Participated in battles in the western direction.

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✪ Intelligence: Bair Irincheev about penal battalions

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I wholeheartedly welcome you! Bair, good afternoon. Dmitry Yurievich, good afternoon. Good afternoon, dear viewers and listeners. Today I would like to talk about such an aspect or such a phenomenon in the history of the Great Patriotic War as penal battalions and detachments, on the topic of which, unfortunately, in the nineties and two thousandths, and actually starting from the time of Perestroika, from the second half of the eighties, a huge amount of the amount of dirt (as on so many aspects of the Great Patriotic War). But the problem is that this topic was still very much promoted in the cinema, and in last years: the series "Penal Battalion", the way Nikita Sergeevich Mikhalkov portrayed the detachments, and so on and so forth ... Actually, I would like to somehow more balancedly and relying on the documents that we have available, tell about their activities, that was it like that at all, and was it at all, as we like to say very much, that only in this country, only in this historical period, only we can have such horror, such darkness in general, and only in our sweet cozy Mordor such happens. I met the first mention of barrage detachments in the description of the battle at the Thermopylae Pass, where the troops of Xerxes drove the next portions of military personnel under distribution to the Spartans with spears up the ass. It was, if I remember correctly, about two and a half thousand years ago. And not at all in the Novgorod region, but somewhere there in civilized Europe, where all civilization and culture came from, which is typical. I would like to say the following about the series “Penal Battalion” you mentioned, I’m sorry, I’ll digress, I’ll interrupt, so to speak. When it appeared, we… I have a website, a forum on the website, of course, a heated discussion on the forum. From my point of view, the series "Penal Battalion" is a work that falls into the category of "vomit powder", that is, it is such a disgusting creation that I cannot characterize it with censorship words. But then there were people who said, what is it, a good film. I ask the question: what is good about it? The acting is good. Somehow I'm even at a loss ... and what in general? But my father is a theater director, he also likes it, he is better in every way than you understand. In the history of the Great Patriotic War and in the history of this very phenomenon - penal battalions and detachments, yes. That is, a person does not want to know anything, I don’t want to know anything at all, I see some pseudo-artistic slops, I consume them with pleasure, arguing there about some angles, acting work, directorial debuts, screenwriters and something else, but the essence I don't see behind these slops. I watched it, and you know, I'm like everyone else Soviet people , we did not see, for example, any anti-Soviet creations. For a very long time I wanted to read The Gulag Archipelago, I was wondering what it was, it was impossible to read it - it was nowhere to be found. I read notes in Literaturnaya Gazeta and Abroad newspaper that they shot some kind of feature film The Deer Hunter (1978) by Michael Cimino (Michael Cimino), analysis, this is that, this - this, they didn’t write, by the way, about the main thing, that the main characters there are Russians who are going to fight in Vietnam. Well, here are the stories of the one who talked with the one who watched something there, in the tenth retelling. When videos appeared and these ... anti-Soviet films began to get to us ... I don’t even know what to call them, that is, films that tell about the Soviet Union, it was such nonsense, it was so obvious to everyone that this was such nonsense and such a lie, We don't live like this, we don't work like that. Yes, we are imperfect, just like you are imperfect. We are not perfect, but what you show about us is complete nonsense. Thirty years have passed, and now our local living creators are spewing out of themselves this product, overcooked five times, even more disgusting than the abomination that was poured over us in the West during the Soviet Union. It would seem that there are documents, it would seem that witnesses of all this are alive, no, we are not interested in this, we will take some idiotic fiction and project it into your brain. Sorry, interrupted. The Creator sees it this way, on the one hand, and on the other hand, let’s say, here is the finale of the series “Penal Battalion”, where this commander of the penal battalion sits, among our broken “forty-five”, everything around is littered with the bodies of the dead penalty box and he sits, such darkness, Mordor , you can compare - also a gray background, as Mordor is shown in The Lord of the Rings and as shown here. Well, comrade Volodarsky, the screenwriter, is already in another world, but it seems to me that what he wanted to show is what he expressed several times in programs on Echo of Moscow and so on, that “they filled up with corpses”, “ filled with meat." Well, he knows better ... Yes, he knows better. But nevertheless, I would still like to say that a war is a situation where 1) people are killed, 2) some kill better than others, that is, there is always a winner and a loser. The losing side can scatter, that is, people, it is clear that everyone has an instinct for self-preservation on the one hand, and on the other hand there is such a thing as a military oath. The military oath, in theory, is given either to one's country, or to one's overlord (in the Middle Ages), or allegiance to the city, that is, this is a solemn promise in public that I will fight to the end, I will fulfill my military duty. There is such a thing - military duty, which is ready to endure hardships, endure pain, hunger, cold ... Hardships and hardships. Yes, hardships and hardships. And he is even ready to give his life. Moreover, this is done publicly in front of the formation of comrades. Well, now we have it in front of our parents, you can also record it on video, then post it on YouTube. A particularly advanced tank brigade of the Finnish Defense Forces, they record all this and then sell DVDs, such as for memory. Directly sell DVD, how the guys took the oath, recruits. They have a good PR, well done. Well, for those who do not take this seriously, I would remind you that there is a criminal liability for breaking an oath. Yes. And moreover, in fact, if you look at the Middle Ages, treason is one of the most serious crimes in general, which was instantly punishable by death and, rather, not even here, but in the West. In all these English wars, the English, the French, they have a lot of experience in beheading and hanging for treason against the crown, for treason against their city, their army, and so on. Actually, by and large, all these punishments, I'm sorry, we still have in the Roman Empire. Decimation - if the legion ran, could not stand it, could not, covered itself with shame, then everyone is lined up and every tenth is simply executed. That is, this is really a measure of intimidation to show that you ran to run, but anyway, if the enemy does not catch up with you, then we will catch up with you, you will die anyway. Therefore, let's not run, but you will fight and you have some chance to survive. I would say that this is a measure of disciplinary action. Yes, disciplinary action, intimidation, that they took an oath - they gave it, they thought it was just ridiculous military ritual- no, this is really a public promise, breaking an oath is really a criminal offense, betraying one's country, betraying an oath is a criminal offense. Not only here and not only in the modern world. This is in all countries, excuse me, treason, betrayal is a serious criminal offense. I would add after that that the ancient Romans had another wonderful military custom, besides decimation, when the sentry fell asleep at the post and the guard noticed him asleep, so to speak, then in the morning they lined up the unit, handed out sticks to everyone and his military comrades who fell asleep at the post beaten to death with sticks, because you alone endangered the lives of all of us. Yes, he set everyone up. But then again, only in the Stalinist Soviet Union and only in Russia did it happen that there really were deserters there, there were cases when the troops fled from the battlefield, only here they were somehow stopped there, stopped the panic, shot in front of the ranks . But really, this is just such a view, probably of a very refined Moscow and St. Petersburg intelligentsia, which, probably, is somehow a little far from all this, from all these stories, and really lives in its own world, which is a nice refined world. Jokingly, it is called “elven” on the Internet ... I came up with this, just in case I’ll say it. … But, in fact, the reality is somewhat different. Indeed, the 20th century is characterized by the fact that we have preserved a huge number of various documents. So, in 2012 in Moscow, in the publishing house "Belfry - Young Guard" (normal: Orthodoxy and "Young Guard" together, well, this is our modern ideology) a wonderful collection was released, which, probably, went a little unnoticed "Stalingrad epic . Documents declassified by the FSB of Russia. (Memoirs of Paulus, diaries and letters of soldiers of the Red Army and the Wehrmacht, undercover reports, interrogation protocols, memos of special departments of the fronts and armies.) And, in fact, just the defeat of our troops in the battle near Kharkov in the spring of 1942 and a really catastrophic situation in which in the south of Russia was our army and the uncontrolled flight of our troops in many cases, and led to the fact that at the end of July 1942 comrade Stalin, who was then including the People's Commissar of Defense of the Soviet Union (that is, the Minister of Defense modern language speaking) issued order No. 227 “Not a step back”, which directly spoke about the formation of penal battalions for officers, penal companies for junior officers and rank and file and said that detachments would be created, which would be dealt with by the actual special departments of the NKVD. Again, these four letters of the Russian alphabet - the NKVD - they somehow immediately make a terrible impression on people, that this is something ... I don’t know, some kind of just a closed corporation, a black order, such ubiquitous, all-seeing and all-hearing guardsmen Stalin, who simply appear, shoot everyone and dump them somewhere. And, as always, it is absolutely not motivated. And if you watch Russian films of the 90s and 2000s, then you will definitely be a representative of a special department, it will be a Jew in round glasses, who grazes even more than me, always looks terribly disgusting, such an unpleasant type ... Disgusting. Yes, some kind of disgusting type and, accordingly, he is only looking for how to spoil some good front-line soldier, who, as a rule, is always Russian ... An honest person. An honest man, and, probably, in 1937, someone was imprisoned or repressed there. At least dispossessed. Yes, or dispossessed. Here is a must for a simple Soviet officer (or commander Red Army , until 1943), he will definitely have someone who suffered innocently from Soviet power in the thirties, or in the twenties, or during the revolution he had drunk sailors there or red sailors under cocaine killed someone in the family. That is, the stereotype has appeared. But the NKVD, sorry, this is the Ministry of Internal Affairs actually. Ministry of the Interior. Yes, the Ministry of the Interior, then the word “people’s commissariat” was simply used, that is, then it was simply believed that the word “ministry” and “minister” are the old world, this is a bourgeois, not our world, but we are a new, brave world, we don’t have a minister (minister is “employee” in English), but a people’s commissar. First, it is "popular". It is important that he is a representative of the people, acting in the interests of the people. Well, the word "commissioner", many do not know, it is from the word "commission", it is "ko" - "mission" - "joint action". And in the commission, respectively, the commissioners. In the same way, there were no officers until 1943, there were just commanders, and in the same way there were no soldiers - there were fighters or Red Army soldiers. "Comrade commanders", "comrade Red Army soldiers", "comrade political workers". That is, in fact, if you look at the Red Army in the thirties, it was much more democratic than any Western army, where indeed, this division into “gentlemen officers” and “soldiers”, it was very clear and the distance held on. It is the same. That is, these four letters - NKVD and two more letters OO (special department) immediately inspire some kind of horror for everyone and some kind of wrong stereotype immediately appears that a special officer is a person who just sits somewhere in the headquarters and he has several informants, and he is only looking for someone to shoot. But in fact, if you look at the documents, then the terms of reference of the representative of the special department of the NKVD in our front-line units were, to put it mildly, somewhat wider. Actually, this is a different department, this is a different ministry, this is not the People's Commissariat of Defense, they really look a little from the outside. But they not only just watch everything, write everything down and look for how to shoot someone, but they also organize something, help, really see some shortcomings from the outside, maybe better than army commanders. Well, I would like to give here an example of the report of the special department of the NKVD on the course of the battles in Stalingrad on September 16, 1942. “During the day of fighting on September 15, the 13th Guards Rifle Division lost 400 people wounded and killed and used up all the ammunition for automatic weapons, and despite midnight on September 16, the division has not yet received ammunition and artillery. » That is, they immediately say that we actually have problems here. Which, of course, citizens who did not ask for ammunition in the proper amount, did not supply it in the proper quantity upon request, can tactfully keep silent, without telling the command anything at all. If these signals come from the side, well ... people are just not familiar with the device. Yes, it is a parallel communication system. Plus, again, representatives of special departments, they not only reported, but