Bicycle Day - April 19, 1943 - the date when Dr. Albert Hofmann deliberately, the first person, took LSD.
Since then, April 19 is considered bicycle day! What does Hoffman have to do with it? LSD? And a bicycle? Let's go back a little to history...
History of Bicycle Day (from Wikipedia)
Three days earlier, he accidentally, not yet knowing about the effects of diethylamide, absorbed a certain amount of the substance with his fingertips.
On this day he deliberately took 250 micrograms of LSD. After some time, the symptoms that he had already felt before began to appear - dizziness and anxiety.
Soon the effect became so strong that Albert could no longer form coherent sentences and, observed by his assistant, who was notified of the experiment, went home on a bicycle. During the trip, he experienced the effects of LSD, making this the date of the world's first psychedelic experience with LSD.
The effect of LSD was manifested in the fact that Hofmann's subjective sensations - very slow driving - did not correspond to the objective ones - very high speed.
For Hofmann, the familiar boulevard on the way to the house turned into a painting by Salvador Dali. It seemed to him that the buildings were covered with small ripples.
On April 22, he wrote about his experiment and experience, and later included this note in his book “LSD is my difficult child"(English: LSD: My Problem Child).
After Hofmann reached home, he asked his assistant to call a doctor and ask a neighbor for milk, which he had chosen as a general antidote for poisoning.
The arriving doctor could not find any abnormalities in the patient, except for dilated pupils.
However, for several hours, Hofmann was in a state of delirium: it seemed to him that he had become possessed by demons, that his neighbor was a witch, and that the furniture in his house was threatening him.
After this, the feeling of anxiety receded and was replaced by multi-colored images in the form of circles and spirals, which did not disappear even with closed eyes.
Hofmann also said that he perceived the sound of a passing car in the form of an optical image.
Albert eventually fell asleep, and in the morning he felt somewhat tired, and all day, according to him, sensory sensitivity was heightened.
From Hofmann's diary (material from pda.velorama.ru)
19.04.1943, 16:20: Taken orally 0.5 cc 1/2 ppm solution of diethylamide tartrate = 0.25 mg tartrate. Diluted with approximately 10 cc of water. No taste.
17:00: There is dizziness, anxiety, visual distortions, symptoms of paralysis, and a desire to laugh.
Addition from 04/21: I went home on my bike. 18:00 - approx. 20:00 the most severe crisis. (See special report).
This is where the notes in my lab notebook break. I could write the last words only with great effort. It now became clear to me that it was LSD that was responsible for the amazing incident on the previous Friday, since the changes in perception were the same as before, only more severe. I had to strain to speak coherently. I asked my laboratory assistant, who was informed about the experiment, to accompany me home. We went by bicycle as there was no car due to wartime restrictions. On the way home, my condition began to take on threatening forms. Everything in my field of vision trembled and distorted, as if in a distorting mirror. I also had the feeling that we couldn't move. However, my assistant told me later that we were driving very fast. Finally, we arrived home safe and sound, and I could barely ask my companion to call our family doctor and ask the neighbors for milk.
Despite my delusional, unintelligible state, I experienced short periods of clear and effective thinking - I chose milk as a general antidote for poisoning.
The dizziness and feeling that I was losing consciousness had become so strong by this time that I could no longer stand and had to lie down on the sofa. The world around me has now changed even more horribly. Everything in the room was spinning, and familiar objects and pieces of furniture took on grotesque, menacing shapes. They were all in continuous movement, as if possessed by internal restlessness. A woman near the door, whom I barely recognized, brought me milk - I drank two liters throughout the evening. It was no longer Frau R., but rather an evil, treacherous witch in a painted mask.
Even worse than these demonic transformations outside world, there was a change in the way I perceived myself, my inner essence. Any effort of my will, any attempt to put an end to the disintegration of the external world and the dissolution of my “I” seemed futile. Some demon possessed me and took over my body, mind and soul. I jumped up and screamed, trying to free myself from him, but then I sank and lay helpless on the sofa. The substance I wanted to experiment with captivated me. It was a demon who scornfully triumphed over my will. I was gripped by a terrible fear of going crazy. I found myself in another world, in another place, in another time. It seemed that my body was left without feelings, lifeless and alien. Was I dying? Was this a transition? At times it seemed to me that I was outside my body, and then I clearly realized, as an outside observer, the fullness of the tragedy of my situation. I didn’t even say goodbye to my family (my wife, with our three children, went that day to visit her parents in Lucerne). Could they understand that I was not experimenting recklessly, irresponsibly, but with the greatest care, and that such a result could not in any way have been foreseen? My fear and despair increased, not only because the young family was about to lose their father, but because I was afraid of leaving my work, my chemical research, which meant so much to me, unfinished halfway through a fruitful, promising path. Another thought arose, an idea full of bitter irony: if I were to leave this world prematurely, it would be because of lysergic acid diethylamide, which I myself gave birth to in this world.
By the time the doctor arrived, the peak of my hopeless condition had already passed. My lab assistant told him about my experiment, since I still couldn't form a coherent sentence myself. He shook his head in disbelief after my attempts to describe the mortal danger that threatened my body. He found no abnormal symptoms except severely dilated pupils. And the pulse, and the pressure, and breathing - everything was normal. He saw no reason to prescribe any medications. Instead, he walked me to the bed and stayed to watch over me. Gradually, I returned from the mysterious, unfamiliar world to the calming everyday reality. The fear subsided and gave way to happiness and gratitude, normal perceptions and thoughts returned, and I became confident that the danger of madness had finally passed.
Now, little by little, I began to enjoy the unprecedented colors and play of shapes that continued to exist before my closed eyes. A kaleidoscope of fantastic images washed over me; alternating, variegated, they diverged and converged in circles and spirals, exploded with fountains of color, mixed and turned into each other in a continuous stream. I clearly noticed how every auditory sensation, such as the sound of a door handle or a passing car, was transformed into a visual one. Each sound generated a rapidly changing image of a unique shape and color.
