"Frozen Spirit"
The death of Omsk General Dmitry Karbyshev, despite the remoteness of this event, is regularly mentioned in the media. More recently, I had to write about this site: in in social networks found a video of 2013, capturing an ambiguous joke of the participants of the Comedy Vumen. One of the artists felt some kind of cold breath - and the other immediately explained to her that it was "the frozen spirit of General Karbyshev came up and hugged her." The grandson of the war hero, seeing this, said that he would sue the show for “an attempt to devalue history”, and Nikita Mikhalkov called the artists “sheep” in the Besogon program.
What are they talking about? - the director asked rhetorically, looking at the camera. - Can they imagine for a second what it is like to stand in a forty-degree frost with ice water poured from hoses and turn into an ice monument to oneself?
Mikhalkov thus voiced the main version of the death of Karbyshev, which is told by teachers in schools, which is written about in popular science books and spoken, if necessary, from high stands: the general was doused with cold water in the cold until he turned into an ice block. The monument to Karbyshev at the entrance to Mauthausen (the concentration camp in Austria where he died) was also created in accordance with this version, and initially its lower part was supposed to consist not of stone, but of glass - for the sake of more visual visualization. The fact of such a painful and unusual death, as seen in the story of Mikhalkov, intensifies righteous anger when someone allows himself a careless statement. However, with a closer acquaintance with the topic, it becomes clear that the authenticity of this fact is at least disputed.
Here it is necessary to make an important clarification: neither historians nor journalists have any doubts that the official biography of Dmitry Karbyshev as a whole corresponds to historical truth. No one questions (and definitely will not question) the fact that the general, who was captured in 1941, was very interested in the German command as an outstanding specialist in military engineering; that he rejected all offers of cooperation, although they were sometimes made in the most veiled form (and Karbyshev himself very soberly assessed his chances of salvation); that he was finally killed in the winter of 1945, and he was probably killed very cruelly. The question is only in some details that do not fundamentally change anything, but which turn out to be very important for some zealots historical memory. If Mikhalkov says that you can’t joke about the general, because he was turned into an “icy monument to himself,” then this is not only a metaphor - and that’s why it’s worth trying to figure out exactly how the war hero Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev died.
Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev is a Russian and Soviet military engineer. Lieutenant general. Born in Omsk on October 14, 1880 in the family of a veteran Crimean War Mikhail Ilyich Karbyshev. In 1900 he graduated from the Nikolaev Engineering School. He distinguished himself in the Russo-Japanese and World War I. Participated in the Brusilovsky breakthrough. In 1917 he enrolled in the Red Guard, and later in the Red Army. Participated in the Civil War. The Great Patriotic War found him in Grodno, where his headquarters was surrounded already in the first days of the war. In August 1941, while trying to break out of encirclement, he was captured by German troops. He died in February 1945 in a concentration camp.
Missing
Karbyshev was taken prisoner in the summer of 1941, and from that moment on, nothing was known about him in the Soviet Union, except that he "disappeared." It was this note that appeared in his personal file. By the way, in the journalism of recent decades, there have been reports that the Soviet leadership offered to exchange Karbyshev for two Wehrmacht generals, but they are not true: during the war, the Soviet side did not even know that Karbyshev was in captivity. This is written by the scientist Viktor Mirkiskin, who defended his Ph.D. thesis in 2004 on the topic “Military and scientific activities of Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev.”
The time of oblivion ended in August 1946. It was then that the decision was signed to posthumously award Karbyshev the title "Hero Soviet Union". This decision was made on the basis of the testimony of two witnesses to the death of the general - Lieutenant Colonel of the Soviet Army Sorokin and Canadian Major Seddon de St. Clair.
The latter, according to the documents, in February 1946 he himself obtained a meeting with a representative of the Soviet mission for repatriation in England in order to give information that he considered very important.
I don’t have long to live, - said St. Clair (the conversation took place in the hospital - Approx. ed.), - therefore, I am worried about the fact that the facts of the heroic death of the Soviet general known to me, the noble memory of which should live in the hearts of people. I'm talking about Lieutenant General Karbyshev, with whom I had to visit German camps.
First Witnesses
The Canadian said:
In January 1945, among 1,000 prisoners from the Heinkel plant, I was sent to the Mauthausen extermination camp, this team included General Karbyshev and several other Soviet officers. Upon arrival at Mauthausen, we spent the whole day in the cold. In the evening, a cold shower was arranged for all 1,000 people, and after that, in the same shirts and stocks, they lined up on the parade ground and kept it until 6 o'clock in the morning. Of the 1,000 people who arrived at Mauthausen, 480 died. General Dmitry Karbyshev also died.
Sorokin told about the same thing, but named a different month and gave additional details:
On February 21, 1945, I arrived at the Mauthausen concentration camp with a group of 12 captured officers. Upon arrival at the camp, I became aware that on February 17, a group of 400 people was separated from the total mass of prisoners, where Lieutenant General Karbyshev also ended up. These 400 people were stripped naked and left to stand in the street; those in poor health died, and they were immediately sent to the firebox of the camp crematorium, while the rest were driven with clubs into a cold shower. Until 12 o'clock in the morning this execution was repeated several times. At 12 o'clock in the morning, during another such execution, Comrade Karbyshev deviated from the pressure cold water and was killed by a blow to the head with a truncheon. Karbyshev's body was burned in the camp's crematorium.
More details
Two years later, another version of St. Clair's memoirs was published, which differed markedly from the first. Herzel Novogrudsky published the book "Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev" - in it the testimony of the Canadian was quoted with new details.
As soon as we entered the camp, the Germans herded us into the shower room, ordered us to undress and let jets of icy water fall on us from above,” says St. Clair according to Novogrudsky. “Then we were ordered to put on only linen and wooden blocks and were driven out into the yard. General Karbyshev was standing in a group of Russian comrades not far from me ... He was saying something passionately and convincingly to his comrades. They listened to him carefully. In his phrases, I caught the words repeated several times and understandable to me: "Soviet Union", "Stalin". Then, looking in our direction, he said to us in French: “Cheer up, comrades! Think about your homeland - and courage will not leave you. At this time, the Gestapo, standing behind us with fire hoses in their hands, began to pour cold water on us. Those who tried to evade the jet were beaten with clubs on the head. Hundreds of people fell frozen or with crushed skulls. I saw how General Karbyshev also fell ...
Thus, for the first time, Novogrudsky mentions pouring cold water from a hose - and Karbyshev dies either from a blow from a baton or from the cold. The next step was taken in 1955 by the novelist Sergei Golubov, who wrote in an article in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper:
On a frosty night from February 17 to February 18, 1945, half-naked Karbyshev was led to the inner wall of the Mauthausen camp. Here he was poured with water from a fire hose until he turned into an ice statue.
