Chapter 20 2.Everyone in Kyiv is a soldier

It was not until late at night that I temporarily escaped from a series of most urgent affairs and started to prepare for the Kyiv fortification area.I closed the door tightly and spread out the picture.Due to fatigue, my mind was buzzing.I don't know how I fell asleep as soon as I put my face on the map.When I woke up, it was already light outside the window.I hurriedly washed my face and got in the car. We joined the slow-moving stream of people.Artillery tractors with trailers, cars, and horse-drawn carriages clogged the road.The dusty infantry walked wearily on both sides of the road.From time to time, a single fascist plane appeared on the horizon, passing over the heads of the vehicles and horses.The explosion of bombs and the roar of bullets forced people to run in all directions.But after a while, people, cars, and carriages poured onto the road in an endless stream, continuing their difficult journey tenaciously.Now, this is the case on all roads leading to Kyiv.Our troops carry out the orders of their chiefs and travel day and night.

I am reminded of the situation when I went to the 5th Army not long ago.In search of the headquarters, we turned onto a country dirt road.A sudden July rainstorm at night made the field roads slushy.We brush past the column of troops.The soldiers struggled to pull their legs out of the slime, and concentrated on pulling and pushing artillery, carriages, and cars.It seems that if you tell them to stop, they will fall to the ground and never get up again: how tired they are!Many people were injured.The bandages of the wounded were striking—white and washed, gray with dust and sweat, and brown with blood.

When we passed the column and approached the head of the column, the slow marching rhythm was suddenly disrupted.It turned out that a horse pulling ammunition was exhausted, and the soldiers wanted to drag it away from the road.But everyone was so tired that there wasn't even the fuss and tumult that usually accompanies such a situation.Soldiers surrounded the horseless carriage and pulled it through the difficult mud.While I was stranded in the column, I drove up to a thin lieutenant who was giving instructions in a barely audible hoarse voice. I asked him which unit he was in and where he was going.

He turned his head slowly.The childish face was stern and gloomy. "Who are you? Why are you interested in our army?" He glanced suspiciously at me with red eyes. I revealed my identity.The lieutenant asked for his papers.When he believed that I was indeed who I said I was, he reported that this is a regiment of the 193rd Infantry Division, which is changing its deployment to occupy an area that is convenient for a new counterattack (God knows how many times this is a new attack) backlash). While we were talking, the soldiers surrounded me when they heard that I was from Kyiv.I took a box of "Kazbek" cigarettes from the adjutant and distributed them to the soldiers.The cigarette case was soon empty.A black-haired gentleman with a bandage around his neck standing next to me took a deep breath comfortably.

"Great! It's not Morshansk tobacco, but it's smoke. We -------- ① Dashi is the rank of Soviet sergeant, higher than sergeant.The old translation is "Warrant Officer".If it is a position, it should be translated as "Secretary Chief". ——Translator's Note. ② A city in Tambov State, rich in mahe tobacco. ——Translator's Note. I haven't smoked for a long time.Four or five days to fight one after another.The fascists are as fierce as a group of demons, and they are simply rushing forward.We beat them off here, and they attacked there.In the past three days and nights, we have hardly closed our eyes.Between impacts, he curled up and took a nap, but got up again after a while. "

I asked about his injuries. "A bullet grazed the neck. Our assistant medic - who was still alive at the time - looked at the wound carefully, poured some iodine into it, and said I'd live. One bad thing: I couldn't look around You can only look forward. In this way, when I attack, I can charge without looking back." His last words made everyone happy.The soldiers surrounded us even tighter.It can be seen that this experienced master is quite respected by everyone. I asked him why he didn't go to the health camp.The master did not answer right away.He wanted to take another deep breath, but there was nothing left of the cigarette but the butt.He threw it into the mud and stomped on it out of habit.

"Listen to me, Comrade Colonel, sometimes it's hard, I want to drop everything and go to the ambulance. But when I think of the fascists coming to Kyiv, their dirty claws are reaching for the arsenal where I worked before enlisting, their boots It is possible to set foot on the Kreshchak Street, can you believe that the wound will not hurt, and the fatigue will be forgotten. Am I the only one like that! You see," the master did not turn his head, pointing around, "every three One of them was wounded, but no one wanted to go to the rear. Yesterday our division commander made it very clear: there were only women and children left in Kyiv, and there were not many troops in front of the city. In the end, we were all counting on us. We will Do your best to hold on."

