General's captivity, Red Army vs Wehrmacht. life and destiny

During the years of the Great Patriotic War, 78 Soviet generals fell into German captivity. 26 of them died in captivity, six escaped from captivity, the rest after the end of the war were repatriated to Soviet Union. 32 people were repressed.

Not all of them were traitors. Based on the order of the Headquarters of August 16, 1941 “On cases of cowardice and surrender and measures to prevent such actions”, 13 people were shot, eight more were sentenced to imprisonment for “ misbehavior in captivity".

But among the senior officers there were also those who, to one degree or another, voluntarily chose to cooperate with the Germans. Five major generals and 25 colonels were hanged in the Vlasov case. In the Vlasov army there were even Heroes of the Soviet Union - Senior Lieutenant Bronislav Antilevsky and Captain Semyon Bychkov.

The case of General Vlasov

About who General Andrei Vlasov was, an ideological traitor or an ideological fighter against the Bolsheviks, they still argue. He served in the Red Army with civil war, studied at the Higher Army Command Courses, moved up the career ladder. In the late 1930s, he served as a military adviser in China. Vlasov survived the era of great terror without shocks - he was not subjected to repression, even, according to some information, he was a member of the military tribunal of the district.

Before the war, he received the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of Lenin. He was awarded these high awards for creating an exemplary division. Vlasov received under his command a rifle division, which did not differ in special discipline and merit. Focusing on German achievements, Vlasov demanded strict observance of the charter. His caring attitude towards subordinates even became the subject of articles in the press. The division received the challenge Red Banner.

In January 1941, he received command of a mechanized corps, one of the best equipped at that time. The corps included new KV and T-34 tanks. They were created for offensive operations, and in defense after the start of the war were not very effective. Soon Vlasov was appointed commander of the 37th Army, which defended Kyiv. The connections were broken, and Vlasov himself ended up in the hospital.

He managed to distinguish himself in the battle for Moscow and became one of the most famous commanders. It was popularity that later played against him - in the summer of 1942, Vlasov, being the commander of the 2nd Army on the Volkhov Front, was surrounded. When he went to the village, he was given to the German police by the headman, and the arriving patrol identified him from a photo in the newspaper.

In the Vinnitsa military camp, Vlasov accepted the Germans' offer of cooperation. Initially, he was an agitator and propagandist. Soon he became the head of the Russian Liberation Army. He campaigned, recruited captured soldiers. Propaganda groups and a training center were created in Dobendorf, there were also separate Russian battalions that were part of various parts of the German armed forces. The history of the Vlasov army as a structure began only in October 1944 with the creation of the Central Headquarters. The army was named "Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia". The committee itself was also headed by Vlasov.

Fedor Trukhin - the creator of the army

According to some historians, for example, Kirill Aleksandrov, Vlasov was more of a propagandist and ideologist, and Major General Fyodor Trukhin was the organizer and true creator of the Vlasov army. He was the former head of the Operational Directorate of the North-Western Front, a professional General Staff officer. He surrendered, along with all the documents of the headquarters. In 1943, Trukhin was the head of the training center in Dobendorf, from October 1944 he took over as chief of staff of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. Under his leadership, two divisions were formed, the formation of the third began. In the last months of the war, Trukhin commanded the Southern Group of the Armed Forces of the Committee, located on the territory of Austria.

Trukhin and Vlasov hoped that the Germans would transfer all Russian units under their command, but this did not happen. With almost half a million Russians who passed through the Vlasov organizations, by April 1945 his army de jure was about 124 thousand people.

Vasily Malyshkin - propagandist

Major General Malyshkin was also one of Vlasov's associates. Having been captured from the Vyazemsky boiler, he began to cooperate with the Germans. In 1942, he taught at the Vulgaide courses for propagandists, and soon became assistant head of the educational department. In 1943, he met Vlasov while working in the propaganda department of the Wehrmacht High Command.

For Vlasov, he also worked as a propagandist, was a member of the Committee's presidium. In 1945 he was authorized to negotiate with the Americans. After the war, he tried to establish cooperation with American intelligence, even wrote a note on the training of the Red Army command staff. But in 1946 it was handed over to the Soviet side anyway.

Major General Alexander Budykho: service in the ROA and escape

In many ways, Budykho's biography was reminiscent of Vlasov's: several decades of service in the Red Army, command courses, command of a division, encirclement, detention by a German patrol. In the camp, he accepted the offer of brigade commander Bessonov and joined the Political Center for the Fight against Bolshevism. Budykho began to identify pro-Soviet prisoners and hand them over to the Germans.

In 1943, Bessonov was arrested, the organization was disbanded, and Budykho expressed a desire to join the ROA and was taken over by General Gelmikh. In September, he was appointed to the post of staff officer for the training and education of the Eastern troops. But immediately after he arrived at his duty station in the Leningrad region, two Russian battalions fled to the partisans, killing the Germans. Upon learning of this, Budykho himself fled.

General Richter - sentenced in absentia

This traitor general did not pass in the Vlasov case, but he helped the Germans no less. Having been taken prisoner in the first days of the war, he ended up in a prisoner of war camp in Poland. 19 German intelligence agents caught in the USSR testified against him. According to them, since 1942, Richter headed the Abwehr reconnaissance and sabotage school in Warsaw, and later in Weigelsdorf. During his service with the Germans, he bore the pseudonyms Rudaev and Musin.

The Soviet side was sentenced to capital punishment back in 1943, but many researchers believe that the sentence was never carried out, since Richter went missing in the last days of the war.

The Vlasov generals were executed by the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court. Most - in 1946, Budykho - in 1950.

In the 1960s-1990s, domestic publications called different numbers of losses of Soviet generals and admirals in 1941-1945. In 1991-1994 an updated list was published in the Military Historical Journal containing 416 names of senior officers of the army and navy 1 ; military historian A.A. Shabaev wrote about 438 generals and admirals who died during the war 2 , and finally, I.I. Kuznetsov cited new data - 442 people 3 .

