The real heroes of February: why do we need Defender of the Fatherland Day?
On the next Defender of the Fatherland Day, celebrated in Russia on February 23, there will surely be those who start a discussion on the topic of the “far-fetchedness” of this date and the lack of its connection with real historical events. Again “revelations” will sound, someone will begin to “dispel Soviet myths” and demand that the holiday be postponed to some other date and month. Well, by golly, as if there’s nothing more to talk about on such a glorious day!
In my conviction, for more than a century, this holiday has grown so deeply and firmly into our lives that, starting something like this, we, what good, will become like our own distraught neighbors with their “decommunizations”. Not worth it, right. It would be much better, in my opinion, on this day to recall those who, with their heroism and courage, filled it with a magnificent meaning - the real Defenders of the Homeland. At least one specific historical episode that happened, incidentally, happened just in February 1945 - the largest revolt of Soviet prisoners of war in the most terrible of Nazi concentration camps.
Could there be a place in the underworld that will seem hell even to its permanent inhabitants? It turns out yes. In Mauthausen, block No. 20 became just such a place. The Nazis created this “internal fire” in its walls in the summer of 1944 - especially for the painful destruction of the best soldiers of the Red Army who were captured. Someone may object: “But how is it: the best - and prisoners?” The threshold of the 20th block has never been crossed by the leg of the one who surrendered to the Nazis - all his prisoners were captured by seriously wounded, shell-shocked, unconscious. They were mainly the commanders of the Red Army, those who hated the fascist invaders, believed in victory, and at the same time was able to lead others.
The 20th block was a confined space, separated from the rest of the camp by a multi-meter fence, on top of which there was a “thorn”, which was under high voltage. In addition, security was provided by three towers with machine-gun crews. The prison hut is a “box” with gaping openings instead of doors and windows. Naras, even the most primitive, were absent. The SS, on which the prisoners had to sleep for free, were poured with water by the SS guards without being lazy. "Soldering" for them was a quarter of the general camp, but they might not have been fed at all. No “cutlery": bowls, pots, mugs and spoons, the "tenants" of the block was not supposed.
They also had terrible "privileges." For example, they were not branded. What for?! Almost one or two weeks in the 20th did not survive, practically no one. All of his potential prisoners arrived at Mauthausen, having in his personal file a laconic remark: "subject to unconditional destruction." Behind each of them was a "trail" of attempts to escape or rebellion, disobedience of the camp administration and protection, "Bolshevik agitation" and a complete rejection of cooperation. Nobody was persecuted for hard labor from the 20th either. Prisoners every day, according to the scum from the “Dead Head”, “were engaged in physical education” - they ran in circles around the hut, or, in especially bad weather and impassable dirt, crawled in a plastusky way. And yet - the SS men used them as mannequins for practicing killing skills with edged weapons, improvised items, and simply with their bare hands.
Every day, cold, hunger, torture, beatings took life from two or three dozen inmates of the block. It was believed that it established the "mortality rate" - 10 people a day, but the Nazi monsters zealously exceeded it. According to various researchers, over the entire existence of Block No. 20, 4 to 6 thousand people were killed there. By the beginning of the new 1945, a little more than half a thousand prisoners remained alive, in fact, without exception, the Soviet military. In fairness, we mention that several Yugoslav partisans, and even Poles, who participated in the Warsaw Uprising that infuriated the Germans, were not lucky to get into the “inner hell of Mauthausen”. Soviet troops successfully developed an offensive in Europe, even a second front was already open. Many in the Third Reich began to realize that his days were numbered, but from this anger of the Nazis it became only crazier ...
According to the underground operating in Mauthausen, the SS men were preparing for the elimination of every single prisoner of the 20th. The news about this was transmitted to the block - and even with the camp scheme attached to it. The escape plan, long developed by the suicide bombers languishing in it, began to take on specific features. However, the camp guards struck first - a couple of days before the scheduled time, the SS men who burst into the bloc dragged out two and a half dozen people from there, who seemed to them the most powerful and viable. All of them were executed on the same day ... And it so happened that the choice of the Nazis turned out to be unmistakable - in fact, all who led the preparation for the speech were among the dead.
