Tragic pages in the history of Crimea were written by the Second World War. Nazi elite Germany planned to turn the peninsula into an area of German colonization. The population of the Crimea was supposed to be evicted, the Crimea to be attached directly to the Reich and made it a place of rest under the name Gotenland, and also to be populated by Germans from South Tyrol.
The proposals of the head of the Eastern Ministry Alfred Rosenberg (1893-1946) to include Crimea into Ukraine as a vassal state were rejected by Hitler, who did not recognize any state formations in the occupied territories of the USSR.
On the night of June 22, 1941, Sevastopol and the Black Sea Fleet were attacked by german bombs. Thus began the war for the Crimea.
The army, navy, and the population of Crimea were preparing to repulse the enemy. The restructuring of the national economy on a war footing was carried out. Military mobilization work was unfolding, the forms and methods of work of the authorities were changing, public organizations and institutions. Measures were taken to develop partisan movement.
City defense committees were created in Simferopol, Sevastopol and Kerch. The struggle to hold the Crimea lasted more than two months. By this time, the 11th German Army had reached the Dnieper. Its commander, Field Marshal Erich von Lewinsky Manstein, was given the task of urgently capturing the Crimea.
The enemy had a significant superiority in manpower and technology. He was opposed by the heroism and courage of unfired fighters. The fighters of the 156th division of Major General Platon Vasilyevich Chernyaev fought especially stubbornly. Parts of the Primorsky Army, successfully evacuated from Odessa, could not take part (with the exception of the 157th division) in these battles.
On October 26, the enemy was already advancing with six divisions, bringing more than 100 tanks into battle. Two days later, the defense was broken through, the retreat began. The military command of the Crimea lost control of the troops. The 51st Army retreated to Kerch, and the commander of the Primorsky Army, I.E. Petrov decided to make his way to Sevastopol through the mountains. The successful withdrawal of the army turned out to be the decisive factor in the long-term defense of the fortress.
Despite the stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops, by mid-November 1941, the entire Crimea, except for Sevastopol, was occupied. To assist the defenders of Sevastopol, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command decided at the beginning of 1942 to carry out a landing operation on the Kerch Peninsula. It was carried out and ensured the liberation of Kerch and Feodosia.
The formation of the Crimean Front began. In order to slow down the advance of enemy forces to the Kerch Peninsula, amphibious assault forces were landed in Evpatoria and Sudak. Not supported by the troops, the paratroopers died. The Crimean front was defeated.
The defenders of Sevastopol heroically defended the city during the period of the general military superiority of the enemy in 1941 and in the first half of 1942. The advanced line was 15-17 km from the city center, had a length of 46 km and was not completed by the beginning of hostilities. The main fighting force of Sevastopol was 13 coastal artillery batteries.
A major role in organizing the defense of Sevastopol was played by the command of the Primorsky Army. Commander I.E. Petrov from November 4, 1941 led the land defense of the fortress.
Until November 11-12, the enemy did not stop trying to capture Sevastopol on the move. These days, the fighters and commanders of the garrison courageously held their positions, died, but did not retreat. On December 17, the Nazis again went on the offensive. At the junction of sectors II and IV, they wedged into the defense and created a threat of a breakthrough to the Mekenziev mountains and further to the Northern Bay.
The landing of Soviet units on the Kerch Peninsula weakened the pressure of the enemy. The superiority of the Soviet fleet at sea and the heroic defense of Sevastopol did not allow the enemy to use the initial successes in the struggle for the Crimea.
The Nazi troops were chained to Sevastopol and could not advance into the Caucasus.
More than 5 months passed between the second and third assaults. During this time, the life of a blockaded city developed in the city, the vast majority of the population went underground (industrial enterprises, hospitals, schools, kindergartens were transferred there).
It became clear that it was impossible to take the fortress city with the numerical superiority of troops. A sea and air blockade began. On June 7, 1942, the enemy went over to the offensive again. After 10 days on the North side, the general defensive system was destroyed.
After Sevastopol was surrendered, in the first decade of July 1942, the entire Crimea was occupied by the Nazis. Troops Nazi Germany and boyar Romania held Crimea in their hands for more than two years, until May 1944.
Special troops were sent to Crimea to carry out punitive actions. The Nazis, as elsewhere, pursued a “divide and rule” policy in Crimea, sowing illusions among the Crimean Tatar population. Crimean Tatar (Muslim) committees were created, the recruitment of volunteers and the creation of "self-defense units" in the villages to fight the partisans began.
In addition to the Crimean Tatars, 12 Vlasov battalions, the Bergman Transcaucasian regiment, a Cossack regiment, Turkestan, Armenian, Georgian, Caucasian-Mohammedan legions, up to 10 police battalions, etc. were organized.
As nationalist illusions faded and German troops suffered defeat after defeat, more and more recruits defected to the partisans.
The invaders decided to postpone the total eviction of the Crimeans in order to keep the labor force here. However, by 1944, the Crimean economy practically froze. The standard of living of the population fell sharply.
In the battles for the liberation of the Crimea, the Soviet armed forces and the local population, underground fighters and partisans showed mass heroism.
New underground patriotic groups continued to form: in Feodosia, led by N.M. Listovnichey, in Simferopol, the group of AA Voloshinova. They carried out terrorist attacks, collected intelligence, campaigned among the population.
The released parts of the German army and the Romanian corps regularly carried out punitive operations in the forests.
The population resolutely took the path of resistance to the fascists. In response, the invaders intensified their repressions. So, near the village of Dubki (near Simferopol), the occupiers executed 8 thousand Soviet citizens, for their connection with the partisans they burned alive the inhabitants of several villages near Bakhchisarai and Zuya.
On the eve of the liberation of Crimea, the combat and reconnaissance operations of the Resistance groups sharply intensified. On final stage In the armed struggle for the liberation of Crimea, three partisan formations Northern, Southern, Eastern acted - representatives of 35 nations and nationalities fought in their composition.
After the rout German troops on the Kursk Bulge, the Red Army liberated the Left-Bank Ukraine, Donbass, and in November 1943 captured bridgeheads on the Perekop Isthmus. At the same time, Soviet troops occupied the Taman Peninsula and captured a bridgehead in the Kerch region. The liberation in March 1944 of Nikolaev and Kherson created favorable conditions for the expulsion of the invaders from the Crimea.
The operation to liberate Crimea began on April 8 near Lake Sivash and ended on May 12, 1944 at Cape Khersones. In total, it lasted 36 days and ended with the victory of the Soviet troops.
The troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front under the command of General of the Army Fyodor Ivanovich Tolbukhin (1894-1949) and the Separate Primorsky Army under the command of General of the Army Andrey Ivanovich Eremenko (1892-1970) conducted an offensive operation in cooperation with the Black Sea Fleet under the command of Admiral Philip Sergeevich Oktyabrsky (Ivanov ) (1899-1969) and the Azov military flotilla under the command of Rear Admiral Sergei Georgievich Gorshkov (1910-1988).
Moscow saluted the liberators of Crimea six times.
On May 18, 1944, an operation of the NKVD troops began in Crimea to deport the Crimean Tatars. Almost 200,000 people were deported to remote regions of the country. In the era of democracy, it is customary to condemn the Soviet leaders who made such a harsh political decision. However, the problem must be considered from a concrete historical standpoint, based on the events that had already happened by that time, what was happening in the theater of operations and the international situation.
From February 4 to February 11, 1945, in the Crimea, in Livadia, a conference of the heads of government of the three allied powers in World War II was held. From the USSR, the delegation was headed by Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (1878-1953), from the USA - by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), from Great Britain - by Winston Churchill (1874-1965). At the Crimean Conference, the military plans of the allied powers were determined and agreed upon, and the main principles of their post-war policy were outlined with the aim of creating a lasting peace and a system of international security. Four zones of occupation of post-war Germany were identified with the allocation of the French zone, reparations were determined that should have been collected from Germany, a decision was made to create the UN, etc. The USSR agreed on certain conditions to enter the war with Japan 2-3 months after the end of the war in Europe .
This scary word"occupation"... What could be worse than living, or rather trying to exist face to face, side by side with the enemy?
Shock, shock, confusion were experienced by the inhabitants of Crimea, who literally overnight, at the very beginning of the war, found themselves in occupation.
On August 20, 1941, by decree of Adolf Hitler, the Reichskommissariat "Ukraine" (an administrative-territorial unit within the Third Reich) was established to manage the occupied territories, headed by Erich Koch. The Reichskommissariat included a significant territory of Ukraine and Crimea, the main part of which was occupied in November 1941, and in May and July 1942, after the fall of Kerch and Sevastopol, respectively, the peninsula was completely occupied.
The arrival of the Germans on the territory of the Crimean peninsula was accompanied by terror, the killing of civilians, the seizure of food, clothing, everything necessary
The most important means of "appeasement" of the occupied territories of the USSR was to be violence. The arrival of the Germans on the territory of the Crimean peninsula was accompanied by terror, the killing of civilians, the seizure of food, clothing, and everything necessary. In fact, the right to be shot was granted to every German soldier, since, according to the directive of the chief of staff Supreme High Command by the German armed forces, Field Marshal Keitel “On military jurisdiction in the Barbarossa area and on special measures of the troops”, signed by him on May 13, 1941 on the direct instructions of Hitler, Wehrmacht soldiers and officers were relieved of all responsibility for their behavior towards the population captured in the east districts. Special forces were also created - Einsatz groups. Moving directly behind the troops, they ensured the capture of material values, documents, carried out "actions" to eliminate the population. In addition to special detachments, operational detachments and groups with the same tasks were located in the rear of the troops.
On December 2, 1941, more than 7,000 civilians were shot in the Bagerovo anti-tank ditch near Kerch.
Terrorist operations against the population were carried out regularly. People who were actually "locked" in the occupied Crimea, in fact, became hostages of the war. According to an eyewitness to the events, Nariman Mamutov: “The Germans were afraid of the partisans, and in order to pass through the forest, they made a “human shield” out of us, the inhabitants, followed us at the end of the convoy.”
In this situation, the civilian population was forced to answer not only for their actions, but also for the operations Soviet partisans. So, on July 19, 1942, the special correspondent of the Red Star, Major Slesarev, reported: “Being unable to cope with the partisan movement in the Crimea, the Germans take out their anger on the civilian population of Crimea. Rivers of blood of innocent Soviet citizens flow in every city. The other day the Nazis shot 500 people in Simferopol. The bodies of the executed were taken out of the city and collected in an anti-tank ditch, near the Krasnaya Roza state farm. In the village of Neyzats, the Germans shot 31 people, in the village of Beshui - 21, in Chermanlyk - 27 old men, women and children. Enraged fascist authorities began to resort to unheard-of threats. Thus, the military commandant of Karasubazar recently posted an order that 200 civilians would be shot for the murder of one officer, 100 civilians for the wounding of an officer, and 100 Soviet citizens for the murder of one German soldier, and 50 Soviet citizens for the wounded.
Violence was not the only method used by the occupiers. It would be more correct to say that the occupation policy of the Nazis was a policy of "carrot and stick"
Violence was not the only method used by the occupiers. It would be more correct to say that the occupation policy of the Nazis was a policy of "carrot and stick". Which is quite logical: the management of new territories - and the Germans intended to stay in the Crimea forever - assumed a flexible policy and manipulation of the population. The search for allies among all segments of the population and national groups was one of constituent parts this strategy.
The organs of the occupying power in the Crimea were City administrations, whose functions included the management of the administration and departments of the same administration. The city government of Simferopol was headed by Sevastyanov, a former worker of the Simferopol City Communal Farm. Power in countryside carried out by the elders. Police were created to monitor the internal order and pro-Soviet elements.
If to characterize general principle occupation authorities to build a new life, it would not be a mistake to call it the restoration of the old, pre-Bolshevik order. So, for example, the Crimea became the Tauride province, which was divided into districts according to the old, pre-revolutionary division; teaching in schools was conducted according to pre-revolutionary textbooks, etc.
From the very beginning of their establishment in Crimea, the occupying authorities applied a pronounced stratification policy - along the ethnic principle. This approach was quite understandable - it "worked" to divide the peoples, to destroy the unity of the Crimean society. "Divide and rule" - this principle perfectly characterizes the nature of totalitarian regimes, including the Nazi one.
Hitler's pathological hatred was caused by the Jews, who, according to the definition of Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, were for the Nazis "not a minority, but an anti-race, a negative principle as such", "the happiness of this world" directly depended "on their eradication". Jews were subject to total extermination in all territories occupied by German troops, including in the Crimea.
The Fuhrer also treated the Slavs with great distrust, they were classified as "Untermensch" (literally - "subhuman", "below a man"). As for the Turkic peoples and other "Asiatics", they, of course, could not be considered equal to the "true Aryans" and were at the level of the "Untermensch", and perhaps even lower. As for Hitler's plans for the statehood of the Eastern peoples, then, as far as one can judge latest research, the Germans did not have any serious intentions of granting them statehood. As historian Iskander Gilyazov writes with reference to Ulkyusal, in January 1942, representatives of the Crimean Tatar emigration Jafer Seydamet and Mustedzhib Ulkyusal visited Berlin, where they expressed their desire to create a national self-government of the Crimean Tatars in Crimea, "but they did not find understanding and left definitely disappointed." Thus, it is obvious that the formation of national committees during the occupation of Crimea - Crimean Tatars, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Armenians and Ukrainians - had a completely pragmatic goal - to implement the policy of the German leadership - and nothing more.
