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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

how it was at the end of the war

How did the Germans behave when meeting with Soviet troops?

In the report of the Deputy Head of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army Shikin in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks G.F. Aleksandrov dated April 30, 1945 on the attitude of the civilian population of Berlin to the personnel of the Red Army troops said:
“As soon as our units occupy one or another area of ​​the city, residents begin to gradually take to the streets, almost all of them have white armbands on their sleeves. When meeting with our servicemen, many women raise their hands up, cry and tremble with fear, but as soon as they are convinced that the soldiers and officers of the Red Army are not at all the same as they were painted by their fascist propaganda, this fear quickly passes, more and more population takes to the streets and offers their services, trying in every possible way to emphasize their loyal attitude to the Red Army.

The greatest impression on the winners was made by the humility and prudence of the German women. In this regard, it is worth citing the story of the mortar man N.A. Orlov, who was shocked by the behavior of German women in 1945.

“No one in the minbat killed civilian Germans. Our special officer was a "Germanophile". If this happened, then the reaction of the punitive authorities to such an excess would be quick. About violence against German women. It seems to me that some, when talking about such a phenomenon, “exaggerate” a little. I have a different kind of example. We went to some German city, settled in the houses. A "frau", about 45 years old, appears and asks for "the commandant's hero". They brought her to Marchenko. She declares that she is responsible for the quarter, and has gathered 20 German women for sexual (!!!) service to Russian soldiers. Marchenko understood the German language, and to the political officer Dolgoborodov, who was standing next to me, I translated the meaning of what the German woman said. The reaction of our officers was angry and obscene. The German woman was driven away, along with her "detachment" ready for service. In general, German obedience stunned us. They expected guerrilla warfare and sabotage from the Germans. But for this nation, order - "Ordnung" - is above all. If you are a winner, then they are “on their hind legs”, moreover, consciously and not under duress. That's the kind of psychology...

A similar case is cited in his military notes. David Samoilov :

“In Arendsfeld, where we had just settled down, a small crowd of women with children appeared. They were led by a huge mustachioed German woman of about fifty - Frau Friedrich. She stated that she was a representative of the civilian population and requested that the remaining residents be registered. We replied that this could be done as soon as the commandant's office appeared.
"That's impossible," said Frau Friedrich. - There are women and children. They need to be registered.
The civilian population with a cry and tears confirmed her words.
Not knowing what to do, I suggested that they take the basement of the house where we were located. And they calmed down went down to the basement and began to be accommodated there, waiting for the authorities.
“Herr Commissar,” Frau Friedrich told me benevolently (I wore a leather jacket). We understand that soldiers have small needs. They are ready, - continued Frau Friedrich, - to provide them with several younger women for ...
I did not continue the conversation with Frau Friedrich.

After talking with the residents of Berlin on May 2, 1945, Mr. Vladimir Bogomolov wrote in his diary:

“We enter one of the surviving houses. Everything is quiet, dead. We knock, please open. You can hear whispering in the corridor, muffled and excited conversations. Finally the door opens. Women without age, huddled together in a close group, bow frightened, low and obsequiously. German women are afraid of us, they were told that soviet soldiers, especially Asians, will rape and kill them ... Fear and hatred on their faces. But sometimes it seems that they like to be defeated - their behavior is so helpful, their smiles are so touching and their words are sweet. These days, there are stories about how our soldier went into a German apartment, asked for a drink, and the German woman, as soon as she saw him, lay down on the sofa and took off her tights.

“All German women are depraved. They have nothing against sleeping with them, ”such an opinion was common in the Soviet troops and was supported not only by many illustrative examples, but also by their unpleasant consequences, which were soon discovered by military doctors.
Directive of the Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front No. 00343/Sh dated April 15, 1945 read: “During the stay of troops on enemy territory, cases of venereal diseases among military personnel have sharply increased. A study of the reasons for this situation shows that venereal diseases are widespread among Germans. The Germans before the retreat, and also now, in the territory occupied by us, took the path of artificial infection with syphilis and gonorrhea of ​​German women in order to create large foci for the spread of venereal diseases among the Red Army soldiers.
On April 26, 1945, the Military Council of the 47th Army reported that “... In March, the number of venereal diseases among military personnel increased compared to February of this year. four times. ... The female part of the German population in the surveyed areas is affected by 8-15%. There are cases when German women with venereal diseases are deliberately left by the enemy to infect military personnel.

Interesting diary entries were left by the Australian war correspondent Osmar White, who in 1944-1945. was in Europe in the ranks of the 3rd American Army under the command of George Paton. Here is what he wrote down in Berlin in May 1945, just a few days after the end of the assault:
“I walked through the night cabarets, starting with the Femina near Potsdammerplatz. It was a warm and humid evening. The air smelled of sewage and rotting corpses. The front of the Femina was covered in futuristic nudes and advertisements in four languages. The dance hall and restaurant were filled with Russian, British and American officers escorting (or hunting for) the women. A bottle of wine cost $25, a horsemeat and potato burger $10, a pack of American cigarettes a mind-boggling $20. The cheeks of Berlin women were rouged and their lips made up in such a way that it seemed that Hitler had won the war. Many of the women were wearing silk stockings. The hostess of the evening opened the concert in German, Russian, English and French. This provoked a taunt from the captain of the Russian artillery, who was sitting next to me. He leaned towards me and said in decent English: “Such a rapid transition from national to international! RAF bombs make great professors, don't they?".

The general impression of European women that Soviet servicemen have is that they are sleek and well-dressed (in comparison with compatriots exhausted by the war in the half-starved rear, on lands liberated from occupation, and even with front-line girlfriends dressed in washed-out tunics), accessible, self-serving, dissolute or cowardly submissive. The exceptions were Yugoslav and Bulgarian women.
Severe and ascetic Yugoslav partisans were perceived as comrades in arms and were considered inviolable. And given the severity of morals in Yugoslav army, "partisan girls probably looked at the PPZh [field wives] as creatures of a special, nasty sort."