It turns out that Golubov’s mass character disappears (only Karbyshev was taken out, and not 1000 or 400 people) and the motive of “a monument made of ice to himself” appears, and the wording is very categorical. The same motif appears in the book by Valentin Sakharov "In the dungeons of Mauthausen" (1959), the author of which was also a prisoner of a concentration camp and, according to him, saw how Karbyshev died.
It was 12 degrees below zero, writes Sakharov. - Crossing ice jets hit from the hoses. Karbyshev was slowly covered with ice. “Cheer up, comrades, think about your homeland - and courage will not leave you,” he said before his death, addressing the prisoners of Mauthausen.
final version
Photo:
By the 1960s, the notion that Karbyshev had been turned into an ice statue was already dominating popular literature. For example, in the biography of the general written by Reshin (it was published in 1987, and the imprint mentions a scientific consultant - associate professor and candidate of military sciences), drunken SS men appear who pour water from water hoses on concentration camp prisoners. In Mauthausen they put new monument(the same one on which Karbyshev was frozen into a block of ice) and screwed a new memorial plaque with the inscription "On the night of February 17-18, 1945 ... the German fascists took General Karbyshev out into the cold, took off all his clothes and poured cold water over him until the general's body turned into an ice pillar."
It was this version that became widespread. Sometimes it is supplemented (as, for example, Mikhalkov with "forty-degree frost"), but the essence remains unchanged. So on the official website of the “Young Karbyshevites” movement it is written: “On the night of February 18, 1945, a batch of prisoners, among whom was Karbyshev, was driven out into the yard in their underwear and kept in the cold for a long time. Then they began to pour ice water on the victims until they turned into ice blocks.
Skeptics
Photo: Hildebrand (website wikimedia.org)
In 2004, the journalists of Novaya Gazeta tried to understand this story. According to the author of the article “Two Deaths of General Karbyshev”, Soviet propaganda simply needed a hero from among the generals who were captured during the war; therefore, at first, Karbyshev was singled out from the total mass of those who died in Mauthausen, and then, in a semi-spontaneous manner, his already tragic death was made a martyr to the maximum. St. Clair's testimony could be partially "supplemented", and then dreamers-memoirists and communist ideologists pulled themselves up.
General Karbyshev became a victim twice, - Novaya Gazeta correspondent Alexander Mellenberg concludes his article, - first by Hitler's guards, then by Stalin's myth-makers.
A few years ago, blogger allin777 studied this topic. He reveals that he has not been able to find any trace of the existence of a Canadian officer named Seddon de St. Clair. In the archives of Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen (Karbyshev was supposed to be in this concentration camp shortly before his death) and the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, at the request of the blogger, they could not find a single mention of Karbyshev (although most of the Sachsenhausen archive was destroyed before the end of the war). The temperature in Upper Austria (Mauthausen is located there) in mid-February 1945 ranged from -1 degrees at night to +10 degrees during the day (the absolute minimum for this month is 21 degrees below zero).
It seems to me most likely, - allin777 concludes, - that Karbyshev simply did not get to Mauthausen: he died either in Sachsenhausen, or during transportation to Mauthausen or another camp. The dispatch lists from Sachsenhausen would help to finally clarify the situation, but they do not exist and, apparently, will no longer be. The details of the death of General Karbyshev were, it seems to me, invented on the instructions of Soviet propaganda.
It cannot be said that such an opinion is the lot of only amateurs. For example, in the biographical guide "Figures of Russian History" (author A. Shikman, 1997, Moscow) it is reported:
The story about the transformation of K. (Karbyshev. - Approx. ed.) into an ice statue to intimidate others is a legend.
“Does this detract from the feat?”
Serious scientific research on the Karbyshev problem, apparently, has not yet come out. So Mirkiskin in his Ph.D. thesis writes only about the military and scientific activity general: it was clearly not his task to critically examine the current ideas about the death of Karbyshev. The site "Heroes of the Country", which contains data on the Heroes of the Soviet Union and Heroes of Russia (it positions itself as a "patriotic Internet project" engaged in "propaganda of the bright and glorious sides of the Soviet and Russian history in contrast to the aggressive criticism of the Russian state system that has unfolded since the late 1990s”), are limited to a streamlined wording: “He was doused cold war in the cold and died.
Now there is talk that the general died in a different way than it is presented in the official Soviet interpretation - they write about all this in the Russkiy Vek magazine. - That he was not poured with ice-cold water separately from everyone else, that he took two steps forward, among the other 400 people, at the demand of the German punishers for the sick to get out of line. But does this detract from the feat of a man who died, but was never broken by the merciless conveyor of death, which claimed the lives of tens of millions of prisoners!
The answer to this question, of course, will be negative: it does not detract. But in any case, it’s worth sorting out the details - especially if famous people it is these details that are used for accusations and insults.
On February 18, 1945, General Dmitry Karbyshev, one of the most famous heroes of the Great Patriotic War, died in the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Patriotic War. In the USSR, everyone knew how this man died, who became a symbol of unbending will and stamina: according to the canonical Soviet legend, the Germans poured cold water on a captured Soviet general in the cold until he turned into a block of ice. But was it really so?
In August 1941 Lieutenant General engineering troops Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was shell-shocked and captured in a battle near the Belarusian village of Dobreika. Karbyshev passed through a number of German concentration camps, last resort the Mauthausen camp became for him - there, on the night of February 18, 1945, he died. And now we come to the most legendary - the circumstances of the death of the general.
Monument to Karbyshev in Mauthausen
On August 16, 1946, on the basis of two testimonies submitted to the USSR Ministry of Defense, General Dmitry Karbyshev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). Here is what was said in these testimonies.
The message of the former prisoner of war Lieutenant Colonel Sorokin:
“On February 21, 1945, with a group of 12 captured officers, I arrived at the Mauthausen concentration camp. Upon arrival at the camp, I became aware that on February 17, a group of 400 people was separated from the total mass of prisoners, where Lieutenant General Karbyshev also ended up. These 400 people were stripped naked and left to stand in the street; those in poor health died, and they were immediately sent to the firebox of the camp crematorium, while the rest were driven with clubs into a cold shower. Until 12 o'clock in the morning this execution was repeated several times. At 12 o'clock in the morning, during another such execution, Comrade Karbyshev deviated from the pressure of cold water and was killed with a baton on the head. Karbyshev's body was burned in the camp's crematorium."
The second document is Message from Canadian Army Major Seddon de St. Clair to a representative of the Soviet Repatriation Committee:
« In January 1945, among the 1,000 prisoners from the Heinkel plant, I was sent to the Mauthausen extermination camp, this team included General Karbyshev and several other Soviet officers. Upon arrival at Mauthausen, we spent the whole day in the cold. In the evening, a cold shower was arranged for all 1,000 people, and after that, in the same shirts and stocks, they lined up on the parade ground and kept it until 6 o'clock in the morning. Of the 1,000 people who arrived at Mauthausen, 480 died. General Dmitry Karbyshev also died.