they could come and say, so, guys, we don’t really have ammunition, who is responsible for this, come on, go there, let’s organize, because now we are all just here killed without bullets. Plus, you need to understand that in our country, again, it is somehow completely forgotten that the Germans conducted very serious undercover activities, constantly bombarded us with recruited soldiers of the Red Army, their agents, scouts, that was all. And what they are saying now, well, it’s all again, the same NKVD men invented everything, in fact they shot innocent people. It's just like that. But somehow to deprive Germany, one of the most powerful armies in Europe, to deny her that they were reconnaissance and say that the Germans did not use agents, this ... well, you can’t say that, because this is one of the tools of war that the Germans, the Nazis very well owned. They really sent agents all the time. Even from besieged Leningrad, if you read the documents of the NKVD, which Nikita Andreevich Lomagin, our respected professor, published, they knew perfectly well everything that was happening in the city there, everything was reported to them, they had their own people in the city. And the special department was really obliged to deal with it. That is, if you argue in this way, that there was nothing like that, maybe, in my opinion, only an illiterate fool. Yes. It’s just as if immediately dismissed that the Germans had their own agent network and the fact that it was necessary to fight it, it just somehow disappears like this and immediately the image of a really some kind of ghoul appears, necessarily, as I said, a Jew ... For some reason, in the Soviet, in the Brezhnev era, Soviet anti-Semitism was bad, but now it’s shown like this in modern Russia when we have tolerance everywhere and so on - this is normal. By the way, I am even a little surprised that so far our Israeli comrades have not been offended and have not said anything about this. I am even more surprised that this is filmed by comrades who have not yet managed to reach Israel, with their active assistance, participation ... Obviously, these are not our Jews, not current ones, these are Soviet Jews, you can shoot about them like this. Apparently yes. And again, there is always a split that a political instructor or a special officer is necessarily a Jew, and they are normal Russian people with a rifle in their hands, with a pistol ... From my point of view, citizens promoting such things, they act in accordance with the instructions of the well-known leaflet “Beat the Jew - Bolshevik, the muzzle asks for a brick, ”these are the allies of Goebbels. I would also remind you that in those times we are talking about, there was still, in my opinion, a criminal article for anti-Semitism. Now there is none. I have not dealt with this problem so deeply, so I will not comment. So, according to order No. 227, detachments appear and penal battalions appear. And of course, the myth immediately appears that the detachments, they only shot their own, shot and did nothing good at all. But, in fact, as you, Dmitry Yuryevich, have said many times, for example, our infantry unit ran, here they are running, respectively, there is a detachment behind them, the detachment shoots them from machine guns, and the Germans in tanks are already approaching the detachment ... That is, the detachment , shooting the fleeing, opens the way for the Germans to themselves, in order to die heroically themselves. Yes. That is, if they are such cowards and scum, somehow it is completely illogical. I would like to quote a few documents. Here they just wanted to read out the certificate themselves ... With your permission. “Reference of the NGO NKVD STF to the UOO NKVD on the activities of the barrage detachments of the Stalingrad and Don fronts. [Not earlier than October 15] 1942 In accordance with the order of the NPO No. 227 in the units operating in the Red Army as of October 15 with. 193 barrage detachments were formed. Of these, in parts of the Stalingrad Front, 16 and the Don Front were formed - 25, and a total of 41 detachments, which are subordinate to the Special Departments of the NKVD of the armies. Since the beginning of their formation (from August 1 to October 15 of this year), barrage detachments have detained 140,755 servicemen who escaped from the front line.” Here, without looking, “detained”, firstly, this indicates that (I am illiterate and purely logically, as a policeman, excuse me, arguing), “detained” - this does not mean that they ran to the line of trenches in which he is sitting detachment. This means that they left their positions, ran away from the front line, and there they were detained by people who were not sitting in the trenches with machine guns in order to shoot in the back ... Checkpoint. Yes. ... on roads, paths and more. Further, the key one is “those who escaped from the front line”, I would note that there are so-called threatened directions in which there is a possibility of a breakthrough and in which one must stand to the death, which, apparently, orders are issued. If you left and ran away, then you set everyone else up - if they break through here, they will kill even more. You saved your own skin, and framed the rest. Well, 140 thousand fled, sorry, of course, this is a mass phenomenon, that is, the commanders of these military personnel either do not rule, or lead the flight from the front line. “... Of the detainees: 3,980 people were arrested, 1,189 people were shot, 2,776 people were sent to penal companies, 185 people were sent to penal battalions, 131,094 people were returned to their units and to transit points.” I can again say that, as a policeman, they were detained, immediately interrogated, everyone pointed at each other with their fingers that they were guilty, the first one yelled “Run!” the commanders fled ahead of everyone, or behind everyone, it doesn’t matter), here 185 of them were sent to penal battalions ... “... The largest number of detentions and arrests were made by barrage detachments of the Don and Stalingrad fronts. On the Don Front, 36,109 people were detained, 736 people were arrested, 433 people were shot, 1,056 people were sent to penal companies, 33 people were sent to penal battalions, 32,933 people were returned to their units and to transit points. Detained - 36 thousand, returned - 33 thousand, roughly speaking. I’ll say separately about those who were shot that as soon as these people are identified who caused the flight from the line of defense that they are obliged to hold, such people should certainly be formed into a unit and shot in front of everyone, so that it doesn’t even occur to them to run somewhere there. I repeat - build, read out the verdict and, according to the verdict, and not out of lawlessness, shoot. It is not clear to many - everything is documented there, who was shot, for what, when, who is the perpetrator and all that. “... 15,649 people were detained along the Stalingrad Front, 244 people were arrested, 278 people were shot, 218 people were sent to penal companies, 42 to penal battalions, 14,833 people were returned to their units and to transit points. » 15,649 people were detained, 14,833 were released. “It should be noted that the barrage detachments, and especially the detachments on the Stalingrad and Don fronts (subordinate to the special departments of the NKVD armies), during the period of fierce battles with the enemy, played their positive role in restoring order in the units and preventing unorganized withdrawal from the lines they occupy, the return of a significant number of military personnel to the front line. August 29 this year the headquarters of the 29th Infantry Division of the 64th Army of the Stalingrad Front was surrounded by enemy tanks that had broken through, parts of the division, having lost control in a panic, retreated to the rear. The detachment detachment operating behind the combat formations of the units of the division (the head of the detachment, lieutenant of state security Filatov), ​​having taken decisive measures, suspended the military personnel retreating in disorder and returned them to the previously occupied defense lines. I draw your attention to the fact that no one was shot, everyone was returned back. Someone will immediately say that “drastic measures” means that a couple of people were shot after all ... It is quite possible. But when the masses flee, when there is panic, in fact only such measures, unfortunately, bring everyone to their senses. But I note that they are not shot, but returned. “In another sector of this division, the enemy tried to break through into the depths of the defense. The detachment entered the battle and delayed the advance of the enemy. Well, that is, everyone ran away, and the detachment was still doing something. “September 14 this year. the enemy launched an offensive against units of the 399th division of the 62nd army, which carried the defense of the city of Stalingrad. The fighters and commanders of the 396th and 472nd divisions of the regiments began to retreat in a panic, leaving the lines. The head of the detachment (junior lieutenant of state security Elman) ordered his detachment to open fire over the heads of the retreating. As a result, the personnel of these regiments was stopped, and after 2 hours the regiments occupied the former lines of their defense. Well, actually, the task is to return it to its place. “September 20 this year. the enemy occupied the eastern outskirts of Melekhovskaya. The consolidated brigade, under the onslaught of the enemy, began an unauthorized withdrawal to another line. By the actions of the detachment of the 47th Army of the Black Sea Group of Forces, order was restored in the brigade. The brigade occupied the former lines and, at the initiative of the political instructor of the company of the same detachment, Pestov, by joint actions with the brigade, the enemy was driven back from Melekhovskaya. At critical moments, when support was needed to hold the occupied lines, the barrage detachments entered directly into battle with the enemy, successfully held back his onslaught and inflicted losses on him. On September 13 of this year, the 112th division, under pressure from the enemy, withdrew from the occupied line. The detachment of the 62nd army, led by the head of the detachment (state security lieutenant Khlystov), ​​took up defensive positions on the outskirts of an important height. For 4 days, the fighters and commanders of the detachment repelled the attacks of enemy submachine gunners and inflicted heavy losses on them. The detachment held the line until the approach of military units. September 15-16 this year The detachment of the 62nd Army successfully fought for 2 days against superior enemy forces in the area of ​​the railway. railway station in Stalingrad. Despite its small size, the detachment not only repelled enemy attacks, but also attacked him, causing him significant losses in manpower. The detachment left its line only when units of the 10th page of the division came to replace it. A number of facts were noted when barrage detachments were used incorrectly by individual commanders of formations. A significant number of detachments were sent into battle on a par with line units, which suffered losses, as a result of which they were assigned for reorganization, and the barrier service was not carried out. Well, that is, the stupid ones were present. “September 19 of this year. the command of the 240th division of the Voronezh Front of one of the companies of the detachment of the 38th Army gave a combat mission to clear the grove from a group of German machine gunners. In the battles for the grove, this company lost 31 people, of which 18 people were killed. Also an example of misuse, apparently. “The barrage detachment of the 29th Army of the Western Front, being operationally subordinate to the commander of the 246th division division, was used as a combat unit. Taking part in one of the attacks, a detachment of 118 personnel lost 109 people killed and wounded, in connection with which it was re-formed. According to the 6th Army of the Voronezh Front, according to the order of the Military Council of the Army of the 2nd Barrage Detachment on September 4th of this year. 174 divisions were attached and brought into battle. As a result, the detachments lost up to 70% of their personnel in battle, the remaining fighters of these detachments were transferred to the named division and thus disbanded. 