Chapter 10 Chapter 6 That Spring-1

In June 1945, every morning and every evening, from somewhere not far away—from Forest Street or Novoslobod Street, a stream of copper pipes was sent to the window of Butyrka Prison The sound of musical instruments.It was all marches, marches played over and over again. We stood by the prison window which was open but could not climb out, and listened behind the dark green glass and steel cage opening.Are troops marching in formation?Or are workers willing to devote their work breaks to pace drills? --we do not know.But we have also heard rumors that preparations are being made for the Victory Parade, which is scheduled to take place on Red Square on June 22, the fourth anniversary of the war.

The stones used as foundations only groan and bear beneath, but when the building is finished they have no part to play.But those who were pointlessly abandoned, who were destined to bear the first blows of this war with their foreheads and ribs, thereby preventing others from winning, were denied even the claim to be a cornerstone. "What does the sound of joy mean to a betrayer?"  … The spring of 1945 in our prisons was mainly that of Russian prisoners.Like fresh fish in the ocean, they gathered into a large and dense school of gray fish and swam through various prisons in the Soviet Union.The presence of Yuri Yevtukhovich was my first encounter with this school of fish.But now I have been connected into a large piece by them, as if there is a fixed direction of movement, surrounded from all directions.

It wasn't just our prisoners who passed through those cells - there was a stream of everyone who had been to Europe at the time: there were exiles from the Civil War; there were "Oriental Soldiers" in the New German Army; The officers of the Red Army who were too outrageous, Stalin worried that after their expedition to Europe, they would have the idea of ​​introducing freedom in Europe, which would be like what their predecessors had done 120 years ago.But most of all my contemporaries, not even my contemporaries but contemporaries of the October Revolution, who were born at the same time as the October Revolution, were not involved in 1937, and attended the twentieth anniversary in droves Parade, their age at the start of the war made them the backbone of an army that was battered to pieces within weeks.

Therefore, the weary spring spent in prison with the sound of the victory march became the spring of punishment for our generation. It was we who sang in our cradles: "All power to the Soviets!" It was we who held the handles of the Young Pioneers brass horns with the little hands of tanned children and heard the cry "Get ready!" The answer to "Always ready!" was that we smuggled weapons into Buchenwald and joined the Communist Party there.The only reason we're black now is because we finally survived. (The reason why prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp were sent to our labor camps is: how can you survive in a death camp? There must be something wrong!)

When we were still dividing East Prussia, I saw the dejected procession of returning prisoners-the only people who looked sad amidst the joy around them-and I was shocked by their melancholy at that time, Although I still don't understand the reason for it.I jumped out of the car and approached these automatic columns (Why are they lined up? Why are they lined up? You must know that no one forced them to do this. When the prisoners of war from all over the world went back, they all dispersed! And we The captives wanted to appear more docile when they returned home...).There I still wear the captain's epaulettes.They were wearing epaulets and were on the march again, and the reason for their glumness was unclear.However, fate also made me turn around and follow these captives.I have traveled with them from the counterintelligence agencies of the Army Group to the counterintelligence agencies of the Front Army. In the counterintelligence agencies of the Front Army, I heard some of their first stories. I get it, and now, under the dome of the reddish-brown Butirka Castle, I feel that the experience of millions of Russian prisoners of war has stuck to me like a pin to a cockroach.My own experience of being imprisoned seems trivial to me.I no longer grieve over the torn epaulettes.I didn't fall where some of my peers did, it was just by chance.I understood that it was my duty to put my shoulders on a corner of their shared burden and bear it to my last breath, until I was crushed.Now I have the feeling that I was taken prisoner with these boys at the Solovyov ferry, in the Kharkov siege, on the Kerch quarry; Human pride is brought into the barbed wire of the concentration camp; waiting in line for hours in the freezing cold for a spoonful of kawi (a substitute for coffee), lying on the ground and becoming a zombie before reaching the cauldron; In Officers' Concentration Camp No. 68 (Suwaki), in order not to spend the winter in the open field, bell-shaped pits (with the mouth facing up) were dug with fingers and lunch box lids; Crawling to nibble on my flesh not yet cold from the elbow; as the days passed in intense hunger, in the typhoid hut, by the barbed wire of the neighboring British prisoner-of-war camp-- A clear thought seeped into my dying brain: Soviet Russia abandoned its dying sons. "Proud Sons and Daughters of Russia", when they hold tanks with their bodies, when they can still charge, Russia needs them.But will they be responsible for supporting them after they become captives?excess population.And a superfluous witness to a shameful failure.

Sometimes we want to tell a lie, but language won't allow us to.These people were declared traitors, but the language was clearly mistaken - the judges, the prosecutors, the investigators all got it wrong.The condemned, the whole people, all the newspapers repeated and fixed this error, while at the same time involuntarily telling the truth: everyone wanted to declare them traitors to the fatherland, but everyone said that even in the trial materials Both are written as "betrayers of the motherland". This is what you said!These are not the people who betrayed her, but the ones who were betrayed by her

people.It was not these wretches who betrayed their fatherland, but the prudent fatherland who betrayed them, and treacherously three times. The first time she betrayed them on the field of incompetence - when the government, favored by the motherland, did everything it could to lose the war: demolished the fortifications first, it put the air force on the verge of destruction position, it dismantles tanks and artillery, removes wise generals and prohibits the army from resisting.Prisoners of war - those who took the blow with their bodies and held back the Wehrmacht.The motherland let them die in the prisoner-of-war camps and abandoned them. This is the second time they have betrayed them heartlessly.