These testimonies, in general, adequately paint a picture of what happened. General Karbyshev either died of hypothermia after standing in the open air for many hours, or was killed by a blow to the head with a club. Let us note, by the way, that the testimony of a Canadian officer deserves more credibility. Lieutenant Colonel Sorokin was not in Mauthausen at the time of Karbyshev's death - he was brought there a few days later. He clearly retells the information about the death of the general from someone else’s words, so that the effect of a “broken phone” is possible here. St. Clair was a direct eyewitness to the events.
However, such an uninteresting death of a hero from hypothermia was not enough for Soviet agitprop. Therefore, the description of the death of the general quickly began to acquire picturesque details. Already in 1948, a book appeared under the title "Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev." The book contains the testimony of St. Clair, but the story of the Canadian officer, edited by Soviet journalists, was already significantly different from the original version. It was all the easier to carry out such editorial revisions because St. Clair was no longer alive by that time.
Here is how the redacted St. Clair now describes the death of Karbyshev:
“As soon as we entered the camp, the Germans herded us into the shower room, ordered us to undress, and sprayed us with jets of icy water from above… Then we were ordered to put on only linen and wooden blocks and kicked out into the yard. General Karbyshev was standing in a group of Russian comrades not far from me ... At this time, the Gestapo men, standing behind our backs with fire hoses in their hands, began to pour streams of cold water on us. Those who tried to evade the jet were beaten with clubs on the head. Hundreds of people fell frozen or with crushed skulls. I saw how General Karbyshev also fell.
So, we are registering the appearance of the first component of a new myth: now it’s not just about a cold shower and standing in the cold, but about the “water cannons” with which the “Gestapo” pour water over the general and other prisoners. True, why the prisoners are watered from nowhere by the "Gestapo" (that is, the political police), and not the camp guards, remains incomprehensible. Apparently, it seemed better to the Soviet author.
The construction of the legend did not end there. In 1955, the main nail of the myth appeared in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper:
“On a frosty night from February 17 to February 18, 1945, half-naked Karbyshev was led out to the inner wall of the Mauthausen camp. Here he was poured with water from a fire hose until he turned into an ice statue.
Not only does the general now die not along with several hundred more prisoners, but in splendid isolation, but now he is also turning into an ice block. We must pay tribute to the journalist's imagination - the ending he invented turned out to be extremely effective. The image of a Soviet general freezing into the ice immediately became very widespread.
As usual in such cases, immediately found a large number of witnesses who allegedly personally saw how the general turned into an ice floe. In the stories of some of them, details worthy of horror films appear:
According to the canonical version, General Karbyshev was turned into an ice statue with the help of hoses
“It was 12 degrees below zero. Crossing jets of ice hit from the hoses. Karbyshev was slowly covered with ice. “Cheer up, comrades, think about your homeland - and courage will not leave you,” he said before his death, referring to the prisoners of Mauthausen” (“In the dungeons of Mauthausen”, 1959).
By the way, to the question of frost. Yes, we found out that Karbyshev was not turned into an ice block. But could it be done in principle?
The Mauthausen camp was located on the territory of Austria - not the northernmost of the European countries. Temperatures of -12 degrees are quite rare there. But what was the winter of 1945 like?
To this day, weather reports of those days have been preserved, fixing changes in the weather in the area of the Mauthausen camp. In the second half of February in Mauthausen it was relatively calm. In the morning the temperature fluctuated from -2 to +3 degrees; during the day from + 4 to + 10 degrees Celsius. Under such conditions, even a dead body cannot be turned into an ice floe, not to mention a living person.
Dossier. Dmitry Karbyshev (1880 - 1945) graduated from the Siberian Cadet Corps, St. Petersburg Nikolaev Military Engineering School, Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy. 
During the Russo-Japanese War, he participated in the battle of Mukden. He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant. During the First World War, he took part in the assault on the fortress of Przemysl), wounded in the leg. Promoted to lieutenant colonel. In 1916 he was a member of the Brusilov breakthrough.
Since 1918 in the Red Army. During civil war engaged in the construction of fortifications. In 1920, he led the engineering support for the assault on Perekop. Since 1926 - a teacher at the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze. In 1929 he was appointed the author of the Molotov and Stalin Lines project.
During the Finnish War of 1939-1940, he developed recommendations for engineering support for breaking through the Mannerheim Line. In 1940, Karbyshev was awarded the rank of lieutenant general of the engineering troops. In 1941 he became a doctor of military sciences.
In early June 1941, Karbyshev was sent to the Western Special Military District. Since August 1941 he was listed as missing. Contained in concentration camps: Zamosc, Hammelburg, Flossenbürg, Majdanek, Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen and Mauthausen.
The poem “Dignity” by S. Vasiliev is dedicated to the feat of D. M. Karbyshev. In 1975, Mosfilm filmed Feature Film"Motherland of soldiers", telling about the life and exploits of D. M. Karbyshev
By the way. During the years of World War II, 83 Soviet generals were taken prisoner. Of these, 26 people died, the rest after the victory were deported to the USSR. Of these, 32 people were repressed. The remaining 25 were acquitted after a six-month check.
Denis Orlov
I was still a teenager of 12-13 years old, when one day my mother showed me a textbook on the history of the USSR for the 4th grade. He says: "That's the kind of textbooks we studied at one time." It was called simply - "Stories on the history of the USSR." 
I don’t know if I still have it or not, but I looked at the shabby antiques rather avidly. Well, still: the textbook is almost 30 years old, although others will object to me: why even keep such junk at home. But nevertheless, it was a certain memory. One day, looking through the paragraphs of the textbook, I came across a curious episode of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War. About 12-13 years have passed since then, and I remember the story that I want to tell you now. Although there is a fragment of the life of this person shown there, I cannot bypass him. Moreover, this year is associated with the Victory Anniversary, and October 14 marks the 135th anniversary of his birth. February 18 marked the 70th year of his martyrdom. I am practically not familiar with his biography, so I will have to use the material that is on the net. The only thing I know about him is how he died. Before his death, he said: "I am a communist! I know that we will win, and death and damnation awaits all of you!" This quote caught my eye in that textbook and I still remember it. And this man's name was Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev.
