We continue the project for the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Our stories about hero cities and cities of military glory. Today - Tver. The Nazis were able to occupy this line. But they immediately found themselves in a trap. They were not allowed to move from there to Moscow.
Vladimir Mitrofanov saw the war very close on the streets of his native city, which was then called Kalinin, now it is Tver. When the Germans captured the city, he was only 8 years old. What I saw in childhood was etched in my memory for the rest of my life.
“We found ourselves on the defensive, where the Germans were. On the left bank of the Volga there were ours, and on the right bank we were with the Germans. I saw how our planes were burning, how the pilots were falling. I, too, was shell-shocked,” recalls home front worker Vladimir Mitrofanov.
This was in October '41. The Germans, having broken through to Kalinin, planned to further advance in three directions at once: Moscow, Leningrad and Yaroslavl. Our troops did not allow this; they fought for Kalinin for two months. At the very beginning of the occupation, the legendary crew of Stepan Gorobets accomplished their feat. This is a monument to him in the very center of Tver. His T-34, the only one of the entire tank column, was able to break into captured Kalinin. The rest on the approaches to him were shot down. Gorobets' crew burst into the city, drove through the central streets, fired at and destroyed German equipment. Their tank was also shot at, it was on fire and stalled, but the crew managed to leave the city unharmed.
“This has never happened during the entire war. For this unprecedented feat, the commander of the 30th Army, Khomenko, personally removed the Order of the Red Banner and presented it to the commander of this crew, Stepan,” says military historian Vladimir Pyatkin.
The division under the command of Lieutenant Katsitadze also accomplished the feat, defending the Tveretsky Bridge and preventing the German tank division from breaking through further to Moscow. The forces were unequal; our troops had only 4 anti-tank guns. But the battery did not retreat and repelled attacks for three days until the 256th Infantry Division arrived to help.
“The whole point of Kalinin is that the Germans entered, but were not allowed to get out. They rushed to Berzhsk - it didn’t work out, to Moscow - the 5th division went to waste, our other divisions came up. They stopped and held for a whole month. If only the Germans broke through to Moscow, it would have been a tragedy,” says Vladimir Mitrofanov.
To prevent them from breaking through, the Kalinin Front was created on October 19 under the command of Colonel General Konev. There were constant attempts to liberate the city, but this was only done in December. On the 14th, soldiers of the 29th and 31st armies bypassed Kalinin from the southeast, cutting off the Volokolamskoye and Turginovskoye highways. By the end of the next day, the ring of Soviet troops near Kalinin had almost closed. The Germans, abandoning all their equipment, fled the city. On the same day, December 16, a red banner appeared at the House of Officers as a symbol of liberation.
During the two months of occupation, the city changed beyond recognition - entire areas were burned. In the center of the city, the Germans arranged burials for their soldiers. The symbol of the city - the old Volzhsky Bridge, over which cars travel today, was blown up in 1941. It was restored about a year later.
Antonina Gordeeva returned to Kalinin after the occupation and did not even recognize the street where she lived throughout her childhood. She left her hometown at the very beginning of the war, along with the hospital where she came to work as a 17-year-old girl.
“For three days we did not leave the dressing table. Someone from the orderlies would shove a cracker or a biscuit into our mouths and give us something to drink. It was very difficult,” recalls Antonina Gordeeva, a participant in the Great Patriotic War.
Antonina Filippovna remembers how Kalinin began to be restored. All together - women, old people, children - went out into the streets in frosty January, cleared away the rubble, and cleared the city of German cemeteries. The glass factory was one of the first to start operating, followed by the carriage building. Teenagers worked on both. Kalinin gradually returned to life, albeit not yet peaceful, but outside the occupation. It became the first regional center that the Red Army liberated during the counteroffensive near Moscow.
On October 14, 1941, German invaders occupied Kalinin. For two months, pedantic Germans ruled the city: they changed the signs to German ones, divided the regional center into four districts, each of which had its own government and commandant’s office, appointed nobleman Valery Yasinsky as city burgomaster, and even organized an officers’ club and casino.
Vladimir Mitrofanov I saw the occupation with my own eyes.
In 1941 he was 7 years old, the Mitrofanov family shared a house with the Germans in the village of Borikhin (now Borikhin Pole Street), a mother and four children lived in one half, and the occupiers lived in the second.
Vladimir is third in the top row on the right photo from 1944.
Vladimir Nikolaevich doesn’t like to come here, to the place where he spent his childhood - he says it’s hard to remember. For the first time in 74 years, together with the TIA film crew, he entered the house where his family was experiencing the occupation.
Vladimir Mitrofanov tells the current owner of the house, Natalya, what life was like under the occupation:
“We had a common toilet and a common corridor with the Germans; we lived in a small room, in the hallway. The house was guarded. Near the house there was a car with a radio station. The commander's name was Robert. He spoke a little Russian. By the way, we learned from him that there was a parade of our troops in Moscow.
The Germans behaved like masters, but almost did not commit atrocities. As Vladimir Nikolaevich recalls, his mother was an obstinate woman and refused to light the Germans’ stoves and wash their clothes. For this, one of the Germans burned all the Mitrofanovs’ documents in the stove. There was a German motorcycle standing in front of the house. Vladimir really liked the keychain with the keys and the child took it to play with. The enraged German, noticing the loss, pointed the muzzle of his gun at the “thief”, but at the last moment he changed his mind and shot at the ceiling:
- Since then, I realized that taking someone else’s property is not only bad, but also life-threatening.
Vladimir Mitrofanov saw the destroyed Kalinin after the liberation of the city. What struck the child most was the huge German cemetery in the city center:
- My mother gave me the task, as the eldest in the family, to get a glass of buza (salt). The market was located on the square near the circus, and it was called Bread Square. I walked from Borikhin to Revolution Square on foot and saw German crosses. The entire cemetery is covered with snow, some crosses have already been damaged.
Passers-by told the boy that on Revolution Square the Germans who died in the hospital, which was located in gymnasium No. 6, were buried.
The winter of 1941 was frosty, so the German cemetery began to be dismantled only in the spring, in April. Vladimir Mitrofanov does not know where the bodies of German soldiers were taken: “These were our fierce enemies, we knew the main thing: they had no place in the city center”. Residents took wooden crosses from their graves on sleds: they used them to beat up new window frames to replace the destroyed ones and to light stoves.
There were several German cemeteries. In addition to Revolution Square, Wehrmacht soldiers and officers were buried on Lenin Square, on the territory of the tram park, in the courtyard of Proletarka and in the village of Borikhino.
- Most likely, high German officials were buried on Lenin Square; instead of a monument, the Nazis installed a swastika sign,- says Vladimir Mitrofanov.
The photo was taken near the current city administration building. On the left in the photo is the building of the Tver City Duma, on the right is the theater.
The Germans were also buried on the outskirts of the village of Borikhino, as Vladimir Mitrofanov recalls. About 20 Germans were buried there.