And now, for the third time, she tricked them back with maternal love ("The Fatherland forgives! The Motherland calls!"), and at the border crossed her neck with a noose, thus betraying her conscience again they are strict In the 1,100 years since the founding of Russia, it seems that I have done and seen so many despicable and dirty things! --but has there ever been a dirty trick like this done to millions: betraying one's fighters and declaring them traitors? ! How easily we have swiped them off our books: treason? --shameful! --Tick it off!Yes!Our father wrote them off even before us: he threw the best of the Moscow intelligentsia armed with the only-son rifle made in 1866 (and one for five) into the ground meat of Vyazma machine. (Which Leo Tolstoy can show us this Borodino scene?) And the great strategist moved clumsily across the map with his fat short fingers, and in December 1941, the light One hundred and twenty thousand of our lads—nearly the entire Russian army that went to Borodino—were shipped across the Kerch Strait to give to the Germans without a fight, in order to make a touching New Year's news.

For some reason, it was not he who became the traitor, but they. (How easily we are influenced by preconceived names, how easily we agree to count these loyal people as traitors! In the spring of that year, an old man named Lebedev was imprisoned in a cell in the city of Tilka, Metallurgist, with the title of professor, but looks like a strong craftsman from the Demidov factory in the last century or even the last century. Broad shoulders, broad forehead, and a big Pugachev-style beard, and That big hand can hold a small steel ladle that weighs four pounds. In the cell, he wore faded gray work clothes that were put directly on top of his underwear. He was not particular about cleanliness. When he was not sitting down to read, his face Without his customary brilliance of intellectual power, he might have been mistaken for a prison boy. People crowded around him, and he seldom talked about metallurgy, explaining with his timpani-like bass that Stalin was The same vicious dog as Ivan the Terrible: "Shoot desperately! Stretch!" Said that Gorky is a worthless and nonsense man, the defender of the executioner. I admire this Lebedev: in this world with wisdom I seemed to see the entire Russian people incarnate in the mind of the peasant and in the sturdy body of the hands and feet of the peasant. He had thought so much!--I learned from him to understand the world! And suddenly he waved his big hand and uttered a thunderous voice: Article 58, Section 1, Section 1-B--They are all traitors to the motherland, and they cannot be forgiven. But the surrounding boards are full of "Section 1, Section 1-B". Alas, how wronged the boys are! The old man, representing the peasantry and working Russia, firmly believes what he solemnly declares—and the boys find it difficult and ashamed to defend themselves against accusations of this kind. The onus of defending them and judging with the old man rests on me and the two On a "Article 10" little fellow. But what a state of indiscreet national lies has confuses people's minds! Even the most capable among us can only take in so much of it that he has tasted it himself. truth.

Regarding this situation, Witkowski has a more general account (about the 1930s): It is strange that the assassin who was framed knows that he is not an assassin, but declares that the entire army and priests are correct of.The soldiers knew in their hearts that they were not serving foreign spies or sabotaging the Red Army, but they were willing to believe that the engineers were assassins and that the priests should be eliminated.A Soviet man in a car thought about it this way: I am innocent, but any method is suitable for them, for these enemies.Neither the lessons of the investigation nor the lessons of the prison can make them sober. Even after they are sentenced, they still maintain the superstitions they have cultivated outside: they believe that there are plots, poisoning, assassinations, and espionage everywhere.

How many wars has Russia fought (it would have been better to have fewer...), -- have we heard of many traitors in all these wars?Was mutiny discovered to be something deeply rooted in the psyche of the Russian soldier?Now, in the most just war under the most just system in the world, suddenly there are millions of traitors among ordinary people.How to understand this?How to explain it? With us in our fight against Hitler is a capitalist America where Marx so eloquently described the poverty and misery of the working class.Why did they have only one traitor in this war-the businessman "Lord Howe"?And how many millions do we have here? I feel afraid to even open my mouth when I say this. Maybe the problem lies in the national system after all? We