This man is now almost forgotten. The younger generation probably already does not know his name. But it is precisely on such examples that this very youth should be educated. If you want to grow inflexible heroes, not amorphous consumers of carbonated drinks. Let's remember our Russian heroes. They deserve it. Only in this way will the link between generations be preserved. The name of the man who became a symbol of the unbending will of the Russian officer, stamina and courage is Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev. Hero of the Soviet Union. Already in the Soviet school, they talked a little about him. The Nazis tortured General Karbyshev by pouring cold water on him in winter. That's all that the average student of the USSR knew about him. Current schoolchildren practically do not know Karbyshev. There are, of course, exceptions… 11.04. 2011 "Public rally dedicated to International Day liberation of prisoners of fascism, was held in Vladivostok. About a hundred members of the city and regional organizations of former prisoners, veterans, representatives of the city administration, military personnel, schoolchildren and students gathered at the monument to the hero of the Soviet Union Dmitry Karbyshev.” Do your children know this name? Fix this gap. Tell your children about Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev ...
DMITRY Mikhailovich Karbyshev - Hero of the Soviet Union, lieutenant general of the engineering troops, doctor of military sciences, professor, by origin - a Tatar, a generic Siberian Cossack. A couple of weeks before the start of the Great Patriotic War, he was sent to Grodno to assist in the defensive construction on western border. On August 8, while trying to escape from the encirclement in the area north of Mogilev, he was shell-shocked and captured by the Nazis.
Childhood, youth, early service
Born in the city of Omsk in the family of a military official. Baptized Tatar. At the age of twelve he was left without a father. The children were raised by their mother. Despite great financial difficulties, Karbyshev brilliantly graduated from the Siberian Cadet Corps and in 1898 was admitted to the St. Petersburg Nikolaev Military Engineering School. In 1900, after graduating from college, he was sent to serve in the 1st East Siberian sapper battalion, head of the cable department of the telegraph company. The battalion was stationed in Manchuria.
Russian-Japanese, World War I
During the Russo-Japanese War, as part of the battalion, he strengthened positions, installed communications equipment, built bridges, and conducted reconnaissance in force. Participated in the battle of Mukden. Awarded with orders and medals. He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant.
After the war he served in Vladivostok. In 1911 he graduated with honors from the Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy. According to the distribution, staff captain Karbyshev was sent to Brest-Litovsk to the post of commander of a mine company. There he took part in the construction of forts. Brest Fortress.
Member of the First World War from the first day. He fought in the Carpathians as part of the 8th Army of General A. A. Brusilov (South-Western Front). He was a divisional engineer of the 78th and 69th infantry divisions, then the head of the engineering service of the 22nd Finnish Rifle Corps. In early 1915, he took part in the assault on the Przemysl fortress. Was injured. For bravery and courage he was awarded the Order of St. Anna and promoted to lieutenant colonel. In 1916 he was a member of the famous Brusilovsky breakthrough.
Entry into the ranks of the Red Army
In December 1917, in Mogilev-Podolsky, D. M. Karbyshev joined the Red Guard. Since 1918 in the Red Army. During the Civil War, he participated in the construction of the Simbirsk, Samara, Saratov, Chelyabinsk, Zlatoust, Troitsk, Kurgan fortified regions, provided engineering support for the Kakhovka bridgehead. He held responsible positions at the headquarters of the North Caucasian Military District. In 1920 he was appointed chief of engineers of the 5th Army. Eastern Front. In the autumn of 1920 he became assistant chief of engineers Southern Front. He led the engineering support for the assault on Chongar and Perekop.
Academy them. Frunze, Academy of the General Staff
In 1923-1926 he was Chairman of the Engineering Committee of the Main Military Engineering Directorate of the Red Army. Since 1926 - a teacher at the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze. In 1929 he was appointed the author of the Molotov and Stalin Lines project. In February 1934 he was appointed head of the military engineering department of the Military Academy of the General Staff.
Since 1936 he was an assistant to the head of the department of tactics higher compounds military academy General Staff. In 1938 he graduated military academy General Staff. In the same year he was approved in the academic rank of professor. In 1940 he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general of the engineering troops. In 1941 - academic degree doctor of military sciences.
Karbyshev owns the most complete research and development of the application of destruction and barriers. His contribution to the scientific development of issues of forcing rivers and other water barriers is significant. He has published over 100 scientific papers in military engineering and military history. His articles and manuals on the theory of engineering support for combat and operations, the tactics of engineering troops were the main materials for the training of Red Army commanders in prewar years.
In addition, Karbyshev was a consultant of the Academic Council for restoration work at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the scientific director and chief architect of which was I.V. Trofimov.
Soviet-Finnish War
Member of the Soviet Finnish war 1939-1940. As part of the group of the Deputy Chief of the Main Military Engineering Directorate for Defensive Construction, he developed recommendations for the troops on the engineering support of the breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line.
In early June 1941, D. M. Karbyshev was sent to the Western Special Military District. The Great Patriotic War found him at the headquarters of the 3rd Army in Grodno. After 2 days, he moved to the headquarters of the 10th Army. On June 27, the army headquarters was surrounded. In August 1941, while trying to get out of the encirclement, General Karbyshev was seriously shell-shocked in battle in the Dnieper region, near the village of Dobreika, Mogilev region of Belarus. In an unconscious state, he was captured.
The path through the concentration camps and death
Karbyshev was kept in German concentration camps: Zamosc, Hammelburg, Flossenbürg, Majdanek, Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen and Mauthausen. Repeatedly from the administration of the camps received offers to cooperate. Despite his age, he was one of the active leaders of the camp resistance movement. On the night of February 18, 1945, in the Mauthausen concentration camp (Austria), among other prisoners (about 500 people), he was doused with water in the cold and died. It became a symbol of unbending will and perseverance.
Awards
On August 16, 1946, Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
He was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner and the Red Star.
A monument was erected to the Hero of the Soviet Union D. M. Karbyshev at the entrance to the memorial at the site of the Mauthausen camp. Monuments to D. M. Karbyshev were also installed in Moscow, Kazan, Vladivostok, Samara, Tolyatti, Omsk and Pervouralsk, Nakhabino, a bust in Volzhsky. A boulevard in Moscow, Karbysheva Street (St. Petersburg), streets in Kazan, Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine), Sumy, Belaya Tserkov, Lutsk, Krivoy Rog (Ukraine), Chuguev (Ukraine), Balashikha, Krasnogorsk, Minsk, Brest ( Belarus), Kiev, Togliatti, Samara, Perm, Kherson, Gomel, Ulyanovsk, Volzhsky, Vladivostok, Krasnoyarsk and Omsk.
The name of D. M. Karbyshev is carried by a number of schools on the territory of the former Soviet Union. In Omsk, a children's health camp was named after D. M. Karbyshev. The name of D. M. Karbyshev was given to one of the electric trains operating on the Riga direction of the Moscow Railway.
A minor planet is also named after him. solar system.
The poem “Dignity” by S. A. Vasiliev is dedicated to the feat of D. M. Karbyshev.
