The Germans are fascists. Why are German Nazis called fascists? That's the whole feat

Taste of War

LOOKING back at my distant pre-war childhood, I see myself as a spoiled, stubborn five-year-old whose main pleasure is to mock his own grandmother. The poor old lady patiently endured all my mischief. I remember how I removed the chair that she was already sitting on. Grandma fell backwards and instead of giving me a good slap, she laughed with me. My parents, still very young people, were constantly busy. My mother studied at a pedagogical institute, and my father, a civil engineer by profession, constantly disappeared on his countless construction projects - our city of Makhachkala, stretched between the ridge of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea, was actively being built up in those years. So from morning to evening I was in the care of my grandmother. The day began with my grandmother trying to shove breakfast into me. Usually it was oatmeal. Naturally, I refused. I remember how one day my grandmother followed me with a plate, begging me to eat at least a spoonful. And I slipped away from her and boringly repeated: “Nevku-usno... Nevku-usno...” And then for the first time my grandmother could not stand it. She sat down wearily on the edge of the chair and said sadly:

When the war starts, everything will be delicious...

Alas, the grandmother turned out to be a seer. Less than a month had passed since the fateful day of June 22, 1941 came... I remember my parents frozen at the loudspeaker... They were listening to Molotov's speech... And when the essence of what was happening finally dawned on me, I, like a frenzy, began to rush around the apartment and scream at the top of your lungs:

Hooray! War! Now everything will be delicious!..

My poor parents were in shock. I was overwhelmed with calf delight. Why, grandma promised that now everything will be delicious...

And then endless dull days dragged on, when I began to comprehend the true “taste of war”...

That’s when I remembered and even dreamed about pies with poppy seeds or dried apricots, which were baked before the war in our house and which, out of stupidity, I also often refused...

Speaking about the “taste of war,” I cannot help but remember much of what was associated with my grandfather. Due to his age - 60 years old - my grandfather was not taken to the war. He worked as the director of a container base, which was located three kilometers from the city. Often I went to see him. I watched the workers fiddling with the containers. I fished - from the container base to the seashore it was a stone's throw... Various people flocked to my grandfather's base. Mostly refugees. They arrived in the city in a continuous stream. They were leaving the advancing Germans. Encampments of refugees filled all city squares, parks, even boulevards. After spending the night, many of them moved on to Azerbaijan. They said that from Baku it was possible to cross the Caspian Sea to Central Asia. Most often, as the promised land, I heard the name of an unfamiliar city - Alma-Ata...

One day I met a woman at my grandfather’s who told me how she managed to avoid execution. She lived near Mozdok and did not have time to leave the city before the Germans arrived. She, a Jew, was in danger of death. She was already standing at the edge of the ditch, where the crowd of the doomed had been herded. Eye to eye I saw my executioner - a young German behind a machine gun, who was shooting at the crowd in long bursts.

“Can you imagine,” she said nervously and excitedly, “clear Blue eyes... And a smile... Not a killer who takes pleasure in sending you to the next world. And a person who does you a favor. While killing, he wishes a happy journey... My husband managed to push me into the ditch before the machine-gun fire mowed down our crowd...

Like this. He saved me, but he himself died...

The grandfather settled the woman at home. He was surprisingly responsive to human grief.

Due to his rank, my grandfather was entitled to personal transport. It was a quiet, submissive gelding named Raven. And with him is the coachman Akim. He harnessed Raven to a line with a two-seater bench and beam. This crew took my grandfather to work every day. Akim and I quickly became friends, and from 1943 to 1946, while my grandfather worked at the container base, we were, one might say, bosom friends. I was attracted to Akim by the same freedom as in the heroes of my favorite books. Akim swore masterfully and did not speak another language with his Raven. For all his unprepossessing appearance, Akim was a stubborn and even fearless man. He wasn't even afraid to scold himself. Once, when Akim was drunk, his grandfather made him a suggestion. To which Akim explained to him:

Here you are, Naumych, putting up with my unlucky head for only one year. Just think what it’s like for me to carry her on my shoulders for forty-five years...

Akim’s stories about the war largely shaped the “taste of war” that has lived in me for more than six decades. Over the years of our friendship, I have heard them more than once. And I remembered it literally word for word. From various episodes, a whole odyssey of a simple Russian soldier took shape, who brought our victory closer as best he could...

Shoot or reward?

I started the WAR in Derbent. A rear rat, one might say. Some of us were being prepared for transfer to Iran. Many trains have already been sent there. The Germans themselves had plans for Iran. Only we got ahead of them. We managed to close this direction before them... Life in Derbent was lucky. Sun, fruit, the Caspian Sea nearby... On leave we sunbathed all day on the beach... Believe it or not, they walked around black as devils... So they played tricks until winter. And in winter the order was to load... Only they sent us not to Iran at all, but to Saratov... The guys on the road came up with such a circus. At each station, two of our people went to the platform to see the merchants... There were a lot of them there... Hot potatoes... Fried fish... Pickled cucumbers... So those two looked out for someone richer and offered a dagger instead of money. So handsome... The scabbard is decorated with gold... Someone was sure to peck at the hook... He would give food for the dagger... And then three others approached him. Also one of ours. Looks like a patrol.

Are there any weapons?

People were scared. They immediately handed over the dagger.

The next station has the same number... Of course, it’s not good to fool people. After all, they weren’t going to a wedding, they were going to the front. To death, one might say...

We spent three months preparing in Saratov. We were appointed assistant commander of a machine gun platoon... Three months later we were sent to Ordzhonikidze. The German was already there. He ran out of fuel. Tanks, cars - everything was standing. That's why he was eager for oil... We dug in on one side of the Terek. The German is on the other... Believe me, they ran back and forth eight times. Then we’ll go on the attack, we’ll cross the Terek, we’ll take the line, and he’ll gather his forces and throw us back. Now to attack, then back... Out of a thousand people, one hundred and thirty remained in our unit. Many were killed. Those guys with the dagger too. In the first attack they died... Well, I was also hit in the neck by a shrapnel... I ended up in the hospital... I lay there for a while... The commissar comes. It’s difficult on the front line, he says, there are few people. Who will go?

Everyone is lying there, wounded, after all, fresh... And, I think, where did ours not disappear?

I will go!

I got out of bed and approached him. The doctor examined me. Ten days, he says, we should wait... But why wait. I'll go... Oh well. They bandaged me properly. Then others came out... They were sent to the unit. To the new one. Ours is gone.

Who are you? - they ask.

Machine gunner, I say. I'm tired of carrying a heavy machine gun. All the time on the hump...

They hung a machine gun on my belly. They gave us six horns of ammunition - and off to the front line. Platoon commander. They ordered to prepare for defense. There will be an attack... We dug in. There is no water... I wanted to send a soldier for water. Yes, I think, okay, I’ll go myself. I went down to the Terek. I see that in the bushes there are three brand new heavy machine guns and belts for them. I'm back. Come on, I say, guys, follow me. They brought these machine guns. They dug up a cell. Installed.

And who will shoot? - they ask.

Yes I will...

In the morning - artillery preparation. Okay, it's over. I look - they are coming. To the music. The orchestra is playing behind. And they are pacing. Full height. The sleeves are rolled up. Knee-length pants. The rod is right at us. The bayonets are shining... He let me go about eighty meters. And come on... From one trunk... From another... From a third... Well, you can believe how the sheaves are falling... Line after line... They put everyone down... So they repulsed six attacks... He comes running company commanders. Hugs, kisses. To the Order of the Red Banner, he says, I’ll present... And an hour later they call me to the battalion commander. Getting in. He's for the gun.

I'll shoot you! - shouts. - Why did you hide that you were a machine gunner?

“Be careful,” I say, “otherwise I also have something to shoot with.”

They shouted at each other. In the end, he made me commander of a machine-gun company... We went into hand-to-hand combat twenty times... The first time I encountered a German. Face to face. Both were confused. I have a revolver, he has a machine gun. They pointed at each other to see who would shoot first. His eyes are round, like sheep's eggs. Hatched it... It was no worse for me either... And then my sergeant-major pierced it from the side with a machine gun... After that I was no longer lost. I’m running, shooting at one, and out of the corner of my eye I see the other who’s aiming at me... And that one too, right away, point blank...

Paid back

And IN FORTY-3 I was wounded again... The Germans were retreating. On armored personnel carriers. We're behind them. And they pour fire on you - you can’t catch up with them. I order the machine gun crew to come closer and set fire to these armored personnel carriers with armor-piercing weapons. There were three of them in front of us. Well, the calculation just started creeping up, the first number - on the spot. I went myself. He took aim and fired a short burst. Eat! One caught fire. The guys also set the second one on fire. And the third to run away... And at that moment it seemed to hit me in the leg. Fell. I look at my leg and don’t feel anything.

“Are you wounded, why are you looking at me,” says my number two.

He cut my boot, my leg dangled back and forth. The explosive bullet broke the bone. They bandaged it somehow.

Well, you go,” I tell him, “catch up with ours.” I'll wait here for the orderlies.

