Life during the war years. Soldier's life in the first years of the Great Patriotic War

The Second World War is multifaceted; many books, articles, memoirs and memoirs have been written on this topic. But for a long time, under the influence of ideology, these topics were covered mainly from a political, patriotic or general military point of view, with very little attention paid to the role of each individual soldier. And only during the Khrushchev “thaw” did the first publications begin to appear based on front-line letters, diaries and unpublished sources, covering the problems of front-line life, the period of the Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945. How soldiers lived at the front, what they did during short breaks, what they ate what they were wearing, all these questions are important in the overall contribution to great victory.

At the beginning of the war, soldiers wore a tunic and trousers with tarpaulin pads on the elbows and knees; these pads extended the service life of the uniform. They wore boots and windings on their feet, which were the main grief of all serving brethren, especially the infantry, as they were inconvenient, fragile and heavy.

Until 1943, an indispensable attribute was the so-called “skatka”, an overcoat rolled up and put on over the left shoulder, causing a lot of trouble and inconvenience, which soldiers got rid of at any opportunity.

Among small arms in the first years of the war, the legendary “three-line rifle”, the three-line Mosin rifle of the 1891 model, enjoyed great respect and love among the soldiers. Many soldiers gave them names and considered the rifle a real comrade in arms that never failed in difficult battle conditions. But for example, the SVT-40 rifle was not liked because of its capriciousness and strong recoil.

Interesting information about the life and everyday life of soldiers contain such sources of information as memoirs, front-line diaries and letters, which are least susceptible to ideological influence. For example, it was traditionally believed that soldiers lived in dugouts and pillboxes. This is not entirely true, most of the soldiers were located in trenches, trenches or simply in the nearest forest without regretting it at all. It was always very cold in the bunkers; at that time, there were no autonomous heating systems or autonomous gas supply, which we now use, for example, to heat a summer house, and therefore the soldiers preferred to spend the night in the trenches, throwing branches at the bottom and stretching a raincoat on top.

The soldiers' food was simple: "Shchi and porridge is our food" - this proverb accurately characterizes the rations of soldiers' kettles in the first months of the war and, of course, best friend soldier's cracker, a favorite delicacy especially in hiking conditions, for example, on a battle march.
It is also impossible to imagine a soldier’s life during short periods of rest without the music of songs and books, which gave rise to a good mood and raised spirits.
But still the most important role The psychology of the Russian soldier, who was able to cope with any everyday difficulties, overcome fear, survive and win, played a role in the victory over fascism.

Reward for a Soviet soldier for a downed plane

During the Great Patriotic War, Soviet soldiers received salaries, and their exploits were encouraged not only with orders and medals, but also with cash bonuses. Awards do not in any way detract from the heroism of our soldiers, but this is part of the history of the war, which would also be nice to know about.

Salaries in the army are called allowances. What was this allowance like during the Great Patriotic War? An ordinary soldier received 17 rubles, a platoon commander - 620-800 rubles, a company commander - 950 rubles, a battalion commander - 1100 rubles, an army commander - 3200 rubles, a front commander - 4000 rubles. In guards units, officers were entitled to one and a half salaries, and privates were entitled to double salary. Even those who served in penal battalions received monetary allowances, at a minimum rate of 8.5 rubles per month. The soldiers who were in the hospital received the same amount.

Was it a lot or a little?

Before the war, the average monthly salary of a worker was 375 rubles. IN war time the salary increased to 573 rubles. During the war, metallurgists received 697 rubles, and miners - 729 rubles. Engineers earned 1,209 rubles during wartime. Collective farmers, who were at the very bottom of the Soviet hierarchy (not counting Gulag prisoners), received 150 rubles. But often, instead of wages, they were simply awarded workdays - the so-called “sticks”.

Moreover, the army mainly consisted of collective farmers. What could a front-line soldier buy with his allowance?

Food and goods in state stores were sold using ration cards at pre-war prices. But it was quite difficult to buy goods in stores, and at the market everything was much more expensive. Thus, a half-liter bottle of vodka - a universal currency - cost from 300 to 800 rubles (despite the fact that in a state store its price was 30 rubles - however, it was almost impossible to get it). A 2 kg loaf of bread cost 300-400 rubles, a kilogram of potatoes - 90 rubles, a pack of Kazbek cigarettes - 75 rubles, a glass of shag - 10 rubles. A kilogram of salted lard was sold for 1,500 rubles.

Now about how the military achievements of Soviet soldiers were rewarded

The monetary incentive system was introduced in the Red Army in the summer of 1941. Pilots were the first to receive bonuses for effective combat work. And of these, the participants in the famous bombing of Berlin, carried out on the night of August 7-8, 1941, were the first to receive the reward. Each crew member who participated in the raid was given 2,000 rubles by order of Stalin. Pilots who subsequently bombed the capitals of Germany's allies (Helsinki, Bucharest, Budapest) were also paid 2,000 rubles.

On August 19, 1941, cash awards extended to the entire Soviet Air Force. At first, for one downed enemy plane, pilots were given a cash bonus of 1,000 rubles. Later, a gradation appeared in downed aircraft: for a downed enemy bomber they paid 2,000 rubles, for a transport aircraft - 1,500 rubles, for a fighter - 1,000 rubles.

They also paid simply for flights. 5 combat missions - 1500 rubles, 15 combat missions - government award and 2000 rubles, and so on. The “price list” was described in great detail, right down to the destruction of an enemy locomotive (750 rubles).

It is the pilots who hold the record for the most “highest paid” fight. On May 4, 1945, aircraft of the Baltic Fleet attacked the German battleship Schlesien in the roadstead. The pilot M. Borisov, who successfully torpedoed the battleship, was paid 10,000 rubles. And the heavily damaged Schlesien was sunk by its own crew.

Following the pilots, cash bonuses were also introduced in the ground forces. But here, for tankers, and for artillerymen, and for infantrymen, there was one criterion: a destroyed enemy tank. And the bonus was more modest than that of the pilots.

And in general, first they began to pay for the repair and evacuation of their own tanks, and only then - for the destruction of enemy tanks.

According to Stalin’s order of February 25, 1942, for fast and high-quality Maintenance for a heavy KB tank they paid 350 rubles, for an average repair - 800 rubles. For repairs of a medium tank T-34 - 250 and 500 rubles, for repairs of light tanks - 100 and 200 rubles. At the same time, at least 70% of the total amount was intended to reward the working staff of the unit.

When bonuses for destroyed enemy tanks were introduced on July 1, 1942, they turned out to be significantly less than bonuses for the evacuation of friendly tanks: the evacuation of a heavy tank was estimated at ten destroyed enemy tanks (5,000 and 500 rubles). June 24, 1943, on the eve of the battle on Kursk Bulge, some additions were made: “Set the premium at 1000 rubles. to each soldier and commander for personally knocking out or setting fire to an enemy tank using individual means of combat.

If a group of tank destroyers participated in the destruction of an enemy tank, then the bonus amount will be raised to 1,500 rubles. and pay all group members in equal shares.” That is, it turned out that the group of fighters who showed miracles of heroism and destroyed an enemy tank by throwing grenades at it received 1,500 rubles, and the group that evacuated heavy tank, was awarded 5,000 rubles.

One generation on the shoulders?
Is it too much?
Trials and controversies
Is it too much?

Evgeny Dolmatovsky

War photo and film chronicles, in their best frames, have brought to us through the decades the true appearance of a soldier - the main worker of the war. Not a poster-boy with a blush all over his cheek, but a simple fighter, in a shabby overcoat, a crushed cap, in hastily wound windings, won that terrible war at the cost of his own life. After all, what we are often shown on TV can only remotely be called war. “Soldiers and officers in light and clean sheepskin coats, in beautiful earflaps, and felt boots are moving across the screen! Their faces are as clear as morning snow. Where are the burnt out overcoats with the greasy left shoulder? It can’t not be greasy!.. Where are the exhausted, sleep-deprived, dirty faces?” - asks veteran of the 217th Infantry Division Belyaev Valerian Ivanovich.

