How the soldiers and officers were having fun and how they lived. How the soldiers of the Red Army and the Wehrmacht had fun during the break between battles Life of the Soviet army

One generation on the shoulders?
Is it too much?
Trials and contradictions
Is it too much?

Evgeny Dolmatovsky

Military photo and film chronicles in their best shots through the decades brought to us the true appearance of a soldier - the main worker of the war. Not a poster boy with a blush all over his cheek, but a simple fighter, in a shabby greatcoat, a crumpled cap, in hastily wound windings, at the cost of his own life won that terrible war. After all, what is often shown to us on TV can only remotely be called a war. “Soldiers and officers in light and clean sheepskin coats, in beautiful caps with earflaps, in felt boots are moving across the screen! Their faces are as clean as morning snow. And where are the burnt overcoats with a greasy left shoulder? It cannot but be greasy! .. Where are the exhausted, sleepy, dirty faces? " - asks the veteran of the 217th rifle division Belyaev Valerian Ivanovich.

How did a soldier live at the front, in what conditions he fought, was afraid or did not know fear, froze or was shod, dressed, warmed up, interrupted by dry rations or was fed to his fill with hot porridge from the field kitchen, which he did during short breaks between battles ...

The uncomplicated front-line life, which was, nevertheless, the most important factor in the war, became the subject of my research. After all, according to the same Valerian Ivanovich Belyaev, "the memories of my stay at the front are associated for me not only with battles, forays to the front line, but also with trenches, rats, lice, and the death of comrades."

The work on the topic is a tribute to the memory of those killed and missing in that war. These people dreamed of an early victory and meeting with loved ones, hoping that they would return safe and sound. The war took them away, leaving us letters and photographs. In the photo - girls and women, young officers and experienced soldiers. Beautiful faces, smart and kind eyes. They do not yet know what will happen to them all very soon ...

Getting to work, we talked with many veterans, re-read their front letters and diaries and rely only on eyewitness accounts.

So, the morale of the troops, their combat effectiveness, largely depended on the organization of the soldiers' everyday life. The supply of troops, providing them with everything necessary at the time of retreat, exit from the encirclement was sharply different from the period when the Soviet troops switched to active offensive operations.

The first weeks, months of the war, for obvious reasons (suddenness of the attack, sluggishness, shortsightedness, and sometimes the outright mediocrity of the military leaders) turned out to be the most difficult for our soldiers. All the main warehouses with stocks of materiel on the eve of the war were located 30-80 km from the state border. This placement was a tragic miscalculation of our command. In connection with the retreat, many warehouses and bases were blown up by our troops due to the impossibility of their evacuation, or destroyed by enemy aircraft. For a long time the provision of hot food to the troops was not established, in the newly formed units there were no field kitchens, pots. Many units and compounds did not receive bread and rusks for several days. There were no bakeries.

From the first days of the war there was a huge flow of wounded, and there was no one to provide assistance and nothing to do: “The property of the sanitary institutions was destroyed by fires and enemy bombings, the sanitary establishments being formed were left without property. The troops have a big shortage of dressings, drugs and serums. " (from the report of the headquarters of the Western Front to the Sanitary Directorate of the Red Army on June 30, 1941).

At Unecha in 1941, the 137th Rifle Division, which at that time was part of the 3rd and then the 13th armies, left the encirclement. Basically, they went out in an organized manner, in full uniform, with weapons, trying not to go down. “… In the villages, they shaved, if possible. There was one emergency: a soldier stole a piece of bacon from the local ... He was sentenced to death, and only after crying the women were pardoned. It was difficult to feed on the road, so they ate all the horses that were with us ... "(from the memoirs of the military paramedic of the 137th rifle division II Bogatykh)

Those retreating and leaving the encirclement had only one hope for the local residents: “We came to the village ..., there are no Germans, they even found the chairman of the collective farm ... they ordered cabbage soup with meat for 100 people. The women boiled it, poured it into barrels ... This was the only time for the whole environment that they ate well. And so all the time hungry, wet from the rains. We slept on the ground, chopped up spruce branches and dozed ... Everyone was weakened to the extreme. Many of the legs were swollen so that they did not fit into the boots ... "(from the memoirs of A.P. Stepantsev, head of the chemical service of the 771st infantry regiment 137th Infantry Division).

The autumn of 1941 was especially difficult for the soldiers: “It snowed, it was very cold at night, many of them had their shoes broken. I have only the tops left from the boots, as well as the toes out. I wrapped rags around my shoes until I found old bast shoes in one village. We all grew like bears, even the young ones became like old people ... need made us go and ask for a piece of bread. It was insulting and painful that we, the Russian people, are the masters of our country, and we are walking furtively through the forests and ravines, sleeping on the ground, or even in the trees. There were days when the taste of the bread was completely forgotten. I had to eat raw potatoes, beets, if they found in the field, or even just viburnum, but it's bitter, you can't eat a lot of it. In the villages, requests for food were denied more and more often. It happened to hear this: "How tired of you ..." (from the memoirs of RG Khmelnov, military paramedic of the 409th rifle regiment of the 137th rifle division). The soldiers suffered not only physically, but also mentally. It was difficult to endure the reproaches of the inhabitants who remained in the occupied territory.

The plight of the soldiers is evidenced by the fact that in many units they had to eat horses, which, however, were no longer good for lack of fodder: “The horses were so exhausted that they had to injections of caffeine before the campaign. I had a mare - if you poke it, it falls, and she can't get up on her own, he lifted it by the tail ... Somehow a horse was killed by a burst from the plane, half an hour later the soldiers took it away, and there were no hooves left, one tail ... The food was tight, I had to carry food on myself for many kilometers ... Even bread from bakeries was carried for 20-30 kilometers ... ", AP Stepantsev recalls his front-line everyday life.

Gradually, the country and the army came to their senses from a surprise attack by the Nazis, the supply of food and uniforms to the front was improved. We did it all special units- Service of food and fodder supply. But the rear services did not always work quickly. The commander of the communications battalion of the 137th rifle division Lukyanuk F.M. recalls: “Surrounded by us, we all fought, and after the battle many of my fighters put on warm German uniforms under their greatcoats, changed into German boots. I built my own soldiers, I see - half, like the Fritzes ... "

PI Guseletov, commissar of the 3rd battery of the 137th rifle division: “I arrived in the division in April ... I took away fifteen people in companies ... All my recruits were tired, dirty, ragged and hungry. The first step was to put them in order. I got homemade soap, found threads, needles, scissors with which the collective farmers used to shear sheep, and began to shear, shave, patch holes and sew on buttons, wash clothes, wash ... "

Getting a new uniform for soldiers at the front is a whole event. After all, many ended up in the unit in their civilian clothes or in greatcoats from someone else's shoulder. In the "Order on the call for the mobilization of citizens born in 1925 and older before 1893 of birth, living in the territory liberated from the occupation" for 1943, in paragraph 3 it says: "When you appear at the assembly point, have with you: ... a mug, spoon, socks, two pairs of underwear, as well as the surviving uniform of the Red Army. "

War veteran Belyaev Valerian Ivanovich recalls: “... We were given new overcoats. These were not greatcoats, but simply luxury, as it seemed to us. The soldier's greatcoat is the most hairy ... The greatcoat was of great importance in front-line life. It served as a bed, a blanket, and a pillow ... In cold weather, you lie down on your greatcoat, pull your legs up to your chin, and cover yourself with the left half and tuck it in from all sides. At first it is cold - you lie and tremble, and then it becomes warm from breathing. Or almost warm.

You get up after sleep - your overcoat is frozen to the ground. With a shovel, you cut a layer of earth and lift the whole overcoat together with the earth. Then the earth will fall off by itself.

The whole greatcoat was my pride. In addition, an overcoat with a hole covered it better protected from the cold and rain ... On the front line, it was generally forbidden to take off the overcoat. It was only allowed to loosen the waist belt ... And the song about the overcoat was:

My marching overcoat, she is always with me

She is always like new, the edges are cut off,

Army harsh, my darling. "

At the front, the soldiers, longingly remembering their home and comfort, managed to get more or less tolerable on the front line. Most often, the fighters were located in trenches, trenches, less often in dugouts. But you can't build a trench or a trench without a shovel. The trench tool was often not enough for everyone: “The shovels were given to us on one of the first days of our stay in the company. But here's the trouble! A company of 96 people received only 14 shovels. When they were given out, even a small dump took place ... The lucky ones began to dig in ... ”(from the memoirs of V. I. Belyaev).