Among them was, for example, Colonel Alexander Isupov, who commanded in 1944 the 306th Red Banner Assault Aviation Division, which was shot down over enemy territory and, having been seriously wounded, was captured at Mauthausen. In the 20th block, he fell for his speech to the prisoners, whom the emissary of the Vlasov ROA had incline to betrayal before. Giving the floor to a far from young prisoner, representatives of the camp administration, of course, could not know that Isupov had previously been deputy commander for political parts, that is - the commissioner. He managed to justify in vivid and rich colors the inevitability of the defeat of Germany before he fell under the blows of the guards who had arrived in time to cut off his dangerous speeches.
After the annihilation of the leaders, it became clear to the survivors: there was nothing more to wait for. And on the night of February 2 to 3, the prisoners of the 20th block decided ... They attacked! The wild cries of “Hurray!”, Blocking the huge machine-gun bursts, lifted the whole Mauthausen to its feet. Those who were considered deceased in five minutes fell upon the enemy ...
Do you know what German MG was called at the front? “Hitler’s Saw”, “Hitler’s mower”, “bone cutter” ... Three machine guns, aimed fire at a mass of people closed in a limited space, were bloody death machines spitting lead at a speed of 1200 bullets per minute! And with what did our warriors attack them? With pieces of camp soap that had reached a degree of fossil ... Everything went into the process - fragments of bricks and stones, pieces of cement and wooden soles of their own shoes. The main "strike force" was represented by fire extinguishers, which unknown how the prisoners managed to get hold of in the amount of two pieces. It was their jets that for several moments managed to shoot down the sight of one of the machine gunners, and after another second his head scattered with bloody spray. The last thing that the second number hesitated to see was the “Russian devils” rushing to the tower. A minute later, machine-gun bursts hit the rest of the calculations, which simply could not believe what was happening - until they flew dead from the towers.
Among the prisoners who decided to break through, there were no commandos who had undergone intensive training. No one ever taught them to kill the enemy with one throw of stone, instantly fly up the steep walls, overcome the current barriers and the like. They were pilots, tankers, artillerymen, political workers. They were taught differently - to love their homeland, to fight to the last and never give up. February night was their last exam in this science. It seems unbelievable, but despite the machine-gun fire, the current in the wires and the SS men raised by the alarm, more than four hundred out of five who decided to escape managed to break out of the camp! Extremely exhausted by hunger, beatings, inhuman conditions of detention and torture, people scattered the "Aryans" who tried to stop them, like rotten straw. They escaped! When the fattened SS men who overcame the shock flew into the hut from the Dead Head, they found several dozen people sitting silently on the floor in the freezing ice slush completely naked. They were the weakest prisoners, flatly refused to go with their comrades, so as not to become a burden to them, but they gave all their clothes to them, to the last thread. They also participated in this escape - as they could ...
What happened then, the Nazis will call "hunting for hares in Mülfilter." Well, yes - hares ... In the courtyard stood, as for Austria, a cracking frost - up to -8 degrees and there was snow, in places, knee-deep. In people who had not seen normal food for years, their legs began to fail after several kilometers. Of the last forces they ... No, they didn’t try to crawl to the salvage bushes and ravines - the Soviet soldiers turned to the pursuit that overtook them, so that if you couldn’t reach, even with your teeth, the cursed Fritz, then at least take in the bullet intended comrades who could still go. Hares ?! One of the groups into which the prisoners crashed, escaping from the persecution, flew in the dark on a German anti-aircraft battery deployed in position. All anti-aircraft gunners died without a single shot - they were torn apart with their bare hands. And when our guns were seized - that’s where the real fun went!