have an old proverb in defense of captives: "The captured one hears, but the dead never speaks." In the time of Emperor Alexei Mikhailovich, as a reward for enduring captivity, it was awarded to nobles title!In all subsequent wars, it has always been a task of society to exchange captives, comfort them, and warm them.Every escape from the enemy was celebrated as the greatest act of heroism.Throughout the First World War, collections for the relief of our prisoners continued in Russia, our nursemaids were admitted into Germany to tend our prisoners, and every issue reminded readers that their fellow citizens were suffering suffered in the prison camps.All the Western nations did the same in this war; parcels, letters, funding of every kind flowed unimpeded through neutral countries.Western prisoners of war did not humbly beg for food from the German pot, they talked to the German guards with contempt.Western governments treat their captured soldiers according to their military age, promotions and even salaries as usual. Only soldiers serving in the unique Red Army in the world are not allowed to be captured - that's what it says in the regulations (the German soldiers shouted from their trenches: "Ivan, there are no prisoners!"), yes, who can imagine What is the whole meaning of this article? !There is war, there is death, but there are no prisoners! --What a new invention!This is equivalent to saying, you go to die, but we want to live.But even if you lose your leg, if you come back alive from the prison camp on crutches (Ivanov of Leningrad, machine gun platoon leader in the Finnish War, and later imprisoned in the Usterweim labor camp) -- Then we will judge you. Only our soldiers, abandoned by the motherland and most worthless in the eyes of enemies and allies, will eat the pig food distributed in the backyard of the Third Reich.Only he, the door to go home was tightly closed, although the young heart tried hard not to believe that there was such a thing as Article 58, 1, 1 and 2, and the punishment given according to this article during wartime was no less severe than execution by shooting!If a soldier does not want to die by German bullets, he should die by Soviet bullets after he comes out of the camp because of this!Some people die at the hands of others, but we should die at the hands of our own. (Then again, it would be naive to say this: because of this. The governments of the ages are by no means moralists. They don't lock up and kill people because of anything they do. They lock up and kill people so that they don't let them do something. put all these Prisoners are locked up, of course, unfairly because they betrayed the Fatherland, because all fools know that only Vlasovites can be tried for betraying the Motherland.All these people were locked up so that they would not recall Europe among their fellow villagers.If you don't see it, you won't be delusional...) So what kind of path lay ahead for the Russian prisoners of war?There's only one lawful path: to lie down and have someone trample on you.Every blade of grass has to use its fragile stem to find its way out in order to survive.And you lie down and let people trample on you.It's a bit late -- but since you failed to die on the battlefield, let's die now, and we won't be judged in the future. Warriors sleep forever.have something to say Never to be blamed again.Every other path your despondent mind can conceive -- will bring you into conflict with the law. Escape back to the motherland - through the blockade of concentration camps, across half of Germany, then through Poland or the Balkans.This move will bring you to Shimiershi and to the dock: No one else can escape, how did you escape?something wrong!Tell me, Viper, what mission did you bring (Mikhail Burnatsev, Pavel Bondarenko and many others). There is a certain opinion in our commentaries that Sholokhov, in his monumental work "A Man's Experience", uttered "painful truths" about "this aspect of our lives", "uncovering the "one question.We have to talk about opinions.This is a weak short story on the whole, the description of the war is pale and unconvincing, (it seems that the author does not understand the latest war), the description of the Germans is ridiculously standardized and vulgar ( Only the hero's wife succeeds, but she is purely Dostoevsky's Christian woman), -- in this novel about the fate of a prisoner of war the real problem of captivity is glossed over or distorted : 1.A most unreproachable situation of captivity was chosen - unconsciousness - making it "justifiable" and sidestepping the full poignancy of the question. (If, as is the case with most people, taken captive in a conscious state--what then?) 2.It is not stated that the main problem of the captives is that the motherland has abandoned, rejected, cursed us (about which Sholokhov did not say a word), and that is why there is no way out - it is said that there are people from among our people there. Traitors (if that is the main thing, please get to the bottom of it, and explain, where did these traitors come from, after a quarter of a century of this popularly supported revolution?). 