- One German - a radio operator - died before my eyes. He was sitting in the car, and I was next to him. The German was killed by an exploding shell, I was shell-shocked, and a small grain of shrapnel hit my right leg. I didn't hear anything for a long time, didn't speak. I remember the Germans pushed me onto a Russian stove and left me to lie down.
Vladimir Nikolayevich retained clear memories of how the Germans fled the city in December: a cart with provisions slid into a ditch, they cut off the reins, leaving large reserves of bread and flour in the ditch, and that they had the strength to fight on the Staritskoye Highway - this was the only open path for the occupiers.
“Everything was aimed at restoring the city: children and old people came out into the streets with picks, shovels, and crowbars. I remember the joy that the bathhouse on Sovetskaya opened in the city. We washed ourselves with the soldiers who did not let go of their pistols. And how many lice there were! Both here and the Germans, by the way. Then trams were launched and sewerage started working. After a two-month occupation, the city finally began to come to life.
Vladimir Mitrofanov remembers how the restoration of the Drama Theater began.
Photo from 1941 taken from Svobodny Lane
In 1949, when the first subbotniks to restore the theater were announced, Vladimir Mitrofanov was already working as a mechanic in the communal department of the Proletarian District Executive Committee:
- The builders were laying the bricks, and I was tasked with carrying bricks to the stage. He took 3-4 bricks and climbed up the narrow stairs to the stage. Then he helped clean up the trash.
Vladimir Mitrofanov visited the Drama Theater for the first time in the late 50s, after returning from the army.
Vladimir Mitrofanov is far left in the third row from the top
81-year-old Vladimir Mitrofanov looks at the modern theater building with pride, realizing that he took a direct part in restoring the art of his alma mater, which was practically destroyed by the Germans. 
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In the plans of the German command, the city of Kalinin (now my city of Tver) was given importance as a large industrial and transport hub, which was planned to be used for a further attack on Moscow, Leningrad and the northeast of the European part of the USSR.
The enemy came close to the city on October 13, 1941. Residents of the city of Kalinin remembered this day with the roar of shells, exploding bombs, and the flames of fire. “Proletarka”, “Vagzhanovka”, and the Carriage Building Plant were on fire. Enemy tanks broke through in the Migalovo area.
The city was defended by units of the fifth and two hundred and fifty-sixth rifle divisions, schools for junior lieutenants and fighter battalions. The enemy threw 15 divisions and a third tank group here. The forces were unequal, and on October 14 the enemy managed to capture the city.
The northern part of Kalinin and Zatverechye remained under the control of the Red Army. The fighting in the city did not stop for another three days. On October 17, the city completely came under German control. 
With the beginning of the occupation, a local administration was formed, with the help of the German authorities, and the Nazi intelligence services and punitive authorities were active. On the Soviet side, agents and stations and an anti-fascist underground operated in Kalinin. Throughout the entire period of occupation, fighting took place in Kalinin and in its immediate vicinity; the city itself was under martial law. Due to the importance of the operational area, the Kalinin Front was formed on October 19, 1941, initially consisting of the 22nd, 29th, 30th, and a few days later the 31st armies. Colonel General I.S. Konev was appointed commander of the front. At the end of October, the front in the Kalinin area stabilized.
On December 5, 1941, the troops of the Kalinin Front went on the offensive.
This was one of those offensives that shattered the myth of the invincibility of Hitler's army. The main role in the liberation of Kalinin was assigned to the 29th and 31st armies. Advancing from different sides, they were supposed to unite in the village of Negotino.
The enemies did not expect such an onslaught. Hastily leaving their positions, abandoning the wounded, the enemies retreated. After a 45-minute artillery barrage on the morning of December 16, the assault on the city began. By 3 p.m. Kalinin was completely cleared of fascist occupiers. 
On November 15, 1941, a new stage of the attack of fascist troops on Moscow began. A large German group struck the weakened 30th Army, and by the end of November 17, its troops were divided into three groups: the 5th Infantry Division retreated beyond the Volga, and German troops reached the Volga Reservoir. One of the most tragic and critical moments in the defense of Moscow came. By decision of the Headquarters, the 30th Army was transferred to the Western Front, and the center of gravity of the struggle moved to its defense zone. At the end of November, the troops of the Kalinin Front launched a series of scattered attacks with small forces in separate directions, which did not provide significant assistance to the Western Front. 
During the Kalinin defensive operation, the enemy's attempts to make a breakthrough between the Western and Northwestern fronts and the plans of the German command to deeply envelop Moscow from the north were thwarted. Up to 35 thousand enemy soldiers and officers were destroyed. The total losses of the Kalinin Front amounted to over 50 thousand people.
Soviet troops managed to stop the further development of the Wehrmacht offensive, and repeated attempts were made to liberate the city.
This is how the liberators saw the city. 
The city is largely destroyed, half wounded, but the joy of the first days, when the Red Army returned to the city, is clearly captured on the faces of the people, and the joy sounds in the raised voices of the people, is reflected in the free movements, in the lively readiness to tell, help, explain. On fences and shop windows, touching announcements from the first days have been preserved, when Proletarskaya Pravda had not yet resumed - this newspaper, the brainchild of Kalinin workers, is being published again. These advertisements on buildings and storefronts can be read back to back, like a poem of restoration. They are handwritten in ink, written by Soviet people who took the initiative to rebuild the city. The Voroshilov weaving factory asks all workers, workers, craftsmen to register and announces the hiring of labor. “The health department has resumed its work and is in need of construction workers, roofers, glaziers, and craftsmen.” School number such-and-such “requests all students and teachers to appear on such-and-such a date.” “Professors, teachers and students of the pedagogical institute are asked to register.” Dozens and dozens of advertisements from institutions, enterprises, schools, cooperative artels. Now many of these organizations are already operational. 
December 16 is a great day not only for my city, but for the whole country. It was on this day in 1941 that Kalinin was liberated from the yoke of the Nazi invaders. It was this military operation that became one of the first victories of Soviet soldiers on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War.
On November 4, 2010, the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev signed decrees conferring the title “City of Military Glory” on Vladivostok, Tikhvin and Tver. Three cities were awarded this title for the courage, resilience and mass heroism shown by the city’s defenders in the struggle for freedom and independence of the Fatherland.
Every centimeter of the land of my Tver contains the memory of battles, heroism, and deaths. And we must remember this. Remember and honor the feat of our ancestors. And the title “City of Military Glory” obliges us to honor this feat doubly.
The clouds over Tver lay very low.
Hundreds of tombstones, stones, obelisks
Reminds me of bloody battles
Somewhere the weeping willows are sad,
Laying their branches on the graves.
There is a quiet noise about the heroes of the oak forest.
Tver is a city of military glory!
War's unhealed wounds ache.
There are few veteran fighters left,
After all, we won that bloody battle.
Tver is a city of military glory!
A fire will break out on the Avenue of Heroes.
How we sometimes miss our grandfathers,
The hands of their loved ones, hot, rough.
Tver is a city of military glory!
The fighters fought until their last breath.
Difficult time, period, era.
Finish to the brown lava flow!
Tver is a city of military glory!
In the evening it’s loud, anxious and long
The ringing of bells flows over the Volga!