About Bulgarians Boris Slutsky he recalled as follows: “... After Ukrainian complacency, after Romanian debauchery, the severe inaccessibility of Bulgarian women struck our people. Almost no one boasted of victories. It was the only country where officers were accompanied on walks very often by men, almost never by women. Later, the Bulgarians were proud when they were told that the Russians were going to return to Bulgaria for brides - the only ones in the world who remained clean and untouched.

But in other countries through which the victorious army passed, the female part of the population did not command respect. “In Europe, women gave up, changed before anyone else ... - wrote B. Slutsky. - I was always shocked, confused, disoriented by lightness, shameful lightness love relationship. Decent women, of course, disinterested, were like prostitutes - in hasty availability, the desire to avoid intermediate stages, disinterest in the motives that push a man to get closer to them.
Like people who learned three obscene words from the entire lexicon of love lyrics, they reduced the whole thing to a few gestures, causing resentment and contempt among the most yellow-mouthed of our officers ... It was not ethics at all that served as restraining motives, but the fear of getting infected, the fear of publicity, of pregnancy " , - and added that in the conditions of the conquest"general depravity has covered and concealed the particular depravity of women, made her invisible and shameless."

Interesting, isn't it?

My name is Wolfgang Morel. It is a Huguenot surname because my ancestors came from France in the 17th century. I was born in 1922. Until the age of ten, he studied at a folk school, and then for almost nine years at a gymnasium in the city of Breslau, now Wroclaw. From there, on July 5, 1941, I was drafted into the army. I just turned 19 years old.

I avoided labor service (before serving in the army, young Germans had to work for six months for the Imperial Labor Service) and I was left to myself for six months. It was like a breath of fresh air before the army, before captivity.

Before you got to Russia, what did you know about the USSR?

Russia was a closed country for us. The Soviet Union didn't want to keep in touch with the West, but the West didn't want contacts with Russia either - both sides were afraid. However, back in 1938, as a 16-year-old boy, I listened to a German radio station that broadcast regularly from Moscow. I must say the programs were not interesting - solid propaganda. Production, visits of leaders and so on - this was of no interest to anyone in Germany. There was also information about political repressions in the Soviet Union. In 1939, when there was a turn in foreign policy When Germany and the USSR signed a non-aggression pact, we saw Soviet troops, soldiers, officers, tanks - it was very interesting. After the signing of the treaty, interest in the Soviet Union greatly increased. Some of my school friends started learning Russian. They spoke like this: "In the future we will have close economic relations And you have to speak Russian.

When did the image of the USSR as an enemy begin to take shape?

Only after the start of the war. In early 1941, relations were felt to be deteriorating. There were rumors that the USSR was going to stop exporting grain to Germany. wanted to export their grain.

How did you perceive the beginning of the war with the Soviet Union?

Feelings were very different. Some believed that in a week all enemies in the East would be destroyed, as happened in Poland and in the West. But the older generation took this war with skepticism. My father, who fought in Russia during the First World War, was convinced that we would not bring this war to a happy end.

At the end of June I received a letter in which I was ordered to be at the barracks of a military unit at such and such an hour on such and such a date. The barracks was located in my hometown so it wasn't far to go. I was trained as a radio operator for two months. However, at first I played tennis more. The fact is that my father was a famous tennis player and I myself started playing at the age of five. Our tennis club was located near the barracks. Once in a conversation, I told the company commander about this. He really wanted to learn how to play and immediately took me with him to training. So I left the barracks much earlier than the others. Instead of drill training, I played tennis. The company commander was not interested in my combat training, he wanted me to play with him. When training in the specialty began, the games ended. We were taught to receive and transmit on the key, taught to eavesdrop on enemy conversations in English and Russian. I had to learn the Russian signs of the Morse code. Every sign Latin alphabet is encoded by four Morse characters, and Cyrillic - by five. It wasn't easy to master it. Soon the training ended, the cadets of the next set came and I was left as an instructor, although I did not want to. I wanted to go to the front, because it was believed that the war was about to end. We defeated France, Poland, Norway - Russia will not last long, and after the war it is better to be an active participant in it - more benefits. In December, soldiers from rear units were assembled throughout Germany to be sent to the Eastern Front. I filed a report and was transferred to a team to be sent to war.

We traveled to Orsha by rail, and from Orsha to Rzhev we were transferred to transport Yu-52s. Apparently, replenishment was urgently needed. I must say that when we arrived in Rzhev I was struck by the lack of order. The mood of the army was at zero.

I ended up in the 7th Panzer Division. The famous division commanded by General Rommel. By the time we arrived, there were no tanks in the divisions - they were abandoned due to lack of fuel and shells.

Have you been given winter gear?

No, but we received several sets of summer. We were given three shirts. In addition, I received an additional overcoat. And after all in January there were frosts under forty degrees! Our government slept through the onset of winter. For example, the order to collect skis from the population for the army came out only in March 1942!

When you arrived in Russia, what struck you the most?

Space. We had little contact with the local population. Sometimes they stopped in huts. The local people helped us.

From our group, skiers began to be selected for operations behind enemy lines - it was necessary to connect to enemy communication lines and listen to them. I did not get into this group, and on January 10 we were already on the front line as a simple infantryman. We cleared roads from snow, fought.

What was fed at the front?

There was always hot food. They gave chocolate and cola, sometimes liquor - not every day and limited.

