The feat of General Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev. Hero of our time. General Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev. Between World Wars
This man is now almost forgotten. The younger generation probably already does not know his name. But it is precisely on such examples that this very youth should be educated. If you want to grow inflexible heroes, not amorphous consumers of carbonated drinks.
Let's remember our Russian heroes. They deserve it. Only in this way will the link between generations be preserved.
The name of the man who became a symbol of the unbending will of the Russian officer, stamina and courage is Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev. The hero of the USSR.
Already in the 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. Current schoolchildren practically do not know Karbyshev. There are, of course, exceptions...
11.04. 2011“A public rally dedicated to the International Day for 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 name? 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 from it, he became one of the best Russian military engineers.
During World War I, he supervised work in the Brest Fortress. During the siege of the Russian fortress of Przemysl, he personally leads a consolidated company into the attack and is wounded. He is awarded an order and receives the rank of lieutenant colonel.
But not in a fratricidal war did Dmitry Mikhailovich accomplish 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 art. Receives the title of professor and the 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, 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 taken prisoner.
General Karbyshev spent three and a half years in Nazi dungeons. The concentration camps change one by one: Zamosc, Ostrov-Mazowiecki, Hammelsburg near Berlin. Hunger, beatings, sickness. And suggestions from the Germans. The captured old Russian officer is offered cooperation by the Germans.
“Yesterday I was offered to go to serve in the 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 in spirit, not only endures all the horrors of the German concentration camps, but also conducts agitation. Convinces others to sabotage work. Convinces to believe in the victory of Russia.
He is again offered to betray the Motherland. He refuses again.
And so the Nazis send him to the Nuremberg camp. Then to the Nuremberg prison of the Gestapo. From there, the general is sent to the quarries, to the Flossenburg concentration camp. This is a real hard labor, multiplied by sadism and murder. Karbyshev is already 64 years old ...
Then Dmitry Mikhailovich was 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 walks around in the striped clothes of a prisoner, barely dragging his feet from hunger, on which he wears wooden shoes-blocks.
An officer who knew Karbyshev by sight meets him in Auschwitz. The Russian general was sent to a team that cleaned out latrines and garbage pits. From the unexpectedness of the meeting, the officer was confused and asked a stupid question:
How do you feel in Auschwitz?
Karbyshev bowed and replied:
- Well, cheerfully, as 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 FROM THE FORMER POW LIEUTENANT COLONEL SOROKIN
(1945)
On February 21, 1945, I arrived at the Mauthausen concentration camp with a group of 12 captured officers. Upon arrival at the camp, I became aware that on February 17, 1945, at 5 pm, a group of 400 people was separated from the total mass of prisoners, where Lieutenant General Karbyshev also ended up. These 400 people were stripped naked and left to stand in the street; those in poor health died, and they were immediately sent to the firebox of the camp crematorium, while the rest were driven with clubs into a cold shower. Until 12 o'clock in the morning this execution was repeated several times.
At 12 o'clock in the morning, during another such execution, Comrade Karbyshev deviated from the pressure of cold water and was killed with a baton on the head. Karbyshev's body was burned in the camp's crematorium.
