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.
October 10
The Kalinin defensive operation of the troops of the right wing of the Western Front against the Nazi troops began.
October 12
The deep breakthrough of the formations of the 3rd German tank group between Sychevka and Vyazma and the exit of one motorized corps to the rear of the armies of the right wing of the Western Front forced the Soviet command to remove the 29th Army from the front and deploy it along the left bank of the Volga to cover the Rzhev group from the southeast . By order of the Headquarters, seven rifle divisions were withdrawn from the army of the right wing of the front to transfer them to the Mozhaisk defense line and to the Kalinin region.
October 14
The troops of the Western Front abandoned the city of Kalinin. Immediately after the capture of the city, formations of the 3rd German Tank Group tried to develop an offensive on Torzhok and go to the rear of the troops of the North-Western Front, but were rebuffed by the operational group of the North-Western Front N.F. Vatutina.
17 October
The Kalinin Front was created from the troops of the right wing of the Western Front (22, 29 and 30 armies) and the group of Lieutenant General N.F. Vatutin, led by Colonel General I.S. Konev. Corps Commissar D.S. was appointed a member of the Front Military Council. Leonov, chief of staff I.I. Ivanov.
At the direction of the Headquarters, the troops of the Kalinin Front launched a counterattack on the enemy’s 41st motorized corps, which was trying to break through from the Kalinin area to Torzhok, to the rear of the troops of the North-Western Front, and threw it back to its original position. The 8th Tank Brigade of Colonel P.A. distinguished itself in battles. Rotmistrov, staffed by Leningrad volunteer workers.
The 21st separate tank brigade made a heroic raid from the area of the village of Turginovo in the direction of Kalinin. 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.
During the day of battle, the brigade's forces destroyed up to 38 tanks, about 70 guns and mortars, 170 vehicles, and up to 500 enemy soldiers and officers.
October 19
From the evening message of the Sovinformburo; “In all areas of the Kalinin region captured by the Germans, partisan detachments are actively operating. Their number is growing every day. Tens and hundreds of workers and employees of enterprises and institutions, hundreds of collective farmers join partisan detachments and, not sparing their lives, fight the fascist invaders.”
The 20th of October
From the morning message of the Sovinformburo: “Our unit, operating in one of the sections of the Kalinin direction, in one day, October 18, destroyed 17 German tanks, 30 vehicles with ammunition and 15 vehicles with fascist infantry. In another section of the Kalinin direction, on October 18, about three hundred German vehicles were destroyed, of which more than 200 vehicles with infantry and about 100 vehicles with fuel and ammunition.”
October 30
From a morning message from the Sovinformburo: “In battles in the area of Kalinin, our units captured a large group of German soldiers. Extensive correspondence found among prisoners speaks of the growing dissatisfaction of the German masses with the war against the Soviet Union."
October 31
From a morning message from the Sovinformburo: “In one of the sections of the Kalinin direction, a long-range battery under the command of Lieutenant Belikov destroyed an enemy airfield, destroying 14 enemy aircraft.”
Nov. 1
By this day, 56 partisan detachments with a total number of 1,724 people were operating in the occupied areas of the region.
November 5
From the morning message of the Sovinformburo: “One of our units, operating on the Kalinin Front, in one day of fighting destroyed 15 German tanks, 10 armored vehicles, 13 guns, several mortar batteries and about 600 enemy soldiers and officers.”
November 7
The Military Council of the Kalinin Front awarded military orders and medals to 88 tank crews of the 8th Tank Brigade.
November 17
From the evening message of the Sovinformburo: “...Particularly fierce battles took place on Kalininsky and one of the sectors of the Southwestern Front.”
“In one of the sections of the Kalinin direction of the front, our scouts discovered 20 corpses of German soldiers behind enemy lines. As it turned out from the testimony of prisoners, these German soldiers were shot for refusing to go on the offensive. Captured fascists report that within a month, over 280 soldiers deserted from the 253rd and 102nd infantry divisions. Recently, an order from the German command was read to all units. The order stated that every soldier who fell behind his unit for any reason would be considered a deserter and would be shot if caught...”
November 25
From the evening message of the Sovinformburo: “Parts of comrade. Maslennikov, in 10 days of fighting, destroyed 38 enemy tanks, 19 guns, 19 mortars, 230 motorcycles and captured 5 enemy tanks, 10 guns, 32 vehicles, 116 motorcycles and 53 machine guns.”
December 4
The Kalinin defensive operation of the troops of the Kalinin and Western Fronts against the German troops of the 9th Army and the 3rd Tank Group was completed. By the end of the operation, the enemy was stopped at the line north of the settlements of Selizharovo, Chernogubovo, Mishutino, Moshki, Volyntsevo, the northern outskirts of Kalinin, Yuryevskoye.
