70 years ago - February 18, 1945 - Lieutenant General of the Red Army Dmitry Karbyshev, who became an example of unbending courage and loyalty to the Motherland, died in the Nazi concentration camp Mauthausen
In the 20th century, the fighters and commanders of the Great Patriotic War joined the pantheon of heroes who dedicated their lives to serving Russia, who honestly fulfilled their duty under the conditions of the most terrible war, following the idea of the military oath of Peter the Great - "to faithfully and unhypocritically serve, not sparing his stomach, to the last drop of blood." One of the most worthy places in this pantheon was taken by Lieutenant General of the Engineering Troops Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev (1880–1945).
Sly Deheroization
The story of General Karbyshev is one of the most tragic and truthful in Soviet times and a truly heroic page in the centuries-old military service to the Fatherland.
Heroism is necessary for any person, any society. But let's remember one of the main motives for the ideological turn of the 1990s - total deheroization. They tried to accustom us to a crafty thought: "Feats are meaningless, there is no duty to the Motherland, you need to take care of yourself, because only human life itself, your life, is sacred." Heroic deeds are in vain, the main thing is to follow your own benefit, and this is the invincible logic of the world order, understood as a market. According to traditional concepts - a self-study program. But she had respectable lawyers.
“Take at least the same banner. Of course, it's a relic. And maybe even very valuable. But when it comes to choosing whether the banner or one human life will perish, one must still remember that the banner, whatever it may be, even if it is pierced by bullets and fanned by the glory of past battles, it is still only a piece of matter put on a stick. And sacrificing your life for him is just stupid. Because, no matter how sacred these or those relics, there is nothing in the world more sacred than human life., - the writer Vladimir Voinovich reasoned in those years.
The building of the Omsk Cadet Corps (until 1907 - Siberian), where Dmitry Karbyshev studied
The epigones of these attitudes went further, many wanted to flood the temple of folk heroics with slop. It turns out that there is no place in the world for a feat and to give one's life for one's friends is not a matter of honor, but stupidity and fanaticism. How many forces were thrown into the fight against the relics of the Great Patriotic War! It was then that articles began to appear in which the images of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and Alexander Matrosov were belittled, and along with Valery Chkalov, Yuri Gagarin and many others ...
They explained to us that the war was won by penal battalions, the way back to which was cut off by detachments. However, the main role in the victory was assigned to the allies - representatives of the civilized world, the Americans and the British. Here they have the right to proclaim their heroes, and our destiny is repentance and self-flagellation.
They also tried to debunk the feat of Dmitry Karbyshev. Say, Stalin needed the image of a Soviet general unbroken in captivity - and then helpful propagandists began to compose "the myth of the victim of Mauthausen." But the exposure of the “myth about Karbyshev”, even in the context of those ideological attitudes, turned out to be sparse and unconvincing.
He was born in Omsk into a noble family of Cossack origin. It was a military, officer dynasty. The Karbyshevs had their own house on Polkova Street. His father died when the future general was 12 years old. In the care of the mother of Alexandra Efimovna (nee Luzgina), six children remained.
His older brother, Vladimir Karbyshev, joined the student revolutionary movement and was expelled from Kazan University in 1887 along with Vladimir Ulyanov, the future Lenin. Vladimir Karbyshev was arrested, exiled, and the whole family was under police surveillance. Dmitry Karbyshev, as a representative of a politically unreliable family, was not accepted into the Siberian Cadet Corps for training at public expense. But the Karbyshevs, although they were not rich, found funds - and the youngest son became a cadet.
Dmitry Karbyshev during the First World War. Provided by M.Zolotarev
He studied brilliantly, was considered the best mathematician of the corps, and no one was surprised when Dmitry Karbyshev entered the Nikolaev Engineering School, which was located in St. Petersburg, in the Mikhailovsky Castle, which received a second name in honor of the school - Engineering. The military service of the young engineer began in Manchuria, in the 1st East Siberian sapper battalion. Dmitry Karbyshev commanded the cable department of the sapper company. In the rank of lieutenant, he entered the Russo-Japanese War. Participated in the sad battle for Russia near Mukden. He showed himself as a competent and efficient officer, was wounded, awarded as many as five orders, including St. Stanislav II degree.
And yet Karbyshev, silent, restrained and disciplined, confirmed the reputation of being politically unreliable. He was accused of socialist agitation among the soldiers and dismissed from the army after an officer's court of honor. For some time he worked in Vladivostok in a modest civilian position as a draftsman. But the army needed experienced officers, and the order bearer was returned to service. Dmitry Karbyshev plunged into the construction of fortifications in the Far East - and was already thinking about the academy, in which he ended up in the fall of 1908.
ON THE WESTERN FRONTIERS
Again Petersburg, again the Engineering Castle. Karbyshev won the position of the best student of the Nikolaev Engineering Academy. So, for the project of the fortress and fort he received the prize named after General Roman Kondratenko, the hero of the defense of Port Arthur, in the amount of no less than 276 rubles. He graduated from the Academy with honors and with the rank of captain was sent to Brest-Litovsk - a work producer with a salary of 250 rubles. Another 50 rubles a month were issued "for travel." Engineers were highly valued: in combat units, colonels and battalion commanders received about the same amount. Together with him, his wife, Alisa Karlovna, also settled in Brest. Dmitry Mikhailovich himself chose this city: he, as the best graduate, was given such a right. When asked why he was going there, he replied: “Brest-Litovsk will still worthily serve the Motherland. You'll see."
Colonel-engineer Vladimir Dogadin left memories of the Brest period of Dmitry Karbyshev, about the atmosphere in his house: “There was an opinion that the Germans were excellent craftsmen to cook deliciously. If this is so, then Alisa Karlovna Karbysheva served as a vivid confirmation of this opinion. There were only four of us with the owners. However, the table prepared for dinner was not only beautifully served, but the dishes served were distinguished by their sophistication and originality. We were particularly impressed by the variety of appetizers served with various vodkas before dinner. The hosts were cordial and affable, Dmitry Mikhailovich, as usual, talkative, playful and witty. But the future legendary general had few friends: he preferred communication in a narrow circle of selected friends.
