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.
The building of the Omsk Cadet Corps, which graduated from Dmitry Karbyshev. Photo: www.russianlook.com
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 equipment 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 forts Brest Fortress- the same ones in which thirty years later they will 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.
General Dmitry Karbyshev. Photo: Public Domain
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 threatened with encirclement. 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 and expressed confidence in the final victory Soviet Union and in no way resembled 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 of a completely different cloth - 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 took action last try. The general was transferred to solitary confinement in one of the Berlin prisons, where he was kept for about three weeks.
After that, 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 private apartment, as well as complete 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 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.
Mauthausen Museum ( current state): Appelplatz (roll call square) and barracks. Photo: Public Domain
“As soon as we entered the camp, the Germans forced us into the shower, ordered us to undress and started spraying water on us from above ice water. 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 understood that we would survive last hours. A couple of minutes later, the Gestapo men, standing behind us with fire hoses in their hands, began to pour streams of water on us. cold water. 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.
Monument to General Dmitry Karbyshev in Mauthausen. Photo: RIA Novosti
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.”
This man is hardly remembered now. The younger generation probably doesn’t even know his name anymore. But it is precisely such examples that these young people need to be educated on. If you want to raise die-hard heroes, not amorphous soda drinkers.
Let's remember our Russian heroes. They deserve it. This is the only way to preserve the connection between generations.
The name of the man who became a symbol of the unbending will of the Russian officer, perseverance and courage is Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev. Hero of the Soviet Union.
Already in Soviet school little was said about him. The Nazis tortured General Karbyshev by dousing him in winter cold water. That's all that the average student of the USSR knew about him. Today's schoolchildren practically do not know Karbyshev. There are, of course, exceptions...
11.04. 2011 “Public meeting dedicated to International Day liberation of prisoners of fascism, took place in Vladivostok. About a hundred members of the city and regional organizations of former prisoners, veterans, representatives of the city administration, military personnel, schoolchildren and students gathered at the monument to the hero of the Soviet Union Dmitry Karbyshev.”
Do your children know this surname? Fix this gap. Tell your children about Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev...
He was born on October 14, 1880 in Omsk in the family of a military official. In 1908 he entered the Military Engineering Academy, and after graduating, he became one of the best Russian military engineers.
During World War I, he led the work at the Brest Fortress. During the siege of the Russian fortress of Przemysl, he personally leads a combined company into an attack and is wounded. He is awarded the order and receives the rank of lieutenant colonel.
But it was not in a fratricidal war that Dmitry Mikhailovich accomplished his feat, for which he is worthy of the memory of his descendants. After the Civil War, Karbyshev worked under M.V. Frunze, teaches engineering at the Academy, writes dozens of works on various branches of military engineering. Receives the title of professor and the academic degree of Doctor of Military Sciences.
By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Lieutenant General Karbyshev, the leading military engineer of our country. On June 8, 1941, he was on a business trip in Belarus, practically on the border. When the war began, he was offered to return to Moscow, they were offered to provide transport and security. The 61-year-old general refuses and retreats with units of the Red Army. Wounded and shell-shocked, he is captured.
General Karbyshev spent three and a half years in Nazi dungeons. Concentration camps change one after another: Zamosc, Ostrov Mazowiecki, Hammelsburg near Berlin. Hunger, beatings, disease. And proposals from the Germans. The Germans offer cooperation to an old Russian officer who has been captured.
“Yesterday I was offered to go to serve in German army- Karbyshev told his cellmates - I scolded them for such impudence and declared that I was not selling my homeland.”
An elderly general, constantly ill, physically weak, but incredibly strong-willed, not only steadfastly endures all the horrors of German concentration camps, but also campaigns. Convinces others to sabotage work. Convinces to believe in Russia's victory.
He is again offered to betray his homeland. He refuses again.
And so the Nazis send him to the Nuremberg camp. Then to the Nuremberg Gestapo prison. From there the general is sent to the quarries, to the Flossenburg concentration camp. This is real hard labor, multiplied by sadism and murder. Karbyshev is already 64 years old...
Next, Dmitry Mikhailovich is sent to Majdanek. Then he ends up in Auschwitz. These are death camps. This is the horror of the Nazi empire of death. In Auschwitz, the general wears the striped clothes of a prisoner, barely dragging his feet from hunger, on which he wears wooden shoes.
An officer who knew Karbyshev by sight meets him in Auschwitz. The Russian general was assigned to a team that cleaned out latrines and garbage pits. From the surprise of the meeting, the officer was confused and asked a stupid question:
How do you feel in Auschwitz?
Karbyshev bowed and answered:
- Good, cheerful, like in Majdanek.
In February 1945, Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was sent to the Mauthausen death camp. In 1948, a monument to the hero was opened there...
