On August 8, 1944, thanks to the efforts of the Soviet secret services, the voice of the former commander of the Wehrmacht's Sixth Army, Hitler's favorite, Friedrich Paulus, seeps into the German radio, who calls on the German people to lay down their arms and direct their militancy against the Fuhrer himself.

And this despite the fact that after the defeat at Stalingrad, a year and a half before, a symbolic funeral took place in Berlin for Paulus, who allegedly shot himself in Stalingrad, besieged by Soviet troops, but remained faithful to the oath. Then, in February 1943, Hitler himself personally placed a field marshal's baton with diamonds on the empty coffin of Paulus. The Fuhrer does not even suggest - Paulus, who did not die at Stalingrad, as German propaganda claimed, but surrendered, will very soon become almost the most ardent opponent of Nazism and even a connoisseur of the works of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Karl Marx.

Few people know, but Field Marshal Paulus owes his brilliant career to ... his own wife. In 1909, young Friedrich graduated with honors from a military gymnasium. But the future field marshal already then understands that he, the son of a simple accountant in Kaiser's Germany, does not have a great future. After all, in his family there are neither military nor aristocrats. And the path to privileged staff ranks is closed to him. At the same time, the prospect of a possible trench life does not appeal to Paulus. And when a lieutenant with a spectacular appearance meets the sister of his colleague - the Romanian aristocrat Elena - Constance Roseti Solescu, it turns out that she is friends with some high-ranking staff officers. And this means that with the help of this girl you can arrange your fate at the General Staff. He honestly confesses his plans to her on the first date. And soon, having married favorably, the diligent, but not seven spans in the forehead, lieutenant receives the adjutant's aiguillette.

Despite the rapid career growth, the General Staff officer Paulus felt defective among his colleagues. He cannot forget his plebeian origin and therefore tries in every possible way to imitate the aristocratic manners of his wife. For his anglicization, the staff officers even called him Lord. With his impeccable manners, Paulus became famous among the Soviet military officials, who in 1931 came to Berlin to learn from the experience of their German colleagues. Few people know about this, but Friedrich Paulus was friends with the military attaché Yakovenko, to whom he lectured on tactics, and was even a friend of the Soviet ambassador's family!

December 18, 1940. Supreme Commander The Wehrmacht approves the Barbarossa plan. The developer of the plan is General Friedrich Paulus. He convinces the Fuhrer that everything about everything will take from 4 to 6 weeks.

At the same time, Napoleon planned to capture Russia. The main trump card of Barbarossa, according to Paulus, is that the Soviet troops, located 300 kilometers from their borders, are unaware of the impending blitzkrieg. At the same time, airfields and warehouses are located just on the western borders. This means that it will not be difficult to disable them in the very first hours of the blitzkrieg. Then no one at the headquarters of the German army imagined - just 2 years later, the developer of a brilliant plan would come out to the Soviet soldiers with their hands up. Paulus, Hitler's most loyal commander, who victoriously led his army from Paris to the Volga, will be the only field marshal of the Wehrmacht who will surrender. And not commit suicide.

The NKVD officers effectively applied the carrot policy to the captured German officers of the highest ranks. German generals were taken to theaters, museums, cinemas, and even teachers were allocated to them to study the Russian language!

And the policy of the Soviet leadership was bearing fruit. Less than a year after the battle of Stalingrad, an alliance of German officers was formed in the Krasnogorsk prison camp, the task of which was to be anti-fascist propaganda in the new, free Germany. It is amazing, but the recent fascists are literally being reforged into ideologically mature communists before our very eyes. And the most ardent of them is the last one to join the union - Friedrich Paulus. He began to successfully learn the Russian language, read Tolstoy, Gorky and Sholokhov in the original and was seriously carried away by the works of Lenin, Marx and Stalin! And soon, accompanied by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Paulus already appears in in public places- The Bolshoi Theatre, the Polytechnical Museum and the Pobeda cinema in Lyubertsy, which he loved, where he enjoys watching Soviet pre-war comedies.

But the most striking thing, being in captivity in the camp for German officers, located in the Suzdal monastery, the former Nazi field marshal discovers the artist's talent in himself! As he himself admitted, he was especially inspired by Shishkin's paintings. This is one of Paulus' drawings...

After the famous Nuremberg trials, in which Paulus acted as a witness for the prosecution, Stalin himself promised him an early repatriation. But the former Hitlerite military leader would return to his homeland, or rather to the GDR, only after the death of the leader himself - in 1953.

The attitude towards Friedrich Paulus in the GDR and the FRG remained very controversial ... Former Nazis considered him a traitor, like the relatives of the German soldiers who died near Stalingrad. But many Germans were convinced that by surrendering and then calling on the Germans loyal to the Fuhrer, Paulus may have helped to avoid even greater casualties. And on both sides...

Childhood and youth

Paulus was born in Breitenau in the family of an accountant who served in the prison of Kassel. In 1909 he graduated from the Kaiser Wilhelm Classical Gymnasium and, after receiving a matriculation certificate, entered the Faculty of Law University of Munich, where he attended two semesters of law. However, he did not finish his studies and in February 1910 he entered the 11th (3rd Baden) Infantry Regiment "Margrave Friedrich Wilhelm" as a fanen-junker.

World War I

At the beginning of the war, Paulus's regiment was in France. Later he served as a staff officer in the units of the mountain infantry (chasseurs) in France, Serbia and Macedonia. Finished the war as a captain.

period between the wars

Until 1933 he served in various military posts, in 1934-1935. was the commander of a motorized regiment, in September 1935 he was appointed chief of staff of the command of tank formations. In February 1938, Colonel Paulus was appointed chief of staff of the 16th Motorized Corps under the command of Lieutenant General Guderian. In May 1939, he was promoted to major general and became chief of staff of the 10th Army.

The Second World War

At the beginning of hostilities, the 10th Army operated first in Poland, later in Belgium and the Netherlands. After the renumbering, the tenth army became the sixth. In August 1940 he was promoted to lieutenant general, from June 1940 to December 1941 he was deputy chief of the general staff of the German army ( ground forces) (in the position - Oberquartiermeister I). From July 21 to December 18, 1940, he worked on developing a plan to attack the USSR.

In January 1942 he was appointed commander of the 6th Army (instead of V. Reichenau), which at that time acted on Eastern Front. In August 1942 he was awarded the Knight's Cross. In the summer and autumn of 1942, the 6th Army was part of Army Group B, which fought on the southern sector of the front, from September 1942 it participated in the battle of Stalingrad, where it was surrounded by Soviet troops. Paulus, being in the besieged Stalingrad, tried to assure Hitler that it would be more correct for the army to leave Stalingrad in the current situation and attempt a breakthrough to reunite with the main forces of the Wehrmacht. However, Hitler in the most categorical form forbade Paulus to leave the besieged Stalingrad. Hitler promised Paulus that the blockaded army would be supplied through the "air bridge" and, in addition, his army would be released in the very near future. However, in reality, contrary to the assurances of Hitler and Goering (commander of the Luftwaffe), it turned out to be impossible to establish a full-fledged supply of the encircled army with ammunition, ammunition, fuel and food through the "air bridge".

January 15, 1943 Paulus was awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross. On January 30, 1943, Hitler promoted Paulus to the highest military rank, Field Marshal. In a radiogram sent by Hitler to Paulus, among other things, it was said that "not a single german field marshal didn't get captured." This was a veiled hint to Paulus to commit suicide. Paulus did not go for it. On the morning of January 31, 1943, through the staff officers, he conveyed to the Soviet troops a request to accept the surrender. After additional negotiations with the arrived Chief of Staff of the 64th Army, Major General I.A. Laskin and two officers F. Paulus, by 12 o’clock on January 31, 1943, he was taken to Beketovka, where he was met by the commander of the 64th Army, General M.S. Shumilov.

Soon Paulus was introduced to the front commander K.K. Rokossovsky, who suggested that he issue an order for the surrender of the remnants of the 6th Army in order to stop the senseless death of its soldiers and officers. The Field Marshal General refused to agree to this, since he is now a prisoner, and his generals are now responsible for their troops themselves. February 2, 1943 the last pockets of resistance German troops in Stalingrad were suppressed.

Forced to react to a Soviet official report that some 91,000 soldiers and officers had been taken prisoner, the Nazi government reluctantly informed the German people that the 6th Army was completely destroyed. For three days, all German radio stations broadcast funeral music, mourning reigned in thousands of houses of the Third Reich. Restaurants, theaters, cinemas, all places of entertainment were closed, and the population of the Reich experienced the defeat at Stalingrad.

In February, F. Paulus and his generals were brought to the Krasnogorsk operational transit camp No. 27 of the NKVD in the Moscow region, where they were to spend several months. The captured officers still perceived F. Paulus as their commander. If the first days after the surrender, the field marshal looked depressed and was more silent, then here he soon declared: “I am and will remain a National Socialist. No one can expect me to change my views, even if I am in danger of spending the rest of my life in captivity. F. Paulus still believed in the power of Germany and that "she would fight with success." And he secretly hoped that he would either be released or exchanged for some Soviet commander (the field marshal found out about A. Hitler's proposal to exchange F. Paulus for the son of I.V. Stalin, Yakov Dzhugashvili, only after the war).

In July 1943, the National Committee "Free Germany" was created in the Krasnogorsk camp. It consisted of 38 Germans, 13 of whom were emigrants (Walter Ulbricht, Wilhelm Pick, etc.). Soon the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army and the Directorate for Prisoners of War and Internees (UPVI) of the NKVD reported on their new success: in September of the same year, the founding congress of the new anti-fascist organization "Union of German Officers" was held. More than a hundred people took part in it, who elected General W. von Seydlitz as president of the SNO.