5th of December
The Kalinin offensive operation began (December 5, 1941-January 7, 1942) of the troops of the Kalinin Front against the troops of the left wing of Army Group Center, which marked the beginning of the counteroffensive of Soviet troops in the Battle of Moscow. The front was supposed to strike at the enemy's 9th Army, liberate Kalinin and go to the rear of the troops operating against the Western Front.
December 7
The 29th Army of the Kalinin Front, having attacked the enemy southwest of Kalinin, crossed the Volga here on the ice and wedged itself into the enemy defenses.
9th December
The 31st Army of the Kalinin Front, after three days of stubborn fighting, broke through the enemy defenses on the Volga south of Kalinin, reached the Koltsovo, Mozzharino, Chupriyanovka, Koromyslovo line, and cut the Kalinin-Turginovo road.
December 13th
Formations of the 29th Army (commanded by Major General V.I. Shvetsov) and the 31st Army (commanded by Major General V.A. Yushkevich) entered the retreat route of the Kalinin group of Germans. The garrison of fascist troops in Kalinin was asked to capitulate.
December 16
At dawn, from the Negotino area, the retreating enemy was attacked by troops of the 31st Army; the 252nd Division of the 29th Army attacked the enemy north of the village of Danilovskoye. By three o'clock the 243rd Division of the 29th Army occupied the northern part of Kalinin. By 11 o'clock the right-flank units of the 256th division burst into the city. By 13:00 the city was completely liberated from German troops. This was the first liberated regional center.
“IN THE FINAL HOUR. ANOTHER STRIKE ON THE ENEMY'S TROOPS. After fierce fighting, the troops of the Kalinin Front captured the city of Kalinin. In the battles near the city of Kalinin, our troops inflicted a major defeat on the 9th German Army of Colonel General Strauss, defeating the 86, 110, 129, 161 and 251 infantry divisions that were part of this army. The remnants of the defeated enemy divisions retreat to the west. In the battles for the city of Kalinin, the troops of Lieutenant General Comrade Maslennikov and Major General Comrade Yushkevich distinguished themselves. Large trophies have been captured and are being counted. Our troops pursue and destroy the retreating enemy. SOVINFORMBURO."
December 17
“TROPHIES OF OUR TROOPS WHEN THE CAPTURE OF THE CITY OF KALININ. When taking the city of Kalinin, according to preliminary and incomplete data, the troops of the Kalinin Front captured the following trophies from the Germans: guns of various calibers - 190, of which 4 heavy twelve-inch ones, tanks - 31, aircraft - 9, vehicles - about 1,000, mortars - 160, machine guns - 303, machine guns - 292, bicycles - 1,300, motorcycles - 47, rifles - 4,500, shells - 21,000, mines - 12,500, cartridges - over 500,000, radios - 18, battle flags - 4. In addition, two ammunition depots, a warehouse with uniforms, carts, cables and much other military equipment. The trophy count continues. In the battles in the Kalinin area, the Germans lost more than 10,000 soldiers and officers alone. SOVINFORMBURO."
December 18
A red flag was solemnly raised on Lenin Square in Kalinin.
The first meeting of the city committee of the CPSU took place after the liberation of the regional center.
27th of December
“TROPHIES OF THE KALININ FRONT TROOPS FOR THE PERIOD FROM DECEMBER 17 TO 27. In battles with the German occupiers, the troops of the Kalinin Front from December 17 to 27 captured the following trophies: tanks and tankettes - 103, armored vehicles - 6, guns of various calibers - 180, machine guns = 267, machine guns - 135, mortars - 86, flamethrowers, rifles - 659, cars - 1323, motorcycles - 348, bicycles - 213, airplanes - 8, radio stations - 6, carts - 115, horses - 130, shells - 12200, mines of various calibers - over 8300, rifle cartridges - 778480, grenades - 1270 and other military property.
During the same period, 38 tanks, up to 20 guns, 75 machine guns, 400 vehicles, 23 motorcycles, 295 wagons with cargo and other military equipment were destroyed.”
A bathhouse opened in the city of Kalinin.
December 30th
At the Kalinin House of the Red Army, orders and medals were presented to soldiers and commanders who distinguished themselves in the battles for Kalinin.
Bibliography
Messages from the Soviet Information Bureau. T.1: June - December 1941 - M.: [Type. gas "Pravda" named after. Stalin], 1944. - 456 p.
Chronological information about the military operations of the Red Army in the defense and liberation of the city of Kalinin in 1941 / comp. P.F. Anisimov. - Tver: TSTU, 2000. - 208 p.