In the process of an immediately organized chase, the SS men managed to destroy about two hundred fugitives. The rest were scattered around the neighborhood - without food, without warm clothing, without a clear plan of action. They probably hoped for the help of local residents - after all, after all, not the Germans, huh? The well-intentioned Austrian villagers and burghers from the neighboring towns didn’t let any of our compatriots on the doorstep and didn’t let the stale crust of bread roll — they killed them enthusiastically and passionately. They killed, wishing to receive the considerable reward promised for each Russian head. They killed wherever they could overtake - the very dear Austrians who today so much like to pose as “victims of the Nazi occupation”. Victims of the Anschluss, yeah ... Only one case is reliably known when a local peasant woman hid two of our soldiers for three months - until her release. Perhaps this happened because her sons at that time were somewhere on the Eastern Front? Who will understand the mother's heart ...
On a black slateboard pulled out of a school, standing in the middle of the Austrian village of Reed in der Riedmarkt, where the locals brought the bodies of our heroes, the SS crossed out every single line marking the escaped prisoners. This happened with a large crowd of people, a joyfully neighing crowd applauded when the last - 419th line was crossed out. Before Soviet troops entered the streets of Vienna, less than two months remained. They rejoiced early ... And in vain - not everyone managed to be killed and captured. It is practically impossible to establish the exact number of survivors after many years. Some sources talk about two dozen survivors, others - about half their number. In any case, the names of the eight heroes of the uprising in bloc No. 20 who returned to their homeland are reliably known.
Why did they run? Why? This was not a manifestation of despair - the desperate do not go with stones at machine guns. Eager for freedom? Let's be honest - the vast majority of the participants in the speech were commanders with solid combat experience. And that means their chances were calculated really. Rather, it’s practically a complete lack of chances. That February night, they did not make a breakthrough to survive! To die like soldiers ... In the last moments of life, to feel like warriors, not victims, to see a clear sky above you, and not the ceiling of a smelly hut, to fight, and not writhe under torture. They won, both survivors and fallen with honor. They proved the main thing: a true defender of the Fatherland, a Soviet, Russian warrior, can be killed, but impossible to break - never, nothing. They have shown us the highest example of courage, steadfastness, fidelity to duty, which will not fade for centuries. Eternal glory and memory to them!
All readers of the "Reporter" on the Day of Defender of the Fatherland!
In my conviction, for more than a century, this holiday has grown so deeply and firmly into our lives that, starting something like this, we, what good, will become like our own distraught neighbors with their “decommunizations”. Not worth it, right. It would be much better, in my opinion, on this day to recall those who, with their heroism and courage, filled it with a magnificent meaning - the real Defenders of the Homeland. At least one specific historical episode that happened, incidentally, happened just in February 1945 - the largest revolt of Soviet prisoners of war in the most terrible of Nazi concentration camps.
Could there be a place in the underworld that will seem hell even to its permanent inhabitants? It turns out yes. In Mauthausen, block No. 20 became just such a place. The Nazis created this “internal fire” in its walls in the summer of 1944 - especially for the painful destruction of the best soldiers of the Red Army who were captured. Someone may object: “But how is it: the best - and prisoners?” The threshold of the 20th block has never been crossed by the leg of the one who surrendered to the Nazis - all his prisoners were captured by seriously wounded, shell-shocked, unconscious. They were mainly the commanders of the Red Army, those who hated the fascist invaders, believed in victory, and at the same time was able to lead others.
The 20th block was a confined space, separated from the rest of the camp by a multi-meter fence, on top of which there was a “thorn”, which was under high voltage. In addition, security was provided by three towers with machine-gun crews. The prison hut is a “box” with gaping openings instead of doors and windows. Naras, even the most primitive, were absent. The SS, on which the prisoners had to sleep for free, were poured with water by the SS guards without being lazy. "Soldering" for them was a quarter of the general camp, but they might not have been fed at all. No “cutlery": bowls, pots, mugs and spoons, the "tenants" of the block was not supposed.