For Paulus and his comrades-in-arms, who were transferred to the general's camp in the Savior-Euthymius Monastery near Suzdal in the spring, this was a betrayal. Seventeen generals, led by the field marshal, sign a collective statement: “What officers and generals who have become members of the Union are doing is treason. We no longer consider them our comrades, and we resolutely refuse them. But a month later, Paulus unexpectedly withdraws his signature from the general's "protest". Soon he was transferred to the village of Cherntsy, 28 km from Ivanovo. The higher ranks of the NKVD feared that the field marshal could be kidnapped from Suzdal, so they sent him into the wilderness of the forests. In addition to him, 22 German, 6 Romanian and 3 Italian generals arrived at the former Voikov sanatorium.

In the former sanatorium, Paulus began to progress with an intestinal disease, for which he was repeatedly operated on. However, in spite of everything, he refused individual dietary nutrition, but only asked to deliver marjoram and tarragon herbs, which he always carried with him, but lost his suitcase with them in battles. In addition, he, like all prisoners of the "sanatorium", received meat, butter, all the necessary products, parcels from relatives from Germany, beer on holidays. The prisoners were engaged in creativity. To do this, they were given every opportunity: there was plenty of wood around, so many were engaged in wood carving (they even carved a baton from linden for the field marshal), canvases and paints were in any quantity, Paulus himself did this, wrote memoirs.

However, he still did not recognize the "Union of German Officers", did not agree to cooperate with the Soviet authorities, did not oppose A. Hitler. In the summer of 1944, the field marshal was transferred to a special facility in Lakes. Almost every day, reports are written from the UPVI addressed to L.P. Beria on the progress of the processing of the Satrap (such a nickname was given to him by the NKVD). Paulus is presented with an appeal by 16 generals. The intelligent, indecisive Paulus hesitated. As a former staff officer, he apparently got used to calculating all the pros and cons. But a number of events “help” him in this: the opening of the Second Front, the defeat on the Kursk Bulge and in Africa, the loss of allies, total mobilization in Germany, the entry into the Union of 16 new generals and best friend, Colonel V. Adam, as well as the death in Italy in April 1944 of his son Friedrich. And, finally, the assassination attempt on A. Hitler by officers whom he knew well. He was shocked by the execution of the conspirators, among whom was his friend Field Marshal E. von Witzleben. Apparently, a letter from his wife, delivered from Berlin by Soviet intelligence, also played a role.

On August 8, Paulus finally did what they had been trying to achieve from him for a year and a half - he signed the appeal “To the prisoners of war of German soldiers and officers and to the German people”, which literally said the following: “I consider it my duty to declare that Germany must eliminate Adolf Hitler and establish a new state leadership that will end the war and create conditions that will ensure the continued existence of our people and the restoration of peaceful and friendly relations with the current enemy.” Four days later he joined the Union of German Officers. Then - to the National Committee "Free Germany". From that moment on, he became one of the most active propagandists in the fight against fascism. He regularly speaks on the radio, puts his signatures on leaflets, urging Wehrmacht soldiers to go over to the side of the Russians. From now on, there was no going back for Paulus.

This also affected his family members. The Gestapo arrested his son, a captain in the Wehrmacht. They send into exile his wife, who refused to renounce her captive husband, daughter, daughter-in-law, grandson. Until February 1945, they were kept under house arrest in the mountain resort town of Schirlichmülle in Upper Silesia, along with the families of some other captured generals, in particular von Seydlitz and von Lensky. The son was under arrest in the Kustrin fortress. The daughter and daughter-in-law of Paulus wrote petitions for release, in connection with the presence of young children, but this played the opposite role of expectations - reminding the RSHA Main Directorate of themselves, they, when the Red Army approached Silesia, were first transferred to Thuringia, to Buchenwald, and a little later to Bavaria, in Dachau. In April 1945 they were released from the Dachau concentration camp. But the field marshal never saw his wife. On November 10, 1949, she died in Baden-Baden, in the American zone of occupation. Paulus found out about it only a month later.

Friedrich Paulus was a witness at the Nuremberg trials.

post-war period

After the war, the "Stalingrad" generals were still held captive. Many of them were then convicted in the USSR, but all 23, except for one who died, later returned home (of the soldiers - about 6 thousand). True, F. Paulus visited his homeland already in February 1946 as a participant in the Nuremberg trials. His appearance there and his appearance at the trial as a witness came as a surprise even to the officers closest to F. Paulus. Not to mention V. Keitel, A. Jodl and G. Goering, who were sitting on the dock, who had to be reassured. Some of the captured generals accused their colleague of baseness and collaborationism.

After Nuremberg, the field marshal spent a month and a half in Thuringia, where he also met with his relatives. At the end of March, he was again brought to Moscow, and soon the “personal prisoner” of I.V. Stalin (he did not allow F. Paulus to be brought to trial) was settled in a dacha in Tomilino. There he quite seriously studied the works of the classics of Marxism-Leninism, read party literature, and prepared for speeches to Soviet generals. He had his own doctor, cook and adjutant. F. Paulus was regularly delivered letters and parcels from relatives. When he fell ill, they took him to Yalta for treatment. But all his requests to return home, to visit his wife's grave, ran into a wall of polite refusal.

One morning in 1951, F. Paulus was found unconscious, but they managed to save him. He then fell into a severe depression, did not talk to anyone, refused to leave the bed and eat. Apparently, fearing that the famous prisoner might die in his "golden" cage, JV Stalin decides to release the field marshal. True, without naming a specific date for his repatriation. After all, for this humane act, you need to choose the right moment in order to end up with good political capital. In general, we had to wait again until the “owner” himself died, and the dispute over his heir was not resolved in the Kremlin.

On October 24, 1953, F. Paulus, accompanied by orderly E. Schulte and personal chef L. Georg, left for Berlin. A month before, he met with the leader of the GDR, Walter Ulbricht, and assured him that he would live exclusively in East Germany. On the day of departure, Pravda published a statement by F. Paulus, which spoke, based on the terrible experience of the war against the USSR, about the need for peaceful coexistence of states with different systems, about the future united Germany. And also about his confession that he arrived in the Soviet Union as an enemy in blind obedience, but leaves this country as a friend.

In the GDR, Paulus was given a guarded villa in an elite district of Dresden, a car, an adjutant and the right to have a personal weapon. As the head of the military-historical center being created, he began teaching in 1954. He gives lectures on the art of war at the Higher School of the People's Barracks Police (the forerunner of the GDR army), and makes presentations on the Battle of Stalingrad.

All the years after his release, Paulus did not stop proving his loyalty to the socialist system. The leaders of the GDR praised his patriotism and did not mind if he signed his letters to them as "Field Marshal General of the former German Army." Paulus condemned "West German militarism", criticized the policy of Bonn, who did not want German neutrality. At the meetings former members World War II in East Berlin in 1955, he reminded veterans of their high responsibility for a democratic Germany.

F. Paulus died on February 1, 1957, just on the eve of the 14th anniversary of the death of his army at Stalingrad. The main cause of death, according to some sources, was lateral sclerosis of the brain - a disease in which clarity of thinking is preserved, but muscle paralysis occurs, and according to others - a malignant tumor.

A modest funeral ceremony in Dresden was attended by several high-ranking party functionaries and generals of the GDR. Five days later, the urn with the ashes of Paulus was buried near the grave of his wife in Baden-Baden.

In 1960, in Frankfurt am Main, Paulus' memoirs appeared under the title "I am standing here by order." In them, he claimed that he was a soldier and obeyed orders, believing that by doing so he was serving his people. The son of Paulus, Alexander, who released them, shot himself in 1970, without approving his father's transition to the communists. His life was saved by his father, who sent him by plane from the “boiler” to “ big land"A few days before the capture of the 6th Army. (This is a legend. In fact, Captain Ernst Alexander Paulus was in Berlin from September 1942, due to a serious wound, after which he was commissioned. See" Field Marshal Paulus: from Hitler to Stalin, Vladimir Markovchin).

Quotes

• “If you look at the war only with your own eyes, we get only an amateur photograph. Looking at the war through the eyes of the enemy, we get a great x-ray." V. Pikul "I have the honor!"
• "I'm a soldier, and my job is to keep my hands at my sides." V. Pikul "Square of the Fallen Fighters"

Historian Oleg Budnitsky - about the main day of Lieutenant Colonel Leonid Vinokur

75 years ago, the capture of Field Marshal Paulus put an end to the Stalingrad epic. However, years later there are different versions how it happened. But only one is real. AND main character in it - little known

Oleg Budnitsky, doctor historical sciences, Director of the International Center for the History and Sociology of World War II, Higher School of Economics

Nikita Khrushchev met with the "creative intelligentsia" four times in order to teach them, the "creative intelligentsia". To teach how to write poetry, how to paint pictures and, in general, how to love your homeland. The meetings lasted for many hours, the main speaker at them was the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee himself. He talked a lot, temperamentally and about different things. During a meeting on March 7, 1963, Khrushchev, after talking about poetry, “migrated” to the topic of anti-Semitism, unexpectedly touching on the story of the capture of Field Marshal Paulus. I quote this fragment as presented by a participant in the meeting, film director Mikhail Romm:

“Everyone is emphasizing the theme of anti-Semitism,” Khrushchev said. “Yes, we don’t have anti-Semitism and cannot be. It can't... it can't... Here I'll give you an example as proof: do you know who captured Paulus? Jew, colonel-Jew. An unpublished fact, but a fact. And his last name is Jewish. Katerina Alekseevna (Furtseva.— ABOUT.), do you remember his last name? Not that Kantorovich, not that Rabinovich, not that Abramovich, in general, a colonel, but a Jew. Captured Paulus. This is a fact, of course, unpublished, unknown, of course, but a fact. What is anti-Semitism?

