passed, and the consequences of some Stalinist decisions still affect our relations with our closest neighbors - Ukraine, Georgia, and the Baltic countries. The author of the book tried to figure out whether it was possible to avoid some fatal mistakes, and in this he is helped by participants in military operations, historians and former employees intelligence services
A series:A military secret with Igor Prokopenko
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by liters company.
Not childish games
In the summer of 1943, the fate of World War II was decided near Kursk.
By July the Soviet and German command hundreds of trains of ammunition and fuel were delivered to a relatively small section of the front. On each side, about 2,000,000 people, thousands of tanks, aircraft, and tens of thousands of guns prepared for battle. The front-line land was covered with hundreds of hectares of minefields. On the morning of July 5, 1943, a powerful artillery barrage heralded the beginning of a battle unprecedented in bloodshed.
During two weeks of fighting, the opponents rained down millions of shells, bombs and mines on each other. The earth mixed with iron.
The Red Army held out and drove the Nazis back to their lair. This was a turning point in the war. Peaceful life was restored in the liberated territories.
At this time, 8-10 year old orphan boys began to be recruited into Suvorov schools. Those over 16 were mobilized into the army - because the victory at Kursk came at a high price. And boys from 14 to 15 years old had to take care of their families. But they were delirious about the front and did not give passage to the commanders military units. Armed to the teeth with captured machine guns and rifles, they asked to go to war. These boys had almost a year and a half of Nazi occupation behind them. They knew firsthand about the atrocities of the Nazis and were now eager to beat the Nazis.
Tells Alexey Mazurov – participant in the demining of the territory Kursk region in 1944–1945:
“I started asking to go to the front as soon as our soldiers arrived. When the front was moving, a lot of convoys passed by. I tell them: I drive a horse too, take me. They told me no. It’s too early to hire you.”
Alexey Mazurov was 13 years old when he first saw German soldiers. The Nazis occupied his native village. For almost a year, Alexey periodically hid in haystacks, cellars or attics, so as not to catch the eye of the Germans, who were driving residents away to work in Germany.
The Red Army was moving further and further to the west. And at the sites of recent battles, the ground remained filled with deadly metal. Trophy and sapper teams followed the front. They buried the dead and quickly neutralized the remaining mines, bombs and shells. But own strength they didn't have enough. Then the military called local residents for help.
From the resolution of the Military Council of the Voronezh Front on the formation of auxiliary captured companies: “Companies are formed from men and women over the age of 16 years. Allow the enrollment of 14-15 year old teenagers who have expressed a voluntary desire into the companies... Contact Special attention to provide them with sappers-demolitionists - persons familiar with weapons, ammunition, and vehicles.”
Could these boys imagine that after their release they would get the dangerous work of sappers!
The small village of Ponyri, located north of Kursk on the Moscow-Kursk railway line, was under fire for a year and a half. German occupation. And in the summer of 1943 he found himself in the thick of battle.
All hell broke loose here.
When the Nazis came to Ponyri, Mikhail Goryainov was 13 years old. Seeing photographs of Misha’s uncles in the uniform of Red commanders on the wall, the Germans beat the boy’s grandmother and mother. And Mikhail was repeatedly threatened with death for his imaginary connection with the non-existent underground.
In August 1943, Misha Goryainov and cousin Sashka went to Ponyri to find out if their house was intact (before Battle of Kursk all residents of Ponyri were evicted by order to the rear 10–15 kilometers away). On the way, the hungry boys met a lieutenant who unexpectedly invited them to do a little work. Not for nothing.
Remembers Mikhail Goryainov – participant in demining work in the Kursk region in 1944–1945: “What year are you from? I say: from the 28th. Which one are you from? My cousin says: since the 29th. Work is work, but we are hungry. We haven't seen bread for six months. No potatoes, nothing. Someone will give, the mother goes around begging. And then they promise: we will provide plenty of food together with the soldiers. Well then we agreed."
The lieutenant who invited the brothers to work turned out to be the commander of a captured team. And he was interested in the age of the boys not out of idle curiosity - he wanted to make sure that the boys were already 14 years old.
So the guys ended up on a team that collected weapons and buried the dead. The boys, of course, had already seen the dead, but after the recent battles the picture was terrible. How they survived Mikhail Goryainov I'm still surprised: “The smell was 50 meters away, and if the wind was still in the opposite direction... You could hear the smell. And so I need to approach such a corpse and look for all this. He’s lying in a trench, covered with earth, the kingdom of heaven. There is no trench - there is a trench nearby, two or three meters away. We had a fireman's gaff. You grab it by the winding with a hook and go there. Buried. If there is none of this, the funnel is big. The funnel was made culturally. They put in there as much as would fit.”
