May 2000 marked 55 years since the Victory over Nazi Germany in 1941-1945. In Russia the war is known as the Great Patriotic War, which predetermined the outcome of the whole of the Second World War. Our country paid dearly for the Victory. Every tenth of its residents was killed in the four years of the war.
We remember those who fought on the frontlines, who lost their lives defending their Motherland, who worked until worn out in the rear, who suffered tremendous hardships, - all known and unknown defenders of our Motherland.
Our chapter "The way it was…." is dedicated to the events of the war and its heroes.
 
 
  • THE PRICE OF THE VICTORY
  • THE BATTLE FOR MOSCOW
  • THE NAZI SIEGE OF LENINGRAD
  • ON THE HOME FRONT…
  • A DIFFICULT WAY HOME… (About the evacuation of civilian population to eastern regions during the war)
  • A SONG THAT TRAVELLED ALL THE WAY TO BERLIN
  • THE "PAVLOV HOUSE" - SYMBOLIZING THE HEROISM OF THE RUSSIAN SOLDIER
  • THE STORM OF KONINGSBERG - A CITADEL OF PRUSSIAN MILITARISM
  • 20 WAR AWARDS OF MARIA POZDNYAKOVA
  • THE 9TH OF MAY,1945


    • THE PRICE OF THE VICTORY
     
     During the four grim years of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 the Soviet Union lost 26 million people, or 14 percent of the country's population.No other war in the many-century history of Russia caused so much destruction and hardship and claimed so many human lives.The generations which had to face that war still had vivid reminiscences of the First World War. In that war the belligerents equally shared the burden of the losses:Germany, Austria-Hungary,France and Russia lost from 1.5 to 2 million people each.And what they had in store was a new war,the war which was still greater tragedy claiming much more victims.The main burden of the war was shouldered on the Soviet Union which finally emerged victorious.
    The Soviet Union accounts for almost half of the casualties of all the warring states.Every fourth warrior who died on the battle fields of the Second World War was a Soviet soldier.
    The following figures are unbiased witnesses of the fierce battles which the Soviet Army waged during the war. From the 22nd of June,1941 when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union and till May 1945 the Soviet-German front was the largest. In 1942 the frontline was as long as 6,000 kilometers.In 1941-1945 the zone of the hostilities exceeded the total square of 12 European states--Great Britain, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Italy, Norway, France, Finland and Yugoslavia.First the enemy attacked this country from the west,later an attack from the east followed. The hostilities at the Soviet-German front were most fierce. From November 1941 to September 1943 the Soviet Army conducted 4 large-scale military campaigns and over 40 major strategic operations.The Nazis lost some 70 percent of their servicemen and combat equipment at the Soviet-German front.Casualties were the heaviest on both sides in 1941 and 1943. Historians say that on the average 8,000 Soviet soldiers died daily at the Soviet-German front at that time.In addition a million Soviet men and officers died in the battles for the liberation of Europe
    During the years of the Great Patriotic War a third of the country's male population,over 31 million,took part in the hostilities at the front.Over 12 million servicemen did not live up to see the victory.Over 6 million of them died on the battle fields or in hospitals. Over 5 million are missing.Only every fourth Soviet prisoner of war returned home from the Nazi captivity.Some 6,000 Soviet PWOs died in Nazi concentration camps daily.15 million people were injured during the war. 2.5 million of them became disabled. Many left for the front just after graduating school.Students also became soldiers.Two thirds of those who died on the battle fields are young men from 19 to 35.
    The war caused still greater hardship to the country's civilian population. Over 13 million civilians died during those four grim years.Suffering was enormous for the people who lived on the Nazi occupied territories. No one could feel safe there. Over 5 million Soviet nationals were evicted to Germany to toil in servitude.In Belorussia alone the Nazis burnt to the ground 628 villages together with their inhabitants.In Leningrade almost 67,000 people died from bombing and artillery shelling and another 641,000 people starved to death during the blockade. Statistics says that in the occupied city of Kharkov the Nazis murdered some 300,000 civilians and PWOs, in Smolensk--over 135,000. During the battles and occupation of the city of Novgorod over 200,000 city residents died.The Soviet army actually entered an empty city. Only 30 persons survived.
    There is no family in this country which did not loose a relative during the war. Every fifth woman lost her husband.And how many monthers lost their sons! Many brides lost their grooms. This was the tragedy not only for the generations who lived through the war but also for the generations to come. The repercussions of the war are felt even now that half a century has passed. But for the war the population of the former Soviet republics would have been today 330-360 million, not 290 million.
    The arthors of the article made use of the figures cited in the monography by L.Rybakovsky "Human Losses of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War" and the collection of articles entitled "The Great Patriotic War. A Military-Historical Essay".
     
