Captivity did not break him,
Interrogation did not bring out betrayal,
And abandoned the general's convoy
Into the burning prison frost.
The terrible date is moving further and further away from us: 1941 -1945... The Great Patriotic War was the most severe tragedy of the twentieth century for all the peoples of the former Soviet Union. She was equally ruthless towards soldiers and officers, as well as generals. During the war years, 342 generals, 43 admirals were killed or died from wounds, 18 generals were missing, 15 were killed, and even the places of their burials are unknown. Generals were captured by the Nazis only as a result of severe wounds. But even while in fascist captivity, in concentration camps, Soviet generals carried out underground work among prisoners. This was Lieutenant General of the Red Army Engineering Troops Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev.
Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev (1880-1945)
Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was born in 1880 in Omsk. As a communist and scientist, he became a legend, an example of valor and heroism. His feat in the name of life and fatherland is immortal. No amount of torture, torment and torment in fascist captivity could break the patriot and scientist to betray his Motherland.
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centenary of his birth, 1980. dedicated to Karbyshev.
“To Dmitry Karbyshev. To a scientist. To the warrior. Communist. Life and death were a feat in the name of life.” Such words are crowded out on the pedestal of the monument to D.M. Karbyshev in Russian and German languages in front of the iron gates of the former Mauthausen concentration camp. 32,180 Soviet prisoners were killed here - executed, tortured and burned alive.
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Monument to General D. M. Karbyshev on the territory of the former Mauthausen concentration camp, Austria.
In this death factory, Lieutenant General of the Engineering Troops D.M. was also tortured. Karbyshev. The following words are written on a board mounted in the Western Wall: “At this place, Lieutenant General of the Engineering Troops of the Soviet Army, Hero of the Soviet Union, Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev, 1880-1945, died a painful death.”
Memorial plaque in memory of the death of General D. M. Karbyshev, installed on the so-called. "Wailing Wall" of Mauthausen.
Under tsarism D.M. Karbyshev graduated from the Siberian Cadet Corps of an engineering school. Then the St. Petersburg Engineering Academy. For the courage and heroism he showed in the Russian-Japanese War (1904-1905), he was awarded 5 orders and 3 medals. As a participant in the First World War, he received 2 more orders and was promoted to military rank.
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D.M. Karbyshev. 1914
After the Great October Revolution socialist revolution D.M. Karbyshev had been in the ranks of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army since 1918, and was a participant in many battles against the White Guards during the Civil War.
In 1921, Karbyshev headed the engineering troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Crimea. Under his leadership, the first Red Army House in the Soviet Union was built in Kharkov.
Since 1938 Karbyshev has been a professor. In 1940, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general of the engineering troops. In 1939-1940 D.M. Karbyshev took part in the Finnish war.
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Memorial plaque to D. Karbyshev in Kharkov.
After the attack of Nazi Germany in June 1941, a difficult situation was created at the front. General Karbyshev, as a major scientist, was asked to leave for Moscow, but he categorically refused. Karbyshev and the Red Army troops found themselves surrounded. Having fought their way out of encirclement for six weeks of a difficult campaign, finally, a group of Soviet soldiers reached the Dnieper north of Mogilev, and here Karbyshev managed to cross the Dnieper, but during the shelling he was seriously wounded and shell-shocked. In this condition he was found by police and handed over to the Gestapo. D.M. In Nazi captivity, Karbyshev had to go through ten concentration camps: Zamosc, Hammelburg, Flossenbürg, Majdanek, Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, Mauthausen, etc. He repeatedly received offers to cooperate from the camp administration. Despite his age, he was one of the active leaders of the camp resistance movement.
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Those living on Earth must remember as a sacred commandment, Karbyshev’s persistent reminder: “The main thing is not to submit, not to fall on your knees before the enemy!” And also him last words: “Cheer up, comrades! Think about your Motherland, and your courage will not leave you!”
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Monument to Karbyshev in Vladivostok
The name of the legendary general is immortal. He is sung by poets. Books have been written about him, songs and legends have been composed. Painters captured his image in artistic canvases, sculptors - in monuments. Portraits of D.M. Karbyshev - on memorial plaques where he lived and worked, where he fought and fought against fascism. Everyone living on Earth should know about immortal feat Karbysheva. He was one of those who, under the conditions of Hitler's captivity, selflessly fought against the brown plague and the hell of fascism. He fought and gave everything he could to this sacred struggle: unstoppable will and energy, the seething passion of a patriotic warrior, unbending perseverance and his own life in the name of Victory over fascism.
Monument not made by hands The communist Karbyshev erected for himself: with a heroic life and valiant death he earned eternal Glory, love and immortality.
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Omsk cadet corps. D. M. Karbyshev in Moscow.
This is how one of the camp prisoners recalls that terrible day: “As soon as we entered the camp territory, the Germans drove us into the shower room, ordered us to undress and launched jets of icy water on us from above. This went on for a long time. Everyone turned blue. Many fell to the floor and died immediately: their hearts could not stand it. Then we were ordered to put on only underwear and wooden stocks for our feet and were kicked out into the yard. General Karbyshev stood in a group of Russian comrades not far from me. We realized that we were living our last hours. A couple of minutes later, the Gestapo men, standing behind us with fire hoses in their hands, began pouring streams of cold water on us. Those who tried to evade the stream were hit on the head with batons. Hundreds of people fell frozen or with their skulls crushed. I saw how General Karbyshev also fell,” was the finale wonderful life Russian professional soldier, described by Canadian Army Major Seddon De-Saint-Clair, who was lucky to survive the Mauthausen extermination camp.