The further, the more this team had to deal with mine clearance. There was a monstrous amount of unexploded shells and mines around. We checked the Ponyri-Maloarkhangelsk road and the 50-meter strip on both sides of it. The team had professional sappers, but the boys also had to do the neutralization: the work was up to their necks. No one really taught them how to handle deadly iron. So, they explained it in a nutshell.
End of introductory fragment.
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70 years ago, soldiers of the Red Army hoisted the Soviet flag over the Reichstag. The Great Patriotic War, which claimed millions of lives and broke millions of destinies, ended with the unconditional victory of the USSR over Nazi Germany...
The book you are holding in your hands is an example of real Russian documentary. The author visited Germany and the former Soviet republics, met with participants and eyewitnesses of the terrible events of 1941-1945 to show both sides of this monstrous war. This is a story about heroes and traitors, about ordinary soldiers and officers, about pain and mutual assistance.
What did the enemy believe? How did the German propaganda machine work and how difficult was it to fight it? What price are we still paying for this great victory? After all, more than half a century has passed, and the consequences of some Stalinist decisions still affect our relations with our closest neighbors - Ukraine, Georgia, and the Baltic countries. The author of the book tried to figure out whether it was possible to avoid some fatal mistakes, and in this he is helped by participants in military operations, historians and former intelligence officers.
FRACTURE.
At the beginning of January 1942, a strange calm established itself on all fronts. The Germans were waiting to see how the Soviet counteroffensive near Moscow would develop. Among the most brilliant in reports from the front Soviet generals, who fought near the capital, called the name of General Vlasov. His 20th Army continued to advance. German divisions fled, abandoning equipment and machinery. The key point of Hitler's defense - Solnechnogorsk - fell.
By the end of January, the Red Army had liberated 11,000 settlements. The enemy was driven back almost 200 kilometers from the borders of Moscow. Stalin withdrew the demand for the opening of a second front. He decided that after the victory near Moscow it was possible to win the war without the help of the allies. It was planned to do this, despite huge losses The Red Army in 1941 - more than 3,000,000 people killed, wounded and captured.
On January 10, 1942, a directive letter from Headquarters was signed by Stalin. It set the task of completing the defeat of the enemy by the end of 1942. In January, the Red Army went on the offensive along the entire front line.
Content
Preface
Chapter 1. First Strike
Chapter 2. Fracture
Chapter 3. Head to head
Chapter 4. Not childish games
Chapter 5. A story of love and exploration
Chapter 6. Mysteries of the Third Reich: Otto Skorzeny
Chapter 7. The Face of the Enemy
Chapter 8. Victory is just around the corner
Chapter 9. A holiday with tears in our eyes
Chapter 10. On the wolf's trail
Chapter 11. Winners are not judged
Afterword.
Current page: 1 (book has 17 pages total) [available reading passage: 10 pages]
Igor Stanislavovich Prokopenko
On both sides of the front. Unknown facts of the Great Patriotic War
Preface
Kyiv, Lvov, Odessa, Riga... Cities military glory. In each of them - for half a century exactly - there are dozens of monuments to the victims of fascism. Not so long ago people came to these monuments to mourn those tortured by the Nazis. Today, doing this is unfashionable, politically incorrect, and unsafe. Banners with swastikas, torchlight processions, arms raised in a fascist salute. It's not a dream. This is our former homeland...
In the twentieth century in Europe, not only Germans suffered from Nazism. But only here - in Ukraine, in the Baltic states - the one who swore allegiance to Hitler is today the subject national pride. In the splendor of SS regalia they parade through Riga, Kyiv, Lvov. Without turning around, they pass by monuments to the victims of Nazism and solemnly bow banners with swastikas to the Freedom Monument. This is called the revival of Nazism. But is it not too cannibalistic a method for state self-identification of the former Soviet republics with the fearful silence of the majority?
They say that if the past is forgotten, it comes back again. And it came back. Bloody sacrifice in Odessa. Bombing of Donbass. Thousands of people were tortured, shot, thrown into mines. And this is happening today.
Recently a survey was conducted in Japan, and the incredible turned out to be true: it turned out that more than half of Japanese youth today believe - atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Soviet Union. Can you imagine how invincible force propaganda must be to knock the name of the true criminal out of the heads of those whose parents burned in the radioactive inferno? But this is distant Japan. What do we have?
