Black soldiers of World War II. How was the burial of the ashes of a warrior

World War II ended decades ago. However, time keeps a lot of secrets. Perhaps some of them will never be solved, answers to others will come years and decades later. Here are just some truly amazing stories of World War II

Amazing stories of World War II. Who is in the picture

Six days after the surrender of Germany in Life magazine was published a series of photographs of one of the famous Hungarian photojournalists Robert Capa. One of the photos shows an American soldier killed by a German sniper's bullet. This shot has become an imperishable classic of documentary photography.

The body of the killed soldier lies on the balcony of one of the apartments in Leipzig. It was April 18, 1945. The person in the photo was not last victim war and at that time no one cared that the publication did not contain the name of the deceased. He remained an unknown soldier for 67 long years.
In 2011, the city of Leipzig gave permission to raze the building in one of the apartments in which the photo above was taken.
However, a group of conscious activists decided to prevent the demolition of the historic building. To do this, they decided to find out the name of the soldier who was immortalized by the photographer, and thereby draw the attention of the media and the public to the upcoming demolition of the building. The search began on November 27, 2011. Enthusiasts soon found out that the name of the deceased soldier was Raymond Bowman.

Result. The building will not be demolished. An investor was found who is ready to completely restore it ...

Amazing stories of World War II. There are only two of us left

In 1958, Ivan Smirnov, a carpenter at the Nekrasovo state farm in the Uvarovsky district of the Moscow region, when he was hewing a birch trunk, found a cartridge case in it, in which there was a note.

A letter from a Soviet soldier who fought in the area of ​​the Minsk Highway was written in ink pencil in uneven letters on both sides of the piece of paper. Here is his text:
“There were 12 of us sent to the Minsk highway to block the path of the enemy, especially tanks. And we persevered. And now there are three of us left: Kolya, Volodya and I - Alexander. But enemies without mercy climb. And here is another one - Volodya from Moscow. But the tanks keep climbing. There are already 19 cars on the road. There are already two of us. We will stand until the spirit is enough, but we will not miss until our own approach.
And so I was left alone, wounded in the head and arm. And the tanks added to the score. Already 23 cars. Perhaps I will die, but maybe someone will someday find my note and remember the heroes. I am from Frunze, Russian. There are no parents. Goodbye, Dear friends. Your Alexander Vinogradov. 22/21942"

As a result of the research, it was possible to restore the picture of the battles on the Minsk highway in February 1942.

To hold back the advance Soviet troops near Moscow, the Nazi command transferred to Soviet-German front additionally several divisions from Germany. For the Soviet troops fighting in the Vyazma region, a difficult situation arose and the commander of the Western Front ordered the armies of the front to become more active.

On February 20, 1942, the military commissar of the 612th regiment gave the order to go to the Minsk highway in the region of the 152nd kilometer west of Moscow and block the way for enemy tanks. The soldiers lined up along the highway. A group of fighters, which included Alexander Vinogradov, was on the flank. A column of fascist tanks appeared suddenly. The soldiers fought for three days, the ranks of the defenders were thinning before our eyes, but they did not retreat ...

A. Vinogradov's note is stored in the Central Museum of the Soviet Army.

Amazing stories of World War II. Mystery Revealed"Persea"

In November 1941, at the height of World War II, the British submarine Perseus left the naval base in Malta and set off on her next mission. She was supposed to patrol the waters of the Mediterranean near Greece.

December 6, 1941, not far from the Greek island of Kefalonia, the submarine ran into an Italian mine and went to the bottom, burying the entire crew with it ...

And now, a year and a half later, the UK was shocked by the news: one person managed to escape during the sinking of the boat. It turned out to be John Capes. He was not on the crew lists, but during the voyage he performed the duties of a machinist.

According to Capes, on the night of the disaster, he was, as usual, in the engine room and lying in his bunk, made from a torpedo body. When the explosion thundered, he was thrown to the other end of the room. Quickly realizing that the Perseus must have run into a mine, John made his way through the bodies of the dead and wounded and tried to get out of the compartment. This turned out to be impossible, since the entire space outside the door was already filled with water. Donning Davis' escape apparatus, Capes opened the escape hatch, took a sip from a nearby bottle of rum, and climbed out of the boat.

Capes, unconscious, was discovered the next morning by two Greek fishermen. For the next year and a half, he lived in the house of a local Greek who agreed to hide him from the Italian occupiers. And only in May 1943, Capes managed to get off the island and get to Alexandria, where the British military base was located.
For this rescue, John Capes was awarded the medal of the British Empire, but soon distrust arose in relation to him: was John Capes on lost boat Or is it just his imagination?

The fact is that our hero was not on the crew lists. There were no living witnesses to his salvation either.

In Britain, they began to say that John Capes is a kind of Baron Munchausen, chasing dubious fame. In 1985, he died, having failed to convince skeptics of the veracity of his stories.
This story was continued only in 1997, when the Greek submarine explorer Kostas Toktaridis descended to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea and explored the sunken Perseus.

He found both a torpedo-shaped bunk and a bottle of rum in front of the escape hatch. All other details of the Capesian stories also coincided.

In the eyes of many, John was redeemed.

Amazing stories of World War II. I'm leaving with love
October 1941. A tank with a crew consisting of commander junior lieutenant Ivan Sidorovich Kolosov, Vasily Orlov and Pavel Rudov was damaged on the outskirts of Vyazma. The commander was shell-shocked, the driver died. Kolosov and Orlov drained the fuel and removed the ammunition from other wrecked tanks, repaired their car and took it into the forest.
Having determined that they were surrounded, the tankers decided to make their way to their own. October 12 lone tank defeated the German column. However, on October 24, when the tank attacked another column, the Germans managed to deploy their guns...

A quarter of a century after the war, in a dense forest near Vyazma, a BT tank with a clearly visible number 12 was found rooted into the ground. The hatches were battened down, a hole gaped in the board. When the car was opened, the remains of a junior tank lieutenant were found in the place of the driver. He had a revolver with one cartridge and a tablet, and in the tablet there was a map, a photograph of his girlfriend and an unsent letter dated October 25, 1941:
“Hello, my Varya!
No, we will not meet.
Yesterday at noon we smashed another Nazi column. The Nazi shell pierced the side armor and exploded inside. While I was driving the car into the forest, Vasily died. My wound is cruel.
I buried Vasily Orlov in a birch grove. It was light. Vasily died before he could say a single word to me, he did not convey anything to his beautiful Zoya and the white-haired Mashenka, who looked like a dandelion in fluff.
So, out of three tankers, I was left alone. At dusk I entered the forest. The night passed in agony, much blood was lost. Now, for some reason, the pain that burns through the entire chest has subsided and the soul is quiet.

It's a shame we didn't do everything. But we did everything we could. Our comrades will chase the enemy, who should not walk through our fields and forests. I would never have lived my life like this if it weren't for you, Varya. You have always helped me: at Khalkhin Gol and here. Probably, after all, whoever loves is kinder to people. Thank you dear! A person is aging, and the sky is forever young, like your eyes, into which you can only look and admire. They will never grow old, they will not fade.
Time will pass, people will heal their wounds, people will build new cities, grow new gardens. Another life will come, other songs will be sung. But never forget about us, about the three tankers.
You will have beautiful children, you will still love. And I am happy that I am leaving you with great love for you. Your Ivan Kolosov.
Varvara Petrovna Zhuravleva received letters addressed to her almost 30 years later.

PLANE Grenade

During the defense of Sevastopol in 1942, the only one in the history of World War II and the Great Patriotic War a case when the commander of a mortar company, junior lieutenant Simonok, shot down a low-flying German plane with a direct hit from an 82-mm mortar! This is as unlikely as shooting down a plane with a thrown stone or brick ...