How did the soldier live at the front, in what conditions did he fight, was he afraid or did not know fear, was he cold or had shoes on, was dressed, was heated, did he subsist on dry rations or was fed to his fill with hot porridge from the field kitchen, what did he do during short breaks between battles...

Simple front-line life, which was, nevertheless, the most important factor war became the subject of my research. After all, according to the same Valerian Ivanovich Belyaev, “memories of being at the front are associated for me not only with battles, forays to the front line, but also with trenches, rats, lice, and the death of comrades.”

Working on the theme is a tribute to the memory of those killed and missing in action in that war. These people dreamed of a quick victory and a meeting with loved ones, hoping that they would return safe and sound. The war took them away, leaving us letters and photographs. In the photo there are girls and women, young officers and experienced soldiers. Beautiful faces, smart and kind eyes. They don’t yet know what will happen to them all very soon...

When starting work, we talked with many veterans, re-read their front-line letters and diaries, and rely only on eyewitness accounts.

So, the morale of the troops and their combat effectiveness largely depended on the organization of the soldiers’ everyday life. Supplying troops, providing them with everything they needed at the time of retreat, breaking out of encirclement, differed sharply from the period when Soviet troops switched to active offensive operations.

The first weeks and months of the war, for well-known reasons (suddenness of the attack, sluggishness, shortsightedness, and sometimes outright mediocrity of military leaders) turned out to be the most difficult for our soldiers. All major warehouses with stocks material resources on the eve of the war they were located 30-80 km from state border. This placement was a tragic miscalculation of our command. In connection with the retreat, many warehouses and bases were blown up by our troops due to the impossibility of evacuating them, or destroyed by enemy aircraft. For a long time the supply of hot food to the troops was not established; the newly formed units did not have camp kitchens or cooking pots. Many units and formations did not receive bread and crackers for several days. There were no bakeries.

From the first days of the war there was a huge flow of wounded, and there was no one and nothing to provide assistance: “The property of sanitary institutions was destroyed by fires and enemy bombings, the sanitary institutions being formed were left without property. The troops have a great shortage of dressings, narcotic drugs and serums.” (from headquarters report Western Front Sanitary Administration of the Red Army dated June 30, 1941).

Near Unecha in 1941, the 137th Rifle Division, which at that time was part of first the 3rd and then the 13th armies, emerged from encirclement. Mostly they went out in an organized manner, in full uniform, with weapons, and tried not to give up. “...In the villages they shaved if they could. There was one emergency: a soldier stole a piece of lard from the locals... He was sentenced to death, and only after the women cried was he pardoned. It was difficult to feed ourselves on the road, so we ate all the horses that came with us...” (from the memoirs of a military paramedic of the 137th Infantry Division Bogatykh I.I.)

Those retreating and leaving the encirclement had one hope for the local residents: “They came to the village... there were no Germans, they even found the chairman of the collective farm... they ordered cabbage soup with meat for 100 people. The women cooked it, poured it into barrels... For the only time in the whole circle they ate well. And so they are hungry all the time, wet from the rain. We slept on the ground, chopped spruce branches and dozed... We weakened everything to the extreme. Many of their feet were so swollen that they couldn’t fit into their boots...” (from the memoirs of A.P. Stepantsev, head of the chemical service of the 771st Infantry Regiment of the 137th Infantry Division).

The autumn of 1941 was especially difficult for the soldiers: “It snowed, it was very cold at night, and many of their shoes broke. All I have left of my boots are the tops and the toes facing out. I wrapped the shoes in rags until I found old bast shoes in one village. We all grew like bears, even the young ones began to look like old people... need forced us to go and ask for a piece of bread. It was a shame and pain that we, the Russian people, are the masters of our country, but we walk through it furtively, through forests and ravines, sleeping on the ground, and even in trees. There were days when we completely forgot the taste of bread. I had to eat raw potatoes, beets if they were found in the field, or even just viburnum, but it’s bitter, you can’t eat much of it. In villages, requests for food were increasingly refused. I also happened to hear this: “How tired of you we are…” (from the memoirs of R.G. Khmelnov, a military paramedic of the 409th Infantry Regiment of the 137th Infantry Division). The soldiers suffered not only physically, but also mentally. It was difficult to bear the reproaches of the inhabitants remaining in the occupied territory.

The plight of the soldiers is evidenced by the fact that in many units they had to eat horses, which, however, were no longer good for lack of food: “The horses were so exhausted that before the campaign they had to be given caffeine injections. I had a mare - if you poke her, she falls, and she can’t get up on her own, you pick her up by the tail... Once a horse was killed by a burst from an airplane, half an hour later the soldiers took it away, so that there were no hooves left, only the tail... Food was tight, I had to carry food on myself for many kilometers... Even bread from bakeries was carried for 20-30 kilometers...”, A.P. Stepantsev recalls his everyday life at the front.

Gradually, the country and the army recovered from the sudden attack of the Nazis, and the supply of food and uniforms to the front was established. We were doing all this special units- Food and fodder supply service. But the rear guards did not always act promptly. Commander of the communications battalion of the 137th Infantry Division F.M. Lukyanyuk. recalls: “We were all surrounded, and after the battle, many of my fighters put on warm German uniforms under their overcoats and changed their shoes into German boots. I lined up my soldiers, and I see that half of them are like Krauts...”

Guseletov P.I., commissar of the 3rd battery of the 137th Infantry Division: “I arrived in the division in April... I selected fifteen people from the companies... All my recruits were tired, dirty, ragged and hungry. The first step was to get them in order. I got hold of homemade soap, found threads, needles, and scissors that collective farmers used to shear sheep, and they began to shear, shave, patch holes and sew on buttons, wash clothes, and wash themselves...”

Getting a new uniform for soldiers at the front is a whole event. After all, many ended up in the unit in their civilian clothes or in an overcoat from someone else’s shoulder. In the “Order on conscription for the mobilization of citizens born in 1925 and older until 1893, living in the territory liberated from occupation” for 1943, paragraph No. 3 states: “When reporting to the assembly point, have with you: ... a mug, a spoon, socks, two pairs of underwear, as well as preserved Red Army uniforms.”

War veteran Valerian Ivanovich Belyaev recalls: “...We were given new overcoats. These were not overcoats, but simply luxury, as it seemed to us. The soldier's overcoat is the hairiest... The overcoat had a very great importance in front-line life. It served as a bed, a blanket, and a pillow... In cold weather, you lie down on your overcoat, pull your legs up to your chin, and cover yourself with the left half and tuck it in on all sides. At first it’s cold - you lie there and shiver, and then your breath becomes warm. Or almost warm.

You get up after sleep - your overcoat is frozen to the ground. With a shovel you cut away a layer of earth and lift up the intact overcoat along with the earth. Then the earth will fall off on its own.

The whole overcoat was my pride. In addition, an overcoat without holes provided better protection from cold and rain... On the front line, it was generally forbidden to take off the overcoat. All that was allowed was to loosen the waist belt... And the song about the overcoat was:

My overcoat is for traveling, it is always with me

It's always like new, the edges are cut,

The army is harsh, my dear.”

At the front, the soldiers, who longingly remembered their home and comfort, managed to settle more or less tolerably on the front line. Most often, the fighters were located in trenches, trenches, and less often in dugouts. But without a shovel you can’t build a trench or a trench. There were often not enough entrenching tools for everyone: “We were given shovels on one of the first days of our stay in the company. But here's the problem! The company, numbering 96 people, got only 14 shovels. When they were given out, there was even a small dump... The lucky ones began to dig in..." (from the memoirs of V.I. Belyaev).