For many years, such concepts as “The Great Patriotic War”, “Great Feat”, “Great Victory” were abstract concepts for us. A duty tribute to the distant past. Once a year there is a movie “about that war” and festive fireworks. But Maidan broke out. And suddenly it turned out that there is nothing more relevant than “that war.” Because the heirs of heroes Great victory– as soon as the first blood was shed, they instantly divided into “Colorados” and “Banderaites.” For Russians and Germans. Right and wrong. What a terrible grimace of history.
It's easier for the Japanese. The fact that they will one day find out that the atomic bombs were dropped on them by the Americans, not the Russians, will not make their grief for the dead any less. And we? Russians, Ukrainians, Balts? What can help us make it easier for everyone? Knowledge of history. Data.
There is such a journalistic technique. When it is necessary to attract a reader or viewer with unexpected information, the phrase is used: “Few people know...” In our case, this common technique is the only way make us see the world, not sweetened by Hollywood and legends about the “great ukrov”. So there you go! Few people in Ukraine, in Russia, in America, by the way, also know that the “good uncle” who nurtured Hitler in literally This word was the creator of the American automobile miracle - Henry Ford. Hitler quotes him in “ Mein Kampf" It was he, the American billionaire, who stuffed German Nazism money. It was his factories, until the opening of the second front, that produced brand new Fords every day for the needs of the Wehrmacht.
What Stepan Bandera tried to build independent Ukraine, - This is true! But not all of it. Of those who today in Ukraine sculpt from it national hero, few people know what kind of Ukraine he built. And there is an answer. Ukraine “without Muscovites, Poles and Jews.” Do you feel the chill of Auschwitz in the hollow of this paternal call? And here is another quote: “If to create Ukraine it is necessary to destroy five million Ukrainians, we are ready to pay that price.” That is, Ukraine in Bandera’s way is nothing more than typical Nazi state, created according to the patterns of the Third Reich.
Today, the centenarians of the Wehrmacht, somewhere near Cologne, probably raise a glass of schnapps every day for victory. Who would have thought that not even half a century would pass before the Nazi Bandera’s password would fly over Babi Yar in Kyiv, where thousands of Ukrainians were tortured by the Nazis: “Glory to Ukraine.” And the polyphonic response of his accomplices, who half a century ago flooded Ukraine with the blood of Ukrainians, Jews, and Poles: “Glory to the heroes.”
The book you hold in your hands is years of work. large quantity journalists of the “Military Secret” program. Here are just the facts. Known and forgotten, recently declassified and never published. Facts that will allow you to see history in a new way bloody war, which claimed 50 million lives of citizens of our country, and, perhaps, understand why it was the victory in this war that divided one nation according to nationality.
Chapter 1
First hit
The small border town of Bialystok. April 1941. Almost two years have passed since the day the Germans occupied Poland, and therefore anxiety does not leave the streets of the town. People stock up on flour, salt, and kerosene. And they are preparing for wartime. The people do not understand anything about big political games Soviet Union and Germany, but in the evenings everyone listens to news from Moscow.
Signing of the Pact by Molotov and Ribbentrop
Vyacheslav Molotov makes fiery speeches about victory from the podium Soviet diplomacy, however, he understands that the war will soon begin. The pact signed by him and Ribbentrop is no longer valid. The People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs holds several secret meetings with the leadership Nazi Germany and signs a number of documents on Soviet-German relations. At one of the meetings, he reminds Hitler of the protocol that was signed on August 23, 1939.
Sergei Kondrashov, lieutenant general, in 1968–1973 deputy head of the First Main Directorate KGB USSR, recalls: “The night before, Molotov had a conversation with Stalin, and they, in the name of delaying the stage of the war, decided to agree to this protocol, which actually divided the spheres of influence between Germany and the Soviet Union. The protocol was prepared over one night, the night from the 22nd to the 23rd. There were no minutes of negotiations. The only thing is that Vyacheslav Mikhailovich had a notebook in which he recorded the progress of the negotiations. This Notebook has been preserved, it is clear from it how the agreement was reached. In fact, the protocol was first initialed and then ratified. So there can be no doubt about the authenticity of this protocol. There really was a protocol. It is difficult to say how much he corresponded to the political intention to delay the war. But in fact the protocol led to the division of Poland. This to some extent delayed the war with the Soviet Union. Of course, politically he was extremely disadvantageous to us. But at the same time it was one of last attempts Stalin to delay the onset of war."
Nameless fighters
On September 1, 1939, exactly a week after the signing of the protocol, Hitler's troops invade Poland. Stalin gives the order to the chief commander of the Red Army to cross the border and take protection Western Ukraine And Western Belarus. However, Hitler violates the secret protocol and in April 1941 makes claims of a territorial, political and economic nature to the Soviet Union. Stalin refuses him and begins general military mobilization. The Main Intelligence Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the Soviet Union receives the government's order to send several of our illegal immigrants to Germany.