ENGLISH HUMOR PERFORMED BY TORPEDA

A curious incident at sea. In 1943, a German and British destroyer met in the North Atlantic. The British, without hesitation, were the first to hit the enemy with a torpedo ... but the rudders of the torpedo jammed at an angle, and as a result, the torpedo made a circular cheerful maneuver and returned ... The British were no longer joking watching their own torpedo rush towards them. As a result, they got it from their own torpedo, and in such a way that the destroyer, although it remained afloat and waited for help, did not participate in hostilities until the very end of the war due to the damage received. enigma military history only one thing remained: why didn't the Germans finish off the British? Either they were ashamed to finish off such warriors of the "queen of the seas" and receivers of Nelson's glory, or they neighed so that they could no longer shoot ...

POLYGLOTS

A curious incident occurred in Hungary. Already at the end of the war, when Soviet troops entered Hungary, as a result of battles and communication, most Hungarians were sure that “f @ b your mother” is an accepted greeting, like “hello”. One day when Soviet colonel came to a rally to the Hungarian workers, and greeted them in Hungarian, he was answered in chorus “f @ b your mother!”.

NOT ALL GENERALS RETRACTED

June 22, 1941 in the strip southwestern front Army Group South (commanded by Field Marshal G. Rundstedt) inflicted main blow south of Vladimir-Volynsky along the formations of the 5th army of General M.I. Potapov and the 6th Army of General I.N. Muzychenko. In the center of the strip of the 6th Army, in the area of ​​​​Rava-Russkaya, the 41st Rifle Division of the oldest commander of the Red Army, General G.N. Mikushev. The division's units repulsed the first blows of the enemy together with the border guards of the 91st border detachment. On June 23, with the approach of the main forces of the division, having launched a counterattack, they pushed the enemy back beyond the state border and advanced up to 3 km into Polish territory. But, due to the threat of encirclement, they had to move away ...

Unusual intelligence facts. In principle, German intelligence quite successfully "worked" in the Soviet rear, except for the Leningrad direction. Germans in large quantities they sent spies to besieged Leningrad, supplying them with everything they needed - clothes, documents, addresses, passwords, appearances. But, when checking documents, any patrol instantly revealed "fake" documents of German production. Artworks the best specialists forensics and printing were easily detected by soldiers and officers from patrols. The Germans changed the texture of the paper, the composition of the paints - to no avail. Any even semi-literate sergeant of the Central Asian conscription revealed a linden at first sight. The Germans never solved the problem. And the secret was simple - the Germans, a high-quality nation, made the paper clips that fastened the documents out of stainless steel, and our real Soviet paper clips were slightly rusty, the patrol sergeants had never seen others, for them the shiny steel clips sparkled like gold ...

FROM AIRCRAFT WITHOUT PARACHUTE

The pilot, who made a reconnaissance flight during the return, noticed a column of German armored vehicles moving towards Moscow. As it turned out -on a way there are no German tanks. It was decided to drop troops in front of the column. Only a completed regiment of Siberians in white sheepskin coats was brought to the airfield. When the German column was walking along the highway, low-flying aircraft suddenly appeared in front, as if they were about to land, dropping their speed to the limit, 10-20 meters from the snow surface. Clusters of people in white coats rained down from the planes onto a snow-covered field next to the road. The soldiers got up alive and immediately threw themselves under the caterpillars of tanks with bundles of grenades ... They looked like white ghosts, they were not visible in the snow, and the advance of the tanks was stopped. When a new column of tanks and motorized infantry approached the Germans, there were practically no “white jackets” left. And then a wave of planes again flew in and a new white waterfall of fresh fighters poured from the sky. The German advance was halted and only a few tanks retreated hastily. After it turned out that when falling into the snow, only 12 percent of the landing force died, and the rest entered into an unequal battle. Although all the same it is a terribly wrong tradition to measure victories by the percentage of dead living people. On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine a German, an American, or an Englishman voluntarily and without a parachute jumping on tanks. They wouldn't even think about it.

In early October 1941, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command learned about the defeat of three of its fronts in the Moscow direction from messages from the Berlin radio. We are talking about the encirclement near Vyazma.

AND ONE WARRIOR IN THE FIELD

On July 17, 1941 (the first month of the war), Lieutenant of the Wehrmacht Hensfald, who later died near Stalingrad, wrote in his diary: “Sokolnichi, near Krichev. In the evening they buried a Russian unknown soldier. He alone, standing at the cannon, shot at a column of our tanks and infantry for a long time. And so he died. Everyone marveled at his bravery." Yes, this warrior was buried by the enemy! With honors ... Later it turned out that it was the gun commander of the 137th rifle division 13th Army Senior Sergeant Nikolai Sirotinin. He was left alone to cover the retreat of his unit. Sirotinin, took an advantageous firing position, from which the highway, a small river and a bridge across it were clearly visible. At dawn on July 17 they appeared german tanks and armored personnel carriers. When the lead tank reached the bridge, a gunshot rang out. With the first shot, Nikolai knocked out a German tank. The second shell hit another, closing the column. There was a traffic jam on the road. The Nazis tried to turn off the highway, but several tanks immediately got stuck in a swamp. And senior sergeant Sirotinin continued to send shells at the target. The enemy brought down the fire of all tanks and machine guns on a lone gun. A second group of tanks approached from the west and also opened fire. Only after 2.5 hours the Germans managed to destroy the cannon, which managed to fire almost 60 shells. At the battlefield, 10 destroyed German tanks and armored personnel carriers were burning down. The Germans got the impression that a full battery was firing at the tanks. And only later did they learn that a single gunner was holding back the column of tanks. Yes, this warrior was buried by the enemy! With honors...

ENGLISH HUMOR

Known historical fact. The Germans, exposing the supposedly impending landing on the British Isles, placed several fake airfields on the coast of France, on which they "planned" a large number of wooden copies of airplanes. Work on the creation of these very dummies-aircraft was in full swing when one day in broad daylight a lone British plane appeared in the air and dropped a single bomb on the "airfield". She was wooden...! After this "bombardment" the Germans abandoned false airfields.

BEWARE, UNFORMED!

fought on eastern front the Germans completely refute the stereotypes that have developed in our films about the Second World War. As the German veterans of the Second World War remember "UR-R-RA!" they have never heard and do not even suspect the existence of such an attacking cry of Russian soldiers. But the word BL@D they learned excellently. Because it was with such a cry that the Russians rushed into the attack, especially hand-to-hand. And the second word that the Germans often heard from their side of the trenches - “Hey, go ahead, fucking @ m @ t!”, This booming cry meant that now not only infantry but also T-34 tanks would trample on the Germans.

In December 1966, on the 25th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi troops near Moscow, the ashes of the Unknown Soldier were transferred to the Alexander Garden from the 41st kilometer of the Leningrad Highway - the place of bloody battles.

The eternal flame of glory, bursting out from the middle of a bronze military star, was lit from a flame blazing on the Field of Mars in St. Petersburg. “Your name is unknown, your feat is immortal” - inscribed on the granite slab of the tombstone.

On the right, along the Kremlin wall, urns are lined up where Holy Land hero cities.

Website of the President

FIGHTS AT THE CROSSROADS OF THE LENINGRAD AND LYALOVSKY HIGHWAYS

In 1967, a local forester, an eyewitness to a fierce battle at the 41st kilometer, told about an unusual episode of the battle in 1941 to the builders of Zelenograd, who helped build a monument with a T-34 tank: “German armored vehicles were approaching along the highway from Chashnikov ... Suddenly our tank moved towards them. Having reached the intersection, the driver jumped into the ditch on the move, and a few seconds later the tank was hit. A second tank followed. History repeated itself: the driver jumped, the enemy shot, another tank cluttered the highway. So a kind of barricade of wrecked tanks was formed. The Germans were forced to look for a detour to the left

An excerpt from the memoirs of the commissar of the 219th howitzer regiment, Alexei Vasilyevich Penkov (see: Works of the GZIKM, issue 1. Zelenograd, 1945, p. 65-66): “By 13 o’clock, the Germans, having concentrated superior forces of infantry, tanks and aviation, broke the resistance of our neighbor on the left ... and through the village of Matushkino, tank units entered the Moscow-Leningrad highway, semi-surrounding our rifle units and began shelling firing positions with tank guns. Dozens of German dive bombers hung in the air. Communication with the command post of the regiment was broken. Two divisions deployed for all-round defense. They shot at German tanks and infantry with direct fire. Chuprunov, I and the signalmen were 300 meters from the firing positions of the batteries on the church bell tower in the village of B. Rzhavka.

