The beginning of the formation of Tatar military units on the Eastern Front can be considered the proposal of German Foreign Ministry employee von Hentig, in which he substantiated the need to form a Tatar legion. In his message, he also proposed creating a Caucasian legion of three national battalions. The headquarters of the emerging Turkic legion was created in the Polish city of Rembertov (in the summer of 1942 it was transferred to the city of Radom). Since January 23, 1943, this headquarters was called the “Headquarters of the Commander of the Eastern Legions.”

Department of natives of the Volga region and Ural region from the rest of the mass of Soviet prisoners of war began in the camps already in the autumn-winter of 1941-1942. The official order to create the Tatar Legion was issued on August 15, 1942. The document prescribed the creation of a legion of Tatars, Bashkirs and representatives of the peoples of the Volga region who spoke Tatar. The Tatars enrolled in the Turkestan Legion were to be transferred to a new formation. Other Tatar prisoners of war had to be urgently separated from the rest and sent to a collection camp in the city of Sedlec. It was planned to use the newly created legion against the partisans.

The path of the Tatar volunteers passed through three camps.

The first (preliminary) was located in Ostrów Mazowiecki, 2nd. Sedlec "A", its commandant for some time was the former Soviet colonel Sh. Alkaev, 3rd camp. qualifying in Jedlin. Even before the order was issued, there were 2,550 people in the Siedlce camp.

In September 1942, the commander of the military district of the General Government, von Guinant, gave instructions on the rules for the direct organization of field national battalions. In accordance with this order, the training period for legionnaires at the first stage was 4 weeks and classes were held individually and in groups. The second stage of training (6.8 weeks) took place in companies and platoons.

In the summer and autumn of 1942, the formation of the legion was largely completed. It included representatives of the Volga region peoples. Ufa and Kazan Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvash, Mari, Udmurts, Mordovians. Already on September 6, 1942, the legion was solemnly presented with a banner, and two days later the headquarters of the eastern legions together with the commander of the military district of the General Government took command of it.

The commander of the Volga-Tatar legion was a native of Moscow, the elderly Major von Zickendorff. The major spoke Russian, English, French and Chinese. On May 12, 1944, he was forced to give up his post to Captain Kelle. This was the result of dissatisfaction among Hitler's elite with the policy that Sickendorff pursued towards his legionnaires. After leaving the legion, Zickendorff served at the headquarters of the eastern legions, then was appointed to the post of commander of the school of officers and interpreters of the eastern formations in Neuhammer. After that, he headed a similar school in Munsingen, where it was transferred from France. As a result of the intrigues of his opponents, Zickendorff was about to retire, but unexpectedly Oltssha stood up for him and recommended him to serve in the SS Hauptamt.

The Volga-Tatar Legion included the 825th, 826th, 827th, 828th, 829th, 830th, 831st Tatar battalions. The 825th battalion was formed by December 25, 1942 and consisted of a headquarters, headquarters and four rifle companies. Already on February 18, 1943, the battalion arrived in the Vitebsk region in the village of Belynichi. Here some of the battalion members agreed with the partisans about the time and place of the battalion’s transition to the forest.

An hour before the planned uprising on February 23, 1943, its leaders were arrested, but nevertheless the signal for action was given. Most of the battalions went over to the side of the partisans with weapons in their hands. This came as a surprise to the German command, which had pinned its hopes on the Tatars during Operation Ball Lightning. During the uprising, most of the German personnel were killed. The driver of the battalion commander, Major Zechs, who remained loyal to the Germans, saved his boss by taking him out in the trunk of a car.

The Abwehr was investigating the reasons for the battalion's transition to the partisans. From Zechs's testimony it followed that the reason for this was the weak ideological education of the legionnaires, the presence of a strong enemy conducting intensive propaganda. The report on the results of the investigation stated that the transition of the legionnaires became possible as a result of the activities of “individual intelligent Tatars.” In total, 557 legionnaires went over to the enemy side. The Tatars who remained loyal to the Germans were sent to the rear and merged into other units. The 2nd battalion of the legion (826th) was formed in Jedlin on January 15, 1943. The battalion commander was Captain Shermuli. The battalion operated in Holland. According to a contemporary, an uprising was also being prepared in the battalion. 26 people from the battalion were shot, 200 were transferred to punishment camps. The 3rd battalion of the legion (827th) was formed in Jedlin on February 10, 1943. Commander. Captain Pram. The battalion fought against partisans near Drohobych and Stanislav, where 50 people from it went into the forest. In France, the battalion was attached to the 7th Army and was located in the area of ​​Lanyon.

According to information from former serviceman R. Mustafin, an uprising was being prepared in the battalion, as a result of which two platoons and a penal company went over to the partisans, but the leader of the uprising, Senior Lieutenant Miftakhov, was captured and killed by the Germans. Transitions continued in France as well. The commanders of the penal unit and the 2nd company and with them 28 legionnaires went to the partisans. At the end of 1943, the battalion was placed at the disposal of the commander of the German group of forces in Belgium and Northern France and guarded important installations. The 828th battalion of the legion was formed by June 1, 1943 in Jedlin under the command of Captain Gaulinets and did not escape the sad fate of other Tatar units. On the territory of Western Ukraine in November 1943, 2 company commanders went into the forest, January 7.9, 1944. 8 legionnaires, from January 14 to 17. 9 legionnaires. At the end of the month, 30 legionnaires on duty at the customs post removed its guard, killed one squad commander, wounded another and went into the forest to join the partisans. In addition to the transitions, the battalion suffered heavy losses in prisoners who did not want to fight against the partisans and surrendered at the first opportunity.

G. Tessin reports that in 1944.1945. The battalion was called a construction and sapper battalion and was stationed in West Prussia. The 829th battalion of the Volga-Tatar Legion was formed by August 24, 1943. Battalion commander. Captain Rausch.

Later, the battalion was mentioned in German registration documents as a non-combat unit assigned to the 829th Field Commandant's Office. On August 29, 1944, the battalion was disbanded by order of the commander of the military district of the General Government, and its personnel were recalled to Krakow. The 830th battalion guarded facilities in Poland and Western Ukraine. In June 1944, the Gestapo department in Radom uncovered a conspiracy in the battalion and arrested more than 20 people. At a military court hearing, 17 of them were released due to lack of evidence. Subsequently, the battalion became known as the engineer-construction battalion and some units of the 791st Turkestan battalion were added to it. At the end of the war, the presence of the 830th battalion was noted in the Vistula bend, then in Pomerania. The 831st battalion was formed in Jedlin as a guard battalion (Sicherungs-battalion) to guard the Tatar camp and was later transferred to guard duty in Legionovo.

In the fall of 1943, it was planned to form the 832nd, 833rd and 834th Volga-Tatar battalions.

After the transfer of the Tatar legion to the Western Front, the headquarters of the legion was located in the city of Le Puy. At the beginning of June 1944, Tatar soldiers acted against partisans in the department of Chantal, then in the areas of Issoire and Rochefort, Clermont-Ferrand.

Some eastern and national battalions included natives of the Volga region. Thus, Tatars, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Russians and Ukrainians served in the 627th Eastern Battalion, formed at the end of 1942 under the central army group of German troops. Three Tatar servicemen were awarded Iron Crosses 3rd degree.

The I/370th Turkestan battalion consisted of 1 Tatar company, 2 Uzbek and 1 Kyrgyz companies. The 811th Turkestan battalion included 130 Volga Tatars. On January 14, 1943, the OKH issued order No. 15285/40 on the beginning of the formation of Tatar construction and supply units in the Siedlce camp on the territory of the General Government. The headquarters of the Volga-Tatar construction companies was also created here. On May 24, 1943, the headquarters was moved to Krushina and existed here until November 30, 1943.

The headquarters was led by a specially appointed commander eastern parts Officer.

Each auxiliary company consisted of 3 German officers, 1 official, 9 non-commissioned officers, 6 privates and 2 interpreters. Companies were attached to large German formations.

On September 1, 1943, the following Tatar auxiliary units existed: 18th Volga-Tatar construction battalion under Major Dekker. The 522nd Volga-Tatar supply battalion was stationed near Warsaw. It consisted of 3,411 people, of which 1,220 were Turkestanis, 425 Georgians, 1,061 Volga Tatars, 352 Azerbaijanis, 242 Armenians, 111 natives of the North Caucasus. The 2nd Turkic labor battalion included 4 companies of Volga Tatars. The 3rd Turkic labor battalion during its deployment in Lvov included 3 companies of Volga Tatars. In addition to them, Georgians and Armenians served in the battalion, a total of 6153 people.

Later, the above-mentioned units joined Colonel Boller's brigade. In addition to the Tatar units, it included auxiliary units formed from natives of Turkestan, the North Caucasus, and Transcaucasia.

In the fall of 1943, most of the auxiliary units were transferred to France. The headquarters for the formation of Tatar companies in Poland was dissolved, 8 companies were assigned to Turkic labor battalions or construction companies in the vicinity of Minsk. On January 15, 1944, the 2/IV labor battalion, consisting of 735 natives of the Volga region, 120 of whom professed Orthodoxy, was disbanded in Radom.

As of March 10, 1945, the Idel-Ural committee had information about the Tatar companies: 3/78, 4/100, 5/3/592, 2/314, 3/314, 2/862, 4/18, 2 /14. Several hundred Tatars served in the 35th Police Division.

Researcher of Tatar collaborationism I. Gilyazov reports that as of October 10, 1944, 11 thousand Tatar volunteers served in 12 field battalions, 4 thousand in other formations, 8 thousand in worker battalions, there were also 5 thousand eastern workers and up to 20 thousand prisoners of war. A large number of Tatars served in the ROA. On December 14, 1944, the head of the “East” department of the SS Hauptamt, F. Arlt, told Oltsche that the number of Tatars in the ROA was 20 thousand and the same number served as “hiwis”. On March 20, 1945, the head of the Tatar mediation, Count Stamati, had information about 19,300 Tatars in the legions, combat and auxiliary units, 4 thousand eastern Tatar workers and 20 thousand prisoners of war.

In addition to the Wehrmacht, the SS troops became the main “owner” of foreign units. In addition to Heinz Unglaube, control over the activities of the Tatar emigration and military formations was carried out by SS Oberscharführer Wolf. head of abstract 6 “East Turkestan SS combat formation” of the “Politics” subdepartment, which was, in turn, part of the “Managing department. Eastern Volunteers. SS Hauptamt."

As mentioned above, in the fall of 1944, the East Turkestan SS combat unit was created, which included the Tatar military group. Due to a shortage of command personnel, in January-February 1945, H. Unglaube attempted to organize a Tatar officer school in the Tatar mediation camps on the island of Wezedom and in the city of Dargibel. The first group of graduates arrived at VTBS at the end of February 1945. In mid-March, another 11 Tatars from among the former Soviet officers were sent to Italy. Despite the failure of the VTBS project, some Tatar units took part in anti-partisan operations in Slovakia and Northern Italy.

The end of the war was as tragic for the traitor Tatars as it was for thousands of collaborators. Only a few of them, with the support of influential friends from a number of governments of Muslim countries, took refuge in the Middle East and Turkey.

Shafi Almas was detained by the USSR State Security agencies and subsequently shot by a military tribunal. The former Soviet military commandant of Baku, Colonel Shakir Alkaev, fabricated for the KGB several minutes of meetings of the secret underground group of the legion. It didn't save him from prison term. He was prosecuted again in the late 1950s.

Fyodor Paimuk managed to join the advancing Soviet units and took part in the Berlin operation, for which he was awarded a medal. In February 1946, he was arrested in Cheboksary and, according to the verdict of the military tribunal of the Volga Military District, was shot. The fate of Ivan Skobelev, captured by the advanced units of the Red Army in Dargibel, was similar.

Shafi Almas's secretary S. Faizullin (Faizi) after the war worked in the Tatar editorial office of the Voice of America, since 1952 he was engaged in geological exploration, taught at Boston University, and worked in the US Department of Commerce. Died in the USA in the 1980s.

Garif Sultan worked for a long time as the head of the Tatar-Bashkir editorial office of Radio Free Europe and lived in Munich.

Massive repressions hit Crimean Tatars. They, as well as the Armenians, Bulgarians, and Germans living in Crimea, were accused of collaborating with the occupying German authorities and participating in mass executions of prisoners of war and partisans.

After the end of the Civil War in the South of Russia, a number of Kalmyks were evacuated abroad along with the Russian Army of General Wrangel and settled in Europe and the USA. At the same time, the Kalmyk emigration could be divided into two political camps: “nationalists” and “Cossacks”.

Nationalists (Astrakhan Kalmyks) worked to unite all Kalmyks, their “political awakening.” The Russians were declared enemies.

The Cossacks mainly consisted of representatives of the Kalmyks-Donets and could not imagine life without uniting with the Cossacks. The thoughts of the Cossacks extended to the idea of ​​equal unification with the Cossacks within the framework of the Cossack Federation. The Cossacks were closely associated with the “independents”, who proclaimed their goal to be the isolation of the Cossacks and their development as a separate ethnic group.

There was its own nationalist organization “Halm Tangalin Tuk” (HTT), the honorary chairman of which was the widow of Prince Tundutov, the head of the Kalmyks during the Civil War. The leaders of HTT were Sanji Balykov and Shamba Balinov. KhTT had its own printed organ, “Feather Waves” (“Ulan Zalat”), published in Russian and Kalmyk languages.

After the start of the Great Patriotic War Kalmyks became interested in a “greenhouse” for growing “fifth columns”. Rosenberg's department. At the same time, Kalmyk emigrant leaders were in demand. Shamba Balinov, Sanzhi Balykov and others. Under the control of the Eastern Ministry and special services, the Kalmyk National Committee was created, the head of which was appointed Shamba Balynov. At the same time, work was underway to create Kalmyk units and units on the Eastern Front.

The first Kalmyk formation can be called the special unit of Abwehrgruppe-103. It was created from volunteer prisoners of war to conduct reconnaissance on the territory of the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. It was headed by Sonderführer Otto Rudolfovich Verba (aka Dr. Doll). Call sign of the radio station. "Kranich" ("Crane"). Initially, the detachment was stationed in the city of Stepnoy (Elista); subsequently, the so-called “Dr. Doll’s Special Unit” was deployed at the detachment’s base. At the end of 1942, Verba already commanded the “Kalmyk Military Unit” (Kalmuken Verband dr. Doll).

Fragmentary data about Dr. Doll himself indicate that he came from Sudeten Germans and had Russian roots, lived in Russia for a long time, served in the White Army, worked in the German military mission in Odessa, and in exile became an Abwehr employee.

In August 1942, the German command instructed Doll to establish contact with Kalmyk nationalist leaders, promising them to create an independent state under German protectorate after the war. Doll rushed to the Kalmyk steppes in a passenger car, accompanied by a driver and radio operator. His mission was a success and his goal was achieved.

In mid-September 1942, the first Kalmyk cavalry squadron was formed in the 16th German motorized division from among the former Kalmyk Red Army soldiers of the 110th Separate Kalmyk Cavalry Division and the local population. He conducted reconnaissance and partisan warfare, like many other Cossack units of the German army. He was armed with Soviet captured weapons; the Kalmyks’ uniform was German.

One of the Kalmyk fighting groups was formed by Azda Boldyrev. Having deserted from the Red Army, he arrived in his native village of Ketchenery, where he organized his own detachment, which later joined the Kalmyk Cavalry Corps.

Boldyrev served as assistant chief of staff until December 1943, after which he commanded the second division of the Corps with the rank of lieutenant.

A certain Arbakov, after the occupation of Elista, worked as the head of the criminal investigation department, then joined the Corps, where he held the position of commandant of headquarters, assistant chief of staff for armaments, from September 1944. Chief of Staff of the Corps. After the end of the war, Arbakov and Boldyrev found themselves in a displaced persons camp in Germany, after which they emigrated to the United States.

Natural horsemen, Kalmyks have established themselves as brave soldiers and scouts. Military leadership, having supported the initiative to create Kalmyk units, allowed the creation of similar combat units. At the same time, the Kalmyks were the first of all Germany's eastern allies to officially receive recognition and the Germans gave the Kalmyk formations the status of an allied army.

By November 1942, 4 cavalry squadrons were already operating in Kalmykia; by the end of August 1943, the Kalmyk Corps was formed, which included the following units: 1st Division: 1, 4, 7, 8 and 18 squadrons; 2nd Division: 5, 6, 12, 20 and 23 squadrons; 3rd Division: 3, 14, 17, 21 and 25 squadrons; 4th Division: 2, 13, 19, 22 and 24 squadrons; 9, 10, 11, 15, 16 squadrons were partisans behind the front line.

This Kalmyk formation was also called the “Kalmyk Legion”, “Dr. Doll’s Kalmyk Cavalry Corps”, etc. The formation was part of the 4th Tank Army and operated in the areas of Rostov and Taganrog. By May 1943, under the leadership of Major General Nering, several more squadrons were organized in Novopetrovsk and Taganrog from among former defectors and prisoners of war.

The partisan squadrons behind the front line were under the tutelage of the Abwehr, and were supplied with weapons and ammunition by air. So, on May 23, 1944, in the area of ​​the Kalmyk village of Utta. in the area of ​​operation of the Kalmyk partisan group Ogdonov. 24 saboteurs were landed under the command of Hauptmann von Scheller (“Kwast”). The group’s task was to create a mini-bridgehead for receiving other planes with Dollevites, who would subsequently launch a powerful guerrilla war in the Soviet rear. the entire Abwehr operation was called "Roman Numeral II". Soviet air defense forces detected an enemy aircraft flying to the rear, and after some time the group was neutralized. Further events developed according to the scenario already well worked out by SMERSH. The captured radio operator of the plane and Kvast himself agreed to transmit the signal of arrival, and the further existence of the group took place under the control of Soviet counterintelligence. A false airfield was equipped to receive aircraft. The second plane with thirty paratroopers was destroyed on the night of June 12, 1944 at the landing site; none of its passengers managed to escape. For some time, Soviet counterintelligence played a radio game with its enemy, and gradually it managed to convince the Abwehr complete destruction groups in battles with NKVD troops.

In September 1943, the KKK was located on the Dnieper, and in May 1944 it was incorporated into the 6th Army as the 531st Regiment. In the summer of 1944, there were 3.6 thousand soldiers in the Corps, of which 92 were men. German staff. The divisions consisted of four squadrons, each of them, in turn, numbered 150 people. A significant difference between the Kalmyk units and other eastern formations was that the unit commanders were their own, not German officers.

The Corps' armament consisted of 6 mortars, 15 hand-held and 15 easel mortars, 33 German and 135 Soviet machine guns, Soviet, German and Dutch rifles. The Kalmyk uniform did not have its own insignia and was not regulated in any way. Often, Kalmyks' uniforms included elements of folk costume. fur hats, robes, etc. According to unconfirmed information, the German officers of the KKK had their own round sleeve patch with the inscription in German and Kalmyk languages ​​“Kalmyk unit of Dr. Doll.”

In the winter of 1944-1945. The corps (at least 5 thousand people) was in Poland, where it fought against Soviet partisans and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, and then fought heavy battles with advanced Soviet units near Radom.

After bloody battles, the Corps was transferred to the SS training camp in Neuhammer. "forge" of the eastern SS formations. The newly formed Kalmyk regiment was sent to Croatia, where it organically joined the 15th Cossack Cavalry Corps of Helmut von Pannwitz and subsequently formally became part of the Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. Kalmyks became the only foreign representatives in KONR.

Subsequently, the Kalmyks shared the common fate of the Cossacks; most of them were extradited to the USSR.

On July 16, 1941, at a meeting of the German senior leadership with the participation of Hitler, Rosenberg, Keitel, Goering and Lammers, it was stated: “The iron rule must become and remain: No one should be allowed to bear arms except Germans! And this is especially important, even if at first it may seem easy to attract any foreign, subordinate peoples to military assistance - all this is wrong! Someday it will definitely, inevitably be turned against us. Only a German is allowed to bear arms, not a Slav, not a Czech, not a Cossack or a Ukrainian!”

What was said, as we see, was very categorical and, it would seem, there should not be and will not be a revision of this strict ban. But by the end of 1941 and during 1942. Tens of thousands of representatives of the peoples of the USSR were placed under the banner of the Wehrmacht. The Eastern Legions were hastily formed from them, the main impetus for the creation of which was given by the obvious failure of the plan for a lightning war.