On August 16, 1946, based on the department’s data on repatriation and numerous testimonies of former concentration camp prisoners, Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Monument to D. M. Karbyshev in Tolyatti.
COURAGE.
In memory of General Karbyshev.
Here is Mauthausen in a thorny web,
On the towers, machine guns are grinning.
And lips, shimmering with blue steel,
The last wheeze is thrown out hoarsely:
“Comrades, think about the Motherland,
Look proudly into the eyes of the enemy here too!
And from the fire hose, bursting fieryly,
Water swirls around my throat.
And slowly flowed down, cooled down,
Transparent layers like mica
And dressed the general's body
Into the ringing cold of blue ice.
It seemed to the executioners that he had fallen silent,
He won’t shout: “Long live Russia!”
After all, this death is an ice castle
Now no one can break it anymore.
But in the sky the sun tore the clouds menacingly,
And the executioners looked with horror,
How ice turned into cast bronze,
When the rays touched him.
And a statue of eternal metal,
Pressing two angry fists to his chest,
Already the victory was near
And asserted courage for centuries.
Boris Tkalya
FEAT OF THE GENERAL
General D.M. Karbyshev
Captivity did not break him,
Interrogation did not bring out betrayal,
And abandoned the general's convoy
Into the burning prison frost.
The water burned and beat,
She whipped again and again,
All thoughts were drowned out by one:
"Stand. Be sure to stand!”
Let the enemy not wait that the Russian
Kneeling before him.
I never knew there was a coward in me
In the old days and years.
And with bare feet spread apart,
He stood strong and proud,
As if I were Russia
He shielded his enemies from anger.
He saw his birthplaces,
In battles - Motherland,
And the lips, dying, whispered:
“Stand, definitely stand.”
The last thought faded away
The stream kept gushing and gushing,
Cold sparkling shroud
I kept swaddling him tighter.
But, completely exhausted by torture,
He did not fall at the feet of the executioners, -
Stood like an icy column,
He was dead and still standing!
Valeo Mn
Dmitry Karbyshev was born in 1880 in Omsk. He had a noble origin: his father worked as a military official. When the head of the family died untimely, the child was only 12 years old, and caring for him fell on the shoulders of the mother.
Childhood
The family had Tatar roots and belonged to the ethno-confessional group of Kryashens, who profess Orthodoxy, despite their Turkic origin. Dmitry Karbyshev also had an older brother. In 1887 he was arrested for participating in revolutionary movement students of Kazan University. Vladimir was arrested, and the family found themselves in a difficult situation.
Nevertheless, Dmitry Karbyshev was able to graduate from the Siberian Cadet Corps thanks to his talents and efforts. After that educational institution followed by the Nikolaev Engineering School. The young military man also showed himself excellently in it. Karbyshev was sent to the border in Manchuria, where he served as one of the commanders in the company responsible for telegraph communications.
Service in the royal army
The day before Russo-Japanese War the junior officer received the military rank of lieutenant. With the outbreak of the armed conflict, Dmitry Karbyshev was sent to reconnaissance. He laid communications, was responsible for the condition of bridges at the front and participated in some important battles. So, he found himself in the thick of it when the outbreak broke out.
After the end of the war, he lived briefly in Vladivostok, where he continued to serve in the sapper battalion. In 1908-1911 The officer was trained at the Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy. After graduating, he went to Brest-Litovsk as a staff captain, where he took part in the construction Brest Fortress.
Since during these years Karbyshev was on the western borders of the country, he found himself at the front of the First World War from the very first day of its declaration. Most of The officer's service took place under the command of the famous Alexei Brusilov. This was the Southwestern Front, where Russia fought a war with Austria-Hungary with varying degrees of success. For example, Karbyshev took part in the successful capture of Przemysl, and also spent the last days of the war on the border with Romania, where he was strengthening defensive positions. During several years at the front, he managed to get wounded in the leg, but still returned to duty.
Transfer to the Red Army
In October 1917, a coup took place in Petrograd, after which the Bolsheviks came to power. Vladimir Lenin wanted to end the war with Germany as quickly as possible in order to redirect all forces to fight internal enemies: the white movement. For this purpose, mass propaganda campaigning for Soviet power began in the active army.
This is how Karbyshev ended up in the ranks of the Red Guard. In it, he was responsible for organizing defensive and engineering work. Karbyshev did especially a lot in the Volga region, where in 1918-1919. the Eastern Front ran. The engineer's talent and abilities helped the Red Army gain a foothold in this region and continue its advance towards the Urals. Karbyshev’s career growth was crowned with his appointment to one of the leading positions in the 5th Army of the Red Army. He ended the civil war in Crimea, where he was responsible for engineering work in Perekop, connecting the peninsula with the mainland.
Between world wars
During the peaceful period of the 20s and 30s, Karbyshev taught at military academies and even became a professor. From time to time he took part in the implementation of important infrastructure defense projects. For example, we are talking about
With the outbreak of the Soviet-Finnish war in 1939, Karbyshev found himself at headquarters, from where he wrote recommendations for breaking through the defensive. A year later, he became a lieutenant general and a doctor of military sciences.