With the onset of darkness, the Nazis calmed down and fell silent. We went to see the battlefield. The picture for the war is familiar, but terrible: half of the compositions of gun crews died, many commanders of fire platoons and guns failed. 9 guns, 7 tractors were destroyed. The last wooden houses and barns on this western outskirts of the village were burning down...

On December 1, in the area of ​​the village of B. Rzhavka, the enemy only occasionally fired mortars. On this day, the situation stabilized ...

HERE AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER DIE

Newspapers in early December 1966 reported that on December 3, Muscovites bowed their heads in front of one of their heroes - the Unknown Soldier, who died in harsh days December 1941 on the outskirts of Moscow. In particular, the Izvestia newspaper wrote: “... he was slain for the Fatherland, for his native Moscow. That's all we know about him."

On December 2, 1966, representatives of the Moscow City Council and a group of soldiers and officers of the Taman division arrived at the place of the former burial place on the 41st km of the Leningradskoye Highway around noon. The Taman soldiers cleared the snow around the grave and proceeded to open the grave. At 2:30 pm, the remains of one of the soldiers resting in a mass grave were placed in a coffin, twined with an orange-black ribbon - a symbol of the soldier's Order of Glory, on the lid of the coffin in the heads - a helmet of the 41st year. A coffin with the remains of the Unknown Soldier was placed on the pedestal. All evening, all night and the next morning, changing every two hours, young soldiers with machine guns, veterans of the war, stood in the guard of honor at the coffin.

Cars passing by stopped, people from the surrounding villages, from the village of Kryukovo, from Zelenograd, walked. On December 3, at 11:45 a.m., the coffin was placed on an open car, which moved along the Leningrad highway to Moscow. And everywhere along the way, the funeral procession was accompanied by residents of the Moscow region, lined up along the highway.

In Moscow, at the entrance to the street. Gorky (now Tverskaya), the coffin was transferred from the car to an artillery carriage. An armored personnel carrier with an unfolded combat banner moved on to the sounds of a mourning march of a military brass band. He was accompanied by soldiers of the guard of honor, participants in the war, participants in the defense of Moscow.

The cortege was approaching the Alexander Garden. Here everything is ready for the rally. On the podium among the leaders of the party and government - participants in the battle for Moscow - Marshals of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov and K.K. Rokossovsky.

“The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the ancient walls of the Moscow Kremlin will become a monument of eternal glory to the heroes who died on the battlefield for native land, from now on, the ashes of one of those who shielded Moscow with their breasts lie here ”- these are the words of Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky, said at the rally.

A few months later, on May 8, 1967, on the eve of Victory Day, the monument "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier" was unveiled and the Eternal Flame was lit.

IN NO OTHER COUNTRY

EMAR VILLAGE (Primorsky Territory), September 25, 2014. The head of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation, Sergei Ivanov, supported the proposal to make December 3 the Day of the Unknown Soldier.

“Such a memorable day, if you like, a day of commemoration, could well be done,” he said, responding to a proposal made during a meeting with the winners and participants of the contest among school search teams “Search. Finds. Opening".

Ivanov noted that this is especially relevant for Russia, given that there were no such number of missing soldiers as in the USSR in any country. According to the head of the presidential administration, the majority of Russians will support the establishment of December 3 as the Day of the Unknown Soldier.

THE FEDERAL LAW

ON AMENDMENTS TO ARTICLE 1.1 OF THE FEDERAL LAW "ON THE DAYS OF MILITARY GLORY AND MEMORABLE DATES OF RUSSIA"

Include in article 1.1 of the Federal Law of March 13, 1995 N 32-FZ "On days military glory and anniversaries Russia "... the following changes:

1) add a new paragraph fourteen of the following content:

President of Russian Federation

Consultant Plus

UNKNOWN SOLDIER

For the first time, this concept itself (as well as a memorial) appeared in France, when on November 11, 1920, in Paris, Arc de Triomphe an honorary burial was made for an unknown soldier who died in the First World War. And at the same time, the inscription “Un soldat inconnu” appeared on this memorial and the Eternal Flame was solemnly lit.

Then, in England, at Westminster Abbey, a memorial appeared with the inscription "Soldier of the Great War, whose name is known to God." Later, such a memorial appeared in the United States, where the ashes of an unknown soldier were buried at the Arlington Cemetery in Washington. The inscription on the tombstone: "Here lies a famous and honored American soldier, whose name only God knows."

In December 1966, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Moscow, the ashes of an unknown soldier were transferred to the Kremlin wall from a burial place near the 41st kilometer of the Leningradskoye Highway. On the slab lying on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, an inscription is made: “Your name is unknown. Your feat is immortal "(author of the words - poet Sergei Vladimirovich Mikhalkov).

Used in: literally as a symbol of all dead soldiers, whose names remain unknown.

encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions. M., 2003

Today we are celebrating the "Day of the Unknown Soldier" for the first time. Although it would be more correct to call it "The Day of Remembrance of the Unknown Soldier."
By and large, there should be no unknown soldiers. The war is not over until buried last soldier. The remains of the fallen soldiers are still being found. And not only in the places of past battles, but also in the places of current battles in Ukraine.
My grandfather died as an "unknown soldier" during the defense of Stalingrad.
During the Great Patriotic War, 4.4 million servicemen went missing. During the war in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, 417 of our soldiers were captured (130 were released in the period before the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan).
Recently, a monument to Afghan soldiers was opened in the square of military glory near our house. Many of those present said: "If only there was no war"!

The idea to create a memorial Tomb of the Unknown Soldier appeared in France after the end of the First World War. After World War II, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier monument was created in Poland. And in the USSR - the victorious country! - there was nothing of the kind.

In December 1966, they were preparing to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the battle under the walls of Moscow. During construction in Zelenograd near Moscow, workers stumbled upon a mass grave of soldiers. One of the fighters has a well-preserved uniform with insignia of a private. He had no documents - he fell like an unknown hero.
The remains of this soldier were placed in a coffin, which on December 3 was installed on a gun carriage, and a solemn procession headed for Moscow. The Unknown Soldier was buried in the Alexander Garden near the Kremlin wall.
May 8, 1967 at the burial site was opened architectural ensemble"Tomb of the Unknown Soldier" and the "eternal flame" was lit.
“Your name is unknown, your feat is immortal!” Everyone now knows these words.

In the years of my childhood, I regularly watched the then popular television program of the writer S.S. Smirnov about unknown soldiers of the Great Patriotic War.
Often, at the request of my parents and friends, I sang the song “Across the field, along the steep bank, past the huts. A soldier was walking in the gray overcoat of a private. A soldier walked, not knowing barriers, a soldier walked, losing friends. It often happened that he walked without a halt, a soldier walked forward.
The song was also popular: “Alyosha, Alyosha, Alyosha is standing over the mountain. A Russian soldier is standing over Mount Alyosha in Bulgaria.
And with whom is the “16th republic” of the Soviet Union now?

I recently watched the American film Fury. Who is not strong in the history of the Second World War, can conclude that Europe was liberated exclusively by American soldiers. In the film, the hero of Brad Pitt demands that a recruit shoot a German prisoner of war begging for mercy, and as a result he kills himself. American soldiers they buy German girls "for a chocolate bar", and at the same time they cannot understand "why the Germans do not give up."

In the new American film"Interstellar" teachers in schools inspire students that the flight of "Apollo" to the moon was a staging in order to provoke the USSR to spend on the lunar race and thereby ruin it.

The world is ruled by Her Majesty FALSE!
When diplomats say they don't want a new Cold War, it means that the "second cold war' has already been untied.
The lies of politicians and journalists are simply sickening. Hope that common sense win, no more. No one cares about the truth anymore, what matters is only what is in line with the current policy. If it does not correspond, then they will try not to notice the truth.

