How ordinary Soviet people survived in the occupied territories. Friends or foes: on the issue of religious life in the temporarily occupied territory Boris Kovalev everyday life during the period of occupation

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Boris Kovalev
Daily life of the population of Russia during the Nazi occupation

To his teachers: N. D. Kozlov, G. L. Sobolev, T. E. Novitskaya, A. Ya. Leikin, the author dedicates this book

Introduction

Man in occupation. Who is he? Man or woman, old man or child - what do they have in common? Without leaving their home, they all ended up in a strange world. This world has a different language and laws. They do not live in it, but survive. This book is about just that.

Of course, a feat distinguishes a person from everyday life. The people who made it are above others. Talking and writing about them, in general, is easy. Over the past decades, a huge number of books have been written about the heroes of the anti-Hitler resistance and partisans. They contain both truth and myths. And it takes a lot of effort to separate one from the other.

You can also write about betrayal, about cooperation with the enemy, about collaborationism. There are many reasons for this collaboration. Someone fiercely hated the Soviet government and dreamed of "repaying the Bolsheviks."

There were people who dreamed of always being "on top". And it is not necessary what kind of regime the country has: red or brown, communist or democratic. "Power for the sake of power" - that's what they aspired to and therefore were ready to serve any regime.

Many aspects of the participation of citizens of the USSR in the war on the side of Nazi Germany were hushed up by the Soviet side. For the initial period of the war, this was quite understandable: it was impossible to undermine the fighting spirit of the Soviet people. Thus, the newspaper Proletarskaya Pravda wrote on July 19, 1941: “With the help of threats, blackmail and the fifth column, with the help of corrupt serfs who were ready to betray their nation for thirty pieces of silver, Hitler was able to carry out his vile intentions in Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia ... Even in Poland, in Yugoslavia and Greece ... internal contradictions between nations and classes and numerous betrayals both at the front and in the rear weakened the strength of resistance to the invaders. But Hitler's predatory machinations will inevitably be smashed to dust now that he treacherously attacked the USSR, a powerful country armed with ... the unbreakable friendship of peoples, the unshakable moral and political unity of the people ... ". The well-known writer and publicist Ilya Ehrenburg echoed her: “This war is not a civil war. This is a national war. This is a war for Russia. There is not a single Russian against us. There is not a single Russian who would stand for the Germans" 1
Ehrenburg I. G. War. M., 2004. S. 131.

In dictionary foreign words the concept of "collaborationist" is explained as follows: "(from the French - collaboration - cooperation) - a traitor, a traitor to the motherland, a person who collaborated with the German invaders in the countries they occupied during the Second World War (1939–1945)" 2
Modern dictionary of foreign words. M., 1993. S. 287.

But already during the First World War, this term began to acquire a similar interpretation and was used separately from the word "cooperation", denoting only betrayal and treason. No army acting as an occupier of any country can do without cooperation with the authorities and population of that country. Without such cooperation, the occupation system cannot be viable. It needs translators, specialist administrators, business executives, connoisseurs political system, local customs, etc. The complex of relationships between them is the essence of collaborationism.

In our country, the term "collaborationism" to refer to people who collaborated in various forms with the Nazi occupation regime, began to be used only recently. In Soviet historical science, the words "traitor", "traitor to the motherland", "accomplice" were usually used.

The degree of responsibility of people who in one form or another collaborated with the occupiers, of course, was different. This recognized the leadership of the Soviet resistance even in the initial period of the war. Among the elders and other representatives of the "new Russian administration" were people who took these posts under duress, at the request of their fellow villagers and on the instructions of the Soviet special services.

However, one can hardly call treason the accommodation of enemy soldiers, the provision of any minor services for them (darning of linen, washing, etc.). It is difficult to accuse of anything the people who, under the muzzle of enemy machine guns, were engaged in clearing, repairing and protecting railways and highways.

In Leonid Bykov's talented film "Aty-bats, soldiers were walking ..." one of the characters, Private Glebov, tells the lieutenant that he plowed during the occupation. The following dialogue takes place between them:

“So you worked for the Germans?”

- Yes, they received rations from the Germans.

- Strange, strange. And how many plowmen did you have there?

- Yes, it was...

For yesterday's Soviet schoolboy, Lieutenant Suslin, this is almost a crime. But Glebov, talking about this, is not afraid: “You were not under the Germans. And I was. And not just was. I plowed under them. I'm evil and I'm not afraid of anything.

Having survived the occupation, they joined the Red Army, helped to finish off Nazism with their work. Then these people were forced to write in the questionnaires: "Yes, I was in the occupied territory."

World War II was a tragic ordeal for many millions of people. Death and destruction, hunger and want have become elements of everyday life. All this was especially difficult in the territories occupied by the enemy.

Every person wants to live. Every person wants his family and friends to live. But there are different ways to exist. There is a certain freedom of choice: you can become a member of the resistance movement, and someone will offer their services to a foreign invader.

In the conditions of the occupation of the western regions of our country, the activities of people who took up arms or offered their intellectual potential to the occupiers should be characterized as treason to the Motherland, both in the criminal law and in the moral sense of this concept.

However, in condemning those people who actually collaborated with the enemy, we must be fully aware of the complexity of the situation of millions of our fellow citizens who found themselves in the occupied territory. After all, everything was here: the shock of the lightning-fast offensive of the Nazi troops, the sophistication and quality of Nazi propaganda, the memory of Soviet repressions of the pre-war decade. In addition, the occupation policy of Germany in relation to the population of Russia was, first of all, the policy of the “whip”, and the territory itself was considered as an agricultural raw material base for the needs of the Reich.

In this book, the author tried to show the side of everyday life of people under Nazi occupation. Some were able to survive it and some weren't. Someone went into the forests with weapons in their hands or helped the partisans, helped not out of fear, but out of conscience, and someone collaborated with the Nazis. But, in spite of everything, we won this war.

Chapter first. From the Rhine to the Yenisei...

The plans of the leadership of the Third Reich regarding the future of Russia. Union Population. New Russian administration. Burgomasters and elders

In the thousand-year history of our fatherland, the events of the Great Patriotic War became one of the most severe trials for it. The peoples inhabiting the country faced a real threat not only of deprivation of statehood, but also of complete physical destruction.

The victory, for which millions of human lives had to be paid, was won only thanks to the indestructible alliance of all the nations and nationalities of the USSR. In the course of hostilities, not only military equipment and the talent of generals, but also patriotism, internationalism, honor and dignity of every person.

In the fight against Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union was opposed by one of the most militarized states, whose leaders aspired to world domination. The fate of many peoples and countries depended on the outcome of this battle. The question was being decided: to follow the path of social progress or to be enslaved for a long time, thrown back to the dark times of obscurantism and tyranny.

The Nazi leadership counted on the fact that they would be able to easily split the Soviet society due to the events of the pre-war years: forced collectivization, unjustified mass repressions, conflict between the state and the church. Their plans were not destined to come true.

In the victory won by the Soviet Union over the Nazi invaders in the Great Patriotic War, important role played a genuine unity of all the people at the front, in the rear and in the territory temporarily occupied by the invaders.

Aggression and terror always go side by side. They are inevitable companions. The army of the Nazi Third Reich, conquering for the German population "living space" in the East, brought death and destruction. In the Second World War, cruel and bloody, the Soviet Union suffered the heaviest losses. In the fire of the war, 27 million Soviet people died, the Nazis turned into ruins about 1,700 Soviet cities and towns, 70,000 villages and villages, deprived of shelter about 25 million Soviet citizens.

From the very first steps on the temporarily occupied territory, the conquerors showed themselves not only as murderers, robbers and terrorists who knew no mercy, but also as sophisticated demagogues.

As early as May 15, 1940, G. Himmler drew up and presented to A. Hitler a memorandum entitled "Some thoughts on the treatment of foreigners in the East." A special institute of "continental-European policy" was created. A. Rosenberg was entrusted with the future management of the continent, numbering about 180 million people.

An important role in the plans for aggression and colonization of the territories captured by the Wehrmacht was assigned to punitive bodies, and primarily the SS. Their leaders, Heydrich and Himmler, actively participated in the development of these plans and the expansion. The most important goal of the future campaign to the East was its German colonization.

The highest body of the Third Reich for the management of the occupied Soviet territory was the Ministry for the Occupied Regions in the East (Eastern Ministry), established by Hitler's decree on November 18, 1941. The head of the ministry was a former subject Russian Empire, one of the veterans of the Nazi movement, Alfred Rosenberg, his deputy and permanent representative in the occupied territory was Alfred Meyer.

At a meeting at headquarters on July 16, 1941, Hitler justified the need for a new administrative-territorial division in the occupied Soviet territory as follows: “Now we are faced with the task of cutting the territory of this huge pie in the way we need, in order to be able firstly, to dominate it; secondly, to rule it; thirdly, to exploit it. 3
Nuremberg Trials. T. 7. M., 1961. S. 122.

Flirting with the Slavs, putting into practice the propaganda slogan "creating a new Russia - a state free from the Bolsheviks" in the conditions of the successful implementation of the lightning war plan seemed to the leadership of the Third Reich not only an unaffordable luxury, but also a mistake. But the trained cadres from among the emigrants then began to be actively used in the propaganda services, the police, in the special services and in various divisions of the collaborationist "new Russian administration" in secondary posts.

On October 19, 1941, the chief quartermaster at the command of the 16th Army of the Wehrmacht issued a circular letter "On the list of civilians loyal to Germany." It stated that “the new political division of the Russian population encounters particular difficulties at this stage of the occupation. On political grounds, neither emigrants nor their descendants can be used in the new construction, despite their unambiguously anti-Bolshevik sentiments. 4
Germany's war against Soviet Union 1941–1945 Berlin, 1994, p. 83.

The changed attitude of the Nazis towards the anti-Bolshevik emigration is largely explained by the recommendations that came from the Goebbels department. Soviet propaganda at the beginning of the war announced the desire of the Nazis to return to Russia "the landowners and capitalists who fled to the West after the revolution." The stake on anti-Soviet elements from among the citizens of the USSR was supposed to show the Russian population the opposite. Also, the occupiers were well aware that people who had lived abroad for almost twenty years and did not know the realities of Soviet society were unlikely to become their effective assistants.

The occupying authorities applied a differentiated approach to the population (not least according to the criterion of "racial usefulness"): a certain part was involved in cooperation. All this was aimed at achieving a single goal - the establishment of long-term domination of Germany in Russia.

On January 25, 1942, Alfred Rosenberg gave an interview to the Krakauer Zeitung newspaper, which dealt with "the future of the Eastern Lands."

In this conversation, the Imperial Minister expressed his thoughts on the current and future situation of the European East and, first of all, the Imperial Commissariat of the Eastern Lands. In his opinion, the union of the USSR, Great Britain and the USA, in the event of a victory over Germany, would lead the peoples of Europe to direct physical destruction, the decline of culture and the establishment of a bloody regime. 5
Speech. 1942. February 25.

Consequently, as the pro-Nazi press wrote, all the inhabitants of the "New Europe" should unite in the fight against the "Anglo-American-Soviet danger."

