Bogomolov moment of truth in August 44. Life separate from glory

1926–2003

Briefly about the author

Vladimir Osipovich Bogomolov was born on July 3, 1926 in the village of Kirillovna, Moscow region. He was a participant in the Great Patriotic War, was wounded, and was awarded orders and medals. He fought in Belarus, Poland, Germany, Manchuria.

Bogomolov’s first work was the story “Ivan” (1957), a tragic story about a boy scout who died at the hands of the fascist invaders. The story contains a fundamentally new view of the war, free from ideological schemes and literary standards of the time. Readers' and publishers' interest in this work has not waned over the years; it has been translated into more than 40 languages. On its basis, director A. A. Tarkovsky created the film “Ivan’s Childhood” (1962).

The story “Zosya” (1963) tells with great psychological authenticity about the first youthful love of a Russian officer for a Polish girl. The feeling experienced during the war years was not forgotten. At the end of the story, her hero admits: “And to this day I can’t shake the feeling that I really overslept something then, that in my life, by some accident, something very important did not happen, big and unique..."

There are also short stories about the war in Bogomolov’s work: “First Love” (1958), “Cemetery near Bialystok” (1963), “The Pain of My Heart” (1963).

In 1963, several stories were written on other topics: “Second Class”, “People Around”, “Ward Neighbor”, “Precinct Officer”, “Apartment Neighbor”.

In 1973, Bogomolov completed work on the novel “The Moment of Truth (In August '44...).” In the novel about military counterintelligence officers, the author revealed to readers an area of military activity with which he himself was well familiar. This is the story of how a counterintelligence task force neutralized a group of fascist paratrooper agents. The work of command structures up to Headquarters is shown. Military service documents are woven into the fabric of the plot, carrying a large cognitive and expressive load. This novel, like the previously written stories “Ivan” and “Zosya,” is one of the best works of our literature about the Great Patriotic War. The novel has been translated into more than 30 languages.

In 1993, Bogomolov wrote the story “In the Krieger.” Its action takes place in the Far East, in the first post-war autumn. Housed in a “krieger” (a carriage for transporting the seriously wounded), military personnel officers distribute assignments to remote garrisons to officers returning from the front.

In the last years of his life, Bogomolov worked on the journalistic book “Both the Living, the Dead, and Russia Have Shame...”, which examined publications, as the writer himself said, “denigrating the Patriotic War and tens of millions of its living and dead participants.”

Vladimir Osipovich Bogomolov passed away in 2003.

(In August forty-four...)

1. Alekhine, Tamantsev, Blinov

There were three of them, those who were officially, in the documents, called the “operational search group” of the Front Counterintelligence Directorate. At their disposal was a car, a battered, battered GAZ-AA lorry and a driver, Sergeant Khizhnyak.

Exhausted by six days of intense but unsuccessful searches, they returned to the Office after dark, confident that at least tomorrow they would be able to sleep and rest. However, as soon as the senior group, Captain Alekhine, reported his arrival, they were ordered to immediately go to the Shilovychi area and continue the search. About two hours later, having filled the car with gasoline and received energetic instructions during dinner from a specially summoned mine officer, they set off.

By dawn, more than one hundred and fifty kilometers remained behind. The sun had not yet risen, but it was already dawning when Khizhnyak, stopping the semi, stepped on the step and, leaning over the side, pushed Alekhine.

The captain - of average height, thin, with faded, whitish eyebrows on a tanned, sedentary face - threw back his overcoat and, shivering, sat up in the back. The car was standing on the side of the highway. It was very quiet, fresh and dewy. Ahead, about a kilometer and a half away, the huts of some village could be seen in small dark pyramids.

“Shilovichi,” said Khizhnyak. Raising the side flap of the hood, he leaned towards the engine. – Move closer?

“No,” said Alekhine, looking around. - Good.

To the left flowed a stream with sloping dry banks. To the right of the glossa, behind a wide strip of stubble and bushes, stretched a forest. The same forest from which the radio broadcast was broadcast some eleven hours ago. Alekhine examined it through binoculars for half a minute, then began to wake up the officers sleeping in the back.

One of them, Andrei Blinov, a light-headed, about nineteen-year-old lieutenant, with cheeks rosy from sleep, immediately woke up, sat down on the hay, rubbed his eyes and, not understanding anything, stared at Alekhine.

It was not so easy to wake up the other one - senior lieutenant Tamantsev. He was sleeping with his head wrapped in a raincoat, and when they began to wake him, he pulled it tight, half-asleep, kicked the air twice and rolled over to the other side.

Finally, he woke up completely and, realizing that he would not be allowed to sleep anymore, threw away his raincoat, sat up and, gloomily looking around with his dark gray eyes from under his thick fused eyebrows, asked, not really addressing anyone:

- Where are we?…

“Let’s go,” Alekhine called him, going down to the stream where Blinov and Khizhnyak were already washing. - Freshen up.

Tamantsev looked at the stream, spat far to the side and suddenly, almost without touching the edge of the side, quickly throwing his body up, jumped out of the car.

He was, like Blinov, tall, but broader in the shoulders, narrower in the hips, muscular and sinewy. Stretching and gloomily looking around, he went down to the stream and, taking off his tunic, began to wash himself.

The water was cold and clear, like a spring.

“It smells like a swamp,” Tamantsev said, however. – Notice that in all rivers the water tastes like swamp. Even in Dnieper.

- You, of course, disagree less than at sea! – Alekhine chuckled, wiping his face.

“Exactly!.. You don’t understand this...” Tamantsev sighed, looking at the captain with regret and, quickly turning around, he cried out in a bossy voice, but cheerfully: “Khizhnyak, I don’t see breakfast!”

- Do not be noisy. There will be no breakfast,” said Alekhine. - Take it in dry rations.

- Fun life!.. No sleep, no food...

- Let's get in the back! - Alekhine interrupted him and, turning to Khizhnyak, suggested: - In the meantime, take a walk...

The officers climbed into the back. Alekhine lit a cigarette, then, taking it out of the tablet, laid out a brand new large-scale map on a plywood suitcase and, trying it on, made a dot higher than the Shilovichs with a pencil.