The situation with the Malaysian Boeing is an example of boundless hypocrisy!
Well, politicians don't want to tell the truth. Bring them any facts, politicians do not recognize the truth if it is not beneficial for them now. They each have their own truth. Everyone is fighting for a place under the sun in all unacceptable ways.

France does not want to fulfill the terms of the contract and transfer the Mistrals to Russia, and that's it. You see, "the conditions are not ripe."
And it's western civilized constitutional state, where there seems to be a cult of compliance with contractual relations. But the agreement on the construction of the Mistrals was, if I am not mistaken, part of the general agreement regarding Libya. And in Libya we were deceived, and in the Mistrals!
Let's see what an "independent" European court will say when Russia applies for the payment of a penalty.

Is politics more important than law, even in a country like France?!
What kind of a legal state is this if politics is stronger than the rule of law?!

What is this - this same politician? Opportunistic adherence to their pragmatic interests?

Humanistic values European civilization- Yes. But if in this life there is nothing to die for, if the main value is one's own life, then in order to save this life, one can go to any meanness, to any crime, even killing another. Hence death - "it's not with me, it's with someone else."

The world is again divided into friends and foes. The "Axis of Evil" is being built again: Russia, North Korea, Iran, Vietnam...
Now Russia is actually in a state of undeclared war. Only completely stupid man does not see an international oil conspiracy directed, among other things, against Russia. It is no longer a secret to anyone that the manipulation of oil prices is part of a “conspiracy theory” with the aim of undermining the Russian economy and ruining it, as the USSR once collapsed.

I recently read that our “partners” are ready to fight to the last Ukrainian soldier. Some unknown armies without identification marks are fighting. Whether these are private armies belonging to no one knows who, or volunteers, or terrorists. All are roughly the same shape. How they distinguish their own from others, one can only guess.

They want to make not only the Unknown Soldier, but the entire Great Patriotic War in Ukraine unknown. It is suggested that even the phrase "Great Patriotic War" be deleted from history textbooks. But whoever forgets the lessons of history is doomed to repeat them.

As a child, I vacationed in a Ukrainian village near the city of Bila Tserkva. In his youth, he served in the Navy together with the Ukrainians, including in Sevastopol. I like Ukrainians. But I hate politicians who build their careers on the bones of ordinary people.

I can't watch and listen to how children die from shelling in Donetsk. The Nazis did not shell the besieged Leningrad like the brothers-Ukrainians shelled their native Donetsk!

Information and economic war in full swing. The cyberwar has already begun. However, judging by the revelations of Edward Snowden, it never ended. It was recently reported that the Americans had developed a new computer virus that was also directed against Russia, allowing you to view Internet correspondence and listen to telephone conversations leading operators.
Who is he - the "unknown soldier" leading the cyber war?

Many felt uneasy when Minister of Turnover Shoigu spoke about measures in case of mobilization. The power of NATO is 30 times greater than the armed forces of Russia. Will Russia use nuclear weapons to defend itself? Unlikely. Because the use of nuclear weapons is suicidal. There can be neither winners nor losers in such a war.
But then why do we need so many expensive nuclear missiles that will never be applied?
Does a loaded gun really have to go off?

Our people will survive in any war, unless they are betrayed by politicians, as Khrushchev betrayed in 1954, transferring Crimea to Ukraine, as the leaders betrayed in 1991, destroying the USSR.

Recently, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov admitted that economic sanctions against Russia are intended to change political regime in the country.
Do our “partners” want to make life better for ordinary Russians as a result of regime change? Not sure. For them, we are more like “white natives” who need to be civilized by forcing them to work for themselves.

What will happen to Russia when the West announces an embargo on the sale of Russian oil as economic sanctions?

How can you fight for the market with those who have a printing press behind their backs (the Fed), and they will print as much money as they want?!

No, they do not want to see the Russians as part of the "golden billion"!

If something similar to what is happening now in Ferguson and other US cities were to happen in Russia, it would be called a violation of human rights, a crime of the ruling regime, and even a revolution. And if it happens in the USA, then it is called democracy.
"For the strong, the weak is always to blame."

Indeed, a “new Middle Ages” is coming.
Previously, the media wrote: "the opinion of the editors may not coincide with the opinion of the author of the publication." Now, if your position does not coincide with the editorial policy, no one will publish your opinion. Certain topics are advised not to even touch. If you decide to publish something that does not meet the "editorial policy", your blog will simply be deleted.

TV because of the lies of politicians, political scientists and journalists has turned into a zombie!
These people without honor, without conscience, without morality and their so-called "double standards" have led to the loss moral guidelines to the loss of distinction between good and evil. What is possible for one is not allowed for another, whoever is stronger is right.

Politicians swear like tradesmen in a bazaar. All civilized rules and diplomatic decorum are forgotten. Lost notions of honor, conscience, decency. The hypocrisy is rampant!

Politicians understandable feeling superiority over others. But is the leader always smarter than his people? The experience of George W. Bush says that not always.

The job of politicians is to negotiate. And if they cannot agree, then they are not doing their job and other politicians should be hired. Only after all, no one is recognized as inconsistent with their position. And they themselves can’t live normally, and they don’t give it to others.

Gentlemen of politics! Well, let's live in peace!
If you want to fight - please, sovereignty is in your hands and forward to the front line. Fight with yourself. BUT simple people do not want to fight, neither for you, nor for your policy.
Do not deceive people or yourself - no one wants to die for your personal interests and geopolitical games.

Gentlemen of politics, do not be deceived - you do not express the interests of the people. Ordinary people do not want to die either for the property of the oligarchs or for your geopolitics.

How much can you hurt people?

I personally support the proposal of the leader of the Lugansk Republic, Igor Plotnitsky, to challenge the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, to a duel. Let them measure their strength, as in the good old days, and not throw human lives into the millstones of war. Why should people die for the wealthy oligarchs?!

Politicians build their careers on the suffering of ordinary citizens.
The elites are fighting, and the children are dying.
Everything will end with a revolution!

It is sad to think that global politics is a struggle between two (or several) ambitions, a struggle on which, perhaps, the fate of mankind depends.
If the presidents want to fight, let them choose weapons and fight each other. And ordinary people want to live in peace.

Presidents are not the whole country!
Politicians come and go, but the people remain.

According to Plotnitsky, the duel between him and the President of Ukraine should "put an end to the war."
“If you still want to shed the blood of your and our soldiers, their wives, mothers, old people and children, then prove that you are ready to shed your blood as well - accept my challenge,” concluded Plotnitsky.

“Let's, following the example of the ancient Slavic leaders and the glorious Cossack atamans, come together in a duel. Who wins, he dictates opposite side your conditions. Why incite mutual hatred and destroy people, economy, cities? These wounds and you, and we will have to heal for decades! Wouldn't it be better to end all differences in a fair duel?" - Plotnitsky turned to Poroshenko.

“Personally, I am most outraged when those who call themselves the guardians of the law call for the execution of innocent people.
- The innocent always suffer.
- Bastards, bastards! After all, it is obvious to everyone that with these bombings they are only trying to strengthen their power.
- They have always killed and will continue to kill the unwanted. And above all those who claim power, whether it be power over the minds or souls of people.
- But I am outraged that at the same time they have the audacity to declare that they are defending democracy and freedom, cynically speculating on these concepts. They shout that they care about the interests of the people, and at the same time they shoot this very people.
- Is it possible to put things in order at such a price?
- What to do if nothing remains and you have to solve the problem in this way?
- There is no problem, the solution of which would justify killing a person.
- And the war?
- War is a sign of intellectual impotence or cunning of rulers. Thus, they solve the problem of increasing their own rating at the expense of other people's lives. The rulers who start a war do not love their people, if they love anyone at all. After all, a politician, like any person, is ultimately controlled by either hatred or love.
In war they are sent to kill, justifying this with state interests. At the same time, the soldiers are assured that “God is with us” and that, they say, they are under the protection of the law. Thus, the rulers want to save the killers from remorse. After all, they don't kill! And they don't have to die."
(from my novel "Alien Strange Incomprehensible Extraordinary Stranger" on the site New Russian Literature

And in your opinion, how to avoid the WAR OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER?