Other important circumstances that contributed to the creation of the Eastern Legions include the following:

– The presence of a huge number of Soviet prisoners of war in the hands of Germany.

– Conducting active German propaganda among the population of the occupied regions of the USSR and against the advanced units of the Red Army. This led to the fact that many representatives of the civilian population of Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states collaborated with the Germans. Also, a considerable number of soldiers and officers of the Red Army went over to the German side, especially in the first period of the war.

– The position of some foreign countries, who demanded more humane treatment at least in relation to Turkic and Muslim prisoners of war. Turkish politicians showed the greatest interest in this issue. This should also include the activation of emigrant leaders from representatives of the peoples of the USSR at the beginning of the war.

When the Blitzkrieg plan failed, these factors influenced the position of the German leadership. And it, despite the difference in points of view and serious contradictions between the leaders and the highest state and military institutions of the Reich, decided to take advantage of the prevailing circumstances.

The headquarters for the creation of the Eastern Legions from February 18, 1942 was located in Poland, in the city of Rembertow, in the summer of the same year under the name “Headquarters of the Eastern Legions” it was transferred to the city of Radom, on January 23, 1943 it became known as the Command of the Eastern Legions.

Volgo- Tatar Legion(or the Idel-Ural legion) was created later than all the others. Although in fact, representatives of the peoples of the Volga region were separated into special combined camps already in the fall and winter of 1941–1942. For the first time in the documents at our disposal, the creation of the Volga-Tatar Legion is mentioned on July 1, 1942 - on this day information about the emerging legions was sent to various authorities, among which the Volga-Tatar Legion was mentioned. On August 1, 1942, an order was given from Hitler's headquarters, signed by Chief of Staff Keitel, to create, in addition to the existing ones, a legion consisting of Volga (Kazan) Tatars, Bashkirs, Tatar-speaking Chuvash, Mari, Udmurts and Mordovians. The order ordered the separation of representatives of the named peoples into special camps and intensification of work with the recruitment of prisoners of war. It was noted that the status of the Volga-Tatar Legion is exactly the same as that of previously created similar formations, that the use of the legion is envisaged in areas of military operations, but especially in areas where partisans operate.

Keitel's order was, as it were, an order from above, and the practical order of the Wehrmacht High Command was signed on August 15, 1942. It already contained more specific instructions:

"1. Create a legion of Tatars, Bashkirs and Tatar-speaking peoples of the Volga region;

2. The Tatars assigned to the Turkestan Legion should be transferred to the Volga-Tatar Legion;

3. Tatar prisoners of war should be urgently separated from the rest and sent to the Siedlce camp (on the Warsaw-Brest railway line). Place them at the disposal of the Military Commander in the General Government (Militärbefehlshaber im General-Gouvernement);

4. The created legion should be used primarily in the fight against partisans.”

Practical work on the creation of the Volga-Tatar Legion began on August 21, 1942. The camp in Jedlino near Radom was chosen as the place for its formation, where uniforms and weapons for the legion were received. German responsible personnel also arrived here. The Siedlce camp, located near Jedlino, had already become a collection point for prisoners of war from Turkic peoples.

The banner of the Volga-Tatar Legion was presented on September 6, 1942, so the legionnaires themselves considered this day to be the date of the final formation of the formation.

On September 8, 1942, the Volga-Tatar Legion was placed under the command of the headquarters of the Eastern Legions and the commander of the military district in the “Government General”.

Tatar prisoners of war were concentrated mainly in the Siedlce A camp, from where they were sent for training to the legion in Jedlino. Subsequently, the camp in Dęblin (Stalag 307) also played the role of a preliminary camp. And at the beginning of 1944, after the transfer of the Eastern Legions to France, the general preliminary camp was in Legionowo near Warsaw, from March 1944 - again in Siedlce B (Stalag 366) and in the Nechrybka camp (Stalag 327). A rather elderly and experienced military man, Major Oscar von Seckendorff, was appointed commander of the Volga-Tatar Legion. He was born on June 12, 1875 in Moscow, spoke Russian, English, French, and Chinese well; I had a worse command of Ukrainian and Spanish. He was later promoted to lieutenant colonel.

According to the available documents, it can be judged that Seckendorff, despite his age, took up the matter quite energetically, most of all paying attention to the issues of combat training of legionnaires. Perhaps one of the most serious problems for him (as well as for other German organizers of the Eastern Legions) was the problem of training national officers, which, by the way, was never resolved until the end of the war, although it was raised more than once.

According to the plan, the first of the battalions of the Volga-Tatar Legion, numbered 825, was supposed to be created by December 1, 1942, but it was formed even a little earlier - on November 25. The date for the formation of the 826th battalion was set at December 15, 1942, the 827th - January 1, 1943. In fact, this happened, respectively, on January 15 and February 10, 1943. In surviving documents, all three battalions are first mentioned on November 3, 1942 .as being created.

The Tatar battalions, which were created in Poland, in Jedlino, under the control and jurisdiction of the command of the Eastern Legions in the German armed forces, and which are described in detail on the basis of available documents, were not the only ones. Most likely, under separate armies or army groups, other Tatar formations were created in parallel or later, for example, during 1944. Among them were combat, construction, and supply units.

825th Battalion. This is the most famous of all created Tatar battalions. Major Tsek was appointed commander of the battalion. The exact number of Tatar legionnaires in this battalion is not indicated in the surviving documents, but, comparing it with other similar formations, it can be assumed that there were approximately 900 people in it.

The 825th battalion is known primarily for its armed action against the Germans at the end of February 1943. This fact is widely known in Russian literature. journalistic literature. It happened as follows.

Apparently, on February 14, 1943, the battalion was solemnly sent to the front: “Before the battalion left to fight the partisans in the village. A professor, whose last name is unknown, arrived from Berlin to give a report. The report was made in a foreign language. In his report, the speaker called on the legions to destroy the Bolsheviks, (spoke) about the creation by Hitler of “ Tatar state“, about creating a new wonderful life,” a source from among the Belarusian partisans reported about the farewell. On February 18, at night, the battalion arrived in Vitebsk, after which it was sent towards the village of Belynovichi along the Surazhskoe highway. Then the main part of it was located in the village of Gralevo on the left bank of the Western Dvina. On February 21, representatives of the legionnaires contacted the partisans.

As a result of the negotiations, an agreement was reached that on February 22 at 23:00 a general uprising of the legion would be launched, and it would go over with arms to the side of the partisans. Obviously, the Germans became aware of the plans of the underground, and an hour before the planned performance, arrests were made and the leaders of the uprising Zhukov, Tadzhiev and Rakhimov were captured. Then the commander of the headquarters company, Khusain Mukhamedov, took the initiative. A signal was sent to almost all units of the battalion located in different localities in the neighborhood - an uprising began. According to the source, two platoons of the second company failed to notify.

The legionnaires who crossed over were distributed in partisan brigades commanded by Zakharov and Biryulin.

So, the first entry into battle of the first unit of the Volga-Tatar Legion ended in failure for the German side. In German documents, albeit in a veiled form, the reasons for this are clearly visible: firstly, the activity of “individual intelligent Tatars” among the legionnaires undoubtedly affected them, who organized the battalion’s transition to the side of the partisans. Perhaps we are talking about the activities of Musa Jalil’s group, or his predecessors, but in any case, the performance of the legionnaires was organized and prepared in advance. Secondly, despite the long-term ideological indoctrination, the Germans really failed to truly attract the Tatar legionnaires to their side. The feeling of Soviet patriotism in them turned out to be stronger - the Germans, despite their efforts, remained “strangers” for the Tatar legionnaires; they saw “their own” in the Belarusian partisans.

Those former legionnaires who went over to the side of the partisans, apparently, almost immediately took part in the battles against the German army - they were especially intense on February 28, 1943 and were aimed at breaking the blockade. They continued to remain part of partisan formations in Belarus. This is confirmed, for example, by data from a letter from the Belarusian headquarters partisan movement dated July 2, 1943: “After the battalion transferred to the partisans, its personnel were indeed dispersed among the partisan brigades, took part in hostilities against the German occupiers, and showed themselves on the positive side. Some part personnel battalion and is still in the partisan brigades."

After these events, the legionnaires of the 825th battalion who remained on the German side were immediately sent to the rear and assigned to other formations. The uprising of the 825th battalion was a cold shower for the German command. This event was far from last role in the further fate of the Eastern legions.

826th battalion. The organization of the 826th battalion, planned for December 15, 1942, did not take place - it was formed in Yedlino on January 15, 1943. In March 1943, after the uprising of the 825th battalion, the 826th “out of harm’s way” was transferred to the territory of Holland in area of ​​the city of Breda. Here, apparently, he served as a security guard and was also involved in other work. They obviously did not dare to involve the 826th battalion in any real military operations.

On September 1, 1943, the battalion may have been in France (there is no more precise indication), and on October 2, 1943 it was redeployed again to Holland, where it remained throughout 1943 - early 1945.

R.A. Mustafin also connects this eloquent fact with the history of the 826th battalion - an uprising was prepared in the unit, but German counterintelligence managed to thwart the plans of the underground. 26 members of the underground organization were then shot, two hundred people were transferred to a punishment camp.

827th battalion. The battalion was created on February 10, 1943 in Yedlino. His field mail number was 43645A-E. The battalion commander was Captain Pram.

Since the end of June 1943, the 827th battalion, sent to fight the partisans, was in Western Ukraine. Here the legionnaires took part in several clashes with partisans.

At the beginning of October 1943, the battalion was transferred to Lannon in France and was placed at the disposal of the 7th Army. In actions against partisans in Western Ukraine, the 827th battalion disappointed the German command. Moreover, the presence of the battalion in this territory strengthened the partisan detachments, because many legionnaires ran over to them. But even after the battalion was transferred to France, it never became a “reliable” unit for the Germans, since here too many legionnaires went over to the French partisans.

828th Battalion. This battalion was created in the period from April 1, 1943 and was finally formed on June 1, 1943. After its formation, the battalion was located in Yedlino itself for quite a long time.

On September 28, 1943, the formation was sent to Western Ukraine to replace the 827th battalion, which turned out to be “unreliable.” The Germans' hopes for the newly arrived legionnaires were in vain. Sources clearly indicate that during the entire stay of the 828th battalion in Western Ukraine, many of the legionnaires defected to the partisans.

829th Battalion. It was created on August 24, 1943 in Yedlino. Most likely, under the influence of failures with the first battalions, the 829th remained in Yedlino for quite a long time. But subsequently the battalion was also moved to Western Ukraine.

The finale for the 829th battalion came quite quickly: by order of the commander of the military district in the “Government General” of August 29, 1944, it was disbanded due to the increasing incidence of “violations of discipline” in the battalion. All these events had to be carried out before September 18, 1944. This is the history of the 829th Tatar battalion and ended.

830th Battalion. There is no exact information about the day the 830th battalion was formed. Although it is already mentioned in documents dated September 1, 1943, its existence on that day is doubtful, since even in the document dated October 26 it is mentioned as “forming.”

The Germans no longer decided to use the battalion against the partisans: it carried out security service in various settlements of Western Ukraine and Poland. These transfers were carried out to test the “reliability” and combat effectiveness of the battalion, which aroused suspicion among the Germans, and not without reason.

In June 1944, the Gestapo office in Radom managed to contact one of the non-commissioned officers of the 830th battalion, who was looking for connections with “communist gangs”. He, apparently, managed to organize 20 legionnaires to kill German personnel on the night of June 17-18, open a weapons depot, seize cars and run to the partisans with weapons. But on June 12 and 15, the initiators of the conspiracy, more than 20 people in total, were arrested. 17 of them were subsequently released by a military court due to lack of evidence. Representatives of the secret police considered that this decision was legally justified, but its consequences could be unpredictable, so it was recommended to discuss the situation in detail with the commander of the eastern detachments.

It seems that at the final stage of the war the 830th battalion existed as a construction and engineer battalion, at the beginning of 1945 it was stationed in the Vistula bend, and later in Pomerania.

831st Battalion. It was formed in the fall of 1943 in Yedlino. Its existence is confirmed in the second half of October. As far as can be judged from the text of the document, he provided security for the main camp of the Volga-Tatar Legion in Yedlino. The unit had to do approximately the same thing in February 1944, when it was in Legionowo near Warsaw. There are no other mentions of the 831st battalion in known sources.

Creation of battalions of the Volga-Tatar Legion by serial numbers 832, 833, 834 was planned for the fall of 1943. Most likely, they were never formed. It was not possible to find any references that would actually confirm the existence of these Tatar battalions.

On September 29, 1943, Hitler ordered the transfer of all Eastern volunteers from the East to the West, and this was reflected in the order of the German General Staff of October 2, 1943 (No. 10570/43) on the transfer of the Eastern Legions from the territory of Poland to France at the disposal of the commander Army Group West in the city of Nancy. The relocation was supposed to be carried out in the following order:

1. Georgian Legion; 2. North Caucasian Legion; 3. Command of the Eastern Legions; 4. Officer school in Legionovo; 5. Volga-Tatar Legion and School of Translators; 6. Armenian Legion; 7. Turkestan Legion; 8. Azerbaijan Legion. Thus, we were not talking about absolutely all eastern battalions; some of them remained at the place of service. All command structures of the Eastern Legions, the so-called main camps, and some of the battalions were transferred to France.

To carry out this large-scale event, a special liquidation headquarters was created under the command of Colonel Möller. The order prescribed by the order was generally observed. For example, the main camp and command of the Volga-Tatar Legion left Yedlino on October 19, 1943, and the command and headquarters of the Eastern Legions set off on October 24. Transportation was carried out by special military trains and very quickly. And yet, in the first half of November 1943, the redeployment was basically completed: on March 1, 1944, the commander of Army Group West had, according to official data, 61,439 foreigners and eastern volunteers.

The command of the Eastern Legions in France in October 1943 was located in Nancy (Eastern France), but at the end of November it was transferred further south to Millau. Most likely due to developments unfavorable for the Germans military situation March 15, 1944 command eastern connections from Millau returned to Nancy again (we are talking specifically about the former command of the Eastern Legions, and not about the command of all volunteer formations).

At the beginning of 1944, a serious restructuring of formations from the eastern nations took place in France, which, most likely, was intended to strengthen control over them and achieve their maximum combat readiness. Here, in February 1944, a new structure was formed, called the Main Volunteer Division (Freiwilligen Stamm Division) with its center in Lyon and under the command initially of Colonel Holste. At the end of March 1944, Holste was replaced by Major General von Henning. The named division was divided into a number of regiments based on nationality, including formations of Russians, Ukrainians and Cossacks. The Volga-Tatar Legion, whose command was located in the city of Le Puy, belonged to the 2nd regiment, and the formation continued to be called the Volga-Tatar Legion as part of the 2nd regiment.

The eastern battalions stationed in different countries and regions of Western Europe were intended not only to defend the Atlantic Wall, but also, as in the East, to fight against partisans. For example, three companies from the Volga-Tatar Legion took part in the German action against the French maquis in the department of Chantal in early June 1944; in early August, units of the Volga-Tatar Legion participated in the same actions in the regions settlements Issoire and Rochefort (in the area of ​​Clermont-Ferrand).

The Eastern legions in France generally demonstrated the same qualities as previously in the Ukraine.

Units of the Volga-Tatar Legion demonstrated stable “unreliability”. On July 13, 1944, Field Commandant's Office 588 in Clermont-Ferrand clearly stated with bitterness in its report: “The reconnaissance group of the Tatar legion could not achieve anything more than to catch several previously escaped Armenian legionnaires.” On the night of July 29-30, 1944, one Russian officer and 78 legionnaires of the Volga-Tatar Legion, according to the same commandant’s office, ran over to the partisans, and the rest were immediately returned to the barracks. There are many such examples of eastern legionnaires running over to the partisans in the last period of the war. Many such cases have already become widely known from publications in our press.

Most of the Eastern Volunteer battalions on the Western Front were divided and distributed among different areas and assigned to larger German formations. This isolation from each other, undoubtedly, even more noticeably increased the feeling of confusion and depression among the majority of legionnaires. So, in general, the use of the Eastern Legions in Western Europe did not bring the desired results for the Germans. Many of the legionnaires were very afraid of being captured by the advancing Soviet troops, preferring in the end to be captured by the allies. But the fate of the latter also turned out to be unenviable: according to agreements between the USSR and the Allied powers, all Soviet citizens who found themselves in the hands of British and American troops were subsequently transferred to the Soviet side. They returned to their native land, where in most cases severe punishment awaited them.

Thus, we see that German plans to use formations from representatives of the Turkic peoples of the USSR, including the Tatars, especially active in 1942–1944, ended in failure. The underground anti-fascist groups that arose among the Eastern legionnaires certainly played their role in the failure of the Nazis’ aspirations. One of the most famous such groups is the group led by Gainan Kurmashev and Musa Jalil. Apparently, this group began its activities at the end of 1942. It consisted, first of all, of Tatar officers who found themselves in German captivity. The underground members set as their main goal the disintegration of the Idel-Ural legion from within and preparation for an uprising. To achieve their goal, they used the printing house of the Idel-Ural newspaper, published by the Eastern Ministry of Germany specifically for legionnaires since the fall of 1942.

Gainan Kurmashev created and coordinated the work of the fives of the underground organization. Musa Jalil, who had the opportunity to move freely throughout Germany and Poland, organized campaigning among the legionnaires. Akhmet Simaev worked at the propaganda radio station “Vineta”, where he could receive information for the Resistance group and produce leaflets. Abdulla Alish, Akhat Atnashev and Zinnat Khasanov also took an active part in the production and distribution of leaflets.

It is safe to assume that the battalions of the Idel-Ural Legion did not live up to the expectations that the German command had for them, largely thanks to the activities of the underground members of the Kurmashev-Jalil group. Unfortunately, this activity was interrupted by German counterintelligence: in Berlin, the underground members were arrested on the night of August 11-12, 1943. In total, about 40 people from the propaganda units of the Idel-Ural Legion were captured in August 1943.

After a lengthy investigation, members of the Resistance were brought before the Imperial Court in Dresden. On February 12, 1944, by his decision, 11 people were sentenced to death penalty. These are Musa Jalil, Gainan Kurmashev, Abdulla Alish, Akhmet Simaev, Akhat Adnashev, Abdulla Battalov, Fuat Bulatov, Salim Bukharov, Fuat Saifulmulyukov, Zinnat Khasanov, Garif Shabaev. The text states “assisting the enemy” and “undermining military power” as grounds for sentencing for all. This formulation allows us to reasonably assert that the resistance group that existed in the Idel-Ural legion caused serious damage to the “Third Reich” through its actions.

The execution of Tatar patriots by guillotining was carried out in the Berlin prison Plötzensee on August 25, 1944. Gainan Kurmashev was the first to ascend the scaffold - at 12:06. The remaining members of the underground were executed within three minutes of each other.

In Berlin, at the Museum of Resistance to Fascism, a memorial plaque with the names of the group members was opened in memory of the Tatar underground fighters, and stands with materials about the heroes were installed in Plötzensee prison.

I.A. Gilyazov

Der Prozeß gegen die Hauptkriegverbrecher vor dem Internationalen Militärgerichtshof. Nürnberg 1949, Bd. XXXVIII, Document 221-L, S. 88.

However, attributing the creation of the Eastern Legions solely to the failure of the “blitzkrieg” plan is an oversimplification of the problem. This trend is clearly observed in our historiography (see, for example: Abdullin M.I.. The fighting truth. Criticism of bourgeois concepts of development of the socialist nations of the Volga region and the Urals. – Kazan, 1985. – P. 44). Even the creation of commissions for the selection of Turkic prisoners of war is “adjusted” to the defeat of the Germans near Moscow, although such commissions, which will be discussed below, already existed in August-September 1941 (see, for example: Mustafin R.A. What motivated Jalil? // Tatarstan.- 1993. - No. 12.- P.73)

Hoffmann, Joachim. Die Ostlegionen 1941-1943. Turkotataren, Kaukasier und Wolgafinnen im deutschen Heer. Freiburg 1976, S.30-31.

Bundesarchiv des Beaufragten für die Unterlagen des Ministeriums der Staatssicherheit der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (hereinafter - BStU-Zentralarchiv), RHE 5/88-SU, Bd.2, Bl. 143.