Already on January 22, I was taken prisoner. I was alone in the outpost when I saw a group of Russian soldiers, about fifteen in winter clothes on skis. It was useless to shoot, but I was not going to surrender either. When they came closer, I saw that they were Mongols. They were considered especially cruel. There were rumors that they found mutilated corpses of German prisoners with gouged out eyes. I was not ready to accept such a death. In addition, I was very afraid that they would torture me during interrogation at the Russian headquarters: I had nothing to say - I was a simple soldier. Fear of captivity and a painful death under torture led me to the decision to commit suicide. I took my Mauser 98k by the barrel, and when they approached about ten meters I put it in my mouth and pulled the trigger with my foot. Russian winter and quality German weapons saved my life: if it weren’t so cold, and if the parts of the weapons weren’t so well fitted that they froze, then we wouldn’t talk to you. They surrounded me. Someone said "Hyundai hoch". I put my hands up, but in one hand I held a rifle. One of them approached me, took the rifle and said something. It seems to me that he said: "Rejoice that the war is over for you." I realized that they are quite friendly. Apparently I was the first German they saw. I was searched. Although I was not a heavy smoker, I had a pack of 250 R-6 cigarettes in my satchel. All smokers received a cigarette and the rest was returned to me. I then exchanged these cigarettes for food. In addition, the soldiers found toothbrush. Apparently they encountered her for the first time - they looked at her carefully and laughed. One elderly soldier with a beard patted my overcoat and dismissively threw: “Hitler”, then pointed to his fur coat, hat and respectfully said: “Stalin!” They immediately wanted to interrogate me, but no one spoke German. They had a small dictionary, which included a chapter on "interrogation of a prisoner": "Wie heissen Sie? What's the last name? - I called myself. - "What part" - "I don't understand." During the interrogation, I decided to hold on to the last minute and not reveal the number of my unit. After a little torment with me, they stopped the interrogation. An elderly soldier who praised his uniform was ordered to accompany me to the headquarters, which was six kilometers away in a village we had left two or three days ago. He was skiing, and I was walking on one and a half meters of snow. As soon as he took a couple of steps, I remained many meters behind him. Then he pointed to my shoulders and the ends of the skis. I could punch him in the temple, take the skis and run away, but I didn't have the will to resist. After 9 hours in 30-40 degree frost, I simply did not have the strength to decide on such an act.

The first interrogation at headquarters was conducted by the commissar. But before I was called for interrogation, I was sitting in the hallway of the house. I decided to take a moment and shake out the snow that had accumulated in my boots. I managed to take off only one boot when an officer of a heroic appearance addressed me, dressed in an astrakhan cape. In French, which he spoke better than I, he said: "It's lucky that you were captured, you will definitely return home." He distracted me from shaking the snow out of my boots, which later cost me dearly. We were interrupted by an interpreter shouting from behind the door: “Come in!”. The offer of a light snack was accepted by my empty stomach immediately. When black bread, bacon and a glass of water were handed to me, my hesitant glance caught the commissar's eyes. He motioned to the interpreter to taste the food. "As you can see, we're not going to poison you!" I was very thirsty, but instead of water there was vodka in the glass! Then the interrogation began. I was again asked to give my last name, first name, date of birth. Then followed main question: "What military unit?" I refused to answer this question. . The blow of the pistol on the table made me come up with an answer: "1st Division, 5th Regiment." Complete fantasy. Not surprisingly, the commissioner immediately exploded: "You're lying!" - I repeated. - "Lies!" He took a small book in which the divisions and their regiments were apparently recorded: “Listen, you serve in the 7th Panzer Division, 7th Infantry Regiment, 6th Company.” It turned out that two comrades from my company had been taken prisoner the day before, and they told me in which unit they served. This ended the interrogation. During the interrogation, the snow in the boot, which I did not have time to take off, melted. I was taken outside and taken to a neighboring village. During the transition, the water in the boot froze, I stopped feeling my toes. In this village I joined a group of three prisoners of war. For almost ten days we walked from village to village. One of my comrades died in my arms from loss of strength. We often felt the hatred of the local population, whose houses were destroyed to the ground during the retreat in the implementation of the scorched earth tactics. To angry shouts: "Fin, Fin!" we answered: "Germanic!" and in most cases the locals left us alone. I had frostbite on my right foot, my right boot was torn, and I used the second shirt as a dressing. In such a pitiful condition, we met the crew of the News of the Week film magazine, past which we had to walk several times in deep snow. They said to go and go again. We tried to hold on to the idea of german army wasn't that bad. Our "provisions" on this "campaign" consisted mainly of empty bread and ice-cold well water, from which I got pneumonia. Only at the Shakhovskaya station, restored after the bombing, did the three of us get into a freight car, where an orderly was already waiting for us. During the two or three days that the train traveled to Moscow, he provided us with the necessary medicines and food, which he cooked on a cast-iron stove. For us it was a feast, while there was still an appetite. The hardships we have experienced have taken a toll on our health. I suffered from dysentery and pneumonia. Approximately two weeks after the capture, we arrived at one of the freight stations in Moscow and found shelter on the bare floor near the wagon coupler. Two days later, we couldn't believe our eyes. The sentry put us in a white, six-seat ZIS limousine, on which was painted a red cross and a red crescent. On the way to the hospital, it seemed to us that the driver was deliberately driving in a roundabout way to show us the city. He proudly commented on the places we passed: Red Square with Lenin's mausoleum, the Kremlin. Twice we crossed the Moscow River. The military hospital was hopelessly overflowing with the wounded. But here we took a bath that had a beneficial effect on us. They bandaged my frostbitten leg and hung it over the tub with lifting blocks. We never saw our uniform again, as we had to put on Russian clothes. We were sent to the boiler room. There were already ten completely exhausted comrades there. There was water on the floor, steam escaping from leaky pipes in the air, and drops of condensate crawled along the walls. The beds were stretchers raised on bricks. We were given rubber boots so we could go to the toilet. Even the orderlies who appeared from time to time were in rubber boots. We spent several days in this terrible dungeon. Feverish dreams caused by illness drag on memories of that time… After five or maybe ten days, we were transferred to Vladimir. We were placed directly in the military hospital, located in the building of the theological seminary. At that time there was no prisoner-of-war camp in Vladimir where we could be accommodated in the infirmary. There were already 17 of us and we occupied a separate room. The beds were covered with sheets. How did you decide to place us together with the Russian wounded? A clear violation of the ban on contact. A Russian friend of mine, who by the nature of his activity was studying the fate of German prisoners of war in Vladimir, admitted to me that he had never seen anything like it. In the archives of the Soviet Army in St. Petersburg, he came across a card from a file cabinet documenting our existence. For us, this decision was a great happiness, and for some even salvation. There we felt treated as if we were our own, in terms of medical care and living conditions. Our food was not inferior to the food of the Red Army. There was no security, but despite this, no one even thought about escaping. Medical examinations took place twice a day, for the most part they were carried out by female doctors, less often by chief physician. Most of us have suffered from frostbite.