- We are here.

- A historical place! – Tamantsev snorted.

- Shut up! - Alekhine said sternly, and his face became official. - Listen to the order!.. Do you see the forest?... Here it is. - Alekhine showed on the map. – Yesterday at eighteen zero five a shortwave transmitter went on the air from here.

- Is this still the same? – Blinov asked not quite confidently.

- And the text? – Tamantsev immediately inquired.

“Presumably the transmission was carried out from this square,” Alekhine continued, as if not hearing his question. - We will...

– What does En Fe think? – Tamantsev managed instantly.

This was his usual question. He was almost always interested: “What did En Fe say?... What does En Fe think?... Did you improve this with En Fe?...”

“I don’t know, he wasn’t there,” said Alekhine. - We'll explore the forest...

- And the text? - Tamantsev insisted.

With barely noticeable pencil lines, he divided the northern part of the forest into three sectors and, showing and explaining the landmarks to the officers in detail, continued:

– We start from this square – look especially carefully here! – and we move to the periphery. Search until nineteen zero-zero. Staying in the forest later is forbidden! Gathering at the Shilovichs. The car will be somewhere in that undergrowth. - Alekhine extended his hand; Andrei and Tamantsev looked where he was pointing. – Take off your shoulder straps and caps, leave your documents, don’t keep your weapons in sight! When meeting someone in the forest, act according to the circumstances.

Having unbuttoned the collars of their tunics, Tamantsev and Blinov untied their shoulder straps; Alekhine took a drag and continued:

– Don’t relax for a minute! Be aware of mines and the possibility of a surprise attack at all times. Please note: Basos was killed in this forest.

Throwing away the cigarette butt, he looked at his watch, stood up and ordered:

- Get started!

2. Operational documents

Summary

“To the Head of the Main Directorate of Troops for the Protection of the Rear of the Active Red Army.

Copy: Head of the Smersh Counterintelligence Directorate front

The operational situation at the front and in the rear of the front for fifty days from the start of the offensive (up to August 11 inclusive) was characterized by the following main factors:

– successful offensive actions of our troops and the absence of a continuous front line. The liberation of the entire territory of the BSSR and a significant part of the territory of Lithuania, which had been under German occupation for over three years;

– the defeat of the enemy army group “Center”, which consisted of about 50 divisions;

– the contamination of the liberated territory by numerous agents of the enemy’s counterintelligence and punitive agencies, his accomplices, traitors and traitors to the Motherland, most of whom, avoiding responsibility, went illegal, united in gangs, hiding in forests and farmsteads;

– the presence in the rear of the front of hundreds of scattered residual groups of enemy soldiers and officers;

– the presence of various underground nationalist organizations and armed formations in the liberated territory; numerous manifestations of banditry;

– the regrouping and concentration of our troops carried out by the Headquarters and the enemy’s desire to unravel the plans of the Soviet command, to establish where and by what forces the subsequent attacks will be delivered.

Associated factors:

– an abundance of wooded areas, including large thicket areas, which serve as good shelter for residual enemy groups, various gangs and individuals evading mobilization;

– a large number of weapons left on the battlefields, which makes it possible for hostile elements to arm themselves without difficulty;

– weakness and understaffing of the restored local bodies of Soviet power and institutions, especially at the lower levels;

– a significant length of front-line communications and a large number of objects requiring reliable protection;

– a pronounced shortage of personnel in the front forces, which makes it difficult to obtain support from units and formations during operations to clear military rear areas.

Remnant groups of Germans

In the first half of July, scattered groups of enemy soldiers and officers strived for one common goal: moving west secretly or fighting, to pass through the battle formations of our troops and connect with their units. However, on July 15–20, the German command repeatedly transmitted encrypted radiograms to all remaining groups with walkie-talkies and codes not to force the crossing of the front line, but, on the contrary, while remaining in our operational rear areas, collect and transmit intelligence information in code over the radio, and above all about the deployment, strength and movement of units of the Red Army. For this purpose, it was proposed, in particular, using natural shelters, to monitor our front-line railway and highway-dirt communications, record cargo flow, and also capture individual Soviet military personnel, primarily commanders, for the purpose of interrogation and subsequent destruction.

Underground nationalist organizations and formations

1. According to the information we have, the following underground organizations of the Polish emigrant government in London operate in the rear of the front: “People’s Forces in Zbrojne”, Home Army , created in recent weeks by “Nepodleglost” and – on the territory of the Lithuanian SSR, in the region of Vilnius – “Zhondu Delegation”.

The core of the listed illegal formations consists of Polish officers and sub-officers of the reserve, landowner-bourgeois elements and partly the intelligentsia. The leadership of all organizations is carried out from London by General Sosnkowski through his representatives in Poland: General Bur (Count Tadeusz Komorowski), Colonels Grzegorz (Pelczynski) and Niel (Fieldorf).

As established, the London center gave the Polish underground a directive to carry out active subversive activities in the rear of the Red Army, for which it was ordered to keep most of the troops, weapons and all transceiver radio stations illegal. Colonel Fieldorf, who visited in June this year. Vilna and Novogrudok districts, specific local orders were given with the arrival of the Red Army: a) sabotage the activities of the military and civil authorities; b) commit sabotage on front-line communications and terrorist acts against Soviet military personnel, local leaders and activists; c) collect and transmit in code to General Bur-Komorowski and directly to London intelligence information about the Red Army and the situation in its rear.

In intercepted on July 28th. and the decrypted radiogram from the London center, all underground organizations are asked not to recognize the Polish Committee of National Liberation formed in Lublin and to sabotage its activities, in particular the mobilization into the Polish Army. It also draws attention to the need for active military reconnaissance in the rear of the active Soviet armies, for which it is ordered to establish constant surveillance of all railway junctions.

The greatest terrorist and sabotage activity is demonstrated by the detachments “Wolf” (Rudnitskaya Pushcha region), “Rat” (Vilnius region) and “Ragner” (about 300 people) in the Lida region.

