The Intelligentsia Meets the Enemy: Educated Soviet Officers in Defeated Germany, 1945

Abstract

She Is, Accursed Germany! Major Lev Kopelev entered East Prussia on a Ford truck. There were no markers, so he had to distinguish border himself: had already been agreed upon earlier: as soon as we crossed border, we would mark it in an appropriate fashion. Having stopped precisely on line according to map, I commanded, 'Here is Germany, get out and relieve yourselves!' It seemed witty to us, standing right next to cuvette, to mark initial entry into enemy territory in precisely way. (1) Germany welcomed Vladimir Gel'fand, commander of a mortar platoon, in an ungracious manner, a snow storm, ferocious wind, and empty, almost extinct villages. (2) war correspondent Vasilii Grossman entered German territory toward evening. It was foggy and rainy, and scent of forest rot was in air. Dark pine trees, fields, farms, service buildings, houses with sharp edged stretched out along highway. was great charm in scenery, Grossman wrote, the small but very thick woods were nice, with bluish-gray asphalt and brick roads running through them. His notes might seem like those of a tourist if not for reference to huge sign on shoulder of road: Soldier, here it is--the lair of fascist beast. (3) commander of a cannon platoon, Lieutenant Boris Itenberg, crossed border of East Prussia in region of Gumbinnen on an armored train. He saw Germany, this accursed country, for first rime on 25 March 1945. (4) Three weeks later, Lance-Corporal David Kaufman crossed German border: From Birnbaum to Landsberg runs a narrow highway with trees planted accurately alongside Approaching Schwerin, a wide placard across road read: 'Here was border of was Germany. I involuntarily felt anxious crossing unseen border. Tiled roofs of settlements reddened welcomingly amid clear winter crops on brilliant and green backdrop of a spring morning. serenity of morning smoothed over emptiness of villages and ugliness of ruins. It introduced a certain simplicity to regular and tidy landscape, small pine groves, rolling hills, even, cultivated fields. (5) Lieutenant Elena Kogan entered Germany along same highway: Outside Birnbaum there was a control-admission point (KPP). A large arch read, 'Here was border of Germany.' Everyone who in those days traveled on Berlin highway read yet another inscription, made with tar by some soldier on a half-destroyed house closest to arch, in huge curved letters: Here she is, accursed Germany! (6) Major Boris Slutskii ended war not in Germany but in Austria. For men in his unit, however, there was no difference between Germans and Austrians: The army could sense a German. We didn't know German well enough to distinguish between Prussian and Styrian dialects. We knew too little about world history to assess autonomy of Austria within Great German system.... soldiers listened attentively to admonitions about difference between Germany and Austria and didn't believe a word of it. (7) This article was written on basis of letters, diaries, and memoirs of Soviet servicemen who ended war in territory of Third Reich. youngest of them, Evgenii Plimak, a sergeant-major and translator for army intelligence, turned 20 in 1945; oldest, already well-known writer Vasilii Grossman, was 40. majority were between ages of 22 and 34, with ranks from junior lieutenant to major. (8) They were not typical representatives of Soviet officer corps. First, majority came from Moscow; second, they had either completed or interrupted their studies in institutions of higher education, and third, many of them could communicate in German--some haltingly, some excellently. For several of them, work with enemy became a military profession: they were either translators or propagandists. …