We listen to him, and after this surrealistic cry, it’s completely cloudy in our head, we don’t understand anything. I would like to ask:

Khrushchev knew what he was talking about: he was a member of the Military Council of the Southern (former Stalingrad) Front, he came to the 38th motorized rifle brigade that captured Paulus the day after the capture of the field marshal. According to the memoirs of the brigade commander, then a colonel, Ivan Burmakov, “Khrushchev is now in an embrace, he began to kiss us:

Thank you, thank you brothers! Field marshals are rarely taken prisoner. Maybe we’ll take generals, but field marshals are difficult.”

The person you can rely on

Now the "fact has been published." "Colonel, but a Jew" turned out to be Leonid Vinokur, lieutenant colonel, political officer of the 38th separate motorized rifle brigade of the 64th Army of the Southern Front. The essence of the matter is summarized in the presentation of the lieutenant colonel to the title of Hero Soviet Union. Vinokur's award sheet was signed by the head of the political department of the 64th Army, Colonel Matvey Smolyanov, the commander of the 64th Army, Lieutenant General Mikhail Shumilov, and a member of the Military Council, Colonel Zinovy ​​Serdyuk. The submission is dated February 5, 1943: not even a week has passed since the capture of Paulus!

Below is the text of the presentation, preserving the stylistic features of the original:

“January 31, 1943, at the time of the final defeat of the southern combat grouping of German troops in the mountains. STALINGRAD and the capture of Field Marshal PAULIS with his staff, comrade. VINOKUR showed courage, bravery, courage and Bolshevik resourcefulness.

Having learned that Field Marshal PAULIS and his headquarters of the 6th Army were located in the building of the central department store, in a fierce battle with the Germans he achieved their complete encirclement, all military equipment(machine guns, cannons, mortars, etc.) aimed at this building, and personally, neglecting the obvious danger to life, despite the enhanced security of the headquarters of the 6th German army and Field Marshal PAULIS, burst into the building, unceremoniously demanded from the general Field Marshal PAULIS to lay down their arms and immediately surrender.

Despite the fact that all the officers of the headquarters of the 6th German army were armed, they were embarrassed by such a daring act of comrade. VINOKUR and were forced to start negotiations on surrender.

After the arrival of the delegation from the headquarters of the 64th Army Comrade. VINOKUR took part in the final resolution of all issues, as a result of which the commander of the 6th German army and the entire Stalingrad group, Field Marshal PAULIS, his headquarters and the remaining troops of the southern combat group were taken prisoner.

In the presentation, as always happens with such documents, there are some exaggerations, but you can’t refuse Vinokur’s “Bolshevik resourcefulness” and leadership qualities.

Let me remind you of the circumstances of the final stage of the Battle of Stalingrad. On January 9, 1943, an ultimatum was presented to the command of the surrounded German 6th Army, which was rejected. On January 10, the offensive of the Soviet troops began, the purpose of which was to dismember the 6th Army into two parts with their subsequent liquidation. However, the resistance of the enemy turned out to be so fierce that the offensive had to be suspended after a week. On January 22, the Red Army resumed the offensive, which on the 26th led to the dismemberment of the 6th Army into two groups: the southern one in the center (the command and headquarters of the 6th Army were located here) and the northern one in the industrial area of ​​​​the city.

The liquidation of the remnants of the 6th Army was not an easy task at all. Firstly, Soviet intelligence underestimated the number of enemy troops who were surrounded - and there were almost 100 thousand of them, and secondly, despite the hopelessness of the situation, the Germans fought with great stubbornness. Shortly after the ultimatum of the Soviet command, transmitted over loudspeakers and scattered in thousands of copies from the air, that is, which became known to the German military, Paulus issued an order:

“Recently, the Russians have repeatedly tried to enter into negotiations with the army and with units subordinate to it. Their goal is quite clear - to break our will to resist through promises in the course of surrender negotiations. We all know what threatens us if the army stops resisting: most of us face certain death either from an enemy bullet or from hunger and suffering in the shameful Siberian captivity. But one thing is for sure: who surrenders, he will never see his loved ones again. We have only one way out: to fight to the last bullet, despite the increasing cold and hunger. Therefore, any attempts to negotiate should be rejected, left unanswered, and truce truants should be driven away by fire.

Here I will give you an example as proof: do you know who captured Paulus? Not Kantorovich, not Rabinovich, not Abramovich, in general, a colonel, but a Jew

Paulus was accurate in his predictions. Out of more than 91,000 German prisoners of war, no more than 6,000 returned home. Only at the reception point in the Stalingrad region, 25,354 prisoners of war died in the first weeks after the surrender. The commander of the 6th Battery of the 65th Artillery Regiment of the 36th Guards Division, Senior Lieutenant Fedor Fedorov, said: “Since February 1, I have not fired a gun, I have finished off the wounded in the cellars with a pistol.” Then he did not see anything shameful in this. Soviet soldiers did not have to be taught the "science of hatred." And political workers considered it necessary to suppress the slightest manifestations of inappropriate, as they considered, humanism. Among them was Lieutenant Colonel Vinokur:

“There is a reconnaissance transport motorcyclist, and a German driver in our Red Army overcoat is standing nearby. I tell the company commander: why did you give him an overcoat?

- He's cold.

“And when were you lying and when did he shoot you?”

Enemy resistance was stubborn until the last hours of the battle, and each additional day of fighting cost the Red Army dozens, if not hundreds of dead and wounded soldiers. “On the 30th [January] they resisted incredibly. I say that every house had to be taken, ”said Major General Burmakov.

The Soviet command did not know exactly where the headquarters of Paulus was located, there was not even a certainty that the commander of the 6th Army was in the city, and not taken out of the boiler by plane. The first, relatively detailed, information about the capture of Paulus, which appeared not just anywhere, but on the pages of Pravda, had little to do with reality. On February 4, 1943, Pravda published a short essay on a very popular at that time Soviet writer Nicholas Virta "How Paulus was taken prisoner". Virta wrote:

“Paulus was captured with great skill.

The scouts determined for sure that Paulus's command post was located in the center of Stalingrad. Everything was found out - how many officers were at his command post, where the headquarters cars were, what kind of security. Paulus' security was great. However, she did not save him from captivity.<...>

At night, tanks and machine gunners broke through to the command post of Paulus. The house was blocked by dawn, and all the guards were destroyed.<...>The telephone operator called out in vain to his units: the communication wires were prudently cut by our tankmen and submachine gunners in all directions.

In fact, the soldiers of the 38th brigade accidentally stumbled upon the German truce, there were no tanks around the building of the central department store, in which Paulus was located. We know firsthand how the events ultimately went - from the lips of the direct participants in the events, soldiers, officers and generals of the Red Army who took part in the capture of Paulus and his headquarters. These stories - unlike thousands of interviews with veterans recorded decades after the end of the war - were recorded literally in the hot pursuit of the events, on February 28, 1943 in Stalingrad, employees (more precisely, employees) of the Commission on the History of the Great Patriotic War Academy of Sciences of the USSR. The transcripts of the conversations are quoted from the publication “The Battle of Stalingrad: testimonies of participants and eyewitnesses” (M., 2015).

The first to enter into negotiations with the Germans on surrender and entered the building of the department store were several officers of the 38th motorized rifle brigade, the senior officer among whom was senior lieutenant Fyodor Ilchenko, deputy chief of staff of the brigade. However, the Germans wanted to negotiate with representatives of the army or front command. Ilchenko called the brigade commander.

Major General Burmakov:“Suddenly, Ilchenko calls me that Paulus’s adjutant has come and asks for the biggest boss for negotiations.

- And you, little one, talk to him for now.

“No,” he says, “he doesn’t want to talk to the army authorities.

“If you don’t want to, bastards, to speak, it’s fine, immediately take all measures, block the building where he is located!” Take action to get his captivity! Start negotiating, and in which case - in the course of grenades, semi-automatic and mortars.

“Yes,” says Ilchenko.

And I immediately call Shumilov about the situation. He tells me: "Wait at the command post at your place. Colonel Lukin, chief of staff Laskin, is leaving now."

At this time, Vinokur flies in.

- I'll go right away!

- Drive immediately. Paulus must be captured. Act there according to the situation.

I could always rely on Vinokur.”

Not that Kantorovich, not that Rabinovich

We don't know too much about Vinokur, who "we could always rely on." Born in 1906 in Nikolaev; member of the CPSU (b) since 1927, since 1928 a professional party worker. Since 1930 - in Moscow: he worked in the Bauman district party committee as an instructor of the MK, then as deputy secretary of the Kuibyshev district committee. Graduated public school, then, while serving in the Navy, the Naval Soviet Party School, in Moscow also the evening university of Marxism-Leninism. Participated in the war with Finland. Since July 22, 1941 at the front, regimental commissar. He fought first in the West (military commissar of the 33rd motorcycle regiment of the 2nd Moscow division militia, subsequently awarded the medal "For the Defense of Moscow"), then from December 1941 to March 1942 - on the North-Western Front, where he was seriously wounded. In the brigade from the first days of its formation in June 1942. On September 13-14, 1942, in the Aviagorodok area in Stalingrad, when the brigade command post was cut off, at the head of 18 machine gunners held back superior enemy forces until the main forces approached, and the Germans, according to the award list, lost five tanks and up to an infantry battalion. Was for this fight awarded the order Red Banner. During the two months of fighting in Stalingrad, the brigade lost almost all of its personnel and, in essence, was re-formed. The literature often provides information about the confrontation between commanders and commissars. In the 38th brigade, this was clearly not the case.

