Ivan

Attachment #9 Teaching Opportunity #4: Teaching about People - how the mythological Russian soldier became a hero. I. As teachers, most of us have a fairly good understanding of the German soldier in WWII. However, we all need a better understanding of the Russian soldier who fought in World War II. A. In the process of this research, at least three really broad questions arose about the Soviet soldier: 1. Why do we so know little about the soldiers who fought in the Red Army? We know a great deal about the soldiers in World War II who fought on the Western and Pacific fronts, so why is there little understanding of the soldiers who fought for the Red Army on the Eastern Front? 2. Who were the soldiers who fought in the Red Army? 3. What were the experiences of the soldiers who fought in the Red Army? II. Why do we so know little about the soldiers who fought in the Red Army? A. The Soviet archives were closed for over 40 years after the war ended. Thus, historians and journalists could not learn much about the soldiers. B. It was illegal for soldiers to keep diaries at the front – so those who did had to write in secrecy. Since there is no central repository for such writings, most of these have been kept in families for the past 60 years. C. Prior to, during, and after the War, the USSR perpetrated the “hero myth” about soldiers in the Red Army. 1. We can see this in visual form in this brief clip from the Hollywood blockbuster movie, Enemy at the Gates about the battle between two snipers at Stalingrad. [MOVIE EXCERPT – On the DVD, go to Frame #8 and begin half way through the frame.] a. Vassily Zaitsev, the main character in the film, was a real Russian soldier and heroic sniper in the battle at Stalingrad. He was, however, only a subject of 3 pages in the book Enemy at the Gate, and it is unclear whether or not the incident between Vassily and a German officer ever actually occurred.1 1 The story of Enemy at the Gates is as follows. The Sniper was key to harassing and demoralizing the attacking German forces. As the struggle for Stalingrad ensued, the snipers involved became Soviet heroes. One of them was Vassili Zaitsev. He became famous after the press had discovered that he accomplished nearly 40 kills in a ten day period. He was reknown for taking out his targets using a single round. It was a skill he had learned while shooting deer in the forests around Elininski, his home in the Ural Mountain foothills. On September 20, 1942, Zaitsev went to Stalingrad with the 284th Rifles Division. As his accomplishments made him a national hero, and as his fame spread across no-man's-land, the Germans took an inordinate interest in him. Major Koning was dispatched to Stalingrad from Berlin for the express purpose of eliminating 1 b. In general, the Soviet Sniper has been glorified and romanticized in film and print. These soldiers - both men and women carried a great deal of responsibility when they entered the battle. c. The general perception of snipers is that they are cold hearted assassins, natural born shooters and larger than life heroes. In fact, they were former factory workers, school girls and clerks. They came from every walk of life and were humble and self-sacrificing. 2. Another group especially prone to the patriotic, heroic myth was the partisans – the group of guerrilla fighters who prepared the way for the Red Army behind enemy lines by blowing up bridges and railways and cutting German supply lines. They formed a “parallel army in the woods” where they organized party meetings and helped “remind the people of the joys of Soviet life.” (Merridale, 144) 3. In her great book, Ivan’s War, Catherine Merridale, describes her historical understanding of the USSR’s hero myth. [OVERHEAD – MERRIDALE] 4. The USSR officially censored and banned all other stories that might mention panic, fear, cowardice, rape, desertion drunkenness, trauma, swearing. 5. Officially sanctioned songs and epic poems celebrating war heroes were encouraged and celebrated. 6. The most famous of all poems was Vasili Tyorkin: A Book About A Soldier, published in 1944 by Aleksandr Tvardovsky and winner of the Stalin Prize. [GO TO http://www.sovlit.com/tyorkin/ FOR THE FULL POEM] 7. Catherine Merridale found in her discussions with over 200 Red Army war veterans and hundreds of civilians that “the weight of years of the patriotic myths…was hard to lift now, in people’s extreme old age.” (Merridale, 9) D. War commemoration after the war became “an industry of sorts.” (Merridale, 10) Beginning with the leadership of Leonid Brezhnev, almost every medium to large city built huge Soviet style memorials to the war, to the war dead, and to the war veterans. the top Soviet snipers. Vassili Zaitsev, was high on his list. The Soviets learned of Konig's mission through interrogating a prisoner. Antony Beevor wrote, "Like Zaitsev, Koning first made a careful study of the terrain and of his victims before attempting a kill. When two Soviet snipers were killed by single rifle shots, Zaitsev began counter-stalking Koning himself. The duel lasted for several days. During this time Koning shot a political officer named Danilov who was "covering" the duel for Soviet propaganda (Danilov accompanied Zaitsev and stupidly gave away their position). Zaitsev finally got Koning by offering another sniper, his assistant Zulikov, as bait. Zulikov positioned himself and lifted his helmet over a wall, where Koning put a bullet through it. Kulikov cried out as if hit. Koning made the fatal mistake of exposing himself to confirm the kill, and Zaitsev shot him dead. The telescopic sight of his prey's rifle, allegedly Zaitsev's most treasured trophy, is still exhibited in the Moscow armed forces museum, but this dramatic story remains essentially unconvincing. It is worth noting that there is absolutely no mention of it in any reports.