The diary of Helmut Pabst tells about three winter and two summer periods of fierce battles of Army Group Center, moving east in the direction of Bialystok - Minsk - Smolensk - Moscow. You will learn how the war was perceived not only by a soldier doing his duty, but by a person who sincerely sympathized with the Russians and showed complete disgust for the Nazi ideology.

War Memoirs - Unity 1942-1944 Charles Gaulle

In the second volume of de Gaulle's memoirs, a significant place is given to the relationship of the French National Liberation Committee with the allies in anti-Hitler coalition- USSR, USA and England. The book contains extensive factual and documentary material of great interest to those interested in the political history of France during the Second World War. Thanks to the efforts of de Gaulle, defeated France became one of the victorious countries in World War II and became one of the five great powers in the post-war world. De Gaulle...

Death through optical sight. New Memoirs… Günter Bauer

This book is the cruel and cynical revelations of a professional killer who went through the most terrible battles of World War II, who knows the true value of a soldier's life on the front line, who saw death a hundred times through the optical sight of his sniper rifle. After the Polish campaign of 1939, where Günther Bauer proved to be an exceptionally accurate shooter, he was transferred to the elite parachute troops of the Luftwaffe, turning from a simple Feldgrau (infantryman) into a professional Scharfschutze (sniper), and in the first hours of the French campaign, as part of ...

Hitler's last offensive. The defeat of the tank ... Andrey Vasilchenko

In early 1945, Hitler made one last attempt to turn the tide of the war and avoid the final catastrophe on Eastern Front, ordering a large-scale offensive in Western Hungary in order to dislodge the Red Army across the Danube, stabilize the front line and hold the Hungarian oil fields. By the beginning of March, the German command had concentrated almost the entire armored elite of the Third Reich in the Lake Balaton area: the SS Panzer Divisions Leibstandarte, Reich, Totenkopf, Viking, Hohenstaufen, etc. - in total ...

Soldiers Betrayed by Helmut Welz

The author, a former Wehrmacht officer, commander of a sapper battalion, Major Helmut Welz, shares his memories of the fierce battles for Stalingrad, in which he participated, and the fate of German soldiers abandoned by Hitler to their fate for the sake of their military and political interests and ambitions.

The last soldier of the Third Reich Guy Sayer

A German soldier (French by father) Guy Sayer tells in this book about the battles of the Second World War on the Soviet-German front in Russia in 1943-1945. The reader is presented with a picture of the terrible trials of a soldier who was always on the verge of death. Perhaps for the first time the events of the Great Patriotic War are given through the eyes of a German soldier. He had to go through a lot: a shameful retreat, continuous bombing, the death of comrades, the destruction of German cities. Sayer does not understand only one thing: that neither he nor his friends are in Russia...

Military Russia Yakov Krotov

The military state differs from the usual one not by the military, but by civilians. The military state does not recognize the autonomy of the individual, the right (even if in the form of the idea of ​​a police state), according only to the order as an absolute arbitrariness. Russia has often been characterized as a land of slaves and masters. Unfortunately, in reality it is a country of generals and soldiers. There was no slavery in Russia and there is not. A soldier was considered a slave. The mistake is understandable: soldiers, like slaves, have no rights and live not according to their own will and not by right, but by order. However, there is a significant difference: slaves do not fight.…

Soldier of the Three Armies Bruno Winzer

Memoirs German officer, in which the author talks about his service in the Reichswehr, the Nazi Wehrmacht and the Bundeswehr. In 1960, Bruno Winzer, a staff officer of the Bundeswehr, secretly left West Germany and moved to the German Democratic Republic, where he published this book - the story of his life.

On both sides of the blockade ring Yuri Lebedev

This book attempts to present another look at the Leningrad blockade and the fighting around the city based on documentary records of people who were on different sides front lines. About his vision of the initial period of the blockade from August 30, 1941 to January 17, 1942. tell: Ritter von Leeb (commander of Army Group North), A. V. Burov (Soviet journalist, officer), E. A. Skryabina (resident besieged Leningrad) and Wolfgang Buff (non-commissioned officer of the 227th German infantry division). Thanks to the efforts of Yuri Lebedev, military translator and chairman ...

The grin of death. 1941 on the Eastern Front Heinrich Haape

Veterans know that in order to see the true face of the war, one has to visit not even the battlefield, but front-line infirmaries and hospitals, where all the pain and all the horror of death appear in an extremely concentrated, condensed form. The author of this book, Oberarzt (senior doctor) of the 6th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht, more than once looked death in the face - in 1941 he marched with his division from the border to the Moscow outskirts, saved hundreds of wounded German soldiers, personally participated in the battles, was awarded The Iron Cross I and II classes, the German Cross in gold, the Assault badge and two stripes ...

Assault on the Brest Fortress Rostislav Aliyev

On June 22, 1941, the Red Army won its first victory in the Great Patriotic War- the assault on the Brest Fortress, which the German command took a few hours to capture, ended complete failure and heavy losses of the 45th division of the Wehrmacht. Despite the suddenness of the attack and the loss of command and control at the very beginning of the battle, the Red Army soldiers demonstrated miracles of spontaneous self-organization, putting up desperate resistance to the enemy. It took the Germans more than a week to break it, but separate groups of defenders held out until ...

Return attempt Vladislav Konyushevsky

What to do, if ordinary person completely unexpectedly brought from our enlightened time into the most terrible year Soviet history? Yes, and just a day before hundreds of "Junkers" will begin to unwind the screws of the engines, and millions of German soldiers will receive an order to cross the border with the USSR. Probably just trying to stay alive first. And then, posing as someone who lost his memory due to shell shock, pick up a rifle and, if life turned out like that, fight for his country. But not just to fight, but, having collected all our extremely scanty ...

The armor is strong: The history of the Soviet tank 1919-1937 Mikhail Svirin

A modern tank is the most advanced example of land combat equipment. This is a bunch of energy, the embodiment of combat power, power. When tanks, deployed in battle formation, rush to attack, they are indestructible, like God's punishment ... At the same time, the tank is beautiful and ugly, proportionate and clumsy, perfect and vulnerable. Being installed on a pedestal, the tank is a complete statue that can bewitch ... Soviet tanks have always been a sign of the power of our country. Most of the German soldiers who fought on our soil ...

Armor shield of Stalin. History of the Soviet ... Mikhail Svirin

The war of 1939-1945 became the most difficult test for all mankind, since almost all countries of the world were involved in it. It was the battle of the titans - the most unique period that theorists argued about in the early 1930s and during which tanks were used in large quantities virtually all warring parties. At this time, a "check for lice" and a deep reform of the first theories of the use of tank troops took place. And it is the Soviet tank troops that are most affected by all this. Most of the German soldiers who fought in the East ...

War as I knew it George Patton

J. S. Patton is one of the brightest figures in the history of World War II. Since 1942, he has been an active participant in hostilities in North Africa, where he commanded the Western Task Force of the US Army, and then in Sicily, having taken command of the US Third Army in Normandy in July 1944, J.S. Patton meets the end of the war already in Czechoslovakia. Patton's war memoirs can be not only fascinating reading for fans of military history, but also serve as a source for the history of World War II.

Anti-Russian meanness Yuri Mukhin

In order to rally Europe in an armed struggle against the advancing Red Army, Hitler in 1943 ordered to dig up the graves with Polish officers shot by the Germans near Smolensk in 1941 and inform the world that they were allegedly killed in 1940 by the NKVD of the USSR on the orders of "Moscow Jews." The Polish government in exile, sitting in London and betraying its allies, joined this Hitlerite provocation, and as a result of increased bitterness during the Second World War, millions of Soviet, British, American, German were additionally killed on the fronts ...