In memory of our brave defenders!
Tver is a city of military glory!
My city - my love and pain, my city, rising above the Volga. My city...You are infinitely dear to me and familiar to every street, to every house. I love your streets. My whole life has been spent here. Everywhere and always you are in my heart.
Your fate was difficult and difficult. How many difficult trials have befallen you, how many lives of your citizens have you paid for your right and happiness to be a Great City on the Great Russian River! 
On December 16, 1970, in the center of Tver, where the Tmaka River merges with the Volga, the Obelisk of Victory was opened. It shot up 45 meters as a symbol of the sacred memory of those who gave their lives for the Motherland, for our happiness. Day and night the Eternal Flame burns in a niche of the granite wall. 
Through the pages of the Pravda newspaper, Alexander Ognev, front-line soldier, professor, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation
2011-11-25 18:40
Falsification of history is an attempt to brazenly replace Russia itself. Anti-Sovietists chose the history of the heroic feat of the Soviet people, who liberated the world from German fascism, as one of the main objects of falsification. It is clear that sincere patriots do not accept this game of thimble-makers. Therefore, Pravda readers warmly approved the article published by the newspaper on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War by front-line soldier, Doctor of Philology, honorary professor of Tver State University Alexander Ognev and strongly recommended that the newspaper continue publishing his exposures of history falsifiers. Fulfilling the wishes of readers, the editorial board of Pravda decided to publish chapters of the study by Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation A.V. Ognev in the Friday issues of the newspaper.
Strategic outpost
The German command attached special importance to the region of the city of Kalinin (present-day Tver). Back in the second half of July 1941, it ordered (“Top secret! For command only!”) Army Group Center to allocate the 3rd Tank Group “with the task of advancing in the direction of Kalinin, cutting off communications connecting Moscow and Leningrad...” September 16 In 1941, the directive from the command of Army Group Center on the preparation of Operation Typhoon stated: “9A must use all opportunities to also break through the wooded area in front of the northern flank of the army and advance troops in the direction of Rzhev.” The order to continue the operation “in the direction of Moscow” dated October 7, 1941 set the task for the 9th Army, together with the 3rd Tank Group, to reach the Gzhatsk-Sychevka line in order to subsequently advance on Kalinin and Rzhev.
The headquarters of the German Army Group on October 8 stated: “The enemy has no large forces at his disposal that he could oppose to the further advance of the army group towards Moscow... For the immediate defense of Moscow, according to the testimony of prisoners of war, the Russians have divisions of the people’s militia, which, however, are partially have already been brought into battle, and are also among the surrounded troops.” Such an underestimated assessment of the condition of the Soviet troops contributed to the German command’s decision to turn significant forces in the direction of Kalinin.
Halder wrote in his diary on October 9, 1941: “The 9th Army is concentrating forces on the northern flank to attack the Rzhev region... A telephone conversation with von Bock... I asked to strengthen the left flank of the army group and direct it to Kalinin... North of the cauldron near Vyazma are ours The troops are regrouping for a further flank attack on Kalinin." The book “On the Right Flank of the Battle of Moscow” (1991) states: “Under the onslaught of superior enemy forces, the troops of the 22nd, 29th, 30th and 31st armies retreated to the Ostashkov-Rzhev line. In the defense of our troops in the Kalinin operational direction, a gap up to 80 kilometers wide was formed. The fascist German command sent the 3rd Tank Group into this gap... Significant forces of the 9th Army were also aimed at the Kalinin operational direction. In total, up to 20 percent of the Nazi troops intended to capture Moscow operated here.”
On October 10, German troops, as noted in Volume IV of the “History of the Second World War 1939-1945,” entered the Sychevka area. The 3rd Tank Group turned to the Kalinin direction in order to “capture the city of Kalinin on the move, bypass Moscow from the northwest, and also launch an offensive north to the rear of the North-Western Front, and under favorable conditions, strike at Yaroslavl and Rybinsk.” .
However, the German troops, despite their great superiority, failed to break into Kalinin. Only after three days of fighting did they capture the city on October 14th. It seemed that this would allow them to develop a further offensive, using the highways to Moscow, Bezhetsk and Leningrad. But the Red Army troops repulsed the Germans’ attempts to advance along the Bezhetsk highway immediately after the capture of Kalinin. The fifth battery of the 531st artillery regiment under the command of Lieutenant A. Katsitadze played a role in this. When the fascist tanks approached the Tveretsky Bridge and began to cross the river along it, 4 guns of the battery, hidden behind a blank fence with a gate, opened accurate fire on them. For three days, a battery and a group of infantrymen did not allow the enemy to cross the bridge, and on October 17, the regiments of the 256th division arrived. The German offensive in the direction of Bezhetsk was thwarted.
At the beginning of October, the Soviet military command did not expect that the Kalinin operational direction would appear. One has to sin against the facts to suggest: “Maybe Kalinin was simply sacrificed for the sake of Moscow?” And ask: “Why was the bridge across the Tvertsa covered by anti-tank guns, while the bridge across the Volga, which, we note, was guarded by NKVD officers, remained unharmed? As if to drive a tank fist across two rivers.” This was the result of miscalculations, confusion, and shortcomings in the management of our troops. Supreme Commander-in-Chief I. Stalin immediately demanded from Konev, who headed the Kalinin Front: “Destroy the railway and highway bridges in the city of Kalinin by means of aviation.” But many attempts to destroy them from the air have failed.
Colonel General I. Konev, who arrived in Kalinin, managed, under the most difficult conditions, to restore the front of the Soviet strategic defense in the city area, which was of great importance for the successful battle near Moscow. Arriving in Rzhev, where the headquarters of the 29th Army of General I. Maslennikov was located, he ordered him to regroup his troops and strike from the west to the rear of the enemy advancing on Kalinin. “The plan,” Konev explained later, “came down to the following: to castle the 29th Army from the northern to the southern bank of the Volga and, advancing along the coast to the east in cooperation with the group of General Vatutin and the 256th Infantry Division, hit the rear of the enemy group, breaking through to Kalinin. A quick and precise execution of this maneuver would inevitably, in my opinion, stop the enemy advancing on Kalinin from the south. But Maslennikov, apparently not understanding the situation, did not complete the task, secretly appealing my decision to Beria, who had a connection with him... Contrary to my order, he moved the army along the northern bank, deciding to cross to the southern bank near Kalinin, moreover, he referred to the permission of Army General G .TO. Zhukov, but the front commander could hardly cancel my order without informing me, who was located directly in this area. One way or another, the planned and actually possible strike was not carried out.”
The battles for Kalinin are directly related to the battles for our capital. Subsequently, the former chief of staff of the 4th Panzer Group, General Charles de Bolot, claimed that “the Battle of Moscow was lost on October 7.” In his opinion, all formations of his troops and the 3rd Panzer Group should have been thrown at Moscow. He wrote: “By October 5, excellent prospects had been created for an attack on Moscow” - and considered the turn of the 3rd Tank Group to Kalinin a terrible mistake in Operation Typhoon.
