Free Hitler Moves East, 1941-1943 by Paul Carell

prisoners or how they bore themselves while in captivity. That is the reason why we have not so far been told the truth about Brest-Litovsk.
And what was that truth?
Smirnov found it on the walls of the casemates. There, scratched with a nail into the plaster, he read: "We are three men from Moscow—Ivanov, Stepanchikov, and Shuntyayev. We are defending this church, and we have sworn not to surrender. July 1941." And below we read: "I am alone now. Stepanchikov and Shuntyayev have been killed. The Germans are inside the church. I have one hand-grenade left. They shall not get me alive."
In another place we read: "Things are difficult, but we are not losing courage. We die confidently. July 1941."
In the basement of the barracks on the Western Island there is an inscription: "I will die but I will not surrender. Farewell, native country." There is no signature, but instead the date, 20.7.41. It appears therefore that individual groups in the dungeons of the citadel continued resisting until the end of July.
In 1956 the world was at last told who commanded the defence of the citadel. Smirnov writes: "From combat order No. 1, which has been found, we know the names of the unit commanders defending the central citadel: Troop Commissar Fomin, Captain Zubachev, First Lieutenant Semenenko, and Second Lieutenant Vinogradov." The 44th Rifle Regiment was commanded by Petr Mikhaylovich Gavrilov. Commissar Fomin, Captain Zubachev, and Second Lieutenant Vinogradov belonged to a combat group which broke out of the fortress on 25th June, but they were intercepted on the Warsaw highway and wiped out. The three officers were taken prisoners. Vinogradov survived the war. Smirnov found him in Vologda, where, still unrecognized in 1956, he worked as a blacksmith. According to his account, "Commissar Fomin, before the break-out, put on the uniform of a private soldier who had been killed; but he was identified in the POW camp by another soldier, denounced, and shot. Zubachev died in captivity. Major Gavrilov survived his captivity although, seriously wounded, he had resisted capture by throwing a hand-grenade and killing a German soldier."
It was a long time before the heroes of the citadel of Brest were recorded in Soviet history. They have earned their place there. The manner in which they fought, their perseverance, their devotion to duty, their bravery in the face of hopeless odds—all these were typical of the fighting morale and powers of resistance of the Soviet soldier. The German divisions were to encounter many more such instances.
The stubbornness and devotion of the defenders of Brest made a deep impression on the German troops. Military history has but few examples of similar disdain for death. When Colonel-General Guderian received the reports on the operations he said to Major von Below, the Army High Command's liaison officer with the Panzer Group, "These men deserve the highest admiration."
Stalin looks for a Saviour
The first battles of encirclement-Why were the Soviets taken by surprise?—Stalin knew the date of the attack—The "Red Chapel" and Dr Sorge-Precursors of the U-2-Stalin and Hitler at poker—General Potaturchev is taken prisoner and is interrogated.
THE material and moral consequences of every major engagement," Field-Marshal Count Moltke wrote over eighty years ago, "are of such far-reaching character that as a rule they create an entirely changed situation."
Military experts agree that this dictum is valid to this day, and certainly applied in 1941. It is not known whether Stalin had read Moltke, but he acted in accordance with his thesis. He realized that on the Central Front disaster was staring him in the face because something decisive was lacking—a bold organizer, a tough, experienced commander in the field, a man who could by ruthless improvisation master the chaos caused by Guderian's and Hoth's advancing tanks.
Where was there such a man?
Stalin believed he had found him in the Far East. And he did