For fragmentary biographical information about von Seckendorff, see: Bundesarchiv-Potsdam, NS 31/45, Bl. 237; NS 31/55, Bl.27. In the book by S. Drobyazko, his last name is distorted as Zickerdorf ( Drobyazko S.I.. Under the banners of the enemy. Anti-Soviet formations within the German armed forces. 1941–1945. – M., 2004. – P. 151).

The foreign word “collaborationism” (French collfboration - cooperation, joint actions) is still classified as unpronounceable, although it was borrowed to refer to actual events that occurred more than five decades ago during the Second World War. Yes, writing about “traitors, traitors to the motherland” is not easy. It is possible that this publication will be followed by a reaction like thunder from heaven: “It’s impossible! Write better about the heroes...”

I would like the reader to take into account here: the newspaper text is not a decree on an award or a court verdict. Our goal is not to elevate, but to understand a person who, in the grip of circumstances, had to take a double oath and three times, together with others who enlisted in the ranks of the Idel-Ural legion, shout “Heil!”

It is known that the overwhelming majority of prisoners of war, including the “Vlasovites” and the so-called legionnaires, who joined the Germans under the banner of the fight against Stalinism in order to create independent national states, were “identified” and, with the active assistance of the allies, returned to the USSR and convicted. Even those who languished in German concentration camps for many years fell under the millstone of repression. Few of them, after serving a long term, were released. And which of these unfortunate people, in conditions of colossal moral pressure dared to write memoirs? Such cases are rare. That is why we believe that the memoirs of former prisoner of war Ivan Skobelev are of historical value. Despite the completely understandable subjective interpretation of events, one cannot ignore new information about the actions of the underground group, which included a former political worker of the Second Shock Army, the poet Musa Jalil, guillotined by the Nazis (later Hero of the Soviet Union, Lenin Prize laureate).

A few words about the fate of the memoirs. A native of the Chuvash village of Nizhny Kurmey, Orenburg region, Ivan Skobelev (1915) wrote them at the request of the writer and journalist, editor-in-chief of the Orenburg television studio Leonid Bolshakov, who was interested in Chuvash history (author of the brochure “Chuvash Correspondents of Leo Tolstoy”). Apparently, after the triumphant return of Musa Jalil’s “Moabit Notebooks” to the USSR during the short-term “thaw”, the author began to hope that the attitude towards other prisoners of the camps, as well as towards all victims of the war, would change. Once again mentally walking along the bumpy roads of war, he, of course, was looking for a way to gain mental stability (keeping colossal information and impressions inside is an incredible test). To tell, to confess, to justify oneself before posterity, perhaps the author thought about this too.

Valery ALEXIN.

Brief historical background

The Volga-Tatar Legion (Idel-Ural Legion) is a Wehrmacht unit consisting of representatives of the Volga peoples of the USSR (Tatars, Bashkirs, Mari, Mordovians, Chuvashs, Udmurts). Volga-Tatar legionnaires (about 40 thousand people in total) were part of 7 reinforced field battalions; 15 economic, sapper, railway and road construction companies; and 1 battle group of the East Turkic SS unit. Organizationally, it was subordinate to the Headquarters of the Command of the Eastern Legions (German: Kommando der Ostlegionen).

The legion was created in Jedlino (Poland) on August 15, 1942. The ideological basis of the legion was the creation of an independent Volga-Ural Republic (Idel-Ural). The leading role in the ideological training of the legionnaires was played by emigrants - members of national committees formed under the auspices of the Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territories.

The Volga-Tatar Legion used a variant of the patch that looked like a blue-gray oval with a yellow border. In the center of the emblem there was a vault with a vertical arrow. Idel-Ural was written on top in yellow letters, and Tatar Legion was written below. The round cockades on the headdresses had the same color combination as the stripes.

At the very first clashes with the enemy, many legionnaires, most of whom were recruited against their will from among prisoners of war, went over to the side of the Red Army and the Allied armies. An underground organization led by Musa Jalil made a great contribution to maintaining the spirit of the legionnaires and the rejection of Nazi views.

Volga-Tatar legionnaire "Idel-Ural", 1944

War

The first day of the war passed like all previous days, except for the message about the beginning of the German invasion. On June 23, some of the soldiers took the oath. For the first time we held live ammunition in our hands, for the first time we saw simple and explosive bullets. But they got the same rifles - the old model with a triangular Russian bayonet. The war has begun, but we have not yet seen machine guns.

The people knew that a conflict with Germany was inevitable. The rank and file greeted the war calmly. We considered the concluded pact of friendship and non-aggression as an absurdity in the policy of our government. It was only strange to listen to the Red Army soldiers being prohibited by their commanders from talking about Germany as a state hostile to us.

In the evening we left our newly inhabited tents and dugouts and made a trek of about sixty kilometers to the West. We thought we were going to be loaded to be sent to the front. The mood was cheerful and fighting. The first big hike was not at all exhausting, although I wanted to sleep and rest.

They began to take a position and dig trenches. When everything was done, an order came: to gather to replace the deployment. This time we went back 25 km. Why was such maneuvering necessary, for the entire division? Why are we marking time? The command was confused and continued to be academically liberal. The fact that the commanders forgot the practice of the civil war also speaks of confusion.

Marking time ended on June 29 or 30; in the evening we were loaded onto a train and overnight we were transferred to the town of Gorodok, Vitebsk region. Upon the arrival of the division, new mobilizations arrived. They could not be equipped or armed. They were forced to be sent to Vitebsk.

The first battles began on July 3 or 4, and ended successfully. Several armored vehicles and tanks were hit. They brought in several captured fascists. They behaved impudently. They shouted: “Rus kaput.”

At dawn the next day the attack of the main enemy forces began...

While crossing the highway we ran into a German ambush. We did not know the number of the enemy. To disperse the fire, they decided to split into several groups. I stayed in the center. At the appointed time, we crawled forward and opened fire on the enemy. I don’t remember how long the fight lasted. The cartridges in the clip ran out, the last grenade remained. On command he rose to attack. I don’t remember anything further.

Soon the Germans approached, collecting trophies.

Captivity

By evening we found ourselves in a camp built right in the field. About two hundred people were gathered here, all from the battlefield.

The first days I suffered greatly from my wounds. There was a shrapnel sticking out in his side, and a bullet had riddled his neck under his jaw. I could neither drink nor speak.

We were soon lined up for departure. A special team arrived on bicycles and motorcycles. As soon as we left the gate, the sick and those wounded in the leg were shot before our eyes. The same fate befell those who fell along the way.

In Vitebsk, a camp was built on a huge square where there used to be warehouses of the People's Commissariat of Defense. There were a lot of prisoners here. We were let in without any account registration. There were many soldiers without tunics and caps, like me. There were also commanding officers with insignia, well-groomed officers, clean, as if they had not seen war. These people were very special. They smoked, many already held positions of barracks elders.

Doctors and paramedics arrived and began treating the wounds. The Germans did not use our dressings; they handed them over to the camps. They pulled the fragment out of me and cleaned my side of the crushed bones. Surgeon Petrov, having examined me, said: “You will live if you do not die in this hell.”

Among the clean-cut dandies, some wore white armbands with a black letter “P” (policeman) on their sleeves. Most of them spoke Ukrainian among themselves. They were armed with belts with a heavy buckle, which they used when necessary. They beat me mercilessly, with pleasure. They caught “witches,” that is, they were looking for commissars and Jews. We lived in a separate block and ate separately.

Jews and commissars were put in a ring specially fenced off with barbed wire and held with the inscription “Judas”, “commissar”, “weathervane” (fugitive) hanging on their chests, then they were hanged in front of the prisoners.

This is how I learned about the fascist order in captivity.

With the stamp "A" (Asian)

There was a rumor: the Germans were allowing Ukrainians and Belarusians home, but only civilians. Having been hungry for three days, he exchanged torn civilian clothes for three rations of bread. I wanted to leave this hell. That's how I got to the stage. We were brought to the city of Borisov. The next day they started giving me commissions. When they began to undress, many were found wearing Red Army underwear and wounds. Without giving us time to come to our senses, we were sent to a prisoner of war camp. They took us to work here. They fed us twice, gave us two liters of good barley gruel for five people, and two more loaves of bread.

Red Army uniforms were soon distributed. Then they were divided into groups according to nationality, painted large letters on the backs of overcoats and tunics with oil paint: “r” (Russian), “u” (Ukrainian), “b” (Belarusian), “a” (Asian). In the blocks, Russians were assigned as policemen as Ukrainians, Belarusians as Asians, etc.

According to the Internet.

Already in the first weeks and months of the war, the Wehrmacht began to use Soviet prisoners of war as support staff(cooks, drivers, grooms, laborers, cartridge carriers, sappers, kitchen assistants, messengers, signalmen) directly in their combat units. Later they were mobilized into security and counter-guerrilla units. By the end of 1942, these people were brought into the so-called “eastern battalions”.

By the last period of the war, when Germany's reserves of manpower had dried up, they remembered those who tried from the very first days of the war to become an ally of Germany and in the future to gain at least a minimum of independence for their people. At the first stage of the war, they were brushed aside like annoying flies. Of course, after all, Germany was strong, and its army stood right next to Moscow. At a critical moment, the Germans remembered the prisoners of war. A paradoxical situation arose at the front towards the end of the war, when it was discovered that the few German military units consisted of 40-50 or more percent natives of the Soviet Union and various exotic countries. So, after the storming of the Reich Chancellery, Soviet soldiers looked in surprise at the corpses of its dead defenders with Asian eyes.

After the end of the war, some of the legionnaires, with the support of influential friends from a number of governments of Muslim countries, took refuge in the Middle East and Turkey. Those who remained in the USSR were repressed.

Soldiers of the newly created legion "Idel-Ural", 1942

Through the circles of hell

They drove us to Minsk on foot. There were many executions along the way. The first victims remained on the outskirts of the city of Borisov, near the fertilizer warehouse. They fed us without salt for more than a week. When they passed by this warehouse, exhausted people mistook the fertilizer for salt, and the front column rushed forward and created a dump. The convoy opened fire on the crowd with machine guns and machine guns.

...A new camp was built on the territory of Lithuania on the site of a military camp. The entire area is covered with greenery. There are gigantic linden trees all around. Luxurious barracks. But nothing made us happy except the grass that grew abundantly in the camp. The hungry pounced on pasture. They ate raw grass, ate it with water and salt. We didn't eat enough! And there was nothing tastier than plantain. They ate and stocked up. As a result, 1500-2000 people ate all the grass over a huge area in three days. And the prisoners kept coming and coming. Even the trees inside the camp were gnawed. They broke windows to use a piece of glass to scrape off tree fibers for food. The luxurious linden trees now stood completely bare.

The weather was damp and cold. The inhabitants of the camp were concentrated in barracks and stables. The food was bad. All stories about past life, about work and relatives ended with memories of some memorable dinner. For this mass, consisting of adults and intelligent people, all thoughts revolved only around food. If they had said that we would feed him and then shoot him, perhaps no one would refuse such “mercy.” They didn't think about life. We fell asleep and woke up dreaming of food.

Prisons are the same everywhere. I came to this conclusion later. I mean not only the external and internal structure, but also the regime, etc. - dampness, darkness, punishment cells, investigation rooms with torture equipment. Such were the prisons in Stetin, Gdansk, Brest, Minsk, and after the war - in Cheboksary. How much sophistication they have for greater human suffering! How carefully the staff is selected for this!

People who have not gone through the circles of hell sometimes argue: here it is good, but here it is bad, but before execution the condemned person is given enough to eat and even drink. These people are dreamers, boasters, they inflate their worth, as if they have seen a lot in life.

It’s hard and hungry everywhere in prisons. But in prisons, where you are looked at as an enemy and treated like a dangerous animal, it is even harder.

Processing of our camera began at the end of January 1942. Seven Lithuanians passed before me, three of them returned to the cell from the first interrogation - beaten beyond recognition.

It was my turn. The interrogation began peacefully and quietly: who, where, how did they get captured? For the first time I said my last name, where I was from and what my nationality was. To the accusations that I was retained for espionage work, that I was a communist, I responded with a categorical refusal. Then he fell out of his chair from the blow. They beat us with anything.

According to the stories of my comrades, I lay motionless for three days.

Soon we were loaded onto the train. They gave us 100 grams of liver sausage and a loaf of bread for the journey. Everyone ate all this immediately, and for three days they rode hungry.

We unloaded in the afternoon at one of the small railway stations in Saxony. In Stadtcamp No. 314 they went through sanitary treatment, were given old-time German tunics and shod in wooden lasts. A tin plate with a number was hung around his neck. My number is 154155 (probably according to the number of prisoners).

The British, Americans, French and Greeks lived here in separate zones. All of them, compared to us, looked like well-fed stallions. They were not forced to go to work and were fed well. They wore new army clothes and shoes, in accordance with the uniform of their countries. They were allowed to receive letters and parcels through the Red Cross. They played sports games and read newspapers. The Germans treated them as equals. At the same time, Soviet prisoners were dying of hunger, beatings and hellish conditions specially created for them.

General of the Eastern Forces (General der Osttruppen) Lieutenant General X. Helmich inspects a battalion of the Volga-Tatar Legion. Summer 1943

The reason for the change is unknown to the prisoner

In Statcamp No. 314 we were imprisoned in a bloc of national minorities. Georgians and Armenians occupied separate zones here, Volga and Central Asian nationalities were located at the other end. After sanitization we were given overcoats, boots with socks and trousers. The food here was different.

We did not know the true reason for this change. They explained in their own way that the war had dragged on, the Germans, fearing for their own skin, were trying to smooth out their crimes, etc. To be convincing, they recalled that there was an ultimatum note from Molotov to Germany about responsibility for violations of international rules for holding prisoners of war. In a word, everyone invented something, proved something, reasoned in anticipation of good things.

The strong and well-fed kept themselves apart, ruled over the weak, chose the best places and tried to stand out in front of the camp authorities.

During my 10-year stay in the camp after the war, I had to meet such “world eaters” more than once. They settled in here too, becoming the same as they were in the fascist camps - thieves, robbers and murderers of honest workers. They never realized their guilt for the lost souls, in many cases through their fault, in fascist captivity. They grumbled at the Soviet government, at Stalin, at the party. They hated the people and lived only for their belly.

They were brought to Poland, to the city of Sedlice. I ended up on the “weak team” of the Tatar camp. They divided us into companies, platoons and squads. Two battalions had been formed before us, and drills were already underway. There were no weapons. They fed according to the norm of a German soldier.

Soon the purpose of bringing and forming became somewhat clear. I was especially struck by the introduction of the hour of namaz (prayer) and the obedient execution of it by the prisoners. From somewhere there were mullahs, and they were by no means old men.

In the “weak company,” except for me and two Mordvins, everyone was Tatars. Nobody knew that I was Chuvash, because I spoke Tatar perfectly.

Mullah calls to worship

When they lined up for prayer, I lined up at the back. The command came (in Tatar, of course): “Sit down to pray.” An internal protest held me like an idol. The mullah's voice brought me to my senses, and I broke ranks and took up the flank. He stood there for 20-30 minutes while the mullah read a prayer and then ranted about the coming of “happy time.”

After the prayer, they dragged me to the officer: “Why didn’t you pray?” Through an interpreter he answered that I was a Christian and Chuvash by nationality.

This incident changed my situation somewhat. If earlier they looked at him as a “strung man” (he was terribly thin, instead of 72 kg he weighed only 42). They were freed from uniforms and drills. Thanks to this incident, I became closely acquainted with the Tatar Yangurazi, with whom we fought in the same division.

This act is a lot important role played in my later life in Germany and contributed to my meeting with Musa Jalil.

Soon battalion commanders began to be led into the city in groups with one accompanying person. They visited “Soldatenheims”, “Wufs” (bardak), from where they brought schnapps and bimbra (moonshine). Though belated, but true news began to arrive: Leningrad was standing, the Germans’ attempts to reach the Volga had failed. But prostitutes also spread false information.

On one of the difficult days, three “gentlemen” in civilian clothes arrived at the Sedlica camp. They began to call prisoners to the camp headquarters. An elderly Tatar was talking to me. By the way, he spoke his native language poorly.

A few days later we were put in a passenger carriage and sent to a special camp of the Eastern Ministry. Most likely, this was a filtration (checking) point: mainly the intelligentsia of all nationalities of the USSR were concentrated here.

After 2-3 months I found out: General Vlasov was gathering a million-strong army for a campaign against Stalin. A little later I had to meet Vlasov himself.

Barracks

The tie presses on the neck like a collar

The camp had a club and a library with publications in Russian. There were many books by emigrant writers here. The club showed films and gave lectures on the National Socialist program. They brought Mein Kampf straight to the barracks.

These days there was a rumor that the chairman of the Union of Tatar Writers, Musa Jalil, was nearby in a quarantine camp. There were people among us who knew him. This is Alish ( children's writer, before the war - head. Department of Pioneers of the Tatar Regional Committee of the Komsomol), employee of the editorial office of the newspaper “Red Tataria” Satarov.

Two weeks later, everyone was summoned to the camp headquarters, forced to fill out and sign a form with the following content: “Prisoner of war such and such is released, and at the same time undertakes to the German authorities to work wherever he is sent.” Under penalty of death, they agreed not to communicate with German women.

After that they took us to Berlin. Here they took me into the warehouse of one of the stores and dressed me in civilian clothes. Leaving the store, I told my friend that a paper collar with a German tie pulled over my neck was pressing on my neck like a collar.

From the memoirs of prisoner of war Rushad Khisamutdinov

...The Tatars were reluctant to join the German legion. Then the Nazis decided to find a person who could carry away all the prisoners with him. The recruiters were persistent. It is known that high-ranking officials fussed a lot around Musa Jalil at that time - Rosenberg, Unglaube, and the notorious “president” of the imaginary state “Idel-Ural” Shafi Almaz. But at first Musa did not want to hear about serving with the Germans. Only later, realizing that the Nazis’ idea opened up the opportunity for him to engage in anti-fascist propaganda in the legions, did he agree. The path that Musa took was difficult and dangerous.

...After the arrival of new reinforcements, a musical chapel (cult platoon) was organized. Thirteen people were selected as “artists”. None of them were professional artists. Gainan is a teacher, Abdulla is a senior political instructor, etc. However, our Yedlny “musicians” - Garif Malikov, Ivan Skobelev, Sadykov and others also did not have any special education.

From the book “Memories of Musa Jalil”, Kazan, 1966.

Lieutenant General X. Helmich at the next inspection of the battalion of the Volga-Tatar Legion. Presumably - 1943

Which Tatars do the Chuvash agree with?

For three weeks we lived in the third-class hotel "Anhalter Baykhov". We ate in the canteen using ration cards. We didn’t speak the language, so we had to sit in our room. Sometimes we went for a walk in the city.

During this time, I became closely acquainted with Alishev, Shabaev, Bulatov, Sabirov. I developed a particularly good relationship with Alishev. I appreciated him for his frankness and simplicity. From him I learned that the poet Musa Jalil, the favorite of the Tatar people, would soon arrive here.

The group was often taken on excursions and to theaters. We were assigned a guy from Donbass, a student at the Institute of Foreign Languages ​​with the (dubious) last name Sultan. He also issued food cards, stamps and pfennigs. Sometimes some of the “goons”, including me, were not taken on excursions, since due to our thinness the Germans might have formed an unsatisfactory image of the Tatars. On such days, we killed time by studying German from a soldier's handbook.

One evening we wandered into a “birnetube”, which was located in the basement where the Belgians and French gathered. For the first time I saw the situation described by Gorky and other writers: a beer hall, drowning in smoke and dirt, with made-up and disheveled girls on men’s laps. Behind the counter stood a pot-bellied, red-faced owner who carefully took stamps and pfennigs, as well as contraband goods, gold rings and other souvenirs and poured schnapps or ersatz beer.

Our appearance did not go unnoticed. Three Frenchmen surrounded us. We didn’t understand them, they didn’t understand us either, the phrase “Russishen Gefagen” (Russian prisoners) explained everything. The French sat us at a table and offered us beer, but we refused due to lack of money. They tapped us on the shoulder, called us comrades, and offered us cigarettes. But soon a policeman came up and took us to the hotel, ordering the hostess not to let us go anywhere alone.

Days passed full of languor and anxiety. One day the group was ordered to be on site. At 18 o'clock the translator Sultan took us to the Exceldzer restaurant.

I had never seen such luxuriously decorated rooms before: hundreds of tables, booths, the shine of chandeliers, serving buffets, flitting waiters... The smell of high-grade cigarettes was intoxicating. There is no war here, here there is no knowledge of hunger, pain or hardship.