But as for the future of Russia (moreover, this word never sounded in his interview), Rosenberg escaped with a very vague statement: “Until the end of hostilities, it is impossible to finally establish a political form. Here various factors play a role that must be taken into account: the history of individual regions, the traditions of various societies, the behavior of the regions and peoples that are now under German rule, as well as many other points. Our task, and even more so the task of all others, is only to work hard to apply to general position, to mobilize all possible forces to ensure the protection of the Eastern regions, and to deliver everything necessary to the German armed forces. The readiness for honest work and the results of it will be a decisive moment in the preparation of the future legal order.”

The territory of the Soviet Union, captured by the Wehrmacht, was subject to both military (operational area) and civil (civil administration area) administration. Special rights were given to Hermann Göring, commissioner for the four-year plan, and Heinrich Himmler, the Reichsführer SS, chief of the German police. The management of the economy in the occupied regions was carried out by the headquarters for economic management Ost. The SS and police services were not limited to the performance of their direct functions, their influence in the occupied territories during the war was constantly increasing. 6
War of Germany against the Soviet Union 1941-1945. C. 80.

At the head of the military administration was the Quartermaster General of the High Command of the Ground Forces. Overall responsibility for civil administration rested with the Imperial Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Regions.

The Soviet regions occupied by German troops were divided by Hitler’s decree of July 17, 1941 into Reichskommissariats, general districts, regions and districts, districts (districts), headed by Reichskommissars, general commissars, gebitskommissars and district commissars.

The Imperial Commissariat "Muscovy" especially worried the Nazis. It was supposed, according to their calculations, to consist of seven general commissariats: in Moscow, Tula, Gorky, Kazan, Ufa, Sverdlovsk and Kirov. In order for "Muscovy" to occupy as little territory as possible, the Nazis were going to attach a number of regions with a Russian population to neighboring commissariats. So, Novgorod and Smolensk should have belonged to "Ostland" (ie, to the Baltic states); to the commissariat "Ukraine" - Bryansk, Kursk, Voronezh, Krasnodar, Stavropol and Astrakhan.

The invaders wanted the very concept of "Russia" to disappear. Hitler repeatedly stated that the words "Russia", "Russian", "Russian" must be forever destroyed and banned from their use, replacing the terms "Muscovy", "Moscow" 7
Cit. Cited from: Zagorulko M. M., Yudenkov A. F. The collapse of the Oldenburg plan. M., 1980. S. 119.

As the German armed forces advanced in 1941, the entire occupied territory of Russia was divided by the German authorities into three zones.

In the first, the so-called "evacuated zone", 30-50 km deep, directly adjoining the combat area, the administrative regime was the most strict and cruel. All civilians from these areas were forcibly resettled in the German rear. The settlers were accommodated in the houses of local residents or in camps, in non-residential premises, pigsties, sheds. In most cases, they did not receive any food or received the bare minimum. So, in the Chudovsky camp of the Leningrad region in 1942, the settlers were given liquid gruel only once a day. Due to hunger and disease, there was a very high mortality rate in the camps.

Residents were not evicted from the second zone, but they were allowed to appear outside their homes only during daylight hours. Going out into the field for household purposes was allowed only under the escort of German soldiers. The occupiers often created such zones in areas of active operations of partisan detachments and formations.

In the third zone, the general regime established by the Nazis in the occupied territory was preserved.

Starting from the first days of hostilities, administrative functions in the front line were carried out directly by the German military commandant's offices with the help of collaborators: village elders and volost foremen.

In the rear areas, more advanced and branched administrative institutions were created, but not united, however, in single system. Even with the occupation of the western regions of Russia, the Nazis did not want to create any semblance of a satellite state on this territory.

But at the same time, in an effort to subjugate the population as much as possible, the Nazis created bodies of the so-called “new Russian administration”, in which they attracted people who were ready to cooperate with them. The Nazi invaders were well aware that only with the effective work of the organs local government the potential of the occupied territories can be successfully used.

From the summer - autumn of 1941, the process of creating pro-Nazi command structures began in the occupied territories of Russia. Already in the first weeks of the occupation, the Germans without fail organized "congresses of volost and district burgomasters." They checked the staffing of the bodies of the "new Russian administration". Officially, the media announced that the purpose of such meetings is "to develop a procedure for the regular supply of food and fuel to the population, the organization of judicial and administrative authorities, the work of schools, hospitals, veterinary and fire fighting" 8
SAOO. F. R-159. Op. 1. D. 8. L. 23.

In practice, the German officers present at these meetings oriented, first of all, the "new owners of Russian cities and villages" to actively assist in the collection of food for the German army and the fight against the forces of Soviet resistance.

The occupiers had the greatest confidence in people repressed under the Soviet regime. Chekist groups that operated in the winter of 1941-1942 on the territory of the Leningrad Region reported to the Center the following: “The elders are selected from the anti-Soviet element: former merchants, clergy, traitors from among the Finns and Estonians.

In the city of Lyuban, the elders were appointed:

1. Slovtsov M.A. - former chorister of the kliros (mayor of the city).

3. Egorov VN - was in the church twenty.

In the villages of the Krasnogvardeisky district, a former merchant, a former White Guard, an Estonian, a Finn became the elders. 9
Materials of the archival group of the Academy of the FSB of the Russian Federation "State Security Organs of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War". Collection of documents.

In parallel with this, in a number of regions (primarily in the Pskov region, Novgorod region and Bryansk region), the forces of partisans and underground workers at the end of 1941 managed to restore and preserve the organs of Soviet power.

The largest territorial unit created by the invaders was the administrative district. Thus, the Orlovsky and Bryansk districts were organized. The Pskov district had a similar meaning. In Orel, Bryansk, Novgorod and Smolensk, there were city governments, and in Pskov - district government. These institutions were subordinate to the local German military commandant's offices. Councils acted under the leadership of the "mayor", or "Oberburgomaster". Sometimes the occupiers organized "elections of heads of households" of burgomasters (usually from several candidates who could prove that they would faithfully serve the "new order"), but much more often they were simply appointed by the German authorities.

The head of the district administration was directly subordinate to the representative of the German command and received instructions, orders and orders from him. He undertook to inform the Nazis about the mood and situation of the population. To hold any district and city events, they had to obtain permission from the German authorities. This official was the administrative head of all district burgomasters and elders subordinate to him. The apparatus of the district administration was divided into 9 departments. The general department was considered the main department. He was in charge of court, notary, citizenship, registry office, food supply to the population. The functions of the police department included the organization of the police and its structure, fire protection and protection of entertainment enterprises, the address and passport office, and control over citizens' meetings. The third department was in charge of finances and taxes, their collection and calculation. The rest of the divisions were considered secondary. They did not have real power, and the work in them was carried out mainly on paper. These included departments that had the names: “Education, culture, cult”, “Health care, veterinary condition”, “Highway, bridge and road construction”, “Industry and trade”, “Agriculture”, “Forestry and firewood” 10
SAOO. F. R-159. Op. 1. D. 8. L. 19–20 rev.

Administratively, large cities were divided into districts, as a rule, within the old boundaries. In each city district, district councils were created with foremen at the head. The district councils had the following departments: a) administrative, b) housing, c) technical, d) financial.

The heads of departments of the city government were selected by the mayor and, with his characteristics, were submitted for approval to the German military commandant. For the most part, these were people who, to a greater or lesser extent, were offended by the Soviet regime. For example, the historian Vasily Ponomarev, who was repressed in the early 1930s, became mayor of Novgorod. But there were also people who occupied a certain position under the Soviet regime. So, the former active member of the CPSU (b) Gruzinov became the mayor of the city of Feodosia.

The initiative to create a local Russian administration usually came from the Nazi military commandant's offices, which were in dire need of an institution of civil power. For this purpose councils were created in the cities. They were under the direct control of the Nazi military authorities. However, there were exceptions: in Feodosia, local governments created the so-called "initiative group" of former employees of the City Council 11
AUFSBKO. D. 437. L. 158.

But in any case, all officials were compulsorily approved by the German commandants. From 20 to 60 people could work in the apparatus of city government. In towns and villages, representatives of the collaborationist administration occupied best houses(naturally, from those where any German institutions did not settle). So, in Pskov, the council was located in a two-story mansion in the city center that was not damaged by the bombing. It had 30 spacious offices for officials, as well as a clinic, a dentist's office, a canteen, a warehouse, a workshop and utility pantries. 12
For the motherland. 1943. March 28.

Quite typical for the occupied territory of Russia was the history of the creation and functioning of the Novgorod city government. Using its example, one can consider not only the main activities of this administrative body, but also give an objective description of the people who worked there.

In August 1941, Novgorod was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe. Residents tried to escape from Nazi bombs in the basements of their houses or in the suburbs - Kolmovo and Pankovka. The latter were practically not affected, which cannot be said about the center. The ancient St. Sophia Cathedral, built in 1050, was also damaged. The command of the Red Army failed to organize any serious defense of the city, and on August 19, 1941, the Soviet units retreated across the Maly Volkhovets River. The front line stabilized two kilometers from the city. It remained unchanged until January 1944. On the Trade side, directly adjacent to the front line, there were only German soldiers. On the Sofia side, located on the other side of the Volkhov River, the local population continued to live.

The city government was the first to be created in the city occupied by the Germans. Its organizers in August 1941 were Boris Andreevich Filistinsky, Vasily Sergeevich Ponomarev, Alexander Nikolaevich Egunov and Fyodor Ivanovich Morozov. All of them were subjected to various repressions by the Soviet authorities in the 1930s. 13
For the motherland. 1943. March 28.

Having gathered at Filistinsky’s apartment, they learned from the owner that they had received preliminary consent regarding the creation of a “Russian administration”, since he had already spoken with the Germans and they instructed him to pick up reliable people who wanted to help the new authorities. A meeting was organized for them with the German military commandant of Novgorod (an officer with the rank of major), who asked those who came about their biographies, the time they lived in Novgorod, their education and repressions against them by the Soviet authorities.

The German commandant ordered to establish order in the city economy and appointed Ponomarev as the city head, since he was the only resident of Novgorod who came. The members of the newly created council distributed the rest of the duties among themselves. Before leaving the German commandant, all members of the formed city government received special certificates in Russian and German, where it was said that "the bearer of this is a Russian administrator approved by the German authorities, and everyone is obliged to assist him."

In the first weeks of the existence of the Novgorod city government, Ponomarev and his assistants were engaged in the selection and hiring of employees, independently sought funds for their maintenance. This problem was solved by establishing a rent and opening a canteen 14
There. L. 86.

Since the autumn of 1941, new taxes were introduced - income, from the yard and for keeping pets. So, for example, each owner of a cow had to hand over 30 liters of milk per month.

The council was located in the former railway club named after. V. I. Lenin. At the end of 1941, on the eve of the first German evacuation, she moved to the basement, as the city was subjected to heavy shelling and bombing by Soviet troops. 15
There. L. 220.

Every morning the mayor was obliged to come to the German commandant with a report on all city affairs, on the mood among the population. The orders received from the German authorities were then communicated by Ponomarev to the rest of the members of the council.

Ponomarev served as mayor of Novgorod until October 1941. It can be assumed that in the conditions of stabilization of the front line, the occupiers decided to use his knowledge, a professional historian and museum worker, with greater benefit for themselves.

