Libmonster ID: BY-3019
Author(s) of the publication: K. L. SELEZNEV

Moscow, Nauka Publishing House. 1970. 586 p. The print run is 20,000. Price 2 rubles 43 kopecks.

The participation of Soviet people who escaped from captivity in the Resistance movement and their contribution to the fight against fascism have long been the subject of scientific research1 . Much less well-known until recently was the heroic struggle of Soviet people who found themselves in Hitler's death camps or were taken to Nazi hard labor in Germany.

The vast majority of active participants in the struggle died in the dungeons of the Gestapo, on the scaffolds, in the furnaces of crematoriums, taking with them to the grave the secrets of their courageous unequal duel with a cruel enemy, and sometimes even their names. It is clear that they tried not to provide the enemy with written evidence. Many archives of Nazi prisons and camps were also destroyed. So the range of extant sources attesting to this struggle is relatively small. Only in letters from the German rear addressed to Wehrmacht soldiers at the front and found among the trophies of the Red Army, there were sometimes references to the escape of Soviet people and the damage that their actions caused to the fascist economy. Sometimes laconic reports about the actions of "saboteurs" were published on the pages of Nazi newspapers. After the war, a few patriots who went through the torments of captivity and hard labor and came out of the fire of war alive, published their memoirs. Some of their comrades in the struggle - German and foreign anti-fascists-also told about the exploits of Soviet people in their memoirs .2
It is not surprising that in the historical literature about the Second World War, this topic is attracting more and more attention. Brief references to the exploits of the Soviet people and, in particular, to their creation of the secret organization BSV in Munich ("Brotherhood of Soviet Prisoners of War") are contained in the speeches of W. Ulbricht3 , in some works of German Marxist historians 4 and in Soviet publications 5 . But in monographic terms, this dramatic page of the Great Patriotic War remained unexplored for a long time.

An important contribution to its reconstruction was made by Doctor of Historical Sciences E. A. Brodsky. Already his previous monograph " The Living Struggle "(M. 1965) attracted the attention of wide circles of readers; it was published in a significantly expanded edition and in German. The book "In the name of victory over fascism "is included in the series" World War II in research, memoirs and documents", published by the publishing house "Science". It is the result of further research by its author and is based on a much wider range of sources. Although other authors are also successfully working on this topic, 6 the works of E. A. Brodsky, and especially his latest book , are so far the most complete narrative about the history of the anti-fascist struggle against fascism.-

1 See, for example, M. A. Kokorin, A. A. Struchkov. Combat activity of Soviet patriots in France. Voprosy istorii, 1960, N 3; G. Laroche. Les sovietiques dans la Resistance francaise. "Cahiers du communisme". 1960. N 3; ejusd. On les nommait des etrangers... (Les immigres dans la Resistance). P. 1965; M. Galleni. I partigiani sovietici nella Resistenza italiana. R. 1967.

2 See B. Baum. Widerstand in Auschwitz. B. 1957; "The War behind the barbed wire". Tomsk. 1960; "Buchenwald". Documents and messages, M. 1962; " Auschwitz. Zeugnisse und Berichte". Frankfurt a/M. 1962; O. Betlen. Leben auf dem Acker des Todes. B. 1962.

3 See W. Ulbricht. To the history of modern times, Moscow, 1957, pp. 26-27.

4 "Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung". Bd. 5. B. 1966, S. 367 - 368.

5 See "History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941-1945", vol. 3, Moscow, 1961, p. 538.

6 See, for example, I. Krause. Cooperation of German and foreign anti-fascists in Germany during the Second World War and coverage of this cooperation in historical literature. "Problems of the history of the Second World War", Moscow, 1959; L. Shmeltser. Resistance of foreign workers who were driven to Hitler's Germany. "New and recent History", 1962, N 2; S. Datner. Crimes of the German-fascist Wehrmacht against prisoners of war, Moscow, 1963; V. Bartel. New data on the joint struggle of German and foreign anti-fascists in Germany. "The Second World War. Proceedings of the scientific conference dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany". Book III. "The Resistance Movement in Europe", Moscow, 1966; A. M. Bel. Про пі;дпі;льний центр антифашистського опору в Ебельсбахському госпі;талі; ві;йськовополонених в 1943 - 1945 pp. "Украі;нський і;сторичний журнал", 1966, N 9; С. С. Смирнов. Stories about unknown heroes, Moscow, 1968.

page 175
Soviet people in Germany in 1941-1945.