We were led through a huge hall, probably with the aim of showing how richly the fascist degenerates live and confidently behave.

Several men and women met us in a small hall. They turned out to be Tatars who had remained in Germany since the First World War (the women were their wives and daughters). Our arrival revived the company. Among the prisoners they looked for their fellow countrymen and loved ones. Soon an old Tatar appeared, who in Sedlice selected the people he needed. Came with him of average height, baggy dressed man haggard looking. He modestly greeted Alishev (hugged him) and walked forward behind the old man. It was Musa Jalil (Gumerov, as he introduced himself).

They offered to take a seat. The German and the old man announced the opening of an evening of dating the Tatars in Berlin with “newly arrived gentlemen” (effendi). An old Tatar man, whose name was Shafi Almaz, said that we were gathered to fight Bolshevism in order to form independent national states with the help of the fascists. And we, the “flower of the nation,” had to lead this matter. It was announced that a leadership center called “Tatar Mediation” was being created in Berlin under the Eastern Ministry. A newspaper in the Tatar language "Idel-Ural" will be published.

Then there was dinner using the unused cards. The ladies wanted to hear Tatar songs. Nazipov and a young guy spoke, whose last name I don’t remember. Then they began asking Musa Jalil to read something. He readily agreed and read humorous poems. One of them, I remember, was called “Parachute”.

My acquaintance with Jalil took place on the same evening. He came up to me himself. At first they spoke Russian, and then switched to Tatar. He asked how long I had been in captivity, where I fought, how I was captured. I don’t know what impression I made on Jalil, but after that the attitude of the “well-fed” towards me changed somewhat.

The following days they settled into the premises allocated for “Tatar mediation”. Responsibilities were then assigned. All this happened without Jalil's participation.

“Tatar Mediation” was located on Noenburger Street on the third floor of a brick building. The second floor was occupied by “Turkestan mediation” (Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, etc.).

A day later, a meeting of mediation workers took place. Many Germans were present, there was even an SS general (later they found out that they were a representative of the Eastern Ministry, Professor von Medsarich and two secretaries: Frau von Budberg and ladies-in-waiting Debling). There were three Tatars in military uniform who arrived from the legion. At this meeting it was announced: “Tatar mediation” will be the center of the struggle for the liberation of the Tatar people from Bolshevism and the establishment of such independence as it was before their conquest by the Russians.

Gunafin, Sultan, Gilyadiev and someone else spoke, called to fight for a “just cause,” focused on the Fuhrer, and at the end they shouted: “Heil Hitler!”

When these tirades ended, they asked: “What will our Chuvash friend say?” I answered: “If there were as many of my relatives here as there are Tatars, a lot could be said, but for now I can only say one thing: I am in solidarity with the Tatars.” Frau von Budberg translated my words to the Germans. Shafi Almaz asked: why did I speak in Russian when I speak Tatar perfectly? “I didn’t speak, but answered your question. To speak, you need to prepare,” I answered.

During the break, M. Jalil came up to me. He asked: with which Tatars do the Chuvashs stand in solidarity? There was no one nearby, and I boldly answered: we were and will be in solidarity with all our neighbors, regardless of nationality. He shook my hand and turned to Yangurazi who had approached: “You seem to be great friends, this is the second time I’ve seen you together.” The friend replied: “Yes, we are from the same division.”

After that, they talked in Tatar: where he was captured, who else was with the Germans, etc. But then Jalil was called to the “boss”.

It was soon announced that Unglaube would lead the organization from the Germans, and Shafi Almaz from the Tatars (translators Sultan and Jalil). Organizational and propaganda departments were created, as well as an editorial office (Ishmaev, Gilyadiev, Alishev, Satarov, Sabirov, etc.). Yangurazi and I were left out of work.

Everyone was given food cards and a monthly salary. We had to start living in a private apartment, we had to report to work every day.

Soon we were given foreign passports. We went through a commission to determine our race (they measured our head, eye shape, and God knows what else). And what do you think? I, a Chuvash, and 15 other Tatars received an assessment similar to the Aryan race. Everything matched in size. Then we laughed that we were canonized.

Musa Jalil

Give a living word to the prisoners

The first weeks passed unnoticed. The German and Shafi Almaz, the translators Sultan and Jalil, were constantly going somewhere. It became known about the existence of a Tatar legion in the town of Seltsy near the city of Radom. In addition, working battalions were formed. The Demblin fortress (Poland) became the collection base for prisoners of war of all Volga nationalities.

During this time, the first issues of the newspaper "Idel-Ural" were published. Their content can be assessed as illiterate and pathetic.

Relations with the nationalist Tatars worsened. They came up with the nickname “kefer” (non-religious) for me because when they met, I loudly said “hello” and responded to their address only in Russian. All this infuriated my enemies.

On this basis, an explanation took place with Almaz and Unglaube. The first expressed sharp indignation at my behavior. If it weren’t for the support of Frau Budberg, who had a negative attitude towards ignoring the Russian language, I would have been sent to a concentration camp.

After this “bath” we walked along the street with Yangurazi. Jalil met us and asked if it was possible to spend a little time together with inseparable friends? The conversation turned to how we settled in and what we needed. When I talked about the “bath,” he replied: “You, Skobelev, will not be sent anywhere, you are more needed here.” He suggested changing the attitude towards “sofas”, rebuilding his character, pulling himself together, becoming a “master” himself. Let them think and report to the boss that the conversation was beneficial.

You say: you’re tired of idleness,” Jalil continued. - You, Yangurazi, are a communist, and Ivan is a Komsomol member. Consider yourself temporarily excommunicated from your organizations. You have a weapon - the teachings of Lenin - Stalin, which you have no right to forget. Look around: how many camps are there with Soviet people! After all, the absolute majority there are our peers. Look for communists and Komsomol members among them. Find and speak a living word, a word of hope. Instill in them faith in victory, that Stalin and the party have not forgotten them.

Next, Jalil gave specific tasks: first, to study Berlin well; the second is to find out how many camps are and where they are located; third, make acquaintances and make friends with smart and serious people. He promised that we would receive additional instructions soon.

After that, he said that he had been in the legion. 4 battalions have already been created there, there is one Chuvash company. Legionnaires are armed and trained in the use of German weapons. Among the commanders are Tatars and Germans. There is a colonel who graduated from the Academy. Frunze.

We talked about our colleagues in misfortune. M. Jalil gave each one an assessment. We parted when it got dark. He left by electric train, and we went by tram past the prison, where the poet later languished and was executed.

That night we could not sleep, we talked until dawn: the meeting turned our lives upside down.

From a letter from I. Skobelev to L. Bolshakov

I promise to write to you in detail about everything - about the comrades and enemies with whom I had to work in Berlin from September 1942 until the end of the war. I felt bad for Musa Jalil until he was appreciated. Personally, while under investigation in the Soviet counterintelligence in Germany, and then in the Ministry of State Security in Cheboksary, I told Minister Mitrashov, his deputy Lebedev and investigator Ivanov, but not in order to justify myself (for I was no longer afraid, more than what I had - they couldn’t give it to me, the execution was later replaced by ten years), but in order to rehabilitate the comrades who died, in order to preserve their good name. But, alas, they did not listen to us, but on the contrary, they mocked us and punished us.

And the information, which was confirmed by the “Moabit notebooks” transmitted by a Belgian comrade, was presented by many of those arrested during interrogations. At that time the memory was fresh. Much, much could be said about the communist organization created by Musa Jalil in Berlin.

Let's tell the prisoners about Vlasov's adventurism

Musa Jalil informed us from time to time about the situation at the fronts and about the guerrilla war in the rear. The circle of our acquaintances expanded, from wherever there were Soviet people in Berlin: from Kharkov, Voroshilovgrad, Kyiv, Smolensk, etc. They were waiting for us and asked us to come more often. I had to travel especially a lot during the days of mourning for the Nazis after February 11, 1943. A hastily handwritten leaflet marked “Read and pass on to a comrade” reported the defeat and capture of the Germans at Stalingrad. People cried and laughed with joy, including the French, Belgians, Bulgarians, etc. They kissed anyone they met with a prisoner of war badge on their chest.

Jalil laughed heartily when I told him about this. He teased: “Well, Ivan, is there anything to do with the time now?” And then he seriously generalized: “This is how international solidarity is forged. Keep in mind that you and I are doing serious and dangerous work. Although we are not fighting, we are fighters and are in a difficult area...”

We showed up for “mediation” in the morning. After 10 o'clock we went to the university to study German.

Each group was necessarily introduced to M. Jalil. He clarified the information based on our observations. The poet had a phenomenal memory, and was especially good at remembering faces.

And what a fan of Stalin he was! He wholeheartedly believed in his infallibility.

The myth of the superiority of the Aryan race over others began to fade. Posters on this topic were taken down on trams. The attitude towards Soviet prisoners of war has changed. Policemen and watchmen no longer always punished people for not wearing a badge. They began to look through their fingers at the loopholes under the barbed wire through which they were released into freedom without a pass. If someone was stopped, they were no longer punished, as before, with solitary confinement and beatings. The short answer - where he went (“to tsum ferluben” - to his beloved) - only caused a smile from the watchmen.

It was difficult to understand the reason for such changes. Musa warned that all this could be connected with the machinations of General Vlasov. Hitler accepted him and agreed to mobilize an army of millions to fight Stalin at fascist grub. Organ of Russian emigrants " Russian word“The Vlasov traitors renamed it “New Word”. A photograph of Hitler with Vlasov appeared in one of the newspaper issues.

It was necessary to explain to the prisoners Vlasov’s adventurism. To implement this task, Jalil organized a meeting “in the same place, at the same hour.” According to the text he compiled, it was necessary to multiply the leaflets and “scatter” them at places of appearance. And Yangurazov and I sat all night and copied a leaflet that said: “Vlasov hired himself as a servant to Hitler. He is going to sell the Soviet people in the same way as Denikin, Kolchak, Wrangel and Krasnov were sold to the imperialists in their time. The time will come, Vlasov and his inspirers will be punished. Our cause is just, Victory will be ours. Bolshevik Communist Party in Berlin."

One day, accompanied by a sergeant major, the commander of the Tatar legionnaires, Colonel Alkaev, appeared. Then we found out: he came to Berlin demoted for his connections with the Poles and had to be under supervision.

The colonel became attached to Yangurazov and me. From confidential conversations we learned that Shakir Alkaev came from the Russified Kasimov Tatars (born near Moscow). By the end of the civil war, he commanded a squadron and was awarded an order for the storming of Perekop. At the end of the 40s he graduated from the General Staff Academy and met the war with the rank of colonel.

He viewed the Vlasov adventure as a cunning move conceived to defeat fascism. He gave an example from the history of past wars: military leaders, while in captivity, armed and raised uprisings of prisoners and struck from the rear. He did not want to believe that Vlasov was a traitor, since he had once served under his command.

I told Jalil about these reasonings. “This is a private matter,” came the answer. “He can think and fantasize everything, but we cannot agree with Vlasov’s actions.”

Volga-Tatar legionnaire "Idel-Ural"

With a researcher's certificate

Chuvash Fedor Blinov conveyed a letter to Musa Jalil through a courier, saying that he was glad that the Tatars had begun to publish their newspaper, and asked if it was possible to organize inserts in Chuvash. The poet advised us: carefully, under a plausible pretext, prevent this.

Along with the publication of the newspaper “Idel-Ural”, at the end of March, under “Mediation”, the so-called “Correspondence” in German began to be published for German officers and soldiers among the Tatar units. The process of processing materials for this publication went like this: articles were written in Tatar, then all this was translated into Russian, and then the secretary translated it into German and reprinted it on a matrix, after which it was reproduced on a rotary machine.

One day my friend Yangurazov was offered to translate into Russian. He worked hard for a long time, but it didn’t work out. Then he turned to me. The secretary praised our work, after which we began to be entrusted with translations of more serious things.

I personally had to translate an article by M. Jalil about the founder of modern Tatar literature G. Tukai, composer N. Zhiganov, and a review article on the development of Tatar literature. Before sending them for translation into German, the author reviewed the manuscripts and was satisfied. The articles were full of real facts taken from Soviet reality.

While Jalil was away, we spent three days at the dacha near Berlin with the emigrant Gilmanov (we worked for a suit taken from him for the colonel). From him we learned about the life of Shafi Almaz, the head of the mediation. A former merchant from Petrograd managed to save his capital in a foreign bank and began working at a trade mission in Berlin. In 1928, he renounced Soviet citizenship and became an emigrant. In Berlin, he became a homeowner, living on the income he received from rent.

Gilmanov himself is a former prisoner, worked for the owner and married his daughter. I missed my homeland greatly. Before the First World War, until he was taken to the front, he even worked as a farm laborer.

Gilmanov ran a grocery store, and through him we began to get tobacco or cigarettes for the colonel.

M. Jalil advised us to use this contact, if possible, to obtain information about the state of affairs at the fronts. We knew that Gilmanov had a receiver.

During this conversation, M. Jalil said that it was necessary to send two propagandists with lectures to the Tatar units located in Poland. “We entrust you with the following topic: tell your relatives about the origin of the Chuvash. It’s a good topic, the lecture can be prepared so as not to touch on modern politics, etc.”

I began to object: they say, I don’t know the history of the origin of the Chuvash at all, I’ve never been interested in it. Jalil responded to this: “Study literature and you will know everything. You will have access to the Berlin Library. First of all, familiarize yourself with the works of Professor Ashmarin.” Then he told me how to use the catalogue.

And he said to Yangurazov: “You are a geographer, so prepare a lecture on the geographical location of the areas where Tatars and Bashkirs live.”

At the end he added that we should look into Russian restaurants in Berlin in the evenings. There is only a sign there from the Russians, but our compatriots gather there. Your task is to sit, listen and remember who is going there.

Having received the certificate, we became “research workers.” I re-read Ashmarin’s small book in the Berlin library several times and made a synopsis. I rummaged through the works of Academician Marr. I found and read the poem “Narspi” in Pettoki’s translation.

They worked in the library until lunch, then went about their business. Most often they visited their friends in the camps. Among the new friends I could name a Chuvash man named Tolstov, who works at the Siemens plant. When it was not possible to meet a friend or a “ferloben” (bride), they had to be called through the watch. Then the certificates of “research workers” were used.

We regularly visited Russian restaurants. These establishments were visited more often by emigrants, Vlasovites, and Cossacks. A Russian choir performed there and Russian jazz played.

Once at the Troika restaurant, a tipsy old lady sat down next to us. She began to explain that she was a landowner from the Samara province. She kept asking if the estate would be returned to her if the Germans won. We sarcastically replied that they would return it, even the interest would be paid off. She began to sob.

Once we saw Ataman Shkuro - a small, frail old man with a red mustache. He walked around in full regalia with a saber on his side, accompanied by his retinue. It somewhat reminded me of a cocky rooster.

At the end of May, news came from the legion: Idel-Ural special correspondent Satarov with a group of 5-6 people fled. The investigation began. Almaz, Sultan and others went to the scene of the incident. This incident gave rise to a reorganization in the command of the legion. All the key positions were occupied by the Germans, and we became executive assistants. The Legion was reinforced with a special company, and the Gestapo department was strengthened. From this Jalil concluded: Satarov was in a hurry.

One of the variants of the "Idel-Ural" patch

The Latinized alphabet was not accepted

In June 1943, the first Allied air raid on Berlin took place. According to German newspapers, up to five hundred bombers took part in the bombing. They threw mostly incendiary bombs. The streets adjacent to the center were burning. A terrible panic arose. There is nothing left of fascist self-confidence. People prayed and cursed everyone, even Hitler. Then I realized how unstable the enemy's rear was.

Our lectures were ready, read and approved by M. Jalil. After the check, the German told us that we would soon be performing at the rest house in front of the legionnaires. But the departure did not take place. A young Chuvash, Kadyev (Kadeev - Ed.), arrived to mediate. He was summoned from somewhere by an employee of the Eastern Ministry, Benzing, who at one time defended his dissertation on the material of the Chuvash language. It turns out that they have known each other for a long time. While in the camp since 1942, Kadyev helped Benzing learn the Chuvash spoken language. The purpose of his visit is to begin editing the Chuvash section of the Idel-Ural newspaper.

A few days later, another boy arrived - Vasily Izosimov, who graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Languages. He was a sergeant major or a company clerk and was captured in 1941. He was very useful to us, he carried out our tasks carefully.

Yangurazov and I were called to Berlin. Before the trip, M. Jalil warned: after Satarov’s escape, special surveillance was established over everyone. The next day, the legionnaires were gathered in the square, where we gave our lectures. Then the oath-taking ceremony of the third and fourth battalions took place in the presence of a mullah, who sat with the Koran. After each paragraph he shouted: “Ant item” (I swear). The front rows repeated, and those in the back shouted obscenities in rhyme.

After the ceremony, a luncheon was held in honor of those who took the oath. Then a meeting took place in the Christian company - with the Chuvash, Mordovians, Udmurts and Mari. There were 150 people in the company. There I met Fedor Dmitrievich Blinov, who later bore the name of his theater nickname - Paimuk. He came from a wealthy merchant family. An economist by profession, he graduated from the Moscow Institute. Plekhanov. Terrible nationalist! Everyone was running around with the idea of ​​​​creating an independent Chuvash state. He couldn't stand Tatars. Despite the fact that he was among them for more than six months, he did not know a single Tatar word. He expressed his contempt for them openly. He insisted on transferring Christian companies under the authority of Vlasov.

By this time, a Chuvash page appeared in Idel-Ural, which was difficult to read (Kadyev and I, with the participation of Dr. Benzing, developed an alphabet based on Latin letters). About this, Jalil laughed for a long time: “You can’t think of anything better, Ivan. Let them waste paper, support typesetters, and the result is a donut hole.” And Paimuk attacked me, accusing me of mocking the people. He insisted that a separate newspaper be published in Russian. “What kind of nationalists are we if we read in Russian,” I answered him. “As for the alphabet, this issue is not subject to discussion, because it was approved by the minister himself.”

Then I received many letters from him with complaints about the newspaper, about the Tatars, about the emblem, until he came to Berlin to edit the Russian newspaper Svobodnoe Slovo.

I had a chance to see how the legionnaires were armed. We attended tactical training and a training ground. I met my fellow villager Andrei - still very young. From him I learned that all my brothers went to the front from the very first days of the war. We had a heart-to-heart talk. When asked what he should do next, he advised: upon arrival at the front, turn your weapons against the Nazis and go to your own. And he warned me: be careful “with the long elderly Chuvash” (we were talking about Paimuk).

In the evening there was an amateur concert. Some recognized me from the first prayer, came up and had a casual conversation. Gestapo servants also hung around here.

We arrived in Berlin, occupying a separate carriage. My fellow villager Andrey was also with the legionnaires. Jalil was waiting for us at the mediation office. He sat in straw hat, wearing a white shirt and writing something in a notebook.

When they told how they took the oath, what they shouted in the back rows, he burst out laughing: “That’s neat, well done…”

Then he said that the legionnaires would rest in a newly organized camp in Pomerania. They will be served by their own people, for this purpose 10 people have been sent there, among them the undesirable type Gunafin S., appointed as the head of this camp. He also advised me to meet old man Yagofarov. We were happy to learn that the German offensive in the Kursk direction had floundered and that many front and army commanders had been displaced. He ordered me to inform my camp friends about this.

In the rest home, fate brought me together with Nafikov, Anzhigitov, Khalitov. Subsequently, in June 1945, it was next to them that I had to sit on the bench of a military tribunal and, as the leader, answer for myself, for them, and for the entire activity of the nationalist organization in Berlin. Then, while in the death cell in Brest-Litovsk, forgetting that he was sentenced to death, he argued with them until he was hoarse, defending Soviet power and the collective farm system.

One day (I don’t remember the date) I came home late. The hostess said that there was a guest who had been waiting for me for 20-30 minutes and said that we were friends. From the way she described him (hefty, short, dark-haired), I realized that Jalil was waiting for me. He needed me urgently, but I couldn’t leave at 10 pm.

In the morning, Jalil came up to me as I stood at the Tempel Bridge and read the morning edition of the Berliner Zeitung. As always, he was in a black suit, a white shirt with a turn-down collar in the Russian style, without a hat. I remember his lively eyes. He was cheerful. demanded detailed story about my trip to Dresden. Then we talked about who to send there for permanent work. He ordered to tell Yangurazov that Berlin, in any case, remains with us along with the colonel. Why did the colonel get involved here? I didn't ask about this. I think they were in close contact even earlier when they were in camp.

