Date
Author
Василий ХРИСТОФОРОВ; Доктор Юридических Наук
Source
Preserved copy
Translated material
Children of General Schmidt
“Hand over your weapons and undergo re-registration”
In mid-August 1941, German troops entered the Oryol region, which then included significant territories of the present-day Bryansk, Kaluga and Kursk regions. At the end of September 1941, the German command, having regrouped its forces, launched Operation Typhoon, which had the goal of capturing Moscow. The 2nd Panzer Group under the command of Colonel General Heinz Guderian (German military leader, Colonel General, since June 1940 the commander of the 2nd Panzer Group, since October 1941 - the 2nd Panzer Army on the Soviet-German front), breaking through There was a wide gap on the left flank of the Bryansk Front that rushed towards Moscow. On October 3, German mobile units occupied Oryol almost without a fight. On October 4, 1941, after a short battle, German troops entered the village of Lokot, the center of the Brasovsky district of the Oryol region. Without stopping, they moved to Tula, and for several days the Brasovsky regional center remained without any power, and on October 11-14, sheets with the texts of the first orders of the German military commandant appeared on the walls of houses in Orel and settlements of the Oryol region: “Everyone surrender Those who do not hand over their weapons will be shot. Everyone must re-register. Citizens of German origin are required to register for security duty.”
In the conditions of the current anarchy, the functions of the self-proclaimed head of the Brasovsky district were taken over by Konstantin Voskoboinik, a physics teacher at the Lokot Timber and Chemical College (before the war, he was convicted of activity in an illegal armed detachment and spent three years in a forced labor camp). In an effort to give his power a legitimate character, Voskoboynik received from the command of the German unit passing through Lokot a certificate of his appointment as head of the Brasovsky district. The occupiers allowed Voskoboynik to form new local governments, and he enthusiastically began to implement the plan. Voskoboynik resolutely set out to establish a “new order”, suppressed any objections and applied harsh repressive measures. In part of the premises of the Lokot stud farm, a prison was equipped, the cells of which were never empty. Executions and hangings of undesirables were carried out regularly.
Voskoboynik appointed the chief engineer of the Lokot distillery, Bronislav Kaminsky, to the position of head of the reception office (before the war, he was subject to administrative and party penalties, expelled from Leningrad, worked in the Chelyabinsk region and only in 1940 moved to Lokot). Kaminsky was assigned to work with the population: parsing letters, considering complaints and applications. In fact, he became Voskoboynik’s deputy. In November 1941, Stepan Mosin, the former director of a junior high school in the Suzemsky district, appeared in the district administration. In September 1941, he was mobilized into the Red Army, but a month later he deserted and returned to Brasovo. At the district government, Mosin became deputy head of the reception office.
A remarkable fact: judging by documents from the Central Archive of the FSB of Russia, among the employees of the Lokot district administration who began building the “new order”, there were many who had recently actively strengthened Soviet power - senior officials of district executive committees, members of the bureau of district committees, chairmen of collective farms and village councils, heads of industrial enterprises, school directors and teachers.
The struggle for a “new Russia” needed to be given an ideological justification, and therefore at the end of November 1941 Voskoboinik published the manifesto of the People’s Socialist Party “Viking”, which provided for the destruction of the communist and collective farm system, the provision of arable land and household plots to peasants, the development of private initiative and “ merciless extermination of all Jews who were commissars.” (Later, in full accordance with Hitler’s racial theory, on the territory of self-government they began to exterminate all Soviet citizens of this nationality without exception.)
However, the German military command did not intend to create either political parties or new state entities in the occupied territories and did not support Voskoboynik’s party initiative. The fascist leaders openly declared that the states they had conquered should be liquidated, and the population partially enslaved and partially destroyed. Back on July 16, 1941, at a meeting with the leaders of the Nazi Reich, Hitler, talking about his goals in the war against the Soviet Union, emphasized that we were talking about occupying the area, establishing order in it and establishing security. To achieve this, all necessary measures will be taken - executions, evictions, etc.:
“ The creation of a military power west of the Urals should never be on the agenda again, even if we had to fight for a hundred years for this. The empire will only be safe if there are no foreign troops west of the Urals. Germany takes upon itself the protection of this space from all possible dangers.”