2. On the liberated territory of the Lithuanian SSR, there are armed nationalist bandit groups of the so-called LLA, hiding in forests and populated areas, calling themselves “Lithuanian partisans”.

The basis of these underground formations are the “White Bandages” and other active German collaborators, officers and junior commanders of the former Lithuanian army, landowner-kulak and other enemy elements. The actions of these detachments are coordinated by the Committee of the Lithuanian National Front, created on the initiative of the German command and its intelligence agencies.

According to the testimony of arrested LLA members, in addition to carrying out brutal terror against Soviet military personnel and representatives of local authorities, the Lithuanian underground has the task of conducting operational reconnaissance in the rear and on communications of the Red Army and immediately transmitting the information obtained, for which many bandit groups are equipped with short-wave radio stations, ciphers and German decryption notepads.

The most characteristic hostile manifestations of the last period

In Vilnius and its environs, mainly at night, 11 Red Army soldiers, including 7 officers, were killed and went missing. A major of the Polish Army, who arrived on short leave to meet his relatives, was also killed there.

August 2 at 4.00 in the village. The family of a former partisan, now in the ranks of the Red Army, V. I. Makarevich, was brutally destroyed by unknown Kalitans.– wife, daughter and niece born in 1940

On August 3, in the Zhirmuny region, 20 km north of the city of Lida, a Vlasov bandit group fired at a car - 5 Red Army soldiers were killed, a colonel and a major were seriously wounded.

On the night of August 5, the railway track between the Neman and Novelnya stations was blown up in three places.

August 5, 1944 in the village. Turchela (30 km south of Vilnius), a communist, a deputy of the village council, was killed by a grenade thrown through a window.

August 7 in the village. Voitovichi was attacked by a vehicle of the 39th Army from a pre-prepared ambush. As a result, 13 people were killed, 11 of them were burned along with the car. Two people were taken into the forest by bandits, who also seized weapons, uniforms and all personal official documents.

On August 6, he arrived on leave in the village. Radun, a sergeant of the Polish Army, was kidnapped by unknown persons that same night.

On August 10, at 4.30, a Lithuanian bandit group of unknown numbers attacked the volost department of the NKVD in the town of Siesiki. 4 police officers were killed, 6 bandits were released from custody.

August 10 in the village. Malye Soleshniki, the chairman of the village council, Vasilevsky, his wife and 13-year-old daughter, who was trying to protect her father, were shot.

In total, 169 Red Army soldiers were killed, kidnapped, or went missing in the rear of the front in the first ten days of August. Most of those killed had their weapons, uniforms and personal military documents taken away.

During these 10 days, 13 representatives of local authorities were killed; In three settlements, village council buildings were burned.

In connection with numerous gang manifestations and murders of military personnel, we and the army command have significantly strengthened security measures. By order of the commander, all personnel of units and formations of the front are allowed to go beyond the unit’s location only in groups of at least three people and provided that each has an automatic weapon. The same order prohibits the movement of vehicles in the evening and at night outside populated areas without proper security.

In total from June 23 to August 11 this year. Inclusive, 209 enemy armed groups and various gangs operating in the rear of the front were liquidated (not counting individuals). At the same time, the following were captured: 22 mortars, 356 machine guns, 3827 rifles and machine guns, 190 horses, 46 radio stations, including 28 shortwave ones.

Chief of the troops for protecting the rear of the front, Major General Lobov"

Note on HF

"Urgently!

Moscow, Matyushina

In addition to No.... dated August 7, 1944.

The unknown radio station we are looking for in the Neman case with the call sign KAO (the interception dated August 7, 1944 was transferred to you immediately) today, August 13, went on the air from the forest in the Shilovychi district (Baranovichi region) .

In communicating the groups of digits of the encrypted radiogram recorded today, I urge you, given the lack of qualified cryptographers in the Front Counterintelligence Directorate, to speed up the decryption of both the first and second radio interceptions.

Note on HF

"Urgently!

Head of the Main Counterintelligence Directorate

Smersh

Special message

Today, August 13, at 18.05, surveillance stations again recorded the broadcast of an unknown short-wave radio with the call sign KAO, operating in the rear of the front.

The location where the transmitter goes on air is determined as the northern part of the Shilovychi forest. The operating frequency of the radio is 4627 kHz. A recorded intercept is a radiogram encrypted in groups of five-digit numbers. The speed and clarity of transmission indicate the high qualifications of the radio operator.

Prior to this, the radio broadcast with the call sign KAO was recorded on August 7 this year. from the forest southeast of Stolbtsy.

The search activities carried out in the first case did not yield positive results.

It seems likely that the transmissions are carried out by agents abandoned by the enemy during the retreat or transferred to the rear of the front.

It is possible, however, that the radio with the call sign KAO is used by one of the underground groups of the Home Army.

It is also possible that the broadcasts are carried out by one of the residual groups of Germans.

We are taking measures to find in the Shilovychi forest the exact place where the wanted radio went on the air, and to detect traces and evidence. At the same time, everything possible is being done to identify information that would facilitate the identification and detention of persons involved in the operation of the transmitter.

All radio reconnaissance groups of the front are aimed at operational direction finding of the radio if it goes on the air.

The task force of Captain Alekhine is working directly on the case.

We are directing all counterintelligence agencies of the front, the chief of rear security troops, as well as the counterintelligence departments of neighboring fronts to search for the radio and the persons involved in its operation.

3. Cleaner Senior Lieutenant Tamantsev, nicknamed Skorohvat

In the morning I was in an eerie, almost funeral mood - Leshka Basos, my closest friend and probably the best guy on earth, was killed in this forest. And although he died three weeks ago, I could not help thinking about him all day.

I was on a mission at the time, and when I returned, he had already been buried. I was told that there were many wounds and severe burns on the body - before his death, the wounded man was severely tortured, apparently trying to find out something, they stabbed him with knives, burned his feet, chest and face. And then they finished him off with two shots to the back of the head.