Lieutenant Colonel Vinokur:"I arrived. Our troops surrounded the whole house. Ilchenko explained the situation. Since they require a representative of the high command, I went. I took with me Ilchenko, [Major Alexander] Egorov, [Captain Nikolai] Rybak, [Captain Lukyan] Morozov and several machine gunners. We go into the yard. Here we are without white flags. I wouldn't go with the flag. We go into the yard.<...>From the yard are their submachine gunners. We are let through, but the machine guns are kept ready. I must confess, I think I hit myself, a fool. Machine guns are at the entrance, their officers are standing. Through an interpreter, I immediately demanded a representative of the command. A representative came and asked who they were.

“I am a representative of the high command of the Political Directorate.

Do you have the right to negotiate?

Major Egorov tells, calling Vinokur "Colonel Vinokourov" (most likely, this is a stenographer's mistake, but we will follow the document):

“The colonel and I went, posted sentries, sentries were ours and theirs. They captured a group of our commanders, about 8 people. They grabbed grenades in their pockets. Let's go to the yard. Lots of officers and soldiers. At the entrance to the basement we were detained.<...>Colonel says:

- Negotiations by negotiations, and you look here. It is necessary to enclose the building from all sides, give orders, and I will go.

He approached and introduced himself as a representative of Rokossovsky's troops. He was asked for a certificate. And his certificate is political commander. How so? This, he says, is an old certificate. I am authorized to negotiate by Rokossovsky himself within the framework of the conditions that were dictated in the ultimatum, do you agree?

Consent was given. Colonel Vinokurov immediately ordered to report here. We had soldiers near the battalion. They informed the brigade commander and the army headquarters.

Only Vinokur and Ilchenko entered the room in which the headquarters of the 6th Army was located. Vinokur negotiated with the commander of the 71st Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht, Major General Friedrich Roske. Roske commanded the division for five days - his predecessor, Lieutenant General Alexander von Hartmann, was killed on 26 January. On the eve of his death, von Hartmann wrote: “I will not commit suicide, but I will try to get the Russians to do it. I will rise to my full height on the parapet and shoot at the enemy until I die. My wife is a practical woman, she can live with this, my son fell in battle, my daughter is married, we will never win this war, and the man who is at the head of our country has not justified our hopes. Field Marshal Paulus, having learned that von Hartmann, at the head of the officers of the division, personally went into battle, sent his liaison officer to him with the order to "return to shelters and stop this madness." However, it was too late: General von Hartmann had already received a mortal wound in the head. Now Paulus, not wanting to formally be involved in the surrender, declared himself a private individual and resigned his command; he shifted the negotiations to Roske and his chief of staff, General Arthur Schmidt.

Lieutenant Colonel Vinokur:“Roske warned first of all that he was not negotiating on behalf of the field marshal. Here are his first words.

It was dark in Paulus's room, the dirt was incredible. When I entered, he got up, unshaven for two weeks, got up discouraged.

- How old do you think he is? Roske asks me. I say:

- You don't know well. 53 years old.

I apologized. The room is dirty. He was lying on the bed when I entered. As soon as he entered, he immediately stood up. He lay in an overcoat, in a cap. He handed over his weapon to Roska. I then gave this weapon to Nikita Sergeevich when he came here.

Most of all, Roske negotiated with us. Their phones worked all the time. They say the wires were cut. It's all lies. We took our phones. The station was on the move, we handed it over to the front. The Germans wrote that the garrison was slaughtered - all lies.

No written authority

"They say" that the wires were cut - this is about an article in Pravda. The political officer couldn't have said that Pravda was not true. The Pravdists themselves, by the way, were in the know. On February 26, 1943, at a meeting of the editorial board of the newspaper, war correspondents Vasily Kuprin and Dmitry Akulshin, who returned from Stalingrad, talked about their work for two and a half hours. “The most interesting was Akulshin's story about how Field Marshal Paulus was taken prisoner. This story differs significantly from Virta's report published here on February 4, and the guys swear that Virta lied everything, ”Lazar Brontman, deputy head of the military department of Pravda, wrote in his diary.

Akulshin's story contains some curious details that are missing from the transcript of the conversation with Vinokur.

According to Akulshin, when it turned out that Paulus was in the building of the department store, “a few more machine gunners were thrown there, and the only gun that was available was placed near the building of the regional committee. Vinokur was wearing a jacket and no insignia was visible. Vinokur entered the cellar. The first room is full of generals and colonels. They shouted "Heil", he answered "Heil" (in the transcript, when it comes to greetings, apparently out of harm's way, there is a dash; perhaps Vinokur believed that "heil" is just a greeting.— ABOUT.). Paulus' adjutant approached him and announced that Major General Raske would talk to him on behalf of Field Marshal (so! - ABOUT.). Raske came out and introduced himself:

- Commander of the 71st Infantry Division, now commander of a group of troops (surrounded to the west of the central part of Stalingrad), Major General Raske. Are you authorized to negotiate? Who do you represent?

- Lieutenant Colonel Vinokur. Yes, authorized. Political Administration of the Don Front.

- Please keep in mind that what I will say represents my personal opinion, since Field Marshal Paulus has transferred command of the troops to me.

— Field Marshal? Excuse me, but Mr. Paulus, as far as I know, Colonel General!

- Today we received a radiogram that the Fuhrer awarded him the rank of field marshal, and me - colonel - major general ...

— Oh, that's how! Allow me to congratulate Mr. Paulus on his new title.

The conversation became less formal.

- Do you guarantee the life and immunity of the field marshal?

— Oh, yes, definitely!

If not, then we can resist. We have the strength, the house is mined, and, as a last resort, we are all ready to die as soldiers.

- That's your business. You are surrounded. 50 guns, 34 mortars, around 5,000 selected submachine gunners were sent to the house. If you don't lay down your arms, I'll go out now, give the order, and you will be destroyed immediately. Why the unnecessary bloodshed?

— Do you have a written authorization?

Vinokur was taken aback for a moment. Of course he didn't have anything. But without showing any sign, he replied:

Surprised by your question. When you told me that you were Raske, that you had become a major general, and not a colonel, that you were in command of a group, I did not ask you for documents. I believed the soldier's word.

— Oh, I believe, mister lieutenant colonel. And under what conditions should we lay down our arms? (he never once said "surrender" or "surrender").

Vinokur thought again, and then found himself.

"You read our ultimatum, didn't you?"

The conditions are therefore known.

— Gut! Gut!

“Then let’s get down to business.”

Akulshin spent more than three months (an eternity according to the Stalingrad "norms") in the 38th brigade and, as stated in the correspondent's presentation for the medal "For Courage", "along with the performance of his direct duties, he showed courage, heroism and courage, inspiring his personal an example of a bold and decisive struggle against the German beast. The submission was written by none other than the political officer of the brigade, Leonid Vinokur, on February 5, 1943. There is no reason to doubt that Akulshin heard the story about the capture of Paulus from direct participants and that Vinokur was somewhat more frank with him, who spent half a year in Stalingrad, than with Moscow historians.

Captain Morozov:“... the lieutenant colonel completed the capture of General Paulus ... Later, General Laskin arrived. He arrived at the time of completion of this case. Then they were taken to the cars and taken away.”

Major General Burmakov:“Vinokur began to negotiate. Vinokur organized the trip in parts."

A piecemeal trip was arranged for a ceasefire. Vinokur sent Captain Ivan Bukharov for this purpose. Bukharov told Burmakov that his situation was terrible: he was driving in a German car, next to him were two German officers, a third driver, and he was sitting among them. “Our people will see, they will think: either he was captured, or a traitor, they will shoot!” Fortunately, it passed.

Major General Burmakov:“Laskin has arrived. Let's go here with him. Everywhere is already ours, there are a lot of troops in the yard.<...>Came here to Roska. We were introduced, Comrade Vinokur reported what conditions he had set for surrender. Laskin, as a senior boss, agreed. They asked to leave them personal weapons. Vinokur allowed. Laskin did not agree to this - to hand over his weapons. Then we went in and looked at Paulus.”

Thus, General Laskin approved the terms of surrender, making the only change - he did not allow personal (cold) weapons to be left, which was promised in the ultimatum, reasonably believing that the ultimatum was rejected and the situation had changed over the past three weeks.

Order to Lieutenant Colonel

As is often the case among the military, after the fact there were disputes about priority: who played leading role in the captivity of Field Marshal Paulus? In his memoirs, published in 1977, General Ivan Laskin, chief of staff of the 64th Army, is inclined to attribute a decisive role to himself. This happens with seniors. For example, the memoirs deny that Vinokur met with Paulus before Laskin's arrival, but says that only the general was "admitted to the body" of the field marshal. This is convincingly refuted by the "testimony" of the participants in the events, which are independent of each other and recorded immediately after the events.

- Today the Fuhrer awarded him the rank of field marshal ...