The study of military-historical literature, documents of the Russian State Military Archive (RGVA) and the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (TsAMO RF) allowed the author to include in the list, in addition to 416, another 42 names of generals and admirals who died in 1941-1945. Taking into account the identified surnames, more than full list generals and admirals (458 people) indicating the last name, first name, patronymic, rank, last position, date and circumstances of death 4 . It should be noted that other surnames are also called in the military-historical and memoir literature. dead generals. Since writers and memoirists sometimes give erroneous information about the time and circumstances of the death of one or another general, each surname had to be checked against the documents of the RGVA and TsAMO of the Russian Federation, eliminating obvious errors and making the necessary clarifications.

Having established the total number of losses, it is necessary to consider them by periods of war and circumstances of death. According to the order of the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense dated February 4, 1944, the irretrievable losses include those who died in battle, went missing at the front, died from wounds on the battlefield and in medical institutions, died from diseases received at the front, or died at the front from other causes. who were taken prisoner. By their nature, losses are divided into combat and non-combat. Combat - these are those killed on the battlefield, who died from wounds at the stages of sanitary evacuation and in hospitals, who went missing in battle and were captured. Non-combat losses include losses not related to the direct performance of a combat mission, including in the troops leading fighting: those who died due to careless handling of weapons, in accidents, catastrophes and as a result of other incidents, who died of illness in medical institutions (at home), who committed suicide, who were shot by the verdict of military tribunals for various military and criminal offenses 5 .

In 1993 and 2001 A statistical study on the losses of the Soviet Armed Forces in the 20th century was published in two editions 6 . If in the first edition the number 421 generals was called, then in the second it was reduced to 416 people, although it should have been the other way around, since during the time elapsed between the two editions, additional information about the generals who died in the war 7 was revealed, and the total number of losses should have increased. However, the authors of the statistical study, citing the figure of 416 people, stated that “this number did not include Colonel General A.D. Loktionov, G.M. Stern, Lieutenant General P.A. Alekseev, F.K. Arzhenukhin, I.I. Proskurov, E.S. Ptukhin, P.I. Pumpur, K.P. Pyadyshev, P.V. Rychagov, Ya.V. Smushkevich, major generals P.S. Volodin, M.M. Kayukov, A.A. Levin, who were repressed before the war and shot during the war years” 8 .

But, firstly, generals Volodin, Proskurov, Ptukhin and Pyadyshev were arrested not before the war, but at the beginning of the war, i.e. took part in it. Secondly, in my opinion, there is no reason to exclude from the list of non-combat losses the generals who died or died during the war under the pretext of their non-participation in hostilities. Therefore, in accordance with the above-mentioned order, it seems expedient to include in the list of irretrievable losses all generals and admirals whose lives were cut short in the period from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945. Of course, some of them will be included in the category of combat losses, others - non-combat.

Counting results irretrievable losses Soviet senior officers are presented in Table. one.

Table 1.

* Russia and the USSR in the wars of the twentieth century. Losses of the Armed Forces: A Statistical Study. M.: OLMA-PRESS, 2001. S. 432.

As you can see, major generals suffered the greatest losses - 372 people, i.e. more than 80 percent, 66 lieutenant generals (about 14 percent), colonel generals - 6 (1.3 percent), rear admirals - 7 (1.5 percent), the rest (marshals, army generals and vice admirals) - less than 1 percent.

It is natural that the greatest combat losses took place in 1941, when the Red Army was retreating, entire armies were surrounded, hundreds of thousands of people were captured, including dozens of generals. If during the 46 months of the war 15 generals went missing, then more than 73 percent. this amount was in the first six months. Combat losses during this time (June 22 - December 31, 1941) amounted to 74 people, i.e. 12-13 generals died monthly (see Table 2).

Table 2.

Combat losses of senior officers in the Great Patriotic War

Causes of losses	years					in the period from 1941 to 1945.
	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945
Died in battles	48	41	40	37	16	182
Died of wounds	10	10	13	17	12	62
Missing	11	2	2	-	-	15
Died in captivity	3	6	6	5	3	23
Shot to avoid capture	1	3	-	-	-	4
Exploded by mines	0	1	2	6	-	9
Killed by saboteurs	1	-	-	-	-	1
Total:	74	63	63	65	31	296

Already on the second day of the war, June 23, 1941, the Soviet generals suffered their first losses. During a German air raid on the command post, Major General I.P., assistant commander of the Western Front, was killed by a fragment of an air bomb. Mikhailin. Until the end of June 1941, division commanders Major General V.P. Puganov and D.P. Safonov, corps commanders S.M. Kondrusev, M.G. Khatskilevich, V.B. Borisov and other formation commanders. On July 8, the Messerschmitt fired at the car of the commander of the 13th Army, P.M. Filatov. The seriously wounded general was evacuated to a Moscow hospital, where he died. Lieutenant General Filatov became the first army commander to die in the Great Patriotic War.

The difficult situation of the retreat often forced the generals to mind other than their own business. There are cases when military leaders, instead of directing the battle from the command post, personally led the fighters into the attack and died on the battlefield. In conditions of encirclement, many of them found themselves under enemy fire and died like ordinary soldiers. An example is the death of the commander of the Southwestern Front, Colonel General M.P. Kirponos and chief of staff of the front, Major General V.I. Tupikov, who died in the Shumeikovo tract on September 20, 1941.

Dozens of commanders of divisions, corps, army commanders died. In the first year of the war, 4 generals, being surrounded and not wanting to surrender, shot themselves: the commander of the 33rd Army, Lieutenant General M.G. Efremov, Chief of Staff of the 57th Army, Major General A.F. Anisov, generals S.V. Verzin and P.S. Ivanov.

During the war years, over 70 Soviet generals were captured (the vast majority - in 1941-1942). Well-known generals in the army were captured: the former commander of the troops of the Ural Military District, Lieutenant General F.A. Ershakov, Head of the Department of the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army, Lieutenant General of the Engineering Troops D.M. Karbyshev, several army commanders and dozens of corps and division commanders. The vast majority of the captured generals behaved with dignity, remained faithful to the oath. Only a few agreed to cooperate with the enemy. In total, 23 Soviet generals died in German captivity.