P.S. I dedicate this post to the memory of my grandfather!

© Nikolai Kofirin – New Russian Literature –

UNKNOWN SOLDIER - THE MOST FAMOUS SOLDIER OF THE SECOND WORLD

One of the most sensitive issues history of the Second World War - the price of defeats and victories of the USSR. This price includes many components: colossal, incalculable damage was inflicted on the material and spiritual culture of the people. But the main "unit of measurement" is human lives. Both soldiers of the Red Army and civilians including unborn generations.

The scale of such a price has not yet been calculated, but the further wartime goes from us, the more impressive and bitter it is. For not all sacrifices were necessary and justified. The most terrible and irrefutable outcome of the war is monstrous fact to which we are all witnesses: hundreds of thousands of the dead still remain unburied or unknown. And this is provided that thousands of volunteers have been involved in the voluntary movement to search for and bury fallen soldiers for more than half a century. At the origins of this extremely painful problem, many factors intertwine and interact: moral and ethical, political, economic, historical and cultural - both objective, global, and subjective, even random. And the burden of responsibility that could not and did not want to take on Soviet state taken over by society.

The search movement is social movement citizens of our country, voluntarily and gratuitously engaged in the discovery and burial of the remains of fallen soldiers not buried during the war, establishing the front-line fate of soldiers who were considered missing, returning their names and deeds from obscurity, perpetuating their memory, restoring the course of military events.

The fate of the search movement has become an integral part of the history of our country, although it arose spontaneously - as an amateur, voluntary popular movement, in which representatives of all generations have participated and continue to participate, from war veterans to schoolchildren. The search movement has its own history of formation, its own stages of development. Gradually, it acquired its own legal base. Now it's included in government programs patriotic education youth.

The search movement is a unique phenomenon that no other country in the world has known. The movement originated in the first post-war years, but for almost half a century it was hushed up by the communist authorities, in fact it was banned. In the post-war years, the country, destroyed by the war, gave all its strength to the restoration of the national economy.

There were not enough funds and forces (and possibly political courage) to bury all the fallen Soviet soldiers, the remains of which continued to decay in the vast expanses that were the theater of military operations, from the Arctic to Kalmykia. Huge territories were still mined for a long time, and local residents were afraid to visit such places.

M.S. Gorbachev in his childhood became an eyewitness to a picture not rare in those years: “In late February - early March 1943, when the snow melted, I wandered with other children in search of trophies to a distant forest belt between Privolnoye and the neighboring village White clay. There we stumbled upon the remains of the Red Army soldiers who took their last battle here in the summer of 1942. It is impossible to describe: decayed and gnawed bodies, skulls in rusted steel helmets, from rotten tunics - bleached bones of the hands, clutching rifles. There is also a light machine gun, grenades, heaps of spent cartridges. So they lay, unburied, in the dirty slush of trenches and funnels, looking at us with gaping black holes in their eye sockets. We were petrified... We returned home shocked”1.

Work on the search, establishing the names and fates of war participants provides the opportunity for "meetings" with an unlimited number of historical sources. Their study can shed light both on specific events and on many fates of front-line soldiers2. This is precisely the most important goal of the search work, especially in view of the sad statistics of those who, having been mobilized to the front, did not return from the war and died (disappeared) nameless (missing).

In the country of victorious socialism, the families of the missing, exhausted by military hardships and the post-war famine years, did not even receive a pension from the state for the loss of a breadwinner. And after the Victory, the logic of the communist government and its bureaucratic apparatus remained repressive: what if he surrendered?! The words "missing" were stigmatized for many years...

AT personal archive The author keeps correspondence with the families of those soldiers whose remains were discovered during search expeditions and whose relatives were found. A letter received in 1991 from G.M. Demakov, the son of a Red Army soldier Demakov Mikhail Romanovich, born in 1913, a native of the village of Osetry, Darovsky district, Kirov region, who went missing in August 1942, is quite typical:

“I was born on June 23, 1941, I turned 50 years old, and all these years I felt awkward. I remembered my father only on Victory Day. But the record "missing" haunted me. You removed the shadow from my soul. Thank you for that. Of course, I would like to know more about my father, otherwise in 50 years of my life - two letters from the front and one pre-war group photograph of my father, which turned yellow with time and is difficult to make out.

We lived hard, survived with great difficulty. They ate grass, and for an extra clover head, for example, I often got a soft spot,

but still survived. Mom never got married, although they proposed, she didn’t go because of us ... ”3.

From a legal point of view, a missing person is a person whose “unknown absence has been certified in court. If within certain period, Despite all Taken measures, it was not possible to determine whether the missing person is alive or not, then the court declares him dead. Recognition as missing and dead entails legal consequences (transfer of rights and obligations to heirs, granting pensions to family members, etc.)”4.

However, the practice of establishing the fate of a missing soldier by going to court in the USSR, and then in Russia, was not widespread. And only the discovery by the search teams of the remains of a soldier in a firing cell, a dugout or a chain of soldiers who went on the attack with weapons in their hands in the former no-man's land, the bodies of pilots in the wreckage of aircraft at a depth of 6-7 meters, their identification by direct or indirect data are correct grounds for rehabilitation. And then for re-registration: transfer from the category of "missing" to "dead".

Almost half a century after the end of the war, a decree of the President of the USSR was issued on February 8, 1991 "On additional measures to perpetuate the memory of Soviet citizens who died defending the Motherland in the pre-war years and during the Great Patriotic War, as well as those who performed international duty." The missing servicemen were finally equated in status with the dead5.

An important confirmation of the state recognition of the search movement in Russia was the law of January 14, 1993 "On perpetuating the memory of the fallen defenders of the Fatherland", which regulates the conduct of search work carried out by public organizations6.

And, finally, in accordance with the Decree of the President of Russia dated January 22, 2006 No. 37 “Issues of perpetuating the memory of those who died in defense of the Fatherland”, for the first time a federal executive body was appointed, which was entrusted with powers in this area - the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation7.

Today, already in the 21st century, hundreds of thousands of families around the world do not know anything about their relatives who disappeared during the wars. Not so long ago in Geneva (Switzerland) the conference "Missing" was held. The focus of attention of the conference participants was the fate of families that have lost someone close to them. According to S. Martin, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross Missing Persons Project, “the feeling of anxiety does not subside for many years after the end of the war. And often such families are not able to continue their normal lives and recuperate ... As a rule, the warring parties are not inclined to jointly search for the missing. The reason for this lies not so much in inability as in unwillingness. As one expert noted,

when the circumstances under which people died are revealed, the terrible details of the hostilities are simultaneously revealed.

According to official data, the number of missing Soviet soldiers is from 3 to 4 million9.

The calculation, carried out by the author on the basis of the "Books of Memory" published in Russia, revealed in some regions a terrifying ratio of the number of missing soldiers to total number those who did not return from the war: about 52,000 (more than 45%)10 are reported missing in the Kostroma region, 90,696 (50.04%) in the Tula region, 174,945 (52.1%) in the Moscow region,12 in Moscow -184,591 (49.5%)13.

Some of the "missing" were hastily buried between battles in mass graves, the inscriptions on which were later lost. Many fighters and commanders died and remained lying in places of mass death - in "cauldrons" or during breakthroughs from encirclements. Some of them are in enemy captivity and at the stages of transportation to prisoner of war camps. Due to the lack of documents on the fact of death, they were recorded as missing.

The colossal number of missing front-line soldiers was determined by two factors: the lack of reliable means of identifying the identity of the fallen servicemen and the impossibility of a systematic, complete account of the irretrievable losses of personnel in the Red Army in a combat situation.

By order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR of August 14, 1925 No. 856, instructions were put into effect on the use of medallions with personal information about the Red Army servicemen14. It says:

"one. Medallions with personal information about the servicemen are assigned to facilitate personal accounting when issuing certificates to the population about all the Red Army servicemen who are in the theater of operations.