"They robbed everyone who could"
On the night of January 8, 1942, partisans made a surprise raid on Lokot, during which Voskoboinik was killed. The retaliatory measure was the execution of seven hostages accused of having connections with partisans. Kaminsky, having assumed the duties of the district headman, issued an order for the general mobilization of the male population of the Brasovsky district from 18 to 50 years old. Mobilization, carried out under the threat of execution, took place quickly. Kaminsky called the created anti-partisan detachments a militia brigade, and awarded himself the title “militia brigade commander.” After several successful operations against the partisans in March 1942, Kaminsky was summoned to Oryol to the commander of the 2nd Tank Army, Colonel General Rudolf Schmidt, whose area of responsibility included the occupied territories of the Oryol region. After talking with Kaminsky, Schmidt issued an order on the formation of the Lokotsky district self-government as part of the Brasovsky, Navlinsky, Suzemsky, Komarichsky and Sevsky districts of the Oryol region, as well as on the appointment of Kaminsky as chief burgomaster and head of armed detachments. Inspired by the reception from General Schmidt, Kaminsky returned to Lokot, immediately summoned Mosin, appointed him deputy for civil affairs and instructed him to organize the self-government administration and authorities in regional centers, volosts and villages.
Mosin enthusiastically began to carry out the assigned task, taking as a basis the Soviet principle of zoning, i.e. left the district boundaries as of 1929, when the administrative-territorial reform was completed. The districts were divided into volosts approximately within the boundaries that existed before the reform. Each volost included several villages and hamlets with their land and approximately 10 thousand people. The burgomasters appointed by Kaminsky became the heads of the districts, and the elders in the volosts. Only at the lowest level - in villages and hamlets - did the population elect elders, candidates were recommended by the county government, and sometimes there were “self-nominated” candidates. The partisans immediately took advantage of this and began promoting their candidates to elected positions.
Mosin himself spoke about how the formation of self-government bodies took place at the investigation after the liberation of the occupied territories by Soviet troops:
“The German authorities strongly encouraged the work we were doing in their favor. We were flattered by this, and we strived for an even more active struggle against the Soviet state. The desire for power and the desire to curry favor with the Germans pushed us to various sophisticated methods and actions, as long as it was to please the Germans. The trust towards us on the part of the German occupation authorities can be evidenced by the fact that in July 1942 Lokotsky district was transformed into an independent administrative district, consisting of Brasovsky, Navlinsky, Komarichsky, Sevsky, Suzemsky, Mikhailovsky, Dmitrievsky and Dmitrovsky districts.”
In addition to ideology, the creation of new power structures and the fight against partisans, Lokot self-government also dealt with economic issues. The arable land was divided according to the eaters. Kaminsky made an attempt to return the real estate that belonged to them, in particular the mills, to the owners who had been dispossessed before the war. However, Mosin categorically objected to such “privatization” and managed to freeze this initiative through bureaucratic delays: peasant capitalism did not appeal to him.
By the way, no property nationalized by the Soviet government was returned to its former owners - the economic structure of self-government had nothing in common with the pre-revolutionary one. The main monetary unit in the district was the Soviet ruble. The district budget consisted of taxes on the population. Cash taxes were taken from buildings, all types of agricultural products, livestock, poultry and handicrafts. On average, each farm received about 600 rubles annually; in addition, they took out fire insurance, but no compensation was paid to fire victims. All these budget funds officially went to the needs of the self-government and the maintenance of police detachments, but in fact became the “fiefdom” of the leadership of the self-government and its German patrons. From the testimony of residents of the Lokot district:
“Everyone who could robbed the population, starting from an ordinary policeman and ending with Kaminsky himself. During the existence of the Kaminsky brigade, only 5,000 heads of cattle were exterminated, no less, plus about 4,000 heads were taken to Germany, not counting pigs, sheep and poultry. Livestock and poultry were mainly taken from the families of partisans and people associated with them. Usually, when it became known that one or another village resident was in a partisan detachment or was helping them, his family was robbed, everything was taken away: livestock, poultry, food and even clothes. All things looted from the population were stored in a special warehouse at Kaminsky, who gave them to his associates.”
"Help from the friendly German people"
The leaders of the Lokot district believed that the education of citizens of the “new Russia” should begin from school. It is characteristic that for “correct education” in schools in the Lokot district, the “history” course was excluded from the educational programs, and the “geography” subject was reduced to the study of the natural and climatic conditions of countries and continents. All socio-political literature was confiscated from school libraries.