During his journalistic career, Karbyshev wrote about 100 works on engineering sciences. Many Red Army specialists were trained using his textbooks and manuals right up to the Great Patriotic War. General Karbyshev devoted especially much time to studying the issue of crossing rivers during armed conflicts. In 1940 he joined the CPSU(b).
German captivity
A few weeks before the start of the Great Patriotic War, General Karbyshev was sent to serve at the headquarters of the 3rd Army. He was in Grodno - very close to the border. It was here that the first attacks of the Wehrmacht were directed when the blitzkrieg operation began on June 22, 1941.
Within a few days, Karbyshev’s army and headquarters found themselves surrounded. The attempt to escape from the cauldron failed, and the general was shell-shocked in the Mogilev region, not far from the Dnieper.
Once captured, he went through many concentration camps, the last of which was Mauthausen. General Karbyshev was a well-known specialist abroad. Therefore, the Nazis from the Gestapo and the SS tried in a variety of ways to win over to their side an already middle-aged officer who could convey valuable information to German headquarters and help the Reich.
The Nazis believed that they could easily persuade Karbyshev to cooperate with them. The officer came from the nobility, served for many years in tsarist army. These features of the biography could indicate that General Karbyshev is a random person in the Bolshevik circle and will gladly make a deal with the Reich.
The 60-year-old officer was brought several times for explanatory conversations with the relevant authorities, but the old man refused to cooperate with the Germans. Each time he confidently declared that the Soviet Union would win the Great Patriotic War, and the Nazis will be defeated. Not a single action of his showed that the prisoner was broken or lost heart.
In Hammelburg
In the spring of 1942, Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was transferred to Hammelburg. It was special for captured officers. Here the most comfortable living conditions were created for them. Thus, the German leadership tried to win over to its side high-ranking officers of the enemy armies, who enjoyed great authority in their homeland. In total, 18 thousand Soviet prisoners visited Hammelburg during the war. Each of them had high military ranks. Many broke down after they left and found themselves in comfortable and convenient places conclusions, where they had friendly conversations. However, Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev did not react in any way to the psychological treatment of the enemy and continued to remain loyal to the Soviet Union.
A special person was assigned to the general - Colonel Pelit. This Wehrmacht officer once served in the army Tsarist Russia and spoke excellent Russian. In addition, he worked with Karbyshev during the First World War in Brest-Litovsk.
The old comrade tried to find a variety of approaches to Karbyshev. If he refused direct cooperation with the Wehrmacht, then Pelit offered him compromise options, for example, working as a historian and describing the military operations of the Red Army in the current war. However, such proposals had no effect on the officer.
It is interesting that initially the Germans wanted Karbyshev to become the head of the Russian Liberation Army, which was eventually led by General Vlasov. But regular refusals to cooperate did their job: the Wehrmacht abandoned its idea. Now in Germany they expected at least that the prisoner would agree to work in Berlin as a valuable logistics specialist.
In Berlin
General Dmitry Karbyshev, whose biography consisted of constant moves, was still a tasty morsel for the Reich, and the Germans did not lose hope of finding him mutual language. After the failure in Hammelburg, they transferred the old man to solitary confinement in Berlin and kept him there in ignorance for three weeks.
This was done specifically to remind Karbyshev that he could become a victim of terror at any moment if he did not want to cooperate with the Wehrmacht. Finally, the prisoner was sent to the investigator for the last time. The Germans asked one of their most respected military engineering experts for help. It was Heinz Rubenheimer. In the pre-war period, this famous expert, like Karbyshev, worked on monographs on their general profile. Dmitry Mikhailovich himself treated him with a certain reverence, as a respected specialist.
Rubenheimer made a significant proposal to his counterpart. If Karbyshev had agreed to cooperate, he could have received his own private apartment and full economic security thanks to the treasury of the German state. In addition, the engineer was offered free access to any libraries and archives in Germany. He could pursue his theoretical research or work on experiments in the field of engineering. At the same time, Karbyshev was allowed to recruit a team of specialist assistants. The officer would become a lieutenant general in the army of the German state.
Karbyshev's feat was that he rejected all the enemy's proposals, despite several very persistent attempts. The most different ways beliefs: intimidation, flattery, promises, etc. In the end, he was only offered a theoretical job. That is, Karbyshev did not even need to scold Stalin and the Soviet leadership. All that was required of him was to become an obedient cog in the Third Reich system.
Despite health problems and his impressive age, General Dmitry Karbyshev responded with a decisive refusal this time. After this, the German leadership gave up on him and wrote him off as a man fanatically devoted to the disastrous cause of Bolshevism. There was no way the Reich could use such people for its own purposes.
At hard labor
From Berlin Karbyshev was transferred to Flossenbürg - concentration camp, where cruel orders reigned, and prisoners without breaks ruined their health at hard labor. And if such work deprived the young captives of the remnants of their strength, then one can imagine how difficult it was for the elderly Karbyshev, who was already in his seventh decade.
However, during his entire stay in Flussenbürg, he never once complained to the camp management about poor living conditions. After the war, the Soviet Union learned the names of the heroes who did not break in the concentration camps. Numerous prisoners who shared the same jobs with him spoke about the general’s courageous behavior. Dmitry Karbyshev, whose feat was accomplished every day, became an example to follow. He inspired optimism in the doomed prisoners.