They also had terrible "privileges." For example, they were not branded. What for?! Almost one or two weeks in the 20th did not survive, practically no one. All of his potential prisoners arrived at Mauthausen, having in his personal file a laconic remark: "subject to unconditional destruction." Behind each of them was a "trail" of attempts to escape or rebellion, disobedience of the camp administration and protection, "Bolshevik agitation" and a complete rejection of cooperation. Nobody was persecuted for hard labor from the 20th either. Prisoners every day, according to the scum from the “Dead Head”, “were engaged in physical education” - they ran in circles around the hut, or, in especially bad weather and impassable dirt, crawled in a plastusky way. And yet - the SS men used them as mannequins for practicing killing skills with edged weapons, improvised items, and simply with their bare hands.
Every day, cold, hunger, torture, beatings took life from two or three dozen inmates of the block. It was believed that it established the "mortality rate" - 10 people a day, but the Nazi monsters zealously exceeded it. According to various researchers, over the entire existence of Block No. 20, 4 to 6 thousand people were killed there. By the beginning of the new 1945, a little more than half a thousand prisoners remained alive, in fact, without exception, the Soviet military. In fairness, we mention that several Yugoslav partisans, and even Poles, who participated in the Warsaw Uprising that infuriated the Germans, were not lucky to get into the “inner hell of Mauthausen”. Soviet troops successfully developed an offensive in Europe, even a second front was already open. Many in the Third Reich began to realize that his days were numbered, but from this anger of the Nazis it became only crazier ...
According to the underground operating in Mauthausen, the SS men were preparing for the elimination of every single prisoner of the 20th. The news about this was transmitted to the block - and even with the camp scheme attached to it. The escape plan, long developed by the suicide bombers languishing in it, began to take on specific features. However, the camp guards struck first - a couple of days before the scheduled time, the SS men who burst into the bloc dragged out two and a half dozen people from there, who seemed to them the most powerful and viable. All of them were executed on the same day ... And it so happened that the choice of the Nazis turned out to be unmistakable - in fact, all who led the preparation for the speech were among the dead.
Among them was, for example, Colonel Alexander Isupov, who commanded in 1944 the 306th Red Banner Assault Aviation Division, which was shot down over enemy territory and, having been seriously wounded, was captured at Mauthausen. In the 20th block, he fell for his speech to the prisoners, whom the emissary of the Vlasov ROA had incline to betrayal before. Giving the floor to a far from young prisoner, representatives of the camp administration, of course, could not know that Isupov had previously been deputy commander for political parts, that is - the commissioner. He managed to justify in vivid and rich colors the inevitability of the defeat of Germany before he fell under the blows of the guards who had arrived in time to cut off his dangerous speeches.
After the annihilation of the leaders, it became clear to the survivors: there was nothing more to wait for. And on the night of February 2 to 3, the prisoners of the 20th block decided ... They attacked! The wild cries of “Hurray!”, Blocking the huge machine-gun bursts, lifted the whole Mauthausen to its feet. Those who were considered deceased in five minutes fell upon the enemy ...
Do you know what German MG was called at the front? “Hitler’s Saw”, “Hitler’s mower”, “bone cutter” ... Three machine guns, aimed fire at a mass of people closed in a limited space, were bloody death machines spitting lead at a speed of 1200 bullets per minute! And with what did our warriors attack them? With pieces of camp soap that had reached a degree of fossil ... Everything went into the process - fragments of bricks and stones, pieces of cement and wooden soles of their own shoes. The main "strike force" was represented by fire extinguishers, which unknown how the prisoners managed to get hold of in the amount of two pieces. It was their jets that for several moments managed to shoot down the sight of one of the machine gunners, and after another second his head scattered with bloody spray. The last thing that the second number hesitated to see was the “Russian devils” rushing to the tower. A minute later, machine-gun bursts hit the rest of the calculations, which simply could not believe what was happening - until they flew dead from the towers.