And then a whole ode to the shovel: “A shovel in war is life! I dug myself a trench and lie still. Bullets whistle, shells explode, fragments of them rush with a short squeal, you don't care. You are protected by a thick layer of earth ... ”But a trench is an insidious thing. During the rains, water accumulated at the bottom of the trench, reaching the soldiers' waist, or even higher. During the shelling in such a trench, one had to sit for hours. To get out of it means to perish. And they sat, otherwise it is impossible, you want to live - endure. There will be a lull - you wash yourself, dry up, rest, sleep.

It must be said that very strict hygiene rules were in force in the country during the war. In the military units located in the rear, examinations for lice were systematically carried out. In order not to pronounce this dissonant term, the wording "inspection according to the form 20" was used. For this, the company, without tunics, lined up in two ranks. The sergeant major commanded: "Prepare for examination on form 20!" Those in the ranks took off their undershirts to the sleeves and turned them inside out. The foreman walked along the line and the fighters, who had lice on their shirt, were sent to the sanitary inspection room. War veteran Valerian Ivanovich Belyaev recalls how he himself passed through one of these sanitary inspection rooms: “It was like a bathhouse, in which there was a so-called“ fry ”, that is, a chamber for roasting (warming up) wearable items. While we were washing in the bath, all our things were warmed up in this "fry" at a very high temperature... When we received our things back, they were so hot that we had to wait for them to cool down ... "Fryers" were in all garrisons and military units. And at the front, they also arranged such frying. " The soldiers called lice "the second enemy after the Nazis." Front-line medics had to fight them mercilessly. “I used to go to the crossing - only a halt, even in frosty weather everyone throws off their tunics and crushes them with grenades, only there is a crackling sound. I will never forget the picture of how the captured Germans scratched furiously ... We never had typhus, we destroyed lice by sanitizing. Once, out of zeal, even the tunics were burned along with the lice, only medals remained, "recalled VD Piorunsky, a military doctor of the 409th Infantry Regiment of the 137th Infantry Division. And further from his memoirs: “We were faced with the task of not allowing lice, but how to do it at the forefront? And we came up with one way. They found a fire hose twenty meters long, punched ten holes in it every meter, and drowned the end of it. They boiled water in barrels from gasoline and continuously poured it into the hose through a funnel, it flowed through the holes, and soldiers stood under the hose, washed and gasped with pleasure. The underwear was replaced, and the outerwear was fried. Then a hundred grams, a sandwich in the teeth, and in the trenches. In this way, we quickly washed the entire regiment, that even from other units they came to us for experience ... "

Rest, and above all sleep, were worth their weight in gold in the war. There was always a lack of sleep at the front. On the front line at night everyone was forbidden to sleep. During the day, half of the personnel could sleep, and the other half could monitor the situation.

According to the recollections of VI Belyaev, a veteran of the 217th Rifle Division, “on the campaign with sleep it was even worse. They were not allowed to sleep for more than three hours a day. The soldiers literally fell asleep on the move. One could observe such a picture. There is a column. Suddenly one soldier gets out of order and for some time moves next to the column, gradually moving away from it. So he came to a roadside ditch, stumbled and was already lying motionless. They run up to him and see that he is fast asleep. It is very difficult to push such a man and put him in a column! .. The greatest happiness was considered to be clinging to any carriage. The lucky ones who succeeded got enough sleep on the go. " Many slept for the future because they knew that there might not be another such opportunity.

The soldier at the front needed not only cartridges, rifles, shells. One of the main issues of military life is the supply of food to the army. A hungry man will not fight much. We have already mentioned how difficult it was for the troops in the first months of the war. In the future, the supply of food to the front was debugged, because for the disruption of supplies it was possible to lose not only shoulder straps, but also life.

Soldiers were regularly given dry rations, especially on the march: “For five days, each was given: three and a half smoked herring of rather large sizes ... 7 rye bread crumbs and 25 lumps of sugar ... It was American sugar. A pile of salt was poured on the ground and it was announced that anyone could take it. I poured salt into a can of canned food, tied it in a rag and put it in a duffel bag. Except for me, no one took the salt ... It was clear that they would have to go from hand to mouth. " (from the memoirs of V.I. Belyaev)

It was 1943, the country was actively helping the front, giving it equipment, food, and people, but still the food was very modest.

The veteran of the Great Patriotic War, artilleryman Osnach Ivan Prokofievich, recalls that the dry rations contained sausage, bacon, sugar, candy, and stew. The products were American made. They, the gunners, were supposed to be fed 3 times, but this norm was not respected.

The dry ration also included makhorka. Almost all men in the war were heavy smokers. Many, who had not smoked before the war, at the front did not part with a hand-rolled cigarette: “With tobacco it was bad. They gave out makhorka as a smoke: 50 grams for two ... Such a small pack in a brown package. They were given out irregularly, and smokers suffered a lot ... I, a non-smoking guy, did not need makhorka, and this determined my special position in the company. The smokers jealously protected me from bullets and shrapnel. Everyone perfectly understood that with my departure to the next world or to the hospital, an additional ration of makhorka would disappear from the company ... When the makhorka was brought, a small dump would appear around me. Everyone tried to convince me that I should give my ration of makhorka to him ... ”(from the memoirs of VI Belyaev). This determined the special role of the makhorka in the war. Simple soldiers' songs were composed about her:

How will you receive a letter from your beloved

Remember the distant lands

And you light up, and with a ring of smoke

Your sadness flies away!

Eh, makhorka, makhorka,

We made friends with you!

The patrols are watching vigilantly in the distance,

We are ready to fight! We are ready to fight!

Now about the hot meals of the soldiers. Camping kitchens were in every division, in every military unit. The hardest part is getting the food to the front lines. The products were transported in special thermoses - containers.

According to the then existing order, the delivery of food was handled by the company foreman and a clerk. And they had to do this even during the battle. Sometimes one of the fighters was sent for dinner.

Very often girls-chauffeurs in one and a half lorries were engaged in the delivery of groceries. Veteran of the war Lositskaya Feodosia Fedoseevna spent the whole war behind the wheel of a lorry. Everything was in the work: both breakdowns, which she unknowingly could not fix, and spending the night in the forest or steppe under open air, and shelling of enemy aircraft. And how many times she cried bitterly from resentment when, having loaded food products and thermoses with tea, coffee and soup onto the car, she came to the airfield to the pilots with empty containers: German planes flew in on the road and riddled all the thermoses with bullets.

Her husband, a military pilot Mikhail Alekseevich Lositsky, recalled that even in their flight canteen food was not always good: “Forty-degree frost! Now I would like a mug of hot tea! But in our canteen you will not see anything except millet porridge and dark stew. " And here are his recollections of his stay in the front-line hospital: “The stale, heavy air is thickly saturated with the smell of iodine, rotten meat and smoke from tobacco. A thin soup and a crust of bread - that's the whole dinner. Occasionally they give pasta or a couple of tablespoons of mashed potatoes and a cup of barely sweet tea ... "

Valerian Ivanovich Belyaev recalls: “With the onset of darkness, lunch appeared. On the front line there are two meals: as soon as it gets dark and before dawn. During daylight hours, they had to get by with five lumps of sugar, which were given out daily.

Hot food was delivered to us in a green thermos about the size of a bucket. This thermos was oval in shape and was carried on the back on straps, like a duffel bag. The bread was delivered in loaves. Two people went to get food: the foreman and the clerk ...

... For food, everyone crawls out of the trench and sits in a circle. One day we were having dinner in this way, when suddenly a flare flashed in the sky. We are all pressed to the ground. The rocket went out and everyone started eating again. Suddenly one of the soldiers shouts: “Brothers! Bullet!" - and takes out a German bullet from his mouth, which is stuck in bread ... "

During the transitions, on the march, the enemy often destroyed camp kitchens. The fact is that the kitchen boiler rose above the ground much higher than human height, since there was a firebox under the boiler. A black pipe rose even higher, from which smoke billowed. It was an excellent target for the enemy. But, despite the difficulties and danger, the front-line cooks tried not to leave the soldiers without hot food.