MESSAGE OF FORMER PRISONER OF WAR LIEUTENANT COLONEL SOROKIN
(1945)
On February 21, 1945, I and a group of 12 captured officers arrived at the Mauthausen concentration camp. Upon arrival at the camp, I learned that on February 17, 1945, at 5 p.m., a group of 400 people was singled out from the total mass of prisoners, including Lieutenant General Karbyshev. These 400 people were stripped naked and left standing in the street; those in poor health died and were immediately sent to the furnace of the camp crematorium, while the rest were driven with batons into a cold shower. Until 12 o'clock at night this execution was repeated several times.
At 12 o'clock at night, during another such execution, Comrade Karbyshev deviated from the pressure of cold water and was killed with a blow to the head with a baton. Karbyshev's body was burned in the camp crematorium.
MESSAGE FROM THE REPATRIATION COMMITTEE
(1946)
Our repatriation representative in London, Major Sorokopud, was invited on February 13, 1946 by the sick Canadian Army Major Seddon de St. Clair to Bramshot Hospital, Hampshire (England), where the latter informed him:
“In January 1945, I was among 1,000 prisoners from the Heinkel plant and was sent to the Mauthausen extermination camp; this team included Lieutenant General Karbyshev and several other Soviet officers. Upon arrival in Mauthausen, I spent the whole day in the cold. In the evening, all 1,000 people were given a cold shower, and after that, wearing only shirts and pads, they were lined up on the parade ground and held until 6 o’clock in the morning. Of the 1,000 people who arrived at Mauthausen, 480 died. General Dmitry Karbyshev also died.”
P.S. I would like to hope that a film will be made about General Karbyshev. And if there is already one, it will be shown on one of the leading channels. Artists, eh? You owe a great debt to your people...
(Information from the book: “Soldier, hero. Scientist. Memories of D.M. Karbyshev”,
Military Publishing House of the USSR Ministry of Defense, Moscow, 1961)
DMITRY Mikhailovich Karbyshev - Hero of the Soviet Union, lieutenant general of the engineering troops, doctor of military sciences, professor, by origin - a family Siberian Cossack. A couple of weeks before the start of the Great Patriotic War, he was sent to Grodno to assist in defensive construction on the western border. On August 8, while trying to escape from encirclement in the area north of Mogilev, he was shell-shocked and captured by the Nazis.
DON'T FALL ON YOUR KNEES
Karbyshev spent three and a half years in fascist dungeons. Unfortunately, still not scientific research(or at least truthful publications) about that tragic and heroic period in the life of the great Soviet general. For several years in Moscow they knew nothing at all about Karbyshev’s fate. It is noteworthy that in his “Personal File” in 1941 an official note was made: “Missing in action.”
Therefore, it is no secret that some domestic publicists began to “give out” absolutely incredible “facts” such as the fact that the Soviet government in August 1941, having learned about the capture of Karbyshev, proposed to the Germans to arrange an exchange of the Soviet general for two Germans, however in Berlin such an exchange was considered “unequal.” In fact, our command at that time did not even know that General Karbyshev had been captured.
Dmitry Karbyshev began his “camp journey” in a distribution camp near the Polish city of Ostrov Mazowiecki. Here the prisoners were registered, sorted, and interrogated. In the camp, Karbyshev suffered from a severe form of dysentery. At dawn of one cold October day in 1941, a train crowded with people, among whom was Karbyshev, arrived in Zamosc, Poland. The general was placed in barracks No. 11, which later became firmly assigned the name “general’s barracks.” Here, as they say, there was a roof over your head and almost normal food, which was a rarity under captivity. The Germans, according to German historians, were almost sure that after everything they had experienced, the outstanding Soviet scientist would have “feelings of gratitude” and agree to cooperate. But this did not work - and in March 1942, Karbyshev was transferred to a purely officer concentration camp in Hammelburg (Bavaria). This camp was special - intended exclusively for Soviet prisoners of war. His command had a clear directive - to do everything possible (and impossible) to win over the “unstable, wavering and cowardly” Soviet officers and generals to Hitler’s side. Therefore, the appearance of legality and humane treatment of prisoners was observed in the camp, which, admittedly, gave its positive results (especially in the first year of the war). But not in relation to Karbyshev. It was during this period that his famous motto was born: “There is no greater victory than victory over yourself! The main thing is not to fall on your knees before the enemy.”
PELIT AND THE HISTORY OF THE RED ARMY
At the beginning of 1943 Soviet intelligence it became known that the commander of one of the German infantry units, Colonel Pelit, was urgently recalled from Eastern Front and appointed commandant of the camp in Hammelburg. At one time, the colonel graduated from the cadet school in St. Petersburg and had an excellent command of the Russian language. But it is especially noteworthy that the former officer of the tsarist army Pelit once served in Brest together with captain Karbyshev. But this fact did not evoke any special associations among Soviet intelligence officers. They say that both traitors and real Bolsheviks served in the tsarist army.
But the fact is that it was Pelit who was instructed to conduct personal work with the “prisoner of war, lieutenant general of the engineering troops.” The colonel was warned that the Russian scientist was of “particular interest” for the Wehrmacht and especially for the Main Directorate of the German Engineering Service. Every effort must be made to make it work for the Germans.