The first family story of Karbyshev ended tragically: Alisa Karlovna committed suicide, apparently due to a fit of unreasonable jealousy. “The loss of his wife greatly shocked Dmitry Mikhailovich. Even now I clearly imagine him, as he, leaning his left hand on the edge of the coffin and leaning his head on it, stood in a frozen pose, not taking his eyes off the face of the deceased. I did not have the courage to interrupt his thoughts with banal phrases of consolation, and I quietly left. After the funeral of his wife, Dmitry Mikhailovich closed himself even more, did not show himself anywhere, and the attempts of some women to distract him were unsuccessful, ”recalled Vladimir Dogadin.
Member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front Sergei Gusev, commander of the Southern Front Mikhail Frunze and Dmitry Karbyshev (sitting from left to right) among the Red Guards on a captured Sphinx tank captured from the Wrangelites. Autumn 1920. Provided by M.Zolotarev
From the forts of Brest, Dmitry Karbyshev headed to the fronts of the First World War. He spent almost the entire war in the 8th - Brusilov - Army. A lot of tactical novelties were used by the administrative divisional, and then the corps engineer. So, in June 1915, in the 8th Army, it was decided to abandon the creation of a continuous line of trenches: separate centers of defense were arranged, which had a close fire connection with each other. The gaps were blocked by portable artificial obstacles. For the capture of Przemysl, the hero was awarded the Anninsky Cross of the II degree and promoted to lieutenant colonel. Karbyshev was then wounded in the leg, but, fortunately, the wound was not severe. Karbyshev sappers provided the famous Brusilov breakthrough operation. At the beginning of 1917, the lieutenant colonel led the work to strengthen positions on the Romanian border. And then…
WITH BELIEF IN THE NEW STORY
Sometimes, by analogy with other tsarist officers who became commanders of the Red Army, Dmitry Karbyshev is credited with the "Smenovekhov" ideology. We are talking about the collection "Change of milestones", which was published in Prague in 1921. He gave the following directive: it is necessary to cooperate with Soviet Russia, since the Bolsheviks were forced to be reborn and began to act in the national interests, in the interests of the Motherland. But Karbyshev's position was definitely "to the left" and grew out of his youthful passion for Chernyshevsky, from conversations with his older brother.
He sympathized with the Bolsheviks long before October, although he did not trust them recklessly. In the elections to the Constituent Assembly, the army voted for the Bolsheviks - and it's not just the promises of agitators. Karbyshev himself believed that the future belongs to socialist construction. He saw the costs of the revolution: the destruction of the army, the system of government, worldview foundations, but, in his opinion, all these areas have long been shaken by a dangerous crisis.
The Russian officers then were by no means monolithic monarchist. Many turned into staunch monarchists after the Civil War, in exile, on the wave of nostalgia. Many, even before the war, quite consciously went over to the side of the new government. Including Karbyshev's teacher, sixty-year-old Lieutenant-General Konstantin Ivanovich Velichko, the largest military engineer of that time, an unusually attractive figure. He accepted both the February and October revolutions at once. Every time he was involved in the restructuring of the army under the requirements of the new government. And the main thing in this position is not conformism, but many years of dissatisfaction with the tsarist system. A certain part of the officers was internally ready even for radical changes in the Bolshevik spirit.
The army confusion of 1917 horrified many, but not Dmitry Karbyshev. He saw in this chaos the sprouts of future power. Perhaps he was inspired by the history of the French Revolution, which gave birth to the best army of its era. Lieutenant Colonel Karbyshev was inspired by the October storm. It was probably the most troubled autumn in the history of Russia, especially for officers. The Bolsheviks themselves did not yet count on a long-term one-party dictatorship, they were looking for allies, although they were not at all going to give up the initiative.
Some tsarist officers ended up in the Red Army voluntarily, saving the lives of relatives and friends. Others went over to the side of the strongest for career reasons. Still others saw the Bolsheviks as the lesser of evils - compared to the Socialist-Revolutionaries or anarchy. Dmitry Karbyshev was one of those relatively few "former" who believed in the construction of a new world.
RED MILITARY ENGINEER
The sappers elected him chairman of the revolutionary company meeting. Shortly before the new year, 1918, they adopted the following resolution:
"1. We salute Soviet power and support it with all the means at our disposal.
2. We welcome the front-line Executive Committee of the Left factions and demand that all power be taken into our own hands on the Romanian front.
3. We brand traitors to the revolution, especially now, when a civil war is going on in Russia and the cause of peace, which we have been waiting for so long, can be frustrated.
4. We demand that the front-line Executive Committee immediately order the arrest of General Shcherbachev, the commander of the army, as a counter-revolutionary element who refused to submit to Soviet power.
5. We demand the immediate withdrawal of all Russian troops from the Romanian front with all the weapons they have.
6. We demand the demobilization of soldiers and their dismissal with weapons in their hands.
7. We demand from the front-line Executive Committee to abolish any forcible allocation of national combat units.
Long live Soviet power!
Long live the earth and freedom!
Long live Peace!
Long live socialism! Chairman of the company meeting Karbyshev.
Secretary Barukhov.
The commander of the Romanian Front, General Dmitry Shcherbachev, did not accept the verdict of the revolutionary army body. He sent punitive detachments against the rebellious units. The Revolutionary Committee of the 8th Army instructed Karbyshev to build fortifications around Mogilev-Podolsky. To fight Shcherbachev, Red Guard detachments were formed - the prototype of the future Soviet armed forces. Dmitry Karbyshev was appointed squad engineer. All this happened back in 1917 and at the beginning of 1918, before the birth of the regular Red Army, before the advent of military experts ...
Plan of the fortifications of Brest-Litovsk. XIX century. Provided by M.Zolotarev
When a full-scale civil war unfolded, Karbyshev proved himself to be one of the largest military engineers in the Red Army. During the offensive of Kolchak's army, he created a "fan" of fortified positions in the Samara, Krasnoyarsk and Tomilovsky sectors. The local peasants were reluctant to work on the fortifications, and then Karbyshev proposed to the army command to form workers' squads in the deep rear on a common basis with the Red Army units. Frunze trusted him like no other engineer. In the summer of 1920, he called Karbyshev to Kharkov - and Dmitry Mikhailovich led the engineering support of the last major operations of the war, Perekop and Chongar.