A very young soldier standing nearby suddenly spoke (he was a little shy because he had attracted everyone's attention): "During the last few battles we have noticed that we have lost many comrades. A week ago our battalion had more than five hundred people. Now it has lost half. There are only a few commanders left alive. Look," the soldier pointed at me A familiar thin lieutenant—he was directing the artillery to be pulled out of the mud not far away, "He was a platoon leader before the battle, and now he is a battalion commander." ... On this morning after day, when I struggled to overtake the column to Kyiv, I was reminded of the scene I saw at the front.I found to my distress that the armies had not much artillery and had to use Molotov cocktails more and more often against tanks.How brave a person must be, how much sincere love for the motherland, can he pounce on these steel demons with a Molotov cocktail in hand? !Only in the flames of revolution, in the desperate struggle against the enemies of the revolution, in the heroic cause of socialist construction, can there be such a miraculous spirit that cannot be broken by the full power of the fascist military machine today.

Of course, just like steelmaking produces slag, there is a price to be paid when cultivating one's character.We don't just have people with an exotic temperament like the seasoned maestro I mentioned above.We also have dross.These drosses are continually exposed in the test of fire.But the storm of war will blow these wastes away without a trace. We drove into the city of Kyiv.Although it was early in the morning and was often attacked by aviation, there were many people in the street.Barricades and anti-tank barriers were erected at all intersections.Men, women, and boys are at work.

We parked by a barricade.A dignified old man with curly, soapy hair and a smoky mustache was pointing here.We got to know each other.It turned out that he was a worker cadre in Lenin's foundry.The old man said happily that he had built many barricades on the streets of Kyiv.This was still the case in the days of Petliura and Hetman.Because of his experience, he was now entrusted with leading the operation, and was assisted by a junior engineer officer who was very young but familiar with the business. -------- ①The former refers to the period from 1918 to 1920 when the Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists headed by Petliura carried out anti-Soviet regime activities; the latter refers to the period from April to December 1918 when the Ukrainian landlord bourgeois regime was supported by German armed intervention. ——Translator's Note.