One of the biggest difficulties for a researcher who has taken up such a topic is finding the necessary sources. Those printed sources and publications of memoirs that exist, the author, of course, used as much as possible. But they had little to offer. An important merit of E. A. Brodsky is his energetic and tireless search. Many documents were collected by him in 1945 in the courtyard of the Gestapo building in Berlin. It was here that he discovered investigative files containing references to the actions of Soviet patriots. Later, some of them were delivered to the bureau of the Central Committee of the KKE and are still stored in the Central Administration of the IML under the Central Committee of the SED, some of them got into the repository of captured documents of the Anglo-American occupation authorities and are now concentrated in the West Berlin "Documentary Center". The author gathered a lot of additional information in 1947-1948 in Berlin from the documents presented at the exhibition of the Association of Persons Persecuted under Nazism. Ye. A. Brodsky also undertook a search in the USSR, and we find dozens of references in the book to the author's personal archive, to letters and biographical sketches he received from war veterans and relatives of fallen heroes .7 Thus, a huge new factual material was mobilized and brought into scientific circulation for the first time, shedding light on events that were seemingly doomed to oblivion due to the death of almost all their participants. Only excerpts from captured letters stored in the archives of the USSR Ministry of Defense are poorly used, and the testimony of captured German officers and soldiers, as well as captured documents (orders and reports), are not taken into account at all. It is possible that a broader search and survey of former prisoners of fascism, including in Western European countries, could lead to the establishment of some new facts.

The author reveals to us the exciting story of the selfless struggle of thousands of Soviet patriots imprisoned in fascist prisons. The book consists of twelve chapters; some of them depict the historical situation in which this struggle took place, the course of the war, the conditions of accommodation of Soviet people in Germany (taken for forced labor and prisoners of war), tells about the broad development of the Resistance movement in all the occupied countries of Europe and the participation of Soviet people in it. It seems to us that E. A. Brodsky even became somewhat interested in covering this historical background, although it is, of course, very important in itself. In addition, many of the information he provides is of undoubted interest.

Nevertheless, the book focuses on the main topic of the book. One of them tells about the anti-fascist struggle of the Soviet people in Northern and Central Germany (here we collect data on the areas of Hanover, Berlin and Leipzig), the other - about events in Southern Germany (mainly in the areas of Munich, Karlsruhe, Nuremberg and Mannheim). Thus, in comparison with the previous monograph, the study covers a much wider region. The author considers all forms of struggle, including sabotage and sabotage in production and transport, escapes, radio interception and dissemination of truthful information about the course of the war and the heroic struggle of the Soviet people, intelligence (disclosure of fire systems, posts, security warning signals), collection and manufacture of weapons, compasses and maps, neutralization of provocateurs, etc. The guards finally made armed appearances. The book covers in detail the methods of conspiracy used by members of underground groups, analyzes the surviving documents of various organizations. The author carefully studied the facts of cooperation of Soviet people with German anti-fascists and their underground groups. He also talks about the powerful influence that Soviet patriots who escaped from the camps had on the development of the anti-fascist movement among their German comrades in captivity. Considering the history of the movement as a whole, the author suggests its periodization (1941-August 1943, August 1943-August 1944, August 1944-May 1945), describing some features of each of the periods (pp. 32-34). This periodization deviates somewhat from the general periodization of the history of war, which, of course, is quite acceptable, because it is due to the specifics of the subject.

While paying tribute to the courage of Soviet patriots, E. A. Brodsky does not hide the weaknesses of this movement, which are caused both by the immeasurable severity of the conditions of struggle and the inequality of forces, and by inexperience.-

7 One cannot help but regret that the book lacks both an overview of the state of sources and a historiographical sketch on the topic.

page 176
which organizers and participants of the movement, their mistakes. Such was not always a sufficiently correct and sober assessment of the military-political situation in general and, in particular, of the situation in the deep German rear, which resulted in desperately bold but insufficiently well-prepared attempts to organize uprisings, as well as in violation of strict rules of conspiracy. After all, among the millions of citizens of the USSR who were taken to forced labor in Germany, young men and women, even teenagers who did not yet have the necessary life and political experience, predominated. It is significant that when asked about their political education, many of the arrested young "eastern workers" referred only to the knowledge they had acquired at school and in the pioneer organization (p.189). As for prisoners of war, the German military authorities, following the monstrous order of the Hitler command, already shot all political workers found among the prisoners at the assembly points and in transit camps. The Gestapo reports show that all other "fanatical communists", "instigators and troublemakers", and "intellectuals" were also condemned to death (pp. 208-209). The leaders of large underground organizations of prisoners of war, as can be seen from the preserved data, were often junior officers, sergeants and ordinary non-partisan Red Army soldiers. They tried to establish radio contact with Moscow, but were unsuccessful. Among the prisoners there were rumors about the secret arrival of representatives from the USSR to lead their struggle (p. 188).