— Oh, that's how! Allow me to congratulate Mr. Paulus on his new title

The capture of Field Marshal Paulus is, of course, a collective matter. But if you still single out, at least from the formal side, the one to whom the field marshal surrendered, then by all the rules the person to whom he surrendered his personal weapon should be considered as such. Such a person was Leonid Vinokur. Although Paulus resorted to balancing act here, passing the pistol through General Roske.

If we talk about the “hierarchy of merit” (hierarchy, I emphasize again, rather arbitrary), then contemporaries and participants in the events had a good idea of ​​it. In particular, the command of the 64th Army, which wrote submissions for awards for the capture of Field Marshal Paulus on February 4-5, 1943. Lieutenant Colonel Vinokur - to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel Burmakov - to the Order of Lenin, Major General Laskin - to the Order of the Red Banner. According to Vinokur, Ilchenko and several fighters were presented with the Order of Lenin. In total, 248 people were presented for awards “for this house”.

As a result, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of April 1, 1943, Vinokur was awarded the Order of Lenin. Was there "anti-Semitism" here, in the language of Nikita Sergeevich? I do not think. Stalingraders were generally not rewarded too generously: for example, the commanders of the Stalingrad Front Andrei Eremenko and the 62nd Army Vasily Chuikov were awarded the Order of Suvorov 1st degree, although they clearly deserved more. Perhaps, in the case of Vinokur, the "higher powers" decided not to give the political officer more high award than the brigade commander. But this is just a guess. Be that as it may, Leonid Vinokur and Ivan Burmakov were awarded the Orders of Lenin. Nikolai Rybak and Alexander Egorov - the Order of the Red Banner, Ivan Bukharov - the Red Star. Fedor Ilchenko did not receive an award at all for participating in the capture of Field Marshal Paulus.

Burmakov, already in the position of division commander, was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union in April 1945 for the assault on Koenigsberg.

Leonid Vinokur ended the war with the rank of colonel of the guards as head of the political department of the same brigade - now the 7th Guards. He was wounded again and awarded two more Orders of the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degree.

In 1946 he retired from the army, worked in Moscow in the local industry.

Leonid Abovich Vinokur died in Moscow in 1972 and was buried at the New Donskoy Cemetery. On the tombstone is a bronze bas-relief by Yevgeny Vuchetich.

On January 30, 1943, Hitler promoted Friedrich Paulus, commander of the 6th German army that fought in Stalingrad, to the highest military rank - field marshal. In a radiogram sent by Hitler to Paulus, among other things, it was said that “not a single German field marshal has been captured yet,” and the very next day Paulus surrendered. We bring to your attention a diary-report of the detective of the counterintelligence department of the special department of the NKVD of the Don Front, Senior Lieutenant of State Security E.A. Tarabrin about finding and communicating with German generals taken prisoner near Stalingrad.

Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus (Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus), commander of the Wehrmacht 6th Army encircled in Stalingrad, chief of staff Lieutenant General Arthur Schmidt and adjutant Colonel Wilhelm Adam near Stalingrad after surrendering. Shooting time: 01/31/1943,

Diary-report of the detective of the counterintelligence department of the special department of the NKVD of the Don Front, senior lieutenant of state security E.A. Tarabrin 1 about finding and communicating with the generals of the German army who were taken prisoner by the troops of the 64th Army in the city of Stalingrad

Received an order to stay with the German generals prisoners of war. Do not show knowledge of the German language.
At 21.20, as a representative of the front headquarters, he arrived at his destination - in one of the huts with. Zavarygino.
In addition to me, there is security - sentries on the street, art. lieutenant Levonenko - from the commandant's office of the headquarters and the detective of our 7th department Nesterov 2.
"Will there be dinner?" - life was the first phrase I heard on German when I entered the house in which the commander of the 6th German Army, General Field Marshal Paulus, his chief of staff, Lieutenant General Schmidt 3 and adjutant Colonel Adam 4, taken prisoner on January 31, 1943, were accommodated.
Paulus is tall, about 190 cm, thin, with sunken cheeks, a hooked nose and thin lips. His left eye is twitching all the time.
The commandant of the headquarters, Colonel Yakimovich, who arrived with me, through the translator of the reconnaissance department, Bezymensky 5, politely suggested that they hand over the available pocket knives, a razor, and other cutting objects.

Without saying a word, Paulus calmly took two penknives out of his pocket and put them on the table.
The interpreter looked at Schmidt expectantly. At first he turned pale, then the color rushed into his face, he took out a small white penknife from his pocket, threw it on the table and immediately began to shout in a shrill, unpleasant voice: “Don't you think that we are simple soldiers? Before you is a field marshal, he demands a different attitude towards himself. Ugliness! Other conditions were set for us, we are guests of Colonel-General Rokossovsky 6 and Marshal Voronov 7 here.
"Calm down, Schmidt. Paulus said. “So this is the order.”
"It doesn't matter what order means when dealing with a field marshal." And, seizing his knife from the table, he put it back into his pocket.
A few minutes after the telephone conversation between Yakimovich and Malinin 8, the incident was over, the knives were returned to them.
Dinner arrived and everyone sat down at the table. There was silence for about 15 minutes, interrupted by separate phrases - “pass the fork, another glass of tea”, etc.

They smoked cigars. “And the dinner was not bad at all,” Paulus noted.
“In Russia, in general, they cook quite well,” Schmidt replied.
After some time, Paulus was called to command. "Are you going alone? Schmidt asked. - And I?"
“I was called alone,” Paulus replied calmly.
"I won't sleep until he comes back," said Adam, lit a new cigar and lay down on the bed in his boots. Schmidt followed suit. Paulus returned about an hour later.
“Well, how is the marshal?” Schmidt asked.
"Marshal as Marshal".
"What were they talking about?"
"They offered to order the rest to surrender, I refused."
"And what's next?"
“I asked for our wounded soldiers. I was told that your doctors had fled, and now we must take care of your wounded.”
After a while, Paulus remarked: “Do you remember this one from the NKVD with three distinctions that accompanied us? What terrible eyes he has!”
Adam replied: "It's scary, like everyone else in the NKVD."
This ended the conversation. The bedtime process began. Paulus, the orderly, has not yet been brought in. He opened the bed he had made himself, put his two blankets on top, undressed and lay down.
Schmidt stirred up the whole bed with a flashlight, carefully examined the sheets (they were new, completely clean), grimaced in disgust, closed the blanket, said: “The pleasure begins”, covered the bed with his blanket, lay down on it, covered himself with another and said in a sharp tone: “ Put out the light." There were no people in the room who understood the language, no one paid attention. Then he sat up in bed and began to explain with gestures what he wanted. The lamp was wrapped in newsprint.
“I wonder until what time we can sleep tomorrow?” Paulus asked.
"I will sleep until they wake me up," Schmidt replied.
The night passed quietly, except for the fact that Schmidt said loudly several times: "Don't shake the bed."
Nobody shook the bed. He had bad dreams.

Morning. We started to shave. Schmidt looked in the mirror for a long time and categorically declared: "It's cold, I'll leave the beard."
"That's your business, Schmidt," Paulus remarked.
Colonel Adam, who was in the next room, hissed through his teeth: "Another originality."
After breakfast, they remembered yesterday's dinner at the commander of the 64th Army 9 .
“Did you notice how amazing the vodka was?” Paulus said.
For a long time they were silent. The soldiers brought Art. lieutenant of the newspaper "Red Army" with the release "In the last hour." Revival. They wonder if their names are listed. Having heard the given list, they studied the newspaper for a long time, on a piece of paper they wrote their names in Russian letters. Particularly interested in the numbers of trophies. Pay attention to the number of tanks. “The figure is incorrect, we had no more than 150,” Paulus noted. “Perhaps they also consider the Russians,” 10 Adam replied. "It still wasn't that much." They were silent for a while.

“And he seems to have shot himself,” said Schmidt (it was about one of the generals).
Adam, furrowing his brows and staring at the ceiling: “I don’t know what is better, is it a mistake, captured?”
Paulus: We'll see about that.
Schmidt: The whole history of these four months 11 can be characterized by one phrase - you can't jump above your head.
Adam: Houses will think we're lost.
Paulus: In war - as in war (in French).
Look at the numbers again. Pay attention to the total number of people in the environment. Paulus said: Perhaps, because we did not know anything. Schmidt tries to explain to me - he draws a front line, a breakthrough, an encirclement, he says: There are a lot of convoys, other parts, they themselves did not know exactly how many.
They are silent for half an hour, smoking cigars.
Schmidt: And in Germany, a military leadership crisis is possible.
Nobody is answering.
Schmidt: Until mid-March they will probably advance.
Paulus: Probably longer.
Schmidt: Will they stop at the former borders?
Paulus: Yes, all this will be included in military history as a brilliant example of enemy operational art.

At dinner, every dish served was incessantly praised. Adam, who ate the most, was especially zealous. Paulus left half and gave it to the orderly.
After dinner, the orderly tries to explain to Nesterov that the penknife that was left with their staff doctor should be returned to him. Paulus addresses me, supplementing the German words with gestures: “The knife is a memory from Field Marshal Reichenau 12, for whom Hein was an orderly before moving on to me. He was with the field marshal until his last moments. The conversation was interrupted again. The prisoners went to bed.
Dinner. Among the dishes served on the table are coffee biscuits.
Schmidt: Good biscuits, probably French?
Adam: Very good, in my opinion, Dutch.
They put on glasses, carefully examine the cookies.
Adam surprised: Look, Russian.
Paulus: At least stop looking. Ugly.
Schmidt: Pay attention, every time there are new waitresses.
Adam: And pretty girls.
The rest of the evening they smoked in silence. The orderly prepared the bed and went to bed. Schmidt did not cry at night.