And then a whole ode to the shovel: “A shovel in war is life! I dug myself a trench and lie still. Bullets whistle, shells explode, their fragments fly by with a short squeal, you don’t care at all. You are protected by a thick layer of earth...” But a trench is a treacherous thing. During rains, water accumulated at the bottom of the trench, reaching the soldiers to their waists, or even higher. During shelling, I had to sit in such a trench for hours. To get out of it means to die. And they sat, there was no other way, if you want to live, be patient. There will be a calm - you will wash, dry, rest, sleep.

It must be said that during the war, very strict hygiene rules were in effect in the country. In military units located in the rear, inspections for lice were systematically carried out. To avoid pronouncing this dissonant term, the wording “inspection according to Form 20” was used. To do this, the company, without tunics, lined up in two ranks. The sergeant-major commanded: “Prepare for inspection according to form 20!” Those standing in the ranks took off their undershirts up to the sleeves and turned them inside out. The sergeant-major walked along the line and the soldiers who had lice on their shirt were sent to the sanitary inspection room. War veteran Valerian Ivanovich Belyaev recalls how he himself passed through one of these sanitary inspection rooms: “It was a bathhouse with a so-called “fryer,” that is, a chamber for frying (warming up) wearables. While we were washing in the bathhouse, all our things were heated in this “fryer” at a very high temperature. When we received our things back, they were so hot that we had to wait for them to cool down... There were “fryers” in all garrisons and military units. And at the front they also arranged such roasting sessions.” The soldiers called lice “the second enemy after the Nazis.” Frontline doctors had to fight them mercilessly. “It happened at the crossing - there was just a halt, even in the cold everyone took off their tunics and, well, crushed them with grenades, there was only a crash. I will never forget the picture of how the captured Germans scratched themselves furiously... We never had typhus; lice were destroyed by sanitary treatment. Once, out of zeal, they even burned their tunics along with the lice, only the medals remained,” recalled V.D. Piorunsky, a military doctor of the 409th Infantry Regiment of the 137th Infantry Division. And further from his own memoirs: “We were faced with the task of preventing lice, but how to do this at the forefront? And we came up with one way. They found a fire hose twenty meters long, punched ten holes in it every meter, and capped the end. They boiled water in gasoline barrels and continuously poured it into a hose through a funnel, it flowed through the holes, and soldiers stood under the hose, washed themselves and groaned with pleasure. Underwear was changed, and outer clothing was fried. Then a hundred grams, a sandwich in the teeth, and into the trenches. In this way, we quickly washed the entire regiment, so that even from other units they came to us for experience ... "

Rest, and above all sleep, was worth its weight in gold in war. There was always a lack of sleep at the front. On the front line, everyone was forbidden to sleep at night. During the day, half of the personnel could sleep, and the other half monitor the situation.

According to the memoirs of V.I. Belyaev, a veteran of the 217th Infantry Division, “during the campaign, sleep was even worse. They were not allowed to sleep more than three hours a day. The soldiers literally fell asleep on the move. One could observe such a picture. There is a column coming. Suddenly one fighter breaks ranks and moves next to the column for some time, gradually moving away from it. So he reached the roadside ditch, tripped and was already lying motionless. They run up to him and see that he is fast asleep. It’s very difficult to push someone like that and put him in a column!.. It was considered the greatest happiness to cling to some kind of cart. The lucky ones who succeeded got a good night's sleep while on the go.” Many slept for the future because they knew that another such opportunity might not arise.

The soldier at the front needed not only cartridges, rifles, and shells. One of the main issues of military life is the supply of food to the army. A hungry man will not fight much. We have already mentioned how difficult it was for the troops in the first months of the war. Subsequently, the supply of food to the front was streamlined, because failure to supply could result in the loss of not only shoulder straps, but also life.

Soldiers were regularly given dry rations, especially on the march: “For five days, each was given: three and a half smoked herrings of fairly large size... 7 rye crackers and 25 lumps of sugar... It was American sugar. A pile of salt was poured on the ground and it was announced that everyone could take it. I poured salt into a can, tied it in a cloth and put it in my duffel bag. No one took salt except me... It was clear that we would have to go from hand to mouth.” (from the memoirs of V.I. Belyaev)

The year was 1943, the country actively helped the front, giving it equipment, food, and people, but still the food was very modest.

Veteran of the Great Patriotic War, artilleryman Ivan Prokofyevich Osnach, recalls that the dry rations included sausage, lard, sugar, candy, and stewed meat. The products were American made. They, the artillerymen, were supposed to be fed 3 times, but this norm was not observed.

The dry ration also included shag. Almost all men in the war were heavy smokers. Many who did not smoke before the war did not part with rolled-up cigarettes at the front: “Tobacco was bad. They gave out shag as a smoke: 50 grams for two... It was a small pack in a brown package. They were issued irregularly, and smokers suffered greatly... I, a non-smoking guy, had no need for shag, and this determined my special position in the company. The smokers jealously protected me from bullets and shrapnel. Everyone understood perfectly well that with my departure to the next world or to the hospital, the additional ration of shag would disappear from the company... When they brought shag, a small dump appeared around me. Everyone tried to convince me that I should give my share of shag to him...” (from the memoirs of V.I. Belyaev). This determined the special role of shag in the war. Ingenuous soldiers' songs were written about her:

When you receive a letter from your beloved,

Remember distant lands

And you’ll smoke, and with a smoke ring

Your sadness flies away!

Eh, shag, shag,

You and I have become friends!

The patrols look vigilantly into the distance,

We are ready for battle! We are ready for battle!

Now about hot meals for soldiers. There were camp kitchens in every unit, in every military unit. The most difficult thing is to deliver food to the front line. Products were transported in special thermos containers.

According to the procedures that existed at that time, the delivery of food was carried out by the company sergeant major and the clerk. And they had to do this even during the battle. Sometimes one of the fighters was sent for lunch.

Very often, the delivery of food was carried out by female drivers in semi-trucks. War veteran Feodosia Fedoseevna Lositskaya spent the entire war behind the wheel of a lorry. There was everything in the work: breakdowns that she, out of ignorance, could not fix, and spending the night in the forest or steppe under the open sky, and shelling by enemy aircraft. And how many times did she cry bitterly from resentment when, having loaded the car with food and thermoses with tea, coffee and soup, she arrived at the airfield to the pilots with empty containers: on the way, German planes flew in and riddled all the thermoses with bullets.

Her husband, military pilot Mikhail Alekseevich Lositsky, recalled that even in their flight canteen the food was not always good: “Forty-degree frost! Now I would like a mug of hot tea! But in our dining room you won’t see anything except millet porridge and dark stew.” And here are his memories of his stay in a front-line hospital: “The stuffy, heavy air is thickly saturated with the smell of iodine, rotten meat and tobacco smoke. A thin soup and a crust of bread - that's all for dinner. Occasionally they give you pasta or a couple of spoons of mashed potatoes and a cup of barely sweet tea..."

Belyaev Valerian Ivanovich recalls: “With the onset of darkness, lunch appeared. On the front line, there are two meals: immediately after it gets dark and before dawn. During daylight hours we had to make do with five lumps of sugar, which were given out daily.

Hot food was delivered to us in a green thermos the size of a bucket. This thermos was oval shape and was carried on the back on straps, like a duffel bag. Bread was delivered in loaves. We had two people go for food: the foreman and the clerk...

...To eat, everyone crawls out of the trench and sits in a circle. One day we were having lunch this way when suddenly a flare flashed in the sky. We all hug the ground. The rocket goes out and everyone starts eating again. Suddenly one of the fighters shouts: “Brothers! Bullet!" - and takes out of his mouth a German bullet that was stuck in the bread..."

