The myth of the "cruel continent"
Distortion stories - The main theme in the information war, which the West has always led against Russia. Today it is very important for him to defame the Red Army, creating its reputation as a brutal “robbery-army”, but in no way an army-liberator of Europe from fascism.Well, then the bridge to the post-war Soviet army is easily transferred (there are attempts in the same spirit to represent the war in Afghanistan), and then to the Russian army.
Of course, such ideas about the Red Army are infinitely far from reality, but they stubbornly implanted in the minds of not only Western society, but also Russian. It is outrageous that at the same time foreign falsifiers of history receive support in Russia. So, when the book of the famous Western revisionist Low Keith, “The Cruel Continent.” Was translated into Russian. Europe after the Second World War ”, the governmental“ Rossiyskaya Gazeta ”responded to this event with a positive note. The authoritative state publication reported, in particular: “The book of the famous English historian Keith Lowe, which has become a literary sensation in Europe and has entered the top ten bestsellers according to the Sunday Times ... was published in Russian.”
Rarely is a foreign book honored to be noticed by a Russian edition of federal significance with a multimillion audience. And the newspaper also emphasized, quoting the original: “...“ Anyone who really wants to understand Europe of our day must first understand what happened in the decisive creative period ... ”. For Russian readers, it is also important that the book describes psychological phenomena similar to those observed in our society after the collapse of the USSR. ”
The CentroPoligraph publishing house, in the annotation to the book, noted: "... Keith Low made an attempt to shed light on the true, sometimes terrifying events taking place in post-war Europe, and on the influence they had on its further development."
Although the book itself is nothing special: the same standard set of accusations of the Red Army for looting and mass rape.
The author began his book with a passage, some of which are worth quoting.
“Imagine a world without public institutions. This is a world where the borders between countries have disappeared, as it were, and there is only one endless landscape that people wander in search of already non-existent communities of their own kind. No government on a national scale or even on the ground. There are no schools and universities, libraries and archives, there is no access to any information. Cinemas, theaters and, of course, no television have disappeared. Radio works from time to time, but the signal is far, and the broadcast is almost always in a foreign language. For many weeks, no one has seen a single newspaper. Iron and highways, telephone, telegraph, post offices do not function. In a word, no means of communication, an exception is the information transmitted from mouth to mouth.
Banks are abolished, in which, in fact, there is no point, because money has lost its value. No stores, for nothing to sell. The huge enterprises that existed before were destroyed or dismantled, like most other buildings. From the tools of labor only that can be dug out among the rubble of stone. No food.
Law and order are almost non-existent because there are no police or courts. In some areas, it seems, the boundaries of understanding what is good and what is bad have been erased. People take everything they want without paying attention to who owns it, moreover, the very concept of "property" almost does not work at all. Everything belongs only to those who are strong enough to keep this "everything" in themselves, and those who are able to protect it at the cost of life. Men with weapons in their hands they roam the streets and take everything they want, threatening everyone who stands in their way. Women of all classes and ages sell themselves for food and protection. No shame. No morality. Only survival.
On a person unfamiliar with the facts, circumstances and conditions for the liberation of Europe, it makes the right impression. Why, strictly speaking, the reader has already prepared a popular, especially among young people, numerous literature of the fantasy genre describing the “end of the world”, the collapse of everything and heroic battles of lonely heroes with hordes of monsters.
In addition, Lowe Kit treats her readers with such picturesque “pictures” of hundreds of thousands of German women who were raped, that the western man in the street just can't help but believe him.
What can I say? This is a very effective technique for processing public opinion in the right direction. This is not something that the somewhat “dry” style of the book “The Stalinist Fighter War (1941 – 1945 Years)” by a Goebbels follower Joachim Hoffmann (now deceased). But in this case, talking about the dead "only good" is simply impossible. His book, published in 1995, reprinted either four times, or six, already translated into Russian and uploaded to the Internet for free access, again becomes quoted by the Western media. And there is nothing surprising.
The preface to the Russian edition says: “The books of Hoffman were marked in 1991 with the Honorary Prize of them. Walter Eckhardt for research in the field of history, and in 1992 year - the General Andrei Andreyevich Vlasov Cultural Award.