I already got there. My appetite disappeared and I began to put the bread that was given to us under the pillow. My neighbor said that I was a fool and should distribute it among the others, since I am not a tenant anyway. This rudeness saved me! I realized that if I want to go home, I have to force myself to eat. Gradually I started to improve. My pneumonia gave up after two months of treatment, including cupping. Dysentery was taken by the horns by intramuscular injection of potassium permanganate and the intake of 55% ethyl alcohol, which caused indescribable envy of others. We were treated like sick people. Even the slightly injured and slowly recovering were exempted from any work. It was performed by sisters and nannies. The Kazakh cook often brought a full portion of soup or porridge to the brim. Only german word, which he knew was: "Noodles!". And when he said it, he always smiled broadly. When we noticed that the attitude of the Russians towards us was normal, then our hostile attitude diminished. This was also helped by a charming female doctor, who, with her sensitive, restrained attitude, treated us with sympathy. We called her "Snow White".

Less pleasant were the regular visits of the political commissar, who haughtily and in every detail told us about the new successes of the Russian winter offensive. A comrade from Upper Silesia - his jaw was crushed - tried to transfer his knowledge Polish into Russian and translated as best he could. Judging by the fact that he himself understood no more than half, he was not at all ready to translate everything and instead scolded the political commissar and Soviet propaganda. The same one, not noticing the game of our "translator", encouraged him to translate further. Often we could hardly contain our laughter. Quite different news reached us in the summer. Two hairdressers said in great secrecy that the Germans were standing near Cairo, and the Japanese had occupied Singapore. And then the question immediately arose: what awaits us in the event of a passionately desired victory? The commissar hung a poster over our beds: "Death fascist invaders!" Outwardly, we were no different from the Russian wounded: white underwear, a blue dressing gown and house slippers. During private meetings in the corridor and the toilet in us, of course. the Germans were immediately recognized. And only a few of our neighbors, whom we already knew and avoided, such meetings aroused indignation. In most cases, the response has been different. About half were neutral towards us, and about a third showed varying degrees interest. The highest degree of trust was a pinch of shag, and sometimes even a rolled cigarette, lightly lit and handed over to us. Suffering from the fact that shag was not part of our diet, passionate smokers, as soon as they regained the ability to move around, set up duty in the corridor to collect tobacco. The guard, who changed every half an hour, went out into the corridor, stood in front of our door and drew attention to himself with a typical movement of the smokers' hand, "shooting" chinarik or a pinch of shag. So the problem with tobacco was somehow solved.

What conversations were going on between the prisoners?

Conversations between soldiers at home were only on the topic of women, but in captivity, topic No. 1 was food. I remember one conversation well. One comrade said that after dinner he could eat three more times, then his neighbor grabbed his wooden crutch and wanted to beat him, because in his opinion it would be possible to eat not three, but ten times.

Were there officers among you or were there only soldiers?

There were no officers.

In the middle of summer, almost everyone was healthy again, the wounds healed, no one died. And even those who recovered earlier still remained in the infirmary. At the end of August, an order came to be transferred to a labor camp, first in Moscow, and from there to the Ufa region in the Urals. After an almost heavenly time in the infirmary, I realized that I had completely lost the habit of physical work. But parting became even more difficult because I was treated here kindly and mercifully. In 1949, after spending almost eight years in captivity, I returned home.
Interview and literary adaptation: A. Drabkin

In the development of the topic and in addition to the article Elena Senyavskaya, posted on the site on May 10, 2012, we bring to the attention of readers a new article by the same author, published in the journal

At the final stage of the Great Patriotic War, having liberated the Soviet territory occupied by the Germans and their satellites and pursuing the retreating enemy, the Red Army crossed the state border of the USSR. From that moment, her victorious path began through the countries of Europe - both those who languished under fascist occupation for six years, and those who acted as an ally in this war. III Reich, and on the territory itself Nazi Germany. In the course of this advance to the West and the inevitable various contacts with the local population, Soviet military personnel, who had never been outside their own country before, received many new, very contradictory impressions about representatives of other peoples and cultures, from which ethnopsychological stereotypes of their perception of Europeans were further formed. . Among these impressions important place occupied the image of European women. Mentions, and detailed stories they are found in letters and diaries, on the pages of memoirs of many participants in the war, where lyrical and cynical assessments and intonations most often alternate.

The first European country, which the Red Army entered in August 1944, was Romania. In the “Notes on the War” of the front-line poet Boris Slutsky, we find very frank lines: “Suddenly, almost pushed into the sea, Constanta opens. It almost coincides with the average dream of happiness and "after the war." Restaurants. Bathrooms. Beds with clean linen. Shops with reptile sellers. And - women, smart city women - girls of Europe - the first tribute we took from the vanquished ... "He then describes his first impressions of" abroad ":" European hairdressers, where they wash their fingers and do not wash brushes, the absence of a bath, washing from a basin, “where at first the dirt from the hands remains, and then the face is washed”, feather beds instead of blankets - out of disgust caused by everyday life, immediate generalizations were made ... In Constanta, we first met with brothels ... Our first delights before the fact of existence free love pass quickly. It affects not only the fear of infection and high cost, but also contempt for the very possibility of buying a person ... Many were proud of past stories like: a Romanian husband complains to the commandant's office that our officer did not pay his wife the agreed one and a half thousand lei. Everyone had a clear consciousness: “It’s impossible for us” ... Probably, our soldiers will remember Romania as a country of syphilitics ...”. And he concludes that it was in Romania, this European outback, that "our soldier most of all felt his elevation above Europe."