In Bialystok, in the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Western Military District, our intelligence officers undergo individual training. The legends have been worked out. Very soon they should leave for Germany. Their task is the secret military strategies of Nazi Germany, and most importantly, Plan Barbarossa, a plan for the deployment of military operations against the Soviet Union.
One of them was Mikhail Vladimirovich Fedorov. He is also Lieutenant Vronsky. He is Mr. Stephenson. He is also an employee of the Service foreign intelligence"SEP". Year of birth: 1916. Since 1939 - employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR. From 1941 to 1944 he carried out a secret mission in Poland and Belarus. In 1945, on instructions from the GRU, he left as an official diplomatic representative of one of the countries of Eastern Europe to England, worked for more than 20 years in Western Europe as an illegal intelligence officer, performing tasks of special national importance. Colonel of the KGB of the USSR.
On the night of June 22, the day before our scouts were sent to Germany, the war began. German troops, violating all agreements, invaded the territory of the Soviet Union.
Mikhail Vladimirovich Fedorov This is how he describes the first hours of the war: “I remember the day the war started well. Four o'clock in the morning. Hour difference between Moscow and Polish city Bialystok. There's a roar, explosions, planes are flying. I ran out into the street. I saw German planes bombing the station. This is correct - from their point of view. Station - so that not a single train leaves Bialystok. The owner of the apartment also stood up, everyone around began to stir, everyone jumped out into the street. War. They are already shouting: “War.” The Jews were especially frightened. There were many Jews in Bialystok; there were Jewish weaving factories there. And people were afraid, they already knew that Hitler was exterminating Jews. My mistress immediately burst into tears and lost consciousness on the street. Her husband and I brought her a chair. They lifted her onto a chair and sat her down. She sits and her head drops.”
There is nothing worse than those first hours. People went crazy with horror. Until recently they had hope that this war would not happen. Vronsky receives the task of establishing contact with headquarters.
"Seven in the morning. My senior mentor, Georgy Ilyich Karlov, came running to me. He gave me a KT pistol and said, as if jokingly: “This is for myself. So, yes. If you are in danger, hopeless situation, then shoot yourself,”– remembers Mikhail Vladimirovich.
The 10th Army and a number of other units of the Western Military District were stationed in Bialystok salient, curved towards the enemy. This arrangement of troops was disadvantageous, and if this gross error had been corrected, perhaps the course of the war could have been changed from the very first day. It was along this protrusion that the first and main blow Germans. Their forces were five to six times greater than ours. Moreover, the Soviet high military command made a serious miscalculation in terms of border defense. The western borders turned out to be the most unprotected. Already on June 26, just four days after the start of the war, the Germans bombed Minsk. The city was on fire. Hundreds of people died. The country listens with tension to reports from the front. And then it becomes known that the commander of the Western Front, General Pavlov, has been arrested. A few days later he is shot for treason and betrayal. However, in last word Pavlov states that he did not receive orders to prepare for war in peacetime.
According to Mikhail Fedorov, “The first days were the most difficult. Some people threw their rifles. There is such disorder, there is no team... I keep remembering the story of this Pavlov. He was the commander Western district. He was shot because he dared to show proper resistance! It was very difficult for him to organize this. I would justify him in the sense that the Germans damaged communications with their agents in advance, and communications between military units were poor.”.
Only in the first three weeks of the war Soviet troops lost 3,500 aircraft, 6,000 tanks, 20,000 guns and mortars. 28 divisions were defeated, over 70 lost half their people and military equipment. The Red Army was defeated and retreated into the interior of the country. There is panic in the Kremlin.
On June 29, Beria warns Stalin about the possibility of a conspiracy within the army leadership. June 30 Stalin creates State Committee Defense and personally monitors all military activities. From the first day of the war Supreme Commander practically never leaves the Kremlin building. This can be seen from secret documents– Kremlin security magazines.
At the same time, our counterintelligence becomes aware that throughout the entire territory of the Soviet Union there are German agents, which convince the country's population that the war with Germany has already been lost. Stalin decides to raise the morale of his people. From this moment on, only news of victories, and not defeats of the Red Army, is transmitted from the front.
However, there really were victories. In March 1941, three months before the start of the war, our intelligence reported to Stalin that, according to Hitler’s secret plan, the Germans would deliver the main blow in the southern direction, where the most important industrial areas. A powerful group of 60 divisions was created in Ukraine. It was in the south that the Germans suffered the greatest losses in the first days of the war. However, these losses were well calculated by Hitler. The leak of information was allowed by him deliberately - so that the Soviet Union did not have time to consolidate its western borders. This was one of the secret moments of the Barbarossa plan. The Nazi command did not reveal all its cards even to its generals.