But I myself think: no, I must take revenge for my leg. I saw where they were shooting from. From the burning conveyor... I crawled there. I see a German lying there, also wounded. He, the bitch, was the one who fired... Well, okay, I think now I’ll settle accounts with you... I sat down next to him and took out my revolver. There were still cartridges left. He took aim - and at his leg - once! .. In his hand - twice! Now you can look for your own. Crawl. I found a crater, and our wounded were already crawling in there - a complete crater. We're lying down. We are waiting... Then our tanks came and almost crushed us. And then - the orderlies...

The wounded are all thirsty and thirsty. And at first I felt nothing, and then, too, everything inside was burning, even if you screamed. Met my own people. No water - wine. Believe me, I blew out six mugs in one gulp. Okosel. Okay... They put me on a cart with rifles, gently... They brought me to the medical battalion, bandaged me, and then sent me to the hospital in Makhachkala. I lay there for six months. They were transported to Yerevan. Then they discharged me and gave me leave... They also provided me with food stamps well... I found myself a woman there. And she came up with something for me to do - deliver moonshine in rubber pillows... But I soon got tired of this kind of life. I arrive at the station one day. I'm wearing a military uniform. Only without shoulder straps. I settled down to one part. I look - they are loading into the carriage. The whole platoon and the sergeant major are with them. I'm going to him. Where are you going? To Grozny. Can you grab it for me on the way to Makhachkala? Will there be vodka? Will. I have a whole hot water bottle in store... As soon as we get into the carriage, I say, so it will be. It's in the bag. I have enough spare shoulder straps. Here, he says, you will be the second escort. I put on my sergeant's shoulder straps and entered the carriage. Before Makhachkala we drank that bottle of moonshine. I just didn’t get off in Makhachkala. Where do I think I should go? Tired of wandering around. The leg seems to be better. I asked to join the unit. And again to the front line...

That's the whole feat

In ONE battle they were almost crushed by a tank... Our people went on the attack. The German opened heavy fire from his positions. I had to lie down right in the steppe... The chain order was to dig in... I tried the ground with a shovel, but it was hard as a stone. Doesn't give in. I dug about thirty centimeters. Sitting. I am waiting. Anyway, I think we’ll move on now... Suddenly I look - there are nine tanks right in front of me. On the left is also nine. And on the right is nine. They're crawling right towards us. Well, I think there will be no business. We need to dig. Believe me, I dug in in an instant. In five minutes he dug such a trench... And he, the bastard, is already crawling up. And right at me. He stood on the trench like caterpillars, let out a stench and even turned around. I wanted to iron it. It didn't work out. I threw off the earth, shook myself off, stuck my head out, and he was already crawling far away in other trenches. And he will iron everyone. I became angry. Oh, you bastard, you wanted to crush me! I had three lighter bottles. Two are cracked and spreading. There is only one left. I grabbed the bottle and followed him. Got it... It caught fire right away. It burns well... The German climbs out of the hatch with his hands up. Available immediately. Why the hell do I need it? I shot him with a machine gun... I killed the others too...

We went to the Dnieper. The unit commander lined us up and said:

Well, guys, we need to cross the Dnieper. The Germans’ positions, you know... It’s difficult to get to the other side... Whoever gets out will receive a Hero...

Went. At night. Who's on what? On rafts, on boats, on pontoons... Everything around is boiling with explosions. Rockets - as bright as day. Our boat was hit by a shell near the shore. It split and immediately sank to the bottom. Everyone drowned, but nothing happened, I swam out... Well, after that, when we gained a foothold, the commissar came up to me. So and so, nonsense, he says, it turns out that he’s a hero, but a non-party man... Well, I wrote a statement... But I didn’t have the chance to fight anymore. The wound on my leg opened. I was commissioned.

- So what are you, Hero? Soviet Union? - I asked Akim with disbelief.

Well! - he confirmed monosyllabically.

And do you have a Hero Star?

Available...

So why don't you wear it?

I’m ashamed of the guys who died... I didn’t cover the embrasures with my body... I didn’t shoot down the Messers in the sky... I just survived... That’s the whole feat... Why a Hero? This is such nonsense...

"Hitler kaput"

IN THE SUMMER of 1946, captured Germans appeared in our city. They were brought in in large groups, accompanied by guard soldiers. Seeing a live Fritz seemed an incredible event. Until now, we knew them only from films and newspaper cartoons. Everyone had an unequivocal attitude towards them: murderers, fascists, enemies. And they seemed to me personally to be something like predators in a zoo, kept in a cage. But when I saw them, I felt some disappointment. Because I saw quiet, submissive people in identical mouse-colored uniforms, diligently doing their work. The prisoners paved roads, dug pits for new houses, and rebuilt the old stadium. Many were busy improving the city. In those very squares and parks where refugee camps once stood, they dug up the earth, removed garbage, planted trees...

The whole city poured out to look at the captured enemies. In the forefront, of course, were us boys. I remember how, at our first meeting, one of us shouted mockingly:

German-pepper-sausage!

The others joined in and also started shouting and hooting, whatever they wanted.

A lanky German, shoveling garbage, glanced in our direction and exclaimed in a front-line greeting:

Hitler is kaput!

Two others who were digging a ditch also raised their hands:

Hitler is kaput!.. Hitler is kaput!..

For some reason this made us laugh. We just roared with laughter. The guards didn't let me have fun. They demanded that we stop talking with the prisoners and move away. Such strictness existed only at the beginning. Over time, the prisoners began to actively communicate with the townspeople. Especially with us boys. We quickly established a mutually beneficial exchange. For a piece of bread you could exchange a postcard with a picture of an unfamiliar German city and a Gothic inscription. For a piece of sugar - a photograph of a brave officer with a swastika on his sleeve. We all already had Reichsmarks, and metal pfennigs, and brass buttons from uniforms, and some even had soldiers’ iron crosses. All these “trophies” were shown to friends and were a source of special pride. Perhaps there was something of the pride of the winners in this. Obtained from former enemies, all these fascist symbols - crosses, eagles, swastikas - were now perceived not as a threat, but as a symbol of defeat.

One day I approached a group of prisoners digging a trench near the stadium. I had a lump of sugar saved up, and I asked what I could get for it. One of the prisoners showed a couple of postage stamps, one depicting a tank, the other an airplane. Another showed a postcard of Berlin. I was not happy with this exchange. I already had enough photographs and postcards. I already wanted to move away from the trench. But then a third German appeared, who did not take part in the bargaining. He put the shovel aside and showed a badge from a soldier's belt. It was embossed with "Gott mit uns" - "God is with us." Seeing how I caught fire, the owner of the plaque asked for as many as five lumps of sugar. I only had one. Just in case, I asked if he would agree to three. The German shook his head negatively.

I looked at the plaque, as if calculating my possibilities. And suddenly - I still don’t understand how I could decide to do this - I jumped out of my seat and started running.

It’s not possible!.. It’s not possible!.. - they rushed after me. But I had already rushed into one alley, then into another... Clutching the plaque in my fist, I rushed through the courtyards to the embankment and here, mingling with the crowd of people walking, I finally took a breath.

Cutting off the path to doubt, I immediately decided - this is my revenge on enemies who cannot be perceived as ordinary people. These are the villains who tortured and killed our people. They shot with machine guns... They burned entire cities... I conjured up the most terrible pictures of the war - executions, massacres that the Germans carried out on our land, I remembered the dead, the mutilated - in every possible way inflamed hatred in myself. Unconsciously, I was looking for support that would help me gain confidence in the rightness of my action...

"Stradivarius" from Dresden

In many ways, my attitude towards the Germans was determined by the influence of the coachman Akim. From his stories it turned out that the Germans were our sworn enemies. It was then that an event occurred in which our coachman revealed himself from a completely different side.

One day a group of Germans, about ten people, were brought to the container base. They had to build a new warehouse building. The prisoners immediately got to work. We started digging trenches for the foundation. At the same time, Akim was harnessing his Raven nearby. He defiantly did not look in the direction of the Germans, showing with all his appearance that they did not interest him at all. I had seen enough, they say, during the war... Then I noticed how one of the prisoners was looking closely at Akim. He looked at our coachman as if spellbound. And then he suddenly rushed towards him and grabbed his hand.

- Oh, mein gott! - the German cried.

Akim, not understanding anything, moved away from him rather rudely. And the prisoner, stuttering with happiness, exclaimed enthusiastically:

Did you take a German prisoner?

Well... - Akim answered vaguely, also looking closely at the prisoner. - You, or what?

Me! Me! - the German rejoiced, beating his fist on his chest. - You captured me. That's why I'm alive!.. How do you say it in Russian... Guardian Angel. You are my guardian angel...

Look, your mother... - Akim grinned, and this meant that he, too, finally got it...

In memory of the meeting, or rather two memorable meetings, the German presented Akim with a violin he had made with his own hands. By peaceful profession, he turned out to be a violin maker from the city of Dresden. And even in captivity he managed to do what he loved.

At first Akim tried to use the violin as a balalaika. And when it didn’t work out, he gave it to me. Our housemate, old lady Nisnevich, worked in the orchestra of the city drama theater before the war. She began to give me violin lessons. I turned out to be a capable student and soon, in addition to the exercises, I was already playing some melodies.

Come, spring...

