Table of Contents
(Read Catherine Meridale, "Ivan's War: A Record of a Red Army Soldier, 1939-45" (3)
Again, this time written by Catherine Meridale and translated by Yoshihiko Matsushima.Ivan's War: A Record of a Red Army Soldier, 1939-45."We will read the
The book reveals what each soldier went through and why he continued to fight.
Each one of them is an ordinary human being just like us.
However, the environment in which they were raised, the Soviet propaganda, the Nazi invasion, the scenes of extreme violence, and the extreme conditions of a war in which if they did not do something, they would be killed, motivated them.
A person has the potential to be anything. Depending on the circumstances, people can commit atrocities with impunity. Even if you think you are a good person, you never know what you might do. That is what this book makes you think.
So let's get started.
Start of the Russo-German War
It was as if a movie had become reality. Even twenty years after the first war, the Red Army had not acquired a view of war that went beyond the accumulation of images of manhood, heroism, and self-sacrifice.
The tactics, self-discipline, sophisticated weapons and equipment, backed up by numbers, that are truly necessary in modern warfare, seemed cheap to this generation.
For example, there is a proud report. The deputy political officer of the 5th Battalion, 147th Infantry, "For the Fatherland and Stalin!" and ordered them to charge, shouting, "For the Fatherland and for Stalin! He was one of the first to fall to the bullets of the Finnish troops. In another battalion, soldiers of the Communist Youth League launched a number of meaningless attacks in celebration of Stalin's birthday, November 22.
Hakusuisha, Katherine Meridale, translated by Yoshihiko Matsushima, Ivan's War: A Record of Red Army Soldiers 1939-45, P93
Some line breaks have been made.
The Soviet Union remained dragged down by the values of the time, even 20 years after World War I and the subsequent civil war caused by the Russian Revolution.
This was also true of Japan in the past. There is a considerable similarity in the way they try to put everything away with spiritualism by the divine victory of the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars.
For the Fatherland and for Stalin!" and the way they die in a reckless charge is remarkably similar, isn't it?
The manpower assault and the shouts of "Ullah! and shouts of "Ullah!
A patriotic myth was born. It is said that the entire Red Army shouted one word to lift their spirits in battle. German veterans well remember the bloodcurdling "Uller! and the blood-chilling "Uller!
The common cry that millions of Red Army soldiers would later recall was "For the Fatherland! and "For Stalin! and "For Stalin! In recent years, however, former veterans who did not become officers until the end of the war have said they are not sure what they shouted.
Did we just yell that?" Ivan Gorin, the son of a peasant and a former soldier, laughed. I'm sure we yelled as we ran toward the enemy fire, but it wasn't the finest of words," he said.
The officers and policemen were far behind and did not hear the assault. They used slogans that everyone knew for a good reason.
Whatever ex-military authors like Gorin and Vasily Buikov might have said later, the superstition that swearing before a battle is bad luck was alive. A prior indication to shout another word would have attracted the attention of the secret police.
The words uttered by the soldiers varied, but the long tailed "Ullah! was used by all of them, and it was terrifying.
As the survivor said, it must have been a voice when it was familiar to everyone. It didn't matter whose name they shouted. The soldiers needed the battle cry, the loud sound that shook each individual's lungs and made their muscles move. Sound was more important than meaning. First of all, the voice itself became sacred. It was not until later that people in the flesh recognized the charisma of words.
Hakusuisha, Katherine Meridale, translated by Yoshihiko Matsushima, Ivan's War: A Record of Red Army Soldiers 1939-45, P155-156
Some line breaks have been made.
Ullah!" was a common cry uttered by Soviet soldiers.
The Goo Dictionary says, "A word uttered at the time of an assault or in jubilation. Hail." It was written as meaning.
I don't know what kind of movie it is, but I found a video on Youtube of a scene that was probably a battle between Germany and the Soviet Union, in which they charge with a cry of "Uller! I am not sure what kind of movie it is, but I found a video of a battle between Germany and the Soviet Union, in which the German and Soviet troops charge into the battlefield with a shout of Please note that it is quite shocking.
I felt chills from the beginning of the assault scene. I think the German soldiers who were about to attack us must have been tremendously terrified.
Kill after kill, one after another, they charge at you without fear of death. There is no greater fear than this.
The reckless assault is devastating, and the Soviet soldiers retreat, but to their surprise, the Soviet command now slaughters the retreating soldiers.
In the Soviet army, retreat was not an option. As I will show later, there was an ironclad order to fight to the death. Therefore, soldiers who withdrew and returned were killed as a violation of military regulations.
Soviet soldiers were overrun by Nazi soldiers, and if they fled, they would in turn be killed by Soviet troops.