In November 1941, Fyodor Ivanovich Morozov became burgomaster. Almost the entire first staff of the council was fired. The new leader formed his "team" on the principle of personal devotion to him. The collaborators who remained out of work, dissatisfied with their resignation, wrote a statement addressed to the German military commandant, in which they accused Morozov and his entourage of abuse of office, illegal enrichment and decay in everyday life.

After this "signal" all the instigators, five people, were summoned to the commandant. The latter, at first scolding them for squabbling, agreed to re-employ someone from the former council to secretly control Morozov and his entourage. These functions were assigned to A.N. Egunov, who combined them with the leadership of the department of public education.

About ten days later, on December 17, 1941, Morozov was killed by a Spanish soldier. This happened under the following circumstances. The municipal government organized the distribution of milk to municipal employees, children and pregnant women - one liter per person. Spanish soldiers also began to come for milk, but since there was not enough of it, it was released to them with great displeasure. On the basis of this there were frequent misunderstandings. One day, when the Spanish soldiers again came for milk, Morozov was in a state of intoxication. Dissatisfied with the fact that because of the Spaniards, the employees of the council were left with little milk, the burgomaster began to quarrel with them. Morozov shouted in Russian, and the Spaniards shouted in their own mother tongue. In the course of this skirmish, the burgomaster began to push and lowered a soldier of the "Blue Division" down the stairs. The offended Spaniard pulled out a pistol and killed Morozov with two shots. 16
There. L. 60–60 rev.

The third burgomaster of Novgorod was Dionysius Giovanni, the former director of the experimental station in Bolotnaya, an Italian by nationality. He remained in this position until April 1943. Giovanni, like Ponomarev, signed documents as "professor" 17
There. D. 42015. L. 32.

Since December 1941, the Novgorod city government was located at the Bolotnaya station and became known as the Novgorod district government. Most of the inhabitants of Novgorod were evacuated from the city at the same time, as the Red Army was expected to advance. In the summer of 1942, part of the townspeople returned. The Germans did not prevent the return of those whose houses were on the Sofia side.

The last burgomaster of Novgorod was Nikolai Pavlovich Ivanov. For his work from the German command, he received 68 marks and a working ration. According to the instructions he received from the Germans, he was obliged to: take the entire population of the city under strict control; on the orders of the German commandant's office, expel the population to work for the German army and carry out passportization of the entire adult population of the city 18
There. D. 1/7188. L. 12.

In the summer of 1943, all Novgorodians received German passports. One of the priority tasks set by the occupiers before the city government was to maintain order highway Novgorod - Leningrad. Lists of residents who were constantly sent to road work were compiled. People were divided into teams, and the team leaders reported on the work done directly to the Germans. Those who evaded work, the burgomaster had the right to take to the commandant's office and put under arrest.

Under Ivanov, the entire population of the city in November 1943 was evicted beyond the German defense line "Panther" - to the Baltic. N. P. Ivanov turned out to be the only one of the burgomasters of Novgorod who managed to be prosecuted. In August 1945, he was arrested by Soviet state security agencies and sentenced to ten years in the camps. 19
There. L. 181.

The truth about the war. Life under occupation.

Part - II.

There are a lot of lies in books and films about the war, both about the Germans and about ours ....

In this chapter: July 1941 - September 1943.
Two years and two months of living in the occupation of the family of my grandfather, father, relatives, friends and countrymen.
Smolensk region, Pochinkovsky district, ancient (remembering Napoleon and not only) village Grudinino.

What is history...? - the truth of the winners.
That's just this historical truth - we very often do not correspond to the True Truth.

Parts of that True Truth, objectionable and inconvenient, and therefore perverted or frankly forbidden to any kind of publicity - I will tell you in this and my subsequent narratives.

Almost all of my roots in both family lines go deep into the history of the glorious Smolensk Land.
This little land and its good-natured and simple-hearted inhabitants have suffered ... - they have suffered both needs and grief ....

My grandfather, on the paternal side, Rodchenkov Davyd Nikiforovich, was born in 1892, still under the tsar-father. He fought in the First World War and the Civil War. He was a believer, strictly observed all fasts and holidays, without bad habits (did not drink or smoke, as well as everyone in my family in all lines), well educated, sociable and had an almost phenomenal memory, with which he lived without illness ninety one years!
I also have a memory... - Thank God! Much of what I had to hear from my grandfather, father and his older sister and brother, as well as fellow countrymen - I will tell you without embellishment and retouching.

Truth and only Truth!!!

No one expected war. Moreover, as my grandfather said, even when it was announced, no one thought that in just three weeks the Germans would occupy Smolensk and Pochinok, and would rule this land for more than two years. But before the arrival of the Germans, Soviet propaganda did a pretty good job of presenting them almost with horns and hooves eating children.
The local population, including from our village, was driven by the Soviet authorities to dig anti-tank ditches. Just between our village and Pochinok, the line of this useless defense passed. Pochinok was surrendered without a fight, and the Germans walked strictly along the roads, and not a single tank got bogged down in these ditches. After the war, almost all of these ditches were leveled again, now only two of them remain (two km from our village) along the old road to Pochinok. Time has hardly touched them, they are just as deep with steep edges. In one of these ditches, foxes dug a lot of their holes, this moat practically turned into a labyrinth of fox holes, as a child I often went there to hunt, in the evening to sit on foxes.
A week before the arrival of the Germans, their planes, literally like mosquitoes, hung in the air, constantly attacking the retreating columns of our troops. This, not so much a retreat as rather a flight, was panicky. Our troops and authorities, leaving to the east, abandoned everything ..., and among other things, food, clothing and other warehouses, in the paradise center of Pochinki, remained under lock and key, but without protection. Although there was no looting, there was a different people then, not eager for someone else's good, but also their own, acquired by labor - appreciating and saving.
When the fighting was going on near Smolensk, and on quiet evenings the artillery cannonade was clearly audible - in our village no one doubted that any day the German would come to them. And of course people were afraid of their arrival.
My grandfather and my father Rodchenkov Ivan Davydovich (born in 1931, the youngest in the family) remembered very well how the first Germans entered the village.
On a clear, fine July morning, several motorcyclists (apparently scouts) drove into the village, followed by military equipment, trucks with soldiers and cars with officers.
Movies often show how the Germans, having entered the village, begin to rob it, - chasing chickens, dragging pigs and cows from the barns ... - there really was nothing like that! The German entered culturally.
Most of the vehicles proceeded through the village without even stopping. Only one passenger car with an officer and a truck with several soldiers, as well as motorcyclists, remained in the village.
As my grandfather recalled, a motorcycle also drove up to our house. The German knocked on the window and said, "Master, come out." Grandpa went outside. The German, in bad Russian, said that the commandant was inviting all adults to gather for a meeting at the village council in a few hours, got on a motorcycle and left. When grandfather came to the village council, almost the entire village had already gathered there. The German flag was already flying at the village council, but no one touched the signboard "Village Council". A German officer came out onto the porch and addressed the audience in good Russian. He said that he was a commandant and gave his rank and surname, but since for Russians, his name would not be familiar, he said that everyone could simply call him Rudik. That's what everyone called him after that. The appearance of the commandant was rather good-natured, but in behavior, there was no arrogance and pride, and, as my grandfather recalled, many had a strong fear in their hearts. He immediately reassured the people, saying that no one would touch their houses or their farms, and moreover, they were all now under the protection of the German authorities.
Then he asked - who is the chairman of the collective farm? But the chairman, being a party member, ran away with his family with the retreating troops, about which they told the German. Then he asked if any of the collective farm foremen were here? My grandfather's friend Gerasim (I won't give his last name), nicknamed Graska, said - I was the foreman of the local brigade. The German said, - so you will be the headman of the collective farm. He approached Graska and asked him his name. Graska gave his first and last name. The German silently began to peer intently into the face of the brigadier .... Everyone around them was also alert, preparing for the worst. Further, the commandant asked if Gerasim fought in the First World War? Gerasim answered in bewilderment that, yes, he fought, but he was captured and until the end of the war he lived in captivity in Germany as an employee of one of the German farmers. Then the officer said the name of the area, the name of the farmer, and asked if this was familiar to Gerasim? Graska replied that - it was there that he lived his captivity, and quietly asked how the officer guessed about this? The German laughed out loud, hugged Graska, even raised him above the ground, kissed him and said that he was the son of the same farmer with whom Gerasim lived in captivity, and that it was he who taught him, Rudik, the Russian language, which he now speaks. Graska burst into tears there, and they began to remember how they lived together, and Rudik told him about his old father.
But sometimes fate has interesting twists and turns. As I described here - that's how it was then! People all then soared in spirit, hoping that since the commandant and their countryman were old and good acquaintances, the Germans would not offend other residents either.
Graska said that from the prisoner of war camp - he was immediately taken to his farm by a local farmer, the father of the commandant, that he was treated by a German family - well, he lived in their house and ate with them at the same table.
But the two did not reminisce for long. The German quickly came to his senses and took up the duties of the commandant.
He immediately announced that no one would dissolve the collective farm, and that it would be called "collective farming." - All of you, - said the commandant, - as you worked, and continue to work, but already six days a week and Sunday is a mandatory day off, only now you will be paid for your work not with "sticks" on a sheet in a notebook for recording workdays, but with German money. Then he told the headman that he would send a soldier to him, so that they would describe all the property of the collective farm and give the list to him. All collective farm property, - said the commandant, - and plows and collars and harrows - should remain in the sheds in their places, and there will be severe punishments for theft.
Further, the commandant said that if anyone had any problems or questions, they could contact the headman or him personally. No one asked questions that day. Graska went with a German soldier to describe the collective farm property, and all the other residents went home.