Several generals, finding themselves in the territory occupied by the enemy, continued to fight as part of partisan detachments. On December 10, 1941, the head of the Bakhchisarai partisan region, Major General D.I. Averkin, who previously commanded the 48th Cavalry Division. In June 1942, the commander of the partisan detachment, General N.V., died in hand-to-hand combat. Kornev (former chief of staff of the Air Force of the 20th Army of the Western Front). Commander of the 10th Panzer Division of the Southwestern Front, General S.Ya. Ogurtsov was captured in August 1941, and in April 1942 he escaped from captivity, fought in a partisan detachment and died in battle in October 1942.

Unfortunately, a number of losses are due to ordinary carelessness. So, on November 9, 1943, the commander of the 44th Army, Lieutenant General

B. A. Khomenko and the chief of artillery of this army, Major General S. A. Bobkov, having lost their bearings, drove a car into the enemy’s location and were shot at point-blank range 9 .

In the section of combat losses, the proportion of those who died in battle and died from wounds ranged from 77 to 90 percent. About 5 per cent. total losses (or about 8 percent of combat) were losses in captivity. 11 generals went missing in 1941 (about 15 percent of combat losses), in 1942 and 1943. two generals each (less than 1 percent). Out of 458 total casualties, combat losses for the entire period of the war amounted to 296 people (64.6 percent).

Thus, irretrievable losses among the Soviet generals amounted to 107 people in 1941, 100 in 1942, 94 in 1943, 108 in 1944, 49 in 1945; only 458 people.

An analysis of non-combat losses (see Table 3) shows that in 1941, out of 33 people, three died of illness, two shot themselves, one died in a crash, and 27 generals (almost 82 percent) were shot. In 1942, the share of repressed generals in the number of non-combat losses decreased to 56.8 percent. This is also a lot 10 . In 1943-1945. the picture has changed. The main part of non-combat losses were already those who died from diseases. And it wasn't always the elderly. Many of the dead generals (about 60 percent) were not even 50 years old. In addition, there were losses as a result of various accidents and accidents. So, the commander of the squadron of the Baltic Fleet, Vice Admiral V.P. Drozd died on January 29, 1943, while driving a car on the ice of the Gulf of Finland. The car fell into a hole, and the honored admiral died. Head of the Scientific and Technical Department of the Navy Engineer-Vice Admiral A.G. Orlov died in a plane crash on April 28, 1945. In 1944 and 1945, 15 people died in automobile and aviation accidents, and in total during the war years - 19 generals and admirals.

Table 3 .

Non-combat losses of senior officers in the Great Patriotic War

Table4

Distribution of losses of senior officers by years and military ranks

						Between 1941 and 1945
Marshal of the Soviet Union
Army General
General - floor to the n and k
General - lieutenant
Major General
Vice Admiral
rear admiral

Table 5

Distribution of losses of senior officers by position

Position	Combat losses	non-combat losses	General irrevocable losses
front commander
Commander of the military district
Deputy and assistant commander of the front and military district
Army commander
Deputy Commander of the Army
Corps commander
Deputy corps commander
Division commander, his deputy
brigade commander
Commander of a special (separate) group
Chief of staff of the front, military district, army , corps, divisions, his deputy
Commander of the artillery of the front, army, corps
Commander of Armored and Mechanized troops of the front, military district, army
Commander of the Air Force of the front, military district, army, his deputy
Member of the military council of the front, army
Head of logistics (communications, engineering troops, military communications) front, army, his deputy
Generals of the main and central departments of the NPO
Employees of design bureaus, research institutes and military educational institutions
Admirals and generals of the NKVMF
Other officials

The share of non-combat losses in 1941-1943 fluctuated within 27-30 percent, and in 1944-1945. - 36-39 percent. If at the beginning of the war there were many repressed generals, then at the end of it, the mortality rate from diseases increased, amounting to 85 percent in 1943, 75 percent in 1944, and 66.6 percent in 1945. non-combat losses of the corresponding year.

For 46 and a half months of the war, 458 people of the highest command personnel perished and died, i.e. about 10 people per month on average (see Table 4). But these losses were unevenly distributed over the years of the war. They were the highest in 1941 - 107 people in 6 months, i.e. about 18 people per month. AT

1942-1944 losses were halved (8 - 9 people per month). And in the last months of the war, January-May 1945, an increase in losses was again observed: 49 people in 4 months (12 per month). However, in 1945 this figure increased mainly due to the increased number of deaths from diseases and those killed in disasters.

The largest number of irretrievable losses of senior officers in the army and navy falls on the first year and a half of the war. So, the losses of 1941-1942. accounted for more than 45 percent. all the losses of generals and admirals during the war. In 1943, 94 generals were killed (about 20 percent), two-thirds of this number were combat losses. In 1944, with an increase in overall losses, there was a noticeable decrease in the number of combat losses of generals, which was the result of an increase in the technical equipment of the army and an increase in combat skills and organizational skills of command personnel. However, even then the losses continued to remain large. During the year, our army and navy lost 65 generals killed. The total losses of generals in 1944, taking into account those who died from diseases and died in accidents, amounted to 108 people.

In the last 4 months of the war (January-April 1945), an increase in combat losses was again observed - 31 generals (that's more than 7 people per month) 11 .

It is important to analyze what positions the fallen Soviet generals held and under what circumstances they died (see Table 5).

Thus, during the war years, 4 front commanders, 22 army commanders and 8 their deputies, 55 corps commanders and 21 deputy corps commanders, 127 division commanders and 8 brigade commanders died (died from wounds and diseases). If combat commanders died mainly on the battlefields (85 percent of all irretrievable losses), then the main causes of death of generals who served in the central apparatus of the People's Commissariat of Defense, in military schools, design bureaus, research institutes and other institutions located in the rear, were diseases (about 60 percent) and repressions (over 20 percent). Every third general of the central office of the NPO was repressed or died of illness, 16 percent. died in accidents and only 20 percent. - in the course of hostilities (during business trips to the fronts).

The losses of the senior officers of the Navy were relatively small - 17 people, of which 12 people were non-combat losses. During the entire period of the war, the Navy lost two vice admirals and seven rear admirals. Both vice admirals died in accidents. Four rear admirals died of disease, and one shot himself. Combat losses include three generals of naval aviation (F.G. Korobkov, N.A. Ostryakov, N.A. Tokarev) and two rear admirals (B.V. Khoroshkhin and N.I. Zuykov).