ONE day I decided to approach a warehouse under construction with a violin. At first the prisoners did not pay attention to my appearance. They got used to me. But when I played Beethoven’s “Groundhog,” they perked up, began looking at each other, and some even came down the stairs to hear better. After Beethoven I played Mozart's Lullaby. Encouraging remarks from all sides and appreciative applause instilled confidence. On the way up I sang the “May Song”...

Someone shouted “bravo” and asked to repeat it. Others supported him. I repeated the entire repertoire. Then I had to do it twice more...

At this time, there were visitors in my grandfather’s office - regular customers from the cannery. Among them was a cocky woman - Aunt Klava, whom I did not like. Once she reprimanded my grandfather for being friends with Akim.

Think about the impact this foul-mouthed and drunkard can have on a child! - she was indignant.

Grandfather, who did not like to enter into meaningless disputes, got off with a philosophical remark:

If a person does not have a single low trait, he said, he will never become great...

Seeing my performance in front of the captured Germans, Aunt Klava became indignant.

Look, Naumych,” she exclaimed, pointing towards the warehouse, “your grandson is organizing concerts for the Krauts!” They burned our people in ovens, raped them, and he played the violin for them...

One of the Germans standing near the desk, making excuses, said:

Nicht fascist... "Rot Front"!

We know your “Rot Front!” - Aunt Klava threw a fierce glance in his direction. - It’s now all of you - “Rot-Front”, but as in the war, so - “Heil Hitler!”

Hitler is kaput! - the German exclaimed with enthusiasm.

When I came home that day, I put the violin in the case that my grandmother had sewn, and promised myself never to touch it again.

I didn't show up at the base for several days. Akim even asked my grandfather where I had disappeared to. I referred to being busy at school. But the next day my grandmother asked me to take lunch to my grandfather...

When I approached the base, the first people I met were the coachman Akim and the violin maker from Dresden. They stood quietly next to each other and smoked. And from the direction of the warehouse I heard the sounds of a harmonica. I listened. Why, this is Mozart’s “May Song”, which I played on the violin as a prisoner!

Now one of them was repeating it on the harmonica. Several male voices sang quietly in German:

Come, spring, and again
Let the groves bloom...

“But it was also written by a German,” I thought. “No,” I told myself with all the conviction available to me then, “not all Germans are fascists...”

In our difficult times, when the information war almost occupies a dominant place in the political and ideological struggle against class enemies, one can very often hear rather offensive, loud and harsh statements addressed to a number of nations from the countries of the former USSR. Most often, an ordinary citizen from Russia may hear the word “fascist” addressed to the same ordinary citizen of Ukraine or residents of a number of other countries. We will not go into the details of such loud statements, but simply consider where exactly and why people are mistaken when they call other people such a terrible, at first glance, word?

Fascism is an ideology that was actively developed and strongly supported by Benito Mussolini, an Italian politician during the Second World War. In Italian the word sounds like fascismo, which in turn comes from the word fascio - “union, bundle, bundle, association.” This term can be literally translated as a generalized name for far-right political parties and movements and their corresponding form of government, implying dictatorship. Characteristic features Finding such movements in power are the cult of personality, militarism, totalitarianism and nationalism, which occupies a leading role.

The history of fascism goes back to 1919, when Mussolini adopted the fascia as a symbol of the ruling fascist party. The political formations of that time received the term “fasci di combattimento” - Combat leagues. Note: this happened long before Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany!

It was believed that after the First World War, the USSR lived much better than the countries of Europe. But communism was a prohibited direction of ideological development of the state - no one in Italy, Germany or France wanted to fight the bourgeoisie and, thereby, extol the working class. Therefore, there was an urgent need to act and invent something new, something that would leave communist views behind. This pushed Italian politicians and philosophers to create fascism - almost the complete opposite of communism.

The idea of ​​fascism at that time does not and did not contain any racial hatred, but there were ideas of building a state with rights exclusively for Italians. And the author of fascism himself - Duce Benito Mussolini - rejected the racial theory, which was very popular with the Fuhrer Hitler. There is a statement that the Duce considered the idea of ​​a dominant race “complete nonsense, a stupid and idiotic idea.” He also argued that “in Italy there is no national question, since in a country with a reasonable system of government it simply cannot exist.” At the same time, the similarity of fascism with Nazism is manifested only in anti-communism, which even then was successfully combined with censorship and state propaganda. Almost the same as what is happening in Russia now, I mean propaganda. Also, Mussolini’s regime did not imply the physical extermination of Jews, as they try to convey to us in films and on television. The Duce merely issued a series of restrictive decrees for Jews, Arabs and Ethiopians, of whom there were very many in the country at that time. This is where Mussolini's racist actions end.

Fascists in Italy and neighboring Spain were conservatives. Their goal was to unite the nation into a fascio - a bundle, a group. Due to the growth of the corporate principle and the curtailment of any democratic freedoms, the fascists wanted to preserve the gains of their civilization in the 19th century. The fascists sought to preserve an ideal and traditional society in their country. Mussolini wrote the following: “For fascism, a person is a separate individual, united with the nation and people, the Fatherland, subject to the moral law that connects individuals through tradition and historical mission.”

Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. Even then they called themselves Nazis, and Germany during the time of the Fuhrer was called Nazi. The Jews did not even realize that the Nazis would exterminate them. Then they inhabited all of Germany. According to a number of points of the NSDAP ideology, Jews cannot be classified as part of the German nation and cannot even be citizens of Germany. This was exclusively the theory of Nazism, which was preached by Adolf Hitler. By the way, the term Third Reich is an unofficial term created mainly by historians. The First Reich is the Roman Empire, the Second Reich is the German Empire.

The term “German fascist invaders” was introduced by the communists during the USSR. They deliberately misled people, and not without reason. Here it was customary to consider the German invaders to be fascists. It all lay in the form of government in the USSR itself, because Soviet socialism was fundamentally similar both in name and in many political and social positions to National Socialism, and such a coincidence could not be allowed. Imagine that you are a socialist from the time of Stalin. Then it turns out that you were attacked by socialists in 1941?! How can this be, since you and the socialists from friendly Germany just divided Poland, which no one needs, among themselves?! It turns out funny. For the purpose of propaganda, everyone was called fascists - the soldiers of the Third Reich, the National Socialist German Workers' Party and its members, even ordinary citizens who did not participate in the war. Neither Germany nor the NSDAP were ever fascist. No one could have imagined that in fact, by calling the German invaders fascists, we were actually insulting them. Even the emblem of Nazi Germany - the swastika - is extolled in a number of foreign online publications as the emblem of the German Nazis, and fascism has no emblem except the coat of arms of fascist Italy.

By the way, the swastika in state symbols is generally a separate topic for conversation. The symbol meaning “Wish for good luck” is the oldest Slavic symbol. This symbol has no “other meaning” if the direction of its ends is turned the other way. Numerous excavations around the world indicate that the swastika originated before our era, and its age varies from 8 to 12 thousand years.

In the first half of the 20th century, the swastika was a very popular symbol. It can be found in the symbols of sports teams, military academies, and even in church symbols of predominantly Asian peoples - Koreans, Chinese, Indians. The swastika is depicted in the embroidery of Russian peoples far north, present on Buddha statues, was used in Latvia and Finland as state symbols of various institutions.

In Russia, the swastika was first encountered as an addition to the coat of arms of the Provisional Government. It can be found on 250 ruble banknotes issued at that time: the symbol is depicted on both sides. The swastika could also be found in church symbols. In Soviet Russia, the swastika was used on medals and patches of the Red Army troops. After the start of the Great Patriotic War swastika mysteriously disappears from any symbolism of the Red Army.

In post-Soviet Russia, the swastika became the emblem of Russian neo-Nazis, whose number, according to various estimates, reaches 50 thousand people and is the largest group of Nazi adherents in the world. In Ukraine, the swastika in the form of the sun is present in the symbolism of the voluntary battalions of the National Guard of Ukraine. IN computer games the swastika is replaced with a cross or completely retouched. A striking example is the introductory video of Call of Duty 2. Where there is a swastika in the game, it is absent from the video.

As a result, a hole appears in the history that we, our parents, grandfathers and great-grandfathers were taught: who then are the socialists, who were the German invaders and the entire Third Reich? This is a mystery shrouded in darkness. We just said that the Third Reich was ruled by the National Socialist German Workers' Party. It is important to note that there was a lot in common between Nazi Germany and the USSR, which history is most likely silent about. For example: both Germany and the Soviet Union were ruled by workers; both Stalin and Hitler built socialism; both fought against the bourgeoisie and democracy; both considered the paths of development of their countries to be the most favorable and correct, therefore they did not allow compromise and fought against class enemies; main holiday The NSDAP and the USSR have - you won’t believe it - May 1st! We can continue further, but, perhaps, it is better to put this in a separate article for clarity.

Can you imagine how offensive it is to the Germans when they are called fascists, although the fascists themselves never reached the USSR. Alas, no matter how various “experts” scream, no matter what their conclusions are, all this is just speculation. The real, actual and primordially inveterate fascists of Italy during the time of Mussolini never fought against the USSR and did not even participate in the seizure of its territories. They were allies of Nazi Germany, according to the Axis treaty, but fought exclusively on the western and southwestern fronts. This very “axis” is the line between Berlin and Rome. In addition, in 1943, the Nazis withdrew from this union, and their military assistance to Germany practically ended. Subsequently, Mussolini was removed from power, and in 1945 he and his girlfriend were shot and their corpses were hanged at a gas station in Milan, where their corpses were disfigured beyond recognition.