Sevastopol fortress Yuri Skorikov

The book was written on the basis of the richest collection archival materials and rare photographic documents. It tells about the history of the emergence and stages of construction of the Sevastopol fortress. Described in detail major events 349 days heroic defense Sevastopol 1854-1855 during Crimean War 1853-1856, the unparalleled work of sappers and miners on the defense line, the courage and heroism of the defenders of the fortress - sailors and soldiers who fought under the command of outstanding military leaders - admirals V. A. Kornilov, M. P. Lazarev, P. S. Nakhimov and leader...

Return of Bernhard Schlink

The second novel by Bernhard Schlink "The Return", like the books "The Reader" and "The Other Man" beloved by readers, speaks of love and betrayal, good and evil, justice and justice. But the main theme of the novel is the return of the hero home. What, if not the dream of a home, supports a person during endless wanderings full of dangerous adventures, fantastic reincarnations and clever deception? However, the hero is not allowed to know what awaits him after all the trials at his native doorstep, is his beautiful wife faithful to him, or has his place been occupied by a double impostor for a long time?...

The material offered to readers is excerpts from diaries, letters and memoirs of German soldiers, officers and generals who first encountered the Russian people during the Patriotic War of 1941-1945. In essence, we have before us evidence of mass meetings of people with people, of Russia with the West, which do not lose their relevance today.

Germans about Russian character

It is unlikely that the Germans will emerge victorious from this struggle against the Russian land and against Russian nature. How many children, how many women, and all give birth, and all bear fruit, despite war and robbery, despite destruction and death! Here we are fighting not against people, but against nature. At the same time, I again have to admit to myself that this country is becoming dearer to me every day.

Lieutenant K. F. Brand

They think differently than we do. And don't bother - you'll never understand Russian anyway!

Officer Malapar

I know how risky it is to describe the sensational "Russian man", this is a vague vision of philosophizing and politicizing writers, which is very suitable for being hung like a clothes hanger with all the doubts that arise in a person from the West, the further he moves to the East . Yet this "Russian man" is not only a literary fiction, although here, as elsewhere, people are different and irreducible to a common denominator. Only with this reservation will we talk about the Russian people.

Pastor G. Gollwitzer

They are so versatile that almost every one of them goes full circle. human qualities. Among them you can find everything from a cruel brute to St. Francis of Assisi. That is why they cannot be described in a few words. To describe Russians, one must use all the existing epithets. I can say about them that I like them, I don’t like them, I bow before them, I hate them, they touch me, they scare me, I admire them, they disgust me!

A less thoughtful person is pissed off by such a character and makes him exclaim: Unfinished, chaotic, incomprehensible people!

Major K. Kuehner

Germans about Russia

Russia lies between East and West - this is an old thought, but I cannot say anything new about this country. The twilight of the East and the clarity of the West created this dual light, this crystal clarity of mind and the mysterious depth of the soul. They are between the spirit of Europe, strong in form and weak in deep contemplation, and the spirit of Asia, which is devoid of form and clear outline. I think their souls are drawn to Asia more, but fate and history - and even this war - brings them closer to Europe. And since here, in Russia, there are many uncountable forces everywhere, even in politics and economy, there can be no single opinion either about her people or about their life ... Russians measure everything by distance. They must always reckon with him. Here often relatives live far from each other, soldiers from Ukraine serve in Moscow, students from Odessa study in Kyiv. You can drive here for hours without getting anywhere. They live in space like stars in the night sky, like sailors on the sea; and just as space is boundless, so is man boundless - everything is in his hands, and he has nothing. The breadth and expanse of nature determine the fate of this country and these people. In larger spaces, history flows more slowly.

Major K.Küner

This opinion is confirmed by other sources. The German staff soldier, comparing Germany and Russia, draws attention to the incommensurability of these two quantities. The German offensive against Russia appeared to him as a contact between the limited and the limitless.

Stalin is the ruler of the Asian boundlessness - this is an enemy that the forces advancing from limited, dissected spaces cannot cope with ...

Soldier C. Mattis

We entered into battle with an enemy whom we, being in captivity of European life concepts, did not understand at all. In this rock of our strategy, it is, strictly speaking, completely random, like an adventure on Mars.

Soldier C. Mattis

Germans about the mercy of Russians

The inexplicability of the Russian character and behavior often baffled the Germans. Russians show hospitality not only in their homes, they go out to meet them with milk and bread. In December 1941, during the retreat from Borisov, in a village abandoned by the troops, an old woman brought out bread and a jug of milk. “War, war,” she repeated in tears. Russians with the same good nature treated both the victorious and the defeated Germans. Russian peasants are peace-loving and good-natured... When we feel thirsty during the crossings, we go into their huts, and they give us milk, as if they were pilgrims. For them, every person is in need. How often have I seen Russian peasant women wailing over wounded German soldiers as if they were their own sons...

Major K. Kuehner

It seems strange that a Russian woman does not have enmity towards the soldiers of the army her sons are fighting against: Old Alexandra from strong threads ... knits socks for me. In addition, a good-natured old woman boils potatoes for me. Today I even found a piece of salted meat in the lid of my pot. She probably has some hidden supplies somewhere. Otherwise, one cannot understand how these people live here. Alexandra has a goat in her barn. Many don't have cows. And with all that, these poor people share their last good with us. Do they do it out of fear, or do these people really have an innate sense of self-sacrifice? Or do they do it out of good nature or even out of love? Alexandra, she is 77 years old, as she told me, she is illiterate. She cannot read or write. After the death of her husband, she lives alone. Three children died, the other three left for Moscow. It is clear that both of her sons are in the army. She knows that we are fighting against them, and yet she knits socks for me. The feeling of enmity is probably unfamiliar to her.

Orderly Michels

In the first months of the war, village women ... hurried with food for prisoners of war. "Oh poor!" they said. They also brought food for the German guards who sat in the center of small squares on benches around the white statues of Lenin and Stalin thrown into the mud ...

Officer Malapart

Hatred for a long time ... is not in the Russian character. This is especially clear from the example of how quickly the psychosis of hatred disappeared in ordinary people. Soviet people towards the Germans during World War II. At the same time, sympathy played a role, maternal feeling Russian rural women, as well as young girls in relation to the prisoners. A Western European woman who met with the Red Army in Hungary is surprised: “Isn’t it strange that most of them do not feel any hatred even for the Germans: where do they get this unshakable faith in human goodness, this inexhaustible patience, this selflessness and meek humility ...

Germans about Russian sacrifice

Sacrifice has been noted more than once by the Germans in the Russian people. From a people that officially does not recognize spiritual values, it is as if one cannot expect either nobility, or a Russian character, or sacrifice. However, a German officer is amazed during the interrogation of a captured partisan:

Is it really possible to demand from a person brought up in materialism so much sacrifice for the sake of ideals!

Major K. Kuehner

Probably, this exclamation can be attributed to the entire Russian people, apparently retaining these traits in themselves, despite the breaking of the internal Orthodox foundations of life, and, apparently, sacrifice, responsiveness, and similar qualities are characteristic of Russians to a high degree. They are partly emphasized by the attitude of the Russians themselves towards the Western peoples.

As soon as Russians come into contact with Western people, they briefly define them with the words "dry people" or "heartless people". All the egoism and materialism of the West lies in the definition of "dry people"

Endurance, mental strength and at the same time humility also attract the attention of foreigners.

The Russian people, especially the vast expanses, steppes, fields and villages, is one of the most healthy, joyful and wise on earth. He is able to resist the power of fear with his back bent. There is so much faith and antiquity in it that the most just order in the world can probably come out of it.