During transitions, on the march, the enemy often destroyed camp kitchens. The fact is that the kitchen boiler rose above the ground much higher than human height, since there was a firebox under the boiler. A black chimney rose even higher, from which smoke billowed. It was an excellent target for the enemy. But, despite the difficulties and danger, the front-line cooks tried not to leave the soldiers without hot food.

Another concern at the front is water. Reserves drinking water soldiers were replenished by passing through populated areas. In this case, it was necessary to be careful: very often, when the Germans retreated, they rendered the wells unusable and poisoned the water in them. Therefore, the wells had to be guarded: “I was very impressed by the strict procedure for providing our troops with water. As soon as we entered the village, a special military unit, which posted sentries at all water sources. Typically these sources were wells whose water had been tested. The guards didn't let us get close to the other wells.

...The posts at all wells were around the clock. Troops came and went, but the sentry was always at his post. This very strict procedure guaranteed complete safety for our troops in the provision of water...”

Even under German fire, the sentry did not leave his post at the well.

“The Germans opened artillery fire on the well... We ran away from the well to a fairly large distance. I look around and see that the sentry remained at the well. Just lay down. That’s the kind of discipline the protection of water sources had!” (from the memoirs of V.I. Belyaev)

When solving everyday problems, the people at the front showed maximum ingenuity, resourcefulness and skill. “We received only the bare minimum from the rear of the country,” recalls A.P. Stepantsev. - We have adapted to do a lot ourselves. They made sleighs, sewed harnesses for horses, made horseshoes - all the beds and harrows were forged in the villages. They even cast the spoons themselves... The head of the regimental bakery was Captain Nikitin, a Gorky resident - under what conditions did he have to bake bread! In the destroyed villages there was not a single intact oven - and after six hours they baked, a ton a day. They even adapted their own mill. Almost everything for everyday life had to be done with one’s own hands, and without an organized way of life, how could the combat effectiveness of the troops be?

Even on the march, the soldiers managed to get themselves boiling water: “...Village. Sticking around chimneys, but if you get off the road and approach such a pipe, you can see burning logs. We quickly got the hang of using them. We put a pot of water on these logs - one minute and the tea is ready. Of course, it was not tea, but hot water. It is not clear why we called it tea. At that time we didn’t even think that our water was boiling to the misfortune of people...” (Belyaev V.I.)

Among the fighters, who were accustomed to making do with little even in pre-war life, there were simply true jacks of all trades. One of these craftsmen is recalled by P.I. Guseletov, political officer of the 238th separate anti-tank fighter division of the 137th rifle division: “We had Uncle Vasya Ovchinnikov on the battery. He was originally from the Gorky region, spoke “o”... In May, a cook was wounded. They call Uncle Vasya: “Can you temporarily?” - "Can. Sometimes, while mowing, we cooked everything ourselves.” To repair the ammunition, rawhide leather was required - where to get it? Again to him. - "Can. It used to be that we tanned the leather at home and tanned everything ourselves.” The horse has become unfettered in the battalion farm - where can I find a master? - “I can do this too. At home, it used to be that everyone did the forging themselves.” For the kitchen we needed buckets, basins, stoves - where to get them, you can’t get them from the rear - “Can you do it, Uncle Vasya?” - “I can, it happened, at home iron stoves and they made the pipes themselves.” In winter you needed skis, but where can you get them at the front? - "Can. At home around this time we went bear hunting, so we always made our own skis.” The company commander's pocket watch stopped - again to Uncle Vasya. - “I can do the watch, I just need to take a good look.”

What can I say, when he even got the hang of casting spoons! A master at any task, everything came out so well for him, as if it was done by itself. And in the spring he baked such pancakes from rotten potatoes on a piece of rusty iron that the company commander did not disdain...”

Many veterans of the Great Patriotic War kind words they remember the famous “People’s Commissar” 100 grams. In signed by the People's Commissar of Defense I.V. Stalin's Decree of the State Defense Committee of the USSR “On the introduction of vodka into supply in the active Red Army” dated August 22, 1941 stated: “To establish, starting from September 1, 1941, the distribution of 40º vodka in the amount of 100 grams per person per day to the Red Army soldiers and the commanding staff of the first line of the active army." This was the first and only experience of legalized distribution of alcohol in the Russian army in the 20th century.

From the memoirs of military pilot M.A. Lositsky: “There will be no combat missions today. Free evening. We are allowed to drink the prescribed 100 grams...” And here’s another: “I wish I could capture the faces of the wounded officers when they were poured 100 grams and brought to them along with a quarter of bread and a piece of lard.”

M.P. Serebrov, commander of the 137th Infantry Division, recalls: “Having stopped pursuing the enemy, units of the division began to put themselves in order. The camp kitchens arrived and began distributing lunch and the required hundred grams of vodka from captured reserves...” Tereshchenko N.I., platoon commander of the 4th battery of the 17th artillery regiment of the 137th Infantry Division: “After successful shooting, everyone gathered to have breakfast. We were located, of course, in the trenches. Our cook, Masha, brought…home-style potatoes. After the front-line hundred grams and congratulations from the regiment commander, everyone cheered up..."

The war lasted difficult four years. Many fighters walked front roads from the first to last day. Not every soldier had the fortunate opportunity to get leave and see family and friends. Many families remained in the occupied territory. For most, the only thread that connected him to home was letters. Front-line letters are a truthful, sincere source for studying the Great Patriotic War, little influenced by ideology. Written in a trench, a dugout, in the forest under a tree, soldiers’ letters reflect the whole gamut of feelings experienced by a person defending his homeland with arms in hand: anger at the enemy, pain and suffering for native land and your loved ones. And in all the letters there is faith in a quick victory over the Nazis. In these letters, a person appears naked as he really is, for he cannot lie and be a hypocrite in moments of danger, either in front of himself or in front of people.

But even in war, under bullets, next to blood and death, people tried to simply live. Even on the front lines, they were worried about everyday issues and problems common to everyone. They shared their experiences with family and friends. In almost all letters, soldiers describe their front-line life, military life: “Our weather is not very cold, but there is decent frost and especially wind. But we are dressed well now, a fur coat, felt boots, so we are not afraid of frosts, the only bad thing is that they are not sent closer to the front line...” (from a letter from Guard Captain Leonid Alekseevich Karasev to his wife Anna Vasilyevna Kiseleva in the city of Unecha dated December 4, 1944 G.). The letters sound concern and concern for loved ones who are also having a hard time. From a letter from Karasev L.A. to his wife in Unecha dated June 3, 1944: “Tell the one who wants to evict my mother that if I just come, he won’t be happy... I’ll turn his head to the side...” And here is from his letter dated December 9, 1944: “Nyurochka, I really feel sorry for you that you have to freeze. Press your bosses, let them provide you with firewood...”

From a letter from Mikhail Krivopusk, a graduate of school No. 1 in Unecha, to sister Nadezhda: “I received from you, Nadya, a letter where you write how you hid from the Germans. You write to me which of the policemen mocked you and on whose instructions the cow, bicycle and other things were taken from you, if I remain alive, I will pay them off for everything...” (dated April 20, 1943). Mikhail did not have the chance to punish the offenders of his relatives: on February 20, 1944, he died liberating Poland.

Almost every letter sounds longing for home, for family and loved ones. After all, young and handsome men went to the front, many in the status of newlyweds. Karasev Leonid Ivanovich and his wife Anna Vasilievna, who were mentioned above, got married on June 18, 1941, and four days later the war began, and the young husband went to the front. He was demobilized only at the end of 1946. The honeymoon had to be postponed for almost 6 years. In his letters to his wife there is love, tenderness, passion and inexpressible melancholy, the desire to be close to his beloved: “Beloved! I returned from headquarters, tired, and walked all night. But as I saw on your table letter, all the fatigue went away and the anger too, and when I opened the envelope and found your card, I kissed it, but it’s paper, not you alive... Now your card is pinned on me at the head of my bed, now I have the opportunity no, no , and look at you..." (from December 18, 1944). And in another letter there’s just a cry from the heart: “Darling, I’m sitting in the dugout right now, smoking makhorka - I remembered something, and such melancholy, or rather anger, is taking over everything... Why am I so unlucky, because people get the opportunity to see their relatives and loved ones, but I’m still unlucky... Darling, believe me, I’m tired of all this writing and paper... you understand, I want to see you, I want to be with you for at least an hour, and to hell with everything else, you know, to hell, I want you - that’s all... I’m tired of this whole life of waiting and uncertainty... I now have one outcome... I’ll come to you without permission, and then I’ll go to the penal company, otherwise I won’t wait to meet you!.. If only there was vodka, Now I would get drunk..." (dated August 30, 1944).