Another concern at the front is water. The soldiers replenished the supply of drinking water, passing through settlements... At the same time, it was necessary to be careful: very often the Germans, retreating, rendered the wells unusable, poisoned water in them. Therefore, the wells had to be guarded: “I was greatly impressed by the strict order of supplying our troops with water. As soon as we entered the village, a special military unit immediately appeared, which posted sentries at all water sources. Typically, these sources were wells in which the water was tested. The sentries were not allowed to come close to other wells.

... The posts at all the wells were round-the-clock. The troops came and went, and the sentry was always at his post. This very tough order guaranteed the complete safety of our troops in the provision of water ... "

Even under fire from the Germans, the sentry did not leave the post at the well.

“The Germans opened artillery fire on the well ... We ran away from the well for a rather long distance. I look around and see that the sentry has remained at the well. Just lay down. This was the discipline of the protection of water sources! " (from the memoirs of V.I. Belyaev)

The people at the front when deciding everyday problems showed maximum ingenuity, resourcefulness and skill. “From the rear of the country, we received only the minimum,” recalls A.P. Stepantsev. - we have adapted to do a lot ourselves. They made sleds, sewed harnesses for horses, made horseshoes - all the beds and harrows were reforged in the villages. They even poured the spoons themselves ... The head of the regimental bakery was Captain Nikitin, a resident of Gorky - under what conditions he had to bake bread! In the destroyed villages, not a single whole oven was baked - and after six hours they baked, a ton per day. They even adapted their own mill. Practically everything for everyday life had to be done with your own hands, and without an organized way of life, what could be the combat capability of the troops ... "

The soldiers also managed to get themselves boiling water on the march: “... The village. Chimneys were sticking out all around, but if you get off the road and come close to such a chimney, you can see the logs burning out. We quickly got the hang of using them. We put a pot of water on these logs - one minute and the tea is ready. Of course, it was not tea, but hot water... It is not clear why we called it tea. At that time we did not even think that our water boils for the misfortune of people ... "(Belyaev V.I.)

Among the fighters, who were accustomed to doing little in pre-war life, there were just real jacks of all trades. PI Guseletov, political commander of the 238th separate anti-tank fighter division of the 137th rifle division, recalls one of these craftsmen: “We had Uncle Vasya Ovchinnikov on our battery. He was originally from the Gorky region, spoke on "o" ... In May, the cook was wounded. Uncle Vasya's name: "Can you temporarily?" - "I can. Sometimes, during the mowing, they cooked everything ourselves. " For the repair of ammunition, rawhide leather was required - where to get it? Again to him. - "I can. Sometimes they made leather at home and made everything themselves. " The horse was unlocked in the battalion farm - where to find the master? “I can do that too. At home, it happened, and everyone forged themselves. " For the kitchen, we needed buckets, basins, stoves - where to get it, you can't wait from the rear, - "Can you do it, Uncle Vasya?" - "I can, it used to be, houses made iron stoves and pipes themselves." In winter, skis were needed, but where to get them at the front? - "I can. At home they went to the bear at this time, so they always made skis ourselves. " The company commander's pocket watch stopped - again to Uncle Vasya. - "I can and watch, just need to look well."

But what can I say, when he got the hang of pouring spoons! A master - for any business, everything worked out so well for him, as if it was done by itself. And in the spring he baked such potato pancakes from rotten potatoes on a piece of rusty iron that the company commander did not disdain ... "

Many veterans of the Great Patriotic War remember the famous "People's Commissars" 100 grams with a kind word. In signed by the People's Commissar of Defense I.V. Stalin's Resolution of the State Defense Committee of the USSR "On the introduction of vodka into the supply of the active Red Army" of August 22, 1941 said: army ". This was the first and only experience of legalized dispensing of alcohol in domestic army in the 20th century.

From the memoirs of a military pilot MA Lositskiy: “There will be no combat missions today. Free evening. We are allowed to drink the prescribed 100 grams ... "And here's another:" I would like to capture the faces of the wounded officers when they were poured 100 grams and served along with a quarter of bread and a piece of bacon. "

Serebrov MP, the commander of the 137th rifle division, recalls: “Having stopped pursuing the enemy, the division's units began to put themselves in order. Camping kitchens approached, began to distribute lunch and the prescribed one hundred grams of vodka from the trophy stocks ... "Tereshchenko NI, platoon commander of the 4th battery of the 17th artillery regiment of the 137th rifle division:" After successful shooting, everyone gathered to have breakfast. Placed, of course, in the trenches. Our cook, Masha, brought ... home-style potatoes. After the front-line hundred grams and congratulations from the regiment commander, everyone cheered up ... "

The war lasted a difficult four years. Many soldiers passed the front-line roads from the first to last day... Not every soldier had a happy opportunity to get a vacation and see family and friends. Many families remained in the occupied territory. For most, the only thread that connected him to home was letters. Front letters are truthful, sincere, a source of study of the Great Patriotic War, little subject to ideology. Written in a trench, a dugout, in a forest under a tree, the soldier's letters reflect the whole gamut of feelings experienced by a person who defends his homeland with arms in his hands: anger at the enemy, pain and suffering for native land and their loved ones. And in all letters - the belief in a quick victory over the Nazis. In these letters, a person appears naked, what he really is, because he cannot lie and hypocrite in moments of danger, either in front of himself or in front of people.

But people in the war, under bullets, next to blood and death, tried to simply live. Even on the front line, they were worried about common everyday questions and problems. They shared their experiences with family and friends. In almost all letters, the soldiers describe their life at the front, military life: “The weather is not very cold here, but decent frost and especially winds. But we are dressed well now, a fur coat, felt boots, so the frosts are not terrible for us, one thing is bad that they are not sent closer to the front line ... "(from a letter from the guard of Captain Leonid Alekseevich Karasev to his wife Kiseleva Anna Vasilyevna in Unecha dated December 4, 1944 G.). The letters contain concern and anxiety for loved ones, who are also not easy. From a letter from L.A. Karasev to his wife in Unecha from June 3, 1944: "Tell the one who wants to evict my mother that if I only come, he won't get it ... I'll turn his head on one side ..." But from his letter dated December 9, 1944: “Nyurochka, I am very sorry for you that you have to freeze. Press on your superiors, let them provide firewood ... "

From a letter from Mikhail Krivopuska, a graduate of school No. 1 in Unecha to his sister Nadezhda: “I received a letter from you, Nadya, where you write how you were hiding from the Germans. You write to me which of the policemen mocked you and according to whose order a cow, a bicycle and other things were taken from you, if I stay alive, I will settle accounts with them for everything ... ”(dated April 20, 1943). Mikhail did not have a chance to punish the offenders of his relatives: on February 20, 1944, he died while liberating Poland.

Almost every letter contains a longing for home, for family and loved ones. After all, young and handsome men went to the front, many in the status of newlyweds. Karasev Leonid Ivanovich and his wife Anna Vasilievna, who were mentioned above, got married on June 18, 1941, and four days later the war broke out, and the young husband went to the front. He was demobilized only at the end of 1946. The honeymoon had to be postponed for almost 6 years. In his letters to his wife, love, tenderness, passion and inexpressible longing, the desire to be close to his beloved: “Beloved! I returned from headquarters, tired, walking the night. But when I saw your letter on the table, all the fatigue and anger went away, and when I opened the envelope and found your card, I kissed it, but this is paper, and you’re not alive ... Now your card is pinned at the head of my bed, now I have the opportunity, no, no, and even to look at you ... ”(dated December 18, 1944). And in another letter, just a cry from the heart: “Darling, I'm sitting in a dugout now, I'm smoking a makhorochka - I remembered something, and such melancholy, or rather evil, takes everything for it ... Why am I so unlucky, because people get the opportunity to see their relatives and loved ones, but I'm not lucky ... Darling, believe me, I'm tired of all this scribble and paper ... you know, I want to see you, I want to be with you for at least an hour, and everything else to hell, you know, to hell, I want you - that's all ... All my life I'm tired of this waiting and uncertainty ... I now have one outcome ... I will come to you on my own, and then I will go to the penal company, otherwise I will not wait to meet you! .. If there was vodka, now I would have gotten drunk ... ”(dated August 30, 1944).