Adam takes out a razor: “We will shave every day, the view should be decent.”
Paulus: Exactly. I will shave after you.
After breakfast they smoke cigars. Paulus looks out the window.
“Pay attention, Russian soldiers drop in, they are interested in what the German field marshal looks like, and he differs from other prisoners only in insignia.”
Schmidt: Have you noticed what kind of security is here? Lots of people, but you don't feel like you're in a prison. But I remember when at the headquarters of Field Marshal Bush 13 there were captured Russian generals, there was no one in the room with them, the posts were on the street, and only the colonel had the right to enter them.
Paulus: It's better that way. It's good that it doesn't feel like a prison, but it's still a prison.
All three are in a somewhat depressed mood. They talk little, smoke a lot, think. Adam took out photographs of his wife and children, looked with Paulus.
Paulus Schmidt and Adam are treated with respect, especially Adam.
Schmidt is reserved and selfish. He even tries not to smoke his own cigars, but to take other people's.
In the afternoon I went to another house, where there are generals Daniel 14, Drebber 15, Wulz 16 and others.
Completely different environment and mood. Lots of laughs, Daniel tells jokes. It was not possible to hide the knowledge of the German language here, since there was a lieutenant colonel with whom I had spoken earlier.
They began to ask: “What is the situation, who else is in captivity, ha, ha, ha,” he said for about five minutes.
Rumanian general Dimitriu 17 was sitting in the corner looking gloomy. Finally, he raised his head and asked in broken German: “In captivity of Popescu 18?” - apparently, this is the most exciting question for him today.
After staying there for a few more minutes, I returned to Paulus' house. All three were in bed. Adam learned Russian by repeating aloud the Russian words he had written down on a piece of paper.

Today at 11 o'clock in the morning again at Paulus, Schmidt and Adam.
When I entered they were still asleep. Paulus woke up, nodded his head. Schmidt woke up.
Schmidt: Good morning, what did you see in your dream?
Paulus: What kind of dreams can a captured field marshal have? Adam, have you started shaving yet? Leave me hot water.
The procedure of morning washing, shaving and so on begins. Then breakfast and regular cigars.
Paulus was summoned for interrogation yesterday, he is still under his impression.
Paulus: Strange people. A captured soldier is asked about operational matters.
Schmidt: Useless thing. None of us will speak. This is not 1918, when they shouted that Germany is one thing, the government is another, and the army is a third. We will not make this mistake now.
Paulus: I fully agree with you, Schmidt.
Again they are silent for a long time. Schmidt lies down on the bed. Falls asleep. Paulus follows suit. Adam takes out a notepad with written down Russian aftertaves, reads it, whispers something. Then he also goes to bed.
Suddenly Yakimovich's car arrives. The generals are offered to go to the bathhouse. Paulus and Adam happily agree. Schmidt (he is afraid of catching a cold) after some hesitation also. Paulus' statement that Russian baths are very good and always warm had a decisive influence.
All four went to the bath. Generals and Adam in a car. Hine in the back on a lorry. Representatives of the headquarters guards went with them.

About an hour and a half later they all returned. An excellent impression. They exchange lively opinions about the qualities and advantages of the Russian bath over others. They are waiting for dinner in order to immediately go to bed after it.
At this time, several cars drive up to the house. The head of the RO enters - Major General Vinogradov 19 with an interpreter, through whom he tells Paulus that he will now see all his generals who are in our captivity.
While the translator is explaining, I manage to find out from Vinogradov that filming is planned for the chronicle of the entire “captured generals”.
Despite some displeasure caused by the prospect of going out into the cold after the bath, everyone hastily dresses. A meeting with other generals is coming! They don't know anything about filming. But operators are already waiting near the house. Schmidt and Paulus exit. The first shots are taken.
Paulus: All this is already superfluous.
Schmidt: Not superfluous, but simply disgraceful (they turn away from the lenses).
They get into the car, go to the neighboring house, where there are other generals. At the same time, from the other side, the rest drive up in several cars - Colonel-General Geyts 20 and others.

Meeting. Operators are filming feverishly. Paulus shakes hands with all his generals in turn, exchanging a few phrases: Hello, my friends, more cheerfulness and dignity.
Filming continues. The generals are divided into groups, talking animatedly. The conversation turns mainly on questions - who is here and who is not.
Central group - Paulus, Geyts, Schmidt The attention of operators is directed there. Paulus is calm. Looks into the lens. Schmidt is nervous, tries to turn away. When the most active operator approached him almost closely, he smiled caustically and covered the lens with his hand.
The rest of the generals almost do not react to the filming. But some seem to deliberately try to get on film, and especially next to Paulus.
Some kind of colonel constantly walks between everyone and repeats the same phrase: “Nothing, nothing! No need to be nervous. The main thing is that everyone is alive.” No one pays attention to him.
Shooting ends. The departure begins. Paulus, Schmidt and Adam return home.
Schmidt: Wow pleasure, after the bath we will probably catch a cold. Everything is done on purpose to make us sick.
Paulus: This shoot is even worse! Shame! Marshal (Voronov) probably doesn't know anything! But there's nothing to be done - captivity.

Schmidt: I can't stomach German journalists, and then there are Russians! Disgusting!
The conversation is interrupted by the appearance of dinner. Eat, praise the kitchen. The mood rises. After dinner, they sleep almost until dinner. Dinner is praised again. They light up. Silently follow the smoke rings.
The sound of broken dishes is heard in the room nearby. Hine broke the sugar bowl.
Paulus: This is Hein. Here's a teddy bear!
Schmidt: Everything is falling apart. I wonder how he held the steering wheel. Hine! Have you ever lost your steering wheel?
Hine: No, lieutenant general. Then I had a different mood.
Schmidt: Mood - mood, dishes - dishes, especially someone else's
Paulus: He was a favorite of Field Marshal Reichenau. He died in his arms.
Schmidt By the way, what are the circumstances of his death?
Paulus From a heart attack after a hunt and breakfast with him. Hein, please elaborate.
Hein: That day the field marshal and I went hunting. He was in a great mood and felt good. Sat down for breakfast. I served coffee. At that moment, he had a heart attack. The staff doctor said that we must immediately take him to Leipzig to some professor. The plane was quickly arranged. The field marshal, I, the doctor and the pilot flew off. Heading for Lvov.
The field marshal was getting worse and worse. An hour later, he died on the plane.
In the future, we were generally accompanied by failures. The pilot had already landed over the Lvov airfield, but took off again. We made two more circles over the airfield. Landing the plane for the second time, for some reason, neglecting the basic rules, he came in for a landing on a black man. As a result, we crashed into one of the airfield buildings. I was the only one who got out of this operation.
Again there is almost an hour of silence. Smoke, think. Paulus raises his head.
Paulus: I wonder what news?
Adam: Probably further advance of the Russians. Now they can do it.
Schmidt: And what's next? All the same sore point! In my opinion, this war will end even more abruptly than it began, and its end will not be military, but political. It is clear that we cannot defeat Russia, and she cannot defeat us.
Paulus: But politics is not our business. We are soldiers. The marshal asked yesterday why we, without ammunition, food, offered resistance in a hopeless situation. I answered him - an order! Whatever the situation, an order remains an order. We are soldiers! Discipline, order, obedience - the basis of the army. He agreed with me. And in general it is ridiculous, as if it was in my will to change anything.
By the way, the marshal leaves an excellent impression. Cultural, educated person. Knows the situation very well. At Schleferer, he was interested in the 29th regiment, from which no one was captured. Remembers even such trifles.
Schmidt: Yes, fortune always has two sides.
Paulus: And the good thing is that you can't predict your fate. If I knew that I would be a field marshal and then a prisoner! In the theater about such a play, I would say nonsense!
Starts to go to sleep.

Morning. Paulus and Schmidt are still in bed. Enter Adam. He's already shaved and cleaned himself up. Stretches out left hand, says: "Hail!"
Paulus: If you remember the Roman greeting, it means that you, Adam, have nothing against me. You don't have a weapon.
Adam and Schmidt laugh.
Schmidt: In Latin, it sounds like "morituri tea salutam" ("those going to death greet you").
Paulus: Just like us.
He takes out a cigarette and lights up.
Schmidt: Don't smoke before meals, it's bad.
Paulus: Nothing, captivity is even more harmful.
Schmidt: You have to be patient.
Get up. Morning toilet, breakfast.
Major Ozeryansky 21 arrives from the RO for Schmidt. He is summoned for interrogation.
Schmidt: Finally, they became interested in me too (he was somewhat hurt that he had not been called before).
Schmidt leaves. Paulus and Adam lie down. They smoke, then they sleep. Then they wait for dinner. Schmidt returns a couple of hours later.
Schmidt: All the same - why they resisted, did not agree to surrender, and so on. It was very difficult to speak - a bad translator. Didn't understand me. She translated questions in such a way that I did not understand her.
And finally, the question is my assessment of the operational art of the Russians and us. Of course, I refused to answer, saying that this was a question that could harm my homeland.
Any conversation on this topic after the war.
Paulus: That's right, I answered the same.
Schmidt: In general, all this is already tired. How can they not understand that not a single German officer will go against his homeland.
Paulus: It's simply tactless to put such questions before us, soldiers. Now no one will answer them.
Schmidt: And always these pieces of propaganda are not against the motherland, but for it, against the government, etc. I already somehow noticed that it was only the camels of 1918 that separated the government and the people.
Paulus: Propaganda remains propaganda! Even the course is not objective.
Schmidt: Is an objective interpretation of history possible at all? Of course not. Take, for example, the question of the beginning of the war. Who started? Who is guilty? Why? Who can answer this?
Adam: Only archives after many years.
Paulus: Soldiers were and will remain soldiers. They fight, fulfilling their duty, not thinking about the reasons, faithful to the oath. And the beginning and end of the war is the business of politicians, to whom the situation at the front prompts certain decisions.
Then the conversation turns to the history of Greece, Rome, etc. They talk about painting and archeology. Adam talks about his participation in excavation expeditions. Schmidt, speaking of painting, authoritatively declares that the German one is the first in the world and the best German artist is ... Rembrandt 21 (supposedly because the Netherlands, Holland and Flanders are the "old" German provinces).
This continues until dinner, after which they go to bed.
On the morning of February 5, I receive an order to return back to the department in connection with the redeployment. The stay with the generals is over.