This time we talked to him about different topics. He asked if I knew Chuvash writers and poets. I said that in my youth I personally knew Y. Ukhsai, but I did not see Khuzangai, but I know one of his poems. He admitted that I don’t know Chuvash literature well.

From the Legion's dossier

What did captivity look like? There are many cases, similar and not very similar to each other. A typical scenario: tens and hundreds of thousands of warriors found themselves in huge cauldrons of encirclement and, having lost all possibility of resistance, hungry, exhausted, without ammunition, they became a crowd. There are many photographs of those years, confiscated from the Germans: our soldiers look like a faceless mass with their hands raised or wandering under the protection of a few guards.

Many were captured in battle, being wounded, shell-shocked, unable to resist or use their weapons. Many cases are described when warriors, trying in groups to break through to their own people, were captured. Often circumstances forced commanders to disband their units so that people could fight their way out of encirclement.

There were many cases when troops found themselves deprived of the most necessary things, starving and under psychological impact the enemy went over to his side.

According to the German historian I. Hoffman, at least 80 Soviet pilots flew to the German side on their planes. They formed a group under the command of former Soviet Colonel V. Maltsev, which took part in hostilities along with three Estonian and two Latvian air squadrons.

During the war, soldiers defected to the enemy. It is believed that there were no more than 1.4-1.5% of defectors captured in the first year of the war. Subsequently, this figure decreased. Of the 38 transit camps operating in the zone of the German Army Group Center, two were designed specifically for defectors.

According to the Internet.

According to the data available in the archives, the formation of the so-called national legions from prisoners of war was typical for all camps. At first, volunteers were announced, but since there were not enough of them, they signed up forcibly, under threat of death.

This is how the battalions of the Idel-Ural Legion were formed by “volunteers”. The Germans divided the camp into two parts. In one, hundreds of prisoners were still dying from hunger and typhus. In another - the so-called half-legion - three meals a day were introduced. To join the demi-legion, neither a subscription nor even verbal consent was required. It was enough to simply move from one half of the camp to the other. Many could not stand such “visual” propaganda.

Convinced that the formation of the legion was going too slowly, the Germans simply drove Tatar, Bashkir and Chuvash prisoners from the place of formation and announced that from now on they were all “Eastern volunteers.” Following the form, the German officer, through an interpreter, asked who did not want to serve in the legion. There were also such. They were immediately taken out of action and shot in front of the others.

Lieutenant General X. Hellmich awards legionnaires

Failure

After a four-day stay in the rest home, I was urgently called to Berlin. I was supposed to be met, but I decided to get off where passenger trains usually do not stop, but this time, for some reason, the driver made an exception. The owner of the apartment upset me by telling me that my place had been searched and that she had been interrogated.

In the office where I came, they were perplexed: they said they were looking for me, they didn’t find me, but then I showed up myself.

Soon I was summoned for interrogation: when and where did I meet with Jalil, what kind of relationship did I have with Bulatov, Shabaev. The interrogation lasted four hours. After signing up that I wouldn’t tell anyone about the conversation, I was told to wait. Then the secretary came out and, quietly congratulating me, said that I was beyond suspicion. What happened to Jalil, where is he now? These questions swarmed in my head.

Later, the circumstances of the failure became known. Jalil came to the legion with leaflets, and in the evening he convened an underground meeting, which the provocateur infiltrated. The Gestapo learned about the meeting. The underground members were caught in full force: they found leaflets printed on our rotary machine. 27 people were arrested, including the provocateur.

I admit, Yangurazov and I were at a loss; we didn’t know what to do next to develop the business we had started. And questions came from the bottom: what to do, how to explain to people the destruction of the center? It was necessary to direct the work along the established channel; we had no right to stop the fight started by Jalil.

On the fourth day after the failure, we held a meeting of the remaining center. We decided to wait ten days to see how events around the arrested would develop. All grassroots organizations were instructed to temporarily cease all communications. Yangurazov was assigned to talk to Colonel Alkaev to see if he would agree to head the military mediation department, a position that should have been used to continue the work of Jalil and his friends.

Significant events took place after Jalil's arrest. Group escapes of legionnaires have become more frequent. On the Eastern Front, the 4th battalion completely went over to the Red Army, and the 3rd was surrounded and disarmed. Two more battalions had to be transferred to the category of working units; the Germans were afraid to trust the soldiers with weapons. All this was the result of Jalil’s painstaking work.

Eh, Musa, you taught me not to be afraid of death, you said: “Having passed several deaths, there is no need to tremble before the last one.”

Kurultai

A kurultai (congress) is scheduled to be convened on October 23 or 25, where the decision to create the Volga-Tatar Committee should be approved. On the recommendation of Professor F. Mende, I should be elected as a member of the committee there and assigned to head the national department.

They learned the news from the colonel: contact had been established with German anti-fascists. True, they are not communists, but social democrats. They have a press organ, and there are many Russians with them! Anti-fascists know about the misfortune that befell M. Jalil’s group.

Dozens of prisoners of war from France and Poland came to the old university Greifswald for the kurultai. All hotels are occupied by command staff of delegates. There are places reserved for privates in the barracks. The colonel and I were given a separate room in the hotel.

Unit commanders come to us one after another, many of whom I already know. They are happy to see me and get to know Alkaev. The Colonel is a very interesting, highly erudite person, at the same time simple and approachable. Knows Vatutin, Konev, Rokossovsky well. After graduating from the Academy. Frunze served as chief of staff of the division of the Kyiv Special Military District when Vlasov commanded there, then he was replaced by Konev. He was captured wounded and shell-shocked.

The Kurultai took place on October 25, 1943. Shafi Almaz made a report on the goals and objectives of the Volga-Tatar Committee. There were no others willing to come to the podium. Therefore, we immediately moved on to the election of committee members. At the suggestion of Sh. Almaz, a governing body was created of 12 people, and I was elected head of the financial department.

Memorial to the victims of Nazism on the site of the Plötzensee military prison in Berlin, where Musa Jalil and other 10 legionnaires were executed on August 25, 1944 for underground anti-Nazi activities

Visiting the old professor

At the end of March 1944, we went on a business trip to Czechoslovakia - Prague. Paimuk obtained an audience with Professor F. Mende and received permission to go to the Chuvash professor Semyon Nikolaev, an emigrant, professor at the University of Prague. He already wrote him a letter from the camp.

In Prague, the professor's house was quickly found. Semyon Nikolaevich burst into tears when he heard his native speech. The evening was spent culturally. There was a lot of dishes on the table, but there was nothing to eat. The schnapps I took with me loosened my tongues. Only then did I understand why this extravagant Paimuk, who had worked in high positions before the war, brought me here. He wanted to coordinate with the professor the options for the coat of arms of Chuvashia.

The glass did its job. But the professor guessed that there were disagreements between us and did not let the dispute flare up. He asked how the Chuvash live. I figuratively described how tractors and combines work in the fields, that schools with 10 years of education are open in all large villages, that there is no difference between Russians and Chuvashs. Paimuk tried to object, but I snapped that he did not work among the Chuvash at all.

The professor emigrated long before the revolution. I knew Lenin personally and met him in France and Switzerland. At the Prague Conference he supported the Menshevik platform, stayed here and got a job as an assistant professor at the university, and got married.

Regarding the coat of arms, he answered Paimuk: it’s gratifying that you support the Chuvash, and a coat of arms is needed when there is a state. But you fight so that this people retains its freedom and language, and the culture takes root, especially since, as Mr. Skobelev claims, there has been success in this regard, etc.

The next day I got sick. The use of schnapps had an effect. And Paimuk went to look at the city.

The professor and his wife Tessie began asking about the Soviet Union and Stalin. I won’t hide, life in captivity, communication with different people made me a politically erudite person. I didn't lose face when talking about Soviet people: they say, how the country prospered, how good and free life was, how all nations, including the Chuvash, were equal. He added that this is a typical representative of our people. Then I again saw the old man, the professor, crying.

The next day I got out of bed. Together with the professor and his wife we ​​visited the sights of Prague.

They returned to Berlin with nothing. Paimuk was angry with me for defaming him in the eyes of the professor. I reported to the bosses that the professor did not recommend abandoning the common coat of arms of Idel-Ural, since the Chuvash will become part of the Volga-Tatar state, there is no need to have their own coat of arms. They agreed with my opinion and Paimuk was shown the bullshit.

According to the Internet.

It must be admitted, paradoxical as it may seem, the well-known orders No. 270 (August 1941) and 227 (July 1942) brought “clarity” to the consciousness of many prisoners of war. Having learned that they were already “traitors” and their bridges had been burned, and also having learned the “delights” of the fascist camps, they naturally began to think about what to do. To die behind barbed wire or?.. And here propagandists, German and from former ones, are agitating to join the Ostlegions, promising normal food, uniforms and liberation from the daily debilitating camp terror.

It is known that the orders mentioned were caused by extreme crisis situations. But they, especially No. 270, pushed some of the confused, hungry people (with the help of agitators) to join the armed forces of the Germans. It must be borne in mind that the Germans subjected recruited candidates to some kind of check, giving preference to those who were able to prove their disloyalty to the Soviet regime. There were also those who slandered themselves in order to survive.

And finally, mention should be made of the executions of prisoners of war. At the same time, any political considerations were completely ignored. So, in many camps, for example, all “Asians” were shot.

When joining the “eastern troops”, prisoners of war set out for each of their own purposes. Many wanted to survive, others wanted to turn their arms against the Stalinist regime, others wanted to break out from under the power of the Germans, go over to their own people and turn their arms against the Germans.

Tokens for personnel of eastern formations were made according to the model of tokens for German soldiers. The numbers 4440 indicate the serial number, the letters Frw - rank, in in this case- Freiwillige - volunteer (i.e. private). 2/828 WOLGATAT. LEG. - 2nd company of the 828th battalion of the Volga-Tatar Legion.

Among the ruins of Berlin

Work has become easier. Total mobilization took all the camp guards to the front, their places were taken by the elderly and crippled. Ostarbeiters hide their badges, which may come in handy when the time comes to expose the fascists. You can enter the camp areas freely. The unity of people has increased. People began to slowly arm themselves.

German morale began to decline. This was especially noticeable after the unsuccessful attempt on Hitler's life.

A Polish uprising broke out in Warsaw. Anglo-American troops landed. After air raids, ruins remain in residential areas of Berlin.

Food became difficult; rations were reduced to a minimum. The black market is thriving. Leaflets of German anti-fascists began to appear on the walls more and more often.

But Hitler's machine continued to work.

Tatar nationalists began to spawn. Three of them transferred to the SS troops, receiving the rank of Orbersturmführer (senior SS lieutenants). Others marry German women. I, to some extent, had to share the fate of the latter.

Sonia Fazliakhmetova, my main contact, had to be left in Berlin at all costs. The Gestapo said: if only they were husband and wife... Sonia agrees. The marriage was soon arranged. After losing shelter, they found a basement with an iron stove and a pipe and settled down there. We lived like this until the end of March. Although Sonia became a wife, she remained a girl.

At the beginning of April, an order was received to evacuate all institutions from Berlin, including our committee. I told Yangurazov that I would not go anywhere. He grabbed the suitcases and quickly took Sonia away. We went to Charlottenburg, where Sh. Almaz used to have an apartment and where M. Jalil used to live. Everything there was destroyed, except for the garage room, where there was a bed and an iron stove. They ate by the light of the burning stove, made the bed, and after six months of marriage lay down next to each other for the first time. From that night, Sonia actually became my wife.

Troops poured into Berlin. They began to build barricades and fortifications on the streets.

As night falls, the prisoners leave to the east. I consult with Yagofarov: the most dangerous legionnaires must be locked up.

On April 28, at 10 o’clock, Soviet intelligence arrived, questioned the route, and moved on. Then the main forces began to approach, and staff officers appeared.

The general yells obscenities: what kind of establishment is this, who is the eldest? Having received a comprehensive answer, he lined up the people, looked and gave the command: take me to counterintelligence, and the rest will be escorted by the commandant’s platoon. That's how I met my people.

Monument to Musa Jalil in Kazan

Death sentence commuted to 10 years in prison

Beatings began in the counterintelligence departments of the division and the army. They only accepted testimony about hostile activity; everything else was fairy tales. M. Jalil and underground work are fiction.

Then a quick trial by the military tribunal of the 65th Army took place. The case of “traitors to the Motherland Skobelev and his group” was heard. The petition was not accepted. The only question of the court is: do you plead guilty? The answer was no. Me, Nafikov and Izmailov (or Ismailov) were sentenced to death.

But not only in the tribunal, but also in the Ministry of State Security in Cheboksary did not want to hear about anything other than treasonous activity. The verdict was final and not subject to appeal. He did not ask for pardon, although he was called three times in 24 hours. Tired, broken. I wanted to die. There would have been forces to fight the enemy, but here we had our own.

The sentence was not carried out; they were sent to the Brest-Litovsk prison. There he testified to a representative of the Supreme Military Collegium, who wrote everything down without any objections. A couple of months later, a decision was made to replace the death sentence with 10 years in prison.

From Brest I was taken to an internal MGB prison, where I spent more than a year in solitary confinement. The conditions here were no better than in the army counterintelligence. After everything that I have experienced, we can conclude: the person is very tenacious.

Yangurazov and Colonel Alkaev were tried together. They gave me 10 years without losing my rights. I met the first one in the transit prison in Orsha. He didn't recognize me. After a few remarks, everything was restored in his memory and he began to cry.

Sonia waited for me for a long time. She returned to Krasnodon. In the repatriation camps, officers pestered her and slowed down her departure. I asked her not to wait for me, because I was not sure that I would survive this nightmare. At that time, there was arbitrariness in the camps, not only on the part of the administration, but also on the part of thieves and crooks.

One by one, familiar guys from the legion and the workers' battalion began to gather in the camp: Maksimov, Aleksandrov, Izosimov and others, who were sentenced to 25 years. I pulled myself together, gathered 30 people, became a foreman and did not allow anyone to be offended.

Sonia married in 1957 and had two children. I don’t write to her and don’t let her know. I looked for Yangurazov in Ufa, but did not find him. I don’t know anything about Izosimov either.

Leonid Naumovich, are you asking if I was rehabilitated? No. I didn't write anywhere. I was afraid that I would again encounter callous people who work according to a stencil. Fate was still kind to me: I am alive and can tell people about Jalil, Alishev, Samaev and other heroes. From mouth to mouth, people passed on my stories about M. Jalil and his comrades who fought against fascism in their lair. Among the Chuvash and Tatars I am held in high esteem and respect. The latter call me “Ivan Effendi”.

I would like people like Vasily Izosimov, Tikhon Egorov, Ivan Sekeev, Alexey Tolstov, not to mention my beloved friend Saidulmulyuk Gimrailovich Yangurazov, with whom I became related, to be rehabilitated. I can say that in the difficult struggle under captivity there were people who risked more than I did. Where are they, my faithful assistants - Sonia, Raya from Donbass and Maria from Krasnodar, the Sailor (I don’t remember the name) with his fearless team.

I would like to return to the party, but, alas, the road there is now thorny.

IN last years under the guise of our underground, many write and refer to me as the main organizer of the work after Jalil. But I don’t ask myself anything.

I was indignant at the article in Pravda Vostoka (December 1968), which was written by an associate professor from Tashkent (I don’t remember his last name). There are people who attach themselves to the name of Jalil.

Now I believe that Michurin was the traitor. He was arrested along with Jalil's group. Those who ended up in a German prison did not leave without betrayal. He eventually joined the French resistance. Just think, this rat escape from a sinking ship is presented in the Pravda Vostoka newspaper as a heroic act.

I would like the Tatar comrades working on the legacy of M. Jalil not to believe such versions. The structure of the underground organization was a five-member system. Not a single person knew the members of the other five. The lower classes did not know M. Jalil as the organizer and leader of the underground.

I find it hard to believe that, having arrived at the legion accompanied by Sultan Fakhretdinov, he would have risked holding an underground meeting. And it’s hard to believe that the leaflets, so skillfully hidden among the materials prepared for the Germans, would have fallen into the hands of the Gestapo that same night. I am still inclined to think that Jalil was betrayed by one of the authoritative persons whom he trusted, hoping for his education and army rank.

How Michurin sucked up to Colonel Alkaev, who we needed after Musa’s execution. But he was not very happy to be in a close relationship with him. He warned that this man had very dubious character traits.

I watched it the other day Feature Film"Moabite Notebooks". The outline of the plot is true. But there are embellishments, a lot of inaccurate information about Jalil’s stay in Berlin. His friends who helped him work in the lair of the fascists, who formed the core of the underground, are not shown at all. Much attention is paid to everyday life during the stay with Sh. Almaz, as well as to the beautiful lady who was not there. Jalil and Alishov refused to edit the newspaper, but they collaborated with the editors, otherwise they would not have been left free. The work of the poet among the ostarbeiters is not shown at all. Therefore, the picture turned out to be sketchy; many do not even understand why he was executed.

Prepared

Valery ALEXIN

Muslim Legion "Idel-Ural" and Belarusian partisans

The transition of the 825th battalion of the Idel-Ural legion to the side of the Belarusian partisans

By now, much has been written about Nazi Germany’s attempts to attract the eastern peoples of the USSR to military and political cooperation. Among them, the emphasis was placed on the Volga Tatars, the Nazis’ interest in whom was not accidental. Back in the First World War, Germany and Turkey, being allies, tried to attract the Turks to fight against allied forces Entente and Tsarist Russia 1.

During the Second World War, the turn of the ideologists of National Socialism towards the Turkic nationalities of Russia occurred at the end of 1941. Most researchers explain this by a change in the military situation on the Eastern Front. Defeat near Moscow major losses The fascist German troops caused an acute shortage of manpower. In addition, the war has clearly become protracted. It was then that the Reich Minister for the Occupied Territories of the East, Alfred Rosenberg, suggested that Hitler use prisoners of war of different nationalities of the Soviet Union against his own homeland.

In pursuance of Hitler's directive, during 1942, under the leadership of the Eastern Ministry, a number of “national committees” were created: Volga-Tatar, Turkestan, Crimean Tatar, Georgian, Kalmyk, etc. One of their main tasks was the creation in contact with the German high command national military formations - legions.

In March 1942, Hitler signed an order to create the Georgian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Turkestan and Mountain (from the peoples of Dagestan) legions. The order to create the Volga-Tatar Legion (the legionnaires themselves called it “Idel-Ural”) was signed in August 1942.

The training of command staff of national formations was carried out through a special reserve camp of the Eastern Ministry of Wustrau, located 60 km from Berlin. Here the Germans gathered prisoners of war of different nationalities of the USSR who had higher and secondary education. After appropriate indoctrination and security checks, they were enrolled in the legion.

The text of the oath read:

“I am ready in the ranks of the German army to use all my strength to liberate my Motherland, and therefore I agree to join the legion. By this, I consider the oath I previously took in the Red Army to be invalid. I undertake to unquestioningly obey the orders of my superiors."

Recruitment of persons suitable for service in the Volga-Tatar Legion was carried out in special prisoner-of-war camps in Poland, where Volga Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvashs, Maris, Mordovians and Udmurts were kept.

Such camps were Seltsy (Sedlce), Demblin, Kieltsy, Holm, Konski, Radom, Czestochowa, stations Krushino, Jedlino, Veseloe. The base camp for the formation of battalions of the Idel-Ural legion was the camp in Yedlino. In total in 1942-1943. Seven combat battalions of the Volga-Tatar National Legion were formed (Nos. 825 to 831), as well as engineer, headquarters or reserve and some work battalions. According to various sources, from eight to ten thousand legionnaires served in them.

Of all the above units, the fate of the 825th battalion in connection with its transition to the side of the partisans has been studied in most detail. However, in the literature, when describing the details of the uprising in the battalion, serious factual errors, inaccuracies and arbitrary interpretations.

Firstly, in a number of publications in past years there was an intention to connect the uprising in the 825th battalion with the name of Musa Jalil4. Only in recent years have studies appeared that prove that the uprising was prepared without the participation of the poet-hero. Clandestine work in the Volga-Tatar Legion began long before M. Jalil had the opportunity to join it5.

On the contrary, according to available documentary evidence, this uprising had a strong influence on the poet and became a powerful incentive for his involvement in anti-fascist work.