The leadership of the Lokot district paid great attention to agitprop. From the end of March 1942 in Lokt, on the basis of the printing house of the pre-war newspaper “Brasovsky Kommunar”, the weekly “Voice of the People” began to be published. The newspaper published orders of the mayor and his deputy, reports on the situation at the front, the life of the Lokot district, the “fight against partisans”, published court verdicts, open letters to the partisans calling on them to go over to the side of the “new government”, reported on official movements, awards, etc. Articles were also published about outstanding figures of Russian culture - Derzhavin, Ostrovsky, Gorky. And as an obligatory political injection - editorials about the inevitability of Germany's victory over the Soviet Union. Former functionaries of the Lokot district spoke about this in detail during the investigation:
“Kaminsky said that after the end of the war, a Russian national government would be created in Russia in favor of the Germans, in which the Germans promised to give us ministerial posts. Kaminsky even in his official speeches published in the newspaper “Voice of the People” called the Lokotsky district a state. We already imagined then that we were statesmen of the future “new Russia” with fascist orders and the laws of Hitler’s Germany.”
Gradually Kaminsky returned to the idea of Voskoboynik - the formation of a political party. This time the Germans decided not to contradict this idea - the situation required appeasing the collaborators. At the end of March 1943, an organizing committee was formed, which began to develop the charter, program and structure of party bodies. The program included four main provisions: “1. The overthrow of the bloody Bolshevik system in Russia. 2. Creation of a sovereign state uniting the peoples of Russia. 3. Recognition of the right to self-determination for individual nationalities of Russia, ripe for independent existence. 4. By creating a fair social labor system in the new Russia, eliminate the class and class discord artificially created by the Bolsheviks.”
The introduction to the party program solemnly proclaimed:
“The war with Germany, on the one hand, and the policies of the Stalinist government in this war, on the other, led the country to complete impoverishment, to the complete destruction of all the productive forces of the country... In such a difficult situation, the Russian People's National Socialist Party comes to power. She takes responsibility for the fate of the Great Russian People and the Russian State. She believes that our Motherland will rise and become prosperous... She remembers the help of the friendly German people, who liberated Russia from the barbaric Stalinist yoke, and is confident in the further help of the great German people with its battle-tested People's National Socialist Party, friendly to us in spirit and ideas the party and its immortal leader Adolf Hitler."
Any person who has reached the age of 18 (but not a Jew) and recognizes its program, without distinction of gender, religion, political beliefs, social origin or past political activity, could become a member of the party. The party was built on a centralized principle, the highest body was the congress, then the central organizing committee, regional, district and grassroots party organizations. The budget consisted of entrance and membership fees.
However, the work on building the party carried out in Lokt was limited to the adoption of the program and charter, since from May 1943 Kaminsky and his henchmen were preparing for evacuation - reality was not on their side, hopes for Hitler’s victory were fading every day. Kaminsky was forced to move to Lepel, and only in October 1943 did work on party building continue. Since November 1943, after several renamings, the party began to be called the National Socialist Labor Party of Russia (NSTPR). All leading employees of the local government were required to join the party. The maximum number of members of the NSTPR is 400 people. But despite the successes in pro-Hitler party building and the tightening of the internal punitive regime - mass executions “in connection with the active actions of partisans and units of the Red Army” became commonplace - the situation was changing not in favor of the Lokot self-governors. Kaminsky and Mosin had plenty to worry about.
From Elokt to Prague
How German propagandists assessed their opponents in the USSR is eloquently evidenced by a brochure for training with personnel of the German army, “The Political Tasks of the German Soldier in Russia in the Light of Total War,” that fell into the hands of the partisans. In the “Russian People” section, the authors emphasized: “The talent of the Russian people cannot be denied. One of the characteristic features of Russians is endurance, which is incomprehensible to the Germans. The Russian is accustomed to enduring suffering with fanatical trepidation. If the cup is overflowing, the Russian rebels and his long patience breaks out with furious, insane force. They are willing to make sacrifices and are brave fighters.”
Beginning in February 1942, Soviet planes delivered guerrilla warfare specialists, weapons, ammunition, medicines, mail to partisan airfields in the Oryol region, and took out the wounded. In May 1942, the Central headquarters of the partisan movement was created, and in June - the Oryol headquarters of the partisan movement, which coordinated the activities of 84 partisan detachments and groups (13,804 people). In addition, in settlements liberated by partisan detachments, 199 self -defense groups were organized (11,900 people).
To fight the partisans, Kaminsky formed the administrative department, which led the police detachments. In all settlements located near the forests, police officers were created, who monitored the appearance of the partisans, delayed them and shot them. The detained partisans were engaged in the justice department of the Lokot district. The designed special code, originally consisting of 45 articles, and then expanded to 150, provided for the partisans and persons associated with them, one measure of punishment - the death penalty.