However, the command of the “Center”, not without reason, did not take advantage of this tempting but risky prospect: if strong German formations had not turned to Kalinin, traffic on the Bologoe-Kalinin-Moscow railway would not have been disrupted. Those divisions of the Northwestern Front that fought fierce battles for Kalinin would have been immediately sent to help the troops in the Moscow direction.
Operational group of General Vatutin
The capture and retention of Kalinin made it possible for the Germans to bypass Moscow from the north. On October 17, 1941, the Kalinin Front was created with a length of 220 kilometers. It was headed by Colonel General I. Konev. It included the 22nd, 29th and 30th armies, transferred from the Western Front, the 183rd, 185th and 246th rifle divisions, the 46th and 54th cavalry divisions, the 46th motorcycle regiment and 8th tank brigade. An important task of the front was to occupy the Kalinin region. Fierce fighting took place around him. As a result of almost daily attacks by Soviet troops, the commander of Army Group Center von Bock issued a directive on October 23 to suspend the offensive through Kalinin.
The command of the Center group on October 14 issued the order: “The 3rd Tank Group... while holding Kalinin, reaches the Torzhok area as quickly as possible and advances from here without delay in the direction of Vyshny Volochek in order to prevent the main enemy forces from crossing the river. Tvertsa and the upper reaches of the river. Msta to the east. It is necessary to conduct intensified reconnaissance to the Kashin-Bezhetsk-Pestovo line. It is also necessary to hold the Kalinin-Staritsa line further south until the arrival of units of the 9th Army. The 9th Army, in cooperation with the right flank of the 3rd Tank Group, destroys the enemy in the Staritsa, Rzhev, Zubtsov area, which is still resisting... The main direction of the further attack is on Vyshny Volochek.” On October 18, the headquarters of Army Group Center sent a telegram to the 9th Army: “The command of the Army Group considers it necessary to once again remind that the retention of the city of Kalinin is of great importance.”
By the end of October 16, the Germans had reached the Medny area, but on October 19-21, as a result of successful counterattacks by our army, the regional center was liberated from the enemy. Mednoye turned out to be the center of fighting for a short time because it blocked the Germans’ path to Torzhok and Vyshny Volochek. Advancing north, the Germans planned to create another “cauldron”, encircling the Red Army troops in the upper reaches of the Volga.
Following the instructions of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, the commander of the Northwestern Front created an operational group under the command of the front chief of staff, Lieutenant General N.F. Vatutina. It included the 183rd and 185th rifle divisions, the 8th tank brigade of Colonel P. Rotmistrov, the 46th and 54th cavalry divisions and the divisions of the 22nd and 29th armies retreating to Kalinin. In total, this group had more than 20 thousand people, 200 guns and mortars and 20 tanks. It was supported by 20 aircraft allocated by the North-Western Front.
On October 15, 16 and 17, the 8th Tank Brigade fought intense battles in the area of Kalinin and Medny along the Leningradskoye Highway. The main role in disrupting these far-reaching plans belongs to the decisive counterattacks of the troops of the operational group of the North-Western Front under the command of Lieutenant General N. Vatutin. As a result of the offensive operations of N. Vatutin’s group, which were unexpected for the enemy, the enemy’s 1st Tank Division and 90th Motorized Brigade were defeated. The enemy's attempts to encircle the 22nd and 29th armies and isolate the troops of the Northwestern Front were thwarted.
German troops broke through to Maryino, seized the crossing over the Logovezh River, intending to take Torzhok. In this critical situation, Rotmistrov made the mistaken decision to withdraw the brigade to the Likhoslavl area. Konev, in a telegram to Vatutin, demanded: “Rotmistrov should be arrested and tried by a military tribunal for failure to comply with combat orders and unauthorized departure from the battlefield with the brigade.” Vatutin, having analyzed the situation, ordered Rotmistrov: “Immediately, without wasting a single hour of time, return to Likhoslavl, from where, together with units of the 185th Infantry Division, quickly strike at Mednoye, destroy the enemy groups that have broken through, and capture Mednoye. It's time to put an end to cowardice!" This order was carried out. In the future, P. Rotmistrov did not allow such “unauthorized departures”, brilliantly commanded the formations entrusted to him and became the Chief Marshal of the armored forces.
Pavel Alekseevich Rotmistrov was born in the village of Skovorovo, Selizharovsky district, Tver province, his parents are peasants. In 1916 he graduated from primary school. In 1919, Rotmistrov voluntarily joined the Red Army, in March 1921 he participated in the suppression of the uprising in Kronstadt, and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In 1931 he graduated from the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze, in 1937 became a regiment commander, and in May 1941 - chief of staff of the 3rd Mechanized Corps.
At the beginning of the war, this corps was surrounded. Professor of the Academy of Military Sciences A.S. Malgin in the brochure “Outstanding military leader of tank forces, Honorary citizen of Tver, Hero of the Soviet Union, Chief Marshal of armored forces P.A. Rotmistrov" reported: "Part of the personnel of the department and headquarters of the corps, being surrounded, tried to get through to their troops, moving on foot all the time towards the front line. For more than two months they made their way behind enemy lines through the forests of Lithuania, Belarus and the northern Bryansk region, bypassing populated areas and destroying individual enemy units. Only on August 28, 1941, corps headquarters officers and personnel from other units came across the front line to their troops with personal weapons and in military uniform.”
At the end of August 1941, Colonel P. Rotmistrov was appointed commander of the 8th Tank Brigade. On September 23, she arrived on the Northwestern Front in the Valdai region. There the brigade conducted successful military operations against the Germans.
It must be admitted that “the command of the Kalinin Front made a miscalculation by undertaking the disbandment of General Vatutin’s operational group at a crucial moment in the defensive operation. It was a real force of five connections. The opportunity for immediate action to liberate the city of Kalinin was missed,” this is how Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. assessed the situation years later. Konev. General N. Vatutin pointed this out in the report on the combat operations of the operational group: “At the most crucial moment, the troops of the operational group are transferred to the 31st Army, which could not quickly establish contact with the troops. In the following days, new orders follow from the Kalinin Front for the army, according to which the entire group of troops of the operational group is distributed among the armies and some divisions are transferred to reserve. Thus, the troops of the task force as a single organism disappeared. The only striking force in the Kalinin area was dispersed among the armies. This was a mistake by the Kalinin Front command..."
This serious mistake prevented Kalinin from being released earlier, back in October. Soviet troops at the end of October were unable to achieve victory, but at the same time managed to stabilize the front. The Germans were unable to continue the offensive and were forced to go on the defensive.
Strategic Heroic Raid
An important role in turning the general situation around Kalinin was played by the heroic raid of the 21st Tank Brigade on the German rear. Arriving by rail at the Zavidovo and Reshetnikovo stations, concentrating in Turginov, the brigade received an order from the commander of the 30th Army to move along the Volokolamsk Highway, destroying enemy reserves, and, together with the 5th Rifle Division, capture Kalinin. On the morning of October 17, 27 T-34 tanks and 8 T-60 tanks headed for Kalinin, but encountered heavy fire from anti-tank guns and were subjected to continuous bombardment from the air. Only 8 tanks reached the southern outskirts of Kalinin, and only the T-34 tank under the command of Senior Sergeant S. Gorobets broke into the city and carried out a legendary raid on the city. He appeared from the direction of "Proletarka", walked through the city, fired at the commandant's office, caused a commotion among the Germans and went back to his troops.