The old worker stroked his bearded cheeks from time to time, saying that experienced workers now stay in the workshop for several days and nights, even eating by the machine tool.Everyone is doing everything they can for the front line.Workers at Lenin's forge have learned to repair machine guns, artillery and other weapons.And boys, women, old pensioners—everyone who would not make a difference when transferred from the factory—all came to build the fortifications. Old men and women working nearby surrounded me and asked a series of questions.Everyone is very concerned about the situation on the front line.I had to tell them that the enemy was very close.Exhausted by continuous fighting, our troops are now fighting near Korosten, counterattacking the enemy's flanks and rear.We are doing everything in our power to drive the Hitlerites out of Berdichev.The situation is difficult.But Kyiv's fortified area garrison was able to keep enemy tanks at a distance of twenty kilometers from the city. After listening to my introduction, the old worker said: “If the fascists came, we would all go to the barricades. We would fight to the last man, so that the enemy would not trample on the roads of our native Kyiv.” After we bid farewell to those who built the barricades, we arrived at the city defense headquarters.Members of the headquarters - Secretary of the Kyiv Oblast Party Committee M. E. Mishin, Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee T. B. Shamrilo and C. O. Moskarets, Chairman of the State Executive Committee T. F. Kostyuk and A. Q. Shevtsov, chairman of the municipal executive committee, was talking to some militia and self-defense captains. Here, the warm atmosphere that envelopes the whole city can be felt particularly strongly.The corridors of the headquarters were full of people.Workers, clerks, housewives, students demanded that they be sent to defend Kyiv. Hundreds of thousands of working people in the Ukrainian capital rose to support the army.It is difficult for the district party committees and district military service committees to review the continuous stream of applications in a timely manner.The people insisted that they be given arms and put into battle. The Communists who were denied entry to the Red Army because of old age complained.The city party committee took all measures so that the people of Kyiv - whether Communist or non-Party - could properly develop their patriotic zeal. In those days the newspapers were filled with appeals from recipients of the Soviets, eager to devote all their strength, and if need be, their lives, to the struggle against the hated aggressor. The old Bolshevik E. Petrenko wrote to the city newspaper in his own name and in the name of his son, a third-year student of Kyiv's Second Medical Academy: "We stand up with arms in our hands to defend the socialist motherland and fight until the fascist villains are completely wiped out. , as our civic duty. We ask to be allowed to join the Red Army voluntarily." Worker C. T. Strelecki wrote in his application: "...Although I am over the draft age, I still want to ask to be allowed to join the heroic Red Army to fight against the fascists." B. Grimlier, a member of the Communist Youth League, begged the district military service commissioner: "...If you can't send me to the front line, you can even send me to a place closer to the front line." Ivan Gerasimovich Sarbeyev, a veteran worker and participant in the Civil War: "I cannot sit at home at such a time!" Many people, as if afraid of rejection, begin their applications by saying, "I consider myself an applicant." Suburban farmers expressed the same patriotic fervor.For example, members of the collective farm in the village of Zhulyany, not far from Kyiv, from young boys to old men, went to the village Soviet to demand that they be sent to the front immediately.An elderly farmer, T. E. Rudnitsky, brought his son, Alexander, and said: "I bless my son for his participation in the holy war against the fascist beast. I am an old man, but if need be, I will pick up My driving skills will send the soldiers to fight." The upsurge of patriotism had a particularly strong response among the youth.In just one day, more than 3,000 applications for going to the front line were received.The senior students of Kyiv Secondary School No. 118 announced that they were conscripts.A telegram from Nina Ostrovskaya, a schoolgirl in the Pusya-Votitsa dacha district, in which she assured her girlfriends that they would "take care of their dearest Nurturing wounded warriors." The Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party is very good at guiding the mass patriotic enthusiasm of the Ukrainian population, first of all the people of Kyiv.This gave the people's resistance movement firm purpose and enormous strength. The Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party (B) saw many disasters inflicted by enemy saboteurs, so in the first days of the war it called upon the population to form battalions of fighters to fight against the saboteurs.Members of the Communist Party and the Komsomol in Kyiv immediately responded to the call. -------- ①Also translated as "anti-traitor battalion", it is a kind of militia organization used to deal with enemy reconnaissance and sabotage teams and airborne troops. Each battalion has one or two hundred people, and the maximum number can reach five hundred. ——Translator's Note. Ilya Mysenko, a young patriot, sent the first letter: "I ask the district committee of the Komsomol to allow me to volunteer in a battalion fighting against enemy paratroopers." Before July 8, thirteen destroyer battalions had been formed, and a total of more than 3,500 people from Kyiv were recruited to participate, most of whom were members of the Communist Party and the Communist Youth League. The Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic and the People's Commissars reported to the Ukrainian people on July 7, which played a huge role in mobilizing the Ukrainian people to fight against fascism. The book to the people said: "The time has come for everyone to resolutely fulfill their sacred obligations to the motherland and the people at the cost of their lives. No matter where the enemy appears, it will kill itself. Let every farmhouse, every house , every city, every village came to exterminate the Hitler brigands." In those hot days of