    THE BATTLE FOR MOSCOW
     
     One of the landmark events that influenced the course of World War II was the battle for Moscow. Hitler attached top priority to an offensive against Moscow. 75 tank and motorized divisions supported by 1000 planes were thrown into battle under an operation code-named Typhoon. By the middle of October 1941, four months after the treacherous invasion of the Soviet Union, Nazi troops were only several dozens of kilometers away from the Russian capital. Nazi generals surveyed Moscow streets through binoculars, figuring out where they would quarter their soldiers and how a military parade would be held. But their plans were dashed by the heroism of Moscow defenders. Regular army divisions stationed in a semi-circle around the capital were reinforced by a 160-thousand volunteer corps. Hundreds of Muscovites laboured their hands to the bones digging trenches, building fortifications and barricading streets with anti-tank "hedgehogs". All through that time local plants worked round-the-clock to produce weapons and ammunition.
    Cities don't keep diaries, streets don't write reminiscences, houses don't leave memoirs. But people do. Recollections about Moscow's defense are a glorious page in the history of the Great Patriotic War.
    From the memoirs by Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky included into the documentary book "For Moscow, For The Motherland!" During the battle he commanded the 16th Soviet Army.
    "The defense area was up to 100 km wide. The Nazis were planning a rapid advance along two main roads - the Leningrad and Volokolamsk highways. We knew from reconnaissance reports that a large force was being massed near Volokolamsk and that an offensive may begin within days. The 16th army defended the approaches to the city on the Volokolamsk direction. Another enemy force was approaching Tula some 200 km south of Moscow. All Soviet troops from commanders to the last soldier were determined to fight to the last drop of blood. None of us thought about retreating. The fact that Moscow was behind us gave us strength and kept our morale high.
    The fierce battle on the Volokolamsk direction was preceded by clashes at the far approaches to the city. Muscovites did their best to support the army. On the homefront workers displayed wonders of heroism, producing more and more guns. At the worst moments of the battle parcels and letters from Muscovites warmed our hearts and encouraged us to fight on. Troops were entertained by singers, dancers and musicians eager to perform at the very frontline…"
    Fighting with Rokossovsky's army was the heroic Panfilov division, whose soldiers gave their lives to stop German tanks advancing towards Moscow. That was one of the most dramatic moments in the defense of the capital. Soviet pilots demonstrated heroism too. The former Commander of the Air Forces of the Moscow district Sbytov recalled:
    "Fighters based on air fields in the Moscow region took up their positions right after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Late June the first half of July 1941 were used to strengthen the defenses and when on the night of July 22nd the German aviation attempted to carry out a massive strike it was met with strong resistance from both the fighters and anti-aircraft artillery. Nighttime fighters dashed into the air the moment the first Nazi planes appeared. At They had struck a sever blow on enemy bombers destroying a considerable part of the enemy's first-echelon planes when still on the distant approaches to Moscow. The enemy, however, pressed on with its advance towards Moscow. So the following decision was taken: to get a maximum number of fighters into the air to block the way to Moscow. And the enemy's ranks cracked. Nazi planes were in flames, part of the bombers attacked by our fighters began to drop bombs indiscriminately and retreat to the west. Only a few planes broke through to Moscow but they all were shot down.
    After that raid Nazi aviation never left Moscow in peace. But only separate planes could break into. Later, when the enemy approached the capital and got all the conditions for basing its aircraft, it was decided to strike at enemy planes day and night at their own air bases without waiting for them to fly into the air. Strikes of this kind formed into a system… The number of Nazi aircraft was dwindling rapidly and the skills of our pilots were improving. They put a shield to the enemy planes even in the most difficult days when a military parade took place on Red Square on November 7th. And by early December our aviation was fully in control of the skies over Moscow. Russian fighter pilots fighting air battles near Moscow demonstrated tremendous courage, devotion to their Motherland and heroism and many of them were made Heroes of the Soviet Union."
    A great help in defending Moscow came from partisan detachments attacking the enemy on the approaches to the city. From memoirs of the former Commissar of the partisan groups of the Mozhaisk district of the Moscow region Ivan Skachkov: "Two partisan groups about 100 people strong each were operating in the Mozhaisk district. Besides, several underground organizations had been set up. There was regular communication between the group maintained with the help of runners, who passed on mutual information, circulated the leaflets and reports from the front. Partisans killed Nazi soldiers and destroyed their military hardware. The first serious operation was the ambush on Savvinskaya road, in a forest, in October 1941. A group of partisans had tracked down a German tank with a trailer carrying soldiers. They had set the ambush and when the tank approached, it was attacked with grenades and machine-guns. Several minutes later both the tank and the soldiers were done away with. The successful operation inspired the partisans, who saw that the occupants could be wiped out. It was followed by a series of other operations of the same kind….
    The command of the partisan detachment has a radio station to transmit information on the deployment of enemy forces and other important reports. Relying on our data Soviet planes destroyed Vatulino air field and struck at the concentration of enemy hardware in another area near Moscow.
    The fighting spirit of the group's young generation and young people who helped us in villages was amazing. There was an instance in which the sentries detained two teenagers and when we came up to the outpost we saw two lads, 14 or 15 years old, one of them holding a hand grenade. Though, the sentries had already neutralized it.
    We have Nazis staying in our village. We're looking for partisans. Please help, - said the boys. After a talk the two were soon set free. The next day in the morning they came again and helped to track down and destroy an enemy motorbike with a German officer riding it. That marked the beginning of friendship between the partisans and the Kuzmichev brothers - Shura and Valya, the children of a Moscow worker, who had come to visit their grandma in a village" Moscow residents, among them people of peacetime professions, defended their native city too many of them building defensive fortifications.
    The director of one of Moscow schools - Olga Vasilieva - recalled in her memoirs, how on October 16th,1941 she got up very early, packed food provisions and the blanket and headed for the Kiev Railway Stations, a gathering point for teachers going to Kuntsevo near Moscow. And the next morning work began. "For three days we worked not far from our troops' headquarters on the Setun River, - Olga Vasilieva writes, - digging an anti-tank ditch. It was difficult at first since most of us had never known how to handle a spade. And the land was hard to dig too with a lot of stumps to be rooted out. But we got the hang of it somehow and it got easier.
    We were working in the conditions when German planes often swooped on dropping bombs. We had to fall on the ground, often into mud, and close our heads with spades to protect ourselves from shell fragments raining on us. We worked in claylike soil, very often knee-deep in water and we had nowhere to dry our shoes and clothes. So the next morning we put on our wet clothes and off to work again. But despite the hardships nobody gave way to despair, people were in good spirit…
    The enemy was frantically determined to get to Moscow but the Moscow residents gave the whole of themselves to stop the Nazis. The Nazis tried to spread panic within our ranks dropping leaflets, which said that resistance was useless and that we were surrounded. Then air raids became more frequent. I remember one of them on October 24th.
    Suddenly a Nazi aircraft appeared in the sky and an explosion followed shortly. The bomb hit a heap of slag. I raised my head and saw a black cloud of smoke and dust and the aircraft moving straight towards us. We had just finished digging pits, so we jumped down into them. Three explosions followed and everything calmed down. When the Nazi aircraft left we resumed our work with doubled energy. No one quit the job.
    After that Soviet aircraft began supervising and protecting the construction of the defenses. But shortly the Nazis had their hands full with other matters since the Soviet army began a counteroffensive. Many plants and factories of Moscow worked for the front. Among them was the Serp and Molot iron and steel works. A worker of that plant, Ivan Turtanov, described the first day of the war in his essay as follows: "Major events always compel us to brace up. On the 22nd of June, 1941 when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union many people came to the plant though it was Sunday. Everyone thought what he or she should do under the circumstances. The first instruction was to prepare all shops for the work in conditions of war. In subsequent days much was changed at the plant. Many workers left the plant for the front, often they were replaced by their sons. In those days a 68-year-old retired worker, Vassiliyev, came to the plant. He said the following: "I have been working at the plant for 35 years. It means much to me. Now that the Nazis attacked our country I cannot be passive. Despite my age I can still contribute to our victory. I shall have rest after it."
    At that time many used to say that they would have rest after the victory. Those words were on the lips of women who decided to combine their household chores with work at the plant. They did not fear heavy labour. Say, Anastasiya Savicheva worked as a help to steel founder. She was an equal to men in that job. She worked day and night shifts which lasted 12 hours. The plant worked for the front. Workers managed to exceed high production quotas. This is the thing which most experienced experts can hardly explain. The front approached Moscow. An order came to begin dismantling the equipment and to prepare it for evacuation. That was most disheartening. The equipment was sent to the Urals. Work continued only in the repair shop and several others. Damaged tanks arrived to the plant straight from the battle fields. They were repaired and sent back to the front. And finally a day of joy came. The enemy began to retreat from Moscow. This is how Marshal Georgy Zhukov, the front commander, described the beginning of the counteroffensive near Moscow in his reminiscences.
    "On the 6th of December troops of the Western Front began a counteroffensive in the north and in the south of the capital. Neighbouring fronts launched an offensive in the vicinity of Kalinin and Yelets. The battle was most fierce. The 20th and the 16th armies scored much success in their offensive operations.
    The Nazi army gripped on both flanks retreated hastily leaving heavy guns and tanks. During ten days of the battle troops of the southern section of the Western Front inflicted a severe defeat on the 2nd tank army of the Nazi General Gudrian and advanced by 130 kilometers. Offensive operations of the ground troops were supported by aircraft. The front's command sent ski units, cavalry and air troops to the enemy's rear. They delivered crushing blows on the retreating enemy. For the first time in the six months of the war the Soviet army scored a major victory over the Nazis in the battle near Moscow.
    During the fierce battles near Moscow all troop units displayed courage and staunchness. Common soldiers, officers and generals proved to be heroes. We are indebted to them all who held fast in those days and did not let the enemy into the capital.
     