Soldier Matisse

An example of the duality of the Russian soul, which combines both pity and cruelty at the same time:

When soup and bread were already given to the prisoners in the camp, one Russian gave a piece of his portion. Many others did the same, so that we had so much bread in front of us that we could not eat it ... We just shook our heads. Who can understand them, these Russians? Some they shoot and can even laugh at it contemptuously, others they give plenty of soup and even share with them their own daily portion of bread.

German M. Gaertner

Looking closer at the Russians, the German will again note their sharp extremes, the impossibility of fully comprehending them:

Russian soul! She moves from the most tender, soft sounds to wild fortissimo, it is difficult to predict only this music and especially the moments of its transition ... The words of one old consul remain symbolic: “I do not know Russians enough - I have lived among them for only thirty years.

General Schweppenburg

Germans about the shortcomings of Russians

From the Germans themselves, we hear an explanation for the fact that Russians are often reproached for their tendency to steal.

Those who survived the post-war years in Germany, like us in the camps, became convinced that poverty destroys strong feeling property even among people to whom theft was alien from childhood. An improvement in living conditions would quickly correct this shortcoming in the majority, and the same would happen in Russia, as it was before the Bolsheviks. It is not shaky concepts and insufficient respect for other people's property that has not appeared under the influence of socialism that make people steal, but need.

POW Gollwitzer

Most often you ask yourself helplessly: why is the truth not being told here? ... This could be explained by the fact that it is extremely difficult for Russians to say "no". Their “no”, however, has become famous all over the world, but this seems to be more Soviet than Russian feature. The Russian does his best to avoid the necessity of refusing any request. In any case, when sympathy stirs in him, and this often happens with him. Disappointing a needy person seems unfair to him; in order to avoid this, he is ready for any lie. And where sympathy is lacking, lying is at least a convenient way to save yourself from annoying requests.

In Eastern Europe, mother vodka has been performing a great service for centuries. It warms people when they are cold, dries their tears when they are sad, deceives their stomachs when they are hungry, and gives that drop of happiness that everyone needs in life and which is difficult to obtain in semi-civilized countries. In Eastern Europe, vodka is theater, cinema, concert and circus, it replaces books for the illiterate, makes heroes out of cowardly cowards and is the consolation that makes you forget all worries. Where in the world to find another such iota of happiness, and such a cheap one?

The people ... oh yes, the illustrious Russian people! .. For several years I was issuing wages in one work camp and came into contact with Russians of all strata. There are fine people among them, but it is almost impossible to remain an impeccably honest person here. I was constantly amazed that under such pressure this people retained so much humanity in all respects and so much naturalness. In women this is noticeably greater than in men, among the old, of course, more than among the young, among the peasants more than among the workers, but there is no stratum in which this is completely absent. They are a wonderful people and deserve to be loved.

POW Gollwitzer

On the way home from Russian captivity, impressions pop up in the memory of a German soldier-priest recent years in Russian captivity.

Military priest Franz

Germans about Russian women

A separate chapter can be written about the high morality and morality of a Russian woman. Foreign authors left a valuable monument to her in their memoirs of Russia. For a German doctor eirich the unexpected results of the examination made a deep impression: 99 percent of girls aged 18 to 35 turned out to be virgins ... He thinks that in Orel it would be impossible to find girls for a brothel.

The voices of women, especially girls, are actually non-melodious, but pleasant. There is some kind of strength and joy hidden in them. It seems that you hear some deep string of life ringing. It seems that constructive schematic changes in the world pass by these forces of nature without touching them...

Writer Jünger

By the way, the staff doctor von Grevenitz told me that during the medical examination, the vast majority of girls turned out to be virgins. This can also be seen from the physiognomies, but it is difficult to say whether it can be read from the forehead or from the eyes - this is the brilliance of purity that surrounds the face. Its light does not have the glimmer of active virtue, but rather resembles the reflection of moonlight. However, this is precisely why you feel the great power of this light…

Writer Jünger

About feminine Russian women (if I can put it that way) I got the impression that they, with their special inner strength, keep under the moral control of those Russians who can be considered barbarians.

Military priest Franz

The words of another German soldier sound like a conclusion to the topic of the morality and dignity of a Russian woman:

What did the propaganda tell us about the Russian woman? And how did we find it? I think it's unlikely to be German soldier who visited Russia, who would not have learned to appreciate and respect a Russian woman.

Soldier Michels

Describing a ninety-year old woman who never once left her village during her life and therefore did not know the world outside the village, the German officer says:

I even think that she is much happier than we are: she is full of the happiness of life, flowing in close proximity to nature; she is happy with the inexhaustible power of her simplicity.

Major K.Küner

We find about simple, integral feelings among Russians in the memoirs of another German.

I am talking to Anna, the eldest daughter, he writes. - She's not married yet. Why won't she leave this poor land? I ask her and show her photos from Germany. The girl points to her mother and sisters and explains that she is best among her relatives. It seems to me that these people have only one desire: to love each other and live for their fellow men.

Germans about Russian simplicity, intelligence and talent

German officers sometimes do not know how to answer the simple questions of ordinary Russian people.

The general with his retinue passes by a Russian prisoner grazing sheep destined for German cuisine. “That’s stupid,” the prisoner began to express his thoughts, “but peaceful, and people, sir? Why are people so unpeaceful? Why are they killing each other?!”… We couldn't answer his last question. His words came from the depths of the soul of a simple Russian person.

General Schweppenburg

The immediacy and simplicity of the Russians make the German exclaim:

Russians don't grow up. They remain children... If you look at the Russian masses from this point of view, you will understand them and forgive them a lot.

By proximity to a harmonious, pure, but also harsh nature, foreign eyewitnesses are trying to explain the courage, endurance, and undemandingness of Russians.

The courage of Russians is based on their undemanding to life, on their organic connection with nature. And this nature tells them about deprivation, struggle and death to which a person is subject.

Major K.Küner

Often the Germans noted the exceptional efficiency of the Russians, their ability to improvise, sharpness, adaptability, curiosity for everything, and especially for knowledge.

The purely physical performance of Soviet workers and Russian women is beyond any doubt.

General Schweppenburg

The art of improvisation among the Soviet people should be especially emphasized, no matter what it concerns.

General Fretter-Pico

On sharpness and the interest shown by Russians in everything:

Most of them show a much greater interest in everything than our workers or peasants; they all differ in speed of perception and practical mind.

Non-commissioned officer Gogoff

The reassessment of the knowledge acquired at school is often an obstacle for a European in his understanding of the “uneducated” Russian ... As a teacher, the discovery that a person without any school education can understand the deepest problems of life in a truly philosophical way and at the same time has such knowledge in which some academician of European fame can envy him ... Russians, first of all, lack this typically European fatigue in front of the problems of life, which we often only overcome with difficulty . Their curiosity knows no bounds... The level of education of the real Russian intelligentsia reminds me of the ideal types of people of the Renaissance, whose lot was the universality of knowledge, which had nothing in common, “a little about everything.

Swiss Ucker, who lived in Russia for 16 years

Another German from the people is surprised by the acquaintance of a young Russian with domestic and foreign literature:

From a conversation with a 22-year-old Russian who had only graduated from a folk school, I learned that she knew Goethe and Schiller, not to mention that she was well versed in Russian literature. When I expressed my surprise at this to Dr. Heinrich W., who knew the Russian language and understood Russians better, he rightly remarked: “The difference between the German and Russian people is that we keep our classics in luxurious bindings in bookcases. and we don’t read them, while the Russians print their classics on newsprint and publish them in editions, but they take them to the people and read them.