2. The medallion consists of the medallion itself (metal), a parchment sheet in it with summary about a soldier and ribbons for wearing a medallion on the chest ...

5. The medallion is stored, like the service book, in the hands of a serviceman, and at reviews, servicemen must have medallions on their chests.

6. In the campaign, the medallion is always worn on the chest.

7. When a serviceman is transferred from one unit (institution) to another, the serviceman keeps the medallion with him and changes only the parchment sheet in the new unit.

8. In case of loss of a medallion, a serviceman, at his request, is immediately issued a new one.

9. The medallion belongs to the service items, items of equipment and is a permanent thing.

10. Commanding and inspecting persons are obliged to check the presence of medallions from military personnel when they visit units and institutions”15.

The medallion of the 1925 model was made of tin in the form of a flat box measuring 50 x 33 x 4 mm with a ribbon for wearing on the chest. A special form (insert), printed on paper, was inserted into it. When using this type of medallion in the course of hostilities, it turned out that it was not hermetic: the parchment sheet quickly became unusable. When, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR K.E. Voroshilov No. 180 dated August 25, 1937, over 500 orders were canceled as "signed by enemies of the people", among them was the order of the Revolutionary Military Council No. 85616. As a result, the use of medallions was discontinued.

The experience of the war with Finland made me return to the medallions. By order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR S.K. Timoshenko № 138 dated March 15, 194117, the “Regulations on the personal accounting of losses and burial of the dead personnel of the Red Army in wartime” were put into effect. According to the regulations, new medallions were introduced in the form of a plastic case with an insert made of parchment paper. The order was supplemented by "Instructions on the procedure for using medallions with brief information about the Red Army servicemen." It says:

"one. To facilitate the accounting of the losses of the personnel of the Red Army, each serviceman in wartime is supplied with a medallion with a loose parchment sheet containing information about the serviceman ...

3. The following information is entered in the slip sheet: last name, first name, patronymic; military rank; year of birth; place of birth: republic, region, city, district, village council, village; family address; which RVK is mobilized; blood type.

Note: it is strictly forbidden to indicate the name of the military unit and the position of a military man in the loose leaflets.

4. Filling out the insert sheet and making changes to it is the responsibility of the unit commander.

5. Medallions are worn in a special trouser belt pocket on the right side...”18

In section 3 of the "Regulations on personal records ..." - "Assignment of medallions with information about military personnel" - it is said:

“In order to take into account the losses of personnel in wartime and in order to instill skills in storing medallions in peacetime, each serviceman, from the moment he arrives at the unit, is issued a medallion with a leaflet in two copies, which is recorded in the clothing certificate and kept by before his retirement...

The insert of the medallion is filled in two copies. One copy of the insert of the medallion from the dead and those who died from wounds is taken out and stored at the headquarters of the unit or a medical institution, and the second copy, enclosed in the medallion, remains with the killed or deceased from wounds. Teams

dressed up to clear the battlefield, take out one copy of the medallion insert from the dead and transfer it to the headquarters of the unit by whose order they cleared the battlefield. The death of a serviceman is reported by the unit to which, after clearing the battlefield, the medallion insert removed from the dead person was handed over, regardless of which unit the serviceman belonged to. The inserts seized from the medallions of the killed servicemen are stored by the unit commanders at the unit headquarters, on the basis of them they make lists in form No. 2 and send them to the division headquarters.

"Regulations on personal accounting ..." established the procedure for accounting for losses. It was emphasized that the commander of a regiment (separate unit) bears full responsibility for the accurate accounting of losses in the regiment and for the timely reporting of losses to the division headquarters.

In particular, the missing were to be accounted for within 15 days as "temporarily retired." The commanders of the unit and subdivision were obliged to take all measures to clarify the fate of the missing. After a 15-day period, they should have been added to the list of irretrievable losses, excluded from the lists of units with a report on the command. After 45 days, relatives should have been notified about them. If later the fate of the missing serviceman becomes clear, then additional information about him should have been immediately reported, both on command and to the RVC or relatives20.

According to the order of the People's Commissar of Defense No. 138, the chief quartermaster of the Red Army was supposed to supply the troops with medallions and leaflets by May 1, 1941. The quartermasters fulfilled this order to some extent: the search engines managed to find and read the forms of the medallions with the date of filling in May-June 1941.

According to the statistics we deduced from many years of experience in search work, medallions, when the remains of the dead are found, are found in approximately every 10th warrior, and an average of three or four out of ten medallions can be read. Thus, only three or four out of 100 fallen servicemen can be identified from the medallion.

There are several explanations for this circumstance.

By the day of the German attack on the USSR, it was not possible to fully provide all the personnel of the Red Army with medallions. And their production during the war was associated with great difficulties. So, on December 17, 1941, the head of the staffing department Leningrad front, brigade quartermaster Vasiliev reported to a member of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front, divisional commissar V.A. Kuznetsov: “Further production of medallions and supply of military units was stopped due to lack of electricity. To fulfill orders for medallions, I ask for your order on the supply of electricity for the Plastic Factory - 250 kilowatts and the Kultprom artel - 250 kilowatt-hours.

Unlike metal personal identification marks (die Erkennungsmarke)22 adopted by the German armed forces, Soviet medallions were not sufficiently reliable and hermetic. Their prolonged exposure to air, water, or soil led to a significant and sometimes complete destruction of the paper insert or the extinction of the text. At the same time, the oval aluminum plate-token of the dead German soldier during burial, it was broken into two parts (each with the same code) at the place of the cut. One half remained on the neck or in the pocket of the buried, and the other was transported to Germany, to the Wehrmacht Information Bureau for military losses and prisoners of war, later renamed the "German Service (WASt)". All personal data about the servicemen and lists of identification marks issued were stored there.

Every German soldier was persistently and sternly inspired that the absence personal mark can lead to severe injustice against his relatives, as in this case he may become "missing" for his family. If a found dead German soldier has a whole token, this means that he is not counted as dead and, therefore, is considered missing.

Among the Red Army soldiers, the attitude to the safety of medallions and notes was often careless: someone loosely screwed the lid, someone put a needle or metal pen nibs inside for temporary storage - and the note “oxidized”, someone did not fill out the form. And it also happened that the note - probably out of superstition - was thrown away immediately after receiving the medallion.

The soldier's medallion was the only "identity document" for privates and sergeants before the release of the order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR I.V. Stalin No. 330 of October 7, 1941 "On the introduction of the Red Army book in wartime in the rear and at the front." It said:

“... Red Army soldiers and junior commanders ended up at the front without documents proving their identity, and our division, which should be a closed fortress, inaccessible to unauthorized persons, has actually turned into a passage yard. The enemy took advantage of this disorder and sent his people dressed in our uniforms to some parts of the Red Army. In one of the divisions Northwestern Front a group of 7 people of such people, sent by the enemy with espionage and sabotage purposes, was discovered and shot. Further, there can be no doubt that quite a few people dangling in the rear of divisions and armies, dressed in Red Army uniforms, are enemy agents, transmitting information about our units, the fight against which is impossible due to the lack of documents from the soldiers of the Red Army, so that you can distinguish your own. people from enemy agents. And, finally, the absence of documents in the hands of the person departing for

the front of replenishment and departing from the front for the evacuation of sick and wounded soldiers and junior commanders made it impossible for supply agencies to check their provision with uniforms, weapons, equipment and other types of allowance. In order to correct the mistake made, to ensure units from the penetration of enemy elements and to streamline the accounting of the personnel of the Red Army, I order:

1. Immediately introduce in all units and institutions of the Red Army, both in the rear and at the front, a Red Army book with a photographic card of the owner, according to the declared model.

2. The Red Army book is considered the only document proving the identity of a Red Army soldier and junior commander. In the Red Army book, enter the passage of military service by a military serviceman and the items of allowance received by him from the military department (weapons, equipment and uniforms) ...

5. Check the availability of Red Army books for Red Army soldiers and junior commanders: in units in the rear - daily at the morning inspection, in combat units - at the first opportunity, at the discretion of the company commanders, but at least 1 time in 3 days.