On October 25, 1941, the Izvestia newspaper reported on the feat of the tank crew of senior political instructor Gmyri, who broke into the German airfield (now the Yuzhny residential area is located here): “The appearance of the Soviet tank caused an incredible commotion here. One after another, the bombers began to take off. One bomber never left the ground: Gmyri’s tank crushed its tail. The second plane was shot down by a cannon on takeoff. The rest still managed to get into the air... Enemy bombers bombarded the brave tankers with bombs.” But the damaged car made its way to its own.
The command of the German 3rd Panzer Group was forced to recall the 1st Panzer Division, which was advancing to Vyshny Volochek, in order to support the 36th Motorized Division defending in Kalinin. The 3rd Panzer Group was unable to complete the main task for which it was turned from Moscow to the north. Military researchers note: “The enemy was unable to develop an offensive on Torzhok, Likhoslavl and Bezhetsk, the threat of encirclement of the 22nd and 29th armies, isolation of the troops of the North-Western Front was eliminated, the uninterrupted operation of the Rybinsk-Bologoe railway line was ensured... Nazi German command was forced to transfer the 6th, 36th, 161st infantry and 14th motorized divisions to the Kalinin area, removing them from other directions.” A significant part of the German troops were drawn into stubborn battles around Kalinin and could not participate in the attack on Moscow.
“The results of the battles for Kalinin,” noted historian A. Isaev, “for the 3rd Tank Group were truly catastrophic. Its 1st Tank Division on September 28, 1941 consisted of 111 combat-ready tanks. On October 31, 1941, the number of combat-ready vehicles decreased to 36 vehicles. On September 10, the 6th Panzer Division had 171 combat-ready tanks. On October 16, she had at her disposal only 60 tanks ready for use in battle.”
Kalinin Front and its commander
The Kalinin Front absorbed 13 divisions of the German Army Group Center, as a result of which they were not used against the Western Front. Their attempts to break through to Torzhok-Vyshny Volochek and encircle the troops of the North-Western Front were repulsed. “However, in the management of troops by the command and headquarters of the Kalinin Front,” noted in the study “On the Right Flank of the Battle of Moscow,” mistakes were made in assessing the capabilities of the enemy and their troops. This led to the failure of the front troops to fulfill the plans of the High Command. The front failed to either encircle the enemy group in Kalinin in October or cover the Moscow direction in mid-November 1941. In his decisions, the front commander did not always take into account the specific situation in each army's zone of operations. Therefore, his orders often did not correspond to the real situation and could not be carried out or were carried out by army troops, as a rule, with a delay.”
The defense line of the 30th Army was not strong enough; in mid-November it consisted of rifle and motorized rifle divisions, a tank brigade and a motorized regiment. The defense was patchy and there were no reserves. At the end of October, the commander of the 30th Army reported to Konev that “the army does not have enough combat personnel and equipment, and few mining equipment... The left flank of the army is a particularly weak point.” This became all the more acute as it became increasingly clear that the German command was preparing for a new offensive in the defense zone of the 30th Army in order to break through to Moscow from the north-west. But the front command, having made a serious miscalculation, did not take the necessary measures in a timely manner to strengthen the defense of the 30th Army.
On the morning of November 15, superior enemy forces launched a surprise attack. By the end of the day they reached the Volga. And only after this I. Konev decided to strengthen the 30th Army with the 185th Infantry, 46th Cavalry Divisions, 8th Tank Brigade and a motorcycle regiment. If this had been done earlier, then the 30th Army probably would not have found itself in such a critical situation when it was forced to act in three dismembered groups. On November 17, the 30th Army was transferred to the Western Front. “As a result of mistakes made in troop management by the command of the Kalinin Front, and the unsuccessful actions of the troops of the 30th Army, the front troops,” noted in the same work “On the right flank of the Moscow Battle,” - this time the task of covering the Moscow direction from the north-west they could not fulfill it. The center of gravity has completely moved to the Western Front."
On November 27-29, the commander of the Kalinin Front, I. Konev, carried out several scattered attacks with small forces in separate directions, but they were not successful. According to Zhukov, Konev “was clearly cautious at the moment his front went over to the counteroffensive,” he incorrectly assessed the current operational-strategic situation and, instead of an operation to defeat the right wing of Army Group Center, he planned to carry out an operation only to capture the city of Kalinin.
The Supreme Command headquarters, signed by Stalin and Vasilevsky, emphasized: “Private attacks in different directions by troops of the Kalinin Front on November 27-29 are ineffective.” On December 1, 1941, she ordered: “1. The Kalinin Front, having concentrated an attack group of at least five to six divisions over the next two or three days, strike from the front (claim) Kalinin, (claim) Sudimirka in the direction of Mikulino Gorodishche and Turginovo. Task: by reaching the rear of the enemy’s Klin grouping, to facilitate the destruction of the latter by the troops of the Western Front.” On the morning of December 1, at the direction of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, a conversation took place between Deputy Chief of the General Staff Vasilevsky and Konev about this directive. Konev referred to his lack of tanks and lack of forces, and proposed, instead of providing assistance to the Western Front, to carry out a local operation to capture the city of Kalinin. Such an operation pursued local interests and did not actually take into account the overall goal.
Vasilevsky told Konev: “Thwarting the German offensive on Moscow and thereby not only saving Moscow, but also beginning a serious defeat of the enemy can only be done through active actions with a decisive goal. If we don't do this in the next few days, it will be too late. The Kalinin Front, occupying an extremely advantageous operational position for this purpose, cannot be aloof from this. You must collect literally everything in order to hit the enemy, and he is weak against you. ...Comrade Stalin allowed to immediately transfer to you for this purpose another one, the 262nd Infantry Division of the North-Western Front. She starts loading today at 18.00. The division has over 9 thousand people and is well armed. The headquarters of the Supreme High Command considers it not only possible, but also necessary to remove the divisions I have indicated from the front and concentrate for this attack. I don’t understand your statement that all these divisions have only 2-3 thousand people. I have before me a report from your headquarters, received on November 24, 1941, according to which the 246th Infantry Division has 6,800 people, the 119th - 7200, the 252nd - 5800, the 256th - 6000 people, etc. If In these divisions, as you stated, the artillery is really weak, then you can strengthen them at the expense of the artillery regiments of the Reserve of the High Command, of which you have 9.” After convincing instructions from A. Vasilevsky, I. Konev, asking to strengthen his front, promised to act as Headquarters ordered: he would deliver the main blow to Turginovo, and would do everything to “be sure to break through the defenses and get behind enemy lines.”