In total, during the war, 458 people died, died from wounds and diseases, went missing, died in captivity, in car and plane crashes, shot 458 people, or about 10 percent. the total number of generals and admirals who were on military service in the personnel of the Armed Forces of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945

The combat losses of generals (who died in battle, in captivity, died from wounds, went missing, were blown up by mines and shot themselves to avoid capture) amounted to 64.6 percent, while 44.5 percent were lost in battles. (182 out of 458), 62 people died from wounds (13.5 percent) and 5 percent died in captivity. Non-combat losses reached 35.4 percent, of which 17.9 percent. (82 people) - died from diseases. The greatest monthly losses occurred in June-December 1941 and January-April 1945.

The irretrievable losses of generals and admirals by composition, type and type of troops (services) were distributed in the following ratio: command staff - 88.9 percent, political - less than 2 percent, technical - 2.8 percent, administrative - 4.6 percent ., medical - about 1 percent, legal - 0.65 percent. The distribution of generals' losses by type of the Armed Forces is shown in Table. 6.

Analyzing the given data, we can conclude that among the dead and missing senior officers, a large proportion falls on the command staff of the active army and navy, commanders of fronts and armies, their deputies and chiefs of staff of formations and formations, commanders of corps, divisions, brigades , and most of all - on the commanders of divisions.

Table 6

Losses of senior officers of the Ground Forces, Navy and Air Force

Table 7

Losses of generals and admirals of Nazi Germany

	Land
Deaths due to accidents
Those who committed suicide
Executed by the Germans
Executed by the Allies
Those who died in captivity
Died from the consequences of the war
Missing

Compiled according to: Yakovlev B. New data on the casualties of the German armed forces in World War II // Voen.-historical. magazine. 1962. No. 12. S. 78.

Table 8

Losses of generals and admirals of Nazi Germany (by rank)

In this regard, it is interesting to compare the scale of the losses of the Soviet and German generals. The fact is that the Germans half a century ago summed up the losses of their generals and admirals. In 1957, a study by Voltmann and Müller-Witten on this topic was published in Berlin 12 . In the early 60s, in the works of L.A. Bezymensky 13 and B. Yakovlev, the figures from this book were used, including the published final table on the losses of the German generals.

As can be seen from Table. 7 and 8, the total losses of the German generals are twice the number of dead Soviet senior officers: 963 versus 458. Moreover, for certain categories of losses, the excess was much greater. So, for example, as a result of accidents of German generals on
two and a half times more died, 3.2 times more went missing, and eight times more died in captivity than the Soviet ones. Finally, 110 German generals committed suicide, which is 11 times (!) more than the Soviet ones. This testifies to the catastrophic drop in the morale of the Nazi generals at the end of the war. I believe these figures indicate the superiority of our generals over the generals of the enemy, more high level Soviet military art, especially at the final stage of the war.

NOTES

1 Military history magazine. 1991. No. 9-12; 1992. No. 6-12; 1993. No. 1-12; 1994. No. 1-6.

2 Shabaev A.A. Losses of officers of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War // Military Historical Archive. 1998. No. 3. S. 180.

3 Kuznetsov I.I. Generals' fates. The highest command cadres of the Red Army in 1940-1953. Irkutsk: Publishing House of Irkutsk University, 2000. S. 182.

4 Pechenkin A.A. The highest command staff of the Red Army during the Second World War. M.: Prometheus, 2002. S. 247-275.

5 Russia and the USSR in the wars of the twentieth century. Losses of the Armed Forces: A Statistical Study. M.: OLMA-PRESS, 2001. S. 8.

6 The classification was removed: Losses of the Armed Forces of the USSR in wars, hostilities and military conflicts: Statistical study/ V.M. Andronikov, P.D. Burikov, V.V. Gurkin and others; Under total ed. G.F. Krivosheev. Moscow: Military Publishing House, 1993, p. 321; Russia and the USSR in the wars of the twentieth century ... S. 430.

7 They gave their lives for their Motherland // Voen.-histor. magazine. 2000. No. 5. S. 24-28; Kuznetsov I.I. Decree. op. S. 182; Shabaev A.A. Decree. op. S. 180.

8 Russia and the USSR in the wars of the twentieth century ... S. 432.

9 Kuznetsov I.I. Decree. op. S. 68.

10 If out of 72 captured generals in the Nazi camps, every third died, then out of a hundred generals arrested by the NKVD, almost two-thirds died - 63 generals, of which 47 were shot, and 16 died in prison in 1942-1953. Calculated by the author.

11 The dynamics of losses among Wehrmacht generals was quite different: in 1941-1942. only a few German generals died, and in 1943-1945. 553 Nazi generals and admirals were captured; the overwhelming majority of the irretrievable losses of the senior officers of the "Third Reich" fell on the same years.

12 Folttmann J., Moller-Witten H. Opfergang der Generale. Die Verluste der Generale und Admirale und der im gleichen Dienstgrad stehenden sonstigen Offiziere und Beamten im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Berlin, 1957.

13 Bezymensky L.A. German generals - with and without Hitler. M., 1964. S. 399-400.

During the Great Patriotic War, not only ordinary soldiers and commanders perished on the fields of fierce battles, but also their senior commanders, generals and admirals.
So in the early 1990s, a list containing 416 names of Soviet generals and admirals who died during the war was published in the Military History Journal.

Brief information about the dead.
The losses of generals by military ranks, positions held and circumstances of death are characterized by the following data:
Marshal of the Soviet Union 1
Army Generals 4
Colonel Generals 4
Lieutenant Generals 56
Major Generals 343
Vice Admirals 2
Rear admirals. 6
Total: 416 people.

Among the dead and deceased generals and admirals (416 people) the following were taken into account:
Marshal of the Soviet Union Shaposhnikov Boris Mikhailovich, former chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, died of illness on March 26, 1945, while head of the Academy of the General Staff. Buried in Moscow.