The second discrepancy concerns the number of partisans who defected to the side. Figures are quoted from 506 to 900-930 people, based on the testimony of partisan commanders. Military historian M. Garayev cites data from the German field police, according to which 557 legionnaires went over to the partisans 6.

Such discrepancies in the coverage of the transition of the 825th battalion to the side of the partisans forced the author to resort to the original source. Thanks to the Naberezhnye Chelny local historian S. Lurie, we came into our hands with a report from the commissar of the 1st partisan detachment, Isak Grigorievich Grigoriev, to the commissar of the 1st Vitebsk partisan brigade, Vladimir Andreevich Khabarov, about the admission of personnel of the 825th battalion to the detachment, dated March 5, 1943. I

It comes from a direct participant in the events, endowed with certain authority and written immediately after the event at the request of a higher commander.

This allows us to conclude that the report of Commissar I. Grigoriev is the most objective document of all describing the fact of the 825th battalion going over to the side of the partisans. All other documents - both Soviet and German - appeared later and, in our opinion, are not without opportunism.

At the same time, it is necessary to supplement the picture of the transition described by Commissar Grigoriev with some comments about the situation before and after the uprising of the legionnaires. They are made possible by information obtained during the author’s personal conversations in 2004 with the former intelligence officer of the “Alexey’s Brigade” (A.F. Domukalov) Nina Ivanovna Dorofeenko, as well as information from documents of the partisan underground of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Minsk and the Museum of M. F. Shmyrev in Vitebsk.

After the successful offensive of the 4th Shock Army during the Battle of Moscow in 1941-1942. In the north-west of the Vitebsk region, a gap appeared in the front line, called the “Vitebsk Gate”. They became the main artery connecting the mainland with the partisan detachments of Belarus and the Baltic states.

In 1942 - early 1943 In the Surazh-Vitebsk region, behind enemy lines, there was a vast partisan zone, on the territory of which collective farms operated, newspapers were published, and a hospital operated.

The partisan brigades that grew out of the detachment of “Father Minaya” burned fascist garrisons and supplied the army with valuable intelligence information. The German command could not tolerate this situation and from time to time sent punitive expeditions to the “Vitebsk region”. One of these expeditions, called “Ball Lightning,” with the involvement of the 82nd Army Division and punitive detachments, was organized in early February 1943. The enemy, numbering 28 thousand people, managed to encircle a 6,000-strong partisan group in the Vitebsk region.

Cossack detachments, consisting of Ukrainian nationalists. To replace them, the 825th battalion arrived in the villages of Senkovo, Suvari and Gralevo along the banks of the Western Dvina on February 20. The Biryulin residents held the defense on the other side of the river, which did not separate the warring sides for long...

According to some information, the 825th battalion was supposed to enter battle within three days. This was probably one of the weighty arguments that prompted the partisan command to accept the legionnaires’ offer to go over to the side of the partisans.

The partisans themselves were afraid that such a large and well-armed army would come to them. military unit: in the event of provocation, the partisans faced inevitable defeat, since M. Biryulin’s brigade consisted of only 500 people.

But with a positive outcome, they received significant reinforcements of men, weapons and ammunition.

It was also unknown how the legionnaires would behave after the transition - the Cossack punishers who preceded them were particularly cruel to the civilian population and partisans. Therefore, it was a big risk on the part of M. Biryulin and G. Sysoev.

The transition of the 825th battalion to the side of the partisans was of great importance.

It disrupted the general course of the German offensive against the partisans in the Vitebsk region and complicated their position on the right flank, where the enemy received unexpected reinforcements in manpower and weapons. 7 The Germans began to fear sending legionnaires to the eastern occupied regions.

Immediately after the uprising, the 826th battalion, ready to be sent to the Eastern Front, was redeployed to Holland, to the Breda area. The news of the success of the uprising spread widely among other legions and undoubtedly intensified the struggle of the anti-fascist underground.

On February 28, 1943, M. Biryulin’s detachment broke through the encirclement of the Nazis and dealt them a crushing blow from the rear in the Shchelbovo forests. At the same time, former legionnaires did not spare themselves in battle. This is how researchers of the history of the Vitebsk underground described this episode: “In the area of ​​the village. Popovichi detachment destroyed 6 fascist tanks, a car and captured several Nazi soldiers.

In this operation, the partisans I. Timoshenko, S. Sergienko, I. Khafizov, I. Yusupov and A. Sayfutdinov especially distinguished themselves. The fighter N. Garnaev and the Komsomol organizer of the extermination battalion created from the Tatars, Akhmet Ziyatdinovich Galeev, showed great heroism. The Komsomol organization filed a petition with the Surazh underground Komsomol district committee to give him a recommendation to join the party. The partisan company under the command of Kh. Latypov, consisting of Tatars, was a threat to the Nazis.”8

When studying the history of the uprising and the further fate of the former legionnaires, attention is drawn to the fact that at present the names of only some of them have been established. The fate of the majority remains unknown.

Muslim Legion "Idel-Ural" and Belarusian partisans

Several years ago, a group of researchers, which included the author of this publication, S. Lurie, R. Mustafin and some former KGB employees of the Republic of Tatarstan, tried to find documentary traces of the remains of the 825th battalion dating back to the period after February 23, 1943.

The former commander of the 1st Vitebsk Partisan Brigade, M. Biryulin, in a conversation with S. Lurie then explained that since the Germans repeatedly tried to send agents to the partisans under the guise of escaped prisoners of war, the partisan leaders at first did not fully trust the rebels.

In this regard, it was ordered to distribute them among detachments of several brigades: 1st Vitebsk, 1st Belarusian brigade them. Lenin Komsomol, etc. Therefore, trying to find former legionnaires as part of these partisan formations, we turned to the book “Partisan formations of Belarus during the Great Patriotic War (June 1941 - July 1944)”, which provides data on the national composition of some partisan units brigades at the time of their connection with Red Army units 9:

	1st Vitebsk Brigade	Brigade named after Lenin Komsomol	1st Belarusian Brigade
total partisans of them:	247	363	756
– Belarusians	143	284	486
– Russians	81	60	170
– Ukrainians	13	3	27
– other nationalities	10	14	69
nationality not established		2	4

Even if we count that the 99 people included in the columns of the table as “other nationalities” and “nationality not established” include Tatars, Bashkirs and Chuvashs, then where are the remaining at least four hundred former prisoners of war legionnaires?

In a conversation with S. Lurie, M. Biryulin gave the following explanations.

Firstly, former prisoners of war, unlike partisans from local residents, did not know the area well where the battles with punitive expeditions of the Nazis took place, they were less oriented in it, so they often died in swamps or were ambushed by punitive forces.

Secondly, it was not possible to change everyone’s clothes; they fought on the side of the partisans in their gray-green German overcoats, and many local residents and partisans from neighboring detachments could kill them, mistaking them for Germans.

Thirdly, some detachment commanders, who at first did not really trust the rebels, sent them into the first ranks of the attackers during the offensive, and during the retreat they left them to cover the withdrawal of the main forces of the detachment.

All this led to the fact that losses among former legionnaires were significantly greater than among local partisans.

In addition, the lightly wounded were treated in their detachment, and the seriously wounded were transferred across the front line to army hospitals by plane. After being treated in hospitals, local partisans, as a rule, returned to their units, while former prisoners of war were sent ( for the most part after checking in filtration camps) in part of the active army, most often in penal battalions.

According to the Belarusian researcher A. Zaerko, the 825th battalion was disbanded after going over to the partisans. Its personnel joined the 1st Vitebsk, 1st Belarusian partisan brigades and the “Alexey’s brigade”. The bulk of the Tatars remained in G. Sysoev’s detachment 10.

In a memo from the organizer of the Vitebsk Regional Party Committee, K. I. Shemelis, it was reported that a total of 476 legionnaires were disarmed. Of these, 356 people were sent to the detachments of the 1st Belarusian Brigade under the command of Ya. Z. Zakharov, 30 people remained in the 1st Vitebsk Brigade M. F. Biryulin. A separate Tatar company 11 was formed in the detachment of G.I. Sysoev.

The National Archives of the Republic of Belarus contains an interesting document describing the fate of the legionnaires who ended up in the partisan “Alexey’s brigade”. Judging by it, in February-March 1943, during the punitive operation “Ball Lightning”, part of the “Alexey’s brigade” was pushed out of the front line by the Nazis.

Among these partisans were former soldiers and officers of the 825th battalion. Many of them, if not all, were arrested by SMERSH.

On June 22, 1943, there were 31 people from the 825th battalion in special purpose camp No. 174 in Podolsk. Their fate is unknown 12.

An important explanation was given by one of the veterans of the KGB of the Republic of Tatarstan, retired colonel L. N. Titov. According to his testimony, in the summer of 1943, army units and partisan formations behind enemy lines received an order from SMERSH to “remove” from their ranks former prisoners of war who had crossed over from the Russian liberation army(ROA), national legions and other military formations of Nazi Germany.

Legionnaires from partisan detachments were sent by plane to the mainland, where they ended up in special NKVD camps.

During the interrogations, detailed lists of legionnaires were compiled, which were used by local NKVD authorities to track soldiers returning home. These individuals remained under the control of the security authorities until the early 70s. Besides, in post-war years State security agencies were searching for legionnaires who hid their service in the Volga-Tatar Legion and other collaboration units.

Thus, one of the documents compiled by Tatarstan security officers in 1951 provides a list of 25 legionnaires (including four who served in the 825th battalion) who were arrested, convicted and held in special camps of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs 13.

Currently, out of 10 thousand participants in the Idel-Ural legion, about two dozen people have been officially rehabilitated. There is still a difficult search ahead for biographies and documents regarding the organizers of the uprising in the 825th battalion: a doctor from Chuvashia, Grigory Volkov, who called himself Zhukov, unit commanders Rashid Tadzhiev, Alexander Trubkin, Khusain Mukhamedov, Akhmet Galeev, Anatoly Mutallo, I.K. Yusupov, V. Kh. Lutfullin, Kh. K. Latypov and others, as well as intelligence officer Nina Buinichenko, who left Belarus for Vilnius after the war. The feat they accomplished in February 1943 has not yet been adequately celebrated.

I The original of this document is kept in the Vitebsk Regional Museum of M. F. Shmyrev. S. Lurie rewrote it in 1979, when he was in Vitebsk as the leader of a search party of students from Naberezhnye Chelny Secondary School No. 28, who were making a trip to the places of partisan glory in Belarusian Polesie.

NOTES:

1. See: Gainetdinov R. B. Turko-Tatar political emigration: beginning of the twentieth century - 30s. – Naberezhnye Chelny, 1977. – pp. 55-59.

2. Mustafin R. A. In the footsteps of a broken song. – Kazan, 2004. – P. 82.

3. Archive of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Tatarstan, f. 109, op. 12, d. 9, l. 29-92.

4. Mustafin R. In the footsteps of a broken song. – Kazan, 1981 – 335 p.; Zabirov I. Jalil and the Jalilites. – Kazan, 1983 – 144 p.; Kashshaf G. According to the will of Mussa Jalil. – Kazan, 1984 – 224 p.; Bikmukhametov R. Musa Jalil. Personality. Creation. Life. – M., 1989 – 285 p.

5. Cherepanov M. Were the legionnaires Jalili // Kazan Vedomosti. – 1993. – February 19; Akhtamzyan A. In memory of participants in the resistance to Nazism during the Great Patriotic War // Tatar News. – 2004. – No. 8 (121); Mustafin R. A. In the footsteps of a broken song. – Kazan, 2004. – 399 p.

6. Garayev M. Ours! The transition of the Tatar battalion to the side of the Belarusian partisans // Tatarstan. – 2003. – No. 7.

7. See: Gilyazov I.A. On the other side. Collaborators from the Volga-Ural Tatars during the Second World War. – Kazan, 1998. – P. 107-108.

8. Pakhomov N.I., Dorofeenko N.I., Dorofeenko N.V. Vitebsk underground / 2nd edition revised and expanded. – Minsk, 1974. – P. 124.

9. See: Partisan formations of Belarus during the Great Patriotic War (June 1941 - July 1944). – Minsk, 1983. – 281 p.

10. Zaerko A. The illusory nature of the second oath: “Turkic volunteers” in the forests of Belarus // Political interlocutor. – 1991. – No. 12. – P. 28.

11. National Archives Republic of Belarus (NA RB), f. 3793, op. 1, d. 83, l. 87.

12. NA RB, f. 3500, op. 2, bundle 12, d. 48, l. 128-128 vol.

13. Archive of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Tatarstan, f. 109, op. 12, d. 9, l. 120-130.

Report from the commissar of the 1st partisan detachment I. Grigoriev to the commissar of the 1st Vitebsk partisan brigade V. Khabarov on the admission of personnel of the 825th battalion of the Volga-Tatar Legion to the detachment

March 5, 1943

Report from the detachment commissar I. G. Grigoriev to the brigade. According to your instructions, I inform you about the dissolution and transfer to our detachment [from] the Volga-Tatar Legion of the 825th battalion.

The Volga-Tatar Legion consisted of our Tatar prisoners of war, captured by German troops in 1941 and early 1942 in the cities of Bialystok, Grodno, Lvov, Kerch, Kharkov. Until May 1942, they were in prisoner-of-war camps and endured hunger and atrocities at the hands of German soldiers and officers.

On June 19-20, 1942, the Germans began to concentrate Tatars from all prisoner of war camps into the mountains. Sedlice, after which they were sent under heavy security to the mountains. Radom, they were divided into 3 groups of 900 people, i.e. into 3 battalions.

Hitler's envoy, Lieutenant General of the Eastern Legions, gave a speech:

“Hitler frees you Tatars from captivity, creates good conditions for you and creates a legion, which is tasked with liberating his Tatar Republic from the Bolsheviks... The power of the Bolsheviks was completely destroyed by German troops, we arm you and send you to study. After your studies, you, the liberated people, must clear your national territory from the Bolshevik partisans hiding in the forests and swamps who are harming our army.”

From July 1942 to February 1943, they underwent combat training in combating partisans. There was an exam at the beginning of February. Those who distinguished themselves more in their studies were appointed commanders of platoons and squads, and Major Zeks (actually Tsyok. - G.R.) was assigned to this battalion. This legion was sent to the 82nd division, located in Vitebsk.

On February 19, intelligence officer of the secret group “B”, partisan Nina Buinichenko, reported that the Volga-Tatar Legion of the 825th Battalion to fight partisans in the Surazh-Vitebsk-Gorodok triangle had arrived from Radom. This battalion will be located in the villages of Senkovo, Suvar and Gralevo in the Vitebsk region (where several companies of partisans were located).

On February 20, I took two fighters from reconnaissance and at night, making my way through the Dvina to the village of Senkovo, I gave the task to an illegal partisan group led by Nina Buinichenko: when this legion arrives, find out their moral state, outline the situation at the fronts.

If the result is positive, send hostages to the detachment, preferably officers. On February 21, 1943, this battalion was located in the above villages.

In the house of our illegal partisan Nina Buynichenko, a doctor from the Zhukov battalion settled down, with whom frank conversations quickly began. Zhukov told her that he had an idea to go over to the side of the Red Army in the mountains. Radome.

He has 6 people from the command staff who are also thinking about the transition and named their positions and surnames: adjutant to the battalion commander Major Zeks - Tadzhiev, headquarters company commander Mukhamedov, assistant commander Latypov, platoon commanders Isupov (Yusupov . - G.R.), Galiev, Trubkin and (platoon commander) their economic unit Rakhimov.

After these conversations, Zhukov asked Nina to speed up communication with the partisans. Nina advised Zhukov to send four Tatars to our detachment for negotiations, and also advised him to take Mikhalchenko, a resident of the village of Suvara, as a guide, dressing him in their uniform so as not to leave any traces.

Zhukov listened attentively and quickly went to his comrades with whom he had a conversation.

At 19 o'clock (probably February 22 - G.R.), having arrived home, Zhukov informed Nina that Trubkin, Lutfulin, Galiev and Fakhrutdinov had been sent with Mikhalchenko, dressed in a German uniform. He warned Nina that if the partisans fired at them, she would bear personal responsibility. Nina replied that I had agreed on the meeting place with the detachment commissar Grigoriev, they would be met. Our ambush at the appointed place met the representatives and took them to the detachment headquarters.

The representatives asked for one rocket, indicating: “Received well. Start preparations." The rocket was given.

The headquarters of our detachment assigned the representatives the task of destroying all German officers and traitors from the Tatars, withdrawing all personnel with full weapons, convoys and ammunition. After the destruction of the headquarters, pull up (personnel) to the bank of the Western Dvina and the rubbish dumps of the Ruba plant, give 3 red flares, which would indicate: “Ready for the transition, accept”, 3 signals with a flashlight: “white, red, green”, which means: “ The representative went to the middle of the Western Dvina, where I was supposed to meet him.

Two of the Tatars - Trubkin and Lutfulin - were left hostages in their detachment, and Galiev and Fukhrutdinov were sent back to the legion to organize and carry out assigned tasks. At 11 o'clock at night one white rocket was fired in the village of Suvar, according to the agreement, which meant: “Returned safely. We begin to destroy the Germans."

We reported this to the brigade headquarters, Biryulin, and asked to send a representative. Anashchenko and the chief of staff Kritsky, who were present and observed this process, were expelled... While observing their operation to destroy the Germans and traitor Tatars, explosions of grenades, machine-gun bursts and single shots from rifles and machine guns were heard. It was the Tatars who completed our task. At 0.30. nights received signals with a flashlight - white, red and green, according to the agreement.

The commander settled in an ambush with a group of partisans, and I, with the company commander Streltsov, headed along the Dvina towards Ruba to meet the representatives. We met Fakhrutdinov with his two comrades, with the question: “What is your rank?” I answered: “The commissar of the Sysoev partisan detachment is Grigoriev.”

“The task is completed. They killed 74 Germans, three company commanders - Suryapov, the commander of the 2nd company Minozhleev and the commander of the 3rd company Merulin. The personnel with weapons, transport and ammunition will be tightened. Please accept.

At the same time, I inform you that our headquarters driver turned out to be a traitor and secretly took Major Zex in a car from (Suvarey, Senkovo?), whom they wanted to capture alive and deliver to you. In Senkovo, battalion doctor Zhukov, Tazhdiev (or Tadzhiev) and Rakhimov were arrested, who were tasked with destroying the Germans (in Senkovo?). Please speed up the appointment, I’m wounded, please provide assistance.”

Streltsov was ordered to be taken to the first aid station for assistance, and he himself met the gun crews and personnel. On the way, he held a small meeting and informed them that they were joining the partisans for now, with the intention of transporting them beyond the front line.

The meeting was very joyful, many laughed with joy, and some cried, remembering the conditions, the torment they experienced while in captivity, hugging and kissing me, shouting that we are again with our own, comrade is with us. Stalin, etc.

Based on the order of the brigade commander, those who arrived on the territory of our detachment were forced to disarm, the personnel were sent to the disposal of the brigade in the territory of the peat plant, and some of the weapons were sent to the economic part of the brigade. Obviously, brigade commander Comrade. Biryulin proceeded from the fact that our brigade, especially our detachment, had been fighting since February 14 with an expedition against the partisans, and an excessive concentration of people could lead to undesirable results, and besides, they were in German uniform.

There was no desire in the detachment to disarm, since the detachment headquarters had the intention of putting them into battle, but they had to carry out the order of their superior comrade.

506 people with weapons arrived at the territory where our detachment was located: 45 mm cannons - 3 pieces, heavy machine guns - 20, battalion mortars - 4, company mortars - 5, light machine guns - 22, rifles - 340, pistols - 150, rocket launchers - 12, binoculars - 30, horses with full equipment, ammunition and food - 26.

Later they arrived in separate small groups.

Following the instructions of the brigade commander, Comrade. Biryulina, we have disarmed the personnel and placed them at the disposal of the brigade.

The weapons, in addition to guns and heavy machine guns, were sent to the brigade's maintenance unit. After talking at headquarters, the detachments decided to take responsibility for part of the personnel, gun crews and machine gunners of heavy machine guns, which were used to fight the expedition against the partisans. It should be noted that [they] fought exceptionally bravely in battles, and many of them distinguished themselves in battles and retained their weapons.

The brigade sent personnel to all detachments and brigades located in the triangle of Vitebsk, Surazh, Gorodok.

3 officers were sent to the rear of the Soviet Union, to the headquarters of the partisan movement, of which I inform you.