The headquarters was very concerned about ensuring the exact execution of this order. Vasilevsky in his book “The Work of a Whole Life” recalled: “On the afternoon of December 4, being at the next report in the Kremlin with Stalin, I received instructions on the night of December 5 to go to the headquarters of the Kalinin Front in order to personally convey to the front commander the directive to go on a counteroffensive and explain him all the requirements for it... December 12, 1941, when B.M. Shaposhnikov had already recovered, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, in our presence, conveyed to the commander of the Kalinin Front via direct wire: “The actions of your left group do not satisfy us. Instead of throwing all your might at the enemy and creating a decisive advantage for yourself, you... introduce individual units into action, allowing the enemy to wear them down. We demand from you that you replace the petty tactics with the tactics of a real offensive.” The commander tried to refer to the thaw, the difficulties of crossing the Volga, the Germans receiving reinforcements, etc., but in conclusion he said: “I understand, everything is clear, accepted for execution, I’m pressing with all my might.”
Offensive
The troops of the Kalinin Front launched a decisive offensive on December 5, 1941. On that day, Halder wrote in his diary: “The enemy broke through our front in the area east of Kalinin... Some confusion arose in Army Group Center.”
December 6: “As a result of the enemy’s attack on the northern flank of the 3rd Tank Group, it became necessary to withdraw troops located south of the Volga Reservoir; they need to be withdrawn to Klin.”
December 7: “The enemy made a breakthrough from the north to Klin. In the area east of Kalinin, the enemy also wedged into our front in a number of areas, but these wedges have so far been localized.”
December 8: “In the area east of Kalinin, seven enemy divisions went on the offensive. The situation here is still tense. I consider this section of the front the most dangerous, since here we do not have any troops in the second line.”
December 9: “An extremely strong enemy onslaught southeast of Kalinin will apparently allow him to recapture the city.”
As a result of heavy fighting, the 31st Army reached the Volokolamsk Highway. Units of the 29th Army were breaking through to the operationally important Kalinin-Staritsa road. This really threatened to encircle the German group in Kalinin. On December 16, 1941, the city was liberated from the enemy. In 2010, Tver was awarded the honorary title “City of Military Glory”.
Corporal of the 161st German Infantry Division Diedrich Bosch wrote to his wife: “Kalinin, morning of December 15, 1941. My dear Gezina! We must leave this city. It will all be blown up and set on fire at noon.” German corporal Hans Lex wrote on October 19, 1941: “We were already standing 5 kilometers from Leningrad, today we are standing 150 kilometers from Moscow and now we are advancing on Moscow... On October 16, 1941 we had a very difficult battle near the city of Kalinin... You write, that the censorship opened my letter. But this doesn’t bother me, because it’s better to spend 10 years in prison than to stay one month in Russia.”
In the essay “Fighter,” Fadeev noted the feat of a Red Army soldier who was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: “In 1941, in the battles for Kalinin, at an enemy bunker that did not allow us to move forward and took many lives of our people, Paderin was seriously wounded and in a fit of great moral upliftment, he closed the bunker embrasure with his body.”
The Main Personnel Directorate of the Red Army reported: “Political instructor of the 190th rifle regiment. Tsanov Kamen Kostovich died heroically on October 15, 1941 in street battles for the city of Kalinin. Tsanov is a Bulgarian political emigrant, sentenced in absentia by the anti-people court of Bulgaria to death for his struggle for his free democratic homeland, he was included in the lists of active “reds”. After Nazi Germany attacked the USSR, on the third day of the war he volunteered for the front. One of the streets of Tver is named in his honor.” On October 17, 1941, near the city of Kalinin, the regiment commander, Hero of the Soviet Union, Major M.A., died. Lukin.
Not subject to oblivion
B. Polevoy wrote about the struggle of Soviet people against the occupiers in Kalinin: “An underground organization began to operate in the city from the very first day... Large commissary warehouses burned down in the Vagzhanovka area. They burned for three days, a lot of German property was lost... Workshops where the Germans were repairing damaged equipment were set on fire... A bomb was thrown into the officers' casino, which was located in the Tekstilshchik club. Well, two policemen were somehow hanged at night in the city garden... Subsequently, the commandant ordered twenty-five hostages to be shot.”
The consequences of the occupation of Kalinin by German troops were extremely difficult. The Germans burned and destroyed more than 50 enterprises, 7,700 buildings, bridges across the Volga and Tmaka, a drama theater, a philharmonic theater, a theater for young spectators, a Hermitage cinema, burned the Gorky library, many schools, and kindergartens. With anger and pain, A. Fadeev, in the article “Monster Destroyers and People-Creators,” published in Pravda on January 14, 1942, told about what the Nazis had done in Kalinin: “Twelve corpses of young people were found in one of the basements of the city ; two of them were sixteen years old. All were killed with a blunt object: some had their eyes gouged out, some were tortured by hanging them by their feet. Four girls were first raped, then killed... A stable was set up in the building of an excellent surgical hospital in Kalinin.”
He continued: “In the village of Rubtsovo, Morkino-Gorodishchensky village council, Kalinin region, the Germans drove the entire population, women and children, out of the outskirts, and shot them with machine guns... The population of the villages of Danilovsky, Nekrasovsky and Borisovsky village councils, totaling up to 2000 people, the Germans drove out in the bitter cold for the Tmaka River and began to shoot with machine guns and machine guns... The ancient Russian city of Staritsa, the birthplace of the first Russian traveler, merchant Afanasy Nikitin, a city famous for its monastery - a monument of Russian architecture, a city located on two sides of the upper Volga, extraordinary in its beauty - was destroyed and almost entirely burned by the Germans.”
Not only the famous writer testified to the atrocities of the invaders. Colonel N. Deev reported: “Many Kalinin villages were plundered and destroyed. On the “Red Link” collective farm in the Kalininsky district, the Germans took all the horses, cows, and sheep and destroyed the apiary. They took all the collective farm bread and vegetables. Collective farmers were confiscated from their personal livestock, warm clothes, and shoes.” N. Krotov, a native of the village of Petryankha, Shatura district, Moscow region, a soldier of the sapper battalion, wrote about the Germans, who were “driven far beyond Kalinin”: “They completely ruined the collective farmers, ate all the food, took all their clothes, shoes, burned houses, took off their felted boots from their feet, even children, and killed many women; Not even the good stuff, but cups, spoons, cast iron lamps - they took everything with them.”
Having become familiar with such disgusting behavior of the occupiers, one can concretely imagine under what incredibly difficult conditions the Soviet people had to revive more or less normal everyday life after their liberation from the “charms” of the new German order.
The Germans stayed in Kalinin for sixty-three days, from October 14 to December 16, 1941. This is one of the most tragic pages in the history of my hometown.During my work as a journalist, I had to talk with older native Kalinin residents more than once or twice.
Stories about the war, about the occupation, about the losses of relatives and friends remained the most significant events in the lives of each of them. Always. The only way. Everything else paled in comparison to what he experienced during the war.
The history of the occupation of the city has never been written. Of course, there are archives that you can look into fifty years from now. Maybe it’s even better - everything will be digitized and the researcher won’t have to swallow archival dust.