Late in the evening my wife returned from Lucerne. Someone told her on the phone that I had come down with a mysterious illness. She immediately returned home, leaving the children with their parents. By this time, I was far enough away to tell her what happened.
Exhausted, I fell asleep and woke up the next morning refreshed, with a clear head, although somewhat physically tired. A feeling of well-being and new life flowed through me. When, later, I went out for a walk in the garden, where the sun was shining after the spring rain, everything around was sparkling and sparkling with a refreshing light. It was as if the world had been created anew. All my senses vibrated in a state of highest sensitivity that lasted throughout the day.
This experiment showed that LSD-25 behaves like a psycho active substance with extraordinary properties and strength. In my memory, there was no other known substance that would cause such profound mental effects in such ultra-small doses, that would generate such dramatic changes in human consciousness, in our perception of the internal and external world.
Even more significant was that I could remember the events that took place under the influence of LSD in great detail. This only meant that the memory function of consciousness was not interrupted even at the peak of the LSD experience, despite the complete collapse of the usual vision of the world. Throughout the experiment I was always aware of my participation in it, but despite understanding my situation, I could not, with all the efforts of my will, shake off the world of LSD. Everything was perceived as completely real, as a disturbing reality, disturbing because the picture of another world, the world of familiar everyday reality, was still completely preserved in memory, available for comparison.
Another unexpected aspect of LSD was its ability to produce such a deep, powerful state of intoxication without further hangover. On the contrary, the day after the LSD experiment I was, as I already described, in excellent physical and mental condition.
I realized that LSD, a new active substance with such properties, should find application in pharmacology, neurology, and especially psychiatry, and that it should attract the attention of appropriate specialists. But at that time I did not even suspect that the new substance would also be used outside medicine, as a drug. Since my self-experiment had shown LSD in its terrifying, diabolical aspect, I least of all expected that this substance could ever find use as a kind of recreational drug. Moreover, I was unable to recognize a strong connection between LSD exposure and spontaneous visionary experiences until subsequent experiments were conducted at lower doses and in different settings.
The next day I wrote to Professor Stoll the above-mentioned report of my extraordinary experience with LSD-25 and sent a copy to the director of the pharmacological department, Professor Rothlin.
As I expected, the first reaction was incredulous surprise. Immediately there was a call from the department; Professor Stoll asked: “Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake when weighing? Is the dose mentioned really correct?” Professor Rothlin called and asked the same question. I was confident about this because I had done the weighing and dosing with my own hands. However, their doubts were somewhat justified, since until that moment there was no known substance that would have even the slightest psychic effect in smaller milligram doses. The existence of a substance with such potency seemed almost incredible.
Professor Rothlin himself and two of his colleagues were the first to repeat my experiment with only one third of the dose that I used. But even at this level, the effects were still quite impressive and completely surreal. All doubts about the statements in my report were eliminated.
For a snack, a cycling video :)
Chapter 27
SS soldiers in the Warsaw ghetto during the uprising
Most Germans did not seem particularly concerned about Hitler's repression of the Jews. They were indifferent to the fate of people forced to wear the Star of David on their backs: Nazi propaganda tirelessly convinced the population of the Reich that “racial cleansing” would have a beneficial effect on the future of Germany and all of Europe.
Few people knew about the death camps created in Poland. They were surrounded by forbidden zones several kilometers wide with warning signs. Those who violated the ban were shot on the spot. To ensure secrecy, the entire process from deportation to the killing of “enemies of the Reich” was carried out under the veil of symbols: the mass murder was called a “special operation”, the centers of extermination of people were called “East”, “labor”, “concentration” and “transit” camps, gas chambers and crematoria - “baths” and “morgues”.
Rumors of atrocities were cynically denied. When senior party leader Hans Lammers presented Himmler with a note that Jews were being massacred, the Reichsführer vehemently denied it. He explained that the order for the “final solution to the Jewish question,” received from the Fuhrer through Heydrich, only provided for the evacuation of Jews outside the Reich. During their transportation, unfortunately, there are deaths due to illness and air raids by enemy aircraft. The Reichsführer SS also admitted that some Jews were killed during the riots as a warning to others, but assured Lammers that the majority were “housed” in camps in the East, and even brought photo albums showing Jews working as shoemakers, tailors, etc. “This is the order of the Fuhrer,” Himmler emphasized. “If you think that specific measures need to be taken, tell him about it, and give me the names of the people from whom you received this information.”
Lammers refused to hand over these people and turned to Hitler himself for clarification. He repeated almost the same thing that Lammers heard from Himmler.
“Everyone felt something was wrong in this system, even if they did not know all the details,” Hans Frank, the former Nazi governor in occupied Poland, admitted at the Nuremberg trials. – We just didn’t want to know! It was nice to live in such a system, support families like royalty and think that everything is fine.” And this was a man who told his subordinates that they were all accomplices in the liquidation of the Jews and, no matter how unpleasant it was, it was “necessary in the interests of Europe.” Governor General Frank of Poland knew that the order for the “final solution to the Jewish question” came directly from the Fuhrer. However, the average German was convinced that Hitler was not involved in these atrocities.
Members of Hitler’s “family circle” could not imagine that their Fuhrer himself ordered the killing of Jews. After all, Schmundt and Engel managed to convince him not to deprive the ranks of some Wehrmacht officers - “partial” Jews. Bormann and Himmler seemed to be the villains, committing outrages behind the Fuhrer's back. But they were only obedient executors of the “Final Solution” plan, and Hitler believed that he could get away with it if he presented the world with a fait accompli. Of course, there will be protests and threats, but human memory is short. Who today sharply condemns the Turks for the extermination of a million Armenians during the First World War? Even members of the “family circle” could be convinced that Hitler was the inspirer and organizer of mass murder, when in June 1943, in a conversation with Bormann, he proudly declared that he had cleansed the German world of “Jewish poison”: “For us it was important process disinfection, which we completed to the end and without which we ourselves would have been strangled and destroyed. I warned them that if they unleash another war, I will destroy this evil spirit throughout Europe, this time forever. They responded to this warning by declaring war. We opened the Jewish boil, and the whole world will be grateful to us for this in the future.”