Army generals:
Apanasenko Iosif Rodionovich, Deputy Commander of the Voronezh Front. He died of wounds on August 5, 1943. He was buried in Belgorod.
Vatutin Nikolai Fedorovich, commander of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front. He died of wounds on April 15, 1944. He was buried in Kyiv.
Pavlov Dmitry Grigorievich, commander of the troops of the Western Front. Shot by military tribunal in 1941. Rehabilitated on July 31, 1957.
Chernyakhovsky Ivan Danilovich, commander of the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front. Died February 18, 1945. Buried in Vilnius, reburied in Voronezh.

Colonel generals:
Zakharkin Ivan Grigoryevich, Commander of the Odessa Military District. Died October 15, 1944 in a car accident. Buried in Odessa.
Kirponos Mikhail Petrovich, Commander of the Southwestern Front. Killed in action on September 20, 1941. Reburied in Kyiv.
Leselidze Konstantin Nikolaevich, commander of the 18th Army on the North Caucasian Front. He died of illness on February 21, 1944. He was buried in Tbilisi.
Pestov Vladimir Ivanovich, commander of the artillery of the Transcaucasian Front. He died of illness in April 1944. He was buried in Tbilisi.

This number did not include Colonel-General A.D. Loktionov, who did not take part in the war. G. M. Stern, Lieutenant General P. A. Alekseev, F. K. Arzhenukhin, I. I. Proskurov, E. S. Ptukhin. P. I. Pumpur, K. P. Pyadyshev, P. V. Rychagov, Ya. V. Smushkevich, major generals P. S. Volodin, M. M. Kayukov, A. A. Levin, repressed before the war and shot during the war years.

Generals (admirals) by position:

Front commanders 4
Deputy and assistant commanders of fronts 3
Front Chiefs of Staff 5
Commanders of military districts 1
Deputy commanders of military districts 1
Chiefs of Staff of Military Regions 2
Members of the military councils of fronts 2
Members of military councils of armies 4
Army commanders 22
Deputy commanders of armies 12
Army Chiefs of Staff 12
Corps commanders 54
Deputy corps commanders 19
Corps Chiefs of Staff 4
Division commanders 117
Deputy commanders of divisions 2
Brigade commanders 9
Squadron commanders. Air Force commanders of armies, fronts, fleets 9
Heads of communications, engineering troops, rear and VOSO fronts 2
Chiefs of rear services of armies 9
Commanders of artillery, armored and mechanized troops of fronts, armies, corps 41
Chiefs of Engineering Troops, Army Communications 3
Deputy chiefs of staff of fronts, fleets, armies 6
Generals of the central and main departments of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR, military academies, schools, research institutes 45
Other officials 28
Total 416

Among them:
The commanders of the troops of the fronts, army generals N.F. Vatutin, D.G. Pavlov, I.D. Chernyakhovsky, Colonel General M.P. Kirponos.

Deputies and assistants to the commanders of the fronts, General of the Army I.R. Apanasenko, Lieutenant General F.Ya. Kostenko, Major General L.V. Bobkin.

The chiefs of staff of the fronts, Lieutenant General P.I. Bodin, P.S. Klenov, Major General V.E. Klimovskikh, G.D. Stelmakh, V.I. Tupikov.

Commander of the Odessa Military District, Colonel-General I.G. Zakharkin. Chiefs of Staff of the Military Districts Major General A.D. Korneev, N.V. Pastushikhin. Members of the military councils of the fronts, Lieutenant General K.A. Gurov and K.N. Zimin. Members of the military councils of the armies, Major General A.F. Bobrov, I.V. Vasiliev, I.A. Gavrilov, B.O. Galstyan.

Army commanders, Colonel General K.N. Leselidze, Lieutenant General S.D. Akimov, A.M. Gorodnyansky, F.A. Ershakov, M.G. Efremov, A.I. Zygin, V.Ya. Kachalov, P.P. Korzun, V.N. Lvov, I.F. Nikolaev, K.P. Podlas, P.S. Pshennikov, A.K. Smirnov, P.M. Filatov, F.M. Kharitonov, V.A. Khomenko, Major General K.M. Kachanov, A.A. Korobkov, A.V. Lapshov, A.I. Lizyukov, M.P. Petrov, K.I. Rakutin.

By circumstances of death (death)
Killed in action 185
Died from their wounds 61
Missing 14
Killed or died while in captivity 23
Exploded by mines 9
Died in a plane crash 12
Died in a car accident 6
Died in an accident 2
Died from disease 79
Shot and posthumously rehabilitated 18
Committed suicide to avoid captivity 4
committed suicide 3
Total 416

In addition, during the war, 2 corps and 5 divisional commissars, who served in the military in political positions, died, died or went missing:
members of the military councils of fronts 2
members of military councils of armies 3
head of the political department of the army 1
Deputy division commander for political affairs 1

However, not all researchers and historians agree with the number 416, for example, the military historian Shabaev is convinced that there were 438, Kuznetsov - 442.

Military historical literature and documents from the Russian State Military Archive (RGVA) and the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (TsAMO) provide grounds for including in the list - in addition to 416 - the names of 42 more generals and admirals who died from 1941 to 1945. Given the new data, a list of 458 people is obtained.

In 1993 and 2001, a team led by Colonel General Krivosheev published in two editions a statistical study on the losses of the Soviet Armed Forces (AF) in the 20th century. If in the first edition the number 421 (general) was called, then in the second it dropped to 416.

The authors, citing a figure of 416 people, stated that this number did not include Colonel Generals Alexander Loktionov, Grigory Stern, Lieutenant Generals Alekseev, Arzhenukhin, Proskurov, Ptukhin, Pumpur, Pyadyshev, Rychagov, Smushkevich, General Majors Volodin, Kayukov, Levin, repressed before the war and shot during the war.

This statement is not entirely correct. Firstly, Generals Volodin, Proskurov, Ptukhin and Pyadyshev were arrested not before the war, but at the beginning of the war, which means they took part in it. Major General Aviation Volodin at the end of June 1941 was the chief of staff of the Red Army Air Force, Lieutenant General Pyadyshev fought as deputy commander of the Northern Front and commanded the Luga Operational Group, and Heroes of the Soviet Union Aviation Lieutenant Generals Proskurov and Ptukhin participated in the war as commanders Air Force of the 7th Army and the Air Force of the Southwestern Front. Secondly, among the 416 listed in the official list there are several dozen generals and admirals who were not in the army for a single day and died from illness and accidents in the rear.