    THE NAZI SIEGE OF LENINGRAD
     
     The word 'blockade' has deep resonance with the Leningraders. It reminds the of the deadly Nazi siege of their city between September 1941 and January 1944.
    Condemned by Hitler to total destruction, Leningrad was one of the main targets of the Nazi assault that started on the 22nd of June. On the 30th of August, advancing German forñes cut the city's rail links after 50 days of unsuccessful attempts to crush through Soviet defence lines and overrun Leningrad. Eight days later, they sealed all other land approaches to the city and dug in for a siege, in the hope of undercutting Leningrad by making it starve.
    A massive Nazi air blitz on Leningrad in September 8 caused 178 fires including a terribly devastating one in the city's main food depot. Air raids continued unabated at a rate of 3 to 7 each day throughout September and October. Heavy shellings also started, with an apparent aim of knocking out defence plants, worsening the general destruction and sowing panic. They usually sharply intensified during rush hours, leaving scores of people dead.
    Evacuees who streamed to Leningrad in the belief the city would never fall had swollen its population to over 2 and a half million, including some 400 thousand children and almost as many old people. The loss of the Badayev food depot left the Leningraders on a starvation ration of surrogate bread -- usually of a mixture of meals, bran and oil cake -- and stinky jelly, cooked of sheep intestines and calf skins. In November, even cellulose went into Leningrad's bread at times.
    The siege survivor Ivan Korotkov, a painter by profession, remembers how he made happy discoveries of fish glue, damp flour and flax oil while combing empty apartments of his evacuee friends for food scraps. He says he took every care to ensure that those supplies of his trade lasted as long as possible.
    People ate glues, bird feed, leather belts, drying oil Vaseline and even glycerin. When hunger struck really bad, birds, cats, dogs and even rats went at a premium.
    In November and December, a blue-collar worker was entitled 250 grams of bread each day. A white collar or a dependant got only 125 grams. When these meager rations were hiked by respectively 100 and 75 grams on December the 25th, many people took their jubilation into the street. They hoped the hikes would help them survive the rest of the first winter of the Leningrad siege.
    That winter was an ordeal indeed. The lack of heating forced people to burn furniture, books, fences and parts of wooden buildings for heat. The city's public transport was at a standstill, making people walk to and from their places of work. Many including small children fell into emotionless starvation stupor and dropped dead at home, at work or in the street. In November, the death toll reached 11,085; in December, 52,881 , and the months of January and February, 199,187. Overall, the siege starvation claimed 614,803 lives.
    The survivor E.M.Nikitina says the lack of food, water, power and transportation was even worse that shellings and air raids. She remembers how difficult it was to walk after having nothing to eat for days.
    Hard work kept people alive. Offices and plants remained open as did libraries, schools, clinics, kindergartens, theatres and research institutions. The survivor V.Moroz remembers what pains it took to climb upstairs in a state of hunger emaciation. She says it was like in a bad dream in which you can't move despite desperate attempts. Many factories employed boys in their early teens to replace called up men. Special brigades worked round the clock to remove dead bodies from streets and flats.
    Academician D.Likhachev, who survived the blockade, wrote: "The human brain was the last to go. When the limbs stopped moving and the fingers could no longer do the buttons and there was no strength left to close the mouth, the skin grew darker and stuck to the teeth… - the brain continued working. People wrote diaries, philosophical and scientific works and demonstrated unbelievable tenacity…". To survive people tried to keep together moving in with relatives or friends, so the whole families lived in one room to make it warmer. People who collapsed on the streets were helped to their feet and seen to their places - that cost tremendous effort to those rendering the help. Helping their closed ones, keeping themselves busy all the time working and assuming responsibility gave strength to the Leningraders.
    There was still hope that ice would cover the Ladoga Lake and food would arrive. Shipping was impossible on Ladoga in autumn because of storms but towboats with barges continued to break through bypassing the ice fields until December 1941, some food was delivered by air. Hard ice on the lake was still something to be waited for and bread rations were reduced again. November 22nd saw the beginning of car traffic on the ice road. To prevent cars from breaking the fragile ice sledges were attacked to them by means of a rope, which reduced the pressure on ice and allowed to carry more food. By January 1942 traffic on the ice road continued non-stop. The Nazis were bombing the road but never succeeded in disrupting the traffic. Leningrad was receiving help from all over the country - trains with food bound for Leningrad were given a green light. In winter the evacuation of people began. In freezing temperatures, with icy winds blowing, emaciated people were taken to the mainland. The first to leave were women, children, the sick and the elderly. All in all, about one million people were evacuated by the "Road of Life".
    In the winter of 1942, when the hardships somewhat eased, the Leningraders began to clean the city. By summer they opened plywood-covered blackout windows to welcome the sunlight in, cleaned flats, stocked up on firewood. They gathered dandelions, sorrel, goose-foot and other plants to cook soups, flat cakes. Bread rations were increased. The city held out.
    The blockade was broken on January 18th, 1943. The city was liberated in January 1944.
     