Military priest Franz

Talents that can manifest themselves even in an unfavorable environment are evidenced by a lengthy description by a German soldier of a concert arranged in Pskov on July 25, 1942.

I sat at the back among the village girls in colorful cotton dresses ... The entertainer came out, read a long program, made an even longer explanation for it. Then two men, one on each side, parted the curtain, and a very poor stage set for Korsakov's opera appeared before the public. One piano replaced the orchestra... Mainly two singers sang... But something happened that would have been beyond the power of any European opera. Both singers, full and self-confident, even in tragic moments sang and played with great and clear simplicity ... movements and voice merged into one. They supported and complemented each other: in the end, even their faces sang, not to mention their eyes. Wretched furnishings, a solitary piano, and yet there was a fullness of impression. No glittery props, no hundred instruments could make a better impression. After that, the singer appeared in gray striped trousers, a velvet jacket and an old-fashioned stand-up collar. When, so dressed up, with a kind of touching helplessness, he went to the middle of the stage and bowed three times, laughter was heard in the hall among the officers and soldiers. He began a Ukrainian folk song, and as soon as his melodious and powerful voice was heard, the audience froze. A few simple gestures accompanied the song, and the singer's eyes made it visible. During the second song, the lights suddenly went out throughout the hall. It was dominated only by the voice. He sang in the dark for about an hour. At the end of one song, the Russian village girls who were sitting behind me, in front of me and next to me, jumped up and began to applaud and stamp their feet. A flurry of applause began for a long time, as if the dark stage was flooded with the light of fantastic, inconceivable landscapes. I didn't understand a word, but I saw everything.

Soldier Mattis

Folk songs, reflecting the character and history of the people, attract the attention of eyewitnesses most of all.

In a real Russian folk song, and not in sentimental romances, the whole Russian "wide" nature is reflected with its tenderness, wildness, depth, sincerity, closeness to nature, cheerful humor, endless search, sadness and radiant joy, as well as with their undying longing for beautiful and kind.

German songs are filled with mood, Russian songs are filled with a story. In its songs and choirs, Russia has great power.

Major K. Kuehner

Germans about Russian faith

A vivid example of such a state is presented for us by a rural teacher, whom the German officer knew well and who, apparently, supported constant communication with the nearest partisan detachment.

Iya talked to me about Russian icons. The names of the great icon painters are unknown here. They devoted their art to a pious cause and remained in obscurity. Everything personal must yield to the demand of the saint. The figures on the icons are shapeless. They give the impression of the unknown. But they don't have to have beautiful bodies either. Next to the holy, the bodily has no meaning. In this art it would be inconceivable that beautiful woman was a model of the Madonna, as was the case with the great Italians. Here it would be blasphemy, since this is a human body. Nothing can be known, everything must be believed. That is the secret of the icon. "Do you believe in the icon?" Iya didn't answer. “Why are you decorating it then?” She could, of course, reply, “I don't know. Sometimes I do it. I get scared when I don't. And sometimes I just want to do it.” How divided, how restless you must be, Oia. Attraction to God and resentment against Him in one and the same heart. "What do you believe in?" “Nothing.” She said this with such heaviness and depth that I was left with the impression that these people accept their unbelief as well as their faith. Backsliding man continues to carry the old legacy of humility and faith.

Major K. Kuehner

Russians are difficult to compare with other peoples. Mysticism in Russian man continues to question the vague concept of God and the remnants of Christian-religious feeling.

General Schweppenburg

We find other testimonies about young people who are looking for the meaning of life, who are not satisfied with schematic and dead materialism. Probably, the path of a Komsomol member who ended up in a concentration camp for spreading the Gospel became the path of some part of Russian youth. In the very poor material published by eyewitnesses in the West, we find three confirmations that the Orthodox faith was to some extent passed on to the older generations of the youth and that the few and undoubtedly lonely young people who have found the faith are sometimes ready to courageously defend it, fearing neither imprisonment nor penal servitude. Here is a rather detailed testimony of a German woman who returned home from a camp in Vorkuta:

I was very struck by the integral personalities of these believers. They were peasant girls, intellectuals of different ages, although the youth predominated. They preferred the Gospel of John. They knew him by heart. The students lived with them in great friendship, promised them that in the future Russia there would be complete freedom in religious terms as well. The fact that many of the Russian youth who believed in God were awaiting arrest and concentration camp, is confirmed by the Germans who returned from Russia after the Second World War. They met believers in concentration camps and describe them as follows: We envied the believers. We considered them lucky. The believers were supported by their deep faith, which also helped them easily endure all the hardships of camp life. No one, for example, could force them to go to work on Sunday. In the dining room before dinner, they always pray ... They pray with all their free time… One cannot help but admire such a faith, one cannot but envy it… Every person, be it a Pole, a German, a Christian or a Jew, when he turned to a believer for help, always received it. The believer shared the last piece of bread….

Probably, in some cases, believers won respect and sympathy not only from the prisoners, but also from the camp authorities:

There were several women in their brigade who, being deeply religious, refused to work on major church holidays. The authorities and the guard put up with this and did not give them away.

The following impression of a German officer who accidentally entered a burned-out church can serve as a symbol of wartime Russia:

We enter, like tourists, for a few minutes into the church through open door. Burnt beams and fragments of stones lie on the floor. From tremors or from a fire, plaster crumbled from the walls. Paints appeared on the walls, plastered frescoes depicting saints, and ornaments. And in the middle of the ruins, on the charred beams, two peasant women stand and pray.

Major K. Kuehner

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Text preparation - V. Drobyshev. According to the magazine " Slav»

“Our tankers, infantrymen, artillerymen, signalmen overtook them to clear the way, threw their carts with furniture, bags, suitcases, horses into ditches on the sides of the highway, pushed the elderly and children aside and, forgetting about duty and honor and about retreating without fighting German units, thousands attacked women and girls.

"Few people know, few who want to know such a truth."

Before Leonid Rabichev, Lev Kopelev wrote about this in his book of memoirs “Keep Forever”. For Major Kopelev, the protest against the robberies and cruelty of soldiers who had gone out of obedience turned into arrest and 10 years of the Gulag, the accusation: propaganda of bourgeois humanism and sympathy for the enemy. Blogger Alex Rapoport writes about this in a review of the memoirs of World War II veteran Mikhail Rabichev.

The book of memoirs by Leonid Rabichev “War will write everything off. Memoirs of a communications officer of the 31st Army. 1941-1945 ”(M .: CJSC Tsentrpoligraf”, 2009.) really does not look like most publications about the Great Patriotic War. The name of that war adopted in the USSR, in the very selection of epithets, already contained an ideological clue on how it should be covered - a great feat and at the same time a great tragedy of the Soviet people. Everything that did not fit into this scheme should not be remembered.

From such positions, generals, historians and a legion of fiction writers wrote about the war, "developing" military theme. Details, facts, episodes that reduce pathos were regarded as a political mistake and were not censored. Only the prose of V. Astafiev, V. Bykov, G. Baklanov, K. Vorobyov, V. Nekrasov, containing the trench truth, and several other writers offered a more truthful view that was not similar to the official one. The memoirs of private individuals about the war in the conditions of state book publishing had practically no chance to see the light.

In December 1941, at the age of eighteen, Leonid Rabichev was mobilized. At the communication school I received military specialty and the rank of lieutenant, and since November 42, he fought as part of the 31st Army of the Central, and then the 1st Ukrainian Fronts. Participated in the liberation of Belarus, East Prussia, Silesia and Czechoslovakia, served in Hungary, demobilized in June 1946. And although he is a front-line soldier who has military awards, his military memoirs would like to be called the memoirs of a private person.