Note that the Eckhard Foundation is actively involved in all the “orange” coups, including in Ukraine, and the reference to the “authority” of the traitor Vlasov towards Russia in general sounds blasphemous. But who cares? And here we read the passage, from which it simply takes aback: “... the proof of the thesis on the implementation by the USSR of the extermination war, that is, the war not against the armed forces of the enemy, but against the entire German people, and this work of Hoffmann is dedicated ... The German side also committed crimes Soviet Union ... "(Well, downright the current Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk with his passage about the" Soviet invasion of Ukraine and Germany.)
After these words, a natural desire to wash hands and ask a question arises: why is this “historical work” not banned in Russia just like Hitler’s “Main Camp” and other Nazi literature? And, willy-nilly, the conclusion is that the Briton Keith is a worthy follower of the German Hoffmann (not a storyteller). Both of them are united by blatant lies to the victorious people and their army, which came to Europe with a liberation mission.
Let us take, so to speak, the more "fresh" speculations of L. Keith about the Red "robbery-army". And what, is it wrong in the above quotation wrong?
Yes, it's not like that.
There was no “cruel continent” in the rear of the Red Army, power and order were established quickly and decisively. Documents perfectly cover this process.
As soon as the area liberated by the Red Army was abandoned by the fighters of the advanced units, power was immediately established: first, the Soviet military commander's office, then acting in parallel with it, local governments. For several days, structures of organized life arose: the police, financial agencies, commerce, transportation, cinemas, and administrative institutions began to work. So it was everywhere where the Red Army passed, not excluding the cities destroyed by 90%, like Warsaw. In Bucharest - the day after the Red Army units entered, in Warsaw - on the day of its liberation, in Budapest and Berlin - even before the fighting for the city ended, in those areas that were already controlled by our troops.
The Soviet military commander's office first of all took measures to prevent the arbitrariness of armed people in the city.
The first order of the Soviet military commander usually announced the requirement for residents to surrender in the next day or two weapons, ammunition and military equipment, as well as a curfew. Patrols put things in order on the streets, the movement of vehicles was regulated by the military road service (our traffic control girls were captured in many photographs of the liberated cities of Europe).
There are orders to the troops and appeals of the Military Councils of the fronts in connection with the entry of the Red Army into the territory of a country (repeating orders for content), which established that the property of civilians is under the protection of Soviet troops, and local governments remain functioning. The local population was urged to remain calm, to continue working. So it was in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia. In Poland and Germany, where the government was formed by the Communists already in the rear of the Red Army, local authorities were created by them after the departure of the first echelon troops, but also very quickly, literally within one or two days.
So, much work was done to normalize the life of Berlin immediately after the cessation of fighting.
The commandant of Berlin, Colonel General N.E. Berzarin ordered 2 May 1945 of the year to ensure the protection of all medical and scientific medical institutions, compulsorily identify and hospitalize all patients with infectious diseases, provide medical institutions with food, water and fuel, organize the cleaning of the city from the corpses of people and animals and from accumulated impurities. This was the problem of any large city in which protracted street battles took place, and it had to be solved by the commandant's offices, in particular, of Berlin and Budapest.
4 May 1945, Berzarin ordered to register all food in the city, resume bakeries and shops, and on May 11, the Military Council of the 1 Belarusian Front set food supply standards for Berliners, according to which, we emphasize, Berliners began to receive more products than with Hitler. Lieutenant General Bokov, a member of the Military Council of the 5 Shock Army, reported to the command of the 1 Belarusian Front 15 in May 1945: “Many Berliners in conversations emphasize that during the year joyful events began only in recent weeks and, paradoxically, they are connected the arrival of the Red Army in Berlin ... ".
When the Western allies came to Berlin to occupy the occupying zones they had intended, they discovered that the local commandant’s office already had a local authority in the city, political parties, trade unions, trade, the financial system, organized supply of food for the population, and also milk for children (for this purpose, the 1-th Belarusian Front gathered in its lane dairy cows abandoned by the owners, created dairy kitchens and set aside cars for milk distribution), restored feeds and water and electricity, partially restored trams and subways, earned radio stations and published newspapers in German, including the daily Teglihe Rundschau.