Detective KRO OO NKVD Donfront
senior lieutenant of state security Tarabrin
Right: Lieutenant Colonel P. Gapochko
AP RF, f. 52, on. 1, d. 134, m. 23-33. Copy

During the Battle of Stalingrad, not only the generals mentioned in the text of the document were taken prisoner. As you know, from January 10 to February 2, 1943, the troops of the Don Front captured 24 generals, including Max Preffer, commander of the 4th Infantry Corps, von Seidlitz-Kurbach Walter, commander of the 51st Infantry Corps, Alfred Strezcius - commander of the 11th infantry corps, Erich Magnus - commander of the 389th infantry division, Otto Renoldi - head of the medical service of the 6th army, Ulrich Vossol - head of artillery of the 6th German army, etc.
The document is interesting for live sketches, non-fictional judgments of captured German generals, captured over the course of five days by the detective of the NKVD OO of the Don Front, Senior Lieutenant of State Security E.A. Tarabrin.

1 Tarabrin Evgeny Anatolyevich (1918-?) - Colonel (19%). From August 1941 - detective of the OO NKVD of the South-Western Stalingrad Don and Central Fronts. From December 1942 - translator of the OO NKVD of the Don Front. From May 1943 - senior detective of the 2nd department of the 4th department of the Main Directorate of the Kyrgyz Republic "Smersh" of the Central Front From June 1946 - senior detective of the 1st department of Department 1-B
1st Main Directorate. From August 1947 - assistant to the head of the 2nd department of the 1st Directorate of the Information Committee under the Council of Ministers of the USSR From December 1953 - deputy head of the sector of the 2nd Main Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs From August 1954 - senior assistant to the head of the 1st Main Directorate of the KGB under SM USSR. Since January 1955 he was enrolled in the active reserve of the 1st Main Directorate. From August 1956 - Head of the 2nd Department of the 1st Main Directorate of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR From February 1963 - Deputy Head of Service No. 2.
On May 18, 1965, by order of the KGB No. 237, he was dismissed under Art. 59 p. "d" (for official non-compliance).
2 Nesterov Vsevolod Viktorovich (1922-?) - senior lieutenant (1943). Since January 1943, he was the operative officer of the reserve of the NKVD of the Don Front, then the ROC "Smersh" of the Central Front. Since September 1943, he was an operative officer of the Smersh ROC of the 4th Artillery Corps of the Central Front. Since April 1944, he was the detective of the Smersh ROC of the Belorussian Front. Since August 1945, he was an operative officer of the Smersh ROC of the 4th artillery corps of the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany. Since April 1946, he was an operative officer of the Smersh ROC of the 12th artillery battalion of the 1st Military District, then the Moscow Military District.
By order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR No. 366 of August 24, 1946, he was dismissed at his personal request with transfer to the registration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
3 Schmidt Arthur (1895-?) - lieutenant general. Chief of Staff of the 6th Army.
4 Adam Wilhelm (? -?) - adjutant F. Paulus, colonel.
5 Lev Alexandrovich Bezymensky, born in 1920, captain (1945). In the Red Army since August 1941, he began serving as a private of the 6th reserve engineering regiment, then a cadet of the courses of military translators of the Red Army (Orsk) and the Military Institute foreign languages(Stavropol). Since May 1942 - at the front, officer of the 394th separate special-purpose radio division (South-Western Front). In January 1943, he was transferred to the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Don Front, where he acted as an interpreter, senior front interpreter, deputy head of the information department. Subsequently, he served in the intelligence departments of the headquarters of the Central, Belorussian, 1st Belorussian fronts, the intelligence department of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. In October 1946 he was demobilized. After he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University (1948). Worked in the magazine "New time". Author of several books, candidate of historical sciences. Professor of the Academy of Military Sciences. He was awarded 6 orders and 22 medals of the USSR.
6 Rokossovsky Konstantin Konstantinovich (1896-1968) - Marshal of the Soviet Union (1944), twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1944 1945). In September 1942 - January 1943 he commanded the Don Front.
7 Voronov Nikolai Nikolaevich (1899-1968) - Chief Marshal of Artillery (1944), Hero of the Soviet Union (1965) From July 1941 - Chief of Artillery of the Red Army, at the same time from September 1941 - Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, representative of the headquarters of the Supreme High Command near Stalingrad from March 1943 - commander of the artillery of the Red Army.
8 Malinin Mikhail Sergeevich (1899-1960) - General of the Army (1953), Hero of the Soviet Union (1945). In the Red Army since 1919. Since 1940 - Chief of Staff of the 7th MK. During the war - chief of staff of the 7th MK on the Western Front, 16th Army (1941-1942), Bryansk, Don, Central, Belorussian and 1st Belorussian Fronts (1942-1945). In the future - at the staff work in the Soviet Army.
9 The commander of the 64th Army from August 1942 was Shumilov Mikhail Stepanovich (1895-1975) - Colonel General (1943), Hero of the Soviet Union (1943). The 64th Army, together with the 62nd Army, heroically defended Stalingrad. In April 1943 - May 1945 - Commander of the 7th Guards Army. After the war, in command positions in the Soviet Army.
10 Apparently, the press published data not only on the trophies of the 6th Army, but also on a number of other armies. In particular, the 4th German tank, 3rd and 4th Romanian, 8th Italian armies.
11 Most likely, the chief of staff of the 6th Army A. Schmidt has in mind the period when the counteroffensive in the Stalingrad direction of the troops of three fronts began. South-Western, Don and Stalingrad and completed the encirclement of the 6th Army and part of the 4th Panzer Army.
12 Reichenau Walther von (1884-1942) - Field Marshal General (1940). He commanded the 6th Army in 1939-1941. From December 1941 - Commander of Army Group "South" on the Soviet-German front. Died of a heart attack.
13 Busch Ernst Von (1885-1945) - Field Marshal General (1943). In 1941 he commanded the 16th Army on the Soviet-German front. In 1943-1944. - Commander of the Army Group "Center".
14 Daniels Alexander Fon (1891-?) - lieutenant general (1942), commander of the 376th division.
15 Drebber Moritz Fon (1892-?) - Major General of the Infantry (1943), commander of the 297th Infantry Division.
16 Wulz Hans (1893-?) - major general of artillery (1942).
17 Dimitriu - Commander of the 2nd Romanian Infantry Division, Major General.
18 Apparently, we are talking about Popescu Dimitar, a general, commander of the 5th cavalry division.
19 Vinogradov Ilya Vasilievich (1906-1978) - lieutenant general (1968) (see vol. 2 of this collection, document No. 961).
20 Geitz (Heitz) Walter (1878-?) - Colonel General (1943).
21 Ozeryansky Yevsey (Eugene) (1911-?), Colonel (1944). In the Red Army from December 1933 to March 1937 and from August 10, 1939. In June 1941 - battalion commissar, senior instructor of the organizational instructor department of the political administration of the Kiev Special Military District. From July 1, 1941 - in the same position in the political department of the South Western front. From November 22, 1941 - head of the organizational instructor department of the political department of the 21st Army; from December 1941 - deputy head of the political department of the 21st Army. On April 14, 1942, he was transferred to the post of military commissar - deputy chief for political affairs of the intelligence department of the headquarters of the South-Western, then until the end of the Great Patriotic War - the Don Central, 1st Belorussian fronts. In the post-war years - in political work in the Carpathian and Odessa military districts.
Transferred to the reserve on March 19, 1958. He was awarded three orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree, the Red Star, and other orders and medals.
22 Rembrandt Harmensz van Ryn (1606-1669) - Dutch painter, draftsman, etcher.

In icy January 1943, the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht, which once took Paris, and in 1941 victoriously entered Kyiv, could feel like Cinderella, who did not have time to return from the ball before midnight - nothing was left of its former grandeur and splendor, the carriage turned into a pumpkin , and no glass slipper could save the day.

doomed to die

However, in the army of Paulus there are practically no people left capable of beautiful figurative comparisons. After the counterattack of the Red Army in November 1942, the Nazis were isolated in the "boiler". Field Marshal Manstein's attempt to release Paulus's army during Operation Winter Storm in December 1942 failed.

The "air bridge", through which the 6th Army was supplied, did not provide even half of the needs of the German group in the Stalingrad region. In addition, under the blows of the Soviet troops, one after another, airfields that could receive transport aircraft were lost.