Commissar Yevgeny Reshin then served with Karbyshev. He was struck by the enthusiasm with which the former tsarist lieutenant colonel was engaged in fortification, digging trenches. The engineer explained with a smile: “You know that my surname is Karbyshev. According to family legends, my distant ancestors were Tatars. And in Tatar, “karabysh” is a black field mouse-gopher. It was from the gopher, I believe, that the fortification trench itch was transmitted to me. And at the same time - love for the earth.
The civil war is behind us. The spirit of victory reigned among the commanders: "We defeated the chieftains, dispersed all the masters." But the country did not have a modern powerful army, it had to be created. And Dmitry Karbyshev began teaching at the main military educational institutions of the country.
He accepted the proposal of Mikhail Frunze and became the chairman of the military-technical committee of the Main Military-Technical Directorate of the Red Army, and after some time also the main head of the training of all military academies in military engineering. The people's commissar did not need to "pump up" Karbyshev, to explain the tasks: Dmitry Mikhailovich understood well that the army would have to be rebuilt almost from scratch, in conditions of a minimal military budget.
Plus, immediately after the Civil War, the first notable scientific publications of a military theoretical engineer appeared in the journal Army and Revolution.
WALKING ENCYCLOPEDIA
He was a born teacher and a painstaking researcher. He behaved with his students without arrogance - as with colleagues in scientific research. Many years later, the famous marshals recalled with delight how Dmitry Mikhailovich sometimes turned himself into a teaching aid in the classroom. He attached plates with numbers to his hands, Budyonovka, tunic and spread his arms, depicting a diagram of the time standards that are allotted for digging trenches. The laconic, thin general at lectures turned into a gambling boy.
Entrance gate of the Brest-Litovsk fortress. Beginning of the XX century. Provided by M.Zolotarev
His authority in the Red Army was not questioned. Karbyshev was highly valued both as a theoretician and as a practitioner. “Highly educated commander and specialist in his field. Great worker. Rich erudition on all issues of military affairs, great knowledge in the operational-tactical field make Comrade Karbyshev not only a specialist engineer, but a combined arms officer and general staff officer, ”said his 1937 certification of the year. At the same time, Karbyshev's capital work was published - "Engineering support for the defense of the SD [rifle division]." In 1938 and 1940 he received his first Soviet orders - the Red Star and the Red Banner.
Dmitry Karbyshev did not like to rant on political topics at all. He kept his convictions to himself, and they manifested themselves in deeds, not in words ... He was accepted into the party in 1940. In those years, this was a responsible step: in the event of war, the Communists did not have the right to fluctuate and alternate airfields. The Soviet generals in the late 1930s noticeably rejuvenated, and Karbyshev just turned 60. But he did not feel like an old man and prepared thoroughly for a new war. The Second World War had already begun when the military publishing house published his main work - "Engineering support for the combat operations of rifle formations" in two parts. He hoped that the book would help the commanders of the Red Army in a future war.
GERMAN CAPTURE
The Great Patriotic War found him in Grodno, at the headquarters of the 3rd Army. Karbyshev hardly knew that the Brest Fortress, which he rebuilt twice, was heroically resisting the enemy. With pain, the general saw and analyzed the failures of the first days of the war. With the headquarters of the 10th Army at the end of June, he was surrounded.
On August 8, Dmitry Karbyshev was preparing a crossing across the Dnieper north of the city of Mogilev. Together with a sapper company, he reached the opposite shore. There the soldiers were met by fire. The explosion of an air bomb - and the general is seriously shell-shocked. Karbyshev, covered with earth, was dug up, saved, but consciousness did not return to him. Dmitry Mikhailovich woke up in a German hospital.
The Nazis seemed to know in detail the biography of the Soviet general. By origin a nobleman, with Cossack roots, from the royal military elite. In addition, he knows the German language and German culture very well. They also counted on the physical weakness of an elderly person. In general, there is something to cling to. The Germans saw Karbyshev as the "prima donna" of their propaganda campaign: look, Red Army soldiers, your general is working for the Third Reich! But the essence of the Karbyshev character was not reflected in the biographical information.
THREE AND A HALF YEARS Karbyshev spent in an unequal duel with the enemy - without a break, without a weapon
There were no number of military engineers of this class in the world, but the Nazis were not interested in Karbyshev as a specialist - they wanted to turn him into a banner of struggle against the USSR. Of course, the captured general understood what role he was assigned. In 1943, Colonel Pelit, who spoke fluent Russian and even served with the future Soviet general in Brest-Litovsk, became his constant interlocutor, while still in the tsarist army. He was specially called from the Eastern Front to "work" with Karbyshev. Pelit became commandant of the Hammelburg camp. He offered the general, it would seem, decent options for cooperation: no public appearances would be required, no need to serve Greater Germany. You will simply write a book about the history of the Second or First World War, about the Red Army, and then you will be allowed to settle in a neutral country. You will have access to the best Berlin libraries and archives. Warm apartment, food, treatment. And no betrayal.
But Dmitry Karbyshev, it’s true, knew the Russian proverb “The claw is bogged down - the whole bird is abyss.” As far as possible, he dissuaded other Soviet prisoners from cooperating with the Germans. Even on the "military-historical field." The general answered uncompromisingly: “My convictions do not fall out along with my teeth from a lack of vitamins in the camp diet. I am a soldier and I remain true to my duty. And he forbids me to work for the country that is at war with my Motherland.”
Then in Berlin, soft processing methods were discarded. Karbyshev was placed in solitary confinement with a round-the-clock bright electric light. They brought him salty food, did not let him drink. The torture continued for weeks. And an old acquaintance again acted as a tempter - a colleague, Professor Heinz Raubenheimer, a famous German military engineer. The emaciated general answered the offer of cooperation without hesitation: "No."
RULES OF CONDUCT FOR SOVIET FIGHTERS AND COMMANDERS IN THE FASCIST CAPTIVITY OF GENERAL D.M. KARBYSHEV (recorded from the words of former prisoners of concentration camps T.B. Kublitsky, A.P. Esin,
P.P. Koshkarova and Yu.P. Demyanenko)1. Organization and cohesion in any conditions of captivity.