In principle, Pelit was not only a good expert in military affairs, but also a well-known master of “intrigue and intelligence” in German military circles. Already at the first meeting with Karbshev, he began to play the role of a man far from politics, a simple old warrior, who sympathized with the honored Soviet general with all his soul. At every step, the German tried to emphasize his attention and affection for Dmitry Mikhailovich, called him his guest of honor, and showered him with pleasantries. He, not sparing color, told the military general all sorts of tall tales that, according to information that had reached him, German command decided to give Karbyshev complete freedom and even, if he so desired, the opportunity to travel abroad to one of the neutral countries. Needless to say, many prisoners could not resist such a temptation, but not General Karbyshev. Moreover, he immediately realized the true mission of his long-time colleague.
I will note in passing that during this period it was in Hammelburg that German propaganda began to develop its “historical invention” - here a “commission to compile the history of the Red Army’s operations in the current war” was created. Leading German experts in this field, including SS officers, arrived at the camp. They talked with the captured officers, defending the idea that the purpose of compiling “history” was purely scientific, that the officers would be free to write it in the way they wished. It was reported in passing that all officers who agreed to write the history of the operations of the Red Army would receive additional food, comfortable premises for work and housing, and, in addition, even a fee for “literary” work. The focus was primarily on Karbyshev, but the general categorically refused “cooperation”; moreover, he was able to dissuade most of the remaining prisoners of war from participating in Goebbels’ “adventure.” The attempt by the fascist command to organize a “Commission” ultimately failed.
BELIEF AND FAITH
According to some reports, by the end of October 1942, the Germans realized that with Karbyshev “it’s not so simple” - to win him over fascist Germany quite problematic. Here is the content of one of the secret letters that Colonel Pelit received from a “higher authority”: “The high command of the engineering service again contacted me about the prisoner Karbyshev, a professor, lieutenant general of the engineering troops, who is in your camp. I was forced to delay the resolution of the issue, since I was counting on the fact that you would follow my instructions regarding the named prisoner and be able to find him with mutual language and convince him that if he correctly assesses the situation that has developed for him and meets our desires, a good future awaits him. However, Major Peltzer, whom I sent to you for inspection, stated in his report the general unsatisfactory implementation of all plans concerning the Hammelburg camp and in particular the prisoner Karbyshev."
Soon the Gestapo command ordered Karbyshev to be taken to Berlin. He guessed why he was being taken to the German capital.
The general was placed in a solitary cell without windows, with a bright, constantly flashing electric lamp. While in the cell, Karbyshev lost track of time. The day here was not divided into day and night, there were no walks. But, as he later told his fellow prisoners, apparently at least two or three weeks passed before he was called in for the first interrogation. This was a common technique of jailers,” Karbyshev later recalled, analyzing this whole “event” with professorial precision: the prisoner is brought into a state of complete apathy, atrophy of will, before being taken “for promotion.”
But, to Dmitry Mikhailovich’s surprise, he was met not by a prison investigator, but by the famous German fortifier Professor Heinz Raubenheimer, about whom he had heard a lot over the past two decades, whose works he had closely followed in special magazines and literature. They met several times.
The professor politely greeted the prisoner, expressing regret for the inconvenience caused to the great Soviet scientist. Then he took out a sheet of paper from the folder and began to read the previously prepared text. The Soviet general was offered release from the camp, the opportunity to move to a private apartment, as well as full financial security. Karbyshev will have access to all libraries and book depositories in Germany, and will be given the opportunity to get 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. Not prohibited independent choice topics scientific developments, the go-ahead was given to travel to the front areas to check theoretical calculations in field conditions. True, it was stipulated - except for the Eastern Front. 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.
Having carefully listened to the terms of the “cooperation”, Dmitry Mikhailovich calmly replied: “My convictions do not fall out along with my teeth from the lack of vitamins in the camp diet. I am a soldier and remain faithful to my duty. And he forbids me to work for a country that is at war with my homeland."
ABOUT GRAVE PLATES
The German did not expect such stubbornness. Somehow, with your favorite teacher it would be possible to come to a certain compromise. Iron doors the singles slammed shut behind the back of the German professor.
Karbyshev was given salty food, after which he was denied water. We replaced the lamp - it became so powerful that even closing my eyelids, there was no rest for my eyes. They began to fester, causing excruciating pain. They were almost not allowed to sleep. At the same time, the mood and mental state of the Soviet general were recorded with German accuracy. And when it seemed that he was starting to turn sour, they came again with an offer to cooperate. The answer was the same - “no”. This went on for almost six months.
After this, Karbyshev was transferred to the Flossenbürg concentration camp, located in the Bavarian mountains, 90 km from Nuremberg. He was distinguished by hard labor of particular severity, and the inhumane treatment of prisoners knew no bounds. Prisoners in striped clothes with their heads shaved in the shape of a cross worked from morning to night in granite quarries under the supervision of SS men armed with whips and pistols. A minute's respite, a glance thrown to the side, a word spoken to a neighbor at work, any awkward movement, the slightest offense - all this caused the furious rage of the overseers, beating with a whip. Shots were often heard. They shot me straight in the back of the head.