MESSAGE FROM THE REPATRIATION COMMITTEE
(1946)
Our representative for repatriation in London, Major Sorokopud, was invited on February 13, 1946, by the ill Canadian Army Major Seddon de St. Clair to Bremshot Hospital, Hampshire (England), where the latter informed him:
“In January 1945, among the 1000 prisoners from the Heinkel plant, I was sent to the Mauthausen extermination camp, this team included Lieutenant General Karbyshev and several other Soviet officers. Upon arrival at Mauthausen, I spent the whole day in the cold. In the evening, a cold shower was arranged for all 1,000 people, and after that, in the same shirts and stocks, they lined up on the parade ground and kept it 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 one already exists, it will be shown on one of the leading channels. Artists, huh? 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 Ministry of Defense of the USSR, Moscow, 1961)
Karbyshev, Dmitry Mikhailovich October 26, 1880 (18801026) February 18, 1945 Place of birth Omsk Place ... Wikipedia
Karbyshev Dmitry Mikhailovich- (1880-1945), military engineer, lieutenant general of engineering troops (1940), professor (1938), doctor of military sciences (1941), Hero of the Soviet Union (1946, posthumously). Member of the Communist Party since 1940. Graduated from the Nikolaev Engineering Academy ... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"
- (1880 1945) military engineer, lieutenant general of engineering troops (1940), professor, doctor of military sciences, Hero of the Soviet Union (1946, posthumously). Member of the 1st World War and the Civil War. Since 1926 on teaching work, professor of a number of military ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Soviet military commander, lieutenant general of engineering troops (1940), professor, doctor of military sciences (1941), Hero of the Soviet Union (8/16/1946). Member of the CPSU since 1940. Born in ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- (1880 1945), military engineer, lieutenant general of engineering troops (1940), professor (1938), doctor of military sciences (1941), Hero of the Soviet Union (1946, posthumously). Member of the Communist Party since 1940. Graduated from the Nikolaev Engineering Academy ... ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)
- (1880 1945), military engineer, lieutenant general of engineering troops (1940), professor, doctor of military sciences, Hero of the Soviet Union (1946, posthumously). Member of the 1st World War and the Civil War. From 1926 on teaching work, professor of a number of military ... encyclopedic Dictionary
- (1880, Omsk - 1945), military engineer and scientist, lieutenant general of engineering troops (1940), Hero of the Soviet Union (1946, posthumously). From the family of a military official. He graduated from the Nikolaev Engineering Academy in St. Petersburg (1911). Member of the Russian ... ... Moscow (encyclopedia)
Genus. 1880, d. (died) 1945. Military engineer, military leader. Member of the First World, Civil and Great Patriotic Wars. Since 1940, lieutenant general of engineering troops, Hero of the Soviet Union (1946, posthumously) ... Big biographical encyclopedia
On February 18, 1945, General Dmitry Karbyshev, one of the most famous heroes of the Great Patriotic War, died in the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. In the USSR, everyone knew how this man died, who became a symbol of unbending will and stamina: according to the canonical Soviet legend, the Germans poured cold water on a captured Soviet general in the cold until he turned into a block of ice. But was it really so?
In August 1941, Lieutenant General of the Engineering Troops Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was shell-shocked and captured in a battle near the Belarusian village of Dobreika. Karbyshev passed through a number of German concentration camps, the Mauthausen camp became his last refuge - there he died on the night of February 18, 1945. And now we come to the most legendary - the circumstances of the death of the general.
Monument to Karbyshev in Mauthausen
On August 16, 1946, on the basis of two testimonies submitted to the USSR Ministry of Defense, General Dmitry Karbyshev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). Here is what was said in these testimonies.
The message of the former prisoner of war Lieutenant Colonel Sorokin:
“On February 21, 1945, with a group of 12 captured officers, I arrived at the Mauthausen concentration camp. Upon arrival at the camp, I became aware that on February 17, a group of 400 people was separated from the total mass of prisoners, where Lieutenant General Karbyshev also ended up. These 400 people were stripped naked and left to stand in the street; those in poor health died, and they were immediately sent to the firebox of the camp crematorium, while the rest were driven with clubs into a cold shower. Until 12 o'clock in the morning this execution was repeated several times. At 12 o'clock in the morning, during another such execution, Comrade Karbyshev deviated from the pressure of cold water and was killed with a baton on the head. Karbyshev's body was burned in the camp's crematorium."
The second document is Message from Canadian Army Major Seddon de St. Clair to a representative of the Soviet Repatriation Committee:
« In January 1945, I was sent to the Mauthausen extermination camp among 1,000 prisoners from the Heinkel plant, this team included General Karbyshev and several other Soviet officers. Upon arrival at Mauthausen, we spent the whole day in the cold. In the evening, a cold shower was arranged for all 1,000 people, and after that, in the same shirts and stocks, they lined up on the parade ground and kept it until 6 o'clock in the morning. Of the 1,000 people who arrived at Mauthausen, 480 died. General Dmitry Karbyshev also died.
These testimonies, in general, adequately paint a picture of what happened. General Karbyshev either died of hypothermia after standing in the open air for many hours, or was killed by a blow to the head with a club. Let us note, by the way, that the testimony of a Canadian officer deserves more credibility. Lieutenant Colonel Sorokin was not in Mauthausen at the time of Karbyshev's death - he was brought there a few days later. He clearly retells the information about the death of the general from someone else’s words, so that the effect of a “broken phone” is possible here. St. Clair was a direct eyewitness to the events.