Boshnyak Yu.M. Kalinin operational direction in the battle of Moscow: military history. essay / Yu.M. Boshnyak, D.D. Slezkin, N.A. Yakimansky // On the right flank of the Moscow battle. - M.: Moscow. worker, 1991. - P. 7-60.
Brief chronicle of events // Pages of national feat. – M., 1974. – P. 287-293.
Chronicle of the battles for Kalinin // Political agitation. - 1981. - No. 21-22. - P. 28, 31, 34, 39,41, 54, 57-58.
Khetchikov M.D. Defensive and counter-offensive operations carried out in 1941 on Tver land // M.D. Khetchikov; Tver. region society Memor support fund. complex of glory to Siberian warriors. - Tver: Communications. company, 2010. - 158 p.: map.
Khetchikov M.D. Military glory of the Kalinin battles of 1941. - Tver: Pyramid XXI century, 2009. - 54 p.: map.
Kalinin defensive operation [Electronic resource] // Wikipedia. - Access mode: http://ru.wikipedia.org/Kalinin_defensive operation
Kalinin Front [Electronic resource] // Wikipedia. - Access mode: http://ru.wikipedia.org/w/Kalinsky_front
Defense of Kalinin [Electronic resource] // Wikipedia. - Access mode: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Kalinina
Occupation of Kalinin [Electronic resource] // Wikipedia. - Access mode:
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 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 Krepzov 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 a practically 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-potbelly stove.
Thus passed two long months of occupation.
It is 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 barns 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, laying out crusts 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 enterprises 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 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 Vasilyevna.
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
I came across information about the existence of another organization called the “Russian National Socialist Movement” (RNSD). The organization was created in October 1941 in Tver.
In general, the period of the German “occupation” of Tver is very interesting. During the Red occupation, Tver was called Kalinin; under the Germans, the historical name returned. Russian self-government was created in the city - power belonged to city government, headed burgomaster. Burgomasterwas the official and administrative head of all officials subordinate to him, organizations and institutions subordinate to him. On October 25, at a public meeting, residents of Tver elected Valery Yasinsky as burgomaster.
Valery Abrosimovich (Amvrosievich) Yasinsky (1895-1966?) - nobleman, staff captain in the Kolchak Army, collaborator, mayor of the city of Tver in 1941, holder of the Iron Cross 2nd class, lieutenant colonel of the Wehrmacht, Vlasovite, active figure in the ROA.
Order in the city was maintained by the “Russian auxiliary police”, which consisted of volunteers. The police department was headed by former captain Vladimir Mikhailovich Bibikov. Nikolai Sverchkov and a certain Diligensky became deputy chief of police. The main task of the police was to identify Soviet underground members and agents, for which a wide network of informants was created, numbering 1,500-1,600 people.
After his election on October 25, 1941, burgomaster V. A. Yasinsky spoke to the residents of the city, accusing the Soviet government of oppressing the people, deliberately destroying food before retreating, called for help to the city government with personal labor in the fight against devastation, and to combine all the food resources of the city “ for equal distribution among honest citizens.” The Tverskoy Vestnik newspaper was created in the city (edited by K. I. Nikolsky), which published materials with propaganda and anti-Soviet content.
Particular attention was paid to the eradication of Soviet ideology. Books with Marxist and communist content were confiscated and destroyed from libraries. Other books were not destroyed. In school textbooks, employees of the education department replaced the words: “collective farm” - “village”, “collective farmer” - “peasant”, “comrade” - “citizen”, “master”, “USSR” - “Russia”, “Soviet” - "Russian". The city's statues of Lenin and Stalin were toppled. On Lenin Square, instead of an idol, a large swastika was installed.
The Ascension Cathedral, closed by the Bolsheviks, resumed work.
Among the people who were actively involved in the work to establish a new order were the head of the literature department of the Kalinin Pedagogical Institute V. Ya. Gnatyuk, the teacher of the Kalinin Pedagogical Institute S. N. Yurenev, the artistic director of the Kalinin Drama Theater S. V. Vinogradov.
Citizens of various social strata cooperated with the Germans.
A fairly large organization, the Russian National Socialist Movement (RNSD), was created in Tver. The main organizer was German army officer V.F. Adrias (the son of a landowner who emigrated to Germany in 1918). The organization's program provided for the creation, with the help of the Germans, of an independent Russian state and the restoration of private property. It was planned to create primary organizations of the RNSD throughout the country, involving mainly young people, and once the organization reached a sufficient number, it was planned to reorganize it into the Russian National Socialist Party. It was not possible to implement these plans due to the transience of the “occupation” of Tver, after the removal of which the activities of the RNSD came to naught.