On the same day, just had time to have lunch, my grandfather said, a car drove up to the house. The soldier who entered the house asked the owner and told his grandfather that their commandant would live in his house from today. No, the German did not ask his grandfather for consent to this residence, he politely but firmly informed him of this as an inevitable fact. Our house in the village was one of the best, solid, new and spacious. Yes, and the grandfather's farm (before collectivization) was strong.
Now, and especially earlier, both about the war and about the first years of life after the revolution, the Truth was hidden. And the whole essence of that Truth is that Lenin, having announced the slogan "Land - to the peasants, factories - to the workers" - kept this promise! The peasants (who wanted to work on it) received the land in the volumes that they were able to process. And everyone could start such a farm, for which he had the strength to support. My grandfather took advantage of this, but he didn’t use his hard-earned wealth for long - Lenin died, and Stalin announced collectivization - having taken everything away - he drove everyone to collective farms - but this topic is a completely different story ....
We will return to that July day in 1941. The German, who announced the future residence in our commandant's house, politely asked me to indicate a place where a bed and a bedside table could be placed.
I should also note that what was shown in Soviet films about the war is that the Germans drove the inhabitants out of their homes, and they lived: some in sheds, some in baths - there is a lie!
The Germans, both soldiers and officers, lived in the houses ("in huts", as we used to say) of local residents, but according to the stories of my countrymen, not only in our village, but throughout the entire district - not a single family from their house thrown out.
The soldier went out and soon returned with another soldier - they brought a bed into the house, bedding and a locker with a bedside table, and installed everything in the place indicated by the grandfather. Having said that the commandant will be in the evening, they left.
My father and grandfather remembered very well how a car drove up to the house in the evening and an officer entered the house. He had a machine gun slung over his shoulder and a briefcase in his hand. He said hello, put the briefcase in the bedside table, and hung the machine gun on the back of the bed. Then he asked his grandfather what kind of family he had. The grandfather said that his wife died a few years ago, and he lives with an elderly mother and three children. The German asked - where are all the rest of his household? Grandfather said that the mother and two older ones are doing housework, and the younger one (pointing to my father) is here. The German smiled at my father and called him over. Father recalled that he was scared, but he approached the German. He stroked his father on the head and, pointing his finger at the machine gun, said - do not touch it, looking at his grandfather - he added that other children would not touch it either. This machine gun, as my grandfather recalled, hung on the back of the bed for two years until the Germans retreated. Then the German took out his briefcase, took out a chocolate bar and handed it to my father. “Take this for you, eat it,” said the German. Children's memory stores everything, even sometimes the smallest, details of sensations and experiences very well. Father well remembered the propaganda in which the Germans were exposed as fierce animals. My father told me that he had a feeling in his soul that this chocolate bar was poisoned, and he shook his head negatively, almost audibly said that he didn’t want to .... The German was apparently not a stupid person and immediately understood the reason for the refusal. He laughed, unwrapped the chocolate bar, broke off a piece and, putting it in his mouth, began to chew. Further smiling, he again handed the chocolate to his father. Here already the father realized that it was not poison and took his present from the German.
Of course, life in the occupation was not sugar, and no matter how well the occupiers treated the civilian population, and war is war .... The officer caused a lot of trouble in the house. No, he did not interfere with life and did not bother, he ate separately with the Germans, not at our house, but very often he brought food and gave it to my grandfather's mother, as the mistress of the house. These Germans who lived in the village were, apparently, from the rear units, and they knew the whole village and everyone already knew them by sight. But combat units of the Wehrmacht often passed through the village, some to the front line, some back to rest. And the officers of these units often stayed up late at the commandant's. When Rudik had such guests (and they were quite often), he asked them not to disturb .... For a long time, they sat at a sip of cognac and sandwiches, unthinkable for Russian people, and talked about something in German. Grandfather was surprised that, having poured less than 50 grams of cognac into a glass, they savored it all evening, snacking on multi-layered thick sandwiches, in which there was only a thin strip of bread at the bottom. For all 2 years, grandfather recalled, he had not seen any of these Germans drunk. Their soldiers, moreover, of all units passing through the village, were always clean, tidy and fit, sometimes it seemed to grandfather that they were somehow well-groomed, even going from the front to rest.

And what will be surprising for many - at the end of the summer, Rudik announced to all the residents that they would prepare their children for school, since on the first of September, as before, the school year will begin. Children will study in the same schools with the same teachers. The subjects were studied the same, only the German language was added. My father has been at this school for 2 years. Moreover, even if someone's father fought in the Red Army, this was not imputed, his children could fully attend school. This is not fiction or fantasy - this is the Truth locked behind seven locks! And my father and uncles with aunts, as well as all their peers who studied at that occupation school, told that every morning before classes, teachers and high school students on duty checked the students: the cleanliness of clothes, ears, and hair for the presence of lice, and in there was a class hygiene journal in the classroom, where in front of each student the corresponding mark was shared daily. In those schools they not only gave knowledge, but also accustomed them to the Human form and order. Here it would be quite appropriate to recall a plot from a Soviet movie about war and occupation, where an old teacher, at home in the evening by the light of a kerosene lamp, taught the village children almost in a whisper, and when she heard footsteps outside the window, she immediately extinguished the lamp in fright. Why was it necessary to sink into the script of the film to such a frank and shameless lie?! - there can be only one conclusion here - to pass off “white” as “black”.
And now, I want to ask a question to all people who have not yet lost their brains, People - if Hitler really planned to destroy the Slavic nation, then what was the need for the Germans to spend solid funds on educating Russian children ???!!! They also maintained schools and paid salaries to teachers. And I really want to compare those years with the current hard times - and here is a (now alive) example for comparison: a boy lives in the neighboring village of Polyany, he is already seventeen years old, BUT (!) He did not finish a single class or any school! !! You can’t walk to the nearest Peresnyanskaya secondary school (where I also graduated from grades 9 and 10), it’s about 10 kilometers away. We used to go there by local four-car diesel trains, which just went to the beginning and an hour after the end of classes. But for more than 15 years, almost all of these trains have been canceled by the authorities due to the uselessness of the IM. I asked Yegor (the father of this boy) - was it really impossible to send my son to some kind of relatives, where there is a school nearby, so that the guy would get an education? - Where can I get the money? - Yegor answered me with a question, - it is impossible to find a job, since there is none at all, the state farm and all enterprises in the district have collapsed, - we do not live here, but survive. The authorities don’t give a damn about us, but what kind of shisha will I get the guy to school for ... ???
So draw a conclusion, Honest and kind people, WHO Truly pursues the goal of destroying Russians and Russian culture in Russia?! Some of you might say that these are local lyrics…. Well, let's get back to history.

As time went. Old people and adults, as before, cautiously leaned towards the occupation regime, but the youth ..., the youth quickly got used to it ... - these everywhere will find a reason for fun and even a way to realize it. There was no such thing as a "curfew" in the villages, it was possible to walk all night long. Our village was large, four streets crossed. They had their own school and club and shop. But the club with kerosene lamps soon ceased to attract young people. Near the village passed, and passes now the railway "Riga - Orel". And nearby there is a place among the locals called "Pit" - there is a railway bridge. During the war, the Germans guarded it, a special detachment of soldiers was based there, anti-aircraft guns were stationed on the outskirts, but most importantly, an electric light burned on the bridge all night. Trains at night, because of the fear of the partisans, almost did not go. That's where the local youth gathered, arranging dances to the accordion. The Germans did not interfere with this, and sometimes they themselves took part in this fun. As far as all the locals knew, during the entire occupation, there were no rapes in our neighborhood. Although the Germans lived in houses and even with many housewives whose husbands were at the front. Morality in those years in the villages was on high level but there were exceptions... And again, not guessing about the essence of the reason - but some gave birth to children from the Germans. In our village there was one such ..., about which everyone knew that her youngest, she gave birth to a German. When the Germans retreated, the locals often lashed her in the eyes, asking, “Masha, when your man comes from the front, how will you present your Vitka to him ...?” But her man - did not return from the front - and after her release she received benefits from the Soviet authorities "for the loss of a breadwinner" and for this Vitka as well.

Of course, children in those difficult years for my countrymen were born not only from Germans - this was rather an exception. Human life went on almost like usually people met, loved, and just as before celebrated weddings. But even without weddings, many widowed women, or even soldiers, arranged their own (though not quite family) family life.
The whole point of this case is that almost immediately, as the Germans occupied the paradise center of Pochinok, on its outskirts, just where the Yolka military unit is now located, the Germans equipped a prisoner of war camp. Commandant Rudik at the next meeting announced to the villagers that they can go there and if anyone in this camp has a son, husband or just a relative, a local resident should contact him with a document confirming kinship. Then he, the commandant, will write a receipt, according to which this captive relative will be released from the camp home. Do not be surprised, but it was so!
I don’t know exactly why, but most likely they did this for the reason that already a month after the start of the war - they already had about four hundred thousand of our prisoners - it was not easy to feed and protect such a mass of people, so they got rid of from them under all sorts of plausible pretexts, and someone needed to work on the occupied land, although I could be wrong here. Or maybe they did this because they were also people and they saw the same people in Russians. A complicated thing is Life... and Man is far from being simple.
But there was not always a need for receipts from the commandants - sometimes women did without them. It was about one of these cases, often, with cheerful irony, that they told in our village at gatherings.
We had a young soldier then, her husband was taken into the army just before the war. I remember her as an adult... Oh, and broken, the fire-woman even in her mature years was.
In general, in those pre-war times, before the army, almost none of the guys got married, to family life were taken very seriously, and therefore there were no divorces, in any case, I don’t remember any. And now - among my peers, only one (no, it's not me) lived his life with his first and only wife.
In general, Katerina wrapped a boy from a neighboring village, and married him to herself. And they didn’t live for a year - they drafted her husband into the army.
As I wrote earlier, life in the occupation was not much different from the previous one, people lived and worked. On Sundays, weekends in Pochinka, as before, there was a market day, fairs were also held. The villagers went there - some to sell what from the garden crop or otherwise ... and who - what to buy .... And on one such Sunday autumn day, this soldier Katerina took a cart (a horse and cart) from the headman and went to Pochinok in the morning to the market. I picked up various vegetables and a basket of chicken eggs for sale. Yes, but Katerina’s bargaining didn’t work out that day, and they didn’t buy potatoes much, but for eggs (which the Germans themselves were the first to willingly buy up) - no one came up at all - maybe it was bad luck, but rather - fate ...!
The market was then not far from the POW camp. Katerina was returning home passing by the camp passing by. I don’t know how and why, but she stared at one captured soldier, and stopped the horse. Maybe pity has awakened in her heart, or maybe the woman’s nature has jumped, - I don’t know - but she just went up to the barbed wire, behind which this prisoner was sitting and spoke to him. A German guard soldier, seeing this, approached her. He did not know the Russian language and, having spoken in his own way, began to point his fingers at her, then at the prisoner, well, Katerina had no choice but to communicate in the same way. Apparently each of them there understood what he wanted to understand. Only the German, looking at the cart where the basket of eggs lay, made the prisoner a sign with his hand to get up and go to the gates of the camp, which were nearby, the German himself went in the same direction. Then he led the prisoner out of the camp and, bringing him to Katerina, pointed with his hand to the basket with eggs. Here Katerina understood the German in the way she needed to. She took the basket and handed it to the German, and he slightly pushed the prisoner onto the cart, accepted the basket and left alone. According to Katerina herself, everything was exactly like that. Although other residents at gatherings often recalled this, only with a continuation - and this is how this continuation sounded. We see (the women told) Katerina is riding a cart, and next to her: a thin, overgrown, all in rags boy is sitting. The women, as you know, will never miss a moment to hook anyone, and even in this situation ....
- You, where is it, Katya, picked up such a seedy fellow traveler? - one young woman quipped loudly.
- Yes, in the camp, she traded with a German for a basket of eggs, she will help me with the housework, - Katerina was not slow to answer.
- Eh, Katya, you don’t look like yourself today - you obviously sold cheap, a basket of selected eggs - to exchange for two skinny ones ..., - the young woman sneered in response.
- Wait a minute ... - I'll wash it off, feed it ... - you will all envy me more than once ... - Katerina answered laughing, taking home the boy who did not take part in the woman's skirmish.
And it's true - she washed, fattened, and even a year later she gave birth to a son from him. But as soon as ours, in September 1943, liberated Pochinok, this Katya's roommate was immediately taken into the army. And more in the village - neither him nor his news - no one has ever seen or heard - either he died at the front, or toli .... Katerina’s legal husband also didn’t return from the war, and although she was lively and cheerful, no one married her anymore, so she raised her son alone. No one offended the orphan boy in the eyes, but behind the eyes in the village - they often called him by the nickname "Katkin bastard", but this is not from evil ....
And we had quite a few such cases when the Germans simply released prisoners.