Continuing the consideration of the question of the stratification of the ethnic communities of Crimea, we note that at the very high level the symbolic hierarchical ladder were the Germans and representatives of ethnic groups that were allies of the German troops (Romanians, Bulgarians, Italians). They also enjoyed the greatest privileges. So, the announcement published in the occupational newspaper “Voice of Crimea” looks more natural than unexpected: “All Romanians and Bulgarians living in the “Simferopol city” area must appear in the period from September 10 to September 30 (inclusive) to the field gendarmerie of the city commandant’s office for registration and certification. All certified Romanians and Bulgarians will enjoy the same rights and benefits as the Germans. Belonging to this nationality must be proven. City commandant.
At first, the Crimean Tatars were considered by the German authorities as potential allies.
On November 23, 1941, the first composition of the Simferopol (Crimean) Muslim Committee was formed, the leadership of which included Dzhemil Abdureshid, Ilmi Kermenchikli and Memet Osmanov. With their personal participation or through their representatives in Evpatoria, Bakhchisarai, Yalta, Alushta, Karasubazar, Stary Krym and Sudak, meetings of the Crimean Tatar population were held, at which appeals were prepared to the German command with a request for permission to create Tatar committees in their cities.
In January-March 1942, Muslim committees were formed in all cities of Crimea (except Sevastopol).
In January-March 1942, Muslim committees were formed in all cities of the Crimea (except Sevastopol). According to the Statute, the committees were subordinate to the Crimean Police Fuhrer (he is also the commander of the security police and the SD) and worked under his supervision. The board and its members were approved by him. The main task of the committees was to support the interests of the Wehrmacht, the German civil administration and the German police and to represent the interests of the Tatar population.
Despite the incriminating nature of individual publications addressed to Muslim committees, interpreting the events of the war from the anachronistic positions of Stalinist historiography, it is obvious that there were many positive aspects in his activities.
Muskoms dealt with a wide variety of issues related to the life of the Crimean Tatar community. So, for example, one of the issues of the newspaper for September 1943 reported that "The Department of Culture of the Muslim Committee considered the issue of translating the alphabet into the Latin alphabet, introduced in 1927 and soon canceled." The newspaper published information that the committees provided assistance in the construction of roads, mosques, schools; engaged in the organization of Muslim holidays (Oraza Bayram, Eid al-Adha).
And, obviously, the most significant thing was that for the Crimean Tatars this body of national administration served as a kind of protection. One of the eyewitnesses recalled the case of the inhabitants of the village of Biyuk-Ozenbash, who fell out of favor with the German leadership for helping the partisans, for which they were "sentenced" to some repressive measures. The corresponding petition of the Muslim Committee saved the villagers from imminent reprisal. The existence and activities of Muslim committees during the period of occupation served as one of the reasons for the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people.
Over time, the Crimean Tatars ceased to be seen as effective allies of the Nazis, while more active propaganda work began to be carried out against the Russian population. The appeal to the Russian population took place under anti-Bolshevik and anti-Stalinist slogans (“the Russian people must throw off the yoke of Stalinist Bolshevism”). In Simferopol, the recruitment of volunteers from Russian youth for guard duty was organized. In the spring of 1943, the occupying authorities launched a broad propaganda campaign to recruit into the Russian Liberation Army - for this purpose, meetings were held for the Russian, Ukrainian and Tatar population. Researcher Oleg Romanko displays the number of ROA formations in the Crimea from 2000 to 4000 people.
The role of the main propagandist of the occupying troops was performed by the press.
The most influential and popular newspaper of the new authorities was the Voice of Crimea, published by the Simferopol City Administration.
The most influential and mass newspaper of the new authorities was the Voice of Crimea, published by the Simferopol City Administration. The first issue of the newspaper was published on December 12, 1941, and for the longest time - more than a year and a half from March 1942 to October 1943 - the editor was Alexander Buldeev - a poet and publicist, before the war - a legal adviser at the Sudak Legal Advice. The last issue is dated April 4, 1944. According to the newspaper itself, the initial circulation was 3 thousand copies (it came out 2 times a week), and later, 80 thousand copies with a frequency of 3 times a week.
The newspaper published materials about military operations, the victories of German weapons; many articles were devoted to building a "new life" in the Crimea. The newspaper had a pronounced anti-Bolshevik and anti-Semitic character.
In January 1942, the first issue of the newspaper "Azat Karim" (Free Crimea) was published - in the Crimean Tatar language. Materials were published here about the recruitment of volunteers from the Crimean Tatars to the German army, about Stalinist repressions in 1920-1930, about the life of the Crimean Tatar diaspora in Turkey, Romania; literary and folklore pages appeared. The last issue of the newspaper is dated April 1944.
During the period of occupation, other publications were also published - “Woman's World”, “Volunteer” (for volunteers of the Russian Liberation Army), the German newspaper “Doytish Krym Zeitung”, “Feodosiyskiy Vestnik”, “Sakskiye Izvestiya” and others. Thus, propaganda was carried out not only in relation to representatives of ethnic groups, but also in the direction of certain segments of the population - for example, women and the peasantry: the former constituted the main population of the peninsula, the latter were the "breadwinners".
(To be continued)
Gulnara Bekirova, Crimean historian, member of the Ukrainian PEN Club
It would seem that about the atrocities of the Nazis on the territory Soviet Union everything is known. However, the new details of the atrocities in the Krasny concentration camp near Simferopol, discovered by historians and local historians, cannot leave anyone indifferent. Of the ninety such "death factories" located in the Crimea, it is considered the bloodiest. Today, a memorial complex is being erected on this site in memory of the 20,000 dead.
Back in 1986, at the Krasny state farm on the territory former concentration camp a foundation stone was erected, an inscription was knocked out: a memorial will be erected here in memory of the victims of German Nazism. But first, the restructuring prevented. Then Ukraine separated from Russia, began to rewrite its history, and for some reason, an extra reminder of fascist atrocities was considered undesirable. In 2013, Crimeans, seeing such indifference and even resistance from the authorities, decided to raise funds for the monument themselves. They opened an account in Privatbank, labor hryvnias flowed into it. But here is a new misfortune - the Maidan broke out, and the collected money (in terms of rubles - over half a million) the owner of the bank, Kolomoisky, directed to the needs of his battalions. And only with the return of the peninsula to Russia, the Crimean authorities began to build a large memorial complex with a museum on the site of the concentration camp.
Nostalgia in German
Now construction is in full swing. Almost completed temple, which will meet visitors at the entrance to the territory. In the depths of the complex there is already a small museum building, finishing work is underway there. The stele, installed back in 1973 at the expense of the Komsomol members of the Krasny state farm, has been updated. It has a red brick walkway. At the entrance, nine stone cones with stars were unloaded - they will be installed on the wells into which the Nazis dumped the corpses of prisoners.
By mid-April, we will hand over the first stage, - says the foreman.
In fact, the territory where the memorial will be erected is only part of the concentration camp. The foreman points to the barracks behind the fence - during the war they housed prisoners, and now the workers of the state farm live. Such is the eternal reminder: and if you want - you will not forget.
Quite capital white houses remained from those times, where German chiefs and guards from the 152nd Tatar SD battalion lived.
There were only four Germans in the camp,” says Alik Yatskin, a resident of one of these houses. - Chief Shpekman, commandant Krause and two Gestapo men. The rest are Tatars. They lived in these barracks with their families. And the Germans were located in our house, in a corner apartment.
The interlocutor invites me to his place. Three spacious rooms, a huge kitchen, gas, all conveniences.
In the early eighties, a German came here from Germany with an interpreter, - continues Yatskin. - It turns out that he served in this concentration camp, and now, can you imagine, he has nostalgia. I took pictures with everyone here, told where the prisoners lived, where the guards were, where they were shot, where they were buried - in detail, with a smile ...
Alik sighed heavily and shook his head.
These houses, he continued, are built of mud and straw. However, as you can see, it is still in excellent condition. My parents settled here after the war. They were told that the hut was empty, move into any of the apartments. They settled in. Without any warrant. And I was born in 1951. Spent all my life here. And the order was issued only last year.
The house stands about ten meters from the well where the corpses were dumped.
Not creepy?
No! Alik waved his hand. - I've seen them since childhood. Near these wells we played boys. Now we don’t know whether our houses will be left in connection with the construction of the memorial or they will be demolished ...
State farm NKVD
Initially, the settlement, located three kilometers from Simferopol, bore the Tatar name Sarchi-Kiyat (now the village of Mirnoe). In the early 1920s, it began to be called "Farm No. 1". American equipment for growing chickens was brought here. We built poultry houses, cowsheds, houses for staff. In 1925, the economy became "Red". The state farm belonged to the NKVD and was one of the most prosperous in Soviet Russia.
When the Germans approached Simferopol in the summer of 1942, all the cattle were taken out of the stall and driven to the port of Kavkaz to be transported to the Kuban. The bird was released. Chickens filled all the streets. Local residents caught them, slaughtered and salted them in barrels.
Soon a group of German motorcyclists appeared in the Red. She drove through the whole village and stopped at the sanitary zone of the farm. They liked the barracks behind barbed wire. An ideal place for a concentration camp. The poultry houses were divided into blocks, bunk beds were installed and prisoners of war began to be herded - 150 people per block.
The concentration camp in the former NKVD farm immediately gained a bad reputation. There were many camps and prisons in the Crimea, but if they were taken to the “Red”, then everyone already knew that death was inevitable.
The concentration camp was created to exterminate the inhabitants of Crimea, - Marina Kobus, director of the local history museum, who participated in the trial of the executioners in 1972, later told me. - This is recognized by the Supreme Court of the USSR.
According to the woman, not only servicemen, but also civilians got into the camp. They were seized during raids, curfews, in the markets, on the streets, near the house, even in the gardens.
They took everyone in a row, - says Marina Petrovna. - Men, women, children. The reasons were not explained. Especially during round-ups, Tatars from volunteer battalions served, there were two of them in Simferopol. The local population was especially afraid of them. In general, with the arrival of the Germans in the Crimea, the Muslim Committee created ten Tatar battalions on the peninsula, which surpassed the Nazis in their cruelty.
death factory
Today no one knows how many prisoners were permanently in the camp. In poultry houses and cowsheds, with a very dense population, about two thousand people could fit. But in the camp up to fifty prisoners died daily, and the vacant places were immediately filled.
People were brought to death in many ways.
In the barracks it was strictly forbidden to wash floors and clean up sewage, - Kobus continues to tell. - We were fed gruel from potato peelings. Due to unsanitary conditions, people fell ill with dysentery and died. Their bodies were dumped into a ditch that had been dug behind the camp. When the ditch was filled, it was buried. Then they dug a new one...
Shootings were carried out daily. In the evening, on verification, the commandant walked between the rows and poked his finger at one or another prisoner. For no particular reason - he looked too boldly, or, on the contrary, looked away, or showed insufficient zeal during the triple greeting. Those marked were immediately taken away to be shot. Mass executions were carried out in the village of Dubki, three kilometers from the concentration camp.
The rest were forced to run around the barracks. Those who lagged behind or fell were either beaten with sticks or also shot.
Prisoners were driven out every day to work in the field, - continues the director of the museum. - They were ordered to collect stones and put them on the road. There was no point in this work. The goal is to keep people busy. The guards ordered the cart to be loaded with stones, harnessed to it and carried around the village from morning to night. And here I will let you read the testimonies of the surviving prisoners of the camp at the trial in 1972.
“I was exhausted from hunger and rolling a cart with stones,” Leonid Kondratyev, a former Soviet prisoner of war who ended up in the camp at the age of twenty (now he is no longer alive), told the court. - At night, I got out of the barracks to escape, but they caught me and tied me to a "jack-off" pole, which stood in the middle of the camp. Two guards, the Abzhalilov brothers, began to beat me with iron plaques. They thrashed from both sides, without a break, for several hours. They knocked out all the teeth, broke the ribs, broke the collarbone. When I lost consciousness, they poured a bucket of water on me and continued torturing me. In the evening they untied me, dragged me by the ropes through the whole camp, because I could no longer walk. Then they dragged him to the barracks and threw him on the floor.”
Perhaps the unfortunate man would have died like that, but in the morning the commandant entered the barracks and suddenly ordered that the beaten man be taken to the Simferopol infirmary. What made him show pity, Kondratiev did not understand. The underground workers helped the guy escape from the infirmary - they carried him out under the guise of a dead man, and then sent him to the partisans.
In the same place, in the camp, people were killed in gas chambers. But mostly shot. The bodies were burned in an open crematorium. The museum archives contain the testimony of a driver named Legek, copied from a court case.
“I did not participate in the killing and burning of people,” Legek swore. “I only brought corpses, logs and tar by car.”
According to his testimony, by 1944 the prisoners were no longer taken to Dubki. They were immediately shot in the back of the head, after which they were stacked on the rails. The bodies were interspersed with logs, doused with gasoline and set on fire, and tar was boiling nearby, which was poured over the charred corpses. This "crematorium", located a kilometer from the concentration camp, worked around the clock.