Commissar of the partisan detachment Grigoriev.

From the funds of the Vitebsk Regional Museum of M. F. Shmyrev. Copy.

ADDENDUM 1

Let us list some approaches that were used by the German military in working with soldiers of the Muslim Legion. The general principles of the work are listed in the post-war memoirs of General von Heigendorff: “The volunteers from the eastern nations were consistent Muslims who could not be supporters of Bolshevism. We supported Islam, and this was manifested in the following:

1. Selection of suitable personnel and their training in the mullah schools in Göttingen and Dresden-Blausewitz;

2. Creation of the positions of chief mullah and mullah at all headquarters, starting with the headquarters of the commander of the Eastern Legions;

3. Isolation of mullahs special signs differences (turban, crescent);

4. Distribution of the Koran as a talisman;

5. Allocating time for prayers (if this was possible due to the service);

6. Exemption from service on Fridays and during Muslim holidays;

7. Taking into account Muslim prescriptions when creating menus;

8. Providing mutton and rice during festivals;

9. Location of Muslim graves using a compass to Mecca, inscriptions on the graves were accompanied by an image of a crescent;

10. Attentive and tactful attitude towards other people’s faith.”

Von Haigendorff wrote that he always demanded from his subordinates a tactful attitude towards Islam:

“...do not show curiosity and do not take photographs of Muslims during prayer, do not drink alcohol in front of them or offer it to Muslims, do not have rude conversations about women in front of them.”

He believed that “a true Christian will always find a common language with a true Muslim” and complained that in communicating with Muslims, “alas, a lot of mistakes were made, which gave rise to distrust in the latter to the German people generally".

It was in the spring, and especially in the summer and autumn of 1944, that the leadership of the SS actively became involved in the cause of religious propaganda, which, as mentioned above, to a certain extent was a consequence of disagreements and conflicts between various authorities and leaders of Germany at that time. True, it cannot be said unequivocally that until that time the SS stood aloof from these problems.

SS Chief Himmler clearly sought to demonstrate to everyone that at this critical moment it was he and the SS who were in every respect capable of better than, for example, Rosenberg and his Eastern Ministry, organize work with eastern peoples, including the best use of the Muslim factor in German interests. Moreover, alarming information for Germany began to arrive from abroad that the Soviet Union was very actively engaged in religious propaganda among Muslims in the Middle East.

“The Soviet embassy in Cairo attracts many Muslims because its walls are decorated with sayings from the Koran. It uses general Islamic ideas, linking them with Bolshevik and nationalist ideas.

As opposed to the Higher Islamic School in Cairo (meaning Al-Azhar University. - I.G.) the Bolsheviks reopened an Islamic educational institution in Tashkent. They are, to some extent, trying to revive the ideas of Lenin, who once already tried to use Enver Pasha to launch a pan-Islamic assault under the leadership of the Bolsheviks,” Ambassador Langmann reported to the Foreign Ministry on June 15, 1944. The SS took up the matter seemingly thoroughly: already on April 18, 1944, the SS leadership ordered 50 copies of the Koran translated into German from one of the Leipzig libraries (apparently for study).

The SS provided for the creation of an Eastern Turkic military unit led by the German Muslim SS Standartenführer Harun el-Rashid. And one of the main means for raising the religious self-awareness of Muslims was seen as the activity of the so-called schools of military field mullahs, organized at that time.

The first courses for training mullahs (they were not yet called a school) opened in June 1944 at the University of Göttingen, supported by the Islamic Institute.

The course was led by the famous Orientalist, Professor Berthold Spuhler; in matters of ritual, he was assisted by the above-mentioned Lithuanian Mufti Jakub Shinkevich and the Chief Mullah of the Turkestan National Committee Inoyatov. According to I. Hoffmann, by the end of 1944 there were six graduations of students, each of them studied on courses for about three weeks. Even then, in 1944, Professor Spuhler compiled his own memos about each course - these data are used below for a brief description of the courses in Göttingen.

Among the students were both persons who had already been appointed mullahs in various military formations, and those who were just beginning their religious careers. The courses studied the Koran and commentaries on it, the life of the Prophet Muhammad, some of the most important issues of Muslim teaching, and the history of the Turkic peoples.

Graduates-mullahs had to demonstrate during their studies their preparedness to conduct worship services, lead the necessary ceremonies (funerals, religious festivals, etc.), as well as the ability to resist “hostile ideological machinations.”

The main language in the courses was “Turkic in its various dialects” (as defined by Spuhler), but most often Uzbek, partially Tajik and Russian. At the same time, sometimes there were difficult situations with some representatives Caucasian nationalities(Avars, Chechens, etc.) who did not understand Russian or any Turkic language.

There were difficulties, according to Shpuler, with ensuring religious literature- for the listeners there was, for example, no text of the Koran translated into Russian or Turkic languages.

Only at the end of 1944, through the efforts of the general of volunteer formations, was it organized to distribute to all Muslim legionnaires a miniature Koran as a talisman, which in a tin box could be worn on the chest and which could only be read with a magnifying glass. Mullahs who passed the final exams received the appropriate insignia - turbans decorated with a crescent and a star.

Joachim Hoffmann believes that “the many-sided efforts of the Germans to strengthen the Muslim faith in the eastern legions should have generally borne fruit”, that documents indicate: “the mullahs sent to the formations, as a rule, showed themselves to be particularly convinced opponents of Bolshevism.”

ADDENDUM 2

Lists of former military personnel of the 825th battalion of the Volga-Ural Legion

In a memo to the Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement dated March 3, 1943, brigade commander Ya. Zakharov wrote:

“The growth of a partisan brigade mainly occurs:

1) at the expense of the population of Surazh, Vitebsk and Gorodok districts;

3) at the expense of prisoners of war leaving German camps”3.

Further, Y. Zakharov notes that the human reserve from the local population was practically exhausted by 1943. The replenishment that arrived in his brigade from among the former servicemen of the 825th battalion played a very important role and served as a resource for the formation of several new brigade detachments.

At the end of October 1943, a new, third, punitive operation of the Nazis against the partisans began. Zakharov’s brigade was in the center. Within two weeks, the brigade's detachments were completely cut off from their partisan bases and pushed east, closer to the front.

The brigade commander Ya. Zakharov urgently flew to Moscow, where Central headquarters The partisan movement (TsShPD) planned a large-scale operation to break through the partisan formations of the Vitebsk zone to their own, to reunite with units of the Red Army. Y. Zakharov was appointed commander of the partisan group. On October 23, 1943, after 19 days of fighting, as a result of a swift and unexpected maneuver for the Germans, detachments of the 1st Belorussian and 2nd Vitebsk, named after Lenin Komsomol and named after Kutuzov partisan brigades united with units of the Red Army in the area of ​​operation of the 334th rifle division, formed in 1941 in Kazan and subsequently received the name “Vitebsk” for the liberation of the named city.

In Zakharov's brigade of 711 people, payroll 461 people emerged from the breakthrough. 318 fighters were sent to the Surazh district military registration and enlistment office for further service in the ranks of the Red Army (including 54 former soldiers of the 825th battalion who fought in the partisans)4, 120 people were left to restore Soviet and party work in the liberated areas of the Vitebsk region.

In November 1943, the 1st Belarusian Partisan Brigade was disbanded, the detachment of A. Gurko III, replenished from other brigades, numbering 248 people (including about a dozen Tatars) was left behind enemy lines in the Kholopnichensky district of the Borisov region and operated until the summer of 1944.

In the brigade of Alexei Damukalov (“Alexei”) IV, the names of the detachments were numbered and personal. Tatars - mostly specialists (scouts, machine gunners) - served in detachments No. 4 "Death to Enemies", No. 6 "Sailor", No. 9 "Victory", No. 15 "Falcon", No. 16 "Komsomolets", No. 17 "Avenger" , No. 36 “Marat”. After connecting with units of the Red Army, part of the fighters of the Alexei brigade was sent behind enemy lines to the Borisov region as part of A. Gurko’s detachment.

The Lenin Komsomol brigade operated in the Surazhsky and Gorodoksky districts. This was one of the first partisan formations in the Vitebsk region. Its commander, Daniil Raitsev, was appointed to this position already in July 1941. There were few Tatars in the brigade.

After joining the Red Army units in November 1943, five former legionnaires were sent for further military service at the disposal of the Surazh RVK, one fighter was sent to serve in the Vitebsk NKVD regiment. D. Raitsev himself went on a short vacation to Tatarstan, where in the village. His wife Maria, evacuated from Belarus in 1941, was in Yutaza, Bavlinsky district.

D. F. Raitsev lived long life and kept almost the entire archive of the partisan brigade. Recently, the widow of a partisan handed over documents to the Vitebsk Regional Museum of the Hero of the Soviet Union M. Shmyrev, which are now being analyzed by specialists, and, as the museum’s management promises, interesting materials regarding our compatriots will be made public.

Now our search and research group is processing lists of former servicemen of the 825th battalion, identified in the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus in December 2009 and transferred to us thanks to the goodwill of the Department of Archives and Records Management of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus and the invaluable assistance of the staff of the National Archive of the Republic of Belarus.

Today we are publishing only the first, largest of the newly identified lists of our compatriots enrolled in the detachment of G. Kurmelev of the brigade of Y. Zakharov. It is based on a list of the detachment compiled in July 1943. Some information was clarified using a later list compiled on the basis of the first in November of the same year. If there is a discrepancy in the data, information from both lists is given.

The following information is published about each person: last name, first name, patronymic (the latter is not indicated for everyone); year of birth; nationality; education; partisanship; Place of Birth; where and what he did before the war (for some - with an indication of the pre-war salary for the position held); military rank; date of joining the partisan detachment; position held in the detachment; home address; where he got into the detachment from.

In square brackets are given either missing parts of the text, or, if possible, clarified names of regions, districts, settlements. Double-readable surnames, first names and patronymics (the lists were compiled not from personal documents, but mainly from the words of the respondents, so mistakes by partisan clerks in writing unpronounceable Tatar names and surnames were inevitable) and discrepancies in the lists are given in parentheses.

Titles and names that require clarification are given with a question mark.

We hope that the published list will provide a documentary basis for further work military commissariats and municipalities to search for relatives and bring to them information about the unknown heroes of the last war, who undoubtedly committed a feat in Belarusian Polesie back in February 1943.

Published in abridged form.

NOTES:

1. Gainetdinov R. Transition of the 825th battalion of the Idel-Ural legion to the side of the Belarusian partisans // Gasyrlar Avaza - Echo of Centuries. – 2005. – No. 1. – P. 23-30; It's him. New documents about the transition of the 825th battalion of the Volga-Ural Legion to the side of the partisans // Gasyrlar avazy - Echo of centuries. – 2009. – No. 1. – P. 58-72.
2. National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, f. 1336, op. 1, d. 109, l. 110 rev.
3. Ibid., f. 1450, op. 5, d. 3, l. 165.
4. Ibid., no. 5, l. 104-112.

List of personnel of the partisan detachment G. S. Kurmelev VI
1st Belarusian Partisan Brigade Ya. Z. Zakharov VII (1943 and 1944) VIII

Detachment No. 1 Comrade Kurmeleva

1. Shoistanov Count (Garif?) Togatynovich- 1911 [year of birth], Tat[arin], [education] - 4th grade, b[es]p[party]; [place of birth] - B[ashkir] Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Kandr[inskiy] district [ayo]IX, village Kakhovskaya [Kaznakovka?]; [where and by whom did he work before the war] - on a collective farm, collective farmer; [rank] - private, [time of joining the detachment] - 02.26.43, [military specialty] - private; [home address] - Bash[kir] Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Kandrin[skiy] district, Star. village council, Kakhovskaya village; [from where he arrived in the detachment] - [from] captivity, disappeared [without] news 03/6/43 [year]X.

2. Dovlekaev Efim Stepanovich- 1910, Tat[arin], small [lo]gr[amotny] (1st grade[ass]), b[es]p[party]; Stalingrad[hellish] region XI, Leninsk[y] district, Bakhtiyarovsky village soviet, on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.26.43, private; Stal[ingrad] region, Leninsky district, Bakhtiyarovsky village council; from captivity, went missing on March 6, 1943.

3. Nigmadzyanov Gazyad- 1911, Tat[arin], small [lo]gr[amotny] (1st grade[ass]), b[es]p[party]; Kazan region [TASSR], Kokmor [Kukmorsky] district [ayo]nXII, village of Shemordan, Shemordan, assistant driver with a salary of 400 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Kazan region, Kokmorsky district, Shemordan village; from captivity, went missing on March 6, 1943.

4. Ubeikin Fedor Petrovich- 1920, Chuvash, 3rd grade, b[es]p[arty]; Kazan region [TASSR], Aksubaysky [Aksubaevsky] district; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.26.43, private; Kazan region, Aksubay district; from captivity, went missing on March 6, 1943.

5. Izmailov Gazis Ibrahimovich- 1910, Tat[arin], small[lo]gr[amotny], b[es]p[party]; Kazan region [TASSR], Dubyazsky district [aio]nXIII, village Bolshoy] Bitaman; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; Kazan region, Dubyazsky district, Bolshoy village Bitaman; from captivity.

6. Bikeev Zakhar Zakharovich- 1922, Tat[arin], small [lo]gr[amotny] (1st grade[ass]), Komsomol; BASSR, Yumaguzinsky district, Mutaevo village, Central Asia, worker with a salary of 450 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; BASSR, Yumaguzinsky district, Mutaevo village; from captivity, went missing on March 6, 1943.

7. Galimulin Yarulkha (Yarulla?) Galimulinovich- 1912, Tat[arin], small [lo]gr[amotny] (1st grade[ass]), b[es]p[party]; Kazan region [TASSR], Baltach. [Baltasinsky] district, village of Burbash; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; Kazan region [TASSR], Baltachin. district, Burbash village; from captivity, went missing on March 6, 1943.

8. Guzairov Khoilan (Heigal) Pelgurovich- 1912, Tat[arin], small [lo]gr[amotny] (2nd grade[ass]), b[es]p[party]; Kazan region [TASSR], Dubyazsky district, Karakul village; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; Kazan region, Dubyazsky district, Karakul village; from captivity.

9. Zakirov Garif Zakirovich- 1908, Tat[arin], 4th grade, b[es]p[arty]; Kazan region [TASSR], Novosh[eshminsky] district, village of Verkh. Nikitino, Arkhangelsk, salesman with a salary of 400 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Kazan region, Novosheshminsk district, Verkhnekamensk rural council, Verkhnekamensk village. Nikitino; from captivity.

10. Guleev Akhmat (Akhmet) Tuktonyazovich- 1913 (1915), Turkmen, 5th grade, b[es]p[party]; Turk. ASSR, Adzhipulak district, village of Artizan; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; Ordzhonikidze region XIV, Turmen district, Chur village council, village of Chur [Chur aul]; from captivity.

11. Gorshkov Semyon Fedorovich- 1917, Tat[arin], small [lo]gr[amotny] (3rd grade[ass]), b[es]p[party]; Kazan region [TASSR], Krasnoarmeysky [Kyzyl-Armeysky] district [ayo]nXV, village Chuvyaltan [Chuvash Eltan] (Krasnodar), Tuapse, worker with a salary of 550 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Kazan region, Krasnoarmeysky district, Chuvyaltan village (Krasnodar); from captivity.

12. Chebotarev Shavket Abdulovich- 1918 (1919), Tat[arin], 2nd grade, b[es]p[party]; Kuyb[yshevskaya] region, XVI, Baryshevsky [Baryshsky] district, village St. Timoshkino [Starotimoshkino] (St. Ilyushino); Art. Timoshkino, a loader with a salary of 300 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Kuib[yshevskaya] region, Baryshsky district, St. Timoshkino; from captivity.

13. Sibagatullin Gatav- 1917, Tat[arin], 2nd grade, b[es]p[arty]; TASSR, Atninsky district, village of M[alaya] Atnya; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Atninsk district, village of M[alaya] Atnya; from captivity, went missing on March 6, 1943.

14. Nasardinov Vasbiy Nasardinovich- 1913, Tat[arin], 4th grade, b[es]p[arty]; BASSR, Ilishevsky district, village Itaevsk (?) [Iteevo?], Ilishevo, forester with a salary of 110 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; BASSR, Ilishevsky district, Itaevsk village; from captivity, went missing on March 6, 1943.

15. Belyakov Ilya Alekseevich- 1915, Mari, 6th grade; Mari ASSR, Yoshkar-Olinsky district, village of Tarkhanovo; on a collective farm, supply manager; junior sergeant, 02.26.43, private; Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Yoshkar-Olinsk district, village of Tarkhanovo; from captivity.

16.Gareev Ramay Sakhipovich- 1913, Tat[arin], small [lo]gr[amotny] (1st grade[ass]), b[es]p[party]; NSO [Novosibirsk region]XVII, Yurga; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private, NSO [Novosibirsk region], art. Yurga; from captivity, went missing on March 6, 1943.

17. Shafikov Abdulkhan Shafikovich- 1914, Bashkir, secondary [education], Komsomol; BASSR, Belokataysky district; village Uchashovo [Verkhnee Utyashevo?], village Uchashovo, paramedic; private, 02.23.43, private; Belokat[ai] district, Uchashovo village; from captivity, went missing on March 6, 1943.

18. Magdeev Nabi Khadyatovich- 1914, Bashkir, secondary [education], Komsomol; Chelyab[insk] region, Kra[sno]arm[eyskiy] district, Taukaevo village, Kunashak, teacher with a salary of 420 rubles; private, 02.26.43, private; Chelyab[insk] region, Kra[sno]arm[eyskiy] district, Taukaevo village; from captivity, went missing on March 6, 1943.

19. Valeev Abdulkhai- 1920, Tat[arin], 4th grade, b[es]p[arty]; TASSR, Alkievsky [Alkeevsky] district, village of Starye Urgagary; Central Asia, tinsmith with a salary of 350 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Alkievsky district, village of Starye Urgagary; from captivity, went missing on March 6, 1943.

20. Akhmadulin Eniet Nigamatovich- 1918, Tat[arin], 4th grade, b[es]p[arty]; BASSR, Sterlib[ashevsky] district; on a collective farm, collective farmer; junior sergeant, 02.23.43, private; Sterlib[ashevsky] district, Buzatov[sky] village [council], Asanay village; from captivity.
21. Latypov Mubarak - 1914 (1909), Tat[arin], 4th grade, b[es]p[party]; BASSR, Lenin. (?) district, village of Urmada (?), ROM, machin[ist] with a salary of 285 rubles; private, 02.26.43, private; BASSR, Lenin. district, Suleimbekov [village] council, village of Urmada; from captivity, went missing on March 6, 1943.

22. Nurzalov (Nurzipov) Fatkhulla- 1909, Tat[arin], 4th grade, b[es]p[arty]; Stal[ingrad] region, Astrakhan, Astrakhan, worker with a salary of 300 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Stalin[grad] region, Astrakhan, Urymansk[y] (Narimanovsky?) district, Balyanka village; from captivity, went missing on March 6, 1943.

23. Sibagatullin Ibragim S.- 1922, Tatar[in], 7th grade, b[es]p[artist]; TASSR, Dubyazsky district, Bolshoy village Sulabash; on a collective farm, collective farmer; lieutenant, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Dubyazsky district, Bolshoy village Sulabash; from captivity.

24. Ryazyapin Kashaf Zaripovich- 1921, Tatar[in], 7th grade[ass], b[es]p[artist]; BASSR, Kugarchinsky district, village of Kugarchin [Kugarchi]; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; BASSR, Kugarchinsky district, village of Kugarchin; from captivity.

25. Makhmutov Foyaz (Fayaz) Kutuzovich (Kutdusovich)- 1914, Tatar[in], 4th grade[ass], b[es]p[arty]; BASSR, Yanaul district, village Istyakovo [Istyak]; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; BASSR, Yanaul district, Istyakovsky rural council, Tash-Elga village; from captivity.

26. Akhmadeev Manur Orslanovich (Arslanovich)- 1919, Tatar[in], 4th grade[assa], b[es]p[arty]; BASSR, Kand[inskiy] r[ayo]nXVIII, village of Kandrakul; manager of a store with a salary of 350 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; BASSR, Kandr. district, village of Kandrakul village council, village of Kandarkul; from captivity.