In everyday life, the Germans behaved according to our standards - more than brought up. Both the grandfather and other villagers said that they seemed to adhere to the principle: "If a person works, do not interfere with him." Grandfather recalled - many times they came to buy milk from us - a German will come with a bowler hat, and his mother is still milking a cow - he does not interfere, does not hurry. It is surprising that almost all of them had harmonicas, which they constantly not only carried with them, but also played on them at every opportunity. Seeing that the hostess has not yet finished milking the cow, he will sit on a bench, take out a harmonica from the pocket of his gymnast and play various melodies on it. I remember in childhood, I played with one such harmonica, a German gave it to my father, but now it disappeared somewhere. As soon as the hostess milked the cow, the German removed his harmonica, approaching the hostess and saying, “The uterus is a bitte. She poured milk into a pot for him, he would certainly say, “Denke,” and handed her money, the cost of this milk. Grandfather had his own apiary, and when he pumped honey, the Germans, having learned about it, also came to him to buy honey. Also, my grandfather said that no matter how much I worked with bees or a honey extractor, until I finished my work, not a single German disturbed me, distracted me or interfered with my work.
But for shopping to the villagers, the Germans came and came almost every day, and not only their locals. The fact is that German soldiers and officers were often given vacations, and before the holidays they went to the villages to buy chicken eggs and took them with them to Germany. Before the war, ordinary sewing needles were in short supply in our country, both for machines and simple ones. The Germans knew about this, and they were sent these needles from Germany, and they exchanged them with the local population for eggs. Although the choice was always up to the seller, he could take the payment with needles, and if he didn’t need the needles, the German paid with money.
No one could remember any robberies and theft from the Germans.

In the summer, when it was hot, the Germans walked around the village half-dressed, in shorts (as the locals called shorts) and a cap. They didn’t carry rifles with them (they, like the commandant’s machine gun, lay in the houses where the soldiers lived), only a pistol on a belt, and often, as often as once a day, they swam with the children in the lake, apparently unusual for them ours. summer heat was. And all the ordinary soldiers had bicycles, which the village children were very jealous of.
In my house in the attic there are still the remains of that same bicycle, with shiny chrome shields and the same chrome speaker on the front fork, as well as a lilac plastic headlight - the peculiarity of this headlight is that there were two bulbs in it and on top switch for low beam and high beam. As a child, I installed this headlight on my bicycles, depending on the other guys, but the dynamka didn’t work, it served my father for a long time, but didn’t live up to me, I had to put my own domestic ones.

Very much they, the Germans, loved order in everything. They didn’t like dirty clothes - they didn’t blame the fact that a person was poorly and simply dressed - let you have old, washed trousers and a shirt, but that they were always clean.
And they really didn’t like it if someone tried to slip somewhere without a queue. My father and grandfather often told of an incident they happened to be present at. I already wrote above that our retreating abandoned everything. There were large food, clothing and other warehouses in Pochinka.
Growing up on Soviet propaganda and those who did not know the Truth of life in the occupation, it may seem implausible and even wild that fat that the Germans did not plunder any of these warehouses. However, it is a fact!
Commandant Rudik, having gathered people for the next meeting, announced that in the district center a lot of goods remained in warehouses from the Soviet authorities. All this is earned by you and belongs to you, - he said, - and therefore everything will be divided per capita, by families, and each of you will receive your share of everything. You will be additionally announced when the turn of your village comes up, and you will be able to receive and take out your share of good. To do this, you will be allocated carts.
It all worked out, the Germans kept this assurance. My father happened to go with my grandfather, and they told me when it was the turn of our village to buy goods, the headman prepared carts in the morning, on which people from each family went for their share. No one knew how the Germans calculated this share, but people really received flour, cereals, textiles and other goods from the warehouses according to the lists that the Germans had before their arrival.
The queue at the warehouses, where residents of not only one of our villages bought goods, was long. Grandfather and father said that a soldier with a rifle walked along the line, apparently keeping order. One of the men decided to skip the line. The German saw this and took this impudent man by the hand. He, after waiting a little, again repeated the previous attempt, - the German noticed this again and, already grabbing the jacket by the collar, threw the peasant away from the queue. But the man was apparently stubborn, and decided to get his way. After waiting until the German retreats, he again climbed ahead of the line. The German, once again approaching the head of the queue, recognized this insolent fellow and immediately took off his rifle from his shoulder and hit the peasant in the back with a butt with all his might. Muzhi, with a loud grunt, fell face down into the mud, but after a few seconds he began to rise. The German, who was watching him, shouted something in his own language, and with another swing kicked the peasant in the ass, he again stumbled, almost on all fours hobbled to his cart. Climbing onto the cart, he apparently realized that it could be much worse further - he pulled the reins and, with nothing, left home.
In this paragraph, as you probably already understood, I told you not only about the commitment of the Germans to their world-famous order, but most importantly, I told you that they not only did not plunder the warehouses, but distributed to the local population for free everything that conscience did not belong to the Germans.

If someone has the opinion that the Germans have arranged a paradise in our village, then I hasten to dissuade him. War is always and everywhere war. We also had those who joined the partisans and fought in the detachments before ours arrived. My grandfather had a sister, Ulyana. She married a local Vasily Grishkin, their house was just opposite ours, just across the road, they had two sons. Her husband, Vasily, just before the arrival of the Germans, still managed to be drafted into the Red Army, and the eldest son Nikolai, as soon as the Germans arrived, almost immediately went to the partisans. Here I must make one important clarification. Somehow recently, in one of the TV programs, with the topic of the tragic beginning of the war, regarding the huge number of our prisoners in the first months of the war - one researcher stated that this number was also so high due to the fact that civilians also ended up in prisoner of war camps residents are young men. Yes, this is a real fact, which I am ready to confirm! Why am I here about him...? - and besides, this my uncle Nikolai (cousin of his father who went to the partisans) suffered the same fate, and even suffered twice. The whole point of this is that in 1941 the Red Army did not have any hairstyle and they were all cut (under Kotovsky) on a bald head. As soon as the Germans saw a bald young guy, the road to the prisoner of war camp was guaranteed to him. July 1941 was hot and Nikolai, just before the arrival of the Germans, managed to get a haircut on his bald head. He was a strong and tall guy, and at 17 he looked much older. As soon as the Germans who came saw him, they immediately took him to the commandant's office under escort with an exclamation of "Rus soldiers". Luckily, the headman Graska was there with the commandant, who explained to Rudik that he was not a soldier, but a local guy, and Rudik ordered his soldiers not to touch him anymore. But after some 2-3 days, a column of Germans passed through the village, and Nikolai at that time walked along the street. The first truck stopped near him and the soldiers, having dragged Nikolai into the back, took him away with them. It is good that one village woman saw this and told his mother Ulyana about what had happened. Ulyana immediately found my grandfather, and he hurried to Rudik. Rudik, having listened to the essence of anxiety, immediately understood what was the matter. He wrote a note and gave them a cart - he sent them to the Pochinkovskiy POW camp. It was there that Ulyana and her grandfather found Nikolai, and, according to the commandant's note, they took him home. Less than a week later, the situation with Nikolai's "captivity" was repeated one on one. He and the guys swam in the lake, to which a car with non-local Germans drove up, and again, with the exclamation of “Rus soldier,” he was dragged into the car and taken away. The guys told his mother about what had happened, and she again ran to Rudik, and again with a note from him went to the prisoner of war camp where Nikolai was waiting for her. As you probably guessed - for Nikolai this was a great shock and, without waiting until he was taken again by mistake or worse, shot - he went to the partisans.
The most surprising thing is that the partisan camp at first was not so far from the village. I know that place well - the remains of dugouts and trenches around the camp are still clearly visible there. Although trenches, in the military sense of the word, this ditch can hardly be called. According to military rules, trenches are dug not in straight lines, but in zigzags, which I also saw in the places of our defense, where strong battles took place. These were just four straight ditches, forming a solid square around the camp of dugouts. It is not clear why, but as soon as our troops liberated the Smolensk region from the Germans, our sappers arrived and blew up all the dugouts, both in this and in two other similar camps known to me. If they did not do this, now there could be a genuine museum of partisan glory.
As I have already said, the camp was not far away and the partisans often came at night to visit their relatives. The Germans also knew about it. And they not only knew, but also arranged very frequent ambushes, in anticipation of night guests from the forest. As the old people said, the local Germans did not take part in these ambushes, and closer to night, German soldiers came from the garrison that stood in Pochinka. The Germans were already well aware of who and from which houses (families) were in the partisans. It was at these houses that they set up ambushes for the whole night, and left in the morning. Grandfather told how once, already at dusk, several unfamiliar Germans with machine guns approached our house, who dispersed around the garden, and one of them climbed an old branchy apple tree. When Rudik arrived, grandfather asked him - that this is some kind of soldier sitting in our soda on an apple tree. The commandant directly answered his grandfather that today there was a roundup of partisans, and since the house of his sister, whose son is in the partisans, is located opposite, it is possible that the partisans will go home from the other side of the street, and it should have been just through our garden, where his and an ambush awaits. But throughout the occupation, these ambushes have never been successful. The Germans did not catch a single partisan (from the local village ones).
But one tragic incident happened. And he touched just our family, or rather the grandfather's sister - Ulyana. In the late autumn of 1941 there was another raid on partisans. Moreover, the Nenets always came without warning, very quietly and almost imperceptibly, in thick twilight, so that the inhabitants of those houses where ambushes were arranged sometimes did not know about them. That is what happened on that fateful morning. Near the house of Ulyana there was a barn with hay (punya in the local language) and next to the barn there was another stack. The German set up his ambush just on this stack. In late autumn it dawns late, but in the village they always get up early, because they need to cope with the household, milk the cow and feed the cattle. Ulyana climbed into the hay shed to collect hay for the cow. The German, who was sitting near the shed on a stack, heard a rustle in the hay shed and, thinking that it was a partisan, fired a burst from a machine gun and shot Ulyana. Rudik told his grandfather that this soldier shot his sister by mistake, mistaking her for a partisan. Ulyana was buried, and there were no trials with the German soldier who killed her, in any case, we still don’t know anything about them. It was the only case in our village when the Germans killed a local civilian. But the fact (as is often shown in the movies) that the Germans pursued the relatives of the partisans and burned their houses is a real lie. Ulyana's younger son, Peter, my father's cousin, lived happily until our arrival. In 1943, he just turned seventeen years old and was drafted into the army just before winter. He, Grishkin Petr Vasilyevich, finished the war in East Prussia, returned with three wounds, the Order of Glory of the III degree and the Order of the Patriotic War of the I degree, as well as with medals. He is not only my cousin uncle, but also my godfather, who baptized me in the Smolensk Assumption Cathedral. He returned from the front to his native house, which the Germans did not burn. By the way, this is the most old house in our village, it was built in 1914, even before the revolution, without a foundation, on oak piles.
Eloquent proof of what I have stated here is the remains of that very uncle's house, which collapsed from time to time only three years ago - this house did not live up to its century quite a bit.
If someone here has the impression that our partisans simply sat out in the forests, then this is not so. If they sat there harmlessly - who would catch them and ambush them ...? They fought against the invaders as best they could. On our railway, between the stations of Grudinino and Pochinok, there is a place called “Isachenko’s pipe” (it’s about three kilometers from the village), there is a pipe laid under the railway to drain spring water, and a very high slope. So, it was there that the partisans derailed a German military train at the beginning of the war, the wagons were quickly removed, and the locomotive lay in a ditch for a long time. True, this was the only major partisan sabotage in the area of ​​​​our village against the Germans during the two years of occupation. My countrymen could not remember anything else.
But the partisan medal, Truth Rada, had another side. Both the inhabitants of our village and neighboring villages almost unanimously said that those villages where German units were stationed were many times more lucky than those (small villages) where there were no Germans. In our vicinity there were such villages as Morgi and Khlystovka, so people there lived in constant fear and washed themselves with tears. They said that they were constantly robbed - during the day by the policemen and at night by the partisans, moreover, in their habits and impudence, one almost did not differ from the other. The inhabitants of these villages themselves asked the Germans to equip their garrisons with them.