"Goodbye Pavlik"
When the Soviet army approached Simferopol in the spring of 1944, mass executions of prisoners began. They were no longer taken out of the territory and did not bother to burn the corpses. They were destroyed in the camp itself, and the bodies were dumped into wells dug not far from the barracks - 4 meters in diameter and 30 meters deep. According to archival data, only from April 6 to April 10, over 2,000 people were shot in the concentration camp, and on the night of April 11 - 500.
In Simferopol, I managed to find a witness to those terrible days. 86-year-old Pavel Gnidenko is a former concentration camp prisoner. In April 1944 he was 15. This is what he said:
- We lived in the village of Sabla. Both of my brothers - the eldest and the cousin - were 17 years old. They were associated with the partisans - they distributed leaflets. And my cousin worked in Simferopol, in the commandant's office as an interpreter, because she knew well German. In April 1944, German punishers appeared in our village. They grabbed everyone who met on the street. The brothers just left the house - and immediately ran into the Germans. I also went out to see what was going on - and then a German. He pointed a machine gun at me and took me to the club. There were already a lot of people there, including women with babies. I also met my brothers. Some of the villagers managed to inform my sister at the commandant's office, and soon an officer arrived from Simferopol, who ordered everyone to be released. My brothers, as soon as the doors were opened, went into the forest, and I went home. But at the very house again came across the Germans. They took me to the Red concentration camp. In the barracks I saw four rows of bunks. The top three tiers were filled to capacity. They threw me on the lower one, but on the same day it was filled to the limit, as people were brought to the camp in a stream - women, children, the elderly, who were caught on the street.
On the bunks it was possible to fit only lying on its side. If one wanted to turn, the whole row had to turn. We heard incessant queues and knew that they were shooting people from neighboring barracks. We saw through the window how people were being led out, their arms were twisted behind them with wire, and after that we heard a short scream. This meant that the man was thrown alive into the well.
One night we were woken up by gunshots and screams. They looked out the window - the neighboring barrack was on fire. People jumped out of it, immediately fell under machine gun fire and fell dead. After our neighbors were burned alive, it was our turn. In the morning, the Germans came in and, shouting out their names, meticulously led people out into the street, starting from the upper tier. We quietly whispered to them: "Farewell, comrades!" Then shots rang out...
The upper bunks were empty, the turn came to the lower tier. When they called out my last name, they quietly whispered after me: “Farewell, Pavlik!” I prepared for death. The German led me behind the barrier. "That means they'll be shot outside the camp," I thought. But he brought me to the road and said: "Go." "Well, - I think, - now he will smack in the back." And suddenly on the road I saw a wagon, and in it my father: "I'm behind you, son." It turned out that my cousin asked for me at the commandant's office. Father was given a paper with a seal about my release.
My sister died recently, at the age of 90. I think that God gave her such long life for saving people.
To remember
When the Soviet soldiers entered the camp, none of the prisoners were found alive. Only 250 people service personnel- cooks, drivers, auto repair workers. The Tatar battalion left with the Germans towards Sevastopol. But the majority did not reach the place where they intended to put them under arms - they fled. Later they dispersed throughout the Soviet Union, but they were calculated, caught and sent to the dock.
In addition to nine wells, the soldiers found twenty more pits with the bodies of the executed and two sites for burning corpses in the camp. A terrible stench from decomposing human bodies spread over the area for several kilometers. The dead were solemnly reburied only in the 1970s ...
In the meantime, relatives of the dead rushed to Dubki. The fields in front of the grove were strewn with the executed. There is still no exact data on the number of victims.
Only from one well in the camp, 250 remains were recovered, says Kobus. - Among them are children aged from eight months to 15 years. Many of the remains were without bullet holes. That is, they were thrown into the well alive.
According to some estimates, during the existence of the camp from March 1942 to April 1944, more than 20,000 people were killed in it.
But what about the state farm "Red"? The Nazis burned it to the ground, and the inhabitants were driven to Germany. Many returned and began to rebuild houses. Twelve years after the liberation of Simferopol, the state farm licked its wounds. But in 1955, the director was appointed former first Deputy Head of the Main Police Department of the Ministry state security USSR Vladimir Marchik. It was he who raised the poultry farm anew. Under him, five-story houses and administrative buildings began to be built in the village. Shortly before his resignation, Nikita Khrushchev also came here. It can be said that this was his last working trip.
The prosperity of the state farm stopped after Ukraine separated from Russia. By 1995, the farm was declared bankrupt for the third time and it ceased to exist. Whether the former flagship of poultry farming will now be revived is unknown. There is talk that the lands of the state farm will go to the Simferopol airport, which intends to expand and acquire an international status.
But this is all in the future - and now the authorities of the republic have allocated 97 million rubles from the budget for construction in Krasnoy memorial complex in memory of the victims of fascism. It is planned that it will open on May 9, 2015 - by the 70th anniversary Great Victory. To be remembered. Maybe if the Ukrainians knew the tragedy of "Red" in all the monstrous details, they would not have allowed in Odessa and the Donbass those atrocities that are being committed by the new - already Kyiv - fascists.
At 13:00 On July 1, 1942, German soldiers hoisted a flag with a swastika over Panorama. And four days later, the Ministry of Propaganda invited a group of journalists from neutral countries to Sevastopol. The newspaper “Voice of Crimea”, published by the occupiers, dated July 10, 1942, said: “The picture unfolding before us is chaos and destruction. With difficulty we make our way through the wreckage cluttering up the streets... Thick smoke envelops the city. The first inhabitants, mostly women and the elderly, begin to emerge from the cellars. It can be seen from them how happy they are that this horror has finally ended ... In the port, the tops of the masts of flooded warships are rising from the water ... During the fighting to take Sevastopol from June 7 to July 4, 97,000 prisoners were taken, including the deputy commander Army General Novikov captured or destroyed 467 guns, 26 tanks, 824 machine guns, 758 grenade launchers, 86 anti-tank guns. The losses of the Bolsheviks were from 30 to 40 thousand people. Total losses of the German troops: 872 officers, 23,239 non-commissioned officers and soldiers.
From July 9, the Germans began re-registration of the population in order to identify communists and Komsomol members, as well as to establish manpower reserves for the able-bodied population. At the same time, people were found who were ready to cooperate with the Germans. In Sevastopol, the most severe registration regime was established, and each resident was obliged to register at his police station within no more than 48 hours. If during the check of documents in the house at least one person did not have a residence permit, then all family members were shot.
The Germans introduced a curfew: in the autumn-winter period from 5 pm to 6 am, and in the spring and summer - from 8 pm to 6 am. Those detained by the patrol during the curfew and who did not have night passes were first checked by the police, and then sent to forced labor for up to 10 days.
IN Soviet time our journalists and writers have given out so many monstrous lies about the German army that now we have to quote more German sources in order to differ from these nonsense. Alexei Tolstoy began to lie back in 1941. Here he describes with gusto and skillfully how in the middle of the village a German soldier paws a fourteen-year-old plump Russian girl. And here is such a “truthful” film “Come and See”. Well, the "red count" was smart and cunning, and honestly worked out a mansion, a summer house, a car and antiques at a truly county level. Everyone else is just stupid hacks.
If the soldiers of the European army in the 20th century, in front of the eyes of officers and with their consent, rape young girls and break the heads of babies, then in battle this unit will certainly not unconditionally obey those officers, but, speaking in Russian, will become an uncontrollable herd of savages.
Another question is that in order to carry out combat missions, the German command, as well as the command of the American and Red Armies, violated military law, that is, committed war crimes.
In Sevastopol, the Germans first of all wanted to put the Sevmorzavod into operation. In this regard, on July 16, 1942, the Ortskommandant of the Sevastopol fortress issued an order: “All workers, workers and employees of enterprises should immediately report to their places of previous work. Persons who did not show up for work will be treated as saboteurs with the strictest penalties applied to them: under wartime conditions - execution.
I especially draw the attention of the people who worked at the enterprise called "Marine Plant". They are obliged to immediately report to the police department and get the mark “Shipyard” in their passports, since a ship repair yard will start working in Sevastopol from day to day. Those who do not appear within three days will be shot.”
Obersturmbannfuehrer SD Frick reported to the manager of the shipbuilding and ship repair enterprises of the South (Reichskommissariat "Ukraine" in Nikolaev) on the state of the "Sevmorzavod": "A quick inspection of the enterprise has been made. Buildings of shops are destroyed, the equipment is taken out. South side docks destroyed. The dock on the north side is in the best condition, the batoport is undermined, but to be restored. The stocks burned, the safety is partial. Morton boathouse is undermined.
In order to avoid the mistakes that took place during the capture of Nikolaev, I carried out a series of lightning-fast large and small actions to fix work force. Each identified employee of the enterprise received a receipt: “I confirm with my signature that I received a message about the mandatory attendance at work. I know that for failure to comply with the order, my house, yard and all property will be confiscated from me or my family. If I don’t show up for work, my house will be burned down and my family will be taken hostage.”
Each identified worker of the plant was taken to the commandant's office, put in a car. Accompanied by soldiers, he circled the fortress, pointing out the whereabouts of at least three factory workers. After that, he received the right to return to his family. In this way, more than three hundred specialists have already been identified ...
Conclusion: Russian workers proved their ability to work effectively for the Bolshevik regime. There is no reason to believe that they will not be able to work in the same way for the benefit of the Reich.
It is necessary: in no case allowing a decrease in the energetic rhythm set by us, in the coming days to conduct a detailed inspection of the enterprise, for which send specialists from the Shipyards Administration. Pace, pace, pace - a condition that the mistakes made in Nikolaev will not spread as ulcers of sabotage in Sevastopol. Every Russian from the first day of the establishment of a new order must feel firm authority and a guiding hand. I must understand: we Germans - here and from here - will not leave!
Immediately inspect the Russian cruiser, half-submerged in the bay as a result of the successful actions of our aviation. The name of this cruiser is "Chervona Ukraine", which means "Red Ukraine", "Bolshevik Ukraine", "Communist Ukraine". The restoration of the cruiser will strengthen our fleet on the Black Sea and dramatically increase the prestige of our ship repair services.
Immediately take all measures to raise and restore the 100-ton floating crane and floating dock flooded in the bay, for which urgently organize two rescue teams from specialists from the Shipyards Administration and Russian workers. Repair of ships is impossible without lifting mechanisms and a dock ... ".
“We make every citizen of the city of Sevastopol responsible for the life and health of the German Army, for the elimination of all acts of sabotage, like fires, explosions, etc.
I hereby order:
If in one of the houses or their suburbs, day or night, something harmful happens to someone from the German army, no matter how, then the inhabitants of this house will be shot.
If there are acts of sabotage (fires, mine explosions, etc.), attacks or shots on the streets or squares of one section of the city, then I will evacuate this section of the city, and the residents will be involved in forced labor. In particularly severe cases, strict measures will be taken.
We have only one goal: the restoration of the city, protection, peace, suitable job for everyone and, finally, ensuring a carefree human life» .
Sevastopol historian V.B. Ivanov writes: “To maintain the “new order”, punitive bodies were created in the city. In the corner building on the street. Red Descent (modern V. Kuchera Street) housed the German gendarmerie (headed by Lieutenant Shreve), numbering more than 20 people.
On st. Chastnik, house 90, the security service (SD) headed by Sturmscharführer Meyer is located. Seven investigators, three translators, a guard detachment of 20-25 people worked in the SD. The main task of the SD was to identify communists, employees of state security agencies and the police, employees of the state apparatus, partisans and underground fighters.
Ortskomedatura (local commandant's office), which was located on the street. Until July 30, 1942, Lenin (the modern building of the Leninsky District Court) was headed by Major Kupershlyagel, then Lieutenant Colonel Gansh was appointed. In her subordination were the City Council, headed by the burgomaster, or the mayor (N. Madatov, and since August 1942, P. Supryagin), and the Schutzpolice (German police). Without the instructions or permission of the Ortskomendatura, neither the City Government nor the Schutzpolice could carry out any activities. The main task of all eight departments of the state government was to organize the provision of German military units and institutions with food and material resources.
On Pushkinskaya Street, house number 2 housed the main department of the Russian auxiliary police, headed by the chief police chief B.V. Korchminov-Nekrasov. In its composition in 1942 there were 120 people, and in 1944 - about 300.
An investigative and search unit, or criminal police, was created at the main department of the auxiliary police. In December 1942, it became known as the Auxiliary Security Police and became subordinate to the SD.
In addition to punitive agencies, intelligence agencies operated in Sevastopol: the secret field police (SFP), the counterintelligence department of the Abwehr "Darius-305". All German governing bodies and authorities were called upon to impose a "new order" in Sevastopol.
From the report of SD Obersturmbannfuehrer Frick: “The SS Sonderkommando of 800 people, the SD administration, the commandant’s office, the police, who arrived at the fortress on purpose, together with military units involved in assistance, carried out a number of large-scale actions in order to identify commissars, commanders of the Red Army, Bolsheviks from civilians, Komsomol members , all identified are framed (killed). On July 12, at the Dynamo sports stadium, Jews were gathered (number - rounded - 1500), who were previously ordered to sew a yellow star on their sleeves, and the assembled ones were decorated.