At the school for junior command staff of the border troops, we slept on the same bunks for almost a year, and the back of his head with the two tops of his head so familiar to me and the curls of reddish hair on his neck loomed before my eyes in the morning.

He fought for three years, but did not die in open battle. Somewhere here he was caught - no one knows who! - shot, apparently from an ambush, tortured, burned, and then killed. How I hated this damned forest! Thirst for revenge - to meet and get even! - took possession of me from the very morning.

Mood is mood, but business is business - we didn’t come here to remember Leshka and not even to avenge him.

If the forest near Stolbtsy, where we were searching until yesterday afternoon, seemed to have passed by the war, then here it was quite the opposite.

At the very beginning, about two hundred meters from the edge of the forest, I came across a burnt-out German staff car. It was not knocked out, but burned by the Krauts themselves: the trees here completely blocked the path and it became impossible to travel.

A little later I saw two corpses under the bushes. More precisely, fetid skeletons in half-decayed dark German uniforms are tank crews. And further along the overgrown paths of this dense, thicket forest, I kept coming across rusty rifles and machine guns with the bolts pulled out, dirty red bandages and cotton wool stained with blood, abandoned boxes and packs of cartridges, empty tin cans and scraps of paper, Fritz camp backpacks with a reddish calfskin top and soldiers' helmets.

Already in the afternoon, in the thicket itself, I discovered two grave mounds about a month old, which had managed to settle, with hastily knocked together birch crosses and inscriptions scorched in Gothic letters on the light crossbars:

During the retreat, they most often plowed up and destroyed their cemeteries, fearing abuse. And here, in a secluded place, they marked everything with rank, obviously expecting to return. Jokers, nothing to say...

There, behind the bushes, lay a hospital stretcher. As I thought, these Krauts just ended here - they were carried, wounded, for tens, maybe hundreds of kilometers. They didn’t shoot me, as happened, and didn’t abandon me – I liked that.

During the day I encountered hundreds of all kinds of signs of war and a hasty German retreat.

In this forest, perhaps, the only thing that interested us was missing: fresh, day-old traces of a person’s presence here.

As for mines, the devil is not as terrible as he is painted. During the whole day I came across only one, a German anti-personnel one.

I noticed a thin steel wire flashing in the grass, stretched across the path about fifteen centimeters from the ground. If I touched her, my intestines and other remains would hang on the trees or somewhere else.

During the three years of war, anything happened, but I had to discharge mines myself only a few times, and I did not consider it necessary to waste time on this one. Having marked it on both sides with sticks, I moved on.

Although I came across only one during the day, the very thought that the forest was mined in places and at any moment you could fly into the air, all the time pressed on my psyche, creating some kind of vile internal tension, which I could not get rid of.

In the afternoon, going out to the stream, I took off my boots, spread my footcloths in the sun, washed myself and had a snack. I got drunk and lay there for about ten minutes, resting my raised legs on a tree trunk and thinking about those we were hunting for.

Yesterday they went on air from this forest, a week ago - near Stolbtsy, and tomorrow they can appear anywhere: outside Grodno, near Brest or somewhere in the Baltic states. Nomadic walkie-talkie - Figaro here, Figaro there... Finding an exit point in such a forest is like finding a needle in a haystack. This is not your mother’s melon shop, where every kavun is familiar and personally attractive. And the whole calculation is that there will be traces, there will be a clue. The trait of the bald man - why should they inherit?... We didn’t try under Stolbtsy?... We dug the earth with our noses! Five of us, six days!.. What's the point?... As they say, two tin cans plus a hole from the steering wheel! But this little massif is bigger, quieter and pretty clogged.

I would like to come here with a smart dog like Tiger, which I had before the war. But this is not on the border for you. When everyone sees a service dog, it becomes clear to everyone that someone is being wanted, and the authorities do not favor dogs. The authorities, like all of us, are concerned about conspiracy.

By the end of the day I thought again: I need a text! It is almost always possible to capture at least some information about the area where the wanted persons are located and what interests them. You should dance from the text.

I knew that the decryption was not going well and the interception was reported to Moscow. And they have twelve fronts, military districts and their own affairs to the eyeballs. You can’t tell Moscow: they are their own bosses. And the soul has been taken out of us. This is a real shame. Old song: die, but do it!..

Here and below, the stamps indicating the degree of secrecy of documents, resolutions of officials and official notes (time of departure, who handed over, who received, etc.), as well as document numbers are omitted. In the documents (and in the text of the novel), several surnames, the names of five small settlements and the actual names of military units and formations have been changed. Otherwise, the documents in the novel are textually identical to the corresponding original documents.

Smersh (short for “Death to spies!”) is the name of Soviet military counterintelligence in 1943–1945. Full name: counterintelligence Smersh NPO USSR. The bodies of Smersh reported directly to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, People's Commissar of Defense I.V. Stalin.

The Home Army (AK) was an underground armed organization of the Polish exile government in London, operating in Poland, Southern Lithuania and the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus. In 1944–1945, following the instructions of the London center, many AK detachments carried out subversive activities in the rear of the Soviet troops: they killed soldiers and officers of the Red Army, as well as Soviet workers, engaged in espionage, committed sabotage and robbed civilians. AK members were often dressed in the uniform of Red Army soldiers.

Cleaner (from “clean” - to clear frontline areas and operational rear areas from enemy agents) is a slang term for a military counterintelligence investigator. Here and below, it is predominantly the specific, narrowly professional jargon of military counterintelligence investigators.

There are also short stories about the war in Bogomolov’s work: “First Love” (1958), “Cemetery near Bialystok” (1963), “The Pain of My Heart” (1963).

In 1963, several stories were written on other topics: “Second Class”, “People Around”, “Ward Neighbor”, “Precinct Officer”, “Apartment Neighbor”.

Vladimir Osipovich Bogomolov passed away in 2003.

Moment of truth

(In August forty-four...)

1. Alekhine, Tamantsev, Blinov

“Shilovichi,” said Khizhnyak. Raising the side flap of the hood, he leaned towards the engine. – Move closer?

“No,” said Alekhine, looking around. - Good.