But living witnesses of the era will gradually leave. As some of my interlocutors, about whom I once wrote as part of the large series “Tver Saga,” have already left.
I don't have the answer to these questions...
Kalinin's liberation day is celebrated on December 16th. Until this period, I will try to post materials about the war, about heroes and ordinary people, about the occupation.
I hope they pique your interest.
For residents of the city of Kalinin, October 14, 1941 is perhaps the most tragic day in the history of the already cruel twentieth century.
On this day, fascist German troops, moving from the east, reached the outskirts of the city in the Migalov area and gradually occupied the entire city.
Thus began the occupation, which lasted 63 days.
Not much, some might say.
But the civilians remaining in the occupation could not know when it would end. They experienced hunger, cold, and most importantly, mortal fear of the new government.
Some people did not survive the occupation, dying from unbearable living conditions or the new government. Gallows became part of the Kalinin landscape. Executions and arrests are commonplace. It was forbidden to walk around the city freely, you needed a pass, and the curfew began at 16.00.
Everyone who survived the occupation or was evacuated considers this period the most significant in their lives. All conversations of Tver residents about the past sooner or later come down to this topic. But it was not always so. Staying in an occupied city for a long time was considered a shameful blot on a person’s biography. Now you can remember everything. But how many people are left in Tver who remember the occupation? The floor goes to those who can tell about the tragic events of the end of 1941.
Inna Georgievna Bunina,
in 1941 - 9 years:
On June 22, 1941, my mother gave birth to twins, Vera and Kolya. My father went to the front almost that same day; he was a surgeon.
In the second ten days of October, the evacuation of city residents began.
We then lived in house number 10 on Vagzhanova Street, in the so-called Krepzovsky house, from the windows of our apartment the exodus of residents from the city was clearly visible. The commanding staff were allocated vehicles onto which they loaded their belongings, furniture, even tubs of ficus trees.
Ordinary people left on foot, taking with them only hand luggage; the wounded in bloody bandages, many on crutches, women with children, and old people walked along the sides of the street. It was a terrible picture.
By the evening of October 14, motorcycles with Germans appeared on the street, followed by tanks. They entered an almost empty city.
My mother refused to evacuate. There was nowhere to go, and how could you go? Besides me and the tiny twins, the family included grandparents, already elderly people.
So we remained, as they said then, under the Germans. The shops were closed and there was nowhere to get food. Mom went to the field behind what is now Gagarin Square, where frozen cabbage could be found, and to the elevator for burnt grain.
It was very cold, we all lived in the same room, heating the only stove-stove.
Thus passed two long months of occupation.
It’s bitter to remember that the liberation of the city by Soviet troops brought new troubles to our family.
Mom was accused of collaborating with the occupiers and was arrested.
She was placed in city prison No. 1, which is not far from our house.
The twins were crying from hunger. Once a day, the mother was allowed to feed them; for this purpose, the grandmother took the children to prison on a sled.
My grandmother wrote to my father about my mother’s arrest, he came from the front and secured her release.
Mom was again accepted at KREPZ, where she was in charge of the chemical laboratory for many years.
But her stay in the occupation remained a black spot in her biography.
After the Victory, the father returned from the front unharmed, and the mother once again gave birth to twins, again they were a boy and a girl.
Elena Ivanovna Reshetova,
in 1941 – 16 years old:
On the afternoon of October 13, I was visiting my aunt on Mednikovskaya Street, in the very center of Kalinin.
When we were told that the enemy was already approaching the city, I went home to the village of Andreevskoye, near the village of Sakharovo, beyond Tvertsa.
We tried not to leave home. Who knew that our village would be almost on the front line?
Red Army units marched down the street every day. Red Army soldiers spent the night in the huts, about twenty people in each hut. They seemed to me like boys not much older than me. In some houses there was not enough space to lie down, sometimes there was nowhere to sit, and the soldiers stood all night like horses.
The next morning they went to the front line, to the banks of the Volga. The fighting took place in the area of Konstantinovka, Savvatyev, and Poddubye.
Our units stormed the high opposite bank. Our soldiers were clearly visible from the heights; the Germans shot them almost point-blank.
Few people returned. The dead were buried in a mountain near Andreevsky.
Every day new wounded were brought in. Until a hospital was opened in Sakharov, the soldiers lay in cold sheds and moaned.
We helped them as best we could, tried not to cry and not think about our fighting fathers, husbands, brothers.
Nina Ivanovna Kashtanova,
in 1941 - 15 years:
My father, Ivan Timofeevich Krutov, fought in the Finnish war and returned severely wounded. There were five children in our family, I was the eldest.
In October 1941, we went on foot to evacuate, settled in the Rameshkovsky district, in a Karelian family, from there my father was called to the front, we never saw him again, in March 1942 a funeral came from near Rzhev.
The owners treated us well, gave us milk and cottage cheese. But still I was hungry.
My mother, Anna Arkhipovna, walked around the yards begging to feed us. In the evening she returned, putting out loaves of bread, boiled eggs, potatoes, and pieces of porridge from a canvas bag.
We had been looking forward to this moment all day. On the sixteenth of December, the foreman ran into the hut and shouted: “Kalininskys, rejoice! The city has been liberated!
But we did not return to Kalinin soon. I was the first to return, at the end of January. I walked for three days, spending the night in villages.
Our house on 1st Begovaya, fortunately, survived, although there was no glass in it, and the stars were shining through the roof. But many of our friends’ homes were in even worse condition.
On the very first day after my return, I went in search of work, without which they would not give ration cards for bread.
But there was no work: the factories were standing still, workers were needed only to clear the rubble, where they didn’t take me, still 16 years old.
I was lucky to get a job as a courier at the Proletarsky District Komkhoz. This made it possible to receive a card for 400 grams of bread per day. I always wanted to eat, constantly.
In those days, people were imprisoned for fraud with cards without a second thought. In our house management, several women paid the price in this way: they were given 10 years in camps.
Galina Anatolyevna Nikolaeva,
in 1941 - 18 years old:
Before the war, I lived with my mother and younger sister Augusta at the Kulitskaya station, where my mother worked at a school.
Six months before the start of the war, my mother died, and my 15-year-old sister and I were left alone.
In June 1941, I received a matriculation certificate and submitted documents to the pedagogical institute. I was enrolled as a student, but I did not have time to start classes.
The occupation began. My sister and I spent the entire two months in the teachers’ dormitory on Kulitskaya.
At the end of December, I went on foot to liberated Kalinin. The city was in ruins.
What frightened me most was the sight of the German cemetery on Revolution Square. Corpses were piled vertically into shallow graves. They froze and swayed in the wind, creaking disgustingly.
I walked to Mednikovskaya Street, where our relatives lived. My aunt and sister met me there, frightened but unharmed. They talked about the terrible death of our father's sister, Nadya Akhmatova.
Before the war, Nadya was considered a disgrace to the family. She worked as a cashier either in the city garden or in the bathhouse, and met with different men.