However, such an uninteresting death of a hero from hypothermia was not enough for Soviet agitprop. Therefore, the description of the death of the general quickly began to acquire picturesque details. Already in 1948, a book appeared under the title "Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev." The book contains the testimony of St. Clair, but the story of the Canadian officer, edited by Soviet journalists, was already significantly different from the original version. It was all the easier to carry out such editorial revisions because St. Clair was no longer alive by that time.
Here is how the redacted St. Clair now describes the death of Karbyshev:
“As soon as we entered the camp, the Germans herded us into the shower room, ordered us to undress, and sprayed us with jets of ice-cold water from above… Then we were ordered to put on only linen and wooden blocks and kicked out into the yard. General Karbyshev was standing in a group of Russian comrades not far from me ... At this time, the Gestapo, standing behind our backs with fire hoses in their hands, began to pour cold water on us. Those who tried to evade the jet were beaten with clubs on the head. Hundreds of people fell frozen or with crushed skulls. I saw how General Karbyshev also fell.
So, we are registering the appearance of the first component of a new myth: now it’s not just about a cold shower and standing in the cold, but about the “water cannons” with which the “Gestapo” pour water over the general and other prisoners. True, why the prisoners are watered from nowhere by the "Gestapo" (that is, the political police), and not the camp guards, remains incomprehensible. Apparently, it seemed better to the Soviet author.
The construction of the legend did not end there. In 1955, the main nail of the myth appeared in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper:
“On a frosty night from February 17 to February 18, 1945, half-naked Karbyshev was led out to the inner wall of the Mauthausen camp. Here he was poured with water from a fire hose until he turned into an ice statue.
Not only does the general now die not along with several hundred more prisoners, but in splendid isolation, but now he is also turning into an ice block. We must pay tribute to the journalist's imagination - the ending he invented turned out to be extremely effective. The image of a Soviet general freezing into the ice immediately became very widespread.
As usual in such cases, a large number of witnesses were immediately found who allegedly personally saw how the general turned into an ice floe. In the stories of some of them, details worthy of horror films appear:
According to the canonical version, General Karbyshev was turned into an ice statue with the help of hoses
“It was 12 degrees below zero. Crossing jets of ice hit from the hoses. Karbyshev was slowly covered with ice. “Cheer up, comrades, think about your homeland - and courage will not leave you,” he said before his death, referring to the prisoners of Mauthausen” (“In the dungeons of Mauthausen”, 1959).
By the way, to the question of frost. Yes, we found out that Karbyshev was not turned into an ice block. But could it be done in principle?
The Mauthausen camp was located on the territory of Austria - not the northernmost of the European countries. Temperatures of -12 degrees are quite rare there. But what was the winter of 1945 like?
To this day, weather reports of those days have been preserved, fixing changes in the weather in the area of the Mauthausen camp. In the second half of February in Mauthausen it was relatively calm. In the morning the temperature fluctuated from -2 to +3 degrees; during the day from + 4 to + 10 degrees Celsius. Under such conditions, even a dead body cannot be turned into an ice floe, not to mention a living person.
Dossier. Dmitry Karbyshev (1880 - 1945) graduated from the Siberian Cadet Corps, St. Petersburg Nikolaev Military Engineering School, Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy. 
During the Russo-Japanese War, he participated in the battle of Mukden. He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant. During the First World War, he took part in the assault on the fortress of Przemysl), wounded in the leg. Promoted to lieutenant colonel. In 1916 he was a member of the Brusilov breakthrough.
Since 1918 in the Red Army. During the Civil War, he was engaged in the construction of fortified areas. In 1920, he led the engineering support for the assault on Perekop. Since 1926 - a teacher at the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze. In 1929 he was appointed the author of the Molotov and Stalin Lines project.
During the Finnish War of 1939-1940, he developed recommendations for engineering support for breaking through the Mannerheim Line. In 1940, Karbyshev was awarded the rank of lieutenant general of the engineering troops. In 1941 he became a doctor of military sciences.
In early June 1941, Karbyshev was sent to the Western Special Military District. Since August 1941 he was listed as missing. Contained in concentration camps: Zamosc, Hammelburg, Flossenbürg, Majdanek, Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen and Mauthausen.
The poem “Dignity” by S. Vasiliev is dedicated to the feat of D. M. Karbyshev. In 1975, Mosfilm filmed the feature film "Motherland of Soldiers", which tells about the life and exploits of D. M. Karbyshev
By the way. During the years of World War II, 83 Soviet generals were taken prisoner. Of these, 26 people died, the rest after the victory were deported to the USSR. Of these, 32 people were repressed. The remaining 25 were acquitted after a six-month check.