Despite the lack of experience, the leaders of patriotic organizations of prisoners of war and Soviet people who were taken to work in Germany groped their way to the right position. "We don't have to... forget that they have not yet fully fulfilled their military duty to defend the USSR, "wrote the Soviet Committee for Fraternal Cooperation of Prisoners of War in an appeal to all Soviet prisoners of war in Germany in April 1943 (p. 267)." If you can't break the machines, then at least unscrew the screw from the machine!" - they repeated to each other the words of the captured battalion commissar I. V. Bugorchikov ("Major Petrov") (p. 301).

Looking at the path taken by thousands of unknown fighters in the ranks of the underground movement, studying the documents they compiled, you can't help but feel a sense of pride for our country, which gave birth to such sons and daughters, for the party that brought up such people! They truly acted as non-party Bolsheviks, and among the four million advanced soldiers who joined the party at the front during the war years, one can count many heroes who, while in captivity of the enemy, acted, lived and died as communists.

The book is densely "populated" with people. The index contains about 1300 surnames. In addition, it contains lists of 838 Soviet patriots found by the author who participated in the Resistance movement in 1941-1945 in various parts of Germany and were executed in the Dachau and Mauthausen concentration camps. And although this mournful register is only a small part of the terrible list of losses, estimated in millions, the author's merit is great: he saved the names of heroes for the future, for his relatives. Among them is the name of one of the leaders of the Leipzig "International Anti-fascist Committee", Donetsk miner Nikolai Rumyantsev, which is now one of the streets of Leipzig, and the name of the Komsomol member Galina Romanova, who was executed in Berlin in November 1944, which is a street in Dneprodzerzhinsk. The reader will also find dozens of photos of dead heroes in the book.

Of course, many important issues in the history of this movement are still waiting to be resolved. In particular, we do not yet know anything about the underground struggle in a number of camps and work teams, in some enterprises. It is not yet possible to reconstruct a complete picture of the events that unfolded throughout the war in various parts of Germany. It also seems that the extensive material collected by the author could be used for a deeper analysis and generalization to draw more important conclusions about the laws of movement and its role in the history of the Patriotic War. It would be of great interest to analyze the processes that took place within the mass of prisoners of war and "eastern workers" and, in particular, the interaction between these two categories of prisoners of fascism, the role of Soviet officers and communists as inspirers and organizers of the struggle. It is important to identify the peculiarities of their activities in various occupied countries and to show more broadly their influence on the participants of the Resistance movement, their role in spreading the ideas of internationalism, in organizing a consistent struggle against fascism, in inspiring the masses to defeat the enemy.

page 177
Attempts by some Western European historians (such as Jacobsen) to belittle the role of the Soviet people in the Resistance movement and the very significance of this movement during World War II require a decisive rebuff.

E. A. Brodsky's book, imbued with the spirit of Soviet patriotism and proletarian internationalism, is read with unflagging interest .8 It fills a significant gap in our military-historical literature, as well as in the literature on the history of the anti-fascist movement.

8 Its full German translation is being prepared for publication in the GDR


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K. L. SELEZNEV, E. A. BRODSKY. IN THE NAME OF VICTORY OVER FASCISM. ANTI-FASCIST STRUGGLE OF SOVIET PEOPLE IN NAZI GERMANY (1941-1945) // Minsk: Belarusian Electronic Library (BIBLIOTEKA.BY). Updated: 16.01.2025. URL: https://biblioteka.by/m/articles/view/E-A-BRODSKY-IN-THE-NAME-OF-VICTORY-OVER-FASCISM-ANTI-FASCIST-STRUGGLE-OF-SOVIET-PEOPLE-IN-NAZI-GERMANY-1941-1945 (date of access: 10.02.2025).

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