On July 14, all residents were urgently evicted from the coastal zone of the fortress, which allowed an overview of the bay, tracking the movement of ships, the width of the zone was 2-4 km; those expressing dissatisfaction are framed.
The order of the Ortskomendant was issued four times, obliging everyone to hand over surplus food, with the exception of 10 kg of flour products, 10 kg of cereals, and 1 kg of fat. The lack of food will force everyone to quickly re-register, the sheltered products are issued.
It is clear that the Germans committed war crimes not only in Sevastopol, but throughout the Crimea.
In 1941-1944. 85.5 thousand people, mostly Russians, were taken from Crimea to Germany for forced labor. Of these, in 1945-1947. 64 thousand returned.
After the landings in Kerch and Feodosia, the Nazis feared the landing of Soviet troops in Yalta, and on January 14, 1942, they drove 1,300 men aged 17 to 55 to the Potato Town camp near Simferopol. By July 1942, when the Yalta people were liberated, more than 500 people had died from starvation and disease. In addition to Jews, the victims of the Nazis in Yalta, according to the city Emergency state commission, were about 900 civilians of Yalta, not counting those killed in the "Potato Town". The number of victims is derived from the volume of burials.
Having captured the city of Kerch in November 1941, the Germans immediately issued an order stating: “The residents of Kerch are invited to hand over to the German command all the food available in every family. For discovered food, the owner is subject to execution. By the next order (No. 2), the city government ordered all residents to immediately register all chickens, roosters, ducks, chickens, turkeys, geese, sheep, cows, calves, draft animals. Owners of poultry and livestock were strictly forbidden to use poultry and livestock for their own needs without special permission from the German commandant. After the publication of these orders, general searches began in all houses and apartments.
Upon the arrival of the Red Army in Kerch in January 1942, when examining the Bagerovsky ditch, it was found that for a kilometer in length, 4 m wide and 2 m deep, it was overflowing with the corpses of women, children, old people and teenagers.
According to the most probable estimate, the Germans and their accomplices killed up to 50,000 civilians in the Crimea, the vast majority of whom were Russians and Jews.
If the Germans robbed and killed by order, then their Romanian allies robbed and stole from everyone as much as possible. Not without reason in the Crimea and Odessa, the Romanians were nicknamed "Rob Army"! The manners of the Romanians were well described by Ivan Kozlov in the book “In the Crimean Underground”: “Four Romanian soldiers settled in the kitchen. Semyon Filippovich began to ask where they were from, but the Romanians only shook their heads.
Grisha also tried to talk to the soldiers, but to no avail. Then he took a stick, put it to his shoulder like a gun, and said:
Bolshevik. Poof! Poof!
The Romanians laughed and nodded. Returning to the room, Grisha left the door open: less suspicion.
The hard one brought them, damned, - the hostess swore loudly, collecting dinner, - dirty, lousy. No matter how you look, they will certainly steal something, even an onion, even a potato. Such a crooked breed.
And the Germans? I asked.
A German, he doesn’t steal secretly, - Semyon Filippych shook his head, sitting down at the table, - what he likes, he puts in his pocket, he says “gut” - and goodbye.
The Germans despised the Romanian thieves. In Simferopol, Sevastopol and other cities of the Crimea, there were frequent cases when the Russian population beat the Romanian robbers with anything. Raise your hand against a German, and you will immediately be "registered" in the SD, and the Germans usually did not stand up for the beaten Romanians.
The natural reaction to the German atrocities was the strengthening of the partisan movement.
However, Soviet and party organs were preparing for partisan struggle even before the German invasion of the Crimea. October 23, 1941 by the decision of the bureau of the Crimean regional committee of the CPSU (b) the commander partisan detachments Crimea was appointed A.B. Mokrousov. The choice of the regional committee was successful. The Black Sea sailor Mokrousov participated in the October uprising in Petrograd, from March 1918 - in command posts in the Red Army. In August-November 1921 he commanded the Crimean rebel army operating in the rear of Wrangel. In 1937-1938. Mokrousov fought in Spain.
By the same decree, the secretary of the Simferopol city committee of the party S.B. was appointed commissar of partisan detachments. Martynov, and the chief of staff - I.K. Smetanin.
According to the same resolution, the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of Crimea allocated 2 million rubles for the partisan movement.
On October 31, 1941, by order No. 1, Mokrousov announced the organization of five partisan regions located in mountainous wooded areas, and appointed commanders, commissars and chiefs of staff of these regions. From the party and Soviet activists, from the fighters of the fighter battalions on a voluntary basis, 24 partisan detachments were created. Three independent detachments were formed later from the commanders and fighters of the Primorsky and 51st armies, who lingered in the mountains and forests of Crimea during the retreat to Sevastopol and Kerch. In total, by the end of 1941, there were more than 3,700 people in the partisan detachments, including 1,315 fighters and commanders who joined the detachments during the retreat of the armies.
The bases of the five partisan regions were located in the mountains and forests of Yalta from Stary Krym to Balaklava. In the Kerch region, three detachments were created, which were based in the dungeons of the quarries. Food and other supplies were designed for a significantly smaller number of partisans than they actually turned out to be. Moreover, these reserves could not be replenished at the expense of the population, since there were almost no settlements in the mountainous wooded areas.
The partisan detachments were located in a very small area, which made it difficult for them to maneuver. The partisans did not have topographic maps. Subsequently, they confiscated Soviet tourist maps from the killed German officers with the situation printed on them, up to the shepherd's paths.
IN post-war years Soviet propaganda exaggerated the successes of the partisan movement and constantly used the clichés “the earth was burning everywhere under the feet of the invaders”, “all Soviet people rose to fight”, etc. Therefore, I will turn to the German documents.
Already on November 20, Manstein issued an order: “Behind the front, the struggle also continues. Partisan snipers, dressed in civilian clothes, shoot at individual soldiers and small units. Using methods of sabotage, laying mines and infernal machines, the guerrillas are trying to disrupt our supply ... They destroy crops and enterprises, ruthlessly dooming to starvation urban population» .
Soon the guerrilla actions took off in earnest. “According to the reports we received,” says a memorandum dated November 14, 1941, compiled by a counterintelligence officer of the 11th Army, “a well-organized partisan organization led from the center is operating in the southern part of Crimea. At its disposal in the mountains of Yalta are large and small bases, which have a lot of weapons, food, whole herds of livestock and other supplies ... The tasks of the partisans include the destruction of communications and transport facilities and an attack on rear services and transport columns.
According to Mokrousov’s report of March 21, “the total number of partisan detachments is 26, united in 4 districts, the 5th district was liquidated on March 18, 1942 for operational reasons and all personnel were poured into the 4th district. The total number of personnel is 3180 people.
A total of 156 combat operations were carried out. In addition, 78 combat operations were carried out during an attack on enemy units during combing. Manpower was destroyed - 4040 soldiers and officers. Destroyed vehicles - 350 with ammunition, food and people. 2 tanks were knocked out, 12 carts were broken, 1 mill was blown up, 6 bridges were blown up and Beshui-kopi was taken out of the standing. 10,000 m of telephone and telegraph cable were removed.
Our losses: 175 people killed, 200 wounded, 58 missing and 15 messengers. Major General Comrade Averkin is among the missing. The fate of the Sevastopol detachment is still unknown ...
The partisan detachments were provided with food with a starvation ration for no more than 10 days, and the 3rd and 4th districts did not have it at all, as a result of which 18 deaths and 30 people were recorded. at death's door.
All units lack medicines (bandages, iodine, cotton wool, etc.) and surgical instruments.
During their stay in the forest, the uniforms of the fighters fell into disrepair, mainly shoes, clothes, underwear. Ammunition and weapons are provided, with the exception of the 2nd region. There are absolutely no anti-tank grenades, mines and explosives ...
For 4 months, from among the identified traitors and traitors to the Motherland, 362 were destroyed in the settlements of the mountainous and wooded part of Crimea and in partisan detachments ...
The vast majority of the Tatar population in the foothill and mountain villages is pro-fascist, from among the inhabitants of which the Gestapo created volunteer detachments, which are currently used to fight the partisans, and in the future the possibility of against the Red Army is not ruled out ...
The activities of partisan detachments are complicated by the need for armed struggle on two fronts: against the fascist invaders, on the one hand, and against the armed gangs of the mountainous forested Tatar villages.
On December 5, 1941, Manstein sent his senior commander, commander-in-chief of Army Group South, a report on the organization of the fight against partisans and the successes achieved in this. The report said: “To eliminate this danger (in the Crimea, according to our information, there are 8 thousand partisans), we took decisive measures; sometimes it was necessary to divert troops to fight the partisans (sic!).
At this time, the following are taking part in actions against partisans:
a) the headquarters for the fight against partisans (Major Stefanus); its task is to collect information and provide recommendations on the necessary measures;
b) the Romanian mountain rifle corps with the 8th cavalry and 4th mountain rifle brigades;
c) 24th, 52nd and 240th anti-tank battalions;
d) in the sector of the 30th corps: a Romanian motorized cavalry regiment and units of the 1st mountain rifle brigade;
e) in the Kerch mines; sapper battalion and units of infantry regiments of the 46th Infantry Division;
f) Cordons are posted on various mountain roads and escort teams are used.
To date, the following results have been achieved: 19 partisan camps have been liquidated, 640 partisans have been destroyed and 522 partisans have been captured, captured or destroyed a large number of weapons, equipment and ammunition (including 75 mortars, 25 machine guns, 20 cars and a large number of trucks, 12 equipment and ammunition depots), as well as livestock, fuel and lubricants and two radio installations.
The partisans also fought against the economic measures of the Germans. The occupiers created the main economic department "South", which led the economic department "Dnepropetrovsk", which included the territory of the Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye regions, Northern Tavria and Crimea. In Crimea, the Germans deployed two economic branches- in Kerch and in Sevastopol. But they failed to restore industrial production, and agriculture was restored only to a small extent.
According to the report of the Crimean branch of the SD dated April 8, 1942, “the partisans, whose activities are still active, began to abandon the attack on individual German soldiers or single vehicles and move mainly to massive raids on villages and other actions in order to seize food.
This coincides with the data of other German sources. "On the night of February 7-8, 300 partisans attacked Kosh." "On February 9, 150 partisans ... broke into the village of Shlia and completely plundered it." A few days earlier, the partisans occupied the village of Kazanly. After that, 500 partisans attacked Baksan and 200 partisans raided the village of Beshui.
In early 1942, the commander of the 30th Corps, General von Salmuth, established the exact number of hostages to be shot for each killed or wounded German or Romanian: “All hostages must be imprisoned in concentration camps. The food of the hostages is provided by the population of their villages. For every German or Romanian soldier killed by partisans, 10 hostages should be shot, and for every wounded German or Romanian soldier - one hostage; if possible, executions should be carried out near the place where the German or Romanian soldier was killed. The bodies of the executed were not removed for three days.
Arrests of hostages in places where there are no troops (and especially in the mountains) should be carried out by the 1st Romanian Mountain Rifle Brigade. To this end, the relevant points should be temporarily occupied by troops.
Below was a list of locations of concentration camps for hostages, as well as units and units responsible for their maintenance. The last paragraph of Salmut's order read: "Concentration camps are to be established at the following points" (see Table 8).
Table 8
Here we should pay attention to two points. Firstly, the source is German official documents, first published in London in 1954, so that the label of Soviet propaganda cannot be sewn on them. Secondly, it clearly follows from the document that the massacres in the Crimea were carried out not by the SS troops, which were not there at all at that time, but by field German and Romanian units.
And here is a German leaflet from the same source, posted in Simferopol: “On November 29, 1941, 40 men were shot - residents of the city of Simferopol, which was a repressive measure:
1) for the death of a German soldier who, on November 22, 1941, was blown up by a mine in the area, about the possible mining of which the commandant's office did not receive any information;
From the beginning of 1942, the command of the Soviet army established communications with the partisans by air. Only for the period from April 7, 1942 to October 1, 1943, 507 sorties were made to the partisan detachments of the Crimea, including 274 Li-2, TB-3 aircraft and 233 U-2 and PR-5 aircraft.
A total of 270,729 kg of cargo was delivered, including 252,225 kg of food, 600 sets of uniforms, 120 assault rifles, 5 anti-tank rifles, 4 DP light machine guns, 1,980 grenades, 92,563 rounds of ammunition (various), 885 different mines, 3,487 kg of toll, 54 sets radio supply, 2 sets of printing houses.
During the same period, 776 people were taken out of the partisan detachments, of which 747 were sick and wounded partisans, 7 people and 22 children were recalled. And 137 people were sent to partisan detachments, of which 78 were cured partisans, 30 demolition workers, 15 party activists, 14 command and leadership workers.
An interesting quote from a letter from Commissioner P.R. Yampolsky Secretary of the Crimean Regional Committee B.C. Bulatov on October 14, 1943: “An unfortunate incident happened to the tank. They seized a serviceable medium tank, drove it far away from the battlefield, got stuck in a beam close to the forest, we had no tankers, fussed until the engines jammed. Fedorenko made a decision and burned the tank. I already scolded him to the fullest for such a decision, but you can’t return the tank. Now he is tasked with getting another tank instead.