On the French coast in early 1941, full-scale preparations were underway for Operation Sea Lion. But all this was just a disguise for the upcoming eastern campaign. And Hitler told his officers about this a few hours before the invasion of the Soviet Union.
Sergey Kondrashov recalls: “We knew about the preparation of the Barbarossa plan. And the Barbarossa plan provided precisely for the preparation of an offensive in the south, because at the last moment Hitler changed tactics. But if you take the Barbarossa plan, which was approved by Hitler in December 1940, then everything is written out there: what aviation should do, what artillery should do, where the training is, with what forces. You see, the Barbarossa plan is a fantastic document. By the way, it was published here. This is a plan where everything is laid out by branch of the military.
We knew about the preparation of these plans. Furthermore, not only we knew, but also British intelligence worked very effectively in Germany. AND American intelligence worked actively in Germany. And we, through our agents in the UK, knew how the preparations were going. That is, when the Germans were preparing an offensive in the south, we also knew this. This was accurate information that the Germans had refocused on southern front. And there, by the way, they were able to quite quickly take measures to counter the offensive that was in the south, although the Germans had superior forces. But nevertheless, if the measures that were taken had not been taken, the war could have ended faster. Not in our favor."
So, ours retreated to the east. The Bialystok reconnaissance department went to the rear in several trucks. The convoy of trucks was only moving late at night. During the day, it was dangerous to move due to constant shelling. The scouts hoped that they would connect with the headquarters of the 10th Army. There was no connection. The only guide was a map, but most of the villages had already been destroyed by the Germans. There was little hope of getting out on our own.
Mikhail Fedorov talked about it like this: “We drove for some time, and suddenly a man runs out from behind the ravine and waves a flag. We stopped. Hooray! Ours... The Red Army. People waved and threw their hats. They drove up, turned around, on command the hatches closed, and machine-gun fire came at us. I was in the second car. I had to run. Everyone rushed to run back across the field, which had not been plowed for a long time, and there was rye. And so I ran. Fortunately for me personally and for everyone, the bullets were tracers. It was early morning, sunny, but they were still visible. And I ran and saw the bullet coming. I lay down on the ground and crawled, didn’t look back. As an athlete, I understood that every second counts. And crawling, crawling... A bullet passed over my head - I got up and ran again.”
Only five people remained alive. By some miracle they made it to the nearest village, where local residents fed them and gave them clothes. Military uniform I had to bury it somewhere in the forest. Everything around for hundreds of kilometers was occupied by the Germans. But our scouts again began to try to break through to their own. On the way, they had to pass through the field where just a few hours ago they had almost died, where their comrades were buried. Soon they saw another broken column. One of the parts of the Western District was completely defeated. Many were taken prisoner. Several motorcyclists approached the scouts, and one of them put a pistol to Lieutenant Vronsky’s head. But at the very last moment the German changed his mind about shooting at the “poor peasant.”
Two weeks later, in the second half of July, the remnants of the Bialystok intelligence unit united with units of the Red Army. In Moscow, in the complete defeat of the Red Army Western Front They blamed the command of the Western Special Military District. However, Stalin himself and the people from his inner circle were to blame for this defeat. Since January 1941, Stalin received about 17 reports from our intelligence, which even called exact date the beginning of the war. He also did not believe the German ambassador to the Soviet Union - a man who hated Hitler’s regime, a man who warned several times about the start of the invasion. Count Schulenburg - it was he who came to the Kremlin on the night of June 21-22 to present a memorandum of war to Molotov.
Tells Sergey Kondrashov: “At the beginning of March, Schulenburg invited the head of the Department for Diplomatic Corps Services to his place and said that this year he would not need a dacha near Moscow. He says: “Well, you don’t need it, so the embassy, maybe...” - “And the embassy won’t need the dacha.” “Well, Mr. Ambassador, maybe someone who replaces you will still need a dacha...” - “No one will need a dacha.” That's it, in plain text. And at the beginning of April, he called the same head of the UDDC and said: “Here are the drawings for you. Make me boxes according to these drawings. Large wooden boxes." He asks: “Mr. Ambassador, what are the boxes for?” “And I,” he says, “must pack all the valuable property of the embassy in these boxes.” “But, Mr. Ambassador, are you changing all the furniture, and all the carpets, and paintings, etc.?” “I have to pack and prepare. I wouldn’t change anything for anything.” And lastly, on May 5 he visited Vladimir Georgievich Dekanozov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. This conversation has not survived, but according to indirect evidence, according to the stories of the assistants with whom I spoke, apparently, Schulenburg said: “Mr. Minister, we are probably in last time We talk in such a peaceful atmosphere.” It was May 5th."