Thus, from all of the above, only one conclusion can be drawn: the socialists who ruled the USSR sought to realize a utopia, to build an ideal society on principles invented by very smart theorists. And the Nazis allegedly wanted to prevent them from doing this at any cost. Therefore, when captured German soldiers in the USSR were called “fascists”, it really was an insult for them.

- We are not fascists, we are Nazis! - they answered quite motivatedly, and the Soviet soldiers were completely moved by their minds from such words.

And the last one, very interesting fact: the head of the Russian Fascist Party, Konstantin Rodzaevsky, recognized Stalin as a real and even spontaneous fascist. While in Manchuria, the stronghold of true Russians, the founder of the so-called. "Russian fascism" wrote letters to Joseph Stalin, and then personally went to Moscow. He was arrested, tried, and then executed as a person who promoted anti-Soviet ideas and views.

And lastly, what do Nazis and fascists have in common? The Nazis and fascists were united only by the recognition of a number of conservative principles of life and adherence to their historical tradition. The fascists revered their history and strived for the traditions inherent in history. The Nazis extolled their nation, considering national minorities superfluous, not necessary for modern society, and to achieve their goals they pursued a rather cruel policy, which is called the Holocaust - the extermination of Jews as a nation. It should be noted that the Nazis and communists had much more in common, but in principle some things have already been stated in the article. One of them is the use of the swastika.

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Fascism in Germany appeared immediately after the end of the First World War as one of the varieties of reactionary militaristic nationalist movements, when anti-liberal, anti-democratic movements acquired a pan-European character. In 1920, Hitler came up with a program of “25 points”, which later became the program of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Permeated with nationalistic, chauvinistic ideas of the superiority of the German nation, the program demanded revenge to restore “justice trampled upon by Versailles.”

In 1921, the organizational foundations of the fascist party were formed, based on the so-called Fuhrer principle, the unlimited power of the “leader” (Fuhrer). The main goal of creating a party is to spread fascist ideology, prepare a special terrorist apparatus to suppress democratic, anti-fascist forces and, ultimately, to seize power. In 1923, following the general strike of the German proletariat, the fascists made a direct attempt to seize state power (the “Beer Hall Putsch”). The failure of the putsch forces the fascist leaders to change their tactics in the struggle for power. In 1925, the “battle for the Reichstag” began by creating a mass base for the fascist party. Already in 1928, this tactic bore its first fruits; the Nazis received 12 seats in the Reichstag. In 1932, in terms of the number of mandates, the fascist party received more seats than any other party represented in the Reichstag.

January 30, 1933 Hitler, by order of Hindenburg, takes the post of Reich Chancellor of Germany. He comes to power as the head of a coalition government, since his party, even with its few allies, did not have a majority in the Reichstag. This circumstance, however, did not matter, since Hitler's office was the "presidential office" and Hitler was the "presidential chancellor." At the same time, the results of the 1932 elections gave a certain aura of legitimacy to his chancellorship. A variety of social strata and population groups voted for Hitler. Hitler’s broad social base was created at the expense of those who, after the defeat of Germany, had the ground cut out from under their feet, that very confused aggressive crowd, feeling deceived, having lost their life prospects along with their property, and fearing the future. He was able to use the social, political and psychological disorder of these people, showing them the way to save themselves and their humiliated fatherland, promising various circles and groups of the population everything they wanted: the monarchists - the restoration of the monarchy, the workers - work and bread, the industrialists - military orders, the Reichswehr - a new rise in connection with grandiose military plans, etc. The nationalist slogans of the fascists attracted the Germans more than the calls for "reason and patience" of the Social Democrats or for "proletarian solidarity" and the building of a "Soviet Germany" of the communists .

Hitler came to power relying on the direct support of official and unofficial ruling circles and the reactionary socio-political forces behind them, who considered it necessary to establish an authoritarian regime in the country in order to put an end to the hated democracy and republic. Fearing the increasingly powerful leftist movement, revolution and communism, they wanted to establish an authoritarian regime with the help of a “pocket” chancellor. Hindenburg clearly underestimated Hitler, calling him a “Bohemian corporal” behind his back. He was presented to the Germans as “moderate.” At the same time, all the scandalous, extremist activities of the NSNRP fell into oblivion. The first sobering of the Germans came the day after Hitler came to power, when thousands of stormtroopers staged a menacing torchlight procession in front of the Reichstag.

Rice. 2. Adolf Gitler.

The coming to power of the fascists was not an ordinary change of cabinet. It marked the beginning of the systematic destruction of all institutions of the bourgeois-democratic parliamentary state, all the democratic gains of the German people, the creation of a “new order” - a terrorist anti-people regime.

At first, when open resistance to fascism was not completely suppressed (back in February 1933, anti-fascist demonstrations took place in many places in Germany),

Hitler resorted to "extraordinary measures", widely used in Weimar on the basis of emergency presidential powers. He never formally renounced the Weimar Constitution. The first repressive decree “on the protection of the German people,” signed by President Hindenburg, was adopted on the basis of Art. 48 of the Weimar Constitution and was motivated by the protection of “public peace”.

To justify emergency measures, Hitler needed a provocative arson of the Reichstag in 1933, for which the German Communist Party was accused. Following the provocation, two new emergency decrees followed: “against treason against the German people and against treasonous actions” and “on the protection of the people and the state,” adopted, as it was announced, with the aim of suppressing “communist violent actions harmful to the state.” The government was given the right to assume the powers of any land, to issue decrees related to the violation of the secrecy of correspondence, telephone conversations, the inviolability of property, and the rights of trade unions.

From the first days of coming to power, Hitler began to implement his program, according to which Germany was to achieve new greatness. Its implementation was supposed to be carried out in two stages. At the first, the task was set to unite the Germans into a kind of “national community”; at the second, to turn it into a “combat community”.

To unite the Germans into a single community, it was necessary to cleanse the Aryan race of “foreign blood”, to overcome class, confessional, and ideological contradictions, which was achieved by eliminating political parties, except for the NSRPG, alien ideology, public organizations, except for the Nazi ones, loyal to the “Fuhrer and the Reich” , as well as by “unifying the state apparatus,” etc. Having completed this “internal work,” Germany, according to Hitler’s plan, could begin “external” work, the most important task of which was the conquest of living space, the displacement of the peoples living there, mainly the peoples of the Eastern Europe, through a merciless, bloody war. The fascist state and the NSRPG were mainly engaged in solving the problems of the first stage until 1935. From that time, total preparation for war began, and then the war itself.

The change in Hitler's “stages” was directly reflected in legislation and changes in the mechanism of the fascist dictatorship. On March 24, 1933, the Reichstag adopted the Law “On Eliminating the Plight of the People and the State,” on the basis of which the government receives legislative rights, including on budget issues. It was also allowed that the norms of laws adopted by the government could directly deviate from the norms of the Constitution of 1919, which formally continued to be in force (with one clause that was soon abolished - “if they do not have as their object the Reichstag and the Reichsrat”). The law specifically emphasized that agreements with foreign states and their implementation do not require parliamentary approval. Formally, the law was adopted as temporary until April 1, 1937; in fact, it became the permanent fundamental law of the fascist state. From now on, the office of the National Socialist Party, subordinate to Hitler, was directly involved in the preparation of all imperial laws. This was the end of the Weimar Republic and its representative institutions.

After the death of President Hindenburg on August 1, 1934, by government decree, the post of president was abolished, and all power was concentrated in the hands of Hitler - the “leader” and lifelong Reich Chancellor, who was given the right not only to appoint the imperial government, all senior officials of the empire, but and his successor. From that time on, Hitler began the systematic destruction of all possible paths of opposition, which was a direct embodiment of the Nazis’ programmatic guidelines and the main demand they introduced - fanatical, blind submission to the will of the “Führer of the German people.”

Following the ban of the Communist Party in March 1933, all trade unions were dissolved in May of the same year, and the Social Democratic Party was outlawed in June 1933. Other parties that were active before Hitler came to power “dissolved themselves.” In July 1933, the existence of any political parties other than the fascist one and the organizations led by it was prohibited by law. “In Germany,” the law proclaimed, “there is only one party, the NSRPG, all others are prohibited.” Attempts to “support the organizational structures of any other political party” were punishable by up to three years in prison.

By pursuing an “integration policy between the state and the party,” the Nazis “unified” not only the parties, but also the press. Press organs, other than Nazi ones, were either liquidated or included in the system of fascist propaganda. The law of March 24, 1933 “On the protection of the government of national revival from insidious attacks” subjected to criminal liability in the form of imprisonment for up to two years all persons who allowed “gross distortion of reality, expressed judgments that could cause serious damage to the well-being of the empire or individual German states, or the authority of the government of the empire, or individual states and government parties." Hard labor was threatened for those who caused “severe damage to the empire” by their actions.