Another Soviet officer, Lieutenant Colonel of the Air Force Fedor Smolnikov on September 17, 1944, wrote down his impressions of Bucharest in his diary: “Ambassador Hotel, restaurant, lower floor. I see how the idle public walks, she has nothing to do, she waits. They look at me like a rarity. "Russian officer!!!" I am very modestly dressed, more than modestly. Let be. We will still be in Budapest. This is as true as the fact that I am in Bucharest. First class restaurant. The audience is dressed up, the most beautiful Romanian women climb their eyes defiantly (Hereinafter highlighted by the author of the article). We spend the night in a first-class hotel. The metropolitan street is seething. There is no music, the audience is waiting. Capital, damn it! I will not give in to advertising ... "

In Hungary Soviet army faced not only with armed resistance, but also with insidious blows in the back from the population, when "drunken and stragglers were killed on the farms" and drowned in silos. However, “women, not as depraved as the Romanians, yielded with shameful ease ... A little love, a little debauchery, and most of all, of course, fear helped.” Quoting the words of one Hungarian lawyer, “It is very good that Russians love children so much. It’s too bad that they love women so much,” Boris Slutsky comments: “He did not take into account that Hungarian women also loved Russians, that along with the dark fear that pushed apart the knees of matrons and mothers of families, there were the tenderness of the girls and the desperate tenderness of the soldiers who gave themselves to the killers their husbands."

Grigory Chukhrai in his memoirs described such a case in Hungary. His part was quartered in one place. During the feast, the owners of the house where he and the fighters settled down “under the influence of Russian vodka relaxed and admitted that they were hiding their daughter in the attic.” Soviet officers were indignant: “Who do you take us for? We are not fascists! “The hosts were ashamed, and soon a lean girl named Mariyka appeared at the table, who greedily began to eat. Then, having got used to it, she began to flirt and even ask us questions ... By the end of the dinner, everyone was friendly and drank to "borotshaz" (friendship). Mariyka understood this toast too straightforwardly. When we went to bed, she appeared in my room in one undershirt. As a Soviet officer, I immediately realized that a provocation was being prepared. “They expect that I will be tempted by the charms of Mariyka, and they will raise a fuss. But I will not succumb to provocation, ”I thought. Yes, and the charms of Mariyka did not appeal to me - I showed her the door.

The next morning, the hostess, putting food on the table, rattled the dishes. “Nervous. Failed provocation! I thought. I shared this thought with our Hungarian translator. He laughed.

This is not a provocation! You were shown a friendly disposition, but you neglected it. Now you are not considered a person in this house. You need to move to another apartment!

Why did they hide their daughter in the attic?

They were afraid of violence. We have accepted that a girl, before entering into marriage, with the approval of her parents, can experience intimacy with many men. We are told: they don’t buy a cat in a tied bag ... "

Young, physically healthy men had a natural attraction to women. But the ease of European morals corrupted some of the Soviet fighters, while others, on the contrary, convinced that relations should not be reduced to simple physiology. Sergeant Alexander Rodin wrote down his impressions of the visit - out of curiosity! - a brothel in Budapest, where part of it stood for some time after the end of the war: “... After leaving, a disgusting, shameful feeling of lies and falsehood arose, a picture of an obvious, frank pretense of a woman did not go out of my head ... It is interesting that such an unpleasant aftertaste from visiting a brothel was not only with me, a youngster, who was also brought up on principles like “do not give a kiss without love, but also with most of our soldiers with whom I had to talk ... Around the same days I had to talk with one a beautiful Magyar woman (she knew Russian from somewhere). To her question, did I like it in Budapest, I answered that I liked it, only brothels are embarrassing. "But why?" - asked the girl. Because it is unnatural, wild, - I explained: - a woman takes money and after that, immediately begins to “love!” The girl thought for a while, then nodded in agreement and said: “You’re right: it’s ugly to take money in advance” ... "

Poland left other impressions about itself. According to the testimony of the poet David Samoilov, “...in Poland they kept us strict. It was difficult to get out of the location. And pranks were severely punished. And he gives impressions of this country, where the only positive moment was the beauty of Polish women. “I cannot say that we liked Poland very much,” he wrote. - Then in it I did not meet anything gentry and knightly. On the contrary, everything was petty-bourgeois, farmer-both concepts and interests. Yes, and they looked at us in eastern Poland warily and semi-hostilely, trying to rip off everything possible from the liberators. However, the women were consolingly beautiful and coquettish, they captivated us with their manners, cooing speech, where everything suddenly became clear, and they themselves were captivated at times by rough masculine strength or a soldier's uniform. And the pale, emaciated former admirers of them, gritting their teeth, for the time being went into the shadows ... ".

But not all assessments of Polish women looked so romantic. On October 22, 1944, junior lieutenant Vladimir Gelfand wrote in his diary: “In the distance, the city I left with the Polish name [Vladov] loomed, with beautiful Poles, proud to disgust . ... I was told about Polish women: they lured our fighters and officers into their arms, and when it came to bed, they cut off the penis with a razor, strangled their throats with their hands, and scratched their eyes. Crazy, wild, ugly females! You have to be careful with them and not get carried away by their beauty. And the Poles are beautiful, bastards. However, there are other moods in his notes. On October 24, he records the following meeting: “Today, beautiful Polish girls turned out to be my companions to one of the villages. They complained about the lack of guys in Poland. They also called me "pan", but they were inviolable. I patted one of them gently on the shoulder, in response to her remark about men, and consoled me with the thought of the road to Russia open to her - there are many men there. She hurried to step aside, and to my words she answered that there were men for her here too. We said goodbye with a handshake. So we didn’t agree, but the nice girls, even though they are Polish.” A month later, on November 22, he wrote down his impressions of the first large Polish city he met, Minsk-Mazowiecki, and among the descriptions of architectural beauties and the number of bicycles that amazed him in all categories of the population special place pays to the townspeople: “A noisy idle crowd, women, as one, in white special hats, apparently worn by the wind, which make them look like forty and surprise with their novelty. Men in triangular caps, in hats - fat, neat, empty. How many of them! … Dyed lips, lined eyebrows, affectation, excessive delicacy . How does it not look like natural life human. It seems that people themselves live and move on purpose only to be looked at by others, and everyone will disappear when the last spectator leaves the city ... "