    ON THE HOME FRONT…
     
     Work on the home front seemed routine, nothing out of the ordinary. No blood, no deaths. But daily heroism became part of everyday life. Peaceful life was a thing of the past. Special courage was required to preserve marks of peacetime in the trials and tribulations of war. In the autumn of 1941, when the Battle of Moscow was underway, wheat threshing continued several kilometers from the frontline. The freezing and starving residents of Leningrad, a city that had been cut off from the rest of the country for 900 days, went to work. The publishing houses of Leningrad, though in the absence of any heating, continued to issue the national newspapers "Pravda", "Izvestia" and "Komsomolskaya Pravda". Despite the bombardments radio broadcasts never stopped in the besieged city. The city that had come to a standstill continued to listen to music played by Radio Orchestra, the only one that had stayed on. Some musicians were starving to death, others continued to play Tchaikovsky and Beethoven. University students all over the country continued to study. Just as in the time of peace people defended their graduation papers, shot films, wrote music. And children went to summer camps on holidays.
    But the war was rushing into the lives of people at an increasingly faster pace. In the capital Moscow factories were urgently reorienting to defense products. The "Rot Front" sweets-making factory began to produce concentrates and shells and to repair anti-aircraft guns. The trolley park's compound served to produce grenades. Fizzy soft drinks factories organized the production of petrol bombs. A factory, which had used to make hair and tie pins, began to produce anti-tank grenades. A toy manufacturing plant in Odessa mastered the production of anti-tank mines. Tins bearing labels "Caviar" and "Halva", as if coming from the remote past, served cases for the first mines produced.
    Able-bodied men were leaving for the front. Factories were standing deserted. The number of workers reduced by half in the years of war. Hence, the most popular slogan among those working on the home front was "To work for yourself and for a comrade who left for the front". A Moscow turner - Fedor Bukin - launched an initiative to overfulfil the planned output by two times. People of this kind were known as twohundreders, later on threehundreders and fourhundreders, and there were those called thousanders.
    What people did for years before the war had to be done dozens of times faster in wartime. Instead of two years as planned, it took just two months to build a bridge armour transporter in Magnitogorsk. One month after the Battle of Stalingrad was over, the city razed to the ground was visited by George Davis, a US presidential envoy. As he looked at the ruins Mr.Davis doubted that the city would ever revive. A month later an American delegation was walked around a steel smelting shop in Stalingrad.
    Those who had left to fight on the fronts were replaced by housewives, teenagers, men unfit for service and invalids. Women mastered men's skills in the heavy industry: welders, wood-cutters, turners, smiths, engine drivers. Young women, who came to work as electric welders at the Uralmash engineering works, were greeted with a bitter joke by men: "You'd better keep boiling potatoes and stay away from welding aircraft hulls". Any boy dreams of planes and cars. So higher grade students were honoured the privilege of assembling them. B.Sergeev, who came to work at the "Compressor" plant in Moscow as a 15-year teenager, recalls: "We were permitted to work 4 hours a day. But as I came in, I saw boys my age, all working on an equal basis with grown-ups. The shift lasted 12 hours. There was no heating in the shops. The lorries for carrying "Katyusha" multiple rocket launchers arrived covered in ice and snow, so to warm them up we ran to an iron barrel with burning coke… Shake fingers - and back to work. Sometimes we did not go home at all and worked until we could no longer hold the spanner for fatigue. So we just dropped asleep right on "Katyusha" covers that lay in the corner and slept for 3 or 4 hours". They said what was the most difficult was to wake up a man who had worked 24 hours without a rest. In the nighttime the electricity was often off. After work women went to do night shifts at hospitals. "At night - near the wounded, at dawn - back to the factory",- they remember. Men were sent to unload trains, stock up fuel.
    In the countryside no men were left and the hard farm labour became the responsibility of women. One of the women recalls the harvesting time: "There were no men in the collective farm. We worked from dawn to 2 a.m. next morning. We never paid attention to the weather - rain or no rain we had to take in the harvest. 14-year-old girls worked as tractor drivers". Farm lands reduced dramatically because of the occupation of western regions and every land plot and every ear of wheat were valued as gold. It happened that seeds had to be sorted by hand before sowing. After the crops were harvested, school students came to the fields and picked up the remaining ears from morning to late evening.
    All crops collected on collective farm fields were given in to the state. The farm produce was then distributed to the people by means of ration cards. The biggest rations went to workers of the defense, fuel and chemical industries and also to builders and transport workers, who got 800-1000 grams of bread per day. In the besieged Leningrad workers received only 250 grams and blue and white colour workers, children and dependents - 125 grams. Though only one half of the Leningrad bread was wheat, it was considered a delicacy. Rural residents relied on private vegetable gardens. Since they could not grow wheat there, their second bread was potato. Meat was in short supply. And the villagers had to forget for several years about sugar, confectioneries and sausage. It was good luck if people living in the country managed to get a pair of shoes for two and half a meter of fabric a year. But those hardships were nothing as compared to the loss of their beloved ones. Grief was everywhere. But everybody who survived those days remember the overall spirit of mutual assistance, when strangers became closer than relatives or friends.
     