The book "War will write everything off" does not contain historical clichés, does not conform to the propaganda canon, does not express any corporate interests and tells things that confuse and shock. L. Rabichev writes bluntly about the undress side of the war.

Artist and writer Mikhail Rabichev was born in Moscow in 1923. He began writing poetry at the age of fifteen. In 1940 he received a certificate of completion of the tenth grade and entered the Moscow Law Institute. The literary studio there was headed by Osip Maksimovich Brik. Osip Maksimovich invites him to literary readings in his apartment in Spasopeskovsky Lane, introduces him to Lily Yuryevna, Katanyan, Semyon Kirsanov, Boris Slutsky. In addition to Boris Slutsky, who was a fourth-year student, the future writer Dudintsev attends studio classes.

In November 1942, after graduating from a military school, he took part in the liberation of Sychevka, Vyazma, Rzhev, Yartsev, Smolensk, Borisov, Orsha, Minsk, Lida, Grodno, in battles in East Prussia, then as part of the 1st Ukrainian front in Silesia and Czechoslovakia. He was awarded three military orders and medals.

After the war, in 1946-1947, he was a member of the literary association of Moscow University, led by the wonderful poet Mikhail Zenkevich, and spoke with his poems at literary evening in the Writers' Union under the chairmanship of Tvardovsky, in the communist audience of Moscow State University at the evening under the chairmanship of Antokolsky.

In 1951 he graduated from the art department of the Moscow Polygraphic Institute. He worked as an artist in the field of applied, book graphics and applied arts in the workshop of industrial graphics of the KGI MOHF of the RSFSR, in the publishing houses "Rosgizmestprom", " Fiction”, “Art”, “Medicine”, “Science”, “Priscels”, “Avvallon” and many others.

Since 1959, he attended the advanced training studio at the city committee of graphic artists of Moscow, led by the artist, candidate of science Eliy Mikhailovich Belyutin. Since 1960 he has been a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR. Graphic artist, designer. Solo exhibitions: 1958, 1964, 1977, 1989, 1991, 1994, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009. Participated in Moscow, all-Russian and international exhibitions in Berlin, Paris, Montreal, Cambridge, Warsaw, Spain. Picturesque and graphic works are kept in museums and private collections in Russia and many countries of the world.

Since 1993, a member of the Moscow Writers' Union, poet, essayist, prose writer. Author of sixteen books of poetry, six prose publications. Several poetic and prose publications have been translated into foreign languages.

We offer excerpts from the book “War will write everything off. Memoirs of a communications officer of the 31st army. 1941-1945"

“There were fierce battles on the outskirts of Landsberg and Bartenstein .... my friend, radio operator, junior lieutenant Sasha Kotlov comes to me and says:

Find yourself a replacement for two hours. About a hundred German women gathered at the farm, only about twenty minutes away. My team just got back from there. They are frightened, but if you ask, they give, if only they left them alive. There are some very young people there too. And you, fool, doomed yourself to abstinence. I know that you have not had a girlfriend for half a year, are you a man, after all, or not? Take an orderly and one of your soldiers and go! And I gave up.

We walked along the stubble, and my heart was beating, and I no longer understood anything. We went into the house. There are many rooms, but the women are crowded into one huge living room. On sofas, on armchairs and on the carpet on the floor, they sit huddled together, wrapped in scarves. And there were six of us, and Osipov, a soldier from my platoon, asks:

- What do you want?

I look, only noses stick out from clothes, eyes from under scarves, and one, sitting on the floor, closed her eyes with a scarf. And I'm doubly ashamed. I am ashamed of what I am going to do, and I am ashamed in front of my soldiers: either a coward, they will say, or an impotent one. And I rushed into the pool, and I show Osipov to the one that covered her face with a scarf.

- Are you completely crazy, lieutenant, have you lost your mind, maybe she is an old woman?

But I do not change my decision, and Osipov approaches my chosen one. She gets up and walks towards me and says:

- Herr lieutenant - ain! Wow! Ain! - And he takes me by the hand, and leads into an empty next room, and says sadly and demandingly: - Ain, ain.

And at the door stands my new orderly Urmin and says:

— Hurry up, lieutenant, I'm after you.

And she somehow understands what he is saying, and takes a sharp step forward, presses against me, and excitedly:

“Nicht tsvai,” and throws off the handkerchief from his head.

My God, Lord! Young, like a cloud of light, pure, noble, and such a gesture - Lorenzetti's Annunciation, Madonna!

“Close the door and come out,” I order Urmina.

He comes out, and her face changes, she smiles and quickly takes off her coat, suit, under the suit there are several pairs of some incredible beads and gold chains, and gold bracelets on her hands. She throws six more clothes into one pile, and now she is already undressed, and she calls me, and she is all seized with passion. Her sudden shock is transmitted to me. I throw aside the belt, revolver, belt, tunic - everything, everything! And now we're both suffocating. And I'm stunned.

Where did this happiness come from, pure, tender, crazy, dear! The most expensive in the world! I say it out loud. She must understand me. Some unusually kind words. I am in it, it is endless, we are already alone in the whole world, waves of bliss are slowly growing. She kisses my arms, shoulders, catches my breath. God! What hands she has, what breasts, what a belly!

What's this? We lie cuddled up to each other. She laughs, I kiss her all over, from nails to nails.

No, she is not a girl, probably her fiancé, friend, died at the front, and everything that was intended for him and cherished by three long years of war falls on me.

Urmin opens the door:

"You're out of your mind, lieutenant!" Why are you naked? It's getting dark, it's dangerous to stay, get dressed!

But I can't tear myself away from her. Tomorrow I will write a report to Stepantsov, I have no right not to marry her, this will not happen again.

I dress, but she still cannot come to her senses, looks invitingly and does not understand something.

I slam the door shut.

“Lieutenant,” Urmin says wistfully, “what do you need this German woman for, let me finish in five minutes.”

- My dear, I can’t, I gave her my word, tomorrow I will write a report to Stepantsov and marry her!

— And straight to Smersh?

- Yes, anywhere, three days, a day, and then at least under execution. She is mine. I will give my life for her.

Urmin is silent, looking at me as if I were a fool.

“You, f…, asshole, you are not of this world.

We return in the dark.

At six in the morning I wake up, I don’t say anything to anyone. I will find her and bring her. I find a home. Doors open. There is not anyone.

Everyone has gone to no one knows where…”

“Yes, it was five months ago, when our troops in East Prussia overtook the civilian population evacuating from Goldap, Insterburg and other cities left by the German army. On carts and cars, on foot - old people, women, children, large patriarchal families slowly, along all roads and highways of the country, went west.

Our tankers, infantrymen, artillerymen, signalmen caught up with them to clear the way, threw their carts with furniture, bags, suitcases, horses into ditches on the sides of the highway, pushed aside the elderly and children, and, forgetting about duty and honor and about retreating without a fight German units, by the thousands pounced on women and girls.

Women, mothers and their daughters, lie to the right and left along the highway, and in front of each stands a cackling armada of men with their trousers down.

Those who are bleeding and losing consciousness are dragged aside, children who rush to help them are shot. Cackle, growl, laughter, cries and groans. And their commanders, their majors and colonels stand on the highway, who laughs, and who conducts, no, rather regulates. This is so that all their soldiers, without exception, participate.

No, not mutual responsibility and not at all revenge on the damned occupiers, this hellish deadly group sex ... "

“I was dreaming, and suddenly two sixteen-year-old German girls enter the open gate. There is no fear in the eyes, but a terrible anxiety.

They saw me, ran up and, interrupting each other, German trying to explain something to me. Although I don’t know the language, I hear the words “muter”, “vater”, “bruder”.