Thus, the bodies of countless soldiers on the front lines were piled up one after another. With the cry of "Ullah! was the cry of the soldiers as they were being carried out by sea.
However, this is nothing exclusive to the Soviet Union.
Fugitives and violations of military regulations are severely punished in all armies.
And the same is true for assault attacks. Japan, in particular, has also repeatedly carried out reckless suicide attacks.
We often hear about suicide attacks at the end of World War II, but we also saw it in the Battle of Nomonhan in 1939, which we have mentioned before in this blog.
I would like to quote again what I said in this article.
The Nomonhan Incident of 1939 thus became the cause of the militarized Japan that was established.
The battle would be disastrous. Too many sloppy maneuvers, underestimating the opponent, and attempting to defeat the enemy with mentality would result in total defeat.
I was so defeated that I wanted to turn away from what I was reading.
They are too proud to investigate their opponents, assume their opponents are weak without information, and neglect preparation. And when the battle begins, they try to fight back with mentality and are crushed, even though their quantity and strength are no match for the enemy... It is so tragic. Soldiers who follow orders can only lose their lives...
The most memorable of these was the depiction of a Japanese soldier running into a Soviet tank in the flesh.
I will say it again.The Japanese troops charged the tanks in the flesh.
One cannot help but be amazed that such a scene existed in combat on the eve of World War II.
Japan was overwhelmingly outnumbered and had no weapons. That is why they charged tanks with Molotov cocktails. It was a battle that could not be won at all.
However, what is surprising is that the Japanese still destroyed more than 60 tanks.
Can you believe it? They destroyed over 60 tanks in a live assault.
Soviet tanks at the time were thinly armored, and their engines were so hot that a Molotov cocktail could render them inoperable.
Even more amazingly, he once climbed onto a tank, opened a hatch, and directly knocked down a crew member.
I don't believe it anymore. This kind of assault strategy is the end of the strategy of trying to solve everything with mentality.
However, despite these counterattacks, the Japanese forces were quickly decimated by the Soviet Union's overwhelming quantity, precision, and supply. It was as if the game was already decided.
Nomonhan 1939: The Unknown Beginning of World War II, a major event that had a huge impact on the war between Germany and the Soviet Union..
At Nomonhan, the Japanese forces were decimated by an overwhelming difference in strength, but in the German-Soviet war, the Soviets made the Nazis suffer by using manpower tactics.
But what about the lives of the soldiers who were scattered, one by one... Stalin may never have thought about that...
Infamous Order No. 227 - "Don't take a step back! Fight to the death!"
Rumors of the fall of cities and of farming villages that would be burned to the ground or left to rot reached Moscow on a daily basis. In the north, Leningrad was holding on despite the siege, but the country's leaders knew that its fate was hanging in the balance. The news from the south was hopeless.
In late July, Stalin's patience ran out. When Aleksandr Vasilevsky, Chief of the General Staff, interrupted his report, Stalin ordered him to draft a new order.
A single order would symbolize the decisive shift in the war situation that occurred that summer. Stalin sought to uproot the ideas to which the people had become accustomed. Defeat had already caused the old ways to crumble, but within a matter of months, change accelerated.
When Order No. 227 was issued, the Red Army was breathless. But the war itself became a crucible into which a new spirit poured. (omitted)
Stalin's edict became the new slogan. "Don't take a step back!" became the watchword of the army. Everyone was told to fight to the last drop of blood. "When is it permissible to pull back from a firing position?" A soldier may have asked, "When is it permissible to pull back from a firing position? Later, a response guideline was established and it was stipulated that "no retreat is permitted until you are dead.
Stalin declared, "The panicky and cowardly must be destroyed on the spot. Any officer who ordered his men to retreat without clear instructions was to be arrested and sentenced to death.
Every soldier was subject to some new sanction. The brig was too cozy and too wasteful to be an ote-breaker. Henceforth, the derelicts, cowards, defeatists, and other miscreants were sent to the punishment battalions.
There, they would be given "the opportunity to atone for their crimes against the Fatherland with their own blood. The punitive battalions were assigned the toughest assignments, such as decisive attacks and operations to advance far behind the German front lines. They were to be grateful for the last opportunity they were given.
Death (or, to borrow a regulatory expression, life-threatening injury) was, for these fallen, a sign that they had regained their honor, saved their families, and restored their pride before the Soviet people.
The other soldiers were to be fired up as well. New regulations were introduced, and personnel selected from regular units were placed behind front-line units. This "sealing force" was charged with the task of assisting the NKVD unit "Zagrad Otryaduy," which had traditionally been tasked with monitoring the rear, and mercilessly shooting soldiers who lagged behind or fled.
Hakusuisha, Katherine Meridale, translated by Yoshihiko Matsushima, Ivan's War: A Record of Red Army Soldiers 1939-45, P178
Some line breaks have been made.