But along with the successes of the partisan movement, any objective historian must also recognize the fact that the Germans used the so-called Khivs in the Crimea, and on a much larger scale than in any other region of the USSR occupied in 1941-1944.
So, for example, in the fall of 1943, the defense of the coast from the village of Koktebel to the Dvuyakornaya Bay (wide beaches and convenient places for landing, he went to these places himself) was guarded by the Azerbaijani Khiva battalion. It consisted of 60 Germans and 1090 Azerbaijanis. The battalion was armed with 42 light machine guns, 80 heavy machine guns, 10 battalion and 10 regimental mortars, and 16 anti-tank guns. At the same time Railway from Vladislavovka to Islam-Terek was guarded by a company of Khivs, consisting of 150 Georgians.
However, the real support of the Wehrmacht in the Crimea was the Crimean Tatars, who served in the Khiva, self-defense units and other units.
In order to attract the Crimean Tatars and Turkey to the fight against the "Bolsheviks", the leadership of the Reich from the summer of 1941 began to use the Crimea as a bait. At the end of the summer of 1941, employees of the German embassy in Turkey met with the leaders of the Crimean Tatar emigration. The visit to Berlin in October 1941 of Turkish generals Ali Fuad Erden (head of the military academy) and Husnu Emir Erkilet contributed to a positive solution to the issue of involving the Crimean Tatar emigration in active German politics. During the talks, Ali Fuad expressed the hope that after the end of hostilities in Crimea, an administration would be formed in which the Crimean Tatars would largely participate. This, in turn, could strongly influence the Turkish government in favor of the decision on Turkey's entry into the war on the side of Germany.
The statement of an active member of the pro-German group in Turkey, Nuri Pasha (brother of Enver Pasha), is eloquent: “Granting freedom to such a small area as Crimea would not be a sacrifice for the German Empire, but a politically wise measure. That would be propaganda in action. In Turkey, she would have found the greater response.
It is necessary to note the duality that took place in German propaganda on the "Eastern Question". On the one hand, the invasion of the USSR began under the slogan "destruction of the Bolshevik-Asiatic beast", and propaganda was built in this direction. Among the German soldiers, leaflets and brochures with photographs were distributed in huge numbers. Soviet soldiers various Asian nationalities and the following text: “This is what the Tatar-Mongolian creatures are! The Fuhrer's soldier protects you from them! The SS propaganda organs published the pamphlet Der Untermensch as a reference tool for the German troops. Soldiers were urged to look at the local population as harmful microbes that needed to be destroyed. The peoples of the East were called in the brochure "dirty Mongoloids, bestial bastards."
But, on the other hand, it was precisely in relation to the so-called "Eastern" peoples that the German command demanded to show maximum respect on the ground. So, on November 20 and 29, 1941, Manstein issued two orders in which he demanded respect for the religious customs of the Muslim Tatars and urged not to allow any unjustified actions against the civilian population.
An important element in coordinating the work of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and repressive structures to involve the Crimean Tatars in the anti-Soviet struggle was the creation of a representative office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the headquarters of the 11th Army in Crimea. The duties of the representative were performed by the leading official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Major Werner Otto von Khentin.
German propaganda paid off. Of the 90,000 inhabitants of Crimea mobilized into the Red Army in July-August 1941, 20,000 were Tatars. All of them became part of the 51st Army operating in the Crimea, and during the retreat, almost all deserted.
During the invasion of the German troops in the Crimea, the Tatars acted as conductors of the German units and helped them cut off the path of the retreating Soviet troops. In Bakhchisarai, a large group of Tatars greeted the Germans with bread and salt and thanked them for the liberation from the Russians.
In the winter of 1941/42, the Germans began recruiting Tatars. As a result, 9255 people were recruited, with the largest number of volunteers recruited in Karasubazar - 1000 people. Of these volunteers, 8684 people were sent to the 11th German Army, and the rest were declared unfit for military service and divorced in small groups of 3-10 people and distributed between companies, batteries and other military units stationed near Sevastopol and on the Kerch Peninsula .
At the same time, 1632 people were recruited through the Einsatzgruppe D (SS division), who were brought together in 14 self-defense companies, stationed in accordance with their serial numbers in the following settlements: Simferopol, Biyuk-Onlar, Beshui, Baksan, Molbay, Biy-Eli, Alushta, Bakhchisarai, Koush, Yalta, Taraktash (12th and 13th companies) and Dzhankoy.
Each Tatar self-defense company consisted of three platoons and numbered from 50 (Dzhankoy) to 175 (Yalta) people. Companies of the command were led by German officers. The privates were dressed in regular Wehrmacht uniforms, but without insignia. The armament of the companies initially consisted of personal small arms, and later they received heavy machine guns and mortars. According to the plans of the German command, the partisans were supposed to get bogged down in the fight not with the Germans, but with formations from the local population.
Already in February 1942, separate units of Tatar volunteers numbering up to 200-250 people participated in the battles for the Kerch Peninsula, and then in the storming of Sevastopol.
In the first half of 1942, the occupying authorities began to create "Schuma" battalions from the Tatars. Unlike self-defense companies, whose actions were usually limited to the area of their formation, the Schuma battalions were planned to be used throughout the Crimea and even beyond.
By November 1942, 8 Schuma battalions were formed, stationed in the following settlements: Simferopol - No. 147 and No. 154, Kazasubazar - No. 148, Bakhchisarai - No. 149, Yalta No. 150, Alushta - No. 151, Dzhankoe - No. 152 and Feodosia - No. 153.
In organizational and operational terms, the battalions were subordinate to the Fuhrer SS and the police chief of the Taurida district, SS Brigadeführer JI. von Alvensleben.
Each battalion in the state was to consist of a headquarters and four companies of 124 people each. Each company consists of one machine gun and three infantry platoons. The regular strength of the battalion is 501 people, and in fact - from 240 to 700 people. The battalion was commanded by a Tatar, most often a former junior commander of the Red Army. There were 9 Germans in each battalion - 1 communications officer and 8 non-commissioned officers. In a number of cases, the Germans used Tatar battalions to carry out punitive actions and to guard concentration camps. For example, on February 4, 1942, the Tatars, led by Yagya Smail, took part in the massacre of the inhabitants of the village of Chair. At the same time, 15 civilians were brutally killed.
Since the spring of 1942, a concentration camp was located on the territory of the Krasny state farm, where the Germans destroyed over 8 thousand inhabitants of Crimea during the occupation. The camp was guarded by Tatars from the 152nd Schuma Battalion. The senior lieutenant of the Red Army V. Fainer recalled: “The abuse of prisoners of war ... had no limits. Tatar volunteers forced (some prisoner of war) to show that he was a Jew, and then ... gave out the unfortunate, for which they received 100 marks.
According to the Simferopol Muslim Committee, the village elders organized about four thousand more people to fight the partisans. In addition, about five thousand volunteers were later to go to replenish military units. According to German documents, with the population of the Crimea about 200 thousand people, the Crimean Tatars gave the German army 20 thousand. If we take into account that about 10 thousand people were drafted into the Red Army, then we can assume that all combat-ready Tatars in 1942 were fully taken into account.
With the beginning of the occupation of the Crimea, the Nazi Security Service (SD) immediately created the "Muslim Committee", and then on its basis the "Tatar Committee" with its center in Simferopol. Dzhelal Abduraimdov was appointed chairman. The committee had six departments: for the recruitment of volunteers for the German army; to help the families of volunteers; culture; religion; propaganda and agitation; administrative and economic and office. Local committees have also been set up in some cities and towns.
To organize pro-German self-government in Crimea, the German authorities brought from Turkey the elderly Jafar Seydamet, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the “Crimean Regional Government” in 1918. In the future, to form a more solid administration, the German leadership planned the last Khan of the Crimean Tatars Sultan Giray.
The “Tatar Committee” had a number of print media, including the newspaper “Azat Krym” (“Liberated Crimea”, editor Mustafa Krutiev) and the magazine “Ana-Yurt” (“Motherland”), which campaigned for the creation of a Tatar state under German protectorate.
What did "Liberated Crimea" write? Here, for example, on March 3, 1942: “After our brothers, the Germans, crossed the historical ditch at the gates of Perekop, the great sun of freedom and happiness rose for the peoples of Crimea.”
March 10, 1942 Alushta. At a meeting arranged by the Muslim Committee, “Muslims expressed their gratitude to the Great Fuhrer Adolf Hitler - effendi for the free life he had given the Muslim people. Then they arranged a service for the preservation of life and health for many years to Adolf Hitler - effendi.
In the same issue: "To the Great Hitler - the liberator of all peoples and religions!" 2 thousand Tatars of the village of Kokkozy and its environs “gathered for a prayer service ... in honor of the German soldiers. We created a prayer for the German martyrs of the war... The entire Tatar people pray every minute and ask Allah to grant the Germans victory over the whole world. Oh, great leader, we tell you with all our hearts, with all our being, believe us! We, the Tatars, give our word to fight the herd of Jews and Bolsheviks together with the German soldiers in the same ranks!.. God bless you, our great Mr. Hitler!”
March 20, 1942 “Together with the glorious brothers - the Germans, who arrived in time to liberate the world of the East, we, the Crimean Tatars, declare to the whole world that we have not forgotten Churchill's solemn promises in Washington, his desire to revive the Jewish power in Palestine, his desire to destroy Turkey, capture Istanbul and the Dardanelles, raise an uprising in Turkey and Afghanistan, etc. and so on. The East is waiting for its liberator not from lying democrats and swindlers, but from the National Socialist Party and from the liberator Adolf Hitler. We have sworn an oath to make sacrifices for such a sacred and brilliant task."
And here is the pearl dated April 10, 1942: “To the liberator of the oppressed peoples, the son of the German people, Adolf Hitler. With the arrival of the valiant sons of Great Germany in the Crimea, with your blessing and in memory of long-term friendship, we, Muslims, stood shoulder to shoulder with the German people, took up arms and began to fight to the last drop of blood for the great universal ideas- the destruction of the red Jewish-Bolshevik plague to the end and without a trace.
Our ancestors came from the East, and we were waiting for liberation from there, but today we are witnessing that liberation comes to us from the west. Perhaps for the first and only time in history it happened that the sun of freedom rose from the west. This sun is you, our great friend and leader, with your mighty German people. Presidium of the Muslim Committee".
As we can see, Gorbachev with his notorious "universal values" had a worthy predecessor.
Enlightened Aryans in April 1942 suddenly became seriously concerned about the state Agriculture and animal husbandry of the Tatar population. For this purpose, courses for sheep breeders were created near Evpatoria, and courses for winegrowers near Yalta. At these courses, young Tatars learned how to shear sheep, grow grapes, drive all types of cars, parachute jump, shoot all types of small arms, as well as cipher business and much more, which is so necessary in peasant life. But, alas, when these enlightened young men appeared behind the front line, they were seized by villains from the NKVD. I think that now all these innocently repressed sheep breeders and growers have been posthumously rehabilitated.
Crimean Tatars actively participated in the storming of Sevastopol in June-July 1942. Here is what Sevastopol historian Captain 2nd Rank I.S. writes about this. Manyushin: “On July 2, the boat on which Senior Lieutenant V.K. Kvariani and Sergeant P. Sudak, received holes in the hull, began to settle from the received water. One engine stalled, and the boat had to turn towards the shore occupied by the Nazis. All this happened in the coastal area near Alushta. On the shore there was a battle between paratroopers and an armed group of Tatars. As a result of an unequal battle, all who survived were captured. The wounded Tatars were shot point-blank. The Italian soldiers who arrived in time sent some of the prisoners by car, and some by boat to Yalta.
"IN. Mishchenko, walking in one of the columns of prisoners, testifies that out of three thousand of their columns, only half of the prisoners reached the camp in Simferopol "potato field". The rest were shot on the way by a convoy of Germans and traitors from the Crimean Tatars.
“In the Sudak region, a self-defense group was involved in the liquidation of the landing. At the same time, 12 paratroopers were burned alive. One of the punitive expeditions ended with a long blockade of partisans, as a result of which 90 people died of starvation.
Enough. I think what has been said is enough.
In the 1970-1980s, a number of Russian "dissidents", exposing the "Stalinist crimes", proved to us that, they say, not all Tatars served the Germans, but only "separate groups", while others were partisans at that time. However, an anti-Hitler underground also existed in Germany, so now the Germans should be recorded as our allies in World War II? Let's look at specific numbers.
Let us turn to the data of the “democratic” historian N.F. Bugai: “According to approximate data, more than 20 thousand Crimean Tatars were in the units of the German army stationed in the Crimea.” That is, almost the entire Crimean Tatar population of military age. It is significant that this unseemly circumstance is actually recognized in a very characteristic publication (“The book forms the documentary historical basis of the ongoing Russian Federation measures for the rehabilitation of outraged and punished peoples”).
And how many Crimean Tatars were among the partisans? On June 1, 1943, there were 262 people in the Crimean partisan detachments, of which 145 were Russians, 67 Ukrainians and ... 6 Tatars.
As of January 15, 1944, according to the party archive of the Crimean Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, there were 3,733 partisans in Crimea, of which 1944 were Russians, 348 Ukrainians, and 598 Tatars. Finally, according to a certificate on the party, national and age composition of the Crimean partisans for April 1944, among the partisans were: Russians - 2075, Tatars - 391, Ukrainians - 356, Belarusians - 71, others - 754.