* "*Antony Beevor - Stalingrad, The fateful siege : 1942 - 1943. See http://www.russian-mosinnagant.com/soviet_sniper_article.htm 2 1. The Russian government had, and continues to have, a stake in preserving the soldier’s myth. Research otherwise is discouraged by the state which knows that “commemoration comforts the survivors and raises national morale.” (Merridale, 10-11) 2. Today, when a couple marries in Russia, it is traditional to go to a war memorial after the ceremony for photographs. E. The U.S. Department of the Army used racial myths and stereotypes perpetrated by the Nazis to inform American soldiers about the combat methods of Soviet soldiers during World War II. 1. In 1950, the Dept. of the Army published a pamphlet entitled Combat Methods in World War II. This is an excerpt from the second part which describes “the peculiarities of the Russian soldier.” [OVERHEAD – EXCERPT] III. Who were the soldiers who fought in the Red Army? While it is impossible to provide characteristics that describe every Red Army soldier, the following describe most of the Soviet soldiers. A. They were both victors and victims. 1. Victors - They brought WWII to an end. 2. Victims - of one of the “cruelest regimes of modern times.” (Merridale, 7) a. These were men and women who had survived two decades of turmoil at the hands of the Soviet state: collectivization, purges of the peasants, and purges of the Red Army. Over 15 million Russians were killed during these two decades. b. “It was ironic that their state should have instilled in them a sense of pride so powerful that few could see how thoroughly it disinherited them.” (Merridale, 8). B. They were “profoundly steeped in Soviet propaganda” – Soviet propaganda that had been around for 15 years before Hitler came to power and began his political indoctrination. 1. They had been shaped to see themselves not merely as citizens in uniform but as the self-conscious vanguard of a revolution, the spearhead of a just war.” (Merridale, 16) 2. Most grew up with war movies that portrayed the Soviet Union as a socialist paradise where “Stalin and his loyal aides do all the worrying so that the children of the revolution can be free.” (Merridale, 25) Two movies were particularly powerful portrayals – both of which are listed in the annotated book list we will distribute at the end of today. a. Alexander Nevsky (1938) was an anti-fascist story of Russian victory over German invaders in the 13th Century. Although the Teutonic knights were the invaders of the glorious and victorious Slavs, the movie has direct 3 references to the politics of 1930 – down to the swastikas on the Teutonic knight’s shields. b. If There is War Tomorrow (1938) told the story of what would happen if the motherland were to be attacked by the Fascist Germans. It stages a night-time invasion to which the Soviet patriots – men and women alike – respond with patriotic fervor. Whenever the Soviet forces engage with the fascist enemy, the Germans run for their life. The utlimate message is that the patriotic Soviet people, fueled by their faith in the system, will triumph. c. These, and other movies had two goals: 1) To tell the Soviet people that the price of their freedom is to always be prepared for war. 2) To assure the Soviet people that war will eventually lead to the destruction of capitalism. C. They believed that socialism – despite it cruelties – would bring a better life. (Merridale, 39) “They were born into the Soviet system and knew no other.” (Merridale, 40). 1. They were taught that love for the Motherland involved preparedness for future wars; that service to Russia – military or civil – was an honor; that death of their country was “something from which no hero would shirk.” (Merridale, 41). 2. They believed that socialism provided them with the chance for a golden future and gave them hope for a better tomorrow. D. They were extraordinarily diverse. 1. They were draftees and volunteers, peasants (3/4 of the Soviet infantry were peasants) and skilled industrial workers, ordinary men and women and professional soldiers, non-religious Marxists and pious Catholics and Muslims. 2. They spoke dozens of languages. 3. They came from many different regions. While the majority came from Russia, and the second largest group came from the Ukraine, they also came from the newly-conquered frontier territories – the former Polish territories of Belorussia and the Baltics. [MAP at http://www.libraries.psu.edu/maps/ww2exhibit3.htm a. With each new Soviet occupation, the new frontier territory had a required Red Army quota. These were different soldiers – glad to be delivered from the Nazis, but not raised with collectivization or Soviet propaganda. Some were intensely religious and tied to religious ritual. Many did not speak Russian. 