- Where are we?…

“Let’s go,” Alekhine called him, going down to the stream where Blinov and Khizhnyak were already washing. - Freshen up.

Tamantsev looked at the stream, spat far to the side and suddenly, almost without touching the edge of the side, quickly throwing his body up, jumped out of the car.

The water was cold and clear, like a spring.

“It smells like a swamp,” Tamantsev said, however. – Notice that in all rivers the water tastes like swamp. Even in Dnieper.

- You, of course, disagree less than at sea! – Alekhine chuckled, wiping his face.

- Do not be noisy. There will be no breakfast,” said Alekhine. - Take it in dry rations.

- Fun life!.. No sleep, no food...

- Let's get in the back! - Alekhine interrupted him and, turning to Khizhnyak, suggested: - In the meantime, take a walk...

- We are here.

- A historical place! – Tamantsev snorted.

- Is this still the same? – Blinov asked not quite confidently.

- And the text? – Tamantsev immediately inquired.

“Presumably the transmission was carried out from this square,” Alekhine continued, as if not hearing his question. - We will...

– What does En Fe think? – Tamantsev managed instantly.

This was his usual question. He was almost always interested: “What did En Fe say?... What does En Fe think?... Did you improve this with En Fe?...”

Current page: 1 (book has 38 pages in total)

Vladimir Osipovich Bogomolov

Moment of truth (In August '44...)

Part one
Captain Alekhine's group

1. Alekhine, Tamantsev, Blinov

“Shilovichi,” said Khizhnyak. Raising the side flap of the hood, he leaned towards the engine. – Move closer?

“No,” said Alekhine, looking around. - Good.

To the left flowed a stream with sloping dry banks. To the right of the highway, behind a wide strip of stubble and bushes, stretched a forest. The same forest from which the radio broadcast was broadcast some eleven hours ago. Alekhine examined it through binoculars for half a minute, then began to wake up the officers sleeping in the back.

Finally, he woke up completely and, realizing that he would no longer be allowed to sleep, threw away his raincoat, sat up and, gloomily looking around with dark gray eyes from under thick fused eyebrows, asked, without actually addressing anyone:

- Where are we?..

“Let’s go,” Alekhine called him, going down to the stream where Blinov and Khizhnyak were already washing. - Freshen up.

Tamantsev looked at the stream, spat far to the side and suddenly, almost without touching the edge of the side, quickly throwing his body up, jumped out of the car.

The water was cold and clear, like a spring.

“It smells like a swamp,” Tamantsev said, however. – Notice that in all rivers the water tastes like swamp. Even in Dnieper.

“You, of course, disagree less than at sea,” Alekhine chuckled, wiping his face.

“Exactly!.. You don’t understand this,” Tamantsev sighed, looking regretfully at the captain and, quickly turning around, shouted in an authoritative Basque voice, but cheerfully: “Khizhnyak, I don’t see breakfast!”

- Do not be noisy. There will be no breakfast,” said Alekhine. - Take it in dry rations.

- Fun life!.. No sleep, no food...

- Let's get in the back! - Alekhine interrupted him and, turning to Khizhnyak, suggested: - In the meantime, take a walk...

- We are here.

- A historical place! – Tamantsev snorted.

- Shut up! - Alekhine said sternly, and his face became official. - Listen to the order!.. Do you see the forest?.. Here it is. - Alekhine showed on the map. – Yesterday at eighteen zero five a shortwave transmitter went on the air from here.

- Is this still the same? – Blinov asked not quite confidently.

- And the text? – Tamantsev immediately inquired.

“Presumably the transmission was carried out from this square,” Alekhine continued, as if not hearing his question. - We will...

– What does En Fe think? – Tamantsev managed instantly.

This was his usual question. He was almost always interested: “What did En Fe say?.. What does En Fe think?.. Did you improve this with En Fe?..”

“I don’t know, he wasn’t there,” said Alekhine. - We'll explore the forest...

- And the text? - Tamantsev insisted.

With barely noticeable pencil lines, he divided the northern part of the forest into three sectors and, showing the officers and explaining the landmarks in detail, continued:

Having unbuttoned the collars of their tunics, Tamantsev and Blinov untied their shoulder straps; Alekhine took a drag and continued:

– Don’t relax for a minute! Be aware of mines and the possibility of a surprise attack at all times. Please note: Basos was killed in this forest.

Throwing away the cigarette butt, he looked at his watch, stood up and ordered:

- Get started!

2. Operational documents

1
Here and below, the stamps indicating the degree of secrecy of documents, resolutions of officials and official notes (time of departure, who handed over, who received, etc.), as well as document numbers, are omitted. // In the documents (and in the text of the novel), several surnames, the names of five small settlements and the actual names of military units and formations have been changed. Otherwise, the documents in the novel are textually identical to the corresponding original documents.

SUMMARY
“To the Head of the Main Directorate of Troops for the Protection of the Rear of the Active Red Army

Copy to: Head of the Front Counterintelligence Directorate

The operational situation at the front and in the rear of the front for fifty days from the start of the offensive (up to August 11 inclusive) was characterized by the following main factors:

– successful offensive actions of our troops and the absence of a continuous front line. The liberation of the entire territory of the BSSR and a significant part of the territory of Lithuania, which had been under German occupation for over three years;

– the defeat of the enemy army group “Center”, which consisted of about 50 divisions;

– the contamination of the liberated territory by numerous agents of the enemy’s counterintelligence and punitive bodies, his accomplices, traitors and traitors to the Motherland, most of whom, avoiding responsibility, went illegal, united in gangs, hiding in forests and farmsteads;

– the presence in the rear of the front of hundreds of scattered residual groups of enemy soldiers and officers;

– the presence of various underground nationalist organizations and armed formations in the liberated territory; numerous manifestations of banditry;

– by the regrouping and concentration of our troops carried out by the Headquarters and the enemy’s desire to unravel the plans of the Soviet command, to establish where and by what forces the subsequent attacks will be delivered.