One of the Soviet captured officers recalled after the war: “Once Dmitry Mikhailovich and I were working in a barn, cutting granite posts for roads, facing and gravestone slabs. Regarding the latter, Karbyshev (who even in the most difficult situations had a sense of humor) suddenly remarked : “This is work that gives me true pleasure. The more gravestones the Germans demand from us, the better, which means things are going well for us at the front.”
Dmitry Mikhailovich's almost six-month stay at hard labor ended one August day in 1943. The prisoner was transferred to Nuremberg and imprisoned by the Gestapo. After a short “quarantine” he was sent to the so-called “block” - a wooden barracks in the middle of a huge cobblestone courtyard. Here many recognized the general: some - as a colleague in the past, others - as a competent teacher, others - from printed works, some - from previous meetings in fascist dungeons.
Then came Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, Mauthausen - camps that will forever go down in human history as monuments to the most terrible atrocities of German fascism. Constantly smoking furnaces where the living and the dead were burned; gas chambers, where tens of thousands of people died in terrible agony; mounds of ash from human bones; huge bales women's hair; mountains of shoes taken from children before sending them on their final journey... The Soviet general went through all this.
Three months before our army entered Berlin, 65-year-old Karbyshev was transferred to the Mauthausen camp, where he died.
UNDERWATER ICY
The death of Karbyshev first became known a year after the end of the war. On February 13, 1946, Canadian Army Major Seddon De-Saint-Clair, who was recovering in a hospital near London, invited a representative of the Soviet mission for repatriation in England to report “important details.”
“I don’t have long to live,” said the major. Soviet officer, - therefore, I am concerned about the idea that the known facts of the heroic death of the Soviet general, whose noble memory should live in the hearts of people, do not go to the grave with me. I'm talking about Lieutenant General Karbyshev, with whom I had to visit German camps."
According to the officer, on the night of February 17-18, the Germans drove about a thousand prisoners to Mauthausen. The frost was about 12 degrees. Everyone was dressed very poorly, in rags. “As soon as we entered the camp, the Germans drove 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 pads were put on our feet and they kicked us out into the yard. General Karbyshev stood in a group of Russian comrades not far from me. We realized that we were living out our last hours. After a couple of minutes, the Gestapo men, standing behind us with fire hoses in their hands, began to water us. streams of cold water. Those who tried to evade the stream were beaten on the head with batons. Hundreds of people fell frozen or with crushed skulls. I saw how General Karbyshev also fell,” the Canadian major stated with pain in his heart.
“On that tragic night, about seventy people remained alive. I can’t imagine why they didn’t finish us off. They must have been tired and put it off until the morning. It turned out that the Allied troops were approaching the camp closely. The Germans fled in panic... I ask you to write down my testimony and send them to Russia. I consider it my sacred duty to impartially testify to everything I know about General Karbyshev. I will fulfill my small duty to the memory. big man“- the Canadian officer ended his story with these words.
Which is what was done.
On August 16, 1946, Lieutenant General Dmitry Karbyshev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. As stated in the decree, this high rank awarded to the hero general, who tragically died in fascist captivity, “for exceptional steadfastness and courage shown in the fight against the German invaders in the Great Patriotic War.”
On February 28, 1948, the Commander-in-Chief of the Central Group of Forces, Colonel General Kurasov and the Chief of the Engineering Troops of the Central Group of Military Forces, Major General Slyunin, in the presence of delegations from the troops of the honor guard group, as well as the government of the Republic of Austria, unveiled a monument and memorial plaque at the site where the Nazis brutally tortured General Karbyshev on the territory of the former Nazi concentration camp Mauthausen.
In Russia, his name is immortalized in the names of military groups, ships and railway stations, streets and boulevards of many cities, and assigned to numerous schools. Between Mars and Jupiter, a small planet # 1959 - Karbyshev travels along a circumsolar orbit.
In the early 1960s, the movement of young Karbyshevites took organizational form, the soul of which was Hero’s daughter Elena Dmitrievna, colonel of the engineering troops.
I was still a teenager, about 12-13 years old, when one day my mother showed me a textbook on the history of the USSR for the 4th grade. He says: “These are the textbooks we used to study in our time.” It was simply called “Stories on the History of the USSR.” 
I don’t know whether I still have it or not, but I looked at the shabby antique quite greedily. Well, of course: the textbook is almost 30 years old, although others will object to me: why even keep such old stuff at home. But nevertheless, it was a certain memory. One day, while looking through the paragraphs of a textbook, I came across a curious episode of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War. About 12-13 years have passed since then, but I remember the story that I want to tell you now. Even though it shows a fragment of this man’s life, I cannot ignore it. Moreover, this year is associated with the Victory Anniversary, and October 14 marks the 135th anniversary of his birth. February 18 marked the 70th anniversary of his martyrdom. I am practically not familiar with his biography, so I will have to use the material that is on the Internet. The only thing I know about him is how he died. Before his death, he said: “I am a communist! I know that we will win, and death and damnation await all of you!” This quote caught my eye in that textbook and I still remember it. And this man’s name was Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev.