27. Khaybulin Maftah (Miftah) F.- 1912, Tatar[in], 4th grade[ass], b[es]p[arty]; BASSR, Ushalinsky [Uchalinsky] district, Ushalinsky village [council], village of Moldashevo [Muldashevo], mine, miner with a salary of 800 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; BASSR, Ushalinsk[y] district, Ushalinsk[y] village [soviet], village of Moldashevo; from captivity.

28. Kalimulin Yarolla (Yarulla) Garifovich- 1916, Tatar[in], 2nd class[ass], b[es]p[arty]; Kazan region, Buinsky district, village of Serki-Grishino [Cherki-Grishino]; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02/23/43 private; Kazan region, Buinsky district, village of Serki-Grishino; from captivity.

29. Kabirov Kasim Shakirovich- 1917, Tatar[in], 5th grade[ass], b[es]p[arty]; TASSR, Voroshilovsky [Menzelinsky? Sarmanovsky?] district, Narodkino villageXIX; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; Kazan, Voroshilovsky district, Narodkino village; from captivity.

30. Kalimulin Khazis Khaibulovich- 1921, Udmurt, 4th grade, b[es]p[arty]; Ufa region XX, Yanaul district, Orlyansky [Orlovsky?] village council, Narkan village [Karman-Aktau?]; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.22.43, private; BASSR, Yanaulsky district, Orlyansky rural council, Narkan village; from captivity.

31. Bogapov (Vogapov) Khasyan Ismailovich- 1921, Tatar[in], 5th grade[ass], b[es]p[artist]; Penza[ena] region, Kadushkinsky [Kadoshkinsky] district, village of Latyshevka [Latyshovka]; Donbass, hammerman with a salary of 400 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Penza[en] region, Kadushkinsky district, Latyshevka village; from captivity.

32. Mustafin Nurgali M.- 1909, Tatar[in], 4th grade[assa], b[es]p[arty]; TASSR, Tsipinsky (Tsipyinsky) district [ayo]nXXI, village of Tiongir [Tolonger]; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Tsipinsky district, Tolonger village; from captivity.

33. Khairulin Gabdrakhim Agap- 1910, Tatar[in], 4th grade[assa], b[es]p[arty]; Kuyb[yshevskaya] region XXII, N. Buyansky district XXIII, village of Mullovka; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; Kuyb[ysh] region, Buyansky district, village of Mullovka; from captivity.

34. Garipov Khatip Garipovich- 1914, Tatar[in], 2nd grade[assa], b[es]p[arty]; Kazan[skaya] region, Kalininsky district XXIV, Azaevsky [Adaevsky?] rural [council] council, village of Umeney [Ulimanovo]; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; Kazan[skaya] region, Kalininsk[y] district, village. Smarter; from captivity.

35. Fazullin Galim Zinatovich- 1917, Bashkir, 10th grade, b[es]p[arty]; BASSR, Miyakinsky district, village Meneuz-Tamak; regional financial department, chief accountant with a salary of 715 rubles; lieutenant, 02/23/43, assistant to the commander in the [platoon]; BASSR, Miyakinsky district, village Meneuz-Tamak; from captivity.

36. Galiev Akhmet Galievich- 1913, Tatar[in], 3rd grade[assa], b[es]p[arty]; TASSR, Bondyugovsky [Bondyuzhsky] XXV chemical plant, st. Yarukhana, 47/18, chemical plant, worker with a salary of 450 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Bondyugovsky chemical plant, st. Yarukhana, 47/18; from captivity.

37. Tanmurzin Iziyat Tanmurzinovich- 1919, Mari, 4th grade, b[es]p[artist]; BASSR, Kaltachievsky [Kaltasinsky] district, Koyanka [Koyanovo] village; Red Army, private, 02.23.43, private; BASSR, Kaltachievsky district, Koyanka village; from captivity.

38. Zinnatulin Sag. Zinat[ovich]- 1921, Tatar[in], 7th grade[ass], b[es]p[artist]; TASSR, Sarman[ov]skiy district, village of Demet. Orlova [Dimitarlau]; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Sarman[ovsky] district, village of Demet. Orlova; from captivity.

39. Garipov Khatib Zaripovich- 1914, Tatar[in], 4th grade[ass], b[es]p[arty]; TASSR, Kalinin[skiy] district, village of Uman [Ulimanovo?]; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Kalinin [aion] district, Uman village; from captivity.

40.Akhmadeev Shamal Gar[ipovich]- 1922, Tatar[in], 4th grade[ass], b[es]p[arty]; BASSR, Tuba district, village of Tubi [Tubinsky]; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; BASSR, Tuba district, Tubi village; from captivity.

41. Galeev Akhmet Ziyatdinovich- 1916, Tatar[in], 10th grade[ass], Komsomol; Chelyabinsk region, Troitsk, st. Zhukova, Troitsk, school director with a salary of 600 rubles; Sergeant, 01/28/42, private; Chelyab[insk] region, Mekhansk. [Miass] district, village of Ishkino; from the environment.

42. Sibagatulin G.- 1921, Tatar[in], 4th grade[ass], b[es]p[arty]; TASSR, Rybno-Slobodsky district, Bolshaya Elga village; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR Rybnoslobodsk district, Bolshaya Elga village; from captivity.

43. Ilmurzin Ilinbay- 1914, Mari, 3rd grade, b[es]p[artist]; BASSR, Kaltasinsky district, Kokush village; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; BASSR, Kaltasinsky district, Kokush village; from captivity.

44. Orskudinov Fatkhush- 1911, Tatar[in], 3rd grade[assa], b[es]p[arty]; TASSR, Aktanysh district, village of Bugazino [Buaz-Kul]; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR Aktanysh district, Bugazino village; from captivity.

45. Akhmadeev Khusan (Hasan)- 1910, Tatar[in], 3rd grade[assa], b[es]p[arty]; TASSR, Agryz district, station Agryz, st. K. Marx, Agryz, warehouse manager with a salary of 285 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Agryz district, st. K. Marx, 132; from captivity.

46. Mukhamedzhanov Gazis M.- 1921, Tatar[in], small[lo]gr[amotny], b[es]p[party]; TASSR, Baltachinsky [Baltasinsky] district, Baltasinsky rural [council] council, village of Sardygach; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Baltachinsk district, Baltachin village council, Sardygan village; from captivity.

47. Gazizov Mirula (Nurulla?) Gazizovich- 1914, Tatar[in], 2nd grade[assa], b[es]p[arty]; TASSR, Rybno-Slobodsky district, Bolshoi village Oshnyak, on a collective farm, weighman with a salary of 450 rubles, private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Rybno-Slobodsky district, village of Bolshoi Oshnyak; from captivity.

48. Ayupov Mabaraksha (Mubaraksha) A.- 1911, Tatar[in], 5th grade[ass], b[es]p[arty]; Kuyb[yshevskaya] region[a]XXVI, Starokultinsky [Starokulatskinsky] district [aion], village. N. Zelenitsa [Novye Zimnitsa], Baku, baker with a salary of 300 rubles, private, 02.23.43, private; AzSSR, Baku, Stalin district, st. Frunze, 181; from captivity.

49. Amirov Rustam Abaz[ovich]- 1916, Tatar[in], 5th grade[ass], b[es]p[arty]; BASSR, Meleuzovsky district, village. Zerga [Zirgan]; Samarkand, savings bank, employee with a salary of 400 rubles, sergeant, 02.23.43, private; BASSR, Meluzovsky district, st. Smolnenskaya, 86; from captivity.

50. Baziitov Sadikh (Sadyk) H.- 1916, Tatar[in], 3rd grade[assa], b[es]p[arty]; Penza[ena] region, Gorodishchensky district, st. Chaadaevka, s. V. Razyap; on the collective farm, collective farmer, private, 02.23.43, private; Penza[skaya] region, Gorodishchensky district, st. Chaadaevka, s. V. Razyap; from captivity.

51. Nikolaev Mikhail Mironovich- 1918, Tatar[in], 5th grade[ass], b[es]p[arty]; TASSR, Chugar (?) district [ai]nXXVII, village of Fedotovo; on the collective farm, collective farmer, private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Chugar (?) district, Fedotovo village; from captivity.

52. Abdullin Gabdur Abdul[ovich]- 1919, Tatar[in], 7th grade, b[es]p[artist]; Kazan, Tatar district (?), village Kurkhaibak (?), Kazan, turner with a salary of 300 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Kazan region, Tatar district, Kurkhaibak village; from captivity.

53. Gazizov Khazip- 1914, Tatar[in], 3rd grade[assa], b[es]p[arty]; TASSR, Aznakaevksy district, village of Kormala [Karamaly], Saratov, driver with a salary of 450 rubles, driver, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Aznakaevksy district, Kormala village; from captivity.

54. Nasyrov Rubani Nasyrovich- 1910, Tatar[in], 3rd grade[assa], b[es]p[arty]; Kazan region, Sarman[ov] district, N. Shavtali [Lower Chershily?]; on the collective farm, collective farmer, private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Sarman[ov]skiy district, village N. Shavtala; from captivity.

55. Sulikov Eremey Alexandrovich- 1909, Mari, 3rd grade, b[es]p[artist]; NSO [Novosibirsk region], Tashtanovsky [Tashtagol] district, Ust-Selezen village, Ust-Selezen, store manager with a salary of 500 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; b[es]p[party], NSO, Tashtanovsky district, Ust-Selezen village; from captivity.

56. Mukhamadzyanov Abdull Akhmetovich- 1909, Tatar[in], 2nd class[assa], b[es]p[arty]; TASSRXXVIII, Buzovyazovsky district XXIX, village Kurmanay [Kurmanaevo?]; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Buzovyazovsky district, Kurmanai village; from captivity.

57. B Iktashev Shanuvali (Manuvali) M.- 1919, Tatar[in], 4th grade[ass], Komsomol; TASSR, Rybno-Slobodsky district, village of Stary Arysh, Red Army, private, 02.23.43, squad commander; TASSR, Rybno-Slobodsky district, village of Stary Arysh; from captivity.

58. Zeyadinov Sadry (Sadri) Zeyadinovich- 1914, Tatar[in], 4th grade[ass], b[es]p[arty]; TASSR, Naberezhnye Chelny district XXX, St. Gardale [Old Gardali], Makeevka, Sofia mine, rock worker with a salary of 400 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Makeevka, st. Carbit Colony; from captivity.

59. Avdeev Alexander Mabinov[ich]- 1911 (1915?), Tat[arin], n[e]gr[amotny], b[es]p[party]; Astrakhan district, fish factory No. 1, st. Batumi, fish factory, helmsman with a salary of 200 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Astrakhan district, No. 4, st. Batumi; from captivity.

60. Seradeev (Serazeev) Yarkhan Abzalovich- 1913, Tatar[in], 7th grade, b[es]p[artist]; TASSR, Kulanginsky XXXI district, village Karaton [Karatun], Grozny, driver with a salary of 450 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Kulanginsk district, Karaton village; from captivity.

61. Ifatullin Igenat- 1913, Tatar[in], 4th grade[ass], b[es]p[arty]; TASSR, Dubyazsky district, village of Biknarat; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, TASSR, Dubyazsky district, village of Biknarat; from captivity.

62. Kachalov Mikhail Ivanovich- 1907, Mordvin[in], 4th grade, b[es]p[arty]; Mord[ov] Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Atyashevsky district, Selishchi village, Chelyabinsk, water utility, mechanic with a salary of 700 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Mord[ov] Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Atyashevsky district, village of Selishchi; from captivity.

63. Davletbaev Fakhardin- 1916, Tatar[in], 2nd class[ass], b[es]p[arty]; BASSR, Krasnosolsky [Krasnousolsky] district XXXII, village Yuluk [Yulukovo], on a collective farm, collective farmer, private, 02/23/43, private; Ufa, Krasnosolsky district, Kusaadinsky village council, village of Yuluk; from captivity.

64. Nabiulin Safa- 1914, Tatar[in], 7th grade[ass], b[es]p[arty]; Kazan region, Kaybitsky district, village Burunduk [Chipmunks], Moscow, military unit, driver with a salary of 450 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Kazan, Kaybitsky district, Burunduk village; from captivity.

65. Sagitov Yalal Badardinovich- 1920, Tatar[in], 4th grade[ass], b[es]p[arty]; Chelyabinsk region, village of Kunachak [district center Kunashak], Chelyabinsk, artel, worker with a salary of 1,700 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Chelyabinsk, st. Stalin, 57 B; from captivity.

66. Galeev Mekhamed (Mukhamed) Sadykovich- 1910, Tatar[in], 3rd grade[assa], b[es]p[arty]; TASSR, Naberezhnye Chelny, Tsentralnaya, 37, Naberezhnye Chelny, bookseller with a salary of 450 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Naberezhnye Chelny, Tsentralnaya, 37; from captivity.

67. Akhmetgaleev Gazis- 1914, Tatar[in], 3rd grade[assa], b[es]p[arty]; Kazan, Uzbekistan, sausage maker with a salary of 500 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Uzbekistan, Bukhara, st. Lenina, 38; from captivity.

68. Batorbaev Kasim Mus.- 1916, Kazakh, 3rd grade, b[es]p[party], Goryev [Guryev] region XXXIII, Dengi [Dengiz] district XXXIV, p. Butakhon; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; Goryevskaya region, Dengisky district, village. Butakhon; from captivity.

69. Karimov Abdul Karimovich- 1922, Tatar[in], 2nd class[assa], b[es]p[arty]; Omsk region XXXV, Yarkovsky district, Matmas village; on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; Omsk region, Yarkovsky district, Stalin's collective farm; from captivity.

70. Mirsayakov Salikhyan- 1911; TASSR, Muslimovsky [Muslyumovsky] district, Rokhmatullina collective farm, on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Muslimovsky district, Rokhmatula collective farm; from captivity.

71. Shafeev Adbull Kamald[inovich]- 1918, Tatar[in], 1st class[ass], b[es]p[arty]; Kuyb[yshevsk] region XXXVI, S. Kul[atk]insky district, Kiryushkino village, KIM distillery, operator with a salary of 450 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Tula region, Kim[ov] district, Bronsky village council; from captivity.

72. Anderzhanov Abdulbagap- 1922, Tatar[in], 7th grade, b[es]p[artist]; Gorky[ovskaya], region, Krasno]Okt[Yabrsky] district, Pitsa [Pilna] village, Moscow, electrician with a salary of 450 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Moscow, Kalanchevskaya st.; from captivity.

73. Mukhamedgaleev Khurmatul- 1920, Tatar[in], 7th grade[ass], b[es]p[arty]; Kazan region, Baltachsky [Baltasinsky] district, ShemordanXXXVII station, Tashkent, concrete worker with a salary of 500 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Tashkent; from captivity.

74. Enikeev Gummer Mukhariam[ovich]- 1918, Tatar[in], secondary [education], Komsomol; BASSR, Blagovar [ayon] district, village of Kargali [Upper Kargaly], Davlekan [ovo], teacher with a salary of 550 rubles; sergeant, 02/15/42, company commander; BASSR, Blagovarsky district, village of Kargali; from encirclement, in the Soviet rear - August 1943

75. Kamaltinov Zaki Nurgal[ievich]- 1923, Tatar[in], 6th grade[ass], Komsomol; Molot[ov] region XXXVIII, Bardinsky [Bardymsky] district [ayon]n, village of Kazy (?), on a collective farm, collective farmer; private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Kaybitsky district, village. Chipmunk; from captivity, missing.

76. Khafizov Fathul Khafizovich, - 1915, Tatar[in], secondary [education], b[es]p[party]; TASSR, Muslimovsky [Muslyumovo] district, Muslyumovo village, Kazan, teacher; private, 02.23.43, private; TASSR, Muslyumovo district, Muslyumovo village; from captivity, disappeared [without] news.

77. Yusupov Ishak Kalniz[ovich]- 1911, Tatar[in], secondary [education], b[es]p[party]; Astrakhan, st. Batumskaya, 8/26, Astrakhan, worker with a salary of 400 rubles; private, 02.23.43, private; Astrakhan, st. Batumskaya, 8/2; from captivity, disappeared [without] news.

78. Aflyatonov (Aflatunov) Talip- 1919, Tatar[in], 4th grade[assa], b[es]p[arty]; BASSR, Yarnyakinsky [Ermekeevsky?] district, village of Yanganayak (?); on a collective farm, collective farmer, private, 02/23/43, private; BASSR, Yarnyakinsky [Ermekeevsky?] district, village of Yanganayak (?); from captivity, disappeared [without] news.

79. Salimzyanov Kadyr Khal.- 1923, Tatar[in], 4th grade[ass], b[es]p[arty]; NSO [Novosibirsk region], Chanovsky district, village Ch. Kushkul [Koshkul]; on a collective farm, collective farmer, private, 02/23/43, private; NSO, Chanovsky district, Ch. Kushkul village; from captivity, killed 03/06/43 [g.].

NA RB, f. 1450, op. 5, d. 2, l. 47-107.

The publication was prepared by Rustem Gainetdinov

The Nazis initially did not intend to form military units from citizens of the USSR - due to distrust of “racially inferior nations.” The history of the international SS legion “Idel-Ural” subsequently confirmed these fears - hundreds of collaborators during the existence of this unit surrendered to Soviet troops or partisans.

Why did the Nazis trust Muslims?

The main ideologist of the NSDAP, Alfred Rosenberg, believed that the Turkic-Muslim peoples were closer to the Aryans than everyone else living on the territory of the Soviet Union and should hate the Russians, who had these ethnic groups under colonial dependence. The factor of adherence to Islam of future SS legionnaires also played an important role - the Nazis were very interested in this religion, trying to use it to benefit the Reich.

Why was the legion called “Idel-Ural”?

The SS Idel-Ural legion, created in the summer of 1942, was called the Volga-Tatar legion by the Germans. The name came from the failed Volga “mini-state” (state) of the same name, which they intended to create on Russian territory during the Civil War. The Idel-Ural autonomy was to include the Ufa province and certain territories of six other regions.
The Idel-Ural legion, which consisted of seven battalions, included Tatars, Bashkirs, Volga and Ural peoples. The unit was replenished several times and, according to historians, over the entire history of its existence, about 25 thousand people passed through the Tatar legion.

Why did he fight so badly?

The very first major military operation, “Ball Lightning,” with the participation of “Idel-Ural,” showed that the Nazis were cruelly mistaken in attributing to Muslim collaborators ideological fortitude in the fight against Soviet power - in 1943, the Tatars, Bashkirs and Chuvashs, sent to eliminate the Belarusian partisans, rebelled, They shot the Germans serving in the legion and the overwhelming majority went over to the partisans. In general, on the Eastern Front, such defections to the enemy’s side were very common in other units formed along national lines.
The remains of the Idel-Ural were transferred to Holland. But even there the Tatars rebelled. The legion was again reorganized and sent to France, where dozens of legionnaires also went over to the enemy’s side. In the end, the national unit was declared unfit for combat, and by the end of the war, the “Idel-Urals” performed only auxiliary security and construction functions for the Germans. “Idel-Ural” did not interact with the ROA of General Vlasov - the Muslims did not want to deal with the Russians: “he is on his own, and we are on our own.”

Musa Jalil: Idel-Ural legionnaire, “enemy of the people”, Hero of the Soviet Union

The famous Soviet Tatar poet Musa Jalil, whose name was discovered by his equally famous fellow writer Konstantin Simonov, was a member of the Idel-Ural legion. In one of the battles in June 1942, senior political instructor Jalil, seriously wounded in the chest, was captured. There he enlisted in the International Legion formed by the Nazis. He began to conduct underground work. In 1943, Musa Jalil was arrested by the Gestapo. A year later, in the Berlin prison Plötzensee, the underground fighter was guillotined.
At first, in his homeland, Jalil was classified as a particularly dangerous criminal. But when the Tatar poet’s poems, which he wrote while imprisoned, were published, the prisoner of Plötzensee prison was rehabilitated. Jalil was subsequently awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, streets and avenues in dozens of cities were named after him former USSR, poems from the “Moabit Notebook” cycle were included in the compulsory school curriculum in Soviet times. By the way, along with Jalil, another Tatar poet and writer, also an Idel-Ural legionnaire and an active underground fighter, Abdulla Alishev, was executed in Pletzensee.

On the same topic:

Volga-Tatar Legion of the SS: how the Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvashs fought on the side of Hitler Volga-Tatar Legion of the SS: which representatives of the Soviet peoples fought for Hitler Who fought against the USSR in the Volga-Tatar SS Legion during the war How the Bashkirs fought against Napoleon