Not only Polish townswomen, but also villagers left a strong, albeit contradictory, impression of themselves. “The vitality of the Poles, who survived the horrors of the war and German occupation- recalled Alexander Rodin. Sunday in a Polish village. Beautiful, elegant, in silk dresses and stockings, Polish women, who on weekdays are ordinary peasant women, raking manure, barefoot, tirelessly work around the house. Older women also look fresh and young. Although there are black frames around the eyes ... He then quotes from his diary entry of 5 November 1944: “Sunday, the residents are all dressed up. They gather to visit each other. Men in felt hats, ties, jumpers. Women in silk dresses, bright, unworn stockings. Rosy-cheeked girls - "panenki". Beautifully curled blond hair… The soldiers in the corner of the hut are also animated. But whoever is sensitive will notice that this is a painful revival. Everyone is laughing loudly to show that they don’t care, they don’t even hurt at all and are not envious at all. What are we, worse than them? The devil knows what happiness it is - a peaceful life! After all, I didn’t see her at all in civilian life! His brother-soldier Sergeant Nikolai Nesterov wrote in his diary on the same day: “Today is a day off, the Poles, beautifully dressed, gather in one hut and sit in pairs. Even somehow it becomes uncomfortable. Wouldn't I be able to sit like this? .. "

Far more merciless in her assessment of "European morals", reminiscent of "a feast during the plague", is the soldier Galina Yartseva. On February 24, 1945, she wrote from the front to her friend: “... If there was an opportunity, it would be possible to send wonderful parcels of their trophy items. There is something. This would be our undressed and undressed. What cities I saw, what men and women. And looking at them, such evil, such hatred takes possession of you! They walk, love, live, and you go and free them. They laugh at the Russians - "Schwein!" Yes Yes! Bastards... I don't like anyone except the USSR, except for those peoples who live with us. I do not believe in any friendship with the Poles and other Lithuanians...”.

In Austria, where Soviet troops broke into in the spring of 1945, they were faced with "general surrender": "Whole villages were headed by white rags. Elderly women raised their hands when they met a man in a Red Army uniform. It was here, according to B. Slutsky, that the soldiers "fell on the blond women." At the same time, “the Austrians did not turn out to be overly stubborn. The vast majority of peasant girls married "spoiled". Soldiers-holidays felt like in Christ's bosom. In Vienna, our guide, a bank official, marveled at the persistence and impatience of the Russians. He believed that gallantry is enough to get everything you want from a wreath. That is, it was not only about fear, but also about certain features of the national mentality and traditional behavior.

And finally Germany. And the women of the enemy - mothers, wives, daughters, sisters of those who from 1941 to 1944 mocked the civilian population in the occupied territory of the USSR. How did the Soviet military see them? The appearance of German women walking in a crowd of refugees is described in the diary of Vladimir Bogomolov: “Women - old and young - in hats, shawls with a turban and just a canopy, like our women, in elegant coats with fur collars and in shabby, incomprehensible cut clothes . Many women wear dark glasses so as not to squint from the bright May sun and thereby protect their faces from wrinkles.... " Lev Kopelev recalled a meeting in Allenstein with evacuated Berliners: "There are two women on the sidewalk. Intricate hats, one even with a veil. Solid coats, and they themselves are smooth, well-groomed. And he cited soldier comments addressed to them: “chickens”, “turkeys”, “would like such a smooth ...”

How did the Germans behave when meeting with Soviet troops? In the report of the Deputy Chief of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army Shikin in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks G.F. Aleksandrov dated April 30, 1945 on the attitude of the civilian population of Berlin to the personnel of the Red Army troops said: “As soon as our units occupy one or another area of ​​the city, residents gradually begin to take to the streets, almost all of them have white armbands on their sleeves. When meeting with our servicemen, many women raise their hands up, cry and tremble with fear, but as soon as they are convinced that the soldiers and officers of the Red Army are not at all the same as they were painted by their fascist propaganda, this fear quickly passes, more and more population takes to the streets and offers their services, trying in every possible way to emphasize their loyal attitude to the Red Army.

The greatest impression on the winners was made by the humility and prudence of the German women. In this regard, it is worth citing the story of mortarman N.A. Orlov, who was shocked by the behavior of German women in 1945: “No one in the minbat killed civilian Germans. Our special officer was a "Germanophile". If this happened, then the reaction of the punitive authorities to such an excess would be quick. About violence against German women. It seems to me that some, when talking about such a phenomenon, “exaggerate” a little. I have a different kind of example. We went to some German city, settled in the houses. A "frau", about 45 years old, appears and asks for "the commandant's hero". They brought her to Marchenko. She declares that she is responsible for the quarter, and has gathered 20 German women for sexual (!!!) service to Russian soldiers. Marchenko understood the German language, and to the political officer Dolgoborodov, who was standing next to me, I translated the meaning of what the German woman said. The reaction of our officers was angry and obscene. The German woman was driven away, along with her "detachment" ready for service. In general, German obedience stunned us. They expected guerrilla warfare and sabotage from the Germans. But for this nation, order - "Ordnung" - is above all. If you are a winner, then they are “on their hind legs”, moreover, consciously and not under duress. That's the kind of psychology...

David Samoilov cites a similar case in his military notes: “In Arendsfeld, where we had just settled down, a small crowd of women with children appeared. They were led by a huge mustachioed German woman of about fifty - Frau Friedrich. She stated that she was a representative of the civilian population and requested that the remaining residents be registered. We replied that this could be done as soon as the commandant's office appeared.

It's impossible, said Frau Friedrich. - There are women and children. They need to be registered.

The civilian population with a cry and tears confirmed her words.

Not knowing what to do, I suggested that they take the basement of the house where we were located. And they calmed down went down to the basement and began to be accommodated there, waiting for the authorities.

Herr Commissar,” Frau Friedrich told me benevolently (I wore a leather jacket). We understand that soldiers have small needs. They are ready, - continued Frau Friedrich, - to provide them with several younger women for ...

I did not continue the conversation with Frau Friedrich.

After talking with the residents of Berlin on May 2, 1945, Vladimir Bogomolov wrote in his diary: “We are entering one of the surviving houses. Everything is quiet, dead. We knock, please open. You can hear whispering in the corridor, muffled and excited conversations. Finally the door opens. Women without age, huddled together in a close group, bow frightened, low and obsequiously. German women are afraid of us, they were told that Soviet soldiers, especially Asians, would rape and kill them... Fear and hatred on their faces. But sometimes it seems that they like to be defeated - their behavior is so helpful, their smiles are so touching and their words are sweet. These days, there are stories about how our soldier went into a German apartment, asked for a drink, and the German woman, as soon as she saw him, lay down on the sofa and took off her tights.