This is the reason for the shooting of the retreatants seen in the video earlier. (*Maybe the earlier video is for a different reason, but it is believed that the Soviets killed withdrawers like that without mercy.)
The Impact of Order No. 227 on Soldiers
Stalin's new order was intended to wake up the soldiers and hold them accountable with a shot in the face. In many cases, the soldiers reacted as if they had been possessed.
It was a necessary and important step," Lev Lubovich told me. When we heard the order, we checked where we stood. And all of us, and this is true, felt lighter. Yes, it was as if our hearts had been cleared."
Hakusuisha, Katherine Meridale, translated by Yoshihiko Matsushima, Ivan's War: A Record of Red Army Soldiers 1939-45, P180
Some line breaks have been made.
What does it mean that the soldiers became as if possessed by this order?
Then he added, "We heard the order and saw where we stood. And all of us, and this is true, felt lighter. What do the words "Yes, it was as if our hearts were cleared" mean?
I don't know what the ultimate is, as I have not actually experienced it.
However, they are no longer cut off by this order to retreat. They now have no choice but to move forward. No matter what they think, it is the only way.
And it is an order from above. You are no longer responsible there. You just have to obey. You have no choice but to do it.
On the battlefield, where good and evil are at their most extreme, soldiers are forced into a mental struggle. The conflict is the mental struggle to decide whether something is good or bad. But with this order, he can no longer even think about what is good and what is evil. There is no need to think anymore. Everything became only obedience to the order. We were freed from the struggle of what to do. That is why the expression "the possession has fallen away" was used.
I feel like this quote reminds me of the ultimate scene of "the weight of thinking something through on your own."
Soldiers as flesh and blood.
The Soviet military was indifferent to preserving the physical and mental health of its soldiers. However, in the words of one survivor, when the nerves were so sharpened that they could detect the presence of shadows in the darkness, the soldiers were also "unmistakably flesh and blood.
One officer later wrote to his wife.
'It is true that I witnessed many acts of heroism. But I also witnessed many humiliations of the Red Army. I never thought that I was capable of such callous, bordering on atrocious acts. I have always thought of myself as a good person. But there is a quality deep within us that doesn't rear its head until a time like this, and it has been hidden for a long time.
Hakusuisha, Katherine Meridale, translated by Yoshihiko Matsushima, Ivan's War: A Record of Red Army Soldiers 1939-45, P201
Some line breaks have been made.
I thought I was a good person. I didn't think that I would commit the atrocities that I thought were horrible to think about. But if you put me in a certain situation, I would do it. Everyone has something like that in them.
This was also my feeling when I visited Auschwitz in 2019.
In "Tannisho", Shinran Shonin says, "If you have the right karma, you should behave in any way you like. Shinran Shonin believes that human beings can become anything they want depending on the circumstances in which they are placed.
No matter how good you think you are, you never know what will happen to you. Shinran Shonin warned us to be aware of this fact. I was reminded of this when I read this passage.
Combat frees us from bondage.
Soldiers have learned that there are worse ends than death. Listen further to the officer's confession.
Whether I want to or not," he said, "I keep coming back to the idea of what I would do if I became a cripple. What would my wife do? I shudder just to think of a body that is not free. Of course, that is a very real possibility. But I like to think it won't happen. I like to think that I will be able to live a full and healthy life.
It was one of two things: a healthy life and, perhaps, salvation through death. Soldiers began to seek out actions that would allow them to forget themselves. (omitted).
The guilt and joy of surviving in the midst of tyranny and death wove a strong bond between the warriors. When life was simplified to the extreme, it was as if some obsession disappeared, and often in battle, a sense of freedom from bondage came.
The Party quickly took the credit. It called them loyal young communists and sincere patriots, as if the courage of the soldiers was a credit to the Party. No matter how many rhetorical flourishes the Party bureaucrats put forth, what inspired the soldiers was a feeling that transcended words. It was straight-up indignation backed by what could best be described as love.
Why were they able to keep fighting? There seems to be a hint of that here. Do we humans have such instincts? Fighting in extreme conditions creates a sense of freedom from something. I think this is an important suggestion.
And the end of this section is also important.
No matter how many rhetorical flourishes the party bureaucrats might have offered, what roused the soldiers was an emotion that transcended words. It was outright indignation backed by what could best be described as love."
They were motivated by "feelings that transcend language," the author says, "a straightforward indignation backed by what can only be described as love."
One thing in particular stands out: "straight-up indignation backed by what can best be described as love. Love and rage go hand in hand; we rage, fight, and kill our enemies for love.
be unbroken
Next Article.
Click here to read the previous article.
Click here for a list of "Learning from the Battle of Germany and the Soviet Union" articles on what Soviet soldiers believed and why they continued to fight.
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