Associated factors:
– an abundance of wooded areas, including large thicket areas, which serve as good shelter for residual enemy groups, various gangs and persons evading mobilization;

– a large number of weapons left on the battlefields, which makes it possible for hostile elements to arm themselves without difficulty;

– weakness and understaffing of the restored local bodies of Soviet power and institutions, especially at the lower levels;

– a significant length of front-line communications and a large number of objects requiring reliable protection;

– a pronounced shortage of personnel in the front forces, which makes it difficult to obtain support from units and formations during operations to clear military rear areas.

Remnant groups of Germans
In the first half of July, scattered groups of enemy soldiers and officers strived for one common goal: moving west secretly or fighting, to pass through the battle formations of our troops and connect with their units. However, on July 15–20, the German command repeatedly transmitted encrypted radiograms to all remaining groups with walkie-talkies and codes not to force the crossing of the front line, but, on the contrary, while remaining in our operational rear areas, collect and transmit intelligence information in code over the radio, and above all about the deployment, strength and movement of units of the Red Army. For this purpose, it was proposed, in particular, using natural shelters, to monitor our front-line railway and highway-dirt communications, record cargo flow, and also capture individual Soviet military personnel, primarily commanders, for the purpose of interrogation and subsequent destruction.

Underground nationalist organizations and formations
1. According to the information we have, the following underground organizations of the Polish emigrant “government” in London operate in the rear of the front: “People’s Forces in Zbroine”, “Home Army”2
The Home Army (AK) was an underground armed organization of the Polish exile government in London, operating in Poland, Southern Lithuania and the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus. In 1944–1945, following the instructions of the London center, many AK detachments carried out subversive activities in the rear of the Soviet troops: they killed soldiers and officers of the Red Army, as well as Soviet workers, engaged in espionage, committed sabotage and robbed civilians. AK members were often dressed in the uniform of Red Army soldiers.
, created in recent weeks by “Nepodleglost” and - on the territory of the Lithuanian SSR, in the region of the mountains. Vilnius – “Delegation of Zhondu”.

The core of the listed illegal formations consists of Polish officers and sub-officers of the reserve, landowner-bourgeois elements and partly the intelligentsia. The leadership of all organizations is carried out from London by General Sosnkowski through his representatives in Poland, General “Bur” (Count Tadeusz Komorowski), Colonels “Grzegorz” (Pelczynski) and “Pil” (Fieldorf).

As established, the London center gave the Polish underground a directive to carry out active subversive activities in the rear of the Red Army, for which it was ordered to keep most of the troops, weapons and all transceiver radio stations illegal. Colonel Fieldorf, who visited in June of this year. Vilna and Novogrudok districts, specific orders were given locally - with the arrival of the Red Army: a) sabotage the activities of the military and civil authorities, b) commit sabotage on front-line communications and terrorist acts against Soviet military personnel, local leaders and activists, c) collect and transfer in code to General “Bur” - Komorowski and directly to London, intelligence information about the Red Army and the situation in its rear.

In intercepted on July 28 this year. and a deciphered radiogram from the London center, all underground organizations are asked not to recognize the Polish Committee of National Liberation formed in Lublin and to sabotage its activities, in particular the mobilization into the Polish Army. It also draws attention to the need for active military reconnaissance in the rear of the active Soviet armies, for which it is ordered to establish constant surveillance of all railway junctions.

The greatest terrorist and sabotage activity is shown by the detachments of “Wolf” (region of Rudnitskaya Pushcha), “Rat” (district of Vilnius) and “Ragner” (about 300 people) in the region of the city. Lida.

2. On the liberated territory of the Lithuanian SSR, there are armed nationalist bandit groups of the so-called “LLA” hiding in forests and populated areas, calling themselves “Lithuanian partisans”.

The basis of these underground formations are the “White Bandages” and other active German collaborators, officers and junior commanders of the former Lithuanian army, landowner-kulak and other enemy elements. The actions of these detachments are coordinated by the “Lithuanian National Front Committee”, created on the initiative of the German command and its intelligence agencies.

According to the testimony of the arrested LLA members, in addition to carrying out brutal terror against Soviet military personnel and representatives of local authorities, the Lithuanian underground has the task of conducting operational reconnaissance in the rear and on communications of the Red Army and immediately transmitting the information obtained, for which many bandit groups are equipped with shortwave radio stations, codes and German decryption pads.

The most characteristic hostile manifestations of the last period (from August 1 to August 10 inclusive)
In Vilnius and its environs, mainly at night, 11 Red Army soldiers, including 7 officers, were killed and went missing. A major of the Polish Army, who arrived on short leave to meet his relatives, was also killed there.

August 2 at 4.00 in the village. Kalitans, unknown people, brutally destroyed the family of a former partisan, now in the ranks of the Red Army, Makarevich V.I. - wife, daughter and niece born in 1940.

On August 3, in the Zhirmuna area, 20 km north of the city of Lida, a Vlasov bandit group fired at a car - 5 Red Army soldiers were killed, a colonel and a major were seriously wounded.

On the night of August 5, the railway track between the Neman and Novelnya stations was blown up in three places.

August 5, 1944 in the village. Turchela (30 km south of Vilnius), a communist, a deputy of the village council, was killed by a grenade thrown through a window.

On August 7, near the village of Voitovichi, a vehicle of the 39th Army was attacked from a pre-prepared ambush. As a result, 13 people were killed, 11 of them were burned along with the car. Two people were taken into the forest by bandits, who also seized weapons, uniforms and all personal official documents.

On August 6, he arrived on leave in the village. Radun, a sergeant of the Polish Army, was kidnapped by unknown persons that same night.

On August 10, at 4.30, a Lithuanian bandit group of unknown numbers attacked the volost department of the NKVD in the town of Siesiki. Four police officers were killed, 6 bandits were released from custody.

On August 10, in the village of Malye Soleshniki, the chairman of the village council, Vasilevsky, his wife and 13-year-old daughter, who was trying to protect her father, were shot.

In total, 169 Red Army soldiers were killed, kidnapped, or went missing in the rear of the front in the first ten days of August. Most of those killed had their weapons, uniforms and personal military documents taken away.