3.Far-fetched fictional plots of escape from prisoner-of-war camps in the style of detective fantasy novels, so as not to occur a set of acceptance procedures that returning prisoners must go through: death and death--screening and review camps.Not only did Sokolov not be locked up in barbed wire in accordance with the regulations, but--what a joke--he got a month's leave from the colonel! (That is, to be free to carry out the tasks of the fascist detective agency? Then the colonel would have gone there in chains too!) Fleeing to the guerrillas of Western countries and defecting to the troops of the resistance movement can only slightly delay the time of being severely punished by the military court, and it will also make you a more dangerous person: in the days of living freely with Europeans, You may be infected with very harmful spirits, and if you have the audacity to escape from prison and continue to fight, you are a man of courage, and you will be a doubly dangerous man in your country. Survive in a concentration camp by betraying your fellow countrymen and comrades?Be a battalion policeman, administrator, German and Reaper's assistant?Stalin's laws would not have punished this any harsher than joining resistance troops. (You can guess why: such people are less dangerous2) But unexplainable laws deep within us forbid all of us, except the scum, to take this path. Deducting these four incompetent or unacceptable possibilities leaves a fifth: waiting to be recruited, waiting to be called somewhere. Sometimes, by luck, representatives of agricultural districts come to recruit hired labor for the peasants of the district; merchant houses send for engineers and laborers for themselves.According to Stalin's highest instructions, you should also deny that you are an engineer on this occasion and conceal that you are a skilled worker.If you're a designer or an electrician, you can only keep your patriotism pure by staying in a prisoner-of-war camp digging, suffering, and scavenging for food in dirty puddles.That's how you can hope to one day hold your head up proudly and receive ten years in prison plus five years in a cage for pure betrayal of your country.Now you have done work for the enemy, let alone professional work.Therefore, the crime of betraying the motherland has been aggravated, and you have to bow your head to receive a ten-year sentence plus five years of Dai Longkou. This is like a hippopotamus doing the delicate work of carving jewelry. Stalin has this characteristic! Sometimes a recruiter of an entirely different kind came - a Russian, usually a political instructor of the Red Army not so long ago, something that wasn't done by the White Guards.Recruiters held meetings in POW camps, cursing the Soviet regime and calling for enrollment in spy schools or in the Vlasov unit. Whoever has not starved like our prisoners of war, who has not chewed bats that flew into concentration camps, boiled and eaten old shoe soles, does not necessarily understand the irresistible material force of every call, every argument, If behind him, outside the gates of the prisoner-of-war camp, the marching huts were smoking, everyone who agreed would be able to fill their stomachs with porridge at once - even once!Even this once in a lifetime! But if, besides the steaming porridge, there is the phantom of freedom and real life in the call of the recruiter--wherever he calls!Go to Vlasov's camp.To Krasnov's Cossack regiment.Go to the labor camps - build the future Atlantic barrier out of concrete.To the fjords of Norway.To the desert of Lebanon.To be hiws - Hilfswillige - Wehrmacht Volunteer Corps (twelve hiws in each German company).Finally, you can become a false policeman in the countryside and hunt down partisans (many of whom will also be rejected by their motherland).Wherever he was summoned, wherever he went--as long as he didn't lay down here like a forgotten beast. We have brought a man to the point of chewing bats, and we ourselves have revoked him not only from any obligation to his fatherland, but to humanity as well! The boys who were recruited from the prisoner-of-war camps to the short-term espionage training courses did not draw extreme conclusions from their own experience of being abandoned, but also acted very patriotically.They thought it was the most cost-effective way to escape the camp.Almost all of them imagined that if the Germans sent them to the Soviet side - they would immediately surrender to the authorities, hand over their equipment