The soldiers write in their letters about the house, remember the pre-war life, dream of a peaceful future, of returning from the war. From a letter from Mikhail Krivopuska to his sister Nadezhda: “If you look at those green meadows, at the trees near the shore ... the girls are swimming in the sea, you think that you would have thrown overboard and swam. But nothing, we will finish off the German, and even then ... ”Many letters contain a sincere manifestation of patriotic feelings. Here is how our compatriot Evgeny Romanovich Dyshel writes about the death of his brother in a letter to his father: "... Valentin should be proud, because he died in battle honestly, went into battle fearlessly ... In the past battles, I avenged him ... We will meet and talk in more detail ..." ( dated September 27, 1944). Major-tanker Dyshel did not have to meet his father - on January 20, 1945, he died liberating Poland.

From a letter from Leonid Alekseevich Karasev to his wife Anna Vasilievna: “It is a great joy that we are conducting an offensive almost along the entire front and quite successfully, many large cities have been taken. In general, the successes of the Red Army are unprecedented. So Hitler will soon be kaput, as the Germans themselves say ”(letter of June 6, 1944).

Thus, the soldier's triangles, miraculously preserved to this day, with the field post number instead of the return address and the black official stamp “Viewed by the military censorship” are the most sincere and reliable voices of the war. Living, genuine words that came to us from the distant “forties, fatal”, today sound with special force. Each of the front-line letters, the most insignificant at first glance, albeit deeply personal, is a historical document of the greatest value. Each envelope contains pain and joy, hope, longing and suffering. You experience an acute sense of bitterness when you read these letters, knowing that the one who wrote them did not return from the war ... The letters are a kind of chronicle of the Great Patriotic War ...

The front-line writer Konstantin Simonov wrote the following words: “War is not a continuous danger, the expectation of death and the thought of it. If this were so, then not a single person would withstand the severity of it ... War is a combination of mortal danger, the constant possibility of being killed, chance and all the features and details of everyday life that are always present in our life ... A man at the front is busy with an infinite number of things , about which he constantly needs to think and because of which he has absolutely no time to think about his safety ... ”It was everyday everyday affairs, which all the time had to be distracted, helped the soldiers to overcome fear, gave the soldiers psychological stability.

65 years have passed since the end of the Great Patriotic War, but the point in its study has not yet been set: blank spots, unknown pages, unclear destinies, strange circumstances remain. And the theme of front-line life is the least studied in this series.

Bibliography

1. V. Kiselev. Fellow soldiers. Documentary storytelling. Publishing house "Nizhpoligraf", Nizhny Novgorod, 2005
2. IN AND. Belyaev. Fire, water and copper pipes. (Memories of an old soldier). Moscow, 2007
3. P. Lipatov. Uniforms of the Red Army and Navy. Encyclopedia of technology. Publishing house "Technics-youth". Moscow, 1995
4. Stock materials of the Unech Museum of Local Lore (front letters, diaries, memoirs of veterans).
5. Memories of World War II veterans recorded during personal conversations.

In addition to hostilities and the constant proximity of death, there is always another side to the war - the everyday life of the army. The man at the front not only fought, but was also preoccupied with the endless number of things he needed to remember.

Without a good organization of the life of servicemen in a combat situation, it is impossible to count on the successful completion of the assigned task. As you know, the organization of everyday life had a tremendous influence on the morale of the soldiers. Without this, a soldier in the course of hostilities cannot restore the expended moral and physical strength. What kind of recovery can a soldier count on if, for example, instead of a healthy sleep during rest, he itches violently to get rid of the itching. We tried to collect interesting photographs and facts of front-line life and compare the conditions in which Soviet and German soldiers fought.

Soviet dugout, 1942.

German soldiers on stand, Central Front, 1942-1943.

Soviet mortarmen in the trench.

German soldiers in a peasant hut, Central Front, 1943.

Cultural service of the Soviet troops: front-line concert. 1944 year.

German soldiers celebrate Christmas, Central Front, 1942.

Soldiers of Senior Lieutenant Kalinin dress after the bath. 1942 year.

German soldiers at dinner.

Soviet soldiers at work in a marching repair shop. 1943 year.

German soldiers shine shoes and sew up clothes.

First Ukrainian front. General form regimental laundry in the woods west of Lviv... 1943 year.

German soldiers at a halt.

Western front. Haircut and shaving of Soviet soldiers in the front-line hairdresser. August 1943.

Haircut and shave fighters German army.

North Caucasian Front. Female fighters during leisure hours. 1943 year.

German soldiers in free time at a halt.

Much in the life of a soldier, and at the front, depended on uniforms. From the recollection of Ivan Melnikov, a soldier of the Leningrad Front of the 1025th Separate Mortar Company: “We were given underpants, a shirt, a woolen tunic, a quilted jacket and wadded trousers, felt boots, a cap with earflaps, mittens. from us the Germans were dressed extremely lightly. They were dressed in greatcoats and caps, boots. In especially severe frosts they wrapped themselves in woolen shawls, wrapped their legs with rags, newspapers, just to save themselves from frostbite. This was the case at the beginning of the war near Moscow and later - near Stalingrad. The Germans could not get used to the Russian climate. "

Western front. Soviet soldiers on the front line during leisure hours. 1942 year.

Correspondence (by correspondence) marriage of a German soldier. The ceremony is conducted by the company commander, 1943.

An operation in a Soviet field hospital, 1943.

German Field Hospital, 1942.

One of the main issues of military life was the supply of the army and the military ration. It is clear that you cannot fight much for the hungry. Daily rate distribution of foodstuffs to the ground forces of the Wehrmacht for a day as of 1939:

Bread................................................. ...................... 750 grams
Cereals (semolina, rice) .................................... 8.6 grams
Pasta................................................. .............. 2.86 grams
Meat (beef, veal, pork) ............... 118.6 grams
Sausage................................................. ................. 42.56 grams
Lard-fat ............................................... ............... 17.15 grams
Animal and vegetable fats .............................. 28.56 grams
Cow butter ................................................ ....... 21.43 grams
Margarine................................................. .............. 14.29 grams
Sugar................................................. .................... 21.43 grams
Ground coffee................................................ ......... 15.72 grams
Tea................................................. ....................... 4 grams per week
Cocoa powder ............................................... ......... 20 grams (per week)
Potato................................................. ............. 1500 grams
-or beans (beans) ............................................ 365 grams
Vegetables (celery, peas, carrots, kohlrabi) ........ 142.86 grams
or canned vegetables .......................... 21.43 grams
Apples................................................. ................... 1 piece per week
Pickles................................................ ..... 1 piece per week
Milk................................................. .................. 20 grams per week
Cheese................................................. ....................... 21.57 grams
Eggs................................................. ...................... 3 pieces per week
Canned fish (sardines in oil) ...................... 1 can per week

German soldiers at a halt.

The daily ration was given to German soldiers once a day in whole at once, usually in the evening, with the onset of darkness, when it becomes possible to send food carriers to the rear to the field kitchen. The place of eating and the distribution of food for food during the day was determined by the soldier independently.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Nazi troops who fought on the Eastern Front revised the norms for the distribution of food, the supply of uniforms and footwear, and the consumption of ammunition. Their reduction and reduction played a certain positive role in the victory of the Soviet people in the war.

German soldiers at a meal.

Large containers equipped with shoulder straps were used to deliver food from the field kitchen to the fascist front line. They were of two types: with a large round screw lid and with a hinged lid with dimensions along the entire cross-section of the container. The first type was intended for the transportation of drinks (coffee, compotes, rum, schnapps, etc.), the second - for such dishes as soup, porridge, goulash.