3rd detachment of the same army on September 10 of this year. was placed on the defensive. In the 1st Guards Army of the Don Front, on the orders of the army commander Chistyakov and a member of the Military Council Abramov, 2 barrage detachments were repeatedly sent into battle, like ordinary units. As a result, the detachments lost more than 65% of their personnel and were subsequently disbanded. In this regard, the order of the Military Council of the Front on the transfer of 5 barrage detachments to the subordination of the 24th Army was not fulfilled. As you and I can see, a slightly different picture than what you see in the film "The Citadel" and other works: just like our fighter, here he is sitting in a trench, turned back and the first thing he sees will be a barrel machine gun "Maxim" ... Lieutenant Elman. ...behind which are perfectly equipped NKVD soldiers in clean uniforms ... With nail files. ... and they shout to him that let's go ahead, otherwise we'll bang you here now. As an illustration, in fact, I wanted to read the award list of Lieutenant of State Security Khlystov Yuri Georgievich, who was the head of the 4th detachment of the special department of the NKVD of the 62nd Army, here he is mentioned here, presented to the Order of the Red Star and here, accordingly, is briefly described as follows: “As the head of the detachment, Comrade Khlystov showed courage and courage, devotion to the cause of the party of Lenin-Stalin. Under his leadership, the detachment since September 1 with. the city detained individuals and groups fleeing from the battlefield in the amount of 2449 people. He himself personally detained and exposed 8 German agents who had made their way to the rear of our units. In the month of September The city with a platoon of fighters detained two battalions of the 193rd Infantry Division, who fled from the battlefield and restored the position of the front line of defense. In September, near the height of 102.2, he led a detachment in battle. Under his leadership, the detachment destroyed up to two enemy infantry battalions. That is, in fact, here we see from the descriptions of what is happening, from awards and other things, we see that, by and large, detachments are what they are doing now military police. I would immediately go to my beloved - eight agents, abandoned, which means everyone is gathered in a heap, everyone is interviewed, it is revealed who knows who, who sees whom, we don’t know this person and we don’t know this person, but how did you get here Where are you from, and who do you know. Eight people is a lot. Yes. And most importantly: what are you doing in the front line? This says that these people are prepared, pulled up to the front line, and at the moment, as soon as the flight of those who left their positions begins, the Germans launch their agents, which gallop through the front line, minefields, barriers, and these do not even see, who catches up with them and the NKVD is forced to do this. Naturally, as we usually say, one was caught - five were missed. Part naturally somehow leaked. This is a no-nonsense event. Of course. All this was actually necessary. And indeed, there are of course a lot of negative statements here, which are very similar to what we can read now on forums on the Internet. Yes, the NKVD actually monitored the reactions through its informants, the reaction of the fighters, commanders to this order 227. There really were statements in the sense that the necessary order, in right time and in the right place, but someone said that now it means not the Germans, so they will kill their own. Well, these are really defeatist moods, the person surrendered, one might say. And there really were a lot of such statements, but again, let's remember that in the summer of 1942 in those parts for our troops, diplomatically speaking, everything was really not brilliant, the situation was difficult. And in this book, the words of some of our commanders are quoted, who said that the one who can stop this is that genius and leader. And indeed, Stalin said his weighty word that in this situation, it was probably necessary, unfortunately. A desperate situation, it requires desperate measures, actually ... And for some reason, when the Germans began to shoot their deserters and then, in 1945, they began to hang everyone who ran away en masse, and hang them indicatively along the roads, for some reason this is normal, in a European way. And here, when they caught a deserter, when he confessed everything, or worse, they caught a fighter who committed a crossbow, they shot him in front of the ranks - this is terrible, only in the bloody Scoop, only under Stalin this can be. Unfortunately, desertion, it is in any army in the world in war time this is a very big chance to go to the next world, and with shame. Or you will be very lucky, like Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, and you will get only eight years. Yes, it already depends on how you will speak before the tribunal and what the tribunal will consider again, that is, execution or penal battalion. But again, here these six letters - OO NKVD, appear in a slightly different light, and I would like to say just a few more words about what is forgotten and about the fact that the NKVD is also the native Soviet militia, speaking between us. And just here there are reports from the head of the NKVD department, Voronin, about the fact that the battles for Stalingrad began, what the Soviet police are doing. Report: “Report from the NKVD SO to the NKVD of the USSR on the situation in Stalingrad. September 14, 1942 Comrade. I report to Abakumov that enemy tanks with submachine gunners broke through from the direction of the Central Airfield and occupied Dvinskaya and Feldfebelskaya streets. Fights are going on in the area of ​​the Dynamo stadium and the station. Our troops are retreating. From the side of Mamaev-Bugra, the enemy approaches the hardware plant and the Krasny Oktyabr plant. Enemy aircraft are bombing crossings, fighting is going on in the center of the city. The head of the garrison, Colonel Saraev, and the commander of the 62nd Army remained from the command in the city. Through the NKVD, two of my deputies and 10 operational workers remained with them, as well as 90 operational staff, which are located in the factories and factories of the city. In addition, the entire police force is located in the city, headed by the head of the Regional Police Department, which took up defense today. There are also employees of the Special Departments in the city, but I do not know their number. Deputy Commander of the front, Major General Golikov, at night with all his apparatus departed to the left bank of the Volga. Enemy aircraft destroyed all the small enterprises of local industry, the central oil depot, 80 percent of the Barrikady plant (No. 221) was destroyed, and the Krasny Oktyabr plant was badly damaged. The enemy does not bomb the Stalingrad Tractor Plant. The plant was mostly preserved, it suffered a little from mortar and artillery shelling. It is worth saying that the following enterprises have been completely preserved: StalGRES, Plant 91 and Plant 264. I ask for your instructions." There is also such a stereotype that the police were the first to flee the city ... Of course. ... when they shouted that German tanks were on their way. Here you can take a look. From my point of view, it is unfair to say that people did not contribute to the overall victory over the enemy. Well, actually, at the end of the story about the detachments, that in fact this was what the military police, which are, in general, in all the armies of the world, are doing now: checking documents in the rear, identifying enemy agents, and, well, an extreme desperate situation is just a cast in the feeling of the fighters. Indeed, after all, the strongest army in Europe at that time was German and did everything correctly: first, a dive raid, then artillery shelling, then tanks and a really unfired fighter from all this could panic, run ... and then others run after him, and that’s all turns into an uncontrollable herd that needs to be stopped, even possibly with shots over their heads, then build, bring to life, yell, it is possible to identify the instigator, shoot him indicatively and send everyone back. That is to bring to life. Yes, of course it’s not good to shoot at your own people, but it’s not good to shoot someone. but this is actually a military situation, this is the law of war. It’s even worse to substitute your own, exposing sections of the front, this is much worse. And disobeying orders is even worse. Someone likes it, doesn’t like it ... Still, now the times are completely different, that is, now I want to - I do it, I want - I don’t do it. But, excuse me, this is modern civilian life in the 21st century, very free, very well-fed, again, this is not a combat situation. In the army, everything is different, especially in wartime, where the laws are much tougher. According to the law of wartime: by the power given to me by the Soviet Union, we are shooting you right here, because you arranged all this, because of you the battalion ran, understand that this is all. And again, it did not necessarily happen that comrades from the NKVD did this. In the same way, artillerymen, for example, could open fire over their heads or stop and hit in the muzzles and send them back with a kick. That is, the infantry is sitting, they are supported by the artillerymen, the infantry ran and the artillerymen, realizing that now we will have Germans here, we have twenty shells, ten of them are armor-piercing, which you will not shoot at the infantry. And you fire these ten shells and that’s all, but you can’t leave the guns, this is also leaving the materiel to the enemy, for the gunners it’s a shame and an artillery officer, realizing that if you don’t stop those who ran now, then for him it’s either captivity or death. Either he must throw the guns, but that's an article. That is, he was framed, indeed, by the foot soldiers who ran. And there are cases in the memoirs of our veterans when some well-mannered, educated Soviet artillery officer, seeing that the infantry ran in front of his battery, he jumps out with a machine gun, takes a few more people with machine guns, runs across them, yells obscenities at them, shoots over heads, then gives someone in the face, turns everyone around and drives them back. Because he understands that otherwise his battery will end. Well, the detachment allows the gunners to do their job, and not to drive the chickened out and run away. This in a mobile war could happen quite often. I would also add to say that the person who ran, I assure you, and if he ran with a unit, he does not run to the headquarters of the 62nd Army at all to report, sorry, we ran, he runs first wherever his eyes look, and then he runs from responsibility for what he did. So, in the thirty-kilometer front line, besides the detachments, SMERSH was still operating ... But it appeared later. Because it is impossible to divide these tasks: to catch agents and detain soldiers, it is impossible. A thirty-kilometer front line in which no one, especially military personnel, can hang around idle, insofar as you ran away in uniform, you will not find civilian clothes anywhere, you will make your way to the devil knows where, you have already got so far that you need to be caught. Well, actually, they caught it. Completely successful, in my opinion. Reports about 140 thousand detainees, well, probably, the phenomenon was massive, probably, it must somehow be stopped in the end. Actually, indeed, many fighters said that, yes, the right order, at the right time, the necessary measures were taken. Simonov wrote very well about this. The work "The Living and the Dead". Recommended reading. And here I would like to quote the Austrian General Erhard Raus, who, despite the fact that he fought against us in the first world war , fought in the Second World War and he always somehow constantly grew in the service, received awards, although all the battles where he was, they somehow didn’t end very well for the Germans. That is, he didn’t take Leningrad when he commanded the 6th Panzer Division, he didn’t take Moscow, somehow it didn’t work out very well in the Battle of Kursk ... But he fought the whole war, competently surrendered to the Americans at the end of the war in 1945, that is, he did everything right. Explanatory. And then, in 1948, the Americans urged him and a group of other German generals to write a summary analysis. And he wrote about the Red Army. I am now completely translating this document, it is in English on the Internet, such a slightly heavy text, because it is clear that the Austrian wrote in German, then it was translated into English and there are such phrases for two paragraphs, heavy. And of course, they immediately began to tell me, why are you publishing this shortfall, but I don’t care what he said. It's all cranberries, again, their perception of the balalaika bear, the Jewish commissar, and so on. I say, well, listen, he wrote not just nonsense, these are not just memoirs, where he reflected on how he almost won and because Hitler was wrong, he lost. This is a document, a memorandum, and it actually says a lot of sound things. Of course, there are a number of things that it will be frankly unpleasant for us to read, about the fact that the Russian soldier is a cattle in the bulk, that herd feeling, they always run around in herds ... but for some reason, everyone has an anti-tank rifle, everyone has a machine gun. Yes, this is his personal perception, but at the same time, this is what he wrote for the Americans already for the next war against the Soviet Union. He wrote, yes, we lost, lost because of this, that, that, that, but I advise you to do this and then you will win. Read our mistakes. Yes. And look at the nineties, the impression is that the Americans really followed these recommendations. For example, he writes that the Soviet Union had a very powerful military industry, well, they knocked out a thousand tanks, two thousand arrived, that is, since 1943, Soviet factories deployed in the Urals, which shells, cartridges, guns, planes, tanks just drive to the west and throw the Germans, sorry, no longer with corpses, but simply with tens of tons of shells. And so he wrote that yes, we actually lost in the war economy, we failed, they produced more, and we produced little, and they simply overwhelmed us with a mass of this iron, a mass of military equipment, ammunition. This is what happens, the Stalinist communist economy is more powerful than the German capitalist one? Yes, more powerful and pragmatic, and more logical. Because, if the Germans only in 1943 decided to transfer their economy to a military footing and declared totalkrieg, that is, total war. That is, until 1943, they had a bunch of factories producing ordinary consumer goods, which was already everything in the Soviet Union in 1941, excuse me, you do not produce powder, but in these powder boxes you make heel-pinch anti-personnel mines. Please go to the Leningrad Defense Museum in Solyanoy Lane, it directly shows how all enterprises were switched to the production of military products, any enterprises. The Germans woke up only in 1943, something is bad with us, accordingly, they began to transfer their entire industry to a military footing. Did not help. Did not help. And Routh writes at the end that they had a very powerful military industry, but if you bang it, with your strategic bombers or something else, then you will probably win. Well, look at the nineties - yes, half of the defense industry (or some, unfortunately, I'm not an expert) ... We managed without bombers. Yes, they did without bombs and really banged. Indeed, many factories simply collapsed. Enough Yegorov Gaidar and Anatoly Chubais. But let's get back to what Routh says about commissars, detachments and all these other things. Let's read. He writes the following: “However, it is not true that the Russian soldier fought so well only because of the fear of the commissars, under the guns of machine guns with calculations from political officers. A soldier who is motivated only by fear will never have the qualities that the Russian soldier demonstrated in this war. The motive of fear could be the last resort in difficult situations, but basically the Russians had a national spirit that was different from the political one, no weaker than that of the soldiers of the Western armies and with the same source of strength. That is, the Russian soldiers, it turns out, were the same patriots of their country as the soldiers of the Western armies, and maybe even more. Well said. It is only unclear