The greatest combat losses took place in 1941. This is when in six months (June 22 - December 31, 1941) the Red Army lost 74 generals - that is, it lost 12-13 people every month. representatives of their senior leadership.

According to other sources, the losses in 1941 were even higher (for six months - 107 people) - 18 people per month. True, already in 1942-1944, the losses became half as much (from 8 to 9 people per month). http://sary-shagan.narod.ru/esse/esse011.htm

In the first year of the war, four generals, being surrounded, did not want to surrender and shot themselves, it is known that in the whole war, 11 Soviet generals did not want to surrender alive to the enemy and shot themselves.

In terms of categories, the command staff suffered the most damage during the war (almost 89%), while political - less than 2%, technical - 2.8%, administrative - 4.6%, medical - about 1%, legal - 0.65%. generals Air force(Air Force) accounted for 8.73% of the dead, and admirals and generals of the Navy - 3.71% of the total number of losses of senior officers. The Ground Forces had heavy losses - 87.56% of the dead generals belonged to them. one%.

It is believed that of the 83 generals of the Red Army who were captured by the Nazis, the fate of only one remains unidentified - divisional commissar Serafim Nikolaev. In fact, it turns out that there is no reliable information about at least 10 captured top commanders. German historians write one thing about them, ours write another, and the data diverge dramatically. Why are there data, they still haven’t exactly counted how many of them were captured generals - either 83 people, or 72?

Official data says that 26 Soviet generals died in German captivity - someone died of illness, someone was killed by the guards, someone was shot. Seven who betrayed the oath were hanged in the so-called Vlasov case. Another 17 people were shot on the basis of the order of the Headquarters No. 270 "On cases of cowardice and surrender and measures to suppress such actions." With them at least everything is more or less clear. What about the rest? What happened to the rest?

Who collaborated with the Germans - General Mishutin or his double?

Perhaps, the fate of Major General Pavel Semyonovich Mishutin, the hero of the battles for Khalkhin Gol, causes the most controversy among historians. The Great Patriotic War caught him in Belarus - Mishutin commanded a rifle division. Once the general disappeared without a trace - along with several officers. It was believed that they were dead, but in 1954 the Americans provided information that Mishutin occupies a high position in one of the intelligence services of the West and allegedly works in Frankfurt.

German historians have a version that Mishutin collaborated with Vlasov, and after the war he was recruited by the commander of the American 7th Army, General Patch. But Soviet historians put forward a different version of the fate of General Mishutin: he really was captured and died. BUT.

The idea with a double came up with General Ernst-August Köstring, who was responsible for the formation of "native" military units. He was struck by the resemblance of the Soviet general and his subordinate, Colonel Paul Malgren. At first, Köstring tried to persuade Mishutin to go over to the side of the Germans, but, making sure that our general did not intend to trade his homeland, he tried to resort to blackmail. Ordering to make up Malgren, he showed him to Mishutin in the uniform of a Soviet general without insignia and epaulettes (this episode is given in the Soviet collection of memoirs "Chekists tell", published in 1976). By the way, Malgren spoke Russian well, so it was quite simple to make a forgery.

There is no clarity on the fate of the commander of the Urals Military District, Lieutenant General Philip Yershakov. At the beginning of the war, the district was transformed into the 22nd Army and sent to the thick of it, to the Western Front.

In August 1941, Ershakov's army was actually defeated near Smolensk, but the general survived. And, strange to say, he was not handed over to the tribunal, but was entrusted with the command of the 20th Army. A month later, the Germans smashed this army to smithereens near Vyazma - and again Ershakov survived. But the further fate of the general raises many questions. Soviet historians defend the version that Ershakov died in the Hammelburg concentration camp less than a year after his capture, referring to the camp book of memory. But there is no evidence that it was General Ershakov who was kept in Hammelburg.

Two generals: such similar fates and such different endings

If there is no clarity at all with the fate of Mishutin and Ershakov, then the biographies of army commanders Ponedelin and Potapov are more or less known. And yet the secrets unsolved mysteries there are still a lot of these biographies. During the war, five of our army commanders were captured - among them were Ponedelin and Potapov. Pavel Ponedelin, by order of the Stavka No. 270 of August 16, 1941, was declared a malicious deserter and sentenced in absentia to death.

It is known that until the end of April 1945, the general was kept in a German concentration camp. And then the strangeness begins. The camp where the general was kept was liberated by American troops. Ponedelin was offered to serve in the US Army, but he refused, and on May 3 he was handed over to the Soviet side. It would seem that the sentence has not been canceled, Ponedelina should be shot. Instead, the general is released, and he goes to Moscow. For six months, the general cheerfully “washes” victory and his unexpected release in the capital's restaurants. No one even thinks of detaining him and carrying out the current sentence.

Arrest Monday under the most new year holidays, December 30, 1945. He spends four and a half years in Lefortovo, to put it mildly, in sparing conditions (there is information that the general was brought food from a restaurant). And on August 25, 1950, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced the general to capital punishment, and he was shot the same day. Strange, isn't it?

No less strange is the fate of Major General of the Tank Forces Mikhail Potapov. The commander of the 5th Army of the Southwestern Front was captured in the autumn of 1941 under circumstances similar to the capture of Ponedelin. Just like Ponedelin, Potapov stayed in German camps until April 1945. And then - a completely different fate. If Ponedelin is released on all four sides, then Potapov is taken under arrest to Moscow, to Stalin.

And - about a miracle! - Stalin gives the order to reinstate the general in the service. Moreover, Potapov was awarded another title, and in 1947 he graduated from higher courses at the Military Academy of the General Staff. Potapov rose to the rank of Colonel General - career growth even his personal meeting with Hitler and the rumors that the red commander, while in captivity, allegedly "advised" the German command, did not interfere.