The daily norm for the distribution of food to the Red Army and the commanding staff of the combat units of the active army of the Soviet Union as of 1941:

Bread: October-March ........................... 900 grams
April-September ............................... 800 grams
Wheat flour, 2nd grade ............. 20 grams
Different groats .............................. 140 grams
Pasta .................................... 30 grams
Meat .......................................... 150 grams
Fish ........................................... 100 grams
Fat and lard ........................... 30 grams
Vegetable oil ...................... 20 grams
Sugar ........................................... 35 grams
Tea ............................................... 1 gram
Salt ............................................ 30 grams
Vegetables:
- potatoes .................................. 500 grams
- cabbage ....................................... 170 grams
- carrots ........................................ 45 grams
- beets .......................................... 40 grams
- onions ................................. 30 grams
- greens ........................................... 35 grams
Makhorka .......................................... 20 grams
Matches .............................. 3 boxes per month
Soap .................................... 200 grams per month

June 1942. Sending freshly baked bread to the front line

It is worth noting that the food norms did not always reach the fighters completely - there was simply not enough food. Then the foremen of the divisions gave out instead of the established 900 grams of bread, only 850 grams, or even less. Such conditions encourage the command of the unit to use the help of the local population. And in difficult combat conditions, unit commanders often did not have the opportunity to pay due attention to the catering unit. No attendants were appointed, and basic sanitary conditions were not observed.

Field kitchen of Soviet soldiers.

Soviet soldiers during a meal.

When writing the article, materials were used

Vladimir NADEZHDIN The further the events of the Great Patriotic War go into history, the more various inaccuracies, conjectures, and even falsehoods and lies are superimposed on them.
Veterans note that in many literary works, television and movies, the truth is often distorted, especially when it comes about the details of military life. What was it like, how did the soldiers survive in frost and heat on the front line, between battles? The editors asked the veteran of the Great Patriotic War, which went from beginning to end, Mikhail Fedorovich ZAVOROTNY, to answer these and other questions. After the Victory, the former senior sergeant of the Red Army and Lieutenant of the Army Ludova worked in the republic in leading positions - he was the chairman of the Mogilev regional executive committee and deputy chairman of the State Planning Committee of the BSSR.

Mikhail Fedorovich, can we talk about some kind of orderliness in the soldier's life during the Great Patriotic War?
- The life of a soldier can be divided into several categories related to where this or that part was located. The people on the front line suffered the greatest hardships - there was no habitual washing, shaving, breakfast, lunch or dinner. There is a common cliche: they say, war is war, and lunch is on schedule. In fact, such a routine did not exist, and even more so there was no menu.
In this regard, I will cite one episode. Before the war, I was a cadet at the first Kiev artillery school, and when hostilities began, they began to push us to the front line of the defense of the Ukrainian capital. We stopped for a halt at the location of some military unit. There was a field kitchen where something was being cooked. A lieutenant came up in a new uniform with a creaky harness and asked the cook: "Ivan, what will be for lunch today?" He replied: "Borsch with meat and porridge with meat." The officer boiled: “What? I have people on earthworks, and you will feed them borscht with meat! Look at me - so that there is meat with borscht! "
But this was only on rare days of the war. It must be said that at that time it was decided not to allow the enemy to seize the collective farm cattle. They tried to take him out, and where possible, they handed him over military units.
The situation near Moscow in the winter of 1941-1942, when there was a forty-degree frost, was completely different. There was no talk of any dinner then. We then attacked, then retreated, regrouped our forces, and as such there was no trench warfare, which means that it was impossible even to somehow equip life. Usually, once a day, the foreman brought a thermos with gruel, which was simply called "food." If this happened in the evening, then there was dinner, and in the afternoon, which happened extremely rarely, there was lunch. They cooked what was enough food somewhere nearby, so that the enemy could not see the kitchen smoke. And they measured out each soldier a ladle in a bowler hat. A loaf of bread was cut with a two-handed saw, because in the cold it turned into ice. The soldiers hid their rations under their greatcoats in order to warm them at least a little.
Every soldier at that time had a spoon behind the bootleg, as we called it, a “trench tool” - an aluminum stamping. But I must say that it served not only as a cutlery, but also was a kind of " business card". The explanation for this is this: there was a belief that if you carry a soldier's medallion in your trouser pocket-piston: a small black plastic pencil case in which a note with data (surname, name, patronymic, year of birth, where you were called from) should lie, then you will definitely be killed ... Therefore, most of the fighters simply did not fill out this sheet, and some even threw out the medallion itself. But they scratched all their data on a spoon. And therefore, even now, when search engines find the remains of soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War, their names are established precisely by spoons.
During the offensive, they gave out dry rations - crackers or biscuits, canned food, but they really appeared in the diet when the Americans announced their entry into the war and began to provide The Soviet Union help. The dream of any soldier, by the way, was fragrant overseas sausages in cans.
- And were you really given out "front-line hundred grams"?
- Alcohol was given only on the front lines. How did this happen? The foreman came with a can, and in it there was some kind of cloudy liquid of light coffee color. A pot was poured into the compartment, and then each was measured with a cap from a 76-mm projectile: it was unscrewed before firing, releasing the fuse. It was 100 or 50 grams and no one knew what strength. He drank, "bit" on his sleeve, that's all the "booze". In addition, from the rear of the front, this alcohol-containing liquid reached the front line through many, as they say now, intermediaries, therefore, its volume and "degrees" decreased.
- It is often shown in films that a military unit is located in a village where living conditions are more or less human: you can wash, even go to the bathhouse, sleep on the bed ...
- This could only be in relation to headquarters located at some distance from the front line. And at the most advanced, the conditions were completely different - the most severe.
- And how were the soldiers dressed?
- We are lucky in this sense. The brigade in which I served was formed in Siberia, and God forbid everyone such equipment that we had. We had felt boots, ordinary and fleece footcloths, thin and warm underwear, cotton harem pants, and also cotton trousers, a tunic, a quilted quilted jacket, an overcoat, a comforter, a winter hat, and dog fur mittens. And when we arrived near Moscow, we saw other units: the soldiers were poorly dressed, many, especially the wounded, were frostbitten.
- But how long could you stand in the cold even in the same clothes as the soldiers of your unit? Where did you sleep?
- A person can endure even the most extreme conditions. They slept most often in the forest: you chop up the spruce branches, make a bed of them, cover yourself with these paws on top and lie down for the night. Of course, frostbite also happened: I still have a frostbitten finger making itself felt: they had to aim the gun's sight.
- And what about the notorious "dugout in three rolls", "fire beats in a small stove"?
- Throughout the war, I only set up dugouts three times. The first was during the reorganization of the brigade in the rear near Moscow. The second - after the hospital, when we, recovering, were again trained in military affairs near the city of Pugachev, Kuibyshev region. And the third - when I happened to serve in the partisans of the Human Army, formed from the local population and fighters of the Red Army who escaped from German captivity. Everything Polish officers served in the First Polish Division, formed in the USSR and took part in the battles near the town of Lenino in the Goretsky district of the Mogilev region. After appropriate training, 11 officers of the Polish Army and I (the radio operator) were parachuted into the deep rear of the Germans to be reinforced by command personnel. partisan units operating in the area of ​​Lodz, Czestochowa, Radomsko, Petrikova. Then, indeed, especially in winter, dugouts were dug, stove barrels were made, instead of beds, beds were dug in the ground, which were covered with spruce branches. But such dugouts were a very unsafe place: if a shell hit, then everyone who was there died. When the battles were fought at Stalingrad, the ravines-gullies that ran in the steppe were used as defensive structures, in which they dug similar caves, where they spent the night.
- But, probably, units and subunits were not always on the front line, they were replaced with fresh troops?
- In our army, this was not the case, they were withdrawn to the rear only when there was almost nothing left of the unit, except for its number, banner and a handful of soldiers. Then the connections and parts were sent for reformation. And among the Germans, Americans and the British, the principle of change was applied. Moreover, soldiers were given leave to travel home. In our country, from the entire 5-million army, and today I can say this very seriously, only for special merits, few received leave.
- There is famous words songs from the film "Shield and Sword": "for a month I did not take off my tunic, that did not unfasten my belts for a month." Was it really so?
- Near Moscow, we launched an offensive on December 5, 1941, and only on April 30, 1942, our brigade was withdrawn for reorganization, because there was almost nothing left of it. All this time we were on the front line and there could be no talk of any bathhouse or dressing up. There was nowhere to do it and there was no time. I can give only one example, when I had to "wash" - forcedly. This was during the liberation of the motherland of PI Tchaikovsky - the city of Klin. I saw a clump of hay on the ice of the Ruza River. And since our implements were horse-drawn, I thought: we must take and feed the horse. And although the frost reached 40 degrees, I, having walked only a few meters on the ice, fell into the water. It's good that we had 3-meter cleaning ramrods for cleaning cannon barrels. My comrades handed me such a pole and pulled it out of the river. The water immediately froze on me, and it was clear that I needed to warm up somewhere. The house of the great composer, who was on fire, saved me. I ran to him, stripped naked and began to warm up and dry my clothes. Everything ended well, only the dog's fur mittens broke and dried out. As soon as I had time to get dressed and run out of the house, its roof collapsed.
- But if it was not possible to observe the elementary rules of hygiene, then, probably, there was a danger of infectious diseases ...
- There was a problem of lice, especially in the warm season. But the sanitary services worked quite effectively in the troops. There were special "wipes" - cars with closed box bodies. Uniforms were loaded there and treated with hot air. But this was done in the rear. And on the front line, we kindled a fire so as not to violate the rules of disguise, took off our underwear and brought it closer to the fire. The lice just popped and burned! I want to note that even in such harsh conditions of unsettled life in the troops there was no typhus, which is usually carried by lice.
- And when the troops began to dress in sheepskin coats, for the supply of which to the USSR, it is alleged, almost all the sheep were put under the knife in Mongolia?
- They talk a lot about them, but in fact, very few received such uniforms. In the newspaper "Narodnaya Volya", in nine issues, there were published notes by a certain Ilya Kopyl, which allegedly tells the "truth" about the war. He writes: what kind of partisan movement could we talk about in Belarus? Like, these were the Moscow organizations of the NKVD, which were thrown from planes in luxurious white sheepskin coats. They organized sabotage against the Nazis, then hid in the forests, and local civilians suffered from such "provocations", which were dealt with by the angry Germans - right up to the burning of villages.
Moreover, this author, by the way, who served all his life in the Soviet army, however, already in peacetime, insists that there was no Great Patriotic War in Belarus, that Germany, in collusion with the Soviet Union, attacked Belarus. And the struggle on its territory was between the "Moscow partisans" and the policemen. This is absurd, because the BSSR was an integral part of the USSR! It turns out that our republic attacked itself ?!
It turns out that this person, being in the ranks of the Armed Forces of the USSR, and then Russia, wore a stone for his soul for 25 years and decided on this pseudo-revelation only when he received a high pension from the state: it is twice as much as that of me, a war veteran, and in further chairman of the Mogilev regional executive committee and deputy chairman of the State Planning Committee of the BSSR.
Personal memories of this war, if I may say so, come down to the fact that he, then a boy, was treated to a chocolate by the "kind" invaders.
The war veterans protested against this publication, setting up a picket outside the editorial office of Narodnaya Volya, and demanded an answer from the leaders of the newspaper, but Chief Editor I. Seredich explained this to the freedom of speech and press. A shame!
It should be understood that the youngest veterans who were called to the front during the Great Patriotic War were born in 1927, and they are already 83 years old today. A maximum of 10 years will pass, and there will be no direct participants in the war. Who will defend the truth about the struggle of our people against Hitler's expansion? Therefore, I believe that the republic needs a law that would protect the memory of the war from the encroachments of all sorts of falsifiers. After all, incitement to ethnic hatred is punishable in our country! Why do sabotage against the very foundations of the life of our people - its history - remain unpunished ?! Why are the ideological vertical, the Ministry of Defense, silent?
And if we return to those, frankly, inhuman conditions in which we had to fight, then only our people could withstand all these tests, no French, British or Americans could have endured such hardships and made a decisive contribution to the defeat of the brown plague.