Denis Orlov
Dmitry Mikhailovich was born on October 26, 1880 in Omsk. His father was a hereditary military man of noble origin, so Dmitry decided to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors. In 1891, despite the financial difficulties of the family, he entered the Siberian Cadet Corps, from which he graduated with honors and then, in 1898, he entered the Nikolaev Engineering School. Upon graduation, he was sent to serve in the first East Siberian battalion as the head of the cable department of the telegraph company (Manchuria). There in 1903 he was promoted to lieutenant.
In Manchuria, he was caught by the Russo-Japanese War, during which he was awarded three medals and five orders for personal courage.
In 1906, due to free-thinking and campaigning among the soldiers, he was dismissed from the army to the reserve for "unreliability". But a year later he was returned to participate in the reconstruction of the fortifications of Vladivostok.
After graduating with honors in 1911 from the Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy, Karbyshev ended up in Bretsk-Litovsk, where he participated in the construction of the famous Brest Fortress. When the First World War began in 1914, Dmitry Karbyshev went through it under the command of General A.A. Brusilov and was subsequently elevated to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
In 1917, the general sided with the Red Army, thus opening a new page in his biography - the Soviet one. Fulfilling the instructions of the revolutionary government, he supervised the construction of many fortifications on various fronts of the Civil War: in the Volga region, in the Urals and Ukraine. He was known and appreciated by such famous commanders as M. Frunze, V. Kuibyshev and F. Dzerzhinsky.
After the end of hostilities, Dmitry Mikhailovich worked as a teacher at the Military Academy. Frunze, and in 1934 he was invited to head the department of military engineering at the Academy of the General Staff.
By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, D. Karbyshev already had the degree of professor, the rank of lieutenant general of the engineering troops, he also defended his doctoral dissertation in the status of a member of the CPSU (b). In 1941 he fought on the western border of Belarus. In one of the battles, he, seriously wounded, was captured by the Germans, where he committed his heroic deed.
The feat accomplished by General Karbyshev
After his capture, nothing was known about his fate for several years; officially, the general was considered missing. But in 1946, a former prisoner of the Mauthausen concentration camp, Major of the Canadian Army S. De St. Clair, reported the last details of his biography.
According to him, at the end of 1945, a large batch of prisoners from other camps arrived in Mauthausen. Among them was General Dmitry Karbyshev.
The Germans ordered all the prisoners to undress in the cold, and then began to pour cold water on them from hoses. Many immediately died of a broken heart, the general was one of those who held out to the last. Covering himself with a crust of ice, he constantly encouraged his comrades in misfortune and at the end shouted: “The Motherland will not forget us!” Then the body of Dmitry Karbyshev was burned in the crematorium.
Subsequently, when the German archives fell into the hands of the Soviet command, it turned out that there was another bright moment in the hero's biography. The Nazi command repeatedly offered him cooperation in exchange for release and other benefits. The Germans understood very well that they were facing an extraordinary person with vast military and strategic experience. But firmly intending to preserve not only his human dignity, but also the honor of the general, he did not agree to this, for which he was exiled to a concentration camp.
His feat was immortalized in many monuments throughout the former Soviet Union. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded posthumously to General Dmitry Karbyshev on August 16, 1946.
Postage stamp dedicated to Dmitry Karbyshev on the page: Displaying the historical feat of the people in philately.
Biographies and exploits of Heroes of the Soviet Union and holders of Soviet orders:
Soviet military leader, lieutenant general of engineering troops (1940), professor at the Military Academy of the General Staff (1938), doctor of military sciences (1941), Hero of the Soviet Union (1946, posthumously).
Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was born on October 14 (26), 1880 in the city in the family of M. I. Karbyshev, a clerk in the district commissariat.
In 1891-1898, D. M. Karbyshev studied at the Siberian Cadet Corps, in 1900 he graduated from the Nikolaev Military Engineering School (first class). With the rank of second lieutenant, he was appointed company commander in the East Siberian sapper battalion, stationed in Manchuria.
D. M. Karbyshev took part in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, was the head of the cable department of the 4th telegraph company of the 1st East Siberian engineer battalion. Participated in the battle of Mukden (1905). During the war years, he was promoted to lieutenant and awarded five orders - St. Vladimir 4th degree with swords and a bow (1904), St. Stanislav 3rd degree with a bow (1904), St. Anna 3rd degree with swords and a bow ( 1905), St. Stanislaus 2nd class with swords (1905), St. Anne 4th class for wearing personal weapons on the hilt (1905).