During these 10 days, 13 representatives of local authorities were killed; In three settlements, village council buildings were burned.

In connection with numerous gang manifestations and murders of military personnel, we and the army command have significantly strengthened security measures. By order of the commander, all personnel of units and formations of the front are allowed to go beyond the unit’s location only in groups of at least three people and provided that each has an automatic weapon. The same order prohibits the movement of vehicles in the evening and at night outside populated areas without proper security.

In total, from June 23 to August 11 of this year inclusive, 209 enemy armed groups and various gangs operating in the rear of the front were liquidated (not counting individuals). The following were captured: 22 mortars, 356 machine guns, 3827 rifles and machine guns, 190 horses, 46 radio stations, including 28 shortwave ones.

Chief of the troops for protecting the rear of the front, Major General Lobov.”

NOTE ON "HF"3
“HF” (the exact name is “HF communication”) – high-frequency telephone communication.
"Urgently!

Moscow, Matyushina

In addition to No.... dated August 7, 1944.

The unknown radio station we are looking for in the “Neman” case with the call sign KAO (the interception dated August 7, 1944 was transmitted to you immediately) today, August 13, went on the air from the forest in the Shilovychi area (Baranovichi region)4
From September 20, 1944, Grodno, Lida and the Shilovychi district - Grodno region.

In communicating the groups of digits of the encrypted radiogram recorded today, I urge you, given the lack of qualified cryptographers in the Front Counterintelligence Directorate, to speed up the decryption of both the first and second radio interceptions.

Egorov."

NOTE ON "HF"
"Urgently!

Head of the Main Counterintelligence Directorate

Special message
Today, August 13, at 18.05, surveillance stations again recorded the broadcast of an unknown short-wave radio with the call sign KAO, operating in the rear of the front.

The location where the transmitter goes on air is determined as the northern part of the Shilovychi forest. The operating frequency of the radio is 4627 kilohertz. A recorded intercept is a radiogram encrypted in groups of five-digit numbers. The speed and clarity of transmission indicate the high qualifications of the radio operator.

Before this, a radio with the call sign KAO went on the air on August 7 this year from the forest southeast of Stolbtsy.

The search activities carried out in the first case did not yield positive results.

It seems likely that the transmissions are carried out by agents abandoned by the enemy during the retreat or transferred to the rear of the front.

It is possible, however, that the radio with the call sign KAO is used by one of the underground groups of the Home Army.

It is also possible that the broadcasts are carried out by one of the residual groups of Germans.

We are taking measures to find in the Shilovychi forest the exact place where the wanted radio went on the air, and to detect traces and evidence. At the same time, everything possible is being done to identify information that would facilitate the identification and detention of persons involved in the operation of the transmitter.

All radio reconnaissance groups of the front are aimed at operational direction finding of the radio if it goes on the air.

The task force of Captain Alekhine is working directly on the case.

We are directing all counterintelligence agencies of the front, the chief of rear security troops, as well as the counterintelligence departments of neighboring fronts to search for the radio and the persons involved in its operation.

Egorov."

3. Cleaner, senior lieutenant Tamantsev, nicknamed Skorohvat

5
Cleaner (from “clean” - to clear frontline areas and operational rear areas from enemy agents) is a slang term for a military counterintelligence investigator. Here and below, it is predominantly the specific, narrowly professional jargon of military counterintelligence investigators.

I was on a mission at the time, and when I returned, he had already been buried. I was told that there were many wounds and severe burns on the body - before his death, the wounded man was severely tortured, apparently trying to find out something, they were stabbed with knives, his feet, chest and face were burned. And then they finished him off with two shots to the back of the head.

He fought for three years, but did not die in open battle. Somewhere here he was caught - no one knows who! - shot, apparently from an ambush, tortured, burned, and then killed - how I hated this damned forest! Thirst for revenge - to meet and get even! - took possession of me from the very morning.

Mood is mood, but business is business - we didn’t come here to remember Leshka and not even to avenge him.

If the forest near Stolbtsy, where we were searching until yesterday afternoon, seemed to have passed by the war, then here it was quite the opposite.

Karl von Tilen
Major
1916–1944

Otto Mader
Ober-leutnant
1905–1944

During the day I encountered hundreds of all kinds of signs of war and a hasty German retreat. There was, perhaps, only one thing that was missing from this forest that interested us: fresh – a day old – traces of a person’s presence here.

As for mines, the devil is not as terrible as he is painted. During the whole day I came across only one, a German anti-personnel one.

During the three years of war, anything happened, but I had to unload the mines myself only a few times, and I did not consider it necessary to waste time on this one. Having marked it on both sides with sticks, I moved on.

Even though I came across only one thing during the day, the very thought that the forest was mined in places and at any moment I could fly into the air, all the time pressed on my psyche, creating some kind of vile internal tension that I could not get rid of.

Yesterday they went on air from this forest, a week ago - near Stolbtsy, and tomorrow they can appear anywhere: outside Grodno, near Brest or somewhere in the Baltic states. Nomadic walkie-talkie - Figaro here, Figaro there... Finding an exit point in such a forest is like finding a needle in a haystack. This is not your mother’s melon shop, where every kavun is familiar and personally attractive. And the whole calculation is that there will be traces, there will be a clue. Damn the bald man - why should they inherit?.. Didn’t we try under Stolbtsy?.. We dug the earth with our noses! Five of us, six days!.. What's the point?.. As they say, two tin cans plus a hole from the steering wheel! But this little massif is bigger, quieter and pretty clogged.

I knew that the decryption was not going well and the interception was reported to Moscow. And they have twelve fronts, military districts and their own affairs to the eyeballs. You can’t tell Moscow, they are their own bosses. And the soul has been taken out of us. It's a shame. The old song - die, but do it!..

ADVENTURE LIBRARY

AND SCIENCE FICTION

The series was founded in 1954

NOVOSIBIRSK 1990

VLADIMIR BOGOMOLOV

MOMENT OF TRUTH

/IN AUGUST FORTY-FOURTH…/

Novel

Design by G. G. Bedarev

"Children's literature"

Siberian branch

REISSUE

PUBLISHING HOUSE "CHILDREN'S LITERATURE", 1989

To the few to whom the many owe...