Because of leadership qualities the general was transferred from one camp to another so that he would not disturb the minds of other prisoners. So he traveled all over Germany, being imprisoned in a dozen “death factories” at once.
Every month the news from the fronts became more and more alarming for the German leadership. After the victory at Stalingrad, the Red Army finally took the initiative into its own hands and launched a retaliatory offensive in a western direction. When the front approached the borders of pre-war Germany, the urgent evacuation of concentration camps began. The staff brutally dealt with the prisoners, after which they fled inland. This practice was widespread.
Mauthausen massacre
In 1945, Dmitry Karbyshev ended up in a concentration camp called Mauthausen. Austria, where this terrible establishment was located, came under attack from Soviet troops.
SS stormtroopers were always responsible for the protection of such objects. It was they who led the massacre of prisoners. On the night of February 18, 1945, they gathered about a thousand prisoners, among whom was Karbyshev. The prisoners were stripped and sent to the showers, where they found themselves under streams of icy water. The temperature difference led to the fact that many people’s hearts simply failed.
The prisoners who survived the first torture session were given underwear and sent to the courtyard. The weather outside was frosty. The prisoners huddled together in small groups. Soon they began to be sprayed with the same ice-cold water from a fire hose. General Karbyshev, standing in the crowd, persuaded his comrades to strengthen themselves and not show cowardice. Some tried to escape from the ice jets aimed at them. They were grabbed, beaten with batons and returned to their place. In the end, almost everyone died, including Dmitry Karbyshev. He was 64 years old.
The last minutes of Karbyshev’s life became known in his homeland thanks to the testimony of a Canadian major who managed to survive the fateful night of the massacre of Mauthausen prisoners.
The fragmentary information collected about the fate of the captured general spoke of his exceptional courage and devotion to his duty. In August 1946, he posthumously received the country's highest award - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Subsequently, monuments in his honor were opened throughout the entire socialist state. Streets were also named after the general. The main monument to Karbyshev is, of course, located on the territory of Mauthausen. At the site of the concentration camp, a memorial was opened to the memory of those killed and innocently tortured. This is where the monument is located. The heroes of the Soviet Union of the Second World War deservedly have this indomitable general in their ranks.
His image was especially popular in the post-war period. The fact is that it was difficult to make heroes of the country out of the numerous generals who ended up in concentration camps. Many of them were forcibly deported back home, and a dozen were also repressed. Some were hanged in the Vlasov case, others ended up in the Gulag on charges of cowardice. Stalin himself really needed the image of an unsullied hero who could become an example for future generations of the army.
Karbyshev turned out to be exactly such a person. His name often appeared on the pages of newspapers. Dmitry Karbyshev was popular in literature: several works were written about him. For example, Sergei Vasiliev dedicated the poem “Dignity” to the general. Another Mauthausen prisoner, Yuri Pilyar, became the author artistic biography officer "Honor".
The Soviet government tried in every possible way to immortalize Karbyshev's feat. At the same time, declassified NKVD documents indicate that the investigation into his death was carried out hastily and on orders from above. For example, the testimony of the Canadian Major St. Clair (the first witness) was confusing and inaccurate. They did not learn from him the numerous details that Karbyshev’s biography later acquired.
St. Clair, whose testimony revealed the fate of the deceased general, himself died a few years after the end of the war from poor health. When Soviet investigators questioned him, he was already terminally ill. Nevertheless, in 1948, the writer Novogrudsky completed an official book dedicated to the biography of Karbyshev. In it he added many facts that St. Clair never mentioned.
Without detracting from the courageous behavior of this general, the Soviet leadership tried to turn a blind eye to the fate of other high-ranking officers of their army, tortured and killed in the dungeons of the Gestapo. Almost all of them became victims of Stalin’s policy of oblivion of “traitors” and “enemies of the people.”
In February 1946, the representative of the Soviet mission for repatriation in England was informed that a wounded Canadian officer in a hospital near London urgently wanted to see him. The officer, a former prisoner of the Mauthausen concentration camp, considered it necessary to inform the Soviet representative of “extremely important information.”
The Canadian major's name was Seddon De Saint Clair. "I want to tell you about how I died Lieutenant General Dmitry Karbyshev“, - said the officer when the Soviet representative appeared at the hospital. The story of a Canadian military man became the first news about Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev since 1941.
On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, General Karbyshev worked on the creation defensive structures on the western border. During one of his trips to the border, he was caught by the outbreak of hostilities. In one of the battles on August 8, 1941, Lieutenant General Karbyshev was seriously shell-shocked near the Dnieper River, and was captured in an unconscious state. In March 1942, Karbyshev was sent to the Hammelburg concentration camp. It carried out active psychological treatment of high-ranking Soviet officers in order to force them to go over to the German side. For this purpose, the most humane and benevolent conditions were created. Many who suffered hardships in ordinary soldier camps broke down on this. Karbyshev, however, turned out to be from a completely different text - no benefits or concessions could “reforge” him.
Soon Colonel Pelit was assigned to Karbyshev. This Wehrmacht officer had an excellent command of the Russian language, since he had served in the tsarist army at one time.
Pelit, a subtle psychologist, described to Karbyshev all the advantages of the service great Germany, offered “compromise options for cooperation” - for example, the general is engaged in historical works on the military operations of the Red Army in the current war, and for this in the future he will be allowed to travel to a neutral country.