It becomes clear to me that in the atmosphere of the stampede they lost their family somewhere.

I feel terribly sorry for them, I understand that they need to run wherever their eyes look and quickly from our headquarters yard, and I tell them:

- Mutter, fater, brooder - niht! - and I point my finger at the second distant gate - there, they say. And I push them.

Then they understand me, quickly leave, disappear from sight, and I sigh with relief - at least I saved two girls, and I head to the second floor to my phones, carefully monitor the movement of parts, but twenty minutes do not pass, as before me from some screams, screams, laughter, obscenities are heard from the yard.

I rush to the window.

Major A. is standing on the steps of the house, and two sergeants twisted their arms, bent those same two girls into three deaths, and on the contrary - all the staff servants - drivers, orderlies, clerks, messengers.

- Nikolaev, Sidorov, Kharitonov, Pimenov ... - Major A. commands. - Take the girls by the arms and legs, skirts and blouses off! Stand in two lines! Unfasten your belts, lower your pants and underpants! Right and left, one at a time, start!

A. is in command, and my signalmen, my platoon, run up the stairs from the house and line up. And the two girls “rescued” by me are lying on ancient stone slabs, their hands are in a vice, their mouths are stuffed with scarves, their legs are spread apart - they no longer try to escape from the hands of four sergeants, and the fifth rips off and tears apart their blouses, bras, skirts, panties.

My telephone operators ran out of the house - laughter and obscenities.

But the ranks do not decrease, some rise, others descend, and around the martyrs there are already pools of blood, and there is no end to the ranks, cackle and obscenities.

The girls are already unconscious, and the orgy continues.

Proudly akimbo, Major A is in command. But then the last one rises, and executioner sergeants attack two half-corpses.

Major A. pulls out a revolver from a holster and shoots at the bloody mouths of the martyrs, and the sergeants drag their mutilated bodies into the pigsty, and hungry pigs begin to tear off their ears, noses, chests, and after a few minutes only two skulls, bones, vertebrae remain from them .

I'm scared, disgusting.

Suddenly, nausea rises in my throat, and I turn inside out.

Major A. - God, what a scoundrel!

I can't work, I run out of the house, not making out my way, I'm going somewhere, I'm coming back, I can't, I have to look into the pigsty.

In front of me are bloodshot pig eyes, and among the straw, pig droppings are two skulls, a jaw, several vertebrae and bones and two golden crosses - two girls “saved” by me ... "

“Will my memories bring harm or benefit to someone? What an ambiguous thing - memoirs! Sincerely - yes, but what about morality, but what about the prestige of the state, recent history which will suddenly come into conflict with my texts? What am I doing, what dangerous game have I played?

Illumination comes suddenly.

This is not a game and not self-affirmation, this is completely from other dimensions, this is repentance. Like a splinter, it sits inside not only me, but my entire generation. Probably all of humanity. This is a special case, a fragment of the criminal age, and with this, as with the dispossession of the 30s, as with the Gulag, as with the innocent death of tens of millions of innocent people, as with the occupation of Poland in 1939, one cannot live with dignity, without this repentance one cannot be worthy get out of life. I was a platoon commander, I felt sick, looked as if from the side, but my soldiers stood in these terrible criminal lines, laughed when they had to burn with shame, and, in fact, committed crimes against humanity.

Regulator Colonel? Was one command enough? But after all, the commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front, Marshal Chernyakhovsky, also drove along the same highway in his "Willis". Did he see it all, did he go into houses where women lay on their beds with bottles between their legs? Was one command enough?

So who was more to blame: the soldier from the ranks, the colonel-regulator, the laughing colonels and generals, the one who was watching me, all those who said that the war would write everything off?

There are no articles on this topic.

Source - "Diary of a German soldier", M., Tsentrpoligraf, 2007.

From the memoirs of G. Pabst, I extract only those fragments that I consider important from the point of view of studying the realities of the confrontation between the Red Army and the Wehrmacht and the reaction of the local population to the occupation.
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07/20/41... you can see local residents lined up at our bakery for bread under the guidance of a smiling soldier...

In the villages, a huge number of houses are abandoned ... The remaining peasants carry water for our horses. We take onions and small yellow turnips from their gardens and milk from cans. Most of them willingly share this...

09/22/41 ... Walking this cold winter morning was a pleasure. Clean, spacious country with big houses. People look at us with awe. There is milk, eggs and lots of hay... the accommodations are amazingly clean, quite comparable to German peasant houses... The people are friendly and open. It's amazing for us..

The house where we are staying is full of lice. The socks that were put there to dry were white with lice eggs. The Russian old man in greasy clothes, to whom we showed these representatives of the fauna, smiled broadly with a toothless mouth and scratched his head with an expression of sympathy ...

What a country, what a war, where there is no joy in success, no pride, no satisfaction...

The people are generally responsive and friendly. They smile at us. The mother told the child to wave to us from the window...

We watched as the remaining population looted in a hurry...

I stood alone in the house, lit a match, and bugs began to fall in a stream. By the hearth it was completely black from them: a terrible living carpet ...

11/02/41 ... we do not get new army boots or shirts when the old ones wear out: we wear Russian trousers and Russian shirts, and when our shoes become unusable, we wear Russian shoes and footcloths or even make earmuffs out of these footcloths ...

The offensive on the main direction to Moscow was stopped, "stuck" in the mud and forests about a hundred kilometers from the capital ...

01/01/42 ... in this house we were offered potatoes, tea and a loaf of bread, kneaded from rye and barley flour with the addition of onions. There must have been a few brown cockroaches in it; at least I cut one...

Franz was finally awarded the Iron Cross. The service record says: "For chasing an enemy tank from point C to a neighboring village and trying to knock it out with an anti-tank rifle" ...

03/10/42... for the past few days we have been picking up the corpses of Russians... This was done not for reasons of piety, but for hygiene... the mutilated bodies were thrown into heaps, hardened in the cold in the most unthinkable poses. The end. It's over for them, they will be burned. But first they will be freed from their own clothes, Russians - old people and children. This is terrible. When observing this process, an aspect of the Russian mentality is visible, which is simply inaccessible to understanding. They smoke and joke; they are smiling. It's hard to believe that someone in Europe can be so insensitive.....

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Of course, where are the Europeans to understand what value trousers and overcoats were for the villagers, even if they had holes ...
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Some of the bodies have no heads, others are chopped up by fragments...only now you begin to gradually realize what these people had to endure and what they were capable of...

The field mail brought me satisfaction with letters and parcels of cigarettes, biscuits, sweets, nuts, and a pair of hand warmers. I was so touched...
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Let's remember this moment!
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Our Russian Vasil gets along well with the battery ... We picked him up with thirteen of his comrades in Kalinin. They remained in a prisoner of war camp, not wanting to be in the Red Army anymore ... Vasil says that in fact he does not want to go to Germany, but wants to stay with the battery ..

Yesterday we already heard how they (Russians - N) sang in their dugouts in P. The gramophone howled, the wind carried fragments of propaganda speeches. Comrade Stalin gave out vodka, long live Comrade Stalin!...

Order is maintained in the dugout thanks to the general good will, friendly tolerance and inexhaustible good humor, and all this brings a glimmer of cheerfulness into the most unpleasant situation ...

____________
Keep that in mind for later comparison...
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It seems that the Russians cannot, and we do not want to...

How tired I am of these dirty roads! It’s already unbearable to see them anymore - rain, ankle-deep mud, villages that look alike ...

Country of extremes. There is no moderation in anything. Heat and cold, dust and dirt. Everything is wild and unrestrained. Isn't it to be expected that people here are like that too?...