“All German women are depraved. They don't mind being slept with." , - such an opinion was common in the Soviet troops and was supported not only by many illustrative examples, but also by their unpleasant consequences, which were soon discovered by military doctors.

Directive of the Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front No. 00343/Sh dated April 15, 1945 read: “During the stay of troops on enemy territory, cases of venereal diseases among military personnel have sharply increased. A study of the reasons for this situation shows that venereal diseases are widespread among Germans. The Germans, before the retreat, and also now, in the territory occupied by us, took the path of artificially infecting German women with syphilis and gonorrhea in order to create large foci for the spread of venereal diseases among the Red Army soldiers».

On April 26, 1945, the Military Council of the 47th Army reported that “... In March, the number of venereal diseases among military personnel increased compared to February of this year. four times. ... The female part of the German population in the surveyed areas is affected by 8-15%. There are cases when German women with venereal diseases are deliberately left by the enemy to infect military personnel.

To implement the Decree of the Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front No. 056 of April 18, 1945 on the prevention of venereal diseases in the troops of the 33rd Army, a leaflet was issued with the following content:

"Comrade soldiers!

You are being seduced by German women whose husbands went to all the brothels of Europe, became infected themselves and infected their German women.

Before you are those Germans who were specially left by the enemies in order to spread venereal diseases and thereby incapacitate the soldiers of the Red Army.

We must understand that our victory over the enemy is near and that soon you will have the opportunity to return to your families.

With what eyes will the one who brings a contagious disease look into the eyes of his relatives?

How can we, the soldiers of the heroic Red Army, be a source of contagious diseases in our country? NO! For the moral image of a soldier of the Red Army must be as pure as the image of his homeland and family!”

Even in the memoirs of Lev Kopelev, who angrily describes the facts of violence and looting by Soviet military personnel in East Prussia, there are lines that reflect the other side of "relations" with the local population: "They talked about humility, servility, flattering the Germans: that's what they are, they sell their wives and daughters for a loaf of bread." The squeamish tone in which Kopelev conveys these "stories" implies their unreliability. However, they are confirmed by many sources.

Vladimir Gelfand described in his diary his courtship of a German girl (the entry was made six months after the end of the war, on October 26, 1945, but still very characteristic): “I wanted to enjoy the caresses of pretty Margot to the fullest - kisses and hugs were not enough. I expected more, but did not dare to demand and insist. The girl's mother was pleased with me. Still would! On the altar of trust and affection from my relatives, I brought sweets and butter, sausage, expensive German cigarettes. Already half of these products are enough to have complete reason and the right to do anything with her daughter in front of her mother, and she will not say anything against it. For food today is more precious than even life, and even such a young and sweet sensual woman as the gentle beauty Margot.

Interesting diary entries were left by the Australian war correspondent Osmar White, who in 1944-1945. was in Europe in the ranks of the 3rd American Army under the command of George Paton. Here is what he wrote down in Berlin in May 1945, just a few days after the end of the assault: “I walked through the night cabarets, starting with the Femina near Potsdammerplatz. It was a warm and humid evening. The air smelled of sewage and rotting corpses. The front of the Femina was covered in futuristic nudes and advertisements in four languages. The dance hall and restaurant were filled with Russian, British and American officers escorting (or hunting for) the women. A bottle of wine cost $25, a horsemeat and potato burger $10, and a pack of American cigarettes a mind-boggling $20. The cheeks of Berlin women were rouged and their lips made up in such a way that it seemed that Hitler had won the war. Many of the women were wearing silk stockings. The hostess of the evening opened the concert in German, Russian, English and French. This provoked a taunt from the captain of the Russian artillery, who was sitting next to me. He leaned towards me and said in decent English: “Such a rapid transition from national to international! RAF bombs make great professors, don't they?"

The general impression of European women that Soviet servicemen have is that they are sleek and well-dressed (in comparison with compatriots exhausted by the war in the half-starved rear, on lands liberated from occupation, and even with front-line girlfriends dressed in washed-out tunics), accessible, self-serving, dissolute or cowardly submissive. The exceptions were Yugoslav and Bulgarian women. Severe and ascetic Yugoslav partisans were perceived as comrades and were considered inviolable. And given the severity of morals in the Yugoslav army, "partisan girls probably looked at the PPZh [camping field wives] as creatures of a special, nasty sort." Boris Slutsky recalled the Bulgarians as follows: “... After the Ukrainian complacency, after the Romanian debauchery, the severe inaccessibility of Bulgarian women struck our people. Almost no one boasted of victories. It was the only country where officers were accompanied on walks very often by men, almost never by women. Later, the Bulgarians were proud when they were told that the Russians were going to return to Bulgaria for brides - the only ones in the world who remained clean and untouched.

A pleasant impression was left by the Czech beauties, who joyfully met the Soviet soldiers-liberators. Embarrassed tankers with oil-covered and dust-covered combat vehicles, decorated with wreaths and flowers, said among themselves: “... Something is a tank bride to clean it up. And their girls, you know, fasten. Good people. I have not seen such sincere people for a long time…” The friendliness and cordiality of the Czechs was sincere. “...- If it were possible, I would kiss all the soldiers and officers of the Red Army for the fact that they liberated my Prague,” said ... a worker of the Prague tram to a general friendly and approving laugh, "- this is how he described the atmosphere in the liberated Czech capital and moods of local residents May 11, 1945 Boris Polevoy.

But in other countries through which the victorious army passed, the female part of the population did not command respect. “In Europe, women gave up, changed before anyone else ... - wrote B. Slutsky. - I was always shocked, confused, disoriented by the lightness, the shameful lightness of love relationships. Decent women, of course, disinterested, were like prostitutes - in hasty availability, the desire to avoid intermediate stages, disinterest in the motives that push a man to get closer to them. Like people who learned three obscene words from the entire lexicon of love lyrics, they reduced the whole thing to a few gestures, causing resentment and contempt among the most yellow-mouthed of our officers ... It was not ethics at all that served as restraining motives, but the fear of getting infected, the fear of publicity, of pregnancy " , - and added that under the conditions of the conquest "universal depravity covered and hid a special female depravity, made her invisible and shameless."