The general was offered release from the camp, the opportunity to move to a private apartment, as well as full financial security. He will have access to all libraries and book depositories in Germany, and will be given the opportunity to become acquainted with other materials in areas of military engineering that interest him. If necessary, any number of assistants were guaranteed to set up the laboratory, carry out development work and provide other research activities. The results of the work should become the property of German specialists. All ranks of the German army will treat Karbyshev as a lieutenant general of the engineering troops of the German Reich.
A middle-aged man who had gone through hardships in the camps was offered luxurious conditions while retaining his position and even his rank. The Nazis were interested in Karbyshev’s work in his main military engineering specialty. Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev understood perfectly well that this was most likely the last proposal. He also understood what would follow the refusal. However, the courageous general said: “My convictions do not fall out along with my teeth from a lack of vitamins in the camp diet. I am a soldier and remain true to my duty. And he forbids me to work for a country that is at war with my Motherland.”
The Nazis really counted on Karbyshev, on his influence and authority. It was he, and not General Vlasov, according to the original idea, who was supposed to lead the Russian Liberation Army. But all the plans of the Nazis were dashed by Karbyshev’s inflexibility. After this refusal, the Nazis put an end to the general, defining him as “a convinced Bolshevik, whose use in the service of the Reich is impossible.”
Karbyshev was sent to the Flossenbürg concentration camp, where he was subjected to extreme hard labor. But here, too, the general surprised his comrades in misfortune with his unbending will, fortitude and confidence in the final victory of the Red Army.
One of the Soviet prisoners later recalled that Karbyshev knew how to cheer up even in the most difficult moments. When the prisoners were working on making gravestones, the general remarked: “This is the work that gives me real pleasure. The more tombstones the Germans demand from us, the better, which means things are going well for us at the front.”
He was transferred from camp to camp, the conditions became more and more harsh, but they failed to break Karbyshev. In each of the camps where the general found himself, he became a real leader of spiritual resistance to the enemy. His tenacity gave strength to those around him.
The front was moving to the West. Soviet troops entered German territory. The outcome of the war became obvious even to convinced Nazis. The Nazis had nothing left but hatred and the desire to deal with those who turned out to be stronger than them, even in chains and behind barbed wire...
Canadian Major Seddon De-Saint-Clair was one of several dozen prisoners of war who managed to survive the terrible night of February 18, 1945 in the Mauthausen concentration camp.
“As soon as we entered the camp, the Germans forced us into the shower room, ordered us to undress and launched jets of ice water on us from above. This went on for a long time. Everyone turned blue. Many fell to the floor and died immediately: their hearts could not stand it. Then we were ordered to put on only underwear and wooden stocks for our feet and were kicked out into the yard. General Karbyshev stood in a group of Russian comrades not far from me. We realized that we were living our last hours. A couple of minutes later, the Gestapo men, standing behind us with fire hoses in their hands, began pouring streams of cold water on us. Those who tried to evade the stream were hit on the head with batons. Hundreds of people fell frozen or with their skulls crushed. I saw how General Karbyshev also fell,” said the Canadian major.
The general’s last words were addressed to those who shared his terrible fate: “Comrades! Think about the Motherland, and courage will not leave you!”
With the story of the Canadian major, the collection of information about the last years of General Karbyshev’s life, spent in German captivity, began. All collected documents and eyewitness accounts spoke of the exceptional courage and perseverance of this man.
On August 16, 1946, for the exceptional tenacity and courage shown in the fight against the German invaders in the Great Patriotic War, Lieutenant General Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
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In February 1946, the representative of the Soviet mission for repatriation in England was informed that a wounded Canadian officer in a hospital near London urgently wanted to see him. The officer, a former prisoner of the Mauthausen concentration camp, considered it necessary to inform the Soviet representative of “extremely important information.”
The Canadian major's name was Seddon De Saint Clair. "I want to tell you about how I died Lieutenant General Dmitry Karbyshev“, - said the officer when the Soviet representative appeared at the hospital.
The story of a Canadian military man was the first news about Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev since 1941...
Cadet from an unreliable family
Dmitry Karbyshev was born on October 26, 1880 into a military family. Since childhood, he dreamed of continuing the dynasty started by his father and grandfather. Dmitry entered the Siberian Cadet Corps, however, despite the diligence shown in his studies, he was listed among the “unreliable” there.
The fact is that Dmitry's older brother, Vladimir, participated in a revolutionary circle created at Kazan University, together with another young radical - Vladimir Ulyanov. But if the future leader of the revolution got away with only expulsion from the university, then Vladimir Karbyshev ended up in prison, where he later died.
Despite the stigma of being “unreliable,” Dmitry Karbyshev studied brilliantly, and in 1898, after graduating from the cadet corps, he entered the Nikolaev Engineering School.
Of all the military specialties, Karbyshev was most attracted to the construction of fortifications and defensive structures.
The talent of the young officer first clearly manifested itself during the Russian-Japanese campaign - Karbyshev strengthened positions, built bridges across rivers, installed communications and conducted reconnaissance in force.
Despite the unsuccessful outcome of the war for Russia, Karbyshev showed himself to be an excellent specialist, which was noted with medals and the rank of lieutenant.