A traitor to the Motherland turned out to be a scout performing a combat mission

The fates of some captured generals are so exciting that they could become action-adventure scenarios. The commander of the 36th Rifle Corps, Major General Pavel Sysoev, was taken prisoner near Zhytomyr in the summer of 1941 while trying to get out of the encirclement. The general escaped from captivity, acquired the uniform and documents of a private, but he was caught again, however, without recognizing him as a military leader. Pushing around the concentration camps, in August 1943, the general again escapes, gathers a partisan detachment and beats the Nazis. Less than a year later, the partisan hero is summoned to Moscow, where he is arrested - Sysoev spends half a year behind bars. After the war, the general was reinstated in the service and, after graduating from the higher academic courses at the General Staff, retired and took up teaching.

Boris Richter, chief of staff of the 6th Rifle Corps of the Kyiv Special Military District, was a career officer in the tsarist army, a nobleman who voluntarily defected to the side of the Red Army. Richter not only successfully survived all sorts of personnel purges, but also received the rank of major general in 1940. And then - war and captivity.

AT Soviet time the official version of the later life of General Richter read: in 1942, under the surname Rudaev, he headed the Abwehr reconnaissance and sabotage school in Warsaw, and on this basis the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced him in absentia to death.

In August 1945, he was allegedly detained and shot, but ... it turned out that Richter was by no means shot, but disappeared without a trace in the last days of the war. Archival data declassified several years ago indicate that Major General Boris Richter carried out the task of Soviet intelligence in the German rear, and after the war he continued to fulfill his duty to the Motherland, being in the inner circle of the German General Gehlen, the founding father of the West German special services.

During World War II, 5,740,000 Soviet prisoners of war passed through the crucible of German captivity. Moreover, only about 1 million were in concentration camps by the end of the war. In the German lists of the dead, there was a figure of about 2 million. Of the remaining number, 818,000 collaborated with the Germans, 473,000 were destroyed in camps in Germany and Poland, 273,000 died and about half a million were destroyed on the way, 67,000 soldiers and officers escaped. According to statistics, two out of three Soviet prisoners of war died in German captivity. The first year of the war was especially terrible in this regard. Of the 3.3 million Soviet prisoners of war captured by the Germans during the first six months of the war, by January 1942, about 2 million people had died or were destroyed. The mass extermination of Soviet prisoners of war surpassed even the pace of reprisals against representatives of Jewish nationality during the peak of the anti-Semitic campaign in Germany.

Surprisingly, the architect of the genocide was not a member of the SS or even a representative of the Nazi Party, but only an elderly general who had been in military service since 1905. This is General of the Infantry Hermann Reinecke, who headed the department for the loss of prisoners of war in the German army. Even before the start of Operation Barbarossa, Reinecke made a proposal to isolate Jewish prisoners of war and transfer them to the SS for "special processing". Later, as a judge of the "People's Court", he sentenced hundreds of German Jews to the gallows.

83 (according to other sources - 72) generals of the Red Army were captured by the Germans, mainly in 1941-1942. Among the prisoners of war were several army commanders, dozens of corps and division commanders. The vast majority of them remained true to their oath, and only a few agreed to cooperate with the enemy. Of these, 26 (23) people died for various reasons: they were shot, killed by camp guards, died of diseases. The rest after the Victory were deported to the Soviet Union. Of the last 32 people were repressed (7 were hanged in the Vlasov case, 17 were shot on the basis of the order of the Headquarters No. 270 of August 16, 1941 “On cases of cowardice and surrender and measures to suppress such actions”) and for “wrong” behavior in captivity 8 generals were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. The remaining 25 people, after more than a six-month check, were acquitted, but then gradually transferred to the reserve.

Many fates of those Soviet generals who ended up in German captivity are still unknown. Here are just a few examples.

Today, the fate of Major General Bogdanov, who commanded the 48th Infantry Division, which was destroyed in the first days of the war as a result of the advance of the Germans from the border to Riga, remains a mystery. In captivity, Bogdanov joined the Gil-Rodinov brigade, which was formed by the Germans from representatives of Eastern European nationalities to carry out the tasks of the anti-partisan struggle. Lieutenant Colonel Gil-Rodinov himself was the chief of staff of the 29th Infantry Division before his capture. Bogdanov also took the post of head of counterintelligence. In August 1943, the brigade killed all German officers and went over to the side of the partisans. Gil-Rodinov was later killed while fighting on the side Soviet troops. The fate of Bogdanov, who went over to the side of the partisans, is unknown.

Major General Dobrozerdov led the 7th Rifle Corps, which in August 1941 was tasked with stopping the advance of the German 1st Panzer Group into the Zhitomir region. The corps' counterattack failed, partly contributing to the German encirclement of the Southwestern Front near Kyiv. Dobrozerdov survived and was soon appointed chief of staff of the 37th Army. This was the period when, on the left bank of the Dnieper, the Soviet command was regrouping the disparate forces of the Southwestern Front. In this mess and confusion, Dobrozerdov was captured. The 37th Army itself was disbanded at the end of September, and then re-created under the command of Lopatin for the defense of Rostov. Dobrozerdov withstood all the horrors of captivity and returned to his homeland after the war. His further fate is unknown.

Lieutenant General Yershakov was, in the fullest sense, one of those who were lucky enough to survive Stalin's repressions. In the summer of 1938, at the height of the purges, he became commander of the Urals Military District. In the first days of the war, the district was transformed into the 22nd Army, which became one of the three armies sent to the very thick of battles - to the Western Front. In early July, the 22nd Army was unable to stop the advance of the German 3rd Panzer Group towards Vitebsk and was completely destroyed in August. However, Ershakov managed to escape. In September 1941, he took command of the 20th Army, which was defeated in the Battle of Smolensk. At the same time, under unknown circumstances, Ershakov himself was captured. He returned from captivity, but his fate is unknown.

The fate of Major General Mishutin is full of secrets and mysteries. He was born in 1900, took part in the battles at Khalkhin Gol, and by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War he commanded a rifle division in Belarus. In the same place, he disappeared without a trace in the hostilities (a fate shared by thousands of Soviet soldiers). In 1954, former allies informed Moscow that Mishutin held a high position in one of the intelligence services of the West and worked in Frankfurt. According to the version presented, the general first joined Vlasov, and in the last days of the war he was recruited by General Patch, commander of the American 7th Army, and became a Western agent. More realistic seems to be another story told by the Russian writer Tamaev, according to which the NKVD officer investigating the fate of General Mishutin proved that Mishutin was shot by the Germans for refusing to cooperate, and his name was used by a completely different person who recruited prisoners of war into the Vlasov army. At the same time, the documents on the Vlasov movement do not contain any information about Mishutin, and the Soviet authorities, through their agents among prisoners of war, from the interrogations of Vlasov and his accomplices after the war, would undoubtedly establish the real fate of General Mishutin. In addition, if Mishutin died as a hero, then it is not clear why there is no information about him in Soviet publications on the history of Khalkhin Gol. From all of the above, it follows that the fate of this man is still a mystery.

