"Dnieper Dnieper is a great stupidity"

Exactly 74 years ago, on August 18, 1941, the retreating Soviet troops disabled the Dnieper hydroelectric power station, and then blew up its dam. How justified was such a step from a military point of view and what were its consequences for the warring armies? Is there any reason to believe that those who gave the order to undermine acted against their own people? The opinion of the historian Boris Sokolov:

- So, August 1941, the war with Germany has been going on for almost two months, a very difficult time for the Soviet Union. The decision is made to blow up the Dnieper. How much was the defensive from a military point of view that this step was justified?

Those Soviet soldiers who were crossed along the Dniepers Dnieper Plot for the Dnieper at that moment

- Here it is necessary to separate. The destruction of Dneproges turbines, the destruction of the engine room is one. And the second is the explosion of the Dneproges dam. The first was quite justified. Equipment was disabled in a fairly effective way, which, in particular, admired the German weapons Minister Albert Speyer. They switched the lubrication distribution mode at the full power of the turbines, they have hot and very quickly turned into scrap metal. The Germans were no longer restored, and they set their own. As for the demolition of the dam, it was, by and large, a great stupidity. Because the Germans still knocked this gap in the dam. And the Dniepers was operated in itself. And as a result of the explosion, the dams were killed by those Soviet soldiers who, at that moment, crossed the dam, plus still flooded at that moment by the Soviet troops Zaporozhye, significant units of the Soviet troops, which were downstream, were flooded, or they were cut off with water and were forced to surrender. That is, it was a meaningless stupidity.

Dneproges after the arrival of German troops

- It turns out that the explosion order was so secret that the parts that were on the dam were not even warned about him?

It was a meaningless stupidity

- He was secret. The explosion carried out part of the NKVD, which was engaged in the protection of particularly important objects, including Dneproges. The army command, at least at the level that was necessary to prevent crossing, was not warned. But still then it was done very quickly, for one day practically.

-And some tangible damage caused this explosion of the dam to German troops? And what are the losses among the civilians?

It was in the implementation of the Stalin Order on the "scorched land"

-This did not cause any noticeable damage to the German troops. The Soviet troops were much larger. Naturally, no one knows the number of dead civilians, but I think that it was significant. This, consider, as losses for large floods. I think that at least hundreds of people died.

Historian Boris Sokolov X Historian Boris Sokolov

- More than once I came across publications that people who gave the order to explosion the dam almost consciously tried to destroy the civilian population, which could be in the occupation. Your opinion on this?

- I see no reason for such accusations. The case was in the implementation of the Stalinist order on the “scorched land”, the destruction of all industrial facilities that remained in the occupied territory, which was the DnieperhES. And the fact that it was done quickly and stupidly, well, this, in general, is ordinary Soviet practice. Of course, they did not plan to specifically destroy one of the Soviet citizens.