    A DIFFICULT WAY HOME…
    About the evacuation of civilian population to eastern regions during the war
     
    Millions of people had to leave their long-occupied homes in the first months of the war. Some left for the fronts, others had to seek shelter thousands of kilometers away from home under the threat of occupation. Trains were crawling endlessly, some in the direction of the west carrying recruits, military hardware and food, some to the east, evacuating people, plants, scientific centers, institutes, museums deep into the country. They were received in the Volga region, in the Ural Mountains, in Siberia and in the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. Trains with evacuees had to stand at railway halts for a long time giving way to the front-bound trains. Destinations that took 24 hours to get to in peacetime, now took months. The task was enormous indeed. In the conditions of war, when the enemy was quickly advancing deep into the country threatening to capture the capital and the country's main industrial facilities, it was necessary to organize the evacuation of millions of people in just a few months. By 1942 the population of the country's eastern region had increased by 10 million. In Moscow the evacuation began right after the war broke out in June. Children were the first to leave. Summer camps, day-care centers and boarding-schools were hurriedly leaving the city. By autumn most pregnant women had been evacuated too. Workers of the industrial facilities that were to be evacuated to the east were leaving too. By November 1941 Moscow stood half deserted with only a bit more than a million people staying on. The evacuation of Leningrad residents began in July. In the first summer months 5 million people were evacuated from Belorussia and Ukraine, which were the first to be attacked by the Germans.
    Evacuees arriving in the Ural region, in Siberia were placed to live in local residents' flats. The living quarters were so overcrowded that it was sometimes only 2.5-3 square meters per person. People, who set off with minimum belongings, were in for Siberian winter, which in 1941-1942 was severe even to Siberians. Warm clothes were in short supply. Sheepskin jackets, felt boots, caps with ear-flaps - all were sent to the front. People had to walk 10-12 kilometers to get to work. Tram or trolley-bus services were practically not functioning and buses were used for military cargo transportation only.
    Under the conditions people had to do the impossible: to restart 1.5 thousand evacuated enterprises in the shortest possible terms. Some of the enterprises arriving from the central regions found shelter at local plants. The Ural giant "Uralmash" granted territory to five plants. Other plants were built right in the fields. Often, after unloading the newly-arrived cars by hand, workers assembled the equipment and put it into operation right under the open sky without waiting for the walls to be built. Those who took part in it recall: "We had no transport, no construction material. There were no access routes to the building site. People themselves carried construction materials, water and dug foundation pits in the frozen soil". It took just one month to restart the production of the best medium tank of the Second World War - T-34 - in the Urals. For one day the "Izhmash" plant produced as many Kalashnikov automatic assault rifles as would be necessary to arm an entire division. Women, old men and teenagers came to work at the newly restarted plants. They worked 12-14 hours a day. Sometimes they stayed at the plant for weeks, sometimes - for months. They forgot about holidays until the Victory in 1945. The eastern regions, especially the Ural Mountains, turned into one building site.
    The evacuated scientific institutes continued to work in the Ural region and in Siberia. The Moscow State University and other institutes and universities including those from Ukraine and the Volga region that were quartered in Sverdlovsk continued to train students. The Moscow Maly Theatre opened its doors in Chelyabinsk, the Moscow Satire Theatre settled in Magnitogorsk and the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theatre came to stay in Perm.
    Two years had yet to pass before the evacuees were able to return home. In the crucial 1943 trains with people were moving in another direction - from the east to the west .
     
    A SONG THAT TRAVELLED ALL THE WAY TO BERLIN
     
    A popular wartime song called "The Holy War" by composer and conductor Alexander Alexandrov, a native of the small village of Plakhino near Ryazan, a regional center south of Moscow, inspired people to fight the Nazis in the years of the Great Patriotic War.
    The war broke out on June 22nd,1941 and two days later the "Izvestia" publishers gave Alexandrov a poem by Lebedev-Kumach, which was called "The Holy War". By the evening the song was ready and by the night it was sung by an ensemble. A few days later it was performed in front of soldiers leaving for the front. "Rise up, ye, mighty land of ours, rise up for deadly fight". Many years later witnesses of the event recalled what a strong impression the song had produced, its every word as if cast out of metal.
    The ensemble that performed it was the famous Soviet Army Song and Dance Ensemble, which won tremendous popularity both in this country and abroad. From the day it was formed in 1928 the ensemble was headed by Alexander Alexandrov. It traveled a lot giving concerts on the fronts and the soldiers were always looking forward to the concerts.
    A resident of a small Ryazan village Kuzma Kadantsev has preserved a good memory of wartime meetings with the ensemble. Kadantsev, a mortar man in wartime, was wounded several times but kept coming back to fight on. The commanders praised highly Sergeant Kadantsev's courage and military performance as he fought under Moscow, Stalingrad, in Ukraine and took part in the Battle of Berlin, which his battery was one of the first to enter. On several occasions he had an opportunity to listen to the Alexandrov ensemble and every time the ensemble performed "The Holy War". For the last time Kuzma Kadantsev enjoyed the song in 1946 in Berlin, where he served for some time after the war. During that tour Alexander Alexandrov died and the ensemble was taken over by his son Boris, who led it for 20 years.
    Our correspondent met with Kuzma Kadantsev in his quiet village on a warm spring day. An old age pensioner in his late 80s, the old soldier is still full of life and vigour. Reminiscent of the past battles are numerous orders and medals and he still loves wartime songs. "The Holy War", - Kadantsev says, - is the song of songs, a soldier's guide that accompanied us to Berlin. It is still dear to every war veteran". ".