Indeed, in books and in films, it was very rarely shown what was happening “behind the scenes” of military life. And, if we analyze it this way, then the same films do not show that part of the soldier's life that would be generally uninteresting for the viewer, but for the soldier it was probably the most significant.

This is a daily life.

It seems to be not such an interesting thing, but, nevertheless, significant. Most of all, the film "Only old men go to battle" was similar to the truth, but the living conditions of the pilots were somewhat different from those of the infantry or tankers. The latter, according to the directors, have nothing special to show.

Meanwhile, even in war conditions, attention was paid to the organization of everyday life. How good? Well, I would like it better, but what happened was what happened. And I would like to talk specifically about what happened in that war exactly when the battles subsided.

Food, sleep, warmth and a bath - that was what the fighter needed. But, despite the difficult conditions, people read books and newspapers, went to the cinema, took part in amateur performances, sang, danced to the accordion, listened to the radio and relaxed. However, mainly in the second echelon and on holidays. Five to ten times a year.

Let's leave food for later, let's talk about things that are even rarer in descriptions, but very significant. About sanitation.

“Feed the lice at the front” - probably everyone has heard this common phrase. Judging by the archival documents, the scale of the spread of pediculosis among the troops during the Great Patriotic War reached catastrophic proportions, and a whole sanitary armada was even created to fight lice, in which there were over a hundred special trains and disinfection units.

96 out of 100 fighters had lice.

So, for example, by September 1941, in parts of the Western Front, the "lice" of personnel exceeded 85%, on the Kalinin Front - 96%. There was not enough soap, baths and laundries. It was not up to everyday life at that difficult time. Plus, even during the war years, the quality of the soap produced in the country has sharply decreased and the supply of soda for washing has almost completely stopped.

At Headquarters, the stream of reports aroused concern, and personnel from the Research Testing Institute of the Red Army (NIISI KA) were thrown into the battle.

A scientific search brought the first practical results by the end of 1941: special bath-laundry and disinfection trains (BPDP) began to enter service with the Red Army, in which up to a hundred soldiers could be processed in an hour. Such trains consisted of 14-18 carriages: changing rooms, formalin chambers, showers, laundries and dryers. The locomotive provided steam and hot water this whole bath and laundry plant.

Special trains were disinfected at 100 soldiers per hour.

By the end of 1942, the Red Army already had over a hundred such trains. Naturally, the special trains could not squeeze out all the lice and nits at the front. They operated far from the front line and handled mainly the replenishment arriving in the active army, or the fighters of the units withdrawn for replenishment or reorganization.

The washing of the uniform was carried out by the field laundry teams (PPO) and the laundry and disinfection teams (PDO), which corroded the lice with a whole range of chemicals.

Insects were poisoned with turpentine, DDT and burned with fire.

The main means of fighting insects were "synthetic insecticides", which were used to treat the soldiers and their uniforms. At first, these were bisethylxanthogen, on the basis of which “soap K” and “preparation K-3”, chlorinated turpentine (SK) and its soap version SK-9, pyretol, anabazine sulfate and other products were made.

It is clear that for many reasons the orderlies could not handle every soldier of the Red Army.

And then the soldiers used folk methods of dealing with lice. For example, frying. In general terms, the action looked like this: lined gymnasts and quilted jackets were folded into a metal barrel, closed with a lid on top and fried over a fire. But often, along with the lice, uniforms also perished.

Frequent scallops were very popular in the trenches, which came to the front mainly through humanitarian aid from the population. The lice were simply combed out. As the front-line soldiers say, almost all had their hair cut to zero and even shaved off their eyebrows, tried not to wear short fur coats and other "lice".

And one more detail. Again, according to the stories, as soon as in late 1942 - early 1943 the food got better, the lice somehow calmed down. "Louse, she, an infection, loves the hungry and the weak," - the grandfather often used to say.

By the end of the war, the problem of head lice in the army began to fade away. One of the reasons was the normalization of the bath and laundry service for the troops. So, if in 1942 the soldiers washed in the bath 106,636,000 times, then in 1944 it was almost 3 times more - 272,556,000 times. In 1942, the rear divisions disinfected 73,244,000 sets of uniforms, and in 1944 - already 167.6 million sets.