Of the 380 thousand Jews who were herded into the Warsaw ghetto at the beginning of the war, three years later only 70 thousand remained alive. Those who remained realized that deportation meant death. The Jewish underground groups in the ghetto decided to put aside their differences and banded together to resist further evacuation. To Himmler's amazement, they refused to leave Warsaw, and the Reichsführer SS ordered the liquidation of the ghetto.
At three o'clock in the morning on April 19, 1943, over two thousand SS men with tanks, flamethrowers and dynamite, in anticipation of an easy victory, burst into the ghetto and unexpectedly encountered fierce resistance. Over 1,500 fighters secretly prepared weapons in advance - several machine guns, grenades, hundreds of rifles and carbines, several hundred pistols and Molotov cocktails - and put it all into action. By evening they forced the Germans to retreat. Day after day this unequal battle continued, stunning the commander of the SS group, General Jürgen Stroop, who could not understand why “these subhumans” were fighting for a hopeless cause. He reported that although his men initially captured “a considerable number of Jews, who are by nature cowards,” this was becoming increasingly difficult: “Again and again, fighting groups of 20 to 30 Jewish men created new pockets of resistance.”
On the fifth day, a desperate Himmler ordered a “cruel and merciless” combing of the ghetto. Stroop decided to set fire block after block. According to his report, compiled after the liquidation of the ghetto, the Jews remained in the burning houses until the very last moment, and then jumped from the upper floors. “With broken bones, they still tried to crawl across the street into the remaining buildings. Despite the threat of being burned alive, the Jews preferred to return to the thick of the flames rather than surrender to us.”
The ghetto defenders fought with desperate heroism for four weeks and, when the situation became hopeless, they descended into the underground sewer passages. Finally, on May 15, the shooting in the last remaining pockets of resistance died down, and the next day, in honor of the victory, General Stroop blew up a miraculously surviving synagogue in the “Aryan” part of Warsaw. For a whole month, a few rebels repelled the punitive army. Of the 56,065 Jews captured, 7,000 were killed on the spot and 22,000 were sent to camps. According to official, clearly understated data, the Germans lost 16 people killed and 85 wounded.
70 years ago the Main Counterintelligence Directorate SMERSH was founded. On April 19, 1943, by a secret Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, on the basis of the Directorate of Special Departments of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "SMERSH" (short for "Death to Spies!") was established with its transfer to the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR. Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov became his boss. SMERSH reported directly to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Joseph Stalin. Simultaneously with the creation of the Main Counterintelligence Directorate, the SMERSH Counterintelligence Directorate of the People's Commissariat was established Navy- Chief Lieutenant General P. A. Gladkov, the department was subordinate to the People's Commissar of the Navy N. G. Kuznetsov and the SMERSH counterintelligence department of the NKVD, the head was S. P. Yukhimovich, subordinate to the People's Commissar L. P. Beria.
During the Great Patriotic War Soviet military intelligence officers managed to virtually completely neutralize or destroy enemy agents. Their work was so effective that the Nazis failed to organize major uprisings or acts of sabotage in the rear of the USSR, as well as to establish large-scale subversive, sabotage and partisan activities in European countries and on the territory of Germany itself, when the Soviet army began to liberate European countries. The intelligence services of the Third Reich had to admit defeat, capitulate or flee to the countries Western world, where their experience was needed to fight the Soviet Union. For many years after the end of World War II and the disbandment of SMERSH (1946), this word terrified the opponents of the Red Empire.
Military counterintelligence officers risked their lives no less than the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army who were on the front line. Together with them, they entered into battle with German troops on June 22, 1941. In the event of the death of the unit commander, they replaced them, while continuing to fulfill their tasks - they fought against desertion, alarmism, saboteurs and enemy agents. The functions of military counterintelligence were defined in Directive No. 35523 of June 27, 1941 “On the work of the bodies of the 3rd Directorate of NPOs in wartime.” Military counterintelligence conducted operational intelligence work in parts of the Red Army, in the rear, among the civilian population; fought against desertion (employees of special departments were part of the Red Army detachments); worked in territory occupied by the enemy, in contact with the Intelligence Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Defense.
Military counterintelligence officers were located both at headquarters, ensuring secrecy, and on the front line in command posts. Then they received the right to conduct investigative actions against Red Army soldiers and associated civilians who were suspected of anti-Soviet activities. At the same time, counterintelligence officers had to receive permission to arrest mid-level command personnel from the Military Councils of armies or fronts, and senior and senior command personnel from the People's Commissar of Defense. Counterintelligence departments of districts, fronts and armies had the task of fighting spies, nationalist and anti-Soviet elements and organizations. Military counterintelligence took control of military communications, the delivery of military equipment, weapons, and ammunition.
On July 13, 1941, the “Regulations on military censorship of military postal correspondence” were introduced. The document defined the structure, rights and responsibilities of military censorship units, talked about the methodology for processing letters, and also provided a list of information that was the basis for the confiscation of items. Military censorship departments were created at military postal sorting points, military postal bases, branches and stations. Similar departments were formed in the system of the 3rd Directorate of the People's Commissariat of the Navy. In August 1941, military censorship was transferred to the 2nd Special Department of the NKVD, and operational management continued to be carried out by army, front-line and district special departments.