This man is hardly remembered now. The younger generation probably doesn’t even know his name anymore. But it is precisely such examples that these young people need to be educated on. If you want to raise die-hard heroes, not amorphous soda drinkers. Let's remember our Russian heroes. They deserve it. This is the only way to preserve the connection between generations. The name of the man who became a symbol of the unbending will of the Russian officer, perseverance and courage is Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev. Hero of the Soviet Union. Already in Soviet school they talked a little about him. The Nazis tortured General Karbyshev by pouring cold water on him in winter. That's all that the average student of the USSR knew about him. Today's schoolchildren practically do not know Karbyshev. There are, of course, exceptions...11.04. 2011 “A public meeting dedicated to the International Day of the Liberation of Prisoners of Fascism was held in Vladivostok. About a hundred members of the city and regional organizations of former prisoners, veterans, representatives of the city administration, military personnel, schoolchildren and students gathered at the monument to the hero of the Soviet Union Dmitry Karbyshev.” Do your children know this surname? Fix this gap. Tell your children about Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev...
DMITRY Mikhailovich Karbyshev - Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant General of the Engineering Troops, Doctor of Military Sciences, Professor, Tatar by origin, ancestral Siberian Cossack. A couple of weeks before the start of the Great Patriotic War, he was sent to Grodno to assist in defensive construction on the western border. On August 8, while trying to escape from encirclement in the area north of Mogilev, he was shell-shocked and captured by the Nazis.
Childhood, youth, beginning of service
Born in the city of Omsk in the family of a military official. Baptized Tatar. At the age of twelve he was left without a father. The children were raised by their mother. Despite great financial difficulties, Karbyshev brilliantly graduated from the Siberian Cadet Corps and in 1898 was admitted to the St. Petersburg Nikolaev Military Engineering School. In 1900, after graduating from college, he was sent to serve in the 1st East Siberian Engineer Battalion, as head of the cable department of a telegraph company. The battalion was stationed in Manchuria.
Russian-Japanese, World War I
During Russo-Japanese War As part of the battalion, he strengthened positions, installed communications equipment, built bridges, and conducted reconnaissance in force. Participated in the battle of Mukden. Awarded orders and medals. He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant.
After the war he served in Vladivostok. In 1911 he graduated with honors from the Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy. According to the assignment, Staff Captain Karbyshev was sent to Brest-Litovsk to serve as commander of a mine company. There he took part in the construction of forts at the Brest Fortress.
A participant in the First World War from day one. He fought in the Carpathians as part of the 8th Army of General A. A. Brusilov (Southwestern Front). He was a division engineer of the 78th and 69th Infantry Divisions, then the head of the engineering service of the 22nd Finnish Rifle Corps. At the beginning of 1915, he took part in the assault on the Przemysl fortress. Was injured. For bravery and bravery he was awarded the Order of St. Anna and promoted to lieutenant colonel. In 1916 he was a participant in the famous Brusilov breakthrough.
Joining the Red Army
In December 1917, in Mogilev-Podolsky, D. M. Karbyshev joined the Red Guard. Since 1918 in the Red Army. During the Civil War, he participated in the construction of the Simbirsk, Samara, Saratov, Chelyabinsk, Zlatoust, Troitsky, and Kurgan fortified areas, and provided engineering support for the Kakhovka bridgehead. He held responsible positions at the headquarters of the North Caucasus Military District. In 1920, he was appointed chief of engineers of the 5th Army of the Eastern Front. In the fall of 1920, he became assistant chief of engineers of the Southern Front. He supervised the engineering support for the assault on Chongar and Perekop.
Academy named after Frunze, General Staff Academy
In 1923-1926, chairman of the Engineering Committee of the Main Military Engineering Directorate of the Red Army. Since 1926 - teacher at the Military Academy named after M. V. Frunze. In 1929, he was appointed author of the project “The Lines of Molotov and Stalin.” In February 1934, he was appointed head of the department of military engineering at the Military Academy of the General Staff.
Since 1936 he was assistant head of the department of tactics higher compounds Military Academy General Staff. In 1938 he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. In the same year he was confirmed with the academic title of professor. In 1940, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general of the engineering troops. In 1941 - academic degree Doctor of Military Sciences.
Karbyshev is responsible for the most complete research and development of the issues of using destruction and barriers. His contribution to the scientific development of issues of crossing rivers and other water barriers is significant. He has published more than 100 scientific works in military engineering and military history. His articles and manuals on the theory of engineering support for combat and operations, and the tactics of engineering troops were the main materials for the training of Red Army commanders in the pre-war years.
In addition, Karbyshev was a consultant to the Academic Council on restoration work in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, of which I.V. Trofimov was appointed scientific director and chief architect.
Soviet-Finnish War
Participant Soviet-Finnish war 1939-1940. As part of the group of the deputy head of the Main Military Engineering Directorate for defensive construction, he developed recommendations for the troops on engineering support for breaking through the Mannerheim Line.