and instructions, and join the commanders of the good court to laugh at the stupid Germans for a while. After a while, he put on the uniform of the Red Army and returned to the fighting team in good spirits.Let's talk about it, who can expect a different situation according to human nature?How could it be otherwise?These were simple fellows, I had seen many,--with simple, round faces, and with a flattering Vyatka or Vladimir accent.They go to the spy school with high spirits, have only the education level of the fourth and fifth grades of the country schools, and have no skills in using the compass or the map. In this way, it seems that the way out they envisioned for themselves is the only correct one.It seemed that recruiting these men was an utterly wasteful and foolish move on the part of the German command.actually not!It was Hitler who acted in concert with his big country brothers.Spymania is one of the basic characteristics of Stalin's loss of reason.In Stalin's view, his country was populated by spies.All Chinese living in the Soviet Far East were given Article 58 6 of the Espionage Clause, sent to labor camps in the north and exterminated there.The Chinese who participated in the civil war met the same fate if they did not escape in time.Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans were all suspected of being spies and deported to Kazakhstan.All the USSR who traveled abroad, slowed down next to the "Intertourist" hotel, were photographed with foreigners' faces, or photographed their own city buildings ("Golden Gate" in Vladimir) People -- all accused of being spies.Staring too long at railway lines, at road bridges, at factory chimneys - also accused of espionage.All the numerous foreign communists stranded in the Soviet Union, all members of the Comintern, large and small, regardless of their individual circumstances, were first and foremost accused of espionage.The Latvian infantry, the most reliable force in the early years of the revolution, was also accused of espionage when they were all put in prison in 1937!Stalin seemed to have reversed and amplified a famous saying of the coquettish Ekaterina: It is better to kill nine hundred and ninety-nine by mistake than to let a real spy go.So how can one trust the Russian soldiers who have actually been in the hands of the German spy agency? !So how relieved were the executioners of the Ministry of State Security when thousands of soldiers poured in from Europe and made no secret that they were voluntary spies!How amazingly the prophecies of the wisest men have been confirmed!Come on, come on, silly boys, the terms and rewards have already been prepared for you! Here is a good place to ask the question: After all, there are prisoners of war who did not respond to any recruitment; did not do professional work for the Germans; did not serve as battalion police; Didn't die, although that's almost impossible.For example, like electrical engineers Nikolai Andreyevich Semyonov and Fedor Fedorovich Karpov, they made lighters from metal scraps and added food to them.Didn't the motherland forgive them for being prisoners? No, no forgiveness!I knew Semyonov and Karpov from Butyrka, when they both had their legal ... how much?Astute readers already know: ten years plus five years of wearing a cage.They were excellent engineers, but rejected the Germans' advice to let them do professional work!Second Lieutenant Semyonov went to the front voluntarily in 1941.In 1942 he had no pistol, only an empty holster (the investigators did not understand why he did not commit suicide with the holster).He escaped from prison camps three times.After he was liberated from the concentration camp in 1945, he sat in our tank (tank airdrop unit) as a punished person - took Berlin, so he got the Order of the Red Star - and was finally given to prison only after that. Go to jail and get a sentence.Behold, this is the mirror of our Nemesis. Few of the POWs crossed the Soviet border as free men, and if they slipped through in the haste, they were caught later, even in 1946-147.Some were arrested at assembly points in Germany, while others did not appear to have been arrested, but were loaded onto trucks from the border and transported under escort to one of the numerous screening camps (screening camps) scattered throughout the country. battalion) to one of them.These trial camps were no different from labor camps, except that the people placed in them hadn't received their sentence yet and had to get it in the camps.All these screening camps had jobs, they were attached to factories, they were attached to mines, they were attached to construction sites, so that the former prisoners of war could put in a ten-hour working day from the first day, and at the same time, like they used to Seeing Germany through barbed wire, today is looking