There were many destroyed buildings in the city. The Bolsheviks burned all the houses. Some were destroyed by bombing, but in many cases it was arson ...

08/24/42 ... they have been advancing here now since the beginning of July. It's incredible. They must have terrible casualties... they rarely manage to deploy their infantry even within range of our machine guns... but then they reappear, moving into the open, and rush into the forests, where they come under the flat fire of our artillery and dive bombers. Of course, we also have losses, but they are incomparable with the losses of the enemy ...

Their mother was washing the dugout today. She began to do the dirty work of her own free will; believe it or not...

At the door I saw two women, each carrying a pair of buckets on a wooden yoke. They friendly asked: "Comrade, wash?" They were going to follow me just like that...

And yet they hold on, old men, women and children. They are strong. Timid, exhausted, good-natured, shameless - according to the circumstances ... there is a boy who buried his mother in the garden behind the house, the way animals are buried. He rammed the ground without uttering a word: without tears, without putting up a cross or a stone ... there is a priest's wife, almost blind from tears. her husband was deported to Kazakhstan. She has three sons, who are unknown where now...the world collapsed, and the natural order of things was violated a long time ago...

All around us, the villages blazed in a wide ring - a terrible and beautiful sight, breathtaking in its splendor and at the same time a nightmare. With my own hands I threw the burning logs into the sheds and barns across the road....

The thermometer dropped to forty-five degrees below zero ... we have created an island of peace in the middle of the war, where companionship is easily established and someone's laughter is always heard ...

01/25/43 ...between our own trench and the barbed wire of the enemy, we were able to count five hundred and fifty dead bodies. The number of captured weapons was represented by eight heavy and light machine guns, thirty submachine guns, five flamethrowers, four anti-tank rifles and eighty-five rifles. It was a Russian penal battalion of 1,400 men...

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here, indeed, the theory of one rifle for five is confirmed, as it were. With the only feature that the battalion was penal. "Redempted", that is, with blood ...
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04/24/43 ... I can’t help but recall how often during the first summer of the war we met with sincere hospitality from Russian peasants, how even without asking they put out their modest treats before us ...

I again saw tears on the woman's haggard face, expressing the full severity of her suffering, when I gave her child a candy. I felt the old hand of my grandmother on my hair when she received me, the first terrible soldier, with numerous bows and an old-fashioned kiss on the hand ...

I stood in the middle of the village handing out candy to the children. I already wanted to give another one to one boy, but he refused, saying that he had one, and stepped back, smiling. Two candies, just think, that's too much...

We burn their houses, we steal their last cow from their barn, and we take their last potatoes from their cellars. We take off their felt boots, often shout at them and treat them rudely. However, they always collect their bundles and leave with us, from Kalinin and from all the villages along the road. We assign a special team to take them to the rear Anything, just not to be on the other side! What a split, what a contrast! What must these people have experienced! What should be the mission of restoring order and peace to them, providing them with work and bread!...

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In general, what can be said about these memoirs? As if they were written not by a Nazi occupier, but by some direct warrior-liberator. It is possible that he passed off something he wished for reality. Certainly missed something. Perhaps, in his notes, G. Pabst calmed his conscience. It is also clear that, in addition to such intellectuals as he, there were enough cruel and immoral people in the German army. But it is quite clear that by no means all the Nazis were fascists. Even, perhaps, those were a minority. Recording all the German mobilized by Hitler as destroyers and tormentors could, without hesitation, only Soviet propaganda. She carried out the task - it was necessary to increase hatred for the enemy .. However, G. Pabst does not hide the fact that the Wehrmacht brought destruction to the conquered villages and cities. It is also very important that the author did not have time to fit his notes to any ideology. Since he was killed in 1943, and before that he did not belong to the censored war correspondents at all ...

It should also be noted that for the German, everyone was "Russian", "Ivan", although he met both Ukrainians and Belarusians on his way. Those attitude towards the Germans, and the opposite attitude, was somewhat different.

However, in the next post, we will consider excerpts from the diary of a Russian soldier. And let's compare some important points. At the same time, I affirm that I did not specifically select the diaries, I took them for analysis by random sampling ..

https://www.site/2015-06-22/pisma_nemeckih_soldat_i_oficerov_s_vostochnogo_fronta_kak_lekarstvo_ot_fyurerov

"Soldiers of the Red Army fired, even burning alive"

Letters from German soldiers and officers from the Eastern Front as a cure for the Fuhrers

June 22 is a sacred, sacred day in our country. The beginning of the Great War is the beginning of the path to the great Victory. History does not know a more massive feat. But even more bloody, expensive for its price - perhaps, too (we have already published terrible pages from Ales Adamovich and Daniil Granin, stunning frankness of front-line soldier Nikolai Nikulin, excerpts from Viktor Astafiev "Cursed and Killed"). At the same time, along with inhumanity, military training, courage and self-sacrifice triumphed, thanks to which the outcome of the battle of peoples was a foregone conclusion in its very first hours. This is evidenced by fragments of letters and reports from soldiers and officers of the German armed forces from the Eastern Front.

“Already the first attack turned into a battle not for life, but for death”

“My commander was twice my age, and he had already had to fight the Russians near Narva in 1917, when he was in the rank of lieutenant. “Here, in these vast expanses, we will find our death, like Napoleon,” he did not hide his pessimism ... “Mende, remember this hour, it marks the end of the former Germany” ”(Erich Mende, Lieutenant of the 8th Silesian infantry division about the conversation that took place in the last minutes of peace on June 22, 1941).

“When we entered the first battle with the Russians, they clearly did not expect us, but they could not be called unprepared either” (Alfred Dürwanger, lieutenant, commander of an anti-tank company of the 28th Infantry Division).

"The quality level Soviet pilots much higher than expected ... Fierce resistance, its mass character does not correspond to our initial assumptions ”(diary of Hoffmann von Waldau, Major General, Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe Command, June 31, 1941).

"On the Eastern Front, I met people who can be called a special race"

“On the very first day, as soon as we went on the attack, one of ours shot himself with his own weapon. Clutching the rifle between his knees, he inserted the barrel into his mouth and pulled the trigger. This is how the war and all the horrors associated with it ended for him ”(anti-tank gunner Johann Danzer, Brest, June 22, 1941).

“On the Eastern Front, I met people who can be called a special race. Already the first attack turned into a battle not for life, but for death "(Hans Becker, tanker of the 12th tank division).

“The losses are terrible, not to be compared with those that were in France ... Today the road is ours, tomorrow the Russians take it, then we again, and so on ... I have never seen anyone angrier than these Russians. Real chain dogs! You never know what to expect from them ”(diary of a soldier of Army Group Center, August 20, 1941).

“You can never say in advance what a Russian will do: as a rule, he rushes from one extreme to another. His nature is as unusual and complex as this huge and incomprehensible country itself... Sometimes the Russian infantry battalions were confused after the first shots, and the next day the same units fought with fanatical stamina... The Russian as a whole, of course, is excellent a soldier and with skillful leadership is a dangerous adversary ”(Mellenthin Friedrich von Wilhelm, Major General of the Tank Forces, Chief of Staff of the 48th Tank Corps, later Chief of Staff of the 4th Tank Army).

"I have never seen anyone angrier than these Russians. Real watchdogs!"

“During the attack, we stumbled upon a light Russian T-26 tank, we immediately clicked it right from the 37-graph paper. When we began to approach, a Russian leaned out of the hatch of the tower to the waist and opened fire on us with a pistol. It soon became clear that he was without legs, they were torn off when the tank was hit. And despite this, he fired at us with a pistol! (memoirs of an anti-tank gunner about the first hours of the war).

