enemy fire will force me to retreat from here.’
Red Army soldier from the 9th Company Kozyrev said: ‘It is hard to surrender one’s own land. If only we could advance soon.’
Red Army soldier Zhurba: ‘Death is better than fascist captivity.’
Some soldiers, on the other hand, were dangerously naive in their complaints. They risked being handed over to the Special Department as defeatists and enemy agitators.
Red Army soldier Manyuk stated: ‘We won’t get any rest at all if we are on duty every day.’
Red Army soldier Burak refused to accept a sub-machine gun: he says he’s got bad eyes. Company Commander Kovalenko swore at him with obscene language.
Grossman noted many examples of soldiers and even officers expressing their religious belief. It is not clear, however, whether soldiers had been told of Stalin’s recognition of the Orthodox Church in the hour of the Motherland’s crisis.
Red Army soldier Golyaperov declared: ‘I will only take the oath if there is a cross [to swear on].’
The Special Department arrested an ex-deserter, soldier Manzhulya, who has come back of his own accord.
Manzhulya, even though he had returned voluntarily, and may simply have been a straggler, rather than a deserter, probably faced a firing squad or service in a shtrafbat , or punishment battalion, which virtually guaranteed death, since they were forced to undertake the most hazardous tasks, including, on some occasions, marching across minefields ahead of attacking troops. 3
‘The political-moral state of the troops is good. Deserter Toropov was shot in front of [his company].’
Dr Dolenko. Her husband went off with the partisans, and she went away with the Germans.
Such a stark contrast between the heroic and the despicable begs many questions. Dr Dolenko, a Ukrainian to judge by the name, may have simply wanted to rejoin her family behind German lines, but that was treason in Soviet eyes.
As in all armies, the delivery of letters from home was an important factor in morale.
There is a widespread opinion among soldiers that the field post isn’t functioning well.
In the Red Army, even more than in any other, the consumption of alcohol presented the greatest threat to discipline, as it loosened tongues dangerously.
Red Army soldier Kazakov said to his platoon commander: ‘My rifle has been loaded for a long time waiting to shoot you.’
Red Army soldier Evsteev refused to go to his post claiming that he was wet. On 20 October he left his post without permission, abandoning the machine-gun crew. He went to the 7th Company, where he said to the soldiers: ‘Commanders taunt us, drink the last drop of our blood, and stuff their faces with food.’ During a conversation with the politruk , he started arguing, declared that ‘the time will soon come when we’ll raise you too on our bayonets’. The politruk shot him with his pistol.
Throughout the war, the chief obsession of many members of the Red Army was to obtain alcohol or anything which even looked like alcohol.
Deputy platoon commander Anokhin and Corporal Matyukhin drank the contents of bottles with anti-yperite liquid [an antidote for chemical warfare attacks]. The deputy platoon commander died immediately. The corporal died on the way [to hospital].
Grossman noted examples of the tortured language of official military reports.
Podus, chief of pharmacy, performs plunder of spirits from the pharmacy, diluting the remaining spirits with water.
Alcohol also played a large part in matters of lust and love, perhaps partly because it released minds from the deep sexual repression of the Stalinist era, when the slightest hint of eroticism was deemed ‘anti-Party’.
Lieutenant Boginava abandoned his platoon during the night, went to a girl called Marusya, who refused to have anything to do with him. Boginava told her that she should marry him, and threatened to shoot her.
There was in some quarters a genuinely high-minded attitude to culture, even
Red Army soldier from the 9th Company Kozyrev said: ‘It is hard to surrender one’s own land. If only we could advance soon.’
Red Army soldier Zhurba: ‘Death is better than fascist captivity.’
Some soldiers, on the other hand, were dangerously naive in their complaints. They risked being handed over to the Special Department as defeatists and enemy agitators.
Red Army soldier Manyuk stated: ‘We won’t get any rest at all if we are on duty every day.’
Red Army soldier Burak refused to accept a sub-machine gun: he says he’s got bad eyes. Company Commander Kovalenko swore at him with obscene language.
Grossman noted many examples of soldiers and even officers expressing their religious belief. It is not clear, however, whether soldiers had been told of Stalin’s recognition of the Orthodox Church in the hour of the Motherland’s crisis.
Red Army soldier Golyaperov declared: ‘I will only take the oath if there is a cross [to swear on].’
The Special Department arrested an ex-deserter, soldier Manzhulya, who has come back of his own accord.
Manzhulya, even though he had returned voluntarily, and may simply have been a straggler, rather than a deserter, probably faced a firing squad or service in a shtrafbat , or punishment battalion, which virtually guaranteed death, since they were forced to undertake the most hazardous tasks, including, on some occasions, marching across minefields ahead of attacking troops. 3
‘The political-moral state of the troops is good. Deserter Toropov was shot in front of [his company].’
Dr Dolenko. Her husband went off with the partisans, and she went away with the Germans.
Such a stark contrast between the heroic and the despicable begs many questions. Dr Dolenko, a Ukrainian to judge by the name, may have simply wanted to rejoin her family behind German lines, but that was treason in Soviet eyes.
As in all armies, the delivery of letters from home was an important factor in morale.
There is a widespread opinion among soldiers that the field post isn’t functioning well.
In the Red Army, even more than in any other, the consumption of alcohol presented the greatest threat to discipline, as it loosened tongues dangerously.
Red Army soldier Kazakov said to his platoon commander: ‘My rifle has been loaded for a long time waiting to shoot you.’
Red Army soldier Evsteev refused to go to his post claiming that he was wet. On 20 October he left his post without permission, abandoning the machine-gun crew. He went to the 7th Company, where he said to the soldiers: ‘Commanders taunt us, drink the last drop of our blood, and stuff their faces with food.’ During a conversation with the politruk , he started arguing, declared that ‘the time will soon come when we’ll raise you too on our bayonets’. The politruk shot him with his pistol.
Throughout the war, the chief obsession of many members of the Red Army was to obtain alcohol or anything which even looked like alcohol.
Deputy platoon commander Anokhin and Corporal Matyukhin drank the contents of bottles with anti-yperite liquid [an antidote for chemical warfare attacks]. The deputy platoon commander died immediately. The corporal died on the way [to hospital].
Grossman noted examples of the tortured language of official military reports.
Podus, chief of pharmacy, performs plunder of spirits from the pharmacy, diluting the remaining spirits with water.
Alcohol also played a large part in matters of lust and love, perhaps partly because it released minds from the deep sexual repression of the Stalinist era, when the slightest hint of eroticism was deemed ‘anti-Party’.
Lieutenant Boginava abandoned his platoon during the night, went to a girl called Marusya, who refused to have anything to do with him. Boginava told her that she should marry him, and threatened to shoot her.
There was in some quarters a genuinely high-minded attitude to culture, even
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