Soldiers write in their letters about home, remember pre-war life, dream of a peaceful future, of returning from the war. From a letter from Mikhail Krivopusk to his sister Nadezhda: “If you look at those green meadows, at the trees near the shore... the girls are swimming in the sea, you think that you would throw yourself overboard and swim. But never mind, we’ll finish off the German, and then…” In many letters there is a sincere manifestation of patriotic feelings. This is how our fellow countryman Evgeniy Romanovich Dyshel writes about the death of his brother in a letter to his father: “... You should be proud of Valentin, because he died in battle honestly, went into battle fearlessly... In past battles, I avenged him... Let's meet, we'll talk in more detail...” ( dated September 27, 1944). Major tankman Dyshel never had a chance to meet his father - on January 20, 1945, he died liberating Poland.

From a letter from Leonid Alekseevich Karasev to his wife Anna Vasilievna: “The great joy is that we are conducting an offensive along almost the entire front and quite successfully, many large cities have been taken. In general, the successes of the Red Army are unprecedented. So Hitler will soon be kaput, as the Germans themselves say” (letter dated June 6, 1944).

Thus, the soldier’s triangles with a field mail number instead of a return address and a black official stamp “Viewed by military censorship” that have miraculously survived to this day are the most sincere and reliable voices of the war. Living, authentic words that came to us from the distant “forties, fateful”, today sound with particular force. Each of the letters from the front, even the most insignificant at first glance, even if deeply personal, is a historical document of the greatest value. Each envelope contains pain and joy, hope, melancholy and suffering. You experience an acute sense of bitterness when you read these letters, knowing that the one who wrote them did not return from the war... The letters are a kind of chronicle of the Great Patriotic War...

The front-line writer Konstantin Simonov wrote the following words: “War is not a continuous danger, the expectation of death and thoughts about it. If this were so, then not a single person would be able to withstand its weight... War is a combination of mortal danger, the constant possibility of being killed, chance and all the features and details of everyday life that are always present in our lives... A person at the front is busy with an endless number of things , about which he constantly needs to think and because of which he does not have time to think about his safety at all...” It was everyday everyday activities, to which he had to be distracted all the time, that helped the soldiers overcome fear and gave the soldiers psychological stability.

65 years have passed since the end of the Great Patriotic War, but the end to its study has not yet been set: there remain blank spots, unknown pages, unclear destinies, strange circumstances. And the topic of front-line life is the least explored in this series.

Bibliography

1. V. Kiselev. Fellow soldiers. Documentary storytelling. Publishing house "Nizhpoligraf" Nizhny Novgorod, 2005
2. IN AND. Belyaev. Fire, water and copper pipes. (Memoirs of an old soldier). Moscow, 2007
3. P. Lipatov. Uniforms of the Red Army and Navy. Encyclopedia of technology. Publishing house "Technology for Youth". Moscow, 1995
4. Fund materials of the Unecha Museum of Local Lore (front-line letters, diaries, memories of veterans).
5. Memoirs of veterans of the Great Patriotic War, recorded during personal conversations.

Bazarov Yunrin

In the history of the Great Patriotic War, there are a number of topics that have not been thoroughly studied due to their insignificance (from the point of view of many researchers). One of these issues is the topic of the life of soldiers during the war. However, I would like to note that war in general is not only fighting, the heroic dedication of home front workers, but also the everyday life of the army with its worries about food, clothing, and housing. In many ways, the morale of the army, its combat effectiveness,

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Trans-Baikal Territory, Mogoituysky district

Municipal educational institution

Kusochinskaya secondary school

NPK "Eternal Memory is Alive"

LIFE AND DAILY LIFE OF SOLDIERS DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

Completed: Bazarov Yunrin, 10th grade, Municipal Educational Institution "Kusochinskaya Secondary School"

Supervisor: Bazarova Lhamazhap Sodboevna history teacher, Municipal Educational Institution

"Kusochinskaya secondary school"

village Kusochi

2015

Work plan:

1. Introduction - 3-5 pages
2. Main part - 6-9 pages

1. The concept of life in the army. Supplying troops with food during the Great Patriotic War;
2. The relationship between the soldiers of the warring parties.

1. Conclusion – 12 pages
2. Literature – 11 pages

Introduction

Goal of the work: show the importance of history Everyday life soldier during the Great Patriotic War (summer-autumn 1941 Leningrad)

Tasks: 1.Familiarize yourself with the memories and letters of participants in the war near Leningrad in 1941;

2. Analyze the literature on the topic;

3. Master methods of collecting and processing material (paper and electronic media);

4. Use Internet resources

Object of study:Life of a soldier during the war

Item: nutrition and relationships between German and Soviet soldiers

Research methods:literature research, information collection, comparison and contrast of data

Novelty: highlights the everyday history of soldiers of the Great Patriotic War

Practical significance:This material can be used in history lessons, extracurricular activities as a topic for a special course and as museum material

Relevance

Today there is a continuous process of studying the main issues of the history of the Great Patriotic War, its main campaigns, battles, the activities of the main military leaders and their role in the defeat of the Nazi invaders. At the same time, certain topics and aspects were deliberately hidden from a wide range of researchers and ordinary citizens. The ideological framework deliberately narrowed the amount of information on such “inconvenient” topics as collaboration, human and material losses, the cost of victory, the use of repressive measures at the front (the system of penal battalions and penal companies), etc.

Also in the history of the Great Patriotic War there are a number of topics that have not been thoroughly studied due to their insignificance (from the point of view of many researchers). One of these issues is the topic of the life of soldiers during the war. However, I would like to note that war as a whole is not only military operations, battles and operations, the strategic and tactical skill of military leaders, the heroic dedication of home front workers, but also the everyday life of the army with its concerns about food, clothing, and housing. In many ways, the morale of the army, its combat effectiveness,

So important topic Today, unfortunately, it has not received wide coverage. Only small groups of people engaged in so-called historical reconstruction are trying to piece together the missing information about the daily life of the soldiers of the warring armies.

So, a review of the problem allows us to conclude that in domestic military historical science the topic of the everyday life of soldiers has not been fully studied, fragmentarily. Only individual components of everyday life were examined (most often food and uniforms).

It is the lack of historiographical material that leads to the involvement of the topic under study from other sources, for example, the memoirs of war veterans and, on this side, archive materials, most often in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense, in Podolsk, where certain areas are studied major battles(Leningrad, Volgograd, Kursk regions, etc.). outline of the events that took place. As a result of this, it becomes possible to learn about the daily life of a Red Army soldier. Russian archives do not always serve as a basis for a serious study of this topic; letters and memoirs of German soldiers are needed, which are not always digitized, especially for the period of interest,the beginning of the war near Leningrad.

The very concept of everyday life includes a fairly large range of issues being studied. It is impossible to cover them in a small work, which is why the author examines the relationship and influence of such concepts as “nutrition” and “leisure”.

Of all the components of a soldier’s life, none has such an impact on his health and combat effectiveness as nutrition. High-calorie, varied and regular food is necessary for a person to live a full life, but in war the role of nutrition doubles. Therefore, supply issues were given attention at the highest level.