On July 15, 1941, 3 departments were formed at the Headquarters of the Commanders-in-Chief of the Northern, Northwestern and Southwestern directions. On July 17, 1941, by decree of the State Defense Committee of the USSR, the bodies of the 3rd Directorate of the NKO were transformed into the Directorate of Special Departments (DOO) and became part of the NKVD. The main task of the Special Departments was the fight against spies and traitors in units and formations of the Red Army and the elimination of desertion in front line. On July 19, Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Viktor Abakumov was appointed head of the UOO. His first deputy was the former head of the Main Transport Directorate of the NKVD and the 3rd (secret-political) Directorate of the NKGB, Commissar 3rd Rank Solomon Milshtein. The following were appointed heads of the Special Departments: Pavel Kuprin – Northern Front, Viktor Bochkov – Northern Front Western Front, Western Front - Lavrentiy Tsanava, Southwestern Front - Anatoly Mikheev, Southern Front - Nikolai Sazykin, Reserve Front - Alexander Belyanov.
People's Commissar of the NKVD Lavrentiy Beria, in order to combat spies, saboteurs and deserters, ordered the formation of separate rifle battalions under the Special Departments of the fronts, separate rifle companies under the Special Departments of the armies, and rifle platoons under the Special Departments of divisions and corps. On August 15, 1941, the structure of the central apparatus of the UOO was approved. The structure looked like this: a chief and three deputies; Secretariat; Operations department; 1st department – central authorities Red Army (General Staff, Intelligence Directorate and military prosecutor's office); 2nd department – Air Force, 3rd department - artillery, tank units; 4th department - main types of troops; 5th department – sanitary service and quartermasters; 6th department - NKVD troops; 7th department - operational search, statistical accounting, etc.; 8th department - encryption service. Subsequently, the structure of the UOO continued to change and become more complex.
SMERSH
Military counterintelligence was transferred by secret decree of the Council of People's Commissars of April 19, 1943 to the People's Commissariats of Defense and the Navy. Regarding its name - “SMERSH” it is known that Joseph Stalin, having familiarized himself with the initial version of “Smernesh” (Death to German spies), noted: “Aren’t other intelligence agencies working against us?” As a result, the famous name “SMERSH” was born. On April 21, this name was officially recorded.
The list of tasks solved by military counterintelligence included: 1) the fight against espionage, terrorism, sabotage and other subversive activities of foreign intelligence services in the Red Army; 2) the fight against anti-Soviet elements in the Red Army; 3) taking intelligence, operational and other measures in order to make the front impenetrable to enemy elements; 4) the fight against betrayal and treason in the Red Army; 5) combating deserters and self-harm at the front; 6) checking military personnel and other persons who were in captivity and encirclement; 7) performing special tasks.
SMERSH had the rights: 1) to conduct intelligence and intelligence work; 2) conduct, in accordance with the procedure established by Soviet law, searches, seizures and arrests of Red Army soldiers and associated civilians who were suspected of criminal, anti-Soviet activities; 3) conduct an investigation into the cases of those arrested, then the cases were transferred, in agreement with the prosecutor's office, to the judicial authorities or the Special Meeting of the NKVD; 4) apply various special measures that are aimed at identifying the criminal activities of enemy agents and anti-Soviet elements; 5) summon the rank and file of the Red Army without prior approval from the command in cases of operational necessity and for interrogation.
The structure of the Main Counterintelligence Directorate of the NPO SMERSH was as follows: assistant chiefs (according to the number of fronts) with operational groups assigned to them; eleven main departments. The first department was responsible for intelligence and operational work in the central army bodies. The second worked among prisoners of war and was engaged in checking, “filtering” Red Army soldiers who had been captured or surrounded. The third department was responsible for the fight against enemy agents who were thrown into the Soviet rear. The fourth carried out counterintelligence activities, identifying channels of penetration of enemy agents. The fifth supervised the work of military counterintelligence departments in the districts. The sixth department was investigative; seventh – statistics, control, accounting; the eighth is technical. The ninth department was responsible for direct operational work - external surveillance, searches, detentions, etc. The tenth department was special (“C”), the eleventh was encrypted communications. The Smersh Structure also included: Human Resources Department; department of financial and material and economic services of the Administration; Secretariat. Counterintelligence departments of fronts, counterintelligence departments of districts, armies, corps, divisions, brigades, reserve regiments, garrisons, fortified areas and institutions of the Red Army were organized locally. From the units of the Red Army, a battalion was allocated to the Smersh Directorate of the front, a company to the Army Department, and a platoon to the Corps, Division, and Brigade Department.
Military counterintelligence bodies were staffed from the operational staff of the former UOO of the NKVD of the USSR and a special selection of command and political personnel of the Red Army. In fact, this was a reorientation of the leadership's personnel policy towards the army. Smersh employees were assigned military ranks established in the Red Army, they wore uniforms, shoulder straps and other insignia established for the corresponding branches of the Red Army. On April 29, 1943, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense Stalin, officers who had ranks from lieutenant to state security colonel received similar combined arms ranks. On May 26, 1943, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the deputies of the Main Directorate Nikolai Selivanovsky, Isai Babich, Pavel Meshik received the rank of lieutenant general. The ranks of major general were given to the heads of counterintelligence departments and departments of fronts, military districts and armies.
The headcount of the central apparatus of the Main Counterintelligence Directorate "SMERSH" (GUKR "SMERSH") was 646 people. The front department, which consisted of more than 5 armies, was supposed to have 130 employees, no more than 4 armies - 112, army departments - 57, departments of military districts - from 102 to 193. The most numerous was the counterintelligence department of the Moscow Military District. Directorates and departments were assigned army units that were supposed to guard the locations of military counterintelligence agencies, filtration points, and carry out convoys. For these purposes, the front department had a battalion, the army department had a company, and the departments of corps, divisions, and brigades had platoons.