what these Western patriots needed in the Soviet Union. It's hard to understand. Well, we just talked about detachments, that this is really a forced measure, a measure in a desperate situation, which is true, if 140 thousand were detained, most of them were returned and only 2-3 thousand were shot, then this already somewhat suggests that modern Russian art cinema gives us an absolutely distorted picture. And indeed, these people who did their job: they caught agents, brought the soldiers of the Red Army to their senses, who faltered, yes, they condemned and shot them in front of the ranks, but someone has to do it, this is war. War is generally bad, killing is generally bad, killing your own is also bad, but if this is not done, then we will lose the whole country in general, we will lose the nation and in general we will lose everything. Here, a fighter was detained or an officer was detained in a detachment, or a commandant's patrol was detained on the street of a front-line city, and it turns out that the person has deserted. Or, I posted a video recently, our veteran told us there, a young lieutenant, they gave us four days of vacation, and we went on a walk in Rostov for a week with girls, vodka, dancing, girls ... two young guys, lieutenants, twenty years old ... It's hard to break away, Yes. Yes, both are twenty years old. And accordingly, as if late. There, the patrol detained them, and says, guys, you had a vacation, as it were, for four days, and you have been walking for a week already, you guys are deserters, with all due respect ... Just think, I was late, but I returned They were told, but they are already looking for you, you have already been declared deserters, in fact, they were supposed to arrive at the unit and did not arrive, but vodka girls are more important than the oath. Well, they were told, that's it, guys - penal battalion. Let's figure it out right away: what is a penal battalion, what is a penal company, what do they mean. A penal company is for soldiers and non-commissioned officers, that is, they are not officers, not commanders, these are precisely non-commissioned officers, midshipmen and privates. For those who do not understand well, an officer cannot get into a penal company. Can not. And here is this criminal rabble, excuse me, shown in the "Penal Battalion", that there is some kind of crowd of criminals, thieves are fighting ... where did they come from, excuse me? How could they get into a penal battalion if they do not have an officer's rank, if not at the front, if they did not receive a sentence for a military crime committed at the front? What is it in general? That is, firstly, an officer cannot get into a penal company. Can not. A soldier cannot get into a penal battalion. Yes. This is the first moment. The second point: there really is such a tough Soviet pragmatism here - after the battle, in order to relieve stress, three officers got drunk in a dugout, fought, someone pulled out a gun and shot another drunk. It happens. Excuse me, the army is several million people, the army is a replica of society, everything is the same as in ordinary society. They tied him up, this criminal, and dragged him to the tribunal. And the man overslept, came to his senses, repented and said that yes, I was to blame, I did it, he confessed. And accordingly, according to the law of wartime, he must be shot. For such a really cruel violation of military discipline and, in fact, a criminal offense - murder while intoxicated, that is, with aggravating circumstances. But on the other hand, maybe he received a letter that his relatives died because of this, he got drunk and lost control of himself to relieve stress, maybe the girl sent a letter that don’t wait, she married another. Again, the state spent at least six months of an infantry school to make him a lieutenant (or second lieutenant), that is, a person took the course for six months (or three or four months - there were accelerated courses when everything was bad in 1942), but the soldiers who are sitting in the trench, they didn’t even have this, they don’t know everything that he studied, the state spent time and raised him to an officer, that is, he is already more educated, or maybe he has been fighting in general since 1941, him several awards, combat experience , he knows everything there, smart ... Well, he broke, well, it happens. And just to take him and shoot him is stupid, this is an irrational use of human resources. Therefore, why are we going to kill him, why shoot him, if a person can really ... Expiate his guilt with blood. … to redeem themselves with blood, yes. Let him go to the front, he can do everything, he has learned everything, he has combat experience, let him fight for three months in the most difficult areas and, if he lives, we will return him both shoulder straps and awards, and return calmly to his unit. Or will be transferred to another part. But in this case, he will fight not as an officer, but as a private. Yes. They take away all the awards from him, take away his shoulder straps, and, like an ordinary soldier, he ends up in a penal battalion, this applies to officers. Again, sergeants and fighters end up in a penal company, for the same crimes - stole, killed, raped, looted, ran away, committed a crossbow, something else. With the fighters, the conversation was still stricter, because not such valuable personnel. And yes, dear viewers, if anyone does not know what a crossbow is: this is when a fighter specifically shoots a muscle in his arm or leg in order to say. that hurt me and get me out of here. Moreover, it specifically shoots so as not to hit the bone (so that the wound is light). And accordingly, if you shoot from a rifle, powder gases remain on the skin. As a rule, they shot through a boot or through a loaf and the actual fight against crossbows, this was also a serious task for a special department. There were also “double crossbows”, this is when two fighters diverged five meters so that there are no powder gases and they shoot each other so as to injure easily and say “get me out of here, I don’t want to be at the front anymore, I’m tired, I’m leaving ” and thus avoid being on the battlefield. This is also a criminal article. Criminal article "self-mutilation". Moreover, not only in the Red Army, but in general in any army in the world. And you also understand, if someone does this and in part they understand that they can fall down in this way, it has an absolutely destructive effect on morale, on morale, because everyone will start doing this in order to go to the hospital, they feed better there, there it’s warm, there are no lice, they’ll sanitize you there, the sisters there are beautiful and they don’t kill you at all. At least you'll live another month. Yes, you'll live another month and generally a cool idea. But this is a crime. I would still follow. You said that there were three people who got drunk and one shot the other while drunk. I note that in this case a decent commander will try to register the person killed as killed in battle, because if you were shot while drunk, this is a criminal offense and nothing will be allowed to the family, and if you died in battle, then there is a pension, awards, something there… And, accordingly, relatives will not know that some bastard shot him while drunk… And what a trauma it is for relatives. Still would. He didn’t die for his Motherland, but just like that ... Well, again, the army is a cast of society, this is the first moment. And the second point is that millions of people went through the army during the Great Patriotic War, so of course there could be such cases, in much smaller labor collectives there are (some miners in the North). That is, the tribunal could do something like this: taking into account past merits, we do not shoot, but send this officer to the penal battalion, remove shoulder straps, remove awards, they are stored. Arrived at the penal battalion, won it back for three months, if you survived, if you received any injury, then, accordingly, everything, you rehabilitated yourself, washed away your guilt before the Motherland with blood. Both titles and awards are returned to you, and if you also distinguished yourself in the penal battalion, then the commander of the penal battalion can also reward you if the fighter really has proven himself very well. I’ll clarify one more time for the stupid: either you get hurt, easily, hard - it doesn’t matter, it’s called “washed away with blood”, or you rattled your three months there, didn’t get a scratch, and in the same way it is considered that you atoned for guilt. Yes. Or he died, but then it is also believed that he atoned for his guilt with blood. And a very important point here is to understand that the penal battalion is actually in terms of the number of penalized men, it is a reinforced rifle regiment, that is, about 800 people. Again, what is distorted in the series "Shtrafbat" is that they have a commander of a penal, this could not be ... This cannot be. This could not be, that is, the commander of a penal battalion, the commanders of penal companies and platoon commanders are regular officers, they are always there, because penal soldiers come and go: someone was wounded, someone was killed, someone honestly won back three month and left, and such a thing as a headquarters, how to manage it all. That is, the actual officer backbone of the battalion should be permanent, there were officers who had powers much higher than those of an ordinary battalion commander, in fact, the powers were at the level of a regiment commander or even at the level of a division commander. And now there are 800 people, officers, all educated, all smart. Yes, probably, there are some stealing quartermasters who were pushing alcohol somewhere in the rear and they caught him, and also, why shoot him, fight. And accordingly, what to do with them? They used it as a shock part, as an elite shock part. Because there are all officers, all smart, everyone knows everything, everyone is already fighting a lot. Indeed, in the most difficult sectors of the front, that is, the penal battalion was not just like that, especially for officers, in order to get rid of it, no, they were thrown into the most dangerous sectors, the losses were very high. The key question is: why were they sent there, in order to kill them all, or so that they would solve some specific problem? Specific complex combat mission. Excuse me, I'll interrupt, here is a good example, that when cleaning up a grove ... Clean up a grove from a group of German machine gunners. Well, this is a detachment. As a rule, he was placed in the penal battalion in the direction of the main attack, and he went first. Well: "Participating in one of the attacks, out of 118 personnel, I lost 109 people killed and wounded." This is to the question of what happens in normal parts, ordinary ones. What should happen in the penal battalion, I'm wondering. Everyone should jump out alive and healthy? The fact of the matter is, yes, that if you are guilty, if you really were guilty and committed a crime, then it is clear that you will not be offered a sanatorium in Tashkent. They will put in the direction of the main blow and that's it, let's go. This is the height that an ordinary infantry unit cannot take a long time ago, here we go, take it. That is, in fact, what is shown in the "Penal Battalion" ... that there are some kind of incomprehensible criminals, it is not clear where they came from, they generally tried not to let them go to the front, to the Red Army, there were some political ones ... They also tried to go to the front don't let. Indeed, there are memories of those who were imprisoned, that they wrote petition after petition and they were refused all the time, they said no, sit on, we have people who are fighting. That the battalion commander himself is a penal. That there are some boozes there, bukhalovo, criminals run the battalion. Another Orthodox priest, it’s not clear where from at all ... He’s good, he’s along with criminals at the same time ... I don’t know why it’s shown like that ... Again, just understand that the series “Penal Battalion” has nothing to do with the fact that the penal battalion from represented himself. If you want to read about the penal battalion, really about the difficulties, about the features, about losses and everything else, there is a wonderful book by Alexander Pyltsyn, who was a company commander in the 8th penal battalion of the 1st Belorussian Front, called “Penalty strike, or Like an officer's penal battalion reached Berlin. The book is on Ozone, the book is in electronic form. Please take a read. And the most important thing is that comrade Pyltsyn was alive a few years ago and, unfortunately, he was not lucky enough to see the series “Penal Battalion”, I don’t know at all how he survived ... In my opinion, he saw it, no? He watched the series "Penal Battalion", but when I asked him about it, he said that obviously we now have such an ideology. This is true. We really have such an ideology aimed at instilling hatred for our own ancestors. And such a question. As it should be for all idiots, that is, people convicted of nothing (that is, military crimes are “for nothing”), people sent to the most dangerous directions, well, and then, probably, they want to kill them all. So, in order to kill them, they were sent to the most dangerous direction, how were they armed? Like at Nikita Sergeyevich's, they handed out shovels from shovels? No. This is an assault assault unit. That is, everything is with automatic weapons, everything is fine with this. Everyone understood everything. And just in Poltsyn, he describes very well that just the battalion commander and company commanders treated their subordinates with respect, because all officers. It is clear that now they are not officers for three months, but there the captain or senior lieutenant could have subordinate former colonels or lieutenant colonels who did not comply with the order or did something like that ... That is, there was an absolutely normal attitude, there was normal armament and Poltsyn he said that our weapons were almost better than in the guards, almost better than those of the guards units. Everyone was well aware that it was not suicide squad , this is really an elite unit that can cope with tasks that our usual rifle unit, just formed or something else, this unit is a penal battalion, it will be able to cope with this task. Were there cases when (they were all condemned for nothing) they ran in front and fled to the Germans in full force? Has it happened? No. This very