Part one

GROUP OF CAPTAIN ALEKHIN

1. ALEKHIN, TAMANTSEV, BLINOV

Exhausted by six days of intense but unsuccessful searches, they returned to the Office after dark, confident that at least tomorrow they would be able to sleep and rest. However, as soon as the senior group, Captain Alekhine, reported his arrival, they were ordered to immediately go to the Shilovychi area and continue the search. About two hours later, having filled the car with gasoline and having received energetic instructions during dinner from a specially summoned officer, they set off.

The captain, of average height, thin, with faded, whitish eyebrows on a tanned, sedentary face, threw back his overcoat and, shivering, sat up in the back. The car was standing on the side of the highway. It was very quiet, fresh and dewy. Ahead, about a kilometer and a half away, the huts of some village could be seen in small dark pyramids.

“Shilovichi,” said Khizhnyak. Raising the side flap of the hood, he leaned towards the engine. – Move closer?

“No,” said Alekhine, looking around. - Good.

To the left flowed a stream with sloping dry banks. To the right of the highway, behind a wide strip of stubble and bushes, a forest stretched. The same forest from which the radio broadcast was broadcast some eleven hours ago. Alekhine examined it through binoculars for half a minute, then began to wake up the officers sleeping in the back.

Finally, he woke up completely and, realizing that he would no longer be allowed to sleep, threw away the raincoat, sat down and, gloomily looking around with dark gray eyes from under thick fused eyebrows, asked, not really addressing anyone:

- Where are we?..

“Let’s go,” Alekhine called him, going down to the stream where Blinov and Khizhnyak were already washing. - Freshen up.

Tamantsev looked at the stream, spat far to the side and suddenly, almost without touching the edge of the side, quickly throwing his body up, jumped out of the car.

The water was cold and clear, like a spring.

“It smells like a swamp,” Tamantsev said, however. – Notice that in all rivers the water tastes like swamp. Even in Dnieper.

“You, of course, disagree less than at sea,” Alekhine chuckled, wiping his face.

- Do not be noisy. There will be no breakfast,” said Alekhine. - Take it in dry rations.

- Fun life!.. No sleep, no food...

- Let's get in the back! - Alekhine interrupted him and, turning to Khizhnyak, suggested: - In the meantime, take a walk...

- We are here.

- A historical place! – Tamantsev snorted.

“Be quiet!” Alekhine said sternly, and his face became official. - Listen to the order!.. Do you see the forest?.. Here it is. - Alekhine showed on the map. – Yesterday at eighteen zero five, a shortwave transmitter went on the air from here.

- Is this still the same? – Blinov asked not quite confidently.

- And the text? – Tamantsev immediately inquired.

“Presumably the transmission was carried out from this square,” Alekhine continued, as if not hearing his question. - We will...

– What does En Fe think? – Tamantsev managed instantly.

This was his usual question. He was almost always interested: “What did En Fe say?.. What does En Fe think?.. Did you improve this with En Fe?..”

“I don’t know, he wasn’t there,” said Alekhine. - We'll explore the forest...

- And the text? - Tamantsev insisted.

With barely noticeable pencil lines, he divided the northern part of the forest into three sectors and, showing the officers and explaining the landmarks in detail, continued:

– We start from this square – look especially carefully here! – and we move to the periphery. Search until nineteen zero zero. Staying in the forest later is forbidden! Gathering at the Shilovichs. The car will be somewhere in that undergrowth. - Alekhine extended his hand; Andrei and Tamantsev looked where he was pointing. – Take off your shoulder straps and caps, leave your documents, don’t keep your weapons in sight! When meeting someone in the forest, act according to the circumstances.

Having unbuttoned the collars of their tunics, Tamantsev and Blinov untied their shoulder straps; Alekhine took a drag and continued:

– Don’t relax for a minute! Be aware of mines and the possibility of a surprise attack at all times. Please note: Basos was killed in this forest.

Throwing away the cigarette butt, he looked at his watch, stood up and ordered:

- Get started!

2. OPERATIONAL DOCUMENTS

SUMMARY¹

[¹Hereinafter, the marks indicating the degree of secrecy of documents, resolutions of officials and official notes (time of departure, who handed over, who received, etc.), as well as document numbers, are omitted. In the documents (and in the text of the novel), several surnames, the names of five small settlements and the actual names of military units and formations have been changed. Otherwise, the documents in the novel are textually identical to the corresponding original documents.]

“To the Head of the Main Directorate of Troops for the Protection of the Rear of the Active Red Army

Copy to: Head of the Front Counterintelligence Directorate

The operational situation at the front and in the rear of the front for fifty days from the start of the offensive (up to August 11 inclusive) was characterized by the following main factors:

– successful offensive actions of our troops and the absence of a continuous front line. The liberation of the entire territory of the BSSR and a significant part of the territory of Lithuania, which had been under German occupation for over three years;

– the defeat of the enemy army group “Center”, which consisted of about 50 divisions;

Bogomolov moment of truth in August 44. Life separate from glory

Briefly about the author

1. Alekhine, Tamantsev, Blinov

2. Operational documents

Summary

Note on HF

Note on HF

3. Cleaner Senior Lieutenant Tamantsev, nicknamed Skorohvat

Vladimir Osipovich Bogomolov

Moment of truth (In August '44...)

Part one Captain Alekhine's group

SUMMARY

Associated factors:

Remnant groups of Germans

Underground nationalist organizations and formations

The most characteristic hostile manifestations of the last period (from August 1 to August 10 inclusive)

NOTE ON "HF"3 “HF” (the exact name is “HF communication”) – high-frequency telephone communication.

NOTE ON "HF"

Special message

Karl von Tilen

Major

1916–1944

Otto Mader

Ober-leutnant

1905–1944

Part one
Captain Alekhine's group

NOTE ON "HF"3
“HF” (the exact name is “HF communication”) – high-frequency telephone communication.