The command of the 2nd German Panzer Army, fearing for his rear, set the task of the Ober-Burgomist the task of clearing forests from partisans and ensuring the protection of the rear and communications for which the supply of front troops was underway. Kaminsky received small arms (about 600 rifles and 60 machine guns) and military equipment, German uniforms, food according to the norms of German front -line units and monetary maintenance.
The hastily formed police units and self -defense groups could not fully solve the tasks set by General Schmidt. In the summer of 1942, Kaminsky reorganized all self -defense units in 15 rifle battalions, created a cavalry squadron, anti -aircraft and armored divisions. In January 1943, these units were reduced to five regiments that compiled the Ron brigade - the Russian Liberation People's Army. (All the teams of the Ron brigade were obliged to become members of the NSTPR). The maximum number of the brigade reached 12 thousand people, and on its weapons there were rifles, machine guns, easel and light machine guns, guns and mortars, tanks, armored cars and cars.
To maintain a connection with the German command at the Ron brigade, a special headquarters was created, which organized and controlled the conduct of combat operations in the interests and on the direct order of the German military command.
The fireplace acted as guides and scouts, leading punishers to the partisan camps and groups of civilians who went into the forest, carried out the final cleaning of the terrain. “Self -government” was remembered less and less - Lokot functionaries have already become the Nazi’s unusual improvised improvised in the struggle against their own people.
In the documents of the Central Archive of the FSB of Russia, there is information that the Ron brigade took an active part in the Operation "Gypsy Baron", when the German command decided to cleanse its rear areas and protect communications on the eve of the Battle of Kursk. The German command put up the forces that were twice the number of partisans. First of all, units trained in fighting in forests and swamps were used, and local residents who knew the area of upcoming military operations served in the “improvised” formations.
The battles went for several weeks. The partisans suffered heavy losses, but managed to break through the blockade ring. Together with them, part of civilians came out of the environment. The rest - over a thousand people, mainly old people, women and children - the Germans declared partisans and took to the Brasovo station, where the camp was organized. In the future, some of them were sent to Germany, and the rest were shot. In total, in 1941-1943, the Ron brigade destroyed more than 10 thousand Soviet citizens on the territory of the Bryansk and Vitebsk regions, 203 people burned alive. Hitler’s accomplices completely burned 24 villages and 7300 collective farm yards, destroyed 767 public and cultural institutions. The total loss amounted to more than 900 million rubles.
The Ron brigade was lacking in team personnel. Kaminsky repeatedly asked the German leadership to choose his officers from among the Soviet prisoners of war. But there were few people who wanted to serve the Germans. Among the fighters of the Kaminsky brigade, people were increasingly appearing, realizing that they made a mistake by entering the service of the invaders. In the winter of 1942/43, more than a thousand people from the Kaminsky brigade passed to the side of the partisans and the Red Army. Some of them pre -destroyed German garrisons, ammunition and weapons.
In February 1944, the brigade began to be called the "advanced assault brigade of Ron." In August of the same year, when the Lokotsky district no longer existed, the combined regiment of the Ron brigade in the amount of 1,600 people took an active part in the suppression of the Warsaw uprising, during which even compared to Nazi formations, he distinguished himself by cruelty, a wide scope of robbery and murders. A characteristic example: each fighter of Ron’s consolidated regiment after returning had up to 15-20 gold hours. The atrocities of Ron’s consolidated regiment under the command of the SS Sturmbanfuhrer Ivan Frolov, in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, were the last straw that overwhelmed the bowl of the patience of even the German command. The career of Kaminsky and his “leaders” ended naturally: by order of Obergruppenfuhrer, SS Erich von Dema Bach-Zelevsky, they were shot. The fighters of the Ron brigade reported that they died in the partisan ambush.
After that, the Ron brigade was disbanded. From October 1944 to March 1945, in the area of the city of Münzingen, the remaining divisions of Ron were reorganized and included in the 600th division of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA). In April 1945, the 600th Division of the ROA was defending against the advancing units of the Red Army on the western coast of Oder, in early May 1945 was transferred to the town of Kuzoed (Czechoslovakia), took part in the suppression of the Prague uprising, and then surrendered to the Americans. Most of the command personnel of the brigade was subsequently transferred to the USSR.
By the decision of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR dated December 30-31, 1946, Stepan Mosin and his like-minded people-the leaders of the punitive divisions Ivan Frolov, Mikhail Vasyukov and Fedor Zakhartsov-were sentenced to execution, the rest-to various terms of imprisonment.
The heroization of the “Lokot alternative” is relevant only for those who, choosing between Stalin and Hitler, chose the latter and is inclined to justify this choice. The point in the discussion on this subject was put by the Nuremberg Tribunal.