at their lost and regained motherland through barbed wire.In the spare time—dusk and night—the interrogated persons were interrogated. For this reason, the interrogation camp was equipped with several times more operatives and investigators than usual.The investigation begins as usual with the conclusion that you are definitely guilty.You have to be inside the barbed wire trying to prove your innocence.For this you can only take witnesses, that is, other prisoners of war, and these people may not be in your interrogation camp at all, but in distant provinces, so the Kemerovo operatives asked Soli Kam's The operatives send the questions, the people there question the witnesses and send back their answers and new questions, and you are questioned again as a witness.It is true that it may take a year, two years to find out one's fate - but the country is not lost here: because you are mining coal every day.If a witness made a bad statement about you or the witness is dead,--blame yourself, your treason case was settled immediately, and the circuit court stamped your ten-year treason at that time .If you churn anyway, all sources agree that you really don't seem to have done anything to the Germans, - and the main thing is that you haven't seen the Americans and the British (if not by us but by them liberated from the prison camps come out, that's a greatly aggravated scenario) - then the operatives decide how much isolation you should be subject to.A change of place of residence is required for certain persons (which necessarily makes a person less accessible to those around him, and makes him vulnerable to shocks).To others it was decently suggested to work as a "vohra", that is, as a paramilitary guard in the battalion: he seemed to remain a free man, but lost any personal liberty, and went to live in the backcountry.The third category of people shook hands and bid farewell. Although this kind of person should have been shot because he was simply a prisoner, he was released home humanely.However, this kind of person is too happy!His case file was ahead of him, and he had already reached his hometown through the secret channel of the security department.This kind of people will never be one of our own anyway, so during the first large-scale arrest, such as in 1948-49, they would be imprisoned with anti-Soviet propaganda or other appropriate provisions. I agree with such people People have also been in prison together. "Oh, if only I had known! . . . "—this was one of the main songs sung in the cell that spring.If only I knew I would be greeted like this!cheat me like this!There will be such an encounter! --Will I ever go back to my motherland?Never! !Will go to Switzerland, to France!Go overseas!Go out to the ocean!To the ends of the earth! However, captives often did so even when they knew about it.Vasily Aleksandrov went to Finland after being captured.An old Petersburg businessman found him, asked his first name and father's name, and said: "I owe your father a large sum of money since 1917, and there is no proper opportunity to repay it. Now, I'm sorry, please accept it." ! "Old debt-one what a windfall!Aleksandrov was accepted into Russian émigré society after the war, and there he found a fiancée whom he really fell in love with.In order to educate him, the future father-in-law read him the bound volume of Pravda—the entire newspaper from 1918 to 1941, without embellishment or revision.At the same time, he was told the history of the various streams, which was roughly as described in the second chapter.In the end... Aleksandrov left behind his fiancée and affluent life, returned to the Soviet Union and got the easy-to-guess sentence of ten years in prison plus five years in prison.In the special battalion in 1953, he happily seized the opportunity to become a squad leader... A thoughtful person corrects: Mistakes have already been made!There is no need to go to the front line in 1941, if you should never go to war, you should never go to war.Should have been settled in the rear from the start and found a quiet job, they're all heroes now.Also, being a deserter is not bad: life will definitely be saved, and they will not be given ten years, but eight or seven years; A traitor is not a political prisoner, he is one of his own, an ordinary prisoner.Some people retorted angrily; but deserters must sit for all these years and suffer the crimes of these years, and they cannot be forgiven.And for us - there will be an amnesty soon, and we will all be released (didn't know then that one of the major benefits that deserters would receive!  …). Those who violated the 10th point were taken from their own apartments or from the Red Army--one often even said enviously: "Damn it!"Anyway, for the same price (the same ten-year sentence), I could have seen as many interesting things as these boys, where can’t I walk around? And we ended up in a labor camp like this, except for the smelly stairs (However, these Section 10 offenders managed to hide their elated premonition, for whom amnesty will apply first!). The only ones who don't sigh "Oh, if only I knew!" (because they already know what they're doing), and don't expect forgiveness, amnesty, are the Vlasovites. I knew them long before I unexpectedly encountered them on the prison bunk, and I was baffled by them. At first, it was a batch of leaflets that had been wet and dried many times. They were scattered in the tall grass that had not been mowed for three years on the Orel forward position.There is a photo of Vlasov on the flyer, as well as a biography.That face in the blurry photo seemed well-kept and blessed, like all our new generals. (Not really. Vlasov was tall and thin. In clear photographs, he looks more like a educated peasant with horn-rimmed glasses.) This blessing is described in the biography It seems to be confirmed: in the era of arresting people that swept everything, he went abroad to serve as Chiang Kai-shek's military adviser.But in general, what is to be believed in the biography on the leaflet? Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov was born in Nizhny Novgorod province in 1900 to a peasant family.He finished Nizhny Novgorod religious elementary school under the care of his elder brother who was a village teacher, but failed to finish religious secondary school because of the revolution.He was called up to join the Red Army in the spring of 1919, and by the end of the year he was a platoon leader on the front line fighting against Denikin, a company commander at the end of the civil war, and remained in the army as a cadre.In 1928, he was trained in the shooting training class, and then worked in the headquarters.In 1930, he joined the Communist Party of the Communist Party of China (Bolsheviks), which made him rise up step by step in his position.In 1938, he was sent to China as a military adviser with the rank of regimental commander.Having little connection with the army and party high-level figures, Vlasov became a member of Stalin's "second echelon" to replace the slaughtered army commander-division commander-brigadier commander.He was promoted to division commander in 1939, and was awarded the rank of major general when the "new" (Sunday) rank system was first implemented in 1940.From what happened later, it can be concluded that Vlasov was one of the most capable among the new generals, who included many who were completely ignorant and inexperienced.His Ninety-ninth Infantry Division, originally the most backward in the Red Army, is now being cited as an example by the "Red Star". After the war began, it was not caught off guard by Hitler's attack.向西挺进，夺回了佩列梅什利，并且坚守了六天。弗拉索夫很快跨过了军长职位，一九四一年在基辅城下已经指挥着第三十七集团军。他带领一支大部队从基辅的"大口袋"里突围出来。十一月接受了斯大林交给的第二十军，立即投入莫斯科郊区的希姆基保卫战，反攻至勒热夫，成为莫斯科的拯救者之一。 （情报局十二月十二日战报中的将军名单排列为：朱可夫，列柳申科，库兹涅佐夫，弗拉索夫，罗科索夫斯基……）以那几个月的高速度，他很快成为沃尔霍夫方面军（梅列茨科夫）的副司令员，三月，当为突破列宁格勒包围圈而轻率发动进攻的第二突击军与后方失去联系以后，接受了陷入"口袋"的该军的指挥。最后的冬季道路尚可通行，但斯大林禁止后撤，相反地，强迫危险地突入纵深的集团军继续进攻--沿着已经化冻的沼泽地带，没有给养，没有装备，没有空中支援。军队经历了两个月的饥饿和死亡（从那里来的士兵后来在布蒂尔卡的牢房里对我讲述他们刨下腐烂的死马的蹄子，拿刨屑煮了吃）以后，一九四二年五月十四日德军发动了对被围困军队的四面进攻（空中自然只有德国飞机）。仅在这时，开玩笑似的，才接到斯大林准许撤回沃尔霍夫一线的命令。还曾经进行过这种毫无希望的突围的尝试呢！ --直到七月初。 弗拉索夫的第二突击军就这样（好像重复着同样丧失理智地被扔进敌人包围圈的俄国第二萨姆索诺夫军的命运）覆灭了。 这当然是有对祖国的背叛的！这当然是有残忍的叛卖行为的！但这是斯大林的。背叛不一定卖身投靠。战争准备上的无知与疏忽大意，战争开始时的惊慌失措与怯懦，仅为拯救自己的元帅服而让许多军和集团军作无谓的牺牲--对于一个最高统帅说来，还有什么比这更严重的背叛？ 与萨姆索诺夫不同，弗拉索夫没有自杀，还在森林沼泽地里徘徊，七月十二日在西维尔区就俘。他很快就进入了设在文尼察的关押高级军官的战俘营，那是由后来密谋反对希特勒的施陶芬贝格伯爵组建的。弗拉索夫此后两年都是在持反对派立场的军人们（其中许多人后来在反希特勒的密谋中暴露和牺牲了）的这种庇护下生活。他头几个星期就和第四十一近卫师师长博亚尔斯基上校一起写了一份报告，说如果德国承认新俄国的平等地位，大部分苏联平民和军队都将拥护推翻苏维埃政府。（弗拉索夫的这个迅速的决定也许是受了他个人经验的影响：他妻子的父母被当做富农扫地出门了，她表面上跟他们断绝关系，暗中却在帮助他们。现在她和儿子一道又成了被俘将军新的举动的牺牲品--不知从哪天起他们都在内务人民委员部的血盆大口里消失了。） 手里拿着这张传单，很难忽然相信这是一个杰出的人，或者相信他为苏维埃政权忠实地服务了一辈子以后，早就在为俄罗斯感到深深的忧虑。至于后来的那些报道成立"俄国解放军"的传单，不仅是用恶劣的俄文写成的，而且还带着外国人的、显然是德国的气味，甚至对它宣布的事情本身显得无所谓，倒是粗俗地夸耀什么他们那边吃得好、士兵心情愉快等等。叫人不能相信真有这支军队。如果它真是存在的话--哪能有什么愉快心情可言呢？ ……只有德国人才能这样撒谎。 几乎直到战争结束实际上并没有存在过什么POA"俄罗斯解放军"。这些年曾有几十万志愿助战队员-一Hilflfswllige以完全的或部分的士兵身份分散编入各德军部队。倒是存在过一些志愿反苏部队--是由不久前的苏联公民组成的，但由德国军官指挥。最早支持德国人的是立陶宛人（我们在一年之内把他们整得太惨了！）。然后组成了一个乌克兰人的志愿SS师，若干爱沙尼亚人的SS支队。在白俄罗斯有对付游击队的人民警察部队（达到十万人！）。一个土耳其斯坦营。在克里米亚有一个鞑靼营。（这一切都是苏维埃政权自己播下的种子，例如在克里米亚--是由于愚蠢地迫害清真寺，而有远见的征服者叶卡捷琳娜女皇却拨官费兴建和扩建这些寺院。希特勒来了也想到该保护清真寺。）德国人占领了我国南部以后，志愿营的数量又有增加：格鲁吉亚、亚美尼亚、北高加索各有一个，卡尔梅克人的志愿营有十六个。（而南部几乎没有出现过苏联的游击队。）大约有一万五千来人的哥萨克马车队跟着德军从顿河撤退，其中一半人是能拿枪的。一九四一年在洛克奇（布良斯克州）附近，德国人还没到以前，当地居民就把集体农庄解散了，武装起来对付苏联游击队，一九四三年建立了自治州（为首的是沃斯科博伊尼科夫），有一支两万人的武装部队（旗徽为胜利者格奥尔吉），自称POHA"俄罗斯解放人民军"。然而并没有建立起真正的全俄性的解放军，尽管对此有过一些幻想和企图-一它们来自急于拿起武器解放本国的俄国人自己，也来自一批德国军人，他们影响有限，处于中等职位，但有现实的眼光，认为靠希特勒的狂暴的殖民政策不可能打赢对苏战争。这些军人当中不少是波罗的海沿岸的德国人，其中也有曾在从前的对俄部门服务过的，对俄国的情况有特别清晰的感觉，如施特里科-施特里克费尔德大尉。这一批人徒劳地力图说服希特勒当局上层人物必须建立德俄联盟。军队的名称、未来的条例、缝在德军制服上的袖章（安德烈底色--白底蓝色斜十字），都在他们的幻想中设计出来了。