In December 1933, the Law “On Ensuring the Unity of the Party and State” was published, declaring the fascist party “the bearer of German state thought.” In accordance with this law, Hitler personally formed the fascist Reichstag (on the basis of lists “approved” by the plebiscite), and only persons from the Nazi party elite were appointed to the posts of ministers and other positions. Moreover, it was subsequently prescribed that any appointment to a public office made without the consent of the relevant body of the fascist party would be considered invalid.

The transformation of the Reichstag into a powerless, puppet institution, since its new composition was formed exclusively on a party basis, and the liquidation of local government bodies were closely related to the general bureaucratization of the state apparatus. The state apparatus was purged of “inappropriate persons”, of all those who began working in the apparatus after 1918, of persons of “non-Aryan origin”, marriages of officials with “non-Aryan women”, etc. were prohibited.

Particular attention was paid to the indoctrination in the spirit of militarism, chauvinism and racism of young people, whose mentality was controlled by fascist youth organizations (Jungfolk, Hitler Youth, etc.). The leader of the Hitler Youth was officially called the “Youth Leader of the German Reich” and was personally responsible to Hitler as Fuhrer and as Reich Chancellor. After 1937, participation in Hitler's youth organizations became mandatory. These organizations were included in an extensive system of various Nazi organizations, covering all aspects of the country's life.

The Nazis created a powerful terrorist apparatus, which began to take shape even before they came to power. In 1920, the first armed detachments arose - the “order service” of the fascists, which was assigned the role of guarding fascist gatherings. However, these detachments were used most often to create disorder at rallies of leftist forces, to attack workers' speakers, etc. In 1921, the “order service” received the name “assault detachments” (SA). The SA detachments attracted declassed elements, soldiers and officers dismissed from the army, and bankrupt shopkeepers who were impressed by Nazi propaganda.

In March 1938, the independent state of Austria was annexed to Germany. The next victim of fascist aggression was Czechoslovakia. As a result of the Munich Agreement, concluded in September 1938 by England, France and Nazi Germany, Czechoslovakia lost a significant part of its territory, annexed to the Reich. This was the defeat of an independent state without military action, which was followed in 1939 by the military occupation of the country. In September 1939, Poland was captured by the Nazis. In July 1940, German troops occupied Paris, followed by new victories for the aggressor.

By the time of the attack on the USSR, Germany controlled vast territories of Central and Eastern, and most of Western and Northern Europe. In her hands was the coast of the Baltic Sea, a significant part of France. The powerful military-economic base of the occupied states was put at the service of Hitler's Germany, whose goal was proclaimed to be “the defense of civilization from the threat of Bolshevism,” and in fact, the destruction of the USSR.

Fascist Germany, together with its allies and satellites, fielded an army of 5 million (German, Italian, Romanian and other troops), armed with 3,500 tanks, 4,900 aircraft, etc., against the Soviet state.

During the Second World War, in which 61 states participated, more than 50 million people were killed, 11 million were destroyed in fascist concentration camps, and 95 million became disabled. The main burden of the war was borne by the Soviet Union, which for 4 years fought the Great Patriotic War, which cost (according to unspecified data) 30 million lives of its citizens. The Soviet Union plays a decisive role in the defeat of the fascist military machine, and with it one of the most reactionary and aggressive states aspiring to world domination in human history.

I’ve been meaning to write a post about this for a long time and promised it to many, but I never got around to it.

Everyone has heard about the “atrocities of the fascists” and there are many holivars on this basis online. For example, there is a myth that all the atrocities were carried out by all sorts of collaborators, but the German soldier himself was nice, good-natured, humane and generally would not harm a child. Apparently these are beneficial to various neo-Nazis and therefore they are distributed.
Often the blame is for punitive actions, burning of villages, etc. blamed on fascist ideology, the Ost plan and the official policy of genocide: they say ordinary Germans were forced, so they obeyed, so as not to incur anger. otherwise they themselves would never... This is only partly true. Yes, in the Second World War this was the official policy, but “ordinary Germans” willingly and joyfully fulfilled and exceeded the duties assigned to them.

The whole secret lies in the national German psychology. And it is worth starting to consider it from the very beginning of the formation of a united Germany.
In 1870, the Franco-Prussian War began. Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and King William I hoped to unite Germany and undermine the power of France as a result of the war. The French Emperor Napoleon III sought to prevent the unification of Germany and preserve the European hegemony of France. The troops of the North German Confederation won a complete victory.
The North German Union included kingdoms (Prussia, Saxony), great duchies: (Hesse-Darmstadt, Saxe-Weimar, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Oldenburg), duchies (Brunschweig, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Gotha) Meiningen, Anhalt), principalities (Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Waldeck, Reuss (junior line), Reuss (senior line), Schaumburg-Lippe, Lippe-Detmold) as well as free cities: Bremen, Hamburg, Lubeck.
On January 18, 1871, at Versailles, Bismarck and Wilhelm I announced the creation of the German Empire on the basis of the North German Confederation. The empire was quickly joined by states that were not part of the North German Confederation - Bavaria and other southern German countries. This is where “United Germany” begins, or simply Germany, as it is now commonly perceived.

And before that, in the place of Germany there was fierce feudalism and fragmentation with internecine conflicts and squabbles over the land. That is, there were no Germans as such in terms of national identity, there were Prussians, Saxons, Bavarians, Hamburgers...
The newly created empire had to be tightly knit into a single state so that it would not fall apart again. And if in economic terms the basis of the empire was the 5 billion francs that the French paid to the Germans as indemnity, then in political terms everything was more complicated. Each member of the union wanted to preserve self-government and political independence the more strongly the stronger and more influential he was. Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, Württemberg received the status of semi-autonomous kingdoms, and were subordinate only to the Prussian king directly (which was rather of an official, public nature, but in reality was self-government). The governments of the three “free Hanseatic cities”: Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen also retained their power. All the “smaller fragments” were, to a greater or lesser extent, governed by a single government, but also declared themselves to be sovereign entities.
According to the constitution, the presidency belonged to the Prussian king, who enjoyed the title of German emperor, but was essentially a political puppet: according to the constitution, he did not even use a delaying veto and only had the right to promulgate laws (that is, in essence, to work as a herald). The Imperial Chancellor was the main executive body and at the same time the only person responsible to the Union Council and the Reichstag for all the actions of this power. In essence, the Reich Chancellor was the head of state, although he was not officially one.

Let's return to the Germans themselves. To prevent the empire from falling apart, its population needs to be united. And Bismarck chose for these purposes the idea of ​​a united Germany as the idea of ​​a single nation, or rather the idea of ​​a single and only nation of winners, destined by fate to rule over other peoples, and a nation, if not supermen, then the only heirs of the great gods - for sure. The era of the “Germanic tribes” was taken as the historical basis, when all the various tribes were connected by Scandinavian mythology.
Plus, immediately after its creation, the German Empire entered into an alliance with Austria-Hungary and expanded its territories to include colonies: Togo, Cameroon, mainland Tanzania (Tanganyika), Namibia, Rwanda and Burundi in Africa; the port of Qingdao (Kaichou) on the Shandong Peninsula has been captured from China; German New Guinea in Oceania... Germany bought some things directly from Spain, for example the Mariana and Caroline Islands. That is, the ordinary German was provided with factual evidence that the Germans as a single nation are a nation of victors and masters, so there is no doubt. And they began to inculcate this idea in society, that is, they began to educate the younger generations.
At that time, children often received their education in church schools, which were extremely totalitarian and instilled the idea of ​​God's chosenness of a United Germany. But even in ordinary schools, freethinking was not encouraged and corporal punishment was very popular: knowledge was simply hammered into the heads of students and, at the same time, pan-Germanism was promoted - German poets, German culture, German achievements and in general everything German were extolled, and everything not German was belittled and ridiculed. The training was built on a broad system of prohibitions, providing penalties for their violation.
Therefore, even before the First World War, a new German society was formed, in which the system of prohibitions and their observance played a decisive role. That is, literally everything was regulated, including the color of fences, the height of grass, the shape of chimneys, and so on. This is where the “famous German pedantry and accuracy” begins - not out of love for accuracy itself, but out of the strict obligation to comply with accuracy and the fear of violating the ban. The ordinary German in all aspects of public life and in almost all aspects of personal life was obliged to obey prohibitions, both official and unofficial. Violation of prohibitions and norms could compromise not only the ordinary German personally, but also through him the entire German society as a whole. This, it must be said, is quite a psychological strain, since the ordinary German, although he belonged to a nation of superhuman winners and masters, always felt the invisible gaze of German society assessing the correctness of his actions - even when he sat on a German toilet in a German toilet... I I’m not kidding - after all, everything German was extolled absolutely indiscriminately. This is the psychological portrait of the average Kaiser German from the new, united German nation.