4 b. These cultural, linguistic, political, regional, religious, and class differences were problems for the Red Army leadership which was required to infuse political indoctrination into the daily training and wartime activities. E. They witnessed the extreme contrast between the economic depression and suffering in Europe and the U.S. and the full employment and rapid economic growth of the USSR. 1. In 1938, the USSR had the largest engineering industry in Europe. 2. In 1941, the USSR had more tanks than the rest of the world combined. F. They were almost completely isolated from the outside world. They lived in what Merridale (p. 30) called a “sealed universe.” Thus, they had no way to compare their lives with foreigners. The only things they knew about the outside world were the evils of fascism and capitalism as explained by the Soviet state. G. They were terrified that their fascist enemies were gathering the strength to invade and to rob them of their freedom. Soviet movies and propaganda assured them that this was a reality. 1. They believed it was necessary to unite the Russian people against their shared enemy – the fascists and capitalists. Their freedom could only be insured by defeating their enemies. H. They had few, if any, outlets for discussion, dissent, or protest. Thus, they “were bound together by shared awe, shared faith, shared dread.” (Merridale, 45) IV. What were the experiences of the soldiers who fought in the Red Army? A. Essentially, there were two Red Armies. 1. The first Red Army consisted of older men, conscripts, and volunteers who were poorly trained and prepared for war, and subsequently suffered great defeats during the first 18 months of the war. 2. The second Red Army consisted of younger boys and men, as well as women, who were children when the war began and came of age to enlist by the end of 1942. B. Experiences of the first Red Army. Before the war as well as throughout the first 12-18 months of the war, the 1. The soldier’s life had little room for conventional military training; this meant that at the time of the German invasion, the Red Army was unprepared for battle. Instead of military training, the soldier’s life consisted primarily of rigorous agricultural duties as well as daily ideological and political instruction. a. Because the army had to be fed, many soldiers spent long days raising crops and animals for their meager rations. 5 b. While the infantry was trained to shoot, there were not enough guns for recruits to train with. Those of you who saw Enemy at the Gates should remember the scene where the officer is telling the new recruits – “The first soldier gets a gun. When he is killed, the second soldier picks it up.” c. Politics permeated every part of their military lives. 1) The politruks – political officers in the Red Army – were essentially spies for the Communist party who conducted all the educational, ideological indoctrination with the soldiers, were present at all military drills, and were largely responsible for discipline. They were widely hated by the soldiers s they were obliged to inform in monthly reports any misconduct or anything suspicious among the soldiers. 2) They also shadowed the officers – along with political commisars2 – and insisted that they give priority to the indoctrination of Communist values over military training. (Merridale, 71). Resistance or being discourteous to a politruk could cost an officer his job. d. Thus, the Red Army was, as Merridale states, “a piece of work in progress.” (76) They were not equipped with the “real demands of modern war,” but instead with “images of manliness, heroism, and selfsacrifice.” 2. The soldiers did not form cohesive groups with loyal bonds of camaraderie like the Germans and the Allied soldiers. Such comradeship was discouraged by the Party as they might conspire against the government (Merridale, 78) The only bonds were party spirit and party support, which was of no help when the soldiers faced a crisis. 3. Most soldiers believed they were heroes when they went to war; at the war’s end, however, every soldier “had to know that his life was cheap.” (Merridale, 157) They had been expendable to Stalin, something they did not really understand until the war was over. a. We especially see this in the Russian film, Come and See. This Russian film views the Eastern Front through the eyes of a Russian child partisan who has witnessed the atrocities the German troops committed against the Soviet civilian population in Byelorussia. In the movie, we see him joyously enlisting in the war against the wishes of his mother, and then we slowly watch how he loses his belief in heroism. At the end of the movie, after the Einsatzgruppen have killed all the people in one village by burning them to death, we see the Russian soldiers responding to their German captors. [COME AND SEE CLIP – GO TO FRAME #14 AND BEGIN WITH BLOND NAZI SPEAKS THROUGH THE KILLING AND CONCENTRATION CAMP PHOTOS – ABOUT 4 MINUTES. THIS SCENE OCCURS AFTER SOVIET TROOPS HAVE CAPTURED THE GERMANS WHO HAVE JUST DESTROYED AN ENTIRE RUSSIAN VILLAGE.] 2 A commissar is a political appointee who works at military headquarters who holds coequal rank and authority with his military counterpart. 6 b. We also see discontent in the Red Army in the number of desertions. After the Winter War with Finland, thousands deserted, especially those living in the newly conquered frontier territories. 