People in the occupation, as before, worked on the collective farm in the field, but many also worked in logging. In our places there were old pine forests and forests, and the German cut everything out and took it to Germany in trains. He destroyed the pine forests to the ground, so that now they have not even revived. Old local hunters told me that before the war we had wood grouses and bears around us. Now in the whole region, capercaillie is a rarity, and bears appear only in August - September with cubs, and even then not every year. In general, the Germans plundered the forest resources of the Smolensk region thoroughly.
But most of all, the dangers and troubles increased among the inhabitants of our region when the Germans began to retreat and our troops approached Pochinok with fighting. Our planes began to appear more and more often in the sky above the village and not just appear, but bomb all those places where enemy fortifications were seen. Our pilots did not particularly understand, and did not stand on ceremony with the inhabitants of the villages, if there were Germans there, they bombed everyone in a row, both the Germans and their own. At first, our aviation carried out raids mainly at night, and there was already a sign that if a reconnaissance aircraft flew by during the day, then wait for the bombers at night.
Near each house, residents dug trenches and as soon as they heard the roar of planes, the whole family immediately jumped out of the house and hid in the trench until they flew over or were bombed. I already wrote above that there was a railway bridge near the village, on which there were light anti-aircraft guns, but with the approach of our troops, the Germans reinforced the defense of this bridge with two more batteries of heavy anti-aircraft guns, one of which was located at the other end of the village, near the railway station, which she also covered. The inhabitants of that side of the village had a hard time…. Ours constantly tried to bomb and destroy these anti-aircraft guns, but the bombs rained down anywhere, but not on the anti-aircraft guns. The edge of the village was thoroughly bombed by their own, and the Germans removed the unharmed anti-aircraft guns only when they retreated. On the other side of the village there is a place called "Moshek", there are about two dozen deep craters left from our heavy bombs, in which we swam and caught crucians as a child. Local old people from the other side said that anti-aircraft guns were standing there, but before sunset, the Germans dragged them to another place, and at night bombers flew in just with these very heavy bombs and, in addition to an empty section of the field, bombed the edge of the village.
But even when the Germans had already been expelled, the bombing, now from the German side, continued for a long time, and the grandfather had to jump out of the house with the whole family many more times and squeeze into the earthen floor of the trench, feeling the earth tremble under bomb explosions. Although the Germans did not always drop bombs, there were occasions when they simply dropped leaflets. Basically, it was already a week after our troops liberated Pochinok and approached Smolensk. For Smolensk - as in 41, there were no fights. From planes, the Germans even dropped leaflets with the following text: "Orsha, Vitebsk will be yours - and Smolensk will be porridge." Smolensk was very heavily bombed, but what was the point of the Germans writing this and dropping it over our positions - I can't imagine. I once found one of those leaflets in the attic as a child, but when my grandfather saw it, he took it away and threw it into the oven.
There were air (air) battles near our village, both in 41 and 43, but there were never ground battles for it, as well as for Pochinki. Both ours in 1941 and the Germans in 1943 gave up our village and Pochinok itself without a fight. They just left. But before that, Rudik gathered the residents for the last time for a meeting. Grandfather and father remembered his words very well. He told everyone - today I have gathered you and I am talking to you for the last time. Most likely tomorrow yours will be here…. I warn you right away that we will not burn your village and your houses. This night it is planned to withdraw the last remnants of our troops and equipment, which will pass through your village, so stay in your homes at night and do not go out into the street. With this the meeting ended.
When in the evening he came to our house to pick up his things, he thanked his grandfather and told him, “if we leave Smolensk just as easily, then we lost this war. The equipment was already moving through the village with might and main, when Rudik got into his car and left forever.
At night, as the grandfather said, he did not let anyone sleep and everyone just lay down dressed. He was afraid that when retreating, some German would put a torch under the roof .... Equipment and machines rumbled somewhere until midnight, then everything abruptly died down. From this silence, grandfather said, it was hard on the soul. Everyone, almost silently, was sitting at home, when suddenly, at dawn, a characteristic and familiar rumble of a motorcycle was heard, which stopped at our house. Grandfather thought that some belated German would now come in to ask something .... But it was not a German who entered the house.

Life is interesting. Just as the Germans were the first to enter the village on motorcycles in 1941, so were the first Russians to enter it on motorcycles. That night, grandfather did not lock the door with a bolt - from the Germans - it was useless, and if there was any danger, he recalled, then the whole family could immediately run out into the street.
The doors to the house swung open and in the twilight grandfather saw the silhouette of a man who immediately rushed to the stove, throwing back the damper - he began to fumble in it with his hands looking for cast irons.
- What do you have here to eat, - everyone heard pure Russian speech .... Grandfather got up and lit a kerosene lamp. Everyone saw our soldier, unshaven, dirty, in some kind of footcloths sticking out of tarpaulin boots, wrapped almost to the knees with ropes. Seeing such a contrast after the well-groomed, well-dressed, neat and well-fed German soldiers, my heart ached (my grandfather recalled) from resentment for the attitude of our authorities towards their own soldiers.
The soldier had already taken the cast iron with potatoes out of the oven himself. No, he did not rob, did not threaten with violence or weapons - he was just very hungry. Grandfather opened the table and took out bread and a piece of bacon from there, said to the guy - sit down to eat! - Once, father, - the guy answered, putting more than the first potato into his mouth. - Give me with you ... - said the soldier. Grandfather cut off his bread and lard, - the soldier stuffed all this, together with potatoes, into his pants pockets and left the house. The motorcycle started up and drove away ....
This was the first Russian soldier, after more than two years of German occupation, who did not even give his name, but disappeared as suddenly as he appeared.
And in the morning, as Rudik quite accurately predicted, our others had already arrived ....
And again an officer and several soldiers entered our house. His first question was - where is the headman's house? Grandfather said that on the other street behind the crossroads. The officer left, and about two hours later, soldiers passed through the village, calling everyone to the crossroads for a meeting. Grandfather immediately went there. There the soldiers had already put together a gallows. Unlike the German parish, no one was silent here, and everyone was discussing the latest events, and no one was afraid of their own. Immediately, everyone saw how several soldiers were leading the bound headman Graska. The officer loudly announced that now all the inhabitants will judge this German henchman and traitor to the motherland .... But the people did not let him continue his speech, for they knew well the one with whom they lived in the occupation for more than two years and saw all his deeds. - He is not a traitor or a servant ..., - the whole village began to scream almost in unison. - He did not ask for this position himself, but the commandant appointed him, as well as throughout the occupation - he constantly helped local residents to the best of his ability. The main thing is that when the Germans drove young people to Germany - at night, the day before the arrival of the German team that carried out this dispatch, he went around all the houses, because he had the lists of boys and girls to be taken out, and told everyone - he would hide his children for at least four day, let them sit out in the forest, and when this team passes, it will be possible to return home. By the way, my god-uncle Peter was one of them. He repeatedly saved the inhabitants and the village from the policemen, with their food raids. “We won’t let the innocent be executed,” the village wailed. I must say that our people have always been good, honest, open and, most importantly, friendly. That officer was also a normal person. He said - if so - let the court decide his future fate, and the villagers will be invited to the court. The court did not keep itself waiting, in those days they did not stand on ceremony for a long time and did not understand .... In Pochinka, where my grandfather and many villagers were invited as witnesses, a trial was held for those who held similar positions with the Germans. At the trial, all the villagers, as before, insisted that Graska was not guilty of anything. But the court decide otherwise - eight years in prison - was his sentence to Graska. Graska served all these eight years and returned to his native village, to his home. People treated him like a human being, no one reproached him either to his face or behind his eyes, for everyone knew him as a good and honest person. But that was later...

In the meantime, back to that first day of liberation…. I dare not respect myself without telling the whole Truth of that and subsequent days when our village was liberated.
As I wrote above, my grandfather had his own apiary. And before our arrival, my grandfather, fearing lawlessness from the retreating German troops, chopped branches and spruce branches and covered the beehives with them so that they would not catch the eye .... But, as life has shown, he feared the Germans in vain!
By the end of the day there were already many of our soldiers in the village. And unfortunately they were not as well brought up as the Germans…. They went into the garden for apples - they saw heaps of branches, which they apparently became interested in. Having found a beehive there, they decided to feast on honey. No, they did not ask their grandfather to give them honey - they acted in a barbaric way. The well was nearby and they, having collected a bucket of water, opened the hive and, in order not to be bitten by bees, filled it with water, after which they took out the frames with honey. So in an hour all the bee colonies were completely destroyed.
But it was still half the trouble .... You could live without bees...
But the next day, a car drove up to the house with a hitherto unfamiliar officer and three soldiers. The officer told the grandfather that he must show him all the animals and chickens on the farm and the food in the cellar. Grandfather led them to the cellar. The officer, seeing a bunch of potatoes there, announced to his grandfather, “you leave eight bags for yourself, and you will hand over the rest right now!” And he sent the soldiers to the truck for the bags. Grandfather said that his family could not live even two months with these eight bags, but the more they eat…. But the officer immediately corrected him, “no, you didn’t understand me,” he said, “we leave these potatoes to you not so that you would eat them, but with the sole purpose that you would plant them with a vein on the field under future harvest, this is only for seeds. And if you don’t plant a field in the spring and don’t hand over the food tax in the fall, you will go to court as an enemy of the people. - How can we live? asked the officer's grandfather. “You didn’t die under the Germans and you will survive further,” the officer answered sharply to his grandfather. As if it was not like him in 41, they scrabbled ahead of their units, leaving their own compatriots to the mercy of the enemy invaders. Then they took out not only potatoes, but also the lion's share of other products. They did not take away the chickens and the cow, Truth is glad, but after counting the chickens, they immediately announced the number of eggs, as well as liters of milk that had to be donated - milk every day, and eggs - once a week.
And who would try not to pass the established norm .... Show courts did not stand on ceremony and were quick to punish. (But that's a whole other story...)

So they waited for the liberators ... - the grandfather recalled bitterly, - that's when they tasted what cakes made from chaff and tashnotiki from the rotten and frozen potatoes left in the fields, fried on grease, - somehow survived that winter.

Here it is, hidden behind seven castles, bitter and prickly Truth-womb ....

Vladimir RODCHENKOV.
22/01 – 2013

In the photo: I am near the pillbox of the Second World War.

After the seizure of the Baltic States, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine and a number of western regions of the RSFSR by Hitlerite Germany, tens of millions of Soviet citizens ended up in the zone of occupation. From that moment on, they had to live in fact in a new state.