In August 1941, on everything westward There was no village that was not occupied by the Germans. Only a small part of the population was deported to Germany. Most people died defending their homes and their loved ones. Representatives of the “great Aryan race” raped and killed, robbed and burned entire villages. Locals families went into the forests in the hope of finding partisans and starting their war against the invaders.
Count Werner von der Schulenburg handed over a memorandum on the start of the war
By that time, Lieutenant Vronsky had become deputy commander of the reconnaissance unit and radio operator. A small reconnaissance detachment behind enemy lines managed to create a leadership headquarters partisan movement. By order of the center main task the detachment was reconnaissance of the deployment German units. In villages occupied by the Germans, intelligence officers recruited patriots who helped them transmit information behind the front line and supply partisan units with weapons and ammunition.
In the fall of 1941, in the western direction, eight partisan detachments were united into a partisan corps. A few months later, the partisans managed to repel the offensive of 12,000 punitive forces.
Lieutenant Vronsky became the chief of staff of one of the detachments and fought behind enemy lines for 27 months. Having passed special training, Vronsky headed one of the operational units that led the partisans’ combat operations. During the entire period of his war in the partisan detachment, Vronsky conducted more than a hundred reconnaissance operations. In 1943, an order came from Moscow to award him the Order of the Red Star. Exists last photo as a keepsake with your combat partisan detachment. A few months later, Vronsky will be recalled to the center. This is the only document about his partisan past. But this document was issued in a different name. How many names and aliases did this person have? Today his personal files lie somewhere in special storage facilities under the heading “keep forever.”
So, in August 1944, Vronsky arrived in Moscow. However, he was no longer Vronsky. In the Kremlin, front-line heroes were presented with awards. And when the award recipient said the name Fedorov, Mikhail Vladimirovich did not immediately understand that they were addressing him. A few days later he was summoned to Lubyanka, where he received orders to leave for England. He again received a new name. What was going on in his soul then? A man who spent almost three years in the war?
A year later, an impressive young man appeared in London, at the diplomatic mission of one of the countries of Eastern Europe. The look of a hero-lover and impeccable social manners could never have betrayed him as a recent front-line soldier. A year and a half later, he returned to Moscow again, and again in order to leave it. True, this time he was not alone. His beloved woman, his wife Galina, went with him. Through several intermediate countries, our illegal immigrants arrived in Western Europe, where they had to live for 15 long years, carrying out especially important tasks for the government of the Soviet Union. But being there, in a foreign country, Mikhail Vladimirovich remembered every day he spent in the Belarusian forests. Remembered everyone dead friend. I remembered that he was Lieutenant Vronsky. And he remembered the face of that Nazi who was holding a pistol to his temple.
He tells it himself Mikhail Fedorov: “I experienced hatred because it remained from the war. When I met Germans there, I took a closer look at them. We met the Germans somewhere on our travels. We went together in a group to museums when this was organized. At first I treated them with disdain and did not start conversations with anyone. And the Germans are like that - when there are a lot of them, especially young people, they are loud and brave. Screaming, drinking... At night in the sanatorium we are already sleeping, and they are making noise... young people. The Germans are strong when they are together.”
In this hostile country to the post-war Soviet Union, Mikhail Fedorov's name was Mr. Stephenson. He became the owner of a large store, which provided fabrics to all the most famous fashion designers in France and Italy. The entire high society of Europe wore outfits from our intelligence officer. He and his wife settled in a cozy house in a place remote from the city center. Radio conversations with Moscow took place from this very mansion. This is where I came from vital information By strategic plans NATO. Under the guise of carefree tourists, the Stephenson family traveled around Europe, but each trip was a clearly planned intelligence operation. And for all 15 years, Fedorov did not forget about those with whom the war once connected him.
Tells Mikhail Fedorov: “When Galya and I returned from a business trip abroad, I began to look for the partisans. I came to the Zhdanovskaya metro station. I took a small movie camera with me. When Galya and I left the subway, I saw the group standing men and recognized everyone. Our. I say: “Galya, here they are – ours... Mine...” I took the camera, first filmed them, then gave the camera to Galya and said: “I’ll go, and you shoot.”
They didn’t recognize me right away, and when I approached them, I began calling them by their last names, only then did they recognize me. Then one directly rushed at me and began to hug me. The first moment was wonderful, because they thought I was dead.”