At the beginning of June 1941, D. M. Karbyshev was sent to the Western Special Military District. Great Patriotic War I found him at the headquarters of the 3rd Army in Grodno. After 2 days he moved to the headquarters of the 10th Army. On June 27, the army headquarters was surrounded. In August 1941, while trying to get out of encirclement, General Karbyshev was seriously shell-shocked in a battle in the Dnieper region, near the village of Dobreika, Mogilev region of Belarus. In an unconscious state he was captured.
The path through the concentration camps and death
Karbyshev was held in German concentration camps: Zamosc, Hammelburg, Flossenbürg, Majdanek, Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen and Mauthausen. I have repeatedly received offers to cooperate from the camp administration. Despite his age, he was one of the active leaders of the camp resistance movement. On the night of February 18, 1945, in the Mauthausen concentration camp (Austria), along with other prisoners (about 500 people), he was doused with water in the cold and died. It has become a symbol of unbending will and perseverance.
Awards
On August 16, 1946, Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner and the Red Star.
A monument was erected to the Hero of the Soviet Union D. M. Karbyshev at the entrance to the memorial on the site of the Mauthausen camp. Monuments to D. M. Karbyshev were also erected in Moscow, Kazan, Vladivostok, Samara, Tolyatti, Omsk and Pervouralsk, Nakhabino, and a bust in Volzhsky. A boulevard in Moscow, Karbysheva Street (St. Petersburg), streets in Kazan, Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine), Sumy, Belaya Tserkov, Lutsk, Krivoy Rog (Ukraine), Chuguev (Ukraine), Balashikha, Krasnogorsk, Minsk, Brest bear his name. Belarus), Kyiv, Tolyatti, Samara, Perm, Kherson, Gomel, Ulyanovsk, Volzhsky, Vladivostok, Krasnoyarsk and Omsk.
A number of schools in the former Soviet Union are named after D. M. Karbyshev. In Omsk, a children's health camp is named after D.M. Karbyshev. The name of D. M. Karbyshev was given to one of the electric trains operating on the Riga direction of the Moscow Railway.
A minor planet in the solar system is also named after him.
The poem “Dignity” by S. A. Vasilyev is dedicated to the feat of D. M. Karbyshev.
Proceedings
Engineering preparation of the borders of the USSR. Book 1, 1924.
Destruction and obstruction. 1931, joint with I. Kiselev and I. Maslov.
Engineering support for combat operations of rifle formations. Part 1-2, 1939-1940.
Karbyshev spent 3.5 years in fascist dungeons. Unfortunately, there are still no scientific studies (or at least truthful publications) about that tragic and heroic period in the life of the great Soviet general. For several years in Moscow they knew nothing at all about Karbyshev’s fate. It is noteworthy that in his “Personal File” in 1941 an official note was made: “Missing in action.”
Therefore, it is no secret that some domestic publicists began to “give out” absolutely incredible “facts” such as the fact that the Soviet government in August 1941, having learned about the capture of Karbyshev, proposed to the Germans to arrange an exchange of the Soviet general for two Germans, however in Berlin such an exchange was considered “unequal.” In fact, our command at that time did not even know that General Karbyshev had been captured.
Dmitry Karbyshev began his “camp journey” in a distribution camp near the Polish city of Ostrov Mazowiecki. Here the prisoners were registered, sorted, and interrogated. In the camp, Karbyshev suffered from a severe form of dysentery. At dawn of one cold October day in 1941, a train crowded with people, among whom was Karbyshev, arrived in Zamosc, Poland. The general was settled in barracks No. 11, which later became firmly assigned the name “general’s barracks.” Here, as they say, there was a roof over your head and almost normal food, which was a rarity under captivity. The Germans, according to German historians, were almost sure that after everything they had experienced, the outstanding Soviet scientist would have “feelings of gratitude” and agree to cooperate. But this did not work - and in March 1942, Karbyshev was transferred to a purely officer concentration camp in Hammelburg (Bavaria). This camp was special - intended exclusively for Soviet prisoners of war. His command had a clear directive - to do everything possible (and impossible) to win over the “unstable, wavering and cowardly” Soviet officers and generals to Hitler’s side. Therefore, the appearance of legality and humane treatment of prisoners was observed in the camp, which, admittedly, gave its positive results (especially in the first year of the war). But not in relation to Karbyshev. It was during this period that his famous motto was born: “There is no greater victory than victory over yourself! The main thing is not to fall to your knees before the enemy.”
PELIT AND THE HISTORY OF THE RED ARMY
At the beginning of 1943, Soviet intelligence learned that the commander of one of the German infantry units, Colonel Pelit, was urgently recalled from the Eastern Front and appointed commandant of the camp in Hammelburg. At one time, the colonel graduated from the cadet school in St. Petersburg and had an excellent command of the Russian language. But it is especially noteworthy that the former officer of the tsarist army Pelit once served in Brest together with captain Karbyshev. But this fact did not evoke any special associations among Soviet intelligence officers. They say that both traitors and real Bolsheviks served in the tsarist army.
But the fact is that it was Pelit who was instructed to conduct personal work with the “prisoner of war, lieutenant general of the engineering troops.” The colonel was warned that the Russian scientist was of “particular interest” for the Wehrmacht and especially for the Main Directorate of the German Engineering Service. Every effort must be made to make it work for the Germans.
In principle, Pelit was not only a good expert in military affairs, but also a well-known master of “intrigue and intelligence” in German military circles. Already at the first meeting with Karbshev, he began to play the role of a man far from politics, a simple old warrior, who sympathized with the honored Soviet general with all his soul. At every step, the German tried to emphasize his attention and affection for Dmitry Mikhailovich, called him his guest of honor, and showered him with pleasantries. Without sparing color, he told the military general all sorts of tall tales that, according to information that had reached him, the German command had decided to grant Karbyshev complete freedom and even, if he so desired, the opportunity to travel abroad to one of the neutral countries. Needless to say, many prisoners could not resist such a temptation, but not General Karbyshev. Moreover, he immediately realized the true mission of his long-time colleague.
I will note in passing that during this period it was in Hammelburg that German propaganda began to develop its “historical invention” - here a “commission was created to compile the history of the Red Army’s operations in the current war.” Leading German experts in this field, including SS officers, arrived at the camp. They talked with the captured officers, defending the idea that the purpose of compiling “history” was purely scientific, that the officers would be free to write it in the way they wished. It was reported in passing that all officers who agreed to write the history of the operations of the Red Army would receive additional food, comfortable premises for work and housing, and, in addition, even a fee for “literary” work. The focus was primarily on Karbyshev, but the general categorically refused “cooperation”; moreover, he was able to dissuade most of the remaining prisoners of war from participating in Goebbels’ “adventure.” The attempt by the fascist command to organize a “Commission” ultimately failed.
BELIEF AND FAITH
According to some reports, by the end of October 1942, the Germans realized that with Karbyshev “everything is not so simple” - attracting him to the side of Nazi Germany was quite problematic. Here is the content of one of the secret letters that Colonel Pelit received from a “higher authority”: “The high command of the engineering service again contacted me about the prisoner Karbyshev, a professor, lieutenant general of the engineering troops, who is in your camp. I was forced to delay the resolution of the issue, since I hoped that you would follow my instructions regarding the named prisoner, be able to find a common language with him and convince him that if he correctly assessed the situation that had developed for him and met our desires, a good future awaited him. "Major Peltzer, whom I sent to you for inspection, stated in his report the general unsatisfactory implementation of all plans concerning the Hammelburg camp and in particular the prisoner Karbyshev."
Soon the Gestapo command ordered Karbyshev to be taken to Berlin. He guessed why he was being taken to the German capital.
The general was placed in a solitary cell without windows, with a bright, constantly flashing electric lamp. While in the cell, Karbyshev lost track of time. The day here was not divided into day and night, there were no walks. But, as he later told his fellow prisoners, apparently at least two or three weeks passed before he was called in for the first interrogation. This was a common technique of jailers,” Karbyshev later recalled, analyzing this whole “event” with professorial precision: the prisoner is brought into a state of complete apathy, atrophy of will, before being taken “for promotion.”
But, to Dmitry Mikhailovich’s surprise, he was met not by a prison investigator, but by the famous German fortifier Professor Heinz Raubenheimer, about whom he had heard a lot over the past two decades, whose works he had closely followed in special magazines and literature. They met several times.
The professor politely greeted the prisoner, expressing regret for the inconvenience caused to the great Soviet scientist. Then he took out a sheet of paper from the folder and began to read the previously prepared text. The Soviet general was offered release from the camp, the opportunity to move to a private apartment, as well as full financial security. Karbyshev will have access to all libraries and book depositories in Germany, and will be given the opportunity to get 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. Independent choice of topics for scientific development was not prohibited; permission was given to travel to the front lines to test theoretical calculations in the field. True, there was a reservation - except for the Eastern Front. 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.
Having carefully listened to the terms of the “cooperation”, Dmitry Mikhailovich calmly replied: “My convictions do not fall out along with my teeth from the lack of vitamins in the camp diet. I am a soldier and remain faithful to my duty. And he forbids me to work for a country that is at war with my homeland."
ABOUT GRAVE PLATES
The German did not expect such stubbornness. Somehow, with your favorite teacher it would be possible to come to a certain compromise. The iron doors of the solitary slammed shut behind the German professor.
Karbyshev was given salty food, after which he was denied water. We replaced the lamp - it became so powerful that even closing my eyelids, there was no rest for my eyes. They began to fester, causing excruciating pain. They were almost not allowed to sleep. At the same time, the mood and mental state of the Soviet general were recorded with German accuracy. And when it seemed that he was starting to turn sour, they came again with an offer to cooperate. The answer was the same - “no”. This went on for almost six months.
After this, Karbyshev was transferred to the Flossenbürg concentration camp, located in the Bavarian mountains, 90 km from Nuremberg. He was distinguished by hard labor of particular severity, and the inhumane treatment of prisoners knew no bounds. Prisoners in striped clothes with their heads shaved in the shape of a cross worked from morning to night in granite quarries under the supervision of SS men armed with whips and pistols. A minute's respite, a glance thrown to the side, a word spoken to a neighbor at work, any awkward movement, the slightest offense - all this caused the furious rage of the overseers, beating with a whip. Shots were often heard. They shot me straight in the back of the head.
One of the Soviet captured officers recalled after the war: “Once Dmitry Mikhailovich and I were working in a barn, cutting granite posts for roads, facing and gravestone slabs. Regarding the latter, Karbyshev (who even in the most difficult situations had a sense of humor) suddenly remarked : “This is work that gives me true pleasure. The more gravestones the Germans demand from us, the better, which means things are going well for us at the front.”
Dmitry Mikhailovich's almost six-month stay at hard labor ended one August day in 1943. The prisoner was transferred to Nuremberg and imprisoned by the Gestapo. After a short “quarantine” he was sent to the so-called “block” - a wooden barracks in the middle of a huge cobblestone courtyard. Here many people recognized the general: some - as a colleague in the past, others - as a competent teacher, others - from printed works, some - from previous meetings in fascist dungeons.
Then came Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, Mauthausen - camps that will forever go down in human history as monuments to the most terrible atrocities of German fascism. Constantly smoking furnaces where the living and the dead were burned; gas chambers, where tens of thousands of people died in terrible agony; mounds of ash from human bones; huge bales of women's hair; mountains of shoes taken from children before sending them on their last journey... The Soviet general went through all this.
Three months before our army entered Berlin, 65-year-old Karbyshev was transferred to the Mauthausen camp, where he died.
UNDERWATER ICY
The death of Karbyshev first became known a year after the end of the war. On February 13, 1946, Canadian Army Major Seddon De-Saint-Clair, who was recovering in a hospital near London, invited a representative of the Soviet mission for repatriation in England to report “important details.”
“I don’t have long to live,” the major said to the Soviet officer, “so I’m worried about the thought that the facts known to me about the heroic death of the Soviet general, the noble memory of which should live in the hearts of people, will not go to the grave with me. I’m talking about the general -Lieutenant Karbyshev, with whom I had to visit the German camps."
According to the officer, on the night of February 17-18, the Germans drove about a thousand prisoners to Mauthausen. The frost was about 12 degrees. Everyone was dressed very poorly, in rags. “As soon as we entered the camp, the Germans drove 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 pads were put on our feet and they kicked us out into the yard. General Karbyshev stood in a group of Russian comrades not far from me. We realized that we were living out our last hours. After a couple of minutes, the Gestapo men, standing behind us with fire hoses in their hands, began to water us. streams of cold water. Those who tried to avoid the stream were beaten on the head with batons. Hundreds of people fell frozen or with crushed skulls. I saw how General Karbyshev also fell,” the Canadian major stated with pain in his heart.
“On that tragic night, about seventy people remained alive. I can’t imagine why they didn’t finish us off. They must have been tired and put it off until the morning. It turned out that the Allied troops were approaching the camp closely. The Germans fled in panic... I ask you to write down my testimony and send them to Russia. I consider it my sacred duty to impartially testify to everything I know about General Karbyshev. I will fulfill my small duty to the memory of the great man,” the Canadian officer ended his story with these words.
Which is what was done.
On August 16, 1946, Lieutenant General Dmitry Karbyshev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. As stated in the decree, this high rank was awarded to the hero general, who tragically died in fascist captivity, “for exceptional steadfastness and courage shown in the fight against the German invaders in the Great Patriotic War.”
On February 28, 1948, the Commander-in-Chief of the Central Group of Forces, Colonel General Kurasov and the Chief of the Engineering Troops of the Central Group of Military Forces, Major General Slyunin, in the presence of delegations from the troops of the honor guard group, as well as the government of the Republic of Austria, unveiled a monument and memorial plaque at the site where the Nazis brutally tortured General Karbyshev on the territory of the former Nazi concentration camp Mauthausen.
In Russia, his name is immortalized in the names of military groups, ships and railway stations, streets and boulevards of many cities, and assigned to numerous schools. Between Mars and Jupiter, a small planet # 1959 - Karbyshev - travels along a circumsolar orbit.
In the early 1960s, the movement of young Karbyshevites took organizational form, the soul of which was Hero’s daughter Elena Dmitrievna, colonel of the engineering troops.
Materials used from the sites: perunica.ru and tatveteran.ru
The biography of Dmitry Karbyshev is atypical for a Soviet military man: he was a nobleman, a hereditary military man. This is a vivid example of 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 dismissed: the officer talked to the soldiers about 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. The 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 own choice, he enlisted in the Red Guard, 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 a talented person: for many years Karbyshev taught at the Military Academy named after. 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.
The obstinate general was given a final offer, 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.