July, various enterprises and agencies in Kyiv held massive gatherings, where people discussed excitedly and enthusiastically how to better answer the letter to the people with practical actions.Ukrainian party and government leaders spoke at a number of mass rallies. The working people unanimously stated: "We will do everything to crush the hateful aggressor." At a rally, E. C. Lukashevich, a locomotive factory worker, expressed the sentiments of his comrades: "We are ready at any time to put down the chisel and hammer, take up the rifle, sit in the tank, stand by the artillery .” This is not empty talk.Kyiv added 200,000 commanders and fighters to the Red Army in a short period of time.How many people volunteered to join the militia, joined the guerrillas! The newspapers published letters written by Kyiv workers who remained in the labor force: "Fascist bandits have invaded our homeland. The insidious enemy is met with an organized counterattack by the heroic people and their heroic Red Army. The working people of the capital of Soviet Ukraine are more united and self-sacrificing in this hour of crisis A role model. Some workers have gone to the front line from various enterprises in our city. Their wives and daughters have taken their posts. They have strengthened the strength of the dear motherland with their tenacious labor. To you, comrades metallurgists, miners, machine builders, oil workers, railroad workers and light industry workers, we propose the following initiative: to increase the achievements of production, to increase the productivity of labor, and to be worthy of our glory for defending the freedom, civilization and progress of mankind all over the world the Red Army to destroy fascism. " The Kyiv workers have set a good example for all the working people of Ukraine with their heroic labor.Workers and engineers in Lenin's foundry, "Bolshevik" and other factories began to learn to produce and repair certain technical weapons and equipment.Locomotive repairmen began building armored trains that would later play an important role in the defense of cities. The first train was built on July 7, with several cannons and more than forty machine guns mounted on it.It is worth noting the fact that only 120 volunteers were needed for the armored train crew, but 10,000 workers were required to be hired.A. C. Tikhod, Deputy Director of the Political Department of the Southwestern Railway, became the captain of the first armored train in Kyiv. Soon, the workers of the Darnitsky Vehicle Repair Plant also sent their first armored train to the battle. Kyiv workers formed the backbone of the militia.Before July 8, a total of 19 militia teams had been formed in the city, with a total of 29,000 members, of which 22,000 were members of the Communist Party and the Communist Youth League.In addition, Kyiv youth formed a special militia regiment of the Komsomol. Militia units and detachments were usually headed by members of the Communist Party.The militias at the Dzerzhinsky and Karl Marx factories were headed by the factory directors M. B. Avasavyan and H. H. Slobotskoy, respectively.This is the case for almost all businesses. At the same time as the formation of the militia, work was also carried out to organize guerrilla movements and underground party activities in the rear of the fascist army. From the first weeks of occupation, the Hitlerites acutely felt the full force of the hatred of the Ukrainian population.Fascist invaders are not greeted with bread and salt.The partisans told us that when German tanks rolled into a village in Zhitomirshina, an old man ran to meet the tanks and threw a grenade at the leading tank, shouting "Destroy the fascists!"Of course he knew that he must sacrifice.But the hatred of the enemy is stronger than the fear of death. The attitude of the population to the occupiers was most eloquently demonstrated by the Hitlerites themselves.A private named Miller wrote in his diary at the end of June: "We also have to fight the guerrillas in the rear. We have no peace all day. We have to be careful with every step. There are guerrillas everywhere. And this is just the beginning! The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (Bolsheviks) adopted a decision on the organization of partisans in enemy-occupied areas and the preparation of underground activities of party groups.This makes the guerrilla movement bigger. The guerrillas established by the Kyiv party organization brought many disasters to the enemy.Let's take only the first partisan detachment in Kyiv as an example.It was titled "Give me victory or give me death".Its core is the workers of the arsenal, including the old workers of the factory Velichko, Kharchenko, Talyanov, Gonchar and the civil war participants Palhomenko and other comrades.The captain is C. E. Oschechkin, a participant in the civil war and a member of the party who joined the party in 1917. The political commissar is B. E. Karnauch, secretary of the Uman District Party Committee. The partisans killed 350 Hitlerites in their first battle on August 7.About 500 more Fascists were killed in skirmishes with the occupiers in the Auster region.The guerrillas gave great support to my breakout army.During the defense of Kyiv, it carried out more than 30 attacks on Hitlerites, wiped out hundreds of enemy soldiers, ten tanks and armored vehicles, more than fifty cars, destroyed ten bridges, seized 200 machine guns, two One hundred and fifty submachine guns and four thousand rifles. The remaining twelve guerrilla groups formed by the Kyiv party organization are also famous for their combat performance. In addition to the guerrillas, two guerrilla regiments were also formed, which were of great help to our army. Soldiers of the Southwest Front can feel the support of the citizens of the glorious heroic city at any time.Our army has a strong and reliable rear.This is a clear manifestation of the close unity between the military and the people. ... The conversation with the leader of the city defense command left a lot of fading impressions on me.I am happy that our soldiers have such a strong backing behind them.I briefed my comrades on the situation at the front and conveyed to them the instructions of the military council to prepare for the defense of the city.We don't have time for long talks - because there are many urgent things waiting for everyone to do.