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the food situation in the troops was favorable. According to the veterans’ recollections, the food was good, no one complained, and many, especially those who came from villages, were even very pleased: “I also liked the food: there was a lot of it and they fed me three times every day. Those. those from the city still made faces, but we, the villagers, eat and rejoice.”

Then the situation changed dramatically for the worse, and according to the testimony of veterans, until 1942, the soldier’s diet was quite meager. Former reconnaissance corporal F.Sh. Gafurov, who began serving at the very beginning of the war, recalls: “We sat at a wooden table. No one was given any plates or spoons, but instead were given iron basins for ten people. They fed them with chopped potatoes, then a liquid, like broth, was poured into basins for five people each.” Archival materials also testify to the lack of proper nutrition in the initial period of the war. Thus, in the report of the commander of one of the units of the Leningrad Front dated August 13, 1941, we read: “Food is very poorly organized on the front line, people are hungry for 2-3 days, due to the poor functioning of the catering department, people do not eat in a timely manner, and they There is absolutely less fighting force." Another report dated September 1, 1941 says: “Often, the delivery of food to units is so poorly organized that soldiers are left without food for days, or, as for example, the 311th division, eat without bread for 10 days.”

Hunger gave rise to many diseases among the soldiers, ranging from dysentery to dystrophy. Naturally, such an army could not conduct full-fledged combat operations, hence one of the reasons for the defeat in the first period of the war.

It was also difficult to establish a supply system for troops because already in June 1941 the most fertile regions of the USSR were in the hands of the enemy. Food could only be delivered from unoccupied territory, which took weeks.

Even if food was nevertheless delivered to the soldiers on the front line, it was not best quality, insufficient in quantity and monotonous. F.K. Medvedev recalls: “... in the morning - porridge, at lunch - soup or porridge.

The problems that arose among the troops with food had to be resolved immediately. Therefore, already in September 1941, the chairman of the Red Army food and clothing supply committee, A.I. Mikoyan and the chief of logistics of the Red Army A.V. Khrulev approached the State Defense Committee with a proposal to establish strict differentiated standards for the supply of food to troops. From that time on, the supply of food and fodder was carried out not according to the standard, but according to payroll military units.

The location of the unit was of great importance in organizing catering. Thus, the formations that fought in the Leningrad region, until 1944, received food in a much smaller volume due to transportation difficulties. And among the Germans, according to the recollections of the German soldier Helmut Klaussman, corporal of the 111th Infantry Division, “Usually in the morning they gave coffee, bread, butter (if there was any), sausage or canned ham. For lunch - soup, potatoes with meat or lard. For dinner, porridge, bread, coffee. But often some products were not available. And instead they could give them cookies or, for example, a can of sardines.”

My grandfather Zhambalov Sodbo served as a private from 1942-1944 in the 115th cavalry regiment, 116th separate brigade, 661st rifle regiment. He had two medals “For Courage”. The cavalry regiment was part of the 8th division, formed back in 1923; the division was one of the oldest in the Red Army. The units included in it had glorious military traditions. Thus, the 115th Cavalry Regiment was organized back in 1919 from Transbaikal Cossacks. The regiment received Active participation in the battles for the Chinese Eastern Railway, for which he was awarded the Honorary Revolutionary Red Banner. Their personnel were largely represented by Transbaikal, Amur and Ussuri Cossacks.

Grandfather did not like to talk about the war, but we remember that he talked about the beginning of the war. He was serving in the army at that time, somewhere in Far East, from where they were, regular units were transferred to Leningrad. My grandfather said that it was near Leningrad. At the beginning of the war, hostilities ended and began with the sound of a bugle. After have a delicious lunch, the smells of which clearly reached us, the Germans were playing the harmonica. And they gave us semolina cooked in water. After such a dinner, we lay and listened with envy to the sounds of music. Then they continued to fight. Between the enemies there was a field sown with peas. Our soldiers, hungry at night, crawled to the pea field, and German soldiers also began to crawl. In the darkness, we found a common language with the German soldiers, because we were peers. Every night we began to take turns crawling to the field, where we jokingly fought with each other, talked, the Germans brought chocolate, cigarettes, etc. They knew what they were feeding us. True, all this did not last long. Someone reported from the German side that the soldiers were friends with each other, and everything stopped. They were put against them women's battalion. My grandfather hated it when movies showed beautiful women in military uniform. He said that women should not be allowed to carry weapons, that they are much more bloodthirsty and tougher than men. But until the end of his life he loved, surprising his fellow villagers, pea soup. This was retold to us by our mother, who heard it from our father in childhood. We know that my grandfather did not immediately return from the war. We don't know what happened. Awarded the medal “For victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.” in 1946. In 1948, he worked in the subsidiary farm of the Orsa Locomobile Plant as the manager of an oil warehouse. He managed to return home after my grandfather’s brother found out that he, without documents, somewhere in the west, could not return home. I forced the local head of the passport office to send a certificate - confirmation. In 1954 he began working on a collective farm, before that at the Mogoituy MTS (1948-54). Having worked all his life, he died at the age of 62 (1982) on his native collective farm “Ilyich’s Path”. He was keenly interested in the history of the war. Books such as the “Nuremberg Epilogue”, memoirs of G. Zhukov, Rokossovsky, etc. have been preserved.

According to the memoirs of German soldier Helmut Klaussman: “There were no strict requirements for propaganda. No one forced me to read books and brochures. I still haven't read Mein Kamf. But they strictly monitored morale. It was not allowed to have “defeatist conversations” or write “defeatist letters.” This was monitored by a special “propaganda officer.”They appeared in the troops immediately after Stalingrad. The attitude towards the local population, Russians and Belarusians was restrained and distrustful, but without hatred. We were told that we shoulddefeat Stalin, that our enemy is Bolshevism. But, in general, the attitude towards the local population was correctly called “colonial”. We looked at them in 1941 as the future workforce, as territories that would become our colonies.

One day, one Soviet unit on the march went too far ahead, and the field kitchen was left somewhere behind. The unit commander sends two Kyrgyz soldiers to find her, they don’t speak Russian, it’s of little use in battle, in short, bring it, give it. They left, and there was no news from them for two days. Finally, they come with backpacks filled with German sweets, schnapps, etc. One of them has a note. It is written (in Russian): “Comrade Stalin! For us they are not languages, for you they are not soldiers. Send them home.”

It should be concluded that the Red Army entered the Great Patriotic War with an undeveloped system for delivering food to the active army. For this reason, in the first months, a large number of soldiers experienced a shortage of tobacco and suffered from hunger. Due to the fact that there was no established system of soldier's life, the government began to implement a number of measures that turned out to be quite successful. At the head of the supply reform was People's Commissar A.I. Mikoyan. Largely thanks to his actions and the activities of his department, by 1942 there was an improvement in the field of food supply. It was manifested in the fact that now the soldier regularly received his ration, which increased over time.

Conclusions.

Summarizing all of the above, we can conclude that there are many “blank spots” in the history of the Great Patriotic War. Often they are covered with secrecy, and sometimes they simply do not arouse interest due to their “insignificance”. For many people, war is most often associated with continuous fighting, and many forget that it also consisted of the harsh everyday life of a soldier, filled with thoughts about food, clothing, and health.

The topic of the life of soldiers becomes relevant only in last years However, even at the present stage little attention is paid to this problem. To study it, one has to use a whole body of sources: archival materials, memoirs of participants in the Great Patriotic War, oral memories of veterans. Each of these sources has its own strengths and weaknesses, but the need for their use is beyond doubt. At the same time, we are talking about their complex use.

According to the results research work The following conclusions can be drawn.

By the beginning of the war, the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army approached without a well-thought-out system for organizing life. During the war regulations about the life of a Red Army soldier, which existed in peacetime, were not fully implemented due to the lack of the necessary material base.