     THE "PAVLOV HOUSE" - SYMBOLIZING THE HEROISM OF THE RUSSIAN SOLDIER
     
     The strategic operation launched by Soviet troops near Stalingrad has been included in the books on military art. The Battle of Stalingrad lasted 200 days. The Wehrmacht command attached great importance to the capture of Stalingrad. The enemy threw huge forces into the battle but the Russian soldiers stood to the last man. Fighting pitched defense battles, the Soviet command was secretly preparing an offensive amassing large reserves of planes, tanks, artillery and fresh reinforcements. The counter-offensive, launched in November 1942, brought a crushing defeat to the Nazis. A 330-thousand strong enemy army was surrounded and routed. The defeat of the Nazis on the Volga heralded a turning-point both in the Great Patriotic War and in the Second World War as a whole.
    It happened that Nazi divisions took capitals practically without battle and eliminated entire nations for weeks. In Stalingrad, however, they failed to take an ordinary four-storey building defended by Sergeant Yakov Pavlov and his soldiers. The building was of great importance to the defense of the city. And it went down in the history of the Great Patriotic War as the "Pavlov House", a monument to the heroism of the Russian soldier.
    One of the defenders of the house - Ivan Afanasiev recalls: "On October 3rd, 1942 the enemy began to storm our house. For the Nazis the house was to be captured whatever the cost since it opened the way to the Volga in this district. Every day we had to repulse several fierce attacks. In the 58 days that the defense of the house lasted 23 people took part in it but no more than 15 of us remained in the garrison at a time. As for the Nazis, we killed a lot of them".
    Our record collection has a recording with the voice of Yakov Pavlov himself. Here is how he describes the events: "A handful of defenders, we found ourselves in the rain of bombs, were attacked by tanks and came under relentless artillery and mortar fire. We were short of ammunition, food, water. We could hardly breathe for shell bursts. But our soldiers, the defenders of Stalingrad, managed to hold out with honor. People of different nationalities participated in the defense of the house. Many died a hero's death". The city honors the memory of those who fell while defending the house: Russians Alexandrov and Afanasiev, Ukrainians Sabgaida and Gluschenko, Georgians Mosiashvili and Stepanashvili, Uzbek Turgunov, Kazakh Murzaev, Abkhazian Sukba, Tajik Turdyev and Tatar Ramazanov.
    In memoirs by Marshal Vasily Chuikov there is the following comparison: during the defense of the Pavlov House the enemy lost as many killed as in the capture of Paris. But unlike Paris the house was never captured.
    The Pavlov House has been preserved for the generations to come as a symbol of heroism of Soviet soldiers.
     
