The Volokolamsker Chaussee
The Wolokolamsker Chaussee ( Russian Волоколамское шоссе / Wolokolamskoje schosse ) is a novel by the Soviet writer Alexander Bek , which - written in 1943/1944 - appeared in 1945 in issue 3 of the literary magazine Stern ( Russian Звезда / Swesda ). The translation into German by Rahel Strassberg was published in 1962 by the East Berlin German Military Publishing House .
Before Moscow [more precisely, from 15 October] in October 1941 by his superior, the Division skommandeur Major General Ivan Panfilov - formerly the War Department Kyrgyzstan - asked to text the end, what you actually from previous battles against the Germans learned replies Lieutenant Baurdshan Momysch-Uly (* 1910, † 1982), the narrator and hero of the book from Alma-Ata , the "psychological warfare". Thus, the text must be considered an educational novel in two senses: the general educates the lieutenantand he in turn educates his soldiers. So the reader shouldn't expect an exciting "battle painting". Rather, it is about bare survival, the basic truth of every war: Either I kill the enemy or he kills me. The lieutenant's subordinates must therefore, above all, conquer their fear of the enemy. This has rigorous consequences: Anyone who backs away from the enemy in combat does not come before the court martial , but is shot dead in front of the front .
overview
The Volokolamsk Chaussee, which gives the title, leads from Moscow over a hundred kilometers in a north-westerly direction to Volokolamsk . In October 1941, motorized units of the Wehrmacht pushed in vain over this easily navigable asphalt towards Moscow. The first battalion of the Talgar Regiment is involved in the end of the Blitzkrieg under Rokossowski . The 30-year-old Kazakh commander of a rifle battalion, first lieutenant of the artillery [from 1943, Colonel of the Guard and regimental commander] Baurdshan Momysh-Uly tells Alexander Bek his experiences from the battle for Moscow .
content
After the success with the Vyazma , Hitler announced the storming of Moscow. Momysh-Ulys battalion, consisting of 700 men, a third of them Kazakhs - the rest are Russians and Ukrainians , has to stop seven kilometers along the banks of the Rusa . The Germans are about twenty kilometers west of the battalion. A group of Red Army soldiers without a badge of rank, who escaped from the Vyasma pocket, crossed the Rusa. Momysch-Uly has her and her platoon leader arrested a 22-year-old lieutenant for desertion . After a battle alarm, which caused the soldiers to panic and flee, he had a group leader, Sergeant Barambayev, shot by his own group. The group leader had shot himself in the hand after escaping. The superior general approves of the battalion commander's behavior. The general has issued the slogan to "rub up" the Germans. "Let's kill him [the Germans]," Panfilov says to his officers. However, the soldiers fear the Germans. This fear of the infantry, which is only led by a mounted commander, is justified. The general speaks to the soldiers and asks: “What is that: a soldier? A soldier maintains discipline, shows every superior due respect, and carries out orders. So it is with the mean, as they used to say. But what is an order without a soldier? It's a thought, a game of the mind, a dream. The best, the most intelligent order remains a dream, remains a fantasy when the soldier is poorly prepared. The combat readiness of the army, comrades, is first and foremost the combat readiness of the soldier. The soldier is the decisive force in war. ”The enemy has tanks . Even the German infantry is motorized. Panfilow, who appears to the narrator Momysh-Uly as an unyielding father figure, advises the subordinate to send the soldiers on scouting more often . The scout should see with his own eyes that the Germans are only human, and by no means immune to a bayonet or a bullet.
The first battle ended on October 16, 1941 - 130 kilometers west of Moscow - on the assigned section of the front line on the Rusa bank with a victory for the battalion. Momysch-Uly mentions the support from Soviet anti-tank artillery. The battalion commander received an order from his general not to let any Germans out on the road and, if necessary, to “fearlessly” lead his own soldiers out of the trenches during this fight .
The Germans advance carefree without flanking ; carry "tons of grenade launchers " with them. The battalion was shot at from three sides with the cry: "Russian, surrender!" The train of Lt. Brudni is cut from the battalion. The very worst happens. The German is driving on the highway. Platoon leader Brudni had losses, but managed to get through to the battalion with forty men. Momysch-Uly sends the lieutenant back to the cauldron. Some of his surviving soldiers want to go with them, but have to stay with the battalion on the command of the commander. Brudni later returns with the submachine guns of two Germans he killed. Momysch-Uly does not return the train to Brudni, but appoints him as deputy of the train driver of the reconnaissance.