And then there was a long Russian feast. When everyone laughed, remembering partisan stories, and cried, remembering their dead friends. Before this meeting, many believed that Senior Lieutenant Vronsky had long been dead. After all, until that very day, he did not have the right to call any of his military friends his real name. And everyone wanted to take a photo with him. So that in old war albums, next to that farewell photograph of 1944, another one, today’s, would appear.
The next day, everyone went together to Izmailovo to light a traditional partisan fire. But no one ever asked Colonel Fedorov why he spoke with such an incomprehensible foreign accent and why his last name suddenly changed. However, this did not matter to his fighting friends. The main thing is that their Vronsky is back with them and back in action.
Since that memorable meeting many years later. Almost none of Colonel Fedorov’s partisan friends remained. And he himself died in 2004. But until the end of his days, twice a year he put on his orders and went to those who were still alive. And for several hours he plunged into his past. A past in which the roar of exploding shells could still be heard. To the past, where his name was still Lieutenant Vronsky. And then, when he came home, he could not calm down for a long time. I sorted through photographs and watched old films. He knew that on such days he could not fall asleep for a long time, and when he fell asleep, he again dreamed of the first day of the war.
70 years ago, soldiers of the Red Army hoisted the Soviet flag over the Reichstag. The Great Patriotic War, which claimed millions of lives and broke millions of destinies, ended with the unconditional victory of the USSR over Nazi Germany...
The book you are holding in your hands is an example of real Russian documentary. The author visited Germany and the former Soviet republics, met with participants and eyewitnesses of the terrible events of 1941–1945 to show both sides of this monstrous war. This is a story about heroes and traitors, about ordinary soldiers and officers, about pain and mutual assistance.
What did the enemy believe? How did the German propaganda machine work and how difficult was it to fight it? What price are we still paying for this great victory? After all, more than half a century has passed, and the consequences of some Stalinist decisions still affect our relations with our closest neighbors - Ukraine, Georgia, and the Baltic countries. The author of the book tried to figure out whether it was possible to avoid some fatal mistakes, and in this he is helped by participants in military operations, historians and former intelligence officers.
Download the book “On both sides of the front. Unknown facts of the Great Patriotic War":
Read the book “On both sides of the front. Unknown facts of the Great Patriotic War":
Buy a bookKyiv, Lvov, Odessa, Riga... Cities of military glory. In each of them - for half a century exactly - there are dozens of monuments to the victims of fascism. Not so long ago people came to these monuments to mourn those tortured by the Nazis. Today, doing this is unfashionable, politically incorrect, and unsafe. Banners with swastikas, torchlight processions, arms raised in a fascist salute. It's not a dream. This is our former homeland...
In the twentieth century in Europe, not only Germans suffered from Nazism. But only here - in Ukraine, in the Baltic states - the one who swore allegiance to Hitler is today a source of national pride. In the splendor of SS regalia they parade through Riga, Kyiv, Lvov. Without turning around, they pass by monuments to the victims of Nazism and solemnly bow banners with swastikas to the Freedom Monument. This is called the revival of Nazism. But is it not too cannibalistic a method for state self-identification of the former Soviet republics with the fearful silence of the majority?
They say that if the past is forgotten, it comes back again. And it came back. Bloody sacrifice in Odessa. Bombing of Donbass. Thousands of people were tortured, shot, thrown into mines. And this is happening today.
Recently, a survey was conducted in Japan, and the incredible was revealed: it turned out that more than half of Japanese youth today believe that the Soviet Union dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Can you imagine how invincible force propaganda must be to knock the name of the true criminal out of the heads of those whose parents burned in the radioactive inferno? But this is distant Japan. What do we have?
For many years, such concepts as “The Great Patriotic War”, “Great Feat”, “Great Victory” were abstract concepts for us. A duty tribute to the distant past. Once a year there is a movie “about that war” and festive fireworks. But Maidan broke out. And suddenly it turned out that there is nothing more relevant than “that war.” Because the heirs of the heroes of the Great Victory - as soon as the first blood was shed - were instantly divided into “Colorados” and “Banderaites”. For Russians and Germans. Right and wrong. What a terrible grimace of history.
It's easier for the Japanese. The fact that they will one day find out that the atomic bombs were dropped on them by the Americans, not the Russians, will not make their grief for the dead any less. And we? Russians, Ukrainians, Balts? What can help us make it easier for everyone? Knowledge of history. Data.
There is such a journalistic technique. When it is necessary to attract a reader or viewer with unexpected information, the phrase is used: “Few people know...” In our case, this common technique is the only way to make us see the world around us, not sweetened by Hollywood and legends about the “great ukrov”. So there you go! Few people in Ukraine, in Russia, in America, by the way, also know that the “good uncle” who nurtured Hitler in the literal sense of the word was the creator of the American automobile miracle - Henry Ford. This is what Hitler quotes in Mein Kampf. It was he, the American billionaire, who fed German Nazism with money. It was his factories, until the opening of the second front, that produced brand new Fords every day for the needs of the Wehrmacht.