So, even if we take the maximum of the given figures - 598, then the ratio of Tatars in the German army and in the partisans will be more than 30 to 1.
In connection with the offensive of the Red Army from October 1943, the leaders of the Tatar nationalists began to leave the Crimea. During the evacuation from the peninsula, together with the German units in March-April 1944, at least three thousand Crimean Tatars left. Most of them, like the refugees of 1943, settled in Romania, some were allowed to move to Germany.
The Tatar units taken out from the Crimea to Romania in June 1944 were consolidated into the Tatar SS cavalry regiment of Chasseurs of three battalions. The regiment was trained at the Murlager training ground (Germany), where on July 8, 1944, by order of the SS headquarters, it was deployed to the First Tatar Mountain Jaeger Brigade of the SS under the command of Standartenführer V. Fortenbacher. The brigade had the following composition: 11 officers, 191 non-commissioned officers and 3316 privates, of which about a third were Germans.
In mid-July 1944, the brigade was transferred to Hungary. On December 31, 1944, the brigade was disbanded and became part of the Eastern Turkic SS formation (combat group "Crimea" consisting of two infantry battalions and one cavalry hundred). These formations constantly suffered losses, and the remnants of the Tatars in March 1945 joined the Azerbaijan battle group as separate units.
Part of the Crimean Tatars was transported to France and entered the reserve battalion of the Volga-Tatar Legion, which was stationed near the city of Le Puy. At the end of the war, several hundred Tatars entered the 35th SS Police Division and the Air Defense Auxiliary Service in France.
Now nationalists of all stripes - Finns, Estonians, Western Ukrainians, etc. they are trying in every possible way to distance their units that fought against the Red Army from the Wehrmacht. Like, we waged our own war for independence against Bolshevism, but had nothing in common with Hitler. The same position is taken by modern Crimean Tatar nationalists. Therefore, it is worth saying a few words about what fate the Germans were preparing for both the Crimea and the Tatars living there.
I will give the floor to the Sevastopol historian V.B. Ivanov, who collected a large array of secret documents of the Third Reich: ““Crimea must be liberated from all strangers and populated by Germans,” Hitler said at a meeting in the box on July 19, 1941. At his suggestion, the Crimea was turned into the imperial region of Gotenland (the country is ready). The center of the Simferopol region was renamed Gothsburg (the city of the Goths), and Sevastopol was named Theodoricshafen (the harbor of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, who lived in 493-526).
According to Himmler's project, the Crimea joined directly to Germany. On June 9, 1942, at a meeting of the chiefs of the SS and the police, Himmler declared that the war would not make sense if after it, in particular, the Crimea had not been completely colonized by the Germans for 20 years, and, moreover, only on a racial principle, on the principle of blood.
On July 16, 1941, Hitler decided to create at the first stage the General Commissariat of Taurida, including the Crimea and Melitopol with adjacent lands, as part of the Reichskommissariat of Ukraine. Alfred Frauenfeld was appointed head of the civil administration, although the actual power during the period of occupation was in the hands of the military command.
According to data as of January 1, 1943, the area of the Reichskommissariat of Ukraine was 339,276 square kilometers. It was divided into six general districts.
Historically, the return of Crimea to Germany was based on the fact that in the second half of the 4th century Taurica was invaded by the German tribes of the Goths who came from the shores of the Baltic Sea and lived here, along with other peoples, in the Middle Ages. In July 1942, Frauenfeld organized an archaeological expedition, led by the head of the SS and police in Taurida, SS Brigadeführer von Alvenslebe, and Colonel Werner Baumelburg served as an archaeologist. The ruins of Theodoro, the capital of the Greek-speaking principality of the same name, which was defeated by the troops of the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II in 1475, were examined. Conclusion: this is a typical example of German fortification. As a result of the expedition, Baumelburg wrote the work "Goths in the Crimea", in which he claimed that Aluston (Alushta), Gorzuvitai (Gurzuf), Kalamita (Inkerman) were built by the Goths. Frauenfeld used the collected materials for his book "The Reasons and Meaning of Our Struggle". He put forward a project for a highway that would connect Hamburg with the Crimea and make it possible to overcome the path in two days, and suggested using Crimean Tatars as servants for Germans vacationing in Crimean resorts.
On July 5, 1942, a meeting was held between the command of the Wehrmacht and the police, where the question of methods for evicting racially "inferior" residents from Crimea was discussed. It was decided to create special camps for conducting a "racial survey" of the population.
By July 1942, the German leadership finally abandoned its plans to grant self-government to the Crimean Tatars. On July 27, at the Werwolf headquarters, over dinner, Hitler announced his desire to “cleanse” the Crimea.
The unwillingness of the Turkish leadership to enter the war on the side of Germany became the basis for ending discussions on the future status of the Turkic peoples living in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union. And they stopped looking at the Crimean Tatars as a link in German-Turkish relations.
So, in the event of Hitler's victory, the Crimean Tatars would not go to Central Asia to their historical homeland, but to the cultural European cities - Dachau, Auschwitz. And the Polish town of Treblinka is worse?
Crimea during the Great Patriotic War. Collection of documents and materials. P. 217-218. Efimov A.V. Some aspects of the German occupation policy towards the Crimean Tatars in 1941-1944.
Ivanov V.B. Secrets of Sevastopol. Book. 1. S. 298-299.
According to Efimov A.V. Some aspects of the German occupation policy towards the Crimean Tatars in 1941-1944.
Great Patriotic War in Crimea.
1941-1945
The title of the city of Russian glory is not given just like that. Sevastopol received it not for the beautiful name that Catherine the Great gave him, and not for the beautiful view of the sea waves. This title is sprinkled with the blood of Russian soldiers and sailors - and not in one war. In each of them, the Crimeans, soldiers, sailors of Russia, demonstrated miracles of heroism, stamina and courage. One of the brightest episodes showing the fighting spirit of the Crimeans was the Great Patriotic War.
Our entire history clearly demonstrates that the enemies can defeat the Russian world only during the great turmoil. In this way, during the First World War, during the civil war, German troops came to the Crimea. Russia was strong German generals did not even think about such success in their wildest dreams. In World War II, Hitler planned the occupation of the peninsula in advance. The calculation was twofold - for the "invincible Wehrmacht" and for sowing discord within the peoples of the Soviet Union. Only the order of appearance of the German army in 1918 and 1941 in the Crimea was fundamentally different. During civil war the German army stepped into the Crimea almost without resistance - the reason for this was discord in Russia. During the Great Patriotic War, the Nazis came to the Crimea after bloody battles, after the heroic defense of Sevastopol, which lasted 250 days. And only after that they began to sow discord, divide and rule.
In the plans of the leadership of the Third Reich, Crimea had strategic importance both for taking control of the Black Sea, and for the subsequent offensive into the Caucasus. That is why the Germans used significant human and material resources during the occupation of the peninsula. The struggle for Crimea lasted for three years, which we can conditionally divide into three periods:
On the “pearl of Russia”, as Catherine II once lovingly called Crimea, the Fuhrer had quite specific plans. Hitler decided that the peninsula should be settled by Germans and attached directly to Germany, turned into "Gotenland", the country is ready. Thus, the Fuhrer, who knew the history, wanted to emphasize the continuity of the "Aryan race" in the Crimea, and at the same time directly control the most important bridgehead of the Black Sea. Simferopol was supposed to be renamed Gothenburg, and Sevastopol - Theodorichshafen. Subsequently, the SS men even equipped an expedition to the Crimean fortress of Mangup, where the capital of the Principality of Feodoro, destroyed by the Turks in 1475, was once located. Of course, following the results of the expedition, the Fuhrer of the local SS L. von Alvensleben found out that the Mangup fortress, along with many other cities on the southern coast of Crimea, was built by the Goths. That is, the Germans, which "given the right to return" the Crimea under the jurisdiction of the heirs of this Germanic tribe. On the eve of the war, Alfred Rosenberg, one of the most important Nazi ideologists, drew up a plan for the future occupation of the territory of the USSR. According to him, five Reichskommissariats were to manage the occupied lands: "Muscovy", "Ostland" (the Baltic states and Belarus), "Ukraine" (with Crimea), "Caucasus" and "Turkestan". As you know, the Nazi blitzkrieg failed, so the Reich managed to create only two Reichskommissariats - "Ukraine" and "Ostland". The German leadership understood that to manage the occupied territories exclusively military force without the use of political methods is impossible. One of these methods was the game on national contradictions. Rosenberg planned that Crimea would become part of the "Great Ukraine" under the name "Tavria". He understood that it was possible to attribute Crimea to Ukraine only with a huge stretch, since the number of Ukrainians living on the peninsula was negligible. In order to somehow solve the problem, Rosenberg proposed to evict all Russians, Tatars and Jews from the peninsula. In this, he followed the will of Hitler, who on July 16, 1941, at a meeting of the political leadership of the Third Reich, stated that the Crimea "must be cleared of all strangers and populated by Germans." At the same time, it should be controlled directly from Berlin, and its accession to Ukraine should be of a purely technical nature.
The Great Patriotic War, which began on June 22, 1941, quickly reached the Crimea. Already on September 24, 1941, seven German divisions, together with Romanian Corps As part of the 11th German Army of the Army Group "South" under the command of General Erich von Manstein, they begin an offensive on the Crimea from the territory of occupied Ukraine through the Perekop Isthmus. With the help of artillery and aviation, in two days of battles they manage to break through the Turkish Wall and occupy Armyansk. With the forces of one cavalry and two rifle divisions, the operational group of the Red Army under the command of Lieutenant General P. I. Batov goes on the counteroffensive. Due to the complete consumption of ammunition and heavy losses among the personnel of the divisions, Manstein decides to temporarily suspend the offensive on the peninsula. On October 18, 1941, three divisions of the 11th German Army attacked the Ishun positions, which were defending coastal batteries and divisions Black Sea Fleet. After ten days of bloody battles, Manstein manages to break through the defenses of the Soviet troops. As a result, our Primorsky Army retreats to Sevastopol, and the 51st Army, which was previously transferred to the Crimea from Odessa, to Kerch, from where it is later evacuated to the Taman Peninsula. October 30, 1941 begins the heroic defense of Sevastopol.
The first attempts of the German army to take the city "from a raid" failed. At that time, the Sevastopol defensive region had excellent fortifications, which included two coastal defense batteries with 305-millimeter large-caliber guns. Consisting of marines The garrison of Sevastopol of the Black Sea Fleet, after being reinforced by the Primorsky Army, numbered about 50 thousand people with 500 guns. Strong defense allowed Soviet army defend the city for a year.
On December 17, 1941, the second assault on Sevastopol began. The city was subjected to the most severe bombing by German aviation. air defense the city was not ready for such a turn of events, so the defenders suffered heavy losses.
Despite the fact that the Nazis managed to wedge themselves into the Sevastopol defense in the area of the Mekenziev Heights, they were never able to make a hole in it. This was facilitated by the coastal defense batteries mentioned above. Then the Germans delivered to the battlefield more powerful heavy guns of 420 and 600 mm calibers, as well as the unique Dora super-heavy railway artillery gun developed by Krupp. It fired 53 seven-ton (!) Shells at the Sevastopol forts. It did not help - the city held on.
Moreover, even at the moment when the Germans were on the outskirts of Moscow, Soviet command tried to seize the initiative from the enemy and carried out active operations in the Crimea. On December 26, 1941, a large landing was made in Kerch and Feodosia. The 44th and 51st armies of the Transcaucasian Front and the Black Sea Fleet took part in it. The landing conditions were not just difficult, but, one might say, inhuman. A storm raged on the cold December sea. The coast was covered with a crust of ice, which prevented the approach of ships. At the same time, the fleet did not have special means for unloading heavy equipment and delivering troops to an unequipped coast. For these purposes, transport and fishing vessels were used. Nevertheless, through incredible efforts, the landing operation was carried out. The main forces of the 44th Army under the command of General A.N. Pervushin landed in the port of Feodosia, and parts of the 51st Army of General V.N. Lvov landed on the northeast coast of the Kerch Peninsula. The Germans began to retreat: on December 29, Feodosia was liberated, on the 30th - Kerch, and by the end of January 2, 1942, the Kerch Peninsula was completely liberated from the invaders. Erich von Manstein believed that the fate of the German troops at that moment "hung in the balance."
The activity of the Red Army did not stop there. Landed on January 5, 1942 in Yevpatoria, the Black Sea Fleet marines, with the help of the rebellious citizens, drove out the Romanian garrison. But even here the victory did not last long - two days later, the reserves pulled up by the Germans defeated the battalion of marines. In the middle of January soviet front was broken through - the Germans captured Feodosia.