Among the prisoners who decided to break through, there were no commandos who had undergone intensive training. No one ever taught them to kill the enemy with one throw of stone, instantly fly up the steep walls, overcome the current barriers and the like. They were pilots, tankers, artillerymen, political workers. They were taught differently - to love their homeland, to fight to the last and never give up. February night was their last exam in this science. It seems unbelievable, but despite the machine-gun fire, the current in the wires and the SS men raised by the alarm, more than four hundred out of five who decided to escape managed to break out of the camp! Extremely exhausted by hunger, beatings, inhuman conditions of detention and torture, people scattered the "Aryans" who tried to stop them, like rotten straw. They escaped! When the fattened SS men who overcame the shock flew into the hut from the Dead Head, they found several dozen people sitting silently on the floor in the freezing ice slush completely naked. They were the weakest prisoners, flatly refused to go with their comrades, so as not to become a burden to them, but they gave all their clothes to them, to the last thread. They also participated in this escape - as they could ...
What happened then, the Nazis will call "hunting for hares in Mülfilter." Well, yes - hares ... In the courtyard stood, as for Austria, a cracking frost - up to -8 degrees and there was snow, in places, knee-deep. In people who had not seen normal food for years, their legs began to fail after several kilometers. Of the last forces they ... No, they didn’t try to crawl to the salvage bushes and ravines - the Soviet soldiers turned to the pursuit that overtook them, so that if you couldn’t reach, even with your teeth, the cursed Fritz, then at least take in the bullet intended comrades who could still go. Hares ?! One of the groups into which the prisoners crashed, escaping from the persecution, flew in the dark on a German anti-aircraft battery deployed in position. All anti-aircraft gunners died without a single shot - they were torn apart with their bare hands. And when our guns were seized - that’s where the real fun went!
In the process of an immediately organized chase, the SS men managed to destroy about two hundred fugitives. The rest were scattered around the neighborhood - without food, without warm clothing, without a clear plan of action. They probably hoped for the help of local residents - after all, after all, not the Germans, huh? The well-intentioned Austrian villagers and burghers from the neighboring towns didn’t let any of our compatriots on the doorstep and didn’t let the stale crust of bread roll — they killed them enthusiastically and passionately. They killed, wishing to receive the considerable reward promised for each Russian head. They killed wherever they could overtake - the very dear Austrians who today so much like to pose as “victims of the Nazi occupation”. Victims of the Anschluss, yeah ... Only one case is reliably known when a local peasant woman hid two of our soldiers for three months - until her release. Perhaps this happened because her sons at that time were somewhere on the Eastern Front? Who will understand the mother's heart ...
On a black slateboard pulled out of a school, standing in the middle of the Austrian village of Reed in der Riedmarkt, where the locals brought the bodies of our heroes, the SS crossed out every single line marking the escaped prisoners. This happened with a large crowd of people, a joyfully neighing crowd applauded when the last - 419th line was crossed out. Before Soviet troops entered the streets of Vienna, less than two months remained. They rejoiced early ... And in vain - not everyone managed to be killed and captured. It is practically impossible to establish the exact number of survivors after many years. Some sources talk about two dozen survivors, others - about half their number. In any case, the names of the eight heroes of the uprising in bloc No. 20 who returned to their homeland are reliably known.
Why did they run? Why? This was not a manifestation of despair - the desperate do not go with stones at machine guns. Eager for freedom? Let's be honest - the vast majority of the participants in the speech were commanders with solid combat experience. And that means their chances were calculated really. Rather, it’s practically a complete lack of chances. That February night, they did not make a breakthrough to survive! To die like soldiers ... In the last moments of life, to feel like warriors, not victims, to see a clear sky above you, and not the ceiling of a smelly hut, to fight, and not writhe under torture. They won, both survivors and fallen with honor. They proved the main thing: a true defender of the Fatherland, a Soviet, Russian warrior, can be killed, but impossible to break - never, nothing. They have shown us the highest example of courage, steadfastness, fidelity to duty, which will not fade for centuries. Eternal glory and memory to them!
All readers of the "Reporter" on the Day of Defender of the Fatherland!
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