It is for this reason that in the first months of the war, morbidity and mortality in the troops increased sharply due to the lack of uninterrupted power supply, and this may explain our failures in initial stage war. At the same time, this made it possible to show in a separate section of the front near Leningrad that German soldiers really did not have strict requirements for the propaganda of Nazism and racial purity. They fought against the communists (Bolsheviks), and not against the common soldier. Therefore, at the initial stage of the war, the Germans had a positive attitude. This gives the message that in addition to ideology, there is another human aspect of relations, which even in war cannot be lost, the universal human values ​​of friendship and mutual understanding between peoples. They are the tablets that should never be forgotten.

Sources and literature

1. Big Encyclopedic Dictionary: in 2 volumes / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov.- M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1991. T. 1.

2. Great Patriotic War 1941 - 1945 Encyclopedia/Ed. MM. Kozlova. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1985.

3. The siege of Leningrad in documents from declassified archives. Collection of documents / Ed. N.L. Volkovsky. - M: ACT, 2004.

4. Orders of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. Collection of documents / Ed. V.A. Zolotareva

5. View from the enemy side. Memoirs of a German soldier about the Great Patriotic War Memoirs of a German soldier Helmut Klaussman, corporal of the 111th Infantry Division. Article

6. Abdulin M..G. 160 pages from a soldier’s diary / M.G. Abdullin -M.: Young Guard, 1985.

7. Malykhin F.M. Army General Andrei Khrulev / F.M. Malykhin, - M.: Voenizdat, 1971.

8. Mikhailov A.V. We are soldiers / A.V. Mikhailov. - M.: Young Guard, 1978.

9.www.war.ru

10. victory.ru.

The topics of the history of the Great Patriotic War are multifaceted. For many years, the war was described from the point of view of political leadership, the state of the fronts in relation to “manpower” and equipment. The role of an individual in war was illuminated as part of a gigantic mechanism. Particular attention was paid to the ability of the Soviet soldier to carry out the order of the commander at any cost, and the readiness to die for the Motherland. The established image of war was questioned during the Khrushchev “thaw”. It was then that the memoirs of war participants, notes of war correspondents, front-line letters, diaries began to be published - sources that are least susceptible to influence. They raised “difficult topics” and revealed “blank spots”. The theme of man in war came to the fore. Since this topic is vast and diverse, it is not possible to cover it in one article.

Based on front-line letters, memoirs, diary entries, as well as unpublished sources, the authors will still try to highlight some of the problems of front-line life during the Patriotic War of 1941-1945. How the soldier lived at the front, in what conditions he fought, how he was dressed, what he ate, what he did during short breaks between battles - all these questions are important, and it was the solution of these everyday problems that largely ensured victory over the enemy. At the initial stage of the war, soldiers wore a tunic with a fold-down collar, with special pads at the elbows. Usually these covers were made of tarpaulin. The gymnast was worn with pants that had the same canvas linings around the knees. On the feet there are boots and windings. It was they who were the main grief of the soldiers, especially the infantry, since it was this branch of the army that served in them. They were uncomfortable, flimsy and heavy. This type of shoe was driven by cost savings. After the publication of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, the USSR army increased to 5.5 million people in two years. It was impossible to put boots on everyone.

They saved on leather, boots were made from the same tarpaulin 2. Until 1943, an indispensable attribute of an infantryman was a roll over the left shoulder. This is an overcoat that was rolled up for mobility and put on so that the soldier did not experience any discomfort when shooting. In other cases, the roll-up caused a lot of trouble. If in the summer, during the transition, the infantry was attacked by German aircraft, then because of the slope, the soldiers were visible on the ground. Because of it, it was impossible to quickly escape to a field or shelter. And in the trench they simply threw it under their feet - it would have been impossible to turn around with it. The soldiers of the Red Army had three types of uniforms: everyday, guard and weekend, each of which had two options - summer and winter. Between 1935 and 1941, numerous minor changes were made to the clothing of the Red Army soldiers.

The field uniform of the 1935 model was made from fabric of various shades of khaki color. The main distinguishing element was the tunic, which in its cut, the same for soldiers and soldiers, resembled a Russian peasant shirt. There were also summer and winter gymnasts. Summer uniforms were made from cotton fabric more than light color, and winter - from wool fabric, which was more saturated, dark color. The officers wore a wide leather belt with a brass buckle decorated with a five-pointed star. The soldiers wore a simpler belt with an open buckle. In field conditions, soldiers and officers could wear two types of gymnasts: everyday and weekend. The weekend tunic was often called a French jacket. The second main element of the uniform was trousers, also called breeches. Soldiers' trousers had diamond-shaped reinforcing stripes on the knees. For footwear, officers wore high leather boots, and soldiers wore boots with windings or tarpaulin boots. In winter, military personnel wore an overcoat made of brownish-gray cloth. Soldiers' and officers' overcoats, identical in cut, nevertheless differed in quality. The Red Army used several types of hats. Most units wore budenovki, which had winter and summer option. However, at the end of the 30s, summer Budenovka

was everywhere replaced by the cap. Officers wore caps in the summer. In units stationed in Central Asia and the Far East, wide-brimmed Panama hats were worn instead of caps. In 1936, a new type of helmet began to be supplied to the Red Army. In 1940, noticeable changes were made to the design of the helmet. Officers everywhere wore caps; the cap was an attribute of officer power. Tankers wore a special helmet made of leather or canvas. In summer they used a lighter version of the helmet, and in winter they wore a helmet with a fur lining. The equipment of Soviet soldiers was strict and simple. The 1938 model canvas duffel bag was common. However, not everyone had real duffel bags, so after the war began, many soldiers threw away gas masks and used gas mask bags as duffel bags. According to the regulations, every soldier armed with a rifle was required to have two leather cartridge bags. The bag could store four clips for a Mosin rifle - 20 rounds. Cartridge bags were worn on the waist belt, one on each side.

The officers used a small bag, which was made of either leather or canvas. There were several types of these bags, some of them were worn over the shoulder, some were hung from the waist belt. On top of the bag was a small tablet. Some officers carried large leather tablets that were hung from the waist belt under their left arm. In 1943, the Red Army adopted a new uniform, radically different from that used until then. The system of insignia has also changed. The new tunic was very similar to the one used in the tsarist army and had a stand-up collar fastened with two buttons. Home distinctive feature shoulder straps became the new uniform. There were two types of shoulder straps: field and everyday. Field shoulder straps were made of khaki-colored fabric. On the shoulder straps near the button they wore a small gold or silver badge indicating the type of military service. Officers wore a cap with a black leather chinstrap. The color of the band on the cap depended on the type of troops. In winter, generals and colonels of the Red Army had to wear hats, and the rest of the officers received ordinary earflaps. The rank of sergeants and foremen was determined by the number and width of the stripes on their shoulder straps.

The edging of the shoulder straps had the colors of the branch of the military. Among the small arms in the first years of the war, the legendary “three-line rifle”, the three-line Mosin rifle of the 1891 model, enjoyed great respect and love among the soldiers. Many soldiers gave them names and considered the rifle a real comrade in arms that never failed in difficult battle conditions. But, for example, the SVT-40 rifle was not liked because of its capriciousness and strong recoil. Interesting information about the life and everyday life of soldiers is contained in such sources of information as memoirs, front-line diaries and letters, which are least susceptible to ideological influence. For example, it was traditionally believed that soldiers lived in dugouts and pillboxes. This is not entirely true, most of the soldiers were located in trenches, trenches or simply in the nearest forest without regretting it at all. It was always very cold in the pillboxes; at that time, there were no autonomous heating systems or autonomous gas supply, which we now use, for example, to heat a summer house, and therefore the soldiers preferred to spend the night in the trenches, throwing branches at the bottom and stretching a raincoat on top.