On the cutting edge
The pro-Western and liberal public loves to criticize various pages of the Great Patriotic War. Military counterintelligence also came under attack. This points to the weak legal and operational training of counterintelligence officers, which allegedly led to a huge increase in the number of “innocent victims” of the Stalinist regime. However, such authors forget or deliberately turn a blind eye to the fact that the majority of career counterintelligence officers who had extensive experience and graduated from specialized educational establishments before the start of the war, they simply died in battles in the first months of the Great Patriotic War. As a result, arose in the personnel big hole. On the other hand, new military units were hastily formed, numbers were growing armed forces. There was a shortage of experienced personnel. There were not enough state security officers mobilized into the active army to fill all the vacancies. Therefore, military counterintelligence began to recruit those who did not serve in law enforcement agencies and did not have legal education. Sometimes the training course for newly minted security officers was only two weeks. Then a short internship on the front line under the supervision of experienced employees and independent work. The personnel situation was more or less stabilized only in 1943.
During the period from June 22, 1941 to March 1, 1943, military counterintelligence lost 10,337 people (3,725 killed, 3,092 missing and 3,520 wounded). Among the dead was the former head of the 3rd Directorate, Anatoly Mikheev. On July 17, he was appointed head of the Special Department of the Southwestern Front. On September 21, while escaping from encirclement, Mikheev, with a group of counterintelligence officers and border guards, entered into battle with the Nazis and died a heroic death.
Solving the personnel issue
On July 26, 1941, training courses for operational workers for Special Departments were created at the Higher School of the NKVD. They planned to recruit 650 people and train them for a month. The head of the course was appointed High school Nikanor Davydov. During training, cadets participated in construction defensive structures and the search for German paratroopers near Moscow. On August 11, these courses were transferred to a 3-month training program. In September, 300 graduates were sent to the front. At the end of October, 238 graduates were sent to the Moscow Military District. In December, the NKVD handed over another issue. Then the school was disbanded, then recreated. In March 1942, a branch of the Higher School of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs was created in the capital. There they planned to train 400 people over a 4-month period. In total, during the war, 2,417 people completed these courses (according to other sources, about 2 thousand), who were sent to the Red Army and Navy.
Personnel for military counterintelligence were trained not only in the capital, but also in the regions. In the very first weeks of the war, departments of military districts created short-term courses for training operational personnel on the basis of inter-regional NKGB schools. In particular, on July 1, 1941, on the basis of the Novosibirsk Interregional School, Short-term courses were created at the Special Department of the NKVD of the Siberian Military District. They recruited 306 people, commanders and political workers of the Red Army. Already at the end of the month there was a graduation, and a new group was recruited (500 people). The second group was dominated by young people - 18-20 years old. This time the training period was increased to two months. After graduation, everyone was sent to the front. In September - October 1941, the third recruitment (478 people) was made. In the third group, most of the cadets were responsible party workers (workers of district and regional committees) and political workers of the Red Army. From March 1942, the training course increased to three months. From 350 to 500 people attended the courses. During this period, most of the students were junior commanders of the Red Army, sent from the front by the Military Counterintelligence Directorates.
Veterans became another source for replenishing the ranks of military counterintelligence. In September 1941, the NKVD issued a directive on the procedure for reinstating former workers and sending them to serve in the active army. In October 1941, the NKVD issued a directive on the organization of registration of employees of special departments undergoing treatment and their further use. The “special officers” who were cured and successfully passed the medical examination were sent to the front.
On June 15, 1943, a GKO order was issued, signed by Stalin, on the organization of schools and courses of the Main Counterintelligence Directorate. They planned to form four schools with a 6-9 month course of study, with total number students - more than 1300 people. Courses with a 4-month training period were also opened in Novosibirsk and Sverdlovsk (200 students each). In November 1943, the Novosibirsk courses were transformed into a Main Directorate school with a 6-month and then a year course of study (for 400 people). The Sverdlovsk courses in June 1944 were also transformed into a school with a training period of 6-9 months and 350 cadets.
During the years of the Great Patriotic War, military counterintelligence officers neutralized more than 30 thousand enemy spies, about 3.5 thousand saboteurs and more than 6 thousand terrorists. “Smersh” adequately fulfilled all the tasks assigned to it by the Motherland.
Wall around the ghetto
Before the outbreak of World War II, Warsaw had the largest Jewish community in Europe (375,000 people, about 30% of Warsaw's population). At the end of 1939, German authorities announced that all Jews living in occupied Poland were forcibly relocated to isolated ghettos.
The Jewish ghetto in Warsaw was organized in November 1940. 500,000 people were forcibly settled on an area of 307 hectares (2.4% of the city's total area). The ghetto was surrounded by an 18-kilometer brick wall, braided with barbed wire, three and a half meters high. Entry and exit from the ghetto was strictly regulated.
Living conditions in the ghetto were catastrophic. Horrible overcrowding, epidemics, insufficient food supplies, lack of medical care, as well as the increasing terror of the Nazis led to high mortality.
Fires illuminate Warsaw
On April 19, 1943, German troops invaded the ghetto in order to deport the remaining Jews (from the founding of the Warsaw ghetto to October 1942, more than 400,000 of its inhabitants died, 75 percent of them in concentration camps. By April 1943, the ghetto numbered between fifty and sixty thousand inhabitants). The uprising was the response of Warsaw Ghetto activists to the impending mortal threat.
Only on May 16, 1943, SS Gruppenführer Jürgen Stroop, who led the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto, was able to report to Berlin about the completion of the “action.”
Almost everyone who writes on this topic will definitely emphasize that there were several hundred rebels (at best, up to a thousand), that these were people who, for the most part, had not undergone basic military training, and besides, they had very few weapons and ammunition.
But the fighting in the ghetto was serious. The Germans used armored vehicles, machine guns, aircraft, artillery, flamethrowers, and gases. Units with extensive experience in punitive operations were brought in. As witnesses recall, Warsaw was filled with smoke, the flames of fires illuminated the entire city at night, buildings, as they said on the “Aryan side” then, were shaken by explosions.