一九四二年在奥尔沙附近的奥辛托尔夫村，在几名俄国流亡者（伊万诺夫，克罗米阿迪，伊戈尔?萨哈罗夫，格里戈里?兰斯道夫）的协助下建立了由苏联战俘组成的"试验部队"--穿苏联军装，拿苏制武器，但佩戴旧式肩章和民族帽徽。这支军队到一九四二年未有了七千人，四个准备扩编为团的营，他们认为自己是PHHA"俄国民族人民军"的前身。志愿者超过了这支部队能接受的数量。但是--没有信心：因为不信任德国人，而且这是对的。一九四二年二月突然收到了将部队解体的命令：化分为单独的营，穿德国军服，编入德军建制。当夜就有三百人投奔了游击队。 一九四二年秋，为了统一所有的反布尔什维克部队，打出了弗拉索夫的名号，同在一九四二年秋天，希特勒大本营否定了中级军官为使德国放弃东方殖民计划代之以建立俄国民族武装力量而进行的尝试。刚刚决心作出性命攸关的选择，刚刚在这条路上迈出第一步--弗拉索夫已经变成仅为宣传所需要的人物了--这样一直到最终。庇护弗拉索夫的军人们想让事情运作起来增加自己主意的分量，于是便决定搞了那个"斯摩棱斯克委员会"公告（一九四三年一月十三日在苏军前线上空撒下）--许诺给予一切民主自由，取消集体农庄和强迫劳动。（同在一九四三年一月，禁止了俄国部队有营以上的建制……）他们违背禁令在德军占领的各州也散发了这份公告，引起了很大的激动和期望。游击队揭露说，根本不存在什么斯摩棱斯克委员会，什么俄国解放军，这是德国人的谎言。头一个主意现在又迈出了下一个主意--让弗拉索夫到占领区各地去作巡回宣传（又是未经请示大本营和希特勒的擅自行动；这样的自由放任是我们的准极权主义意识难以想象的，在我们这里没有最高当局的批准，任何重要的一步都不能迈，不过找们的体制也要比纳粹的过硬得多，我们那时已经挺了四分之一世纪，而纳粹才十年）。弗拉索夫穿着自制的不属于任何军队的军大衣--褐色，有将军服的红色翻领，没有等级标志--于一九四三年三月做了首次这样的旅行（斯摩棱斯克-莫吉廖夫-博布鲁伊斯克），四月做了第二次（里加-佩乔雷-普斯科夫-格多夫-卢加）。这几次旅行鼓舞了俄罗斯居民，它们造成了俄罗斯独立运动正在诞生、独立的俄罗斯可能复活的逼真的表象。弗拉家夫在人满为患的斯摩棱斯克和普斯科夫的剧场里发表演说，谈了解放运动的目标，同时公开说，国家社会主义是俄罗斯不能接受的，但是没有德国人也不可能推翻布尔什维主义。听众也公开地问他：德国人想要把俄国变为殖民地，把俄国人民变为牛马，是不是真的？为什么至今没人宣布战后俄国将会怎样？为什么德国人不准许占领区俄国人自治？为什么反斯大林志愿军只能受德军指挥？弗拉索夫回答得很拘谨，比他本人此时尚能指望的要乐观。而德国大本营对此的反应是凯特尔陆军元帅的一纸命令："鉴于在未报告元首和我的情况下发生的战俘俄国将军弗拉索夫赴我军北方集群期间的毫无知识的无耻言论，将其立即移送战俘营。"将军的名字只许利用于宣传目的，如果他再次以个人名义讲话--即应交盖世太保处置。 这是尚有成百万苏联人处于斯大林政权之外的最后几个月，还可以拿起武器反对本国的布尔什维克奴役，还能建立自己独立生活，--但是德国领导人并未发生动摇：正是在一九四三年六月八日，库尔斯克-奥廖尔会战前夕，希特勒重申：永远不会建立俄国独立军，德国只需要俄国人作为劳动力。希特勒不懂得推翻共产主义制度唯一的历史机会就在于居民本身的运动，受折磨人民的兴起。希特勒害怕这样的俄国和这样的胜利甚于任何一种失败。甚至在斯大林格勒和失去高加索之后，希特勒仍未注意到任何新的因素。当斯大林捞取着最高的祖国卫士的角色，恢复着旧时的俄国肩章、东正教会并解散共产国际的时候，希特勒下令解除所有志愿部队的武装，把他们送去挖煤，后来改为把志愿部队调往大西洋壁障，去对付同盟国军队，从而有力地帮助了斯大林。 有关独立的俄国军队的整个构想的结局，实质上就是如此了。而弗拉索夫做了些什么呢？一方面是他不知道情况如何糟糕（不知道自己放行演说之后又被当做战俘，处于受威胁的地位），一方面是他不可挽救地走上了对野兽抱希望做妥协的毁灭道路，而与启示录的野兽们相处，只有从第一到最后一刻都不让步才能得救。不过，俄国公民解放运动总的说来有没有过这样的一刻呢？它从最初起就注定了要作为尚未冷却的一九一七年祭坛上的一份补加的牺牲品而毁灭。消灭了几百万苏联战俘的战争的第一个（一九四--九四二）冬季就已经拉出了一条还从夏天为拯救布尔什维主义而动员手无寸铁的人们去当民兵就开始了的这些牺牲品的白骨制成的长链。 这里适合拿弗拉索夫和十九集团军司令卢金少将做一个对比，那人在一九四一年就同意为反斯大林制度而斗争，但要求保证非共产主义俄国的民族独立，在没有得到这种保证之前，他一步也没有迈出过战俘营。弗拉索夫却被无保证的希望所引诱，在这条道路上不止一次地听从了他的顾问们安抚性的论据。他进行过挣扎--想停止，退后，拒绝，但总有这样一类论据："他们会解除所有志愿部队的武装"，"战俘们将会没有出路"，"东方工（即在德的俄国工人）的处境会恶化"。在这些论据的借口下弗拉索夫于一九四三年十月签署了致被调往西部前线的志愿部队公开信：讲这项措施的暂时性，讲必须服从…… 这个痛苦的志愿军运动的最后一点转瞬即逝的意义就这样完全丧失了：把他们当做炮灰送去对付同盟国军队和对付法国抵抗运动--去对付饱尝德国人的残忍和德国人的自傲的在德俄国人唯一对之抱有真诚好感的那些人。弗拉索夫周围的人们当中怀抱的对英美人的暗藏的希望渐渐地破灭了：如果同盟国连共产党也支持，那么难道他们不会支持民主的非共产主义的俄国反对希特勒吗？……特别是随着第三帝国的崩溃，当苏联向欧洲以至全世界扩展自己的制度的压力明显地暴露出来的时候，--难道西方还会继续支持布尔什维克专政吗？这里就有一个时至今日也未能克服的俄国人和西方人观念的差异了。西方进行的仅是一场反对希特勒的战争，为此认为一切手段和一切同盟者，特别是苏联，都是好的。再说，非不能也，是不愿也，设想苏联各族人民可能有与共产党政府不一致的自己的任务，西方觉得麻烦，碍事。同盟军向开到西部前线的反布尔什维克志愿营散发号召书说，保证将投诚者立即送往苏联，真令人哭笑不得 弗拉索夫周围的人们在幻想和希望中把自己描绘为"第三势力"，即处于斯大林和希特勒之外的势力，但是斯大林，希特勒，西方都在踢掉他们脚下的支撑：对于西方他们是某种奇怪类别的纳粹帮凶，并没有什么特别值得注意的地方。 真的是有俄国人在打我们，而且打得比任何党卫军分子还凶，这点，我们很快就尝到了味道。例如，一九四三年七月，在奥廖尔附近有一个穿德军制服的俄国排防守索巴金新村。他们打得那么不要命，好像这新村是他们自己建造的。我们把一个敌人赶进了地窖，每次往那里面扔手榴弹的时候，他的枪就停了。但只要我们钻进去往下走，他就用自动步枪射击。我们往里面扔了一颗反坦克雷，才弄清楚，他在地窖里面还有一个坑，可以躲避手榴弹的爆炸。他是在多么难以想象的震耳欲聋的响声、气浪的冲击和无希望的处境下继续进行战斗的。 例如，他们还防守过图尔斯克以南打不掉的第聂伯河登陆点，在那里为争夺几百米的地面进行了两星期毫无结果的战斗，战斗是凶恶的，严寒也同样凶恶（四三年十二月）。在这场讨厌的连续多日的冬季战斗中，我方和他们都穿着遮住军大衣和帽子的伪装罩衣。我听说在小科兹洛维赤附近发生过这样一件事。两个人在松林中跃进时迷失了方向，并排匍匐下来，他们已经摸不清楚．但仍然朝着什么人、什么方向射击着。两个人的自动步枪都是苏式的。两人共用子弹，互相打气，因为自动步枪润滑油开始冻结而一起骂娘。最后，他们决定抽根烟，把白斗篷从头上拉下来--这时彼此就看清楚了帽子上的鹰和红星。马上跳了起来！自动步枪已经不能射击！抓起来当棍子使，开始互相追赶：这已经与政治无关，与俄罗斯母亲无关，而只不过是洞穴时代的互不信任：我要怜悯了他，他就会把我杀死。 在东普鲁土，在离我几步的地方，沿路边押送着三个被俘的弗拉索夫分子，公路上正好轰隆轰隆地开过一辆T－34坦克。突然一个俘虏挣脱出来，纵身一跳，像燕子飞似的扑到了坦克下面。坦克问了一下，但履带的边缘还是把他压了。被压坏的人还在扭动，鲜红的血沫流到了嘴唇上。他是完全可以理解的！他宁愿像士兵一样死去，而不愿在刑讯室给吊死。 没有给他们留下选择的余地。他们不能有别的打法。打起仗来没有给他们留下稍许爱惜自己一些的出路。如果光是"单纯地"当俘虏我们这里就已经认为是不可饶恕的背叛祖国行为，那对于拿起了敌人武器的人还能说什么呢？我们宣传机构的板斧对这些人的行为用下述原因来解释：1．叛变的天性（生物学上的？在血液里流着的？）2．怯懦。用怯懦恰恰讲不通！怯懦的人寻找的是宽容、照顾。而他们去参加隶属国防军的"弗拉索夫"队伍，只能是由于事情到了极端，出于超过限度的绝望，由于不可能在苏维埃制度下凑合着活下去，由于对个人安危的轻蔑。因为他们知道，在这里他们不必希望得到一丝一毫的宽恕！被我们俘虏后，只要听到他们嘴里清楚说出一句俄国话，就要被枪毙。（我曾在博布鲁伊斯克附近叫住一批前来就俘的人，告诉他们要改扮成农民，分激进到各个村子里去）。被俄国人俘虏也像被德国人俘虏一样，最倒霉的是俄国人。 这次战争一般地向我们揭示了，当一个俄国人是地球上最糟糕的事。 我羞愧地回想起，在打扫（就是说抢劫）博布鲁伊斯克大包围圈的战场时，我沿着公路走在打坏和翻倒的德国汽车中间，走在撒落一地的贵重战利品中间--一些大车和汽车陷在路旁的洼地里，德国的比曲格马在那里失神地踯躅，战利品堆成的篝火在冒着烟，我突然从那里听到呼救的号叫："大尉先生！大尉先生！"这是一个穿着德国军裤，光着上身，脸上、胸上、肩上、背上鲜血淋淋的步行人用纯粹的俄语向我叫喊，请求保护--个中土特科人员骑在马上用鞭子的抽打、用马身的逼近驱赶着他走在自己前面。他用鞭子抽打他的赤裸裸的身体，不让他回过身来，不让他求助。边赶边打，在皮肤上引起一条条新的鲜红的伤痕。 这不是布匿战争，不是希腊波斯战争！地球上任何一个军队的任何一个有权的军官都有义务制止私刑拷打。任何一个军队--说得对，可是我们的军队呢？……在我们那种残忍而绝对的区分两类人的原则的支配下，我们能做到吗？例如，"不和我们站在一起的人，就不是我们的人"--那种人就只应受到蔑视和消灭。这样，我就未敢在特科人员面前保护一个弗拉索夫分子，我什么也没有说，什么也没有做，装作没有听见似地去了讨会--免得我自己沾惹上这个公认的瘟疫，（说不定这个弗拉索夫分子是个超级坏蛋……？必说不定这个特科人员会对我有想法……？说不定……？）其实了解我军当时情况的人看这件事更简单，--个特科人员还会听一个陆军大尉的话？ 于是，面孔像野兽似的特别科人员像对待牲口一样继续抽打和驱赶这个毫无自卫能力的人。 这个场面永远留在我的眼前。这几乎就是群岛的象征，可以把它印在书的封面上。 所有这些，他们早已预感到，早已预先知道--但仍是在德国制服的左袖口缝上了带着白蓝红三色镶边的、安德烈底色的和POA三个字母的盾徽。 来自布良斯克州洛科奇的卡明斯基旅拥有五个步兵团，一个炮兵营，一个坦克营。一九四三年七月该旅派出一部至奥廖尔州德米特罗夫斯克一线。秋天该旅一个团坚守谢夫斯克，在防御战中被全歼：苏军打死伤员，把团长绑到坦克上拖死。全旅从洛科奇区撤退时带着家属，辎重，人数超过五万人。（可以想像，内务人民委员部赶到之后是怎样清剿这个反苏自治区的！），出了布良斯克边界之后，等待他们的是痛苦的跋涉，列佩利城外的屈辱的驻扎，被利用于对付游击队，然后是撤至上西里西亚，卡明斯基在那里得到镇压华沙起义的命令，不能不去，带领一千七百名无家属的人员，穿着带黄袖箍的苏军制服去了。德国人对所有这些三色帽徽、安德烈底色和胜利者基格奥尔吉就是这样理解的。俄语和德语相互是不可翻译，不可表达，不可对应的。