Lieutenant General Muzychenko at the beginning of the war commanded the 6th Army of the Southwestern Front. The army included two huge mechanized corps, on which the Soviet command had high hopes (they, unfortunately, did not come true). The 6th Army managed to put up stubborn resistance to the enemy during the defense of Lvov. Subsequently, the 6th Army fought in the area of ​​the cities of Brody and Berdichev, where, as a result of poorly coordinated actions and the lack of air support, it was defeated. On July 25, the 6th Army was transferred to the Southern Front and destroyed in the Uman pocket. At the same time, General Muzychenko was also captured. He went through captivity, but was not reinstated. It should be noted that Stalin's attitude towards the generals who fought on the Southern Front and were captured there was tougher than towards the generals captured on other fronts.

Major General Ogurtsov commanded the 10th Panzer Division, which was part of the 15th Mechanized Corps of the Southwestern Front. The defeat of the division as part of the "Volsky group" south of Kyiv decided the fate of this city. Ogurtsov was captured, but he managed to escape while being transported from Zamostye to Hammelsburg. He joined a group of partisans in Poland, led by Manzhevidze. On October 28, 1942, he died in battle in Poland.

Major General of the Tank Troops Potapov was one of five army commanders captured by the Germans during the war. Potapov distinguished himself in the battles at Khalkhin Gol, where he commanded the Southern Group. At the beginning of the war, he commanded the 5th Army of the Southwestern Front. This association fought, perhaps, better than others until Stalin decided to transfer the "center of attention" to Kyiv. On September 20, 1941, during the fierce battles near Poltava, Potapov was captured. There is information that Hitler himself talked to Potapov, trying to convince him to go over to the side of the Germans, but the Soviet general flatly refused. After his release, Potapov was awarded the Order of Lenin, and later promoted to the rank of Colonel General. Then he was appointed to the post of first deputy commander of the Odessa and Carpathian military districts. His obituary was signed by all the representatives of the high command, which included several marshals. The obituary, of course, said nothing about his capture and stay in German camps.

The last general (and one of two Air Force generals) captured by the Germans was Major General of Aviation Polbin, commander of the 6th Guards Bomber Corps, which supported the activities of the 6th Army, which surrounded Breslau in February 1945. He was wounded, captured and killed. Only later did the Germans establish the identity of this man. His fate was quite typical of all those who were captured in the last months of the war.

Division commissar Rykov was one of two high-ranking commissars captured by the Germans. The second person of the same rank captured by the Germans was the commissar of the brigade Zhilenkov, who managed to hide his identity and who later joined the Vlasov movement. Rykov joined the Red Army in 1928 and by the start of the war he was a military district commissar. In July 1941, he was appointed one of two commissars attached to the Southwestern Front. The second was Burmistenko, a representative communist party Ukraine. During a breakthrough from the Kyiv pocket, Burmistenko, and with him the front commander Kirponos and the chief of staff Tupikov were killed, and Rykov was wounded and taken prisoner. Hitler's order called for the immediate destruction of all captured commissars, even if it meant eliminating "important sources of information". Therefore, the Germans tortured Rykov to death.

Major General Susoev, commander of the 36th Rifle Corps, was captured by the Germans dressed as an ordinary soldier. He managed to escape, after which he joined an armed gang of Ukrainian nationalists, and then went over to the side of the pro-Soviet Ukrainian partisans, led by the famous Fedorov. He refused to return to Moscow, preferring to stay with the partisans. After the liberation of Ukraine, Susoev returned to Moscow, where he was rehabilitated.

Aviation Major General Thor, who commanded the 62nd Air Division, was a first-class military pilot. In September 1941, as commander of a long-range aviation division, he was shot down and wounded while conducting a ground battle. He went through many German camps, actively participated in the resistance movement of Soviet prisoners in Hammelsburg. The fact, of course, did not escape the attention of the Gestapo. In December 1942, Thor was transferred to Flussenberg, where he was shot in January 1943.

Major General Vishnevsky was captured less than two weeks after he took command of the 32nd Army. This army was thrown near Smolensk at the beginning of October 1941, where it was completely destroyed by the enemy within a few days. This happened at a time when Stalin was assessing the likelihood of a military defeat and was planning a move to Kuibyshev, which, however, did not prevent him from issuing an order for the destruction of a number of senior officers who were shot on July 22, 1941. Among them: the commander of the Western Front, General of the Army Pavlov; the chief of staff of this front, Major General Klimovskikh; the head of communications of the same front, Major General Grigoriev; Commander of the 4th Army, Major General Korobkov. Vishnevsky withstood all the horrors of German captivity and returned to his homeland. However, his further fate is unknown.

In general, it is interesting to compare the scale of the losses of the Soviet and German generals.

416 Soviet generals and admirals were killed or died during the 46 and a half months of the war.

Information about the enemy appeared already in 1957, when a study by Voltman and Müller-Witten was published in Berlin. The dynamics of deaths among Wehrmacht generals was as follows. In 1941–1942, only a few people died. In 1943-1945, 553 generals and admirals were captured, of which over 70 percent were captured on the Soviet-German front. The vast majority of deaths among senior officers of the Third Reich fell on the same years.

The total losses of the German generals are twice the number of dead Soviet senior officers: 963 versus 416. Moreover, in certain categories, the excess was much greater. So, for example, as a result of accidents, German generals died two and a half times more, 3.2 times more went missing, and eight times more died in captivity than Soviet ones. Finally, 110 German generals committed suicide, which is an order of magnitude more than the same cases in the ranks Soviet army. What speaks of the catastrophic decline in the morale of the Nazi generals by the end of the war.