For several weeks, on the roof of one of the tall, visible buildings in the ghetto, a huge blue and white flag (which five years later became the flag of the state of Israel) and a Polish flag fluttered.
Any unbiased reader simply cannot help but arise the question: how did a handful of poorly trained, poorly armed people, poorly trained in military affairs, even though they showed excellent human and military qualities, resist for almost four weeks the punishers, armed to the teeth, whose number, according to various sources, amounted to 1300 to 2000 soldiers and officers (formations of the Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, police, as well as collaborators - Ukrainians, Latvians and Estonians)?
Two underground organizations did not see eye to eye
The Jewish population of pre-war Poland amounted to 3.3 million people, the range of its political leanings was extremely diverse: no less than twenty political parties, groups, movements defended their points of view, argued, sometimes fiercely, and often openly fought with each other.
Unfortunately, even life in the ghetto in an atmosphere of total tyranny, in the face of the threat of wholesale extermination, unprecedented in Jewish history, did not make opponents forget the previous strife.
Two underground organizations were formed in the ghetto, which set themselves the task of armed resistance to the German authorities - the Jewish Fighting Organization (ŻOB - Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa) and the Jewish Military Union (ŻZW - Żydowski Związek Wojskowy).
The Jewish Combat Organization included representatives of the “left” parties: communists, Trotskyists, anarchists, left-wing Zionists, socialists, Bundists. ŻOB was fundamentally oriented towards the Soviet Union and the Polish communist underground. ŻOB was headed by left-wing Zionist Mordechaj Anielewicz.
The founders of the Jewish Military Union were Jewish officers of the Polish army Dawid Apfelbaum, he headed the Union, Paweł Frenkel and Lion Rodal.
The Union included members of two paramilitary organizations associated with right-wing Zionists - Beitar and ETZEL. It is extremely important to note here that Beitar and ETZEL before the war were aimed at training fighters who were supposed to land in Palestine, which was governed at that time by Great Britain under a mandate of the League of Nations, to create a Jewish state.
Contrary to generally accepted opinion, there was no unified command of the rebels in the process of preparing the ghetto territory for defense, and then during the fighting. The ghetto territory was divided into two military districts, each organization was responsible for its own district; it was only until they reached an agreement on cooperation.
The statement widespread in the literature that Mordechai Anielewicz led the Resistance in the ghetto does not correspond to reality - he led combat groups only of his organization (in his district).
The Home Army helps “their Jews”
At the same time, it is necessary to refute the already familiar accusation of the Polish underground, which has become commonplace and wanders from one text to another, that it refused to provide decisive assistance to the rebels in the ghetto, dooming them to death. A simple explanation is usually found for this - the eternal anti-Semitism of the Poles.
Here it must be borne in mind that two large armed formations operated in the Polish underground - the Home Army (AK), subordinate to the Polish government in exile (in London), and the Ludowa Army (AL), a pro-Soviet organization of Polish communists.
There is no need to downplay the pronounced anti-Semitic tendencies in all layers of Polish society, not only before, but even during the war; the Home Army was also noticeably affected by them.
At the same time, there is not the slightest doubt that the Home Army provided various assistance to the ŻZW, and this is explained by a fact that few people know about - the ŻZW, led by Lieutenant Apfelbaum, was a unit of the Home Army.
During the preparation of the uprising, the underground structures of the Home Army (which itself suffered from a shortage of weapons) handed over to the ŻZW a significant amount of various weapons - about ten machine guns, dozens of machine guns, rifles, pistols, several thousand grenades; homemade grenades were made in two underground workshops of the ŻZW in the ghetto itself.
There are no more or less accurate figures about the number of both underground organizations in the ghetto, but there is reason to believe that ŻZW had an incomparably larger number of fighters (the figure is said to be 1,500 people) than ŻOB, formed on a party basis.
But the most important thing - we emphasize this again - the core of the ŻZW consisted, in contrast to the untrained ŻOB rebels, of fairly well-trained young people militarily, led by officers of the Polish army and armed approximately in the same way as other parts of the Home Army.
Now, perhaps, it becomes clear why the defenders of the ghetto were able to hold the line against a strong enemy for so long.
Home Army forces took part directly in the fighting inside the ghetto. On April 27, 1943, a detachment of Major Henryk Iwański, having penetrated the ghetto through a tunnel dug in advance, attacked the Germans with the task of connecting with ŻZW fighters, and if ŻOB succeeded, bringing them “outside.”
But by this time all the leaders of the uprising had already died - Anelevich, Apfelbaum, Frenkel and Rodal. Only 34 ŻZW fighters left the ghetto, carrying a large number of wounded. The Poles covered their retreat, suffering significant losses (Ivansky was wounded, his son Roman and brother Eduard were killed).
After the defeat of the uprising, David Apfelbaum was posthumously awarded the rank of major in the Polish Army.
Few managed to escape
As for ŻOB, the Home Army actually helped it weakly and reluctantly, but anti-Semitism was not the reason for this: ŻOB was considered, and it must be said, not without reason, to be a clearly pro-communist, pro-Stalinist organization.
There is nothing surprising in this kind of position of the Home Army. When a little over a year later, at the beginning of August 1944, the Home Army rebelled in Warsaw, units of the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front had already reached the Vistula and captured the Warsaw suburb of Prague (on the right bank of the Vistula).
The Germans crushed the rebels, but the Red Army did not come to their aid. This numbness can be explained quite simply - Stalin did not want forces hostile to the Soviet Union to come to power in Poland. Politics, like the East, is a delicate matter.
The Communist Army of Ludow tried to help “its Jews” from ŻOB, but due to its weakness and small numbers, this assistance was scanty (AL began to operate actively only at the end of 1943, having received support from Soviet Union).
Thus, it should be recognized that the Home Army, if we are talking about the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, in the situation of April-May 1943, provided its unit, which found itself in a difficult situation, with the support that it was capable of.