    THE STORM OF KONINGSBERG - A CITADEL OF PRUSSIAN MILITARISM
     
    The capture of Koningsberg predetermined the success of the offensive launched by the Russian troops in Eastern Prussia at the closing stage of the war.
    Scouts from Captain Chernov's artillery division quickly set up a freshly-sawn post with a road sign on which the captain himself wrote with a piece of coal: "Koningsberg - 262 km". Behind were battles under Moscow and the Battle of Stalingrad and the liberation of many Russian, Belorussian, Ukrainian and Baltic cities and villages. There had been time when thousands of kilometers and years separated the soldiers from the German territory, where the war had come from. Now, in the spring of 1945, they were only hundreds of kilometers away, a distance that could be covered for days.
    Lying ahead was a land that had long threatened its neighbors, first of all Russia, with fire and sword, with devastating raids and destruction, with slavery and death. That was the birthplace of "Drang nach Osten", that was where hordes of medieval Teutonic knights and other conquerors had started their campaigns from. That was the hotbed of Prussian militarism. Eastern Prussia boasted a considerable industrial and military arsenal. It was a base to supply the German army with manpower and well-trained commanders. The springboard was used to attack Russia in 1914, when the First World War broke out. From there Kaizer troops tried to strike at Petrograd in 1918. And that was from where the Nazis hordes started their invasion of Russia in 1941. For a long time the area served to hide "Wolfschanze" - Hitler's headquarters located in carefully camouflaged underground shelters.
    Now, in the early 1945 Eastern Prussia was on the way of Russian troops as they advanced towards the central regions of Nazi Germany.
    Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky, the Military Chief of Staff at the time, recalled: "The East Prussian force of the Nazis had to be routed whatever the cost. To this end, the Central group of the Nazi armies had to be cut off, driven to the Baltic Sea and wiped out in parts. Eastern Prussia was a huge, and, as the Hitler command thought, an impregnable fortress. There the Nazis had 35 infantry, 4 tank and 4 motorized divisions. The Nazis were planning to stop the advancement of our forces and should the conditions were favorable enough, to launch a flank attack against Soviet troops advancing towards Warsaw and Berlin".
    In its turn the Soviet High Command had built up a strong force. The offensive was carried out by three fronts with the active participation of the Baltic Fleet.
    On early morning January 13th, 1945 Captain Chernov ordered his artillery to open fire on Nazi Prussia. The volleys fired by his division were joined in by thousands of others heralding one of the biggest battles of the Second World War - the East Prussian campaign. Following the powerful artillery fire and air strikes were tanks and infantry. In the time of the year, when roads were impassable for slush, our soldiers were breaking the enemy's defenses crossing marshes, rivers and numerous canals. The Nazis put up fierce resistance. The battle lasted for three months. And one day our advanced detachments approached the outskirts of Koningsberg. The city's fortifications were clearly visible through the field-glasses. It was no accident, that Koningsberg was known as a fortress city. It was protected by powerful concrete forts and barrels of heavy weapons were seen through the ports. Thick walls made of brick turned every house into a bastion.
    The Commandant of Koningsberg Nazi General Lyash was confident that the strongly-fortified city would be able to hold out without outside help for 250 days. Our command believed that four days would be enough to storm and capture the city.
    In an interview with a "Voice of Russia" correspondent General Afanasy Beloborodov recalls: "The storming of Koningsberg was one of the most memorable events in my war experience. The 43rd army, which was under my command, attacked the enemy on a six-kilometer front. Because of the concentration of military hardware there was hardly any place for artillery. The advancing troops were backed by aviation. We had to go as far as the Pregel River and all around us were 5 or 6-storey buildings with thick stone walls that had been turned into powerful lines of fire. On the first day our soldiers advanced 300 meters, on the second - 200, and on the third - not a single meter was gained… It was decided then to storm the city at night. At midnight our army began the assault. And the enemy's defenses cracked at last. Our troops were advancing quite rapidly. Crushing a fierce resistance put up by the Nazis Soviet troops took one defensive line after another".
    It was the last night of the storming operation - from the 8th to the 9th of April. It was light as if at daytime. The city was ablaze. Soviet troops were getting ready for a new strike against the enemy. In the morning the storming resumed. Fighting was now on in the central part of the city. It was hard to breathe in the red-hot air. But the Soviet troops appeared unaware of that as they relentlessly pressed forward. The storming operation, though involving so much hardware and manpower, was a well-coordinated one.
    In an attempt to avoid more unnecessary casualties the Soviet command sent truce envoys with a message suggesting that the command of the Koningsberg garrison surrender. The Nazis, however, rejected the proposal and carried on with the stubborn resistance of the doomed. Our troops then pounced on the enemy with another crushing blow that shook the Nazis.
    The Nazi defenses were at their last gasp. All forts and fortifications had collapsed forming one huge stone quarry. In a reinforced concrete bunker deep underground the Koningsberg Commandant General Lyash sat with the map analyzing the situation. It was clear to the general that further resistance was pointless. He had lost all reserves. Powerful fortifications and defensive lines had fallen. The artillery had been destroyed or captured by the Soviet advancing units. Most of the Nazi army units had ceased to exist. Those still alive had two options: to die or surrender.
    Soon the Nazis began to climb out of their shelters with white flags. In Koningsberg our troops took about 92 thousand soldiers and officers prisoner and seized more than three and a half thousand guns and mortars, 90 tanks, about 130 planes and other military hardware and equipment.
    The defeat of the Nazi troops in the storming of Koningsberg had both military and political importance. Our troops cleared the entire Eastern Prussia of the Nazis and liberated vast areas of Poland. The Nazi naval fleet in the Baltic Sea lost its bases.
    Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky recalled: "Carried out in tremendously difficult conditions the East Prussian operation demonstrated the military might of our Armed Forces and the maturity of Russian military art. It widened the experience of military personnel in planning, organizing and carrying out a strategic offensive operation by a group of fronts, a fleet and a considerable air force, and in fighting a strong enemy relying on well-fortified defenses with formidable firepower in a very unfriendly terrain".
    The Potsdam conference held by the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union after the end of the war in Europe decided to do away with Eastern Prussia, one of the provinces of Nazi Germany. Two thirds of its territory were handed over to Poland. And one third including Koningsberg became part of the Soviet Union. In 1946 the territory became known as the Kaliningrad region and Koningsberg was renamed to become Kaliningrad.
    But in those years, in April 1945, neither Captain Chernov, nor his artillery men could know about it. They stayed for a short rest in one of Koningsberg's streets adjacent to the Royal Castle and were going about their usual business routinely removing the dust of the fallen Nazi citadel from their clothes just as if it were no more than ordinary dust. The final victory was near enough.
     
    20 WAR AWARDS OF MARIA POZDNYAKOVA
     
    "When in years' time we'll be looking back on the war bringing back the memories of it, we'll see Stalingrad, with flares and glows of fires and hear the deafening rumble of exploding bombs. Those who witnessed it, will never forget it". The paragraph belongs to Konstantin Simonov, a Russian writer and military correspondent, the author of wonderful books about the Great Patriotic War, including a story called "Days and Nights" about the Battle of Stalingrad, now Volgograd.
    Thousands of people have read and continue to read the story. But few know that the prototypes of the characters were soldiers of the 124th infantry brigade, which was formed in the city of Ryazan south of Moscow in summer in 1942. Maria Pozdnyakova, who had just left school, joined the brigade. Stalingrad became the brigade's baptism of fire. Hitler had amassed considerable forces there intending to capture the city, cut off the Volga and advance to the Caucasus. For two and a half months the brigade stood its ground on the right flank of the army led by the legendary General Vasily Chuikov. Sergeant Maria Pozdnyakova earned the first of her 20 awards there. In November 1942 our troops launched their offensive and the German army headed by Field-Marshal Pauls was surrounded. The operation became a turning-point in the war. The 124th brigade, worn out after a series of fierce battles, was replenished and went to the west.
    Maria was sent to learn German. Soon afterwards Lieutenant Pozdnyakova joined a radio communications regiment under the High Command. Her job was to intercept conversations between German pilots. The information was of great importance to combat operations by our troops. The awards, which Maria earned in those days, is the best confirmation of that. Maria Pozdnyakova stayed with her regiment throughout the war as it moved on to Poland, Bulgaria, Hungry and Germany. She celebrated May 9th,1945 across the Elbe.
    Her post-war life was interesting too. After graduating from the Institute of Foreign Languages Maria taught German in the Ryazan Paratroop Academy for many years. She was marked with a high award for training officers and her name was included in the Academy's Book of Honour.
    Now Maria Pozdnyakova is a pensioner but she is still active taking part in various social activities and heading the Council of war veterans in her region. A military museum opened on the eve of V-Day at a school where the 124th infantry brigade had been formed. On display are the materials about the battles the brigade took part in and its heroes. And of course, the exposition includes a copy of Konstantin Simonov's "Days and Nights", the first edition of which came out when the war was still raging on.
     