In the zone of occupation

On July 17, 1941, on the basis of Hitler's order "On Civil Administration in the Occupied Eastern Regions", under the leadership of Alfred Rosenberg, the "Imperial Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories" was created, which subordinates two administrative units: the Reichskommissariat Ostland with the center in Riga and the Reichskommissariat Ukraine with the center in Rivne. Later it was supposed to create the Reichskommissariat Muscovy, which was supposed to include the entire European part Russia. Not all residents of the regions of the USSR occupied by Germany were able to move to the rear. For various reasons, about 70 million Soviet citizens remained behind the front line, who suffered severe trials. The occupied territories of the USSR, first of all, were supposed to serve as Germany's raw material and food base, and the population - as cheap labor. Therefore, Hitler, if possible, demanded that Agriculture and industry, which were of great interest to the German war economy.

"Draconian Measures"

One of the primary tasks of the German authorities in the occupied territories of the USSR was to ensure order. In the order of Wilhelm Keitel, it was reported that, in view of the vastness of the areas controlled by Germany, it was necessary to suppress the resistance of the civilian population by intimidating them. "To maintain order, commanders should not call for reinforcements, but take the most draconian measures." The occupation authorities kept strict control of the local population: all residents were subject to registration with the police, moreover, they were forbidden to leave places without permission permanent residence. Violation of any regulation, for example, the use of a well from which the Germans took water, could result in severe punishment up to death penalty through hanging. The German command, fearing protest and disobedience of the civilian population, gave more and more frightening orders. So on July 10, 1941, the commander of the 6th Army, Walther von Reichenau, demanded "to shoot soldiers in civilian clothes, who are easily recognizable by short haircut”, and on December 2, 1941, a directive was issued calling for “shoot without warning at any civilian of any age and gender who approaches the front line”, as well as “immediately shoot anyone suspected of espionage”. The German authorities expressed every interest in reducing the local population. Martin Bormann sent a directive to Alfred Rosenberg, in which he recommended to welcome the abortion of girls and women of the “non-German population” in the occupied eastern territories, as well as to support an intensive trade in contraceptives.

The most popular method of reducing the civilian population used by the Nazis remained executions. Liquidations were carried out everywhere. Entire villages were exterminated, often based solely on the suspicion of an illegal act. So in the Latvian village of Borki, out of 809 inhabitants, 705 were shot, of which 130 were children - the rest were released as “politically reliable”. Disabled and sick citizens were subject to regular destruction. So already during the retreat in the Belarusian village of Gurki, the Germans poisoned with soup two echelons with local residents who were not subject to export to Germany, and in Minsk in just two days - on November 18 and 19, 1944, the Germans poisoned 1,500 disabled old people, women and children. The occupying authorities responded with mass executions to the killings of the German military. For example, after the murder of a German officer and five soldiers in Taganrog in the courtyard of plant No. 31, 300 innocent civilians were shot dead. And for damaging the telegraph station in the same Taganrog, 153 people were shot. Russian historian Alexander Dyukov, describing the cruelty of the occupation regime, noted that, "according to the most conservative estimates, one in five of the seventy million Soviet citizens who found themselves under occupation did not live to see the Victory." Speaking at the Nuremberg trials, a representative of the American side noted that "the atrocities committed by the armed forces and other organizations of the Third Reich in the East were so amazingly monstrous that the human mind can hardly comprehend them." According to the American prosecutor, these atrocities were not spontaneous, but represented a consistent logical system.

"Hunger Plan"

Another terrible means that led to a massive reduction in the civilian population was the "Hunger Plan", developed by Herbert Bakke. The "Hunger Plan" was part of the economic strategy of the Third Reich, according to which no more than 30 million people were to remain from the former number of inhabitants of the USSR. The food reserves released in this way were to be used to meet the needs of the German army. One of the notes of a high-ranking German official stated the following: "The war will continue if the Wehrmacht in the third year of the war is fully provided with food from Russia." As an inevitable fact, it was noted that "tens of millions of people will die of hunger if we take everything we need from the country." The "hunger plan" primarily affected the Soviet prisoners of war, who received practically no food. During the entire period of the war, according to historians, almost 2 million people died of starvation among Soviet prisoners of war. No less painful famine hit those whom the Germans expected to destroy in the first place - Jews and gypsies. For example, Jews were forbidden to purchase milk, butter, eggs, meat and vegetables. The food "portion" for the Minsk Jews, who were under the jurisdiction of the Army Group "Center", did not exceed 420 kilocalories per day - this led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people in winter period 1941-1942. The most severe conditions were in the "evacuated zone" 30-50 km deep, which was directly adjacent to the front line. The entire civilian population of this line was forcibly sent to the rear: the settlers were placed in the houses of local residents or in camps, but in the absence of places they could be placed in non-residential premises - sheds, pigsties. For the most part, the settlers living in the camps did not receive any food - at best, once a day, "liquid gruel". The height of cynicism is the so-called “12 commandments” of Bakke, one of which says that “Russian people have been accustomed for hundreds of years to poverty, hunger and unpretentiousness. His stomach is distensible, so [not allow] any fake pity.”

The academic year 1941-1942 never began for many schoolchildren in the occupied territories. Germany counted on a lightning victory, and therefore did not plan long-term programs. However, by the next school year, a decree of the German authorities was promulgated, which announced that all children aged 8 to 12 years old (born 1930-1934) were required to regularly attend a 4-grade school from the beginning of the school year, scheduled for October 1, 1942 of the year. If for some reason the children could not attend school, the parents or persons replacing them within 3 days had to submit an application to the head of the school. For each violation of school attendance, the administration levied a fine of 100 rubles. The main task of the "German schools" was not to teach, but to instill obedience and discipline. Much attention was paid to hygiene and health issues. According to Hitler, a Soviet person had to be able to write and read, and he did not need more. Now, instead of portraits of Stalin, the walls of school classes were decorated with images of the Fuhrer, and the children, standing in front of the German generals, were forced to recite: “Glory to you, German eagles, glory to the wise leader! I bow my peasant head low, low. It is curious that the Law of God appeared among school subjects, but history in its traditional sense disappeared. Pupils in grades 6-7 had to study books promoting anti-Semitism - "At the origins of great hatred" or "Jewish dominance in modern world". Of the foreign languages, only German remained. At first, classes were conducted according to Soviet textbooks, but any mention of the party and the works of Jewish authors was removed from there. This was forced to do by the schoolchildren themselves, who at the lessons on command sealed “unnecessary places” with paper.

Everyday life

Social and health care population in the occupied territories was minimal. True, everything depended on the local administration. For example, in the fall of 1941, the Smolensk health department opened a pharmacy and a hospital in order to help the “Russian population”, and later a surgical clinic began to function. On the German side, the activities of the hospital were controlled by the garrison doctor. Also, some German doctors helped hospitals with medicines. Only employees of administrations or citizens working for German administrations could count on medical insurance. Sum medical insurance was about 75% of regular wages. Returning to the work of the Smolensk administration, it should be noted that its employees took care of the refugees to the best of their ability: they were given bread, free food stamps, and sent to social hostels. In December 1942, 17,307 rubles were spent on disabled people alone. Here is an example of the menu of Smolensk social canteens. Lunch consisted of two courses. For the first, barley or potato soups, borscht and fresh cabbage were served; the second was barley porridge, mashed potatoes, stewed cabbage, potato cutlets and rye pies with porridge and carrots were also sometimes served meat cutlets and goulash. The Germans mainly used the civilian population for hard work - building bridges, clearing roads, peat extraction or logging. They worked from 6 am until late at night. Those who worked slowly could be shot as a warning to others. In some cities, such as Bryansk, Orel and Smolensk, Soviet workers were assigned identification numbers. The German authorities motivated this by the unwillingness to "pronounce Russian names and surnames incorrectly." It is curious that at first the occupation authorities announced that taxes would be lower than under the Soviet regime, but in reality they added taxes on doors, windows, dogs, extra furniture and even a beard. According to one of the women who survived the occupation, many then existed according to the principle “they lived one day - and thank God.

H did he bow to a German soldier in the street? In the commandant's office you will be whipped with rods. Didn't pay taxes on windows, doors and beard? Fine or arrest. Late for work? Execution.

About how ordinary Soviet people survived during the Great Patriotic War in the territories occupied by the enemy, Boris Kovalev, Doctor of Historical Sciences, author of the book Daily Life of the Russian Population during the Nazi Occupation, told MK in St. Petersburg.

Instead of Russia - Muscovy

— What were the plans of the Nazis about the territory of the Soviet Union?
- Hitler did not have much respect for the USSR, he called it a colossus with feet of clay. In many respects, such a dismissive position was associated with the events of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, when little Finland very successfully resisted the Soviet Union for several months. And Hitler wanted the very concept of "Russia" to disappear. He repeatedly stated that the words "Russia" and "Russian" must be forever destroyed, replacing the terms "Muscovy" and "Moscow".

It was about the little things too. For example, there is the song "Volga-Volga, dear mother, Volga is a Russian river." In it, in a songbook published for the population of the occupied regions, the word "Russian" was replaced by "powerful." Muscovy, according to the Nazis, was supposed to occupy a relatively small area and consist of only seven general commissariats: in Moscow, Tula, Gorky, Kazan, Ufa, Sverdlovsk and Kirov. The Nazis were going to annex a number of regions to the Baltic states (Novgorod and Smolensk), to Ukraine (Bryansk, Kursk, Voronezh, Krasnodar, Stavropol and Astrakhan). There were many applicants for our North-West. For example, the Finnish rulers talked about the great Finland before the Urals. By the way, they negatively considered Hitler's plans to destroy Leningrad. Why not turn it into a small Finnish town? The plans of the Latvian nationalists was the creation of a great Latvia, which would include the territory of the Leningrad region, the Novgorod region, the Pskov region.

- How did the Germans treat the locals in the occupied territory?
- Jews were killed from the very first days of the occupation. Remembering Hitler's words that "the Jews are a pack of hungry rats", in some places they were destroyed under the guise of "disinfection". So, in September 1941, in the Nevel ghetto (Pskov region. - Ed.), German doctors detected an outbreak of scabies. To avoid further infection, the Nazis shot 640 Jews and burned their houses. They also ruthlessly destroyed children whose only parent was a Jew. It was explained to the local population that the mixing of Slavic and Jewish blood gives "the most poisonous and dangerous seedlings." Gypsies were subject to the same mass extermination. The Sonderkommandos were advised to destroy them immediately, "without littering the prisons." But the Germans treated the Estonians, Finns and Latvians as the allied population.

At the entrance to their villages there were even inscriptions: "All requisitions are prohibited." And the partisans called the Estonian and Finnish villages mass partisan graves. Why? I'll give you an example. Alexander Dobrov, one of the participants in the battles in the North-West of Russia, recalls that when the Germans approached Volkhov, the headquarters of the Red Army regiment was located in one of the Finnish villages. And suddenly the entire local population together started washing, hung white sheets everywhere. After that, all the Finns quietly left the village. We understood that something was wrong. And ten minutes after the headquarters left the village, the German bombardment began. As for the Russians, the Nazis considered them to be on the lowest level of human civilization and fit only to satisfy the needs of the victors.