6. Each Red Army soldier and junior commander should have a Red Army book with him. Red Army soldiers and junior commanders who do not have Red Army books should be detained as suspicious and sent to military commandant's offices to determine their identity ...

12. The Chief Quartermaster of the Red Army, within 15 days, prepare and provide the active army and internal districts with Red Army books of the sample approved by me, and also give instructions to the troops on the procedure for making photographic cards.

13. To the inspectors of the combat arms and services, as well as to all direct commanders, when visiting subordinate units, to check that the Red Army soldiers and junior commanders have Red Army books and the correctness of their maintenance”23.

Often there were situations when the soldiers of the Red Army did not have both medallions and Red Army books. So, in the report “On the results of the verification of the implementation of order NPO No. 13 8-41 on accounting for personal losses in parts of the 9th Guards Red Banner Division” dated May 28, 1942, it was stated: “Order No. 138 is in all units, forms of lists and There are no notices, they are printed on the spot. medallions in given time division is not secured. Not all soldiers are equipped with Red Army books without photographs. In the 28th Guards. but 100 fighters have no books”24.

Once again, the medallions were canceled by the order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR Stalin No. 376 of November 17, 1942 "On the removal of medallions from the supply of the Red Army"25. It stated: “With the introduction, by order of the USSR NKO No. 330 of October 7, 1941, of the Red Army book,

holding all the necessary data about the fighter, there is no need to duplicate this information in the medallion.

In accordance with this order, the Red Army book began to be considered the only document proving the identity of the Red Army soldier and junior commander. The Red Army books were confiscated from the dead and those who died from wounds and transferred to the headquarters of the unit or medical institution where, on their basis, lists of personnel losses were compiled. And the deceased became “nameless”.

On the other hand, the abolition of medallions was formally motivated by the introduction of Red Army books as a document proving the identity of a serviceman. However, this document did not ensure the proper safety of the records made in them, and could not always be used to identify the dead.

As a result, the absence of medallions and any documents with the dead, which later made it impossible to establish their identity. It is quite clear that the abolition of the medallions has led to an increase in the number of "missing".

Wartime documents are more eloquent than any reasoning on this subject, such as the act drawn up on March 28, 1943:

“We, the undersigned, Chief of Staff of the 105th Oiab, Captain Kopanev D.A., Assistant to the Deputy. the company commander for political affairs, foreman Gordeev and senior sergeant Nazarov, drew up this act on the following.

This date on the territory liberated from the enemy in the area of ​​vil. Stenino and Zhary, Yukhnovsky district, unburied corpses of 10 servicemen were found, there were no documents with them. According to the insignia, it was established that one of them was a lieutenant, one senior sergeant, one sergeant and seven Red Army soldiers, whose corpses were buried - the road leading from vil. Stenino, Yukhnovsky district Smolensk region in the village Heat. From vil. Stenino 1-1.5 km in the forest from the right side of the road 20 meters there is a pole with a metal star. This is what constitutes the present act.”26

In fact, the act was drawn up about the presence of one of the many options for "missing" in combat conditions. That is why the importance that information acquires today from at least one soldier's medallion discovered by search engines during the exhumation of unburied remains or unknown mass graves is so great. Indeed, sometimes, thanks to only one name from a correctly completed and relatively well-preserved medallion, it is then possible, using the documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense, to establish the names of the rest of the soldiers who died in this battle, to find out the circumstances of their death.

This tragic situation was significantly aggravated by numerous violations, and sometimes even outright non-fulfillment of the “Regulations on the personal accounting of losses and the burial of the deceased personnel of the Red Army.

Army in wartime”, introduced by order of the People's Commissar of Defense No. 138. The indifference of officials to soldier's death sometimes crossed all boundaries. And this happened not only in 1941-1942, when retreat could be justified.

An urgent need to restore order in accounting for losses arose even at the level of the Guards armies. So, in the order to the troops of the 10th Guards Army No. 0167 dated August 29, 1943 "On shortcomings in accounting for personal losses" it was said:

“Carried out in parts of the 22nd and 56th Guards. The inspection established a clearly unsatisfactory state of accounting and reporting on personal losses of personnel. The following main shortcomings were identified:

1. Accounting for personal losses in the process of combat operations in the units was absent. The main accountants - company clerks - were used in battle as fighters and, of course, were not involved in accounting. Most of them were out of order.

2. Belated registration led to the fact that in parts of the 22nd Guards. hundreds of missing persons turned out to be missing, the days and places of death and burial places have not been established for a huge number of dead.

3. Burial books in parts are not maintained, no plans for the location of mass graves were drawn up.

4. Expulsion name lists for irretrievable losses to the Center and notices F. No. 4 to the district military registration and enlistment offices is delayed due to difficulties in establishing the addresses of the relatives of the dead, the timing and place of their death, etc. Notices for the dead are drawn up carelessly.

5. Personnel who left during the battles are not excluded by orders from the beginning of the August operation until the day of verification on 22.8.43 (62nd and 67th Guards. cn of the 56th Guards Rifle Division), in the 65th Guards. cn losses are not completely excluded. Losses are not reflected in the books of personnel.

These shortcomings were the result of not only inattention, but also a direct disregard on the part of commanders of formations and units and chiefs of staff to the matter of accounting for losses, despite the exceptional importance of setting up accurate accounting of personnel for solving combat missions.

I order:

1. The commanders of formations and units by 05.9.43 accurately establish the irretrievable losses in the personnel of the units, report for all losses to the Center and the army headquarters and complete the sending of notices according to F. No. 4 for the dead.

2. Take urgent measures to clarify the circumstances under which hundreds of people went missing, and conduct a thorough search for the missing.

3. Immediately restore the graves in all parts of the book, draw up diagrams of mass graves and put cemeteries and mass graves in proper order.

4. Commanders of formations to investigate the untimely exclusion from the composition of the units of the personnel who retired during combat operations.

5. Prohibit the use of company clerks as fighters and teach them to keep records of losses during the battle .., "27.

Only towards the end of October 1943, after repeated orders and punishments, did the responsible persons at the level of the divisions that were part of the 10th Guards Army backdate the losses for the month of August.

But even in the case of timely burial of those killed in battle, they could fall into the category of missing, because due to failures in the accounting system, the buried soldiers in many cases turned out to be nameless, their families did not have the opportunity to find out about their fate, about the place of death and burial. And then the wording of the notice sent to the family from the military registration and enlistment office - "In the battles for the socialist Motherland, faithful to the military oath, having shown heroism and courage, died (date), buried (dash)" - without specifying the specific place of burial became equivalent to the standard wording: "disappeared without lead." One of the tragic paradoxes of the Great Patriotic War...

Millions of defenders fell on a foreign land, in different countries Europe, when, having endured all the hardships of the front, they already foreshadowed the imminent Victory. But they were not spared the cup of posthumous obscurity. On the territory of the 24 European states buried more than 2.5 million Soviet soldiers who died during the victorious " Stalin's blows". Of these, more than 80% are listed in cemeteries as “unknown”28.

The losses of the Red Army in offensive operations in Europe were heavy. But since the battlefield remained behind her, they managed to collect the bodies and bury them, and the system for accounting for losses was more or less established. The trouble now was in something else: in the impossibility of making long-term tombstones and inscriptions on them. There simply were no materials: on plywood tablets, the rank, surname and date of death were written with an indelible pencil or charcoal. A few months later, or even after heavy rains, nothing remained of the inscription.

And when at the end of 1945-1946. local authorities, together with representatives of the command of units stationed nearby Soviet army engaged in the reburial of the remains of fallen soldiers in specially designated military cemeteries, most of the graves were already nameless. There was one, albeit weak, consolation: the families received notices from the military registration and enlistment offices indicating the place of death and burial.