“Nemchura had rich woolen blankets,” my grandfather Nikolai recalled. Considering that in the dispositions of the Germans, he often found himself earlier than other soldiers, and even then, when the Germans were not going to retreat, he could well get out of hand. But ... The woolen blankets of the Germans were just breeding grounds for insects.

During the war, the treatment of patients consisted in the use of various ointments, and the Demyanovich method was also common, according to which naked patients rubbed a solution of hyposulfite into the body from top to bottom, and then hydrochloric acid. There is a feeling of pressure on the skin, similar to rubbing with wet sand. After treatment, the patient may feel itching for another 3-5 days as a reaction to killed ticks. At the same time, many fighters during the war managed to get sick with these diseases dozens of times ...

Generally, washing in a bath and passing sanitization passed, mainly being in the second echelon, that is, without taking direct part in the battles.

In the summer, the fighters had the opportunity to swim in rivers, streams, collect rainwater... In winter, it was not always possible not only to find a ready-made bathhouse built by the local population, but also to build a temporary one.

Here, especially in places where it is problematic to build a bath (the same Rostov steppes, for example), another invention of NIISI KA came to the rescue - the autobahn.

Actually, a truck with a sealed body, in which a stove and a water tank are mounted. But where there is no firewood, and the stove on diesel fuel was quite.

Front-line life was definitely one of the factors of the combat effectiveness of personnel, it created conditions when the presence of the most necessary phenomena in the life of soldiers became vital.

Soldiers and officers lived in such conditions when the most necessary things for life support, such as food, washing in a bath and sanitizing, pay and free time from service became practically the only pleasures available. And since they were often absent, their presence turned into a self-sufficient complex of "joys of life."

But you still had to fight ...

And nevertheless, the lice were harassed, shoes and uniforms were repaired, pots were soldered, razors were sharpened. It was a whole army of those who helped the soldiers to overcome hardships and hardships.

We can talk for a long time about how bad or not entirely bad the life of the front line of Soviet soldiers was. It should also be said that, unlike the German army, vacations in the Red Army were rare, one of the highest awards. So it was not bad to be away from the front line, after the bath, in a clean one. It helped.

Just a series of photographs telling that the front-line life was trying to establish, if not properly, then at least just to establish.

Probably, it turned out better than that of the Germans. Judging by the result, isn't it?

The theme of the history of the Great Patriotic War is multifaceted. For many years the war was described from the point of view of political leadership, the state of the fronts in relation to "manpower" and equipment. The role of the individual in warfare was highlighted as part of a gigantic mechanism. Particular attention was paid to the ability of the Soviet soldier to fulfill the command of the commander at any cost, the readiness to die for the Motherland. The prevailing image of war was questioned during the Khrushchev "thaw". It was then that memoirs of participants in the war, notes of war correspondents, letters from the front, diaries began to be published - sources that are least affected. "Difficult topics" were raised in them, "white spots" were revealed. The topic of a man in war has come to the fore. Since this topic is vast and diverse, it is not possible to reveal it within the framework of one article.

On the basis of letters from the front, memoirs, diary entries, as well as unpublished sources, the authors will nevertheless try to illuminate some of the problems of front-line life during the Patriotic War of 1941-1945. How the soldier lived at the front, in what conditions he fought, how he was dressed, what he ate, what he did in short respites between battles - all these questions are important, it was the solution of these everyday problems that in many ways ensured victory over the enemy. At the initial stage of the war, soldiers wore a tunic with a fold-down collar, with special overlays at the elbows. Usually these linings were made of tarpaulin. The tunic was worn with pants that had the same canvas overlays at the knees. On the feet are boots and windings. It was they who were the main grief of the soldiers, especially the infantry, since it was this type of troops that went to them. They were uncomfortable, fragile, and heavy. This type of shoe was driven by cost savings. After the publication of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in 1939, the USSR army increased to 5.5 million people in two years. It was impossible to put boots on everyone.

They saved on leather, boots were sewn from the same tarpaulin 2. Until 1943, an indispensable attribute of an infantryman was a roll over his left shoulder. This is an overcoat, which for mobility was rolled up and put on so that the soldier did not experience inconvenience when shooting. In other cases, the roll-up was a lot of hassle. If in the summer, during the transition, the infantry was attacked by German aviation, then because of the roll, the soldiers were visible on the ground. Because of her, it was impossible to quickly escape into the field or shelter. And in the trench they simply threw her at her feet - it would not have been possible to turn around with her. The soldiers of the Red Army also had three types of uniforms: everyday, guard and weekend, each of which had two options - summer and winter. In the period from 1935 to 1941, numerous minor changes were made to the clothing of the Red Army.

The field uniform of the 1935 model was made from material of various shades of khaki. The main distinguishing element was a gymnast, which was the same cut for the soldiers and resembled a Russian peasant shirt. Gymnastics were also summer and winter. Summer uniforms were made of cotton fabric of a lighter color, and winter uniforms were made of woolen fabric, which was distinguished by a richer, darker color. The officers were girded with a wide leather belt with a brass buckle decorated with a five-pointed star. The soldiers wore a simpler belt with an open buckle. In the field, soldiers and officers could wear two types of gymnasts: casual and weekend. The weekend tunic was often called a jacket. The second main element of the uniform was the trousers, also called breeches. Soldier's trousers had diamond-shaped reinforcing patches on the knees. As footwear, officers wore high leather boots, and soldiers wore boots with windings or tarpaulin boots. In winter, servicemen wore an overcoat made of brownish-gray cloth. Soldier's and officer's overcoats of the same cut, nevertheless, differed in quality. The Red Army used several types of headgear. Most of the units wore budenovkas, which had a winter and summer version. However, at the end of the 30s, the summer budenovka

everywhere was superseded by a garrison cap. The officers wore caps in the summer. In units stationed in Central Asia and in the Far East, instead of garrison caps, they wore wide-brimmed panamas. In 1936, a new helmet began to be supplied to equip the Red Army. In 1940, noticeable changes were made to the design of the helmet. Officers everywhere wore caps, the cap was an attribute of the officer's power. Tankers wore a special helmet made of leather or tarpaulin. In the summer they used a lighter version of the helmet, and in the winter they wore a helmet with a fur lining. The equipment of the Soviet soldiers was strict and simple. The 1938 model canvas duffel bag was widespread. However, not everyone had real duffel bags, so after the start of the war, many soldiers threw away gas masks and used gas masks as duffel bags. According to the charter, each soldier armed with a rifle was supposed to have two leather cartridge bags. The bag could store four clips for the Mosin rifle - 20 rounds. Cartridge bags were worn on a waist belt, one on the side.

The officers used a small bag, which was made of either leather or tarpaulin. There were several types of such bags, some of them were carried over the shoulder, some were hung from a waist belt. On top of the bag was a small tablet. Some officers wore large leather tablets that they hung from a waist belt under their left hand. In 1943, the Red Army adopted a new uniform that was radically different from the one used until then. The system of insignia has also changed. The new tunic was very similar to the one used in the tsarist army and had a stand-up collar fastened with two buttons. The main distinguishing feature of the new uniform was shoulder straps. There were two types of shoulder straps: field and everyday. Field shoulder straps were made of khaki fabric. On the shoulder straps near the button, they wore a small gold or silver badge, denoting the type of troops. The officers wore a cap with a black leather chin strap. The color of the band of the cap depended on the type of troops. In winter, the generals and colonels of the Red Army had to wear hats, and the rest of the officers received ordinary earflaps. The rank of sergeants and foremen was determined by the number and width of the stripes on the shoulder straps.

The edging of the shoulder straps was in the colors of the military branch. From small arms In the first years of the war, the legendary "three-line", Mosin's three-line rifle, model 1891, enjoyed great respect and love among the soldiers. Many soldiers gave them names and considered the rifle a real comrade in arms that never failed in difficult battle conditions. But, for example, the SVT-40 rifle was not liked because of its capriciousness and strong recoil. Interesting information about the life and life of soldiers is contained in such sources of information as memoirs, front-line diaries and letters, least of all subject to ideological influence. For example, it was traditionally believed that soldiers lived in dugouts and pillboxes. This is not entirely true, most of the soldiers were located in trenches, trenches, or simply in the nearest forest, not regretting it at all. It was always very cold in the pillboxes at that time there were no autonomous heating and autonomous gas supply systems, which we now use, for example, to heat the dacha, and therefore the soldiers preferred to spend the night in the trenches, throwing branches on the bottom and stretching out a raincoat-tent on top.