Sick children in the "service" of the Nazis

Did schools work in the occupied territory? Or did the Nazis think that the Russians did not need education?
There were schools. But the Germans believed that the main task of the Russian school should not be to educate schoolchildren, but solely to instill obedience and discipline. In all schools, portraits of Adolf Hitler were hung out, and classes began with a "thankful word to the Fuhrer of Great Germany." Books were translated into Russian about how kind and good Hitler how much he does for children. If during the years of Soviet power a girl of five years old climbed onto a stool and read heartily: “I am a little girl, I play and sing. I didn’t see Stalin, but I love him,” then in 1942 the children recited to the German generals: “Glory to you, German eagles, glory to the wise leader! I bow my peasant head low, low. After reading the biography of Hitler, students in grades 6-7 studied books like Melsky's At the Origins of Great Hatred (Essays on the Jewish Question), and then they had to prepare a report, for example, on the topic "Jewish dominance in the modern world."

Did the Germans introduce new subjects in schools?
- Naturally. Classes on the Law of God became obligatory. But history in high school was canceled. Of the foreign languages, only German was taught. What surprised me was that in the first years of the war, schoolchildren studied using Soviet textbooks. True, any references to the party and works by Jewish authors were “blacked out” from there. Schoolchildren themselves at the lesson, on command, sealed with paper all the party leaders.

How ordinary Soviet people survived in the occupied territories

Did you practice corporal punishment in educational institutions?
— In some schools, this issue was discussed at meetings of teachers. But the matter, as a rule, did not go further than discussions. But corporal punishment for adults was practiced. For example, in Smolensk in April 1942, five workers were flogged at a brewery for drinking a mug of beer without permission. And in Pavlovsk, they were whipped for disrespectful attitude towards the Germans, for not following orders. Lidia Osipova, in her book Diary of a Collaborator, describes such a case: a girl was flogged for not bowing to a German soldier. After the punishment, she ran to complain to her boyfriends - Spanish soldiers. By the way, they were still Don Juan: they never raped, but they persuaded. Without further ado, the girl pulled up her dress and showed the Spaniards her slashed buttocks. After that, the furious Spanish soldiers ran through the streets of Pavlovsk and began to beat the faces of all the Germans they met for doing this to the girls.

- Did the Nazi secret services use our children in intelligence or as saboteurs?
— Of course, yes. The recruitment scheme was very simple. A suitable child - unhappy and hungry - was picked up by a "kind" German uncle. He could tell the teenager two or three warm words, feed or give something. For example, boots. After that, the child was offered to throw a piece of tol disguised as coal somewhere at the railway station. Some children were also used against their will. For example, in 1941, the Nazis captured near Pskov Orphanage for children with mental retardation.

Together with German agents, they were sent to Leningrad, and there they managed to convince them that their mothers would soon fly by plane for them. But for this they need to give a signal: to shoot from a beautiful rocket launcher. Sick children were placed near especially important objects, in particular, the Badaevsky warehouses. During a German air raid, they began to launch rockets up and wait for their mothers ... Of course, special reconnaissance schools for children and adolescents were also created in the occupied territory. As a rule, children from orphanages aged 13 to 17 were recruited there. Then they were thrown into the rear of the Red Army under the guise of beggars. The guys had to find out the location and number of our troops. It is clear that sooner or later our special services will arrest the child. But the Nazis were not afraid. What can the baby say? And most importantly, don't feel sorry for him.

Prayer to Hitler

— It's no secret that the Bolsheviks closed churches. And how did the Nazis treat religious life in the occupied territory?
— Indeed, by 1941 we had practically no churches left. In Smolensk, for example, one part of the temple was given to believers, and an anti-religious museum was set up in the other. Imagine, the service begins, and at the same time, the Komsomol members put on some kind of masks and start dancing something. Such an anti-religious sabbath was held within the walls of the temple. And this despite the fact that by 1941 the Russian population, especially those living in rural areas, remained mostly religious. The Nazis decided to use this situation to their advantage. In the early years of the war, they opened churches. The church pulpit was an ideal place for propaganda. For example, priests were strongly recommended in their sermons to express loyal feelings towards Hitler and the Third Reich.

The Nazis even distributed such flyers-prayers: “Adolf Hitler, you are our leader, your name inspires awe in the enemies, may your third empire come. And may your will be carried out on earth ... ”The true attitude of the leaders of the Third Reich towards the Christian religion was ambivalent. On the one hand, on the buckles of the German soldiers it was stamped: “God is with us,” but on the other hand, Hitler said more than once in table conversations that he liked Islam much more than Christianity with its softness, love for one’s neighbor and suspicious, excuse me, the national origin of Jesus Christ. And Hitler, by the way, objected to a single Orthodox Church in Russia. Once he said: “If they start to have all sorts of witchcraft and satanic cults there (in Russian villages. - Ed.), Like the Negroes or the Indians, then this will deserve all support. The more moments tearing the USSR apart, the better.”

- Did the Germans consider the church and clergy as their potential allies?
- Yes. For example, the priests of the occupied regions of the North-West received a secret circular in August 1942, according to which they were obliged to identify partisans and those parishioners who were opposed to the Germans. But most of the priests did not follow these instructions. So, Georgy Sviridov, a priest of the village of Rozhdestveno in the Pushkinsky district of the Leningrad region, actively helped Soviet prisoners of war: he organized the collection of things and food for the prisoners of the concentration camp in the village of Rozhdestveno. For me, the real heroes of that time were simple village priests, spat on, insulted, maybe even spent time in the camps.

At the request of their fellow villagers, they, not remembering the insults, returned to the church in 1941 and prayed for the people who were in the Red Army, helped the partisans. The Nazis killed such priests. For example, in the Pskov region, the Nazis locked a priest in a church and burned him alive. And in the Leningrad region, Father Fyodor Puzanov was not only a clergyman, but also a partisan intelligence officer. Already in the 60s, a woman who cohabited with the Germans during the war confessed to him. And Father Fyodor was so nervous that he had a heart attack. A cross was placed on his grave. At night, his partisan friends came, the cross was replaced with a bedside table with a red five-pointed star and they wrote: "To the partisan hero, our brother Fyodor." In the morning the believers put up the cross again. And at night the partisans threw him out again. Such was the fate of Father Fyodor.

- And how did the locals treat those priests who followed the instructions of the Nazis?
- For example, one priest from the Pskov region in his sermons praised the German invaders. And the majority of the population treated him with contempt. This church was attended by a few. There were also false priests. So, the dean of the Gatchina district, Ivan Amozov, a former security officer and communist, was able to impersonate a priest who suffered from the Bolsheviks. He presented the Germans with a certificate of release from Kolyma. However, there he ended up for bigamy, debauchery and drunkenness. Amozov behaved very vilely towards ordinary priests who served in village churches. War, unfortunately, brings out not only the best in people, but also the most vile.

Taxes on beards, windows and doors

How did you live under occupation? simple people, not traitors, not collaborators?
- As one woman told me, in the occupation they lived according to the principle "we lived one day - and thank God." Russians were used in the most difficult physical work: building bridges, clearing roads. For example, residents of the Oredezhsky and Tosnensky districts of the Leningrad Region worked on road repairs, peat extraction and logging from six in the morning until dark and received only 200 grams of bread a day for this. Those who worked slowly were sometimes shot. For the edification of others, publicly. At some enterprises, for example, in Bryansk, Orel or Smolensk, each worker was assigned a number. There was no mention of first and last names. The occupiers explained this to the population by their unwillingness to "pronounce Russian names and surnames incorrectly."

Did residents pay taxes?
- In 1941, it was announced that taxes would be no less than Soviet ones. Then new fees were added to them, often offensive to the population: for example, for a beard, for dogs. In some areas, they even levied special taxes on windows, doors, and "extra" furniture. For the best taxpayers, there were forms of encouragement: "leaders" received a bottle of vodka and five packs of shag. The headman of the exemplary district, after the end of the tax collection campaign, was presented with a bicycle or a gramophone. And the head of the district, in which there are no partisans and everyone is working, could be presented with a cow or sent on a tourist trip to Germany. By the way, the most active teachers were also encouraged.

A photo album is stored in the Central State Archive of Historical and Political Documents of St. Petersburg. On its first page, in neat letters in Russian and German, it reads: “To Russian teachers in memory of a trip to Germany from the propaganda department of the city of Pskov.” And below is an inscription that someone later made in pencil: “Photos of Russian bastards who are still waiting for a partisan hand ».

15-05-2007

Self-government in the occupied areas

Many people think that the Russian institutions under the Germans were deprived of any kind of independence and had to play an insignificant and even miserable, purely auxiliary role. Maybe that's exactly what the conquerors wanted. But in reality it was far from the case.

In reality, the Germans dictated only the main measures, and even then, mainly in their fundamental part; they had neither the desire nor the time to deal with the technical details. Meanwhile, from the point of view of the interests of the local population, it was precisely these very technical details that were often most important. I'm not talking about the fact that any city and region had a lot of smaller, their own, purely local concerns, which the Germans, obviously, never intended to deal with.

N.F. Tizenhausen writes:

“Rostov seemed to have forgotten about the war and a normal, peaceful life began. Soviet power, somewhere far away, was writhing in its death throes. No one regretted her; she was a symbol of grief, suffering, poverty, hunger, fear, prison.

The Germans opened institutions that served the army and, at the same time, began the organization of urban self-government. First, the main burgoministry was established, then the regional branches. Under the burgo ministries, departments appeared, without which normal life could not go on: housing, financial, health, public education, etc. Hospitals started working primary schools, canteens, cafes and restaurants, repair shops and commission shops where old things were sold. Only food was difficult.

People were needed. The Germans created the Labor Exchange ("Arbeitsamt"), located in the building of the former State Bank, on Engels Street, which was now called in the old way - Sadovaya Street. At first, the inhabitants were reluctant to go to work for the Germans. But the need forced: almost everyone had a family and only work made it possible to count on receiving rations. But that was only at the beginning. Then everyone rushed to the stock exchange - both non-party members, and Komsomol members, and members of the Communist Party, hiding, of course, their party affiliation. Work, for the majority of the population, was a matter of life."

The existence of organs of self-government in the regions of the USSR occupied by the German army is a very indicative fact. The speed with which self-government bodies arose in cities and villages abandoned by the Soviet government and the Soviet army speaks volumes. It would seem that there were no prerequisites for organizations with certain prerogatives of power to spring up so quickly in these places, from where the leaders fled, where the warehouses set on fire by the "fighters" were burning and the contents of stores and various bases were plundered.

In many settlements, even before they were occupied by the German units, there was already some semblance of power, there were already people whose authority was considered.

Of course, in this case, one must take into account the fact that the Germans themselves preferred to have certain persons in each city and village through whom they could present their demands to the population, transmit orders, etc.

It must be added that in the occupied regions there were hundreds and perhaps thousands of villages, to which the German units arrived only two or three months after the flight of the Soviet authorities. In such remote villages and villages, their own self-government bodies also arose. There were persons responsible for order, for the well-being of the population, intercessors defending the interests of the population.

Before the start of the war with the Soviet Union, the German army occupied most of the countries of Western Europe. In these countries, representatives of the former authorities remained in place and continued to perform their functions, being now responsible not to their own government, but to the occupying power. So it was in France, Belgium, Holland and many other European countries captured by the Germans.

The situation was completely different in the occupied regions of the Soviet Union. No representative of the former government could remain in his place here.

The new government, on the one hand, had to be invested with the confidence of the people, on the other hand, with the relative confidence of the occupying authorities.