Speaking of newspapers. Lowe Keith claims that news passed from mouth to mouth. This is absolutely not true. The political administration of all the fronts liberating Europe published newspapers for the local population.
2-th Ukrainian Front published a newspaper for the Romanian population “Graiul Nou”, 4-th Ukrainian Front Hungarian newspaper “Magyar Uishag” and Ukrainian “Karpatssy Vestnik”, 1-th Belarusian Front - Polish newspaper “Volnoshch”, 2-th Belarusian - Volna Polska, 1-th Ukrainian-Polish Nové Jice.
On average, newspapers published 13 once a month, had a circulation of 20-30 thousands of copies and were distributed through the Soviet commandant's offices. The usual practice was organizing film shows, concerts of the Red Army amateur performances, radio programs, holding rallies and meetings.
The fact that there was no “cruel continent” in the rear of the Red Army was and could not be, the fact of the restoration of school education also speaks eloquently. In the liberated part of Poland, classes in schools began on September 1 of 1944, and the Soviet command ordered troops to release all school buildings. In Germany, on the orders of the Soviet military administration, classes began on October 1 on 1945, and 60% of the paper in the Soviet occupation zone was spent on the publication of new textbooks.
Western falsifiers do not know and do not want to know anything about what was done in the rear of the Red Army, in the European countries liberated from the Hitlerites, because this completely undermines their entire anti-Russian ideological concept, and the domestic ignoramus well-wishers and representatives of the “fifth column” sing along with them . However, it is enough to cite a number of facts, and from the colorful pictures of the supposedly universal post-war chaos and arbitrariness, described by Keith Low, there are only “shards”.
The falsifiers are trying to show that the Red Army soldiers, having “rushed” into Germany, began to drag everyone and rob everyone in a row, in support of allegedly real stories, most of which are pure fiction.
And here there are two interesting moments. First, for some reason, the conversation is only about Germany, although before that the Red Army had liberated Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, part of Yugoslavia. In all the statements of the Soviet government, the directives of the Supreme High Command Headquarters and the appeals of the fronts it was emphasized that the property of civilians is protected by the Red Army and the troops are strictly forbidden to seize and confiscate it. Only that belonged to the German army, the occupying authorities and the Nazi criminals was considered as trophies.
Secondly, during the battles in Europe, the Red Army either attacked quickly or led fierce battles and stormed the cities. For example, the rifle divisions of the 1 of the Ukrainian and 1 of the Belorussian fronts during the offensive in Poland and Germany in January-March of the year 1945 were made on 30-40 km per day. In such conditions, a soldier cannot physically indulge in robbery due to banal fatigue. Whoever does not believe in it, he himself can negotiate with reenactors, who have the uniform and equipment of the Soviet soldier of that time, get dressed and take everything that the soldiers had then, and make the 40-kilometer march on foot. The result of the experiment is predictable: at the end of a completely safe path (not under bullets and shells!), The only thought would be about where to fall and rest.
The Red Army soldiers did such marches for many days in a row, and then they had to dig in, cost fortifications, direct crossings, and perform many other duties. Therefore, soldiers used every free moment to rest and sleep. “Well, so were the backers robbed,” the revisionists might argue. But the fact is that the command immediately set up military commandant's offices in the rear of the troops. In every village, every county, district, city there was a Soviet commandant whose duties included quartering troops, observing discipline, and resolving all issues related to relations with the local population and local governments.
For example, a system of commandant's offices was established in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany: 136 district and 272 urban, 88 in urban areas and 309 in large rural areas. One commandant's office accounted for 30-35 thousand people of the German population.
The instructions emphasized the need to respect the needs of local residents. The commandants quickly suppressed any attempts at looting, even the most insignificant ones, such as picking apples in orchards — such were strict rules on looting in the Red Army. And with this, too, the liberation Red Army was different from the Wehrmacht, which in July 1941 was officially allowed to rob, which was justified by the Nazis by creating "the material interest of soldiers and officers in the war."