Proceedings
Engineering preparation of the borders of the USSR. Book. 1, 1924.
Destruction and barriers. 1931, joint. with I. Kiselev and I. Maslov.
Engineering support of combat operations of rifle formations. Ch. 1-2, 1939-1940.
Karbyshev spent 3.5 years in fascist dungeons. Unfortunately, there is still no scientific research(or at least truthful publications) about that tragic and heroic period in the life of the great Soviet general. For several years, nothing was known about the fate of Karbyshev in Moscow. It is noteworthy that in his "Personal file" in 1941 an official note was made: "Missing."
Therefore, it is no secret that some domestic publicists began to “give out” downright incredible “facts”, such as the fact that the Soviet government in August 1941, having learned about the capture of Karbyshev, offered the Germans to arrange an exchange of a Soviet general for two German ones, however in Berlin, such an exchange was considered "non-equivalent." In fact, our command at that time did not even know that General Karbyshev was captured.
Dmitry Karbyshev began his "camp journey" in a distribution camp near the Polish city of Ostrov-Mazowiecki. Here the prisoners were copied, sorted, interrogated. In the camp, Karbyshev fell ill with a severe form of dysentery. At the dawn of one of the October cold days of 1941, a train overflowing with people, among whom was Karbyshev, arrived in Polish Zamosc. The general was settled in barrack No. 11, which was subsequently firmly entrenched in the name "general's". Here, as they say, there was a roof over your head and almost normal food, which was a rarity in the conditions of captivity. The Germans, according to German historians, were almost sure that after everything experienced, the outstanding Soviet scientist would have "feelings of gratitude" and he would agree to cooperate. But this did not work - and in March 1942 Karbyshev was transferred to a purely officer concentration camp Hammelburg (Bavaria). This camp was special - intended exclusively for Soviet prisoners of war. His command had a clear direction - to do everything possible (and impossible) to win over to Hitler's side "unstable, vacillating and cowardly" Soviet officers and generals. Therefore, the camp observed the appearance of legality, humane treatment of prisoners, which, admittedly, gave its positive results (especially in the first year of the war). But not in relation to Karbyshev. It was during this period that his famous motto was born: "There is no greater victory than victory over oneself! The main thing is not to kneel before the enemy."
PELIT AND THE HISTORY OF THE RED ARMY
In early 1943, Soviet intelligence learned that the commander of one of the German infantry units, Colonel Pelit, was urgently recalled from the Eastern Front and appointed commandant of the camp in Hammelburg. At one time, the colonel graduated from the cadet school in St. Petersburg and was fluent in Russian. But it is especially noteworthy that the former officer tsarist army Pelit once served in Brest together with Captain Karbyshev. But this fact is Soviet intelligence officers did not evoke any special associations. Say, both traitors and real Bolsheviks served in the tsarist army.
But the fact is that it was Pelit who was instructed to lead personal work with a "prisoner of war lieutenant general of engineering troops." At the same time, the colonel was warned that the Russian scientist was of "special interest" for the Wehrmacht, and especially for the main department of the German engineering service. We must make every effort to make him work for the Germans.
In principle, Pelit was not only a good connoisseur of military affairs, but also a well-known master of "intrigue and intelligence" in German military circles. Already at the first meeting with Karbshev, he began to play the role of a person far from politics, a simple old warrior, with all his heart sympathizing with the honored Soviet general. At every step, the German tried to emphasize his attention and affection for Dmitry Mikhailovich, called him his guest of honor, scattered in courtesies. He, not sparing colors, told the combat general all kinds of fables that, according to information that had reached him, the German command decided to give Karbyshev complete freedom and even, if he so desired, the opportunity to travel abroad to one of the neutral countries. What to hide, many prisoners did not resist such a temptation, but not General Karbyshev. Moreover, he immediately figured out the true mission of his old colleague.
I note in passing that during this period it was in Hammelburg that German propaganda began to work out its "historical invention" - a "commission to compile the history of the Red Army's operations in the current war" was created here. Leading German experts in this field arrived at the camp, including members of the SS. They talked with captured officers, defending the idea that the purpose of compiling a "history" is purely scientific, that the officers will be free to write it in the way they wish. It was reported in passing that all officers who agreed to write the history of the operations of the Red Army would receive additional food, well-equipped premises for work and housing, and, in addition, even a fee for "literary" work. The stake was primarily placed on Karbyshev, but the general categorically refused to "cooperate", moreover, he was able to dissuade most of the other prisoners of war from participating in the "Goebbels adventure". An attempt by the fascist command to organize a "Commission" ultimately failed.
BELIEF AND BELIEF
According to some reports, by the end of October 1942, the Germans realized that "everything is not so simple" with Karbyshev - it was rather problematic to bring him to the side of Nazi Germany. Here is the content of one of the secret letters that Colonel Pelit received from a "higher authority": "The High Command of the Engineering Service again turned to me about the prisoner Karbyshev, professor, Lieutenant General of the Engineering Troops, who is in your camp. I was forced to delay the resolution of the issue, because I was counting on you to follow my instructions regarding the named prisoner, to be able to find a common language with him and convince him that if he correctly assesses the situation that has developed for him and meets our desires, a good future awaits him. Major Peltzer, who I sent to you for inspection, in his report stated the general unsatisfactory fulfillment of all plans regarding the Hammelburg camp and, in particular, the captive Karbyshev.
Soon the Gestapo command ordered to deliver Karbyshev to Berlin. He guessed why he was being taken to the German capital.
The general was placed in a solitary cell with no windows, with a bright, constantly flashing electric lamp. While in the cell, Karbyshev lost track of time. The day here was not divided into day and night, there were no walks. But, as he later told his comrades in captivity, apparently at least two or three weeks passed before he was summoned for the first interrogation. It was the usual reception of jailers, - Karbyshev later recalled, analyzing all this "event" with professorial accuracy: the prisoner is brought into a state of complete apathy, atrophy of the will, before being taken "into the promotion."
But, to the surprise of Dmitry Mikhailovich, he was met not by a prison investigator, but by the famous German fortifier Professor Heinz Raubenheimer, about whom he had heard a lot over the past two decades, whose works he had closely followed through special journals and literature. They met several times.
The professor politely greeted the prisoner, expressing regret for the inconvenience caused to the great Soviet scientist. Then he took out a piece of paper from the folder and began to read the prepared text. The Soviet general was offered release from the camp, the possibility of moving to a private apartment, as well as complete material security. Karbyshev will have access to all libraries and book depositories in Germany, and will be given the opportunity to get acquainted with other materials in the areas of military engineering that interest him. If necessary, any number of assistants was guaranteed to equip the laboratory, carry out development work and provide other research activities. Independent choice of subject was not forbidden scientific developments, the go-ahead was given to travel to the area of the fronts to test theoretical calculations in the field. True, it was stipulated - except for the Eastern Front. The results of the work should become the property of German specialists. All ranks of the German army will treat Karbyshev as a lieutenant general of the engineering troops of the German Reich.