And then there was the First World War. And what had to happen happened - an ordinary German went beyond the borders of his beloved, advanced and God-chosen Germany. That same ordinary German who, within Germany, was squeezed by a gigantic system of prohibitions and seemed modest, notorious and wretched... This same ordinary German appears in a completely different light. A strict system of prohibitions and norms covering the entire German society, attention, acted only within the boundaries of German society. Outside of German society, an ordinary German was left to his own devices, and when he sat on a non-German toilet in a non-German toilet, he could do whatever he wanted, because the invisible gaze of German society looked at him a little less than nothing. That is, in the ordinary German, all the demons immediately awakened, nurtured by totalitarian education and corporal punishment in Catholic schools, and the constant feeling that you were being watched while living in German society. And the ordinary German immediately began to compensate for all these years of subordination, humiliation and fear. (UPD: “in Catholic schools” should be read as “in church schools”, since in this case the difference between Catholics and Protestants is not significant: the pedagogy of those in Germany operated with the same methods. Disputes about the number of Catholics in Germany during the time of Bismarck it seems like the comments will never subside).
Plus, going beyond the boundaries of the United German World, thanks to the propaganda of pan-Germanism, the ordinary German entered a backward and barbaric world, wretched, worthy of condemnation and all sorts of censure, into a world that is not to be pitied.
And since the ordinary German found himself not just in a war, but in a German war, when Germany and the German nation of masters and victors realize together their god-given fair right to defeat and conquer everyone else, then any actions of an ordinary German, even the most obscene, Thanks to participation in the implementation of this by the gods, this right immediately acquires an aura of sacredness and justification. that is, even if an ordinary German has a doubt: “maybe it’s still ugly to do this?”, then the psyche (after many years of propaganda of pan-Germanism) immediately prompts “a German can and should do this, because... further, variablely about the nation victors and pan-Germanism."

During the First World War, the Germans carried out “fascist atrocities” to their full extent - the difference is that they carried them out unorganized and without ideological background like the fascists a la “they all need to be burned now because they are genetic garbage and can later clog up the great pure German nation." No, in the First World War the Germans committed atrocities just like that or “long live sadism in its purest form.” Moreover, literally nearby, in the same Belgium, where the occupation took place as expected - with ethnic cleansing and concentration camps.

True, during the First World War, an ordinary German who fought (survived) saw enough of the horrors of war, returned to Germany with a slightly different worldview and fell into depression - the so-called “lost generation” was formed (see the works of E.M. Remarque), but German society (which did not fight on the front line) remained the same, did not repent of anything, but experienced severe disappointment from the results of the First World War and demanded revenge from the government: to put Germany back on its feet, polish its helmets and now be sure to conquer and conquer everyone. The German government found itself in deep financial and economic trouble, so it could not meet the demands of German society. Therefore, when Hitler and the NSDAP appeared on the scene, all they had to do was offer revenge to German society, and German society immediately supported them (the Nazis, without any hesitation, explained the shameful loss of Germany by the numerical superiority of the enemy). Moreover, the Nazis helped the fighting Germans who committed atrocities to get out of depression, justifying them with the idea national superiority, that is, removing personal guilt and responsibility from them, thereby not only not condemning, but justifying and encouraging their sadism.

Therefore, when the Germans were ordered to put Plan Ost into action, they accepted this order with zeal and joy.
Fascism only gave them fanaticism and faith in their mission, but it did not create their cruelty and sadism from scratch. In fact, this is a psychopathy cultivated for decades on a German scale, which the ideology of fascism only limited and framed.

P.S. When, after the Second World War, fascism was condemned, ordinary Germans again, this time across the entire country, fell into depression. In many ways, this was facilitated by the “winners,” who, by force of cannon, organized excursions for the rear Germans to concentration camps for further education. Until now, the average incidence of depressive disorders in Germany is 4.5 times higher than in neighboring countries with a similar standard of living.

P.P.S. Plan Ost, Document 6: “General Plan for Colonization” (German Generalsiedlungsplan), created in September 1942 by the RKF planning service (volume: 200 pages, including 25 maps and tables).
Contents: Description of the scale of the planned colonization of all areas envisaged for this with specific boundaries of individual settlement areas. The region was supposed to cover an area of ​​330,000 km² with 360,100 rural households. The required number of resettlers was estimated at 12.21 million people (of which 2.859 million were peasants and those employed in forestry). The planned area was to be cleared of approximately 30.8 million people . The cost of implementing the plan was estimated at 144 billion Reichsmarks. (proof).

I also want to shut up the loudmouths in advance a la “we had to lose to Germany immediately and quickly, there wouldn’t be such losses, there wouldn’t be an occupation, everyone would be alive.” There would be. Sure sure. Alive.
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P.P.P.S. Regarding the first photo, there were assumptions that it was photoshopped, but I have not seen any confirmation yet, only private ones subjective opinions. Upon receiving a link to the original photo as direct evidence of Photoshop, I will immediately replace it with another one;). UPD: the photo was taken off the hosting, another one, similar in meaning and content, was installed in its place.

I was born, and the flame of 1941 broke out over my font, which scorched me and my life, like millions of my peers.
Of course, while living under the occupation, I saw the Germans, but my memory did not retain the idea of ​​them, since they “gave a fight from Azov” when I was a two-year-old boy at the end of 1942.
But in 1946, I saw and remembered captured Germans in Krasnodar, where they worked to restore the city they had destroyed. My mother worked as a cook in the canteen where the prisoners ate, and me, already six years old, some of them... called:
“Michel, com, com,” and stroked my head, saying, “Ich habe ainen zone in Deutschland,” and hugged me. And, with tears in his eyes, “Hitler is kaput, Michael!”
I looked at them and thought - what kind of fascists are they?..

Guys are like guys, and they don’t offend me at all, like my father, who, when he returned from the war, was covered in orders and medals, and he offends my mother and me every day.

He gave me such a slap that sparks fell from my eyes, and my ear is still ringing, and I’ve been waiting for it since the war! He mocked him to the point that his mother shouted at him: “You are a fascist!” “And, taking me, she left Krasnodar for Azov, where we lived with strangers, and then took me to a steppe farm to my grandparents.

During the war, the “Germans” also stood there, but for some reason they were called “Italians” and “Romanians.” We, the boys and girls, didn’t care, and we, playing war, “fought the Germans.” How did we know who they really were? Germans and that's it!

I, having persuaded my closest friends, “created” a partisan detachment and we smashed the “Germans” throughout the village, although they were “ours”, but from Smirnovka, since they lived on the other side of the Savkina River.

The deputy commander of the partisan detachment, that is, me, was Shurka Kopylov from Belarus, our commissar was an Armenian woman, Lizka, whose mother and three children fled from near Kyiv.

The question of how it is “an Armenian from near Kyiv” was not a question for us, and “why was she born there” - neither! The main thing is that she was faithful to the partisan detachment, like Chapaev’s Anka the machine gunner...

In 1950, by the will of fate, I, ten years old, ended up in Rostov-on-Don, where I studied at a school that had a stable during the war. The window sills were gnawed by horses. They gnawed at them right up to the defeat of Paulus’s army at Stalingrad, and when they were gone, the stable was cleaned and turned into a school again. It never occurred to me then that years later I would have to work at this school, but I did, and I am incredibly happy about it.

Somewhere in the year 1958, my next “acquaintance with the Germans” took place. So I learned from my mother that a German officer was in love with my Aunt Maria, who lived in Azov during the war, and that if not for their love, then my elder brother, Sashka, would have been shot for having him The officer stole the gun. When Aunt Maria told him: “Willie, this is my nephew, don’t kill him,” he replied: “Maria, I love you more than life itself. Let them shoot me for losing my weapon.” And, giving Sashka a kick in the ass, he threw him out the gate.

In those years, my grandmother, Anna Fedorovna, my stepfather’s mother, said that during the war they had as many as three Germans in their billet. Who never offended her or her daughters, although they knew that her son was at the front. They brought food into the house, from which the grandmother prepared food for the guests, herself and her daughters. And they didn’t offend anyone, but by saying: “Hitler is kaput!” – one day they left the house and the city...

In 1958, I already worked at the factory, mailbox No...., in one of the workshops. Vasily Stukalov worked with me. He was a little older than me, lame in one leg, flaxen hair, kind eyes and dimples on his cheeks, which is why when he laughed, everyone’s soul rejoiced. He himself explained why chrome was like this:

When the Germans were in Rostov, their equipment was parked in the streets. I found out that in one of the covered cars there were cans of canned food in boxes. The sentry walked from corner to corner of the street and played the harmonica.

When he walked away from the car with canned goods, I ducked under the tarpaulin. He collected cans in his bosom, looked out, jumped out and drove along the street home. The German looked around, saw me and shouted: “Hyunde hoch!” and chased after me. Why don’t I say “Hyunde hoch!”

Where can he catch up with me? He then took off his rifle, and how it smelled!

It seemed to me that he was shooting at me, and I stepped on the gas out of fear. And then, as luck would have it, the hatch came under my feet and when I stepped on the lid, it moved, the infection, and I fell headlong into the hatch.

That's how I became lame. I would have ended up dead there, since the fracture of my leg turned out to be open, blood was gushing out of me. Thanks to the German, when he ran up to the hatch and saw me, he pulled me out and carried me to their medical unit in his arms. I thought that they would cut me up for spare parts. They stripped me naked, put me on the table and the German doctor began to punish me. They injected me with something. I passed out. When I woke up, I didn’t understand why they didn’t cut me to the end. Then the German who cut me came and said: “Your mother has arrived. Schnell nahhauz! And the mothers say: “Uterus, der zone tsap-scratch. Schlecht! They gave her the canned goods that I had stolen, dressed her and two Germans carried me home.