In 2002, the Department of External Relations of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, to a request to the military attache at the Russian Embassy in Austria - about the burial place of Guards Sergeant Sergey Sergeevich Polichev (died in April 1945) - answered: “The fact of the loss of data on the burial place of the deceased serviceman can be explained by the fact that in late 1945 - early

1946 by order of the GKTSGV No. 0160 dated 10/15/1945, the remains of the dead Soviet military personnel were mass reburied from field burial sites to garrison cemeteries at the points of deployment of Soviet troops. The reporting documents for the reburials indicated that there were a large number of graves that did not allow identifying the military personnel buried in them due to the lack of name plates or the inability to read the names and surnames indicated on them, since the inscriptions were made with unstable writing media.

But when, years and decades later, based on the data of the funeral, relatives tried to find the graves through the Red Cross, they were not always successful, at best, not immediately. Typical example- “posthumous fate” of Lieutenant Yakov Timofeevich Limans-kosh, born in 189630.

Truly, the most famous soldier of World War II was the Unknown Soldier...

This painful fact of today's our life does not fit well with the stereotypes of public consciousness. According to surveys conducted by the Institute of Complex social studies RAS in 1998-2004, the vast majority of our fellow citizens, regardless of gender, education, profession and place of residence, continue to be primarily proud of the nationwide Victory in the Great Patriotic War31. And at the same time, there is currently not a single region on the territory of the former USSR where the work on identifying and burying the remains of soldiers and commanders of the Red Army who gave their lives in the struggle for the independence of our Fatherland has been fully completed.

The nationwide search movement as a practical (and only recently scientific) problem has grown out of the mournful seeds of the people's misfortune: families who gave their fathers, husbands, sons, brothers, sisters to defend the Motherland, not only did not wait for them after the hard-won Victory, but even they did not know what land they fell into, having driven out the fascist aggressor and finished him off on his own land.

The mission of correcting this historical injustice was voluntarily placed on the shoulders of lone enthusiasts who, at their own peril and risk, began to "clean up the former battlefields." They cleared the still mined forests and fields from unburied corpses, burying them with their own forces. They were assisted by war veterans. Then their children, grandchildren, and now the great-grandchildren of the front-line generation joined in. In the course of many years of search expeditions on the territory of the former USSR, more than 10,000 fallen soldiers were identified by joint efforts32. Hundreds of thousands of front-line fates of those who did not return from the war were established by volunteer searchers and immortalized in the regional "Books of Memory".

The energy of the popular movement gradually removes the yoke of uncertainty and suspicion, returns a good name and honor to those who did not "disappear", but fell with weapons in their hands in their combat positions or in other cruel, inevitable circumstances of military hard times. That is why the mass graves and memorial cemeteries created as a result of search work are so significant, where families whose children did not know a reliable father's shoulder come to bow.

To return the names of all those who disappeared without a trace is an impossible task. But while it is possible to uncover one front-line fate, one more and one more - volunteer searchers will do their sacred work.

Notes

1 Gorbachev M.S. Life and reforms. Book. 1. M., 1995. S. 50-51.

2 Kharitonov A. On the history of the search for the missing // Fur die Lebenden der toten gedenken (In the name of the living, remember the dead). Dresden, 2003, pp. 76-85; Petrov V.N., Shkapa N.A. Guidelines for military archeology (for search work on the battlefields of the Great Patriotic War). M., 2006; Ivlev I.I. Memory is kept by you: Methodology for processing and analyzing documentary materials about the fate of military personnel in order to prepare a regional Book of Memory. Tyumen, 2008.

3 Sadovnikov S.I. A search that has become destiny. M., 2003. S. 222-223.

4 Military encyclopedic Dictionary. T. 2. M., 2001. S. 39.

6 Gazette of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation. 1993. No. 7. Art. 245.

8 Missing Relatives // Awake! New York, 2003. Issue. 84. No. 24.

9 Gavrilov Yu. Sergey Ivanov supported the search engines // Rossiyskaya Gazeta. 2006. 20 Sept. C.6; He is. Find and immortalize // Rossiyskaya Gazeta 2006. 22 Dec.

10 Book of Memory. Kostroma region. T. 7. Yaroslavl, 1995. S. 554.

11 Memory Book, 1941-1945. Tula region. T. 15. Tula, 2000. S. 57.

12 Book of Memory of the dead, dead and missing soldiers in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. T. 29. Part 3. M., 2005. S. 672-673.

13 Book of Memory of those killed and missing in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. T. 2-15. M., 1993-1995.

14 RGVA. F. 4. Op. 12. D. 48. JI. 34; Guide to search and exhumation work. 3rd ed. M., 1997. S. 29-30.

15 RGVA. F. 4. Op. 3. D. 2576. JI. 348; Guide to search and exhumation work. S. 29; Missing... memory? // Military history magazine. 1998. No. 1. P. 70; Sadovnikov S.I. On the problem of establishing the names and fates of the fallen defenders of the Fatherland // Archeographic Yearbook for 2000. M., 2001. S. 155-156.

16 RGVA. F. 4. Op. 12. D. 82. L. 182-185.

17 TsAMO RF. F. 2. Op. 920266. D. 2. L. 441-446; RGVA. F. 4. Op. 12. D. 97. L. 263; Russian archive: Great Patriotic War: Orders of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. T. 13 (2-1). M., 1994. S. 258-261.

18 RGVA. F. 4. Op. 15. D. 23. L. 719-720; Buslaev A.A., Mazur KA., Shumeiko Yu.I. Unpaid debt // Military history magazine. 1992. No. 9. S. 28.

19 RGVA. F. 4 Op. 12. D. 97. L. 275; Russian archive: Great Patriotic War: Orders of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. T. 13 (2-1). M., 1994. S. 260.

20 RGVA. F. 4 On. 12. D. 97. JI. 270; Russian archive: Great Patriotic War: Orders of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. T. 13 (2-1). M., 1994. S. 259.

21 Buslaev A.A., Mazur K.A., Shumeiko Yu.I. Decree. op. S. 30.

22 Schwanebach B.E. Guide to German military translation. M. 1943. S. 44-45; Schliht A., Angolia J. R. Die deutsche Wehrmacht. 1993. Band 1: Das Heer. Stuttgart, 1993. S. 411.

23 TsAMO RF. F. 2. On. 920266. D. 2. L. 840-842; RGVA. F. 4. Op. 12. D. 99. JI. 274-277; USSR in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945: A Brief Chronicle. M., 1970. S. 98; Konasov V.B., Tereshchuk A.V. New Approach to accounting for irretrievable losses during the Great Patriotic War // Questions of History. 1990. No. 6. S. 185-186.

24 TsAMO RF. F. 58. Op. 818883. D. 1114. L. 58.

25 TsAMO RF. F. 2. Op. 920266. D. 5. L. 495; Russian archive: Great Patriotic War: Orders of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. T. 13 (2-2). M., 1997.

S. 368; Kleimenov A.N. On duty of memory // Military-historical magazine. 1990. No. 4. S. 4; Konasov V.B., Sudakov V.V. On the history of the issue of personal losses of the personnel of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War and the perpetuation of the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland // Until the last soldier is buried: Essays and documents. Vologda; M., 1997. S. 4.

26 TsAMO RF. F. 58. Op. 18001. D. 91. L. 126.

27 TsAMO RF. F. 1473. Op. 2. D. 7. L. 44-44ob.

30 See: Simonov A.I., Simonov A.A., Karpenko S.V. The Case of Yakov Limansky // New Historical Bulletin. 2009. No. 4(22). pp. 165, 167.

31 Russian identity in the context of transformation: the experience of sociological analysis. M., 2005. S. 15.

32 Names from soldiers' medallions. T. 1-3. Kazan, 2005-2008.

V.A. Khokhlov

THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR IN MODERN RUSSIAN CINEMA: CONTINUED IN THE FANTASY FUTURE

“Our task was to show the Germans as badly as possible ... Because the Germans did not fight with machine guns like that, well, they never fought like that. Thanks to this, they won the war, because they had tactical units built around machine guns, very competently. At a press conference, a smiling director with a long-talking surname Samokhvalov made an amazing reservation: "They won the war thanks to this." “They” are the Germans, if anyone has not yet believed their eyes. Oshvor-