After carefully listening to the conditions of "cooperation", Dmitry Mikhailovich calmly replied: "My convictions do not fall out along with my teeth from a lack of vitamins in the camp diet. I am a soldier and remain true to my duty. And he forbids me to work for that country that is at war with my motherland."
ABOUT TOMBSTONES
The German did not expect such stubbornness. Something, but with a beloved teacher, one could come to a certain compromise. The iron doors of the loner slammed shut behind the German professor.
Karbyshev was given salty food, after which he was denied water. They replaced the lamp - it became so powerful that, even with closed eyelids, there was no rest for the eyes. They began to fester, causing excruciating pain. Sleep was almost not allowed. At the same time, the mood and mental state of the Soviet general were recorded with German accuracy. And when it seemed that he was starting to turn sour, they again came with an offer to cooperate. The answer was the same - "no". This went on for nearly six months.
After that, according to the stage, Karbyshev was transferred to the Flossenbürg concentration camp, located in the Bavarian mountains, 90 km from Nuremberg. He was distinguished by hard labor of particular severity, and the inhuman treatment of prisoners knew no bounds. Prisoners in striped clothes with cross-shaven heads worked from morning to night in the granite quarries under the supervision of SS men armed with whips and pistols. A moment's respite, a glance thrown to the side, a word spoken to a workmate, any awkward movement, the slightest fault - all this aroused the frenzied fury of the overseers, beating with a whip. Shots were often heard. Shot right in the back of the head.
One of the Soviet captured officers recalled after the war: “Once Dmitry Mikhailovich and I worked in a barn, hewn granite columns for roads, facing and tombstones. Regarding the latter, Karbyshev (who, even in the most difficult situation, did not change his sense of humor), suddenly noticed : "Here is a job that gives me real pleasure. The more tombstones the Germans demand from us, the better, it means, our business is going on at the front.
Dmitry Mikhailovich's almost six-month stay at hard labor ended on one of the August days of 1943. The prisoner was transferred to Nuremberg and imprisoned by the Gestapo. After a short "quarantine" he was sent to the so-called "block" - a wooden hut in the middle of a huge cobbled courtyard. Here, many recognized the general: some - as a colleague in the past, others - as a competent teacher, others - from printed works, some - from previous meetings in fascist dungeons.
Then followed Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, Mauthausen - camps that will forever go down in the history of mankind as monuments to the most terrible atrocities of German fascism. Constantly smoking furnaces where the living and the dead were burned; gas chambers, where tens of thousands of people died in terrible agony; mounds of ash from human bones; huge bales of women's hair; mountains of shoes taken from children before sending them on their last journey ... A Soviet general went through all this.
Three months before our army entered Berlin, 65-year-old Karbyshev was transferred to the Mauthausen camp, where he died.
UNDER WATER ICE
For the first time it became known about the death of Karbyshev a year after the end of the war. On February 13, 1946, Canadian Army Major Seddon De St. Clair, who was recovering in a hospital near London, invited a representative of the Soviet Repatriation Mission in England to tell him "important details."
"I don't have long to live," said the major Soviet officer- therefore, I am worried about the idea that the facts known to me of the heroic death of a Soviet general, the noble memory of which should live in the hearts of people, do not go to the grave with me. I'm talking about Lieutenant General Karbyshev, with whom I had to visit the German camps."
According to the officer, on the night of February 17-18, the Germans drove about a thousand prisoners to Mauthausen. The frost was about 12 degrees. All were dressed very badly, in rags. “As soon as we entered the camp, the Germans herded us into the shower room, ordered us to undress and let jets of ice water fall on us from above. This went on for a long time. Everyone turned blue. only underwear and wooden blocks on our feet and kicked out into the yard. General Karbyshev was standing in a group of Russian comrades not far from me. We understood that we were living out the last hours. A couple of minutes later, the Gestapo, standing behind us with fire hoses in their hands, began to water us streams of cold water. Those who tried to evade the jet were beaten with clubs on the head. Hundreds of people fell frozen or with crushed skulls. I saw General Karbyshev also fall, "the Canadian major stated with pain in his heart.
“Seventy people survived that tragic night. Why they didn’t finish us off, I can’t imagine. They must have been tired and postponed until the morning. It turned out that the Allied troops were coming close to the camp. The Germans fled in a panic ... I ask you to write down my testimony and send them to Russia. I consider it my sacred duty to impartially testify to everything that I know about General Karbyshev. I will fulfill my small duty to memory in this big man", - with these words the Canadian officer finished his story.
Which is what was done.
On August 16, 1946, Lieutenant General Dmitry Karbyshev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. As written in the decree, this high rank was awarded to the hero general, who tragically died in Nazi captivity, "for exceptional stamina and courage shown in the fight against the German invaders in the Great Patriotic War."
On February 28, 1948, the commander-in-chief of the Central Group of Forces, Colonel General Kurasov and the head of the engineering troops of the Central Group of Forces, Major General Slyunin, in the presence of delegations from the troops of the guard of honor group, as well as the government of the Republic of Austria, opened a monument and a memorial plaque at the site where the Nazis brutally tortured General Karbyshev on the territory of the former Nazi concentration camp Mauthausen.
In Russia, his name is immortalized in the names of military teams, ships and railway stations, streets and boulevards of many cities, assigned to numerous schools. Between Mars and Jupiter, a small planet makes its way along the circumsolar orbit # 1959 - Karbyshev.
In the early 1960s, the movement of young Karbyshevites took shape organizationally, the soul of which was the daughter of the Hero, Elena Dmitrievna, a colonel of the engineering troops.
Site materials used: perunica.ru and tatveteran.ru
Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev (14 (26). 10.1880–18.02.1945)
Born in the city of Omsk. He came from a well-known in the Siberian Cossack army officer dynasty. Then in early XIX centuries, the Siberian Cossacks settled in the southern Siberian lands, founded their capital - Omsk, to secure the northern outskirts of the Kyrgyz (Kazakh) steppe for Russia, they began to build field fortifications in it, which became Cossack villages, and develop fertile lands.
In those years, centurion Ivan Karbyshev was known among the Siberian Cossacks, who took an active part in a number of scientific expeditions to study the natural resources of Semirechie, the southeastern corner of modern Kazakhstan. With his "light hand", when he was already in the rank of colonel, in 1854 in Semirechye, on the site of the Kazakh settlement of Almaty, the Vernoye fortification was laid, which thirteen years later became the city of Verny.