My mother cried and cried and said to me: “Vaska, the world is not without good people, and you started stealing. These are the Germans, their hands are cut off for stealing. Be grateful that they didn’t cut off your leg and added a leg.”

That German, because of whom I became lame, brought us bread and canned food more than once. He said that he had three of his own in Germany. This is how I limp now.

All this seemed strange to me. Nazi Germans and suddenly love, kind attitude, even medical care. They would have slapped them like a fly, as Hitler demanded, and that would be the end of it, but here is a manifestation of humanity.

But I, a boy, had no time to think about it, since I enjoyed every day, the sun, my friends and girlfriends, and the life ahead.

This is necessary! In 1959, I was called up to serve in the Soviet Army and there I saw a German for the first time! It was a strange German! His name was Zhenya Kuller. He was red-haired, blue-blue eyes, average height, spoke Russian, like the rest of us, and in the documents, in the “nationality” column, “German” was clearly written!
“Of course someone wrote this to him by mistake!” - I thought. As a former commander of a partisan detachment, I began to “torture” Zhenka. But during the “interrogations” he behaved heroically and said that he was born in the Cossack village of Georgievskaya in the Stavropol region, and he didn’t know why he was so red-haired and German. We sergeants laughed at the confessions of Zhenya Kuller, this wonderful German from Georgievskaya.

Kuller served in the department of tablet operators ml. Sergeant Shvets Pavel, Moldovan. And they were inseparable friends. Their army nicknames were “Pasha” and “Kesha”. By the way, at the command post of the regiment where I happened to serve, there was no one from the multinational Union, but it never occurred to anyone to evaluate a soldier, sergeant and officer based on their nationality. Our battalion commander was Ossetian, so what?

Beautiful as the god Mars, he went through the war, not his chest, but the iconostasis. And he said to some Uzbek or Turkmen: “Ti chito, not Russian?” To which a guy from some village replied: “Why aren’t they Russians?!” Maya Russians, captain's comrade! Maya is not a fascist"....

P.S. To my story “Not all Germans were fascists,” I attach an article that I recommend reading to all dissenters on this issue:

Maxim Maximov, 10.20.2018: -

The German Reich attacked the Soviet Union without declaring war. This was a surprise not only for our people, but also for many Germans. Many surviving Wehrmacht soldiers recalled that they were shocked by the Fuhrer's decision to violate the non-aggression pact

And the Red Army veterans, as one, expressed a common thought about disappointment in the German workers, who went to war against the state of workers and peasants. They were surprised: where did the millions of Germans who voted for Thälmann go?

History has shown that this happens periodically. The latest sad example is Ukraine. In such situations, millions cease to matter for some time, and only a few make history.

The most effective in the world. Truth and myths about the partisan movement of the USSR
© RIA Novosti, Leonid Korobov | Go to photobank

In 1941 there were few of these in the Wehrmacht. But they were: for example, Fritz Schmenkel.

From the Wehrmacht to the partisans

In 1961, KGB investigators in the Kalinin (Tver) region of the RSFSR reported to Moscow that, during the investigation of Nazi crimes during the war, they had identified the commander of the partisan combat group that destroyed a detachment of traitor policemen. He turned out to be a German. But not a “Russian German” from the Volga region, but a citizen of the aggressor country, that is, the Third Reich.

This was no ordinary citizen - a corporal of the 186th Wehrmacht infantry regiment named Fritz Hans Werner Schmenkel. In November 1941, he deserted from his unit, hid with local residents, and then joined the “Death to Fascism” partisan detachment, fought in its ranks and accomplished many things that are usually called the word “feat.”

Judge for yourself. Fritz Schmenkel many times went to the location of Wehrmacht units, dressed in German uniforms, to conduct sabotage and reconnaissance operations. More than once he participated in battles with enemy units, including against tank units. The German, Soviet partisan, who was called Ivan Ivanovich in the detachment, lured a squad of policemen of 11 people into the forest, where the traitors were tried by a partisan tribunal.

He was a key figure in the group of saboteurs, without whom the operation to seize a German food convoy would have been unthinkable. Everything was organized as in Alexey German’s film “Road Check.” The Wehrmacht command offered a reward for the capture of the traitor.

After the liberation of the Smolensk region, Fritz Shmenkel was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Battle. And then, after retraining at the sabotage school of the command of the Western Front, they were thrown out with the divot detachment “Pole” in Belarus, where Shmenkel was captured.
It's not deserters who are heroes. German soldiers who defected to the Red Army in 1941
© commons.wikimedia.org, Public domain Fritz Schmenkel | Go to photobank

He was executed on February 22, 1944 in Minsk. Before his death, he was allowed to write a letter to his family in the Reich, where Fritz Schmenkel had a wife, Erna, and three children: Hans, Ursula and Christa. The letter contained bold lines: “Forgive me for the anxiety that I caused you by following the chosen path to the end. But I do not give up on my work even in the last hours of my life. I boldly face my execution, because I am dying for a good cause.”

Recognition and glory

Investigators explained the hero's motives by saying that he was a communist, and his father, also a communist, was killed during street battles with Nazi stormtroopers. The head of the KGB department for the Kalinin region, Colonel Mikhail Gorbatov, petitioned for the nomination of Fritz Shmenkel to the Golden Star of the Hero.

By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 6, 1964, “for active participation in the partisan movement, exemplary execution of combat missions of the command during the Great Patriotic War and the heroism and courage shown at the same time” to German citizen Shmenkel Fritz Paul (under this name Shmenkel was known in the Soviet historiography - Ed.) posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The memory of Shmenkel was immortalized on an unheard of level. The award was personally presented to the wife of the German-Soviet partisan, Erna Shmenkel, by Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev. By order of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany) Walter Ulbricht, a memorial stele in honor of Comrade Fritz decorated the building in Berlin, where on May 8, 1945 the act of unconditional surrender of the Reich was signed. In the GDR Air Force, the 1st Fighter Squadron Jagdfliegergeschwader bore his name. And at the suggestion of Comrade Ulbricht, one of the streets of the German capital Democratic Republic received the name "Fritz Schmenkel Strasse".

Was there Shmenkel?

This story is hard to believe today. It is difficult to imagine a Wehrmacht soldier who, during the triumphant advance of his army towards Moscow, when few doubted that the end of the Soviet Union had come, took and went over to the side of the almost defeated enemy. And not just any enemy: Corporal Shmenkel fled to the pitiful remnants of the defeated units of the Red Army and the local militia, who were hiding in the forests.

Ukrainian partisans and terrorists: who they really are
© Security Service of Ukraine

Deserting to them, Fritz, like Bumbarash, found himself between two fires. They would hang him if they caught him. And the partisans would hang him, because he is not just an enemy, but also Fritz and Hans by name. Just a standard “fascist” from a propaganda leaflet.

The meaning of such an act defies explanation. The end of the Russian campaign from the point of view of the aggressor soldiers was close, as Corporal Shmenkel knew very well from conversations with his colleagues. The end of the campaign is the way home to family. But the mysterious corporal chose the forest and the fierce enemy partisans, who at first really almost put him against the wall.

But this is only a prologue to the riddle.

But there was another Germany

The legend about the partisan “Comrade Sh” is confirmed by the fact that, after all, Fritz Schmenkel was not the only phenomenon. His story is one of a number of others, and therefore typical. There were very few German defectors at the very beginning of the war, but they still existed. Just before the Reich’s invasion of the USSR, at least four Wehrmacht soldiers defected in just one day.

Six hours before the invasion, the most famous German defector, 30-year-old corporal of the 222nd regiment of the 75th Wehrmacht Infantry Division, Alfred Liskov, swam across the Western Bug. Like Shmenkel, a communist who went to the front with the intention of going over to the side of the USSR. Like Shmenkel, Liskov still had family in the Reich.
It's not deserters who are heroes. German soldiers who defected to the Red Army in 1941
© russian7.ru Alfred Liskov | Go to photobank

Another typical example in this series is the act of a truly legendary person. On July 15, 1941, near the Belarusian city of Bobruisk, a soldier of the 134th Wehrmacht Infantry Division, Heinz Kessler, deserted during a combat patrol and went over to the enemy side. His story is exactly like the story of Fritz Schmenkel.

“I swam to the right bank of the Berezina and hid in some peasant house,” Kessler recalled. “I put my machine gun and backpack on the table and asked the woman to hide me. Then the Soviet comrades came - soldiers with four officers. They took me with them. Thus began my long trip to the east, during which my Soviet comrades said that until 1933 there was a strong communist party. And I told them that now the vast majority of Germans sincerely believe Nazi propaganda.”

Defectors of 1941. Who are they?

What was common in all cases of German soldiers crossing over to the side of the Red Army at the beginning of the war was that they were all in one way or another connected with the German communist movement. All of them were staunch anti-fascists. All of them were very highly motivated and went to the front with the intention of going over to the side of the USSR.

Until the moment of transition, their cases are similar. But after that, Shmenkel’s story diverges from the stories of Liskov, Kessler and other heroic defectors of 1941. What is atypical is that the prisoner of war, whom the writer Boris Polevoy called “Comrade Sh,” was enrolled in a partisan unit, and not evacuated to “ Mainland“, because all prisoners of war of the enemy army were subject to evacuation.