    THE 9TH OF MAY,1945
     
    The victory came early that day.In the midnight officials of the Soviet Supreme Command and those of the Supreme Command of the allied troops--Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov, Marshal of the British Air Forces Sir Arthur Tedder,commander of the US strategic air forces General Spaats and the Chief Commander of the French army De Lattre de Tassigny entered a specially prepared hall in Karlhorst in the east of Berlin.Those present from the German side were Field-General Keitel,Colonel-General Stumpf and Admiral of the Navy von Friedeburg.At 17 minutes to one they an act of unconditional surrender.When the German delegation left the hall,Marshal Zhukov recalls,much noise erupted.Congratulations were heard in many languages,there are emraces and handshakes.At ten minutes to one the session was closed.The war ended.
    Russia was waiting for the news of this historic event. It came at night. The order of the Supreme Commander to the units of the Red Army and Navy was telegraphed to all Soviet fronts. It informed that Nazi Germany signed surrender and the Great Patriotic War was over.Ivan Salnikov,the then commander of the telegraph and telephone communications company recalls the way that news was hailed by the armies of the Second Belorussian front which took part in the Berlin operation."At 2 o'clock in the morning the order of the Supreme Commander arrived.It said that Nazi Germany signed surrender,the war ended everywhere and we had won.Some 40 men of our company were on the shift on that day.Sergeant Frolchenko recieved the news.We all gathered in the operator's room. He read outloud.Soldiers laughed softly, cried with joy and kissed each other." At night many soldiers were awoken by a shooting.The war had taught them to suspect the worst.But that time the shooting announced the end of the war. People expressed their joy as they could. There were numerous traces of sub-machine gun bullets, anti-missile shells and rocket projectors in the sky.That was the first unorganised Victory Salute.Only in the daytime soldiers calmed down and began talking about their life in near future.Vladimir Gorbunov,for one, says that the news of the end to the war reached him on the banks of River Elbe and till the present day he remembers soldiers twirling their moustache as they talked about the cities and towns they had to pass on their way home.
    On the morning of the 9th of May a surrender of Nazi troops began.It lasted for several days. Alexander Malysh who took part in the operation against one of the last Nazi groups - the Courland enemy grouping-recalls that as early as on the 7th of May battles stopped in that section of the front. To the Soviet offer of surrender the Nazis responded that they were waiting for the order of their command.During that pause common human curiosity was displayed on both sides.On the 9th of May the Nazis recieved the order to surrender.Alexander Malysh recalls that one after another batallions,regiments and divisions surrendered.All in all 40,000 men and officers were taken prisoner,including 4 generals.
    The 9th of May entered the annals of history as the day of liberating Prague.Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia learnt about the victory at 2 in the morning,at 4 o'clock they were ordered to advance toward Prague.To the present day participants in the Prague operation cherish warm reminiscences of the way they were met by the residents of the city.The commander of the reconnaisance unit Sergei Derro recalls that all the way from the village of Kurort-Garta to Prague Czechs greeted Soviet soldiers chanting:"Long Live the Red Army".Prominent historian Boris Tartakovsky,the then political instructor,also heard those greetings entering Prague.Soviet officers were invited to the first after the liberation concert of the Prague Philharmonic society.The renowned Jan Kubelik conducted Tchaikovski's opera ROMEO AND JULIET.The audience stood up to greet Soviet officers.Divine ceremonies took place in Catholic churches.Boris Tartakovski admitted that for the first time in many years of the war he went to sleep on a snow-white bed in a Prague hotel.
    To Russia the news of the victory came at 2.10 Moscow time.The familiar voice of Yuri Levitan who read daily reports from the fronts announced the end to the war.This news was waited for,people did not switch off their radio sets.Yet when the news of the victory finally came it was like a thunderbolt.Those who did not come through that war can hardly imagine what feelings overwhelmed the people who lived up to see the victory. Witnesses to those events admit that they themselves find it difficult to express their feelings in words.Medical nurse Irina Dazhina learnt about the victory in Moscow."At night," she says,"I was awaken by Levitan's familiar voice.I felt like jumping out of my bed and crying with joy but there I was--still lying in bed motionless.My body suddenly became heavy,I was afraid to stir.There was a lump in my throat and I felt like crying of happiness".Lights in the houses went up,people knocked at their neighbours' door, embraced and went out into streets.Tables were laid outdoors.Voices saying "the war is over" were heard everywhere. The 9th of May has become a national holiday. People could not stay at home on that day.Every person wanted to share his/her joy with someone else.Eyewitnesses say there were no strangers on that day,every person seemed to be familiar.Winners dressed in the uniform could hardly take a breath among all those embraces and kisses of congratulation.People sang war songs,danced and played accordion.At 7 at night Joseph Stalin addressed his compatriots.At 10 at night Victory Salute was fired in Moscow--30 volleys from 1000 guns. The historic day was drawing to a close.Noone doubted that a happy life was in store for us all since the nation has paid a high price for it.
    Salutes were fired.Survived soldiers returned home.Yet the joy became mixed with the bitterness of the losses. Children of the post-war years say that in their childhood they often heard women crying for those who died in the war.And they remember that bitter crying to the present day.
     

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