Despite the initial success of the Red Army in Kerch, it was not possible to develop the offensive. On February 27, 1942, the Crimean Front (formed near Kerch after the landing of the 44th, 47th and 51st armies), together with the Primorsky Army (under the command of General I. E. Petrov), located in Sevastopol, went on the offensive. Bloody battles continued for several months. And on May 7, 1942, the Germans launched Operation Bustard Hunting. The commander of the 11th Army, General Manstein, planned to defeat our troops, leaving them no opportunity to evacuate through the Kerch Strait. For the strike, the weakest place in the defense of the Crimean Front was chosen - the narrow, 5-kilometer, coast of the Feodosia Gulf. Here is what Manstein told about this operation in his memoirs: “The idea was to inflict a decisive blow not directly on the protruding forward arc of the enemy’s front, but on the southern sector, along the Black Sea coast, that is, in the place where the enemy, along apparently least of all expected him. Especially to support the Wehrmacht in the air, units of the 4th Luftwaffe Air Fleet under the command of General von Richthofen were transferred to the Crimea. Despite the large number (about 308 thousand people), the Crimean Front was poorly controlled and therefore was not ready for an enemy attack. Having made a distracting strike in the south along the Black Sea coast, Manstein, with the help of one tank division, broke through the entire defense line up to the Azov coast, opening the way for the Wehrmacht infantry. In ten days, from May 8 to May 18, 1942, one tank division and five infantry divisions defeated the Crimean Front, the total losses of which were enormous: 162 thousand people, almost 5 thousand guns, about 200 tanks, 400 aircraft, 10 thousand vehicles. The reason for such a catastrophic defeat lies in the mediocrity of the commanders of the Crimean Front. As stated in the special order of the Headquarters, the defeat was largely due to serious mistakes by the commander of the Crimean Front, General D.T. Kozlov and the representative of the Headquarters, L.Z. Mekhlis. For which they were both removed from their posts. On May 9, 1942, shortly before the defeat of the Crimean Front, Stalin sent Mekhlis a telegram with the following content:
"Crimean Front, comrade Mekhlis:
I received your cipher No. 254. You hold on to the strange position of an outside observer who is not responsible for the affairs of the Crimean Front. This position is very convenient, but it is rotten through and through. On the Crimean front, you are not an outside observer, but a responsible representative of the Headquarters, responsible for all the successes and failures of the front and obliged to correct the mistakes of the command on the spot. You, together with the command, are responsible for the fact that the left flank of the front turned out to be extremely weak. If "the whole situation showed that the enemy would attack in the morning" and you did not take all measures to organize a rebuff, limited to passive criticism so much the worse for you. So, you still have not understood that you were sent to the Crimean Front not as the State Control, but as a responsible representative of the Headquarters. You are demanding that we replace Kozlov with someone like Hindenburg. But you must know that we do not have Hindenburgs in reserve. Your affairs in the Crimea are not difficult, and you could handle them yourself. If you used attack aircraft not for side affairs, but against enemy tanks and manpower, the enemy would not break through the front and the tanks would not pass. You don't have to be a Hindenburg to understand this simple thing while sitting on the Crimean Front for 2 months.
Our army was just learning to fight. This is 1942, not 1941. There is no surprise, but Manstein smashes Kozlov. Do we know the great commander Kozlov? No. But Zhukov, Rokossovsky and many other famous military leaders from 1942 will begin to become the creators of our Victory. In the Crimea, we fought worse, and this unpleasant truth must be recognized. The prerequisite for the defeat of our army in the Crimea is the inability of the commander to conduct combat operations properly ...
Meanwhile, after the liquidation of the Crimean Front, the Germans were able to concentrate all their forces on the assault on Sevastopol. June 7, 1942 begins the third, last and decisive assault on the city. It was preceded by five days of bombardment and shelling. The defenders did not have enough fighter aircraft, as well as shells for anti-aircraft artillery, which caused heavy losses - in some brigades only 30-35% of the personnel remained. In addition, the Germans who dominated the air sank transport ships approaching the city, thereby depriving the defenders of Sevastopol of ammunition and food. On June 17, after bloody battles, the Germans come to the foot of the Sapun Mountain in the south and at the same time to the foot of the Mekenziev Heights in the north of the city. Since the city was more fortified from the south, Manstein organizes a surprise attack on the North Bay on the night of June 29 - German soldiers secretly crossed into the bay in inflatable boats. The height dominating the city, Malakhov Kurgan, was taken by the Germans on June 30. As in Crimean War, the capture of Malakhov Kurgan was the final chord of the defense of Sevastopol. The ammunition of the defenders, as well as drinking water, was running out, so the commander of the defense, Vice Admiral F. S. Oktyabrsky, received permission from the Headquarters to evacuate the senior and senior commanders army and navy from the peninsula with the help of aviation. The rest continued their selfless struggle.
The heroic defense of Sevastopol, the main base of the Black Sea Fleet, lasted 250 days and nights. On July 1, 1942, the resistance of the defenders of Sevastopol was broken, and only separate groups of Soviet soldiers and sailors fought for the next couple of weeks. The loss of the Crimea changed the situation both on the Black Sea and on the southern flank of the Soviet-German front. The way to the Caucasus through the Kerch Strait was open to the German invaders. The German army was at the zenith of its power - the Germans were marching towards Stalingrad. In order to be completely defeated and demoralized in the Stalingrad cauldron in six months ...
Crimea was finally occupied by the Germans after they fell or were taken prisoner last defenders Sevastopol. But do not take the occupation as a one-time action. As the German troops advanced across the peninsula, occupation administrations were created behind the front line. Formally, the general district "Crimea", which was part of the Reichskommissariat "Ukraine", was created on September 1, 1941. It was headed by Erich Koch, whose residence was in the city of Rovno. The general district "Crimea" was controlled by the general commissariat under the command of A. Frauenfeld. Since until the summer of 1942 the territory of the Crimean district was the rear of the active army, there were problems with the implementation of the planned administrative-territorial structure. Until the 11th Army of General Manstein left the Crimea in August-September 1942, the peninsula was under dual control: civilian and military. The first was only nominal, and the second - real. This state of affairs led to the fact that the center of the general district was moved from Simferopol to Melitopol, and the administrative unit itself was called the general district "Tavria". Therefore, in historiography one can often find the combined name of the district "Crimea - Tavria".
In the occupied territory of Crimea, the Nazis deployed their instruments of terror. In this sense, Crimea did not differ from Belarus, Ukraine or Latvia, where immediately upon the arrival of the "German liberators" mass executions began and concentration camps were built. During their stay in Crimea, the Nazis shot 72,000 Crimeans, tortured more than 18,000 in prisons and camps. In addition to the civilian population, 45 thousand Soviet military personnel who were captured were destroyed. The local "Dachau" was the state farm near Simferopol "Red", which was converted into a death camp. It contained both Soviet prisoners of war and residents of the Crimea. During the occupation, daily executions alone took the lives of more than 8 thousand people.
“According to eyewitnesses, a barbarian regime reigned in the camp. With exhausting and many hours of work, a loaf of bread for 6-8 people and one liter of gruel consisting of water and a small amount of barley bran were issued per day. People were used as horse-drawn vehicles, they were harnessed to carts and carts loaded with stone and earth. In the absence of work, prisoners were forced to drag stones and earth from one place to another and back. For offenses, the prisoners were beaten with sticks and a whip made of wire and ox skin ... On the night of April 10-12, 1944, from 8 pm to 3 am, German executioners took the prisoners out one by one and dumped them alive in small groups into a well up to 24 meters deep . During the autopsy of the extracted bodies, only 10 people were found to have bullet wounds. A medical examination of the remaining recovered corpses (60 people) established that they were thrown into the well alive. In that well, about 200 corpses remained unextracted ... On November 2, 1943, at least 1200 corpses were taken out of the camp, two kilometers from the camp in a beam in Dubki, they were doused with combustible substances and burned. When examining the place of burning by the commission, it was established that in the beam in Dubki, the burning of the corpses of civilians was carried out repeatedly in the period 1942-1943. The field where the burning took place is an area of 340 square meters. m. Burnt human bones, metal parts of clothing, as well as pieces of resin were found here.
At the direction of local residents, the commission found and examined the second place where prisoners were burned from the camp, at the end of the garden of the Krasny state farm, near a poultry farm, an area of about 300 square meters. m where material evidence was found, as well as at the burning site described above.
In addition, over 20 pits filled with human corpses were found on the territory of the camp. The commission established that in the Dubki tract near the camp territory, they were systematically brought from the SD, the field gendarmerie from the camp, as well as citizens captured during raids, who were driven in groups into caponiers, where they were shot. Many of the victims fell into the pits alive. Only in 4 pits fully explored by the commission, 415 corpses were found ... 122 people were identified, among them a group of artists and workers of the Crimean State Theater. Relatives of the captured were informed about the deportation of the prisoners allegedly to Sevastopol, the same was reported to the murdered themselves. Knapsacks, pillows, blankets were found with the corpses in the pits. In one of the pits, out of 211 corpses, 153 male corpses were found with hands twisted back and tied with wire ... "
As elsewhere with the Germans, local "elements" were used to guard the concentration camps. It is no secret that many Nazi death camps (in particular, Sobibor) were guarded by Ukrainian nationalists. According to testimonies, the camp at the Krasny state farm, according to the same German "scheme", was guarded by Tatar volunteers from the 152nd battalion of the Shuma auxiliary police. The Nazis began their favorite tactic of pitting peoples against each other, which we saw in full after the coup d'état in Ukraine, during the tragedy unfolding in the South-East. Where the population was not multiethnic, other methods of division were used. That is why we see such strange things when in one Bryansk region, populated in the countryside mainly by Russians, there was the Lokotsky district and the Dyatkovo district. In the first, a self-government and a brigade under the command of Kaminsky, who fought against the partisans, functioned, and in the second, a full-fledged Soviet authority and the Germans did not go there at all. And this is within the framework of one Russian region! Someone helped the Germans fight partisans and civilians, others destroyed the invaders. When the Kaminsky brigade was formed in the Lokotsky district to help the invaders, atrocities were committed in the same Bryansk region, sometimes with the participation of ethnic Russians against ethnic Russians. Just a few numbers:
“For more than two years, the horror of the fascist occupation lasted on the Bryansk land. The Nazis created 18 concentration camps for prisoners of war and 8 death camps for civilians. Many villages and villages were destroyed for their connection with the partisans, and their inhabitants, including children and the elderly, were shot or burned alive. So, in the village of Boryatino, Kletnyansky district, on June 30, 1942, all men and many women - 104 people - were shot, five people were hanged. On September 19, 1942, 132 people were shot and tortured in the village of Vzdruzhnoye, Navlinsky district, 137 people were shot and burned in the village of Vorki, in July 1942, all 125 residents of the village of Uprusy, Zhiryatinsky district, were shot.
So if you tell the truth, then tell it all ...
Here is what the head of the partisan movement of the USSR P.K. Ponomarenko wrote to Stalin on August 18, 1942: “The Germans are using all means to involve in the fight against partisans ... contingents from our population of the occupied regions, creating military units, punitive and police detachments from them . By doing this, they want to ensure that the partisans get bogged down in the fight not with the Germans, but with formations from the local population ... There is a frenzied nationalist propaganda around the formations ... This is accompanied by incitement of national hatred, anti-Semitism. Crimean Tatars, for example, received orchards, vineyards and tobacco plantations taken from Russians, Greeks, etc.”
Why did the Nazis decide to choose for information processing and began to deliberately pay attention to the Crimean Tatars, who are extremely difficult to call Aryans? The key to understanding the Nazis' perception of the Crimean Tatars is to be found in another country - Turkey. Providing patronage to the Crimean Tatar people, the leaders of the Third Reich were looking for an opportunity to draw Turkey into the war on the side of the Axis countries. For this purpose, Turkish delegations were invited to the peninsula several times. For the first time in October 1941, two Turkish generals arrived in the Crimea - Ali Fuad Erden and Hyusnu Emir Erkilet. The official purpose of the trip was to get acquainted with the successes of the German troops. However, according to the memoirs of V. von Hentig, a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Third Reich under the command of the 11th Army, they were least interested in military successes, but on the contrary, they were very active in the political intentions of the Germans regarding the Crimean Tatars. The second delegation from Turkey visited the peninsula already during the period of its occupation by the Germans, on August 8, 1942. It even included members of the Turkish parliament, who were given a luxurious reception.
When it comes to collaborationism during the Nazi occupation of Crimea, many only remember the Crimean Tatars through the efforts of Soviet propaganda. For the most part, this myth was the result of national tragedy- deportation of the Crimean Tatar people. However, it should be noted that, firstly, not all Crimean Tatars chose the path of collaborationism. Secondly, not only the Crimean Tatars collaborated with the occupation administration. For the positions of chiefs local government appointed people who were active accomplices of the invaders. Let's see who were the Nazi appointees. By the way, V. Maltsev was appointed to the position of the Yalta burgomaster. The one who on the night of August 1, 1946, together with General Vlasov and other senior officers of the so-called "Russian Liberation Army" (ROA), was hanged in the courtyard of the Butyrka prison. M. Kanevsky, Russian by nationality, was also the head of the Simferopol City Administration. In Feodosia, the Ukrainian N. Andrzheevsky was in charge of the district administration, and the Russian V. Gruzinov was in charge of the city administration, after him - the Belarusian I. Kharchenko.
An important role was played by collaborationist combat formations that helped the Wehrmacht in the fight against the Crimean partisans. Their number for the entire period of occupation was as follows: in the Russian and Cossack units - about 5 thousand people, in the Ukrainian parts - about 3 thousand people, in the parts of the Eastern legions - about 7 thousand people and in the Crimean Tatar formations - from 15 to 20 thousand Human.