From Przemysl to Perekop
But in 1906, Lieutenant Karbyshev was dismissed from service for freethinking. True, not for long - the command was smart enough to understand that specialists of this level should not be thrown away.
On the eve of the First World War, Staff Captain Dmitry Karbyshev designed the forts of the Brest Fortress - the very ones in which thirty years later they would fight the Nazis soviet soldiers.
First World War Karbyshev served as a division engineer of the 78th and 69th Infantry Divisions, and then as the head of the engineering service of the 22nd Finnish Rifle Corps. For bravery and bravery during the storming of Przemysl and during the Brusilov breakthrough, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and awarded the Order of St. Anne.
During the revolution, Lieutenant Colonel Karbyshev did not rush about, but immediately joined the Red Guard. All his life he was faithful to his views and beliefs, which he did not renounce.
In November 1920, Dmitry Karbyshev was engaged in engineering support for the assault on Perekop, the success of which finally decided the outcome of the Civil War.
Missing
By the end of the 1930s, Dmitry Karbyshev was considered one of the most prominent experts in the field of military engineering not only in the Soviet Union, but also in the world. In 1940 he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general, and in 1941 - the degree of Doctor of Military Sciences.
On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, General Karbyshev worked on the creation of defensive structures on the western border. During one of his trips to the border, he was caught by the outbreak of hostilities.
The rapid advance of the Nazis put the Soviet troops in a difficult situation. The 60-year-old General of the Engineering Troops is not the most necessary person in units that are in danger of being surrounded. However, they failed to evacuate Karbyshev. However, he himself, like a real combat officer, decided to break out of Hitler’s “bag” together with our units.
But on August 8, 1941, Lieutenant General Karbyshev was seriously shell-shocked in a battle near the Dnieper River, and was captured in an unconscious state.
From this moment until 1945, his personal file will include short phrase: "Missing".
Valuable specialist
The German command was convinced: Karbyshev among the Bolsheviks was a random person. A nobleman, an officer in the tsarist army, he would easily agree to go over to their side. In the end, he and the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) joined only in 1940, apparently under duress.
However, very soon the Nazis discovered that Karbyshev was a tough nut to crack. The 60-year-old general refused to serve the Third Reich, expressed confidence in the final victory of the Soviet Union and did not in any way resemble a man broken by captivity.
In March 1942, Karbyshev was transferred to the Hammelburg officer concentration camp. It carried out active psychological treatment of high-ranking Soviet officers in order to force them to go over to the German side. For this purpose, the most humane and benevolent conditions were created. Many who suffered hardships in ordinary soldier camps broke down on this. Karbyshev, however, turned out to be from a completely different text - no benefits or concessions could “reforge” him.
Soon Karbyshev was assigned colonel Pelita. This Wehrmacht officer had an excellent command of the Russian language, since he had served in the tsarist army at one time. Moreover, Pelit was a colleague of Karbyshev while working on the forts of the Brest Fortress.
Pelit, a subtle psychologist, described to Karbyshev all the advantages of serving great Germany, offering “compromise options for cooperation” - for example, the general is engaged in historical works on the military operations of the Red Army in the current war, and for this in the future he will be allowed to travel to a neutral country.
However, Karbyshev again rejected all the options for cooperation proposed by the Nazis.
Incorruptible
Then the Nazis made their last attempt. The general was transferred to solitary confinement in one of the Berlin prisons, where he was kept for about three weeks.
After this, a colleague, a well-known German fortifier Professor Heinz Raubenheimer.
The Nazis knew that Karbyshev and Raubenheimer knew each other; moreover, the Russian general respected the work of the German scientist.
Raubenheimer voiced to Karbyshev the following proposal from the authorities of the Third Reich. The general was offered release from the camp, the opportunity to move to a private apartment, as well as full financial security. He will have access to all libraries and book depositories in Germany, and will be given the opportunity to become acquainted with other materials in areas of military engineering that interest him. If necessary, any number of assistants were guaranteed to set up the laboratory, carry out development work and provide other research activities. The results of the work should become the property of German specialists. All ranks of the German army will treat Karbyshev as a lieutenant general of the engineering troops of the German Reich.
A middle-aged man who had gone through hardships in the camps was offered luxurious conditions while retaining his position and even his rank. They didn’t even require him to brand him. Stalin and the Bolshevik regime. The Nazis were interested in Karbyshev’s work in his main specialty.
Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev understood perfectly well that this was most likely the last proposal. He also understood what would follow the refusal.
However, the courageous general said: “My convictions do not fall out along with my teeth from a lack of vitamins in the camp diet. I am a soldier and remain true to my duty. And he forbids me to work for a country that is at war with my Motherland.”
The Nazis really counted on Karbyshev, on his influence and authority. It is he, not general Vlasov, according to the original plan, was to lead the Russian Liberation Army.
But all the plans of the Nazis were dashed by Karbyshev’s inflexibility.
Gravestones for the Nazis
After this refusal, the Nazis put an end to the general, defining him as “a convinced, fanatical Bolshevik, whose use in the service of the Reich is impossible.”
Karbyshev was sent to the Flossenbürg concentration camp, where he was subjected to extreme hard labor. But here, too, the general surprised his comrades in misfortune with his unbending will, fortitude and confidence in the final victory of the Red Army.