rarely happened. No, in no way, because they would immediately bang their own. The company commander or the battalion commander, he also ran with them, wherever he would let them escape. If he sees that someone dropped his weapon and ran to the Germans, he immediately ... and his own too immediately ... after all, these are officers, it is clear that they are guilty, but there is still such a thing as the honor of an officer. Well, what is it. This, you know, is more like a penal company ... that’s just the 29th separate penal company of the 23rd Army, I read the loss report there, and to be honest, my idea has changed somewhat, because it feels like some kind of gang just criminals. Because there, in June, in my opinion, they really had a huge number of people shot for disobedience, for disobeying an order, for resisting command, for trying to escape, for desertion, really, it seems that just some kind of sharaga of criminals, just what - a gang. Well, in my opinion, it is twofold, that is, on the one hand, the leadership that commands them, what is the priest - such is the parish. Yes. But there really, if you look at the summary of losses, then there are a lot of combat losses, yes. There, before the assault on height 44.5 on Vuoksa, there were 200 of them, and by the evening there were 40 of them, that is, they actually ceased to exist. But there they also had some absolutely incomprehensible sad situation, which, I don’t understand why it happened - there they also shot the commander of a penal company for disobeying an order before storming the height. Whether he refused, or something else, is unclear. But as a result, yes, for some reason I got hooked on this company, that it is written there that the commander of the penal company was shot before the assault on the height for failure to comply with the order. Then I got hooked on his last name, a summary of losses appeared on the Internet, and there, yes, there are many such non-combat losses, connected, rather, with some kind of criminal cases. Once again, dear viewers, I would like to say that this is not a purely Soviet invention, it was, in fact, many other armies. The Germans had their penal battalions. Well, in fact, our good neighbors Finns distinguished themselves, in 1941 they formed their 21st separate penal battalion. And it was there that they recruited criminals and political ones. That is, the series "Shtrafbat" it would be logical if there was a Finnish penal battalion. But it was even more fun there. Now I will give statistics directly from the Finnish Wikipedia - what the Finns write about themselves and what they want to show the world accordingly, I guess. 550 voluntary felons from Sukeva and Pelso prison. And in addition, they recruited 288 people who were imprisoned for their political views, that is, the communists. Were they forcibly sent there? Probably not. Yes, so out of these 288 political ones there were 25 former commanders Finnish Red Guards, who fought in the Finnish Civil War back in 1918. Well, actually, the fun began already on the way to the front, when seven of these political people fled straight from the train, by the way, one of them was the future Minister of the Interior of Finland in the Kekkonen government, a staunch communist who was in this camp and then fled accordingly. Moreover, the Finnish police did not catch him, he really was in the position of an underground worker throughout the war. Yurio Leino was his name. Such a staunch communist. And the Communist Party was banned, that is, he really had his own underground cell, he was quietly engaged in underground activities against Finland in Finland. And then in 1945 he came out of the gloom, under the terms of the armistice, the activity of the Communist Party was again allowed, and he calmly appeared and then was the Minister of the Interior of Finland. Serovo. That is, he knew from the inside ... Yes. Well, actually, here you are, a battalion of criminals and political. So they arrived at the front, and in the first week 80 politicians ran straight to the enemy, that is, to ours. Actually, they are convinced communists and ran to the Red Army to surrender, then they made a leaflet, specially for their own, they said: men, everything is fine here, come on. Well, all the prisoners always wrote this ... Well, accordingly, after that, the Finnish officers thought and realized that they did something wrong, because this is generally the main supplier of defectors, this battalion, well, excuse me - 288 people, of which 80 fled to ours, no matter how yes, something is wrong ... Third, count. Yes. Well, after that, all the remaining political ones were simply sent from the front back to the camp, to sit out. And after that there was a pure battalion of criminals. The bold experiment failed. Yes, the experiment failed. The Russian Bolsheviks, of course, were to blame for the fact that they did not send political people to the front. Where, in my opinion, any donkey understands how it will end: if you showed yourself like that in peacetime, then in wartime nothing else should be expected from you. And even if you specifically think that it is not so, then there is no need to conduct such experiments. Actually, this battalion of criminals (convicted of criminal offenses) he calmly fought, actually spent time on the defensive, such a rather positional static war began there. Losses? Losses were small. There is a very well-known topic when another volunteer from prison came there and his battalion commander asked: who are you? He's like, "I'm a serial killer, a recidivist." They say to him: well, we need such people here. Yes, 21st separate battalion They called it the Black Arrow, such a romantic name, but then they became an ordinary infantry battalion. And then in 1944, if I remember correctly, if, again, I didn’t mess up anything with the numbering of the regiments, because they very often shuffled them, transferred battalions from one regiment to another, they were just in 1944, when they were already under a steamroller of the Soviet offensive, there, in my opinion, the battalion immediately fled for nothing, stole a truck ... As it should be, they dashed off in full force. Yes. They hijacked a truck, the military police tried to stop them, but just when thirty people with machine guns in the back, and there were two military policemen standing on the road, they just realized that there was no need to quarrel, stepped aside, and these left somewhere . And just a part of the deserters calmly went to the Saimaa Lakes to rest. Heroes, heroes. It’s just that there are a huge number of islands there, there are cottages and they settled there until September, and only after the truce did they somehow begin to legalize. But then again, the Finns in 1944, if this case is dismissed, because it is not very confirmed (I will have to look at the documents in more detail), but they really had a problem of desertion in 1944, about its extent, Finnish historians still they have been arguing for a long time, but also demonstrative executions, there were tribunals and in fact they had a whole photo session on the Internet in the photo bank of the Finnish defensive forces: here is a tribunal sitting, here in front of them is a deserter, a father of three children, an elderly Finnish man, well, he ran off somewhere, his the military police caught it, and now, the next photo - he is already dead. All this is on the Internet, you can look. And I also had a chance to listen to what the respected Finnish professor Mauno Jokipii, who fought as a simple soldier in 1944 in the Finnish army, said. And when it came to talking about how big the problem with desertion was in the Finnish army, how much the Finnish military police and these field tribunals helped, how many people were shot as a result, how many were caught, it was a lot or it was not enough. They also have very polar assessments: someone says, no, no, everyone fought, everyone was great, and someone says, yes, we had two divisions that ran away and fished on the Saimaa lakes. Laughing. The truth, as always, is probably somewhere in between. Here is the respected Professor Mauno Jokipii, he said the following: yes, we had demonstration executions, I saw it, I stood in the ranks, I saw it all, it had a very depressing effect on me personally, an even more depressive state, which, probably, many Finnish soldiers already believed that the war could not be won ... Yes, ours in 1942, we have a catastrophe now, but we will still rise after this blow, we will still strike back. And the Finns in 1944 understood that no retaliatory strike could be inflicted, here they just had to somehow put up with minimal territorial, some kind of economic losses. And so Mauno Jokipii said that we understood that we couldn’t win the war, and then the executions went on, and what, and where to go ... That is, there are also such defeatist moods, mirrored by the fact that NKVD informants wrote to their curators: not strangers, so theirs. So again, dear viewers, what they are now trying to feed us through the cinema, forums, and so on and so forth is absolutely not the same, this is another black myth, another black legend. Yes, probably, there were some NKVD officers who, for gratitude, for promotion, could catch some innocent soldier and shoot him indicatively. Yes, you can find in the memoirs of veterans that they caught some of our fighter and the special officer clung to him for nothing, and he was shot by the unfortunate. But again, this is human perception. The one who is now telling you this, one of our veterans, God grant everyone health, may not know all the ins and outs: what this fighter did and why he was shot before the formation. Again, the series "Penal Battalion" has nothing to do with historical reality. On the contrary, this is actually a diversion against our history, it is a spit in the direction of everyone who once fought in penal battalions. Well, the works where the detachments are depicted as people dressed to the nines, with the best equipment, the most best weapon while our fighters at the front are all ... With sticks from shovels. ... with sticks from shovels, in tattered boots, tattered tunics, lousy, dirty and they are shot in the back by these people in blue caps with crimson or red piping, NKVD caps, then this is a spit in all honest employees of the internal affairs bodies, really employees of state security, who also did their job in the war. What to say about such creators. Such creators, like a fairly large part of the Soviet intelligentsia, betrayed, sold everything that, I’m not afraid of such words, they served all their lives, everything they believed in, everything they hoped for, everything was sold, betrayed, spat upon, trampled on. How should one treat traitors, I don't know, and their traitorous product?.. What's worse is that nothing new has been invented. Nothing new that people will lead further. If the Soviet project was abandoned, it really was simply completely trampled into the mud, and then what do we have? Where are we going next? Unfortunately, in these 25 years without the Soviet Union, only the watering of the previous period of Russian history is somehow visible - Soviet period and somehow no one has formulated any national idea during this time. And indeed, they have already overfed everyone with this black myth, overfed everyone with stories about the terrible repressions of 1937, although I, too, from an intelligent family and really had relatives repressed and so on, but already these stories about 1937 and bloody Stalin ... millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, billions, and so on, cause nothing but allergies. Yes, there were times and there were bad times, and there were good times, we need to know that. “There was a time and prices were reduced, and the channels flowed where they needed to and where they needed to flow.” You need to know what happened, and not on the basis of tales, but on the basis of documents, and still look to the future. Do not repeat the mistakes that were made by our previous historical figures, do not tear history to pieces, treat the history of your country with due respect. And think, how will we ever go down in history? How cool did we go to the Canary Islands? What have we built? What have we left behind? Because, looking at how the Stalinist period is being criticized now, it is interesting how our period will be described later, in seventy years. We can tell that we watched the series "Penal Battalion", our achievement. And what have they achieved, built? What breakthrough did you make? Have you flown to Mars? No. To the moon? Well, we're going to. Was the railway to Yakutsk at least built? Not yet either. There are a lot of things in general. In Russia, there is always such a situation that there is always something to do, moreover, creative, normal, but no, we will only talk about how bad everything was in 1937 and how our ancestors, our dear grandparents, great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers with their bodies with one rifle for three, they broke into Europe and threw corpses at everyone, and there they raped everyone. At least two million. Yes, at least two million… but, excuse me, a thinking person still, it seems to me, should understand that this is not a historical reality, it is not creative and constructive. Again, if we want to continue to live as a single country and a country, sorry, not the last one on this planet. Summing up, so to speak, briefly: rather than watching and listening to any nonsense, it is better to refer to the documents. The book, I don't know, can I still buy it? In my opinion, it has already ended, but it seems they were going to republish it, but such collections of documents clear the brain very well, because these are archival sources. Of course, we will immediately be told that it was all forged, they lied and misrepresented everything there, but this, excuse me, is not a serious historical discussion, this is again propaganda. Here is the Stalingrad Epic. Documents declassified by the FSB of Russia. Memoirs of Paulus (captured), diaries and letters of soldiers of the Red Army and the Wehrmacht, undercover reports, interrogation protocols, memos of special departments of fronts and armies. This is the real story, so to speak. Dear viewers, please read Pyltsyn's book. Link to the book under the video, look, read. Do not eat what is brought to your face on a shovel, try to think at least a little, at least be interested in something. Thanks Bair. Thanks a lot. All the best to everyone. And that's all for today. See you again.