In 1906, D. M. Karbyshev was transferred to the reserve. He was charged with agitation among the soldiers, the case was examined by an officer's "court of honor." A year later, due to the lack of experienced officers, he was again invited to serve. In 1907-1908, D. M. Karbyshev was a company commander of the Vladivostok fortress sapper battalion, took part in the restructuring of fortifications.
In 1908-1911, D. M. Karbyshev studied at the Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy, from which he graduated with honors. In 1911 he was sent to serve in Brest-Litovsk (now in Belarus), where he took part in the construction of the forts of the Brest Fortress.
During the First World War, D. M. Karbyshev fought on the South-Western Front as part of the 8th army of the general. He was a divisional engineer of the 78th and 69th infantry divisions of the 22nd Finnish Rifle Corps. In early 1915, he took part in the assault on the Przemysl fortress, where he was wounded in the leg. For courage and courage, D. M. Karbyshev was awarded the Order of St. Anna, 2nd degree, and promoted to lieutenant colonel. In 1916 he took part in the Brusilov breakthrough.
After the October Revolution of 1917, D. M. Karbyshev supported the Bolsheviks and recognized Soviet power. In December 1917, in the city of Mogilev-Podolsky (now in Ukraine), he joined the Red Guard, from 1918 he served in the Red Army. During the Civil War, he participated in the construction of the Simbirsk, Samara, Saratov, Chelyabinsk, Zlatoust, Troitsk, Kurgan fortified regions, and was engaged in the engineering support of the Kakhovka bridgehead. He held responsible positions at the headquarters of the North Caucasian Military District.
In 1920, D. M. Karbyshev was appointed chief of engineers of the 5th Army of the Eastern Front. Supervised the strengthening of the Trans-Baikal bridgehead. In the autumn of 1920 he became assistant chief of engineers of the Southern Front. He led the engineering support for the assault on Chongar and Perekop, for which he was awarded a personalized gold watch.
In 1921-1936, D. M. Karbyshev served in the engineering troops, was chairman of the Engineering Committee of the Main Military Engineering Directorate of the Red Army. From November 1926 he taught at the Military Academy. . In February 1934, he was appointed head of the military engineering department of the Military Academy of the General Staff. Since 1936, D. M. Karbyshev was an assistant to the head of the department of tactics of higher formations of the Military Academy of the General Staff. In 1938 he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. In the same year, D. M. Karbyshev was approved in the academic rank of professor. In 1940 he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general of the engineering troops. In the same year he joined the CPSU (b).
D. M. Karbyshev was the author of many scientific works: "Engineering preparation of the borders of the USSR" (book 1, 1924), "Destruction and obstacles" (1931, together with I. Kiselev and I. Maslov), "Engineering support for combat operations of rifle formations "(1939-1940), etc. He developed the foundations of the theory of engineering support for operations and the combat use of engineer troops.
D. M. Karbyshev took part in the Soviet-Finnish war of 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 the engineering support of the breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line. In the prewar years, he was awarded the Orders of the Red Star (1938) and the Order of the Red Banner (1940).
In early June 1941, D. M. Karbyshev was sent to the Western Special Military District. The Great Patriotic War found him at the headquarters of the 3rd Army in Grodno (Belarus). Two days later, he moved to the headquarters of the 10th Army, which on June 27, 1941 was surrounded. In August 1941, when trying to get out of the encirclement, Lieutenant-General D. M. Karbyshev was seriously shell-shocked in a battle near the village of Dobreika, Mogilev Region (Belarus) and was taken prisoner.
In 1941-1945, D. M. Karbyshev was kept in the German concentration camps Zamosc, Hammelburg, Flossenburg, Majdanek, Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen. Adamantly remained faithful to the oath, resolutely suppressed the numerous attempts of the Nazis to persuade him to treason. Conducted anti-fascist agitation among prisoners of war.
On the night of February 18, 1945, D. M. Karbyshev died in the Mauthausen concentration camp (Austria) during the Nazi massacre of prisoners - revenge for the escape they organized two weeks ago. Among other prisoners (about 500 people), he was poured with water in the cold.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of August 16, 1946, D. M. Karbyshev "for exceptional stamina and courage shown in the fight against the German invaders in the Great Patriotic War" was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).