2. Mutual assistance. First of all, help the sick and wounded comrades.
3. Do not humiliate your dignity in the face of the enemy in any way.
4. Hold high the honor of a Soviet soldier.
5. Force the Nazis to respect the unity and cohesion of prisoners of war.
6. Fight the Nazis, traitors and traitors to the Motherland.
7. Create patriotic groups of prisoners of war for sabotage and sabotage
behind enemy lines.
8. At the first opportunity to escape from captivity.
9. Remain true to the military oath and to your homeland.
10. Break the myth about the invincibility of the Nazi troops and instill confidence in our victory in prisoners of war.
IMMORTAL FEAT
In the camps, Dmitry Karbyshev did not give up. Rumors spread his commandments of behavior in captivity: to hold high the honor of a soldier of the Red Army, to be faithful to the military oath to the end; wage a selfless struggle against the fascists and their accomplices - traitors to the Motherland and destroy them at the first opportunity ... Of course, we had to talk about this with the greatest vigilance.
For three and a half years, Karbyshev passed through many death camps. He was either tempted by persuasion, or thrown into hard physical work. He was often very ill, hunched over, but did not despair: he believed in victory, believed in the Motherland. He was transferred to Mauthausen (Austria) when the Red Army was already rushing towards Berlin...
“Karbyshev cannot be used to work on our side due to his fanatical infection with the spirit of Bolshevism” - such was the final verdict of the masters of pressure and provocation. “Transfer to Mauthausen. Apply the most stringent measures, regardless of old age or rank, ”is an order from Berlin.
Karbyshev spent three and a half years in an unequal duel with the enemy - without a break, without a weapon. From the very beginning, he understood that he could become a victim of German slander. The Germans were quite capable of presenting the behavior of the general in such a light that in his homeland he would be considered a traitor. Perhaps this would have happened, but, fortunately, there were eyewitnesses of his feat. And first of all, you need to name the Canadian Major Seddon de St. Clair.
It was in London, in a military hospital. On February 13, 1946, St. Clair unexpectedly invited the Soviet representative for repatriation, Major Sorokopud, to his place. The patient was in a hurry, worried: the noble officer was afraid to die, not having time to glorify the good name of a man who was an example of stamina for him.
“I don’t have long to live, and I’m worried about the idea that the facts known to me of the heroic death of a Soviet general, the noble memory of which should live in the hearts of people, do not go to the grave with me. I'm talking about Lieutenant General Karbyshev, with whom I had to visit German camps. In January 1945, among 1,000 prisoners from the Heinkel plant, I was sent to the Mauthausen extermination camp, this team included General Karbyshev and several other Soviet officers. Upon arrival at Mauthausen, we spent the whole day in the cold. In the evening, a cold shower was arranged for all 1000 people, and after that, in the same shirts and stocks, they all lined up on the parade ground and held until 6 o'clock in the morning. Of the 1,000 people who arrived in Mauthausen, 480 died. General Dmitry Karbyshev also died, ”said Seddon de St. Clair.
The verification of these testimonies was quick, the information received confirmed the heroism of the lieutenant general, his loyalty to the Motherland - and a few months later Stalin signed an order to award Dmitry Karbyshev the title of Hero of the Soviet Union "for exceptional stamina and courage shown in the fight against the German invaders in the Great Patriotic War."
The monument to the Soviet general in Mauthausen was erected in the spring of 1963. Sculptor Vladimir Tsigal took a block of Ural marble and created the image of an inflexible, unbroken hero. This symbol can no longer be erased from our history: the officer turned into an ice pillar, but did not submit to the enemy.
Then in Mauthausen, under the pressure of water, under the blows of guards in the cold, hundreds of people died, and none of them renounced their homeland. Not everyone had enough orders. But in the pantheon of heroes, they are all represented by General Dmitry Karbyshev - and rightly so. The Germans fought for his soul for more than three years, using the most sophisticated means, but they could not win ...
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Victory, the film directed by Yuri Chulyukin "The Motherland of Soldiers" was released on Soviet screens. "Don't you understand that I will never, under any circumstances, cooperate with you?" - the general threw in the face of the Nazis. For more than 30 years, this film was not shown on television.
The reason is clear: since the end of the 80s of the last century, the name of Dmitry Karbyshev has not been heard anywhere. Another general of the Red Army, Andrei Vlasov, was heard. The obvious antipode of Karbyshev, the creator of the ROA - the Russian Liberation Army, which fought on the side of the Nazis, the banner of domestic collaborationism. In the interpretation of a number of authors, Vlasov began to look almost like a "hero of resistance" to the Stalinist dictatorship. Although he was just an ordinary traitor ...
The biography of Dmitry Karbyshev is not typical for the Soviet military: he was a nobleman, a hereditary military man. This is a vivid example of a person who found himself in his place and made a brilliant career thanks to his own talent, determination, and exceptional fortitude.
Childhood and youth
A twelve-year-old boy whose feat was yet to come, was left without a father. Six children were raised by their mother alone. Financial difficulties were common, but the sons took it wisely.
The eldest, Vladimir, entered Kazan University, but was expelled: he sympathized with the revolutionaries. His fate was tragic: he died in prison quite young.
The youngest entered Siberian and had to pay for his studies, since family history did not favor privileges. Nevertheless, Karbyshev did not hesitate. He studied brilliantly and showed great talent for engineering. His entire future career is connected with military construction.
Start of military service
After graduating from college, he ended up in Manchuria (1900). Here he was caught by the first of the military campaigns, in which the future General Dmitry Karbyshev took part. The feat of this brilliant military man, which is most often written about in the relevant publications, would not have been possible without previous experience.
Karbyshev met the Russian-Japanese war with the rank of second lieutenant (received in 1903). During the hostilities, he did what he was supposed to do in his specialty: he built crossings, built fortifications, and provided communications. For his valor he was awarded and promoted: he finished the war with the rank of lieutenant.
The character of the future General Karbyshev was uncompromising, even then he did not consider it necessary to hide his worldview. In 1906, he was dismissed: the officer talked with the soldiers on provocative topics.