One of the Soviet prisoners later recalled that Karbyshev knew how to cheer up even in the most difficult moments. When the prisoners were working on making gravestones, the general remarked: “This is the work that gives me real pleasure. The more tombstones the Germans demand from us, the better, which means things are going well for us at the front.”
He was transferred from camp to camp, the conditions became more and more harsh, but they failed to break Karbyshev. In each of the camps where the general found himself, he became a real leader of spiritual resistance to the enemy. His tenacity gave strength to those around him.
The front was moving to the West. Soviet troops entered German territory. The outcome of the war became obvious even to convinced Nazis. The Nazis had nothing left but hatred and the desire to deal with those who turned out to be stronger than them, even in chains and behind barbed wire...
Execution
Major Seddon De-Saint-Clair was one of several dozen prisoners of war who managed to survive the terrible night of February 18, 1945 in the Mauthausen concentration camp.
“As soon as we entered the camp, the Germans forced us into the shower room, ordered us to undress and launched jets of ice water on us from above. This went on for a long time. Everyone turned blue. Many fell to the floor and died immediately: their hearts could not stand it. Then we were ordered to put on only underwear and wooden stocks for our feet and were kicked out into the yard. General Karbyshev stood in a group of Russian comrades not far from me. We realized that we were living our last hours. A couple of minutes later, the Gestapo men, standing behind us with fire hoses in their hands, began pouring streams of cold water on us. Those who tried to evade the stream were hit on the head with batons. Hundreds of people fell frozen or with their skulls crushed. I saw how General Karbyshev also fell,” said the Canadian major.
The general’s last words were addressed to those who shared his terrible fate: “Cheer up, comrades! Think about the Motherland, and courage will not leave you!”
With the story of the Canadian major, the collection of information about the last years of General Karbyshev’s life, spent in German captivity, began. All collected documents and eyewitness accounts spoke of the exceptional courage and perseverance of this man.
On August 16, 1946, for the exceptional tenacity and courage shown in the fight against the German invaders in the Great Patriotic War, Lieutenant General Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In 1948, a monument to the general was unveiled on the territory of the former Mauthausen concentration camp. The inscription on it reads: “To Dmitry Karbyshev. To a scientist. To the warrior. Communist. His life and death were a feat in the name of life.”
The biography of Dmitry Karbyshev is atypical for a Soviet military man: he was a nobleman, a hereditary military man. This shining example a person who found himself in the right place and made a brilliant career thanks to his own talent, determination, and exceptional fortitude.
Childhood and youth
A twelve-year-old boy whose feat was still ahead was left without a father. Her mother raised six children alone. Financial difficulties were common, but the sons took it wisely.
The eldest, Vladimir, entered Kazan University, but was expelled: he sympathized with the revolutionaries. His fate was tragic: he died in prison very young.
The youngest entered Sibirskoye and had to pay for his studies, since his family history did not lend itself to privileges. Nevertheless, Karbyshev did not shy away. He studied brilliantly and showed great talent for engineering. His entire subsequent career was connected with military construction.
Beginning of military service
After graduating from college he ended up in Manchuria (1900). Here he was caught by the first of the military campaigns in which the future general Dmitry Karbyshev took part. The feat of this brilliant military man, who is most often written about in relevant publications, would have been impossible without previous experience.
Karbyshev met the Russian-Japanese War with the rank of second lieutenant (received in 1903). During the hostilities, he did what he was supposed to do in his specialty: he established crossings, built fortifications, and provided communications. For his valor he was awarded and received a promotion: he ended the war with the rank of lieutenant.
The character of the future General Karbyshev was uncompromising; even then he did not consider it necessary to hide his worldview. In 1906, he was sent into retirement: the officer talked to the soldiers on provocative topics.
I was glad to serve...
I didn’t have a chance to be free for long: the bosses quickly realized that there were a dime a dozen trustworthy people around, and specialists of Karbyshev’s level were in over their heads. A year later, Dmitry Mikhailovich returned to service, and in 1908 he went to St. Petersburg to conquer new heights: he entered the Engineering Academy, which he graduated with flying colors three years later.
In 1911, Karbyshev, already in the position of staff captain, went to Brest-Litovsk. Famous fortress, which so desperately resisted the Nazis in 1941, was built with his direct participation.
Soon the war began. It must be said that Dmitry Mikhailovich had his share of wars in abundance: the Russian-Japanese, the Soviet-Finnish, and both world wars. The future General Karbyshev took part in almost every one of them from the very beginning. The feat he subsequently accomplished was not the first and not the only one. During the Przemysl operation he was awarded the order and promoted to colonel.
When the revolution occurred in Russia, Karbyshev’s reaction was quite predictable. Already in December 1917, without any doubt about his own choice, he enlisted in the Red Guard, and as part of the Red Army he participated in Civil War. His undoubted abilities were put to use: Karbyshev participated in the creation of many defense structures.
In 1920, he already held the post of deputy chief of engineers of the Southern Front, and in 1923 - chief of engineers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Crimea.
Science is also attractive to talented person: for many years Karbyshev taught at the Military Academy. Frunze, wrote more than a hundred special scientific works devoted to bridges, etc.
The day before, he received the rank of lieutenant general (1940). That same year he joined the party. Still, the country of the Soviets was sometimes a paradoxical state: on the one hand, many members of the CPSU perished in Stalin’s camps, including brilliant military men, and General Karbyshev, whose feat gave us an example of an indomitable spirit, made a brilliant career without being an official communist.