The fact that Stepan Bandera tried to build an independent Ukraine is true! But not all of it. Of those who today in Ukraine are molding him into a national hero, few know what kind of Ukraine he built. And there is an answer. Ukraine “without Muscovites, Poles and Jews.” Do you feel the chill of Auschwitz in the hollow of this paternal call? And here is another quote: “If to create Ukraine it is necessary to destroy five million Ukrainians, we are ready to pay that price.” That is, Ukraine, in Bandera’s way, is nothing more than a typical Nazi state, created according to the patterns of the Third Reich.
Today, the centenarians of the Wehrmacht, somewhere near Cologne, probably raise a glass of schnapps every day for victory. Who would have thought that not even half a century would pass before the Nazi Bandera’s password would fly over Babi Yar in Kyiv, where thousands of Ukrainians were tortured by the Nazis: “Glory to Ukraine.” And the polyphonic response of his accomplices, who half a century ago flooded Ukraine with the blood of Ukrainians, Jews, and Poles: “Glory to the heroes.”
The book you are holding in your hands is the many years of work of a large number of journalists from the Military Secret program. Here are just the facts. Known and forgotten, recently declassified and never published. Facts that will allow us to see in a new way the history of the bloodiest war, which claimed the lives of 50 million citizens of our country, and, perhaps, to understand why the victory in this war divided one nation along national lines.
First hit
The small border town of Bialystok. April 1941. Almost two years have passed since the day the Germans occupied Poland, and therefore anxiety does not leave the streets of the town. People stock up on flour, salt, and kerosene. And they are preparing for wartime. The people do not understand anything about the big political games of the Soviet Union and Germany, but in the evenings everyone listens to the news from Moscow.
Signing of the Pact by Molotov and Ribbentrop
Vyacheslav Molotov makes fiery speeches from the podium about the victory of Soviet diplomacy, but he understands that the war will soon begin. The pact signed by him and Ribbentrop is no longer valid. The People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs holds several secret meetings with the leadership of Nazi Germany and signs a number of documents on Soviet-German relations. At one of the meetings, he reminds Hitler of the protocol that was signed on August 23, 1939.
Sergei Kondrashov, lieutenant general, in 1968–1973 deputy head of the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, recalls: “The night before, Molotov had a conversation with Stalin, and they, in the name of delaying the stage of the war, decided to agree to this protocol, which actually divided the spheres of influence between Germany and the Soviet Union. The protocol was prepared over one night, the night from the 22nd to the 23rd. There were no minutes of negotiations. The only thing is that Vyacheslav Mikhailovich had a notebook in which he recorded the progress of the negotiations. This notebook has been preserved, and it is clear from it how the agreement was reached. In fact, the protocol was first initialed and then ratified. So there can be no doubt about the authenticity of this protocol. There really was a protocol. It is difficult to say how much he corresponded to the political intention to delay the war. But in fact the protocol led to the division of Poland. This to some extent delayed the war with the Soviet Union. Of course, politically he was extremely disadvantageous to us. But at the same time, this was one of Stalin’s last attempts to delay the onset of war.”
Nameless fighters
On September 1, 1939, exactly a week after the signing of the protocol, Hitler's troops invade Poland. Stalin gives the order to the main commander of the Red Army to cross the border and take Western Ukraine and Western Belarus under protection. However, Hitler violates the secret protocol and in April 1941 makes claims of a territorial, political and economic nature to the Soviet Union. Stalin refuses him and begins general military mobilization. The Main Intelligence Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the Soviet Union receives the government's order to send several of our illegal immigrants to Germany.
In Bialystok, in the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Western Military District, our intelligence officers undergo individual training. The legends have been worked out. Very soon they should leave for Germany. Their task is the secret military strategies of Nazi Germany, and most importantly, Plan Barbarossa, a plan for the deployment of military operations against the Soviet Union.
One of them was Mikhail Vladimirovich Fedorov. He is also Lieutenant Vronsky. He is Mr. Stephenson. He is also an employee of the Foreign Intelligence Service “SEP”. Year of birth: 1916. Since 1939 - employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR. From 1941 to 1944 he carried out a secret mission in Poland and Belarus. In 1945, on instructions from the GRU, he went to England as an official diplomatic representative of one of the countries of Eastern Europe, and worked in Western Europe as an illegal intelligence officer for more than 20 years, performing tasks of special national importance. Colonel of the KGB of the USSR.