Happy to serve...
I didn’t have a chance to be on free bread for long: the authorities quickly realized that there were a dime a dozen trustworthy people around, and the cat wept for specialists of Karbyshev’s level. A year later, Dmitry Mikhailovich returned to the service, and in 1908 he went to St. Petersburg, to conquer new heights: he entered the Engineering Academy, which he graduated with flying colors three years later.
In 1911, Karbyshev, already in the position of staff captain, went to Brest-Litovsk. The famous fortress, which so desperately resisted the Nazis in the 41st year, was built with his direct participation.
Soon the war began. I must say that the lot of Dmitry Mikhailovich fell in abundance: the Russian-Japanese, and the Soviet-Finnish, and both world wars. Practically in each of them, the future General Karbyshev took part from the very beginning. The feat that he subsequently accomplished was not the first and not the only one. During the Przemysl operation, he was awarded the order and promoted to colonel.
When the revolution took place in Russia, Karbyshev's reaction was quite predictable. Already in December 1917, not at all doubting his own choice, he enrolled in the Red Guard, participated in the Civil War as part of the Red Army. His undoubted abilities found application: Karbyshev participated in the creation of many defense facilities.
In 1920, he already served as deputy chief of engineers of the Southern Front, and in 1923 - chief of engineers of the Ukrainian and Crimean Armed Forces.
Science is also attractive to a talented person: for many years Karbyshev taught at the Military Academy. Frunze, wrote more than a hundred special scientific papers on bridges, etc.
The day before, he received the rank of lieutenant general (1940). In the same year he joined the party. Still, the country of the Soviets was sometimes a paradoxical state: on the one hand, many members of the CPSU perished in Stalin's camps, including brilliant military men, and General Karbyshev, whose feat gave us an example of an unbending spirit, made a brilliant career without being an official communist.
Participation in the Second World War
The attack of the Nazi army caught the already elderly (Dmitry Mikhailovich was born in 1880) general on the western border: he participated in the construction of fortifications. They did not manage to evacuate him: the first onslaught of the Germans stunned the Soviet army. The crumpled Red Army rapidly retreated, leaving behind thousands of dead and wounded. Many Soviet soldiers and officers were captured. Among them was General Karbyshev. The feat of the unbending Russian officer began in early August 1941 and lasted almost four years.
The Germans were well aware of the rank of the specialist they got. They really counted on his knowledge, experience and talent. There is evidence that they were going to recruit him into the service of the Wehrmacht after the victory, but here such luck! But the Nazis were in for a very unpleasant surprise: the feat of General Karbyshev may not have been spectacular, but he showed an impressive example of courage, fortitude and patriotism. He consistently refused to cooperate, a lot of effort and patience was spent on him, and in the end this decided his fate.
Gingerbread Torture
At first, Karbyshev ended up in a concentration camp of the usual regime, where he drank in full. But in 1942 he was transferred to the Hammelburg concentration camp. The conditions in it were the most privileged: the feat of General Karbyshev demanded from him not only patience, but also resistance to temptations. Many of those who survived the horrors of the usual Nazi "sanatoriums" broke down here, not wanting to return to what they experienced.
Colonel Pelit was responsible for Karbyshev's "appeal to the truth" - the Nazis counted on him very much, because they once worked together with Dmitry Mikhailovich. The German officer diligently processed the red general, describing to him numerous benefits - material and other, which he would gain by betraying his homeland. There was no positive result. General Karbyshev, whose feat to this day makes him respect him, categorically refused to cooperate, and even more: he was confident in the victory of Soviet weapons. He generously shared this conviction with those around him, inspiring them with completely unnecessary, according to the Nazis, optimism.
The decision to take up the whip
It was decided to stop using the carrot and take up the whip - and General Karbyshev appeared in a solitary cell in a Berlin prison. A feat, which cannot be briefly described, demanded from the Russian engineer reinforced concrete self-righteousness.
Having “marinated” their prisoner for almost a month, the Germans decided that this would be enough. Appearing for another interrogation, the general found in the investigator's office the famous professor Raubenheimer, a prominent specialist in the field of fortification. Of course they knew each other. Karbyshev treated the work of the German with great respect.
The obstinate general was made the last offer, the generosity of which could not but impress. Karbyshev was offered to leave the camps and prisons in exchange for generous maintenance and the opportunity to do what he loved. Under the terms of the agreement, he was to organize a scientific laboratory for design testing. The state could recruit what it needed, it received the widest funding. The best minds and libraries of the Third Reich could be at his service.
The military engineer could not but understand that the next proposal would not follow. Nevertheless, his answer was short: putting his military honor above life itself, he refused enemy generosity, setting an example of true heroism. The feat of General Karbyshev can be briefly described by his own phrase: "I am a soldier and remain true to my duty."
The jokes are over
The Nazis immediately put an end to their dreams of cooperation, and Karbyshev found himself in Flossenbürg. The work was very hard, but, according to the testimonies of fellow camp members, the general did not indulge in despondency even here. Confidence in the coming victory did not diminish at all. He inspired this faith in others, being a kind of leader of the resistance.
Perhaps because of this, or perhaps for other reasons, he was constantly transferred from camp to camp. At the beginning of 1945, when only a few weeks remained before the victory, he was a prisoner of the Mauthausen death camp.
Hero's death
The Nazis did not stand on ceremony with their victims. For many, the outcome of the war was already obvious; there were no illusions left. Hitler's watchdogs sought to deal with those who were in their power.
On February 18, the Gestapo took their wards out into the yard and began to pour ice-cold water from hoses. There was a severe frost - exhausted, hungry people died one after another: someone's heart could not stand it, someone simply froze. For an attempt to dodge, they were awarded a blow to the head. Among the most persistent was General Karbyshev: even turning into an ice pillar, he found the strength to support his comrades.
This story is known thanks to the general's co-camp, Canadian officer Seddon de St. Clair. In 1946, while in a London hospital, he suddenly demanded a meeting with a representative of the Soviet mission for repatriation. This was the first news about Dmitry Mikhailovich: since 1941 he was listed among the missing.