The food of the soldiers was simple "Cabbage soup and porridge - our food" - this proverb accurately characterizes the ration of soldier's bowlers of the first months of the war and, of course, the soldier's best friend cracker, a favorite delicacy especially in field conditions, for example, on a military march. Also, a soldier's life in meek periods of rest cannot be imagined without the music of songs and books that gave rise to a good mood and raised good spirits. Still, the most important role in the victory over fascism was played by the psychology of the Russian soldier, who is able to cope with any everyday difficulties, overcome fear, withstand and win. During the war, the treatment of patients consisted in the use of various ointments, and the Demyanovich method was also widespread, according to which the naked patients rubbed into the body - from top to bottom - a solution of hyposulfite, and then hydrochloric acid.

There is a feeling of pressure on the skin, similar to rubbing with wet sand. After treatment, the patient may feel itching for another 3-5 days, as a reaction to killed ticks. At the same time, many fighters during the war managed to get sick with these diseases dozens of times. In general, washing in the bathhouse and undergoing sanitization of both the "old men" and the replenishment arriving in the unit took place mainly while in the second echelon, that is, without taking direct part in the battles. Moreover, washing in the bath was most often timed to coincide with spring and autumn. In the summer, the soldiers had the opportunity to swim in rivers, streams, collect rainwater. In winter, it was not always possible not only to find a ready-made bathhouse built by the local population, but also to build it ourselves - a temporary one. When one of the Smershevo heroes in Bogomolov's famous novel "The Moment of Truth (In August 1944)" pours out freshly prepared stew before an unexpected transition to another place, this is a typical case for a front-line life. The redeployments of units were sometimes so frequent that not only military fortifications, but also household premises were often abandoned soon after their construction. In the morning the Germans washed in the bathhouse, during the day - the Magyars, and in the evening - ours. The life of a soldier can be divided into several categories related to where this or that part was located. The people on the front line suffered the greatest hardships, there was no habitual washing, shaving, breakfast, lunch or dinner.

There is a common cliche: they say, war is war, and lunch is on schedule. In fact, such a routine did not exist, and even more so there was no menu. It must be said that at that time it was decided not to allow the enemy to seize the collective farm cattle. They tried to take him out, and where possible, they handed him over to military units. The situation near Moscow in the winter of 1941-1942, when there was a forty-degree frost, was completely different. There was no talk of any dinner then. The soldiers then attacked, then retreated, regrouped their forces, and as such there was no trench warfare, which means that it was impossible even to somehow equip life. Usually, once a day, the foreman brought a thermos with gruel, which was simply called "food." If this happened in the evening, then there was dinner, and in the afternoon, which happened extremely rarely, lunch. They cooked what was enough food somewhere nearby, so that the enemy could not see the kitchen smoke. And they measured out each soldier a ladle in a bowler hat. A loaf of bread was cut with a two-handed saw, because in the cold it turned into ice. The soldiers hid their rations under their greatcoats in order to warm them at least a little. Every soldier at that time had a spoon behind the bootleg, as we called it, an “entrenching tool”, an aluminum stamping.

She played the role of not only a cutlery, but also was a kind of "visiting card". The explanation for this is this: there was a belief that if you carry a soldier's medallion in your trouser pocket-piston: a small black plastic pencil case in which there should be a note with data (last name, first name, patronymic, year of birth, where you were called from), then you will definitely be killed. Therefore, most of the fighters simply did not fill out this sheet, and some even threw out the medallion itself. But they scratched all their data on a spoon. And therefore, even now, when search engines find the remains of soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War, their names are established precisely by spoons. During the offensive, they gave out dry rations of crackers or biscuits, canned food, but they really appeared in the diet when the Americans announced their entry into the war and began to provide assistance to the Soviet Union.

The dream of any soldier, by the way, was fragrant overseas sausages in cans. Alcohol was given only on the front lines. How did this happen? The foreman came with a can, and in it there was some kind of cloudy liquid of light coffee color. A pot was poured into the compartment, and then each was measured with a cap from a 76-mm projectile: it was unscrewed before firing, releasing the fuse. It was 100 or 50 grams and no one knew what strength. He drank, "bit" on his sleeve, that's all the "booze". In addition, from the rear of the front, this alcohol-containing liquid reached the front line through many, as they say now, intermediaries, therefore, its volume and "degrees" decreased. Films often show that a military unit is located in a village where living conditions are more or less human: you can wash, even go to the bathhouse, sleep on the bed ... But this could only be in relation to headquarters located at some distance from the front line.

And at the most advanced, conditions were completely different as harsh as possible. The Soviet brigades, which were formed in Siberia, had good equipment: felt boots, ordinary and fleece footcloths, thin and warm underwear, cotton trousers, and also wadded trousers, a tunic, a quilted quilted jacket, an overcoat, a comforter, a winter hat and mittens made of dog fur. A person can endure even the most extreme conditions. Soldiers slept, most often in the forest: you chop up the spruce branches, make a bed of them, cover yourself with these paws on top and lie down for the night. Of course, frostbite also happened. In our army, they were withdrawn to the rear only when there was almost nothing left of the unit, except for its number, banner and a handful of soldiers. Then the connections and parts were sent for reformation. And the Germans, Americans and British applied the principle of change: units and subunits were not always on the front line, they were replaced with fresh troops. Moreover, soldiers were given leave to travel home.

In the Red Army, of the entire 5-million-strong army, only a few received leave for special merits. There was a problem of lice, especially in the warm season. But the sanitary services worked quite effectively in the troops. There were special "wipes" of cars with closed box bodies. Uniforms were loaded there and treated with hot air. But this was done in the rear. And on the front line, the soldiers kindled a fire so as not to violate the rules of disguise, took off their underwear and brought it closer to the fire. The lice just popped and burned! I would like to note that even in such harsh conditions of unsettled life in the troops there was no typhus, which is usually carried by lice. Interesting Facts: 1) A special place was occupied by the use of alcohol by personnel. Almost immediately after the start of the war, alcohol was officially legalized at the highest state level and included in the daily supply of personnel.

The soldiers considered vodka not only as a means of psychological relief, but also as an indispensable medicine in the conditions of Russian frosts. It was impossible without her, especially in winter; bombing, shelling, tank attacks had such an effect on the psyche that they were saved only with vodka. 2) Letters from home meant a lot to the soldiers at the front. Not all soldiers received them, and then, listening to the reading of the letters sent to comrades, everyone experienced as their own. In response, they wrote mainly about the conditions of front-line life, leisure, simple soldiers' entertainment, friends and commanders. 3) There were also moments of rest at the front. A guitar or accordion sounded. But the real holiday was the arrival of amateur performances. And there was no more grateful spectator than a soldier, who, perhaps, in a few hours had to go to his death. It was difficult for a man in the war, it is difficult to watch a killed comrade fall nearby, it is difficult to dig graves in hundreds. But our people lived and survived in this war. The unpretentiousness of the Soviet soldier, his heroism made the victory closer every day.

Literature.

1. Abdulin M.G. 160 pages from a soldier's diary. - M .: Young Guard, 1985.

2. Great Patriotic War 1941-1945: encyclopedia. - M .: Soviet encyclopedia, 1985.

3. Gribachev N.M. When you become a soldier ... / N.М. Gribachev. - M .: DOSAAF USSR, 1967.

4. Lebedintsev A.Z., Mukhin Yu.I. Fathers-commanders. - M .: Yauza, EKSMO, 2004 .-- 225 p.

5. Lipatov P. Uniforms of the Red Army and the Wehrmacht. - M .: Publishing House "Technics - Youth", 1995.

6. Sinitsyn A.M. National assistance to the front / A.M. Sinitsyn. - Moscow: Military Publishing, 1985 .-- 319 p.

7. Khrenov M.M., Konovalov I.F., Dementyuk N.V., Terovkin M.A. Military clothing Armed Forces USSR and Russia (1917-1990s). - Moscow: Military Publishing, 1999.

I.S. Ivanova