However, among the motives that contributed to the spread of "international love", despite all the prohibitions and harsh orders of the Soviet command, there were several more: female curiosity for "exotic" lovers and the unprecedented generosity of Russians to the object of their sympathies, which favorably distinguished them from stingy European men.

Junior Lieutenant Daniil Zlatkin at the very end of the war ended up in Denmark, on the island of Bornholm. In his interview, he said that the interest of Russian men and European women in each other was mutual: “We didn’t see women, but we had to ... And when we arrived in Denmark ... it’s free, please. They wanted to test, test, try a Russian person, what it is, how it is, and it seemed to work better than the Danes. Why? We were selfless and kind… I gave a half-table box of chocolates, I gave 100 roses to a stranger… for her birthday…”

At the same time, few people thought about a serious relationship, about marriage, in view of the fact that the Soviet leadership clearly outlined its position on this issue. The Decree of the Military Council of the 4th Ukrainian Front of April 12, 1945 stated: “1. Explain to all officers and all personnel of the troops of the front that marriage with foreign women is illegal and is strictly prohibited. 2. Report all cases of military personnel marrying foreigners, as well as the connections of our people with hostile elements of foreign states, immediately on command in order to bring those responsible to justice for the loss of vigilance and violation of Soviet laws. The directive of the head of the Political Directorate of the 1st Belorussian Front dated April 14, 1945 read: “According to the head of the Main Directorate of Personnel of the NPO, the Center continues to receive applications from officers of the army with a request to sanction marriages with women of foreign countries (Polish, Bulgarian, Czech and etc.). Such facts should be regarded as a dulling of vigilance and a dulling of patriotic feelings. Therefore, it is necessary in political educational work to pay attention to a deep explanation of the inadmissibility of such acts on the part of officers of the Red Army. To explain to all officers who do not understand the futility of such marriages, the inexpediency of marrying foreigners, up to a direct prohibition, and not to allow a single case.

And women did not entertain illusions about the intentions of their gentlemen. “At the beginning of 1945, even the most stupid Hungarian peasant women did not believe our promises. European women were already aware that we were forbidden to marry foreign women, and they suspected that there was a similar order also about appearing together in a restaurant, cinema, etc. This did not prevent them from loving our womanizers, but it gave this love a purely “outside” [carnal] character,” B. Slutsky wrote.

In general, it should be recognized that the image of European women, formed by the soldiers of the Red Army in 1944-1945, with rare exceptions, turned out to be very far from the suffering figure with chained hands, looking with hope from the Soviet poster "Europe will be free!" .

Notes
Slutsky B. Notes about the war. Poems and ballads. SPb., 2000. S. 174.
There. pp. 46-48.
There. pp. 46-48.
Smolnikov F.M. Let's fight! Diary of a veteran. Letters from the front. M., 2000. S. 228-229.
Slutsky B. Decree. op. pp. 110, 107.
There. S. 177.
Chukhray G. My war. M.: Algorithm, 2001. S. 258-259.
Rodin A. Three thousand kilometers in the saddle. Diaries. M., 2000. S. 127.
Samoilov D. One variant people. From military notes // Aurora. 1990. No. 2. S. 67.
There. pp. 70-71.
Gelfand V.N. Diaries 1941-1946. http://militera.lib.ru/db/gelfand_vn/05.html
There.
There.
Rodin A. Three thousand kilometers in the saddle. Diaries. M., 2000. S. 110.
There. pp. 122-123.
There. S. 123.
Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. F. 372. Op. 6570. D; 76. L. 86.
Slutsky B. Decree. op. S. 125.
There. pp. 127-128.
Bogomolov V.O. Germany Berlin. Spring 1945 // Bogomolov V.O. My life, or did you dream about me? .. M .: Magazine "Our Contemporary", No. 10-12, 2005, No. 1, 2006. http://militera.lib.ru/prose/russian/bogomolov_vo/03. html
Kopelev L. Keep forever. In 2 books. Book 1: Parts 1-4. M.: Terra, 2004. Ch. 11. http://lib.rus.ec/b/137774/read#t15
Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (hereinafter - RGASPI). F. 17. Op. 125. D. 321. L. 10-12.
From an interview with N.A. Orlov on the site "I remember". http://www.iremember.ru/minometchiki/orlov-naum-aronovich/stranitsa-6.html
Samoilov D. Decree. op. S. 88.
Bogomolov V.O. My life, or did you dream about me?.. // Our contemporary. 2005. Nos. 10-12; 2006. No. 1. http://militera.lib.ru/prose/russian/bogomolov_vo/03.html
From the Political Report on bringing to the personnel of the directive of Comrade. Stalin No. 11072 dated April 20, 1945 in the 185th Infantry Division. April 26, 1945. Cit. Quoted from: Bogomolov V.O. Decree. op. http://militera.lib.ru/prose/russian/bogomolov_vo/02.html
Cit. on: Bogomolov V.O. Decree. op. http://militera.lib.ru/prose/russian/bogomolov_vo/02.html
There.
There.
State archive of the Russian Federation. F. r-9401. Op. 2. D. 96. L. 203.
Kopelev L. Decree. op. Ch. 12. http://lib.rus.ec/b/137774/read#t15
Gelfand V.N. Decree. op.
White Osmar. Conquerors" Road: An Eyewitness Account of Germany 1945. Cambridge University Press, 2003 . XVII, 221 pp. http://www.argo.net.au/andre/osmarwhite.html
Slutsky B. Decree. op. S. 99.
There. S. 71.
Field B. Liberation of Prague // From the Soviet Information Bureau ... Journalism and essays on the war years. 1941-1945. T. 2. 1943-1945. M.: APN Publishing House, 1982. S. 439.
There. pp. 177-178.
There. S. 180.
From an interview with D.F. Zlatkin dated June 16, 1997 // Personal archive.
Cit. on: Bogomolov V.O. Decree. op. http://militera.lib.ru/prose/russian/bogomolov_vo/04.html
There.
Slutsky B. Decree. op. pp. 180-181.

The article was prepared with the financial support of the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation, project No. 11-01-00363а.

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