With the beginning of the war, Nadya became a scout for the 31st Army and crossed the front line many times. One day she was captured and ended up in the Gestapo, where she was tortured for a long time. Nadya's mutilated body was found after the liberation of the city.
Classes soon began at the pedagogical institute. I started studying, but quickly realized that I could not withstand the constant hunger.
Bread was given on ration cards, and sour cabbage was given in the institute canteen. Old men kept coming up to the tables and begging the students to leave at least some food. With horror and shame, I recognized one of the beggars as my school German teacher, Maria Vasilievna.
Soon I left the institute, at the school on Kulitskaya they gave me a direction to Vyshny Volochek for a 6-month teacher course, after which I went to teach in the village of Pogoreloye Gorodishche.
At the same time, my sister Gutya entered the Likhoslavl Pedagogical School, but due to constant malnutrition she fell ill with tuberculosis and died.
My father, who lived separately from us, in Staritsa, was arrested following a denunciation. His further fate is unknown to me.
Zoya Evgenievna Zimina,
in 1941 – 17 years old:
Before the war, my mother, Nadezhda Ivanovna Baranova, worked as a secretary in the Hospital Town, for the famous Tver doctor Uspensky.
We lived not far from the hospital, on Sofia Perovskaya Street.
When the Germans were already approaching Kalinin, my mother was preparing hospital documents, so we did not have time to evacuate.
It’s not far from our house to the Old Bridge over the Volga, but when we ran to cross to the other side, it was already too late.
The city was heavily shelled, our house burned down in a fire. We only managed to pull out a few blankets.
Fortunately, before the Germans arrived, my mother put family photographs, which she treasured very much, into a large candy can and buried them in the garden, so they survived.
During the occupation, we were given shelter by relatives living on Smolensky Lane. I remember hunger, cold and fear of the unknown.
My mother’s sisters waited out the occupation in Kashin, but it was not much better there. They returned scary, exhausted, and covered in lice. Aunt Masha soon died from illness.
Antonina Nikolaevna Bradis,
in 1941 – 16 years old:
On October 13, a high-explosive bomb fell near the house on Volny Novgorod Street where our family lived. She broke the glass in the windows, killed two neighbors and concussed me.
These were the days of mass exodus of residents from the city. Those who survived them will never forget the panic that gripped the entire population of Kalinin. Tens of thousands of people fled wherever they could from the approaching German troops.
Our family - father, mother, me and my younger sister walked hundreds of kilometers to the city of Uglich.
There we managed to board a barge. Before our eyes, a German plane bombed another barge, and it sank with all its passengers. It was very scary, but we saw no other way out but to sail into the unknown. The barge sailed along the Volga until the ice set in (in 1941, winter came very early; already in mid-October there were real winter frosts).
We settled in the Mari Republic. My father, a shoemaker by profession, quickly found a job. In Kalinin, my mother worked as a store director, then as the head of a cooperative insurance office, and during the evacuation she managed to get a job sorting vegetables in a vegetable storehouse. I also went to work and was hired at a factory producing military skis.
We returned home only in the spring, on the same barge. Kalinin was found in ruins. Fortunately, the family home survived.
But I didn’t see many of my classmates at school and the kids from the yard anymore. Zhenya Inzer, Zhenya Karpov, Yura Ivanov, Zhenya Logunov, all boys from our 22nd, now 16th school, died.
They remained in the occupied city, fought as best they could against the enemies, and died. They were given out by Zhenya Karpova's housemate. He lived with his mother in house number 9 on Stepan Razin embankment. The underground group had a meeting place there. The Germans took away my wife’s mother Maria Efimovna along with the children. They were tortured for a long time, and then they were all killed; the bodies were found after the liberation of the city.
At the end of the war, I went to Moscow and entered VGIK, the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography.
I lived in the hostel with Nonna Mordyukova, Inna Makarova, Sergei Bondarchuk, Evgeny Morgunov, Lyalya Shagalova. All of them played in Sergei Gerasimov’s film “The Young Guard”.
When the film was released across the country, deafening fame fell on my friends, and letters were brought to the hostel by the sack.
The audience identified the young actors with the dead heroes.
But the guys from my hometown were never recognized as heroes.
Their feat did not receive as much fame as their peers from the Krasnodon Young Guard, but for me they are forever heroes.
From our 22nd school, dozens of boys and girls fought. Many died.
Yura Mikhailov died in December 1941 near Volokolamsk.
Kolya Tumanov was a sniper who died in 1944.
Yura Shutkin, a nurse, went missing.
Sasha Komkov was not accepted into the army because of his age; he joined a partisan detachment, was then mobilized, and died in East Prussia.
Volodya Moshnin, a demolition saboteur, went missing.
Yura Pasteur, clever, poet, was killed in 1943.
Slava Urozhaev died near Leningrad.
Lev Belyaev served in the navy and died from his wounds.
Lida Vasilyeva spent the entire war on an evacuation train, often donated blood for the wounded, and died in 1950 from illness.
Rosa Ivchenko was a scout for a partisan detachment. I went to Kalinin many times across the front line to collect intelligence. After the war, she sold pies at the station, like in the film “War Romance.” She got married and gave birth to two children.
Volodya Zaitsev, the youngest of us, also survived. At the age of 13 he was already a scout. His sister Tonya served as a radio operator and died.
Of all our guys, only Volodya Zaitsev and I got a long life...
During the liberation of the city, over 20 thousand Red Army soldiers died. During the 63 days of occupation, 7,714 buildings and 510 thousand square meters were destroyed in the city. meters of housing (more than half of the housing stock), over 70 enterprises were put out of service.
Until March 3, 1943 (the day of the liberation of Rzhev), Kalinin remained a front-line city and was subject to systematic raids by German aircraft.
After the liberation of Kalinin, residents began to return to their destroyed homes.
But they had to solve not only everyday problems. The authorities, which abandoned the civilian population to the mercy of fate in front of the approaching enemy, now decided who could live in the city and who was not worthy of it.
On January 7, 1942, a decision was made by the executive committee of the Kalinin Regional Council of Workers' Deputies “On the registration of the population in Kalinin and the standard of living space.”
This decision prescribed a new registration of citizens from January 15 to February 1, 1942.
Registration was denied to family members of traitors and traitors to the Motherland who fled with the Germans; those who have served imprisonment for crimes provided for by a number of articles of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, including Article 58; those who worked during the occupation in institutions and in any kind of work; who had contact with the Germans, for example, attending meetings, parties, banquets, etc. The latter category included mainly young women and girls.
Family members of persons arrested after December 15, 1941 were also not registered. For registration, a reduced living space standard of 4.5 square meters was established. meters so that it is possible to resettle citizens who have lost their housing due to its destruction.
The history of the occupation of Kalinin during the Great Patriotic War has not yet been written.
The military part of this period has been studied to a greater extent - how the city was abandoned to the enemy, how it was liberated.
What happened in the occupied city, how people lived who had no means of subsistence and no knowledge of their future, historians are still not very interested in.
I would like to believe that the true history of the occupation, based on documents and memories of the people who lived through it, will nevertheless be created and will be read by people who know the occupation firsthand.
To be continued