Story

In 1941, the 118th rifle division was formed on the territory of the Shakhunsky district from conscripts from the Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Kirov and Gorky regions. The formation of the division was led by the division commander, Colonel Andrey Yakovlevich Vedenin and military commissar P. I. Petrov. A. Ya. By April 1942, the formation was completely completed. The 118 Infantry Division included:

398th Rifle Regiment - Commander Colonel G. F. Nikonov;

463rd Rifle Regiment - Commander Lieutenant Colonel N.P. Nikulin;

527th Rifle Regiment - Commander Lieutenant Colonel S. V. Starikov;

604th Artillery Regiment - Commander Colonel A.I. Zhemartsev;

283rd separate communications battalion, 282nd engineer battalion, 259th medical and sanitary battalion, 191st anti-tank division, 87th separate mortar division.

After the formation of units was completed, the division transferred to the reserve of the Supreme High Command and was located in the Krasnye Tkachi area, Yaroslavl region. In May, the division was transferred to the command of the commander of the Moscow defense zone and is located in the city of Solnechnogorsk.

In June 1942, they received an order to move even closer to the front - to the Moscow region, to the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe wonderful Senezh Lake, on the shore of which Solnechnogorsk was spread. Soon an inspection of the Headquarters headed by Marshal of the Soviet Union K. E. Voroshilov arrived at the division and for three days comprehensively studied the readiness of the division's units and subunits.

Battle path

On July 18, 1942, the division from the reserve of the High Command came under the command of the commander of the 31st Army of the Western Front. Along the roads and villages, just liberated from the enemy, the 118th Rifle Division was moving from Volokolamsk to the front line.

He took his first baptism of fire, an artillery regiment brought down dozens of tons of deadly metal on the Nazis and in two and a half hours artillery preparation ensured a breakthrough of the enemy defense, which was strengthened for seven months and was considered an impregnable fortress by the Nazi bosses.

With the breakthrough of the German defense, the division occupied the enemy strongholds in the village of Christmas-Kulkovo. All enemy firing points were destroyed and, despite the increased enemy air raid and massive shelling from the left bank of the Volga, the artillery regiment timely took up battle formation in the Davydkovo-Sobolevo area. He began to support the formation of Volga divisions with fire. The division occupied a foothold on the left bank for a further offensive in the area of ​​Kolesnikovo and other settlements.

After a five-month defense, parts of the division in March 1943 fought in the Rzhev-Vyazemsky operation.