4. The soldiers had to fight a war on two fronts – the miserable war of the battlefield and the created war of Stalin’s propaganda machine fed by thousands of state-sponsored journalists and writers. B. Experiences of the Second Red Army. By late 1942, the Red Army largely consisted of a new generation of young men and women (some 800,000 served at the front throughout the war) who had been children when the war began. 1. The soldiers gradually formed a core of a professional army based on professional military training. a. This professionalism was assisted by the increase in mass production of war supplies and the introduction of the T-34 tank, as well as lend-lease military aid from the U.S. b. It was also fueled by Stalin’s Order No. 227 in which the new slogan became “Not a step back!” Anyone who were “panicmongers and cowards must be destroyed on the spot.” A new group of “blocking units” were assigned to guard the rear and kill anyone who lagged behind or ran away.3 c. Consequently, a new military discipline arose via a series of plans that begin to take place in late 1942 and were firmly in place by the early months of 1943. 1) The officer corp was cleared of incompetent leaders with little training and replaced with younger, more professional officers with recent battlefield experience. 2) The politruks’ privileged role within the structure of command ended. They still worked on political consciousness and party issues, but they no longer had any voice in military decisions. 3) Professional officers received more autonomy to make battle decisions. 4) The officers began to emphasize the skill of infantrymen, rather than their class or social origin that had previously defined his role. 5) Officers began a campaign to improve the uniforms and general appearance of all soldiers. 6) New orders established a series of rules to award military decorations. 2. The soldiers developed friendships and solidarity among the troops grew, even though they continued to be watched and monitored by Soviet agents. 3. The soldiers’ experience focused on professional military training that was necessary to their success in the field rather than the hardcore ideological training of their predecessors. 3 There are no exact figures for those who were shot for retreating or as “betrayers of the motherland.” Merridale states that at Stalingrad, it was believed that as many as 13,500 were shot. (p. 157) 7 C. The universal experiences of the soldiers in the Red Army. While there clearly was no typical soldier, all were shaped by several common experiences. 1. The soldiers became estranged from their families – from civilians – who could never understand their combat experiences. a. Thus, the war “shattered, not united, the Soviet people.” (Merridale, 233) b. All found it difficult to adapt to a peaceful world, to a world without set rules, routines, and camaraderie. “As they said good-bye to he people who knew just what war was about, to the only people who could ever understand their stories, they were losing their true spiritual family.” (Merridale, 357) 2. The soldiers felt betrayed by the Soviet government which had not protected their families while they were fighting. (Merridale, 235) 3. The soldiers knew very little in terms of actual facts about the war in terms of Red Army and civilian deaths, injuries, or POWs. Such figures were collected but deliberately kept from the people. 4. The soldiers learned to fight ferociously not necessarily because they supported Stalin and the motherland, but because the Nazi alternative was even more horrific. c. They knew that if they were taken as POWs, they would be murdered, starved, or used as slave labor. d. Because they had witnessed the Nazi atrocities in villages throughout Russia and later in Poland and the Ukraine, they knew the extreme cruelties of the soldiers and Hitlerian orders. 5. The soldiers who had not been propelled to fight by ideology or fear, were eventually energized by rage, hate, and revenge toward the fascist enemy. Everything was blamed on the Germans, not on the Soviet State. a. According to the politruks after 1942, “The soldiers’ rage in battle must be terrible. He does not merely seek to fight; he must also be the embodiment of the court of his people’s justice.” (as quoted in Merridale, 302) b. Many soldiers had to deal with huge rage when they entered capitalist Germany and saw all that the Germans had. They could not understand how a people with so much could invade another people with so little. 6. The soldiers either participated in large scale violence against the Germans they “liberated,” or they overlooked the violence perpetrated by their fellow soldiers. a. The extent of rape, burnings, murder, theft, and pillage was too large for the Red Army soldiers to ignore. 8 b. Yet, when the war was over, “it disappeared from Soviet consciousness.” (Merridale, 311) 7. The soldiers ended the war with a new priority – real change in Soviet society, not promises of future happiness. a. They shared a widespread belief that they had sacrificed much for the war, and they wanted modest changes – more freedom, more education, a livelier cultural life, better living conditions. (Merridale, 340) b. Unfortunately, neither their requests nor their hopes were met. 9