D. M. Karbyshev’s grandfather graduated from military school Siberian Cossack army, then transformed into the Omsk (Siberian) Cadet Corps. My father graduated from the same building. He distinguished himself in the Crimean (Eastern) War of 1853–1856, being awarded the military orders of Saints Anna and Stanislav, 3rd degree.
The son of a Cossack officer, Dmitry Karbyshev, successfully graduated from the Omsk Cadet Corps in 1898. He enters the capital's Nikolaev Engineering School, which he graduated in 1900.
Dmitry Karbyshev in his youthThe baptism of fire for the young officer was the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. He served in an infantry division, building field fortifications, improving roads, building bridges, and many other things that military engineers were supposed to do in the fields of Manchuria.
After that war, Dmitry Karbyshev, who already had military experience, entered the Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy, which he graduated from among best graduates in 1911.
From that 1911 until the very beginning of the First World War, D. M. Karbyshev participated in the construction of the Brest-Litovsk (Brest) fortress. He built her forts and others fortifications as divisional engineer.
When World War I began, Dmitry Karbyshev held the position of divisional engineer, first of the 69th and then of the 78th infantry divisions. Then he accepts the position of a corps military engineer in the 22nd Finnish Army Corps. After that, he becomes a senior worker in the Offices of the Chiefs of Engineering Troops of the 11th and 8th armies of the Southwestern Front.
the first world war D. M. Karbyshev graduated with the rank of lieutenant colonel, having received the richest experience in the practice of military engineering over the three and a half years of the war. After October 1917, he takes the side Soviet power, voluntarily joining the ranks of the Red Guard in December.
First, his service takes place in the city of Mogilev-Podolsky as a detachment military engineer. Since 1918, Karbyshev has occupied new, higher positions. He becomes an engineer of the Collegium for Engineering Defense of the State, then chief of engineers of the 5th Army of the Eastern Front. He takes part in the construction of a number of fortified regions - Simbirsk, Samara and others.
At the end of the Civil War, Karbyshev was an assistant to the chief of engineers of the Southern Front. He provided engineering training for the assaults on Perekop (Turkish Wall) and the Chongar positions, which were occupied by the best units of the Russian army of General Wrangel for defense.
In 1921-1923, Dmitry Karbyshev held responsible positions at the headquarters armed forces Ukraine and Crimea.
In 1923–1926, D. M. Karbyshev was a representative of the Engineering Committee of the Main Military Engineering Directorate of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA). At the same time, he is engaged in teaching at the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze.
From 1936 until the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he served as deputy head of the department of tactics of higher formations for engineering troops at the Military Academy of the General Staff.
In the prewar years, Dmitry Mikhailovich was awarded the title of professor (1938), the degree of doctor of military sciences (1941). He was the author of more than a hundred scientific papers in various fields of military engineering and military history.
Students of the Military Construction Academy, headed by Major D.M. Karbyshev. Moscow, 1941
He received the rank of lieutenant general of the engineering troops in 1940.
His merits in strengthening the defense of the state and improving domestic military engineering were awarded the Orders of the Red Banner and the Red Star.
In early June 1941, D. M. Karbyshev was sent to the Western Special Military District, where he inspected the construction of fortifications in the 68th Grodno fortified region.
The Great Patriotic War found him at the headquarters of the 3rd Army in Grodno. After 2 days, he moved to the headquarters of the 10th Army. On June 27, the army headquarters was surrounded.
On August 8, 1941, while trying to get out of the encirclement, General Karbyshev was seriously shell-shocked in a battle near the Dnieper River near the village of Dobreika, Mogilev Region, Belorussian SSR. In an unconscious state, he was captured.
Repeatedly from the administration of the camps received offers to cooperate.
According to Vlasov's personal security officer, SD officer Khmyrov-Dolgoruky, who was supervising Vlasov, in order to hide the membership in the criminal organization SD of Vlasov, who acted at the trial as his personal adjutant, the Nazis initially persuaded not Vlasov, but Dmitry Karbyshev, an Orthodox former lieutenant colonel of the tsarist army, for whom German was like a native, whose first wife was German, to take the post of commander of the Russian liberation army". But the Nazis wrote in their archives: “... This largest Soviet fortifier, a regular officer of the old Russian army, a man who was over sixty years old, turned out to be fanatically devoted to the idea of fidelity to military duty and patriotism ... Karbyshev can be considered hopeless in the sense of using us as a specialist military engineering." And the verdict of the Nazis in 1943 after two years of persuasion: "Send to the Flossenburg concentration camp for hard labor, no discounts on rank and age."
Despite his age, Karbyshev was one of the active leaders of the camp resistance movement. He called not only Soviet, but all prisoners of war anti-Hitler coalition remember your Fatherland and not cooperate with the enemy.
The last place of detention for him was the Mauthausen concentration camp, located in the commune of Mauthausen of the land district of Perg Reichsgau Upper Danube (German: Reichsgau Oberdonau) of the Greater German Empire (now the district of Perg is part of the federal state of Upper Austria of the Republic of Austria).
On the night of February 18, 1945, in the Mauthausen concentration camp, among about five hundred other prisoners, after brutal torture, Karbyshev was doused with water in the cold (air temperature is about −12 ° C) and killed. The body of D. M. Karbyshev was burned in the ovens of Mauthausen.
“... As soon as we entered the territory of the camp, the Germans drove us into the shower room, ordered us to undress and let jets of icy water fall on us from above. This went on for a long time. Everyone turned blue. Many fell to the floor and immediately died: the heart could not stand it. Then we were told to put on only underwear and wooden blocks on our feet and were driven out into the yard. General Karbyshev was standing in a group of Russian comrades not far from me. We understood that we were living out the last hours. A couple of minutes later, the Gestapo men, who were standing behind us with fire hoses in their hands, began to pour streams of cold water on us. Those who tried to evade the jet were beaten with clubs on the head. Hundreds of people fell frozen or with crushed skulls. I saw how General Karbyshev also fell. Seventy people survived that tragic night. Why they didn't kill us, I have no idea. They must have been tired and postponed until the morning. It turned out that the Allied troops were coming close to the camp. The Germans fled in panic ... I ask you to write down my testimony and send it to Russia. I consider it my sacred duty to impartially testify to everything I know about General Karbyshev. With this, I will fulfill my little duty to the memory of a great man, "- with these words, on February 13, 1946, Maj.
Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on August 16, 1946. Monuments have been erected to him in more than fifteen cities of the world. Dozens of streets and educational institutions are named after him. The poem “Dignity” by S. A. Vasiliev is dedicated to the feat of D. M. Karbyshev. In 1959, a minor planet in the solar system, discovered by Soviet scientists, was named after Karbyshev.