After confirming the information received, the feat of General Karbyshev in enemy captivity was highly appreciated by the Soviet leadership. Almost exactly five years after he was captured, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
People's memory
Every year people come to Mauthausen to commemorate the 300,000 people who were tortured here once. On the territory there is a monument to General Karbyshev: he calmly rises above the square, arms folded on his chest. The figure of the hero protrudes from the stone only halfway - the monolith depicts an ice column, into which General Karbyshev turned before his death. The feat in verse was sung by the famous Sergei Vasiliev. In 1975, he wrote the poem "Dignity", for which he was awarded a state prize.
In recent years, Russia has begun to recall the heroic past more often. At all levels, the desire to know and be proud of one's history is supported and encouraged. Numerous articles about Dmitry Mikhailovich began to appear. Many resources on the Internet publish the creations of their users, impressed by the courage of an officer. Let some poems about the feat of General Karbyshev are naive and not always friendly with rhyme, but they are written from the heart.
There was a time when any student in a Soviet school could tell who General Dmitry Karbyshev was and why he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Alas, we are increasingly losing not only the memory of people who gave the most precious thing that a person can have - life, for the freedom of their country, but also a sense of gratitude to true heroes. So, who was he - Red Army General Dmitry Karbyshev, a participant in the Great Patriotic War, a prisoner of war who was martyred in the Mauthausen concentration camp.
Biography of General Karbyshev briefly
Karbyshev was born on October 26, 1880 in Omsk, in the family of a hereditary military man, and his career was a foregone conclusion. He graduated from the cadet corps, the military engineering school and, with the rank of second lieutenant, went to the eastern borders, to Manchuria. There he was caught by the Russo-Japanese War, for participation in which he was awarded five military orders and three medals, which is a confirmation of personal courage. In the tsarist army, they did not give awards for “beautiful eyes”. In 1906, Dmitry Karbyshev, a lieutenant, was dismissed from the army to the reserve for "unreliability" after an officer's court of honor. But, literally a year later, the military department returned an experienced and efficient officer to participate in the restructuring of the fortifications of Vladivostok.
In 1911, Karbyshev graduated with honors from the Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy and received a distribution to Sevastopol, but ended up in Brest-Litovsk. Few people know that Dmitry Mikhailovich took part in the construction of the famous Brest Fortress. During the First World War, he fought under the command of General Brusilov, participated in his famous breakthrough and storming of the Przemysl fortress. He was awarded and promoted to lieutenant colonel.
Service in the Red Army
After the October Revolution, he joined the Red Guard and was engaged in the construction of fortifications on various fronts of the Civil War - in the Urals, in the Volga region, in Ukraine. He was personally acquainted with Kuibyshev and Frunze, who appreciated the former tsarist colonel and trusted him, met with Dzerzhinsky. Karbyshev was entrusted with leading the creation of defensive structures around Samara, which were later used as a springboard for the offensive of the Red Army. After the Civil War, he began teaching at the Military Academy. Frunze, and in 1934 he headed the department of military engineering at the Academy of the General Staff.
Among the students of the academy, Dmitry Mikhailovich was very popular, as General of the Army Shtemenko later recalled. Karbyshev owned a saying about the importance of engineer troops - "One battalion, one hour, one kilometer, one ton, one row." By the beginning of World War II, Karbyshev had a professor's degree, defended his doctoral dissertation, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general of the engineering troops, and he became a member of the CPSU (b). The outbreak of the war found Karbyshev on the western border in Belarus. .
The feat of the Russian general
For several years in Moscow nothing was known about the fate of the general. He was considered missing. Only in 1946, from Major of the Canadian Army Seddon De Saint-Clair, did the details of the last days of the life of the Soviet general become known. This happened in mid-February 1945. A large batch of prisoners of war from other camps was brought to the Mauthausen concentration camp. Among them was General Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev. The Germans forced the people to undress and poured cold water on them from hoses. Many fell from a broken heart, and those who evaded were beaten with clubs. Karbyshev encouraged those standing next to him, already covered with ice. “The motherland will not forget us” - the last words of the general, before falling. His body, like the bodies of the others, was burned in the crematorium oven.
Later, from the German archives, it became known that Karbyshev received proposals from the German command for cooperation many times, but did not give his consent to this. The noble memory of the heroic death of a Soviet man, General Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev, who did not become a traitor to the Motherland, did not lose his human dignity and the honor of an officer, must be preserved in the history of our country.
The famous words of General Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev, said to the fascist executioners: “I do not sell my conscience and Motherland” . His steadfastness and courage are amazing, his feat is immortal in the eyes of his contemporaries.
Biography
Dmitry Mikhailovich was born on October 26, 1880 in a military family, from the nobility. Passed the Russian-Japanese and the First World War. In 1917 he joined the Red Army, was a military engineer. He met the Great Patriotic War as a lieutenant general, doctor of military sciences. On August 8, 1941, during an attempt to break through the encirclement, he was shell-shocked and captured.
Date of birth: October 14 (26), 1880.
Place of birth Omsk, Russian Empire
Date of death: February 18, 1945 (aged 64)
Place of death: Mauthausen concentration camp.
Type of troops: Engineering troops.
Rank: Lieutenant General.
Doctor of military sciences, professor.
Battles and Wars: Russo-Japanese War, World War I, Civil War in Russia, Soviet-Finnish War, Great Patriotic War.
In captivity
Realizing who they managed to capture, the Germans immediately decided to recruit a prominent military specialist. All methods were used, from bribery and the promise of a well-fed and comfortable life, to sophisticated bullying. Karbyshev was not fed, kept in a cell with such bright light that it was impossible to sleep. The result was unbearable insomnia, terrible suppuration of the eyes, and teeth that fell out.
Karbyshev, no longer a young man, was adamant:
"My beliefs don't fall out with my teeth."
After that, the recruiters wrote in the dossier: “... This largest Soviet fortifier, a career officer of the old Russian army, a man who is over sixty years old, turned out to be fanatically devoted to the idea of loyalty to military duty and patriotism ... Karbyshev can be considered hopeless in the sense of using us as a specialist in military engineering.”