All the Germans, even those who voluntarily came over to our side, were sent to the rear; everyone had to sit in the camp for a long or short time. With only one exception: Alfred Liskov was taken from Lvov to Moscow, where he became a real star of Soviet propaganda. At the end of June 1941, Pravda and Izvestia wrote about him as a true communist-internationalist who committed an act worthy of an example for German soldiers.

Soon Liskov turned from the pages of leaflets to his former colleagues with an appeal to go over to the Soviet side. True, the image of the anti-fascist Liskov pleased only readers of the Soviet press: his leaflets were not successful in the Wehrmacht.

Walter Ulbricht's problems...

In August 1941, under the leadership of Comintern Secretary Dmitry Manuilsky, a special group was created to develop an anti-fascist movement among the prisoners of war available at that time. The task was set to get them to sign a paper condemning the Reich’s aggression against the USSR. As a result, out of 974 prisoners in one of the camps, only six put their signatures.

The future leader of the GDR, Bolshevik Walter Ulbricht, from the very beginning of the war, faced the difficulties of agitating captured soldiers of an army that was winning brilliant victories. Part of his work included sociological surveys of captured compatriots. And in the fall of 1941, Comrade Ulbricht had no positive reports.

“We raised the question before a number of soldiers that the defeat of the Reich and the overthrow of Hitler is the way to save the German people. Only a few communists agreed. Although at the first moment even they were surprised by this formulation of the question,” he wrote in one of his early reports.
It's not deserters who are heroes. German soldiers who defected to the Red Army in 1941
© commons.wikimedia.org, Deutsche Fotothek Walter Ulbricht | Go to photobank

...and his successes

...This was when Hitler ordered the minting of commemorative award medals for the participants in the expected capture of Moscow, and the corporal of his army, Shmenkel, fled from the glory of the winner of the Bolsheviks and from the family waiting for him at home. When young Fritz, shivering from the cold, was hiding in the forests of the Smolensk region, former private of the 134th Wehrmacht division Heinz Kessler was sitting in a prisoner of war camp in Kazakhstan. It was when the defeat of the USSR seemed inevitable even to convinced communist defectors that Walter Ulbricht met Kessler during a visit to the camp.

Prisoner of war Kessler volunteered at the Anti-Fascist School, became an employee of the 7th department of GlavPUR (Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy of the USSR. - Ed.), worked at the fronts, agitating German soldiers. He became a holder of the Order of the Red Star and the Order of the Patriotic War. He was a member of the Free Germany committee, where, after the defeat of the 6th Army at Stalingrad, a long line of German prisoners of war, led by Field Marshal Paulus, lined up.

Germans in the Red Army

One and a half million Germans lived in the USSR. When the Reich attacked, they were taken into the army in very limited numbers and on a strictly individual basis. As a rule, these were communists who worked for GlavPUR.

Che Guevara and Ukrainian partisans
© RIA Novosti, Max Alpert | Go to photobank

In August 1941, only 50 people were called up from the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and then only proven members of the CPSU(b). True, there were Germans at the front who were drafted into the Red Army before the war. At the beginning of 1941, there were over 33.5 thousand people.

The first enemy strike was met by the defenders of the Brest Fortress - including the regiment commander, Major Dulkait, Lieutenant Colonel of the medical service Kroll, Lieutenant Colonel Schmidt, Senior Lieutenant Wagenleitner, Sergeant Major Meyer, privates Küng, Killing, Miller and others.

At the beginning of the war, awards were rare and for special merits. But among those awarded were Senior Lieutenant Schwartz and Colonel Hagen. In 1945, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Gagen, already with the rank of lieutenant general, will take part in the Victory Parade on Red Square.

On August 24, 1941, when private Heinz Kessler, who had defected to ours, was en route to Kazakhstan, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, under the heading “We will avenge you, comrade!” told about the feat of the Red Army soldier Heinrich Hoffmann. The twenty-year-old young man, having been captured, did not betray his military oath. The newspaper published a large photograph of the burnt, blood-stained Komsomol card of Private Hoffmann.

And on August 28, Komsomolskaya Pravda spoke about the feat of anti-aircraft gunner Heinrich Neumann, who shot down four Junkers bombers. Ironically, this article was published on the very day when the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On the resettlement of Germans living in the Volga region” was adopted. Most of the Germans were then withdrawn from the active army to the rear - with rare exceptions when a unit stood up for a colleague.

German partisans of the USSR

Even in the Reich, Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander German, the commander of a partisan brigade operating in the Leningrad and Kalinin regions, was called partisan No. 1. A former pilot, Captain Asselborn, also fought there as a partisan. In 1943, the “encirclement”, Senior Lieutenant Robert Klein, became famous. Dressed in the enemy's uniform, he prevented the bridge across the Dnieper from being blown up - for this he was awarded the Gold Star of the Hero. The Avangard partisan detachment operating in Odessa was led by the Germans Geft, Burzi and Berndt. They died in one of the heavy battles, covering the detachment’s exit from encirclement in Poland.
It's not deserters who are heroes. German soldiers who defected to the Red Army in 1941

And here we can finally cast aside doubts that Fritz Schmenkel was real person. Why wasn’t he taken to the rear as a prisoner of war? Why didn’t they use him for propaganda, but allowed him to participate in hostilities, although there was a danger that he might turn out to be a double agent? Finally, why did the command of the Red Army, after liberation, not leave Shmenkel in the rear to show him on newspaper pages, decorated with the Order of the Red Banner of Battle? But instead, he was thrown into the German rear, near Orsha, with the risk that he could be captured and used by the enemy’s counter-propaganda, which ultimately happened. He was captured, although he did not want to be useful to Goebbels’ department.

Memory of the feat of “Comrade Sh”

There can be no doubt. Trustworthy Germans, who proved the truth of their motives by deed, real exploits and contribution to the Victory, were honored to receive weapons and fight on the side of the Red Army. Including the risk of being captured.

Fritz Schmenkel behaved with dignity in captivity. This is proven by the fact that he was sentenced not to hang, but to be shot, and he was also allowed to write his last letter home. Today, a plaque in memory of Fritz Shmenkel’s feat adorns the building on Freedom Square No. 4 in Minsk.

In Germany, the 1st Fighter Squadron of the GDR Air Force named after Schmenkel was disbanded in 1990. And Schmenkel Street in Berlin was renamed in 1992.

The fate of German heroic defectors in 1941

Alfred Liskov, whose head was turned by fame and Moscow, while working at Comintern, became conflicted and inadequate. He constantly exaggerated his role, criticized everyone and everything. Due to his dramatically changed behavior and obvious mental disorder, his campaign colleagues, including Georgiy Dimitrov, constantly complained about him. They even wrote denunciations.

Occupied Kyiv: the unsolved mysteries of the Soviet underground
© deus1.com

Liskov was arrested but released “for health reasons.” His fate after the war is unknown.

Walter Ulbricht became head of the GDR. It was he who studied the KGB documents with the history of Fritz Schmenkel’s feat, he found his family, organized a ceremony to transfer the Gold Star of the Hero of the USSR and the Order of Lenin to the wife of “Comrade Sh” Erna and children: Hans, Ursula and Krista. Comrade Brezhnev personally presented the award. In 1971, Leonid Ilyich, during his first foreign visit as General Secretary to Berlin, convinced Comrade Ulbricht to cede leadership of the party and socialist Germany to Erich Honecker - “for health reasons.”

Heinz Kessler under Ulbricht became chief of the general staff of the GDR army and deputy commander of the Warsaw Pact forces. And under Honecker - the country's Minister of Defense. In 1989 he was transferred to the reserve. In 1993, he was tried and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison during the process of “decommunization.” Served five years, released “due to health reasons.”

To the end he remained faithful to the motive that pushed him in 1941 to go over to the side of the Red Army.

“For me, this was primarily a patriotic task,” he said in a recent interview.

Heinz Kessler died on May 2, 2017 in Berlin. He was the last hero defector of 1941.

There are no exact statistics about German soldiers who defected to the Red Army. It is known that the number of those who made an informed choice was in the hundreds. IN recent months war, when the situation in Germany became hopeless, the Germans surrendered in tens of thousands.

Reviews

Dear Mikhail,
You have given very convincing examples of the fact that individual Germans, regardless of the ideology dominant among the bulk of their people, are capable of demonstrating humanity. The war could not completely turn them into beasts. There were also Germans who were active anti-fascists and died in the dungeons of the Gestapo.
But for a historically accurate reproduction of a typical representative of Germany in the 30s and 40s of the last century, you cannot rely on your examples. Mikhail Volontir embodied the image of the gypsy Budulai on the screen. Our great respect to a wonderful representative gypsy people. But if we try to mold the type of an ordinary gypsy based on Budulai, we will end up with a fake. Your example regarding Russian Germans is out of place here. Russian Germans grew up in our environment and they are much more Russian than Germans.
You say that not all Germans are fascists. Nobody argues. But to your dozens of examples, other eyewitnesses will give hundreds and thousands of other examples. And the objective image of the German who fought with us will be completely different and historically more accurate. Against our 27 million losses, your examples pale.

Vyacheslav, are you not reading the texts carefully? It was never in my head to whitewash the Germans who ruined my country. Never!!!

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