Let us take into account that even in October 1944, the Germans were able to suppress the Warsaw Uprising, raised by the Home Army. It is clear that if Home Army units had intervened in the fighting in the ghetto in April-May 1943, the consequences of this action would have been much more catastrophic.
It is now impossible to estimate the exact losses of Jewish rebels and Germans during the fighting in the Warsaw Ghetto. It is believed that up to eighty percent of the Jewish fighters died (this, in all likelihood, amounted to several thousand); German historians estimate the number of killed punitive forces at 300-400.
Determining how many defenders of the ghetto managed to escape is also problematic. It is known that some of them joined the Polish partisans or formed their own partisan detachments, someone took part in the Polish uprising in Warsaw, which began on August 2, 1944. Very few lived to see the end of the war.
In total, only one to two thousand of the ghetto's inhabitants survived the war.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the first mass protest of the urban population against Nazi terror in German-occupied Europe.
The very fact of persistent four-week fighting in the ghetto became an inspiring example for all Resistance fighters, underground fighters, and partisans far beyond the borders of Poland.
Before the bright memory of the Warsaw ghetto rebels, who belonged to both combat organizations, before the bright memory of their leaders - David Apfelbaum, Pavel Frenkel, Lion Rodal, Mordechai Anielewicz, we, living today, have no moral right to find out which of them and in what capacity did more for fight against Nazism. They fought, knowing full well that they were doomed, but it was important for them to preserve their honor and dignity by dying in battle.
Warsaw ghetto
Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto - episode. Armed resistance to German fascists by prisoners of the Warsaw ghetto. Happened in the spring of 1943"Many liberation wars carried the embryo inevitable defeat, but not one of them bore the stamp of such deep tragedy as the last fighting impulse of the remnants of the inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto, which flared up on the grave of their neighbors, without a rear, almost without weapons, without an insignificant chance of victory
"(Polish historian Ben Mark)
What is a Jewish ghetto?
Ghetto (Italian: ghetto) - parts major cities, reserved for the forced settlement of people discriminated against on national, racial or religious grounds (Wikipedia).
The first Jewish ghetto in Europe was created in Venice by decree of local authorities on March 29, 1516.
“The Jews should all settle together in the houses of the Court, which is located in the Ghetto near San Girolamo. Jews should not go out at night. On one side of the ghetto they can exit through a bridge, and on the other through a large bridge. Two gates are to be built, guarded by four Christian guards, and paid for by the Jews."
With the development of civilization, during the Enlightenment, when European intellectuals proclaimed the liberal principles of freedom, equality, and fraternity, the laws of the ghetto were abolished, and Jews received the right to live where they wanted.
Once again, a ghetto for Jews recreated Hitler's fascist regime. In September 1939, the head of the Main Directorate of Reich Security, Heydrich, ordered the dissolution of Jewish communities and the concentration of Jews in special limited areas of large cities.
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
- 1939, November - the core of the Jewish Military Union (Zionist-Revisionist Beitar organization) was created
- 1940, October 3 - The forced relocation of Warsaw Jews into the ghetto begins. The ghetto was divided into three almost isolated parts: Central, the area of the Tebbens-Schultz factories, the area of brush workshops
- 1940, November 15 - Jews are prohibited from leaving the Warsaw ghetto
“It was raining, but it was warm. The streets were swarming with people wearing white armbands. Everyone ran back and forth excitedly, like animals in a cage that had not had time to get used to it. At the walls of the houses, on piles of wet, mud-splattered feather beds, women and children howled, who were also screaming. These were Jewish families thrown into the ghetto at the last moment and without the slightest chance of getting any kind of roof over their heads. On the territory of an already resettled area, which could accommodate at most 100,000 people, there should now be more than half a million living. Against the backdrop of a dark street, in the light of the headlights, a square of gates stood out with freshly planed wood, cutting off the ghetto from the world of free people” (V. Shpilman “The Pianist”)
- 1941, August 31 - the fascists allowed the opening of primary and Sunday schools, prohibiting them from teaching history and geography
- 1942, April 18 - 52 people are killed in the Warsaw ghetto. The event is known as "Night of Blood"
- 1942, May 5 - Teachers of the Warsaw Ghetto established a special day for children dedicated to games, theater and treats
- 1942, January 20 - Hitler approved the concept of the “final solution to the Jewish question”
- 1942, June - in the Warsaw ghetto - about 450,000 people
- 1942, July 22 - the beginning of the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto, until September 12, about 265 thousand Jews were sent to the Treblinka death camp; about 25 thousand Jews were killed on the streets of the city
- 1942, July 28 - an attempt by activists of various parties in the Warsaw ghetto to create a common fighting organization failed
- 1942, December 2 - The charter of the Jewish Combat Organization was signed (belonged to the socialist Anti-Fascist Bloc, the ideological opponent of Beitar) under the leadership of M. Anelevich
- 1943, January 18 - an attempt at a second mass deportation to Treblinka failed due to armed resistance. The fighting lasted 4 days. The Nazis managed to send only 6 thousand people to Treblinka
- 1943, April 19 - Massive Nazi attack on the central ghetto. The official start of his rebellion
By 16:00 on April 19, having broken through the defenses, the Germans reached Muranovskaya Square. It was here that the only long positional battle of the entire uprising began. Muranovo Square was the center of the Jewish Military Union (one of the ghetto militant organizations belonging to the Beitar movement). The main headquarters was located in house number 7. A tunnel led into the basement of house number 7, through which the Union fighters received weapons and ammunition from the city (In total, the EMU had 6 tunnels in different parts ghetto. One of them, however, was discovered by the Germans even before the uprising) It was through this tunnel that the AK liaison Jozef Leibski was delivered on the night of April 18-19 that heavy machine gun, which was installed in the attic of house number 17 and significantly strengthened the position of the rebels. In the battles on April 19 on Muranivska Square, the Germans lost a tank and more than a hundred soldiers. But they couldn’t take the position. The position on Muranivska Square (with flags of the uprising) was captured by the Germans only on April 22
- 1943, April 20 - German offensive in the brush workshop area. The rebels detonated a mine under the ghetto gate; the Nazis, having lost several dozen people killed, retreated
- 1943, April 24 - Rabbi Menachem Zemba, the spiritual leader of the Warsaw ghetto, died. On the eve of the uprising Catholic Church offered to save the three surviving Warsaw rabbis, but Zemba refused to leave
Having suffered significant losses, the Nazis decided to burn down the central ghetto. It was set on fire first by air bombs, and then by special groups of arsonists. Many soldiers and inhabitants of the ghetto died in the fire, others took refuge in bunkers, where they suffered from terrible overcrowding, lack of water and food. During the day, the rebels stayed in bunkers, and at night, dressed in German uniforms, they set up ambushes. Gradually the Germans discovered the bunkers and bombarded them with gas bombs.