Since June 1943, a recruiting center for the Vlasov "Russian Liberation Army" has appeared on the peninsula. Needless to say, he was not popular. If among the Crimean Tatars the Germans easily played on national contradictions, then from the Russians for all the time they hardly managed to recruit only a few thousand people into the ranks of the ROA (including those languishing in concentration camps). And then closer to the beginning of 1944, at least a third of them went over to the side of the partisans.
Thus, it is fundamentally wrong to talk about collaborationism among only Crimean Tatars. It is also important to note that, according to the 1939 census, the Crimean Tatars were the second largest nationality of the peninsula - 19.4% (218,179 people) of the total population (Russians - 49.6%, 558,481 people). Therefore, based on national policy promoted by Rosenberg, they were a priority even compared to the Ukrainians, of which at that time there were only 13.7% on the peninsula. And the Germans directed their main efforts to opposing the Russians and the Crimean Tatars to each other. However, not all representatives of the Crimean Tatar people have chosen this path. For example, the head of the Southern Headquarters of the partisan movement, Comrade Seleznev, closer to the spring campaign of 1944 for the liberation of Crimea, reports in a radiogram: “The atrocities, robberies, and violence of the Germans exacerbate and embitter the population of the occupied territories. Dissatisfaction with the occupiers is growing daily. The population is waiting for the arrival of the Red Army. It is characteristic that Crimean Tatars are turning into partisans en masse". So, commissioner of the 4th partisan brigade was Mustafa Selimov. In the brigade itself, there were 501 Crimean Tatars, which was about a quarter of its strength. In general, with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, many Crimean Tatars came to the defense of our country along with its other peoples. In particular, Abdraim Reshidov served as commander of a bomber aviation regiment. Throughout the war, he made 222 sorties and was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Fighter pilot Ahmet Khan Sultan personally shot down 30 German aircraft, for which he was twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. 15 fascist tanks were shot down by guns under the command of Seitnafe Seitveliev during the defense of Odessa, in the battles near Kerch and Sevastopol, in the Battle of Kursk and during Operation Bagration.
In November 1941, there were 27 partisan detachments in the Crimea with a total number of 3456 people. The leadership of the partisan movement was carried out by the headquarters of the partisan movement of Crimea, formed in October 1941. Colonel A. V. Mokrousov headed the headquarters. 27 partisan detachments operated on the territory of six districts, into which the entire territory of the peninsula was conditionally divided. The partisans fought hard and decisively, bringing great inconvenience to the 11th Army. Erich von Manstein, commander of the 11th Army, said this at the interrogation of the Nuremberg Tribunal: “Partisans have become a real threat from the moment we captured the Crimea (in October-November 1941). There can be no doubt that a very ramified partisan organization existed in the Crimea, which was created for a long time. Thirty fighter battalions... represented only a part of this organization. The bulk of the partisans were in the Yayla mountains. There were probably many thousands of partisans there from the very beginning... But the partisan organization was by no means limited to those detachments that were in the Yayla mountains. She had large bases and her assistants mainly in the cities ... The partisans tried to control our main communications. They attacked small units or single cars, and at night a single car did not dare to appear on the road. Even during the day, the partisans attacked small units and single vehicles. In the end, we had to create a system of peculiar convoys. All the time that I was in the Crimea (until August 1942), we could not cope with the danger from the partisans. When I left the Crimea, the fight against them was not over yet.”
By the way, not only adults took part in the partisan movement - pioneers and Komsomol members also made a feasible contribution to the defeat of the enemy. Here it is worth mentioning the 15-year-old Vilor Cekmak, who showed the world an example of selflessness and courage. As part of the Sevastopol detachment on November 10, 1941, he was on patrol near the village of Morozovka (at that time - Alsu) in the Balaklava region. Noticing the approaching detachment of the enemy, he gave his detachment a signal with a shot from a rocket launcher. After that, he single-handedly accepted an unequal battle with the enemy. When the brave young man ran out of ammunition, he blew himself up along with a grenade as soon as the enemy approached him.
However, not all partisans were based in the mountains and forests. It should be told about the Adzhimushkay quarries located near Kerch, where limestone was mined. Due to natural features, over the centuries, a network of branched and extended catacombs has formed in the quarries. After the defeat of the Crimean Front in May 1942, more than 10 thousand local residents and surviving soldiers of the Red Army took refuge in them. The newly formed partisan detachment was led by Colonel P. M. Yagunov, under whose command swift strikes were carried out against an unsuspecting enemy. For a long time, the Nazis could not understand where the partisans were coming from. When the quarries were calculated, bloody battles began. The Nazis bombed the partisans, poisoned them with gas. In the end, they simply filled up the wells - they blocked the water for the partisans. But the defenders of the peninsula were not broken even then and held out until the end of October 1942 - a few units surrendered. The rest died the death of the brave. The heroic struggle of the partisans in the Crimea is not isolated episodes, but a mass phenomenon. During the 26 months of the struggle against the invaders, 80 partisan detachments with a total number of over 12.5 thousand people, as well as 220 underground groups and organizations, operated in Crimea. During this time, more than 29 thousand German soldiers and policemen were destroyed, more than 250 battles and 1600 operations were carried out.
In response to the actions of the partisans, the Nazis began to commit atrocities. For example, in the mountainous Crimea, 127 settlements were burned and destroyed. In the Greek village of Laki on March 24, 1942, the Germans burned 38 people alive. In the village of Ulu-Sala (now Sinapnoye), which is located 18 kilometers southeast of Bakhchisaray, in the upper reaches of the Kacha River, the Nazis burned 34 people alive - the elderly, women and children. Moreover, all of them, with the exception of one person, were Crimean Tatars.
1943 was a turning point in the Great Patriotic War. The liquidation of the 6th Army near Stalingrad, the Battle of Kursk, the crossing of the Dnieper - this is how the victorious march of the Red Army began, which liberated the world from Nazism. Crimean offensive began at eight o'clock in the morning on April 8, 1944. After two hours of artillery and aviation training, the forces of the 4th Ukrainian Front under the command of General of the Army F.I. Tolbukhin attacked Perekop. At the time of this throw, the enemy grouping of the 17th Army in the Crimea consisted of 200 thousand soldiers and officers, had about 3600 guns and mortars, 215 tanks and assault guns, as well as 148 aircraft based in the Crimea. In addition, the Nazis could use aviation, which was located at airfields in Moldova and Romania. On the Black Sea, the enemy had seven destroyers and destroyers, 14 submarines, 28 torpedo boats, and a large number of smaller vessels.
After three days of fierce fighting, the enemy defenses at Perekop were broken through. Mobile formations of the 19th Panzer Corps were introduced through the gap that had formed, rushing towards Dzhankoy. The city was liberated on April 11, 1944, and the tank corps continued its active advance deep into the peninsula, forcing the enemy's Kerch grouping to begin retreating to the west. In parallel with this, on the night of April 11, the Separate Primorsky Army under the command of General A.I. Eremenko attacked the enemy from the side of the Kerch crossing, with the support of the Black Sea Fleet and the 4th Air Army. Feodosia, Simferopol, Evpatoria, Sudak and Alushta were liberated as soon as possible. On April 16, 1944, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front reached Sevastopol. The Soviet troops involved in this operation had a significant advantage in all respects - about 470 thousand soldiers and officers, 5982 guns and mortars, 559 tanks and self-propelled guns, 1250 aircraft. Huge assistance to the Soviet army was provided by partisans.
Hitler urged the Germans to defend the Crimea to the last breath "as the last fortress is ready." Sevastopol was declared by the Fuhrer a "fortified city", which means that the Germans had to fight for the city to the last soldier. Fierce fighting continued for three weeks. The general assault on the Sevastopol fortified area began on May 7, 1944 at 10:30 am after an hour and a half of artillery preparation and with massive air support. The defense of the Nazis was broken through on a 9-kilometer stretch. Heights once again played a key role in the capture of the city - Soviet troops captured Sapun Mountain, on which the Germans built a multi-tiered line of fortifications with continuous trenches, 36 pillboxes and 27 pillboxes. From its top, the whole city was visible up to Cape Khersones. The 51st Army, coming from the north, joined up with the Separate Maritime Army, which was moving from the east.
On May 10, 1944, the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief followed: “The troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front, supported by massive air and artillery strikes, as a result of three days of offensive battles, broke through the heavily fortified long-term defense of the Germans, consisting of three lanes of reinforced concrete defensive structures, and a few hours ago they stormed the fortress and the most important naval base on the Black Sea - the city of Sevastopol. Thus, the last center of German resistance in the Crimea was liquidated and the Crimea was completely cleared of the Nazi invaders.
On this day, Moscow saluted the 4th Ukrainian Front, which liberated Sevastopol from the invaders. The role of the partisans in the liberation of the Crimea should be especially noted: six of them received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 14 - the Order of Lenin. As for the units that were part of the 4th Ukrainian front, then many of them were awarded the titles of Perekop, Sivash, Kerch, Feodosia, Simferopol and Sevastopol. 126 soldiers received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, thousands were awarded other high government awards.
In May 1944, the deportation of the Crimean Tatars took place. In addition to the Tatars, Bulgarians, Greeks, and Armenians were evicted from the peninsula. The Crimean Tatars, of course, suffered the most. However, when evaluating these events, one must understand the conditions under which decisions were made, what cruelty was going on around the Nazis and their accomplices, and in what terrible war our country participated.
On May 10, 1944, a note by L.P. Beria with a draft decision on the deportation of the Crimean Tatars fell on Stalin's desk. After that, he adopts a resolution of the State Defense Committee (GKO), in which there were such clauses.
up to 500 kg per family. The property, buildings, outbuildings, furniture and household lands remaining in place are accepted by local authorities ... Livestock, grain, vegetables and other types of agricultural products should be accepted with the issuance of exchange receipts for each locality and every farm. To entrust the NKVD of the USSR, the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, the People's Commissariat for Meat and Milk Industry, the People's Commissariat of State Farms and the People's Commissariat of Education of the USSR from July 1 this year. g. submit to the Council of People's Commissars proposals on the procedure for the return of livestock, poultry and agricultural products received from them by exchange receipts to special settlers.
to provide medical and sanitary care for the special settlers on the way ... to provide all echelons with special settlers daily with hot meals and boiling water.
yu with installments up to 7 years.
The operation to deport the Crimean Tatars began on May 18, 1944, that is, almost a week after the liberation of the peninsula. May 20, 1944 in the name People's Commissar Internal Affairs of the USSR L.P. Beria sent a telegram.
“We hereby report that, launched in accordance with your instructions on May 18 this year. The operation to evict the Crimean Tatars was completed today, May 20, at 16:00. A total of 180,014 people were evicted, loaded into 67 trains, of which 63 trains numbering 173,287 people. sent to their destinations, the remaining 4 trains will also be sent today.
In addition, the regional military commissariats of the Crimea mobilized 6,000 Tatars of military age, who, according to the orders of the Glavupraform of the Red Army, were sent to the cities of Guryev, Rybinsk and Kuibyshev.
Of the 8,000 people of the special contingent sent on your instructions to the Moskovugol Trust, 5,000 people. are also made up of Tatars.
Thus, 191,044 persons of Tatar nationality were deported from the Crimean ASSR. During the eviction of the Tatars, 1137 anti-Soviet elements were arrested, and in total during the operation - 5989 people. Weapons seized during the eviction: mortars - 10, machine guns - 173, machine guns - 192, rifles - 2650, ammunition - 46,603 pieces. In total, during the operation, the following were seized: mortars - 49, machine guns - 622, machine guns - 724, rifles - 9888, ammunition - 326,887 pieces.
There were no incidents during the operation.
Kobulov, Serov
One of the widespread myths says that all Crimean Tatars were evicted. It is not true. Members of the Crimean underground and members of their families, front-line soldiers and their relatives were exempted from eviction. They left in place or even returned back to the Crimea women who married representatives of other nationalities.
In 1967, a decree was adopted by the Presidium of the Supreme Council, which removed accusations of collaborationism from the Crimean Tatars and recognized them as full-fledged Soviet citizens. But back on small homeland the Crimean Tatar people could only in 1989, after the post-war deportation was declared illegal. Today, when Russia regained Crimea, Crimean Tatar language became one of the statesmen here. “The Crimean Tatars returned to their land. I believe that all necessary political decisions must be made that will complete the process of rehabilitation of the Crimean Tatar people, decisions that will restore their rights and good name in full,” President Putin said in his address on March 18, 2014.
At the end of the story about this period in the history of Crimea, I would like to recall that it was on the Crimean land that the meeting of the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain took place, at which the fate of the post-war world was decided. Almost a year after the liberation of Crimea, from February 4 to February 11, 1945, the well-known conference of the three powers was held in Yalta. It was attended by I. V. Stalin, F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill, foreign ministers, representatives general staffs USSR, USA and UK. At that time, Soviet troops were already 60-70 kilometers from Berlin. An agreement was reached on a United Nations conference, which began on April 25, 1945 in San Francisco. In fact, on February 11, 1945, the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain publicly declared their determination to establish the UN. This is how Crimea once again became the center of world politics...