A young prisoner of the Dora concentration camp Leonard Ivanov recalled that shortly after his release, a Soviet soldier took him to the store and demanded that he give him sugar. This soldier wrote a receipt that he took 3 kg of sugar, then these receipts were surrendered to the military commander's office, where they were paid. Another time, already on the way home, Soviet soldiers shot over the heads of the repatriates so that they would not tear off the huge apple orchard, near which the train stopped. “People came back: in the Soviet zone looting was strictly forbidden,” said Ivanov.
In any disputed cases, local residents appealed to the commandant's office, and then the commandant identified the specific culprit with all the consequences for the offender of discipline.
Local residents quickly learned that the Red Army did not rob anyone, and therefore, for example, Polish peasants, who hid cattle in forests and ravines from the Germans, only a few days after the arrival of the Red Army brought him back to their yards.
For the same reason, the attempt by the Polish Home Army, which was subordinate to the Polish emigre government, to defame the Red Army in the eyes of the local population failed. When the Kraiova Army fighters disguised in Soviet uniforms began fumbling through the chests in the houses, the locals immediately fled to the nearest commandant's office and reported the incident with the words: "Yours do not do that."
The Red Army really had no need to take anything, especially to take it away from the local population, since the advancing troops were simply seizing vast stocks of trophy property belonging to the Wehrmacht or the Nazi authorities. These were warehouses with food, weapons and ammunition, materials and raw materials, looted throughout Europe, factories, factories, and agricultural farms. Only 1-th Ukrainian and 1-Byelorussian fronts, captured from the German army, provided themselves so much that in the last months of the war bread, sugar, and fodder were not imported from the Soviet Union. The Soviet command transferred part of this food to the Polish authorities for the supply of large cities, from the captured stocks provided the population of Berlin, Dresden, Vienna and other large cities.
Finally, on the roads of Germany, there was a huge, incalculable amount of any property abandoned by refugees. The roads were simply lined with suitcases and nodes, the stations were packed with "junk" trains. All this was collected by trophy teams to special warehouses. Part of this abandoned property was transferred to local authorities, and partly used by the Red Army. Thus, the parcels in the USSR, which the falsifiers cite as “looting” as evidence, were actually completed from trophy property, but under strict control of political departments. Moreover, in mid-March 1945, the command of the 1 of the Ukrainian and 1 of the Belorussian fronts even introduced lists of things that a soldier or officer could receive for sending home.
The acquisition of these commodity funds involved trophy services front-line logistics.
Parcels were strictly limited in terms of weight and cost, only soldiers and officers who were exemplary in service could send them once a month. It was practiced sending packages to the families of those soldiers and officers who died or were injured.
In Germany, the very organization of this case excluded even the slightest hint of looting. In other European countries, everything necessary for the army was purchased locally at pre-war prices and paid in local currency. Supplies for the Red Army, which were, for example, in Poland, were regulated by local authorities and determined by agreements with the USSR. Often referred to by Western researchers, the “bureaucracy” had a completely different character. This phenomenon had the official name of “squandering of captured property”, that is, its illegal spending and extradition. In essence, it was the plundering of military warehouses.
The military prosecutor's office and special departments of the NKVD were engaged in the identification and punishment of the plunderers. Sometimes the perpetrators got off with reprimands, lowering in ranks or transferring to other parts, but when the plundering was carried out on a large scale and had a criminal character, the perpetrators were brought to criminal responsibility, they were usually sentenced to imprisonment for up to ten years. So the “bastardy” is not looting. For the first relied "chervonets", and for the second - the shooting before the line.
This occupation was also despised by the troops, and those who were engaged in it, which is why it appeared, and then a scornful nickname, “barabolschik,” was attached to the “lovers” of easy money.
By the way, when they say that Marshal G.K. Zhukov, and conclude that, they say, the entire Soviet generals were such, it must be said that the Red Army numbered 2952 generals, and the People's Commissariat of the Navy, NKVD and NKGB had 495 generals and admirals. At the same time, the 11 generals were arrested in the “general case”, three of whom were sentenced to death, four to imprisonment. In total, the entire 7 generals were found guilty of the “rampart”. These figures most vividly show that the Soviet generals, in their overwhelming majority, had nothing to do with the “flea market”.
So, it is enough to turn to the well-known documents in order to see - all attempts to accuse the Red Army of mass looting, cruelty have no basis. This is just a malicious myth created with a well-defined ideological goal.
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