By the New Year holidays, the troops of the 2nd Guards and 51st Soviet armies reached the line Tormosin, Zhukovskaya, Kommisarovsky, advancing 100-150 km, and completed the defeat of the 4th Romanian army.

As a result, the front moved away from the encircled army of Paulus by almost 200 kilometers.

Surrounded were aware that this was the end. The German group consisted of 250 thousand soldiers, 4130 guns and mortars, 300 tanks, 100 aircraft, but it no longer represented a formidable force.

The norms for issuing food in the 6th Army were constantly reduced. According to the testimony of German prisoners of war, in the last period of the existence of the Stalingrad cauldron, the norms for issuing bread in different units ranged from 25 to 100 grams per day.

Hungry, frostbitten, sick people were in a state close to complete despair.

Operation Ring

At the end of December 1942, the Soviet command completed the development of Operation Ring, a plan to finally defeat the Paulus army. The Don Front, which consisted of 212 thousand people, 6860 guns and mortars, 257 tanks and 300 aircraft, was entrusted with liquidating the Stalingrad group.

The plan of the operation "Ring" provided for striking first from the western direction, and then from the south, subsequently cutting the remaining troops in two and destroying them piece by piece.

On January 8, 1943, the truce handed over to the Germans a surrender proposal signed by Colonel General Rokossovsky and Marshal of Artillery Voronov. Paulus' armies offered “honorable surrender, provision of adequate food, care for the wounded, preservation of weapons officers, repatriation after the war to Germany or any other country.

Paulus, knowing what the answer would follow, nevertheless requested Berlin. Hitler, of course, demanded to defend Stalingrad to the end.

On January 10, 1943, Operation Ring began. German troops put up fierce resistance, but the territory controlled by the Nazis continued to decline steadily.

On January 14, 1943, the advancing units captured the Pitomnik airfield, the main landing site, which was still receiving cargo for the encircled. A week later, Gumrak was captured, the last site that received transport workers.

"Where are your regiments, general?"

Now German aviation tried to help those surrounded by dropping cargo by parachute. Part of the cargo fell on Soviet positions, and the Nazis were ready to attack out of desperation, only to recapture some food.

Discipline in the German units no longer existed. Not spitting on orders, Paulus's soldiers began to surrender in whole units.

On January 25, 1943, units of the 21st Army entered Stalingrad from the west. On January 26, they connected with the troops of the 62nd Army, which had been holding the defense for many months in Stalingrad, in the area of ​​​​Mamaev Kurgan.

The army of Paulus ceased to exist as a single entity, being divided into northern and southern groups.

After that, the surrender took on a mass character.

German General Moritz von Drebber, surrendering, heard from Soviet officer who accepted the surrender, the question is: "Where are your regiments, general?"

Drebber pointed to a handful of sick and exhausted Germans standing nearby, and replied: “Do you need to explain where my shelves are?”

“I have no desire to shoot myself for this Bohemian corporal”

The command of the 6th Army, which turned out to be part of the southern group, was relocated to the basement of the building of the Stalingrad department store. This area was defended by the 71st Infantry Division of General Rosske.

In the last days of January, Soviet intelligence knew both the location of Paulus's headquarters and his condition. The commander was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and besides, he was exhausted by dysentery. The control of the troops actually passed into the hands of the chief of staff, General Arthur Schmidt, through whose efforts the agony of the 6th Army was delayed.

On the initiative of Schmidt, on January 29, a radiogram was sent to Berlin on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Hitler's coming to power:

“The 6th Army congratulates its Fuhrer on a glorious anniversary! The swastika flag still flies over Stalingrad. May our struggle serve as an edification to present and future generations. Even in a hopeless situation, the Reich soldier does not give up! Heil, my Fuhrer! Paulus".

The next day, Paulus was promoted to field marshal, and Hitler ordered his troops "defend" to the last soldier and the last cartridge.

Assigning the rank of field marshal revived Paulus, but not at all in the way that Hitler expected. The commander said: "I have not the slightest desire to shoot myself for the sake of this bohemian corporal."

“We are representatives of the Red Army. Get up! Surrender your weapons!"

By the morning of January 31, Soviet troops captured the center of Stalingrad, coming close to the building in which Paulus was hiding.

The staff officer of the 38th Infantry Brigade, Senior Lieutenant Fyodor Ilchenko, through an interpreter, transmitted into a mouthpiece: “We propose a ceasefire! We propose to start negotiations on the surrender of the encircled German army!”

Ilchenko was the first to meet with General Schmidt, who stated that Paulus would only negotiate with senior officers equal in rank to him.

The mission was entrusted to the Chief of Staff of the 64th Army, General Ivan Laskin. Here is what he recalled about his visit to the Paulus cellar: “Having found ourselves in a basement full of Nazis, we did not know at all which way we should go. They moved in silence. They were afraid that, having heard the Russian speech, the Germans would start firing in fright.

We walked in the dark, holding on to the wall, hoping that in the end we would stumble upon some door. Finally, they grabbed the handle and entered the lighted room. Immediately noticed on the uniforms of the military who were here general and colonel's epaulettes. I went to the table in the center of the room and loudly told everyone present through an interpreter: “We are representatives of the Red Army.

Get up! Hand over your weapons! Some stood up, others hesitated. I repeated the command sharply again. None of them put up any resistance. One by one, the Germans began to give their names. In the room were the chief of staff, General Schmidt, the commander of the southern group of troops, General Rosske and other senior military officials ...

General Rosske said that Commander Paulus had given him the authority to negotiate. I demanded an immediate meeting with Paulus. " It's impossible", Schmidt said. - “The commander was elevated by Hitler to the rank of field marshal, but in given time does not command the army. Besides, he's not well.".

A thought flashed through my mind: “Maybe there is some kind of game going on here, and Paulus managed to be transported to another place?” However, gradually, during the interrogation of the German generals, it became clear that Paulus was nearby, in the basement.

I demanded that Chief of Staff Schmidt go to him and convey our terms for the surrender of the German troops. On my orders, battalion commander Latyshev followed Schmidt in order to establish our post at Paulus's office. No one is allowed in or out. Private Pyotr Altukhov stood at the door.

The agony of the northern group

There were no special altercations on the part of the Germans. The order of Paulus was agreed upon, ordering the troops to lay down their arms. After that, they entered the office of Paulus himself, who said in broken Russian: "Field Marshal Paulus surrenders to the Red Army."

Around noon, Paulus and Schmidt were taken to the headquarters of the 64th Army. The field marshal who surrendered, however, refused to give the order to the northern group to also lay down their arms, explaining that he was unable to somehow influence the units isolated from him.

The agony of the northern group, the backbone of which was the 11th Corps of General Strecker, lasted another two days.

Soviet artillery and tanks demolished the last fortified points of the Nazis. At four in the morning on February 2, General von Lensky, who commanded the division, informed Strecker that he had begun negotiations for surrender without waiting for his approval.

In a different situation, the corps commander might have declared a subordinate a rebel, but here he simply waved his hand. The question of the final defeat of the remnants of the group was a matter of several hours, and Strecker decided not to continue the resistance.

Hitler is furious

The battle of Stalingrad is over. Until February 22, Soviet troops continued to "cleanse" the Stalingrad ruins and took Nazi soldiers and officers prisoner.

In total, in the period from January 10 to February 22, 1943, 91,545 people were taken prisoner in the city of Stalingrad. Everyone who was not included in this number, and did not have time to evacuate before the "air bridge" stopped working, were destroyed or died themselves - from wounds, hunger and disease.

On February 3, 1943, the Berlin radio broadcast an official message: “The battle for Stalingrad is over. Faithful to its duty to fight to the last breath, the 6th Army, under the exemplary leadership of Field Marshal Paulus, was defeated in adverse circumstances by superior enemy forces.

Hitler was beside himself with rage because of the act of Paulus: “The most unpleasant thing for me personally is that I promoted him to field marshal. I thought that he was completely satisfied... And such a person at the last minute defiled the heroic deeds of so many people! He could free himself from all mental suffering and go to eternity, becoming a national hero, but he prefers to go to Moscow.

Payback time

For the first and last time, mourning was declared in the Third Reich. This was done in order to give majesty to the alleged "feat" of the 6th Army, but it caused quite the opposite effect. Ordinary Germans realized that the elite of the German Wehrmacht, whose invincibility was glorified by the Nazi leaders, was completely destroyed on the banks of the Volga.

Germany began to understand: the time is coming to pay the bills, and this retribution for everything they have done will be truly terrible.

After captivity

As the prisoners later recalled German generals They were sure that they would be shot. If not today, then tomorrow. But the Soviet command showed humanism, which they did not expect.

Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus was Stalin's personal prisoner. At the end of the war, the Union of German Officers joined the anti-fascist organization. He was a key witness at the Nuremberg trials. He was even allowed to return to Germany, but to the east.

The field marshal settled in the Dresden suburb of Oberloshwitz. He was provided with a villa, service and security, a car. Paulus was even allowed to carry weapons. According to the archives of the secret services of the GDR, Friedrich Paulus led a secluded life. His favorite pastime was taking apart and cleaning his service pistol.

The field marshal could not sit still: he worked as the head of the Dresden Military Historical Center, and also lectured at the Higher School of the People's Police of the GDR.

Practicing a benevolent attitude towards himself, in an interview he criticized West Germany, praised the socialist system and liked to repeat that "Russia cannot be defeated by anyone."

Since November 1956, Paulus did not leave the house, the doctors diagnosed him with cerebral sclerosis, and the field marshal was paralyzed on the left half of his body. On February 1, 1957, he died.