The soldiers’ diet was simple: “Shchi and porridge are our food” - this proverb accurately characterizes the rations of soldiers’ kettles in the first months of the war and, of course, a soldier’s best friend is crackers, a favorite delicacy especially in field conditions, for example on a battle march. It is also impossible to imagine a soldier’s life during short periods of rest without the music of songs and books, which gave rise to a good mood and raised spirits. But still, the most important role in the victory over fascism was played by the psychology of the Russian soldier, who was able to cope with any everyday difficulties, overcome fear, survive and win. During the war, the treatment of patients consisted of the use of various ointments; the Demyanovich method was also widespread, according to which naked patients rubbed a hyposulfite solution and then hydrochloric acid into the body - from top to bottom.

In this case, pressure is felt on the skin, similar to rubbing with wet sand. After treatment, the patient may feel itching for another 3-5 days, as a reaction to killed mites. At the same time, many war fighters managed to get sick from these diseases dozens of times. In general, washing in a bathhouse and passing sanitization both the “old men” and the reinforcements arriving at the unit passed through, mainly being in the second echelon, that is, without directly participating in the battles. Moreover, washing in the bathhouse was most often timed to coincide with spring and autumn. In the summer, soldiers had the opportunity to swim in rivers, streams, and collect rainwater. In winter, it was not always possible not only to find a ready-made bathhouse built by the local population, but also to build a temporary one ourselves. When one of the Smershev heroes in Bogomolov’s famous novel “The Moment of Truth (In August 1944)” pours out the freshly prepared stew before unexpectedly moving to another place, this is a typical case of front-line life. Redeployments of units were sometimes so frequent that not only military fortifications, but also household premises were often abandoned shortly after they were built. The Germans washed in the bathhouse in the morning, the Magyars in the afternoon, and ours in the evening. The life of a soldier can be divided into several categories related to where this or that unit was located. The greatest hardships befell the people on the front line; there was no usual washing, shaving, breakfast, lunch or dinner.

There is a common cliche: they say, war is war, and lunch is on schedule. In fact, there was no such routine, much less any menu. It must be said that then a decision was made to prevent the enemy from seizing the collective farm livestock. They tried to get him out, and where possible, they handed him over to military units. The situation near Moscow in the winter of 1941-1942 was completely different, when there were forty-degree frosts. There was no talk of any dinner then. The soldiers either advanced or retreated, regrouped their forces, and there was no positional warfare as such, which means it was impossible to even somehow organize life. Usually once a day the foreman brought a thermos with gruel, which was simply called “food.” If this happened in the evening, then there was dinner, and in the afternoon, which happened extremely rarely, lunch. They cooked what they had enough food for, somewhere nearby, so that the enemy could not see the kitchen smoke. And they measured each soldier a ladle into a pot. A loaf of bread was cut with a two-handed saw, because in the cold it turned into ice. The soldiers hid their “rations” under their overcoats to keep them warm at least a little. Each soldier at that time had a spoon behind the top of his boot, as we called it, an “entrenching tool,” an aluminum stamping.

She not only played a role cutlery, but also was a kind of " business card" The explanation for this is this: there was a belief that if you carry a soldier’s medallion in your trouser pocket-piston: a small black plastic pencil case, which should contain a note with data (last name, first name, patronymic, year of birth, where you were called up from), then you will definitely be killed. Therefore, most fighters simply did not fill out this sheet, and some even threw away the medallion itself. But they scratched out all their data on a spoon. And therefore, even now, when search engines find the remains of soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War, their names are determined precisely from the spoons. During the offensive, dry rations of crackers or biscuits and canned food were given out, but they really appeared in the diet when the Americans announced their entry into the war and began to provide assistance to the Soviet Union.

The dream of any soldier, by the way, was fragrant overseas sausages in jars. Alcohol was only available at the front line. How did this happen? The foreman arrived with a can, and in it was some kind of cloudy liquid of a light coffee color. A pot was poured onto the compartment, and then each was measured with the cap of a 76-mm projectile: it was unscrewed before firing, releasing the fuse. Whether it was 100 or 50 grams and what strength, no one knew. He drank, “bit” his sleeve, that’s all the “drunkenness.” In addition, from the rear of the front, this alcohol-containing liquid reached the front line through many, as they now say, intermediaries, so both its volume and “degrees” decreased. Films often show that a military unit is located in a village where living conditions are more or less human: you can wash yourself, even go to the bathhouse, sleep on a bed... But this could only be the case for headquarters located at some distance from the front line.

But at the very front, the conditions were completely different and extremely harsh. The Soviet brigades formed in Siberia had good equipment: felt boots, regular and flannel foot wraps, thin and warm underwear, cotton trousers, as well as cotton pants, a tunic, a quilted padded jacket, an overcoat, a balaclava, a winter hat and mittens made of dog fur. A person can endure even the most extreme conditions. Soldiers slept, most often, in the forest: you cut spruce branches, make a bed out of them, cover yourself with these paws on top, and lie down for the night. Of course, frostbite also occurred. In our army, they were taken to the rear only when there was almost nothing left of the unit except its number, banner and a handful of fighters. Then the formations and units were sent for reorganization. And the Germans, Americans and British used the principle of rotation: units and subunits were not always on the front line, they were replaced by fresh troops. Moreover, soldiers were given leave to travel home.

In the Red Army, out of the entire 5 million-strong army, only a few received leave for special merits. There was a problem of lice, especially in the warm season. But the sanitary services in the troops worked quite effectively. There were special “vosheka” cars with closed van bodies. Uniforms were loaded there and treated with hot air. But this was done in the rear. And on the front line, the soldiers lit a fire so as not to violate the rules of camouflage, took off their underwear and brought it closer to the fire. The lice just crackled and burned! I would like to note that even in such harsh conditions of unsettled life in the troops there was no typhus, which is usually carried by lice. Interesting Facts: 1) A special place was occupied by the use personnel alcohol. Almost immediately after the start of the war, alcohol was officially legalized at the highest state level and included in the daily supply of personnel.

Soldiers considered vodka not only as a means of psychological relief, but also as an indispensable medicine in the Russian frosts. It was impossible without her, especially in winter; bombings, artillery shelling, tank attacks had such an effect on the psyche that only vodka was the only way to escape. 2) Letters from home meant a lot to the soldiers at the front. Not all soldiers received them, and then, listening to the reading of letters sent to their comrades, everyone felt it as their own. In response, they wrote mainly about the conditions of front-line life, leisure, simple soldier entertainment, friends and commanders. 3) There were moments of rest at the front. A guitar or accordion sounded. But the real holiday was the arrival of amateur artists. And there was no more grateful spectator than the soldier, who, perhaps in a few hours, was about to go to his death. It was difficult for a person in war, it was difficult to watch a dead comrade fall nearby, it was difficult to dig graves in hundreds. But our people lived and survived in this war. The unpretentiousness of the Soviet soldier and his heroism made victory closer every day.

Literature.

1. Abdulin M.G. 160 pages from a soldier's diary. – M.: Young Guard, 1985.

2. The Great Patriotic War 1941-1945: encyclopedia. – M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1985.

3. Gribachev N.M. When you become a soldier... / N.M. Gribachev. – M.: DOSAAF USSR, 1967.

4. Lebedintsev A.Z., Mukhin Yu.I. Fathers-commanders. – M.: Yauza, EKSMO, 2004. – 225 p.

5. Lipatov P. Uniforms of the Red Army and the Wehrmacht. – M.: Publishing House “Technology for Youth”, 1995.

6. Sinitsyn A.M. Nationwide assistance to the front / A.M. Sinitsyn. – M.: Voenizdat, 1985. – 319 p.

7. Khrenov M.M., Konovalov I.F., Dementyuk N.V., Terovkin M.A. Military clothing Armed Forces USSR and Russia (1917-1990s). – M.: Voenizdat, 1999.