Then the real hell of concentration camps began, of which there were about a dozen. But Dmitry Mikhailovich did not lose courage until his death. According to the recollections of one officer who was with Karbyshev in Auschwitz, he asked the general a stupid question: "How do you feel in Auschwitz?". Karbyshev bowed and replied: “Good, cheerful, like in Majdanek”. And when he worked in a team for the preparation of gravestones, he mentioned that this work gives him real pleasure:
“The more tombstones we have to make, the better, it means that ours at the front are doing well.
General Karbyshev died on February 18, 1945 in the Mauthausen concentration camp (Austria). He, along with other prisoners (about 500 people), was taken to the parade ground and began to pour cold water from fire hoses in the cold. Blue-faced people fell one by one. Dmitry Mikhailovich held on for a very long time and supported those around him to the last:
- Cheer up comrades! Think about the Motherland and courage will not leave you!
Awards
General Karbyshev was repeatedly awarded the highest medals and orders, moreover, he had awards from different eras, both before 1917 and after.
Russian empire
- Order of St. Anne II degree.
- Order of St. Stanislaus II degree.
- Order of St. Anne III degree.
- Order of St. Stanislaus III degree.
- Order of St. Anne IV degree.
USSR
- Hero of the Soviet Union.
- The order of Lenin.
- Order of the Red Banner.
- Order of the Red Star.
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to General Karbyshev posthumously (February 28, 1948).
Comedy Women
In our time, there are scum who defame the memory of heroes with their jokes for degenerates. The team of jesters from the Comedy Vumen especially distinguished itself. The whole society was outraged by the stupid joke of Natalia Medvedeva, which sounded in one of their shows.
To be fair, it must be admitted that Natalya Medvedeva apologized for this joke, calling everything that they, as artists, are forced people, they don’t have their own brains, because they are told what their masters from TV channels need to do. Natalia apologized in her Instagram :
“I offer my deepest apologies for the number in Comedy Woman 2013, where the name of the great general was mentioned. At that time, I sincerely thought that this name was fictitious. Sincerely. Is it true. Excuse me... All actresses (and this is not a secret) sign a contract according to which they pronounce the text that they are given... I confess that at that moment I sincerely thought that this was a fictional character and could not compare it with a real one historical fact, once again I sincerely ask for forgiveness.
We remember and we are proud!
Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev became the main example for subsequent generations of Soviet and Russian society.
Despite all the dirt that is poured on the USSR, on the feat of our people in the bloody War, we remember, we are proud, we live!
Video
"I am a soldier and will remain true to duty", "... The main thing is not to kneel before the enemy", - Hero of the Great Patriotic War Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev (1880‒1945).
Dmitry Karbyshev awards
Order of the Red Star.
Order of the Red Banner.
Order of Lenin, posthumously.
Main scientific works
Family of Dmitry Karbyshev
18.02.1945
Karbyshev Dmitry Mikhailovich
Hero of the Soviet Union
Russian military leader
News & Events
Krasnodar schools named after Heroes of Russia
Deputies of the City Duma of Krasnodar at an extraordinary 80th meeting on August 29, 2019 decided to give the names of the heroes of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation to the schools of the regional capital. The decision is related to the preparations for the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The meeting was chaired by Vera Galushko, Speaker of the Krasnodar Parliament.
General Dmitry Karbyshev died heroically in the Mauthausen concentration camp
Soviet General Dmitry Karbyshev was kept in many German concentration camps, until the last day of his life, remaining faithful to military duty and the Motherland, on the night of February 18, 1945 in the Mauthausen concentration camp, among about five hundred other prisoners, was doused with water in the cold after brutal torture. Karbyshev's body was burned in the ovens of Mauthausen.
Russian fortifier. The largest domestic scientist-engineer. Hero of the Soviet Union.
Lieutenant General of the Engineering Troops. Doctor of military sciences. Professor at the Military Academy.
Dmitry Karbyshev was born on October 26, 1880 in the city of Omsk. The boy grew up in the family of a military official. At the age of twelve, he lost his father. The children were raised by their mother. He brilliantly graduated from the Siberian Cadet Corps and was admitted to the St. Petersburg Nikolaev Military Engineering School.
After graduating from college in 1900, Dmitry was sent to serve in the 1st East Siberian sapper battalion. During the Russo-Japanese War, as part of a battalion, he strengthened positions, established communications, built bridges, and conducted reconnaissance in force. Participated in the battle of Mukden. He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant.
After the war, Karbyshev served in Vladivostok. In 1911 he graduated with honors from the Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy. Then he was sent to Brest-Litovsk to the post of commander of a mine company. There he took part in the construction of the forts of the Brest Fortress.
Dmitry Mikhailovich was a participant in the First World War from its very beginning. Since 1918 in the Red Army. From 1923, for three years he headed the Engineering Committee of the Main Military Engineering Directorate of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army. At the same time, he taught at the Mikhail Frunze Military Academy.
In February 1934, Karbyshev became the head of the military engineering department of the Military Academy of the General Staff. In 1938 he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff and was approved as a professor. Then he became a lieutenant general of the engineering troops.
Karbyshev was the author of more than a hundred scientific papers on military engineering and military history. He also took part in the development of recommendations to the troops on engineering support for the breakthrough of the Mannerheim line in Finland.
The Great Patriotic War found Karbyshev at the headquarters of the 3rd Army in Grodno. In August 1941, when trying to get out of the encirclement, he was seriously shell-shocked in a battle in the Dnieper region. In an unconscious state, he was captured. Contained in German concentration camps. He was one of the active leaders of the camp resistance movement.
On the night of February 18, 1945, in the Mauthausen concentration camp, among about five hundred other prisoners, after brutal torture, they were doused with water in the cold, the air temperature was about -12 ° C. The last words of the general were addressed to those who shared a terrible fate with him: “Cheer up, comrades! Think of the Motherland, and courage will not leave you! The body of Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was burned in the ovens of Mauthausen.
Dmitry Karbyshev awards
State awards of the Russian Empire:
Order of St. Vladimir IV degree with swords and a bow.
Order of St. Stanislaus III degree with a bow.
Order of St. Stanislaus II degree with swords.
Order of St. Anne IV degree for wearing on the hilt of personal weapons.