Participation in World War II
The attack of Hitler's army found the already elderly (Dmitry Mikhailovich born in 1880) general on the western border: he participated in the construction of fortifications. They did not have time to evacuate him: the first onslaught of the Germans stunned soviet army. The crumpled Red Army was rapidly retreating, leaving behind thousands of dead and wounded. Many Soviet soldiers and officers were captured. Among them was General Karbyshev. The feat of the indomitable Russian officer began in early August 1941 and lasted almost four years.
The Germans were well aware of the rank of specialist they received. They really counted on his knowledge, experience and talent. There is evidence according to which he was going to be recruited into the Wehrmacht service after the victory, but here he was so lucky! But the Nazis were in for a very unpleasant surprise: General Karbyshev’s feat may not have been spectacular, but it demonstrated an impressive example of courage, fortitude and patriotism. He consistently refused to cooperate, they spent a lot of effort and patience on him, and ultimately this decided his fate.
Gingerbread torture
At first, Karbyshev ended up in a regular regime concentration camp, where he drank to the fullest. But in 1942 he was transferred to the Hammelburg concentration camp. The conditions there were the most privileged: the feat of General Karbyshev required from him not only patience, but also resistance to temptation. Many of those who survived the horrors of Hitler’s usual “sanatoriums” broke down here, not wanting to return to what they had experienced.
Colonel Pelit was responsible for Karbyshev’s “appeal to the truth” - the Nazis really counted on him, because he and Dmitry Mikhailovich once worked together. German officer diligently processed the red general, describing to him numerous benefits - material and other, which he would gain by betraying his homeland. There was no positive result. General Karbyshev, whose feat makes him respected to this day, categorically refused to cooperate, and even more than that: he was confident in the victory of Soviet weapons. He generously shared this conviction with those around him, inspiring in them optimism that was completely unnecessary, according to the fascists.
The decision to take the whip
It was decided to stop using the carrot and take up the stick - and General Karbyshev appeared in solitary confinement in a Berlin prison. The feat, which cannot be described briefly, required the Russian engineer to have reinforced concrete confidence in his own rightness.
After “marinating” their prisoner for almost a month, the Germans decided that this would be enough. Appearing for the next interrogation, the general found in the investigator’s office the famous Professor Raubenheimer, a major specialist in the field of fortification. Of course they knew each other. Karbyshev treated the work of the German with great respect.
They made the last offer to the obstinate general, whose generosity could not fail to impress. Karbyshev was offered to leave camps and prisons in exchange for a generous allowance and the opportunity to do what he loved. Under the terms of the agreement, he was to organize a scientific laboratory for design tests. The staff could recruit whatever it needed, and received the widest possible funding. The best minds and libraries of the Third Reich could be at his service.
The military engineer could not help but understand that the next proposal would not follow. Nevertheless, his answer was brief: putting his military honor above life itself, he refused enemy bounties, showing an example of true heroism. The feat of General Karbyshev can be briefly described by his own phrase: “I am a soldier and remain true to my duty.”
The jokes are over
The Nazis immediately put an end to dreams of cooperation, and Karbyshev found himself in Flossenbürg. The work was very hard, but, according to the testimonies of fellow prisoners, the general did not give in to despondency even here. Confidence in the impending victory did not diminish at all. He instilled this belief in others, being a kind of leader of the resistance.
Perhaps because of this, or perhaps for other reasons, he was constantly transferred from camp to camp. At the beginning of 1945, when victory was only weeks away, he was a prisoner at the Mauthausen death camp.
Death of a Hero
The Nazis did not stand on ceremony with their victims. The outcome of the war was already obvious to many; there were no illusions left. Hitler's chain dogs sought to deal with those who were in their power.
On February 18, the Gestapo took their charges into the yard and began pouring ice water from hoses. It was bitterly cold - exhausted, hungry people died one after another: some were heartbroken, others simply froze. For trying to dodge they were rewarded with a blow to the head. Among the most persistent was General Karbyshev: even after turning into a pillar of ice, he found the strength to support his comrades.
This story is known thanks to the general’s fellow prisoner, Canadian officer Seddon de St. Clair. In 1946, while in a London hospital, he suddenly demanded a meeting with a representative of the Soviet mission on repatriation issues. This was the first news about Dmitry Mikhailovich: since 1941 he was listed among the missing.
After confirmation of the information received, the feat of General Karbyshev in enemy captivity was highly appreciated by the Soviet leadership. Almost exactly five years after he was captured, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
People's memory
Every year people come to Mauthausen to honor the memory of the 300 thousand people who were once martyred here. There is a monument to General Karbyshev on the territory: he calmly rises above the square, with his arms folded on his chest. The figure of the hero protrudes only half from the stone - the monolith depicts the ice column into which General Karbyshev turned before his death. The famous Sergei Vasiliev sang the feat in poetry. In 1975, he wrote the poem “Dignity,” for which he received a state prize.
In Russia recent years began to remember more often about the heroic past. The desire to know and be proud of one's history is supported and encouraged at all levels. Numerous articles about Dmitry Mikhailovich began to appear. Many resources on the Internet publish the creations of their users, impressed by the courage of the officer. Even if some poems about the feat of General Karbyshev are naive and do not always rhyme, they are written from the heart.