On October 23, the battalion went to attack. Momysh-Uly is able to calm a constantly moaning wounded man in his battalion and for the first time in this war hears the enemy moaning who is avoiding the bayonet attack . The battalion is surrounded. Momysch-Uly orders all-round defense and orders the remaining 650 soldiers: First, “Nobody can be captured”. Second, officers have to shoot cowards on the spot. Third, the fight goes to the last cartridge. Fourth, finally, break through in hand-to-hand combat . Not a simple sequence of commands; the opponent is in the majority.
Soviet deserters join the battalion again. This time there are 87 men. Again, Momysh-Uly confronts the newcomers with the familiar severity, but the commander can finally forgive.
Panfilov orders the battalion to break out of the encirclement. The general needs Momysh-Uly and his troops in Volokolamsk. Although the ammunition has run out, the order is carried out. Since the enemy is keeping the road occupied, the battalion fights through the centuries-old forest.
shape
Momysch-Uly's story, "which is not conceived", claims authenticity when it comes to "leading the souls" in war: according to the narrator, all stories of the "mass heroism" of the Red Army were based on the "holy truth" past. When the infantry assaults, there must always be a hero who leads the way. The others just followed. The battalion commander describes the assault even more realistically, one after another of the advancing falls in the hail of bullets from the enemy.
Alexander Bek has obviously artistically exaggerated and heroized the battalion's breakout from the pocket in "closed rhombic formation" while the enemy is held down with volley fire . The narrator Momysch-Uly concludes immodestly and heroically: "In that short battle [when I broke out of the cauldron] I had the feeling for the first time that I had not only mastered the beginnings, but also the art of warfare."
filming
- 1967: За нами Москва - literally translated: Moscow lies behind us ( what is meant is: the Russian defenders stand in front of the attacking Wehrmacht with their backs to Moscow).
German-language editions
First edition
- Alexander Bek: The Wolokolamsker Chaussee. Narrative. Translated from the Russian by Hilde Angarowa. Globus-Verlag , Vienna 1947. 111 pages
expenditure
- Alexander Bek: The Wolokolamsker Chaussee. Translated from the Russian by Rahel Strassberg. German military publisher, Berlin 1962. 277 pages
- P. 7–259 in: Alexander Bek: The Wolokolamsker Chaussee. Translated from the Russian by Rahel Strassberg. Deutscher Militärverlag, Berlin 1971. 569 pages (used edition)
- Alexander Bek: The Wolokolamsker Chaussee. Translated from the Russian by Rahel Strassberg. Deutscher Militärverlag, Berlin 1973 (3rd edition, 31st to 40th thousand). 568 pages
- Alexander Bek: The Wolokolamsker Chaussee. Translated from the Russian by Rahel Strassberg. People and World, Berlin 1980 (Library of Victory)
Adaptation
The novel Wolokolamsker Chaussee by Bek was used by the German writer and playwright Heiner Müller as a source for the five-part text cycle of the same name. In parts I - III, Bek's motifs are the basis. Parts IV and V were developed by Müller u. a. worked with templates from Franz Kafka and Heinrich von Kleist . All text cycles were staged as a play in the Berliner Volksbühne and performed over the years.
literature
- Frank Hörnigk (Ed.): Diestücke 3 , Suhrkamp, 2002, 360 p., (In addition to other texts by Heiner Müller , all parts of his text cycle on Wolokolamsker Chaussee are listed here) ISBN 978-3-518-40897-1 .
- Heiner Müller, AR Penck: Wolokolamsker Chaussee IV and V / Lithographien , Rotbuch Verlag, 1st edition ISBN 3880227365 .
- Alexander Bek , Die Wolokomsker Chaussee , Military Publishing House of the GDR (VEB) - Berlin, 1973.
Web links
The text of the novel online at royallib.ru (Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Aleksandr Bek in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (Russian)
- ↑ Edition used, p. 253
- ↑ Edition used, p. 38, 5th Zvu
- ↑ Russian Волоколамское шоссе
- ↑ Edition used, p. 252, 15. Zvu
- ↑ Edition used, p. 93, 10th Zvu
- ↑ Edition used, p. 46 above
- ↑ Edition used, p. 46 above
- ↑ Edition used, p. 247, 8. Zvo
- ↑ Edition used, p. 256, 4. Zvo