Order of St. Anne III degree with swords and bow.
Order of Saint Anne II class with swords.
Soviet state awards and titles:
Order of the Red Star.
Jubilee medal "XX years of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army"
Order of the Red Banner.
Order of Lenin, posthumously.
Hero of the Soviet Union, posthumously.
During the civil war, D. M. Karbyshev was twice awarded a gold watch with the inscription: "To the Red Fighter of the Socialist Revolution from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee."
He was elected an honorary Red Army soldier of the 4th exemplary sapper battalion, as a veteran of the civil war, who rendered special services to the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army.
Main Works and Projects of Dmitry Karbyshev
Main scientific works
Influence of struggle conditions on the forms and principles of fortification. - Army and Revolution, Kharkov, 1921, No. 1, 2-3, 4-5.
Exemplary reconnaissance of the banks of the river. Volga defensively. Historical example of the civil war. Ed. GVIU RKKA 1922
Military engineering in the World War. - Military Bulletin, 1924, No. 28, pp. 65-72.
Engineering preparation of the borders of the USSR. Book. 1, 1924.
Engineering intelligence. - War and Revolution, 1928, No. 1, p. 86
Destruction. - War and Revolution, 1929, No. 9, pp. 51-67, No. 10 pp. 16-37.
Defensive work in the protection of transport. 1930 150 pp. ed. Transprints of the NKPS. Recommended by the Center for the Protection of Railways.
Destruction and barriers. Joint with I. Kiselev and I. Maslov. - M., Mrs. military ed., 1931. 184 pp.
Defense of Port Arthur. Ed. Military Academy of the Red Army 1933
Destruction and barriers // journal "Technique of Youth", No. 8, 1936. pp. 10-12.
SD defense engineering support. Ed. Military Academy of the Red Army. M. V. Frunze, 1937.
Engineering support for an offensive operation. Ed. Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army. Benefit. 1937.
Engineering support of the defensive operation. Ed. Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army. Benefit. 1938.
Engineering support of combat operations of rifle formations. Ch. 1-2, 1939-1940.
Major fortification projects
1913 - participation in the development of the project for the construction of the second ring of defensive fortifications of the Brest Fortress and its implementation
1917 - participation in the development of a project to strengthen the positions of Russian troops on the border with Romania and its implementation
1919 - implementation of top leadership in planning and conducting all defensive work on the Eastern Front of the Red Army during the Civil War (against the troops of Admiral Kolchak), in particular leadership: the construction of the Simbirsk, Samara, Saratov, Chelyabinsk, Zlatoust, Trinity, Kurgan fortified areas of the Red Army; ensuring the forcing of the Ufa and Belaya rivers by the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army during the Ufa operation and the beginning of the offensive of the troops of M.V. Frunze to Siberia; designing fortifications of Uralsk
1920 - management of design and engineering work to restore the railway bridge across the Irtysh in Omsk, then to strengthen the Trans-Baikal bridgehead of the Red Army troops advancing to the Far East
1920 - management of the design and construction of defensive fortifications on the Kakhovka bridgehead, then ensuring the assault on the Chongar fortifications and Perekop
1929 - main participation in the design of defensive structures along the western border of the Soviet Union
1940 - the main participation in ensuring the breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line by the Soviet troops during the Soviet-Finnish War (1939-1940); management of fortification works to improve the citadel of the Brest Fortress
Interregional children's military-patriotic social movement "Young Karbyshevites".
Karbyshev is forever enrolled in the ranks of military unit 51171, located in the city of Grodno, in Belarus. Until now, his name is heard at every evening verification, and there is a bunk in the barracks of the engineer battalion. In 2016, a section of the defense line he designed was restored in Grodno. It is called "Karbyshev Line".
Between Mars and Jupiter, a small planet (1959) Karbyshev makes its way in a circumsolar orbit.
a mountain on Sakhalin named after Karbyshev.
Several educational institutions bear the name of D. M. Karbyshev: GBOU secondary school No. 354 in Moscow, secondary school No. 2 in Tver, secondary school No. 2, Pervomaisky village, Shemonakhinsky district, East Kazakhstan region, Republic of Kazakhstan; secondary school No. 92 in Chelyabinsk, secondary school No. 90 in Omsk, MBOU secondary school No. 18 in Volzhsky, Volgograd region, school No. 20 in Brest, Republic of Belarus, MBOU secondary school No. 16 in Chernogorsk, Republic of Khakassia, secondary school No. 14 Polevskoy, Sverdlovsk region, school No. 14, Rudny (Kazakhstan), Kiev secondary school No. 184 and No. 2, MBOU secondary school No. 7, Okha, Sakhalin region, gymnasium No. 1, Kyzyl Kiya, Republic of Kyrgyzstan, Batken region.
The name "Karbyshev" has a hockey team of the Central Research and Testing Institute of Engineering Troops of Russia.
The airport of Omsk is named after Dmitry Karbyshev.
In the secondary school No. 15 of the city of Grodno there is a memorial museum of D. Karbyshev. In the same city there is Karbysheva Street (former Podvalskaya, Polnaya, Polevaya, Feldstrasse, Napoleon, Kominternskaya, Hohensteinerstrasse, Comintern).
Family of Dmitry Karbyshev
First wife - Alisa Karlovna Troyanovich (1874-1913), of German origin, met in Vladivostok, where she was married to another officer. After 6 years of marriage with Dmitry Mikhailovich, she tragically died in 1913 (an accident, as evidenced by her funeral in a cemetery where suicides were not buried). She was buried in Belarus, Brest, at the Trishinsky cemetery.
The second wife is Lydia Vasilievna Opatskaya (married in 1916), a nurse who carried a staff captain wounded in the leg and unable to move under heavy enemy fire from the ruins of the fortifications of the Przemysl fortress and then followed him to a hospital in Belarus.
Three children were born in this marriage - Elena (1919-2006), Tatiana (1926-2003) and Alexei (1929-1988).
The eldest daughter Elena followed in her father's footsteps and became a military engineer, and was awarded orders and medals for her work. Tatyana worked as an economist, and Alexey received a PhD in Economics and headed a department at the Moscow Financial Institute.