On March 2, 1943, the 118th Rifle Division was the first on the Western Front to break through the German fortified zone near Rzhev, initiating a general offensive by the troops of the 31st Army. For 18 days in the conditions of spring thaw and impassability, the division fought about 180 km, freeing up to 160 settlements, overcoming four water barriers, contributed to the liberation of the cities of Rzhev and Sychevka, participated in the liberation of the city of Dorogobuzh, crossed the important Moscow-Minsk highway.

For military merit, by order of the NPO on April 10, 1943, the 118th Rifle Division was transformed into the 85th Guards Rifle Division.

Parts and divisions were also numbered:

The 398th regiment was transformed into the 249th Guards Rifle Regiment;

The 463rd regiment was transformed into the 251st Guards Rifle Regiment;

(09/14/1942 - 11/01/1942), lieutenant colonel

463 sp:

Nikulin Nikolai Petrovich (01/28/1942 - 11/18/1942)

Dubinin Sergey Nikolaevich (02/13/1942 - 04/02/1942), died 04/02/1942

Erofeev Alexander Tikhonovich (05/00/1942 - 11/22/1942)

Shpynov Vladimir Ivanovich (since 11/22/1942)

Gudkov Alexander Grigorievich (11/12/1942 - 01/14/1943)

• 527 sp:
• Nikulin Nikolai Petrovich (01/28/1942 - 01/28/1942)
• Starikov Sergey Vasilyevich (01/28/1942 - 06/12/1942)
• Balashov Andrey Nikolaevich (06/26/1942 - 07/18/1942)
• Tsybarev Semyon Filippovich (07/18/1942 - 08/19/1942), died 08/19/1942
• Panin Konstantin Vasilyevich (09.11.1942 - 00.03.1943)

Distinguished Warriors

For military exploits and heroic deeds during the war years in the division, 13662 soldiers, officers and generals received military awards. These are 20 military orders and 557 Orders of Glory I and II degree.

Memory

• Memorial near the village of Pogoreloye Gorodishche (Zubtsovsky district of the Tver region) on the Moscow-Riga highway (M - 9, "Baltic"). A guards jet mortar "Katyusha" is installed on a concrete pedestal. The inscription on the stone slab "Here on August 4, 1942, soldiers 118 rifle division together with other parts Soviet army made a breakthrough in the defense of the Nazi troops "
• On the 7th kilometer from Riga on the Bauska highway there is a stone obelisk with an inscription in Russian and Latvian: “From this line, the regiments of the 29th, 30th, 85th Guards divisions stormed the enemy and on October 15, 1944 liberated Zadvinye ".
• In memory of the 85th guards division, formed in Shakhunya, one of the streets of the city is named.

Abstract on the topic:

118th Rifle Division (1st Formation)

Plan:

Introduction

• 1. History
• 2 Full name
• 3 Composition
• 4 Submission
• 5 Commanders
• 6 Memory
Literature

Introduction

In total, the 118th Rifle Division was formed 3 times. See list of other formations

118th Rifle Division- military unit of the USSR in the Great Patriotic war

1. History

It was formed in Kostroma on July 6, 1940 on the basis of the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 1193-464ss of 07/06/1940. Since June 15, 1941, 6,000 people have been replenished.

From June 24, 1941 to June 28, 1941, it is loaded in Kostroma and by rail through Yaroslavl, Rybinsk, Bologoe, Staraya Russa, Porkhov is transferred to Pskov, bombed along the way, unloaded in Karamushevo From June 30, 1941, it was supposed to be deployed in the Pskov fortified area, however, it was late with the arrival, so by the evening of July 2, 1941, only 13 echelons arrived, by the morning of July 4, 1941, 20 echelons arrived, 2 more were on the way. She took positions near Pskov, along the Velikaya River and the Cherekha River, adjoining Lake Pskov on the right flank, and on the left flank to the mouth of the Keb River. On July 5, 1941, it was deployed in the Korly, Vasilyevo, Palkino sector, Cherskaya station, Ogurtsovo, the concentration had not yet been completed. She took her first battle on July 5, 1941 with the 6th Panzer Division.

On the morning of July 8, 1941, it remains at its former lines, without an active enemy in front of it, but by the end of the day, under some pressure from the enemy, it left the fortified area, and this abandonment was the main reason for the removal and execution of the division commander. At the same time, it is difficult to say now whose initiative was to withdraw the division across the Velikaya River - the corps command or the divisional one. Moreover, the crossing of the division was disorganized, the bridge across the river was blown up early, as a result of which a large part of the division was forced to cross on improvised means under enemy fire, naturally suffers losses and retreats to Pskov.

In Pskov, control of the division was finally lost, and from July 10, 1941, the division retreated in disarray for the most part to Gdov, and with some units to Luga and Dno. Closer to Gdov, control was restored; from July 11, 1941 to July 18, 1941, the division was engaged in heavy fighting on the eastern shore of Lake Peipsi, defending Gdov. So, on July 16, 1941, he counterattacked the enemy (36th motorized division) that had broken through, leaving Gdov. However, at that moment the 58th Infantry Division approached and broke into Gdov, thus the 118th Division was surrounded, left it in the Narva region by July 20, 1941, having lost 1200 people as prisoners. The evacuation of parts of the division was also carried out along Lake Peipus by the forces of the Peipsi military flotilla.

It occupied positions southwest of Rakvere, included in the strike force, which struck from the east against the enemy that had broken through to the coast of the Gulf of Finland in Estonia in the Tapa region. Since August 6, 1941 - on the offensive. However, the enemy preempted the strike and went on the offensive himself, and the division was forced to roll back to the east under the enemy’s attack; by August 8, 1941, it was on the coast of the Gulf of Finland northwest of Narva. By August 17, 1941, the division was defending near Kingisepp, retreated to Koporye, then launched a counterattack, rolled back to locality Iliki, from there again went on a counterattack, to Kipen, where she was surrounded. On August 22, 1941, the division consisted of only 3025 personnel, 17 guns and 54 machine guns. She left the encirclement in the Koporye - Oranienbaum region by August 25, 1941.

On September 8, 1941, he was fighting near Ropsha. Since September 10, 1941, it has been advancing on Gostilitsy, managed to advance 3-5 kilometers, but was cut off by the Germans south of Mikhailovsky.

On September 29, 1941, the division was disbanded without the knowledge of the People's Commissar of Defense, the remnants of the personnel were transferred to the 48th Infantry Division.

2. Full name

118th Rifle Division

3. Composition

• 398th Infantry Regiment
• 463rd Rifle Regiment
• 527th Rifle Regiment
• 604th Artillery Regiment
• 621st howitzer artillery regiment
• 191st separate anti-tank battalion
• 472nd Separate Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion
• 132nd separate reconnaissance battalion)
• 282nd engineer battalion
• 283rd separate communications battalion (745th separate company connections)
• 259th Medical Battalion
• 260th separate company of chemical protection
• 663rd motor transport battalion
• 422nd field bakery
• 521st field post station
• 439th field cash desk of the State Bank

4. Submission

5. Commanders

• Glovatsky Nikolai Mikhailovich (07/16/1940 - 08/03/1941), Major General, (was convicted by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court and shot "for cowardice, inaction of the authorities, the collapse of command and control, surrendering weapons to the enemy without a fight and unauthorized abandonment of military positions" . Shot 08/3/1941 Rehabilitated).
• Safronov Afanasy Ivanovich (08/20/1941 - 09/27/1941), colonel

6. Memory

• Museum of Military Glory of Petropavlovskaya high school Kostroma region

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This abstract is based on an article from the Russian Wikipedia. Synchronization completed on 07/11/11 22:13:08
Related abstracts: 52nd Rifle Division (formation of 1935), 176th Rifle Division (formation of 1944),

118th Rifle Division (I f).
In the active army from June 22 to September 29, 1941. Disbanded after the fact as killed in the battles of the summer-autumn of 1941 on the Leningrad front ...

The combat path of the 118th Infantry Division (I f). Source: Book of Memory of the Kostroma Region (vol. 3, p. 11.)

The dynamics of the presence of l / s in the 118 sd (I f)

July 6th Composition: total - 13 967 people. (command and command staff - 1091 people, of which the political staff is fully staffed; junior command staff - 1,940 people; ordinary staff - 10,936 people.
Transport: horses - 3,590; cars: cars - 26, trucks - 440; tractors - 21; motorcycles - 6.
Tanks 5 (T-37/38 and T-40), armored vehicles 2.
From the means of communication, there are no radio stations.
Armament: rifles - 4586; carbines - 600; sniper rifles- 231; self-loading rifles - 2554; pistols and revolvers - 1672; machine guns DP - 238; DT machine guns - 14; easel machine guns- 54; machine guns DS - 112; anti-aircraft installations - 5; heavy machine guns - 0; pistol-
machine guns - 0; 50-mm mortars - 84; 82-mm mortars - 26; 120-mm mortars - 6; 37-mm anti-aircraft installations - 0; 45 mm anti-tank gun - 36; 76 mm gun - 28; 122-mm howitzer - 30; 152 mm howitzer - 0.
July 16. At 20:00, the division consisted of 2 rifle regiments (463 and
527), the shortage in them was up to 30-50%, about 100 light machine guns. 604 LAP had 7 76-mm guns and 5 122-mm guns, and 621 GAP had 15 122-mm guns. There were 19 anti-tank guns in the division. 472 OZAD consisted of one 76-mm battery, in which there were 4 guns. The medical battalion with the wounded left for the station. Luga did not return at that time. Also, most of the vehicles remained in the Plyussa area. Of the radio equipment, the division had 1 radio 5 OKA. The reconnaissance battalion consisted of 5 tankettes and 2 armored vehicles requiring repair. OSB and OBS are fully staffed.
July 19. The division has less than 3,000 personnel. The personnel are mostly provided with rifles, light machine guns no more than 5%, heavy machine guns - 4, anti-tank guns (45-mm cannons) - 8 pieces, mortars - 5 pieces, regimental and divisional artillery are absent.
July 25th. The units of the division number 7,980 personnel, 5,526 ordinary rifles, 367 automatic rifles, 175 light machine guns, 29 heavy machine guns, 39 mortars, 15 infantry guns, 6 76-mm guns.
August 10. Parts of the division have 5,041 personnel.
August 17th. Personnel and materiel are: 3,025 people, 76-mm
14 guns, 3 152-mm howitzers, 7 machine guns, 47 light machine guns. Artillery losses amounted to 6 guns.
August 20th. The units of the division number 6,050 personnel, 550 horses, 1,829 ordinary rifles, 123 automatic rifles, 7 machine guns, 18 light machine guns, 6 mortars, 1 45-mm guns, 14 76-mm guns. , 152-mm 3 pcs., light tanks 1, armored vehicles 1, anti-aircraft guns 3 pcs.
August 28. The division has 4,000 personnel. Of these: 463 joint ventures - 610 people, no heavy machine guns, 3 light machine guns, 3 mortars; 527 joint venture - 575 people, no heavy machine guns, no hand guns, 3 mortars; 604 - LAP 650 people, 76-mm guns 8 pcs.; 621 GAP - 425 people, 6 76-mm guns, 3 122-mm howitzers. The division headquarters is 50% staffed. I thank the historian and lawyer Alexei Nikolaevich Seleznev (Kostroma search party"Charon"). !