“You just won’t believe this until you see it with your own eyes. The soldiers of the Red Army, even burning alive, continued to shoot from the burning houses ”(from a letter from an infantry officer of the 7th Panzer Division about the battles in a village near the Lama River, mid-November 1941).

“... Inside the tank lay the bodies of a brave crew, who had previously received only injuries. Deeply shocked by this heroism, we buried them with full military honors. They fought to the last breath, but it was just one little drama. great war"(Erhard Raus, colonel, commander of the Raus campfgroup about the KV-1 tank, which shot and crushed a convoy of trucks and tanks and a German artillery battery; a total of 4 Soviet tankers held back the advance of the Raus combat group, about half a division, for two days, 24 and 25 June).

“July 17, 1941… In the evening they buried an unknown Russian soldier [ we are talking about 19-year-old senior artillery sergeant Nikolai Sirotinin]. He alone stood at the cannon, shot a column of tanks and infantry for a long time, and died. Everyone marveled at his bravery... Oberst before the grave said that if all the Fuhrer's soldiers fought like this Russian, we would conquer the whole world. Three times they fired volleys from rifles. After all, he is Russian, is such admiration necessary? (Diary of Lieutenant of the 4th Panzer Division Henfeld).

"If all the Fuhrer's soldiers fought like this Russian, we would conquer the whole world"

“We almost did not take prisoners, because the Russians always fought to the last soldier. They didn't give up. Their hardening cannot be compared with ours ... ”(interview with war correspondent Curizio Malaparte (Zukkert), officer of the tank unit of Army Group Center).

“Russians have always been famous for their contempt for death; the communist regime has further developed this quality, and now massive Russian attacks are more effective than ever before. The attack made twice will be repeated for the third and fourth time, regardless of the losses incurred, and both the third and fourth attacks will be carried out with the same stubbornness and composure ... They did not retreat, but irresistibly rushed forward ”(Mellenthin Friedrich von Wilhelm, General major of tank troops, chief of staff of the 48th tank corps, later chief of staff of the 4th tank army, participant in the Battles of Stalingrad and Kursk).

"I'm so furious, but I've never been so helpless"

In turn, the Red Army and the inhabitants of the occupied territories at the beginning of the war faced a well-prepared - and psychologically too - invader.

"25-th of August. We are throwing hand grenades at residential buildings. Houses burn very quickly. The fire is transferred to other huts. A beautiful sight! People cry and we laugh at tears. We have already burned ten villages in this way (diary of Chief Corporal Johannes Herder). “September 29, 1941. ... The sergeant-major shot everyone in the head. One woman begged to be spared her life, but she was also killed. I am surprised at myself - I can look at these things quite calmly ... Without changing my facial expression, I watched the sergeant-major shoot Russian women. I even experienced some pleasure at the same time ... ”(diary of a non-commissioned officer on the 35th rifle regiment Heinz Klin).

“I, Heinrich Tivel, set myself the goal of exterminating 250 Russians, Jews, Ukrainians, indiscriminately, in this war. If each soldier kills the same number, we will destroy Russia in one month, we Germans will get everything. I, following the call of the Fuhrer, call all Germans to this goal ... ”(soldier’s notebook, October 29, 1941).

"I can look at these things quite calmly. I even feel some pleasure at the same time"

The mood of the German soldier, like the back of the beast, broke Battle of Stalingrad: the total losses of the enemy killed, wounded, captured and missing amounted to about 1.5 million people. Self-confident treachery gave way to despair, similar to what accompanied the Red Army in the first months of the fighting. When in Berlin they decided to print letters from the Stalingrad front for propaganda purposes, it turned out that out of seven bags of correspondence, only 2% contained approving statements about the war, in 60% of the letters the soldiers called to fight rejected the massacre. In the trenches of Stalingrad, a German soldier, very often briefly, shortly before his death, returned from a zombie state to a conscious, human one. It can be said that the war as a confrontation of equally large troops was over here, in Stalingrad - primarily because here, on the Volga, the pillars of the soldier's faith in the infallibility and omnipotence of the Fuhrer collapsed. So - this is the justice of history - it happens to almost every Fuhrer.

“Since this morning, I know what awaits us, and it has become easier for me, so I want to free you from the torment of the unknown. When I saw the map, I was horrified. We are completely abandoned without any outside help. Hitler left us surrounded. And this letter will be sent if our airfield has not yet been captured.

“At home, some will rub their hands - they managed to save their warm places, but pathetic words will appear in the newspapers, circled in black: everlasting memory heroes. But don't let yourself be fooled by that. I am so furious that I think I would destroy everything around me, but I have never been so helpless.

“People are dying of hunger, severe cold, death here is just a biological fact, like food and drink. They are dropping like flies and no one takes care of them and no one buries them. Without arms, without legs, without eyes, with torn bellies, they lie everywhere. A film should be made about this in order to forever destroy the legend of the “beautiful death”. This is just a bestial breath, but someday it will be raised on granite pedestals and ennobled in the form of "dying warriors" with their heads and hands tied with a bandage.

"Novels will be written, hymns and hymns will be heard. Mass will be celebrated in churches. But I've had enough"

Novels will be written, hymns and hymns will be heard. Mass will be celebrated in churches. But I've had enough, I don't want my bones to rot in a mass grave. Do not be surprised if there is no news from me for some time, because I am determined to become the master of my own destiny.

“Well, now you know that I will not return. Please inform our parents as discreetly as possible. I am deeply confused. I used to believe and therefore was strong, but now I don't believe in anything and am very weak. There's a lot I don't know about what's going on here, but even the little that I have to participate in is already so much that I can't handle it. No, no one will convince me that people die here with the words "Germany" or "Heil Hitler." Yes, they die here, no one will deny this, but their last words dying people turn to their mother or to the one they love the most, or is it just a cry for help. I saw hundreds dying, many of them, like me, were members of the Hitler Youth, but if they could still scream, they were cries for help, or they were calling for someone who could not help them.

“I looked for God in every crater, in every ruined house, in every corner, with every comrade, when I lay in my trench, I looked in the sky. But God did not show himself, although my heart cried out to him. Houses were destroyed, comrades brave or cowardly like me, hunger and death on earth, and bombs and fire from the sky, only God was nowhere to be found. No, father, God does not exist, or only you have him, in your psalms and prayers, in the sermons of priests and pastors, in the ringing of bells, in the smell of incense, but there is none in Stalingrad ... I no longer believe in the goodness of God, otherwise he would never allow such a terrible injustice. I no longer believe in this, for God would have cleared the heads of the people who started this war, while they themselves were talking about peace in three languages. I no longer believe in God, he betrayed us, and now see for yourself how you should be with your faith.

"Ten years ago, it was about ballot papers, now you have to pay for it with such a "trifle" as life"

"For everybody reasonable person the time will come in Germany when he will curse the madness of this war, and you will realize how empty your words were about the banner with which I must win. There is no victory, Mr. General, there are only banners and people who die, and in the end there will be no more banners, no people. Stalingrad is not military necessity but political insanity. And your son, Mr. General, will not participate in this experiment! You block his path to life, but he will choose another path for himself - in the opposite direction, which also leads to life, but on the other side of the front. Think about your words, I hope that when everything collapses, you will remember the banner and stand up for it.

“Liberation of the peoples, what nonsense! The peoples will remain the same, only the authorities will change, and those who stand aside will again and again argue that the people must be freed from it. In 1932 it was still possible to do something, you know that very well. And you also know that the moment was lost. Ten years ago, it was about ballot papers, and now you have to pay for it with such a “trifle” as life.”