- 1943, April 27 - A detachment of the Polish Home Army under the command of Major Henryk Iwanski arrived to help the rebels through an underground passage. The purpose of the detachment was to organize the withdrawal of part of the rebels from the ghetto. The Poles gave a serious battle to the Nazis, covering the retreating, among whom there were many wounded. Ivansky was wounded, his son Roman and brother Eduard died. The Germans lost about 100 people killed and another tank
The attitude of the Poles towards the uprising, the Jews and Hitler's “final solution” was. Some underground organizations supported the Nazis' policy of exterminating Jews (the anti-Semitism of the Poles was taken into account by the Nazis, so they created most of the death camps on Polish territory). Some tried to resist the Germans. From the warehouses of the Home Army (subordinate to the Polish government in exile) in various ways to the ghetto. From June 1942 until the start of the April uprising, 3 RKM machine guns, 100 pistols, 7 rifles, 15 machine guns and about 750 grenades were delivered. After the start of the uprising - 4 more RKM machine guns, an LKM machine gun, 15 FM machine guns, 50 pistols, 300 grenades. However, the help was insufficient and not always on time. The organization of Polish communists and left socialists, the Army of Ludow, tried to help the Jewish underground fighters with weapons, led the rebels out of the Warsaw ghetto, but the Army of Ludow began to actively operate only at the end of 1943–beginning of 1944, when most of the Jewish population of Poland was destroyed
- 1943, April 29 - From the reports of SS Brigadefuehrer Jorgen Strop: “The progress of the big operation on 04/29/43. ...A total of 36 bunkers intended for housing were discovered. 2,359 Jews were extracted from these and other shelters, among them 106 died in battle...
- 1943, May 2 - From the reports of SS Brigadeführer Jörgen Strop: Progress of the major operation: “2.05.43. 27 bunkers were found... Among the wounded were 4 German policemen and 4 Polish policemen.”
- 1943, May 5 - a small group of fighters from the Jewish combat organization entered the ghetto from the Aryan side and led civilian Jews into the city. Covering their retreat, on May 6, almost the entire group died.
- 1943, May 6 - From the reports of SS Brigadeführer Jörgen Strop: Progress of the major operation: 05/06/43... An SS Unterscharführer was wounded... A total of 47 bunkers were destroyed. 2 people from the barrage detachment were wounded.”
- 1943, May 8 - The Germans surrounded the bunker of one of the leaders of the armed struggle, Mordechai Anelevich, all five entrances to it were blocked. The use of gases made the rebels' situation hopeless. Many Jewish fighters, including M. Anielewicz, committed suicide
- 1943, May 16 - Report from SS commander J. Stroop: “The Jewish quarter of Warsaw no longer exists, 56,065 Jews were destroyed”
- 1943, June 5 - The last armed clash with the rebel Germans. On Muranivska Square, a group of Jews from the underworld fought the Germans
Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
- Mordechai Anilevich (1919-1943) - one of the commanders of the Jewish Combat Organization (belonged to the socialist Anti-Fascist Bloc, the ideological opponent of Beitar)
- Israel Kanal (1920–43) - one of the commanders of the Jewish Combat Organization
- Eliezer Geller (1918–43) - one of the commanders of the Jewish Combat Organization
- Marek Edelman (1922–2009) - one of the commanders of the Jewish Combat Organization
- Hanoch Gutman (1921–43) - one of the commanders of the Jewish Combat Organization
- Pavel Frenkel (1920-1943) - commander of the Jewish Military Union
- Yitzhak Zuckerman (1915-1981) - one of the rebel commanders, participated in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944
- Zharyakh Artshtein (1923–43) - one of the rebel commanders, his detachment continued to fight throughout the summer of 1943
- Michael Klepfisch (1913–43) - covered the machine gun embrasure with his chest
- Tsivya Lyubetkina (1914-1978)
- Leon Rodal (1913-1943)
- David Afelbaum (??? - April 28, 1943) - one of the founders and commanders of the Jewish Military Union
On April 27, the commander of the Polish detachment, Henryk Iwansky, suggested that David Appelbaum leave the ghetto, but he refused, since there was no contact with many EMU groups located in other places, and Appelbaum considered it impossible to leave, abandoning his fighters. On April 27 he was seriously wounded. He died on April 28. On April 29, the remaining EMU fighters, having lost all their commanders by that time, left the ghetto through the Muranovsky tunnel and were stationed in the Mikhalinsky forests
- David Vdovinsky (1895-1970) - one of the commanders of the Jewish Military Union
- Kalmen Mendelsohn (1902-1985) - one of the commanders of the Jewish Military Union
- Joseph Zellmeister (1901-1968) - one of the commanders of the Jewish Military Union
- Henryk Iwanski (1902-1978) - Major of the Polish Army, commander of the support group for the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto