Stories about the life of officers' wives. Abandoned women. Stories of the wives of Soviet commanders who were left to the Wehrmacht. I'm on you like in a war. Abandoned

about

Here it is, female happiness ...

Registration number 0089599 issued for the work:

A young, beautiful, young wife of an officer, she had just graduated from the Pedagogical Institute, I was barely twenty-two years old. We came to the border, to my husband's unit. Around the forest, nature is generous and beautiful, "the air is clean and fresh, like a kiss of a child," but the wilderness is terrible! I’ll go to teach at the garrison school, I’ll definitely find a place for myself, otherwise I’ll die of longing! My husband is quite nice, kind and reliable person. Several soft-bodied, girlfriends called him "mattress", but I wanted to spit on their characteristics - I will live my life behind him, like behind a stone wall. You look, he will also become a general!

The first day in the garrison began stormily and well. We were received warmly and cordially. As I remember now: preparations are underway for the holiday, and we, having thrown our things into the room allotted to us in the officer's house, are happy to join in the fun commotion. Among the new comrades there is one young officer, he immediately catches the eye: young, but already weighed down by life experience, tall, handsome brunette with breathtaking blue eyes. Rare combination! He also looks at me furtively, but very often, I stumble upon his eyes all the time. In huge aquamarine eyes - admiration and poorly hidden passion. We don't say a word to each other, he laughs a lot, tells jokes and seems agitated for no reason.

I am suddenly seized with an incomprehensible excitement. Finally, everyone sits down at the table, there are a lot of people, it's fun. A strange married couple is present at the celebration: a highly experienced general and his flirtatious young wife, who frivolously shoots her eyes, as if in a shooting range, at all the abundance of local young officers. Looks like I'm tired of my gray-haired husband! They are guests of honor. Zd about right! Music, youth! Maybe it's not as boring here as I thought? "All the same, I'll try the position of a teacher!" - vouched for herself.

Dances begin, and my husband is suddenly invited by a young general's wife. Why, out of all the variety of young interesting men, she chose him, it still remains a mystery. The brunette officer immediately comes up to me and silently drops his head on his chest. Modestly lowering my eyes, I go with him, and the heart begins to dance the Charleston. We are having this conversation.

HE: "Maybe let's go straight to" you "?"

I (coquettishly): "Yes, we didn't seem to drink brotherhood..."

HE (smiling): "The hint is clear."

We are very close, his hot hand trembling slightly on my waist.

HE: "Let's meet! Can you come when your husband is asleep? I'll wait at least until morning at the very place where the two rivers meet."

I know a place with that name. It was shown to me and my husband as the only garrison attraction.

I: "Good! - I remember myself. - However, no! Why do I have to run at your first call?"

HE: "You see, life is fleeting. You can't waste time on all sorts of nonsense if you are convinced of the correctness of the decision, as I am now!"

There is a hint of a dangerous service in his words, and I feel that he does not draw at all, he simply explains the reason for his intemperance.

I: "For such frivolity, very good reasons are needed, agree!"

HE: “Yes, of course!

Me: "I don't know... For an experienced heartthrob like you, a new officer's wife is a tasty morsel... for one night. I don't want that!"

HE: "A very bad hint, Katyusha, but perhaps fair. Still, believe me, believe at your own peril and risk, I have something to compare with! Your face, and smile, and the slight tenderness of words ... Everything is in you "life, it's hard for me to explain... "Tidbit" - it's not about you, rather, about the general's wife. And you are the only woman I need, behind your eyelashes is a mystery! But for now I can only offer a date against the backdrop of a raging water, while only night under the stars. The day will come, and I will conquer you, turn your head, take you away from your husband! You are mine and no one else, and you will not stay with this good guy, just know it!"

Me (trembling): "You're romantic..."

HE: "In relation to you - yes ... So you will come?"

His whisper is trembling, his breath is hot. The officer's mouth almost touches my ear, causing it to ignite and become purple and hot. I can hardly restrain myself so as not to wrap my arms around his neck and press my puffy, Marilyn Monroe-like lips against the harsh, hard line of the handsome man's lips.

All evening the officer does not take his eyes off me, does not dance with anyone else, watching me clumsily waltz with my tipsy husband. Before leaving quietly whispers: "I'm waiting for you, Katyusha!" I know his name - Yuri Petrov, and he is single. However, I don’t care, even if it’s one night, but mine, and there, at least twenty years of longing - everything is one! A tickling excitement takes over my being, I'm shaking like I'm in a fever. There is no doubt - in love! I thought I would never lose my head! That's hot!

My husband and I come home and he begins to awkwardly harass me. The husband is pretty drunk, breathing live vodka in his face. I weakly return his caresses, trying not to arouse suspicion, but he falls asleep right on top of me without doing anything. I carefully roll the softened guy onto my back, wait another ten minutes. I leave the house, I’m wearing a summer dress, a blouse on top, my hair is loose and disheveled from a light breeze, wet grass lashes my legs. I quickly run across the field to the river. Here it is, the very place where two streams meet, flowing in different directions, but towards each other. The shaken water forms a turbulent funnel here, directly over which a bridge is built. Watching the whirlpool from above is both enticing and creepy.

The officer is waiting on the bridge, in his hands is a bottle of champagne (we didn’t drink at brotherhood) and a bouquet of wildflowers. I approach slowly, we look into each other's eyes, converge, and he hugs me. His strong beautiful hands are busy, but his whole body is striving to meet me ... No one has ever silently and eloquently let me know about his thirst, no one has ever seduced so fiercely and frankly! I melt, lose control of myself, and flowers and champagne fly into the depths of the waters; a man picks me up in his arms and carries me to the other side. There, in a haystack, under the starry sky, we spend the first night of love. Fly all to hell! His kisses are crazy, his dives are amazing, his hot confessions are mesmerizing! I rush about, as if in agony, whispering crazy words, laughing and crying at the same time... Let the morning never come!!!

I come home at dawn, shocked, tired, exhausted, and under the drunken snoring of my husband, I cry bitterly to the point of complete dumbness. I can’t believe: HE loved me, possessed me, I don’t want to believe: this will not happen again in my life !!! I fall asleep, sobbing ... The morning wakes sunlight and a knock on the door. My husband, groaning from drinking, goes to unlock it, but I don’t want to open my eyes, I don’t want to lose the last remnants of happiness.

"Katyusha, pack your things, I'm behind you!" - suddenly I hear a painfully native voice. He, Petrov Yuri! Beside myself, I jump up, muttering: "Yes, yes, yes!" With a groan, I throw myself on his neck.

“I decided not to wait for an opportunity, not to look for prudent solutions, not to lie! I don’t want you to live a day without me!” My lover exclaims and interrupts himself anxiously: “My girl, will you marry me?”

" Yes Yes Yes!" - I keep repeating like a clockwork. I collect things under the bewildered gaze of the one who yesterday was considered my husband. But I know who my real betrothed is!

Reprimand, condemnation, accusations of immorality, human gossip, Yuri and I endured and survived without staggering. The ex-husband began to drink with grief. Under New Year when my beloved returned from a business trip, he again took me to our place. We threw a bottle of champagne into the whirlpool, taking a sip. Carefully wrapping my hips in a sheepskin coat, Yuri took possession of me right on the bridge, and we conceived our boys, Volodya and Yaroslav. He said then: "How not to freeze these seething waters, so our love with you will never dry up, my Katyusha!" Yuri was again expelled from the unit to a closed garrison, lost in the deep taiga. By sending him, the regimental authorities hoped to reconcile me with my husband. But I knew who my real and only husband was!

She continued to live in the room of officer Petrov, teach at a local school (she achieved her goal) and burn with love. It's time to go on maternity leave, and we finally got permission to marry. The attempt to separate us, prevent "immorality" and "preserve the cell of society" failed miserably. Only when my navel climbed over my nose did the commanders understand: everything is serious with us! Yura was hastily returned from a long business trip, fearing that I would not give birth to a straw widow. They say that the same aforementioned general said the decisive word in our defense, he probably also barked in, risking marrying his young bird.

I had not seen Petrov for five months, and when he returned, I hardly recognized him. A thick scar cut through his native face, and his hair turned completely gray! But his hardened appearance did not become less beautiful. How I loved him then! Yuri said that he turned gray from longing for me and our child, but I did not believe him. Snow in her hair - it still didn’t go anywhere, but the scar ... I cried all night.

Soon we had twins, Vovka and Slavik. The event was solemnly celebrated by the whole unit. Even my ex-husband forgave me and brought gifts for the boys.

Garrisons, far and near. Borders, northern and southern. Service and teaching. Children and friends-colleagues. This is our life in a nutshell. Sometimes it was not easy, but I do not regret a minute, not a second! Yuri and I still yearn for that beautiful place, the confluence of two rivers, it leads us through life ... A whirlpool where water boils and foams, a bridge and a haystack on the opposite bank ... A dream come true, a fairy tale in reality!

Our boys are completely different, like the two streams over which we conceived them. And yet, Vladimir and Yaroslav, although they are swimming in opposite directions, but towards each other. I believe that someday life will reconcile them. They have a difficult relationship, different characters and passions, but the beginning is the same - a bridge over stormy waters!

A few years later, a new entry appears in the diary: "We have not wandered around the garrisons for a long time, we settled in N in her husband's home country. The boys have become quite adults, they are looking for their own paths in life! And Yuri and I still love each other, we all also dream of breaking out there, to our place. Look at the whirlpool, remember yourself young and in love. Maybe then our young happiness will return again ... "

An ellipsis, a charming reticence, an illogical hope... There is not another word in the diary. Apparently, since then she had nothing to write. Everything is here, love and life.

Here it is, female happiness ...

From this pre-war photo, the deputy commander of the 84th is looking at you and me rifle regiment lieutenant colonel Alexei Yakovlevich Gribakin (born 1895), his wife Nadezhda Matveevna (born 1898) and their daughters Natalia and Irina.

They met the war in Brest. Here is the story of Nadezhda Gribakina about the beginning of the war.

The first time I read it, I couldn't help crying.

And even now, re-reading, I can not.

The war started, we were sleeping. The husband got up very quickly and began to dress. He only said:

Well, the war is waiting.

Artillery shelling and bombing began. We lived in the fortress itself. The husband dressed and left, went to his unit. Then he couldn't get through. He returned to us and told us to go to the city now.

After 10-12 minutes, a fragment hit the house. My mother and I were hurt. In one underwear they ran out into the street. Fragments and bullets were flying everywhere. We met some commander who ordered us to hide in the house. We hid in some ruins, a small house. They were there for three hours. The bombardment continued, and artillery shells flew. When we fled, a wounded man was crawling into this house. We ran past him. When they stayed in this house, the eldest daughter says:

"Mom, I'm going to bandage him."

I didn't let her in, but they both broke loose and ran. He had a broken leg. There was nothing to bind. Daughter says:

- Gain strength and crawl to the medical unit.

“Comrades, help, there is a wounded man here.

Rifles were immediately pointed at us. They were already Germans. We were so frightened, because we betrayed ourselves and did not expect that in some two or three hours the Germans would be here.

After a while, a rifle appears in the window, and a German looks out cautiously. When he saw that there were women, children, there was one old man, he did not pay attention to us. One of the women addressed him in German to let him go home to get dressed. He says:

- Sit here. Soon everything will calm down, then go home. He asked us where the road to the highway was. We showed him.

After a while we hear Russian voices. The commander enters and asks if the Germans were here. We say we were. He does not believe, asks in which direction they went. We said. There were four of them, one of them was wounded. Natasha, the eldest daughter, bandaged him. He's asking:

- What do you think we should do? Protect?

I say:

- What will 30 people do, you need to get where ours are.

Another says:

And we will destroy them. We will start shooting, the Germans will hit us.

One of them sits in a corner. I will remember this picture for a long time. He sits, thoughtful, tears in his eyes and looks, looks. I thought he had a letter. I look - a party card in my hands. His friend says:

- Must be destroyed.

They pulled the sink away from the washbasin and stuffed the party card deep into it. The second tore the ticket and also put it down into the sink. The third, apparently, was non-partisan. The fourth looked at the ticket for a very long time, turned away, smiled and even kissed this ticket and also tore it up.

Then the commander shouted to leave, lay around in the bushes.

The Germans reappeared. I tell them:

- You hide.

They ask fearfully:

- Where? - very confused.

I say:

“Let’s open the doors, and you stand between them.”

The Germans entered. They took out rifles, stuck them out the windows, then they themselves went in and told us:

- Get out.

We went out and carried out the wounded. Ask:

- Who else is there?

We say there is no one. And those in the corner. I don't know what happened to those four people. Fragments fly, bullets fly. We got lost. They are screaming at us. They took me across the road. Forced to carry a wounded officer. The rest of the women were placed in single file to cover them. The woman who spoke German says:

“We are afraid, they are shooting there.

They answer:

“Your guys won’t shoot at you.

They carried this officer. They carried this officer. Then we were led past our house. This woman asks to let me get dressed, opens my coat and shows that I am naked. He shakes his head, says no. Led to our house with opposite side, set. I ran out in a shirt. Natasha grabbed my coat and carried it after me. I wrapped myself in a blanket. When we were placed against the wall, I feel how this blanket pulls me down. I can't stand. I get down on my knees. I look ahead, and rifles have already been pointed at us, a platoon of soldiers is running. Then I realized that we were set to be shot. I quickly got up, I think that they will not kill me, and I will see how my girls are shot. There was no fear. Suddenly, some officer runs down the mountain, says something to the soldiers, and they lower their rifles. Then I already found out that they were shooting until 12 o'clock, and then there was an order not to shoot. We were taken away without any three minutes 12.

We were taken somewhere else. 600 women gathered. They brought them to a big house, put them on the ground, and ordered them to lie down. The firing is incredible, everything flies into the air. The house in front of us is on fire.

So we lay until evening. There were many wounded among us. Natasha worked like a real doctor, doing dressings. She performed an operation on one of her sisters with a simple knife, took out a bullet.

By evening, the shooting had calmed down a bit. I say:

- Let's go to the house.

By evening, our guards took the men who can walk, forced them to carry guns and took them somewhere. Only seriously wounded men remained with us. By evening I say:

- Let's go into the house, there we will be calm even [if only] from the fragments that fly and injure people before our eyes.

Some say that the house may collapse. I say:

- As you wish, I'll go.

With me was another woman with a baby and a Polish woman who spoke German. Her husband served as a janitor in the fortress.

Little by little it got quiet. They began to run from house to house, looking for someone to dress, someone to eat. I say:

- Take everything that is white for dressing.

They brought towels and sheets. Immediately began to make dressings.

Everyone is afraid to go to the second floor. Everyone is thirsty. They got water, gave a sip only to the wounded and children. At night, the bombing began again. I stood leaning against the wall of a huge three-story house, and felt the walls literally shaking.

We stayed in this house for three days. Children are hungry, crying, screaming. On the fourth day it became quieter, but we hear voices all the time. Women scream, start arguing, quarreling over seats: I sat here, you sat here. I had to talk to them a lot, even hoarse. I say:

- Hush, hush, death is above us, and you are arguing over some place.

Then the women became bolder, saw a well across the road, began to run there, carry water, give to the wounded, to children, and to others in a small sip. On the fourth day, a German appears and says in Russian:

- Get out.

We leave. Lead. We passed the fortress. We were led somewhere very far. They led us to a huge ditch and told us to hide there. My mother is old, they dragged her in her arms. We can hardly go. It began to calm down a little in general, and there was no such bombing. They raised their heads up, the machine gun was pointed there. Some were with things, things were thrown. Already completely said goodbye to life. Then some officer and two soldiers come down, leading the men separately, us separately. There were a lot of men, soldiers. They were already taken somewhere far away. We don't hear them. Then they tell us to go upstairs. We had a sister with us, wounded in the stomach. At first she stuck. She had a suitcase. She ran out with him, could not find her part and stayed with us. We never knew her. She says to Natasha:

- I beg you. Take my suitcase. Maybe they'll take me to the infirmary, I'll look for you. You're naked, take what you have there, leave me a pair of underwear.

I say:

“Natasha, don’t take it, it’s not known where they are taking us.”

She says:

- I'll take.

They brought out this wounded sister, she stands German officer, speaks Russian. This sister turns to him, asks:

- Sir, what will happen to me? I am badly injured. Will they put me in the hospital or will they leave me here?

He doesn't say anything. She turns a second time and cries. He speaks:

- Drop me.

But Ira and I took her by the arms.

Until the night they led us. They took me to the barn. They beat him with a beat. We had the wounded with us. One tanker was wounded. Burnt face, terrible burns. He moaned so. It was so creepy that I couldn't look at it. Natasha patiently approached him, listened to him. He says he can't understand anything. Finally, she realized that he was thirsty. We had a kettle. They took water. She rolled up a paper straw and gives him a drink. He strokes her gratefully. At night he died.

In the morning they took us out, they say:

Officers' wives, come out.

Everyone is silent, afraid. Then he comes out with a list and reads. I read surnames 20, says:

- Go to this barn, your husbands are there.

He did not read my last name, but I followed him. There are tears. It turns out that they have already been taken prisoner. One says:

- Will we live, they will probably kill us, you take care of the children. There was no way to escape from the fortress.

I see one is sitting on the straw. I go up to him and ask:

— You don't know Captain Gribakin? He says:

- I do not know. Everyone is saying goodbye to their wives, but my wife is not here. Allow me to say goodbye to you.

We kissed him. He warns:

- Tell all women not to say that their husbands are political officers. Then they will die themselves and we will be extradited.

I cried with them, went out and quietly told the women about it.

Then they took us again. The next night we again spent the night in a barn somewhere. Then we were led through the Bug. The bridge was not yet completed. When they left us to settle down in the evening, they said:

- Go get dinner.

Who has children, immediately ran.

— Into what? they ask.

- Go, they will give you dishes there.

We didn't go for some reason, as if I felt it. Women run there, there is such laughter, they laughed so much. First they gave everyone mugs. Some took even more than they needed. And then they start laughing and say:

- Go to Stalin, he will feed you.

The women return with tears, but they did not leave the mugs, and one took 4 mugs and gave them to us.

We were taken to the bridge. The wounded sister is coming with us. Suddenly a cart drives up and takes away the wounded. This sister said goodbye to us. Natasha is dragging her suitcase, Ira is bringing her grandmother, but I can't go. We walk on the sides, and in the middle of the bridge there were men. Suddenly I see someone picks me up and to the men. It turns out that one military man saw that I couldn’t walk and said:

“Come with us, or you will fall.”

Went under escort, however, a little. Passed the bridge. The command is given. The women stopped and the men were led on. Here the women abandoned everything. Natasha left our suitcase. Somehow we got over this bridge. Again such a situation. There were no wounded with us. There were lightly wounded who were silent that they were wounded. It was already the eighth day.

When they led us past our house, after they wanted to shoot us, a Pole woman, the janitor's wife, picked up a bag of sugar near my apartment. In the morning, at noon and in the evening she bit off half a piece with her teeth and gave it to us. We didn't have anything else.

In the morning, the order is given to leave. We get up. Natasha doesn't get up. I thought she was fast asleep. I touch her, her head falls, she is unconscious. I got scared. I think they won't wait for us. Gathered the last strength, I say to Ira:

- Let's carry her in our arms.

Some German comes up and says:

— What, kaput?

I say flu. Asks:

- Mother?

- Yes talking.

He singles out two Poles, says:

- Bring it.

I didn't let them carry it. I gave them the suitcase.

Again we were brought to Brest through the fortress. It's a terrible picture. A lot of our dead sat crouched. I saw one tanker. He sits crouched, his face completely burned. A terrible picture. Horses are rolling, people. I almost had to walk along them, because they were being driven in formation.

Then we go further, two people in our uniform sit opposite each other and look at each other. Turns out they are already dead.
They took us to the fortress. The smell is terrible, everything around is decomposing. It was the eighth day, the heat. Feet with corns, almost all barefoot.

We passed the fortress, the bridge. There were bodies all over the city. When we were led along 17 September Avenue, we were photographed endlessly. I turned away all the time. So they laughed at us. Oh how they laughed. Shout:

Officers' wives! Officers' wives.

You can imagine what we looked like. Natasha put on a nice silk dress, but what has it become? Of course, we looked terrible, funny and miserable, and they laughed a lot.

They lead us, we don't even know where. It's quiet and there's no one but the Germans. I put my mother in a steam room. They held her by the arms. But here we were carrying Natasha, and mother was left alone to the mercy of fate. I will ask my friends:

“Look where my mother is.

She is already lagging behind, walking last, and there a soldier pushes her with a bayonet. One very good woman Anoshkina saved my mother.

Then we were taken to the Brest prison. They let us out into the yard - and whoever wants where. Then we were lined up in a semicircle. 12 Germans came. One, apparently a senior officer, also appeared, and with him an interpreter, then a doctor. Immediately they said: the Jews should go out separately. Many Jews hid, did not come out, but then they were betrayed. Then the Poles and Russians were ordered to leave. They got out. Then we, the Easterners, were ordered to stand separately. So we were divided into groups. The Jews were immediately taken out of prison. The locals were told: "Go to your homes."

We were left in prison, and the interpreter began to go to one, to another:

- Tell me who is a communist here, a member of the Komsomol.

Nobody, of course, said. Then one of ours stands out. I don't know her last name, I never did. There were a lot of Eastern ones. She whispered something to him. He approaches one. She is a Komsomol member with a child. Asks:

Where is your party card?

When we spent the night, she tore it up and left it. This woman saw, ours, an Easterner, and she probably told him. Ta says:

“I don’t have a ticket,” she turned terribly pale. He didn't really get on with her, though.

- And where is the Komsomol ticket? " She says:

- I'm not a Komsomol member.

- And what ticket did you tear up? She quickly found, says:

- Trade union.

— Is the trade union card also red?

- Yes, red.

He turns to me and asks:

- Do you have a red union card too?

I say:

- It depends on what, they were blue and red.

This woman got lost between us, but then we found her.

We were left in prison. Take whatever room you want. Our group occupied a small room. The floor was wooden in the room, and everyone was climbing towards us. We crowded about 50 people. When we went to bed, everyone fought for a place.
Natasha and I are messing around, we don't know what's wrong with her. We do compresses for her. There was no medicine. Anoshkina, another fighting woman began to climb all over the prison. There were no Germans, only sentries remained at the gate. They find a pharmacy, there are a lot of medicines. They took it all away, found streptocide, Natasha was given it. She later had angina. Why angina, I can not understand. This streptocide, then Anoshkina got chocolate, and with this they saved Natasha. She began to come to her senses.

On the fifth day, a commission came to us, lined us up in the yard, each was given a ration in hand. One speaks good Russian, one is a doctor. I say that my daughter is sick, I don’t know what kind of illness, maybe she can be taken to the hospital. Doctor says:

- Hardly.

He spoke Russian well. He speaks:

“I will give you a note and ask you to be admitted to the hospital tomorrow morning. They gave us our biscuits, crackers each, a little bit of cereal and tea. Here they laugh again and say:

- You will receive every day. Stalin sent this to you. It turned out that these stocks remained in the prison.

I went to the sentry with this note. The sentry misses. I'm going to the hospital. Silence in the city. I'm going to the hospital. I hear a thud. The Germans are coming, all in cars, on motorcycles, on bicycles, everyone is beautifully dressed, and there were so many of them that [avenue] on September 17 was all filled with troops. I think: where now ours will win. There were a lot of them, and, most importantly, everything was mechanized.

I enter the hospital. There's not a soul there. I pass one room, the second, the third, there is no one. The beds are standing, no one is there. They gave us rations later, and then we didn't eat anything. I see a piece of bread on the table. It looks like someone bit him. I look at this bread, so I want to grab it. I think: "This is theft." I try not to look at him. I cough, I knock with my feet, no one comes out. I can already smell this bread. I think: "Well, I'll steal it." I grabbed this bread and did not have time to swallow it, my sister comes out. I think, "She saw me take it." She asks:

- What do you want?

I have tears in my eyes. I show her the note. She says:

Under no circumstances will you be released. I will give you some of the medicines, but no one will put you in the hospital. Try to take her to city ​​hospital.

I go back, I think: why did I eat bread, I could give everyone a piece. I come, pick up Natasha and drag her on my back. I come to the city hospital. She was not accepted there either. I'm dragging her back. At this time, a polka, the janitor's wife, was walking, saw us, was delighted, said that she came several times, brought bread, but the sentry did not let us through. She helped me drag Natasha, gave us bread, sugar, a piece of butter, a scallop. We all have a lot of lice in a week.
She brought Natasha again, but she felt better. After her, her mother fell ill, she has dysentery. We dragged her every minute to the restroom. Washed with cold water, caught a cold. Then she got a little better.

It's been 3 weeks. We were told that one of the family could go and ask for bread and clothes. I went to the wives of one Captain Shenvadze and Commissar Kryuchkov. They received me very badly, asked me to leave, because they had Germans. Came to the wife of a lieutenant. She helped us a lot, gave us linen, gave us food, gave us some pillowcases, towels. We left her with a big bundle. She says:

- If you are released, come to live with me.

Then we were told: whoever has an apartment can leave. We came to this Nevzorova. Then the room was vacated. The owner of this house, a Polish woman, allowed us to live, and then our independent life began. When we came from prison, everyone became interested in us. Most of the locals lived there. Everyone ran to look at us like we were wild animals. Some brought soap, some to eat, some a towel, some a blanket, some a pillow. They brought us beds. There was a woman there, doctor Geishter, who terribly hated Soviet power but helped us. There was a Jewess there, the head of the pharmacy Ruzya, this one also helped us.

So we started living there. Every day they will not bring us food. Our women went to beg in the villages. Most of our women walked through the villages. Who lived in the city, went to ask in the villages. They helped a lot in the villages, I couldn’t even believe it. The girls were afraid to walk for the first few days, it was scary. I couldn't walk either. I cried for the first few days. My mother will put on a gas mask bag and go to the village, and then the girls go to meet her. They gave bread, cucumbers, and when they started to go far, there was lard, white flour, and eggs. They fed us, literally, until 1943. There were those who both scolded and sent to Stalin, but the majority helped, especially near Kobrin, 50 km. My girls went there. There is nothing on the legs in winter, and we sewed from rags, we will wind up something. Mom used to bring this bag. I am sitting at home. Let's share these pieces of bread. You don't see if they are dirty or not. We had no shame. There were these two mugs that they gave us.

The girls began to go far to the villages, to collect with one woman, but they never asked. This woman holds a child in her arms, she asks, the girls are silent, but they give them too. They went once every two weeks. They brought it so that they came, literally bent over with this burden. For 30 km they no longer carried potatoes, but bread, beans, onions. Milk was given as much as you like, but how to carry it.

Then I see that it is not possible to live like this. Just a friend comes with a bathrobe, how to sew it. We took a pattern from this dressing gown and began to sew. There was no car, we sewed by hand. Then relatives of Irina's friend say: "Come to us to sew," and we went to the 4th Brest - it's far away. So they lived until 1942. In 1941, women entered the workforce. Those who did not work were taken to Germany. True, Ira got a job at a laborer's factory, and Natasha worked in the fortress, peeling potatoes.

The Poles insisted that we be singled out in the same way as the Jews in the ghetto. There was one lawyer Kshenitsky here. He especially insisted on it. He was a big boss. For some reason, the Germans did not agree to this. If someone came and reported that this was the wife of a colonel, this one was a commissar, then she was taken to prison, and then shot. Those who managed to escape, the Germans did not use anything against them. I wasn't called. Only when we had a search [on] the first day, they asked me who the husband was. I was saved by the fact that until 1939 my husband was in reserve, worked for railway. For some reason, his passport was in my bag, and Natasha grabbed this bag. It was obvious that he was a railroad worker. I told everyone: I came here to visit relatives, and Natasha came to practice. Her husband was not here, and as proof she showed her passport.

Archive of IRI RAS. Foundation 2. Section VI. Op. 16. D. 9. L. 1-5 (typewritten text, copy).

* * *

And you know what?

They all remained alive.

Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Yakovlevich Gribakin, together with his unit, retreated to Kobrin, served in the field administration of the 13th Army, and reached Berlin. Awarded with the Order Patriotic War I and II degrees and the Order of the Red Star.

Nadezhda Matveevna, together with her daughters, lived to see liberation. On December 21, 1944, in Brest, she was interviewed by members of the Commission on the History of the Great Patriotic War F.L. Yelovtsan and A.I. Shamshin.

On Defender of the Fatherland Day, it is customary to congratulate all men without exception and age discounts. The male? Congratulations! So he deserved it. But only a few of them know what service is. An experienced wife of an officer tells about how the military live and serve.

To become the wife of a general, you need to marry a lieutenant and wander around the garrisons with him. But a rare bird will fly to the middle of the Dnieper, which means that with a successful combination of circumstances, you will meet old age with your husband-colonel. Or you won’t if you run away earlier, unable to withstand all the hardships and hardships of military life.

C - Stability

She just doesn't exist. You will never know how long you will live in one place and where you will then be sent. Most likely further away. The more remote the place of its location, the higher the chance that you will go there.

Every time you need to start all over again and be prepared for the fact that the water is in the column, and the amenities are on the street.

T - Patience

We need to find its inexhaustible source. And draw liters from there - one glass on an empty stomach for prevention, and in advanced cases, increase the dosage until the symptoms disappear.

About - Communication

With anyone, but not with her husband. Sometimes he leaves in the morning, as usual, for service and returns not even at night (this, by the way, is excellent and consider yourself lucky!), But two weeks later, simply because the Motherland said: “We must!”. The voice of the wife is deliberative, but by no means decisive.

D - children

At first it’s hard with them, grandparents are far away, there is often no one to help, you can only rely on yourself. But children grow up and become like cats! That is, they walk on their own. In a closed area where everyone knows each other, nothing bad will ever happen.

F - pity

Forget! First, you will learn not to spare yourself, otherwise you will not survive, because the whole life is on you, and there is no time for your husband - he has a service. Then stop feeling sorry for others. And if you see that someone is not conscientiously fulfilling their duties, just do not remain silent. And it is right!

By chance, this turned out to be our first and last night of love with Ira. The next day, Kostya abandoned his passion and returned to his family. After that, I still often visited them, but, of course, both I and Irina kept our secret.

P.S. Four years have passed since that night. We moved to another area of ​​the city and have not seen Kostya and Ira for three years. Literally by chance, they dropped in on us "for a light", and now, when everyone was already pretty drunk, Ira gave out the phrase: "The fact that Kostya left me was a big plus - I found out what a real man is." And all this time she looked directly into my eyes. Thank God that our other halves took it as a drunken chatter in order to annoy Kostya.

officer's wife

Title: officer's wife

The withdrawal of our troops from Mongolia was the most difficult period of my service. We left the inhabited military town and left for no one knows where, it’s good that I was given a wagon-caravan, since I commanded the signalmen’s department at the regiment headquarters. True, it was difficult to call it a department - only four people: three demobilized (Karasev, Poluchko and Zhmerin) and one salaga (Starkov). And in this composition, plus me and my wife Tanya, with all state-owned equipment and personal property, we had to travel across Siberia to a new location in the Ural Military District.

Everyone was engaged in loading together, I drove all my belongings on a cart to the wagon with Private Starkov, where the other three soldiers, under the guidance of my wife, loaded everything inside. And as I rolled the cart around the corner, I stopped to rest and wait for Starkov, who ran back to get the things I had dropped in the confusion. From here I had a beautiful view of the platform, where my wife was telling the three demobilized people how to carefully load the cabinet with a glass door, and they listened to her lazily, from time to time looking sideways at her body covered in sports tights.

Come on boys, let's get it! And you Valera accept!

Karasev jumped into the car, preparing to receive the load, while Poluchko and Zhmerin began clumsily lifting the cabinet.

Oh, be careful! - shouted Tanya, rushing to hold the unexpectedly opened glass door. - Why are you so!

After most of the cabinet was lifted into the car, the soldiers relaxed and winked at my wife.

Allow me, we’ll lift it up from here, ”said Zhmerin, as if by chance coming up behind and grabbing my wife by the chest, while Poluchko was pawing her buttocks in the same manner.

Well, let it go! Tatyana shouted sternly, slapping Zhmerin's hands.

The soldiers immediately moved away from her, hesitating.

You look to dissolve your hands! I'm not thinking for a long time, I can complain about you, or even hit me with something!

“Well, it seems to be starting,” flashed through my head, although I didn’t have time to think about what exactly was starting. Starkov came and we rolled the cart to the car.

I remembered this incident already on the road, when, having fenced off the snoring fighters with a screen, my wife and I went to sleep on the mattress prepared for this.

"But what if you leave her alone, alone with them? Will they rape her or be afraid?" I thought, "But what the hell is going on in my head! This is probably from the fact that I haven't made love for a long time."

I tried to kiss my wife on the lips, but she turned away.

Lesha, don't! Your soldiers are sleeping nearby.

Yes, they will not hear anything, they are sleeping without hind legs. Namayalis see much for the day. I pressed.

I'm tired too. - Tatyana resolutely stopped my encroachments.

But the chance to leave his wife with the soldiers was not long in coming. Arriving on the territory of the Union, we stopped at the location of one part of the railway troops for an indefinite period. There was nowhere to accommodate, so all of our people continued to live in wagons. And somehow, one Sunday, I had to be on duty at the headquarters, which was at the railwaymen. Of course, I went there not without fear, leaving my wife in the care of the soldiers, but everything seemed to be fine, and besides, I did not sit there for long. A railway officer came who had some paperwork there and offered to stay at the headquarters instead of me, especially since it is unlikely that anyone will disturb the headquarters on a day off after the move. I willingly took advantage of his offer and hurried home, but before reaching my car, which stood separately in one of the dead ends, I suddenly found an empty bottle of vodka lying on the ground. This, and also the fact that the door of the caravan was tightly pushed, alerted me. I wanted to break in there, but overcoming the excitement, I walked around the car on the other side, where there was a gap through which you can see what is happening inside, while remaining unnoticed. The following picture appeared before me: Karasev and Zhmerin were holding a tensely snoring Starkov, and Poluchko was trying to take off his pants. My wife rushed around them.

AB-SA-RA-KA

bloody land:

The stories of the officer's wife

Colonel Henry Carrington

DEDICATION

This story is dedicated to Lieutenant General Sherman, whose proposal was accepted in the spring of 1866 at Fort Kearny, and whose energetic policy of solving the Indian problems and quickly completing the Union Pacific to the "Sea", crushed the last hope of an armed insurrection.

Margaret Irvine Carrington.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

Absaraka, indeed, became a bloody land. The tragedy, in which the army lost twelve officers and two hundred and forty-seven brave soldiers in 1876, was but the continuation of a series of skirmishes which brought about peace after the catastrophe of 1866. Now you can learn more about a country that was so dependent on the military to expand settlements and solve Indian problems.

In January 1876, General Custer told the author, "It will take another massacre of Phil Kearney for Congress to give generous support to the army." Six months later, his story, like Fetterman, has become monumental thanks to a similar catastrophe. With extensive experience on the frontier—Fetterman was a novice—and with a belief in the ability of white soldiers to overcome Indian superior forces, fearless, brave, and peerless horsemen, Custer believed that an army should fight hostile savages under any circumstances and at every opportunity.

Short story developments in this country is of great value to all who are interested in our relations with the Indians of the Northwest.

The map attached here was considered sufficiently detailed by Generals Custer and Brisbin. General Humphreys, chief of US engineers, pointed out additional forts and agencies on it.

The first appearance of the military in this country is accurately represented in the text. There has never been a more insane impulse of the Americans than that which forced the army into the country of the Powder and Bighorn Rivers in 1866, doing the will of irresponsible emigrants, regardless of the legal rights of the local tribes. There has never been a wilder takeover for gold than taking over the Black Hills in the face of solemn treaties.

Time brings to the surface the fruits of an unreasonable policy - the agreement of 1866 in Laramie - a simple deception, as far as it concerned all the tribes. These fruits are ripe. The fallen can attest to this. I am ready to state that at the time of the massacre, if this line had been severed, it would have required four times as many forces in the future to reopen it; since then, more than a thousand soldiers have faced a problem that was then solved by less than a hundred. The battle for the Bighorn Country was presented in one statement: “Having had a partial success, the Indian, now desperate and bitter, looked upon the reckless white man as a sacrifice, and the United States had to send an army to deal with the Indians of the northwest. It is better to incur the costs immediately than to delay and provoke a war for many years. It needs to be understood here and now.”

There is no glory in Indian warfare. If too little has been done, the West complains; if too much is done, the East condemns the massacre of the redskins. The lies of justice are between extremes, and here is the quality of that Indian policy which was inaugurated during the official term of President Grant. So little truth, mixed facts, and such a strong desire to be popular by pointing to the scapegoat at the first public condemnation of the war, which lasted for six months, that, even now, public opinion has taken only a few uncertain lessons from that carnage. Indeed, it took another tragedy to try to sort out the relationship between the Americans and the Indian tribes and solve this problem.

Henry Carrington