General Karbyshev became the personification of the stamina and courage of the Russian people. A prominent scientist, military specialist, he went through a real hell German camps, but did not give up, preferring death from the cold under the streams of icy water to betrayal.
Hereditary military
Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was born in Omsk in 1880. His father served as a clerk in the district commissariat, his grandfather was also a military man. Dima, who at one time wanted to become an artist, the very origin dictated the future specialty. He was supposed to be in the military. For this, he had all the makings - a good memory, discipline, strong will.
The elder brother of Dmitry Karbyshev, Vladimir, studied at Kazan University, where he closely communicated with the socialists and Vladimir Ulyanov. For participation in the student revolutionary movement, Vladimir Karbyshev was arrested, while Ulyanov was simply expelled. As a result, the elder brother of Dmitry Karbyshev died in prison. This life incident seriously affected the life of Karbyshev very seriously. Firstly, police control was immediately established for their family, Dima was not accepted to the cadet school to study at state expense, and he had to study at the family's expense.
Despite the difficulties, he successfully disaccustomed, passed the final tests and in 1898 entered the Nikolaev Military Engineering School. Secondly, perhaps in part because his brother died in the tsarist prison, Karbyshev did not hesitate to take the side of the Bolsheviks during the revolution.
Order bearer
Karbyshev was noted for his professionalism even in the Russo-Japanese War. There, as part of a battalion, he erected fortifications, conducted communications, went to reconnaissance in force, and participated in the battle of Mukden. For his heroism, Karbyshev was awarded five orders: St. Vladimir 4th degree with swords and a bow, St. Stanislav 3rd degree, St. Anna 3rd degree, St. Stanislav 2nd degree and St. Anna 4- 1st degree with the inscription "For Bravery", 3 medals.
In 1906, the order bearer Karbyshev was transferred to the reserve. According to documents - for anti-government agitation among soldiers in revolutionary times. His case was examined by the "court of honor". For a year, Dmitry Mikhailovich worked as a draftsman in Vladivostok, but then the army came in handy again - he was returned to help strengthen the Far Eastern fortifications. Experienced specialists, like Karbyshev, were always in short supply.
Dmitry Mikhailovich did not stop his studies and entered the Nikolaev Engineering Academy, after graduation he was assigned to Brest-Litovsk, where he participated in the construction of the Brest-Litovsk fortress.
Karbyshev also distinguished himself in the First World War - immediately at the beginning of the war as part of Brusilov's army, he fought for Przemysl, where he was wounded and for his courage was awarded the Order Saint Anne with swords. Then he became a lieutenant colonel.
In Civil War, Karbyshev fights on the side of the Reds, builds military fortifications throughout the country, from Siberia to Ukraine. In 1920, Dmitry Mikhailovich became the engineering chief of the 5th Army of the Eastern Front, and then was appointed assistant chief of engineers of the Southern Front.
Scientist
After the Civil War, Karbyshev taught at the Frunze Military Academy and other military educational institutions. His scientific and teaching career is on the rise, in 1940 he becomes a lieutenant general, in 1941 - a doctor of military sciences. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, students loved and respected him. Karbyshev is recognized as one of the main specialists in fortification not only in the USSR, but also in the world. He has written more than 100 scientific papers on military history and military engineering. By teaching aids Karbyshev on the tactics of the engineering troops, the theory and practice of engineering support trained commanders in pre-war and wartime. During the Finnish war, Karbyshev developed recommendations for engineering support for the breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line.
“I don’t sell my conscience and Motherland!”
General Karbyshev met the beginning of the Great Patriotic War at the headquarters of the 3rd Army in the city of Grodno. From there, Dmitry Mikhailovich moved to the headquarters of the 10th Army, which on June 27 was surrounded. Karbyshev was asked to evacuate in a special vehicle, but he refused, saying that he would leave the encirclement along with everyone else. On August 8, during an attempt to break through the encirclement, crossing the Dnieper, Karbyshev was shell-shocked and captured.
Karbyshev's "Way of the Cross" began in Poland, in the Ostrow Mazowiecki transit camp. Realizing who they managed to capture, the Germans immediately decided to recruit a prominent military specialist. The Karbyshev dossier had a special mark and was classified as IV D 3-a, which meant, in addition to monitoring activities, to apply special treatment in case of capture. The seriously ill, no longer young Soviet general was moved to Zamostye and settled in the general's barracks. Of course, they immediately tried to persuade him to cooperate, but Karbyshev’s position was unequivocal: “I don’t sell my conscience and Motherland!”
"Difficile"
Karbyshev's intractability, his steadfastness and courage amaze the imagination even today. What kind of tricks did the Germans not use to lure Karbyshev to their side. He was tempted by comfort, a former officer of the tsarist army Pelit was sent to him for “reforging”, with whom Karbyshev served together in Brest at one time, then Dmitry Mikhailovich was taken to Berlin to meet with the coryphaeus of fortification art Heinz Raubenheimer.
Karbyshev, however, was adamant. His answer was unequivocal: “My beliefs do not fall out along with my teeth from a lack of vitamins in the camp diet. I am a soldier and I remain true to my duty. And he forbids me to work for the country that is at war with my Motherland.”
Only then did the Germans realize that they would definitely not succeed in recruiting Karbyshev. The following phrase appeared in the documents of the Main Engineering Directorate of the Nazi Army: “... This largest Soviet fortifier, a regular officer of the old Russian army, a man who is over sixty years old, turned out to be fanatically devoted to the idea of loyalty to military duty and patriotism ... Karbyshev can be considered hopeless in the sense of being used by us as a specialist in military engineering.”
"Good job"
Karbyshev, who at the time of captivity was over 60 years old, went through real hell. Here is just a list of the camps through which he passed: “Stalag-324” near the Polish city of Ostrow Mazowiecki, an officer camp in Zamosc, “Oflag XIII-D” in Hammelburg, a Gestapo prison in Berlin, a camp at the ROA transit point in Breslau, Nuremberg , extermination camp Flossenburg, death camp Majdanek, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sachsenhausen and Mauthausen.
Dmitry Mikhailovich did not lose courage until his death. According to the memoirs of one officer who was with Karbyshev in Auschwitz, he met Dmitry Mikhailovich in a team that was cleaning cesspools. Recognizing Karbyshev, the officer asked a stupid question: "How do you feel in Auschwitz?" Dmitry Mikhailovich bowed and replied: "Good, cheerfully, as in Majdanek."
When Karbyshev worked in a team for the preparation of gravestones, he mentioned that this work gives him real pleasure: “The more we have to make tombstones, the better, it means that our business is going on at the front.”
General Karbyshev died on February 18, 1945. He, along with other prisoners (about 500 people), was taken to the parade ground and began to be doused with cold water in the cold. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to General Karbyshev posthumously (February 28, 1948).