Commander of the 118th Rifle Division (1st F), Major General Nikolai Mikhailovich Glovatsky. Condemned by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court to VMN. Shot on August 3, 1941. Rehabilitated.
The record number in the OBD is 8668496.
Glovatsky Nikolai Mikhailovich, commander of the 118th rifle division (I f), major general.
VMN no later than 11/05/1942. Source - TsAMO: f. 58, op. 818883, d. 774, l. 146.
http://obd-memorial.ru/Image2/filterimage?path=Z/002/058-0818883-0774/00000273.jpg&id=51484189&id=51484189&id1=

From here: http://lists.memo.ru/d8/f478.htm
Glovatsky Nikolay Mikhailovich.
Born in 1895, Grodno; Russian; higher education; commander of 118 sd (I f) 41 sk (I f). Lived in Kostroma.
Arrested July 16, 1941. On July 26, 1941, he was sentenced by a judicial authority under 193-17 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (disorganization of defense during the retreat of our troops in the Second World War 1941-1945) to VMN. Shot on August 3, 1941 in Leningrad. He was rehabilitated on December 8, 1958 by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR.

According to one of the previous publications of this project, the reader could already see how units of the German 58th infantry division. Today I want to return to the photographs of this division. This time it is the album of the company commander of the 158th anti-tank battalion (PanzerJäger Abteilung 158) Lieutenant Detlef Lippold (Detlef Lippold, who was born on February 4, 1916 in Wilhelmshaven, was wounded near Leningrad in December 1942. He died on December 27, 1942 in 608- m military hospital in Riga).

The 58th Infantry Division was part of the 18th Army (XXXVIII Army Corps) and by the beginning of July 1941 was on the right flank of the army. After the capture of Riga, the 18th Army with its right wing along the Riga-Pskov highway, with the forces of two corps, rushed to the city on Velikaya. Despite the efforts made, the infantry of the 18th Army did not have time for the battles that unfolded near Pskov. However, the 58th Infantry Division managed to take part in the battle for Gdov with the help of the reconnaissance battalion, reinforced by anti-tank artillery.

The goal of the Germans in Gdov was the airfield, without which the Luftwaffe was forced to fly to the area of ​​the Luga bridgehead a couple of hundred kilometers away. Gdov was defended by the battered 118th Rifle Division, which was retreating from Pskov to replenish in the Luga region. It was Golovatsky's division that became an obstacle on the way to the Gdov airfield, so necessary for the Germans. The Germans attacked Gdov on July 14 from two sides, from the southeast with the forces of the 36th motorized division and from the south, along the Pskov-Gdov highway with the forces of the 58th infantry division.

On the evening of July 16, the 36th motorized division managed to cut the roads northeast of Gdov, the 118th rifle division was surrounded.

From combat report commander of the 118th Infantry Division, Major General Glovatsky N.M. 07/18/1941: "Period 21.00-23.00 16.7.41 managed to bypass the pr-ku, and partially destroy the advanced barriers, using a mass of small-caliber artillery, mortars and artillery on a mechanized tractor. firing lines northeast of GDOVA 3-5 km. and took under the strongest fire, sweeping away everything along the way, all exits from GDOVA."

It should be noted that in the battles for Gdov there were both heroes and anti-heroes. The anti-hero was the division commander, Major General Glovatsky, who, in fact, abandoned the encircled division and sailed away from Gdov on a boat with part of the headquarters (in Vasknarva on the evening of July 17, the division headquarters, led by divisional commander Glovatsky, went ashore and headed towards Kingisepp). On July 19, Major General Glovatsky was arrested, court-martialed and then convicted under Art. 193-20. Sentenced to capital punishment.

Together with the headquarters, the Chud flotilla was able to take out about a thousand personnel from Gdov. The rest had to fight their way out of the encirclement along the highway and along the lake shore. The breakthrough was led by the chief of staff of the division, Colonel Mizitsky (on July 17 he was wounded, went out to his own in the Narva region).

Here is how Trubetskoy A.V. describes him, in July 1941 - a Red Army soldier 527 SP 118 SD. (Trubetskoy A.V. Ways are inscrutable: (Memoirs of 1939-1955). - M .: Kontur, 1997. - 413 p.: portrait, ill.):

“We quickly go to Gdov. On the road there are traces of a recent bombing: the corpses of horses dumped on the side of the road (they say that among them is the same Strelka, the horse of the battalion commander on which I learned to ride), broken wagons, fresh mounds - the graves of the dead. It's getting dark. In the distance, clumps of trees and the houses of Gdov. At night they entered the city. There are a lot of troops in it: our division, two regiments of the Leningrad militia and someone else. In the center of the city, near the fence of the old church, under huge sprawling trees, the divisional authorities. They encourage the approaching soldiers "but one feels that the authorities are puzzled and even, perhaps, frightened and confused. And the soldiers go hungry, tired and somehow already indifferent. A rumor is flying around: we are surrounded, we need to break through. From afar, rare long bursts of machine guns are heard - German (our do not hit) and quieter automatic bursts.

We leave on the northern outskirts of the city. Our artillery is already there. Early morning. Short stop, we regroup and start moving forward. On the right along the road is the first battalion, led by commander captain Kravchenko. He has a revolver in his hand. It goes cheerfully, confidently, but, it is felt, with great tension. On the left side of the road - our second battalion. Truckloads of soldiers rode ahead, bayonets fixed just like in revolutionary photographs. On cabs light machine guns. The impression is strange - a good target for the Germans. Shoot ahead. I unsheathed the bayonet of a self-loading rifle and attached it. For some reason, this has never been done before. The seriousness of what is happening is felt in the air. More shooting ahead. Sometimes they are ordered to stop and shoot, but where, at whom, it is not clear. We passed an empty village, and I notice that there are no casualties, but there is no building either, and there are fewer and fewer people. There are twenty of us left.

And then I felt that something terrible was about to happen to me. It was some strange, previously unknown to me, heavy feeling of something inevitable, fatal. The feeling that there is no way you can escape what is about to happen.

The fire intensified all around, and we walked along the ditch along the road, crouching. There was no longer a unified leadership. There was only a general desire to break out of the encirclement. From somewhere out of the rye, an unfamiliar soldier ran up with a request to help the seriously wounded commander. Bending down, we followed him into the rye. The major is lying, wounded in both legs, bandaged. Silently looks at us. What to do? We stood, stood and, without looking at him, left ... Bending down, we go along the ditch forward again. Somehow I ended up going first. There is a terrible weight on my heart. around heavy fire. The Germans hit with tracer bullets: their white threads penetrate everything around, and it paralyzes. The ditch runs into some kind of hillock. You have to climb through it, but the white threads stop you. There is also a water pipe under the road. We decide to climb on it to the other side. There are very few of us, ten people. Nobody wants to go first, and everyone just says to each other: "come on, come on, come on," but no one moves. I got in. The pipe is narrow, barely stuck through, crawled through. Everyone else gets out. We are sitting in a ditch again. "Well, let's go ahead," and again no one moves. All around there is a terrible chatter and a web of white threads. Down the ditch, bending down, an unfamiliar lieutenant runs towards him with a German machine gun in his hands and shouts: "Come on, forward! Ours are breaking through!" - and runs on. Leaning low, I went first. In the ditch lies the dead, our fighter, with his face buried in the ground. You have to go through it. And for some reason, it was very unpleasant for me to do this. I thought: "Let me jump out onto the road, pass it with one jump and jump into the ditch again."

And as soon as I jumped out onto the road, bent over in three deaths, and took one step, as in front, a little to the left, a bright spot instantly appeared on the roadbed, thunder, a blow. All this was perceived not by individual sense organs, but somehow by all of me, and, falling into the ditch, I said loudly to myself, and, perhaps, shouted: "ALL-E-E!" And then there was silence...

According to the report of the 36th motorized division in the Gdov region, they captured 1700-2000 prisoners. They estimated the losses of the Soviet side at about 1200 people. In addition, captured: 2 aircraft at the airfield, 7 heavy and 13 light anti-aircraft guns, 5 quadruple anti-aircraft machine guns, 22 anti-tank guns, 7 armored vehicles (wrecked), 100 trucks, 800 horses.

In the battles for Gdov, the 36th motorized division lost 77 people killed, 117 wounded. We do not yet have data on the losses of the 58th Infantry Division.

Mikhail Tukh, especially for the Pskov Information Agency